GEORGETOWN, S.C.  Since Pauline Collington retired as a preschool director in 2001 and moved south from Washington, she said she's seen it snow only twice. Rain, however, is a different matter.

Her street and many others in this majority-black coastal city of about 9,000 are flooding more frequently after heavy downpours or high tides - the sort of phenomenon expected to become common in South Carolina and throughout the South because of climate change.

"The weather's nice," she said. "But I saw a lot of storms."

Climate change was on Collington's mind on a damp Wednesday afternoon when she went to hear billionaire former hedge-fund manager and Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer speak at her congregation at Georgetown's Bethel AME Church.

"If you talk about climate, [it] has a dramatically important racial subtext," Steyer told a crowd of several dozen at the historically black church. "And if you're not dealing with it, you're not actually dealing with the problem."

Steyer has staked his candidacy on climate change  and on South Carolina. His argument that global warming will be felt most bluntly by black and brown communities is meant to resonate in a state where residents are already feeling its effects and where about 60% of projected voters in Saturday's Democratic primary are African American.

His big-spending campaign has been airing at least three climate-themed television ads in the Palmetto State. And Steyer spent Wednesday and Thursday visiting the state's coastal Lowcountry region.

"I think environmental justice plays well here," Steyer said in an interview in Charleston, which last year had nearly 90 coastal flooding events. But he added: "I'm someone who's been working on those things for a long time, too."

Winning over African American voters such as Collington, who is still undecided, will be key to a strong Steyer showing in South Carolina that is his best chance of staying afloat in the Democratic primary nationally. After failing to notch a single delegate in the first three contests  in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada  Steyer may be making his last stand here, where polls show him running third behind former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., with 15% of the vote.

And the issue he has long championed as founder of NextGen America  an advocacy group pushing progressive solutions to topics such as climate change  is moving to the forefront of voters' minds. After years of being treated as an afterthought, candidates and voters are now taking seriously Earth's warming and the extreme weather it is making more common. The Democratic electorates in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada each ranked climate change ahead of income inequality and foreign policy as their second-most-important issue, after health care.

Steyer's strong showing in South Carolina is not solely attributable of his message. He spent $52.9 million nationwide on his presidential campaign in January. Though the campaign is not saying how much it is spending in South Carolina, the businessman has been able to amplify that message by tapping into his deep bank account to flood the radio and TV airwaves with ads and to stuff mailboxes with pamphlets. His wife, Kat Taylor, relocated to the state for the 2020 campaign.

Steyer's "justice-centered" environmental plan promises to declare climate change a national emergency if he is elected, while assuring activists that the efforts to stop climate change won't push polluters into poorer neighbors, which has happened in the past.

In South Carolina, he wants to build more housing to avoid or withstand changing conditions. "This is a big part of my climate plan  millions of affordable housing units done in a climate-smart way," Steyer told the Bethel AME Church crowd.

He also wants to invest more money in fixing aging drinking water systems such as that in Denmark, South Carolina  a city that faced years of tap water problems and that he name-checks often on the campaign trail.

He also proposes creating the Civilian Climate Corps, a national service program akin to the Peace Corps, to help respond to disasters such as hurricanes, which historically have rocked South Carolina and are becoming more intense as Earth warms.

Steyer's overarching aim is to eliminate U.S. contributions to global warming by 2045, a goal in line with those of several other Democratic presidential candidates. And like much of the rest of the field, he supports remaining in the 2015 Paris climate accord and endorses the idea of a Green New Deal, which calls for a "fair and just transition" to net-zero emissions.

Steyer rose to prominence in Democratic circles as a mega-donor, spending tens of millions of dollars through NextGen America to help juice voter turnout for Democrats and stymie the construction of oil and gas infrastructure, such as the Keystone XL pipeline.

Steyer began last year saying he would concentrate on yet another initiative  trying to impeach President Donald Trump  instead of running for office. But he changed his mind in July and made his first stop of his 2020 campaign in Charleston.

"I was late," Steyer said, explaining his focus on South Carolina, "and everyone had spent all their time in the other states."

The big spending by the two billionaires in the race, Steyer and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, has caused consternation among Democrats about the outsize influence of money on the presidential race; some accuse the businessmen of trying to buy their way to Washington.

"People think I'm defined by money," Steyer said in Georgetown. "That is not how I think about myself."

"One can come to the conclusion that he's using this money to influence how people vote," said state Rep. JA Moore, a Democrat who is backing Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He added of Steyer: "I appreciate the work he's been doing with environmental justice."

Elsie Graves, a retired realtor who lives in Myrtle Beach, appreciates how she is not pestered with requests for donations when she visits Steyer's website. "So I kind of like rich people in the race," she joked.

Her bigger concern was in depriving Biden of a vote in his bid to beat Sanders. But Graves, whose home sustained more than $20,000 in damage during Hurricane Matthew in 2016, said she was reassured by Steyer's commitment to act immediately on climate change. She said she will vote for him.

"On day one, he's going to do something about climate change," she said at a Steyer event at a packed Mexican restaurant in Myrtle Beach on Wednesday evening.

Gladys Grayson, a member of Bethel AME Church, said her primary concern was getting Trump out of the White House. "I don't think he should be in office at all."

After that, it's climate change. "We're having more floods," she said. "It's hotter. It rains more often."

Melvin Wright, who runs an auto shop in Florence and is considering voting for Steyer, used to see "a ton of jellyfish"  an animal that thrives in warmer waters  washed ashore when he lived in Myrtle Beach. "The world is very upside down," he said.

Steyer made the stage for the CBS debate in Charleston on Tuesday night, but he logged the least amount of speaking time.

"I think I obey the rules more," Steyer said.

But more importantly, he said, the CBS News moderators didn't ask a single question about global warming  his number one issue.

"Listening to the foreign policy debate, without any mention of climate? Really?"
The Midland University Circle K Club received two individual awards and one group award during the Nebraska-Iowa Circle K District Convention Feb. 21-22 in Lincoln.

Circle K is the largest student-led collegiate service organization in the world, according to a Midland University press release.

Junior management major Cailin Brashear received the Outstanding Vice President Award. Senior music education major Kasey Noden won the Service First Award. The Midland Circle K Club received the Club Achievement Award.

Senior Travis Grafe-Cline was elected to his third term as District Board Governor during the convention. Midlands Circle K Club has produced five of the past 10 governors. During Grafe-Clines past year as governor, Nebraska-Iowa Circle K grew by 76%.

Additionally, Brashear was elected to secretary/treasurer position and junior Arts Management major Noelle Buller was elected to the social media specialist position during the convention.

Nick Schreck, the district administrator for Nebraska-Iowa Circle K and advisor for Midland Circle K, said he was proud of the work Grafe-Cline has accomplished during his time as governor.

Im really proud of the growth weve seen from the Nebraska-Iowa District as a result of Traviss efforts, Schreck, an assistant professor of Digital Marketing at Midland, said in a press release. Hes worked hard to recruit and enable student leaders from other campuses to grow their clubs and it has paid off.

Schreck also complimented Noden on her leadership in the club.

Through her partnership, Kasey has done a great job helping the club grow, he said. Her efforts have led to an increase in membership, improved philanthropy, and more networking with other clubs.

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New Delhi [India], Feb 27 (ANI): Air Marshal (Retd) C Hari Kumar, who was heading the Indian Air Force's Western Command during Balakot airstrike last year, has termed the Pakistani claims of shooting a Su-30 during the aerial skirmish on February 27 last year as "their imagination."



The former IAF officer told ANI that "it is their imagination" if Pakistan claims to have shot a Su-30.

Talking about the Balakot terror training camp, he said: "We had very good intelligence inputs. I can't put a figure but taking around 500-600 people (in the Balakot camp) is a good guess. If you look at Balakot, since that, we are almost a year down the line, we have not had a major terror attack."

"The message is also clear the use of the Air Force is not escalatory. The government has the will and wherewithal to take action as quickly. Next time it happens, we will hit them even harder," he said.

The retired IAF officer said the PAF had started activating itself on February 14 itself, the day when Pulwama terror attack took place.

"On February 27... In the morning at 0942, our radars picked up a lot of increased air activity across Pakistan. But we also have to understand that most of the flying that they do from their bases is towards the east. So it is a regular air activity. In fact, it was by day. They showed themselves. It is just that they got airborne in all the airbases, they regrouped and turned around the east," he said while talking about Pakistan's so-called Operation Swift Retort.

"It's not that we did not have adequate Combat Air Patrol (CAP). We had two sets of Su-30 CAPs next to Srinagar, two Mirage upgrade aircraft close to Udhampur and we had Operational Readiness Platforms (ORPs) all along. The moment it hit, two (MiG-21) bisons scrambled from Srinagar, MiG-29UPG scrambled from Udhampur, we had scrambles all along," said the former IAF officer.

"It is just that he had used the time frame and moved in with large numbers. They never crossed IB nor the LOC. We could tackle them well. They dropped 11 bombs but none of them hit the target," he said.

The former Air Marshal recalled that when they came in, there were enough counter by which they could not follow through.

"They did not succeed in hitting anything but they dropped so many weapons. They had the AMRAAMs. At that moment, he had the advantage of the first shot," he said. (ANI)


TWO outgoing senators, Fine Gaels Maria Byrne and Sinn Feins Paul Gavan, are among the Limerick hopefuls contesting the Seanad elections.

But in what is expected to be a very crowded field, at least three others are currently chasing nominations: Fine Gaels Tom Neville who lost his Dail seat earlier this month; Sinn Feins Seighin OCeallaigh who narrowly missed out on the third seat in Limerick County and Labours Cllr Conor Sheehan who is hoping to retain a Limerick Labour presence in the Oireachtas following the loss of Jan OSullivans seat.

However, at this stage only outgoing Senator Marie Byrne is actively canvassing, having accepted a nomination by a recognised outside nominating body to contest one of the 11 seats on the Agriculture panel.

I have been an elected politician for 21 years, she said, outlining why she was standing again. I enjoy it. I enjoy working with people.

But in addition to nominating bodies, parties can also nominate candidates, and with various big names having fallen in the recent general election, nominations are at a premium nationally, particularly in Fine Gael and Labour, but also in Fianna Fail.

Fine Gael will decide on its party candidates this Thursday. I am seeking an inside nomination from the party, former TD Tom Neville said. He had been contacted by people asking him to run, he said, and had also been contacted by people who thought he could still make representations on their behalf. This has very much influenced my decision. Hopefully I will be nominated and elected and continue to represent the people of Limerick.

Sinn Fein will decide on its candidates this Saturday. Outgoing Senator Paul Gavan has again accepted a nomination from the ICTU for the 11-seater Labour panel. However, he said there was a separate internal, party process which had to take place.

But the party has estimated it can secure a minimum of five or a maximum of seven seats out of the 43 seats for which only TDs, outgoing Senators and councillors have votes. (Six of the remaining seats are university seats while the new Taoiseach has the power to nominate and fill the last 11 seats.)

Sinn Feins Seighin OCeallaigh, a former councillor, is along hoping for a nomination either for the five-seat Culture and Education Panel or for the Agriculture panel. I have expressed my interest to the party, he said this week. I would have something to offer, including five years of experience on the council dealing with a lot of issues.

He had gone for a Dail seat, his preferred option, he said, but pointed out that the Seanad was also part of the legislature. But he added: There definitely needs to be reform there.

Read also: New Green TD Hourigan points out parallels with her constituency and Limerick

As a graduate of UL, he, along with graduates of all the IT colleges, has no vote for the National University of Ireland panel of three seats, he said. He would also like to see the system changed whereby the Taoiseach can nominate 11 of the 60 members, thus guaranteeing an almost automatic majority for the government of the day in the Upper House. The Seanad should be able to challenge the Dail, he declared. All proposed legislation should be up for equal debate in both Houses, he argued.

Labour will nominate one candidate for the Agriculture panel and Cllr Sheehan hopes that candidate will be him. I have a background and interest in greyhounds myself, he told the Leaders Nick Rabbitts this week.

I looked at my eligibility to run on various panels, and I decided on agriculture as its a very competitive process. I have a reasonable chance of getting the nomination.

I have lots of things to bring to the table, Cllr Sheehan continued.

Ive youth, I have energy. I feel I am well qualified to serve in Seanad Eireann. I also feel it would give me a platform.

I also think it's important Labour still has a voice in the Oireachtas from Limerick .We have had a Labour TD on and off for the last 100 years in Limerick. When it wasnt a Labour TD, it was someone from the Labour gene pool.
ST. LOUIS  A newly launched push by some Republican lawmakers in Jefferson City aims to require candidates for many city offices in heavily Democratic St. Louis to run in the future on a nonpartisan basis.

House Speaker Pro Tem John Wiemann of OFallon said he introduced the measure Thursday to try to bring St. Louis in line with the rest of Missouris municipalities, none of which have candidates listed on the ballot with political party labels.

I filed the bill just to promote consistency across all municipalities, Wiemann said. I believe it would be beneficial to the city and to the whole metropolitan area.

Wiemann says he has lined up support from 26 other GOP state representatives from across the St. Louis area, who will be listed as co-sponsors. None are from the city.

The bill would apply to candidates for mayor, comptroller, aldermanic president and alderman. But Wiemann said it isnt intended to cover the citys county-type offices such as sheriff, collector of revenue and treasurer.
PIGEON -- The United Christian in Prayer will gather for prayer, fellowship and refreshments at 3 p.m., Sunday, March 1 at Michigan Avenue Mennonite Church, 7004 E. Michigan Ave. in Pigeon. There will be a free will offering to benefit Fiddlers Green, a veteran's shelter in Bad Axe. In case of inclement weather, they will meet Sunday, March 8.
Mumbai, Feb 28 : Superstar Shah Rukh Khan should make a sequel of his 1995 blockbuster "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge", his wife Gauri Khan feels.

Gauri's contention came in the wake of US President Donald Trump mentioning DDLJ in his speech while addressing the packed crowd at Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad on his recent India visit. He spoke of DDLJ as one of the 'classic films' that the Indian film industry has given to the world, leaving SRK fans in a frenzy.

Watch the video

Asked how it feels when one of the most influential leaders in the world acknowledges her husband's film, Gauri said with a grin: "May be he (Shah Rukh Khan) should make part two of DDLJ. That's the next plan and I think he will do that. I am going to tell (DDLJ director-producer) Aditya Chopra to make part two, so every president and prime minister who enters India should discuss that." Gauri, who is a successful interior designer, then revealed a secret about SRK. The Bollywood superstar could be an architect if he had not joined films, she revealed.

"He does not get impressed by me but he himself loves design. I always say that if he was not an actor, he would be an architect -- 100 per cent! He loves designs and follows designs. He loves modern and contemporary design. I recently designed a table and he gave me full marks. I got an A-plus, so that was big win for me. I was super-excited because he knows what good design is, not because it's me. He would reject if I didn't deliver on time. I recently designed his room in my house and he loved it, so that's a big win for me and I am quite excited about it," said Gauri.

Does SRK give her suggestions on interior designing? "Now, he should stop working in movies and start designing projects!" Gauri replied with a laugh, adding: "May be one day that will happen, but not yet." Gauri was interacting with the media at Maison & Objet's 25th anniversary celebration. Shah Rukh Khan was not on the guest list at the event but he made a surprise entry. Videos with Gauri meeting architects and interior designers are doing the rounds on social media.

-- Syndicated from IANS
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Coronavirus is spreading rapidly, with governments raising alerts as financial markets plunge. Plugged In with Greta Van Susteren examines the impact of a possible coronavirus pandemic. Among Greta's guests: Dr. Leana Wen from George Washington University School of Medicine; Kathy Bostjancic , Chief US Financial Economist at Oxford Economics; and Gay Courter , a novelist who was aboard the cruise ship Damond Princess and remains quarantined. Also, VOA Asia Correspondent Bill Gallo reports from the epicenter of South Korea's coronavirus outbreak. Air date: February 26, 2020.
By IANS

NEW DELHI: A police complaint has been filed with the Delhi Police as well as the Maharashtra Police against the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for "defaming a particular religion and spreading communal tension" by "misreporting" on the Delhi riots and the killing of IB staffer Ankit Sharma.

The complaint was filed over a news item published in the WSJ on February 26 which reported that Sharma's killers shouted 'Jai Shri Ram', quoting the IB staffer's brother Ankur Sharma, who, however, denied making such a statement to the American media outlet.

"Police complaints filed against The Wall Street Journal @WSJ with @DelhiPolice & Maharashtra Police for 'defaming particular religion & spreading communal tension' with respect to alleged misreporting on #DelhiViolence & murder of IB official Ankit Sharma," national broadcaster Prasar Bharti said in a tweet.

The WSJ report said: "Mr Sharma was returning home when a group of rioters started throwing stones and charged into the street near where his house is located, his brother said."

Quoting IB staffer's brother, the report then said: "They came armed with stones, rods, knives and even swords; they shouted 'Jai Shri Ram'..."

As per Prasar Bharati, Ankur Sharma told them that he "never gave such a statement to the Wall Street Journal".

In conversation with Prasar Bharati, he discredited WSJ report, saying: "I never gave such a statement to the Wall Street Journal. This is a ploy to defame my brother and my family. The Wall Street Journal is lying."

Ankit Sharma's family reportedly blames Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain for the IB officer's death. The Delhi Police on Thursday registered a case of rioting and murder against Hussain. The AAP leader was subsequently suspended from the party's primary membership.

The IB employee's body was recovered from a canal in Chand Bagh area in North-East Delhi, the epicentre of the riot. The autopsy reported that he was stabbed multiple times.
A case of the novel coronavirus was found in Nigeria on Friday, stoking concerns about the African continent's ability to deal with a major outbreak.

Algeria, Egypt, and Nigeria, have reported one case each, leaving experts fearing that many more cases could be going unreported.

The World Health Organization and Bill Gates have been warning that the coronavirus could overwhelm Africa's health systems.

China and Africa have deep ties, with many direct flights between the two and hundreds of thousands of Chinese laborers working across the African continent.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Nigeria's Minister of State for Health Osagie Ehanire in Abuja, Nigeria January 19, 2016.

REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

Nigeria reported its first case of the novel coronavirus on Friday  becoming the first such infection in sub-Saharan Africa  igniting experts' fears that Africa's "fragile healthcare systems" will struggle to cope with the outbreak.

The victim, an Italian national who arrived in Lagos on Tuesday, is "clinically stable, with no serious symptoms," Nigerian health minister Osagie Ehanire said Friday, according to The Guardian.

It is only the third confirmed case of COVID-19 on the African continent. Egypt reported the first on February 14 and Algeria reported the second on Tuesday, identifying its victim as a visiting Italian national.

A map showing the three countries in Africa with confirmed coronavirus cases, accurate as of February 27.

Google Maps

A total of 738 million people live on the African continent. Given its size and connections to China, scientists and global health campaigners fear there are many more infections that are not being reported.

They also fear that Africa is not equipped to deal with a major health emergency. Nigeria's senate said on Thursday  hours before the first confirmed case  that the country was not prepared to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also described Africa's health systems as "fragile."

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, Africa director at the WHO, said on Tuesday that the "window of opportunity the continent has had to prepare for coronavirus disease is closing."

Story continues

In a report published by The Lancet earlier this month, Michel Yao, the WHO's Africa program manager for emergency operations, also said: "We all know how fragile health systems [are] in the African continent, they are already overwhelmed by many outbreaks."

"For us, it is critical to detect coronavirus earlier [so] that we can prevent spreading within communities that can trigger a number of cases that can overwhelm the treatment capacity."

The novel coronavirus emerging from the surface of cells, blue/pink, cultured in the lab.

Associated Press

Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and global health campaigner, also warned on Monday that the coronavirus could overwhelm health systems on the African continent.

"This disease, if it's in Africa ... it's more dramatic than if it's in China," Gates told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Seattle.

Specifically, the impact in sub-Saharan Africa could be "very, very dramatic," said Gates, who in 2018 had warned of a global pandemic.

The US' Rand Corporation found in 2016 that 22 out of the 25 countries most prone to infectious disease outbreaks were in Africa.

The WHO is now deploying help and experts to 13 African countries that it thinks are the most vulnerable, based on their transport links to China, including Algeria.

As of Sunday, 26 African countries had the capacity to test people for the coronavirus, according to Agence France-Presse. That number is expected to rise to 40.

People wear masks as they commute during the morning rush hour in Chuo district in Tokyo.

Associated Press

Another paper published The Lancet last week found that Egypt, Algeria, and South Africa were most at risk of importing the virus from China, followed by Nigeria and Ethiopia.

Given its response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak, Liberia could also struggle, Emily Ricotta, a research fellow at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Business Insider's Sarah Al-Arshani earlier this month.

One reason why Africa could suffer most from an outbreak is due to low levels of trust in healthcare systems.

According to The Washington Post, several studies in the continent show that many "place greater confidence in traditional or religious leaders than government officials," meaning some people could chose not to seek medical help.

Fan wearing masks for fear of coronavirus infection (COVID-19) at the San Paolo Stadium in Naples, during the football match UEFA Champions League, SSC Napoli vs FC Barcelona on Tuesday.

Salvatore Laporta/KONTROLAB/LightRocket via Getty Images

China, which has reported the most cases and deaths from coronavirus, has deep ties to Africa.

The flow of people between China and Africa has risen sharply in the last decade, according to Quartz, with direct flights rising 600%.

As of 2017, more than 200,000 Chinese laborers were working in construction and other projects on the African continent, according to research from Johns Hopkins University.

Algeria and Nigeria are in the top five African nations with the most Chinese laborers.

Some African airlines have canceled all flights to and from China, including Kenya Airways. But Ethiopian Airlines, the continent's largest operator to China, remains open, according to Chinese state media Xinhua.

The death toll of the coronavirus outbreak has reached 2,858, with more than 83,000 people affected. Most of these have taken place in China, but more than 40 countries have also reported cases.

Business Insider
The Centre for Social Impact Studies is admonishing the government to retool and empower the Minerals Commission to effectively flush out illegal mining.

Its call comes after Citi News reports indicated that the military component of its anti-illegal mining task force, Operation Vanguard, will be withdrawn from the field.

The Executive Director for the Center for Social Impact Studies, Richard Ellimah has been keenly following the operations of the taskforce and he called on the government to empower the Minerals Commission.

We need a sustainable solution. The emphasis on the minerals commission's roles will make all the difference. They are technocrats and they know their job. Most of them have been in the business for so long and they have been regulating the mining industry generally so if you go down to the districts, the minerals commission officers there are very competent in handling the issues of galamsey, he said.

Citi News sources at the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal mining noted that the withdrawal of the soldiers will be in March 2020.

To continue effective monitoring, mining guards and 144 drone pilots have been deployed to monitor the approved miners.

F-grade from former Minerals Commission boss

Dr. Tony Aubynn, the former Minerals Commission Chief Executive Officer (CEO), recently described the fight against illegal mining in the last few years has clearly been lost.

According to Dr. Aubynn, the failure of the state was evident when judging the compliance with the law and the state of the water bodies.

Have water bodies become clean? No. Have people stopped mining without the requisite licenses? No. It has even gone underground, he remarked in a Citi News' interview.

It was under him the fight against illegal small scale mining appeared to be at its most serious in recent years.

Under him, the government interdicted nine district mining officers of the Minerals Commission who were asked to proceed on indefinite leave, in May 2017.

About Operation Vanguard

Operation Vanguard started as a Military-Police Joint Task Force set up in 2017 to combat the operations of illegal miners in Ghana.

The government will from March 2020 withdraw the military component of its anti-illegal mining taskforce, Operation Vanguard, from the field.

Citi News sources at the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining suggested that this is because, so far, over 1,000 small scale miners have been vetted and cleared to mine under environmentally friendly laws.

---citinewsroom
The Local Area Development Fund for Uttar Pradesh MLAs has been increased from Rs 2 crore a year to Rs 3 crore each.

A statement by the office of Uttar Pradesh assembly Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit on Friday said, "An announcement was made (during the Budget session) for increasing the MLA Local Area Development Fund from Rs 2 crore a year to Rs 3 crore a year."



The statement added that a committee has also been formed under the chairmanship of parliamentary affairs minister to deliberate on hikes in salary and allowances of the MLAs.

UP Law and Justice minister Brijesh Pathak, who is an MLA from Lucknow Central told PTI, "This move will definitely accelerate the development in assembly constituencies. It will also enable MLAs to undertake more developmental works in their constituencies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The former vice-president needs to win - and win big - in South Carolina to keep alive his hopes of becoming the party's nominee. A resounding victory would catapult Biden into next week's "Super Tuesday" contests, where a third of total votes in the primary contest are up for grabs. A loss for Biden, or even a narrow win, would almost certainly guarantee that Bernie Sanders will be Donald Trump's opponent in November. Loading Biden finished in a disastrous fourth and fifth place respectively in Iowa and New Hampshire, where almost all the Democratic voters are white and tend to lean progressive. He's on friendlier turf in South Carolina, where an estimated 60 per cent of Democratic primary voters are black and the electorate is more socially conservative.

Holt explains to the worshipers that, unlike some pastors, he's happy to invite political candidates to speak at Royal Missionary Baptist. South Carolina's black voters wield a lot of power and he wants them to be informed. "We are the absolute majority of the Democratic Party in this state," he says. "If we vote collectively and turn out strongly, we can decide the next president of the United States." Speaking from the pulpit, Biden makes the same argument: "You can own this election. Youre entitled to own it. Its yours to determine, and I hope you just look me over." Biden delivers essentially the same stump speech he has given throughout the campaign. Heavy on values and light on policies, the 77-year-old talks about restoring the soul of America and bringing decency back to the White House. Former US vice-president Joe BIden addresses the crowd during an event in Charleston. Credit:AP But lines that prompted only polite applause in Iowa and New Hampshire generate a lot more enthusiasm here. Nostalgia plays well among this older-skewing crowd - as does the fact Biden served alongside America's first black president during his eight years in office.

"Barack Obama chose him out of a long line of people to be his vice-president," Holt says after Biden's speech. "That goes a long way." The pastor says he's not recommending a vote for any candidate, but this sure sounds like a recommendation. Biden v Steyer Billionaire investor and Democratic presidential hopeful Tom Steyer. Credit:AP Summing up the politics of his state, Andy Brack, the publisher of the Charleston City Paper, says: "We are still kind of old school here. We are a state that values experience." A candidate like Pete Buttigieg - a 38-year-old, openly gay former mayor with no national political experience - is a poor fit for South Carolina, he says. Meanwhile, with Biden, "There is a legacy of familiarity and moderation that makes him an attractive candidate".

Biden has described South Carolina as his "firewall", and until the polls long showed him way out in front here. That's changed in recent weeks. In November, a YouGov poll showed Biden on 45 per cent in South Carolina, twice as much as his nearest Democratic rival. By February that had slipped to 28 per cent, with Sanders close behind on 23 per cent. Most of Biden's support hasn't flowed to Sanders but to California hedge fund manager Tom Steyer. With a net worth of $US1.6 billion, Steyer could be described as a poor man's Michael Bloomberg, which, of course, still makes him extremely rich. Steyer has spent an astounding $US20 million on television advertising in South Carolina alone, promoting himself as a successful businessman who can beat Trump. That's 10 times as much as Buttigieg ($US2 million) and more again than Biden and Sanders. "You can't turn on a TV here without seeing Steyer's face," Brack says. "It's driving us crazy." It's also working. Steyer has risen from two per cent three months ago to 18 per cent, a surge that is limited only to South Carolina. Biden is hoping that Steyer's support is soft, and that voters will drift back to him on polling day.

At the Democratic debate on Tuesday night (Wednesday AEDT), Biden made an explicit pitch to black voters by promising to appoint the first African-American woman to the US Supreme Court if he becomes president. His performance in the Charleston debate was his most vigorous yet, and he followed it up the next day by securing a prized endorsement. South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn, the most senior African-American in Congress, announced he was was backing the former vice-president. "I know Joe, we know Joe, but most importantly Joe knows us," Clyburn said, becoming emotional as he recalled that his late wife loved Biden more than any other political leader. Joe Biden's debate performance in South Carolina was hailed as his best of the campaign. Credit:AP Biden v Sanders Like so many cities in America, Charleston remains markedly segregated by race and class. In affluent downtown Charleston - with its stately pastel-coloured houses and picturesque waterfront park - white people outnumber African-Americans. In North Charleston, the poverty and crime rates are higher, and a paper mill bellows a foul-smelling odour into the air. Here, black people outnumber white people.

Yet when Sanders appears at a rally at North Charleston, it's striking how those demographics shift. Almost everyone at his rally is white, reflecting his campaign's struggle to attract African-American voters. Among the handful of black voters at the event are friends Brandon Greene and Jason Glover, both 28. Like younger voters across America, they are big Sanders fans. Bernie Sanders supporters Brandon Greene and Jason Glover at a rally in North Charleston. Credit:Matthew Knott "He represents the values of our generation," Greene says of the 78-year-old democratic socialist. "I have a lot of family members who have been arrested for marijuana possession and he wants to expunge those records. He is speaking our language." It's a different story among the older voters at the Royal Missionary Baptist, just a few blocks away.
In the coming months, VIA Metropolitan Transit will spend up to $2.5 million to retrofit some 500 buses with hard plastic barriers or shields to protect drivers and deter what their national union says has been a rise in assaults and deaths at the hands of passengers.

Its happening every day all over the country, said John Acosta, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents some 200,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada. Last year, one of our drivers in Tampa was murdered, had his throat slashed and bled to death. One in New Jersey was stabbed seven times.

Such assaults are rare in San Antonio  but not unheard of. On Feb. 19, VIA driver Roland Orta was beaten and stomped on by a screaming passenger whom he had asked to leave the bus. The assailant got away, and police later made an arrest with the help of bus camera footage.

Weve had guys (VIA drivers) get punched in the face over paying the fare, said Juan Amaya, president of ATU Local 694 in San Antonio. We have about 100 routes, but only 40 transit (police) officers. I dont want to go through what they did in Tampa.

In Washington, D.C., in 2017, a woman got 120 days in jail for throwing a tumbler of urine at a bus driver, while in Bethlehem, Pa., a woman got enraged after a driver refused to make a stop, threw coffee at him and pulled a gun. Nationwide, the most frequent abuse of a driver involves spitting, usually over paying the fare.

Yet the ATU acknowledges that no organization keeps comprehensive national records on driver assaults, so its difficult to say reliably if or where the violence is increasing. Transportation researchers suggest that with surveillance cameras and smartphones more commonplace, more driver assaults are featured on crime-driven local TV news.

In San Antonio, according to VIAs data for 2017 through 2019, the number of actual physical assaults against drivers is low. Statistics provided by Tremell Brown, its vice president for safety, training and system security, show an average of only 33 incidents per year in those three years, out of roughly a quarter of a million annual shifts by some 1,300 drivers.

That means assaults have happened on about one-hundredth of 1 percent of VIA driver shifts. Only two incidents per year involved punching or the use of a weapon, Brown said.

On ExpressNews.com: VIA driver beaten unconscious by unruly passenger

Put another way, for every 100,000 hours of service by VIA drivers, there are 1 reported incidents of assault, most of which involve spitting, pushing or throwing of liquids, said Brown, who has been with VIA for 31 years and started off as a driver.

Although the numbers are small, one assault is too many for us, said Brown, echoing comments from numerous transportation professionals around the country.

Bob Comeaux, a VIA board member with almost 50 years working in local and national unions, said that while local drivers were right to call attention to the problem, I wouldnt want it blown out of proportion.

I believe the killing of the bus driver in Tampa is the impetus for increased complaints to the VIA board from employees, Comeaux said. I frequently ride the bus, and personally, Ive seen no incidents against drivers. Almost everyone gets off a VIA bus and says Thank you to the driver and is appreciative.

Jeff Arndt, the CEO of VIA, credited San Antonios low number of serious assaults on drivers to the deterrent effect of having about eight surveillance cameras on every bus, uniformed and plainclothes police on some of them, plus de-escalation training that every driver can use to deal with unruly riders.

Arndt said drivers are trained not to confront passengers who refuse to pay their $1.30 fare. Its not worth endangering the operator or the passengers over $1.30, he said, adding that no transit system in the country could afford to have armed police on every bus 24 hours a day.

Top hits: Get San Antonio Express-News stories sent directly to your inbox

The installation of the shields for drivers has been studied and tested by VIA for about three years and is not without its own set of controversies.

On a bright winter afternoon on San Pedro, passengers waiting for the No. 3 bus were unanimous in opposing the safety shields, believing they would impose an unnecessary barrier to the humanizing daily conversation they had with drivers.

Ive seen a guy spit on a driver, said Charles Chandler, a worker from Alabama who assembled industrial scaffolding for 20 years. But I havent seen enough violence to justify a shield. I think its a waste of taxpayer money.

Chandler got some amused nods from fellow waiting passengers when he added that it might be the people who lash out against drivers who have the most to fear. We love the drivers, he said. Anyone who tried to hurt them would be jumped by everyone else in a split second.

The sister of Orta, the VIA driver assaulted on the No. 631 bus on the near West Side, said he believed that the shields would have been little help for him or other drivers who get out of their seats to calm or control passengers  a response to potentially violent situations that VIA officially discourages.

Some drivers advocate new technology that sends an alert to transit police when the driver leaves his seat for an extended period.

VIA first tested some shields in 2017, but it didnt go particularly well.

There was an overwhelming no from the drivers, said Brown, the VIA vice president. Some liked it, but many said they had a feeling of claustrophobia, there was too much glare or there wasnt enough room for their arms. We ran it for nine months. The local union test-drove some buses.

With the second pilot program, started last month, Brown said the driver shield technology had evolved. The hard plastic compartments being marketed to VIA by four national companies had sliding panels, fans for circulation and increased room for drivers with Popeye forearms.

Brown said he and VIA managers were sympathetic to passenger concerns that the shields might ruin the personal connection they had with drivers, so the shield makers altered their designs to allow the Plexiglass windows to be folded down.

It wont be like a bank teller. Youll still have communication, he said.

Amaya, the local union president, said passengers have raised a valid issue.

Our people love our drivers, and our drivers love our people, Amaya said. But there were 10 (minor) assaults just in January. We had about 30 in all of 2019. People just want to vent sometimes. Id say 90 percent of them are about paying the fare.

The Amalgamated Transit Union supports federal legislation introduced in 2018 that would require driver protection barriers on all buses and the separate reporting of all assaults on drivers to the Federal Transit Administrations National Transit Database.

Currently, the NTD mixes in driver assault reports with all bus-related injuries, including those to passengers in collisions, so some agencies are reluctant to invest millions of dollars in driver safety equipment without more convincing data.

What drives Amaya to pursue all these remedies is the fear that a bus driver could be killed in San Antonio, he said, adding, If that happens, when I go to the family, I want to be able to tell them that I did everything I could.

bselcraig@express-news.net
By Trend

The number of infected people in Iran could be from 10,000 to 15,000 people, a member of the Tehran City Council claimed.

"Last Wednesday, when it was announced that Coronavirus has spread in Iran, we wrote a letter to the Mayor of Tehran with a request to set up special headquarters in Tehran," Nahid Khodakarami announced at a meeting the Tehran City Council on Feb. 28, Trend reports citing ILNA.

She said that establishing the coronavirus crisis headquarters in Tehran, ensuring personal and public protection content and placing billboards with necessary information are among the measured proposed in the letter.

Public Relations Director of Health Ministry Kianoush Jahanpour announced that the total number of died from the coronavirus in Iran reached 34, while the total number of diagnosed cases has increased to 388 cases.

The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread.

Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.

The disease in Iran has already spread to at least fifteen Iranian provinces.

Following the reports of coronavirus spread in the Islamic Republic, several countries have taken measures, including closing borders and banning flights.

The death rate from the coronavirus in Iran is higher than in other countries where the infection has spread. The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
ANN ARBOR, MI - Ann Arbor Police Chief Michael Cox was placed on administrative leave over allegations he created a hostile work environment during investigations into officers improperly voiding parking tickets.

A police lieutenant conducted two separate investigations into parking officials dismissing tickets, including a supervisor who ordered a parking officer to void a ticket outside of city policy, according to a report compiled by outside investigating firm Miller Canfield.

The lieutenant, as well as other police department and city staff, alleged that Cox tried to sway the lieutenants investigation toward a result that didnt lead to discipline towards the supervisor, according to the report.

There is no evidence that the Chief was behaving in such a way (yelling, etc.) as to create a hostile work environment, Miller Canfield concluded. However, there is evidence that people feared retaliation by the Chief, and they had a legitimate basis for that fear, whether or not that was the Chiefs intent.

City Administrator Howard Lazarus also accused Cox of insubordination. City policy states that the city administrator is directly responsible for the police department, while the chief runs immediate duties of the department.

When Lazarus placed Cox on leave, he sent a message ordering the chief not to speak with any employees. Cox said he wasnt told why he was on leave and received the latter directive after hearing of his leave, so he was speaking to his deputy chiefs to in search of an answer.

Read More: Ann Arbor police chief placed on administrative leave

Candidly, I did not read the letter placing me on administrative leave until I had already violated its conditions, Cox said in a response statement. I was willing to obey that directive, but suffered a lapse in judgment facilitated over my profound confusion...over the City Administrators decision."

The reason for Coxs leave, ordered by Lazarus on Feb. 8, remained a mystery to the general public until the report was released Thursday, Feb. 27.

Miller Canfield concluded that Cox ordered the investigating lieutenant to conduct both investigations, did not actively retaliate or take adverse action towards any employee and that he has the right as chief to request investigation updates. However, the firm warned that comments that he made toward the lieutenant would understandably make the employee fearful.

The report cited an example in which Cox told the lieutenant a story about a child playing with matches, and related that to another story about an officer accusing the Boston police chief of corruption. Cox worked in the Boston Police Department for more than 30 years before taking the job in Ann Arbor last summer.

The Lieutenant had no idea what the Chief was driving at, the report stated, and wondered if he was saying that she was accusing him of something or that she was playing with fire by continuing the investigation.

Miller Canfield did not offer a recommendation on Coxs future, but said the investigation wasnt about just one persons accusations.

If the Chief is allowed to return from leave, it will be imperative to understand that this investigation was not instigated by one or two people," Miller Canfield said in the report, "but by a number of people, in a number of different positions, who had similar, credible, and often admitted, experiences with the Chief.

Lazarus is expected to take Cox off of leave on Friday, Feb. 28, said City Attorney Stephen Postema. Council Member Jack Eaton, D-4th Ward, said before a City Council Administration Committee meeting on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 27 that he expects Cox to return to work by Monday morning.

Leadership requires trust with a strong understanding of procedural justice, Cox said. Respectfully, suspending the Chief of Police over these allegations, before I had a chance to respond, undermines that trust and unfairly calls into question my leadership.

A message seeking further comment on Coxs leave was left with Lazarus. A FOIA request has been submitted seeking correspondence between Lazarus and City Council explaining his disciplinary process.

Read More: Police oversight commission laments weaponized speculation over Ann Arbor police chiefs leave

The lieutenant initially investigated an Oct. 29, 2019 complaint that a parking officer helped his girlfriend, a city employee, not pay for parking outside City Hall. The parking officer asked other officers to void her tickets, leading to them complain to their supervisor.

The lieutenant discovered that the supervisor ordered the parking officer to void a ticket and lied about it. In a Nov. 4 meeting with Cox, city administration and human resource officials, she ran into friction with the chief.

Whats wrong with that? Supervisors cant tell people to void tickets? Cox asked in the meeting. City policy states that a supervisor can dismiss a parking ticket for officer error, emergency situation, and official business, none of which fit this situation, the report said.

After the first investigation concluded, the parking officer was terminated on Nov. 25, 2019. His girlfriend quit her job, according to the report.

On Dec. 2, Cox directed the lieutenant to investigate the parking supervisor after discussions with Lazarus and Assistant City Administrator John Fournier.

The lieutenant alleged that she felt pressured by Cox to wrap up the investigation quickly, and expressed irritation at him for asking for several updates. However, Miller Canfield concluded that Cox did not intend to treat the lieutenant unfavorably during either investigation.

The Chief also made comments to try to make the Lieutenant more comfortable, the report stated. Asking if she was okay, whether she was upset with him, and the like. He was aware that she seemed unsettled, and it is clear that he did not at any time mean to upset her in any way. And during this time, the Chief gave the Lieutenant a very favorable evaluation.

The lieutenant initially submitted a report that did not recommend terminating the supervisor, but felt she had to reach that conclusion for Cox. After reporting to Deputy Chief Jason Forsberg and Fournier on Feb. 6 that she felt uncomfortable with the initial report, she was ordered to redo the report with her actual conclusions.

Cox was placed on administrative leave on Feb. 7.

On Feb. 19, while Cox was on administrative leave, the lieutenant submitted her report recommending that the supervisor be terminated. Forsberg agreed with this recommendation, the report stated.

It wasnt clear Thursday whether the parking supervisor was fired.

Cox apologized for his interactions with the lieutenant, stressing a misunderstanding."

I have the utmost respect for people such as the (lieutenant) who have the courage and personal rectitude to call out injustices wherever and whenever they occur, he said. To the extent I ever gave this person or any other person in my department concerns over retaliation, please rest assured... this was the furthest thing from my mind.

Read More:

Ann Arbor city administrator fired in 7-4 council vote

City Council, oversight commission in the dark on Ann Arbor police chiefs leave

Results of Ann Arbor police chief investigation to be discussed Friday
Boris Johnson faced complaints from patients about NHS delays as he made a surprise hospital visit last night - but did not go to nearby flooding sites.

It is understood Mr Johnson headed for Kettering General Hospital after working at Downing Street during the day - viewing Coronavirus preparations and shadowing staff.

No10 sources said the premier had wanted to carry out such a visit for some time, to see for himself the challenges for health workers.

It came as the UK was on high alert over Coronavirus, with six new cases confirmed over the past 24 hours. It emerged today that the first Briton had died from the virus, after a citizen aboard a ship quarantined off the coast of Japan succumbed.

The premier is taking personal charge of the response, with a Cobra emergency meeting scheduled for Monday morning.

The PM has been heavily criticised for failing to visit victims across the country over the past 13 days since extreme weather hit.

And he did not opt to go to flood-hit areas last night, despite his trip being just a short drive away from some of those worst affected.

Allies have insisted that his presence would have been a distraction from efforts by emergency workers to help those affected.

Mr Johnson has also defended his decision to leave Environment Secretary George Eustice to head the response, saying there has been a 'constant stream' of activity coming from ministers.

Boris Johnson posed for pictures with doctors on his surprise visit to Kettering General Hospital last night

Nineteen patients have now been confirmed in the UK, after England confirmed two travellers had tested positive yesterday and Northern Ireland last night announced its first case. Scotland has yet to be struck down

Flooding at the Boat Inn in Ashleworth, Gloucs, where the River Severn has breached defences

Mr Johnson was not accompanied by any media last night, but chatted to a number of patients in A&E who recognised him with his security detail.

One 27-year-old scaffolder, who did not wish to be named, told the Mirror he had spoken to the PM, and was 'brutally honest' about the problems,

What is Cobra? The Cobra emergency committee is named after Cabinet Office Briefing Room A - although meetings do not always take place there. It gathers ministers and experts to coordinate the response to crises Who is attending and who chairs varies depending on the nature of the emergency, and how bad the situation is considered. Several Cobra meetings have taken place on Coronavirus, but up until now they have been chaired by Health Secretary Matt Hancock. Advertisement

The man had apparently been waiting for treatment since 4.30pm in the afternoon.

"He stopped and spoke to me and asked how I was doing and what my thoughts were towards the hospitals waiting times," the patient said.

"I won't lie, I was brutally honest and I then asked him what he was doing here.

"He said that he was looking around as he has put some of the NHS funding towards the hospital to make it better."

However, the man said that he had concluded Mr Johnson was a 'caring' person, having previously thought of him as a 'bit of a dopey bloke'.

The premier visited a homeless shelter in London yesterday morning as figures showed rough sleeping had dipped.

Mr Johnson has made great play of his commitment to the NHS, vowing to pump in more money and improve treatment.

He was a frequent visitor to hospitals before the election, although he has not always received a universally warm welcome.

In September he was accosted by a father at Whipps Cross hospital who said the treatment for his seven-day-old daughter had been 'unacceptable'.

Omar Salem told the PM: 'There are not enough people on this ward, there are not enough doctors, there's not enough nurses, it's not well organised enough.'
The US will sustain its pressure on Iran till it behaves like a "normal nation" and halt campaigns of carnage, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo informed lawmakers here on Friday.

Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Pompeo accused Iran of being the world's number one state sponsor of terror and anti-Semitism, wanting to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

Going forward, we will sustain our pressure until Iran behaves like a normal nation. We will continue to protect the American people and American interests by any means necessary. We will continue to impose costs on the regime for its campaigns of carnage, Pompeo said during the Congressional hearing.

He said that Iran and its proxies are responsible for death of hundreds of Americans in Iraq.

"Iran and its proxies are responsible for the death of hundreds of Americans in Iraq, including an American contractor who was killed on December 27, 2019. Its forces, Iran's forces and the militias it supports, prop up Bashar Assad, undermine democracy in Lebanon, Iraq and steal humanitarian aid in Yemen," he said.

Justifying the killing of Iran's Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in an air strike, Pompeo said that he was the regime's top terrorist and the mastermind of the killing of innocent Americans, Syrians, Iraqis and others.

Removing him from the battlefield was a de-escalatory measure. His death reduced the risk to our personnel overseas, both my diplomats and our military, and made clear that we are willing and able to impose costs on our adversaries if they threaten or attack us, he said.

Soleimani, 62, the head of Iran's elite al-Quds force and architect of its regional security apparatus, was killed last month when a drone fired missiles into a convoy that was leaving the Baghdad International Airport.

The strike also killed the deputy chief of Iraq's powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force and some local Iran-backed militias.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel said that Soleimani was a dangerous terrorist.

"But it's important that we look at foreign policy in terms of whether it makes Americans safer and advances our interests, he said.

Pompeo said that Iran is responsible for downing a civilian airliner in January that killed 176 people.

"The regime lied about that tragedy, and still hasn't turned over the black box, he said.

A Ukranian airliner crashed in January, shortly after Iran launched missiles at bases hosting American forces in Iraq in response to the killing of Soleimani.

The Iranian regime slaughtered at least several hundred of its own people, with reports of up to 1,500, during the protests last November. Many millions more have suffered since the Revolution began more than 40 years ago, he said.

The regime just rigged an election - yet again denying the Iranian people the free and fair elections they've sought for 41 years. More than 7,000 candidates that didn't get the regime's seal of approval were banned from running. What a tragedy, Pompeo said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Union Minister M J Akbar told a Delhi court on Friday that journalist Priya Ramani had defamed him by calling him with adjectives such as 'media's biggest predator' in the wake of #MeToo movement in 2018 that harmed his reputation.

Akbar made the allegations before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vishal Pahuja through his lawyer during the final hearing of a private criminal defamation complaint filed by him against Ramani after his name cropped up on social media as the #MeToo campaign raged on in India.

Akbar resigned as Union minister on October 17, 2018.

Ramani in 2018 accused Akbar of sexual misconduct around 20 years ago when he was a journalist. She worked at the Asian Age from January to October in 1994.

Senior advocate Geeta Luthra, appearing for Akbar, said that the allegations were intentional and malafide.

"When you call someone media's biggest predator, it is per se defamatory. Calling a person with such adjectives is on the face of it defamatory. In the eyes of the people, Akbar's reputation was harmed... The per se effect was lowering of my (Akbar) reputation in the eyes of the right thinking members of the society," she told the court.

She said there was no due process in the allegations.

"It has a cascading effect. Embarrassing questions were asked. I (Akbar) am a person of greatest integrity... There was no due process in the allegations. You cannot just make allegation and let that person suffer," she added.

Luthra said that if there was any grievance, it had to be raised then and there before the appropriate authority.

"We need to realise the effect has what we say or what we do. It's not like she went to any authority or raised any grievance. Opportunity was there, rights were there but to attack so person behind their back on social media...knowing that his whole life will be adversely affected? It's not right," she said.

Akbar has denied all the allegations of sexual harassment against the women, who came forward during #MeToo campaign against him.

Ramani accused Akbar of sexual misconduct when he was a journalist, a charge denied by him.

Akbar had earlier told the court that the allegations made in an article in the 'Vogue' and the subsequent tweets were defamatory on the face of it as the complainant had deposed them to be false and imaginary and that an "immediate damage" was caused to him due to the "false" allegations by Ramani.

Ramani had earlier told the court that her "disclosure" of alleged sexual harassment by Akbar has come at "a great personal cost" and she had "nothing to gain" from it.

She had said her move would empower women to speak up and make them understand their rights at workplace.

Several women came up with accounts of the alleged sexual harassment by him while they were working as journalists under Akbar.

He has termed the allegations "false, fabricated and deeply distressing" and said he was taking appropriate legal action against them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Iraqi government is banning large public gatherings in a bid to fight the spread of coronavirus.

Iraqs government has banned large public gatherings as coronavirus spreads. Its also ordered cafes, restaurants and clubs to close.

But in Baghdad, life appears to be going on as normal and some business owners think the governments response is exaggerated.

Al Jazeeras Rob Matheson reports from Baghdad, Iraq.
Non-Proliferation (1540 Committee)

Expected Council Action

In March, the chair of the 1540 Committee, Ambassador Dian Triansyah Djani (Indonesia) is scheduled to brief the Council on the work of the committee, which deals with the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The mandate of the committee expires on 25 April 2021.

Background

Adopted in 2004, resolution 1540 aims to address a concern that non-state actors might use weapons of mass destruction for terrorist purposes (individuals and sub-state groups are not covered under existing treaties dealing with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons). It requires all states to prevent non-state actors from obtaining access to nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their delivery systems. Furthermore, it requires states to establish domestic controls to prevent the proliferation of such weapons.

The mandate of the 1540 Committee, which was last extended by resolution 1977 in 2011, calls for the committee to conduct a comprehensive review of the resolutions implementation before the mandate expires and to submit to the Council a report containing conclusions of the review. In addition to its day-to-day activities, during 2020, the committee will likely maintain a strong focus on activities related to this comprehensive review. One of the more notable events planned in the context of the 1540 review process this year will be open consultations in June in New York. UN member states, international and regional organisations, and civil society will be able to take part in this meeting.

Following the completion of an earlier review of the implementation status of resolution 1540, in December 2016, the Council adopted resolution 2325, which called for further efforts to strengthen implementation. In addition, resolution 2325 clarified the reporting cycle by deciding that the 1540 Committee would brief the Council in the first quarter of each year in addition to providing the annual joint briefing with the 1267/1989/2253 ISIL (Daesh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee and the 1373 Counter-Terrorism Committee.

In March 2019, Ambassador Djani briefed the Council on the work of the committee. While noting that effective implementation of resolution 1540 required constant efforts at national, regional and international levels, he emphasised that substantial progress had been made. In May 2019, Djani delivered a joint statement on behalf of the chairs of the three terrorism-related committees. He said that these committees share a common understanding of the threats posed by terrorism, particularly emphasising ISIL, which notwithstanding its military defeat in Iraq and Syria is still an organisation with centralised leadership that operates globally.

On 23 December 2019, the committee published a report on the review of the implementation of resolution 1540 that detailed the committees activities during 2019. The committee held three formal and six informal meetings during the year, and continued outreach activities in an effort to achieve universal reporting on the implementation of resolution 1540. By the end of 2019, 184 of the 193 member states had submitted such reports. In 2019, the committee visited four countries (Chile, Kuwait, Madagascar and Togo) to discuss the implementation of resolution 1540.

The committee held its first formal meeting this year on 19 February during which the Chair briefed the chairs of the regional groups on the ongoing activities related to the comprehensive review of resolution 1540. The programme of work, which has been agreed by the committee, had not been published at press time. Usually, the programme of work is organised around four main themes: monitoring and national implementation, assistance, cooperation with international organisations and other relevant UN bodies, and transparency and media outreach.

UN DOCUMENTS ON NON-PROLIFERATION
Existing penalties for dumping and littering are not high enough, Kildare County Council has been told.

The council is to write to the Minister to seek a rise in the fine from 150.

Cllr. Brendan Wyse, who is also secretary of Allenwood Tidy Towns Association, sought the fine increase after he asked the Kildare County Council to confirm if it had the power to ask homeowners for evidence of how they dispose of their household waste.

The Council said that it had power under Section 18 of the Waste Management Act 1996, as amended, to do so.

SEE ALSO: St Mary's College in Naas win EU debating competition on climate change

Officials told the February 24 full plenary meeting of the council that these powers are invoked by the council on a regular basis.

It also said that Waste management Bye Laws 2018, which became effective in March 2019, and encouraged property segregation of wastes, obliged consumers to participate in an authorised waste collection service or to provide documentary proof of disposal methods.

SEE ALSO: more Kildare stories

It said Section 18 worked well and 56 notices were served under it in the last year..

The council does inspections, sends warning letters.

Following an awareness campaign by the council and the Waste Enforcement Regional Lead Authority (WERLA) last year and a follow up this year, the council plans targeted inspections in selected areas across the county.

It said the situation regarding segregation, storage and presentation of waste seems to have improved in the main towns since the introduction of byelaws.

Cllr Wyse said he understood it was expensive to pursue unpaid fines but the council should ask the Department to increase fines to at least 500.

He said the community litter wardens were very diligent but fines needed to be higher.

Director of Services, Joe Boland, said the enforcement was an intractable problem and that fines were set on a national basis. They could not be raised in bye laws because bye laws cannot supersede national laws. Where feasible we do pursue fines and with a certain amount of success.

Mr Boland said CCTV had some success but people have become more clever than they were a few years ago, at avoiding detection.

Cllr Mark Wall said they should lobby at national level for change in fines.

Cllr Bill Clear, who is vice chairperson of Naas Tidy Towns Association, said there is a disconnect between court and fines. It is a tough one. A small amount of people do it (litter) but they do a lot of damage.

Cllr Kevin Duffy said that making the stick bigger did not solve problems.

Cllr Nuala Killeen said you need a stick and a carrot. It is very difficult to track people, she said.

Cllr. Wyse was supported by Cllrs Wall and Clear, and other councillors, on his request for the council to write to the Minister for the Environment to express a desire for an increase in the current 150 fine for litter offences.

Cllr. Wyse said after the meeting that he is under no illusion that a letter to the Minister will instantly deliver increased fines, but he still believes that it was an important action to take, The letter simply provides feedback to the Department of the Environment that the people that are fighting the problem of fly tipping on the ground, feel that the crime needs to penalised more heavily. The opinion of one county might not make a difference in the short term, but eventually some action needs to be taken at national level and at least we have spoken up in that regard.
Queen Elizabeth is doing everything in her power to move the monarchy forward following Prince Harry and Meghan Markles exit. To that end, Her Majesty recently undertook a secret mission to one of the UKs top security agencies, MI5. The visit comes shortly after Buckingham Palace confirmed that Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will be leaving the royal family on March 31.

Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, and Queen Elizabeth | John Stillwell  WPA Pool/Getty Images

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle confirmed their exit

Harry and Markles plan to step away from the royal spotlight has undergone quite a few changes over the past few months. In their initial plan, the two wanted to take on a more limited role in the monarchy while continuing their work with their charitable foundation, Sussex Royal.

After weeks of deliberation, however, Queen Elizabeth revealed that the couple will not be allowed to use their HRH titles, which means that they wont be working with Sussex Royal any longer.

Well, this is nice timing. I wonder what motivated it? https://t.co/ObSl5ezkM7  Eric Garland (@ericgarland) February 25, 2020

The two are technically keeping their royal titles, though they are prohibited from using them in public settings.

Harry and Markle are also fully stepping down as active members of the royal family and will be financially independent of Queen Elizabeth and the crown after March 31. This status, however, will be reviewed after a 12-month period and appropriate changes will be made.

How does Queen Elizabeth feel about Megxit?

Harry and Markles decision to leave the monarchy came as a huge surprise to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles who were both reportedly blindsided by the announcement. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their decision at the beginning of January and allegedly gave little notice to other royals.

With everyone scrambling to pick up the pieces, an inside source claims that Queen Elizabeth is ready to be done with the drama and move forward.

"The message for Harry is: You cant declare that you dont want to be royal  especially in the way that you have done it  and then market yourself as royal." https://t.co/PDq7WFJUVi  JennieM (@JennieM53937815) February 20, 2020

She has got to the point where she doesnt want to think about it anymore, the source revealed. She just wants it over and done with.

Although she clearly doesnt want to talk about it, Queen Elizabeth has been very supportive of Harry and Markle in public. But she also believes that Megxit has been very damaging to the monarchy and cannot wait until it is no longer making headlines.

One way the royals can begin to move forward is by continuing their duties, which is why Her Majestys most recent royal engagement was so important.

Queen Elizabeth carries out a secret mission

This week, Queen Elizabeth took part in an unscheduled stop at the headquarters of MI5 in London. According to Hello Magazine, Her Majesty wore a purple coat and a dress for the outing and met with MI5 director Andrew Parker.

Parker gave Queen Elizabeth a tour of the museum at MI5 before they mingled with other staff members. She reportedly took particular interest in the collection linked to double agents in World War II, many of whom helped defeat the Nazis.

At one point during her stay, Queen Elizabeth spoke to the staff at MI5 and thanked all of them for their tireless work watching over the country.

Queen Elizabeth made a surprise appearance at the MI5 offices this morning  and we're very here for her hat. pic.twitter.com/st6YOHY5Dm  InStyle (@InStyle) February 25, 2020

I would like to take my visit here today as an opportunity to thank you all for the tireless work you do to keep our country safe. I am always struck by the remarkable resolve with which you carry out your vital role, she stated.

Queen Elizabeth added that she is always impressed whenever she visits MI5. The trip, meanwhile, comes a year after Prince William spent some time at MI5, GCHQ, and MI6 in order to better understand their role in protecting the nation.

Whats next for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle?

As far as Harry and Markle are concerned, the two are currently living in Canada and are enjoying their time away from the royal spotlight. With a month to wait until their exit becomes official, the Sussexes are due back to the UK for a final round of public engagements at Queen Elizabeths request.

Harry and Markle will appear in public several times at the beginning of March. One of their last events as senior members of the royal family will be the Commonwealth Day service, which will likely feature Prince William and Kate Middleton as well.

This striking portrait of Queen Elizabeth II will always be my favourite image of her because it reflects her grace but also her formidable strength & life long commitment to duty. #GodSavetheQueen

Julian Calder 2013. Balmoral pic.twitter.com/Z8fsUqzInN  Crown Pandora (@CrownPandora) February 25, 2020

Once their departure is official, Harry and Markle are expected to return to Canada as they plan their next move. Throughout the year, the two are planning on establishing a home base in North America and launching a new charitable foundation.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have not revealed any details about their upcoming endeavors. There has been a lot of talk about them moving to Los Angeles or New York City, though nothing is set in stone at the moment.

Queen Elizabeth has made minimal comments regarding the Sussexes exit, but she has expressed her sadness that they no longer want to be working members of the royal family.
So, heres the response of the Trump team and its allies to the coronavirus, at least so far: Its actually good for America. Also, its a hoax perpetrated by the news media and the Democrats. Besides, its no big deal, and people should buy stocks. Anyway, well get it all under control under the leadership of a man who doesnt believe in science.

From the day Donald Trump was elected, some of us worried how his administration would deal with a crisis not of its own making. Remarkably, weve gone three years without finding out: Until now, every serious problem facing the Trump administration, from trade wars to confrontation with Iran, has been self-created. But the coronavirus is looking as if it might be the test weve been fearing.

And the results arent looking good.

The story of the Trump pandemic response actually began several years ago. Almost as soon as he took office, Trump began cutting funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leading in turn to an 80 percent cut in the resources the agency devotes to global disease outbreaks. Trump also shut down the entire global-health-security unit of the National Security Council.

Experts warned that these moves were exposing America to severe risks. Well leave the field open to microbes, declared Tom Frieden, a much-admired former head of the C.D.C., more than two years ago. But the Trump administration has a preconceived notion about where national security threats come from  basically, scary brown people  and is hostile to science in general. So we entered the current crisis in an already weakened condition.
NEW DELHI: In view of recent violent clashes between pro and anti-CAA protesters, which has claimed at least 39 lives and left over 200 injured in northeast Delhi, the Uttar Pradesh government has sounded a high alert across the state and tightened security at sensitive places.

According to reports, the Yogi Adityanath-led government has issued prohibitory orders and tightened security in sensitive areas, including mosques and other vital installations.

The move comes ahead of Friday prayers. Muslim clerics have called for "strict action against those who are instigating riots with their inciting speeches. Besides, action should also be taken against those policemen who were found helping rioters, as shown in some videos uploaded on social media."

Meanwhile, security has also been tightened in Prayagraj for Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s scheduled visit on Saturday.

The Prime Minister will be in Prayagraj to distribute disability aids like wheelchairs and walking sticks to over 27,000 persons at the Parade Ground.

The district administration will try to create a new Guinness World Record by distributing the largest number of disability aids from a single location.

After attending the event, PM Modi will head to Chitrakoot where he will attend the one-year celebrations of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi which was launched last year form Gorakhpur.

Security has been beefed up in view of the anti-CAA protests that are taking place in Roshan Bagh in Prayagraj. The district authorities had on Thursday announced a restriction on use of drone cameras in the city.

ADM (city) Ashok Kumar Kanojia said, "If anyone wants the use drones for personal use, he/she would first have to seek permission from the district administration."

Police personnel from seven districts of Prayagraj zone will be deployed as part of security arrangements for the event. Six IPS-rank officials, 12 ASPs, 50 circle officers, 90 inspectors, 30 sub-inspectors, 1,600 constables and 200 women constables would be deployed at the venue.

Besides, eight companies of PAC, 10 companies of paramilitary forces, an SPG team, a bomb defusal squad and sniffer dogs will also be roped in. A team of 55 doctors along with 47 paramedics and 56 ambulances would be ready to deal with any emergency.

The entry of heavy and commercial vehicles into the city limits will remain restricted for 24 hours, starting Friday night.
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When John Price left work one February afternoon in 2000, he told his colleagues if he didn't come in the next day he had probably been murdered by his partner Katherine Knight.

He was right.

Twenty years later, the murder of Price remains one of the most horrific crimes in Australia's history.

Knight, 44, stabbed Price, 44, as he slept that night. The abattoir worker then skinned and beheaded him, placed his head in a pot with vegetables and slow cooked it on the stove. Then she made gravy.

With her meal complete she set the kitchen table and plated up her 'stew' along with 'steak' cut from his buttocks. Next to each plate she left a note with the names of her victim's three children.

When Price did not arrive at work the next morning worried friends went to his house, saw blood on the handle of his front door and called police.

The officers who were first on the scene that morning would never be the same. Some left the force just days later.

Knight's murder of 'Pricey' in the small town of Aberdeen, in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, was so horrific, premeditated and devoid of mercy that a judge ordered her 'never to be released'. She is the only woman in Australia sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

But before she killed Price there were other men who felt Knight's wrath, among them John Chillingworth.

On the 20th anniversary of the horrific crime Mr Chillingworth revealed he still visits his former partner in jail, and provided a rare insight into the mind of Knight, now 64, who he says: 'Has never been better'.

John Price (left) was murdered at the hands of his wife Katherine Knight (right) at his home in Aberdeen, NSW, on February 29, 2000. After stabbing him to death she skinned and beheaded him, before cooking up his head in a large pot with vegetables

'She seems more relaxed and more confident in herself, she just seems different,' Mr Chillingworth told Daily Mail Australia.

'She goes to see a psychiatrist regularly and over the years she's done a lot of self-improvement work.

'The last time I visited her in Silverwater (Jail) was about 18 months ago... (we spoke about) family, old times, what she's been doing in prison, and what she's been doing to get well.

'She does pottery class and she's pretty good at it, she likes painting. She seems to be calmer and mixes with the other girls.

Knight, who was 44 at the time of the crime, was sentenced to life imprisonment. She was the first woman in Australia's history whose papers were stamped 'never to be released'.

'It's like a big dormitory, but she gets on with everyone they call her grandma.

'She's aged a bit, a hell of a lot actually. She looks older in the face and her hair, it's not fiery red it's grey now. She's also put on a little weight.'

Mr Chillingworth says that despite her horrific history of relationships and domestic violence, he was 'never in fear' during his three years with Knight.

In that time they had a son and it was for this reason that he began going to visit her in prison, not wanting him to 'grow up without a mother'.

He said that despite the order that she never be released, Knight still holds ambitions of one day walking free - and having seen a significant change in her personality and demeanour over the years, hopes a non-parole order will one day be overturned.

'She would like to get out for her children's sake and to meet her new grandchildren, she would love that,' Mr Chillingworth

'Is she a threat to society? No, I don't believe so, not from what I can make out. But would society accept her being released? I would say no.

'At first I found it hard to believe (that she couldn't remember killing Price), but when I thought about it, something that horrific, do you just blackout?

'When she realised the severity and the reality of what she had done she wanted to kill herself. She was horrified.

'Everyone made Pricey out to be some angel, but Pricey was never an angel. What happened to him was the worst imaginable, it was horrific, but it was a volatile relationship. I knew him well, years before he was seeing Katherine.

'I think everyone deserves a second chance.'

John Chillingworth (pictured) was in a relationship with Knight for three years, during which time they had a son together. Mr Chillingworth told Daily Mail Australia he still goes to visit her inside Silverwater Prison and says she 'has never been better'

Katherine Mary Knight:

The birth of Katherine Mary Knight and her twin sister caused quite the controversy in the rural town of Tenterfield, central New South Wales, in 1955.

Just months earlier Katherine's mother Barbara had left her husband Jack Roughan and began a relationship with his colleague and friend Ken Knight. It became the talk of the town.

A severe alcoholic, Mr Knight would allegedly rape his wife up to ten times a day and bash her far more regularly.

But his brutality wasn't hidden from his children, with Knight's murder trial hearing he may have contributed to the aggressive and ultimately deadly attitude of his daughter.

'There was a suggestion that on one occasion her father may have engaged in activity suggestive of some sexual connection with her,' Knight's murder trail heard.

Knight was bad news from an early age. She attended Muswellbrook High School and regularly got into fights, on one occasion attacking a boy with a weapon and on another getting into a physical fight with a teacher who was later found to have acted in self-defence.

She left school at 15 and was unable to read or write.

But despite this, within 12 months she had landed her 'dream job' working at the local abattoir.

Knight was quickly promoted to work in de-boning and received her own personal set of knives. So obsessed was she with her new blades that she hung them above her bed, keeping them 'handy' in case she ever required them.

This was a trend she continued at every home she lived in with her partners until the night she murdered Price.

Katherine Knight (right) pictured with her first husband David Kellett (left) on their wedding day in 1974. The couple had two children together, but Knight suffered severe post natal depression and their relationship was over within 10 years

The men that got away:

While rising through the ranks at the abattoir Knight met truck driver David Kellett and began a relationship, before marrying in 1974.

In the book BloodStain by Peter Lalor, Kellett told of his shock when Knight's own mother warned him to be careful the first time she met her prospective son-in-law.

'The old girl [Knight's mother] said to me to watch out: "You better watch this one or she'll f**king kill you. Stir her up the wrong way or do the wrong thing and you're f**ked, don't ever think of playing up on her [cheating on her], she'll f**kin' kill you",' Kellett recalled.

And she was right, within hours of their marriage things had already begun to sour.

On their wedding night Knight tried to strangle her new husband, outraged that he had fallen asleep after having sex just three times.

You better watch this one or she'll f**king kill you Barbara Knight talking to David Kellett about her own daughter, Katherine

Months later Kellett woke in the middle of the night to find his wife sitting on his chest and holding a knife from her prized set to his throat, before accusing him of cheating on her.

'You see how easy it is... is it true that truck drivers have different women in every town?' Knight asked him.

The couple's first child was born in 1976, but Knight was almost immediately diagnosed with post natal depression and taken back to hospital.

Within days of being released a second time, Knight placed her newborn on train racks and walked away. If not for a local man who saw the incident, the young child would likely have been collected by the train that sped through a few moments later.

Despite her husband leaving Knight on a number of occasions because of her abuse, the couple had another child in 1980.

But by 1984 the crazed killer was done with Kellett and left him for David Saunders in 1987.

The couple had a daughter in June 1988 but like all her relationships, Knight again wound up abusing her husband.

Having lived in the area all of her life, Knight was well known in the sleepy town of Aberdeen (pictured) for her wicked temper

The main street of Aberdeen, the small town in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales. Knight's house is on the right as you exit town (the white arrow)

On one occasion Knight was so enraged that she went out into the backyard and slit the throat of Saunders' eight-week-old puppy as he watched on.

Their relationship was over in just two years, but it didn't take Knight long to find a new man - John Chillingworth.

Knight and Mr Chillingworth began dating in 1990 and by March of the next year welcomed a son.

But despite the threat of the knives by the bed and the warnings provided to previous lovers by her own mum, Mr Chillingworth claims he was never in fear of his life - although admits her temper was wicked.

'It was hard at times, rough. She could be angry and do crazy things, but nothing to that extent, never,' he said.

'She claimed in court that I assaulted her regularly, but it was false. The only time was once when she grabbed me on the face and broke my glasses, so I gave her a backhander.'

After she broke up with Chillingworth around Christmas 1993, Knight moved in with John Price.

Court documents lay clear the state of their relationship as volatile, vindictive and ultimately fatal.

In one act of vengeance Knight videoed the first-aid cabinet at their home which included a number of items that he had stolen from his place of work.

She then sent it to his employer, causing him to lose his job.

On another occasion during a fight she stabbed Price in the chest, as her young children cowered in a bedroom.

It was off the back of that argument in mid-January 2000 that Knight told her father Ken: 'I am going to kill Pricey'.

Some five weeks later, she would.

After having sex Knight fatally stabbed Price an estimated 37 times, before dragging his body out of the bedroom and down the hall to the front door

The murder:

It is not known whether Price died late on February 29, 2000 or in the early hours of March 1, 2000. Regardless the result was the same.

It was a sweltering night and Price was fast asleep with the air conditioner on. Knight arrived home about midnight and slipped into a new piece of black lingerie she had bought that day, before waking her partner and having sex.

'He wanted sex so we had it. He was gentle and kind... (after) he went to the toilet. He was walking back to bed and that's it,' Knight told investigators.

She stabbed Price once, twice and a further 35 times.

The official count ended at 37 but it may have been more, however her decision to behead him meant the forensic police can not accurately count.

She then dragged his lifeless body out into the hall, leaving a trail of blood as she goes, and began to skin him.

After preparing dinner and setting the table, Knight attempted to overdose on prescription drugs.

When police barged through the door the next day, Australia's worst female killer was still asleep on the couch.

The scene:

Bob Wells was at Singelton when he got the call.

A cop with two decades experience, he had risen through the ranks to Detective Sergeant before returning to the Hunter Valley where he had grown up.

In his time as an officer he had seen plenty of murder scenes and despite a young officer telling him the inside of 84 St Andrews Street in Aberdeen was 'too much for him', he expected it to be something along the lines of what he'd seen before.

One officer holds his head in his hands as police gather outside Price's home in the hours after his body was found on March 1, 2020. Detective Sergeant Bob Wells (third from right), who led the investigation, discusses the scene with his colleagues

Mr Wells (pictured) told Daily Mail Australia that in all his years of policing, he has 'never seen anything like' the crime scene he found at 84 St Andrews Street, Aberdeen

'We just took off from Singleton up to Aberdeen, and obviously we were briefed outside, but with that many years' experience it was just another job to start with,' Mr Wells told Daily Mail Australia.

'I'd never seen anything like that.

'It was fairly professionally done too, that was the thing.'

Instantly realising how serious the crime was and how much attention it was likely to get, Det Sgt Wells called for the NSW Police forensic video team to be sent up from Sydney to record the scene.

There are three tapes of the crime scene, all of which - like the woman responsible for the crime - are 'never to be released' to the public.

Mr Chillingworth said when he first heard what Knight had done to Price, his only thought was their son's welfare.

'I didn't believe it initially until I heard what the severity of it was. I didn't think she would ever do that to anybody, ever,' he said.

I'd never seen anything like that. NSW Police Detective Sergeant Bob Wells on the crime scene

'After what she'd done to Pricey my greatest fear was for my son because my children couldn't be found initially.

'I said: "F**k, I've got to go to Scone".'

He immediately began the eight-hour drive from the Gold Coast to Scone, but along the way got word his boy was safe.

Having narrowly avoided death herself, it was a whole three days before Knight was deemed fit to be interviewed by Det Sgt Wells.

During their chat she denied being able to remember killing her lover, or the horror that followed. To this day, that has not changed.

'I felt she was pretty well aware of what she had done and what had happened, but she just wasn't going to give it up and give herself up,' Det Sgt Wells said.

'You interview a lot of people and you'll catch someone's eye and you'll know: 'This person has just bullsh***ed me'

'And that's how I felt about that interview. If she wants to take it to the grave with her, well so be it.'

John 'Pricey' Price (pictured) had gone to court in an attempt to take an AVO out against Knight a day before he was murdered

The aftermath:

Knight initially pleaded not-guilty to murdering Price and stood trial before the NSW Supreme Court at Newcastle, but on the fourth morning of the trial changed her plea to guilty.

She was sentenced to life imprisonment, never to be released.

Knight appealed against her sentence in 2006 but it was dismissed. She is currently 64 and will die in jail.

Det Sgt Wells retired from the NSW Police force in 2010, having lasted a decade in the job after the Knight murder.

The trauma of that day remains with him now, but over the 20 years since he has worked hard to find a way to deal with it and still sees a psychologist.

'When I said I'd enough it wasn't just Katherine Knight, I'd had enough with the job, it was wear and tear,' he said.

'Today I still have psychological assistance almost on a monthly basis. My diagnosis was severe chronic post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - it's never going to get any better but you just need to keep on top of it.

'But one of the fingerprint guys went (left the force) straight away, he said that day and scene was enough for him.'
Japan on Friday said it would send a deputy justice minister to Lebanon after failed attempts to get former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn to return for trial on financial misconduct charges. Hiroyuki Yoshiie, a deputy to Justice Minister Masako Mori, is to leave Tokyo on Saturday to meet the Lebanese justice minister and other officials, the ministry confirmed. He will return to Tokyo on Tuesday. "The accused (Ghosn) fled to Lebanon. We need to have people there understand Japan's justice system correctly," a justice ministry official told AFP while refraining from saying whether the visit was directly aimed at negotiating Ghosn's handover. "There has been criticism in the international community of Japan's justice system. We need to promote a correct understanding of our system and deepen cooperation with Lebanon," said the official who declined to be named. Ghosn was arrested in November 2018 on financial misconduct charges and spent 130 days in detention. He dramatically jumped bail and fled Japan at the year end, leaving officials red-faced. They have demanded Ghosn return to face trial but Lebanon does not have an extradition treaty with Japan. Ghosn has denied all the charges and claimed he was a victim of a plot by Nissan and Japanese officials. He and his legal team also referred to the extended periods of detention as "hostage justice", arguing the prosecutors were trying to force him to admit charges that he continues to deny.
Manitobas licensed child-care providers are feeling the pressure of funding constraints, and Brandon is no exception.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Tonya Sisson, assistant director of Magical Memories Learning Centre Inc. in Brandon says the lack of trained staff does affect the centre's daily operation. (Bud Robertson/The Brandon Sun)

Manitobas licensed child-care providers are feeling the pressure of funding constraints, and Brandon is no exception.

The Child Care Coalition of Manitoba, a non-profit organization comprised of parents, child-care workers and advocates for child care, is calling on the Manitoba government to take immediate action to create a universal child-care system as recommended by the Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care Commissions final report in 2016.

The publicly funded commission report maps out a policy framework to create 12,000 accessible, affordable, quality child-care spaces in Manitoba within five years and invest in the Early Learning and Child Care workforce.

The Child Care Coalition of Manitoba held a news conference Wednesday morning at the Manitoba legislature.

Lorie Popovits, director of Magical Memories Learning Centre Inc., a licensed, non-profit child-care centre in Brandon, said its difficult to attract and retain trained early childhood educators, many of whom are forced to take second jobs because the wages are too poor to earn a decent living.

The average starting salary for an early childhood educator is approximately $17 an hour. Assistants make even less, about minimum wage.

"The government needs to step up and increase our funding so we can increase our wages, and we can increase the amount of trained staff," Popovits said.

Child-care centres are required to have one early childhood educator for every eight children and one for every four infants.

The centre currently has 75 spaces filled because they dont have enough staff to fill the 80 they are allotted, Popovits said.

"We could be full," she said, adding they have parents on a too-long waiting list, some of whose children arent even born yet.

The centres assistant director, Tonya Sisson, said the staffing crunch definitely hurts.

"It makes it hard. Were stretched pretty thin, a lot of times, to cover breaks," she said. "We dont have extra staff where its needed to help and assist with the children and other staff. Were at the bare minimum, right now, for covering the children and the staff breaks."

They currently have 14 full-time and one part-time staff, both early childhood educators and assistants.

She noted the lack of staff also curtails any field trips, other than to the local playground.

"Were in desperate need," Popovits said of child-care centres in Manitoba. "Theyre opening centres without the trained staff available."

The Child Care Coalition of Manitoba says there are too few licensed child-care spaces and more than 16,600 names on the child-care central waiting list, up from 12,000 in 2016.

There are only 37,459 licensed spaces in the province, according to an excerpt from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Manitoba Alternative Provincial Budget 2020.

Facilities and programs are suffering, some are contemplating closure, and almost none can undertake expansion, according to the alternative budget, to be released in March. In recent years, child-care spending has been frozen at 2016 levels.

Meanwhile, parent fees, while stable, are too high for many, and fewer and fewer low-income parents can access subsidized child care, the coalition said.

"The child-care community had, for many years, called for a commission to review and create plan going forward on child care," Molly McCracken, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Manitoba director and steering committee member of the coalition, said in a telephone interview with The Brandon Sun. "That was done in 2016, but it had not been acted upon."

"We are saying we dont need another review," McCracken said. "We want the province to act on the one that was done in 2016."

McCracken noted Manitoba has the lowest coverage rate of child care in Canada; that is, how many regulated licensed spaces we have in relation to the population of children aged zero to 12.

Manitobas rate is 18.8 per cent compared to the national average of 27 per cent.

"So that means theres less than one space for every five children," McCracken said. "Our system is not growing nearly fast enough that the wait list is growing."

She added: "We think its important that the public knows that the cost of balancing the Manitoba budget on the back of these frozen operating funds for our youngest Manitobans is a real shame."

"Our government is committed to providing more child care options for Manitoba families," Families Minister Heather Stefanson said in an emailed statement Wednesday.

"That is why we have launched a review of the early learning and child-care funding model to ensure it is sustainable and increases the choices available for parents who are juggling work and family responsibilities," she said. "The review will assess the effectiveness of operating grants and current parent fees to support quality child care, including wages for workers, providing recommendations on the implementation of a new portable child-care benefit for families to support access to the child care of their choice."

Stefanson said the funding model review will be released this spring and is distinct from the report commissioned by the NDP, which did not consider other innovative options for the provision of child care.

The total budgeted cost for the request for proposals for the funding model review is $249,100, the province said in the email. KPMG is conducting the review.

"We know that the child-care system we inherited has not been working for Manitoba families," Stefanson said, adding the Conservative government is taking a different approach through the creation of the Child Care Centre Development Tax Credit, which is designed to help companies provide accessible child care to their employees and to the surrounding community.

Stefanson noted that since 2016, the province has funded more than 2,270 new spaces, with another 1,600 new spaces estimated to be created by the end of this fiscal year.

"In 2019-20, we budgeted more than $177 million in financial assistance and grants for early learning and child care, which is over $20 million more than the previous government invested in child care in 2015-16," Stefanson said.

 brobertson@brandonsun.com
After being convicted of rape on Monday, Harvey Weinstein now faces a sentence of five to 25 years in prison. In fear of this outcome, Weinstein reportedly hired a prison consultant two weeks ago to help him navigate incarceration. In 2009, Brian Palmer explained what prison consultants actually do when former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress hired one before his own two-year sentence. The original article is reprinted below.

Former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress has hired a prison consultant before beginning his two-year sentence for attempted criminal possession of a weapon. What do prison consultants do?

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They help get you into the best prison and orient you on its rules and customs. Going to prison is a little bit like heading off to college. The first step is finding an institution thats right for you. Then theres a lot of anxiety: Who will be your roommate? Where is the library? What time does the dining hall close? How do you make a good impression with the people in charge? Will you make friends? A prison consultant addresses these concerns.

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The process by which the Bureau of Prisons decides where to send a particular convict is called designation, and it begins when the probation officer submits a report on the future inmates crime, background, family situation, and medical condition. (The process is very similar in New York, where Burress pleaded guilty.) The bureau uses this report to generate a security point score, which will play a major role in placement. The defendant has about two weeks to suggest changes to the report and may benefit from a bit of strategic thinking. For example, if hes likely to receive a high security score on account of a past violent crime, a prison consultant might advise him to play up an illness in the report so hell have a shot of landing in a federal medical center. On the other hand, a candidate for a minimum-security facility would want to avoid the medical centers, which hold prisoners of all security levels. A consultant might also suggest adding details to the report that would keep the defendant at an institution thats close to home. (It might help to mention elderly parents who are unable to travel.) The consultant can also lobby the judge to recommend a specific placement.

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Once the defendant receives an assignment, his consultant helps him go through the prisons admissions and orientation manual. This document goes through every detail of prison life: schedule, recreational opportunities, jobs, commissary hours, visitation rules, where he can get a newspaper, etc. An experienced consultant can also use his network of clients within that institution to get tips on customs or culture not contained in the manual.

Consider a simple example like the telephone. A consultant will inform the prisoner about general rules, like the 300-minute-per-month and 15-minute-per-call usage limits, and the cost23 cents per minute, which can be paid from the inmates wages or a debit card paid for by his family. The consultant will also find out about peak usage hours, so that the inmate can avoid long lines. Then theres the rule that many white-collar criminals have trouble with: no business talk on the prison phones.

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As for behavior in prisons, the consultants golden rule is to keep a low profile. Beyond that, the advice depends on the clientele. For celebrity inmates in minimum- and low-security federal institutions, its most important to stay in the guards good graces. Celebrities usually dont have problems with co-inmates, except for the occasional request to barter services like bed-making for commissary moneya prison no-no. Consultants might also fill the new inmates social calendar with clients already in the institution. Prisoners headed for medium- and maximum-security facilities must be counseled on the various gangs and race relations in their prison. Still, even in these more dangerous settings, good relationships with the guards are paramount.

You dont have to be a white-collar crook or a celebrity to hire a prison consultant. The wealthiest criminals are typically charged by the hour, with total bills in excess of $10,000. Lesser drug traffickers and violent convicts may hire a second-tier prison consultantoften a former inmate selling a package of services from $1,000 to $5,000. Prison consultants do sometimes take pro bono cases.

Explainer thanks Herbert Hoelter of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives.
Soldiers from the U.S. Army 145th Field Artillery Battalion participate in moving heavy equipment during the South Korea-U.S. Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises at Camp Carroll, in Waegwan, 300 km south of Seoul, March 6, 2012. EPA



U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) has issued a 30-day advance notice of potential furlough to its South Korean employees, it said Friday, in an apparent move to further pressure Seoul over defense cost-sharing negotiations.



South Korea and the United States have been engaged in talks over how much Seoul should pay for the upkeep of the 28,500-strong USFK under their cost-sharing deal, the Special Measures Agreement (SMA), but have yet to reach a deal.



"Their loss will have an impact on readiness," USFK commander Gen. Robert Abrams said. "Unfortunately, without an agreed upon SMA, we must continue to prepare for a potential furlough."



Absent an agreement, the furlough will begin on April 1, it said.



The U.S. Department of Defense earlier said it will fund the salaries of key Korean workers who provide life, health, safety and other readiness services, but USFK sent the notice, as required by U.S. law, to all its nearly 9,000 Korean employees as it is still unclear who will be subject to the potential furlough, it said.



"We've explored all options that remain within my authority to delay a potential furlough due to the SMA lapse, and we will continue to explore funding alternatives up to and even during a required furlough," Abrams said.



Since September, the two countries have held six rounds of negotiations. But they have yet to reach an agreement amid Washington's demand for a sharp increase in Seoul's financial contribution.



U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday that South Korea can and should contribute more to the upkeep of the American troops on the peninsula after holding talks with Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo.



Jeong has stressed that a furlough of South Korean workers should be avoided, asking the U.S. to review the use of the USFK budget to cover their salaries or reach a conditional deal on their wages. (Yonhap)


By Trend

Azerbaijan has approved a deal on the purchase of US Chevrons share by the Hungarian MOL Group oil and gas company in the development of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) block of fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea and in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, Ibrahim Ahmadov, deputy head of the SOCAR Public Relations and Event Management Department, told Trend.

With the approval from Azerbaijan, MOL will become one of the full members of the consortium on the development of the ACG block and the BTC pipeline, Ahmadov said.

On Sept.20, 1994, the government of Azerbaijan and a group of international oil companies representing eight countries signed the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli Production Sharing Agreement, which later became known as the Contract of the Century. The Contract was extended in September 2017 until mid-century.

ACG participating interests are: BP (30.37 percent), SOCAR (25 percent), Chevron (9.57 percent), INPEX (9.31 percent), Equinor (7.27 percent), ExxonMobil (6.79 percent), TPAO (5.73 percent), ITOCHU (3.65 percent), ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) (2.31 percent).

In November 2019, Hungarian MOL Group company signed an agreement with Chevron Global Ventures Ltd and Chevron BTC Pipeline Ltd to acquire a 9.5-percent stake in the development project of the ACG block of oil and gas fields and an 8.9-percent stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline project.

The total value of the contract is $1.5 billion, taking into account adjustments at the closing of the transaction, which will be financed through the existing liquidity of the company. Upon completion of this transaction, MOL will become the third biggest partner in the ACG. The transaction is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2020.

The total length of the BTC pipeline is 1,768 kilometers, of which 443 kilometers run through the territory of Azerbaijan, 249 kilometers run through Georgia, and 1,076 kilometers go through Turkey. The construction of the pipeline began in April 2003, and it was first filled with oil on May 18, 2005.

----

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Right now, as I write, two regions of Africa are experiencing food emergencies: East Africa and Southern Africa. This is a crime against humanity. There is no objective reason for starvation and malnutrition in this continent rich with arable land. Actions should be taken today, not tomorrow, to reverse this life threatening, but preventable food shortage. It is morally repugnant to witness so many human beings perishing due to the persistence of poverty, hunger, and disease in Africa.

On January 20th, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) requested a mere $76 million to combat the spread of the destructive Desert Locusts. A just released joint statement- UN Joint Statement on Locust in East Africa signed by several organizations, Locust in Africa: A Race Against Time, reports that since February, the locust swarms originally sighted in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, have spread to South Sudan, Djibouti, Uganda, Tanzania, and have reached the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has not since a locust incursion since 1944. With the expansion of the locust invasion, the FAO has doubled its request for emergency funding to $138 million, of which only $33 million, less than 25% has been collected of pledged.

In this region of the world the food supply is already so fragile that 20 million Africans are deemed food insecure. Experts estimate that a one square kilometer swarm of Desert Locusts can consume as much food as 35,000 people in one day, which potentially increases the number of food insecure Africans in this zone to almost 40 million.

The joint communique boldly states: The next wave of locusts could devastate East Africas most important crop of the year, right when it is most vulnerable. But that doesnt have to happen. The Window of opportunity is still open. The time to act is now.

The statement concludes: It is time for the international community to act more decisively. The math is clear, as is our moral obligation. Pay a little now, or pay a lot more late.

Village women receive aid from a charity organisation in Chirumhanzi, Zimbabwe, File picture: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP

Southern Africa

Simultaneously, on the Southern end of the Africa continent; Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola, Lesotho, and Eswanti (Swaziland) are also facing shortages of food.

Journalist, Shannon Ebrahim, reports that according the World Food Program (WFP), 7.7 million Zimbabweans are facing the worst hunger emergency in a decadeAn astounding 90% of infants are malnourished and have stunted growth. However, severe food shortages are not limited to Zimbabwe

In Angola, 2.4 million are affected by food insecurity, where children are barely eating one meal a day. World Vision staff in Angola report they have never seen hunger and malnutrition on this scale.

In Zambia, 2.3 million are facing acute hunger, and in Eswatini 24% of the population are suffering food shortages. In Lesotho, 20% of the population is food insecure

WFP regional director for southern Africa Lola Castro has said, The hunger crisis is on a scale weve never seen before and evidence shows its going to get worse.

Ebrahim writes, As a result of drought, widespread flooding, and economic problems, 45 million people in southern Africa are facing food shortages.

Hunger Can Be Eliminated

Droughts, locusts, and other disasters that contribute to food insecurity may not easily be prevented, but human intervention can mitigate and surmount so called natural catastrophes. However, there is no justifiable reason for hunger to persist in a continent of abundant, fertile, arable land.

Food self-sufficiency, which is a national security priority, in this age of out sized and exaggerated globalization, has worsened in the majority of African nations over the last several decades. Not only does this jeopardize the health and existence of society, but it drains nations foreign reserves with mega-food import expenditures.

The most critical, essential, fundamental, and undeniable ingredient to a successful agricultural sector, as well as a manufacturing sector, is infrastructure. It is the sine qua non for progress. Africa is suffering from a lack of infrastructure, particularly in the most crucial categories of hard infrastructure; electrical power and railroads. No concerned official in Africa or from a friendly government, who does not place their emphasis on energy and rail, is not helping African nations to develop. No NGO activist, no matter how sincere, who does not advocate for such infrastructure is not truly helping Africans to free themselves from the shackles of poverty, hunger, and disease.

I do not make these statements lightly. Without massive construction of hard infrastructure, African nations will not have productive agricultural and manufacturing sectors capable of producing the physical goods necessary for societys continued existence. This is a scientific-economic reality.

Why are trees being cut down across the Sahel? To provide firewood and charcoal for cooking. This is foolishness. Trees are one of the best means to reverse the march of the desert. However, trees are being cut down, because homes do not have access to electricity and gas. If a portion of the tens of billions of dollars being spent on global warming were spent providing electricity to the nations of the Sahel, the counterproductive practice of charcoaling would be eliminated. If we built the decades overdue East West railroad, along with irrigating the desert (again energy) we could, can, transform the desert.

Why should over 100 million Africans face food insecurity on this rich African continent? The truth is; there is no acceptable reason. Our own lack of action speaks volumes.

Read my article below from March 22, 2017

Read More: Famine In Africa: More Than Humanitarian Aid Required
Mumbai and Delhi might be the strongest consumers of couture in the country but when it comes to aftercare for luxury garments, there hasnt been much more than the neighbourhood laundry on offer. Sensing the demand in the luxury laundry sector, Mumbai-based entrepreneur Sachin Dewan has joined hands with Al Jabr Laundry, the largest laundry in Saudi Arabia, to launch Bianca, a laundry chain for expensive threads.

We felt that there was a significant gap between the demand and the services being offered in this industry. Premium garments deserve premium care and that is exactly what we are doing here. Mumbai is our home base, making it much easier to function as a startup and establish ourselves. Being home to so many designers and celebrities, Mumbai has a high demand for treating these luxury garments," says Dewan, CEO of the company.

View Full Image Biancas launderers use form finishers to retain the shape of clothes.

The locations for the clothspa" were a no-brainerBianca has outlets in Colaba, Nepean Sea Road, Bandra and Juhu, and a central processing unit in Rabale. With expertise and equipment of international quality hardly available in India, Dewan felt Al Jabrwith over 40 years experience in the sector and more than 600 retail outlets across Saudi Arabiawould be the right match. They are also operating four large plants serving their outlets, the healthcare sector, hotels, National Guard and Saudi Aramco. Their vast experience and commitment to this industry places us in a better position to give our customers a premium experience," says Dewan.

View Full Image Coming clean

All Bianca stores are serviced by the central processing unit in Rabale, loaded with washers, dry and wet cleaning machines, dryers, steam irons, finishers and more equipment imported from the US, Japan, German and Italy.

Spot and stain removal is done with German chemicals. The garments are finished on form finishers from Germany, giving the garment its original shape and size. We use soft water to provide delicate care on our clothes and the environment and before disposal, we cure every chemical, making our waste as toxic-free as possible," says Dewan.

To offer an end-to-end solution, Bianca provides alteration services and will be starting leather and suede services soon. The charges are 199 for dry or wet cleaning a shirt, and 149 for laundry. The pricing is different because the dry/wet cleaning process is different compared to a normal laundry and uses more techniques to service the garment. The highest is 1,499 for sherwanis and 1,998 (plus taxes) for heavily embroidered lehngas," says Dewan.

Biancaclothspa.com

Dhara Vora Sabhnani is a Mumbai-based journalist.

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Four people with alleged ties to a neo-Nazi group known as Atomwaffen Division have been arrested after authorities said they conspired to harass journalists and people affiliated with the Anti-Defamation League.

The group focused on targets who were Jewish or people of color, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington, and sent them threatening posters to intimidate them.

The arrests came the same day a fifth individual -- said to be Atomwaffen Division's former leader -- was arrested in Virginia for allegedly harassing a member of President Trump's Cabinet, journalists and a university.

According to the office of US Attorney Brian T. Moran, 24-year-old Cameron Brandon Shea of Redmond, Washington; 24-year-old Kaleb Cole of Montgomery, Texas; 20-year-old Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe of Spring Hill, Florida; and 20-year-old Johnny Roman Garza of Queen Creek, Arizona, face charges of conspiracy to mail threatening communications and commit cyberstalking.

An attorney for Shea has not responded to a request for comment. CNN has been unable to determine whether the other defendants had attorneys who would comment on their behalf.

More charges could be coming, Moran said.

'It's a starting line,' he said at a news conference, 'not a finishing line.'

Group postered journalists' homes with threatening messages, government says

Using an encrypted online chat group, the defendants allegedly identified journalists and activists they wanted to intimidate, focusing on those who were Jewish or people of color, Moran's office said. The group collected personal information on the journalists and activists, including their home addresses, the office said.

According to the criminal complaint, Cole and Shea created threatening posters that included images of swastikas and people with guns and Molotov cocktails. One poster carried the message, 'We Know Where You Live.'

The posters were shared with other Atomwaffen members, who printed and delivered or mailed them to the alleged targets, Moran's office said, including a TV reporter in Seattle who had reported on the group and two people with the ADL. A journalist in Tampa was also targeted, but the poster was delivered to the wrong address. Another poster was delivered to a magazine journalist in Phoenix.

'These defendants sought to spread fear and terror with threats delivered to the doorstep of those who are critical of their activities,' Moran said in a statement. 'As Attorney General William Barr has made clear, rooting out anti-Semitic hate and threats of violence and vigorously prosecuting those responsible are top priorities for the Department of Justice.'

Former Atomwaffen Division leader also arrested

A fifth person affiliated with the Atomwaffen Division, John Cameron Denton, was arrested Wednesday in Virginia, the office of US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia G. Zachary Terwilliger announced.

The 26-year-old from Montgomery, Texas, and 'several co-conspirators' are accused of making swatting calls to Old Dominion University, the predominantly African-American Alfred Street Baptist Church and an unnamed 'Cabinet official living in Northern Virginia.'

Swatting is a harassment tactic in which a caller makes a false report to lure authorities where they are led to believe a horrific crime has occurred, resulting in a forceful response.

Denton also allegedly placed a swatting call to the offices of ProPublica in New York and one of the investigative news outlet's journalists as retaliation for the journalist reporting on Denton and the Atomwaffen Division, a criminal complaint says.

Court documents said the calls by Denton impacted 134 law-enforcement agencies.

Denton was charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the US. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

A TV reporter targeted by Atomwaffen had to evacuate his family, he says

Chris Ingalls, a reporter for KING 5 in Seattle, was among those allegedly targeted by Atomwaffen Division.

In a video piece shared by the news station, Ingalls recalled being asked to come in to the US Attorneys Office. There, two FBI agents told him they believed Atomwaffen was coming to his house.

'They didn't have a lot of information,' Ingalls said. 'They didn't necessarily expect violence, but they couldn't tell me exactly what this group planned to do at my house. They just thought they knew where I lived and they were coming.'

Ingalls' family packed up and stayed in a motel for several nights, he said, while a security team followed the family wherever they went.

One night, back at the residence, Ingalls opened his mailbox and saw a suspicious piece of mail, he said. He took it to the FBI, which opened it.

Inside was a poster covered in swastikas that said, 'Two can play at this game.' At the bottom was his name and another message: 'You have been visited by your local Nazis.'

Ingalls thanked officials with the FBI, the US Attorney's Office and Seattle police for keeping his family safe. 'I'm really thankful for that.'
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor at the NYSE in New York

By Pete Schroeder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.-based banks and brokers are in discussions with federal regulators about allowing staff to work from home and other business continuity arrangements amid the spread of the coronavirus, the head of a top financial trade group said on Thursday.

The industry is reviewing and updating contingency plans in order to minimize any potential disruption to the financial markets that could be caused by personnel being unable to work onsite, said Kenneth Bentsen Jr., said chief executive of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA).

"We are communicating with the government, and obviously we will rely upon the appropriate officials, particularly both our regulatory officials and public health officials, to guide us " he told Reuters on Thursday.

"But the firms are also going through what they would do in a pandemic situation that could impact market operations," he said, adding that most firms have playbooks for handling a range of business disruptions, including pandemics.

In addition to remote working arrangements, financial firms could potentially move staff to backup locations away from major cities, he said. Several major banks in Hong Kong and Singapore - including HSBC <HSBA.L>, Morgan Stanley <MS.N> and DBS Bank - have restricted travel to mainland China and are allowing staff to work from home.

On Tuesday, Chevron Corp <CVX.N> asked about 300 British employees to work from home indefinitely after an employee in its London office reported a flu-like illness.

The financial industry is also discussing with regulators rules that may need to be temporarily waived if staff are unable to get to work, since some functions require personnel to be physically onsite. For example, processing trades and monitoring trading communications remain heavily manual processes, he said.

The Wall Street planning effort comes amid growing fears that countries are struggling to contain the flu-like virus, prompting governments from Iran to Australia to shut schools, cancel big public events and stock up on medical supplies.

Story continues

On Thursday, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission told Reuters it is closely monitoring trading as fears of a pandemic pummel markets, sinking global equities, pushing oil futures to their lowest in a year and roiling wheat and corn markets.

The Basel Committee of banking regulators, an international regulatory body, said banks and regulators should be ready to share information across borders as it tries to assess the financial stability implications of the outbreak.

Federal regulators published guidance in 2007 on how the financial industry should plan for a potential pandemic. That followed a 2007 exercise in which the government and financial industry tested the resilience of banks and other financial firms in the face of a hypothetical flu pandemic.

That three-week exercise found that while there would be a significant impact on the financial sector, markets would continue to operate. SIFMA typically coordinates the industry's continuity planning efforts, and carries out regular drills.

"Our job is to do as much preparedness as we can ... and to be as resilient as possible," said Bentsen. "That's been up and running for several weeks now, and we're prepared."

(Reporting by Pete Schroeder; editing by Michelle Price and Jonathan Oatis)
LANSING, MI -- Marijuana is illegal federally; therefore, federal bankruptcy laws wont apply to Michigan-licensed marijuana businesses, a state judge says.

So what would happen if a Michigan marijuana business goes under financially, Kent County Judge Christopher P. Yates on Feb. 18 told the House Judiciary Committee he was asked repeatedly during a federal bankruptcy conference last summer.

As a result of that, whether we like it or not, we in the state of Michigan in our court system are going to have to handle the fallout from every single marijuana facility that doesnt make it financially, Yates said.

For this reason, Rep. Brandt Iden, R-Portage, sponsored two bills he said will proactively help state judges address the inevitable financial failures of some of a state-licensed marijuana businesses.

The bills, House Bill 5490 and 5491, if passed into law, require the state Marijuana Regulatory Agency create a procedure for appointing a receiver to operate an indebted marijuana business in lieu of a federal bankruptcy court option.

The House Judiciary Committee approved both bills to go before the full House with a recommendation for their passage in a vote taken Tuesday, Feb. 25.

According to the National Law Review, incompatible federal bankruptcy laws are creating a lack of judicial clarity in state courts where marijuana businesses exist across the nation.

Courts struggled this year to find a balance between state-licensed cannabis activity and the federal right to seek bankruptcy protection under the Bankruptcy Code, the National Law Review said. During 2019, we had the first circuit-level opinion in the bankruptcy/cannabis space that appeared to open the door to bankruptcy courts, albeit slightly. We also had lower court opinions slamming that door shut.

-- Gus Burns is the marijuana beat reporter for MLive. Contact him with questions, tips or comments at fburns@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, @GusBurns. Read more from MLive about medical and recreational marijuana.

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Pot of gold at end of hemp rainbow?

Vaping cartridge recall includes 3,400 that were sold

Michigan issues updated vaping rules

Michigan cant tell who brought contaminated cartridges to licensed market
Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ), which has been documenting the attacks on women journalists documenting the Delhi violence has come across some unpleasant cases that have put scribes at severe risk

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on womeninjournalism.org on 27 February. It has been reproduced with permission from the Coalition For Women In Journalism



Delhi: On 24 February, riots erupted in the northeast side of Delhi. Unfortunately, and very quickly, journalists reporting on developments on the ground are being targeted since. CFWIJ has been documenting the attacks on women journalists in this scenario and we have come across some unpleasant cases that have put these journalists at severe risk. We urge authorities to show some responsibility and make genuine efforts to bring this violence to an end. We also urge journalists to take extreme precaution while reporting on the ground.

On the third day of rioting, violence has consistently intensified. Around 23 people have been murdered amidst clashes, which have left 189 injured so far. The rioting began as protesters against Indias controversial citizenship law came head to head with those in favour of it. The protests have mutated into a Hindu versus Muslims showdown, and Hindu extremists seem to have the upper hand in the violence thats taking place. The violent mob is moving around the city, consuming any Muslim homes and shops it could find.

Journalists covering the protests are in an incredible position, facing attacks from both sides. In several instances, they have been asked to provide their identification to prove their religion and if found to be Muslim, have been targeted or threatened with violence. Given that this spat of violence began after a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader issued a threat against the protesters, we dont see the issue dying down quickly.

Under attack

Journalist Parvina Purkayastha took to Twitter to note that protesters tried to attack her with sticks and bricks.

Sir, I was attacked by pro CAA protestors for reporting facts. A group of men armed with sticks and bricks cornered me to hit me, I pleaded them and ran for my life Not saying Anti-CAA protestors weren't in action but being a senior journalist how are blindly siding?  Parvina Purkayastha (@Parv05) February 24, 2020

Speaking with CFWIJ, she said: I reached the spot on Sunday evening, while I was reporting showing both sides of the story and was showing the visuals to our viewers, a group of men armed with sticks, rods and bricks came to hit me, and my video journalist. Somehow, they cornered me, with tears in my eyes I requested, pleaded, and ran for my life. In another instance, when journalists were able to capture evidence of a mosque being set on fire, a woman journalist had to step in to save her male colleagues, putting herself at serious risk in the process.

Just getting word that @arvindgunasekar and @Saurabh_Unmute of @ndtv we beaten up by a mob as they were filming a mosque being set on fire. My friend @Runjhunsharmas was with them and had to plead with the mob to let them go. Arvind is badly hurt, they're on their way to a hosp.  Uday Singh Rana (@UdaySRana) February 25, 2020

It was really brave of you @Runjhunsharmas.

You could have run when they asked you to but you stood with us till me and @Saurabh_Unmute were let off by the mob.

Journalists all out there, stand up and stand together.

United we stand, divided we fall. https://t.co/i12uaycXvY  Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) February 25, 2020

Rishika*, who had to face stones and bricks in the field, told CFWIJ that the protesters were attacking anyone with a skull cap, typically worn by Muslim men. The current violence started off as a pro-CAA versus anti-CAA thing. This had been continuing for months in Delhi after the Bill was passed. But it suddenly turned communal. There were many inflammatory speeches made for this to happen. People wearing skull caps were chased, stoned and lynched. Hindus were also beaten up brutally, she said. She added that journalists were being targeted because of their access to the mob and were collecting evidence of their misdeeds. We are closer to the mob. Our work started exposing the extent of damage and also how communal it has become, she explained. Faith-based attacks Being a Muslim has become a dangerous thing during the riots. Journalist Ismat Ara found herself in a precarious position when she realised her identity as a journalist was already putting her at risk, but her faith made her a bigger target. Speaking to CFWIJ, she recalled her experience of attempting to infiltrate the area without disclosing that she is a journalist. She pretended that she lived nearby. But that didn't really work in my favour because people realised that there was something fishy, and I was followed by multiple men and even confronted by some, she recalled. However, for Ismat, getting the story was more important. Despite knowing that indulging in conversation with the charged mobs there would put me in potential danger, I still struck a number of conversations with people around in order to get some context for my story. Again, it didn't work in my favour, she said. One person, whom I had asked about the identity of a pundit  who had openly called for the murder of Muslims  became suspicious and started asking me why I was questioning them about their punditji," she added. Ismat barely managed to escape the situation. She luckily avoided having her ID checked, which would have confirmed that she was a Muslim. Journalist Runjhun Sharma wrote a similar account about her time in the field: They asked us about our religious identity. I showed them my press ID card. It mentioned my last name, Sharma. Saurabh Shukla took out his rudraksh mala. They wanted to know if we were one of them. After several minutes of begging and pleading, and most importantly proving our religious identity, they decided to let us go. She noted that the rioters are actively trying to ensure that no evidence could be recorded of their actions. We were not allowed to shoot or record any of what was happening. Dont take out your phones out of your pockets and just enjoy the view, the mob threatened us. Stones were being pelted and acid was being thrown on the lanes in front of us and behind us. The Delhi police has also reportedly been playing a passive role, doing little to curb the chaos. Runjhun notes that some were even part of the problem. We saw cops on bikes wearing tilaks, offering rides to men armed with rods as we headed towards the [mosque], she recalled. A joint statement issued by the Press Club of India and IWPC, noted the extreme nature of the attacks on journalists. Several of them have been hospitalised. They have been punched and attacked by communal mobs, and police were either absent or have not come to help. Shockingly, mobs were checking the religious credentials of journalists, it read.

Minus the usual propagandists who we should just pity, everything we know about the violence in Delhi is thanks to the very brave work of journalists. Here's one young woman literally walking from one riot into the next https://t.co/URgDergxIy  Rukmini S (@Rukmini) February 25, 2020

On staying safe

Journalists who are in the field have been forced to take extreme measures to keep themselves safe.

In some cases, not having their ID card has proven to be a good thing because their religion cannot be confirmed. Some have resorted to hiding their notebooks and cameras while documenting the chaos to avoid getting attacked.

The rioters are turning on journalists because they're afraid. They're afraid that we'll show the truth and they will get implicated. They are a mob, and they desire to be nameless and faceless and we as journalists are always threatening their comfort zone, Ismat said, while explaining the need to focus on safety.

The real problem is for electronic journalists, who instantly become easier to spot for rioters because of their equipment. But this is something that has no fix.

All measures taken actually will never be enough when you are covering riots, Rishika noted.

Physical safety should be given serious thought. Several journalists are now including safety jackets and helmets into their gear, Parvina told CFWIJ.

Women journalists should keep a safe distance from the mob, ensure that they do not venture about alone, refrain from making any statement that could incite any group. If possible, be with a group of reporters, the police, or paramilitary forces, she said talking about steps women journalists can take to stay safe.

Also, if anyone tells you to not film or write about them, just don't. Stop that very moment, don't get into any exchange or argument  just leave that spot for your own safety, she added.

Ismat agreed: No story is bigger than your life, so the moment you feel like your safety is being compromised, get out immediately.

Ismat advised women journalists to ensure their coordination with the other journalists in their group is topnotch. If you are taking the risk of going with an alias, you should make sure that the other person and you both know each other's aliases, etc, so you both know what to say, she said.

Women journalists should avoid dingy, isolated lanes; stay on the main roads as much as possible, and stay near the police as much as possible, she added.

Parvina also said sensible reporting is the need of the hour.

Don't ask questions when emotions are running high, just report what you see around. Not the right moment to ask anything. Report what you see around. Verify as much as you can before speaking out for your viewers or write for readers. A small mistake can mislead and worsen the situation, she warned.

We urge authorities to do a better job of maintaining peace in the city. They must ensure the safety and wellbeing of journalists who have to do the difficult job of reporting while earning the ire of both sides of the conflict.

*Name has been changed to protect the source.
On his maiden trip to the western Pacific in February, US Coast Guard (USCG) commander Admiral Karl Schultz declared the tour was a sign of Washingtons increasing commitment to the strategically important and contested region.

USCG Bertholf (Photo: dhs.gov)

The USCG is seeking a greater role across the Indo-Pacific, the admiral told Radio New Zealand on November 20. As different mindsets permeated the area, he declared, cooperation with Pacific nations would become pivotal. You think about the environmental threats, climate threats, transnational criminals and because it is such a vast area I think how we work together, those like-minded partners, becomes everything, Schultz added.

In an obvious shot at Beijing, Schultz criticised some nations that are not like-minded in shared ideals about free and open rules-based order in the Pacific region. The so-called rules based order as defined by Washington, describes the rules it deems necessary to maintain its global hegemony.

In a media call from the Northern Marianas capital Saipan, cited by This Week in Asia, Schultz went further, pointing to clear indicators of Beijings increased presence in the Pacific. Beijing had ramped up investments and engagement in some US Pacific territories, as well as the Pacific island nations, he said. We dont have to look far to see places around the world where economic investment has contributed to things like ownership of ports, Schultz warned.

Schultz told Radio NZ the USCG would work with Pacific island nations in a manner which didn't infringe on their sovereignty. The admiral claimed: Each sovereign nation gets to do business on their terms but we want to show that the Coast Guard brings a really good human to human partnership capability here. He identified the illicit drugs trade and unregulated fishing as key areas of concern.

In fact, the contest over who rules the Pacific has nothing to do with sovereignty or the interests of the Pacific peoples. Formal independence for the impoverished micro-states is an utter fiction. Dominated economically by transnational corporations and major financial institutions, dependent on aid hand-outs and remittances from overseas families, the Pacific nations remain trapped in neo-colonial relations under the sway of the main imperialist powers.

The USCGs aggressive positioning across the expanses of the Pacific, thousands of miles from Americas shores, is part of the US drive to dominate the region and intensify preparations for war. Schultz reiterated a statement he made last July that the USCG was doubling-down its presence in the region and intends to synchronise with key partners, i.e., Washingtons military allies, Australia and New Zealand.

The US currently employs 11 bilateral shiprider agreements with Pacific Island Forum nations, ostensibly to counter illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing within their 200 nautical mile economic zones. The month-long USCG anti-IUU Operation Aiga [family] in American Samoa last year, including the Australian and NZ navies, will be extended to 60 days this year. Two armed USCG cutters were involved in the last exercise, according to Schultz, advancing US strategic interests in Oceania and expanding the USCGs expeditionary capabilities.

While the USCGs official role, according to its website, is to defend Americas borders and protect the maritime environment, it is a vital part of the US military machine, with a global reach involving 41,000 active-duty, 6,200 reserve, and 8,500 civilian personnel. As a specialist force operating under the wing of the US Navy, its missions include maritime intercept operations, deployed port operations/security and defense, peacetime engagement, and environmental defense operations.

Schultz declared that the USCG has begun deploying three new, armed high-speed cutters, with the capacity to travel 5,000 kilometres, to Guam in order to expand its permanent presence and expeditionary reach across the western Pacific. Guam is a longstanding advanced staging post for US imperialisms military operations in Asia. In 2015, $US8.7 billion upgrades to the huge Navy and Air Force facilities on the island were begun as part of the Pentagons aggressive war build-up.

Last year, the USCG cutter Bertholf concluded six months deployed in the western Pacific, operating under the aegis of the US 7th Fleet. It was the first USCG vessel to sail through the Taiwan Strait, accompanying a guided-missile destroyer. The Bertholf also operated in the contentious waters of the East China Sea enforcing UN sanctions against North Korea. In May the USCG staged a provocative joint exercise with two Philippine vessels in Chinese-claimed waters in the South China Sea, reportedly sailing past two Chinese ships, followed by another exercise with Malaysian forces.

The USCG deployments coincided with a visit to the Pacific territory of Micronesia by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in August, the first by such a high-ranking official. Pompeo negotiated an extension to a key regional security agreement made necessary, he claimed, to face off Chinese efforts to redraw the Pacific. The agreement gives the US military exclusive access to the vast airspace and territorial waters of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau.

The escalating war preparations are being accompanied by a public relations offensive. Cook Islands News editor Jonathan Milne posted a propaganda piece in February following a visit at US taxpayer expense, to US Navy headquarters at Pearl Harbour. Milne breathlessly reported he had been given the once unthinkable opportunity to go inside a high-tech nuclear submarine and talk candidly with its crew.

Such visits, Milne wrote, were part of a battle to win hearts and minds in a new cold warthis time against the Peoples Republic of China. Without reflecting on the irony of his report coming from a nuclear-armed assault submarine, Milne declared: The Americans hope articles like these will demystify their defence operations in the region and show a warmer, more friendly face than some in the Pacific may expect.

Milne continued that youll hear a lot about partnerships, and interoperability in the region. The US Army and Navy, Air Force and Coastguard will work, he asserted, with the New Zealand Defence Force, or the Samoan health ministry, or the Cook Islands Police Service. New Zealand is upgrading its aged Air Force Orions to four new P8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, the same planes used by the US Navy.

As part of its Pacific Step up strategy, the Australian government is pushing to position itself as the security partner of choice for Pacific nations, with the formation last year of a new expeditionary training force to work with regional neighbours, including Papua New Guinea (PNG), Fiji and Vanuatu.

The so-called Pacific Support Force is considering options for a dedicated vessel to support increased engagement with regional navies. Canberra has allocated four of a projected 21 Guardian class naval patrol vessels to 12 Pacific nations and Timor Leste. The first tranche of boats has gone to PNG, Samoa, Tonga and the Solomon Islands.
Joshua Philipp, senior reporter at The Epoch Times, and Morgan Zegers of Young Americans Against Socialism speak at the CPAC convention in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 28, 2020. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times).

Panelists Break Down Roots of Socialism at CPAC

FORT WASHINGTON, Md.Panelists broke down the realities of socialism during a segment on the third day of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)the largest conservative gathering in the country, whose theme this year is America vs. Socialism.

Morgan Zegers, CEO of Young Americans Against Socialism, and Joshua Philipp, a senior investigative reporter with The Epoch Times, spoke about the roots of the ideology during a morning discussion at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.

Philipp said socialism is the dictatorship of the proletariat, which involves the government seizing every aspect of society and driving it toward its ultimate goalcommunism. The Feb. 28 discussion was hosted by Ian Walters of the American Conservative Union.

The Communist Manifesto says that communism destroys all religion and all morality, Philipp said. We make the mistake of negotiating with these socialists just on the basis of economics when in reality it is about metaphysics and ontologyit is about attacking and destroying your values, your culture, your ideas and the foundations of your society.

Philipp pointed to the Chinese Communist Party, which he said uses a system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Under the rule of the party, between 50 million to 70 million people people died of unnatural causes during peacetime.

The regime is also at the forefront of religious oppression.

To this day they [China] still have concentration camps, they still kill people for believing in religion, they still dictate what you can or cant believe, he said. They still say that if you want to be a Christian you have to recognize the state first and God second.

Chinese people today are living under a tyrannical regime that masquerades as a capitalist society according to Philipp.

(L-R) Ian Walters, CPAC communications director, Morgan Zegers of Young Americans Against Socialism, and Joshua Philipp, senior reporter at The Epoch Times, speak at the CPAC convention in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 28, 2020. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Philipp added that young people living in the United States today think that socialism is going to free them from the corporations, when in reality, [socialism] is state capitalism.

Zegers said recent polls on socialism are worrying but she still feels optimistic about the future of the country.

I know a recent poll came out a few months ago that said 70 percent of people my age would vote for a socialist, she said at the conference. My counter to that is I dont think 70 percent of people my age want to seize the means of production.'

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a Democratic socialist and 2020 presidential candidate, has been under fire since praising the communist regime of Fidel Castro, the Cuban dictator who imprisoned and killed dissidents during his decades in power. Sanders said during a recent interview with CBSs 60 Minutes that it was unfair to simply say everything is bad about Castros regime and lauded what he called its massive literacy program.

In response to criticism of his commentsincluding from some DemocratsSanders told the audience at the Gaillard Center in Charleston, Of course you have a dictatorship in Cuba.

Philipp said socialism does not resolve any issue its followers believe they are fighting against. He called it a system of slavery that involves the state seizing control of the factories which then leads to the control of every economic power in the country.

It is one that takes control of every single part of your life, denies you the access to the fruits of your labor, tells you what you can and cannot think, and tells you what you can and cannot believe, he said. That is slavery in every single form, down to a level beyond what weve ever seen before. Down to your spiritual level and your ability to think freely.

At an earlier panel discussion on the same topic, Jarrett Stepman, a contributor to the Daily Signal, said that in the United States, there is a concerted effort to rewrite history and to change the narrative about what we are.

Its for the sole purposes of changing what America is, changing us to become a nation that embraces ideas like socialism, radical ideas that are very much against the original American concept, Stepman said.

However, Philipp said he sees a resurgence where people are waking up and seeing [socialism] for exactly what it is.
With a large part of its land located below sea-level, the Netherlands is a country that has seen its fair share of floods.

These include the devastating North Sea flood of 1953, which affected Scotland, England, Belgium and the Netherlands, claiming almost 2,000 lives in the latter.

Globally, rising sea levels could have a significant impact in the years ahead. According to the European Environment Agency, in Europe, "the potential impacts of sea level rise include flooding, coastal erosion and the submergence of flat regions along continental coastlines and on islands."

Given its own history, it's no surprise that the Netherlands is home to an extensive range of flood defenses. These include the Delta Works, a large-scale system built after the 1953 floods. Comprised of 13 sections it includes dikes, a storm-surge barrier and dams.

Nature also has a role to play in how the Netherlands manages its unique landscape and proximity to the sea. In the northeast of the country, a foundation called EcoShape has been involved in a project to mitigate the impact of both sea level rise and subsidence.

There, salt marshes have been established using sediment from both the Eems-Dollard estuary and port of Delfzijl.

"If you look at the system here  the Eems-Dollard estuary, it's one of the great natural areas on the edge of sea and land in the Netherlands," said Henk Nieboer, EcoShape's director.

Nieboer explained that, as a civil engineer, he used to work on constructions using dikes with asphalt protection.

In order to strengthen the dike, Nieboer said one option would be to remove the asphalt, raise the structure and asphalt it again, an expensive process.

"Now, we have strengthened it by creating this salt marsh which during storms will break the waves," he said. "Apart from contributing to the flood defense, a salt marsh like this also creates multiple benefits for nature, recreation."

Further afield, in Indonesia, EcoShape is part of a project aiming to tackle the problem of coastal erosion. One firm involved is Boskalis, a Dutch dredging and offshore contractor which also provides maritime services.

"Nature-based solutions, from a contractor perspective, are an interesting niche market that could develop in the coming years," Boskalis' Jaap van Thiel de Vries told CNBC.

"The Indonesian project is a nice example that is triggered by land subsidence with respect to sea-level rise," he went on to state.



"What we're trying to do in Indonesia is to restore the mangrove greenbelt that was originally there, but also to involve the local communities in establishing that mangrove greenbelt that is sustainable  (in) the long term."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 22:48:52|Editor: yan

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JUBA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese embassy in South Sudan and the country's ministry of health have joined ranks to strengthen preventative measures against the novel coronavirus or the COVID-19.

Hua Ning, the Chinese ambassador in Juba said though there is currently no confirmed case of the COVID-19 in South Sudan, the embassy is working with the South Sudanese government and the World Health Organization (WHO) to boost screening and quarantine measures.

"The Chinese embassy has established a working mechanism with the South Sudanese government and the WHO and maintained hotline contact," the Chinese envoy told reporters in Juba on Friday.

The government has also developed a guideline which requires people who recently visited China and other countries affected by the virus to be isolated from the public for 14 days.

"We have issued notices several times to remind Chinese citizens in South Sudan and ask them to cooperate with the relevant authorities of South Sudan in screening, quarantine and other entry inspection and quarantine measures," Hua said.

The Chinese envoy also hailed the South Sudanese government and people for standing with China during the battle against the epidemic.

"There are also many people from all walks of life in South Sudan expressing their support for China's fight against the epidemic in various ways and are full of confidence in China's capability to win a final victory over the epidemic," Hua said.

"I want to thank the government and people of South Sudan for their firm support during the difficult times in China."

Hua revealed that China's epidemic prevention and control measures have produced positive results and over the past two weeks, daily reported confirmed cases have fallen by 80 percent.

The Chinese envoy also assured the people of South Sudan that the 27 South Sudanese students in Hubei, 24 of whom in Wuhan city are all healthy and safe.

"The Chinese government and relevant local authorities have taken careful measures to protect the life and safety of international students," Hua stressed.

"The first is to establish an epidemic prevention working group for foreign students, strengthen management, and establish a daily reporting system to prevent the epidemic from spreading to international student groups. The second is to protect the daily lives of international students," he added.
By Mark Peterson





Both Korea and the United States have a history of slavery. They are both very different, and yet, they are both the same.



One reason that Parasite "works" in both Korea and in the United States, so much so that it won the highest recognition a film can earn, is that it exposes a nerve that is buried deep in each culture. This awareness of a history of slavery, and the inhumane treatment that, by definition, goes with it, is buried deeply and denied in some, and not buried much at all and near the surface in others.



In the United States, cries for reparations are still debated in the political arena each election cycle, and some respond to the cries, and some reject the cries. In Korea, the hierarchy of society and it's exaltation of some, in speech and in social regard, reminds us of a by-gone day when the hierarchy was not just marked with speech levels, but with attire, with housing, with education, with power and position, which indeed were blatant reminders that some people were slaves and some people were owners of slaves.



Guilt. All of society feels some guilt for the past practice of slavery and the social and economic conditions of slavery. Perhaps that is why the extreme poverty and the extreme wealth depicted in the masterpiece movie, "Parasite," resonated with the viewer. We cry out, inwardly, this isn't right. This isn't fair. This isn't the way it should be. We learned this a hundred years ago, but we're doing it again today.



Slavery isn't overt any more. In America, it was marked mostly by color, by race. Although there were free black men and women, still, black meant slave. Look at another recent movie, "Twelve Years a Slave" about a free and educated black man that is kidnapped and sold off as a slave and his struggle to regain his freedom.



Slavery isn't overt in Korea any more. It wasn't the racial divide that marked slavery in Korea. It was worse. It was not overt except for the markers that society established  your status was determined by your birth, but it was marked by your education, clothing, housing, and social relationships. People knew you were a slave, and you could only escape that fact by living in a new place where people didn't know you were a slave, and you could pass yourself off as a commoner, or freeman. That's why there were so many runaway slaves at the end of the Joseon period.



One's initial encounter with slavery is "long-distance," that is, we look at it somewhat unemotionally, disinterested, distant; like the movie. At first the differences between the "slave" and the "owner" is antiseptic and observed, as from a distance. Yes, here is a poor family trying to get by, and here is a rich family that has everything materially that they could ever want.



But the long-distance, disinterested aspect of the viewer changes with the violence that suddenly besets the movie. And the dissonance that was an interesting part of the movie, but in my opinion not critical, suddenly jumps out at you. It's like really learning about slavery. Slavery was not an archaic system of happy owners and happy slaves, singing about picking cotton. It was institutional violence. It was a system of physical subjugation, which at times, if the slave stood up for themself, or was humiliated and told that they smelled, could trigger an uprising and end in bloodshed. Just like in "Parasite."



In the movie, who were the parasites? The poor living off of the rich, tricking the rich, conning the rich? I remember interviewing a man years ago in Korea who remembered the days of slavery. He said, "Slavery was not an easy thing. The slaves were constantly tricking and conning you. It was hard to maintain control."



In slave societies, it's clear who the parasites are! Not the slaves; the owners!



One clever thing about the movie is that as you think about the title, you realize that you start off thinking the poor family were the parasites, but then you think, "no, wait a minute, it's the rich family that are living off the work of the poor."



One final observation regarding the movie and slavery: note that Donald Trump decried a foreign film getting the Oscar. And he said what? "Bring back 'Gone with the Wind.'" He might like identifying with Rhett Butler or Scarlett O'Hara. He'll have more of a problem with "Parasite" because he with whom he would identify, would be the rich dad, who didn't like the smell of poor people, but who himself was the worst parasite. I understand Trump hasn't seen the movie, but even without seeing it, his intuition is correct. He wouldn't like it. He'd be happier with "Gone with the Wind."





Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.


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Bernie Sanders is a crazy left-wing extremist. Thats the standard line of attack from his rivals in the Democratic presidential race. The Vermont senator is an unrepentant Marxist, they say. He loves Soviet subways and Latin American despots. Hell raise your taxes, outlaw your livelihood, destroy your health insurance, and tank the economy.

But according to Sanders opponents, hes not just a rabid socialist. Hes also a Second Amendment freak. Hes in the pocket of the National Rifle Association. Hes a bitter clinger to outdated rules, refusing to abolish the filibuster or pack the Supreme Court. Hes a crypto-Republican squish.

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Is Sanders a wild-eyed zealot or a closet reactionary? His opponents cant make up their minds. And thats a sign that the conventional portrait of Sanders is misleading. Yes, hes a leftist. But he also respects liberty, traditions, institutions, and resistance to change. In many ways, hes conservative.

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Three weeks ago, at a debate in New Hampshire, former Vice President Joe Biden threw down the gauntlet. Bernies labeled himself  a democratic socialist, said Biden. Thats the label that the presidents going to lay on everyone running with Bernie if hes the nominee. Last week, at a debate in Nevada, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg went further. Were not going to throw out capitalism, said Bloomberg. Other countries tried that. It was called communism, and it just didnt work.

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But then, on Monday, Bloomberg called Sanders a gun-industry shill. In a series of tweets and videos, Bloomberg said the senator was beholden to the gun lobby. He noted that Sanders had opposed legislation to require background checks. He also pointed out that Sanders had voted to shield firearms manufacturers from lawsuits for misuse of their products. On Tuesday, at a debate in South Carolina, Biden joined the attack. Bernie voted five times against the Brady Bill, said Biden. Bernie voted to exempt the gun manufacturers from liability.

Biden and Bloomberg arent wrong on the facts. Sanders, when hes not being excoriated as an admirer of Fidel Castro, has a libertarian streak. In the name of states rights and individual freedom, he opposed federally mandated waiting periods for firearms purchases. In our state, guns are used for hunting, Sanders told CNN in 2015. We have millions of people who are gun owners in this country. Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of those people obey the law. As to shielding gun makers from liability, he argued: If somebody has a gun, and it falls into the hands of a murderer, and that murderer kills somebody with the gun, do you hold the gun manufacturer responsible? Not any more than you would hold a hammer company responsible if somebody beats somebody over the head with a hammer.

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It turns out that Sanders, when hes not being caricatured as a Leninist, has a soft spot for old institutions that safeguard conservative dissent.

Sanders now follows the Democratic Party line against guns. But at the debate in New Hampshire, he acknowledged having represented Vermonts laid-back firearms culture. And he noted with pride that he had worked with conservative Republicans on civil liberties.

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is also sniping at Sanders from both directions. In Tuesdays debate, he accused the Vermont senator of reviving the revolutionary politics of the 1960s and telling people to look at the bright side of the Castro regime. Buttigieg said eliminating all private insurance, under Sanders Medicare for All proposal, was too radical for America and would violate the principles of a free society. At last weeks debate in Nevada, Buttigieg claimed that Sanders wants to burn the house down.

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But when the conversation on Tuesday turned to the filibuster rule, which allows 41 senators to block legislation, Buttigieg chided Sanders for refusing to light a match. He joined Sen. Elizabeth Warren in complaining that Sanders, out of some perverse attachment to custom, opposed abolition of the filibuster. Warren demanded that the rule be obliterated so that Democrats, with 51 votes, could do what needs to be done. Buttigieg mockingly asked Sanders, How are we going to deliver a revolution if you wont even support a rule change?

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It turns out that Sanders, when hes not being caricatured as a Leninist, has a soft spot for old institutions that safeguard conservative dissent. You have to protect minority rights, he argued last year in defense of the filibuster. I dont think you can just simply shove everything through. Lately, Sanders has retreated from that position, offering to pass some bills with 51 votes through the Senates reconciliation process. But in an interview after Tuesdays debate, he cautioned that the founding fathers of this country were not stupid when they designed the Senate to slow down legislation. If senators want to filibuster, they want to get up and talk for eight or nine hours, they have a right to do that, he said.

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Sanders is also old-fashioned about the Supreme Court. Four months ago, at a debate in Ohio, Buttigieg proposed to term-limit justices or add six more of them to the court. Im not talking about packing the court just with people who agree with me, said Buttigieg, though the obvious underlying motive was liberal exasperation at the courts conservative tilt. Warren expressed interest in these ideas, but Sanders said nothing. Without naming names, Buttigieg noted that some folks regarded such ideas as too bold to even contemplate.

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One of those people was Sanders. Last April, he warned that if Democrats were to put more justices on the court, the next time the Republicans are in power, they will do the same thing. At a debate in June, Sanders stipulated, I do not believe in packing the court. Two weeks ago, he predicted that such a move could destroy the judiciary: Eventually, wed have 87 members of the Supreme Court. And I think that delegitimizes the court.

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Sanders also seems more skeptical of totalitarianism than Bloomberg, the capitalist, does. The Communist Party wants to stay in power in China, and they listen to the public, Bloomberg asserted in an interview last fall. Xi Jinping is not a dictator.  No government survives without the will of the majority of its people. In Tuesdays debate, Bloomberg insisted that Xi serves at the behest of the politburo. That prompted a rebuke from Sanders: Who the hell is the politburo responsive to? Who elects the politburo? You have got a real dictatorship there.

Sanders does have a socialism problem. Hes proposing to nationalize health insurance, ban fracking, forgive all student debt, and substantially raise taxes. He has also gift-wrapped this platform as democratic socialism, inviting Republicans to exploit voters discomfort with that ideology. But the fact that hes being attacked from the left, often by the same people who caricature him as a Jacobin, tells you hes a lot more complicated than the caricature.
Irked by lawyers holding strike every Saturday for 35 years in Uttarakhand district courts over reasons like 'bomb blast in Pakistan', 'earthquake in Nepal' or 'condolence references for family members', the Supreme Court Friday warned advocates of contempt action if they persisted with it.

Holding the strike illegal, the top court sought response from Bar Council of India and all the State Bar Councils within six weeks to suggest the further course of action to deal with the problem of strikes/abstaining from work by the lawyers.

Taking suo motu (on its own) cognisance of the issue, the top court emphasised that at a time when the judiciary is facing serious problem of pendency and delay in disposal of cases, how can the institution as a whole can afford such four days strike in a month.

The top court said that every month on 3-4 Saturdays, the advocates are on strike on one pretext or the other and had the lawyers worked on those days, it would have achieved the ultimate goal of speedy justice, which is now a fundamental right.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah said that boycotting courts on every Saturday in the districts of Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar in Uttarakhand is not justifiable at all and as such it tantamount to contempt of the courts.

The bench dismissed the appeal filed by Dehradun Bar Association challenging the Uttarakhand high court order of September 25 last year, which asked the lawyers' and their associations to withdraw the strike in district courts and warned them of contempt action.

While dismissing the appeal, it said, "The High Court is absolutely justified in issuing the impugned directions. We are in complete agreement with the view expressed by the High Court and the ultimate conclusion and the directions issued by the High Court".

The bench added that despite of law laid down in various verdicts of apex court, the court had time and again deprecated the lawyers for going on strikes but it were continued unabated.

"Even in the present case, the advocates have been boycotting the courts on all Saturdays, in the entire district of Dehradun, in several parts of the district of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar district of the State of Uttaranchal. Because of such strikes, the ultimate sufferers are the litigants," the top court said.

It noted the information sent by the High Court to the Law Commission with respect to the state for the years 2012- 2016, which showed that in Dehradun district, the advocates were on strike for 455 days (on an average 91 days per year) and in Haridwar district it was 515 days (about 103 days per year).

The bench said, "From the data mentioned in the impugned judgment and order, things are very shocking. Every month on 3-4 Saturdays, the advocates are on strike and abstain from working, on one pretext or the other".

The top court said had the lawyers worked on those days, it would have helped in early disposal of the criminal trials and therefore it would have been in the interest of those who are languishing in the jail and waiting for their trial to conclude.

"To go on strike/boycott courts cannot be justified under the guise of the right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Nobody has the right to go on strike/boycott courts. Even, such a right, if any, cannot affect the rights of others and more particularly, the right of Speedy Justice guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution," it added.

The top court directed all concerned District Bar Associations to comply with the directions issued by the High Court in its verdict of 2019, in its true spirit.

"It is directed that if it is found that there is any breach of any of the directions issued by the High Court in the impugned judgment and order, a serious view shall be taken and the consequences shall follow, including the punishment under the Contempt of Courts Act," it said.

The top court said that despite the earlier warnings and the strong words used by the courts, it appears that the message has not reached and still the lawyers go on strikes.

"A day has now come for the Bar Council of India and the Bar Councils of the States to step in and to take concrete steps. It is the duty of the Bar Councils to ensure that there is no unprofessional and unbecoming conduct by any lawyer," the bench said.

Referring to the Law Commission's report, the high court had noted that strikes by advocates or their abstinence from courts varied from local, national to international issues, having no relevance to the working of the courts, and were seldom for justifiable reasons.

"To mention a few, bomb blast in a Pakistan school, amendments to Sri Lanka's Constitution, inter-state river water disputes, attack on/murder of an advocate, earthquake in Nepal, condoling the death of near relatives of advocates, expressing solidarity to advocates of other state bar associations, moral support to movements by social activists, heavy rains....and even for kavi-sammelans," the high court had noted in its verdict.

In its verdict, the high court had noted that "genesis of this peculiar form" of protest of boycotting work on Saturdays for over 35 years was traceable to western Uttar Pradesh, of which the aforesaid districts formed part of, before the state of Uttarakhand was created on November 9, 2000.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Next week's Geneva Motor Show has been axed by Swiss authorities, it has been confirmed today.

Switzerland's ban on all large events expected to draw more than 1,000 people as an extraordinary measure to curb the new coronavirus epidemic has officially forced the cancellation one of Europe's biggest car shows of the year.

The event is the first showpiece of the calendar for major car manufacturers to display their latest new models and concept cars to the press and the public.

Cancelled: Next week's Geneva Motor Show has been AXED as Swiss authorities ban large events due to coronavirus

The move aimed to avoid throngs congregating in confined places like concert halls and carnival celebrations and would not - at least for now - apply to train stations and shopping malls where people have only fleeting contact, officials said.

'In view of the current situation and the spread of the coronavirus, the Federal Council has categorised the situation in Switzerland as 'special' in terms of the Epidemics Act,' the cabinet said after a meeting.

'Large-scale events involving more than 1,000 people are to be banned. The ban comes into immediate effect and will apply at least until 15 March.'

The organisers of the Geneva car show, Palexpo, have informed car makers that the international event has been called off, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The financial consequences for all those involved in the event are significant and will need to be assessed over the coming weeks Maurice Turrettini, Palexpo (show organiser)

Confirmation of the shows cancellation comes after a week of back and forth between organisers and car manufacturers, many of whom - including Ferrari - have been pulling out senior executives and engineers from show appearances over concerns about the virus and possible quarantine situations.

Organisers said: 'We regret this situation, but the health of all participants is our and our exhibitors' top priority.

'This is a case of force majeure and a tremendous loss for the manufacturers who have invested massively in their presence in Geneva.

'However, we are convinced that they will understand this decision,' said Maurice Turrettini, Chairman of the Foundation Board.

Cars are pictured as workers stop the preparation of the 90th Geneva International Motor Show

The event is one of the two major European car shows of the calendar and the first opportunity for manufacturers to show off their new metal for the forthcoming year

A statement from organisers continued: 'A few days before the opening of the event, the construction of the stands was very nearly complete.

'A week ago, during the press conferences announcing the 2020 edition, there was nothing to suggest that such a measure was necessary.

'The situation changed with the appearance of the first confirmed coronavirus diseases in Switzerland and the injunction of the Federal Council on 28.02.2020. The event is cancelled due to this decision.'

It adds: 'In the meantime, the dismantling of the event will now have to be organised.

'The financial consequences for all those involved in the event are significant and will need to be assessed over the coming weeks.

'One thing is certain: tickets already purchased for the event will be refunded. The organisers will communicate about this as soon as possible, via their website.'

The show was due to open to the press on Tuesday 4 March and the wider general public from Wednesday 5 March

Workers have stopped constructing show stands and will be forced to pack up their operations after large gatherings of more than 1,000 people were banned in Switzerland due to the outbreak of the killer virus

Dozens of trade fairs and industry conferences have been postponed due to travel curbs and concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

Countries on three continents reported their first cases of the coronavirus on Friday as the world prepared for a pandemic.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Switzerland has risen to 15, and more than 100 people are in quarantine, government minister Alain Berset said.

'We have the situation under control, but this can change very quickly,' he told a news conference in Bern, adding the ban would certainly hit the Swiss economy.

Handfuls of new vehicles were due to be launched at the event by all of the major car manufacturers.

The annual event is one of the major diary entries for the motor industry every year and signals trends and new technology being brought to market by world's biggest vehicle makers.

The show was due to open to the press on Tuesday 4 March and the wider general public from Wednesday 5 March.

Manufacturers will now host live-streamed press conferences online. This could make Geneva 2020 the first ever virtual car show.
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A detailed analysis report of the Global Adhesives and Sealants Market has been covered in the report coupled with a thorough description of each company profile with information on the H.Q, future capabilities, key mergers & acquisitions, financial outline, partnerships and new product launches and developments.

Adhesives and sealants are adhering substances that bind and hold the applied surfaces of the materials together strongly and make products airtight or watertight. They resist separation of the material surface. Adhesives and sealants find application in industries such as packaging, construction, wood, transportation, consumer, leather, footwear, etc. Packaging, consumer, and transportation majorly consume adhesives whereas sealants in construction, wood, etc.

Adhesives and sealants can be water based, solvent based, hot melt based, reactive, etc based on their technology. Based on chemistry, water based adhesives and sealants are polyacrylic ester (PAE) emulsion, polyvinyl acetate (PVA) emulsion, vinyl acetate ethylene (VAE) emulsion and others. Solvent based adhesives and sealants include styrene butadiene and styrene rubber resin, chloroprene rubber, polyamide and others. Hot melt based adhesives and sealants comprise ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) resin, styrenic block copolymers, polyolefin, polyurethane, polyamide and others. Polyurethane, epoxy, cyanoacrylate & modified acrylic, polysulfide, and others are reactive adhesives and sealants. Sealants include silicones, polyurethane, plastisol, emulsion, polysulfide, butyls etc.

Decision Databases is involved in providing research reports and company profiles in the global adhesives and sealants market in terms of revenue and output/volume. Market drivers, opportunities and restraints are thoroughly studied which influences the market. This study is further utilized for the overall analysis of the market. The adhesives and sealants market is segmented based on the global applications, geographic presence, by products and ingredients.

We offer an inclusive category-specific market outlook. We provide access to a comprehensive collection of companies in the industry. The companies can strategize and execute business operations through our competitor analysis. Find the global industry analysis, market size, share, growth, and trends information in our adhesives and sealants profiles.

Browse the complete Global Adhesives and Sealants Market Research Report  Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/230-adhesives-and-sealants-market-research-report

Major Companies in Adhesives and Sealants Market are:

BASF AG

Dow Chemicals

3M Company

Bostik SA

Ellsworth Adhesives

Avery Dennison Corporation

Bostik SA

DAP Products

Franklin International

H.B. Fuller

Henkel AG & Company

Illinois Tool Works Corporation

Royal Adhesives & Sealants

Sika AG

SEGMENTATIONS IN REPORT:

By Technology TypesWater-based

Solvent-based

Hot-Melt-based

Reactive

Others

By Chemistry Type

Water-Based Adhesives

Polyacrylic Ester (PAE) Emulsion

Polyvinyl Acetate (PVA) Emulsion

Vinyl Acetate Ethylene (VAE) Emulsion

Others

Solvent-Based Adhesives

Styrene Butadiene and Styrene Rubber Resin

Chloroprene Rubber

Polyamide

Others

Hot-Melt-Based Adhesives

Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) Resin

Styrenic Block Copolymers

Polyolefin

Polyurethane

Polyamide

Others

Reactive Adhesives and Others

Polyurethane

Epoxy

Cyanoacrylate & Modified Acrylic

Polysulfide

Others

Sealants

Silicones

Polyurethane

Plastisol

Emulsion

Polysulfide

Butyls

Others

By Application

Adhesives

Packaging

Construction

Wood

Transportation

Consumer

Leather & Footwear

Others

Sealants

Construction

Transportation

Consumer

Others

Download Free Sample Report of Global Adhesives and Sealants Market @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-230

The Global Adhesives and Sealants Market has been exhibited in detail in the following chapters 

Chapter 1 Adhesives and Sealants Market Preface

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

Chapter 3 Adhesives and Sealants Industry Analysis

Chapter 4 Adhesives and Sealants Market Value Chain Analysis

Chapter 5 Adhesives and Sealants Market Analysis By Technology Types

Chapter 6 Adhesives and Sealants Market Analysis By Chemistry Type

Chapter 7 Adhesives and Sealants Market Analysis By Application

Chapter 8 Adhesives and Sealants Market Analysis By Geography

Chapter 9 Competitive Landscape Of Adhesives and Sealants Companies

Chapter 10 Company Profiles Of Adhesives and Sealants Industry

Purchase the complete Global Adhesives and Sealants Market Research Report @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/buy-now-230

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Global Aviation Adhesives And Sealants Market Research Report  Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026

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PARIS  He has infuriated just about everyone.

The Russian authorities threw him in jail for setting fire to the door of the secret police headquarters in Moscow. France, which gave him asylum three years ago, also jailed him, also over a fire, and is now investigating him in connection with two new criminal cases, one relating to a New Years Eve brawl in a chic Paris apartment, the other over his release of a sex tape of a French politician.

He is on such bad terms with his longtime partner, the mother of his two daughters, that they have not spoken in months, despite their having come to France together to start a new life.

By his own lights, however, Pyotr A. Pavlensky has never achieved quite so much. The job of the artist is to be a bone in everyones throat, the Russian performance artist said in an interview on Monday in Paris. On that score, he has certainly triumphed.

Hailed by avant-garde art aficionados as an exceptional, if highly eccentric, talent, the 35-year-old Russian artist  who now considers himself French because I live in France  has never been popular with the powers that be.
Oncotarget Volume 11 Issue 8 reported that while it is known that cancer cells require one-carbon and FAD-dependent mitochondrial metabolism to sustain cell proliferation, the role of SLC25A32 in cancer cell growth remains unexplored

Oncotarget Volume 11 Issue 8 reported that while it is known that cancer cells require one-carbon and FAD-dependent mitochondrial metabolism to sustain cell proliferation, the role of SLC25A32 in cancer cell growth remains unexplored.

Si RNA-mediated knock-down and CRISPR-mediated knock-out of SLC25A32 in cancer cells of different origins, resulted in the identification of cell lines sensitive and resistant to SLC25A32 inhibition.

Treatment of cells with the FAD precursor riboflavin and with GSH rescues cancer cell proliferation upon SLC25A32 down-regulation.

Dr. Sven Christian from Bayer AG, Drug Discovery, in Berlin Germany said "Altered tumor metabolism is described as a hallmark of tumor biology and is essential for the adaptation of tumor cells to their specific needs, e. g. a higher demand for energy and macromolecules."

"Altered tumor metabolism is described as a hallmark of tumor biology and is essential for the adaptation of tumor cells to their specific needs, e. g. a higher demand for energy and macromolecules."



- Dr. Sven Christian, Bayer AG, Drug Discovery

Due to the glycolytic switch of tumor cells, mitochondrial biology and especially mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation have been considered of minor importance in cancer biology.

Although the outer mitochondrial membrane was shown to be relatively permeable, the inner mitochondrial membrane is comparatively impermeable and consequently contains several transporter proteins to overcome such a physical barrier.

The SLC25 family consists of 53 members localized at the inner mitochondrial membrane that transport a wide range of molecules involved in essential mitochondrial processes such as redox balance, the urea and citric acid cycles, oxidative phosphorylation, DNA maintenance and iron metabolism.

Uncoupling proteins are transporting protons across the mitochondrial membrane and thus, uncouple the transport from ATP generation.

In support of this, yeast lacking the mitochondrial FAD transporter FLX1, could be rescued by human SLC25A32 expression, suggesting that this transporter may also transport FAD across the inner membrane.

The Christian Research Team concluded in their Oncotarget Research Article that the data suggests that inhibition of SLC25A32 is anti-proliferative in a subset of tumor cell lines, at least partially by an increase of reactive oxygen species as a result of a malfunctional FAD-dependent enzymes such as SDH and that resistant cell line can compensate for the loss by the availability of higher reducing capacities. The study validates the role of SLC25A32 as a novel cancer target involved in the regulation of FAD-dependent mitochondrial metabolism. Molecular targeting of SLC25A32 using a single agent or in combination with ROS-inducing therapies could be an effective clinical strategy to successfully treat cancer patients.

Sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article

DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27486

Full text - http://www.oncotarget.com/index.php?journal=oncotarget&page=article&op=view&path[]=27486&path[]=89920

Correspondence to - Sven Christian - sven.christian@bayer.com

Keywords - transporter, mitochondria, metabolism, ROS, FAD

About Oncotarget

Oncotarget is a weekly, peer-reviewed, open access biomedical journal covering research on all aspects of oncology.

To learn more about Oncotarget, please visit http://www.oncotarget.com or connect with:

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Oncotarget is published by Impact Journals, LLC please visit http://www.ImpactJournals.com or connect with @ImpactJrnls

Media Contact

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Bhubaneswar, Feb 28 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday accused the opposition parties of spreading falsehood and fuelling riots in the name of Citizenship Amendmen Act (CAA).

"Opposition is spreading falsehood, provoking the people and fueling riots in the name of CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act). I can assure people, especially the members of minority communities, that the Act will not take away anyone's citizenship," said Shah while addressing a rally here.

The rally assumed significance after the Delhi violence, which has led to the killing of several people.

"I repeat, CAA will not snatch away the citizenship status from the Muslim community and other minorities, but will give citizenship to people who are subjected to religious persecution in neighbouring countries," said Shah.

He said opposition parties' claim that CAA will affect the rights of Muslims is false and baseless.

"Opposition is against CAA. They say minorities will lose citizenship. Why are they lying? I want to make it clear that CAA is a law about giving citizenship," said Shah.

He said the Modi government has addressed several issues stuck in the past 70 years, including repeal of provisions of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking on the Ram temple, Shah said the Modi government has formed a trust to build the temple.

"Whenever the issue of Ram Mandir cropped up, the Congress kept dilly-dallying. But PM Modi recently constituted a trust which has opened doors for the construction of Ram Mandir and Ram Mandir will be made where Lord Ram was born," he said.

Speaking on Odisha, Shah said the Modi government would leave no stone unturned to develop the mineral-rich state.

"Modi ji has brought a very big plan in his second term. Clean piped drinking water will be supplied to every household in the country by 2024. Odisha will be the biggest beneficiary of the scheme", he added.

Alleging that the then Congress government at the Centre had ignored the state, he said the BJP government has granted more fund in every sector for the development of the state.

Latest updates on Howdy Modi Houston
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Sagnarigu constituency in the Northern Region, Alhaji A.B.A Fuseini has accused the deputy chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Ghana (EC), Dr Bossman Eric Asare of being bias towards the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

He said many Ghanaians including NDC hold the view that there is something sinister behind the ploy by Bossman Asare decision to support the compilation of a new voters register.

"Dr Bossman Eric Asare conduct so far portends a devious plan to set the stage to suppress voter numbers in the strongholds of the NDC and to bloat voter numbers in the strongholds of the NPP, A.B.A Fuseini told Kwaku Dawuro on Pae Mu Ka on Accra-based Kingdom FM 107.7.

He stressed that it is the same current voter register that was used to elect President Akufo-Addo and the NPP into office of which, the details of that election are yet to be gazetted by the EC.

"Dr. Asare in particular, most of the time, forgets that he is no longer the University of Ghana TESCON Patron (Student wing of the NPP) but a deputy at the Electoral Commission. His belligerent attitude is one that he must eschew to save his skin," he intimated.

Alhaji A.B.A Fuseini disclosed that the NPP wants to undermine the electoral process with its diabolic schemes.

According to him, Jean Mensa and Bossman Asare who heads the EC are pushing for a new register as part of moves to create opportunities to suppress votes in the NDCs strongholds, especially the Volta Region, and artificially boost voter numbers in the NPPs strongholds.
The "Dadi of Shaheen Bagh" on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not understand the pain of losing children, as speakers at an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act rally in Kolkata called on protesters to maintain peace and not give in to any provocation.

IMAGE: Kuresha, mother of Mohd Irfan weeps as she requests hospital staff not to conduct a postmortem of her sons body, outside the mortuary of GTB hospital, in New Delhi. Irfan died in communal violence over the new citizenship law in northeast Delhi, where the death toll has reached 42. Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo

Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, said that the battle is not for a day or two, but the protesters will have to be prepared to continue it for years to come.

Asma Khatoon, who has earned fame as the "Dadi of Shaheen Bagh" in Delhi, asked how can a person take care of the whole country when he cannot maintain his own family.

"He would have realised how it feels to lose a child if he had his own children," she told a gathering at the Park Circus Maidan, which is being termed as the Shaheen Bagh of Kolkata with women holding a sit-in for the last 53 days to protest the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, proposed nationwide NRC and the NPR.

The death toll Delhi's communal violence has gone up to 42.

She said it is not biryani that has attracted women to the protest at Shaheen Bagh, while holding that such vilification campaigns will have no effect on the agitation.

West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party president Dilip Ghosh has claimed that "uneducated men and women" are protesting at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh and Kolkata's Park Circus as they get money and biryani purchased with foreign funds.

"Home Minister Amit Shah has called 20 protesters to meet him, but I want to tell him that we are one lakh and I want him to mention the place where he wants us to go for the meeting," she said.

Tushar Gandhi said, "People should stay united and not give in to any provocation," he said.

Gandhi said that the people of West Bengal are lucky to have Mamata Banerjee as their chief minister.

"They will try to break her also and it is necessary that you continue to give her support," he said.

Gandhi claimed that no one can harm a country where its mothers and sisters come out to save it.

He claimed that the CAA is not about Hindus or Muslims, but will really affect the poor people, who will be made to run around to get their papers instead of earning for their basic and daily needs.

"It's a dichotomous government that we have at the Centre. On the one hand, they want us to provide documents to prove our citizenship, while on the other they refuse to accept the papers that one produces before it for the

purpose," he said.

He claimed that the government is forcing its people to resort to lies and declare that they are political refugees from countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Gandhi claimed that time and again documents with the government like electoral rolls and land documents have been used to identify people of certain communities during riots.

"So it is dangerous to give too much information to the government," he said.

He called on the people to have faith in non-violence and asked them to maintain peace and harmony.

B R Ambedkar's great-grandson Rajratna Ambedkar claimed that it is the adivasis who will also be affected by the CAA.

"I want to tell Modi and Shah that the country runs on the Constitution by Ambedkar and not M S Golwalkar (of RSS)," he said, adding that because of the rights conferred on people by the Constitution, those backward people who did not have the right to sit on a bullock cart are now flying jet planes.

He said that Modi and Shah committed an error by enacting the CAA as it has turned the people of the country into Indians only, instead of Hindus, Muslims, Christians or Sikhs.

"Every machinery of the country has been taken control of by the RSS. If one Modi or one Shah goes, they will bring in several more Modi or Shah," he said.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on March 2 the plea of a law student that the rape case lodged by her against former union minister Swami Chinmayanand be transferred to a Delhi court from Uttar Pradesh. The top court, while agreeing to hear the plea on Monday, however, observed that there is a "problem in transferring the criminal proceedings".

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde took note of the submission of senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the complainant woman, that the trial in the case be transferred as she feared for her life in Uttar Pradesh. "There are threats to us in Uttar Pradesh," Gonsalves told the bench which also comprised Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant. "We are not doubting (your contention) that you are in danger. But, the point is you apply for police protection," the bench said.

The lawyer said that the complainant has been provided a gunman for her security by the UP administration.

Earlier also a plea was mentioned for an urgent hearing in the top court against the Allahabad High Court order granting bail to Chinmayanand in the case. The high court had on February 3 granted bail to Chinmayanand, a former Union minister who was arrested in a case of sexual exploitation of the woman studying law at a college run by his trust at Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

"Both parties crossed their limits and at this stage, it is very difficult to adjudicate as to who exploited whom. In fact, both of them used each other," the high court had observed while granting bail to Chinmayanand.

Chinmayanand, whose trust runs the Shahjahanpur law college where the woman studied, was arrested on September 20 last year under section 376-C of the IPC, a charge short of rape. The section is applied when someone in authority takes advantage of his official position to "induce or seduce" a woman to have sex with him.

In a parallel case, the woman was charged with trying to extort money from Chinmayanand, whom she had accused of rape. The high court had granted her bail on December 4 last year also. The Supreme Court had stepped in after the 23-year-old law student went missing for a few days in August last year after posting a video clip on social media, alleging sexual abuse.

A special investigation team of Uttar Pradesh Police, formed on the directions of the apex court, arrested Chinmayanand about a month later. The SIT also arrested the student after a complaint that she and her friends had tried to extort Rs 5 crore from Chinmayanand, threatening to make public videos showing her giving massages to him.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- In the international cacophony over the civil war in Libya, the silence of Algeria has been easy to ignore. North Africas 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 UN-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. Haftars 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 Algerias 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 Qaeda-affiliated terrorists are thought to have slipped into the country from Libya.

Algeria, which regards itself as North Africas 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 Muammar Gaddafi 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, Algerias main claims to regional primacy  its oil-and-gas powered economy and stable government  weakened.

Story continues

Even before a people-power movement forced Bouteflikas resignation last spring, the protagonists in the Libyan drama were ignoring Algerias 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 countrys 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.

Algerias new leader, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, is in no position to take up Bouteflikas 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. Tebbounes election was marred by protests and the smallest turnout in the countrys history.

His priority now is to address the problems that brought Hirak into the streets last year, and Libya isnt 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 Tebbounes 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 cant 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, Algerias hopes for a role in ending the one next door will have to wait.

To contact the author of this story: Bobby Ghosh at aghosh73@bloomberg.net

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.

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.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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Because you cant manage what you dont measure, Gov. Gavin Newsom said in his State of the State address last week that California will establish a unified homelessness data system to capture accurate, local information.He made it sound so simple and matter-of-fact. But for those homeless advocates who have long struggled to compile such data, Newsom was evoking a quest like that for the Holy Grail  a prize that is difficult to reach, but which everyone wants.Thats awesome, said Miguel Santana when asked to consider whether a statewide database should exist. But the former Los Angeles administrative officer who spent years involved in the citys homelessness planning wasnt sure that it could.The governors plan will only work, he said, if every jurisdiction, every county, every city, is asked to aggregate data across the board thats similar  and that would be a project of immense complexity.Instead, one state agency is attempting a more attainable goal of collecting data on homeless people from Californias 44 so-called continuums of care. But thats no simple task either.These continuums of care are local agencies established to administer federal homelessness programs under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. There are four in Los Angeles County alone. The cities of Long Beach, Pasadena and Glendale each have one, and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA, covers the remainder of the county.Each maintains its own database, or Homeless Management Information System, which tracks every person who comes into contact with the system of government agencies and nonprofits that work with homeless people. The information entered into each database by outreach workers and case managers must adhere to general federal guidelines, but also can vary from place to place.The challenge is consistency.The first step is to clean up the data, make sure its accurate. Secondly, is it usable? said Sarah Dusseault, chairwoman of the commission that oversees LAHSA. You dont want a system where, in Los Angeles we think matched to housing means this and yet in San Bernardino it means something else.With consistent data, California could, for the first time, track where homeless people live and move around the state, and identify those who are using housing and services in more than one place. That would make the process of getting people off the streets more efficient.Finding a way to achieve that is a job that rests with the California Homeless Coordinating and Finance Council, an agency created in 2017 to oversee the states homelessness policies.Even before Newsoms speech, the agency was preparing a contract that it hopes to award this fall to pull information from the states 44 continuums of care, said Lynn von Koch-Liebert, deputy secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency.Whichever company receives the contract will set up an automated system to collect the data more frequently and for every homeless person, with names and other identifying information removed for privacy. Currently, that information is only collected annually by the federal government.Californias new system tentatively could be in place by the end of the year.One of the goals would be to see if individuals are exiting homelessness in a successful way or if they are moving between different types of housing, Koch-Liebert said. If they are leaving homelessness, we will be able to see those patterns.The next phase will be more ambitious, attempting to similarly compile data from more sources, such as county health departments across the state.LAHSA has just started building such a data system for Los Angeles County. And it has been a challenge.In addition to LAHSA, more than a dozen local and regional agencies provide services and maintain their own data systems. Some keep records on people. Some keep records on housing that has been provided. Some do both.As a result, a homeless person who has been entered into LAHSAs Homeless Management Information System might also be in a database run by the Department of Health Services or the Housing Authority for the city of L.A.  with different information in each database.They understand data differently because theyve been programmed differently, Dusseault said.LAHSA has been working with the staff of those other local and regional agencies to build a complete data profile of each homeless persons contact with every agency. The goal is to find out whats working smoothly and whats not.An initiative along the lines of what Newsom has suggested to expand that across the state would be welcome, Dusseault said, if its done right.Wed want to make sure we had the help both to improve our system locally, she said, but [also] to make sure that other systems throughout the state are all at that same level of accuracy and usefulness, so that we can talk to each other in a way that gets better outcomes.
Researchers at the Universities of Leicester and Nottingham have discovered parts of the DNA that put some people at higher risk of an incurable lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The findings are published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine today, after an earlier version was posted online in November 2019 prior to final review.

IPF is a devastating lung disease where scar tissue builds up in the lungs. This scarring makes it difficult to breathe and half of all patients die within three years of diagnosis. About 6,000 people are diagnosed every year in the UK, though this number appears to be rising. There are no cures for IPF and current treatments can only slow the progression of the disease. This means an improved understanding of what causes IPF is vital in the development of more effective treatments.

Professor Louise Wain and Dr Richard Allen from the University of Leicester, and Professor Gisli Jenkins from the University of Nottingham, led the study that included collaborators from over 30 institutions across six countries. The leadership of this collaboration unites the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs) of Leicester and Nottingham - partnerships between their respective universities, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. The purpose of the NIHR BRCs is to take scientific discoveries and translate them into treatments and care pathways for the direct benefit of patients.

The research teams compared the DNA of 4,000 people with IPF to 20,000 people without IPF. In total they investigated over 10 million changes in the DNA and found that people with IPF were more likely to have changes in three genes that have not previously been known to be involved with the disease. These genes suggest biological pathways which crucially could be potential targets for new drugs.

One of these genes lies in a pathway that has recently been shown to promote fibrosis in the lungs. There are currently drugs under development that can target this pathway and might benefit patients. The other two genes highlight pathways not previously investigated for IPF but which might drive development of new treatments in the future.

Dr Richard Allen, Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis Research Fellow at the University of Leicester, said: "These are really exciting discoveries and improve our understanding of the disease. Hopefully this research will help in the development of treatments which are desperately needed for this devastating disease."

Professor Louise Wain, British Lung Foundation Chair in Respiratory Research at the University of Leicester, said: "Genetic studies hold real promise in helping us find new treatments for IPF. This study was undertaken by a large international team of scientists and doctors and wouldn't have been possible were it not for patients with IPF contributing their genetic data for research. The next step is to find out how these findings can enable us to find new and better treatments for IPF."

Ian Jarrold, Head of Research at the British Lung Foundation, said: "IPF kills more people than leukaemia every year in the UK, but it has been a major challenge to identify the biological factors that are responsible for this insidious lung condition.

"Genomics has helped us to take big steps forward in finding new treatments for this condition. By teasing out the complex relationships between different genes, we have a huge opportunity to turn the tide against IPF.

"We urgently need treatments that can stop lung scarring in its tracks. The exciting prospect of three newly identified genes, which could lead us to these new treatments, brings hope to the many thousands of people whose lives have been devastated by IPF."

Steve Jones, Chair of Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis said: "Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a devastating disease, which accounts for one percent of all deaths in the UK. To find a cure, it is vital that we understand the genetic changes associated with the process of lung fibrosis. This path-breaking research has identified three genes, which could lead to new treatments bringing hope to the large number of people around the world living with the disease."

###

This research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), British Lung Foundation and Action for Pulmonary Fibrosis (plus other non-UK funders). It was supported by the NIHR Leicester and Nottingham Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs).
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28th February 2020, Indore (Madhya Pradesh)- When a knee is extremely damaged by disease or injury, an artificial knee replacement may be considered. Approximately 3, 81, 000 knee replacement surgeries are performed annually in the United State of America. The most common age for knee replacement or arthroplasty is between ages 60 to 80 years old.

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Website: https://www.drdivyanshugoyal.com/
The succession process at the IndusInd Bank started nearly five years ago when Romesh Sobti, who turned around the private bank, was about to retire as its MD & CEO. The bank had already requested Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for an extension but a favourable response was unlikely because it meant setting the private bank CEOs' retirement age at 70 years.

The 10-member board of the bank then started the search for a successor. The entire co-executive team of 15 professionals were considered for the top job. The senior most with a big vertical or exposure were Suman Kathpalia, Head (Consumer banking), Suhail Chander, Head (Corporate Banking & Commercial Banking) and Paul Abraham, chief operating officer.

In a freewheeling interview with Business Today last week, Sobti explained the succession process in general terms without directly disclosing any names.

Sobti said that the bank was not embedded to hierarchy in terms of seniority. "The core executive team members are of the same genre. Somebody may be few years younger and somebody may be few years older. But they all are of the same band," said Sobti.

"This is a natural way of how an evolved organisation works on succession," said Sobti.

Sobti quotes a survey of top 500 American companies which found that 80 per cent of the successors in those companies came from within the institution. That was probably the reason why the bank explored the internal talent. The rival HDFC Bank whose MD & CEO Aditya Puri will be retiring in October this year is exploring the possibility of having an outsider. Axis Bank saw an outsider Amitabh Chaudhry from HDFC Life Insurance taking over the top job. Similarly, Yes Bank got Ravneet Gill from Deutsche Bank as its new MD & CEO.

Elaborating on the process, Sobti said the succession process generally involves three-four candidates who are cut above the rest. "They display leadership skills. They have skills and expertise in people's management. They are leaders in their own domain. And then you see one or two winners emerging," said Sobti.

In case of IndusInd Bank, a few potential candidates opted out because of personal reasons.

But then the RBI sprang a surprise by extending Sobti's tenure for another five years until March 2020. It meant extension for Aditya Puri and others till they complete 70 years.

The selected candidates remained as potential candidates for a change in future. "The grooming process starts in terms of exposing successor(s) to other verticals, platforms, risk management, operation, treasury, asset liability management and balance sheet management. "The whole team participates," says Sobti.

"The process becomes more intense as the time comes," said Sobti. In fact, it was an interactive process between the board and Sobti.

Finally on October 31, the board put its stamp on the name of Sumanth Kathpalia and dispatched the name to the RBI for approval.

The bank didn't disclose the name to media or investors as it has to pass the test of RBI for 'Fit and proper' for a director and the new MD & CEO. As per the guidelines, the RBI provides four months to do the due diligence.

After almost four months, the RBI gave its approval to appoint Kathpalia as CEO for the next three years. He will take charge on March 24.

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The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Kerala High Court to decide the plea of Kerala government against the decision of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to hand over the operation and management of Thiruvananthapuram International Airport to Adani Enterprises Ltd.

A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde remanded back the case to Kerala High Court and asked it to decide the case.

The Kerala High Court in December last year had rejected the Kerala government's petition against the decision.

The High Court had said that the case comes under the ambit of Article 131 of the Constitution. Since it is a dispute against a functionary of the central government, the top court can hear it and not the High Court.

The Kerala government had termed the decision of the AAI as "arbitrary" to prefer a private party and ignoring the offer of the Kerala government to operate and manage the airport at the same commercial rates as quoted by Adani Enterprises.

The government also contended that it has experience in handling the management of airports and Adani Enterprises has no previous experience in handling airports and the AAI's decision will not advance the public interest.

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

Democratic leaders have found a mechanism to enable them to bypass an initial Republican filibuster and debate the party's sweeping elections reform bills, according to a new leadership memo obtained by Axios.Why it matters: The strategy is the latest example of how Democrats are seeking new ways to try to bypass Senate procedures that are blocking their agenda. But the ultimate outcome will likely be the same: insufficient support to change the 60-vote threshold needed to pass sweeping voting r
As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ
The Navy Department's top civilian and uniformed leaders said they weren't consulted about billions being pulled out of military funds to pay for new barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border and learned they'd face big cuts to 2021 shipbuilding projects at the last minute in the budget-making process.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday and Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger all told members of the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday that they weren't consulted before $3.8 billion was moved out of defense budgets to pay for the Trump administration's border wall project.

The money raided from Pentagon accounts will cut a pair of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, two MV-22 Ospreys and four KC-130 Hercules from the Marine Corps. It'll also cost the Navy a P-8 Poseidon and nearly $1 billion in funding for a new amphibious assault ship and expeditionary fast-transport ship.

Modly and Gilday also said they learned about massive cuts to the Navy's shipbuilding plan, which ultimately scrapped plans for a second Virginia-class submarine in 2021, in the final moments leading up to President Donald Trump's budget plan rollout.

Related: Lawmakers Warn Pentagon Chief of Future 'Brawl' over Murky Shipbuilding Plan

"That happened at budget endgame very quickly, and we were informed after the decision was made," the CNO said.

The new details indicate the Navy could be caught in the crosshairs between a congressional push to build up to a 355-ship fleet and an administration with other immediate spending priorities. Defense Secretary Mark Esper faced scrutiny from members of Congress on Wednesday over what they said is an unclear path toward a 355-ship Navy.

Lawmakers called the Navy's 2021 shipbuilding plan "anemic" and said it doesn't match the Pentagon's own National Defense Strategy, which calls for maritime might amid threats from China and Russia.

"You are heading for a major brawl with this committee," Rep. John Garamendi, a California Democrat, told Esper. "The law is quite clear. When you submit your budget, you are required to submit the shipbuilding plan and for you to say you are going to give it to us on your own good time and when you are ready -- you are not in line with the law."

The Navy's 2021 budget request laid out plans to buy 44 ships over the next five years. This time last year, the Navy planned to have 55 new hulls by 2024.

Modly said he and Gilday knew the White House was looking at a variety of options when it came to shipbuilding funds for 2021.

"Then at the end, those options were presented to us," the acting Navy secretary said. "Ultimately, we don't have a veto."

When asked about the administration's decision to pull additional funds away from the Navy Department to pay for border wall efforts, Modly replied that it's "not helpful."

"It takes a ship out of a plan that we're driving toward," he said.

Modly said he remains committed to the 355-ship Navy and believes it's still possible to reach it, despite potential cuts to next year's shipbuilding budget.

"The size of the fleet is growing," he said. "It's just not growing at the pace that some would prefer."

-- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins.

Read more: Top Marine Orders Confederate Paraphernalia to Be Removed from All Bases
Union minister Ramdas Athawale on



Friday alleged that the provocative speeches given by Congress leaders were responsible for the violence in Delhi, which has so far claimed 42 lives.

He was talking to reporters at the press room in the Vidhan Bhavan here, where the budget session of the Maharashtra Legislature is currently on.

"Provocative speeches given by Congress leaders are responsible for the violence in the national capital," the Social Justice Minister said.

He also alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is in power in Delhi, was involved in the riots.

AAP's councillor Tahir Hussain is accused of being involved in the killing of Intelligence Bureau (IB) staffer Ankit Sharma (26), who was found dead in a drain near his home in northeast Delhi's riot-hit Chand Bagh area. AAP has suspended the councillor from the primary membership of the party till the police probe gets over.

Athawale also accused the Congress of provoking Muslims to protest against the CAA.

"The Congress has been provoking people for several days. It is wrong to mislead Muslims over the CAA. It has to be probed whether the Congress and AAP has a hand in the Delhi violence," he said.

"The CAA is meant to provide citizenship to the oppressed people from neighbouring countries and not to take away the citizenship of Indians," the minister added.

Communal clashes broke out in northeast Delhi five days ago after violence between anti- and pro-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) groups spiralled out of control. Frenzied mobs torched houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump and pelted stones at local residents and police personnel.

Meanwhile, Athawale welcomed the Maharashtra government's move of withdrawing cases in Koregaon Bhima violence.

"The process (of withdrawal of cases) was initiated by the previous BJP-led government," he said.

State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had on Thursday said that of the total 649 cases filed against several people in Koregaon Bhima violence, 348 cases have been withdrawn so far and rest of the cases are in the process of being withdrawn.

Athawale pointed out that the Koregaon Bhima and Elgar Parishad cases were different, and said that his party (RPI-A) was opposed to Naxalism.

According to Pune police, the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, was supported by Maoists and inflammatory speeches made at the event led to caste violence at Koregaon Bhima war memorial in the district the next day.

Athawale, whose Rajya Sabha term ends in April was in Vidhan Bhavan to meet Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Editorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations.
TORRINGTON  The case of a Bethel man accused of threatening two New Milford men with a gun after allegedly killing his own brother three months ago was continued Wednesday to April 7.

Matthew ODell, of Bethel, was charged with first-degree threatening, first-degree reckless endangerment, carrying a pistol without a permit, disorderly conduct, illegally carrying a firearm while under the influence and attempt to commit second-degree larceny following a Nov. 11 incident in New Milford.
SAN DIEGO, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- MANSCAPED , the only brand dedicated to men's below-the-waist grooming and hygiene, is buzzing with excitement having officially launched in Australia. Aussies might make sunkissed skin, attractive faces and confident attitudes look downright easy, but the truth is that many maintain a rigorous grooming routine - from head to toe. This high propensity of men who already manscape, and inherently care about self-image and presentation, make Australia a prime market for the booming grooming company.

MANSCAPED now shipping to Australia at au.manscaped.com

At the helm of this international expansion is Ben Acott, Senior Vice President of Growth and an Aussie living in San Diego. "Expansion into Australia is very meaningful to us," said Acott. "Australian men are well ahead of the world when it comes to fashion, and the investment they make in fashion and grooming is within the top three markets globally."

MANSCAPED offers a full line of products that have quickly become a staple and daily ritual of more than 1,000,000 consumers in the U.S. The intelligently designed and developed product range includes precision-engineered tools, unique formulations and accessories that ensure a simple and effective manscaping routine.

While MANSCAPED is made for the modern man, the products benefit everyone. In fact, a reported 85% of women prefer men who manscape. "We're confident that our idea of Refining the Gentleman will resonate with Australian consumers - from the proudest countrymen to their discerning female mates," added Acott.

"At MANSCAPED, our bigger purpose is to empower men and break the stigma that comes with tending to one's nether regions," said Paul Tran, Founder and CEO of MANSCAPED. "We were the first to speak to the importance of proper hygiene and testicular health, and have enhanced that mission through our partnership with the Testicular Cancer Society. We look forward to bringing a level of awareness to such a savvy market, through our proven comedic yet educational approach, of course."

One of the fastest-growing consumer packaged goods companies in the U.S., MANSCAPED grew its headcount by an incredible 500% in 2019, with Acott leading the charge. He is currently working on defining a team in Australia that will support the expansion across customer service, establish the retail footprint and support the entire Asia Pacific region.

Primarily interested in developing relationships with men directly, MANSCAPED products, special offers and highly informative and myth-busting blog entries are available online at AU.MANSCAPED.com . Major retail updates in Australia are soon to follow, after a successful national rollout in Target in the U.S. last year.

About MANSCAPED:

Founded in 2017, San Diego, California-based MANSCAPED is the only brand dedicated to men's grooming and hygiene below-the-waist. The product range includes top-of-the-line precision-engineered tools, unique formulations and accessories to ensure a simple and effective manscaping routine. With direct-to-consumer shipping, as well as in-store options across the U.S., MANSCAPED is a one-stop shopping destination for men looking for a brand that is focused on the needs of what has, for too long, been a sensitive and often taboo subject. For more information, visit MANSCAPED.com or follow on Facebook , Instagram , Twitter , and YouTube .

Media Contact:

Allison Frazier

Director of Public Relations - MANSCAPED, Inc.

Email: [email protected]

925-216-2791

SOURCE MANSCAPED, Inc.

Related Links

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Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the 24th Eastern Zonal Council Meeting (EZC) scheduled to be held in Odisha on Friday.

Chief Ministers of Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand respectively, Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee and Hemant Soren, will also participate in the meeting that will be chaired by Shah and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik will be the vice-chairman and host of the meet, according to officials.

"Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the 24th Eastern Zonal Council Meeting (EZC) in Odisha. Date: 28 February 2020, Time: 10:30 AM, Venue: Lok Sewa Bhawan, Bhubaneswar," the Home Ministry of India tweeted.

According to the Home Ministery, the upcoming meeting will deliberate on nearly four dozen issues which inter alia include inter-state water issues, power transmission lines, royalty on and operationalisation of coals mines, land and forest clearances of rail projects, investigation of heinous offences, cattle smuggling across country's borders, lack of telecom and banking infrastructure in remote areas, petroleum projects, sharing pattern on centrally collected revenues etc

The last meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council was last held in Kolkata on October 1, 2018.

Meanwhile, on his two-day visit to Odisha beginning today, Shah is scheduled to address a rally in Bhubaneshwar and meet state leaders to discuss a strategy to strengthen the BJP in the region.

According to information, the Home Minister will also address a rally today at Baramunda Field on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a law that has been causing protests across several parts of the country ever since its passage by Parliament in December last year.

The senior BJP leader is also scheduled to meet state party unit President Samir Mohanty along with Members of Parliament, MLAs and candidates who were fielded by the party in earlier polls in Odisha to discuss ways to strengthen the party at the grassroots level.

On February 29, Shah is scheduled to offer prayers at the Jagannath Temple and Lingaraja Temple and will return to the capital on the same day.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Company also announces March investor meetings

RAPID CITY, S.D., Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Black Hills Corp. (BKH) today announced the closing of its previously announced $100 million equity issuance. The company issued 1,222,942 shares of its common stock to a single investor through an underwritten registered transaction.



Net proceeds from this transaction will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes, including funding the companys capital expenditures program and repayment of outstanding short-term debt.

Black Hills also announced that senior executives from the company will be meeting with investors during the month of March at conferences and at investor offices. Updated investor materials will be available on the companys website at www.blackhillscorp.com after the market closes on Friday, Feb. 28.

The company expects to discuss recent events, including the completed equity issuance and earnings guidance for 2020, with investors. Black Hills is reaffirming its 2020 earnings guidance range of $3.55 to $3.75 per share available for common stock, as adjusted, based on its latest guidance assumptions dated Feb. 6.

Black Hills Corporation

Black Hills Corp. (BKH) is a customer-focused, growth-oriented utility company with a tradition of improving life with energy and a vision to be the energy partner of choice. Based in Rapid City, South Dakota, the company serves 1.3 million natural gas and electric utility customers in eight states: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.

Investor Relations

Jerome E. Nichols

605-721-1171

jerome.nichols@blackhillscorp.com

24-Hour Media Relations Line

888-242-3969

Caution Regarding Forward Looking Statement

This news release includes forward-looking statements as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC. We make these forward-looking statements in reliance on the safe harbor protections provided under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this news release that address activities, events or developments that we expect, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future are forward looking statements. This includes, without limitations, our 2020 earnings guidance. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions which we believe are reasonable based on current expectations and projections about future events and industry conditions and trends affecting our business. However, whether actual results and developments will conform to our expectations and predictions is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that, among other things, could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, the risk factors described in Item 1A of Part I of our 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC, and other reports that we file with the SEC from time to time.

New factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in forward looking statements emerge from time-to-time, and it is not possible for us to predict all such factors, or the extent to which any such factor or combination of factors may cause actual results to differ from those contained in any forward-looking statement. We assume no obligation to update publicly any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Sophie Smith-Dostmohamed knew she wanted to be an actor from an early age.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sophie Smith-Dostmohamed knew she wanted to be an actor from an early age.

As a child, her dreams led her to acting classes at Manitoba Theatre for Young People. After graduating from high school, she continuing her studies at the University of Winnipegs honours acting program.

Shes appeared in fringe festival productions, worked with Sarasvatis FemFest and been a cast member with Manitoba Mystery Co., which presents interactive murder-mysteries at historic sites.

And even though the 21-year-old hasnt graduated yet, she has already made her professional theatre debut in Royal Manitoba Theatre Centres production of playwright Mark Crawfords The New Canadian Curling Club, playing Fatima, a newcomer to Canada who has taken up the sport.

Smith-Dostmohamed might as well get comfortable on the Royal MTC mainstage; she will also appear in A Thousand Splendid Suns, the drama based on the bestselling novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini that opens March 19.

Smith-Dostmohamed will next appear in A Thousand Splendid Suns at RMTC. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press)

The journey from signing on to her first show to taking the stage on opening night has been fraught with some anxiety  a normal emotion for actors of any age. It has taken her to rural Manitoba and finally to the boards of the John Hirsch Mainstage.

Prior to her Winnipeg debut in The New Canadian Curling Club, Smith-Dostmohamed embarked on her first regional tour with the show, a rite of passage for many emerging actors. A slate of 17 one-nighters began in Neepawa on Jan. 7; the production then moved on to northern theatres in Thompson, Snow Lake and Flin Flon, cities including Steinbach and Brandon and small towns such as Strathclair and Gretna, before finishing Jan. 29 in Atikokan, Ont.

"The tour was fun," she says, "I got to see a lot of places that I wouldnt have usually travelled to and got to meet a lot of really cool people.

"A lot of people dont get to see a lot of theatre or only see one or two shows a year. They are so excited and thrilled."

Shes barely had a chance to catch her breath since returning home. Sitting down for an interview on Feb. 12, Smith-Dostmohamed had just finished a preview performance at the mainstage and was gearing up for opening night about 24 hours later.

"The preview felt pretty good," she said. "Im really excited to get back in the theatre for rehearsal.

"The tour was extremely different in terms of blocking and the set was different and what was necessary was totally different," she says of The New Canadian Curling Clubs rink-like set, which has to be adapted to each new theatre on the tour.

"Im honestly pretty nervous for opening night," she said.

Sophie Smith-Dostmohamed (left) as Fatima Al-Sayed and Lorraine James as Charmaine Bailey in The New Canadian Curling Club. (Leif Norman)

It was an especially big night because she was being graded on her performance  which requires her to use a Syrian accent  by her U of W voice professor, Shannon Vickers.

"I used the international phonetic alphabet and found a key on Syrian accents," she says. "I was also able to talk to my dad, who speaks Arabic."

She also learned a lot from her director, Miles Potter, a Canadian theatre legend who has directed more than a dozen productions at Royal MTC in his career, including Medea, God of Carnage and Little Shop of Horrors.

"When we got in the rehearsal room before tour, he went out of his way to teach," she says. "I knew who he was and I was really nervous and really excited to work with him. Im glad I got to take this opportunity to learn from him."

She also cites Winnipeg directors Ann Hodges, Christopher Brauer, Krista Jackson and Royal MTCs associate artistic director Audrey Dwyer as sources of inspiration and artists she dreams of working with in the future.

"I admire them all so much," Smith-Dostmohamed says. "My dream directors are people I feel like I could be friends with. Just normal people you want to be friends with very badly."

As she prepared to make her mainstage debut, she was aware many of those people would be in the audience watching her perform.

"Ive never been more nervous in my life!"

A week later, Smith-Dostmohamed has left her opening-night jitters behind and settled into a routine.

Smith-Dostmohamad was being graded on her opening night performance by her U of W voice professor. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press)

"I wake up at about 7:30 a.m. and I go to the gym for an hour-and-a-half because it makes me feel a lot more relaxed.

"After that I go home and take a shower. I start doing basic warm-ups in the shower to check how my voice is that day."

From there, she prepares for other auditions and does chores. By 5 p.m., a quick nap is in order, followed by makeup and longer warm-ups to get her voice ready for the evenings performance.

"I also speak all of my lines before the show, and thats super new for me; Ive never done that before," she says. "But its because Im speaking in an accent, and in my mind, for me to do this accent justice, I have to rehearse it and have it be fresh before every show."

The routine is important for her because she considers herself an anxious person.

"I like to think I can hold myself pretty well if I get adequate rest," Smith-Dostmohamed says, "but I do have trouble seeing friends and meeting with people when I have shows. If I spend a lot of time with people in the day, I feel a little bit drained by the time I have to do the show.

"And Im starting to realize that thats my job. I have to be ready to do my job. That means I have to make those plans on other days."

Actors Doug McKeag (from left), Zhaopeng Meng, Omar Alex Khan, Lorraine James and Sophie Smith-Dostmohamed during the regional tour of The New Canadian Curling Club. (Kyle Darbyson / The Brandon Sun files)

The run of The New Canadian Curling Club ends on March 7. Shes realized her longtime dream of being a professional actor, and, so far, its just whats shes hoped for.

"This is my first professional contract and my first taste of what this life is like," she says, "and I love it so much. It really reiterates for me that I made the right choice in believing in myself from a really young age and just... doing it."

"I really enjoy it. Im having an amazing time."

Frances.Koncan@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @franceskoncan
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 06:10:38|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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U.S. President Donald Trump leaves the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on Feb. 28, 2020. Trump said on Friday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will attend the signing of U.S.-Taliban agreement, which could be one step forward to ultimate U.S. troops withdrawal and lasting peace in Afghanistan. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will attend the signing of U.S.-Taliban agreement, which could be one step forward to ultimate U.S. troops withdrawal and lasting peace in Afghanistan.

The United States and Afghan Taliban are expected to sign a deal in the Qatari capital city of Doha on Saturday, which reportedly includes a timeline for a conditions-based and phased U.S. forces withdrawal, the commencement of intra-Afghan negotiations and the Taliban's commitment not to assist terrorists.

"If the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home," Trump said in a statement released by the White House on Friday afternoon.

Apart from announcing Pompeo's presence at the signing ceremony, Trump also revealed that U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper will issue a joint declaration with the government of Afghanistan, without any elaboration on details.

Trump urged the Afghan people to "seize this opportunity for peace and a new future" for their country, saying that "ultimately it will be up to the people of Afghanistan to work out their future."

Trump has long grumbled about the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, calling it "ridiculous."

Under the deal, the 12,000-13,000 U.S. troops currently serving in Afghanistan are reportedly slated to draw down to 8,600 within 135 days, while the ultimate exit of all U.S. forces is still to be decided.

For its part, the Taliban should stop assisting al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, reduce violence and reach a political settlement with the Afghan government and other Afghans that would end the war.

Washington announced last week that a deal with Taliban is expected to be inked on Feb. 29 on the condition of successful week-long reduction of violence in Afghanistan starting from Feb. 22.

Peace talks between Washington and the Taliban began in 2018 but were suspended late last year following Taliban attacks on U.S. military personnel.

The war in Afghanistan is the longest one in U.S. history. The death toll of U.S. service members has surpassed 2,400 since America invaded Afghanistan in 2001.
OTTAWACanadas Public Health Agency is taking a national inventory of medical supplies and equipment that might be needed during a coronavirus pandemic, but says its up to provinces and territories to stockpile the necessary gear.

The federal government has its own emergency stockpile of medical equipment  set aside for response to rare, high-impact biological, chemical or radiological accidents or attacks  that might provide some supplies, said Canadas chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, but it is not designed as a backup for provincial and territorial health care systems.

And while the federal public health agency has a role in co-ordinating planning and preparedness, Tam acknowledged that Ottawa does not have a national inventory of medical supplies.

As a result of the changing landscape of COVID-19 we are pulling together that kind of information right now, she said, directing questions about the granularity of available supplies to provinces and territories.

Tam also noted that while there is still no vaccine for the new coronavirus, which has now spread to 46 countries, the provinces and territories have been planning their responses to the outbreak for quite a long time.

There are now 13 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada.

On Thursday, Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne urged Canadians to rethink March break plans that involve travel to countries that have been hit by the virus.

The risk is low, Champagne said. But if people are going in a zone, in an area, in a country which we already know there is an issue, people should really think twice.

Tam said Canada believes it can limit the spread of disease with the measures it has in place, but added that precautions should be taken those coming home from anywhere abroad. Travellers should monitor themselves for symptoms upon their return, and immediately call a health provider if they get sick, she said.

Meanwhile, NDP health critic Don Davies told the House of Commons Thursday that the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions is worried federal guidelines to protect front-line workers do not go far enough and may be putting patients at risk.

He said safety protocols in Ontario, the U.S. and the European Union all call for the use of disposable N95 respirator masks.

Nurses say that federal standards presume the virus cannot spread through the air, but the science is unsettled, said Davies. Will the government listen to front-line professionals, revise its guidelines and ensure the best protection possible for health care workers and their patients?

Dr. Howard Njoo, Canadas deputy chief public health officer, said chief medical officers of health, infectious disease specialists and emergency-room physicians have told the agency it would be inappropriate to use higher-level protective gear for any encounter lets say with a patient in a health care system at risk of running out of the masks.

The World Health Organization recommends masks for people who have symptoms of COVID-19 and their caregivers, but advises rational use of medical masks to avoid unnecessary wastage of precious resources and misuse of masks.

The WHO reported Thursday that 82,300 cases had been reported worldwide, with 1,185 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. There have been 2,747 deaths.

The majority of reported cases are still in China, however for the first time, more new cases were reported outside China.

Tam said in the event of a pandemic, it would be up to health authorities at a local level to make the call on banning to large gatherings, or quarantining large groups of people.

In Toronto, health officials said they are working with counterparts throughout the province to ramp up surveillance for COVID-19 and raised the spectre of control measures in future should the virus begin spreading locally here as it has to alarming levels in Italy, Iran, South Korea and China.

This would include increased testing for the virus in health-care settings, said Dr. Eileen De Villa, Torontos medical officer of health. Its just a question of time. We need to set things up.

Should circumstances warrant, authorities will consider recommending postponement of events or limiting places where people gather in large numbers but only after we balance preventing the spread of infection with the need for people and communities to function, De Villa added.

We currently are not in this type of situation, but these are public health measures, public health tools, that we could use and have been used in the past if needed to further protect our community.

Dr. David Williams, Ontarios chief medical officer of health, said physicians need to be aware that cases of the new coronavirus have begun popping up in Norway, Denmark, North Macedonia, Romania, Estonia, Georgia, Pakistan, Bahrain and Kuwait, in the event they encounter patients with symptoms who have been to those countries.

Were going to do more surveillance. We have to be diligent, he told a news conference at Queens Park.

De Villa told reporters her staff have been tracing the contacts of Ontarios fifth case of COVID-19, a woman in her 60s who returned from Iran on Feb. 15 and went to Sunnybrook hospital with a cough, body aches and occasional fever nine days later. Her husband, who did not go to Iran, has also now tested positive and is Ontarios first case of person-to-person transmission.

The time lag between her arrival and onset of illness raises questions as to whether she could have infected others.

Weve identified all those contacts who warrant any public health action or followup and have either completed that followup or are in process of doing so, said De Villa, who would not provide details of the womans flight or movements, such as whether she has a job or attended social functions.

People who were at higher risk of infection from any prolonged or close contact with her have been asked to self-isolate at home for 14 days while those at lower risk have been advised to monitor for any symptoms for the same period.

The same has been done with contacts of the husband, who had a mild cough and fever and is doing well at home with his wife, De Villa said.
Retired STEM professional Jean Springer, at home speaking about her career path. PHOTO: STEPHANIE GABRIEL

Balancing family and work, excelling in a male-dominated field and breaking barriers for women in science across the province, Jean Springer leaves a lot in the way of legacy.

Now 80-years-old and retired, Springer fondly remembers her years as the dean of science and technology at Mount Royal University, her time as president of the Alberta Womens Science Network (AWSN) and the lifetime spent as a student of mathematics. But most importantly, Springer cherishes the time she devoted to her family.

For me, my children and my family came first, Springer says. And my academic studies came second. So, once you decide that and stick with it, you dont get stressed about it. Because you know that those things are more important.

Springer discovered that her children became a motivational force as she moved through her career. It became important that she was a strong role model for them.

I had thought that if things became too hectic, I could quit. But I had kids and I couldnt quit, she says.

Her children certainly received the message. Wayne Springer, now in his 50s, admits he still looks up to his mothers example.

Shes an unbelievable role model for almost every aspect of life that is important, he said. So if youre in a situation, you generally think, What would my dear mother do?

Springer was raised in Jamaica where she developed a love for mathematics. She began studying medicine in her post-secondary studies, switching back to algebra after a year.

Retired STEM professional Jean Springer waters her house plants, while reflecting on her career. Photo by Stephanie Gabriel

After marrying a Trinidadian engineer, Springer moved to her husbands home country where she taught high school mathematics. Her growing family then emigrated to Canada and Springer began teaching at the University of Calgary, SAIT and Mount Royal University.

Within three years of teaching full time at Mount Royal University, she was chair of the math department. In another three, she was dean of the faculty of science and technology.

She just didnt sleep very much  I think thats what happened, she just worked, Wayne Springer says.

In 1986 she received the Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award from the university, eight years later she received the Teaching Excellence Award. To Springer, however, nothing was as rewarding as the personal connections she formed throughout her career.

In many ways, the most meaningful reward isnt the award you win, she says. It is when youre out and someone taps you on the shoulder and says, You were my prof I want to thank you for what you did. Those are the meaningful rewards.

Though Springer admits that mathematics is largely a male-dominated field, she joined the community fearlessly.

People can only discriminate against you if youre prepared to recognize it. And so that wasnt something that became a problem for me, Springer says.

As part of a group that founded the AWSN in 1993, Springer served as their president until 2013. The AWSN encourages and supports underrepresented populations to pursue STEM careers.

As we grew up [in STEM], we came to realize how important it was that girls didnt get dissuaded from entering those fields, Springer says.

She served as a strong role model for many women who are now following in her footsteps and the AWSN continues to grow under the leadership of current president Alicia Bjarnason.

Its nice to have a voice thats been before you, many of us are still navigating it. She is definitely someone who, when she speaks, we all listen, Bjarnason says.

Bjarnason estimates that the organization has contributed $2 million to the STEM ecosystem in Alberta in the past 25 years. They serve the community in many ways including acting as an idea incubator for start-ups, providing financial support to other organizations and working with classrooms to connect young people with female STEM professionals.

Springer said that she has seen an increase in the number of women entering these fields because of the AWSN and organizations like it.

You have to remember that its not just about you, she says Its about seeing where the department is going.

Edited by: Isaiah Lindo/ilindo@cjournal.ca

Republish This Story Republish our articles for free under a Creative Commons license.
Courteney Cox mused about which actors would replace the cast of Friends if the show ever did a reboot during a hike with actor Kevin Nealon on his podcast, aptly named Hiking with Kevin.

The 55-year-old actress said that actor Timothee Chalamet would be a perfect Joey Tribbiani in a potential remake of the series in an interview that was released on Thursday.

That same day she was spotted in Los Angeles getting in some retail therapy at Celine.

Reboot recast: Courteney Cox mused that actor Timothee Chalamet would make a great Joey if Friends was ever rebooted with a younger cast during actor Kevin Nealon's on his podcast (Pictured on Thursday)

'Who would you recast today on Friends?' Nealon asked as they were hiking in Malibu. 'Is there anybody that stands out in your head?'

'Timothee Chalamet can be Joey,' said the star who played Monica in the show.

Nealon was quick to agree: 'Yes! How great is he?' Cox, concurred and complimented the 24-year-old actor saying,'Oh, he's so great.

Matt LeBlanc starred as sandwich loving, Italian-American struggling actor Joey Tribianni in Friends from 1994-2004, and in his own spin off Joey from from 2004-2006.

'Who would you recast today on Friends?' Nealon asked as they were hiking in Malibu. 'Is there anybody that stands out in your head?'

'Timothee Chalamet can be Joey,' said the star who played Monica in the show.

Other than the Call Me By Your Name star, the pair had a hard time finding names to step into the other five roles.

'Who would be a good Schwimmer?' Cox asked in reference to actor David Schwimmer who played her on-screen brother Ross.

Nealon asked: 'Jonah Hill?'

Courtney, however, didn't sound too convinced that the 36-year-old Superbad actor would be the right fit.

How you doin? Courteney picked 24-year-old Call Me By Your Name actor Timothee Chalamet as her top choice to play a recast Joey, originally played by Matt Le Blanc (L- Chalamet in 2019, R- Le Blanc as Joey)

Courteney also discussed her highly anticipated Friends reunion special with Kevin and positively gushed about the gang getting back together.

The reunion special was first announced in November, but it was made official in February, with Cox returning alongside Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer.

'So the exciting thing is that we're all going to get together for the first time, in a room, and actually talk about the show, and it's going to be on HBO Max,' Cox said on the podcast.

The one where they get back together: Courteney also discussed her highly anticipated Friends reunion special with Kevin and positively gushed about the gang getting back together.

'So the exciting thing is that we're all going to get together for the first time, in a room, and actually talk about the show, and it's going to be on HBO Max,' Cox said on the podcast.

'I'm so excited. We're going to have the best time. It's going to be great,' she added.

On Thursday, Cox stepped out in a gunmetal grey top tucked into rolled up form-fitting blue jeans with black pumps to do some shopping on Melrose Place.

The actress also wore a gold necklace and silver hoop earrings along with a few rings as she carried her phone and sunglasses.

'I'm so excited. We're going to have the best time. It's going to be great,' she added.

On Thursday, Cox stepped out in a gunmetal grey top tucked into rolled up form-fitting blue jeans with black pumps to do some shopping on Melrose Place.

She completed her look with a large black leather bag which hung from her right shoulder.

In addition to joining her Friends for the reunion special, Cox is also slated to executive produce.

The reunion will be filmed from Stage 24 on the Warner Bros. lot, where Friends was originally shot, which will be available when HBO Max launches in May.
HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An", the "Company" or the "Group", HKEX: 02318; SSE: 601318) announced that the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) smart image-reading system was launched on 19 February. It was developed by Ping An Smart Healthcare, the smart health care team of subsidiary Ping An Smart City. The system assists doctors with efficient and accurate diagnoses by leveraging Ping An's advantages in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and could help control the epidemic through earlier diagnoses and treatment.

"Since its launch, the smart image-reading system has provided services to more than 1,500 medical institutions. More than 5,000 patients have received smart image-reading services for free. The system can generate smart analysis results in around 15 seconds, with an accuracy rate above 90%", said Geoff Kau, Co-President and Chief Strategy Officer of Ping An Smart City. By comparison, it usually takes radiologists about 15 minutes to read the CT images of a patient suspected of contracting COVID-19.

As COVID-19 is a new disease, medical institutions, especially at the primary level in China, lack diagnosis experience. The Nucleic Acid Test (NAT) had been regarded as the major reference for COVID-19 diagnoses. But as the epidemic continues to spread, the NAT has had several problems, including long detection times and a high proportion of false negative cases. This resulted in some patients missing the chance for early treatment or quarantine.

Computed Tomography (CT) images have been used by many doctors for diagnosis, but there lack radiologists in the epidemic areas to review the volume of CT imaging. Ping An's COVID-19 smart image-reading system aims to close the gap.

Ping An Smart Healthcare used clinical data to train the AI model of the COVID-19 smart image-reading system. The AI analysis engine can conduct a comparative analysis of multiple CT scan images of the same patient and measure the changes in lesions. It helps doctors to track the development of the disease, evaluate the treatment and have prognosis of patients, ultimately it assists doctors to diagnose, triage and evaluate COVID-19 patients swiftly and effectively. Ping An Smart Healthcare's COVID-19 smart image-reading system also supports AI image-reading remotely by medical professionals outside the epidemic areas.

Medical institutions that require COVID-19 smart image-reading services can also gain access on public or private cloud platforms or on premises. At the same time, the public or private cloud platforms support storing and sharing electronic film. The smart image-reading system can also be quickly transplanted to CT equipment with the help of manufacturers to assist diagnosing the COVID-19.

Dr. Xiao Jing, Chief Scientist of Ping An said, "Patients with COVID-19 need multiple CT scans during the treatment. Comparing multiple images is a time-consuming task and it cannot be accurately completed manually. Utilizing Ping An Smart Healthcare's COVID-19 smart image-reading system, it can effectively improve the diagnostic accuracy and the doctor's image-reading efficiency."

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1096987/Ping_An_Smart_Healthcare_s_smart_image_reading_system_conduct_smart_image_reading.jpg
Sales figures suggest that the grand department store will soon have had its day, but Peter Strickland loves them.

I love the interaction in shops, he says. There is something about them that makes you feel youre entering another world, like a theatre.

As a child, he would be taken to a shop called Jacksons which still had pneumatic chutes that would send customers money to a distant cash register and eventually spit back the change. So theres that long wait for your change to come back and that awkwardness while youre standing there. I thought that would be so good to put in a film.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste takes a fateful shopping trip in Peter Strickland's In Fabric. Credit:Nixco

Strickland is a master of eerie, theatrical and frequently awkward worlds on film that have earned him something of a cult following. In Berberian Sound Studio (2012), a mousy sound effects enthusiast played by Toby Jones gets a job working on an Italian horror film. We watch him in the shadows, driven at least half-mad by the gory scenes he matches with the squelchy sounds of cabbages being cleaved or the ringing screams of the voice-over actresses. In The Duke of Burgundy (2014), two women combine an elaborate sado-masochistic erotic life with a consuming study of insects in a world without men.
Chennai, Feb 28 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Friday requested External Affairs Minister S.Jaishankar to direct the Indian Embassy in Iran to provide support to Indian fishermen stranded there in wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

In a letter to Jaishankar, the text of which was released to the media here, Palaniswami said there are about 450 Indian fishermen including 300 from Tamil Nadu who are working in various fishing vesels berthed and operating from various Iranian ports.

"These fishermen are reportedly stranded in Port Kish, Cheeru and other places in Iran, due to the cancellation of flights, because of the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran. The fishermen are requesting to evacuate them from Iran immediately," he said.

Palaniswami requested Jaishankar to direct the the Embassy to provide the required support to the fishermen and also to make arrangements for their safe and immediate return to India.

The family of the fishermen here are deeply concerned.

"My husband (Joseph Lean Anthony) had called me this morning and said the employer has asked him and others to leave. However, there are no flights from their place and they are not able to come back. We are very much worried," Ani told IANS over phone from Kanyakumari district on Thursday.

"My husband said there about 600 fishermen from Tamil Nadu who are not able to come back to India," she added.

"The flights are cancelled. We are all worried... They don't have the masks," Viji, wife of Beltes who is also in Iran, told IANS over phone in a choked voice.

Fishermen association, Neithal Ezhuchi Peravai's President John Leonard told IANS on Thursday that there are about 600 Indian fishermen there wanting to come back.

"The flights out of their place are cancelled and they are not able to return at the earliest," he had said.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Brazil's Health Minister was in Sao Paulo on Thursday (February 27) to meet with local authorities, after the country's first coronavirus case was confirmed in the country's financial centre.

With more than 12 million people, Sao Paulo is one of the world's most populous cities and a popular entry point to the country. Following the confirmed diagnosis of coronavirus, Brazil's real took a hit. The real fell as low as 4.5010 per dollar, cementing its position as one of the worst-performing currencies in the world against the greenback this year, before the central bank intervened in the currency swaps market for the second day in a row to ease the pressure. The local stock market also took a hit.

Speaking to media, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta played down fears of the virus, saying Sao Paulo is well-placed to tackle any cases.

This week, authorities diagnosed a 61-year-old man in Sao Paulo who returned recently from Italy with the virus. Dozens of other patients with symptoms of coronavirus are being treated and reportedly in good health.
By Pinhas Inbari

(JNS)The Palestinian Authoritys loud and vigorous opposition to U.S. President Donald Trumps deal of the century puts the Palestinians in conflict not only with Israel and the United States, but also with the axis of moderate Sunni Arab states, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. The P.A.s goal is to foil Trump with a coalition consisting of European allies, the United Nations and countries such as Venezuela, a stronghold for Palestinian policies in South America.

The P.A. is pursuing a containment policy, in the anticipation that Trump will lose the upcoming U.S. election. With Trumps defeat, the P.A. can re-leverage Obama-era policies to strengthen the United Nations, gain international legitimacy, once again isolate Israel in the international community and, with the latest U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights report, give BDS the stamp of U.N. legitimacy.

This scenario, however, represents a nightmare for the moderate Sunni states, to whom it is clear that a return to Obamas policies is also a return to the nuclear agreement with Iran. Such a policy reversal will again leverage Iran and Turkey as regional Islamic powers, representing the Muslim Brotherhood, to the detriment of moderate Sunni Arab states.

Sources in Ramallah related a story about this point of contention in the Arab world.

After Trump won the 2016 election but before he entered the White House (December 2016), an anti-Israel resolution (UNSC Res. 2334) was raised in the U.N. Security Council.

The U.S. administration decided to set a precedent and failed to veto the anti-Israel resolution, which Egypt had submitted to the Security Council. At that moment, P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas was visiting Saudi King Salman, and while they were talking, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi called from Cairo. He informed King Salman that he had decided to withdraw the anti-Israel resolution.

According to our sources, the King of Saudi Arabia said to el-Sisi in Arabic: Allah yisahel aleik, essentially saying, Do as you wish. Abbas, disappointed that the Saudis were not encouraging the resolution, interrupted the phone conversation and implored el-Sisi, At least ask Trump not to move the embassy to Jerusalem.

El-Sisi answered: We are with Trump.

We are with Trump is the headline of Arab policy to date; the P.A.s current anti-Trump policy conflicts with the fundamental interests of Arab states.

Pinhas Inbari is a veteran Arab affairs correspondent who formerly reported for Israel Radio and Al Hamishmar newspaper. He currently serves as an analyst for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

This article was first published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
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YEREVAN.  A number of preliminary prophylactic steps have been taken; a working group headed by Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan has been set up, which is in contact with the structures in charge of the healthcare system of Iran. Armenias Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said this in a conversation with journalists today, referring to the fight in Armenia against the coronavirus.

According to him, respective steps are being taken within Armenia as well. "You know that the decision on the border with Iran has already been made; we have some restrictions," Grigoryan said. As for the rest of the issues, all agencies, both in Armenia and outside Armenia, are in online connection. In case of danger, appropriate decisions will be made.

Asked whether a decision can be made to close Armenias border with Georgia, too, Armen Grigoryan said: At the moment such a question is not being discussed yet. The relevant agencies are in touch with the situation in Georgia. All issues are discussed, all options are on the table, and the solutions will be as per the situation.
Focus on Surveillance Solutions Throughout Southeast Asia

MONROE TOWNSHIP, N.J., Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. (OPTT), a leader in innovative and cost-effective ocean energy solutions, today announced that it has signed a letter of intent with Taiwan-based BAP Precision, Inc. (BAP) to provide PowerBuoy joint surveillance solutions for government agency contract pursuits for policing territorial waters.



BAP is an established provider of satellite data solutions for industry and government applications and Im excited to formalize our relationship, said George Kirby, OPT President and Chief Executive Officer. The companys satellite surveillance services are an excellent complement to OPTs PB3 and hybrid PowerBuoy surveillance and Exclusion Zone Monitoring solutions.

OPT and BAP are initially focusing on solutions for multiple agencies of Southeast Asian island nations seeking to meet the challenges of protecting fisheries, trafficking, and foreign encroachment upon territorial waters. A combination of predictive satellite and tactical marine monitoring capabilities interfacing with a grid of interconnected PowerBuoy surveillance solutions has been proposed.

With cutting edge radar and sonar equipment tied into satellite data, it is possible to create an autonomous, zero-emission advance warning system over a previously untenable expanse, enabling intelligent monitoring and interdiction cues for marine authorities, backed with photo/video, AIS tracking, and other evidence to aid prosecution, Kirby added. We are in discussions with surveillance equipment providers from the global defense and security industry to provide an integrated package. Coupled with our existing service partnerships, this enables OPT to provide an end-to-end solution for our clients in the governmental and environmental protection space.

Such a surveillance solution would be suitable for monitoring fishery activities, supporting border surveillance and asset protection, and protecting critical marine habitats in waters throughout the world.

Story continues

We are intent on entering new markets and our agreement with BAP Precision to pursue government-based surveillance opportunities in Asia is a testament to that pursuit, concluded Kirby. BAP Precisions abilities and current governmental contracts and relationships are a distinct asset in proposing wide-scope solutions for modern maritime security challenges in the region.

About the OPT PB3 PowerBuoy

The OPT PB3 PowerBuoy integrates patented technologies in hydrodynamics, electronics, energy conversion, and computer control systems to extract the natural energy in ocean waves. The result is a leading edge, ocean-tested, proprietary autonomous system that turns wave power into reliable, clean, and carbon-free electricity for offshore applications. PB3 PowerBuoy solutions are tailored to customer needs including monitoring, surveillance, subsea charging and connectivity for the offshore industries including oil and gas, science and research, and telecommunications.

About BAP Precision, Inc.

Based in Taoyuan City, Taiwan, BAP Precision, Inc. is a satellite GIS- and GPS-related products and solution-based R&D team. Founded in 2010, the company provides solutions for industrial and governmental challenges, and won the Taiwan governments Golden Torch Award in 2016 and the Republic of Chinas Jinfeng Award in 2017.

About Ocean Power Technologies

Headquartered in Monroe Township, New Jersey, Ocean Power Technologies aspires to transform the world through durable, innovative and cost-effective ocean energy solutions. Its PB3 PowerBuoy solution platform provides clean and reliable electric power and real-time data communications for remote offshore and subsea applications in markets such as offshore oil and gas, defense and security, science and research, and communications. To learn more, visit www.oceanpowertechnologies.com .

Forward-Looking Statements

This release may contain forward-looking statements that are within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are identified by certain words or phrases such as "may", "will", "aim", "will likely result", "believe", "expect", "will continue", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend", "plan", "contemplate", "seek to", "future", "objective", "goal", "project", "should", "will pursue" and similar expressions or variations of such expressions. These forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current expectations about its future plans and performance. These forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions and estimates which could be inaccurate, and which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could vary materially from those anticipated or expressed in any forward-looking statement made by the Company. Please refer to the Company's most recent Forms 10-Q and 10-K and subsequent filings with the SEC for a further discussion of these risks and uncertainties. The Company disclaims any obligation or intent to update the forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.

Contact Information

Investors:

609-730-0400 x401

InvestorRelations@oceanpowertech.com
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin inspected Russia's answer to Disneyland on Thursday, the country's first large-scale indoor theme park which Moscow says will be the biggest of its kind in Europe when it opens on Saturday.

The theme park, called "Ostrov Mechty" - or Dream Island - is built in the shape of a toy castle that spreads across 30 hectares in an industrial neighbourhood in southern Moscow and is filled with rides, attractions and restaurants.

Joined by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Putin strolled through the park inspecting a scale model of the facility and stopping to take pictures with a group of disadvantaged children brought in for his visit.

Russia has strived in recent years to build bigger and better facilities than the West to show it remains a force to be reckoned with, and has prided itself on major construction and infrastructure projects.

Dream Island is no exception.

Municipal authorities say it is the largest indoor theme park of its kind in Europe and that its main glass dome is several times larger than the dome at the Galeries Lafayette in Paris and more than double the size of one atop the German Reichstag in Berlin.

The new facility has drawn criticism from some quarters however for its extravagance and unusual design and popular blogger Ilya Varlamov ranked it seventh on his list of Russia's top 100 ugliest buildings.

Russia remains under Western sanctions over its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and has struggled to find meaningful economic growth. But it has pressed ahead with big infrastructure projects regardless.

In 2014 it opened what it said was the largest shopping mall in Europe, and Putin last year opened a rail route linking Russia's two biggest cities to Crimea over a giant new bridge.

(Writing by Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Alison Williams)
Greta Thunberg denounced politicians and the media on Friday for failing her generation, saying the world is on fire but they are ignoring a looming climate cataclysm.

Several thousand people attended a rally in the southwestern English city of Bristol to see Thunberg, the teenage activist who has reprimanded governments across the world over climate change.

Known simply as Greta, 17-year-old Thunberg has captured the imagination of many young people with impassioned demands for world leaders to take urgent action.

I will not be silenced while the world is on fire - will you? said Thunberg.

This emergency is being completely ignored by the politicians, the media and those in power. Basically nothing is being done ... despite all the beautiful words.

Supporters held placards reading: Change the politics not the climate, The ocean is rising so are we! and At this point education is pointless.

Thunberg rose to prominence when she starting missing lessons two years ago to protest outside the Swedish parliament building. Since then, she has become the worlds most prominent climate activist.

She has repeatedly upbraided world leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump for ignoring the perils of climate change, though Trump has dismissed what he calls the climate prophets of doom.

Our house is still on fire, Thunberg told the World Economic Forum in Davos last month. Your inaction is fuelling the flames.

Thunberg has been in Britain since last weekend. On Tuesday she visited the University of Oxford, where she met Malala Yousafzai, the 22-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner and campaigner for girls education, who is studying there.

Thunberg called Yousafzai her role model, while Yousafzai said on Twitter: Shes the only friend Id skip school for.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 23:56:01|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Friday called for international cooperation in containing the COVID-19 epidemic and warned against "political virus" of bias and mudslinging.

"The virus is our common enemy and the epidemic a common challenge. As members of the global village, we have a shared future, and need to boost confidence and support each other," Commissioner Xie Feng said.

"While curbing the spread of the coronavirus, we also need to guard against and combat the 'virus of selfishness' featuring apathy, the 'virus of panic' featuring overreaction in disregard of science, the 'virus of discrimination' featuring the identification of a disease with a particular region, country or ethnicity, and the more dangerous 'political virus' featuring ideological bias, Cold War mentality and mudslinging," he said.

Xie made the remarks at a ceremony of donation from Honorary Consul of the Federated States of Micronesia in Hong Kong Tan Siu-lin for China's battle against COVID-19.

Expressing gratitude to Tan for donating 1 million U.S. dollars to support the people of Hubei in fighting the COVID-19 epidemic, Xie said that over the past month and more, leaders of more than 170 countries and over 40 international organizations have expressed firm support for China through telegrams or letters.

Initial progress has been made in China's fight against the virus, he said. The number of new confirmed cases has shown a significant decline overall, and suspected cases get diagnosed more quickly, Xie told the representatives of foreign diplomatic missions, chambers of commerce and media in Hong Kong who were attending the ceremony.

China's economy and society are returning to normal at a faster pace, said Xie. The impact of the epidemic on China's economy is temporary and limited. With remarkable resilience, robust domestic demand and a solid industrial system, the sound fundamentals of China's economy for steady growth in the long run have not changed, he added.

As the first line of defense, China has gained time for other countries to curb the spread of the virus, Xie said, adding that as a responsible major country, China is ready to share experience with and lend a helping hand to other affected countries.

"We will continue to work closely with the WHO and other countries and coordinate our epidemic response, so as to jointly protect global public health and defend our common home," the commissioner said.
Utica, NY - Councilman Jack LoMedico, members of the Utica Common Council, city officials and members of 1199 SEIU local held a press conference to address the state's proposed cuts to Medicaid and announce their resolution.

New York state is now losing about 600 million dollars in federal funding for Medicaid this year after the federal government decided to reject a request a from the state for those funds last week.

Over 50,000 residents receive Medicaid in this district - that's 40 percent of the population.

Mayor Robert Palmieri and common counsel signed a resolution to protect Medicaid and those who rely on it.

We stand behind all of our fellow workers here of the need and necessity not to have the cuts of Medicaid that impacts everyone's life. It cannot be afforded, it cannot be done and again there's got to be solutions to the problem and the prob lem's not the people that are fighting for the well-being and health living or dying. stated Palmieri.

Emma Monroe, a nurses aide in Utica called this a dangerous situation.

We will never stop advocating. Our patients, our residents and our community depends on this.

Common Counsel Member, Celeste Friend added, In a country as wealthy as ours, no one should have to worry about if their basic medical needs can be met. People should have basic health security.

The City of Utica department of Legislation in Common Counsel came to a resolution to Stay True to the Medicaid Promise.

Last month, Governor Andrew Cuomo put together a panel of experts to identify 2.5 billion dollars in savings of the Medicaid program. Those findings are due in March.

Mayor Palmieri concluded, We have to do everything in our power to bring that to the governor and anyone else thats listening to us.
Mark Cavendish tested for Coronavirus

Manxman Mark Cavendish is among cyclists being tested for Coronavirus.

Its after two people on the UAE Tour were confirmed to have COVID-19.

Organisers said "two Italian participants" had tested positive and that the race was being scrapped because safety was "top of all priorities".

All riders and staff were confined to their rooms at the Crowne Royal Plaza hotel in Abu Dhabi.

The final two stages of the Middle East event were due to take place on Friday and Saturday.
But for many younger progressives, the negative reactions to Mr. Sanderss comments  which were also aired and debated in his 2016 presidential campaign  seem like boomer panic and a pernicious form of red-baiting, and reveal the divides within the Democratic Party.

Socialism is a supposedly scary term that weve talked about so much, but we really dont understand, said Nolan Lok, 18, a chemistry major at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he cast a ballot early on Wednesday, ahead of its primary next week.

In a society where technology is so important, where it takes fewer people to produce more things, were going to have to have a more socialistic society, where the government needs to step in more, he said. The government is going to be required to do more, and its something we should welcome, not be afraid of.

This generational divide among Democrats was vividly apparent in interviews across the country this week assessing Mr. Sanderss views and history, which included trips to the Soviet Union and Nicaragua as Burlingtons mayor as well as complimentary remarks about the Sandinistas. He has repudiated American foreign policy backing anti-Communist governments and resistance forces, and he has been fervently against war. But his remarks about Mr. Castro stand out, like his expression of amazement in 1989 that the Cubans he met had almost a religious affection for him.

Older liberals show varying support for Mr. Sanderss positions, and the generational split was less apparent in South Florida, where many Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans do not like his views. Yet progressive voters born after the end of the Cold War  many of them people of color  dismissed the concerns about socialism as anachronistic and irrelevant.
Former White House counsel Don McGahn speaks during a discussion on "Constitutional Questions and Political Struggle: Congress' Role in Oversight and National Security" December 12, 2019 at the NYU Global Academic Center in Washington, DC. McGahn spoke on the view from the executive branch perspective.

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that former White House counsel Donald McGahn does not have to comply with a subpoena seeking his testimony to the House Judiciary committee.

The 2-1 ruling by a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the Constitution bars federal courts from acting as a referee in "this kind" of "information" dispute between the executive branch and Congress.

The Judiciary Committee wanted McGahn to testify as part of the committee's probe of suspected efforts by President Donald Trump to obstruct former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Friday's decision overturned a ruling upholding the subpoena issed by a federal district court judge.

The Justice Department had argued against the subpoena on behalf of McGahn.

In their ruling, the appeals judges said the department had argued that "Article III of the Constitution forbids federal courts from resolving this kind of interbranch information dispute."

"We agree and dismiss this case," the ruling said.
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 17:01:54|Editor: huaxia

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CANBERRA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has accused her Australian counterpart of testing the relationship between the nations with "unfair" deportation policies.

During a visit to Australia on Friday, Jacinda Ardern called on Scott Morrison to give migrants from New Zealand to Australia more rights.

Under laws introduced in 2014 the Australian government has the right to deport any foreigners sentenced to 12 months or more in jail regardless of how long they have been in Australia.

More than 1,600 citizens of New Zealand have been removed from Australia since the laws were introduced, many of whom had lived in Australia for most of their lives.

"Not every Kiwi migrant will be perfect. But evidence shows that the vast majority are providing a net benefit to Australia. They earn more, they are more likely to be employed, and they pay more tax than their Aussie-born counterparts. They are Australia's best migrants," Ardern said.

"But rather than them being given security to keep contributing and return, their rights are being eroded."

"Australia is well within its rights to deport individuals who break your laws. New Zealand does the same."

"But we have a simple request - send back Kiwis. Genuine Kiwis. Do not deport your people and your problems."

Ardern's comments came ahead of a general election in New Zealand in September where Australia's treatment of migrants is expected to be a key issue.

In response, Morrison declared that his government would not abandon the policy.

"The Australian government's policy is very clear. We deport non-citizens who have committed crimes in Australia against our community. This policy is applied not specific to one country, but to any country whose citizens are here," he said.

"You commit a crime here, if convicted, once you have done your time, we send you home."
The Michigan home belonging to a man who confessed to murdering his Grindr date before he ate his testicles has sold at a foreclosure auction for $101,733.28.

Four people furiously bid on the picturesque property on Wednesday, with the eventual winner agreeing to pay a whopping $21,000 over the reserve.

The home, located in the township of Morrice, belonged to Mark Latunski, 50, who confessed to killing Kevin Bacon, 25, at the address last December.

On Thursday, a judge deemed Latunksi unfit to stand trial and ordered him to be transferred to a psychiatric facility.

The Michigan home belonging to Mark Latunski (right) has sold at auction for $101, 733.28. Latunski's Grindr date, Kevin Bacon (left) was brutally killed inside the home last December

The picturesque property, located in the township of Morrice, is pictured from the outside. Bacon's body was found in a secret room in the basement

The identity of the winning bidder has not been identified, and it is unclear if they plan to move into the home.

However, another person who bid on the property spoke with MLive-The Flint Journal and said they were interested in using the house as a 'potential rental'.

'Just investment purposes,' they stated, adding that they had not inspected the home.

'We just don't know what the interior (is like), what the biohazard could be,' they added.

Despite selling for above the reserve, the home is cheaper than most in the town, where the average property price is around $180,000.

The foreclosure auction took place at at the Shiawassee County Courthouse. The winning bidder is seen signing papers

Bacon arrived at the home on Christmas Eve, and did not come out alive. Following news of his death, two other men claimed that they had been locked in the basement of the home

Bacon, a Michigan hairstylist, is pictured in a social media snap taken before his untimely death

Latunski, a former chemist, began chatting with Bacon, a much-younger hairstylist, on the dating app Grindr last December.

Bacon went to Latunski's home on Christmas Eve, where the gruesome events unfolded.

Bacon's naked body was found four days later on December 28 hanging upside down from the rafters of Latunski's Michigan home by a rope tied around his ankles, after police went to conduct a welfare check for Bacon when they were tipped off that he may be inside.

Latunski confessed to officers that he had killed his date by stabbing him in the back and then slitting his throat with a knife.

A judge deemed Latunksi unfit to stand trial and ordered him to be transferred to a psychiatric facility

The suspect also confessed to cutting off Bacon's testicles and eating them.

It later emerged that two other men may have had a lucky escape from the suspected killer in the months leading up to Bacon's death.

Just months before the gruesome murder, two men called police on separate occasions, saying they had escaped from Latunski's basement.

A horrifying 911 call from October emerged of a 40-year-old man who said he was running away from Latunski's house.

'I want you to know like I've never ever had anything like this happen. I don't know if he drugged me. All is know is I ended up locked up in the f***ing basement, okay? Chained in the basement,' the male said.

The caller explained to the dispatcher that he ran into Latunski at a bus station that night.

'I met this guy. I'm Bi. He's cute. He hit on me. I don't know we went out to the car and talked. We went to the store, had a soda. I woke up in the basement,' he said. 'He seemed like a nice guy.'

The man told the 911 operator that he used a butcher knife he found in the basement to cut a leather strap restraining his ankles, which was connected to a chain, and then fled on foot.

In a bizarre twist, the man later returned to Latunski's home and stayed there for two or three days, according to the police.

No charges were ever filed in that case.

Then, in November, another man dialed 911 to report that he was running away from Latunski's home.

The 29-year-old man called officers to report that he had been tied up in the suspect's basement.

'I'm trying to get away from some creepy guy,' the caller tells the dispatcher. 'He had me tied in his basement.'

'He's after me.'

The victim sought help from a neighbor, while on the phone to police.

Officers arrived on the scene just as Latunski turned up to retrieve the leather kilt the man was wearing, saying it was expensive and belonged to him.

The victim again declined to file charges against Latunski, telling police their activity was consensual.

Police said they did not follow up on Latunski because both men declined to pursue charges against him.
BJP leader Kapil Mishra remains at the eye of the controversy surrounding what spurred riots in the National Capital even as things appear to have calmed down in the sensitive North East district of Delhi.

BJP leader Kapil Mishra remains at the centre of the controversy surrounding what spurred riots in the National Capital even as things appear to have calmed down in the sensitive northeast part of Delhi.

Mishra, in the spotlight for his incendiary remarks calling for forceful removal of citizenship law protesters last week after which pro-CAA mobs appeared and clashed with those protesting the law. He had earlier also raised slogans urging mobs to "shoot the traitors." The Delhi Police has, meanwhile, sought more time to register a First Information Report against Mishra, as it needs more time to investigate the BJP leader's role.

However, the students of Delhi School of Social Work , Delhi University  Mishra's alma mater  have already condemned his alleged role in inciting the violence and have distanced themselves from his actions.

The DSSW's student union issued a statement in this regard and said that Mishra was a "blot" on DSSW's illustrious alumni network. The student union's statement said, "We are ashamed of Kapil Mishra and also that he studied social work in our college. The image of our department and social works profession has been tarnished due to his provocative acts and statements."

"Kapil Mishra does not deserve to be called a DSSW alumnus," the statement added.

DSSW student union president Anish Kumar, also a member of Swaraj India party, said that the statement was passed unanimously by the body and all cell members agreed that Mishra's actions maligned the DSSW's reputation and the social workers' profession. "The union believes that Kapil Mishra is one of the persons responsible for the incitement of violence. His hateful speech and the communal disharmony it created culminated into the riots," he said.

Kumar also clarified that the statement was issued by the student union alone, and although the administration was intimated before its release, the union alone was responsible for it.

Mishra, critics say, is responsible for giving communal overtones to the protests against Citizenship Amendment Act by terming those against the said law as 'traitors' or anti-nationals. His role is said to be more pronounced in the violent clashes that started over last weekend, as Mishra led a "peace march" from Jantar Mantar to Delhi Police headquarters and issued an 'ultimatum' to the Delhi Police to clear roads blocked by the anti-CAA protesters.

He, however, has defended himself saying that he was being questioned for 'pleading' with anti-CAA protestors to clear road blockades while those talking of "dividing" the country were not.

"I want to ask how long would this continue in this country that those who talk about dividing the country are not asked any questions. No one is questioning those whose terrace are found stocked with petrol bombs, rocks, other weapons. On the other hand, somebody who only requested for clearing roads because it was causing inconvenience to 35 lakh people in Delhi is being called a terrorist, a villain," Mishra said, referring to AAP councillors Imran Hussain and Tariq Hussain.

"We have been witnessing these vulgar protests for over 70 days now in which some big politicians and so-called activists are involved which are flaming feelings against the police and the defence forces. The violence in the name of anti-CAA protests which has spread in Delhi and elsewhere in the country should come to an end, it has gone too far now," Mishra added.

At least 39 people have lost their lives and more than 200 injured in the violence that unfolded in Maujpur, Jafrabad, Babarpur, Yamuna Vihar, Shiv Vihar, Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh, Ghonda, among other areas in northeast Delhi from Sunday.

With inputs from agencies
Two men and one woman have been rushed to hospital with serious injuries after a driver struck them Friday morning in North York.

Emergency crews responded to reports of multiple pedestrians being hit by a driver at Yonge Street and Park Home Avenue, near Mel Lastman Square, police tweeted at around 8:15 a.m.

The car rolled over and crashed into a nearby building, police said in their tweet, adding that there was a gas leak because of the collision.

The roads were closed for the investigation and the gas leak before being reopened about two hours later.

David Venn is a breaking news reporter, working out of the Star's radio room in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @davidvenn_

Read more about:
Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA (EMGS or the Company) is pleased to announce that the Company has received a letter of intent with a minimum value of USD 3.6 million from an undisclosed customer on behalf of a JV block consortium, offshore Namibia. Under the terms of the pending data licensing agreement, a final survey option type and license fee is expected to be determined by the customer within end of Q1 2020.



Under the terms of the letter of intent, the customer will pre-fund a new multi-client CSEM data acquisition in the Walvis Basin using EMGSs next generation DeepBlue, a deep-towed source developed under a joint industry project involving Shell and Equinor. In addition, EMGS will provide data processing, inversion with 3D Gauss-Newton and integrated interpretation services.



Subject to final contract exchange and regulatory permits, including an environmental clearance certificate, survey acquisition is expected to commence between 1 May and 1 August 2020 using the vessel Atlantic Guardian.



CEO of EMGS, Bjrn Petter Lindhom comments:



Were delighted to receive this letter of intent for a multi-client campaign in the Walvis Basin. Securing this additional commitment in Namibia also enables EMGS to convert an existing acquisition contract in Block 2113A, announced by EMGS in August 2019 with Nabirm Global LLC, from a vessel of opportunity with backstop, to a firm survey commitment in 2020.



We continue to engage with customers with a view to further expand the planned data coverage to provide a first-class CSEM dataset extending between the Walvis & Orange Basins, where several high impact, deep-water exploration wells are planned in 2020.



Contact

Anders Eimstad, EMGS Interim Chief Financial Officer, +47 948 25 836



About EMGS

EMGS, the marine EM market leader, uses its proprietary electromagnetic (EM) technology to support oil and gas companies in their search for offshore hydrocarbons. EMGS supports each stage in the workflow, from survey design and data acquisition to processing and interpretation. The Company's services enable the integration of EM data with seismic and other geophysical and geological information to give explorationists a clearer and more complete understanding of the subsurface. This improves exploration efficiency and reduces risks and the finding costs per barrel.



EMGS operates on a worldwide basis with offices in Trondheim, Oslo, Houston, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Kuala Lumpur.



This information is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation presented its budget for 2020-21 on Friday.

The budget showed 1,997.79- crore income and 1,996.79-crore expenditure  around 59.8 crore more than the previous budget.

While presenting the budget, KDMC commissioner Vijay Suryavanshi stressed on cleanliness and beautification of the twin cities.

Three things I want to emphasise through the budget  cleanliness, economic discipline and good governance. Kalyan and Dombivli have not developed as expected. My efforts will be on to make the city a better place to live in, said Suryavanshi.

Awards for officials

The civic body plans to introduce Swachch Society Award every month.

In order to involve civic officials and corporators in keeping the city clean, the civic body will survey all wards in Kalyan and Dombivli. A ward will be ranked every month based on the cleanliness and beautification. The ward officers will be felicitated as per the ranking.

After monthly ranking, there will be another ranking at the end of the year.

Corporators, who will initiate waste segregation and disposal in their ward, will be felicitated on August 15.

A total of 71 crore has been allocated for this.

Although the budget has allocations for sports, education, health, fire service and civic transportation, the KDMC chief said there will be no new projects undertaken in the coming financial year.

We will follow economic discipline by balancing the funds we have for the works which are underway. There wont be any new projects introduced by the civic body, said Suryavanshi.

Adopt e-governance

The civic body aims at providing e-governance to citizens by making all payment facilities online.

The civic body will also felicitate those officials who work with dedication for good governance.

There are several workers and officials who work even during holidays. We will recognise them and felicitate them. Although the civic body has been taking up all basic works, there is a need to work on big projects throughout the year, said Suryavanshi.

Some of the works which the civic body will emphasise on are waste management, road-widening, building flyovers and storm water drains.

Areas on the outskirts of the city such as Ambivli, Mohili, Balyani, Umbarni and slums in Kalyan (East) will be developed through mission mode, said Suryavanshi.

The civic body also aims at improving its economic stability by increasing revenue through collecting taxes and utilising reserved plots for parking facilities.

It will also apply for more funds and grants from the state and central government under various schemes.

We have already initiated action against tax defaulters. This will help us in increase revenue to some extent, said Suryavanshi.

Inspirational quotes

The new civic body chief recited inspirational quotes throughout the budget presentation.

Budget presentation is always technical and has lots of numbers. The quotes were to hold the attention of the gathering and bring a sense of unity among the civic administration and elected representatives to work towards the development of the city, said Suryavanshi.

IMPROVING BUSES

The civic body plans to include electric buses in Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Transport (KDMT) fleet.

Facilities such as smart card, mobile ticketing, mobile pass, mobile tracking of buses. Exemption of fares for senior citizens by 50%, mediapersons and soldiers by 100% has been proposed.

For the first time, KDMT will give 100% exemption on fares for the disabled, dialysis, HIV and cancer patients. A training centre to drive heavy vehicles will be opened by KDMT.

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GRAND RAPIDS, MI - With the growing demand for a STEM educated workforce  those trained in science, technology, engineering or mathematics  employers want schools to align curriculum to meet expectations.

Grand Rapids Catholic Central High School recently became the first high school in Michigan to receive accreditation for its STEM-designated curriculum form Cognia, the globally recognized school improvement, assessment and certification organization.

It has been an incredible journey to see our school community grow in our capacity with these exciting possibilities, said Catherine Molloseau, Ph.D., a STEM teacher. We are proud to offer a curriculum that pushes our students to express themselves both creatively and analytically.

The STEM certification is widely considered as being reserved for those schools providing next-level programs. Less than 200 schools nationwide have the accreditation.

The certification process is comprehensive, evaluating organizations on the learning experiences of students, the quality and training of staff, and the participation of community and industry partners to ensure real-world integration.

Greg Deja, principal and CEO of Catholic Central, said recognition is an achievement that has been years in the making.

This certification affirms the countless hours spent developing new and innovative ways for our students to learn,'' he said.

"It is truly an honor to be the first in Michigan to receive this accreditation. We are so pleased to be able to provide such an opportunity for our students to help them find their path toward a successful future.

The school, located at 319 Sheldon Blvd. SE, has around 630 students.

Cognia, a merger between AdvancED and Measured Progress, is a worldwide organization which consults and evaluates educational institutions across 85 countries to ensure all students have the opportunity to receive a quality education.

According to a press release, to receive accreditation, Catholic Central had to demonstrate proficiency against Cognias standards. To prove its merit, Catholic Central staff participated in a series of ongoing professional development to provide students with personalized and self-directed STEM learning experiences.

This education incorporates the use of technology while creating solutions to authentic and complex problems.

Catholic Central also teamed up with colleges and the Grand Rapids community to connect students with top professionals in STEM careers for adult-world collaboration and extended day opportunities.

School leaders say these forms of non-traditional experiences encourage both post-secondary education and workforce readiness.

More on MLive:

Plans revived for hotel in Ada

Grand Valley State University cancels study abroad trips due to coronavirus

Clinic offered for those seeking expungement of criminal records in Grand Rapids suburb
Quebec provincial police have made an arrest in connection with the death of a 13-year-old girl whose body was found on the side of the road in BrownsburgChatham, Que., 50 kilometres west of Montreal, on Wednesday.

The Surete du Quebec said they arrested a 51-year-old man in Montreal on Thursday.

He will be interviewed by homicide investigators this afternoon and is expected to appear in court tomorrow.

SQ Sgt. Marc Tessier said a passerby called police after discovering the body on Horrem Road, near Berlin Street, around 11 a.m. Wednesday.

"She was sent to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. She had traces of violence on her," said Tessier.

Police are treating the girl's death as a homicide. They have not released the girl's name, but Radio-Canada sources have identified her as Oceane Boyer.

Oceane was last seen leaving her home in Lachute on Wednesday morning. It's not yet known whether she made it to Lavigne Polyvalente, her high school.

The girl's parents reported her missing Wednesday afternoon when they didn't hear from her after school.

Once her family reported her missing, police quickly made the link to the body they had found earlier that day.

The girl's school is closed today due to the snowstorm, but Tessier said police are working with the school board to provide counselling to staff and students tomorrow.

Radio-Canada

Lachute Mayor Carl Peloquin offered his condolences to the family of Oceane at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

"My own son was in her class at school last year," said Peloquin.

"You're always thinking of those moments that you never want to have to face as a parent. So this will be extremely hard," he said "It's the worst thing you could ever imagine."

Peloquin said the homicide comes as a shock to the community, which has a population of about 12,500.

"This is a close-knit community; people know each other," he said.
Any unemployed Ukrainians to be able to get over US$3,500 to start own business

13:00, 28.02.20 3181

Moreover, they will not have to repay the funds.
Ultimate Egypt Lecture Series

Cruise Lady: Latter-day Adventures is pleased to announce a new Learn Our Religion lecture series in anticipation of The Interpreter Foundation Ultimate Egypt Tour.

The lectures will be held at the Cruise Lady Jordan Event Center, in West Jordan, Utah.

They will be open to anybody who wants to attend, at no charge. (Participation in the Ultimate Egypt tour is not a requirement.) However, since seating is very limited, reservations are required.

Go to this link for further details (including dates and times, when theyre available) and for how to make reservations:

Here are the lectures and the lecturers that will be included in this series:

Stephen Smoot: An Ancient Egyptian Setting for the Book of Abraham

Since at least the 1960s, Latter-day Saint scholars have scrutinized the text of the Book of Abraham to see what clues might exist that situate it in a plausible ancient setting. With on-going progress in the fields of Egyptology and Near Eastern archaeology, these efforts have uncovered numerous points of convergence between the Book of Abraham and the ancient world. The various lines of current evidence do not prove the Book of Abraham is true, but they do help us situate the text in a plausible ancient environment, inform how we read the text, and positively impact our evaluation of Joseph Smiths claims to prophetic inspiration.

John Gee: The Gospel and the Egyptians

When Egypt became Christian, it used the Egyptian language to express that Christian identity. It recognized that certain aspects of Egyptian religion fit comfortably with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and other aspects did not fit so well. The vocabulary for aspects that fit well with the Christianity, it simply borrowed, often from the Egyptian temple vocabulary. This borrowed vocabulary illustrates what aspects of the Egyptian religion were compatible with Christianity. Come learn about what parts of the Egyptian temple early Christians found compatible with their own religion.

Jeff Bradshaw: Can modern scholarship tell us anything about the plagues and the Exodus?

Kerry Muhlestein: Ancient Egypts Temples, and Parallels

Egypt built temples for thousands of years. The largest religious buildings ever built were temples in Egypt, and the largest room in any religious structure is the hypostyle hall in the Karnak Temple. Additionally, no one mastered and used symbolism like the Egyptians. Come explore the purpose of Egyptian temples, and see how it can deepen your understanding of religious symbols in modern day usage as well.

Jeff Bradshaw: What might we learn from Egyptian sources about the Exodus and the Tabernacle?

Daniel Peterson: Time and Topic TBA

Steve Densley: Time and Topic TBA
New Delhi, Feb 28 : At 54, Bollywood superstar Salman Khan suddenly seems to be finding newfound swag in the arena of brand endorsement. He is fronting ads of a smartphone brand, a popular cola and more. The actor who has always enjoyed a massive appeal and "resonates with the word 'swag' in a way no one else can", would always seem like a top pick among Bollywood stars for endorsements, but he preferred staying away from the brands game so far.

On Wednesday, Chinese smartphone maker Realme announced that it had roped in Salman as brand ambassador. The actor will be endorsing the brand's upcoming Realme 6 and Realme 6 Pro devices for an undisclosed amount.

"What makes Salman Khan the best choice for us it that he enjoys a massive appeal across various regions and demographic profiles of India. That brings immense value to us as one of the unique selling propositions of our brand lies in making cutting edge technology, fun, stylish, quality-driven products within everyone's reach and across all price segments. Having Salman Khan on board with a mammoth fan following will help us reach and tap into that target audience of ours," said Madhav Sheth, Vice President of Realme and CEO of Realme India.

Owing to the fact that he owns the Being Human brand, Salman has always minimised associating with product endorsement. Rare cases where said yes include Revital health supplements, Dixcy Scott men's innerwear, the fintech company BharatPe, and decor solutions provider Somany Ceramics. He was also associated with the cola brand Thums Up for a long time, but that ended a while back.

On his new positioning as the face of Realme, Salman said he is happy. "I am happy to be the face of the world's fastest growing smartphone brand. The Realme 6 series is stylish and edgy and I am sure it will find favour with consumers," said Salman, who has 39.2 million followers on Twitter.

The former brand ambassador of Thums Up also got his fizz back recently by being the face of Pepsi.

"Salman Khan is known to have a strong connect across generations and genders. He is a youth icon across the nation and his popularity, mass appeal and connect with the Indian audience makes him a perfect choice for us, given we are a youth centric brand. In fact, his effortlessly cool attitude enables today's generation to strongly relate with him and we believe he resonates with the word, SWAG, in a way no one else can," PepsiCo India spokesperson told IANS about Salman, who has been associated with the word "swag" since his song "Swag se swagat" in the 2017 blockbuster "Tiger Zinda Hai" became a dance anthem, thanks to its peppy beats, the cool moves and the chemistry he shares with heroine Katrina Kaif.

Earlier this month, Pepsi launched its Valentine's Day anthem "Swag se solo" featuring the actor. It witnessed massive success, with over 118 million views on YouTube in two weeks. Pepsi's #SwagStepChallenge has created a record of 52.8 billion hits on TikTok and the recent 'Swag Se Solo' challenge saw over 5 billion hits with over 50,000 videos.

In the recent past too, Pepsi worked with Salman for an integration with his movie, "Dabangg 3", and created a challenge to don the 'Dabangg Pepsi' shades, which was one of the most successful challenges on TikTok in India, with more than one lakh videos.

Of course, the one brand that is truly dear to him, Salman would tell you, will always ne Being Human, his charity initiative, which has a clothing line, too. "Being Human is my heart and soul. I have been active and will continue to help around as much I can. Yes, I can says it has changed my life at a certain level," he told IANS earlier.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
By Joseph Ax

NEW YORK, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Bernie Sanders' Democratic presidential rivals warn that nominating the self-described democratic socialist will ensure President Donald Trump's re-election, but a growing number of the party's voters see the senator as their best chance of winning in November.

Sanders' dominating performance in last week's Nevada caucuses, powered by growing support across age, race and ideology, has set off alarm bells among Democratic Party officials who believe putting the progressive stalwart at the top of the ticket will harm the party's chances up and down the ballot.

Sanders' electability was a prime topic at Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina. Rivals contended his ambitious liberal policy ideas, such as Medicare for All, which would replace private health insurance, would be an electoral "catastrophe," costing the party the White House and control of Congress.

But the latest Reuters/Ipsos polling shows Sanders' rising momentum in the race - a near win in Iowa, a narrow victory in New Hampshire and a decisive win in Nevada - has given him more credibility with Democratic voters.

Some 26% of Democrats and independents polled Feb. 17-25 said they believed Sanders was the strongest Democrat in a head-to-head matchup with Trump, compared with 20% who picked billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg and 17% who named former Vice President Joe Biden.

That was a big change from a month earlier, when 27% of respondents gave Biden the edge, and just 17% thought Sanders could beat Trump.

In the Nevada caucuses, Sanders won the support of a majority of Latino voters and led among most demographic groups broken out by gender, income and political leanings in Nevada. Notable exceptions were those aged 65 years and older, as well as black voters, more of whom supported Biden.

That too could be changing. The same Reuters/Ipsos polling showed that Sanders had overtaken Biden in support among black voters nationally for the first time.

Saturday's South Carolina primary will be the first major test of Sanders' appeal among African-American voters, who represent about 60% of that state's Democratic electorate.

Story continues

Three days later, 14 states will cast ballots on Super Tuesday, when Sanders could build an overwhelming advantage if he captures the lion's share of the available delegates.

His path has been smoothed by the fragmentation among the moderate candidates. Biden, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar a all of whom say Sanders' policies are too radical to win in November, have each recorded at least one top-three finish thus far, while Bloomberg's name will appear on ballots for the first time on Super Tuesday.

'NOT RADICAL'

Sanders argues the enthusiasm powering his campaign will lead to record turnout in November, particularly among young and infrequent voters, making up for any deficiency among swing voters or Republicans.

"A large voter turnout would mean that down-ballot Democrats will ... do better than they have in the past," Sanders told Reuters on Saturday in El Paso, Texas. "Our campaign is the campaign to do that: We have the energy, we have the excitement, we have the grassroots movement."

At Tuesday's debate, he said the biggest misconception about him, "and you're hearing it here tonight, is that the ideas I'm talking about are radical."

"They're not. In one form or another, they exist in countries all over the world," he added. "Healthcare is a human right. We have the necessity, the moral imperative, to address the existential threat of climate change. Other countries are doing that."

The results in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada have not provided evidence of a massive turnout surge, but Sanders' fortunes have improved with each succeeding state contest.

"If you want to win in red and purple places, the most important thing you need is people who like you or who are willing to fight for you," Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who ended her own presidential bid last year, told MSNBC on Tuesday.

"You need passion, and what Bernie showed so far is that he's got a lot of passion in his campaign."

'MAJOR CONCERNS' AMONG MODERATES

After gaining a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018, dozens of Democrats will be defending seats in Republican-leaning areas. In recent weeks, several moderate Democrats openly fretted that Sanders at the top of the ticket would risk flipping those seats.

"I hear from constituents that they are afraid they are going to have a make a choice between a self-described socialist and an aspiring dictator," said U.S. Representative Stephanie Murphy of Florida, co-chair of the congressional Blue Dog Coalition of moderate Democrats, referring to Sanders and Trump.

"That's not a choice any American should make."

Polling released by Bloomberg's campaign on Tuesday showed voters in 42 of the most vulnerable House Democrats' districts preferring Trump to Sanders.

Guy Cecil, chairman of Democratic super PAC Priorities USA, said Sanders "has some capacity to expand the Democratic vote among younger voters," adding: "At the same time, he'll need to make sure he's doing more to reach out, in particular to those women - suburban women - that were really the benchmark of us taking over the House in 2018."

Cameron Brand, 24, a patient care adviser at a medicinal dispensary in Plymouth, New Hampshire, said he knew people who voted for Trump in 2016 because they disliked mainstream Democrats, but would vote for Sanders.

"Although he is being labeled as this radical leftist or whatever, he actually does have a lot of policies that the majority of Americans agree on that cross party lines," Brand said.

Entrance polls of Nevada caucus-goers from Edison Research showed more than 60% favored replacing private insurance with a government-run plan.

"He tells it like it is," Brand said of Sanders. "He tells the truth."

(Reporting by Joseph Ax in New York; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan, Julio-Cesar Chavez, Trevor Hunnicutt and Simon Lewis; Editing by Scott Malone, Soyoung Kim and Peter Cooney)
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Editors note: This was corrected to show that the report indicated that only hes on life support.

A man who graduated high school in Luzerne County is reportedly on life support in Japan after contracting the coronavirus.

Dan Fisher and his wife were on a cruise ship a few weeks ago when they became sick, Dans childhood friend Fred Nicholas told WNEP-TV. Fred told the news organization he last heard that Dan was being tested for the coronavirus on Feb. 3 but hasnt heard from him since.

Fred also told WNEP-TV that, according to a mutual friend, Dan and his wife both tested positive and that hes on life support in a hospital in Japan, according to the report.

Dan graduated from Coughlin High School in 1975, WNEP-TV reports.

As of Friday morning, there have been no updates on Dan or his wife.

Read more:

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Public transport in Luxembourg will be free to use from this weekend, with consequences for those abroad.

The initiative kicks off on Saturday 29 February, as announced by Minister for Mobility Francois Bausch at a press conference on Thursday. Luxembourg will become the first country in the world to provide bus, train and tram services for free, attracting attention from beyond its borders.

The Luxembourgish and international press was well represented at the conference, with 60 reporters from 40 different media companies - including 30 journalists from foreign countries.

ARD correspondent Gudrun Engel said it was an exciting prospect, with many Germans also clamouring for free public transport. Luxembourg could lead the way in that sense.

Of course, not just Luxembourgers will benefit from the free transport, with Bausch hoping that the 214,000 cross-border workers who commute to the Grand Duchy each day would also be able to make use of it. Luxembourg authorities have collaborated with the French, Belgian and German train companies to ensure any tickets sold would deduct the cost of the Luxembourg portion of any journey, thus offering reduced ticket prices to commuters travelling by train.

Engel said this was an attractive offer, provided there were sufficient trains with sufficient space to encourage commuters to take to the rails instead of the roads.

However, Belgian journalists such as TVLux's Olivier Oranne expressed concerns that cross-border commuters might stop taking the train from Libramont or Arlon, and instead drive to the border before getting on a train, which would risk clogging up car parks.

Alongside journalists, Thursday's press conference also welcomed representatives from foreign municipalities. A number of European cities have experimented with free public transport to date. Estonia's capital, Tallinn, was the first city in Europe to introduce free transport in 2013, which has led to a 10% increase in the number of passengers using public transport. However, Luxembourg is the first to introduce free transport across the nation, which explains the media interest from abroad.

Report in Luxembourgish.
Infectious disease experts have backed Prime Minister Scott Morrison's decision to treat the coronavirus outbreak as a global pandemic, despite the World Health Organisation declining to do so, saying Australia must prepare for the inevitable.

Professor Raina MacIntyre, head of the Biosecurity Research Program at the University of NSW Kirby Institute, said the confirmation by the United States on Friday of its first coronavirus case with no travel or contact history with China or another infected person "suggests community transmission" and that "it may be a matter of time before we see that here".

"There are several different definitions of 'pandemic' - the simplest is an epidemic which has gone global," Professor MacIntyre told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Infectious disease experts have back Scott Morrison's decision to treat the coronavirus as a global pandemic. Credit:Andre Penner

"The WHO is waiting to see evidence of sustained transmission in two or more WHO regions. One could argue we are seeing that in Europe and the Middle East."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 21:09:34|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The number of new COVID-19 infections outside of China is rising, while the turning point of the outbreak in China has not yet arrived. It is too early to relax.

The number of new cases outside of China has outnumbered that reported inside China. Many Asian countries including Japan and the Republic of Korea have tightened quarantine measures after sudden increases of new infections were reported. More national governments have said they have plans to implement larger-scale quarantine if things worsen.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on the global community to be on heightened alert. The epidemic situation remains grim and complex. Any lax efforts at this crucial moment will cause huge losses, both for China and the world.

While unity and global cooperation are in urgent need to curb the spread of the virus, some U.S. politicians have continued their smear campaign against China. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently accused China and Iran of covering up the severity of the epidemic. His words neglect the basic facts and are unbecoming of a top U.S. diplomat.

China's transparency in the epidemic control should not be questioned. It updates the number of new infections, deaths and recoveries on a daily basis. China shared the virus's genetic sequence and other important information with the WHO, a significant move for other countries and multinational agencies to work out solutions for treatment.

Pompeo's comment was even contradicted by President Donald Trump who praised China for "working hard and smart" in response to the outbreak.

Such a groundless accusation reflects the ideological bias against China held by some U.S. politicians, who are obsessed with a Cold War mentality and zero-sum game mindset. It undermines their credibility as well as the mutual trust between people of both countries.

To prevail over a disease that threatens us all, unity and cooperation are the most powerful weapon. Countries should change their mindset, build up their response capacity, communicate more and learn from each other. The war against the virus is ongoing. U.S. politicians should stop making untenable and irresponsible comments.
MIDDLE EAST

Iraq

Expected Council Action

In March, the Council expects to receive a briefing by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, on the most recent developments in the situation in Iraq and on the two latest Secretary-Generals reportson UNAMI and on the issue of missing Kuwaiti and third-country nationals and missing Kuwaiti property, including the national archives.

UNAMIs mandate expires on 31 May 2020. The mandate of the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/ISIL (UNITAD) expires on 21 September 2020.

Key Recent Developments

Widespread popular protests in different parts of Iraq, including Baghdad, started in early October 2019 and have continued with varying intensity. Protesters are voicing long-standing demands regarding basic services and infrastructure, which are lacking as a result of government neglect and failure to reconstruct the country, and overall corruption. Protests with similar demands have occurred sporadically over the past years. This time, protesters also seek structural change, including amendments to the constitution and the electoral system and an end to outside influence in the country. Briefing the Council on 3 December, Hennis-Plasschaert said that events spun out of control on the very first night of the demonstrations, with authorities immediately resorting to excessive force. In a 13 December press statement, Council members expressed grave concern over violence against protesters in Iraq. In a 17 February press release, Hennis-Plasschaert strongly condemned the use of hunting guns against protesters, which had caused high numbers of casualties. According to the latest Secretary-Generals report on UNAMI, violence in the context of the protests resulted in at least 457 deaths and 9,132 injuries between the start of the protests and 26 January. The report further suggests that if injuries caused by the excessive use of tear gas were to be included, the number of injured people might exceed 21,000. In this latest report, the Secretary-General calls human rights violations in relation to the protests a grave concern.

On 1 February, Iraqi President Barham Salih appointed Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi, a politician with cabinet experience, as the new Iraqi Prime Minister. The protesters have reportedly rejected the nomination. One of the protesters demands is a government of independent figures without any previous government or legislative experience or affiliation since 2003. According to the Iraqi constitution, the Prime Minister-designate has 30 days to form a new government.

US facilities continue to be targets of rocket attacks, including a 16 February attack on a base used by the US-led Global Coalition against Daesh. Apart from the 8 January attack, no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks to date. On 3 January, Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, was killed by a US strike near the Baghdad airport. On 5 January, the Iraqi parliament adopted a resolution calling on foreign troops to leave Iraq. In a 6 January letter to the Council president, Iraq condemned the attack as violating the sovereignty of Iraq and the principles of international law. In a 9 January letter, the US argued that it had acted in self-defence. On 8 January, Iran retaliated by striking a base in Iraq, injuring approximately 100 US troops, according to media reports. In his latest report on UNAMI, the Secretary-General expresses his deep concern over the impact of increasing regional tensions on Iraq.

The 23 December 2019 report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Iraq described disturbing trends and patterns of grave violations committed against children, notably high numbers of verified child casualties. These are caused by both extreme violence committed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or Daesh) and military operations by parties to the conflict. The report counts grave violations against 2,114 children between July 2015 and July 2019.

A January report by UNAMI and the OHCHR on the administration of justice in Iraq focused on trials under the Iraqi anti-terrorism laws. On the one hand, the report noted a consistent pattern of well-organized trial proceedings. On the other hand, the report found that basic fair trial standards were not respected. Such concerns included, inter alia, a disadvantaged defence in comparison to the prosecution, reliance on confessions allegedly produced under torture, and prosecution under an overly broad and vague definition of terrorism and related offences.

According to the 25th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team supporting the 1267/1989/2253 ISIL/Daesh Committee, ISIL has begun to reassert itself in Iraq.

The Secretary-Generals tenth report on the threat posed by ISIL to international peace and security, and the range of UN efforts in support of member states in countering the threat, said that ISIL has around 4,662 fighters in Iraq, according to numbers from UNAMI.

A February report by UNAMI and the OHCHR on the right to education with a focus on the consequences of the effects of ISIL territorial control in Iraq concluded that ISIL territorial control has consequences on access to education to this day and has created a marginalised generation of children and young adults, many of whom are or will be entering adulthood without any post-primary schooling.

At press time, the UNs 2020 humanitarian response plan for Iraq of $519.8 million was funded at 1.2 percent, with $513.6 million outstanding. According to the latest Secretary-Generals report on UNAMI, there are about 1.4 million internally displaced persons in Iraq as at 31 January 2019.

Human Rights-Related Developments The special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, visited Iraq from 15 to 23 February to assess the human rights situation of the 1.4 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country. She visited Baghdad, Erbil and other locations hosting IDPs. At press time, she was expected to issue a public statement on her preliminary conclusions.

Key Issues and Options

Depending on political developments, an immediate option for Council members would be to issue a statement voicing support for the progress in forming a new government and potential subsequent steps towards meeting some of the protesters demands.

As chair of the 1518 Iraqi Sanctions Committee, Estonia could continue seizing the momentum and political will of Council members and the Iraqi government to further advance the delisting of entities and follow up on concrete proposals on the unfreezing of Iraqi assets.

Council and Wider Dynamics

Council members are generally unanimous in their support for UNAMI, Iraqs post-ISIL reconstruction needs, and the positive developments in Iraq-Kuwait relations.

Regional dynamics continue to affect Iraq, as evidenced by the killing of Soleimani and the Iranian retaliation. The Iraqi government routinely states that Iraq has no intention of taking sides and becoming a theatre for regional and Iran-US tensions. Iraq is also affected by the conflict dynamics in neighbouring Syria, including the issue of the 30,000 Iraqi nationals currently in the al-Hawl refugee camp in Syria.

Turkey continues to have troops stationed in Iraq, over Iraqs objections.

The US is the penholder on Iraq issues in general, and the UK is the penholder on Iraq-Kuwait issues and UNITAD. Ambassador Sven Jurgenson (Estonia) is the chair of the 1518 Iraq Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON IRAQ
PARIS, Feb 28 (Reuters) - France on Friday called on Russia and the Syrian government to end their offensive in northwestern Syria and said Europe was ready to reinforce its assistance to help Turkey handle Syrian refugees.

"I reiterated France's call to the Syrian regime and to Russia to end the military offensive in the northwest of Syria, to fully respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and to return to the ceasefire arrangements of autumn 2018 to immediately end the hostilities," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement after talks with Turkey's Mevlut Cavusoglu.

After 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Syria on Thursday, Ankara said earlier in the day that it would not prevent thousands of refugees stuck in the country from heading to Europe.

"I welcomed the efforts made by the neighbours of Syria, and Turkey in particular, to provide assistance to the Syrian refugees and I reiterated our determination to mobilise reinforced humanitarian assistance, at the national level and with the European Union and its member states," Le Drian said. (Reporting by John Irish; editing be Leigh Thomas)
Harvey Weinstein's lawyer fears the convicted rapist could be arrested by Los Angeles authorities if they try to get him out on bail while he awaits sentencing in New York.

Weinstein is currently in custody in a Manhattan hospital after being convicted by a New York jury this week of raping Jessica Mann in 2013 and sexually assaulting Mimi Haleyi in 2006.

His legal team had initially said after his conviction that they were trying to get him released on bond prior to his March 11 sentencing.

But one of his defense lawyers now says that might not be the case due to separate charges Weinstein is facing in California.

One of Harvey Weinstein's lawyers fears the convicted rapist could be arrested by Los Angeles authorities if they try to get him out on bail while he awaits sentencing in New York. He is pictured arriving at court on Monday on the day he was convicted

'This is all new uncharted territory,' lawyer Arthur Aidala told Bloomberg.

'He's got his case in LA, and we're trying to figure out - if we get him out - they could immediately move to get him in their custody once a judge here grants him bail.'

In the California case, Weinstein is accused of raping one woman in a Beverly Hills hotel and groping another woman, model Lauren Young, while masturbating in a hotel bathroom on consecutive nights during Oscars week in 2013.

He is charged with forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint.

The charges, which were announced the night before his New York rape trial started on January 6, could land Weinstein an additional 28 years in prison if convicted of the most serious counts.

Weinstein, who plans to appeal, is facing up to 29 years in prison for the New York conviction.

He is currently being guarded at the Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan after he started suffering from heart palpitations and chest pains just moments after his conviction was handed down.

His legal team had initially said after his conviction that they were trying to get him released on bond prior to his March 11 sentencing. But one of his defense lawyers Arthur Aidala now says that might not be the case due to separate charges Weinstein is facing in California

Weinstein is currently in custody in a Manhattan hospital after being convicted by a New York jury this week of raping Jessica Mann in 2013 and sexually assaulting Mimi Haleyi in 2006

Weinstein is expected to be transferred to the notorious Rikers Island jail once he is released from hospital. It is not yet clear when that will be.

The LA case will not start until after his sentencing in New York on March 11 and no date has yet been set.

Weinstein is expected to be released into the custody of Los Angeles authorities so he can face trial there. If convicted, he would then serve any potential prison sentence in California after his New York sentence is over.

Weinstein's lawyer Donna Rotunno told DailyMail.com that their team haven't yet started thinking about the LA case.

One of the woman Weinstein is charged with sexually assaulting in the LA case, Lauren Young, was one of the six accusers who testified during the New York trial.

Young, a model and actress, was among three women allowed to testify as prosecutors sought to show Weinstein's 'prior bad acts' to establish a pattern of abuse.

Weinstein was convicted by a jury of sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 (left) and raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013 (right)

One of the woman Weinstein is charged with sexually assaulting in the LA case, Lauren Marie Young, was one of the six accusers who testified during the New York trial

It is not yet clear how many prior bad act witnesses LA prosecutors will call in that case.

California does not have the same restraints New York does in terms of allowing such witnesses and prosecutors are reportedly hoping to take advantage of it by widening the scope and number of witnesses they can use to show an alleged pattern.

Italian-Filipina model Ambra Gutierrez is expected to be one of those witnesses, sources told the New York Times.

Gutierrez was one of the first women to publicly accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct in 2015 when she went to police and claimed he had fondled her breasts and put his hand up her skirt during a business meeting.

Investigators had her wear a wire when she went to meet with the producer the following day and he was heard in the tapes apologizing for his inappropriate touching as he begged her to go to his hotel room.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, however, declined to press charges at the time.

While LA prosecutors can't bring charges against Weinstein over Gutierrez's allegations, her testimony is expected to play a role in the case there.
Photo: Tyler Bolken/Flickr

Here's what you need to know about what's happening in Phoenix.

Man arrested after hes caught twice touching himself outside Phoenix homes, police say

Police say Ahmad Levon behaved inappropriately in public at least four times before he was arrested. The incidents were caught on camera twice.

Read the full story on 12NEWS.

DHS waives more regulations to speed construction of border wall

The Trump administration took another step toward expediting construction of a border wall, announcing it is waiving federal contracting regulations to fast track construction in four states, including Arizona.

Read the full story on www.westvalleyview.com.

Phoenix priest dies months after being indicted for child sex abuse

A former Phoenix priest accused of sexually abusing two boys died Tuesday, according to the church.

Read the full story on New York Daily News.

Court denies Joe Arpaio's bid to remove criminal conviction, citing pardon

Arpaio was convicted for disobeying an order barring his traffic patrols that targeted immigrants.

Read the full story on PBS NewsHour.

This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
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Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 23:32:57|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign trade is capable of weathering the coronavirus outbreak and will see progress once the epidemic is gradually contained, said experts.

"Though China's foreign trade sector is facing a big test, it can deliver satisfactory results," Wei Jianguo, vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE), told a news conference Friday.

Wei estimated that the country's exports would slide in the first three months of the year but rebound in the second quarter, while imports will notch double-digit year-on-year growth in 2020.

Private firms are now major contributors to China's foreign trade, and they are more sensitive and open to market changes compared to the 2003 SARS epidemic period, Wei said. He cited eastern Zhejiang Province's Yiwu International Trade Market as an example, noting that businesses there have already restarted operation since last week after detecting market demand.

Wei predicted imports to rise rapidly in the wake of the outbreak as it did not dampen consumer demand and huge consumption potential in health, travel, culture and training awaited to be unleashed.

Noting the impact of the outbreak might ripple around the world and disrupt the global supply chain, Wei advised China, Japan and the Republic of Korea to join hands to strengthen industrial cooperation to minimize uncertainties.

"The outbreak is only confined to certain areas and short-lived, but the cooperation of supply chain is long-term and out of strategic considerations," said Zhang, chief researcher with the CCIEE.

With the emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and 5G, the collaboration of the supply chain will evolve and become more flexible, Zhang added.

"China experienced transformative developments every time there was an economic slowdown, and I believe this epidemic is also such an opportunity," Zhang said.
MCLEAN, Va. and BRUSSELS, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aireon and EUROCONTROL announced today they have signed a 10-year agreement for the provision of space-based automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) data. This will enhance flow management capabilities across EUROCONTROL's 41 European Member States and two Comprehensive Agreement (CA) States contributing to improve predictability, capacity, environmental impact supporting sustainable growth throughout the European region. It will also support other applications, such as crisis management, contingency management, environmental monitoring, performance monitoring and expanded datasets for post-analysis, traffic statistics and safety-related assessments.

"With Aireon's high-integrity, high-quality data, the EUROCONTROL Network Manager will have the ability to work with information from beyond the European airspace," said Eamonn Brennan, Director General, EUROCONTROL. "Full integration of Aireon space-based ADS-B data will allow us to be more accurate in our trajectory predictions and ensure higher levels of safety, predictability and efficiency in our flow management operations. This partnership is the latest development in our effort to ensure European airspace is one of the most dynamic and efficient in the world."

Aireon data will be integrated into the EUROCONTROL's enhanced tactical flow management system (ETFMS), which provides data to European aviation stakeholders, regardless of operational borders, in real time. Space-based ADS-B data will enrich ETFMS's complex traffic demand and slot allocation calculations, which currently rely on ground-based surveillance data and flight plan processing systems. As a result, Aireon's data will support Europe's primary flow management system to be more accurate in its trajectory predictions and unlock an otherwise unavailable operational capacity.

Spanning 43 countries from Turkey to Ireland, Finland to Portugal, EUROCONTROL's Member States and CA States between them encompass over 11.5 million square kilometers of terrestrial airspace, as well as part of the airspace over the North Atlantic, Mediterranean and Baltic. Having been nominated as the Network Manager (NM) by the European Commission until the end of 2029, EUROCONTROL is driving a coordinated and technologically advanced approach to the challenges faced by the European air traffic network. Helping address the improvements that are needed in operations, cybersecurity, service provision, crisis management, airspace design, utilization and more, EUROCONTROL provides support and expertise to air navigation service providers (ANSPs), airlines, airports and military partners in the region to help make European aviation, safe, synchronized, efficient and environmentally friendly.

In 2019, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certified Aireon as the first-ever provider of aircraft surveillance-as-a-service. Additionally, Aireon has the only global, single-source dataset available to the industry. For EUROCONTROL, this means that once the service is integrated into its systems, it will have unprecedented visibility into the full picture of aircraft arriving, departing and crossing over Europe over an area of six flight hours and 3,000 nautical miles around EUROCONTROL Member States.

"EUROCONTROL is a leader in air traffic flow management. They are the first customer to use Aireon data well beyond their own area of responsibility. This will enable them to maximize the effectiveness of their processes and procedures by including long-range arrivals and neighboring States into their capacity and demand measures," said Don Thoma, CEO, Aireon. "EUROCONTROL recognizes the global value in connecting ANSPs through a common, high-fidelity, global data source that provides situational awareness of actual aircraft position information. We look forward to the benefits all EUROCONTROL customers will see in the near, medium and long-term."

Aireon's data will also be integrated in EUROCONTROL's new system called iNM, which will implement incremental updates to all of EUROCONTROL's operational systems and digital infrastructure in the course of this decade.

About Aireon LLC

Aireon has deployed a space-based air traffic surveillance system for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) equipped aircraft throughout the entire globe. Aireon is harnessing next-generation aviation surveillance technologies that were formerly ground-based and, for the first time ever, is extending their reach globally to significantly improve efficiency, enhance safety, reduce emissions and provide cost savings benefits to all stakeholders. Space-based ADS-B surveillance covers oceanic, polar and remote regions, and augments existing ground-based systems that are limited to terrestrial airspace. In partnership with leading ANSPs from around the world, like NAV CANADA, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), Enav, NATS and Naviair, as well as Iridium Communications, Aireon is providing a global, real-time, space-based air traffic surveillance system, available to all aviation stakeholders. For more information, please visit www.aireon.com .

About EUROCONTROL

EUROCONTROL is an intergovernmental organisation with 41 Member and 2 Comprehensive Agreement States. We are committed to supporting European aviation and building, together with our partners, a Single European Sky that will deliver the air traffic management (ATM) performance required for the twenty-first century and beyond.

Over 1,900 highly qualified professionals spread over four European countries work at EUROCONTROL, deploying their expertise to address ATM challenges.

For more information, please visit www.eurocontrol.int .

Press Contacts:

Jessie Hillenbrand

Aireon

+1 (703) 287-7452

[email protected]

Kyla Evans

EUROCONTROL

+ 32 2 729 5095

[email protected]

SOURCE Aireon LLC

Related Links

http://www.aireon.com


Bacon isnt just for breakfast anymore. Heres a sampling of restaurants throughout the region where you can dig into some sinfully delicious strips of bacon from breakfast right through to lunch, dinner and even dessert. Lock 29 with Rebel Hill...
omersukrugoksu/iStock(MOSCOW) -- Russia has denied it was responsible for airstrikes that killed dozens of Turkish soldiers on Thursday night in the Syrian province of Idlib, in an incident that has threatened to further escalate Syrias civil war.



NATO on Friday was holding an emergency meeting at Turkeys request to discuss the situation in Idlib following the incident in which Turkish officials have said at least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed and almost 40 wounded.



The soldiers were in Idlib to support Syrian rebel groups trying to resist a Russian-backed offensive by the Syrian government.



In response to the deaths, Turkey also announced it will now stop preventing Syrian refugees from crossing into Europe, hoping that the prospect of a fresh migrant crisis might prompt Western countries to intervene to stop the Syrian offensive.



A senior Turkish official briefed reporters on Friday that Turkish border guards and coast guard have been ordered to stand down. "We have decided, effective immediately, not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land or sea," the official, who requested anonymity, told reporters from Reuters and a number of other international news agencies.



Following the announcement, there were reports of hundreds of Syrian refugees preparing to move toward Turkeys border with Greece and Bulgaria. Turkish media showed video purportedly of people walking through fields near the border in northwestern Turkey and gathering near the coast. It was unclear that the numbers were more than usual, however.



The deaths of the Turkish soldiers on Thursday night was the worst loss of life Turkeys military has suffered since it intervened in Syria in 2016. It was also the most serious incident in the intensifying proxy war between Russia and Turkey in Idlib, where the two countries forces are increasingly coming into direct contact.



Intense fighting has been raging for days as Turkey has backed the rebels using artillery and other heavy weaponry, while Russia has conducted airstrikes in support of the Syrian government forces. The strike on Thursday came after the rebels retook the key town of Saraqeb.



Rahmi Dogan, the governor of Hatay province, told the state-run Anadolu news agency that he and other Turkish officials blamed the strikes on the Syrian government.



There had quickly been speculation that the strikes that killed the troops may have been carried out by Russian warplanes. Russia has been conducting the majority of airstrikes in the area in recent days, despite Turkey's statement that the planes had belonged to the Syrian government.



Russias defense ministry on Friday denied that its aircraft had been operating in the area and said the Turkish troops had come under fire from Syrian government forces. The ministry in a statement blamed Turkey for failing to inform Russia of the troops location and said they had been mixed in with terrorists.



The ministry said that Turkey had informed Russia that "no units of the Turkish armed forces were in the area of the village of Behun and they shouldn't have been there."



As soon as Russia became aware of the Turkish casualties it took exhaustive measures to have the Syrian government forces ceasefire and allowed Turkey to evacuate its dead and wounded, the ministry said.



The offensive in Idlib has been putting increasingly intense strain on Turkey and Russias relations. The strikes occurred on the same day as a meeting between a Russian delegation and Turkish officials in Ankara to discuss the situation in Idlib, which ended inconclusively.



Amid the heightened tensions, two Russian navy frigates, armed with cruise missiles, sailed through Istanbul en-route from the Black Sea to reinforce a task force in the Mediterranean.



Turkeys president Tayyip Recep Erdogan on Friday spoke with Russias president Vladimir Putin by phone about the incident on Friday, both presidents offices said. The two agreed on the need for additional measures to resolve the situation in Idlib, the Kremlin said in a readout.



Russias foreign minister Sergey Lavrov at a press conference Friday said the Turkish soldiers deaths had been avoidable but expressed condolences.



In Turkey, Erdogan convened an emergency meeting of his security council in response to his troops deaths and on Friday his top press aide said Turkey would retaliate against the Syrian government.



The aide, Fahrettin Altun, wrote on his Twitter account that we have been targeting all regime positions from the ground and the air. He said Turkey called on Russia and Iran to honor their responsibilities in the Astana process, that designates Idlib a de-escalation zone, and urged the international community to act.



"We had a national security meeting under the leadership of our President Erdogan following the cowardly attack on our troops. Turkey decided to respond to the illegitimate Assad regime responsible for this attack and the murder of hundreds of thousands of Syrians," spokesman Fahrettin Altun wrote on his Twitter account.



He wrote that Turkey calls on Russia and Iran, as well as the broader international community, to "honor their responsibilities" to the Astana peace process, which designates Idlib a de-escalation zone. "A repeat of past genocides such as those in Rwanda and Bosnia cannot be allowed in Idlib," he wrote.



NATO held an urgent meeting in Brussels, after Turkey triggered the Article 4 mechanism of the alliance's charter, which permits members to seek consultations when their territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened.



Following the meeting, the alliances Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on the Syrian government and Russia to halt their offensive and condemned the strikes in Idlib.



I call on them to stop their offensive, to respect international law, and to back U.N. efforts for a peaceful solution, Stoltenberg said. This dangerous situation must be de-escalated, he added.



Turkey already hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees and its government fears that hundreds of thousands more will enter as Bashar al-Assads regime advances in Idlib, which is the last rebel-held holdout in Syria. Since December close to a million civilians have already been forced from their homes in Idlib, according to the United Nations.



The U.N. and international aid organisations have been warning of a humanitarian catastrophe in Idlib, which is the last major rebel holdout in Syria and where approximately 3 million civilians are trapped. Huge numbers of people are living in tent camps or in the open, enduring freezing temperatures.



The strikes drew calls in the U.S. from Sen. Lindsey Graham for the international community to intervene and establish a no-fly zone over Idlib. Graham has previously called for a no-fly zone, but there has been little appetite in Washington or European capitals for that.



"The world is sitting on its hands and watching the destruction of Idlib by Assad, Iran, and the Russians," Graham said in a statement. "It is now time for the international community to establish a no-fly zone to save thousands of innocent men, women, and children from a horrible death."



Turkey has frequently threatened before to reopen its borders to allow refugees to Europe, which would reverse a deal it came to with the European Union in 2016 to reduce the numbers.



Migrants and refugees travelling from Turkey continue to reach Europe. In recent months, as the violence has worsened in Idlib, the numbers arriving in Greeces Aegean Islands have been the highest since early 2016 at the height of the refugee crisis.



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Bigg Boss 13 contestant Mahira Sharma has reiterated that she did not cause Paras Chhabra and Akanksha Puris breakup. While Paras was in a relationship with Akanksha, his closeness with Mahira on the show raised eyebrows.

However, in an interview with The Times Of India, Mahira claimed that it was very wrong to accuse her of driving a wedge between Paras and Akanksha. She said, I wanted to make one thing very clear that had I been the reason behind Paras and Akankshas breakup I would have been his girlfriend today. I am a very straightforward person when it comes to relationships whether it is with friends or a partner. I was very clear that he was already involved with someone and being a girl I can respect another girls feelings.

When Mahiras mother Sania Sharma came on Bigg Boss 13, she reminded Paras of Akanksha. Sania also asked Paras to stop kissing her daughter. Mahira told the newspaper that the warning was not meant in some demeaning way and said, She trusts me; all she meant was that our closeness was portrayed in a wrong way in the outside world.

Mahira was teased about having a love bite on Bigg Boss 13, but she claimed that Sidharth Shukla was just pulling her leg about an allergy that she had. I dont know when Akanksha saw a love bite on my body. There was an incident when Sidharth was teasing me and we were having fun. I had an allergy and he joked, saying that I had a love bite on my neck. I even tried to stop him but he carried on with his joke. I feel its okay when friends pull each others leg or joke. But I always knew that people who are watching outside will assume things and will actually feel that I had got a love bite, she said.

Paras did not give her any wrong vibes and she always considered him family, Mahira said, reasoning that she also kissed female contestants on the show but nobody made a big deal out of that.

Also read: Paras Chhabra slams ex Akanksha Puri, says she was acting heartbroken but had heavy makeup on

Earlier, Akanksha raised questions about Mahiras growing intimacy with Paras, and suggested that it is more than friendship. What they are doing happens between couples. Especially the intimate gestures, the love bites that he is giving Mahira, happens between couples. I think Mahira must be having friends who do such stuff but I dont have, Akanksha had told The Times Of India earlier, in an interview.

Mahira said that Paras shared with her the details of his conversation with Akanksha before he entered Bigg Boss 13. He didnt tell her that he will go inside and flirt with girls. Who talks to his girlfriend like this and which girlfriend will allow his partner to do such things. I will never allow my boyfriend. He had said that if he likes someone in the house, he will take that relationship ahead as things were not going steady between Akanksha and Paras. This is what Paras had told me, she said.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
"Crooked River: A Pendergast Novel

By Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

(Grand Central Publishing, 400 pp, $29)

Readers often dislike screen adaptations of books, if only because the characters imagined never quite match the actors presented.

Even as someone not terribly visual, the only star I can envision as Aloysius Pendergast is the late great Peter OToole.

FBI Special Agent Pendergast is, as S.J. Perelman  another late great  described himself, rapier-keen, wafer-thin. The agent moves like smoke, silently and potentially deadly, and he always solves the case. Pendergast defines erudite and knows how to live well.

Quite dashing with gray eyes, a bespoke wardrobe and impeccable Southern manners, Pendergast also seems to know a lot about everything. Admittedly, after reading White Fire and City of Endless Night, I seem to have developed a bit of a crush on this character.

The latest from what has to be the smartest duo writing thrillers, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, of Morristown, achieves what they usually do  an incredible adventure. This one takes us through remote corners of Florida, grisly findings, and eventually, a substantial death toll.

The mystery begins with human feet  in cheap shoes  washing up on Captiva Island, off the west coast of Florida. Each wave seemed to bring more crudely severed feet in identical footwear. Police and the Coast Guard are summoned, and as more police respond, it catches the attention of journalists listening to the police scanner.

But no way was Roger Smithback, senior reporter of the Herald, going to join a crowd of miserable journalists sweating behind some barrier, pleading for a crumb of a story," Preston and Child write. "He was going to get onto Captiva Island if it was the last thing he did  and the logical way to it was by boat.

It almost becomes the last thing he does. As Smithback chases this story, Pendergast is put on the job. The case involves many different agencies, each with alpha males beating their chests, determined to be in charge.

A signature line from the FBI Special Agent: Theres a scientific explanation for that, said Pendergast, sipping his Campari.

As anyone who has read any of the previous 18 Pendergast novels knows, he is an agency onto himself. That quality of living well has him charging tricked-out cars to the FBI, and using his superior deductive skills to ferret out the best and the brightest.

This is a strange and rather nauseating case. Why would 112 amputated feet wash ashore this quiet spit of land? Where did they come from? Are the people these limbs were cut from still alive? And who and why would anyone do this?

The reporter takes off on his own without fully engaging his brain or editors, just the glory of page 1 exclusives dancing in his head. Soon Smithback finds himself beaten unconscious, kidnapped and in a woeful predicament.

Pendergast enlists a local police chief, Perelman, a lovely fellow who quotes Virgil. The agents ward, Constance, very much like him as far as intellect and who moves with feline grace, possesses wide-reaching knowledge and bravery bordering on lunacy. Also on Pendergasts team is FBI Agent Coldmoon. Here Pendergast finds him.

Amid the scents of diesel oil, dead fish, and stagnant water, a new odor has wafted in: acrid, bitter, more appropriate for a chemical plant than a tropical island. Burnt coffee  but burnt hardly did it justice: coffee that had been boiled and boiled far past any trace of appeal or dignity.

Constance, alarmingly adroit with a stiletto, convinces Perelman to take his small boat into a storm. She seems to have the same effect on men Pendergast does on women. Though the police chief knew better, he obeyed Constance, and soon they're imperiled.

He stared in horror. Something began to resolve from the howling murk: a thrashing mass of blackness against blackness, a sinuous form whipping and writhing this way and that as it advanced on them. It chewed through the trees on the far bank, reducing them to whirling splinters.

A brilliant marine biologist helps figure out the mystery. Eventually, all converge into a bloody and rather unbelievable climax.

Undoubtedly, the writers did their usual due diligence, and each fact about boats, currents and chemical weapons is accurate. Yet it isnt very easy to believe that the sort of clandestine operation responsible could exist. As far-fetched as the story gets, it never loses its way, and all readers will be worried about is if the dapper lawman survives to solve another.
* "Most Popular Intellectual Property Law Blawg" of all time according to Justia rankings , January 2022.

* "Most Popular Copyright Blawg" of all time according to Justia rankings , January 2022.

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the World Intellectual Property Review's "Influential Women in IP" of 2020.

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2018.

* IPKat founder and Blogmeister Emeritus Jeremy Phillips listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

* Recommended by the European Patent Office as reading material for candidates for the European Qualifying Examinations, 2013.

* Listed as "Top Legal Blog" in The Times Online, March 2011.

2010 ABA Journal 100. * One of the only two non-US blogs listed in the Blawg100.

* Court Reporter Top Copyright Blog award winner, November 2010.

* Number 1 in the 2010 Top Copyright Blog list compiled by the Copyright Litigation Blog, July 2010.

* Selected by the United States Library of Congress for inclusion in its historic collections of Internet materials related to Legal Blawgs as of 2010.

* Top Patent Blog poll 2009: 3rd out of 50 in the "Favourite Patent Blog" poll and 2nd out of 50 in the "Most-read" poll.

Blog of the Year, 20 August 2008. * ComputerWeekly IT Law and Governance, 20 August 2008.
The bodies of four persons of a family were found in a house in Ghaziabad's Arthala area on Friday.

The area comes under the jurisdiction of the Sahibabad Police station.

A suicide note was recovered at the spot.

SP City, Manish Kumar Mishra told ANI, "Dheeraj Tyagi, a tenant living in Arthala's Sanjay Colony of Sahibabad Police station area was found dead with his two children and wife. The police reached the spot and have recovered a suicide note from the house."

"Dheeraj Tyagi's body was found hanging from the ceiling, whereas the bodies of children and his wife were found on the bed," he said.

According to initial reports, Dheeraj allegedly committed suicide after killing his two children and wife. He took the extreme step due to financial burden.

Further investigation in the matter is underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
[February 28, 2020]

Spa Destinations Goes Global on Amazon

TAMPA, Fla., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- CEO of Spa Destinations Theo Prodromitis announced today that the company's line of natural sponges and luxury personal care products will expand to Europe on Amazon. Prodromitis said the company is following Amazon's customer-centric model in response to international demand for the products, with its worldwide rollout beginning in Europe. Spa Destinations offers busy people "at home spa experiences" in the privacy of their own homes. Prodromitis will also be featured in an upcoming USA Today article by Steve Strauss, author of The Small Business Bible.

"Wellness is universal. We are so fortunate to take advantage of the unique Amazon platform to serve customers and expand our market reach. Customers in Europe are extremely sophisticated and request premium American beauty brands like Spa Destinations. It is a chance to grow our business withthe help of one of the world's best logistics and marketing experts and most trusted brands, Amazon," said Prodromitis. She is a 2020 Enterprising Women of the Year Award recipient.







Spa Destinations natural sea sponges are harvested from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and are in high demand as the natural beauty market grows. Unique features like the silk facial sponge are enjoyed by celebrities, couples and moms around the globe. Spa Destinations dedicated staff have decades of natural sponge experience and hand select only the best sponges, following in the rich Greek tradition of Tarpon Springs, Florida - known as the Sponge Capitol of the World.

"Amazon Invested $15 Billion and Launched 225 New Tools and Services in 2019 to Help Worldwide Third-Party Sellers- Mostly Small and Medium-Sized Businesses to Grow and Thrive"

"This is the opportunity of a lifetime! We look forward to serving customers in the UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Spain, France, and Italy," Prodromitis added.

About the Company: Spa Destinations, www.spadestinations.com, is an environmentally conscious, luxury brand of natural beauty products, including sponges and loofahs designed for at-home spa experiences. Our mission is about caring: we care about you, we care about natural ingredients that work, we care about the earth & environmental responsibility, and we care about American-made products. Decades of expertise in natural beauty go into every product.

Contact:

Lauriane Cardot

Director of Business Development

The Prodromitis Companies

813.906.9917

[email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/spa-destinations-goes-global-on-amazon-301012795.html

SOURCE Spa Destinations
Local mosques in northeast Delhi appealed on Friday for maintaining peace and harmony in the riot-hit area.

The mosques appealed to people to be united and not fall prey to rumours, urging people to report about suspicious people to the authorities and cooperate with the police.

"In case of any emergency, please call on 112," the announcement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amid the intense desire of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to exit the royal family and live a normal life outside the palace, this also means a huge adjustment from their current lifestyle.

The couple will soon be stripped down off their HRH (His and Her Royal Highness) titles as well as their share of government funding.

In other words, the couple will be financially independent, as they wanted. AT LEAST, that is what they said they wanted.

Given that Meghan and Harry announced that they are stepping down as senior members of the royal family, the Canadian government has also disclosed that they will stop providing security support for the Sussexes in the coming weeks.

Confirming this, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) released a statement through the news outlet CBC, saying that the protection they are providing Prince Harry, Meghan, and their son, Archie will officially end in March.

"The Duke and Duchess of Sussex choosing to relocate to Canada on a part-time basis presented our government with a unique and unprecedented set of circumstances."

The statement also mentioned that the department has been cooperative with the UK Metropolitan Police in terms of providing on-the-ground security to the family since November 2019.

"As the Duke and Duchess are currently recognized as Internationally Protected Persons, Canada has an obligation to provide security assistance on an as-needed basis. At the request of the Metropolitan Police, the RCMP has been providing assistance to the Met since the arrival of the Duke and Duchess to Canada intermittently since November 2019. The assistance will cease in the coming weeks, in keeping with their change in status."

It was reported that Prince Harry and Meghan, together with their 11-month-old son, Archie Harrison, stayed in a secluded $14 million waterfront mansion on Vancouver Island, where they spent their Christmas holidays.

Given that Prince Harry was born into The Royal Family, the Sussexes will still need security from the UK police being funded by the British taxpayers as stated on their official website, Sussex Royal.

"It is agreed that The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will continue to require effective security to protect them and their son. This is based on The Duke's public profile by virtue of being born into The Royal Family, his military service, the Duchess' own independent profile and the shared threat and risk level documented specifically over the last few years."

The Sussex Transition

The Sussex will begin their transition on March 31 and will not be considered as senior royals by April.

Aside from being "financially independent", the couple will no longer represent the Queen on any royal engagements.

However, they will still be called Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

In addition, they will also continue to maintain their private patronages and associations. Currently, Harry has 16 patronages while Meghan has four and these are: the National Theatre, London-based animal charity Mayhew, the women's charity Smart Works and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

Harry's position in the line of succession will not change and he will still be sixth in line for the crown

READ MORE: New Baby Kardashian? Kris Jenner Reveals Who'll Have a Baby Next!
N ext month, Hindus will celebrate Holi, also known as The Festival of Colours.

The religious festival is intended to welcome the arrival of spring whilst also celebrating fertility, colour and love.

Celebrated mainly in India and Nepal, worshippers mark the event by throwing colourful powders at each other.

Thanks to this unique festivity and its joyful atmosphere, similar Holi events take place in cities all over the world.

As Holi fast approaches, heres everything you need to know about the Hindu festival...

When is Holi?

This year, Holi begins on Monday, March 9 and ends on Tuesday, March 10.

The festival celebrations start on the evening of the full moon that comes in Phalguna, which is between the end of February and the middle of March.

Over the two days, the festival is split into two events. The night before the main festivities is referred to as Holika Dahan and is when people traditionally gather around a bonfire to celebrate the victory of good over evil.

The following day is known as Rangwali Holi, during which huge crowds gather and colourful powders known as gulal are thrown into the air. This is the event for which Holi is most renowned.

Why do Hindus celebrate Holi?

Hindus celebrate Holi by throwing colourful powdered paint on each other (Getty ) / Getty

The origins of Holi can be linked to various Hindu legends, although one in particular appears to be the most well known  the Legend of Prahlada and Holika.

Holi derives from the name Holika, who in Hindu legend was a female demon and the sister of Hiranyakashipu, a demon king.

Hiranyakashipu was immortal and believed himself to be the ruler of the universe.

Appalled by his evil wielding of power, his son Prahlada refused to acknowledge him as his ruler and instead worshipped the Hindu god Vishnu.

Aware of his deviance, Hiranyakashipu and Holika plot to kill Prahlada by burning him alive. To protect herself from the fire, Holika wore a magical shawl but as the fire burned, the shawl flies from her shoulders and onto Prahlada, resulting in her perishing in the flames.

Holi Festival celebrations - in pictures 1 /30 Holi Festival celebrations - in pictures Indian students from the Kalinga Institute of Social Science, dressed as Lord Krishna and Radha in Bhubaneswar AFP/Getty Images Indian students play with coloured powders to celebrate Holi festival in Kolkata AFP/Getty Images A girl smeared in coloured powder looks on during Holi celebrations in Kolkata REUTERS A man smeared in coloured powder poses during Holi celebrations in Kolkata REUTERS An Indian dressed as Lord Krishna dances along with devotees covered with coloured powder during Holi celebrations at a temple in Amritsar AFP/Getty Images People celebrate Holi, the Festival of Colours, in Kathmandu, Nepal REUTERS A college student smears a friend with coloured powder during Holi celebrations in Agartala, India REUTERS Teachers with their faces smeared with coloured powder take a selfie during Holi celebrations, inside a school in Ahmedabad, India REUTERS Women offer prayers inside a temple during Holi celebrations in Ahmedabad, India REUTERS Nepalese people painted with colored powder dance during celebrations of the Holi Festival in Kathmandu, Nepal EPA A tourist squints as local man puts colored powder on her face during the celebration of Holi in Kolkata, India AP Locals dance during Holi festival celebrations in Kathmandu, Nepal AP Locals light up a color smoke candle as a procession of Hindu's lord Krishna's chariot moves through a street during Holi in Kolkata, India AP The face of a woman is smeared with colored powder during Holi, the Hindu festival of colors in Kolkata, India AP School students play with coloured powder during Holi celebrations, inside a school in Ahmedabad, India REUTERS Indians purchasing coloured powder in market during Holi festival celebrations in Allahabad, India AP Girls smear colored powder on each other as they celebrate Holi in Jammu, India AP People throw colored powder on each other during Holi festival celebrations in Hyderabad, India AP Revellers covered with powdered colors celebrate the Holi festival in Mumbai, India EPA Mumbai, India EPA An Indian reveller covered with powdered colors celebrates the Holi festival in Mumbai, India EPA Mumbai, India EPA Mumbai, India EPA

Lord Vishnu then appears as half-lion, half-man and kills Hiranyakashipu.

After his death, Prahlada rules as king in his fathers place.

The legend represents the triumph of good over evil and is heavily linked to the Holi festival.

Another legend from which Holi draws its origins is the love story between Hindu deities Radha and Krishna.

In the legend, Krishna is embarrassed by his dark blue skin and worried that his love Radha would not accept him. His mother tells him to colour Radhas face in whatever shade he wanted and when he did the pair fell in love.

The legend of Krishna and Radha still lives on during Holi and its traditional for lovers to paint their faces the same colour.

How is Holi celebrated?

Holi celebrations take place in India and countries all over the world (Getty ) / Getty

The bonfires lit during Holika Dahan are meant to symbolise Holikas death and sometimes worshippers mark their faces with ash to represent purification.

After Holika Dahan, Hindus take to the streets to sing, dance and throw coloured powder at each other.
Carol Morgan Headshot Whether your organization is looking for a lively keynote, a 60- or 90-minute seminar or a longer training session, her entertaining and engaging manner will both captivate and inform.

Carol Morgan, founder and president of Denim Marketing, recently launched CarolMorgan.net, a website that is the hub for all of her speaking services and available seminars. For businesses, conferences and associations looking for speakers on social media, marketing and leadership, this site provides a list of seminars, as well as Morgans credentials.

Not only is Morgan a recognized expert in digital marketing, entrepreneurship and public relations, but she also is a fun and engaging leader who is always ready to insert the unexpected into the ordinary.

An in-demand speaker, Morgan has planned seven specific, timely topics for her 2020 engagements:



Marketing ROI

Embrace Change

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Whether your organization is looking for a lively keynote, a 60- or 90-minute seminar or a longer training session, her entertaining and engaging manner will both captivate and inform. Morgan can also custom tailor a seminar for any company or group.

Want to know more? Carol Morgan is the founder and president of Denim Marketing, author of Social Media Marketing for Your Business, the visionary behind http://www.AtlantaRealEstateForum.com and host of the Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio podcast, now in its ninth year! For more information or to book Carol Morgan as a speaker, visit CarolMorgan.net.

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By Joschka Fischer





BERLIN  The year is still young, but its historical significance is already clear. At least as far as the West is concerned, foreseeable events in the coming months will have an overwhelming and decisive impact on the future.







The moment of truth will come on Nov. 3, when voters in the United States elect the country's next president. To be sure, U.S. presidential elections have always been globally important, because they determine who will lead the world's most powerful country for the next four years.







But the stakes are much higher this time. The re-election of President Donald Trump could spell the end of the liberal world order and the system of alliances that America has fostered since the 1940s.







Departing from America's tradition of global leadership, Trump favors a narrow-minded nationalism, and has shown little restraint in undermining U.S. democracy itself, not least by challenging the separation of powers and other core institutions.







Should Trump win in November, he will have a mandate to wreak havoc for another four years. The result will fit the description he offered in his first inaugural address: American carnage.







Make no mistake: It makes a big difference whether Trump is in office for eight years rather than just four. In addition to Americans, Europeans would be the first to feel the consequences of a second Trump term.







The fact is that Europe remains almost existentially dependent on the U.S., both economically and for its security. This dependence is a legacy of the 20th century, with its two world wars and its long Cold War. Such deeply rooted historical realities cannot be easily or quickly reversed. Already, Trump has forced Europe to pursue its own sovereignty; but achieving that end will not come easily or cheaply.







When Trump was elected in 2016, almost everyone both inside and outside the U.S. was caught by surprise. In 2020, no one will make the same mistake again. But nor can anyone claim not to know what they are getting with Trump. He may be a stranger to the truth, but he has stayed mostly true to his campaign promises.







That said, it would be wrong to expect merely four more years of the same. If Trump is re-elected, he will most likely behave even more radically and without restraint. He will be fully convinced that he is the "chosen one," having successfully withstood perfidious attacks by the opposition, the old establishment, the media, and the "deep state." Who would be left to stop him, or at least to chasten him?







For all of its disastrous implications, the idea of a "second Trump term" has not shaken the European Union from its frustrating habit of pursuing business as usual. EU officials are currently negotiating the terms of the bloc's next seven-year 1 trillion euro ($1.1 trillion) budget.







Part of this involves a new battle over the allocation of regional and Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funds following Brexit. The Trump presidency has been a negligible factor in the proceedings. And although a strategy for achieving European sovereignty necessarily would require new financial commitments, that particular issue has scarcely come up.







Instead, within the European Council, short-term national interests have prevailed. It is as if the world has not fundamentally changed over the past three years.







One might think European leaders' priorities would adjust to the Trump presidency, the emergence of China as a global power, Russia's bet on military strength and rearmament, and the rise of the digital economy.







But no: self-interested haggling dominates the agenda in Brussels and in Europe's national capitals (which have always played a fundamental role in EU governance). Strategic thinking and a sense of historical responsibility are, at best, an afterthought.







Worse, this state of affairs prevails despite the fact that there is no more important issue to Europe than the U.S. presidential election. Europeans should be preparing for the worst. The key question, both for Europe and the West more broadly, is whether NATO could survive a second Trump term.







If NATO were to unravel, Europe and the North Atlantic region would suddenly face an enormous security crisis. In fact, without the transatlantic bond that the alliance provides, one could hardly speak of "the West" at all. And Europe certainly wouldn't be able to manage its own security.







In Brussels, but particularly at the European Council, the top-line agenda should reflect the fact that the strategic groundwork for the 21st century is being laid now  at this very moment. There is far more at stake than the outcome of the next national election in any one European country.







This is not to discount the importance of regional and CAP funds. But with all due respect to the frugal net contributors and the poorer recipient countries that depend on EU disbursements, there simply are bigger issues that need to be addressed. Europe's very security and sovereignty are now at risk.







The EU must ask itself if it is prepared to do what is necessary to remain an independent player, united in the common interest of all Europeans. Otherwise, Europe's viability as a democratic, sovereign entity in control of its own destiny will be called into question  and therefore tested by adversaries  like never before.









Joschka Fischer, Germany's foreign minister and vice chancellor from 1998 to 2005, was a leader of the German Green Party for almost 20 years. His article was distributed by Project Syndicate (




Tram drivers will get a 3.5 per cent-a-year pay rise and Yarra Trams will employ fewer part-timers than it had wanted to, in an offer that has finally been accepted by the public transport union.

The major breakthrough will mark the end of a bitter 12-month dispute between the Rail, Tram and Bus Union and the tram operator, meaning commuters can breathe a sigh of relief as rolling strikes are brought to a stop.

Striking drivers outside the Malvern tram depot last year. Credit:Justin McManus

The Andrews government brokered a deal between the two parties on Thursday night in a bid to halt a series of strikes that would have cruelled the Grand Prix.

The union lowered its demand for a 6 per cent annual pay rise to 5 per cent a few months ago, and has now settled on 3.5 per cent over four years, which is the same increase as set down in the previous enterprise bargaining agreement.
By Akbar Mammadov

Thanks to the high level of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the U.S, the Southern Gas Corridor will be fully completed in Autumn of 2020, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said on February 27.

I thank the United States for its support to both Southern Gas Corridor and all global and regional energy projects implemented upon Azerbaijans initiatives Shahbazov said during the meeting with Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Diplomacy Kurt Donnelly, who is visiting Baku to attend the sixth Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Board on February 27.

He also highly appreciated USs continuous support in the Southern Gas Corridor that is nearing completion.

Parviz Shahbazov spoke about Azerbaijan's development indicators, diversification projects, expansion perspectives, the improvement of the countrys gas resources.

Kurt Donnelly dubbed the Southern Gas Corridor an important project in energy security.

The sides also discussed the expansion of Southern Gas Corridor by Balkans, IAP project (Ion-Adriatic Pipeline) and other potential opportunities.

In the meantime, Azerbaijan Energy Minister also received the delegation led by Nikulae Havrilet, the Deputy Minister of Economics, Energy and Business Environment of Romania.

Romanias TRANSGAZ S.A and ROMGAZ S.A representatives participated in the meeting.

The meeting covered cooperation relations with Romania on the area of trading crude oil, oil products and petrochemicals products, and the opportunities in the energy sector that have emerged thanks to Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Board.

Romanian Energy Minister expressed his countrys interest in taking part in this project in the future. Nikulae Havrilet also shared his opinions about the possibility of using opportunities of Bulgaria-Romania interconnection and BRUA project in the expansion of the corridor by Central Europe in the future.

The Southern Gas Corridor is an initiative of the European Commission for a natural gas supply route from Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe. The goal of the Southern Gas Corridor is to reduce Europe's dependency on Russian gas and add diverse sources of energy supply. The route from Azerbaijan to Europe consists of the South Caucasus Pipeline, the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline, and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline. The total investment of this route is estimated at US$45 billion. The main supply source would be the Shah Deniz gas field, located in the Caspian Sea.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
It took a different tack, calling for Shea  formerly counselor to Barr  not to step down but to create some distance between himself and the attorney general, who tapped Shea to take over Feb. 3 from then-U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu, a Trump appointee whom the president dumped after being angered at her handling of cases. Cases that drew the presidents ire include that of Stone; former national security adviser Michael Flynn, charged in special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election; and former FBI acting director Andrew McCabe, whom the Justice Department decided this month not to charge with lying to investigators about a media disclosure.
President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian has sent a condolence message on the occasion of the death of renowned historian and monument specialist Samvel Karapetyan.

The message particularly reads as follows:

I was deeply saddened by the news about the death of renowned historian and monument specialist Samvel Karapetyan.

The standing and dilapidated historical and cultural heritage of the Armenian people around the world has become a way of showing the presence of Armenians through the efforts of Samvel Karapetyan. His valuable studies serve as records of Armenia and the Armenians and as a textbook for the present and the future.
Montana, like many other states, helps some students pay for tuition at private schools. But the rules for the schools that participate in its tax-credit scholarship program are scant: They do not have to hire teachers with college degrees or conduct criminal background checks on all their employees. Schools do not have to publicly report graduation rates or demonstrate that they are on sound financial footing. And no entitybe it the state, the organization that awards the scholarships, or the private schoolsis required to track and report basic demographic data on the students who use the program.

Montana is hardly an outlier.

Nearly 30 states have private school choice programs that either directly pay students tuition at private schools or provide generous tax-credits to incentivize businesses and individuals to do so.

But few require private schools to follow standard policies used to ensure transparency and accountability in the nations public schools, according to an EdWeek Research Center survey of states on how private school voucher and other closely related programs are regulated.

Among the surveys big takeaways:

 Just six states require that all participating private schools admit students regardless of their religion, while only three require participating private schools to admit students regardless of their sexual orientation.

 Only 11 require that all teachers in participating private schools have a bachelors degree.

 Fourteen mandate that schools conduct criminal background checks on all staff before accepting tuition paid with the help of state aid.

 And only six states require schools to publicly report their graduation rates.

Those and other findings demonstrate the relatively thin state oversight these programs operate under, especially when compared to the tight regulation and governance of public schools.

While proponents say that giving families the choice to use publicly funded vouchers to attend private schoolsand the freedom to walk away from any school that isnt living up to their expectationsis the ultimate form of oversight, opponents argue that vouchers and their kin are funneling taxpayer money into largely unaccountable private schools.

Its not a new debate, but it is one that has added urgency as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a case challenging the legality of Montanas program. The outcome of that case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue (Case No. 18-1195), could remove the constitutional hurdles to establishing voucher programs in many other states.

For school choice families, transparency is necessary if the policy goals articulated in the voucher laws are to be achieveddoes the school provide sufficient information for families to make informed choices? said Kevin Welner, a University of Colorado education professor who studies law and public policy. He is also the director of the National Education Policy Center, a group that is generally critical of vouchers. I think more importantly, when the school accepts taxpayer dollars, it has to be transparent ... around the responsible use of those dollars.

Growing Popularity

There are three primary types of private school choice program that states use to help fund students tuition at private schools. The types of program a state has usually depends on its specific laws and constitutional requirements. School vouchers: Parents public funding allocated for their childs education toward tuition at a private school of their choice, including religiously affiliated private schools. But since the first modern day voucher program was launched in Milwaukee in 1990, spinoff programs have emerged. Tax-credit scholarships: Some states offer tax credits to entice businesses or individuals to donate to a scholarship granting organization, which then gives money to eligible students to use toward tuition expenses at a private school. To qualify, students usually have to come from a low-income family, a failing school, or have other special needs. Education savings accounts: States set aside money usually based on per-pupil funding formulas in individual accounts for participating students. Parents or guardians can withdraw that money to spend on approved educational expenses. That may be private school tuition, but it may also be used for tutoring, online courses, transportation costs, or even some types of therapy. ESAs can also allow families to home school or cobble together a hybrid public-private education.

The popularity of private school choice programs continues to grow.

More than half of Americans now support the idea of allowing government to help families pay for tuition at private schools, according to a 2019 survey on the publics attitudes toward education by the journal Education Next .

Taken together, the number of private school choice programs, which include traditional vouchers, tax-credit scholarships, and education savings accounts, and families using them have expanded substantially over the past decade, fueled by influential advocacy groups and strong parental demand.

While Montanas program is at the center of the potentially pivotal Supreme Court case , its minisculearound 40 students a year receive an average annual scholarship of $500compared to private school choice programs in Arizona Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin, which serve tens of thousands of students in their respective states with average scholarship amounts in the thousands.

To better understand the governance and accountability of this small, but growing sector of the K-12 system, the EdWeek Research Center reviewed statutes in 29 states that have at least one of the three types of private school choice programs on the books. The Research Center then sent the results of its analysis to state education departments to verify, correct, or update the findings.

The analysis findings include:

 Five states require that all teachers in participating private schools be licensed;

 Eight states require all participating private schools to publicly report the results of state and national tests;

 Four states require public reporting of demographic data on participating students;

 Five states explicitly require all participating private schools to admit students with disabilities;

 Fourteen states mandate that participating private schools prove that they are fiscally sound through audits or other measures.

Finally, half of the states with private school choice programs14do not even require that the agencies or organizations overseeing them publicly list all the private schools participating.

The same is true for the third-party organizations that oversee tax-credit scholarship programs. Just 12 states require a publicly available list of scholarship-granting organizationsthe groups that are approved by the state to take in tax-credit-eligible donations and award scholarships.

Oklahoma is among the states that do not require that a list of scholarship-granting organizations be publicly reported. It took Education Week dozens of emails, multiple records requests, and six months to simply obtain the names of the scholarship-granting organizations from the state.

A Hurdleor Not?

But that lack of public information on private school participation and quality is generally not a significant hurdle for many families, said Robert Enlow, the president and CEO of EdChoice, a school choice advocacy and research group.

Test scores are not the sole metric of concern to many parents, he said. They may place equal or greater value on school safety and moral education. Families often hear about school options through word-of-mouth.

And while state websites may not be helpful in directing families to good information, in several states, third party groups have stepped in to fill that role.

EdChoice has found through its own surveys that families in Arizona, Florida, and Indiana who use school vouchers most often rely on social networks to learn about private school options and programs to help pay for tuition. The surveys, however, have not included families who were awarded a voucher or scholarship but did not ultimately use them.

What theyre doing is theyre finding out from three places: their friends, church, and the internet, said Enlow. Theyre doing the same thing you and I would do when we look for a new restaurant: You dont go to the state regulator, you go to Yelp.

Or, you see a sign while youre driving around, as Natalie Gillepsie did.

She first learned about an income-based tax-credit scholarship program available in Florida when she saw garage-sale type signs on the lawn of a Methodist church in Brooksville, Fla.

That was 10 years ago. Since then, two of her nine children have used tax-credit scholarships to attend private schools. A third, her daughter Axi, is enrolled in Floridas Gardiner program for students with severe special needs.

Axi, 15, has cerebral palsy and found the public school she used to attend big and overwhelming, Gillepsie said, and she felt Axi was not receiving the one-on-one services required in her individualized education program.

She couldnt sit up on her own or walk and certainly if you cant even balance your body on a chair, you cant focus on learning, said Gillepsie. It can also be difficult to find information on public schools, she added.

Under the Gardiner program, state funding allocated to Axi goes into an education savings account which Gillepsie can draw from to pay for approved education-related expensesin her case private school tuition and physical therapy.

Gillepsie, so far, has been happy with the services that Axi has received at the private schools she has attended with the help of the Gardiner program. Shes grateful to the teachers who have taught to the needs of Axi as well as the physical therapists who helped her daughter learn to stand.

Half of the 29 states with voucher and related programs have ones exclusively for students with disabilities. Most have created programs for low-income students.

Reasonable Regulations?

The list of state regulations that were analyzed by the EdWeek Research Center is not exhaustive, and private schools may be subject to additional accountability rules that are not captured in the analysis.

For example, students using tax-credit scholarships in Florida must take a nationally norm-referenced test. While schools do not have to report those scores directly to the state, they must provide the results to their students parents and to an independent research group selected by the state to conduct an annual evaluation of the program.

In Indiana, the state is not required by law to publicize how well students in participating private schools do on tests, but nonetheless the state uses academic achievement data to assign private schools A-F grades just as it does its traditional public schools and charter schools.

And while only 11 states require that all teachers in participating private schools have bachelors degrees, some programssuch as the federally backed program in the District of Columbiado mandate that teachers of core subject areas, such as math and English, have a college degree.

Nor does the Education Week analysis touch on curriculum requirements for private schools that receive public aid, an issue of major concern for some groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

Private schools are not subject to the same educational standards as public schools, even when they accept public funding through vouchers, said Heather Weaver, an attorney for the ACLU, in an email to Education Week. This leads to taxpayer funding of curricula that are deeply troubling and that run counter to recommended and legitimate educational practices.

She cited several examples the ACLU has found in Louisiana: A math textbook declared that the laws of mathematics are a creation of God and thus absolute and thus restricted its lessons to workable traditional mathematics texts that are not burdened with modern theories such as set theory, she said. One schools history textbook stated that God used the Trail of Tears to bring many Indians to Christ.

But its because of religious rights that states may be hesitant to more thoroughly regulate private schools in choice programs, many of which are affiliated with a church, said Marie A. Failinger, a professor of law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minn., whose work focuses on religion and policy. There are still a lot of legal gray areas that have not been hammered out yet when it comes to what states can tell private religious schools to do, even if theyre participating in a state-sponsored school choice program, she said.

Thats probably why states have been reluctant to pass very comprehensive regulations, she said. Because they dont know at what point the courts are going to say, This violates the religious rights of parents to educate their kids the way they want to.

Or it may violate the religious freedom of schools. Maryland is one of three states that explicitly require schools to admit students regardless of their sexual orientation. The state has been sued in federal court by a private school it booted out of its tax-credit scholarship program over what the state described as a discriminatory policy toward LGBTQ students. The school contends the state unconstitutionally removed it from the program because of its religious beliefs.

Finding a Balance

Many school-choice advocatesincluding U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are deeply skeptical of regulation in general and whether, unchecked, it creates more bureaucracy than educational improvement.

We dont know that taxpayer funds are being used right just because we collect a lot of data, said Enlow, the head of EdChoice. He pointed to students who graduate from high school with good grades and then have to take remedial classes in college.

Additionally, the whole point of giving families school choice is to have schools that look and operate differently from one another, said Enlow, and regulation may have the effect of squeezing out the features of what makes private schools distinct.

You dont want to create a structure of private schools that makes them look like public schools, he said.

But supporters of school choiceeven among those who favor vouchersare not a monolith. Some believe that private school choice programs should be more regulated. Among them is John Schoenig, the senior director for teacher formation and education policy at the University of Notre Dames Alliance for Catholic Education.

I think there is a threshold of reasonable regulation on which we can predicate receipt of public funding, he said. Now, we can have debates about where the red line should be drawn. I think it is fair to draw the red line at, for example, being able to in some way verify that the teachers in the schools meet some minimum standard of reliability and quality.

Shoenig is worried that the debate over private school accountability in voucher programs is often cast in extremes: that there needs to be little to no state regulation otherwise the state will take over the schools. That misses a bigger issue, Schoenig contends, which is that private school choice advocates right now should be helping develop more thorough accountability measures that work for private schools before states impose one-dimensional measures of school quality.

After all, Schoenig said, private schools can be autonomous and more transparentthe two are not mutually exclusive.

Often in education we will talk about accountability, but the antecedent to accountability is transparency, he said.

Librarian and Data Specialist Maya Riser-Kositsky and Research Center interns Xinchun Chen and Yukiko Furuya contributed to this report.

Click here to view the enlarged graphic.
Airlines are in a full blown 'price war' as Australians scrap their holidays in droves over fears of a coronavirus pandemic.

Extreme discounts are available on flights to destinations around the world as carriers desperately try to fill seats on increasingly empty planes.

The virus has infected more than 82,000 people and caused more than 2,800 deaths, mostly in China where the first emerged late last year.

Experts now fear it could become a pandemic as cases pop up in new countries every day and a vaccine is still not available.

Airlines are in a full blown 'price war' as Australians scrap their holidays in droves over coronavirus fears. Pictured are plight attendants wearing masks at Brisbane Airport

Travellers, wearing masks as a precautionary measure to avoid due to coronavirus, are seen at Salgado Filho airport in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where new cases have been reported

Qantas slashed flights to Asia in response to plummeting demand, grounded 18 planes, stood down 700 jobs, and expects to lose $150 million.

Virgin Australia similarly said coronavirus would cost it between $55 million and $75 million in the second half of the financial year.

However, airlines can't cut too much capacity so great deals are being offered to fill as many empty seats as possible.

Even Bali is struggling to attract visitors to Australia's most popular holiday escape with flights as low as $209 despite no confirmed cases.

'We've decided to cancel, as if we were to get sick, the healthcare in Bali is just not equal to options at home,' one holidaymaker wrote on social media.

'It's $400, so I'd rather lose that, than a life.'

Travellers wearing masks to protect themselves at Jorge Chavez International Airport, in Lima, Peru, as many more cancel their trips around the world

Tourists wearing face masks visit Saint Peter's Square in Vatican City after the Italian government declared a state of emergency over coronavirus

Another wrote: 'Yes, we cancelled. Why risk your kids lives/health? I won't be heading overseas until this situation plays out.'

Bali Airport said there were 40,000 hotel booking cancellations in recent weeks and in the first half of February visitors were down 16.25 per cent on last year.

'Bali is very very quiet, haven't seen Bali like this ever,' one traveller who was on the island last week wrote.

Travel agencies are struggling too with Flight Centre admitting to investors its yearly earnings would be battered by $100 million.

Chief executive Graham Turner said airlines were locked in an 'extraordinary price war' as they scrambled to sell their vacant seats.

'One thing for sure is once we know a bit more about the virus we will be aggressive in marketing what are perceived as safe destinations, such as New Zealand, South Pacific and the U.S.,' he told investors on Wednesday.

But not even flights closer to home in comparatively 'safe' New Zealand are exempt with Qantas dropping some trans-Tasman fares to $119.

Air New Zealand went even further with flights in March costing just $69 on the Auckland-Melbourne leg and just $10 more for many others.

Flights across the ditch usually cost at least $240 when booked about a month in advance, as is the case with these flights.

Tourism to lose $2 billion a month The coronavirus outbreak means Australia will have 1.8 million fewer international visitors in the first six months of this year compared to last year, a group representing tourism and transport companies says. The Tourism and Transport Forum estimates the number of foreign travellers visiting the country between January and June 2020 will be down 40 per cent on the same period in 2019. TTF chief executive Margy Osmond said the peak industry body for the tourism, transport and aviation sectors had produced economic modelling to show the effects of COVID-19 if the virus was not able to be contained within the next three to six months. The TTF suggested there would be an average monthly loss in total tourism receipts of $2 billion beyond March. 'What we are facing is a contracted visitor economy with significant losses across international visitation, tourism spend and employment in 2020 and beyond,' he said. 'The economic impacts reflect the loss of direct tourism spend (tourism receipts) by the reduction in international visitor arrivals and the estimated reduction in employment within the visitor economy due to business slowing, [or] in some instances closure.' These losses would be worse than the 2003 SARS epidemic that slashed international visitors to Australia by 9.4 per cent and cost $US30-50 billion. Australia is even more reliant on Chinese tourism than in 2003 and that source has been reduced to zero by the government's travel ban. Advertisement

Australians are so fearful of travelling at all that Qantas and Jetstar are cutting capacity on domestic routes by 2.3 per cent.

Jetstar in response offered fared as low as $29 on major routes in a desperate attempt to limit the damage.

One of the best deals is flights from the east coast of Australia to Los Angeles on Qantas at an unheard-of $564 return with similar prices for San Francisco.

Toronto and Vancouver can be visited for little over $900 on some airlines and Fiji Airways is running routes to its home nation for $526.

Asia, where the virus has far more cases, has been belted even harder with Qantas forced to cut 16 per cent of its capacity there and Jetstar 14 per cent.

Some routes had the number of flights cut by half and those that are running are often using smaller planes.

Virgin has canned its Hong Kong route altogether from Melbourne and will stop flying there from Sydney next week.

Outrageous deals are on sale as a result with flights that would usually go for hundreds down to double digits.

Air Asia launched a blitz sale to Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and India with flights to its base in Kuala Lumpur going for just $89, and Brisbane to Bangkok for $103.

Coronavirus has killed more than 2,800 people globally and can cause severe lung damage and trigger multiple organ failure

Travellers said they feared not only catching coronavirus abroad, but being stuck overseas by travel bans and cancellations, or being forced into quarantine.

Lisa Van Der Westhuizen, from Sydney, cancelled her holiday with a friend to Japan after the government raised the alert level.

'I just thought it seemed a little bit risky and I've got young kids (and) one of them, in particular, gets asthma when he is sick,' she told SBS.

'In my mind, I was thinking there would be a chance it would escalate while I was over there and be impacted by a quarantine period on the way home.'

Australians who have already booked flights or are thinking of doing so should check with airlines and travel insurance companies to see their policies.

Many insurers are not covering coronavirus claims at all unless the flights were booked many months ago before the virus became a 'known event' on January 23.

Airlines and insurers also won't pay you back if you just decide it's too risky to travel somewhere, or at all, but if a country is added to the 'do not travel' list they may relent.

Policies marked 'cancel for any reason' exist but they are more expensive than usual ones.

Travellers also need to be careful if they have a layover in Singapore, Hong Kong, or Malaysia as authorities will give everyone temperature checks and anyone with symptoms will be sent to hospital for quarantine.
Indivar Jonnalagadda (@IndivarJ) tweeted this graffiti that symbolises the Delhi riots at the Hi-Tech Metro Rail station in Hyderabad on Friday. (Photo: Twitter)

Hyderabad: Turmoil within communities, migration of families from insecure areas, crowded market places suddenly thinning out while locals make heavy purchases of provisions  they are the usual indicators of brewing trouble that should bother every police officer.

But the Delhi police, with its worst performance in decades after riots in Northeast Delhi left 38 dead and over 300 injured, appears to have failed in the very basics of policing.

It paid little attention to advance indicators of a deteriorating situation. It failed to make a rapid assessment of the crowd psychology which plays a key role in crowd control. It failed to adhere to the riot drill where the final option is to open fire. It also failed in maintaining a rapport the top brass and men on the ground  indicating poor leadership.

These glaring lapses came up for discussion during meetings held between senior police officials with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

Sources privy to the developments after Dovals surprise visit to the riot-hit areas told Deccan Chronicle that the presence of US President Donald Trump and his family in New Delhi weighed heavily on the minds of the top brass, who had no clarity on how to deal with a rapidly developing tense situation just kilometres away from where Melania Trump was attending the happiness class.

While men on the ground had an inkling that all was not well, the top brass led by Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik was reportedly confused till the last minute, which contributed to the lack of rapport. It was a free for all where groups soon swelled into mobs and went on a rampage  killing people, burning houses and establishments and going on a rampage  completely unchallenged, sources said.

The communal distrust was felt by police on the ground, but it did not lead to strategies to tackle the situation. Not assessing crowd psychology to gauge how aggressive the crowd was, particularly with evidence that the violence was pre-planned, has ended up in death and destruction. The Delhi polices reputation was never this low, sources said, adding that the quantum of force and the efforts needed increase progressively with delay.

The riot drill says that after the options of tear gas and caning, police on the ground can open fire if the mob goes berserk. It is strange that in a situation where dozens were killed, police chose not to open fire which allowed the mobs a free run, sources said.
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Every day, Kashmiri students in Iran awake to worried calls from family and friends back home who have heard news of an outbreak.

Kashmiri student Masooma panicked when she heard her university in Tehran had suspended all classes till April after two deaths in Qum due to the deadly coronavirus. All she could think about was getting ticket home. After spending a sleepless night, she spent Rs 25,000 on a flight tickee. Some of her friends only managed to get tickets in March and April. Then Masooma, and another 150 Kashmiri students at her university, were shocked to learn all flights to India had been cancelled.

Masooma and her friends have been trying to contact the Indian embassy and the Ministry of External Affairs so that they can be evacuated from Iran. The Kashmiri students have confined themselves to their rooms for four days. Every day, they awake to worried calls from family and friends back home who have heard news of an outbreak in Iran.

'Short of funds'

Following the coronavirus outbreak in China's Wuhan province  which experts are now calling a pandemic  Iran is just of the recent countries that have been badly hit, with many of its neighbours closing their borders. Authorities are attempting to prevent the disease from spreading and trying to clamp down on rumours amid a panicking populace.

Among them are over 300 students from Kashmir at different universities and colleges. Many said they have run out of funds after booking multiple flight tickets home, all of which have been cancelled. More than 200 students have spent around Rs 25,000 to 30,000 on tickets and have not yet received refunds. A student, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said another big hurdle is that their families cannot transfer money to them. He added that there is also a shortage of masks and sanitizers.

We can't even get a face mask from the pharmacy, let alone the N95 masks, he said. But there is a silver living. The university is providing medical check-ups for students and providing them one meal a day.

Quraishia, a 20-year-old from Shiraz University, said earlier she thought the coronavirus news was fake, but began to worry after universities suddenly shuttered. She said after pharmacies ran short of masks, she, along with 50 other Kashmiri students, restricted themselves to campus out of a fear of being infected. Some locked themselves up in their rooms after hearing about cases in Tehran and Isfahan, which is 481 km away from Shiraz.

Students complained of a "cold shoulder" from the Indian Embassy despite sending them hundreds of emails/ Quraishia, whose parents are repeatedly calling her, said she doesn't know what to tell them or how to react.

India issued a new travel advisory on 26 February requesting the public to avoid travel to Iran, Korea and Italy. People flying to India from the Republic of Korea, Iran and Italy or having such a travel history since 10 February, may be quarantined for 14 days after they arrive in India, the advisory added.

The World Health Organisation has declared the coronavirus an epidemic and said it is a public health emergency of international concern. WHO officials will travel to Iran this week to evaluate the situation.

Iran deputy health minister and an MP have tested positive for the coronavirus. As per recent reports, Iran has recorded the highest number of deaths outside China. At least 139 cases have come to light in Iran, with 63 in Qum (the highest), 26 in Tehran, and 19 cases in Gilan.

However, students said that Qum, the city at the centre of the outbreak and a pilgrimage place, remains open. But students visiting Qum aren't being allowed to return due to fears of the virus spreading. On Thursday, the Srinagar deputy commissioner posted on Twitter the helpline number for students stranded in Iran. But students said calls to the helpline are going unanswered.
EAST HAMPTON  The Chatham Health District is offering a program on the coronavirus outbreak at the East Hampton Public Library next month.

The illness, cases of which were first identified in Wuhan, China, in January, has been documented in many different countries, including in the United States, according to Library Director Ellen Paul.
The enemy engaged Ukrainian troops with proscribed 120mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and rifles.

Russia's hybrid military forces on February 27 mounted six attacks on Ukrainian Army positions in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as killed in action (KIA) and another one as wounded in action (WIA).

"The armed forces of the Russian Federation violated the ceasefire six times on February 27. One Ukrainian soldier was killed and another one was wounded as a result of enemy shelling," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation Headquarters said in an update posted on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on February 28.

Read alsoZolote residents in Donbas: We're caught in-between warring sides: "Bang!"  a shell is flying over our heads. We constantly wonder which "bang" will eventually hit us

The enemy engaged Ukrainian troops with proscribed 120mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns, and rifles.

Under attack came Ukrainian positions near the town of Krasnohorivka, and the villages of Novomykhailivka, Starohnativka, Novotoshkivske, and Orikhove.

"Since Friday midnight, Russia-led forces have attacked Ukrainian positions near the village of Vodiane, using hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and rifles," the update said.

No casualties were reported among Ukrainian troops Friday morning.
A lawmaker who represents the people of Rasht in northern Iran in the parliament says the real COVID-19 death toll in Iran is far higher than official figures.

Iran's Health Ministry on Friday rose the coronavirus death toll to 34 but BBC's Persian Service says according to information it has received from sources in Iranian hospitals, the tally of the death toll in various Iranian cities until Thursday is at least 210.

Gholam Ali Jafazadeh Imanabadi, MP for Rasht has urged state officials to present the real figures. "You may conceal the numbers, but you cannot hide graveyards," he said.

Some unverified footage on Iranian social media show people burying the dead in something like a mass grave in where is said to be the city of Langaroud in northern Iran.

Others in the same area have expressed concern over the short distance between Coronavirus victims' graves and residential homes.

Reporting what he has seen during visits to graveyards in Tehran and Rasht, Imanabadi charged that "the officials conceal the statistics from the people," adding that what has been officially declared is not accurate.

Previously one of the representatives of Qom who has tested positive for the virus, said that at least 50 people have died in in his city as a result of exposure to Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Two renowned local musicians Mohammad and Majid Jamshidi are among the victims in Lahijan near Rasht.

Imanabadi added that at least 10 people die in Rasht as a result of the contagion on a daily basis, but government officials keep the death toll secret.

Meanwhile, a Tehran City Council member said in an interview on Friday February 28 that he believes up to 15,000 Iranians may have the virus.

Nahid Khodakarami, the head of the Tehran City Council's health committee says "some 10,000 to 15,000 Iranians may have already contracted the virus." She says "although these figures might look pessimistic, some people may have the virus in their body without knowing about it yet."

In another development, ILNA news website in Iran has reported that the medical school in Gilan Province which oversees hospitals in the province has called on retired nurses to report to medical centers and hospitals for help.

Some people in Rasht and other cities in the Gilan Province say that some Tehran residents who chose not to go to work as a preventive measure, ended their self-isolation and went to the northern provinces for holiday and this has led to an increase in the number of patients and death in northern provinces.

However, Health Ministry officials contend that the rise in the number of Coronavirus patients is due to an increase in the number of laboratories that have been equipped with new diagnostic kits.

Official figures presented by Health Ministry Spokesman Kianush Jahanpur on Friday put the number of victims at 34 and the number of Coronavirus patients at 388.

In the meantime, government officials including President Hassan Rouhani have opposed the idea of imposing a quarantine on Qom, the city from where Coronavirus spread to the rest of the country in the first place.

Imanabadi has criticized the government's opposition to quarantine and its portral of preventative and disease control measures as a conspiracy by "enemies".

He said it is essential to quarantine some cities in order to control the virus. Imanabadi added that it is the Supreme Council of National Security headed by Rouhani that has opposed the idea of introducing quarantine.

Health Ministry Spokesman Kianush Jahanpur has clearly stated that the spread of the virus started when people from other cities came in contact with patients in Qom.

The Rouhani administration's spokesman Ali Rabiei has said that controlling Coronavirus depends on the people's trust in the government. Observers maintain that the people's distrust of the government has created a panic about Coronavirus in Iran.
Proper structures must be instituted to ...
Jersey Shore: Family Vacation is back with the remaining episodes of Season 3. The rest of this season brings the long-awaited return on one cast member, along with the final days of another.

The midseason premiere airs at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Jerzday," Feb. 27 on MTV.

WATCH LIVE: fuboTV (free trial)

Before this season ends, Mike The Situation Sorrentino will return to the show after spending eight months in jail for tax evasion. While the cast will eventually welcome him back, they will also soon lose another original.

Nicole Snooki Polizzi announced in December that this season would be her last. This season taped last year, meaning Polizzi has finished her time on the show. These final episodes of Season 3 will give fans a last chance to see her on the show.

Thursdays episode previews the gang staying at JWowws house for a slumber party and Sorrentinos wife Lauren getting a call from him ahead of his release from prison.

You can watch Jersey Shore: Family Vacation even if you dont have cable by signing up for a one-week free trial of fuboTV.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Congress today that the United States will appeal to the international community to extend the United Nations arms embargo on Iran that is set to expire in October under the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal.

Were hopeful that the Europeans will take seriously the risk of the Chinese weapons systems, Russian weapons systems, sold to Iran, Pompeo testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. I am confident that theyre gearing up to deliver those weapons come October.

Pompeo added that the United States will seek to convince the Russians and the Chinese not to veto a UN Security Council resolution to extend the embargo. His comments mirrored similar statements from the State Departments top Iran diplomat, Brian Hook, at an exclusive Al-Monitor breakfast today.

It would be diplomatic malpractice to let this arms embargo expire, Hook told Al-Monitor.

Why it matters: Iran said last year that China and Russia have proposed fighter jet sales when the arms embargo expires in October. The arms embargo is the first provision of the nuclear accord to expire under the deals sunset provisions. However, President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 and Tehran announced that it would similarly pull out of the accord after the United States assassinated Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani last month.

Whats next: Pompeos comments immediately prompted Iran hawks to push the Europeans to initiate snapback sanctions on Tehran should the United States fail to extend the arms embargo.

If it fails, [the United States] will press [the Europeans] to complete snapback, tweeted Richard Goldberg, who oversaw the White Houses efforts to curb Irans weapons program until last month. (Goldberg has since returned to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which paid his salary during his time at the White House.)

Hook told Al-Monitor that reinstating UN sanctions on Iran is something that is available to us, but noted that the United States is more focused on unilateral actions as part of its "maximum pressure" campaign. For his part, Pompeo told lawmakers, We will urge our European colleagues to use tools that they have at hand to prevent conventional weapons sales from once again being lawfully sold to the worlds largest state sponsor of terror.

Know more: Diplomatic correspondent Laura Rozen has the roundup of Hooks comments at Al-Monitors Middle East Mornings breakfast. And be sure to subscribe to Al-Monitor to receive exclusive invites to Al-Monitor breakfasts with other exclusive guests.
Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out (Credit: Universal)

Get Out was a huge hit for both Universal Pictures and the indie studio Blumhouse.

Made on a minuscule $4.5 million budget, it made back $255.4 million (nearly 200 million), and established comedian Jordan Peele as one of the hottest new directors in Hollywood.

Peele also wrote the movie (winning an Oscar for his trouble), which found British actor Daniel Kaluuya as a young man going to visit his girlfriend's parents for the first time.

But over a weekend at their sprawling house in upstate New York, things go horribly wrong, after he discovers they're hiding a disturbing secret.

While the movie feels very much like an enclosed story, asked which of Blumhouse's storyworld's he'd like to revisit, studio boss Jason Blumhouse told horror site Bloody Disgusting: The Get Out Universe. Im telling you! Get Out Universe!

Jordan Peele and producer Jason Blum (Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Chrysalis Butterfly Ball)

I would do it in a second, Blum adds. But its totally up to Jordan [Peele]. I dont think he has any plans for it. I would love to make more Get Out movies but he let me say that really specifically: I would love to make more Get Out movies with Jordan.

If anyone else wanted to make a Get Out movie I would not be interested. And Jordan right now is not doing any more Get Out movies. So there will not be another Get Out of anything, any kind.

Blum also went on to describe a flooded market now, in terms of horror movies, but one he expects to shrink in the next few years.

Its good for us, he added. Yeah, because the quality rises. So I like to think we make better horror movies than most people do, and so when the market is less cluttered our movies will do better.

Blumhouse is about to ride the success of its new title for Universal, The Invisible Man.

Re-angling the classic story to one inside an abusive relationship, it finds Handmaid's Tale star Elizabeth Moss as a woman who experiences increasingly sinister events, following what she believed to be the death of her boyfriend, a brilliant scientist.

It's out now across the UK.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- After a $700 million investment and the creation of at least 4,200 permanent jobs, the developer of Matrix Global Logistics Park -- which houses Amazon and Ikea facilities -- is looking to lease the last of four warehouses on its 200-acre Bloomfield site.

The project represents one of the largest industrial property investments in the borough, and was built within five years without any major stops or delays.

This project has created a significant number of jobs,'' said Borough President James Oddo, noting that in addition to full- and part-time positions, thousands of construction jobs have been created during the course of the project. "It is the biggest bonanza of jobs that weve seen in this borough in a long time.

The Cranbury, N.J.-based Matrix Development Group is currently seeking to lease the last 975,000-square-foot structure on the property, said Joseph Taylor, company CEO.

Our last building of about 975,000 square feet is about half finished, he said. Its a speculative building [which means] we dont have a tenant for it yet. But thats how we did the other three. Wed love to have another warehouse user, like Ikea and Amazon, here.

Once the final building is leased, Taylor said the company would like to invest further in the borough and has been looking for additional property.

We have been looking around at a number of different sites,'' he said. "We havent settled on any one site.

SITE HISTORY

Matrix Development Group broke ground on the logistics park in late fall 2016.

First to be built and occupied was a 855,000-square-foot warehouse, which is now home to Amazons $100 million Fulfillment Center, which opened in 2017. That facility employs more then 4,000 people who work alongside robots to pick, pack and ship customer orders that are delivered to various geographic areas.

Another 975,000-square-foot facility is occupied by Ikea, which opened in 2018. The Staten Island unit supports delivery to many customers in New York City, whether they are shopping in store, at the IKEA Planning Studio or online. The Advance has previously reported that about 200 people are employed at the facility.

Recently leased to Amazon by Matrix was a new 450,000-square-foot warehouse to be used as a delivery station that will help speed up deliveries to local residents. The new warehouse will have a different use than the existing Staten Island Amazon facility. It will be for last mile deliveries," which means packages from the facility will go to a specific geographic areas in New York City.

Part of the success of the site is that Matrix was able to have MTA buses stop on the property to get employees to and from work, said Taylor.

Included in the $700 million investment is $25 million used for road improvements on and around the site, which included making Gulf Avenue a one-way street, he said.

Matrix Development Group has been in existence for 35 years, and its portfolio of industrial properties boasts some as large as 40 million square feet throughout New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The company also has an extensive portfolio of office and residential properties.

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(Bloomberg) -- Europe kicked into high alert as countries from Italy and Spain to France and Germany reported more cases of coronavirus, struggling to limit its spread.

Vast swathes of the Lombardy and Veneto regions of Italy, stretching from Milan to Venice, remained in a virtual lockdown. Spain kept about 700 guests confined to a Canary Islands hotel as they undergo tests, while France announced four new confirmed cases, including a 60-year-old Frenchman who died in a Paris hospital overnight. Greece reported its first case.

As of Wednesday, at least 14 people across the region had died from the disease, mostly in Italy, while more than 400 people have been infected, according to numbers compiled from national authorities.

Although small relative to the worldwide death toll of 2,771 and 81,233 confirmed cases, authorities in Europe are scrambling to find ways to contain the disease and businesses are counting the costs of its impact on economic activity. U.S. authorities are preparing for a potential outbreak, while mounting cases across the Middle East and Asia are raising the specter of a pandemic.

Stocks were flat in Europe and fell in Asia, while U.S. equities fluctuated, a day after the S&P 500 Index fell 3% to cap its worst two-day slide since 2015. Treasuries extended gains.

Italy, the European nation worst affected, is working on a package of measures to help sustain the economy after the virus claimed at least 12 lives and the number of cases rose to 400, mostly in the rich, industrial north.

In Spain, the total number of live cases has climbed to 10, with two each in Madrid and the Catalonia region, one in Valencia and another in Seville. The four others were on the Tenerife island hotel, the H10 Costa Adeje Palace. About 106 hotel guests who never had any contact with those infected and employees will be able to leave.

In France, which has so far reported two fatalities, most of the 18 confirmed cases have been treated and released from hospital.

Story continues

German Health Minister Jens Spahn told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday that new cases of the virus in NRW and Baden-Wuerttemberg states are a sign that Germany is at the beginning of a Corona epidemic. The country has 18 confirmed cases, according to the health ministrys website.

Greeces first coronavirus case is a 38-year-old woman in the northern city of Thessaloniki, the countrys second-largest city, who had recently returned from a trip to northern Italy.

Many of the cases across Europe seem to have links to Italy or with Italians. The outbreak in Italy was initially linked to a 38-year-old man who sought treatment at a hospital in the Lombardy region on Feb. 18. While there, he infected dozens of patients and medical staff, who then spread it further afield.

Tracking efforts initially focused on a friend of the man, a businessman who had returned from China, but tests proved negative and the origin of the contagion remains a mystery.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said his government will try to help businesses harmed by the outbreak in sectors from manufacturing to tourism, according to an interview with Corriere della Sera newspaper. About a third of Italys output comes from Lombardy and Veneto, the two most-hit regions.

As the fallout spread, Milan postponed its design week -- one of its busiest events with hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world -- from April to June.

The regions other countries are also studying the economic impact of the spread of the virus. In Germany, the DIHK industry group said exporters in Europes biggest economy are already unsettled by events in Italy. The southern European nation is Germanys fifth-largest trading partner with a volume of more than 125 billion euros ($136 billion).

The impact on the German economy should not be underestimated, Volker Treier, DIHK head of foreign trade, said in a statement.

In Austria, travel agents are in talks with trade unions on imposing reduced working hours on around 10,000 employees, the head of the commerce chamber WKO, Karlheinz Kopf, was quoted as saying by the Austria Press Agency. The travel agents business has almost ground to a halt, and bookings plummeted dramatically, Kopf said.

Still, for now European countries are not actively considering closing borders. Health ministers from Italy and neighboring countries meeting in Rome on Tuesday agreed that border closures arent currently an appropriate measure to stem the spread of the virus, Austrian Health Minister Rudolf Anschober said in a TV interview.

Health experts who briefed the ministers said that this doesnt make sense, it doesnt help, and sharing information and preventive measures are more important, Anschober said.

(Updates with new French case tally in eighth paragraph)

--With assistance from Tommaso Ebhardt, Boris Groendahl, Angeline Benoit, Paul Tugwell, Sotiris Nikas, Rudy Ruitenberg and Brian Parkin.

To contact the reporters on this story: Laura Millan Lombrana in Madrid at lmillan4@bloomberg.net;Charles Penty in Madrid at cpenty@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Vidya Root, Iain Rogers

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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The lion commonly referred to as the king of the jungle, is one of the most popular animals in the wild and a member of the Big Five Game. It is a widely recognized animal symbol in most cultures and has been extensively depicted in paintings and sculptures, national flags, and literature. Lions are social species belonging to the family Felidae or cats. They mainly inhabit savanna and grasslands and are rarely found in forests. There are two subspecies of lions; Panthera leo leo consisting of Central African, West African, Barbary, and Asiatic lions and Panthera leo melanochaita consisting of Southern African lions. This article focuses on the Asiatic lion and its characteristics, habitat, classification, and related information.

Asiatic Lions Near Extinction

A large population of the lion was found in the vast African savannah alongside herds of antelopes and zebras which serve as their food. Apart from Africa, lions were common in Eurasia. However, systematic hunting, especially by the British colonials brought the species in Eurasia to near extinction. The subsequent conservation efforts ensured that the Asiatic lion survived. Despite their restricted distribution, the story of the species remains one of the rare conservation successes. The Asiatic lion is restricted to Gir National Park and its environs in Gujarat and it is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List because of its small population which is about 650 individuals (as of 2017). It is sometimes referred to as Persian lion or Indian lion. The Asiatic lion is one of the five pantherine cats in India.

Classification and Evolution

The Asiatic lion is a subspecies of lions that split from the African lions about 100,000 years ago and prowled across Asia and the Middle East. The subspecies was first described in 1826 by Johanna N Meyer (Austrian) and named it Felis leo persicus. Phylogeographic analysis of lions indicates that all the modern lions including the Asiatic lion may have originated from Sub-Saharan African lion. Lions migrated from East and Southern Africa to eastern North Africa, West Africa, and into Turkey, northern India, and Southern Europe via the Arabian Peninsula. The Asiatic lion is closely related to West and North African lions than the Southern and Eastern Lions. It is believed that the Indian lion maintained its connection with the Central and North African lions until the lions in the Middle East and Europe became extinct following the interruption of the gene flow. Because of the close molecular genetics and morphological similarities with the now extinct Barbary lion, the Asiatic lion has been subsumed to Panthera leo leo.

Physical Appearance and Characteristics

The Asiatic lion is smaller than the African lion. The male is slightly bigger than the female lion, with the male weighing approximately 160-190 kg while the female weighs 110-120 kg. The shoulder height for the male Asiatic lion is 3.51-3.94 feet and the female is 2.6-3.5 feet. The maximum recorded length of a male lion in Gir National Park is 115 inches (from head to tail). The fur of the Asiatic lion ranges ruddy-tawny to sandy or buffish gray. Like the African lions, the males also have mane at the top of their heads but the growth is shorter, making it possible to see the ears. The mane on the throat and cheeks are scanty. The skull of adult males is about 13 inches and of the female is 11.5-11.9 inches. The Asiatic lions tail tuft is larger than the African lion. The outstanding feature common in the species but absent in their African counterparts is the fold of skin on the belly.

Distribution and Habitat

Approximately 545 square miles in Saurashtras Gir forest has been set aside as a conservation sanctuary for the Asiatic lions. The sanctuary and its environments are the only places where the Asiatic lions can be found. However, the lions occurred in eastern Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Mesopotamia, Bengal, and Iran in the 19th century. Since the turn of the 20th century, the lions are restricted to the Gir Forest National Park and the surrounding environs. The national park is approximately 100 square miles and was established in 1965. Human activities are not allowed in the national park and the surrounding area.

The Asiatic lions inhabit the Girnar and Gir hill systems comprising large land of thorny forest, savannah, and tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest. The lions are protected in five protected areas; Gir National Park, Gir Sanctuary, Pania Sanctuary, Girnar Sanctuary, and Mitiyala Sanctuary. The national park, Gir, and Pania sanctuaries are the core habitats for the lions and form the Gir Conservation Area. There are plans to establish an additional sanctuary near the Barda Wildlife Sanctuary. In 2019, a lioness and a sub-adult were sighted in villages about 31 miles from Chotila (Surendranagar District), making the district the 5th in Gujarat to host the lions. The villages are about 43 miles from Ger Forest.

Behavior

Although lions are social species, the male Asiatic lions are generally solitary and may form a loose pride of up to three males. The females are more social and often have a strong pride of up to 12 females and their cubs. The pride of female lions will always share carcasses among themselves. Males and females only associate for a short time during the mating season. The males have a large home range (56-89 square miles) compared to the female (26-33 square miles).

Feeding

Asiatic lions prefer larger prey with weight ranging from 420 to 1,210 pounds. Domestic cattle have been the main source of food for the lion in Gir Forest. Inside the national park, they mainly prey on sambar, buffalo, chital, nilgai, and cattle. Buffalos and cattle are mainly hunted outside the protected areas where there is no wild prey. The dominant male lion consumes almost half of the kill while the rest is shared by the coalition partners.

Reproduction

The mating season for the Asiatic lions falls between September and January. The mating period is between 3 to six days, during which the lions do not hunt and only survive on water. The lions gestation period is 110 days after which 1-4 cubs are born. The female lions take care of cubs for an average of 24 months before they give birth to another set. However, the interval between births can be shorter if the cubs die.

Counting the Lions

Asiatic lion is the lone representative of P. l. leo species outside of Africa. It was almost driven to extinction by human actions in the 19th century. Thanks to human efforts, the lions have been brought back to the brink. The lions are counted every five years, with the census involving people from the surrounding villages. About 300 rangers recruited from the surrounding area track, count, and record each lion. In 2015, 523 individual lions were counted including 201 adult females, 109 adult males, and 203 cubs.

Conservation Issues and Threats

The Asiatic lions, like other wild animals in India, face the usual threat of poaching and habitat loss. Although the government has banned poaching of lions throughout the country, there have been reports of poaching in recent years involving organized gangs who prefer lions to tigers. Although wells have been dug within the protected areas to provide water for the wildlife, some lions have reportedly drowned in the wells.

Three major roads and a railway track pass through the protected area. Although these have been fenced off, the continued use has caused disturbance to the lions. The three big temples inside the protected area attract a large number of pilgrims, especially during certain times of the year.

Since the 1990s, the population of Asiatic lions has increased significantly. About 200 of these lions reside outside the protected area, leading to an increase in conflict between them and humans. Although the lions have helped to keep away animals such as wild pigs and nilgais ways, the locals have attacked and killed some lions for preying on their livestock. There have also been cases of lions attacking and killing humans. However, with the changing lifestyle and values, the lion-human conflict has greatly reduced.

The existence of the Asiatic lions as a single sub-populations makes them vulnerable to extinction in case of an event such as wildfire or epidemic. They also exposed to the threat of genetic inbreeding because of their existence in one place.

Conservation Efforts and Initiatives

The Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Project is one of the most successful conservation stories in India. The project was an initiative of the government of India to safeguard the Asiatic lions from extinction. It involved the relocation of people living around Gir to create room for the lions. So far, over 500 square miles has been declared a protected area and a habitat for the Asiatic lions. To increase conservation awareness, the seal of the state of Gujarat depicts three Asiatic lions above its name. WWF-India is working with local partners such as the Gujarat Forest Department to barricade the wells. It is also working to undertake studies to assess the habitat change to address issues of poaching and manage conflict. There is also a dedicated team of game rangers who take the injured lions to the treatment center located in the park. The effort has seen several injured lions rescued and treated on time.
Maharashtra Village Social Transformation Foundation (VSTF) announced a unique initiative titled Swachh Maharashtra in strategic partnership with India SDG Trust & AquaKraft Projects Pvt. Ltd. The initiative was launched on February 27 by Hasan Mushrif, Minister for Rural Development, Government of Maharashtra in the presence of Arvind Kumar, AddlChief Secretary, Rural Development Department, Government of Maharashtra, Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, IAS (retd.), Father of CSR in India, Ramnath Subramaniam, CEO VSTF and Dr. Subramanya Kusnur, Founder Chairman & CEO, AquaKraft Projects Pvt. Ltd

Swachh Maharashtra is a great opportunity for Corporate CSR to come forward and partner with the Government in the development of the state. VSTF has been doing impactful work in the villages and this partnership with India SDG Trust & AquaKrafts sustainable technologies offers a structured platform of rural development. While the launch Hasan Mushrif also urged all the Corporates based in Maharashtra to come forward and participate in the development of the state aligned with the UN SDGs.

Swachh Maharashtra, a unique initiative will be a first of its kind thematic pool created under the India SDG Trust to aggregate CSR from qualified Corporates. The aggregated Fund will then be utilized to create actionable and sustainable solutions in the area of Sanitation, Water Management, Community Health & Hygiene. AquaKraft will be the strategic partner where one side provide time tested & patented green/environment-friendly aligned to the UN SDG Goals and on the other hand be actively involved in raising resources through CSR and other qualified Donors. VSTF will provide the requisite permissions and on-ground support as an Implementation Partner of the Initiative.

Ramnath Subramaniam, CEO of VSTF said that VSTF has been at the forefront of rural development right since inception and has been able to create a strong impact through its interventions in over 1000 villages across the state. The journey has been truly impactful with the overall development evident at the grass-root level and a classic example Public-Private Development Model with over 20 corporates being a part of the VSTF. Swachch Maharashtra will leverage upon this experience coupled with AquaKrafts sustainable solutions and India SDG Trusts technical expertise in aligning with the UN SDGs.

India SDG Trust is formed with an aim to leverage the opportunity created by the CSR Act towards accelerating SDG progress in the country by steering corporates towards large scale impactful programs. It supports corporates to optimize their CSR and private philanthropic spend in alignment with Indias priorities on the SDG and also facilitate tracking and monitoring of CSR funds against their impact on SDGs. All charitable activities of the Trust focus to support one or more of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals in alignment with the nations development agenda.

Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee also said that Swachh Maharashtra to his mind is a unique innovation in CSR which enable Corporates to contribute to a thematic pool to do sustainable interventions in the area of Drinking Water & Sanitation in line with the Government of Indias vision of Jal Shakti Abhiyaan and aligning with the UN SDGs. The ground level expertise of VSTF and the green technology solutions by AquaKraft leading to livelihood creation is an ideal model for sustainability. He also requested corporates to take advantage of this platform and make a difference to the people at the grassroots.

Dr. Subramanya Kusnur, Founder Chairman & CEO, AquaKraft Projects Pvt. Ltd said that AquaKraft has been at the forefront in advocating sustainability right since its inception in 2010. AquaKrafts Swachh Model, where Swachh is Sanitation & Water for Community Health & Hygiene is a result of extensive research across over 1700 villages in the last decade. Swachh Model aims to augment the Human Development Index (HDI) while aligning with the UN SDGs. The extensive work done by VSTF is commendable, as they have not only done a detailed assessment of the need but also have created village level Rural Development Fellows which act as a single point contact for all stakeholders. This enables the seamless and faster rollout of any interventions. Swachh Maharashtra is also blessed with the partnership of India SDG Trust which brings along a rich & self-regulatory perspective of none other than the Father of CSR in India.

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Landra Gould, widow of senator Harry M. Reid, pays respects at his casket at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll/Bloomberg News)

The former Senate majority leader was remembered as a pragmatic dealmaker who became a political force across two presidencies.
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About 100 mountain goats, descendants of animals introduced outside the park decades ago, inhabit the Teton Range. Using a combination of shooters in the air and eventually on the ground, park officials say they want to eradicate the goats because they compete with bighorn sheep for food and habitat and can spread diseases including pneumonia to the native animals.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meets with U.S. President Donald Trump at the border village of Panmunjeom in the Demilitarized Zone, June. 30, 2019. / Korea Times file



Nuclear talks between NK, US have uncertain future



By Kang Seung-woo



The indefinite suspension of the annual joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States is expected to have an incidental effect of de-escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, diplomatic experts said Friday.



However, it remains to be seen if the decision will help get the stalled nuclear talks between North Korea and the U.S. back on track, they added.



On Thursday, the allies announced that they would postpone their joint exercises indefinitely amid the surge in COVID-19 cases across the peninsula. They had initially planned to hold them in March.



While negotiations between the two countries have stalled for more than a year since the collapse of the Hanoi summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in February 2019, this year's drills had been regarded as a litmus test to see whether the peninsula would return to tension.



Angered by the joint exercises, the North Korean regime has taken low-level provocative action, including launching short-range missiles, since mid-last year. In addition, Kim's warning of a new strategic weapon in his New Year address heightened tensions here.



"If South Korea and the U.S. had stuck to their plan to go ahead with the joint drills, North Korea would have responded with military action, which could have stoked tensions here," said Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute.



"Thanks to the suspension, the North is not likely to show off its military prowess."



Park Won-gon, a professor of international politics at Handong Global University, echoed Cheong's view.



"Given that the North will not stage corresponding exercises, the decision to suspend the joint drills will help de-escalate tensions," Park said, adding the North would be able to focus on fighting the coronavirus.



The North Korean leader also said in the New Year speech that how much his country will bolster its nuclear deterrent would depend on the U.S.' attitude, meaning the joint drills would have led to the North's military provocations.



However, diplomatic pundits said the exercise postponement would not revive the nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington overnight.



"The decision to postpone the joint exercises was based on a public health problem without accepting the North's demand for the end of them. In that respect, it is not easy to mend fences between the North and the U.S. and quickly resume the nuclear talks," Park said.



The Kim regime has repeatedly strongly denounced the military exercises in the South, calling them a rehearsal for an invasion of the North.



Cheong said the North is committed to containing the coronavirus, so it is not in a favorable situation to come forward for negotiations with the U.S. So far, the North claims it has no cases of coronavirus.



"As the U.S. government has fewer things palatable to the North to bring it back to negotiations, the North Korean regime will not easily accept the U.S.' call for denuclearization talks," Cheong said.










 Read the full article on Motorious

These are some cool cars getting new owners!

Thursday is a great warm up day for bidding at GAA Classic Cars. This means some really cool cars get sold for not a lot of money, and some do. Here are a few gems that are worth a mention.

1967 Camaro Restomod With Modern Power

Hammer Price: $40,000

Who doesn't love a well-done first-generation restomod? This Camaro has been on our radar since the inventory was announced for the February GAA auction. It has looks to kill, and a modern powertrain to back it up! Amongst the highlights are the 5.3-liter engine that is backed by a ultra-fun T56 6-speed transmission, and accompanying upgrades to compliment the beast's new heart.

One Owner 1986 Toyota Pickup

Hammer Price: $22,500

This truck lived with its original owner from Pismo Beach, California before heading to the east coast. It is a very well-maintained example of the early Toyota pickups, but does have a few upgrades as well. Sporting the original paint, this 4-wheel drive truck has new vented disc brakes up front, new interior, powder coated wheels, and new Ranchero 5000 shocks.

Restored 1968 Chevrolet El Camino

Hammer Price: $22,500

Is there a vehicle out there quite as cool as the El Camino? We feel these cars never get the respect they deserve when people talk about the cars from the late 1960s. This example is a great representative when the car/truck was pretty awesome. It has been freshly restored, and has a few updates, here and there, but remains pretty true to original form.

Black on Black 1978 Pontiac Trans Am

Hammer Price: $21,500

What's cooler than being cool? This block on black second-generation Trans Am! This T/A is loaded with options, and powered by a 400 cubic-inch 6.6-liter growling V8. The sleek black exterior paint job is complimented by the black leather interior. Bonus: it's a manual!

1973 Dodge Challenger Rally Car

Hammer Price: $22,500

The Dodges of the 1970s are easily the highest rising stars over the last decade, and this Challenger makes it easy to see why. This muscle car is aggressive, large, has a numbers matching 340 cubic-inch engine, backed by an automatic transmission, and is ready to be driven!

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As a part of strategic focus on cutting edge technologies, Cyber Chasse Academy introduced the Splunk Admin program today. This advanced program is based on the instructor-led online training approach to enable candidates gain complete knowledge about Splunk development.

The Splunk development program will encompass various aspects of big data that enable the learner to implement them through project-based learning methodology. On successful completion of the training, the candidates will be offered placement assistance.

Admission to the program are currently open for the first batch starting on 15th March 2020. For more details visit  https://learningacademy.cyberchasse.com. Starting with Splunk, the company will gradually shift their training modules towards futuristic technologies like  cloud computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data and IoT.

The module of Splunk Admin would comprise all topics of Splunk Administration including - Splunk Enterprise System Administration, Splunk Enterprise Cluster Administration, and Splunk Enterprise Data Administration.

The Splunk Admin training is crafted for beginners and experienced who wish to improve their skills. During the training, the candidates will get to work on live projects to ensure that the candidate is ready to be productive in his/her organization.

The company Cyber Chasse Inc has ventured into online training to offer pioneering programs to professionals and young aspirants wishing to enter the world of advanced technology. These programs are also suitable for those wishing to reskill themselves on new technologies.

Speaking on the launch of the new batch Mr. Anil Jayaprakash, Director Cyber Chasse Inc said the emergence of cutting-edge technologies presented huge opportunities to the younger generation. While the United States has a strong ecosystem of technology, there is a shortage of trained workforce. To cater the growing demand, Cyber Chasse Academy is committed to offer a series of industry-aligned training programs, Splunk Development being the first in the series.

About Cyber Chasse Learning Academy

Cyber Chasse Learning Academy focuses on enhancing the skills and knowledge of candidates with highly qualified and experienced and trainers. The training programs are scheduled flexibly to suit the timing of the candidates to take up the class and complete the certification. They take pride in bringing the most revolutionary online technical training courses just to ensure that their students are ahead of the race. Their mission is to bridge the knowledge gap by providing high quality training to the students as well as professionals.

About Cyber Chasse

Cyber Chasse established in 2017 is a cyber security firm located in Florida that provides wide range of cyber security services. With over 2 years of industry exposure as cyber security firm, it has entered the online training industry to offer a wide range of services.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cyberchasse/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/cyber-chasse-inc/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/cyber_chasse?lang=en

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cyberchasse/
The Member of Parliament for Odododiodio constituency, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye, has criticized Members of Parliament who accessed the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETfund) scholarship.



According to him, there are a lot of privileges for Members of Parliament, hence there is no justification for them to have sought for scholarship from GETfund.



Contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM morning show Kokrokoo, Nii Lante said: after all these privileges, you still want to go for the one that has been set aside for the needy. If you need help in your education, apply through parliament. This abuse is worryingGETfund was not set for people in privileged positions."



Background



A performance audit report has listed a number of high-ranking government officials including the Minister of State in Charge of Procurement, Sarah Adwoa Safo who applied and obtained $12,800 in allowances with $17,004 in tuition fees to study at the Harvard Kennedy School.



Another person captured in the list is the Executive Secretary of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Prince Hamidu Armah also receiving 38,400 for living expense in addition to 33,000 for tuition fees, While Education Minister Mathew Opoku Prempeh, also received $12,800 for living expenses and $11,200 as tuition fees to study at Harvard University.



The Auditor-General intends to surcharge persons involved in scholarship awards and also disallow expenditure items of the GETFund Secretariat, in accordance with Article 187(7) (b) of its mandate.



This follows recommendations by the Auditor-General after faulting the GETFund for not being fair in the award of scholarships to those in need.

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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(Newser)  A water main break from a plant that supplies about half of Houston left drivers stranded on a flooded freeway and forced businesses and schools to close because they had no water or low water pressure on Thursday. "This was a major, a major break," Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a mid-afternoon news conference, the AP reports. Turner said the line had been isolated on both ends, but until it fully drains, it will continue to spew water, though at a diminishing rate. He said it's expected to take about six to eight hours for it to completely drain. The flooding submerged vehicles on an eastern section of Loop 610, a highway that circles the city. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez tweeted that all occupants were out of flooded vehicles. The fire department said on Twitter that it had rescued three people. There were no reports of injuries.

story continues below

Drivers in the low-lying city are used to flooded roadways during storms, but this flash flood was a surprise on a sunny day. "The water came out very, very quickly," Turner said. Officials said the break happened around noon as a contractor worked to repair a leak in the 8-foot line, which is 35 years old. "The closer they got to where the leak was occurring, removing the soil, the line simply erupted," he said. The mayor said that restaurants without water must stop operating and that he anticipates a boil order going into effect. Because of the break, all county courts will be closed Friday. The Houston Independent School District canceled after-school activities Thursday and shut schools Friday so maintenance workers can inspect its facilities. Turner said the break shows the need for improvements. "When you are dealing with an aging infrastructure, you are going to have these main line breaks," Turner said. And in some cases they are major arteries and can cause a major disruption."

(Read more water main stories.)
A fire in Oxford claimed the life of a person Thursday afternoon, according to authorities.

Oxford Fire and Police Departments responded to 33 Sacrrapa Road at around 3:15 p.m. for a fire in a two-story garage. Firefighters rescued a person from the building.

The person later died from the injuries sustained in the fire, authorities said.

Authorities didnt publicly release any more information on the victim.

The cause and origin of the fire is being investigators by authorities from the Oxford Police and Fire Department, Massachusetts State Police and the state Fire Marshals Office.
Hyundai Motor, Korea's biggest carmaker, has halted operations at one of its domestic plants after an employee there was diagnosed with the new coronavirus. Yonhap



Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's biggest carmaker by sales, said Friday it has halted operations at one of its domestic plants after an employee there was diagnosed with the new coronavirus.



Hyundai Motor immediately brought work at the No. 2 plant in the southeastern port city of Ulsan to a halt, and it is in an emergency meeting with its union to discuss follow-up measures, according to the company and the union.



"The infected worker belongs to the 300-member paint shop of the No. 2 plant. The company is checking with whom the worker has come in contact with in the plant," a union spokesman said over the phone.



The confirmation of COVID-19 case is expected to deal a further blow to the carmaker, which is already suffering from a shortage of parts from China due to the outbreak there.



Hyundai Motor plunged 5.4 percent to 114,500 won on the news, underperforming the broader KOSPI's 2.9 percent loss, as of 12:25 p.m.



At the No. 2 plant, which hires 4,000 workers, Hyundai produces the Palisade SUV and the GV80 SUV under its independent Genesis brand.



Hyundai has seven domestic plants  five in Ulsan, one in Asan and one in Jeonju  and 10 overseas plants  four in China and one each in the United States, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Russia, India and Brazil. Their combined capacity reaches 5.5 million vehicles.



Hyundai halted all of its local plants on Feb. 7 and kept them suspended through Feb. 10 as their parts suppliers in China stopped production during an extended Lunar New Year holiday from Jan. 24 to Feb. 9.



It was the first time that Hyundai had suspended all domestic plants since 1997, when the Asian financial crisis affected local manufacturers and Mando Corp. stopped supplying parts to the carmaker.



South Korea reported 256 new coronavirus cases Friday, bringing the total number of infected to 2,022. (Yonhap)


Oslo, 28 February 2020 - DNO ASA, the Norwegian oil and gas operator, announced that shareholders overwhelmingly approved the resolution to cancel all 108,381,415 own shares held by the Company at an Extraordinary General Meeting held today in Oslo. The canceled shares represented 10 percent of DNO shares outstanding.

The minutes from the Extraordinary General Meeting are attached.

--

For further information, please contact:

Media: media@dno.no

Investors: investor.relations@dno.no

Tel: +47 23 23 84 80

--

DNO ASA is a Norwegian oil and gas operator focused on the Middle East and the North Sea. Founded in 1971 and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, the Company holds stakes in onshore and offshore licenses at various stages of exploration, development and production in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Norway, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Ireland and Yemen.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

Attachment
The 4th European Chemistry Partnering (ECP) brought together several hundred industry representatives from the chemical industry and other sectors in Frankfurt am Main to discuss product innovations, development potentials and concrete cooperative steps into the future.

The event kicked off with a keynote address by Fernando J. Gomez, head of the program for the chemical and materials industry at the World Economic Forum. He underlined the need for global cooperation in view of the future sustainability challenges and the 17 sustainability goals of the United Nations. More than 1,300 pre-arranged partnering discussions as well as several company workshops and presentations in the exhibition area of the Kap Europa Congress Center at Messe Frankfurt provided the substantive input for the day. Once again, this created the particularly intensive, yet open and productive laboratory atmosphere of the ECP with 650 participants from 27 nations.

The ECP Job Exchange, organized for the first time, provided additional stimulation and offered graduates the opportunity to make direct contact with large companies and start-ups in a unique environment. In the concluding panel discussion, high-ranking industry representatives addressed the future of the financial ecosystem and picked up on the focus on sustainability already set in Fernando J. Gomez's keynote speech.

Dr. Holger Bengs, CEO of BCNP Consultants GmbH and initiator of the European Chemistry Partnering, summed up: "Especially in economically difficult times, it is important that large companies as well as start-ups take the lead to achieve sustainable business. Getting to know each other personally creates the basis for openness, trust and the willingness to cooperate and to succeed together".

The 5th European Chemistry Partnering will take place on 23 February 2021 in Frankfurt am Main.
Sharon has been working diligently for a number of years to bring a hotel to downtown Morganton, Nelson said. I believe that she would say that the hotel opening is a dream come true. Its been a lot of hard work on behalf of a lot of people with the city and those involved with the hotel development. It is an exciting day for downtown, for the city and for Burke County.

Construction on the hotel began in August 2018 and hotel officials said at that time that while some hotels are made to look uniform, this one was designed with the appearance of downtown in mind in terms of the exterior. Nelson said that is the case on the inside as well.

It makes it feel more like a part of the community, she said. The artwork pieces in the rooms are from our area, which is really cool to see.

After being awarded a $75,000 bridge loan by the Morganton City Council in October, hotel managing partnership Morganton Lodging Associates LP again will be a topic of discussion at Monday nights council meeting.
MANILA, Philippines  Two of the three Filipino repatriates from the virus-stricken cruise ship in Japan tested negative for COVID-19 despite manifesting symptoms of the deadly coronavirus disease while under quarantine, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday, February 28.

The DOH said that based on laboratory test results that came out this morning, two Filipinos turned out negative for the infection while one is still awaiting results.

The two repatriates who tested negative no longer need to undergo another set of laboratory test but will be placed under strict monitoring, the agency added.

The DOH also assured all three are in stable condition.

Based on the Philippines quarantine guidelines, persons exhibiting signs and symptoms of the disease should be separated from asymptomatic individuals for observation.

Those who are found infected with the virus will be placed in isolation in a health facility while those who tested negative will continue the quarantine period at a facility in New Clark City.

The three were brought to a hospital in Central Luzon on Thursday morning after they experienced sore throat and dry cough.

They were among the more than 400 Filipinos evacuated from the coronavirus-hit MV Diamond Princess cruise ship off Yokohama, Japan last Tuesday, February 25, and placed under 14-day quarantine at New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac.

The cruise ship was placed on quarantine after a passenger tested positive for COVID-19.

Of the 3,700 passengers and crew members, more than 700 were found infected with coronavirus, including 80 Filipinos.

All asymptomatic persons aboard the vessel have already disembarked, while those infected were admitted at hospitals in Japan for proper treatment.  RRD (with details from Correspondent Aiko Miguel)

The post 2 of 3 Filipinos from Japan showing COVID-19 symptoms test negative appeared first on UNTV News.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

GUWAHATI: A member of Khasi Students Union (KSU) was killed in a clash between KSU members and non-tribals over Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and Inner Line Permit (ILP) in East Khasi Hills of Meghalaya on Friday evening, prompting the authorities to clamp curfew in the district.



Curfew has been clamped due to apprehension of serious deterioration of law and order in Shillong and adjoining areas, East Khasi Hills Deputy Commissioner (District Magistrate) M War Nongbri said.

Shillong has a sizeable non-tribal population.



The authorities also banned mobile internet services in East Khasi Hills, West Khasi Hills, South West Khasi Hills, Ri Bhoi, East Jaintia Hills and West Jaintia Hills districts following the apprehension over the misuse of the social media for spreading communal hatred.



The victim, who was grievously injured, succumbed to his injuries at a government hospital. Several other KSU members and policemen were injured in the clashes.



The clashes broke out at Ichamati village in Shella at the end of a meeting organized to discuss CAA and ILP and witnessed participation by hundreds of tribals and non-tribals from the area and neighbouring villages.



Sources said differences between the KSU members and the non-tribals cropped up over CAA and ILP.

The KSU is opposed to CAA and favours the introduction of ILP in the state.



The non-tribals were allegedly armed with sticks and other weapons and they went on the rampage. Several vehicles were vandalised. There were also reports of arson.


It's been a turbulent few months for the royal family. First, came Prince Andrew's car-crash BBC Newsnight interview in November, before the almighty Megxit Crisis threw the royals into chaos last month. But, as the drama rolls on, so, too, does the crucial business of the monarchy. And front and centre, presenting the positive face of The Firm to the country and the world, are the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Next week, the much-loved pair will arrive in Ireland for a three-day tour, visiting Dublin as well as counties Meath, Kildare and Galway in a trip designed to highlight the strong links between Britain and its closest neighbour. The couple are said to be keen to build a "lasting friendship with the Irish people".

Nine years on from the Queen's historic trip to the Republic, which saw the monarch speaking Irish and visiting Dublin's Guinness brewery, next week's visit has been billed by Kensington Palace as an opportunity to "focus on the relationship between the two countries and build on the theme of remembrance and reconciliation".

Which, according to Emily Nash, royal editor at Hello! magazine, will be a vital piece of work for the Cambridges.

"Since the Queen's visit in 2011 - the first by a British monarch in a century - there has been a clear focus on building on the relationship, with an emphasis on reconciliation between two countries with such a long shared history," says Ms Nash.

"The fact that the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall have visited Ireland every year for the past five years and will continue to do so shows that commitment and I think, from their part, a genuine interest in and affection for the country and the Irish people.

"Brexit has also underlined the importance of that relationship and there's no doubt this visit will be influenced by that."

Royal commentator Robert Jobson, agrees: "The relationship between the UK and Ireland is, without doubt, the most important relationship that needs to be maintained and protected post-Brexit.

"As well as the issue of stability in Northern Ireland and the financial and trade links between the two countries, there are the huge cultural and family ties between the countries.

"There are so many people of Irish descent right across Great Britain - including my own great-grandmother - so that relationship needs to be close."

And, says the author and royal editor at London's Evening Standard newspaper, the royals have an important diplomatic role to play in making that happen.

"The Queen has always been engaged in Northern Ireland and Ireland and, since her visit to the Republic in 2011, the Prince of Wales has made a few visits, although they haven't been quite so high-profile," says Mr Jobson.

"But, with the Duke and Duchess coming next week, it shows there is an emphasis on the younger generation engaging with the future relationship. A royal visit like this provides a less politically overt way to start any conversations that need to be had.

"With a Government minister, it's all trade talks and business. But royals, like the Duke and Duchess, do well in this super-ambassador role, bringing people together with a friendly face and breaking down barriers a little bit, if they're there.

"That's what the Queen managed to do in 2011, which was remarkable. She was welcomed so warmly by the Taoiseach and President and I'll never forget the picture of her the following year in Northern Ireland with Martin McGuinness. It was historic.

"While next week's is a major visit, I don't think anything will match the Queen in 2011. But the Cambridges have the glamour factor and it's great for photographers and people in the media, because the people like to see them."

Carrying out more and more significant "soft diplomacy" roles on behalf of the Government makes sense for the couple, says Emily Nash.

"William and Kate are a hugely valuable asset for the UK in terms of soft diplomacy, as we've seen on recent visits to Pakistan, and William's visit to the Middle East," she says.

"They have a great ability to shine a spotlight on issues that unite people wherever they are, such as the environment, mental health and young people.

"They will be King and Queen

one day, so it makes sense that they are taking on increasingly important overseas visits on behalf of the Government."

And, with the difficulties the monarchy has faced in recent months, not least the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's shock announcement to step down from their duties last month, steadying the ship will be no mean feat for the next-in-line to the throne, the Prince of Wales, and his eldest son."

Royal biographer Penny Junor (inset) says it's been a bad year for The Firm: "People have asked me many times how detrimental I think all of it has been, Harry and Meghan and the Andrew situation. My answer is always, of course it's not good news for the Royal family, but for the monarchy itself, I have not seen any of it as a huge threat.

"Prince Andrew is the Queen's son, but the reality is, in most people's eyes he's not seen as terribly important. And Harry and Meghan might be a fabulously charismatic pair, but they are not the future of the monarchy.

"At the core, and what will continue, is the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and Camilla, William and Kate and little Prince George in the future. Those are the core members that make up the monarchy, and they are absolutely rock solid."

And next week's trip to Ireland, which begins on Tuesday, is another opportunity for the couple of the moment to put their best feet forward for the royals, she says.

"Kate and William are doing really good work and they're very much loved and much respected - that's what we have to focus on. It's very sad, of course, that we've lost Harry and Meghan and who knows what the future will hold for them and whether or not things on that front will start to settle down.

"But what we do know is that William and Kate are rock solid and, with this trip and all the things they've been doing recently, they really seem to be stepping up to the plate, which is fantastic.

"It might be that there is more of a focus on them now that Harry and Meghan have stepped back, but they're looking strong, they're doing good work and their interests have a universal appeal."

Ahead of next week's high-profile visit, Victoria Murphy, an author and journalist who has been writing about the royals for almost a decade, says while the Cambridges' increasingly prominent role is certainly helpful to the family at the moment, it hasn't necessarily been pushed forward to offset negative publicity elsewhere.

"I would say that, yes, it's a good time for William and Kate's charity work and trips to be very visible, when the royal family has had so much negative coverage over the last few months," says Ms Murphy.

"However, I do think the timing of them taking on more isn't directly related to that and more about the fact that they have been gradually building their roles over a long period of time.

"I think we've seen the Cambridges really play the long game when it comes to building on their roles within the royal family.

"When they were first married, they took on some duties, but also very much had a life outside the spotlight and William had another job as well.

"In the last decade or so, their responsibilities have increased significantly, but in a really gradual way. For me, the big moment was when they said that George would go to school in London, which meant that they were effectively accepting that London was their base when before it had seemed to be Norfolk, which is where he went to nursery."

Emily Nash agrees. "If we are seeing more of William and Kate at the moment, that's because they are doing a lot more. There's no doubt the Cambridges are busier than ever at the moment and the departure of Harry and Meghan means there will be more work to do.

"But this also reflects a natural progression in their roles, as the Queen increasingly relies on them for support, as well as on Charles and Camilla."

Victoria Murphy, who has appeared frequently as a royal contributor on TV networks around the world, including Good Morning America, believes the Duchess of Cambridge's increasing confidence in her role has been key.

"We have really seen Kate grow in confidence over time and last year we saw and heard a lot from the couple," says Ms Murphy.

"She has become very focused on what charitable work she wants to do - the early years and the outdoors."

Penny Junor agrees that Kate's appeal has been a major boost for the family.

"She's just wonderful, as a mother and as a duchess and she looks blissfully happy every time we see her. She's absolutely engaged in everything she does and she seems to light up with everyone she meets.

"Between Kate and William, you simply couldn't ask for a more positive image. They're not stuffy, or old-fashioned, but they're quietly conservative. They're not making waves and they're carrying on the tradition of the monarchy, but they give it all a younger twist.

"Kate has a twinkle in her eye and while she might not be as touchy feely as Meghan, I think she's incredibly warm and genuine. Yet, there's that little bit of distance still there, which I think people want from the monarchy."

However, says Ms Junor, the fact we're seeing more and more of the Cambridges doesn't mean they're nudging Prince Charles, who is set to tour Cyprus and Jordan next month along with his wife, out of place.

"Not at all," she says. "It's a balancing act between them and the Prince of Wales and they're sharing the load, because the Prince of Wales is increasingly sharing the Queen's work.

"He does a couple of foreign trips a year, like the Cambridges, as well as a lot of work around the UK. He'll probably be doing at least as much as they are.

"It's, perhaps, just because people are a bit more interested in the glamorous young couple, this wonderfully photogenic pair, that there's the impression they're doing more. But, of course, he's still there and he's still doing an awful lot.

"With Charles and Camilla there working so hard and William and Kate presenting such a positive image of the royal family, I'm quite sure they will do very well on visits like next week's.

"They are doing a great job and making people feel quite confident about the future of it all."
Some Florida law enforcement officers have been told they arent allowed to park their marked cars at home, but thats about to change.

One of the first bills in the 2020 legislative session signed into law will ensure no homeowners association, condominium or community entity can prevent officers from parking patrol cars where they can legally park any other vehicle.

As of now, Florida law allows varying community or property associations to prohibit commercial vehicles from parking in driveways. Theres been ongoing debate on whether a marked patrol vehicle falls under this category, though a 2005 opinion from the Florida Attorney Generals Office states that a law enforcement vehicle is not a commercial vehicle.

Gov. Ron DeSantis approved SB 476 and HB 307 on Feb. 21. Its one of multiple law enforcement-related bills filed and sponsored by Democratic and Republican legislators this session. This one passed unanimously at every stage in the House and Senate with minimal questions.

A representative from the Community Associations Institute, an advocacy group for community associations, indicated support of the bill during its hearing in the House Commerce Committee in January. Law enforcement groups, like the Florida Sheriffs Association and Florida Police Chiefs Association, also indicated support.

Sen. Ed Hooper, R-Palm Harbor, filed the legislation after an incident happened in part of his district in Pinellas County. Last August, a Clearwater police officer potentially faced hundreds of dollars in fines for parking a marked vehicle in her driveway. Although the officer was cleared of her fines, Hooper wanted to ensure it didnt happen again for her or others in law enforcement.

Im pleased to be in a position to help, Hooper said.

Joe Adams, the co-chair of the Condominium and Planned Unit Development Committee of Florida Bar Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section, said communities try to regulate areas for various reasons, like aesthetics.

Most of us probably wouldnt like a dump truck or Sherman tank parked in our neighbors driveway, Adams said.

But where does one draw the line? Most communities dont have issues with marked cruisers, he said. When Adams writes covenants for communities, he makes sure to allow marked cars in the community, so he personally supports the legislation.

Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson Jr. supports the bill and said that it should be common sense not to penalize or cause frivolous aggravation towards officers working in a community.

Officers park their patrol cars at home because when someone is an officer or deputy, they maintain that role 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Adkinson said. Its also nice to have as a physical presence to deter criminal activity, and the vehicles tend to last longer when theyre not constantly switched between people.

He also said the marked cars are helpful for emergency situations in immediate need of a trained official.

For example, in his county, he said there was an instance where someone ran into a deputys home in the middle of the night with a child choking to death. And the deputy was able to save the childs life, he said.

They knew a deputy was inside because a marked vehicle was in the driveway.

We like our deputies and our police officers to be visible members of the community and its part of that currency of trust, he said.

___

This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.

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Topics Auto Florida Law Enforcement
As the commentariat searches for Sanderss predecessors, it is a reach to make McGovern a far-left icon. His economics and foreign policy were much closer to those of John F. Kennedy than to those of Hubert Humphrey. Although the signature policy that brought McGovern to national attention was his crusade against the Vietnam War, McGoverns push to end the war did not mean that he wanted to see Americas diplomatic withdrawal from the world. Rather, he was an ardent internationalist, the former head of the U.S. Food for Peace Program, who believed in our post-war democratic alliances.
Outrage as tourist leaves his mark on Nai Thon rocks

PHUKET: A tourist has been lambasted for graffiting a section of rocks at Nai Thon beach which went viral over social media yesterday (Feb 27) and alerted police to the crime.

crimeenvironmentRussian

By Khunanya Wanchanwet

Friday 28 February 2020, 04:06PM

The graffiti at Mai Khao beach with what appears to be the suspects son holding the marker pen. Photo: dem51 Instragram screen shot

The graffiti on the rock at Nai Thon beach, believed to have been done by a Russian street artist under the tag name dem51. Photo: The National Park

The person believed to be the culprit, a Russian national, was identified via Facebook and Instagram posts that showcased photo evidence of identical handiwork to that which appeared at Nai Thon.

They also shared the same personalised tag name dem51 that appeared on the rock graffiti.

Chief of Sirinat National Park, Mr Natthawat Nuisriram, told The Phuket News today (Feb 28), I was notified via a Facebook post that had gone viral which showed the graffiti painted on the rock at Nai Thon Beach.

Also people sent photos and information to the Sirinat National Park email account directly, he added.

We immediately went to inspect the area and found the painted rock, which is about eight kilometers to the south of Nai Thon beach.

I paint where I want

Mr Natthawat explained he managed to identify the suspected individual although he was unwilling to disclose specific details at this point.

It appears, however, on further inspection of social media using the personalised tag name of dem51 that the individual in question is a Russian national street graffiti artist by the name of Dmitrii Bragin.

It also appears that the piece at Nai Thon is not the only one that was done by the suspect when he was in Phuket.

One Facebook video post from Feb 19th shows an identical image drawn on a tree with marker pen at Mai Khao beach. What appears to be the suspects son is witnessed with the marker pen also graffiting the tree.

His acts of vandalism drew scorn from many across social media where numerous exchanges with the suspect were witnessed.

When a user under the nickname @phuket_guide informed the suspect @dem51 on Instagram that he has been identified as the person responsible for the graffiti at Nai Thon, the reply was as follows:

@phuket_guide In fact its very funny, dont you think so yourself? These are just stones, who cares about them?

Asked by another commentator to keep his street art graffiti in his own country and respect nature and the hospitality of any countries visited, the suspect dem51 replied:

@oleg_morsov Mister, I paint where I want. Dont tell me what to do

Despite Mr Natthawat initially believing the culprit to still be in Phuket, it later transpired that he had left the island meaning it was impossible to question or charge him for his actions.

Chief Natthawat appealed to tourists not to consider replicating the act, stating it is illegal and destroys the natural habitat.

Please do not paint, write, advertise or make any sort of signature piece on rocks like this. It is not pleasant. It is illegal. If anyone witnesses painting like this, please send information to us at:

https://www.facebook.com/sirinath.np or call 076- 328226 and 076- 328226

He concluded with a stern warning: We are responsible for the protection and maintenance of the National Park and this kind of act of vandalism will be punishable with a fine not exceeding 500 baht.
Saturday is the first Feb. 29, or Leap Day, since 2016. So, why do we have Leap Years, anyway?

It's all because of the Earth's rotation and the fact that a day isn't actually an exact 24 hours. Slooh astronomer Bob Berman explained to AccuWeather, that each rotation of Earth takes 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds, to be precise. The orbit around the sun is also imprecise: Earth takes 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds to complete a full trip.

The Gregorian calendar, created by Pope Gregory in 1583, factors in the uneven timing by including an extra day in February every four years as a leap year.

However, an extra day every four years is an overcorrection to the calendar, and Pope Gregory accounted for this, too. For every century year, the calendar resets by skipping leap year. Every 400 years, it does not reset and maintains the leap year. The year 2000 was a year that did not reset; therefore, it had an extra day.

Even though it only comes around every four, or so years, there have been some notable Leap Day events in weather history. Here are a few:

Hottest Leap Day : 100 degrees F at several towns in Texas -- Encinal, Mission, and Waslaco, in 1940.

Coldest Leap Day : -66 degrees F at Hughes, Alaska, in 1956.

Wettest Leap Day: 21 inches of rain at Puohokamoa, Hawaii, in 1984.

Snowiest Leap Day: 33 inches of snow at Cisco Grove, California, in 1944.

This week's lake-effect snow event is probably a little too early to break that snow record, although amounts may total 45 inches, the bulk of it will have fallen on this Friday, Leap Day Eve, if you will.

AccuWeather high-temperature forecast for Feb. 29, 2020

Forecast temperatures on Leap Day 2020 are expected to range from around 5 to 85 degrees, not threatening the records mentioned above. Other Leap Day tidbits of note:

In 1982, there was a tornado outbreak in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. Four people were killed.

In 1976, Baltimore tied its record high when the mercury rose to 76 degrees F, while in 1956 a new record low was set at only 9 degrees F.

In 1992, Tropical Cyclone Esau was in the Coral Sea south of the Solomon Islands. Maximum sustained winds were 140 mph with gusts up to 175 mph.

In 2008, up to 14 inches of snow fell in Pennsylvania

Story continues

There is also some interesting lore that is associated with Leap Day.

For instance, someone born on a Leap Day is known as a leapling, though the odds of being a leapling are exceedingly slim. The chances of being born on a leap day are about one in 1,461, according to the BBC. Leaplings typically celebrate their birthdays on Feb. 28 or March 1, iNews reports.

One Leap Day tradition includes a day on which women could break with custom and propose to their significant other. This is an old Irish legend that dates back to the 5th century and a deal struck by St. Patrick and St. Bridget. According to the Farmer's Almanac, St. Bridget came to St. Patrick frustrated with waiting for a man to propose to her. They came up with a deal that women could propose to a man only on a Leap Day.

The next leap day will be Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024.

Additional reporting by Lauren Fox.
Refat Chubarov, head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, has expressed his condolences to the families and friends of Turkish soldiers who were killed as a result of military aggression by Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and Russia's military command, according to a statement of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, the text of which Chubarov posted on his Facebook page.

"As a result of the joint attack by Syrian and Russian military aircraft on a Turkish army convoy on February 27, 2020, 33 Turkish servicemen were killed, and several dozen people were wounded. The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people expresses sincere and deep condolences to the families and relatives of the dead Turkish soldiers, to the whole Turkish people," the statement reads.

The Mejlis also expressed condolences to the families and loved ones of civilians who became victims of the crimes committed on Syrian soil by Bashar al-Assad's regime and Russian soldiers.

The representative body of the Crimean Tatars drew the attention of the international community to the fact that "the Russian Federation's military support for the most odious and authoritarian regimes, including the dictatorial regime of Bashar al-Assad, is carried out against the backdrop of the war it unleashed against Ukraine and the temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, which have been going on for six years."

The Mejlis called on international organizations to use legal mechanisms, "including the imposition of a total embargo on Russian energy carriers, to coerce Russia into compliance with international law, respect for territorial integrity and the sovereignty of other states."

The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people proceeds from the fact that "any aggressive actions carried out by Russia against NATO member states and other sovereign states must receive a decent and tough response."

op
- The ministry of energy has given the green light for the sale of the Ghana operations of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation to Total SA

- According to a deputy energy minister, Mohammed Amin Adam, the sale would be complete once all the requirements have been met

- Anadarko Petroleum Corporation's operations in Algeria, South Africa and Mozambique have already been transferred to Total

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

The ministry of energy has begun the process of approving the sale of the Ghana operations of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation to Total SA, a French oil giant.

The sale of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, one of Ghanas oil production partners, comes at a time when its operations in three other African countries, Algeria, South Africa and Mozambique, have also been sold.

Per a report by graphic.com.gh, Total, an upstream exploration and production company, purchased the company for $8.8 billion in 2019.

Source: graphic.com.gh

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Senegal launches West Africa's largest wind power plant to boost renewable energy

Anadarko has been operational in Ghana since 2006 and until its sale, owned 24.077% of the Jubilee Field, Ghanas first oil field.

It also owned 17% of the Tweneboah-Enyera-Ntomme (TEN) project, an integrated oil and gas project.

Unnamed officials from the ministry of finance and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) disclosed that per an estimate which gave an overview of Anadarkos operations, its gains in the Jubilee Field and the TEN project before the sale amounted to $4.4 billion.

It has also been confirmed that the $4.4 billion translated into a daily gain of about $1 million for the period Anadarko was active in Ghana.

The company is meanwhile expected to earn an estimated $2.5 billion from the transaction.

A deputy energy minister, Mohammed Amin Adam, has indicated that the approval from the government would come only after all requirements in the deal have been adhered to.

READ ALSO: Bank of Ghana introduces real-time platform to stabilize the cedi

In other news, Africas richest man, Aliko Dangote, has begun pre-tests on a $2 billion fertilizer plant in Lagos.

YEN.com.gh understands that his plant, Granulated Urea Fertiliser complex, is one of the biggest fertilizer projects in the world.

According to the group executive director of Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin, Nigeria could save $500 million from import substitution and provide $400 million from exports of products from the fertilizer plant.

Per a report by Business Insider, the plant, which has a production capacity of 3 million tonnes per annum, is likely to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2020.

It has also been concluded that it is likely to create thousands of direct and indirect jobs after the start of full production.

At the moment, tests have been conducted in key areas of the plant such as the Central Control Room, Ammonia and Urea Bulk Storage, Cooling Tower, Power Generator Plant, and Granulation Plant.

The Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) and the Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL) are already in the process of supplying 70 million standard cubic feet per day (scf/d) of natural gas to the factory.

READ ALSO: Ghana aims to reduce power bill as it restructures expensive energy contracts

Enjoyed reading our story? Download YEN's news app on Google Playstore now and stay up-to-date with major Ghana news!

Ghana News Today: Accra Beautification Project causes Ako-Adjei Interchange to sparkle | #Yencomgh

Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos

Source: YEN.com.gh
Bangui, Central African Republic, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Feb, 2020 ) :The Central African Republic's parliament has endorsed a bill to create a long-awaited commission aimed at healing wounds from conflict and civil wars spanning six decades.

The government on Friday said a vote in parliament the night before approved the creation of a Justice, Truth, Reparation and Reconciliation Commission, or CJVRR to give its French initials.

The impoverished, landlocked country remains deeply troubled despite a peace accord struck in February 2019.

"The commission's prime mission is to encourage reflection nationally about events which gravely affected Central Africans and their country, from the death of President Barthelemy Boganda on March 29 1959 until 2019," said Virginie Baikoua, the minister for humanitarian action and national reconciliation.

Boganda, a charismatic nationalist leader who campaigned for independence from France, was set to become the country's first post-colonial president when he died in a plane crash on a domestic flight.

His death shocked the emerging country and remains unexplained today, and several theories circulate that the plane was deliberately blown up.

Baikoua said the panel would sit for four years, with a possible two-year extension, and comprise 11 commissioners, three of them women.

The commission has been eagerly awaited in a country ravaged by three civil wars in 20 years and remains prey to violence from armed groups that control two-thirds of the country.

It "will offer a place for listening, a space where the memory of victims will be honoured and the painful experience of thousands of compatriots will be acknowledged by society, with the ultimate aim of achieving lasting healing together," Baikoua said.

The drafting of the bill had been preceded by national consultation launched in June 2019, but only a limited number of citizens were able to take part because of insecurity.

In 2003, a similar commission had been set up following a coup by Franois Bozize, who had just overthrown the regime of President Ange-Felix Patasse.

Stripped of means to investigate crimes committed by rebel and loyalist forces, the 2003 commission failed to restore peace to the country.

The same year a new rebellion erupted that marked the start of the first civil war.

Today, near half of the 4.7 million de Central Africans have been forced to flee their homes, and the country is listed as one of the poorest in the world.
SPRINGFIELD  Jerry Costello II, of Smithton, will serve as the Director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture pending approval by the state Senate.

Im honored to continue serving the people of Illinois and excited to take the helm at the department I once oversaw in the state legislature, said Costello. As a leading producer of soybeans, corn and swine, Illinois is home to the most dedicated farmers in the world, and I look forward to partnering with them to grow our states agricultural economy.
The son of celebrity TV chef Rachel Allen has been handed a 15 month jail sentence for having nearly 19,000 worth of cannabis at the world-renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School.

Joshua Allen, 19, was handed the sentence on Friday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court after pleading guilty to the possession for sale or supply of the drug at the school at Shanagarry, Co Cork in September 2018.

He was jailed for 15 months with the sentence backdated to November 8 when the teen served three weeks in prison on remand.

Allen was given a total two and a half year prison sentence with the final 15 months suspended.

Joshua Allen pictured leaving Cork Circuit Criminal Court with his father Issac Allen (L) in September 2019

He was brought to the court on Friday from Cuain Mhuire rehabilitation centre where he had been in treatment.

Judge Sean O'Donnabhain heard how the teenager had made a genuine effort to address his problems in the residential drugs addiction treatment centre.

Defence counsel Siobhan Lankford SC said her client had now completed a 12 week treatment programme where he had left with an excellent report on his progress in addressing his addiction issues.

Joshua (right) when aged 14 with his mother, Saturday Kitchen star Rachel Allen (left)

It is understood the 18-year-old had been under Garda surveillance for a considerable length of time when the drugs arrived at the cookery school from the U.S. back in September 2018.

The package, which had been labelled 'clothing', was detected by Customs officers in the mailing centre in Portlaoise who then informed gardai of the suspicious package they'd found.

Allen signed for and opened the package at Ballymaloe Cookery School.

He was arrested by gardai from the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau during a raid on a home in County Cork.

Saturday Kitchen star Rachel Allen has spoken of her 'devastation' when her son Joshua was arrested

The judge said on Friday there was 'a sad' background to the case as Allen has no qualifications after having left school aged 15.

Judge O'Donnabhain was told that the teenager had initially approached the case with a level of 'stupidity' and tested positive on one occasion during the legal process for having taken cannabis.

The judge noted the change in attitude of the defendant towards the case and his addiction issues and heard how the 19-year-old has been fully supported by his family in addressing his addiction.

However, O'Donnabhain said it was a serious case and said that Allen had travelled to London to meet a contact and arranged for the cannabis to be posted to him in Cork.

Four of the teenager's charges related to the possession on August 30, 2018, of cannabis and the possession of cannabis with intent to sell or supply at Ballymaloe Cookery School, Shanagarry, Co Cork in Ireland

'He did it for profit,' he said. 'His culpability in this is significant.'

Allen, who appeared in court wearing a grey suit and white shirt spoke only to confirm he accepted a bond required for the suspended part of his sentence.

In a statement released to the Irish Daily Mail, following his arrest, mother-of-three Rachel, said that Joshua had made a 'huge mistake'.

She said: 'He has admitted his guilt immediately and co-operated fully with the gardai.

Rachel Allen is a frequent guest on BBC's Saturday Kitchen, and is one of the presenters on the Good Food Channel Market Kitchen show

'A file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions and when formally charged Joshua will be pleading guilty at the first opportunity.

'We are absolutely devastated at this turn of events.

'Our son is 18 years old, has never been in trouble with the gardai, and has made a huge mistake, which will have profound consequences for him.

'We do not in any way condone his actions.

'In fact, we utterly condemn them, but it is not for us to condemn him.

'We must now try to look after our son and our family, the best way we can.'

Joshua Allen is the grandson of Darina Allen, who founded Ballymaloe and the great-grandson of Myrtle Allen.
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Top stories for Friday, Feb. 28

Starting Tuesday, nearly all Oregon House Republicans boycotted the Capitol, preventing other lawmakers from passing bills. (Beth Nakamura/Staff)

OREGON LEGISLATURE: Republicans in the Oregon Legislature continued their boycott Thursday, marking the fourth day most GOP senators were absent and the third day in the House; with 10 days left until lawmakers must adjourn, the Oregon Legislature has passed just three bills. House Democrats, for their part, voted to issue subpoenas to missing House Republicans that would require them to testify at the Capitol on March 5 regarding the reasons behind their boycott. Democrats also advanced three new pieces of legislation that represent more aggressive potential paths to regulate carbon emissions than the cap-and-trade bill that Republicans are protesting In other political news Thursday, Oregon Sen. Shemia Fagan, D-Portland, announced a run for secretary of state.

CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK: As of Thursday, the U.S. reported 60 cases of coronavirus, including 45 people brought back from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, or the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in Japan (its passengers included a Forest Grove couple who are still in Japan). In Washington, Bothell High School, in suburban Seattle, closed Thursday after a staffers family member was placed in quarantine with symptoms of possibly contracting coronavirus. In California, public health officials were criticized Thursday after a four-day delay in screening an infected woman despite her doctors early calls to do so. The outbreak continued to rattle financial markets, as the Dow dropped nearly 1,200 points Thursday; the cruise sector is among those anticipating losses. Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is offering updated travel advice, from whether people should cancel travel plans to which countries to avoid. Port of Portland and TriMet officials say theyre keeping tabs on the latest news and developments surrounding COVID-19, but they havent made any changes in response.

PORTLAND ELECTIONS: Following Wednesdays debate among three of the candidates for Portland mayor, heres a look at how they addressed specific issues: funding for the housing and homelessness crises, homeless camps, the cost of housing, middle-wage jobs, the industrial sector, truck and bus traffic, and the citys commission form of government. Also, four candidates for city offices urged city officials Thursday to quickly resolve a lawsuit filed by the family of a black teen killed by police and to stop arguing that negligent acts by the boy and his mother led to his 2017 death.

RENTAL RULES: A federal judge in Portland has denied a request to delay Portlands new rental screening and security deposit rules going into effect this weekend because a rental industry group waited too long to file a legal challenge. The ordinances, the first of their kind in the country, include requiring landlords to choose renters on a first-come, first-serve basis and prohibiting landlords from checking for felony convictions older than seven years or misdemeanors older than three years.

JEREMY CHRISTIAN TRIAL: A 12-person jury ruled Thursday that Jeremy Christian callously disregarded the lives of the three men he stabbed on a MAX train, was fueled by racist and religious bigotry, poses a future danger and probably cant be rehabilitated. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Cheryl Albrecht could use the jurys findings about Christian to help her determine his sentence.

Keep up with the case by subscribing to our free email newsletter.

Snap of the day

Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

LONELY SPLENDOR: Oregons least-visited state parks in 2019 included Cottonwood Canyon (pictured), in central Oregon. On this weeks Peak Northwest podcast, hosts Jamie Hale and Jim Ryan chat with Seth Miller, executive director of the Oregon State Park Foundation, about why so few people visit these parks and more. Also check out this weeks Peak Northwest video, in which host Jim Ryan spends a snowy night in a fire lookout in the Mt. Hood National Forest. (Jamie Hale/Staff)

More news

Portland parks worker under city investigation after Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty harassed at demonstration

TriMet barber arrested after allegedly sexually abusing hospital employee

Sentia, Portland CBD spinout, lays off more than 30 just months after launch

Body of missing fisherman recovered in waters off Newport

Cop who prevailed in $1 million whistleblower case against UO announces run for Lane County DA

Find more at oregonlive.com

TOP WORKPLACES 2020: Love your workplace? Nominate your employer by March 13 for Top Workplaces 2020, a survey-driven project to identify and recognize the top employers in Oregon and southwest Washington. Learn more.

Weather and traffic

Friday will start dry, with clouds moving in by afternoon and rain likely by evening. High 57, low 41.

In Scholls, a new traffic signal went up Thursday in Scholls at the intersection of Southwest Scholls-Sherwood Road and Scholls Ferry Highway, just south of Groner Elementary.

Get the latest forecast at oregonlive.com/weather

Stay up to date on traffic conditions at oregonlive.com/commuting

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Dear Abby: Wife in a panic over husbands growing relationship with her sister

Dear Annie: Is it better to toss and turn all night, or just pop a sleeping pill?

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Today in history

In 1953: Scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick announced they had discovered the double-helix structure of DNA.

In 1993: A gun battle erupted at a religious compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to arrest Branch Davidian leader David Koresh on weapons charges; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began.

In 2013: Benedict XVI became the first pope in 600 years to resign, ending an eight-year pontificate. (Benedict was succeeded the following month by Pope Francis.)

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Photo: BC Courts

A homeless man used his cellphone to record 78 unsuspecting women using the toilet in Victoria public washrooms, provincial court has heard.

Garth Galligan, 34, pleaded guilty to unlawfully recording the women in places where they could reasonably expect to have privacy. Galligan also pleaded guilty to breaching his probation by being in the womens washroom at the Empress Hotel on Aug. 26, 2019. He will be sentenced next week.

Crown prosecutor Lexi Pace told the court that Galligan breached his probation on the same day he was released from jail after serving time for a sexual assault in the womens washroom of the Royal British Columbia Museum and a disturbing incident at the McDonalds on Douglas Street.

In December 2018, Galligan approached a young woman in the womens washroom at the museum, tried to push her into a stall and groped her. Another woman intervened and he ran off.

Galligan also followed a woman into the washroom at the McDonalds and propositioned her for sex. Galligan was pushing on a stall door to see if it was locked and not taking no for an answer, said Pace. The woman yelled at him to leave and called police.

Within hours of his release, Galligan was found by a member of the hotels housekeeping staff standing topless on a toilet seat with his pants around his ankles. She ordered him to leave.

On Sept. 1, another housekeeper walked into the womens washroom and found a sign taped outside a toilet stall. The door was slightly ajar and the housekeeper saw Galligan naked inside the stall. She was frightened, told him to leave and alerted security, but Galligan fled, said Pace.

On Oct. 7, a woman using a bathroom stall at the hotel noticed a cellphone screen coming from the stall beside her when she flushed the toilet, said Pace. She was horrified and didnt know how to react. The phone was then pulled back into the occupied stall. The woman was shaken and reported the matter.

Galligan fled but he was later identified through security cameras at the hotel.

On Oct. 10, Galligan was arrested and his cellphone was seized, said Pace. Police found a video which was a compilation of other videos showing 58 women in toilet stalls.

These are single clips which have been strung together in one video. Most reveal the womens buttocks and genital areas, said Pace. From watching the video, I can say it might surprise the court how proximal and clear the view is.  Its extremely intimate and invasive.

The Oct. 6 video is 46 minutes and 18 seconds in length and Galligans face appears on the video 13 times, she said. Its believed the video clips were recorded between Aug. 26 and Oct. 6.

A further 20 women were video recorded between Oct. 6 and Oct. 8.

Of the 78 women, six were not recorded in a state of undress or using the toilet.

No ones face was visible on the video, except Galligans. Its not clear where the videos were taken.

Galligan suffers from serious mental-health problems and drug addiction. He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, substance use disorder for both cannabis and amphetamines, anti-social personality disorder and paraphilic disorder.

Galligan was required to report daily to the Assertive Community Treatment team, which helps him. Although Galligan was ordered to live at the Salvation Army, he didnt and he began using hard drugs, said Pace.

Galligan was warned by the Crown to abide by his conditions, but breaches persisted.

Mitigating factors are Galligans Indigenous background and his early guilty pleas, said the prosecutor.

This is not a trial that anyone wants to attend, Pace said.

Galligans planned, deliberate, practiced actions are aggravating factors, she said. Its not impulsive. Its not a one-off at all.

Even though hes under the highest level of supervision in the community, he still visited womens washrooms at the Empress Hotel three times in a 2 1/2-month period.

Court-ordered reports prepared to assist with sentencing show Galligan has a high risk to reoffend.

Pace and defence lawyer Alex Tait presented a joint submission to the court asking for an 18-month global sentence followed by a three-year probation order.

This is a very difficult case and Mr. Tait and I have been struggling with it. Weve had numerous discussions, said Pace. After his release for these offences, Galligan will be referred again to the Assertive Community Treatment team, she said.

Tait noted that his clients offending only started at age 30 in 2016.

Galligan was apprehended at birth from the Buffalo Tribe in Saskatchewan and was eventually adopted at age five.

His underlying problem is homelessness. He has nowhere to go, said Tait. Galligan now understands his behaviour unacceptable, said the defence lawyer.

He has a long road ahead to get help. He needs to stay away from drugs and get housed.  If he had his own place to go, he may have a much better opportunity for success, said Tait.

Last time, he was released to the street or the Sally Ann.

The judge is expected to sentence Galligan on Tuesday.
SCHENECTADY  Extremists with ties to a neo-Nazi group picked a church in the city's Stockade for a hoax call to police as part of a nationwide intimidation campaign, federal authorities in Texas said.

The First Reformed Church was chosen at least in part because the North Church Street church has a live-streaming web camera that allowed the co-conspirators in the prank call to watch the police response, according to a criminal complaint from the FBI. It is unclear if anything beyond the convenience of a live camera in the church, which was founded in 1680 by Dutch settlers, made it a target for the hate group.

The allegation is included in a complaint filed earlier this week in Houston against John Cameron Denton, 26, that accuses him and another man of plotting a "nationwide scare" that targeted journalists of color, Jewish people, a black congregation, activists, a federal cabinet member, and a university in Virginia.

Federal authorities say that between November 2018 and April 2019, Denton and others colluded to make the calls. They are accused of using online communities of white supremacists to create plots to terrorize those who exposed their identities.

First Reformed appeared to be among first locations the alleged conspirators picked for "swatting," a practice in which hoax calls are made to police in the hope emergency workers will descend on the unknowing victim's home.

"The co-conspirators targeted live video streams so they could view the swat response as it occurred," an FBI agent wrote in a complaint filed against Denton. Beyond noting the livestream, the complaint does not say how another man named in the complaint, John William Kirby Kelley, allegedly chose the Schenectady church and shared the location with others in an online chat group who were interested in making the hoax calls.

"Got new flavors," a person identified by the FBI as Kelley said in the chat group.

The call to the Schenectady church was made in late 2018. The complaint says the suspects involved in the Schenectady call were initially frustrated by an inability to hear audio from the scene.

The church's minister remembered the call.

There are people who are desperate to make other folks afraid when they disagree with them, and its our job to persevere and not succumb to fear, Rev. Bill Levering said Friday. We thought it was somebody with more emotional problems, and now we find out its somebody with perhaps ideological problems.

He said security cameras made it clear no one had breached the building. Still, the church was evacuated until police completed a search.

Were known as a progressive church, Levering said, noting the churchs website features an LGBTQ flag and that First Reformed was among the first to welcome gays clergy and laity. We, for the last 10 to 15 years, have had a pretty progressive stance on ecology, the environment and rights for LGBT people.

Denton and Kaleb J. Cole, 24, were arraigned in Houston on Wednesday.

Investigators say Denton and Cole held leadership roles in Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group linked to several violent acts including murder, according to the Houston Chronicle. The newspaper reported the duo appear to have been on the radar of federal authorities for years.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Court documents describe Denton as being a founding member of Atomwaffen, the German tern for nuclear weapons. He used the nicknames "Rape," "Death" and "Tormentor" online and, according to the Chronicle, worked in a mortuary.

Related: Houston-area 'extremists' accused in nationwide neo-Nazi conspiracy to target journalists

Two other men face charges in connection with the investigation: Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe, 20, of Spring Hill, Florida, and Johnny Roman Garza, 20, of Queen Creek, Ariz.

Court documents also refer to two unnamed co-conspirators, including one who was previously arrested and is working with authorities in hopes of reducing criminal charges in another prosecution. The FBI also relied on an undercover agent who infiltrated the group.

The FBI in Houston said the group used an online chat group to choose journalists and others for intimidation. Agents said they primarily targeted people who are Jewish or minorities.

Cole and an another man made posters with Nazi symbols, threatening language, and masked figures with guns and Molotov cocktails.

The posters were sent to others in Atomwaffen who mailed or delivered the posters to targets.

One poster was mailed to a TV journalist who reported on the group, the FBI said. Two people associated with the Anti-Defamation League received them. Another was delivered to a magazine journalist in Phoenix.

Staff writer Paul Nelson contributed to this article.
Julius Meinl Head of Innovations will serve in new role for 2020

Christina Meinl, Head of Innovations at the 158-year-old Vienna-headquartered Julius Meinl Coffee Group, has been appointed as President of the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA).

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005343/en/

Christina Meinl (Photo: Business Wire)

Meinl's tenure as President officially began on 1 January, replacing her predecessor Heather Perry who served as President for 2019.

The SCA is a global membership-based non-profit organisation with offices based in the UK and US. Its aim is to give a voice and substance to the possibilities for specialty coffee worldwide, while expanding the sustainable global specialty coffee community and supporting activities to make specialty coffee a thriving, equitable and sustainable venture for the entire value chain.

The organisation was formed in 2017 following the merger of the Specialty Coffee Associations of America and Europe (SCAA and SCAE) and now consists of 14,000 members across 35 chapters. Meinl will serve as the SCA's third President, having previously served as Vice President in 2019, following her election to the SCAE board of directors in 2014.

For the year ahead, Meinl aims to boost the sustainable specialty coffee agenda, expand the SCA's global network supporting local communities, and increase diversity within the organisation.

Starting her career as both a clinical tropical microbiologist and medical doctor practising in England, Tanzania and Austria, it was Meinl's longstanding passion and her enthusiasm for coffee which led her to join the Julius Meinl team in 2010. She will continue in her role as Head of Innovations at Julius Meinl, in addition to her new responsibilities as SCA President.

Under her leadership at the fifth-generation family business, the brand launched innovations including the state-of-the-art 1862 Premium New coffee concept, its Cold Brew blend and brewing equipment, and its craft coffee offering, Julius Meinl The Originals

Paul Stack, SCA 2018 President, said: "I wish Christina well in her new role as President and look forward to seeing the SCA continue its outstanding work in promoting speciality coffee, furthering sustainable growth for the coffee industry, and supporting its diverse membership across the globe."

Christina Meinl said: "I'm delighted to be appointed as President of the SCA. I look forward to furthering the aims of the SCA in 2020 and continuing the great work and progress made by its previous presidents. In particular, I am aiming to embrace diversity in all forms during my tenure, as I believe the more diverse any organisation is, the more skills it possesses."

[ENDS]

About Julius Meinl:

Julius Meinl is an internationally successful Austrian family company and has been the global ambassador of Vienna's beloved coffee house culture for more than 150 years. The global success of Julius Meinl is based on traditional values: five generations of coffee expertise, premium-quality products and excellent customer service, values that are no longer a certainty these days. Julius Meinl is a global ambassador for Viennese coffee culture and today inspires people all over the world, just as the coffee house literati did in days gone by. Restaurants and business customers in more than 70 countries rely on Julius Meinl coffee and tea. The company already ranks among the top 3 premium coffee brands in over 40 countries. Julius Meinl is the market leader in hotels, restaurants and cafes in Austria, CEE, Adriatics, Russia and Dubai

Established in 1862

1,000 employees worldwide

Marketing in more than 70 countries worldwide; among the top 3 premium coffee brands in over 40 countries

Market leader in the hotels, restaurants and cafes in Austria, CEE, Adriatics, and Russia

Some 50,000 customers worldwide

Production locations in Vienna (Austria) and Vicenza (Italy)

Sales in 2018: EUR 178.4 million

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005343/en/

Contacts:

Lucy Cairns

lucy.cairns@devriesglobal.com

0207 067 0386
Far right LSNS party is expected to take more seats in legislature and potentially play kingmaker as coalition partner.

Slovakia is set to hold a key parliamentary vote that is expected to see the far-right Peoples Party Our Slovakia (LSNS) which rails against Muslims, Jews, Roma and the European Union, make significant gains.

Saturdays election in the central European country of 5.5 million is seen as a battle between populists, far-right radicals and a new crop of liberal politicians over 150 seats in the legislature.

The final opinion survey showed the LSNS, which entered Parliament in 2016, surge to third position in the race with 10.3 percent of support (or 18 seats), behind the long-ruling populist leftist Direction  Social Democracy (SMER) party (16.9 percent or 30 seats) and the centrist Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLANO) party (15.5 percent or 27 seats).

Eight parties are expected to reach the five percent threshold needed for entering Parliament, including six opposition groups who could gather 93 seats between them.

A supporter of the Progressive Slovakia/Together coalition holds an anti-Nazi sign during a counter-demonstration at an election rally by the far-right Peoples Party Our Slovakia in Topolcany [David W Cerny/Reuters]

The growth of the far-right in the conservative Roman Catholic country comes a year after Slovakia elected its first female president, Zuzana Caputova, who ran on a progressive platform of tolerance and who has acted on it in the top office by defending human rights and various national minorities.

Slovakia is the last country of central Europe where at least officially we are full-fledged liberal democracy. Now we either confirm it or Slovaks will join others in a region in backsliding in some sort of soft authoritarianism, illiberal democracies at best, Michal Vasecka, director of the Bratislava Policy Institute, an independent think-tank, told Al Jazeera.

In this sense, these are the most important parliamentary elections in the last 20 years, he said.

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Vasecka also said that the rise of the neo-Nazi LSNS, led by Marian Kotleba  who is on trial for spreading hate  could be partly linked to the Slovak peoples loss of hope in democracy two years after the murder of a journalist investigating high-level corruption plunged Slovakia into crisis.

The probe into Jan Kuciaks killing in February 2018 revealed a nebulous web of ministers, police and judges all connected to Marian Kocner  a mafia-linked oligarch charged with his ordering his murder.

In the last 20 years, Slovakia became an oligarchic state. Basically, several people are ruling the country from the shadows and people got tired of it, Vasecka said.

Slovak disillusionment has helped the LSNS broaden its range of supporters beyond first time voters, who won them 14 parliamentary seats in 2016, without offering a full political programme.

Kotlebas party is supported by mainly men, younger men, who dont have a high level of education, Marian Sekerak, a Slovak political analyst, told Al Jazeera.

Parasites

The main target of the LSNS are the Roma people, he said, referring to the ethnic minority that have been dubbed parasites by the party that claims them to be at the root of many problems.

In Slovakia, there is a large minority of Roma people. It counts tens of thousands of people and many of them are in social need, which has been a problem for almost all governments since independence in 1993, Sekerak said.

It is a social problem, not a racial issue, but it became part of a rhetoric of the far-right, Kotlebas party, he said.

170425090756677

Almost 80 percent of respondents in a poll conducted by the Slovak Academy of Sciences said the Roma enjoy undeserved advantages and benefit from the countrys social system.

Almost two-thirds of the respondents  64 percent  were more likely to identify with openly negative stereotypes about the Roma, for example: There are very few decent or reasonable Roma', the report published earlier this month said.

At least 51 percent consider the ethnic minority a threat to national identity, the survey found.

Grigorij Meseznikov, president of the Institute for Public Affairs, Bratislava, and fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) of Europes Future programme in Vienna, told Al Jazeera that the roots of racist sentiment ran deep in the country.

During the Second World War, Slovakia was an ally of Nazi Germany and the government at the time took part in the Holocaust.

Almost all Jews were deported and killed. So literally there are only a few thousand Jews in Slovakia  but still this [anti-Semitic] feeling survives. This party [LSNS] is openly adoring this Slovak state of the Second World War. This means that they are inheriting this legacy of domestic fascism, he said.

Muslim migrants

Meseznikov also said the far-right  and some mainstream parties  were using xenophobic rhetoric against Muslim migrants, particularly since the influx of Syrian refugees to Europe in 2015.

Few people got the status of refugees in the country, but this fear that migrants, Muslims, are coming to Europe is there, he said, adding that very rude remarks of the LSNS attracted the largest audience, as they seemed more authentic.

170726084140550

Meseznikov said the image of the country is deteriorating but it was unlikely to see the LSNS included in a future coalition government.

Both the ruling and the opposition parties have said they would not cooperate with the far-right, however, some analysts Al Jazeera spoke to suggested that it was remained a possibility.

Yes, the chance is still on the table, but it is diminishing every day. But politics is sometimes weird, said Vasecka.

He said if Kotlebas party had a direct influence on governance, it would be a fundamental threat to the Euro-Atlantic direction of Slovakia.

On the other hand, the threat to the EU may be to the extent that this type of political party would begin to dominate more in central and eastern European countries. This would threaten disintegration and weaken the EU as a whole.

Follow Al Jazeeras Tamila Varshalomidze on Twitter @tamila87v
Case filed against AAP councillor Tahir Hussain.

Relatives of Mohsin Ali, who died in communal violence in Northeast Delhi, cry after receiving his dead body outside the mortuary of GTB Hospital in New Delhi on Thursday. The death toll in the Delhi communal violence has reached 38. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Sporadic violence continued in the riot-torn northeast Delhi on Thursday as the death toll mounted to 38. The deceased, most of whom have not yet been named by the police, include two brothers whose bodies were fished out of a drain in Gokalpuri area on Thursday.

Officials said that they were on their way from Ghaziabad to meet their family in Gokalpur on Wednesday though they had been told not to come. The family had not heard from them since.

Amir, 25, was a driver in Ghaziabad while Hashim, 16, used to assist him.

The cause of death will be revealed after the post-mortem.

A day after the tyre market of Gokalpuri was burnt by rioters, on Wednesday too several incidents of violence were reported from Gokalpuri.

Ministry of home affairs said as no major incident has been reported in the last 36 hours in any of the affected police stations of northeast Delhi, prohibitory orders under Section 144 will be relaxed for a total of 10 hours on Friday in view of the improvement in the ground situation.

But simultaneously officials said that tomorrow being a Friday, security forces have been deployed in large numbers in and around mosques in northeast Delhi.

Now in its fourth day, the torrent of communal violence that has singed the city is the worst the national capital has seen in the last three decades.

On Thursday evening, the police filed a case against AAP councillor Tahir Hussain and other unknown people on the charges of murder and arson. They also sealed Mr Hussains four-storyed building.

The Aam Aadmi Party suspended Mr Hussain from the primary membership of the party till completion of probe. He has been accused of masterminding the killing of an IB officer in the Chand Bagh area.

Interestingly, before the police sealed Mr Hussains building, the media, particularly TV journalists, were allowed free access to the building. They were allowed to film and photograph petrol bombs and other missiles stored on Mr Hussains roof. It was alleged that from there Mr Hussain and his supporters were reportedly hurling stones and petrol bombs at the mob surrounding his house.

The TV channels kept playing video clips showing a man they identified as Mr Hussain on the roof along with some other men. These men appear to be involved in stone-throwing. In the videos, plumes of smoke seem to be billowing up from below his building, suggesting Mr Hussains house too may have been under attack.

Later in the day, the AAP leader released a video in which he claimed his innocence. The news about me is false. Since Kapil Mishras hate speech, the situation in Delhi has deteriorated, with stone throwing and violence taking place. The same happened at my residence on Tuesday, Mr Hussain said in a video posted on Twitter.

In the video, Mr Hussain claimed that a mob broke into his house and climbed to the roof. He says he repeatedly called for the police who arrived some hours later and, after the protesters were cleared, requested them to guard his home to ensure this did not happen again.

He says the police told him to leave his house, which he claims he did.

I dont know why the police later moved its force away as once again the mob returned to launch attacks. I am very distressed by what has happened and want you to know that I am a peaceful Indian Muslim and will always work for the country and Hindu-Muslim relations. Please believe me, he added.



Delhi Police on Thursday transferred the riots probe to the Crime Branch that formed two Special Investigation Teams.

Till now, Delhi Police has filed 48 FIRs and detained or arrested 514 suspects for questioning in connection with the violence.

While incidents of sporadic violence was reported from Karawal Nagar, tension continued to prevail in the area. Due to the heavy presence of police and paramilitary forces, people have begun to trickle out of their localities to meet their daily needs, including medicines, food and water.

Since electricity had been severely disrupted in northeast Delhi as the mob burnt down houses and electric cables, workers from BSES Yamuna could be seen trying to restore connections. Debris, ranging from gutted vegetables to stones and bricks that were used as missiles by warring factions, were also being removed.

Besides GTB hospital, riot victims have been pouring into the neighbourhood Al Hind hospital in Mustafabad.

The hospital, which has been the first port of call for victims with bullet injuries, acid burns and injury marks, has been stretched beyond its capacity and limit.

Forty-five year old Sanjeeda, who runs an NGO, was in tears as she narrated her brush with a rightwing mob.

On Wednesday, as the situation calmed down relatively following heavy police presence, at around 8 pm Sanjeeda with her two teenaged daughters was at their house in Mahalaxmi Enclave area in Karawal Nagar when a mob barged into their house and lunged at them, even tearing their clothes.

As they began to shower blows and started assaulting them, the three women somehow managed to find an opening and began running covering themselves with dupattas. As the mob chased them, the women rushed into a lane dominated by Muslims. The mob stopped at a distance and then disappeared. As this happened, the police was nowhere to be seen. Sanjeeda and her daughters had come to the Al Hind hospital to get their wounds treated.

Another injured at Al Hind hospital said, When I was returning from the office on my motorcycle, someone threw a pouch filled with acid at me. Initially I thought that it would be water but after couple of seconds I started feeling irritation on my back as it was burning following which I immediately rushed to the hospital.

Over 200 people have been injured in the communal clashes that broke out in northeast Delhi after violence between anti- and pro-Citizenship (Amendment) Act groups spiralled out of control. Frenzied mobs torched houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump and pelted stones at local residents and police personnel. Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Yamuna Vihar, Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh, Shiv Vihar are among the areas affected by the riots.
WATERLOO  A Waterloo man has been sent to prison for injuring his infant daughter and waiting weeks before seeking medical attention for her.

He delayed any amount of care, adding pain for that child, Assistant County Attorney Elizabeth ODonnell told the court Thursday as Judge Brad Harris weighed the states argument for incarceration for 23-year-old Toyreon Foster-Stevensens and the defenses case for probation.

Harris sentenced Foster-Stevensen five years in prison on a charge of child endangerment causing bodily injury, a felony, and a concurrent two years for misdemeanor child endangerment for a total of five years.

There are consequences for your actions, Harris said.

Investigators said Foster-Stevensen injured his then 7-month-old daughter in the fall of 2017 and didnt take her to doctors until later, when she suffered another injury. Doctors treating the second injury then found signs of the first.

ODonnell said the time between the first injury and the doctors visit was about four weeks.

Court officials said the girl suffered a shoulder injury and a broken femur in the right leg.

Defense attorney Nichole Watt said her client was remorseful during his police interview. Court records show he admitted to drinking and becoming upset because the childs diaper leaked. He told investigators he heard a popping sound when he jerked the childs leg during the change.

Watt said she thought he didnt recognize the injury.

He is not evil, she said. She noted that he had a significant alcohol problem at the time of the incident and has since gone to treatment and completed anger management.

Toyreon Foster-Stevensen told the court he has changed his life, learned self discipline and now attends church regularly.

His parental rights have been terminated.

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Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/28/2020 -- The overall small hydropower market installed capacity is expected to grow from 170 GW in 2018 to 214 GW by 2026 at a CAGR of 3.06% during the forecast period. The global small hydropower market is likely to grow at an accelerated pace with increasing investments in energy-efficient projects. This information is shared by Fortune Business Insights in its report, titled "Small Hydropower Market Size, Share and Global Trend by Type (Mini Hydro Power, Micro Hydro Power, Pico Hydro Power) and Geography Forecast till 2026." The report offers valuable insights into factors enabling growth in the market.



The small hydropower plant uses the flowing water to run a turbine for producing electricity. Governments across the world are making huge investments in energy-efficient projects, which is a potential growth trigger for the market. Moreover, small hydropower plants are commonly used to generate electricity in remote regions. The cumulative impact of these factors on the market is likely to be positive.



Some of the leading players operating in the global market are:



RusHydro

Clean Innovation

Agder Energi

China Yangtze Power Co. Ltd.

Eletrobras

Statkraft

Hydro Quebec

Renewable First Ltd.

European Small Hydropower Association

BC Hydro and Power Authority

Energy Eastern Europe Power GmBH

Vidyachal Hydro Power Pvt. Ltd.

Toshiba Hydroelectric Power

Him Urja Pvt. Ltd.

Duke Energy Corporation



"High Competition Encourages Companies to Focus on their Operational Activities"



The global small hydropower market is likely to witness intense competition, besides which prevailing trends are likely to get swayed by government regulations and policies. For instance, IIT Roorkee under the government of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) established a research and development (R&D) laboratory in April 2018. This lab is fully automatic and the research is conducted in hydraulic turbines. Furthermore, it is designed to help India compete with international markets.



Request a Sample Copy for more detailed Small Hydropower Market Overview



"Small Hydropower Generation is Gaining Traction in Europe"



The small hydropower market in Europe is anticipated to grow faster than other regions by 2025. This is mainly attributable to increasing hydropower promotions by the European Small Hydropower Association or ESHA. Countries in this region are focusing on sustainable technology to prevent any environmental impacts. The adoption of small hydropower technology is expected to drive the market in Europe to produce enough electricity.



The market in Asia Pacific is likely to register considerable growth in the forecast years. The countries such as India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and China are more feasible for small hydropower projects owing to their increasing rural base. The increasing population in these countries is expected to fuel the demand for generating electricity. Governments are also taking initiatives towards small hydropower development, more beneficial to people living in remote and rural areas. These factors are anticipated to create growth opportunities for the market between 2017 and 2026. The Middle East & Africa is expected to register rapid growth owing to the rising demand for electricity. Companies and governments in this region are planning to invest in the cleanest form of energy to reduce emissions.



"Rising Need for Sustainable Renewable Energy Propels Growth in the Market"



The electricity consumption is increasing on account of the rising population across the world, which is expected to augment the adoption of small hydropower systems," said a lead analyst at Fortune Business Insights. "The rising shift towards sustainable renewable energy in rural and remote places is expected to drive the market," he added. The long-life cycle and low investment costs associated with installing small hydropower generators are anticipated to enable growth in the market. The long-life ensures reliable investments and offers economic benefits.



Growing industrialization and demand for energy across the world act as a potential growth trigger in the market. Small hydropower resources offer an abundant source for excellent power generation and ensure reliable energy supply in the long run. The report predicts such factors to encourage growth in the market by 2026.



Contrary to this, some authorization procedures may hamper the growth of the market. Procedures associated with licensing are time-consuming and complicated in some countries, which acts as a major stumbling block.



Speak to our Analyst for any Queries about Small Hydropower Market Research Report



Major Table of Contents:



Introduction

Research Scope

Market Segmentation

Research Methodology

Definitions and Assumptions

Executive Summary

Market Dynamics

Market Drivers

Market Restraints

Market Opportunities

Key Insights

Key Emerging Trends  For Major Countries

Latest Technological Advancement

Regulatory Landscape

Industry SWOT Analysis

Porters Five Forces Analysis

Global Small Hydropower Market Analysis (MW & USD Mn), Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026

Key Findings / Summary

Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Capacity

Below 1MW

1-10MW

Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Region

North America

Latin America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Middle East & Africa

North America Small Hydropower Market Analysis (MW & USD Mn), Insights and Forecast, 2015-2026

Key Findings / Summary

Market Analysis and Forecast  By Capacity

TOC Continued.......!



Purchase Full Report for Exclusive Small Hydropower Market Growth Forecast



About Us:

Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. Our reports contain a unique mix of tangible insights and qualitative analysis to help companies achieve sustainable growth. Our team of experienced analysts and consultants use industry-leading research tools and techniques to compile comprehensive market studies, interspersed with relevant data.



Contact:

Name: Ashwin Arora

Email: sales@fortunebusinessinsights.com

Phone: US +1 424 253 0390 / UK +44 2071 939123 / APAC: +91 744 740 1245
It may have been nice weather for ducks in Belfast on Friday, but one swan was clearly enjoying themselves as they fled their home in the Waterworks.

Sinead Mackie was travelling past in a friend's car when they spotted the escaped swan walking alone down the Antrim Road and couldn't believe their eyes.

On their return journey they passed the swan again and this time it was being escorted by two police officers.

Sinead instinctively took out her phone and filmed the improbable scene which has since been viewed thousands of times on social media.

"The swan was actually walking up the Antrim Road on its own first, me and my friend went to the garage," she said.

"On the way back down we saw the police men walking with it escorted by a police car with blue lights on.

"I just had to record it as it was so funny."

An officer, posting on PSNI Belfast, said: "Police in North Belfast have safely returned a swan to the pond in the Waterworks, Antrim Road, Belfast at around 11:40am today (Friday 28th February).

"The swan in question was posing risk to itself and road users on the Antrim Road. Highly trained officers were able coax the swan onto the footpath, they then walked the swan back to the waterworks.

"The swan was unharmed by the ordeal however it's presence on a main road ruffled a few feathers.

"Officers involved praised locals for keeping a birds eye view on the incident.

"We are glad the swan returned to the waterworks safely and avoided falling fowl of the law."
A bipartisan group of nearly two dozen American lawmakers sought assurances and transparency on Thursday on a peace deal with the Taliban that the Trump administration was now considering bringing a lasting peace in war-torn Afghanistan.

In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the defense secretary, these Congressmen called for prioritisation of American security as the US pursued a peace agreement with the Taliban.

Dated February 27, the letter calls for transparency and highlights the importance of keeping the US safe.

Additionally, it outlines the need for certain security pledges, including that any deal between the US and the Taliban will be public and not contain secret annexes or side deals.

The lawmakers also demanded that there will be no intelligence sharing or a "joint counter-terrorism" centre established with the Taliban.

"We have serious concerns about reports that the United States is preparing to sign a deal with the Taliban, the terrorists who harboured al-Qaeda before and after the attacks of 9/11. President Trump has a proven track record of putting America's security first and ensuring our country stays out of bad deals that aid our adversaries," the letter said.

"In keeping with this policy, we are seeking assurances that you will not place the security of the American people into the hands of the Taliban, and undermine our ally, the current government of Afghanistan," it added.

In the letter, the lawmakers sought assurances that any deal between the US and the Taliban would be public and not contain any secret annexes or side deals and that the administration would not put American security at risk by pretending that the Taliban was a reliable counter-terrorism partner.

The letter said decisions about US troop levels in Afghanistan must be made based on US national security requirements determined by conditions on the ground.

"Therefore, any deal must not contain a commitment for a full US withdrawal at this point. Such a commitment would embolden America's adversaries and undermine our allies, including the Afghan government," the lawmakers said.

"Any deal with the Taliban will include the requirement that the Taliban turn over all al-Qaeda leaders and operatives who are currently hiding in Taliban strongholds. There will be no uneven or premature release of Taliban prisoners," the Congressmen added.

They also sought assurances that the current sanctions and designations against the al-Qaeda-allied Haqqani network will remain in place regardless of any deal with the Taliban.

"President Trump has taken crucial action to keep our nation safe, including eliminating the world's most dangerous terrorists and destroying the ISIS caliphate. He knows a bad deal when he sees one. We urge you not to commit America to a dangerous deal with the Taliban that would abandon the President's track record of strengthening America and putting our security and interests first," the lawmakers said.

The Taliban, they alleged, was a terrorist group that celebrated suicide attacks. Haibatullah Akhundzada, the overall leader of the Taliban, sacrificed his own son in a suicide bombing in 2017. Akhundzada's top deputy, Sirajuddin Haqqani, runs a network that specialises in devastating suicide bombings, including some of the most heinous attacks in the history of the war, the letter said.

"The American people cannot rely on these terrorists to safeguard their security," it noted.

Observing that the Taliban also had a history of extracting concessions in exchange for false assurances, the lawmakers said they would accept nothing less than a full-scale US withdrawal from Afghanistan as they sought to establish their totalitarian "Islamic Emirate".

"Our withdrawal would then allow terrorist groups in Afghanistan to grow stronger and establish safe havens from which to plot attacks against us. Any promises the Taliban may have made to the US related to counterterrorism cannot be trusted, not least because the group is a long-time ally of al-Qaeda," the Congressmen said.

Indeed, if the initial US-Taliban deal had been approved in September as was originally planned, one of the top al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan, Asim Umar, would likely still be alive, the letter said.

"Umar threatened America and answered directly to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri. He was reportedly killed in a joint US-Afghan raid on a Taliban stronghold in September after President Trump suspended talks with the Taliban. It is our understanding that under the current deal, such raids are not taking place -- meaning that if Umar had survived a few months longer, he would be outside America's reach," it added.

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

Express News Service

CHENNAI: For 110 years, two sects of Iyengars have been waging a legal battle on who has the first rights to perform pooja and recite mantras at the Varadharaja Perumal temple in Kancheepuram. Putting an end to the matter, the Madras High Court on Thursday put in place guidelines to be followed by the temple management in permitting members of each sect to perform pooja. In case of any violation, the temple authorities have been directed to file a criminal case against violators.

The issue between Vadagalai and Thengalai Iyengars has kept devotees and temple officials in Kancheepuram on tenterhooks for many years now. In May 2019, the situation worsened with members of the two groups coming to blows during a temple procession. Delivering the judgment on a contempt petition, Justice SM Subramanian said sectoral differences and ego must have no place in religious practices.

On the initial appeal filed in 1910, two sets of directions were passed, one in 1915 and one in 1969. The court back then allowed the Thengalai sect to march in front of the procession; Vadagalai was allowed to join in the recital of Prabandhams. Later, a contempt petition was filed against the Devasthanam by petitioner TA Ranganathan saying the court orders were not being followed.

All devotees should be treated equally

During the hearing, the HR&CE Department's lawyer claimed the dispute and clashes between the two groups were more pronounced during temple festivals. It said best efforts were taken to resolve the issue. After hearing the matter, the judge emphasized on the equality clause of the Constitution, and said all devotees are to be treated equally.

"There cannot be any discrimination based on caste or religion." The judge also observed that it is painful that these men created unnecessary disputes and directed the Assistant Commissioner of the temple to invite the Thengalai sect first during Pooja festivals. They shall be permitted to recite the first two lines of the slokas (Srisaila Dayapathram) then the Vadagalai sect will commence the first two lines of sloka (Sri Ramanuja Dayapathram) on their completion of initial recital. Then, both sects shall be permitted to recite Prabandhams together.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 19:17:16|Editor: huaxia

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by Ronald Ssekandi

KAMPALA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Against the backdrop of rising unilateralism and protectionism in the world, China and its partners, including African countries, will achieve mutually beneficial growth through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a Chinese envoy to Uganda has said.

"BRI aims to build a community with a shared future for mankind through extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits," Zheng Zhuqiang, the Chinese ambassador to Uganda, said in a public lecture here on Thursday.

"In doing so, the hope is to forge a new form of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation, and a new platform for globalization that creates new drivers for shared development," he said.

The lecture titled "The Belt and Road Initiative, Creating a Bright Future for the World" was held at Makerere University, Uganda's top university and also one of Africa's major research universities.

The envoy said that although the BRI was proposed by China, it belongs to the world. By the end of March 2019, the Chinese government had signed 173 cooperation agreements with 125 countries and 29 international organizations, including over 40 African countries, he said.

China and African countries will achieve win-win results from the five connectivities in policy, infrastructure, trade, capital flows and understanding among peoples, Zheng said.

Many African countries have embarked on massive infrastructure projects especially in the transport and energy sectors. Zheng said that infrastructure projects, such as railways, highways, bridges, ports and so on, have effectively improved the investment environment of African countries.

Chinese companies especially in the construction sector have offered technology and skills transfers, enabling youths in African countries who were employed on the projects to set up their own workshops.

In Uganda for instance, since 2016, over 2,000 Ugandans have attended China-aided training courses and seminars in China, according to the Chinese embassy. For the last three years, China has sponsored over 216 Ugandan students to study in China.

Moreover, Chinese investments have boosted economic development in Africa. In 2014, China invested 40 billion U.S. dollars in setting up the Silk Road Fund and invested 100 billion dollars in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in 2016.

In December 2015, during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Johannesburg Summit, China announced that it would further allocate 5 billion dollars to the China-Africa Development Fund and the Special Loan for the Development of African Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, respectively.

During the 2018 Beijing FOCAC summit, China announced that it would set up a 5-billion-dollar special fund for imports from Africa and would encourage Chinese companies to invest at least 10 billion dollars in Africa in the next three years.

According to the Chinese Embassy in Kampala, until this year, the China-Africa Development Fund has invested more than 4.6 billion dollars in more than 90 projects in 36 African countries, covering infrastructure, capacity equipment, agriculture, people's livelihood, energy and resource development and other fields.

Ezra Suruma, chancellor of Makerere University, underlined the importance of Chinese investments, noting that "no strings" are attached to them.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Friday discouraged the Tourism Department from pushing through with the scheduled nationwide mall sale starting March 1.

Duque, who seemed clueless about the month-long event, asked reporters for details.

"We don't encourage it... If it can be helped, we discourage people from going to places where there is quite a volume of people just to make sure that no increased risks is going to confront our people," he said in a media briefing.

The health chief said that if tourism officials decide to push through with it, disinfection measures should be in place in all malls. He said putting disinfectants and using thermal guns will reduce the risk of the spread of coronavirus.

The Philippines is set to hold its first month-long nationwide shopping mall sale from March 1 to 31 to attract local and foreign tourists. This is seen to bring in revenue for businesses and help lift tourism from the slump caused by the imposed travel ban and aviation fears.

The Department of Tourism is mounting different activities to promote local tourism. It is also working with the office of President Rodrigo Duterte to bring him to the country's major islands to encourage Filipinos to travel around the country.

In February alone, the country is expecting to lose P14.8 billion in tourism or a total of P42.9 billion in revenue if the travel ban on China, Hong Kong, Macau, and South Korea's North Gyeongsang Province lasts for three months.
Matthew Broderick was thrust into Hollywood stardom thanks to his breakout role as the titular character in the 1986 film, Ferris Buellers Day Off. Though he was in his mid-twenties when he played the teenage slacker perfectly and had a boyish charm that had fans smitten.

Not only that, he was enjoying a secret relationship with film co-star, Jennifer Grey. The two were enjoying a vacation in Ireland in 1987 when Brodericks life changed forever.

Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey were involved in a fatal car crash

Matthew Broderick | John Lamparski/Getty Images

Broderick, 25 at the time, was driving along a straight road in his rented BMW with Grey when he veered into the wrong lane, striking an on oncoming car. To this day, no one is quite sure how or why Broderick ended up in the wrong lane.

He was not drinking or under the influence of any substances, and many speculate he mistakenly drifted to the wrong side of the road (the right) as he would have if he had been driving in the US.

What could have been a simple mistake, just a passing moment in time, turned life-altering. When Broderick drifted to the wrong lane, he smashed into an oncoming Volvo.

Ken Ramsey, a fireman who first responded to the scene said that Broderick kept repeating, Did I hurt them? Did I hurt them?

Anna Gallagher, 28 was driving in the other car with her mother Margaret Doherty, 63. Both women were pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

The family and wider community werent familiar with Broderick and became resentful of the media attention he was receiving over their lost loved ones. Gallaghers uncle, Tom Doherty, told reporters with rage, What more do you expect us to say? Youre only curious about the American actor.

Matthew Broderick could have faced jail time

Grey was uninjured in the crash, and Brodericks injuries ranged from a broken leg to a concussion and some lacerations. He was in the hospital for four weeks, and during that time, he was also staring down the possibility of five years in jail for reckless driving.

Eventually, he was convicted of the reduced charge of careless driving and was fined only $175. The family reportedly said this was a travesty of justice.

Grey stayed with Broderick as he healed, forgoing much of her publicity tour for her new film, Dirty Dancing. The two later broke up in 1988 and Broderick went on to marry actress Sarah Jessica Parker in 1997. The two are still together.

The family of the victims has since forgiven Matthew Broderick

In 2002, the case resurfaced due to reports that Broderick was set to return to Ireland and visit the family. Healing had occurred by then for the victims family as well as Broderick, who sought therapy in the aftermath.

Broderick had received criticism for seemingly avoiding the family prior to that point: There was a note after the accident from him saying how sorry he was  but no other contact, Martin Doherty, brother and son to the two victims had said.

In the follow-up reports in 2002, Doherty said: There were strong feelings at the time, but I have since forgiven him and feel no anger toward him.

Even with the anger and sadness in the months following the crash, the victims family was extremely gracious. Gallaghers husband John said, We have no hard feelings toward him. He has to live with this the rest of his life.

Even Martin Doherty said at the time: I hope God gives him strength. This is a big ordeal for himself as well.

No additional reports followed the story, and it is unknown if Broderick made the planned trip or what the results of those meetings might have been.
Restart: Italian cooperation promotes development in Tunisia Project to help young entrepreneurs

(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, FEBRUARY 28 - ''Cultural change is necessary in the perception of solidarity economy'' is the message of the event to launch the project called ''Restart - Ecological and social requalification of territories through the relaunch of youth-run businesses in Tunisia'' recently held in Tunis. The event was held at Citet (Centre International des Technologies de l'Environnement de Tunis) and provided an occasion to jointly analyze the challenges of Social Solidarity Economy (ESS) in the country. In particular, the debate focused on the need to concretely show its potential as a real economic alternative and as a factor of true development in the territory thanks to the integration of social, environmental and economic sustainability. The process needs to involve communities, producers, consumers, financial operators, public and private business consultants, institutions and local authorities. The project Restart means to focus on these objectives, as discussed in two panels during the presentation. ESS in Tunisia happens at a favorable time: a draft law is in parliament to regulate the sector and dedicated credit lines are being activated, like the program to support the private sector and financial inclusion in Tunisia in the sectors of agriculture, and social solidarity economy (Prasoc) co-funded by Aics and Cassa Depositi e Prestititi.



Despite all this, ESS remains mainly informal, in the absence of specific laws and concrete mechanisms enabling its formalization. Social Solidarity Economy can represent in this sense an innovative sector able to valorize the territory and local products and create new jobs. The initiative RESTART is in perfect coordination with other initiatives of Italian cooperation, like the program Prasoc which includes two credit lines, one of which is dedicated to ESS, said the representative of AICS on the sidelines of the inauguration.



Starting on March 3, events will start to launch the initiative in the governorates involved (Gabes, Jendouba, Mahdia, Sidi Bouzid and Sousse). They will provide an occasion to present the first tender for innovative entrepreneurial ideas to promote social and environmental sustainability, cultural change, the construction of mechanisms of confidence, financial inclusion, the importance of territorial networks, national and international, and the need to join efforts.



The project lasts 36 months and is co-funded by the Italian agency for cooperation and development.



RESTART promotes sustainable economic development in Tunisia and supports small businesses, favoring the social and economic empowerment of youths through the creation of at least 50 environment-friendly and socially sustainable enterprises created by young entrepreneurs to valorize five regions of Tunisia. It is promoted by COSPE, CEFA and NEXUS, three Italian NGOs in Tunisia, who will use their experience to support social solidarity economy through local relations and their ability to intervene in strategic regions across the country. The local partners are: CitESS Sidi Bouzid and CitESS Mahdia, the association Rayhana of Jendouba, Gabes Action and ISBAS/Espace 4C. The group of Italian and Tunisian partners will give their contribution to the creation and management of businesses (ANETI), technological innovation, environmental impact and support for the development of public and private partnerships- PPP (CITET), monitoring the impact of businesses, solidarity finance, technical assistance for financial and non-financial operators (Associazione Microfinanza e Sviluppo) and developing services for local requalification (DIDA).




Sudhir Suryawanshi By

Express News Service

MUMBAI: In a bid to maintain law and order in city after violent riots in Delhi killed 42 people, Mumbai police have imposed the unlawful assembly section (section 141) till March 9.

According to a press note from the Mumbai police, under the Maharashtra Police Act 1951, deputy police commissioner issued a warning that five or more than five persons cannot assembly at one place.

As per this warning, people in Mumbai are not allowed to carry on protests, assemble in groups of more than five people, use loudspeakers and burst crackers.

However, this restriction does not include government offices, schools, colleges, cinema halls, theatres, hospitals, court, corporate and manufacturing firms.

Scheduled marriage ceremonies, funerals, meetings of cooperative and other institutions are also exempted from this decision.

Heavy police deployment was increased in public places on Friday afternoon.

NSG commands were also deployed at the airport, railway stations and other important places.

If they are any urgent work that can be carried out with the permission of the police, stated in the government note.
Kirin Crayons, the leaders in providing integrated marketing solutions for Chinese brands to prosper in India in association with the International Advertising Association organized a roundtable discussion WE STAND WITH CHINA. The aim was to bring to light the Impact of Coronavirus on Indo-China Bilateral Trade relations.

India & China history of Bilateral Trade & cooperation goes back a long way and has been steadily growing over the past decade. There has been a strong growth in the economic ties between the 2 countries with a lot of companies entering India & vice-versa. However, with the recent onset of the Coronavirus, there has been a significant effect on the socio-economic operations between the 2 countries.

Commenting on the same, Mr. Kunal Lalani, Co-Founder, Kirin Crayons & CMD of The Crayons Network, said Kirin Crayons is Indias first and only Sino - Indian integrated marketing platform. Today there is an uneasy calm prevailing across businesses in India and China as close to 87 Billion Dollar worth of Bilateral Trade is at a potential risk. As we brace for the impact of Corona virus - We stand with the people, business and brands of China

Post the introduction, Mr. Sukrit Singh, Co-Founder, Kirin Crayons spoke about the Indo-China Brand Story and its future. He also highlighted the need to stand in solidarity with China in its battle against Coronavirus.

Looking at the multitude of Chinese Brands in India, the discussion also focussed on the extent of impact due to Coronavirus on the Marketing & Advertising spends of the organizations. Mr. Sukrit Singh added Chinese brands are intrinsic to our countrys fabric. Over 8000 executives (who had travelled for Chinese New Year) are stuck in China. This will have a domino effect not only on the brand and media industry but the economy at large.

The discussion was also graced by Mr. Chang Peilin, Director, Press Section, Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China, Mr. Wang Lei, Second Secretary, Economic and Commercial Section, Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China & Mr. Zu Jian, Attache, Press Section, Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China.

Also present were experts on the topics like Mr. Harris Liu, Chef Representative of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), Prof. Srikant Kodapally, Chairman of East Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mr. Saqib, Chairman, India China Economic and Cultural Council & Mr. Alen Wang, Chairman, Chamber of Chinese Enterprise in India and Mr. Saibal Dasgupta, Author of Running with the Dragon,

In presence of delegates from the Chinese Embassy, the discussion focused on many topics like the Historical Significance of Indo-China Relations, the Growth in Bilateral Trade, the Impact of COVID-19 and the Resurrection post the current Coronavirus crisis, were discussed.

Mr. Vivek Zhang, Co-Founder, Kirin Crayons & the former CMO, Vivo India, also present at the roundtable spoke about the on-ground reality in China, Dispelling Misconceptions about Coronavirus and how the Government has taken control of the situation and is making efforts to normalize it.

Mr. Vivek Zhang said over videocall This week most Chinese companies have re-started. The Leader of the National Health Commission has assured us the situation will be under full control by end of April.

The most important session of the roundtable was at the end where Mr. Harris Liu, Chief Representative CCPIT spoke about the support extended by the Indian Government, the update on the current COVID-9 situation and the situation in the near future.

Mr. Alen Wang, Chairman, Chamber of Chinese Enterprises in India, a major stakeholder in Indo-China Bilateral Relations & Trade spoke extensively about the relations between the 2 countries, the trade, challenges etc. Mr. Wang said, According to estimated statistics from our chamber, till now only 2000 people of enterprises are staying in India and the losses to Chinese companies is over 50 Million Dollars and we believe the loss is still increasing.

The roundtable concluded with all participants discussing, deliberating & detailing comprehensive solutions to deal with various challenges presented at the meeting, including Trade, Bilateral Relations, Visas & Coronavirus.
Coronavirus has hit China and several reports suggest that it has spread to West Asian countries too. The Wuhan centre of Public Health has declared that the number is now rapidly falling down. As per the latest WHO reports released on February 26, 871 new cases have been registered worldwide.

In the wake of such a serious health emergency, several countries have declared travel restrictions. These include several European nations and one closer to China's own borders, the Phillippines. Coronavirus has affected over 80,000 people worldwide, with the death toll now standing at approximately 1,800.

Here is a detailed guide on countries that have imposed travel restrictions in the wake of the deadly Coronavirus.

Also Read | Coronavirus Outbreak: CDC Warns Some Beards Could Make Face Mask Ineffective

China travel ban

Chinas epidemic has brought it under the list of countries with travel restrictions. China is the source of Coronavirus and the number of people affected by this virus has jumped to over 70,000 since the outbreak started in Hubei province. New Zealand, Australia and a few other countries have also levied travel restrictions. They are not accepting any visitors from China.

Also Read | Coronavirus Impact: AIBA Cancels European Forum In Italy

Italy travel ban

Multiple reports suggested that Italy had a surge in the number of people affected from 80 to 400. BBC reported that Italy is one of the countries with travel restrictions. Some of the restrictions include any product import form China and also tourism in places like Milan and Venice. The area neighbouring to this have witnessed the outbreak. Coronavirus outbreak has registered twelve deaths so far.

South Korea travel ban

The South Korean officials have registered over two hundred cases in the past week. It is one of the countries with travel restrictions as the authorities want to keep the number to a minimum. The countries with travel restrictions have been extended and any flights to and fro from China have been cancelled. The tourism in the state is also on a halt according to several media reports.

Also Read | UEFA Already Monitoring Coronavirus Outbreak In Italy As Euro 2020 Hangs In The Balance

Philippines travel ban

Philippines travel ban is another one in the list of countries with travel restrictions. It has imposed travel bans on South Korea and China. It is also in the list of countries with travel restrictions from China. Philippines travel ban was earlier extended to Taiwan and Beijing. However, some partial ban has been lifted off of Taiwan and people can travel after signing a declaration that they understand the risk.

Iran travel ban

According to reports, the media Iran is another country which has seen a sudden rise in cases registered. The official number went from 106 to 245 in the last twenty-four hours. The authorities have imposed domestic as well as international travel restrictions in the affected area. According to media reports, Iran has the highest (26) death toll after the outbreak was first reported on February 19 outside of China.

Australia travel ban

Multiple media reports suggest that medical capacity in the country is already over-stretched. If affected by the virus, there are chances of 70% of the masses to be affected. Thus the government has banned large gatherings and events. According to the reports, they have also imposed international travel restrictions coming in from China.

Also Read | Xi Jinping To Go Ahead With Japan Visit Despite Coronavirus Outbreak
EDITORS NOTE: On March 10, NJ Cannabis Insider hosts its first semi-annual, daylong industry conference, featuring leaders in the medical marijuana, hemp and legal cannabis industries. Tickets are now on sale.

Months after many in the marijuana industry expected to see New Jerseys Cannabis Regulatory Commission up and running, only one top state official has made his pick.

State Senate President Stephen Sweeney has selected Krista Nash, a South Jersey social worker married to Camden County Freeholder Jeff Nash, two sources familiar with the nomination told NJ Cannabis Insider.

The other positions, slated to be filled by Gov. Phil Murphy and state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, remain vacant.

The commission came with the passage of the Jake Honig Compassionate Use Act, which expanded the states medical marijuana program. It established the commission to take control of the medical marijuana program from the Department of Health. It called for five members; three appointed by Murphy and one each by Sweeney, D-Gloucester, and Coughlin, D-Middlesex.

Lawmakers designed the commission to draft rules and regulations for the burgeoning medical cannabis industry, and ultimately the legal weed industry, should New Jersey voters approve a ballot question this November on whether the Garden State should legalize marijuana.

The panel echoes the origins of the Casino Control Commission, a body tasked with overseeing and adapting to a new industry likely to face unforeseen obstacles.

Sweeney, who confirmed he had picked an appointee but did not say who, stressed the need to get the commission seated and working before the November election.

Theres no need to waste eight months because the enabling legislation is going to take a lot of negotiation, he said. So have it ready, have everything ready. And after the November election, the first voting session in December, pass the enabling legislation. And by June youll have your marijuana industry up and running.

According to the law, which took effect July 2, the commission should have established its rules and regulations for the medical cannabis industry within six months. That window closed Jan. 2, but an official in the governors administration who spoke on the condition of anonymity last month noted the law did not include a six-month statutory deadline to seat the commission, only that it must come up with rules by such a time.

Once the commission is seated, it will be in violation of the six-month deadline, the administrative official conceded. But due to a loophole in the wording, Murphy and Coughlin have not technically violated the statute by dragging their feet on the names.

Nash declined to speak for this report. Her LinkedIn shows she works as the program director for the PROMISE Program at Volunteers of America Delaware Valley. She has experience in mental health counseling and clinical social work.

Anyone appointed to the commission must live in the state, but at least one person must have served as a state representative of a national organization dedicated to studying, advocating or adjudicating against minority historical oppression, past and present discrimination, unemployment, poverty and income inequality, and other forms of social injustice or inequality, the law mandates.

All members must come from backgrounds in legal, policy or criminal justice issues, corporate or industry management, finance, securities, production or distribution, medicine or pharmacology, public health, mental health or substance use disorders.

The commissions executive director may be paid up to $141,000, while others can make as much as $125,000, according to the law.

Coughlin has not made his nomination, but has begun vetting candidates, Kevin McArdle, a spokesman for the Assembly Majority Office, confirmed.

Murphys office did not respond to an inquiry as to whether or not the Democratic governor has picked his three appointees, and did not provide a comment on the delay.

During an NJ Cannabis Insider meet-up in January, cannabis attorney Fruqan Mouzon said he believed the two lawsuits holding up the 2019 licensing process may be to blame.

I would not seat the (commission) until this last (application) process is done, Mouzon said. Whos in charge? Is it the (health department)? Is it the (commission)?

Nine medical marijuana dispensaries currently operate around the state, and five more are expected to open this year. The health department was in the process of licensing as many as 24 new businesses, until two lawsuits put evaluations on hold.

A version of this story originally appeared in NJ Cannabis Insider. Are you interested in the cannabis industry? Subscribe here for exclusive insider information.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

Amanda Hoover can be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Riyadh, Saudi Arabia  Fri, February 28, 2020 08:30 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206715d1b 2 World #SaudiArabia,#coronavirus,pilgrimage,tourists Free

Saudi Arabia on Thursday closed its borders to foreign "umrah" pilgrims and to tourists from at least 25 countries where the new coronavirus has been found.

Muslims are currently applying for visas for the minor umrah pilgrimage, which can take place at any time of the year and brought 7.5 million people to the birthplace of Islam in the course of 2019, according to official figures.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have not reported any cases of the new coronavirus, which has infected about 80,000 people worldwide and killed more than 2,800, mostly in China - but the other four Gulf Arab states have.

Kuwait and Bahrain raised their totals to 43 and 33 cases respectively, all in people who had visited Iran. Oman has diagnosed four cases and the United Arab Emirates, an air transit hub, raised its number of cases to 19 on Thursday.

Pilgrimage is big business for Saudi Arabia, which has Islam's two holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, and is the backbone of plans to expand visitor numbers under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's ambitious economic reform agenda.

Visits by pilgrims accelerate during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, beginning this year in late April. And in late July, some 2 million pilgrims are expected for the week-long haj, the world's largest annual gathering of Muslims, which has a separate visa regime.

In Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, organisers said the suspension could affect 150,000-200,000 Indonesian pilgrims over the next month. Neighbouring Malaysia advised citizens to postpone visits to Saudi Arabia.

"Protecting the pilgrims... and the sacred sites from the arrival of this disease is very important," Health Ministry spokesman Mohammed Abdelali told reporters. "Saudi Arabia feels a sense of responsibility, therefore we took these temporary decisions, which will constantly be reviewed."

A muslim pilgrim wears a protective face mask to prevent contracting coronavirus, as he prays at the Grand mosque in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia February 27, 2020. REUTERS/Ganoo Essa (REUTERS/Ganoo Essa)

RESTRICTIONS ACROSS THE GULF

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates also halted the use of Gulf Cooperation Council cards for transit between the six member states, instead mandating passports, which can reveal more about previous travel.

But it was unclear which countries' travellers would be affected by the Saudi ban, and whether they would be blocked on the basis of nationality or point of departure.

Saudi government spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment, and confusion grew throughout the day.

The UAE-based airlines Emirates and flydubai cited Saudi directives in saying they would no longer carry passengers with tourist visas from China, Japan, Italy, Iran, India, Pakistan and a number of other countries.

At Dubai airport, a Canadian citizen transiting from Iraq was barred from an Emirates flight despite none of those countries being listed on the airline's website.

In Beirut, passengers without Saudi residency were prevented from flying to the kingdom.

Bahrain said it had halted flights to Iraq and Lebanon, and online images showed cleaners in protective overalls spraying disinfectant in empty halls in Manama airport.

Saudi Arabia's benchmark stock index fell 1.1%, weighed down by tourism-related firms Jabal Omar Development , Seera Group, and Al Hokair Group.

Across the Gulf, Iran has the highest number of deaths from the virus outside China, reporting 26 deaths and 245 infections.

Several of Iran's neighbours have closed their borders to travel from Iran.

The UAE suspended passenger ferry services with Iran until further notice, the state news agency WAM said. It also obliged all arriving commercial ships to provide a statement on the health of their crews 72 hours before arrival.

Saudi Health Minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah, Director of Public Security Saeed Al-Qahtani and Deputy Health Minister Fahad Jalajel are seen during the Saudi Food and Drug Authority meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia February 27, 2020. (REUTERS/Ahmed Yosri)

The government also told parents to inform schools if children or close relatives had travelled in the past four weeks to one of several Asian countries, Italy or Iran.

The UAE said it had identified six new coronavirus cases - four Iranians, one Chinese and one Bahraini, state news agency WAM said.
Capital Edge has experienced significant growth over the past few years by providing our clients with best in class resources and the highest level of service. I could not be more proud to share this recognition with our employees and our clients.

Capital Edge Consulting, Inc., a nationwide consulting firm that specializes in helping federal government contractors solve complex business problems, is pleased to announce that it has ranked #207 in the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies in the D.C. Metro.

The regional list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the D.C. Metro economys most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses. The companies on this list show significant rates of growth across all industries in the D.C. metropolitan area.

The companies on this list demonstrate just how much the small-business sector impacts the economies of D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware said Inc. editor in chief Scott Omelianuk. Across every single industry, these businesses have posted revenue and growth rates that are beyond impressive, further proving the tenacity of their founders and CEOs.

On behalf of the company and all of team members, we are honored to be recognized as one of the D.C. Metro areas fastest-growing companies. This recognition is a testament to our dedicated teams accomplishments, their commitment to the company vision and culture, and our growing, loyal client base, said Chad Braley, Founder and Managing Partner of Capital Edge. Capital Edge has experienced significant growth over the past few years by providing our clients with best in class resources and the highest level of service. I could not be more proud to share this recognition with our employees and our clients.

Capital Edge provides their government contractor clients with best in class accounting, contracts, supply chain, compliance, and training solutions. These clients range in size from startup to Fortune 100 companies in industries such as manufacturing, education, nuclear energy, professional services, biotech/pharmaceuticals, defense, information technology, and software. These clients work with a vast array of federal agenciesincluding the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), US Agency for International Development (USAID), and many others.

About Capital Edge Consulting, Inc.

Capital Edge consultants combine their unique backgrounds and experience in consulting, public accounting, industry, DCAA, and DCMA to provide clients with unmatched government contracting expertise. This breadth and depth of specialized experience enables Capital Edge to provide the exact services and level of expertise federal government contractors need to succeed. Capital Edge has worked with government contractors ranging in size from startup to Fortune 100 companies in industries such as manufacturing, nuclear energy, professional services, biotech/pharmaceuticals, defense, and software.

To learn more about Capital Edge Consulting, Inc., visit http://www.CapitalEdgeConsulting.com

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50million people each month across a variety of channels, including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc.

For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.
Three weeks ago there was much talk of a Chernobyl moment for China's Communist Party, discredited by totalitarian attempts to suppress news of the spreading coronavirus in Wuhan.

But fast-moving events can play wicked tricks, especially on a White House allergic to scientific facts. Covid-19 is more likely to be the Chernobyl moment for Donald Trump.

His systematic destruction of US pandemic defences - policy vandalism of the first order - and surreal efforts to conjure away the virus with denialist spin brings an unthinkable prospect into play.

The coming backlash may sweep Bernie Sanders into power on a socialist manifesto of Piketty wealth taxes, the partial closure of the US oil and gas industry, and vast increases in the size and role of the US government, all with an implicit budget deficit of $3trn. Try feeding that into your models for GDP growth, equity prices or bond yields.

The Trump administration has cut funding for the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) by 9pc. This month he proposed slashing it a further 16pc. The worst hit area has been pandemic preparation. The CDC's global health security initiative has been chopped by 80pc, reducing country coverage from 49 to 10.

Mr Trump got rid of the US Complex Crises Fund. He shut down the pandemic and global health machinery at the White House, and fired the lot. He tried to cut the budget of the National Institutes of Health - the world's finest concentration of science - by 20pc in 2018 and 27pc in 2019. Congress stopped the worst but damage has been done.

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Tom Frieden, ex-head of the CDC, warned two years ago the cuts would leave the US at the mercy of the next killer virus. "The surveillance systems will die, so we won't know if something happens. You can't pull up the drawbridge and expect viruses not to travel," he said. Ouch.

It has been a war on science. Mr Trump's cuts have nothing to do with fiscal austerity. They happened just as he was pushing through tax cuts. The science cuts were ideological.

And now the White House has a disaster on its hands. "The epidemiological conditions for a pandemic are met," said Prof Marc Lipsitch, Harvard's guru on infectious diseases. Don't be fooled by the seemingly low numbers of infections in the US (57 as I write): the country has tested just 426 people. Only three of the 100 public health labs even have working test kits.

One reason why South Korea appears to have so many cases is because it has carried out 44,981 tests. "They are looking, so they are finding," says professor Caitlin Rivers from Johns Hopkins University.

Dr Nancy Messonnier, head of the CDC, is doing her best. She told America on Tuesday that Covid-19 cannot be stopped and public policy will have to switch from containment to mitigation (already Japan's policy) - a way of saying the virus will ultimately circulate like flu.

"It's not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country any more but a question of when this will happen. We are asking the American public to prepare. This might be bad," she said.

The White House will have none of this. The virus is "very much under control" and a vaccine is very close, tweeted Mr Trump.

Up to a point. Key indexes on Wall Street and global bourses have this week fallen through the first key lines of technical support. Masanari Takada from Nomura says global macro hedge funds have changed strategies almost overnight since Covid-19's global break-out, switching to trades that "prepare for a global recession". Larry Kudlow, the White House economics chief, persists bravely. The US containment of the coronavirus has been "pretty close to airtight". Growth in the US will be unscathed.

Has nobody told him US firms with tight supply chains are fast running down their inventories, or the full effect of cancelled container shipping from Chinese and East Asian ports has not yet been felt? Little is returning to normal. China's economy remains closed and there is a critical shortage of workers at ports. Ships cannot even dock.

The Baidu index shows 72pc of migrant workers have not returned to the big cities since the Lunar New Year. Coal use at major power plants is down 47pc. The longer this goes on, the greater the global economic shock, even if you believe the fairy tale that Covid-19 is a local Chinese virus and won't cross oceans.

Undaunted, the Trump camp is putting out the message through talk radio and in cabinet testimony on the Hill that virus chatter is scaremongering by political opponents - a line also adopted by the insouciant leader of Lombardy in Italy.

Yesterday the head of US homeland security, Chad Wolf, told a stunned Senate committee the death rate of Covid-19 is akin to normal winter flu. He doubled-down when pressed by a senator who clearly knew the designated chief of US emergency preparations does not understand the elementary facts of the matter.

The average flu death rate is around 0.1. Tracking data from China shows a 4.0pc mortality rate in Wuhan, 2.8pc in Hubei, and 0.8pc in other regions, but rising. The ratio rockets for the late-middle aged and elderly.

Furthermore, only a small fraction of people contract flu each year because the rest are vaccinated or have acquired immunity. There will be no Covid-19 vaccine for months. Nobody has immunity.

The Trump administration is taking an insane political gamble by pitting itself against the CDC and against the US fraternity of virologists. It will lose this bet. I also suspect that Covid-19 will expose deep failings within the US health-care and insurance system.

Many poor Americans without coverage or Medicaid will try to tough it out at home rather than risk ruinous medical costs. Illegal immigrants will avoid the health surveillance system for fear of being deported.

The disease will spread in these large, distressed pockets before sweeping the leafy suburbs. The only way to slow the internal contagion is to offer free testing and care for anybody with Covid-19, as Singapore is doing in what has become the world's gold standard regime for this crisis.

If the CDC is right and a US epidemic is on its way, the unfolding drama and shocking death rate will work to the advantage of Sanders in the Democratic primaries.

It could conceivably propel the septuagenarian firebrand into the White House with a majority in both houses of Congress. Just wait until the global macro funds sink their teeth into that prospect.

What are the Dow index and the S&P 500 worth in a global economy facing - potentially - the worst 'sudden stop' since August 1914, and a new America led by a President Sanders with a mandate for socialist upheaval? Let's be generous and say about half of current levels.

( Daily Telegraph, London)
KAMPALA  Masaka Catholic Bishop Serverus Jjumba huth central diocese is ready to lead the Catholic Church celebrations for the Uganda Martyrs day 2020.

Addressing a press conference at the Uganda Catholic Secretariat at Nsambya on Thursday February 27, Bishop Jjumba indicated that the organisers need UGX. 950 million to prepare the celebrations, including liturgy, public address system, security, health and sanitation of the pilgrims.

This years celebrations will run under the theme, Do not lose heart (2Cor 4:1-18), Bishop Jjumba said, at the conference jointly addressed with the Chairman, Uganda Episcopal Conference Bishop Joseph Antony Zziwa, of Kiyinda Mityana.

All these activities bring financial implications to the reality. We have drafted a working budget of UGX. 950 Million. This going to be spent on a number of activities, including the following; liturgy, publicity, health and sanitation, he said.

Bishop Zziwa urged Masaka to coordinate with the Secretary General, Uganda Episcopal Conference for smooth preparations.

Today, I have to reiterate that whichever diocese is chosen, acts on behalf of the Uganda Episcopal Conference and its guidelines for the day. The Conference has entrusted the Secretary General, the overall Chairman for the preparations for the celebrations, and Staff at Uganda Catholic Secretariat (UCS) with the responsibility of assisting and guiding such a diocese as much as possible, Bishop Zziwa said.

=========================================

Full statement below:

PRESS RELEASE

27th February 2020

PREPARATIONS FOR THE UGANDA MARTYRS DAY CELEBRATION 2020 AT NAMUGONGO ANIMATED BY MASAKA DIOCESE

Our hearts are set on pilgrimage to Namugongo: Let us move with faith and courage to that valley of bitterness that was transformed into springs of life by the blood of the martyrs (cf. Psalm 84: 5-6).

The martyrs are a rare and precious gift God gives to the church and the world at large. The History of the Church and of Christianity, especially in the early centuries, is written and mapped out by the very blood of the martyrs, the courageous and faithful witnesses of the faith. Like in the first Millennium, the church in Uganda was born of the blood of the martyrs (cf. TMA 37). The Uganda martyrs are, thus, a very special gift and singular favour to Uganda, to Africa and to the entire world, for Martyrdom is central to the mystery of salvation won for us by Jesus Christ and is a sign of the maturity of the faith in Jesus Christ, the Ssabajulizi, the fountain and Icon of Martyrdom.

The martyrs courageous witness to Jesus Christ and His Gospel, their commitment and dedication and willingness to surrender their life in fidelity to the Lord inspire many others to convert to Christianity and to remain steadfast in the faith by their intercession. Hence the famous saying of Tertullian in 197 AD, The Blood of the Martyrs is the seed of Christians.

Martyrs are so special that usually people flock to their places of martyrdom for pilgrimage. This is a religious and spiritual journey of faith with a particular purpose among which can be the following: Veneration of a saint, asking for a spiritual favour, begging for a physical cure, performing an act of penance, expressing gratitude, fulfilling a promise or simply practicing a virtue of religion . Since 1920 when the first pilgrimage was made to Namugongo by Fr. Walters and his group, Catholics and non-Catholics have continued to make pilgrimage to this holy site. Until 2000, it was a custom for the Archdiocese of Kampala to organise and lead the liturgy at Namugongo. In 1999, the Uganda Episcopal Conference agreed that organisation of the pilgrimage to Namugongo be rotational from one diocese to another. Masaka was chosen to start this practice and led the celebrations ably in 2000 under the theme, Christ Yesterday, today and forever (Hebrew 13:8).

At the conclusion of the plenary of the Uganda Episcopal conference in June 2019, the bishops chose Kampala Ecclesiastical Province to prepare for the Uganda Martyrs Day in the year 2020. The lot again fell on Masaka Diocese that had been a pioneer of the entire practice to lead the preparations of Namugongo. We are happy and proud to lead the people of God in the preparations and celebrations of Uganda Martyrs day at Namugongo this year.

The task is enormous and demands serious preparations on the spiritual level and material level so as to profit from the pilgrimage to Namugongo whose purpose is eminently spiritual, the material dimension notwithstanding.

We have organised a number of activities to march the task ahead of us, below are some of them.

1. A WHOLE YEAR OF PILGRIMAGE

We declared a whole year of pilgrimage from 3rd June 2019 to 3rd June 2020 with the climax on 29th May for the pupils and students in schools and 3rd of June for the adults.

2. THEME

The theme to guide us in all our preparation until the final celebration at Namugongo is: DO NOT LOSE HEART (2 Corinthian 4: 1-18). St. Paul is encouraging the Christians of Corinth to continue living the faith happily and witnessing to it with courage despite the many challenges and difficulties they met in their own lives and those from society, focusing on Jesus Christ who won salvation for us through the cross. Challenged, inspired, supported and interceded for by the Uganda Martyrs faith, heroism and courage; we must remain steadfast in faith. We move forward to live and witness to our faith with courage and enthusiasm despite the challenges in all dimensions of life, be they physical, religious, spiritual, economic, social, cultural, political, intellectual, moral, personal and ecological. It is this theme that also helps us to face our task with courage in raising the resources, be they material, financial, human and spiritual that we need for the successful and fruitful celebrations of the Uganda Martyrs day at Namugongo. We invite individuals, families, communities, societies, institutions, the Church and State to identify those challenges and fears that make people lose heart and face them with the courage and faith of the Uganda Martyrs fully assured of their powerful intercession. Take heart Christ lives.

3. COMMITTEES

We created a Central Organising Committee (COC) with other committees to organise the preparations and celebrations of Namugongo. The COC is led by Rev. Fr. George William Lubega. This committee will work in direct communication and contact with the team at the Uganda Catholic Secretariat led by Msgr. John Baptist Kauta. We also have a coordinating team from Kampala that is led by Rotarian Emmanuel Katongole. These have already started meetings to find ways and means of preparing for Namugongo.

4. DEVOTION TO THE UGANDA MARYTRS

We called for massive national re-awakening of the devotion to Uganda Martyrs. This included the following activities:

i) Recitation of prayers and litanies of the Uganda Martyrs at the end of every liturgical function especially the Mass.

ii) Each Sunday from 29th December 2019 up to 29th May 2020 was assigned a Martyr to be reflected upon and the programme was sent to all the 19 dioceses in Uganda.

iii) A votive Mass to Uganda Martyrs was recommended every Tuesday.

iv) We have made special pilgrimages to the places where the martyrs from Masaka were born ( Ssaza for Bruno Sserunkuuma , Minziiro-Kakuuto for John Mary Muzeeyi on 26th January, Birinzi for Charles Lwanga on 16th February ).

v) Uganda Martyrs Novenas will be made from 25th May to 2nd June 2020.

5. LOGO

We have created a Logo for this years event. It has been registered and will be copy-righted under Masaka Diocese. We invite interested and capable companies to help us produce better items needed for this great event. The components of the logo are hereby explained below;

i) The 24 Uganda Martyrs holding branches as a sign of Victory gazing at the Crucified Christ.

ii) Jesus the Crucified. Through his suffering death and resurrection, he won for us a new life by the Cross.

iii) Red colour symbolises Martyrdom and victory through the shedding of blood. This is blended with the colours of Uganda National flag that represents the nationality of the Martyrs.

iv) The theme: Do Not Lose Heart (2 Corinthians 4:1-18).

6. LITURGY

a) We are in the process of training two choirs to animate the liturgy.

b) We have generated an appropriate program for the functions of 29th May and 3rd of June with all activities mapped out.

i) 29th of May to be exclusively for the pupils and students in and outside the country. This is born out of the concern for the children in and out of school so as to give them a chance to participate fully and actively. Due to increased attendance on 3rd June, it was recognised that pupils and students hardly attended the event. The Uganda Episcopal Conference has always desired to decongest 3rd June. This could be one of the ways and Masaka is to pioneer it on the 29th of May.

ii) 3rd of June then would be for all adults as is normally the case.

7. FOOT PILGRIMS

The number of foot pilgrims from Uganda and outside have constantly increased, last year Masaka Diocese alone had more than 1,500 foot pilgrims. This year we expect the number to exceed 2,000 foot pilgrims (From Masaka Diocese). We thus appeal to all those concerned especially along high ways to Namugongo to cooperate and support these pilgrims on the journey of faith.

8. NATURE

a) Creative promotion of pilgrimage on foot in defence of Nature. Pilgrims are always welcomed in places where they rest before they embark on the next leg of their walk. We are planning that pilgrims on foot will plant 24 trees in every parish where they rest. In remembrance of the 24 Uganda Martyrs.

b) Ecological memory of the martyrs. At the close of the celebrations at Namugongo, each diocese will be given a tree to plant as memory of the martyrs day of 2020 and a permanent reminder of planting trees and protecting our environment. Each pilgrim is reminded to avoid polythene pollution wherever they will pass, rest and celebrate the Uganda Martyrs day.

9. FINANCES

All these activities bring financial implications to the reality. We have drafted a working budget of 950 Million Uganda Shillings. This is going to be spent on a number of activities, including the following;

i) Preparing for liturgy. This involves the preparation of the days choirs that will animate 29th May and 3rd June, and the proper celebration of the Eucharist.

ii) Hiring a good public address system and screens to enable the pilgrims to follow the activities.

iii) Provision of first aid and necessary health facilities.

iv) Ensuring proper sanitation and hygiene for all pilgrims.

v) Welfare of the Choirs and organising committee members.

vi) Preparing the events magazines.

How to realise this budget;

i) We have already started mobilising from our parishes and institutions;

ii) We have also contacted and continue to contact individuals of good will, corporate companies, other dioceses and the Government of the Republic of Uganda

Donations are welcome and the following are our bank account details:

Account Name: NAMUGONGO 2020 MASAKA DIOCESE

Bank: CENTENERY BANK

Branch: MASAKA

Account Number: 3100069734

10. APPRECIATION

We extend our gratitude to Uganda Episcopal Conference for giving Masaka Diocese the opportunity to animate this years Martyrs day celebration at Namugongo. We thank the Government of Uganda and its various organs for all the support, especially the security agencies that have always ensured the security of persons and property. We appreciate Uganda Catholic Secretariat for the continued guidance, and we thank all the institutions, our Christians and all people of good will who have given us support in cash and kind. We commend the media for the coverage and commitment to work with us.

May the Uganda Martyrs intercede for us for a successful and fruitful pilgrimage and celebration.

Rt. Rev. Serverus Jjumba

Bishop of Masaka Diocese.

Given at the Uganda Catholic Secretariat, Nsambya, Kampala

on Thursday, 27th February 2020

Related
Oil prices have continued plunging on Friday as the spread of coronavirus worldwide keeps global oil demand low.



International Brent crude was trading at $50.22 per barrel at 0600 GMT on the ICE Exchange in London on Friday for a 1.57% loss after closing Thursday at $51.02 a barrel when it saw a daily decline of 4.51%.



American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading at $45.67 a barrel at the same time for a 2.43% decrease after ending the previous session at $46.81 per barrel with a 2.63% loss.

For the last time Brent crude dipped below the $50 a barrel mark in summer 2017, TASS recalls.

The meeting of OPEC and OPEC+ is scheduled for March 5-6.

A senior analyst of 'Uralsib', Alexei Kokin, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the current drop in prices is due to increased risks of a fall in demand in the coming months. "The coronavirus epidemic involves more and more countries in negative demand forecasts. First, oil prices have started declining in anticipation of falling demand in China, then certain risks appeared for demand in Korea and Japan. Now, risks arose in Europe and the U.S., the world's first oil consumer," he explained.

According to the expert, the updated OPEC+ deal may affect the situation. "The market does not yet know the decisions adopted at the OPEC + meeting, what will be Russia's position, there is uncertainty. Therefore, the market hasn't yet taken this factor into account. But, for example, Russia's consent to reduce its quota by at least 600 thousand barrels per day can positively affect prices. In general, the further situation will strongly depend on the fight against the epidemic and on the OPEC+ decision. We should not expect Brent prices to return to the range of $55-60 per barrel sooner than summer," Alexey Kokin warned.
Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi on Thursday morning laid a wreath in commemoration of the fallen heroes in Gaborone at the Three Chiefs monument, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

First Lady Neo Masisi and other senior government officials joined the Botswana Defence Force (BDF), family and relatives to pay tribute to the fifteen soldiers who lost their lives in line of duty during an ambush that took place on February 27, 1978, in Lesoma by the then Rhodesian Armed Forces.

Speaking at the commemoration, Gotsileene Morake, Deputy Commander of the BDF, said Botswana continues to enjoy peace, sovereignty and economic stability due to the selfless effort of our fallen Heroes and Heroines.

"It is upon us as a nation, that we should live and maintain their legacy, show our commitment and support to their effort, show our appreciation towards their sacrifice, celebrate the achievements and foundation they laid for us. For their ultimate sacrifice, and show our allegiance that we shall never forget," he said.

The BDF held Fallen Heroes Day commemorations in various parts of the country on Thursday to celebrate all fallen war heroes who perished in the line of duty supporting peacekeeping operations.
Lee University will mark International Womens Day with a series of events during the week of March 3-5. Activities will include lectures, chapel services, and a poster competition.

According to music professor and event coordinator Dr. ChoEun Lee, the universitys International Womens Week is founded on Genesis 1:27-28, God created man and woman in his own image; together both man and woman are blessed.

On Tuesday a special liturgical service will take place in the Lee Chapel at 10:40 a.m., led by LuAnn Holden, former music professor at Lee. Holdens message will focus on Calling and how we can cultivate and use our individual abilities, skills, and talents for Gods purposes. The service will be officiated by Dr. Lisa Long, associate professor of Christian formation, and Ladies of Lee, directed by music professor Dr. Randy Sheeks, will provide special music.

The Learn, Engage, and Achieve Program (LEAP) office will host Latte in the Library with Dr. Carolyn Dirksen on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Squires Library. Dirksen will speak on Blazing the Trail for Women in Leadership.

An interdisciplinary poster presentation session will take place in the Great Room of the Science and Math Complex from 1-3:45 p.m. on Wednesday. Students from diverse majors including political science, anthropology, humanities, history, and journalism will present on a variety of topics pertaining to womens issues and equality. Cash prizes will be awarded on Thursday, March 19, at 4 p.m. in Squires Library.

This session provides students with the opportunity to become an integral part of the weeks discussions, said Julie Burchfield, assistant professor and librarian for distance learning. It helps to bring awareness to our community while providing students with valuable educational experience garnered from the research and presentation process.

Patricia Nichols will speak in chapel on Thursday, March 5, at 10:40 a.m. in the Conn Center. She currently serves as brigade chaplain for the 75th Field Artillery Brigade at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Chaplain Nichols will share personal testimony of her journey of becoming an active duty chaplain as a woman.

"I am very thrilled to celebrate the 13th Annual International Womens Week on our campus, said Dr. Lee. What started as a one-day event has now grown into a week of honoring what God says about women and inspiring the Lee and Cleveland community.

All events are free, non-ticketed, and open to the public.

For more information about Lees International Womens Week events, contact Lee at clee@leeuniversity.edu.
ATO inspect a car in the Belmont Road area of east Belfast on February 27th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

An east Belfast school has confirmed a suspicious device found under a female teacher's car was a "false alarm".

Police were called to the scene of the alert in the Belmont Road area following the discovery of the object on Thursday evening.

The Belfast Telegraph understands the teacher works at Strathearn School.

A number of homes have been evacuated, while part of the Belmont Road and Belmont Church Road have been cordoned off.

In a statement issued by Lanyon Group on behalf of Strathearn School, a spokesman said: "On Thursday evening, the Principal and Governors of Strathearn School were alerted by the PSNI to a suspicious device found in the grounds of the school.

"Following a controlled explosion by army technical officers, the device was declared to be a false alarm.

"The safety of our pupils, staff and neighbouring community remains our utmost priority at all times and, having sought advice from the PSNI, we are assured that school can continue as normal on Friday."

Security alert in east Belfast pic.twitter.com/pRbDRQckXT  Police Service NI (@PoliceServiceNI) February 27, 2020

Police said at 9.50pm that the security alert had ended.

Inspector Natalie McNally said: "Police responded to a report of a suspicious object discovered under a vehicle at a school in the Belmont Road earlier this evening.

"Following examination the object has been declared as nothing untoward and the road has now reopened. Residents have been allowed to return to their homes. We're grateful to local people for their patience."
Celibacy and Catholic sex abuse

To the editor:

The Feb. 23 issue of the Register & Bee, featured a full-page advertisement and letter of apology to the people of Virginia from the Roman Catholic bishop of Richmond and was, perhaps, the most masterfully executed piece of religious propaganda ever to appear in this newspaper.

It may seem unfair to call the picture of the clergyman  presumably the bishop himself  with bowed head and hands clasped in prayer, along with the meticulously worded letter next to him, nothing more than a deceptive effort to influence public opinion on the issue of sexual predation by Roman Catholic priests. But as long as efforts to stop this infamous behavior do not address the root cause of the tragedy, the bishops letter and all the re-assurances coming from the bishops boss, Pope Francis, are nothing more than a Band-Aid on a cancer.

We have a right to expect transparency among deeply religious people because such people profess to have a love for God and his moral law, which requires us to treat others as we ourselves want to be treated. But it is one of the sad ironies of fallen human nature and human history that there is often more systematic lying in the world of religion than in any other area of human life.

A case in point is a statement made by Pope Paul VI in 1967, and quoted in the Jan. 15 issue of the Register & Bee. Referring to the inflexible Roman Catholic tradition that its priests remain unmarried, the pope called this clerical celibacy the mark of a heroic soul and imperative call to unique and total love for Christ and His Church. The statement was brief, but crammed with lies  especially when coming from a man who professed to be the supreme Christian leader of the world. There is not a word in the Bible to suggest that unmarried people love Christ more than married people do. Moreover, knowing, as he must have, that the Apostle Peter  alleged by the Roman Catholic organization to have been the first pope  was a married man, it is evident that Paul VI was lying through his teeth.

And what temerity must this man have had to call Roman Catholic celibacy the mark of a heroic soul, when he knew very well that the sexual exploitation of children by Roman Catholic priests was rampant even as he uttered those words, and that it was a disaster traceable to the very introduction of this celibacy in the Middle Ages!

As one born in the geographical heart of Roman Catholicism, and having a thorough and unbiased acquaintance with its origins, traditions and history, I have no hesitation in saying that the popes have been the most audacious and bare-faced liars in the history of man. Considering the scope of his claims, it is impossible to find a greater impostor anywhere, and at any time, than Romes Supreme Pontiff. Pope Francis predecessor did not retire. He was rather relieved of his office by the Vatican powers that be when it became evident that a man of less age and a lot more ability to fool his followers was needed to handle the huge scandal now confronting Roman Catholicism. The suave, affable, smiling Argentinian  Francis  was their natural choice. But the horrible abuse of children by Romes priestly predators will never be honestly addressed until priestly celibacy has been declared the unnatural, un-Christian abomination that it is, and thrown out forever. With sincere love for all Roman Catholics, I pray that time may come soon.

MATTEO PACIFICO

Danville
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 20:27:27|Editor: xuxin

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NICOSIA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Two people died in a fire that broke out on Friday in a hospital in the Turkish Cypriot part of Cyprus' divided capital Nicosia, Turkish Cypriot authorities said.

They reported that two male patients, aged 74 and 62 respectively, were injured in the fire and died after they were transferred to a private hospital in Nicosia.

Turkish Cypriot authorities also said that about 300 other patients were evacuated and transferred to other hospitals.

The fire broke out at about 6:45 a.m. local time (0445 GMT) in the cardiovascular surgery department, located at the second floor of the biggest hospital in the Turkish Cypriot side of the eastern Mediterranean island.

First reports said that the fire started after an explosion of an oxygen cylinder.

Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou said in a tweet that he sent a message through a bi-communal committee on health issues to the effect that Cypriot authorities stood ready to help.

"We expressed our readiness to help in any way we are asked," Ioannou tweeted.

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci who visited the gutted hospital early in the morning said the day "started with bitter news."
Lucknow, Feb 28 : Well-known Sunni cleric and All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) member, Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali, has sought a judicial probe into the communal riots in Delhi.

"The Central government must order a judicial probe into the riots which have damaged the social fabric of the country to a large extent. We are all worried and upset over the recent developments," he said in a statement.

The cleric said that strict action should be taken against those responsible for the violence.

Appealing to the people not to be taken in by rumours and misinformation, he also asked them to help those affected by the riots without taking into consideration the caste or religion of the victims.

The cleric further asked the government to take firm action against politicians who have been spewing venom in their speeches.

Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali is not known to issue political statements and it is rare to find the cleric making a comment on situations that have political overtones.
Seeing the front page photo of the PM brandishing his booklet on pandemic planning reminded me of when I first started teaching and the head of department advised me to always walk around the school carrying a textbook and a large folder of notes, as it gave everyone the impression that I was busy working on something. Brian Collins, Cronulla The government's response to coronavirus is to be commended. One has to ask why the reaction to climate change has been so different  but I guess the coronavirus doesn't have the coal and gas lobby, and the minerals council behind it.  Peggy Fisher, Killara I wonder if climate change was contagious whether the Prime Minister would then do something about it? Peter Miniutti, Ashbury If only John Howard was still around, he could have gave us fridge magnets to fight the coronavirus. Todd Hillsley, Homebush Fire, flood and now pestilence. The end is nigh. Paul Doyle, Glenbrook

My hope for the day  that it can at least be downgraded to a Corolla virus. George Baumann, Balmain Shades of Orwell in 'regional' North Sydney Do not be surprised that the North Sydney pool received a regional grant (Letters, February 29).

We on the far side of the Sandstone Curtain of the Blue Mountains well understand the rationale.

The Far West stretches from Parramatta to Penrith. Beyond is Terra Nullius. Rob Aalders, Kanimbla War is peace, ignorance is strength and North Sydney is regional! Orwell would have a field day with our leaders; these defenders of the indefensible. Deb McPherson, Gerringong Geez, I didnt realise there were so many of Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavans weatherboard and iron houses in North Sydney! Graham Fazio, Old Bar

If the Morrison government is silly enough to call North Sydney regional and offer $10 million for a pool upgrade, wouldnt the North Sydney Council be silly to refuse? Madeleine McPherson, Wollstonecraft Who is our Prime Minister kidding? Anyone in his position would know what an underling was doing with several hundred million dollars. Furthermore, if Ms McKenzie is supposedly solely guilty she should resign from Parliament and/or be charged with blatant misuse of taxpayers' money. Pete Rose, Jamberoo Remember the ''climate change" election that was actually the "sports rorts" election? Dumb Australia. Brewis Atkinson, Tyabb Vic Sexism and family violence permeates our whole society Your article about violence and abuse against women and children begs the question: Where does this behaviour come from (Be alert, and very alarmed, about boys' role models, February 28)?''. The answer is it's around us all the time. As unsurprised as I am to hear Donald Trumps unending mockery and derision of women he dislikes, I was horrified to hear a person in my social circle make an incredibly off-colour sexual joke about Greta Thunberg recently. That this behaviour is becoming normalised in our society should be of grave concern to us all. Nick Andrews, Bellevue Hill

David Crowe underlines the extent and seriousness of family violence by stating that to triple funding wouldnt be enough(''Triple domestic violence funding and still it wouldn't be enough'', February 28). Any improvement will only happen through governmental determination and the appropriate use of funding. In April, 2019 the Law Reform Commission review of the family law system outlined significant structural changes to address family violence at the time of family separation. The federal government is yet to acknowledge the reviews recommendations, let alone to move towards any implementation. As has been identified in research projects, the genesis of much family violence lies in intergenerational behaviour, implying the need to target cultural change. Such change is achieved through long-term and consistent funding of programs to inform and educate young people how to enter into, conduct and sustain respectful relationships. Widespread and effective funding will not come cheaply and cannot be dictated by electoral cycles. Ross Butler, Rodd Point In response to the violence perpetrated by some men on women, it is being said by many commentators that: ''If this was a terrorist attack there would be an immediate response''. These attacks are terrorist attacks. Often more violent, more persistent, more relentless, more intimidating, more harrowing and more terrifying than political terrorism. Violence against women is allowed to develop into terror and murder, and should be so described. Elvis Kipman, Killara I do not agree with the opinions given by Bettina Arndt, however, with all of the clamouring to strip her of her AM, perhaps all those leading the charge could compile a comprehensive list of what opinions an honours recipient is permitted to hold (Letters, February 28). John Chappell, Port Macquarie The justified outcry over Bettina Arndts injudicious comments about the tragic deaths of Hannah Clarke and her children at the hands of their father has your correspondent getting it entirely wrong, once again. This is not about a threat to liberal democracy, its about toxic masculinity. Diane Hart, Mullumbimby I think many people would support an investigation into the factors influencing domestic violence, the objection is to the term "drove him to do it". Violence is a choice, as evidenced by his preparation for his actions. Arndt's comments are an insult to all men in great distress who would never, never harm their family as a way of dealing with their emotions. Sandra Pertot, Diamond Beach

Might have been driven too far. Despicable words in defence of the indefensible.

Diane Hughan, Woolgoolga Bury the evidence I support your correspondent in seeking an underground solution for electrical wires (Letters, February 26). I recently discovered, living in the middle of the fire zone near Bendalong, that the electrical infrastructure maintenance provider has undertaken a clean-up of the burnt poles which are impregnated with arsenic, copper and chrome, thus an environmental hazard. Answer? Wrap the remains in plastic to avoid contamination through leeching and then bury them in land-fill. What did this planet do to deserve us? Peter Hudson, Bendalong Keep it private The full debacle of the Northern Beaches Hospital has now been exposed (Keep private investment out of public hospitals, inquiry asserts, February 28). This comes on top of high power prices, high parking and "station access fees at Sydney Airport and the recent revelation that the previously secret deals for the sale of NSW ports has locked Newcastle out of potentially valuable business (and locked it in to coal). Is anyone else starting to think that privatisation is not always delivering the benefits promised? George Rosier, Carlingford

Migration museum Plans for a decorative arts museum in Sydney have again bypassed the long-overdue recognition that Australia is a multicultural society (''Decorative arts museum plan targets Macquarie Street'', February 27). It probably has much to with the fact that multiculturalism is still poorly represented in decision-making roles in Australia, even though it is frequently used as a highly positive reality by Anglo-Australian politicians. Our submission to the Legislative Councils inquiry regarding the future of the Powerhouse Museum stated the case for a Migration Museum in detail, but was ignored. Our other proposal for the Parramatta North Heritage Core Project got no response either. Migration Museums exist in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Broken Hill. Klaas Woldring, Secretary,Dutch Australian Cultural Centre. Ignoring the experts Why does Gladys Berejiklian commission reports and ignore the recommendations? She has rejected five key recommendations into the drug ice ("NSW rejects pill testing, more injecting rooms", February 28). I bet she will also reject the new parliamentary inquiry's recommendations about moving the Powerhouse Museum to a flood plain at a cost of $1.5 billion ("Flood scrutiny to fore as inquiry puts museum under microscope", February 28). No one accepts that the cost of this ill-thought out and unnecessary project will not increase substantially, like the Light Rail and Metro projects of this government. She could put the funds towards women's refuges from domestic violence. Lindsay Somerville, Lindfield

Respectful right to believe otherwise I'm appalled that Australians of faith have allegedly been silenced by secularists. This should be addressed immediately. Now, please tell us when and where this is occurring and by whom (Letters, February 28) Samantha Chung, Newtown Ill respect your correspondents belief, if she respects my lack of it. John Christie, Oatley It is little wonder that people of faith are feeling set upon and derided, when they fight to prevent loving couples from marrying, and for the right to exercise discrimination and bigotry. Derision is a mild response to the assumed right to force others to conform to your own beliefs. Andrew Taubman, Queens Park As a theologically trained Christian worker, now retired, I have spent decades sharing my faith in all sorts of places. As a person of faith, I have never felt set upon or derided, nor ridiculed or abused when I have shared my faith, including in prisons. I think that one can share their faith in a gracious, respectful way, that opens up opportunities for conversations. Jan Syme, Newington

Ian Thorpe champion swimmer, now also champion fighter against discrimination (''Thorpe on mission to scrap religious discrimination bill'', February 28). Con Vaitsas, Ashbury Postscript "Yet again, a wonderful collection of letters!" wrote Ronald Elliott of Sandringham this week. "Thank you, improves ones mental health to no end." It's been a varied and interesting week, with many of the contributions tackling the subjects of climate change policy (again), the budget surplus and many letters on COVID-19. The end of the week has seen a large number of letters on domestic violence and the proposed religious discrimination bill  difficult subjects to write about, but those which correspondents were not afraid to tackle. Many wrote short, to-the-point letters, which not only make for good reading but also have a great chance of being published. Marie del Monte of Ashfield wrote that her biggest impediment to writing had always been a feeling she had nothing to say, and made this relevant observation: "Usually my writing is at best a three-to-five-sentence letter to the Herald. My letters-to the-editor writing style is due to the pragmatic realisation that the editors generally publish a shorter letter than a longer one. Furthermore, since I realised that the amount of effort I may spend on a letter does not in any way correlate to whether the letter is published, I try to spend as little time on the letter as possible. I also pride myself on this. See, a writers life does not have to be tortured." Allan Gibson of Cherrybrook played this week's trump card with this letter: "Theres a first for everything and today (February 29) is no exception: the opportunity to be published on a day of the month not to be repeated until 2024." Happy letter writing.
Members of the 6th Infantry Battalion and the 2nd Artillery Regiment in Custume Barracks, Athlone getting sandbags ready incase of deployment for flooding in the region. Pic:Mark Condren 25.2.20202

Calm before the storm: A man on the Bull Wall after a swim in Dublin Bay as Met Eireann warns of more bad weather to come. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA

Status red and orange warnings have been issued for counties across the country from tomorrow, as Storm Jorge looms.

A red wind warning will be in place in Galway and Clare from 1pm to 4pm tomorrow, with a Status Orange in place for both counties along with Mayo, Clare and Kerry between 6am Saturday and 3am Sunday.

The same Status Orange will affect Donegal, Leitrim and Sligo between 12pm and 3am, and between 1pm and 7pm in Leinster, Cavan, Monaghan, Roscommon, Cork, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford.

Wind and flood-battered householders were warned to brace themselves for the third damaging weather front in just over a fortnight as Storm Jorge approaches Ireland.

The Atlantic storm, named by the Spanish Met Office, is set to hit Ireland this weekend with rainfall of up to 50mm in parts and winds potentially gusting to more than 130kmh.

There are mounting fears heavy rain - combined with snow melt on higher ground - could significantly worsen water levels in many flood-hit areas.

Met Eireann issued a status orange wind warning for seven counties, while a status yellow warning will be in place for the rest of the country.

Storm Jorge hits as landowners and householders in the Shannon basin and other low-lying areas are already battling floods following an estimated 50pc higher level of rainfall over the past three months than a decade ago.

Water levels for the River Shannon are already 1.6 metres higher than normal in some parts, with farm groups warning that thousands of acres of farmland are now under flood waters.

Storm Jorge will hit Ireland tomorrow with the status orange wind warning in place for Co Kerry, Co Clare, Co Mayo, Co Galway, Co Leitrim, Co Sligo and Co Donegal.

The warning comes into effect at 6am tomorrow for Co Kerry, Co Clare, Co Galway and Co Mayo, and from noon for the other three countries.

It will remain in place until 3am on Sunday.

A status yellow wind warning will be in place from 9am tomorrow for Leinster, Co Cavan, Co Monaghan, Co Roscommon, Co Cork, Co Limerick, Co Tipperary and Co Waterford. A status yellow rainfall warning will be in place for Munster, Connacht and Co Donegal.

Met Eireann's Linda Hughes said the greatest impact of Storm Jorge would be in coastal areas.

"Storm Jorge will impact Ireland, with strong winds and heavy rain expected," she said.

"It (tomorrow) will be a cold day with widespread showers and coastal gales. Showers will be mainly confined to the west and south during the morning, but will become widespread as the day goes on and will be a mix of rain, hail, sleet and possibly snow.

"There will also be a risk of thunder with widespread wintry showers continuing early on Saturday night."

Further showers are likely on Sunday with the heaviest rainfall predicted for Munster and south Leinster.

Storm Jorge will bring rainfall amounts estimated between 20mm and 30mm for most areas, but Co Kerry and possibly Co Clare could experience as much as 50mm of rainfall in just 24 hours.

Council officials are worried the heavy rain, combined with already saturated rivers, threatens to worsen flooding in many areas, particularly along the Shannon basin.

However, the biggest threat from Storm Jorge will be high winds along coastal areas that could gust to more than 130kmh.

Irish Water Safety and the Coast Guard urged people to avoid coastal areas during the alert and to stay away from waterways which are now raging torrents.

There will also be an increased risk of coastal flooding because of a potential storm surge.

The worst of the flooding to date has been in Co Clare, Co Galway, Co Mayo, Co Roscommon and Co Westmeath, with flooding also reported in Co Tipperary, Co Cork, Co Waterford, Co Limerick and Co Laois.

Defence Forces personnel have been deployed in Co Westmeath on flooding duties.
Its important to set the record straight about Dennis Pragers purported use of racial slurs  not for those who, like column writer Amira Elghawaby, would like to pretend that the Manning Centre is hosting a virulent racist next month, but for those who still value honesty when it comes to both journalism and intellectual discussion.

It should also be noted that the CBC, which published a similar smear on the Manning Centre earlier in the week, amended its position after Prager wrote them a letter shaming them for their misleading lack of context.

As Prager himself explained, his consideration of two slurs (both the K-word for Jewish people like himself, as well as the N-word for African-Americans) was rooted in a radio callers question about Harry Trumans biography. The book, as well as President Truman himself, used both the k and n-words. Prager pointed out that while we can say the k-word out loud, the n-word has become so abhorrent that we cannot bring ourselves to say it any context, even literary or historical ones.

It was comparable to a discussion of whether Mark Twains novels should be censored for containing language we now find offensive  something even the U.K.s left-leaning Guardian opposes.

Prager also made something entirely clear, which Ms. Elghawaby conveniently overlooks: Of course you should never call anybody the N-word; Thats despicable.

Prager has been broadcasting in the United States since 1982. He has a syndicated radio show that airs for three hours on weekdays. The Los Angeles Times calls him, An amazingly gifted man and moralist whose mission in life has been crystallized  to get people obsessed with what is right and wrong. He has published several books ranging from Judaism to the role that happiness plays in our lives. He has spoken with Steve Paikin on TVO here in Canada.

We have invited Mr. Prager to speak at the Manning Centre Networking Conference because of his work with Prager U. That team reaches out to a wide range of people online using engaging educational videos explaining how capitalism works and how Western democracies function. They take on everything from taxes to free speech on campuses.

The Manning Centre has been hosting its annual convention since 2005, with dozens of invited speakers ranging from Jordan Peterson to the (now) CBCs Vassy Kapelos. We are constantly striving for earnest, honest and engaging dialogue, and it would be refreshing to see more journalists do the same.
A Florida man has been arrested Tuesday for an incredibly bizarre crime, and his alleged victim says he was caught directly in the act. Fox News reports that 23-year-old Frantz Beldorin was caught sucking the toes of a hospital patient, but the man swears that he is wrongly accused.

Beldorin was an employee of the hospital where the incident took place

New York Daily News reports that the Florida man worked as a "sitter" for the hospital where this incident took place. He just so happened to be assigned to the hospital roommate of the patient who is accusing the Florida man of the vile acts.

The alleged victim says that they felt someone touching their toes during at least two other occasions, but when they woke up, nobody was there.

It was on Monday night that the patient reportedly caught Beldorin directly in the act. The unnamed victim says that she felt an unusual sensation between her toes, which alerted her to wake up -- as she'd done a couple of times in the past. This time, however, the patient awoke to the Florida man allegedly knelt by the foot of her hospital bed. She says that her toes were still wet from the act.

Florida man says he isn't that kind of dude

Frantz Beldorin says that this is all a total misunderstanding and that he did not suck on the hospital patient's toes.

The hospital worker claims that he merely dropped his cellphone, and while he was knelt down to pick it up from under the woman's bed, she kicked him in the mouth. Of course, the Florida man hasn't explained why he was so close to the foot of her bed in the first place, as he was there to monitor her roommate, who was in a bed on the other side of the room.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

Beldorin maintains his innocence and told one media outlet that the whole situation makes him look like a creep. He said:

"It makes me look crazy -- or, like, creepy. And I'm not...I'm not that type of dude."

The Florida man also maintains that his skin color may have been a factor in this situation, blowing up the way it has.

"She's afraid, and we're in the dark. It's a dark room with a dark male at the foot of her bed. I can understand."

His mother had also come to his defense, claiming that racism was at play when security hauled him from the hospital and had him arrested. She told reporters with WBBH News that her son would "by no means suck an old lady's toes."

People really are sucking toes out there

This entire story may seem too strange to be true, but there really are people out there sucking toes without consent-- and it's apparently becoming some kind of weird trend in crime news coverage. As far as Viral Stories go in the toe-sucking arena, another Florida man got a rude awakening recently when someone broke into his home and sucked on his toes while he was asleep.

The bewildered Bradenton resident says that the incident took place on Christmas Eve, no less.

In 2017 an Ohio man was arrested after he allegedly sucked a teenager's toes at a mall. The victim told authorities that Joseph Jones approached her and complimented her shoes when he got down by her foot to "get a better look" at them, he ended up licking her toes and foot.

As for the Florida man in this latest story, do you think this is really a case of an innocent mistake gone too far? Or is Frantz Beldorin's excuse shady?
On Anderson Cooper 360 Thursday night, former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang revealed he has been courted by multiple campaigns as a possible vice presidential candidate after it was reported earlier in the day that Mike Bloomberg had reached out to Yang and floated the idea of having him as VP. Yang garnered a large following with popular ideas like Universal Basic Income, and he said that any candidate will have to adopt some of those same ideas just to get his endorsement, let alone his commitment as a running mate.

Multiple campaigns have reached out, and its flattering to be considered for a VP role or any role in someones campaign, Yang said. I made clear to every other candidate that I ran on a set of issues: automation of jobs, an evolving economy that we need to humanize and a dividend of $1,000 a month for every American. And I said that if a candidate were to make a significant commitment in those directions, then Id be much more enthusiastic about considering an endorsement.

But Yang also made it clear he will eventually endorse any one of the candidates running against President Trump.

Number one, I will support whoever the nominee is, Yang said. And number two, I am very enthusiastic about having the democratic process play out, and to decide who the nominee is.

Yang then reiterated that if a candidate were to support his ideas, that would go a long way toward him considering an endorsement.

Anderson Cooper 360 airs weeknights at 8 p.m. on CNN.

Watch the Infectious Disease Director at the University of Nebraska contradict Trump on the coronavirus:

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Maharashtra assembly speaker Nana



Patole on Friday directed the state government to take an all- party delegation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demand caste-wise Census in 2021.

After the speaker's direction, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar told the house he woulddiscuss the issue with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and take a decision.

Members cutting across party lines demanded that an all-party delegation call on the prime minister to seek caste- wise Census to determine the population of other backward classes (OBCs).

OBC Welfare Minister Vijay Wadettiwar and Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad demanded that the state conduct its own caste-based Census to know the dataon OBCs so thatsteps can be taken for their welfare.

Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said after Maharashtra, the Bihar assembly has also passed a resolution demanding caste-based Census in 2021.

"There are 350 sub-castes among OBCs whose proportion in the total population stands at 54 per cent. India had caste Census till 1931.

"Pranab Mukherjee (then a minister in the UPA government) had agreed to the demand (for caste-based count) in 2004which was supported by Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister.

"But the OBC count was done by the rural development department and not the Census commissioner. The data was faulty and hence it was not released," Bhujbal said.

Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP suggested that all-party delegation meet Modi seeking his intervention.

The office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, is an autonomousbody, the former chief minister said.

Patole directed the state government to take an all- party delegation to Modi and said this should be done before the decennial exercise begins.

There is no politics in this demand as there is a need for data for upliftment of the poor among the OBCs, said Bhujbal.

Patole said the state government can examine if a separateCensus can be undertaken by Maharashtra like Tamil Nadu.

The state Assembly on January 8 passed a unanimous resolutionurging to the Centre to hold caste-based Census in 2021.

In this backdrop, the legislature received a letter from the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner on February 17.

According to the letter, which was read out by Patole, the total number of OBCs in the country is nearly 6,285and this includes sub-castes, sub-groups whereas the corresponding number of OBCs as per list of states and Union Territories is 7,200.

In case a question on OBCs is canvassed, it will return names of hundreds and thousands of castes, sub-castes as the people use their clan/gotra, sub caste and caste names interchangeably. The phonetic similaritiesin name of the castes often lead to misclassification, the letter said.

It said collection of data of OBCs/SEBCs and other castes will adversely affect the integrity of Census exercise and hence the enumeration of OBCs, SEBCs and other castes has not been taken up in 2021 Census.

However, members in the assembly opined the matter should be pursued with the Centre.

The issue came up in the house after the Question Hour when Vikas Thakare (Congress) sought to knowaction on the unanimous resolution passed by the assembly on January 8.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Is it the right time to discuss the root causes of a problem at the precise moment Delhi is burning because of it? And when the death toll has already crossed 40, making it the highest ever in a Hindu-Muslim riot in the citys post-Partition history? This, in Indias most protected city, in an arc between 6 and 10 km of Rashtrapati Bhavan, where the glory of the republic sits, flanked by South and North Blocks housing the entire and humongously formidable homeland and military security machinery built to protect it, and its people? Cant you leave it for later, ...

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Digital Editor
By Howard Konar and Steven Kull

Todays conventional wisdom says that Americans are hopelessly divided. The bigger problem is how many of them have lost confidence in their government because they believe their leaders dont listen and that Congress is gridlocked because it responds more to special interests and major campaign donors than to the constituents they are supposed to represent.

On Saturday, New Jersey citizens will meet with their congressman, Tom Malinowski, as part of a promising experiment to re-connect elected officials and their constituents. Our experience shows Americans are ready to move forward across party lines on solutions to our hardest national problems. They want their members of Congress to do the same.

At this Citizen Panel Forum, the congressman and New Jerseyans will learn the results of a unique survey that they and more than 400 other residents of the 7th Congressional District took on how to fix our broken political system, including ways to curb the influence of money in politics, prevent gerrymandering, and limit lobbying by former elected officials. Theyll talk with one another and the congressman about the results, what they mean, and what can be done.

If you wish, you too can go through the online survey by clicking here. Residents of the 7th District who complete the survey can attend the Saturday Citizen Panel Forum with Congressman Malinowski and make your voice heard. Information for the panel is provided after you complete the survey.

The surveys are unique: citizens go through a process called a Policymaking Simulation since they put citizens in the shoes of policymakers. Like policymakers, respondents are briefed on the issues and evaluate pro and con arguments (the kind that members hear on the floor of Congress) before making their recommendation.

These surveys routinely show  in the reddest and bluest political districts  that on many of our toughest issues, like health care, immigration, taxes, and political reform, large majorities of Americans share a remarkable amount of common ground.

Around the country, these surveys, followed by a forum with the member of Congress, are becoming an alternative to town hall meetings that too often fall into political posturing and shouting matches. Instead of slogans and sound bites, these events focus on what citizens think and promote a thoughtful discussion between constituents and their representative.

This is the fifth citizen panel forum weve sponsored, and each time weve seen that if people hear and discuss the same facts, and the best arguments from both sides, they will consider competing priorities well and wisely. Majorities of voters from both parties routinely agree on solutions to the problems facing our nation.

In other words, the idea that we are too hopelessly polarized to have a reasonable conversation about politics is wrong. Americans are not as divided as their leaders are. They want elected officials who will listen to the views of the people as a whole and work together to find common ground and solve problems.

Thats why members of Congress from both parties are taking part in Citizen Panel forums. One Congressman said this is exactly what we need all over the country. Another recommended them to his colleagues as an amazing thing.

The stakes couldnt be higher. Businesses, communities, and families rely on government to work. Too often our leaders are stuck in toxic and unproductive political conversations that have little to do with issues that affect us every day.

Citizen Panels give people the tools to make their voice heard and to help restore our democracy. If Americans use them to come together and reclaim our politics, our leaders will may well follow them.

Howard Konar is the founder of Common Ground Solutions.

Steven Kull is the president of Voice of the People, and director of the Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland, which conducted this survey. All three are nonpartisan, nonprofit organizations.

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.
When it comes to making goals, actor-entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher plays the long game. In a recent interview on the podcast "Armchair Expert" with Dax Shepard, Kutcher explained his unique approach to planning ahead.

While many people know Kutcher from his acting roles on "That '70s Show," and "The Ranch," he also invests in startups and co-founded a philanthropic organization aimed at defending children from sexual abuse, called Thorn.

At the start of 2020, Kutcher said he was inspired to set a goal for the next decade rather than just a year. Within a 10-year span, "the chances of achieving that are much higher," he told Shepard. Plus, "what you could potentially accomplish in a decade is exponential to what you can accomplish in a year," he added.

Then, Kutcher took this a step further, and thought about where he wanted to be in the next 100 years.

"I read this thing about Japanese companies and how they had century missions; they had goals that were for the century," Kutcher said on the podcast. "I went, 'Whoa, hold on. That's like another level of thinking about your company.'"

While it's unclear if this is a Japanese technique, Kutcher may be onto something: Successful companies from Patagonia to Panasonic make century-long goals. In 1932, Panasonic's founder Konosuke Matsushita set out a 250-year plan for the company that was broken into 25-year periods. Yvon Chouinard, the founder of outdoor apparel brand Patagonia, said on the podcast "How I Built This" in 2017 that he makes decisions "as if we're going to be around 100 years from now."

Another similar take? Bill Gates, billionaire and Microsoft co-founder, wrote in his book "The Road Ahead" that people tend to "overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next 10."

Kutcher said his decade goal is to eliminate child pornography from the internet. In addition to Kutcher's nonprofit, he also has a tech investment company called Sound Ventures, and was an early investor in Twitter, Uber, Spotify and AirBnB to name a few. (He also invested in Acorns, which has a partnership with CNBC.)

Sound Ventures has invested in 66 companies, according to Crunchbase. "I spend a lot of time thinking about new and simpler ways to do things, but don't have enough time to execute on all those ideas," Kutcher told Acorns in 2016. "So I found people who were executing on them and invested in their success."

Kutcher said companies should make 100-year plans because, in a century, "you might be dead, but the company can still be alive," he said. "So, I think oftentimes we're all too short-term in our thinking."

But this strategy is also helpful in a personal sense, Kutcher said. For example, he said that whenever he gets in an argument or gets upset about something, he thinks: "Am I going to care about this in five years?"

"I just do a really quick check-in and go, 'Is this going to matter in five years?'" he said on the podcast. "Is this worth [getting] upset or stress[ed] about? And that's my pause button and the one question I ask myself."

Regardless of your personal or professional aspirations, experts say that goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based.

Check out: The best credit cards of 2020 could earn you over $1,000 in 5 years

Don't miss:
But at this point in the 2016 race, few Republicans thought Mr. Trump could actually win the nomination, and hardly any members of Congress had endorsed him. Mr. Trump was clearly an outsider. Mr. Sanders, by contrast, has been in politics for decades and, despite his affiliation as an independent, is a member of the Senate Democratic leadership with relationships across the Capitol.

In addition, the partys complicated nominating system gives congressional Democrats a say in the process, which individual Republican lawmakers do not have. Every congressional Democrat is a superdelegate, which gives them the ability to cast a vote for their favored nominee if no one gets a majority of delegates after all states have conducted their caucuses and primaries.

With so many Democratic candidates in the race, that is a real possibility this year. Mr. Sanders is the only candidate who has said the person with the most votes should get the nomination. On Thursday, Ms. Pelosi appeared to push back on that assertion, though she declined to say whether she would urge her fellow Democrats to support a candidate who lacked a majority of pledged delegates at the convention this summer.

The person who will be nominated will be the person who has a majority plus one, Ms. Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference. That may happen before they even get to the convention, but well see.

While Ms. Pelosi has repeatedly called for Democrats to remain unified, she is also pushing them to run on the three-pronged For the People agenda  creating good-paying jobs, rooting out corruption and lowering the cost of health care and prescription drugs  that delivered them the majority in 2018.

We have to win in certain particular areas, she told reporters Thursday morning, adding, It is not unusual for a party platform or the candidates for president to have their own agenda that they would put forth, and its not unusual for the House of Representatives to have its agenda as well.
28/2/20 INM's Mark Condren, winner of this years Press Photographer of the Year 2020 pictured with INMs Frank McGrath, Owen Breslin, Gerry Mooney, David Conachy and Steve Humphries at the PPAI Awards in the Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin. Picture: Arthur Carron. the RDS in Dublin. Picture: Arthur Carron

28/2/20 INM's Mark Condren, winner of this years Press Photographer of the Year 2020 pictured with his wife Michelle at the PPAI Awards in the Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin. Picture: Arthur Carron.

28/2/20 INM's Mark Condren, winner of this years Press Photographer of the Year 2020 pictured with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Miriam O'Callaghan at the PPAI Awards in the Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin. Picture: Arthur Carron. the RDS in Dublin. Picture: Arthur Carron

INM photographer Mark Condren scooped the prestigious press photographer of the year award at last nights annual Press Photographers Association of Ireland (PPAI) event.

The veteran photojournalist, whose work is published across INM titles including the Irish Independent and independent.ie, also won the top prize for a portrait photograph at the event.

His picture of firefighter and open-water swimmer Rachel Lee, who holds the Irish record for men and women for crossing the English Channel, was deemed best in the category.

One of his award-winning images, 'Stormy Times' - which was highlighted on tonight's Late Late Show - can be seen below.

Expand Close Firefighter and open-water swimmer Rachel Lee who holds the Irish record for men and women for crossing the English Channel. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Firefighter and open-water swimmer Rachel Lee who holds the Irish record for men and women for crossing the English Channel.

Expand Close Taoiseach Leo Varadkar shelters from the rain during the naming and commissioning ceremonies of the new Naval Service vessel L.E. George Bernard Shaw on the Frank Cassin Wharf in Waterford Also in pictured is Emily Byrne and her father Seam. Emily a native of County Waterford at only 5 months old was placed on an Immediate List for a liver transplant Pic:Mark Condren 30.4.2019 / Facebook

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Whatsapp Taoiseach Leo Varadkar shelters from the rain during the naming and commissioning ceremonies of the new Naval Service vessel L.E. George Bernard Shaw on the Frank Cassin Wharf in Waterford Also in pictured is Emily Byrne and her father Seam. Emily a native of County Waterford at only 5 months old was placed on an Immediate List for a liver transplant Pic:Mark Condren 30.4.2019

Stormy Times says it all really, Condren said.

It was like the weather we have now, everyone was inside. I got lashed on, he told Ryan Tubridy during a brief appearance on the Late Late Show on RTE One tonight.

Luckily the Taoiseach engaged with me, straight down the lenses, he said.

He also took top prize in the politics category.

Condren beat tough competition to take the overall top spot on the night.

Tom Honan, last years overall winner, took the top spot in the news category for his picture for the Irish Times of Riana Achari (8) from Gorey, Co Wicklow, at the Extinction Rebellion Funeral for Humanity on OConnell Street.

In the daily life and people category, freelance photographer Marc OSullivan won first prize for a shot of torrential summer rain shower on Abbey Street in Dublin. In the reportage category PA photographer Niall Carson was presented with the trophy for top prize for his pictures capturing the 12th July bonfires in Northern Ireland

The event was held last night at the Ballsbridge Hotel, in Dublin with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, RTE star Miriam OCallaghan and actor Stephen Rea among those in attendance.

The PPAI is a not-for-profit, volunteer lead organisation comprising of the best photographers in Ireland.
Few Children Infected With Coronavirus: WHO-China Report

There have been relatively few children infected with the new coronavirus in China, according to a new report from the World Health Organization and Chinese authorities.

The international health group conducted a joint mission with China and released a report on Feb. 28 about what researchers found.

Findings included signs that the new virus, which causes a disease called COVID-19, passes much more frequently to adults than to children aged 18 years old or younger.

Data from Chinese authorities indicate that no children tested positive for the virus in November or December 2019 or the first two weeks of January, researchers wrote in the report (pdf). Some of the children who were tested for the new disease tested positive for the flu.

Data nationwide suggest there is a relatively low attack rate in youth, accounting for just 2.4 percent of all reported cases. Additionally, a very small proportion of those under 19 years old developed severe (2.5 percent) or critical (0.2 percent) disease.

From available data, and in the absence of results from serologic studies, it is not possible to determine the extent of infection among children, what role children play in transmission, whether children are less susceptible or if they present differently clinically (i.e. generally milder presentations), the researchers wrote. Serologic studies look at serum, a liquid separated from blood, and other bodily fluids.

The WHO-China mission learned that infected children have largely been identified through contact tracing in households of adults, researchers said in the report. They said members of the team couldnt recall episodes in which transmission occurred from a child to an adult.

The case and death numbers reported by the Chinese Communist Party are widely believed to be lower than the actual figures, according to experts, Chinese workers, and internal documents obtained by The Epoch Times.

A South Korean child wears a mask to prevent catching the coronavirus (COVID-19) while riding a scooter in Seoul, South Korea on Feb. 27, 2020. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Limited information published from the past serious coronavirus outbreaksSARS and MERSindicates that infection among children was relatively uncommon, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says on its website.

Experts dont currently know whether children arent getting infected as much as adults or whether theyre just not showing strong symptoms, Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist and head of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Healths Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, said in an interview posted on Harvards website this week.

One of the most important questions yet to be answered, he said, is the role that children play in transmission. Research is needed to back up plans to close schools, he said. Japan announced this week that schools there would close for most of March and U.S. officials said this week that schools could close in the United States if America sees community spread of the new virus. China had already extended its spring break for a month.

We need detailed studies in households of children who are exposed to an infected person. We need to find out if the children get infected, if they shed virus, and if that virus is infectious, Lipsitch said.

While data officially released from China shows few children getting sick enough to get tested in Hubei Province, the epicenter of the virus, the difference between children and adults outside the province is smaller, Lipsitch said.

Children are still underrepresented, but theyre a larger part of the total than inside Hubei province. That would suggest that part of the equation is that they are getting infected but theyre not that sickits easier to identify less-severe cases in a system thats not overwhelmed as it is in Hubei, he said.

But we dont know whether theyre infected and not as sick or whether there are a lot of kids that arent getting infected even when theyre exposed.
President Moon Jae-in adjusts his mask during his meeting with small merchants in Taegu, Korea's epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic. Yonhap



By Oh Young-jin



The ongoing coronavirus epidemic has not just hobbled President Moon Jae-in but also may put U.S. President Donald Trump in as tight a spot. Chinese President Xi Jin-ping is also in hot water for not containing the virus at an early stage after the discovery that officials in Wuhan, in China's Hubei province, the epicenter of the disease, suppressed initial signs of the outbreak.



"One day it is like a miracle. It will disappear," Trump said at a White House meeting with the media Thursday. "The 15 will soon go down to three or four." He was talking about the 15 confirmed cases in the U.S. As of Friday (Korean time), the number had risen to 59.





A worker wearing a protective full-body suit stands near a framed picture of Chinese President Xi Jinping during a government-organized tour of Mengniu Dairy factory in Beijing. AP-Yonhap



Besides, Trump also boasted of the "incredible job" his administration was doing in dealing with the epidemic.



But repots have it that health workers who handled evacuees from Wuhan were not given proper gear or preparation, and were exposed to the risk of contagion. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention raised the alarm, saying the U.S. might face "community spread." What is happening in Taegu or Wuhan, China, are examples of community transmissions.



Trump is seeking re-election in November, and is regarded as likely to win, thanks to the humming U.S. economy and confusion among the Democratic candidates.



But he should be careful, however good he may be at dodging responsibility. If the disease spreads further, there could be plenty of variables for his re-election bid.



He could learn from President Moon Jae-in how one mishap in crisis management can threaten to unravel a presidency.





U.S. President Donald Trump, with members of his coronavirus task force, speaks at a news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House. AP-Yonhap
Billions of dollars in illegal and unregulated fish supplies are mixed with legal catches and smuggled into the market.

In September last year, the Greenpeace campaign ship Arctic Sunrise was scanning the mid-Atlantic ocean, thousands of kilometres from anywhere. On board, investigators were looking for vessels that were doing their best not to be found.

One of them was Taiwanese fishing boat, the Hung Hwa  a longliner capable of running baited lines more than 100 kilometres (62 miles) in length, targeting mainly tuna species. It had turned off its satellite locator, the Automatic Identification System (AIS).

It had gone dark.

A fishing vessel might do that to avoid competition from other boats or to prevent attack by pirates. But often it coincides with a transhipment at sea  the offloading of a fishing boats catch onto what is known as a reefer, or a giant refrigerated cargo ship.

The transhipment loophole

Transhipping is the lifeblood of the distant water fishing industry. It allows fishing boats to stay at sea without returning to port for months because they can offload their catch on to what are effectively colossal floating freezers.

As part of the process, the fishing vessels are refuelled and resupplied by the reefers, allowing them to get straight back to doing what they do  catching fish relentlessly.

The problem is that transhipping fish mid-ocean presents a major loophole in monitoring fishing activities.

By offloading at sea, vessels are able to smuggle illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) catches into the market by mixing them with legal catches.

This makes it exceedingly difficult to detect fraud or trace a shipment back to the vessel that caught it. It also allows entire fleets to operate out of sight, where they can hide illegal catches and operate without returning to port.

Under the radar

On the bridge of the Arctic Sunrise, the Greenpeace investigators were scrutinising the navigation screens, following the satellite tracks of vessels in their sector of the ocean. Their suspicions were raised when a Taiwan-owned, Panama-registered reefer vessel called the Hsiang Hao, appeared to be sailing slowly in a loitering pattern  effectively circling for several hours.

There was no other vessel present, at least none displaying AIS.

But the next day the Arctic Sunrise intercepted the Hsiang Hao and there, alongside, was the Hung Hwa, still dark  not transmitting its satellite location.

If ships turn off their satellite tracking it means no one sees what's happening out at sea and it makes the high seas a black hole of fishing activity. Sophie Cooke, Greenpeace

And from the Hung Hwas hold, dozens upon dozens of deep-frozen tuna and shark  frosted and steaming in the humid equatorial air  were being hoisted on to the reefer ship.

Greenpeaces lead investigator, Sophie Cooke, said there are many reasons vessels may not want to appear on satellite.

Some of them might be legitimate, she said. But a lot of the time, its because they want to avoid detection or want to go into areas they are not allowed. Or they want to meet up with another vessel at sea and do not want to be seen.

If ships turn off their satellite tracking it means no one sees whats happening out at sea and it makes the high seas a black hole of fishing activity, Cooke added.

Second mate Helena De Carlos Watts and lead investigator, Sophie Cooke, right, watch the radar screen as the Arctic Sunrise approaches a target vessel in the southern Atlantic ocean [Tommy Trenchard/Greenpeace]

The Investigation

In 2017, Greenpeace set out to understand the scale and misuse of AIS by the global reefer industry. They investigated the movements, behaviour and owner structures of more than 400 reefers identified as being capable of taking part in transhipments at sea.

In the resulting report just published, the investigating team said what was most striking was how much transhipment is happening between fishing vessels that have gone dark because of their involvement in illegal fishing.

Its very hard to know the exact amount of IUU fishing activity thats going on, said Will McCallum, Greenpeaces head of oceans, but what we do know is that transhipment allows vessels to stay far out at sea where they are out of scrutiny, out of mind and out of sight.

McCallum said they can track exactly where the global fleet of refrigerated cargo vessels is operating.

For example, we can see theyre in the southwest Atlantic, which is a part of the world where there is very little, to the point of almost no fisheries management for a lot of fishing vessels, he said.

Flags of convenience

The Greenpeace report highlights how the global fleet of reefers hides behind complex ownership structures and flags of convenience that reduce accountability and transparency.

The single most active fleet of reefers involved in transhipments on the high seas is owned by the Greek shipping magnate Thanasis Laskaridis, whose vessels ply the seas the world over, from the North Atlantic to the South Pacific.

Investigators also discovered that because transhipment allows fishing boats to spend months or even years at sea without returning to port, it leaves crews open to abuse. Being so far from scrutiny and the prying eyes of port inspectors for so long raises the possibility that boat owners can effectively enslave their crew.

Many cases have been documented, the report said, of fishermen being forced to work exhausting shifts in unsafe conditions, having their pay withheld and documents confiscated. There are even reports of crew being denied access to clean food and drinking water.

The Arctic Sunrise [Tommy Trenchard/Greenpeace]

Closing gaps in ocean governance

McCallum said the investigation demonstrates the urgent need for greater scrutiny.

Reefers should have observers on board to track where the catch is coming from and make sure we are not muddying the global supply chains. The ultimate goal would be for transhipment at sea to be phased out.

There is no question of the severity of the grave assault that is taking place on our oceans and everything that lives in it. Overfishing is wreaking havoc on marine life while threatening the food security and livelihoods of billions of people.

This year will be a significant one for the world  from the crucial climate conference in Glasgow in November to a landmark biodiversity summit in October in China. But, for the Greenpeace oceans team, all eyes right now are on New York in March when maximum effort is being focused on the implementation of a global ocean treaty at a vital UN conference.

We need a strong ocean treaty, said McCallum. We need a single holistic way to manage these international waters, that are so far from land theyre very hard for a single country or group of countries to monitor and regulate. So a global ocean treaty would plug some of the governance gaps that we are seeing at the moment.

The goal is to ensure 30 percent of the worlds oceans become off-limits to any kind of exploitation  from fishing to deep-sea mining. And that way those far-flung waters that are often home to pristine ecosystems, would be better protected from the fleet that goes dark to pursue and dispatch its catch.
Coherent light sources are one of the most crucial foundations in both scientific disciplines and advanced applications. As a prominent platform, ultrahigh-Q whispering-gallery mode (WGM) microcavities have witnessed significant developments of novel light sources. However, the intrinsic chiral symmetry of WGMs microcavity geometry and the resulting equivalence between the two directions of laser propagation in a cavity severely limits further applications of microlasers.

Very recently, a team of researchers led by Professor Xiao Yun-Feng and Professor Gong Qihuang at Peking University, in collaboration with Professor Qiu Cheng-Wei at National University of Singapore and Professor Stefan Rotter at Vienna University of Technology, has demonstrated a spontaneously symmetry-broken microlaser in an ultrahigh-Q WGM microcavity, exhibiting reconfigurable propagating directions of the chiral laser. This work has been published online in Nature Communications on February 28, 2019 (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14861-5).

In previous studies, existing solutions for a chiral microlaser mainly resort to explicitly breaking the structure symmetry of a WGM microcavity. Unfortunately, the scalability and reconfigurability of these preceding strategies are strongly limited since the devices, once fabricated, come with a prefixed, non-tailorable laser directionality. In this work, the researchers achieve a reconfigurable chiral microlaser in a symmetric WGM microcavity by utilizing the cavity-enhanced optical Kerr nonlinearity.

"We employed microcavity Raman lasers in the experiment, which generally involve a pair of balanced clockwise (CW) and counterclockwise (CCW) waves," said Cao Qi-Tao, a Ph.D. student at Peking University and one of the co-first authors of this work. The Raman laser waves in the two directions are coupled together through linear surface Rayleigh scattering and nonlinear phase modulation by optical Kerr effect. As the power of the microlaser with a particular phase increases and reaches a threshold, the linear coupling is completely compensated by the nonlinear coupling. Above this threshold, the chiral symmetry of the laser field breaks spontaneously, and the Raman wave evolves randomly into a chiral state with a CW or CCW dominated laser propagation. Experimentally, an unprecedented ratio of counter-propagating emission intensities is obtained exceeding 160:1. Furthermore, the directionality of such the chiral microlaser is all-optically and dynamically controlled by the bias in the pump direction, and the symmetry breaking threshold is adjustable using a nanotip scatterer.

"Our results break the perception boundary of how to realize a reconfigurable coherent light source, to enable a powerful reconfigurability of a laser's directionality and chirality, and to extend a long-ranging impact on on-chip nanophotonics and nonlinear processes," said Professor Xiao. "Such a spontaneously chiral emitting laser also can be extended to various microstructures, and is almost free from the material limit due to the ubiquity of the Kerr nonlinearity."

###

More information: Qi-Tao Cao, Rui-Shan Liu, Heming Wang, Yu-Kun Lu, Cheng-Wei Qiu, Stefan Rotter, Qihuang Gong, and Yun-Feng Xiao, Reconfigurable symmetry-broken laser in a symmetric microcavity, Nature Communications (Febuary 28, 2020), DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14861-5
[February 28, 2020] EARNEST Partners Expands Ownership

EARNEST Partners is pleased to announce the promotion of two new partners - Dinkar Singh, Ph.D. and Becky Do. Dinkar Singh is a senior member of the investment team. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University in Applied Physics and an MBA with high honors from the University of Chicago. Prior to his career in investment management, he developed semiconductor technology at the IBM (News - Alert) Watson Research Center where he was awarded numerous patents and established a new world record in semiconductor chip speed. Becky Do oversees the administration and human resources departments as Chief of Staff. She has an MBA in Finance and a broad range of investment management experience. She began her career as an equity analyst with a large retirement systems' administrator and expanded her experience to include research, trading and portfolio management during her role as a senior professional with a global investment management firm. /p>



Paul Viera, CEO of EARNEST Partners, added "Employee ownership is the cornerstone of the EARNEST Partners culture. Our ownership structure helps us attract talented and motivated individuals. It also allows us to focus completely on seeking to deliver superior performance and client service rather than on the needs of outside investors. We will continue to reward outstanding contributions to the firm and our clients with the opportunity for ownership in the future."

About EARNEST Partners EARNEST Partners is an independent, employee-owned asset management firm currently advising on more than $20 billion in assets for clients around the world. We offer competitive active and passive equity strategies, in Non-U.S. and U.S. markets, across the market cap spectrum as well as fixed income products to match specific duration objectives. EARNEST Partners seeks to invest in businesses that support their community's values while providing superior returns to their equity and debt holders. EARNEST Partners is headquartered in Atlanta, GA with research offices in China and Brazil. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005081/en/

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Jefferson Parish Schools Superintendent Cade Brumley has submitted an application to be the next state superintendent.

Brumley sent his application materials in Friday morning, ahead of the 5 p.m. deadline.

Brumley, 38, has been at the helm of the state's largest and most diverse district since March of 2018. Before that, he was the superintendent in rural DeSoto Parish in northwest Louisiana.

He has also been a teacher and principal.

When outgoing state Superintendent John White announced last month that he was stepping down, Brumley was one of the first names floated as a possible successor.

He is the second confirmed candidate. Jessica Baghian, who has been an assistant state superintendent since 2014, has also applied for the job. A third candidate, higher education official Heather Poole, of Alexandria, has said she also plans to apply.

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During his time in Jefferson, Brumley has made a number of changes, none more notable than his shepherding of a 7.45-mill property tax proposal for teacher raises that passed in 2019.

He has also introduced a standardized curriculum across the district, created new preKindergarten through eighth grade schools and introduced stipends for teachers in certain subjects and at troubled schools.

A recent move to consolidate several schools, including historic African-American Washington Elementary in Kenner, has drawn criticism.

This is a developing story. More to come.

Jefferson Parish's Cade Brumley is seen as a serious candidate to replace John White Jefferson Parish Superintendent Cade Brumley is among those who have expressed serious interest in succeeding state Superintendent of Educatio
By Trend

Georgia does not plan to introduce entry visas for citizens of the countries, with which Georgia has a visa-free regime and where coronavirus has spread, a source at Georgian Foreign Ministry's Consular Department told Trend.

At present, we do not plan to introduce visas for countries, with which Georgia has a visa-free regime, or restrict their citizens' entry into the country, the source said.

Earlier, due to the threat of coronavirus, Georgia temporarily suspended flights from China and Iran. Import of animals from China is also prohibited. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection conducts an information campaign among the population.

On February 26, the first case of a new type of coronavirus infection was recorded in Georgia, announced Georgian Minister of Health, Labor and Social Protection Ekaterina Tikaradze.

Tikaradze said that a 50-year-old Georgian citizen infected with coronavirus is currently in the Infectious Diseases Hospital.

The coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019.

Chinese health authorities say that the majority of the people who have died were either elderly or had underlying health problems.

The symptoms include cough, headache, fatigue, fever, aching and difficulty breathing. It is primarily spread through airborne contact or contact with contaminated objects.

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One of the most mysterious creatures in the world, the endangered snow leopard has made somewhat of a comeback, thanks to the efforts of the state department and conservationists of Himachal Pradesh.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, recent sightings of the elusive feline in the Spiti valley has brought cheer to wildlife enthusiasts indicative of a rise in population of the big cats species.

The report has highlighted that wildlife wing of the forest department has said that the population is more than 100. Furthermore, the wildlife wing and the Nature Conservation Foundation of India, Mysore, surveyed Miyar, Thandi, Chandra and Bagha among seven places, in upper Spiti region in Lahaul and Spiti district and spotted 49 leopards in all.

Principal Chief Conservator Wildlife Savita was quoted by the daily as saying that they followed the landscape adoption approach under which they took care of snow leopards, their prey base and the livelihood of people. She added that the surveys have been encouraging and the final survey will be completed by March-end.

It further revealed that the earlier report had put the population of the species at 67 in 2016, but the survey was not conducted in a scientific manner. Sanjay Kumar Dhiman, a wildlife official, who authored Cats of Himalayas, told the daily that the frequent sighting of leopards is a good sign and point towards a healthy environment.

Recent clips on social media showed the Panthera uncia in front of an SUV in Hikkim, while a second one recorded them on a mountain in Kibber.
By Akbar Mammadov

The documents on military-financial cooperation signed between Turkey and Azerbaijan during Recep Tayyip Erdogans recent visit to Baku will serve to enhance the military cooperation between the two countries, Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry Vagiq Dargahli said on February 28.

The presidents signed a number of documents on cooperation following the 8th meeting of Azerbaijan-Turkey High-Level Strategic Cooperation in Baku on February 25.

Under the agreements related to military cooperation, modern weapons and military equipment, which will increase the combat effectiveness of the Azerbaijan army, will be supplied from Turkey to Azerbaijan.

The first military contract between Azerbaijan and Turkey was concluded in 1992.

Azerbaijan-Turkey military relations include several legal acts that cover joint military exercises, technical and scientific cooperation, military pieces of training for Azerbaijani servicemen in Turkey and the regular meeting between countries (Azerbaijan-Turkey High-Level Military Dialogue). Since that day, 9,000 Azerbaijani military servants received trainings in specialized courses in Turkey.

In January 29, 2013, TAKM (Organization of the Eurasian Law Enforcement Agencies with Military Status) was formed as intergovernmental military law enforcement (gendarmerie) organization of three Turkic countries (Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey) and Mongolia.

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New Delhi: One of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang-rape case Pawan Gupta filed a curative petition on Friday (February 28, 2020) in the Supreme Court seeking direction to commute his death sentence to life imprisonment.

A trial court in Delhi has issued a death warrant to hang the four convicts on March 3. The curative petitions and mercy pleas of the other convicts  Akshay Kumar, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Singh have already been dismissed.

The top court will hear the plea on March 2 and it is likely that this petition will be rejected. On the other hand, Pawan's lawyers could demand a stay on the execution order set for March 3.

Pawan still has the right to file a mercy petition to the President after his curative petition is rejected by the apex court on Monday. The mercy petition to the President is filed 3 to 4 days later, so it is likely that the execution of the convicts will not take place on March 3.

A fresh death warrant may be issued in the case on March 2.

The Patiala House Court had on Monday (February 17) issued fresh death warrants against the four convicts while hearing a petition by the state and Nirbhaya's parents.

The case pertains to the brutal gang-rape and killing of a 23-year-old paramedic student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in Delhi. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.
The President of Scout and Guide Fellowship Ghana (SGF-Ghana), Mr. Prosper Bani, has urged scouting associations across the globe to work closely in harmony to enable them achieve a common goal.

He said SGF- Ghana is committed to working together with other groups especially the Ghana Scout Association and the Ghana Girl Guide Association in a harmonious and on peaceful platforms.

He was optimistic the cordial relationship will be maintained for future generation.

Mr. Bani gave the advice in Accra in a speech read on his behalf by the Chairman for Africa Region ( ISGF), Mr. Iddriss Hussain during the celebration of the birthday of the pioneer of Scouting, Robert Baden Powell. The day also coincided with the celebration of the World Thinking Day with the Girl Guides. The event was held under the theme Living Thread-Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

He remained them to keep the significance of the two celebrations which is to renew their promise and laws and also reaffirm their commitment as scouts, and to appreciate the help and guidance of their brothers and sisters around the world in understanding the true meaning of guiding.

Mr. Bani who was a Chief of Staff in the erstwhile President John Mahama's administration, said as a result of constant engagement, with the Scout and Girl Guilds, dialogue and attending each other programs, they decided to jointly celebrate the Founders Day and World Thinking Day together to mark their friendship and also send a message to the other parts of the world, where there are existing conflicts between individuals and organizations that, Ghana has risen above those challenges and want to encourage everyone to find a common ground for peace.

Deputy Chief Commissioner of Ghana Scout Association, Mr. Hilary Awusie urged the youth to desist from engaging in electoral violence in the upcoming general elections.

He encouraged them to inculcate good habit and be responsible persons by avoiding unguarded politicians who may want to use them to carry out acts of instability and violence.

There is no need in fighting a brother or sister because of a politician. Stay away from politicians who want to use you to cause trouble, Mr. Awusie stated.

Executive Director of Rock Foundation, Mrs. Mavis Opoku Asantewaa, called for the inclusion of speech therapist, psychotherapy, EnT, eye and dental in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for people living with down syndrome.

She also asked Ghanaians to accept and support children with Down syndrome.

Mrs. Opoku Asantewaa said when these therapist are covered under the NHIS it would improve the health and well-being of the children.
Jane Rimmer.

Ms Barbagallo has moved on to asking Mr Egan about his involvement in some exhibits relating to Jane's case which he received in the Pathwest lab following the post-mortem.

On the receival documents, there are 10 male suspects' names written beside the exhibits.

Parts of the document have been blacked-out.

DNA testing carried out on Jane's intimate swabs in 1996, 2001 and 2017 detected no male or female DNA.

Ms Barbagallo is now taking Mr Egan through when Jane's hair mass and its bucket arrived at the Pathwest lab, as well as branches taken from near her body.

The branch, known as RH21, was in 2017 found to have been contaminated with the DNA of the victim of an unrelated crime, whose exhibits were examined in the lab in the days either side of the branch testing in 2002.

Mr Egan said the unrelated case exhibit was examined on 31/1/02 in the examination area of the Pathwest lab.

On 4/2/02 in the same area, the examination of the RH21 branch occurred.

"Since that incident, we concluded that it appears a sample that was from a completely different case was examined around the same time as that branch," Mr Egan said.

"And that sample from the unrelated case was examined prior to the twig sample ... so probably some consumables or tubes were contaminated ... and that consumable has then been used as part of the examination of the twig sample.

"[The examinations] were three working days apart, there was a weekend in the middle there.

"One employee did the unrelated case and another employee did the twig."

Mr Egan said the investigation concluded the contamination most likely occurred in the DNA lab, on a tube batch used in the testing of both cases.

"There might have been an operator error where a bit of the DNA from the unrelated case was in the tube [used for RH21]," he said.

The DNA run was recorded at the time as a "lab error" and no results were recorded for any items tested.

Mr Egan said the contamination was a one-off in the Macro exhibits, but was not detected when the DNA testing results came through in March 2003.

The error was only detected in 2007 when another person reviewed the result.

"A review of the results identified a profile and that profile was looked at because it didn't match the profile of the girls in the case, so because it was a different profile, an investigation was done," Mr Egan said.

The type of contamination is known as secondary transfer, where DNA is transferred from one thing to another through an intermediate such as a piece of laboratory equipment.

This is the type of contamination defence lawyer Paul Yovich said is most likely to have occurred with Mr Edwards' DNA making its way into Ciara's fingernail exhibit.

The closest timeframe the items were tested to each other was two weeks.
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, a high profile critic of Beijing, was arrested today for taking part in last year's pro-democracy protests that rocked the city for seven months.

The 72-year-old owner of the Apple Daily newspaper is accused of joining a rally on August 31 that had been banned by police for security reasons.

Lai was arrested and charged along with veteran pro-democracy activists Lee Cheuk Yan and Yeung Sum, police said.

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was arrested on Friday for taking part in last year's pro-democracy protests. He is pictured leaving the Kowloon City police station in Hong Kong

The trio could be jailed for up to five years if convicted of taking part in an 'unauthorised assembly'. They are due to appear in court on May 5.

Tens of thousands of protesters defied the police ban on the demonstration marking the anniversary of Beijing's rejection of a call for universal suffrage for Hong Kong that sparked the 2014 'Umbrella Movement'.

Some gathered in the name of a religious procession - which does not require police approval - while others claimed they were shopping.

Lai faces up to five years in prison if convicted of taking part in an 'unauthorised assembly' last August. This file photo from 2015 shows Lai gesturing during an interview in Hong Kong

In a separate charge, Lai is accused of intimidating a reporter in 2018 during a vigil for the victims of China's bloody Tiananmen crackdown on June 4, 1989.

Amnesty International said the legal action against the trio was politically motivated.

'These unjustifiable arrests are a shameless attempt to harass and silence those in Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement,' said the rights group's Man-kei Tam.

Lord Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, called the arrests of the three 'outragous'.

He said: 'The arrest of three leading Hong Kong citizens, all of them known in their city and around the world as brave and respected advocates of free speech, accountable government, responsible social policy and political liberty is outrageous.

'The Hong Kong Government, doubtless once more under instruction from the Communist regime in Beijing, appears to be twisting the law to attempt to frighten the community into accepting the Communist Party's attempts to bully Hong Kong to give up its belief in, and support for, the rule of law and the principle of "one country, two systems".

'This decision will send yet another signal to the world that the Chinese Communist Party is intent on throttling decency and freedom in Hong Kong. China's priority at the moment should clearly not be turning screws on a city which is celebrated for its commitment to values most of the world accepts, and is battling coronavirus.'

Hong Kong was rocked by huge and sometimes violent street protests last year. The overhead view above shows thousands of people gathered in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay area ahead of a planned pro-democracy march in Hong Kong on January 1 this year

The demonstrations, which began last June, were sparked by a now-abandoned proposal to allow extraditions to the authoritarian Chinese mainland. Above, a protester holds an umbrella as police fire tear gas during a protest in Hong Kong on January 1

Benedict Rogers, chairman of UK-based human rights group Hong Kong Watch, said: 'It is outrageous that three such prominent pro-democracy public figures should be arrested in this way.

'This is yet another example of the serious erosion of and assault on Hong Kong's freedoms, human rights and autonomy.

'We call on the United Kingdom and other governments around the world to make immediate representations and take action to protect Hong Kong's rapidly dwindling freedoms.'

Lord Alton of Liverpool, a Patron of Hong Kong Watch, has written to the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab today raising the case.

The rallies and clashes have since died down, partly due to exhaustion and arrests but also because of the emergence of the deadly new coronavirus. In the picture above, pro-democracy protesters gather ahead of a planned march in Hong Kong on January 1

Hong Kong was rocked by huge and sometimes violent street protests last year, sparked by a now-abandoned proposal to allow extraditions to the authoritarian Chinese mainland.

They soon morphed into a wider movement calling for greater freedoms in what is the most concerted challenge to Beijing's rule since the former British colony's 1997 handover.

The rallies and clashes have since died down, partly due to exhaustion and arrests but also because of the emergence of the deadly new coronavirus.

China and Hong Kong leaders have refused to accede to the protesters' demands, which include fully free elections in the city, an inquiry into alleged police misconduct, and amnesty for the nearly 7,000 people arrested during the movement - nearly a third of them under the age of 20.
The president of the High Court has welcomed the Medical Council's introduction of safeguards to address defective procedures which lead to a mental health service employing a doctor without knowing he had undertaken some years earlier not to practise medicine due to concerns over possible misuse of controlled drugs.

Dr Syed Haris Zubair, who had given his undertaking in 2016, was employed by Donegal Mental Health Services from March 2019 until his contact was ended in July 2019.

When suspending the doctor last November, Mr Justice Peter Kelly expressed serious concerns members of the public or prospective employers had no way of knowing, from registration details on the council's website or elsewhere, of the undertaking.

He said Dr Zubair was able to obtain employment by producing his certificate of registration obtained by him earlier this year after giving a "patently untrue" answer he was not subject of an undertaking.

The council said a review was underway and noted a "tension" between its obligations and its health committee's wish to ensure doctors with substance abuse or other issues would self-report and engage, involving confidentiality issues.

The court was also told there was no actual evidence as of yet concerning the extent of Dr Zubair's substance or behavioural issues but he should not have been left in a "twilight" zone for so long since the May 2016 undertaking.

When the matter returned to court on Friday, J.P. McDowell, solicitor for the council, outlined the steps taken to address the concerns as set out by council president Dr Rita Doyle in an affidavit.

The judge said he was satisfied the new safeguards will ensure the public are protected in their dealings with the medical profession and he also continued orders suspending the doctor, who was not in court and not represented.

In her affidavit, Dr Doyle said the council and its health committee believe the additional safeguards will allow the committee continue its important work of allowing medical practitioners suffering from health issues to seek appropriate support and treatment while also ensuring the public are not placed at risk.

If a doctor refuses to proceed in line with the safeguards, the committee will refer the matter to the council for the purpose of considering whether to make a complaint and/or to apply to the court for an order suspending that doctor's registration.

She had previously outlined, where a doctor is considered to pose an immediate risk to patients, the committee will refer the matter to the council to consider whether to make a complaint and/or to apply to the High Court for an order suspending the doctor.

Where the committee believes a medical practitioner engaging with it, while not necessarily posing an immediate risk to patients, should be requested not to practise medicine for reasons including to enable them address their health condition, it will ask the doctor to choose one of two options.

Those will lead to a doctor either not been registered until the committee is satisfied with their state of health or been registered with a note stating they are subject to an undertaking.

Dr Zubair, aged in his forties, qualified in Pakistan, was first registered here in 2007 and was employed from March 2019 by Donegal Mental Health Services (DMHS), based at the child and family mental health services, until his contract was ended last July. A complaint in late August 2019 alleged he wrongly used headed notepaper from the DMHS to write prescriptions that month for controlled drugs for a person unknown to the service and with his last known address.

Previously, in May 2016, Dr Zubair was referred by the Galway/Roscommon mental health service to the health committee over significant concerns about his professional performance while working there for a time in 2015. It was alleged he was intoxicated or under the influence of substances while on duty in a hospital acute psychiatric unit and the incident was not isolated.

In late May 2016, he gave an undertaking to the health committee not to practice medicine here until released by the committee from that undertaking. In August 2017, he told the committee he was in Pakistan and would not be starting any clinical work in Ireland before appearing before it.
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Linkedin Humeyra Pamuk and Arshad Mohammed (Reuters) Washington, United States  Sat, February 29, 2020 05:13 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20674a888 2 World Mike-Pompeo,US-Secretary-of-State,US-Taliban,agreement,Afghanistan Free

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will witness the signing of a US-Taliban agreement on a withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, President Donald Trump said on Friday, heralding an agreement that could help his re-election campaign.

The deal, part of a wider push for Afghan reconciliation and an end to the longest US war, faces many obstacles, including an election feud between Afghanistan's two leading politicians. It is expected to be signed in Qatar's capital Doha on Saturday.

The US-Taliban agreement would begin a phased withdrawal of American and coalition forces. It would require the Taliban to initiate a formal dialogue with the Afghan government and other political and civil society groups on a permanent nationwide ceasefire and power sharing in postwar Afghanistan.

US forces invaded the Southwest Asian country in 2001 to topple the Taliban rulers who provided a safe haven in which al Qaeda planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Among the many obstacles to peace are resolving a dispute between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his main political rival, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. Both have claimed victory in the disputed Sept. 28 presidential election.

There is also the undecided question of who will form the Afghan team that would negotiate with the Taliban on how to bring the insurgents into the political process and, ultimately, how to share power with the movement.

The agreement calls for a long-planned initial drawdown to 8,600 US troops from some 13,000 but it ties further cuts to the Taliban keeping promises it may find challenging, such as cutting deep ties with al Qaeda and other militant groups.

"If the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home," Trump said in a statement, saying Pompeo would "soon" witness the signing.

"We ... urge the Afghan people to seize this opportunity for peace and a new future for their country," he added, without addressing when or where the signing would happen.

Earlier, Pompeo told US lawmakers he had seen a "significant" reduction of violence in Afghanistan over the past six days.

If extended for a full week, the "Reduction in Violence" pact that took effect on Feb. 22 is expected to culminate in the signing of an agreement between top US and Taliban negotiators on Saturday in Doha, the Taliban's political headquarters.

Afghan officials met Taliban members in Qatar on Friday to discuss a prisoner swap plan.

Testifying before the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee, Pompeo said Washington is watching to see whether neighboring Iran may seek to play a spoiler role in Afghanistan.

"We have seen just these last six days a significant reduction in violence in Afghanistan," Pompeo said. He said there was a history of Iran "to act as a spoiler" inside Afghanistan.

Trump has made withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan a major foreign policy objective. An agreement with the Taliban to end the 18-year-old war could boost his re-election prospects.

The American troops are part of a U.S-led NATO mission that trains and aids Afghan forces and carries out counterterrorism operations to prop up the Kabul government and prevent an al Qaeda resurgence.

"When I ran for office, I promised the American people I would begin to bring our troops home, and seek to end this war," Trump said in his statement. "We are making substantial progress on that promise."
The Texas Tribune, a digital news platform founded in 2009, has hired Stacy-Marie Ishmael, a digitally savvy journalist, as its new editorial director, The Tribunes chief executive said on Friday.

Ms. Ishmael, 35, a veteran of The Financial Times, BuzzFeed News and Apple, will effectively replace Emily Ramshaw, The Tribunes editor in chief from 2016 until her departure in January.

Ms. Ramshaw and The Tribunes chief audience officer, Amanda Zamora, left the organization to start The 19th, a nonprofit news site focused on women and politics that is scheduled for a summer rollout.

Ms. Ishmael, who worked most recently as a senior editor at Apples app store, said that issues affecting Texas often turn out to be important to the nation as a whole. Understanding them through the lens of Texas is a good way to understand the overall U.S. political story, or U.S. demographic story, or U.S. justice story, she said.
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We have a long way to go to ensure that the rest of America's minorities  including Jews of color and visibly Orthodox Jews  have the same choice. Still, there's something magical in the spectacle of two Jews fighting over money before a nation that sees only two Americans. It reflects the fulfillment of liberal democracy's promise: that it can ultimately grant a minority group full access to the rights and privileges of the majority, not by forcing them to abandon their identity but allowing them to choose how much to let it define them. When America lives up to its ideals, anyone can show up in the public sphere with just as much of their personal, religious, even national identity as they like, and no one  not the government, nor public opinion  can force a lick more of it onto them.
The World Health Organization on Friday raised its global risk assessment of the new coronavirus to its highest level after the epidemic spread to sub-Saharan Africa and financial markets slumped. The virus has proliferated around the globe over the past week, emerging on every continent except Antarctica, prompting many governments and businesses to try to stop people from travelling or gathering in crowded places. It has killed more than 2,800 people and infected over 84,000 worldwide -- the vast majority in China -- since it emerged apparently from an animal market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late December. But it is its rapid spread to new zones that has authorities concerned -- in the past 24 hours, it has affected nine new countries, from Azerbaijan to Mexico to New Zealand. "We have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at global level," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters. "We do not see evidence as yet that the virus is spreading freely in communities. As long as that's the case, we still have a chance of containing this virus." Global investors nevertheless ran scared, with world markets suffering their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. The chair of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said the central bank stood at the ready to intervene if needed, given the "evolving" risks to the world's largest economy posed by the deadly outbreak. New drastic measures were put in place: Switzerland cancelled all gatherings of more than 1,000 people, and Saudi Arabia banned Gulf citizens from its holy cities of Mecca and Medina. "This is not a time for panic. It is time to be prepared -- fully prepared," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. - 'Struggling with containment' - Those efforts come as the number of deaths and new infections has been tapering off in China, following unprecedented quarantine efforts locking down tens of millions of people in the worst-hit cities. But infections elsewhere have started to surge, with Iran, Italy and South Korea becoming the major new hotspots and cases being confirmed in around 50 countries. "We see a number of countries struggling with containment," said Michael Ryan, head of the WHO's health emergencies programme. The WHO has voiced particular concern about Africa's preparedness, warning that the continent's health care systems were ill-equipped to respond to a COVID-19 epidemic. Cases had previously been reported in Egypt and Algeria, but not in the sub-Saharan region until Friday when Nigeria reported its first case: an Italian man in densely populated Lagos. In Iran, unnamed health system sources told the BBC that at least 210 people had died of the coronavirus -- far beyond the official death toll of 34, but a health ministry spokesman angrily denied that figure. - Schools closed, events cancelled - The coronavirus crisis is affecting everything from global production to schools to sporting events, with FIFA warning Friday that international football matches could be postponed. Several companies have said they expect the virus to hit their earnings because of weaker demand. Oil prices also slipped again, with Brent oil for April delivery sinking as low as $50.05 a barrel. Analysts have warned that China, the world's second-largest economy, will see a major cut in growth this quarter as the country remains largely paralysed by quarantines and containment measures. - China hope - Still, signs in China offered hope that the outbreak could be contained. China reported 44 more deaths on Friday, raising its toll to 2,788, with 327 new cases -- the lowest daily figure for new infections in more than a month. The virus has mostly killed the elderly or people with pre-existing health conditions. South Korea also now has the most cases outside China, with more than 2,000 infections and 13 deaths. The virus has had wide-ranging impact, even forcing K-pop megastars BTS to cancel four Seoul concerts scheduled for April. - British cruise ship passenger dies - In Japan, the health ministry said a British man who was on board a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo had died. More than 700 others on the ship have tested positive. The governor of Japan's rural northern island of Hokkaido urged people to stay at home this weekend in a desperate effort to contain the outbreak. In Europe, the largest epicentre is Italy with 650 cases and 17 deaths -- mostly in cities in the north. Wide-ranging measures to halt the spread of the virus have affected tens of millions of people in northern Italy, with schools closed and cultural and sporting events cancelled. Experts said the virus had probably "circulated unnoticed for several weeks" before the first confirmed cases -- possibly since January. burs-dt/sst/ft
Weather Alert

...Winter Storm System to Impact the Region this Weekend... A strong winter storm system will push east through the Quad State Saturday into Sunday. Wintry precipitation will spread eastward into southern Illinois and southeast Missouri late Friday night, and then southeast over the remainder of the region Saturday morning. The evolution of the storm for the remainder of the weekend is quite uncertain at this time. The ultimate path and intensity of the storm system, along with the temperature forecast, will determine how impactful it will be across the Quad State. For now you are encouraged to monitor the latest forecasts and follow your winter weather preparedness plans ahead of this potentially impactful winter storm.
Tech giants including Google are free to censor content as they wish, a US court has ruled, in a landmark freedom-of-speech case concerning private internet platforms.

The decision on Wednesday by San Francisco's Ninth Circuit appeals court rejected a conservative outlet's claims that YouTube had breached the First Amendment by censoring its content.

The US Constitution's First Amendment prohibits the government, but not private parties, from censoring free speech.

Despite its two billion monthly users, Google-owned YouTube "remains a private forum, not a public forum subject to judicial scrutiny under the First Amendment," the court found.

Conservative non-profit PragerU had argued that Google unlawfully limited access to its videos discussing topics such as "male-female differences," "environmental issues" and "other topics discussed on university campuses."



Google had acted "in an arbitrary or capricious manner that provides them with unbridled discretion to discriminate against a speaker based on her or his identity," PragerU wrote in its original lawsuit.

It pointed to similar videos from more liberal accounts such as BuzzFeed, TEDx Talks and Real Time with Bill Maher which had not been restricted.

But in a written opinion for the three-judge panel, Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown said that no matter how many users platforms like YouTube may acquire, they do not become "state actors subject to First Amendment constraints." The ruling was welcomed by YouTube on Wednesday.

"Google's products are not politically biased," YouTube spokesman Farshad Shadloo wrote in a statement to AFP.

"We go to extraordinary lengths to build our products and enforce our policies in such a way that political leanings are not taken into account." He added: "PragerU's allegations were meritless, both factually and legally, and the court's ruling vindicates important legal principles that allow us to provide different choices and settings to users."



The appeals court's decision upheld an earlier lower court ruling. But PragerU vowed not to abandon its case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MSC Meraviglia cruise ship (L) is seen in Cozumel, Mexico, on Feb. 27, 2020. (Jose Castillo/AFP via Getty Images)

Dominican Republic Rejects Cruise Ship Over Virus Fears as Another Allowed to Dock in Mexico

The Dominican Republic rejected a cruise ship on Thursday over fears of the new coronavirus while Mexico allowed another that had been turned away at multiple ports to dock.

The latter ship, the MSC Meraviglia, had more than 6,000 people on board when it docked in Cozumel after being rejected by Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

Alejandra Aguirre, the secretary of health in the state of Quintana Roo, said none of the passengers would be allowed to disembark until they were cleared by health officials. She said officials received information about a patient on board who was diagnosed with the flu and that it is not a case of coronavirus.

MSC Meraviglia cruise ship (L) is seen in Cozumel, Mexico, on Feb. 27, 2020. (Jose Castillo/AFP via Getty Images)

No cases have been confirmed aboard the ship as of yet, according to owner MSC Cruises.

The cruise company said in a statement on Thursday that Mexican health authorities boarded the ship and administered additional testing on two people who were showing symptoms of the COVID-19 disease: a crew member and a young female passenger. Results from the tests are expected within 12 hours.

The ship will be alongside in Cozumel while waiting for the results. Once she gets clearance to disembark, she will stay in Cozumel through to the end of the day tomorrow Friday 28 February to allow guests to enjoy the city and its attractions. Guests on board have already been informed, the company stated.

Earlier, it said it was extremely disappointed by the rejection from authorities in Jamaica and Grand Cayman. Authorities in Grand Cayman declined to even review medical records, the company claimed.

This June 3, 2017 file photo shows the upper deck pool area of the MSC Meraviglia cruise ship docked in Le Havre harbour, Normandy, France. (Thomas Padilla/AP Photo)

The Dominican Republic, meanwhile, turned back the Braemar on Thursday because, officials said, eight passengers showed symptoms of the COVID-10 disease, which is caused by the new virus.

A joint statement by the Public Health Ministry and Port Authority said that the captain of the Braemar reported four Filipinos, two British citizens, and two U.S. citizens were under medical observation for symptoms such as fever, coughing, or breathing difficulty.

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines said in an emailed statement that it had reported a small number of influenza-like cases on board. Our medical team has now advised that they are all feeling better. No guests or crew are, or have been, displaying symptoms that are considered to be consistent with those of Coronavirus. 

Fever, coughing, and difficulty breathing are symptoms of the new virus.

Officials said the ship was carrying 1,128 passengers and 384 crew members and the cruise line said it was in discussions with the Dominican Ministry of Health and are awaiting advice on the next steps.

The cruise lines website shows the ship was due to pick up another load of passengers and set off on a new cruise Thursday night.

We have ordered that it returns to its destination, Public Health Minister Rafael Sanchez Cardenas said, indicating that passengers and crew were among those ill. He said the ship already had been barred by another port, which he did not specify.

The situations unfolded weeks after drama with other ships in Asia. Japan allowed the Diamond Princess to dock in Yokohama but placed the ship under quarantine after a passenger who had disembarked in Hong Kong tested for the new virus. Hundreds of passengers eventually became infected and scores were ultimately evacuated to their home countries on chartered flights.

Holland Americas Westerdam was rejected by Japan and other nations before being allowed to dock in Cambodia. Officials insisted there were no confirmed or suspected cases of the new virus on board but an American woman who flew to Malaysia tested positive for COVID-19, triggering quarantines for those still in Cambodia.

Those remaining the country all tested negative, the countrys Ministry of Health said on Feb. 19.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The influenza vaccine should be released early this year, infectious disease experts say, amid growing fears the global coronavirus pandemic could hit Australia at the peak of the flu season.

Professor Nigel McMillan, an infectious disease expert at Griffith University, said the dual threat of being infected with both potentially lethal respiratory illnesses at the same time meant the flu vaccine should be rolled out earlier than planned.

The flu vaccine could be delivered earlier this year. Credit:Bloomberg

Professor McMillan suspects the flu season will begin next month, which is about the same time some medical experts are predicting a coronavirus outbreak may occur in Australia.

But this year's flu vaccines, which are free from a GP for people in high-risk groups including those aged over 65, pregnant women and children under five, will not be made available until mid-April.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 02:52:20|Editor: huaxia

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UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Friday decided to extend the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) until Dec. 31 as it continues its phased drawdown, and to review in six months' time the sanctions regime it imposed in 2012.

Unanimously adopting resolution 2512, the council requested that UNIOGBIS continue to focus on the transition plan for its gradual drawdown and transfer of tasks to the United Nations country team, the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) and other regional and international partners by the end of 2020.

Concerning the political process in Guinea-Bissau, the council called upon the government to implement urgent reforms, particularly to the constitution, the electoral law, the framework law on political parties and the defence, security and judicial sectors.

It also called upon the government to develop an updated development strategy, and upon all political stakeholders to refrain from actions and statements that could escalate tensions.

The council decided to review, six months from now, the sanctions measures it established under resolution 2048, and to consider appropriate concrete measures, including, but not limited to, the continuation, adjustment or suspension of sanctions.

The tiny West African country has been plagued by chronic political instability since independence in 1974. The UNIOGBIS was established in 2010 to replace a previous UN peacebuilding support office in Guniea-Bissau.
OXON HILL, Md. - Four years ago, candidate Donald Trump didnt bother attending the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, jabbing that he was too controversial for the buttoned-up, establishment Republican gathering.

This year, as bedrock conservatives gather outside the nations capital for the conference, theyre working on how to sell Trumps brand of Republicanism beyond the party faithful.

Ralph Cropley, 50, who came from upstate New York, recalls feeling skeptical of Trump when he didnt show up for the 2016 conference. Hes since been won over.

He made all these promises, and every politician does, Cropley said. The difference is he seems to be actually working to fulfil every one of those.

With the 2020 election just eight months away, Trump campaign advisers see the gathering as a golden opportunity to train hardcore activists to push the Trump message beyond the converted.

The conference has featured multiple Words That Work sessions  covering abortion, health care, immigration and more  tailored to teaching conservative faithful how to amplify and sell the presidents message.

The effort comes as the Trump campaign is feeling increasingly optimistic about the presidents reelection chances following his acquittal in a Senate impeachment trial and amid signs that Democrats might be headed toward a drawn-out and fractious battle to pick their nominee to oppose him.

Trump himself will address CPAC activists on Saturday, his fourth straight address to the group since his election in 2016.

Hes used the address in recent years to lash out at Democrats as obstructionists who have sought to undercut his presidency and promote his image as an unconventional politician who has upended Washington. Last year, he walked out on stage to give a bear hug to a U.S. flag before delivering a two-hour stem-winder in which he denounced Democrats as the party of the socialist nightmare.

Brett Lloyd, a 2016 Trump campaign pollster, and Rick Figueroa, a Hispanic outreach adviser to Trumps reelection campaign, told activists that Trump is in position to potentially win as much as 44% of Hispanic voters this time. That would be giant leap from 2016, when he won about 3 in 10 Latino voters, and would put him on par with former President George W. Bushs 2004 performance with the group.

To get there, Figueroa said, Republicans targeting Hispanics need to stay focused on broader values of honour and respect, and underscore how the presidents handling of the economy has led to record employment for minority groups.

Everybody thinks immigration and Hispanics and thats it. Thats just not the case, Figueroa told activists. Two mistakes we make as a group is that we treat Hispanics as a monolithic group. Thats a horrible mistake. ... The second is that were not a one-issue community. We want good schools, we want good jobs and we want the government to stay out of our business.

Anti-abortion advocates also believe that Trumps supporters can attract more independents and moderate Democrats with calibrated messaging on the issue. Earlier this year, Trump became the first sitting president to attend the annual March for Life rally in Washington.

Mallory Quigley, vice-president for communications at the Susan B. Anthony List, told activists that focusing on Democratic presidential candidates support for taxpayer funding of abortion and late-term abortion has resonated in battleground states in the past. The group advocates for lawmakers who support limiting abortion rights.

We have had great success in talking to people who say want to support a pro-abortion Democratic candidate because of their position on immigration or health care or something else, Quigley said. But when they learn about the truth of this extremism, they can be persuaded to vote pro-life.

In this hyper-polarized political atmosphere, though, some Trump fans said they arent confident that there are many who dont have their minds made up.

As conference participants waited in line for a training session called Words that Work to Persuade: Immigration, attendees traded stories about Trump-related blowback theyve faced from strangers and loved ones.

One woman from an upscale suburb of Washington, D.C., told another woman how shes been labeled by limousine liberals in her community as racist for supporting Trump. A woman from Philadelphia relayed that her sister avoided her for three weeks after Trumps 2016 victory  going so far as to attend a different church service so they wouldnt cross paths.

Don Vecsey, who also attended the immigration session, said he doesnt even mention Trumps name in front of some family members and friends to try to avoid confrontation.

People should be more open-minded to reconsidering him, Vecsey said. Name another economy like this one. 

Gwennie Cole, 68, a first-time attendee, takes a different tack. She speaks up frequently in favour of Trump and about her concerns that Democratic and deep state efforts are undermining the president. Her opinions, she said, appalled her two adult daughters and her husband of 46 years.

The strain became so great that she said she no longer speaks with her children, who she referred to as Bernie bros. In December, she moved out of her familys home and into her own apartment.

Cole insists she doesnt have any regrets about her passion for Trump spurring the break-up of her family.

Thats what Trump means to me, she said. Trump is that important to this country.
By the time the Frontier mega-mine proposal died a swift and unexpected death last week, it had taken on a national significance that dwarfed even the 29,000 acres of forest and wetland it sought to take over.

To Albertas United Conservative government, its approval would indicate whether Prime Minster Justin Trudeau really supported the oilsands. To environmentalists, it was a scourge.

But to Teck Resources, the Vancouver-based company behind it, it was a chance to balance oilsands development with environmental rigour, in a project they believe should have satisfied both sides. But, they argued in their letter to the federal environment minister, Canadian regulations have not caught up.

Global markets are changing fast, Don Lindsay, CEO of Teck, wrote in the letter he sent last weeknd, notifying the government that his company was pulling the plug.

Investors and customers are increasingly looking for jurisdictions to have a framework in place that reconciles resource development and climate change, he said.

This does not yet exist here today.

But if its true that oilsands projects are now forever tangled up in the climate change debate, observers say Alberta isnt learning that lesson.

Mike Holden, the vice-president of policy and chief economist of the Business Council of Alberta, said he was surprised that the provincial budget had lots of plans for what they hope is a coming upswing in the oil industry, but almost nothing to say about climate change.

I think that there was an opportunity that the province could have taken to spell out a climate strategy that could have helped with investor confidence, that could have helped with sending a message to the federal government that it was serious about working in this area, and it didnt do that, he said.

Thats not to say that it might not at some point down the road, but it was fairly silent.

The budget has one reference to the global challenge that is climate change, and notes that Albertas global leadership in clean energy and (greenhouse gas reducing) technologies is also key to investment attraction.

It also includes their TIER, or Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction, program, which places a $30 per tonne tax on large emitters. According to the budget, it will put $969 million into climate technology and emission reduction over 3 years.

Despite Tecks lengthy letter, Alberta government officials dont believe that the Teck cited the real reason for cancelling the project.

When asked about Tecks decision in advance of the budget being tabled Thursday, Finance Minister Travis Toews cast the blame east.

We have a federal government who didnt categorically affirm its support for a project thats gone through in every environmental hurdle put in front of them, Toews said.

The fact that the goal posts were seemingly, potentially to be adjusted at the last minute has a profound effect.

In this, Toews echoed Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, who has put the blame for the cancellation at the feet of rail blockade protesters across the country who have been affecting transportation for nearly three weeks, as well as federal inaction.

On Monday, Kenney said there is absolutely no doubt that the blame for the decision lies with the federal government and called for action from Ottawa to restore investor confidence in the province.

But Chris Severson-Baker, the Alberta regional director of the Pembina Institute, says sound climate policy is a major way to attract investors. Its possible to pursue climate goals while still investing in oil development, he said, but there should be incentives for projects or types of development that are lower in carbon.

He said he was disappointed to see little talk of climate in the new budget, especially as the current federal government plans for Canada to be carbon-neutral by 2050.

He points to the oil industry leaders who have publicly supported a carbon tax. He says that many in the industry realize that many big oil projects now have to prove their green bonafides to get approval.

Until this is resolved, its going to be a barrier to make further investments in Canada and in Alberta, said Severson-Baker.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 22:48:52|Editor: yan

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KATHMANDU, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Heavy snowfall halted the winter expedition of four Sherpa climbers from Nepal who had aimed to set a world record by scaling the world's highest peak, Qomolangma, in five days, according to the expedition organizers.

A team of four Sherpa climbers started off from the base camp on Feb. 25 with a target to reach the top on Feb. 29.

"We decided to return from just below the Camp III. Due to 34 hours of continuous fresh and soft snowfall on blue ice, the surface is more slippery and seems quite dangerous," the expedition organizer Seven Summit Treks told Xinhua on Friday, quoting the team leader.

The team was led by 34-year-old Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, who has already climbed Qomolangma eight times, and three others: Pasang Nurbu Sherpa, Ming Temba Sherpa and Halung Dorchi Sherpa.

"It's definitely challenging, but we have a very strong and experienced team. So I am confident that we can achieve the goal if the weather favors us," Tashi Lakpa Sherpa had told Xinhua in Kathmandu, before leaving for expedition.

According to the company, the highest point reached by the team will be recorded just below Camp III, which is at an altitude of 7,200 meters. The company informed that it would take at least three days for the weather to be normal, which would put them past their planned date of ascent.

According to the regulation, the last day of February is the end of the winter climbing season, which means their winter ascent validity permits would also expire.

"All the team members are safe. They will reach the base camp today and will fly back to Kathmandu on Saturday," Thaneshwar Guragai, expedition company manager, told Xinhua.

The Winter season is usually regarded as the off season for Qomolangma expedition owing to extreme wind, cold and snow. Generally, the whole expedition is carried out from one to two months in April-May due to the acclimatization process and for weather reasons.

The last winter expedition in Qomolangma, which is known as Sagarmatha in Nepali language, was in 1993 by a foreign team, according to the Department of Tourism (DoT), the authorized body to issue climbing permits.

The two other foreign teams who had received permits for winter season have also cancelled their expedition.
An armed robber who fired a sawn-off shotgun at a police officer who tried to arrest him has been jailed for life.

Terrifying bodycam footage shows Derrick Fatunbi, 23, firing at police as they tried to enter his flat in Hackney, east London.

Fatunbi - who carjacked a Range Rover on March 18 2018 - was eventually arrested after officers shot him four times in the torso and legs.

Derrick Fatunbi, 23, who fired a sawn-off shotgun at a police officer who tried to arrest him in Hackney, east London, has been jailed for life

He was today sentenced to life in prison with the judge stating that Fatunbi was a 'dangerous' offender, Isleworth Crown Court heard.

In the footage, officers approach Fatunbi who leans out of a window.

He appears to say a few words to the officers before leaning back inside.

He then re-emerges with the gun that he points directly at the officer, who dives behind an awning for cover as the footage ends.

In the shocking bodycam footage, officers approach Fatunbi who leans out of a window and appears to say a few words to the officer below

After this point, police entered the property and Fatunbi attempted to fire at the officers again who responded by shooting him four times in the torso and legs.

The officers - none of whom were injured in the attack - swiftly called for medical help and Fatunbi is recovering.

Fatunbi was found guilty of attempted murder of a police officer, carjacking involving an armed robbery with a shotgun and other associated firearms offences and must serve a minimum of 12 years in prison.

Fatunbi leans out of the window with the gun (pictured) that he points directly at the officer, who dives behind an awning for cover

Detective Superintendent Nick Thorburn said: 'This is a hugely important sentence for the Metropolitan Police, especially for the armed officers within the Metropolitan.

'They showed the true professionalism that every day they are faced with incredible dangers and armed threats across London.

'They showed professionalism in the way they dealt with it and they showed compassion in saving a life after the event.'

He added: 'The people of London will sleep safer knowing Derrick Fatunbi is off the streets.

Police entered the property and Fatunbi attempted to fire at the officers again who responded by shooting him four times in the torso and legs. Pictured: The gun used by Fatunbi

'This is a daily threat that firearm officers deal with across London and deal with very professionally.'

Mr Thorburn added: 'This footage proves firearm officers are human and battle real threats every day.

'Body-worn footage is vital. Officers see it to protect them from unnecessary complaints. It's a living document that has proved what has happened.

'It's hard to say from the footage how close the officer was from suffering shrapnel injuries. The shotgun was fired at close range and there was a very real threat to their lives.'

Fatunbi was found guilty of attempted murder of a police officer, carjacking involving an armed robbery with a shotgun and other associated firearms offences and must serve a minimum of 12 years in prison. Pictured: The bodycam footage shows police outside Fatunbi's flat in Hackney, east London

Detective Constable Chris Williams, of the Met's Central Specialist Crime Command, said: 'My colleagues in Specialist Crime, along with firearms officers and the rest of the Met are committed to taking people like Fatunbi and the weapons he was armed with off the streets.

'The outcome of this incident could have been even more serious. Having committed a violent robbery, Fatunbi threatened the police officers who were trying to arrest him and it is hugely fortunate that there was no loss of life that night.

'My thanks go to the prosecution counsel, our colleagues in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for their diligence and professionalism throughout this case, as well as the victims and witnesses who supported this investigation by providing statements and giving evidence at court.'

Chief Superintendent Andy Walker of the Met's Specialist Firearms Command, added: 'Our armed officers put themselves in harm's way on a daily basis to keep people safe from dangerous criminals.

'On this occasion, they responded with remarkable tenacity and immense bravery to track down a particularly violent criminal and stop him from harming anyone else, and I am pleased that the trial judge commended their bravery.

'I have no doubt that London is safer now that Fatunbi has been brought to justice.'

A second man, Shannon Robertson, 25, of Tottenham, north London, was found not guilty of robbery and possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear following the conclusion of the trial.
When it comes to your 401(k), there's one piece of advice that most financial experts agree on in market routs like this: Stay the course.

That means fighting the natural temptation to log into your investment account and react to the market's big swings.

However, many investors are not taking that advice, according to the latest data from the Alight Solutions 401(k) Index, which tracks daily activity at 401(k) plans provided by large employers.

Trading activity was the highest in the index's history on Friday, Feb. 28, at 15.8 times average.

Meanwhile, trading activity on the previous day, Thursday, Feb. 27, was 11.37 times average. Only two other dates have exceeded the 11 times average. Those were Jan. 22, 2008 and Feb. 5, 2018.

"Even in the depths of the financial meltdown in October 2008, we didn't see this type of abnormality," said Rob Austin, head of research at Alight.

If you're like a lot of people, you're also looking for reassurance that your nest egg will still be OK. The key to that is to revisit your plan.

"Most people should do what's good for them, agnostic of what the market is doing," said Aaron Pottichen, senior vice president at Alliant Retirement Consulting in Austin, Texas.

"No one can time if the market is going to go up or down," he added. "But we do have control over what our plan is."
Lucknow, Feb 28 : Nripendra Mishra, the chairman of the Ram Temple Construction Committee, met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at the latter's official residence here on Friday evening.

Mishra will be visiting Ayodhya on Saturday to initiate the process for preparing a blueprint for construction of a Ram temple there.

This will be his first visit to Ayodhya after being appointed as the chairman of the committee.

According to sources, Mishra had a meeting with the Chief Minister for about one hour during which he discussed the temple issue and the modalities for the construction.

Chief Secretary R.K. Tiwari and Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Avanish Awasthi were also present at the meeting.

According to official sources, Mishra will also finalise the place, where Ram Lalla will be shifted before construction of the temple begins. This relocation will take place before the festive occasion of Navratri which begins on March 25.
The impact of coronavirus epidemic in China on Indian companies with suppliers and buyers in China will vary across sectors depending on the respective import dependency

A trip to China every three months to glean what is the latest in affordable fashion was a routine affair for 1-India Family Mart, a chain of retail stores in India that sells garments and other products. The Chinese market has its finger on the fashion pulse with affordable, mid and top-end clothing and designs. The fashion team of 1-India Family Mart would go scouring the markets for latest designs, fabrics and also dress pieces from shopfloors in China which were extras from orders placed by large fashion houses. These designs were then made and sent to 1-India Family Marts manufacturing outlets in India. The pieces were a hit with our customers, said JP Shukla, co-founder and CEO.

It has been a happy marriage with Chinese fashion trends transposed on to Indian garments being snapped up by the firms customers for mid and low-priced clothes. Shukla recalls how once the team though hesitant, decided to buy torn jeans from China100 pieces were purchased and the company saw the product being brought off its shelves in a short period. The company then bought 1000 pieces and it was a hit with its clientele.

Now, these incidents seem to be in the past with the coronavirus outbreak in China leading to firms like 1-India Family Mart and others forced to look at other markets. The design team is now headed to other South-East Asian markets but these are not as quick or resourceful in terms of designs, innovation as China is, said Shukla.

About 10 percent of Fortune 1000 companies have a direct supplier (Tier 1) based in China that are already impacted and about 80 percent of all the Fortune 1000 companies have a tier 1 or tier 2 supplier from China which are being impacted as material inventories are depleting. These industries range from automotive components, electronic components and apparel in particular due to production stoppages in quarantine policies. This will have a ripple impact on the production activities of automobile OEM, electronic goods companies, and textile companies across the globe that rely on components/raw materials from Chinese industries. For India, electronic manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies are most at risk as they rely on raw materials coming from China, said a sector expert.

The coronavirus epidemic has wreaked havoc on several sectors in India, be it electronics, metals, IT, textiles, pharma among a slew of others. The impact on Indian companies that has suppliers and buyers in China will vary across sectors depending on the respective import dependency on China, inventory level, capacity for import substitution, search and information costs in alternate markets, etc. China and Hong Kong together constitute 9 percent of Indias export basket and over 17 percent to Indias import basket, according to Dun & Bradstreet.

A global recession is likely if coronavirus becomes a pandemic, and the odds of that are uncomfortably high and rising with infections surging in Italy and Korea, Moody's Analytics said on Wednesday. "The coronavirus has been a body blow to the Chinese economy, which now threatens to take out the entire global economy," Chief Economist at Moody's Analytics Mark Zandi said.

The few odd firms that are finding a surge in business are those that are needed to ward off the dangers of coronavirus spreading. Like face mask and glove makers. Vivek Tiwari, founder, and CEO, Medikabazaar, has seen an over 10x surge in growth since the tragedy struck globally. Not just gloves and face masks, but particulate respiratory masks, protective suits, sterile surgical gloves, safety goggles, etc are in demand to curb the spread of coronavirus. "In the last few weeks, we have received multiple queries from China, Japan, Singapore, and even India and other countries and we have increased our procurement of masks and other items many folds to meet the demand," said Tiwari.

The companies that either have significant sales from Chinese consumers or have suppliers based in China are majorly impacted. Luxury goods specifically and other retail that are heavily impacted as Chinese consumers, even those outside of Wuhan have hunkered down at homes instead of shopping malls. Some industry surveys suggest upwards of $50 billion sales loss in this industry alone. Even after things go back to normal, these companies cant make up for lost sales, said Vijay Kasi, Principal, Kearney, a global management consulting firm. The latest estimates suggest about $1 trillion of global GDP could be wiped out with the current outbreak of coronavirus, he said.

Supply chains of major vendors from China have been severely affected. Although India, Vietnam and Malaysia, among other South East Asian countries have been ramping up manufacturing over the last few years, China continues to remain a major supplier. With the outbreak of coronavirus, there will be a short term supply gap, said Rajan Sharma, Founder & CEO, excess2sell.com

Some firms which have regular meetings held abroad with their global offices are now forced to prune it or avoid holding it in other countries. It is a matter of taking precautions so as to not endanger employees' health. Qlik, a data and analytics firm, is encouraging virtual meetings, for instance. Geoff Thomas, Senior VP, Asia Pacific said, "While no Qlik office closures are planned at this time, we are encouraging virtual meetings," he said.

The electronics sector too has taken a hard blow. China is the global manufacturing hub for most electronic products, raw materials and components. The shutdown in China due to the coronavirus has caused a supply concern across industries. For five years now, Gizmobaba, an online gadget company has been importing over 50 percent of its products from China. The production in China is entirely shut down as a result of the outbreak, said Alok Chawla, CEO, Gizomobaba. However, it currently holds stocks for about another three weeks. It expects things to stabilize by then. "We are planning an airfreight consignment shortly and do not expect much of a slowdown in business. Yet, there will be a slight impact in the costs of products, and even airfreight rates," Chawla said.

The electronic sector has a choice of importing product parts from other South East Asian countries but it is the small, precision parts that China is famous for that makes it difficult for the sector to procure from elsewhere. There is no alternative for China in the product side or the price factor.

Avneet Singh Marwah, Director and CEO, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd, said that the company imports around 70 percent of its materials from China and though Taiwan, Korea and Vietnam are an alternative given the current epidemic outbreak in China, there isnt much it can do with regard to the product parts it requires. Marwah predicts the overall business impact of the coronavirus epidemic to lead to around Rs 200 crore loss to the country.

There is a production cut of 40-50 percent across sectors in India. The future of the industry, which is largely dependent on China, seems bleak as of now.

Pharma companies have a high dependency on APIs. Almost 70 percent of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API), the active ingredient which is contained in medicine, is imported from China. This amounts to $2.4 billion. According to data by the Pharmaceutical Exports Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), a body under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, exports of bulk drugs and intermediates in FY19 stood at $3.9 billion, up by 10.5 percent over the previous year.

India imports bulk drugs/active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for producing medicines including certain essential medicines from China. The government has earlier said most of the imports of the bulk drugs and APIs are being done because of economic considerations.

Due to the high dependency of API from China, the Indian pharma manufacturer is already looking at raw material challenges. With the bulk of APIs coming from areas around Hubei and Zhejiang provinces, the situation is grave, said Sanjay Jha, Director, Colmed, Mumbai-based medical supplies company. India is dependent on APIs from China especially for antibiotics, Vitamin C and D. Small manufacturers are going to suffer more since they do not typically have much inventory with low availability of raw materials and price increase affecting them significantly. Larger manufacturers would be able to steer clear of these challenges for a longer period, Jha said, but if coronavirus spreads further and for a longer period, even large manufacturers would face significant challenges, Jha said.

Trivitron Healthcare which is into medical imaging, in-vitro diagnostics, newborn screening, etc, has a significant export business in China. Some of our exports to China are on hold as there is no one to receive the products in Chinas ports, said Satyaki Banerjee, CEO-Medical Imaging Division, Trivitron Healthcare. The newborn screening products have been the most affected, which is one percent of the companys turnover, he said.

The coronavirus epidemic that threatens to become a pandemic has left global stock markets, investors and industry shocked and cautious with grave financial implications in its wake. Time then for industries, countries to look at other alternatives even if that is an expensive one.
A medical worker at a tent set up outside the emergency ward of a hospital in northern Italy. (Claudio Furlan/Lapresse via AP)

European stocks extended their losses on Friday as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the coronavirus outbreak had pandemic potential, with cases continuing to climb across the world.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index (^STOXX), which is set for its worst week in well over a decade, fell by more than 2.8% on Friday morning.

The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) was down by around 2.6% in London. Germanys DAX (^GDAXI) plunged by more than 3.4%, while Frances CAC 40 (^FCHI) fell by over 2.9%.

Global stocks are now in so-called correction territory, meaning that they have lost 10% since their recent all-time highs.

The WHO late on Thursday warned that no country should assume it will not be affected by coronavirus, raising the prospect of wider economic damage.

This virus has pandemic potential, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO.

Read more: Europes economy braces for coronavirus hit as market panic grips

We are actually in a very delicate situation in which the outbreak can go in any direction based on how we handle it.

There have now been more than 83,700 cases of the virus worldwide, including more than 650 it Italy, 60 in the US, 25 in Spain, and 16 in the UK. Some 2,858 people have died.

As coronavirus spirals into a public health emergency in Europe, economists are now expecting a direct hit to the eurozones economy.

Bank of America on Thursday lowered its 2020 eurozone growth forecast from 1% to 0.6%, putting the 19-member common currency area on track for its weakest growth in six years.

Meanwhile, Bank of England governor Mark Carney warned on Friday that the UK should be prepared for coronavirus to dent the countrys economy.

Disruption to global supply chains could force a downgrade of the central banks growth forecasts, he said, noting that it was too early to tell the extent to which the UK will be affected.

European shares will endure a torrid final day's trading of the month, said Neil Wilson, the chief markets analyst of Markets.com, noting that the uncertainty of the coronavirus situation would push risk-averse traders to sell stocks before the weekend.

Story continues

Global stocks have entered correction territory and its now that we can start to consider the market is entering the period of peak fear. The market is crowding rapidly to price in the worst-case scenario, he said.

The losses followed a particularly weak trading session in Asia.

Chinas SSE Composite Index (^SSEC) fell by 3.7%, while the Hang Seng (^HSI) was down 2.4% in Hong Kong at market close.

Japans Nikkei (^N225) fell by over 3.6%. The KOSPI Composite Index (^KOSPI) in South Korea, where there have been almost 2,300 cases, closed more than 3.3% down.

Futures are pointing to a sharply lower open for US stocks. S&P 500 futures (ES=F), Dow Jones Industrial Average futures (YM=F), and Nasdaq futures (NQ=F) are down around 1.7%.

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Family complains after church denies 8-y-o boy communion because hes autistic and prompts change

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A day after a New Jersey couple revealed that their 8-year-old son was denied First Communion by the Saint Aloysius Parish in Jackson due to his autism, the church reversed its decision after public outcry.

Jimmy LaCugna complained in a now viral Facebook post that he and his wife, Nicole, were told by the Rev. John Bambrick that their son, Anthony, won't be able to participate in the religious ceremony because of his disability.

As most of you know, Anthony is an autistic non-verbal child who is in his sacrament year. Father Bambrick at Saint Aloysis Church in Jackson and the Archdiocese of Trenton came to this position since Anthony is unable to determine right from wrong due to his disability they feel he is not up to the benchmark required to make his communion, Jimmy LaCugna wrote.

This is very hard and upsetting to comprehend when we all are created by God and now our son is being shunned from the Catholic faith due to his inability to communicate. This is something that I hope goes viral and these parties involved get their names called out for this disgraceful and disheartening act against a child who has a disability and wouldnt even be able to create a sin because he is one of the sweetest and innocent little boy someone would ever meet, he wrote in a post that has since been shared more than 10,000 times on Facebook.

Nicole LaCugna told News 12 New Jersey that she thinks the decision by the church is unbiblical because: "Nowhere in the Bible does it ever show discrimination against anybody."

She also told the Asbury Park Press that even though Anthony is diagnosed with a serious form of autism, is 100% nonverbal with severe apraxiaas, he is happy and active as any boy, and attends an inclusion class at a regular public school.

He does well for his abilities, his process is a slow process and he does what he is able to do, she said.

She told the publication that when Anthony reached first grade in the fall of 2018, she wanted to start him on the religious education track toward First Holy Communion but did not believe he could attend regular classes. The parish then gave her permission to homeschool him for religious studies.

She also received permission in September to continue with his homeschooling plan and expected he would receive his First Holy Communion along with other second graders in April.

I was always transparent about him, they knew what was here, she said. I knew what he wouldnt be able to do.

I stressed that there is no way he could sit through a mass, so they were going to let us come to a different mass, with a different group, and he would be the only one who would receive communion, she said.

When she got a call from the church on Monday informing her that Anthony wouldnt receive communion, she said, I cried two times with them on the phone.

I said it is unfair, my son is a child of God. He is welcomed into the Catholic faith. My son is being discriminated against, she added.

The Christian Post reached out to the Rev. Bambrick for comment Friday but he was not immediately available.

The church released a statement Wednesday on Facebook, however, stating that after reviewing the Code of Canon Law, which states that Catholics cannot be denied the sacraments as long as they are properly prepared and are ready to receive them, they have found evidence to allow children with disabilities into the fold.

Our parish has dozens of children with special needs, disabilities, autism spectrum, cognitive delay, allergies, developmental disabilities, physical disabilities, limited cognition and other physical, emotional and cognitive classifications. We strive to serve these populations to the best of our abilities and to adapt our Religious Education and Sacramental Preparations for them within the guidelines of the Catholic Church, the statement said.

Since Monday we have been researching how we could best assist the most profoundly disabled in a better way. New information has come to light which allows us to by-pass previous Diocesan Guidelines to better serve this subset population. The original guidelines we followed state that a child must have a basic rudimentary simple understanding of Right and Wrong to receive First Reconciliation. For First Communion, again at a simple, basic, rudimentary level, the child has to be able to distinguish ordinary bread from the Body of Christ, the church continued.

New information has shed light on ways to further adapt our preparations and reception for children with severe cognitive and developmental issues. This is thanks to the work of Canon Lawyers, Theologians and Pope Francis which will allow the reception of these sacraments. The basic concept is the child should be presumed to have an inner spiritual relationship with God and this would be sufficient in these particular cases, thus this is a development of our guidelines based on the latest understanding. Bishop David O'Connell of the Diocese of Trenton has approved of these further adaptations, they added.

The family, the church said, has been informed of the review.
US President Donald Trump (L) stands behind US Vice President Mike Pence as he speaks at a news conference with members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) on the COVID-19 outbreak at the White House on February 26, 2020.

In the face of what may be the most serious threat to the American homeland during his presidency, President Trump has made a stunning and groundbreaking decision: he actually gave the vice president an important job.

In this case, it's actually an urgent and highly visible job that affects the entire country.

Trump did that Wednesday night when he put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the government's response to the coronavirus outbreak. But Trump's news conference hadn't even ended before the decision was panned by critics attacking Pence's health care policy experience, perceived obsequious relationship with Trump, and even his religious devotion.

The fact that Pence is being asked to oversee a team of medical and public health experts, not act as a doctor or create health policies himself, seemed lost on the angriest detractors.

Also lost in all the mostly partisan criticism of Trump's choice is a more important fact: Pence has just been given the most pressing and urgent role that any vice president has had in American history. Not all vice presidents have been relegated to minor roles, but nothing comes close to Pence being asked to lead the federal government's response to this immediate health and economic threat.

Coming the closest was FDR's second vice president Henry Wallace, who led the crucial Board of Economic Warfare during most of America's involvement in World War II. That job put Wallace in charge of supplying the Allied war effort with weapons, food, and other key provisions. With the war being the number one job for the Roosevelt administration from 1941 to 1945, Wallace, who also served as Commerce secretary in the administration, was effectively FDR's supply chain COO. But of course, the task of winning the war itself was mostly in the hands of military leaders like Dwight Eisenhower and FDR himself. So again, Pence is still in a relatively more important and visible position.

Usually, vice presidents become invisible or just popular punchlines. President Eisenhower set the modern standard for vice presidents when his response to a question about then-Vice President RIchard Nixon's role in major White House decision making was: "If you give me a week, I might think of one."

Of course, this historically new role also means Pence is facing a tremendous political risk and reward depending on how the coronavirus plays out here in the United States. If we see relatively few cases and no more than a small number of deaths here in the U.S., Pence will have a strong calling card if he does choose to seek the presidency in 2024.

On the other hand, he'll probably not even have enough support to enter the GOP primary race if the nation suffers a significant health catastrophe connected to the virus. Even if Pence deserves no blame in such a scenario, it will be virtually impossible for him and Trump to avoid it now.

There are still other factors at play, the biggest one being the 2020 election results. If Trump doesn't win reelection, Pence's chances to win the GOP nomination and the White House in 2024 would be greatly diminished no matter what happens with the coronavirus outbreak. The same will be true if Trump does win reelection, but the nation suffers a major economic collapse like the one that befell President George W. Bush in his second term.

Pence will also still have to prove he can be an engaging candidate to win, despite his record on this and any other issue. Right now, his strongest asset going into a potential 2024 primary run is the support he has from Trump's base compared to potential challengers like former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. His second strongest asset with traditional Republican voters is his fervent evangelical Christian faith, which can be vital in some of the early nominating contests like the Iowa caucuses.

But all of the above factors and possible scenarios underscore the truly remarkable historic story unfolding right now. For the first time in American history, a vice president is being given an enormously visible and vital role that will clearly make or break his political future.

As for Trump, he has broken presidential tradition yet again by making this decision. It won't indemnify him from severe blame if things go wrong, and no one will be surprised if he still takes a great deal of the credit if things go right. But this is Pence's game to win or lose as best he can, and there's never been a V.P. with this much on the line.
Islamabad, Feb 28 : A top Pakistani official has said that the US has been invited to invest in projects of the multi billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as Washington expressed keen interest in increasing trade relations with Islamabad.

"The US has shown interest in energy, oil and gas, agriculture and food processing," The Express Tribune quoted Abdul Razak Dawood, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce, as saying on Thursday.

"Pakistan-US market access is the main point. We want access to the US market," he said.

Dawood's remarks came a day after visiting US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross held a meeting here with Pakistani authorities.

Sharing details of the meeting, the advisor said that the US officials have also expressed interest in e-commerce.

"They have agreed that the US International Development Finance Corporation would help in developing of new businesses in Pakistan," Dawood said. "The US Secretary is ready to send a commerce delegation for coordination." He said they discussed bilateral relations and matters of mutual interest, adding that they agreed to enhance mutual trade to a maximum level.

During his meeting with Ross on Wednesday, Prime Minister Imran Khan underscored the need to take full advantage of trade and investment opportunities in Pakistan, stressing the need to enhance business-to-business cooperation between the two countries.
Northwest Side Ald. Nick Sposato, 38th, predicted backlash from the Italian American community, whose members have been among the most critical of the movement to stop celebrating Christopher Columbus. Sposato said removing Columbus from the holiday is erasing history and misguided.
The federal appeals court ruled Friday that the government can no longer make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts. The decision dealt a significant blow to the signature Trump administration immigration policy.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco also decided to keep another major policy on hold, one that denies asylum to anyone who enters the U.S. illegally from Mexico.

The twin setbacks for the Trump administration may prove temporary if it appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has consistently sided with President Donald Trump on immigration and border security policies.

The Remain in Mexico policy, known officially as "Migrant Protection Protocols," took effect in January 2019 in San Diego and gradually spread across the southern border. Nearly 60,000 people have been sent back to wait for hearings, and officials believe it is a big reason why illegal border crossings plummeted about 80% from a 13-year high in May.

Reaction to the decision was swift among immigration lawyers and advocates who have spent months fighting with the administration over a program they see as a humanitarian disaster, subjecting hundreds of migrants to violence, kidnapping and extortion in dangerous Mexican border cities. Hundreds more have been living in squalid encampments just across the border, as they wait for their next court date.

Advocates planned to have immigrants immediately cross the border and present the court decision to authorities Friday, with group Human Rights First hand-delivering a copy to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at a bridge connecting Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Lawyers were hoping to get their clients before U.S. immigration court judges.

The decision interrupted some court cases. Immigration Judge Philip Law in San Diego delayed a final hearing on a Honduran man's asylum case to April 17 after a government attorney couldnt answer his questions about the effect of ruling, which temporarily halts the policy during legal challenges.

The government attorney said she asked her supervisor how to address the ruling and that he didnt know what to do either.

The Justice Department sharply criticized the ruling, saying the decision not only ignores the constitutional authority of Congress and the administration for a policy in effect for over a year, but also extends relief beyond the parties before the court.

Judge William Fletcher, writing the majority, sided with the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups who argued the policy violates international treaty obligations against sending people back to a country where they are likely to be persecuted or tortured on the grounds of race, religion, ethnicity, political beliefs or membership in a particular social group.

Fletcher agreed the government set the bar too high for asylum-seekers to persuade officers that they should be exempt from the policy and didn't provide enough time for them to prepare for interviews or consult lawyers. The judges said the government also erred by requiring asylum-seekers to express fear of returning to Mexico to be considered for an exemption, instead of asking them unprompted.

Fletcher quoted at length asylum-seekers who reported being assaulted and victimized in Mexico, saying it was enough  indeed, far more than enough to undercut the government's arguments.

Fletcher was joined by Judge Richard Paez, who were both appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton. Judge Ferdinand Fernandez, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, dissented.

The court forcefully rejected the Trump administrations assertion that it could strand asylum-seekers in Mexico and subject them to grave danger," ACLU attorney Judy Rabinovitz said. "Its time for the administration to follow the law and stop putting asylum-seekers in harms way.

Trump, however, has won support from the U.S. Supreme Court on rules disqualifying more people from green cards if they use government benefits and a travel ban affecting several Muslim-majority countries.

The ruling's impact will be at least partially blunted by other policies introduced in response to unprecedented surge of asylum-seeking families that peaked last year, many of them from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

In November, the administration began sending asylum-seekers from Honduras and El Salvador to Guatemala, denying them a chance to seek refuge in the U.S. and instead inviting them to apply in the strife-torn Central American nation. Similar agreements with Honduras and El Salvador are set to take effect soon.

Another policy leads Mexicans and Central Americans who fail an initial screening to be rapidly deported without leaving Border Patrol stations. The screening interview is designed to take place in one day and any appeals to an immigration judge within 10 days. Asylum-seekers are given up to 90 minutes to contact a lawyer.

Rapid deportations were introduced in October in El Paso, Texas, and extended across the border by February.

The other measure with far-reaching consequences denies asylum to anyone who passes through another country on the way to the U.S.-Mexico border without seeking protection there first. It took effect in September and is being challenged in a separate lawsuit.

Supporters of the "Remain in Mexico" policy note it has prevented asylum-seekers from being released in the United States with notices to appear in court, which they consider a major incentive for people to come.

Mexicans and unaccompanied children are exempt.

Asylum has been granted in less than 1% of the roughly 35,000 Remain in Mexico cases that have been decided. Only 5% are represented by attorneys, many of whom are reluctant to visit clients in Mexico.
Is AOC Catholic?

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Catholic League

Feb. 28, 2020

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2020 / Christian Newswire / -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue (photo) comments on congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

Is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) Catholic? She was, but there is no evidence she still is. Yet she is conveniently labeled as a Catholic by some of her supporters and she occasionally implies she is still Catholic.

Why does this matter? If she were not a congresswoman, it wouldn't. But when someone who is no longer a member of the faith community he was raised in passes himself off as a loyal memberfor self-serving political purposesthat raises serious ethical problems.

Who is and who is not a Catholic is not purely a matter of self-identity. If someone born of Irish ancestry and raised as a Catholic calls himself a Jew, no one thinks he is Jewish. Truth matters, and the truth never turns on self-identity alone.

AOC spoke on February 27 at a congressional hearing on "The Administration's Religious Liberty Assault on LGBTQ rights," held by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. She criticized the Trump administration for its policies on homosexuals and transgender persons, saying it was misusing religious liberty to undermine these people.

In her remarks, AOC never once identified herself as a Catholic, though she did play the religion card. She preferred to use such terms as, "From the perspective of a woman of faith" and "I know itis part of my faith."

Not only did she not identify her faith, she said, "We are equal, in my faith, in the eyes of the world." Catholics don't speak that way. They would say something like, "As a Catholic, I believe we are all equal in the eyes of God."

In a glowing article on AOC posted on Huffington Post, it says that she "identifies as Catholic" and "frequently refers to her religious beliefs on Twitter." Not true. On Twitter, she never identifies herself as a Catholic: she calls herself a "raised Catholic" (see her tweet from 12-10-18). That is the way ex-Catholics speak, not those who are currently practicing their religion.

In a caustic exchange on Twitter with Kellyanne Conway, AOC spoke about her "Christianity + faith life" (tweet is from 4-28-19). Again, that is not the way Catholics speak. In fact, that is a really weird way for any Christian to talk. There is no need for the "+ faith life" if the person is truly a Christian.

We did a Nexis search of AOC to learn how often she identified herself as a Catholic. We looked for "As a Catholic" or "My Catholic." The answer: Zero. The only reference to her Catholicity is from an article she wrote for America magazine on June 27, 2018, the Jesuit publication.

In her piece, she made a comment about the Catechism and forgiveness, and uses terms such as "For Catholics," but never once does she say she is a Catholic. Yet that was the purpose of the article. It was titled, "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on her Catholic Faith and the Urgency of Criminal Justice Reform." Why the reticence given this opportunity to showcase her Catholic credentials? Indeed, she could have told us something about how much her Catholic faith means to her, but she didn't come close.

In her statement before the House committee, AOC did address one Catholic issue. Not surprisingly, she condemned the Catholic position.

"My faith commands me to treat Mr. Minton as holy because he is sacred, because his life is sacred, because you are not to be denied anything I am entitled to, that we are equal in the eyes of the law."

What was all that about? Evan Michael Minton, who also spoke before the committee, wanted to change from being a woman to a man (that is biologically impossible, but that is not the issue). In 2017,"he" sought a hysterectomy at a Catholic facility, Mercy San Juan Medical Center; it is part of the Dignity Health Care chain.

The Catholic hospital does not perform elective hysterectomies (such a procedure is only done to treat a serious medical problem and when there is no alternative treatment available). Mercy immediately referred "him" to another hospital within the Dignity chain that is not Catholic, and the procedure was performed within a few days. Even though there was no discrimination, "he" got the ACLU to sue Mercy.

In other words, AOC flexed her so-called Catholic muscles by taking the side of someone who deliberately sought an operation from a Catholic institution that it was prohibited by its religious tenets from performing. She obviously does not believe in the free exercise of religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment. Worse, she took the side of anti-Catholics.

The Catholic League does not tolerate fictions. Everyone knows that inside a pregnant woman's body there is another human being, and everyone knows that no one can change his or her chromosomal makeup, even though many learned people believe otherwise. And everyone should know that AOC is a fraud.

Contact Ariel Eckblad, AOC's chief of staff: ariel.eckblad@mail.house.gov

SOURCE Catholic League

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Delhi govt gives nod to prosecute Kanhaiya Kumar in sedition case

India

oi-Mousumi Dash

New Delhi, Feb 28: The Delhi government on Saturday gave a nod to the city police to prosecute former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others in connection with a four-year-old sedition case, as the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) denied the persistent BJP charge of blocking the proceedings in the matter.

According to PTI, the AAP MLA and spokesperson Raghav Chadha said the Law Department of the Delhi government has given its opinion on this matter to the Home Department after due diligence.

The sanction was granted by the Delhi government on February 20, he said.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari welcomed the development, but said the Kejriwal government perhaps gave the approval in view of the "current political situation".

The BJP has been alleging that the AAP government was stonewalling the proceedings in the case by not granting its approval to prosecute Kanhaiya and others.

However, Chadha, in a statement on Friday, said, "The Delhi government, as a matter of policy and as a matter of principle, does not and has not intervened in any of such cases. Our government has not stopped prosecution in any case, whatsoever, in the last five years."

Terming it a "purely a procedural matter", he said judiciary and judiciary alone should decide on the merits of each case. "It is not for governments to decide on the merits of such cases," Chadha said to PTI.

He further said the Delhi government has not stopped prosecution in any case, including those pertaining to its own MLAs and party leaders.

"Our MLAs fought these in the courts, in most cases our MLAs were declared innocent while some cases are still pending in court. Even when it came to elected representatives of the ruling party, that is the Aam Aadmi Party, the government of Delhi did not intervene in the process of law," the statement said.

"It is only fair for the permanent executive as well as political executive to not intervene in the process of law and let the judiciary perform its independent function," it added.

Reacting to the development, Kanhaiya Kumar tweeted, "Fast-track court and quick action is required in the sedition case so that the country gets to know how the sedition law was misused in this entire case for political benefits."

"Thank you to Delhi government for giving permission for the sedition case," he wrote on the microblogging site while urging the Delhi Police and government officials to take this case seriously and ensure justice.

Umar Khalid also tweeted his and Anirban Bhattacharya's joint statement.

"The news of the Delhi government granting sanction to sedition case against us doesn't trouble us at all. We are confident of our innocence, have full faith in the judiciary and have ourselves been demanding the case against us to be tried in the courts.

"The ensuing trial will vindicate us and prove that the media trial at the behest of the ruling regime was false, malicious and politically motivated. We have lived under the shadow of these false charges for far too long. Finally, 'sab doodh ka doodh aur paani ka paani hoga' (everything will become clear) !" he said in a series of tweets.

"And as we will defend ourselves in the court, we will expose the lies of the ruling regime and its fake claims of being nationalist," the statement added.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on February 19 had said he would ask the department concerned to take "expeditious decision" on the granting sanction to prosecute Kanhaiya and others in the sedition case.

According to rules, investigating agencies need to take approval of the state government while filing a charge sheet in sedition cases. The Delhi Police had last year filed the charge sheet at a city court against Kanhaiya Kumar and others, saying he was leading a procession and supported seditious slogans at an event in February 2016.

It also charged former JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya with allegedly shouting anti-India slogans during the event to commemorate the hanging of Parliament-attack mastermind Afzal Guru.

The prosecution sanction was granted nearly a year after a city court asked the AAP government to take a decision within a reasonable time frame and noted that the delay was leading to violation of the due process of law.

The Delhi government had then told the court that the police had filed the charge sheet in the 2016 incident in a "secret and hasty manner", without obtaining the approval of the competent authority.

In September last year, the court has asked the Delhi government to decide within one month the issue of giving sanction to prosecute Kanhaiya Kumar and others in the case.

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Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 23:42 [IST]
Pope Francis is still feeling 'slightly unwell' and has cancelled his official audiences today, the Vatican has said.

The 83-year-old pontiff has scrapped an audience with tech chiefs including Microsoft and IBM executives today - a day after calling off an appearance at a Mass in Rome.

Francis had appeared to have a cold during an Ash Wednesday service at the Vatican earlier this week.

The Vatican has offered no details on the nature of the pope's illness, except to say that he had a 'slight indisposition'.

'Slightly unwell': Pope Francis, pictured on Ash Wednesday this week when he appeared to have a cold, has scrapped his official audiences today

Pope Francis kisses a young worshipper in St Peter's Square and puts her hand on the girl's cheek on Ash Wednesday

Vatican press officer Matteo Bruni said Francis celebrated morning Mass as usual today and greeted participants at the end.

However, he has cleared his diary of everything apart from meetings at the Santa Marta guest house where he lives.

Francis had been due to receive executives from Microsoft, IBM and other technology companies on Friday morning.

His speech to them from the Apostolic Palace was to have been streamed to guests at a Rome conference on ethics in artificial intelligence.

The pope usually spends mornings making speeches to groups and meeting heads of state in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.

But unlike previous popes, he chose not to live in its spacious papal apartments and opted for simple quarters in Santa Marta.

Yesterday Francis called off a scheduled visit to the St John Lateran basilica across town, where he was due to meet with Rome clergy.

Pope Francis has cancelled his events and is feeling 'slightly unwell', two days after he was pictured coughing and blowing his nose during Ash Wednesday Mass

Pope Francis caresses a child's cheek as he takes part in his weekly general audience at the Vatican, a day before missing an engagement due to illness

Some worshippers were wearing face masks as a precaution amid a severe outbreak of coronavirus in Italy

The faithful wear face masks as they wait for Francis arrival in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for his weekly general audience

The pope had been seen coughing and blowing his nose during the Ash Wednesday Mass this week.

The same day, he shook hands with worshippers in St Peter's Square as he voiced his sympathy with coronavirus victims.

Only a few of the 12,000 or so faithful who turned out to see him on Saint Peter's Square were wearing face masks.

But the 83-year-old Francis did not shy away from shaking hands with members of the congregation - and even kissed some of the children present.

However, some clergymen seemed reluctant to kiss his ring or embrace him.

Francis is in generally good health and has undertaken a series of gruelling foreign trips in his seven years as leader of the Catholic Church.

He lost part of one lung as a young man because of a respiratory illness.

Pope Francis kisses a child at the end of his weekly general audience in St Peter's Square in Vatican City

Pope Francis poses with faithful from Iraq in St. Peter's Square during his weekly audience

Several people in the crowd wore face masks to protect themselves against infection as they waited to see Francis on Wednesday

Earlier in the day Francis had met with crowds in St Peter's Square where he touched hands and kissed faces, despite warnings over coronavirus

Italy is in the grip of the worst coronavirus outbreak in Europe, which has infected 650 people in the country so far.

Seventeen people have died in an outbreak centred on northern Italy, although a few cases have been detected in Rome.

All of those who have died so far in Italy were either elderly or had pre-existing medical conditions.

Twelve regions have reported at least one case of the virus, including Sicily at the country's southern tip.

Hotel bookings in the northern city of Milan have plummeted to 20 percent, compared with nearly 90 percent normally at this time of year.

Even in Rome, more than 50 percent of bookings have been cancelled until the end of March, hotel association Federalberghi said.

The government has stopped all movement in and out of 11 towns in two regions in the north - Lombardy and Veneto - in a bid to stop the contagion spreading.

Some Lent Ash Wednesday services were cancelled or limited in areas of northern Italy hit by the spread of coronavirus.
A farmer has been described by the police as the 'true embodiment of community spirit' after he helped clear roads of storm debris.

Hertfordshire farmer Tom Mixture's work was 'invaluable' during Storm Ciara when he helped clear roads of debris and fallen trees.

Tom, who farms at Woodoaks Farm in Maple Cross, worked with the police for 14 hours and covered over 200 miles across the district, re-opening 21 roads.

The team even crossing over into Watford, Hertsmere and the Thames Valley area at times.

Between them, they managed to re-open 21 roads that had been closed by falling debris.

Despite the rain lashing down and winds reaching in excess of 60mph, Tom got to work with his industrial chainsaw by using it to cut the wood into smaller pieces.

He then helped the officers to lift and remove it from the carriageway.

The 'community hero' has now been presented with a certificate of appreciation by the Chief Inspector as acknowledgement of his support.

PC Christian Gottmann said the farmer is the 'true embodiment of community spirit'.

The 'community hero' was presented with a certificate of appreciation by the Chief Inspector as acknowledgement of his support

"We are so grateful to him for his assistance because it meant we were able to keep the district moving during the dreadful weather we were having," he said.

"It also shows just how important it is to foster relationships with key members of the community, as they can have a hugely positive impact on the wider public when we all work together.

Receiving the certificate, Tom said he 'enjoys helping out whenever he can', and he praised the local police's efforts in combating rural crime.

"It is great to have the opportunity to give a little help back whenever I can," he said.

"PC Christian Gottmann and the team are doing a great job keeping a close eye on the local farms tackling motorbikes causing a nuisance, monitoring fly tipping, poaching and theft.

They are very quick to respond if we have any troubles or concerns."
Mr. Buffett wrote in the letter that keeping such a concentrated position of stock was not in accordance with prudent trust management and could open up trustees to litigation from beneficiaries who received less money than they expected. Berkshire Hathaways stock could conceivably tumble in the 12 to 15 years he expects it will take to distribute his billions to charity.

This acknowledgment might seem enough to absolve the trustees, but such directives have not always protected trustees from litigation over the management of the assets. Once a trust is funded, those trustees are managing and distributing that money for an entity that is separate from Mr. Buffett or any other person who created the trust. They are responsible to the beneficiaries, be they charities or individuals, who are expecting to get distributions that do not decrease.

Whenever theres money involved, people are likely to sue, Ms. Klein said. With individuals, theres no more where that came from. And attorneys general are vigilant overseers of charitable funds. The best advice is: Be vigilant about performing your fiduciary duty.

If the person setting up the trust is determined to make it restrictive, advisers recommend setting up a directed trust, which splits up the roles of trustees and gives some the right to direct actions of others. These trusts have existed for a century in Delaware, and other states have adopted them more recently, including Nebraska, where Mr. Buffett lives.

When you look at directed trusts, its very clear under the statute that, with what you can give to the adviser, theyll be off the hook, said John D. Dadakis, a partner at Holland & Knight. In a jurisdiction like Delaware, you can say, Hey, this was the guy who created Berkshire Hathaway. Unless you saw malfeasance at the company level, can you really say he was wrong about what he did?

There are ways to undo what people have written into their trust documents, but they generally involve going to court for guidance. But sometimes, the documents are not as tied up as they seem.

It may be rigid on its face, but there could be flexible provisions written in, said Kevin Matz, a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. One strategy is decanting, in which the assets of an existing trust are poured into a new one. Another is looking for provisions that allow the assets to be distributed to other beneficiaries, who can then put them in their own trusts.
Nigerias government must be proactive and not resort to blame games if it is to contain the coronavirus, a former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has said.

Mr Abubakar assured Nigerians that the coronavirus disease would be defeated, just as the country defeated Ebola, in 2014.

Nigerians woke up to the news of the first recorded coronavirus (officially called COVID-19) case early on Friday, following confirmation from the Lagos State Government.

The disease has killed thousands of people globally, a majority in China where the disease originated from.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that an Italian national, who came into the country on Tuesday on a business trip, had tested positive at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, and taken to the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) in Yaba.

Following the confirmed case, the Lagos State Ministry of Health said it has begun to identify all the contacts of the infected Italian national in order to isolate them and hedge the spread of the virus.

Mr Abubakar, in a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES on Friday, called on the federal government to be proactive in its approach.

Now that Nigeria has had her first confirmed case of the Corona Virus infestation, via a citizen of Italy, who visited Lagos and Ogun states, I would want to offer my patriotic counsel to the government of General Muhammadu Buhari, on how best to tackle this issue.

We must call upon our experience with the Wild Ebola Virus, of which we were the first nation in the world to defeat that scourge in 2014. How did Nigeria do it? We achieved it by showing unprecedented unity. The federal government of the day worked closely with the Lagos and Rivers state governments. There was complete unity, solidarity and oneness of purpose, which created the atmosphere that defeated that deadly infestation.

I strongly counsel that any tendency to blame and point fighters must be temporarily, if not permanently, suspended. If fingers must be pointed, it must be to solutions.

Mr Abubakar, in the statement, which was also posted on his social media pages on Friday, emphasised that Nigeria needs firm and decisive actions to prevent an escalation of the scourge.

READ ALSO:

Recently, we closed our borders as an act against economic sabotage. Perhaps now is the time to temporarily halt flights to and from any nation with a prevalence of this scourge. It is more important to secure human lives than to secure an economy. We also need to invest in early detection facilities at our airports.

He, however, advised that Nigerians, whether at government or individual levels, should not panic.

We have defeated Ebola before, and we can defeat this present predicament.

This crisis is an opportunity to show that we are first and foremost Nigerians and that we have no other country but our dear fatherland, which we must work together to keep healthy and secure, he said.
Newport Beach, Calif., Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DPW Holdings, Inc. (NYSE American: DPW), a diversified holding company (DPW, or the Company), announced on January 2, 2020 that its wholly owned subsidiary, DPW Financial Group, Inc. (DPWF), had entered into an agreement to acquire two broker-dealers, consisting of Glendale Securities, Inc. (GSI), a retail broker-dealer, and its correspondent clearing broker dealer (collectively, the Firms).

DPW also announced that the closing of the agreement was subject to customary conditions, including regulatory clearance, which consisted principally of approval by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA). On January 8, 2020, the Company announced that on January 7, 2020, the Firms had held a telephonic meeting with representatives of FINRA and that they were informed that the proposed transaction would not be approved in its then contemplated form. As a result, the Firms had withdrawn their respective applications seeking FINRAs approval of the agreement.

The Company reviewed the information it was provided by GSI and, after evaluating its options with respect to the agreement, decided to terminate the agreement and not pursue the acquisition of the Firms.

DPWs CEO and Chairman, Milton Todd Ault, III said, While we are disappointed that the previously announced acquisition will not be completed, our recently announced $7.7 million exchange agreement improves our capital structure and enables management to focus on the many other opportunities we have to grow our business. We are committed to providing financial resources to enable our existing businesses to expand.

For more information on DPW Holdings and its subsidiaries, the Company recommends that stockholders, investors and any other interested parties read the Companys public filings and press releases available under the Investor Relations section at www.DPWHoldings.com or available at www.sec.gov .

About DPW Holdings, Inc.

DPW Holdings, Inc. is a diversified holding company pursuing growth by acquiring undervalued businesses and disruptive technologies with a global impact. Through its wholly and majority-owned subsidiaries and strategic investments, the Company provides mission-critical products that support a diverse range of industries, including defense/aerospace, industrial, telecommunications, medical, crypto-mining, and textiles. In addition, the Company owns a select portfolio of commercial hospitality properties and extends credit to select entrepreneurial businesses through a licensed lending subsidiary. DPWs headquarters are located at 201 Shipyard Way, Suite E, Newport Beach, CA 92663; www.DPWHoldings.com .

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements generally include statements that are predictive in nature and depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, and include words such as believes, plans, anticipates, projects, estimates, expects, intends, strategy, future, opportunity, may, will, should, could, potential, or similar expressions. Statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on current beliefs and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any of them publicly in light of new information or future events. Actual results could differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement as a result of various factors. More information, including potential risk factors, that could affect the Companys business and financial results are included in the Companys filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, the Companys Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K. All filings are available at www.sec.gov and on the Companys website at www.DPWHoldings.com .




The Supreme Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail till March 6 to Congress leader Hardik Patel in the case lodged against him in connection with the violence during the Patidar stir in Gujarat in 2015.

A bench of justices U U Lalit and Vineet Saran issued notice to the Gujarat government on the plea of Patel seeking quashing of a case against him.

"The case was lodged in 2015 and the investigation is still pending in the matter. You can't sit on the case for past five years," the bench said.

The Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti under Patel had organised a mega rally in Ahmedabad as part of the quota stir, and an FIR was lodged for "unlawful assembly" as the police claimed the event did not have requisite permissions.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Starting Feb 27, supporters will be able to shop the Her Impact Matters collection--a collection named for the brand's beloved Impact Case series and the strong women who continue to wear and inspire the accessories everyday. The collection's online global release will not only debut new designs, but it will also reintroduce best-sellers and updated artwork from an all-female artist crew. Fans of the CASETiFY artist community can expect to see new prints, in addition to classic styles from Martina Martian, Bodil Jane, Agathe Sorlet, Shayla Bond, Black Lamb Studio, Halie Jost, Quotes by Christie, Holly Nichols and more. Designs featured in the collection will take on CASETiFY's signature "sticker-style" aesthetic, with bold pantones and power phrases featured on the brand's Ultra Impact Case and Neon Sand Case, all of which join the ranks of the charitable collection.

"As a global community, we're continually uplifted and inspired by the individuals who wear and represent our brand," said CEO and Co-founder Wes Ng. "That's why we're beyond proud to partner with Malala Fund, an organization that fights for equality and the right to express yourself through education, creativity and passion. We hope our CASETiFY community will join us in support of the mission."

Extending beyond International Women's Day, CASETiFY is proud to continue its partnership with Malala Fund, donating 100 percent of the collection's proceeds to the organization throughout the month of March. Purchases from the Her Impact Matters collection will support Malala Fund's work to build a world where every girl can choose her future. Malala Fund advocates for resources and policy changes needed to give all girls a secondary education, invests in local education advocates and amplifies the voices of girls fighting for change.

The Her Impact Matters collection will launch online at www.casetify.com/her-impact-matters , with products shipping worldwide to supporters around the globe. To join the movement and take part in the social campaign, follow along the hashtag #HerImpactMatters and visit the @CASETiFY Instagram accounts to try out the exclusive face filters and see how others in the community make an impact.

# # #

About CASETiFY

Founded in 2011, CASETiFY is recognized as the first and largest global platform for creativity and customization. Built on a mission to connect individuals through their tech accessories, CASETiFY now serves as the leading Gen Z brand, delivering personalized cases to millions of customers around the world. Today, CASETiFY offers stylishly slim and drop-protected accessories to over 180 countries.

Over the years, CASETiFY has expanded through three key channels: celebrity partnerships, retail channels, and brand design collaborations. Past highlights include launching both Sarah Jessica Parker and Pharrell William's first tech accessories collections, unique in-store activations with Colette, Nordstrom, and Anthropologie, online partnerships with REVOLVE.com and ShopBop.com, along with tech capsule collections with Saint Laurent, Moncler, Vetements, DHL, The Pokemon Company, streetwear label BAPE, and global K-Pop group BTS.

SOURCE Casetify
HERKIMER, N.Y.  The Herkimer County Chamber of Commerce held its annual legislative breakfast event Friday morning to allow residents a chance to talk with local representatives.

NEWSChannel 2s General Manager Steve McMurray moderated the panel, which included Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon, Assemblyman Brian Miller, Sen. James Seward, Assemblyman Robert Smullen and County Legislator Jim Bono.

The legislators discussed bail reform, minimum wage increases and Medicaid.

Officials say Gov. Cuomos plan to shift Medicaid costs to local government could make Herkimer County responsible for about $500,000.

"We didn't expect the hit on Medicaid, unfortunately. But fortunately, we do have new businesses coming into the area that are going to help compensate for that deficit," said Michele Hummel, executive director Herkimer County Chamber of Commerce.

Officials hope the new Adirondack Food and Fuel Center heading to the Frankfort Business Park will help offset the increase in Medicaid costs by brining in more than $700,000 in sales tax revenue.
Campaigning will draw to a close this weekend, and no more poll results will be published (by law). Still, party activists will continue their efforts on the ground until the voting is over. Israel has probably never seen an election as intense as this one, with people fighting over every single vote. The most recent polls show that the roughly equal division of the electorate into two rival blocs will repeat itself in the March 2 election. In other words, the election will not be decided by which of the candidates has a bigger bloc behind him. As far as the Likud and the Blue and White party go, they are locked in a race over which will be the biggest party in the Knesset. Meanwhile, it is obvious to everyone that voter turnout in the Arab population will ultimately determine the value of each seat and the division of seats in the house.

The Arab Joint List claims that it can win as many as 16 seats this time around. They also believe that this will help keep Benjamin Netanyahu out of the prime ministers office. Netanyahu seems to realize this, too, so he has avoided the mistake he made in the last two elections, when he failed to form a government. In this election he did not incite Jewish Israelis against Arab voters. His proposed Camera Law (to install cameras in polling stations) on the eve of the September 2019 election was supposedly intended to prevent voter fraud in Arab towns and villages. What actually happened as a result was that it spurred Arab citizens to take advantage of their right to vote. While they may not have voted en masse, voting rates were noticeably higher among the Arab public than they were in previous elections.

In the current election, Netanyahu limited his incitement campaign to target only Knesset members from the Joint List  because he cant go without any incitement or intimidation at all against the Arabs. At the same time, he took great care not to incite against Arab voters. He even tried to convince them that he would be good also for the Arabs, because he plans to repeal the Kaminitz Law, which was approved by the Knesset in 2017.

On Feb. 25, the Knessets Finance Committee decided to freeze implementation of the controversial Kaminitz Law until further notice. The law, which is named for Deputy Attorney General Erez Kaminitz, calls for stiffer penalties for building violations. The Israeli Arab population suffers from acute housing shortage, mainly because the government had neglected for years their communities and pushed forward no development programs or urban planning. This desperate situation has generated many building violations in Israeli Arab towns and villages. Thus, the law seems to target the Arab population. Former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked admitted as much in an interview in 2019, when she said, The goal was to enforce laws against illegal construction in the non-Jewish sector.

In talks between the Joint List and the Blue and White party after the September 2019 election, the Joint List presented a list of conditions that needed to be met if they were to recommend Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to form the next government. One of these demands was the repeal of this law, because it discriminates against Arabs. Netanyahu is well aware that the law continues to upset Arab voters, so one week before voting begins, the Kaminitz Law is on its way to repeal.

It is doubtful that Netanyahu really believes that he can win three seats from the Arab sector, as he claimed in a Feb. 19 interview with the Arabic-language website PANET. Rather, it looks like he is trying to spread apathy among Arab voters, so that they dont rush to vote for the Joint List  because they dont have to. The repeal of the Kaminitz Law would certainly help him get the message across that Arab voters should be treated with leniency  at least like West Bank settlers  and that he wants to help them.

Knesset member Avi Dichter (Likud), former director of the Shin Bet, came to Netanyahus aid Feb. 26 by trying to relay that same message. In an Arabic-language video that Dichter posted  and which Netanyahu shared on Twitter  he tried to drive a wedge between Knesset members for the Joint List and their electorate. In it, Dichter argues that these Arab Knesset members care only about themselves and their seats. They support the Palestinian Authority, but do nothing on behalf of their voters. In contrast, claimed Dichter, the Likud under Netanyahu invested 15 billion Israeli shekels ($4.3 billion) in Arab society over the last decade.

Not only does Dichter belittle the intelligence of Arab voters in his video, he also ignores the fact that virtually all Israeli Arabs speak fluent Hebrew. They really dont need him to speak to them in Arabic, especially not in an accent that they can all identify  the accent Dichter picked up in the Arabic-language school of the Shin Bet.

As if that was not enough, Netanyahu also decided to go campaigning in Arab towns and villages. At a Feb. 26 rally planned for him in the town of Tamra, he learned (if he didnt actually know it already) that years of incitement against the Arab population cannot be erased with a single visit. About 80 people showed up for the rally, while dozens more held Palestinian flags as they demonstrated against him outside. They were furious about his visit. Back in the hall, Netanyahu repeated Dichters remarks: What has the Joint List really done for you? he asked. They constantly talk about [Palestinian President] Mahmoud Abbas and a Palestinian state, but what have they actually done for you? Walla ishi! [an Arab phrase meaning "nothing"]. Equality isnt just words. Equality is expressed in action, and before that, resources. Of course, he promised to provide them with plenty of those vital resources just after the election.

Netanyahu is lying. He is trying to ingratiate himself by making empty promises, Knesset member Yousef Jabareen (Hadash) told Al-Monitor. He claims that Netanyahu is scared because he knows that the stronger the Joint List becomes, the less likely he will be able to form a new government. That's why he is switching strategies, Jabareen said. He realizes that his incitement boomeranged back at him, and prodded [Arab] residents to go vote against him.

As aforementioned, the Joint List is convinced that with the right ground game, organization and effective efforts to persuade voters, they can win as many as 16 seats. Its members are confident that Netanyahu will not be able to convince a single Arab voter to cast his ballot for him. While a 16-seat target does not seem realistic, one thing is certain: The only person Netanyahu can blame for the strength of the Joint List  beside himself  is his former partner and now his bitter rival Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman. Liberman worked hard to get the electoral threshold raised in 2014, and he did it for the sole purpose of keeping the small Arab parties out of the Knesset. He never imagined that the Arab parties would join forces despite the vast ideological differences between them. He never would have guessed that they would become the third-largest party in the Knesset, holding the balance of power. Who knew that they would prevent Netanyahu from forming a right-wing government, forcing him, instead, to ingratiate himself with their Arab electorate? The days of the Messiah have finally arrived!
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A Goddard Junior High student was arrested Wednesday for behaving inappropriately and was taken to Culver Juvenile Detention Center, according to a spokesman with the Midland ISD Communications Office. No other details will be released about the incident in order to protect student privacy, the spokesman said in an email Thursday afternoon.

The student allegedly made a threatening comment, which officials believe was a response to his situation. Nevertheless, two extra officers were on campus Thursday, according to a message Goddard Principal Brandy Copeland sent out to parents Thursday morning.
Rajasthan government took action against an IPS officer on Friday in the case of custodial death of a Dalit man in Barmer district. Superintendent of Police Sharad Choudhary was put on APO (awaiting posting order) and the station house officer (SHO) of the Rural police station Deep Singh was booked for murder along with other junior cops.

Deep Singh was suspended yesterday and 20 policemen including two assistant sub-inspectors, two head constables and 16 constables were sent to police line in departmental action that followed the death of 22-year-old Dalit, Jeetu Khateek, who had been detained illegally at Rural police station in the Barmer district.

A Muslim man was beaten and tortured by three cops on February 15 at the same police station leading to their suspension.

Jeetu, a scrap dealer, was allegedly picked up by the police on Wednesday from his shop on suspicion of involvement in a theft case. However, no case of theft was found lodged against Jeetu at the Rural police station, said officials.

He was kept in detention for over 24 hours leading to his death on Thursday. Police claimed Jeetu died at the hospital where he had been taken after he reported a health problem. The family, however, said Jeetu was fine when they had met him at 9 am. They have killed Jeetu, they alleged.

Jeetus kin allege he was tortured in custody, his brother Dharamendra said Jeetu was very frightened and pleaded for help to get out of the police custody, when they met him on Thursday morning.

When we met Jeetu he had apprehension that police would kill him, alleged Dharamendra.

Family members hadnt received his body in protest till Friday morning. A protest was held in Barmer demanding the arrest of guilty cops and compensation of one crore to the deceaseds family, along with a government job for a member.

The autopsy had not been conducted till the time of filing this report and therefore the cause of Jeetus death was not known.

Additional suprintendent of police is probing the matter and will submit his report within three days.

Fourth SP put on APO in Barmer

Sharad Choudhary is the fourth Barmer SP to be put on APO. Shivraj Meena was put on APO in a case of hit and run in which a couple and their young son were killed on September 21 last. Earlier Rashi Dogra Dudi and Manish Agarwal were also put on APO.

Second custodial death in four months:

Jeetus the second case of custodial death in Barmer within the last six months. Earlier, on October 5, 2019, an RTI activist died in Pachpadra police station. According to the information, activist Jagdish Goliya, 42, died a day after he was arrested in a land dispute case.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 07:32:52|Editor: huaxia

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SANTIAGO, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese ride-hailing platform Didi Chuxing on Thursday expanded its range of services in Chile by launching DiDi Taxi in the capital Santiago.

"We want to contribute to improved mobility in Chile through diverse options with accessible prices, better safety standards and all the technology of our platform," head of corporate affairs Felipe Simonsohn said in a release.

In Santiago, residents can now hail a regular taxi using the DiDi app, which offers passengers the option of paying in cash or with a credit card. The app additionally provides insurance coverage for both drivers and users.

The company had been in talks with taxi organizations and government officials for months before launching the service.

"We believe this is the right path to continue to improve mobility in our country's cities, by integrating the different means of transport for the benefit of users and entrepreneurs," said Simonsohn.

Nearly 5,000 taxis have joined the program, the company said.

Didi Chuxing began operating in Chile in June 2019.
Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena, 37, was working for the US government in Mexico when he was abducted, tortured and killed by cartel members in February 1985.

A CIA operative conspired with a drug kingpin to plan the brutal murder of a DEA Agent, according to multiple witnesses who have been re-interviewed about the 1985 case.

Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena, 37, was working for the US government in Guadalajara, Mexico when he was abducted, tortured and killed by cartel members in February 1985.

Camarena's death was thought to have been ordered by Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, a drug lord known as The Godfather, who controlled trafficking along the US-Mexico border.

However, bombshell new testimony from three men who worked as security guards for the cartel kingpin tells a more sinister story.

According to a report published Thursday in USA Today, 'US Justice Department agents and prosecutors have obtained statements from the witnesses implicating a Central Intelligence Agency operative and a DEA official in the plot to torture and murder Camarena'.

Camarena's widow and the mother of his three sons, Mika, told the publication: 'I want the truth to be out. At this point, nothing would surprise me.'

Camarena is pictured with wife Mika and two of their sons shortly before his death

Camarena's disappearance made worldwide headlines in February 1985, and sparked fury from the Reagan Administration

Camarena's disappearance made worldwide headlines in February 1985, and sparked fury from the Reagan Administration, who effectively shut down the southern border in a bid to pressure the Mexican government to catch the culprits.

The DEA Agent's remains were discovered a month later, and investigators later learned that he was brutally tortured for more than 30 hours. Camarena's captors beat and burned him, before using a power tool to drill into his skull. He was likely injected with drugs to ensure he remained conscious throughout the ordeal.

The manhunt for Camarena's killers was 'the largest in DEA history' and, eventually, several Mexican drug lords and their henchmen were indicted.

Gallardo, known as 'The Godfather', remains behind bars for his role in the murder.

Two associates, Ernesto 'Don Neto' Fonseca and Rafael Caro Quintero, were also convicted.

But in 2013, Quintero was released from jail on a technicality, and is now on is now on the FBI's most-wanted list, with authorities offering a $20 million reward for his capture.

Meanwhile, alleged henchmen Rene Verdugo and Juan Matta-Ballesteros were also jailed for their involvement, before a judge disputed forensic evidence and threw out their convictions in 2017.

Mika Camarena is pictured meeting Ronald Reagan at the White House shortly after her husband's death

While prosecutors were deciding whether or not to re-try the two men, they interviewed the three witnesses, where the allegations about the CIA involvement was revealed.

The three men's testimonies have been described as 'incredible' by a lawyer working for the recently released Verdugo.

He stated that all three of the men are said to 'have witnessed CIA operatives working alongside cartel members.'.

The lawyer asked a federal judge to order the government to turn over 'all discovery concerning alleged CIA involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Agent Camarena'.

However, Verdugo and Matta-Ballesteros will not be re-tried, and the CIA declined to comment to USA Today.

The names of any particular CIA or DEA Agents who allegedly conspired in Camarena's death have not been disclosed.

Meanwhile, Camarena's case recently received renewed interest after it became the center of the new Netflix series Narcos: Mexico, with Michael Pena playing the lead role.
The University of California (UC) strike is a political struggle. UC strikers and supporters can hear Socialist Equality Party presidential and vice-presidential candidates Joseph Kishore and Norissa Santa Cruz speak next week at townhall meetings at UC Berkeley (March 3), UC Los Angeles (March 4), and San Diego (March 5). Read Santa Cruzs statement on the UC struggle here.

On Thursday, hundreds of graduate students at the University of California (UC) in the cities of Santa Barbara and Davis officially began their strikes, joining the wildcat strike launched by graduate students at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) three weeks ago on February 10. The decision to spread the strike to two more campuses was in direct defiance of the UC administration, which set Thursday midnight as the deadline to submit grades or be fired, and the United Auto Workers (UAW), which negotiated a no-strike pledge in the poverty-wage contract students are working under.

Strikers at UCSC defied the previous deadline of Friday, February 21 by UCSC Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer and UC President Janet Napolitano. These university executives have threatened to fire striking grad students, opening up international students to deportation, and have refused to grant any improvements in the contract because that would undercut the very foundation of an agreement negotiated in good faith by the UAW. Instead, the university proposed a one-time $2,500 housing supplement for this year only if students ended the strike.

The UCSC graduate students have held by their demand of a $1,412 monthly COLA to adequately meet skyrocketing housing costs since they first began their grading strike last semester that expanded into a full teaching and research strike this month. The strikes on other campuses have begun with demands for monthly stipends of $1,553 at UC Davis and $1,807 at UC Santa Barbara.

Yesterdays rallies and picket lines attracted large crowds of up to a thousand at their peak. Over 200 faculty members at UC Davis have signed a non-retaliation agreement, promising to support the striking grad students while they refrain from teaching classes, taking part in their own classes, and submitting grades.

As the support increases, the financial and Democratic Party establishment that backs the UAW and UC administration will work even harder to end, isolate and sabotage their struggle. The strike is approaching a crossroads, and graduate students must consider what strategy is required to defend the strike and win their demands.

The fight for the basic right to livable pay, benefits, and high-quality public education is not just a fight of UC graduate students, but a fight of the whole working class. Further, this fight immediately places workers against the political establishment, particularly the Democratic Party, which has controlled the UC system through appointments to the board of regents.

Workers across the globe would easily recognize the poor conditions that graduate students face as a result of this decades-long processmarked by low pay and high costs of living, heavier workloads, less job security and fewer full-time positions, and year-after-year budget cuts that place strains on valuable academic departments.

Graduate students in the UC system, who carry out vital tasks associated with teaching and research for the largest university system in the United States while also completing their own degrees, earn salaries ranging between $22,000 and $43,000 depending on the funding in their department. Most students earnings, especially outside of science and technology, are on the lower end.

To place this in perspective, the average two-bedroom apartment in California is around $1,700 per month or $20,400 per year. Even under the assumption that a graduate student splits rent with a roommate or family member, $10,200 per year is nearly 50 percent of the common students earnings. The National Low Income Housing Coalition calculated that a salary of $72,155 is needed to comfortably afford the average rent in California, based on a 40-hour work week and median rent.

It is essential to know that the UAW will not issue calls for the expansion of the strike or the active support of other sections of the working class, no matter how militant its members are. In fact, the UAW has come out openly against the unauthorized strikes of graduate students at other UC campuses, telling its UC Berkeley members that strikes not called by the union are unprotected activity and they would not call a strike even in the event that UCSC students are fired.

Instead, the union bureaucrats are directing appeals to the corporate-backed UC administration to reopen negotiations with the bargaining committee for a legal contract.

In order to continue the fight, grad students cannot trust in negotiations between the same administration and union that arranged their poverty in the first place. The most urgent task is to broaden the strike through direct appeals to other sections of students and workers to join forces in a common struggle. This means seeking active support from workers across the United States and internationally.

Within education alone, there exists a great number of working-class allies to whom UC students must turn their attention. Statewide wildcat strikes of public school employees shook West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona in 2018, followed by strikes in Los Angeles and Oakland at the beginning of 2019. None of the dire conditions driving these teachers to strike have been resolved.

In the United Kingdom, tens of thousands of academic workers started a four-week strike last week at 60 universities across the country, focused on the defense of pension benefits, wage increases, job security, and reduced workloads. Directly north of the United States, over 200,000 public school teachers participated in large demonstrations in Ontario, Canada causing the unions to crack down and end the workplace actions out of fear of a broader expansion of the struggle. Teachers in St. Paul, Minnesota, in the United States are set to strike on March 10 for appropriate staff levels and pay.

In California, approximately 12,000 Santa Clara County workers covered by the Service Employees International Union, Local 521 are set to strike today (Friday) if an agreement is not reached, after workers have already been on the job without a renewed contract since June. On the other side of the United States, thousands of workers at more than one hundred Safeway grocery stores near Washington, D.C. will soon vote to strike over issues of low pay, lack of full-time positions, pensions and healthcare benefits.

These immediate examples of other points of the class struggle currently underway indicate the way forward, that is, relying upon the strength of the working class, united in struggle for their common class interests against their common ruling-class enemies.
In Balkh, where attacks caught U.S. attention, it is believed that a Taliban commander was operating without the approval of his leaders, said one senior U.S. military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The commander needed to pick up his game and meet the terms of the seven-day deal, a message that was relayed to Taliban leaders overseeing him, the senior U.S. official said.
Photo: The Canadian Press Quebec Health Minister Danielle McCann

Quebec public health officials are reporting the province's first presumptive case of the new coronavirus.

Health Minister Danielle McCann announced Thursday night that the patient, a woman from the Montreal region, had returned from Iran on Monday.

Officials said the woman visited a clinic with minor symptoms. The tests for coronavirus were conducted the day after her return to Canada, with positive results coming back Thursday.

"While the person was being cared for, all precautionary measures were put in place," McCann said. "She did not require hospitalization, so she is currently in isolation, alone, at her home."

Health officials said that apart from visiting the clinic where she was diagnosed, the woman's contacts in Montreal were essentially limited to her immediate family, who are also in isolation. The patient did not take public transit and was not in a workplace, McCann said.

She travelled to Montreal on a flight from Doha, Qatar. Quebec health officials said they are looking for people who came into close contact with her in Montreal. They will also take necessary steps to identify passengers who were close to her on the plane.

McCann said testing by the province's public health lab came back positive for the new coronavirus, dubbed COVID-19, but the result needs to be confirmed by the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg.

Results are expected Sunday. If confirmed, it would be the 14th confirmed case of the virus in Canada, and the first outside Ontario and British Columbia.
Hollywood star Jamie Foxx has expressed interest in coming to Ghana as part of the 'Beyond The Return' initiative.

'Beyond The Return' is an initiative by the government of Ghana which involves Ghanaians engaging in mutually beneficial trade, investment and cultural cooperation with the African Diaspora.

It is a follow-up from the 2019 'Year of Return' programme, which is to encourage people from the Diaspora to visit Ghana and connect with their origin.

The objective is to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the time when the first 20 West African slaves were brought to the Commonwealth of Virginia, which subsequently became part of the United States of America, thereby initiating one of the most unfortunate and barbaric episodes of human history the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

A lot of Hollywood stars like TI, Samuel L Jackson, Michael Jai White, Boris Kodjoe and a lot others have since visited Ghana as part of the initiative.

Jamie Foxx wants to come to Ghana with his family to be part of the celebration.

The 52-year-old actor made this known in a video of him hanging out with Ghanaian delegation to the 51st NAACP Image Awards in LA, California, USA.

In the video with UK-based Ghanaian talk show host Dentaa and others, he indicated that he was supposed to have come to Ghana earlier for a fashion event but he couldnt.

I am coming, he said. But I am bringing my family too. So I want everybody to come, he added in the video which was shared on the 'Beyond The Return' Instagram page.

In another video, he was captured learning how to greet and respond to greetings in Twi, one of the languages spoken in Ghana. Jamie's promise to Ghana follows that of Wesley Snipes, who announced earlier that he would be coming to Ghana soon.

---Daily Guide
There are an average of 29 deaths per day caused by drunk drivers in the United States - that's about one every 50 minutes.

More than one million people per year are arrested for breaking Driving Under the Influence (DUI) laws in the States, and each state has its own ways of handling its offenders, with varying jail sentences and fines as it aims to reduce the number of deaths caused by drunk drivers.

Close to 11,000 people are killed by drunk drivers each year. In 2017, California topped the list of impaired driving-related deaths at 1,120 fatalities caused by drinking and driving in that state alone.

7. California - 1120

It's no surprise the most populated state also has the highest number of deaths caused by drunk driving. In California, state officials take the issue seriously and depending on the level of offense its punishment can be severe.

A misdemeanor DUI vehicular manslaughter will result in up to one year in jail and about $1,000 in fines, as well as license suspension. A felony DUI vehicular manslaughter charge (determined by the level of negligence) could mean 16 months, two years, or four years in prison with an additional three to six years if other victims were also seriously injured, as well as up to $10,000 in fines.

Gross DUI vehicular manslaughter could be four, six, or 10 years in a state prison, or 15 years to life if there are any prior vehicular manslaughter convictions or two or more DUI convictions on record, and up to $10,000 in fines.

If someone has a DUI on record and was given what's known as a "Watson advisement," or a warning that DUI can cause death, then he or she can be charged with DUI murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, as well as a fine up to $10,000.

6. Florida - 839

Drunk drivers who cause a fatal crash in the Sunshune State could be charged with DUI manslaughter, a second-degree felony punishable with a fine up to $10,000 and up to 15 years in prison.

However, the crime become first-degree DUI manslaughter in a hit-and-run situation and though the fine maximum is the same, this charge could result in up to 30 years in prison.

5. North Carolina - 413

A drunken driving case in the US where a man accidentally drove his vehicle into a pond under the influence of alcohol. Image credit: Mark Taylo/Wikimedia.org

In North Carolina, felony death-by-vehicle is unintentionally killing someone while violating the states Driving While Impaired (DWI) laws. The offense is considered a class D felony and if convicted a driver could face 38 to 160 months in prison as well as fines.

However, if a driver has a previous DWI conviction and kills someone while drunk behind the wheel, it is considered aggravated felony death-by-vehicle and punishable with 64 to 160 months in prison.

All offenders in North Carolina have their licenses revoked for at least 12 months.

4. Georgia - 366

The Peach State will charge drunk drivers causing death with vehicular homicide, one of the most serious felonies in Georgia law.

Being convicted of felony-grade vehicular homicide could mean between three and 15 years in prison and a permanent smear on the driver's criminal record. If the motorist is a previous offender or has a suspended license, the sentence could be bumped to between five and 20 years.

3. Illinois - 349

Causing a fatal accident while impaired in Illinois carries varying levels of punishment depending on the severity of the crash.

If there was one death, imprisonment could be three to 14 years with a fine up to $25,000. In a case with multiple deaths, the punishment could be six to 28 years in prison in addition to up to $25,000 in fines.

2. Ohio - 333

The worst drunk driving accident in U.S. history prompted stricter drinking and driving laws. Twenty-seven students and parents died in this firey crash in 1988, caused by a drunk driver. Image credit: National Transportation Safety Scheme/Flickr.com

The State of Ohio views drunk driving causing death as vehicular homicide, which is a second-degree felony.

Being convicted of aggravated vehicular homicide comes with potential prison terms of two to eight years and a mandatory lifetime license suspension. But, if there is any prior conviction for vehicular homicide or assault or the license was suspended at the time of the crash, the sentence could be between 11 and 15 years.

1. Pennsylvania - 314

If a driver is found guilty of homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence in Pennsylvania, the penalty could be up to 10 years in prison. As in Illinois, the punishment could worsen for multiple deaths, with a mandatory three years in prison for every fatality caused by impaired driving.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that political discussions involving Union Home Minister's resignation can take place later while stressing that the need of the hour is to maintain peace in Delhi.

"Right now, the problem should be solved, political discussions can take place later," Banerjee told the reporters here on Opposition's demand of Home Minister Amit Shah's resignation in the wake of violence in North- East Delhi.

Expressing concern over the Delhi violence, the Chief Minister said, "What happened in Delhi is very upsetting. It should not have happened. Police personnel and an IB officer lost their lives along with several people. The victims' families should be given help and peace should return."

Banerjee had visited Bhubaneswar to attend the 24th Eastern Zonal Council meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The meeting of Council comprises of states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal.

The meeting was also attended by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, among others.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik earlier in the day also hosted a lunch for Amit Shah, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar at his residence in the city.

The last meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council was held in Kolkata on October 1, 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Seattle, Feb 28 : With five years of operations under its belt, Tata Group-Singapore Airlines backed passenger carrier Vistara is now looking to double its international ports of call in 2020.

In an interaction post taking delivery of first wide-body Dreamliner 787-9 aircraft at the Boeing facility in Everett, Vistara CEO Leslie Thng said the airline is looking at several international ports to start its long haul operations and the new aircraft may run its first commercial international flight either to Europe or to the far eastern region.

At present, the airline operates to Singapore, Dubai, Bangkok and Colombo and will commence services to Kathmandu. But these routes are serviced by its narrow bodied aircraft.

The Dreamliner 787-9 is the first aircraft to be operated by a domestic airline and is the first wide-body plane in Vistara's fleet. All other 39 planes in its fleet are narrow-body planes such as A320s and B737s.

Standing inside the 787-9 plane at the Boeing's facility, Thng said the Dreamliner would be initially deployed within India on domestic routes for one to two months for the crew to get familiar with the aircraft. It is also required as per the regulations in the country.

"We are looking at a few destinations for our long haul flights. Which destination would become the first depends on the approvals. Work is on to finalise the new destinations," he said.

The delivery of the Dreamliner is the first among the six that Vistara has ordered for delivery between 2020 and 2021. "The second would come to us by the end of next month. This would give us a lot of possibility in trying to fly to at least two destinations," Thng said.

"Europe is one of the places we are looking at in terms of destination. Far East is also an area we are looking at," Thng added.

Vistara on Thursday also announced expansion of its two-way codeshare agreement with Japan Airlines, which allows an airline to sell seats of other airline on its system.

Vistara stated that Japan Airlines will be able to sell tickets on its flights connecting Delhi to 19 Indian cities. On the other hand, the Indian carrier would be able to seek seats on five Japan Airlines flights going out of Tokyo. This could mean that Dreamliner may first run on Delhi-Tokyo route. Later the airline may also aim to start a Delhi-London flight.

Vistara currently has a one-way codeshare partnership with British Airways. Thng said that this will soon be a two-way codeshare partnership.

A wide-body aircraft helps the airline to go long distances that could cover the European, American as well as Far East markets.

Talking about the features of the Dreamliner aircraft, Thng said that seats in the new aircraft will have a TV screen. In business, premium economy and economy classes, the screen is 18 inches, 13 inches and 12 inches, respectively.

Thng also said that the first Dreamliner plane, which has the registration number VT-TSD, would be the first aircraft in India to provide WiFi service.

The Dreamliner has three class configuration with business class, premium economy class and economy class, each having 30 seats, 21 seats and 248 seats, respectively. In total, the aircraft has 299 seats.

Vistara had inaugurated international operations in August 2019 with Singapore as its first destination, followed by Dubai and Bangkok.

Besides destinations, the airline will expand its fleet size to 42 aircraft by March-end, including 787 and 321.

Last year, it placed an order for 50 aircraft from the Airbus A320neo family for the domestic market as well as short and medium-haul international operations, with deliveries scheduled between 2019 and 2023.

(Subhash Narayan can be contacted at subhash.n@ians.in. He is in the US on the invitation of Vistara)
On Thursday, March 5, at 12.30, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency will host a press conference on the subject: "The Role of Women in Ukrainian Community" to present the results of a sociology poll which covered 2,000 respondents. Participants: Head of the Rating Sociological Group Oleksiy Antypovych, Deputy Director of the Rating Sociological Group Liubomyr Mysiv (8/5a Reitarska Street). Registration of journalists with press cards on the spot. Additional information by phone: (097) 578 6868, (095) 578 6868, and on the website: www.ratinggroup.ua.
Freising/Germany - Researchers at the Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich (Leibniz-LSB@TUM) have confirmed the presence of the rare amino acid ethionine in a plant - or more precisely, in the fruit of the durian tree. Despite its pungent odor, durian is very popular in Southeast Asia. As the team of scientists has shown, the amino acid plays a key role in the formation of the characteristic durian odor.

The pulp of a ripe durian emits an unusually potent and very persistent smell that is reminiscent of rotten onions. That is why the fruit has been banned on local public transportation in Singapore and at numerous hotels in Thailand. Nevertheless, different varieties of durian are highly valued in many Asian countries. Durian pulp has a high nutritional value, a distinctly sweet taste, and a pleasantly creamy consistency.

Enzyme releases odorant from amino acid

Previous research conducted at the Leibniz-LSB@TUM had already shown that the fruit's stench is essentially due to the odorant ethanethiol and its derivatives. However, the biochemical pathway by which the plant produces ethanethiol remained unclear. As Nadine S. Fischer and Martin Steinhaus of the Leibniz-LSB@TUM have now demonstrated for the first time in their new study, ethionine is the precursor of the foul-smelling substance.

"Our findings suggest that as the fruit ripens, a plant-specific enzyme releases the odorant from ethionine," says lead author Nadine Fischer. "This is consistent with our observation that during fruit ripening not only the ethionine concentration in the pulp increases, but also at the same time that of the ethanethiol. The latter explains why a ripe durian emits an extremely strong smell."

Relevant not only from an olfactory aspect

"Knowing exactly how much ethionine the durian fruit contains is interesting not only because of its significance for the odor," says principle investigator Martin Steinhaus. The food chemist adds that animal tests and cell culture studies have verified that the amino acid is not harmless. Rats that incorporated high doses of the amino acid together with their food developed liver damage and cancer of the liver. A newer study, however, suggests that low concentrations of ethionine may even have positive immunomodulatory effects.

"This raises the question of whether eating the fruit entails health risks," says Steinhaus. "Further studies certainly need to be conducted." The expert reassures us, however, by noting that "in order to consume a comparable dose of ethionine that had toxic effects in animal tests, a person weighing 70 kilograms would in one day have to eat 580 kilograms of fruit pulp of the Krathum variety which is especially rich in ethionine."

###

Publications:

Fischer NS, Steinhaus M (2019) J Agric Food Chem (just accepted), DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.9b07065. Identification of an Important Odorant Precursor in Durian: First Evidence of Ethionine in Plants https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.9b07065

Li J-X, Schieberle P, Steinhaus M (2017) J Agric Food Chem 65: 639-647, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.6b05299. Insights into the key compounds of durian (Durio zibethinus L. 'Monthong') pulp odor by odorant quantitation and aroma simulation experiments https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.6b05299

Scientific Contact:

PD Dr. Martin Steinhaus

Head of Section I and the Work Group

Sensory Systems Chemistry

Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology

at the Technical University of Munich

Lise-Meitner-Str. 34

85354 Freising, Germany

Tel.: +49 8161 71-2991

Email: martin.steinhaus@tum.REMOVE-THIS.de

Press Contact:

Dr. Gisela Olias

Knowledge Transfer, Press & Public Relations

Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology

at the Technical University of Munich

Lise-Meitner-Str. 34

85354 Freising, Germany

Tel.: +49 8161 71 2980

E-Mail: g.olias.leibniz-lsb@tum.de

http://www.leibniz-lsb.de
Coalition of Community Organizations Hosts 'The 30 Year Genocide' Author

Professor Benny Morris, author of "The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey's Destruction of its Christian Minorities." Los Angeles -- The Philos Project, Armenian National Committee of America -- Western Region, Assyrian American Association of Southern California, American Hellenic Council, and Councilmember Paul Krekorian hosted renowned Israeli professor Benny Morris to present his groundbreaking book "The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey's Destruction of its Christian Minorities."

Professor Morris' research is the first of its kind to frame the genocide of the Ottoman Empire's indigenous Christian minorities as a continual process from 1894 to 1924. Where scholarship on the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek genocide has tended to examine the act of genocide in isolation, Morris' research has synthesized the narratives of Christian persecution in the Ottoman Empire -- from the Hamidian Massacres to Ataturk's establishment of the Republic of Turkey -- to demonstrate how genocide had been institutionalized over the span of three decades.

A former professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Goldman Visiting Israeli Professor in Georgetown's Department of Government, Professor Morris has led a distinguished career in academia, where he has been recognized for his work on the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

The discussion with Professor Morris, which was hosted in the Tom Bradley room of Los Angeles City Hall, was moderated by Robert Nicholson, Founder and Executive Director of the Philos Project. Nicholson founded Philos in 2014 to promote positive engagement in the Middle East amongst Christian leaders to advance freedom and justice on the ground.

The event brought together members of Southern California's Armenian, Greek, Assyrian, and Jewish communities on the heels of the historic recognition of the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides by the U.S. House and Senate last year.

"With the momentous victory of genocide recognition by Congress as a matter of official U.S. policy, this timely event sought to unite our communities together in both the solemn remembrance of this dark chapter in history and a commitment to ensuring this great crime will never be repeated," said Armen Sahakyan, Executive Director of the ANCA Western Region. "In examining the systemic factors that informed the Ottoman-era genocides, and examining genocide not as an isolated incident, but a continuous and institutionalized process, we are able to better equip ourselves in identifying and combatting contemporary cases of genocide."

"Author Benny Morris's presentation was a powerful, meticulous, and enlightening discussion of the hidden genocide of Turkey's Christian minorities between 1894 and 1924. Never before has an author presented this as a "Christian Genocide" of Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrian communities. Historically accurate and factually presented, the book and Benny Morris's presentation chronicles the organized destruction of all three communities from Ottoman Sultans to modern Turkey," said AHC President, Dr. James F. Dimitrou. "Furthermore, this historic event highlights our new coalition with the determination to work together to counter continued Turkish propaganda that denies the destruction of all three Christian Communities. Together we finally will proclaim the truth! Together we will challenge the dangerous Turkish positions. Together we will work through a new coalition of truth and justice," he concluded.

"Events like last Monday's insightful talk by Benny Morris serve as the most recent example of cross-community efforts with our Armenian and Greek brothers and sisters," said Peter Warda, President of the Assyrian American Association of Southern California. "We cannot stress how invaluable it is to have a collective voice in solidarity with communities affected by genocide and persecution, thereby speaking truth to power through education, awareness, and advocacy initiatives."

"A few people ask me why we hosted an event about something that happened a hundred years ago," said Philos Founder and President Robert Nicholson. "I give two reasons. First, any future American engagement in the Near East must begin by understanding what happened in the past. Second, the spirit that gave rise to the Turkish genocide still haunts the region and must be confronted by a coalition of peoples and faiths who believe that Jews, Christians, and Muslims belong there," he added.

"It is entirely fitting that two Israeli Jews, Benny Morris and Dror Ze'evi, produced such groundbreaking scholarship on a Christian catastrophe. Through their research -- and their mere existence as fellow Near Eastern minorities -- they prove that goodwill between different religious communities is not only possible but already present," concluded Nicholson.

In attendance included Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Amb. Nina Hachigian, representatives from the offices of California State Senator Anthony Portantino and Assemblymember Laura Friedman, the inaugural Chair of Modern Armenian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles Professor Richard Hovannissian, and others.

The event -- emceed by Juliana Taimoorazy -- was formally opened by the representatives of each of the partner organizations, including the President of the American Hellenic Council Dr. James F Dimitriou, the newly-minted President of the Assyrian American Association of Southern California Peter Warda, and the ANCA Western Region Executive Director Armen Sahakyan.

The Philos Project is a dynamic leadership community dedicated to promoting positive Christian engagement in the Middle East. This community is centered on a growing network of city-based chapters located in North America and around the world. Philos equips a new generation of Western Christians to support friends in the region who share our vision for pluralism. They offer educational resources, immersive travel programs, and networking and advocacy opportunities that help Christian leaders understand and engage with important Middle East issues and support innovative projects that help advance liberty and justice on the ground.

The Armenian National Committee of America -- Western Region is the largest and most influential nonpartisan Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANCA-WR advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues in pursuit of the Armenian Cause.

The American Hellenic Council is a non-partisan political advocacy organization. Our goal is to promote democracy, human rights, peace, and stability in Southern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, with an emphasis on Greece and Cyprus, by informing the American public and the government about on-going issues and conflicts in the area.

Founded in 1964, The Assyrian American Association of Southern California is a nonpartisan organization whose broad mission is to serve and advance the Assyrian-American community by concentrating on a wide spectrum of areas such as cultural and linguistic identity, public/governmental outreach and advocacy, education, arts/literature, youth services, and many others.
The ruler of Dubai today lost his court bid to keep secret his marital feud with his youngest wife who ran away to London.

The Appeal Court ruled that the world should know what a judge has concluded about Sheikh Maktoum and Princess Haya's High Court wrangle, which has been going on since she fled Dubai last year.

Princess Haya, wearing a lilac dress suit, was in the Appeal Court in London to hear the verdict, arriving with lawyer Baroness Fiona Shackleton.

But despite the ruling, the details of the case remain private because the billionaire sheikh - a friend of the Queen - now has the option of taking his appeal to the Supreme Court, to ask the highest judges in the land to keep the case under wraps.

Princess Haya, 45, ran away to London last year 'in fear of her life', taking the couple's two children with her and applying for them to be made wards of court.

The sheikh, who owns racehorse stables and homes in the UK, applied to the High Court for the 'summary return' of the young royals.

The princess also asked the High Court for a 'non-molestation order', commonly used in domestic violence cases.

She also urged the court to protect one of her children from being forced into an arranged marriage, applying for a 'forced marriage protection order'. This is designed to stop someone who may be at risk of a forced marriage from being taken out of the UK.

Princess Haya arriving at the Court of Appeal with Baroness Fiona Shackleton for today's hearing

Princess Haya accompanies Mohammed bin Rashed al-Maktoum at Ascot in 2008

The judge in the High Court case, Sir Andrew McFarlane, has presided over a dozen hearings in private and has made a series of findings, which at present cannot be reported because the family court operates in private.

But Sir Andrew, the president of the family division of the High Court, has ruled that his judgment can be made public. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 70, appealed this decision, and there was a hearing on Wednesday at the Appeal Court.

Today, the Appeal Court vice president Lord Justice Underhill said: 'The unanimous decision of the court is that these appeals should be dismissed.'

Princess Haya, 45, who was the youngest of his six wives, is supporting a media application for the world to be allowed to see the family court's judgments in the case. The independent guardian, who was appointed by the court to represent the two children's interests, is also supporting the bid to publish the documents.

Princess Haya was accompanied by her solicitor Baroness Shackleton, nicknamed the 'Steel Magnolia', who famously handled the divorces of Prince Charles and Sir Paul McCartney.

Sheikh Mohammed's legal team is headed by Lord Pannick QC, who acted for Gina Miller in the landmark Supreme Court case over the prorogation of Parliament. He has also employed Helen Ward who represented Guy Ritchie when he was divorcing Madonna.

The Daily Mail is spearheading the application to ease reporting restrictions, along with The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, the BBC and others.

The long-running case has included evidence from a British police chief who investigated claims that Sheikh Maktoum previously kidnapped a runaway daughter, Princess Shamsa, from Cambridgeshire and had her returned to Dubai.

Another witness who gave evidence was present on a yacht when another of his daughters, Princess Latifa, was also allegedly abducted. The sheikh vehemently denies the claims.

Sheikh Mohammed challenged the decision to publish two judgments which relate to 'certain disputed factual issues' and 'issues arising out of the special position of (Sheikh Mohammed) as the sovereign and head of government of a foreign state'.

Princess Haya (seen outside the Court of Appeal today) has been locked in a long-running custody battle with her estranged husband

Sheikh Mohammed's legal team is headed by Lord Pannick QC, (left) who acted for Gina Miller in the landmark Supreme Court case over the prorogation of Parliament. He was also represented in preliminary hearings by Lady Helen Ward, (right) a solicitor who represented director Guy Ritchie in his divorce from Madonna

Haya's solicitor Baroness Shackleton became a life peer sitting on the Tory benches in 2010 and remains the personal solicitor of Princes William and Harry.

She is related to the famous explorer Ernest Shackleton through her husband Ian.

Sheik Mohammed, who turned 70 last July, is the vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai. He has more than 20 children by different wives.

He is also the founder of the successful Godolphin horse racing stable and received a trophy from the Queen after one of his horses won a race at Royal Ascot earlier this year.

At a previous High Court hearing, before Sir Andrew in November, Tiina Jauhiainen - a friend of one of Sheikh Mohammed's daughters from another marriage, Princess Latifa - and David Beck, formerly a detective chief inspector with Cambridgeshire Police, attended to give evidence to the court.

Ms Jauhiainen has previously said publicly that she helped Princess Latifa attempt to flee the UAE, before her friend was allegedly abducted and taken back to Dubai in March 2018.

Mr Beck, who led an investigation into the disappearance in 2000 of Princess Shamsa, Princess Latifa's sister, has previously told the BBC that he applied to visit Dubai with the intention of speaking to Princess Shamsa but that his request was rejected, adding: 'I was never given a reason why.'

The Appeal Court refused an application by the sheikh to take his case to the Supreme Court. However he has the option of applying directly to the Supreme Court. The Appeal Court gave him until 4pm on Tuesday, by extending reporting restrictions until then.
The California Public Utilities Commission has issued an administrative law judge decision imposing $2.137 billion in penalties against Pacific Gas and Electric Company for the utilitys role in the catastrophic 2017 and 2018 wildfires.

If PG&E agrees to the modified settlement within 20 days, and no party appeals and no commissioner requests review, it becomes the decision of the CPUC.

The decision approves with modifications a settlement between PG&E, the CPUCs Safety and Enforcement Division and Office of the Safety Advocate, and the Coalition of California Utility Employees. The decision increases the penalty amount in the settlement by $462 million and provides additional benefits to PG&E customers, including the return of any future tax savings when they are realized by PG&E to the benefit of ratepayers.

PG&E shareholders would be liable for the $2.137 billion in penalties consisting of:

$1.823 billion in disallowances for wildfire-related expenditures (an increase of $198 million from the settlement agreement), meaning that PG&E shareholders will pay the cost of expenditures that it would otherwise seek to recover from customers

A $200 million fine payable to Californias General Fund (the proposed settlement agreement did not include a fine)

$114 million in System Enhancement Initiatives and corrective actions (an increase of $64 million from the settlement agreement), including: Root cause analysis for wildfires where ignition involved PG&E facilities, and the implementation of recommended actions to prevent similar events; funding local Fire Safe Councils that focus on community-based wildfire prevention and mitigation efforts; Ffunding to the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers to support the safety and welfare of vulnerable customers before, during, and after disasters and Public Safety Power Shut-off events

In addition, the modified settlement requires any tax savings associated with the shareholder payments to be applied to the benefit of PG&Es customers. These benefits which PG&E shareholders would otherwise be expected to realize are likely to be in excess of $500 million.

The wildfires that occurred in Northern California in October 2017 and November 2018 were unprecedented in size, scope, destruction, and loss of life.

Following a CPUC staff investigation, the CPUC opened a formal investigation into the maintenance, operations, and practices of PG&E with respect to its electric facilities that were involved in igniting these fires, and to determine the appropriate penalties for violation of CPUC rules and regulations.

Related:

Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire Energy
Remember a couple of weeks ago when Iran fired missiles at Ain al-Assad air base in Iraq that houses military soldiers? New Spearman City Manager Wade Wilson served in the Marines and we have learned that he once served on that base.

In todays KXDJ Did You Hear That? segment with Chris Samples, Wilson shares what it was like when he heard that it happened.

Click http://highplainsobserverperryton.com/clients/highplainsobserverperryton/wilsoniraq.mp3 target=new>here to listen.

Before coming to Spearman, he served as the city administrator for Silverton, Texas since 2014. From 2003 to 2008 he served in the marine Corps and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan.
Police are investigating a tip-off that 15-month-old Evelyn Boswell was seen at a KFC in the last few weeks.

Authorities confirmed they are looking into a tip that the girl was seen with her grandmother, Angela Boswell, and Boswell's boyfriend William McCloud at a KFC in Yadkinville, North Carolina within the last couple of weeks.

The little girl has not been seen by some family members since mid-December but was not reported missing by mother Megan Boswell, 18, until February 18.

Police are investigating a tip-off that 15-month-old Evelyn Boswell (pictured) was seen at a KFC in the last few weeks

Authorities confirmed they are looking into a tip that the girl was seen with her grandmother, Angela Boswell, and Boswell's boyfriend William McCloud at a KFC in Yadkinville, North Carolina

Evelyn's mother, Megan Boswell (left), 18, is in the Sullivan County Jail on a charge of filing a false police report. Megan's mom, Angela Boswell (right), is being held there as well, on charges of theft and violating probation in a separate case

Investigators are now reviewing the fast-food outlet's CCTV and speaking to employees, WKRN-TV reported.

The latest development comes after a police search of a pond in North Carolina in connection with the disappearance of Evelyn did not turned up anything related to the little girl.

The Wilkes County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday's search of the pond in the Shepherds Crossroads Community, in Wilkes County, was 'inconclusive.'

The search took place just hours after Evelyn's mother, Megan Boswell, 18, was locked up for allegedly giving police several conflicting stories about her daughter's whereabouts.

The little girl has not been seen by some family members since mid-December but was not reported missing by Megan until February 18.

Megan's mother and Evelyn's grandmother, Angela Boswell, is also being held in custody, after she was arrested last week alongside her boyfriend William McCloud on charges of theft and violating probation in a separate case.

The couple were reportedly picked up in a vehicle related to the investigation and have been interviewed by officers.

The Sheriff's Office and emergency crews searched the pond in connection to the case. in connection to Evelyn's disappearance on Wednesday.

Aerial footage from WJHL showed investigators preparing to search the water, using a Remote Operated Vehicle device.

In the video, a small boat was seen siting on the grass next to a few SUVs.

An investigator was also seen lowering a long yellow rope into the water.

Evelyn Boswell has not been seen by some family members since mid-December but was not reported missing by Megan until February 18

However, investigators confirmed nothing related to the investigation was recovered.

Sullivan County Sheriff Jeff Cassidy spoke of his frustration with the investigation because the missing child's mother has changed her account of what happened to Evelyn on multiple occasions.

'There's not really much that we can answer due to the irrelevant information from Megan,' he said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

'Every time we talk to her, her story changes.'

'We hope and pray that she's alive and we are going to continue to work like she is alive,' the sheriff said about Evelyn.

Aerial footage showed investigators at the pond (pictured) preparing to search the area

In the video, a small boat was seen siting on the grass next to a few SUVs

One investigator is seen lowering a long yellow rope into the water. Investigators later confirmed the search was 'inconclusive'

The hunt for the missing toddler has been plagued by issues from the get go, as her family failed to report her missing for almost two months after she vanished.

Her mother claims she last saw her daughter on December 26.

Other people connected to the little girl have given different timelines of when they last saw her, leaving officers unclear when she went missing.

Megan did not report her disappearance until February 18.

Angela's boyfriend, William McCloud (left) is also in jail. They were arrested last week in North Carolina on fugitive warrants unrelated to the toddler's disappearance

She initially said that Evelyn was with her father Ethan Perry, according to court documents.

Her story has since changed several times.

She spoke out for the first time on Friday about her daughter's disappearance, claiming she knew who has the toddler.

Speaking to WCYB, Megan said she last saw Evelyn in December but didn't report her missing until Tuesday because she was afraid the people who had her would disappear.

'Well the reason I didn't report it or anything was I knew the person who had her, and I didn't want them to run away with her,' Megan said.

'And as soon as they thought anything was going on they just kinda vanished. So I'm just kinda worried, you know, about where they are at. What they're doing with her at this point in time.'

Megan added that she left her daughter with a person she thought she could trust while she was at work but that she would do things differently if she had a second chance.

'In a way I knew that as soon as anything went down this person was going to disappear and they have. And they have tried to find them... They won't answer phone calls. They just kinda disappeared,' she continued.

Sheriff Cassidy (pictured) spoke of his frustrations after the girl's mother had changed her story multiple times during the hunt for her daughter

'Yeah I probably would have called the first day. I should have. But I just didn't want them to run with her, like they have now.'

Megan would not say who she believes has her daughter but said she was cooperating with the police and could not share further information on the case.

Then in an interview on Monday with WJHL, Megan claimed that her mother took Evelyn to a campground in Mendota, Virginia. Authorities have also searched multiple campgrounds in that area and found no sign of the girl.

'I told TBI (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation) where to find her in Mendota. My mom took her to a campground in a silver camper and if they dont go tonight, Im going to go find her myself, because Ive told them and theyre not really like taking it seriously,' Megan said.

She added that TBI isn't taking her seriously because 'I've not fully told them I've been like "hey, like my mom camped out in Mendota, you know, to go check them out," but I've never been like, "hey, she's like in a silver camper" because my mom did threaten me like you know if I told anybody  Im not gonna get into that  but she did.'

In an interview on Monday, Megan claimed that her mother took Evelyn (pictured) to a campground in Mendota, Virginia

Authorities have searched multiple campgrounds in that area and found no sign of the girl

On Tuesday, Megan then claimed she went to the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office for a lie-detector test but was turned away because she is pregnant - a claim the Sheriff refuted in Wednesday's press conference.

'She was never asked to meet us for a polygraph. We never set up any type of interview for her,' Cassidy said.

Megan was arrested on Tuesday evening and charged with filing a false police report.

She was arraigned in court on Wednesday morning and remains in custody in Sullivan County Jail - where her mother Angela is also being held.

Angela McCloud were arrested last week in North Carolina on fugitive warrants unrelated to the toddler's disappearance.

Before she was returned to Tennessee Monday evening, Angela told the judge she wanted to go home and resolve the situation with her granddaughter.

McCloud was also extradited back to Tennessee.

Sullivan County detectives have interviewed Angela and McCloud. Details regarding those conversations have not been disclosed and Sheriff Cassidy did not comment on those interviews during Wednesday's press conference.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation previously said McCloud and Angela are 'believed to have information' regarding the girl's whereabouts.

The disappearance of Evelyn Boswell: A confusing case that has been bogged down by misinformation and conflicting accounts It's unclear when exactly Evelyn Boswell (pictured) went missing, but her disappearance was reported February 18 It's unclear when exactly Evelyn Boswell went missing. Her mother, Megan Boswell claims that she last saw her daughter on December 26. The child's babysitter told police that she last saw the toddler on December 10 or 11. And David Jones, the baby's great-grandfather, said he hadn't seen Evelyn since about a week before Thanksgiving. Even if the child hadn't been seen since last year, her disappearance wasn't reported until February 18. Due to the conflicting stories from Megan and Evelyn's grandmother, Angela Boswell, police have been left frustrated and confused by the case. Below is a timeline of what has occurred so far: February 18, 2020: Evelyn Boswell was reported missing by her mother, Megan Boswell. Court documents show that when police asked her about Evelyn, Megan told them that the child was with her father, Ethan Perry. Megan reportedly told police that she was supposed to meet Perry on February 19 at 4pm at the Ingles in Colonial Heights to exchange custody. But Perry, is on active duty in the military and stationed in Louisiana. February 19, 2020: The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) issued an Amber Alert for Evelyn. February 20, 2020: TBI releases another photograph of Evelyn as investigators urged the public to send them any information that could lead to the toddler being found. February 21, 2020: Angela Boswell and her boyfriend William McCloud were arrested in North Carolina after authorities found a 2007 BMW that they allegedly stole. Angela and McCloud, both of Tennessee, were charged with possession of stolen property. Megan spoke out for the first time about her daughter's disappearance claiming she knows who has the toddler. Court documents show that when police asked Megan Boswell (left) about Evelyn, Megan told them that the child was with her father, Ethan Perry (right) She said she last saw Evelyn in December but didn't report her missing until Tuesday because she was afraid the people who had her would disappear. Megan claimed that Evelyn was with a person she trusted to watch her daughter while she was at work. Sheriff Cassidy also said that his office received conflicting reports about when Evelyn disappeared. One report indicated that Evelyn was last seen on December 26. However, Cassidy said a babysitter claimed to have seen her on December 10 or 11. February 22, 2020: Sullivan County Sheriff's Office detectives traveled to Wilkesboro to interview Angela and McCloud about Evelyn. No details from those conversations were released. February 23, 2020: Agents from TBI released a new photo of Evelyn and said that investigators are still working to find Evelyn. February 24, 2020: Angela Boswell was extradited to Tennessee. Megan claimed that her mother, Angela Boswell, had taken her daughter to Mendota, Virginia. Megan said Angela was traveling to a campground in Mendota and had a silver camper. 'I told TBI where to find her in Mendota. My mom took her to a campground in a silver camper and if they dont go tonight, Im going to go find her myself, because Ive told them and theyre not really like taking it seriously and if they dont go tonight, I will go myself and go get her,' Megan said. Police revealed that they searched several campgrounds in the area and found no trace of Evelyn. Megan also addressed rumors about her family being gypsies. 'Gypsies are not a cult. They have been asking people if there is like a Gypsy ringleader and likeI mean like were not like ringleaders, were not like out here kidnapping babies, or anything like that,' Megan said. February 25, 2020: Earlier in the day Megan claimed that she was pregnant and was unable to take a polygraph test due to the pregnancy. It was also revealed that the Sullivan County Sheriffs Office does not conduct polygraph testing. By Tuesday afternoon, the TBI said they had received more than 500 tips related to Evelyn's disappearance. Authorities arrested Megan Tuesday night and charged with false reporting. February 26, 2020: Megan is arraigned in court Wednesday morning. Sullivan County Sheriff's Office hold a press conference after Megan's arrest. Sullivan County Sheriff Jeff Cassidy confirmed that police in North Carolina were searching a pond in Wilkes County in connection to the case. Advertisement

A candlelight vigil was held by a local mother's group for Evelyn on Saturday night in Cumberland Square Park in Bristol, Virginia

Attendees are seen at the candlelight vigil that was held by a local mother's group for Evelyn on Saturday in Cumberland Square Park in Bristol, Virginia

Evelyn's father, 20-year-old Ethan Perry, is on active duty in the military and stationed in Louisiana.

Perry posted a brief Facebook update addressing his daughter's disappearance last week saying: 'I'm currently working with authorities trying to find Evelyn. I can't say much more than that at the moment.'

Authorities said they have received more than 570 tips from the public, but 'there have been no credible sightings'. Police said Wednesday that they have followed up on each tip.

People and businesses in the community are offering reward money for Evelyn's safe return. As of Wednesday afternoon, the total reached more than $59,000.

Authorities are urging anyone with information that could lead to Evelyn's whereabouts to call 1-800-TBI-FIND.
Willie Mullins described Un De Sceaux as a once-in-a-lifetime horse as he confirmed the multiple Grade One-winners retirement following injury.

The career-ending problem was discovered after the 12-year-old worked on Thursday morning.

Un De Sceaux finished outside the first two just once in 21 completed runs over fences  the majority of which were in Grade One company.

Right up to the end, he was trying to impersonate a four-year-old, said Mullins.

He worked great yesterday morning, but you could see on pulling up that he wasnt right, and it was confirmed this morning that he had a ligament injury.

Un De Sceaux has been among the brightest stars at Mullins powerhouse stable since arriving from France seven years ago.

The champion Irish trainer added: Hes been a huge star in our yard and hell be hugely missed.

You cant replace horses like him  its impossible. He was a once-in-a-lifetime horse, and we were very lucky to have him.

It was incredible how sound he was, because he was so hard on himself, and every day he gave his best in racing and in training.

He had a huge following. The owners (the OConnell family) have Bachasson to go to the (Cheltenham) Festival with this year in the Coral Cup, and hopefully they can look forward to that.

Un De Sceaux ends his career having won 23 of 34 races under rules and more than 1,500,000 in prize money.

He ran at five Cheltenham Festivals, winning the Arkle in 2015 and the Ryanair in 2017.

Owner Edward OConnells son, Colm, said: When I got the call from Willie I had to pull the car over.

It was always going to happen  this day was always going to come  but wed planned to go to Cheltenham and retire him on the spot. But then you never know when to do it as if he was beaten a length we might have been tempted to go to Punchestown.

Hell go back to France in a couple of months. Ginnie (Virginie Bascop) who looks after him has a plan to take him back there. You dont put Eric Cantona in a nursing home.

No one has died, its just that when hes been around for so long  not just a year or two  its very hard to take.

This would have been his sixth consecutive Cheltenham Festival. He won the Arkle, ran in the Queen Mother, won the Ryanair and has been in another two Ryanairs.

He was going to run in the Queen Mother this year and Patrick (Mullins) was going to ride him. We quite fancied him to run really well given the ground.

Whenever he ran we took over 30 people from Cork with us, it was like a syndicate. We certainly enjoyed it, we knew wed never get another like him so we made sure of that.

I dont think Willie has ever had a horse like him.
Four TVs and a cell phone were stolen from a residence on U.S. Highway 29 North on Feb. 21, the morning after a shooting left two people injured inside the same home, according to an Athens-Clarke County Police Department report.
A 63-year-old woman has tested positive for the deadly coronavirus in Queensland.

The woman returned to the Gold Coast from Iran and is now being held in isolation at Gold Coast University Hospital, Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young said.

The confirmed case takes the number of Australians infected with the virus to 24.

Coronavirus has killed more than 2,800 people globally and can cause severe lung damage and trigger multiple organ failure

Nine people have coronavirus in Queensland, including three who were evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship off the coast of Japan.

'If you have been overseas in the last 14 days and feel unwell please immediately see a doctor,' Dr Young said.

Queensland health minister Steven Miles said people shouldn't panic about the coronavirus.

'Queenslanders should be assured that our world class hospitals and our fantastic public health staff are ensuring Queensland is very well prepared for a possible outbreak,' he said.

Australia is already buckling under the weight of the coronavirus epidemic - with the stock market in free fall, supermarket shelves bare and a panic sale on flights.

With the world on the cusp of an unstoppable pandemic, experts warned every Australian could soon be struck down by the killer virus.

Families could soon see their supermarket bill balloon as worried households begin to stockpile food and medicines.

The Australian Securities Exchange has now fallen for the sixth straight session, shedding $221 billion - or 10 per cent - in just one week, including $72 billion on Friday morning alone.

It comes as the respiratory virus infected more than 82,000 people worldwide - including 24 in Australia - causing 2,804 deaths.

The deadly strain, known now as Covid-19, originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The economic plunge threatened to get even worse after Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared a coronavirus pandemic is 'very much upon us'.

Launching an emergency plan on Thursday afternoon, he said the government was identifying 'gaps in capabilities' within Australia's state-based health services.

As residents prepare for the epidemic to hit, with 23 people already struck down on Australian soil, there is already evidence of panicked stockpiling.

Travellers at Brisbane International Airport on January 29 (pictured)

Shocking photos emerged showing Woolworths shelves stripped of medicine, toilet paper and food staples.

Customers were greeted with near empty aisles when they arrived at the supermarket giant's Bondi store in Sydney on Thursday night.

The grocery store appeared to be struggling to keep the shelves stocked with paracetamol, toilet paper, tea, milk, pasta, oats and rice crackers.

SCOTT MORRISON ON CORONAVIRUS 'PANDEMIC' FEARS Speaking to reporters in Canberra on Thursday afternoon, Mr Morrison confirmed Australia would operate as if coronavirus was already a pandemic. 'There is every indication that the world will soon enter a pandemic phase of the coronavirus,' he said. 'And as a result, we have agreed today and initiated the implementation of the Coronavirus Emergency Response Plan. 'We believe that the risk of a global pandemic is very much upon us and as a result, as a government, we need to take the steps necessary to prepare for such a pandemic. 'There is no need for us to be moving towards not having mass gatherings of people. 'You can still go to the football, you can still go to the cricket, you can still go and play with your friends down the street, you can go off to the concert, and you can go out for a Chinese meal. 'You can do all of these things because Australia has acted quickly, Australia has got ahead of this at this point in time. 'But to stay ahead of it, we need to now elevate our response to this next phase.' Advertisement

Coronavirus fears wiped an incredible $72 billion off the Australian stock exchange on Friday morning.

It tumbled from a record closing high of 7,162 last Thursday to just 6,441 at 10am on Friday.

The dollar has fallen below 66 US cents for the first time in a decade.

Indicating that businesses are struggling, Air New Zealand slashed prices to Australia to just $69 on Friday morning in a bid to boost sales.

The airline is offering $69 one way flights from Christchurch to Melbourne, while fares for Auckland to Sydney and Brisbane will set Kiwis back $79.

It'll cost passengers just $69 to fly from Christchurch to Melbourne one way, and $79 to fly into Brisbane.

The cheap airfares are available for travel from mid-March.

Thanks to coronavirus travel bans, Air New Zealand, Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia have reduced the amount of flights heading across the ditch.

But they are lowering ticket prices to fill up the remaining planes.

There are currently 23 cases of coronavirus in Australia, eight of which originated on the doomed Diamond Princess cruise ship.

At least 621 people on the ship tested positive for the virus, officially named Covid-19, making it the biggest cluster outside China.

There were a total of 223 Australians quarantined on the ill-fated ship in the Japanese port of Yokohama.

Worldwide, the virus has killed more than 2,800 people and infected 82,000.
ABUJA, Nigeria  Nigerian authorities on Friday confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa as the outbreak spread to a region with some of the worlds weakest health systems.

The health commissioner for Lagos, Africas largest city with more than 20 million people, said an Italian citizen who entered Nigeria on Tuesday from Milan on a business trip fell ill the next day. Commissioner Akin Abayomi said the man was clinically stable with no serious symptoms.

Abayomi said officials were working to identify all of the mans contacts in Nigeria. The Italian had traveled on Turkish Airlines to Istanbul and then to Lagos, according to health authorities. Lagos state early this month advised people arriving from virus-affected areas to observe 14 days of self-quarantine.

I have seen him this morning, he is in high spirits, said Dr. Bowale Abimbola, medical director of the hospital where the 44-year-old Italian was brought with body aches and fever. He is doing well, and we expect that he will continue to do well.

Cases of the virus also were confirmed in Egypt and Algeria in north Africa in recent days.

Concerns about the virus spreading to countries with weaker health systems led the World Health Organization to declare the outbreak a global health emergency last month. WHO officials in Africa have warned that health systems could be overwhelmed.

Nigeria is one of 13 African countries classified by the WHO as high priority in this outbreak because of direct links to China or a high number of visitors from there.

That Nigerias first case came from overseas and wasnt person-to-person transmission inside Africa shows that the Nigerian government had the right systems in place to detect and confirm this case, said Trudie Lang, director of the Global Health Network at the Nuffield Department of Medicine and the University of Oxford.

But detection of further cases in Africa will be challenging as more inexpensive testing kits are needed for on-the-spot diagnosis, Lang added.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has hurried to train its 54 member countries in testing for the virus. Just two countries had the capability at the beginning of this month. Now more than two dozen have it, including Nigeria.

Most African airlines with direct flights to China quickly suspended them, and countries activated surveillance and quarantine measures.

Many had experience with trying to prevent the spread of the devastating West Africa Ebola outbreak that ended in 2016. Global health experts point to that as a sign of preparedness in this outbreak.

Nigeria is also dealing with an outbreak of Lassa fever  an indication of the health challenges that many African nations face.

Bashir Adigun and Cara Anna are Associated Press writers.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020

The Jakarta administration plans to create 55 new green spaces covering 271,653 square meters this year to help absorb runoff from the heavy rainstorms that have battered the city.

In Central Jakarta, the administration plans to build a 5,003-square-meter park in Rawasari subdistrict and a 900 sqm park in Harapan Mulya subdistrict, according to Mila Ananda, the head of the Central Jakarta Park and Forestry Agency. The agency is allocating Rp 1 billion (US$72,105) for the Rawasari park project and Rp 3.5 billion for the Harapan Mulya park project.

"Green spaces are a solution to mitigate flooding and the impacts of extreme rainfall," Mila told The Jakarta Post by phone on Tuesday. "We don't have records on the actual impacts, but floodwaters in those neighborhoods that have green spaces tend to recede faster than [areas] that don't."

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Defendants, at top from left: Wilbert Segarra, Luis Rosado, Meligza Cruz, Joseph Cooper Jr. At bottom from left: Maria Morales, Ramon Saldana, Rafael Velazquez, Migdoel Morales-Cruz. Read more

Twelve people have been indicted on racketeering charges as alleged members of a family-run drug network that distributed large quantities of heroin and fentanyl in a violence-torn area of North Camden, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced Friday.

Two other defendants face weapons charges, his office said.

The defendants were indicted Thursday by a state grand jury in what authorities are calling Operation Strikeout. Most were arrested in October.

Six guns were seized in the investigation, including an illegal, untraceable ghost gun and plans and materials to make such guns, the Attorney Generals Office said. The networks heroin, branded under the name Bad Boys, has been linked to three overdoses, including two that were fatal, authorities said.

The alleged owners and operators of the network were identified as Wilbert Segarra, 40, and Luis I. Rosado, 28, both of Camden. Segarra, the alleged primary ringleader, had been arrested in July in Virginia after he was wanted on attempted-murder charges in a May shooting in Camden.

Segarra allegedly continued to run the drug network with Rosado while on the lam and in jail, the Attorney Generals Office said. The network was based in the 400 block of Grant Street and operated in and around a section of North Camden, authorities said.

Rosados girlfriend, Meligza Cruz, 32, of Camden, who allegedly managed day-to-day operations for the drug network, was charged like Segarra and Rosado with first-degree promoting organized street crime and first-degree racketeering. Segarra also faces a charge of first-degree leader of a narcotics trafficking network, which carries a sentence of life in prison, including 25 years without parole.

Segarra, Rosado, and Cruz are allegedly members of the G-Shine set of the Bloods street gang, the AGs Office said.

Segarras attorney, Robin Lord, said by text Friday of the new charges: The state recognized it could not win the attempted murder charge, so they are trying to up the ante. They will fail at this as well.

Segarra still faces trial in the attempted-murder case, as does a codefendant, Joseph Cooper Jr., 24, of the 700 block of East Westmoreland Street in the Kensington section of Philadelphia.

Eight of the defendants, including Rosado and Cruz, were arrested last Oct. 4, when partnering agencies executed arrest and search warrants in Camden and Philadelphia, the Attorney Generals Office said.

Also charged with first-degree racketeering were Cooper Jr. and the following Camden residents: Maria Morales, 29; Ramon Saldana, 22; Rafael Velazquez, 27; Migdoel Morales-Cruz, 33; Michael Canales, 23; Angel Martinez, 34; Daniel Sanjurjo Jr., 21; and Emanuel Morales, 25.

Cruz, the Moraleses, and Morales-Cruz are siblings or cousins, and other ring members may also be related, the office said.

Two other family members, Jose Morales, 49, of Camden, and Jesus Morales Cruz, 34, of the 800 block of Russell Street in Kensington, were indicted on weapons charges, the office said.
On the first anniversary of the Balakot airstrikes, IAF Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria lauded India's 'tough and bold' decision to strike at the heart of terrorist training camps in Pakistan and added that "the Indian Air Force struck the target successfully". A year ago, on February 26, India pounded Jaish-e-Mohammed's biggest training camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province at Balakot in Pakistan by carrying out coordinated airstrikes days after the Pulwama terror attack that shook the nation.

Speaking at the center Centre for Air Power Studies in Delhi on Friday, Chief Bhadauria also recalled how Pakistan Air Force responded 30 hours later with a large package of aircraft under Operation Swift Retort, and IAF ensured they were not able to hit targets.

Pakistan Air Force responded 30 hours later with a large package of aircraft under Operation Swift Retort, and IAF ensured they were not able to hit targets.

"A year ago, the Government took a tough and bold decision to strike at the heart of terrorist training camps deep inside Pakistan across the Line of Control. IAF successfully struck the target chosen. They were in a hurry to disengage. They were doing it for their domestic audience.

Chief Bhadauria also observed that India had an edge over Pakistan Air Force in terms of Beyond Visual Range Missile capability at the time of Kargil. "We had an edge over Pakistan Air Force in terms of Beyond Visual Range Missile capability at the time of Kargil. We allowed that to slip and thereafter it took a decade & half in our struggle to acquisition process to be able to get better capability," said the IAF Chief.

IAF Chief RKS Bhadauria: It(better capability) will soon materialize with induction of Rafale. In air engagement, especially in a deeply contested area, it is important to to have a weapons edge. Once we retain this edge,it is important that we don't allow to slip back this edge. https://t.co/ifYd3MtNk3  ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2020

READ: 'We look back with satisfaction': Ex-IAF chief on first anniversary of Balakot Airstrike

Earlier on February 26, Air Force Chief BS Dhanoa also recalled the retaliate attack by India, stating a lot of things have been implemented after Balakot operations. Chief Dhanoa listed the outcome of the airstrike, stating that no terrorist attack took place following that as the airstrike instilled fear.

"One year has gone past and we look back with satisfaction. We have learnt a lot of lessons, a lot of things have been implemented after Balakot operations. After Balakot airstrike, there was no major terrorist attack throughout the Indian elections because they were scared that we will respond again in the same manner or even more devastatingly," said Chief Dhanoa.

READ: Balakot airstrikes featured in Indian Air Force's calendar for the year 2020

Balakot Air Strikes

Days after the Pulwama terror attack that shook our nation, India on February 26, 2019, pounded Jaish-e-Mohammed's biggest training camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province at Balakot in Pakistan by carrying out coordinated airstrikes. In a pinpointed and swift airstrike that lasted less than two minutes, officials stated that the IAF targeted 350 terrorists and trainers.

The "preemptive and non-military" action by India was seen as a result of strong leadership under Prime Minister Narendra Modi who on February 15, 2019, had said 'those responsible will pay a very heavy price' and 'security forces will be given a free hand to deal with terrorists.'

The braveheart of the Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman also spent a few days in Pakistani custody after he shot down a modern Pakistani F16 jet, following which his MiG-21 was shot down in a dogfight the with Pakistan Air Force just a day after the February 26 Balakot airstrike.

READ: 2019 Highlights Part 1: From IAF's Balakot Blitz to 'Howdy, Modi', here's a look back

READ: IAF Chief BS Dhanoa flies his final MiG sortie, with Wg Cdr Abhinandan
ACLU sues 7 Texas pro-life 'sanctuary cities' in attempt to block abortion business bans

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The American Civil Liberties Union is suing seven cities in Texas that passed ordinances banning abortion businesses from operating within their jurisdictions.

The national ACLU and its Texas chapter filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, on behalf of two abortion activist groups, Texas Equal Access Fund and the Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity.

Defendants named in the suit are the cities of Waskom, Gary, Joaquin, Naples, Rusk, Tenaha, and Wells, which have all recently voted to become Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn.

The right to access abortion is protected by the United States Constitution. But in recent months, at the behest of anti-abortion activists, several east Texas municipalities have passed ordinances that claim to ban abortion, the lawsuit says, in part.

Although this section of the ordinances cannot be enforced while Roe v. Wade is in effect, the ordinances existence misleads residents of these cities as to whether individuals can in fact exercise their right to access abortion.

The suit also argues that while the ordinances concede that they cannot ban abortion under current law, several other provisions are in effect.

The ordinances deem Plaintiffs Texas Equal Access Fund (TEA Fund) and Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity (Lilith Fund), and other pro-choice organizations, as criminal organizations, continued the suit.

This means that Plaintiffs have been judged criminal without ever having been charged with a crime, much less afforded a trial.

Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement released Tuesday that the ordinances were part of a nationwide attack on abortion access.

Whether it is bans on abortion, attempts to close clinics, or moves to silence people who support abortion access, the ACLU will fight against these unconstitutional and cruel measures, Amiri said.

Texas Right to Life was critical of the ACLU's lawsuit, describing it as desperate and commended the sanctuary cities for the unborn for showing great courage in standing up against the abortion industry.

Unsurprisingly, organizations that profit off the death of preborn children are throwing a hodgepodge of complaints at the court and seeing what they can get to stick, the pro-life group said.

In passing the ordinance, cities acted within their constitutional rights to self-governance and within the scope of current U.S. Supreme Court abortion jurisprudence. The ordinance language is solid and carefully drafted in expectation of the abortion industry filing a lawsuit.

Last June, the Waskom City Council unanimously voted to become what is believed to be the first Texas town to declare itself a sanctuary city for the unborn.

Waskom Mayor Jesse Moore said in a statement at the time that the new ordinance was about preventing the possible creation of an abortion clinic in his city.

We decided to take things into our own hands, and we've got to do something to protect our cities and to protect the unborn children, Moore told Fox 26 Houston last year.

Soon after, other Texas cities passed similar measures, with the total as of Wednesday morning being 11 cities across the Lone Star State, according to the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn website.
TROY  New York City may have 170 times Troy's population, skyscrapers galore and worldwide clout.

But the bigger city on the Hudson doesn't have something its upriver cousin has -- a 19th century charm that captured the attention of the team behind HBO's "The Gilded Age." Troy's mansions, office buildings and other icons will stand in for old-time New York when 150 to 300 people arrive to work on the project.

A busload of location scouts and technical people spent time walking and driving Wednesday through the Victorian streetscape figuring out how to best use Troy to capture a turn-of-the-century-era flavor of life that Julian Fellowes, who created Downton Abbey, is restoring in his newest project.

Members of the group had maps and pictures that showed such icons as the Rensselaer County Court House, standing in for the Tweed Courthouse in Manhattan and mansions to be reflect the Astor mansion in New York, according to local residents who had a quick glimpse of the binders.

Its exciting. These period pieces are a great way to show off the architecture here, said Kathy Sheehan, the historian for the city of Troy and Rensselaer County based at the Hart Cluett Museum at 57 Second St.

The Hart Cluett Museum library and staff have been a deep resource for the HBO project. The museums Hart-Cluett Mansion at 59 Second St. and the gangway on its south side will appear in the series.

PREVIOUSLY: HBO series has Troy prepping for 'Gilded Age'

"The Gilded Age" is set in 1882 New York City, as the rich are living high and setting many of the social patterns that endure to this day. It is the story of Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson, daughter of Meryl Streep), the orphaned daughter of a Southern general, who moves to New York to live with her aunts, according to HBO's synopsis.

The series is scheduled for a 10-episode first season. Filming in Troy is expected to begin in June and last for three weeks. A premier date has not yet been announced for the series. Additional seasons could follow. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute officials were told earlier this year that the universitys West Hall could serve as a setting for a later season. The location scouts have made numerous visits to find the settings for the series.

The story takes place several decades before the action of Fellowes' smash hit "Downton Abbey," which began in 1912 with news of the sinking of the Titanic and ended in the late 1920s. But there will be crossover between the two series: A younger version of Violet Crawley, the formidable dowager countess played in "Downton Abbey" by Maggie Smith, will reportedly appear in "The Gilded Age" along with her children, Robert and Rosamund.

Another "Gilded Age" character, Ada Brook, will be played by Cynthia Nixon. The actress is remembered by New Yorkers as both a star of "Sex and the City" and her 2018 Democratic primary challenge to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Christine Baranski and Amanda Peet also have principal roles, with Jeanne Tripplehorn announced several weeks ago to be cast in a major recurring part.

Without Troy, Fellowes story wouldnt have the Victorian bones to bring the period to life. Its possible to look down Second Street or Fifth Avenue downtown and see 19th century buildings stretch unbroken in a row block after block.

Some of the buildings that appear headed into The Gilded Age include the Knox and Mead Building, known by many as the cigar store, at 13 First St., various buildings around Monument Square, the Pioneer Bank Building at 21 Second St. and the Castle, the fraternity house of Pi Kappa Phi at 49 Second St., a carriage house behind 47 Second St. and the building at 33 Second St. The Rice Building at First and River streets may still be under consideration.

The scouts and technicians were standing outside part of Russell Sage College on Second Street across from the county courthouse peering into their binders. They were also down at the gated Washington Park where one has to be a keyholder to enter.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

There were so many of them here in the park. They will be filming inside the park, Lynn Kopka, president of the Washington Park Neighborhood Association and a former City Council member, said Thursday.

Washington Park and Gramercy Park share the distinction of being the only two private urban parks in New York state. Kopka said she didnt know if Washington Park would take the role of Gramercy during the filming.

About 150 to 300 people will be working daily in Troy for the production, Kopka said she was told.

Thats going to be a great boon, said Jim Scully, owner of Bacchus Wood Fired at 33 Second St. The production company money will enter Troys marketplace in June at one of the deadest times of the year for business, Scully said.

Scully still fondly recalls the money that poured into his former restaurant, Daisey Bakers, and other establishments when The Time Machine was filmed on Second Street. The Age of Innocence also was filmed downtown.

The Gilded Age will film the exterior of 33 Second St., Scully said. He was told that they wouldnt use his Trojan Hotel and its Trojan Taproom at 43 Third St. this season. He said his residence at 12 Second St. also wont be filmed, but perhaps in the future.

The production company considered using the former St. Marys Roman Catholic Church at Third and Washington streets for costuming and other work, but opted not to given its current condition, Kopka said. A residence at 218 Third St. across the road from Washington Park will be used for interiors, she said.

There are fabulous buildings here, Sheehan said.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Womens Organiser for Amasaman Constituency, Hajia Salamatu Musah is asking the opposition NDC to go to court if they are still not satisfied with the ECs decision to compile a new voter's register ahead of the 2020 general elections.

The NDC can go to court and even that they will be sacked because they have no locus standing. . . the EC is doing what it has been legally mandated to do and they have all the right to compile a new voters register; so whats their argument, Hajia Salamatu Musah told Kwame Tutu on Anopa Nkomo on Accra-based Kingdom FM 107.7.

She added that, "If you go to the EC to protest and prevent it from carrying its duties, it means that you are rather breaking the laws of the country and infringing on the democracy that we have. You can protest, but by doing so, do it in the confines of the law. Let us make our points known, but by doing so let us not do anything that will break the laws.

According to her, opponents have the right to protest but should be done in a peaceful manner in order not to create an incident that will mar with the peace of this country.

She continued, "Ghanaians have earned the right to decide who becomes the president and who becomes their MP, and the license to exercising that right is having a voter ID card, and that can only be done if you get registered. And so we are here to appeal to you, to encourage as many Ghanaians as possible to come out and be part of this process.

And that let us all do so in an atmosphere of peace in order to deepen Ghanas democracy.

Some political pundits have urged the opposition National Democratic Congress to seek legal redress if they are not happy with a decision by the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters register.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has attacked the Australian government's policy of deporting convicted criminals who were born overseas, declaring it "corrosive" to the relationship between the two nations.

In an awkward appearance alongside Prime Minister Scott Morrison at Sydney's Kirribilli House, Ms Ardern delivered a rebuke of the Coalition's tough stance, which has sent more than 2000 Kiwis home in the past six years.

Tough talking: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was not afraid to take on Scott Morrison at the latter's official Sydney residence. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

Ms Ardern said while many of those deported might have been born in New Zealand, they had lived most of their lives in Australia and had no connections in their country of origin.

She told Mr Morrison: "Do not deport your people and your problems."
New Delhi, Feb 28 (UNI) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said the world remains committed in fight against terrorism and stands shoulder to shoulder with India in forcing countries like Pakistan to bring terrorist leaders to justice.

'We have recently seen the impact of collective diplomatic and financial pressure on Pakistan', he said.

Addressing a seminar organised by the Centre for Air Power Studies here, he said that it was a matter of pleasure to be amongst the larger fraternity of the armed forces and particularly the air warriors who were part of the planning and execution process of the Balakot operation.

'Terrorist like Hafiz Saeed who were treated like VIPs have been put behind bars. We realise that this is not enough and unless Pakistan is made accountable, it will continue with its previous policy of duplicity and deceit. All attempts are being made to work in this direction', Mr Singh said.

Referring to the Balakot airstrike, he said that India had been seen as a country that did not respond adequately to terrorism despite grave provocations. The surgical strike of 2016 and air strike of 2019 at Balakot changed that perception once and for all.

These actions were not only resolute military strikes against terrorism and terror supporting elements. These operations also conveyed a strong and unequivocal message that went beyond its immediate impact.



Describing the impact of airstrike on Balakot, the Defence Minister said it reflected Indias approach against employment of terrorism as a low-cost option against India. It also indicated that terrorists, terrorist infrastructure and terrorist training facilities in areas beyond Line of Control(LoC) and International Border(IB) when employed against India, will no longer be a safe heaven, he added.

The Defence Minister also said the world stood as one against terrorism and its employment for perceived strategic gains. 'One year down post Balakot, I thank all our partner countries, friends and well-wishers, who recognised the challenge posed by terrorism to be greater than narrow parochial pronouncements', Mr Rajnath Singh said.

'I have little doubt that Balakot strike forced the rewriting of many a manual and rule book across the LoC. Those who preferred to place India in an imaginary understanding of the past, were brought into the reality of the present and its potential manifestation in the future,' the Defence Minister exhorted, adding that the Balakot will continue to reiterate Indias intent to employ the most appropriate resources for the intended impact, with an element of unpredictability and innovation as an integral part of the endeavour.

Talking about the structural changes in the Defence Forces, the Minister said that some major structural changes have been made which intends to tackle threats to the nation. It will take some time for the entire set up to be fully operational. This transition time is crucial and we need to keep the guard up, he further said.

'All stakeholders need to contribute in making these changes effective and efficient. Of course, there will be some teething problems in the initial days. We need to be ready for these and use our professional knowledge to find suitable and effective solutions', Mr Singh remarked.

UNI AKS SB 1620
(CNN Philippines, February 28)  Two more local chief executives are facing administrative charges for being remiss of clearing major roads and highways of illegal obstructions, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said Friday.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano said they filed a complaint against Mayors Benido Balao-as of Boliney in Abra and Renato Cabael of Motiong in Samar for gross neglect of duty and grave misconduct before the Office of Ombudsman.

Illegally parked vehicles, plants and other obstructions have been found in nine roads in Motiong while extended canopies were seen in Boliney, Ao said. The local government of Boliney also failed to submit an inventory of the provincial, municipal and barangay roads in their area, he added.

Both LGUs have also failed to come up with any rehabilitation and sustainability plans nor set up a grievance and feedback mechanism on clearing of road obstructions, the secretary said.

The DILG in January has filed administrative charges against 10 mayors for failure to satisfactorily answer the show cause notices issued to them after they failed to comply with the national governments directive to reclaim public roads being used for private ends.

Ano said more administrative complaints will be filed against other mayors once validation reports are reviewed by their lawyers. Last year, the DILG required a total of 97 mayors across the country to explain in writing their noncompliance.

President Rodrigo Duterte, in his State of the Nation Address in July last year, ordered the DILG to take the lead in road clearing operations. A week after, the DILG issued Memorandum Circular 2019-121  a formal directive to local government units (LGUs) to clear roads and sidewalks of illegal structures and constructions within 60 days.

On February 7, the DILG issued another memorandum directing village officials to remove all forms of obstruction on tertiary roads and streets within their areas of jurisdiction starting February 17. They were given 75 days to do so.

Road obstructions include vehicles parked in prohibited places in sidewalks, paths, or alleys, vehicular terminals except in areas allowed by the local government; vending areas, protruding house gates, tents, among others; and indiscriminate signages and advertisements, Ano noted.
In a recent event between India Inc captains and US president Donald Trump, Reliance Industries' chairman Mukesh Ambani was asked a question about his 5G plans. "Are you going to do 5G too?," Trump asked Ambani to which he replied, "We're going to do 5G. We are the only network in the world that doesn't have a single Chinese component."

The brief conversation between the richest Indian and the most powerful man in the US has started a debate on the Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio's capabilities when it comes to 5G services. After almost a year of inaction, the government swung into action last year on 5G. It asked the operators to submit their trial proposals. While Vodafone Idea and Airtel have submitted their proposals jointly with Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, and ZTE, Jio, on the other hand, has submitted application with Samsung - which is also the sole vendor for Jio for its 4G services.

Since then, the proposals have been lying with DoT. It is believed that the ongoing AGR crisis seems to have taken all the attention away from 5G trials, and the 5G launch has taken a back seat. Jio sources say that the telco was ready to start trials last February but the government asked it to wait until other operators submit their trial proposals.

On the 5G front, Jio has its own strong and weak points. The biggest roadblock for Jio, or for that matter any operator, is going to be steep spectrum prices. The base price of the 5G spectrum (in 3300 megahertz to 3600 megahertz band) is highest in India. At telecom regulator TRAI's recommended reserve price of Rs 492 crore per MHz, operators will have to pay around Rs 50,000 crore for 100 MHz pan-India spectrum - that's the minimum spectrum required to deliver 5G services (in sub-6000 MHz bands) as per global body ITU.

As per brokerage CLSA, the base price per megahertz (MHz) for spectrum in this band is $70 million in India as compared to $26 million in Italy, $18 million in South Korea, $10 million in the UK and $5 million in Australia. TRAI has recommended the sale of 275 MHz of spectrum in 3300-3600 MHz band, which translates into 80-100 MHz of spectrum for each operator.

So while Jio might be in a better financial condition than Vodafone Idea and Airtel, it had reportedly asked the government to take a 'critical look' at the reserved 5G spectrum prices. But the government has been unyielding so far. In a reply to a query in Lok Sabha late last year, the telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government is not planning to reduce the base price for the 5G spectrum.

Apart from this, Jio has a bigger urgency to acquire more 4G spectrum than 5G spectrum at the moment. Why? There are two reasons: some of the Reliance Communications' spectrum (in 800 MHz band) that Jio uses is expiring in July/August 2021. Then, the spectrum holding of Jio is lowest amongst the private operators. For instance, Jio's spectrum holding is 1480 MHz as compared to Vodafone Idea's 1850 MHz and Airtel's 1727 MHz. Given that it's the largest telecom operator in the country at present - with 370 million subs as on December 2019 - and it's adding nearly 7 million subs per month, Jio needs to first focus on its current services and subs before taking a plunge in the next-gen 5G.

In terms of strong points, Jio is the only operator with all-IP network, which is sine qua non for launching 5G services. Other operators are still transitioning towards IP network. So, Jio might witness quicker and smoother transition to 5G as compared to others. As per Morgan Stanley's report dated November 14, Jio has the largest fiber network among private operators. Its 11 lakh route kms is far higher than Airtel's 2.95 lakh route kms and Vodafone Idea's 1.6 lakh route kms, as per Morgan Stanley.

As per recent EY report titled Next-gen Infraco, India had close to 506,746 towers in 2018 and just 20-25 per cent of them were fiberised. "In a 4G/5G environment, microwave-based backhaul will become less relevant and there will be a need for more fiber. The formidable network performance goals of 5G - for latency reduction (from 50ms to 1ms) and speed from 100 Mbps to 10Gbps - would heavily predicate on the availability of fiber, and a majority of it, to the cell sites," said the EY report.

Globally, the development of 5G ecosystem (devices, equipment) has suffered a huge setback due to coronavirus. China, which is expected to lead the market with mass-scale production of affordable 5G handset/equipment, has literally stopped the production lines. It is likely to push the 5G launch forward by a few quarters. Jio's vendor partner Samsung would likely be affected as South Korea is one of the worst affected countries from coronavirus.

In India, as the deadline to launch 5G trials keeps shifting (the recent buzz is April-June quarter), an expert says that Jio can be unpredictable with its moves too. "They might want to buy 5G spectrum with an intention of leading the market in launching the new technology, and benefit from the first-mover advantage," says analyst.

Also read: Poco X2 launch in India today; check out specifications, features, price

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The SDLP haS called for increased multi-agency working to address flooding in Eglinton and surrounding areas.



Mark H Durkan MLA has received assurances from the Department for Infrastructure that proposals set out in the Eglinton feasibility study were currently being progressed.



His party colleague, Councillor Jim McKeever, who has been on the ground assisting residents following a weekend of heavy rainfall, has called for urgent remedial action to ensure raw sewage does not enter homes in the Granchester Park area.



The councillor for Faughan said: Residents have been provided with sandbags as a precautionary measure at the weekend.



However, some gardens within the Granchester Park area have been flooded as a result of heavy rainfall. And although water has not entered into homes, the seepage of raw sewage into the gardens and laneway is of huge concern.



Both the Rivers Agency and Environmental health were out this morning to ascertain the source of the problem. NI Water have also been contacted to investigate possible issues with a nearby pumping station and Ive been informed that they will also endeavour to have the area cleaned this evening.



Considering this area is in close proximity to a local school I hope this matter is treated with utmost urgency. I will of course, keep residents updated on the outcome of this assessment.



Mr Durkan said the 'protracted and indeed perennial' issues with flooding in Eglinton and the surrounding areas requied a long-term co-ordinated strategy.



He added: I am pleased the Department for Infrastructure have been able to provide an update on the flood defences proposed for Eglinton and Drumahoe.



This is a vital piece of work given the devastation witnessed here in 2017 and the impact on people's lives and livelihoods.



This scheme involves the construction of approximately 2,700 metres of flood defences and a range of smaller mitigation measures. I hope this crucial work can be progressed without further delay and hope to keep residents informed on specifics e.g. timeframes, going forward.



In addition, I am seeking to have a thorough investigation into the situation at Coshquin, where residents are living in fear every time there is heavy rain. We must deliver peace of mind for people living in areas prone to flooding, to ensure that all possible protections are in place. There must never be a repeat of the profound and lasting distress caused by the deluge of August 2017.



Any residents who require further assistance should contact our offices.
Queensland women would have to work an extra 49 days to take home the same salary as their male peers, on average.

The average full-time ordinary earnings per week of a woman in Queensland is $270 less than a man, before tax, the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows.

Queensland men make $270 a week more than women. Credit:Rob Young

The data revealed Queensland had the second-worst gender pay gap in the country, trumped only by Western Australia, where women earn $426.60 less each week than men.

The gender pay gap spans all industries and persists despite women asking for raises, Workplace Gender Equality Agency director Libby Lyons said.
People at the 89th Geneva International Motor Show in 2019. (Photo by Sergei Fadeichev/TASS via Getty Images)

The annual Geneva International Motor Show (GIMS), which was due to begin next week, has been cancelled after the continued spread of coronavirus pushed the Swiss government to ban large events.

The Swiss government on Friday instigated a ban of gatherings of 1,000 or more people, effective immediately. The ban runs until 15 March.

Some 150 exhibitors and 90 global or European car premieres were expected at Geneva  the largest event of its kind  with the show slated to be open to the public for 10 days from 5 March.

The show, which pulled in around 600,000 visitors last year, was due to open to the media on Monday.

We regret this situation, but the health of all participants is our and our exhibitors' top priority. This is a case of force majeure and a tremendous loss for the manufacturers who have invested massively in their presence in Geneva, said Maurice Turrettini, the chairman of the GIMS, on Friday.

Read more: Stocks fall again amid warnings of coronavirus pandemic potential

The outbreak of the coronavirus has spooked authorities in Europe, and the Swiss ban marks the first time that a country-wide ban on large events has been enforced under a 2016 epidemics law.

There have been eight cases of coronavirus in Switzerland. Italy, which borders Switzerland, now has had over 650 confirmed cases, and 17 deaths.

The government's top priority is to protect the population. It is responding to the latest developments in the coronavirus epidemic and has categorised the situation in Switzerland as special' in terms of the Epidemics Act, the Swiss government said on Friday.

The GIMS press office was this week adamant that the show would go on, with increased hygiene measures in place, including frequent disinfecting of surfaces in the expo halls.

They recommended that companies screen their attendees for 14 days prior to travelling for signs of coronavirus.

The GIMS said on Friday that, as recently as a week ago, there was nothing to suggest that the Swiss government would take such a measure.

Story continues

The situation changed with the appearance of the first confirmed coronavirus diseases in Switzerland, it said.

Read more: Europes economy braces for coronavirus hit as market panic grips

The Word Health Organization late on Thursday warned that no country should assume it will not be affected by coronavirus, raising the prospect of wider economic damage.

This virus has pandemic potential, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO.

We are actually in a very delicate situation in which the outbreak can go in any direction based on how we handle it.

Unrelated to the coronavirus outbreak, a number of big automotive players had already decided to skip the Geneva show this year, including Jaguar land Rover (TTM), Ford, (F), and Volvo (VOLV-B.ST), the PSA Group, which includes Peugeot, Citroen, and Vauxhall Opel, and Lamborghini.

Increasing numbers of car firms are opting to skip traditional shows and head to big tech fairs like CES in Las Vegas instead, or to put their budgets into exclusive launch events where they wont be competing for attention with other brands.

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To serve their respective school districts, Klein ISD Police Department and Spring ISD Police Department are aiming to improve their positive relationship with the community.

As the guest speakers for the Public Safety Forum on Feb. 27, Klein ISD PD Chief David Kimberly and recently sworn in Spring ISD PD Chief Kenneth Culbreath discussed their outreach efforts, collaboration with other police departments and misconceptions of how the departments operate. The Public Safety Forum is hosted by the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce.

Related: Northwest chamber proposes management district to improve safety on FM 1960

Were trying to foster a relationship with our kids so that they have respect for us and that they respect themselves enough to be leaders, Culbreath said. They have to be collaborators, there has to be a level of accountability between them, their parents and their instructors.

Kimberly, who has been with Klein ISD PD for 25 years, said negative coverage in news media distracts from community efforts done by local law enforcement such as their Holiday Heroes program, car washes and their Leadership Academy aimed to foster trustworthy relationships between officers and students.

Related: Program invented by Klein ISD police getting statewide attention

We are information driven, Kimberly said. Were instantly information driven. Its actually changed the way many of us do law enforcement. I get it. When something bad occurs, the media is going to jump on it.

Kimberly highlighted the more than 15,000 unique walk throughs and drive throughs of elementary schools in the last school year, as well as the anonymous tip website for staff and students available on the Klein ISD website. One student used the alert system as a joke to tell officers about his spaghetti being stolen.

It told me that if it was serious (the student) would know how to use it and on Monday morning I was not sitting in that kids assistant principals office with that kid explaining why he was fooling around, Kimberly said. I really dont care how the information comes to us as long as we get it because that might be the one situation where we truly stop a very tragic event.

Culbreath said he and Spring ISD PD are borrowing programs from Klein ISD PD, like their Holiday Heroes program and their own version of the Leadership Academy. Both officers discussed stickers, shirts and other apparel they would give to students in order to make interacting with the officers a positive experience that publicizes their efforts and helps build a better bond with the community.

We can help our community partners and the sheriffs office and the police department to deal with any issues we have at school, and also follow it into the community to help solve problems and prevent crimes, Culbreath said. Were really trying to work with communities, the families, the parents.

When asked about crime in schools, Culbreath said Spring ISD PD did not see much violent crime or gang activity. Culbreath said he sees more disruptive crime and illegal drugs, specifically marijuana.

Kimberly told the audience that police departments provide for their outreach events with donations, not school funding. He encouraged the audience to donate or lend a hand with events police departments try to put on.

Ive had people over the years, I dont get it as much anymore, say Oh youre just a school cop, Kimberly said. Youre absolutely right. What is the most valuable thing in your world? The absolutely most valuable thing?

chevall.pryce@chron.com
Hunter-gatherer ancestors, from around 300,000 years ago, facilitated a cultural revolution by developing ideas in small social networks, and regularly drawing on knowledge from neighbouring camps, suggests a new study by UCL and University of Zurich.

The study, published in Science Advances, mapped close-range social interactions of Agta hunter-gatherers in the Philippines using radio sensor technology to record close range interactions between individuals every hour for one month. The researchers observed inter-camp migrations and visits almost on a daily basis.

The anthropologists found that the social structure of Agta hunter gatherers, built around small family units linked by strong friendships and high in-between camp mobility, was key to the development of new cultural ideas. This is because the social structure allowed for the co-existence of multiple traditions or solutions to a similar problem in different parts of the network. The researchers highlight that this is distinct from the closely bound society of our closest cousins, chimpanzees.

Professor Andrea Migliano (UCL Anthropology & University of Zurich), the first author of the paper, said: "It is fair to say that 'visits between camps' is the social media of current hunter-gatherers, and probably of our extinct hunter-gatherer ancestors.

"When we need a new solution for a problem, we go online and use multiple sources to obtain information from a variety of people. Hunter-gatherers use their social network exactly in the same way. The constant visits between camps are essential for information to be recombined and continuously generate cultural innovations."

The anthropologists tested the effect of the Agta social structure of sparsely populated close knit groups, on the evolution of cultural complexity using an agent-based model that simulated the creation of a new medicinal drug, having started with an original set of six medicinal plants.

This process was first simulated across the real social network of Agta hunter-gatherers. In this case, pairs of individuals were selected, based on the strength of their social ties, to combine different medicinal plants and share the discovery of any new super medicine with their close family ties. Second, the process was simulated over an artificial and fully connected network of a similar size, where all individuals were connected to each other and immediately transmitted any discoveries to all network members.

Contrary to some predictions, rates of cultural evolution were much higher across the real hunter-gatherer social networks. While fully connected networks spread innovations more quickly, the real hunter-gatherer networks promote the independent evolution of multiple medicines in different clusters of the network (different camps, households, family clusters), that can later be recombined producing a more complex culture.

Dr Lucio Vinicius (UCL Anthropology & University of Zurich), the last author of the paper, said: "Previous studies have shown that fluid social structures already characterised expanding Upper Palaeolithic human populations and that long-range cultural exchange in the Homo sapiens lineage dates back to at least 320,000 years ago.

"However, the link we found between cultural evolution and the fluid sociality of hunter-gatherers indicates that as hunter-gatherers expanded within and then out of Africa, this social structure of small and interconnected bands may have facilitated the sequence of cultural and technological revolutions that characterises our species."

Dr Mark Dyble (UCL Anthropology), co-author of the paper, said: "Humans have a unique capacity to create and accumulate culture. From a simple pencil to the International Space Station, human culture is a product of multiple minds over many generations, and cannot be recreated from scratch by one single individual.

"This capacity for cumulative culture is central to humanity's success, and evolved in our past hunter-gatherer ancestors. Our work shows that the kind of social organisation that is typical of contemporary hunter-gatherers serves to promote cultural evolution. If this kind of social structure was typical of hunter-gatherers in the past, it could go a long way to explaining why the human capacity for culture evolved".

###

Notes to Editors

For more information or to speak to the researchers involved, please contact:

Natasha Downes, UCL Media Relations. T: +44 (0) 20 3108 3844 / +44 (0) 7990 675 947, E: n.downes@ucl.ac.uk

Migliano, A., Battiston, F., Viguir, A, et al. 'Hunter-gatherer multilevel sociality accelerates cumulative cultural evolution' will be published in Sciences Advances on Friday 28 February 2020, 19:00 UK time / 14:00 US Eastern time and is under a strict embargo until this time.

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What hasnt Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised voters in the last week before the election? He is offering a free year in college for anyone who completes military service or national service. He is willing to erase the criminal records of anyone charged with using cannabis. He is prepared to lower taxes and increase deregulation, and more. Among all these proposals, which may not have a chance of being fulfilled after March 2, there is one especially dramatic promise. This week, Netanyahu announced that he would lift the freeze on a plan to construct 3,500 new housing units in Area E1 between Jerusalem and the settlement town of Maale Adumim. Earlier, Netanyahu announced that he had approved the expansion of the Har Homa neighborhood (2,000 housing units) as well as construction in Givat HaMatos (4,000 units).

Whats the difference between the housing units in these three areas and the wave of construction that occurred in the settlements throughout Netanyahus term in office? The answer can be found in remarks he made Feb. 20 while overlooking the Har Homa neighborhood. I hereby announce the creation of Har Homa E.  It will be a neighborhood with 5,000 residents, just like a mid-sized city in Israel. The strategic location of the Har Homa neighborhood in the south of Jerusalem, on the Palestinian side of the Green Line, as well as the two other neighborhoods, eliminates any chance of establishing a future Palestinian state, and kills the idea of a two-state solution. From now on, the only possible future on the table is annexation and a binational state.

In the years between his return to office in 2009 until just this week, Netanyahu has managed to withstand the pressure exerted on him by the settlers. He realized that any attempt to announce the commencement of construction in Area E1 or Givat HaMatos is a red line, and that crossing it would likely upset the international community. He wouldnt dare make the smallest possible step toward building in the area, even after the Trump administration gave him a free hand to build in Jerusalem neighborhoods across the Green Line. Maybe he believed that he could tell the international community that he is still interested in a two-state solution but that, sticking to his script, there is no partner on the other side.

Given his current announcement on new construction in Givat HaMatos and Area E1, Netanyahu can no longer claim that he is willing to talk and that there is something to talk about. E1, for example, is a 12 square kilometer strip of land, which even Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Father of the Settlements, avoided developing out of concern over the response of the US administration (under President George W. Bush). Construction in Area E1 would prevent the Palestinians from having a strip of territory connecting the West Bank to the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. Back in 2005, when Sharon only said half-heartedly that he still planned to connect Maale Adumim to Jerusalem, he was immediately forced to provide a clarification to the White House. During his meeting with Bush in Texas that year, the president informed him that the United States opposes any construction that would prevent a permanent solution in the future.

Even Netanyahu promised President Barack Obama that he would avoid any unilateral steps in Area E1. Saeb Erekat, who was responsible for talks between the Palestinians and Israel, used to claim that Netanyahu made a secret promise to Obama that he would not build in that particular territory. In a press briefing in Washington after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Obama in the White House in June 2009, Erekat told reporters, Obama said he got Israel to commit to stop construction in E1. Two weeks later, Erekat added that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave the Palestinian Authority assurances that there would be no construction in E1. It is also worth noting that support for the idea that Netanyahu made such a promise was found in documents that were leaked to Al Jazeera at the time.

All of this underscores how sensitive the Bush and Obama administrations were to the topography of E1, and how they put all their efforts into avoiding any changes whatsoever in the territory. In the past, Israel did start to prepare the area for construction. The government paved new roads, put up street lights and even transferred the headquarters of the Judea and Samaria District of the Israel Police there. On the other hand, there has been no further development since 2005, when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a stern warning about it to Sharon. The same is true of Givat HaMatos.

Givat HaMatos, which lies between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, overlooks Jerusalem from the south. Sharon, when he had previously been housing minister, set up a temporary neighborhood of caravans on the site to house new immigrants, who arrived in the country with the breakup of the former Soviet Union. The caravans have since been evacuated, and the hill has been left empty. In 2014, a new plan was raised to build a Jewish neighborhood there, in order to isolate the Arab neighborhoods of Beit Safafa and Sharafat from the other Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem and block a land bridge connecting Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Then the Obama administration vetoed the idea. It is interesting to note that Netanyahu, who had no qualms about fighting with the US president on other issues, didnt contest this veto and stopped the planning from proceeding.

So what changed now? Netanyahu is caught in a fight for every vote. He is struggling with every last bit of strength to win the 61 seats that could save him from standing trial on criminal offenses and ensure him at least one more term in office. With his personal future at stake, he is prepared to build in places he avoided for so many years. Its not a matter of ideology. If it was, he would have pushed to build in those neighborhoods ages ago.

There is a psychological issue with putting a final end to the idea of Palestinian territorial integrity. It was once a red line for Netanyahu. He never crossed it himself, nor would he let anyone else cross it. During all his years in office, he gave the settlers every mountain and hill that they could ever want, along with vast sums of money to expand their settlements. He made the transition from the principles he espoused in his Bar Ilan speech, with its commitment to the idea of a two-state solution, to a plan for wide-scale annexation of Palestinian territories. He let the settlers drag him along by the nose and veered to the right of Yamina leader and Defense Minister Naftali Bennett himself when Netanyahu thought that Bennett might steal votes from him. And yet, despite all that, Netanyahu was careful not to cross the red lines surrounding Givat HaMatos and Area E1  at least until now.

If Netanyahu ever had the common sense to leave any room whatsoever for a future agreement with the Palestinians, he is now burying it. With President Donald Trump busy preparing for the presidential election in the United States and the rest of the world panicked by the coronavirus, Netanyahu comes along and flips them off. He cares little about what the international community has to say, and he cares little about the future of his own citizens, the same ones who wouldnt let him form a government after the last two elections.
Former fire chiefs say a "ridiculous" bushfire funding rule is preventing emergency services from waterbombing small fires before they turn into mega blazes that destroy homes and kill people.

Federal funding can flow to state governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements with up to 75 per cent of costs covered - but only in extraordinary circumstances when firefighting was targeted at "imminent" risks to lives and property.

NSW's custom large aerial tanker 737 jet dumps fire retardant on a bushfire south of Port Macquarie in October last year. Credit:Nick Moir

That means states may have to carry the cost of early prevention waterbombing on fires in remote areas, well away from lives and property. This summer a number of small fires in remote areas became major blazes that destroyed homes in NSW and Victoria.

NSW has confirmed it would seek "partial reimbursement" from the federal government for its firefighting efforts, including waterbombing, since July last year.
The first money argument I had with my friends was over how to split rent in our first Brooklyn apartment. We were 22 and couldnt agree on how much more the person living in the biggest room should pay. One roommate had called dibs on it before we had even figured out how we would price each room, and suggested at first that we should all pay pretty much the same amount, even though her room was over twice the size of the smallest one. In the end, she agreed to the split that the rest of us thought was fair, and we went on to live together for 3 years.

Rent is an extremely common point of conflict, especially when youre new to managing your money. A Venmo request can sit uncompleted until the end of time, leaving you longing for a way to passive-aggressively nudge a friend instead of having to confront them directly. Maybe you dont want to admit that your friend could be so selfish and shameless, because that leaves you questioning your own taste in people. Or maybe you worked up the nerve to ask your friend for help in a time of financial hardship, and they treated you with coldness.

When you have a money conflict with a friend, its emotional. It can be uncomfortable to set boundaries on and demand what youre owed when its someone you care about. By the same token, its not just the money that hurts, but the disrespect and betrayal from someone who supposedly cares about you. We spoke to five women who opened up about their ugliest, most harrowing money fights  so ugly that they destroyed entire friendships.





If You Dont Pay My Rent, Youre A Bad Friend

Age: 24

Dispute amount: $3,000



My friend and I had a 12-month lease together. He lasted maybe six months. In the first two months, he paid on time. Rent was $450 each. Then he got fired (but told everyone he quit) from his gym job. He started doing drag, which was awesome and he was really good at it. He didnt make any money from drag, I just assumed he had some money saved up until he found the next move. He paid for high-quality makeup and outfits, though, and could never pay rent anymore

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I wouldnt cover him because, knowing him, I would never see it back. If I wanted to pay $900 for rent, I would just live by myself. I told my landlord what was going on the moment we got the first sign, taped to our door in October. I think with the late fees it was over $3,000! The landlord saw that I paid my portion, as it was all done online, and when I told them the situation, they ended up kicking my friend out. If I hadnt snitched, I wouldve gotten kicked out too.

He told me I wasnt supportive and sucked as a friend since I wasnt paying his rent. I went to multiple shows of his and paid for his drinks and stuff, but Im sorry, I refuse to cover three months of rent. I dont care how close we are. We no longer speak, and he has blocked me on everything.





How Dare You Tell People Im Not Paying Rent

Age: 22

Dispute amount: $1,800

I was living in a house in Washington, D.C., with my friends, but I moved to NYC for a job. Another friend, L., took my spot. I would charge her rent on Venmo, but, eventually, she stopped paying me and ignored all of my messages.

I didnt tell any of our mutual friends for the longest time, because I didnt want to embarrass her or make her feel uncomfortable. In the middle of all this I lost my job, so I was paying two rents with no salary. She would use excuses, like that her Venmo wasnt working, but then I would go on Venmo and see her sending money to other people. She would say she didnt have any money, and then I would see her out at happy hour or brunch on social media.

I sent her a message that essentially said this friendship was over. She begged for my friendship and my trust, but I was unable to forgive her. Finally, I told another roommate who was friends with us both. We were both friends with them so I thought they would make a good intermediary. They first approached L. from a place of concern, trying to see if maybe there were extenuating circumstances, or something that I wasnt aware of. That didnt work.

Eventually, she paid me back by borrowing money from her girlfriend and offered to leave our group chat for a while. At first I said it was fine, but then she kept texting the group about $200 sweaters she was buying and sending pics of the $300 tattoo she got. I had to ask her to leave the chat. I was trying to heal from the trauma of being taken advantage of and disrespected so openly. She refused to leave.

Then there were issues with renewing the lease (I obviously took myself off and said L. had to sign it), so there was a house meeting. I dont know exactly what was said, and I know it wasnt the full story, but it was enough for the rest of our friends to piece together what had been happening.

L. messaged me saying it was completely inappropriate that I told anyone about the situation. She denied any reckless spending or lying to me. She said that I created a toxic environment for her to live in and that speaking with me gave her anxiety. Keep in mind, I had spoken to her in the past when rent was late and told her I could work out a payment plan. She eventually left the chat and completely stopped speaking to everyone she lived with, and blocked everyone on all social media.

That Escalated Quickly

Age: 26

Dispute amount: $500

A sorority sister asked me to move into an apartment off-campus for my junior year. I volunteered to be in charge of making sure our internet and heat/electric bills were paid on time. We decided to pay $65 every month. When setting up our apartment with NYSEG, they said we could put a limit on what we owed every month and at the end of the year, we could pay the remaining balance. We never thought our bill would be higher than $65, but we were so wrong. We had a large apartment that needed a lot of heat, and we were constantly hosting events for our organization since we had the most space.

Once I started to discover how much we really owed, I brought it to my sisters attention, and they freaked out. Understandably. They blamed my space heater, even though I unplugged it every time I left the house. I never turned it back on, but the bill continued to climb. One sister refused to work and wanted to spend all her money on alcohol. She wouldnt answer me about whether she was going to pay me the money, and then she told me she was going to strangle me if I asked her again. At one point, she threatened to stab me in my sleep. I was genuinely scared to live there.

I remember calling my parents crying, unsure of how to proceed. I didnt want to ruin our friendship, but I couldnt afford it  and I couldnt ask my parents for the money, either. They were already covering my rent, which was very kind. I had to go to the police and file for her to be served paperwork mandating she pay her part, but she gave me the money a few days before it was due to be delivered to her.

I called off the cops, but weve never been able to get past it. Losing such a close friend so quickly was stressful. I sometimes miss our friendship. After six years, we wave when we see each other at reunions, and leave it at that.





Wait Until My Father Hears About This

Age: 27

Dispute amount: $3,500

Several friends and I lived together in a house in college. One of the roommates, K., studied abroad and lined up a girl to sublet her room. The girl never showed up. K. refused to pay her portion of the rent for about 8 months. The rental company sent an email to all the tenants, informing us of the balance on the account (we had previously assumed her parents were paying the rent). K. never even responded to that email. She just forwarded it straight to her father.

What transpired over the next four to five months was an email chain of six college kids and all of our parents. K. never said a single thing  only her dad did. K.s family is very wealthy. Her father is a fancy producer in L.A., and she drove a BMW. She and her mean father made girls who were paying their own way through college scrimp and struggle to pay her debt. This line in particular from one of her dads emails is a scream: I am a very reasonable person and I am willing to forgo any legal proceedings if you and the other roommates, not including K., will agree to pay the balance of the money owed and also return K.s portion of the security deposit. These legal matters can get so messy and can cause a horrible rift between friends and Im sure no one wants that.

His language was so pompous, threatening, and condescending. It gave all of our parents a common enemy to rally around. He threatened to take college girls to court for traitorous interference of the original lease terms.

In the end, we split the cost of what K. owed to the rental company. The company took all of our deposits to pay down that balance, and then we ended up having to pay about $400 each. K. did not contribute anything, and we never spoke to her again. Senior year in the sorority was very frosty. We just shot daggers at each other from across the dining room for an entire year.

K. was a fun friend and a fun roommate. There was only one red flag, in hindsight. I once watched her pull out of our house (it was in a narrow alley) and accidentally back into a parked car on the opposite side. She got out, looked at the other car, cringed, then drove away with her mother in the front seat. If it was just her  okay, college kids can be jerks. But to know her mom was fine with her dinging up a neighbors car and not saying anything speaks volumes.





My Friend The Loan Shark

Age: 29

Dispute amount: $3,500

In the second week of January, I borrowed $3,500 from my former best friend, M., on behalf of my boyfriend. My boyfriends quarterly bonus pay (20K+) was delayed and he needed money to pay for legal affairs related to immigration. He works for a family-owned business, and when they get busy with orders, the pay of partners at the company gets delayed.

I started using one of my paychecks to pay the rent and the other half for our living expenses. M. was kind enough to lend the money to me, even though hes very careful with his money (I dont blame him). Initially, my boyfriend thought he would get paid within two weeks. So we gave M. a two-week timeframe for when we would probably be able to pay him back. Unfortunately, that didnt happen. We let M. know that we havent forgotten that we owe him money.

This whole time  up until around a week ago, when we mutually decided to end our friendship  M. has been texting my boyfriend every two hours for a status update. M. also emailed me every day, several times a day, claiming that the reason he needed to text my boyfriend so much was that my boyfriend didnt provide him with an adequate number of updates.

M. and I agreed over email to end our friendship. The dispute over the loan, and even more so the communication about it, really epitomized how different and incompatible weve become. Our workday norm was to pass the time by emailing each other. As soon as we told him that my boyfriend had to delay repayment, our emails became just about money, the irresponsibility of my boyfriend, how much he wants to cut all ties with him, and how my boyfriend isnt responsive enough for him. I told him that my boyfriend and I didnt want around-the-clock messages about the money we owed him, because we never FORGOT that we owe him.

M. is also a Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez supporter. Im a staunch Libertarian and despise Bernie and AOC. I think hes a hypocrite for theoretically being generous in his politics, but being very strict about money and not wanting to pay taxes himself. He makes around 180k from two different jobs. I make 110k. M. complains constantly about spending even a dollar on any meal and nickels and dimes over every expense, even while on vacation. I dont understand the point of complaining about the cost if there isnt a pragmatic alternative. If I really feel I need or want something, I should be willing to pay the price.

Im happy to be free of that toxic friendship. I really learned that people outgrow each other, and thats okay. Its just another part of life.

Responses have been edited for length.

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Find all our Lessons of the Day here.

Lesson Overview

Featured Article: Were Reading the Coronavirus Numbers Wrong by John Allen Paulos

In his recent New York Times Opinion piece, John Allen Paulos, a professor of mathematics, cautions about the way in which we interpret and report disease-related data. In this lesson, you will see what numbers and statistics can tell us about disease outbreaks and how that data can be misinterpreted. Then you will analyze other examples of data reporting in the news and determine how accurate or effective it is.

Warm Up

Respond to the following questions in writing, or engage in a class discussion:

What have you heard about the coronavirus? Do you talk about it at school or with friends or family?

How do you see coronavirus discussed in the news or on social media? Have you seen memes or TikTok videos about the coronavirus? What tone do these sources take?

How concerned are you about the coronavirus? What has influenced how you think and feel about global outbreak?

(Feel free to join our related Student Opinion conversation about these topics. Commenting is easy  it only takes seconds to register, and its free  but you must be 13 or older to participate.)

Questions for Writing and Discussion

Read the article, then answer the following questions:

1. How can you calculate the case fatality rate for a disease? What are the challenges to determining an accurate coronavirus fatality rate?

2. How do the changing coronavirus numbers in Hubei, China, illustrate how numbers can provide a distorted picture of what is going on?
A man is pictured wearing a mask and goggles while waiting to buy another mask from a post office in the city Daegu, South Korea, on 27 February. (Getty Images)

Since it emerged at the end of last year, the new coronavirus strain has made headlines all over the world.

With experts rushing to understand how Covid-19 spreads, one of the only pieces of advice officials can offer is to stay back from someone who is coughing and spluttering.

Dubbed social distancing, one expert recommends we keep a two-metre (6.5ft) space between a potential patient.

Read more: What could a coronavirus worst-case scenario really look like in the UK?

Covid-19s confirmed cases exceeded 82,000 on Thursday, of which 78,497 were in mainland China, according to John Hopkins University data.

This is where the virus jumped from a mysterious animal into humans at a seafood and live animal market in the city Wuhan.

While cases appear to be plateauing in China, the infection has crossed national borders into more than 30 countries, many thousands of miles away.

South Korea is second to China in patient numbers, with 1,595 confirmed cases and 13 deaths.

Italy is faring worst in Europe, with more than 450 incidences and 12 fatalities.

The UK has tested over 6,000 suspected patients, with 15 coming back positive.

The overall death toll is said to be approaching 3,000.

A medical worker in South Korea is pictured wearing protective gear while speaking on the phone during a visit to suspected coronavirus patients in Daegu on 27 February. (Getty Images)

The importance of social distancing in warding off coronavirus Covid-19

Virtually unheard of just two months ago, no one can be certain of the different ways Covid-19 may spread.

Despite rising sales of Dettol, it is unclear whether the virus survives on surfaces.

Evidence suggests Covid-19 may spread via faecal matter, however, this is unproven.

The only known method of transmission is face-to-face via infected droplets sneezed or coughed out by a patient.

The World Health Organization (WHO) therefore recommends people stay at least one metre (3.2ft) from anyone who is coughing or sneezing.

Covid-19s symptoms tend to be flu-like, such as fever, breathlessness and cough.

When someone coughs or sneezes they spray small liquid droplets from their nose or mouth which may contain virus, according to the WHO.

Story continues

If you are too close, you can breathe in the droplets, including the COVID-19 virus if the person coughing has the disease.

Read more: Gwyneth Paltrow wears mask amid the coronavirus outbreak

Four out of five cases are thought to be mild, with a relatively small number of patients succumbing to pneumonia.

Nevertheless, Professor David Heymann  from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine  stressed we should all be self empowered to stay virus-free for the sake of those who could become seriously unwell, like the elderly or otherwise ill.

Stay a respectable distance from someone who may be sick, he said.

Professor Heymann said two metres is likely reasonable.

He stressed, however, it depends on the force of speaking, and if you cough or sneeze.

While flights are suspended in and out of Wuhan, international travel has left many worried they may catch the infection onboard.

Covid-19 is said to be genetically similar to fellow coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), which killed 774 people during its 2004 outbreak.

One expert even described Covid-19 as the same species as Sars but a different strain.

Based on the mapping of infected patients on an aeroplane, Professor Heymann recalled a hypothesis where most of the travellers who caught Sars were sitting in the same row  or the row in front or behind  of a patient.

People sitting in more distant seats were thought to have become infected in an airport waiting area.

Other ways to protect yourself from the coronavirus Covid-19

The WHO also recommends people clean their hands regularly and thoroughly with an alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water.

With the virus entering the body via the nose, mouth or eyes, avoid touching these areas with unclean hands.

Coughing or sneezing into a tissue, which then gets promptly thrown away, should also help stem the spread of infection.

The effectiveness of masks is up for debate, however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends them if you are diagnosed.

You should wear a mask when you are around other people, it states.

People who live with you should not stay in the same room with you or they should wear a mask if they enter your room.

Read more: Kate Hudson criticised for wearing 'ineffective' face mask

If you are caring for someone with coronavirus, Professor Heymann recommends both you and they wear a mask for double protection.

He adds gloves should be worn so long as they are removed properly.

The CDC advises people grasp the outside of one glove at the wrist, without touching skin.

The glove should be peeled away so it turns inside out.

Holding the removed glove in the gloved hand, take off off the second glove by sliding the ungloved fingers under the glove and peel it off so that too turns inside out.

Leave the first glove inside the second and throw both away; then wash your hands immediately.

A man is pictured wearing a mask in Islamabad, Pakistan, on 27 February. (Getty Images)

What is the coronavirus Covid-19?

Covid-19 is one of seven strains of the coronavirus class that are known to infect humans.

Others range from the mild common cold to Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers), which killed 858 during its 2012 outbreak.

Pneumonia can come about when a respiratory infection causes the alveoli (air sacs) in the lungs to become inflamed and filled with fluid or pus.

The lungs then struggle to draw in air, resulting in reduced oxygen in the bloodstream.

Without treatment the end is inevitable, said the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Deaths occurs because of asphyxiation.

While no one can say for sure where the virus came from, bats seem most likely.

The nocturnal creatures are thought to have been behind Sars and Mers.

Scientists from Peking University in Beijing suggested snakes may have been the intermediate host for Covid-19.

A team from South China Agricultural University later found it could have jumped from bats to humans via pangolins.

Covid-19 has no specific treatment, with care being supportive while a patients immune system works to fight off the virus.
BETHALTO  Dr. Deanna Tiek learned about caring for others as a student at Zion Lutheran School in Bethalto.

Today, she is excelling in both her professional career and her work with homelessness outreach programs.

Born and raised in Bethalto, Tiek currently is a K00 post-doctoral fellow in the Neurology Department at Northwestern University in Chicago.

My strong foundation that began at Zion Lutheran School Bethalto, from Preschool through Grade 8, helped make this possible, she said. She credits the influence of her teachers  especially Trella Helmkamp, Sandra Balsters, Ken Sankey and Lorinda Sankey  for her professional and personal successes, noting Balsters continues to send her letters of encouragement.

At Zion Bethalto, Tiek helped collect coats and gloves for the homeless in East St. Louis and helped distribute them. This was the beginning of her lifelong passion for homelessness outreach.

After graduating as a valedictorian from Zion Bethalto, she attended Metro-East Lutheran High School in Edwardsville where she excelled academically and got involved with homelessness outreach programs. She graduate from MELHS as a valedictorian, receiving a full scholarship to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

At Vanderbilt, Tiek was a double major in biology and Spanish with a minor in chemistry. She used her Spanish knowledge to volunteer as a translator at a local health clinic and continued to work with homelessness organizations and helped with English as a second language classes.

After graduation, she was accepted to Georgetown University for her Ph.D. program in tumor biology. There she worked with Dr. Rebecca Riggins to gain a better understanding of drug resistant glioblastomas (brain cancer). On the weekends, she was involved with her church and a small group there, continuing to do outreach through homelessness programs and soup kitchens.

While at Georgetown Tiek received 13 personal grants, including the F99/K00 Transition grant awarded to only 24 people a year that pays for six years of pre-doctoral to post-doctoral funding. The grant allowed her to present her work on DNA and RNA changes in drug-resistant brain cancers at a 2019 conference in Italy and made it possible for her to begin her current post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Shi-Yuan Cheng at Northwestern. There, she is continuing her work on novel therapeutic targets for drug-resistant brain cancers  as well as her work with homelessness in Chicago.

My parents, Steve and Nancy Tiek, as well as my friends and great teachers, have positively influenced my life in so many ways, she said. They are a big part of this success story. Most importantly, I thank God for keeping me close to Him and for the paths He has made possible.

For more information on Zion Lutheran School Bethalto, visit http://zlsbethalto.org, call 618-377-5507 or email schooloffice@zionbethalto.org.
In Bishwanath Ghosh's Aimless in Banaras: Wanderings in India's Holiest City, the lesser-talked about darker aspects of the town comes to the fore, albeit at the cost of poorly-researched, error-ridden stories, and tired old cliches.

A couple of months ago, as I discussed Benaras with a friend, she referred to its famed Ganga-Jamni tehzeeb. The violence and acrimony that we come across today is not what the place stood for, she added. Hatred, I agreed with her, was not what the town represented. However, I argued that the town was also not only about love and harmony, and that people existed between the two extremes. Hatred, among other things, is seldom discussed openly, attesting to society's penchant for dodging talks on difficult issues.

During my school years, I used to accompany my mother to her parents place in Benaras each summer. There, at the heart of the town, it seemed like all the reverence was reserved for the sounds emerging from the temple. The calls from the masjid were frowned upon, and decidedly so. While the temple priest, or pandit, was suffixed with a 'ji', the mullah was prefixed with a Hindi slur. The other day, I asked my mother if anyone in her family had Muslim friends. She was uncharacteristically quick in responding with a "no".

Today, I live in an old, large campus in Benaras, which also houses a mazar. The language used by some of my colleagues to refer to Muslims on a regular basis, will not find place on this platform. It was only the other day that a colleague mentioned how the demolition of buildings near the Kashi Vishwanath temple had led to a sad situation. As I wondered why, he added that it had enhanced the visibility of the Gyanvapi mosque abutting the temple. The mosque was better hidden, he said.

While the young and privileged in Gujarat deny the existence of caste in India, the ones in Benaras are proud and vocal about it.

Bishwanath Ghosh, to his credit, does not shy away from talking about this side of the city in his book Aimless in Banaras: Wanderings in India's Holiest City. He mentions how the Babri Masjid demolition, and the period that followed, changed the fabric of the town. He takes note of the razing of homes for a corridor that will connect the Kashi Vishwanath temple to the river. He also touches upon pujaris flying across the globe to conduct rituals, and looking down upon other pujaris, before discussing the subject of caste. And he does all of it forthrightly.

Ghosh isn't afraid of referring to the much-hyped and celebrated evening arati on the river as a sham. The arati  as it is currently performed on selected ghats  is an act Benaras can do without.

The writer, quoting someone who stayed in the town for a few years, says, Banaras taught me lessons which no book could ever have taught. This line holds true for me as well, as it perhaps does for many others. The city is special, and depending on how one experiences it, it is a place for music, religion, faith, history, mythology, exotica, Sanskrit, spirituality, and much else. Few remain untouched by it; most are deeply influenced by it in myriad ways.

Unsurprisingly, much has been written about Benaras. Diana L Ecks Banaras: City of Light remains a seminal book on the city, while Pankaj Mishras The Romantics continues to be popular. There is, of course, Kashinath Singhs Kashi Ka Assi, considered a bona fide modern-day classic on the subject. Among those published in recent years, Saba Dewan's Tawaifnama has received favourable reviews, while Aatish Taseers The Twice Born failed to make the cut somehow. The children's book, Varshas Varanasi, by Chitra Soundar proved to be a disappointment as well. Evidently, reading a good book on Benaras is fascinating, but writing one is anything but easy.

In case of Aimless in Banaras, the book not only seems to suffer from a lack of attention to detail, but also from Ghoshs affinity for the cliched. When Bishwanath Ghosh writes about the Ramleela, he generalises by saying that it typically takes place over nine nights . . . but in Banaras performances are spread over a month. Generalisation seldom works. Similarly, when he writes about sarees, he appears to not have taken the pain to delve deeper into the subject. He also generously uses superlatives about a place which, to put mildly, is not easy to comprehend, a few instances of which are the oldest, the newest, the most popular, and the best-known.

As I looked up the book at a bookstore that I frequent in town, two people there mentioned an error it carried. Benarasis, from the little I know, take themselves and their town seriously. They pointed out that Ghosh has mistakenly mentioned that Gaya Singh was the only character in Kashi Ka Assi whose original name was retained. They dispute this claim made by Ghosh by adding that the original names of most characters have been retained in Singh's book. I corroborated this claim by looking up online reviews, a couple of which cited the same error.

Talking of ghats, he writes, There is something depressing about the ghats that lie north of Dashashwamedh. . . They are poorly maintained . . .This segment is also Benaras, but this is not where all the actions take place. Through my regular walks along the ghats, I've discovered that this is the less touristy stretch. Friends from the town who I walk with add that this stretch is what remains of the "asli" Benaras. To me, some of the lines appeared outright strange. Sample this: I have never come across a human swimming across its entire breadth, at least in Banaras, or, In Banaras no one preaches to you. And one wonders why he could not stay away from the too oft-repeated quote by Mark Twain: "Varanasi is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together."

In a recent interview, comic and writer Varun Grover mentioned that Benaras has always been viewed through the eyes of the white man. You need time to break through the cliches that we have been fed through this gaze. Ghosh appears to have fallen in the same trap.

The other day, a friend and I were walking down the lanes of Benaras to the Chowk locality for some malaiyo. He asked me how I manage to find my way through these labyrinthine lanes of the city. Was it Google maps, or had I learned to identify landmarks in this web of roads and alleys, or was it something else? None, I responded; Benaras seeps into ones system. Learning to find ones way through its lanes is akin to learning to cycle or swim. Once you know these lanes, they take you around. Perhaps, in case of Bishwanath Ghosh, Benaras hasn't gotten into his system.
Amsterdam [Netherlands], Feb 28 (ANI): Health authorities here on Thursday confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the European country.

The Dutch National Institute for Public Health, in a statement, said that a man who lives in the town of Tilburg had been diagnosed with the virus after traveling to Italy's Lombardy region a few days ago and was being treated in isolation, Anadolu Agency reported.



"The person had symptoms and was hospitalised and tested," the health institute said.

The institute said the man was placed in quarantine to prevent the virus from spreading.

Coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, has spread to more than 45 other countries including the U.S., U.K., Singapore, Italy, France, Russia, Spain and India.

The global death toll is nearly 2,800, and China, where the outbreak originated, is the worst hit, with more than 78,000 cases and over 2,700 fatalities.

The World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak an international health emergency and said the global risk level remains high. (ANI)


BANGKOK -- Thailands largest retailer, Central Retail Corporation Pcl (CRC), plans to expand domestic online sales as well as its business in Vietnam, as the coronavirus outbreak slows economic growth at home, its top executive said on Thursday.

Shares of CRC, which went to market on Feb. 20 in the countrys largest initial public offer (IPO), were trading 22% below its IPO price, against an 8% decline in the benchmark index.

We went into a perfect storm ... but (that) can be a perfect opportunity, Chief Executive Yol Phokasub told Reuters, citing the virus outbreak, a prolonged drought and a delayed budget bill.

The Thai central bank has predicted that the coronavirus could cut growth to less than 2% this year amid a slowdown in exports and tourism. In 2019, the economy grew 2.4%

Thailand has 40 reported cases of the virus, and residents have been avoiding public places like department stores and movie theaters.

These factors are creating new habits for consumers, Yol said, expecting digital or online orders to contribute to 10% of sales, up from 5% last year.

This was helped by on-demand deliveries through a partnership with Singapore-based ride hailing startup, Grab.

Chinas 11 million arrivals accounted for 28% of Thailands tourism revenue last year. The government expects the number of Chinese tourists to fall by 2 million this year due to the coronavirus outbreak, which originated in China.

Still, if the outbreak is contained by April, the company could recover due to its flexibility, he said, but if its spread continues beyond June, there would a larger impact on growth.

The retailer, which has businesses in food, fashion, electronics and furniture, was also concerned with how countries outside of China were handling the outbreak.

The worry is if there is panic and other countries cant contain it ... we have to plan for this, he said.

When asked about a share repurchase, Yol said that markets were panicking and the 42 baht price is reasonable, referring to the companys price at IPO.

Thai companies have been repurchasing shares as prices have fallen in February.

Last week, mall operator Central Pattana Pcl, also part of Central Group, said it would buy back shares worth up to 5 billion baht.

Expansion mode

Central Retail, owned by the billionaire Chirathivat family, plans to add 7-10 GO! supermarket stores a year in Vietnam over ten years and transform the chain into a lifestyle mall.

In Vietnam, we are growing the food business to draw in traffic and go beyond hypermarkets and also offer beauty, fashion products and space for tenants, Yol said.

In five years, CRC expects to have 65% of its revenue from Thailand, 25% from Vietnam and the rest from Italy, not including acquisitions, Yol said.

Currently, Thailand accounts for 75% of revenue, with Vietnam making up 17%.
Those in close contact with a woman diagnosed with Covid-19 have been traced and notified, health authorities in Ireland said.

She had flown from northern Italy to Dublin Airport before continuing her journey by land, reportedly using public transport.

It is understood she has been treated at home.

Irish health chief Dr John Cuddihy said: "Each of the stages of this person's journey have been identified and all relevant contacts in all of those stages of transport have been contacted (and) traced."

People who sat within two rows of the person on the plane from northern Italy to Dublin were contacted.

The woman followed advice in reporting concerns to a GP and "self-isolated" at home whilst awaiting the results of testing.

Ireland's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, and the head of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Dr Cuddihy, held a news conference in Dublin to provide details of Ireland's preparedness.

Dr Holohan said they were depending on an individual with symptoms travelling back from an affected area identifying themselves, contacting the local health authorities, and that was what had happened in this particular case.

Public health protocols, similar to those used to respond to previous incidents of pandemic influenza, Sars and Mers, have been in place since January and are operating effectively, the officials added.

The positive result has been sent to Public Health England laboratories for verification.

A special unit has been established at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for isolating those suffering from the virus but the health authorities were unable to confirm where the individual is being treated.

Ireland's Health Minister, Simon Harris, said it was "not unexpected" and is to meet staff at Dublin Airport activating the public awareness campaign for Covid-19 on Friday morning.

The Republic's National Public Health Emergency Team has been planning for this scenario since January.

The minister said the public should continue to adhere to public health protocols issued by the Department of Health.

The patient travelled to Northern Ireland via Dublin after coming from northern Italy in the last 48 hours.

Other plane passengers, who did not sit next to the woman, have been contacted and told while they do not need to self isolate they should monitor themselves for possible symptoms.

Read More

Independent.ie understands that passengers sitting in close proximity, rows in front, back and adjacent will be kept under surveillance.

Other passengers and crew are also to be monitored and efforts are being made to contact train passengers.

Sources said work on contacting people who may have been in contact with the patient are going well.

The system is working very well, a source said, adding: People need to understand this is a virus that we must contained  but we could be dealing with it until the end of the year. Its not going to pass quickly.

Speaking at the press briefing, Chief Medical Officer for Northern Ireland Dr Michael McBride said the person was not part of a school trip.

Dr McBride said that one person has confirmed to have the virus and that a second test is being done in England for a second confirmation. The first test was a "presumptive positive test" for the virus.

Read More

He said the person did not attend their general practice and self-isolated. He said he is confident that the PHA and the health service are "on top" of dealing with the case.

An isolation ward has also been put in place at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

The National Public Health Emergency Team said they are aware of the presumptive case of COVID-19 and that Public Health Authorities have activated contact tracing protocols.



Health Minister Simon Harris said the first case on the island "was not unexpected" and that officials had been planning for this scenario since January.

The general public should continue to adhere to the public health protocols issued by the Department of Health," he said.

Expand Close 27/02/2020 (L to R) Dr Kevin Kelleher, Assistant National Director Public Health & Child Health at the HSE & Sonya Cotter, Interim Head of Special Delivery Unit during a media Briefing on Covid-19, Seasonal Flu and Winter Plan at the HSE National Communications Division, Cornmarket,Dublin. Photo:Gareth Chaney/Collins / Facebook

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Whatsapp 27/02/2020 (L to R) Dr Kevin Kelleher, Assistant National Director Public Health & Child Health at the HSE & Sonya Cotter, Interim Head of Special Delivery Unit during a media Briefing on Covid-19, Seasonal Flu and Winter Plan at the HSE National Communications Division, Cornmarket,Dublin. Photo:Gareth Chaney/Collins

Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer in the Dept of Health, said: The HSE is well-prepared and is working to inform any contacts the patient had in order to prevent transmission.



COVID-19 is spread through close contact with an infected persons body fluids (e.g. droplets from coughing or sneezing), or by touching surfaces that an infected person has coughed or sneezed on.

Close contact involves either face to face contact or spending more than 15 minutes within 2 metres of an infected person. The risk of transmission through casual contact is low.

Speaking on RTEs evening news bulletin this evening, Dr Holohan said: This is not a surprise. Weve been prepared for this eventuality.

He said the passenger followed the correct protocol and informed health authorities that he or she had symptoms, he said.

This individual came forward, identified they had symptoms and liaised with us.

As for fellow passengers aboard the as-yet unidentified flight, he said the airline involved has the passenger manifest that would be handed over to health officials.

Passengers sitting within two rows of the affected passenger are being contacted this evening by health officials, he said.

But he said operations at the airport will remain as normal.

It doesnt give us cause for surprise, he said. Nothing has changed.

Any person concerned that they may have symptoms of COVID-19 should immediately isolate themselves from others and phone their GP.

Earlier today, the HSE said the coronavirus may already be circulating in Ireland but it has not been picked up on tests so far.

HSE public health officials said the fear is that someone who has it will delay seeking medical care.

Visit our Covid-19 vaccine dashboard for updates on the roll out of the vaccination program and the rate of Coronavirus cases Ireland

There is the potential for more people being infected by that person during the time lag.

This would mirror the crisis in parts of north Italy where hundreds of people have tested positive in the last week.

The HSE also conceded there is a risk of an outbreak in overcrowded hospitals which continue to battle the trolley crisis.

Suspect cases who need to be brought to hospital for a swab test can no longer be routinely brought by ambulance.

They will have to arrange their own transport with a relative.

This is because of the rising number of suspect cases due to more countries being added to the at risk list.

Use of an ambulance would take from the delivery of other routine care.

However, using peoples own transport to take them to hospital for a swab also increases the chance of passing on the infection if the prove positive.

The HSE briefing was told that around 2,000 queries were received by the HSE helpline over the past week about the coronavirus and some 300 were referred to public health staff.

Adequate stocks of protective equipment and clothing which are essential for health staff are available despite difficulties in procuring the items.

Meanwhile, the organisers of the St Patricks Day Festival said today they will take a measured and proportionate response to the public health threat from the new coronavirus.

The spread of the virus to countries which will be sending participants to the festival has raised questions about it going ahead.

In a statement today, the organisers said that following detailed meetings yesterday with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, it has been confirmed to St Patricks Festival that the National Public Health Emergency Team has established an expert sub-group to develop criteria for the risk assessment of mass gatherings.

This criteria is expected to be made available early next week.

Globally, Denmark was among those countries confirming their first cases on Thursday, while Saudi Arabia has stopped Muslim pilgrims entering to worship at the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

In Japan, all schools will close for several weeks, while US experts have reported the first case of unknown origin, which suggests the virus is spreading there.

In China, where the virus originated, 78,497 cases have been reported, including 2,744 deaths.

After Brazil confirmed Latin America's first case on Wednesday, the virus has reached every continent except Antarctica.

World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, told a press conference in Geneva on Thursday that coronavirus has the potential to become a global pandemic but this stage had not been reached.

Public health advice remains to wash hands with soap, not rub the face and maintain a distance from people who are coughing and sneezing, he said.

Dr Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said the idea that the virus is mostly being transmitted by people without symptoms is a "myth".

He added: "Data from China does not suggest that asymptomatic people are becoming the driving force behind this."
Slovak government approves defense treaty with US

US senators unveil bill to impose sanctions against Russia

EU wants to help Lebanon avoid economic collapse

CSTO to approve Kazakhstan peacekeepers withdrawal order

German president calls for thorough discussion on mandatory vaccination

Andranik Hovhannisyan elected UN Human Rights Council vice-president

Aliyev: Peace treaty with Armenia not a guarantee for avoiding war

Russian Foreign Ministry: Further NATO enlargement involves risks

Aliyev not to let OSCE deal with the Karabakh conflict

Ex-Mayor of Yerevan invited to police

Boris Johnson apologizes for attending party during lockdown

Global COVID-19 cases rise by 55% percent, deaths stable

Thailand introduces $9 tourist fee

Erdogan vows to tame Turkish inflation as scepticism grows

Turkey's Turkic world ambitions face reality check in Kazakhstan

Teacher in Baku beats student

NEWS.am daily digest: 12.01.22

Turkish FM expresses concerns to Chinese counterpart

OSCE Chairman-in-Office speaks on situation along Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Iran cancels travel ban on common borders

CSTO defense ministers council special session to be held Thursday

Dollar loses value in Armenia

Which NGOs, extra-parliamentary forces to be included in Armenia Constitutional Reform Council?

4,391 foreign nationals visit Artsakh in 2021

China calls on US to immediately close Guantanamo prison

State Department says more progress must be made to salvage nuclear deal

Measure ensuring implementation of law on addendum to law on Armenia state border is approved

Davit Minasyan is sworn in as new mayor of Armenias Parakar enlarged community

World Bank: Armenia economic growth expected to be 4.8% in 2022 and 5.4% in 2023

Azerbaijani Defense Minister receives new commander of Russian peacekeepers in Karabakh

Biden names Kamala Harris as US president during Atlanta speech

Ombudsman: Azerbaijan is launching provocations in Armenia territories where it earlier invaded

Russia-NATO Council meeting kicks off in Brussels

Serdar Kilic is appointed Turkey special representative for Armenia

Armenia ambassador to Georgia informs Switzerland envoy about Azerbaijan's gross ceasefire violation

Economy minister: Armenia government was guided by political considerations when lifting sanctions on Turkey goods

Turkey defense minister expresses support for Azerbaijan in another military aggression against Armenia

Pashinyan, Putin discuss Karabakh, Kazakhstan

Toivo Klaar: Deeply worried by reports of renewed incidents and casualties on Armenia-Azerbaijan

Germany: A record 80,430 COVID-19 cases detected per day

3 more persons die of coronavirus in Artsakh

Criminal case launched into 3 Armenia soldiers killing by Azerbaijan shootings

Copper rises in price

One of main tasks of Armenia peacekeepers in Kazakhstans Almaty is to prevent water supply system poisoning

About 80 Americans cannot fly from Afghanistan

Turkey parliament ex-deputy speaker: Armenia must fulfill 4 preconditions

Border situation in Armenias Gegharkunik Province was calm at night

French FM says talks on Iranian nuclear deal are progressing slowly

289 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Gold slightly rises in price

North Korea says it successfully tested another hypersonic missile

OSCE calls on Azerbaijan, Armenia to refrain from the use of force

Oil is trading without a single dynamic

US State Department welcomes announcement on CSTO forces withdrawal from Kazakhstan

Newspaper: Ex-ministers are summoned to Hayastan All Armenian Fund parliamentary inquiry committee

MOD: Armenia soldiers dead body found at midnight after Azerbaijan provocation

Newspaper: Casualties of Armenia PM Pashinyan's 'era of peace'

US concerned about EastMed natural gas pipeline project

Giant fish sold at auction for over 16 million yen

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
P olice have evacuated a historic Paris train station after a fire engulfed multiple vehicles and sent a cloud of black smoke over the neighbourhood.

Officers said the fire was under control by nightfall but flames could still be seen rising from the street near Gare de Lyon train station, near the banks of the Seine River.

Earlier, political opponents of the DR Congo government had called for musician Fally Ipupa's performance at the nearby Bercy venue to be disrupted.

Protests at the event had been banned, local media report.

At one point, the station's landmark clock tower was engulfed in smoke.

Someone set fire to a scooter during an unauthorized concert near the train station, and the flames quickly spread to other vehicles nearby, a police official said.

The official was not authorised to be named publicly.

Authorities urged people to avoid the area in eastern Paris while emergency workers fight the fire.

One video from the scene appeared to show protesters attempting to prevent firefighters from getting to the blaze.

Police said it was "outrageous behaviour" and demanded firefighters be allowed to operate.

Paris police say they have no reports of injuries yet but the situation is still evolving.

Local news reports say the fire started amid tensions around a concert by a Congolese rapper.
Savings For All?

Your criticism about former Vice President Joe Bidens "Medicare for All" cost estimates is spot-on but leaves out important savings ("KHN & PolitiFact HealthCheck: Would 'Medicare For All' Cost More Than U.S. Budget? Biden Says So. Math Says No," Feb. 14). Under Bidens plan, private insurance stays intact, meaning there are premiums and point-of-service costs that do not appear as taxes but are added to the nations health care expense. Medicare for All, on the other hand, is zero at the point of service, meaning Americans would have no financial qualms seeking comprehensive care. Public options add bureaucratic costs, are subject to personal income fluctuations and have deductibles and copays. We depend on organizations like yours to present the full picture. Heres hoping you will, in the publics interest.

- Dr. Donald Green, Pennington, New Jersey

For Alzheimer's Patients Like Me, Knowing Is Half The Battle

I want to thank Judith Graham for her piece discussing the uncertainty and fear patients feel when faced with the potential onset of Alzheimer's disease or dementia ("Stalked By The Fear That Dementia Is Stalking You," Feb. 21).

As an Alzheimer's patient with a confirmed diagnosis, I know all too well how unsettling it can be to suffer from cognitive decline without knowing the nature of your condition. For me, it started with little things like forgetting a name or misplacing a set of house keys. Still, it wasn't until I applied to participate in an Alzheimer's clinical trial and received a PET scan identifying amyloid protein buildup in my brain did I definitively know I had the disease.

Like many of the patients discussed in the article, dealing with these early warning signs can be an enormous source of anxiety  especially when it's unclear whether or not the cause is Alzheimer's or another cognitive issue. That's why getting a precise diagnosis was such a critical step for myself and my husband, Jim.

As mentioned in the article, amyloid PET scans are not fully covered by Medicare, a critically important detail, which I believe must be remedied. As the prevalence of Alzheimer's continues to grow as our population ages, expanding access to diagnostic tools that can identify this disease will become ever more critical. I remain optimistic that our representatives in Washington can come together and address this issue - so more patients like me don't have to live under a cloud of uncertainty.

 Geri Taylor, New York City

An Infusion Of Debt

Glad you are pointing this out ("Patients Stuck With Bills After Insurers Don't Pay As Promised," Feb. 7). Its happening again, post-Affordable Care Act. For us, its my husbands battle with multiple sclerosis, but more the battle with his insurer. It approved his treatment cost for a new drug, sent a letter saying everything was covered. Then, lo and behold, we get a bill for $4,000 that it said we had to pay. No reason or rationale given. So now we are on a payment plan with the hospital that gave him his infusion. Not sure why we even bother with paying our premiums in the first place, considering the out-of-pocket expense and worthlessness of preapprovals; it doesnt really matter. Please keep writing these articles - it helps.

- Margaret Paez, Los Angeles

When Choice Of Hospitals Is A Life-Or-Death Choice

Thanks so much for your coverage of death-with-dignity situations ("Terminally Ill, He Wanted Aid-In-Dying. His Catholic Hospital Said No," Jan. 29). We all need to know as much as possible about the institutions and structures that may prevent patients from choosing a dignified death. Please consider linking to the Catholic ethics rules so readers can read them for themselves. Please make us a map of Colorado showing the hospitals that are abiding by these rules. Please explain that emergency services in rural areas may have no choice but to take patients to the nearest (possibly non-law-abiding) hospital. Rewired has written about Eastern hospitals where serious pregnancy issues were poorly treated by Catholic hospitals.

Many of us do not understand that hospital choice may become a life choice and doctor choice may also become a life choice. And, please, also feature regularly and loudly all the practitioners and organizations being formed to protect patients' legal right to die. Thanks so much for the good work that you do.

- Diane Curlette, Boulder, Colorado

Taking Pains Over Statistics

In stories about the opioid crisis ("No Quick Fix: Missouri Finds Managing Pain Without Opioids Isn't Fast Or Easy," Feb. 13), I always see total death statistics but never a breakdown of how many of the fatalities represent responsible legal users vs. illegal users.

A lot of us elderly folks have a very hard time getting our pain meds nowadays. Thirty used to last me five to seven months, and I took them only when I couldnt get to sleep due to pain throughout my body. We have discussed it on our seniors' webpage in our rural area and many of us used to get them. Overdoses and addiction aren't the norm and aren't even in the realm of our experiences. Why do we have to pay for others' mistakes? They dont outlaw cars even though many people die from wrecks caused by bad drivers!

- William Scriven, Valley Springs, California

Collateral Damage From Insurers' Dispute

When I read Brian Krans' article about the Dignity-Cigna dispute ("Patients Caught In Crossfire Between Giant Hospital Chain, Large Insurer," Feb. 6), I was reminded of my own situation: In California, Oscar dropped coverage for all UCLA care facilities in its Covered California (Affordable Care Act) plans, as of this year. I dont know how many people use Oscar, but the UCLA system is a major health care provider here in West L.A. Theres no indication that theres a dispute  this is represented as a final decision. UCLA is gone!

I figured I could get similar care from the Providence network, but my first choice for a primary care physician proved a bit odd: On our first visit, he presented at least four ideas that seem outside the medical mainstream. With some embarrassment, I asked for a different PCP. That physician ordered lab work but said no one in the building was authorized by Oscar to do blood draws, so I was sent to a facility in another city  which turned out to be out of business. I was finally referred to a third facility, which turned out to be more convenient than the last - but the inconvenient run-around for something as simple as a blood draw and the penny-pinching by my insurance company do not bode well for the future of American medicine.

This is the second disruption Ive had in insurance providers since the ACA began, and another indication that our current health care system is still very broken.

 Gary Davis, Los Angeles

Raising A Red Flag On Animal Rights Group

As a registered dietitian, I do not promote the keto diet. Mentioned in the article "As VA Tests Keto Diet To Help Diabetic Patients, Skeptics Raise Red Flags" (Feb. 3) is the group Physicians for Responsible Medicine, which is an extreme animal rights group with ties to PETA. About 3% of its members are physicians. Attending a seminar on nutrition for cardiovascular disease, I was dismayed to see the speaker had ties to Physicians for Responsible Medicine. After hearing about all the terrible effects of eating animal products, when the speaker could no longer contain himself and shouted out, You dont eat dead animals, do you?" I walked out and called my professional association to complain. Please do not give credibility to this organization.

- Mary Lucius, Beavercreek, Ohio

Price-Gouging At Its Core

I read your most recent story on surprise medical billing ("When Your Doctor Is Also A Lobbyist: Inside The War Over Surprise Medical Bills," Feb. 12) and found it to be largely one-sided against physicians and, somewhat, hospitals. Although private equity certainly is an influence in the conversation, very little to any time was spent discussing the efforts of insurance companies to continually drive down reimbursements. Furthermore, when we look at Medicare rates, which insurance companies rates are based on, the actual reimbursement has not significantly increased over the past few decades when you account for inflation or the consumer price index. So to paint the picture that physicians are trying to gouge patients does not seem very fair. While there are always a few bad apples and opportunists, the majority of physicians simply want to be paid fairly. Remember: Over the past few years, insurance companies have reported record profits  billions per fiscal quarter. Why are we not talking about why more of our premiums are not going to the provision of health care and instead to shareholders? I think the article fails to paint the entire picture for a lay audience. Nowhere does it report the amount of money spent on lobbying by the insurance industry.

- Dr. Shamie Das, Atlanta

Health Care's High-Cost Formula Goes Beyond Drug Prices

What patients care about more than drug prices is how much they have to pay out-of-pocket for their critical medications ("Watch: Let's Talk About Trump's Health Care Policies," Feb. 4). Because of high-deductible health plans and tiered formularies, what patients pay at the pharmacy counter often has less to do with the list price of the drugs they need and more to do with the design of their health benefits. It is especially troubling that high-value drugs for chronic conditions like diabetes are often subject to unaffordable cost sharing that hits disproportionately at the beginning of the benefit year. Employers and health plans need to exempt these drugs from high deductibles as now permitted by the IRS. The same goes for Medicare Part D, which hugely penalizes seriously ill patients at the start of each year when they have yet to reach the catastrophic threshold.

Clearly, the problem of high drug prices needs to be addressed, but this will require a systematic and comprehensive approach that is certain to be resisted by one vested interest or another. In the meantime, patients need immediate relief from unaffordable out-of-pocket costs. Some steps that should be taken immediately include exempting high-value care from plan deductibles and capping and smoothing out-of-pocket costs in Medicare Part D. Much, if not all, of the cost associated with these measures can be offset by not paying for low- and no-value care that costs billions per year.

- Daniel Klein, president & CEO of the Patient Access Network (PAN) Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Cause For Investigation

The example you give presents an illegal activity by the home health agency ("Why Home Health Care Is Suddenly Harder To Come By For Medicare Patients," Feb. 3). At a minimum, that agency should have a complaint registered against them, if not investigated by the Office of the Inspector General. The agency lied about Medicare not covering the patient's needs. And they should have had the patient sign an ABN/NOMNC (Advance Beneficiary Notice/Notice of Medicare Non-Coverage) and explained it to the patient as required, so he could choose to appeal with the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) for coverage of medically necessary care.

Kaiser Health News needs to provide education for the elderly and families to make sure they dont fall prey to this type of behavior. If the agency simply says "I dont have the staff to cover you," they are responsible to assist the patient in finding another agency. But they cannot elect to just stop providing a medically necessary service, just as they cannot keep seeing someone when it is not medically necessary. Key here is to get people to know their rights as a Medicare beneficiary.

- Edward Dieringer, Salt Lake City

Privacy Concern: I Lack Seamless Access To My Own Records

I work in a medical center and have taken HIPAA training repeatedly over the years. I have also noted the staggering amount of money spent on medical electronic records. Yet in four attempts over a 20-year period, I have yet to get my medical records sent from one doctor or practice to another. I could not get records of my husbands hospital stay sent to his primary physician, dental records sent from one dentist to another and, this fall, the pertinent records when my rheumatologist changed practices. My insurance paid for blood tests four times a year and X-rays over a five-year period. I have contacted the facilities and submitted a complaint to HHS Office for Civil Rights, which appears to be the correct office.

I find it unacceptable that, with all the talk about how expensive medical care is, tests over time are not easily available to patients when requested. I read Kaiser Health News regularly and at least I feel informed about what can go wrong. Thank you.

 Susan Klimley, New York City
Authorities at the Mexican border discovered an underground tunnel that was used for smuggling goods. The border agents said that the tunnel had been there ever since 1990. This tunnel runs beneath the streets of Nogales, and is now recorded as the 126th tunnel to be discovered in the Tucson Sector that is believed to have been used in the 1990's.

The tunnel's entrance floor was located in the Grand Avenue drainage system of Mexico.

The depth of the tunnel was about 20-feet. According to the authorities the tunnel was made through a basic process and it was only hand-dug. It had no appearance that it was dug by mechanical equipment and it showed no sign of ventilation and light.

The United States Customs and Border Protection announced that they will monitor the tunnel until they find a way to restore it.

The federal agency also reported that they found the longest known South West drug-smuggling tunnel last month into the Mexico-California border. They reported that the 4,300 feet long tunnel that extends from Tijuana, Mexico, to a San Diego neighborhood was equipped with rail-cart and ventilation systems.

The Drug Enforcement Administration explained that because of the strengthening security in the borders of Southern borders, the Mexican drug cartels are forced to smuggle their deadly drugs underground into the United States.

According to the reports of the U.S Customs and Border Protection more than dozens of revolutionary tunnels were discovered in 2016. They showed that the tunnels were effortless made by criminal organizations that facilitated the cross-border smuggling of narcotics. Criminals spend so much time and effort to dig and make way to smuggle their drugs under the border. It was also in 2014 when the second longest tunnel under the border of California and Mexico was found to have a length of 2,966 feet long.

Spokesperson Jose Hernandez explains that the border of the US and Mexico are attraction to traffickers because the place is an industrial area. The tunnels that were purposely made for transporting illegal marijuana.

Due to the highly strict securities, drug sniffing dogs that were trained and other security at checkpoints. Drug smugglers were forced to find a way even if it means consume time management and apply engineering under the borders to deliver their highly profitable market goods. underneath the border. These agencies also help to protect the security of the border.

According to Cardell Morant, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in San Diego the main tunnel had an incomplete branch and several sandbags were blocking the exit of the tunnel in San Diego's Otay Mesa, an industrial warehouse.

The U.S Customs and Border Protection continues to protect the management and control of the nation's borders at the entrance, between and exit of official ports.

It is known that the US border patrol works hand in hand with the Government of Mexico and the national cooperation with the Mexican law enforcement. These administrations works together to finish off the organizations that are smuggling narcotics and humans.
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No. 12 Lesotho

Chaka, by Thomas Mofolo

This fictionalized account of the titular character follows him from birth to his future as a Zulu warrior and king. Published in English in the 1930s, it is considered one of the earliest major works out of Africa.

No. 13 Colorado Springs

The Shining, by Stephen King

In Stephen Kings classic horror novel, the playwright Jack Torrance moves his family into the idyllic Overlook Hotel in Colorado, where he is hired as the caretaker and hopes to finish his play. But the hotel has a dark history, and his son, Danny  gifted with supernatural powers  seems to be the only one tuned in to the dark forces around them.

No. 14 krakow, Poland

Schindlers List, by Thomas Keneally

This novel is based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, a factory owner who may have otherwise been forgotten if not for his heroic mission to save as many Jews as he could from the gas chambers during the Holocaust.

No. 15 jodhpur, India

Raj, by Gita Mehta

This novel, set in the late 1800s, follows Jaya, a princess who after spending most of her life in purdah must step into the role of Maharani when her husband dies. Jaya is a fictional creation. But the strengths of the book all lie in the facts and details of social setting, incident and politics, which dominate the characters so that even the figures central to the story have little individuality.
In a two-to-one ruling, a panel of federal appeals court judges on Friday ordered the dismissal of House Democrats case seeking the testimony of Donald McGahn -- meaning the former White House counsel would not have to appear before a congressional committee.

The ruling grants a major legal victory to President Donald Trump. The Justice Department, arguing on the president's behalf, has contended that "the constitution forbids federal courts from resolving this kind of interbranch information dispute."

MORE: Former White House counsel Donald McGahn must comply with congressional subpoena, federal judge rules

We agree and dismiss this case, the judges wrote in their 88-page opinion.

The ruling comes in a case brought by the House Judiciary Committee in August as part of an effort to enforce its subpoena demanding McGahn's congressional testimony about events related to former special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation -- after Trump directed him not to comply.

PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks to the media on the South Lawn of the White House before his departure to India, Feb. 23, 2020. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters)

In November, a federal district judge ruled that McGahn must comply with a congressional subpoena.

But the Justice Department appealed that ruling and, on Friday, won out in the higher court.

MORE: Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe won't be charged, Justice Department says

We are extremely pleased with todays historic ruling from the D.C. Circuit recognizing that the House of Representatives cannot invoke the power of the courts in its political disputes with the Executive Branch," Brianna Herlihy, a DOJ spokeswoman, said in a statement. "Suits like this one are without precedent in our Nations history and are inconsistent with the Constitutions design."

She added," The D.C. Circuits cogent opinion affirms this fundamental principle.

PHOTO: Former White House counsel Don McGahn speaks during a discussion on 'Constitutional Questions and Political Struggle: Congress' Role in Oversight and National Security,' Dec. 12, 2019, at the NYU Global Academic Center in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images, FILE)

U.S. Appeals Court Judge Thomas Griffith, in his majority opinion, warned that enforcing the committees subpoena would amount to an overreach by "unelected judges" -- and risk politicizing the judicial branch.

Story continues

"If federal courts were to swoop in to rescue Congress whenever its constitutional tools failed, it would not just supplement the political process; it would replace that process with one in which unelected judges become the perpetual 'overseer[s]' of our elected officials," Griffith wrote.

In her dissenting opinion, Judge Judith Rogers argued that the majority's finding may set the stage for future presidents to block oversight requests from the legislative branch with impunity.

MORE: House Democrats file lawsuit to enforce subpoena for McGahn testimony

"The court removes any incentive for the Executive Branch to engage in the negotiation process seeking accommodation, all but assures future Presidential stonewalling of Congress, and further impairs the Houses ability to perform its constitutional duties," Rogers wrote.

Congressional Democrats sought a speedy decision by the appeals court in an effort to secure McGahns testimony before the Senate impeachment trial of Trump concluded.

The Senate voted to acquit the president earlier this month after voting not to allow witnesses in the case.

ABC News' Alex Mallin contributed to this report.

Former White House counsel Don McGahn need not comply with congressional subpoena, federal appeals court rules originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
The proportion of state and local government IT/security professionals who reported that their cybersecurity budget has not changed even though cyberattacks have increased in the past year. ( IBM  February 27, 2020)
What if lawmakers writing one of the most consequential laws to come out of last years legislative session, legalizing hemp in Texas, forgot to include a small, but crucial detail that could get your marijuana possession charges dropped?

Thats what happened last week, after a Brazos County court judge concluded the new law omitted a date typically included in state crime legislation. As a result, misdemeanor charges against a Texas A&M University student arrested on the day of his 2018 college graduation were summarily tossed.

The decision is the latest stumbling block that Texass nine-month-old hemp law has presented for police and prosecutors committed to pursuing low-level marijuana possession cases. Although the decision does not bind other judges, attorneys said the successful tactic had the potential to change the course of hundreds of pending cases across the state.

On the morning of May 12, 2018, a College Station police officer pulled over a Kia sedan because the driver wasnt wearing his seat belt. As he approached the car, the officer said he smelled marijuana.

David Darley was sitting in the front passenger seat. When the 23-year-old opened a backpack to get his identification, the officer said the odor of pot became even more pronounced. A search uncovered several small bags of what appeared to be marijuana, and Darley was charged with possessing less than two ounces of pot, a Class B misdemeanor.

For subscribers: Texas Highway Patrol is releasing some, jailing others who are caught with marijuana

As his charges wound through Brazos County courts, the Texas Legislature was meeting. Following changes in federal statutes, House Bill 1325 legalized hemp in Texas.

Although the law was primarily about agriculture, it had huge implications for law enforcement. Previously, it was simply a crime to possess marijuana, so anyone busted with it could be charged.

But to legalize hemp, which comes from the same plant, the new law had to distinguish the legal product from the illegal drug. It states that products containing less than 0.3% of THC, the chemical that in higher concentrations produces a high, are legal hemp; anything over is pot.

The law was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 10. Mark Loeffler, a spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture, said the hemp regulation program should be live by March, with licensed farmers able to start planting by the end of the month.

In the meantime the statute has shaken up law enforcement. Legal hemp and illegal pot can look and smell the same. The new law now means that if police want to make their cases they may have to test the seized marijuana to prove it has enough THC to be illegal.

Yet public drug labs didnt perform the testing. And despite being warned, lawmakers did not include money to pay for equipment and staff to handle the sudden need for the tests. Prosecutors in several large counties  including Bexar and Harris  said they would not accept new misdemeanor marijuana possession cases. Arrests plummeted across the state.

Earlier this month, jurisdictions that had vowed to continue to pursue low-level possession arrests suffered another blow. Many had been waiting for the Texas Department of Public Safety, whose labs conduct tests for smaller police departments, to get its marijuana testing equipment up and running.

But on February 18, Director Steve McGraw announced lawmakers had not provided enough money to test evidence in the approximately 80,000 misdemeanor marijuana arrests state law enforcement agencies made annually. So local police departments would have to pay private labs about $100 per test if they wanted to make their low-level possession cases.

Darleys case could mean another headache.

Hundreds? Thousands? of similar cases

New state crime laws always include a clear dividing line, typically written as a date, said Shannon Edmonds, director of governmental relations for Texas District and County Attorneys Association. Before the date, the old law applies; after, the new law does.

Yet the hemp bill, which was passed through the Agriculture and Livestock Committee instead of the regular criminal justice panels, neglected to specify when the new pot definition started. A little-known provision of Texas law says that without clear transition instructions, if a new law lowers the penalty for a crime it can be applied retroactively.

The district and county attorneys association noted the missing language early on. The law went into effect on June 10, 2019, but it is unclear whether it applies to previously-filed marijuana cases pending on that date, it warned In a June letter to member prosecutors.

The bills sponsor, Rep. Tracy King, D-Batesville, did not return a call to his office seeking comment on the AWOL date.

Criminal defense attorneys noticed it, too, and began seeking cases to test if the new law could also be used to challenge older possession charges. Greening, whose Bryan practice does a busy pot-possession defense business, said it wasnt easy to find willing defendants. With a guilty verdict often meaning a fine and a 6-month to a year suspension of driving privileges, he said most were happy to accept the deferred adjudication plea deals prosecutors typically offered.

Darley, however, didnt want a deal; he was prepared to argue at trial that the pot wasnt his. He also was irked family members had come from California to witness his graduation and hed spent the ceremony in jail. He agreed to have Greening try to get his case dismissed based on the new hemp laws missing date.

It worked. On February 18, Brazos County Judge Jim Locke agreed the new law applied to old cases. Because prosecutors hadnt tested the marijuana seized from Darley, he said, they lacked the evidence to go through with the trial. He dismissed the charge.

Edmonds said it was the first such decision hed heard of. Legally, he added, a county court decision sets no precedent, so the immediate impact would remain local.

Brazos County Attorney Rod Anderson, who said he remains committed to prosecuting misdemeanor pot possession arrests, said it means that, at least in Lockes courtroom, evidence in all pot cases  not just the new ones  will now have to be tested.

Anderson added he didnt think there were many old cases to which the new law could be applied retroactively. Greening said hes not so sure. He said his office alone had three dozen possession cases filed before the new hemp law went into effect last June.

Greening said hes been sharing the decision with attorneys around the state. An associate, Sarah Wilkinson, said shes already been contacted by a dozen defense attorneys interested in deploying the strategy.

I have no idea how many old cases are pending, Edmonds said. Hundreds? Thousands?
A statement by the Iraqi Health Ministry on Thursday said that it has detected a new case of coronavirus for an Iraqi man, 51, who returned earlier to Iraq from neighboring Iran. After being transferred to a hospital, he was tested positive and was kept in quarantine in accordance with the international procedures, Xinhua reported.

In South Korea, only two days ago, the number of infections exceeded 1,000.

More than half of newly confirmed cases were linked to a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the southeastern city of Daegu, 300 km southeast of Seoul.

Of the 256 new cases, 182 are in Daegu, and 49 are in the neighbouring North Gyeongsang Province.

Since raising the virus alert level to "red", the highest level, on Sunday, health authorities have focused on halting the spread of the virus in Daegu, the epicentre of the virus outbreak in South Korea, and North Gyeongsang.

Experts said the number of confirmed cases is expected to jump in the coming days as health authorities have begun testing more than 210,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.

The government also ordered another 1,638 Shincheonji followers to self-isolate as they have shown symptoms, Yonhap News Agency said in its report.

Since the first coronavirus case; a Chinese woman from Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak -- on January 20, the pace of infections had not been alarming until February 18, when a 61-year-old woman who is tied to the Daegu religious sect tested positive for the virus.

Since then, the nation has seen an explosion in infections as it accelerated virus tests on potential cases.

Now coming to Italy, according to the Italian health authorities, fatalities linked to the disease rose to 17 on Thursday, after three more people died in northern Lombardy region, Xinhua reported.
Legal Recourse

Promises Met?

Independence High Lockdowns

(TNS)  Hours before North Carolina's Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board met on Feb. 11, when it was expected to address the districts troubled crisis-alert system, the company behind the product declared success.CMS high schools successfully complete quality assurance testing, met all of the agreed-upon success criteria, and are ready for teacher training and deployment, its news release read.That starkly contrasted what Superintendent Earnest Winston said shortly after the board meeting began. Winston said that after testing, parts of the system often failed, and other times it simply did not work at all . The companys employees, Winston said, were often slow to respond. CMS would not pay the company the outstanding $600,000, and it would try to get back the more than $1 million it had already paid, Winston said.Centegix has refuted those claims, but newly released documents, obtained byvia a public records request, detail a frustrating 30 days for CMS as the Feb. 10 deadline for the company to fix its product approached. The apparent disagreement over whether the crisis-alert system met its promises to the district, combined with the absence of a written contract with CMS, raises questions over how and whether CMS will get its money back.The crisis-alert system , installed in more than two dozen schools, was intended to allow employees to trigger an alarm by pressing a button on a card they carry with their ID badges in case of a school shooting or another emergency.In the 30 days CMS gave Centegix to resolve the issues, the color-coded beacon lights that flashed during alerts failed repeatedly, and sometimes fell out of the ceiling. Centegix employees showed up to scheduled appointments notoriously late, according to a CMS staff members notes, creating problems with facilities access. During one incident where two staff members used the panic cards that trigger alerts to call for individual assistance, the system accidentally triggered a lockdown that no one in CMS could turn off.Since Winston announced that the district would sever its relationship with Centegix and try to get its money back, the company has publicized its successes and criticized CMS. Whether CMS can successfully argue that it is owed a refund will center around the question of if the company met its obligations to deliver a working product.Centegix has said that CMS has a political agenda, though it did not specify what that meant, and asserts that its crisis-alert system has met all the requirements the district laid out in its solicitation for bids.Former Superintendent Clayton Wilcox pushed the system and appeared to build a relationship with the founder of Centegix before CMS reached the deal with the company, according to email and interviews with current and former CMS officials.After two years on the job, Wilcox resigned in August without offering any public explanation. Since then, current and former employees have alleged that Wilcox helped a company that employed his son secure a deal with the district and that he sought to become CEO of another tech company after he successfully lobbied CMS to pay to use its software.In a written statement to The Observer Wednesday, Centegix defended its crisis-alert system.We stand by the results of the testing conducted by CMS district personnel and live operational results, the company said. Our system works as promised, including 2 alerts that were initiated and successfully delivered the day after the district announced their decision to no longer use the solution.CMS spokesman Brian Hacker refused comment, saying the district cannot discuss a legal matter.Government and school finance experts say the way CMS executed its financial dealings with the company could lead to complicated legal proceedings to recoup the money. The school board did not approve or sign a formal written contract with Centegix, and the district instead used purchase orders to authorize all payments.State law does not require local education agencies to execute contracts in writing or in a single document, said Norma Houston, a professor with the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government, except for construction, goods and purchases. Because Centegix was providing maintenance work on its alerts, Houston said the deal could be considered a contract for services and thus would not need to be written down in order to be enforceable.What constitutes the form of the contract is very broad, Houston said. If the school system can argue this constitutes a legally binding oral contract, then it can sue the company for breach of contract.Unless Centegix voluntarily refunds the money, CMS will have to take the issue to court, Houston said, as there is no state agency or process that oversees local education agency contracts.CMS has previously said that it would use a provision in the invitation for bids as grounds to recoup the money spent. When it solicited bids, the district included its standard terms and conditions.Those terms state that goods and services that are defective in workmanship or material or otherwise not in conformity with the requirements of the contract documents may be rejected and returned at the sellers expense.While those provisions could offer CMS some legal protection, the best practices for contracts of this size are to spell out the terms clearly in one document, said Mike Griffith, a school-finance consultant in Colorado. Griffith said that it is not unprecedented for school districts to sue vendors for failing to deliver on promises, but that without a written contract, those arguments are more complicated.I know even when it seems pretty clear that the vendor failed, where the school district has a lot of leg to stand on, those can still be difficult cases, Griffith said. You could be spending a tremendous amount on legal fees and time in court just to get the money back.On Jan. 10, following questions from, Winston called the CEO of Centegix and gave the company 30 days to resolve the problems.According to a timeline of Centegixs relationship with CMS, compiled by Pam Fandel, a senior project manager in the districts technology department, problems persisted throughout the month leading up to Winstons decision to end the relationship.Centegix insisted on being present for CMSs tests of the system, and tried to dictate how quality assurance walk-throughs should be done.In email exchanges with staff, the company said CMS signed off on testing at six schools, which Fandel refuted.CMS asked Centegix to refrain from fixing problems found during the walk-throughs until all testing was completed, a directive that was ignored several times, according to Fandels notes.When Fandel asked why the company had not previously identified that the audio messages for weather and evacuation were being cut off, a Centegix vice president responded, Oh, you know men. They arent very detailed, according to Fandels notes.Centegix has said that its alerts have helped during dozens of emergencies in CMS, including during physical altercations. But emails and other records from CMS show that the system often failed during incidents.One of the first schools to go through a quality assurance walk-through after Winstons announcement of the 30-day deadline was Independence High School. During a Jan. 13 test of the beacons, 43 of them did not work, and an additional 17 were recorded as having low light/battery failing, according to Fandels notes.Two days later, police responded to a report of a student with a gun on campus, sending Independence into a lockdown for an hour.According to Fandels notes, many of the beacons did not work during the incident, and the ones that were reported as low light two days earlier were now non-functional. Other lights did not shut down properly after the incident was cleared, and the company had to remotely turn the beacons off from Georgia.In its news release on Feb. 11, Centegix used the incident as an example of how its crisis-alert system was operational in More than 5,000 classrooms, gyms, outdoor facilities, cafeterias and media centers in area high schools.On Jan. 27, two staff members at Independence used the panic cards to call for help with an altercation. Instead, the crisis-alert system triggered a school-wide lockdown that no one in CMS could turn off, according to emails and Fandels notes.Neither the principal nor CMS police officers were alerted to the lockdown on their computers or mobile devices, and Centegix staff members in Georgia had to close the incident remotely, according to emails between Brent Cobb, the companys president, and CMS staff.Although this was a 60 second outage, there is concern that if this was in fact a school lockdown  the principal nor CMSPD would have received the Alert in order to respond to the situation, Kay Hall, CMS executive director of technology services, wrote. Just wanted to make sure that you have the facts.Days later, Cobb showed up unannounced and uninvited to Independence, where he offered a technical explanation for the failure and requested to speak with the teacher who pressed their card, Fandel wrote.I ended the conversation stating he is interrupting instructional time and I had a real problem with this tactic, she wrote.After overseeing a test of the system at Butler High School the same day, Fandel had to explain to a Centegix executive the districts expectations for the product, according to her notes.He also said that even Google and Amazon had to go through testing phases, she wrote. I told him we were not adopting an academic program but a lifesaving program that needed to work 100% of the time.
Union Minister for Commerce and Industries, Piyush Goyal here on Friday called on the King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Prime Minister Lotay Tshering.

"The Minister today called on His Majesty The King of Bhutan, aside from a call-on the Prime Minister of Bhutan and a meeting with the Minister of Economic Affairs of Bhutan," a statement from the Indian Embassy read.

"Had a fruitful interaction with His Excellency @PMBhutan, Dr. Lotay Tshering. We discussed steps to further deepen our economic & investment ties by nurturing a vibrant startup ecosystem in Bhutan," tweeted Piyush Goyal.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal is in Bhutan as the head of a high-level business delegation in connection with Bhutan - India Start-Up Summit 2020.

"The high-level business delegation from India led by Vikram Kirloskar, President CII and including Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chairman CII; Chandrajit Banerjee, DG CII; and Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO of OYO, among others joined the Minister during the calls-on/meetings to chart new pathways for the India Bhutan economic partnership," according to the statement issued by Embassy of India in Bhutan.

Among the "concrete deliverables" that emerged as a consequence of the meetings, the Embassy said, "Based on the request of Bhutan, the Railway Board has commissioned a survey to establish the Mujnai (India) - Nyoenpaling (Bhutan) line that will provide a cross border rail link between India and Bhutan."

"A team from Indian Railways is visiting Bhutan tomorrow to hold discussions with the State Mining Corporation of Bhutan on finalizing a MOU for export of Railway ballast from Bhutan to India. The CII has announced that it will mentor 30 Bhutanese start-ups in Indian incubation centers with a view to growing the entrepreneurial culture in Bhutan. They will also open their first South Asia Office in Bhutan shortly," it added.

The two sides also discussed designation and notification of new transit customs stations at Jogighopa, Pandu and Agartala. Further, agreement on making the Land Customs Station at Nagarkatta as a permanent customs station was also discussed.

"The Minister also announced concrete outcomes for bilateral engagement in areas of training and capacity building: Government of India will be fully sponsoring training of 100 Bhutanese trainers and youth on Entrepreneurship at the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Gandhinagar, Gujarat," the Embassy said.

A total of 30 Bhutanese entrepreneurs and start-ups will undergo hands-on training at the Indian Institute of Packaging, Delhi sponsored by the Government of India.

Besides, India will commission a feasibility study for setting up an Entrepreneurship Development Institute in Bhutan.

According to the statement, the Programme on Saturday for this first of its kind Start-Up Summit in Bhutan, will include an Inaugural Session and five break-away sessions: New India; Startup Ecosystem - The Indian experience; Fostering Entrepreneurship in Information Technology and other emerging technologies; Investment opportunities in Bhutan; and Way Forward, where prominent business personalities, think tanks and academics will ideate, debate and collaborate on the identified themes, with an objective to forge stronger future business engagement across all sectors, scales and spectrum of the Indo-Bhutan economic partnership.

"Minister Piyush Goyal will deliver the keynote address at the inaugural session of the Summit, and also inaugurate an exhibition of 30 Start-Ups from India and Bhutan together with the Prime Minister of Bhutan. This will be followed by an Interactive Round Table meeting featuring top captains of Bhutanese and Indian industry chaired by the Minister," the statement read.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MIAMI - Being trapped aboard a ship with thousands of people as the new coronavirus spreads around the world isnt the kind of serene vacation envisioned by most travellers, many of whom are delaying or cancelling planned cruises at a time when bookings should be at their busiest.

Cruise lines, meanwhile, are struggling as they try to reassure nervous passengers at the same time that some of their ships are being turned away from ports by officials worried about the virus spread.

They also are moving Asia-based ships to other destinations such as Australia and Alaska, and are turning away potential travellers who have recently been in certain regions of Asia and Europe.

Uncertainty over the extent of the outbreak caused stocks of the largest cruise line companies to plummet over the past week. But the fear thus far seems to be psychological: While travel advisers have noticed fewer last-minute bookings for the normally popular time that extends from January through March, they said they werent seeing many cancellations yet.

The cruise industry will take a hit. We just dont know how big it will be yet, said John Thomas, a professor at Florida International University who teaches cruise line management.

The new virus has infected more than 83,000 people globally, the vast majority of them in mainland China.

Some travellers are spooked by reports of a virus outbreak that killed 10 people and sickened 700 aboard a cruise ship quarantined for two weeks in Japan earlier this month.

And they are also aware of the possibility that their ships could be rerouted and never dock.

What if something happens and my kids are without us for three weeks? said Chris Ciciora, 30, an accountant from Chicago who had planned to leave his 4-month-old baby and 16-month-old toddler with their grandparents while he and his wife took a seven-night Caribbean cruise leaving from Fort Lauderdale next week.

Ciciora said the couple decided to cancel the cruise after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Tuesday that the virus would inevitably spread.

Nobody knows exactly how to treat this, what spreads it, how to contain it, he said.

There have been no confirmed cases of the illness in Florida or the Caribbean, and only the one ship has had confirmed cases of the virus so far. But others have faced serious disruptions.

Officials in the port of Ocho Rios, Jamaica, blocked Italian nationals from disembarking from the Carnival Corp.-owned Costa Luminosa ship on Friday, the company said in a news release.

A ship operated by Swiss-based cruise company MSC Cruises out of Miami was turned away by two Caribbean nations earlier this week after a crew member got ill, even after the ship released records showing he had a common flu. The MSC Meraviglia went instead to Mexico, where authorities delayed disembarkation until Friday because a young female passenger on the ship had developed flu symptoms.

Waiting aboard the ship in Cozumel, Mexico, on Thursday, passenger Dante DiPenta from Ottawa, Canada, said authorities around the Caribbean basin were being too jittery.

Its all about fear right now, DiPenta said. They fear their inability to handle these situations.

Another cruise ship returning to the Dominican Republic after a 14-day tour was turned away Thursday because officials feared eight of those aboard, including two U.S. citizens, showed potential symptoms of the virus.

The Bahamas, one of the most popular cruise destinations, was not allowing passengers who had travelled to China in the past 20 days.

Cruise lines are also stepping up their own precautionary measures, barring passengers whove been to China in recent weeks  and in some cases those whove been to Iran, South Korea and the Italian regions of Lombardy and Veneto where virus cases have been reported.

Royal Caribbean was turning away travellers who visited Iran, South Korea and the Italian regions.

Asia-based ships, meanwhile, have redeployed to Australia, Alaska and other destinations.

The Cruise Lines International Association, which represents about 90% of global cruise capacity, says eight of its 272 affiliated ships are in Asia. The association says Asia represents only 10% of its sailings while Europe and Mediterranean have about 28% of the market. The Caribbean has the largest share, at 32%.

Carnival Corp. spokesman Roger Frizzell said the company can adjust ships itineraries with destinations in 700 port cities.

Carnival has announced a search for a best-in-class company to disinfect its Diamond Princess ship where passengers were sickened off Japan. Disinfecting the ship will require cleaning every object and surface people touch with bleach and water, and decontaminating air systems, said Stephen Morse, an epidemiologist at Columbia University.

Stephanie Biege, a travel adviser for Florida-based Lotus Travel Concierge, said travellers scheduled to set sail soon have called to ask about what precautions cruise lines were taking, such as mandatory passenger health screenings and more rigorous sanitation measures. Royal Caribbean was denying any passengers with a fever or low blood-oxygen levels.

Once they understand the procedures in place, they turn back to pure excitement, Biege said.

Travellers boarding the Royal Caribbeans Brilliance on Thursday in Tampa, Florida, did not seem concerned. Some said the company had been emailing passengers for weeks, telling them that if they were sick they would get a refund.

Rita Carnero, of Orlando, Florida, said she was prepared if another passenger got sick.

Ive brought extra books and extra medications, she said.

Asked what she would do if the ship got quarantined, she simply shrugged.

Id read a lot, she replied.

_____

Associated Press reporter Tamara Lush reported from Tampa, Florida.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines)  Do you always find yourself on a shopping spree right after payday?

Splurging on clothes, bags, and such is always tempting, but don't you ever wonder how much you could have saved if only you kept a portion of your salary intact?

While it's tempting to buy a cup of iced coffee or a tub of cheesy fries as you crave, it actually takes little effort to start saving up. Here are some tips:

1. Don't load up your wallet with cold cash.

Apart from the constant fear of losing your hard-earned money to pickpockets, it's very easy to go on a shopping rampage if your money is just within reach.

Withdraw only what you need for your daily expenses and keep the excess funds in your payroll account.

2. Skip that daily coffee or milk tea run.

Iced coffee and milk tea could be your go-to drinks when you're craving for sweets, but people don't usually notice how much they are spending for that daily fix. If your order costs 150, that's easily 3,000 blown off each month. It's good for the health too  they say, a moment on the lips, forever on the hips.

3. Resist window and online shopping.

That dress was cute, but do you really need it? Find the strength to resist tapping "add to cart" and "check out" on your shopping apps. You'll thank yourself later on.

4. Set up a savings account on your phone and watch your money grow.

Start the habit of investing as soon as you can and you will find that it's not as hard as it sounds. Put whatever extra cash you have  perhaps the money you didn't spend on craft coffee  in a new account which you can open without leaving your seat.

You can earn 4 percent interest on your money through CIMB Bank's UpSave Account  that's higher than what other banks currently offer. This rate is available all-year-round and is currently the best in the market  there's no maintaining balance, zero transaction fees, and has no promo period. The best part: the UpSave account also provides free life insurance worth as much as 2 million without paying any premiums or fees, which begins with a 100,000 deposit.

A little discipline goes a long way  it can fund your passion projects, help your family get that dream house, or fulfill your travel bucket list.

If short on cash, CIMB Bank also offers easy loans through the app for your convenience.

CIMB Bank Philippines offers an all-digital bank account which you can create and access with just a few taps on your phone screen. By downloading the mobile app and signing up with your personal details, you can start saving. Put money in your online account through over 8,000 partners, among them 7-Eleven, Bayad Center, and GCash.

Seize life's moments and save your way to your financial freedom with CIMB Bank Philippines. Visit cimbbank.com.ph to learn more about CIMB Bank Philippines' all-digital offerings for Filipino savers.

You may download the app for Android and iOS.
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There's no place like home when it comes to exploring cross-cultural identity, and a new exhibition, AfroLAtinidad: mi casa, my city, has taken that idea to heart by constructing faux interiors of an "Afro-Latinx"-inspired house.

The exhibition -- which opened during Black History Month at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in collaboration with the California African American Museum -- is a walkthrough exploration of "the history and contemporary experiences of Afrolatinidad in Los Angeles." The installation's recreated "home" is filled with pictures, stories, personal items, devotional objects, musical instruments, jewelry, handwritten recipes, and more -- many loaned by local families.

Photos on the wall at "afroLAtinidad." (Mike Roe/LAist)

"We asked the community to come and show us their stuff, and bring their stories, bring their personal objects, and photographs," exhibition co-curator Mariah Berlanga-Shevchuk told LAist.

Staging the exhibition in a home setting was a choice designed to help visitors feel comfortable being all sides of their identities.

"Something we heard time and time again is that Afro-Latinx folks, when they leave the home, are often read as just African-American, or it's assumed they don't speak Spanish," Berlanga-Shevchuk said.

"People who identify as Afro-Latinx are frequently misrepresented, misidentified, and doubly oppressed," co-curator Walter Thompson-Hernandez said in a press release. "Because African-American or Black and Latinx cultures are assumed to be mutually exclusive, people of both backgrounds often find themselves forced to choose a side and thus denied a voice and the opportunity to self-represent."

To evoke the feeling of "home," exhibition designer Aviva Rubin painted the walls of the exhibition in a warm, rich yellow -- the overall tint of the work, however, is political, with each room reflecting different issues.

The first room you enter is the kitchen, with text on the wall about food deserts -- areas without access to affordable, healthy food. The living room calls out mass media for a narrow representation of what Afro-Latinos contribute to popular culture.

Co-curator Mariah Berlanga-Shevchuk in "afroLAtinidad's" coalition corner, with the quilt "Fusterlandia." (Mike Roe/LAist)

The most political portion comes in the home's second hallway, which Berlanga-Shevchuk described as the "coalition corner." History is celebrated here, specifically the moments she described as prime for potential conflict between African-American and Latino populations, but where unity prevailed.

Also in this hallway is a quilt crafted with both cultural and political messages, created by the Social Justice Sewing Academy using recycled fabric from Cuba.

In the backyard area of the "afroLAtinidad" exhibition at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, with objects representing dance and movement. (Mike Roe/LAist)

Music also plays a role throughout the exhibition, with small stereos in several rooms, including a kitchen radio and a karaoke machine in "the backyard" room. That room also looks at the community's connection to dance, and features a collection of instruments like bongos, a cajon, and a chekere.

Inside bedroom drawers at "afroLAtinidad." (Mike Roe/LAist)

The bedroom is designed to be a look into private spaces, where you can examine the dresser drawers to get a closer look at personal possessions representing the culture including jewelry, makeup, and accessories.

A timeline of Afrolatinidad culture in Los Angeles as part of "afroLAtinidad." (Mike Roe/LAist)

There's also a lengthy timeline tracing Afrolatinidad history back to L.A.'s founding by multiracial settlers of African, Indigenous, and Spanish descent. One of the things the exhibition was designed to shed light onto is pieces of culture that people think of as Latino, but that are actually rooted in African origin. But the exhibition's focus isless on the history, and more on how that history informs the culture that exists today.

The exhibition, which opened last weekend, runs through July 20. Admission to LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in downtown Los Angeles is free, though there may be a charge for some of their special programming. Additional programming paired with this exhibition includes culinary traditions of Afro-Panamanian cuisine in L.A., and African influence in Latin American music.
In huge relief for the Mohali industry, the Punjab government has reduced the charges for leasehold to freehold conversion for industrial properties by 98%.

Earlier, charged at 825 per square metre, the fee has been reduced to 20 per square metre. Besides, the government has allowed exemptions in processing fee for services being provided by the Punjab Small Industries Export Corporation Limited (PSIEC) and Punjab Infotech.

The Punjab government has announced these special concessions to boost industry and create a positive environment for them in Mohali district, said Sundar Sham Arora, Punjab minister of industry and commerce.

He was speaking after a meeting with the members of Mohali Industries Association (MIA), Punjab Infotech and district industry and commerce department officials.

Hailing the decision, MIA president Yogesh Sagar said, This favourable decision will revive the sinking industry in Mohali. It will give a boost to the micro, small and medium enterprises and attract more newbies to set up shop in Mohali.

Sagar said the MIA was also persuading Punjab government to hand over the garbage dumping ground land to the industry as the land was earmarked for industrial units.
Bad behavior is the leading cause of BART delays, according to new data the agency presented Thursday to its Board of Directors.

The data showed that BART trains were on time around 92% of the time from October through December of last year, short of its goal of 94%.

Crime, unruly conduct or sick passengers were to blame for 37% of trains that were late five minutes or more, which qualified as a bigger drag than malfunctioning equipment, said Tamar Allen, the agencys assistant general manager of operations.

That includes medical emergencies, people overdosing, people passed out, people who rush the doors when the train is closing and break them, Allen said.

By far the greatest contributor was police activity. Twenty-one percent of late trains stopped for a police hold, data showed.

BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez didnt seem surprised by that figure, telling The Chronicle that his department gets 7,000 calls for service each month.

Thats a lot, Alvarez said, adding that 80,000 people use the BART Watch smartphone app, which enables the public to discreetly report crimes on trains or in stations.

BART was also grinding through mechanical failures in its new cars and its aging train control system, which accounted for 33% of delays  still fewer than the amount triggered by humans.

The numbers, presented in BARTs second-quarter performance review, followed an anguished discussion among board directors about racial disparities in policing at BART. A separate report from the Police Department showed that roughly half of all enforcement for low-level quality-of-life offenses  spitting, eating and drinking, fare evasion, loud music and other disruptions  targets African American riders.

Alvarez sought to assure the board that his department trains officers to rid themselves of biases, but several directors said they were troubled by the disparity.

Sometimes we look in the mirror and its difficult, because we dont know what were going to find, Director Mark Foley said.

General Manager Bob Powers acknowledged that any disparity is problematic.

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.

However, many officials said BARTs quality-of-life issues need to be addressed, and the only solution is to harden stations.

Its not just fare gates, BART police union president Keith Garcia told the board. Its locking the emergency gates, raising the railings, moving the elevators (into paid areas).

BART rider Andrew Sullivan agreed. He begged the board to quell the social disorder he sees every day when commuting from El Cerrito Plaza Station to downtown San Francisco.

Im not a law-and-order person, but this system is out of control, Sullivan said. Ill be on the street and Ill see someone having a psychotic breakdown from meth. Then Ill see them walk right through the BART gates.

The board approved new, sturdier fare gates in September, with tall panels that would swing open like saloon doors similar to the ones at Muni. But BART has yet to identify $150 million in funds to swap out its existing 600 gates.

Powers has promised to make the installation of new gates a priority.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
Married At First Sight star Chris Nicholls has claimed he and 'wife' Vanessa Romito were kicked off the show by producers.

The program was edited to make it look like it was their decision to quit, but Chris alleged on Thursday that they had actually been told to leave.

The 37-year-old youth worker told WHO magazine that tensions were running high and producers were worried.

Bombshell: Married At First Sight star Chris Nicholls (right) has made explosive claims about why he and Vanessa Romito (left) left the show

'We were forced to leave MAFS. Producers told me they weren't able to shoot anything more,' Chris claimed.

The couple were told to leave before the commitment ceremony.

Chris added that he struggled with his mental health during filming and was left 'broken' by the experiment.

What really happened? The program was edited to make it look like it was their decision to quit, but Chris alleged on Thursday that they had actually been told to leave

'I was in such a bad place. If I was there any longer, I don't know what I could've been capable of doing to myself,' he said.

He did acknowledge, however, that Channel Nine and Endemol Shine Australia had 'extensive medical support available'.

Meanwhile, Vanessa told Hit FM's Get Up with Krysti & Bodge this week that she found the process mentally exhausting, too.

Stress: Chris told WHO magazine that tensions were running high and producers were worried

A Nine spokesperson told WHO that psychologists and a helpline are available for all MAFS participants past and present.

On Tuesday's episode, Vanessa and Chris officially ended their relationship after an argument over their lack of physical chemistry.

'I think I'm more disappointed in Chris not giving me his absolute attention,' the 31-year-old pharmacy manager said.

Rebel bride: It's not uncommon for reality TV stars to complain about editing and production methods, and it's believed there were concerns Vanessa would make a fuss later on

'The correct person would never make you feel like this... I don't think beauty is skin deep, I think beauty goes so much further,' she added.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Vanessa Romito and Channel Nine for comment.

If you or anyone you know is struggling, contact Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 or Lifeline on 13 11 14
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of top news as of 28.02.2020:

 Armenia commemorates the Sumgait pogroms in Azerbaijan. On February 27, 1988, mass pogroms of the Armenian population of the city started and lasted three days. According to official data, 32 Armenians of Sumgait were killed and hundreds suffered severe injuries and became disabled after being tortured and ridiculed.

Armenias PM Nikol Pashinyan and a political elite visited Friday the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan to pay tribute to the innocent victims of the crime. The Georgian defense minister has also visited the Memorial.

Karabakh President Bako Sahakyan also laid flowers to the monument of the innocent victims of this tragedy in Stepanakert.

Meanwhile, Canadian MPs have also commemorated the Sumgait and Baku pogroms. MP Faycal El-Khoury made a statement in the House and highlighted the importance to stand up against injustice and defend human rights across the globe. Another MP Bob Saroya noted Azerbaijans destructive policies and hate crimes, impeding the Artsakh Peace Process.

 The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is under constant review of the CSTO, the organizations general secretary, Stanislav Zas told reporters in Yerevan.

Asked to comment on the incidents on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, Stanislav Zas noted if Armenia appeals for help to the CSTO, the organization as a whole, will express its position and provide the necessary aid.

 Armenian defense ministers deputy head Gabriel Balayan commented on the recent deaths in an army as 14 soldiers have been killed over the past month.

According to him, work is underway, criminal cases are being examined, circumstances are being clarified, including certain new circumstances.

 A total of 54 deaths from the new coronavirus were recorded in the past day, and the overall death toll has reached 2,858 worldwide.

The second case has been recorded in Georgia. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan and Belarus have also recorded their first coronavirus cases.

What comes to Armenias fight against coronavirus, Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan noted that respective steps are being taken within Armenia as well. However, the Secretary noted that a decision to close Armenias border with Georgia has not been discussed yet.

 33 Turkish soldiers have died and another 36 injured in Idlib by the Syrian airstrike.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan convened a meeting on the security issue. Ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party spokesman Omer Celik said the incident is an attack on NATO.

Meanwhile, the international community calls for de-escalation. Thus, according to EU High Representative Josep Borrell EU calls on all sides for rapid de-escalation and regret all loss of life.

What comes to migrants, hundreds of them head for Turkeys borders with Greece and Bulgaria after a senior official said Ankara will no longer prevent Syrian refugees from reaching Europe. And Turkish President has repeatedly threatened to open the gate to Europe.
(Newser)  Another whistleblower complaint is in the news, this time about the coronavirus. A high-ranking official in Health and Human Services says her superiors blew it when they sent HHS staffers to meet American evacuees being returned from China in late January and early February, reports the Washington Post. The staffers were not properly trained and wore no protective equipment even though they had face-to-face contact with the returning Americans, according to the complaint filed with the independent Office of Special Counsel for investigation. The whistleblower says none of the HHS staffers were subsequently tested for COVID-19 before being allowed to return to work as normal. Politico reports that two people knowledgeable about the situation say the complaints are accurate.

story continues below

"Our client was concerned that [Administration for Children and Families] staffwho were potentially exposed to the coronaviruswere allowed to leave quarantined areas and return to their communities, where they may have spread the coronavirus to others," says Lauren Naylor, one of the lawyers for the whistleblower. The whistleblower is a supervisor in the ACF, a unit of HHS. She says she was reassigned when she raised her concerns and is now seeking whistleblower protection. Her complaint says that when HHS staffers met the returning Americans at US air bases, they worked with CDC workers who wore "full gown, gloves, and hazmat attire." Asked about the allegations Thursday during a congressional hearing, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said, "I'm not aware of any violation of quarantine or ... isolation protocols," per CBS News. (Read more coronavirus stories.)
The third system is Valles caldera, located in northern New Mexico, near Los Alamos. That caldera formed due to large explosions 1.61 and 1.25 million years ago. Although Valles also experienced numerous lava flow eruptions after caldera formation, just like Yellowstone and Long Valley, it is not particularly active now. There is no significant seismicity and no ground deformation, and only one small hot spring. The most recent eruption occurred about 68,000 years ago.

There are many other caldera systems in the United States, although these are all much older and long extinct. The San Juan mountains of southern Colorado host numerous calderas that were active about 30 million years ago, and of course there is a trail of calderas caused by motion of the North American plate over the Yellowstone hotspot and since buried by younger lava flows, forming the eastern Snake River Plain over the past ~17 million years.

The USA is hardly alone in playing host to caldera systems, though. Calderas can be found in volcanic areas all around the world.
People enjoying a glass of fresh water generated by the GEN-M machine placed in Gaza.

(ISRAEL21c)-Israel-based company Watergen has begun supplying water to a Gazan neighborhood via its water-from-air machine that can generate up to 800 liters per day.

Watergen's 780-kilogram GEN-M atmospheric water generator was placed last Wednesday in the Gazan neighborhood of Abasan al-Kabira. It will provide the local municipal building with fresh drinking water.

Gaza suffers from a rapidly depleting water supply. Its main source of water is its coastal aquifer, which has been over-extracted in recent decades. The reduced water levels have resulted in saline water seeping in, further polluting the water in the aquifer-with the result being that 90 percent of the water is not fit for consumption.

The GEN-M unit will provide the Gazan neighborhood with an inexpensive method to acquire freshwater. It requires no special infrastructure except for electricity, in this case from solar panels.

Watergen's technology creates water by cooling collected air at its dew point. The water then goes through physical, chemical and biological treatment followed by a mineralization process to ensure its cleanliness and taste.

The GEN-M unit was placed in Gaza as a result of cooperation between Watergen, Israel's Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the Palestinian NGO Damour for Community Development and the Abasan al-Kabira municipality.

"Responding in accordance with our belief that every human being, regardless of race, gender or religion has a fundamental right to clean drinking water, we are helping some of Israel's next-door neighbors gain access to fresh water, a resource that is lacking in Gaza," Watergen said in a statement.

"We hope that our provision of an AWG will help solve the water crisis and serve as a step forward towards mutual collaboration in the Middle East."
The EU has received "reassurances" from the Turkish foreign minister that Ankara will stick to its side of a deal restricting migrant flows to Europe, the bloc's diplomatic chief said Friday.

EU foreign policy high representative Josep Borrell held talks by telephone with Turkey's Mevlut Cavusoglu after Ankara threatened to open the gates for refugees to flee to Europe -- raising the spectre of a repeat of the 2015-2016 migrant crisis.

The warning came as Turkey sought international support after 33 of its soldiers were killed in an air strike in Syria. Ankara publicly blamed the deaths on the Damascus regime.

The Turkish threat to allow refugees free passage prompted Bulgaria and Greece to say they were tightening border security.

But Borrell said Cavusoglu had assured him Turkey stood by a 2016 deal with Brussels that dramatically cut the flow of migrants crossing the Aegean Sea to Greece.

"Spoke to Turkish Foreign Minister @MevlutCavusoglu. De-escalation remains key to effectively address challenges on ground. Human suffering and loss of life need to stop. Received reassurances that Turkey remains committed to Joint EU-Turkey Statement," Borrell tweeted.

Earlier, Borrell's spokesman Peter Stano said Turkish officials had not formally notified Brussels of any change to the deal, adding that the EU was assessing what was happening in terms of migrant movements.

Borrell also voiced deep alarm at the developments in Syria, which added to weeks of tensions between Turkey, which backs the rebels, and Assad's key ally Moscow.

"There is a risk of sliding into a major open international military confrontation. It is also causing unbearable humanitarian suffering and putting civilians in danger," he said.

The EU urged a rapid de-escalation and "will consider all necessary measures to protect its security interests," he said.

The EU however has only limited tools at its disposal to influence events on the ground in Syria and is regularly hamstrung by internal divisions on foreign policy issues.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size The way Fran Campbell sees it, she had no choice about becoming a zookeeper. For me, it was tigers, she says, explaining the attraction of the job. More than anything, I wanted to meet tigers. Campbell, 40, is speaking over the raucous calls of ruffed lemurs at Mogo Wildlife Park, outside the village of Mogo on the NSW South Coast. I actually came and did a zookeeper-for-a-day experience here many years ago, she says. And I pretty much just stayed. The clincher was feeding Kinwah, a tiger cub being hand-reared because he had a dodgy hip. I gave him a bottle and it was like, I cant not do this now. Campbell smiles. On December 31 last year, she was one of a small band of keepers who fought a raging bushfire bearing down on the wildlife park, which is home to more than 200 exotic animals, many of them members of endangered species. The battle to save the zoo made news around the world. When I visit a few weeks after the blaze, I bump into an Israeli TV crew near the giraffe paddock. Clive Brookbanks, Mogos operations manager, understands the interest in the story. It would make a bloody good movie, he says, adding that when the smoke first cleared, all he felt was dazed disbelief. I sat there and sort of stared into the middle of nowhere, trying to figure out what wed just gone through. Campbell, too, was profoundly shaken by the way events unfolded. Its something thats going to take me a while to get over, she says. Campbell is normally a steady sort of person. Down to earth. Not easily spooked. But on the last day of 2019, Australias warmest and driest year on record, she awoke with a sense of foreboding. I walked outside my house in the morning and I knew something was going to happen, she says. It was so hot. It was really eerie. She pauses. You knew it was coming. Zookeeper William Coombs, pictured with Kai the rhino, had hoped that Mogo Zoo had dodged the bullet for the fire season. Credit:James Brickwood The Currowan fire, so-called because it started in Currowan State Forest, had been burning in southern NSW since late November. For all that time, it had remained a safe distance from the zoo. William Coombs, a keeper whose charges include zebras, rhinos and ostriches, tells me his concern about the blaze had eased slightly as the weeks passed. The fire just lingers in the back of your mind, Coombs says. You think you might just have dodged the bullet for this fire season. Campbell, too, was cautiously optimistic. When she went to Sydney to spend Christmas with relatives, she told them the fire was to the north of the Kings Highway, which links Canberra to Batemans Bay, 10 kilometres north of Mogo: I said, Were all good unless it jumps the highway. 

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Within days, the flames had done just that. Before going to sleep on December 30, keeper Sam Ion had checked the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) Fires Near Me app and been reassured that the front was still about 20 kilometres to the north-west. I was like, Oh, well be fine,  she remembers. But the next morning she was woken soon after 6am by a call from Althea Guinsberg, Mogos curator of primates, telling her the fire was heading for the zoo. Ion leapt out of bed. I knew I had to get there, she says. "Were all good unless it jumps the highway." Within days, the flames had done just that. Guinsberg and Coombs, who are partners, live at Broulee, a coastal town just south of Mogo. The RFS had sent residents a text message advising them to evacuate, so the couple bundled a few valued possessions into their car before setting off for the zoo. Photo albums, says Coombs. Passports. Our dog. And the iron. I threw in the iron for some reason and I havent heard the end of it from my colleagues. Sophie Miller, Mogos senior primates keeper, who also lives in Broulee, had her father staying with her. She asked him to drop her at the zoo, then take a suitcase and her dog to the waterfront, where people were congregating. Like Coombs and Guinsberg, Miller didnt know when she closed the door behind her whether her house would be standing when she returned. Mogo, which is inland, received an evacuation order at 6.02am. Leave now to the east towards the beach and shelter in place, said the message that pinged on to zoo director Chad Staples phone. For Staples, who lives in one of two houses within the wildlife park, this was the signal to swing into action. Early in the summer, it had been decided that evacuating the animals was not feasible. So the plan was to make this a place we could defend, he says. Our preparations had started a good few weeks beforehand. Staples reckons it says a lot about the keepers that they dashed to the zoo rather than guarding their threatened homes. They chose this place over their own property, he says. While others were fleeing danger, his staff were driving towards it: They get those notifications to head to the beach? They head to the zoo. Coombs had to argue his way past a roadblock to get there. I explained to the policeman that I was part of Mogo Zoos fire plan, he says. Sounded good. While others were fleeing danger, staff were driving towards it: They get those notifications to head to the beach? They head to the zoo." The zoo had two 120,000-litre concrete water tanks, both of them full. Two utes had been rigged up as firefighting vehicles: each carried a 1000-litre tank and a water pump. Hoses and buckets were at the ready. Staples knew that if a blaze really took hold on the 26-hectare property, dedicated fire trucks and experienced firefighters would be required. Wed been in conversation with the Rural Fire Service, he says. We told them there would be people on site, animals on site. And we were assured there would be resources if we needed them. We thought, All right, we are going to be equipped to some degree but if it gets beyond us, we can make a call. 

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Lion cub Phoenix, held by Mogo Zoo director Chad Staples, who waited until after the fire to name him. Credit:James Brickwood By about 7.30am, 10 keepers and four members of the zoos maintenance and gardening crew had turned up to help. With Staples and operations manager Clive Brookbanks, who lives in the second house in the grounds, that made 16 people (about half the total staff). Their first task was to hose down roofs, wooden buildings, dry vegetation and anything else that looked combustible, even if spraying water around felt futile because it evaporated almost instantly. There was an ominous stillness in the air. The fire was expected to come from the north, so the next step was to move 17 primates  eight marmosets, six tamarins and three capuchins  from enclosures near the boundary fence on that side. Staples says catching the monkeys wasnt as difficult as it might sound. Moving a group of red pandas was trickier  because theyre a much bigger animal, and awesome at climbing trees. Once coaxed out of the branches, the red pandas were placed in pet packs, like the monkeys, and given temporary accommodation in Staples kitchen. Elsewhere in the zoo, Sam Ion was serving a group of small primates a hearty breakfast of mixed vegetables and boiled eggs. We wanted to try to make it as normal as possible for them, says Ion, who noticed some in the troop were uncharacteristically subdued. The squirrel monkeys, for example, are one of the cheekier of the primate species  good pickpockets and that sort of thing. But they were a bit reserved. A bit quieter. Larger animals also sensed trouble. The orang-utans, who usually love being outside, went into their dens and wrapped themselves in their blankets. And our gorillas were really quiet, says primates curator Althea Guinsberg. They knew something was happening. When I woke up at home I knew it was going to be a bad day, so the big cats would have known as well. Big-cat keeper Fran Campbell. As big-cat keeper, Fran Campbell looks after lions, tigers, a snow leopard and a cheetah. You cant put them in pet packs, she points out. For all my guys, the safest place was their night dens, where theyve got their straw-covered beds and their food and water. Of course, being moved into the dens in the morning was a break with routine. But the rapport and trust that youve built up with them means that when it comes to situations like this, they go, Okay, Im going to do what you want me to do.  Campbell kept her voice casual and her movements unhurried, as if it were just another day. But she didnt think for a moment that the cats were fooled. When I woke up at home I knew it was going to be a bad day, so these guys would have known as well, she says. Eight days earlier, on December 23, the zoo had welcomed the birth of a lion cub. The mother, five-year-old Chitwah, was a favourite of Campbell. As the keeper tucked the pair into a den of their own, she hoped against hope that they were out of harms way.

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The cub wasnt the only recent arrival at Mogo. Chad Staples had been the director for barely a month, since the zoos founder, Sally Padey, sold it to Elanor Investors Group, a publicly listed company that also owns Featherdale Wildlife Park in western Sydney. Staples had worked at Featherdale for more than 20 years, starting as an entry-level keeper and ending up in charge. Running both zoos meant commuting between the two, which hadnt left much time for befriending the Mogo staff. Kinwah the tiger, now 11, was raised by operations manager Clive Brookbanks. Im his world, Brookbanks says. And hes mine. Credit:James Brickwood I didnt know him from a bar of soap, says Clive Brookbanks, who as a longtime employee was heartened when Staples asked him to direct the firefighting effort. I knew this place, Brookbanks says. I knew what I was doing. And he allowed me to do what I needed to do. Didnt jump in. Didnt try to take over. To me, thats a sign of a really good boss. Brookbanks was aware that the task he had been given would involve more than telling people where to go and what to do. The important thing was to keep everybody calm and focused. Early in the day, one of our keepers said she was scared. I said, Look, well work through whatever we have to work through. Ill make sure youre safe and the animals are safe. Well work as a team. And thats exactly what we did. Knowing the fire was approaching was unnerving, like waiting for an enemy army to invade. We knew where the fire front was, says Sam Ion. You could see the glow, and orange rolling smoke. Says Brookbanks: There was this rumbling sound you could hear in the distance. An incredible sound, like waves on a really rough sea. Brookbanks remembers a NSW State Emergency Service vehicle zipping through the zoos front gate and the driver yelling out the window. He said, Evacuate! Youve got 10 minutes. But obviously there was no way we as a team would evacuate. It was about the animals. When the fire got close, the sky darkened and the wind whipped up. Suddenly the air was full of projectiles. Fran Campbell knew the term ember attack but says she hadnt fully understood what it meant. Its not like a little leaf on fire that just floats down. Id describe it as meteors flying from the sky. Its like fireballs coming in. Brookbanks was shocked. The size of the things that were dropping on us! he says. Some of them were chunks of wood. The power and energy in this fire  it was just phenomenal. Never before in my life have I felt like I might not make it through the day. Singaporean keeper Rachel Yeo, who had started working at Mogo Zoo earlier in December. Sophie Miller, stationed at the front of the zoo, watched in awe as a wall of flame appeared on top of a hill just over the road, about 20 metres from the entrance. For a moment, she admits, her resolve wavered: When you see it coming over the hill, thats when you do kind of go, 'Mmmmm'. William Coombs was similarly daunted: You look at that fire and you look at the ute carrying 1000 litres of water and you think, No chance, buddy.  The heat is what Sam Ion cant forget. As soon as the fire front crossed the road, the wind got so hot that you couldnt even look in the direction it was coming from, she says. Your face felt like it was going to melt off.

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Zoo keeper Rachel Yeo with squirrel monkeys. It felt like something out of a nightmare, she says of her experience fighting the fire. Credit:James Brickwood Spot fires sprang up around the edges of the zoo. Fran Campbell stood in the buffalo paddock and marvelled at the scene: There were red embers going everywhere. There were grass fires everywhere. And black. It was as black as midnight. Youve got bats flying around you in the middle of the day, Campbell says. At one stage, we had bats and black cockatoos flying together because theyd been pushed out of their habitat. Just weird. Singaporean keeper Rachel Yeo, who had started working at Mogo earlier in December, remembers being so frightened her knees shook. It felt like something out of a nightmare, she says. Especially when the fire surrounded the zoo. Never before in my life have I felt like I might not make it through the day. The wind from the fire front was so hot, your face felt like it was going to melt off, says Sam Ion. Credit:Chad Staples That possibility flashed through other minds, too. We were fighting on all fronts, on all angles, says Chad Staples, who stayed outwardly positive but by the middle of the day was beginning to suspect the fire would overwhelm them. You sort of think, Far out, its everywhere. Im sure there were moments when everyone thought, This isnt going to work.  Althea Guinsberg, for one, feared the battle was lost. Youre dealing with a force thats a lot bigger than you are, she says. I thought, When do we give up? When do we say we cant do this? But you dont express that doubt to anyone. Youve got to be like, No, we can do it.  As Staples recalls, it was about noon when he called triple zero and asked that a fire truck be dispatched to the zoo. None came. He now knows the RFS had no trucks to spare: its firefighters were fully occupied trying to save houses in Mogo and combatting other catastrophic blazes in the region. But at the time, the lack of response was bewildering. Surely they deserved assistance? Youre feeling a little bit angry, says Guinsberg. Abandoned. Early in the piece, the zoo had lost power, internet connection and phone reception (Staples made the emergency call when he fleetingly picked up a weak signal in one corner of the zoo). The keepers had no way of contacting their families or getting news from the outside world. The Bureau of Meteorology had predicted that the wind would change direction during the afternoon: cool air would blow in from the south, acting as a brake on the fires. Staples thought this could be the lifeline the zoo needed, but without access to the bureaus website, all he could do was hope the change was coming. You dont know whether the southerly is 10 minutes away or three hours away, he says.

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Loading The universities receive $17 billion a year in federal cash already. Paterson said they should be given this opportunity to show they could indeed withstand the lost income. Addressing Scott Morrison, Paterson concluded: "We shouldn't relax the travel ban, and there should be no financial bail-out for the universities." Another Victorian Liberal, Tim Wilson, reinforced the point. Australia's former Human Rights Commissioner urged Morrison to exercise "an abundance of caution" in any decision on the travel ban, an expression he repeated for emphasis. And he suggested the government prepare the public for a discussion of the consequences of the epidemic. Another Liberal, Queensland's Andrew Wallace, wanted to know why the school students who were to be allowed to return to Australia from China were treated differently to university students?

The Prime Minister's reply was to observe that the essential difference was that there were 700 school students and 100,000 uni ones. In response to Paterson, Morrison assured that there would be no taxpayer bailout of the universities, according to multiple people who were in the room. And that the government would adhere strictly to the medical advice on any further relaxation of the travel ban. The MPs were satisfied to hear such a clear-cut undertaking.

But it lasted less than 24 hours. On Wednesday morning, a copy of a speech by Tehan circulated among alarmed government members. The Education Minister was speaking to the Universities Australia national conference on the other side of Lake Burley Griffin that morning. The passage that riveted attention: "One day, and I hope that day comes very soon, our higher education sector will resume normal operations; the travel ban on China will be lifted and the remaining China-based students will arrive to begin studies for the year." MPs and senators, almost a dozen of them all told, contacted the the Prime Minister's office and other ministers to make sure that "very soon" was not any time soon. Some ministers argued back; the decision seemed to be in the balance. Loading It was the next day, on Thursday morning, that the chief medical officers of all the states, with their Commonwealth counterpart, Brendan Murphy, advised the government unanimously that a global pandemic was already under way. They had observed the accelerating spread of notified cases around the world, the growing number of countries affected, and that the outbreaks were now self-sustaining within some communities far from China. They hadn't been alarmist. Forty-two countries reported they had confirmed infections on Thursday. By the time the Australian government's daily 6.30am incident report was delivered on Friday, that number had grown to 49.

Countries have shut down some of the institutions they hold dearest. Japan has closed all schools. Saudi Arabia has halted pilgrimages to Mecca. And the Chinese government has postponed indefinitely its two big annual political assemblies. Australia's group of state and federal medical officers, convening daily, usually by phone hook-up, is the peak point of the pure medical advice, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC). No politicians sit in on their meetings. From there, the medical advice goes to the policymakers in the National Security Committee of the federal cabinet, and this is where the politicians get involved. The NSC is chaired by the Prime Minister. This is where decisions are made and action taken. Or not. The medical officers' "pandemic" call was a big moment. For a start, they were way ahead of the UN body that is supposedly the lead global agency on international health emergencies, the Geneva-based World Health Organisation.

Why were the Australians ahead of the world? For a very simple reason. They don't trust the WHO. The information from multiple international sources is that the WHO is under intense pressure from the Chinese government, and succumbing to it. Loading The Australian Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer, Brendan Murphy, told the NSC that it was medically inexplicable that the WHO hadn't already declared a global pandemic. It's politics, in other words. That's why Australia had earlier forged ahead of the WHO in declaring the China travel ban, on February 1. It was, again, on the unanimous advice of the AHPPC. The travel ban was decided immediately after the US made the same call. Beijing instantly lashed both the US and Australia on that occasion  the Chinese Communist Party's official mouthpiece, People's Daily, calling it "racist".

But, of course, that decision now looks very wise, more so with each passing day. The WHO followed suit 10 days later. When Morrison announced the China travel ban four weeks ago, there were about 7000 infections disclosed by Beijing. By Thursday this week that number had ballooned to 78,000. The number of countries announcing travel bans has grown proportionately, and mostly they have acted too late. Loading In any case, the political manipulation of the WHO is nothing novel. It was slow to declare HIV-AIDS to be a pandemic in the 1980s because of intense political pressure. Then it was pressure from the US. Now it's from China. Either way, the politics trumps the medical advice. So this week the AHPPC didn't hesitate to act ahead of the Geneva-based outfit. And when the medical officers' advice went to federal health minister, Greg Hunt, and to Morrison, they didn't hesitate, either. Morrison convened a three-hour meeting of the National Security Committee of cabinet on Thursday morning. They discussed the unfolding evidence, reviewed the state of medical preparations, and made three key decisions.

One, Morrison would call a press conference and announce the conclusion that the world will soon enter a pandemic phase of the coronavirus. Two, Australia's emergency response plan would be activated. Three, the ban on people travelling from or through China would be extended for another week. The ban is reviewed week to week. The meeting also discussed options for financial aid to suffering sectors of the economy. Morrison made all these announcements after question time. There has been no mention of any more special measures for universities. Loading The political capture of the WHO means, in effect, that it's every country for itself. It also underlines the central importance of keeping politics and other extraneous pressures out of the decision-making processes on a medical matter. Likewise, China's early political cover-ups and bungling wasted precious weeks in containing the virus. The Australian system for dealing with communicable diseases is less prone to politics. Morrison hid from the bushfires; he had no such option on the coronavirus. The Chief Medical Officer, Murphy, does not need the government's permission to invoke the Biosecurity Act. He informed Health Minister Greg Hunt on January 20 that he was triggering the act, automatically setting in train a pre-ordained process of monitoring and advice.
Whether you sell it, trade it, or buy one, all things involved with cars are saturated with taxes. Did Springfield ever think of how many will decide to not do any of the above and drive what they have until it drops, and how many car dealers will also suffer? When someone once said all you have to do is die and pay taxes, they had no idea what that would mean in Illinois.
Indonesians rest at a waiting area after they were barred from taking their flights to Saudi Arabia, at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang city, near Jakarta, Feb. 27, 2020.

Southeast and South Asian nations scrambled to provide answers to their Muslim citizens Thursday after Saudi Arabia blocked foreigners from travelling to Islams holiest sites just months ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, as transmissions of the coronavirus soared in the Middle East with Iran confirming 245 infections and 26 deaths.

Riyadh on Thursday suspended visas for the minor Umrah pilgrimage as it also closed its borders to foreigners visiting Mecca during Hajj and the Kaaba, the holiest shrine in Islam, in an extraordinary move that left tens of thousands of pilgrims in limbo at airports worldwide, including those from Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh.

Indonesia, the worlds largest Muslim-majority nation, requested an exemption for its citizens as it underscored that Jakarta had not yet recorded any confirmed case of the deadly flu-like disease known as COVID-19 on its soil.

We are negotiating, so that those who are already there can perform Umrah and those who have not come will not be barred, Indonesian Vice President Maruf Amin told reporters, emphasizing that Jakarta had already urged Saudi authorities to exempt Indonesians from the entry ban.

Umrah, an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that can be undertaken at any time of the year, attracts millions of visitors to Saudi Arabia. Millions more attend the 10-day Hajj, which is based on the Islamic lunar calendar and scheduled for late July into early August this year.

About one million Indonesians travel to Saudi Arabia each year to perform Umrah, officials said.

I dont think Umrah should be stopped. Even if its temporary, we hope Indonesia is exempted. If the reason is the coronavirus, we have no cases, Maruf said.

Saudi Arabias decision indicates the level of concern about the outbreak potentially striking the oil-rich kingdom tasked with protecting Islams holiest sites.

Entry to the Kingdom for the purpose of Umrah and or visiting the Prophet's Mosque in Medina is temporarily suspended, the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

It said tourist visas of visitors from countries with confirmed coronavirus outbreaks had been temporarily suspended.



The statement did not provide a timeframe for when the suspension would be lifted.

There have been no confirmed cases of the virus in Saudi Arabia, according to authorities in Riyadh, although newspaper reports said at least five of its citizens in Kuwait and Bahrain had been infected after visiting Iran, the hardest-hit nation in the Middle East.

In Indonesia, Riyadhs decision thrust pilgrims under a cloud of confusion, and travel operators expressed concerns that their customers may be sent back upon landing in Saudi Arabia.

Almost 7,000 Indonesians were stranded at local airports on Thursday, said Ali Machzumi, chief of Umrah affairs at the Religious Affairs Ministry.

About 4,000 other pilgrims were scheduled to leave for Saudi Arabia from other Indonesian cities such as Surabaya, Bandung and Makassar on Thursday, Ali said, adding that planes carrying nearly 1,200 had already departed on the same day.

But its not clear because they are likely to be returned as they are now in transit in Dubai and Malaysia, he told BenarNews.

At Jakartas international airport alone, more than 2,700 people were about to board flights when they were told they had been cancelled, he said.

At the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, more than 100 Malaysian and Indonesian pilgrims could be seen roaming around the pre-departure lounge on Thursday after Saudi announced its decision, according to state-run news service Bernama.

Malaysian travel agencies urged the Malaysian king to intervene over the temporary suspension.

I appeal to His Majesty to hold discussions with Saudi Arabias King, King Salman Abdulaziz Al Saud, to reconsider the suspension of visas for umrah, Mohd Akil Mohd Yusof, deputy president of the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents, told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

Mohd Akil said around 270,000 Malaysians visited Saudi Arabia last year for Umrah.

In Bangladesh, pilgrims grappled with anxieties after officials of airline companies said that they had received directives from the Saudi foreign ministry not to carry passengers with pilgrimage visas.

M. Shahadat Hossain Taslim, president of Hajj Agency Association Bangladesh, told the Daily Star that almost 1,000 Bangladeshis were stranded at the three airports in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet after they were prevented from boarding flights for Saudi Arabia.

Three days before Riyadh issued its decision, Bangladeshs cabinet secretary Khandker Awarul Islam told reporters that 137,198 pilgrims had signed up for the annual Hajj.

Since authorities reported that the virus had jumped from its epicenter in China, Kuwait has recorded 43 cases  all involving people who had been to Iran  while the United Arab Emirates has reported 13 and Bahrain has 33, according to the World Health Organizations latest tally of infections.

Iran has emerged as a major hotspot in the Middle East, authorities said, with the highest death toll outside China at 26.

Iraj Harirchi, the head of Irans government task force on the coronavirus, who had earlier urged the public on national television not to overreact about the virus spread had himself tested positive for the illness.

Almost 2.5 Muslims from across the globe visited Saudi Arabia last year, according to authorities in Riyadh.

Disease outbreaks have taken place during the Hajj, including cholera in 1821, during which an estimated 20,000 pilgrims died. About 44 years later, about 15,000 worshipers also lost their lives during cholera outbreak that was also spread worldwide, health authorities said.

Passengers seek government intervention

Back in Indonesia, would-be pilgrim Ade Suherman, 68, and his wife received the news about Saudi Arabias decision while they were about to board their planes at Jakartas Soekarno-Hatta airport.

Weve had out bags collected and are already inside. We are still waiting for news from the travel agency, Ade told BenarNews.

Other Muslim worshipers hope that the Indonesian government could intervene.

I hope the government will help us, said 62-year-old Nur Hayati, a pilgrim from Cirebon in West Java province. We have been certified healthy and ready to go.

Bram Riza Nurulhuda, a 41-year-old pilgrim who had been in Medina since Tuesday, vowed to complete his pilgrimage.

Here I am doing the morning prayer at the Nabawi Mosque. It is business as usual and there has been no clear action from local authorities, he told BenarNews. On Friday, God willing, I will go to Mecca.

Up to 60,000 pilgrims from Indonesia had been scheduled to depart to Saudi in the next two weeks, according to Syam Resfiadi, chairman of the Association of Umrah and Hajj Organizers (Sapuhi).

Ronna Nirmala and Ami Afriatni in Jakarta contributed to this report.
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She shocked Hollywood by clinching the second Oscar of her career earlier this month.

And reigning Best Actress winner Renee Zellweger lit up the evening on Thursday, when she led the star-studded guest list at the Women's Cancer Research Fund's An Unforgettable Evening benefit gala at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

The Judy star, 50, was elegant and sexy in a sheer-topped black gown, which featured a scalloped neck and beautiful lace detailing at the bust and along the sleeves for the event where she was honored with the Courage Award, in a nod to her charitable contributions and philanthropic efforts throughout her lengthy career .

Reigning queen: Renee Zellweger lit up the evening on Thursday, at the Women's Cancer Research Fund's An Unforgettable Evening benefit gala in Beverly Hills

Renee's gown had a lovely double-slit skirt that allowed her shapely legs to peek through, and she wore black pumps to boost her famously diminutive height.

The actress kept her hair-styling and make-up low-key, with a touch of pink lipstick and a low ponytail. She also chose to skip most jewelry options, save for an enormously chunky bejeweled ring on her right index finger.

Renee has worked on and hosted a number of fundraising events over the years in support of her friend and publicist Nanci Ryder, who was diagnosed with breast cancer and ALS

Another pair of famous blondes also attended the benefit event, in support of the early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of womens cancers: the Hilton sisters, as in Paris and Nicky.

Major hint of leg: The Judy star, 50, was elegant and sexy in a sheer-topped black gown, which featured a scalloped neck and beautiful lace detailing at the bust and along the sleeves

Striking a pose: Renee's gown had a lovely high double-slit skirt that allowed her shapely legs to peek through, and she wore black pumps on her feet

Accepting an honor: Zellweger was honored at the gala with the Courage Award, and she took the stage after Wilson to say a few words

Both of the hotel heiresses chose brightly-colored frocks for the soiree, with a newly short-haired Paris in a cream sequinned turtleneck mini dress with long sleeves, and her younger sister Nicky in a strapless floral black-and-white wrap number.

Paris added matching glittering stilettos, while Nicky opted for flesh-colored pumps.

Model (and Mrs. Matthew McConaughey) Camila Alves also opted for sequins, but of the burgundy variety on a sumptuous, flowing and very low-cut gown.

Sisters: Another pair of famous blonds also attended the benefit event: the Hilton sisters, as in Paris and Nicky

Best looks: Both of the hotel heiresses chose brightly-colored frocks, with a newly short-haired Paris in a cream sequinned turtleneck mini dress with long sleeves, and Nicky in a sweet strapless floral black-and-white wrap number

Strutting their stuff: The blonde beauties were lighting up the show

Brazilian bombshell: Model (and Mrs. Matthew McConaughey) Camila Alves also opted for sequins, but of the burgundy variety on a sumptuous, flowing and very low-cut gown

Camila's plunging bust line was adorned with a barely-there sheer panel, and she affixed a lovely flower behind her ear that stood out against her lush dark curls.

Representing the Real Housewives contingent at the Beverly Hills event was RHBH star Lisa Rinna, who attended with her husband Harry Hamlin.

The pair cut formal figures in black tuxedos, with Lisa skipping a top in her daringly low-cut lapelled jacket.

Plunging: Camila's plunging bust line was adorned with a barely-there sheer panel, and she affixed a lovely flower behind her ear that stood out against her lush dark curls

A couple of suits: Representing the Real Housewives contingent at the Beverly Hills event was RHBH star Lisa Rinna, who attended with her husband Harry Hamlin

Her co-star Kyle Richards also attended, in a one-shouldered black midi dress with a shoulder flourish.

Accompanied by her husband of 24 years Mauricio Umansky, Kyle completed her look with a snakeskin clutch and red pumps.

Fresh off their Happiness Begins world tour, the Jonas Brothers made quite an impression at the charity event, in satin looks of various colors.

Nick was in a dusty pink satin suit worn over a white tee, which he complemented with a brighter pink scarf, while his brother Kevin opted for a chocolate brown suit and matching turtleneck.

She's going to be in the next Halloween: Lisa's costar Kyle Richards also attended, in a one-shouldered black midi dress with a shoulder flourish

Four's company: Accompanied by her husband of 24 years Mauricio Umansky, Kyle posed with Lisa and Harry

Shiny boys: Fresh off their Happiness Begins world tour, the Jonas Brothers made quite an impression at the charity event, in satin looks of various colors

Joe went for a more casual look with a wine-colored satin track jacket, burgundy turtleneck, and deep purple satin slacks.

Another gala attendee bringing serious color was actress Cara Santana, in a bright yellow one-shouldered frock with a very high thigh slit.

Holding her own in red was stylist Rachel Zoe, in a flowing silky long-sleeved dress paired with gold statement necklace and clutch.

Holding her own: Stylist Rachel Zoe was in a red flowing silky long-sleeved dress paired with gold statement necklace and clutch

Newly engaged couple  actress Maria Bello and chef Dominique Crenn  coordinated in jacketed black and white outfits, and they couldn't contain their gleeful love for one another, kissing sweetly for the cameras.

Other guests included sportscaster Mike Hill and model Cynthia Bailey, who wowed in a floor-length black mermaid gown adorned with a giant diamond-encrusted bow at the chest.

Actresses Danielle Lauder and Elizabeth Chambers were also there, with Danielle in a strapless navy jumpsuit with embroidered chest panel, and Elizabeth in a belted two-tone cream silk outfit.

Smiling and in love: Newly engaged couple  actress Maria Bello and chef Dominique Crenn  coordinated in jacketed black and white outfits

Romance: They couldn't contain their gleeful love for one another, kissing sweetly for the cameras

Other guests included: Sportscaster Mike Hill escorted model Cynthia Bailey, who wowed in a floor-length black mermaid gown adorned with a giant diamond-encrusted bow at the chest

Diverse looks: Actresses Danielle Lauder, Destry Allyn Spielberg and Elizabeth Chambers were also there, with Danielle in a strapless navy jumpsuit with embroidered chest panel, Destry in a fabulous pleated wrap dress, and Elizabeth in a belted two-tone cream silk outfit

Tom Hanks's better half Rita Wilson looked lovely in an LBD, and sparkly-tipped sheer pumps.

Rita took the opportunity to pose with the Jonas boys at the event's step-and-repeat.

The Hangover's Ken Jeong arrived in an understated blue suit to host the evening event, and he was accompanied by his wife Tran in a gorgeous silky salmon gown that flowed down to the floor.

Honorary chair: Tom Hanks's better half Rita Wilson looked lovely in an LBD, and sparkly-tipped sheer pumps

On the pink carpet: Rita took the opportunity to pose with the Jonas boys at the event's step-and-repeat

And now your host: The Hangover's Ken Jeong arrived in an understated blue suit to host the evening event, and he was accompanied by his wife Tran in a gorgeous silky salmon gown that flowed down to the floor

Fashion designer Tom Ford cut a classic figure in a black suit, as did comedic actor Martin Short with a striped necktie.

Inside the event, Renee posed with Katie Couric, who wore a lovely floral dress paired with a leather jacket.

Zellweger was honored at the gala with the Courage Award, and she took the stage after Honorary Chair Wilson to say a few words.

Style to spare: Fashion designer Tom Ford cut a classic figure in a black suit while actor Martin Short also donned a black suit, with a striped necktie

The evening's chairs: (left to right) Kate Capshaw, Kelly Chapman Meyer, Jamie Tisch, Wilson, Myra Biblowit, Quinn Ezralow, and Marion Laurie posed for photos as representatives for the gala

Inside the event: Renee posed with Katie Couric, who wore a lovely floral dress paired with a leather jacket
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said that the Aam Aadmi Party government has set up nine shelters for the riot-affected people and will start distributing Rs 25,000 in cash as immediate relief from Saturday to those whose houses have been burnt in the violence.

IMAGE: Charred remains of vehicles set ablaze by rioters during communal violence over the amended citizenship law, outside an auto showroom in Khajuri Khas of northeast Delhi. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo

Addressing a press conference, Kejriwal said that people with serious injuries would be shifted to private hospitals for treatment in case they are not getting proper medical facilities in government hospitals due to rush of patients.

He said that compensation form will be issued to victims.

For assistance of the violence-hit people, Kejriwal said the government has appointed 18 magistrates and four night magistrates.

"Night magistrates can coordinate relief and rehabilitation activities in any emergent situation at any time, along with measures like fixing street lights to ensure the security of residents at night," he said.

The government is providing food and water and necessities to people on a larger scale, he said, requesting people to provide relevant information on whether someone in the affected areas needs food and amenities.

The government is getting support from NGOs, RWAs in providing relief to the riot-affected areas, the chief minister said.

The process of providing immediate relief or ex-gratia of Rs 25,000 in cash to every household in case of the substantial or total damage will begin from Saturday.

"The balance cheque will be provided to them after proper assessment is done by the PWD. Any NGO, social organisations and individual donors who would like to contribute to our relief and rehabilitation activities can contact the office of District Magistrate North East," he said.

On the treatment of patients currently admitted in government hospitals, Kejriwal said, "We are being contacted by the people regarding their friends and relatives admitted for serious injuries in the government hospitals, but not getting proper treatments due to huge crowds in the hospitals."

"The Delhi government will assess the situation and if needed, patients with serious conditions and injuries will be shifted to private hospitals for proper treatment," he said.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said that a compensation form will be issued on behalf of the Delhi government.

A mobile application will also be developed where citizens can lodge details of the loss of property, loss of vehicles, damage to the business and details of injury and death.

A compensation form will be issued seeking all details of victims of the riots so that timely compensation is provided to them. "Any citizen can submit the form in the North East DM office physically, or through the app," he said.

The government will ensure quick verification and assessment of the details to provide immediate ex-gratia amount of Rs 25,000, Sisodia said, adding that the full compensation amount will be provided after 2-3 days.

The violence that unfolded in Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Chand Bagh, Shiv Vihar, Bhajan Pura, Yamuna Vihar areas of northeast Delhi earlier this week have claimed at least 42 lives and left over 200 injured while also unleashing large scale mob-led destruction of properties.
BJP's remarks came after Sonia Gandhi demanded resignation of Amit Shah over Delhi violence

New Delhi: The BJP on Friday hit back at Congress president Sonia Gandhi for reminding the Centre of its 'rajdharma', as it alleged that the communal violence in northeast Delhi was an outcome of "instigation" by Opposition leaders.

The BJP's remarks came a day after the Congress leaders, led by Sonia Gandhi, met President Ram Nath Kovind and submitted a memorandum demanding resignation of Union home minister Amit Shah for "abdication of duty" during the communal violence in northeast Delhi.

She had also reminded the Centre for its 'rajdharma' and protecting the people from all faiths in the country.

Addressing a press conference at the party office, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said Shah was very proactive from the very first day of the violence to stop it.

Asked about controversial remarks made by the BJP leaders like Kapil Mishra and Pravesh Verma, Prasad said the party doesn't approve such statements.

"Sonia Gandhi, please don't preach us 'rajdharma'; your record is full of twists and turns," Prasad said, while adding that NPR was started by the Congress-led regime.

"If Congress does something, it is good. But if we do the same thing, they provoke the people. What type of rajdharma is this?" he asked.

Referring to the Congress chief's remarks of "fight to finish" at a rally in Ramlila Maidan last year, Prasad asked whether such remarks do not constitute provocation.

The Union minister alleged that the Congress could stoop to any level for "vote-bank" politics, adding that it should act responsibly for maintaining peace and harmony in country.

He accused the Congress of changing its stand on granting citizenship to persecuted minorities in the neighbouring countries. "For Congress, the party and the family comes before the country," he alleged.
Three years after the Venus' flytrap was proposed to be named an endangered species, conservationists are suing the Trump administration to do, well, anything.

South Carolina's own "Little Shop of Horrors" meat-eating monster could go extinct before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acts, the lawsuit contends.

"The plant is now down to only 2 percent of its original range, as it thrives only in wet sites with poor soils that burn easily," said Noah Greenwald, the endangered species director for the Center for Biodiversity. Federal regulators "are really just dragging their feet."

The delays have concerned conservationists for years. The wildlife service has become seriously backlogged dealing with petitions because of program underfunding and political opposition, Greenwald said.

But the delays have been exacerbated under the Trump administration, which is falling far behind the Obama and Bush administrations in the number of designations made, he said. The center has little choice but to sue.

The wildlife service does not comment on active lawsuits.

The flytrap is among 241 plants and animals the center says the wildlife service has failed to decide on despite a mandatory one-year deadline. Another one found in South Carolina is the spotted turtle, which has waited for a decision since 2012.

Listing the flytrap, which would carry stiffer penalties for disturbing the plant or its habitat, might bolster what has become its last stand. Poaching, and the loss of its fire-and-flood-dependent habitat to development pressures, have put the few wild patches on the brink of extinction.

Poachers dig up the wild plants to sell so often that naturalists won't talk specifically of where they are found. Most are reluctant even to discuss the poaching, afraid the mention will spur more.

The flytrap  with its eerie toothy spikes and the voracious snap of its petals snaring bugs  is the piranha of the plant world. The herb has been found only in a handful of spots in isolated coastal wetlands in North and South Carolina. It is so rare that it grows nowhere else.

The flytrap fascinates botanists because its animal-like "snap trap" ambush is the most extreme example of carnivorous plants. The horror-show behavior and appearance also has captured the popular imagination  leading to the cult-favorite horror comedy movie.

The plants are hardy enough to grow outdoors across much of the country. But somewhat mysteriously, they're found in the wild only along a 100-mile strip of coastal plain in the two states. They are one of those ultimate endemic plants.

Charleston landscaper Jeff Jackson of the S.C. Native Plant Society regularly prowls the coastal bottoms to record sightings of rare plants and has never seen the flytrap south of Horry County.

"It's definitely a botanical treasure," he said. "This thing only grows in a tiny area straddling the South Carolina-North Carolina border. No where else in the world."

The farthest south they appear to have ranged in the past is the Santee River, botanist Richard Porcher told The Post and Courier in 2009 during a previous look at the plant. Porcher is a professor emeritus with The Citadel.

"Why they never came across the Santee, nobody knows," he said then. "If you knew the answer to that you'd be a famous biologist."
The emergency service heroes of Australia's devastating bushfire crisis will have a moment in the spotlight during this year's Sydney Mardi Gras.

Oxford Street in Sydney's CBD will on Saturday come alive with glitter and lights for the annual LGBT festival and parade, expected to attract thousands.

Parade creative director Kat Hopper said this year's 'What Matters' theme seeks to stoke debate around social justice, trans rights, sustainability, climate change and love.

The emergency service heroes of Australia's devastating bushfire crisis will have a moment in the spotlight during this year's Sydney Mardi Gras

'These queer first responders and their allies from the Rural Fire Service, Fire and Rescue and the State Emergency Services will take to Oxford Street for the moment in the spotlight they so deserve,'

'The 2020 Mardi Gras's float is a powerful and creative protest for the world we live in, it draws attention to climate and sustainability. It's built with love by our community out of recycled materials,' Ms Hopper told reporters on Friday.

Of the 191 floats in the parade, several will focus on climate change while Australia's bushfire crisis 'heroes' will be front and centre.

'These queer first responders and their allies from the Rural Fire Service, Fire and Rescue and the State Emergency Services will take to Oxford Street for the moment in the spotlight they so deserve,' Ms Hopper said.

'I cannot wait to hear the crowd roar to this.'

As per tradition, the 'dykes on bikes' will kick off the parade on Saturday evening with more than 12,000 people taking part in the four-hour festival.

Sydney MP Alex Greenwich on Friday said this year's Mardi Gras should further the campaign for equality, and expressed his dissatisfaction with the federal government's religious freedoms bill.

'I have never seen a bill that so deliberately undermines Australia's values of fairness and equality,' the independent NSW MP said in a statement.

'Wemustneverstopmarching.Weoweittothosewhofoughtfortherightsweenjoy today to fight for the equality of future generations.'

Oxford Street in Sydney's CBD will on Saturday come alive with glitter and lights for the annual LGBT festival and parade, expected to attract thousands

There will be a high-visibility police operation across the Harbour City, with the riot squad and dog unit assisted by officers in the air and on horses.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Tony Crandell said significant crowds were expected around Sydney and urged revellers to plan ahead.

ACON, the state's leading sexuality and gender-diverse health organisation, encouraged revellers to look after themselves and their friends.

'The Sydney Mardi Gras is absolutely about having a great time celebrating the vibrancy and diversity of our communities ... while also playing safe,' ACON deputy chief executive Karen Price said in a statement.
Cheney High Schools FBLA Club (Future Business Leaders of America) competed at the 2020 Northeast Regional Winter Conference at the Spokane Valley Assembly of God church in Spokane Valley on Feb. 6. Cheney had 45 of its 48 attending members place in the top six.

As a team, club members placed 96 times in the competition. Students who place top six are eligible to compete at the State Business Leadership Conference in Spokane on April 8-11.

Of the 96 different times that we placed, Cheney had 16 first-place finishes and 14 second-place finishes.

Highlights for Cheney began with seniors JT...
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem transits waters east of the Korean peninsula during a photo exercise including the United States Navy and the Republic of Korea Navy during Operation Foal Eagle on March 22, 2017. (U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kurtis A. Hatcher/Handout via Reuters)

US Navy Orders Ships in the Pacific to Self-Quarantine for Coronavirus Concerns

The U.S. Navy has ordered that all its ships that have recently visited any country in the Pacific region are to remain at sea for 14 dayseffectively putting them in quarantine in efforts to curb the spread of the new coronavirus disease.

US Navy spokesman Lt. James Adams told CNN that so far there are no signs that any U.S. Navy personnel have contracted the disease, but the action is precautionary.

Out of an abundance of caution, Pacific Fleet is implementing additional mitigations to prevent Sailors from contracting COVID-19, and to monitor Sailors who have traveled to higher-risk areas, Adams told the network.

The health and welfare of our sailors, civilians and their families is paramount and our efforts are directed at detection and, if required, prevention of the spread of this illness, he added.

During the two weeks, soldiers will be monitored for any symptoms of the new virus. The most common symptoms of the virus are fever, coughing, and difficulty breathing, although Chinese researchers have noted other symptoms, such as fatigue, diarrhea, chest pains, and headaches.

The incubation periodor amount of time from exposure to the onset of symptomshas been widely reported as up to 14 days. However, a recent study from Chinese researchers, which examined over 1,000 cases of the disease, found patients might not exhibit symptoms for as long as 24 days.

COVID-19 has spread to more than 40 countries around the world, and cases and deaths related to the coronavirus continue to increase daily. The new coronavirus was first reported in early December 2019 and originated in Wuhan, in Chinas Hubei Province. The virus is in the same family of pathogens that cause the flu and SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

The latest decision from the U.S. Navy comes as the United States and South Korea decided to postpone joint military exercises until further notice, according to a United States Forces Korea announcement posted Thursday. The decision was in response to the South Korean governments recent decision to increase its coronavirus alert level to severethe highest of four levels in the country. South Korea now has more than 2,000 cases.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command on Wednesday restricted all non-essential travel for all military, civilians, and contractors under its authority.

Meanwhile, in the Middle East, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is restricting certain types of travel for U.S. troops within its area of responsibility across the Middle East and southwest Asia, citing coronavirus concerns, according to a memo (pdf) obtained by Politico. This includes the cancellation of all leave and liberty travel for U.S. service members overseen by CENTCOM, until further notice.

In Europe, U.S. military bases in Vicenza, Italy, have seen closures of on-base schools, child care centers, gyms, and religious services, and more, until at least March 1, according to a U.S. Army announcement on Tuesday, Feb. 24, as the disease spreads across Italy. The closures, which are precautionary actions to curb the spread of the coronavirus, may be extended. Military personnel in Vicenza are also banned from nonessential travel to Lombardy and Vo Euganeoareas where there are clusters of coronavirus cases. No cases have been confirmed in Vicenza.

Inside the United States, California is monitoring some 8,700 people and a county in New York State is monitoring about 700 people for possible coronavirus. The United States has a total of 60 confirmed cases of the virus, 42 of which originated from passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined off Yokohama, Japan, earlier this month.

Three of the 60 cases were in those who were evacuated from Wuhan. The remaining 15 cases were detected in six statesArizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Washington, and Wisconsinwith the 15th case northern California possibly being the first case of human-to-human transmission from an unknown source, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Eva Fu contributed to this report.
Sarah Seamonson, who works with the Conshohocken-based marketing agency called Chronic, prepares a display of paper cut to look like cannabis in the Greenroom at the Philadelphia Flower Show. Read more

For the first time in the history of the Philadelphia Flower Show, there will be a spotlight on the worlds most notorious weed.

There wont be a single cannabis plant on display. But marijuana will be a featured subject at three locations inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

"The Greenroom, a stylish educational exhibit, has earned a prominent spot toward the middle of the Convention Center floor. Manned by several youthful cannabis experts, the Greenroom will provide basic information about the thriving medical marijuana program in Pennsylvania and medical programs in the surrounding states of New Jersey, New York and Maryland.

Our job is to get the word out, to let the expected 250,000 show-goers know that medical marijuana has arrived, said Sarah Seamonson, who works with the Conshohocken-based marketing agency called Chronic. People can find info about doctors, ailments that marijuana is approved to treat, and where medical dispensaries can be found throughout the region and what people can expect when they visit one.

A chain of medical marijuana dispensaries, Keystone Shops, and a multistate cannabis grower known in Pennsylvania as Prime Wellness  both sponsors of the Greenroom  also were setting up their own smaller informational booths on Thursday in the Flower Shows Marketplace.

There will be no free samples. Dont even ask.

And unlike any other plant that exists on the face of the planet, marijuana cant be represented by the real thing at the show, which runs from Feb. 29 through March 8.

There wont even be a single sprout, alive or dried, of marijuana on display because of Pennsylvania state law. Because of some squeamishness on the part of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, there also wont be any examples of marijuanas non-intoxicating cousin, industrial hemp.

Were keeping the controversial topics to a minimum, said Mike Badey, CEO of Keystone Shops, which was the first dispensary chain to sell medical marijuana flower in the state. The Department of Health approved us, but one stipulation was that we couldnt have live cannabis plants. We werent planning on having them, anyway.

Does cannabis have a place at the the nations most celebrated indoor horticultural event?

Absolutely, said Chris Goldstein, a regional organizer for NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. If you look at cannabis as a plant, it is the most popular flower that Americans interact with on a daily basis  either regulated or unregulated. It has many strains, varieties, looks and scents. And it outsells roses by far.

Marijuana had been slated to debut at the 2016 edition of the Flower Show, but due to a misunderstanding, the exhibit was canceled at the last minute.

Last year, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society reached out to Chronic, the sister company of 20nine, a Conshohocken branding agency. They wanted advice on how to integrate the multi-billion dollar marijuana industry into the flower show.

They werent sure how to do it effectively and within the regulations, said Greg Ricciardi, CEO of Chronic and 20nine. Because its a plant, and its relevant, they asked us to help think it through from a strategic, design, and marketing perspective.

The first step was getting the Horticultural Society leadership comfortable with the idea, Ricciardi said. To do that, nothing on display could be construed as a real pot plant. It was unfortunate, but we got [that point].

Just including the topic of marijuana in the flower show marks a real turning point for the entire industry, he said.

We believe its the first-ever cannabis-themed exhibit in a non-cannabis show. This is designed for a broad mainstream audience and is a way to normalize and destigmatize it," Ricciardi said.

Though we cant be certain its the very first, we are sure of one thing: Its the first time ever at the Philadelphia Flower Show," Ricciardi said. "And thats an achievement unto itself.
For our free coronavirus pandemic coverage, learn more here.

Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size When Han Lee returned to Melbourne after four years overseas in 2017, he was eager for friends, connection and a local church. During a Christian event at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, he was pleasantly surprised when a young Korean woman sat next to him, struck up a conversation and invited him to a barbecue the next weekend. There, two men invited him to a Bible study group  a couple of two-hour sessions a week, full of engaging interpretations of the Bible that Han hadn't heard before. Within weeks, he found himself in five-hour classes that ran past midnight most nights of the week. "Suddenly you don't have time for your other friends. My family got used to me skipping dinner every night," he said. Only after six months, when he passed a rigorous exam, was Han told he was part of the Korean religious cult Shincheonji.

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Last week, Shincheonji and its 245,000 claimed members in South Korea were thrust into the spotlight as the sect became a hotbed of the country's red alert coronavirus outbreak, pushing thousands of members into hiding. About 68 per cent of the country's minimum 3700 confirmed cases have been linked to Shincheonji. The group's iron-fist enforcement of attendance and rules such as the forbidding of face masks have made for highly infectious conditions. Han Lee soon found himself sucked into over 20 hours of Bible classes a week, entranced by the teachings and afraid to miss any. Credit:Justin McManus South Korean Lee Man-Hee, who continues to lead the Christianity offshoot he created in 1984, espouses himself as the immortal, second coming of Jesus. Now, according to British media reports, Lee Man-Hee could face "murder" charges in connection to the 18 coronavirus deaths in South Korea. Authorities have accused the church of deliberately exacerbating the outbreak by failing to provide lists of its worshippers and, thus, interfering with moves to curb the virus' spread. Few Australians are aware that Shincheonji has operated a secretive branch here for several years.

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Lee Man-Hee speaking to Australian Shincheonji "graduates" last year, espousing his religion's messianic bible interpretations. Credit:YouTube Shincheonji appears to have hundreds of Australian members at any time with class sizes up to 100. In Melbourne, hidden under deceptive recruiting techniques and teachings that deify its 88-year-old leader, Shincheonji targets, then overwhelms, the lives of unknowing recruits  often Asian international students and those, like Han, with few local connections. Lee Man-Hee appears to have visited Australia last year, appearing in a bizarre YouTube video of Australians completing their six-month "passover"  an official acceptance into Shincheonji. Hundreds of students at their "passover" in Australia last year, where they cheered and applauded speakers including Lee Man-Hee. Credit:YouTube "Shincheonji is life, the source of my strength," a 22-year-old university student from Sydney says in the video. "God and Jesus speak only to our chairman ... now this word has been preached all over the world, even though many people have betrayed our chairman, whom God is with."

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In his 40-minute sermon, Lee Man-Hee, wearing a white suit with a yellow tie, congratulates the graduates, interprets Bible verses and damns those who disagree. "When you see these people they are alive and moving, but their hearts are dead," he says. In recent days, Seoul's city government filed a criminal complaint to prosecutors against Lee Man-Hee, himself waiting on the results of a coronavirus test, and 11 other senior members of the church. According to the BBC, the legal complaint accuses the church leaders of homicide, causing harm and violating the Infectious Disease and Control Act. In a Facebook post on Sunday, Seoul's mayor Park Won-soon alleged the church's actions amounted to "murder through to willful negligence". Under South Korean law, a person can be convicted of murder if they foresaw their actions resulting in death, but continued with those actions regardless. Before the shadow of the virus, Shincheonji was most brazenly recruiting individuals on the streets of Melbourne's CBD.

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Normally young and from eastern Asia, Shincheonji recruiters move in pairs of "eyes" - like the two men who showed an interest in Han. Earlier this month, seizing on the period when international students are yet to start university, they were seen politely asking people walking alone outside RMIT and Melbourne Central to complete a survey on "how happy you are with your life from one to 10". Lydia, who did not want her last name published, was 19 when a woman from Singapore and a man from Korea approached her at Melbourne Central in 2017. "They asked whether I was interested in going to a multicultural event nearby, with K-pop singing and dancing," Lydia said. "I went, because I had nothing else to do during the summer. Not long after, the girl texted me and asked whether I was interested in joining a Bible study group." In the group, Lydia felt as if every time she spoke with a new class member, one of her recruiters  her "eyes"  would appear and join the conversation. Like Han, she was bombarded with messages any time she skipped a class. Lydia's other friend group in Melbourne was her university Bible study class. Soon, her Singaporean "eye" was telling her those friends weren't to be trusted.

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NEW DELHI: Google Doodle honoured the British illustrator and artist, Sir John Tenniel, on his 200th birthday on Friday (February 28, 2020). Tenniel is one of the most highly-regarded Victorian illustrators and painters, and best remembered for bringing to life the characters of Lewis Carrolls timeless Alice in Wonderland series.

Today's doodle shows the conversation between Cheshire Cat and Alice. In the book, a lost Alice asks the cat, Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? Cheshire Cat replies, That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.

Born in London on February 28, 1820, Tenniel was knighted for his artistic achievements in 1893. At the age of 20, Tenniel lose the sight in his right eye due to an accident.

Tenniel studied at the Royal Academy schools and sent his first picture to the exhibition of the Society of British Artists, in 1836. Later, he contributed a 16-foot cartoon to a design competition for mural decoration of the new Palace of Westminster and received 100 and a commission for a fresco in the Upper Waiting Hall at the House of Lords.

Fondly remembered as the principal political cartoonist for "Punch" magazine and illustrator for Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (1865) and "Through the Looking-Glass" (1872), his works are subtle and well-suited to the text, which won him a global audience.

Tenniel's cartoons secured his fame, but it was his illustrations for "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" made him a household name. Tenniel was introduced to Carroll in 1864, when he agreed to create 42 illustrations.
WASHINGTON (AP)  A Chinese Navy ship fired a laser at a U.S. surveillance aircraft flying over the Philippine Sea west of Guam, the Navy said Thursday, acknowledging the incident more than a week after it happened.

The Navy said the People's Republic of China naval destroyer lased the American P-8A Poseidon aircraft in an act the U.S. deemed unsafe and a violation of international codes and agreements. The statement from U.S. Pacific Fleet said the laser was detected by sensors on the aircraft, but was not visible to the naked eye.

Weapons-grade lasers could potentially cause serious harm to aircrew and mariners, as well as ship and aircraft systems, the Navy said. The incident took place about 380 miles west of Guam.

The Poseidon crew is deployed to Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. The squadron conducts routine operations, maritime patrol, and reconnaissance in the Pacific Fleet area.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 17:36:02|Editor: xuxin

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing fight against the COVID-19 remains arduous. A final global victory hinges on how well members of the international community can work together.

At this drastic moment, some Washington politicians like U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House trade advisor Peter Navarro seem to be sowing divisions, tapping into the public's fear of this unknown disease, and churning out lies about China.

Those lies are as sensational as they are inconceivable. Some have accused China of lacking transparency in combating the epidemic; some absurdly hinted that the new coronavirus is "a man-made bioweapon"; others smeared China as a "disease incubator."

The Pompeos and the Navarros are turning a blind eye to China's rigorous and effective measures against the epidemic as well as its timely and transparent data-sharing efforts, which have won broad recognition for buying the world a precious window of opportunity to prepare and respond.

This raucous China-smearing campaign has reflected some U.S. political elites' deep-rooted ideological bias against China.

In their eyes, a rising China constitutes a formidable challenge to the United States and to a solar system in which they believe that Washington is the Sun, and everyone else should orbit around it.

One major reason for those Washington politicians to seize every possible chance to smear China is not because China is doing it wrong, but because China is doing it right in its own way.

Those China-bashers' mindset is not only obsolete, but will also hurt their own country's vital interests in this world of increasing interdependence and interconnectedness.

Take the current fight against the COVID-19 as an example. Right now, 46 countries outside China have reported cases of infection, and the number seems to be still growing. The only way to get this dire situation under control is for all countries across the globe to fight shoulder to shoulder. The human race is in this together.

For those China fear-mongers in Washington, lying may fool some minds in the short run and get the liars some cheap and transient political gains. Yet in the long run, lying would only reveal their true colors of bigotry and bias, and compromise America's credibility.

Fortunately, many across the United States and around the world remain sober and open-minded, and have offered their help to China as the epidemic rages on.

The U.S. Jewish community in an open letter released earlier this week also cautioned against xenophobia following the novel coronavirus outbreak, saying that history has shown that fearmongering can be devastating.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, also stressed that "This is a time for global solidarity -- political solidarity, technical solidarity and financial solidarity."

China-bashing opportunists should listen to those rational voices, and let reason, not false pride or prejudice, prevail in Washington.
Sana Shakil By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Amidst uneasy calm and palpable distrust, Sikhs and Christians on Thursday came forward to help people in the violence-hit areas of northeast Delhi. While Sikhs helped people with food and medicines, Christians have opened the churches for all seeking shelter.



The Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee ran mobile ambulances and distributed food to the people, some of who had not eaten anything in the last three days. Trucks full of food material and ambulances were seen doing rounds of violence-hit areas like Ghonda, Ambedkar Basti, Brahmpuri and Shri Ram Colony.



ALSO READ: AAP councillor Tahir Hussain booked in IB man's murder case

Jagat Singh, a volunteer in Brahma Puri, said, Our president Manjinder Singh Sirsa has asked to us to serve humanity and give all help to people in the violence-hit areas. We have distributed food to around 1,000 people. Some people who came to us have not eaten for 2-3 days. Some were quite sick.



A coughing Yasmin, who came to seek medicine, said, For the first time this week, I am seeing someone doing relief work in our street. I have fever and cough for last four days but could not see a doctor because dispensaries and chemist shops were closed. The Sikh brothers are doing noble work.

Just behind, stood daily wager Gajinder with a complain of leg pain, My legs had been paining for the past three days. The situation was so bad that we could not come out from our homes. The medical shops have been shut for three days now. There are many, from both communities, who need food and medicines.



Archbishop of Delhi Anil J Couto has asked the community, parishes, Christian institutes, Catholic schools to provide shelter to the victims.
The Jose Daniel Ferrer Case: Irregularities Prior to the Impending Trial in Santiago de Cuba DIARIO DE CUBA reveals the violations of the UNPACU leader's rights to due process.

The family and the lawyer appointed by the Cuban regime announced that this Wednesday, at the Municipal Court of Santiago de Cuba, the trial of the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), Jose Daniel Ferrer, will be held.

Ferrer is accused by the Prosecutor's Office, along with activists Fernando Gonzalez Vaillant, Roilan Zarraga Ferrer and Jose Pupo Chaveco, members of the UNPACU, of injuries inflicted, deprivation of freedom, and assault.

After almost five months in prison (Ferrer was arrested by the political police on October 1) DIARIO DE CUBA identifies some of the irregularities thus far in a legal process that has been condemned by the European Union, the US Government, and the United Nations (UN), among other international organizations and entities.

The dissident's arrest

In addition to the violations committed by Special Forces and Ministry of Interior agents, who, in an extensive operation involving some 60 troops, violently broke into the dissident's building without presenting any arrest or seizure warrants, neither the Prosecutor nor the body charge with the primary investigation ever, apparently, apprised him of his rights.

Said procedure is not subject to the discretion of the Cuban police or legal apparatus, but rather is an inexorable legal obligation, a guarantee that must be ensured under any circumstances, in favor of any accused party, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter V, Section III of the current Cuban Criminal Procedure Law governing the entire procedure to be followed and the accused's rights with respect to his statements, and the Justice system's duty to verify that every party is duly informed of their rights.

The preliminary phase of the case against Ferrer and his colleagues

The Popular Municipal Court of Santiago de Cuba committed the same violation, when, upon receiving the case from the Prosecutor's Office, it failed as per Sections 1, 2 and 3 of Article 263 of the aforementioned Law to return the investigative proceedings to the Prosecutor's Office itself, given that there had been a breach in the handling of the preparatory phase, due to the mishandling of the formalities explained above.

Derived from the latter, the previous investigations should have been expanded, with Ferrer able to gather evidence in his favor, and because the facts set forth in the prosecutor's provisional conclusions could fail to correspond to the findings of the case files investigations.

The alleged accuser

The video uploaded to the social media pages of Sergio Garcia Gonzalez's wife, who supposedly accused the UNPACU leader of the crime of inflicting injuries, should have been incorporated into the investigations for its consideration. And her statement asserting that she had been intimidated by State Security, to persuade her husband to testify against Ferrer, also should have been taken into account.

Witnesses to the events, excluded from the investigation

Nor were witness statements taken from Ferrer's wife or the other inhabitants of the house where the crime allegedly occurred; direct witnesses that no legal system should ignore, but who were excluded from the process. Hence, they could not be heard at the oral proceedings to take place this Wednesday.

Who attends the oral and the "public" trial?

The Prosecution's case, which alleges common crimes of injury and deprivation of freedom, is not, therefore, legally authorized to carry out a trial without observing universal guarantees ensuring popular control over the exercise of executive and judicial powers in an oral trial of a criminal nature.

This principle protects those accused from abuses and excesses committed when the justice system wishes to act privately to guarantee "secrecy" and avoid popular censure. Thus, Ferrer's trial will not be public.

Cuba's Law of the Courts, and the Constitution in force, state that criminal sentences are to be issued in the name and on behalf of the interests of the people of Cuba, while Article 305 establishes that: "The oral trial is public, unless reasons of state security, morality, public order, or respect for the victim of the crime, or their relatives, warrant it being held behind closed doors."

In previous such trials, whose true and hidden purpose is to favor certain political factions in Cuba, this principle is violated, as the regime does not wish to allow access to the courtroom by those seeking to ensure that the law is applied fairly.

Session attendees

In the case of Ferrer, in addition, the court was organized by order of State Security, in collusion with this institution's Directorate of Security and Protection. This mechanism employs so-called "rapid response brigades", paramilitary groups of the Government, to select workers who are absent from their jobs, recruiting them for a manipulation strategy, to serve as a shield to "confront" any protests.

Together with them, for these types of trials, also mobilized are the "rapid response brigades" of the work centers near the headquarters of the Municipal Court of Santiago de Cuba, and other supposedly civil brigades (plain-clothes military staff, and members of the official Association of Combatants of the Revolution).

In this way, the courtroom is filled with State Security officers dressed in civilian clothes to project the illusion of popular control in the judicial body, while the access ways to the Court are blocked by regular forces by means of security rings, to keep people out.

Any dissident, defector or person suspected of opposition to the regime is arrested, taken away, and prevented from accessing the courtroom.

Likewise, at the door to the court there is an official with the list of witnesses and the names of the people who are to participate in the trial, all of whom are searched to prevent them from entering with recording or filming devices.

The accused's closest family member pass is subject to the same treatment.

The ruling will not be announced today, as the trial will yet to be concluded, bound to culminate with the perfunctory finding of guilt, though this is supposed to be pronounced within 11 business days.
The mother of a man who died from a lethal dose of tramadol has begged drug dealers to "stop killing people's children"

The mother of a man who died from a lethal dose of tramadol has begged drug dealers to "stop killing people's children".

Giving evidence at an inquest sitting in Omagh Court into the death of her son Darren Kelly (28) from Enniskillen, Margaret Kelly urged people who take drugs to stop, saying "don't do that to yourself or to your family".

The court heard how Mr Kelly, who suffered from depression and anxiety, was addicted to drugs.

Mr Kelly died on August 13, 2018 from tramadol toxicity combined with pregablin - neither of which he was prescribed.

State Pathologist Alastair Bentley told the court that Mr Kelly had 6.3mg of tramadol in his blood, which was more than six times the recommended therapeutic level and was a fatal dose.

He said that the effects of this dose included raised blood pressure, increased heart rate, respiratory depression and ultimately death.

In her evidence, Mr Kelly's mother told the court that her son was very open with her about his addiction and she knew he bought pregablin and diazepam from drug dealers once a fortnight.

On the Thursday before he died, she said he bought these drugs from a dealer but not the one he regularly used.

She said her son took all the drugs on the day he bought them which was usual for him and that he was "in good form".

The court heard how Mr Kelly was at home on the Saturday before he passed away and had drunk 12 tins of beer before going out. He later returned to his parents' house after 11pm.

I wish people would learn from my son's death, I wish children would say 'no' to drugs Margaret Kelly

Mrs Kelly said her son's appearance had changed completely and that it was "clear he had taken something" because his "eyes were rolling in his head, he was totally confused and shaking to the point where he had to be helped to bed".

Mrs Kelly said she begged her son to go to the hospital the following morning, but he refused and denied he had taken any additional drugs.

The court heard that Mrs Kelly and her husband Michael cared for their son all through the Sunday and into the Sunday night, but when Mrs Kelly went to check on her son early the following morning she knew he needed urgent medical help and rang 999.

Mrs Kelly said her son was lying half out of the bed with his eyes rolling and when she went over to lift him, he looked at her and said "Mammy".

Despite Michael Kelly's attempts to resuscitate his son, he passed away.

Mrs Kelly cried in court as she said: "I wish people would learn from my son's death, I wish children would say 'no' to drugs.

"They are no good, they will kill you.

"I would urge parents to watch for the signs their children are taking drugs and I urge the drug dealers to stop killing people's children.

"Drug dealers think tablets do no harm to children. I know my son was 28 but he wasn't always 28.",

Coroner Paddy McGurgan thanked Mrs Kelly for her bravery in speaking out and said he hoped her words might save someone else's life.

Mr McGurgan said Mr Kelly had been an otherwise fit and healthy young man but his death was "yet again a complete waste of a life due to drugs".

He said that while there is no one answer to tackling drugs, tackling addiction "might be a good place to start".
Rory McKinney, the chief deputy of the Midland County Sheriffs Office and a candidate for sheriff, released a statement on his campaigns Facebook page that denies any wrongdoing in relation to a lawsuit alleging federal wiretap violations.

McKinney is named in a lawsuit that was filed on Feb. 18. The lawsuit also names Sheriff Richard Gillette and Midland County as defendants in the case. It alleges the defendants violated the Federal Wiretap Act and the Texas Wiretap Act.

While I recognize the freedom our country provides for people to petition our courts to correct wrongs, I categorically deny any wrongdoing doing in this matter, McKinney wrote.

RELATED: Employee files lawsuit against MCSO

An MCSO employee alleges that her phone calls were intercepted and recorded at least 262 times over a three-month period, according to a copy of the lawsuit.

McKinney wrote that because of the pending litigation, I must follow my counsels advice and thus, cannot address the allegations or my responses to them at this time.

He added, I can say that I am confident that the voters of Midland County are smart enough to recognize the timing of this lawsuit against me is more than just a coincidence especially since the plaintiff had the information about which she complains in her possession for more than four months before she filed. Again, filing the case on the first day of early voting speaks volumes as to the true motives of the plaintiff.

McKinney is running for the Republican nomination for sheriff against David Criner, Tom Hain and Joe Lozano. Early voting ends today; Election Day is Tuesday.

Here is the Facebook post in its entirety.

As you may know, a civil lawsuit was filed against me last week.

While I recognize the freedom our country provides for people to petition our courts to correct wrongs, I categorically deny any wrongdoing doing in this matter. Because of the pending litigation, I must follow my counsels advice and thus, cannot address the allegations or my responses to them at this time.

RELATED: MCSO confirms Rangers are conducting additional investigation

However, I can say that I am confident that the voters of Midland County are smart enough to recognize the timing of this lawsuit against me is more than just a coincidence especially since the plaintiff had the information about which she complains in her possession for more than four months before she filed. Again, filing the case on the first day of early voting speaks volumes as to the true motives of the plaintiff. I look forward to timely responding to the complaint and my day in court.
Activa International Insurance Ghana (AIIG) has, on Wednesday, 26 February 2020, at the British Council in Accra, launched an online insurance system aimed at driving client-focused innovation by facilitating all insurance needs.



With the digitization of the world and introduction of Insurance Technology (InsureTech), it has become relevant that AIIG tap into this ready market especially as they make strides to reach the retail and SME market.



Speaking at the launch, the Vice-Chairman of Activa International Insurance, Mr. Steve Kyerematen said, the Activa Online Platform is in three parts, which include; a web portal i.e. www.activa-ghana.com , a mobile app (active insurance app) and a USSD code *713*313#. It is designed to guarantee easy access to Activa Insurance products like motor insurance, travel, personal accident and home insurance to the companys teaming customers. He added that one could also lodge a claim online and track it. He assured that simple claims would receive same-day settlement while clients can track complicated claims online.



Mr. Kyerematen explained that the system is designed with their customers in mind such that one could have access to insurance premium finance instantly during the quotation and purchase process.



The company aims to make purchasing insurance easy and simple for the customer. Activa Online gives 360 degrees access to insurance. Customers can get quotes, purchase insurance, make payments online and receive insurance documentation at the click of a button with access to instant claims management service, he concluded.



Launching the Activa Online Platform, the Deputy Commissioner of Insurance  Mr. Michael Kofi Andoh said the National Insurance Commission of Ghana has recently introduced the new Motor Insurance Database (MiD) as part of its digitalization drive and the desire to increase insurance penetration, stop undercutting and stop the incidence of fake insurance stickers on our market.



We hold the view that what we are witnessing today by Activa International Insurance is a step in the right direction, an example worth emulating by other players in the Ghanaian insurance industry as this, I believe, would be a simple plug-in into the National Insurance Commissions motor insurance database. Mr. Kofi Andoh emphasized.



DSP Charles Kwakye, on behalf of the Director-General of the Police MTTD, endorsed the Activa Online platform and hoped that it would assist his outfit to detect fake insurance covers on our roads.



In his closing remarks, the Managing Director of Activa International Insurance, Mr. Solomon Lartey assured the Deputy Commissioner of Insurance and the gathering that their online platform is 100% compliant with regulatory requirements and is also in line with the regulators digitalization drive and the desire to stem undercutting and fake insurance stickers and policies on the market.



He revealed that another facet of the Activa Online Platforms is the Insurance Premium Finance feature, which allows customers to access finance for the immediate payment of premiums in line with the National Insurance Commissions no premium no cover directive. The Activa Online platforms are all directly integrated with the NICs motor insurance system. Thus, this Activa online system is the most authentic, transparent and compliant motor underwriting system on the Ghanaian market.



ACTIVA International Insurance Ghana is CIMG Non-Life Insurance Company of the Year (CIMG Awards 2017 & 2018), Insurance Company of the Year (Ghana Accountancy and Finance Awards 2018) and International Insurance Company of the Year (Ghana Quality Service Excellence Awards 2017). Activa is a member of Ghana Club 100.

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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As politicians parrot far-right narratives, it is important to remind Germans of the ills of ethnic hatred.

On February 19, a far-right extremist went on a shooting spree in the German city of Hanau, targeting customers at two separate shisha lounges.

He killed nine people and injured five others. Every victim of the attack had a migrant background.

It was soon revealed that the 43-year-old assailant, named Tobias R, left behind a series of rambling texts and videos in which he advocated white supremacist views and called for genocide. German authorities said the attacker showed signs of a deeply racist mentality.

The apparent white-supremacist motivations behind the attack did not come as a surprise to anyone who has been watching the rapid mainstreaming of racist views and ideologies in Germany.

Indeed, since the rise of the far-right, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to prominence in the 2017 general election, the racist claim that Germany is facing a Muslim invasion and that political elites are refusing to take action to stop this has moved from far-right fringes to the political mainstream.

Seemingly centre-right politicians who felt threatened by the increasing popularity of the AfD started to pander to these anti-immigrant, Islamophobic views for political gain, allowing far-right narratives to dominate political discussions.

This empowered racist individuals to become more vocal and take action to facilitate the rebirth of Germany as an ethnically homogenous, white nation.

Despite the AfDs attempts to paint the Hanau shootings as a one-off tragedy perpetrated by a mentally unstable individual, the attack was the direct result of German societys growing acceptance of racist, discriminatory and exclusionist views. Prior to last weeks tragedy, Germany witnessed a string of similar attacks, including the assassination of pro-immigration German politician Walter Luebcke by a far-right sympathiser in June last year and the deadly shooting that took place outside a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle in October.

It is, however, not too late to reverse this worrying trend. Germany can still be a multicultural success story where immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers from around the world live in harmony with the native population. But to achieve this, the German authorities need to treat the Hanau attack as a wakeup call and fundamentally change their attitudes towards the far right.

Recognising past failures, listening to concerned voices

In the aftermath of the attack, prominent German politicians were quick to acknowledge and denounce the racist motivations behind it.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, Racism is a poison  and is responsible for too many crimes in this country. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, meanwhile, expressed his grief and added that he stands by all people who are threatened by racist hatred in Germany.

The German leaderships admission that the attack was not a stand-alone act by a mentally ill person is a step in the right direction. Nevertheless, if Germany wants to make amends with its migrant populations and make them trust the German state authorities again, they need to take a step further and acknowledge that their past failures have contributed to the situation.

Indeed, the attack in Hanau did not come out of the blue. Migrant organisations, NGOs, and perhaps most importantly, politicians of migrant backgrounds, such as the Green Partys Cem Ozdemir and the Social Democratic Partys Sawsan Chebli repeatedly warned the German authorities of the growing threat of far-right terrorism in Germany.

The German leadership should admit that these warnings fell on deaf ears and promise to listen to the concerns of targeted groups in the future. Sincere apologies coming from people in positions of power will undoubtedly help migrant and minority communities heal, nevertheless, these communities can only start truly feeling at home again in Germany if they know that their leaders are listening to their concerns and taking appropriate action.

Law and Order for, not against, the immigrant population

To put a stop to the mainstreaming of racism in Germany and prevent attacks like the one we witnessed in Hanau, the German authorities also need to re-evaluate their anti-crime policies. For too long, German politicians have been promoting policies that feed into the far-right narratives that cast all Muslim immigrants as outlaws who overwhelmingly participate in organised crime.

For example, in January last year, more than 1,300 police officers were deployed in coordinated raids targeting family crime clans of Arabic background in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Police spokesman Oliver Peiler told reporters that the raids were targeting shisha bars, particularly because such establishments often act as sanctuaries for members of these family clans. The states Minister of the Interior, Herbert Reul, then doubled down on the claim, saying, Shisha bars are the grounds of clan criminality.

There is no doubt that some criminal gangs establish shisha bars and some criminals visit these establishments regularly. But criminals also run and visit coffee houses, night clubs, restaurants and shops.

By singling out shisha bars, which are overwhelmingly enjoyed by members of Muslim migrant communities, as grounds of clan criminality German politicians and security forces contribute to far-right prejudices. It is not far-fetched to assume Tobias R was influenced by these portrayals of shisha bars as he chose the target of his attack.

Criminal gangs harm everyone living in Germany, including immigrant communities. The German state has a responsibility to establish law and order in the country, but it needs to do so without criminalising thousands of innocent people and pandering to racist tropes.

Stop mimicking the far right

These days in Germany the political centre is rapidly accomodating the far-right. The AfD is not only growing in popularity, but also making centrist parties and politicians who are scared of losing votes start promoting aggressively anti-immigrant, and even racist, policies. Heated debates on immigration and integration are benefiting the far-right.

This, however, does not need to be the case.

Centrist parties can listen to the concerns of the German population about immigration without adopting far-right narratives and policies. They did this in 1993 when they introduced new criteria for political asylum claims in the country, known as the Asylum Compromise. The compromise helped reassure the public that Germanys immigration policies were not being abused without putting genuine asylum claimants in harms way. With this compromise, centrist parties succeeded in ending the growing influence of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) without moving their programmes further towards the far-right fringes and managed to stop the radicalisation of political debates.

Centrist political parties can repeat this move today. Immigrants and minorities are more active in politics in Germany than they had ever been. With their participation, Germany can draw an inclusive and progressive immigration policy that would also address the native populations concerns about immigration  a compromise that embraces both (conservative) native and immigrant perspectives without delving into partisan or ethnic tribalism.

What politicians need to do is not parrot far-right narratives to protect their vote share but present an acceptable way forward for all Germans, while reminding the German society of the ills of racism, xenophobia and ethnic hatred. If not, further bitterness between the natives and the immigrants in the form of ethnic and racist polarisation would likely unfold.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.
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Linkedin Ardila Syakriah and Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020

Saudi Arabias decision to temporarily halt all umrah (minor haj) pilgrimages amid fears of a coronavirus outbreak shocked hundreds of Indonesian pilgrims who were left in uncertainty at airports and forced to cancel their journeys on Thursday.

Among the pilgrims was Suyato, 59, from Tangerang, Banten, who told The Jakarta Post in tears that he had only learned about the ban upon his arrival at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at midday on Thursday.

Suyato, his wife Mujirah and his umrah group of 33 other pilgrims were initially scheduled to fly to Saudi Arabia at 1.30 p.m., only to be told by his travel agent that the trip would be canceled.

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Harbor Springs school board authorizes May bond proposal

During Monday's meeting, the board unanimously adopted a resolution to authorize the bonding proposal, with the election scheduled for Tuesday, May 3.
Bhubaneswar: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday (February 28) chaired the 24th Eastern Zonal Council Meeting (EZC) in Bhubaneswar - the capital of Odisha. Chief Ministers of Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand - Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee and Hemant Soren respectively- are participating in the meeting.

The meeting is being hosted by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, according to officials.

According to the Home Ministry, the meeting will deliberate on nearly four dozen issues which inter alia include inter-state water issues, power transmission lines, royalty on and operationalisation of coals mines, land and forest clearances of rail projects, investigation of heinous offences, cattle smuggling across country`s borders, lack of telecom and banking infrastructure in remote areas, petroleum projects, sharing pattern on centrally collected revenues etc.

The last meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council was last held in Kolkata on October 1, 2018.

Meanwhile, on his two-day visit to Odisha beginning today, Shah is also scheduled to address a rally in Bhubaneshwar and meet state leaders to discuss a strategy to strengthen the BJP in the region.

According to information, the Home Minister will also address a rally today at Baramunda Field on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a law that has been causing protests across several parts of the country ever since its passage by Parliament in December last year.
The Wyoming state legislature last week passed a measure banning the University of Wyoming from covering elective abortions under its student health insurance plans.

Republican state representative Chuck Gray led the push to ban taxpayer-funded coverage of elective abortions at the university in the form of a budget amendment prohibiting any general funds, federal funds or other funds under [the schools] control from being funneled to elective abortions. The amendment does not prohibit coverage of the procedure in cases of rape or incest, which are both currently covered by the university.

The push to end taxpayer-funded coverage of elective abortions came after a 2018 report from The College Fix that quoted a school official detailing how the student insurance plans for domestic and international students cover both medically necessary and elective abortion.

We have passed a House and a Senate amendment to the budget that stopped the taxpayer subsidization of abortion at the University of Wyoming, Gray told The College Fix. That means the conference committee being appointed to consider the budget cant change or remove that amendment. So it will be in the final budget.

The only hurdle is the governor, Gray said.

The school said it plans to alter its United Healthcare student health insurance plans to remove abortion coverage should the budget amendment take effect.

The move was criticized by another GOP state legislator, Representative Patrick Sweeney, who argued that the abortion funding ban was an overreach of the budget given that it also bans other funds held by the school from covering abortions. Those other funds are payments from students who choose to buy into the insurance plans, and the university is the middle man.

However, Gray argued the separation of funds is fuzzier than some argue.

Through the state block grant, the state has been subsidizing the coverage of elective abortion in the student plan, Gray said. This budget has almost $450 million in state support for the University of Wyoming. Our state should not be subsidizing abortion.

Story continues

The Wyoming decision comes as other states have pushed for more abortion coverage at public universities. In December, Californias Democratic governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation mandating that public colleges and universities provide students with chemical-abortion pills at no cost, the first state to do so.

More from National Review
ANKARA (Reuters) - The Turkish army is retaliating with artillery fire at Syrian government targets in Syria after an airstrike killed 22 Turkish soldiers in the northwestern Idlib province, two Turkish security officials said on Friday.

ANKARA (Reuters) - The Turkish army is retaliating with artillery fire at Syrian government targets in Syria after an airstrike killed 22 Turkish soldiers in the northwestern Idlib province, two Turkish security officials said on Friday.

"All known" Syrian government targets are under fire by Turkish air and land support units, Turkey's communications director Fahrettin Altun said separately on Friday, according to state-run Anadolu news agency. Turkey has decided to "respond in kind" to the attack by the Syrian government, Altun added.

(Reporting by Orhan Coskun; Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
DAYTON, Ohio  A former psychologist at a childrens hospital in Dayton is facing 145 federal charges after he was accused of being in possession of child pornography.

According to the Ohio Attorney Generals Office, Dr. Gregory Ramey, 70, of Beavercreek, Ohio, is charged with 90 counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material, 27 counts of pandering obscenity involving a minor, 25 counts of attempted pandering sexually-oriented matter involving a minor, and three counts of tampering with evidence. All are felonies.

The Dayton Daily News reports Ramey was a longtime and well-known psychologist at Dayton Childrens Hospital. The Daily News said Ramey often spoke out about child endangerment and exploitation.

This egregious abuse of the patients trust, not to mention the publics trust, from a doctor is gut-wrenchingly horrible, Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement. Young children are innocent, sweet and trusting  vulnerably fragile and in need of special protection.

Investigators say Ramey was identified as the source of electronic downloads of child pornography. The activity was reported to the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which notified local authorities. Yost tells the Daily News that there are more than 40 victims.

The Attorney Generals Office says Dayton Childrens Hospital immediately placed Ramey on administrative leave when it learned of the allegations, then fired him in August. He had worked at the hospital since 1979, according to the Daily News. The AGs office says the hospital has fully cooperated with the investigation.

In a statement released to the Daily News, hospital officials say they were blindsided by the charges against Ramey.

Nothing in the performance of his professional role created any suspicions, the statement says. "We are shocked and deeply troubled by these allegations, which are in stark contrast to our mission and core values. To be clear, the charges do not include any activity at Dayton Childrens, nor was any inappropriate material found on or accessed via Dayton Childrens devices.

Greene County court records show Ramey is being held in jail on a $500,000 bond, the Daily News reports.

More crime-related content on cleveland.com:

Two children hospitalized in Cleveland fire after mother left them home alone, police say

Man accused of shooting at Akron men during botched robbery of ATV being sold via OfferUp in Cleveland

Armed robber lured man to Clevelands East Side by listing iPhone for sale on letgo, records say

Catcallers beat Cleveland man unconscious with baseball bat after he confronted them for harassing his girlfriend, police say

Former Cleveland boxer sentenced to prison for laundering drug money through West Side real estate

Two teenage girls Cleveland pastor paid for sex were part of child sex trafficking ring, prosecutor says
Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr in Back To The Future

Tom Holland has revealed that talks have been held about a Back To The Future remake.

The 23-year-old made this shocking revelation after he was asked by BBCs Ali Plumb about the recent viral deep fake video that saw his and Robert Downey Jrs faces super-imposed into a scene from Back To The Future, with Holland playing Michael J Foxs Marty McFly and his Marvel co-star taking on Christoper Lloyds Dr Emmett Brown.

Read more: Deepfake casts Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland in Back to the Future

Id be lying if I said there hadnt been conversations in the past about doing some sort of remake, admitted Holland, who then quickly explained why any potential remake would be close to impossible to make. But that film is the most perfect film - or one of the most perfect films, one that could never be made better.

However, Holland is clearly interested in playing McFly in some capacity, as he added, That said, if [Robert Downey Jr.] and I could just shoot that one scene that they remade for fun - he could pay for it cause hes got loads of money - I would do it for my fee and we could remake that scene.

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 25: Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland attend the "Dolittle" special screening at Cineworld Leicester Square on January 25, 2020 in London, England. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)

I think we owe it to deep fake because they did such a good job.  I think Im gonna speak to Robert and see if we can try to recreate something for deep fake.

Hollands comments are very much at odds with Back To The Future writer Bob Gales recent remarks about a potential remake, as the 68-year-old immediately dismissed this idea by empathically declaring, You know, you don't sell your kids into prostitution.

Read More: 'Back to the Future' writer Bob Gale says no to reboot: 'You don't sell your kids into prostitution'

Gale also told the BBC, "We learn from the fact that so many studios have gone back to the well on some of their franchise properties too many times, and the audiences are disappointed and say: 'Oh my God, they ruined my childhood.' We don't want to ruin anybody's childhood.
On 60 Minutes Karl Stefanovic speaks to Chanel Miller, once known better as Emily Doe, the woman who was sexually assaulted on the campus of Stanford University in 2015.

The Principals Principal

On 60 Minutes, a lesson in what not to do if youre a parent with a beef against the principal of your kids school: Dont become a keyboard warrior and spray hurtful adjectives on social media. Because if you do, be prepared to be sued. Today a Queensland judge found that some parents who posted online about the principal of Tamborine Mountain High School south of Brisbane had slandered her, and were ordered to pay damages. But as Sarah Abo discovers, despite the ruling this case  which is about to enter its fifth year  is so full of bitterness and belligerence not even the class dunce would think its over.

Reporter: Sarah Abo

Producers: Gareth Harvey, Naomi Shivaraman

Know My Name

Coronavirus might be the biggest news at the moment, but theres another disease in society thats not far behind. Its the scourge of sexual misconduct and violence against women, and as disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has just found out, being powerful, rich or famous is no longer a get-out-of-jail-free card. Before the Me Too movement, Chanel Miller was fighting her own incredible battle. She went to a party at a prestigious university, thinking it would be safe and expecting to have a good time. Late in the evening a student, well-known because he also happened to be a champion athlete, sexually assaulted and then discarded her behind a dumpster. To add to the insult, the attacker was barely punished for his crime. Chanel, although devastated, vowed to fight back, with a strength she didnt know she had. But as Karl Stefanovic, on assignment for 60 Minutes, reports, Chanel Miller not only had to take on her attacker  she also had to battle a broken system which, far from supporting her, tried to make her disappear.

Reporter: Karl Stefanovic

Producer: Joel Tozer

8:30pm Sunday on Nine.
Baghdad, Feb 28 : Iraq has announced a new case of novel coronavirus disease in the country's northern province of Kirkuk, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Middle Eastern country to seven.

A statement by the Iraqi Health Ministry on Thursday said that it has detected a new case of coronavirus for an Iraqi man, 51, who returned earlier to Iraq from neighboring Iran. After being transferred to a hospital, he was tested positive and was kept in quarantine in accordance with the international procedures, Xinhua reported.

Earlier in the day, a ministry statement announced a case of novel coronavirus for an Iraqi young man in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, who was also returned to Baghdad from neighboring Iran.

Recently, the Iraqi authorities have been taking a series of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus after cases of the disease were confirmed earlier in the provinces of Najaf and Kirkuk.
ABUJA, Nigeria - Nigerian authorities on Friday confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa as the outbreak spread to a region with some of the world's weakest health systems.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

People walk inside the Yaba Mainland hospital compound where the first Nigerian victims of the COVID-19 virus are being treated in Lagos Nigeria Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Nigeria's health authorities have reported the country's first case of a new coronavirus in Lagos, the first confirmed appearance of the disease in sub-Saharan Africa. (Photo/ Sunday Alamba)

ABUJA, Nigeria - Nigerian authorities on Friday confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa as the outbreak spread to a region with some of the world's weakest health systems.

The health commissioner for Lagos, Africa's largest city with more than 20 million people, said an Italian citizen who entered Nigeria on Tuesday from Milan on a business trip fell ill the next day. Commissioner Akin Abayomi said the man was clinically stable with no serious symptoms.

Abayomi said officials were working to identify all of the man's contacts in Nigeria. The Italian had travelled on Turkish Airlines to Istanbul and then to Lagos, according to health authorities. Lagos state early this month advised people arriving from virus-affected areas to observe 14 days of self-quarantine.

I have seen him this morning, he is in high spirits, said Dr. Bowale Abimbola, medical director of the hospital where the 44-year-old Italian was brought with body aches and fever. He is doing well and we expect that he will continue to do well.

Nigerian health authorities urged Lagos residents to take measures such as keeping their distance from people who cough and washing their hands regularly.

Cases of the virus also were confirmed in Egypt and Algeria in north Africa in recent days. Until then, some global health experts had expressed surprise that no cases had been reported in Africa.

Concerns about the virus spreading to countries with weaker health systems led the World Health Organization to declare the outbreak a global health emergency last month. WHO officials in Africa have warned that health systems could be overwhelmed.

Nigeria is one of 13 African countries classified by the WHO as high priority in this outbreak because of direct links to China or a high number of visitors from there.

A woman wearing a face mask walks at the Yaba Mainland hospital where the first Nigerian victims of the COVID-19 virus are being treated in Lagos Nigeria Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Nigeria's health authorities have reported the country's first case of a new coronavirus in Lagos, the first confirmed appearance of the disease in sub-Saharan Africa. (AP Photo/ Sunday Alamba)

That Nigeria's first case came from overseas and wasn't person-to-person transmission inside Africa shows that the Nigerian government had the right systems in place to detect and confirm this case, Trudie Lang, director of The Global Health Network at the Nuffield Department of Medicine and the University of Oxford, said in a statement.

But detection of further cases in Africa will be challenging as more inexpensive testing kits are needed for on-the-spot diagnosis, Lang added.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has hurried to train its 54 member countries in testing for the virus. Just two countries had the capability at the beginning of this month. Now more than two dozen have it, including Nigeria.

Africa Centers for Disease Control has deployed an epidemiologist to Nigeria and shipped 1,000 additional testing kits, according to Africa CDC director Dr. John Nkengasong.

Nigeria is well capacitated to respond to the outbreak, he said. Africa CDC had anticipated that COVID-19 outbreak would inevitably impact Africa and has been working actively with African Union Member States and partners on preparedness and response to the disease in the continent. 

Most African airlines with direct flights to China quickly suspended them, and countries activated surveillance and quarantine measures.

Many had experience with trying to prevent the spread of the devastating West Africa Ebola outbreak that ended in 2016. Global health experts point to that as a sign of preparedness in this outbreak. The Africa CDC was created in response to the Ebola outbreak, and many countries established public health institutes.

Nigeria was praised for quickly containing cases when the Ebola outbreak reached there in 2014 after an infected man from Liberia landed in Lagos. Nineteen people were infected and seven died, but officials were praised for effective public awareness campaigns.

The Ebola outbreak taught us a lot of lessons, the director of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, Chikwe Ihekweazu, wrote in a commentary for The Conversation last month. As of December, all 36 of Nigeria's states had a rapid response team in case of a disease outbreak, he wrote, and 22 states had emergency operations centres.

Nigeria is also currently dealing with an outbreak of Lassa fever  an indication of the health challenges that many African nations face.

With the new virus case announced in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country with 190 million people and numerous air links around the continent and beyond, other nations warned of possible spread.

Given these recent developments globally and in Africa, it is not unlikely that we will have importation of COVID-19 to South Africa, that country's National Institute for Communicable Diseases said.

Separately, South Africa said two citizens who had been working on the Princess Diamond cruise ship have the virus and will stay in Japan for treatment. South Africa said it was informed by Japanese authorities Tuesday after the quarantine on the ship ended.

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In a separate statement, South Africa said it planned to evacuate more than 130 citizens from China's Wuhan city where the outbreak began. It did not say when that would happen.

South Africa is the first major country in sub-Saharan Africa to evacuate its citizens, while thousands of African students remain stranded. Several governments have said it's safer to stay in place and not risk spreading the virus back home.

In Kenya, the High Court on Friday ruled that all 239 passengers who arrived Thursday on a China Southern Airlines flight should be found and quarantined at a military facility until declared virus-free. The case was brought by the Law Society of Kenya and others amid a public outcry. The court also suspended all flights from China for 10 days.

Separately, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered that a national isolation and treatment facility be completed within a week.

___

Anna reported from Johannesburg. AP journalists Danica Kirka in London, Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal and Tom Odula in Nairobi contributed.
[February 28, 2020] Behrooz Abdi to step down as InvenSense CEO and General Manager of TDK's MEMS Sensors Business Group, Amir Panush appointed as his successor

TDK Corporation (TSE: 6762) announces that effective April 1, 2020 Mr. Behrooz Abdi will step down as CEO of InvenSense, Inc. and General Manager of TDK Corporation's MEMS Sensors Business Group. Mr. Abdi will continue to provide his expertise and insights in the role of Chief Strategy Officer for the Sensor System Business Company (SSBC) of TDK Corporation. In this role, Mr. Abdi will advise SSBC and TDK Corporation on strategic issues, including business models and long-term direction. Amir Panush (News - Alert) has been appointed as the new InvenSense CEO and General Manager of TDK's MEMS Sensors Business Group and will work closely with Mr. Abdi during the transition. Mr. Panush is a senior executive veteran with over 20 years in the semiconductor industry with demonstrated expertise in leading cutting-edge technologies in SoCs, wireless, RF and sensors. He brings to the role a comprehensive understanding of market trends in the consumer, IoT and automotive technology sectors. Mr. Panush joined InvenSense Corporate Development in 2015 from Qualcomm (News - Alert), where he ran the IoT embedded connectivity business. Prior to that, Mr. Panush led the automotive business at Atheros, a leading WLAN SoC company. Since joining InvenSense, Mr. Panush has held the roles of GM of the Motion and Pressure Business Unit (MPBU), Chief Operating Officer and Deputy GM. "For the past year, Amir has led the largest business units of InvenSense, as well as all infrastructure functions for the TDK MEMS Business Group. He has helped not only revitalize the business and customer wins, but has also inserted operational discipline into the company, in order to drive future profitability," stated Behrooz Abdi. "I am very confident that Amir is the right leader to take the MEMS Sensor business at TDK to great new heights. I also look forward to helping TDK in its strategic direction in the next phase of the company." "I'm grateful for what Behrooz has accomplished, together transforming InvenSense from a single product company with rapid growth in the mobile phone market, through multiple M&A's, the acquisition and integration by TDK, andthe start of the re-growth as a diversified MEMS system business with world class MEMS, System on Chip (SoC) and software expertise," said Amir Panush. "I am excited to lead the best MEMS sensor team in the industry, as we continue on an aggressive growth path in the next phase of TDK's MEMS sensor business. I look forward to working with Behrooz in both our new roles."



About TDK Corporation TDK Corporation is a leading electronics company based in Tokyo, Japan. It was established in 1935 to commercialize ferrite, a key material in electronic and magnetic products. TDK's comprehensive portfolio features passive components such as ceramic, aluminum electrolytic and film capacitors, as well as magnetics, high-frequency, and piezo and protection devices. The product spectrum also includes sensors and sensor systems such as temperature and pressure, magnetic, and MEMS sensors. In addition, TDK provides power supplies and energy devices, magnetic heads and more. These products are marketed under the product brands TDK, Chirp, EPCOS, InvenSense, Micronas, Tronics and TDK-Lambda. TDK focuses on demanding markets in the areas of information and communication technology and automotive, industrial and consumer electronics. The company has a network of design and manufacturing locations and sales offices in Asia, Europe, and in North and South America. In fiscal 2019, TDK posted total sales of USD 12.5 billion and employed about 105,000 people worldwide.

About InvenSense InvenSense, Inc., a TDK Group company, is a world leading provider of MEMS sensor platforms. InvenSense's vision of Sensing Everything targets the consumer electronics and industrial areas with integrated Motion, Sound, and Ultrasonic solutions. InvenSense's solutions combine MEMS (micro electrical mechanical systems) sensors, such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, compasses, microphones, and ultrasonic 3D-sensing with proprietary algorithms and firmware that intelligently process, synthesize, and calibrate the output of sensors, maximizing performance and accuracy. InvenSense's motion tracking, ultrasonic, audio, fingerprint, location platforms and services can be found in Mobile, Wearables, Smart Home, Industrial, Automotive, and IoT products. InvenSense became part of the MEMS Sensors Business Group within the newly formed Sensor Systems Business Company of TDK Corporation in 2017. In February of 2018, Chirp Microsystems joined the InvenSense family through its acquisition by TDK. InvenSense is headquartered in San Jose, California and has offices worldwide. For more information, go to www.invensense.com. You can download this text from http://www.invensense.tdk.com/news-media/behrooz-abdi-to-step-down-as-invensense-ceo-and-general-manager-of-tdks-mems-sensors-business-group-amir-panush-appointed-as-his-successor View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005110/en/

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The weight of Texas on the Democratic presidential primary is clear as nearly every major White House contender heads to the state during the crucial final days leading up to Tuesdays election.

Four days after U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders barnstormed through the state, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Mike Bloomberg were in San Antonio and Houston respectively on Thursday trying to drive last-minute early votes to the polls.

For decades, the Texas primary was often too far back in the calendar to garner much attention. In other years, the race was already down to a couple of candidates.

While 14 states will be voting on Super Tuesday, Texas has triggered outsized attention because its 228 delegates dwarf what most other states have to offer and public polling suggests its anyone guess who will win. While California is also voting on Super Tuesday, polling shows Sanders with a commanding lead. In Texas, the latest polls show the top five contenders separated by just 9 percentage points.

Here we are, San Antonio, Warren said to a roar from 1,700 people at Sunset Station in San Antonio. Im here to fight for an America that doesnt just work for those at the top, but works for everyone.

Warren said if Democrats are going to beat President Donald Trump in November, they need a candidate like her who can offer big structural changes and not just incremental change in America. And she added that while Sanders has great ideas, shes proven shes better at getting things accomplished in D.C. compared to him.

In Houston earlier in the day, Bloomberg made the case that hes still the best candidate in the field to beat President Donald Trump in the fall because he tangled with Trump when he was mayor of New York City.

I know how to play against Donald Trump, Bloomberg said. I know how to beat him, and Im ready to do it again.

Warren is back in Houston on Saturday. On Sunday, California businessman Tom Steyer is in Houston, former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg is in Dallas, and Bloomberg will be back in San Antonio.

On Monday, it will be former Vice President Joe Bidens turn as he campaigns in Houston and Dallas.

This is our moment, said Texas Democratic Party chairman Gilberto Hinojosa.

This year, Hinojosa said the state has a chance to make a huge difference in the outcome of the Democratic presidential primary.

Texas is the pathway to the nomination and every presidential campaign realizes it, Hinojosa said.

More Information PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES SWARM TEXAS LAST WEEKEND Bernie Sanders in El Paso, San Antonio, Houston and Austin THURSDAY Mike Bloomberg in Houston Elizabeth Warren in San Antonio SATURDAY Elizabeth Warren in Houston SUNDAY Pete Buttigieg in Dallas Mike Bloomberg in San Antonio MONDAY Joe Biden in Houston and Dallas Tom Steyer in Houston TUESDAY Election Day See More Collapse

In a University of Houston poll released earlier this week, Sanders and Biden were tied for the lead, just three points ahead of Warren.

Democratic rules will award a share of Texas delegates to any candidate who gets at least 15 percent of the vote. That means Texas could give out enough delegates to revive campaigns struggling after the first four states or add to Sanders early lead in the battle for the Democratic nomination.

Going into Saturday, Sanders led the delegate battle with an estimated 46 to Buttigiegs 26. Joe Biden is in third with 15 but is expected to get a boost in South Carolina, which votes on Saturday.

The attention on Texas can only boost turnout, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor. He said when states move up the primaries, it winds up exciting voters, which is what Texas is seeing.

Its causing a lot more voter engagement, he said.

Early voting numbers appear to bear that out. In the five biggest counties in Texas, Democrats are turning out in much larger numbers than they did at the same point in 2016  the last presidential election cycle when Hillary Clinton was still battling Sanders. Through the first nine days of early voting, Harris County has had 86,000 ballots through early voting or absentee balloting. In 2016, there had been just under 54,000 votes. In Bexar County, nearly 59,000 have already voted, compared to 36,000 four years ago.

The 1988 Democratic primary is the last time the state had this many candidates still alive in the primary battling for Texas. While many expected the state to be a key battleground for more moderate Democrats at the time, like then-U.S. Sen. Al Gore and former House Speaker Dick Gephardt, it was the more liberal candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who would win 34 percent of the vote to carry Texas.

Republicans arent sweating all the Democratic attention this year. Trump has visited Texas 14 times since he became president and his campaign is already engaging withsupporters to make sure they are ready to turn out against whoever survives the Democratic primary.

Texas Republican Party Chairman James Dickey said the attention is putting on full display policies that he says helps Republicans make the case the Democrats are too dangerous to the state and its economy. He said their energy and health care policies would ruin the economy.

If given the chance, the Democratic presidential candidates would lead Texas and our nation to ruin, Dickey said.

But for Democrats like Julian Castro, its all a moment to behold for Texas Democrats as national Democrats compete vigorously to win over Texans and try to address the issues most important to the state. He said while hes backing Warren after his own presidential campaign ended last month, he is happy to see all of the candidates making Texas a priority.

Were in the middle of the action in Texas, Castro said.

No candidate has spent more time in Texas in the last six weeks than Bloomberg. Hes now made four stops just in Houston since the start of the year.

This is my fourth visit to Houston since Christmas, so its getting like, this is my home away from home, Bloomberg said.

Just two weeks ago, Bloomberg used Houston as the backdrop to deliver his most extensive apology yet to minority voters for employing a policy called stop and frisk in New York City, which targeted black and Hispanic residents for random pat downs.

Warrens getting a big assist from Castro in Texas. Starting Saturday, the former San Antonio mayor will make seven stops over two days around the state pitching for Warren with a particular focus on the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas.

Hours before her appearance Thursday, Warren released a border plan that would eliminate the 100-mile zone, or what Warren calls a constitution-free zone, an area 100 miles inland from the U.S. borders that gives Border Patrol agents expanded authority to enter private property and conduct stops and searches of private citizens. It also requires Customs and Border Protection agents to wear body cameras.

Its time to rein in CBP, she said.

The Massachusetts senator vowed to reduce cross-border wait times at ports of entry by opening more pedestrian and vehicular lanes, ending the deployment of military officers to the border and limiting aspects of the law that allow the government to waive environmental regulations for a border wall.

During her speech in San Antonio, Warren emphasized that the economy is not working for everyone in America and pointed specifically to the minimum wage, which she said used to be enough to support a family.

Today, a full-time minimum wage job in America will not keep a mama and her baby out of poverty and that is wrong, and that is why I am in this fight, she said.

Warren wasnt afraid to take on oil companies, despite being in Texas. She said while the government is working well for them, it doesnt work for the rest of the country.

It is a government that works great for oil companies that want to drill everywhere, Warren said. Its just not working for the rest of us who see climate change bearing down upon us.

Staff writers Jasper Scherer and Silvia Foster-Frau contributed to this report.
February 28 : The nostalgic Valentine days could be over for many of us, but the love bugs are working magic in the Kriti Kharbandas life. She is truly in love and never minds sharing her cute PDA moments with her beau Pulkit Samrat. The two have been seen in a number of public functions together and they have been very open about their love.

In this latest post, they could be seen smiling away gleefully along with the love of her life, Pulkit. While she wore a strappy pink blouse, golden hoop earrings and left her hair open, Pulkit took on a more dressed up look. He looked super cute in his grey- T-shirt and teamed it up with black sun shades. He too posted the same pic on this Instagram page and called her 'Pretty Kharbanda'. The way Kriti expressed her 'Us', gave fans a huge couple of goals that were truly inspiring.

The two had shared screen space in films like Veerey Ki Wedding, which was released in 2018. After that, they came together in Pagalpanti in 2019, where they acted with Arshad Warsi, Urvashi Rautela, John Abraham, Ileana DCruz and also Anil Kapoor. Soon, they could be seen in Taish which will be a Bejoy Nambiar film.
There are all kinds of reasons to think it would be bad for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to end up as the Democratic nominee. But it would be far worse for the party's superdelegates to deny him the nomination at the Democratic convention in Milwaukee in the event that he ends up the plurality winner in the primaries but fails to cross the majority threshold. That significant numbers of party leaders apparently don't understand this is a very bad sign about what's going to unfold over the coming months.

Believe me, I get it. Sanders, a lifelong self-declared socialist, is at best a nominal Democrat. He has taken positions and said things over the years that would make crafting negative ads for the Trump campaign the easiest job in Republican politics. The faction of the party that's tempted to vote for billionaire Michael Bloomberg might stay home on Nov. 3, or even opt to vote for the president's re-election, when confronted with the prospect of a Democratic nominee who's proposing $53 trillion in new government spending. Sanders' plan for defeating Trump by mobilizing millions of new voters is so far nothing more than a pipe dream with no empirical foundation.

I could go on. Anointing Sanders the Democratic nominee could be very bad. But it wouldn't be as bad as trying to deny him the nomination after he'd won a plurality of the delegates during the primaries. Thinking that the institutional party has the requisite legitimacy and power to pull off such a coup against the plurality winner  especially one with such a large and passionate base of support, and one motivated in part by anger at that very same Democratic establishment  is delusional.

A Democratic Party that nominated Sanders in 2020 could well be defeated. But a Democratic Party that denied him the nomination after he'd won a plurality of the delegates in the primaries would be certain to shatter and nearly guaranteed to lose.

Story continues

This isn't 1968, when Hubert Humphrey could enter the race on April 27, bypass the primaries entirely, and win the nomination simply by garnering support of party bigwigs desperate to hold a fracturing party together. After Humphrey's loss to Richard Nixon that November, the party began the process of dismantling the norms, institutions, and procedures that had made it possible. The result was a far more small-d democratic nomination process that relied much more heavily on primaries to assign delegates to candidates.

The first consequence of this democratization was the nomination four years later of George McGovern, the man who spearheaded the reform. Of course McGovern went on to lose to Nixon in a historic landslide. Since then, the system has worked well enough. The party's voters nominated a moderate (Jimmy Carter) who won the presidency in 1976, liberals who lost in 1984 and 1988, and then swerved toward the center-left in 1992 and has stayed there ever since, with a mix of general-election victories and defeats.

In 2008, the insurgent campaign of Barack Obama used the primary system very skillfully to wrest the nomination away from the candidate favored by a large faction of the party's establishment (Hillary Clinton). Sanders tried something similar in 2016 against Clinton again. This time she managed to prevail by mobilizing overwhelming institutional support on her behalf in a field with just two viable candidates. Despite those advantages, Clinton had to fight all the way through the primary season, with her opponent still managing to win 43 percent of the overall popular vote and 23 out of 57 contests. That was powerful early evidence of deep division among the chunk of the party  the voters  holding the power to decide its presidential nominee.

This year, the division among voters looks far deeper. The frontrunner is the socialist who gave the heir apparent a run for her money the last time around. The institutional party's favored choice, a long-time senator and two-term vice president, is struggling. Another competitive candidate is a former Republican billionaire who dislikes the socialist almost as much as the man each would face in the general election. Another billionaire is looking at a possible second-place double-digit finish in the upcoming South Carolina primary. Finally, three other candidates  two centrist options and one just slightly to the socialist's right  are failing to catch fire but doing just well enough to justify staying in the race and ensuring the field remains deeply divided as we head into Super Tuesday. Add in the party's decision to allocate delegates proportionally and we're left with a situation maximally likely to produce an indecisive outcome.

Looking at this mess and contemplating a fall campaign to defeat a president they despise and consider a serious threat to the future of American democracy, leading members of the institutional party and prominent opinion columnists are understandably distressed. What is not understandable, and frankly downright alarming, is these elites indulging in absurd and destructive fantasies of exerting the kind of control over the outcome that hasn't been possible for half a century.

I'm talking about fantasies of superdelegates denying the nomination to Sanders, even if he comes into the Milwaukee convention with a plurality of pledged delegates, and instead drafting this year's Hubert Humphrey, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, to run in his place. Or persuading Michelle Obama to run as vice president on a ticket led by one of the non-Sanders candidates. Or giving the nomination to some other establishment favorite  like Kamala Harris, Mark Warner, Chris Coons, or Nancy Pelosi  while presumably telling Sanders' supporters to suck it up.

Then there's the most preposterous delusion of all  the one floated by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in a recent op-ed that's been shared well over a thousand times on Facebook. That's the fantasy of forming a "super ticket" led by Sanders or Bloomberg, with nearly every candidate still running, plus a few who already dropped out, plus Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, Admiral William McCraven, and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, joining together into a shadow-Cabinet, which would serve as a "team of rivals" to take charge right after they "defeat Trump in a landslide."

This gobsmackingly implausible scenario is worth contemplating for one reason alone  because it shows us so vividly the way the mind of a certain kind of apolitical (nay, antipolitical) centrist works. Conjure up a list of people with some popular support on multiple sides of the serious divides in our politics, close your eyes, and presto!, the disagreements separating them and their supporters in the real world magically vanish into thin air, leaving an overwhelming consensus that is nowhere to be found in the country as it actually exists.

This isn't a solution to the Sanders problem. It's a head-in-the-sand denial of the Sanders problem.

What would happen in the country as it actually exists if the institutional Democratic Party tried to deny Sanders the nomination after he won a majority of the pledged delegates? The party would fracture. That's because the move would be viewed by the millions of people who voted for Sanders (not to mention by the hundreds of Sanders delegates on the floor of the convention hall) as an illegitimate act  a power grab by people lacking their own equally robust popular base of support. It was the party itself that decided over 50 years ago that legitimacy would henceforth be a function of popular support. There's no going back now.

A fractured party would be a badly hobbled party  which would be an even greater gift to Trump than a socialist opponent. That means the superdelegates who believe in the importance of beating the president have only one reasonable path before them. If Sanders wins a plurality in the primaries, he has to be the nominee.

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More than 140 schools have worked with LEAP to organize around the principles of personalized learning. In doing so, they have engaged in rigorous processes to infuse more equitable practices into the learning experience, empower students and create opportunities to connect learning experiences to future impact in the world. Throughout Chicago, and especially in economically challenged communities, this approach has ignited academic gains for students and a more satisfying experience for educator teams.

An informal audit of LEAP educators conducted in June 2019 indicated that more than 80 percent believed the implementation of personalized learning heightened their students' human skills, including critical thinking skills (89 percent), ability to collaborate as a team (89 percent), and ability to advocate for themselves (92 percent). Almost eight out of 10 teachers (79 percent) said that implementing personalized learning helped to advance their effectiveness as an educator.

"Personalized learning guides students to set high expectations, reinforces the development of ownership and agency to achieve their ambitions, and connects their hard work in the classroom with making an impact in their world," said Phyllis Lockett, LEAP Innovations founder and CEO. "We have seen that when learning environments empower students to take ownership of their experience in the classroom, their leadership skills flourish, personal agency increases and a foundation is laid for future achievement that will ultimately benefit Chicago as they lend their talents to our workforce."

As part of the citywide LEAP Day celebration of these accomplishments, students at LEAP schools are writing letters to their future selves reflecting on past "leaps" and setting goals for "leaps" they hope to take for themselves, their schools, and their communities by the next leap year in 2024. An estimated 4,000 students are participating, demonstrating the leadership, self-direction and future focus that is a hallmark of students who have taken ownership of their learning.

At Belmont-Cragin Elementary School, LEAP Day is being marked with an all-school assembly with more than 400 students, community members and educators. Several students have been selected to read their letters outlining how they plan to connect their academic experiences with positive impact that strengthens Chicago. At the conclusion of the event, students are placing their letters to their future selves in a large time capsule, to be opened on leap day 2024. To cap the event, and in the spirit of "leaping," the Jesse White Tumblers are performing.

An exemplar, CPS Level 1+ school, Belmont-Cragin has demonstrated leaps in powerful ways. As student enrollment has increased by 12 percent since 2014, teacher retention has exceeded state and district levels for the past three years.

"Our school has come a long way," said Belmont-Cragin Elementary School Principal Stacy Stewart. "Our students are emerging as leaders. Every child in our school has had the opportunity to grow and develop and that has only come about as a result of our journey to personalize learning."

Among the schools participating in the LEAP Day celebration with parades, parties, time capsules, and other activities are Acero Santiago in Humboldt Park, Perkins Bass Elementary School and Stagg School of Excellence in Englewood, Ashburn Community Elementary School in Ashburn, Richard Lee Elementary School in West Lawn and CICS West Belden in Belmont-Cragin. The leaps each school has made, details of their LEAP Day celebrations and quotes from school leaders, along with a selection of students' letters to their future selves, are available on the LEAP Day website and the LEAP Innovations Facebook ( @LEAPinnovationseducation ) and Twitter ( @leapinchicago ) pages.

ABOUT LEAP

LEAP Innovations is a national 501c3 organization headquartered in Chicago that connects innovation and education to transform how students learn. LEAP works directly with educators and innovators to discover, pilot and scale innovative personalized learning practices and technologies. In less than five years, LEAP has worked directly with more than 140 schools across Chicago to implement personalized learning. LEAP's work is anchored by the LEAP Learning Framework, a suite of resources that educators across the country are using to define, design, and implement personalized learning models. Visit leapinnovations.org for more information.

MEDIA CONTACT

Kellie Kennedy

[email protected]

312-933-4903

SOURCE LEAP Innovations

Related Links

http://www.leapinnovations.org


YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sent a letter of condolences over the death of expert of medieval architecture Samvel Karapetyan, the PMs Office told Armenpress.

The letter says:

With a deep sorrow I learnt about the untimely death of renowned Armenian historian, expert of medieval architecture, chairman of the Yerevan Office of the Research on Armenian Architecture Foundation, Samvel Karapetyan.

During his activity Samvel Karapetyan has examined and cataloged thousands of exhibits of the Armenian architecture of Historical Armenia. His documentary materials are a rich heritage for our country. His consistent work against the policy of eliminating the Armenian monuments in Turkey and Azerbaijan is highly appreciated.

I extend my deepest condolences to Samvel Karapetyans family and friends.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Immediate revision of coal royalty and a special economic package for speedy development of the region were among the major demands raised at the Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah here on Friday.

The meeting, attended by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his West Bengal and Bihar counterparts Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar, respectively, was skipped by Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren.

Soren, who was unable to attend the meeting, deputed state's Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon to the meet.

Though no reason for Soren's absence at the meeting was cited, it was perhaps because of the commencement of the month-long budget session of the Jharkhand Assembly, sources said.

It is not known what Amit Shah said at the meeting, but chief ministers raised issues concerning their states as well as for the region during the meeting.

Patnaik, who is the vice-chairman of the council and host, batted for the entire east zone and demanded a special economic package for the region, saying the states lag in many sectors despite being endowed with natural and mineral resources.

Patnaik also urged that Odisha be declared a "Special Focus State" in view of frequent natural disasters faced by the state and its vulnerability to natural calamity.

All the participant states demanded that coal royalty, which has not been revised since 2012, be hiked forthwith. All the four eastern states - Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand are coal bearing areas.

Lamenting delay in revision in coal royalty, Patnaik said there is an urgent need to revise royalty on coal and also to share proceeds of clean energy cess with the state government.

He said the entire eastern region lags in teledensity, railway density and banking density and, therefore, needs to be given a special economic package for speeding up Infrastructural Development of the zone.

Emphasising that this zone contributes maximum to the mineral wealth of the country and in turn manufacturing and energy security, he said the fruits of this wealth should boost economic growth of this region and its people.

"Our Regions have some of the largest scheduled areas of the country. I reiterate my demand for inclusion of Ho, Bhumij and Mundari languages in the Eighth Schedule of Constitution, the Chief Minister said.

He thanked the Union government for supporting the state during cyclone Fani last year.

After the meeting, Mamata Banerjee told reporters that she highlighted West Bengal issues at the EZC meet where she expressed concern that her state did not get require assistance during natural calamities like cyclone Fani and Bulbul.

She also said Bengal has been neglected in many matters and the state should get its due share in the central pool.

"We have not got Rs 50,000 crore from the Centre," the chief minister said.

Banerjee said she also raised other issues related to her state like delay in GST compensation payment, lowered share in the devolution and other issues hitting the states interest.

Issues relating to development of the states in the region, the need for coal royalty revision, strengthening of infrastructure were also discussed at the EZC meeting, she said.

Apart from the security scenario and vexed Left Wing Extremism (LWE) menace, the EZC meeting also discussed heinous crimes and rail link projects, official sources said.

Addressing the meet, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar reiterated the demand for grant of special category status to the state.

He asserted that despite achieving double digit growth rate in past few years, Bihar is lagging behind on major indices of development like poverty line, per capita income and industrial as well the social and physical infrastructure vis-a-vis the national average while pressing for the special category status demand to the Union Home minister.

Kumar also urged West Bengal and Jharkhand, sharing border with Bihar, to initiate strong measures to stop smuggling of liquor in the state, where prohibition is in force since 2016.

He also urged the Centre to share the expense in deployments of central security forces for dealing with the naxal problem with the state, which at present is solely bearing the cost.

Kumar said curbing naxal menace was joint responsibility of the Centre as well the state while buttressing the demand.

Issues such as inter-state water rows, power transmission lines, royalty and operationalization of coal mines, land & forest clearance of rail projects, investigation of heinous offences and cattle smuggling across countrys borders figured during the ECZ meet, sources said.

Lack of telecom & banking infrastructure in remote areas, petroleum projects and sharing pattern on centrally collected revenues also came up for discussion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Oslo, 28 February 2020  DNO ASA, the Norwegian oil and gas operator, announced that shareholders overwhelmingly approved the resolution to cancel all 108,381,415 own shares held by the Company at an Extraordinary General Meeting held today in Oslo. The canceled shares represented 10 percent of DNO shares outstanding.

The minutes from the Extraordinary General Meeting are attached.

--

For further information, please contact:

Media: media@dno.no

Investors: investor.relations@dno.no

Tel: +47 23 23 84 80

--

DNO ASA is a Norwegian oil and gas operator focused on the Middle East and the North Sea. Founded in 1971 and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, the Company holds stakes in onshore and offshore licenses at various stages of exploration, development and production in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Norway, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Ireland and Yemen.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.













Attachment
Press Release

28 February 2020

The Hoxton is expanding further across Europe with two new hotels set to open in Berlin (2022) and Vienna (2023). This comes off the back of a busy period for the hotel brand with five openings across the US (New York, Portland, Chicago and LA) and UK (London) over the past 18 months.

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Ennismore has acquired the Berlin Mark Hotel, and will convert it into The Hoxton. Located just a few steps away from Kurfurstendamm, the city's most famous shopping avenue, the eight- storey hotel will offer over 230 rooms and include a destination restaurant and bar, and signature Apartment meeting facilities. The hotel will undergo renovations and open in 2022.

In Vienna, Ennismore has entered into a lease with JP Immobilien for the operation of The Hoxton set to open in 2023. Located on Rudolf-Sallinger-Platz, on the border of the city's historic centre and next to the famous Stadtpark, the development will involve the conversion of an office building into a hotel. Once opened, the 196-room hotel will include a destination restaurant and two bars, a rooftop pool & bar as well as an auditorium and Apartment meeting facilities.

These two new properties will expand The Hoxton's growing portfolio, which includes nine hotels across the US, UK, France and the Netherlands with the tenth hotel set to open in Rome, Italy later this year.

To lead the new phase of accelerated growth, Ennismore has recently appointed Keith Evans as Chief Investment & Development Officer from Starwood Capital where he was SVP, European Hotel Acquisitions. Evans' appointment comes at a time when The Hoxton brand and Ennismore's platform is set to scale globally through organic acquisitions and third-party hotel management agreements and leases.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : Digital Communications Commission (DCC), the interministerial panel of Telecom Ministry, on Friday did not take any decision on possible relief to the financially distressed telecom sector with officials saying more data are required for reconciliation of AGR numbers, dashing the hopes of telcos, especially Vodafone Idea.

The DCC meeting that lasted two hours will be held again in the coming days, sources said.

No decision has been taken on any relief to the telecom companies, sources said, adding, the department needs more data, and that there will be more meetings and reconciliation of AGR figures.

Secretaries in the Ministries of Finance (DEA), Commerce, and Electronics and IT, as well as CEO of NITI Aayog, are the members of DCC. Vodafone Idea, the worst hit telco with Rs 53,000 crore AGR dues, has told the government that it would not be able to pay the dues unless state support is extended to it to survive the crisis.

While the rationale behind giving any relief to the telcos is that government wants to avoid a duopoly situation in the event Vodafone Idea is forced to shut operations, it is also in a bind over implementation of the Supreme Court order which directs DoT to recover the dues.

DoT is examining the COAI and Vodafone Idea proposals and waiting for the self-assessment numbers of the telcos to come to it. Once the department has an idea how much the telcos' calculations are and reconcile with its own demands, the picture will be a little clear about payment.

One option is upfront payment of the entire principal amount on licence fee and spectrum usage charges and 50% of the interest, penalty and interest on penalty. The rest could be paid over four years with interest.

The other option is once DoT gets the self-assessment figures of the telcos, it may ask them to pay that amount immediately and the gap between the DoT and telcos could be a staggered payment after reconciliation of both figures over 4 to 5 years, said sources.

Both the options seek some payment first then any relief to the telcos on the remaining amount payment.

Airtel has AGR dues of Rs 35,500 core, Tata Teleservices has said it has submitted Rs 2,197 crore as full and final amount against an AGR order of Rs 14, 829 crore. Airtel and VIL are yet to submit self-assessment numbers of AGR.

The government is also said to be considering, among others, setting up a stress fund for telcos to draw from and pay off AGR dues and repay on easy terms, besides deferment of licence fees and spectrum usage charge (SUC) for a substantial period to free up cash flows.

Airtel has paid Rs 10,000 crore and VIL has paid Rs 3,500 crore as AGR dues.
Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty Images

Authorities on Thursday identified the gunman and his five victims in the Wednesday shooting at Molson Coors headquarters in Milwaukee, with the citys police chief calling it an unspeakable tragedy.

Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales identified the shooter as Anthony Ferrill, a 51-year-old electrician for the brewing company, but gave no details on his possible motive.

Right now theres an investigation going on. I think its premature to speculate on anything, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said Thursday. I think this is the time again, be there to grieve and support the families.

The five victims in the Wednesday shooting were identified as Jesus Valle Jr, 33; Gennady Levshetz, 51; Trevor Wetselaar. 33; Dana Walk, 57; and Dale Hudson, 50. All of the victims and the suspect worked at Molson Coors. No members of the general public were involved in this incident, Morales said.

The Milwaukee Fire Department and Milwaukee police responded to the shooting at around 2 p.m., and several schools and businesses in the area were placed on lockdown.

Five Dead in Horrific Shooting Near Molson Coors Headquarters in Milwaukee

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Ferrill and several co-workers were in the midst of a long-running dispute when the electrician returned to the headquarters with two guns and began to opened fire.

Ferrill, who had worked as an electrician at Molson Coors for 17 years, then turned the gun on himself. One co-worker told the newspaper Ferrill believed he was being racially discriminated against and frequently argued with at least one of his victims, a fellow electrician.

The co-worker added that Ferrill would often watch movies on his phone during his shiftwhich other electricians did not condone. About a year ago, Ferrills behavior changed, the colleague said, and he started saying he believed his fellow brewery workers were coming into his home and bugging his computer.

I was, Are you serious, Anthony? What? We all kind of joked about it, saying we should maybe get him an aluminum hat. Things just started getting weird. But he was dead serious about it, the co-worker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Story continues

The sprawling complex where the shooting occurred includes several corporate offices and brewing facilities where at least 600 people are employed. The area, known as Miller Valley in reference to the Miller Brewing Co., also features a 160-year-old brewery.

Molson Coors, which owns the Coors and Miller beer brands, officially changed its name from MillerCoors in 2019.

Were all a family here at Molson Coors in Milwaukee, and this is an unthinkable tragedy for us, Gavin Hattersley, president and CEO of Molson Coors, said in a statement obtained by The Daily Beast.

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NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.  Zay Wells and Esante-Joy McIntyre might be in trouble with their parents.

The pair of high school seniors skipped class on a Wednesday afternoon to attend a political rally here, and for Bernie Sanders of all people. These Gen Z students are obviously feeling the Bern, but their family members are more traditional Democrats who are supporting Joe Biden in Saturdays South Carolina primary.

Wells, a 17-year-old black teen, conceded that while he and his peers are open to usher in what they believe to be a much-needed coat of political fresh paint to South Carolina, they cant vote in Saturdays contest, while many of the adults they know are scared of change.

I believe Bernie is the candidate to bring in something different, but change is a new thing for Charleston, conceded Wells, who has been attempting to broach supporting Bernie to his more centrist parents.

McIntyre, also a 17-year-old black teen, said those in her Charleston neighborhood are skeptical of progressive policies, like eliminating student debt, even though she thinks measures like that would benefit their community. But Sanders labels himself as a democratic socialist, and the socialist label in particular scares off a lot of people, she says.

Joe Biden, by contrast, has a long-standing relationship with the states older voters.

Older folks know [Biden], trust him, said McIntyre. It might be a little too late.

Joe Biden gets an endorsement from House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Both teenagers plan to make a few last ditch pitches to their families before Saturdays crucial primary  but theyre mostly focused on converting all of their voting-age friends and classmates to the cause.

South Carolina, where black voters make up about 60 percent of the Democratic primary electorate, will be the first test of whether young Southern blacks will be a lifeline for Sanders. And if Sanders is the nominee, he will rely on this group to win over their older relatives and friends, who appear to be largely skeptical of him at this point.

Story continues

Sanders has earned the frontrunner status in the primary through the first three contests by virtue of his own loyal following, and helped by the disarray of the rest of the field.

But none of those first three contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada featured an electorate with a significant number of black voters, who form one of the Democrats most important and loyal voting blocs.

Biden leads in the South Carolina polling by virtue of his heavy support among older African-American voters.

A mid-February poll conducted in South Carolina found Biden leading Sanders among likely black voters by 35.7 percent to 19.6 percent. Bidens lead among likely black voters 55 and over was 49.4 percent to 6.7 percent in the survey released by East Carolina University.

Nationally, a Washington Post/Ipsos poll in January showed Sanders winning only 20 percent of the black vote nationally compared to Bidens 48 percent, with almost all of Sanderss support among black voters coming from those in the 18-to-34 age range, which, historically, votes at much lower rates than older voters.

On Wednesday, Rep. Jim Clyburn  the most powerful and well-known black politician in South Carolina  endorsed Biden, a significant boost for the former vice president.

Sanderss appeal to younger voters has a lot to do with his populist message and his cultural cachet, said Addisu Demissie, a Democratic campaign operative who ran the presidential campaign of Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.

If youre under 35, the world you know is basically the post-Great Recession world, and that is a place where economic populism I think flourishes, Demissie said in a phone interview. And when America gets sick, black America gets the flu, so if youre a young black person, a young black man, you feel [economic hardship] hard and Sanders message appeals to overcoming that.

Sanders is also a cultural phenomenon in a way that I dont think folks who are 45-plus understand.

Bernie Sanders at a rally in North Charleston, S.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Jason Glover, a 28-year-old black barber from Charleston, has been evangelizing for Sanders over the past several months to his nearly all black male clients. Those chats  which sometimes morphed into debates gave Glover the practice he needed before he pitched his mother.

I just talked to my mom this morning, said Glover, who was also attending the Sanders rally. She was a Biden supporter, but as we've been watching the debates, she hasn't been feeling like he's been the best fit.

Glover says he was able to convince his mother that Sanders was the better choice.

I think telling our parents that this candidate is going to help us progress, added Glover. I think that makes an impact on our parents.

Glovers friend, 28-year-old Brandon Greene, pitched his Biden-supporting family on Bernie too.

Me and my mom just had a conversation the other day, where I let her know Bernie will be the candidate that I think she should support as well, said Greene. A lot of people in my family were with Biden at first. There's been a lot of debate going back and forth  but I think I finally got her.

That kind of persuasion is crucial to Sanderss ability to sew up the nomination, and to his chances against Trump if he is the nominee.

And the Sanders campaign also has a highly organized effort to get those younger voters, who are traditionally less likely to vote, to the polls.

The Sanders campaign has devoted six national staffers to campus organizing; those staffers oversee 700 campus corps leaders, student volunteers who graduated from the campaigns summer and winter school immersive training. One hundred of those campus corps leaders are assigned to various historically black colleges and universities.

Sanders in North Charleston, S.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

In South Carolina, the Sanderss campaign re-assigned a team of 10 campus and field organizers from other states to target community colleges, where working-class students are sometimes overlooked by get-out-the-vote efforts.

The campaign is tracking students canvassing success via their in-house Bern app, which was created by to serve as a hub for its staff and to assist with caucusing and voter registration.

The students goals, to be sure, are ambitious.

For any hour someone in canvassing, they typically have 10 conversations, and expect at least five to commit, explained Shana Gallagher, Sanderss national student organizing director.

If their numbers lag behind expected goals, staffers and campaign mentors check in and work to boost results.

In Virginia, one of 14 states that will hold a primary next Tuesday, University of Virginia student Sekum Appiah-Ofori is part of the campuss Bernie support group that has been working tirelessly to bring their political revolution to Charlottesville  and also to her home.

My parents are more on the moderate side, Appiah-Ofori said. So they supported Hillary in 2016. I did my best to try to move them towards Bernie, but it didn't work. They voted for Hillary and then ultimately Hillary lost and Trump got elected and I was devastated.

Supporters of Sanders in Richmond, Va. (Steve Helber/AP)

Appiah-Oforis parents are both educators who have modest salaries, and last year her father became an Uber driver so he could afford to send Appiah-Ofori to school. This time around, her parents are voting for Sanders. She uses her personal story to pitch other students on Sanders and she feels like its working. In August, the UVA for Sanders group boasted around 15 members. Now, its over 200.

Sanderss coalition in the primary may be enough to win the nomination if the other Democratic candidates continue to split the vote. But in a general election, Sanders would have to motivate significant numbers of older African-American voters who did not support him in the primary, in addition to delivering on his promise to bring out an unprecedented number of young voters.

If Sanderss performance in the primary so far is any indication, thats a tall order. In the first three primaries, young voters have not come out more than is historically normal, a New York Times study found.

Sanderss pollster, Ben Tulchin, argued in an interview with the Washington Post this week that Sanders will be able to rely on high turnout among Democrats because theyll be motivated to beat President Trump.

But one academic study released Tuesday and published by Vox identified significant problems with this theory. The 40,000-person survey found that Sanders, if he were the nominee, would alienate a significant number of Republicans, independents, and white working-class voters who dont necessarily like Trump and might be open to voting for another Democrat, but are turned off by Sanders. This would require boosting the youth vote by at least 11 percentage points, the study found, which would be an unprecedented increase.

Political scientist Gibbs Knotts also isnt convinced Sanders can win over older black voters.

I think its far-fetched, said Knotts, who recently authored a book on the South Carolina primary. I think its hard for Bernie  if you already have these people who connect with Biden and connect to Obama who tend to go to church more than your typical Democrat, who tend to be a little more moderate, are they really going to go over and start supporting Bernie Sanders, whos one of the most progressive candidates I can remember?

Bernie Sanders with Al Sharpton at the National Action Network South Carolina Ministers' Breakfast on Wednesday. (Matt Rourke/AP)

But Demissie, the Democratic operative, scoffed at the attempt to predict the outcome of the fall campaign, especially in light of the surprises in the last few elections. An Oakland resident, Demissie said he was undecided about how he will vote in the California primary

I think prognostication about whats going to happen is foolish, he said. Its trying too hard. Donald Trump is president right now. Barack Obama is a black man who won the most votes in the history of the United States of America, an overwhelming majority over a decorated war veteran.

Campaigns matter. Things are going to happen over time that are going to change peoples opinions of both of these candidates, if its Bernie and Trump, Demissie said. Its impossible to be mathematically certain, or in the neighborhood of mathematically certain about all this.

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In December 2020, a mid-sized private life insurance CEO found out that their bank partner, a South India-based private lender, was in talks with a rival firm for a possible tie-up. It was a problem because the insurance company got half of its revenues from the bank.

The CEO acted swiftly and met the top management of the bank to thwart a break-up. He was successful and after three meetings the bank agreed to stay 'exclusive'.

The CEO is not the only top executive worried about his insurance company's dependence on a bank.

Bank-led insurers including ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, HDFC Life Insurance, Max Life Insurance, PNB MetLife and SBI Life Insurance are among companies that have significant business coming in from one bank.

Take Max Life for instance. A total of 55 percent of its individual premiums came in from Axis Bank which is its partner. Or PNB Metlife where Punjab National Bank accounted for 53 percent of the individual business in FY19. For Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance, a chunk of the business came from Karur Vysya Bank.

In a decade, the share of banks in private life insurance distribution has seen an almost 100 percent jump, from 25 percent in 2008-09 to touch 50 percent at the end of 2019. In other words, half of a private life insurance company's business comes from just one bank.

A heavy reliance on one distribution channel, namely banks, is beneficial for insurers by helping have higher-ticket-size policies. However, over reliance on banks also means that these entities would be allowed to dictate terms to the insurer but strategy change in a bank may also impact sales of insurance.

For banks, insurance brings fee income. But this is not their core business and hence the focus is not big on renewals, said a Mumbai based insurance consultant who also advises companies on bancassurance deals.

Retention of partner banks is also a core focus for private life insurers, with higher-than-permissible commissions also being paid. The insurance regulator has also imposed penalties on multiple occasions for these violations.

Bank-led insurers have an average premium of Rs 71,000, while a non-bank life insurers average premium was Rs 58,523, according to data collated from the Life Insurance Data and research reports.

Bajaj Allianz and Tata AIA are some of the insurance companies who don't have huge exposure to banks.

For private sector players, almost 52 percent of the individual new business premium comes from banks, as per Life Insurance Council data. With easy access to thousands of bank branches and their customers, bancassurance is the top-most option for insurance distribution.

At HDFC Life Insurance, data for nine months of FY20 (9MFY20) showed that 55 percent of the annualised premium equivalent came from banks. For ICICI Prudential Life Insurance it was 53.1 percent, for Max Life Insurance it was 67 percent while for SBI Life Insurance it was for 69 percent.

An analysis done by Moneycontrol showed that for the top five private life insurers, banks account for 46.4 percent of the total new business premium. Any drop in sales performance by banks due to a rejig in business strategy with rising bad loans and focus on core business would directly lead to a new premium collection dip for insurers.

For listed private life insurers, this would mean an impact on their topline and also a possibility of this translating into erosion of its share price.

Is it a concern?

In the past, there has been a concern about banks misselling insurance products to their customers in a bid to ramp up their total income.

Moneycontrol spoke to three public sector bank executives at the branch level who revealed that they are in fact nudged to sell either personal accident or a basic term cover with every new account opened.

We tell the customers that the account opening process will be processed only if the insurance is purchased, said a branch executive in Mumbai on conditions of anonymity.

IRDAI data showed that out of 61,137 complaints filed against private life insurers, 45,294 complaints pertained to unfair business practices commonly known as misselling. Considering that banks command a lions share of the business, it is a fact that bank-led complaints would constitute a major portion of the complaints.

Persistency or the yearly renewals of bank-led policies are marginally lower than the other channels. Data from ICICI Prudential Life Insurance showed that both 13th (post first year) and 49th month (post four years) in bancassurance channel was marginally lower than the other channels like agency, direct, corporate agent and brokers.

For ICICI Prudential Life, data for eleven months of FY19 showed that 49month persistency stood at 62.7 percent in bancassurance, while the figure stood at 64.9 percent in agency channel and 66.5 percent in direct channel.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 02:21:28|Editor: huaxia

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Photo taken on Feb. 27, 2020 shows the scene of the 53rd session of the Arab health minister council held at the Arab League (AL) headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. (Xinhua)

Arab ministers of health hail China's fight against the novel coronavirus and express solidarity with the Chinese government and people.

CAIRO, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Arab ministers of health hailed on Thursday the Chinese open approach in cooperation and the country's transparency over means of combating the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Convening at the Arab League (AL) headquarters in Cairo, Arab health ministers, in their final statement, expressed solidarity with the Chinese government and people.

"The Arab ministers of health voiced support for all the enormous efforts exerted by the Chinese government for prevention of the disease spread," the statement sent by the AL media office said.

The meeting aimed at enhancing joint Arab work in tackling the disease and applying the precautionary measures that will reduce its dissemination, the statement read.

The ministers voiced their "confidence in the capabilities of China in overcoming the ordeal and its success for taking all measures that boost the international efforts in standing against the virus."

Addressing the 53rd session of the Arab health minister council, Chinese Ambassador to Cairo Liao Liqiang urged the AL to "continue its support to China" based on traditional and strategic partnership.

While attributing much attention for the prevention and control of the virus, "China is also working on implementing comprehensive plans for promotion of its economy and social development," the ambassador said.

He added China is working and communicating closely with the World Health Organization and the concerned countries via sharing its experience in preventing and controlling the spreading of the virus.

"China will fight side by side with the Arab countries as a responsible big country," Liao added.

He pointed out China will cooperate with the Arab countries in sharing the information and the research results about the virus, adding the two sides could turn the crisis into an opportunity to bolster and deepen mutual cooperation in various fields. 
Asia Saudi Arabia Bars Pilgrims and Tourists Amid Coronavirus

Muslim pilgrims wear protective face masks to prevent against contracting the coronavirus, as they pray at the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia on Feb. 27, 2020. / REUTERS

RIYADHSaudi Arabia on Thursday closed its borders to foreign umrah pilgrims and to tourists from at least 25 countries where the new coronavirus has been found.

Muslims are currently applying for visas for the minor umrah pilgrimage, which can take place at any time of the year and brought 7.5 million people to the birthplace of Islam in the course of 2019, according to official figures.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have not reported any cases of the new coronavirus, which has infected about 80,000 people worldwide and killed more than 2,800, mostly in Chinabut the other four Gulf Arab states have.

Kuwait and Bahrain raised their totals to 43 and 33 cases respectively, all in people who had visited Iran. Oman has diagnosed four cases and the United Arab Emirates, an air transit hub, raised its number of cases to 19 on Thursday.

Pilgrimage is big business for Saudi Arabia, which has Islams two holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, and is the backbone of plans to expand visitor numbers under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans ambitious economic reform agenda.

Visits by pilgrims accelerate during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, beginning this year in late April. And in late July, some 2 million pilgrims are expected for the weeklong haj, the worlds largest annual gathering of Muslims, which has a separate visa regime.

In Indonesia, home to the worlds largest Muslim population, organizers said the suspension could affect 150,000-200,000 Indonesian pilgrims over the next month. Neighboring Malaysia advised citizens to postpone visits to Saudi Arabia.

Protecting the pilgrims and the sacred sites from the arrival of this disease is very important, Health Ministry spokesman Mohammed Abdelali told reporters. Saudi Arabia feels a sense of responsibility, therefore we took these temporary decisions, which will constantly be reviewed.

Restrictions across the Gulf

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates also halted the use of Gulf Cooperation Council cards for transit between the six member states, instead mandating passports, which can reveal more about previous travel.

But it was unclear which countries travelers would be affected by the Saudi ban, and whether they would be blocked on the basis of nationality or point of departure.

Saudi government spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment, and confusion grew throughout the day.

The UAE-based airlines Emirates and flydubai cited Saudi directives in saying they would no longer carry passengers with tourist visas from China, Japan, Italy, Iran, India, Pakistan and a number of other countries.

At Dubai airport, a Canadian citizen transiting from Iraq was barred from an Emirates flight despite none of those countries being listed on the airlines website.

In Beirut, passengers without Saudi residency were prevented from flying to the kingdom.

Bahrain said it had halted flights to Iraq and Lebanon, and online images showed cleaners in protective overalls spraying disinfectant in empty halls in Manama airport.

Saudi Arabias benchmark stock index fell 1.1 percent, weighed down by tourism-related firms Jabal Omar Development, Seera Group and Al Hokair Group.

Across the Gulf, Iran has the highest number of deaths from the virus outside China, reporting 26 deaths and 245 infections.

Several of Irans neighbors have closed their borders to travel from Iran.

The UAE suspended passenger ferry services with Iran until further notice, the state news agency WAM said. It also obliged all arriving commercial ships to provide a statement on the health of their crews 72 hours before arrival.

The government also told parents to inform schools if children or close relatives had traveled in the past four weeks to one of several Asian countries, Italy or Iran.

The UAE said it had identified six new coronavirus casesfour Iranians, one Chinese and one Bahraini, state news agency WAM said.

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In a Twitter post on Friday the Austrian ambassador to Tehran said a member of the delegation of Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg who visited Tehran last week and was suspected of COVID-19 (coronavirus) infection has tested negative.

Austria's Kourier on Thursday reported that a member of Schallenberg's delegation which arrived in Tehran on February 22 to hold talks with Iranian officials including President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif had contracted coronavirus infection while in Iran and had to be quarantined at a Vienna hospital.

In his tweet Stefan Scholz said "appropriate measures, as determined by the government, have been taken" and the delegation member's coronavirus test has proved negative.

According to Austria's Kurier, the unnamed member of the delegation had all the symptoms of coronavirus infection and was quarantined at a Vienna hospital on Thursday.

During his visit to Tehran, the Austrian Foreign Minister and his Iranian counterpart conferred about a number of issues including non-proliferation, regional issues and coronavirus outbreak.

At least six members of the Iranian Parliament have tested positive for the virus as well as Vice-President in Women's Affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar and several health officials.

At least 13 countries including Canada, Britain, Kuwait, Lebanon and Lituania have reported cases of coronavirus infection in people arriving from Iran.
At least 12 people were killed and more than 20 injured on Friday in clashes in central Somalia between the army and a Sufi militia opposed to the regional administration, a local leader told AFP.

Fighting broke out between the army and the Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa (ASWJ) militia on Thursday night in Dhumasareb, the capital of the semi-autonomous Galmudug region, and intensified on Friday.

"There is still sporadic gunfire and there are casualties inflicted on both sides," a local elder, Mohamed Moalim Adan, told AFP by phone.

"We are receiving information that at least 12 people had been killed, including civilians, and more 20 others wounded so far."



Earlier this month, the parliament of Galmudug elected Ahmed Abdi Kariye, a former minister backed by the federal government, as president of the region.

ASWJ leader Sheikh Mohamed Shakir rejected the result and declared himself president. A former Galmudug president, Ahmed Duale, also claimed victory by forming his own parliament.

"This town was peaceful for so many years but we have been expecting this," said Abukare Warsame, another elder, referring to the electoral dispute.

Warsame said the ASWJ leader remains inside the camp where the fighting started.

"More than 10 people died, and 30 others were wounded, some of whom were transported to Mogadishu for treatment," Warsame said, providing a slightly lower toll than Adan.

The violence also spread to the neighbouring town of Guriceel, where Sufi fighters temporarily took control of the police station, before handing it back to government forces.

The Sufi group has played a major role in the fight against the radical Shebab Islamists, supported by Al-Qaeda, and has controlled the main cities of Galmudug for the past 10 years.

In 2017, Shakir agreed to join the regional administration but later distanced himself from it due to disagreements with its president.

He then agreed to a new election before changing his mind and accusing the federal government of manipulating the process to install one if its supporters.

Somalia has been plunged into chaos since the fall of the autocrat Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Since 2007 the country has had to deal with the Shabaab insurgents, who have carried out numerous attacks against civilian and military targets.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The BJP on Friday accused the Congress of backtracking on 'rajdharma' by opposing the CAA after seeking citizenship for refugees from neighbouring countries, but the opposition party insisted it followed the 'rajdharma' of equality and harmony while the Modi government has a "divisive mindset".

BJP leader and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress was "politicking" over the sensitive issue of violence in Delhi when there is a need for all to talk collectively of restoration of peace, amity and harmony.

"Sonia Gandhi ji, please don't preach us rajdharma. Your record is full of its violation and twists and turns for plain and simple vote bank The Congress should look at its face in the mirror of rajdharma," he said.

'Rajdharma' broadly means discharging of rightful duties by a government with impartiality towards one and all.

The BJP leader stated that former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had speeded up citizenship for refugees from Uganda and Sri Lanka respectively.

At a press conference, he noted that Manmohan Singh as the Leader of the Congress in Rajya Sabha had asked the then deputy prime minister L K Advani to grant citizenship to persecuted minority refugees from neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The then Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, who is currently at the helm in the state as well, had also sought it.

"Sonia ji tell us what kind of 'rajdharma' is this that everyone has backtracked? What we have done your government could not do in 10 years... If Congress does something, it is good. But if we do the same thing, they provoke the people. What type of 'rajdharma' is this?" Prasad asked.

Slamming the BJP for its remarks, the Congress asserted that its leaders like Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh believed in equality and harmony, while the Modi government has a "divisive mindset".

"Indira ji, Rajiv ji, Manmohan Singh ji's rajdharma was about giving priority to equality and harmony. There is prejudice in what you are doing. There is a divisive mindset," the Congress posted on its official Twitter handle.

To Prasad's assertion that the National Population Register exercise was started by the Congress-led UPA government in 2010, the opposition party's spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the NPR and the National Register of Citizens are linked with the additional questions being added to the NPR by the Modi dispensation.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also hit out at the BJP over Prasad's remarks on NPR and asked why doesn't he implement it in Bihar.

The BJP-JD(U) is speaking one language in Bihar and another in Delhi, he said.

The Bihar assembly recently passed a unanimous resolution against the NRC and new format of NPR.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asserted that his government has not discussed bringing in the NRC.

Both the parties sparred a day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi led a party delegation to President Ram Nath Kovind, urging him to push the BJP-led NDA government to follow 'rajdharma'.

Prasad said Sonia Gandhi and other party leaders "incited" people against the CAA and never spoke a word against objectionable comments, including against Modi and cutting off Assam from the rest of India, made by some anti-CAA protestors.

He also repeated the BJP's charge that the Delhi violence was an outcome of "instigation" by Congress leaders, including Sonia, Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi.

Sonia Gandhi has given a call for "aar par ki ladai" (fight to finish) during a rally against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in December 2019.

Accusing the Congress of doing over the Delhi violence, which has so far killed 42 persons, he said the party has not forgotten its defeat in the last Lok Sabha polls and was putting its family and political interest over national interest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi, Feb 28 : Amid the mayhem witnessed in northeast Delhi, another tale of humanity and compassion getting the better of bigotry and hate was scripted, which was narrated by a Muslim resident of Shiv Vihar on Friday -- how his Hindu neighbour saved his and his family's life.

"Around 9 am on Tuesday, a mob of at least 500 persons arrived in our locality and burnt down my car. Since were were no more safe, I escaped along with my wife and children and took refuge in a Hindu brother's house in the neighbourhood even as the mob burnt alive my older brother who lived nearby," Saleem Kassar, 48, told IANS.

"The neighbour kept us in his house for the night. The next day, he and his wife helped me and my wife dress up as Hindus. While he applied a 'tilak' on my forehead, his wife put vermilion and coloured dot on my wife's forehead. Then only did we step out and took refuge in Mustafabad area," he said.

Kassar said his dead brother, 52, was the only bread earner of his family, including a married daughter and a visually impaired son-in-law, who lost his eyesight four years ago, and their two children.

The survivor said that the violence in northeast Delhi was worse than that witnessed in 1984 against the Sikhs after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

He said three others were also killed in Shiv Vihar. "One person was locked inside his car and the vehicle set afire in front of my eyes. I narrowly escaped death. I think the rioters come from the Uttar Pradesh border. A few were from Shiv Vihar itself, who are history sheeters. All had their faces covered with cloths or helmets," Kassar said.

(Sfoorti Mishra can be contacted at sfoorti.m@ians.in)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Frantic search for the whereabouts of persons missing in the riots continued at different hospitals of Delhi and for the family of 22-year-old Monis it ended at the GTB Hospital morgue.

Monis mother was wailing outside the mortuary as the family was called inside. They identified his body. He was missing since February 25.

His cousin Ibrahim said Monis had gone to visit his mother in Badli and was returning to Mustafabad where he worked as a labourer.

"He told me around 3.30 pm that he was stuck near Yamuna Vihar since communal violence was going on, but assured me that he would reach home safely. But he didn't and his phone has been switched off since," he said.

"We had searched for him in seven hospitals, including AIIMS and Safdarjung. We even approached the office of Haji Yunus and they told us that they will forward our complaint to police but to no avail," Ibrahim said.

They finally searched for him at GTB Hospital and found his body.

However, for the family of 35-year-old Mohammad Feroze the search didn't end at the GTB hospital. His wife Shabana said he was returning from work to his home in Loni, when he was beaten up.

"His phone was probably broken during that attack. He was saved by a Muslim family who gave him shelter. He called his nephew and me from their phone on February 24 but since then there has been no contact," she said.

Recalling her last conversation with him, she said, "He said he had been beaten up and couldn't talk much since there was no electricity as the wires had been damaged by rioters and the phone's battery was about to die. He said, 'This is probably our last conversation. Don't know when we will talk again'."



Shabana said they have learnt that the house where he was given shelter has been burnt down. "We don't know where he is," she said with a heavy voice.

"Feroze might be alive. But he had said that he was badly injured. He was quite weak and was suffering from tuberculosis. We will go to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital to look for him," said a family member.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PM Johnson says coronavirus top priority, as first Briton dies A woman wearing a protective mask travels on a Jubilee Line tube train in London

By David Milliken and Guy Faulconbridge

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said slowing the spread of the coronavirus was now his government's top priority, shortly after news on Friday that the first Briton had died of the disease after contracting it on a cruise ship moored in Japan.

The country was right to be concerned about the virus, he said, as the number of people infected in Britain rose to 20.

"The issue of coronavirus is something that is now the government's top priority," he told broadcasters in his first statement on the disease, adding that he would be chairing a meeting of ministers and officials on the subject on Monday.

Britain's health ministry said the most recent person to be infected was the first to have caught the virus in Britain, rather than during a trip abroad, and that it was trying to find the source of the infection.

Mainland China - where the virus originated late last year - reported 327 new cases, the lowest since Jan. 23, taking its tally to more than 78,800 cases with almost 2,800 deaths.

However, the disease is now spreading across the globe, with the first case reported in Nigeria on Friday and 888 people infected in Italy, Europe's worst-hit country.

Britain reported its first confirmed coronavirus case on Jan. 31 but there have been no deaths in the country so far. The British person who died was in Japan, where the Diamond Princess cruise ship had docked off Yokohama on Feb. 3.

The virus - which causes a disease called COVID-19 - is transmitted from person to person in droplets when an infected person breathes out, coughs or sneezes. It can also spread via contaminated surfaces such as door handles.

British health officials have urged the public to wash their hands to slow the spread of the disease, but have not recommended the use of face masks common in much of Asia.

Sterling weakened sharply on Friday to its lowest level since October 2019, down more than 1% on the day as investors moved their money to safe-haven assets and British shares recorded their biggest weekly fall since the 2008 financial crisis.

Story continues

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said at the start of the day that Britain should prepare for economic damage from the virus as it disrupts business supply chains.

A finance ministry spokesman said the government was keeping a close eye on the economic impact.

"As the Governor said there has been no feed-through into economic data at this stage, but the government is actively monitoring the outbreak, and well prepared for any effect it may have on the UK economy," he said.

(Additional reporting by William Schomberg; editing by Stephen Addison, John Stonestreet and Diane Craft)
Johnson & Johnson was ordered by a Florida jury to pay $9 million to an 82-year-old woman who blamed asbestos-tainted talc for her cancer, the latest court loss for the company in U.S. litigation over its iconic baby powder.

Jurors in Miami concluded on Thursday that asbestos in baby powder used by Blanca Mure-Cabrera over her lifetime contributed to the development of her mesothelioma, said David Jagolinzer, one of her lawyers. That type of cancer has been specifically linked to asbestos exposure.

The trial loss is the second for J&J this year over claims the company knew some of its talc-based products were laced with asbestos and hid it from consumers. Earlier this month, a jury in J&Js hometown of New Brunswick, New Jersey, ordered the company to pay $750 million in punitive damages to four people. A judge later reduced that award to $186.5 million.

J&J  the worlds largest maker of healthcare products  said it will appeal the jurys liability finding and damage award.

Todays verdict is at odds with the decades of evidence showing the company acted responsibly and was guided by sound science, Kim Montagnino, a company spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement.

J&J still faces almost 18,000 lawsuits over the 135-year-old baby powder. A majority of the cases allege women who used the product got ovarian cancer, while a smaller number claim links to mesothelioma.

The talc litigation may eventually cost the company as much as $10 billion, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Though baby powder accounts for only a small fraction of J&Js annual revenue, its been a core brand for the company for more than a century.

Plaintiffs lawyers claim internal J&J documents show executives knew since the late 1960s that talc mined in places such as Vermont and Italy contained trace amounts of asbestos but failed to alert consumers or regulators. Asbestos is often found in mined talc, but the company says it is removed when processed. The listed ingredients in J&Js baby powder are talc and fragrance.

J&J  which contends theres never been any asbestos in its baby powder and that it marketed the product properly  has steadfastly fought the claims at trial and on appeal, only settling a small number of lawsuits.

Earlier this week, J&J agreed to settle a 62-year-old womans mesothelioma claims just before a trial in state court in Manhattan was set to begin. In court filings, lawyers for Laura Shanahan said she used baby powder daily starting as a young child. She was diagnosed with the asbestos-linked cancer in October. Terms of the settlement werent made public.

The decision to resolve any particular case in no way changes our overall position that our talc is safe, is asbestos free and does not cause cancer, Montagnino said in an emailed statement. We do not have any organized program to settle Johnsons baby powder cases, nor are we planning a settlement program.

Cabrera v. J&J, No. 19-000727-CA 42, Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County (Miami).

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
Johannesburg (AFP) - The coronavirus is spreading fast beyond its China birthplace but sub-Saharan Africa, one of the world's most vulnerable regions, has so far been almost spared -- and experts want to know why.

More than 2,760 people worldwide have died of COVID-19 and almost 81,000 infected in over 45 countries.

Most of these have been in China, but cases are now rising fast in parts of Europe and the Middle East, while the first infection in Latin America was recorded on Wednesday, in Brazil.

But across all of Africa, just two cases have surfaced -- a tally that has health specialists scratching their heads, given the continent's close economic ties with China.

"This is the question that everyone is asking, especially as other regions such as South America or Eastern Europe now have cases," said Amadou Alpha Sall, head of the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, the Senegalese capital.

"The current figures could be the reality, it's hard to know. Maybe it's because Africa is not that connected."

Thumbi Ndungu, director of a Durban-based infectious disease research centre, SANTHE, said "I dont think anybody knows" why Africa so far appeared to be unscathed.

He also speculated that it could be "there isn't much travel to that particular part of China from Africa -- back and forth".

Or "it could just be a coincidence," said Ndungu.

- Coverup unlikely -

Could it be a coverup, or cases that have gone undetected?

Michel Yao, an emergency response expert at WHO Africa, based in the Congolese capital Brazzaville, said these scenarios were most unlikely.

To detect and hide cases would require an "exceptionally managed" response, he said.

And undetected cases would result in an outbreak that would be "surely detected, because it spreads faster," Yao said.

Could Africa's predominantly hot climate ward off or even kill the virus?

"There is no current evidence to indicate that climate affects transmission," said Rodney Adam, who heads the infection control task force at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi.

Story continues

"While it is true that for certain infections there may be genetic differences in susceptibility... there is no current evidence to that effect for COVID-19."

If the continent can count itself lucky so far, experts say it is just a question of time.

"We think Africa is going to be affected," said Yazdan Yazdanpanah, head of infectious diseases department at Paris's Bichat hospital.

On the plus said, the apparent delay has given African countries precious weeks in which to prepare.

Yao said more than half of sub-Saharan countries are now equipped with laboratories that can test for the virus -- up from just two a few weeks ago.

"In the beginning we had two, South Africa and Senegal... (now) we have 29 out of 47 countries that have laboratories that can perform the tests. So this is progress," he said.

"We were lucky to have a big window of opportunity," he said.

Another positive is that Ebola outbreaks that have struck parts of West Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo have generated valuable skills for handling coronavirus.

There is currently no vaccine or cure for the novel virus -- the response is to contain it by identifying and isolating patients and carrying out grassroots awareness campaigns.

"This experience may add value on ground," said Yao.

- Question of time -

Despite this, Africa's vulnerabilities are well known.

A 2016 analysis by the Rand Corporation, a US thinktank, found that of the 25 countries in the world that are most vulnerable to infectious outbreaks, 22 are in Africa -- the others were Afghanistan, Yemen and Haiti.

Africa's many conflict zones, poor health infrastructure and porous borders are among the factors that accentuate the risk, it said.

Last week a Lancet study found that only Egypt, Algeria and South Africa had "the most prepared health systems in the continent" to handle the virus.

South Africa announced Thursday that 132 of its citizens trapped in China's Wuhan city, would be evacuated and placed in quarantine for 21 days.

In many countries, a sudden surge in numbers of seriously ill patients could overwhelm intensive care units.

"Africa is at high risk," said Yao.

On Thursday, Madagascar banned all travellers who recently visited Iran, Italy or South Korea -- the latest countries suffering major outbreaks of the virus -- from entering the island country, a popular tourist destination.

Several African airlines including Kenya Airways have suspended flights to China, although the continent's biggest carrier Ethiopian Airlines has kept its China routes open.

burs-sn/pma
Is Enprise Group Limited (NZSE:ENS) a good dividend stock? How can we tell? Dividend paying companies with growing earnings can be highly rewarding in the long term. Yet sometimes, investors buy a stock for its dividend and lose money because the share price falls by more than they earned in dividend payments.

With a 2.9% yield and a four-year payment history, investors probably think Enprise Group looks like a reliable dividend stock. A 2.9% yield is not inspiring, but the longer payment history has some appeal. Some simple analysis can reduce the risk of holding Enprise Group for its dividend, and we'll focus on the most important aspects below.

Click the interactive chart for our full dividend analysis

NZSE:ENS Historical Dividend Yield, February 28th 2020

Payout ratios

Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Comparing dividend payments to a company's net profit after tax is a simple way of reality-checking whether a dividend is sustainable. Although Enprise Group pays a dividend, it was loss-making during the past year. When a company recently reported a loss, we should investigate if its cash flows covered the dividend.

Of the free cash flow it generated last year, Enprise Group paid out 35% as dividends, suggesting the dividend is affordable.

With a strong net cash balance, Enprise Group investors may not have much to worry about in the near term from a dividend perspective.

We update our data on Enprise Group every 24 hours, so you can always get our latest analysis of its financial health, here.

Dividend Volatility

One of the major risks of relying on dividend income, is the potential for a company to struggle financially and cut its dividend. Not only is your income cut, but the value of your investment declines as well - nasty. Looking at the data, we can see that Enprise Group has been paying a dividend for the past four years. This company's dividend has been unstable, and with a relatively short history, we think it's a little soon to draw strong conclusions about its long term dividend potential. During the past four-year period, the first annual payment was NZ$0.03 in 2016, compared to NZ$0.02 last year. The dividend has shrunk at around 9.6% a year during that period. Enprise Group's dividend has been cut sharply at least once, so it hasn't fallen by 9.6% every year, but this is a decent approximation of the long term change.

Story continues

We struggle to make a case for buying Enprise Group for its dividend, given that payments have shrunk over the past four years.

Dividend Growth Potential

With a relatively unstable dividend, and a poor history of shrinking dividends, it's even more important to see if EPS are growing. Over the past five years, it looks as though Enprise Group's EPS have declined at around 32% a year. With this kind of significant decline, we always wonder what has changed in the business. Dividends are about stability, and Enprise Group's earnings per share, which support the dividend, have been anything but stable.

We'd also point out that Enprise Group issued a meaningful number of new shares in the past year. Trying to grow the dividend when issuing new shares reminds us of the ancient Greek tale of Sisyphus - perpetually pushing a boulder uphill. Companies that consistently issue new shares are often suboptimal from a dividend perspective.

Conclusion

To summarise, shareholders should always check that Enprise Group's dividends are affordable, that its dividend payments are relatively stable, and that it has decent prospects for growing its earnings and dividend. We're a bit uncomfortable with the company paying a dividend while being loss-making, although at least the dividend was covered by free cash flow. Earnings per share have been falling, and the company has cut its dividend at least once in the past. From a dividend perspective, this is a cause for concern. Overall, Enprise Group falls short in several key areas here. Unless the investor has strong grounds for an alternative conclusion, we find it hard to get interested in a dividend stock with these characteristics.

You can also discover whether shareholders are aligned with insider interests by checking our visualisation of insider shareholdings and trades in Enprise Group stock.

Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our curated list of dividend stocks with a yield above 3%.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Im angry, he said, with typical candor. And a bit superior.

His characters are, too, even seemingly benign ones like Tim in the British version of The Office, who defaults to contempt, or John Watson in Sherlock, who struggles with post-traumatic stress. (And yes, I asked him if he would ever make more Sherlock episodes. His answer: Is that still on?) Lift the rumpled hood and Freemans nice guys arent really nice at all.

People just thought I was their best mate, he said. Im really not. Im not your best mate. That was always a shock to people.

Which suggests that his Breeders character is less outlier than alter ego. When I asked how he differed from Paul, he thought for a bit. I think hes probably less of a [expletive] than I am, he answered, using a very English obscenity. Freeman, who wore desert boots, cuffed jeans and an indigo chore coat, also said that he thought he dressed better than Paul. Fair.

Over lunch, Freeman alternated the occasional rant with acute self-awareness. He spoke much more frankly than most actors do, with brains and wit and the occasional joke so appalling that I could hear myself, when I listened to the recording of the conversation later, laughing in a way that bordered on hysteria.

Breeders began with a dream  an actual dream, a dream that felt a lot like life. In the dream, his children were making some terrific ruckus, and as Freeman walked upstairs to quiet them, he told himself not to yell at his children, that it wouldnt help, that it would only make him feel worse. Then he yelled anyway.

The next morning, he told his then-partner and Sherlock co-star, the actress Amanda Abbington (they split in 2016), that he thought it would make good material for a very dark comedy. He had seen other shows about parenting, like the BBCs Outnumbered. And as he watched them, he told me, he used to wonder why none of the parents were ever threatening to break someones nose.
The Member of Parliament for Odododiodio constituency, Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye has urged Speaker of Parliament, Prof Mike Ocquaye to withdraw his threat against the media.



Rt. Hon Prof Mike Oquaye, reportedly issued a stern warning to members of the Parliamentary Press Corps at Wednesday's sitting.



This follows a complaint from the Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu to the effect that journalists abandoned proceedings of the House to give audience to the MP for Ellembelle Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah who had concerns about the Energy sector aspect of the President's 2020 State of the Nation Address.



Speaking on the floor of the House, the Speaker indicated that he will not hesitate to declare journalists as strangers to parliament if due coverage is not given to the proceeding of the House by revoking their accreditation.



"It is forbidden if they have any doubt to abandoned the permission given them to cover proceeding in this honorable House and go outside the chamber itself and do some other work....... and I want to let the media know if that which was reported to have happened should happen anymore I will......on the fact that you are here as a guest......any, such act will make you unwelcomed guest...," he warned.



The Speaker is later said to have summoned the Dean of Parliamentary Press Corps and the Director of Public Affairs of Parliament over the conduct of journalists.



Nii Lante who was speaking on Peace FM morning show Kokrokoo said it is up to the media to cover what or who they deemed newsworthy.



"I dont believe anyone has the right to tell the media how to do their work. Im a Member of Parliament and I know but for the media our activities in parliament will not be known or even seen...



I think the Speaker should have called the leaders of the press corps first and tell them what went wrong, but with how he (Speaker) handled the case, I think it wasnt right. If they think whatever is happening in the chambers or outside the chambers is what will give them news I think they have the right to cover it. Sometimes, what happens outside the gallery is more newsworthy than inside. Those who informed the speaker created the problemI think he should withdraw the threat so that he will rather advise the media, he urged.

Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/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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The Delhi riots have led to the death of 38 people - one of them was Delhi Police head constable Ratan Lal, who succumbed to bullet injuries. While condolences for the slain police officer poured in from every quarter, IPS officer Arun Bothra sought help from social media to assist the family of the martyred cop monetarily.

Bothra had taken to Twitter to offer his condolences to Ratan Lal. "No idea if Head Constable Ratan Lal was pro-CAA or anti-CAA. We only know that he was just 42 years old. While he was performing his duty his family - wife, two daughters and a son were waiting for him at home," said Bothra. The tweet that had a picture of the family quickly went viral.

He followed up the tweet and said that many people have asked him for ways to help the family and said that he was working on it.

Many friends here have asked for way to help family of Head Constable #RatanLal. I am in touch with them. Will share details soon. Thank you all for standing with family of martyred cop https://t.co/qVmz8KVOOO - Arun Bothra (@arunbothra) February 25, 2020

Yesterday, Bothra shared the details of the constable's wife's bank account details. "Took time to obtain and verify as shocked family was not in position to communicate," he said. Soon after, some users got back and said that they tried funding but the account appeared to be inactive.

Verified bank account of wife of martyred Head Constable #RatanLal is here: Mrs. Poonam Bari A/C no. 33150100023786 Bank of Baroda IFSC Code - BARB0BURARI (Fifth Character is Zero) Took time to obtain & verify as shocked family was not in position to communicate. https://t.co/eggggGYYAz pic.twitter.com/nwsGj6lIyE - Arun Bothra (@arunbothra) February 28, 2020

Bothra took to Twitter to say that the account has been inactive. He got in touch with the bank and got the account activated. He also said that he spoke to Ratan Lal's wife, brother, the bank manager and the SHO before posting the details on Twitter.

As of my condition, I've donated a small amount to her account. Hope, ppl from all faiths will help her by donating her in this distressful time at large pic.twitter.com/k8B6j34V7D - Singhdeo (@Singhdeo_Uk) February 28, 2020

Thank you sir pic.twitter.com/XgWkmHDEMT - Rajendra Joshi (@joshiRD4) February 28, 2020

Done Account is now active pic.twitter.com/MXJwYptd0g - Gdo hr (@VerdeUmesh) February 28, 2020

Done sir . Thanks for putting these details. pic.twitter.com/4smr6KEIgj - Bearded Biker (@i_am_gunjan) February 28, 2020

The Delhi government has also announced a compensation of Rs 1 crore for Ratan Lal. "As per the Delhi government's policy, we will give Rs 1 crore to head constable Ratan Lal's family," said CM Arvind Kejriwal at the Delhi Legislative Assembly.

Ratan Lal who died on duty was paid a grand tribute by the Delhi Police at New Police Lines, Kingsway Camp. Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik was also present along with over 1,000 colleagues of Ratan Lal. "It is a sad day for us, Ratan Lal was a courageous officer," said Patnaik.

Also read: Panic Mat-Carona! Anand Mahindra searches new phrase for stock market crash

Also read: This is the most expensive piggy bank in the world
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020 12:26 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20672807c 1 National coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia,WORLD-DREAM-CRUISE,Sebaru-Island,Sebaru-Island-Jakarta Free

Indonesian authorities are moving fast to ensure that the facilities on Sebaru Kecil Island are finished for observing the evacuees from the World Dream cruise ship in Hong Kong, which was released from quarantine on Feb. 9.

The World Dream crewmen had already tested negative during their quarantine in Hong Kong, but authorities are taking no chances amid concerns over the increasing spread of the novel coronavirus outside China.

The uninhabited island, which is part of the Thousand Islands archipelagic regency of Jakarta, will be "home" for 188 Indonesian nationals who arrived on Wednesday afternoon to start their 14 days of observation.

The newly refurbished facilities were inspected on Thursday by the joint team managing the quarantine, comprising personnel from the Office of the Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister, the Health Ministry, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police.

Read also: BNPB promises better facilities for quarantined World Dream crew members

The necessary medical and security equipment were shipped on Wednesday from Jakarta aboard the TNI's KRI Banda Aceh and unloaded on Sebaru early Thursday. The TNI also provided a helicopter in the case of emergencies.

More than 760 personnel from the TNI and the BNPB, as well as a medical team from the Health Ministry, have been deployed to Sebaru for the 14-day observation protocol as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Marine Corps soldiers walked after the Indonesian Humanitarian Relief Task Force Ceremony on Sebaru Island in Mako Kolinlamil, Jakarta, Wednesday (02/26/2020). A total of 195 personnel of the Integrated Joint Task Command (Kogasgabpad) consisting of TNI-Polri, BNPB, Ministry of Health, and Seribu Islands Regency government officials were seconded to handle the observation of 188 Indonesian citizens from ABK World Dream on Sebaru Island. (Antara/M Risyal Hidayat)

We are already 85 percent ready. What remains are the supporting facilities, TNI commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto said in a media statement from the BNPB released on Thursday.

On inspecting the team's progress, Hadi instructed that all preparations be finished before 8 a.m. on Friday.

The crewmen were transferred at sea to the Navy's Dr. Soeharso Hospital Ship on Wednesday afternoon in the Durian Strait of Karimun regency, Riau Islands province, and then directly transported to Sebaru island.

Read also: Navy quarantines 188 Indonesian World Dream crew members in Jakarta

BNPB logistics and equipment director Rustian emphasized that the facilities for Indonesia's "second edition" of quarantine on Sebaru were better than that provided in Natuna for the first group of 238 evacuees from Hubei.

Sebaru Kecil Island was once the site of a drug rehabilitation center, and retains most of the center's structural facilities.

Activities on Sebaru Kecil Island in the Thousand Islands, Jakarta, Monday (2/26/2020). The island will be the site of observation for 188 WNI ABK World Dream. (Antara/Akbar Nugroho Gumay)

The island had eight well-maintained buildings that were being repurposed for the quarantine, said Rustian. Isolation rooms and health posts were also being prepared.

The evacuated World Dream crewmen would take up residence in the main building, which had been modified for use as an observation center, Rustian said, who added that men and women would stay in separate buildings.

Sebaru island is a home. There are decent bedrooms, all necessary facilities and is generally much better than Natuna. It can accommodate around 200 people, he said. (syk)
Students in Lucknow found ISC (Class 12) Hindi paper to be straight forward. They said the paper was simple and easy.

Avika Suri, a student of St Teresas College, Aashiana said that question paper was very easy. She is expecting good marks. Akhilesh Shukla said that questions paper was awesome and very easy.

Another student from the same school, Sumedha Mishra said that paper was simple and fantastic. Areeba Khan said that paper was as expected. The paper had direct questions with no twist and confusion. It was altogether very easy paper. Yet another student from St Teresa College, Vivek Srivastava said that paper was awesome. He was able to do all the questions.

Hindi teacher at St. Teresas College, Aashiana, Usha Chauhan said the ISC Examination 2019-2020, Hindi paper came from all important chapters. The paper was very straight forward.

All the questions were well-practiced by the children. Children may expect this to be a chart buster and most scoring paper out of all, she said.

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The Russian Defense Ministry said that the Turkish military who came under fire from Syrian troops were among the advancing militants.



"Turkish military who were in the terrorist units battle formations came under Syrian troops fire near the inhabited community of Behun," TASS cited the ministry as saying.



The ministry noted that the militants from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terror group (one of the names of Jabhat al-Nusra, outlawed in Russia) made an attempt to launch a large-scale offensive in Idlib.



As for the Russian Aerospace Forces, they did not carry out airstrikes in the area close to Behun where Turkish servicemen had been killed, the Russian ministry stressed.
Opposition parties in West Bengal on Friday dubbed the Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) meeting as "Samjhauta baithak" between Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, where major issues like CAA-NRC-NPR were not discussed.

Besides, the parties wondered why Banerjee reached Bhubaneswar on Tuesday while the EZC meeting was scheduled on Friday.

"This is nothing but a samjhautha baithak (meeting of understanding) where they have a reached a consensus of live and let live, eat and let eat," Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said while participating in a rally to protest against the Delhi violence.

Shah and Banerjee do not have any difference now and that is why no discussion was held on contentious issues of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the proposed nationwide NRC and the National Population Register in the meeting, he claimed.

"When the entire country is asking for the resignation of Shah for the Delhi violence, Mamata has gone to attend the meeting in Bhubaneswar. There was no discussion on the violent situation in Delhi nor about the security of the thousands of students from West Bengal staying there," Chowdhury said.

Banerjee, however, said she raised the issue of violence in Delhi in the meeting.

Presided over by the Union home minister, the 24th meeting of the EZC comprising Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal was held in Bhubaneswar on Friday.

The meeting was attended by chief ministers of Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar. Jharkhand Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon represented his state.

Chowdhury claimed that Shah and Banerjee only talked about the cyclones -- Bulbul and Fani -- at the meeting, which was not the appropriate forum.

The TMC should have taken up the matter before the Union budget, he added



"Will Shah create a new budget for Mamata Banerjee now?" asked Chowdhury, who had requested the TMC chief not to attend the EZC meeting in the wake of the Delhi violence.

"A few days ago, Sonia Gandhi ji had invited her to a meeting of secular anti-BJP parties in New Delhi, but she did not attend that. She does not go to New Delhi even if the prime minister calls her. She had skipped the National Development Council meeting. But she went to Bhubaneswar four days before. I do not see any logic behind this," he said.

Questioning who benefited from this meeting, West Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra said Banerjee sat with Shah at the meeting, "whom she had once called a murderer".

Senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty alleged that Banerjee held a one-on-one meeting with Shah to protect her nephew -- TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee -- from the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate.

"Why are you (Banerjee) sitting there for four days? What's the logic? The official meeting was today, but earlier, there was private one-on-one meeting (between Banerjee and Shah) to shield her nephew Abhishek Banerjee," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bernie Sanders may beat Elizabeth Warren in her backyard.

A new poll released Friday finds Sanders as the chosen candidate of 25% of likely Democratic voters in the Bay State. Among voters surveyed in the WBUR poll, Warren was the top pick for 17% of likely voters. Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg followed in third with 14% followed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg with 13%.

Former Vice President Joe Biden - who recently made a last-minute pitch to Bay State voters - saw single-digit support among likely voters.

The poll was of 426 likely voters and was conducted Feb. 23 - 26.

Sanders did best among men - with 28% polled expressing support for the Vermont senator, compared to 9% for Warren. Both Sanders and Warren did well among women, with both neck-and-neck at 23% and 22% respectively.

Sanders is largely considered the Democratic frontrunner following the Nevada caucuses. Ahead of the South Carolina primaries on Saturday, he leads with 45 delegates, followed by Buttigieg with 26, Biden with 15, Warren with 8 and Amy Klobuchar with 7.

On Super Tuesday, voters in Massachusetts and 13 states, the District of Columbia and other territories will head to the polls, where 1,357 delegates  about a third of the 3,979 contested nationwide  will be divided proportionally among candidates who earn at least 15% support. A candidate would need 1,991 to win the nomination on the first ballot at the Democratic convention.

In Massachusetts, 91 delegates are up for grabs on Tuesday.

The Democratic nominee needs 1,991 delegates to win the nomination at the Democratic National Convention to be held July 13-16 in Milwaukee.

Sanders is making a last-minute push in Massachusetts ahead of Super Tuesday. He will hold a campaign rally Friday night in Springfield and be on Boston Common for a second rally Saturday afternoon.

The Springfield rally is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Friday, at the MassMutual Center on Main Street in downtown Springfield. Doors will open at 6 p.m., according to Sanders campaign website.

On Saturday, the rally is scheduled to start at noon and supporters are asked to start gathering at 10 a.m. on Boston Common.

Both are free and open to the public, with entrance on a first-come basis.

Sanders campaigned in Massachusetts during his 2016 presidential but ultimately Hillary Clinton won by a narrow margin. In the less crowded field, Clinton managed to capture the majority of Massachusetts Democratic votes.

Warren was elected to the Senate following a hard-fought 2012 race against Sen. Scott Brown, who won the seat in a special election following the death of Edward M. Kennedy.

She became the first woman to represent Massachusetts in the Senate and women largely elected her to the seat. Women voters overwhelmingly voted for her while Brown received the majority of the male vote.

In her victory speech, she thanked all the women of Massachusetts who taught a scrappy first-time candidate how to get into the ring and win.

She won a second six-year term to the Senate in 2018, handily besting GOP challenger Geoff Diehl.

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A man is dead after a crash involving a Waller ISD school bus, according to the Harris County Sheriffs Office.

The crash happened Friday morning along FM 2920 near Hunters Creek Way. The driver of a Toyota Camry collided with a septic truck before making minor contact with the Waller ISD school bus, according to authorities.
Opinion Article

28 February 2020

Seasonality and Market Performance

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As with most leisure markets, particularly those driven by weather, the Cape Cod market has a high degree of seasonality. In the last three years, peak-season August occupancy levels have averaged in the mid-80s, while low-season January occupancy levels have averaged in the low 20s. Both local hoteliers and the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce have been mildly successful in expanding shoulder seasons in April, May, September, and October. Occupancy at upscale, upper-upscale, and luxury hotels on the Cape increased 5% from May 2017 to May 2019, and 6% from September 2017 to September 2018.

In addition to occupancy growth, ADR growth in these three chain scales has improved, as well, increasing 5% year-over-year 2018 to 2019 during the period from January through August, resulting in an overall RevPAR increase. From 2009 through 2018, RevPAR's compound annual growth rate (CAGR) reached nearly 7% among upscale, upper-upscale, and luxury hotels.

New Lodging Options

While new hotel openings have been limited in recent years, new lodging options have infiltrated the Cape Cod market. Airbnb and other short-term rental platforms are perhaps the most significant threat to hotels on the Cape. Wendy Northcross of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce noted, "Cape Cod [Chamber of Commerce] has been tracking short-term rental data from AirDNA for several years, and we've noted an over 200% increase in supply from 2016 through November 2018a significant growth factor of online listings. The data now show the Cape Cod market is the second largest short-term rental market in Massachusetts by revenue and supply." Despite this significant increase in short-term rental supply, there has been little impact on the aforementioned hotel chain scales' overall performance.

Also worth noting, another non-traditional lodging option coming to market is AutoCamp Cape Cod in Falmouth (under construction). AutoCamp is a glamping experience that converts Airstream trailers into luxury lodging accommodations. AutoCamp currently operates three sites in California (Russian River, Yosemite, and Santa Barbara). AutoCamp Cape Cod will be the company's first location on the east coast, continuing the trend of alternative, unique lodging options on the Cape.

AutoCamp Cape Cod Club House Rendering

AutoCamp

Headwinds

While alternative lodging options have minimally affected the Cape-wide hotel market, and even though new supply is limited, unpredictable events like weather and shark activity seem to have substantial impact on lodging performance. In September 2018, a fatal shark attack marked the first shark-related fatality in more than 80 years. While it is hard to determine if this had a direct impact on lodging performance, occupancy decreased roughly 4% from the summer of 2018 to the summer of 2019. Moreover, a series of severe storms in July 2019 caused occupancy to decrease.

Although unpredictable events shall remain a threat, the lack of new supply planned and the market's proximity and accessibility to/from major metropolitan areas will continue to bolster demand.

HVS continues to regularly consult in this region, with a nearby office in Boston, Massachusetts, led by Brian Bisema. Brian Bisema and Roth Johnson are ready to assist you on consulting needs. Drew Noecker with HVS Brokerage & Advisory can also discuss any Cape Cod assets you may be considering selling in 2020.
ROSEBURG, Ore. -- The Douglas Education Service District opened a new alternative school last month that specializes in helping foster children get ahead in the classroom.

The Horizons program is in partnership with the Douglas Education Service District, Douglas County Juvenile Department and Roseburg Public Schools.

Coordinators said many of the students are credits behind due to frequency transition in the foster system. They said the programs goal is to help them fulfill academic requirements.

Right now, there are 27 students enrolled in Horizons. Coordinators said they said the students ages range from 11 to 18 years old and are separated into middle school and high school classes.

Coordinators also said a student could stay in the program for at least six months to a full school year. Then, theyll help the student transition to whatevers next. They said that could be the traditional school system, the workforce or college.

Bryan Hinson, the special education director for the Douglas Education Service District, said this program is the first of its kind in Oregon. He said he hopes it will expand in other communities throughout the state.

I think this could be a model that could be replicated throughout the state and it could serve these children that have such high need in a much better way, said Hinson.

Hinson said the students come from three different group homes in Douglas County. Staff at the group homes transport the students to the school Monday through Friday.

The students are there for a full school day starting at 9:30 a.m. They also travel to the Phoenix Charter School each day for electives.
BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, will visit Japan from Friday to Saturday at the invitation of the head of Japan's national security council Shigeru Kitamura, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian announced Thursday in Beijing.

During his visit, Yang, also director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, will hold the two countries' new round of high level political dialogue with Kitamura, Zhao said.
France on Thursday summoned Mali's ambassador after dismissing as "false" and "unacceptable" his claims of rowdy behaviour by French soldiers helping the West African nation combat an Islamic insurgency. Toumani Djime Diallo was summoned to the foreign ministry, where "we expressed our indignation at his baseless and shocking remarks on behalf of an allied country in the fight against terrorism," the ministry told AFP. France has 5,100 soldiers in Operation Barkhane, a mission to roll back jihadism in Mali as well as Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Chad in the Sahel region of Africa. But its presence has been criticised by some in the region, who balk at the prominent military role played by a former colonial power. On Wednesday, Diallo complained to the French Senate of "problems" caused by what he said were French Foreign Legion soldiers deployed on Malian soil. He pointed to "excesses" in the capital Bamako. "At times you see them in the red-light districts of Bamako, their bodies completely covered in tattoos, behaving in a way that does not correspond to the [French] army we know," Diallo said. "It makes people afraid, it makes tongues wag." Making such allegations while French troops are risking their lives to protect citizens was "indecent," Defence Minister Florence Parly's office said in a statement sent to AFP. "Rather than channelling and spreading false accusations, we expect the ambassador of Mali to devote all his energy to implementing the Pau summit and achieving success for everyone," the statement added tartly, referring to a meeting between France and its Sahel allies last month. The Malian presidency has yet to respond to France's objections. - 'Down with France' - There were "hardly any" French soldiers stationed in Bamako, said the statement, adding the charges were "unacceptable and indecent when France has resolutely committed itself to fighting terrorist groups that threaten the people of the Sahel." France's deployment is by far the largest foreign contribution to the fight against extremists aligned with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. Last month, hundreds of people gathered in Bamako to protest the presence of French soldiers, holding aloft placards reading "Down with France, Barkhane must leave" and "France is a brake on our development." Such criticism has riled French officials, especially after 13 soldiers were killed in a helicopter collision in Mali while pursuing jihadist fighters -- the deadliest toll for the French military in nearly four decades. Last month in Pau in southwest France, French President Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of five Sahel countries pledged to jointly bolster efforts against jihadists fighting the increasingly deadly insurgency. Macron has denounced "foreign powers" for stirring up anti-French sentiment amid reports that Russian paramilitary fighters were increasingly active in the Sahel. And he has complained of a lack of "clear political condemnation of anti-French feelings" on the ground, saying he was loath to send soldiers to countries where their presence was not "clearly wanted." Despite the French presence and a 13,000-member UN peacekeeping force in Mali dubbed MINUSMA, the conflict that erupted in the north of that country in 2012 has since spread to its neighbours, especially Burkina Faso and Niger. Thousands of civilians and hundreds of soldiers have been killed and more than a million people have been displaced. France has lost 41 soldiers. burs-dla/mlr/pma Criticism of France's military deployment in the Sahel has raised hackles in Paris -- dozens of French troops have died in the fight against jihadism
A Perth business owner has unwittingly found himself in the middle of a drug sting after he received a mysterious package addressed to his local mechanic shop last month.

The man told police he received a package containing boxes of shock absorbers he hadnt ordered to his northern suburbs automotive servicing business on January 13.

On closer examination, a number of the absorbers concealed a white powder that was later identified as cocaine.

The white powder found by police. Credit:WA Police

The next day, a man called the business and asked about the package.
Trieste, Italy meet Columbus, Ohio. Ciao! Hello!

Two large insurers  Ohios Nationwide and Italys Generali  are teaming up to serve commercial insurance customers with global needs. The insurers announced they have formed a joint venture called N2G to address the property/casualty insurance needs of multinational organizations with U.S operations as well as U.S.-based firms with multinational operations.

N2G brings together Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., one of the largest insurance and financial services companies in the U.S. with $48 billion in revenues, and Generali, one of the largest global insurance and asset management providers, through its property/casualty unit Generali Global Corporate & Commercial (GC&C). Generali is present in 50 countries, with a total premium income of more than  66 billion in 2018. Among Nationwides affiliated companies is surplus lines insurer Scottsdale Insurance.

The commercial P/C gross written premium in multinational programs is estimated at $33 billion in the U.S. and Europe.

N2G will exclusively distribute and administer insurance or multinational exposures on behalf of both organizations. Business to N2G will be sourced through independent agents, brokers and wholesalers. N2G will leverage Nationwides U.S. based brand recognition and distribution with Generalis footprint as a leading global insurer with a large international network and marketing capabilities across the property/casualty spectrum. Nationwide will assume U.S. risk exposures and Generali (directly or through its partners) will assume non-U.S. exposures.

Bill Skapof will lead N2G as chief executive officer. Skapof joined Generali in 2015 as head of GC&C US, executive vice president and chief underwriting officer, working out of New York. Skapof is a senior P/C underwriting sales executive with 30 plus years experience. His resume includes six years at Zurich Insurance, eight years at AIG and 17 years at ACE Group (now Chubb).

The executive team also includes Warren Berey, head of underwriting and operations; Jospeh Vanderhoff, chief production officer; and Jennifer Winters, vice president-underwriting.

Joint Venture N2Gs Offerings N2G will make admitted and non-admitted solutions available and promises technology to provide easy quoting and dedicated specialized claim service. According to the new ventures website, N2G will offer these coverages: GLOBAL PROPERTY: Written on a bespoke form with up to $250 million of global capacity available, and the ability to issue admitted policies in 160+ countries. GENERAL LIABILITY: Offering customizable, commercial ISO-based CGL coverage incorporating the 2013 language. Guaranteed cost, SIR and deductible structures available. COMMERCIAL AUTO: Serving clients with commercial ISO-based Automobile coverage, including Liability, Auto Physical Damage and Hired and Non-owned Auto for small- to medium-sized fleets for U.S. operations. WORKERS COMPENSATION: Coverage for work-related injury and time away from work. Statutory limits (medical, wages, etc.) and Employers Liability limits up to $1 million. FOREIGN CASUALTY PACKAGE: From Exporters Package to complex Controlled Master Programs with the capability to issue admitted policies in 160+ countries. Coverage is offered on a modular basis, including Commercial General Liability, Contingent Auto Liability, Foreign Voluntary Workers Compensation, Business Travel Accident, Emergency & Trip Assistance and Multinational Property. UMBRELLA: Providing up to $10 million of excess capacity to ensure the necessary limits are in place for a worst-case scenario. Offering the ability to schedule multiple underlying coverages, including U.S. General Liability, U.S. Commercial Auto, U.S. Employers Liability and Foreign Casualty.

N2G will be based in New Jersey and focus solely on serving the needs of multinational commercial insurance clients, opening for business in second quarter 2020.

We are proud to join forces with a strong partner like Generali, combining our trusted customer-focused protection with their existing multinational footprint, said Mark Berven, president & COO, Nationwide Property and Casualty. This partnership between two insurance powerhouses will elevate the solutions we can offer to commercial members to help them protect their business across the globe with extraordinary care.

This partnership is part of our strategic plan 2021 to be a Life-Time Partner to our customers, offering them innovative and personalized solutions, Marco Sesana, Country Manager Italy & CEO of Generali Italia and Global Business Lines Generali said. Today we are proud to announce this joint venture that brings together Nationwides brand recognition and distribution with Generali Global Corporate & Commercials extensive global network and local knowledge in over 160 countries around the world. N2G will be fully equipped to offer a comprehensive and seamless multinational program to its customers he added.

Nationwide is rated A+ by both A.M. Best and Standard & Poors while Generali is rated A by A.M. Best and A- by Fitch.

Topics Mergers Auto USA Commercial Lines Business Insurance Property Property Casualty Casualty Generali Life Assurance (Thailand) Plc.
ALBANY - Thousands of families and individuals remain on public housing and Section 8 waiting lists in the Capital Region, despite New Yorks commitment to preserve and construct units in the area and across the state.

As part of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos 2020 budget, his administration has pledged funds to preserve or build 62,000 affordable and supportive housing units. Of those, 3,629 will be added or preserved in the Capital Region, according to the state Division of Homes and Community Renewal. About 32 percent of those units are new construction, amounting to just over 1,100 in new affordable or supportive housing units.

The Albany Housing Authority waitlist for public and Section 8 housing alone hovers at 10,000, with families or individuals possibly counted twice if theyre on both lists, Executive Director Steve Longo said.

In Troy, thousands more wait on lists for public housing complexes as well as Section 8 vouchers, Troy Housing Authority Executive Director Deborah Witkowski said.

What they all demonstrate is a high demand for low-income housing, and so (the funding) puts a dent, it preserves public housing and affordable housing, but, as you can see, we got a long way to go with the need, said Bill Simmons, president of the New York State Housing Authority Directors Association, which represents 73 housing authorities across the state.

Tens of thousands of families sit on wait lists with various housing agencies in hopes of a unit opening up or additional Section 8 vouchers being granted, but often the lists remain closed to new applications for years. Simmons, who serves as executive director of the Syracuse Housing Authority, said their waitlist hasnt opened in 11 years.

The federal government no longer has the appetite to fund public housing, so housing authorities are partnering with private developers to maintain and rehab aging infrastructure, he said.

In the last several years the Troy Housing Authority has only received $1.9 million from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for capital improvements to all its properties, Witkowski said.

That has pushed housing agencies to shift to the Rental Assistance Program, RAD, facilitated by HUD. The program, which helps tackle the over $35 billion in deferred maintenance needs for public housing across the country, turns public housing units into Section 8 with a long-term contract to keep those units affordable. In turn, authorities can partner with private developers to access a broader range of subsidies and financing tools for the necessary improvements.

The privatization of affordable housing has been criticized by some who fear private ownership will not be held accountable and will possibly be more strict, fueling evictions.

Rents will continue to be subsidized, but the operations and maintenance will fall upon the private owner under RAD, said Paul Feldman, executive director of the Saratoga Springs Housing Authority.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Even if a developer were to take it over, it's still a restrictive use, and they would have to run it as affordable housing, he said.

Housing authority officials said they have found private developers who are interested in partnering with them to create mixed-income housing, which is the direction affordable housing is headed: toward reducing the concentration of poverty.

In Saratoga Springs, the Vecino Group led efforts to build over 150 units of affordable housing in the city. Mosaic Village in Cohoes, another Vecino project, will provide 67 new mixed-income units. The Intrada Saratoga Springs and Mosaic Village are two mixed-income, affordable housing projects made possible through state funding and partnerships with a private developer, said Brian Butry, a spokesman for the Homes and Community Renewal.

Efforts by the state include a focus on housing the homeless as well as veterans, but advocates and state lawmakers continue to fight for more funds to address housing issues. Most recently, legislators urged Cuomo to include Home Stability Support in the budget to help those facing homelessness keep their homes, while also relocating others from shelters and places unfit for living.

Mark Hamilton, vice president of the authority directors association and executive director of the Plattsburgh Housing Authority, stressed that to move forward a variety of affordable housing options should be offered with the goal of creating mixed-income neighborhoods.

Its really important as we move forward and develop housing that we dont just develop one type of housing because we are going to be alienating people who dont qualify, he said. We need to make sure we continue to develop a buffet of options for those families.
One of the qualities that fans of Democratic front-runner Bernie Sanders like most about him is that hes been saying the same things for decades: on universal health care, on income inequality, on political revolution and so on.

But theres one big issue that Sanders has reversed himself on  and it could complicate his path to the nomination.

The issue is the role of so-called superdelegates at the Democratic convention. These are the elected officials and party leaders who are automatically seated but whose votes only come into play after the first ballot.

At last weeks debate in Las Vegas, moderator Chuck Todd asked each candidate whether the person with the most delegates at the end of this primary season [should] be the nominee, even if they are short of a majority.

Bernie Sanders at a campaign event in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Wednesday. (Gerald Herbert/AP)

Sanders currently leads the partys delegate count. The latest polls suggest that he will widen his lead next week, when 16 states and territories  including the big prizes of California and Texas  vote on Super Tuesday. But as Todd pointed out, the same polls also suggest that, because of this years fragmented field and the way delegates are apportioned, theres a very good chance none of you are going to have enough delegates to the Democratic National Convention to clinch this nomination.

To get nominated on the first ballot in Milwaukee this July, a candidate needs a majority of pledged delegates  the ones who are selected by voters in the primaries and caucuses. If no one prevails in the first round, the convention proceeds to a second ballot, on which the 3,979 pledged delegates are free to back whichever candidate they choose, and the 771 superdelegates also get to cast a vote.

The question Todd posed was whether the candidates would agree in advance that the party should nominate whichever candidate comes into the convention with the most delegates.

If that happens, I want all of your opinions on this, Todd said. Yes or no, leading person with the delegates, should they be the nominee or not?

Story continues

The Democratic presidential debate in Charleston, S.C. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

One by one, every candidate on stage  Mike Bloomberg, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar  offered up the same answer.

No, Biden said. Let the process work its way out.

Not necessarily, Buttigieg agreed. Not until theres a majority.

Finally, Todd came to Sanders. He was the only candidate who answered yes.

The will of the people should prevail, Sanders said. The person who has the most votes should become the nominee.

Sanderss position makes perfect populist sense  especially for a candidate who won the most votes in the first three nominating contests and is leading in the national polls.

The problem is that Sanders spent much of 2016 arguing that the person who had the most votes that year  his rival Hillary Clinton  shouldnt become the nominee, and that superdelegates, defying the will of the people, should choose him instead.

At a CNN town hall Wednesday in Charleston, S.C., Warren pointed out that this was, in fact, Bernies position in 2016, that it should not go to the person who had a plurality.

And remember, his last play was to superdelegates, she added.

Warren is correct on all counts.

Its tough to untangle Sanderss 2016 stance on superdelegates, if only because it kept shifting. In February of that year  after Sanders shocked the Democratic establishment by effectively tying Clinton in Iowa and trouncing her in New Hampshire  his campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said on MSNBC that if the people in the states choose Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton, I cannot imagine that the superdelegates would overturn the will of the people. In 2016, the rules were different than they are now: Superdelegates could vote on the first ballot, boosting their chosen candidate to a majority, and they could make their preferences known long before the convention. Clinton, the Democratic insider, had already amassed a huge superdelegate lead by that time. The Sanders campaigns argument was the same as the one hes making today: Support the candidate who has the most votes.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders at a campaign rally in Raleigh, N.C., Nov. 3, 2016. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Then ... something changed. After a 48-point loss in South Carolina, Sanders fell behind Clinton in the pledged delegate count. He never caught up. As a result, his arguments about superdelegates grew increasingly baroque. The turning point came in late March. Fresh off resounding wins in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington state, Sanders debuted two new talking points.

The first was that superdelegates should rethink their position with Hillary Clinton because some polls showed Sanders doing better in a hypothetical matchup against Donald Trump. (At that point, Clinton was ahead by roughly 675 delegates.)

The responsibility that superdelegates have is to decide what is best for this country and what is best for the Democratic Party, Sanders elaborated a few weeks later, on May 1. And if those superdelegates conclude that Bernie Sanders is the best candidate, the strongest candidate to defeat Trump and anybody else, yes, I would very much welcome their support.

Sanderss second talking point almost directly contradicted the first. The will of the people was no longer paramount, Sanders seemed to argue in the same late March interview, except in states where we win by 40 or 50 points. In that case, the senator continued, I think [the superdelegates] own constituents are going to say to them, Hey, why dont you support the people of our state, vote for Sanders?

If I win a state with 70 percent of the votes, you know what? I think I'm entitled to those superdelegates, Sanders added in May. I think the superdelegates should reflect what the people in the state want.

Either way, Sanders said, it is virtually impossible for Secretary Clinton to reach the majority of convention delegates by June 14  that is the last day that a primary will be held  with pledged delegates alone. ... She will need superdelegates to take her over the top at the convention in Philadelphia.

In other words, he concluded, the convention will be a contested contest.

As analysts noted back then, Sanders wouldnt have caught up to Clinton even if all the superdelegates from states he won in a landslide suddenly came to his rescue. And so his team kept arguing that even superdelegates from Clinton states should jump ship, either because he was more electable (when surveys showed him beating Trump) or because he had more momentum (when he hit a favorable part of the calendar). In fact, they continued to make this self-serving argument through the last big primary in California on June 7  even as Clinton was poised to win a majority of pledged delegates that day.

Superdelegates are different than pledged delegates, Sanders told NBCs Lester Holt. Superdelegates have a very important decision to make.

Are you going to try to turn them? Holt asked.

Yeah, we are, Sanders said. Were on the phone right now.

Youd be defying history, Holt interjected. Youd be defying the will of the voters.

Well, defying history is what this campaign has been about, Sanders replied.

Sanders didnt officially endorse Clinton until more than a month later  in part because he was trying to leverage his support in exchange for the power to rewrite the rules for 2020 at that summers convention in Philadelphia.

Ultimately, Sanders got his wish, and his team was largely responsible for the rule change that relegated superdelegates to the second ballot this time around.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

That means that Sanders 2020 isnt just flip-flopping from 2016. By insisting that his rivals should simply step aside if arrives in Milwaukee with a plurality of pledged delegates, but short of a majority, hes effectively trying to get around the very rules he put in place.

Those are the rules [Bernie] wanted to write, Warren said during her CNN town hall Wednesday. Everybody got into the race thinking that was the set of rules. I don't see how come you get to change it just because he now thinks there's an advantage to him to doing it.

Sanders is right to worry about what might happen at a contested convention. As the New York Times reported Thursday, dozens of interviews with Democratic establishment leaders this week show that they are not just worried about Mr. Sanderss candidacy, but are also willing to risk intraparty damage to stop his nomination at the national convention in July if they get the chance. In fact, after Sanders won the Nevada caucuses, the Times interviewed 93 party officials, all of them superdelegates, and found overwhelming opposition to handing the Vermont senator the nomination if he arrived with the most delegates but fell short of a majority.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brushed off a question Thursday about whether Democrats would support a plurality candidate at the convention this summer.

The person who we nominate will be the person who has a majority plus one, Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference. That may happen before they ever get to the convention, but well see.

This is why Warren, for instance, said yes on Wednesday when CNN asked whether she would continue campaigning through the convention even if another candidate arrived ahead of you in the delegate count.

As long as they want me to stay in this race, she said of her supporters and small-dollar donors, Im staying in this race.

Theres five months to go until Milwaukee. Sanderss rivals could falter and fade; he still has a better chance to secure a pledged-delegate majority than anybody else. But if he doesnt, another candidate might start to look more electable. Someone else might start to gain momentum.

Sure, Sanders and his supporters will cry foul and shout about will of the people. But dont expect the superdelegates to be swayed. After all, he said the opposite four years ago, when saying the opposite suited him. His opponents this time are signaling that they will hold him to his position.

Read more from Yahoo News:
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 02:54:20|Editor: huaxia

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DAMASCUS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- At least 11 Syrian soldiers were killed on Friday by strikes from Turkish drones in the northwestern province of Idlib, a war monitor reported.

The drone strike targeted the Syrian positions in the area between the Maarat al-Numan city and Saraqeb city in the eastern countryside of Idlib on the M5 highway that links Damascus in the south with Aleppo in the north, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Turkish forces also shelled the same area with artillery, said the observatory. It added that the Syrian forces also targeted areas where Turkish forces are present, leaving unknown losses.

The attack comes hours after the Turkish forces killed 16 Syrian soldiers in a previous attack.

The Turkish attacks were kind of reprisal to the killing of over 30 Turkish soldiers by Syrian airstrikes the day earlier.

The recent showdown reflects the tension between Syria and Russia on one side and Turkey on the other side.

Also on Friday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry released a statement, renewing accusation that Turkey is supporting the "terrorist groups" in Idlib.

The Syrian army also said in a statement that its forces will continue to fight terrorism.
An Alberta truck driver has been found guilty of shooting a 16-year-old girl in the face at a Manitoba highway truck stop.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An Alberta truck driver has been found guilty of shooting a 16-year-old girl in the face at a Manitoba highway truck stop.

Randall Neil McCargar, 62, appeared shocked, then shook his head and smirked upon learning the verdict Thursday in a Winnipeg courtroom.

"I have to disagree with you, your honour," McCargar told Queens Bench Justice Scott Abel, who convicted McCargar of two counts of discharging a firearm with intent to wound or endanger life, and one count of possessing a firearm without a licence.

McCargar, who represented himself at trial last fall, is set to be sentenced in March.

Asked if he intended to secure a lawyer for sentencing, McCargar told Abel: "Nope, not at all Im sick of lawyers."

In a police statement provided to court at trial, McCargar alleged he had been assaulted by a man and two women as he sat in his truck outside a Petro-Canada station in Brandon on July 12, 2018. The attackers demanded money and threatened to kill him, before fleeing in a red SUV, he said.

While being interviewed by police at the scene, McCargar went from victim to suspect, after the officer learned a 16-year-old girl was being treated in Brandon hospital for shotgun wounds to the face, allegedly inflicted at the same location.

On Thursday, Abel accepted McCargar was assaulted and robbed, but rejected his claims the truck driver did not shoot at the fleeing vehicle.

Police seized a shotgun from McCargars truck and found three spent shell casings at the scene. McCargars DNA was found on both the shotgun and shells.

"The accused may have been justified in discharging the shotgun, if a firearm had been used in the cab of the semi, while being assaulted by several people," Abel wrote in a 58-page decision.

"However, once the assailants left the cab of the semi, the assault ended.

"Once the assailants left the cab of the semi and were driving away, the accuseds use of force, by way of firing the shotgun at the truck, was more than what was necessary to prevent the repetition of the assault."

The now-18-year-old female victim is not alleged to have been a participant any crime, but was waiting in a pickup truck when the 40-year-old male driver, Jared Sikala, and three female passengers allegedly returned to the vehicle and quickly drove away.

"I remember hearing a big bang, then I couldnt hear anything for a long time," the woman testified at trial in Brandon. "All I could hear was ringing, I didnt know I was shot until I could start hearing I felt my face and saw my shirt was all bloody. I told myself I was going to die alone."

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The woman said she had been riding with the group to get alcohol from a local vendor, but ended up at the gas station instead.

The woman testified Sikala and the other women were in the cab of McCargars truck for a few minutes before two of the women exited looking scared. The third woman fell out of the semi-truck afterward while trying to carry something, court was told.

The three women returned to the pickup and Sikala was seen in the door of the semi-truck, wrestling an older man, court was told.

Sikala fell out of the semi and got into the pickup, telling them to "just drive," the woman testified.

 with files from Brandon Sun

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Something serendipitous happened to me late last year during a visit to my favorite bookstore, Half Price Books.

First, let me provide some background: I am the letters editor for the Express-News. During the past year, I have come to know some of the regular contributors and have learned much about current events through their perspectives.

One of those contributors writes an op-ed every month, and I feel fortunate to be his first reader with each submission. The writers name is Larry P. Johnson. Every column he submits is uplifting. His words inspire me to be a better person  and I have noticed he has the same impact on many readers of this newspaper. I find Johnsons op-eds good for my soul, and I look forward to seeing his name in my inbox. I knew from his writing that Johnson is blind, which informs so much of his perspective. But I didnt know much else  until my visit to the bookstore.

I was wandering around, sniffing out my next literary treasure. I stumbled into the music history section, stocked with biographies of influential musicians  all of which my eyes skipped over only to dart to the black spine of a book titled Mexico by Touch. Intrigued, I coaxed the book from its place. Flipping it over, I saw the author was Larry P. Johnson. I know this man, I said to myself. At least, I knew him through his words.

I bought the book.

Reading it, I laughed often and cried sometimes. Halfway through, Johnson and I decided we would meet just after the new year. I was eager to meet him because, by that point, I had learned of his brave solo trip to Mexico at age 18, the day he met the love of his life, how he landed his first gig as a DJ and the time he drove a car. Blind, of course.

At his home on the Northeast Side, I was welcomed with open arms and a cheery, Hello!

Johnson reached for my hands and held them for a moment. Johnson towers at 6 feet, 4 inches. My first impression of him was warmth and charm. Photographs of his six children and his late wife, Diana, adorned the walls of his living room. Johnsons greeting was almost outstaged by his 14-year-old guide dog, Mara  a gentle Rottweiler. I settled on his floral printed couch where I was shortly met with coffee and Christmas-themed sugar cookies.

Where should we start? Johnson asked.

Well, I was thinking the very beginning, I responded.

I was curious to know more about Johnsons upbringing in Chicago. He mentions his mother, Theresa Johnson, at the beginning of the book: My Mom taught me, at a very early age, the importance of independence and resiliency. She didnt believe in coddling or shielding me from the bumps and bruises of life just because I happened to be blind.

It was this parenting approach that he attributes to the confidence he had at 18 to make the trek to Mexico with only his guide dog, Tasha, by his side. Mexico by touch. He continued on about his mother:

She was a single mom, from the time I was six, with just a high school education. She raised us four children by cleaning the houses of other families.

She had no experience with the blind, but knew exactly what a mother should do: She used to say to me, You can do anything you put your mind to. It doesnt matter that you are blind. And, somehow, I believed her.

Did his blindness affect how he raised his children?

I suppose so, he said.

He explained his children were naturally sensitive to the fact their father could not see, and when he came home from work they would rush to pick up their toys and clear a path for him.

Mexico by Touch, published in 2003, encapsulates Johnsons sense of humor and ambitious heart. In it, he describes living in the 1960s and 1970s in Mexico City  where he resided for 17 years. He became a top DJ at a popular Top-40 radio station, interviewed Stevie Wonder and Paul Anka, hitched a ride home from the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, and was hit by a truck, among other happenings.

Johnson said he decided to write the book to share his story with his children and grandchildren: I think I also hoped that, through it, I might serve as a sort of role model or example for other people with disabilities and their families.

Role model. Some readers might remember he recently wrote about the difference between role models and heroes.

Johnson said he always loved music and being a DJ. Radio was booked with rich content that included soap operas and comedies, music, news and sports. He would imitate radio with friends and role-play as a child. It opened up the world to him.

I would listen to the radio and think, I can do that, he said.

Johnson started as a DJ when he was a student at Northwestern University School of Speech during the 1950s, where he hosted an interview show for the colleges radio station. He said he would speak with students from countries such as Cambodia, Japan, Sweden and Africa, and enjoyed learning about their cultures and beliefs.

In the 60s, the youth and civil rights movements brought about major transformation  politically, musically and socially. Johnson experienced that transformation as a DJ in Mexico. Motown took over, with the Supremes, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder dominating the airwaves. Johnson said he identified more with the 60s than the 40s or 50s and working for radio during that time was a great, great opportunity that would not have happened in any other decade.

He left Mexico in 1973. The population exploded, and Mexico Citys attitude began to change  crime was up and Americans were less welcome.

Johnson left his DJ career and relocated his family to San Antonio.

I was quite content to turn the page and do something different, he said.

He secured a job working as a cultural commentator for Channel 12. Twice a week for a year and a half, he would report on the many cultural ties in Texas. He went on to do countless voice-overs for commercials, too.

He became an activist for people with disabilities in the 1980s and continues to be an advocate. He gives motivational speeches, conducts workshops and encourages others to speak out against all prejudice.

He was a member of the Silver-Haired Legislature and worked with Texas lawmakers to pass legislation focused on the lack of services and specialists statewide to help a growing population of seniors who were losing their vision.

When he became a regular contributor to the Express-News in 2012, Johnson would write only to promote disability awareness  suggesting Braille restaurant menus and addressing the misuse of disabled parking. But it was too narrow. His blindness hadnt limited his life, so why let it limit his writing?

I was becoming the disability guy, he said. He decided to broaden his topics and spread messages of positivity and hope in a world where negativity has become the main attraction.

I believe its tremendously important to try and motivate and encourage people to follow their dreams and face lifes adversities with confidence, patience and a sense of humor, he said.

Johnson is 86. He plans to one day jump out of an airplane, and a trip to France is in the works.

Wanna come? he asked and laughed.

I am a 23-year-old college student. I have all five senses and I am not as fearless or optimistic as Johnson.

I struggle with anxiety, which makes a simple trip to the grocery store a challenge. Because of my anxiety, I have become a creature of habit  going to the same few places I am comfortable and rarely straying from that course.

Meeting Johnson caused me to leave that comfortable trail and see a larger world beyond my cocoon. He does not let his disability stop him from wanting to or experiencing life to the fullest. This experience was a lesson for me  I not only made a dear friend, but I gained a sense of excitement for my future. Im inspired to achieve my goals and to fear less  maybe even take a trip to a foreign country, who knows?

Even if I never found Johnsons book or met him, I was already touched by his columns. But Im grateful it did happen. To borrow Johnsons signature ending, And thats how I see it.

Katya Harmel is the letters editor at the San Antonio Express-News and a student at San Antonio College with plans to attend the University of the Incarnate Word.

Katya.Harmel@express-news.net.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 21:08:34|Editor: xuxin

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BANGKOK, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- After surviving a censure debate in the Thai Parliament on Friday, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha reaffirmed that he has no plans to reshuffle cabinet members.

"There will not be a reshuffle. It is not the time yet," Prayut said.

Prayut and five other cabinet ministers have survived the no-confidence motion during the four-day debate which ended Friday.

Prayut told reporters that he felt relieved now that the censure debate is over.

"I can confirm that I will work to my utmost ability for the public interest," said Prayut.

"I have lots of tasks awaiting me; the foremost priority is to quickly work on the state budgets so that money could reach all target groups."

Following a four-day censure debate, Prime Minister Prayut, who concurrently acts as the defense minister, was given 272 votes of confidence cast by government MPs, compared to 49 votes of no-confidence cast by opposition MPs.
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / February 27, 2020 / Compare-autoinsurance.org (https://compare-autoinsurance.org/) is a top auto insurance brokerage website, providing car insurance quotes online from trustworthy agencies all over the United States. This website offers car insurance info about different coverage types, available discounts, and money-saving tips.

Almost all car insurance companies use the credit score as a rating factor. The only states were insurance companies are prohibited to use credit information to determine policy rates, are California, Massachusetts, and Hawaii.

Insurance companies consider that a person's credit score will provide more info on how risky it is to provide coverage. Drivers with good or excellent credit score, pay significantly lower insurance rates, than those that have a low, or poor credit score

Independent studies have evaluated the impact of credit score over a driver's insurance rates.. These studies concluded that:

On average, drivers that have poor credit score can expect to pay twice as much for car insurance rates than drivers that have an excellent credit score.

Improving the credit score from poor to good, can save 32% on insurance premiums

Improving the credit score from good to excellent can save an additional 27% on the car insurance rate.

For more details, money-saving tips and free quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/

Carinsuranceplan.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc.

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Story continues

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There was a period around 1936 or 1937 when Roosevelt was trying to pack the Supreme Court and turning into the sort of arrogant majoritarian strongman the founders feared. But this is not how FDR won the presidency, passed the New Deal, beat back the socialists of his time or led the nation during World War II. FDR did not think America was a force for ill in world affairs.
(Photo by Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

UK holidaymakers could be left stranded as a number of airlines are ramping up cancellations and pausing flights unless passengers are cleared of the coronavirus.

EasyJet (EZJ.L) announced that it is cancelling some flights as a result of the outbreak, including that to and from Italy. Some staff have been offered unpaid leave, according to the Mirror.

It said that due to the increased number of coronavirus cases in Northern Italy, it has seen "a significant softening of demand and load factors into and out of our Northern Italian bases. Further, we are also seeing some slower demand across our other European markets.

READ MORE: Europes economy braces for coronavirus hit as market panic grips

"As a result we will be making decisions to cancel some flights, particularly those into and out of Italy, while continuing to monitor the situation and adapting our flying programme to support demand, it added.

"While it is too early to determine what the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak will be on current year outlook and guidance for both the Airline and Holidays business, we continue to monitor the situation carefully and will update the market in due course."

EasyJet's shares have dropped 30% since Monday, down to 1,110p:

easyJet shares. Chart: Yahoo Finance

Meanwhile, fellow UK airline Jet2, owned by Dart Group (DTG.L), has refused to fly back any people who have been staying at a hotel in coronavirus lockdown until they have tested negative for the virus.

Currently, there are around 168 Brits remain confined to the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife after at least four guests were diagnosed with the illness. Around 50 of them were reportedly told by Spanish authorities they were free to leave on Thursday, if they wished.

READ MORE: Coronavirus epidemic boosting Dettol sales

In a statement sent to Yahoo Finance UK the airline said: We are continuing to remain in contact with customers at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife, and we also have designated 24/7 telephone assistance in place.

Story continues

Their health and safety is our absolute priority, as it is with every single one of our customers and colleagues. Therefore, to help prevent any potential spread of coronavirus, we have asked all customers to remain in the hotel, which remains under quarantine, until any potential incubation period, as defined by the World Health Organisation, has passed (10 March).

"We will not fly any customer who has stayed at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace during the quarantine, until this incubation period has passed or unless they have been explicitly tested for COVID-19 by a recognised authority and are confirmed as clear of the virus.

We will continue to release more information as it becomes available.

Shares in Dart Group are down around 5% on Friday morning:

Dart Group shares. Chart: Yahoo Finance

Whats the current travel advice?

Since developments there are developments on the coronavirus happening daily, its worth checking your carriers website regularly to see if your flight is still running.

It is also essential to check the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) for updates.

The FCO currently is warning against all essential travel to 11 quarantined towns in Italy and two cities in South Korea and mainland China. This could be set to change.

Britains Department of Health also warns that travellers should call the NHS 111 helpline and self-quarantine themselves at home if they have returned from FCO-specified parts of Italy as well as those who have returned in the past 14 days from Hubei Province in China.

It is also worth checking with the company you work with if there are international flight restrictions.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 03:06:32|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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NAIROBI, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) train service that marked 1,000 days of seamless operations on Tuesday has fueled Kenya's economic modernization, an expert has said.

Sammy Kwinga, a Nairobi-based political scientist said that Kenya's gross domestic product(GDP) and its attractiveness to investors has gone up since the launch of SGR commuter and freight services along the 480-kilometer Mombasa-Nairobi transport corridor.

"Since the SGR passenger and freight service kicked off in 2017, the gross domestic product has risen a whole percentage point to 6.5 percent," Kwinga said in a commentary published by the Daily Nation on Thursday.

He said that a boost to the country's GDP is linked to increased volumes of freight and speedy clearance of cargo from the port of Mombasa to the hinterland where commerce has been revitalized.

He debunked the false narrative from SGR critics who have questioned its commercial viability by pointing at independent studies that shed light on the project's ability to bring faster returns to the Kenyan economy.

A section of Kenyan media this week reported that the construction of the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR was over-priced to the detriment of the taxpayer.

He termed as a fallacy the assertions from critics that Kenya's SGR was procured at a higher cost compared to the ones in neighboring Tanzania and Ethiopia, saying that diverse socio-economic and political environments in each country somehow influenced the cost of the modern railway project.

Kwinga said that the bulk of criticisms directed at the Mombasa-Nairobi SGR are unjustified and mirror a brazen disregard for the transformation it has unleashed in Kenya and beyond.

"The SGR is a towering signature project that will transform the transport, industrial and business environment, trade and cultural relations in east Africa for generations," said Kwinga.
By Express News Service

KOLLAM: A seven-year-old girl, who was talking to her mother and playing in the courtyard of their house at Elavur in Nedumankavu, went missing suddenly at 10am on Thursday. A search is on to find D Devanandha, daughter of Dhanya and Pradeep C, who is working in Oman.Devanandha was talking to Dhanya, who was washing clothes in the backyard of the house around 9.30am.

As her six-month-old boy was alone inside the house, Dhanya asked Devanandha to go inside and be with her. When Dhanya returned after 10 minutes, she found the front door of the house fully open and Devanandha missing.

Devanandha D

Dhanya panicked and started looking for her inside the house and in the surroundings. Neighbours and local residents who came to know about the incident informed the police. Kannanalloor police came and searched for the girl in the area and also recorded the statements of the mother and local residents. Suspecting that she might have fallen into the nearby river while playing, Fire and Rescue Services personnel searched for her in it.

The police have not ruled out the possibility of the child being kidnapped. The search has been intensified and weve passed the information to nearby police stations as well. Were also examining the CCTV visuals within a 5-km radius of the house, said a senior police officer at the Kannanalloor station. A social media campaign has begun to find the missing child.

Child rights commission registers case

A social media campaign has begun to find the missing child. Meanwhile, a fake news report started circulating on the social media, saying the child was found from a nearby temple. The police said action would be taken against those who circulated misinformation.The police are circulating Devanandhas photo on all social media platforms. Anyone getting any information should contact Ph: 0474 2566366, 9497947265, 9497906800.

Meanwhile, the Commission for Protection of Child Rights has registered a suo motu case.Commission chairman P Suresh has also sought reports from the state police chief, general education director, district collector and district child protection officer in this regard.The commission observed that several news about child lifting and attempts were reported from across the state. It urged the police to maintain caution while dealing with child-missing cases and remarked that with polices active intervention, several missing children were found.

The commission also directed the state police chief to deal with those who spread misinformation on social media under cyber laws.Social media was awash with messages that the kid was found. Such messages can create confusion in the society and hence their creators should be held responsible for what they write, the commission added.
Preparing to travel to Japan next week, with the spread of coronavirus slowing but the virus not yet contained, Ive been given a lot of advice by well-meaning friends that boils down to this: wear a mask.

But would I even be able to find one? The New York Times reports that in the US  which at the time of writing had 15 cases in a population of 329 million  "the mask hoarding has begun". New York pharmacies have sold out of them; popular sellers on Amazon say mask deliveries will be delayed by weeks.

In parts of Asia, particularly Japan, face masks have become an important part of the national "hygiene culture". Credit:Getty Images

The phenomenon must be a global one, because a recent cover of The Economist features the planet wrapped in one giant surgical mask. Yet with the exception of heavy duty N95 respirator masks, the authorities have been clear that masks are no more useful than a literal Band-Aid: good at preventing sick people from passing nasty microbes to others, pretty pathetic for protecting the wearer from contracting the virus.

There are, it turns out, even downsides to donning a mask. Because we still have to breathe, they can become moist breeding grounds for bacteria. And as theyre awkward to wear, we may touch our faces more often, which actually increases the risk of contamination.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : Prohibitory orders were relaxed for 10 hours view of improvements in the ground situation on Friday in the riot-hit northeast districts which claimed 38 lives and left over 200 injured.

The decision to relax Section 144 of the CrPC was taken a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah was informed about the law and order situation in a review meeting with Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik and newly appointed Special Commissioner S.N. Srivastava.

Sha was told that no major incident was reported in the last 36 hours in any affected police station of the northeast districts.

Police sources said that the restrictions have been relaxed from 8 a.m. in the morning.

Areas under 12 of the 203 police stations in Delhi (about 4.2 per cent of the geographical area) got affected in the violence that began on February 23 evening and continued for a couple of days.

Since the violence, the Delhi Police has registered 48 First Information Reports (FIRs), pertaining to clashes, loss of lives and property and further FIRs are expected to be registered in due course.

Police have arrested 514 suspects for questioning so far and that more arrests would come in the course of investigation.

Delhi Police has separately set up two SITs for investigating serious offences and nearly 7,000 Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) or paramilitary forces have been deployed in the riot hit areas since February 24.

Besides, Delhi Police has also deployed three Special CPs, six Joint CPs, one Additional CP, 22 DCPs, 20 ACPs, 60 Inspectors, 1,200 other ranks and 200 women police under the overall supervision of Commissioner of Police to effectively guide and supervise police response so as to contain and normalise the situation.

So far, nearly 330 peace committee meetings have been organised in various districts of Delhi in the last two days to contain peace among people after the violence that left a Delhi Police Head Constable and an Intelligence Bureau staffer dead and nearly 70 police personnel and senior officers injured. An assortment of civilians ranging from an autorickshaw driver to small businessmen were also killed in the riot.

The most affected localities were Bhjanpura, Chand Bagh, Maujpur, Kardampuri, Jafrabad, Ashok Nagar, Shiv Vihar. A total of 73 companies of CAPF or paramilitary forces were deployed in the city on February 24 in addition to 40 companies of Delhi Police.
Section 1 Content

The 2019-21 cohort of the ACE Internationalization Laboratory met this month in Washington for their mid-term meeting. Representatives from the 18 institutions in this largest ever cohort discussed how their internationalization plans were coming together and how to face the challenges yet to come.

When discussing their successes so far, representatives from Sinclair Community College expressed excitement that colleagues from all across the college who may not have known each other before were working together on the college's internationalization committee. A combination of experience and new blood among the committee members was giving rise to a good diversity of perspectives. One of the major benefits of the Lab is that people on campus that have never communicated before are now talking to each other," added Kara Godwin, director for internationalization at ACE.

Another highlight of the meeting was a presentation by Robin Helms, deputy chief innovation officer and principal internationalization strategist at ACE, on using data to inform strategy and planning. She gave an overview of national-level data available, such as ACE's Mapping Internationalization on U.S. Campuses report, and advice on how to collect institution-level data.

The Lab process itself, in addition to the institutions that comprise it, is becoming more internationalized over the years. This cohort includes three Brazilian institutions sponsored by CAPES, a foundation within Brazil's Ministry of Education. Patricio Marinho, coordinator for strategic partnerships at the Directorate of International Affairs at CAPES, delivered a presentation during this mid-term meeting about the higher education landscape in Brazil and opportunities for relationship-building between U.S. and Brazilian institutions. In April, Helms and Godwin of ACE along with Lab advisors and the current Brazilian participants will hold a workshop in Brazil in partnership with CAPES to share information about the internationalization process with Brazilian institutions not currently in the Lab.

Also attending the mid-term meeting were representatives from Diku, the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education, who were interested in learning more about the program.

Institutions who aspire to develop their internationalization strategy are encouraged to apply for the 18th cohort of the Internationalization Lab, whose work will take place from August of this year through 2022. For more information, visit the Internationalization Lab webpage or contact Kara Godwin.




WEED, Calif. -- If it passes next week, California bond measure Proposition 13 would help fund three new classrooms at Butteville Elementary School in Weed.

Super Tuesday is just five days away. Though the students at Butteville can't vote, the outcome will have a significant impact them. A school bond measure could bring millions of dollars to schools in Siskiyou County. Superintendent Len Foreman says classrooms like Mr. Lewis' at Butteville needs to be replaced.

"Studies have shown a proper learning environment helps kids learn," said Foreman.

Three classrooms at the school need to be completely rebuilt, the superintendent says.

"They've outlived their usefulness, plus they are expensive to maintain and at this point we need to provide an excellent learning environment," said Foreman.

The measure's name has caused some confusion, but this proposition is not the same as California's Proposition 13 from 1978. This bond will help students in California from kindergarten through college.

Money from the bond would go toward removing mold and asbestos, and providing cleaner drinking water. Funding will also go towards new construction, modernization, and facilities for career technical education programs.

"Nobody likes taxes and I think that will be the biggest issue for this proposition in California," said Foreman.

Those who oppose the bond are worried about the price tag. Some believe it will be too much money to pay back in the next 35 years. It is estimated to cost the state $740 million each year to pay it back, taken from California's general fund.

"The state selling bonds is unlike a local school bond. It will not have an impact on local property taxes," said Foreman. He believes it's a great alternative for students and the community.

If passed, Proposition 13 would authorize the state to sell $15 billion in general bonds to fund different school projects, including for community and state colleges. The state would take that $740 million from the general fund toward paying the bonds down each year, over the course of about 35 years. The bonds would also cost an estimated $11 billion in interest accumulated over time.

The California Legislative Analyst's Office estimates that paying down the bonds would account for about one-half of one percent of the state's current budget.
Feb 27 (Reuters) - Shares of Tesla Inc fell as much as 14% on Thursday on concerns about the impact of the coronavirus on the electric-car maker's vehicle registrations in China.

Data from LMC Automotive showed that 3,563 Tesla vehicles were registered in China in January, up from 853 vehicles a year earlier, but down from the 6,613 vehicles registered in December.

Tesla registrations fluctuate significantly from month to month, LMC data showed. The automaker typically delivers many more vehicles in the final month of a quarter than in the first month. In October 2019, Tesla owners registered just 763 vehicles, LMC data showed.

Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.

The selloff in Tesla shares highlights the growing concern about the health of the Chinese auto market as the government and companies contend with the disruption of the coronavirus outbreak.

China Association of Automobile Manufacturers had earlier said https://in.reuters.com/article/us-china-autos/china-auto-sales-likely-tumbled-18-in-january-coronavirus-seen-taking-heavy-toll-idINKBN2070K3 that overall vehicle sales fell by almost a fifth in January, hurt by Lunar New Year holidays that started earlier than last year and by the coronavirus disruptions.

The electric-car maker said https://in.reuters.com/article/china-health-shanghai/shanghai-to-help-tesla-resume-production-amid-coronavirus-spread-idINKCN202060 earlier this month that the outbreak would delay deliveries of its Model 3 cars in China.

While the virus originated in China's Wuhan province late last year, local governments began imposing travel curbs and warning residents to avoid public spaces in the last two weeks of January.

Tesla shares were trading down at $685 and were set for their fourth consecutive session of losses. Tesla's stock has, however, jumped about 60% so far this year. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru and Yilei Sun in Beijing; Writing by Joseph White in Detroit; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
Google says its online translation system has added five new languages, including Tatar, Turkmen, and Uyghur.

The U.S.-based Internet giant said that with the additions, which also include Kinyarwanda and Odia, its instantaneous translation system for computers and mobile devices now encompasses 108 languages.

Google said that languages such as the newly added five posed a particular problem because of the lack of existing online translations in those languages.

"Translate learns from existing translations, which are most often found on the web. Languages without a lot of web content have traditionally been challenging to translate," the company said of the first languages it has added to the system in four years.

The addition of Uyghur, an official language of China's northwestern region of Xinjiang, comes at a time when Chinese authorities are being accused of human rights violations in the area.

The United Nations estimated in 2019 that 1 million ethnic Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking indigenous people in Xinjiang were being held in what Beijing describes as "counterextremism centers" in the province.

The UN also said millions more people have been forced into internment camps in China.

China describes the camps as "vocational education centers" aimed at helping people steer clear of terrorism and allowing them to be reintegrated into society.

Turkmen is the official language of the Central Asian state of Turkmenistan and Tatar is an official language of the Republic of Tatarstan within the Russian Federation.

Odia is spoken in the Indian state of Odisha and Kinyarwanda is an official language of Rwanda.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on March 2 the plea of complainant law student that the rape case against former union minister Swami Chinmayanand be transferred to a Delhi court from Uttar Pradesh.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde was told by senior advocate Collin Gonsalves, appearing for the complainant woman that the rape case be transferred to Delhi as she apprehended a threat to her life in Uttar Pradesh.

The bench, while agreeing to hear the matter, asked the lawyer to approach the administration for seeking protection.

Gonsalves, however, said that a gunman has been given to her by the UP Police for her security.

Earlier also a plea was filed against the Allahabad High Court order granting bail to Chinmayanand.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Seattle, Washington--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2020) - CFN Media (OTCQB: CNFN), the leading agency and financial media network dedicated to the North American cannabis industry announces publication of an article discussing the next frontier in drug research.

A big factor in the recent rise of cannabis legalization is the emergence of legitimate scientific research into the potential health benefits of the plant's active ingredients, called cannabinoids. Medicines are often derived from naturally occurring compounds, from aspirin to insulin to penicillin. A decent body of research is currently pointing to psilocybin, the psychedelic active ingredient in some types of mushrooms, as well as other psychedelics like LSD, as the next big natural drug discovery. Researchers are in various stages of studying the effect of psychedelics on conditions ranging from depression to addiction to migraines to anxiety and more. It might be time to pay attention to the field as more researchers test the therapeutic potential of psychedelics.







Researchers are in various stages of studying the effect of psychedelics

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One company certainly paying attention is EHave, Inc. (OTC: EHVVF). The company has developed a technology platform that helps doctors and patients make data-informed treatment decisions for a variety of mental health indications. With the formation of a subsidiary called Mycotopia Therapy and an initial acquisition of PsychedeliTech, the company is becoming a major player in the emerging psychedelic medicine space. The Ehave Dash, already HIPAA and GDPR compliant, will be used as a central clearinghouse for psychedelic research data and clinical trial tracking with the intent to further advance the science of psychedelic therapies.

Psychedelic Research Enters the Mainstream

Just last year, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine opened the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research in Baltimore. Headed by renowned researcher Roland R. Griffiths, Ph.D., the Center aims to further research the school has already been conducting. Initial areas of focus include potential therapies for opioid addiction, Alzheimer's disease, PTSD, and anorexia among other conditions. Johns Hopkins researchers have been pioneers in the field as the first researchers, in 2000, to get US regulatory approval for the use of psychedelics in health volunteers. Since then, the school's researchers have published more than 60 peer-reviewed studies and demonstrated safe practices for psychedelic research that have set the standard for other studies across the world.







Scientific interest in psychedelics is swiftly growing

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There are plenty of other researchers pursuing potential psychedelic therapies. The University of Toronto Mississauga recently started a Psychedelic Studies Research Program. The British Columbia Centre on Substance Abuse is launching a Phase III clinical trial of MDMA as a treatment for PTSD, in conjunction with 16 other locations throughout North America and Israel, and funded by the nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). The MAPS site has comprehensive lists of research, both ongoing and completed, conducted by MAPS as well as other organizations. There is a lot of scientific interest in psychedelics, and it is growing exponentially.

EHave's Plan

The PsychedeliTech acquisition is just the first step for EHave in a comprehensive plan to bring together the diverse and scattered research (and researchers) into one collaborative platform. PsychedeliTech is hosting the inaugural PsyTech Summit March 29-30, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Modeled after the hugely successful CannaTech conference, a global gathering for the cannabis industry. In fact, PsychedeliTech is a subsidiary of Israel Cannabis Limited (iCAN), the creator of the CannaTech conference, and the two conferences run back-to-back at the same location this year.







PsyTech Summit Sunday March 29-Monday March 30, 2020 Tel Aviv Hilton

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The goal of the PsyTech Summit is to elevate the psychedelics conversation, foster normalization, and accelerate innovation. Why is EHave acquiring the company and the conference? Because its subsidiary, Mycotopia Therapy, was founded to work toward the same goals. EHave believes its EHave Dash platform can play a crucial role in the worldwide advancement of psychedelic research. The Dash is HIPAA and GDPR compliant, meaning that the data carried by the Dash is totally secure and in line with the world's most strict privacy and security rules. The idea is to compile all psychedelic research and results in the EHave Dash, providing valuable and easily accessible information for scientists across the globe as they pursue their own studies.

The PsyTech Summit is a perfect vehicle for fostering crucial relationships with innovators in the space. It could also serve to introduce Mycotopia Therapy to other potential investments or acquisitions that fit under the company's mission, as the PsyTech acquisition is just the first of many moves to come.

The Upshot

The story of psychedelics as therapeutic treatments is now unfolding across the world. There is a lot of promising research into a wide variety of problematic neurological and psychological conditions that have resisted more traditional treatments to date. It's a potentially explosive industry in its infancy, and EHave is making moves to become a key cog in the industry's development. Keep an eye out here for more news regarding both the company and the movement in general.

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Scientists at Trinity College Dublin have identified a rare, new cell in the immune system with "Jekyll and Hyde properties". These cells play a key protective role in immunity to infection but - if unregulated - also mediate tissue damage in autoimmune disorders.

The findings should help us design more effective vaccines to prevent infections such as MRSA, and may also assist help us develop of new therapies for autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis.

The research was funded by Science Foundation Ireland and led by Kingston Mills, Professor of Experimental Immunology, and Dr. Sarah Edwards and Dr. Caroline Sutton, Postdoctoral Fellows in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute. Their findings were published today [Thursday 27th February 2020] in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

The immune system functions to control infection, utilizing various immune cells, such as T cells to respond to and control invading microbes. However, if these immune cells are not highly regulated, they can attack and damage body tissues, leading to the development of autoimmune diseases.

Molecules called T cell receptors (TCRs) allow T cells to recognize components of infectious agents with exquisite specificity. The TCRs enable T cells to respond to and eventually eliminate the infectious agent.

Professor Kingston Mills said:

Until now scientists thought that there were two discrete populations of T cells, expressing either '' or '' TCRs. The s are the most common T cells in the body. They play a key role in remembering prior infection or immunization and thereby help protect us against re-infection and mediate vaccine-induced protective immunity. The s are more prevalent at mucosal surfaces, such as the lung or gut, and provide an immediate first line of defense against pathogens that invade through these routes." We have discovered a new cell type that expresses both  and  TCRs. This rare population of chimeric or hybrid - T cells has properties of both  and  T cells. Importantly, they are normally highly activated and poised to act as first responders to control bacterial infection. However, given this high level of activation, they are effectively 'Jekyll and Hyde cells' because in certain contexts they can also precipitate autoimmune responses."

Using a model of Staphylococcus aureus infection, Professor Mills and his team found that these cells are rapidly mobilized during infection and play a key role in quickly eliminating the microbes from the body.

The induction of these hybrid - T cells may thus represent a novel approach in the design of more effective vaccines against Staph aureus and other infectious diseases, while advancing our ability to control their response may yield additional therapeutic options.

Professor Mills added:
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 02:44:19|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Trump administration has decided not to implement import restrictions on titanium sponge on grounds of national security, but to seek negotiations with Japan in order to ensure access to the material in case of emergency.

In a White House memorandum released Thursday night, U.S. President Donald Trump said he concurs in the commerce secretary's finding that titanium sponge imports "threaten to impair the national security" of the United States as defined under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.

In March last year, the U.S. Commerce Department launched a national security probe into titanium sponge imports, after similar investigations on imported steel and aluminum, as well as auto products. The Trump administration's repeated use of section 232 has drawn strong opposition from the domestic and international business community.

Noting that 94.4 percent of titanium sponge imports in 2018 came from Japan, Trump said in the memo that the United States has "an important security relationship" with Japan. According to data from the commerce department, imports of titanium sponge accounted for 68 percent of all titanium sponge consumed in the United States in 2018.

"The Secretary has advised me that measures apart from the adjustment of imports are more likely to be effective to address the threatened impairment of the national security," Trump said.

The U.S. president said he directed the secretary of defense and the secretary of commerce to form a working group, and invite their counterpart agencies in Japan to participate in discussions in order to ensure access to titanium sponge in the United States "for use for national defense and critical industries in an emergency."

Trump also directed the secretary of defense to increase access to titanium sponge for use for national defense and critical industries and to support domestic production capacity for the production of titanium sponge to meet national defense requirements.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said last year that titanium sponge has uses "in a wide range of defense applications, from helicopter blades and tank armor to fighter jet airframes and engines."
A number of government workers from the Department of Health and Human Services met and interacted with Americans who had been evacuated from Wuhan, China, even though the workers had not been wearing proper protective gear and had not been trained for handling infectious diseases in a health emergency, a whistleblower alleged Wednesday.

According to the complaint, which was reviewed by the Washington Post, about 27 people from the Administration for Children and Families, a unit of HHS, were sent to two California bases to greet the evacuated Americans in late January and early February.

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None of the Americans had confirmed cases of COVID-19, but they were considered high-risk and were quarantined upon arriving in the country. The complaint alleges that the ACF workers should not have been sent to the scene, given that they are usually sent to help people recovering from natural disasters, not health emergencies.

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After the visit, the ACF workers were not tested before returning to their homes around the countrysome of them on commercial flightsbecause protocol only required screenings for people who had come in contact with known cases or recently traveled to China. None of the ACF workers have shown signs of contracting COVID-19.

The complaint, filed with the Office of the Special Counsel, was intended to protect the unnamed whistleblower after she was allegedly reassigned improperly for raising concerns. The whistleblower has been identified as a senior HHS official, and she still reportedly faces the threat of being fired.

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In hearing Thursday, Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who received the complaint, appeared to ask HHS Secretary Alex Azar about the allegations made in the complaint. To your knowledge, were any of the ACF employees exposed to high-risk evacuees from China? he asked. Azar responded, They should never have been, without appropriate PPE, in reference to personal protective equipment.

Gomez then made the implications of the complaint clear. Do you think that breaking basic protocols and exposing untrained human service employees to the coronavirus before allowing them to be dispersed around the country could have endangered the employees and other Americans? Azar said he didnt believe that such a contamination had occurred.

On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the U.S. from a person who had no known connection to an infected person or recent travel to a high-risk country. The day before, the CDC warned Americans that they should expect that a coronavirus epidemic is not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more of a question of exactly when this will happen.
Researchers are studying the association between the campaign promises made during state and the chances of women politicians getting elected in four districts of Bihar.

The ongoing study, led by Indian-origin researcher Sayan Banerjee from Essex University in the UK, involves 2,500 volunteers spread across four districts and eight state constituencies in Bihar, who will be asked to choose between two hypothetical female candidates where each of them provides a separate electoral incentive.

"The survey experiment will test how much voters prefer three different type of electoral offers -- ethnic security, public goods (roads, electricity, schools etc.), and economic patronage ("freebies" - bicycles, colour tv etc.); when these offers are provided by women candidates from different ethnic (caste) backgrounds," Banerjee told PTI.

Ethnic security being probed in the study includes security from violence, access to law enforcement, and non-discrimination by the state institutions when faced with ethnic violence.

According to Banerjee, the four districts -- Madhubani, Munger, Katihar, and Gaya -- were chosen based on the levels of violent criminal activity reported from the regions.

He said Madhubani and Gaya experienced high rates of discriminatory violent crimes against oppressed lower caste communities, while Katihar and Munger had relatively lower levels of such crimes reported.

In districts like Madhubani and Gaya, Banerjee said, even though the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is implemented, caste-based and religion-based violence are still widely prevalent.

"If a police officer is upper caste, he'd beat up a person who is SC or ST. There are no promotions to judges from lower castes," he said.

Banerjee added that in such cases, "if the judges are homogenous in a court, definitely for ethnic minorities, there is more discrimination."



In districts with histories of such violence, a higher political representation of ethnic minorities leads to improved reporting of these crimes, the Essex University political scientist said.

"In the 90s there was lesser reports as people were afraid to come up, now there are more ministers and political representation and someone from an ethnic minority background can call up a local party worker and make them take care of their problems," Banerjee said.

"In these violence-prone places, people may prefer ethnic security over development projects like the building of new roads, sewer lines, or electricity transmission cables," he explained.

Banerjee hypothesises that voters in these crime-prone electorates primarily vote for female candidates who offer security as the first priority, followed by public goods as the next preference, and economic patronage as the last choice.

In these violent districts, Banerjee said, based on earlier studies, people generally prefer "Bahubali candidates who confirm to the rowdy stereotypes."



"We expect to find the same pattern in this research," he said.

Speaking about the study, Milan Vaishnav, political economist and adjunct professor at Georgetown University in the US told PTI "I know of no empirical evidence that finds an association between the promise of handouts and the levels of violent crime."



"Even on the question of violence during elections, the empirical literature is divided. Some studies find that violence spikes in election years and candidates and parties jockey for position, while others find that governments put a lid on violence during election years in order to produce a "feel good" feeling for voters," he explained in an email.

In more peaceful places, women who offer development promises are prioritised first, followed by those who offer freebies, and security is not usually a priority, Banerjee said.

The UK-based researcher hopes to understand from the study if voters prefer to elect women leaders from upper caste backgrounds or those from lower caste backgrounds, and what kind of incentives lower caste women need to provide to candidates to win

The study also hopes to unravel what kind of social networks female candidates are expected to be part of to be perceived as more electable.

"Do voters trust women from politically networked families more? From earlier studies we see that voters do choose often to vote for women in local gram panchayat and corporation elections, so does this help network to higher levels? these are some questions we hope to understand," Banerjee said.

"We hope to provide a likelihood score from one to five that will explain which candidate profile voters may choose in high violent districts. For example, in a district with high rates of discriminatory crime, a hypothetical female politician may who offers security against violence may have a score of 4.4," the political scientist explained.

A candidate providing development promises in such a constituency may be pitted lower by 30 per cent at a score of 3.6, he said.

The survey respondents for the study, Banerjee said, are selected based on publicly available data on voters in the districts.

"A random sample with respondents taken from the publicly available voter list from the Election Commission of India. The randomisation takes care of the representativeness of the sample in relation to the actual population," he added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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A total of 650 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Italy, an increase by 122 cases compared to the previous count provided by authorities at midday Thursday.



Fatalities linked to the infection rose to 17, after three more people died in northern Lombardy region, according to the authorities.

"All three were in their 80s -- and specifically two people aged 88 and one aged 82 -- and all had a delicate and critical clinical picture," Angelo Borrelli, chief of the Civil Protection Department and extraordinary commissioner for the coronavirus emergency, told a press conference at 6 p.m. local time.

"I would like to stress again also the positive news related to the number of infected people who have recovered, which has further increased to 40 in Lombardy," Borrelli explained.

In the morning, the official had confirmed 37 cases of recovery in the same region, which is the most affected together with northeast Veneto.

"Adding them to those already mentioned -- two people in Sicily and three in Lazio (around Rome), we have 45 people cured," Borrelli specified.

Italian authorities on Thursday tried hard to reassure about the situation and the full transparency of information provided daily.

Both Borrelli and Foreign Affairs Minister Luigi Di Maio warned against exaggerating the situation, stressing that there was no need to panic or to suggest avoiding a visit in the country.

All cases of infection in the country were traced down to the only two hotbeds of infection identified, both in the north, Di Maio said while addressing a press conference at the Foreign Press Association in Rome.

"The outbreaks concerned a few municipalities in the Lodi areas (Lombardy), and one municipality in Veneto," he said.

A need to "rein in" fears and face the situation more calmly was felt among some Italians in the streets as well.

According to 27-year-old student Carlo Caboni, the containment measures activated in northern Italy "will surely be useful to contain the epidemic, and there should be (now) more measures against virus panic."

"At the end of the day, this is a relatively manageable virus, there is no need to get alarmed and implementing closures," Filippo Franze, a lawyer, told Xinhua.

Micaela Russo, a 30-year-old tourism professional, agreed that it was important "to contain panic and phobia, and help citizens understand that the coronavirus is not the end of the world."

Russo confirmed Italy's tourism sector was already suffering the impact of the fears around the epidemic, and she worried about further "economic, social and health damages to the country."

Also on Thursday, researchers at the Sacco University Hospital in Milan announced they were able to isolate the Italian strain of coronavirus, according to Ansa news agency.

The discovery was made by a team led by professor Claudia Balotta, according to Sacco's Biomedical and Clinical Sciences Department director Massimo Galli.

The team comprised four Italian researchers and one Polish colleague, Galli told Ansa.








Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday accused Opposition parties of spreading misinformation about the new citizenship law and inciting communal riots

Bhubaneswar: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday accused Opposition parties of spreading misinformation about the new citizenship law and inciting communal riots.

He said people should come out and ask those fomenting trouble to explain which clause of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act talked about snatching citizenship of people.

"Opposition parties are spreading misinformation that Muslims will lose their Indian citizenship because of the CAA. They are instigating people and fomenting riots," he told a pro-CAA BJP rally.

He said no Indian Muslim will lose citizenship because of the new law.

He said the Narendra Modi government addressed several intractable issues that had festered for 70 years, including repeal of provisions of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and prevented its integration with the rest of the country.
BUFFALO  The Buffalo Diocese, temporarily headed by Albany Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger, filed for bankruptcy Friday morning as it grapples with hundreds of lawsuits alleging decades of child sexual abuse and cover-ups.

It is the second New York diocese to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy  which allows for reorganization of assets instead of liquidation. The Diocese of Rochester filed for bankruptcy in September. The decision was largely anticipated as the Buffalo diocese, facing more than 250 lawsuits over the past six months alleging sexual abuse, has emerged as the most-named defendant in all Child Victims Act cases.

The state's Child Victims Act in August opened a one-year window temporarily eliminating the statute of limitations for civil cases involving sex crimes. Since then, more than 1,600 cases have been filed statewide, many of them resurfacing decades-old allegations.

In a filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of New York  first reported by The Buffalo News  the Buffalo Diocese identified $10 million to $50 million in assets and $50 million to $100 million in liabilities. In court filings, Scharfenberger asserted that the filing was necessary "in order to respond to claims stemming from the Child Victims Act in an equitable and comprehensive manner, and to reorganize the financial affairs of the Diocese in order to permit it to continue to fulfill its ministries to the Catholic faithful of the Diocese."

"We have no more urgent work than to bring about justice and healing for those harmed by the scourge of sexual abuse," Scharfenberger said in a Friday statement.

The decision puts all lawsuits against the diocese on pause as leaders determine how best to address the allegations and compensate accusers. It does not affect the daily operations of local parishes.

Earlier: Albany Bishop Edward Scharfenberger to lead scandal-plagued Buffalo diocese

Bishop Scharfenberger's emerging role

Bishop Scharfenberger leads prayer service for sex abuse survivors

Scharfenberger, who is temporarily leading the Buffalo Diocese after the resignation of its former Bishop Richard Malone in December, will address the media in Buffalo at a 1 p.m. news conference. He had been weighing the decision for months, repeatedly telling reporters that a decision would come "soon."

Whatever we do has to be done in a way that puts victims first, Scharfenberger told Albany reporters in December, acknowledging that bankruptcy could freeze litigation but may also offer more equal payouts to survivors who have filed claims. We want to look at all of those things, and then that might be the best way to go.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

He said at the time that the Albany Diocese is not considering a bankruptcy filing, and likely would not for "the next year or so." The Albany Diocese has also faced its share of Child Victims Act cases, though far fewer, at about 65. The Albany Diocese serves about half the number of Catholics as the Buffalo Diocese.

The decision in Buffalo does not affect the Diocese of Albany in any way," Albany Diocese spokeswoman Mary DeTurris-Poust said in an email. "Until we know the full financial scope of the CVA as it relates to the Diocese of Albany, we cannot and will not make any decisions. We have nothing to announce, other than that we continue to respond in justice to survivors of abuse and urge anyone who has suffered such abuse to come forward.

Survivors and attorneys, reacting to Friday's filing, criticized the decision as a roundabout way of denying victims their day in court. They noted that bankruptcy allows the diocese to avoid releasing certain information and files about priests and clergy accused of abusing children  documents that would typically be unearthed during the discovery process.

Manhattan-based attorney Jeff Anderson, who represents dozens of survivors suing the Buffalo Diocese, said the diocese "is using bankruptcy to continue to conceal the truth about predator priests."

State Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, a sponsor of the Child Victims Act, said the filing could help reveal "how deep the pockets are of the institution"  but at the expense of preventing survivors from speaking out in front of a judge in a public courtroom.

"Its despicable that an institution that was responsible for the abuse of thousands of young people across the state of New York would try to hide behind the bankruptcy laws to prevent these individuals from receiving the entirety of the claim due to them," he said.
Nato has called on Syria and Russia to halt their air strikes following the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in Syria.

The warning comes as Greece bolstered its border security as scores of migrants gathered at its border with Turkey seeking entry into Europe.

The European Union warned that the fighting in northern Syria could degenerate into open war and that the 27-nation bloc stands ready to protect its security interests.

A refugee child cries as he arrives at the village of Skala Sikaminias, on the Greek island of Lesbos (AP/Micheal Varaklas)

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said: Allies condemn the continued indiscriminate air strikes by the Syrian regime and Russia in Idlib province. I call on them to stop their offensive, to respect international law and to back UN efforts for a peaceful solution.

This dangerous situation must be de-escalated and we urge an immediate return to the 2018 ceasefire to avoid the worsening of the horrendous humanitarian situation in the region.

Turkeys 28 allies also expressed their condolences over the deaths, but no additional Nato support was offered during emergency talks, chaired by Mr Stoltenberg, between Nato ambassadors.

Apart from providing some aerial surveillance over Syria, Nato plays no direct role in the conflict-torn country, but its members are deeply divided over Turkeys actions there, and European allies are worried about any new wave of refugees arriving.

The air strike by Syrian government forces marks the largest death toll for Turkey in a single day since it first intervened in Syria in 2016. It is a major escalation in a conflict between Turkish and Russia-backed Syrian forces that has raged since early February.

At least 54 Turkish troops have now been killed in Idlib over that time.

Omer Celik, spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogans ruling party, said Turkey was no longer able to hold refugees following the Syrian attack  reiterating a long-standing warning from Mr Erdogan that his country could not cope with the arrival of more people fleeing the conflict.

Story continues

Migrants have crossed the Aegean sea from Turkey (AP/Michael Varaklas)

Turkey hosts some 3.6 million Syrians and under a 2016 deal with the European Union agreed to step up efforts to halt the flow of refugees to Europe. Since then Mr Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to open the gates in several disputes with European states.

The DHA news agency reported that some 300 Syrians, Iranians, Iraqis, Moroccans and Pakistanis were gathering at the border with Greece, while others massed at beaches facing Greek islands off Turkeys western coast.

A Greek police official said dozens of people had gathered on the Turkish side of the land border in Greeces Evros region shouting open the borders. Greek police and military border patrols were deployed on the Greek side to prevent anyone trying to cross without authorisation.

A government official said Greece has beefed up border security to the greatest possible degree  on land and at sea and that Athens is in constant contact with the EU and Nato following the developments in Idlib.
Red blood cells (erythrocytes) are the pack animals of the human circulatory system. They transport oxygen to the places in the body where it's needed: to the cells that make up our muscles and organs. They also carry away the waste product carbon dioxide. But if the number of red blood cells is too high or too low, if the cells are not able to flow properly, if they become deformed or their function is somehow impaired, a whole range of health problems and diseases can result. It is therefore fundamentally important that we understand how erythrocytes behave in the body's circulatory system.

'Blood is continuously flowing within the body, but hardly ever when we perform medical diagnostics,' says biophysicist Professor Lars Kaestner, summarizing the problem that is preventing us from achieving a really fundamental understanding of the red blood cells. 'Blood never flows in test tubes or on microscope slides. In fact, some of the erythrocytes that are being examined under those conditions are already dead,' explains Kaestner. A lot of the information that could probably be obtained if blood was examined under realistic conditions is therefore lost to us.

Lars Kaestner describes the research progress that has been made over the last 20 to 30 years as follows: 'Two or three decades ago, blood was examined as a suspension with all its constituent components and the parameter of interest would then be measured as some kind of average value. Today, in contrast, it is possible to examine things in greater detail and to measure individual red blood cells. However, these individual cells are all different in appearance. One red blood cell may be just a few hours old, whereas another might be reaching the end of its natural lifespan of approximately 120 days.' And the behavior or response of a red blood cell will vary depending on its age and on the environment in which it finds itself.

Over the next four years, Lars Kaestner and his team will be working with partners from Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Spain in order to learn more about how red blood cells are influenced by their extra-cellular environment. The aim of their collaborative project EVIDENCE (Erythrocytes properties and viability in dependence of flow and extra-cellular environment) is to study red blood cells under physiological flow conditions, i.e. under conditions that are as close to reality as possible.

We also want to use mathematical modeling to gain a fundamental understanding of how blood flows in the body." Professor Lars Kaestner. biophysicist

If the researchers succeed in developing a mathematical model of blood flow, it could serve as a basis for many more research projects and experimental studies of blood flow and particularly the behaviour of red blood cells.

Specific goals of the collaborative research program include the development of novel diagnostic techniques for rare anemic disorders such as those similar to sickle cell anemia, developing an artificial, lab-scale spleen and methods for producing red blood cells in the laboratory. 'That particular sub-project is important for the transfusion sector,' explains Kaestner. While the technology already exists to produce artificial blood, a single batch can cost several hundred thousand euros. Improving the production process and thus making the manufacture of blood substitutes more cost-effective could generate significant benefits, as it would complement natural sources of blood and would allow the artificial blood substitutes to be tailored for complex medical conditions.

The European Union has provided four million euros of funding for the project as part of its Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions program. The research consortium is headed by Professor Dr. Lars Kaestner of Saarland University.
Seven contemporary ideas from the life and career of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson to support women and other underrepresented groups in mathematics and science.

By Della Dumbaugh

Katherine Johnson, an African-American mathematician who made critical contributions to the space program at NASA, died on 24 February at the age of 101.

Johnson became a household name thanks to the celebrated book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who Helped Win the Space Race, which later became a movie. Her legacy provides lessons for supporting women and other underrepresented groups in mathematics and science.

As a historian of mathematics, I have studied women in that field and use the book Hidden Figures in my classroom. I can point to some contemporary ideas we can all benefit from when examining Johnsons life.

1. Mentors make a difference

Early in her life, Johnsons parents fostered her intellectual prowess.

Because there was no high school for African-American children in their hometown of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, the family relocated to Institute, West Virginia, during the school year. Johnson entered West Virginia State College High School as a preteen and enrolled at the age of 14.

While at West Virginia State, Johnson took classes with Angie Turner King. King taught at the laboratory high school while she worked to become one of the first African-American women to earn masters degrees in math and chemistry. She would go on to earn a PhD in math education in 1955.

King taught Johnson geometry and encouraged her mathematical pursuits. Thirteen years older than Johnson, she modeled a life of possibility.

Johnson graduated from West Virginia State College at the age of 18. While there, she had the good fortune to learn from WW Schieffelin Claytor, the third African American to earn a PhD in mathematics in America. Claytor encouraged Katherine to become a research mathematician. In the 1930s, a little over 100 American women counted themselves as professional mathematicians.

2. High school mathematics adds up

Once Johnson completed the standard mathematics curriculum at West Virginia State College, Claytor created advanced classes just for her, including a course on analytic geometry.

Mathematics concepts build on one another and the mathematics she learned in this class helped her in her work at NASA many years later. She used these analytical skills to verify the computer calculations for John Glenns orbit around the earth and to help determine the trajectory for the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the moon, among others.

3. Grit matters

Long before psychologist Angela Duckworth called attention to the power of passion and perseverance in the form of grit, Katherine Johnson modeled this stalwart characteristic.

In 1940, she agreed to serve as one of three carefully selected students to desegregate West Virginia Universitys graduate program. She also had to be assertive and aggressive about receiving credit for her contributions to research at NASA.

In 1960, her efforts helped her become the first African-American and the first woman to have her name on a NASA research report. Currently, the NASA archives contain more than 25 scientific reports on space flight history authored or co-authored by Johnson, the largest number by any African-American or woman.

4. The power of advocating for yourself

When NASA was formed in 1958, women were still not allowed to attend the Test Flight briefings.

Initially, Johnson would ask questions about the briefings and listen and listen. Eventually, she asked if she could attend. Apparently, the men grew tired of her questions and finally allowed her to attend the briefings.

5. The power of a team

In 1940, Johnson found herself among the 2 percent of all African-American women who had earned a college degree. At that time, she was among the nearly 60 percent of those women who had become teachers.

Later, she joined the West Computing Group at Langley Research Center where women found jobs and each other. They checked each others work and made sure nothing left the office with an error. They worked together to advance each other individually and collectively as they performed calculations for space missions and aviation research.

6. The power of women advocating for women

Although Johnson started as a human computer in the West Computing Group, after two weeks she moved to the Maneuver Load Branch of the Flight Research Division under the direction of Henry Pearson.

When it was time to make this position permanent after her six month probationary period, Dorothy Vaughan, then the West Computing department head and Johnsons former boss, told Pearson to either give her a raise or send her back to me. Pearson subsequently offered Johnson the position and the raise.

7. The legacy of possibility

In March of 2014, Donna Gigliotti, producer of Shakespeare in Love and The Reader, received a 55-page nonfiction proposal about African-American women mathematicians at NASA in Hampton, Virginia.

I kind of couldnt get over the fact that this was a true story and I didnt know anything about it, Gigliotti confessed. I thought well, this is a movie. Gigliottis hunch ultimately led to the movie Hidden Figures and an entire generation of young people learning about the possibilities of math and science.

The US State Department showed Hidden Figures throughout the developing world to encourage girls and women to consider the possibilities of careers in math and science. Mattel created a Katherine Johnson Barbie in its Inspiring Women series to celebrate the achievements of a pioneer who broke through the barriers of race and gender.

Della Dumbaugh, Professor of Mathematics, University of Richmond

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Myanmar President U Win Myint, who is on a four-day visit to India, will pay a visit to the holy city of Gaya in Bihar on Friday.

Myint, who arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday, is expected to visit the Myanmar Monastery at 3 pm and pay homage and offer aims and donations to Sayadaw, a Myanmarese Buddhist title used to reference the senior monk or abbot of a monastery.

The visiting dignitary will observe King Mindonemin's Stone Inscription at 4:40 pm and visit Daijokyo Buddhist Temple at 5:05 pm.

Earlier on Thursday, the Myanmar President met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Hyderabad House here and discussed a wide range of bilateral issues.

India and Myanmar exchanged 10 agreements, four of which focus on the construction of water supply systems, distribution of electricity by solar power, as well as the construction of roads and schools in Rakhine state, located on the western coast of the South Asian country.

Myint, accompanied by his wife Daw Cho Cho, is slated to visit the Taj Mahal in Agra on Saturday evening.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Expressing concern over the recent violence in Delhi, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that Mahatma Gandhi's spirit is needed more than ever as it is essential to create conditions for true community reconciliation.

Guterres has expressed sadness over the casualties following the protests in Delhi and called for maximum restraint and for violence to be avoided, the UN chief's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

BCCL

"The Secretary-General has been following the situation in India and... concerning the violence closely and is saddened by the reports of deaths that we've seen over the past few days in New Delhi and again reiterates, as he's done in other places, his calls for maximum restraint and for violence to be avoided," Dujarric said.

Throughout his life, "the Secretary-General has been deeply inspired by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. And today the spirit of Gandhi is needed more than ever and it is essential to create conditions for true community reconciliation", he said.

BCCL

Earlier Dujarric had said that Guterres is closely following the situation in New Delhi and stressed that demonstrators should be allowed to demonstrate peacefully and security forces should show restraint.

The death toll in Delhi's worst riots in more than three decades climbed to 42 on Friday. Meanwhile, peace is slowly returning to northeast Delhi, nearly four days after clashes broke out. On Friday, shops and other establishments opened in some places and more private vehicles were seen on roads.

BCCL

Autos and e-rickshaws also began plying in some of the violence-hit areas as people stepped out of their homes to get back to work or catch up on essential errands. Many people who had fled their homes in the fear of more violence have also begun returning.



But for hundreds of them, there are no houses to go back to. They lost everything including their houses, business, and vehicles to the mob which was running amok.

The Delhi Police, which has come under fire for its inability to control the violence, is now maintaining strict vigil in view of Friday prayers at mosques.

BCCL

Communal clashes broke out after violence between anti- and pro-Citizenship (Amendment) Act groups spiralled out of control. Frenzied mobs torched houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump and pelted stones at local residents and police personnel.

Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar on Thursday said law enforcement agencies are working on the ground to prevent violence and ensure restoration of confidence and normalcy.
DUBLIN, Feb 27 (Reuters) - A Facebook feature that reminds users to vote has been put on hold in the European Union until the U.S. firm responds to concerns on the use of data gathered by it, Ireland's data regulator said on Thursday.

Since 2014, Facebook has posted reminders on its website during elections and referendums in EU countries with a button that allows users to indicate on their timeline whether they voted.

But Ireland's Data Protection Commission said in a statement Facebook will not use the feature in elections in the European Union until concerns are addressed.

The regulator did not specify what data might be gathered by Facebook or their specific concerns over how it might be used. Data on whether a user voted or was interested in politics might be of value to potential advertisers or political parties.

"Facebook has confirmed that the Election Day Reminder feature will not be activated during any EU elections pending a response to the DPC addressing the concerns raised," the regulator said.

In particular, the feature "raised a number of data protection concerns particularly around transparency to users about how personal data is collected when interacting with the feature and subsequently used by Facebook", it said.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Facebook says it only uses data on age and location of users to determine who sees information about a particular election.

The Irish Data Protection Commission, the leader regulation for Facebook in the European Union, informed the tech giant that it had concerns about the feature ahead of Irish parliamentary elections on Feb. 8.

While the regulator sought a number of remedial actions, it was not possible to implement these in advance of the Irish vote, and Facebook agreed not to use the feature in the election, it said.

Ireland hosts the European headquarters of a number of U.S. technology firms including Facebook, making Ireland's Data Protection Commission the EU's lead regulator under the General Data Protection Regulation's (GDPR) "One Stop Shop" regime introduced in 2018.

The rules give regulators the power to impose fines for violations of up to 4% of a company's global revenue or 20 million euros ($22 million), whichever is higher.

The Irish regulator had 21 inquiries open into big tech firms at the end of 2019 with eight probes into Facebook, plus two into Facebook-owned WhatsApp and one into Facebook-owned Instagram. (Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Alison Williams)
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Here is the latest news on protests across Canada over a natural gas pipeline project in British Columbia (All times Eastern):

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett and B.C. Indigenous Relations Minister Scott Fraser walk away after addressing the media in Smithers, B.C., Friday, February 28, 2020. The hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en are scheduled to meet for a second day with senior federal and provincial ministers today as they try to break an impasse in a pipeline dispute that's sparked national protests and led to disruptions in the economy. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Here is the latest news on protests across Canada over a natural gas pipeline project in British Columbia (All times Eastern):

11:15 p.m. ET

A spokesman for Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said the talks would continue late into Friday night and there may be no comment from those involved in the discussions until Saturday morning.



10:51 PM ET

The federal and B.C. Indigenous relations ministers continued talks into Friday night with Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs whose opposition to a pipeline project in northern B.C. has sparked solidarity protests across the country.



5:35 p.m. ET

The RCMP says it's aware of an offer from the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake in Quebec to send its Peacekeepers to patrol Wet'suwet'en traditional territory in northern B.C.

However, Sgt. Janelle Shoihet says any decisions around police service delivery would need to include the provincial and federal governments and the impacted parties.

She says a number of areas would need to be examined including provincial and federal legislation, policing standards, authorities and costs.

Shoihet says the RCMP has been fully engaged in discussions with the Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs around its presence in the territory and the future of its community industry safety office.

She says it remains committed to continuing those discussions as it looks at short-term and long-term solutions.

The RCMP's presence in Wet'suwet'en territory has been a source of tension but the Mounties already agreed to end patrols along a critical roadway while discussions between the hereditary chiefs and the federal and provincial governments unfold in Smithers, B.C.



5:11 p.m. ET

Via Rail says most of its services will be progressively back in operation, including routes between Toronto and Montreal and Toronto and Ottawa as of Tuesday.

Furthermore, it says a train will run from Toronto to Vancouver on Wednesday and return in the opposite direction two days later, on March 6.

The company adds that all current reservations on those segments will be protected and further departures will be announced in the coming days.

Blockades across the country, especially in eastern Ontario, have impacted the passenger rail company's service over the past few weeks.



4:55 p.m. ET

The general manager of an eastern Quebec rail line says he fears for the survival of his business if authorities can't negotiate an end to a rail blockade in Listuguj, in Quebec's Gaspe region.

Luc Levesque says the Societe du chemin de fer de la Gaspesie had to lay off half its 30 employees last week and is at risk of losing major contracts with clients.

Members of the Listuguj Mikmaq First Nation have refused to dismantle the barricade, in defiance of a court injunction issued earlier this week.

The Mi'kmaq government in the area has said that while its band council is not involved in the protest, it has no intention of forcefully removing peaceful protesters from the rail line.



2:27 p.m. ET

B.C. Premier John Horgan says he has no plans to go to Smithers in the near future to meet with Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs who oppose a pipeline project.

A meeting is underway with the federal and provincial Indigenous relations ministers but the chiefs have invited the premier and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to join them at the table.

Horgan says he's been told the talks have been co-operative, cordial and respectful and he is hopeful a peaceful resolution and a way forward can be reached.

He says the Coastal GasLink pipeline has lawfully issued permits in place and has been endorsed by 20 elected band councils along the route.

But he adds the dispute is not only about a pipeline when it comes to the Wet'suwet'en, it's about a range of governance issues that his government has been working to help solve.



2:12 p.m. ET

Former NDP MP Nathan Cullen, who is acting as a liaison in a meeting between hereditary Wet'suwet'en chiefs and the B.C. and federal Indigenous relations ministers, says in a phone interview that Trudeau and Horgan have "explicitly not" ruled out a meeting with the chiefs.

The chiefs' original invitation was to Trudeau and Horgan but Cullen says the chiefs also understand that Ottawa and Victoria have their protocols and in order to get to that meeting, today's meeting in Smithers, B.C., is required.

He says if progress can be made, then he thinks both Premier John Horgan and the prime minister have left the door open for a meeting at a future date.

Cullen adds that there are issues that overlap between the jurisdictions and he always believed any resolution of the impasse was going to involve the federal government.



2:01 p.m. ET

Conservative MPs raised concerns today about the economic impacts that the protest barricades have had in blocking deliveries of goods shipped by rail over the last three weeks.

During question period, Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre says the repercussions of the suspended rail service and shipments have amounted to a "war on working people" and demanded to know how government would fight back.

Transport Minister Marc Garneau told a Commons committee Thursday that Ottawa is trying to analyze the economic impacts to the economy of the rail and road disruptions, but said it is a complex calculation that could take up to six months to fully determine.

He wouldn't estimate a figure, but he did say the financial implications will likely be higher than most Canadians might think, as a total of $300 billion worth of goods moves by train every year in the country.

Quebec City Conservative MP Gerard Deltell is also highlighting concerns voiced by provincial officials about propane shortages in Quebec.



1:40 p.m. ET

Nathan Cullen, a former NDP MP who is acting as a liaison between the B.C. and federal governments and the chiefs, says outside a meeting in Smithers, B.C., that the amount of work being done is substantial but the parties are unlikely to reach a broad resolution today.

He says there's no such thing as a "quick fix" to the issue and it's important to the chiefs and to Canada and B.C. that even if only interim steps are reached, that they're durable.

Cullen also says the establishment or re-establishment of trust is important, after conversations and relationships have been broken in the past, in order to secure solutions.

He says it was always going to take the chiefs and governments sitting down at a negotiating table to solve the issues, and a solution wasn't going to be reached at a blockade or a protest.

Cullen says he's hopeful that what comes out of Friday's meeting is something that can be built upon, but for those who are expecting a full and final resolution after a day and a half of talks, that's a very high expectation to have.

He also says he isn't aware of an offer from a Mohawk council in Quebec to send its Peacekeepers to patrol the Wet'suwet'en traditional territory and it isn't something that's being discussed at the meeting.



12:30 p.m. ET

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake is proposing that its Peacekeepers head up a temporary Indigenous police force to patrol Wet'suwet'en territory in British Columbia.

Grand Chief Joseph Norton says the measure would allow the RCMP to withdraw from the area as hereditary chiefs and government representatives work to negotiate an end to a pipeline dispute.

Before the meeting began, the RCMP agreed to a condition proposed by the Wet'suwet'en chiefs to end patrols along a critical roadway while the negotiations unfold.

The hereditary chiefs have demanded the RCMP leave their traditional land entirely, but Norton says police services are still needed, and his community's chief Peacekeeper has offered to work with other Indigenous police chiefs to gather the officers required.



11:30 a.m. ET

The federal and B.C. Indigenous relations ministers have resumed talks with Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs whose opposition to a pipeline project in northern B.C. has sparked solidarity protests across the country.

Carolyn Bennett and her B.C. counterpart Scott Fraser began the long-sought discussions yesterday afternoon and returned to the Wet'suwet'en office this morning.

The hereditary chiefs have said the meeting is a first step and urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and B.C. Premier John Horgan to join them at the table, and Bennett appeared to leave the door open to that possibility in the future.

Bennett says she would want any meeting with the prime minister and the premier to be a good one, and therefore she and Fraser have to do the hard work they were delegated to accomplish.

Fraser says he had 25 hours of initial conversations with the chiefs several weeks ago and the province has been working closely with them, so they have a relationship already.

The talks were expected to wrap up Friday, but the ministers say they're open to all options and might remain in Smithers over the weekend.



This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2020.
U.S. will never accept Russia's claims for sovereingty over the Ukrainian Crimea. Secretary of the State Mike Pompeo posted that on Twitter on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of Crimea's annexation by Russia.

"Today, we again reaffirm Crimea is Ukraine. The United States does not and will not ever recognize Russias claims of sovereignty over the peninsula. We call on Russia to end its occupation of Crimea", he wrote.

Related: Ukraines National Security Secretary excludes water supply to occupied Crimea

Spokesman of the Department of the State Morgan Ortagus added that currently, Russia's occupation of Crimea "remains an affront to the international order". "The consequences of the occupation extend far beyond Ukraine's border and pose a serious threat to our common security. Russia's aggression against one of the largest nations in Europe is a threat to our interest in Europe's stability and prosperity. It is a threat to the economic, commercial and political cooperation that feeds growth and development on both sides of teh Atlantic", she claimed. The official stated that the U.S. government called on Russia to end its occupation of Crimea.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail till March 6 to Congress leader Hardik Patel in the case lodged against him in connection with the violence during the Patidar stir in Gujarat in 2015.

A bench of justices U U Lalit and Vineet Saran issued notice to the Gujarat government on the plea of Patel seeking quashing of the case against him.

"The case was lodged in 2015 and the investigation is still pending in the matter. You can't sit on the case for past five years," the bench said.

The Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti under Patel had organised a mega rally in Ahmedabad as part of the stir demanding quota for the community in government jobs, and an FIR was lodged for "unlawful assembly" as the police claimed the event did not have requisite permissions.

The Gujarat High Court had on February 17 rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Patel after considering the government's objection on grounds of his criminal antecedents.

Opposing his plea, the government had told high court that there were more than ten criminal cases against Patel, and that he had gone underground fearing arrest.

The police had also contended that this unlawful gathering led to violence, in which over a dozen youths were killed and property was damaged.

In his anticipatory bail plea before the high court, Patel had claimed he was being "victimised by the ruling party of the state" which has slapped "several false, frivolous and concocted cases against him".

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

The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday proposed a $2.14 billion penalty against PG&E for its role in the catastrophic wildfires in the North Bay and Butte County in 2017 and 2018.

The proposed decision by Administrative Law Judge Sophia Park adds $462 million to a $1.7 billion penalty settlement agreed to last year by PG&E, the commission's safety staff, and utility union representatives for violations of regulations.

Like the previous settlement, the proposed decision would require shareholders rather than customers to absorb the cost of the penalty. But in addition to increasing the penalty amount, the revised proposal would require that any tax savings PG&E gains from tax deductions for the penalty would benefit customers and not shareholders.

If PG&E agrees to accept the revised penalty within 20 days and no party in the proceeding objects to it, the proposed penalty will become a decision of the five-member commission.

PG&E spokesman James Noonan said, "We're disappointed" with the proposed decision, saying that "PG&E worked diligently over many months with multiple parties" to reach the previous settlement. He did not say whether PG&E will agree to the revised penalty.

The proposal includes a $1.8 billion "disallowance" for wildfire expenses, meaning that PG&E can't recover those costs through higher rates for customers.

It also includes a $200 million fine payable to the state's general fund and $114 million for corrective actions and initiatives.

The CPUC said the proposed penalty is the largest ever assessed by the agency.

In 2015, the CPUC imposed a then-record $1.6 billion penalty on PG&E for a fatal natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno in 2010. PG&E was able to take a tax write-off for most of that amount.

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The EU is worried that the situation in Syria, where dozens of Turkish troops were killed by regime air strikes, could descend into all-out war, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted on Friday.

"There is a risk of sliding into a major open international military confrontation. It is also causing unbearable humanitarian suffering and putting civilians in danger," he said.

The EU urged a rapid de-escalation and "will consider all necessary measures to protect its security interests," he said, adding that the bloc was in contact with "all relevant actors".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) has partnered with tower firm K-Net to deliver connectivity to one of the countrys more remote regions.

Officials from the regulator and K-Net have signed a MoU (memorandum of understanding) detailing their commitments under the agreement. The Daily Observer reported that K-Net won the contract by delivering a compelling proof of concept.

The LTA has commenced the deployment of towers for mobile services in Parluken District #2, Grand Kru County. The infrastructure will eventually be used by both of Liberias mobile network operators, Lonestar Cell-MTN and Orange Liberia.

A release issued by the LTA read: The issue about communication in the remotest part of Liberia isalarming and disheartening but the case with Parluken, Grand Kru County is gradually becoming an easy one as a team from the [regulator] and K-NET are now in Parluken to set up the first towers.

LTA spokesperson Jarsea Burphy said that the initiative had made temporary Wi-Fi services available in the district for the first time, meaning that many residents were enjoying their first ever access to the internet.
Over 60 percent of Houston Democrats said they would oppose the Green New Deal if it means layoffs in the oil and gas industry, according to a new University of Houston poll.

The poll published this week asked Texas Democrats whether they would support the legislation given its potential effects, including the elimination of oil and gas drilling in the U.S. by 2035. While 58.9 percent of Houston Democrats said they would still support the deal if it eliminated oil and gas drilling in Texas, when asked about job losses that support fell to 37.2 percent.

Overall, 52.2 percent of Texas Democrats said they would oppose the deal if it meant a loss of oil and gas jobs.

Voters from the Houston area were less likely to name climate change as a top priority than those from elsewhere in the state, and perhaps not surprisingly, they were less likely to favor the Green New Deal if it results in widespread layoffs in the energy industry, said Mark Jones, a political scientist with the Baker Institute at Rice University and a senior research associate at the University of Houston.

For subscribers: Fracking bans, Medicare for All: Could Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren really win in Texas?

The poll was conducted for the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs through an online survey of 1,352 likely Texas Democrat primary voters and has a margin of error of 2.75 percentage points.

Houston is home to 125,000 employees working directly in oil and gas production, according to the Texas Oil & Gas Association.

Texas Democrats in Congress have declined to join their more progressive colleagues on proposals like the Green New Deal.

Most recently, U.S. Reps. Lizzie Fletcher of Houston and Henry Cuellar of Laredo slammed a proposal to ban hydraulic fracking.

U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, another Houston Democrat, said in a statement to Hearst Newspapers that she is open to greater regulation of oil and gas production techniques such as fracking.

However I am cognizant that fracking, and the shale gas that it has produced, have played a critical role in reducing coal use from 50% of our electricity mix to less than 25% today, she said. I want to make sure that any action in this area doesnt slow the elimination of coal use in this country.
Bells pops up in Sydney

Mayor Darriea Turley shakes it up with the Bells Milk Bar girls as Broken Hill was showcased at a Sydney conference yesterday. PICTURE: Supplied Mayor Darriea Turley shakes it up with the Bells Milk Bar girls as Broken Hill was showcased at a Sydney conference yesterday. PICTURE: Supplied

By Emily McInerney

More than 200 travel and lifestyle media gurus have been given a taste of Broken Hill with a special pop-up bar.

A replica of Bells Milk Bar was brought to life in Sydney to support a new marketing campaign - Its Out There - launched at the International Media Marketplace, Australias largest travel and lifestyle media summit.

Bells Milk Bars Jason King said it was bloody awesome to be included in the campaign.

It will no doubt have positive spin-offs for Bells but it also showcases a Broken Hill asset, he said.

Where they might have just had an ordinary refreshment bar, theyve been able to incorporate Bells into it.

Its things like that, that make Broken Hill special.

Mr King said branding the region as a whole experience was a great way to get into the market.

Theres so much to see and do, its out there and the whole campaign is like that, he said.

The tagline is true and every chance that we can get to show people what Broken Hill is like; is good for everyone.

Mayor Darriea Turley was at the launch, which was followed by a luncheon attended by over 450 people.

It was such an incredible success, she said.

People were coming up to me and saying they had never seen anything like the pop-up Bells Milk Bar at a tourism event.

They all wanted a Bells milkshake and were asking where they could buy it.

Mayor Turley said there was also a visit by Drag Queen personalities Philmah Bocks and Art Simone.

A very prominent travel journalist said it was the best pop-up he had seen.

There were some big industry players at this event.

We are really getting the response we expect from this campaign; it was very professional and the Destination NSW team worked closely with those in the industry.

The imagery is superb and showcases that we have an outback like no other; so come and visit us.

The video is going to be screened in cinemas, which was unexpected.

The campaign will be launched in Broken Hill on Tuesday.
Linda Wolfe, a writer who took her readers behind the scenes of true crimes and into the minds of their perpetrators, including the young man who committed the so-called preppie murder and the judge who stalked his socialite ex-mistress and landed in jail, died on Feb. 22 in Manhattan. She was 87.

Her granddaughter Rachel S. Bernstein said the cause was complications following bowel surgery.

Ms. Wolfe studied literature and planned to write short stories. She worked at Partisan Review and Time-Life Books and wrote short fiction as well as writing and editing an anthology cookbook, The Literary Gourmet (1962), which consisted of dining scenes and recipes from literature.

All the while, she was clipping out newspaper accounts of true crimes, thinking they would help her plot her fiction.

A turning point of sorts came in 1975, when twin doctors, both gynecologists, were found dead in their trash-filled apartment on Manhattans Upper East Side. It turned out that Ms. Wolfe had been the patient of one of them, years before  only briefly, but that was enough to propel her to investigate the case and turn to a life of writing about crime.
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Since the time, the trailer of Anubhav Sinha's Thappad has been released, it is making quite some waves online. "Just a slap, par nahi maar sakta" was one of the most powerful dialogues from the trailer that struck a chord with the audiences so hard, that it once again kickstarted the conversation around the long-ignored subject of domestic violence.

Twitter

"Pata hai uss Thappad se kya hua..uss ek Thappad se naa mujhe who saari unfair cheezein saaf saaf dikhne lag gayi jisko main andekha karke move karti jaa rahi thi"

Now that the movie has released, celebrities as well as audiences are showering praises upon the movie. While some fans have called the movie brilliant, others are saying it's a heart-wrenching tale. Ayushmann Khurrana who attended the screening of the Taapsee Pannu starrer said that Thappad is the most important movie of the generation.



After watching the movie, filmmaker Hansal Mehta wrote a long note on his website and called it Anubhav Sinha's best work so far -- better than Mulk and Article 15.

Thappad is an even more difficult conversation to have and hence an even more difficult film to make. It is after all about our private lives. It explores our attitudes, bares our mindsets and strips us of all those artifices we have about gender and patriarchy in our day to day lives. It nudges you, it pushes you, it argues with you, it talks to you, it compels you, it engages you. Through its exploration of the political in the personal it affects you deeply and in that is Thappads resounding triumph.



YouTube

He added that after watching the movie he cried and just wanted to go home and hug his daughters.



He apologised to all the women in his life.

To all the women in my life. To my wife, my mother, my sister, my daughters, my ex-wife, my girlfriends and all those that have been subjected to my societal conditioning. I know it is late. But better late than never. Sorry. Sorry if I have let my sense of entitlement stifle your growth. Sorry if I have let my patriarchal conditioning render me insensitive to your needs. Sorry if Ive been an a*****e. I will try to change. If I dont, SLAP me. Kheench ke maarna mujhe Thappad," he wrote.

Here's how audiences have reacted to the movie.

#thappad is a wonderful film. Itll achieve its intention when both men & women go watch it! @anubhavsinha your film making is a master class in itself! @taapsee so much ease in your character that the uneasiness looks so relatable @deespeak @pavailkgulati & rest of the cast  Tahira Kashyap Khurrana (@tahira_k) February 27, 2020

I saw #Thappad last night .. and wept... @anubhavsinha sir you have created such fine characters and portrayed the prevailing silent misogyny and stereotypes that surround us !! @taapsee my friend shines .. more power to all of you !!  Huma S Qureshi (@humasqureshi) February 27, 2020

@taapsee Watched #Thappad it is such a film that I have ever watched after #saandkiaankh . It has so much to say and carries a message. You nailed it ! May you continue to entertain us by playing such various roles . Lots of love and respect.@anubhavsinha  ARNO MAJUMDER (@ArnoMajumder) February 28, 2020

@taapsee girl your are absolutely amazing in #Thappad ...And Anubhav Sinha thank you for a no nonsense movie without jarring background music.  HARDEEP SINGH DANG (@rojajimmy) February 28, 2020

#Thappad is an absolutely brilliant, important and heart wrenching film. It's a rare gem that touches your heart, holds a mirror to society and sends out a strong message. Enchanting performance of @taapsee makes it even more special. A must watch film.  Suraj Singh Chauhan (@Suraj_chauhan_1) February 28, 2020

Best Film of This Year (so far).#Thappad is @anubhavsinha 's best film. Simple yet hard hitting. Loved it.

Stellar performance by all. Anubhav gets the casting of his films so right.



I highly recommend this film. Do give it a try. pic.twitter.com/fuWox4a3Xe  Sukh (@Opiniontic) February 28, 2020

#Thappad is Overwhelming beyond words! @mrunmayeelagoo Dil ki tahon se kuchh dhoond dhoond kar likhi hai aapne! @anubhavsinha Take a bow!Kya kahna hai, kaise kahna hai, koyi aapse seekhe! Will talk about the dynamic performances later.That needs a separate tweet! #ThappadReview  Bhavna (@bhavnatalkies) February 28, 2020

After many years in #Bollywood @taapsee plays the role of a perfect Delhi girl types, no offence but delhi girls behaviour is different from Bombay girls so that's my observation and @taapsee nails it perfectly. #Thappad #ThappadReview @itispalkova @LesterNygaard9 @CringedB  kaul the legend (@KaulLegend) February 28, 2020

#ThappadReview: Never knew that I did LOVE the film so much, and least of all that I did be emotional at the end of it. The BRILLIANCE of simplicity & yet HARD-HITTING! The #Thappad not from a husband to his wife, but from a film on the society.



SALUTE @AnubhavSinha & @Taapsee!  N J  (@Nilzrav) February 27, 2020

#ThappadReview: Director @anubhavsinha attempts a film that peeps into the heart of a woman. Undoubtedly one of the finest realistic films made in recent times, #Thappad focuses the viewer's attention to that segment of society that has seldom been depicted on the Indian screen.  Somesh Sinha (@SinhaSomesh) February 28, 2020

Meanwhile, a day before the release of the movie, a section of people were calling for a boycott of Thappad.
The Russians are like the devil. Each gets blamed (or credited) with more than they are responsible for.

Intelligence officials recently went to Capitol Hill where, according to The Hill website, They briefed the House Intelligence Committee about Russia interfering in the presidential race in an effort to get Trump re-elected. The initial presumption was that Russian President Vladimir Putin favors Trumps reelection. Why would he when he has someone more closely associated with his ideology than Trump? That would be the self-described democratic socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

But wait. Following closely on this unspecific leak to (where else?) The New York Times, we now hear that Russia wants Sanders as the next president. Perhaps its out of gratitude because he and his wife honeymooned in the Soviet Union. Ah, nostalgia.
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Instrumental string music filtered into the sprawling multipurpose room, where a dozen people rolled their hips, stretched their arms and twisted from side to side. Nearby, small groups of women huddled over elaborate needlepoint embroidery while men and women shuffled dominoes and mahjong tiles at game tables.

A crowd formed outside an adjoining room of the AltaMed Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) center in Chinatown, where several seniors, some using canes, walkers and wheelchairs, lined up in chairs. They chatted excitedly in English and Spanish about Tuesday's upcoming presidential primary.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont -- "el viejito," an endearment for "old man" -- was a favorite among the Spanish speakers.

The adult day care center, intended to keep frail and infirm older adults out of hospitals and nursing homes -- and in their own homes for as long as possible -- is one of 41 locations in Los Angeles County bringing new voting machines to groups of people with historically low voter turnout. The customizable touch screens allow voters to read a ballot in 13 languages, adjust the screen contrast and text size, and more.

Early in-person voting for the 15 Voter's Choice Act counties began Feb. 22, 2020. This voting center in Mission Hills, California, has 40 touch-screen voting machines available. (Anna Almendrala/California Healthline)

During the 10 days before Super Tuesday, the machines have been rotating through various nonprofit organizations, jails and elsewhere -- up to two machines per location, and usually for one-day stints -- in an effort to reach people with disabilities, the incarcerated, the homeless and older adults.

Some election experts are raising the possibility that these efforts may merely shift where and how people are voting -- instead of increasing voter turnout. But at the AltaMed center in Chinatown, the mobile voting machines drew both new and repeat voters.

Maria Melendez, a 95-year-old former seamstress, and Alicia Turcios, a 77-year-old former cotton picker, used the touch screens Monday to vote for the first time.

Both women, who met at the center and have been friends six years, are from El Salvador. They use walkers because of knee pain, they said, and couldn't walk more than a block because they feared falling.

Melendez became a U.S. citizen about 15 years ago but said she has never voted because she has been in and out of hospitals or homebound during elections. Turcios became a citizen three years ago.

"It was special," Melendez said in Spanish. "I can't walk, and here an opportunity arrives."

Melendez identifies as Republican but left the presidential choice blank. "The truth is that I'm happy, and the current government gives me what I need," she said.

Turcios, a Democrat, said she voted for Sanders, "el viejito," mostly because he seemed to be the front-runner.

"I had seen on the television that he was winning by a lot in Las Vegas," she said.

Alicia Turcios and Maria Melendez voted for the first time at the AltaMed PACE in Chinatown, an adult day care center located in Los Angeles. The two have been friends for six years, and both use walkers because of knee pain. (Anna Almendrala/California Healthline)

Los Angeles County is modernizing its elections in several ways, as are 14 other counties participating in the state's Voter's Choice Act election system. Adopted in 2016, the law allows counties that have met requirements to replace assigned neighborhood polling places with voting centers open to all registered voters in the county, starting 10 days before Election Day.

The law also requires all participating counties to mail ballots to registered voters (although Los Angeles is exempt from this rule the first four years), as well as provide ballot drop-off locations 28 days before Election Day.

Although several other counties began adopting this election system two years ago, Super Tuesday marks the debut for the state's most populous county, which has about 5.4 million registered voters.

The long lead time makes voting easier for people of all abilities, said California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, after casting his vote in Mission Hills on Saturday, the first day of early in-person voting.

Mobile voting is not new in California. Counties also use traveling machines to attract voters in areas with high foot traffic, such as zoos and theme parks, and give rural voters in remote locations a chance to cast their ballots in person.

Los Angeles County wanted to take it a step further by teaming with nonprofits to bring the machines to people who could benefit the most.

For instance, AltaMed operates eight PACE adult day care programs in Los Angeles County, and the machines will make an appearance at all of them. Of the nearly 2,800 participants, 84% are Hispanic and all struggle with chronic diseases or disabilities.

While national turnout among all voters went up in the 2018 midterm elections, voters with disabilities voted at a rate that was 4.7% lower than voters without disabilities, according to a national analysis from Rutgers University researchers Lisa Schur and Douglas Kruse. That gap represents about 2.35 million fewer voters with disabilities.

Turnout among eligible black, Asian and Latino voters is also historically low. In the 2016 presidential election, turnout for Latino voters was 47.6%, Asian voters was 49.3% and black voters was 59.6% , while white voters showed up at a rate of 65.3%. (Latinos can be of any race.)

The multipurpose room is the hub of activity at the AltaMed PACE center in L.A.'s Chinatown. (Anna Almendrala/California Healthline)

Los Angeles is not unique in trying to increase voting access with traveling voting machines. El Dorado County in Northern California has pop-up vote centers in four places, including the Shingle Springs Health & Wellness Center, which serves Native American, Spanish-speaking and low-income groups.

But it's too soon to say whether these programs will increase turnout.

"Are you providing something that would just switch people from one method to another, or are you actually increasing voter turnout?" asked Kruse, a professor specializing in disability research at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.

Mindy Romero, director of the California Civic Engagement Project at the University of Southern California, said she hopes counties will study whether these programs attract hard-to-reach voters.

At the Disabled Resources Center in Long Beach, which hosted two of the Los Angeles voting devices Monday, 15 people cast votes, said Dolores Nason, executive director of the organization. Three were first-time voters.

At midday, the voting machines sat unused. One woman entered, read a voter guide and decided she needed more time to do her homework.

But this doesn't mean the effort was a waste, Kruse said.

"The cost of getting these 15 voters, that doesn't concern me," he said. "That's democracy. We want to get people to vote."

Two of the voters were staff members, including Richard Hernandez, 46, the organization's legislative advocate.

Hernandez has been unable to walk or stand since a car accident damaged his spinal cord 26 years ago. He has always voted by mail because his disability made it difficult to travel to new polling places. When he learned his organization would offer the touch-screen voting machines, he wanted to try it.

"The machines are really user-friendly, and they're low enough for the wheelchair," said Hernandez, who cast his vote for Sanders. "I was able to go up to the machine and vote for who I wanted to vote, with no assistance whatsoever.

"I liked it because it gave me a sense of being so-called normal."
Lucknow, Feb 28 : Nearly 128 passengers traveling to Saudi Arabia from various districts of Uttar Pradesh for 'Umrah' were turned back from Saudi Arabia which has imposed travel curbs following the coronavirus scare.

The passengers who returned to Lucknow late on Thursday evening, created uproar at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport demanding to know why they were not informed of the curbs prior to departure.

Umrah, an important religious practice among Muslims, is performed throughout the year in Saudi Arabia.

The curbs imposed by the Saudi government do not apply to passengers traveling with employment visa.

According to airport officials, the Saudi government did not allow more than 3,000 passengers from more than a dozen flights to reach Jeddah and Madina airport from India. Not only this, the Etihad Airlines plane from Kolkata was also sent back from Dubai.

Passengers were assured by concerned authorities that their visas would remain intact and that whenever the travel ban is lifted, they will be allowed to travel on the same visa and ticket.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
SAN JOSE (BCN)

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, will hold a rally in San Jose on Sunday, less than 48 hours before California votes as part of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary's Super Tuesday.

Sanders will hold the rally at the San Jose Convention Center's 80,000-square-foot South Hall, which can accommodate up to 11,000 people. Campaign staffers attending the rally are expected to collect vote-by-mail ballots from rally attendees to deliver them to the appropriate county registrar.

Sanders has built a formidable presence in the state, with 23 offices and more than 100 paid campaign staffers. The campaign also touts that it has knocked on more than a million doors and made more than 5 million phone calls to potential supporters in the state.

"Our campaign is doing everything we can to educate voters about the easiest ways to cast their ballots for president," said Rafael Navar, the Sanders campaign's California state director. "No Party Preference and independent voters deserve every opportunity to participate in the democratic process, and that's why we have been on the ground since day one educating Californians about the ins and outs of voting."

The California primary will arrive after a month in which Sanders won the popular votes in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada and is likely to net a top-two finish in Saturday's South Carolina primary.

Polling has shown Sanders building a significant foothold in the state, holding a 13.5 percentage point lead in RealClearPolitics' polling average from Feb. 12-23. He's also the only candidate in the state who consistently eclipses the 15 percent viability threshold for delegates, leading to the potential for Sanders to net a large majority of the 416 delegates available in the state.

The muddled field of moderate candidates and Sanders' demographic strengths in California and other Super Tuesday states like Texas, North Carolina and Maine point to the potential for members of the Sanders campaign to wake up Wednesday with a commanding delegate lead.

In an effort to goose turnout in the state among new voters, the Sanders campaign has established a hotline voters can call if they need help filling out or casting their ballot.

"We have an unprecedented opportunity to expand the Democratic electorate this cycle, and we aren't going to waste it," Navar said.

The rally is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at the South Hall, located at 435 S. Market St. Doors for the free event will open at 11:30 a.m. Tickets are not required but the campaign encourages attendees to RSVP at events.berniesanders.com/event/251664/ to estimate the crowd's size.

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 only thing scarier than the Parliamentary Budget Officers projected debt for the Manitoba government over the next few decades is what the estimates would be had the province continued to spend at the same level as the previous NDP government.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

The only thing scarier than the Parliamentary Budget Officers projected debt for the Manitoba government over the next few decades is what the estimates would be had the province continued to spend at the same level as the previous NDP government.

The PBO released its Fiscal Sustainability Report Thursday, which shows how high the provincial governments debt levels would be over the next 73 years if its fiscal situation didnt change during that time.

The provinces net debt as a percentage of the economy (the debt-to-GDP ratio) was at 34.5 per cent in 2019  more or less where its been for the past five years. It grew substantially under the previous NDP administration, following successive years of record deficits and heavy borrowing for capital projects. In 2007, the debt-to-GDP ratio was 21.2 per cent. In 1981 it was 10.4 per cent.

Economists measure a provinces debt against the size of the economy to enable a consistent comparison over time. Manitobas current debt level is high, but still manageable. Left unchecked, though, it could spin out of control.

Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux found in his report that if the provinces fiscal situation remained unchanged, its debt-to-GDP ratio would soar to 86.3 per cent by 2043. For many economists, thats considered a danger zone.

In the mid-1990s when the federal governments debt-to-GDP ratio hit 67 per cent, it prompted the Chretien government to eliminate the deficit "come hell or high water." It involved a lot of hardship, including deep cuts to provincial transfer payments. Within 10 years, the ratio fell below 40 per cent. Today its just over 30 per cent.

Responsible governments try to avoid those scenarios because the pain reversing them worsens as debt rises.

That was the point of the PBO report.

"We produce these projections to motivate parliamentary discussion about the adequacy of current fiscal policy to deal with expected long-term demographic and economic challenges," Giroux wrote in his report. "The earlier that a required policy intervention can be identified, the lower will be the cost of its implementation."

Had the Pallister government not taken the steps it did to reduce the deficit and curb capital spending beginning in 2016, these outlooks would have been even worse. If the province continued to spend at levels we saw under the previous NDP government, the steps required to reverse the trend would have been even more drastic.

Meanwhile, the numbers are even worse for Manitoba when the projections extend out to the year 2093. If the provinces fiscal situation remained unchanged, the debt-to-GDP ratio would rise to 342.5 per cent, according to the report. Thats a monstrous level of debt that would render the province insolvent. However, its extremely unlikely to happen. Government would take steps to avoid it. But it does illustrate the long-term challenge Manitoba (and several other provinces who are in the same boat) faces.

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Some of the contributing factors to that unsustainability is the provinces aging population. As the population gets older, fewer people contribute to the tax base and related costs  including health care  rise.

It would require substantial spending cuts and/or tax increases to realign finances, Giroux said. But the solution could also include higher transfers from the federal government. Ottawas fiscal sustainability in the long-term is relatively healthy, according to the report. Which means it will have the fiscal capacity to transfer higher levels of resources to the provinces.

The most efficient way to do that would probably be to transfer tax points to the provinces, where Ottawa lowers taxes and allows the provinces to raise theirs correspondingly.

Either way, the PBO report shows that even with the steps the Pallister government has taken to reduce the deficit and slow the growth of debt, the province is still not out of the woods. Tough decisions will have to be made in the future to avoid the kind of debt levels the PBO predicts.

Its a stark reminder of the dangers that lurk if the province returned to the days of $1-billion deficits.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca
One person from Iran, who travelled to Auckland via Bali was tested positive

New Zealand confirmed its first coronavirus case Friday, saying a recent arrival from Iran who travelled to Auckland via Bali had tested positive.

Health officials said the person, aged in their 60s, was being treated in Auckland City Hospital.

"They are in an improving condition in isolation, in a negative pressure room to prevent any spread of the disease," the health department said in a statement.

Officials said the person, reportedly a female New Zealand citizen, arrived in Auckland on Wednesday and family members went to the hospital after becoming concerned about the individual's condition.

The officials urged any passengers on Wednesday's final leg of the Emirates airline journey, which goes from Bali to Auckland, to contact authorities if they were concerned.

However, authorities downplayed the risk to the public saying the situation was being well managed.

Lithuania confirms first case

Lithuania confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus in a woman who returned from Italy, the government said on Friday.

The 39-year-old, who returned from Verona, has been isolated in hospital in the Baltic state's northern city of Siauliai and has mild symptoms. Her family members are being monitored.

We are putting all efforts to establish all people who contacted the infected person so that we can adopt preventive measures and (stop) the spread of the virus, Deputy Health Minister Algirdas Seselgis said in a statement.
For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is transferring a person who tested positive for COVID-19 to an undisclosed location in San Mateo County, officials said Friday.

San Mateo County Health issued a statement saying it would not be releasing any more details on the patient at this time.

San Mateo County's Health Officer Dr. Scott Morrow said the county's focus is changing from a "containment strategy" to one of "community mitigation," which means taking steps to lessen the impact.

"I share the concerns of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): We all need to be prepared for COVID-19 to spread within the United States," Dr. Morrow said in a statement. "Our lives may be significantly disrupted by the measures needed to respond to a global pandemic."

Dr. Morrow added that the risk to the community remained low.

ALSO: Why San Francisco has declared a coronavirus state of emergency: Your questions answered

The news comes as officials from the county school district and health department plan a meeting to discuss ways to prepare in the event the virus spreads more widely.

Coronavirus has infected more than 83,000 people in 53 countries. More than 2,800 people around the world have died from the virus. The vast majority of cases remain in mainland China but the virus is spreading rapidly in other parts of the world.

The total number of cases in the U.S. is around 60. Earlier cases in the United States include 14 people who traveled back from outbreak areas in China, or their spouses; three people who were evacuated from the central China city of Wuhan; and 42 Americans on the Diamond Princess cruise ship who were evacuated by the federal government to the United States from where the ship was docked in Japan.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a press conference Thursday a total of 33 people in California have tested positive for the virus in California and five of those were moved out of the state. Newsom said that at least 8,400 people are being monitored for potential coronavirus in the state.

This week a case was identified in Solano County resident with no known connection to travel abroad or another known case.

"At this time, the patients exposure is unknown,'' the CDC said in a statement regarding the case of unknown origin. "Its possible this could be an instance of community spread of COVID-19, which would be the first time this has happened in the United States. Community spread means spread of an illness for which the source of infection is unknown. Its also possible, however, that the patient may have been exposed to a returned traveler who was infected.''

The new virus is a member of the coronavirus family that can cause colds or more serious illnesses such as SARS and MERS.

The virus can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia. Health officials think it spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how the flu spreads.

Officials are advising people to take steps to avoid infection with coronavirus or other respiratory infections like a cold or the flu, including washing hands with soap and water, and avoiding close contact with people who are sick.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

Eerie photos show empty streets in Italy amid coronavirus fears

Maps: Cases of new coronavirus multiples across the globe

Local emergency declared in San Francisco amid coronavirus concerns

Bay Area company to expand coronavirus drug trials to other companies

CDC warns men with beards amid coronavirus scare

Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has welcomed the Bihar governments decision to reject Centres bid to carry out the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in the state. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav also used the occasion to target the Centre, especially Home Minister Amit Shah.

Amit Shah says he wont move back an inch. Today, the RJD and all of us together have pushed him back a thousand kilometre, Yadav, the Leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly, said in Gaya on Thursday.

The Bihar Assembly on Tuesday passed a unanimous resolution holding that the National Population Register (NPR) in the state would be implemented in the old 2010 format, save the inclusion of an additional column for transgender, and also rejected the NRC exercise.

Bihar is the first NDA-ruled state, which has demanded tweaking of the revised NPR form by dropping new columns such as mentioning the dates of birth of an individuals parents and their birth place in the soon-to-be launched nationwide survey of usual residents of the country. Those living in a particular place for six months are defined as usual residents.

Earlier, Kerala and West Bengal decided not to implement the NPR exercise in their states. Congress-ruled Punjab announced that it would conduct the NPR in line with the 2010 format.

In a signal that the two alliance partners were on the same page on this matter, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi asserted that people would not be required to produce any documents as claimed by Opposition parties.

NPR, a comprehensive biometric database of all usual residents in India, was created in 2010 and updated in 2015.

The Bihar Assembly also passed another unanimous resolution on Thursday - demanding a caste-based census in 2021 in which information about an individuals caste be collected and compiled during the nationwide population count survey.

The demand, on which the wider policy of the Union government and the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) is unclear, was pushed by chief minister Nitish Kumar months ahead of assembly polls in the state.
The February 18 attack by Russian-backed forces near Zolote again reminded residents of the town of how easily Russia can direct a return to the levels of violence they experienced in 2015.

Charge dAffaires of the U.S. Mission to the OSCE Harry Kamian said this at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday, February 27, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Since we last met, the situation in Ukraine has again taken a worrying turn. On February 18, Russia-backed forces executed an offensive using heavy weapons prohibited under the Minsk agreements close to the Zolote disengagement area. The Special Monitoring Mission observed several thousand explosions that day, one 22-year old Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier was killed, several more were wounded, and the residents of Zolote were reminded of how easily Russia can direct a return to the levels of violence they experienced in 2015," Kamian said.

The offensive was launched on the five-year anniversary of Russia-led forces capture of Debaltseve days after the third Minsk agreement known as the Package of Measures was signed, a cynical provocation that served only to demonstrate Russias continued aggression.

As reported, Russian-backed forces attacked Ukrainian positions near the villages of Novotoshkivske, Orikhove, Krymske, Khutir Vilnyi and Popasna early on February 18, killing one Ukrainian serviceman and wounding another five.

ish
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 04:15:27|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the ongoing situation in northwest Syria on Friday, said the White House.

Trump voiced Washington's support for Ankara's "efforts to de-escalate the situation in northwest Syria and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe," said a statement released by the White House.

Trump and Erdogan also called for Syria, Russia and Iran to halt their offensive before more civilian deaths, according to the statement.

A total of 33 Turkish soldiers were reportedly killed in air strikes occurring in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib on Thursday, a heavy loss for Ankara following days of clashes between Turkey-backed forces and Russia-backed Syrian government troops and escalating tension between Turkey and Russia.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called for an immediate ceasefire in Idlib "before the situation gets entirely out of control."

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday urged de-escalation in Syria and highlighted the organization's solidarity with Ankara.
Actor Sharvari Wagh, who will make her Bollywood debut with Bunty Aur Babli 2, has said she never had a plan B, and only wanted to act. Sharvari will be paired opposite Siddhant Chaturvedi in Bunty Aur Babli 2, which revolves around two con couples - Siddhant-Sharvari, and Rani Mukerji-Saif Ali Khan. The sequel will take a leap of 10 years, from where the original ended.

Sharvari told Pinkvilla in an interview, I gave my first audition in 2014 and its 2020 when two of my projects have released, so it has been a struggle to finally reach this stage. And I feel everyone faces their own struggles in this line, but yes, for me to get work was definitely a big, big struggle. It also teaches you a lot though. It teaches you so much along these 5-6 years that Ive spent struggling. So, yeah, the main struggle is to get work. After that, you have to prove your own mettle by performing. Sharvaris first project, The Forgotten Army, released earlier in January. She will now be seen in Bunty Aur Babli 2.

Also read: Javed Akhtar to Shekhar Kapur over Mr India: How can your claim be more than mine? It wasnt your dream, I gave it all to you

Sharvari elaborated on facing rejections. Obviously, rejection is the worst fear that youd have. So, yeah, whenever I got rejected, of course Id feel bad. I mean, everyone would feel bad in that situation. Even for an ad audition, you go to that audition so that you get that ad, and when you dont, it feels like failing an exam, and its almost like failing an exam everyday. So, that feeling is not the best one, of course. So only that has been the biggest part of my struggle and nothing else, she said.

I actually never had a plan B, which was very scary for me, but it made me work harder because I knew that if not this, then I dont have anything. And I made sure it was like that for me. So, I never second-guessed myself because I didnt have a backup option, she added.

About the film, Rani had earlier said in an interview with Hindustan Times, Abhishek (Bachchan) and I were both approached to reprise our roles as the originals in Bunty Aur Babli 2 but, unfortunately, things didnt work out with him and we will miss him dearly. As a team, we are so happy to welcome Saif. I have lovely memories of working with him and Im really looking forward to creating something new and exciting with him in Bunty Aur Babli 2. Hopefully, the audiences will give us the same love that they have given our earlier films.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
KYODO NEWS - Feb 28, 2020 - 21:52 | World, All, Coronavirus

Singapore's government said Friday it is investigating the local chapter of a South Korean religious sect at the center of a surge of coronavirus cases in South Korea and plans to bar its activities in the city-state.

The Home Affairs Ministry said in a statement on its website that five South Korean nationals and two Singaporeans are assisting in investigations into the local activities of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.

"(The ministry) believes, based on investigations, that the local SCJ chapter has used similar deceptive recruitment methods," it said, adding that it "intends to take action to proscribe the activities of SCJ in Singapore."

(File photo shows visitors at Singapore Changi Airport.)

[Anadolu Agency/Getty/Kyodo]

It said the local chapter has been using front entities to target Christian youths and young adults to join the group and exhibiting secretive and coercive behavior such as forcing its members to conceal the existence of the local chapter.

The ministry said it decided to speed up its investigations and take earlier action due to concern that there could be a health risk in the wake of reports linking the church's practices to a majority of coronavirus cases in the South Korean city of Daegu.

So far interviews with members of the SCJ in Singapore who have been called up did not find that they have been in recent physical contact with anyone from the Daegu cluster.

Related coverage:

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Singapore, Thailand lower growth projections amid coronavirus outbreak

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"Since its launch, the smart image-reading system has provided services to more than 1,500 medical institutions. More than 5,000 patients have received smart image-reading services for free. The system can generate smart analysis results in around 15 seconds, with an accuracy rate above 90%", said Geoff Kau, Co-President and Chief Strategy Officer of Ping An Smart City. By comparison, it usually takes radiologists about 15 minutes to read the CT images of a patient suspected of contracting COVID-19.

As COVID-19 is a new disease, medical institutions, especially at the primary level in China, lack diagnosis experience. The Nucleic Acid Test (NAT) had been regarded as the major reference for COVID-19 diagnoses. But as the epidemic continues to spread, the NAT has had several problems, including long detection times and a high proportion of false negative cases. This resulted in some patients missing the chance for early treatment or quarantine.

Computed Tomography (CT) images have been used by many doctors for diagnosis, but there lack radiologists in the epidemic areas to review the volume of CT imaging. Ping An's COVID-19 smart image-reading system aims to close the gap.

Ping An Smart Healthcare used clinical data to train the AI model of the COVID-19 smart image-reading system. The AI analysis engine can conduct a comparative analysis of multiple CT scan images of the same patient and measure the changes in lesions. It helps doctors to track the development of the disease, evaluate the treatment and have prognosis of patients, ultimately it assists doctors to diagnose, triage and evaluate COVID-19 patients swiftly and effectively. Ping An Smart Healthcare's COVID-19 smart image-reading system also supports AI image-reading remotely by medical professionals outside the epidemic areas.

Medical institutions that require COVID-19 smart image-reading services can also gain access on public or private cloud platforms or on premises. At the same time, the public or private cloud platforms support storing and sharing electronic film. The smart image-reading system can also be quickly transplanted to CT equipment with the help of manufacturers to assist diagnosing the COVID-19.

Dr. Xiao Jing, Chief Scientist of Ping An said, "Patients with COVID-19 need multiple CT scans during the treatment. Comparing multiple images is a time-consuming task and it cannot be accurately completed manually. Utilizing Ping An Smart Healthcare's COVID-19 smart image-reading system, it can effectively improve the diagnostic accuracy and the doctor's image-reading efficiency."

About Ping An Group

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. ("Ping An") is a world-leading technology-powered retail financial services group. With over 200 million retail customers and 516 million Internet users, Ping An is one of the largest financial services companies in the world.

Ping An has two over-arching strategies, "pan financial assets" and "pan health care", which focus on the provision of financial and healthcare services through our integrated financial services platform and our five ecosystems of financial services, health care, auto services, real estate services and smart city services. Our "finance + technology" and "finance + ecosystems" strategies aim to provide customers and internet users with innovative and simple products and services using technology. As China's first joint stock insurance company, Ping An Group is committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate reporting and corporate governance. The Company is listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

In 2019, Ping An ranked 7th in the Forbes Global 2000 list and 29th on the Fortune Global 500 list. Ping An also ranked 40th in the 2019 WPP Millward Brown BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list. For more information, please visit www.pingan.cn.

About Ping An Smart Healthcare

Ping An Smart Healthcare is affiliated to Ping An Smart City, a subsidiary of the Group. It utilizes the Group's three core technologies: AI, blockchain and cloud computing to provide smart integrated health care solutions, including smart medical quality control, smart disease prediction, smart triage and guidance, smart medical imaging screening / diagnosis, smart medical assistance and medical follow-ups and patient education. The solutions also include internet hospitals and compact smart medical communities. The cutting-edge technologies are designed to empower departments of public health administrations, health care institutions, and medical services providers to enhance public medical services.

Ping An Smart Healthcare has clinical decision support models for thousands of diseases, and has developed an excellent and comprehensive medical knowledge graph, covering drugs, diseases, prescriptions, risk factors and experts library.

Ping An Smart Healthcare is available to nearly 800 million people in more than 70 cities in China and Southeast Asia.

SOURCE Ping An Insurance Group Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.pingan.cn


What we are doing now is that he came through one airline so they are trying to track everybody on that flight. He went from Lagos to Ewekoro, who has he met? So, those are the people they are tracking to isolate them and then carry out checks.
The Railway Board has commissioned a survey to establish the Mujnai - Nyoenpaling line that will provide a cross-border rail link between India and Bhutan, an official statement said on Friday.

Minister of Railways, and Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal is in Bhutan, heading a business delegation in connection with the Bhutan - India Start-Up Summit 2020.

The commerce ministry said a team from Indian Railways will visit the neighbouring country on Saturday to hold discussions with the State Mining Corporation of Bhutan on finalising an MoU for export of railway ballast from Bhutan to India.

The two sides also discussed designation and notification of new transit customs stations at Jogighopa, Pandu and Agartala.

An agreement on making the land customs station at Nagarkatta as a permanent customs station was also discussed.

Further, India will be fully sponsoring training of 100 Bhutanese trainers and youth on entrepreneurship at the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

In light of the requirement of capacity building in packaging and branding, 30 Bhutanese entrepreneurs and start-ups will undergo hands-on training at the Indian Institute of Packaging.

It said that India will commission a feasibility study for setting up an Entrepreneurship Development Institute in Bhutan.

Prominent business personalities, think tanks and academics will ideate, debate and collaborate on the identified themes during Start-Up Summit in Bhutan on Saturday with an objective to forge stronger future business engagement across all sectors.

Goyal will deliver the keynote address at the inaugural session of the summit, and also inaugurate an exhibition of 30 start-ups from India and Bhutan together with the Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotay Tshering.

The minister on Friday called on the King of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck in Thimphu, aside from a call-on the Prime Minister.

The business delegation from India was led by Vikram Kirloskar, President, CII.
The military-installed government charged Morales with sedition and terrorism. A European Union monitoring report noted that some 40 former electoral officials have been arrested and face criminal charges of sedition and subversion , and 35 people have died in the post-electoral conflict. The highest-polling presidential candidate, a member of Moraless Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS-IPSP) party, has received a summons from prosecutors for undisclosed crimes, a move some analysts suspect was aimed to keep him off the ballot .

The OAS claimed that election fraud had happened

The primary support for claims of fraud was the OAS report . The organizations auditors claimed to have found evidence of fraud following a halt in the preliminary count  the nonbinding election-night results meant to track progress before the official count.

The Bolivian constitution requires that a candidate either earn an outright electoral majority or 40 percent of the votes, with at least a 10-percentage-point lead. Otherwise, a runoff election will take place. The preliminary count halted with 84 percent of the vote counted, when Morales had a 7.87 percentage-point lead. Though the halt was consistent with election officials earlier promise to count at least 80 percent of the preliminary vote on election night and continue through the official count, the OAS quickly expressed concern over the stop. When the preliminary count resumed, Moraless margin was above the 10-percentage-point threshold.

The OAS claimed that halting the preliminary count resulted in a highly unlikely trend in the margin in favor of MAS-IPSP when the count resumed. The OAS reported  deep concern and surprise at the drastic and hard-to-explain change in the trend of the preliminary results. Adopting a novel approach to fraud analysis, the OAS claimed that high deviations in data reported before and after the cutoff would indicate potential evidence of fraud.

But the statistical analysis behind this claim is problematic

The OAS report is in part based on forensic evidence that OAS analysts say points to irregularities, which includes allegations of forged signatures and alteration of tally sheets, a deficient chain of custody, and a halt in the preliminary vote count. Crucially, the OAS claimed in reference to the halt in the preliminary vote count that an irregularity on that scale is a determining factor in the outcome in favor of Morales, which acted as the primary quantitative evidence to their allegations of clear manipulation of the TREP system  which affected the results of both that system and the final count.

Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter We do not evaluate whether these irregularities point to deliberate interference  or reflect the problems of an underfunded system with poorly trained election officials. Instead, we comment on the statistical evidence.

Since Morales had surpassed the 40-percent threshold, the key question was whether his vote tally was 10 percentage points higher than that of his closest competitor. If not, then Morales would be forced into a runoff election against his closest competitor  former president Carlos Mesa.

Our results were straightforward. There does not seem to be a statistically significant difference in the margin before and after the halt of the preliminary vote. Instead, it is highly likely that Morales surpassed the 10-percentage-point margin in the first round.

How did we get there? The OAS approach relies on dual assumptions: that the unofficial count accurately reflects the vote continuously measured, and that reported voter preferences do not vary by the time of day. If these assumptions are true, then a change in the trend to favor one party over time could potentially indicate fraud had occurred.

The OAS cites no previous research demonstrating that these assumptions hold. There are reasons to believe that voter preferences and reporting can vary over time: with people who work voting later in the day, for instance. Areas where impoverished voters are clustered may have longer lines and less ability to count and report vote totals quickly. These factors may well apply in Bolivia, where there are severe gaps in infrastructure and income between urban and rural areas.

Was there a discontinuity between the votes counted before and after the unofficial count? For sure, discontinuities might be evidence of tampering. In Russia, for instance, one allegation is that local election officials stuff ballot boxes to meet preset targets.

If the OAS finding was correct, we would expect to see Moraless vote margin spike shortly after the preliminary vote count halted  and the resulting election margin over his closest competitor would be too large to be explained by his performance before preliminary count stopped. We might expect to see other anomalies, such as sudden shifts in votes for Morales from precincts that were previously less inclined to vote for him.

We didnt find any evidence of any of these anomalies, as this figure shows. We find a 0.946 correlation between Moraless margin between results before and after the cutoff in precincts counted before and after the cutoff. There is little observable difference between precincts in the results before and after the count halt, suggesting that there werent any significant irregularities. We and other scholars within the field reached out to the OAS for comment; the OAS did not respond.

We also ran 1,000 simulations to see if the difference between Moraless vote and the tally for the second-place candidate could be predicted, using only the votes verified before the preliminary count halted. In our simulations, we found that Morales could expect at least a 10.49 point lead over his closest competitor, above the necessary 10-percentage-point threshold necessary to win outright. Again, this suggests that any increase in Moraless margin after the stop can be explained entirely by the votes already counted.

There isnt statistical support for the claims of vote fraud

There is not any statistical evidence of fraud that we can find  the trends in the preliminary count, the lack of any big jump in support for Morales after the halt, and the size of Moraless margin all appear legitimate. All in all, the OASs statistical analysis and conclusions would appear deeply flawed.

" Source "
We have a fantastic team serving the Annapolis market, and look forward to expanding our presence and impact in this iconic waterfront community in the months and years ahead.

TTR Sothebys International Realty is pleased to welcome top-producing waterfront real estate agent Brad Kappel to its Annapolis, Maryland brokerage office.

A native of Annapolis, Maryland, Kappel brings over $200 Million in real estate sales and over 125 real estate transactions to TTR Sothebys International Realty, further solidifying its position as the Washington Metropolitan Areas premier destination for top performing real estate professionals.

Since joining TTR Sothebys International Realty in January, I have been extremely impressed with the organization as well as the numerous agents that I have connected with across the Sothebys network, says Kappel, who joins TTR Sothebys International Realty following a brief stint at real estate brokerage, Compass.

Although Ive only been an agent with TTR Sothebys International Realty since the first of the year, I have already benefited from the power of the brand and have secured three new waterfront listings in the last week alone.

Raised on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, Kappel is a third-generation Annapolitan who brings extensive knowledge of the Annapolis, Maryland real estate market as well as in-depth insights into new home construction and renovation in the Washington Metropolitan Areas premiere waterfront marketplace.

Leadership, integrity, and a commitment to delivering world-class service. Brad truly embodies the values we hold closest to us, says Mark C. Lowham, CEO and Managing Partner of TTR Sothebys International Realty.

As we grow our footprint in Annapolis and across Marylands Eastern Shore, we are thrilled to have Brad on the team.

A graduate of St. Marys School in Annapolis, Maryland and the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, Kappel holds leadership roles in several Annapolis, Maryland organizations, including the Eastport Yacht Club, the Anne Arundel Medical Center, the Severn River Association, and the Fort Meade Alliance Foundation.

We are extremely excited to have Brad join us in the Annapolis office, says Frederick Hoffman, Managing Brokerage of TTR Sothebys International Realtys Annapolis, Maryland brokerage office.

His truly dynamic energy and commitment to the community will be integral as we continue to increase our presence in this market.

Following its most successful year to date, with over $3.4 Billion in closed real estate sales for 2019, TTR Sothebys International Realty has its sights set on Annapolis, Maryland and Marylands iconic Eastern Shore as a key area of growth for the firm.

We have a fantastic team serving the Annapolis market, and look forward to expanding our presence and impact in this iconic waterfront community in the months and years ahead, says Lowham.

With the power of the TTR Sothebys International Realty brand  coupled our earnest commitment to delivering value to the communities in which we live and serve  we are excited for the opportunities that lie ahead.

About TTR Sothebys International Realty

Since 1988, real estate professionals at TTR Sothebys International Realty have ranked among the highest performing in the nation, and are regarded for their integrity, professional service, and community leadership. Through our relationship with the venerable Sothebys auction house, TTR Sothebys International Realty produces extraordinary results for our clients by leveraging proprietary global marketing, cutting edge digital strategies, and unrivaled access to the most affluent and discerning global clientele. To learn more, visit us at http://www.ttrsir.com.
Kochi, Feb 28 : Thaha Fazil, a CPI-M youth arrested for alleged Maoist-links failed to get bail from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court here on Friday.

The NIA strongly opposed the bail plea, which said that a third person who had escaped, was yet to be traced and, hence, bail should not be given to Fazil. The court while accepting the NIA contention denied bail to him.

Fazil along with his friend Allen Shuaib were arrested in November last year from their home town Kozhikode after police allegedly seized Maoist leaflets that condemned the Central government's action in Jammu and Kashmir.

On Friday, only Fazil had moved the court for the bail.

The Kerala Police had charged both under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and later the NIA took over the case.

While Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan came under fire from his party for the arrest of the two youths in November, he stood his ground that the two were not CPI-M members, while the party unit at Kozhikode maintained the two were their party members.

Later, the local party leadership also toed Vijayan's line, much to the displeasure of the families of the two youths, both strong CPI-M sympathisers.

But, the two got a major reprieve, early this month, when Vijayan after, first refusing to write to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to assign the case back to the Kerala Police, a day later informed the Assembly that he has written to Shah on this.
City stops funding rape shelter over refusal to admit men who identify as women

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The Vancouver City Council has voted to deny funding for a womens rape shelter over its policy of only allowing women into its peer counseling program, arguing that it discriminates against men who identify as women.

Vancouver Rape Relief in British Columbia  the oldest shelter of its kind in Canada founded 47 years ago  saw its funding withdrawn this week by council members who argued that their policies of protecting female victims have resulted in a "lack of inclusivity," reports say.

The Vancouver City Council voted against renewing the shelter's grant over its sex-specific policy, allowing only women to access its peer counseling area.

Vancouver Rape Relief will still be allowed to conduct its affairs as it chooses, council member Sarah Kirby Young told CityNews, but they won't be allowed to receive city funding.

"What it does is affirm that the city has an inclusive welcoming policy and that when we are providing city funds and taxpayer funds to organizations we want them to be ones that are inclusive of all people."

The effort to strip the organization of its $34,000 grant was spearheaded by left-wing politician Morgane Oger. Oger, a man who identifies as transgender, has long claimed that Vancouver Rape Relief has engaged in hateful prejudice against people based on their "gender identity," which in 2016 was added as protected grounds to Canada's human rights law and criminal code through bill C-16.

Vancouver Rape Relief is of a progressive radical feminist bent in its approach to serving the community, stressing that while they have services available to everyone regardless of how they may identify, the peer-counseling aspect is reserved for women.

"Just like any other oppressed group has the right to come together to work on that particular piece, so do women as a class," said Karla Gjini of Vancouver Rape Relief in an interview with CityNews.

Unlike third wave liberal feminism, radical feminists have long contended that women have been and continue to be oppressed and discriminated against on the basis of their biology, not a self-constructed identity, and that including males who declare themselves female in the legal definition of woman is foolish and represents an existential threat to their hard-won sex-based rights and female-only spaces.

Vancouver Rape Relief has long maintained that forcing females  particularly those recovering from rape and other forms of male violence  to share intimate spaces with males, even if they present as female, is disrespectful of the victims and often serves to re-traumatize them.

"Being born female still means being trained, socialized and forced to submit to male domination. The fact that we are born female and raised as girls to adulthood as women shapes our lives in profound ways," the shelter said in a March 2019 online statement following a previous city council vote to terminate their city funding.

"Being girls and women in this world often impacts both how we look and how we act in private and in public; what we are allowed to do, encouraged to do and rewarded for; and also what we are discouraged from doing, prohibited to do or punished for."

In August the shelter was vandalized, with phrases such as "Kill TERFS" and "Trans power" scrawled on the windows of their facility and a dead and decaying rat was nailed one of the doors.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : A news claiming that ducks from China could be sent to tackle the locust menace in Pakistan has set the Twitter abuzz.

Around 100,000 ducks were expected to be sent to help save the crops in Pakistan as early as the second half of this year to combat a desert locust outbreak, the report said.

Reacting to this an user wrote: "I am very amazed and impressed at the solutions that China can come up with in the face of any challenges. Even with the threat of swarms of locusts invading China, China can mobilize the "army" of ducks to handle the locusts." Another wrote: "This is the best solution to deal with locusts." A post read: "WWIII: The duck Duck looks like the allies troops here while the locusts are the axis." "It is an army bred for a single purpose. To destroy the world of locusts" a user remarked.

Earlier a Pakistan Minister in an unusual tactics requested that the citizens should rather add these free-flying proteins to their biryanis, Kadhais and BBQs instead of getting scared of them.

The locust attack was first spotted in the country in March 2019 and its swarms later spread over 900,000 hectares in Sindh, South Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, damaging standing crops and trees worth millions of rupees, a media report said.
LONDON - Thousands of mainly young people joined Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg for a peaceful climate march Friday through the city of Bristol, in southwest England.

Ahead of the march, local police had expressed concern that the popularity of the event could lead to risks to protesters.

In the event, the march, which Avon and Somerset Police said attracted more than 15,000 people but which Thunberg said involved at least 30,000 braving the pouring rain, passed off without incident.

The police were criticized for their warning in the run-up to the event. Protest organizers, Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate, said in a tweet that they had no time for being patronised. They had arranged for festival barriers, more than 80 stewards and a safe zone for young children.

In a speech, the 17-year-old Thunberg said nothing is being done to halt this crisis despite all the beautiful words and promises by our elected officials.

___

Follow APs climate coverage at https://apnews.com/Climate
Prosecutors last week filed a motion to dismiss Yangs post-conviction petition altogether. The 184-page document picks at Stones arguments, from the claim that Yangs 9 mm pistol was stolen before the murder (she could have gotten another, prosecutors say) to the assertion that the bullets path through Reuters body prove that the killer was much taller than Yang (that was disproved at Yangs trial, they say).
In the circles he moved in, Grant Taylor was regarded as trustworthy: a pastor at his church, a family man known for his generosity and a good source of advice on money matters.

But six retirees who entrusted Taylor with their savings given his standing as a financial adviser were instead swindled out of more than $2 million over almost nine years.

Former financial adviser Grant Taylor.

In the County Court on Friday, Judge Howard Mason highlighted how Taylor played on his reputation in Melbourne's north-eastern suburbs by engaging in serious offending that was "calculated, planned and quite cruelly exploited the trust in which you were held by the persons whose interests you were expected to protect".

One client wanted to donate about $150,000 to an overseas charity for children, yet Taylor directed the money into his own business.
Deal to buy 24 helicopters was signed during Trumps visit.

India had signed the $2.4 billion deal to buy these 24 helicopters during the visit of US President Donald Trump on Tuesday. (Photo: lockheedmartin.com)

New Delhi: The Indian Navy on Thursday said that the delivery of 24 American multi-role MH-60 Romeo helicopters will start from early 2021 and it will play an important role in maritime security at a time when the Indian Ocean Region is witnessing increasing security threat due to proliferation of submarines.

India had signed the $2.4 billion deal to buy these 24 helicopters during the visit of US President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

These helicopters are a replacement for the Sea King 42/42A helicopters already decommissioned in the 1990s and envisaged to operate from front-line ships and aircraft carriers providing them the critical attributes of flexibility of operation, enhanced surveillance and attacking capability, said the Indian Navy in a statement.

It said that MH-60 Romeo Seahawk helicopters can be effectively employed for offensive and defensive roles including anti-submarine warfare, anti-ship strike, low intensity maritime operations, search and rescue, over the horizon network centric operations and electronic warfare.

The helicopters capability of prolonged maritime operations and seamless integration with the P8i and ships at sea makes it a force multiplier, said the Indian Navy.

It said that as part of the Indian Navys commitment to the Make in India initiative, Lockheed Martin would also be discharging offsets through transfer of technology to Indian offset partners for manufacture of products and services. This would enable absorption of niche technology, skill development and manufacture of eligible products/services leading to generation of employment, skilling of MSMEs and indigenous production of products for buy-back by the OEM, it said.

The MH - 60R Multi Role Helicopters (MRH) are being procured under the Buy (Global) Category through Foreign Military Sales.

 The acquisition of MH-60R provides Indian Navy with a key capability and effectively contributes to the Make in India initiative, said Indian Navy.
FISA reform is a hot topic in part because of a recent report by the Justice Department inspector general that found serious deficiencies in the FBIs handling of the case of Carter Page, an adviser to Donald Trumps 2016 election campaign. The report found FBI officials misled, both intentionally and otherwise, judges responsible for approving warrants to surveil Mr. Page for suspected, but never confirmed, Russian connections. The FISA provision under which that flawed process occurred is not, however, one of the three set to expire soon. These are, rather, the ones added in the aftermath of 9/11 that have allowed the government to gather a wide array of phone records (but not the content of calls) at home and abroad. FISA court approval is required, but as critics ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) have argued, the mass collection of so much metadata raises privacy concerns. The NSA has recently suspended collection in part because the tangible benefits do not outweigh the costs, which ran to $100 million between 2015 and 2019, according to the New York Times.
A New Haven-based bio-pharmaceutical company has gained federal Food and Drug Administration approval to begin marketing one of the two drugs it has in development for the treatment of migraine headaches.

Officials with Biohaven Pharmaceuticals said the FDA has approved rimegepant for the acute treatment of migraine in adults. The drug, which will be sold under the brand name Nurtec, is BioHavens first FDA-approved drug.

The company is developing a variety of drugs to treat neurological diseases.

A Nurtec tablet can return migraine sufferers to normal function within an hour and will work for up 48 hours for many people in terms of preventing a return of the debilitating headache, according to company officials.

Nurtec tablets also dissolve almost instantly without the need for water, which allows migraine suffers to discreetly use the drug, according to company officials. The drug will be available  by prescription only  sometime in early March. Migraine sufferers should ask their doctor whether Nurtec is appropriate for them to use, according to company officials.

Dr. Vlad Coric, the companys chief executive officer, said FDA approval of the drug was an important milestone for the migraine community and a transformative event for Biohaven. He said the company expects to add to its workforce of 500 employees, but declined to say how many people BioHaven might hire.

Millions of people suffering from migraine are often not satisfied with their current acute treatment, at times having to make significant trade offs because of troublesome side effects and reduced ability to function, Coric said in a statement.

Nurtec ODT is an important new oral acute treatment for migraine that offers patients the potential to quickly reduce and eliminate pain and get back to their lives, Coric said. We believe Nurtec ODT will be the first of many innovative Biohaven medicines to become available to treat devastating neurological diseases, a therapeutic category many other companies have abandoned.

Nurtec will be available in packs of eight tablets, the company said.

At this point, the drug is not being marketed as a way to prevent migraines from occurring in the first place. Company officials expect to have results of a trial of Nurtec as a migraine prevention drug by the end of March.

The treatment portion is by far the biggest part of the market, Coric said.

Nurtec works by blocking CGRP receptors, treating a root cause of migraine.

CGRP is a molecule that is synthesized in nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. CGRP drugs are designed to stop the molecule from being activated at the start of migraines.

Mary Franklin, executive director of the National Headache Foundation, said although everyone knows someone living with migraine ... it remains an invisible disease that is often overlooked and misunderstood. More than 40 million people suffer from migraines.

Almost all people with migraine need an acute treatment to stop a migraine attack as it occurs, which can happen without warning, Franklin said in a statement. The approval of Nurtec is exciting for people with migraine as it provides a new treatment option to help people regain control of their attacks and their lives.

BioHaven is also developing a nasal spray for treating migraines, called vazegepant.

Were looking to develop a franchise of migraine drugs, Coric said. Four of the drugs currently available can be adminstered only by injection, he said.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com
The Delhi police initiated an "outreach programme" on Friday as part of which its officials met imams and maulvis of various mosques in riot-hit northeast Delhi, officials said.

IMAGE: Muslims offer prayers at Shaheen Bagh, New Delhi, on February 28, 2020. Photograph: Supreet Sapkal / Reuters

The exercise was carried out by senior officials outside mosques in Kardampuri and Kabir Nagar. These areas witnessed pitched battle between the two communities on Tuesday and Wednesday.

During the meeting, senior police officers were briefed about the recent riots.

The policemen posted in these areas briefed senior officials that people from these two areas, which witnessed large scale violence from Tuesday, have been generally peaceful and it was the "outsiders" from adjoining areas such as Seelampur and Jaffrabad who indulged in violence.

Senior police officials were asked to take stock of the situation, especially keeping in mind that it was a Friday and some miscreants may take advantage of large gatherings to engineer an unrest again, they said.

The senior officials assured that the police will take every action against the miscreants and ensure the safety of locals.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who was asked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to ensure the early return of peace in the national capital, had visited various riot-hit areas on Wednesday and after that he had directed the police to ensure safety to everyone.

"I give you my word...," was the reply of Doval on Wednesday to allay fears of people living in the area.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had also reviewed the law and order situation on Thursday night along with senior officers during which he was informed that no major incident took place on Wednesday in any affected police station of Delhi's northeast district and that 514 suspects were either arrested or detained for questioning.
The Italian confirmed to have been infected with coronavirus, had earlier visited Ewekoro community in Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State for a business transaction with a private manufacturing company.

The Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Tomi Coker, made this known on Friday at a press conference. She, however, said residents and visitors to the state need not entertain any fear, as the facility the Italian visited had been quarantined.

She said further that epidemiologists and infectious disease consultants are already handling the situation in collaboration with the Lagos State Government and federal government. According to her, efforts are in top gear to get in touch with the established index case.

The commissioner advised the public on the need to always wash their hands, cover their mouth and nose while sneezing or coughing, and endeavor to report to the nearest public health institutions at the notice of any sign of cold, cough and respiratory difficulty.

Government releases money

Meanwhile, the permanent secretary, ministry of health, Abdulaziz Abdullahi, said the government, in preparation for surveillance and response to an eventual outbreak of Covid-19 in the country, has released N386 million to two health agencies.

The fund, released to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Port Health Services, is to strengthen Nigerias preparedness to combat Covid-19.

He said the fund was part of the N620 million budgeted by the government to curtail Covid-19 from entering into the country.

The virus, which originated from China in December, has spread to about 30 countries across the world.

Africa in the past 14 weeks of the outbreak has been largely spared, but the window seems to be closing, officials said.

The World Health Organisation, in preparation for an eventual importation of disease, had listed 13 African countries (Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Morocco, Sudan, Angola,Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and Tunisia) as having the highest importation risk.

These countries have been WHOs top priority for preparedness measures due to their direct links or high volume of travel to China.

The respiratory disease, which has killed over 2000 people, is capable of spreading through human-to-human contact, droplets carried through sneezing and coughing, and germs left on inanimate objects.

Symptoms of the disease can include a sore throat, runny nose, fever or pneumonia and can progress to multiple organ failure or death, in some severe cases.

Senate committee wants FG to set up war room

Following the discovery of a case of the fast-spreading (COVID-19) Coronavirus disease, in Nigeria, the Senate health committee has asked the Federal Ministry of Health to set up a Health War Room.

The news of the first recorded case of the virus was made known early on Friday, following confirmation from the Lagos State Government.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that an Italian national, who came into the country on Tuesday on a business trip, had tested positive at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, and was taken to the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) in Yaba.

This discovery comes barely 48 hours after Algeria confirmed a case of Covid-19. A case has been confirmed in Egypt earlier this month.

READ ALSO:

Chukwuka Utazi, who is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Health, also urged Nigerians not to panic but be conscious and observe all the safety and precautionary measures issued by the Ministry of Health in order to avoid contracting the ailment.

I enjoin citizens to be confident of the Federal Governments capacity and readiness to contain any spread of the disease through the Ministry of Healths National Centre for Disease Control.

On the same breath, I implore Federal Ministry of Health, as a matter of urgency, to put up a Health War Room with trained health personnel that will coordinate and man all the entry points into the country, with a view to screening on board, all passengers even before permitting them to disembark from any of their chosen means of transportation. In addition, isolation and quarantine facilities must of necessity, be in place in case of emergency, he said.

Prior to the discovery, the health minister asked Nigerians to remain calm as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is coordinating surveillance activities in the country.

He advised all airlines to report any case of a passenger falling sick on-board before the plane lands.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 19:39:21|Editor: xuxin

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MOGADISHU, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Somalia has called on Kenya to stop what it described as Nairobi's interfering with its internal affairs and encroachment along the common border.

"Kenya's intrusion in the border areas outrightly undermines the stability and sovereignty of the Republic of Somalia," the ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Somalia said it supports all operations authorized and led by the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), but will not tolerate intrusion or encroachment of its sovereignty by any state.

"At no given time will we tolerate any country that is part of the troop-contributing countries to the AMISOM to overstep its mandate and abuse its membership and interference in the internal affairs of the host country with total disregard of the stipulated regulations of the government of Somalia," the statement said.

"The federal government of Somalia has unsuccessfully waited for the government of Kenya to protect against all actions that pose a threat to the historical relations between the two countries and the long-standing economic, security and political cooperation between the two governments and citizens," it said.
A death investigation is underway in east Alabama after a man was found dead inside a Phenix City home Thursday, police said.

Phenix City police responded to the 1900 block of Sandfort Road following a call of an unresponsive man at the location.

Officers found the man dead inside a home and he was pronounced dead by Russell County Deputy Coroner John James, according to Phenix City police Lt. Marc Cutt.

No further information was released as the investigation continues.
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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga in Beijing on Thursday.

Li said Battulga's visit demonstrates Mongolia's firm support to China's fight against the coronavirus outbreak, and its friendship toward the Chinese people.

China stands ready to work with Mongolia to overcome the impact of the epidemic, and gradually resume their normal exchanges and cooperation, said Li, expressing belief that after the epidemic is over, the two countries' relationship will embrace new development opportunities.

China's epidemic prevention and control work has shown positive changes, but the task is still arduous and can not afford to be taken lightly, said Li.

He said China is advancing the work on coordinating the prevention and control work with economic and social development, and has confidence and capability to win this battle and achieve this year's economic and social targets.

China has been sharing information with the international community in an open, transparent and timely manner, and is willing to continue to cooperate with the international community to safeguard world public health security, said Li.

Battulga expressed his sympathies to the Chinese people for their loss.

He said China has adopted effective measures and achieved positive results, expressing belief that China will surely win the battle.

Mongolia is willing to work with China to overcome difficulties, enhance mutual political trust, consolidate good neighborliness, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation to elevate bilateral relations to a new height, he said.
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The South Korean and United States militaries announced on Thursday they were postponing their annual joint drills amid concerns about the novel coronavirus outbreak, which has infected 1,766 people in the Asian country, the largest outbreak outside China.

Reports said that 22 South Korean soldiers and one US soldier in South Korea had tested positive for the virus.

As about 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea, for the sake of their safety, a "command post training" exercise usually held by the two militaries' Combined Forces Command will be postponed "until further notice", the combined command said in a statement on Thursday.

Experts say the postponement of the drills was inevitable because the potential spread of the virus in military barracks could significantly weaken defense capabilities.

Meanwhile, in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Wednesday that a person in northern California has contracted the virus without traveling outside the US or coming in contact with another patient known to have the infection.

US health authorities, managing 60 cases so far  mostly people repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan  said the US and the world should be prepared for a major outbreak in the upcoming weeks.

Praising China's strict quarantine and containment measures, Bruce Aylward, head of the WHO-China Joint Mission on COVID-19's foreign expert panel, also warned that other nations are "simply not ready" to contain the outbreak.

But US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the risk of a major outbreak in the US still remained "very low".

"I don't think it's inevitable," Trump said of the spread of the virus, in apparent contradiction of officials from the CDC, who said a day earlier that the spread of the disease in the US is inevitable.

The president said he recently had a "long talk" with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"He is working so hard on this problem," Trump said about China's efforts to contain the infection.

Trump also said China has "a significant group of very talented people that are working", and the US is giving them "certain advice", with US experts being part of the WHO team visiting China.

As the virus spreads globally, the impact on large gatherings has increased. The US State Department raised its travel advisory caution level for South Korea to the second-highest level, now urging US citizens to reconsider traveling there. Some media sources also reported that the International Monetary Fund was considering whether to make its April meeting in Washington virtual.

As of Thursday, cases of the virus have appeared in 13 new countries  Algeria, Austria, Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, Romania and Switzerland  bringing the number of countries hit to more than 46.

Iran has announced over 20 deaths and more than 250 infections, including Mojtaba Zolnour, chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee; Masoumeh Ebtekar, vice-president for women and family affairs; and Iraj Harirchi, deputy health minister. Iranian authorities announced domestic travel restrictions for people with confirmed or suspected cases of the novel coronavirus.

Hadi Khosroshahi, a former Iranian ambassador to the Vatican, died at age 81 on Thursday after he contracted the disease.

A 61-year-old man in Sao Paulo, Brazil, who had recently visited Italy, is Latin America's first confirmed patient.

In addition, Italians or people who recently visited Italy have tested positive in Algeria, Austria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Greece, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The number of infections in Italy, the hardest hit country in Europe, reached 400 late on Wednesday, with 12 deaths.
New Delhi: Bhojpuri star Pawan Singh took to Instagram to thank his fans across India for making his recently-released Holi-special song 'Kamariya Hila Rahi Hai' #1 trend on YouTube. In three days, the song has garnered over 18 million views and the number keeps on increasing. Pawan has collaborated with international dancing sensation Lauren Gottlieb for 'Kamariya Hila Rahi Hai' and it marks their first project together.

Mudassar Khan has choreographed 'Kamariya Hila Rahi Hai'. It is a peppy Holi track. The song has been sung by Pawan Singh and Payal Dev, respectively. Pawan and Lauren's strike a sizzling chemistry and their dance moves are on point.

See what Pawan Singh posted:

Elated over the response 'Kamariya Hila Rahi Hai' got, an excited Lauren earlier said, "Kamariya Hila Rahi Hai... TRENDING #1. I'm totally freaking out right now. I've never trended #1. It feels so good to reach new heights. Thank you all so much. So glad you are loving it. This is going to be the best Holi Season EVER. LET THE CELEBRATIONS BEGIN."

"The entire team just killed it!!!! Guys, we shot this song in just 1 day. Usually, something like this would take 3 days. The team worked so hard shooting for 20 hours straight. God bless them all," she added.

Take a look:

And, here's the blockbuster track. Watch it if you haven't.

Not just YouTube, 'Kamariya Hila Rahi Hai' is also keeping TikTok abuzz with sensational dance videos.
CANBERRA, Australia - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called out her Australian counterpart at an extraordinarily abrasive joint news conference Friday for his countrys rigid policy of deporting foreign criminals to homelands they left as children.

Ardern called the policy unfair and corrosive to the near-neighbours ties, but Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison publicly held firm.

You commit a crime here, if convicted, once youve done your time, we send you home, he said.

New Zealand and Britain receive large proportions of these felons under the policy, but many long-time Australian residents are sent to countries where they dont speak the language and have no family or community ties.

Ardern said many of the 2,600 New Zealand citizens Australia had deported in recently years had no home in New Zealand because they had left years ago. New Zealand courts were dealing with these long-term Australian residents who were failing to rehabilitate because they lacked the necessary family and social networks, she said.

She urged Australia to adopt New Zealands approach to foreign criminals by stop deporting New Zealand citizens who on any common sense test identify as Australians.

Australia is well within its rights to deport individuals who break your laws. New Zealand does the same. But we have a simple request: Send back Kiwis  genuine Kiwis, Arden said. Do not deport your people and your problems.

New Zealanders have long been considered near-citizens of Australia because most are free to live in the country for as long as they want. But Australia has reduced some of New Zealanders rights.

Australian and New Zealand leaders usually keep such differences behind close doors and rarely castigate each other in public. But deported outlaw bikers are a source of growing concern in New Zealand and Arderns centre-left Labour Party minority government is seeking re-election in September.

Australias highest court recently curbed the governments power to rid the country of criminal non-citizens by ruling that Australia cant deport Aboriginal people, even if they dont hold citizenship.

The case was brought by a New Zealand-born convicted criminal who can now stay in Australia because he has an Australian indigenous mother, identifies as an indigenous Australian and is legally recognized as a traditional owner of Australian tribal land.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Financial-market volatility is painful. From mom-and-pop investors suddenly seeing red in their 401(k) plans to large institutions scrambling to hedge their gigantic portfolios, this past week has been record-setting in any number of ways. The one example thats bound to be repeated often: The S&P 500 Index plunged the most since 2008.

Minds tend to wander in the same direction when hearing that particular year. So let me just say this right now: Theres virtually no evidence that the world is veering toward another financial crisis. The rapid decline in Treasury yields and the fastest correction ever in stocks is, at least as of now, purely a market-driven phenomenon. Thats bound to strain some mutual funds, no question. Maybe some hedge funds, too. But its hardly apocalyptic.

Here are just a couple of examples of scary charts that truly dont reflect anything about the health of the financial system; rather, they are just another way of measuring the quick sell-off in equity markets.

First theres the often-cited market fear gauge, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX). It jumped to as high as 49.48 on Friday, the highest level since the so-called Volmageddon episode in early 2018.

Then theres the fact that the Bloomberg U.S. Financial Conditions Index has been absolutely crushed in recent days and reached its lowest level since early 2016. But the inputs to this index are largely market-based, like the levels of the S&P 500 and the VIX, as well as yield spreads between Treasuries and corporate bonds rated triple-B and below investment grade, which have both widened significantly.

So what sorts of metrics are worth watching to determine whether a banking crisis is unfolding beneath the market chaos? Some traders look to the London interbank offered rate and other money-market benchmarks.

There, the three-month Libor plunged 11.8 basis points on Friday to 1.46275%, the steepest one-day drop since December 2008. This isnt what you would expect to see if financial institutions were facing any sort of turmoil, given that its the rate at which large global banks lend to one another. The drop merely reflects expectations of significant central-bank easing in the near future. A spread known as FRA/OIS, which measures market expectations for the gap between Libor and the Overnight Index Swap Rate, are rising a bit but still remain comfortably below levels seen in each of the past two years and certainly nowhere near the levels of the crisis.

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Then, of course, theres the Federal Reserve. Theres a lot of frustration that policy makers havent yet indicated that interest-rate cuts are imminent. I wouldnt want to prejudge the March meeting, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on Friday, mimicking comments earlier this week from other policy makers. We are going to want to monitor events right up until the meeting. This could be contributing to the markets angst.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell attempted to quell that concern with a somewhat rare statement on Friday afternoon: The fundamentals of the U.S. economy remain strong. However, the coronavirus poses evolving risks to economic activity. The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring developments and their implications for the economic outlook. We will use our tools and act as appropriate to support the economy. Those 44 words didnt have much immediate impact.

Still, few can dispute that the central bank has made significant strides to insulate the banking system from market stress. The Feds balance sheet expanded rapidly in the final months of 2019, which, somewhat ironically, had been cited by some investors as the reason behind the surge in equity prices. Stocks may be tumbling, but reserves at the Fed sure arent: They reached $4.18 trillion earlier this month, up from $3.76 trillion at the end of August.

Expanding out to include the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England, their balance sheets as a percentage of gross domestic product remains close to a record. Its an open question whether thats a good thing for the health of their respective economies, but it makes it easier for the banking sector to withstand a severe slowdown.

Thats not to say financial system is impenetrable. Septembers repo meltdown served as a stark reminder of what can happen when critical market plumbing stops working. The Fed was able to step in, though, and its mostly functioning normally now.

Theres still room for improvement. Thats why it was such a big deal this week that JPMorgan Chase & Co. said it plans to borrow funds through the Feds emergency lending facility from time to time this year in an exercise designed to break the stigma attached to it. The discount window is intended to provide emergency liquidity to banks that otherwise have healthy balance sheets. Randal Quarles, the Feds vice chairman for banking supervision, has said better access to the window would reduce demand for excess reserves at the Fed which in turn would enhance liquidity in repo and other money markets.

I have written before about how the financial crisis caused a fundamental shift in who shoulders market risk now. Instead of Wall Street banks holding troves of corporate bonds and other risky assets, and stepping in when the markets are chaotic, theyve tended to reduce their inventories over the past decade. That means asset managers, which are far less essential to the underpinnings of the global economy, will be increasingly on their own when losses start to mount. Thats a healthy development.

As Bloomberg Newss Sebastian Boyd put it, in 2008 reasonable minds could wonder out loud whether we were watching the death throes of global capitalism. You wouldnt be rational saying that today. Investors are witnessing the outbreak of a virus that governments around the globe are struggling to contain, which in turn has caused pockets of the global economy to grind to a standstill. Germany is quarantining 1,000 people. Switzerland is banning large events, including the Geneva car show. Milan looked like a ghost town. In such an environment, is it any wonder that the share prices of global companies have repriced, or that sovereign debt markets are bracing for a severe hit to growth?

The coronavirus has infected markets, the economy and the habits of people worldwide. But if its any consolation, the financial system is proving so far to be immune.

(Adds comments by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in the ninth paragraph. )

To contact the author of this story: Brian Chappatta at bchappatta1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Daniel Niemi at dniemi1@bloomberg.net

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Brian Chappatta is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering debt markets. He previously covered bonds for Bloomberg News. He is also a CFA charterholder.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion

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STATEN ISLAND -- As a New York City taxpayer, Carol Bullock, the executive director of the Staten Island Pride Center, sees the annual St. Patricks Parade as a public, taxpayer-funded event.

Parade-goers march along Forest Ave., a public street, cops patrol the event, and Sanitation workers are required to clean up afterward.

But for the three years she has headed the Pride Center and as far back as she can recall, the Richmond County St. Patricks Day Parade Committee, which oversees the annual event, has barred her organization from marching with its own banner.

This is on a very public street, so as a taxpayer, its frustrating to me that Im paying my taxes for police and sanitation and Im not allowed to march in, Bullock said.

Others, like openly gay Irish American Queens City Councilman Daniel Drom, who chairs the City Councils LGBT and Irish Caucuses and helped allow gay rights groups to march in the St. Patricks Parade in Manhattan and Queens, agrees city resources should not go toward an event that discriminates against people.

But Dromm contends that the law makes it complicated for the city to blatantly protest the parade.

Its wrong for an organization that requires city resources to monitor the parade, to clean up after the parade, to help organize it, to police it, to continue to discriminate in a city that doesnt believe in that type of discrimination, Dromm said after he and members of his caucuses sent a joint letter to the parade committee asking them to allow the Pride Center to march.

SHIFT IN BOSTON PARADE

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1995 that private groups can in fact determine who can and cannot march in parades if the group wishing to march runs contrary to the message the private group wants to deliver.

The decision was prompted after the Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston was denied from marching in the annual South Boston St. Patricks Day Parade by the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council.

The Council had argued it did not have enough information about the group and claimed concerns about security if the group was permitted to march.

Eventually in 2015, an LGBT military veterans group was allowed to march in the Boston parade which prompted a Boston mayor to march in the parade for the first time in two decades.

Because of that ruling, New York Civil Liberties Union Attorney, Bobby Hodgson, said the city cant tell parade organizers who can and cannot march in a parade.

Essentially because of the First Amendment, the city cant tell a group that theyre not allowed to express what they want to express when theyre organizing their parade and their content of their parade, including who gets to march with a banner, Hodgson said.

It would be a First Amendment violation for the city to be discriminating based on peoples viewpoints and what they want to say, he continued.

POLICE AND SANITATION

Hodgson said sanitation workers who clean up after parades and cops deployed to oversee them, are not considered city resources designed to benefit parade organizers, but are there to protect the public and community.

Any police presence should be tied to furthering public safety and sanitation work should be designed to benefit the people who live and work along the parade route after the parade is over, He said.

Though Hodgson said the city is under no obligation to provide direct funding to parades, if it does, it can establish policies where it could condition the use of city funds on compliance with anti-discrimination provisions that are applied uniformly.

City Hall said for the last few years, the city has not funded the event.

NO COMMENT FROM CITY HALL; ISLAND REPS BOYCOTT

But City Hall did not return requests for comment about whether the mayor thinks city resources should be used for the parade.

Island lawmakers who plan to boycott the parade except for Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) and Rep. Max Rose (D-Staten Island/South Brooklyn), either did not return requests for comment or declined to comment on whether city resources should be used on the parade.

Councilwoman Rose said legislation or the withdrawal of city resources from the parade could have unintended consequences and set precedent.

However, Councilwoman Rose said she wants to explore options that would warrant not issuing a permit, to organizers, but cautioned a rush to make policy based on a parade committee that is marginalizing its own event more and more every day.

Rep. Rose said he thinks everyone should speak up for the Pride Centers right to march and will follow the Centers lead.

In addition to Councilwoman Rose, Rep. Rose and the mayor, a bipartisan group of lawmakers including state Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/South Brooklyn), Republican Borough President James Oddo, Assemblyman Michael Cusick (D-Mid Island), Minority Leader Steven Matteo (R-Mid Island) and Democratic District Attorney Michael McMahon will not march in the parade.

Their decision comes as the Archdiocese of New York and the national Ancient Order of Hibernians have avoided getting involved with who gets invited to march in the parade nor have condemned the Richmond County St. Patricks Day Parade Committee for barring the Pride Center from marching with its banner.

Instead, the Archdiocese of New York and national AOH have said it's the role of separate parade committees to decide who can and cannot attend a parade and not up to them.

But Bullock has said she wants the Archdiocese to step in and get the Irish Catholic organization to be more inclusive.

Councilwoman Rose and openly gay City Council Speaker Corey Johnson said they would like AOH and the Archdiocese of New York to step up.

I think it would be helpful for folks in leadership positions that are looked to by the public to weigh in on this and say its time to change its time to open up the parade, said Johnson, who has never marched in the Islands St Patricks parade because of its barring of the Pride Center from marching.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.
MAYOR Brian Bowman says hes cautious about how he awards honorary keys to the City of Winnipeg and believes there are cases in which that honour should be removed.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MAYOR Brian Bowman says hes cautious about how he awards honorary keys to the City of Winnipeg and believes there are cases in which that honour should be removed.

The mayors comments come in the wake of multiple serious sexual assault allegations facing Peter Nygard in a class-action lawsuit. The prominent business leader is a recipient of the ceremonial key, though the mayor said he believes that gesture could be rescinded.

Bowman said that if the charges against Nygard are proven in court, the international fashion mogul should lose the honour.

"The allegations that have been made are pretty grotesque. They are allegations. And if theyre proven in court, then I would request (the key) back," he said.

Nygard has denied all of the allegations, which have not been tested in court.

Former mayor Sam Katz awarded the key to Nygard back in 2008, one of 22 keys to the city Bowman believes his predecessor gave out.

The current mayor said hes personally tried to be quite selective with the honour, granting keys to just four individuals, including former Royal Winnipeg Ballet dancer Evelyn Hart, former Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra conductor Alexander Micklethwaite, philanthropist David Foster and former Winnipeg Jet Teemu Selanne.

"Its a very high honour and so its one that Ive been very judicious in providing and I do look for individuals that Ive bestowed (them upon to have) acted in a responsible way," said Bowman.

The mayor said hes not aware of any previous occasion when Winnipeg asked for an honorary key to be returned.

Meanwhile, Nygards alma mater, the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, is following the fashion tycoons case very closely.

Nygard graduated from UND in 1964 with a business degree.

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In a statement to the university campus, UND interim president Joshua Wynne and UND Alumni Association and Foundation CEO DeAnna Carlson Zink said they are aware of the allegations against Nygard.

"Know that UND and the UND Alumni Association & Foundation are investigating Mr. Nygards historical involvement with the University and Foundation. We will continue to monitor the investigation," the statement read. "While the details of this case are not yet known and our system of justice presumes innocence, the university remains committed to eradicating sexual violence and discrimination from both our campus and society."

Nygard was inducted into the UND Entrepreneur Hall of Fame in 2004. A picture of Nygard and a description of his accomplishments hangs on the wall on the second floor of the UND Center for Innovation among other award recipients.

 with files from the Grand Forks Herald

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca
My husband and I want to have a big family, and I was having a very wanted pregnancy right after a miscarriage. I was 31 weeks along in November of 2016, and one night started feeling irregular movements. We went to the doctor, who sent us to the hospital. These were doctors at the top of their game who we really trusted; Ive known them for years.

I had countless tests that day and countless scans and learned the baby was having intracranial hemorrhaging and seizures. The doctors didnt know if the baby could survive to the end of my pregnancy. I didnt want the baby suffering. My mommy instinct went into overdrive. I just wanted to end that suffering.

Even if I were able to carry the baby to term, it would need serious medical help to survive  which raised another question: what interventions would be compatible with my religious beliefs?

My husband and I called a very prominent Orthodox rabbi who consulted with our doctors that day, and with other rabbinic authorities who decide issues of abortion on a case by case basis.

It was my rabbi that made the determination that the most appropriate thing to do was not carry the fetus to full term but have an abortion. He also said we should not learn the gender, not see the fetus, and not be involved with the burial process. That would be taken care of to help us with our grief.

I was sent home from the hospital that night and I felt a sense of relief. The decision was made for us. We are an Orthodox couple following Jewish law, and our rabbi, with the help of our medical team, made the appropriate decision.

We live in New York, where, at the time, abortions were illegal after 24 weeks. It was very hard to find a provider out of state, but we found a doctor in Colorado. I remember on the plane ride being very pregnant and feeling so completely vulnerable.

Guttmacher Institute

The clinic was not like we were used to in New York. It was not as comfortable as my hospital in New York, and it was devastating not being with my doctors and our medical team. I was taken down to a basement and my husband was not allowed to be with me. A doctor gave me an injection to induce fetal demise as they call it. The two-second treatment cost $10 thousand and we put it on our AmEx.

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We consider ourselves very grateful that we have financial means, we have family support, I had childcare. We feel very grateful that we could book a flight and book accommodations.

We went back to the airport and flew to New York. Having to travel to get this done was the most difficult part. I cant imagine anyone electing to travel pregnant, and return carrying a dead fetus on the airplane. This was a religious and medical necessity. I went to the hospital and was induced, I was in labor and three days later I delivered.

We couldnt have predicted this would happen. The week before, the fetus was completely normal, then something went terribly wrong. The medical team at our hospital even did an autopsy to figure out what went wrong and they could not figure it out. As far as we know there are no answers.

I think an important point is, third trimester abortions are not a luxury. In our situation, we had the abortion. It was medically indicated and medically approved and we went to our rabbi and got religious instructions on what to do and I followed them.

I feel conflicted sharing my story. Im aware of how political abortion is, how divisive the issue is. I am aware I have plenty of friends who understand and I am aware I have plenty of friends who dont understand.

Fertility and having children is such a blessing in Orthodox Judaism. There is such a focus on family life, and not carrying another child into this world carries with it a tremendous amount of guilt. To terminate a pregnancy feels so wrong, it carries a great deal of guilt and shame.

Ive shared my experience more, with other women and our senator, because we supported RHA  a New York State law passed in January, 2019, allowing abortions after 24 weeks in cases where there is an absence of fetal viability, or the abortion is necessary to protect the patients life or health.

We look at it as a religious right, and a right to healthcare.

As told to Diane Herbst
Chicago police plan to beef up patrols and investigations to address a spike in crime on the CTAs rail system. In a plan to be announced Friday, the department will add 50 officers to the unit that patrols the L, bringing the total to 250. And, in a first for the department, each of those officers will be equipped with tracking devices for the department to better monitor and adjust how theyre deployed, interim police Superintendent Charlie Beck said.
Ace is the place with the helpful hardware folks. Now, it also wants to be known as the place to go for handyman services.

Thats not going over well with a San Antonio businessman whos been offering home-repair services under the name Ace Handyman Services for 4 years.

John Allens Ace Handyman Services Inc. this week sued Ace Hardware Corp. to stop the retailer from using the name Ace Handyman Services in Bexar and surrounding counties for a new franchise business offering home repairs, maintenance and improvement services.

We have built a strong reputation for high-quality work and service, Allen, 50, said Thursday. If Ace Hardware were to start using the name Ace for the same services we provide, it would cause serious confusion for our existing customers and potential customers.

That would run Allen out of business, his suit adds.

On ExpressNews.com: A San Antonio man sue H-E-B after cashier allegedly whacks him with cucumber

A representative for Ace Hardware, a retailer-owned cooperative based in Oak Brook, Ill., said in an email the company doesnt comment on pending litigation. The company, with more than 5,300 hardware stores in 70 countries, generated $6.1 billion in revenue last year.

Ace Hardware jumped into the home repair and improvement business in September when it acquired Handyman Matters, a Denver-based franchise that handles homeowners to-do lists and larger projects. Handyman Matters had 56 franchisees employing about 250 people in 23 states.

Two of the franchisees operate in the San Antonio area, according to Allens lawsuit. Theyre also defendants in his complaint.

At the time of the deal, Ace Hardware announced it would change Handyman Matters name to Ace Handyman Services  the same name as Allens business.

The re-branding was expected to be completed this quarter. San Antonio trademark and patent lawyer Ted Lee, who represents Allen, said he understood the switch takes effect Monday.

Ace Hardware is following in the footsteps of larger competitors in offering home repair and home improvement services.

Home Depot and Lowes each use independent contractors to offer a range of home services. In its 2018 annual report, Home Depot attributed an uptick in demand for installation services to shifting demographics, including baby boomer customers who may have historically been DIY customers but who are now looking for someone to complete a project for them.

Amazon is tapping into the market, too. The company rolled out a program in 2015 that connects customers with professionals who can put together furniture, install ceiling fans and replace light fixtures. Online marketplaces such as Thumbtack, TaskRabbit and Handy have also developed a following.

On Monday, simultaneously with filing the lawsuit, Allens lawyers obtained a temporary restraining order against Ace Hardware and the San Antonio franchisees. They are barred from using the mark Ace Handyman Services in Bexar and seven adjacent counties under an order signed by state District Judge Norma Gonzales in San Antonio.

The judge issued the order ex parte, meaning lawyers for Ace Hardware were not present to argue against it. A hearing on a temporary injunction is set for next week.

The suit also seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio Ferrari dealership employee totaled $240K Spider while hot-rodding around town, suit says

Lee said use of the word Ace in connection with a home repair and improvement business would create an issue locally because of Allens use.

We would not have the right to prevent anybody from using Ace for all kinds of different things, Lee added. But when they come into our trade territory, with the same name, for the same services that were offering, theres a problem.

The lawsuit describes Allen as a disabled veteran. He served in the Marine Corps from 1988 to 1991. He sustained a neck injury during aerial gunner training in a helicopter and subsequently was discharged as a result of the injury, he said. A bulging disk causes nerve issues in his neck and arms, and he routinely suffers migraine headaches, he said.

Allens business has one employee and three contractors.

After Ace Hardware acquired Handyman Matters, it filed five trademark applications with the intent to use Ace Handyman Services and other names.

Texas Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox

About three weeks ago, the lawsuit says, Allen visited one of the local Handyman Matters franchises. A representative said he had contacted Handyman Matters corporate offices to inform them that an Ace Handyman Services already operated in San Antonio.

The representative was told not to worry about it. Handyman Matter would handle it, the suit says.

Allens claims in the lawsuit are for common law trademark infringement and unfair competition.

Staff writer Madison Iszler contributed to this report.

Patrick Danner is a San Antonio-based staff writer covering banking and civil courts. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPD
A national competition has been launched looking for schools which encourage and engage young people with farming and food production.

Now in its third year, the competition has had a significant impact in inspiring students about farming and highlighting career opportunities.

Secondary schools across the UK are now being urged to enter to win an exclusive weekend experience on a working farm in the Vale of Clwyd, North Wales.

Finalists will be immersed in activities such as milking cows, handling sheep, using drone technology, seeing agro-forestry in action and tractor driving.

They will also compete in a debate around the competitions theme Will farmers continue to be the guardians of our land and environment?

Farm education charity, LEAF Education and Coleg Cambria Llysfasi have announced the start of the UK-wide competition, which is sponsored by Waitrose.

The winning school will be crowned this years Innovation School of the year in Food, Farming and Environment.

LEAF Education Director, Carl Edwards said: There has never been a more critical time to harness the strength of feelings our young people have for the future of their planet.

"This competition addresses issues they care most about  sustainability, environmental protection, health and nutrition and climate change.

"Our aim is to raise their awareness of the importance of farming in their everyday lives and its role in addressing the climate and ecosystem emergency.

New for 2020, regional competitions are also being run by the Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society and Embleton Hall Dairy, County Durham which will feed into the competition.

Schools in Jersey and the North East of England are encouraged to enter their regional competition to win a secured place at the national competition.

The 2020 Food, Farming and Environment competition is for students aged 14 to 16 year olds. Entries close on 16 March 2020.
(Natural News) President Donald Trump attempted to calm fears over the potential spread of the Wuhan coronavirus during a national address Wednesday evening, but if he wants Americans to calm down, the first thing he needs to do is take stock of the governments health agencies and get them on the same page.

While the president was telling everyone that his administration had the situation under control and there is nothing to worry about, health officials and hospital personnel in northern California were identifying someone who had contracted the virus  and who, they believe, had not been in contact with anyone else who has it.

And while that has yet to be confirmed as of this writing, the patient, we are told, was not tested for 11 days, and that was according to protocols issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As noted by The Reporter:

A Solano County woman now critically ill with coronavirus was hospitalized for 11 days before her infection was revealed to healthcare workers, raising the potential of broader community exposure to the dangerous respiratory disease.

Suffering from flu-like symptoms, the patient brought herself to the 50-bed NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville on Feb. 15, according to the Washington Post. She was transferred to UC Davis for advanced care four days later, on Feb. 19.

Health officials at UC-Davis suspected that the patient might be stricken with coronavirus, so they requested she be tested on her arrival. But it would be four days before the CDC tested her; the results were not returned until Feb. 26, according to a UC Davis statement.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, now faced with the potential for community spread of the virus, said that it is vital for the federal government and CDC to expanding testing.

Only, thats not going to be easy; Newsom said in a press conference Thursday morning that his state only had about 200 coronavirus test kits.

This is simply inadequate to do the type of testing that is required to address this issue head on, he said.

This case marks a turning point, Dr. Sonia Y. Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health, said at the Thursday briefing. We are expanding surveillance activity, increasing lab capacity and planning for increased demand on medical systems.

The stock market is tanking too, by the way

Trump administration officials said that the government will be expanding the countrys flu surveillance system to try and spot people in the general population who may unknowingly be carrying the virus.

However, California officials said there arent any immediate plans to begin testing Solano County residents, where the sick patient lived.

At this point, the patients exposure is unknown, the CDC said in a statement Thursday. The case was detected through the U.S. public health system and picked up by astute clinicians.

The New York Times noted that the agency said while its not clear yet how the Solano County patient became infected, its possible that she came into contact with an infected person, as officials continue to trace her movements.

The thing that would immediately make all of us uneasy is if this person had no direct contact with someone who comes from an affected country, Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, told the paper.

That would suggest there are other undetected cases out there, and we have already started some low-grade transmission.

Earlier estimates have said that the virus incubation period can be as long as 24 days, as Natural News founder and editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, has reported, citing a study by the the British Medical Journal and Yale:

The study, entitled, Clinical characteristics of 2019 novel coronavirus infection in China, is noted as a preprint which has not been peer-reviewed, but the study notes that incubation periods for the coronavirus vary from zero days to 24 days.

Meanwhile, an anxious nation is becoming even more so, as evidenced by the diving indexes on Wall Street.

Sources include:

CNBC.com

NaturalNews.com

NYTimes.com

TheReporter.com
Plasma effective for seriously ill patients

By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2020-02-28 16:49

Experts say that the plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients is useful for treating patients in severe conditions.

Right after the Wuhan Institute of Virology found that there are highly potent antibodies in the plasma of the recovered patients, we began to assist Wuhan hospitals in initial clinical trials, said Prof. Zhang Xinxin at Shanghais Ruijin Hospital.

The COVID-19 is a newly identified serious disease with many serious patients, while human beings knowledge about the disease is limited. As such, we must refer to previous treatment experiences. According to Zhang, plasma treatment is not new. Emil von Behring was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for treating a large number of patients with diphtheria antibody. The treatment has also proved effective during SARS and H1N1 outbreaks.

As of February 22, ten patients have undergone the new special immune plasma therapy, most of whose conditions have significantly improved. One has been discharged from hospital; 5 are improving; and the other 4 are in a stable condition, said Zhou Min, director of the Respiratory Department at Ruijin Hospital.

Doctors are also calling for plasma donations from recovered patients.

To ensure the safety of plasma treatmen the recovered patients must have a regulated body check in case there are other viruses like hepatitis in their blood. Whats more, the collected plasma should undergo a strict process of virus inactivation.
Chinese Chef WANG Wei Ping, from restaurant Sun with Aqua Japanese Dining Suntory, has won the 7th Washoku World Challenge, a Japanese cuisine contest for non-Japanese chefs sponsored by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

The final held in Tokyo on Feb. 20th and 21st brought together 5 chefs who won the qualifying rounds in Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, San Sebastian and New York. Over two days, they competed to display their skills and sensibility based on the competition's main theme of "Umami" and this year's theme of "Texture and Mouthfeel".

"This 7th edition demonstrates that the finalists' technical level keeps improving every year," said the judges. "Creating Japanese dishes that incorporate the characteristics and unique ideas of other countries' culinary cultures, while respecting the fundamentals of Japanese cuisine built on the concept of umami, expands the potential of Japanese cuisine. The creations of each one of the finalists embodied this notion." On their decision to award the top prize to WANG Wei Ping, the judges said: "WANG's use of Chinese black vinegar in the preparation of the rice for hamaguri clam sushi was a magnificent idea that brought a Chinese touch to Japanese cuisine."

On Day One, contestants competed using the same ingredients to make a "nimonowan". On Day Two, they produced their own original recipe consisting of at least 5 dishes arranged on a "hangetsubon" tray.

Reacting to his victory, Chef WANG Wei Ping said: "I thank the owner and other members of my restaurant. After returning to Shanghai, I would like to continue conveying the excellence of Japanese cuisine, which is both healthy and tasty."

Finalists

First Place: WANG Wei Ping (China, of SUN with AQUA JAPANESE DINING SUNTORY)

Second Place: Yael PEET (USA, of Fury's) *The restaurant will be open this summer.

Third Place: Loh Man HONG (Singapore, of FAT COW)

Wojciech POPOW (Poland, of Beaverbrook)

Mireia FARNOS ESPUN (Spain, of Basque Culinary Center)

About the Washoku World Challenge

The Washoku World Challenge, sponsored by the Japan Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, is a contest for non-Japanese chefs with experience working at Japanese restaurants around the world.

Official website: https://www.washoku-worldchallenge.jp/7th/en/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/WashokuWorldChallenge/

Image download:

URL https://photos.app.goo.gl/q4dybMyhignZ9K396

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005112/en/

Contacts:

Inquiries: Yurie TAKAHASHI

Washoku World Challenge Executive Committee

81-80-5908-3594

E-mail: wwc@jtbcom.co.jp
Islamabad: The recent defense agreement between India and the US (US) has increased Pakistan's resentment. Expressing concern over the contract between the two countries, it said that this would increase the arms race in the region. Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ayesha Farooqui expressed concern in this regard in her weekly press briefing.

He said that Pakistan has objected to the defense contract of billions of dollars between the two countries during the visit of US President Donald Trump recently. Pakistan has several times expressed its concern to the international community about the arms race in the region. Farooqui also directly raised the issue of violence in Delhi, intervening directly in the internal affairs of India. He said that Pakistan and the global community are worried about the kind of violence that has taken place against a particular community. The United Nations and institutions related to religious freedom have expressed their concerns in clear terms.

He has alleged that 'India is violating ceasefire continuously along the Line of Control without any provocation. A protest has been lodged in this regard by summoning an Indian diplomat on Wednesday.

Also Read:

Raipur Police seized the vehicles of the central income-tax team which arrived for the survey

Muslims to get 5% reservation in Maharashtra, Uddhav government announced

42 dead in Delhi violence, Gambhir says 'CM Kejriwal's silenced is deafeaning

Delhi: Court says on petition related to minority of Hindus
Madrid, February 28: The deadly coronavirus epidemic will cost world tourism at least $22 billion owing to a drop in spending by Chinese tourists, the head of the World Travel and Tourism Council said Thursday.

The COVID-19 epidemic has killed more than 2,760 people, mostly in China -- where it first emerged in December -- and infected more than 81,000 in over 45 countries. Coronavirus Scare in India: 136 Under observation in Kerala, Says Health Minister KK Shailaja.

"It is too soon to know but the WTTC has made a preliminary calculation in collaboration with (research firm) Oxford Economics which estimates that the crisis will cost the sector at least $22 billion," Gloria Guevara told El Mundo daily.

"This calculation is based on the experience of previous crises, such as SARS or H1N1, and is based on losses deriving from Chinese tourists who have not been travelling in recent weeks," she said. "The Chinese are the tourists who spend most when they travel."

The loss figure, which equates to about 20.2 billion euros, is the most optimistic scenario envisaged by the study which was published on February 11 by Oxford Economics, taking the hypothesis of a 7.0 percent drop in overseas trips by Chinese nationals.

But the losses could more than double, reaching as much as $49 billion if the crisis lasts as long as the SARS outbreak, which erupted in November 2002 and was brought under control in July 2003. And it could spiral to $73 billion if it lasted longer than that, Oxford Economics said.

The economies most likely to suffer would be those most dependent on Chinese tourism, such as Hong Kong and Macau, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines, researchers found. Coronavirus Outbreak: In a First, Woman in Japan Infected With COVID-19 For Second Time.

On Wednesday, the WTO urged countries to avoid taking health measures that would cause "unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade" saying travel restrictions needed to be proportionate to ensure they did not have "negative repercussions on the tourism sector".

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 28, 2020 08:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Shareholders approve 23 rd consecutive dividend increase to CHF 2.95 (+4%) per share for 2019; representing a 3.5% 1 yield and approximately 54% payout of free cash flow



consecutive dividend increase to CHF 2.95 (+4%) per share for 2019; representing a 3.5% yield and approximately 54% payout of free cash flow Shareholders confirm Dr. Joerg Reinhardt as Chairman of the Board of Directors as well as all other members who stood for re-election; Ms. Bridgette Heller and Mr. Simon Moroney elected to the Board of Directors



Shareholders approve all other proposals of the Board of Directors, including the 2019 Compensation Report in an advisory vote, as well as the future Board and Executive Committee compensation in separate binding votes

Basel, February 28, 2020 - Novartis shareholders today agreed to the Board of Directors' recommendations for all proposed resolutions at the Group's Annual General Meeting (AGM). A total of 1,189 shareholders were present at the meeting held in Basel, representing approximately 59.09% of the issued shares of Novartis.

Shareholders approved the 23rd consecutive dividend increase per share since the creation of Novartis in 1996, with an increase of 4% to CHF 2.95 for 2019. Payment for the 2019 dividend will be made as of March 5, 2020. The dividend for 2019 is an approximately 54% payout of free cash flow, reinforcing the Company's ongoing commitment to a strong dividend yield.

Annual re-election and election of Members of the Board

Shareholders re-elected Dr. Joerg Reinhardt as Chairman of the Board of Directors, and all members of the Board who stood for re-election, for one year. In addition, Ms. Bridgette Heller and Mr. Simon Moroney were elected as new members to the Board of Directors.

In addition, shareholders re-elected the following members of the Board of Directors to the Compensation Committee for one year: Patrice Bula, Srikant Datar, Enrico Vanni, and William T. Winters. The Committee will be chaired by Mr. Enrico Vanni. Further, shareholders elected Ms. Bridgette Heller as a new member of the Compensation Committee.

Share cancellation

In line with the Board of Directors' recommendation, the shareholders also approved the cancellation of 60 313 900 shares repurchased under the seventh and under the eighth share repurchase program in 2019 and the reduction of the share capital accordingly by CHF 30 156 950, from CHF 1 263 687 410 to CHF 1 233 530 460.

Votes on Compensation for the members of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee

In two separate binding votes, shareholders approved the total maximum amount of compensation for the members of the Board of Directors, covering the period from the 2020 AGM to the 2021 AGM, and the total maximum amount of compensation for the members of the Executive Committee for the financial year 2021.

Shareholders also endorsed the 2019 Compensation Report in an advisory vote. It contained enhanced disclosures in many areas, hence, providing greater transparency. The report also informed shareholders of prospective changes to the compensation system. These are based on the constructive feedback received from shareholders, our business strategy, and developing market practice.

For a detailed listing of all resolutions presented at the 2020 Annual General Meeting, please visit: https://www.novartis.com/agm (https://www.novartis.com/agm)

Disclaimer

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as "commitment," "will," "endorsed," "prospective," "strategy," "developing," "advisory," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding the potential future impact on Novartis of the matters described in this release, including the future commercial performance of Novartis, the seventh share repurchase program, the eighth share repurchase program, the annual re-election and election of members of the Board of Directors and the Compensation Committee, votes on compensation for the members of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee, and an advisory vote on the 2019 Compensation Report. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee as to the ultimate outcome of the matters described in this release or their potential impact on Novartis. In particular, our expectations regarding these matters could be affected by, among other things, uncertainties regarding future demand for our products; uncertainties regarding potential significant breaches of data security and data privacy, or disruptions of our information technology systems; the potential impact of the matters discussed in this release on Novartis management, its financial results and its competitiveness; and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Novartis

Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people's lives. As a leading global medicines company, we use innovative science and digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the world's top companies investing in research and development. Novartis products reach more than 750 million people globally and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our latest treatments. About 109,000 people of more than 145 nationalities work at Novartis around the world. Find out more at www.novartis.com (http://www.novartis.com).

Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at https://twitter.com/novartisnews (https://twitter.com/novartisnews)

For Novartis multimedia content, please visit https://www.novartis.com/news/media-library (https://www.novartis.com/news/media-library)

For questions about the site or required registration, please contact media.relations@novartis.com (mailto:media.relations@novartis.com)

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Novartis Media Relations

E-mail: media.relations@novartis.com (mailto:media.relations@novartis.com)

Anja von Treskow

Novartis External Communications

+41 79 392 86 97 (mobile)

anja.von_treskow@novartis.com (mailto:anja.von_treskow@novartis.com)







Eric Althoff

Novartis US External Communications

+1 646 438 4335 (mobile)

eric.althoff@novartis.com (mailto:eric.althoff@novartis.com) Satoshi Sugimoto

Novartis Switzerland Communications

+41 79 619 20 35 (mobile)

satoshi_jean.sugimoto@novartis.com (mailto:email.address@novartis.com)

Novartis Investor Relations

Central investor relations line: +41 61 324 7944

E-mail: investor.relations@novartis.com (mailto:investor.relations@novartis.com)

Central North America Samir Shah +41 61 324 7944 Sloan Simpson +1 862 778 5052 Pierre-Michel Bringer

Thomas Hungerbuehler

Isabella Zinck +41 61 324 1065

+41 61 324 8425

+41 61 324 7188 Cory Twining



+1 862 778 3258





1 Based on the SIX closing share price on February 27, 2020


Ireland's spending on social protection, including pensions, is far lower than in any other European Union country, relative to the size of the economy, according to Eurostat.

Government spending as a whole is also a lot smaller.

Even when the size of the economy is adjusted for the impact of activities of multinationals here and the smaller share of people who are of pensionable age, there is still a large gap between Ireland and other rich EU states.

"The ratio of government social protection expenditure to gross domestic product varied across EU member states from less than 10pc in Ireland to nearly a quarter in Finland and France," the EU's statistics agency said in a report published yesterday.

Spending on pensions here amounts to 3.2pc of GDP, according to Eurostat, a third of the average of 10.4pc among member states in 2018.

According to Eurostat, pension payments "made up the largest part of social protection expenditure in all EU member states".

"The highest shares were registered in Finland, followed by France and Italy, Greece as well as Austria."

Even when the numbers are adjusted to reflect the distortions in the economy here, spending on social protection still ranks well below the 19.2pc average recorded in the 27-member EU at 14.8pc of adjusted gross national income, a measure known as modified GNI.

If pension payments are adjusted for the better measure of the size of the economy and the fact the population is among the youngest in the European Union, the figure still comes out at less than 6pc of modified GNI.

Overall, government spending here is the lowest in the EU relative to GDP at around 25pc of the total, which compares with a level of 46.7pc for the bloc as a whole.

The State spends less relative to GDP even than the poorest nations in eastern Europe.

That mainly reflects a system where Ireland collects less as a proportion of income in taxes than all but two other EU states at a touch over 20pc.

That compares with more than 25pc in France and Spain and far more in the Nordic countries.

When government spending is adjusted to remove economic distortions, it comes out at 42pc of 2018 modified GNI, based on the Eurostat numbers, compared with an average of 46.7pc in the bloc as a whole.

Among the affluent western states, our spending is at similar levels to that seen in Luxembourg and the Netherlands, both of which are small economies whose data is also distorted by the activities of multinational companies, albeit to a lesser extent than here. Only in the categories of health, education and housing does the State's spending get close to EU averages in terms of income.

Government spending here was curtailed dramatically in response to the financial crisis which pushed the State close to bankruptcy thanks to a bank bailout. Although it has started to recover, there have been calls for more money to be spent to boost the competitiveness of the economy.

Earlier this week, both employers group Ibec and the European Commission called for greater investment in housing, transport and education.

Ibec called for a "social dialogue" and a commission on taxation to help manage the trade-offs between demands for budget spending, economic growth and taxation.

It said that despite the threat from a weaker global economic environment "we remain a rich country".
ISTANBUL - The first groups of a few dozen refugees are walking from Turkey to the Greek border after Ankara last night announced the decision to open its border in response to what it has denounced as a lack of western support in Idlib against Syrian government forces, according to local broadcasters. The television channels showed footage of people, including women and children, walking.



According to the agency Dogan, about 300 Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian migrants reached the Turkish border province of Edirne on Friday morning. They are allegedly not allowed at the moment to go through the official border crossing of Pazarkule, but witnesses have said that migrants are now allowed to go through rural areas and the Evros river, a natural border between Turkey and Greece.



Television footage also showed several buses and other vehicles organized in Istanbul carrying group of migrants to the border, some 250 km away.



According to sources in Ankara, border police have been told to ignore the passage of refugees. Coast guards have also been allegedly told not to stop boats sailing towards the Greek islands.



- Greece has announced that it will boost controls at the border with Turkey after Ankara announced the intention of letting migrants travel to Europe.



- A reported 950,000 Syrian civilians have been displaced in the northwestern region of Idlib, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in its latest update on the situation in the war-torn region at the center of a Russian-government offensive. OCHA added that some 948,000 have been displaced since December 1, including 569,000 minors and 195,000 women. Women and children make up for 81% of the entire community of displaced Syrians in Idlib.


To resolve the conflict in Donbas, Russia should demonstrate the same political will as Ukraine.

Charge dAffaires of the U.S. Mission to the OSCE Harry Kamian said this at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday, February 27, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"It is time for Moscow to demonstrate the same political will as Ukraine. Instead, Russia seeks to undermine progress toward a peaceful resolution by disseminating falsehoods, as it attempts to shift the onus for the violence onto Ukraine," the diplomat said, commenting on the escalation of the situation in Donbas.

He recalled that during the December 9 Normandy Summit, Russia and Ukraine had committed to a full and comprehensive implementation of the ceasefire before the end of 2019. However, it is clear this has not occurred. Instead, the periods of relative calm are interrupted by bursts of violence, which undermine diplomatic efforts to negotiate an end to this conflict.

According to Kamian, it seems that Russian proxies are attempting to strongarm Kyiv into accepting packages on new disengagement areas, rather than negotiate in good faith on specific sites.

"The United States calls on Russia to engage in a truly constructive manner that makes possible a peaceful resolution of this multi-year conflict," he stressed.

ish
Rio Tinto will need to source cleaner energy for its highly carbon-intensive Australian aluminium smelters in order to achieve its tougher new emissions-reduction targets, unless it opts to divest plants instead.

This week the Anglo-Australian miner pledged to invest $1.5 billion over five years in initiatives to neutralise its greenhouse gas emissions by becoming a net zero emitter by 2050 and to reduce its direct emissions by 15 per cent within the next decade.

Rio's jointly owned Tomago aluminium smelter is Australia's largest. Credit:Virginia Star

However, while discussing the details of its push to decarbonise its global portfolio, Rio chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques acknowledged the company "has a challenge" in its Pacific aluminium business, spanning smelters in Australia and New Zealand. In 2018, the business unit accounted for 10.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, the largest amount of emissions in Rio's entire global operations.

While hydropower supplies electricity for many of Rio Tinto's smelters globally, its plants in Queensland and New South Wales are largely powered by coal-fired generators, the most polluting form of energy creation.
[February 28, 2020] Fitness App Market 2020-2024 | Demand for Wearable Devices to Boost Growth | Technavio

Technavio has been monitoring the fitness app market 2020-2024 and it is poised to grow by USD 1.68 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 12% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005294/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Fitness App Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) Demand for wearable devices has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Request a free sample report Fitness App Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Fitness App Market is segmented as below: Gender Female

Male Application Lifestyle Monitoring

Health Monitoring

Others Geographic Segmentation APAC

Europe

MEA

North America

South America To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40200 Fitness App Market 2020-2024: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our fitness app market 2020-2024 report covers the following areas:



Fitness App Market Size

Fitness App Market Trends

Fitness App Market Industry Analysis This study identifies proliferation of a variety of fitness apps as one of the prime reasons driving the fitness app market growth during the next few years. Fitness App Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the fitness app market, including some of the vendors such as adidas AG, ASICS Digital Inc., Azumio Inc., BetterME., FitNow Inc., Google (News - Alert) LLC, Nike Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Under Armour Inc. and YAZIO GmbH. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the fitness app market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Fitness App Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist fitness app market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the fitness app market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the fitness app market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of fitness app market vendors PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface

2.2 Preface

2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

Market segmentation analysis

Value Chain Analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition

Market outlook

Market sizing 2019

Market size and forecast 2019-2024 PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY APPLICATION Market segmentation by application

Comparison by application

Lifestyle monitoring - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Health monitoring - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Others - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by application PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

APAC - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

North America - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

MEA - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

South America - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Key leading countries

Market opportunity PART 09: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY GENDER Market segmentation by gender

Comparison by gender

Female - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Male - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by gender PART 10: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 11: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers

Market challenges PART 12: MARKET TRENDS Increasing number of M&A

Rising investments

Proliferation of fitness apps PART 13: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario PART 14: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

adidas AG

ASICS Digital Inc.

Azumio Inc.

BetterME.

FitNow Inc.

Google LLC

Nike Inc.

Samsung (News - Alert) Electronics Co. Ltd.

Under Armour Inc.

YAZIO GmbH PART 15: APPENDIX Research methodology

List of abbreviations

Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 16: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005294/en/

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An 11-year-old boy was killed Thursday evening in a collision with a vehicle in Antioch, police said.

Officers were dispatched at 6:45 p.m. to Lone Tree Way near Deer Valley Road for a collision involving a pedestrian.

When officers arrived the boy had major injuries but then died.

Police said the boy was apparently crossing Lone Tree Way outside of a crosswalk and was hit by a vehicle passing by.

The driver of the vehicle stopped and cooperated with police officers. According to police, it appears impairment did not play a role in the collision.

The boys name was not released by police.

The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday proposed a $2.14 billion penalty against PG&E for its role in the catastrophic wildfires in the North Bay and Butte County in 2017 and 2018.

The proposed decision by Administrative Law Judge Sophia Park adds $462 million to a $1.7 billion penalty settlement agreed to last year by PG&E, the commission's safety staff, and utility union representatives for violations of regulations.

Like the previous settlement, the proposed decision would require shareholders rather than customers to absorb the cost of the penalty. But in addition to increasing the penalty amount, the revised proposal would require that any tax savings PG&E gains from tax deductions for the penalty would benefit customers and not shareholders.

If PG&E agrees to accept the revised penalty within 20 days and no party in the proceeding objects to it, the proposed penalty will become a decision of the five-member commission.

PG&E spokesman James Noonan said, "We're disappointed" with the proposed decision, saying that "PG&E worked diligently over many months with multiple parties" to reach the previous settlement. He did not say whether PG&E will agree to the revised penalty.

Four female prosecutors have sued Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton in federal court in Oakland for alleged gender and age discrimination.

The lawsuit claims Becton has been "systematically demoting and failing to advance, promote and assign supervisory roles to qualified and accomplished prosecutors who are women" and has given supervisory roles to less experienced and less qualified men.

The plaintiffs are deputy district attorneys Mary Knox, Alison Chandler, Mary Blumberg and Rachel Piersig, who have worked as prosecutors in the district attorney's office for 34, 20, 15 and 13 years respectively.

The defendants are the county, the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office and Becton.

The lawsuit claims discrimination under both state and federal civil rights laws and asks for an injunction and compensatory and punitive financial awards.

Solano County officials on Thursday declared a local emergency after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a county resident tested positive for the novel coronvirus and the person may have gotten the virus through community transmission.

The resident who tested positive was not exposed to the disease through travel or from being in contact with an infected person, according to Solano County Public Health.

Public health officials don't know exactly how the patient contracted the virus.

"We are taking this situation seriously," Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano County health officer, said in a statement.

Matyas said her team has moved from containment of the disease to mitigation.

Police announced Thursday they've arrested a suspect in connection with the robbery of an elderly man's recyclables in the city's Bayview neighborhood.

According to police, officers have arrested 20-year-old Dewayne Grayson on suspicion of robbery, hate crime, elder abuse and probation violation in connection with the robbery, which happened Saturday around 5:30 p.m. at a San Francisco Housing Authority complex on Osceola Lane.

The robbery was caught on tape in a widely shared viral video.

Grayson is allegedly the person who filmed the incident and uploaded it to social media. Officers took him into custody Thursday morning in the 100 block of Kirkwood Ave., police said.

Investigators have identified a second suspect in connection with the robbery and officers are currently looking for him, according to police.

A barometer of the Bay Area economy is expected to wane in the spring from the effects of the coronavirus, but it's unclear what the recent widening spread of the virus will mean for the summer and fall.

"Up to now there has been little of any impact" at the Port of Oakland, which is an economic barometer for the Bay Area, port spokesman Mike Zampa said.

But he said the latest data for the port is through only January.

The port is barometer and engine for the Bay Area as 80,000 jobs in the region are connected to port activity.

Zampa said growth in cargo volume is expected to slide moderately in the spring because shipping lines will suspend some voyages between Asia and the U.S. Up to 30 voyages might be canceled between Asia and the West Coast.

The president of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, which advocates for ocean carriers and marine terminal operators, among other shipping-related workers, agreed.

Friday will be mostly cloudy. Highs will be in the 60s to the lower 70s. North winds will be 5 to 10 mph, becoming west winds of 5 to 15 mph in the afternoon.

Friday night will be cloudy. Lows will be in the lower 50s. West winds will be 10 to 20 mph.

Saturday will be mostly cloudy in the morning before becoming partly cloudy. It will be breezy. Highs will be in the 50s to the lower 60s. West winds will be 20 to 30 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.
A January 2020 World Socialist Web Site article, Working through injuries, bomb threats and tornadoes: Amazon workers describe conditions at Spartanburg, South Carolina warehouse has met with a warm reception, with many WSWS readers expressing a desire to tell my story and stand up for fellow workers. A WSWS reporting team travelled to Spartanburg to meet with several Amazon workers, past and present, to discuss their reactions to the article and their own experiences at the warehouse giant. All of them said that everyone at GSP1 had read the original article on GSP1.

A video interview of one former GSP1 worker, Donald, will be available soon.

Initially, the GSP1 workers came in contact with Shannon Allen, a former Amazon worker in Fort Worth who has popularized the plight of her fellow workers to a global audience. Shannon is a member of the Steering Committee of Rank and File Committees. She referred GSP1 employees to the International Amazon Workers Voice and the World Socialist Web Site.

Outside of South Carolina's Inland Port rail hub

GSP is short for Greenville-Spartanburg, an industrial hub in the piedmont region of South Carolina. It is home to South Carolinas Inland Port rail transportation facility, a large Michelin Tire plant and a massive BMW plant (actually located in a foreign trade zone). In the 1930s the South Carolina piedmont region witnessed intense and often violent conflict between mill owners and workers in a series of strikes. A former Amazon employee, alias Sara, told WSWS reporters that working at GSP1 was like slavery. She continued, and I dont mean to be offensive in saying that, but they worked us like dogs. The speed of work just destroys you.

When I read the article [on GSP1] I felt all of that, especially the disability. The article is all over Facebook.

Sara described Amazons mistreatment of the workers as constant and intolerable.

They are ridiculously unfair. They play favorites. They reward and promote their friends or family members. All they care about is making sure you meet quotas, and they always increase the quotas. They will have some prize one day, some music player or other item of value, and whoever makes the best numbers wins the prize. Its like bribery. Then, next thing you know, those numbers become the new standard for everyone, the new baseline.

Asked about other employers in the Greenville/Spartanburg area, Sara said her husband has worked at the BMW Greer facility for several years. Twelve-hour shifts, four days per week are normal for him. The repetitive motions of assembly work have injured him. He has been working on an injured leg for months now because he fears that claiming a work-related injury would end his employment.

A sign outside of BMW Greer facility

At BMW Greer a worker recently died of a heart attack in a bathroom at the plant, she said. Not an unusual occurrence. Contract worker Bojan Sprah, aged 45, suffered head trauma and died at BMW in March 2018. In 2016 Ronnie Lee Hall, a 55-year-old contract worker, fell to his death while working on a construction job at the plant. Meghan King, who featured in the original article, told WSWS reporters additional details about safety violations, management abuses and other problems at the GSP1 Amazon Fulfilment Center.

The managers dont give a crap about safety. I know that one of them said at a managers meeting that if you arent cheating, you are not doing your job. The manager who said that, I told him once about a dangerous situation where large pallets of bird seed were stacked improperly, and were placed on the highest shelves, which are over 40 feet in the air. The way they were coming off the docks and stacked onto one another made them wobbly, and there was a serious risk they could fall off the top shelves and kill someone.

Meghan told the manager that the pallets could be arranged and shelved with a slight modification to avoid the falling hazard.

Not my problem. Make it go away was his response.

This was not the first time that Meghan advised management of a hazard only to be met with blatant indifference. At one point a coworker was nearly impaled through the head when a piece of wood pierced the plexiglass windshield of her forklift. Meghan suggested that a metal mesh would provide more protection from this type of danger. But nothing changed.

New employees officially get an hour of training before using the forklifts. Even this short interval is frequently lowered to a mere 15 minutes depending on how badly Amazon needs to fill a position.

A yard sign advertising opioid addiction treatment

In another example of Amazons indifference to workers welfare, Meghan described coming upon an injured coworkera box fell on her backand making a radio call for help. The AmCare representative was annoyed, especially when Meghan insisted that the injury needed to be documented. He hates paperwork, Meghan said.

WSWS reporters asked Meghan about the impact of the article on GSP1 on her employment at GSP1.

I was surprised I wasnt fired. But I had had enough and wanted to speak out. Management always badgers and demeans us, and it pushes many to quit. Being yelled at is a daily thing. It scars people, makes them paranoid and screwed up for their next job [after Amazon]. Eventually you just cant function.

She added that her prominence in the article allowed her to connect with co-workers she previously didnt know.

There is some management racism against blacks; they get worse job assignments. I previously thought that some of the black workers might look at me as benefitting from racism, like maybe I thought I was above them. Now, they approach with high fives and respect. One told me yesterday with a grin youve got some cojones. Its because of the article.
Lucy the Elephant is a 138-year-old National Historic Landmark on the Jersey Shore, and now she's an Airbnb too.

Built in 1881, the six-story-tall, 90 ton Lucy was designed by James V. Lafferty, Jr. as a way to attract visitors to the Atlantic City area where she stands. Her legs contain stairs leading up to the body, which has served as a tavern, and according to a release, hosted President Woodrow Wilson once.
A 38-year-old man with a history of sex crime convictions was sentenced Thursday to life without parole under Oregons three-strikes law for certain sex offenses.

Chad Pearson entered a no-contest plea last summer to rape, sodomy and first-degree unlawful sexual penetration.

A 38-year-old man with a history of sex crime convictions was sentenced Thursday to life in prison under Oregons three-strikes law.

The case was his third felony sex crime conviction. He has previous convictions for rape and sex abuse in 2008 and 2013. His victim in his 2008 case was underage. The victim in the latest case was 11 at the time of the assault, which took place in Gladstone.

Under a 2001 law, life in prison is the presumptive sentence for a three-time sex crime offender. Clackamas County Circuit Judge Ann Lininger presided over the case.

According to the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, a clearinghouse for justice-related statistics, a handful of repeat sex offenders are sentenced to life each year. In total, 40 people are serving life without parole sentences under the law.

Clackamas County Deputy District Attorney Bryan Censoni called the facts in Pearsons latest case horrific and deplorable.

Censoni said the victim disclosed the assault to her friends mother within hours. The woman was dating Pearson at the time and told the girl to apologize to Pearson for making the accusation, Censoni said.

Censoni said the girl then became withdrawn and depressed.

In a sentencing memo asking for a life sentence, Censoni said the girl found courage and her voice in 2017, when she was 17, and disclosed the abuse to a therapist who reported the allegations to authorities.

-- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
I sat in my office until the end, he wrote, carefully calculating how to murder another hundred thousand people most economically. After the war ended, I read reports of the trials of men who had been high up in the Eichmann organization. They had sat in their offices writing memoranda and calculating how to murder people efficiently, just like me. The main difference was that they were sent to jail or hanged as war criminals and I went free. (Adolf Eichmann was a key architect of the Nazi Holocaust.)
There have been 884 cases of H1N1 virus so far this year and 14 deaths according to the data of the New Delhi-based National Centre for Disease Control. Of that, 70 per cent of the cases are from four states. Tamil Nadu accounts for 172 cases, followed by Delhi (152), Karnataka (151) and Telangana (148). However, Uttar Pradesh with 51 cases accounts for seven of the 14 deaths so far as per the data from the National Centre for Disease Control. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana account for two deaths each.

So, is there gross under-reporting of cases given that UP has high population density and is much larger than the southern states that have reported more cases? Or, is it because systems are inadequate leading to more deaths? The H1N1 problem is not new. We have experience over the years now and it seems to recur every year as indicated by the data. The numbers reported by UP this year are much lower than last year, when it reported 2096 cases and 37 deaths.

Health officials say there is no reason to be alarmed, and the government is taking measures to ensure health awareness and gear up government hospital machinery. After it was reported that five Supreme Court judges were down with H1N1, the Health Ministry organised a health awareness meeting on H1N1 for advocates of the Supreme Court. Similarly, officials in the health ministry point out awareness campaigns are being held and states sensitised so that any gaps in systems required are all bridged.

ALSO READ:Bengaluru to Meerut to Delhi, H1N1 virus spreading fast; time to hit the panic button?

ALSO READ:India's priority should be H1N1 virus, say health experts

ALSO READ:Health Ministry springs into action after swine flu scare at Supreme Court
Market Overview The agricultural microbial market was valued at USD 3,452. 3 million in 2018 and is expected to register a CAGR of 18. 6%, during the forecast period (2019-2024). In 2018, North America was the largest geographic segment of the market studied and accounted for a share of around 36.

New York, Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Global Agricultural Microbial Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecast (2019 - 2024)" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05865724/?utm_source=GNW

7% of the global market.



Agricultural microbial are produced from naturally-occurring microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoa among others. The global market has been witnessing an upward trend due to increasing awareness and support from several agencies with respect to the usage of agricultural microbial. However, the lack of technological advancements in microbial inoculants and the need for maintaining high numbers of functional microorganisms on seed during seed treatment are some challenges to microbial seed treatment manufacturers.



Scope of the Report

Owing to various factors, such as rapid advancement in the agricultural sector, growth in the need for high productivity, improved crop health, and favorable regulatory policies, the agricultural microbial market is amplifying exponentially. The agricultural microbial market is now an investment area for leading agrochemical companies. Given the increasing demand for biopesticide products, several companies include bio-pesticides in their portfolio, either by acquiring products from or forming licensing agreements with small size companies or by investing in their own R&D activities.



Key Market Trends

Increasing Food Demand and Need for Food Safety



The growing need to feed an ever-growing global population, coupled with the increasing demand for sustainable agricultural practices and the concern of the general public over environmental safety is one of the leading drivers for the agricultural microbial market. Agricultural production is likely to grow two-fold over the next 36 years, in order to meet the demands coming from around 9 billion population. Certainly, technology is expected to continue to play a significant role in this progress. Increase in urbanization and less availability of arable land are motivating farmers to adopt efficient crop-protection techniques. There has been a broader acceptance and recognition of the increasing benefits of microbials. With the amount of arable land per-person declining and expansion of population, global crop yields must increase to meet the food production needs. As a result, an increase in the demand for microbial products and agricultural production is being witnessed.



North America Dominates the Global Market



North America was the largest market share, with the United States accounting for more than half of the regional market share in 2018. The regional market growth depends on the need for land productivity of agricultural fields while keeping soil health intact. The requirement for high-crop productivity and production with high-quality, evolving agricultural practices and precision farming have been driving market growth for agriculture microbial products over the years in North America. The region is promoting the use of microbial products, in order to balance the agricultural sector growth, which is mostly opted by chemical fertilizer and pesticide required in order to sustain its large-scale productions.



Competitive Landscape

The agricultural microbial market is a highly fragmented market, with many small players occupying a major portion of the market. The greater market share of players, like Certis USA LLC, Marrone Bio Innovations and others can be attributed to highly diversified product portfolio and a large number of acquisitions and agreements taking place. These players are also focusing on R&D, large product portfolio, wide geographical presence, and aggressive acquisition strategy.



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Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05865724/?utm_source=GNW



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It involves various techniques, such as hydroponics, which uses mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent; aquaponics, which uses aquatic creatures -- such as fish and snails -- and cultivates plants in water; and aeroponics, which grows plants in the air.

As for job creation, rapid climate change will put millions of traditional farmers out of business, but vertical farmers won't be affected, according to microbiologist Dickson Despommier, an emeritus professor of public and environmental health at Columbia University.

Although vertical farming was first introduced in the early 1900s, it was recently popularized by Despommier. More than 20 years ago, he began teaching a class at Columbia called Medical Ecology.

Despommier spent a decade growing crops indoors with his students. "Ten years ago, there were no vertical farms," he said, noting that LED grow lights have vastly improved farming efficiency over the last five years, making indoor growing cheaper and more reliable.

"People want local food because they've lost trust in the industrial food system that ships in high calorie, low nutrient food from thousands of miles away with little transparency as to who grew the food and how," said Peggs, the Square Roots CEO.
China in Focus (Feb. 26)

The World Health Organization (WHO) is being accused of underestimating the coronavirus outbreak. Some of the signals its been sending might have given certain countries the wrong impression.

The coronavirus has reached the U.S. military in South Korea, while back in the United States, drug trials begin for a potential treatment of the virus.

Eighty scholars from around the world have signed a letter to Chinas communist leader saying the spread of the epidemic has a lot to do with the regimes censoring of free speech.

Inside a city in Hubei province, authorities were alerted to a rather peculiar report of -107 cases of the coronavirus.
By Trend

The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) project allows Azerbaijan to diversify its gas markets, Analyst at the Russias National Energy Security Fund, Expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Igor Yushkov told Trend.

Yushkov noted that if for Azerbaijan this project is a means of diversifying the markets for its gas, then for Turkey and European countries, SGC is the means of diversifying sources of supply.

TANAP gas pipeline to Turkey was built in 2019, and gas supplies through pipeline commenced. Greece and Bulgaria will receive one billion cubic meters of gas each, and about 6-8 billion cubic meters, after the completion of the gas pipeline, to Italy.

The expert said that Azerbaijan is the only source of gas for SGC. Initially, the SGC, as a European project, meant obtaining a large amount of gas with the possibility of expansion. The main volumes should have been given by Turkmenistan.

Gas was supposed to go through the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline to Azerbaijan, then volumes of Azerbaijani gas would be added to the gas pipeline and through a gas pipeline with great capacity all this gas would go through Turkey to Europe. This project was perceived as an element of the European strategy for diversification of gas supply sources, Yushkov added.

At a meeting of the SGC Advisory Council held in Baku in February 2019, the EU and Azerbaijan invited Turkmenistan to join the SGC project. However, so far no concrete decision has been made.

"Thus, Azerbaijan is currently the only source of gas in this system. The resource base for the project is the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field on the shelf of the Caspian Sea," the expert said.

Speaking about the current situation in gas markets, Yushkov noted that, despite fierce competition among gas suppliers, the Turkish market shows an example that this did not affect the price and volume of Azerbaijani gas purchases by Turkish consumers, since the contract was signed a long time ago.

The expert expressed confidence that it is now important for Azerbaijan to consolidate the gas supply agreements on the Italian market at the same prices, while it is beneficial for Italy to reconsider the indices in the pricing formula in favor of a greater binding to spot markets.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz


In October 2016, the head of Russias largest oil company traveled to the birthplace of Hugo Chavez, the former president of Venezuela.

Rosneft chief executive officer Igor Sechin brought with him a singing group from Moscow to celebrate the presentation of a huge statue of the former leader. Chavez had died three years earlier.

Sechins visit marked a turning point in the relationship between Russia and Venezuela. He spoke to a crowd of government supporters in Spanish, which he learned in his days working for the Soviet military in Africa.

We have no choice between victory or death, said Sechin, repeating the words of a Venezuelan independence hero. He was describing the deepening ties between Russia and Venezuela in their competition with the United States. We must achieve victory, he said.

Now the U.S. government wants to break up that growing partnership as part of its campaign to remove Chavezs replacement, Nicolas Maduro.



U.S. government sanctions

Earlier this month, the U.S. Treasury Department barred American companies from doing business with Rosneft Trading SA. It accused the company, the subsidiary of Russias state-owned oil business, of supporting Maduro as he seeks to avoid U.S. sanctions.

For months, U.S. officials have been warning foreign companies that they could face action if they continue to do business with Maduro and his government. Those warnings have been directed mainly at Russia.

The U.S. government made it illegal for Americans to buy crude oil from Venezuela a year ago. And government officials say Russia has processed about 70 percent of Venezuelan oil sales since that time.

Francisco Monaldi is a Venezuelan oil expert at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He told The Associated Press the latest actions should cause concern among companies in countries that continue to partner with the Venezuelan state-operated oil company PDVSA.

The U.S. action could also lead to the ending of a special license for Chevron. The permit has so far kept the California-based company from having to pull out of Venezuela. Chevron is a partner in joint operations with PDVSA. Together they are responsible for about a fourth of Venezuelas total oil production.

In a statement, PDVSA condemned the U.S. government for what it called economic assassination aimed at taking control of Venezuelas oil industry. Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said the new actions would support Venezuelas case against the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. Venezuela is accusing the administration of crimes against humanity and is taking the case to the International Criminal Court.

Rosneft operates several oil fields with PDVSA that it has controlled since Chavezs government forced U.S. companies out of the country.

But oil experts say that as the new, go-to supplier of the countrys crude oil supplies, Rosneft wins two ways. First, Rosneft buys Venezuelas high quality Merey 16 crude at a greatly reduced cost. It then uses money from sales of Merey 16 to pay down $6.5 billion lent to PDVSA since 2014 for the purchase of Russian-made weaponry and other goods.

Venezuelan oil exports

To avoid problems for buyers in China and India, Rosneft has been using oil transport ships that try to hide what they are carrying. They turn off their required tracking systems and carry out risky ship-to-ship exchanges off the coast of West Africa and other areas.

In the short term, Francisco Monaldi expects Maduro will have to pay more to find someone else to take on the added risk of moving the countrys oil. That means Venezuela will have even less money to import food and medical supplies or repair its failing electricity infrastructure. And with storage centers already full, production that is already at a 70-year low is likely to fall even further, he added.

Still, nobody expects oil sales from Venezuela to dry up completely. That is unless the U.S. navy blocks all of the countrys ports. The Trump administration has refused to deny it will do so, but has shown no sign of taking that action.

The United States leads a group of now nearly 60 nations that recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the countrys rightful leader. The group considers Maduros 2018 re-election illegal. In turn, Russia has accused the Trump administration of spreading false information to engineer an overthrow of the government.

Richard Nephew is an energy researcher at Columbia University in New York. He helped design the U.S. sanctions policy while at the State Department during the presidency of Barack Obama. Nephew said by not dealing with Rosneft itself, and only going after one of its many parts, the effect on Russias continued support for Maduro will likely be limited.

This seems more like a warning shot designed to look bigger than it actually is, he noted. Its shooting someone who is Russian sounding without really punishing the Russians themselves.

Several pro-Putin lawmakers were dismissive of the Trump administrations efforts. They said they would appeal to the World Trade Organization to remove what they described as unlawful U.S. actions.

I think this issue can be resolved, Vladimir Dzhabarov, a member of Russias upper house of parliament, told RIA Novosti news agency. Theyre smart over there (in Rosneft) and they will find a way to get around it.

Im Dorothy Gundy.

And Im Pete Musto.

Joshua Goodman and Daria Litvinova reported on this story for the Associated Press. Pete Musto adapted the report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

turning point  n. a time when an important change happens

replacement  n. a person or thing that takes the place of someone or something else

subsidiary  n. a company that is owned or controlled by another company

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

license  n. an official document that gives you permission to do, use, or have something

pull out  p.v. to leave a place or position or to cause someone or something to leave a place or position

assassination  n. the act of killing someone, usually for political reasons

tracking  n. the act of following or watching the path of something

infrastructure  n. the basic equipment and structures, such as roads and bridges, that are needed for a country, region, or organization to function properly

smart  adj. showing intelligence or good judgment
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 22:33:47|Editor: ZD

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A building is damaged after a heavy shelling attack in Tripoli, Libya, on Feb. 28, 2020. The forces of the UN-backed Libyan government said on Friday that the rival east-based army attacked the Mitiga International Airport and its surroundings, as well as a number of residential neighborhoods, in Tripoli with heavy shelling. (Photo by Amru Salahuddien/Xinhua)

TRIPOLI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The forces of the UN-backed Libyan government said on Friday that the rival east-based army attacked the Mitiga International Airport in Tripoli with heavy shelling.

"Haftar (commander of the east-based army) targeted the Mitiga Airport and its surroundings, as well as a number of residential neighborhoods in the capital Tripoli, with more than 60 Grad missiles," the UN-backed government forces said in a statement.

"Initial reports indicate that a woman was injured as her house was hit with a missile," it added.

The authorities have evacuated the Mitiga International Airport and suspended all the flights, according to the statement.

On their official Facebook page, the UN-backed government forces posted images of ambulances rushing to help people injured by the shelling, as well as images showing heavy smoke rising from the attacked areas.

The UN-backed Libyan government on Thursday also accused the east-based army of attacking the Mitiga Airport and causing the flights to be suspended for a few hours.

The east-based army has not commented on the alleged attacks yet.

The east-based army, led by Khalifa Haftar, has been leading a military campaign since April 2019 in and around Tripoli, attempting to take over the capital city and topple the UN-backed government.

The fighting has killed and injured thousands of people and forced more than 150,000 civilians to flee their homes.

The rivals agreed on a cease-fire on Jan. 12. However, both parties exchanged accusations of breaching the truce.
A 36-year-old Midland man was sentenced to 120 years in prison Thursday for knowingly transmitting the HIV virus to four women.

Judge Rodney Satterwhite sentenced Derick Nhekairo to serve two consecutive 60-year sentences of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon causing serious bodily injury, with the remaining two sentences of 60 years and 20 years to run concurrently with the 120 years.

Nhekairo also is required to pay $32,000 in fines for the four charges.

He was arrested July 6, 2012, on one of the aggravated assault charges, a second-degree felony. He initially pleaded not guilty to the charge Tuesday, but changed his plea to guilty in the four cases after testimony began, according to previous Reporter-Telegram records.

The trial resumed at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday in 441st District Court.

Prosecutor Lara Nodolf said she was able to support the evidence that Nhekairos penis and bodily fluid were used as deadly weapons in the four cases. She said he admitted to practicing unprotected sex with 18 different women after contracting the virus in 2002.

Nodolf said it was important to prosecute Nhekairo because many people do not know that is a crime to knowingly transmit HIV to other sexual partners.

The victims of this type of crime are underrepresented and dont always know their options, She said. If you report it, we can prosecute it.

The first victim to come forward and report Nhekairo to the health department spoke with the Reporter-Telegram, saying she was very happy with the sentencing.

The victim said when she contracted HIV from Nhekairo, the illness rapidly progressed into AIDS due to a pre-existing blood disorder.

She said she experienced AIDS neuropathy, which left her unable to walk for nearly a year. The victim, now on medication for the virus, said she has since been diagnosed as undetectable. This means that she still is HIV positive but the diseases chance of transmission is greatly decreased, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The victim said its important for any women who have had sexual encounters with Nhekairo should come forward and get tested for HIV. She also recommended that men and women use safety measures each time they engage in sexual activity.

Texas was one of 35 states to have prosecuted someone successfully for intentionally and recklessly infecting someone with the HIV virus, according to previous records.
There were 4,521,480,071 Internet users as of Dec. 1, 2019. A month later it was closer to 5 billion users. A decade ago there were fewer than a billion social network users. Thats worldwide. That user growth has been a leading indicator of the rise of alternative social networking platforms.

Marketers  and consumers  are always on the lookout for the newest thing with which to engage. For consumers, its social outreach and sharing. For marketers its commerce and sharing. So, the scale of whats available to consumers in both social and retail platforms is huge  and more and more alternative platforms are on the way.

Its all because of consumers online behavior. Welcome to the marketing Mbius strip: Growth in consumer online activity leads to increased expectations, which leads to newer alternative social and retail platforms built to meet those expectations, which increases consumer activity, which leads to more frequent online activity accompanied by increased expectations, which leads to. . . well, you get the point.

Youre probably living the point right now. This behavior and the experiential nature of consumers social and retail behaviors have become more and more commonplace, along with increased expectations.

Depending upon the category youre looking at, consumer expectations grow within a range of 18 percent to 25 percent a year. Brands, only manage to keep up by about 5 percent to 7 percent, which leaves a really big gap between what those 4 billion-plus Internet users expect and what brands actually are able to deliver.

One thing that hasnt changed is the fact that nature abhors a vacuum. Empty space is unnatural and needs to be filled. Thats physics. The need for more and more platforms so that consumers are able to meet their ever-expanding expectations? Thats marketing.

New, alternative platforms are created to try to meet those ever-growing expectations, but expectations are like an oil spill. A spill in one place does not remain isolated. It spreads from one category to another, and thus new expectations beget newer expectations, and online social and online retail have begun to intermingle.

Shoppable Social Strategies

Consumers live online. They shop online. They share online. They learn online. What theyve shared and learned  and what has become part-and-parcel of their lives  is that they have access to virtually everything. Now! When they have questions, they search. However, expectations are such that they actually dont want to search for something when they see it online. They want to be able to tap on an image and have access to it. Now!

Where is it? Whats in it? What products are those? What clothes are those people wearing? How much do they cost? Where can I find it? They want whats become known as shoppable posts. Tap on an image and know everything about it. Thats what they expect  and now, or very soon.

Core business-to-consumer platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and business-to-business platforms like LinkedIn, are not meeting consumer expectations, but all of them are adopting or currently developing shoppable strategies to make them more competitive with the likes of Amazon and Jd.com.

Yes, the addition of more pay-to-play platforms means engagement will be more problematic. Alternative e-commerce platforms like TikTok will allow brands more easily to engage consumers who already are migrating or planning to migrate from older platforms that dont meet their expectations to newer alternatives that do.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

One thing consistent throughout marketing history is that you dont want to disappoint your consumer. These days, the abundance of options means consumers are not likely to give social or retail sites that disappoint them another chance. Why should they?

Their expectations will force them to seek out competitive options on alternative platforms or force brands to offer shoppable content experiences to their consumers across every touchpoint the brand uses to engage the consumer.

In a maturing digital/online/social/retail marketplace, tech companies are working very hard to make everything more transactional. Shoppable posts become the off-ramp for having to shop in a store.

Social E-Commerce Synergy

TikToks ads have a shop now button connected to user-generated content that redirects users to a microsite. Instagram introduced a program that allows retailers with the Shopify network to embed point-of-sales items in their posts. Tap on an item, the price comes up. Tap on a price, more product information comes up. Tap on the link, and you just shopped!

Ninety-two percent of recently polled Pinterest users felt the platform helped them make purchasing decisions. Over the past two years, all the major players have been creating formats allowing online users to make purchases in the creative itself. Thats even if they werent initially online to shop, but just to share.

From a retail perspective, analytics should be able to point the way to prioritizing the products retailers want to make shoppable. Its also going to necessitate finding ways to blend social and retail seamlessly, because the truth is that most of whats out there and what engages consumers is broader (and less specific) than retail alone.

Today, engagement is about awareness and emotion, and awareness and emotion form the doorway for making something desired  and thus, eminently sociable  sharable and shoppable. The idea of shoppable posts gives consumers the opportunity to buy immediately.

Five years ago, marketers might have suggested that consumers would need time to get used to the idea of shopping on mobile devices. With more than 85 percent of U.S. shoppers making purchases online, its a given. With expectations also a given, it will be the tap-on-your-platform-of-choice trend for the foreseeable future.

New platforms able to accommodate the entire sales process  or at the very least facilitate the sales process  will have an added advantage of providing visitation and advertising efficacy.

While this is a very big trend and an even bigger idea, brands should start small. Retailers should start with their own social networking efforts and websites. Remember those 4 billion-plus online consumers? With the continuing growth of social media and e-commerce, synergy between the two is going to be massive. That fusion will be the next big thing for social media, particularly for the new social networking platforms coming down the road.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Native integration will make it easy for consumers to tag and shop products, and will make finding product pages easier, more instinctive, and more immediate  all of which promises to make online experiences more relevant, more engaging, more customizable, and more profitable for more shoppable ads.
As the first Japanese and first woman to serve as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ogata Sadako successfully dealt with humanitarian emergencies across the globe. This article explores Ogatas perspectives on history, diplomacy, and national security issues.

In October 2019, messages of condolence flooded in from around the world at the news that Ogata Sadako, the former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, had passed away. I am not in a position to add another obituary on her work and life. Instead, the purpose of this piece is to examine Ogatas thoughts and role as a distinguished scholar as well as practitioner in a broader context of Japans foreign and security policyor in other words, it is about exploring the questions, concerns and challenges that Ogata has raised for us over decades through her work.

What distinguished Ogata was her unparalleled balance of humanism and realism. Looking back on her legacy, though, it is undeniable that what Ogata aimed for has largely failed to take root in Japan. As a result, paradoxically, her experience and expertise were sought after in the Japanese society until the very final stage of her life and Ogata herself became profoundly concerned about Japan and its future.

A Balanced Historical Perspective

Ogata was a living repository of knowledge on prewar Japan as well as contemporary politics and diplomacy. As a student, she had attended the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, which she found an imposition of victors justice to a defeated Japan. In her 2015 memoir, Kikisho: Ogata Sadako kaikoroku (In Her Own Words: Ogata Sadako Memoirs), Ogata says that she could not accept the notion that Japans expansion had stemmed from a grand conspiracy to invade the Asian continent. People may be surprised to hear such a skeptical perspective on the Tokyo Tribunal, looks almost like a typical right-wing and conservative argument.

But she goes on to assert that Japans diplomatic failures are evident from the Mukden Incident to the Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War and that policymakers at that time were clearly responsible. Motivated by this experience, Ogata wrote her PhD dissertation at the University of California, Berkeley, on the policymaking process leading up to the Mukden Incident. The fact that her great-grandfather Inukai Tsuyoshi (18551932), was prime minister of Japan from December 1931 until his assassination in the May 15 Incident, an attempted coup detat by members of the military and ultranationalists, the following year, must also have played a role in her commitment to examine prewar Japanese history.

In addition to Ogatas remarkable sense of balance from a young age, another distinguishing feature was her ability to bridge academic research and real-world issues. She argues that research was useful for policy and it is nonsense to separate policy practice and academic research.

It is easy to see Ogata as a liberalist in the classical sense, but as her historical perspective above makes clear, she was not a typical left-wing figure as understood in the Japanese context. Unfettered by any specific ideology, she pursued the truth as a scholar, and concrete achievements as a practitioner. As a result, she became a leading figure in both human rights and refugee issues, though she had not considered herself as an expert in either field.

Events in the Life of Ogata Sadako

1927 Born in Tokyo 1951 Graduated from the University of the Sacred Heart 1963 Earns PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley 1974 Appointed associate professor at International Christian University 1976 Named envoy with Japans mission to the United Nations 1980 Appointed professor of international politics, Sophia University 1991-2000 Serves as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 2003-2012 Serves as President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency

Ogatas Internationalism and Humanism

Ogata believed that the nations of the world were irreversibly interdependent. This is particularly the case for countries like Japan, which cannot ensure its peace and prosperity on its own and therefore must pursue global engagement. This constituted the basis for her beliefs and the essence of her internationalism. She held to this idea throughout her life, and it underlaid her work on refugees and development assistance. This was why she particularly deplored the insular tendencies of countries including Japan.

Asked whether it is humanism that underpins her work, Ogata modestly argued that far from being motivated by lofty ideals, it is just an expression of natural instinct of any human being. As someone who had observed the horrors of humanitarian crises first hand and witnessed refugees languishing in intolerable conditions, Ogata argued that once you see something horrible, arent you compelled to take action? You want to do something, right? It is not a question of logic.





Ogatas combination of deep compassion and robust humanism is striking, raising doubt about the extent to which such an attitude is accepted or put into practice in Japanese society.

People talk about the CNN effect in the fields of international relations and media studies, referring to the influence on public opinion of CNN and other news outlets reporting from the front lines of conflicts and crises around the world. It is assumed that the images of destruction and suffering broadcast into living rooms lead people to demand their country to take action. This is in line with Ogatas argument that once you see something horrible, arent you compelled to take action? However, if people do not care about conflicts or crises, the CNN effect cannot work. It is highly questionable if a similar process, something that could be called an NHK effect, has ever worked in Japan.

There are often human rights and liberal activists demonstrating in front of the Chinese embassies in the United States and European countries these days, criticizing the human rights situation in China and the way in which Beijing deals with ethnic minorities. Protests take place in front of the Chinese embassy in Tokyo too, but what is unique is that the scene is more or less dominated by right-wing and nationalist activists.

Tokyos One-Sided Discourse on International Engagement

When it comes to the political and security dimensions, Japans interest in international affairs and international engagement has developed exclusively within the context of cooperation with the United States. Ogata called it a habit and dependence on the United States has persisted.

Nonetheless, it is still undeniable that the alliance with the United States for Japan has long been a window to the world and the successive governments led by the Liberal Democratic Party used it as a way to expand Japans role in the world. For those pro-US conservatives, the expansion of Japans international engagement was largely seen as a means to manage the alliance with the United States, in light of Washingtons increasing expectations and demands.

Meanwhile, left-wing and liberal camps opposed any strengthening of the Japan-US alliance and further expanding Japans role in the world, including dispatching the Self-Defense Forces abroad. Their opposition did not stem from policy disagreements regarding how to enhance Japans role in the world, but was based in the ideological belief against Japans international security role in the world. In this sense, they could be called isolationists.

What was missing amid this bipolar debate was the idea of expanding Tokyos international role based on internationalism and humanism outside the parameters of its cooperation with the United States. Instead, the conservative forces have more or less monopolized support for Japans greater international engagement. Consequently, the alliance with the United States and Japans international engagement came to be misperceived as inseparable. In fact, the two can be perfectly independent from one another.

In the United States and many countries in Europe, for example, some (if not all) left-wing, center-left, and liberal parties have traditionally pushed for more international engagement and foreign interventions. In Europe, some groups are in favor of humanitarian interventions while keeping the United States at arms length. The school of thought of this kind is almost totally absent in Japan, and it may be why domestic support for Japans international engagement remains weak. The left-wing and liberal schools of international engagement are not necessarily linked with anti-Americanism. Ogata, likewise, was far from anti-American.

Both isolationism and expanding Japans international role as a way of managing the Japan-US alliance went against Ogatas convictions, but she found the latter closer to her aims, because expanding Japans international engagement was something she believed in. Ogata thus worked closely with successive Japanese governments and was often mentioned as a possible candidate for the post of foreign minister.

Nevertheless, Tokyos efforts in expanding the countrys international role were far from enough and were not commensurate with the size and potential of Japan in Ogatas eyes. Ogata in a September 24, 2015, interview with the Asahi Shimbun, expressed disappointment at this situation, saying that she had great hopes for Japan dispatching SDF on United Nations peacekeeping operations. But the government would not send SDF to dangerous areas. Asked in the context of the Peace and Security Legislation in 2015, she replied in a Nihon Keizai Shimbun interview published on August 13, 2015, that as long as there is need on the ground, SDF troops should be sent for a security assistance role in international operations (beyond SDFs traditional role for humanitarian and reconstruction assistance), demonstrating Ogatas realism.

Such words may surprise those who know Ogata only from her role in protecting refugees and as a messenger of peace as well as one who opposed the 2015 Peace and Security Legislation and the idea of sending SDF troops abroad. But Ogata was far from a naive idealist.

In the same Asahi interview, Ogata also rebuked Prime Minister Abe Shinzos proactive contribution to peace, noting that few in the government were talking about how much of a sacrifice Japan was willing to bear for international causes. That was why Abes policy was just empty words, she derided. Ogata believed that Japan needed to do more.

Failure of Internationalism in Japan

In conclusion, it is undeniable that internationalism as defined by Ogata has failed to take root in Japanboth within the government and in the society at large. The Abe government has championed proactive contribution to peace as well as diplomacy through a panoramic perspective of the globe and it does seem that Japans international profile has increased. But does this mean that Japanese are now more outward-looking and the country is more prepared to accept the cost and sacrifice for the cause of international peace? The answer is probably no. Ogata has left us with a daunting, unfinished task.

As Japans national security environment becomes more precarious and the population shrinks, many voices advocate allocating Japans limited resources for the issues of top priority like territorial defense. Such prioritization seems logical and inevitable, but, over the medium to long term, will that really ensure Japans security and prosperity?

As for this question, Ogata believed that the key is whether people can develop a feeling of solidarity with others in far-off lands, as she wrote in a book about her work as UNHCR, Watashi no shigoto (My Job). This view, which combines her humanism and her realism, can perhaps serve as a good starting point of reflection for Japan.

(Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo: Ogata Sadako, UNHCR, is welcomed at a Rwandan refugee camp in Bukavu, Zaire (today the Democratic Republic of the Congo) on February 13, 1995.  AFP/Aflo.)
Images courtesy Rosenberg Police Dept.

Three Fort Bend County teens were recently arrested in connection with an alleged armed robbery in Rosenbergs Travis Park on Thursday, Feb. 28. According to Rosenberg Police Chief Jonathan White, officers were dispatched to investigate reports of a robbery in Travis Park at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 27. Police say a 16-year old boy reported three teenagers approached him, pulled out a handgun and demanded he empty his pockets. After complying with the suspects demands, police said the teen fled the park but was chased down by the suspects who then hit him over the head with the gun.

MORE FROM KRISTI NIX: Two suspects jailed after alert Rosenberg Police officer spots alleged ATV burglars
Maharashtra Legislative Council



on Friday cleared the bill that seeks to bar direct election of mayor and municipal council chairperson from among the people.

State Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde tabled the bill to amend the Maharashtra Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats and Industrial Townships Act.

"The earlier provision was creation of wards of multiple candidates as well as direct election of mayor or municipal council chairperson. We want to remove it and bring an amendment, which will enable election as per the 'one ward-one corporator' policy," Shinde said.

The BJP, however, opposed the bill.

Leader of Opposition Pravin Darekar said, "This amendment is unjust to workers of parties and people. If this decision is taken, it will end up in horse-trading. The amendment will now lead to elected representatives selecting mayor and municipal council chairperson among themselves."



"Our government had empowered the people to elect mayor or municipal council chairperson of their own choice," he added.

The bill was later cleared with majority of members voting in favour of the amendment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mark Carney and Christine Lagarde are once again pushing investors to take the climate crisis seriously and ensure they are considering the risks from emissions and higher temperatures.

At an event in London, two of the world's most prominent economic policymakers said a shift in thinking was crucial to helping reduce emissions.

Ms Lagarde, who heads the European Central Bank, said the financial industry can be a "powerful force acting in our collective best interest", while Mr Carney, outgoing governor of the Bank of England, warned it cannot just let others do the work.

"2020 must be a year of climate action where everybody's in, and that includes the world's leading financial centre," Mr Carney said at the launch of the UK's agenda for the United Nations climate summit later in 2020.

Mr Carney, who is also advising UK prime minister Boris Johnson on environmental topics for the COP26 conference, has been pushing the issue of finance and climate for years.

It has been steadily rising in prominence and was a big part of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.

Bloomberg
Last week, the Alabama legislature took some of the first steps on SB165a bill that would ultimately legalize medical cannabis in Alabama.

This bill would move Alabama from the minority of states that continue to prohibit the prescribing of medical marijuana to the majority of states that do. While advocates and proponents of this bill have offered a number of arguments for and against the legalization of medical cannabis, a common thread has come to dominate much of the public debate over this bill.

And that thread concerns the impact legalization of medical cannabis would have on the opioid crisis.

As the defining public health crisis of this generation, the opioid crisis has rightly been placed at the forefront of the medical cannabis conversation. In 2017, one American died of an opioid overdose every 11 minutes,[1] and some estimates place the cost of the opioid crisis at over $500 billion.[2] Alabama has not been immune from this crisis, and Blue Cross Blue Shield estimates that its Alabama members were more likely than others across the country to be on a long-duration opioid regime.[3] Given the high stakes involved, the question of how medical cannabis legalization will affect the opioid crisis is obviously an important one.

In a study recently published in the Journal of Health Economics,[4] two co-authors and I investigated the impact of medical cannabis access laws on opioid prescriptions across the country. In that study, we found strong and consistent evidence that enacting medical cannabis access laws reduces opioid prescriptions. In general, these laws decrease opioid prescriptions by 4.2 percent. While this may not, by itself, be enough to reverse the opioid crisis, reducing opioid prescriptions is an important step in addressing this crisis.

Our study was not the first to examine the impact of medical cannabis access laws on opioid prescriptions. However, the strength of our study lies not in its novelty, but in the data it analyzes. Instead of examining counts of opioid prescriptions among Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries, we analyzed a dataset of over 1.5 billion individual opioid prescriptions across the country. This dataset included approximately 90 percent of all opioid prescriptions written in the United States between 2011 and 2018. And our data came from prescriptions paid for by commercial insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, other government assistance, and even cash.

With such rich data available in our study, we were able to obtain a clearer picture of the effect of medical cannabis access laws than has previously been possible. While we found that these laws reduced opioid prescriptions in general by 4.2 percent, they had larger impacts on certain groups. For example, medical cannabis access laws reduced opioid prescriptions to those with commercial insurance by 4.4 percent and to those with Medicaid by 5.2 percent.

These laws may reduce opioid prescriptions in various ways, and our study found suggestive evidence that one important way may be facilitating the substitution of cannabis for opioids in the treatment of pain. In addition to reducing the use of prescription opioids, our study revealed evidence that medical cannabis access laws also reduce NSAID prescriptions. NSAIDS are often found in common, over-the-counter pain medications. This reduction in another type of medication used in the treatment of pain suggests that the reduction in prescription opioids may be driven by a decreased need for pain treatment once individuals can access medical cannabis. And our results are consistent with the conclusion of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine which found conclusive. . . evidence that cannabis. . . [is] effective. . . [f]or the treatment of chronic pain in adults.[5]

As the Alabama legislature completes its task of debating whether to join the majority of states that allow access to medical cannabis, understanding the role of this law in the opioid crisis will be critically important.

[1] The Evolution of the Opioid Crisis: 2000-2017, Natl Inst. for Health Care Mgmt. (NIHCM), https://www.nihcm.org/categories/the-evolution-of-the-opioid-crisis-2000-2017.

[2] Council of Econ. Advisers, The Underestimated Cost of the Opioid Crisis 1 (2017), https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/images/The%20Underestimated%CC20Cost%CC20of%CC20the%CC20Opioid%20Crisis.pdfhttps://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/images/The%20Underestimated%CC20Cost%CC20of%CC20the%CC20Opioid%20Crisis.pdf.

[3] Letter from Steve Marshall, Attorney General, State of Alabama, to Senators and Representatives, Alabama Legislature (Jan. 6, 2020), https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RTN-r54QGqWJvZmxUaJkH0bTXnudxrOn/view.

[4] Benjamin J. McMichael, R. Lawrence Van Horn & W. Kip Viscusi, The Impact of Cannabis Access Laws on Opioid Prescribing, 69 J. Health Econ. (forthcoming 2020), https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629618309020.

[5] Natl Acad. Sci., Eng. & Med., The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids: The Current State of Evidence and Recommendations for Future Research (2017), https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24625/the-health-effects-of-cannabis-and-cannabinoids-the-current-state.
Defence Minister on Friday said the Balakot airstrikes had sent out a clear message that infrastructure across the border could not be used as safe havens for terrorists.

"If we've to be prepared for the tasks assigned to us, then it's important we maintain credible deterrence at land, air and sea at all times," Singh said at the Centre for Air Power Studies.

Balakot airstrike conveyed India's clear message that infrastructure across the border won't be safe haven for terrorists. It forced rewriting of doctrines across the border, showed the country's resolve and capability, the defence minister said.

Speaking at the event, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said: "Deterrence comes from keeping every personnel trained and motivated."



Rawat underlined that credible deterrence comes from the will of the military leadership and intent of political leadership while taking the tough decision.

"This was amply shown after Kargil, Uri attacks and Pulwama attack," he added.
TORONTO, Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lydian International Limited (Lydian or the Company) announced today that on February 26, 2020, the Administrative Court of the Republic of Armenia (the Administrative Court) ruled in favor of Lydian Armenia (the Companys principal operating subsidiary) and invalidated eight out of ten findings made by the Environmental and Mining Inspection Body of Armenia (the Inspection Body) under Act 30 in August 2018.



At that time, the Inspection Body completed its investigation at the Amulsar Project and declared that Lydian Armenia was in breach of ten Armenian legislative requirements, including that Lydian Armenia had engaged in illegal mining activities during the construction phase of the Amulsar Project. Lydian vigorously disputed the findings and alleged that the Head of the Inspection Body was biased.

The Investigative Committee of Armenia commenced a criminal case against Lydian Armenia in August 2018 based on the Inspection Bodys findings. The Administrative Court decision establishes that Lydian Armenias construction activities at the Amulsar Project did not constitute illegal mining. Lydian has always maintained that there was never any proper basis for commencing the criminal investigation.

The Administrative Court also invalidated decision  30/1 of the former Head of Inspection, Artur Grigoryan, who rejected an administrative appeal brought by Lydian Armenia before the Inspection Body. The Court found that Mr. Grigoryan had been actively engaged in anti-Amulsar activities prior to his appointment to the Inspection Body, which raised reasonable doubts on his objectivity when rejecting Lydians administrative appeal.

Other findings invalidated by the Administrative Court included allegations of newly found red listed plant and animal species, illegal disturbance of agricultural land and non-permitted atmospheric emissions. Those findings were determined to be baseless. The remaining two findings the Administrative Court did not invalidate were recommendations to improve documentation and annual statistical reporting.

Story continues

The Inspection Body has 30 days to appeal the ruling of the Administrative Court.

Edward Sellers, Lydians Interim President and CEO commented on the Administrative Court decision: Lydian welcomes the impartial decision of the Administrative Court of Armenia. This is yet another instance where the Judiciary in Armenia have recognized Lydians legal compliance. In several previous rulings, Armenian Courts have found that Lydians legal rights to operate have been unlawfully impeded.

Lydian has suffered serious financial losses as a result of illegal activities that the Government of Armenia has not curtailed. The actions and inactions of the Government continue to negatively impact all of Lydians stakeholders, including hundreds of employees, contractors and suppliers, as well as thousands of shareholders and investors. We call on the Government of Armenia to abide by the Administrative Courts ruling and restore Lydians legal right to operate.

All inquiries regarding the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act (the CCAA) proceedings should be directed to the court-appointed monitor, Alvarez & Marsal Canada Inc. (email: lydian@alvarezandmarsal.com or telephone: +1 416-847-5158). Information about the Companys CCAA proceedings, including all court orders made and the monitors reports, are available on the monitors website, at: http://www.alvarezandmarsal.com/Lydian.

For further information regarding the Company, please contact:

Edward Sellers, Interim President & CEO

+1 647-401-5959 Bill Dean, Chief Financial Officer

+1 720-307-5089

Or: moreinfo@Lydianinternational.co.uk

Caution regarding forward-looking information

Certain information contained in this news release is forward looking. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events, results, outcomes or developments that the Company expects to occur are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects, is expected, intends, anticipates or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, will, would, should, or occur or the negative or other variations of such terms. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, among others, statements with respect to: the ability of the Company to resume construction and/or gain access to the Amulsar Project, of which there can be no assurances; the Companys ability to restart construction and operate the Amulsar Project; whether the decision of the Administrative Court will ultimately be upheld; there being no legal basis on which to prevent the Companys development of the Amulsar Project; the CCAA proceedings and creditor protection and the restructuring process, including the outcome; and the expectation that the CCAA process will preserve value for some stakeholders, of which there can be no assurances.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and factors include, without limitation: changes in gold and silver prices; adverse general economic, political, market or business conditions; failure to achieve the objectives of the future exploration and drilling programs; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development; risks associated with obtaining and maintaining the necessary licenses and permits and complying with permitting requirements, including, without limitation, approval of the Armenian government and receipt of all related permits, authorizations or other rights, regulatory changes; risks associated with in the Companys ongoing CCAA proceeding; as well as "Risk Factors" included in the disclosure documents filed on and available at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results and future events could materially differ from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. All of the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are qualified by these cautionary statements. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : Gender-based classification is always justified by governments all over the world with "inane explanations", and they will do anything to justify their discriminatory behaviour, counsel for women officers seeking permanent commissions in the Indian Navy and Air Force told the Supreme Court on Friday.

Aishwarya Bhati, representing Seema Chaudhary, contended before a bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud hat her client's case was similar to the one propounded in the Babita Puniya judgement, where the apex court directed the Centre to grant permanent commission to all women Army officers in three months.

Chaudhary was commissioned in the Indian Navy's JAG Branch on August 6, 2007 and was the only SSC JAG Branch Officer in the entire servuce. "Both the Indian Navy as also the Indian Army wanted to apply the policy of grant of Permanent Commission prospectively, excluding the serving women officers," the counsel said.

Bhati contended before the court that her client's application was rejected because she was inducted prior to the policy, but those of her male colleagues were accepted. She contended that there was inherent discrimination prevalent in the working of administration, emphasising the justifications offered to prevent women from attaining permanent commissions including seniority in cases of national security, reduction of number for direct recruitment etc.

She submitted before the top court that slightly different shade of reasons given to deny the benefit of policy of permanent commission to serving women officers of the Indian Navy, bear an uncanny resemblance to the issues of mindset and stereotypes, in the case of the women officers of the Indian Army.

"These misconceived reasons are being masqueraded as organisational issues to scuttle and deny the right of rationality, equality and equal opportunities and deserve to be rejected completely and outrightly, in the same manner," she argued.

Bhati insisted that flimsy and farcical grounds raised by the Centre in restricting the policy for grant of permanent commission to women officers of the Indian Navy prospectively, and denying the same to the women officers, who were serving on the date of the policy in 2008, "displays a complete disconnection with the government objectives that are sought to be achieved".

"The serving women officers of the Indian Navy, most respectfully beseech this court, to grant permanent commission to the women officers who have been serving since prior to 2008, without any discrimination and fetters, on the basis of their demonstrated service record, their suitability as already assessed and affirmed at the time of their considerations for extensions and also during their long standing service and experience," she said.
As Alabama Power seeks approval for a $1.1 billion expansion of its fleet of power plants, one advocacy group now ranks the utility last in the country for its efforts to promote energy efficiency.

Alabama Power placed last among the countrys 52 largest utilities in the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economys energy efficiency scorecard. Issued last week, the scorecard rates utilities on measured energy reduction, policies and programs offered to help customers reduce their energy usage.

Energy efficiency programs vary from utility to utility but could include things like helping homeowners install better insulation, smart thermostats, or upgrade to more efficient HVAC systems or appliances. They could also include energy audits or financing programs, or policies to promote low energy usage such as avoiding high fixed fees that take away customers incentive to save energy.

Many of the programs cited in the report were aimed at helping low-income utility customers or small businesses.

Alabama Power earned just 5 out of 50 possible points on the scorecard, behind Florida Power which scored 6.5 points and Light and Virginia Electric and Power, which scored 7 points. The top performing utilities were Eversource Massachusetts and National Grid Massachusetts, each of which scored 46 points.

Alabama Power spokesman Michael Sznajderman said the scorecard presents an incomplete and misleading picture of the companys efficiency efforts because the scoring system did not take into account all of Alabama Powers efficiency efforts.

It puts more emphasis on what utilities spend on energy-efficiency programs rather than results, Sznajderman said. Utilities can achieve higher scores by simply spending more money on energy-efficiency programs, regardless of their outcomes.

Indeed, many utilities that score high in the ACEEE ranking charge prices that are significantly higher than Alabama Powers.

The scorecard awarded points to utilities for things including:

Energy savings through retrofits, smart appliances or other efficiency programs

Reductions in the utilitys peak demand, when utilities are forced to use the least efficient power plants to meet customers needs

The amount of money spent on efficiency projects

The percentage of customers who participated in retrofit programs

Incentives to promote use of electric vehicles, which are more efficient that gas-burning cars and can be charged overnight, during non-peak hours

Setting specific energy savings targets and making progress towards them

Grace Relf, research analyst for the advocacy group and lead author of the report, said one reason Alabama Power finished so low is because the Alabama Legislature and Public Service Commission has not incentivized energy efficiency, as many other states have.

Typically, there is a disincentive for utilities to pursue energy efficiency because it reduces their electric sales, Relf said. There are policies that utilities and their regulators can advocate for or put in place that remove that disincentive.

Alabama does not have those in place, and even without that, utilities can set their own internal targets, and we don't find that in Alabama.

Relf said those policies include revenue decoupling by state regulators, to separate a utilitys profits from its sales, or to create incentives for energy savings targets. Of the utilities in the scorecard, 18 had decoupled profits and 36 had created incentives for the utility to increase energy efficiency.

Relf said investment was included in the ACEEE scorecard because it was a strong indicator of performance. Relf said ACEEE also evaluated the cost-effectiveness of the efficiency programs, and the top performing utilities delivered nearly $5 in benefits to customers for every dollar invested.

Utilities are required to show that their energy efficiency programs are cost effective, meaning that they deliver more benefits for customers than what they're spending on those programs, Relf said. The funding is important, and we do see that it drives achievements.

Sznajderman also pointed to statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showing Alabama Powers residential per-customer energy use decreased by 1.5 percent from 2010 to 2018, more than the national average over that time.

However, the companys usage per customer was the highest among the top 50 utilities in 2010. In 2018, Alabama Power had the third highest usage per customer among the top 50.

Combined, the companys more than 20 energy-efficiency and energy-reduction initiatives have offset the need for approximately 1,500 megawatts, which is the equivalent of two mid-sized power plants, Sznajderman said. The company is also seeking regulatory approval for customer-focused programs that would avoid the need for an additional 200 megawatts.

Relf said the authors asked Alabama Power for additional information and gave them the opportunity to give feedback before the release of the scorecard but the company did not do so.

Relf said Alabama Power has made positive strides in efficiency. The company earned full points for having smart meters installed for all customers, allowing customers to track their daily energy usage and set high usage alerts. Alabama Power got points for offering a discounted rate for electric vehicle owners to charge their cars overnight.

Relf also highlighted the companys Smart Neighborhood in Hoover, a pilot program developed with the U.S. Department of Energy to build 62 highly efficient homes partially powered by a nearby solar project with battery storage.

I would say that their Smart Neighborhood project is really innovative and something that a lot of utilities are going to be looking at in the coming years, Relf said. But that's one of a pretty limited number of programs that they're running.

Sznajderman said the company has created a Smart Neighborhood Builder program to spread those concepts to other areas and three additional neighborhoods are under construction.

But the scorecard also shows room for improvement, or programs that other utilities have adopted that Alabama Power has not, including home retrofit programs, multifamily dwelling efficiency initiatives, and programs for small businesses.

We see that Alabama Power is offering a few programs, but are definitely missing out on some common programs that other utilities are running, Relf said.

Alabama Power was the only Alabama utility included in the scorecard. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides power for much of north Alabama, was not included because it is a wholesaler and efficiency programs vary among the local power companies that operate within TVA territory, none of which are large enough to make the scorecard.

This survey was not the first time Alabama Power found itself at the bottom of a national ranking.

A 2017 survey found Alabama Power made it harder than any other utility for businesses to install solar panels within its service territory. Its distributed generation fee on residential solar customers is believed to be the highest in the nation among major utilities, and the company has argued that the fee should be even higher.

The Alabama Public Service Commission is expected to vote on Alabama Powers proposed expansion --which would add about 2,000 megawatts of natural gas, 400 megawatts of solar and 200 megawatts of efficiency projects -- later this year. The PSC has scheduled a public hearing on the proposal for March 9 in Montgomery.
Amid ongoing tension in Delhi following violence, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday appealed to the capital's residents not to believe in rumours and fall prey to evil designs of miscreants and groups interested in precipitating communal tension.

As no major incident was reported in the last 36 hours in any affected police station of northeast Delhi, the Home Minister has decided that prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC will be relaxed for 10 hours on Friday in view of improvement in the ground situation.



Shah's appeal and announcements came after a review meeting he chaired at his North Block office to take stock of prevailing law and order situation, said a Home Ministry statement.





He instructed the Delhi Police to provide security to all sections of society irrespective of caste and religion.



"Situation is slowly returning to normal. Citizens are requested not to lay credence to any rumour," the Minister appealed.



The meeting was, inter alia, attended by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik, and Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) S.N. Srivastava.



In the meeting, it was mentioned that only 12 of 203 police stations in Delhi (about 4.2 per cent of the geographical area) were affected in the violence that began on Sunday evening and continued for a couple of days, leaving so far 37 people killed and over 200 injured.



The Home Minister was apprised that normalcy and communal harmony has prevailed elsewhere in the city.



So far, 48 First Information Reports (FIRs), pertaining to clashes, loss of lives and property have already been registered and further FIRs would be registered in due course, Shah was told.



Police have arrested 514 suspects for questioning so far and that more arrests would come in the course of investigation.



Delhi Police has separately set up two SITs for investigating serious offences and nearly 7,000 Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) or paramilitary forces have been deployed in the riot hit areas since February 24.



Besides, Delhi Police has also deployed three Special CPs, six Joint CPs, one Additional CP, 22 DCPs, 20 ACPs, 60 Inspectors, 1,200 other ranks and 200 women police under the overall supervision of Commissioner of Police to effectively guide and supervise police response so as to contain and normalise the situation.



Delhi Police has set up helplines at 22829334 and 22829335 for round-the-clock assistance. These numbers are being given adequate publicity so that information about miscreants and any emerging situation may be conveyed to the police, the Home Ministry statement said.



In the violence, a Delhi Police Head Constable and an Intelligence Bureau staffer were killed and nearly 70 police personnel and senior officers injured.



The police officers informed that Minister that meetings across Delhi to normalise situation and improve inter-community harmony are being held and such peace committee meetings would continue till the situation returns to normal.



So far, nearly 330 peace committee meetings have been organised in various districts of Delhi in the last two days.



Apart from this, meeting with Residents Welfare Associations (RWA) and Market Welfare Associations (MWA) have also been convened in several areas.



Such peace committees, RWAs, and MWAs have been attended by different sections of the society including civil society groups, representatives of different political parties including Congress, AAP and BJP, the statement said.



East Delhi Municipal Corporation has initiated steps to clean the streets and repair damaged public properties in riot-affected areas. Other civic agencies are also ensuring the civic amenities to the citizens is restored as soon as possible.



Movement of traffic on the highway and connecting roads is returning to normal, the Minister was told.
The Morgans in a family hug with their lawyer Kay Bacchus-Browne whose work got them an early get-out-of-jail card.

Pastor Nigel Morgan and his wife Althia were freed by the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal on Tuesday, while their daughter, Crystal, was given a reduced sentence. She will be out by April this year.





The three were each sentenced to four years imprisonment at the Kingstown Magistrates Court, April 30, 2018 for unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm on Cuthbert Victory of Hopewell, by pouring boiling water on him, causing severe injuries, on April 6, 2016.





Senior Magistrate Rickie Burnett had handed down the penalty after finding all three defendants guilty.

On Monday, during a sitting in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Appeal Court quashed the convictions of the pastor and his wife, set aside their sentences and upheld the appeal, while their daughters sentence was reduced to three years, with her conviction remaining intact.





While Attorney Kay Bacchus-Baptiste, who represented the three, had appealed the pastor and his wifes convictions and sentences, she conceded that the conviction against their daughter was justified, but that her sentence was too high.





Justices of Appeal Davidson Baptiste, Mario Michel and acting Justice of Appeal Paul Webster upheld Bacchus-Baptistes argument that the Magistrate, who had handed down the judgement in the Morgans case, misapplied or failed to properly consider the law in relation to aiding and abetting in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.





According to her, the Magistrate did not have sufficient evidence before him to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that when Crystal came with the kettle, her mother and father held down Victory, so that she could pour the boiling water on him.





Bacchus-Baptiste argued that a fight had started after Victory had slandered Mr. Morgan and slapped his wife.

According to the lawyer, aiding and abetting requires mens rea, the mental element in crime which is proof of intention to aid as well as knowledge of the circumstances.





The Prosecutions case was that the Pastor and his wife held Victory by his hands, so that their daughter could pour the boiling water on him.





Bacchus-Baptiste also argued that the Magistrate did not engage in a proper sentencing hearing, and therefore, the sentences were excessive.





Speaking with THE VINCENTIAN following the outcome of the Appeal, Bacchus-Baptiste said, "I am relieved that the two Morgans are out of jail.





"While I believe the incident was unfortunate, I always believed that the parents never knew Crystal was coming with the kettle.





"The parents intention was to preserve the peace and reprimand Victory for playing loud and obscene music.

After Bacchus-Baptiste had filed appeals on behalf of the three, following their convictions and sentencing on April 30, 2018, she applied to the High Court for bail pending the outcome of th-e appeals. Bail was denied.
The Jersey City school districts funding problem just went from bad to worse.

New Jerseys second largest school district will see its state aid slashed by $55 million in 2020-21  over $13 million more than what school officials had projected  according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Education.

The whopping cut means the district will have lost $120 million in aid since sweeping changes were made to the state funding formula in 2018.

The district, which educates more than 30,000 students, is facing a budget crisis sparked in part by the massive change to that formula. Board Trustee Mussab Ali said next years $55 million cut is worse than the board anticipated.

It is looking pretty rough for us out here, he said Thursday. What the state did with the legislation is they didnt actually make it a numerical cut they did it as a percent basis of adjustment aid and every year they have been changing our adjustment aid number.

Therefore, they have been able to justify more cuts based on the legislation, which is why it was unconstitutional in the way theyve given us this moving target that we will never going be able to reach.

Michael Yaple, a spokesman for the state DOE, said the state is simply following the law, which was designed provide more aid to districts that went underfunded for years.

The calculation was made pursuant to the provisions of the statutory funding law," he said. "Aid was decreased by 23% of the amount by which the district is overfunded. For Jersey City, that equals $240,514,449. The overfunding amount multiplied by 23% yields $55,318,323.

Jersey City BOE President Lorenzo Richardson said Thursday during the board meeting that the board needs to expect $86 million from the payroll tax. He said although disappointing, the board will do everything they can to create the least possible impact to the classroom

It is apparent that a property tax increase will likely be necessary to support the budget, Richardson said. This is a defining moment in time for us and the decisions we make today must be focused solely on the students and their educational needs.

The Jersey City Board of Education is suing the state over the changes to the state aid formula, alleging the cuts are unconstitutional.

They have been able to justify more cuts based on the legislation, which is why it was unconstitutional in the way theyve given us this moving target that we will never going be able to reach, Ali said.

Trustee Alexander Hamilton said the increase in the additional cuts is disappointing.

We are going to have to see what we can do, Hamilton said.  We didnt know the number was going to be that.

Gov. Phil Murphy, who released his budget proposal Tuesday, proposed more funding for 371 districts in 2020-21 and plans to give nearly 200 districts a funding increase of 10% or more. Nearly 90 districts would see an increase of $1 million or more.

The governors $9 billion investment in K-12 schools increases funding by $336 million, but only 64% of districts will receive more money. Twelve school districts wont see any change, while the rest are losing aid.

But for at least the second year in a row, Jersey City had the largest cut in state funding. The district lost $27.1 million a year ago, on top of $3.5 million from the previous year, for a total loss of $30.6. Next years cut will mean the district must account for an additional $55 million.

But a city payroll tax, which slaps a 1 percent levy on businesses, is intended to help offset the cuts. The tax is expected to raise between $65 and $75 million annually.

Mayor Steve Fulop recently proposed a plan to bring $250 million to the schools over the next three years, in part through a three-year, $75 million increase to the school tax levy and $45 million in budget cuts.

It is unfortunate that the governor continues to hurt Jersey City students and our schools, but we are committed on the local level to helping the Board of Education find a solution that doesnt hammer taxpayers and doesnt impact the classroom, city spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace- Scalcione said.

Fixing the school crisis is our priority now, and we will do just that.

The state believes Jersey Citys school tax levy should be $474 million, three times more than the current tax levy.

Jyl Josephson, a leader with Jersey City Together and a School 26 parent, called the cuts in state aid steep. She said the group believes the loss will be fully covered by the payroll tax.

While we hope there may be some further relief in the stabilization aid just announced, we continue to remain focused on doing more than just making up a gap; if we are to address the needs of children, we need to invest more local monies in the immediate and long-term needs of our classrooms and schools.
C onsider the navy suit. Worn with a pale shirt, dark shoes and a block-colour tie. It is the uniform of British politics. Respectable, dependable, even boring. It is a choice that is so common it doesnt look like a choice at all. And its only available to men.

The closest version for women is a pantsuit, as worn by Hillary Clinton, but this isnt a neutral outfit. It is often read as dowdy, aggressive, unfeminine  an attempt to claim mens fashion along with mens power. Ballbusters and battleaxes wear pantsuits.

OK, how about a skirt suit? Except that invites comments on your calves  Never mind Brexit, who won Legs-it? as the Daily Mail once captioned a picture of Nicola Sturgeon and Theresa May  and still feels like a riff on a fundamentally male template.

It might sound trivial, but the ubiquity of the navy suit makes life easier for male politicians. They have an option that doesnt make a statement about them beyond, I fit in. The 10 minutes they dont spend hesitating about whether to wear tights, or whether their bra is visible through their top, or whether their skirt will ride up when they sit down, or whether theyre showing too much skin  well, thats 10 minutes more time for everything else.

In February 1920, Nancy Astor became the first woman to give a speech in the Commons, acknowledging that it was very difficult for some honourable members to receive the first lady MP into the House. A hundred years later, women are still playing politics on a higher difficulty setting. The moment a woman steps forward and says, Im running for office, it begins, wrote Clinton in her memoir What Happened. The analysis of her face, her body, her voice, her demeanour; the diminishment of her stature, her ideas, her accomplishments, her integrity.

The problems are both big and small. Many female politicians worry about their voices. It is easier to command a debate and to command the House of Commons if you have a deeper voice and deeper pitch to your voice, just because of the acoustics of the place, said Yvette Cooper in 2013.

Women receive far more online abuse, on average, than their male colleagues. And black female MPs in particular have spoken about being mistaken for cleaning staff (as Labours Dawn Butler was), or each other.

It sounds trivial but the ubiquity of the navy suit makes life easier for male politicians  it says I fit in

It is harder for a woman to present herself as exceptional  which political leaders have to be  without people wondering if shes getting above herself. Isnt it a bit ... selfish to want to rule the world? Whos looking after her kids?

For a male politician, a partner and family are humanising accessories; for a woman, they are the source of well-meaning but intrusive questions about her commitment to the job. (For a childless woman, their absence can be used to imply that she isnt a fully-rounded human being.)

One of the strangest ways female politicians are hobbled by sexism is by our belief that although we arent sexist, everyone else is. Look at the US. Since Clinton, a well-qualified but widely disliked female candidate, lost to Donald Trump in 2016, many liberal voters now fret about whether their fellow citizens would find a woman less electable. A 2019 Ipsos poll found that 74 per cent of Democrats and independents said they were personally comfortable with a female president, but 33 per cent thought their neighbours would not be.

Talking about sexism can become a self-fulfilling prophecy: our side desperately wants to beat the other guy, so we cant risk picking a woman. This years strongest female candidate, Elizabeth Warren, has struggled to gain momentum despite her folksy style, command of policy detail and glittering CV.

Perhaps some of that nervousness is playing out in the Labour leadership election, too. In the 120 years of the partys existence, it has never had a woman leader  a trend which looks set to continue, despite four women and one man running for the position this year.

While Keir Starmer is undoubtedly an impressive candidate, there is also a sense that he is a safe option. Is that just about his message of unity  or does he get a boost from looking like our existing template for power? His rival Rebecca Long-Bailey seems to think so: she told a meeting in Yorkshire that we dont win elections by just putting a suit on and trying to look like the most electable person in the room.

Of course, its not all misery and despair. When researching my history of feminism, Difficult Women, I discovered many terrifying, inspiring, flawed, impressive women who blazed a trail in politics. Take the Labour MP Maureen Colquhoun, who fought against the maleocracy of the Commons and dared to live openly as a lesbian in the Seventies. And today, the Scottish National Party has a female-dominated cabinet at Holyrood, while women make up a majority of Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs at Westminster.

No male MP would now say, as Winston Churchill reportedly did of Nancy Astor, I find a womans intrusion into the House of Commons as embarrassing as if she burst into my bathroom when I had nothing with which to defend myself, not even a sponge. (Astor is supposed to have replied: Winston, youre not handsome enough to have worries of that kind.)

In the century since gaining the right to the vote, women have steadily gained a voice. With each new generation, it ought to become a little easier to imagine women in power. The big breakthrough will come when a female politician can be as unremarkable as a man in a navy suit.
The actual value of food items



per thaali under the 'Shiv Bhojan' scheme, which offers a full meal in Rs 10 to the poor, is Rs 50 and Rs 35 in urban and rural areas, respectively, the Maharashtra Legislative Council was informed on Friday.

Soon after coming to power in November last year, the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government launched the 'Shiv Bhojan' scheme on a pilot basis to provide subsidised meals to the poor for just Rs 10 per plate. The goal of the scheme is to provide affordable and quality food to the poor.

Responding to a question by Niranjan Davkhare (BJP), Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal said, "The thaali costs Rs 10 per plate, but the actual value of the meal is Rs 50 and Rs 35 per plate in urban and rural areas, respectively."



The difference between the actual cost of the food and income generated by its sale is compensated through state subsidy, the minister said in his written reply.

Under the scheme, at least one Shiv Bhojan centre is being set up in every district and municipal corporation area of the state.

"We are working on increasing the number of centres across the state," Bhujbal said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
HACKENSACK, N.J., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center is the only site in New Jersey and one of just 17 in the country participating in a multicenter international Phase II study of an innovative personalized cancer vaccine being evaluated in combination with pembrolizumab immunotherapy in patients with melanoma that has been surgically removed but has a high risk of coming back. The hope is that the vaccine can prime a patient's immune system to be more responsive to immunotherapy and reduce the risk of cancer recurrence. Utilizing a novel and potentially revolutionary gene-based technology, the vaccine is created by comparing the patient's normal cell DNA sequence to that of their tumor and identifying tumor specific changes to the DNA. Once identified, the patient-specific, tumor-specific changes are turned into a messenger RNA construct to be used as a vaccine.

Pembrolizumab belongs to a class of drugs called "checkpoint inhibitors," which have transformed the treatment of melanoma. It works by blocking a protein called PD-1 which normally shuts down the immune response. Cancer cells use PD-1 to hide from the immune system. Inhibiting PD-1 enables the immune system to find and kill cancer cells.

"Pembrolizumab and other checkpoint inhibitors have been shown to reduce disease recurrence among patients with high-risk melanoma that was surgically removed. However, in many patients, the cancer eventually comes back," explained Andrew L. Pecora, M.D., FACP, CPE, a nationally recognized hematologist/oncologist at John Theurer Cancer Center and associate dean, Technology and Innovation, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University, who is a principle investigator (PI) of the study. "Reducing the rate of relapse would address a significant unmet medical need for these patients."

The study, "A Phase II Randomized Study of Adjuvant Immunotherapy with the Personalized Cancer Vaccine mRNA-4157 and Pembrolizumab versus Pembrolizumab Alone after Complete Resection of High-Risk Melanoma," is assessing a vaccine made by ModernaTX, Inc. called mRNA-4157. A personalized vaccine is made and given back to the patient to trigger the immune response.

John Theurer Cancer Center was also a study site for the Phase I clinical trial of the vaccine, which was assessed alone and in combination with pembrolizumab in patients with a variety of solid tumors. The results, which were presented at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, were promising  showing that mRMA-4157 was well tolerated, provoked an immune response, and resulted in clinical responses when given with pembrolizumab.

"Immunotherapy is revolutionizing cancer care, but challenges remain. This is a very exciting customized anticancer vaccine using a novel technology," noted Martin E. Gutierrez, M.D., director of Drug Discovery and the Phase I Unit, chief of Thoracic Oncology at John Theurer Cancer Center, and a PI of the Phase I study. "We are encouraged by the Phase I findings and are hopeful that the Phase II study results will show a similar positive outcome for these patients."

"Participation in groundbreaking studies such as these demonstrates John Theurer Cancer Center's leadership in clinical research," added Andre Goy, M.D., MS, chair and executive director of John Theurer Cancer Center. "We are committed to offering our patients the latest medical advances and furthering progress in cancer care through clinical investigation."

"Hackensack University Medical Center is delivering cutting-edge cancer treatments options for our patients," said Ihor Sawczuk, M.D., FACS, president, Northern Region, chief research officer, Hackensack Meridian Health. "By utilizing gene-based technology, we are offering patients hope with a personalized cancer vaccine that can boost immune responses and reduce the risk of relapse for melanoma patients."

"Hackensack University Medical Center is advancing research and innovation to discover new treatment options for our patients," said Mark D. Sparta, FACHE, president and chief hospital executive, Hackensack University Medical Center and executive vice president of Population Health, Hackensack Meridian Health. "We look forward to seeing how this innovative vaccine and advances in immunotherapy will help us expand treatment options for patients with melanoma."

ABOUT HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH

Hackensack Meridian Health is a leading not-for-profit health care organization that is the largest, most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey, offering a complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care.

Hackensack Meridian Health comprises 17 hospitals from Bergen to Ocean counties, which includes three academic medical centers  Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, JFK Medical Center in Edison; two children's hospitals - Joseph M. Sanzari Children's Hospital in Hackensack, K. Hovnanian Children's Hospital in Neptune; nine community hospitals  Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel, Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair, Ocean Medical Center in Brick, Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, Pascack Valley Medical Center in Westwood, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Old Bridge, Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, and Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin; a behavioral health hospital  Carrier Clinic in Belle Mead; and two rehabilitation hospitals - JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute in Edison and Shore Rehabilitation Institute in Brick.

Additionally, the network has more than 500 patient care locations throughout the state which include ambulatory care centers, surgery centers, home health services, long-term care and assisted living communities, ambulance services, lifesaving air medical transportation, fitness and wellness centers, rehabilitation centers, urgent care centers and physician practice locations. Hackensack Meridian Health has more than 35,000 team members, and 7,000 physicians and is a distinguished leader in health care philanthropy, committed to the health and well-being of the communities it serves.

John Theurer Cancer Center part of HMH, is one of only 16 NCI Designated Cancer Consortium in partnership with Georgetown Lombardi. In addition, HMH has partnered with Memorial Sloan Kettering to accelerate discovery and make sure patients have access to the highest quality, most individualized cancer care when and where they need it.

The network's notable distinctions include having four hospitals among the top in New Jersey by U.S. News and World Report. Other honors include consistently achieving Magnet recognition for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center and being named to Becker's Healthcare's "150 Top Places to Work in Healthcare/2019" list.

The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University opened in 2018, the first private medical school in New Jersey in more than 50 years, welcomed its second class of 96 students in 2019 to its On3 campus in Nutley and Clifton.

Hackensack Meridian Health is a member of AllSpire Health Partners, an interstate consortium of leading health systems, to focus on the sharing of best practices in clinical care and achieving efficiencies.

For additional information, please visit www.HackensackMeridianHealth.org.

About Hackensack Meridian John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center

John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center is New Jersey's largest and most comprehensive center dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, management, research, screenings, and preventive care as well as survivorship of patients with all types of cancers. The 14 specialized divisions covering the complete spectrum of cancer care have developed a close-knit team of medical, research, nursing, and support staff with specialized expertise that translates into more advanced, focused care for all patients. Each year, more people in the New Jersey/New York metropolitan area turn to John Theurer Cancer Center for cancer care than to any other facility in New Jersey. John Theurer Cancer Center is a member of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center Consortium, one of just 16 NCI-approved cancer research consortia based at the nation's most prestigious institutions. Housed within a 775-bed not-for-profit teaching, tertiary care, and research hospital, John Theurer Cancer Center provides state-of-the-art technological advances, compassionate care, research innovations, medical expertise, and a full range of aftercare services that distinguish John Theurer Cancer Center from other facilities. For additional information, please visit www.jtcancercenter.org.

SOURCE Hackensack Meridian Health

Related Links

http://www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org


As thousands of people prepare to parade down Sydney's streets this weekend, a tiny Queensland cattle town where more than half the electorate voted "no" in the same-sex marriage plebiscite is hosting its first ever Mardi Gras party.

The Post Office Hotel in Cloncurry, a town of fewer than 3000 people, will celebrate all things LGBTQI+ this weekend with drag queen bingo, costume competitions and a live-stream of Sydney's Mardi Gras parade.

The outback pub has been transformed for Mardi Gras.

Publican Trevor Jones, who took a bucking bull float to Sydney's 2016 parade, said there had been "a bit of negative talk around town but nothing too major".

"The response has been very positive and the majority of the town is excited to take part in something they haven't witnessed before," he said.
Europe's worst-hit country reports a rise of 25% in a day, as the virus spreads fast outside China.

The number of coronavirus cases in Italy has jumped to 400, amid international efforts to contain the spread of the deadly outbreak.

The rise in Italy, the main focus of infection in Europe, represents a 25% surge in 24 hours.

Several European countries announced new cases traced to Italy.

Also on Wednesday, the World Health Organization said that for the first time the virus was spreading faster outside China, where it originated.

Globally, more than 80,000 people in about 40 countries have been infected with the new coronavirus, which emerged in December. The vast majority remain in China.

Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, has killed more than 2,700 people so far.

What is the situation in Italy?

Late on Wednesday, authorities reported a total of 400 cases - a rise of 80 from Tuesday night.

The worst-affected areas are in the industrial north of the country - Lombardy, the region around Milan, and Veneto near Venice. The outbreak has killed 12 people in the country so far.

Government officials have sought to reassure the public, and insisted steps were being taken to prevent the spread of the disease.

Schools, universities and cinemas have been closed and several public events cancelled.

Eleven towns at the centre of the outbreak - home to a total of 55,000 people - have been quarantined.

There are fears that the outbreak may tip Italy into economic recession. The BBC's Mark Lowen in Milan says fear is the reason for the city's empty cafes and many hotel cancellations.

EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides told reporters after meeting the Italian health minister in Rome: "This is a situation of concern, but we must not give in to panic.

"There are still many unknowns about this virus and in particular its origin and how it spreads."

What about the rest of Europe and beyond?

In the past two days, Austria, Croatia, Greece, Norway, Switzerland, Georgia and North Macedonia reported their first coronavirus cases. Many of them involved people who had been to Italy.

More cases were also announced in Spain, France and Germany. Ireland postponed Six Nations rugby matches with Italy in Dublin that were to be held on 7 and 8 March.

In the UK, where 13 cases have been reported, tests for coronavirus are being increased to include people displaying flu-like symptoms.

Outside Europe, Algeria, Brazil and Pakistan also reported their first coronavirus infections. The Brazilian case marked the arrival of the virus in Latin America.

In Iran - the main hotspot in the Middle East - a total of 19 deaths and 139 cases have been reported in the past week. The government said on Wednesday it had no plans to quarantine any cities and towns. despite fears of a regional epidemic.

Iranian officials have asked people not to go to Qom, the centre of the outbreak, but have not shut a shrine in the city that attracts millions of Shia pilgrims each year.

Also on Wednesday South Korea - the biggest cluster of infections outside China - reported a total of more than 1,200 infections and 12 deaths so far.

Pandemic not inevitable

By Philippa Roxby, BBC health reporter

The focus of the coronavirus outbreak is shifting - from China to the rest of the world, particularly Europe.

On the face of it, this seems like bad news. But there are positives too. China appears to be getting on top of the virus with the number of new cases each day reducing.

This suggests that efforts to contain the virus by telling people to stay at home, stopping large public gatherings and preventing travel are working.

The message from officials at the World Health Organization is that containment is still possible and a global pandemic is not inevitable.

This view has been echoed in the UK where the government has warned of the social and economic costs of overreacting in response to the outbreak.

Keeping the public safe is the priority - but so is acting in a balanced and responsible way. BBC
SPRINGFIELD  The director of the state agency that represents people in need in appeals of criminal charges said Thursday its backlog of 2,672 cases represents a crisis in the criminal justice system as he requested a near 7 percent increase to the agencys budget.

James Chadd, who was appointed state appellate defender in December 2017, said his office has actually decreased the backlog from 3,759 to the current number since January 2018. Thats a decrease of about 29 percent.

The reason for that is one thing and one thing primarily  and that is weve been fully funded for both years that Ive been state appellate defender, he said. That has made all the difference. That is why our backlog has gone down, and as long as we stay fully funded and fully staffed, I anticipate that our backlog will continue to go down at that rate.

He said his agency completed about 2,700 cases in 2019, but he requested spending authority to hire 10 new lawyers to accelerate that pace.

Those hires would remain on staff for four years, at which time he said the agency could have a better grasp on the backlog. Chadd said after that time, it would take about a year to pare the department back down through attrition.

His budget request was just shy of $25 million, an increase of about $1.6 million, or 6.8 percent, from a year ago.

Even though we are making significant progress, I believe the situation were facing is a crisis in the criminal justice system. I believe that, the Supreme Court believes that, and the appellate court believes that, he said, calling his request a tremendous ask.

Chadd said the added funding is important because his office represents those who cannot afford private attorneys but are appealing severe cases such as felonies, Class A misdemeanors, misdemeanors with imprisonment and more.

We do the vast majority of criminal appeals in the state of Illinois, he said.

The added funding would also allow for an increase in the pay plan for attorneys to $61,000 from $59,000 annually. It would also provide for three additional support staff.

Chadd said about 40 percent of the cases in the backlog are in Cook County, which makes up the states first of five appellate court districts. Four of the proposed new attorneys would serve that area, he said.

The states second district would see one or two new attorneys, the fourth three or four, and the third and fifth would each see one.

Chadd also said his office has a part-time expungement officer, but a budget increase would allow the department to make the position full-time.

The law on expungement has been changing rapidly; we need an attorney to keep up with that, he said.

He said about only 10 percent of juveniles eligible for expungement take advantage of it, but a full-time attorney could help increase that number.

Chadd also requested lawmakers to approve the budget of the state appellate prosecutors.

Theyre our opponents in court, but theyre an essential part of the appeals process, he said. And if we get the resources to move cases along and they dont, its just going to push the problem down the road.

Chadd also noted the Illinois Supreme Court is piloting a pro bono program in which unpaid attorneys substitute for the state appellate defender in an effort to reduce the backlog. As part of that program, 30 cases are earmarked for the first district and five are earmarked for the second. Six cases total have already been assigned.

State Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, asked for a further breakdown of how new resources would be employed and echoed Chadds concern about the backlog.

There is a crisis in the criminal justice system when we dont have adequate resources deployed on both sides of a transaction or a case before a judge, he said. And if we dont provide the adequate resources both to the defenders and the states attorneys, we are putting poor defendants, indigent defendants, at a significant disadvantage.
Ankara, Feb 28 : At least 33 Turkish soldiers have been killed in an air strike by Syrian "regime forces" in the war-torn country's Idlib region, a senior Turkish official has said.

While Rahmi Dogan, the governor of Turkey's Hatay province, put the toll at 33, the UK-based the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 34 Turkish troops had been killed in Thursday evening's air strike, the BBC reported.

The wounded have been brought back to Turkey for treatment, Dogan added.

Turkey retaliated against Syrian government targets after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held an urgent top-level security meeting in Ankara late Thursday.

Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and senior Turkish military commanders immediately went to the Syrian border to direct a wave of ground and air attacks against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

"All known" Syrian government targets were under fire by Turkish air and land support units, Ankara's Communications Director Fahrettin Altun was quoted by state news agency Anadolu as saying.

Turkey had decided to "respond in kind" to the attack, Altun added.

The development comes amid the Russia-backed Syrian forces trying to retake Idlib from rebels who are supported by Turkish soldiers.

President Erdogan wants the Syrian government forces to pull back from positions where Turkey has set up military observation posts and earlier threatened to attack them if they did not halt their advance, the BBC said in the reported.

But Syria's government and Russia have rejected his demand to pull back to ceasefire lines agreed in 2018.

Russia has also accused Turkey of violating the 2018 ceasefire by backing rebels with artillery fire.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  Local health officials are keeping a close watch on Koreans who entered the country despite their travel history from South Korean city of Daegu  where there is an alarming spike of the number of coronavirus cases.

The 26 South Koreans who landed in Cebu City and the 11 Koreans citizens who arrived in Boracay have been traced. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Friday said they have been placed under monitoring, but they are not under mandatory quarantine.

"The decision that we are following is that if they don't have symptoms, although the place has been identified, they will be considered as persons under monitoring," he told CNN Philippines.

Of the 11 Korean nationals in Boracay, 8 will leave the country today, while the remaining three will exit on Saturday.

The tourists from Daegu City arrived in Cebu and Boracay on Tuesday  a day before the selective travel ban was announced.

A travel ban was imposed on those traveling from North Gyeongsang province, where Daegu City is located. It is where the majority of South Korea's coronavirus cases are concentrated. South Korea has the most confirmed coronavirus cases outside of mainland China. There are at least 2,022 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 13 deaths.

Aside from the South Korean province, the Philippines also has an existing travel ban on China and its special administrative regions Hong Kong and Macau.

The Philippines has three confirmed cases of coronavirus. Two have recovered, while one died.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is asking anyone who reels in tilapia at two San Antonio lakes to not return it to the water.

There is apparently a lot of tilapia, a non-native species of fish that have been taking over freshwater lakes and rivers in Texas, including Calaveras and Brauning Lakes in San Antonio.
Apple knows where cars are going.

A huge trove of patents, executive statements, leaks, sightings and informed predictions all point to a breathtaking future for the Apple automobile.

Tomorrows cars are not just about transportation. They're about terabytes of data generated daily that will have to be managed, provisioned, processed and secured.

The problem is that large organizations aren't thinking in the same way.

It's time to shed our delusions, misconceptions and blind spots about the Apple car. Starting with the big one.

The Apple Car is not a car

We live our lives in four spaces:

Home Work While in transit None of the above

Apple dominates spaces 1, 2 and 4 (the last one with its iPhone and Apple Watch).

Future cars will be self-driving, and therefore will exist for work, communication and content consumption. Apple intends to dominate that space as well. And that's why Apple is aggressively working on Project Titan, it's incredible car project.

Apple is the most valuable company in the world because it re-invented the music experience with the iPod, the phone with the iPhone, the tablet with the iPad.

These products -- and certainly not laptops and desktops -- won't allow Apple to continue growing. Nor will "services" (although financial services will help in the next five years).

No, in order to sustain growth, Apple needs to re-invent something that most people use daily. Something expensive. A car. And that's what they're working on.

Our instincts about cars are stuck in the past. We think about gasoline and pistons and steering wheels and trunk space -- a business completely unrelated to Apple's business.

The car of the future is totally within Apple's wheelhouse. It's an advance electronics device that competes on the quality of its digital technology: artificial intelligence (Cook described cars as the "the mother of all A.I. projects") networking, spacial sensors, cameras, data processing, user interfaces (screen, gesture and voice), augmented reality, user-selected apps, digital security systems, hybrid cloud infrastructure and other technologies.

From a data processing and security perspective, every future car in the fleet will be the IT equivalent of a large satellite office.

The car of the future is a next-generation PC, tablet, smartphone and augmented reality experience all in one highly mobile, wireless package.

Enterprises and other large organizations will own and operate fleets of future cars for all kinds of purposes. And the IT impact will be astronomical.

Why Apple is way ahead on cars

Even industry experts dismiss the idea that Apple's Titan project as being way behind. And when it comes to the self-driving part, that's true. But when it comes to envisioning the totality of the car and the experience of its occupants, Apple is light years ahead of everybody.

Titan disbelievers often cling to the baseless believe that Apple is working on the software only. In fact, theyre working on the navigation part, the interior part, the functional car body part  the whole car.

Apple hired a hardware engineer from Tesla named Doug Field to head the Titan project. Field's job at Tesla was to oversee Model 3 production before being assigned by Elon Musk to head vehicle design.

A German publication called Manager Magazin last year reported that their sources claim Apple is working on a sort of van, rather than a sedan type car. That's consistent with envision the future car as an office or living room on wheels.

The company also owns patents for using sensors and computers to boost stability while driving based on sensor-based analysis of the road surface, as well as a suite of technologies (including haptics) for generating a smoother rise. They're also looking to innovate through new technology for shock-absorbing bumpers.

Apple is even working on a wireless charging system for cars, according to patents like this one.

Other patents point to Apple's intention to create a car with high structural integrity, low weight and aesthetic minimalism.

One patent for how Apple Car doors could work and a patent for how the base of a car could be constructed reveal an extreme level of detail about the realities of car aesthetics, impact during accidents and manufacturing.

Apple would also replace side mirrors with cameras that project side-view information on the windscreen, which both eliminates unsightly mirrors, and also eliminates blind spots.

Apple has other patents that could re-invent sunroofs, seatbelts and other components.

One could assume that Apple would launch an all-electric car, like Tesla cars. But in fact Apple has patents that keep the door open for gas/electric hybrid cars.

One of Apple's specialties is user interfaces. Apple has wild patents for lighting the interior of a car with fiber optics on the other side of transparent and translucent polymers, as well as being embedded in windows, the windshield, the head and tail lights and other elements. These would create customized moods, and also convey information.

The company has also done extensive work on using in-the-air gestures and Siri for controlling a car.

Apple has even developed patents for a new kind of car seat.

Cook himself told Bloomberg in a public interview that Apple is focusing on self-driving autonomous systems.

An Apple research paper outlines a system called VoxelNet, which uses lidar combined with cameras for high-performance detection people and objects.

Apple's lidar rigs have been spotted on top of Lexus SUVs driving around Silicon Valley.

Going to need more than 140 characters to go over 's Project Titan. I call it "The Thing" pic.twitter.com/sLDJd7iYSa  MacCallister Higgins (@macjshiggins) October 17, 2017

Last summer Apple acquired self-driving car startup Drive.ai.

Other reports indicate that Apple is looking to innovate in lowering the cost of mass-producing lidar equipment.

Yet, other Apple patents point to human driven cars. One patent, for example, envisions remote-control systems taking over when the human driver has to be driven to the hospital. In other words, if a human driver can't drive, another human in some remote control room somewhere takes control of the car.

Cook also said explicitly that Apple is working on the cars themselves, and also an Uber-like ride-sharing service.

When cars are self-driving, there will be nothing to do except for consume content, work and communicate. It's a combination of an office and play room.

One Apple patent reveals how advanced Apple's thinking on this has been. The company developed a method for designing a car to minimize nausea while using virtual reality headsets.

Will Apple really build and make cars?

In the summer of 2018, Forbes Transportation writer David Silver correctly pointed out that an Apple car would "require an automotive Foxconn."

For years, Apple worked with what at the time was the worlds only automobile contract manufacturer, Austrias Magna Steyr, which is a kind of Foxconn, but for cars. It's not clear if Apple is still working with Magna Steyr.

But the "automotive Foxconn" might be Foxconn itself. We learned last month that Fiat Chrysler is talking with Foxconn about forming a joint venture to build electric vehicles for the China market.

Regardless of whether the deal happens or not, iPhone manufacturer Foxconn says it wants 10 percent of their future revenue to come from the contract manufacturing of cars.

Apple is way ahead on its vision for the car of the future. It's coming, probably as early as 2026.

It's time to start thinking about the Apple Car, and cars of the future generally, as IT challenge that it will become. Tomorrows cars are not just about transportation, shipping and delivery. They're about terabytes of data generated daily that will have to be managed, provisioned, processed and secured.

We're at the point with cars that we were with phones in 2005. Nobody knew how they'd be used. Nobody thought Apple would define the space. Nobody thought they'd big a big deal for IT.

It's time to come to terms with the fact that, for IT, cars will be the new smartphones.
Despite having to fight against the coronavirus outbreak, poverty-stricken areas in China are still working to shake off poverty in an attempt to meet the countrys target of eliminating poverty in 2020.

Many poor regions are helping companies with poverty-stricken employees resume operations, such as Cangxi County in southwest Chinas Sichuan Province.

At one shoe factory in the county, 12 poor and 18 disabled employees have already gone back to their jobs. We made sure that these people started work first so that they can still get a stable income during the epidemic, said the manager at the factory.

Cangxi County has also helped over 1,200 local farmers get back to work in other cities and towns as the epidemic continues.

Government departments have also made use of Internet platforms to expand the channels for farmers looking to sell agricultural products. Ganxian District in Jiangxi Province, for example, has helped over 460 poor families sell products to supermarkets, communities and companies.

While helping poor regions establish long-term relationships with enterprises, supermarkets and e-commerce platforms to boost sales of agricultural products, the government also needs to improve storage and logistics infrastructure and help poverty-stricken areas develop a food processing industry, said Li Xiaoyun, a professor at the China Agricultural University.

Furthermore, governments need to support industries in poor areas, provide better healthcare, and prevent those who have been lifted out of poverty from slipping back into it, experts pointed out.
Three Mayo High School students have worked for months to create a pet toy that reduces separation anxiety in dogs.

Pet toys are an incredibly lucrative, $22 billion market. The students would have to capture only a tiny of fraction of it to strike a financial Bone-nanza.

The students, Daliso Chitulangoma, Noah Decker and Ethan Kleven, call themselves team "FurDogs." On Wednesday, the trio pitched their toy concept "Shark Tank"-style before a board of advisers, seeking funding to test their product.

But this wasn't a TV drama. It was a high school course offered for the first time through Rochester Public Schools. Called INCubatoredu, it seeks to create and nurture an entrepreneurial spirit in students by getting them to start their own businesses.

Other products pitched by students included an environmentally friendly, edible spoon made of granola and an app that helps students stay organized and on task.

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The entrepreneur course is taught in the heart of downtown Rochester, in a converted halal market and mosque, the better to give students access to the business community and business mentors. Its separation from the high schools also gives the program a uniqueness, said Michael Hutchins, an INCubatoredu teacher.

The program is year long and has eight students, down from 14 when it started in the fall. The goal is to grow the class to about 25 in future years, Hutchins said.

Chitulangoma, a Mayo student and aspiring fashion designer, said the program is unlike any course he has taken.

"What intrigued me the most was the ability to do what you want. You're working towards things that matter to you," he said. "Your motivation comes from within. This class is not necessarily someone telling you what to do."

Entrepreneurial programs are not unique in the state. The INCubatroedu program in Rochester is modeled after a program in Barrington, Ill., and is the first of its kind in Minnesota. Interest in entrepreneurship education has been growing, sparked in part by television shows such as "Shark Tank," which dramatizes people trying to start or boost their own business.

The idea of a pet toy for stressed-out dogs originated from Kleven's own personal experiences. His 12-year-old dog suffers from terrible separation anxiety when left alone. But the dog's anxiousness could be tempered, he discovered, using aroma therapy, specifically, a blanket made out of old clothing.

Most pet toys that use smells to calm dogs rely on generic aromas such as lavender or vanilla. Their toy is custom-made: a pet toy in the shape of a bone stuffed with the clippings of the pet owner's clothes. It also squeaks.

The students bounced their business concepts against a board made up of Jenny Hosfeld, executive vice president and chief banking officer for Think Bank, and Joe Powers, owner of Powers Ventures, a restaurant and catering business.

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"I really like the prototype. I love your idea," Powers said about the toy.

Decker said the class has taught him how trial and error are essential to building a business.

"You have to be willing to fail. You have to be willing to take criticism" Decker said. "Our product has changed so much from the beginning."

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Editors note: Welcome to Inside Out, our weekly roundup of stories about Staten Islanders of all ages who are making waves, being seen, supporting our community and just making our borough a special place to live. Have a story for Inside Out? Email Carol Ann Benanti at benanti@siadvance.com.

More good news: On Thursday, The New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) lauded six New York City businesses, including two from Staten Island, for serving their respective communities for more than 100 years.

SBS Commissioner Gregg Bishop and City Councilmember Mark Gjonaj introduced the business owners and presented them with Mayoral certificates of recognition, free advertising on LinkNYC kiosks and on social media, and a one-year complimentary membership to NYC & Company.

Among those recognized from Staten Island, were Holtermanns Bakery in Great Kills and Supreme Chocolatiers in Travis, both family-owned businesses which have served the community of Staten Island for more than a century.

During an introduction to the crowd, Staten Island Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Linda Baran stated, We are so honored to represent these fantastic businesses. You are the backbone of New York City.

Upon accepting her award, Jill Holtermann Bowers of Holtermanns Bakery, chose to proudly wear the hat of her late dad, Clifford Holtermann, who was grandson of Claus Holtermann, the bakerys founder.

From left, Council Member Mark Gjonaj, Jill Holtermann Bowers and Small Business Services Commissioner Gregg Bishop. (Courtesy/Dom Provenzano)(Courtesy/Dom Provenzano)

In speaking of her dad, Holtermann said, He would have loved this. And I miss him dearly.

At 142 years-old and still going strong, Holtermanns Bakery was the oldest of all of the businesses honored during the heartwarming ceremony.

HOLTERMANNS BAKERY

The first location of the German-style bakery that was founded in 1878 was called the Treasure House and it was situated in Historic Richmond Town. It later relocated to Center Street, next to where St. Patricks R.C. Church stands.

By 1930, the business moved to 405 Arthur Kill Rd., its third and current home.

Jill Holtermann Bowers wears her dad's hat. To the right is Small Business Services Commissioner Gregg Bishop. (Courtesy/Dom Provenzano)Staten Island Advance

Holtermanns became a 24-hour a day bakery, delivering to markets and private homes, in addition to the production process.

And at one time Holtermanns delivered by way of horse-drawn carriages and in time the business utilized delivery trucks manned by unionized drivers in order to make their deliveries.

FYI: In April, the street across from the bakery will be renamed Holtermanns Way.

SUPREME CHOCOLATIERS

For more than 100 years, Supreme Chocolatiers has been manufacturing unique chocolate treats including a wide range of fine molded chocolate products under Blums of San Francisco, House of Bauer, and Superior Confections brand names.

From left, Council Member Mark Gjonaj, Mike Katsoris of Supreme Chocolatiers, center, and Small Business Services Commissioner Gregg Bishop, left. (Courtesy/Dom Provenzano)Staten Island Advance

Family owned and operated by the Katsoris family since its inception, the company proudly produces their products in New York City and has a retail location in addition to a full chocolate factory in Bloomfield.

Original owners, Michael and Catherine Katsoris, had an ice cream parlor more than a century ago, where they prepared their own candies, peanut brittle and hard candy by hand, much unlike todays modern methods. Also, they were renowned for their sweet strawberry syrup for sundaes and cocoa syrup for hot chocolate.

Their sons, George Katsoris and Peter Katsoris, who were both known as Mr. Kaye, were co-founders of Kaye Candies in Port Richmond, which later became Superior Confections, the company called Supreme Chocolatiers, now run by Georges son, Michael, who accepted the award during the program.

Michael is the second-generation owner of the 109 year-old candy business.

Running a business for so long is not easy, Michael said, But we do it because we love it, and we love our community.

We salute the New York City Department of Business Services for celebrating our citys centennial small businesses. While some businesses have come and gone, these businesses have stood the test of time, Linda Baran added. Family owned businesses like Holtermanns Bakery and Supreme Chocolatiers are staples on Staten Island and truly add to the fabric of our diverse neighborhoods. We wish all of todays honorees continued success.

The Staten Island Chamber of Commerce was proud to represent Chamber member Holtermanns Bakery, as well as Supreme Chocolatiers, two longtime businesses that have benefited our community in myriad ways.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested an operative of terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), in the first major breakthrough in the Pulwama terror attack case that had killed at least 40 CRPF soldiers on February 14, 2019.

The accused, Shakir Bashir Magrey is a resident of Hajibal, Kakapora, in Pulwama. A furniture shop owner, Shakir Bashir Magrey provided shelter and other logistical help to suicide-bomber Adil Ahmad Dar. He was introduced to Adil Ahmad Dar in mid-2018 by a Pakistani terrorist called Mohammad Umar Farooq after which he became a full-time over-ground worker of JeM.

During the initial interrogation, Magrey revealed that on several occasions, he collected and delivered arms, ammunition, cash and other explosive material to various JeM terrorists, including those involved in last years horrific Pulwama attack.

Magrey had given shelter to Adil Ahmad Dar and Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Umar Farooq in his house from late 2018 till the attack in February 2019 and also helped them to prepare the IED which was used in the terror attack. His shop is located near Lethpora Bridge, and as advised by Mohammad Umar, he started carrying out a reconnaissance of the movement of CRPF convoys on the Jammu-Srinagar highway in January 2019.

He also played a vital role in informing Mohammad Umar and Adil Ahmad Dar about the movement of CRPF troops in the area. It was Magrey who had modified the Maruti Eeco car and fitted the explosives in the vehicle in early February 2019.

During the probe, the make, model and number of the vehicle that had been used in the attack was ascertained by NIA to be a Maruti Eeco car through forensic examination of the tiny remnants of the car. The remnants had been collected from the spot during extended searches. The accused during his interrogation has corroborated this.

The explosives used in the attack were found to be Ammonium Nitrate, Nitro-Glycerin and RDX through forensic investigation. Investigation also confirmed the identity of the suicide bomber to be Adil Ahmad Dar through DNA matching with that of his father.

Other terrorists involved in the Pulwama attack were Muddasir Ahmad Khan, Pakistani terrorists Muhammad Umar Farooq and IED expert Kamran. Both of them were killed in March 2019.The owner of the car Sajjad Ahmad Bhat and Qari Yassir, another JeM Commander were also involved in the terror attack.

Last year, at least 40 CRPF personnel had been killed when an IED-laden vehicle driven by suicide bomber Adil Ahmad Dar had rammed into the security convoy, which was moving from Jammu towards Srinagar.

Magrey was produced before the NIA Special Court at Jammu on Friday and has been remanded to 15 days of NIA custody for detailed interrogation.

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A vice president, a deputy health minister, a former envoy to the Vatican, the head of a medical university, and at least four parliament members are among the Iranian officials who have been infected with the coronavirus in recent days.

The increasing number of officials testing positive for the virus has raised questions about the management of the outbreak in Iran and whether officials are heeding safety measures to protect themselves amid the disease's outbreak in the country that according to the latest official figures has killed 34 people.

However, the BBC's Persian service said a count conducted by its unnamed sources in several hospitals suggests at least 210 people have died in the country as of the night of February 27. The Health Ministry vehemently denied the report.

"It doesn't inspire much confidence when officials who are supposed to protect us and who claim the situation is under control are falling ill," A Tehran-based observer who did not want to be named told RFE/RL.

Iranian Vice President for Women's Affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar -- who served as spokeswoman for the Islamic student revolutionaries who seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 -- was reported to have tested positive for the virus on February 27, a day after she was seen taking part in a cabinet meeting and sitting a few seats away from President Hassan Rohani.

It wasn't clear if those attending the meeting with Ebtekar, 59, and Rohani, 71, had been tested for the virus. Ebtekar -- whose symptoms are reportedly mild -- has been quarantined at home.

Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi confirmed he also contracted the coronavirus on February 25, a day after a press conference with government spokesman Ali Rabiei in which Harirchi was seen sweating profusely. Iranian media later reported that Rabiei had tested negative for the virus.

Prominent cleric Hadi Khosroshahi, the Islamic republic's first ambassador to the Vatican, died on February 27 after testing positive for the virus. He was 81 years old.

Two lawmakers, Mojtaba Zolnour -- a representative from Qom and head of parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, and Mahmud Sadeghi, an outspoken reformist lawmaker, have also said publicly that they have the virus.

On February 28, lawmaker Mohammad Ali Vakili said four of 30 of his colleagues in parliament had tested positive for the coronavirus, though he did not give their names. "It is possible that the number [of infected lawmakers] will increase because so far we only know about the test results for 30," Vakili told the government news agency IRNA.

Mohammad Reza Ghadir, the director of the medical-sciences university in Qom, the Iranian epicenter of the coronavirus, has also contracted the disease, while the head of Qom's health center has been quarantined due to suspicion he may have also been infected, Iranian media reported.

In a video posted online on February 24, Ghadir said he's recovering.

Some reports have also suggested that Morteza Rahmanzadeh, the mayor of District 13 in the Iranian capital, has been infected with the virus, which originated in China in December and was first reported in the holy Shi'ite city of Qom on February 19.

Not Inspiring Confidence

In recent days, many Iranians on Twitter have chided officials for not taking enough precautions to protect themselves during official meetings.

A photo of a meeting of the newly created National Committee for Fighting and Controlling the Coronavirus, where officials were seen touching their faces, led to criticism, with some asking why those pictured did not wear face masks or protective gloves.

Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said on February 28 that state organizations were doing their best to combat the virus. Jahanpur reported the same day a sharp spike in the number of those infected, saying there were currently 388 confirmed cases in the country, and cautioned that the number would likely increase, as Iran has 15 laboratories testing samples.

He said that in the next few days there will be a total of 22 laboratories involved in testing.

Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization's Emergencies Program, warned that the outbreak in Iran could be more serious than realized. "The most likely factor is that obviously this disease came unseen and undetected into Iran so the extent of infection may be broader than what we are seeing," Ryan told reporters on February 27.

"There is a very high clinical capacity for managing severely ill patients in Iran, so I don't suspect this has anything to do with clinical care," he added.

Iran has by far the highest death toll from coronavirus outside China.

In order to prevent the further spread of the virus, authorities have said schools will be closed and Friday Prayers were canceled in Tehran and 22 other cities on February 28.

Jahanpur said on Twitter on February 28 that Health Minister Saeed Namaki had asked parliament to cancel all open and closed meetings until "further notice" to protect lawmakers and citizens from the coronavirus.

Iranian state media on February 28 published images of what they said were members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps sanitizing and spraying down streets and sidewalks in Qom.
Lori Vallow, also known as Lori Daybell, the mother of two Idaho children missing since September, was arrested in Hawaii on Feb. 20, 2020. (Kauai Police Department)

Mom of Missing Kids Waives Extradition, Bail Stays at $5 Million

HONOLULUBail will remain at $5 million for a mother arrested in Hawaii over the disappearance of her two Idaho children, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Lori Vallow wore an orange jumpsuit in court on the Hawaiian island of Kauai for a hearing on her request to reduce bail. After the judge denied the request, her defense attorney, Craig De Costa, said she is waiving an extradition hearing, which had been scheduled for March 2.

She wants to expedite her return to Idaho, De Costa said. Kauai Prosecutor Justin Kollar said he will work with Idaho authorities on logistics for her departure. The judge set a March 4 status hearing to make sure she has been picked up.

Kauai police arrested Vallow last week on an Idaho warrant. She has been charged with two felony counts of child abandonment.

Seven-year-old Joshua JJ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan have not been seen since September 2019. Their disappearance captured worldwide attention after authorities pleaded for help in finding them. Police in the city of Rexburg, Idaho, have said they strongly believe that Joshua and Tylees lives are in danger.

Earlier this week, her Kauai defense attorneys filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider Vallows $5 million bail. On Wednesday, De Costa urged Judge Kathleen Watanabe to ignore the publicity, ignore the hype and set reasonable bail.

Vallow, 46, is a flight risk, prosecutors said. Given the extensive media attention, she is clearly aware that the authorities have prioritized her case, prosecutors said. She also has the means to move across an ocean.

Prosecutors noted that Vallows husband, Chad Daybell, had $152,000 in a First Hawaiian Bank account.

Police also have said Vallow and Daybell have lied about the childrens whereabouts.

Joshua JJ Vallow (L) and Tylee Ryan. (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children via AP)

Vallow, also known as Lori Daybell, is also accused of disobeying a court order that required her to bring her children to Idaho authorities last month. De Costa said she is fighting the order because it would allow authorities to take her children into foster care.

The tangled case includes investigations into three deaths. Vallows estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed in Phoenix last July by her brother, Alex Cox. Then Cox, who claimed the shooting was in self-defense, died of unknown causes in December.

Vallow moved her family to Idaho in late August. In October, Chad Daybells wife, Tammy Daybell, died of what her obituary said was natural causes. When Daybell married Vallow roughly two weeks after Tammys death, law enforcement became suspicious and had her remains exhumed.

Test results on Daybells remains and toxicology results for Cox have not yet been released.

Rexburg police questioned Daybell and Vallow about the missing children in late November, and when detectives returned the next day for a follow-up interview the couple had left town.

In December, Idaho authorities asked police on Kauai for help finding the couple. On Jan. 26, Kauai police served a search warrant on a vehicle and condo the couple were renting in the resort town of Princeville.

The couples move to Kauai was pre-planned, De Costa said. Kollar said its concerning that it seemed to have been planned before Vallows husband died.

Kauai police did not arrest Daybell and he doesnt face any charges.

Daybell visited his wife Tuesday at the Kauai Community Correctional Center, said Toni Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the Hawaii Department of Public Safety.

By Jennifer Sinco Kelleher
Since the beginning of the day, Russian-led forces have opened fire at the positions of the Joint Forces near Novotoshkivske and Vodiane in Donbas. One Ukrainian soldier was wounded.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Maksym Prauta said this at a briefing on Friday, February 28, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

At night, the invaders used hand-held antitank grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms to shell the positions of the Joint Forces near Vodiane (94km south of Donetsk). The shelling lasted for 20 minutes, the spokesman said.

After 07:00, the armed formations of the Russian Federation fired heavy machine guns and small arms at the positions of our soldiers near Novotoshkivske (53km west of Luhansk). The shelling lasted for an hour. The Ukrainian military responded to the militants with weapons not prohibited by the Minsk agreements.

"According to available information, as a result of the enemy shelling, one of our defenders was wounded," Prauta said.

ish
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has called for the removal of the Africa Risk Premium from the credit rating structure for African countries seeking finance on the international capital market.



Delivering a speech at Chatham House on Thursday, 27th February, on the theme Financing for Sustainable Development of Africa, President Akufo-Addo noted that the global development finance architecture created almost fourscore years ago by multilateral and development finance institutions, is not fit for the scale of work needed to transform the continent into an Africa Beyond Aid.



With the African Development Bank intimating that Africas infrastructure requirements amount to between $130 to $170 billion United States dollars a year, the President explained that nearly half of the funds required to fill this financing gap can be found on the continent if we can prevent, which we must, their outflow.



According to President Akufo-Addo, our level of development means that multilateral and development finance institutions will automatically disqualify lower-income countries from accessing concessional long-term finance Ghana, with a GNI per capita of some $1,970, no longer enjoys IDA financing. Countries that do not enjoy IDA financing have to go to the capital markets for more expensive financing, he said.



He continued, On the capital markets, Credit Rating agencies and lenders add an African Risk Premium, which makes it expensive to raise sustainable and competitive long-term capital to support transformation Meanwhile, Africa offers the highest return on foreign direct investments in the world.



The President told the gathering that the time has come for us in Africa to take the lead in generating for herself the additional funds needed to advance, as the continent is well-resourced in natural and human resources.



Africa, President Akufo-Addo said, must build robust institutions to protect herself, strengthen the capacity of her geological services to determine exactly what and how much resources the continent has, and establish legal departments in governments that will ensure African countries get their due in contracts that they sign.



In the process, we can draw on the expertise of private practitioners. We must strengthen our tax authorities to counter tax avoidance practices such as base erosion and profit shifting by multinationals. In other words, we must entrench the rule of law. The plethora of unbalanced contracts, with their pernicious effects, have to cease if we are to realize our vision of rapid socio-economic development, he added.



Whilst striving for increased domestic revenue mobilisation, and leveraging on technology to strengthen the performance of revenue institutions, the President stressed that we must also be mindful of how the revenues are spent and accounted for. The institution of transparent budget and expenditure management systems, that allocate resources wisely to agreed national priorities, and that ably monitor their implementation, is, therefore, of the utmost importance.



Africa, President Akufo-Addo said, must invest in education and emphasise the importance of exposing African youth to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) because that is where the skills needed for the modern economy can be developed.



We have to maintain stable macroeconomic environments in the context of growing economies in order to attract private sector investment, and move away from the raw material producing and exporting economies of the past. Our economies should be based on value-addition and industrial activities, i.e. on things we make and grow, he said.



He continued, That is the best way we can take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area, whose Secretariat is located in Ghana, a potential game-changer in our quest to moving Africa to a situation Beyond Aid. A large part of the growth and prosperity that we seek on the continent will come from us trading more among ourselves.



To the gathering, made up of policymakers, academicians, economists, President Akufo-Addo stated that the time has also come for the removal of the Africa Risk Premium from the credit rating structure for African economies.



Additionally, with the co-operation of all, the President was confident that Africa can successfully stem the $50billion illicit flow of capital.



As a start, the OECDs new initiative that would require multinationals to pay tax in countries where they have commercial, not jurisdictional, presence is a welcome one. The acid test of our friendship with countries, which are the hosts of these multinational corporations, should be the extent to which they oblige them to comply with this new initiative. We must be vocal in defence of our objectives, he added.





Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The United Nations Security Council has approved an exemption requested by the World Health Organization (WHO) so that diagnostic and medical equipment can be transported into North Korea to assist the government in the event of a COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

The sanctions prohibit certain types of machinery and high-tech equipment as well as other imports in order to deprive Pyongyang of resources that could be funneled into its nuclear and missile programs.

The WHOs Robert Chelminski made the request to the councils committee handling sanctions on North Korea on Feb. 25. Committee Chair Christoph Heusgen announced the approval Thursday.

The Committee reiterates that the sanctions measures imposed by the Security Council through its resolutions with respect to the DPRK are not intended to bear a negative impact on the people of the DPRK, said Heusgen in the letter.

Great decision, but exemptions should not be necessary

Kee Park, the Director of DPRK Programs for the Korean-American Medical Association, applauded the UNSCs decision.

The U.N. Sanctions Committee, and this was followed quickly by the U.S. State Department, they both put out press releases, or at least made public statements that said they would not try to delay in any way, supplies to battle the COVID-19 threats [in] North Korea, he said.

This was a welcome statement, and it looks like theyre following through on what they said theyre going to do by rapidly approving these requests, said Park



What Im encouraged by is the fact that some of these requests go above and beyond simple medications. These are actually diagnostic equipment. So, what Im seeing is that these exemptions are happening very quickly, within days, said Park, adding, this is a very good sign.

But he also said it was wrong that reputable humanitarian organizations like the WHO needed to apply for exemptions in the first place.

The fact that they actually have to go through a process of getting permission to provide urgent medical and diagnostic equipment and supplies is completely absurd in the face of a true public health emergency. I think we should not have to have these organizations even apply for exemptions. These are not threats to international security, Park said.

North Korea still has not reported a single case of COVID-19, but the government has been aggressively taking preventative measures to prevent its spread, suggesting to North Korea watchers that it might already be there. A South Korean media outlet even reported that several infected people have died.

Additional reporting by Yewon Ji for RFAs Korean Service.
Footage of the moment a coronavirus patient is dragged back into a hospital by medics has been revealed.

Media attended the hospital in Georgia expecting to speak to an official, after the country confirmed its first case this week.

Instead they were greeted by the patient, reported by the Daily Mail to be an Iranian citizen, who may have coronavirus. He thanks the people of Georgia and the doctors treating him.

This hospital is perfect, he says in the clip.

The man is dragged back inside by medics. (KameraOne)

His announcement ends with him being dragged back into the hospital by medics who tell the assembled journalists that he is not well.

Georgia was one of 20 countries to confirm their first coronavirus cases in the last week, as the virus continues to spread globally.

Cases outside China have outstripped those in the country for the first time.

Inside China a sharp decrease in infections of the disease  known as Covid-19  have been reported by authorities.

A total of 327 new cases and 44 deaths were reported on Friday, bringing the total number of cases to 78,824, while 2,788 people have died there.

More than 3,600 infections have been reported in total outside of China.

The medic has a word with journalists. (KameraOne)

Professor Rowland Kao, chairman of veterinary epidemiology and data science at the University of Edinburgh, said the UK can expect more cases, telling media that despite evidence of the epidemic tailing off in China, a need for continued vigilance with appropriate control measures for some time.

Brits have been under quarantine at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife, with some of the guests allowed to leave after they were put in lockdown after people staying there were diagnosed with the illness.
Bhagyashree marked her debut in Bollywood with Salman Khan starrer Maine Pyar Kiya. The film was a huge blockbuster and the leading lady turned into an overnight sensation. At the peak of her success, the actress tied the knot with her childhood sweetheart Himalaya Dasani in 1990.

Recently at an event, Bhagyashree revealed that Himalaya and she had briefly separated for a year and half and said that she gets scared even now, when she remembers that phase.

A video is going viral on the internet where the actress is seen telling a section of media, 'Yes, Himalay ji was my first love and yes, I got married to him. Lekin ek arsa tha beech mein jab hum juda ho gaye the (In translation: But there was a period of time when we were separated). And I had that feeling that 'What if I hadn't got him in my life and I had married someone else?' It got me to that stage because there was a period of a year and a half that we weren't together. Woh ehsaas abhi bhi yaad aata hai toh darr lagta hai."

Watch the video here.

Reportedly, Bhagyashree and Himalay were school sweethearts. Though her parents were opposed to the match, she eloped and got married to him in a temple in the presence of his parents, Sooraj Barjatya, Salman Khan and a few close friends.

Earlier while speaking with Humans of Bombay, the actress had opened up about her love story and said, "We went to school together - he was the naughtiest kid in class and I was always the class monitor. We would fight all the time and the rest of the class would have a blast! We were like Yin and Yang - the more we fought, the more it became clear that we couldn't be apart. We never dated though...he never even told me how he felt until the last day of school. He said, 'I have to tell you something' and then for one week he kept trying to say it but would always back out. Finally, I went upto him and said, 'look, just say it...I'm sure the answer will be positive' and that's when he told me he liked me. I come from a very conservative family, so even after that while we were in college, we would barely meet or talk on the phone. When I told my parents about him, they thought we were too young to decide something like this, and I believed as well that if he really loved me, we should be apart for sometime - he should explore, know that I'm the one and then we could be together. So we did break up when he went away to the US to study, and that's when I signed Maine Pyar Kiya. "

"Before signing the film, while he was still in the States I went and met his parents to ask them if they were okay with me getting into films...we weren't even together at that point, but I guess somewhere I knew that we would in the future. They said that they had no problems...and I began shooting. When he came back home during the course of the shooting we both knew that we wanted to be together, but my parents still wouldn't allow us to meet or speak on the phone...so I decided to speak to them. I told tell them that seeing him made me happy, that I couldn't be without him, but they were still adamantly against our relationship. I knew then that there wasn't any other way. I called him up after this conversation and asked him, 'are you sure of yourself, of us? This is the deciding day...either I'd be in his life forever or not at all.' I said, 'I'm leaving my house now, if you love me come and pick me up' and within 15 minutes he was under my house. We had a small ceremony at a temple - his parents, Salman, Sooraj ji, a few of our friends attended and that's how we go married."

After the success of Maine Pyar Kiya, Bhagyashree bid goodbye to her film career. Talking about it, she had shared, "Maine Pyar Kiya went on to become such a big hit, but I was a woman so in love with my husband and my son Abhimanyu who was born soon after that I said no to every offer I got. I have absolutely no regrets though, I look at my life, my family now and I feel so proud. Very often, people say 'giving up such a bright career' is backward, but I disagree. I respect and admire career women who can juggle both, but I took the decision of being a full invested home maker...and believe me, that's a thankless job. But it's all worth it when you see your children growing up into fine human beings."

Bhagyashree made a comeback to films this year with Kannada project, Seetharama Kalyana. She will be next in Prabhas-Pooja Hegde's multilingual film tentatively titled as Jaan.

Bhagyashree On Playing Prabhas' Mother: 'There's A Wow Factor That Surrounds My Role'

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Abhimanyu Dassani: I Don't Want To Be The Next Hot Thing!
The cautions suggested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for those who contract the virus but dont need to be hospitalized are the sort of measures that might be workable in Denver or Houston but seem less so in New York, where the average size of an apartment built during the past 20 years is 866 square feet. They include the directive to stay in a specific room and away from other people in your home and to use a separate bathroom.

The line between an appropriate response and an excessive one is not terribly clear. This week I encountered a friend who had transitioned to Clorox wipes as a means of disinfectant because this was not a time for Seventh Generation. Someone else described herself as only mildly concerned about the spread of coronavirus but, nevertheless, she was planning to stock up on canned goods.

At the same time, some companies have told employees who have recently been to Italy, where 400 cases of infection had been identified by Thursday, to remain at home. Members of New Yorks fashion industry are at particular risk because so many have been in Milan for the Fall 2020 shows held this month. Recently, Hearst Magazines instructed editors and others who had returned home from Italy, Iran and parts of Asia during the past 30 days to work remotely for two weeks.

Food markets and restaurants in Chinatown are bearing the greatest burden of collective fears, even though no cases of Covid-19 have been identified in New York as of this writing. The Chinatown Partnership has estimated a 40 to 60 percent drop in sales for these businesses since the coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan, China.

That the safety of meat and fish is more strictly regulated in this country, Tiffany Chau, the Partnerships policy director told me, has had little effect on shopping and eating habits. Chinatowns retail model is built on low prices to attract a high volume of sales. Now that model is imperiled. A few weeks ago, a campaign called Show Some Love in Chinatown was devised in an attempt to lure people back.

In the coming weeks, city officials will remind New Yorkers to wash their hands, cough into their elbows and wed themselves to bottles of Purell, but they are unlikely to assume any culpability for what could now or someday be the most serious rupture to the safe management of a major outbreak of infectious disease.

Since 2004, 17 hospitals have closed in New York resulting in a net loss of beds and the chance that if the city were beset by an epidemic, it might not be able to accommodate the needs of everyone who got sick.
A British man has become the fifth person to die after spending time quarantined on Princess Cruises' Diamond Princess, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed in an emailed statement to USA TODAY.

While he is the fifth person to die from after being quarantined aboard the Diamond Princess for the coronavirus outbreak, he is the first person from his country to succumb to the virus, according to the BBC.

The newest fatality is reflected in Johns Hopkins data.

USA TODAY has reached out to the U.K. government and Princess Cruises for more information.

Four other Diamond Princess passengers  all elderly Japanese citizens  have died from the virus in recent weeks.

Fellow British passenger David Abel, who likened the quarantined ship to a "floating prison" in a Facebook post earlier this month, revealed last week that he and his wife, who booked the cruise to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, both tested positive for COVID-19 and are hospitalized in Fujisawa, Japan.

MSC Meraviglia cleared to disembark for port call in Cozumel, Mexico

The MSC Meraviglia was denied permission to dock in both the Cayman Islands and Jamaica.

Mexican health authorities in Cozumel have given the MSC Meraviglia a "clean bill of health" and cleared guests to disembark Friday, days after the ship was turned away when it tried to make port calls in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

In a statement provided by MSC spokesperson Alyssa Goldfarb, the cruise line said that the sick crew member and passenger who had alarmed officials at the earlier ports both had the flu.

"Health experts boarded the ship to check the medical condition of one crew member and one young female guest who had seasonal flu," MSC said. "In addition to the checks that are customarily run to give a ship a clean bill of health, out of an abundance of caution they conducted overnight additional tests on both of them. The results were tested at a Mexican Ministry of Public Health laboratory in the city of Chetumal and determined that the condition of both the crew member and guest was in no way whatsoever associated with the COVID-19 coronavirus. The ship was given a clean bill of health."

Story continues

Pierfrancesco Vago, MSC's executive chairman, praised the Mexican authorities for doing things by the rulebook rather than reacting out of fear, as he believes the Jamaican and Cayman officials had.

The Mexican authorities followed the correct maritime protocols whereby a ship in advance provides medical records of any passenger or crew member who is or has been unwell to the next port she visits," he said. "We would like to thank the Mexican authorities for their preventative health professionalism, which is the only way to demonstrate certainty to populations ashore, as well as to guests and crew on board."

He continued: The disappointing decisions by Jamaica and Grand Cayman to bar our ship to allow our passengers to disembark and enjoy their islands was born out of fear, not best medical practice. This led to unnecessary and unjustifiable anxiety, not only for our passengers and crew on board, but right across the Caribbeans tourism sector, and possibly even further beyond.

MSC said that guests will spend the day in Cozumel before returning to Miami for disembarkation on Sunday.

'Overreaction'? Ship turned away by Dominican Republic

On Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020 the Dominican Republic turned back the Braemar because some on board showed potential symptoms of the new coronavirus COVID-19.

Ports have continued to turn away ships due to mounting coronavirus fears around the globe.

A cruise ship heading to the Dominican Republic to disembark hundreds of passengers after a 14-day tour was turned away on Thursday because officials feared eight of those aboard showed potential symptoms of the COVID-19 virus, officials announced.

A joint statement by the Public Health Ministry and Port Authority said the captain of the Braemar reported four Filipinos, two British citizens and two U.S. citizens were under medical observation for symptoms such as fever, coughing, or breathing difficulty.

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines said in an emailed statement that it had reported a small number of influenza-like cases on board. Our medical team has now advised that they are all feeling better. No guests or crew are, or have been, displaying symptoms that are considered to be consistent with those of Coronavirus.

Officials said the ship was carrying 1,128 passengers and 384 crew members. The cruise line said it was awaiting advice on the next steps and liaising with a number of airlines to secure onward travel for guests.

"It is our opinion that this is an overreaction by the Dominican Republic,'' Fred. Olsen said in a written statement.

The cruise line's website shows the ship had been due to pick up another load of passengers and set off on a new cruise Thursday night.

Public Health Minister Rafael Sanchez Cardenas said the ship already had been barred by another port, which he did not specify.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Diamond Princess passenger is first Briton to die
Hundreds of Israeli soldiers taken in by Hamas social media scheme featuring fake young women

By Marcy Oster

JERUSALEM (JTA)The cellphones of hundreds of Israeli soldiers have been compromised in a Hamas intelligence-gathering scheme that featured fake women on social media networks.

The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday in a statement that its Operation Rebound foiled the Hamas honeypot operation, its third since 2017.

Hamas created six female characters to lure soldiers, presenting them as new immigrants to Israel to account for their sometimes poor Hebrew. The photos of the women also were edited so it would be more difficult to find the originals online.

The terrorist group created pages for the women on social media platforms such as Telegram, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Through their interactions with the soldiers, the fictitious women asked the soldiers to download one of three appsCatch and See, ZatuApp or Grixy Appso they could send nude photos to them.

The apps installed software on their phones that Hamas could use to gather intelligence on the IDF through activating the phones camera to take pictures, download files, and see the soldiers contacts and GPS data.

Over the weekend the IDF, in conjunction with the Israel Security Agency, took down the servers Hamas that used for the ploy.

Similar Hamas honeypot efforts were uncovered and blocked by the military in January 2017 and July 2018.

Princess Dianas niece converting to Judaism before marriage to fashion tycoon

By Marcy Oster

(JTA)The niece of the late Princess Diana is converting to Judaism to marry a Jewish fashion tycoon.

Kitty Spencer, a 29-year-old model, is engaged to Michael Lewis, 61, who chairs the Foschini Group. It will be the second marriage for Lewis, a South Africa native whose fortune is estimated at about $100 million.

It is not known which branch of Judaism Spencer is converting through, the Sunday Times reported. The report cited friends of the couple as saying that Spencer is taking religious instruction in preparation for the marriage.

Spencers cousin Prince William, who is second in line to the throne, is the future supreme governor of the Church of England.

Lewis is believed to have married his first wife, Leola, with whom he has three adult children, in an Orthodox Jewish ceremony in 1985, according to the Daily Mail.

Man who helped stop Monsey stabber refuses reward from Zionist organizations

By Marcy Oster

(JTA)Joseph Gluck received a $20,000 reward for his role in apprehending the suspected Monsey synagogue stabber.

But it didnt come from two Jewish groups that had offered the award for information leading to an arrest.

Gluck told News 12 Brooklyn last week that after consulting with his rabbi, he decided to reject the money from the Zionist organizations the Jewish Federation of Rockland County and the Anti-Defamation Leaguebecause they dont represent the beliefs and values of his haredi Orthodox community.

I was not willing to offer my soul for $20,000. My identity for $20,000 was not for sale, he told News 12.

Glucks rabbi instead raised that amount from people who were inspired by his actions, according to the report.

Rabbi Dovid Feldman explained to News 12 that the ADL and Jewish federation were about to issue a statement to encourage and promote the Zionist idea of Jewish self-defense, of fighting back, of fighting our enemies, which happens to be contrary to our tradition.

The check was presented to Gluck at a ceremony Thursday night in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg.

Gluck, 32, of Monsey, threw a table at the alleged attacker during a Chanukah party at a rabbis home and chased him outside, then wrote down his license plate number. Police used the license information to apprehend Grafton Thomas, 37, who has been indicted on six attempted murder charges. One of the victims was seriously injured. The stabbings also carry a federal hate crimes charge.

Thomas denies stabbing anyone, and his family says he suffers from mental illness.

In January, Gluck was awarded the New York State Senates highest honor, the Liberty Medal.

Amazon accused of bias for offering free shipping to Jewish settlements but not Palestinian communities

By Marcy Oster

JERUSALEM (JTA)Amazon has been accused of bias for offering free shipping to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and not to Palestinian villages.

The online retail giant began selling its international products in Israel late last year and offers free shipping on orders of $49 or more. But the address has to be listed as Israel.

Residents of Palestinian communities who list their addresses as being in the Palestinian Territories pay shipping and handling fees of as much as $24, the Financial Times reported.

An Amazon spokesman, Nick Caplin, told the Financial Times that if a customer within the Palestinian Territories enters their address and selects Israel as the country, they can receive free shipping through the same promotion.

Amazon was not included on the United Nations blacklist of companies doing business in West Bank Jewish settlements that was released last week.

Peace Now told the Financial Times that the difference in Amazons services between Israelis and Palestinians adds to the overall picture of one group of people enjoying the privileges of citizenship while another people living in the same territory do not.

AIPAC announces bipartisan congressional leadership will address annual conference

By Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON (JTA)The majority and minority leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives will address the Israel lobby AIPACs annual policy conference.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee said Friday that Reps. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the majority leader, and Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., the minority leader, would be appearing at this years March 1-3 conference.

The announcement that Hoyer would speak comes amid an organized campaign from the left pressuring Democrats not to attend the conference.

Its not known yet whether they will appear together, but AIPAC at many of its past conferences has paired a top Republican and a leading Democrat to underscore bipartisan support for its agenda.

Jewish 101-year-old woman: Hitler was my neighbor and was terrified of us

By Ben Sales

(JTA)A 101-year-old woman living in the United Kingdom has revealed that Adolf Hitler was her next-door neighbor.

Alice Frank Stock lived next to the Nazi leader in Munich on Prinzregentplatz Street in the 1920s and early 30s, she told the news agency SWNS.

There were two entrances, one was for our apartment and the other was number 14, and I cant remember the other one, it was number 13 or 15, and thats where Hitler lived, she said.

She didnt interact with himonly catching glimpses of him as he entered the apartment under heavy guard.

I saw him once, twice coming home, she said. And his car would draw up and then two SS men would jump out and stand on each side of his way, and he rushed out to the house terrified of us, that someone will try and kill him.

Once, she recalled, she got a ticket to the opera from her schooland was slated to sit in the same box as Hitler.

I got a ticket, it was in the royal box of the smaller opera, she said. I got to the royal box in the evening and there were SS men saying You cant come here, go two boxes further down. And before the curtain went up I looked at the royal box and there was Hitler sitting there.

Israel to build a rail line that that will run from Ben Gurion Airport to the Western Wall

By Marcy Oster

JERUSALEM (JTA)Israels Transportation Ministry advanced plans on Monday to build a new train station that would directly connect Tel Avivs Ben Gurion Airport to the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The project, an extension of recently opened Jerusalem-Tel Aviv high-speed line, will include a new 1.8 mile-long tunnel under downtown Jerusalem and the Old City, i24news reported.

This kind of construction in the Old City of Jerusalem is controversial. Palestinians object to Israel gaining more of a foothold in the city that they claim as the capital of a future Palestinian state, and archeologists object to the possible disturbing of artifacts in the area.

The project was initiated by former Transportation Minister Israel Katz, who now serves as foreign minister. The current transportation minister is Bezalel Smotrich of the Jewish Home Party, who is running for the next Israeli parliament as part of the far-right Yamina alliance.

Bernie Sanders releases new proud to be Jewish video

By Marcy Oster

(JTA)Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has released a new campaign video in which he says he is very proud to be Jewish and that he looks forward to becoming the first Jewish president in the history of this country.

The two minute and 40 second video also blames President Trump for a rise in anti-Semitic incidents and for empowering neo-Nazis in the U.S. It includes footage of Trump trafficking in what critics say were anti-Semitic tropes, including when he told attendees at a Republican Jewish Coalition gathering that you arent going to support me because I dont want your money and his statement that Jews who vote for Democrats are disloyal.

Trump supporters dismiss such assertions, citing his support for Israel, condemnation of anti-Semitism on the left and the fact that his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren are Jewish. Meanwhile, Sanders himself has been targeted by at least one pro-Israel Democratic political action committee that claims the senator has not done enough to disassociate from antisemitic comments made by people involved in his campaign.

It is Sanders second campaign video focusing on Jewishness.

During his 2016 run for the Democratic nomination, Sanders was at first reluctant to mention his Jewish heritage, although he was the first Jewish major-party candidate to win ever nominating contests.

This election cycle, he has emphasized his Jewishness.

Iceland welcomes its first permanent Torah scroll

By Marcy Oster

(JTA)Iceland welcomed its first permanent Torah scroll.

The final letters of the Torah were written at a reception last Thursday at the home of the U.S. ambassador to Iceland, Jeffrey Ross Gunter, who is Jewish, according to Chabad.

The new scroll, which took a year to write, was donated to the Jewish community of Reykjavik by Uri Krauss of Zurich, Switzerland.

On Sunday, members of the citys Jewish community brought the Torah scroll to the local Chabad Jewish Center.

The Chabad center was opened in 2018, the first full-time Jewish institution on the island nation. It has been borrowing the Torah scroll used every Shabbat morning.

Star of David graffiti spray-painted on 2 Boston apartment buildings

By Penny Schwartz

BOSTON (JTA)  Star of David graffiti were spray-painted on two apartment buildings in a Boston neighborhood.

Police are investigating the incidents in the South End that occurred overnight Saturday as acts of vandalism.

Its too early in that process to call the incidents anti-Semitic, Robert Trestan, executive director of the Anti-Defamation Leagues New England office, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a phone conversation.

Irrespective of motive, there is still an impact when religious symbols are painted on someones home, he said.

Trestan credited the police with responding quickly and taking the incidents seriously.

Two large six-pointed gold stars were spray-painted on the exterior doors at 437 Shawmut Ave. and on the front of another nearby building.

Israelis quarantined for suspected coronavirus will get special voting booths for March 2 elections

By Marcy Oster

JERUSALEM (JTA)Special voting booths will be set up for Israelis who are under quarantine for possible coronavirus infection will get special voting booths for Israels national elections that will be held on March 2.

The decision was announced on Monday by Israels Central Elections Committee, following a meeting with Health Ministry officials.

Under Health Ministry guidelines, Israelis returning or other visitors from Thailand, Singapore and the cities of Hong Kong and Macau must remain at home in isolation for 14 days. There are a few dozen Israelis who are under self- quarantine throughout the country, according to the Health Ministry.

The polling stations will be placed in buildings with no other polls. Army Radio reported that poll workers will wear protective gear.

Meanwhile, Israels Health Ministry reported that a plane has been chartered to bring home 12 Israeli nationals who are currently on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship stuck in Tokyo Bay. A request to bring them home had previously been denied.

Three other Israelis who tested positive for the coronavirus are hospitalized in Japan.

Israels Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer, near Tel Aviv, will house the Israelis from the ship when they arrive Thursday in an isolation unit at an evacuated hotel on the hospital campus, Sheba said in a statement. They will remain there for two weeks.

Israeli airline El Al has canceled all its flights to China in the wake of the virus spread.

Ehud Olmert asks Israels president to expunge his criminal record

By Marcy Oster

JERUSALEM (JTA)Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has asked President Reuven Rivlin to expunge his criminal record.

If Rivlin agrees, Olmert would have his conviction on moral turpitude erased, clearing the way for a possible return to a run for public office. Under Israeli law, politicians convicted of moral turpitude are prevented from running for seven years following their release. Olmert was released from prison in 2017.

Olmert has talked about returning to public life, though it is not clear if he would consider running again for Knesset.

His attorneys made the request, the Israeli media reported Tuesday.

Rivlin turned down a previous request in 2018 while Olmert was still in prison, but did lift all parole restrictions from Olmert two days after his release. Olmert served 16 months of a 27-month sentence.

Earlier this month, Olmert joined Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in New York to reject the Trump administrations recently unveiled peace plan and to call for new negotiations based on where the two leaders left off in 2008.

Olmert was the first Israeli prime minister to serve time in prison and be sentenced to jail. He resigned his post in September 2008 after police investigators recommended that he be indicted in multiple corruption scandals.

Pompeo criticizes Democrats for meeting with Iranian foreign minister

(JNS)U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rebuked a group of Democratic senators on Tuesday who reportedly met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last week on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was one senator who met with Zarif, reported The Federalist.

Speaking to reporters during his tour through Africa, Pompeo said that Zarif was sanctioned by the United Statesa move that occurred in July.

Hes the foreign minister for a country that shot down an airliner and has yet to turn over the black boxes, said Pompeo, referencing Tehrans shooting down of a commercial airliner on Jan. 8, resulting in the deaths of 176 passengers. This is the foreign minister of a country that killed an American on Dec. 27. This is the foreign minister of a country that is the worlds largest state sponsor of terror and the worlds largest sponsor of anti-Semitism.

If the Democratic senators had the meeting, said Pompeo, I dont know what they said. I hope they were reinforcing Americas foreign policy, not their own.

U.S. State Department officials said they had no role in, nor approved of, the meeting, reported The Washington Free Beacon.
Delhi government has deployed three SDMs in the North East Delhi to assess the damage that took place during the recent incidences of violence.

The announcement was made by Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, in a meeting with Shahdara and Northeast Delhi district magistrates (DM).

"Deputy chief minister deployed three extra sector SDMs in the North East Delhi who will go to the areas and get the people to fill a form in which they'll have to fill their details and the damaged incurred to their property," said Shashi Kaushal , DM, Northeast Delhi

"Immediate relief of Rs 25,000 will be provided. Food and medical help will also be provided," she added.

She also said that the Delhi government will soon announce that the place where will set up the relief camps for the victims of the violence.

At least 42 people have lost their lives while around 200 people were injured in the violence that has rocked Delhi over the last few days. Property worth crores of rupees have been destroyed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Many Ukrainians had no access to 20 major TV channels after their satellite signal was coded on January 29.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and top managers of major Ukrainian media groups have met to agree on the launch of non-coded satellite versions of major Ukrainian TV channels by March 16.

"Participants in the meeting discussed problems of television broadcasting, which arose after the beginning of the coding by four media groups of the satellite signal of their TV channels from January 29 this year pursuant to the decision of 2017," the presidential press service said.

This issue concerns not only the business of media groups, but also the strategic protection of information security of Ukraine, Zelensky said. Due to signal coding, not all Ukrainians can freely watch more than 20 major TV channels.

Read alsoRFE/RL: Ukraine's Crimean Tatar TV asks EU for money to stay afloat

"We have thousands of letters and calls to the President's Office claiming that Ukrainians cannot receive this signal due to coding and cannot watch Ukrainian TV channels. This is especially topical for the region along the contact line and the temporarily occupied territories," he said.

According to him, thus, Russian television has become an alternative there as a result.

"We came there and saw that Russian radio and television broadcasting is carried out not only in the temporarily occupied territories. It has a very powerful signal in the controlled areas as well. In addition, they then 'silenced' our signal with military equipment. And now, it seems to me, they do not even need to use the technical means and money to silence  you have switched yourself off," he said.

Zelensky noted that the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine has authority to introduce a moratorium on the coding of satellite TV channels, but it would not solve the whole spectrum of problems.

"We want to find a way out of this situation now. We have a very simple task: to provide an opportunity for people to watch Ukrainian television, especially in those territories to which we have solely information access now," he said.

To address the issue of Ukrainians' access to information in a comprehensive way, the president suggested that ZEONBUD digital television provider take steps to change signal modulation by March 4, 2020. This will expand coverage of digital television across the state and facilitate public access to television.

Also, by May 1, 2020, ZEONBUD should ensure the installation of digital transmitters in 47 settlements of Ukraine in accordance with previously undertaken commitments. In addition, the operator must upgrade the existing antenna feed systems for all border areas.

At the same time, the Ukrainian president and representatives of the media groups agreed to ensure the launch of non-coded satellite international versions of their nationwide TV channels by March 16, 2020 and thus make television accessible to Ukrainian citizens again.

"We really want this to be an international version. We urge you for this to be a balanced international version with top-priority content," Zelensky stressed.

In addition, satellite broadcasters Xtra TV and Viasat should develop social satellite TV packages with a minimum subscription fee for low-income social groups. This will allow such citizens to watch encoded TV channels.

The participants in the meeting agreed to involve the NSDC in the coordination of efforts with media groups to combat copyright infringement.

Zelensky also commissioned the NSDC Secretary to monitor the implementation of the agreements.
OTTAWA - Canada's top public-health official Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada has begun to look at tracking local spread of the novel coronavirus, just as the United States confirmed a case of the virus that does not appear linked with international travel.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam speaks at a press conference in Ottawa, on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

OTTAWA - Canada's top public-health official Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada has begun to look at tracking local spread of the novel coronavirus, just as the United States confirmed a case of the virus that does not appear linked with international travel.

The risk of contracting the disease in Canada is low, but for the second day in a row Thursday the number of new cases confirmed outside China was greater than the number of new cases within the country where the illness was first detected.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization's director general, said the world is at a decisive point in its fight to contain the virus, which has now spread to 46 countries.

"In the past 24 hours, seven countries have reported cases for the first time," Ghebreyesus said in a briefing, adding that "community-based transmission"  when the bug spreads within new areas, rather than being brought in by one person at a time from somewhere else  is being seen in more countries as well.

The U.S. confirmed one case of the new coronavirus, or COVID-19, in California Thursday that could not be linked to international travel, suggesting the person contracted the virus within the United States.

The woman, who was not identified, first sought medical care at a hospital in Vacaville, a city of more than 100,000 people about 95 kilometres from San Francisco.

She stayed there for three days but doctors did not test her for the virus because she did not meet federal testing criteria, NorthBay Healthcare Group president Aimee Brewer said in a statement. The patient was then transferred to a Sacramento hospital where she tested positive for the virus.

In a briefing Thursday, Tam said Canada has methods to monitor for possible spread of the virus within the country  systems typically used to monitor influenza  and if public-health agencies discover the spread of COVID-19 they will work quickly to try to contain it.

"I think that's actually something that all countries should be moving toward as well," she said.

In the meantime, while Canada is still trying to keep COVID-19 out of the country, the public health agency is taking stock of the need for personal protective equipment and other supplies to make sure there are enough to go around in case of a pandemic outbreak.

On Thursday night, Quebec public health officials reported the province's first presumptive case of the coronavirus.

Health Minister Danielle McCann said the patient, a woman from the Montreal region, had recently returned from Iran.

She said testing by the province's public health lab came back positive for COVID-19, but the result needs to be confirmed by the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg.

Earlier Thursday, Ontario confirmed its first case of person-to-person transmission. The patient is the husband of a woman believed to have contracted the virus in Iran, which has seen a sudden rash of cases in the last week.

The husband was not in Iran with his wife and health officials said is marks the first time Ontario has seen a case of human-to-human transmission  the patients in all of the other cases had recently travelled to China.

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British Columbia has also had a case of person-to-person transmission, also involving a man who had close contact with a woman who had recently been to Iran.

There are 13 confirmed cases of the virus in Canada, all in Ontario or B.C., and so far all have been linked to international travel or close contact with someone who has recently returned to the country.

If Quebec's case is confirmed, it would be the 14th confirmed case of the virus in Canada, and the first outside of Ontario and B.C.

Globally, there are 82,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 2,800 deaths.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2020.

With files from the Associated Press and Allison Jones in TORONTO
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Linkedin Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020 20:21 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206747ad3 1 World Pope-Francis,Vatican,Vatican-City,Indonesia,Jokowi,Joko-Widodo,KWI,Catholic-church Free

Pope Francis may preside over a mass at the Gelora Bung Karno main stadium in Senayan, Central Jakarta, during his expected visit to Indonesia in September, the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI) announced.

KWI chairman and Indonesias third cardinal, Ignatius Suharyo, said there was a possibility the supreme leader of the worlds Catholic Church would lead a mass at the sport complex, although the schedule was still under discussion.

There is a possibility. The Vatican team plans to come to Indonesia in late March and the official announcement of the Popes schedule and activities will be announced after that, Suharyo told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Besides leading a mass, Suharyo said the Pope would be expected to visit the Istiqlal Mosque and to meet with President Joko Jokowi Widodo, as well as with bishops, priests and nuns at the Jakarta Cathedral.

The secretary-general of the supreme council of Indonesias largest Islamic group Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Yahya Cholil Staquf, revealed last month that Pope Francis planned to visit Indonesia, as well as neighboring Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea, in September.

The Muslim scholar announced the plan following his meeting with Francis in Rome on Jan. 15.

Pope Francis has recently paid successful visits to Thailand and Japan and previously expressed interest in visiting Indonesia this year.

Read also: NU cleric meets Pope Francis, talks 'social activism' in Rome to address interfaith conflicts

The State Palace and the Foreign Ministry both confirmed in late January that upon learning Pope Francis' wishes, Jokowi extended an official invitation to him to visit the archipelago.

Vatican-linked ucanews.com reported on Friday that Francis has fallen sick in Rome, a day after attending Ash Wednesday ceremonies without wearing a mask in an expression of solidarity with those suffering from the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Whether the Pope has been tested for the coronavirus remains unclear.

The popes expected visit to Indonesia this year would convey a message of hope and peace for some 7 million Catholics and other religious followers in the worlds largest Muslim-populated country.

Pope Francis had made clear his reformist position against sexual violence in the Catholic Church globally as stated in his apostolic letter Vos Estis Lux Mundi issued in May last year.

His visit, if it happens, would mark the third time a Catholic pope has come to Indonesia.

Pope Paul VI made a short visit to Jakarta in 1970, followed by John Paul II in 1989. During his eight-day visit, John Paul II also visited Timor Leste, at that time known as East Timor since it was still under Indonesias administration.
The Mashpee Wampanonag Tribe suffered another major setback in its quest to secure the status of its land and its hopes to build a casino in Taunton.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the tribe on Thursday, upholding a lower court decision on the technical question of whether they qualified for trust protections provided under the Department of the Interior.

The plaintiffs to the case are a group of residents who live next to the proposed $1 billion casino-resort in Taunton. They successfully sued the federal government for initially granting the tribe trust status in 2015, which halted construction of the gaming facility.

Thursdays decision held that the Interior could not keep the land in trust because the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction at the time the Indian Reorganization Act was passed in 1934.

Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell on Friday expressed disappointment in the ruling, alluding to the issues surrounding the ambiguous language in the 1934 statue that has become the focus of two separate legal battles.

Theres no question that this is a grave injustice, Cromwell said, in a statement. Much of this case revolved around the ambiguity of two words  now and such. We will continue to fight, as our ancestors did, to preserve our land base, our culture and our spiritual connection to our homelands.

Separately, the tribe is appealing a Sept. 7, 2018 decision by the Interior Department that also denied the tribe the right to acquire land-in-trust. That case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The tribes bid to keep its 321 acres of reservation land in Masphee and Taunton had been made complicated by a 2009 Supreme Court decision known as Carcieri v. Salazar, which established that the Secretary of the Interior could not take land into trust for tribes that were not under federal jurisdiction before 1934, at the time of the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act. Carcieri v. Salazar increased the burden of proof tribes had to meet to qualify for trust status.

There is also federal legislation pending in the U.S. Senate that would end the legal challenge to the casino and prevent future litigation on the matter. The bill is sponsored by U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Massachusetts.

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Today we'll take a closer look at China Electronics Huada Technology Company Limited (HKG:85) from a dividend investor's perspective. Owning a strong business and reinvesting the dividends is widely seen as an attractive way of growing your wealth. If you are hoping to live on the income from dividends, it's important to be a lot more stringent with your investments than the average punter.

Investors might not know much about China Electronics Huada Technology's dividend prospects, even though it has been paying dividends for the last six years and offers a 2.7% yield. A low yield is generally a turn-off, but if the prospects for earnings growth were strong, investors might be pleasantly surprised by the long-term results. When buying stocks for their dividends, you should always run through the checks below, to see if the dividend looks sustainable.

Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on China Electronics Huada Technology!

SEHK:85 Historical Dividend Yield, February 28th 2020

Payout ratios

Companies (usually) pay dividends out of their earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, the dividend might have to be cut. As a result, we should always investigate whether a company can afford its dividend, measured as a percentage of a company's net income after tax. In the last year, China Electronics Huada Technology paid out 38% of its profit as dividends. This is a medium payout level that leaves enough capital in the business to fund opportunities that might arise, while also rewarding shareholders. Plus, there is room to increase the payout ratio over time.

We also measure dividends paid against a company's levered free cash flow, to see if enough cash was generated to cover the dividend. Last year, China Electronics Huada Technology paid a dividend while reporting negative free cash flow. While there may be an explanation, we think this behaviour is generally not sustainable.

Is China Electronics Huada Technology's Balance Sheet Risky?

Story continues

As China Electronics Huada Technology has a meaningful amount of debt, we need to check its balance sheet to see if the company might have debt risks. A rough way to check this is with these two simple ratios: a) net debt divided by EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), and b) net interest cover. Net debt to EBITDA measures total debt load relative to company earnings (lower = less debt), while net interest cover measures the ability to pay interest on the debt (higher = greater ability to pay interest costs). With a net debt to EBITDA ratio of 15.25 times, China Electronics Huada Technology is very highly levered. While this debt might be serviceable, we would still say it carries substantial risk for the investor who hopes to live on the dividend.

We calculated its interest cover by measuring its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), and dividing this by the company's net interest expense. China Electronics Huada Technology has interest cover of less than 1 - which suggests its earnings are not high enough to cover even the interest payments on its debt. This is potentially quite serious, and we would likely avoid the stock if it were not resolved quickly. Low interest cover and high debt can create problems right when the investor least needs them, and we're reluctant to rely on the dividend of companies with these traits.

Consider getting our latest analysis on China Electronics Huada Technology's financial position here.

Dividend Volatility

Before buying a stock for its income, we want to see if the dividends have been stable in the past, and if the company has a track record of maintaining its dividend. China Electronics Huada Technology has been paying a dividend for the past six years. It's good to see that China Electronics Huada Technology has been paying a dividend for a number of years. However, the dividend has been cut at least once in the past, and we're concerned that what has been cut once, could be cut again. During the past six-year period, the first annual payment was HK$0.03 in 2014, compared to HK$0.02 last year. The dividend has shrunk at around 6.5% a year during that period. China Electronics Huada Technology's dividend has been cut sharply at least once, so it hasn't fallen by 6.5% every year, but this is a decent approximation of the long term change.

When a company's per-share dividend falls we question if this reflects poorly on either external business conditions, or the company's capital allocation decisions. Either way, we find it hard to get excited about a company with a declining dividend.

Dividend Growth Potential

With a relatively unstable dividend, and a poor history of shrinking dividends, it's even more important to see if EPS are growing. China Electronics Huada Technology's EPS have fallen by approximately 21% per year during the past five years. With this kind of significant decline, we always wonder what has changed in the business. Dividends are about stability, and China Electronics Huada Technology's earnings per share, which support the dividend, have been anything but stable.

Conclusion

To summarise, shareholders should always check that China Electronics Huada Technology's dividends are affordable, that its dividend payments are relatively stable, and that it has decent prospects for growing its earnings and dividend. First, we like China Electronics Huada Technology's low dividend payout ratio, although we're a bit concerned that it paid out a substantially higher percentage of its free cash flow. Earnings per share have been falling, and the company has cut its dividend at least once in the past. From a dividend perspective, this is a cause for concern. In summary, China Electronics Huada Technology has a number of shortcomings that we'd find it hard to get past. Things could change, but we think there are a number of better ideas out there.

Now, if you want to look closer, it would be worth checking out our free research on China Electronics Huada Technology management tenure, salary, and performance.

Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our curated list of dividend stocks with a yield above 3%.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Senior IPS officer S N Shrivastava was given the additional charge of the Delhi police commissioner with effect from Sunday, according to an official order.

On Monday, Shrivastava was repatriated from the Central Reserve Police Force and appointed as the special commissioner (law and order) of the Delhi police, amid the communal violence in northeast Delhi.

Shrivastava, a 1985-batch IPS officer, will take charge from incumbent Amulya Patnaik, who demits office on Saturday.

Shrivastava will hold the additional charge of the Delhi police commissioner with effect from Sunday and until further orders, the order issued by the Union Home Ministry said.

In the CRPF, Shrivastava was serving as the special director general (training). He had served the Delhi police in various capacities, including as the head of the elite anti-terror wing, Special Cell.

Ever since he rejoined the Delhi police, Shrivastava was busy in controlling the communal violence in northeast Delhi, in which at least 39 people were killed.
[February 28, 2020] Application Platform Market 2020-2024 | Growing Popularity of Cloud-based Services to Boost Growth | Technavio

Technavio has been monitoring the application platform market and it is poised to grow by USD 3.23 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 5% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005255/en/ Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Application Platform Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire) Growing popularity of cloud-based services has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Request a free sample report Application Platform Market 2020-2024: Segmentation Application Platform Market is segmented as below: Deployment On-premises

aPaas Geographic Segmentation APAC

Europe

MEA

North America

South America To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40161 Application Platform Market 2020-2024: Scope Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our application platform market report covers the following areas:



Application Platform Market Size

Application Platform Market Trends

Application Platform Market Industry Analysis This study identifies launch of application platform as one of the prime reasons driving the application platform market growth during the next few years. Application Platform Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the application platform market, including some of the vendors such as BMC Software Inc., Cisco Systems (News - Alert) Inc., GigaSpaces Technologies Ltd., International Business Machines Corp., Micro Focus International Plc, Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., Salesforce.com Inc., SAP SE and Siemens AG (News - Alert). Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the application platform market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support. Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports. Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform Application Platform Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist application platform market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the application platform market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the application platform market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of application platform market vendors PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT 2.1 Preface

2.2 Preface

2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$ PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

Value chain analysis

Market segmentation analysis PART 04: MARKET SIZING Market definition

Market sizing 2019

Market outlook

Market size and forecast 2019-2024 PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY DEPLOYMENT Market segmentation by deployment

Comparison by deployment

On-premises - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

aPaaS - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by deployment PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

South America - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

MEA - Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Key leading countries

Market opportunity PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES Market drivers

Market challenges PART 11: MARKET TRENDS Launch of application platforms

Emergence of low-code application platforms

Growing number of acquisitions and partnerships PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

BMC Software (News - Alert) Inc.

Cisco Systems, Inc.

GigaSpaces Technologies Ltd.

International Business Machines Corp.

Micro Focus International Plc

Microsoft (News - Alert) Corp.

Oracle Corp.

Salesforce.com Inc.

SAP SE

Siemens AG PART 14: APPENDIX Research methodology

List of abbreviations

Definition of market positioning of vendors PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005255/en/

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A good book does more to boost literacy skills than other types of reading material

What children choose to read outside school directly influences their academic performance, according to a major new study led by the University of Malaga and UCL, and published in the peer-reviewed journal Oxford Review of Education.

Using longitudinal census data to look at more than 43,000 students, aged 10 to 11 and then again when they were 13 to 14, the research provides substantial evidence that pupils who enjoy reading high-quality books daily score higher in tests.

The average marks of pupils who read books rose by 0.22 points overall, which is the equivalent of 3 months' worth of additional secondary school academic growth.

The study demonstrated no similar advantage for children's reading daily newspapers, comics or magazines, and only marginal benefits from short stories.

The findings have important implications for parents, teachers and policymakers, and the international research team is recommending that young people devote their reading time solely to books.

"Although three months' worth of progress may sound comparatively small to some people, it equates to more than 10% of the three academic secondary school years measured - from when these young people are aged 11 years old to 14, which we know is a hugely developmental period," explains co-author Professor John Jerrim, from the UCL.

"In an increasingly digital world, it's important that young people are encouraged to find time to read a good book.

"Other less complex and less engaging forms of reading are unlikely to bring the same benefits for their cognitive development, and shouldn't be counted as part of their reading time.

"This is particularly important for low-achievers, where any association is likely to be strongest."

Lead researcher Luis Alejandro Lopez-Agudo, from the University of Malaga, added: "Reading is a fundamental skill that plays a key part in all our lives.

"Our results provide further evidence that it's not only whether young people read or not that matters - but also what they read."

The amount of time children spend reading is already understood to help develop their literacy skills. This ability increases through practice and by trying longer and more challenging texts.

Few studies though have focused on whether the type of material children choose influences their achievements at school.

This study, looking at pupils in Spain, attempted to establish whether a link exists between literacy and mathematics scores and the type of material children look at in their spare time, as well as how long they spend doing this. Comics, short stories, books, newspapers and magazines were the texts included in the research.

The researchers used data from a census carried out by the Andalusian Agency of Education Assessment. This included questionnaire responses completed during 2008 to 2009 by 10 to 11-year-olds, and from those aged 13 to 14 during 2011 and 2012.

Children's attitudes towards school were considered along with prior achievement levels. Parents were also asked about their own reading habits and how involved they were in their child's education.

The results showed the more frequently children read books, the better they performed in school tests as teenagers. The same effect was not observed with comics, newspapers and magazines. Specifically, researchers found:

13 to 14-year-olds who read books every or almost every day scored 0.22 standard deviations higher (the equivalent of three months) on the literacy test than those who read books almost never.

There is evidence of positive spill-overs into other subjects, with a difference of around 0.20 standard deviations in mathematics.

There was some benefit from short stories for children who enjoyed them at least once a month. The researchers concluded though that increasing the frequency of this to weekly or daily was unlikely to bring any further benefits.

The study also highlighted the reading patterns across different groups of children. It showed:

Girls seem to read short stories, books and newspapers more frequently than boys, while the opposite holds true for comics and magazines.

Young people from advantaged backgrounds read all the text types more frequently than those from disadvantaged homes.

High-achieving students (according to their 5th grade test scores) were more likely to read tales/short novels and books compared to low-achieving students, though with little difference in terms of reading comics, newspapers and magazines.

The findings of this study should be interpreted in the context of some limitations and the need for further research. These include the research being carried out in one particular region within Spain, and the focus upon academic progress made during the early teenage years. At this point, reading skills are already quite well-developed - there is no data for younger children.

###
The UK's hardened stance in its Brexit negotiating strategy could drive a second wave of firms, jobs and managed assets to Ireland, experts say.

Brexit policy advisers at top business consultancies told the Irish Independent that the UK's opening position on post-Brexit relations with the EU, if not softened, would spur hundreds more jobs and billions in funds and assets to relocate to Irish shores.

"The possibility of a second wave of billions of assets coming in is relatively easy to foresee," said Cormac Kelly, financial services Brexit lead at EY Ireland.

He said scores of City of London asset managers, investment funds, insurers and banks had already staffed Dublin operations and were expanding their locally hired workforce. But he said these firms' European clients often still had their wealth domiciled in the UK, awaiting a firm post-Brexit financial deal.

"The UK negotiating position on financial services is hardening," Mr Kelly said. "Those clients who have hesitated or held off will be looking at this and challenging themselves: is it time to move? Does this make a move more likely?

"I predict this hardening will continue and is likely to generate an outcome where those clients will have to move. There will be a further wave."

The UK government said yesterday it will not seek to ease EU market access for London's financial firms, but will try to prevent a sudden cut-off.

Its published negotiating documents included no references to core City demands, such as securing gateways for parts of finance that are not covered by the current system.

The EU says it wants an agreement by June to police post-Brexit access to markets using its so-called 'equivalence system'. This would give UK financial firms access to the EU only if officials in Brussels are satisfied that the UK's own rules will be sufficiently robust. The UK, in turn, raised the spectre of rejecting the equivalence approach and entirely leaving talks in June.

"The hardening position from Downing Street is challenging for firms in the City of London. If we do get to June and negotiations just stop, then moves (to new EU locations) will be greater than firms have planned to date," said Andy O'Callaghan, the Brexit policy leader and global advisory leader in wealth management at PwC Ireland. He said at least 100 UK financial firms that have registered new operations here because of Brexit have created more than 2,000 jobs already, and hiring is "ratcheting up".

"The number of moves has been high and we expect more businesses to come," he said.
Claiming it was enforcing tribal law, the Cayuga Nation Council under the direction of Clint Halftown had its newly created police department 
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dr. David Williams, Chief Medical Officer of Health for Ontario, attends a news conference in Toronto, on Monday, January 27, 2020. ntario health officials say the province now has a seventh confirmed case of the novel coronavirus. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO - (Ont-Coronavirus)

Ontario health officials say they have confirmed a new positive case of COVID-19 in Toronto.

Dr. David Williams, medical officer of health, said Friday night that this is the eighth case of novel coronavirus in the province.

Officials said the patient is a man in his 80s with a travel history to Egypt.

He arrived in Toronto on Feb. 20 and went to the Scarborough Health Network's General Hospital's emergency department on Thursday.

Officials said he was isolated as he was tested for COVID-19 and discharged the same day feeling well and went home, where he remains.

"Throughout his travels, the man wore a mask," the Ontario Ministry of Health said in a release. "Toronto Public Health is actively engaged in contact tracing and case management."

The government noted that Ontario's first three cases are all resolved, with each of those patients having two consecutive negative tests at least 24 hours apart.

The outbreak of the virus known as COVID-19 began in China, and that country continues to have the most cases by far, but there have been emerging clusters in other countries such as South Korea, Italy and Iran.

Iran has so far recorded 388 cases and 34 deaths.

In Canada, most of the recent cases in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia have been in people who had travelled to Iran.

Quebec public health officials announced Friday night that the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg has confirmed the provinces first case of the novel coronavirus.

Health Minister Danielle McCann announced Thursday that a woman who returned to Montreal on Monday from Iran was believed to have the COVID-19 virus, but confirmation was needed from the federal laboratory.

The Health Department said the patients close contacts have been advised of the appropriate precautionary measures. The woman had minor symptoms that did not require hospitalization and is currently in isolation at her home.

"I would like to highlight the civic-mindedness of the patient, who hastened to take preventive and hygiene measures to avoid those around her from becoming infected," said Yves Jalbert, deputy head of Quebecs public health agency.

Earlier Thursday, officials announced that Ontario's seventh case is a man in his 50s who arrived in Toronto from Iran on Tuesday and went to the emergency department of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre the next day.

Proper protocols went into place at the hospital and the man was isolated as he was tested for COVID-19. The man was sent home the same day to recover and has been in self-isolation since then.

"The risk of being infected with COVID-19 in Ontario remains very low," Williams said.

Toronto Public Health is reaching out to people who came into contact with the man.

Health Minister Christine Elliott stressed the low risk to the public, but also said the province is prepared, if the situation escalates.

"We are ready should the situation change from what it is now, but as I've indicated, the risk remains very low," she said. "But it is important for all Ontarians to know we are prepared. Our hospitals are prepared. We have the protective equipment we need to protect our health officials and we are ready to move immediately should the situation change at any time."

Canada now has 16 confirmed cases, including seven in British Columbia and one in Quebec.

The head of the World Health Organization said Friday that the risk of the virus spreading worldwide was "very high," citing the "continued increase in the number of cases and the number of affected countries."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2020.

 with files from The Associated Press.
A man wearing face mask at the hospital where an Italian citizen who entered Nigeria is being treated for Covid-19 (AP/ Sunday Alamba)

Nigerias health authorities have reported the first confirmed case of the strain of coronavirus known as Covid-19 in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Commissioner for Health for Lagos, Nigerias largest city, has said that an Italian citizen who entered Nigeria on February 25 from Milan on a business trip fell ill the next day.

Commissioner Akin Abayomi said the man was transferred to Lagos State Biosecurity Facilities for isolation and testing. The patient was clinically stable with no serious symptoms, and was being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.

Commissioner Abayomi added that officials were working to identify all of the mans contacts since he arrived in Nigeria.

Nigerias health authorities have reported the countrys first case of Covid-19 in Lagos (AP/ Sunday Alamba)

Nigerian health officials have been strengthening measures to ensure that any outbreak in Lagos is controlled and contained quickly, Mr Abayomi said in a statement.

I wish to assure all Lagosians and Nigerians that we have been strengthening our preparedness since the first confirmation of cases in China. We will use all the resources made available by the state and the federal government to respond to this case, he said.

He urged all residents of Lagos, a teeming city of 21 million, to take measures such as keeping their distance from people who are coughing and washing their hands regularly.

Cases of the virus were already confirmed in Egypt and Algeria in north Africa.

Nigeria is one of 13 African countries that the World Health Organisation classified as high priority in this outbreak because of direct links to China or a high number of visitors from there.

Nigeria is one of 13 African countries that the World Health Organisation classified as high priority (AP/Sunday Alamba)

Trudie Lang, director of The Global Health Network at the Nuffield Department of Medicine and the University of Oxford said detection of further cases in Africa will be challenging as more inexpensive testing kits are needed for on-the-spot diagnosis.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC) has rushed to train its 54 member countries in testing for Covid-19. Just two countries had the capability at the beginning of this month. Now more than two dozen have it, including Nigeria.

Most African airlines with direct flights to China quickly suspended them, and countries activated surveillance and quarantine measures.

Many had experience with trying to prevent the spread of the devastating West Africa Ebola outbreak that ended in 2016, and global health experts now point to that as a sign of preparedness in this outbreak. The ACDC was created in response to the Ebola outbreak, and many countries established public health institutes.

Nigeria was praised for quickly containing cases when the Ebola outbreak reached there in 2014 after an infected man from Liberia landed in Lagos. Nineteen people were infected and seven died, but officials were praised for effective public awareness campaigns and strong leadership.

We have worked very hard to strengthen our systems in preparedness for this outbreak, the director of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Chikwe Ihekweazu, tweeted.

Nigeria is also currently dealing with an outbreak of Lassa fever  an indication of the health challenges that many African nations face.
Two more Diamond Princess evacuees quarantined in San Antonio have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, federal health officials said Friday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the city to eight.

All had been in or near China, where the virus outbreak originated, but in California, health officials Friday confirmed the second case of infection believed to have been transmitted to a person who didnt travel internationally or come in close contact with anyone who had it.

Oregon also reported its first coronavirus case. As in California, the person didnt travel internationally or come in close contact with someone who had it, the Oregon Health Authority said in a news release.

In California, health officials in San Jose said the patient was an older adult woman with chronic health conditions. It comes a day after state officials said a woman from Solano County hospitalized at UC Davis Health Center in Sacramento had contracted the illness after no known contact.

The findings hints that the coronavirus already may circulating locally in California, passing from person to person.

The patient in the Oregon case worked at an elementary school in the Portland area, but authorities didnt provide any other details, citing patient privacy. School officials notified parents that it would be closed until Wednesday so it can be deep-cleaned by maintenance workers.

From eastern Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Africa, a steady stream of new cases on Friday fueled fears that the coronavirus epidemic may be turning into a global pandemic, with some health officials saying it may be inevitable.

The countries with the biggest outbreaks outside China  South Korea, Italy and Iran  reported more than 3,500 infections Friday, about twice as many as two days earlier. More than 83,000 people in at least 56 countries have been infected, and more than 2,800 have died.

In San Antonio, one of two newly diagnosed evacuees previously had tested positive for the virus before being evacuated from the cruise ship in Japan, results now confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The other infected person was tested after developing symptoms, said Kate Grusich, a CDC spokeswoman.

Another three people who also tested positive in Japan still are awaiting confirmatory testing by CDC. Like those who have tested positive, they have been removed from the quarantine at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland for isolation elsewhere.

Five other Diamond Princess passengers from the group of 144 people who originally were quarantined at Lackland have tested positive for the virus, COVID-19. One was transported out of state this week to be reunited with a spouse who was isolated at another medical facility after also being diagnosed with the virus.

On ExpressNews.com: 6 hospitalized for coronavirus after three more cruise ship passengers at Lackland test positive

That person was replaced by a Texas woman who tested positive for the virus while under quarantine in California and requested a transfer to San Antonio for the remainder of her isolation.

Confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients are being isolated in a separate wing of the Texas Center for Infectious Disease, a state-run tuberculosis hospital on the South Side.

The two-week quarantine for the remaining 134 cruise ship passengers at Lackland, who arrived Feb. 17, is expected to lift Monday.

On ExpressNews.com: Victims of circumstance: Cruise ship passengers quarantined at Lackland faced chaotic trip home

Because of the conditions on the Diamond Princess, where hundreds fell ill while the ship was docked in Japan, the evacuees are considered at high risk of contracting the virus.

In addition to testing passengers who received positive test results in Japan and those who became symptomatic, testing also was offered to the rest of the evacuees on a voluntary basis. Grusich said a handful of results from those tests still are pending.

One person from an earlier group of 91 evacuees from Wuhan, China, was found to be infected with the virus. That patient will not be released until testing negative for the virus twice, at least two days apart.

The other 90 evacuees were released Feb. 20 from their quarantine at Lackland, after being declared healthy by the CDC.

Lauren Caruba covers health care and medicine in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | lcaruba@express-news.net | Twitter: @LaurenCaruba
There are 913 vacant posts of



doctors in government-run hospitals and medical centres in Maharashtra, Health Minister Rajesh Tope told the Legislative Assembly on Friday.

During a discussionduring the Question Hour, Tope saidin the next three months, the government will fill up 574 of these vacancies - 304 through direct recruitment and 270 by promotion.

He lamented that despitedecentralisation of recruitment process where doctors can be appointed by district collectors, CEOs of Zilla Parishads (ZPs) or civil surgeons at a pay of Rs 60,000 per month, physicians once selected do not work for long in rural areas.

Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP suggested taking bond from medical students at the time of admission that they will work with the government for certain years after completing studies.

In reply to another question, Topesaid incentives could be considered for medical professionals working in tribal-dominated districts.

The minister saidhis department is working to upgrade existing trauma centres and setting up new ones along the highways to provide quick medical assistance to accident victims.

Express dissatisfaction over the functioningof trauma centres, he said a committee has been set up to suggest ways to improve their operations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Born on April 15, 1843, the works of Henry James often juxtapose Old World sensibilities with that of the New World. His novels explored the clash of personalities in the two starkly different cultures and highlighted a power tiff in relationships.

The son of an American theologian, Henry James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature thrice in 1911, 1912 and 1916, but never won. He went on to become a British subject in 1914, and received the Order of Merit a year later.

0141441267, 0141389753

James died on February 28, 1916, in Chelsea, London. As per his request, his ashes were buried in Cambridge Cemetery in Massachusetts.

On the authors death anniversary, heres looking at a few quotes by the author:

-- Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.

-- Summer afternoon  summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.

-- I dont want everyone to like me; I should think less of myself if some people did.

-- We work in the dark  we do what we can  we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art.

-- Sorrow comes in great waves... but rolls over us, and though it may almost smother us, it leaves us. And we know that if it is strong, we are stronger, inasmuch as it passes and we remain.

-- Im yours for ever  for ever and ever. Here I stand; Im as firm as a rock. If youll only trust me, how little youll be disappointed. Be mine as I am yours.

-- Sometimes considered to be an influencer of the stream-of-conscious narrative for writers such as Virginia Woolf, the settings of his fiction range from the working class to the aristocracy, which perhaps mirrors his own journey in life. James, who had once confessed that he got his best story ideas from dinner table gossip, has a number of stellar novels and novellas to his name.

The Portrait of a Lady: First published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillans Magazine, the novel is about a young and spirited American woman Isabel Archer who comes across an inheritance and subsequently becomes victim of Machiavellian scheming by two American expatriates.

The Ambassadors: A dark comedy, often considered to be a masterpiece, follows protagonist Lewis Lambert Strether to Europe in search of his widowed fiancees wayward son. He wants to bring the young man back to the family business, but encounters troubles along the way.

The Wings of the Dove: The 1902 novel by the author tells the tale of an American heiress who is stricken with a serious disease and the effect she has on people around her.

Roderick Hudson: Published in 1875, the bildungsroman traces the journey of the titular character who is an exceptionally gifted sculptor but hails from a poor background.

The novel sees him being taken from New England to Rome by Rowland Mallet. One of the underlying themes of the novel is unspoken sexuality.

The Turn of the Screw: This novella by James is classified both as a Gothic fiction and a ghost story and focuses on a governess, who while caring for two children at a remote estate begins to think that the place is haunted.

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A woman wearing face mask and glove pushes her grocery cart out of a supermarket after news of the raised outbreak of coronavirus became public people have been panicked to stock up on necessities as on February 9, 2020 in Singapore. Ore Huiying | Getty Images

After a brief period of panic-buying in Singapore earlier this month amid the coronavirus outbreak, more people are said to be going online to purchase groceries and other items. RedMart, Alibaba-owned e-commerce firm Lazada's grocery arm, said it is "currently seeing unprecedented demand" in the city-state. Shoppers "have been buying 4 to 10 times more food staples, 3.5 to 5 times more paper products, and 2 to 6 times more personal care and household cleaning supplies," James Chang, CEO of Lazada Singapore, told CNBC by email. Chang said that RedMart's orders jumped when Singapore raised its disease response level to orange on Feb. 7, following a rise in locally transmitted cases. Orders on the online supermarket exceeded the company's weekly average by 300% as people rushed to buy in bulk, he said.

Even traditional supermarkets saw long, snaking queues that weekend, as people rushed out to stockpile household goods and canned food. Shelves were cleaned out and items such as toilet paper, cleaning products, face masks and hand sanitizers ran out. To prevent another instance of panic buying, RedMart has implemented purchase limits on certain product categories. Amazon, which has an express, same-day delivery service in Singapore, did not respond to a request for comment on this story. Local supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice said since the disease response level was upgraded last month, demand for online orders surged and its daily delivery facilities reached almost full capacity. "Our orders received in the month of February reached unprecedented levels, even larger than the busiest month of last year which is December 2019 for us," a FairPrice spokesperson told CNBC. "We managed to clear the bulk of our backlog of deliveries and continue to invest additional resources and funds to increase our delivery capacity."

Express delivery business Ninja Van said it saw parcel volume almost triple in February for the pharmacy and health category compared to a month earlier. The start-up is responsible for delivering a million parcels a day on behalf of some of Southeast Asia's biggest retailers. "We have received more requests from customers in that segment to do more parcel pickups," Ray Chou, country head for Ninja Van Singapore, told CNBC by email. "We have also noticed more of our shipping customers who are not in the pharmacy/health category starting to sell medical and health products." Ride-hailing giant Grab told CNBC its food delivery business saw a more than 20% jump in orders over the past few weeks. The company attributed the increase to the virus outbreak situation as well as ongoing promotions and campaigns. Singapore has reported a total of 108 confirmed cases of coronavirus since noon on Mar. 2, and 78 of them have been discharged, according to the health ministry. First detected in China's Hubei province, the pneumonia-like virus has infected more than 89,100 people globally and killed over 3,000.

Delivery capacity a challenge
Imagine having one extra day a year in every four years without being subjected to any kind of superstition or leap day traditions and leap day customs. Needless to say, considering that this day comes ones every four years, people from all around the world have come up with some quirky traditions to celebrate the day.

While many consider it to be an unlucky day for any major events like childbirth or marriage, many people also celebrate the day with utmost grandeur. Sweet leap day customs are followed as a part of February 29 traditions around the world. Check out some of them.

February 29 traditions around the world

In France, a newspaper is published only on Leap Day

As a part of the leap day traditions, a newspaper titled La Bougie du Sapeur is published only ones in four years, on leap day. The newspaper was first published in 1980 and is a comical newspaper. The name of the paper translates to sapper's candle who was a character from an old French comic book born on a leap day.

ALSO READ: 29 Feb Birthday List: Celebrities Who Have Leap Year Birthdays

In Germany, girls decorate trees with ribbons for their crushes as a part of Leap Day traditions

As a part of the leap day customs, girls in Germany leave a tree decorated with ribbons in the backyard of their crushes. It is a custom for boys to cover small birch trees with ribbons on spring holiday May Day and leave the tree at the doorstep of the girl they like. It is the girls opportunity to leave the birch tree as a part of the leap day traditions or leap day customs, at the doorstep of their crush.

ALSO READ: Moon Dust 'preserving Millions Of Years Of History' To Provide A Giant Leap In Lunar Study

Texas has the Leap Year Capital of the World

Anthony, a city on the border of Texas and New Mexico throws a birthday bash for all the babies born on the leap day. This has been going on since 1988 and has eventually been absorbed into the Leap Day traditions. No other city decided to sponsor the event regularly and hence the Governors of both the states proclaimed the city as the Leap Year Capital of the World.

ALSO READ: This Coorg Resort Makes Its Guests Pay A Price For Food Wastage

In Denmark, a man buys a woman 12 pairs of gloves if her rejects her as a part of the Leap Day traditions

On the leap day, if a man in Denmark rejects a womans proposal he has to pay a price as a part of the leap year customs. If a woman proposes to a man on a Leap Day and he refuses her proposal, as a part of Leap Day traditions, the man has to buy her 12 pairs of gloves. According to a popular travel website, the Leap Year traditions can be traced back to 1288s, which came to practice so that the woman could hide her ring-less engagement finger.

ALSO READ: Feb 29 Quotes To Inspire You On How To Celebrate The Leap Day This Year
Countrys monarch says no special session on Monday as Mahathirs own party picks another nominee as prime minister.

Malaysias Parliament will not hold a special session on Monday to decide the next prime minister, the countrys monarch announced, a day after interim Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said the legislative body would do so.

The king made the declaration on Friday, as Mahathirs own party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, made a surpise announcement that it has nominated party president, Muhyiddin Yassin, as its candidate for prime minister.

With the latest development on Friday, it is now unclear what role the 94-year-old Mahathir would play as chairman of the party, also known as Bersatu. Earlier, the party had said that it wants Mahathir to continue as prime minister.

On Thursday, Mahathir had announced that there will be a special session of parliament on March 2 to select the new prime minister.

He also said that if there is enough support for him, he will stay on as prime minister.

But the announcement on Thursday angered his former coalition allies, led by Anwar Ibrahim, who said it was inappropriate for him to pre-empt a decision by the king, whose powers would be challenged by a vote in parliament. The coalition had earlier nominated Anwar as prime minister.

On Friday, the parliament speaker, Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof, also contradicted Mahathir, saying that a special session can only be declared through an official decree by the king.





It is the latest twist in an ongoing political struggle that has captivated the country of 32 million people since last Sunday.

A failed bid by Mahathirs supporters to form a new government without his designated successor, Anwar, and Mahathirs shock resignation on Monday broke apart the ruling alliance less than two years after it defeated the corruption-tainted Barisan Nasional coalition that had led the country for 61 years.

The infighting renewed a political feud between Mahathir and Anwar that stretches back more than 20 years.

Anwar was Mahathirs deputy in the 1990s during Mahathirs first stint as prime minister, but he was sacked following a power struggle and later jailed on sodomy and corruption charges that he said were trumped up. Anwar led a reform movement that helped build a fledgeling opposition but was jailed a second time for sodomy in 2014 in a move he said was aimed at killing his political career.

READ MORE Malaysias Pakatan Harapan coalition backs Anwar as PM

Mahathir, who retired in 2003 after 22 years in power, made a comeback in 2016, spurred by anger over a significant corruption scandal involving a state investment fund.

Mahathir and Anwar reconciled and forged an alliance that won the 2018 election that ushered in the first change of government since independence in 1957.

Before the elections, the two leaders agreed to share the term as prime minister, with Mahathir taking the post for the first two years.

But their relationship remained uneasy as Mahathir refused to set a timeframe to hand over power to Anwar.

Mahathir, the worlds oldest leader at 94, said on Wednesday he wanted to form a nonpartisan government if chosen as premier for a third time. He said he had quit to show he was not power-crazy, and because he did not want to work with the former corrupt government that he overthrew in 2018 polls.

But his unity government plan was rejected by Anwars camp and other opposition parties, which said it would only create a Mahathir government that was not accountable to the people and was unsustainable.

Anwar said legislators from the three remaining parties in his alliance had nominated him to be prime minister when meeting the king after Mahathir rejected their offer to restore their former government. Anwars camp controls 92 seats of the 222-seat parliament, 20 seats short of a simple majority.
Vipfree.us scored 41 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 6 Jan 2013, 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 vipfree homepage on Facebook + the total number of page likes (if vipfree has a Facebook fan page). This is the sum of two values: the total number of people who shared the vipfree homepage on Twitter + the total number of vipfree followers (if vipfree has a Twitter account). The total number of people who shared the vipfree homepage on Delicious. The total number of people who shared the vipfree homepage on Google Plus by a google +1 button. The total number of people who shared the vipfree homepage on StumbleUpon.

Basic Information

PAGE TITLE vipfree.us :: Internet Software DESCRIPTION KEYWORDS OTHER KEYWORDS



The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of the site. 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. The title found in the head section of the homepage.

Domain and Server

DOCTYPE HTML 4.01 Strict CHARSET AND LANGUAGE ISO-8859-1 DETECTED LANGUAGE English English SERVER hosting (PHP/5.2.17) OPERATIVE SYSTEM

Represents HTML declared type (e.g.: XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.0, the new HTML 5.0) Operative System running on the server. Type of server and offered services. The language of vipfree.us as detected by CoolSocial algorithms. Character set and language of the site.

Site Traffic trend during the last year. Only available for sites ranked <= 100000 in the world.

Referring domains for vipfree.us by MajesticSeo. High values are a sign of site importance over the web and on web engines.

Facebook link

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A Facebook page link can be found in the homepage or in the robots.txt file. The total number of people who tagged or talked about website Facebook page in the last 7-10 days. 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 URL of the found Facebook page. The total number of people who like website Facebook page.

Twitter account link

TWITTER PAGE LINK NOT FOUND
EDWARDSVILLE  A multi-vehicle fire on Interstate 255 closed the northbound exit ramp for New Poag Road Thursday afternoon.

Personnel from Edwardsville and Mitchell fire departments, as well as Illinois State Police, responded to an original report of a pickup truck on fire at about 3:12 p.m. Thursday. Once on scene, crews assessed the situation and noted two vehicles on fire instead of one.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze and no injuries were reported.

Illinois State Police reopened the exit ramp shortly after 4 p.m.

According to officials, the original call reported a pickup truck owned by J.F. Electric, Inc. caught fire during a fueling mishap with a larger utility truck, also owned by J.F. Electric. Officials could not confirm at the time of the incident, but an Intelligencer reporter on the scene noticed the pickup truck looked to have been being towed by the utility truck.

The utility truck sustained damage to its rear-end and cosmetic closer to the front cab, while the pickup sustained heavy front-end and interior damage.

Both vehicles were set to be towed away.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

The Azerbaijani Agency for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the Turkish Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization (KOSGEB) have signed a plan of joint activities, Trend reports on Feb. 28 referring to the Agency.

The document was signed by Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijani Agency for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises Orkhan Mammadov and Chairman of KOSGEB Cevahir Uzkurt.

The KOSGEB representatives are visiting Azerbaijan at the invitation of the Azerbaijani Agency for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises.

The joint activity plan covers such issues as learning from Turkeys experience in determining the impact and improving the effectiveness of state support mechanisms for SMEs, creating a joint working group to prepare an information base on SMEs in Azerbaijan, using the experience of the Turkish Growth and Innovation Fund to ensure investments in SMEs and cooperation in the formation of joint development funds of SMEs.

During the meeting between Chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijani Agency for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises Orkhan Mammadov and Chairman of KOSGEB Cevahir Uzkurt, the sides exchanged views on the existing cooperation and prospects for expanding relations.

The innovations in the activity of each of the parties, the issues of support and services which are rendered to SMEs were discussed, and information on upcoming projects and other issues was provided.

Then a round table was organized with the participation of representatives of the Azerbaijani Agency for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises, KOSGEB, the Turkish Independent Industrialists and Businessmens Association (MUSIAD), the Turkey and Azerbaijan Businessmen and Industrialists Public Union (TUIB), entrepreneurial associations, as well as the entrepreneurs involved in industrial, banking, construction, sales and production of food.

During the visit, the KOSGEB delegation will hold the meetings at the Ministry of Economy, the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) and other structures.
Professor Frank Steglich, Director emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden, is awarded the Fritz London Memorial Prize.

The pioneering work for which Professor Steglich is honored is his profound contribution to the development of the field of superconductivity. The so-called heavy fermion superconductors, first brought to prominence by Professor Steglich's 1979 work on CeCu2Si2, were immediately recognized to lie outside the paradigms laid down in the famous 1957 theory of Bardeen, Cooper and Schrieffer. Their discovery led quickly to that of several other important classes of superconductors with equally unconventional properties. The resulting revolution in our understanding of superconductivity can therefore be sourced back to the remarkable research of Professor Steglich and the other pioneers of heavy fermion superconductivity. Fritz London was renowned for his own, earlier, contributions to the field of superconductivity, so it is particularly appropriate for Professor Steglich to be a winner of the prize named for him. We offer our warmest congratulations to Frank for this richly deserved recognition.

The award ceremony will take place during the 29th International Low Temperature Physics Conference (LT29) in August 2020 in Sapporo, Japan.

Established in 1957, the Fritz London Memorial Prize is awarded every three years and honors outstanding experimental and theoretical achievements in the field of low temperature physics.

The research at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (MPI CPfS) in Dresden aims to discover and understand new materials with unusual properties.

In close cooperation, chemists and physicists (including chemists working on synthesis, experimentalists and theoreticians) use the most modern tools and methods to examine how the chemical composition and arrangement of atoms, as well as external forces, affect the magnetic, electronic and chemical properties of the compounds.

New quantum materials, physical phenomena and materials for energy conversion are the result of this interdisciplinary collaboration.

The MPI CPfS is part of the Max Planck Society and was founded in 1995 in Dresden. It consists of around 280 employees, of which about 180 are scientists, including 70 doctoral students.

###
Aligarh, Feb 28 : The police in Aligarh has issued prohibitory notices to 4,000 people, restricting their movement and warning them of action if there was any trouble in the Uttar Pradesh town on Friday.

The police have issued notices to 200 people with a criminal background under Section 110 (G) of the CrPc and initiated process of the Goonda Act against 50 persons.

Besides, around 100 arms license holders, who are residents of Shahjamal, Jamalpur and Jeevangarh areas, where protests are going on, have been issued warning notices, threatening cancellations of their licenses, if they were seen at the protest sites.

Aligarh SSP, Muniraj G, said that 'red notices' had been issued to 2,000 anti-social elements, informing them about restrictions on their movement and 2,000 others were issued notices under section 107/116 of the CrPC asking them to sign bonds wherein they would undertake not to breach peace.

He said the police was on high alert and patrolling on highways has been intensified in view of the violence in the national capital.

"Additional police force -- nine companies of PAC and four companies of RAF -- along with three additional SPs, eight deputy SPs and eight station house officers (SHO) of neighbouring districts have already been deployed in Aligarh as a precautionary measure," the SSP added.

He further said that non-lethal weapons including anti-riot guns, tear gas guns and tear gas grenades, have been distributed at the police stations falling in the sensitive areas.

Police have identified eight spots in the town which fall in sensitive areas and organised meetings with local leaders to maintain peace.

Internet services that had been suspended in Aligarh following violent clashes between anti-CAA protesters and the police on Sunday, remain suspended.
Asked to help with a news segment on floral arrangements, she was apparently as artful as the flowers she put together. The TV station hired her, and she was soon working as an announcer, weather girl and de facto home economics correspondent. Within six months, by her count, she had her own talk show and was on her way to becoming that wholesomely beautiful blonde darling of television, as the Chicago Tribune called her in 1958.
A Ukrainian woman who returned from Italy with suspected coronavirus appeared not to have a dangerous infection. The press office of the Center for Public Health (CPH) reported that.

It is also reported that according to the results of laboratory diagnostics by the virological reference laboratory of the Center for Public Health of Ukraine, no coronavirus was detected in any of the four samples. The health center noted that the citizen of Ukraine who returned from Italy, and the person from her environment, did not have the coronavirus symptoms. Two people from Dolyatin, Chernivtsi region also had negative results.

The State Border Service reported that activities are ongoing at the border and additional measures are being taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

"Yesterday, a woman who had a fever was found at a Boryspil airport on a flight from Italy. She didnt conceal this, and she noted that she was feeling ill. She was transferred to medical workers and sent to one of the medical institutions in Kyiv. As far as I know that this is not a coronavirus disease, but an ordinary respiratory disease, State Border Service speaker Andriy Demchenko said in a comment to 112 Ukraine TV channel.

He also noted that throughout the entire state border, the necessary measures are being taken to identify patients with coronavirus.

We managed to mobilize all our forces to provide the checkpoints with the necessary instruments for measuring temperature and personal protective equipment for personnel. Since February 25, 160 thousand people who were traveling to Ukraine have been temperature-screened, - Demchenko said.

As we reported before, Ukraine is considering evacuating its citizens from Japan. Deputy Minister of Healthcare and Chief Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko said so during a briefing.
The Uttar Pradesh Assembly was on Friday abruptly adjourned a week ahead of schedule with the BJP-majority House passing the state Budget without a detailed department-by-department discussion, a move protested by the Opposition.

The House was earlier supposed to continue till March 6. But a revised schedule brought up by the government scrapped the remaining sittings of the session.

The Budget presented in the assembly on February 18 was passed by voice vote, before Speaker Hriday Narayan Dikshit adjourned the session sine die.

The opposition accused the government of running away from a thorough discussion of the budgetary provisions.

Some opposition members continued to remain in the assembly chamber as a mark of protest even after the House was adjourned.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As the coronavirus spreads around the world, the Chinese government is fighting a war on two fronts: one against the virus itself and one against the truth. Beijing is desperate to protect its own image by shaping the narrative around the virus and its origins. But the time has come for the international community to demand Beijing end its war on the truth so we can work together to contain the epidemic.
President Trump defended his huge CDC budget cuts during a press conference on the federal government's response to the coronavirus.

"I'm a businessperson. I don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them," Trump said. "When we need them, we can get them back very quickly."

Experts said restoring funding to a government agency could be a cumbersome process, which requires an act from Congress that needs to be signed into law.

The White House has spent two years cutting the CDC's budget.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump defended his huge budget cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during a Wednesday press conference on the federal government's response to the coronavirus.

He said it was easy to bolster the public-health agency and cited his business approach toward running the federal government.

"I'm a businessperson. I don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them," Trump said. "When we need them, we can get them back very quickly."

The president said some of the experts targeted by the cuts "hadn't been used for many years" and that additional federal money and new medical staffers could be obtained swiftly since "we know all the good people."

President Donald Trump.

Associated Press

The remarks came as CDC experts warned that the virus' spread in the US was "inevitable" and urged Americans to prepare. But the Trump administration has spent the past two years cutting critical positions and gutting programs, which health experts said weakened the federal government's ability to manage a health crisis.

In 2018, the White House eliminated a position on the National Security Council tasked with coordinating a global pandemic response. The CDC that same year also axed 80% of its efforts to combat disease outbreaks overseas because its funds were depleted.

In its latest budget proposal, the Trump administration proposed a 16% cut to CDC funding  even as Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar seeks emergency spending from lawmakers to combat the coronavirus.

Story continues

It has spread to at least 47 countries so far after originating in China. Europe has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus. The US has 60 confirmed cases so far, though the vast majority of them came from infections overseas.

Jen Kates, the director of the Global Health and HIV Policy Program at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said in an email to Business Insider that the latest round of proposed budget cuts "would certainly hamper the work of the agency."

She said CDC has "already been grappling with tight resources for addressing the nation's public health, as well as domestic and global health security threats."

"To date, such funding has been episodic, typically coming only after outbreaks hit a tipping point and rarely being enough to shore up resources in the long run," Kates said.

Other experts elaborated on the cumbersome process to shore up a government agency that's been battered by rounds of budget cuts.

Don Moynihan, a public-management professor at Georgetown University, said in a tweet that "once you have gutted institutional capacity you cannot, in fact, quickly restore it."

Appropriating federal money to the CDC would require a bill from Congress that passes both chambers and gets Trump's signature, Bobby Kogan, the chief mathematician for the Senate Budget Committee, said.

"In addition to requiring a new law to be passed to hire people, you have to actually, you know, spend the time to hire people," Kogan said in a tweet.

Business Insider
(@FahadShabbir)

Austria opposes Washington's sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for carrying Russian gas to Europe, and hopes that the construction will be completed despite the restrictions, Austrian Ambassador to Moscow Johannes Eigner has said in an interview with Sputnik

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2020) Austria opposes Washington's sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for carrying Russian gas to Europe, and hopes that the construction will be completed despite the restrictions, Austrian Ambassador to Moscow Johannes Eigner has said in an interview with Sputnik.

The Swiss company of Allseas suspended pipe laying in December, after Washington imposed the sanctions and called on all the engaged firms to immediately stop construction-related activities. However, Moscow has repeatedly pledged that the pipeline will be completed, albeit with a delay.

"Austria supports the Nord Stream 2 project, as it is considered important for reliable and efficient gas delivery, and, therefore, for the European energy security. We assume that it will be completed despite the US sanctions," Eigner said.

At the same time, he stressed that the project was implemented with the participation of Austrian energy company OMV, not the Austrian government.

"From Austria's point of view, this means increasing energy security of all the European countries. Russia plays an important role as an energy supplier. Since 1968, it has been reliably providing energy to Austria. Our country has a negative attitude to extraterritorial sanctions in general," Eigner added.

The Nord Stream 2 is a joint venture between Russia's Gazprom and five European companies. The 745-mile-long twin pipeline will carry up to 1.942 trillion cubic feet of gas per year from Russia to Germany through the territorial waters or exclusive economic zones of Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia and Sweden. Washington has been long opposing the project, while trying to promote its liquefied natural gas to the European market.
Chinese nationals Hu Jun, 38, and his wife Shi Sha, 36, who were charged under the Infectious Diseases Act, walking outside the State Courts building on 28 February 2020. (PHOTOS: Wan Ting Koh/Yahoo News Singapore)

SINGAPORE  Two Chinese nationals were charged under the Infectious Diseases Act on Friday (28 February) amid efforts by authorities to carry out contact tracing and implement quarantine orders during the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

Both Chinese nationals, Hu Jun, 38, is from Wuhan while his wife Shi Sha, 36, resides in Singapore.

Hu, who was announced by the Ministry of Health on 31 January as Case 16, arrived in Singapore on 22 January and was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 on 31 January.

He developed symptoms on 23 January and then reported to the authorities that he had stayed at his home at Nathan Road until 29 January, when he took a taxi to Singapore General Hospital. He was then warded in an isolation room there. He fully recovered from the infection and was discharged from hospital on 20 February.

Shi had been identified as a close contact of Hu and was issued a quarantine order on 1 February.

Hu was charged with giving false information under the Act to Poh Cuiqin, a Ministry of Health officer, on 1 February. He was required to provide information on his whereabouts between 22 and 29 January. He allegedly lied to Poh that apart from a dinner at Ion Orchard and a walkabout in his neighbourhood of Loft@Nathan in Nathan Road, he had otherwise stayed indoors at his residence.

Shi faces a total of four charges. On two of the charges, she was required to inform Georgina Lim, a Ministry of Health officer, about the mode of transport that she and her husband took to the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) on 29 January 2020 and allegedly lied to Lim on 3 February that she flagged a blue taxi outside their home for the couple to go to SGH. She is also accused of giving false information to Lim on 30 January on the whereabouts and activities of Hu between 22 and 29 January, and lying on 1 February that she had not stayed at a hotel while she was required to be isolated at home under a quarantine order.

After the couple were charged, Hu left the State Courts and was spotted wearing a surgical mask and a pair of sunglasses. He drew up the hood of his jacket while he exited.

Story continues

Shi left the building about half an hour later, accompanied by their lawyer Chung Ting Fai, and walked in an opposite direction from her husband. She was wearing a surgical mask, a pair of sunglasses and a sun hat and kept her head bowed while she walked behind Chung.

The couple were the first to be charged under the Act since the authorities said they would strictly enforce measures and sanctions to curb the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak.

MOH said that it initiates contact tracing to identify individuals who may have been exposed to a case that contracted the virus while he or she is symptomatic. Close contacts are monitored closely and may be quarantined, so that they can be identified and treated early if they develop the disease.

MOH was able to establish the couples actual movements through detailed investigations. In view of the potentially serious repercussions and the risk they could have posed to public health, MOH served the couple charges on Tuesday.

As of Thursday night, there have been 96 cases of the COVID-19 virus in Singapore, with 66 discharged.

MOH has identified and quarantined 2,887 close contacts. While 2,642 of these have completed their quarantine, 245 still remain in quarantine.

Any person convicted of an offence under the Infectious Diseases Act is liable to a fine of up to $10,000 or to a jail term not exceeding six months, or to both, for the first offence.

The couple will return to court for the next mention of their case on 20 March.

Related stories

COVID-19: Singapore confirms 3 new cases including Raffles Institution student; total at 96

COVID-19: MHA seeks to ban Singapore branch of controversial Korean church

President, political office holders to take 1 month pay cut: DPM Heng
While the long school break due to the coronavirus outbreak has inconvenienced people, parents are divided about sending their children back to school.

With schools set to reopen on March 2 unless the government again postpones it, Nguyen Thanh Son, 34, of Hanoi's Long Bien District is looking forward to sending his six-year-old daughter to school.

"I know it is a tough call for the authorities, but kids should revert to their normal lives and so should their parents," he said.

For the last four weeks he had sent his daughter to his sister's house while he and his wife went to work.

The child, who had been initially excited about the extended break, is now longing to see her teachers and friends.

But Sons wife will have nothing of it and insists on keeping her daughter at home because "the virus is still around."

Similar scenes are playing out all over the country as people are sharply divided on how long they should keep their children at home amid the Covid-19 epidemic, which forced educational authorities to close schools in February and made it difficult for people to take care of their children.

On Thursday the Ministry of Education and Training said schools could close for two more weeks, but education authorities in most provinces have yet to announce a final decision.

Many parents cannot wait for schools to open since the end of the unexpected long break will put an end to the month-long upheaval in their daily routine.

Tran Thuy Chi, an accountant living in Ho Chi Minh City's Phu Nhuan District, has struggled with her nine-year-old son. She had sent him to her mother's house in Long An Province for a week after the Lunar New Year break (from January 23-26).

"He cried every night, saying his misses my husband and me, and I had to bring him home," the 40-year-old said with a sigh.

She and An, her husband, have been taking turns to stay at home and take care of him, which has affected their finances, she said.

They both hope their son's school will open at the earliest. She said it should be safe to send kids to school since all 16 Covid-19 patients in Vietnam have recovered.

Most parents do not know what to do with their bored children who cannot go out because of the infection fears.

Some educational institutions have resorted to online classes, but this has limitations due to the lack of Internet access and the need for great self-motivation among children.

"The unexpected break has made them (children) forget their studies," hotelier Nguyen Quang of Hanoi said, adding he could not take his daughter anywhere either because the virus threat still loomed.

The current break would force students to go to school in summer, which is normally "too hot" for any activity, he lamented.

A number of people insisted that the extended break was unnecessary since Vietnam has had no deaths from Covid-19.

"Just tell the kids about preventive measures and make sure the schools are cleaned, and they will be safe," Ta Quang Van, who works for a paper company in Hanoi, said.

Phan Trong Lan, head of the HCMC Pasteur Institute, concurred saying it would be safer for children at school.

Nguyen Minh Thuyet, head of the National Assemblys Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, was also in favour of letting children return to school because closing them while the epidemic was under control "may send a wrong signal about the disease, confusing the public."

Besides, the long break could affect students mental health and their parents jobs as well as society, he said.

Butterflies in stomach

Not believing that the epidemic is over, especially with South Korea being severely hit by the virus and a huge number of Koreans living in Vietnam, many people in Hanoi and HCMC insist on keeping their children at home for a bit longer.

"Even if they open the school next week, of course I will keep my daughter at home; she is only 6," Tran Hoa My, a lecturer at a HCMC university, said.

"They say the situation is under control, but it does not mean the virus is eliminated and the kids face no risk." She supports the ministry proposal to close primary and secondary schools for two more weeks.

Knowing that her 15-year-old son may have to return to school next week, Truong Anh Dao, 47, spoke to the parents of some other children in his class at Nguyen Trai High School, and they all wondered who could guarantee that students or their family members have not had contact with infected people.

Children should only go to school when it is safe and parents feel at ease, Dao said though her son, Viet, complains about missing his friends.

The parents of some of Viet's classmates said they would decide when their children would return to school and not the authorities.

In HCMC, Bui Thi Kim Anh, 42, has taken a similar stand. "Thousands of kids in a school and who knows if some of them had contact with South Koreans."

Huynh Thanh Phu, principal of Nguyen Du High School in the citys District 10, said: "We are ready for students to return. But we cannot deny that we are also nervous and afraid."

Nguyen Vinh Hien, a former deputy education minister, does not feel it is safe to send children to school.

Though the epidemic is under control, it is still a threat and authorities should consider letting students stay at home in March if necessary, he said.

As of Friday the decision to reopen in many provinces and cities is still up in the air.

While some people believe that the situation is good enough for their children to go to school, others are not convinced.

"What is worse: the fact the virus may kill you or that the long break is boring?" Dao asked her son, who is happy his school might open next week.
New York, Feb 28 : In a bizarre incident, a 17-year-old High School student got his Twitter account verified as a fake Republican candidate for 2020 US Presidential election.

According to a CNN report on Friday, the student created a fake profiler as Andrew Walz who called himself a "proven business leader" and a "passionate advocate for students." Walz, a Republican from Rhode Island, is running for Congress with the tagline, 'Let's make change in Washington together".

"Earlier this month, Walz's account received a coveted blue checkmark from Twitter as part of the company's broader push to verify the authenticity of many Senate, House and gubernatorial candidates currently running for office," said the report.

The student was quoted as saying that he was "bored" over the holidays and created the fake account to test Twitter's election integrity efforts.

It took the student about 20 minutes to create a website for his fake candidate and five minutes to make the Twitter account.

Twitter suspended the account when alerted.

"The creation of a fake candidate account is in violation of our rules and the account has been permanently suspended," a Twitter spokesperson was quoted as saying.

According to a report, the fact that a teenager "was able to quickly create a fake candidate in his free time and get it verified by Twitter raises questions about the company's preparedness for handling how the 2020 elections will play out on its platform".

Twitter announced in December that it would give a blue checkmark to verify all 2020 congressional and gubernatorial candidates.

"I want Twitter to succeed. I love Twitter. I think it's a great platform and I've learned so much from it," the student was quoted as saying.

The blue verified badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic.

Introduced in 2009, initially, the blue check mark distinction was bestowed primarily on celebrities, athletes and public figures to check impersonators.

The badge was later rolled out to journalists and other users. To obtain a verified check mark, users have to apply with a reason for why they need one.
Donald Trump has used a racial slur against Elizabeth Warren, referring to her as Pocahontas during a White House reception for leading members of the African American community.

The president has frequently been criticised for using the word to refer to the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, mocking her over her claim to have native ancestry. The National Congress of American Indians has previously condemned Mr Trump for using the term.

Mr Trump used the word again at a White House reception for leading members of the black community to mark African American History Month.

The First Lady and I are thrilled to welcome you to the White House as we proudly celebrate African-American History Month, the president said, according to a pool report issued by the White House.

In every generation, African Americans have enriched our culture, deepened our faith, strengthened our communities, sustained our values, raised up our conscience, and called our nation to greatness.

He added: Throughout our history, African-American citizens have battled for equality, justice, and liberty. We revere freedom fighters like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and Thurgood Marshall.

But the report noted that after delivering his opening comments, Mr Trump quickly returned to election campaign mode, mentioning his pardon of Angela Stanton-King and criminal justice reform.

He also talked about having the best ever black employment numbers, and then talked about his administrations plans for dealing with coronavirus. He complained that he received no credit for it from the media.

 Donald Trump calls Elizabeth Warren 'Pocahontas' in front of Native American veterans

The report said Mr Trump and talked about a rally Ms Warren held where the crowd was smaller than at one he held. He referred to the 70-year-old Democratic hopeful as Pocahontas, the report said.

After his remarks, Mr Trump asked everyone at the table to introduce themselves. Everyone had praise for the president and for helping on issues of importance to them. A few, particularly Bruce LeVell and Candace Owens, had longer remarks critical of the media and Democrats.

You lose a fortune being president, Mr Trump said, adding he given up his $400K presidential salary.

The president also took a dig at former vice president Joe Biden, and said he often mixed up the names of states.

He claimed if he did the same, it would be career ending.

He added: I never get credit for anything.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2020) - Chesapeake Gold Corp. (TSXV: CKG) (OTCQX: CHPGF) ("Chesapeake" or the "Company") is pleased to provide a further update on the exploration program at its Crisy and San Javier prospects in Durango State, Mexico. Crisy and San Javier are located 15 kilometers south and 12 kilometers southeast, respectively, of Chesapeake's world-class Metates Project. Metates hosts one of the largest undeveloped gold, silver and zinc reserves in the world.

Crisy and San Javier were discovered in 2019 during a generative regional exploration program. The area covering both prospects contains several zones of gold-silver mineralization which have developed along regional, deep-seated northwest-trending fault zones. Mineralization is associated with intermediate intrusive rocks that have altered the enclosing sedimentary rocks over an area more than 15 kilometers in diameter.

Crisy Prospect

Since early January, Chesapeake has completed four additional bulldozer trenches totaling 350 meters in length at Crisy. The new trenches were excavated to the southeast of the previously reported trenches (see CKG NR6-2019) and confirm that mineralization extends 300 meters further along strike and beyond. Bulldozer trenching has defined a mineralized area that extends across a ridgeline and measures 600 meters along strike, up to 200 meters in width and at least 150 meters vertically along the predominant northwest-southeast trend.

Channel samples across quartz breccia veins from the new bulldozer trenches returned the following results:

57 meters of 1.1 g/t gold and 10 g/t silver

11 meters of 1.0 g/t gold and 10 g/t silver

12 meters of 1.1 g/t gold and 33 g/t silver

7 meters of 2.2 g/t gold and 29 g/t silver

An initial 15 kilometer Induced Polarization and Resistivity Survey ("IP Survey") is underway at Crisy over the area of the bulldozer trenches and covers a further 500 meters to the southeast. Preliminary IP results correlate well with the known gold-silver mineralized zones identified by trenching and suggest the outcropping quartz breccia zones extend to over 200 meters depth. The geophysics also indicates the IP anomaly continues along strike to the southeast limit of the survey grid and remains open.

The IP Survey also defined a large, northwest-southeast trending high chargeability anomaly about 200 meters to the southwest of the bulldozer trenching. The blind IP anomaly indicates a target more than 500 meters wide and 500 meters long. Surface samples from limited outcrops in the anomalous area returned 4 meters of 1.2 g/t gold, and 5 meters of 1.0 g/t gold and 13 g/t silver. Bulldozer trenching is planned to test this promising area of coincident mineralization and geophysical anomalies.

Four kilometers to the northwest of the area of bulldozer trenching and along the same structural system, another significant target area has been identified. This area hosts multiple quartz structures within a corridor over 800 meters long, 200 meters wide and with 150 meters of vertical extent. Individual quartz veins and en echelon zones range from 1 to 12 meters in width with assay values of 9 meters of 1.0 g/t gold, 2 meters of 2.7 g/t gold and 10 g/t silver, 2 meters of 1.7 g/t gold, 12 meters of 0.8 g/t gold and 1.3 meters of 3.1 g/t gold and 10 g/t silver.

Regional exploration has now identified several distinct target areas hosting quartz veins, breccia and local stockwork along the 7 kilometer long hydrothermal system at Crisy. Systematic exploration including detailed geological mapping, sampling, mechanized trenching and geophysical surveys continues to advance and prioritize targets for drilling. Given the results obtained to date, Crisy is developing into a potential multiple deposit, camp-sized project.

San Javier Prospect

The San Javier prospect is located 7 kilometers northeast of Crisy and is associated with the same regional intrusive that generated distinct hydrothermal systems and associated gold-silver prospects. Follow-up exploration at San Javier West discovered a northeast trending high grade gold-silver quartz vein structure in addition to the northwest striking system reported last year (see CKG NR5-2019). The north-east trending structure has been traced for 1200 meters along strike, over 300 meters in elevation and intersects near the mid-point of the northwest-trending vein system. Both mineralized structures host quartz vein and quartz breccia within highly altered intermediate intrusive rocks and lesser sandstone and mudstone and remain open along strike.

Channel samples from the northeast trending structure returned the following results:

2.8 meters of 9.6 g/t gold and 143 g/t silver

1.0 meters of 3.3 g/t gold and 391 g/t silver

1.4 meters of 2.3 g/t gold and 18 g/t silver

1.0 meters of 2.1 g/t gold and 113 g/t silver

Exploration continues at San Javier West with IP surveys and mechanized trenching to test the potential for disseminated and stockwork type mineralization hosted within highly altered intrusive rocks and bulk minable mineralization associated with structural intersections. The work program will also evaluate the geological and structural relationship of San Javier West with the quartz stockworks of San Javier North (60 meters of 71 g/t silver) and the disseminated mineralization of San Javier South (48 m of 1.0 g/t gold) (see CKG NR5-2019).

Presently, Chesapeake is well funded with $17.5 million in cash and marketable securities.

ALS Global was the analytical laboratory used for the samples included in this release. The samples were crushed and ground at ALS facilities in Zacatecas, Mexico and a representative sample split was sent to Vancouver, Canada for assaying using ALS methods Au-ICP21 and ME-ICP61.

Alberto Galicia, P. Geo, Vice President Exploration for Chesapeake and a Qualified Person as defined by NI43-101, has reviewed the technical information in this release.

For more information on Chesapeake and its Metates Project and regional exploration program, please visit our website at www.chesapeakegold.com or contact investor relations at 604-731-1094.

CHESAPEAKE GOLD CORP

"P. Randy Reifel"



P. Randy Reifel

President

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Such forward looking statements and information herein include, but are not limited to, statements regarding prospective gold, silver and related metal production, timing and expenditures to explore and develop prospective mineral properties, gold, silver and related metal resources, grades and recoveries, cash costs per ounce, capital and operating expenditures and sustaining capital and the ability to fund mine development. The Company does not intend to, and does not assume any obligation to update such forward-looking statements or information, other than as required by applicable law. Forward-looking statements or information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Chesapeake and its operations to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Such factors include, among others: ability to finance mine development, fluctuations in the prices of gold, silver and zinc, fluctuations in the currency markets (particularly the Mexican peso, Canadian dollar and U.S. dollar); changes in national and local governments, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments in Canada and Mexico; operating or technical difficulties in mineral exploration, development and mining activities; risks and hazards of mineral exploration, development and mining(including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected geological conditions, pressures, cave-ins and flooding);inadequate insurance, or inability to obtain insurance; availability of and costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, diminishing quantities or grades of mineral reserves as properties are mined; risks in obtaining necessary licenses and permits, and challenges to the Company's title to properties. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or information, there may be other factors that cause results to be materially different from those anticipated, described, estimated, assessed or intended. There can be no assurance that any forward- looking statements or information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements or information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/52943
CHANDIGARH Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia and 11 party MLAs were detained when they were protesting outside Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badals house in Sector 2 here on Friday morning, just before the latter was to leave for Vidhan Sabha to present the state budget.

As per police officials privy to the matter, SAD legislators were accompanied by family members of the farmers who had committed suicide due to debts. The protesters blocked the passage to Manpreets house in an attempt to prevent him from reaching the VIdhan Sabha.

As the passage of the ministers house was blocked, Manpreet got late in reaching the House. After parliamentary affairs minister Brahm Mohindra informed the speaker Rana KP Singh about the reason behind the delay in ministers arrival, the speaker declared that he will talk to the administration.

A heavy force from Sectors 3 and 17 police stations led by Chandigarh SSP was sent to the spot to lift the blockade and 80 odd protesters were detained.

Later, Mohindra moved a privilege motion against the SAD MLAs for blocking finance ministers route and the move was also supported by the AAP members.

As per police, Majithia was taken to the Sector 17 police station, while 11 MLAs were taken to the Sector 3 police station. They were released around 3pm.

Former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal also visited the Sector 3 police station to extend solidarity with the MLAs and the farm suicide victims families and said it was shocking that the family members of the farmer suicide victim families were thrashed by the police. Such an incident has never happened in the history of the State, he said, adding all they wanted was an audience with the finance minister.

The families had approached the SAD-BJP legislative wing to help them in their cause and we joined the families at the spot. Repeated messages were sent to the finance minister to listen to their grievances but instead of doing that, he unleashed the police as well as his own gunmen on them and SAD-BJP legislators, said Majithia.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Supreme Court on Friday expressed its anxiety on lives being endangered due to hydroelectric projects and batted for sustainable models for generating electricity.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant observed: "There is a need for power and there is also need for protecting the lives of the people." The observation from the top court came on GMR's application on resuming the construction of Alaknanda Hydro Electric Project in Uttarakhand, suspended since May 7, 2014 in Uttarakhand, following the 2013 flood in the region. The state government said the project is benign and it is extremely essential for a region, which has become power deficit from power surplus.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing intervener Emmanuel Theophilus, an environmentalist in the state, opposed the construction of this project, as the project may have harrowing impact on local livelihoods and aquatic biodiversity. He insisted the government, instead of investing in large-scale hydro projects, should explore alternative forms of energy - wind and solar.

The top court observed that it is a natural tendency of the state governments to grab projects, and maybe the government considers these projects in public interest.

The Chief Justice asked the government if it could consider relocating the power project.

The Chief Justice also queried the counsel for the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF). "You, as a national body, could look at the overall requirement, which includes power requirements and additional cost etc. Consider relocating it. Power can be transmitted across the states and countries." The Chief Justice cited the adverse effects of illegal sand mining in Kerala. "You know what happened in Kerala, there is something called sand mining, which eroded the bed of the river. That mud does not go down, instead it piles up then it is problem in Periyar River... Our anxiety is for the lives, and they should not be endangered (in hydro projects)," he said.

The top court said if it is necessary to relocate then the Centre could request the state government, as there is a larger interest to guard the interests of the people.

"We are not talking about abandoning it, instead suggesting relocating (the project)." The counsel for GMR, however, insisted the project of national importance is lying stranded and it is in the public interest - environmentally and economically.

The counsel for the private parties, involved in hydro projects in the state, said the idea of relocation may not succeed. The state government counsel reiterated it was power surplus, but not anymore.

Bhushan contended that wind and solar efficiency is increasing, and the usage of energy efficient devices is also increasing, therefore, the state government should explore wind energy and solar energy. Citing the usage of renewable energy, the Chief Justice suggested: "This thermal power plant should be stopped, you cannot breathe in that city." The top court also emphasized on adopting energy models which comply with principles of sustainable development. The MoEF has insisted that the entire Ganga River Basin is a seismic zone and no adverse construction should be carried out to make it unstable. The top court has asked the MoEF to file a detailed reply and adjourned the matter for four weeks.
WARSAW, Poland, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Forteam Investments Ltd., an investment company owned by American private equity firm Delta Capital, has successfully obtained a preliminary injunction against Mariusz Switalski, and companies he controls which belong to the Sowiniec Group, resulting in the freezing of their assets. The preliminary injunction was obtained in anticipation of further civil proceedings against Mr. Switalski arising as a result of his breach of a Guarantee Agreement executed for the benefit of Forteam in connection with its acquisition of Malpka Express from Czerwona Torebka S.A., a company controlled by Switalski.

In 2015, when Forteam purchased Malpka Express, Switalski and the Sowiniec Group entered into a Guarantee Agreement, which effectively guaranteed Forteam a minimum sales price if it subsequently sold Malpka Express. Such guarantee was required by Forteam to enter the acquisition. When Forteam attempted to sell Malpka Express in 2018 it was unable to obtain consideration at or above the minimum sales price despite engaging a respected independent investment bank to run a robust sales process. Accordingly, Forteam notified Switalski on December 28, 2018 of their obligations to remit the monies owed to Forteam pursuant to the Guarantee Agreement. Notwithstanding, Switalski and the companies have failed to pay any amounts due and owing Forteam, which in-turn necessitated the filing of the injunction and pending civil lawsuits.

Delta's CEO, Christopher DeLise, said, "Switalski fully appreciated that the issuance of the guarantee was a material inducement for Forteam to consummate the purchase of his business, and he knowingly and voluntarily issued it in order to be paid millions of dollars. As such, we expect him to do not only what he is legally required to do, but what honor now demands: pay the amounts owed under the guarantee."

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By PTI

WASHINGTON: The US has urged India to "protect and respect" the right to peaceful assembly of people and hold accountable those perpetrating violence following the Delhi riots over the amended citizenship act, saying that Washington has raised the issue at the highest level with New Delhi.

The Comments came as Delhi this week witnessed worst riots in more than three decades, killing 38 people and injuring 200 others.

The communal clashes began in northeast Delhi over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and spiralled into bloodshed.

The Indian Parliament had passed CAA last year, resulting in a series of protests across the country.

According to the CAA, members of the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 following religious persecution there will get Indian citizenship.

ALSO READ: Delhi gets new Police Commissioner; SN Srivastava replaces Amulya Patnaik over riots

The Indian government has been emphasising that the new law will not deny citizenship rights, but it has been brought to protect the oppressed minorities of neighbouring countries and give them citizenship.

"We strongly condemn the recent violence and urge authorities to protect and respect the right of peaceful assembly and hold accountable those perpetrating violence. We call on all parties to maintain peace and refrain from violence," a State Department spokesperson told PTI.

"We have raised these issues at the highest levels and continue to engage the Government of India on issues related to religious freedom," the official said responding to a question.

Underlining that respect for religious freedom and equal treatment under the law are fundamental principles of the two democracies, the official said, "We note Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for peace and the Indian government's pledge to prevent further violence and restore normalcy."

Modi appealed for calm and peace in Delhi on February 26.

"Peace and harmony are central to our ethos. I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood at all times. It is important that there is calm and normalcy is restored at the earliest," he tweeted.

Democrat Colin Allred said that a democracy is only made stronger by its inclusion and respect for the rights of minorities.

"India is the largest secular democracy in the world. This violence and suppression of Muslims' civil liberties undermines India's values and risks a wider conflict," Allred said.

ALSO READ: Families search for missing loved ones as Delhi limps back to normalcy

Democratic Party leader Bob Menendez, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, termed the violence as shocking and urged the Indian government to do more to defend all of its citizens' rights, including the right to peaceful protest.

He also condemned President Donald Trump's failure to "publicly voice concern" about the violence during his visit to India.

The clashes in the Indian capital erupted during Trump's two-day visit to India from February 24.

"The US must be a leading voice in standing up for democratic values and human rights, including the protection of religious minorities.

I urge the Trump Administration, and the rest of the international community, to condemn the violence in Delhi and press the Indian government to protect all persons in India regardless of their religion," he said.

Indian-American Neera Tanden, who heads the Center for American Progress think-tank said that "the violence against Muslims in India" is horrifying and destroys India's role as a beacon for democracy in Asia.

"The Modi government's actions have created this climate and it must put an end to this. India as we know it is changing for the worse before our eyes," Democrat Tanden said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in a statement, urged the US government to strongly condemn the violence in Delhi.

"The international community, including the US, must speak out against the growing sectarian attacks in India fuelled by anti-Muslim legislation and hate rhetoric emanating from the highest levels of Indian society," CAIR said.

In a statement, Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) expressed serious concern over the violence.

George Abraham, IOC vice-chairman, alleged that the inaction by the Delhi police is deeply troubling.

"The Indian Government should take stern action to ensure the security of all its citizens," he said.

Rajendar Display, IOC general secretary, hoped that the Modi government would concentrate on reviving the economy and addressing the issue of unemployment, especially amongst the educated, instead of raking up divisive issues.

He said that India could achieve progress only when there is peace and all communities work together.
CHARLESTON, S.C.  Democratic White House hopefuls are seizing on President Donald Trumps delayed response to the coronavirus outbreak, calling it the latest evidence of his incompetence and warning that the crisis may only deepen as a result.

But some experts and Democrats warn that the candidates risk exacerbating a public health crisis if they go too far in politicizing the virus that causes the COVID-19 illness.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar all went after Trump during their CNN town halls Wednesday night. A number of the candidates have released their own pandemic policies, and Bloomberg is even airing an ad contrasting Trumps response to the outbreak to his own handling of the aftermath of Sept. 11.

Its a potent political issue, as it gets at what Democrats see as two major potential weaknesses for Trump: questions about his competence as president and health care issues.

The threat from coronavirus and the chaos of the administration is front and center in everyones mind, said Jesse Ferguson, a longtime Democratic strategist and former spokesman for Hillary Clintons campaign. Not talking about it means youre missing voters who are deeply worried about the public health threat and deeply concerned about the Trump administrations incompetence.

Warren, Klobuchar and Bloomberg have all released public health plans detailing how theyd address and prevent similar outbreaks as president.

During their CNN town halls, Warren warned that the economic impact of the new coronavirus could get worse. She and Klobuchar slammed Trumps decision to put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the coronavirus response, noting his controversial handling of an HIV outbreak in Indiana when he was governor.

Biden has previously slammed Trump for hysterical xenophobia and fearmongering rather than respecting science on the issue.

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, another 2020 Democratic hopeful, issued a statement Thursday night calling for Trump to allow her state to buy COVID-19 testing kits from Japan. She said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was failing to provide them.

As an island state, with responsible leadership, we can keep this virus out. But, we wont be able to do that without our state and federal leaders taking it much more seriously than they are right now," she said.

But sounding the alarm on the administrations coronavirus response also holds risks. Florida Rep. Donna Shalala, who served as secretary of health and human services under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, had a stark warning for Democrats.

Dont open your mouth until you know what youre talking about. This is politics. They need to listen to the scientists as well, she said.

That is a major criticism Democrats have lobbed at Trump  that he has botched his response and fostered more confusion by publicly contradicting the scientists in his administration about the severity of the virus.

On Wednesday, the Republican president sought to minimize fears at a White House press conference in which he insisted the U.S. is very, very ready for an outbreak and predicted: This will end  theres no reason to be panicked. But standing next to him, the health officials in charge of handling the outbreak predicted more cases are coming in the U.S.

Democrats are not immune to the critique themselves, however. During Tuesday nights primary debate, both Biden and Bloomberg made the erroneous claim that Trump cut funding for the CDC. While Trump proposed cuts to the CDC in his budget blueprint, he was overruled by Congress, and the eventual budget he signed included an increase in funding.

Biden corrected his comments during Wednesday nights CNN town hall but went on to warn that Trump did not have a plan to deal with how you equip hospitals. Bloomberg, meanwhile, criticized Trump at a Houston rally on Thursday, accusing him of "burying his head in the sand" and charging that his failure to prepare is crippling our ability to respond."

But the public health system has a playbook to follow for pandemic preparation  regardless of whos president or whether specific instructions are coming from the White House. Those plans were put into place in anticipation of another flu pandemic but are designed to work for any respiratory-borne disease.

Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, warned that any time political ideology starts to dominate the dialogue, it puts the public at risk.

The history of good public health is that when things become politicized, we risk a good sound response and a response based on science and expertise, she said. This is a situation thats changing by the moment, and that makes it all the more delicate.

Kates warned that there should be some caution around not stoking panic and not using the partisan environment to steer away from basic public health messaging  but acknowledged that will be tough in a very partisan time, during campaign season.

Both parties are guilty of politicizing public health pandemics when theyre not the party in charge of the White House, she noted. During the Ebola outbreak in 2014, Republicans routinely slammed the Obama administration for similar critiques Trump is facing from Democrats  namely, that he was too slow to respond and didnt appoint an adviser to coordinate the governments response quickly enough.

But Kathleen Sebelius, who served as Obamas secretary of health and human services from 2009 to 2014, said Democrats have a lot more to criticize when it comes to Trumps response.

We have the components of what could be a perfect storm. Are there ways to deal with it calmly and rationally? You bet. Is the United States well prepared? It seems like there are some gaps, she said.

She pointed to the fact that the initial White House funding request was just a fraction of what had been allocated for past viral outbreaks like Ebola, and Trump himself has largely left it up to Congress to sort out the details. She also noted that a number of key positions set up by Obama to deal with global pandemics have now either been eliminated or left vacant, and she called out Trump for contradicting his own scientists on the severity of the threat.

Shalala agreed  but she warned Democrats to be careful to focus their critiques on the president and not the experts in the administration who are trying to tackle the crisis.

There are things that they can criticize, like the inadequate funding request and the president muddying the waters at his press conference, she said, but they shouldnt be criticizing the agency heads and the very good scientist physicians that are trying to do their jobs.

But some Democrats say the conversation around the coronavirus is fair game because it gets at a much broader issue for Trump: questions surrounding his leadership.

Electing a president isnt about a series of issue check boxes on a spreadsheet. Its about the publics confidence that you can lead the country, especially in times of crisis, Ferguson said. If we cant demonstrate the fundamental failure of this administration to lead in this crisis, then we are not talking about the thing that people think about when electing a president.
Exterior view of Constitution Health Plaza in South Philadelphia, PA, on February 26, 2020 after SafeHouse announces to open a supervised injection site in South Philadelphia after a federal judge offered a green light. (Google)

First Legal Drug-Injection Site in US Faces Backlash Before Opening

A nonprofit organizations plans to open the first U.S. facility where people can inject drugs legally under medical supervision faced harsh criticism from Philadelphia residents and the possibility of a court injunction, as the Department of Justice (DOJ) moved to appeal a ruling that deemed the facility legal.

Safehouse announced on Feb. 27 that it plans to open the facility in South Philadelphia as early as next week. Local residents and officials were outraged by the lack of consultation with the community.

You didnt even go out to the community and do it. You just put it there, Councilman Mark Squilla told officials at a press conference announcing the opening of the first Safehouse location, according to a video posted by journalist Denise Nakano.

Squilla pointed out that in Canada, a similar site was opened only after securing the support of local residents.

We have questions from people calling our offices, we dont know the answers and thats not fair, Squilla said. Whether you support the site or oppose the site, what was done here was horrible, a disgrace to the city of Philadelphia.

After a yearlong legal battle between the DOJ and Safehouse, a federal judge ruled in favor of Safehouse in October and again on Feb. 25. The DOJ swiftly filed an appeal the next day and asked the court to order to stay the opening until the appeal is resolved.

This request for a stay is critically important, U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain said in a statement. My Office filed suit against Safehouse in the first place to bring order, reason, and fairness to a potentially explosive situation. The current dispute over injection sites should be settled in the courts, not in the streets.

The sad fact is that Safehouses secretive, haphazard plan has not been vetted with any of the affected neighborhood residents, community groups, City Council members, State Representatives or State Senators. It is being unfairly foisted on them on the assumption that they dont matter. It is treating them like fools.

Safehouse told 6ABC that the site was chosen because the ZIP code had the third-highest rate of overdoses in Philadelphia.

We picked South Philly because we know the demand will be less than Kensington and with the funding we have that is manageable, Safehouses Ronda Goldfein told the network.

Judge Gerald McHugh articulated his reasons with Safehouse in an Oct. 2, 2019, opinion, writing that Safehouse ultimately aims to reduce drug use, not facilitate it. Thus, the judge said, the injection facility isnt in violation of a federal law that was written to address crack houses.

A local resident disrupted the Safehouse press conference with a passionate appeal against the facility.

You snuck it in. You blindsided us, the woman, who did not identify herself, said in a video posted by an NBC10 reporter. Are you going to clean our outside? I dont care about inside. I care about needles outside. I care about bags outside.

This is unacceptable and you were a sneak about it.

Goldfein, facing the angry local resident, said that Safehouse would answer questions from the locals during a future community meeting, according to McSwain.

Safehouse didnt respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Safehouse locations will be determined by community and city input, as well as data that show the areas where the greatest need exists. Safehouse considers it a priority to be a good neighbor, so locations will be selected in consultation with local leaders, businesses, and residents,  the organizations website states.

Overdose deaths in Philadelphia climbed to 1,217 in 2017 from 907 in 2016. Safehouse cites several studies on its website showing that legal injection facilities benefit both drug users and the communities where drug use occurs.
A Sonoma County sheriffs deputy who was expected to be fired has instead retired following the release of body-worn camera footage that shows he slammed the head of a carjacking victim and choked the man moments before his death.

Deputy Charles Blount submitted separation paperwork on Feb. 7 after he was placed on leave in connection to the Nov. 27 death of 52-year-old Petaluma resident David Glen Ward, sheriffs spokesman Sgt. Juan Valencia said Friday.

Deputies and officers surrounded Wards car after a seven-minute, 70-mph chase ended on a dead-end road south of Sebastopol and a struggle ensued to get Ward out of the car, according to the Santa Rosa Police Department, which is conducting an investigation into his death. Authorities werent initially aware the car they were chasing, which had been reported stolen, belonged to Ward.

Blounts departure wont change the findings of an active internal investigation, Valencia said.

Santa Rosa police are handling the criminal investigation into the death. Police spokesman Lt. Dan Marincik said no findings had yet been presented to prosecutors.

Blounts attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

In December, the Sheriffs Office released video footage captured by body-worn cameras that showed Ward being pulled through a car window by a deputy who punched him, choked him and slammed his face against the vehicle as a second deputy shocked him multiple times with a Taser.

In releasing the video, Sheriff Mark Essick identified the officer as Blount and said he intended to fire the deputy.

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.

I think it is fair to say for anybody who watches the video that it shocks the conscience, Essick told The Chronicle at the time, calling Blounts conduct unacceptable.

When this kind of conduct emerges, it is my job as a leader to call it out, Essick said.

Alejandro Serrano is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: alejandro.serrano@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @serrano_alej
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The death toll in the Delhi's communal violence has gone up to 42 now with four more fatalities being recorded at the city's GTB Hospital on Friday, officials said.

The number stood at 38 till Thursday.

The Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital has recorded 38 deaths, the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash hospital three, and the Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital has reported one.

Nearly 7,000 paramilitary personnel have been deployed in the affected areas of the northeast district since Monday to assist hundreds of Delhi police men and women to maintain peace.

More than 250 people have been injured in the communal clashes. The areas mainly affected include Jafrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh, Khureji Khas and Bhajanpura.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Kathmandu [Nepal], Feb 28 (ANI): With the outbreak of coronavirus showing no sign of abating, many mountain climbers have already started cancelling their expedition bookings. This is a cause of concern to the tour operators who will have to bear severe economic losses during the climbing season that lasts from March to May.



Pasang Sherpa, managing director at Pioneer Adventure Treks, said that seven Chinese members from his company dropped their plans to scale the world's highest peak from Nepal side this spring season, The Himalayan Times reported.

"Now, we can hardly expect climbers from China, Iran, South Korea, Japan and a few European countries, including Italy, among others," Damber Parajuli, president of Expedition Operators Association Nepal, said here on Thursday.

In addition, lack of government preparedness, as well as an action plan, has had an adverse impact on the country's tourism sector,

Rishi Bhandari, managing director at Satori Adventure, said that the Everest climbing season would certainly face a tough challenge if the government fails to introduce an immediate action plan to contain the COVID-19 threat.

"At least six Italian climbers who planned to scale Mt Everest from Tibet side have already cancelled their booking from my company," he informed.

Sources said that China would not be opening its Tibet route in the spring season to allow Nepali operators for Mt Everest, Cho Oyu and Sishapangma expeditions.

Nepal has already witnessed a two per cent drop in tourist arrivals in the first month of the visiting season this year.

Meera Acharya, director at the Department of Tourism, said that the government will soon hold discussions with the expedition operators and other concerned agencies about chalking out an action plan for the climbing season in spring.

In the last spring, the Department had collected a total of (Nepali) Rs 495 million from expedition royalty, including Rs 442 million from Everest expeditions. (ANI)


Those who seek perfection could become a great asset for the company. (Getty)

At face value, the idea of managing an employee seeking perfection sounds like a dream come true. They may be more likely to go that extra mile to reach a higher standard, dedicated and productive  and they may even boost the morale of those around them. If managed correctly, they may well be a great asset to a company.

The tendency to seek perfection is becoming more common. A study published in the journal Psychological Bulletin in 2018 analysed the data of more than 40,000 British, US and Canadian college students between the 1980s and 2016. The results showed todays students, compared to prior generations, are far harder on themselves, more demanding of others, and report higher levels of social pressure to be perfect.

Theres nothing wrong with striving to learn and improve your skills, problems can arise when perfectionists go too far. There is a fine line between healthy self-improvement and harmful self-criticism. Perfection can be damaging and lead to people obsessively chasing flawlessness, while leading us to be overly critical of ourselves and others. In many cases, it leads to huge internal pressure that can take its toll on mental health.

Perfectionism can be self-defeating, too. Making mistakes and learning from them is arguably one of the best ways to develop and progress in your career. By avoiding mistakes at all costs, an employee may never reach their own, potentially unrealistic goals.

Read more: Top tips for a job interview

Instead of managing their time and workloads effectively, perfectionists can become fixated on one project, spending hours on a piece of work and letting other commitments go by the wayside, Alan Price, CEO and HR expert at HR software firm, BrightHR. Perfectionists may also find it difficult to delegate, which may cause friction with other colleagues.

Work they have done themselves, or by colleagues, may never seem good enough and always need more tinkering before it can be considered complete, he says. Worryingly, by over-focusing on that last 2% of a project, perfectionists are placing themselves in danger of becoming stressed and anxious, something that could quickly progress to more serious mental health problems if left unchecked.

Story continues

So what is the best way to manage a perfectionist  and make the most of their desire to succeed?

When giving feedback, Price says perfectionists may find it challenging to accept negative comments. Feedback must focus on the positives on how they work as much as the comments for improvement, he advises. Perfectionists should be reminded that there is no such thing as a perfect piece of work, especially as they progress to more senior roles. Continuously striving to reach an impossible goal will only serve to hold them back, going forward.

If such conversations do prove challenging for both manager and employee, it may also be worth asking the individual themselves for how they would like to receive feedback to ascertain the best way of going about this.

It may help to have an honest, sensitive conversation with the employee to help them be more self-aware, too. Make sure you express your gratitude for their hard work and highlight times when their perfectionism has been beneficial to the company. Also point out any worries you may have about how much pressure they place on themselves or others too.

If you notice that the employee has spent too much time or is too focused on something, it may help to gently encourage them to move on.

There is no quick fix when it comes to helping a perfectionist do things differently. Instead, time and patience are necessary and may well lead to beneficial results.

Read more: When should you consider changing your job

After all, they should never just be expected to change; the best results will come from helping and encouraging them to. It is, therefore, always important that employers should bear in mind the strengths and limitations of their employees when assigning workloads, Price says.

If a project needs to be done quickly, it may be better to give it to another employee who is better at managing tight deadlines.

However, if a project does require a degree of time and scrutiny, it would likely be perfect for the perfectionist, he adds. By encouraging staff to play to their strengths, employers are more likely to see a happier, more fulfilled workforce that feels supported and nurtured in their roles.
Ukraine sets ambitious tasks in the visa dialogue with the United Kingdom as part of the elaboration of a new basic agreement on cooperation, free trade and partnership.

"It is known that London's dissatisfaction with the EU migration policy was one of the reasons for Brexit. The Johnson government radically reviews its visa and migration policy and significantly tightens border control. In these circumstances, we launch a visa dialogue with the United Kingdom with the view of creating comfortable travel conditions for our citizens. We set extremely ambitious tasks before ourselves and our partners. However, it will be possible to talk about concrete results only upon the completion of negotiations, not the onset," Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Vasyl Bodnar posted on Facebook.

As reported, on February 27, Ukraine launched formal negotiations with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on a new basic agreement on cooperation, free trade and partnership. Strategic partnership and visa dialogue are key elements of this document for Ukraine.

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The parents of a two-year-old boy with cancer are facing deportation to Mexico under the Trump administration after their grant of deferred action was denied.

Damaris Alameda Ramos and her husband Fabian Flores Aguirre applied for the grant, which allows migrant families to temporarily live and work in the country while they seek treatment for serious illnesses, so that they could continue to bring their son Fabian Flores Alameda to St Christophers Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, where he is receiving care.

The two year old, who, along with his sister, was born in the United States, was diagnosed with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) in April.

The disease, which causes masses of tissue to develop in the skull or on the arms and legs that can lead to fractures of the bones, requires the toddler to undergo chemotherapy. With the proper care, 80 per cent of those diagnosed with the disease can survive.

However, the family told The Philadelphia Inquirer that they were denied the grant on 11 November by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) - despite Ramos caring for her son full-time.

Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy Show all 8 1 /8 Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy Mishawaka, Indiana AP Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy Washington DC AFP/Getty Images Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy New York Mayor Bill De Blasio speaks in Tornillo, Texas alongside the many other US mayors who have called for detained immigrant children to be reunited with their families AP Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy Albuquerque Mayor Tim Kelle leaves a teddy bear as a gift for detained immigrant children in Tornillo, Texas AP Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti leave sandals as gifts for detained immigrant children in Tornillo, Texas AP Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy San Diego, California EPA Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy US embassy, Mexico City AFP/Getty Images Families belong together protests over Trump immigration policy San Diego, California EPA

Now, Fabians parents, who grew up in the town of Chiautzingo before entering the United States without permission, fear they will be deported to Mexico - where they believe Fabian wont be able to receive the proper treatment.

Living in Mexico will be a death sentence for my child, Ramos said. Aguirre reiterated the fear over his sons future, telling the outlet: I know my son would die if we were forced to return to Mexico.

Their fear stems from the lack of accessible medical care in their home country, with their hometown consisting of just one doctor at a small clinic.

According to the familys immigration lawyer, Audrey Allen, she believes the reason for the denial is completely political, because all five of the applications she has submitted in the state have been denied, whereas the two she submitted in New Jersey have been approved.

The familys denial comes after the Trump administration ended the deferment program in August before reinstating it a month later after public backlash.

While the program was restored, there are concerns that all deferment requests to the office are simply denied.

In a statement to the outlet, a spokesperson for Philadelphias USCIS said the agency gets about 1,000 requests a year, and that most of those requests are denied. The Independent has contacted the states USCIS department.

As of now, neither Ramos nor Aguirre has received a Notice to Appear, which would indicate the start of deportation proceedings.

But, without the protection afforded by the grant, the family fears what will happen in the future.
David Douglas High School crowned senior Michelle Le as its 2020 Rose Festival Court princess on Friday at the school. Active in student council and Communicare, Le plans to pursue a career as a pediatrician, studying biochemistry and biophysics at a four-year university.

The daughter of Mei Ling Leung and Thanh Le and sister to Michael Le, Michelle Le was born in Salt Lake City. She was one of four candidates at the school: Kiara Childers, Madison Hernandez and Amelia Kang, all seniors.

Each year, the Portland Rose Festival names up to 15 young women to its court. They receive one-on-one mentorship from women executives and a $3,500 scholarship provided by The Randall Group. Beginning the first week of May, the court travels together for five weeks, visiting community events, senior living centers, youth organizations and more.

David Douglas kicked things off with its Rose Festival Court ceremony Friday. The process continues Monday at Cleveland High School and will be complete March 20, when St. Marys Academy crowns its princess. The queen of the Rose Festival Court will be named June 6 just before the Grand Floral Parade takes to Portland streets.

Read more about David Douglas princess, as told to the Portland Rose Festival.

David Douglas crowned Michelle Le as its 2020 Rose Festival princess on Feb. 28, 2020, at the school. The four candidates, all seniors (from left to right), are Kiara Childers, Madison Hernandez, Amelia Kang and Michelle Le.Portland Rose Festival

Future education & career plans: Michelle plans to attend a four year university majoring in biochemistry and biophysics, with a minor in gender and womens studies. She aims to take a pre-medicine route along with her primary studies to become a pediatrician, combining her love for science and working with children.

High School Activities & Honors: Michelle has been involved in student council and was elected as Head of Communications her senior year. She has also been involved with David Douglas High School Communicare for three years. Through this club, she was able to donate over $15,000 to local nonprofits that provide support for sex trafficking survivors and youth in the Portland Metro Area that struggle with mental illness.

Hobbies and special interest: In her spare time, Michelle loves volunteering in her community.

What is your favorite place to visit in Portland and why? My all time favorite place to visit in Portland is Multnomah Falls, especially to see the breathtaking view that comes with hiking the trail. Not only am I reminded of the beauty that surrounds me, but it provides me with the self care that is typically neglected throughout my chaotic week of school and long hours at work.

What are you most proud of during your high school career? Academically, I am most proud of maintaining a 4.0 GPA every year in high school while taking rigorous courses and being very involved in school activities. I am proud that I was able to dedicate a significant amount of time in high school to making students feel connected to each other and our school.

What is your favorite Rose Festival event and why?

Good in the Hood Multicultural Festival. I remember the very first time I attended, I immediately felt welcomed by the different people that surrounded me. This is my absolute favorite event simply because it allows people of all ages and backgrounds to come together and appreciate the beauty of our differences while doing it in a way that is not only educational, but fun.

 Kjerstin Gabrielson, kgabrielson@oregonian.com, @KjGabrielson

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 00:22:05|Editor: yan

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WARSAW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The 'DEFENDER-Europe 20' military exercise began in Poland on Friday as troops of the United States Army were on their way into the country.

The first U.S. troops and equipment were scheduled to cross the German-Polish border near Kolbaskowo, in the northwest of the country, on Friday evening, while the Polish part of the exercise has already started, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak has said.

According to the Polish Defense Ministry, around 37,000 troops from 18 countries will participate in the exercise, the majority of which will be American troops both transferred from the U.S. and those already stationed in Europe, as well as 8,000 European troops, including 2,000 Polish soldiers. Polish civilian services, such as the police and fire service, will also be engaged.

'DEFENDER-Europe 20' will last until May, with the winding down period extending into June. Its main objective is to test the coordination of U.S. troops with allied forces and local civilian services.
Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill will travel to the US for St Patrick's week celebrations despite coronavirus hitting Northern Ireland.

The First and Deputy First Ministers have a diary full of engagements in New York and Washington next month.

A spokeswoman for The Executive Office last night confirmed they would "undertake a range of engagements with political leaders and potential investors". She added: "Plans have not been affected by coronavirus."

While Sinn Fein and the DUP are keen to attend the first St Patrick's week events since devolution has been restored, ministers from the three other Executive parties are staying at home.

A UUP spokesman said: "Health Minister Robin Swann will not be travelling to the US for the St Patrick`s Day events. The health service requires his full attention and he will be in post in Northern Ireland."

SDLP Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon, and Alliance Justice Minister Naomi Long, are also remaining at home.

But SDLP leader Colum Eastwood and MLA Colin McGrath will fly to the US for St Patrick's week to meet potential investors "and to secure the continued support of senior US officials for the peace and political process in Northern Ireland", a party spokesman said.

However, he added that their travel plans would be kept under review due to coronavirus and in line with the most up-to-date advice from the health authorities.

Mrs Foster and Ms O'Neill will arrive in New York on March 10 for a meeting with investors. They will meet politicians on Capitol Hill the following day and will attend an Ireland Funds dinner in Washington that night.

On March 12, they will meet key business figures at a breakfast hosted by the Northern Ireland Bureau. They will then attend the Speaker's lunch on Capitol Hill followed by a White House reception at which President Trump will be present.

Later that night, they will attend the Irish Ambassador's reception. A reception hosted by the British Ambassador will be their final US engagement the following day.
American students struggle in math.

The latest results of an international exam given to teenagers ranked the USA ninth in reading and 31st in math literacy out of 79 countries and economies. America has a smaller-than-average share of top-performing math students, and scores have essentially been flat for two decades.

One likely reason: U.S. high schools teach math differently than other countries.

Classes here often focus on formulas and procedures rather than teaching students to think creatively about solving complex problems involving all sorts of mathematics, experts said. That makes it harder for students to compete globally, be it on an international exam or in colleges and careers that value sophisticated thinking and data science.

Math teacher Stephanie Hanson works with a class of 11th grade students at Burton High School in San Francisco during an algebra II/pre-calculus class Feb.10.

There is a growing chorus of math experts who recommend ways to bring Americas math curriculum into the 21st century to make it more reflective of what children in higher-performing countries learn. Some schools experiment with ways to make math more exciting, practical and inclusive.

Theres a lot of research that shows when you teach math in a different way, kids do better, including on test scores, said Jo Boaler, a mathematics professor at Stanford University who is behind a major push to remake America's math curriculum.

Standardized tests: How many exams should kids have to take?

Here are some ideas for improving it:

Stop teaching the geometry sandwich

Most American high schools teach algebra I in ninth grade, geometry in 10th grade and algebra II in 11th grade  something Boaler calls the geometry sandwich.

Other countries teach three straight years of integrated math  I, II and III  in which concepts of algebra, geometry, probability, statistics and data science are taught together, allowing students to take deep dives into complex problems.

Geographic disparity: States with the best (and worst) schools

In higher-performing countries, statistics or data science  the computer-based analysis of data, often coupled with coding  is a larger part of the math curriculum, Boaler said. Most American classes focus on teaching rote procedures, she said.

Story continues

Next year, Boaler and a research team plan to recommend that California phase out the algebra-geometry pathway in favor of integrated math for all students  something she pitched to education leaders across the state.

Some states, such as Utah, have made the switch. The Common Core academic standards, a version of which most states adopted, say high school math can be taught in either format.

Does Common Core work? Despite new standards and more testing, reading and math scores haven't budged in a decade

The move requires extra time and resources to train teachers. Georgia mandated high schools teach integrated math starting in 2008. After pushback from teachers and parents, it gave schools the option to go back to the old sequence in 2016. In one large survey, Georgia teachers said they didnt want to specialize in more than one math area.

Eleventh grader Jer-Zeuelle Mallari, center, takes part in an algebra II/pre-calculus class at Burton High School in San Francisco.

The podcast Freakonomics featured an episode in October about the peculiarities of Americas math curriculum. Hosted by University of Chicago economist Steve Levitt, it highlighted Boaler's work and garnered significant feedback, given the specificity of the topic, Levitt told USA TODAY.

Levitt is engaged in the movement to upend traditional math instruction. He said high schools could consider whittling down the most useful elements of geometry and the second year of algebra into a one-year course. Then students would have more room in their schedules for more applicable math classes.

When you talk to people within the math education industry, they call that insanely radical, Levitt said. I think most parents would not consider it radical to teach only the best of two subjects that most people dont like that much.

Make more room for data science

Ninety percent of the data we have in the world right now was created in the past two years, Boaler said. Were at a point in this world where things are changing, and we need to help students navigate that new world.

Other countries act more quickly on that idea. Estonia students ranked first among European countries in mathematics, as well as reading and science, on the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment. Many factors may have helped: The country offers high-quality early childhood education to all kids, class sizes are small, and there's little high-stakes testing, leaving more time for instruction.

Unlike other countries, Estonia teaches computer programming at all grade levels  a strategy started in the upper grades in the late '90s and extended to elementary schools around 2012. The country is experimenting with adopting a new computer-based math curriculum.

Computer-based math: What it looks like, and why it's important

In the USA, about 3,300 students this year in 15 Southern California school districts are taking a new Introduction to Data Science course that features data and statistics, real-life data collection and coding to analyze the data. The course was developed by the University of California-Los Angeles and the LA Unified School District, and it counts as a statistics credit.

The class features a scripted curriculum with engaging exercises, such as having students record how much time they spend grooming themselves, then comparing that with national data collected for the American Time Use survey.

Teachers are trained to teach the class, as many havent been exposed to programming before, said Suyen Machado, director of the Introduction to Data Science project.

Students who took the new course showed significant growth in their statistical understanding over the year, studies show. Students said they felt learning to code was a valuable skill.

A lot of students report that they find the content is more applicable to real life, Machado said. One of the more challenging things about the course is learning programming. They say its hard, but they want to do it.

Stop splitting up students so much, and dont hasten the curriculum

Over the years, some schools have sought to raise math achievement by pushing algebra down to eighth grade. High-flying students may adapt and have room to take more advanced high school classes. Hastening the curriculum can widen the gulf in achievement between lower-performing students, including those who are economically disadvantaged and racial minorities.

The practice reflects a long-standing feature of American math education: As early as middle school, students are often split into "tracks" in ways that predetermine who will take advanced classes in high school. The advanced classes are often full of students who are white or Asian and attend suburban schools  while black and Latino students continue to be underrepresented, research shows.

About six years ago, San Franciscos school leaders sought to tackle the problem. They halted teaching algebra I in eighth grade. Students take the same three-year sequence of math courses in middle school, and everyone is enrolled in mixed-ability classrooms, said Lizzy Hull Barnes, math supervisor at the San Francisco Unified School District.

In high school, all students take ninth grade algebra and 10th grade geometry. After that, students can choose their path: Some may pick algebra II, others may choose a course combining algebra II and pre-calculus. Some may accelerate to AP statistics.

Burton High School math teacher Stephanie Hanson works with a class of 11th grade students. The San Francisco school district stopped separating students into accelerated and nonaccelerated math tracks in middle school, and high school students' math scores have improved, particularly among low-income and minority students.

Before the change, 40% of graduating seniors in San Francisco had to repeat algebra I in their academic careers. For the Class of 2019, the first cohort of students to follow the new sequence, just 8% of students had to repeat the course.

The changes led to a major increase in disadvantaged students enrolling in higher-level math classes as juniors and seniors, Barnes said. Boosting the success of black and Latino students did not harm the progress of high-achieving white and Asian students.

Its been a seismic shift, Barnes said.

In New York, an uproar over axing gifted tracks: This school is doing it anyway

Change the way elementary teachers think about math

Improving the math aptitude of older students in the USA is connected to messages students hear about why math is important and who's good at it when they're younger.

Those messages often come from their elementary school teachers, many of whom didnt like math as students themselves.

"Math phobia is real. Math anxiety is real," said DeAnn Huinker, a professor of mathematics education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who teaches future elementary and middle school teachers.

New research suggests that when teachers improve their attitude toward math, it can help to raise student test scores. At Stanford, Boaler and her team designed an online course for teachers featuring research showing anyone can learn math with enough practice, intelligence isnt fixed and math is connected to all sorts of everyday activities.

They recruited fifth grade teachers from a county in central California to take and discuss the course. Within a year, the participating teachers' students posted significantly higher state math scores compared with previous years. The jumps were particularly significant for girls and low-income students, Boaler said.

Encouraging signage is posted in the algebra II/pre-calculus class at Burton High School in San Francisco.

They thought they had to teach procedures, and then realized they could teach in this open, visual, creative way," Boaler said. "A lot of research studies suggest that it takes a long time for changes to come about. In this one, it was quick.

Make high school math reflect real life

Beyond data science, some districts design courses that include more real-world math and topics such as financial algebra and mathematical modeling.

The approach has led other countries to success. Teens in the Netherlands post some of the strongest math scores in the world on the PISA assessment. That's largely because the exam prioritizes the application of mathematical concepts to real-life situations, and the Dutch teach math rooted in reality and relevant to society.

Some longtime Dutch math experts were involved in the design of PISA, which began in 2000 and is given every three years to a sample of 15-year-old students in developed countries and economies.

At Sweetwater High School in Chula Vista, California, math teacher Melody Morris teaches a new 12th grade course that explores topics such as two-player games, graph theory, sequences and series and cryptography. The course, called Discrete Math, was developed through a partnership with San Diego State University.

In one exercise, Morris teaches students to play a capture-the-flag style game featured on the television show "Survivor." They learn that by using math, they can win every time.

'Survivor: Winners at War': Previous champs compete in Season 40

Their typical response is: This is math?  Morris said. They think its about playing games and having fun. But what theyre really learning is how to break down large problems into small ones and how to make hypotheses and test them.

Students at Sweetwater still rise up through the traditional geometry sandwich from ninth through 11th grades. Morris said many who choose her class senior year find themselves much more engaged in the material. They develop a toolkit that will allow them to approach any problem in life, Morris said.

A lot of what were building is habits of mind, she said.

Who's best at tech and engineering? Girls outperform boys on exam, 'whether they take a class or not'

Education coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation does not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Math education: US scores stink because of how schools teach lessons
Voters go to polls in Guinea on Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that would enable President Alpha Conde to stay in power for a third term. Guineans have taken to the streets since October to demonstrate against the changes to term limits in rallies marred by violence with the killing of almost 40 protesters and one gendarme.

Conakry resembled a ghost town on Thursday with continuing protests by the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC) ahead of polls on 1 March. Voters are expected to cast their ballot on both the changes to the constitution and choose candidates in a parliamentary poll.

Civil society and opposition parties are against a potential third term by President Conde and most shops and restaurants in the capital city are closed. Ive closed my shop to mark my protest against plans to change the constitution, Ousmane Barry, a shopkeeper in Hamdallaye neighbourhood, told RFI.

Traffic on the The Prince road through the capital was flowing freely on Thursday, in contrast to the usual congestion of cars and motorcycles. The FNDC did not give a precise location for protests, suggesting a more general move calling on people to go out in their neighbourhoods.

The draft constitution also aims to set in stone gender equality, and end the practice of female circumcision and under-age marriage. However, critics are worried that the real reason for the changes are to reset term limits giving 81-year-old Conde the opportunity to stand for re-election later this year.

The main opposition parties have boycotted Sundays polls and there has not been much campaigning in Conakry this week, except for billboards in favour of changing the constitution to achieve equality or greater inclusion of the youth. Few public rallies took place, but there were clashes between young people and the security forces in the Conakry suburb of Wanindara on Thursday.

Fears of violence

Human rights groups are concerned that the action by armed forces in response to protests risks throwing the country into a cycle of violence.

Story continues

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organisations call on the government to billet the armed forces in their barracks to prevent any violence against demonstrators and stop the repression of opponents, FIDH said in a statement.

FIDH said the armed forces had been put on alert ahead of the polls with commanders requested to organise daytime and nighttime patrols. A sign of escalation that could threaten peace and unity in the county, the FIDH added, saying at least 37 people had been killed since October durings protests.

Abdoul Gadiry Diallo, president of the Guinean Organisation for the Protection of Human Rights and the Citizen (OGDH), said the situation is critical. He is worried about a repeat of the massacres carried out by soldiers on 28 September 2009 when at least 150 people were killed and dozens of women raped by members of the presidential guard.

Ecowas distances itself from polls

Regional West African bloc Ecowas on Thursday announced that it would not be carrying out a high-level visit by heads of state ahead of the polls. The visit led by Nigers President Mahamadou Issoufou as well as the presidents of Nigeria, Ghana and Burkina Faso had to unfortunately be delayed owing to the commitments of Guineas Conde.

There are certain factors suggesting that the situation on the ground is not free of all risks, according to an Ecowas communique.
(Newser)  A New Jersey couple is railing against their church for a "disgraceful and disheartening" act against their 8-year-old son, which they say is due to his disability. Per NBC News, Anthony LaCugna is autistic and nonverbal, and because of that, his parents say, Saint Aloysius Church in Jackson refused to allow him to celebrate his first Holy Communion. Because Anthony "is unable to determine right from wrong due to his disability they feel he is not up to the 'benchmark required to make his communion,'" Jimmy LaCugna posted on Facebook. He said he and his wife were informed of the church's "upsetting" decision on Tuesday. "Our son is being shunned from the Catholic faith due to his inability to communicate." Anthony had been set to receive Communion in April.

story continues below

While the church wouldn't talk about Anthony's case specifically, it said in its own Wednesday post that it had been researching the issue and is now of the view that kids with severe cognitive and developmental disabilities "should be presumed to have an inner spiritual relationship with God and this would be sufficient in these particular cases." The post said the LaCugnas had been informed of "this new guidance." But as of Wednesday night the LaCugnas said no one from the church had reached out to them, and that the church's statement doesn't explicitly say Anthony will get to make his Communion this year. "Our whole family has been brought up Catholic," Nicole LaCugna says, per WABC. "To us it is very important that we continue the faith in him." On the church's actions to date, she adds: "It's a disgrace to our religion." (Read more autism stories.)
Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and Saint Patricks Day marks the arrival of Christianity in Ireland. With that being said, of course, Ireland celebrates this holiday. It is considered a public holiday there, and it is worth noting that it is celebrated in more countries in the world than any other national celebration. The date of Saint Patricks Day, March 17th, marks the death of Saint Patrick, who was a Christian missionary that converted the Irish people to Christianity. It has been officially considered a public holiday in Ireland since 1903.

The Beginnings Of St Patricks Day

The Irish were celebrating Saint Patricks Day as a national day as early as the ninth century. Back then, he was not considered the patron of Ireland, but in time that also changed. In the early 16th century, this day was finally officially placed on the Catholic Calendar. Thereby it became a holy day for all Roman Catholics that were living in Ireland. Since it is a Catholic holiday, there are times when Saint Patricks Day is not celebrated on March 17th due to it falling during Holy Week. It most recently happened in 1940 and 2008, but will not happen again until 2160. When that happens, however, the date of the celebration is moved to a different day.

Despite being a holy day for Catholics for a long time, it wasnt until 1903 that St Patricks Day became an official holiday. The Bank Holiday Act was introduced to the United Kingdom Parliament then which made it official. That was also the year that the first St Patricks Day parade was held. Since then, parades have become a custom on this day throughout Ireland. The first time the state officially sponsored a St Patricks Day parade was in 1931, and it happened in Dublin.

St Patricks Festival

Throughout the 1990s, the Irish government started using St Patricks Day as a way of showcasing Ireland and its culture. A group called St Patricks Festival was set up by the government, and it had several goals that would help promote Irish culture. Some of those goals were to create a national festival that would rival the biggest festivals in the world and to create supportive energy all over Ireland that would awaken a feeling of national pride. They also needed to present Ireland as a country that was creative and sophisticated and had appeal for everyone. That marked the beginning of St Patricks Festival, the first of which was held in 1996.

Every year this festival grew bigger. It started as a one-day event, but by 2006 it lasted five days. Various activities are organized at St Patricks Festival, such as concerts, fireworks, and theatre performances. Millions of people show up to enjoy the St Patricks Festival.

Special attention was given to the fireworks from 2006 to 2012, they were called the Skyfest, and were considered to be particularly impressive. The majority of the celebration happens in Dublin. However, other cities organize their parades, including Belfast, Cork, Galway, and Waterford, among others.

Criticism Of St Patricks Day

Since the start of St Patricks Festival, the emphasis of the celebration switched from a more religious traditional one to a celebration that was all about being Irish. That was a deliberate decision, albeit not one that was met with praise from everyone. The leaders of the Catholic Church werent happy with this, and they have openly voiced their dislike of the way St Patricks Day is more and more separated from its religious roots.

They also criticized large amounts of alcohol consumption that happen on St Patricks Day all over Ireland. They believe that the holiday has become too commercialized, and it perpetuates negative stereotypes about Irish people. They think that the holiday should be fun, but also keep the religious aspect that has been lost throughout the years.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC) today announced it has purchased land near the 4900 block of 12th Ave. in Pensacola, Florida with plans to build a 40-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital to serve patients recovering from debilitating illnesses and injuries. The planned hospital, once constructed, will become part of Encompass Health's national network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and home health and hospice agencies. The Company's Florida footprint currently includes 12 inpatient rehabilitation hospitals with an additional hospital under construction in north Tampa and 18 home health locations. Timing for the construction and opening of this hospital has yet to be determined.

"Pensacola and the surrounding area is growing rapidly with other healthcare services and hospitals expanding to meet healthcare needs. This planned rehabilitation hospital will help meet the growing demand for a hospital level of intensive rehabilitation services making access to care much more manageable for patients and families in need," said Linda Wilder, president of Encompass Health's southeast region. "Encompass Health focuses on not only returning complex patients to their home following significant illness or injury, but helping them remain home through coordinated and connected care."

Services at Encompass Health physical rehabilitation hospitals complement those provided by local acute care hospitals. Offering 24-hour nursing care, physical, occupational and speech therapies, and a multispecialty medical staff, the hospitals treat patients recovering from strokes and other neurological disorders, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations and complex orthopedic conditions.

About Encompass Health

As a national leader in integrated healthcare services, Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) offers both facility-based and home-based patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies and hospice agencies. With a national footprint that includes 134 hospitals, 245 home health locations, and 83 hospice locations in 37 states and Puerto Rico, the Company is committed to delivering high-quality, cost-effective, integrated care across the healthcare continuum. Encompass Health is ranked as one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit encompasshealth.com, or follow us on our newsroom, Twitter and Facebook.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements contained in this press release which are not historical facts, such as those relating to the likelihood, timing and effects of the completion of this hospital project, are forward-looking statements. In addition, Encompass Health may from time to time make forward-looking public statements concerning the matters described herein. All such estimates, projections, and forward-looking information speak only as of the date hereof, and Encompass Health undertakes no duty to publicly update or revise such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily estimates based upon current information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Encompass Health's actual results or events may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors. While it is impossible to identify all such factors, factors which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated include, but are not limited to, the regulatory review and approval process, any adverse outcome of various lawsuits, claims, and legal or regulatory proceedings that may be brought by or against the Company; the possibility this project will experience unexpected delays; the ability to successfully complete and integrate this project consistent with Encompass Health's growth strategy, including realization of anticipated revenues, cost savings, and productivity improvements arising from the related operations and avoidance of unforeseen exposure to liabilities; changes in the regulation of the healthcare industry at either or both of the federal and state levels; competitive pressures in the healthcare industry and Encompass Health's response thereto; the hospital's ability to maintain proper local, state and federal licensing; potential disruptions, breaches, or other incidents affecting the proper operation, availability, or security of Encompass Health's information systems; Encompass Health's ability to attract and retain nurses, therapists, and other healthcare professionals in a highly competitive environment with often severe staffing shortages and the impact on Encompass Health's labor expenses from potential union activity and staffing shortages; changes, delays in (including in connection with resolution of Medicare payment reviews or appeals), or suspension of reimbursement for Encompass Health's services by governmental or private payors; general conditions in the economy and capital markets; and other factors which may be identified from time to time in Encompass Health's SEC filings and other public announcements, including Encompass Health's Form 10K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2019.

Media Contact:

Hillary Carnel | 205 970-5912

[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:

Crissy Carlisle | 205 970-5860

[email protected]

SOURCE Encompass Health Corp.

Related Links

http://www.encompasshealth.com


Huawei has now confirmed that it still has every intention to license its 5G technology to a US company if it can find any takers. Taking to Twitter, the revelation was made in response to a CNBC story and tweet outlining the countrys options in the absence of Huaweis networking solutions.

Huaweis official account responded to reiterate that the story missed one option. Specifically, Huawei referred back to its previously made offer to license its technology to US companies. That option, Huawei says, was never taken off of the table.

What would Huaweis offer mean for the state of 5G in the US?

News about Huaweis offer to license its 5G technology to US companies is nothing new. The initial offer of that option was put up by the Chinese tech giant back in September of 2019. In the ensuing months, several companies within the region seriously considered taking Huawei up on its offer. But no companies stepped forward.

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In short, Huawei was offering to sell access to its technology without getting directly involved. Both long-term and short-term deals were under consideration. That would have allowed US companies to pay Huawei for help in catching up with the company on next-gen networking.

The Chinese tech giant described its license offer when it was put forward to include proprietary 5G tech. That would include everything from source code and software to verification, production, and manufacturing know-how.

Huawei presently stands apart by a wide margin, leading the 5G charge well ahead of its rivals. None of those rivals is based in the US. Licensing its technology to a US company would help spur the creation of a US-based rival.

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It would also help to keep standards universal since Huawei is still involved in the creation of 5G networks elsewhere in the world. Thats an important aspect of its offer. Many US companies, including preeminent mobile chipset manufacturer Qualcomm, have rallied in support of Huaweis involvement in 5G. At the heart of the matter, its argued that universal standards will suffer if Huawei is kicked out of the loop entirely.

Huaweis offer reflects that sentiment. The deal was put forward under terms that would have only allowed a single US company to license the Huawei 5G technology. That would give the US a rival and universally consistent standardization on 5G without giving the proprietary tech away wholesale.

Why cant Huawei directly compete in the US markets?

Huaweis offer primarily stems from the fact that it cant compete directly in the US. Although the companys trouble in the US started well before, it was effectively banned from the US as of early 2019. The company was, at the time, added to an entity list that at various points has kept it from interacting with US companies to any extent.

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The move to ban Huawei has been widely viewed as a political maneuver associated with a larger, ongoing trade war with China. But the company has also been accused of potentially acting as a spy agency for the Chinese government. Huawei has consistently denied those claims and others.
New Delhi: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Wednesday discussed on a range of issues including data sovereignty and Digital India with Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Speaking to reporters here after his meeting with Nadella, IT Minister Prasad said that it was a courtesy meeting which went "very good".

"We talked on issue of data sovereignty which is a work in progress," he said, adding that Digital India was also discussed among several issues in the IT segment.

Data sovereignty and data localisation have been major subjects of debate with the government having introduced the Personal Data Protection Bill in the Parliament last year.

Although the bill allows the transfer of personal data outside India, while transferring "sensitive" personal data outside the country a copy will have to be kept in the country. Data processing or collecting entities will, however, be barred from transferring "critical" personal data outside the country.

Data sovereignty and localisation have been a matter of concern and major technology companies which are mostly based out of India and store data outside the country.

The minister also told the media that he has offered the Microsoft Corporation CEO to adopt few villages in the country and transform them into digital villages in line with the government's target of establishing one lakh digital villages.

"We discussed a whole range of issues on IT, particularly i have offered to him... We have to establish one lakh digital villages. He can consider adopting some of these digital villages and mentoring it to become a beacon for others to follow," he said.
Burma Myanmar Opposition Lawmaker Falsely Claims US Presidency Limited to Christians

A USDP rally in Naypyitaw in 2017. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGONWhen Myanmars Union Parliament opened its debate on constitutional amendment this week, lawmakers from the military and their allied Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) proved to be men and women of principle. They stood firmly on a long-held belief: that (among other qualifications) Myanmars presidency should be reserved for a citizen whose spouse and other immediate family members do not hold citizenship in a foreign country. The stipulation lies at the heart of Article 59(f) of Myanmars Constitution, which was drafted by the former military regime.

In the eyes of many peopleboth at home and abroadthe article is a deliberate, personal ban aimed specifically at preventing Myanmars popular de facto leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming the countrys president. Daw Aung San Suu Kyis late husband was British and her children are foreign citizens. Article 59(f) is among 142 clauses of the charter that her ruling National League for Democracy and some ethnic parties are now trying to scrap or amend in Parliament.

In defense of Article 59(f), the military and USDP camps have put forward some striking arguments. They painstakingly dusted off their history books and combed through them to unearth the following statement by Daw Aung San Suu Kyis fatherindependence hero General Aung Sanin support of their position: Anyone either loyal or subordinate to foreign governments or [who] gains interests from them shall not be an MP, not to mention the president.

But one lawmaker from the former ruling USDP went even further this week, relating the situation to the US presidency. Her argument would be impressiveif only she had focused and gotten her facts right!

During her charter amendment comments in the Union Parliament on Wednesday, Daw Nang Ni Ni Aye said she opposed scrapping the article because The president shouldnt be influenced by a foreign country, and The family of the president has to be loyal to the country and citizens.

OKso far, so good.

Other countries also have restrictions on [who is qualified to be] the president, she added reasonably.

At this point, however, the lawmaker dealt her argument a fatal blow, presenting a power point slide to the Parliament, which she introduced by saying, If you look at the US, you will see as stated in the power point.

A slide appeared with the statement: The President of the United States (including the vice president) has to be a Christian. Furthermore, no Yahudi (Jewish), Buddhist, Muslim, Sikh, Hinduanyone not Christian shall not be employed at the White House.

None of which, it turns out, is true.

The reason for her sudden inclusion of religion in the qualifications of the US president is not clear. But it quickly became the joke of the day and was widely ridiculed on Myanmars most popular social media platform, Facebookstrongly enough, in fact, that the US Embassy in Yangon felt compelled to explain the reality of the situation.

On the evening of the same day, the embassy postedwithout giving a reasona notice on its official Facebook page reading, Did you know that to become President of the United States of America, there is no religious requirement?

The bilingual (Myanmar and English) post states that candidates for the upcoming US presidential election represent the religious diversity of the country, as there are candidates who have not spoken publicly about their religion, alongside individuals who identify as Roman Catholic, Protestant, Hindu and Jewish.

US law states that it is illegal for any employerincluding the US governmentto refuse employment to people based on race, color, national origin, sex, or religion. The US Constitution enshrines religious freedom in the First Amendment, which states Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, the post says.

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Now its 14th year, STEPS Engineers Week is a campaign held annually to promote engineering as a career and the importance of the profession to Ireland. The initiative is coordinated by Engineers Ireland's STEPS programme - funded by Science Foundation Ireland, the Department of Education and Skills and industry leaders ARUP, ESB, Intel and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII).

From Saturday, 29 February, engineers from all over Ireland will engage with their communities to showcase their profession to primary and secondary students in their locality, highlighting the amazing ways Irish engineers are pushing the limits of ingenuity, creativity and innovation.

In Kilkenny, Castlecomer Discovery Park will bring STEM learning to life for over 150 secondary school students through a giant Catapult-Building exercise. Using a collection of poles and ropes, small groups will work together to engineer and build a working catapult in their woodland setting. Kilkenny telecoms company Entegro will also participate in the weeklong celebration of engineering and will visit CBS Kilkenny to showcase the role of engineers in their organisation to over 100 students.

Commenting in advance of Engineers Week, Caroline Spillane, Director General of Engineers Ireland, said: STEPS Engineers Week, in this its 14th year, is reaching out to all facets of industry to showcase the dynamic world of contemporary engineering and to demonstrate to young people that engineering is a diverse career which is both satisfying and far-reaching. Engineers are critical to our environment, to our economy and improve the way we live and work. Engineering affects all aspects of life, from tangible works such as the roads we travel on, to bridges and flood defences, to developing life-changing heart stents and prostheses, as well as advancing the invisible technologies that are all around us.

We are delighted to see so many engineering organisations, libraries, schools and third level institutes getting involved and showcasing the engineering profession to primary and secondary school students nationwide and inspiring todays children to engineer the Ireland of tomorrow, she continued.

Margie McCarthy, Head of Education and Public Engagement at Science Foundation Ireland, said: Science Foundation Ireland believes in the ability of science, technology, engineering and maths to effect positive change in the world. STEPS Engineers Week 2020 offers an opportunity to encourage and inspire young people and help guide their subject and career choices to increase their knowledge and understanding of the world of engineering, and we are delighted to support the week in partnership with the Engineers Ireland STEPS programme.

During STEPS Engineers Week, Irish Girl Guides and Brownies are also encouraged to work towards gaining the Guide Engineering Badge or Brownie Engineering Badge with their Unit and devise an innovative project that could be commercially produced. Each entry submitted before the 31 March deadline will be judged by the Engineers Ireland STEPS Dragons, with the winners crowned Irelands Top Guide Engineers or Irelands Top Brownie Engineers.

As well as events organised by companies, third-level institutions and the public sector, teachers are also encouraged to get involved and run their own classroom-based activities, quizzes and competitions. To download free resources for your classroom, including documentaries and activity packs, visit www.engineersweek.ie.
LANSING, MI -- The life and service of a Michigan soldier will be honored on Friday, Feb. 28 with flags flying at half-mast, according to the Governors office.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered U.S. and Michigan flags lowered to half-staff throughout the state to honor the service of Army Sgt. 1st Class Raymond Haley and coincide with his funeral.

Haley, 38, was from Wyoming, Michigan in Kent County. Haley joined the Army in 2004 and served for 16 years. He died in a single vehicle accident on Thursday, February 20, according to a press release.

He was stationed with the 101st Special Troops Battalion, 101st Airborne Division Sustainment Brigade Lifeliners at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, according to a press release.

His remains were flown to the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids on Thursday, Feb. 27.

A funeral service will be held before he is laid to rest at Fort Custer National Cemetery in Augusta, Michigan on Friday, Feb. 28.

Our state is grateful for the life and service of Sgt. 1st Class Raymond Haley, who selflessly devoted his career and ultimately his life in the pursuit of protecting our nation, Whitmer said. We offer our thoughts to his family and friends during this difficult time, and the flag lowering represents our states debt of gratitude.

The Governors office encourages Michigan residents, businesses, schools, local governments and other organizations to display the flag at half-staff in memory of Haley.

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SHANGHAI, CHINA / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2020 / Slush China, the organizer of the biggest and most international startup and tech event in Asia, announced on February 28 its 2020 plan. According to the team, Slush China will convene its flagship 15,000-people Slush Shanghai 2020 event as scheduled on October 15th. and 16th. Apart from Slush Shanghai, there will also be smaller Slush tech and startup events taking place in more cities in China. The student-driven, not-for-profit organization Slush, originated from Helsinki in 2008, has also scheduled its once-a-year global startup event Slush 2020 on Nov. 19-20 in Helsinki, gathering of 25,000 change-makers, including 4,000 startups and 2,000 investors.

Over 1,000 volunteers from around the world supported Slush Shanghai 2019

The theme for Slush China 2020 is Reboot the Future. "The year 2020 is off to a rough start with the unprecedented outbreak of the Coronavirus, posing great challenges to businesses globally, especially SMEs. This untimely outbreak comes at a time when the global economy is on a downward slope and China's economy is also slowing down. It will take radical innovators and disruptors to hit the restart button to find answers to the problem faced by them and the world." said Chen Wang, CEO of Slush China when talking about the meaning behind this year's theme.

Since the first Slush Shanghai event in 2016, it has become the biggest and most influential celebration of entrepreneurship and innovation in China. Slush Shanghai 2020 is expected to gather at Shanghai World Expo Convention & Exhibition Center 15,000 attendees globally, including 1,500 startups and 1,000 investors, all supported by 1,000 volunteers. Slush China is also expanding to more cities to help drive local innovation and entrepreneurship. "We are seeing more cities in China rising as innovation centers. They have robust innovation ecosystems and great entrepreneurs." said Chen Wang, "By bringing Slush events to these smaller cities, we hope to connect the local innovators with the world and generate tangible results."

Slush's mission is to help the next generation of world-changing founders. Driven by this mission, Slush China has always been trying to offer more value to entrepreneurs by facilitating their connection with corporates, investors, media outlets and potential clients. The Slush China events will come with an online match-making system as part of the standard practice globally. This helps attendees maximize the results by pre-schedule meetings before the event. Slush pitch competitions are also open for participants across the world to help entrepreneurs get exposure to media and investors.

Now the application for partners, exhibition booths, startup pitching competition and volunteer is open. More information can be found on https://www.slush.org/events/china/ .

SLUSH CHINA

Slush entered China in 2015 with its debut event in Beijing. Since 2016, Slush China brought this world-class tech event to Shanghai, Nanjing and Shenzhen, and welcomed more than 35,000 tech-heads, 3,000 volunteers, 4,000 startups, 500 speakers from across the world. As one of Slush's global tech events, Slush China serves as a platform for global startups to meet top investors, corporate and media. Slush is listed by Forbes as a top international startup & technology event in China,

CONTACT INFORMATION

Liz Lee

Head of Marketing and Media

Slush China

Mob. +86 13642153516

Email: liz.li@slush.org

SOURCE: Slush China

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/578337/Slush-China-Announces-2020-Plan-to-Facilitate-Innovation-and-Entrepreneurship
The Senate on Thursday considered a bill to provide enabling framework that would legalize all forms of electronic transactions undertak...

The Senate on Thursday considered a bill to provide enabling framework that would legalize all forms of electronic transactions undertaken in Nigeria.





The bill, if passed and signed into law, will prohibit and criminalize online fraud, and also make it legally possible to admit evidence of electronic transactions between parties in court during proceedings.





Sponsor of the bill, Senator Ibikunle Amosun (APC  Ogun Central), said the online transactions in the United States reached three trillion dollars in 2014 alone.





According to the lawmaker, online transactions account for well over ten trillion dollars in sales of goods and service globally.

Explaining the importance of enacting the necessary regime for electronic transaction in Nigeria, Amosun said that the European Union in the year 2000 approved a directive on electronic commerce which required member-states to implement same.





He added, The United Kingdom passed the Electronic Communication Act 2000. Even our African neighbour, South Africa passed the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 25 of 2002.





All the developed countries, including Malaysia, China, India, Brazil, Singapore, Japan, etc. have laws on electronic contract, and this has resulted into remarkable increase in their business transactions.





The lawmaker, however, lamented that Nigerias extant laws provide inadequate protection for e-commerce businesses and consumers in the country.





Every day, we are involved in electronic contracting, either through the use of the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) to transact business or when we book our flight tickets online.





These electronic transactions, which are the ones we can manage now, are not covered by our legal regime.





How can we now talk of contracts running into billions of dollars between two machines programmed to process sales and purchase orders? Such complex transactions cannot be contemplated in our present circumstances.





Yet, if we must tap into the global market, we must move with the trend of the market, we must move with time and have in place a legal framework that will deal with issues such as this, Amosun said.





The lawmaker said that when the bill eventually becomes law, all challenges arising from jurisdiction and authentication in matters dealing wit contracts will be accordingly resolved.





How can the contract be authenticated? How do we guarantee the integrity, non-repudiation, confidentiality, writing and signature within the electronic commerce environment?





All these issues need to be resolved by legislation to boost our economy, encourage foreign investment and ease transactions.





This Bill is aim to resolve these legal challenges by removing barriers to electronic commerce, while validating and effectuating electronic records and signatures, Amosun explained.





Reeling out the benefits of the bill, the lawmaker said the piece of legislation when enacted, will among others, provide legal assistance to the consumers on their rights and legal remedies to all those who may be short-changed in electronic transactions.





He stated that it would also specifically provide for the prohibition and punishment of electronic crimes and fraud; and facilitate the use of all electronically generated information in the court of law for all civil transactions and validate the use of such information in contract and at the trial of cases in courts.





The bill, which scaled second reading during plenary, was referred by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, to the Committee on Banking, Insurance and Financial Institutions for further legislative work.





The Committee is chaired by Senator Uba Sani (APC  Kaduna Central) and is expected to submit its report in four weeks.
At the benchmark Lasalgaon Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandi, the model onion price shot up to Rs 21.50 a kg on Thursday, as against Rs 16.50 a kg on Wednesday. This was the highest since February 11.

The price of onion jumped 30 per cent on Thursday to hit a two-week high because of a sharp increase in demand following the governments decision to lift a six-month-old ban on exports.

At the benchmark Lasalgaon Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandi, the model onion price shot up to Rs 21.50 a kg on Thursday, as against Rs 16.50 a kg on Wednesday. This was the highest since February 11.

Exporters resumed their business immediately after Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan tweeted about the withdrawal of the onion export ban on Wednesday evening. However, the decision would be effective only after notification in this regard by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT).

Since the price of onion has stabilised and there is bumper onion crop, the government has decided to lift the ban on the export of onions. Expected monthly harvest in March is over 4 million tonnes (mt), compared to 2.84 mt in the corresponding month last year, Paswan had tweeted.

Trade sources believe the decision to lift the export ban was taken after a high-level meeting of a group of ministers on Wednesday which also discussed reducing the minimum export price (MEP) of $850 a tonne.

Both decisions (export ban and MEP) were taken about six months back when the onion price shot up to Rs 80 a kg in wholesale and Rs 140-160 a kg in retail. The vegetable had become costlier because of damage to kharif crop following floods in major onion growing states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh.

Exporters have started booking onion in large quantity for future shipments. Despite huge arrivals, the onion price shot up today as there was an increased demand from exporters, said Narendra Savaliram Wadhavane, secretary, Lasalgaon APMC, Asias largest onion wholesale mandi.

Onion arrivals at the mandi were reported at 1,500 tonnes on Thursday, as against 1,000 tonnes on Wednesday.

Wadhavane said this increase in the price of onion was un-sustainable. Currently, onion arriving at the mandi is of late kharif season and has a short shelf life. Hence, traders need to sell it within a couple of days of its purchase, he added.

Meanwhile, the stock limit imposed by the Maharashtra government irked traders and stockists. In December 2019, the state government had halved the stock limit to 5 tonnes for retailers and 25 tonnes for stockists.

The state government has already initiated the process to ease the onion stock limit. This would provide a breather for traders, especially for exporters and stockists, said Deodatta Jaywantrao Nikam, chairman, APMC (Ambegaon, Pune).

Photograph: Reuters.
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Deontay Wilder left his trainer Mark Breland 'locked outside his changing room and in tears' after feeling incensed by his decision to throw in the towel in the seventh round against Tyson Fury.

Wilder was battered from pillar to post as Fury stripped him of his WBC world heavyweight title in Las Vegas last weekend and inflicted his first defeat in a professional ring.

The Brit had dropped Wilder twice and had him in trouble again in the seventh before Breland chucked in the towel - a decision which subsequently cost him his job.

Deontay Wilder left Mark Breland 'locked outside dressing room crying' after Tyson Fury loss

Tyson Fury battered Wilder throughout as he stopped him to claim the WBC world title

Breland (pictured in the background) was blamed for prematurely throwing in the towel

And now it has been claimed that Breland, a former Olympic gold medallist who has been training Wilder since he turned over to the pro ranks in 2008, was refused entry to the American's dressing room after the fight with Fury.



'Mark Breland did the right thing, I'm backing Mark Breland, a beautiful human being,' former British fighter Spencer Fearon told PepTalkUK.

'Mark Breland was outside the changing room crying, did you know that?

'He was crying because that man (Wilder) said he couldn't come in the changing room.

Fury dropped Wilder in the third round and put him to the canvas again in the fifth round

Breland threw the towel in with Wilder again in trouble in the seventh round of Saturday's fight

Wilder was angered by the move and revealed Breland won't be part of his team for the future

MARK BRELAND FACTFILE - Breland won a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles - He is a two-time WBA welterweight world champion - The American ended his professional career with a record of 35 wins, 3 defeats and 1 draw - He has worked with Deontay Wilder since he turned professional in 2008 and helped guide him to the WBC heavyweight world title Advertisement

'That's your fighter, you built your own personal relationship, you've been with this man from the get-go, and they are saying to you, "no, you can't come in the changing room".

'You see how deluded and twisted these guys are? And it's not going to (get) better.

'If Deontay Wilder doesn't apologise to Mark Breland the same thing is going to happen again, and it's going to be worse.'

Many felt Breland acted in the interests of Wilder's safety and saved him from shipping further punishment with the WBC champion on unsteady legs.

However, Wilder's main trainer Jay Deas, criticised his colleague after the fight by revealing he did not want him to throw in the towel.

Wilder, 34, is expected to exercise his rematch clause for a trilogy bout against Fury and has already indicated that Breland will not be present in his corner for that fight.

'I am upset with Mark for the simple fact that we've talked about this many times and it's not emotional,' he said this week.

'I said as a warrior, as a champion, as a leader, as a ruler, I want to go out on my shield. If I'm talking about going in and killing a man, I respect the same way. I abide by the same principal of receiving.

'So I told my team to never, ever, no matter what it may look like, to never throw the towel in with me because I'm a special kind. I still had five rounds left. No matter what it looked like, I was still in the fight.'
An interesting and even more worrying factor of the Delhi riots now is the fact that despite much provocation, violence has not spread outside, even to other areas in the national capital and nearby regions and states. The last time it was so localised was during the infamous Gujarat riots of 2002, says N Sathiya Moorthy.

IMAGE: A school that was destroyed in the Delhi riots. Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters

While it looks as if the latest spate of Delhi riots was aimed at US president Donald Trumps much-hyped India visit, it is for the police investigators and a judicial inquiry, or even a parliamentary panel, to find out the truth to come to the right conclusions in the matter, but perceptions remain.

One, and of course the popular thing is to blame it on the anti-CAA rioters, Muslims and anti-nationals, and of course Pakistan (though no one has named ISI in this or other protests of the kind, thus far).

The conclusion is that the violence was aimed at embarrassing the Narendra Modi leadership and the BJP-NDA government, and more so the Indian State and the people, in the eyes of the increasingly friendly US president, and the larger American and global community, thanks mainly to the presence of the international media covering the Trump visit.

The alternate narrative runs thus. The Indian media has been too busy with the Trump visit ever since the two governments announced the schedule, and more so during the US president and his entourages stay in India, to bother about a protest that had lost news relevance after the critically-important Delhi assembly polls.

According to this school, the Namaste Trump road show in Ahmedabad, followed by Trumps stopover at Gandhijis Sabarmati Ashram and Taj Mahal, were as much aimed at providing the much-needed diversions. The second days Delhi business meetings would not have provided much for the common TV viewers, who are also Modi voters, like their upper crust elitist counterparts.

The insinuation is that after the JNU and Jamia attacks earlier, the physical assault on the protestors may have been timed to ensure that the TV media in particular did not have time, energy and news space for the same. It is again for the police and other probes to seek the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

For now, the Supreme Court, in its oral observations, has blamed the police for mishandling the situation. Without specifying what they had in mind, the judges in an obiter dicta observed that if only the police had acted against those who made provocative speeches, leading up the present violence, things would have been much better.

It is quite possible the reference was to all the negative speeches/comments being made on TV by some participants at the Shaheen Bagh protest site and elsewhere (now across the country, spreading as far south as Chennais Washermanpet area). It could be equally so to the provocative speech of some BJP campaigners for the Delhi elections.

Included in the list are at least a party MP, whom the Election Commission promptly banned from inflecting further damage on the nations secularist credentials. The political Opposition and anti-Modi sections of the media named a few senior ministers at the Centre and cited their own poll speeches.

As is the wont, the Congress partys acting president has publicly demanded the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah, PM Modis right-hand man in matters of politics and now administration, too. Other leaders and the anti-Modi, anti-BJP sections of the social media have gone a step further, asking the prime minister to sack his home minister.

As an aside, from down south, eternally-aspiring actor-politician in super-star Rajinikanth, considered a current friend of PM Modi and a prospective poll ally or campaigner for the BJP, has specified the source of failure within the police. He has blamed the Delhi riots on intelligence failure, which again is an interesting angle that needs to be probed.

Just now, Rajini has been trying to wriggle out of personal appearance before the Justice Aruna Jagadeesan commission of inquiry, which is probing the 2018 police firing in Thoothukudi. After visiting the industrial port town that had witnessed police-firing which claimed the life of 13 protestors on the Sterlite issue, Rajini said anti-social elements were behind the attendant riots.

The commission has since sought Rajinis appearance for the source of his information. Rajini has said that his personal appearance may disturb the citizenry as his fans could mob the place and cause avoidable inconvenience. However, his critics, including possible/prospective political rivals like Seeman, leader of the Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK), have asked how much more could the local citizenry be affected than when he visited Thoothukudi within days of unprecedented riots and police firing.

Be it as it may, there is now the question if Rajini would be asked for his source of information on his charge of intelligence failure behind the Delhi riots. Yet, some of his conventional critics are happy that he has finally laid the blame for the riots on the Modi-led Centre.

In what should be an unpreceded move since the days the office was created two decades back, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval visited the riots site twice already, and has also been actively involving himself in official-level meetings discussing the ground situation. His visits cannot be compared with one of his predecessors, M K Narayanans visit to the Mumbai sites after 26/11, as the terrorist angle and the ISIs involvement were already a proven fact -- and it was the NSAs job to monitor and study the matter in full.

Dovals site visits may have also been a major contributing factor in the relative calming down of situation in the days after the conclusion of the Trump visit.

The same cannot be said of the governments repeated directives for media houses to play down provocative statements and acts. While sections of the media are more irresponsible than even their social media counterparts, just a telephone call from Delhi would do the trick, in most cases. That is not being done.

Another interesting and even more worrying factor of the Delhi riots now is the fact that despite such provocation, violence has not spread outside, even to other areas in the national capital and nearby regions and states. The last time it was so localised was during the infamous Gujarat riots of 2002. While close to a thousand were butchered in select regions of the state, it did not spread beyond that region  not to all over the state, and not definitely to the rest of the country.

Every account now of the current phase of Delhi riots will be peppered with instant references to Jamia and JNU, ghar-vapsi and mob-lynching. That a single community was at the receiving end of the violence outside of the two Delhi educational institutions would be taken back to read in a pattern, dating back to Gandhijis assassination at times, but definitely to the post-Ayodhya demolition violence and the Gujarat riots.

That is the kind of live imagery that could also push all rightful and truthful references to the Delhi riots, read anaemic, pathetic and apologetic.

If in the process President Trump gets blamed for looking the other way when another part of Delhi was protesting and at times burning, during the long run-up up to the presidential polls back home, then he has only himself to blame. The question is if it would smudge some of the electoral advantages that he might have accrued for his candidacy, through the multi-billion dollar military sales, creating or retaining jobs for his constituents.

For now Democratic ticket-hopeful Bernie Sanders has targeted Trump for silence on the issue while on Indian soil. He has been after the Trump-Modi duo ever since Houstons Howdy Modi event last year, when critics in both nations accused the Indian PM of launching Trumps re-election campaign.

Yet, an Indian BJP second-line leaders threat for the party to get involved in American elections -- and withdrawn as fast -- may take what the two leaders said is an internal affair of India, to a new, non-governmental level. India may then come to be seen as playing Pakistan despite denunciation, and take internal politics to external arenas, which Modi began doing with his first innings as PM.

This has consequences that might go beyond elections and internal affairs with an external angle. As with Pakistan it has already changed Indias politico-administrative priorities and policies. In the case of Pakistan, the consequences of Indianising the nations internal developmental and political issues, have already proved to be near-fatal.

Yet, but for the US presidential poll campaign taking such a course, Trump may have had his way all through the visit, without the US yielding an inch on issues that India needed American indulgence -- be it on the visa front or trade talks or whatever else.

His Assignment India otherwise was akin to Obama gloating over saving 25,000 American jobs during his India visit ahead of his seeking a second term in 2012. At the time, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh confirmed Indias decision to purchase more Boeing aircraft for the already-sick Air India.

N Sathiya Moorthy, veteran journalist and policy analyst, is Distinguished Fellow and Head-Chennai Initiative, Observer Research Foundation.
Remember experts? I laughed when I saw this headline in the Herald the other day, before I sobbed into my cereal. A story by Nick OMalley about a former NSW premier was crowned: Back in my day government would act on expert advice, says Nick Greiner. How quaint. With all of this rightful gnashing of teeth and sober parliamentary speeches on what to do about domestic abuse in the wake of the horrible murder of Hannah Clarke and her three children, youd think the first response might be, if we truly wish to prevent it: So what do the experts say?

Because they have said plenty of things. There seems to be unanimity on the front line, for example, that more funding for refuges, for housing and support services, is crucial as thousands of women get turned away every year. This is low hanging fruit: they are starved of funds.

And I dont know a single expert who thinks its a good idea to have another inquiry into family law, particularly one whose deputy chair, Pauline Hanson, said after Clarkes death: These things happen.

The tendency of government to announce inquiry after inquiry without acting on the recommendations they result in, is paralysing, distracting and offensive to those who work on the frontline and are desperate for resources as well as those who give considerable time to those reports.
Police have made a new appeal for information about the disappearance of a Co Down woman 15 years ago.

Lisa Dorrian was last seen alive at Ballyhalbert Caravan Park on February 27, 2005.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said he was making a fresh plea for information in a bid to help relieve the Dorrian family's anguish and "allow them to lay Lisa to rest".

Ms Dorrian was 25 when she disappeared and police believe she was murdered.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said: "Somebody knows what happened and it is not too late for those people to come and talk to me and my team.

"I know that individuals will have wrestled with their conscience for many years and today I am giving an opportunity for them to put that conscience to rest too.

"My direct appeal is to those within that close circle of knowledge to contact us."

Despite extensive searches and numerous appeals for information, Ms Dorrian has not been found.

I want the killer to know that we have pursued them for 15 years and we remain resolute in seeking justice for Lisa's family Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy

Mr Murphy said no one had been brought to justice in connection with her disappearance. The detective added: "Every anniversary for the Dorrian family is incredibly difficult, but with each year that passes their determination to find Lisa increases.

"It is now 15 years since Lisa inexplicably vanished and our thoughts today are with her family and friends.

"She was last seen alive in the caravan around 10pm on Sunday February 27.

"I believe she was murdered that night or in the early hours of the following morning."

The PSNI believes Ms Dorrian knew her killer.

Mr Murphy said: "There is nothing to suggest that Lisa came to harm at the hands of a stranger. I have always believed that a small number of people hold the key to us finding out what happened to Lisa.

"Those individuals must live forever with a heavy conscience because at this time every year the Dorrian family will renew their vigorous and unending search for Lisa.

"The police service stands right alongside them and our determination remains equally resolute.

"This has been a significant investigation to date and it remains absolutely active.

"We have conducted searches recently and will continue to identify other areas in which Lisa or clues might be.

"I want the killer to know that we have pursued them for 15 years and we remain resolute in seeking justice for Lisa's family."

Anyone with information can call detectives on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Police have pursued more than 3,500 lines of inquiry and carried out almost 400 searches, including extensive air, land and sea operations, since Ms Dorrian's disappearance.

Last October it was reported that PSNI detectives now have just one suspect in mind - a man who they believe killed Lisa and then summoned his father to help dispose of the shop assistant's body.
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Editor's note: Danilo Turk is former President of the Republic of Slovenia, from 2007 to 2012. He is currently a non-resident senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

A week ago, I was returning to Slovenia from London via Germany and Italy. The whole travel was normal  with, perhaps, fewer passengers at airports than usual.

However, at our final stop at the airport of Trieste (Trst), on the Italian side of the border with Slovenia, we were received by health workers in protective gear, who measured our body temperature.

A few days later it was officially announced that the coronavirus hit Europe in unexpected places in northern Italy. This is no longer a matter of an individual case but a beginning of an epidemic. Stories about the COVID-19 are now dominating the media in Europe.

At the same time, major battles against the virus have been continuing in China. While the war against this outbreak is not yet over, the experience of China has already offered some key lessons for the world. It is now necessary to think clearly and act decisively in each country affected by the virus, as well as at the international level.

This is not the time for media speculation, politicization and panic. The coronavirus disease is akin to a natural disaster with global effects, requiring serious actions by governments and responsible discussion in the media.

Fortunately, the World Health Organization and global health cooperation can be of help. Their activities are critically important for the world to understand the experiences of China. In the past days, these experiences were explained most eloquently by Dr. Bruce Aylward, team lead of the WHO-China joint mission on COVID-19, who returned from China recently.

Aylward reported that in Wuhan, which was the first place hit by the virus, the peak seems to have been passed and that the disease is in sharp decline. In addition, he conveyed the key messages, important for an understanding of the struggle against the virus in China. They included the main lessons to be internalized by policymakers everywhere in the world when confronted with this decentralized epidemic.

The following three key requirements are essential:

First, adjust your mindset. It is important to understand that the virus can strike anywhere and soon. This must not lead to panic but to preparedness for resolute response. When the virus hits, it has to be stopped  and stopped as close as possible to the place where it occurred.

Second, work with the people. People should be prepared for the virus and explained that an organized and disciplined action is absolutely necessary. People should not neglect the basic precautions such as frequent washing of hands and covering coughs.

Experienced epidemiologists know that people behave rationally when they are intellectually and emotionally prepared for the possible outbreaks.

Third, strengthen the capacity of the health centers. Good organization, an effective assistance to people showing the symptoms of COVID-19, good organization of separate spaces for patients and ensuring adequate protection gear and equipment for the health workers and health institutions are among the key conditions for successful fighting the virus.

These requirements have been applied in China and represent an experience of global importance. There is little doubt today that China is succeeding. In fact, China may end up coming stronger out of the ordeal.

Success in the fighting the COVID-19 will deepen the understanding of the need for quality development that will be needed for further progress and economic performance of China. Development of the health care system is an essential part of quality development.

At the same time, the current stage of war against the coronavirus disease puts three tests before the political leaders everywhere in the world:

The first test relates to the task to adjust the mindset of the political leaders themselves to the need to act decisively and to lead the people in a manner that strengthens solidarity. The political leaders who like to emphasize their "values based" policies will have to show their ability to lead in a crisis situation in a manner that actually respects and upholds such basic human values like the right to life and the right to the highest attainable standard of health.

The experience of China should help them to make the right decisions in a timely fashion and to avoid mistakes that usually happen in the early phases of an emergency.

The second test is one of international solidarity. Not all of the countries of the world are prepared to cope with an outbreak like the current COVID-19. There might be a need to help with technical assistance, medical personnel and equipment.

And again, the experience of China and the experience of cooperation between different Chinese provinces could help. Naturally, it is more difficult to organize effective assistance internationally than within a single country  even if that country is as large and diverse as China. But the basic principle of solidarity is the same.

This week the EU has decided to devote significant funds for assistance to countries in the world that need assistance in equipment and personnel. This is a good sign to be followed by effective action  wherever needed.

And the third and final test relates to global cooperation. There is much discussion about multilateralism in the world these days. It should be clear that multilateral cooperation in fighting the coronavirus disease is an important test for the international community as a whole. The World Health Organization is showing the way.

The United Nations is developing its inter-agency, system wide activation procedures which should help in the current and future emergencies. All member states of the United Nations and all parts of the UN system must be engaged. This is not about public health "only." This is a critical test of multilateralism and of the ability of the world to move towards a shared future  a better future for all.
The strains of George Gershwins Summertime float down the busy corridors of Kings College Hospital in London as violinist Dagmar Turner delivers a near-perfect performance.

For a follow-up medical review, its rather unorthodox. But consultant neurosurgeon Professor Keyoumars Ashkan listens with rapt attention and delight.

The last time he heard Dagmar play this aria was four weeks ago. Both agree it wasnt a patch on todays encore. Scratchy, halting and a little out of tune, it was far from virtuoso.

I hit quite a few bum notes, says 53-year-old Dagmar laughingly, putting down her bow with a flourish. It wasnt my best performance, but perhaps my most famous.

Dagmar Turner had a 8cm by 4cm brain tumour removed in January and was woken up during the procedure to play her violin so doctors could ensure they weren't destroying her talent

You can say that again. Who hasnt seen the video of Dagmar bringing a whole new meaning to the term musical theatre?

Woken up during delicate surgery to remove an aggressive tumour from her right frontal lobe, she played for three hours while Professor Ashkan, 52, literally fiddled with her brain.

Given that her head was clamped into place and part of her skull removed while the surgeon used an electrical probe on her grey matter, who could blame Dagmar for the occasional duff note?

Indeed, since footage emerged just over a week ago of the amateur musician from the Isle of Wight segueing from Gershwin to Gustav Mahlers Symphony No 5  via scales, random melodies and Julio Iglesiass Besame Mucho  Dagmar has become an overnight sensation.

Her recovery has been so rapid, she is already rehearsing for a sellout concert in two weeks time with the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra.

Recalling the moment she was roused in mid-surgery, she says: I said, No, no, leave me alone. Let me sleep. It was so noisy and bright in the theatre. I didnt like it but they kept saying, Play, Dagmar, play, so I closed my eyes and tried to remember all the melodies Id learned as a child.

The violinist and the surgeon who operated on her, Professor Keyoumars Ashkan, have now reunited with Dagmar playing music as part of her follow up appointment

At one point in the video, one of the medical team cries, Amazing! and urges her to continue.

I wasnt frightened, she says, but it was very uncomfortable being stuck in one position for hours, trying not to poke Professor Ashkan in the eye with my bow.

She was playing to help the surgeon identify the parts of her brain that control the finest movements of her fingers, so he could be careful not to damage them. And although it was stressful playing non-stop in a supine position, unable to move her head a millimetre but fully conscious, Dagmar felt no pain at all.

She only knew Professor Ashkan was touching a vital part of her brain when her playing faltered, stopped or they all heard a wrong note.

I cant say it was enjoyable but it was fascinating, she says.

Dagmar, pictured with her husband Mat, said she 'hit quite a few bum notes' while playing the violin during the surgery but wasn't 'frightened' by being awake on the operating table

Professor Ashkan explains: Although a patient can feel pain in other parts of the body through messages to the brain, the brain has no sense of itself because there are no nerve-endings. So when I do this kind of surgery the patient feels nothing.

This is the first time Dagmar and the professor  head of the Kings Brain Tumour Service  have met since the six-hour procedure to remove her 8cm by 4cm tumour on January 31.

Two of his 12-strong team that day, consultant anaesthetist Holly Jones, 46, and neurosurgical registrar Mathew Gallagher, 35, have also popped in to enjoy Dagmars repeat performance.

Ive woken up a tailor during an operation to check he could still sew. But this was our first violinist, says Holly, thrilled at seeing Dagmar as fit as her fiddle.

As for Dagmar, she is remarkably matter-of-fact about her ordeal and looks unscathed, her long blonde hair masking the scars and staples where the skin over her skull was restitched after surgery.

I am so grateful to the team because, for me, this operation wasnt just about surviving but quality of life, she says. I may not be a concert violinist but music means everything to me.

Two of Professor Ashkan's 12-strong team from the surgery, consultant anaesthetist Holly Jones, 46, and neurosurgical registrar Mathew Gallagher, 35, also popped in to enjoy Dagmars repeat performance in the follow up appointment (all pictured together)

Dagmar (pictured playing her violin after brain surgery) first suffered a seizure while practising a Mendelssohn overture during a rehearsal one evening in 2013

Iranian-born Professor Ashkan  who also has a music degree and is an accomplished pianist  insists he was just doing his job.

The technical aspect of the operation is fascinating but what really matters for me is not how I did it but why, says the professor, who has worked in neurosurgery for a quarter of a century since graduating from Cardiff University School of Medicine.

The ability to play the violin was critical to Dagmar, and it is a doctors role to listen when a patient tells you what they need, rather than say, No, no, no, we cant do that.

The stakes were a bit higher with this operation. But I delivered, so I am happy and she doesnt need to thank me.

Born in Germany, Dagmar moved to the UK in 1997 as managing director of a mail-order fashion company and met husband Mat, 47, an engineer, in Nottingham, where he lived next door. They were married in 2003 and their son Felix was born four years later.

The daughter of an amateur pianist, Dagmar had played violin from the age of ten. Music was central to her life, and in 2010 she joined the Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra.

It was during a rehearsal one evening in 2013 that she suffered a seizure while practising a Mendelssohn overture.

Luckily, we had quite a few retired doctors playing with us and I came round to find one of them shining a light in my eyes, she says.

Dagmar (pictured with her husband) put on a brave face, hiding the effects of the radiotherapy  which caused crushing fatigue  from her son Felix and continuing to play the violin

Referred for an MRI scan in Southampton, Dagmar says it felt like a punch to the stomach to be told she had a large slow-growing tumour. Because of its size and location, surgery was considered too risky.

Instead, Dagmar had a six-week course of intensive radiotherapy to shrink the tumour, which, she says, gave her no further trouble for the next seven years.

Our son was only seven years old when I was diagnosed and we decided not to tell him because we felt he was too young. We didnt want him to worry, says Dagmar.

Its a huge shock to be told you have an uninvited guest in your brain. But Ive always been a very resilient person, so I decided to embrace the tumour and make it my friend.

I thought, OK, I didnt want you to move in, but now youre here I am going to live with you as best I can.

She put on a brave face, hiding the effects of the radiotherapy  which caused crushing fatigue  from her son and continuing to play the violin.

Every three months, then every six months, she had an MRI scan to monitor the tumour, which did not change until last November, when it showed signs of aggressive growth.

Dagmar was told surgery was now the only option to prevent the life-threatening tumour gradually robbing her of her faculties.

Although her first priority was to live as long as possible for her adored family, the thought of surviving without the joy of playing the violin was hard to contemplate.

She heard about Professor Ashkan through a friend at the Brains Trust charity. He was renowned for his surgical expertise and also for his empathy and musical sensibilities.

Dagmar was told surgery was now the only option to prevent the life-threatening tumour gradually robbing her of her faculties and she heard about Professor Ashkan through a friend at the Brains Trust charity

Professor Ashkan says: The first time I met Dagmar, she told me playing the violin was critical to her.

She said to me, If you cannot preserve this function, I would rather the tumour was not removed and I will take my chances.

For some patients it is good enough to be able to still move their arm to hold a cup, but Dagmar needed dexterity.

Dagmar researched awake craniotomy, watching videos of other brain tumour patients who had undergone the procedure. She was the one who suggested it to Professor Ashkan, offering to play the violin during surgery.

I told Dagmar: This is rather unusual, but let me go away and have a think. I cant always give patients what they want or match results to their expectations. But what kind of surgeon, when set a challenge like this, would say no?

Professor Ashkan performs some 300 operations a year, of which about 50 are awake craniotomy.

When I started in neurosurgery, such an operation would have been unthinkable, he says. But medical advances and new technology mean we can now do the most amazing things.

Waking a patient up during surgery means a surgeon can work on the brain and, depending on where the tumour is, preserve their speech or motor skills.

The success of the operation relied on meticulous planning, including Dagmars position  lying down with her head slightly raised and turned to the left.

Mrs Turner explained to her surgeon Professor Ashkan - who holds a degree in music and is an accomplished pianist - how she was worried she's lose her skill if she had surgery

We needed her to be able to play the minute she woke up, without moving her, the professor says. We also had to take into account the movement of the bow, because if it nudged me the results could be disastrous.

Before surgery, doctors carried out transcranial magnetic mapping. This involved passing a strong magnet over Dagmars head while she played the violin, to interrupt brain function harmlessly and reveal which specific areas controlled her fingers.

Dagmar says: When I knew the surgery was going ahead, we finally explained to Felix what was happening. He was upset that he hadnt been told sooner but understood why. On the day of surgery, Mat took him to the Science Museum to take his mind off it.

That morning, however, there was a last-minute drama when Dagmar discovered she had left her violin at home. After some frantic phone calls to friends in London, another was conjured up for the surgery.

Following that slight hiccup, it all went like clockwork.

Everything is rehearsed in advance, says Professor Ashkan. Nothing is left to chance.

The team included two trainee neurosurgeons, two anaesthetists, a neuropsychologist, a physiotherapist and various scrub nurses, helpers and runners.

Dagmar was put under general anaesthetic for the painful part of the procedure, to cut the skin and saw open a section of skull to expose the brain.

Two hours into the operation, she was roused and asked to play the violin while Professor Ashkan used a device called an intra-operative neurostimulator probe to confirm which areas of her brain around the margins of the tumour affected her fingers.

Often during surgery I will listen to Classic FM but we didnt have it on that day, says Professor Ashkan. When I have a patient playing music, I am listening out for every note played wrong.

If Dagmar didnt play or missed a note, I knew I was touching the wrong part of the brain. Some of the music she was playing I knew well  but although I love Mahler I dont know it, which was a slight worry.

But one of the benefits of having a large team is the amount of knowledge in the room, and luckily one of the people in the theatre knew Mahler very well.

But wasnt he worried that Dagmar might unexpectedly panic or suffer an attack of stage fright, waking up in such a vulnerable state?

No, because this is more like elective than emergency surgery. The patient knows exactly what to expect because they have been involved in the planning and are surrounded by people they have already met, he says.

By being woken up during the delicate procedure, surgeons were able to identify and therefore avoid the areas of the brain that are activated while she plays

Dagmar now hopes she will be able to play at the Royal Albert Hall to raise money for brain cancer charities, with an orchestra of doctors and cancer survivors

They have to be fully conscious to give me accurate feedback when I use the probe.

The most difficult part for me is the 20 minutes it takes for the patient to fully wake up when you are standing around waiting to get to work.

Dagmar adds: I wasnt frightened at all, but I was very relieved when, after Id been playing for almost three hours, someone said, Dagmar, weve removed 90 per cent of the tumour! before putting me back to sleep.

Although 10 per cent of the tumour remains, all the aggressive cancer cells were removed thanks to the revolutionary so-called pink drink ( 5-Aminolevulinic Acid), which only became available throughout the NHS last year.

Before surgery, patients drink the fluid, which makes aggressive cancer cells glow bright pink under blue filtered light, so they are easier to identify and remove.

Now under the care of an oncologist, Dagmar has yet to find out if she will need further radiotherapy. Even if the tumour eventually grows back, she feels it has all been worth it just to be able to continue playing the violin.

As she picks up her instrument again, Dagmar looks serene. Her ambition now is to play at the Royal Albert Hall to raise money for brain cancer charities, with an orchestra of doctors and cancer survivors.

Perhaps Professor Ashkan would oblige at the piano.
Gold, which was hovering around $1,321 an ounce in January 2019, has already breached $1,600 per ounce in the past few sessions to a seven-year high.

For an asset class that has already seen an appreciation of around 25 per cent in a year, analysts expect the onset of coronavirus (Covid-19) to fuel a further upside in gold prices over the long-term should the panic spread.

In the short-term (six months), however, they expect the upside to be limited given the rally since the past year.

Gold, which was hovering around $1,321 an ounce in January 2019, has already breached $1,600 per ounce in the past few sessions to a seven-year high.

The effects of coronavirus is adding to global woes.

"At a time when we were beginning to think that there could be some resolution to the trade wars, the onset of coronavirus has dealt a double blow to an already slowing world economy, says Kishore Narne, associate director for commodity research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Meanwhile, the total number of coronavirus-related deaths in mainland China have crossed 2,700, while the number of confirmed cases in mainland China are above 78,400.

Moody's Analytics has forecast a global recession if this health scare becomes a pandemic, and the odds of that are uncomfortably high and rising with infections surging in Italy and Korea.

Gold prices are likely to remain range-bound in the next six months given the rally seen over the last one year.

"However, one needs to monitor coronavirus-related developments and how global economy plays out.

"A rise in cases / fatalities could push investors to safe-haven assets like gold and silver, which in turn will see their prices move up, says G Chokkalingam, founder and managing director at Equinomics Research.

Policy-wise, global central banks are likely to resort to more stimulus measures in the form of rate cuts and/or pumping in more money to revive growth.

All this can trigger a liquidity-driven rally in most asset classes, including gold.

How equities will react to this move will also depend on how corporate earnings play out, analysts say.

UBS expects global to take a serious hit and slip to 0.7 per cent in the January 2020 quarter (Q1-2020) from 3.2 per cent in the December 2019 quarter (Q4-2019).

Though the brokerage expects growth to rebound in the April -June 2020 period, the impact could slow the overall 2020 GDP growth by 20 basis points (bps) to 2.9 per cent.

US-China trade tension had earlier led Asia ex-Japan (AxJ) monetary policy rate to a post-global financial crisis (GFC) low.

"The AxJ fiscal deficit is now being pushed to its widest post GFC amid the coronavirus outbreak.

"Both fiscal and monetary easing are underway, with the 2020 AxJ fiscal deficit expected to widen to 8.4 per cent of GDP versus 7.8 per cent in 2019.

"We expect AxJ central banks to ease cumulatively by between 0-50 basis points this year, wrote Deyi Tan, an economist at Morgan Stanley in a recent report.

According to reports, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand have already put in place measures focused on providing financial support and debt relief in the form of interest subsidies / fee waivers, lending facilities, restructuring of repayment schedules, and relaxing ceilings for personal loan lines, particularly for affected sectors and emergency debtors post the coronavirus outbreak.

Whenever central banks dump liquidity into the system, gold is an asset that normally grabs this.

"If one is looking to invest in gold from a six  12 months, use every decline to accumulate.

"Expect prices to rise another 13  15 per cent from here on, Narne says.

Photograph: Reuters
At Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, Robert is tired of watching his family and neighbors die. On the same land where Roberts ancestors were enslaved, petrochemical plants now emit toxins that measure 400 time to 700 times the levels that are considered safe at a local elementary school. Roberts daughter has a rare disease that her doctor told her she had a 1-in-5 million chance of contracting. She has since learned that three other people in her community are dying of the same disease.

At another church in Hazard, Kentucky, 800 miles away, Tiffany shares about how she has been in medical debt since she became an adult. Though Medicaid now covers the infusions she needs to stay alive, Tiffany remembers a time before the Affordable Care Act guaranteed health insurance to people with pre-existing conditions. Before the ACA, her mother got a call from a private insurance company representative who was crying as she told her that they could no longer pay for Tiffanys infusions. The agent knew she was telling a mother that her daughter would die.

Robert is black. Tiffany white. Like nearly half of all people in the United States and 45% of Alabama residents, they are poor or low-wealth. They are among the 62 million Americans who are working for less than a living wage. They are among the people bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. And they are among poor people, in the United States and across the world, that are victims of endless war and violence.

As we recognize the history of Bloody Sunday on its 55th anniversary and its impact on Americans, its evident that people of all races are being left behind. These are people who dont worry when the stock market drops because that doesnt affect them as they struggle to feed their children, pay their medical bills and maintain a home.

Too many of our political conversations ignore poor people like Robert and Tiffany and the solutions to their problems so poor people, moral leaders and activists across the country are building power to enact policies that help them.

Whether through the demonization of immigrants, the suggestion that poverty is a "black issue" despite the fact that three times as many whites live in poverty as blacks, or the insistence that all Americans are doing well if the stock market is climbing, our politics have either pitted Robert and Tiffany against one another or ignored them entirely.

Poverty is the moral crisis that our country can no longer ignore. More than 140 million people in this country are poor or low-wealth. They are in every town and city in this country, from every racial and ethnic background. Right here in Alabama, they are 52 percent of children; 59 percent of African Americans, 64 percent of Latinx people and 37 percent of white people But dont let the percentages fool you. More white people live in poverty or are low-wealth (1.1 million) than African American and Latinx combined (903,000). Poverty hurts all of us, and we must unite to confront it together.

More than 50 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King led a Poor Peoples Campaign to call attention to the plight of the poor and to demand policy changes to address both the causes and consequences of poverty. Thats the work he was in the middle of when he was assassinated  and its the unfinished work that we have a moral responsibility to continue today.

The Poor Peoples Campaign has been reignited and reinvigorated  not on behalf of poor people, but by and with people like Robert and Tiffany.

The Poor Peoples Campaign is holding a nationwide MORE (mobilize, organize, register, educate) tour to help organize and mobilize poor people to have a voice in the 2020 election as never before. Up and down the ballot, from president to county commissioners, we are pressing candidates to face the realities of being poor in America and to embrace a policy agenda that ensures that people have dignity and opportunity, through a living wage, access to health care, equal treatment under the law, full voting rights and more.

A mass meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Friday at Stewart Memorial Christian Methodist Church in Mobile. The Poor Peoples Campaign will participate in the bridge crossing for Bloody Sunday in Selma.

And on Monday in Birmingham, a moral march will be held at 5 p.m. in Linn Park, followed by a mass meeting at 6 p.m. at Sixteenth Baptist Church. At the meeting, several impacted people will discuss the issues of environmental devastation, the failed health care system and the need for criminal justice reform.

The broken, immoral systems in this country that lock people into poverty count on us being divided, disorganized and disengaged. Thats how they keep power. And its how they keep the rest of us out of power.

We have the power to change that  fundamentally and forever  by uniting across lines of race, region, creed and culture to build a powerful movement that shifts priorities in our public life. Alabama residents have the opportunity to come together and insist that candidates for the Democratic nomination this year dont run from poverty, but address it head on. We are calling for the Democratic National Committee to host a full debate on poverty. And we are building a movement to demonstrate how those who have been excluded and pitted against one another can revive the heart of American democracy in 2020 and beyond.

Rev. Dr. William Barber, president of Repairers of the Breach, and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, president of the Kairos Center, are co chairs of the Poor Peoples Campaign which will hold a mass assembly in Washington, D.C. on June 20,2020. Reverend Barber is also a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant awardee and was deemed by the Washington Post the second most influential religious figure this decade after Pope Francis.
Javedullah Khan, the bureau chief for Urdu language newspaper Ausaf, was gunned down on February 25 in Matta, 40-kilometres northwest of Pakistan's Swat Valley. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) condemn the brutal killing.

According to senior police official Muhammad Ijaz Khan, the 36-year-old journalist was killed when two gunmen opened fire on his vehicle. He died at the scene. A police guard accompanying him was unhurt in the attack. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. A local peace committee member Fatehullah Khan called this a "targeted attack."

PFUJ said the remote Swat Valley made efforts to gather information challenging, but investigations revealed Khan was also a member of the local peace committee and had received threats from terrorists prior to his death.

Khan was a former correspondent for Dawn in Mingora, also in Swat Valley and the younger brother of prominent Al-Jazeera journalist Hameedullah Khan. PFUJ said as many as 14 members of Khans family have been killed since 2008. According to reports, Khan's relatives were targeted for their involvement in anti-Taliban peace committees formed to help defend villages from militant atrocities. Nobel laureate, Malala Yousafzai was shot as a teenager by a Taliban gunman in the area in 2012.

Khan was laid to rest at an ancestral graveyard in Shakardarrah village on February 26. Large crowds gathered to attend the funeral, including many journalists.PFUJ president GM Jamali and secretary general, Rana Muhammad Azeem, consoled Khans family and demanded the Pakistan government provide justice.

PFUJ said: "The journalists working in far flung areas are facing problems to perform their duties in a dangerous atmosphere and they have to sacrifice their lives in the line of duty. The Government should pay compensation to the family of Javid Khan.

Khan is the second journalist to be murdered in Pakistan this year, following the recent murder of Aziz Memon ten days ago. Memon was found dead in an irrigation channel in Southern Sindh with a wire wrapped around his neck.

IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger, said:The IFJ mourns the tragic death of Javedullah Khan. The dangers of reporting in remote and complex regions such as the Swat Valley jeopardises the free flow of information when journalists are forced to live in fear. The IFJ condemns the brutal murder and urges authorities to conduct a review and reform the mechanisms in place to protect journalists.
Colorado Springs City Council deadlocked Monday over the appointment of Stephannie Fortune to fill Councilman Richard Skorman's seat on the board. Who among the 7 finalists should be appointed?

You voted:
A Sydney father-of-four was taking two grams of cocaine a day and in debt to his dealers when he was offered $10,000 to help a crime syndicate take delivery of $34million worth of the drug.

A court has heard Mohammed Ayouby collected 57 kilograms of what he thought was cocaine when he met a man he did not know was an undercover police officer in October 2018.

Police had intercepted 190 kilograms of the drug, worth about $57million, in August that year when a vessel arrived in New Zealand from Panama.

The haul - 190 blocks packed into five duffel bags in a shipment labelled as bananas from Ecuador - was the largest in New Zealand's history.

But before it could reach its ultimate destination in Australia police substituted the drugs for another substance and began a covert operation which led to Ayouby's arrest.

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Mohammed Ayouby (pictured with wife Shianna) took possession of what he thought was 57kg of cocaine - worth about $17million - from undercover police officers in November 2018

Before his arrest Ayouby and his wife Shianna regularly showed off a fancy lifestyle on social media, including trips to The Everest race day at Randwick racecourse (right)

Undercover officers made contact with a syndicate of drug suppliers in Australia who they communicated with using the encrypted Ciphr moble phone messaging platform.

Ayouby, from Alfords Point in Sydney's south, was recruited by that syndicate to take possession of 57 kilograms of what they thought was cocaine from the police acting as dealers.

The then 40-year-old met one of the undercover officers at a cafe and picked up the 57 kilograms of 'cocaine' outside the Marrickville Metro shopping centre the next month.

The syndicate believed it was going to collect another 57 kilograms the same day for a $300,000 transport fee. The total 114 kilogram haul would have had a street value of $34million.

Ayouby was arrested the next morning when he handed himself into Australian Federal Police and has been in custody ever since.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug and was facing a maximum sentence of life in jail.

On Friday the Downing Centre District Court heard Ayouby, who ran a rubbish removal business which was failing, had a serious drug addiction and was in debt.

He had been taking up to 14 grams of the drug every every week which at $300 a gram would have been costing him $4,200.

Blocks of cocaine (pictured) were discovered by New Zealand customs officials hidden in five large duffle bags ready for shipment to Australia

'He was a family man and not the kind of man you'd expect to be involved in this,' a neighbour of the Ayoubys told Daily Mail Australia

Judge Jennie Girdham said Ayouby owed $10,000 to his drug dealers and had claimed he agreed to help the cocaine-importing syndicate for that sum.

While Ayouby's offending was serious Judge Girdham said he had not been involved in the cocaine's importation and he had been a minor member of the Australian syndicate.

Since being in custody his wife had given birth to their fourth child, who Ayouby did not see for six months, and his mother had died.

Judge Girdham was satisfied Ayouby, now 41, was genuinely remorseful and showed good prospects for rehabilitation.

She sentenced him to six years and nine months in prison with a minimum term of three years and nine months.

The 57kgs of cocaine that was allegedly heading for Australia was part of a bigger haul of more than 190kgs of the drug - a record for a New Zealand seizure

Before his arrest Ayouby and his wife Shianna regularly showed off a fancy lifestyle on social media.

Ayouby's Facebook page was littered with photos of the couple posing together while at masquerade balls or dressed up for The Everest race day.

Mrs Ayouby also often shared pictures of the couple out and about with their children. It is not suggested she was involved or knew of the alleged drug syndicate.

The couple's shocked neighbours told Daily Mail Australia at the time of Ayouby's arrest they were amazed to hear about his involvement in the drug syndicate.

'I saw the police car there the other day but had no idea what was going on,' one of the couple's neighbours said.

'I'd see them often and they would wave as they were going out of their driveway.

'They were always nice, he was a family man... it's incredible.'
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Zurich, Switzerland  Fri, February 28, 2020 14:02 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20672aa78 2 Lifestyle switzerland,Geneva,Watch,watch-expo,luxury,coronavirus,Watches-and-Wonders-Geneva Free

The organizer of Geneva's international expo of fine watches said Thursday it had decided to cancel the April event because of the spread of the deadly new coronavirus.

"In view of the latest developments concerning the worldwide spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus... the decision has been taken to cancel the upcoming edition of Watches and Wonders Geneva," said the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie.

The announcement came as more than 2,700 people worldwide have died of COVID-19, and almost 80,000 have been infected, mainly in China.

Switzerland reported its first case this week, and by Thursday the number of cases had grown to five, including one in Geneva.

The Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie said that "in order to protect the health and wellbeing of all our guests, press, partners and teams" it had decided to cancel the event, due to have taken place from April 25-29.

The event is a major trade show for the luxury watch industry and is particularly important for the many Switzerland-based makers of fine timepieces, particularly Richemont brands like Cartier, Piaget and Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Read also: Patek Philippe unveils 15 new designs at Baselworld 2019

The event, which is typically held in January, had already been postponed this year to coincide with Baselworld, another massive watch fair held in the northern Swiss city of Basel in April.

The organizers of the Basel event told AFP they were "evaluating the situation in extremely close coordination with Swiss federal and regional authorities."

Earlier this month, Swatch Group cancelled a watch fair dedicated to its brands that was to have been held in Zurich.

China and the Asian region have become increasingly important for watchmakers, as they have for other luxury goods manufacturers.

China is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, and international airlines have scaled back flights to the region and many firms are cutting back travel by their employees.

Other large international business gatherings, such as Europe's top mobile phone trade show in Barcelona, have also been cancelled owing to the outbreak.
DELAVAN  A Tazewell County public defender has been identified as the Delavan homeowner who fatally shot an intruder Thursday night after he bit the homeowner in the face.

The victim was identified as Daniel L. Williamson, 41, of rural San Jose. An autopsy is scheduled later Friday.

Sheriff Jeff Lower identified the homeowner as Luke Taylor, 54, who is a public defender for the county. There was no immediate word on whether the incident was connected to Taylor's work.

Online court records indicate Williamson had only one recent minor traffic charge in Tazewell County, and the case was closed last year.

The Tazewell County public defender's office, sheriff's department and coroner's office all declined further comment, citing the ongoing investigation.

County Board Chairman David Zimmerman said he was aware of the incident, but deferred all questions to the sheriff's department.

The shooting happened shortly after 8 p.m. along Boynton Road.

Lower said Taylor heard someone yelling outside and went to investigate. He encountered Williamson, who threatened Taylor with bodily harm, then charged him and bit him on the face and head.

Taylor fired in self-defense, the sheriff said.

Williamson was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:10 p.m., said Tazewell County Coroner Charles Hanley.

There was no immediate information on the extent of Taylor's injuries.

The incident remains under investigation.

San Jose is southwest of Delavan, a town of about 1,600 that is south of Peoria and west of Bloomington.

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BLYTHEWOOD, South Carolina, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spirax Sarco, the global leader in steam system engineering and management, is among the prestigious list of presenters at the 8th annual American Food Sure Summit, taking place March 2 and 3, 2020, at the Westin Chicago River North hotel in Chicago, IL. The event focuses on creating and operating within a culture of food safety and quality and offers practical case studies from the worlds largest food companies and national governmental regulatory bodies.

Spirax Sarcos presentation, scheduled for 1:50 p.m. on March 2, is titled When is Steam Clean? Mike Skidmore and Neil Davies, Market Development Executives for Spirax Sarcos global and U.S. food and beverage divisions, will provide tips for understanding and controlling contamination risks that can negatively impact steam processes and end products.

If you add water to your product, there are strict regulations governing its quality, says Skidmore. With steam quality, steam system best practices and the 3-A Accepted Practices are there to guide the Food and Beverage industry to ensure similar safe behaviors are in place for steam that directly contacts your product.

The Spirax Sarco session will discuss why manufacturers should view steam as an ingredient and will teach attendees about potential steam contamination risks to their products, as well as how to control them.

As a food or beverage manufacturer, you take every step to ensure your consumers safety and protect your brand, adds Davies. Our session will help you understand and manage the risks associated with direct contact steam, to ensure the ongoing success and profitability of your business.

More information about Spirax Sarcos products and services for food and beverage manufacturing is available online at www.spiraxsarco.com/us or by calling (800) 883-4411, or email at orders@spirax.com.

About Spirax Sarco, Inc. With over 100 years of experience in the industry and more than 1,300 experts in 62 countries, Spirax Sarco is a global leader in steam system engineering and management and offers the most extensive range of products and services for commercial and industrial steam applications. Further information can be found at www.spiraxsarco.com/us

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Green Day is postponing its tour of Asia because of the spread of the coronavirus.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra, BTS and Stormyz have all postponed or canceled shows over coronavirus concerns in recent weeks.

Green Day was slated to perform in the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan next month. New dates have yet to be announced.

We have unfortunately made the difficult decision to postpone our upcoming shows in Asia due to the health + travel concerns with coronavirus, Green Day posted on Twitter Thursday night. We know it sucks, as we were looking forward to seeing you all, but hold on to your tickets well be announcing the new dates very soon.

The BSO called off its tour of Asia four weeks ago when fears over public safety were first raised.

We are all deeply disappointed that we will not be able to perform for the wonderful audiences in Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, said BSO President and CEO Mark Volpe in a statement. Though this was to be the BSO and Andris Nelsons first visit to Seoul, and the BSOs long-awaited returns to Taipei and Hong Kong, it has become clear through recent official reports that concerns over the spread of the new coronavirus have dramatically increased, forcing the orchestra to look seriously at the feasibility of proceeding with the tour."

So far, there have been nearly 84,000 reported cases of coronavirus worldwide, resulting in 2,869 deaths.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is probing what may be first case of community spread of COVID-19 in U.S.

President Donald Trump has tapped Vice President Mike Pence to head the U.S. response to the health threat.
TULSA, Okla., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ONEOK, Inc. (NYSE: OKE) will participate in the Credit Suisse Energy Summit March 2-3, 2020, in Vail, Colorado.

Materials used at the conference will be accessible on ONEOK's website, www.oneok.com, beginning at 7 a.m. Mountain Standard Time (8 a.m. Central Standard Time) on March 2, 2020.

ONEOK, Inc. (pronounced ONE-OAK) (NYSE: OKE) is a leading midstream service provider and owner of one of the nation's premier natural gas liquids (NGL) systems, connecting NGL supply in the Rocky Mountain, Mid-Continent and Permian regions with key market centers and an extensive network of natural gas gathering, processing, storage and transportation assets.

ONEOK is a FORTUNE 500 company and is included in the S&P 500.

For information about ONEOK, visit the website: www.oneok.com.

For the latest news about ONEOK, find us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Analyst Contact: Andrew Ziola

918-588-7683 Media Contact: Brad Borror

918-588-7582

SOURCE ONEOK, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.oneok.com


PHILIPSBURG:--- From 2 to 5 March, a team of scientific researchers, governmental agencies, NGOs and grassroots organizations from the Caribbean and The Netherlands will join forces at the University of St. Martin (USM) to address the catastrophic environmental challenges facing Caribbean islands and their inhabitants.

Led by former USM president Professor Dr. Francio Guadaloupe, now serving at the University of Amsterdam, and Professor Dr. Corinne Hofman of Leiden University, the team is scheduled to arrive in St. Martin on Monday to hold meetings with key sectors of the community. Thereafter, similar workshops and seminars are to be held in the other five islands comprising the Caribbean part of the Dutch Kingdom. From these consultations, a proposal will be developed to compete in the Dutch Research Council (NWO) call for multidisciplinary scientific research in the Dutch Caribbean.

According to Hofman, an archeologist, the Caribbean islands are at the center of the climate vulnerability debate. Islanders have been confronted with sea level rises, storm events, coastal erosion and degradation, and extreme periods of drought ever since the first occupation of the islands between 7800 and 4000 years ago. These adverse events have significant ecological, socio-economic, and cultural implications, with increasing impacts on living conditions and the preservation of cultural and natural heritage.

The proposed research programme, entitled Island(-er)s Under Threat, involves the six Dutch Caribbean islands and focusses on human-environment interactions and social adaptation to environmental change from a deep-time perspective. It is geared towards the development of sustainable solutions to water management, food security, and shelter. It expects to develop tailored plans for environmental planning, sustainable tourism, and the protection of threatened heritage sites.

Together, we will work on the production of sustainable solutions to climate change by considering all stakeholders, said Prof. dr. Guadeloupe. Our work is geared towards better-informed policies and more effective implementation of sustainable practices, with regional and global significance, he added. As an anthropologist, Guadeloupe is also interested in the use of traditional knowledge, as well as technology and local art and culture, as tools for understanding how islanders relate to climate change.

In written statements to the press, USM President Professor Dr. Antonio Carmona Baez confirmed that researchers will hold a public seminar scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, 4 March. Invited researchers will also tour the entire island of St. Martin and meet with governmental agencies and NGOs such as the Nature Foundation, Eco Sint Maarten Agriculture and Research Centre, SHTA and Sint Maarten Archeological Research Centre (SIMARC). We are also really excited about the prospects of developing a long-term research and education programme that speaks to the needs and concerns of Caribbean islands and people, Carmona added.

Together with architectural engineer Dr. Filomeno Marchena of the University of Curacao, Carmona is set to serve as Principal Investigator of one of the subprojects, while Hofman and Guadeloupe will serve as Programme co-Chairs if the proposal is accepted by NWO in June this year.

Carmona stated that for now, this seminar is an opportunity to connect our communities with top researchers in the Kingdom and throughout the Caribbean region in a very tangible manner. With the presence of top researchers on the island, and later in St. Eustatius (March 5), Saba (March 6), Bonaire (March 9), Curacao (March 10) and Aruba (March 12), we will build a network of concerned scholars to tackle the most pressing issue of our era -and that is climate change.
MCKINNEY, Texas - A North Texas man was sentenced to death late Thursday for the 2018 killings of a Dallas-area police officer and another man.

The Collin County jury deliberated for about eight hours before returning the death sentence for Brandon McCall, 28, for shooting his friend, Rene Gamez II, and Richardson police officer David Sherrard in what police described as an ambush. Defence attorneys acknowledged that McCall shot the men but said the killings were unintentional.

Jurors had deliberated for about two hours Feb. 19 before convicting McCall of capital murder. The jury had the option of sentencing McCall to life imprisonment without parole.

McCall was accused of shooting Gamez, 30, in an apartment complex in the suburb north of Dallas and then shooting Sherrard in the chest as he entered the apartment after responding to reports of gunfire. The 37-year-old officer was a married father of two daughters and later died at a hospital.

McCall barricaded himself in the apartment after the shooting and fired at random during an hours-long standoff before officers arrested him.

During the trial, jurors were shown police body camera video of the moment Sherrard was shot and a video in which McCall admitted to opening fire on officers.

The latter video shows an officer reading McCall his Miranda rights as he lies in a hospital bed after the shootings. The officer then asks McCall why he shot at police.

McCall replies: Cause I wanted to.
Pakistan is experiencing its worst 'locust invasion' in 20 years and China is reportedly lending a helping hand to the country.

According to BBC, China could be deploying as many as 100,000 ducks to Pakistan to help them fight the war against crop-eating locusts. But what if the ducks come infested with coronavirus? Is it really worth it to get rid of one problem by inviting an even bigger one?

AFP

Pakistan's locust problem is so devastating that the country has announced a state of emergency. According to agricultural experts, one single duck can consume up to 200 locusts per day and that is significantly more effective than using pesticides.

Pexels

A senior researcher with the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lu Lizhi told Bloomberg that the birds are "biological weapons". He also said that chickens can be used for the same purpose but they can only eat up to 70 locusts in a day, making ducks a better alternative.

He also spoke about how since ducks remain in groups, it is easier to manage them as compared to chickens. Reports add that once a trial is successfully completed in China's western Xinjiang province, the country will send the duck army to the affected areas of Pakistan -- Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab provinces.

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However, on the other hand, a professor from China Agriculture University, Zhang Long expressed concerns regarding the ducks' survival in the neighbouring country's temperature. He told Pakistani media, "Ducks rely on water, but in Pakistan's desert areas, the temperature is very high."

He also mentioned that even though using ducks to get rid of locusts is an ancient practice, it is yet to be made part of government programs and is still in its exploring state.
After more than 120 years, the United States Congress stands poised to pass legislation that would make lynching a federal hate crime. The recent version that passed through the house is the Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act, which is named after the 14 year old black teen who was brutally murdered near the Mississippi delta town of Money for allegedly whistling at a white woman outside Bryants Grocery. Simultaneously, on last year the Senate passed the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act. A conference committee will now have to reconcile both versions.

The horrors of the inhumane practice of lynching has been documented by many. Amongst these are: the Tuskegee Institute; Chicago publications Defender and Tribune; Ida B. Wells-Barnett in A Red Record (1895); numerous authors and social-scientists; and most recently the Equal Justice Initiative, who in their report Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror (2015), estimate that nearly 4000 lynchings occurred in the American South between the end of the Civil War and World War II.

It is also worthy to mention that the first anti-lynching bill in U.S. history was introduced by George H.White (R-N.C.) on January 20th, 1900. The bill noted that of the 166 lynchings recorded in America between (1898-99), 156 of these were black in nature, and called for the protection of all citizens by granting the federal government the authority to investigate, try and convict all guilty parties of mob violence under the grounds of treason. Further, Congressman White, who served in the 55th and 56th U.S. Congresses (1897-1901), held the distinction of being the nation's sole black representative during this time, and the last from the South to serve in Congress until the early 1970's.

White had not been alone in denouncing the evils of lynching and mob violence. Samuel McElwee also decried the practice in a speech to the Tennessee legislature in 1887 when he exclaimed, Great God, when will this nation treat the negro as an American citizen, whether he be in Maine, among her tall pines, or in the south, where the magnolia blossoms grow? Other civil rights groups that were committed and dedicated to the permanent eradicaion of lynching include: the Niagara Movement, National Afro-American League (Council), National Association of Colored Women Clubs, Commission on Interracial Cooperation, and the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching.

Due to civil disturbances and mob violence that occurred in areas such as Memphis, Tennessee (1866), Wilmington, North Carolina (1898), and Springfield, Illinois (1908), a grand convening of a National Negro Convention was called which formed a Committee to address pressing societal issues on May 31st, 1909 in New York. This broad, multi-ethnic, and diverse group established a platform deeply rooted in workers rights, voting rights, women's rights, civil rights, and universal human rights, and by February 12th, 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was officially formed. One of the earliest initiatives of the organization was the great Silent Protest March '' of 1917 that occurred in New York City, which was in part a response to the East Saint Louis riot.

The NAACP and it's field secretary James Weldon Johnson would embark upon a Thirty-Year campaign against lynching which involved the investigating, recording, and documenting of incidents of mob violence by individuals such as Walter F. White and Elisabeth Freeman; through the purchasing of newspaper advertisements that denounced the evils of lynching; advocating for federal interaction in the form of legislation; and by unfurling a giant banner outside it's New York headquarters which alerted the public each time a lynching or mob violence related incident occurred. Johnson would cite cases such as the Jim McIlherron incident (1918) in Estill Springs, Tn. as a reason that federal intervention to ban lynching was needed.

Numerous attempts aimed at achieving this objective would stall. Rep. Leonidas Dyer (Dyer Bill) proposed an anti-lynching bill in 1918, whch was passed by the House of Representatives but met a fillibuster in the Senate. By 1935, a new anti-lynching bill would be debated in Congress, in part as a response to occurrences like the Claude Neal incident (1937). The Costigan-Wagner Bill (1935-37) was again met by intense Southern opposition, despite the House twice (1937,'40) passing measures introduced by Joseph A. Gavagan (D-N.Y.). In 2005, the U.S. Senate expressed it's "deepest sympathies and most solemn regrets" for failing to pass anti-lynching legislation.

For more than a century, crusaders have rallied against the immoral sin that is lynching. Some have framed them as racial terror while others have bluntly asserted that they were spectacles. We cannot and should not relegate the past into relative obscurity because scores of generations have been terrorized, traumatized and victimized because of these atrocities. What we all can do is ensure that we chart a course that aspires to that which we can be, to bind up the nation's wounds, to speak out against injustice, to build up and plant atop fertile ground a more beloved community. This important piece of legislation is one step towards achieving that inevitable triumph.

Respectfully, Eric Atkins
Srinagar, Feb 28 : As part of the crackdown against drug dealings in the region, Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday arrested three drug peddlers and recovered contraband substance from their possession.

At a checkpoint in Haft Chinar crossing under the Shergarhi police station here, the police intercepted three persons identified as Shavaiz Ahmad, a resident of Tangdhar, Parveez Ahmad of Kupwara and Nayeem Manzoor of Chadoora Budgam.

"Officers at the checkpoint were able to recover 50 gm heroin from their possession. They have been arrested and shifted to Shergarhi police station where they remain in custody," the police said.

An FIR under relevant sections of the law has been registered against them by the police. Further investigation into the matter has been initiated.
Following Missouris lead, the Tennessee state legislature has introduced HB2721, its own version of The Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act, a clone of a bill introduced earlier this year in the Missouri state legislature that has alarmed librarians and anti-censorship advocates.

The controversial bills propose to give elected "parental review boards" the power to decide which age-appropriate" materials can be accessible to minors within a public library, with librarians who dont comply with the boards decisions subject to prison time.

Tennessee legislators have copied-and-pasted a bill that would formalize state-level censorship, said James Tager, Deputy Director of Free Expression Research and Policy at PEN America in a statement this week, pointing out that the Tennessee bill is essentially identical to Missouri House Bill 2044, also known as the Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act. Under the Tennessee version, librarians who refuse to comply with the law would be subject to a Class A misdemeanor charge (on par with a domestic assault) and public libraries who refuse to comply could also have their state funding cut.

Public librarians around the country are often put in the uncomfortable position of standing up for free speech in their own institutions, and refusing to take down a book simply become some members of the community object, Tager said. Apparently the sponsors of this Act feel that this should be treated as criminal conduct when its actually librarians simply doing their jobs.

Missouri House Bill 2044, was introduced in January by representative Ben Baker, who later conceded that the bill was motivated by the popularity of Drag Queen Story times in libraries and bookstores around the country. The main thing is I want to be able to take my kids to a library and make sure theyre in a safe environment, and that theyre not going be exposed to something that is objectionable material, Baker told local KOAM News last month.

Both bills, have drawn swift condemnation from the library community.

ALA vigorously opposes HB2721 and other bills like it that advance censorship under the guise of parental control. reads a statement released this week by American Library Association. The belief that a small group of parents know what is best for every family in their community denies the very real fact that each community is made up of families and individuals with diverse beliefs, identities and values. ALA supports the right of families and individuals to choose materials from a diverse spectrum of ideas and beliefs. Public libraries and their professional staff members already have in place the tools and procedures that will assist parents in selecting materials that fit their familys information needs, while not censoring materials or infringing upon the rights of other families or patrons to choose and access the resources and programs they want and need.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, the state library association says it is monitoring the bill, noting that it remains in the early stages of the legislative process.

"TLA leadership is continuously monitoring the proposal, which in its current state contains language the organization finds equatable to censorship of library collections, which we oppose," a recent statement on the TLA site reads.
All Qatari citizens in Iran were brought back to capital Doha on Thursday and will be placed in a 14-day quarantine.

Qatar has evacuated all its citizens in Iran over coronavirus fears and brought them back to Doha, the Government Communications Office (GCO) confirmed in a press release.

All those brought back on Thursday will be quarantined in a local hotel for 14 days.

A hotel has been set up as a quarantine facility to be used by the Qatari citizens for a 14-day period and will be cared for and monitored by medical. Additionally, they have also been provided with all necessities, the statement read.

The GCO reiterated that no cases of the novel coronavirus had been diagnosed in Qatar and encouraged individuals to refer to official information and to not rely on or distribute unconfirmed or unofficial information.

The coronavirus has steadily spread in the Middle East over the past week, with Iran reporting the highest number of cases  388 confirmed cases and 34 deaths as of Friday.

Coronavirus in Middle East

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the first country in the Middle East to register a case of the disease, known as COVID-19.

On January 29, the UAEs health ministry said four members of a Chinese family, who arrived from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicentre of the outbreak, tested positive for the virus. Another nine cases have since been confirmed.

Egypt reported its first case  a foreigner who did not show serious symptoms  on February 14, according to the health ministry in Cairo.

On February 24, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq and Oman reported their first cases  all patients had been in Iran before being infected.

Globally, at least 80,000 people have been diagnosed with the illness, an overwhelming majority of them in China.
St Mary's College from Naas, who were representing Germany, have won the 2020 Model Council of the European Union.

Students Niamh, Fiona and Lucy were taught by Ms Morrissey and Mr Duffy.

Second Prize was awarded to Deansrath Community College in Clondalkin, representing Slovenia.

Honourable mentions were given to The King's Hospital School, Dublin (representing Belgium), Cross and Passion College in Kildare (representing Bulgaria), Maynooth Post Primary School (representing Cyprus) and St. Mary's Holy Faith Glasnevin (representing Poland).

Over 80 secondary pupils from schools across Ireland gathered at the Printworks Building at Dublin Castle on Thursday to participate in the Model Council of the European Union debate on the European Green Deal.

The Green Deal is the EUs response to the existential challenge posed by the climate crisis: a comprehensive package of structural reforms and new policy initiatives designed to make the EU the worlds first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Richard Bruton TD opened the event noting that: Climate represents an existential threat to the future of civilisation. Young people have rightly pointed the finger at our generation for failing to act. There is now a real opportunity for Europe to show leadership, not only for our own citizens, but for the world. The changes needed challenge our lifestyles at a fundamental level. The format of this debate is really exciting because it puts people in the shoes of different governments struggling with their own unique circumstances to bring people with them in responding to this major challenge.

Gerry Kiely, Head of the European Commission Representation in Ireland said: We are proud to host this discussion on climate policy, providing young people from across country with an opportunity to engage with the defining political issue of our era. Protecting the environment and increasing biodiversity is a major priority for the European Commission, particularly in the context of President Ursula von der Leyens Green Deal.

Chair of the Debate, Barry Andrews, MEP for Dublin, commented: Im extremely impressed by the effort made by all students and teachers to research and prepare the position of the country they were representing. During the passionate debate, the students discussed how to solve the climate crisis by becoming more conscious of the environment in areas ranging from transport to taxation, from food to farming, and from industry to infrastructure.

The event was adjudicated upon by an expert judging panel including: Noelle OConnell, Executive Director of the European Movement Ireland; Mary McCaughey, Head of Information and Communication, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions; and Michael Ewing, Development Officer, Irish Environmental Network & Environmental Pillar.

Announcing the winners EMI Executive Director, Noelle OConnell stated: It was a pleasure once again to be on the judging panel for this inspiring initiative by the European Commission Representation in Ireland. With Greta Thunberg inspiring youth activism around climate change action with Fridays for Future, it is very timely that the 2020 Model Council of the European Union should debate the European Green Deal. By facilitating students in Ireland to debate the Green Deal, the Model Council empowers these students to be engaged in an informed and engaged manner on environmental issues and the EU.

Ciaran Cuffe, MEP for Dublin, congratulated the winning schools, awarding the winners a trip to Strasbourg to attend the European Parliaments Euroscola debate. "Euroscola is such an important programme in engaging young people to find out more about the work of the European Parliament. We can feel very detached from the decision-making processes that take place in our European Institutions, decisions that can have a real impact on our lives here in Ireland. At a time when Brexit and other factors can make it seem like the future of the European project is under threat, it is very reassuring as an MEP to know that there are so many talented young people taking an interest in the EU and its structures. I look forward to welcoming today's prize winners to Strasbourg later this year."

The Model Council of the European Union was streamed live on the European Commission Representation in Irelands website and social media channels. Oireachtas TV intend to broadcast footage of the event in early March.

Background to the Debate

The Model Council is an annual debate for secondary school students organised by the European Commission Representation in Ireland every year since 2007. The debate is a simulation of a meeting of the Council of the European Union and involves teams from secondary schools around Ireland, each of which represents one of the EUs 27 Member States.

Before the debate, the students and their teachers research the issues for the country they are role-playing. The Ambassadors from each EU country come to Dublin Castle on the day to meet the students representing their home country.

The subject of this years debate was Climate Change and the European Green Deal. Students were asked to debate the Effort Sharing Regulation on Greenhouse Gas Emissions, part of a set of policies and measures on climate change and energy that will help move Europe towards a low-carbon economy and increase its energy security.

The following schools participated in the 2020 Model Council:



The King's Hospital School, Palmerstown, Dublin 20





Hartstown Community School, Dublin 15





Mount Sackville Secondary School, Chapelizod, Dublin 20





Ard Scoil Ris, Griffith Avenue, Dublin 9



Deansrath Community College, Clondalkin, Dublin 22





John Scottus Secondary School, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin





Manor House School, Raheny, Dublin 5





Lucan Community College, Co. Dublin





St. Mary's Holy Faith Glasnevin, Dublin 11







St Farnan's Post Primary School, Prosperous, Co. Kildare







Cross and Passion College, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare





Ardscoil Rathangan , Co. Kildare





Maynooth Post Primary School, Co. Kildare





St Mary's Secondary School, Ballina, Co. Mayo





Ballyhaunis Community School, Co. Mayo





St Colman's College, Claremorris, Co. Mayo





Scoil Muire agus Padraig, Swinford, Co. Mayo





Sacred Heart School, Westport, Co. Mayo



Killorglin Community College, Co. Kerry





Mercy Secondary School, Mounthawk, Tralee, Co. Kerry



Drumshanbo Vocational School, Co. Leitrim





St Patrick's Comprehensive School, Shannon, Co. Clare



St Augustine's College, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford



Loreto Secondary School Kilkenny



Christ King Secondary School, South Douglas Road, Cork



Mercy College Sligo




South Dakota's chief justice seeks $5 million for courthouse security

In Chief Justice Jensen's State of the Judiciary Address, he mentioned courthouse security, sexual harassment training and a lack of court reporters.
CAIRO - A commercial ship has rescued 35 Europe-bound migrants off Libyas Mediterranean coast and returned them to the capital, Tripoli, the U.N. migration agency said.

The International Organization for Migration tweeted that migrants, who were intersected on Thursday, were given medical assistance and relief items upon disembarkation.

Saving lives at sea is a moral and legal obligation. It is however unacceptable that migrants continue to be returned to an unsafe port, said the IOM.

Libya, which descended into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, has emerged as a major transit point for African and Arab migrants fleeing war and poverty to Europe.

Most migrants make the perilous journey in ill-equipped and unsafe rubber boats. As of last October, roughly 19,000 migrants have drowned or disappeared on the sea route since 2014, according to IOM.

Last week, a rubber dinghy packed with 91 migrants that set out from Libyan shores for Europe, apparently went missing in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea after leaving Libya on Feb. 8.

In recent years, the European Union has partnered with the coast guard and other Libyan forces to stop the flow of migrants. Rights groups say those efforts have left migrants at the mercy of brutal armed groups or confined in squalid detention centres that lack adequate food and water.

The latest developments come amid criticism of the European Unions lack of rescue missions in the Mediterranean Sea. Member countries agreed earlier this month to end an anti-migrant smuggler operation involving only surveillance aircraft and instead deploy military ships to concentrate on upholding a widely flouted U.N. arms embargo thats considered key to winding down Libyas relentless war.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 22:42:50|Editor: yan

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KATHMANDU, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nepal's trade with China grew by nearly 10 percent as of Mid-February in the current fiscal year 2019-20 that began in mid-July 2019, Nepal's official statistics showed.

According to the Department of Customs, trade between the two countries as of Mid-February reached 133.69 billion Nepali Rupees (1.16 billion U.S. dollars) , up 9.54 percent from the same period of the last fiscal year.

During the first seven months of this fiscal, Nepal exported goods worth 1.06 billion Nepali Rupees (9.27 million U.S. dollars) to China while the Himalayan country imported goods worth 132.62 billion Nepali Rupees (1.15 billion U.S. dollars) from China.

China is the second largest trading partner of Nepal after India.

While the bilateral trade grew smoothly during the first seven months of the current fiscal year, Baikuntha Aryal, secretary at Nepal's Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply, told Xinhua earlier this week that there has been "complication in bilateral trade with China" due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

"We are assessing the situation," said the official.
YARDLEY BOROUGH >> The Yardley Borough Police Department report the following incidents and arrests: WARRANT (DOMESTIC ASSAULT) >> At approximately 7:55 p.m. on January 11 a victim fleeing a domestic assault in her vehicle was entering the parking lot at police headquarters when her car was struck by another vehicle. The striking vehicle fled prior to police arrival. A follow-up investigation...
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian sent a condolence letter over the death of famous historian, expert of medieval architecture Samvel Karapetyan, the Presidential office told Armenpress.

With a deep sorrow I learnt about the untimely death of famous historian, expert on medieval architecture Samvel Karapetyan. Our firm historical-cultural heritage which is spread all over the world has become a key evidence of Armenians and the Armenian presence thanks to the efforts of Samvel Karapetyan, the Armenian President said in the letter.

Samvel Karapetyan has passed away on February 27 at the age of 59.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Many investors define successful investing as beating the market average over the long term. But in any portfolio, there are likely to be some stocks that fall short of that benchmark. We regret to report that long term Shanghai Prime Machinery Company Limited (HKG:2345) shareholders have had that experience, with the share price dropping 51% in three years, versus a market return of about 11%. The more recent news is of little comfort, with the share price down 36% in a year. There was little comfort for shareholders in the last week as the price declined a further 2.6%.

Check out our latest analysis for Shanghai Prime Machinery

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a company's share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

Shanghai Prime Machinery saw its EPS decline at a compound rate of 1.4% per year, over the last three years. This reduction in EPS is slower than the 21% annual reduction in the share price. So it seems the market was too confident about the business, in the past. The less favorable sentiment is reflected in its current P/E ratio of 5.03.

You can see how EPS has changed over time in the image below (click on the chart to see the exact values).

SEHK:2345 Past and Future Earnings, February 27th 2020

It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Shanghai Prime Machinery's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What About Dividends?

As well as measuring the share price return, investors should also consider the total shareholder return (TSR). Whereas the share price return only reflects the change in the share price, the TSR includes the value of dividends (assuming they were reinvested) and the benefit of any discounted capital raising or spin-off. It's fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. In the case of Shanghai Prime Machinery, it has a TSR of -48% for the last 3 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. And there's no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

Story continues

A Different Perspective

While the broader market lost about 6.3% in the twelve months, Shanghai Prime Machinery shareholders did even worse, losing 33% (even including dividends) . However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 8.9% per year over five years. We realise that Buffett has said investors should 'buy when there is blood on the streets', but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Shanghai Prime Machinery that you should be aware of.

But note: Shanghai Prime Machinery may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on HK exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
MONTREALQuebec public health officials are reporting the provinces first presumptive case of the new coronavirus.

Health Minister Danielle McCann announced Thursday night that the patient, a woman from the Montreal region, had returned from Iran on Monday.

Officials said the woman visited a clinic with minor symptoms. The tests for coronavirus were conducted the day after her return to Canada, with positive results coming back Thursday.

While the person was being cared for, all precautionary measures were put in place, McCann said. She did not require hospitalization, so she is currently in isolation, alone, at her home.

Health officials said that apart from visiting the clinic where she was diagnosed, the womans contacts in Montreal were essentially limited to her immediate family, who are also in isolation. The patient did not take public transit and was not in a workplace, McCann said.

She travelled to Montreal on a flight from Doha, Qatar. Quebec health officials said they are looking for people who came into close contact with her in Montreal. They will also take necessary steps to identify passengers who were close to her on the plane.

McCann said testing by the provinces public health lab came back positive for the new coronavirus, dubbed COVID-19, but the result needs to be confirmed by the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg.

Results are expected Sunday. If confirmed, it would be the 14th confirmed case of the virus in Canada, and the first outside Ontario and British Columbia.

The minister said the health networks response to the case shows the coronavirus protocols put in place in the province are effective.

Today, despite this first probable case, I especially want to remind the public that all measures are being employed currently in the network to detect, take control of and limit the transmission of COVID-19 in the community, she said. There is no reason to be worried.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2020.
Formula 1 has gone into high alert over the ever-deepening coronavirus crisis.

When a reporter for RTBF had a coughing fit during an interview on Thursday, Esteban Ocon asked him at the Barcelona test: "That's not coronavirus, is it?"

It was a joke, but the widespread anxiety is real.

Alpha Tauri, whose factory is located in the highly affected northern region of Italy, has gone so far as to ban handshakes.

"We have asked the employees to take hygiene measures a lot more seriously," team boss Franz Tost told RTL.

"This is really serious," he added. "We have instructed employees from the red zones to stay at home because we do not want them at the factory.

"We have also dramatically reduced travel," said Tost. "I hope there will be no cases in Faenza or Bologna so that we don't slip into the red zone too. But the situation changes every hour."

With multiple races on the 2020 calendar now in jeopardy, Toto Wolff admitted the situation is serious and worsening.

"A week ago everything was quite normal," said the Mercedes boss. "But after it came to Italy and other countries the situation is totally different now.

"These sporting events, with many people - I think we are at risk."

So while the earlier risk was about the viability of certain races going ahead, F1 personnel are now getting worried about their actual health.

"In our sport there are a lot of fans who want to take photos with us," said Daniel Ricciardo. "We always try to be nice, but it is difficult at the moment."

F1 legend Alain Prost said: "I've been in Formula 1 for 40 years and seen many different situations, but this is different.

"This morning I flew to Barcelona by plane and there were a lot of people with masks. We travel a lot and it is difficult to imagine what will happen.

"We have to take care of our people," the Renault team advisor added. "The situation with coronavirus could interfere with our sport and we will have to see what the solution from FOM is.

"In Geneva they doubt they can hold the auto show, and it's the same with many other events. We can only wait and see but personally I am very concerned and I am sure all the other teams share my concerns," said Prost.

(GMM)
CLEVELAND, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- - Data Genomix LLC, an operating company owned by Crawford United Corporation (OTC: CRAWA), today announced that the company won a prestigious Reed Award for its social media advertising work in a ballot initiative campaign.



The political marketing publication Campaigns & Elections hosted the 2020 Reed Awards in Atlanta, Georgia on February 20 and selected Data Genomix among thousands of entries for its sophisticated targeting on social media. The Data Genomix Topplr software platform, which has been leveraged by hundreds of campaigns in over 25 states, won for Best Use of Online Targeting for a Ballot Initiative. The award recognized the companys work supporting the passage of the Lake County Transportation (LakeTran) Levy, which won in November 2019 with 58% of the vote. The company was also a repeat finalist for Most Innovative Product of the Year, in addition to being shortlisted for Most Innovative Poli-Tech Startup and Best Use of Online Targeting for a Mayoral Campaign.

"Winning a Reed Award is extraordinarily difficult. Thousands of entries compete, but very few make the

cut, said Shane D'Aprile, Co-Publisher of Campaigns & Elections. When you encounter a Reed Award winner you know one thing for certain, they produce work that's head and shoulders above the competition.

The Topplr platform developed by Data Genomix is a data-driven digital marketing software-as-a-service (SaaS) model built specifically for political campaigns and causes. By matching voter files back to the worlds largest social media platforms, the Topplr platform empowers campaigns to deliver digital ads exclusively to registered voters. The software efficiently delivers targeted content across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Google Ads. Campaigns receive real-time insights into digital ad performance and advanced analytics on video content. The Data Genomix team offers concierge political authorization assistance on Facebook and Instagram to get campaigns up and running faster, as well as client-focused marketing agency work to help scale campaigns to the next level. Data Genomix brings sophisticated digital media buying tools within reach of campaigns of all sizes.

About Crawford United Corporation. Crawford United Corporation is a growth-oriented holding company serving diverse markets. For more information, go to www.crawfordunited.com.

Information about Forward Looking Statements. This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements made regarding the companys future results. Generally, these statements can be identified by the use of words such as guidance, outlook, believes, estimates, anticipates, expects, forecasts, seeks, projects, intends, plans, may, will, should, could, would and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Actual results and events may differ significantly from those anticipated as a result of risks and uncertainties, including deterioration of or instability in the economy, the markets the Company serves and the financial markets, developments and uncertainties in U.S. laws and policy, decreased availability or increased costs of materials used in producing the Companys products, contractions or growth rates and seasonality or cyclicality of markets the Company serves, competition, loss of any key customer, the Companys ability to successfully integrate the businesses it acquires and achieve the anticipated benefits of such acquisitions, the impact of divestitures and dispositions, the impact of the Companys debt obligations on its operations and liquidity, as well as the risks described from time to time in the companys reports as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial results of the Company and its forward-looking statements is included in its most recent Form 10-K and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as may be required by law. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.




VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AgraFlora Organics International Inc. (AgraFlora or the Company) (CSE: AGRA) (Frankfurt: PU31) (OTCPK: AGFAF), a growth oriented and diversified international cannabis company, is pleased to announce that one of its subsidiaries, Propagation Services Canada Inc. (PSC), has entered into an agreement to acquire a curated portfolio of elite live-plant cannabis genetics (the Live-Plant Genetics") that will accelerate the Companys plans to disrupt the Canadian cannabis market. The Live-Plant Genetics will be acquired from an award-winning Canadian cannabis cultivator (the Vendor) with extensive experience in genetic development and commercialization for at-scale cannabis production.



The curated portfolio of Live-Plant Genetics has been assembled, selected and refined by the Vendor over the past 24-months to meet the needs of large-scale commercial cannabis production. The Live-Plant Genetics have been tailored to work with PCSs infrastructure and cultivation program to optimize three primary commercial characteristics: cannabinoid and terpene content, plant yield and crops per year. These elements are intended to be the cornerstone of the PSC brand for cannabis products: the highest potency at the lowest cost.

By acquiring Live-Plant Genetics, the Company will expedite its go-to-market timeline and strategy. Live-Plant Genetics can be put immediately into production whereas seed-based genetics require at least one preliminary selection crop cycle which can take up to six months to complete. This transaction will provide PSC with award-winning genetics that are focused on high-potency, strong flavours and desirable terpene content, all while preserving strong agricultural characteristics such as yield and flowering time. Securing these Live-Plant Genetics is an important element of the Companys plans to position PSC, once licensed, to disrupt the Canadian dried flower market. Dried flower represents the largest channel of focused revenue in the Canadian cannabis industry. According to recent market data aggregated by Health Canada, dried cannabis flower sales comprised 92 per-cent of total sales during the relevant period.1

PSCs investment in elite Live-Plant Genetics is expected to generate a positive impact on the three key drivers of profitability for a cultivator: improved sales prices, greater per-plant yields and shorter flowering time. Management believes the Canadian market has suffered from a lack of strong genetics resulting in low THC values, undesirable flavour profiles, and a lack of product differentiation. These Live-Plant Genetics will allow PSC to cultivate more desirable varieties with a focus on high-THC content.

The Live-Plant Genetics are expected to contribute to meeting or exceeding PSCs expectations for annual financial productivity per square foot, because the selections were made to maximize per-plant yield and crop cycles per year in addition to maximizing THC concentration per gram.

Having the right genetics are a must-have in the vegetable business, and choosing the right genetics means life or death for a cultivator. We believe cannabis is no different. We are used to working with genetics that have been specifically curated and selected for our cultivation strategy and with this deal we now have that level of confidence in our cannabis genetics, said Ruben Houweling, General Manager of Houweling Nurseries. We are excited to begin cultivating the Live-Plant Genetics quickly upon receipt of our Cultivation License and will be able to bring our cannabis products to market faster by avoiding the need for a complicated and time-consuming seed selection process. I am confident that the combination of these Live-Plant Genetics with the quality of the team and greenhouse we are developing in Delta, BC will position PSC to be a leading brand with a goal of producing the highest-potency THC cannabis at the lowest-cost.

PSCs success as a licensed cannabis entity will require strength in three elements: cultivation, post-harvest processing and genetics. These three elements, when taken together, are the key drivers of unit revenue and pricing, demand and volume, and unit cost. The PSC teams multi-generational experience, as well as the unique characteristics of the existing location in Delta, BC affords the Company a strong platform for cultivation and positions it well to produce high potency cannabis at a low cost. Delta, BC enjoys strong levels of sunlight throughout the year, temperate weather and low humidity. These factors reduce the capital and operational expense incurred by many cultivators with respect to environmental controls, HVAC and increased levels of artificial lighting.

The Company has been working with the PSC team, key consultants and experienced industry advisors to develop an efficient post-harvest processing facility and associated workflow, with the objective of allowing PSC to cultivate, dry, trim and package cannabis in a way that will preserve potency and bud quality while maintaining a strong focus on cost control. Genetics determine key economic elements such as yield, harvests per year, and cannabinoid potency. In the current market environment, management believes delivering consistently high cannabinoid potencies at a reasonable cost to the customer will be disruptive to the flower segment nation-wide. Genetics further define the consumer qualities such as aroma, flavour and bud structure. Management believes that the Canadian cannabis cultivation industry is ripe for disruption by PSC through its focus on producing high-potency cannabis that possesses certain key consumer elements such as pleasing aromas and smooth flavour.

Our goal with PSC is to position the company and the brand to focus on an underserved market: customers seeking enjoyable cannabis flower that combines high potency with low pricing, said John Fowler, Principal of Blaise Ventures, a full service consulting firm engaged by the Company to support the execution of its strategic priorities to license, operationalize and solidify a path to profitability. John is the former CEO and President of the Supreme Cannabis Company, Inc. from 2014 to 2019. I have been continually impressed by the quality of the PSCs agricultural and operational team, and I believe over time Delta, British Colombia will emerge as Canadas low-cost cannabis cultivation cluster. With our focus on higher potency achieved through the elite Live-Plant Genetics, I believe PSC will be positioned for strong financial performance focused on contribution per gram and return on assets.

To facilitate the transaction, PSC will utilize certain provisions of the Cannabis Act and Cannabis Regulations which allow a newly licensed company to acquire and possess live-plant cannabis starting materials from existing legally registered personal producers of medical cannabis. By pursuing the transaction of elite Live-Plant Genetics as compared to acquiring seeds, PSC will avoid the requirement to pursue a seed selection program, which can take many months and has no guarantee of producing commercially viable genetics due to the variability present in cannabis seeds.

About Propagation Services Canada Inc.

Propagation Services Canada Inc. (PSC) is a company co-owned by AgraFlora and the Houwelings Group, one of North Americas leading producers and innovators in the greenhouse vegetable production industry. For three generations, Houwelings has been championing innovation in North American vegetable production, holding multiple patents and developing large-scale commercial greenhouses in British Colombia, California and Utah. The Houwelings Group was the first in the USA to utilize combined heat and power co-generation, and the first to develop a proprietary sealed growing technology. PSC will operate an automated greenhouse facility with an expandable footprint of up to 2,200,000 sq. ft. PSC is expected to commence cannabis operations in 2020 with a focus on producing high-potency cannabis at the lowest possible cost to drive margin growth and profitability.

About AgraFlora Organics International Inc.

AgraFlora Organics International Inc. is a leading cannabis company building shareholder value through the development of revenue generating operating assets in the global cannabis industry. AgraFlora is focused primarily on the Canadian cannabis industry; the worlds most advanced and regulated legal cannabis market. Flagship Canadian assets include: Edibles & Infusions, a fully automated manufacturing facility in Winnipeg, MB for white-label and consumer branded edible production; an interest in PSC, who will be operating a large-scale commercial greenhouse in Delta, BC focused on reshaping the Canadian flower market with high-potency, low cost cannabis flower, and AAA Heidelberg, a craft focused cannabis producer in London, ON. In addition, AgraFloras wholly owned subsidiary Farmako GmbH is scaling towards its goal of being Europes leading distributor of medical cannabis. Farmako currently has active distribution operations in Germany and expects to commence active operations in the United Kingdom in 2020. For more information please visit: https://agraflora.com/.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Brandon Boddy

Chairman & CEO

T: (604) 398-3147

For additional information:



AgraFlora Organics International Inc.

Tim McNulty

E: ir@agraflora.com

T: (800) 783-6056



For French inquiries:

Remy Scalabrini, Maricom Inc.

E: rs@maricom.ca

T: (888) 585-MARI

The CSE and Information Service Provider have not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release.

Forward-looking Information Cautionary Statement

Except for statements of historic fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements including, but not limited to delays or uncertainties with regulatory approvals, including that of the CSE. There are uncertainties inherent in forward-looking information, including factors beyond the Companys control. There are no assurances that the business plans for AgraFlora Organics described in this news release will come into effect on the terms or time frame described herein. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking information if circumstances or management's estimates or opinions should change except as required by law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information identifying risks and uncertainties that could affect financial results is contained in the Companys filings with Canadian securities regulators, which are available at www.sedar.com .

1 https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-medication/cannabis/research-data/market.html




G reta Thunberg has told thousands of people in Bristol that children are being "betrayed" by politicians during a massive climate change protest in the city centre.

The Swedish teenager told the Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate demonstration that the climate crisis is being "ignored by politicians, the media and those in power".

She took to the stage to chants of Greta, Greta from the children who had gathered, calling on the demonstration to keep up the fight against climate change.

The 17-year-old said: "People are already suffering and dying from the consequences of the climate and the environmental emergency."

Greta Thunberg Youth Climate Protest in Bristol 1 /30 Greta Thunberg Youth Climate Protest in Bristol Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg arrives on a stage during a youth climate protest in Bristol REUTERS Environmental activists gather ahead of Greta Thunberg's speech PA Greta Thunberg stands alongside fellow environmental activists for the Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate protest at College Green in Bristo PA PA Reuters Reuters Reuters PA PA REUTERS PA REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS PA REUTERS PA PA PA PA PA

"Basically, nothing is being done to halt this crisis despite all the beautiful words and promises from our elected officials.

"So what did you do during this crucial time? I will not be silenced when the world is on fire."

Greta continued to say that the youth today were the "adults in the room", but added that it should not be children who "lead on this and tell the uncomfortable truth".

She said: They are behaving like children so it falls on us to be the adults in the room.

Environmental activist Greta Thunberg speaks during a Youth Strike 4 Climate protest in Bristol. / PA

Once again, they sweep their mess under the rug for us  young people, their children  to clean up for them.

"We are being betrayed by those in power who are failing us, but we will not back down," she said.

She told the crowds: We will not be silenced because we are the change. and change is coming whether you like it or not. Thank you and lets march.

Before her speech, she declared the environmental movement within Bristol was "strong" as she arrived at its main train station on Friday morning, ahead of her speech to the Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate and a march through the city centre.

Asked why she had chosen to visit Bristol particularly, she said: Many different reasons, the movement is very strong here and I had contact with people who were here.

She said she hoped the event would be a gathering of people standing together in solidarity.

Avon and Somerset Police and Bristol council predicted major disruption as roads were closed and buses diverted.

Some schools have agreed to let pupils attend, with at least two shutting for the protest.

Police also warned of the potential for protesters to be hurt from tripping or being crushed by crowds. But organisers insisted adequate safety measures were in place and accused authorities of patronising them.

Greta arrived in Bristol by train before being given a police escort from Temple Meads station to College Green in an environmentally friendly Nissan Leaf car.

She founded the school strike movement by sitting in solitude outside the Swedish parliament in 2018 and has since inspired millions across the world.

Speaking before Thunberg addressed the crowd, ornithologist Mya-Rose Craig, 17, also known as "Birdgirl", called for change.

Mya-Rose was the youngest person to be awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Bristol last week.

The student called for greater diversity in the climate movement.

She told the crowd: Greta, welcome to our amazing city and thank you for being with us today.

We have to engage with all of our communities in order to properly fight climate change.
BIG RAPIDS  City residents on March 10 will decide whether or not to allow recreational marijuana sales in Big Rapids.

After the Big Rapids City Commission in October voted to allow recreational and medical marijuana facilities in the city, Mecosta County Commissioner Bill Routley started a petition against the sale of the substance.

Many residents werent happy with the decision to allow the sale of adult recreational drugs in our city, Routley said. We requested that the commission wait to do this after more research.

I have seen first-hand the negative impact it has on students as well as personal family members. Theres no value to it except for the seller.

After being presented with 150 signatures on the petition, the city commission declined to re-vote on the subject, and instead moved Routleys ordinance to be voted on during the March 10 Presidential Primary.

Since then, pro-marijuana voices in Big Rapids have come out as well. Brian Ridenar will be voicing his opinion at the polls March 10 and may be seen outside city hall with a megaphone, encouraging residents to vote in favor of pot.

I am for recreational marijuana, he said. I do not smoke, but I feel if its legal in Michigan, its my right  or anybody elses right  to smoke it.

Campaigning for his side using the tools of social media, Ridenar is confident residents voices will be heard once more.

It passed overwhelmingly last time. Itll pass overwhelmingly this time  I will make sure of it, he said.

After Michigan voters in 2018 passed Proposal 1, which effectively legalized marijuana in the state, municipalities had the option, following the vote, to outlaw marijuana sales in their own area  a topic which has long been discussed in the city of Big Rapids.

According to Big Rapids Director of Neighborhood Services Paula Priebe, in the 2018 general election, Big Rapids residents were strongly in favor of recreational marijuana, with 1,411 votes for yes and 734 for no.

After the election, the city held a special meeting to discuss the topic of recreational and medical marijuana sales in the city, and those in attendance were more split on the issue.

"I think it's time, and I think it's going to be well-received. And clearly, the people voted for it, so if you're going to represent the wish of the people  I think they've made their decision," one community member said during the meeting.

While many voiced their opinion in favor of marijuana, both medical and recreational, others were not inclined to follow the states lead.

I think we need to set an example. Federal law says it's illegal  period. No loopholes. When did we get to choose which laws we obey?" someone in attendance at the meeting asked the board.

After hosting the special meeting, the city commission in October decided to adopt both ordinances to permit medical and recreational (adult use) marijuana businesses in the city, which led to Routley starting his petition.

No matter which way the vote goes, Big Rapids Mayor Tom Hogenson hopes for a big turnout.

Its the American way, Hogenson said. We encourage everybody  regardless of how they feel about the issue  to vote on it and make their opinion known.

For more information on marijuana within the city, visit cityofbr.org.

Understanding the ballot

Marihuana establishments defined and authorized by the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act, Initiated Law 1 of 2018, are completely prohibited within the City of Big Rapids.

By voting yes, you are choosing to prohibit, or not allow, recreational marijuana establishments in the city.

By voting no, you are choosing to allow recreational marijuana establishments in the city.

The resolution will appear on the March 10 ballot.
The Hennessy family armorial crest must be the world's most recognisable Irish heraldic device. It shows an arm wielding a battle axe and you'll find it on brandy bottles the world over. The Hennessy cognac distillery was founded in 1765 by Richard Hennessy, an Irish Jacobite from Cork, who gave the brand its name and his family's armorial crest.

When the same crest turned up recently on a pair of 19th-century Chinese chairs, it sent auctioneer Philip Sheppard flying to the history books. The pair of Qing Period Chinese Export ceremonial armchairs (Lot 1107: est 8,000 to 12,000) is going under the hammer at Sheppard's Knochaphuca House sale next week.

It seems likely they came from Rostellan Castle, Co Cork, the home of Sir John Pope Hennessy (1834-1891). Hennessy was a medical doctor, born in Cork, who went on to become the Eighth Governor of Hong Kong (1877-1883).

When Sheppard saw the chairs, he knew instinctively that there was a story behind them. For a 21st century chair to be labelled "Made in China" is no great claim to fame, but for a 19th-century Chinese chair to carry the crest of an Irish family is quite remarkable.

The chairs are altogether a meeting of the cultures. The vase-shaped and unusually wide back splats (the middle bit of the chair's back) identified the chairs as non-European but it was the dragon that gave away their Chinese origins. The beast carved on the crest rail (the top horizontal rail) is a symbol of good luck that Sheppard describes as a "potent and auspicious snake-like four-legged-dragon".

The dragon is flanked on either side by shou characters - they look a bit like circular labyrinths - for longevity. The styles, or side bars, are carved with bats (they look like Space Invaders). These are the unlikely symbols of joy and happiness. In a group of five, bats signify the Five Blessings: long life, wealth, health, love of virtue, and a peaceful death. In the late 19th century, displays of heraldic arms were used by aristocratic families to distinguish themselves from the rising middle classes. Almost anything with a suitable surface was emblazoned with this stamp of snobbery, but the usual candidates were carriages, crockery, silver, and furniture.

These displays were enthusiastically taxed by the British administration. From 1936, having armorial bearings on your carriage carried a duty of two guineas a year and you were meant to pay a guinea for having a crest of any kind on any household object, whether it related to your own family or not. This nuttiness was repealed in 1944. Early armorial porcelain often came from China where it was made to commission.

British china manufacturers were slow to cash in on this market because, as Josiah Wedgewood complained, crested seconds had very little resale value. But Sheppard had never seen a piece of Chinese furniture carved with an armorial crest. When he heard the vendors say that the chairs came, by repute, from a castle in Cork, he began to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

The Irishmen who enjoyed successful careers in the British colonial service have often been airbrushed out of history, simply because they didn't fit into the 20th-century nationalist narrative. But the Irish could do well in the colonies. Of the 28 governors of Hong Kong, nine had Irish connections, and Hennessy was the only Catholic among them. According to the historian, Hiram Morgan, "Hennessy saw himself and his generation as not only reversing the wrongs of the past, but also altering the trajectory of British imperial policy".

Writing in History Ireland, Morgan describes Hennessy's governance of a succession of colonies - Labuan, the Bahamas, West Africa, Barbados, and Mauritius as well Hong Kong - as causing "havoc in these places and headaches for the colonial office by promoting the locals".

During his tenure in Hong Kong, he lifted the ban that forbade Chinese people from buying lands, constructing buildings, and running businesses in the Central District, and allowed Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong to naturalise as British subjects. This made him popular among the Chinese but not amongst the British of Hong Kong.

It is probable that Sir John Pope Hennessy commissioned the chairs, had them made in Hong Kong, and brought them home to Cork. "We know that Hennessy was governor. We know that he ended his days in Cork. And the chairs are consistent with the period," Sheppard says. "They belong to an aspect of our history that was neglected for a very long time... They would look really well in the Crawford [Art Gallery]. They're part of the history of Cork."

The sale takes place at Sheppard's in Durrow, Co Laois, from Tuesday to Thursday March 3-5 (sheppards.ie).
By William Schwartz | Published on 2020/02/27

Persons close to the production of "The Roundup" have confirmed that the anticipated sequel to "The Outlaws" is expected to begin shooting as planned in spite of the COVID-19 outbreak. Location shooting for the film in Vietnam is set to begin in March.

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Though Vietnam is one of the closest countries to China, it has had one of the best track records in regards to the COVID-19 outbreak, quickly identifying, quarantining, and curing all sixteen known persons who had contracted the disease. Vietnam has not announced any draconian measures against South Korean visitors.

This stands as a contrast to the ongoing situation in Jordan, where South Korean visitors have been banned from entering the country outright, with the fate of the "The Point Men" shooting schedule hanging in limbo. In that case as well, the relevant production company has expressed confidence that filming will proceed on schedule.

Written by William Schwartz
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

In an effort to curb the rise of deadly overdoses happening in San Francisco, Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Matt Haney announced Thursday that they will introduce legislation to create indoor sites where people can use drugs safely.

The Overdose Prevention Programs ordinance would allow non-profit organizations to seek permits from the city's Department of Public Health to operate the facilities.

The facilities would not only allow drug use, but they would also provide people access to treatment services.

Breed and Haney plan to introduce the legislation at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.

The legislation, however, would only go into effect if the state Legislature passes and the governor signs Assembly Bill 362, allowing the city to operate a supervised safe injection site in San Francisco.

The legislation is the second attempt by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, to create a safe injection site in the city. Then-Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed their first attempt.

"You see people, basically out on the streets injecting publicly. You see people who are using the foil and the system to use fentanyl and other things that are out there," Breed said, speaking at Glide Memorial Church Thursday.

"Just imagine them walking through this door and getting a space where they're doing it inside, where it's contained and where they're around people who basically are treating them with respect and making it clear to them that as soon as they are ready, we are there to help them. That's what this is about," she said. "This is about not just the conditions that we're tired of seeing out there on the streets, this is about saving lives."

Overdose deaths have been increasing in recent years citywide, with the public health department reporting 222 overdose deaths in 2017, 259 in 2018, and 182 overdoses confirmed through just the first half of 2019, public health officials said.

"Overdoes prevention sites are not a radical idea," Haney said, adding there are about 100 overdose sites operating in 65 cities worldwide.

"In those overdoes prevention sites, not a single person has died of an overdose and thousands of people have been able to enter treatment and care. That is what we know we need here in San Francisco," he said.

Haney added that having such sites could save the city $3.5 million annually, citing a 2017 Safe Injection Services Task Force report.

Breed, who has been a champion of safe injection sites since her time as a city supervisor, said if AB 362 is approved, she does expect pushback from the federal government.

"I do think that we have to be prepared if that were to happen, and that's why have to put the right policies in place to protect the people who are working on these permits and working for the city," she said. "It's going to be challenging, but the same happened with marijuana and look at where we are in this state and how we're still able to move forward. So I think it's definitely worth the risk."

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.
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Linkedin Rozanna Latiff and Joseph Sipalan (Reuters) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Fri, February 28, 2020 14:38 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20672c0aa 2 SE Asia Malaysia,politics,Mahathir-Mohamad,Prime-Minister Free

Malaysia's political uncertainty grew on Friday after the speaker of parliament said he had rejected a request from interim leader Mahathir Mohamad for a special session next week to choose a new prime minister.

Mahathir, who plunged the Southeast Asian nation into turmoil this week by resigning as prime minister, had said on Thursday that the king had asked for the vote to pick his successor.

Parliament speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof said he had received a letter from Mahathir requesting a special session on Monday, but it would not happen without an order from the king.

"The need to have a special session of parliament would only [arise] after receiving an official decree by the king regarding the process of electing a prime minister," he said in a statement.

The date for any such special meeting would be announced later, the speaker added.

A spokesman for Mahathir did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Malaysia's nine monarchs, led by Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, began a meeting on Friday to determine how the next government will be formed.

The palace did not say when the decision by the hereditary ceremonial rulers of individual states would be announced, or if they would confirm Monday for the vote or outline another procedure.

Mahathir's resignation, widely perceived as the 94-year-old leader's attempt to consolidate power, shattered his coalition with old rival Anwar Ibrahim that won a surprise election victory two years ago.

His announcement about a special session had angered an opposing coalition of three parties led by Anwar, 72, who said it was inappropriate for Mahathir to pre-empt a decision by the king, whose powers would be challenged by a parliament vote.

In Malaysia's political system, the king decides which party or coalition has the most support to form a government following consultations. Then the winning group chooses the prime minister.

The vote sought by Mahathir would upend that system by allowing parliament to vote for a leader across party lines, but would achieve Mahathir's proposal to head a unity government of ministers drawn from any party he chose.

Mahathir said on Thursday the parliamentary vote was needed as the king had reported no party had a majority. The king had taken the unusual step of meeting all 222 MPs, instead of just their leaders, to gauge support.

If no candidate received majority support at Monday's vote, there would be a snap election, Mahathir added.
NBC's "America's Got Talent" (AGT) has roped in "Modern Family" star Sofia Vergara and supermodel Heidi Klum to judge the upcoming 15th season.

Vergara and Klum, who was a judge on AGT for six seasons, from 2013-2018, are being joined by returning judges Simon Cowell, the show's creator and executive producer, and Howie Mandel, as well as host Terry Crews.

"I'm so happy to join my new family on AGT. This is a new and exciting next chapter for me and I'm extremely proud to be the first Latin judge on the show. I can't wait to watch all the talent and have fun with all you guys," Vergara, who will be judging the show for the first time, said in a statement to Variety.

Vergara and Klum replace Gabrielle Union and Julianne Hough who were let go in November after one season on AGT.

"I'm so excited to be back at AGT with Simon, Howie and Terry. The fact that Sofia Vergara is joining us is the icing on an already delicious cake," Klum said.

The new season will premiere around June this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Turkmenistan presented its oil and gas potential during the international road show "Oil and Gas of Turkmenistan 2020" in Dubai. The forum participants' attention was paid to the TAPI gas pipeline project (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India). The Turkmen authorities invited the oil and gas companies present to invest in a project that has already begun.

The road show, which took place on February 24-25, was attended by a representative of more than 100 oil and gas, service and consulting companies from 40 countries. Opening the conference TAPI - gas pipeline of peace and cooperation, Advisor to the President of Turkmenistan on oil and gas issues, Yagshigeldy Kakaev, emphasized the importance of Ashgabats initiatives aimed at creating a global architecture of energy security, combining the efforts of the world community in resolving energy issues relevant to the whole world. He spoke about the implementation of large-scale oil and gas projects, including the construction of the TAPI gas pipeline, which is designed to give a powerful impetus to the socio-economic development of Central and South Asia, as well as contribute to strengthening peace and stability in the region.

It is planned to complete the construction of the pipeline in a year, although the deadlines are constantly being postponed for several reasons. The main thing is there is no money and there is no stability in Afghanistan. TAPI needs about $ 7.5 billion to complete the construction. In addition to the pipeline itself, the project involves the construction of compressor stations, start-up facilities for treatment facilities, access roads and power lines. And this is several million more. Whether investors were found during the road show is not yet known. Therefore, it is problematic to indicate the exact timelines for the completion of construction and commissioning of the TAPI gas pipeline.

Turkmen expert Serdar Aitakov believes that this is another attempt by the Turkmen authorities to attract attention and investment in a project that is experiencing great difficulties. Without solving intra-Afghan problems, its premature to talk about the realism of TAPI. The risks are too high. This event was planned long before the publicly announced information that agreements were about to be reached to reduce the contingent of foreign troops, primarily the United States, and to start the reconciliation process between the Taliban (the organization is banned in the Russian Federation) and official Kabul. And also about the upcoming US agreement with the Taliban," Aitakov told Vestnik Kavkaza.

He drew attention to the fact that several parallel processes are underway in Afghanistan itself. This is an open confusion with the counting of votes following the results of the presidential elections in Afghanistan, and the confrontation that arose between the main players. These are statements and claims of the first vice president of Afghanistan, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, for power in the northern provinces of the country. In particular, he stated that he was ready to create a parallel government under the leadership of Abdullah Abdullah. Everyone is in a hurry to stake their primacy. Therefore, a real solution to the problems with the TAPI project will follow only after the decline in the situation with the Afghan elections, with the start of a constructive and institutional dialogue between the authorities and the Taliban, the key condition for which will be mutual recognition of each other as legitimate political forces and with achieving a certain political balance, which, if it doesnt exclude, then minimizes the possibility of resolving issues with the help of military force, the Turkmen expert noted. In his opinion, it will probably be possible to resolve issues of armed groups that have not been controlled by the Taliban and the authorities that have been active recently, and it is possible that it is precisely in connection with the persistence of the Turkmen authorities in the construction of TAPI and with the aim of disrupting this construction.

The United States, which is lobbying for the project, now deliberately does not demonstrate its interest in it, so as not to give the Taliban an extra trump card for bargaining and speculation on the topic of security. Although it has long been known that the United States is the initiator of the maximum economic integration of Afghanistan with the countries of Central Asia. "The US State Department specifically, for these purposes, singled out the Central Asian region from the conditional spaces of the newly independent states and the OSCE and assigned it to the South Asian region, including it in the competence of the corresponding regional department of the US Foreign Ministry, and considered it in this strategic, but, alas , a purely speculative context. This gave rise to a series of semantic and substantial conflicts, given the vanishing small role of economic cooperation between the countries of the region and Afghanistan," Aitakov emphasized.

Central Asian and Middle East expert Alexander Knyazev told Vestnik Kavkaza that any agreement between the US and the Taliban, if it is signed, will not mean an automatic end to the war in Afghanistan, especially given the fragmentation of the Taliban and the multidirectional nature of the Taliban factions "in interests "and the diversity of external actors throughout the Afghan situation. The USA has been providing political support to the TAPI project for more than a year, but this does not affect the lack of project financing or the security situation. American companies have no big commercial interest in TAPI; there is rather a geopolitical interest. TAPI is opposed (so far, of course, theoretically) to gas supplies to Pakistan from Iran (supported by Russia and China) and existing Iranian gas supply projects to India. Its probably paradoxical, but Qatar, in whose capital the US-Taliban negotiations are ongoing, is one of the most important opponents of the Turkmen project, and Qatar is one of those countries that have successfully moderated a significant part of the Taliban for a long time. Supporting TAPI, Saudi Arabia in recent years, on the contrary, has seriously lost its position of influence on the Taliban. Absolutely evasive, expectant positions regarding TAPI are still held by Pakistan and India. China may hypothetically support TAPI if Turkmen gas flows along the Sino-Pakistan economic corridor instead of India to the south of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of the PRC. The construction of such a gas pipeline is of interest to the Russian Gazprom.

In Afghanistan itself, by the way, in addition to security issues, the task is to acquire land from the owners through which the gas pipeline will pass, given the extremely difficult domestic political situation in the country, the solution to this problem can take years. And this is only part of those factors that have not been acting in the interests of Turkmen gas diversification for a long time, the TAPI project (formerly called the Trans-Afghan Pipeline) has been in operation for more than 30 years, by and large the project has a large Soviet background, and remains at the stage of just a project.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 23:37:58|Editor: xuxin

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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (L) speaks at a news conference in Mexico City, Mexico, Feb. 28, 2020. The Mexican government announced on Friday the country's first case of COVID-19. (Xinhua)

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Mexican government announced on Friday the country's first case of COVID-19.

Mexico's Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez told a news conference that a 35-year-old man has tested positive for the virus.

The patient, who was recently in northern Italy, tested positive in two tests on Thursday, and in one more early Friday morning, the official added.

He also reported that there are five people close to the patient who are already under review and isolation, adding that it is a case of low risk.
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Linkedin Raziye Akkoc and Omar Haj Kadour (Agence France-Presse) Ankara, Turkey  Fri, February 28, 2020 09:16 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206718fc8 2 World #Turkey,#Syria,death-toll,Russia Free

At least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed as violence escalates in Syria's Idlib province after an air strike blamed on Damascus, with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg condemning "indiscriminate" attacks by the Assad regime and Russia.

Dozens more soldiers were injured and taken to Turkey for treatment, Rahmi Dogan, governor of Turkish Hatay -- bordering Syria -- said Friday.

The heavy losses in northwestern Idlib come after weeks of growing tensions between rebel supporter Ankara and Damascus ally Moscow.

Stoltenberg "urged all parties to de-escalate this dangerous situation and avoid further worsening of the horrendous humanitarian situation in the region", his spokesman said Friday.

In a phone call with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, the NATO secretary general "condemned the continued indiscriminate air strikes by the Syrian regime and its backer Russia in Idlib province", according to the spokesman.

Turkey has urged the Syrian regime to withdraw from Turkish observation posts in Idlib, while Moscow has accused Ankara of aiding "terrorists" in Syria.

Under a 2018 deal with Russia meant to bring calm to Idlib, Turkey has 12 observation posts in the region -- but several have come under fire from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hastily convened an emergency meeting in Ankara after the Idlib attack.

Erdogan's top press aide, Fahrettin Altun, said Turkey's military retaliated against all known positions of the regime after the air strike.

In a statement, Altun called on the international community to fulfil its responsibilities to end the violence in Idlib and the regime's "crimes against humanity".

The latest attack means 53 Turkish security personnel have been killed in the province this month.

There was a flurry of diplomatic activity as Turkey's presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin spoke with US national security advisor, Robert O'Brien, state news agency Anadolu reported without giving detail.

A Turkey-backed Syrian fighter fires a truck-mounted gun toward the town of Saraqeb from the outskits of the villages of Afis and Salihiyah situated near the regime-controlled town, in the eastern part of the Idlib province in northwestern Syria, on February 26, 2020. (AFP/Omar HAJ KADOUR)

More civilians killed

Jihadists and Turkish-backed rebels on Thursday re-entered Saraqeb, a key Idlib crossroads town they had lost earlier in February, reversing one of the main gains of the government's devastating offensive.

The counteroffensive could, however, be short-lived as Russian-backed Syrian troops continued to chip away at other parts of the rebel bastion, capturing 20 localities.

Seven civilians, including three children, were killed in regime and Russian bombardment of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding to more than 400 such deaths since December.

The UN Security Council, where Moscow has systematically vetoed truce initiatives, met again Thursday amid growing concern Idlib is witnessing the nine-year-old war's worst humanitarian emergency.

State news agency SANA acknowledged there were "fierce clashes" between the army and "terrorist groups on the Saraqeb front".

An AFP correspondent accompanied the rebels into Saraqeb, where he found a ghost town of bombed out buildings.

The counterattack temporarily reverses one of the key gains of the government since its offensive against the country's last rebel enclave in December.

A wounded Syrian child sits inside a vehicle as he is evacuated from the scene of a pro-regime forces air strike in the town Maarrat Misrin in Syrias northwestern Idlib province, on February 25, 2020. (AFP/Abdulaziz KETAZ)

Refugee fears

The cash-strapped government had been keen to fully secure the M5, a highway that connects Syria's four main cities and passes through Saraqeb.

The Syrian Observatory said the air strikes were carried out by Assad government ally Russia, heavily criticised by the West for the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign.

State media accused the "terrorists" of launching car bombings and other suicide attacks against government forces attempting to retake the town.

It said the army had inflicted heavy losses on the attackers, despite the military support it said they had received from Turkey.

Some 950,0000 civilians have fled the government offensive, raising fears in Ankara of a new influx of refugees.

Turkey already hosts the world's largest number of Syrian refugees -- around 3.6 million people -- placing an increasingly unpopular burden on public services.

The country's ruling party spokesman Omer Celik told CNN Turk broadcaster Friday Ankara was not in a position to "hold" refugees any longer and called on the European Union to do more.

More than half a million of those displaced since December are children, tens of thousands of whom are sleeping rough in northern Syria's harsh winter.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas attends the United Nations Security Council meeting on Syria (humanitarian) at the United Nations on February 27, 2020 in New York. (AFP/TIMOTHY A. CLARY )

UN powerlessness

The Turkish president vowed Wednesday Ankara would not take the "smallest step back" in the standoff with Damascus and Moscow over Idlib.

Erdogan warned the Syrian government to "stop its attacks as soon as possible" and to pull back by the end of the month.

The UN has repeatedly warned the fighting in Idlib could potentially create the most serious humanitarian crisis since the civil war's start in 2011.

Nine out of 15 members of the Security Council on Wednesday urged Secretary General Antonio Guterres to step up his involvement in efforts to restore peace in Idlib.

Russian vetoes, often backed by China, have chronically crippled UN action in Syria.
Toronto, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) looks forward to participating in the just-launched public consultation on the Community Benefit Charges (CBC) system. With government fees, taxes and charges accounting for as much as 25 per cent of the cost of a new home in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), the industry welcomes any measures that will make the cost of new development fair for the new home buyer, predictable for the building industry and ensure municipalities have the revenue they need to support growth.

The proposed CBC system will increase clarity, predictability and transparency for the building industry and new buyers by rolling together several charges applied to new developments and capping rates at different levels for single-tier, lower-tier municipalities and regions. The proposed changes also take important steps to ensure that growth will continue to fund important public infrastructure like libraries, daycares and recreation facilities.

This is an important step toward addressing the housing affordability challenge facing the region, said Dave Wilkes, President & CEO of BILD. By focusing on increasing supply with the provinces Housing Supply Action Plan, increasing the speed of approvals and taking actions such as the CBC system the government is taking decisive steps to address the supply and affordability crisis in the GTA.

The proposed changes will also help to address some structural deficiencies in the previous system.

In 2019, BILD commissioned a study that found between 2006 and 2017 municipalities across the GTA had collected $1.13 billion more in parkland charges from new residential development than they had spent on new parks, said Dave Wilkes. But more importantly it showed that how these charges were being assessed acted as a dis-incentive to denser and high-rise development, which has been the policy objective in Ontario for decades. Copies of BILD studies are available here.

BILD is looking forward to continuing to work with the province and municipalities across the GTA to address the critical housing supply and affordability challenge faced by the region and to ensure the smooth implementation of beneficial polices such as those now under consultation.

With 1,500 member companies, BILD is the voice of the home building, land development and professional renovation industry in the Greater Toronto Area. The building and renovation industry provides $33 billion in investment value and employs 271,000 people in the region. BILD is proudly affiliated with the Ontario and Canadian Home Builders' Associations.

-30-

For additional information or to schedule an interview, contact John Provenzano, BILD Communications and Media Relations Manager, at JProvenzano@bildgta.ca, (416) 617-7994.
Alumni Presented with Prestigious IVMA Awards

The Indiana Veterinary Medical Association (IVMA) recently honored three Purdue Veterinary Medicine alumni as award recipients at the organizations 2020 Crossroads Veterinary Conference. Drs. Jerry Rodenbarger (PU DVM 79), Steve Sunbury (PU DVM 93), and Denise Katz (PU DVM 2011) each received prestigious IVMA awards during the annual meeting, which was held in Noblesville, Ind. from January 30 to February 1.

Dr. Jerry Rodenbarger

Outgoing IVMA President Matt Cantrell presents the IVMA Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Jerry Rodenbarger.

Dr. Rodenbarger was honored with the IVMA Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes an IVMA member for cumulative service and accomplishments benefiting the profession, organized veterinary medicine, and the community. A native of West Lafayette, Ind., Dr. Rodenbarger earned his Purdue DVM degree in 1979 and then worked for two years at a small animal hospital in South Bend before moving to Valparaiso, Ind., where he took a position in a small animal/equine practice. During the past 39 years, he has owned or partnered in three practices in the Valparaiso area. Dr. Rodenbarger also has been actively involved in community and charitable organizations, serving on boards and committees for such organizations as the Boys and Girls Club, the United Way, and Our Greater Good, while also being actively involved in his church. Along the way, he and his wife have received a number of awards, including the Park Foundation Legends Award, the United Way Dorothy Porter outstanding volunteer award, the Valparaiso Chamber Legacy of Service Award, and the Carolyn and Dr. John Wolf YMCA Legacy Award.

A strong believer in supporting organized veterinary medicine, Dr. Rodenbarger has served the veterinary medical profession in several capacities, including as the District 1 representative to the IVMA Board of Directors. He also has chaired the IVMA Ethics Committee and will continue as the Region I representative to the IVMA board in 2020. In addition, Dr. Rodenbarger currently serves on the Indiana Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners and as the secretary/treasurer for the board of the Purdue Veterinary Alumni Association.

Dr. Steve Sunbury

Dr. Steve Sunbury accepts the IVMA Presidents Award from outgoing IVMA President and fellow Purdue alumnus Matt Cantrell.

Dr. Sunbury received the IVMA Presidents Award, which was presented by outgoing IVMA president and fellow Purdue alumnus Matt Cantrell (PU DVM 2010). The award recognizes an Indiana veterinarian or citizen who has made exceptional contributions to the association during his or her term in office. Dr. Sunbury earned his Purdue DVM degree in 1993, and comes from a family of veterinarians, including his father, his brother, and his uncle. After graduation, Dr. Sunbury joined the Seymour Animal Hospital in Seymour, Ind., to work with his father and now co-owns the practice, which expanded in 1996.

Dr. Sunburys record of involvement with organized veterinary medicine includes serving as secretary/treasurer, vice-president and president of the 9th District IVMA, and as an IVMA board member and officer, fulfilling a variety of responsibilities including board chairman and, in 2010, IVMA President. Currently a member of the board of the Purdue Veterinary Alumni Association, Dr. Sunbury also has served on the Purdue Veterinary Medicine Admissions Committee, the PVM Veterinary Nursing Advisory Committee and the PVM 60th Anniversary Planning Committee. He also serves on the Indiana Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners and is a life-long member of the IVMA and the AVMA.

Dr. Denise Katz

Dr. Denise Katz receives the IVMA Volunteer of the Year Award, which was presented during the Crossroads Veterinary Conference in Noblesville, Ind. January 31, 2020.

Dr. Katz was awarded the IVMA Volunteer of the Year Award, in recognition of her leadership and service related to the IVMA. After earning her Purdue DVM degree in 2011, Dr. Katz began her career in private practice at Noahs Animal Hospitals in Indianapolis. In 2013, she took a hiatus from general practice to pursue her interest in shelter medicine and worked at the Houston SPCA and appeared on the Animal Planet series Animal Cops Houston. She also served as an adjunct professor for the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, teaching shelter medicine to clinical fourth-year veterinary students. In 2014, she received the Award for Excellence in Teaching from Texas A&M.

Eventually Dr. Katz returned to Indiana to be the shelter veterinarian for Indianapolis Animal Care Services, where she was instrumental in developing the medical team, increasing the live release rate, and assisting with the passage of city ordinances to improve animal welfare in Marion County. She also received the Meritorious Service Award in 2015 and Mayors Performance Award in 2016 for her service as the citys shelter veterinarian. In 2017, Dr. Katz returned to Noahs to start All Pet Health Care, which focuses on access to care for underserved communities. A year later, she assumed the role of chief medical officer for all eleven Noahs Animal Hospitals. Dr. Katz is passionate about providing excellent veterinary care to all patients and meeting the needs of their owners.

IVMA Officers Include PVM Alumni

In addition to presenting awards, the IVMA also installed new officers at the annual meeting, some of whom are Purdue alumni. Dr. Matt Cantrell (PU DVM 2010) is the immediate past president. Dr. Kyle Shipman (PU DVM 2015) was elected as treasurer. And Dr. Hilary Christner, who earned her bachelors degree in animal sciences at Purdue University before completing the DVM program at Ross University, is president-elect.

Writer(s): Maya Sanaba, PVM Communications Intern, and Kevin Doerr | pvmnews@purdue.edu
A former Kaduna senator, Shehu Sani, has said a law banning street begging by children popularly referred to as almajiris cannot end begging in the north.

He said arresting and jailing beggars amounts to hiding the problems of the northerners and not solving them.

Mr Sanis comment is a reaction to the recent ban on street begging by the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, in the state.

The governors spokesperson, Abba Anwar, in a statement said the effort was to fully consolidate the free and compulsory primary and secondary school education in the state.

He also said the decision was meant to integrate the almajiri system into the policy and address the lingering problem of street begging.

It wont work

However, in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Sani noted that begging in Northern part of Nigeria is a direct result of poverty, neglect, social, cultural and religious factors combined.

He blamed religious leaders for sanctifying the act by giving it a divine interpretation and reverence while political leaders generate beggars by impoverishing and pauperising the people.

To imagine a society without beggars in a nation strangulated by social injustice and systemic poverty is an illusion. The northern political leaders should understand that its impossible to compose a paradise without beggars in a hell they created over the years.

Beggars are tragic victims and direct result of a nation failed by its successive governing elites. You cant end begging without ending poverty and illiteracy.

You can arrest beggars but you cant end begging as long as the social, cultural, political and economic factors that contribute to begging exists. Many states in the country in the last twenty years tried to criminalise begging but failed, he said.

The ex-lawmaker also accused politicians of using beggars to win elections and demonise their opponents and wondered why they now want to criminalise them.

Why should we the Hausas control the political levers in the country for long and are still the poorest in the country.

Crude oil has not enriched the people of Niger Delta and political power has neither brought wealth nor peace in the north. Education, employment,empowerment and boldly confronting cultural and social factors that aid and abet begging is the right step to take.

The almajiri is a system of Islamic education practised in Northern Nigeria where kids are sent by their parents to live with and study Quranic education at a teachers place.

Most of these kids miss out on the formal education as they are often sent to beg on the streets.

Nigerian law provides for free and compulsory basic education for children up to junior secondary school.

The administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan established and spent billions of naira for the construction of almajiri schools across northern states  which was aimed at getting the children off the streets into formal classrooms.

The plan, however, failed largely because it was poorly managed. The almajiri children still make a large chunk of Nigerias 13.2 million out-of-school children.

The latest ban comes amidst calls from many Nigerians for the abolition of the almajiri system, as it has become a breeding ground for insurgents and religious extremists.
[February 28, 2020] Wells Fargo to Liquidate Wells Fargo Capital X and First Union Capital II Resulting in the Cancellation of Capital Securities and Distribution of Underlying Debentures to Holders

Wells Fargo (News - Alert) & Company (NYSE: WFC) today announced that on March 30, 2020 (the "Liquidation Date") (i) Wells Fargo Capital X will be liquidated, the 5.95% Capital Securities (the "Wells Fargo Capital Securities") and the 5.95% Common Securities (the "Wells Fargo Common Securities") issued by Wells Fargo Capital X will be cancelled, and the 5.95% Capital Efficient Notes due 2086 (the "Debentures due 2086") issued by Wells Fargo & Company and currently held by Wells Fargo Capital X will be distributed pro rata to the holders of the Wells Fargo Capital Securities and Wells Fargo Common Securities, all in accordance with the amended and restated declaration of trust and trust agreement of Wells Fargo Capital X, and (ii) First Union Capital II will be liquidated, the 7.95% Capital Securities, Series A (the "First Union Capital Securities" and, together with the Wells Fargo Capital Securities, the "Capital Securities") and the 7.95% Common Securities (the "First Union Common Securities" and, together with the Wells Fargo Common Securities, the "Common Securities") issued by First Union Capital II will be cancelled, and the 7.95% Junior Subordinated Deferrable Interest Debentures, Series B Due November 15, 2029 (the "Debentures due 2029" and, together with the Debentures due 2086, the "Debentures") issued by Wells Fargo & Company, as successor to First Union Corporation, and currently held by First Union Capital II will be distributed pro rata to the holders of the First Union Capital Securities and First Union Common Securities, all in accordance with the amended and restated trust agreement of First Union Capital II. On the Liquidation Date, each $1,000 in liquidation amount of the Capital Securities will be exchanged for $1,000 principal amount of the corresponding series of Debentures, and the principal amount of the Debentures that is distributed to Wells Fargo & Company, as the holder of Common Securities, will be extinguished. The following table sets forth information concerning the Capital Securities that will be cancelled, and the corresponding Debentures that will be exchanged for those Capital Securities, on the Liquidation Date.







Capital Securities CUSIP Debentures CUSIP Wells Fargo Capital X

5.95% Capital Securities 94978SAA7 Wells Fargo & Company

5.95% Capital Efficient Notes due 2086 949746NL1 First Union Capital II

7.95% Capital Securities,

Series A 33735YAA6 Wells Fargo & Company

7.95% Junior Subordinated Deferrable

Interest Debentures, Series B Due

November 15, 2029 949746TB7

No action by the holders of the Capital Securities is required in order to effect the cancellation of the Capital Securities and the distribution of the Debentures. The exchange of the Wells Fargo Capital Securities for the Debentures due 2086 will be effected by The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., as the property trustee for Wells Fargo Capital X and as the trustee under the indenture pursuant to which the Debentures due 2086 were issued, through the facilities and following the procedures of The Depository Trust Company. The exchange of the First Union Capital Securities for the Debentures due 2029 will be effected by Wilmington Trust Company, as the property trustee for First Union Capital II and as the trustee under the indenture pursuant to which the Debentures due 2029 were issued, through the facilities and following the procedures of The Depository Trust Company. The next scheduled interest payment on each series of Debentures after the Liquidation Date will include any accrued and unpaid distributions on the corresponding series of Capital Securities. About Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo's vision is to satisfy our customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through 7,400 locations, more than 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 32 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 260,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 29 on Fortune's 2019 rankings of America's largest corporations. Cautionary Statement about Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements about our future financial performance and business. Because forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding the future, they are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. Do not unduly rely on forward-looking statements as actual results could differ materially from expectations. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and we do not undertake to update them to reflect changes or events that occur after that date. For information about factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations, refer to our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the discussion under "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, available on its website at www.sec.gov. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005513/en/

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By PTI

WASHINGTON: The US will sustain its pressure on Iran till it behaves like a "normal nation" and halt campaigns of carnage, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo informed lawmakers here on Friday.

Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Pompeo accused Iran of being the world's number one state sponsor of terror and anti-Semitism, wanting to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

"Going forward, we will sustain our pressure until Iran behaves like a normal nation. We will continue to protect the American people and American interests by any means necessary.

"We will continue to impose costs on the regime for its campaigns of carnage," Pompeo said during the Congressional hearing.

He said that Iran and its proxies are responsible for death of hundreds of Americans in Iraq.

"Iran and its proxies are responsible for the death of hundreds of Americans in Iraq, including an American contractor who was killed on December 27, 2019.

"Its forces, Iran's forces and the militias it supports, prop up Bashar Assad, undermine democracy in Lebanon, Iraq and steal humanitarian aid in Yemen," he said.

Justifying the killing of Iran's Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani in an airstrike, Pompeo said that he was the regime's top terrorist and the mastermind of the killing of innocent Americans, Syrians, Iraqis and others.

"Removing him from the battlefield was a de-escalatory measure.

"His death reduced the risk to our personnel overseas, both my diplomats and our military, and made clear that we are willing and able to impose costs on our adversaries if they threaten or attack us," he said.

Soleimani, 62, the head of Iran's elite al-Quds force and architect of its regional security apparatus, was killed last month when a drone fired missiles into a convoy that was leaving the Baghdad International Airport.

The strike also killed the deputy chief of Iraq's powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force and some local Iran-backed militias.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel said that Soleimani was a dangerous terrorist.

"But it's important that we look at foreign policy in terms of whether it makes Americans safer and advances our interests," he said.

Pompeo said that Iran is responsible for downing a civilian airliner in January that killed 176 people.

"The regime lied about that tragedy, and still hasn't turned over the black box, he said.

A Ukranian airliner crashed in January, shortly after Iran launched missiles at bases hosting American forces in Iraq in response to the killing of Soleimani.

"The Iranian regime slaughtered at least several hundred of its own people, with reports of up to 1,500, during the protests last November. Many millions more have suffered since the Revolution began more than 40 years ago," he said.

"The regime just rigged an election - yet again denying the Iranian people the free and fair elections they've sought for 41 years. More than 7,000 candidates that didn't get the regime's seal of approval were banned from running. What a tragedy," Pompeo said.
He is the lone convict among the four who has not exhausted his legal remedies of filing a curative petition and subsequent mercy plea with the President

New Delhi: One of the four death row convicts, Pawan Kumar Gupta, in the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case moved a curative plea in the Supreme Court on Friday seeking commutation of his death penalty to life imprisonment.

He has also sought a stay on the execution of the black warrant issued by the trial court for the hanging.

Gupta, against whom the death warrant has been issued for execution along with three other condemned prisoners on 3 March, has filed the curative plea saying that the death penalty should not awarded to him, his counsel AP Singh said.

He is the lone convict who has not exhausted his legal remedies of filing a curative petition, last legal remedy available to a person, and subsequent mercy plea with the President.

The trial court on 17 February issued fresh date for execution of death warrants for 3 March at 6 am for the four convicts, Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31), in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.

The mercy petitions of three convicts, Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay, have already been dismissed by the President.

The apex court had earlier dismissed separate pleas filed by Mukesh and Vinay challenging the rejection of their mercy petitions by the President. Akshay has not yet challenged the rejection of his mercy petition.

On 16 December, 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern was gang raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in south Delhi. She died after a fortnight.

Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail days after the trial began in the case. The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.
With no real competition on offer, no surprises are expected when Tajikistan holds elections on March 1 for the lower house of parliament that are projected to be dominated by President Emomali Rahmon's People's Democratic Party (PDPT).

Some other pro-government parties are expected to get a handful of seats in the 63-strong Majlisi Namoyandagon, as the authorities -- who tightly control the election process -- are keen to avoid having a single-party legislature.

Along with the ruling PDPT, six other smaller parties are taking part in the elections. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) is the only opposition group in the mix.

The vote marks Tajikistan's first parliamentary elections since the Supreme Court outlawed the most influential opposition group, the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRPT), as a terrorist organization in 2015.

IRPT leader Muhiddin Kabiri has said the opposition "initially wanted to simply ignore the elections, but the Social Democrats' participation changed its stance."

The Europe-based National Alliance of Tajikistan, which unites several opposition groups including the IRPT, has called on its supporters to vote for the Social Democrats.

"We believe these elections won't be transparent and democratic, but we want to use this small window of opportunity to try to convince people once again that the only peaceful way to bring changes to society is through elections," Kabiri told RFE/RL's Tajik Service on February 27.

"These are not free and fair elections but we need to use every opportunity, no matter how small that opportunity is," said Kabiri, who is based in Europe.

Tajikistan has long been accused of rigging its elections and putting political and financial pressure on opposition parties to secure the PDPT's majority in parliament and to keep opponents at bay.

Western-based international election organizations have never judged a presidential or parliamentary election in Tajikistan to have been free or fair.

As a result, the IRPT -- which is the second-largest party in the country -- has never been able to get more than two seats in an election, while no other opposition group has ever made it into parliament.

In the 2015 elections, even the IRPT didn't pass the minimum 5 percent threshold to get a seat in the legislature, though the results of the elections were disputed by the opposition.

Yet the presence of the IRPT in elections sparked interest and added vitality to the campaigning, as party officials were able -- unlike pro-government parties -- to attract crowds and engage in real debates.

'My Vote Doesn't Count'

There is little enthusiasm about the upcoming elections among voters across the country.

"My vote doesn't make a difference, we already know who will win," a schoolteacher from Dushanbe told RFE/RL's Tajik Service. "Why even bother to hold an election and waste money? The government should spend it on something more useful, for school renovations, for example, so we don't have to demand the parents to pay for paint [for the walls]."

The teacher spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for being retaliated against because of his criticism, as the Tajik government doesn't tolerate dissent.

"Me and my husband are going to vote for the president's party," said Yulduz, a housewife from the northern province of Sughd. She didn't want to give her full name. "I trust the president. It's true that we still have many problems, like a lack of jobs, bribery. But things are getting better."

Asked about the opposition Social Democrats, Yulduz said, "I don't know anything about them."

Unemployment and poverty have forced hundreds of thousands of Tajiks to become migrant workers in Russia. Authorities say Tajiks abroad can cast their ballots in embassies, consulates, and other designated places.

Rajabali Safarov, a Tajik migrant worker in Moscow, said he "didn't know there was an election taking place" until he got a phone call from his family in Tajikistan to tell him a voter's list for his name had arrived.

"I still don't know who I should vote for," Safarov told RFE/RL on February 27.

The Tajik Embassy in Moscow has prepared five polling stations in Russian cities that have Tajik diplomatic corps, Ambassador Imomiddin Safarov told RFE/RL. The ambassador added that several meetings were conducted with migrant workers to encourage them to participate in the vote.

Empty Campaigning

Election officials say all parties and candidates get equal airtime and space on state TV channels and print media to promote their election programs.

No debates, however, are taking place on state TV channels. Campaign posters can be seen on the streets and candidates are holding meetings with voters in their constituencies. The parties and nominees are also using social media to reach out to their voters.

"The election process has improved in comparison to five or 10 years ago," Shokirjon Hakimov, an SDP candidate, says. "But still, local election officials, local governments, and community leaders prioritize the ruling party just because it's the president's party."

The Tajik parliament is seen as a rubber-stamp body, while the real power and all major decision-making in the Central Asian state rest with strongman President Rahmon, who has been in power since 1992.

Hakimov believes the Social Democrats would bring vitality and real debate to the parliament -- something the outgoing legislature severely lacks. "We'll start genuine debates, we'll engage all media, civil activists, and various institutions," he says.

The SDP was forced to reduce its initial eight-strong party list due to a lack of money to pay a nearly $600 application fee for every candidate. It now has five candidates.

Candidates from five pro-government parties -- the Agrarian Party, the Democrats, the Communists, the Economic Reforms Party, and the Socialists -- are participating in the elections. The Central Election Commission says 241 candidates are competing for the 63 seats available.

Forty-one lawmakers will be elected from single-mandate districts and the remaining 22 seats will be awarded by the party-list system.

According to the Central Election Commission, there are 4.79 million eligible voters, including the hundreds of thousands of labor migrants abroad. At least 50 percent of all voters must cast their ballots for the election to be considered valid. Tajik officials usually present a very high turnout.
Throughout his 26-year career as vice president of Beringer Vineyards, Tor Kenward not only witnessed Napa Valley transform into a world-renowned wine region, but he also played a small, yet significant role in its evolution.

His name might not grace the history books a la Robert Mondavi, but Kenward was right there alongside Napas most notable pioneer through the 1970s, 80s and 90s, pushing the industry for better wines and hospitality that matched the great regions of Europe.

After retiring from Beringer in 2001, the last 19 years of Kenwards wine career have been spent pursuing something hes been dreaming about since he first arrived in Napa: his own wine label. TOR Wines is a culmination of experiences Kenward collected over decades of rubbing elbows with the best winemakers and growers of Napa Valley and abroad  and it all pays off in the bottle.

A fast learner

Everyone has a unique story for how they got into wine. For Kenward, he was running a jazz club in Southern California after returning from Vietnam. At the club, he met the owner of several wine shops, who introduced him to some of the finest wines of the world. Recalling those days, Kenward said, I turned into a total nutcase.

The wine shop owner sent him up to Napa Valley to buy some wines. It was the mid-1970s and it was a different scene from the wine country we know today. You did two to three wineries a day and everybody knew everybody. There were no destination restaurants, no hotels, said Kenward. If I had a little bit of money, I stayed at the El Bonita. If I didnt, I stayed at the campground. Most of the time I just pitched a tent at Bothe Napa.

But in spite of more often than not sleeping on the ground, he was hooked. At that time, I was reading every book and taking classes, I was just totally a true, absolute, 100 percent, bonafide wine geek.

In 1977, Kenward came up north to run the Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco and applied for jobs while he was in the area. He was hired as a tour guide at Beringer and then proceeded to climb the ranks at a pace that would be virtually unheard of today. Calling it pure luck, he said, I came up, started doing tours, made some friends, and within two years I was vice president.

The unsung pioneer

From the beginning, Kenwards focus as vice president was to evolve Beringers reserve program. What I was really interested in is where do we go to become closer to Mondavi as a winery that people respect and has an upper end to it? he said.

A major part of achieving this goal was travel. They used to say that Tor is the vice president of all the fun, Kenward laughed. Every year for the first half dozen years or so, Id go to Europe and write my own schedule. It was pretty much carte blanche to the best and greatest wineries. I was there to understand what makes the great wines of the world, what does it take, whats the mindset, what are the winemakers looking for?

He remembers his first trip to Europe, as they say, like it was yesterday. Until then, he hadnt traveled beyond the Pacific Northwest. I cried, he said, recalling landing in Paris and realizing that the city was older than any place hed been to his entire life.

The next day, he drove to Moet Chandon, stayed in a castle and enjoyed luxurious meals that lasted hours on end. When they did finally wrap up, he was offered his first cigar and remembers choosing the biggest one from the box.

Heres this guy who grew up with a lot of books, but not a lot of culture. Im driving in my car, down to Loire for my next meeting. Ive got this huge Churchill cigar, the windows are down, and I have the map in my lap of where Im supposed to be. Id never driven in Europe before, but I was the happiest guy on the planet, said Kenward.

When I got back to California I thought, Im going to do everything I can to change this whole concept of wine and hospitality. Its essential if were going to evolve and be a world player.

And he did. Kenward started a cooking series at Beringer, bringing out chefs from all over the U.S., like Julia Child (who became a good friend) and Alice Waters. He started Beringers School for American Chefs, a scholarship program for professional chefs that lasted almost a decade. In the 80s, he hired a young East Coast chef named Gary Danko as executive chef of Beringer. Years later, Danko went on to open up the Michelin-rated Fishermans Wharf restaurant, Gary Danko.

The second act

The winery had also paid for Kenward to go back to school to study viticulture and winemaking. Decades later, he was finally able to put it into practice with his wife Susan, fashioning his wine label completely after the Burgundian business model.

The business model of the wine industry in Napa really resembles Burgundy more than Bordeaux. You throw the varieties out and look at how focused we are on this block or that place, and thats really what Burgundy is all about, he said.

I wanted to focus back again as I had with Beringer in the 70s on single-vineyard wines, which I think has really defined Napas great wines. The greatest challenge a winemaker has is defining a vineyard, a small piece of land, in a single year..

TOR produces six small-production, single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons, sourcing from the top blocks within premium sites throughout Napa Valley. This includes Andy Beckstoffers To Kalon, Vine Hill Ranch and Tierra Roja in Oakville, and Melanson on Pritchard Hill. The relationships he built over the years at Beringer have come in handy in securing these coveted rows of vines.

Kenwards Chardonnay style is also inspired by Burgundy. The winemakers intervention, including lees stirring and batonnage, is minimal, the wines are naturally and barrel fermented with natural yeasts, and then bottled unfiltered and unfined.

And while barrel-fermented Chardonnay is the norm today, that wasnt always the case. When I came to Napa, Chardonnay was nowhere near as popular as it is now. Most of the Chardonnays that were popular were steel-fermented and put in a barrel. But in Burgundy, Id sit down and talk to the winemakers, and this barrel fermentation thing is what they stressed, said Kenward, noting the added complexity derived from barrel fermentation.

Kenward convinced Beringer to start with a small production fermentation program for chardonnay using French oak barrels and distributed a newsletter he wrote on the subject to his industry peers, based off a research paper by Dr. Singleton at UC Davis. Slowly, the industry started to shift its perspective.

Breaking tradition

Despite Kenwards single-vineyard focus, TOR winemaker Jeff Ames convinced him to try something a bit more radical in recent years. Ames previously worked for Thomas River Brown, whom Kenward initially hired for TOR, and then fully took the reigns of the project in 2003. In 2016, Ames had the idea to co-ferment blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot from Vine Hill Ranch. The blend would work out to 60 percent Cabernet and 40 percent Petit Verdot.

Kenwards first thought: absolutely not.

This was some serious money and stuff, he said, but a couple of winemaker colleagues convinced him he might just want to try it out.

So we did it and it turned out to be one of my favorite wines of the vintage. It integrated the Petit Verdot in a way I could have never imagined, he said. [Petit Verdot] was always too much of a hard element that didnt accept Cabernet at more than 3-5 percent at best. But this co-fermentation changed everything. It integrated all of those tannins in a way that I went, Holy shit, this is cool.

Forever a trailblazer, Kenward and Ames have continued to experiment with high-quality and high-percentage co-fermentations, including a Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc blend. I just cant help but feel were going to see more of this with people who are tasting these wines, he said.
A Hong Kong media tycoon known for his ardent opposition to China has been arrested over his role in a pro-democracy protest last year, the police said, dealing another blow to the citys independent media.

The tycoon, Jimmy Lai, a rare figure among Hong Kongs elite for his willingness to take on Beijing, owns Next Media Group, which publishes a popular pro-democracy newspaper and website called Apple Daily.

His arrest comes as the city has been dealing with the twin shocks of the protest movement and now the coronavirus outbreak.

His singular status as a prominent businessman in Hong Kong who openly supports the democracy movement and anti-government protests has made him a frequent target of Beijing-backed elements.

Mr Lai was arrested on allegations of taking part in an unauthorized assembly on 31 August, a police spokesman said on Friday, without specifically naming him. That day, crowds of protesters defied a police ban on their march and clashed with riot officers.

Two other veteran pro-democracy activists were also arrested on Friday over their roles in the protest.

The unexpected, high-profile arrests, which took place at the activists homes, were made as Hong Kong, already rocked by months of protests last year, battled to contain the coronavirus outbreak, which has fuelled panic and further distrust of the authorities.

Mr Lai was also arrested on allegations of criminal intimidation over an incident three years ago, the police spokesman said.

Oriental Daily, a pro-Beijing publication, published a clip from an exchange that day, on 4 June, 2017, which showed Mr Lai using foul language and uttering threats at one of its reporters at a vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen massacre.

Finally arrested after more than two and a half years, the sites headline read. It was unclear what had preceded the exchange.

Mark Simon, Mr Lais top aide, confirmed the arrest.

The arrests were made the same week as a court in China sentenced a Hong Kong bookseller, Gui Minhai, to 10 years in prison.

Mr Gui sold gossipy books about Chinas leaders and disappeared mysteriously in Thailand in 2015 and later emerged as a target of Chinas effort to quell dissent.

Recommended Hong Kong protesters torch planned coronavirus quarantine building

The arrests on Friday morning came after the arrests of more than 7,000 demonstrators since June as part of the Hong Kong governments campaign to clamp down on the protest movement.

China has worked relentlessly to vilify Mr Lai, who has provided a powerful, wide-reaching platform to the mostly young and leaderless protesters in Hong Kong.

In a Facebook post on Friday, the Labour Party in Hong Kong confirmed that the police had arrested its vice chairman, Lee Cheuk-yan, a longtime democracy advocate, over his role in the 31 August March.

It condemned the police for indiscriminate arrests and suppressing Hong Kong peoples right to protest.

Yeung Sum, another activist and former chairman of the Democratic Party, was also arrested on Friday, the party said.
Mask-clad commuters make their way to work during morning rush hour at the Shinagawa train station in Tokyo on Feb. 28, 2020. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

Japans Hokkaido Declares State of Emergency Over Coronavirus

6 Diamond Princess Passengers Confirmed Dead

The Japanese island of Hokkaido said it is declaring a state of emergency over the rapid spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, which comes as a sixth person from the Diamond Princess ship was confirmed to have died from the illness.

The governor of the northern island state, Naomichi Suzuki, said the virus spread is becoming more serious, reported NHK.

He called on residents to refrain from going out until around March 19 and especially over the coming weekend, the public broadcaster reported. Since many people go outside during the weekends, if people stay inside, it will prevent the spread of the virus, according to Suzuki.

Suzuki told reporters that he wants children not to leave their homes unless its absolutely necessary.

We have been to contain the virus, but the situation is turning more serious, he said, Japan Today reported. In order to protect yourself and your loved ones, please refrain from going outside this weekend.

Schools throughout Japan have been shut down to curb the spread of the virus. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the announcement earlier this week.

Pedestrians wear protective masks as they walk through a shopping district in Tokyo, Japan, on Jan. 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

According to The Associated Press, 63 people have contracted COVID-19 in Hokkaido. But public health experts are concerned about the transmission of the virus in the prefecture, an island roughly the size of Maine with about 5 million residents, saying there are clusters of infections with unknown causes.

Suzuki said that COVID-19, a disease caused by the new coronavirus believed to have emerged in central China in late 2019, are now spreading around the island and noted that six people contracted the illness after going to an exhibit in Kitami City, where officials suspect a mass infection may have occurred, according to Japan Today.

So far, six people have died after contracting the virus on the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship that was held in medical isolation near Yokohama for weeks. Japans health ministry confirmed in news reports that a British man on board the ship most recently died from the virus.

Many people, not just within Japan, but from outside the country, come and go in winter time, said Yoko Tsukamoto, who is a professor of infection control at the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, reported Bloomberg News. I think that traffic is causing the number of infections.

The Diamond Princess cruise ship sits docked at Daikoku Pier in quarantine in Yokohama, Japan, on Feb. 7, 2020. (Carl Court/Getty Images)

A lot of research suggests prohibiting mass gathering, and school closure is effective in early infection stage, added Tsukamoto. This is not early stage. Its a little too late.

As of Friday, Japan has confirmed around 1,000 COVID-19 virus cases.
Students donate trolleys to help Rassada residents during water shortage

PHUKET: Residents of Rassada who have been struggling through the water shortage have received a lift as students from Phuket Technical College (PTC) donated 20 trolleys to help them transport their water supplies.

Water-Supplyenvironmenttransport

By Tanyaluk Sakoot

Friday 28 February 2020, 05:16PM

The ceremony where the trolley donation by students of Phuket Technical College to Rassada residents was conducted. Photo: PR Dept

The donation was made yesterday (Feb 27) afternoon at the PTC campus in a ceremony attended by Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana, Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) Phuket office Chief Sophon Thongsai, Rassada administrative officers, and other relevant officers.

PTC Director, Adisak Chatchawet, told The Phuket News, I had noticed that people were struggling a lot due to ongoing water outages in Rassada. Students from the college and I went to inspect the Rassada area and found people were really struggling to actually carry and transport water supplies.

Generally, they were only able to carry small amounts of water back to their houses following the water truck deliveries and the trucks were unable to get close enough to the houses to deliver larger amounts, Mr Adisak commented.

It was clear they needed trolleys to be able to transfer sufficient water supplies from the main road to their houses, something they did not have.

As part of the Fix it Centre initiative by the Office of the Vocational Education Commission of Ministry of Education, the students at the college united to make 20 water trolleys to assist the residents.

If anyone else requires similar assistance please call to 076-221679 and 076-211343, he added.

Governor Phakaphong said, Phuket is now experiencing dry season and some people are facing a water outage, mostly in areas where water pressure is too low to distribute to sufficiently. Weve coordinated with local officers to send water trucks to the areas to help.

However, at this stage, I want everyone to use water sparingly until the time when the rain season comes, he said.

Governor Phakaphong added, Provincial Waterworks Authority (PWA) officers are looking for new water sources and buying water from private companies.

"A budget request has been filed to the Royal Irrigation Department (RID) to enable spending on the building of a water gate in Khok Tanod, Cherng Talay, he concluded.

The hard-hit area of Soi Kingkaew in Rassada, one of the poorest and most densely populated residential areas on the island, has been receiving deliveries of water supplies by Rassada Municipality trucks since Jan 15, Phuket Governor Phakaphong Tavipatana admitted (see story here).
Boris Johnson has called an emergency Cobra meeting of government ministers to discuss the rapidly escalating global coronavirus crisis, to be held on Monday.

The meeting of senior officials will be the first attended by the prime minister since the virus emerged, with 19 people in the UK having contracted the illness so far.

Speaking after a meeting with chief medical officer Chris Whitty and health secretary Matt Hancock, Mr Johnson said the outbreak was now "the government's top priority".

Challenged over why he was waiting three days to call the Cobra meeting, he said: "We have just had a meeting of all the government ministers concerned and there has been a regular series of Cobra meetings to prepare for this eventuality.

"I think people are right to be concerned and they are right to take every possible precaution and we will in the course of the next few days be issuing further advice about how to respond and how we will be deal with any potential outbreak.

Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Show all 10 1 /10 Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A man wearing a face mask crosses a road in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of the empty entrance to the UniversitA Cattolica (Catholic University) in Milan, northern Italy, on 24 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone sanitation worker sits near the closed Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on February 24, 2020. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of a deserted street in Codogno, northern Italy, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Italian police officers set a road block in Codogno, Northern Italy, on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A supermarket closed in Codogno, one the northern Italian towns placed under lockdown, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone cyclist wearing sanitary masks pedals in the center of Codogno, Northern Italy. LaPresse via AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty An empty road at the entrance of the small Italian town of Codogno on February 23, 2020. AFP via Getty

Mr Johnson expressed his sympathy for the family of the first British victim of the outbreak, who had been a passenger on the quarantined cruise liner Diamond Princess in Japan.

Asked why the UK had not acted more quickly to bring UK nationals home from the ship, he said: "Obviously, we very much regret the loss of life of the individual concerned but we think that the best thing to do is not to move people around too much in the current situation.

Not to repatriate unless you can be absolutely sure there is not going to be a spread or contagion to this country, thats the principle we are adopting.

Mr Johnson added: "I just want to reassure everybody and say that the NHS is making every possible preparation.

As you can imagine, the issue of coronavirus is something that is now the Governments top priority.

I just really want to repeat the advice of the chief medical officers, which I think is the best thing to get across  the most valuable thing we can all do to prevent the spread of the coronavirus is to wash our hands for 20 seconds or more with hot water and soap.

Thats the best single piece of advice we can give."

Earlier on Friday, Dr Frank Atherton, the chief medical officer for Wales, confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the region, saying the patient had recently returned to Wales from northern Italy, where they contracted the virus.

A World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman also said that the outbreak is "getting bigger", with the possibility that it will reach further countries, "if not all countries".

Mr Johnson was working in Downing Street on Friday and will be at his country residence Chequers over the weekend. A Downing Street spokesman gave no explanation of why the Cobra meeting was not being held earlier, but said that so far during the outbreak there had been one meeting a week led by the health secretary Matt Hancock.

The prime minister last night visited Kettering Hospital in Northamptonshire to discuss preparations for possible coronavirus cases with senior clinicians.

Mr Johnson joined the night shift and stayed at the hospital from 11pm to 3am, spending time with staff in the accident and emergency department, intensive care unit and paediatrics ward, said Downing Street.

Staff talked him through the processes in place for if there is a suspected case, said the spokesman.

A woman wearing a protective mask walks along the platform at Leicester Square underground station in London (REUTERS)

He said that, on top of Cobra sessions, there had been daily meetings during the coronavirus outbreak bringing together Public Health England, the Department of Health, the chief medical officer, chief scientific officer and other government departments. Mr Johnson had been kept updated throughout, he said.

George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor, said the government now needs to onto a war footing with the coronavirus and hold daily NHS press briefings, regular Corba sessions chaired by the prime minister and ministers on all major media shows.

The public is fearful, wants information and needs to know their leaders have got a grip, he added.

Labours Jonathan Ashworth added: Our part-time prime minister needs to get a grip of this escalating situation quickly. It shouldnt take another three days for this meeting to take place.

People are understandably worried. Boris Johnson should drop his childish ban on ministers appearing on BBC radio programmes. The public deserves to hear what plans are in place to deal with the outbreak.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Supreme Court on Friday refused to urgently hear a plea by advocate Prashant Bhushan in connection with Delhi riots. Bhushan wanted that law and order duty of police should be separated from investigation and that there should be different wings and an order should be immediately issued on this issue.

Bhushan also cited the similar nature of recommendation made in Prakash Singh judgment of 2006. Bhushan contended before the court that it has already been 14 years, and that it has not been implemented.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and Surya Kant said, "Will hear only after Sabarimala (hearing) is finished." Bhushan, citing the spurt of violence, contended before the bench, "Look at what is happening in Delhi. Policemen themselves are complicit... They are siding with rioters." Citing fair investigation, Bhushan asked as to how these policemen could be entrusted with investigation.

Law & order is an executive function while investigation is part of criminal justice system, he added.

He insisted before the bench on an urgent hearing on the plea. The bench said: "OK. We list the matter for hearing, but after Sabarimala."
For Thar Block-1 Integrated Coal Mine-Power Project , the Coal Mine is planed with an annual production capacity of 7.8 million tons and featuring two 660-megawatt coal-fired power plants, the project is capable of powering 4 million households in Pakistan with 1320 megawatts of indigenous, affordable and reliable electricity.

Thar Block-1 Integrated Coal Mine-Power Project was developed under the umbrella of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (the "CPEC"). It is part of an effort by the Government of Pakistan to improve energy security and reduce the average cost of power generation by moving from oil to coal. The project would energize the national grid and further help with savings on foreign exchange based on fuel costs.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah appreciated Shanghai Electric's support in expediting the process of benefiting from locally sourced fuel and Shanghai Electric's vital role in the development of the Thar Coalfield power station project which will bring the economic benefits to the local community.

The project is employing over 908 local workers at this moment and will employ more staff during its peak construction period. The project will also play an essential role in the social development of the region, with Shanghai Electric pledging to be an active and enthusiastic force in development efforts that help the local Thar community by improving education, health, infrastructure and the overall lifestyle of the region.

"We are proud to help bring the country its first large-scale, local coal-based electricity project. We are also grateful to the local government for their support." said Mr. Qian Xiaolei, PR Manager of Thar Coal Block-1 Power Generation Company (PVT) Ltd (SPV of Shanghai Electric in Pakistan).

Leveraging the project's positive momentum, Shanghai Electric has already begun the construction of power plants in the Thar Coalfield. The Company will bring power plants of ultra-supercritical technology, which can run at higher net efficiency than the annual average net efficiency required by Pakistani government. Additionally, the plants will operate with a high Acid Gas removal rate, with low sulfur dioxide emissions to reduce environmental impact when it begins to generate electricity in 2022.

About Shanghai Electric

Shanghai Electric Group Company Limited (SEHK: 2727, SSE: 601727) is principally engaged in the design, manufacture and sale of power equipment and industrial equipment. It focuses on new energy business, including the manufacture and sale of wind turbine and components as well as nuclear power equipment; clean energy business, including the manufacture and sale of thermal power equipment, power transmission and distribution equipment; industrial equipment, including the production and sale of elevators and electric motors; and modern service industry, including the contracting of construction of power generation plants, power transmission and distribution projects as well as other businesses.

SOURCE Shanghai Electric

Related Links

www.shanghai-electric.com


New Bern, NC

No need to leave your furry family member at home when heading to New Bern . In fact, youll want to make a point to include your pooch when traveling here, to experience all the pet friendliness of the area. Head out to a local park for a hike along one of the trails, or enjoy a picnic and scenic walk around the long and winding Neuse River. There are also many local shops to visit, with some, like the Black Cat Shoppe, allowing your leashed dog to come inside with you. Plenty of restaurants in the area offer outdoor seating, and some provide beautiful waterfront views for you and your furkids dining pleasure. One such place is Persimmons Waterfront Restaurant, which features local ingredients, an award-winning chef, friendly service, and outdoor tables to take in the beautiful views of the Neuse River. With so many fun places to explore with your pup in New Bern, one day may not be enough!

Jacksonville, NC

You'll enjoy the patriotic feel of Jacksonville and your pooch will enjoy the pet friendly activities that this city has to offer. You both can explore dog friendly trails, local greenways, and outdoor cafes. Plus, you and your pup can kayak, canoe, or paddle board on Jacksonvilles New River! If shopping is more up your alley, then head to the west side of the city or popular downtown area for some strolling and window shopping. Then, after a fun-filled day of outdoor activities, pop on over to one of the many dog friendly restaurants in the area. Theres even a local bakery that caters to pups, with delicious homemade treats that are sure to please your four-legged sidekick. And, if one day just isn't enough to take in all that Jacksonville has to offer, then plan a stay at one of the pet friendly accommodations in the area - many with low or no pet fees!
This is the shocking moment a group of armed thieves opened fire and sent customers running for safety during a bank robbery in southeastern Brazil.

At least seven men participated in Thursday's afternoon heist at a Guariba, Sao Paulo, branch of the government-owned Caixa Savings Bank, the Civil Police reported.

The assailants barged into the bank approximately 3:30pm after it had already closed for the day and sealed off the street with two vehicles while two accomplices stood in opposite corners brandishing military rifles.

Customers at the government-operated Caixa Savings Bank, in Guariba, Brazil, seek cover moments after at least five gunmen barged into a branch and opened fire Thursday afternoon before fleeing with an unknown amount of money. No arrests had been reported as of Friday

An assailant (left) brandishes his weapon while an accomplice stands back during a bank robbery in southeastern Brazil on Thursday. A 65-year-old client suffered a knee injury after cutting himself with glass

Surveillance video shows the moment five of the robbers announced the robbery as they sprayed the bank with bullets, which shattered several windows and the branch's glass entrance door.

Bank officials told the police that the thieves then made their way toward the bank's vault and seized an unknown amount of cash before exiting as they continued to unload their guns.

Brazilian news outlet G1 reported that one of the cars they utilized was stolen Thursday morning.

Authorities in Guariba, a city in the southeastern Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, are looking for at least seven suspects who participated in a bank robbery Thursday afternoon

Two masked suspects carrying military rifles stood outside a bank in Guariba, Brazil, while their accomplices pulled off a daylight robbery Thursday. No arrests have been reported

A bystander recorded two suspects standing outside the bank and one of them firing into the air before jumping inside a black car and fleeing.

A 65-year-old male client injured his right knee after he was hit by the debris from the broken glass doors and windows.

City government officials said the man was treated at a local hospital and released.

Authorities had not reported any arrests as of Friday afternoon.
Turkish reprisals killed 31 Syrian soldiers in the battleground northwestern province of Idlib on Friday after a bombardment Ankara blamed on Damascus killed 33 Turkish soldiers, a monitor said. The retaliatory drone and artillery strikes hit Syrian army positions in southern and eastern parts of the province which were recaptured by the government in a nearly three-month-old offensive against the rebel enclave, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. At least 27 regime fighters died in those strikes, while another four were killed by artillery fire on positions in neighbouring Aleppo province, the Observatory added. Also on Friday in Idlib, four members of a single family, two of them children, were killed in air strikes, according to the Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria. There was no immediate confirmation from Damascus of the reported troop deaths. But a source at the foreign ministry criticised Turkish President Recep Tayyip "Erdogan's forces involvement in the fight alongside... terrorist groups", a catch-all term used by the regime for rebel and jihadist groups operating in Syria. The Syrian army "will carry out its duties in eliminating the terror presence in all Syrian territory", the source added. The flare-up has prompted NATO to call an urgent meeting of its ruling council. The alliance on Friday offered solidarity and support to Turkey but no pledges of concrete new measures to defend Ankara's forces. Turkey had said it retaliated "from the air and ground" for the deaths of the 33 soldiers, Ankara's biggest single loss of personnel by far since it launched its intervention in Syria in 2016. The deadly strike comes after weeks of growing tension between Turkey and Russia -- the main foreign brokers in the Syrian conflict. The latest casualties bring to 53 the number of Turkish soldiers killed in Syria this month alone. The flare-up came after Turkish-backed rebels reentered the key crossroads town of Saraqeb in Idlib province. The town had been one of the most significant gains of the government offensive earlier in February because it lies along the M5 highway that connects Syria's four largest cities. A Syrian military source quoted by the state news agency SANA had accused Ankara on Thursday of actively supporting the groups that retook Saraqeb. The Observatory said that Turkish artillery fire was helping the rebel factions in Saraqeb resist regime efforts to wrest back the town on Friday.
Representative Image

India's foreign exchange reserves inched up by $29 million to a fresh lifetime high of $476.122 billion in the week to February 21, aided by an increase in the value of gold holdings, Reserve Bank data showed on Friday. The forex kitty had zoomed by $3 billion to $476.092 billion in the previous reporting week.

Foreign currency assets, a major component of the overall reserves, fell by $490 million to $441.458 billion in the reporting week, ending a multi-week surge.

Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.

The value of the gold reserves rose for the second consecutive week, climbing $539 million to $29.662 billion, the apex bank said.

The special drawing rights with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) dipped by $4 million to $1.426 billion.

The country's reserve position with the Fund also declined by $15 million to $3.575 billion, the data showed.
During the past five years, Disney has been giving its loyal fans a treat of turning classic Disney films into live-action movies. From Cinderella, Beauty and The Beast, Alladin, and Lion King, everything just gets better.

This year, fans are looking forward to seeing how the animated-film giant will bring the story of "Mulan" to life. The live-action version of Mulan is set to hit the theaters this coming March 27. But even before the big-screen premiere, it looks like hopeless romantic fans will have nothing to look forward to.

Classic Mulan

The animated version of Mulan was first introduced to fans back in 1998. It received a massive appreciation and love as it is the first time that Disney used an Asian character to be a legitimate Disney Princess.

The story is based on a traditional Chinese folktale that follows the story of a fearless young woman named "Mulan," who was brave enough to break the rules for the sake of her family.

Mulan faced a difficult decision of staying true to her culture of having women stay at home while men defend their land from invaders. But due to her father's illness, Mulan decided to step up and disguise as a man to prevent her ailing father from joining the army protecting the motherland from northern invaders.

"It Does Not Feel Right"

While fans are still a month away from seeing this badass Disney princess come to life, the creators of "Mulan" already revealed that a romantic part of the film was removed.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney had an initial screening of the film together with the local executives and several Chinese audiences. In the original cut they saw, the live-action features a romantic kiss between Mulan (played by Liu Yifei) and her love interest, Chen Honghui (played by Yoson An) on a bridge as they part ways.

However, the audience did not approve of the kissing scene and thought that it does not feel right on their part.

Mulan director Niki Caro explained: "It was very beautiful, but the China office went, 'No, you can't, that doesn't feel right to the Chinese people. So we took it out."

Chinese People to Boycott Mulan?

Disney's most-expensive live-action adaptation yet with a whopping $200 million budget has been facing controversies even before its cinema debut.

Earlier this year, some people are threatening to boycott the film after "Mulan" lead star Liu Yifei openly expressed his political opinion on social media.

In the Chinese version of Twitter called "Weibo," the Chinese-American actress voiced out her support for police brutality over protesters fighting for democracy in Hong Kong.

The 32-year-old actress' political post earned massive criticisms and resulted in a #BoycottMulan movement that went viral online.

New Character Sparks Outrage

Fans are also not pleased when the film dumped the character of Mulan's love interest, Li Shang, and replaced him with a new character Chen Honghui.

According to a Daily Mail report, despite being Mulan's commander, fans perceived Li's character as bisexual, leading for the said character to be excluded in the live-action version.
Defendant Willie Cory Godbolt, 37, addresses the jury during the penalty phase of his capital murder trial, at the Pike County Courthouse in Magnolia, Miss., on Feb. 27, 2020. (Donna Campbell/The Daily Leader via AP, Pool)

Mississippi Man Gets Death Sentence for Multiple Killings

A Mississippi man was given four death sentences by a jury on Friday, hours after he spoke in court and blamed the devil for his actions the night eight people were shot to death.

Willie Cory Godbolt, 37, was convicted Tuesday of the May 2017 slayings of eight people. Four of the convictions were for murder, which carry a sentence of life in prison. Four other convictions were for capital murdera killing committed along with another felony.

Capital murder is punishable by the death penalty, but jurors must agree unanimously to set that as the punishment. Without unanimous agreement, the judge would set sentences of life in prison.

Christianna May Kelly, (L) is comforted by her aunt Shonda May as she speaks to the media, at the Pike County Courthouse in Magnolia, Miss., on Feb. 27, 2020. (Donna Campbell/The Daily Leader via AP, Pool)

The unanimous decisions for the death penalty were handed down after the same jurors who convicted Godbolt heard testimony from several people Wednesday and Thursday during the penalty phase of the trial, the Daily Leader reported.

Godbolt gave a rambling speech full of religious references in court Thursday, and at one point a spectator seated among the victims families yelled at him to shut up, the Enterprise-Journal reported.

Godbolt said he had prayed to be a better man, but the devil came to kill and destroy. He wasnt going to let that be.

On Wednesday, jurors heard from victims relatives, including the widow of a deputy sheriff who was shot to death while responding to a domestic disturbance call and the mother of a teenager who was slain at another home.

Investigators said that on May 27, 2017, Godbolt went to his in-lawss home and argued with his estranged wife about their children. The deputy, Godbolts mother-in-law, and two other people were killed there. In the early hours of the next day, two young people were killed in a second house, and a married couple was killed in a third house.

Cora Edwards and her husband, Rev. Eugene Edwards, react after Willie Cory Godbolt is sentenced to death for each of four counts of capital murder at the Pike County Courthouse in Magnolia, Miss., on Feb. 27, 2020. (Donna Campbell/The Daily Leader via AP, Pool)

My life came to a screeching halt, Godbolt said earlier Thursday, describing that night. I couldnt fight the battle that was raging inside me.

He quoted words spoken by Jesus on the cross: My Lord, My Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?

He said he thought his daughter was in danger from other relatives, and a woman in the audience screamed; Cory, just shut up! Just stop!

Circuit Judge David Strong halted proceedings and family members were led out of the courtroom.

Dr. Matt Mendel, a clinical psychologist from Raleigh, North Carolina, had testified Thursday that he interviewed Godbolt and several of his relatives on behalf of the defense. When Godbolt was 17, his stepmother shot and killed his father, which led to enormous anger and resentment, especially toward women, Mendel said.
UofG-led NHS research team part of European partnership to accelerate mesothelioma research

Researchers at the University of Glasgow and NHSGGC are set to benefit from a 5million European research award to refocus research efforts on mesothelioma, an asbestos-related, incurable cancer.

The award will support the UofG-led PREDICT-Meso (Pre-malignant drivers combined with target-drug validation in mesothelioma) project, which will establish an international network of researchers across the UK, Spain and Italy. Together, teams hope to better understand how mesothelioma develops from its early stages and translate this into better treatments for patients.

The main cause of mesothelioma is asbestos inhalation and the disease usually appears decades after a person is exposed. Unfortunately, many patients currently die within a year. Glasgow currently has amongst the highest incidence of mesothelioma in the world due to the previous widespread use of asbestos in the area, notably in the shipbuilding industry.

The project will be led by Kevin Blyth, Honorary Professor at the Universitys Institute of Cancer Sciences, Consultant Respiratory Physician at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and Senior NHS Research Fellow, as part of the Cancer Research UK Accelerator Awards programme.

The programme, which provides five years of funding for international projects, reflects a longstanding link between the UK and Europe working together to drive progress for people affected by cancer. The programme will see Cancer Research UK and its European partners, Fondazione AIRC and Asociacion Espanola Contra el Cancer (AECC), invest 27.4 million into seven new international projects to accelerate lifesaving cancer research.

The funding will help scientists across the UK develop new research tools, resources and infrastructure to improve scientists understanding of cancer, including rare and hard-to-treat cancers, helping to find better ways to treat them.

Professor Kevin Blyths project is focussed on finding better treatments for mesothelioma, a hard-to-treat asbestos related cancer that most commonly starts in the layers of tissue that cover each lung.

Professor Blyth said: Its been difficult to build a network of scientists, with enough cases of the disease to build a thorough understanding of how to best treat mesothelioma. And this has left people with the disease very few treatment options.

In the future its likely that the global incidence of mesothelioma will continue to increase, as there are many countries that still dont regulate the use of asbestos. So, its important to build a research community now and improve our understanding to help those affected by this cancer.

He added: Were proud to have received the Accelerator Award and funding from Cancer Research UK. We are well-placed in Glasgow to lead this new research network. With the help of patients in Scotland and across Europe, and our international colleagues, we hope to radically improve the diagnosis and treatment of this disease. Well be using artificial intelligence and advanced laboratory and imaging techniques to help us get there.

Dr Iain Foulkes, executive director of research and innovation at Cancer Research UK, said: If current trends continue, the world will see a 60% increase in cancer cases over the next two decades. Cancer is a global problem and no one country can tackle it alone.

Now the UK has left the European Union, the need to retain collaborative cancer research between the EU and the UK has never been greater. This partnership will also strengthen UK cancer research by the sharing of expertise, new technologies and research talent.

The Accelerator Awards bring together world-class researchers who would not previously have been able to work together, without the unique structure of this grant scheme. Each collaboration aims to deepen the research communitys understanding of cancer and bring people with cancer closer to new treatments, making use of the expertise and diverse technologies of different partner organisations.

Enquiries: ali.howard@glasgow.ac.uk or elizabeth.mcmeekin@glasgow.ac.uk / 0141 330 6557 or 0141 330 4831
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Representatives will vote on house bill HR 2339. The bill would prohibit the sale of flavored tobacco, flavored pipe tobacco, flavored vape e-juices, electronic cigarettes, and disposable nicotine products.

House bill HR 2339  The Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic ACT was sponsored by Rep. Frank Pallone of the New Jersey and Donna Shalala of Florida. The bill was introduced a year ago, and now the house representatives will decide whether to ban flavored vaping sales in all 50 states.

The proposed bill was crafted to revises the requirements with the sale, advertisement, and safety of tobacco products and delivery. These requirements would leave some manufacturing companies of vapor products in trouble. The bill provisions affect vapers in the following way:

The bill prohibits the sale of flavored nicotine tobacco or any products with "characterizing flavors" unless approved by the FDA and proven to increase the likelihood of smoking cessation.

The bill prohibits the online sale or non-face-to-face transaction, except for special or specified circumstances.

The bill orders the FDA to regulate the sale of products not derived or made from tobacco or those containing synthetic nicotine

The bill provides FDA authority to collect user's fees from importers and manufacturers annually. This can increase prices on e-hookah, electronic cigarette products, vape pens, disposable devices, and e-liquids in general.

The bill requires the FDA to apply regulation on advertising or marketing of vaping, e-cigarette, and all tobacco products.

The bill requires the Government Accountability Office to conduct further studies on e-cigarettes and vape products.

The bill increases civil penalties for violations of restrictions on the sale of the flavored nicotine, e-cigarette, and all products.

What is the Implication of HR 2339?

The sponsors of HR 2339 believe that the ban will help prevent teenagers from using vape products. While the intention is good, it will not work and could create future problems. "Ban of vaping products can lead to a black market and even allow certain low-quality products to proliferate," according to Art Harutyunyan, a senior executive of online vape store Provape.com.

Moreover, the prohibition of flavored nicotine could lead to large-scale smuggling of cigarette products. Hence, the bill does not guarantee success and must not be supported. "Ban on vape products would not stop youth use but could make teenagers more curious and adventurous on buying vapes and tobacco," added Harutyunyan.

"Congress must act to reduce youth nicotine addiction by making it clear that selling tobacco products to kids is illegal," Rep. Pallone said last year. "My legislation also treats e-cigarettes and other tobacco products the same as traditional cigarettes under the law."

HR 2339 has 126 co-sponsors or representatives who have shown their support. For the bill to pass the house, there must be 218 votes. When approved, the bill will move on to the senate.

The ban on menthol cigarettes will not take effect immediately until a year after the law is passed. But, the ban on flavored nicotine cigarettes would be imposed in 30 days. And would lead to thousands of vape shops closing with still millions of e-cigarettes and vaping products in their inventories.

What is the White House position on the bill?

On Feb 27, 2020, the Executive Office of the President published a statement showing its concerns about the current version of the bill.

"The bill takes the wrong approach to tobacco regulation. Rather than continuing to focus on the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, Congress should implement President Trump's Budget proposal to create a new, more directly accountable agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to focus on tobacco regulation. This new agency would be led by a Senate-confirmed Director and would have greater capacity to respond to the growing complexity of tobacco products and respond effectively to tobacco-related public health concerns.

If presented to the President in its current form, the President's senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill," said the statement.

Sources:

https://vaping360.com/vape-news/88795/house-will-vote-feb-27th-on-a-nationwide-flavor-ban/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/SAP_HR-2339.pdf

https://provape.com/blog

SOURCE Provape

Related Links

https://provape.com


Main opposition Congress slammed the Rs 1.42 lakh crore Haryana budget for 2020-21, presented by Chief Minister M L Khattar in the Assembly here on Friday, saying it disappoints all sections of the society.

Expressing concerns over the state debt, pegged at nearly Rs 1.98 lakh crore, Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said there has been a three-fold increase in debt in the past five years.

"This means, in an average, every Haryanvi now carries a debt of Rs 80,000 on his head. This budget will push the state deeper into debt," he said.

"There is nothing in this budget which will please any section," Hooda, a former chief minister of the state, added.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala called it an anti-people budget. "It is a hopeless, anti-people, debt-ridden and zero-performance budget," he said.

"The BJP-led government has pushed Haryana to the verge of bankruptcy," he said, adding that state debt has increased by nearly 280 per cent in five years.

Surjewala said the Haryana budget gave "zero hope" to the youth and asked why it did not mention how many jobs it would create as the state had the "highest unemployment rate in the country at 28.7 per cent".

Haryana Congress president Kumari Selja said the budget "disappoints every section".

"There is nothing in this budget for the youth, farmers, Dalits or any other section," the senior Congress leader said, expressing concerns over the state's "mounting debt".

Hooda demanded that the BJP-JJP government issue a white paper on the state of the economy.

"We want to know how the debt increased more than three times in five years when the state government brought no major project or initiated any major development work," he said, adding, "30 per cent of the budget will go into servicing debt."



"Where will the money come from for building roads, schools, hospitals," Hooda asked.

He claimed the chief minister has just made "hollow promises" in the budget. None of the poll promises of the JJP has found place in the budget document, he added.

"The budget has overlooked hike in old age pension, there is no talk of giving pay scales to employees at par what Punjab government employees get, there is nothing on loan waiver for farmers, no concrete plan has been spelt out how unemployment will be tackled, there is no policy to attract investments.

"Besides, there is nothing to boost the automobile and the real estate sectors or for Panipat and Yamunanagar where the textile and the plywood industry are struggling," Hooda said.

Lone Indian National Lok Dal MLA Abhay Chautala said there was nothing in the budget and dubbed it a "jugglery of words."



Haryana BKU leader Gurnam Singh said the budget has "little" allocation for agriculture. No announcement has been made for farm debt waivers, he added.

"No roadmap has been declared to protect the agri sector," Singh added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Delhi chief, Manoj Tiwari, on Friday, said that not just Tahir Hussain but his boss should also be punished. Tiwari responded to a tweet of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in which Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal categorically said all perpetrators (including AAP), who were involved in riots in the national capital, must be punished.

"Any person who is found guilty should be given stringent punishment. If any Aam Aadmi Party person is found guilty then that person should be given double the punishment. There should be no politics on the issue of national security," Kejriwal tweeted.

The Delhi CM statement came after his party councillor Tahir Hussain's name surfaced for stoking communal violence in the northeast Delhi. Besides, family members of slain IB jawan Ankit Sharma have also accused Hussain over involvement in Sharma's murder. As per media reports, IB soldier Tiwari was found lying in a drain in Chand Bagh during the clashes.

Consequently, Kejriwal suspended Hussain from the party. Hussain has denied all allegation and has claimed that he had moved out of the house a day before Sharma was killed.

A three-day communal clash erupted in Delhi's Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh, Khureji Khas and Bhajanpura in northeast part of Delhi. The violence erupted between proponents and opponents of Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), which spiralled out of control on Sunday, February 23. The Delhi's communal clash has taken away life of 38 people.

On Friday, the situation has improved a bit with police and paramilitary personnel maintaining strict vigil in view of prayers at mosques. Fire officials said at least 79 houses, 52 shops, five warehouses, four mosques, three factories and two schools were set ablaze between Monday and Thursday morning. A rough estimate suggested that at least 500 vehicles, including two-wheelers, were burnt during this period.

Also read: Delhi High Court invokes 1984 riots, says can't let it happen again

Also read: Delhi violence: CBSE to announce new dates for Class 10, 12 students who missed exams
SHORELINE  All across the Shoreline the call for diapers and wipes went out and the community responded.

Police in East Haven, North Branford, Branford, Guilford, Madison and Clinton, as well as Connecticut State Police Troop F, participating in the 2020 Shoreline Diaper Drive, collected 28,751 diapers and 36,431 baby wipes.

In addition, $484 in cash was donated that will go towards the purchase of additional diapers and wipes.

While the collaborative drive has concluded, the Old Saybrook Police Department will be collecting until the end of the month.

The law enforcement agencies work in conjunction with Bare Necessities Inc. a nonprofit diaper bank in Clinton that provides diapers and wipes to local shoreline communities through food pantries, social service agencies and other community service agencies.

Oh, my gosh, its amazing, said Tina Bascom, president of Bare Necessities. I look at it in the warehouse and its just unbelievable.

Bascom and her business partner founded the organization in 2015 after a woman approached them at a food pantry in Clinton and asked where she could find diapers for her 9-month-old.

After doing some research, Bascom realized there were no diaper banks between Branford and New London.

Parents who cannot afford to provide enough diapers for their child are forced to leave their baby in a soiled diaper longer than is appropriate. This frequently leads to diaper rash and may cause staph infections and urinary tract infections, the organizations website explains.

The annual diaper drive has become a community event said Guilford Deputy Chief Warren Hyatt.

It started off really slow, but, then it picked up, said Hyatt. We had a few big deliveries from groups that had collected diapers and dropped them off.

We had one of our schools drop off a bunch; the kids had collected diapers, so that was kind of cool, he added, referring to the drive held at Guilford Lakes School.

People, they give, he said. They love to give, to help out other people and its amazing. Whenever the police departments reach out to the community, they always step up.

Bare Necessities provides diapers each month to 375 babies between Branford and Old Saybrook.

The newborn to size 2 diapers will supply residents for about six months, while the larger sizes, from three months to pullups, will be available for about three months. The money raised will be used to purchase diapers and wipes at discounted rates.

While a new initiative for Bare Necessities, they have begun to collect adult briefs. The Clinton Police Department, alone, collected about 300 this year.

Meanwhile, the group continue to focus on collecting diapers for Shoreline children.

Were really starting to get the word out about the need, said Boscom. For us, thats what its all about. The more people are aware that there is a need on the Shoreline, the more well be able to help the babies out there.

Bare Necessities, 24 W. Main St., Suite 414, Clinton, 203-928-7558; barenecessitiesct.org; Facebook Bare Necessities, Inc.
CallTrackingMetrics has been recognized as one of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. Our growth year over year represents our ability to meet the evolving needs of our customer base.

CallTrackingMetrics, the only UCaaS platform that combines powerful call tracking with contact center automation, landed at No. 123 on the inaugural Inc. 5000 Series: D.C. Metro list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware. This marks the third year in a row that CallTrackingMetrics has been recognized by Inc. Media as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the nation by achieving two-year revenue growth of 98%.

The companies on this list demonstrate just how much the small-business sector impacts the economies of D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware says Inc. editor in chief Scott Omelianuk. Across every single industry, these businesses have posted revenue and growth rates that are beyond impressive, further proving the tenacity of their founders and CEOs.

CallTrackingMetrics co-founder and CEO Todd Fisher added, As long time residents of the area, we are excited to continue to grow our business here in the D.C Metro. Our growth year over year represents our ability to meet the evolving needs of our customer base by hiring stellar people from the region that deliver top-notch service, and build the essential tools we provide to our customers around the world.

In addition to achieving 98% revenue growth between 2016 and 2018, in 2020 the CallTrackingMetrics team has been honored as one of Baltimore Business Journals fastest growing companies and co-founder Laure Fisher has been recognized as one of the Top 50 Women Leaders in SaaS by The Software Report.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Series: D.C. Metro, including an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, metro area, and other criteria, can be found at Inc.com.

About CallTrackingMetrics

CallTrackingMetrics is the only digital platform that uses call tracking intelligence to inform contact center automationresulting in a more personalized customer experience. Discover which marketing campaigns are generating leads and conversions, and use that data to automate call flows and power your contact center. More than 100,000 users around the globe trust CallTrackingMetrics to manage communications for their marketing, sales, and service teams. CallTrackingMetrics has also been recognized in Inc. Magazine's 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies, and as a leader on G2 Crowd for inbound call tracking software, CCaaS, and contact center infrastructure.

Visit us at calltrackingmetrics.com or chat with a team member at 800-577-1872.

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Regional Series

Methodology

The 2020 Inc. 5000 Regional Series is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2016 and 2018. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2016. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2018. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2016 is $100,000; the minimum for 2018 is $1 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels, including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.
Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, makes a keynote address to launch the private finance agenda for the 2020 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) at Guildhall in London

(Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said Britain should prepare for an economic hit as fallout from the novel coronavirus outbreak deepens.

The central bank had already detected a tightening in supply chains that could imply a downgrade but it was too early to tell how badly Britain would be affected, Carney told Sky News in an interview http://bit.ly/3ceClpZ.

Carney said the central bank would expect world growth to be lower than it otherwise would be, and that has a knock-on effect on the United Kingdom, according to Sky News.

"We're not picking that up yet at all in the European and UK economic indicators, but if the world is slower than the UK, a very open economy, will have an impact," Carney told Sky News.

The BoE was constantly monitoring UK banks to ensure they remain in good health so there is no risk of a financial crisis, Carney said in the Sky News interview.

The British region of Northern Ireland on Thursday confirmed its first case of coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases in the United Kingdom to 16.

(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Lincoln Feast.)
OTTAWA - A human-rights lawsuit against a Canadian mining company can be heard in British Columbia, even though it involves events in Africa, the Supreme Court of Canada says in a potentially path-breaking decision.

The high court ruled Friday against B.C.-based Nevsun Resources (TSX:NSU), which had argued the claim should not proceed because a Canadian court could not decide the legality of acts by foreign states.

Three refugees from Eritrea in eastern Africa  Gize Yebeyo Araya, Kesete Tekle Fshazion and Mihretab Yemane Tekle  allege they were forced to work at a gold, copper and zinc mine operated by the Bisha Mining Share Company, which is controlled by Nevsun.

They contend construction of the mine flouted international legal provisions against forced labour, slavery and torture  accusations that have not been tested in court.

Under Eritreas national service program established in 1995, adults were required to do six months of military training followed by a year of service that sometimes involved construction of public projects in the national interest.

In 2002, the period of service was extended indefinitely and conscripts were forced to work for meagre wages at companies owned by senior Eritrean officials.

The lawsuit claims a company hired by Bisha Mining made arrangements with two such firms to provide labourers who worked long days in harsh and dangerous conditions for years.

Among the alleged means of ensuring obedience were punishments that included being ordered to roll in the hot sand while being beaten with sticks until losing consciousness.

I am overjoyed that we will have a trial in Canada, Araya said in a statement released by his lawyers. The Supreme Court of Canada is giving us a voice to tell our stories about what we suffered at the mine.

Nevsun denies that the company or its subsidiary enlisted the Eritrean military to build the mine or supply labour, and says the refugees behind the court action were not mistreated.

B.C. courts dismissed Nevsuns attempts to make Eritrea the forum for any lawsuit.

In its decision, the Supreme Court rejected the companys argument that Canadian courts are precluded from assessing the sovereign acts of a foreign government, including Eritreas national service program.

The court also noted that customary international law  the common law of the international legal system  embraces fundamental norms, including prohibitions against slavery, forced labour and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Customary international law is part of Canadian law, Justice Rosalie Abella wrote on behalf of a majority of the court.

Nevsun is a company bound by Canadian law. It is not plain and obvious to me that the Eritrean workers claims against Nevsun based on breaches of customary international law cannot succeed. Those claims should therefore be allowed to proceed.

Abella characterized international human-rights law as a phoenix that rose from the ashes of the Second World War, saying the norms at the heart of the case were not meant to be theoretical aspirations or legal luxuries, but moral imperatives and legal necessities. Conduct that undermined the norms was to be identified and addressed.

Nevsun said in a statement Friday it expects a trial of the plaintiffs claims and those of other, similar claimants will take place in the B.C. Supreme Court in September next year.

Nevsun intends to vigorously defend itself in court, adding it expects the Bisha Mining Share Co. will continue to operate the mine according to high standards of governance, workplace conditions, health, safety and proper protection of human rights.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2020.
Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/28/2020 -- The global surgical sutures market is expected to rise at a CAGR of 6.0% between 2017 and 2025 majorly owing to the rising number of surgical procedures. Fortune Business Insights in a report, titled "Surgical Sutures: Global Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2018-2025" provides valuable information on the factors enabling growth in the market. The demand for surgical sutures is increasing as they help to heal the damaged tissue faster. Moreover, surgical sutures play a significant role in the wound healing process. These sutures have the ability to ligate the blood vessels together to aid healing of damaged tissues. As per the report by Fortune Business Insights, the global market for surgical sutures was valued at US$ 3,750.9 Mn in 2017 and is anticipated to reach US$ 5,982.9 Mn by 2025.



Gain More Insights into the Surgical Sutures Market Research Report



Leading Players operating in the Surgical Sutures Market are:



Key players are involved in mergers and acquisition to strengthen their market position. Owing to increasing competition frequent innovations are taking place in the market. Some of the companies operating the industry are:



- CP Medical, Inc.

- B. Braun Melsungen AG

- Coloplast Corporation

- BSN medical

- DemeTech Corporation

- Ethicon, Inc.

- Apollo Endosurgery, Inc.

- Boston Scientific Corporation



Rising Adoption of Medical Technologies in Asia Pacific Encourages Growth in the Market



Among regions, North America covered a revenue of US$ 1,489.6 Mn in the year 2017 and dominated the global surgical sutures market. Presence of leading manufacturers for sutures in the U.S. is the primary factor driving the market in this region. Also, the U.S. and Canada witnesses rising number of cardiovascular surgeries mainly attributable to the increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in North America. This, in turn, is expected to register growth opportunities for the market in North America during the forecast years. Besides North America, Europe is the second-most leading region as per revenue in the global market. The market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness high demand for surgical sutures during the forecast duration.



Request A Sample Copy - Surgical Sutures Market Report



Detailed Table of Content:

- Introduction

o Research Scope

o Market Segmentation

o Research Methodology

o Definitions and Assumptions

- Executive Summary

- Market Dynamics

o Market Drivers

o Market Restraints

o Market Opportunities

- Key Insights

o An overview of a number of major surgical procedures by key countries

o Recent industry developments such as mergers & acquisitions

o Regulatory scenario for key countries

o Key industry trends

o Reimbursement scenario by key countries

- Global Surgical Sutures Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast, 2014-2025

o Key Findings / Summary

o Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Product Type

? Absorbable

? Non-absorbable

o Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Form

? Natural

? Synthetic

o Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Application

? Gynecology

? Orthopedics

? Cardiology

? Ophthalmic

? General Surgery

o Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Distribution Channel

? Hospital

? Ambulatory Surgery Centers

? Clinics

? Others

o Market Analysis, Insights and Forecast  By Country

? North America

? Europe

? Asia pacific

? Latin America

? Middle East & Africa

Continued



Surgical Sutures Market Segmentation:



By Product Type

- Absorbable

- Non-absorbable

By Form

- Natural

- Synthetic

By Application

- Gynecology

- Orthopedics

- Cardiology

- Ophthalmic

- General Surgery

By End User

- Hospitals

- Ambulatory Surgery Centers

- Clinics

- Others

By Geography

- North America (the USA and Canada)

- Europe (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, and Rest of Europe)

- Asia Pacific (Japan, China, India, Australia, Southeast Asia, and Rest of Asia Pacific)

- Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Rest of Latin America)

- Middle East & Africa (GCC, South Africa, Rest of the Middle East & Africa)



Reasons to Purchase this Report:



- Comprehensive analysis of the Surgical Sutures Market growth drivers, obstacles, opportunities, and other related challenges.

- Tracks the developments, such as new product launches, agreements, mergers and acquisitions, geographical expansions, and joint ventures.

- Identifies market restraints and boosters.

- Identifies all the possible segments present in the market to aid organizations in strategic business planning.



Have Any Query? Ask Our Experts



KEY QUESTIONS ANSWERED:



- What are the key technological and Surgical Sutures Market trends shaping the market?

- What are the key opportunities in the market?

- What are the key companies operating in the market?

- Which company accounted for the highest market share?

- Why Choose Fortune Business Insights?

- What is the market size and growth rate of the global and regional market by various segments?

- What is the market size and growth rate of the market for selective countries?

- Which region or sub-segment is expected to drive the market in the forecast period?

- What Factors are estimated to drive and restrain the Surgical Sutures Market growth?



Related Reports:



Medical Lasers Market Size to Reach $12,327.8 Million Till 2026



Point of Care Diagnostics Market Size & Trends 2026 | Global POC Diagnostics Market Leaders, Growth Drivers, Opportunities, Technology Trends, Analysis Report



HIV AIDS Drugs Market Size to Worth US$ 40.6 Bn Forecast by 2026 | Exclusive Report by Fortune Business Insights



About Us:



Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. We tailor innovative solutions for our clients, assisting them to address challenges distinct to their businesses. Our goal is to empower our clients with holistic market intelligence, giving a granular overview of the market they are operating in.



Our reports contain a unique mix of tangible insights and qualitative analysis to help companies achieve sustainable growth. Our team of experienced analysts and consultants use industry-leading research tools and techniques to compile comprehensive market studies, interspersed with relevant data.



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Since opening in 2017, it has presented itself as a kind of quietly revolutionary space that reimagines the way women balance work, family and inspiration. The space is one of several women-focused businesses  like The Wing and The Riveter  that opened around the country in the Trump era, embracing messages of empowerment to help sell co-working memberships. At the Jane Club, women pay about $250 to $500 a month to gain access to the club, which includes a child care center, meditation space and shelves lined with books on feminism.

The Jane Club sponsors an occasional book club. The night the Iowa caucus results were supposed to come in, a group of about a dozen women in their 30s and 40s gathered to discuss Good and Mad, a book examining womens anger by the journalist Rebecca Traister. They went over the recent events covered in the book  Hillary Clintons loss, the gains from the #MeToo movement and the 2018 midterm elections. When they floated back to the current state of political affairs, they mostly sounded pessimistic.

Before the conversation began, June Diane Raphael, an actress and one of the founders of the Jane Club, was pouring herself a glass of wine in the kitchen.

Im feeling really anxious, the same kind of anxiety as I had in 2016, she said. Weve been in mourning all that time and now were starting over again. I might feel different if it were Warren doing well  maybe then Id be more hopeful.

Like most of the other women in the group, Ms. Raphael had participated in the Womens March in 2017 and donated to women running for Congress in 2018. She had felt her enthusiasm flag more recently. She was still angry, but she was also weary.

We cant let the world get away with defeating us into exhaustion, she said.

At the end of the December Democratic debate in Los Angeles, the moderators asked each of the candidates to either offer a gift or ask for forgiveness. All the men spoke of their gifts. Both Ms. Warren and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota  the only other woman onstage  chose the other option.

I will ask for forgiveness, Ms. Warren began. I know that sometimes I get really worked up. And sometimes I get a little hot. I dont really mean to, she said, adding that she was motivated by the pain she often heard from voters.
For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here.

After the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged Americans to prepare for the coronavirus, San Francisco has been put under a state of emergency. There are no confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) and the current risk is low, per a statement issued by Mayor London Breed. However, the state of emergency has been issued to get Bay Area residents (and funds + supplies) prepared in the event a case is reported.

If youre looking to protect yourself at this time, the tips from the World Health Organization, CDC, and California Department of Public Health are all similar in their suggestions for prevention. You should:

Wash your hands (with soap and water, for at least 20 seconds)

Cover your mouth (with a bent elbow) if you cough or sneeze

Stay home from work and activities if youre feeling ill

Get your flu shot

Those at immediate risk for coronavirus exposure and illness are U.S. citizens and their immediate family members who have traveled to the Hubei province and other parts of mainland China. Those who are returning to the U.S. from those areas are currently subject to health monitoring and possible quarantine for up to 14 days.

For anyone who is traveling soon, either through an airport or just on their daily commute to and from work, it doesnt hurt to prepare and practice tip-top hygiene. If youd like to be extra cautious, you can stock up on:

Hand soap

Hand sanitizer

Disinfectant spray

Disinfectant wipes

Face masks

Hand Soap

If you dont have a go-to hand soap that you stock your home with, there are many simple options. Method has a great foaming hand wash, if you like to see your suds at work. Dial has a good antibacterial soap to wipe out 99.9% of germs and bacteria. Be sure to grab hand soap, rather than dish soap like Dawn. While Dawn is great on grease, it will dry out your handsespecially in the winter. It's better to use a soap that kills bacteria but keeps your hands soft.

Hand soaps on Amazon

Hand soaps at Target

Hand soaps at Walmart

Hand sanitizer

Washing your hands with soap and water is always going to be the No. 1 suggestion, but for those times when you can't, hand sanitizer is a good alternative. You can get an 8-ounce bottle for your desk of Babyganics foaming hand sanitizer. And if youre looking for hand sanitizers that dont have that sterile scent, Bath & Body Works offers a wide variety of different hand sanitizer scents and you can always get five tiny bottles for $6 to $7.

Hand sanitizer on Amazon

Hand sanitizer at Target

Hand sanitizer at Walmart

Disinfectant spray

Cold and flu season is still upon us, which means disinfectant spray is good to have handy. Spray down your work space (or your entire house) if those around you have been coughing and sneezing. A trusty bottle of Lysol should hopefully be all you need.

Disinfectant sprays on Amazon

Disinfectant sprays at Target

Disinfectant sprays at Walmart

Disinfectant wipes

For those areas you cant exactly spray down, such as public spaces, you can still use caution. Look out for germs when touching door handles, belt buckles, knobs, and more. Just whip out a handy disinfectant wipe.

Disinfectant wipes on Amazon

Disinfectant wipes at Target

Disinfectant wipes at Walmart

Face masks

The spread of the coronavirus has led to a global run on face masks. But as the Associate Press reports, "The CDC doesn't recommend that people wear masks to protect themselves from the virus." Instead, the agency suggests only health care workers and people infected with the coronavirus or showing symptoms should wear a mask to prevent spreading the disease to others. There's growing concern that unneeded purchases of masks will lead to a shortage for healthcare workers.

As the Mayo Clinic stated, face masks may help reduce the spread of infection as viruses can travel through the air in droplets when someone with the infection coughs, sneezes or talks. However, masks do not always prevent this transmission. In general, be mindful about how frequently you touch your face and/or mouth, and cut down on hand-to-face exposure.

Surgical masks on Amazon

Surgical masks at Target

Surgical masks at Walmart

If you are traveling in the near future, youll want to stay updated on what to expect at the airport. Chris McGinnis has previously reported for SFGATE about what travelers should know about the coronavirus. If you are traveling in the coming weeks, it's important to be aware of which airlines are no longer operating to mainland China. Additionally, travelers who are exhibiting any symptoms will be screened and questioned regarding their symptoms.

Hearst Newspapers participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.

Ana Suarez is the senior commerce editor for Hearst Newspapers. Email her at ana.suarez@hearst.com.
Meet the woman who likely helped you connect with your Top Oprah Pick. Her new book teaches the power of storytelling and finding your audience
One of Mike Bloomberg's few good moments during his first debate in Nevada was when he called Bernie's ideas communist. Bernie called this a cheap shot and said his ideas were, instead, "democratic socialism, not communism." It's time, therefore, for a short primer about Bernie's politics.

The realm of available politics can be seen as a line from left to right. On the far left side are totalitarian regimes in which the government has full control and people have none. On the far right side is anarchy, a world without government. All political systems fall somewhere along that line. The farther Left they are, the more they have centralized power; the farther to the Right, the more there is individual liberty:

Socialism, by definition, is a Leftist system that vests power in the government, although the amount of power can differ. Over the last 100 years, socialism has taken on many guises, from hard to soft. In hard socialist states, because the government has to use force to make citizens produce goods or services without direct profit to themselves, governments fear their citizens and routinely terrorize them. Bernie has been forced to admit that this is as true for Cuba as for any other socialist state.

North Korea is a hard socialist state that enslaves its citizens and kills or imprisons them in its vast concentration camps when it perceives that they're a threat. From the 1950s through the 1980s, China was also a hard socialist state with all property vested in the government. During Mao's Great Leap Forward, between 40 and 100 million people died because of starvation, torture, slave labor, and execution.

China's modern communist government, which has a semi-market system, still arrests and jails journalists; imprisons millions of Muslims, using them as slave labor and raping the women; harvests organs from prisoners for profit; and uses slave labor to help drive the Chinese economy. Its socialized medicine system released the coronavirus on the world.

The Nazis were also socialists  that is, people from the Left side of that political spectrum you see above. The party's full name was the "National Socialist German Workers' Party." Where Nazi Germany differed from a hardcore communist country was that the government didn't end private ownership. Instead, under a socialist system called "fascism," it allowed businesses and homes to stay in private hands  as long as the government made all economic decisions and controlled all aspects of people's lives. To the extent that Bernie still envisions private ownership, provided it's under his control, he is talking about a form of fascism.

Hitler hated communism, not because it was the complete opposite of his fascist socialism, but because it was too similar. The fight between communism and fascism, both of which were children of socialism, was like a sibling rivalry. Where Hitler went off the rails was in creating a toxic soup of unhealthy, race-based nationalism; fascism; anti-Semitism; and the Nietzschean idea of a "master race" to justify world war and genocide.

Modern Europe has been the softest side of socialism  it's like Nazism without the toxic master race idea and the quest for world domination. European countries have let people have their own businesses and homes but have kept tight control over services such as health care, railways, and heavy industry (coal-mining, steel production). They also bury their citizens under regulations. Every single aspect of life in a modern European socialist country is regulated.

Europe's socialism worked for as long as it did because America paid for it. We provided Europe's defense in the Cold War, so Europe could use that money for its "soft socialism." Bernie is too much of an ideologue, and possibly too stupid, to understand this. Today, without American funds, without patriotism, and without having children (something typical for socialist countries), Europe is dying, socially, culturally, and economically.

Socialism is by definition authoritarian. Adding the word "democratic" in front, which simply means that people are forced to go to the polls to vote for a roster of preapproved socialist leaders, changes nothing. All socialist systems are bad for their citizens.

When Bernie goes on about literacy, beautiful train stations, and cultural programs for children, he is either lying to himself or lying to you about what he really wants for America. He dreams of an America in which he is in charge. He imagines that he'll be humane and only do good things. He's wrong.

History shows that when it comes to socialism, Lord Acton was correct when he said power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Because socialism vests absolute power in the state, and the state, in turn, is invariably led by a small cadre of people, the corruption becomes absolute. There is no such thing as a beneficent socialist dictator.
NASA has launched a public competition to design a sensor that will guide a future rover across rough terrain and inhospitable environment on Venus.

The sensor will need to be able to withstand heat capable of 'turning lead into a puddle' and pressure high enough to 'crush a submarine', the space agency said.

It will sit on the proposed mechanical clockwork rover and help it avoid obstacles as it traverses the surface of Earth's nearest planetary neighbour.

Any sensor design will also need to operate without electrical power, the same as the rover, as electrical systems fail at the high temperatures found on Venus.

Anyone hoping to enter the competition has until March 29 to get their designs off to NASA with judging happening in June and winners announced on July 6.

Scroll down for video

The extreme environment rover concept is being designed by NASA JPL and will be powered by a wind turbine on its top - that turbine will also power the sensor being designed by the competition winner

The space agency says exploring different geological areas on the surface of Venus will provide insights into the planet's evolution and even our own climate.

The last spacecraft to touch the surface of Venus was the Soviet Vega 2 which touched down in 1985 and lasted just under an hour before it stopped working.

WHAT ARE THE RULES FOR THE SENSOR? The sensor can't be higher than 34 inches and no more than 40 inches from the front of the rover The surface of Venus is inhospitable Must be designed to operate for at least six months on Venus Can't access more than an average of 1 Watt of power from the turbine It can't weigh more than 55lbs The sensor must reliably respond when encountering: Slopes greater than 30 degrees going up and down hill

Rocks greater than 13 inches but not smaller than 11 inches high

Holes greater than 13 inches deep but not shallower than 11 inches SOURCE: NASA Advertisement

Now, engineers and scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are studying mission designs that can survive the hellish landscape for months not minutes.

They have the work on designing the mechanical rover in hand - but want an individual or team to come up with an obstacle sensor to run on the rover.

The winning design will get $15,000 (11,000) and a chance to work with the team at JPL on a final device that could end up on the surface of Venus.

There is no specific mission for the rover yet, but NASA has a number of possible ideas it is considering for the Earth's 'sister planet' in future.

'Earth and Venus are basically sibling planets, but Venus took a turn at one point and became inhospitable to life as we know it,' said Jonathan Sauder, a senior mechatronics engineer at JPL.

'By getting on the ground and exploring Venus, we can understand what caused Earth and Venus to diverge on wildly different paths and can explore a foreign world right in our own backyard.'

It's not going to be easy creating a sensor that can withstand the environment on Venus.

It will have to cope with 840 degree Fahrenheit temperatures and a surface pressure that is 90 times greater than on Earth.

Things taken for granted on Earth such as electrical power won't work at the temperatures and pressures found on Venus.

The proposed rover will be powered through a wind turbine mounted on its back and won't make use of electrical systems - instead drawing energy from the wind turbine.

While wind speeds on Venus are relatively slow - about 2mph - the intense pressure means they actually move much faster and act more like gale force wind on Earth.

NASA hopes its rover will be used to could collect valuable, long-term longitudinal scientific data about the planet.

'As the rover explores the planet, it must also detect obstacles in its path, such as rocks, crevices and steep terrain,' a JPL spokesperson said.

This is where the sensor competition comes in and the challenge's winning sensor will be incorporated into the rover concept being built by JPL.

'This is an exciting opportunity for the public to design a component that could one day end up on another celestial body,' said Ryon Stewart, challenge coordinator for the NASA Tournament Lab at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

'NASA recognises that good ideas can come from anywhere and that prize competitions are a great way to engage the public's interest and ingenuity and make space exploration possible for everyone.'

Of the many missions to our celestial neighbour, only about a dozen have made contact with the surface of the planet.

The longest-lived landers only managed to function for a couple of hours before succumbing to the relentlessly oppressive heat and pressure.

The Challenge offers up to $30,000 (23,000) in prize money as well as other rewards and recognition with half the money going to the first place winner.

The sensor will have to be able to detect a range of obstacles on Venus as well as the high temperatures - including slopes and valleys

Venus has been explored by a number of orbiter space craft but only a dozen landers have touched down on the surface - none lasting longer than two hours

As the rover explores the surface, collecting and relaying data to an orbiter, it must also detect obstacles in its path like rocks, crevices, and steep terrain.

The challenge to create a sensor is opening to people of all experience and ability - they just have to submit a design that could work on the surface.

The winning idea will be developed by the JPL team for use in their final concept.

Due to the complexity in creating something that will work in such inhospitable conditions and with limitations such as no electrical power supply, NASA opened the design to the wider public in the hope someone may have a spark of inspiration.

'This sensor will be the primary mechanism by which the potential rover would detect and navigates through dangerous situations during its operational life.

'By sensing obstacles such as rocks, crevices, and inclines, the rover would then navigate around the obstruction, enabling the rover to continue to explore the surface of Venus and collect more observational data,' a spokesperson said.

The details of the competition are available from the NASA Tournament Lab.
Woman Who Killed 3 Teens in DUI Crash Begs for Forgiveness

A California woman was sentenced to 51 years to life Thursday for her role in a DUI crash that killed three Las Vegas teens, and she apologized in court.

I understand you hate me, wish I was dead, Bani Duarte, 29, said to the families of the victims.

You want me to suffer. I just want to say that Im truly sorry and maybe one day you will forgive me, she added, reported the Las Vegas Review-Journal. What Im saying is coming from my heart.

Im ashamed. Im remorseful. I wasnt in the right mind, Duarte also told the victims families, according to NBC4.

Officials said Duarte was traveling at around 80 mph in Huntington Beach when she crashed into a vehicle carrying the three teens. The teens car, in the collision, was pushed through an intersection and into a pole before it caught fire.

Duarte, a mother of four, was convicted on three counts of second-degree murder and one count of driving under the influence. Officials said that Duarte had drunk at least nine alcoholic beverages before the crash at around 1 a.m. on March 29, 2018.

Brooke Hawley, Albert A.J. Rossi Jr., and Dylan Mack were all killed in the crash, said officials. Alexis Vargas, the only survivor in the car, suffered burns and a concussion.

This trial was not about the defendant, Brookes father, Aaron Hawley, said during the sentencing. Its about three young adults doing nothing wrong and paid the ultimate price because one irresponsible person decided they were more important than anybody else on the face of the Earth.

Everybody talks about wanting to do the right thing. You teach your kids to do the right thing. They do the right thing and theyre dead, said Rhonda Hawley, the teens mother, according to NBC4.
The shooting comes the same day Chicago police unveiled plans to beef up patrols because of a spike in crime on the CTAs rail system. The department announced it will add 50 more officers to the unit that patrols the L, bringing the total to 250. And, in a first for the department, each transit unit officer will be equipped with tracking devices to better monitor and adjust how theyre deployed.
Pakistan PM Imran Khan On Thursday is going on a day-long visit to Qatar. During this time, Imran will not be there at the time of signing the peace agreement between the US and Taliban in Doha on 29 February. The Express Tribune quoted the Foreign Office as saying, 'Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit Qatar on 27 February 2020 as part of regular exchange of high-level visits. During this, Joe will meet Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar state.

According to media reports, this will be Imran Khan's second visit to Qatar after taking charge in 2018. However, he will not attend the signing ceremony between the US and the Taliban on Saturday. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will represent Pakistan in this ceremony. Representatives of more than two dozen countries are participating in the signing ceremony.

There has been a long dialogue between the US and the Taliban for 18 months. It is expected that the peace deal has reached its final stage. Under the agreement, foreign troops will be removed from the war-torn country. In return, the Taliban has agreed not to allow Afghans to be used against any other country. Earlier, before the peace agreement between the US and the Taliban, there have been compromises on the partial ceasefire.

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Weighing the harms and benefits

You might call that sticking point No. 1. The AB-MRIs are more sensitive so they found more suspicious spots that could potentially be cancer.

In the study, AB-MRI called for 107 biopsies, a procedure where breast tissue is excised and analyzed for cancer cells, which was nearly four times the rate of DBT (it called for 29). Biopsies can leave the breast bruised and sore for a few days, and as always, complications can happen.

Rahbar said with abbreviated MRIs only about 20% of the biopsies were actually cancer, referring to the positive predictive value of each test, or how often it was right in identifying a suspicious lesion as a cancer. In 3D mammography, it was about 35%, he said.

In other words, the majority of women who have a potential breast cancer identified by AB-MRI will undergo an unnecessary biopsy.

Theres a higher number of false positives with abbreviated MRI, Rahbar said. While the high sensitivity is very exciting  theyre catching more cancers  wed also be recommending more biopsies. And they will be more expensive.

Its also unclear how frequently women would need AB-MRIs. The trial was a two-year study, but the paper reported only the first round of screening.

Its possible fewer cancers will be identified in subsequent rounds of MRI, so its not clear if this test should be done yearly, Rahbar said.

How much will it cost? Its complicated

That brings us to sticking point No. 2: cost.

Currently, the cost for an MRI can run anywhere from $400 to $3,500 depending on where in the country its done and what part of the body is being imaged. The business data site Statista lists the average cost in 2017 at $1,430.

Breast MRI is expensive, said Dr. Gary Lyman, a health economics researcher and policy expert with the Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research, or HICOR. Thats why the guidelines limit it to high-risk settings. Currently, breast MRI is only approved for patients with a family history or a risk of 20% or greater for developing breast cancer.

In use since the late 1970s, MRIs can take anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes and involve an IV-injected contrast agent or dye and multiple images taken over a period of time. The abbreviated MRIs performed in the study also used a contrast agent but took fewer images. They were also much shorter  each took less than 10 minutes.

But as it now stands, theres no standard for an abbreviated MRI, Rahbar said. This is the first study to examine it across many sites in a clinical trial. We dont even have a realistic price for it because theres no insurance code.

That code, known as a CPT or current procedural terminology code, is whats used for medical billing. No medical billing code? No insurance coverage.

This situation is not dissimilar to other new technologies when they first get developed, like tumor sequencing or biosimilars, Lyman said. When theres no code to begin with, it will take a year or two for CMS [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] to see whats happening in practice and create a code so it can then be billed.

Generally, CMS  also known as government-sponsored public health insurance  leads the charge with regard to reimbursement for physician services, with private insurers soon following suit.

Until that happens, Lyman said, its pretty much the Wild West. Health centers may have to fly on their own in terms of billing and establishing best practices, he said. And patients could potentially be charged full price for an MRI, even though theyre getting a truncated version.

My guess is CMS will very quickly get a code and be put into the regulations so clinicians can bill for it, Lyman said. But this is unlikely to happen in less than a year and could take longer. The results of the next [study] screening will further clarify the performance of this approach and its value to patients, health systems and society. These are the types of studies that we need.

Dr. Christopher Comstock of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, lead author of the paper, said only a few cancer centers currently offer AB-MRI.

Our hope, he said, is that the study will provide the impetus for more centers to provide this new test and that insurers will see its benefit to improve early detection.
Over four decades after a woman was sexually assaulted and killed, a suspect has finally been identified through the new, but growing, investigative tool of genetic genealogy.

Naomi Sanders was found sexually assaulted and strangled to death on Feb. 27, 1973 inside her apartment in Vallejo, California, about 30 miles outside San Francisco.

Sanders, 57, lived alone and was the onsite manager for the apartment complex, the Vallejo Police Department said.

PHOTO: Naomi Sanders is seen in an undated photo released by the Vallejo Police Department with a release that an investigation into her 1973 murder has used genetic genealogy to lead them to a suspect. (Vallejo Police Department)

But the years ticked by without progress in her case.

In 2014, forensic testing was completed on the clothes Sanders was wearing when she was killed, and analysts found a semen stain, said police.

A DNA profile was developed from the stain and entered into the law enforcement database Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) -- but there was no match, police said.

MORE: Suspect in mother, son double murder identified through genealogy databases

Detectives said they continued to run the DNA profile against new people when they were added to CODIS, still without a match.

In 2016, detectives tried familial DNA technology, which allowed them to search the California DNA database and wider DNA databases in other states for people related to the unknown suspect, police said. Again, they didn't get a hit.

Police said the break in the case finally came when authorities started to look into genetic genealogy in 2018.

Through genetic genealogy, an unknown killer's DNA left at a crime scene can be identified through his or her family members, who voluntarily submit their DNA to a genealogy database. This allows police to create a much larger family tree than using law enforcement databases like CODIS.

Genetic genealogy first came to light as an investigative tool in April 2018 when the suspected "Golden State Killer" was arrested through the technique. Since then, over 100 suspects have been identified through the technology, according to Parabon NanoLabs Chief Genetic Genealogist CeCe Moore, who worked on the Sanders case.

Story continues

After working through the family tree of Sanders' unknown killer in April 2019, analysts were able to zero-in on two persons of interest, authorities said.

MORE: Possible serial killer was behind teen's 1976 rape, murder: Police

Detectives went to Louisiana in 2019 where they collected a discarded item from one of those persons of interest, police said. They tested the DNA from that item, but didn't get a match, so they eliminated the man as a suspect, police said.

That left police with the second person of interest -- who was dead and had been cremated, they said.

Authorities contacted one of his sons and collected his DNA, which determined that Sanders' suspected killer was Robert Dale Edwards, the Vallejo police announced Thursday.

PHOTO: Robert Dale Edwards is pictured in an undated image released by the Vallejo Police Department with a statement that they used DNA to established him as the suspect in the 1973 murder of Naomi Sanders in Vallejo, Calif. (Vallejo Police Department)

Edwards was a 22-year-old living in Vallejo at the time of the crime, police said. Detectives learned that Edwards' father was a co-worker of Sanders, police said.

He had a criminal history, including attempted murder, assault and domestic violence, police said.

MORE: Man arrested in intern's 1980 cold case rape, murder thanks to DNA match

Edwards died in 1993 of a drug overdose, police said.

Sanders' family released a statement through the police department, saying so many relatives over the last 46 years "have also passed, and, unfortunately, they cannot be afforded the truth as to what happened."

"Those of us who do remember the stories of Naomi's life and untimely death can now feel closure thanks to the determination and teamwork of the Vallejo Police Department and partnering law enforcement agencies," the family said.

"May Naomi now rest in peace," her family said.

She was sexually assaulted and killed in 1973. Now genetic genealogy identified a suspect. originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
By Akbar Mammadov

Armenia deceives the international community by seeking to conceal the fact that it expelled Azerbaijani civilians from the Nagrono-Karabakh region that it is occupying, Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Ramiz Hasanov said during the 43rd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on February 26.

Armenia deliberately misrepresents the principle of self-determination calling for its application only for Armenian ethnic group living in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, and deliberately concealing the fact that all Azerbaijanis have already been expelled by Armenia from this region [Nagorno-Karabakh] through the use of force, Hasanov said.

The official emphasized that There is no such notion as a people of Nagorno-Karabakh, but there is an Armenian community of Nagorno-Karabakh, alongside with the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh. Under these circumstances holding the so-called elections in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan violates the international law

He stated that the Armenian authorities lack genuine interest in the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and this impedes the conflict resolution. This unwillingness to solve the conflict runs counter to Armenian claims that it wants peace.

Hasanov said that any solution to this conflict which will be achieved as a result of peaceful negotiation must provide preservation of internationally recognized territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is acknowledged by the whole world, and the sooner the government of Armenia recognizes the lack of any prospect for its self-destructive political agenda towards its neighbours, the sooner the people of Armenia will be able to benefit from peace and economic development, Hasanov said.

Hasanov also said that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has blatantly violated the international law and the UN Charter and the Human Rights Councils resolutions with his policies aimed at annexing Azerbaijans occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region to Armenia.

The official reminded that the UN Security Council Resolutions and documents of other international organizations support Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and these resolutions demand the immediate, complete withdrawal of all occupying forces from the Azerbaijani lands.

Today Azerbaijan commemorates the 28th anniversary of one of the darkest pages of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict  the Khojaly Genocide recognized by an increasing number of countries. It was on this day in 1992, that 613 residents of this small town in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan were brutally killed by Armenian military simply because they were Azerbaijanis  the fact that has been later admitted by the then president [Serzh Sargsyan] of Armenia himself. In this regard, Azerbaijan urges the Council, its mandate holders and the High Commissioner to take a principled stand and relevant actions for restoration of human rights of Azerbaijani IDPs and refugees that remain violated for almost 30 years. Hasanov said.

Furthermore, the official reiterated Azerbaijans commitment to increasing co-operation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Addressing the 43rd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Ramiz Hasanov said that in recent years, Azerbaijan has strengthened its partnership with the Office and is also actively engaging with the Human Rights Council.

Azerbaijan has assumed the Chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement at its recent Summit held in Baku, the deputy minister said. During its Chairmanship, Azerbaijan will build its priorities around the Bandung principles and in particular will continue advocating for the universality, indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights.

The deputy minister also emphasized that the significance of adopting a constructive approach to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms is recognized as important as by Azerbaijan. Ambitious and long-ranging reforms are presently carried out in Azerbaijan aimed at further strengthening of democracy, rule of law, and promotion and protection of human rights, Hasanov added.

We support all countries to concentrate on genuine dialogue and cooperation with each other, he said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday urged people to inculcate the scientific temper among the youth on the occasion of the National Science Day.

"Today is National Science Day, celebrated to mark the discovery of the Raman Effect by Sir CV Raman. My best wishes to all the scientists in India. Let us strive to inculcate the scientific temper among our younger generation," Banerjee tweeted.

National Science Day is celebrated in the country on February 28 to mark the discovery of the phenomenon of the scattering of light, known as the 'Raman Effect' by Indian physicist Sir C V Raman on this day in 1928.

He was honoured with the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After 50 days, the Iranian regimes mercenaries agreed on Abdulaziz Al-Mohammadavi as the successor to al-Muhandis. In this respect, who is al-Mohammadavi, known by Abu-Fadak nickname among Iraqi forces loyal to Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Iranian regime?

The Popular Mobilization Forces [Hashd al-Shaabi] is a part of Khameneis armed forces in Iraq which was founded in 2014. The chief of Iraqi Basij assembly Aqil al-Hussaini described Hashd al-Shaabi as the trail of Irans Basij, which has benefited from experiences of the Iranian versions one. In the Iraqi Basij structure, we modeled on the Iranian Basij, [then-Iran-backed] Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki told ABNA news agency in August 2015, the Iranian state-run website Tabnak wrote on the same date.

This force has consisted of about 40 different groups, which are generally Shiite armed militias. Many of these groups already operated terrorist attacks against the Coalition Forces on the behalf of the IRGC-QF in Iraq. These militants have a notorious track record of mass killing against religious minorities with total impunity.

In September 2015, the ayatollahs Iraqi murderers were eventually recognized as a part of Iraqi government forces, according to the Iran-backed prime minister Heidar al-Ebadi.

Militias allied to the Iraqi government have access to arms from at least 17 countries

Recent arms transfers have fuelled enforced disappearances, abductions, torture, summary killings, and deliberate destruction of civilian property

Iraq is the worlds sixth-largest importer of heavy weaponry

Amnesty International highlighted in its report on January 5, 2017.

Who is Abu-Fadak?

Abdulaziz al-Mohammadavi is also known by Al-Khal, which means uncle in Arabic. He had a long-time friendship with the slain former chief of the IRGC-QF Qassem Soleimani.

Since 1982, he joined the terrorist Badr organization commanded by Hadi al-Ameri. During the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, as al-Ameris assistant, al-Mohammadavi conducted intelligence operations to the benefit of the Iranian regime. He also served as an intelligence agent for the Badr organization in the Kurdistan region.

In 2004, Abu-Fadak refused to have over weapons that his group had amassed during the U.S. invasion on Iraq and kept them for orchestrating terror plots against the Coalition Forces. In this respect, he was ordered by Tehran to organize several terror squads under the Badrs financial support.

In the same year, Soleimani, the secretary-general of Lebanese Hezbollah, and al-Muhandis incited al-Mohammadavi to establish a joint force. Thereafter, he founded the Iraqi version of Lebanese Hezbollah under the name of Kataib Hezbollah (KH) in cooperation with another known terrorist Imad al-Muqnieh. This terrorist entity still receives its funds and wages from Hadi al-Ameri directly. Later, the U.S. troops detained him and held in jail for a time, however, the integrators didnt discover al-Mohammadavis real identity. At the time, he became more commonly known by the al-Khal nickname.

Then, in 2006, al-Mohammadavi widened his collaborations with al-Muhandis and received his order from Qassem Soleimani directly. Alhurra.com recently revealed that Hadi al-Ameri suggested his lieutenant al-Khal to succeed al-Muhandis.

Al-Mohammadavis Role in Hostage Taking Qatari Hunters in Iraq

In December 2015, KH commanded by al-Mohammadavi abducted 26 Qatari hunters, several from the Qatari Emirs royal family. Notably, al-Mohammadavis superiors pursued to gain political privileges in return for the handover of the hostages. However, al-Khal sought to receive $500 million in exchange for releasing hunters.

Some while later, after the scandal became public, other KH commanders fired al-Mohammadavi for abusing his authority. The Iranian decision-makers of KH finally freed the hostages in return for stopping Qatars support for Syrian dissidents. Qatar both delivered $500 million and persuaded its sponsored forces in Syria to deliver their territory lands to Assads regime.

Remarkably, Soleimani attempted to whitewash the flagrant scandal and cease tensions in the KH hierarchy. However, his efforts failed and KH commanders expelled Abu-Fadak out of the group. But, after the start of the October Revolution in Iraq, al-Mohammadavi rejoined to the KH for a crackdown on the protesters under the direct order of Soleimani.

In summary, it is worth noting that Abdulaziz al-Mohammadavi, Abu-Fadak, al-Khal, or any other nickname he possesses, is appointed by Tehran as the successor of slain Abu-Mahdi al-Muhandis. This matter shows the scale of Irans influence in Iraqi affairs and its path for committing any crime for preserving this country while the regime is severely dealing with breathtaking crises in different sectors at the home.

Read more:

Iraqi Protests Against Iran Regime
A disbarred Montgomery County lawyer was sentenced Thursday in federal court to five years in prison for running a $3.4 million scam while working for a Philadelphia law firm, U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain said Thursday.

Craig A. Cohen, 55, of Blue Bell, pleaded guilty to mail fraud in November after he was accused of deceptively collecting payments in dozens of cases involving water damage caused by allegedly defective products.

Cohen, who worked at White & Williams in Center City, was voluntarily disbarred in December by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Disciplinary Board.

Prosecutors said Cohen represented insurance companies that had paid claims for water damage, and were seeking recoveries from product manufacturers and class action settlement funds.

From 2015 through 2019, Cohen filed fraudulent claims that funneled the money to his personal use.

In the September filing that charged Cohen, prosecutors said he sometimes fabricated paperwork by using photographs he took of defective plumbing that he kept in storage. In some cases, he physically damaged plumbing products before photographing them.

Prosecutors said he sometimes took unresolved claims and convinced clients and his law firm that they were not viable, but then pursued them to collect the money.

U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno also sentenced Cohen to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay more than $3.4 million in restitution.
Google Stadia has managed a small win today after publisher Modus Games revealed its upcoming release Lost Words: Beyond the Page will launch exclusively on the streaming platform.

The 2D narrative adventure is being developed by Sketchbook Games and Fourth State, and features a story written by acclaimed scribe Rhianna Pratchett.

As reported by VentureBeat, the 'First on Stadia' title will launch for the platform on March 27, and will remain a Stadia exclusive for one year before eventually arriving on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

It might only be a minor victory for Google, but it's a notable one given the company has recently come under fire from Stadia owners who claimed they had been left in the dark by the tech giant following the platform's launch.

Towards the end of January, Stadia users voiced their concerns on Reddit and claimed Google had failed to fulfil a number of promises with regards to game announcements and feature updates, ultimately positing that the company had "over sold and under delivered."

Since then, Google has rolled out Stadia support on 19 non-Google Pixel smartphones and announced its free tier will arrive at some point in the 'next few months.' Other games including SteamWorld Dig and The Division 2 have also been announced for the platform.
Standard Chartered Bank Korea CEO Park Jong-bok speaks during a recent interview with The Korea Times at his office in central Seoul. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



CEO Park cites 'techfin' as key driver in bank's future direction



By Anna J. Park





In early 2015, Standard Chartered (SC) Bank Korea CEO Park Jong-bok took the helm of the firm with the tall tasks of making the money-losing entity profitable and ensuring its headquarters in the U.K. were fully committed to the Korean operation.



Over the past five years, he has successfully turned things around for the Korean arm of the U.K. banking group by streamlining the organization and taking a preemptive course of action to embrace digitization. Now he has set a higher goal  making SC the "best international bank in Korea."



In an interview with The Korea Times at his office in central Seoul Feb. 18, he unveiled the strategies that allowed him to successfully lead the SC Bank Korea for the last five years, and his vision to foster further growth.



One of the key strategies that the CEO has pursued since his inauguration is to clearly position SC as a 'hybrid bank'  a compound of local heritage and a global network, emphasizing an agile, flexible and open-to-change culture.



SC Group  the parent company of the Korea branch - acquired 100 percent of the equities of the Korea First Bank in 2005. Yet, as the Korea First Bank was a huge leading company in the nation for a long time, it was not an easy transition to becoming a global bank due to its own strong internal cultural. CEO Park said he regards such unique characteristics as the bank's assets.



"Being a hybrid is our bank's innate identity," the CEO said. "I believe such a hybrid identity of the bank could work as its big advantage, as it proves the bank has a unique strength of flexibility, encompassing elements from both traditional and innovative, being both local and global in nature."



Based on that identity, the CEO found the bank's strategic direction towards a flexible fusion  the zeitgeist of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.



"I think being a hybrid means, in other words, a hyper-connectivity, which facilitates fusion among divergent industries. This serves the spirit of the current industrial revolution," the CEO said. "With such a flexible nature, the bank can expand itself by partnering with various industries, while leveraging on the global network of SC Group, which has a presence in over 60 markets in the world."





Standard Chartered Bank Korea CEO Park Jong-bok stresses 'techfin' as the bank's key strategy towards future growth. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



'Techfin' as the future of banking



The veteran banker also stressed that 'techfin' is an irreversible trend in business, and the digital innovation will become a vital pillar of future growth. That's why SC Bank Korea set digitization as one of its essential business strategies early on, providing customers with integrated mobile banking services.



"Retail banking cannot help but go into the direction of techfin," he said. "About 70 to 80 percent of offline retail business can be incorporated into an area of digital banking. While digital banking further advances, complicated wealth management still needs to be customer-facing," the CEO added.



Park said he prefers the term 'techfin' to 'fintech': "Fintech sounds like it somewhat puts more weight on traditional financing. I think 'techfin' is more appropriate in this era, as it emphasizes innovative elements other than financing as highlighted through the use of new platforms."



Taking such a direction, the bank has invested in an internet-only bank led by Toss, a mobile financial services platform in Korea, in October, 2019. It has also expanded its financial services through partnerships with various e-commerce and fintech companies such as PAYCO, TMON, WeMakePrice, eBay Korea, Bank Salad and Cash Note.



"Our decision to invest in the Toss consortium was based on our expectations for long-term profits, while affirming SC Group's commitment to Korea. We expect the collaboration will help us attract young millennial customers for the growth of retail banking, as both Toss and the bank complement each other's strengths," the CEO explained.







Successful turnaround



His flexible and versatile leadership capabilities, solidly buttressed by the extensive range of experience gained in his 30-year banking career, have proved to be strong enough to result in the drastic improvement of the bank.



Since taking office in early 2015, it took only one year for CEO Park to shift the London-headquartered bank's annual deficit into consistent profit.



The bank's return on equity (ROE) has also steadily increased from 4.96 percent in 2016 to 7.47 percent as of September, 2019. Park explains that the ROE has more room for improvement, if the retail business of the bank is ameliorated. Its ROE for corporate banking hovers at 15 to 18 percent.







"The Korea branch has earned trust and confidence for its execution capability of strategic goals during the past years," the CEO said during the interview. "Our corporate banking business is already considered world-class, with many more opportunities to grow in retail business."



Differentiated internal control system



Another strong point of the SC Korea is its world-class risk management system. Some major Korean banks suffered loss of confidence due to their sales of DLF and Lime Asset products, incurring huge losses to investors.



SC Bank Korea has a systemized internal selection process in line with the global standards of the SC Group, which filters out products of a faulty nature and safeguardw clients' long-term interests.



"As you can witness the recent scandal surrounding DLF and Lime Asset fund sales, our bank boasts a global-level capacity of thoroughly examining products' safety," the CEO said. "We can provide a wide variety of products, while insuring safer management of clients' wealth. The internal process and system of risk management is completely differentiated from other local banks," he added.



The CEO explained that the bank's WM Investment Product Council, a committee responsible for selecting products and giving approval, is consisted of various experts from the areas of audit, compliance, consumer protection and investment advisory.



The bank also complies with global regulatory standards and guidelines set by the parent group, which results in far more strict criteria when it comes to examining any products.







Standard Chartered Bank Korea CEO Park holds onto a human-centered leadership. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
It was one of many times waste was discovered in Denton Avenue and Toora Court. Between 1977 and 1992, it was common knowledge of the municipal building surveyor, builders and the likely residents, according to the confidential council report. In fact, the building surveyor developed a habit of recommending owners only build near the street, and that they lay a floating slab and add vapour mitigation barriers. Site of 63 Denton Avenue where the house was demolished and never rebuilt. Credit:Justin McManus Some homeowners were told of the issue by the surveyor, and, in the early days, an outline of the seven huge burial pits appeared on the old planning scheme. But the rest of the community remained in ignorance. In 1999, changes were made to planning schemes around Melbourne. When the council, by now called Brimbank City Council, produced its new-format scheme, even the sketchy outlines of the rubbish pits had disappeared. Since then, people buying houses have been none the wiser. Eventually even the council itself forgot about what was underneath this huge parcel of land between Albion and St Albans. In 2002, the council sold two hectares of its own industrial land for $575,000 - a valuation based on its assumption that there was no buried pollution. Eight years later, it was forced to buy the land back when its assumption was found to be wrong.

That debacle prompted Brimbank to commission a report in 2010 about what exactly lay beneath. That report found a high risk to local residents and visitors. It was handed to the EPA in 2013. Then, for seven long years, silence. The council and the EPA started quietly monitoring gas emissions in the area, but until last week, residents say nobody bothered to tell them what was going on. An acceptable outcome The EPA has been part of this story from the start. In the 1960s, the City of Sunshine started filling seven basalt holes up to 21 metres deep with municipal waste. What had been bluestone quarries became the Sunshine Landfills, and not only household waste, but radioactive materials, solvents, paints, oil, acids, poisons, manure and other industrial waste were dumped.

Dangerous liquid waste that is now required to be treated and disposed of properly was, in 1969, simply poured into the ground. When Victorias landmark Environmental Protection Act was passed in 1970, the council was required to reapply for permission to dump. The Commission for Public Health approved the dump but it prohibited the dumping of liquid waste. The council appealed to the brand new Environment Protection Authority. The EPA overturned the commission's decision and allowed 9 million gallons per annum of liquid intractable waste to be poured into the pits, a report to council confirms. Arron Reid with wife Michelle Hodgers. They have just rebuilt on Michelle's family home where she has lived her whole life. They are concerned about the health impact and also the value of their home. Credit:Justin McManus Crucial to this decision was the EPAs then chief land waste management officer, Dr Frank Meldrum. Meldrum approved the 9 million gallons and then gave expert evidence through a series of appeals in the following years to back his own decision. If the liquid waste was mixed with domestic garbage, Meldrum insisted, it would achieve an acceptable outcome, as the liquid was remaining in suspension within the waste body.

Plenty of experts thought otherwise. In further appeals and reports through the early 1970s, they found the poisons were leaching into the groundwater and heading for Port Phillip Bay, and that Victorias basalt was unsuitable for storing dangerous chemical waste. With the EPA opposing every step, appeal courts first reduced the amount of liquid that could be dumped to 5 million gallons per year (19 million litres) and then, in 1976, the equivalent of VCAT overturned the EPAs decision entirely. From March 1977, liquid waste was finally banned. Try your luck with houses Even as some of the pits were still operating as a dump, an enterprising western suburban developer, L.G. and F.H. Nickson, was planning a new future for the site. The company teamed up with the quarry owner, Albion Reid (now Boral), to apply to subdivide it and develop the northern part for housing. The so-called Nickson Estate would have 688 brand new residential lots on land they no doubt bought for a song. The City of Sunshine was enthusiastic, according to a confidential council report.

City of Sunshine encouraged L.G. & F.H. Nickson to 'try his luck' with the residential subdivision, noting the concern that failure to facilitate the subdivision would result in loss of rates revenue. Nicksons application was approved within months. And even after waste from Pit 4 of the dump was found directly underneath the lots that are now known as 115 to 123B Denton Avenue, residential building proceeded. The council made a half-hearted proposal to swap the dirty land for clean land, but nothing came of it. An exchange of land appears to be the best way of solving the problem, one report to council reveals. But, even so, no amendment was made, failing to resolve the encroachment [of contamination]. William Cartledge in his backyard with the hill which was built on top of the Sunshine Landfills tip in the background. Credit:Justin McManus Advice sent to Brimbank council last year said these facts meant the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works, Albion Reid, the developer Nickson and the City of Sunshine were all potentially negligent at law. The council could be held responsible as the polluter and the state government and/or the EPA as the entity that permitted the pollution. The statute of limitations meant that only those who suffered damage in the past six years, however, could actually sue.

Manisha Blencowe, practice group leader with law firm Slater and Gordon, said residents and business owners could qualify for compensation if it could be proven the councils negligence had caused property values to drop or affected peoples quality of life. What happens next - in terms of potential compensation or property acquisitions - will depend in part on the approach the council takes," Blencowe said. "There can be a risk of buck-passing in this case, but we hope council will respond sensibly." EPA v Council The 2013 council report, sent to the EPA, should have been the wake-up call these organisations needed. It identified a "high" health risk for residents due to uncertainties in the extent of soil gas. While the actual risk to individuals was considered acceptable, it should not have inspired complacency. But instead of publicly revealing the results, the EPA started a program of monitoring gas emissions - a fact relied on heavily by its western region manager Stephen Lansdell when answering questions prompted by a report in The Age on Friday. Residents say they were aware of the testing, but not why it was being undertaken.
For example, Barr assigned U.S. Attorney John Durham in Connecticut to investigate how the FBI initiated its 2016 probe into Trumps campaign and tapped U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady in Pittsburgh to take information from Trumps personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, about what Giuliani sees as wrongdoing by former vice president Joe Biden and his family in Ukraine. In the wake of the Stone sentencing, it was revealed that Barr had also tapped Jeff Jensen, the U.S. attorney in St. Louis, to review and assist prosecutors handling the case against Trumps former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
From the start of the coronavirus outbreak, The Daily has devoted several episodes to the epidemic, recounting the story of the viruss journey across China and exploring how the Chinese governments approach seemed to worsen the crisis.

By the middle of this week, as the virus started to spread across the Middle East and Europe, we debated the best way to tell the story. We typically build episodes around a narrative, emphasizing characters, drama and ideas. But this situation was different. The virus had become an epidemic on an increasingly global scale. It required something else.

Executive producer Lisa Tobin proposed the audio equivalent of an F.A.Q. about the coronavirus, a break in our normal form. Our producer, Alexandra Leigh Young, who works closely with The Timess Science desk, hunted for the right guest: somebody who could explain the disease in simple terms and put the epidemic into historical context.

Soon enough, Alexandra was on the phone with Donald G. McNeil Jr., a reporter with decades of experience covering epidemics from SARS to MERS to Zika. We asked him every question we had about the coronavirus. Why is this virus so contagious? How does it spread? Who gets it? Who dies from it? Is there a cure?
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Today marks Ohio City Galley's final day, and a grassroots social push is trying to get the word out.

Tuesday, the owners of Ohio City Galley notified their restaurant tenants that the Cleveland operation would close Friday, Feb. 28.

#OccupySauceTheCity on Instagram urges customers to show up at 5 p.m. Friday to support Vic Searcy, who operates Sauce the City (Cleveland hot chicken) and The Burger Shop (brisket-rib-eye blended sliders). The Galley's other two eateries - Pie2 (pizza) and Grains and Greens (salads) are operated by Vince Thomascik and Brett Sawyer. Those two also own The Plum and Good Company.

The Instagram initiative is from Lauren Welch, a publicist who works with minority-owned businesses and is a friend of Searcy's.

"It's important we support local business," said Welch, who grew up in Ohio City. "When I heard the news - these are friends of mine.  I immediately created a flier - as many people as we can get. I know I can rally some folks to come out on their last day, and they are successful on their own. They didnt need me, but it's important for all of us to do what we can to support our own."

She added: I think it created a ripple effect of other people trying to figure out what they can do to help, what can we do to support one another in the city of Cleveland.

Related coverage: Why didnt Ohio City Galley work?

"I had no part," Searcy said about the online push. "We do love our customers so I appreciate it. Thats a lot of love."

Searcy, who has a stand in Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, says the experience has helped him want to venture out in a brick and mortar spot of his own.

"The experience has been amazing," he said of the communal incubator business approach the Pittsburgh-based company brought to Cleveland. "When I went in, I was young and inexperienced in the executive-chef type role. I went in real humble, but I knew I had a product that was Cleveland-based and made for Cleveland."

He said he envisions being able "to occupy our own space where Sauce the City is in its own building or section where we dont have to be under an umbrella-like (business). The Galley Group was being under that umbrella, and being as creative as we are and free-spirited it had its ups and down. I love marketing and getting to be in the field."

While the social posts urge folks to show up at 5 p.m., he said Ohio City Galley will be open normal hours, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday. Ohio City Galley is at 1400 W. 25th St., at Detroit Avenue in Cleveland.

"We're going to rock this place out 'til the cows come home," he said. "We're going to sell as many hot-chicken sandwiches as we can."

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Express News Service

BENGALURU: My mother was a Devadasi and so was my grandmother. I dont want to be one. I want to be a science teacher. But my uncle and my grandmother want me to become a Devadasi though the government has banned this system. Children like me need help, broke down 14-year-old Sandhya (name changed) of Bagalkot district.



She was in Bengaluru along with several other girls like her from five districts of Karnataka where they are still struggling to seek their rightful place in the world.

Devadasis are believed to be servants of God. Under this system, in several pockets of the State, especially in North Karnataka, girls are sold to dedicated local temples as soon as they hit puberty. They are expected to undergo a 11-day purification ceremony following the onset of menstruation. From then on, they are expected to serve God and are sexually exploited.

ALSO READ: Over 80K Devadasis in Karnataka, say NGOs

We hade to move out of our hometown Sangli in Maharashtra. My mother works as a volunteer with an NGO which is fighting against this system. She is trying to fund my brothers and my education with whatever money she earns. My brother goes to an English medium school and I go to a government school. I dont mind. At least I am getting educated. But what after 10th? I dont think my mother can afford to pay fees for both of us, said Mala (name changed) from Ballari district.

Her worry is that if she doesnt get financial support from the state government, then her efforts to fight against the society might end and she may be pushed into child marriage. Mala and her other friends say former Chief Minister Siddaramaiahs scheme to provide Rs 3 lakh for the children of Devadasis who get married, should instead be given for the completion of their education.

However, the insecurities about their future, sexual exploitation by either their mothers partner, neighbour, a village head etc is deep-rooted in these young minds despite there being a law. Speaking to TNIE with tears rolling out, Lakshmi said, Is it wrong to be born beautiful? Just because I am on the fairer side, my village head is forcing my parents to push me into Devadasi system. I am glad my mother is strong-willed.

These children who are in the age group of 10 and 17 are now being rehabilitated by some NGOs like SNEHA Society for Integrated Community Development, Terre Des Hommes (TDH) of the Netherlands and a few others in five districts --- Ballari, Bagalkot, Koppal, Belagavi and Davangere -- in collaboration with District Child Protection Unit and District Legal Service Authorities.

RECENT CASES

Vijayapura: Two girls were to be made devadasis, local volunteers saved them.



Koppal: It was said there would be no rain if two girls of a particular school were made devadasis.



Bagalkot: Villagers sent back a prospective groom advising the family against marrying the daughter of a devadasi. Without the knowledge of villagers, volunteers got the girl married.

NO LEGAL HELP, SAYS SHOBHA

MP Shobha Karandlaje said that advocates should not provide legal services for the accused in such cases. Advocates should display an indifferent attitude to such culprits and should not fight their cases, only then such crimes will stop, Shobha said. However, Justice Nagamohan Das clarified that encounters shouldnt be encouraged and every accused has the right to avail legal aid.
Appeals Court Says Don McGahn Doesnt Have to Testify in House Case

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that former White House counsel Donald McGahn doesnt have to testify in the House Judiciary Committee, meaning he does not have to comply with a subpoena.

Three judges for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to overturn an order that McGahn must comply with the Judiciary Committees subpoena, which was sent to him as part of the Democratic-led probe into whether President Donald Trump obstructed during then-special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

If we order McGahn to testify, what happens next? McGahn, compelled to appear, asserts executive privilege in response to the Committees questions, Judge Thomas Griffith wrote in the opinion. The Committee finds those assertions baseless. In that case, the Committee assures us, it would come right back to court to make McGahn talk. The walk from the Capitol to our courthouse is a short one, and if we resolve this case today, we can expect Congresss lawyers to make the trip often.

Griffith was appointed by President George W. Bush. Judge Karen Henderson, who agreed with Griffith, was appointed by former President George H.W. Bush. Judge Judith Rogers, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, dissented.

The ruling argued that the Constitution bars federal courts from resolving disputes between the legislative and executive branches.

White House Counsel Don McGahn sits behind President Donald Trump as the president holds a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on June 21, 2018. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

If federal courts were to swoop in to rescue Congress whenever its constitutional tools failed, it would not just supplement the political process; it would replace that process with one in which unelected judges become the perpetual overseer[s] of our elected officials. That is not the role of judges in our democracy, and that is why Article III compels us to dismiss this case, Griffith also wrote.

The Justice Department had argued on behalf of McGahn against the Democrats subpoena.

Lawmakers could ask the full appeals court to weigh in or appeal to the Supreme Court. But time is getting short if the House hopes to have McGahn or other officials testify before elections in November.

The House Judiciary Committee first subpoenaed McGahn in April 2019 and went to court in August to try to enforce the subpoena. A trial judge ruled in November that the presidents close advisers do not have the absolute immunity from testifying to Congress that the administration claimed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Kobrin Family created the Kobrin Family Scholarship in 1990 to be awarded to a qualified, full-time student of the Jewish faith from Orange, Osceola or Seminole County who will be attending the University of Central Florida.

The scholarship is available in the amount of $2,500 per year for a maximum of four (4) years. The student must maintain a 3.1 GPA (based on a 4.0 scale) each year in order to remain qualified for the scholarship.

Visit http://www.JFSorlando.org/kobrin-family-scholarship for the application and complete scholarship information. Students should return completed applications to JFS Orlando, 2100 Lee Road, Winter Park, FL 32789, by April 30, 2020, either in person or by mail.

Established in 1978 as a nonprofit human service agency, JFS Orlando provides social programs and services to children and families of all faiths in the Central Florida community. JFS supports efforts to prevent hunger and homelessness as well as providing mental health counseling. For more information on JFS and its programs, please visit http://www.JFSorlando.org or follow them on social media @JFSorlando.
Richard Willis/EIB

President of Senegal Macky Sall opens EIB-UN Habitat Africa Day 2020

New EIB support for leading African microfinance and business investment partners confirmed

Expanded activity by Baobab Senegal and Alterfin to enable 28,000 entrepreneurs to expand

New investment with Development Partners International to create economic growth across the continent

President of Senegal Macky Sall and President of the European Investment Bank Werner Hoyer today opened the EIB-UN Habitat Africa Day 2020 conference in Dakar.

More than 400 government ministers, business leaders, academics and civil society representatives, as well as mayors from across Africa are attending the largest ever conference hosted by the EIB focusing on investment in Africa.

A total of EUR 63 million new EIB financing that will enhance access to microfinance, support corporate investment and improve banking skills in Senegal and across Africa was formally agreed at Africa Day 2020.

Three new deals were signed at Africa Day 2020 to support new investment that will enhance access to finance and accelerate infrastructure development.

The European Investment Bank, the EU Bank, is committed to enabling African entrepreneurs and business to harness new opportunities and expand. EUR 63 million of new cooperation with leading microfinance and development investment partners agreed today in Dakar will transform access to finance, create thousands of jobs and improve specialist banking skills here in Senegal and across the continent. The EIB looks forward to further strengthening cooperation with Baobab Senegal, Alterfin and DPI that reflects our shared commitment to ensuring that African business can flourish, create jobs and contribute to sustainable development. Last year 60% of the European Investment Banks EUR 3 billion engagement in Africa supported new business investment said Werner Hoyer, European Investment Bank President.

Working with Baobab Senegal to ensuring female entrepreneurs can flourish

Under a new EUR 7 million agreement Baobab will provide an estimated 17,200 new loans to small scale entrepreneurs across Senegal.

Baobab Senegal and the Baobab Group are committed to expanding access to finance and supporting financing inclusion in Africa. We are pleased to work with the European Investment Bank, that has been a strategic investor since 2017, and supported the continued expansion of our services to new customers in rural and urban areas. Baobab Group and the European Investment Bank share the goal of increasing financial inclusion to help small businesses to grow, allow families to invest in school and healthcare and save for emergencies. said Mamadou Cisse. CEO of Baobab Senegal.

Around 45% of the new business lending activity will support female entrepreneurs. The new EIB financing will support more than 7,500 jobs in a range of sectors including agriculture and agribusiness.

Partnership with Alterfin to supporting 41,000 entrepreneurs

The European Investment Bank will provide EUR 6 million Alterfin to strengthen access to microfinance by rural communities in Senegal and countries across West Africa.

Access to finance is crucial for farmers and entrepreneurs to expand, create jobs and contribute to sustainable economic and social development. We are pleased to strengthen our long-standing cooperation with the European Investment Bank with this new partnership which will generate new opportunities for communities vulnerable to climate change and economic uncertainties. said Jean-Marc Debricon, Chief Executive Officer of Alterfin

The average microfinance loan sized is expected to be EUR 440 and more than 41,000 small-scale loans are expected to be provided following under the new EIB support confirmed today.

Scaling up business investment to drive job creation across Africa with DPI

New private equity investment in a fund advised by Development Partners International across Africa, backed by USD 50 million of new EIB financing, will enable companies across the continent to expand and develop new markets.

DPI has a proven track record of helping companies across Africa expand, while also focusing on high-impact areas such as climate change, gender diversity and job creation.. We continue to seek investment opportunities across the continent in which growth can be generated for businesses and communities alike, while delivering strong returns for our investors. said Miles Morland, Chairman, DPI.

Building on EUR 3 billion EIB engagement in Africa last year

The European Investment Bank is the worlds largest international public bank and supports investment in more than 160 countries worldwide.

Last year the EIB provided EUR 3 billion for new public and private investment across Africa.

The European Investment Bank has technical and financial teams in nine African cities and provided more than EUR 45 billion for investment across Africa over more than 57 years.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday demanded special category status for Bihar at the East Zonal Council meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah at Bhubaneswar.

He asserted that Bihar must be given "its due" to enable it to make rapid progress and contribute better to the overall development of the country.

Kumar has been demanding special category status for Bihar since 2005 when he first came to power in the state, which is among the less developed ones in the country and is below the national average on multiple development parameters.

In his speech at the EZC, the text of which was made available here by the chief minister's office, Kumar also called for developing a mechanism for resolving interstate issues in the eastern region which shared a common cultural legacy and faced problems of similar nature.

Underscoring the positive effects of prohibition that has been in force in Bihar since April, 2016, the chief minister expressed concern over liquor being smuggled into the state from adjoining Jharkhand and West Bengal and urged the their governments for effective check.

Kumar also expressed concern over reports that the Centre planned to discontinue with its 'Special Infrastructure Scheme' aimed at strengthening the policing network in the insurgency-affected areas of the country.

The chief minister suggested the expenses incurred towards deployment of paramilitary forces to combat the ultra-Left be shared jointly by the union government and the respective states, instead of the current practice of the state bearing the entire burden.

He requested Shah to annul the orders shifting two battalions of the CRPF from Bihar to Chhattisgarh and ensure timely return of eight companies which have been sent to other states.

Stating that the government was providing 50 acres to the CRPF for setting up the headquarters of Rapid Action Force battalion, Kumar urged the union home minister to ensure that the construction work be started at the earliest since at present RAF companies are brought to communally sensitive Bihar from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, which involved a travel time of 12-16 hours and led to problems.

Terming as insufficient the funds released by the Centre in the current fiscal under Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern India for the entire region (Rs 414 crore) and Bihar (Rs 52 crore), the JD(U) president demanded the state be allocated Rs 1,000 crore annually.

He also complained that the policy on sediment management formulated by the Centre in 2017 did not adequately address the state's concerns and called for a holistic approach that took into account issues like the state's claim on water share upstream of Farakka Barrage and the problem of erosion downstream.

Kumar also urged the cooperation of the government of Jharkhand, which was carved out of Bihar in 2000, on issues like sharing of liabilities towards payment of pension and other benefits to retired government servants and irrigation projects which would cater to both the states.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Change has become the dominant word in Irish politics in recent weeks, but pharmacists have been screaming this word for years  and are now demanding that change in the health sector is ignited by whichever parties form the next Government.

Community pharmacists, who are to be found in every town and village in Ireland, represent a microcosm of the electorate and we are angry and fed up, particularly with the myriad of broken promises and the snails pace of reform in our health service.

Pharmacists feel completely undervalued by policymakers and believe that our voices and our concerns are not being heard and our potential has long been overlooked. We are ready, willing and more than capable of playing a greater role in the health service by expanding the range of services we provide to ease pressure on other parts of the health care system.

However, we have been shouting into the wilderness on these issues for many years, despite consistently offering immediate solutions to some of the very obvious problems in our health service.

Sadly, community pharmacy is also a microcosm of the failure to deliver the change Irish society so clearly needs. The previous programme for government included a pledge to expand the role of community pharmacists in managing the health of their patients and medicine prescription. We are still waiting.

Instead, last October pharmacists were left deeply shocked and angered when the Government attempted to introduce cuts to pharmacy funding, contrary to what was proposed for other major healthcare professions. Fortunately, the proposal was reversed by the Department of Health after a concerted campaign by the Irish Pharmacy Union and its 2,300 members.

The campaign also forced Minister for Health Simon Harris to reiterate his governments pledge to commence talks on a new pharmacy contract and to enhance the role of community pharmacy in the delivery of healthcare.

Pharmacists welcomed the Ministers U-turn, but it has left a sour taste. At a time when pharmacists should be permitted to do more for patients and the public, given the health services current unsustainable over-reliance on GP services, the suggestion of fee cuts was like a slap in the face. We have taken cuts, we have offered solutions, we have consistently taken on additional work for no additional remuneration  and we are rewarded with proposed fee cuts.

Let me be clear  morale among pharmacists is shockingly low. We provide a wealth of support to patients at the heart of our communities and we know we are a vital cog in the health service, yet we have been consistently relegated to the role of 'the Cinderella' of the health service.

We have been shouting from the roof tops for many years that we can do more to help Irish patients. We have put forward detailed proposals on how community pharmacies can cost- effectively relieve some of these pressures and improve peoples health outcomes and declared that we are more than willing to do so by providing additional services. These services would provide a huge support to Irish patients, for example chronic disease management, health monitoring and heath awareness programmes.

In addition, the Minor Ailment Scheme is another longstanding proposal, which if implemented would allow medical card patients to directly access non-prescription medicines from their pharmacist for ailments such as hay fever, migraine or skin conditions. It would also remove the current obligation for a medical card patient to make a GP appointment, saving precious time for both doctor and patient.

These services are routinely provided by pharmacists in other countries and supported by their health systems, but were blocked from doing so in Ireland. If these proposals can be progressed in the near future, it will lead to major improvements in healthcare delivery.

In their recent General Election manifestos, Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein, Fine Gael and the Green Party all pledged to support the expansion of community pharmacy services. We will be holding them to their word and insisting that whichever parties make up the next Government must follow through on their promises. To do otherwise would be a betrayal of not only the hundreds of pharmacies around the country but also to the patients and communities we serve.

Darragh O'Loughlin is secretary general of the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU)
A woman accused of involvement in the 50 million jewellery burglary at Tamara Ecclestones Kensington home has today denied involvement in the raid.

Maria Mester, 47, has been charged with conspiracy to commit burglary after a cache of jewels were stolen from Ms Ecclestones 70 million mansion.

The Formula 1 heiress and her family were on holiday at the time of the burglary, on December 13 last year, when a group of thieves are said to have raided their 55-room home on a road dubbed Billionaires Row.

The stolen items, worth an estimated 50 million, are said to include rings, earrings, and an 80,000 Cartier bangle given as a gift when Ms Ecclestone married businessman Jay Rutland.

Mester, a Romanian national who lives in Italy, appeared via videolink at Isleworth crown court this morning (fri) to plead not guilty to a burglary plot between November 30 last year and February 1 this year.

Speaking through an Italian interpreter, she told the court: Not guilty, I was not even there. She also denied a charge of concealing criminal property.

Her son, Emil-Bogdan Savastru, 29, from Bethnal Green, east London, is facing the same conspiracy to commit burglary charge but did not appear at court today.
New Delhi: Intelligence Bureau operative Ankit Sharma was brutally stabbed to death during the violence in northeast Delhi, the post mortem examination has revealed.

The autopsy report states: "Multiple abrasion.. deep cut.. by sharp edge objects." The panel of doctors, who carried out post mortem, have clearly stated that he was brutally and repeatedly stabbed, leading to his death.

A security assistant in the IB since 2017, Sharma was found dead in the violence-hit Chand Bagh locality where he resided.

Police said that Sharma, after returning home from office, went out to assess the situation and was confronted by a violent mob which beat him up and stabbed to death and then dumped his body in the drain.

His body was fished out on Wednesday.

His father Devendra Sharma, who also works with the Intelligence Bureau, said his son returned home around 5.30 pm on Tuesday and soon after left to assess the situation outside.

However, when he didn`t return home for hours, the family members started looking for him. "We also went to the GTB and Lok Nayak hospitals to check whether he was admitted, but could not find him," his father said.

They kept kept searching him till 3 a.m. on Wednesday. "Later around 10 a.m., we got information that his body was lying inside the Chand Bagh drain. We never thought that he will be killed," he said.
Katherine G. Johnson was a NASA mathematician who helped send the first Americans into space and the first astronauts into space. She is one of the most celebrated black women in space science.

Katherine Johnson was a NASA mathematician who played a key role in numerous NASA missions during the Space Race, perhaps most notably calculating the trajectory needed to get the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and back. As a black woman working for NASA in the 1950s and '60s, Johnson overcame social boundaries and racial discrimination. Her impressive career was the subject of the 2016 book and movie "Hidden Figures."

Related: How 'Hidden Figures' came together: Interview with author Margot Shetterly

Johnson's road to NASA

Johnson was born in 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, the youngest of four children. From a very young age, she had a fascination with numbers, which would lead her to defy all expectations throughout her life. "I counted everything. I counted the steps to the road, the steps up to church, the number of dishes and silverware I washed  anything that could be counted, I did," Johnson said in an interview with NASA in 2015.

Johnson's hometown did not offer public schooling for black children past eighth grade, so her family moved 120 miles (193 kilometers) away so that she could attend high school. She graduated high school at just 14 and college at 18, securing degrees in both mathematics and French from the historically black West Virginia State College.

While in school, her potential was clear to her teachers. One of her professors, William Schieffelin Claytor, encouraged Johnson to become a research mathematician and created a geometry class just for her. After teaching for a few years, Johnson was accepted to West Virginia University's graduate math program, and in 1939, she became the first black woman to attend the school.

A year into her coursework, she left to raise her three daughters. Then, in 1952, a relative told her about an exciting new opportunity: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor to NASA, was hiring black women to solve math problems. Johnson applied right away. She was soon hired as a "computer" at the Langley Research Center, tasked with performing and checking calculations for flight tests.

In addition to excelling at her work, Johnson was exceptionally curious and assertive, always questioning her colleagues and asking to be included in important meetings. When she started at NACA, Johnson and her black colleagues were required to work, eat and use restrooms separately from the white employees. But Johnson ignored the racial and gender barriers of the time and became the first woman in the Flight Research Division to be credited as an author on a research report.

Sending astronauts into space and to the moon

In 1958, NACA became NASA, and the Space Race began. Johnson's passion was geometry, which was useful for calculating the trajectories of spacecraft. For NASA's 1961 Mercury mission, she knew that the trajectory would be a parabola, a type of symmetrical curve. So when NASA wanted the capsule to come down at a certain place, she was not deterred.

"You tell me when you want it and where you want it to land, and I'll do it backwards and tell you when to take off," Johnson said. Subsequent orbital missions were more complicated, with more variables involving the position and rotation of the Earth, so Johnson used a celestial training device to perform her calculations.

Johnson was tasked with calculating the trajectory for Alan Shepard's historic flight, during which he became the first American to reach space. She also confirmed the trajectory to send the first American into orbit around the Earth. By this time, NASA had begun using electronic computers to perform these tasks, but the machines could be a little temperamental. Before his Friendship 7 mission, astronaut John Glenn requested that Johnson personally recheck the calculations by hand. "If she says they're good, then I'm ready to go," Glenn said.

The next challenge was to send humans to the moon, and Johnson's calculations helped sync the Apollo 11 lunar lander with the moon-orbiting command and service module to get the astronauts back to Earth. She also proved invaluable on the Apollo 13 mission, providing backup procedures that helped ensure the crew's safe return after their craft malfunctioned. She later helped to develop the space shuttle program and Earth resources satellite, and she co-authored 26 research reports before retiring in 1986.

Katherine Johnson, pictured here at NASA's Langley Research Center, where she worked as a computer and mathematician from 1953 to 1986. (Image credit: NASA)

Johnson's legacy

Johnson spent the following years speaking to students about her extraordinary career, encouraging them to pursue STEM education. "Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away," she said. "There will always be science, engineering and technology. And there will always, always be mathematics. Everything is physics and math."

She and her colleagues became famous with the publication of "Hidden Figures" (William Morrow and Co., 2016) by Margot Lee Shetterly and the release of the blockbuster movie of the same name, which starred Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monae and Octavia Spencer as Johnson and her colleagues Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan. The release of "Hidden Figures" made Johnson one of the most celebrated black women in space science and a hero for those calling for action against sexism and racism in science and engineering.

In 2015, President Barack Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor. And in 2016, the NASA Langley facility at which Johnson worked renamed a building in her honor: the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility.

In 2019, Johnson told her own story for young readers in a book called "Reaching for the Moon" (Atheneum Books for Young Readers).

"Every time engineers would hand me their equations to evaluate, I would do more than what they'd asked. I'd try to think beyond their equations. To ensure that I'd get the answer right, I needed to understand the thinking behind their choices and decisions," she wrote.

"I didn't allow their side-eyes and annoyed looks to intimidate or stop me. I also would persist even if I thought I was being ignored. If I encountered something I didn't understand, I'd just ask.  I just ignored the social customs that told me to stay in my place."

Related: Reaching for the Moon: Exclusive excerpt from Katherine Johnson Autobiography for kids

Johnson died Feb. 24, 2020, at age 101. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced her death and promised that her legacy would be remembered.

"At NASA, we will never forget her courage and leadership and the milestones we could not have reached without her," Bridenstine said. "We will continue building on her legacy."

Additional resources:

Read Katherine Johnson's official NASA biography.

Watch NASA's tribute to Johnson, made when she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2015.

Learn more about NASA's hidden figures and their impact on the world.

This article was adapted from a previous version published in How It Works magazine, a Future Ltd. publication.
On Friday, The Bachelor's Laura Byrne gave a heartfelt farewell to her grandfather, who passed away on Thursday.

The 33-year-old former reality star shared two beautiful pictures of her posing with her beloved 'Papa' in an Instagram post.

The post included a recent photo and one from her childhood, as well as her heartbreaking message.

'You were the glue that kept our family together': On Friday, The Bachelor's Laura Byrne (pictured right) shared a heartfelt tribute to her beloved late grandfather (pictured holding his great-granddaughter Marlie-Mae) after his death on Thursday

In a more recent photo, Laura cuddled up to her smiling grandfather as he held her eight-month-old daughter Marlie-Mae.

'Yesterday we said goodbye to our invincible Papa,' Laura wrote alongside the photographs.

She added: 'You were the glue that kept our family together and the one who made our childhood wonderful.

'We are so lucky that you are ours': The 33-year-old shared two beautiful pictures of her with her 'Papa'. The post included a recent photo and one from her childhood (pictured), as well as her heartbreaking message

'We are so lucky that you are ours, I'll miss you everyday old fella.'

Her grandfather was able to see Laura find love and meet his great-granddaughter before he passed.

Laura met Matthew Matty 'J' Johnson on season five of The Bachelor in 2017 and they moved in together in August 2018.

Family: Her grandfather was able to see Laura find love and meet his great-granddaughter before he passed. Pictured with fiance Matthew Matty 'J' Johnson and their daughter

Four months later, the pair announced that they were expecting their first child and in April 2019 Matty J proposed to Laura while they were on vacation in Fiji.

In November, he told The Daily Telegraph's Confidential the couple are hoping to tie the knot this year, perhaps in September.

'There's no date [set for the wedding]. We love the idea of doing it next year,' Matty told the paper.

'It might be in September when it's not too hot and just starting to get warmer.'
Though South Carolinas Democrats are more religious and more pro-life than voters in other early primary states, presidential candidates are sticking to the increasingly strident pro-choice positions held by their party.

Democrats for Life of America used the campaign push in the South as a chance to call on candidates to consider the place of pro-life voters in their coalition. The South Carolina Legislature has voted forward a heartbeat bill, one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the country, and its Republican Senator Lindsey Graham sponsored the 20-week abortion ban voted on in the US Senate this week.

Evangelical Protestants and black Protestants make up half the population in South Carolina (compared to 30 percent of the overall US population). As Democrats engage in unprecedented levels of outreach to religious voters, many candidates make their way through black churches in the Southern state as they rally support. Kristen Day, executive director of the pro-life Democrats group, spoke at a press conference before Tuesdays debate, reminding the presidential hopefuls from her party that many of the African American voters they are courting are less supportive of abortion than white Democrats or the party overall.

Exit polls from the 2016 primary show 61 percent of Democratic voters in South Carolina were African American, and Christian faith plays a key role among black voters, Day said.

Speaking in Charleston, South Carolina, Harriet Bradley, an African American minister and state chapter coordinator for Democrats for Life of America, quoted Proverbs 6:1617, naming hands that shed innocent blood among the things the Lord hates. She described her deep desire to vote in a way that would please God but also expressed a commitment to being pro-life for the whole life.

Abortion policy did not come up during this weeks debate in Charleston. But former Vice President Joe Biden, a moderate Catholic Democrat who is staking his campaigns future on his performance in Saturdays primary, brought up abortion when asked about womens empowerment in poor and overpopulated countries in a town hall in the state on Thursday.

Biden spoke out against the Mexico City Policy, which is a ban on federal funding for abortions overseas that was reinstated by President Trump. Biden said, I strongly oppose the limitations on the ability for the United States to contribute to organizations in these countries that, in fact, provide women's health alternatives for choice, prompting applause from the crowd of more than 1,900 people.

Last year, Biden withdrew his support for the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funds from going directly to abortion in the US. Until recently, the Hyde provision was seen as the status quo for federal abortion policy. After the Democratic Party officially called for the repeal of Hyde, every major candidate in this years Democratic race has echoed that.

Day and other pro-life Democrats represent a minority in the party, but they argue that they could be a strategic part of a coalition to beat President Trump. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll from December 2019 found that 15 percent of Democrats and 41 percent of Independents consider themselves pro-life.

Members of Democrats for Life of America want to see more Democrats favor restrictions on abortion after 20 weeks and return to the safe, legal, and rare approach fronted by President Bill Clinton.

Yet the Democratic partys position on abortion continues to move to the left. In 2018, over 65 percent of Democrats supported a womans right to an abortion for any reason, while less than 35 percent of Democrats held the same position in 1977, according to General Social Survey data analyzed by Ryan Burge, political science professor at Eastern Illinois University.

According to Burge, 42 percent of white evangelicals that lean Democrat and nearly 70 percent (69.3) of white evangelicals that identify as Independent support the Hyde Amendment.

Despite calls for welcoming a wider range of views on abortion, Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg stuck with party leadership to support pro-choice positions litmus test for Democrats.

When Day asked Buttigieg during a town hall last month if voters like her were welcome in the party, he backed the partys position and Roe v. Wade.

What struck me was that I didnt ask his position on abortion. The question was, Does he want the support of 21 million voters, and would he change the party position to reflect the diversity of opinion on abortion? Day told CT.

Though Senator Amy Klobuchar supports repealing Hyde and funding Planned Parenthood, she has voiced support for welcoming pro-life Democrats in the party. On The View, she told Meghan McCain, There are pro-life Democrats, and they are part of our party, and I think we need to build a big tent. I think we need to bring people in instead of shutting them out.

Day was pleased to hear such an invitation from Klobuchar, but she still wants to see the party change the language in its platform for such welcoming rhetoric to be meaningful for pro-life Democrats.
WELLSTON -- When the Dublin General Store burned late last August, store owner Greg Fischer and his family received an outpouring of support from the community.

"We appreciate all their support and concern and thoughts and prayers and everything that goes along with that," Fischer said in a February interview.

With progress being made rebuilding the store, members of the Wellston, Irons and Dublin communities have found a new way to show their support for the Fischer family, as well as the general store which they've relied upon for decades.

Irons resident, Dave McIntyre plans to create a "customer appreciation sign" to be erected on the new Dublin General Store grounds located at 18372 Hoxeyville Road.

McIntyre runs Riventree Woods and has previously created wooden signage for both residents as well as other local businesses including DLS Outdoor LLC, a tree removal company based in Wellston.

"I've made a lot of signs in the area, and they wanted to do something for the Fischer Family in appreciation for the store that they had and the service that they offered," McIntyre said.

The sign will be roughly 4 feet by 4 feet and made with Michigan white pine with a cedar-shingled canopy.

Dublin General Store supporter Mike Bello approached McIntyre for the project, and plans to raise $950 in order to construct the sign.

"The sign will be a token of our appreciation towards the Fischer family for their loyalty and dedication to the community and their customers over the years," Bello said on a Facebook post.

McIntyre said he plans to donate some materials for the sign.

"What I normally charge for a sign of that size is about $950," McIntyre said. "The post and the canopy and all of that material cost is $150. I'll accept donations for the price of the sign, then I'm going to pay for the materials plus my labor to build the canopy and the post for it."

The sign will read as follows: "Dublin General Store, Est. 1935 -- Groceries, Hardware, Pharmacy -- Dedicated Friends of Dublin."

The project will take approximately four weeks to complete, which McIntyre anticipates will wrap up by the end of May. The scheduled debut of the sign lines up closely to the projected grand reopening of the new Dublin General Store.

The new structure will be approximately 43,000 square feet, roughly 15,000 square feet larger than the one that burned down on Aug. 31, 2019. Police determined the fire to be a result of arson. No arrests have been made; the investigation is ongoing.

Those interested in contributing to the project are encouraged to send donations to McIntyre at 10521 Johnston Rd., Irons MI 49644 or by calling him at (231) 266-8525. Cut off for donations will be May 1.
As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread, health experts have been scrambling to find a way to quickly and accurately diagnose patients, and contain the infection.

More than 83,000 people have been sickened in more than 50 countries - 62 cases in the US alone - and more than 2,800 have died.

In an effort to curb the virus, known as COVID-19, those believed to have been exposed to the virus or to sick patients have been asked to go into self-isolation.

But what exactly does that mean?

A former chief medical officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains to DailyMail.com what self-isolation is, what you should be doing while cooped up at home and how to get food or take out the garbage.

Former CDC chief medical officer explains what you should be doing in self-isolation and how to safely have food or supplies delivered to you. Pictured: Medical staff clean a hospital room in the infectiology and isolation unit of the Frankfurt Goethe University Hospital, February 2

IS SELF-ISOLATION THE SAME AS BEING IN QUARANTINE?

In a simple word: no. Those who undergo self-isolation do so voluntarily and have to make arrangements themselves while they're at home.

While quarantines are typically voluntary, sometimes they can be mandatory, such as the federal quarantine for US citizens evacuated from Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.

People under quarantine are not sick, but they are are separated fro the general public to see if they become sick.

Both self-isolation and quarantine differ from isolation, which separates those who are sick from the general public until they are cured or treated.

WHO NEEDS TO SELF-ISOLATE?

'People who should go into self-isolation are not sick but they've had a credible exposure,' said Dr Robert Amler, former chief medical officer for the CDC and dean of New York Medical College.

'There's reason to believe they may have been exposed. And we wait for the incubation period, in this case about 14 days, to see if they become sick.'

This includes a few groups of people such as anyone awaiting CDC test results or anyone who has been in contact with someone waiting for test results.

Anyone who has traveled to a foreign country where the outbreak is rampant such as China, Japan, South Korea, Italy and Iran.

WHAT DO I DO IN SELF-ISOLATION?

People under self-isolation are expected to stay home and not go to work or school, or take their children to school.

Dr Amler says that people should try to do as much of their normal activities as they can - such as working from home or doing school work - without physically contacting anyone else.

'That means staying in your room, trying to have your own bathroom facility if possible, and not sharing plates or utensils with other household members,' he said.

However, being in self-isolation doesn't mean that you can't have contact with the outside world.

'You can use your TV, your stereo, your phone, FaceTime, go on social media,' Dr Amler said.

'Just anything that does not allow you to get [possibly infected] droplets everywhere else.'

CAN I GO OUTSIDE TO GET FOOD, TOILETRIES OR OTHER SUPPLIES?

People under self-isolation are not allowed to leave the premises under any circumstances.

One option is to have family or friends drop off supplies you need. Alternatively, you can use grocers or online retailers to deliver packages.

Dr Amler offers two suggestions, either wear a mask when the person drops off items or wait until they leave before retrieving them.

He says the latter is more ideal because 'because the person delivering items not enter the air space.'

WHAT DO I DO WITH MY GARBAGE?

Dr Amler says that most people don't produce huge amounts of garbage by themselves so, if you can wait to take it out, that's the best option.

'If there's no harm in keeping it, that's the most protective way,' he said. 'That way nothing going out your room.'

If that's not possible, Dr Amler recommends depositing outside of your doorstep until the 14-day isolation period is up.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I FEEL UNWELL WHILE IN SELF-ISOLATION?

The most important thing is to not visit a doctor's office, a hospital or any other healthcare setting, otherwise you risk infecting others.

Stay home and immediately call your healthcare provider and ask them for advice on what you should do.

'Alert the authorities so you can be transferred to a hospital to be monitored, and undergo testing,' Dr Amler said.
The crucial meeting of Digital Communications Commission (DCC) on Friday could not arrive at a decision on relief to the distressed telecom sector and more details are required for reconciliation of AGR data, sources said

New Delhi: The crucial meeting of Digital Communications Commission (DCC) on Friday could not arrive at a decision on relief to the distressed telecom sector as government officials said more details are required for reconciliation of data on statutory dues.

In a day of hectic parleys at DoT, Vodafone Idea (VIL) CEO and MD Ravinder Takkar also met Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash but refused to comment on the details of his discussion.

Telecom companies have been desparately waiting for a bailout package from the government after a Supreme Court order put their statutory liabilities at Rs 1.47 lakh crore, and all eyes were on the DCC meet for the much-needed breather to fix the AGR imbroglio.

#JustIn | Sources tell @AnshuSharma02 that the DCC's meeting on relief for telcos has ended & that it is keen to review more data on AGR issue; meet inconclusive pic.twitter.com/bx2YcOndDR  CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) February 28, 2020

In fact, just days ahead of the Friday meeting of DCC, Vodafone Idea - which is the most vulnerable of the lot - told the government that it would not be able to pay the Supreme Court mandated Rs 53,000 crore dues unless state support is extended to survive the crisis.

VIL had made a strong plea for setting off Rs 8,000 crore of GST credits, a three-year moratorium on payment of the remaining amount which should be staggered over 15 years at a simple interest rate of 6 per cent, drastic cut in licence fee and fixing of a minimum price of calls and data.

While telecom department officials insisted that DCC meeting on Friday did not focus on AGR issues but rather on project implementation for PPP on Bharat Net project, a source present at the meeting said no decision on telecom relief was taken at the meeting although discussion did take place.

DCC, the highest decision-making body of the government on telecom, discussed the issue and looked at options at the meeting which lasted two hours. Further discussions are needed, and the DCC is likely to meet again in the coming days but no date has been fixed for the next meeting, they said.

The telecom department is awaiting more details required for reconciliation of AGR data, sources added. "A lot of discussion would be needed, AGR related data needs to be assessed," the source said.

The DCC includes CEO of NITI Aayog, and secretaries of Ministries of Electronics and IT, DoT, Department of Economic Affairs, and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, besides other senior officials of the telecom department.

VIL, which had last week paid Rs 3,500 crore to the government - still only seven per cent of its total dues - in a recent letter to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said it is "not in a sound financial state" to settle the liability and sought "urgent support from the government".

The Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI), in a separate, almost similar letter, also urged the government for easier terms for payment of dues by telcos including loans at lower rates to settle liability, as also an urgent implementation of floor prices for call and data.

The embattled industry is aggressively pitching for cut in licence fee to three per cent from the current eight per cent, and has also sought reduction in spectrum usage charges (SUC) to bail out of what it describes as an unprecedented crisis.

Blaming the below-cost pricing of telecom services, compelled by competitive pressures as being the root cause of financial stress, VIL has sought immediate implementation of floor price in tariffs.

It said a floor price needs to be immediately made effective, say from 1 April, 2020 to ensure that the sector is fully sustainable and in a position to pay deferred spectrum and AGR dues and still invest to create world-class network and services.

The company argued that the introduction of floor price will enable revenue of the telecom sector to nearly double from the current level of Rs 1.75 lakh crore.

VIL Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla has, in the past, made it amply clear that the company will fold if it is forced to make payment of over Rs 53,000 crore dues.

Birla has held multiple rounds of discussions with the finance minister and the telecom minister over the last few days to explore options to keep the company afloat.

In all, as many as 15 entities owe the government Rs 1.47 lakh crore -- Rs 92,642 crore in unpaid licence fee and another Rs 55,054 crore in outstanding spectrum usage charges.

These dues arose after Supreme Court, in October last year, upheld the government's position on including revenue from non-core businesses in calculating the annual Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) of telecom companies, a share of which is paid as licence and spectrum fee to the exchequer.

The Supreme Court earlier this month rejected a plea by mobile carriers such as Bharti Airtel and VIL for extension in the payment schedule and asked them to deposit an estimated Rs 1.47 lakh crore in past dues for spectrum and licences.

Airtel has so far paid Rs 10,000 crore against DoT estimated dues of over Rs 35,000 crore, while Tata Teleservices has paid Rs 2,197 crore as full and final settlement for all its dues.

Meanwhile, the government is also asking telecom companies including Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices to submit supporting documents on AGR self-assessment, that formed the basis of their statutory dues calculation. The exercise will help the DoT examine the AGR calculations being made by the telecom players.

Once substantiating documents are filed by the companies, the telecom department will initiate random test checks on the AGR calculation in a time-bound manner. The 'test check' will be done for any one year (of telcos' dues) to examine the deviation between telecom companies' assessment and the government calculation of AGR liabilities.

As it is, DoT officials have made it clear that any relief extended to companies like VIL would be contingent upon them making additional payments. In the case of Tata Teleservices, officials maintain that the department is not satisfied with the Tatas' calculation of its overall liabilities (Rs 2,197 crore against the government's preliminary assessment of about Rs 14,000 crore) and will be sending a notice to the company.
You'd have thought she had thrown Bernie Sanders to his death from a tower of million-dollar bills.

Actually, what film director Ava DuVernay tweeted last Saturday was just a mild rebuke: "I'm undecided. But I know this isn't what I want." She was responding to a Sanders tweet warning the Democratic and Republican establishments that, "They can't stop us."

In response to her response, a digital mob numbering in the thousands descended upon DuVernay. Many contented themselves with noting how "surprised" and "disappointed" they were at her failure to appreciate the senator's wonderfulness. Others went below and beyond, calling her "bitch" and, more insulting, "right winger." There were isolated death threats.

It was just the latest example of the swarming behavior that, in many minds, characterizes Sanders' voters. Not that any candidate has a monopoly on overheated or bullying supporters, but as many observers have pointed out, his people seem -- and "seem" will have to do because to my knowledge, empirical evidence has yet to be compiled -- more likely to descend angrily and en masse when he is attacked or even just questioned. Some people describe it as a digital lynch mob.

Sanders' believers -- the word is apt -- seem to regard the democratic socialist as He Who May Not Be Questioned. Which is at odds with what a presidential primary is supposed to be. His candidacy -- like all candidacies -- should expect robust cross-examination.

On age, for example. At the end of a second term, Sanders would be within hailing distance of 90. How old is too old? And can Sanders, an independent, lead the Democrats, a party to which he does not belong? Then there's his recent tin-eared praise of Fidel Castro, which, putting it mildly, will not be helpful to him or the Democrats with Cuban-American voters in Florida.

And here, let's say the obvious: No terrorist group or foreign power poses this country a greater threat than its president. Therefore, it is a patriotic necessity to vote for whomever opposes him in November. That includes Sanders. Heck, it includes Mr. T. and Doctor Doom.

Still, it's hard not to believe that Sanders could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters -- and to wonder how we should feel about that. Not that their devotion is hard to understand. You get sick of seeing them that's got, get and them that's not -- meaning you, your neighbors, your kin -- lose buying power, college dreams, homes, health. That's why there's a Fight for $15 and a new Poor People's Campaign. It's why Sanders' promises -- free college, health care, child care -- resonate.

But one can understand that and still struggle with a niggling sense that we are sitting through a movie we've seen before. It's not just the delirious supporters rejecting the very idea of skepticism and questions. It's also the fact of the outsider vanquishing a crowded field, smug pundits assuring us he can't possibly win the general election, the party establishment terrified he is dragging them to an ideological extreme.

In fairness, history may someday record that he is dragging them exactly where they need to be. But the paradox of this moment is that what we need ultimately may not save us -- may even destroy us.

In 2016, America was pulled very hard to the right. Now Sanders proposes to pull just as hard to the left. Consider that symmetry and then ask yourself: What happens when you pull a thing with equal force in opposite directions? Unless it's very sturdy, it tears apart.

Does this country seem sturdy to you?

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Islamabad and Doha sign pact on trade and tourism after Khan met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Islamabad, Pakistan  Pakistans prime minister has held talks with Qatars emir, signing agreements on trade, investment and tourism, according to statements from both governments.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in the Qatari capital Doha for a one-day visit on Thursday, accompanied by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and his advisors on petroleum and overseas citizens, a Pakistani foreign office statement said.

He met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani following delegation-level talks between the two countries.

[The two leaders] exchanged views on the existing excellent bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual concern, said a Pakistani foreign ministry statement following the talks.

The talks focused on economic issues, investment and energy, a Qatari foreign ministry statement said.

Prime Minister Khan also lauded the Qatari governments role in helping mediate between the United States and the Afghan Taliban. A historic peace agreement between the two parties is due to be signed in Doha on Saturday.

Prime Minister Imran Khan reiterated Pakistans continued support for an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led peace process, said the Pakistani statement.

The two leaders expressed the hope that all Afghan stakeholders would seize this historic opportunity to reach an inclusive political settlement for the establishment of durable peace and stability.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi will attend the signing of the peace agreement, the foreign office said in a separate statement.

In addition, Khan briefed the Qatari leader on the situation in the disputed territory of Kashmir, where India revoked the special constitutional status of the portion it administers last August and has imposed strict security controls since then.

Pakistan and India claim Kashmir in full but administer separate portions of the mountainous territory, over which the two countries have fought two of their three wars.

The Kuala Lumpur Summit

Khans visit to Qatar comes after he hosted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, and visited Malaysia for talks with then-Prime Minister Mahatir Mohamed earlier this month.

In Malaysia, Khan said he regretted not attending the Kuala Lumpur Summit, an event for Muslim leaders from around the world hosted by the Malaysian government.

Earlier, Pakistans foreign minister had said the country withdrew from the conference because of concerns expressed by the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both governments denied that charge.

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Analysts say Pakistans engagement with the three countries  who have found themselves opposed to Saudi Arabia and the UAE on regional issues in the recent past  was about sending a signal.

It does signal that Pakistan is looking to build relationships with countries apart from Saudi Arabia and others, but I dont think that relationship is being built at the expense of Saudi and the UAE, said Hassan Akbar, an Islamabad-based foreign policy analyst.

In hindsight, maybe it was not a good decision not to go to the Kuala Lumpur Summit, and [Pakistani PM] Imran Khan is now personally reaching out to the countries that were involved in that summit and trying to assure them of Pakistans continued relationships with and support for those countries

Asad Hashim is Al Jazeeras digital correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim.
(ISRAEL21c)-A device developed in Israel that might significantly ease the treatment of coronavirus victims suffering from pneumonia and also reduce the danger of contagion to health care providers could reach the market in China within the next few months.

The CoughSync, which was originally developed at Alyn Hospital, a Jerusalem pediatric and adolescent rehabilitation facility, to help children unable to cough for themselves, is now awaiting approval from the National Medical Products Administration, the Chinese equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration.

To date, 71,000 people globally have been infected with coronavirus, now called Covid-19, and 1,775 have died of the disease. Most of both the infections and the deaths are in China.

An artificial cough

The device, invented by Dr. Eliezer Be'eri, the director of the Department of Respiratory Rehabilitation at Alyn Hospital, is designed for people on ventilators and simulates a normal cough, clearing phlegm from a patient's airways.

"Currently, when people are on ventilators, the standard way to remove secretions from the airways is that the nurse will disconnect them from the machine, and use a catheter to suction up secretions," Be'eri told ISRAEL21c.

"CoughSync is a more natural and far less invasive alternative. The patient doesn't need to cough, instead the device replicates what a cough would do and this artificial cough takes all the secretions out."

Aside from being far less invasive, the device can also be attached to the ventilator so there is no need for health care providers to remove the ventilator to give treatment.

"Removing the ventilator manually takes overworked healthcare staff far more time than an automatic system and also exposes them to more risk of catching the virus," explains Be'eri. "This is what makes it so suitable for treating coronavirus patients with pneumonia."

This is a serious issue. On Feb. 14th, China published figures which showed that 1,760 health care workers had been infected by coronavirus, and of these, six had died.

It began with polio

The idea behind CoughSync is not new. "The idea of helping patients who can't cough by themselves simulate a cough has been around since the polio epidemic of the 1950s," says Be'eri. "It was gradually forgotten as newer, more invasive methods were introduced. At Alyn we've been using this technology for a simulated cough for many years."

Development work began a decade ago as a low-cost treatment for kids going through rehabilitation at Alyn, but Be'eri quickly realized that it could also find a wider market for use with adult patients on ventilators in intensive care units.

Israeli company, Innovent Medical Solutions from Jerusalem licensed the technology to create a working device, and then three years ago the Beijing company, Ruxin Medical Systems stepped in.

Fast tracking the process

With the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, Ruxin is now trying to fast track the device to receive regulatory approval in China. The process, while in advanced stages, could still take several months.

Ruxin has already carried out successful clinical trials to prove efficacy on 100 patients in two Beijing hospitals, and has set up a manufacturing facility. Some devices manufactured there are already in use in India.

"Ruxin has the ability to start production as soon as they get regulatory approval," said Be'eri, who is on the board of directors at Innovent.

The CoughSync device could ease treatment for coronavirus victims with pneumonia.

Once Ruxin has approval, the company will manufacture devices for China, and Innovent will begin marketing the device in Israel and Europe. The device is already approved for use in Europe.

"This isn't a cure or solution for coronavirus, but it's a tool that could have a significant impact on the treatment of coronavirus patients with pneumonia, and could also reduce the danger of contagion to healthcare workers," said Be'eri.

"We are bracing ourselves for coronavirus to arrive in Israel," he added. "We don't know what is being revealed and what is being hidden in China. It could be a real calamity or it's possible they could get it under control because of the widespread response. We are concerned and we are waiting."

CoughSync is not the only Israeli technology that may provide some help in fighting the coronavirus outbreak. Earlier this week we featured other Israeli organizations racing to find solutions.
A British Airways Airbus 321 NEO lands at London Heathrow airport. (Fabrizio Gandolfo/SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

Top airlines on Friday warned the global outbreak of coronavirus is denting their business.

International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG.L), which owns British Airways and Iberia, and easyJet (EZJ.L) both said the epidemic was forcing them to cancel flights and leading to lower demand.

British Airways has already suspended flights to mainland China and IAG said Friday BA was reducing routes to Hong Kong and Seoul, South Korea.

Read more: British Airways suspends China flights over coronavirus outbreak

More broadly, IAG said the coronavirus epidemic has hit business travel across our network, resulting from the cancellation of industry events and corporate travel restrictions. Demand for short-haul flights to Italy has also suffered since the beginning of an outbreak in the north of the country.

British Airways is laying on more flights to in-demand locations such as South Africa, the US, and India to try and offset the damage, but IAG warned the outbreak would ultimately reduce the amount of passengers BA will carry this year by roughly 1% to 2%.

IAG said it was not possible to give accurate profit guidance [for 2020] at this stage given the ongoing epidemic.

Passengers arrive at Heathrow Airport in London after the last British Airways flight from China touched down following the suspension of all flights to and from mainland China. (PA)

EasyJet, meanwhile, said it was cancelling flights to and from Italy as a result of weak demand. The budget carrier is also seeing weaker demand across wider Europe and will cut back on flights more broadly.

Like IAG, easyJet said it was too early to say how the novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, will ultimately impact its top and bottom lines. However, it is cutting administrative budgets, freezing recruitment and pay rises, offering unpaid leave, and talking to suppliers to reduce costs in a bid to mitigate the negative effects.

Read more: Cathay Pacific asks staff to take unpaid leave over coronavirus

We continue to monitor the situation carefully and will update the market in due course, easyJet said. The airline added it is working closely with authorities and are following the guidelines provided by the World Health Organisation and EASA to ensure the health and wellbeing of our people and customers.

Story continues

Airlines and travel companies have been among the worst hit by the global sell-off that has gripped stock markets, amid fears about slumping demand and travel restrictions crippling their business. easyJet shares have fallen 25% since the start of the week and IAGs stock price has fallen by 17%.

easyJet's shares have been crushed since Monday amid a broader market sell-off. Photo: Yahoo Finance UK

Selling resumed on Friday. EasyJet slipped a further 4.8%, while IAG declined by 9.4%.

IAGs warning on the COVID-19 impact came as it reported its annual results. Revenue rose 5.1% to 22.4bn (18.7bn, $24.3bn) in 2019 but profit dropped by 40.8% to 1.7bn.

These are good results in a year affected by disruption and higher fuel prices, chief executive Willie Walsh said in a statement.

Read more: Stocks fall again amid warnings of coronavirus pandemic potential

William Ryder, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said investors would be more focused on the coronavirus impact than the 2019 results.

The balance sheet is key here, because the groups bills still need to be paid even if the fleet isnt running at full capacity, Ryder said.

IAG has 4.1bn in cash and equivalents, plus another 2.6bn in interest bearing deposits maturing in between three and twelve months. This should give IAG the liquidity it needs to ride out the coronavirus induced disruption.

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MOSCOW  Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone today with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan concerning the recent escalation in Idlib. The day before, airstrikes from the Syrian army  with backing from Moscow  reportedly killed over 30 Turkish servicemen and injured more than 70.

[The presidents] exchanged views on the situiaon in Syria in detail. A serious concern over the escalation of tensions in Idlib was expressed that entailed multiple casualties, including among the Turkish military. The importance of raising the efficiency of coordination channels between the defense ministries of Russia and Turkey was stressed, stated a readout of the conversation from the Kremlin.

It added, Both parties emphasized the need to adopt additional measures in order to normalize the situation in the northwest of Syria. [The parties] agreed to intensify relevant interagency consultations and explore the possibility of holding a top-level meeting in the immediate future."

"The fight against international terrorist groups was highlighted as a priority," the statement read.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said, Turkish servicemen within the combat units of terrorist groups came under fire from the Syrian military on Feb. 27 near the town of Behun.

The ministry stated that it was in constant contact with Turkish counterparts, regularly requesting and receiving information on the whereabouts of Turkish troops. According to the data submitted by Ankara, Moscow claims, there were no Turkish soldiers near Behun when the Syrian army attacked the terrorists.

Earlier today, two Russian warships armed with cruise missiles transited from Sevastopol, Crimea, through the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul to Mediterranean waters.

Turkey reacted to the attacks by launching military strikes on the Syrian positions, allegedly neutralizing 309 regime troops. It also opened its borders for Syrian refugees to enter Europe, likely to pressure the Europeans to take a harsher stance on Russia and Syria. Erdogan's decision triggered angry reactions from Greece, which deployed police reinforcements to the countrys border checkpoints with Turkey to prevent the influx of new migrants. Ankara also called for an emergency NATO meeting over the situation in Syria.

We call on Russia and the Syria regime to stop the attacks, to stop the indiscriminate air attacks  we also call on Russia and Syria to fully respect the international law, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Moscow was unsurprised by these reactions, which show that Ankara is not interested in a direct military confrontation with Russia  it even attributed the attacks to the Syrian army, not Russian forces  but seeks to tie Moscows hands in Syria via political means.

Ret. Col. Viktor Murakhovsky, editor of the Arsenal Otechestva (National Arsenal) military journal, warned against crying wolf.

This is not a war against Turkey, this is to place flags and stress the red lines that some decided to test. The rules for the big game have long been agreed on with Turkey. They implied, first, the prevention of clashes between the Russian and Turkish militaries. Second, freedom of movement for Russian air forces against terrorist groups in Idlib. Third, a no-fly zone for Turkish air forces in Syrian skies. Fourth, coordination of movement and deployment of Turkish units in the Syrian areas with Russian military command. Fifth, joint patrols on the agreed routes. Sixth, a ban on the transfer of MANPADs to any non-state actors, he wrote.

Murakhovsky noted that Turkey or loyal opposition groups might have used a Turkish-produced version of the Stinger MANPAD to attempt to shoot down a Russia jet over Idlib.

Even if this situation was indeed the last straw that made Moscow authorize the strikes, the escalation that ended in mass casulties among Turkish soldiers has been brewing for weeks. Numerous meetings betweeen the Russian and Turkish militaries ended without results, with the parties resolving to stand their ground in Idlib. Russia saw its moral high ground in Turkeys inability or unwillingness to commit to the provisions of 2018 Sochi deal between Putin and Erdogan on the separation of rebels from the terrorists and unblocking the strategic M4 and M5 highways, which span the country east to west and north to south, respectively.

Over the days before the strikes, Russian military circles and associated pundits have discussed various quasi-military scenarios vis-a-vis Turkey, a menacing signal of where the situation may be heading.

Should there be a massive military incursion of the Turkish army into Syria, things may spin out of control. The risk of a large-scale military regional conflict is high, Ret. Col. Mikhail Khodarenok wrote on Feb. 21.

Khodarenok believes Turkey has enough military might to overrun the Syrian army within days. He argues that the ultimate outcome in such a war would have been decided by the position of other powers  Russia, the United States and NATO.

Should Moscow choose not to intervene it will be a political-military fiasco. The Kremlin as a geopolitical player in the Middle East will be done," he argued, adding, "More than five years of Moscows efforts in Syria would be wasted," and "This will be the price of the Russian non-interference over Idlib.

Yet he equally cautioned against open Russian military engagement with Turkey, warning, Turkey will have an overwhelming superiority in personnel and military hardware.  Russia is too far from the theater of operations and wont have the time or logistical capabilities" to bring in the personnel or equipment needed and "In order to win this war, Russia would need to transfer a phenomenal amount of aircrafts, fuel and ammunition.

The only way to deter Erdogan from further escalation, Khodarenok argued, would be the threat of tactical nuclear weapons. But the international repercussions for Russia may be too severe to seriously consider this option.

The current mood within the Russian political class is perhaps as bellicose as it is in the Turkish one.

If the Turks bet on military force, that would be a really bad idea since winning such a war would be difficult, said Vladimir Dzhabarov, the deputy chair of the foreign affairs committee of the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament.

Yet, the key decisions that are being discussed this minute are unlikely being made only by measuring the military capabilities of one power against the other.

Erdogan went a bit too far with his bluffing on the incursion this time. The strikes are a bad decision, a hard one. But we dont want a war, we mean business and we want our partners in Ankara take our concerns and their commitments seriously. This game of chicken has gone too far, a source in the Russian government who asked not to be identified told Al-Monitor.

Putin and Erdogan are increasingly unhappy with one another but both still need each other in Syria and beyond. To extend the marriage of convenience metaphor that is frequently applied to describe the Russia-Turkey partnership, the two have to stay together for the kids  joint trade, growing interdependency in energy supplies, the Akkuyu nuclear power plant and the S-400 missile deal as well as other possible contracts and political investments the two leaders have made into developing the relationship.

For Russia, the value of Turkey in these and other domains has not depreciated. It's even grown since the last stress test Moscow and Ankara experienced when Turkey downed the Russian jet in November 2015. Against this particular measurement, the partnership with Syria seems a lot less significant. Yet the price of not standing up for its ally in Damascus is measured in different currency in Moscow  one that buys global status. To some degree, both leaders have been backed into a corner over a combination of high expectations of each other, promises to one another and to their allies and proxies, provocative moves on the ground and great power ambitions. But its these types of crises that tend to define a countrys strategic orientation.
Union home minister Amit Shah will launch a state-wide movement against the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal on March 1, said partys state unit chief. The campaign titled Ar Noy Annay or no-more injustice will include a symbolic charge sheet listing her governments alleged acts of omission and commission.

A charge-sheet will be released as a part of the campaign against the Trinamool Congress listing out the injustices by the government. Bharatiya Janata Party workers will also distribute Khob Patra (grievance bowl) which people can sign and express their grievances against the state government, said Dilip Ghosh, president of BJPs Bengal unit.

During the state-wide door-to-door campaign, BJP workers will go to villages and wards to discuss the charge sheet.

The charge sheet will include issues such as vote bank politics, unprecedented minority appeasement, syndicate and cut money, unemployment and crime against women among others, said a senior BJP leader.

The TMC, however, remained nonchalant and welcomed the move saying the move will allow the people of Bengal to question the BJP in turn.

Let them visit peoples houses. People will be happy because they are waiting to ask the saffron party a series of questions about the economic disaster of the BJP led- union government, the BJPs divisive and vindictive politics, biased administration and the total collapse of law and order in the countrys National capital, said Jyotipriyo Mullick, state food minister and a senior TMC leader.

Through the door-to-door campaign the BJP plans to connect with at least five crore voters in the state over the next six months. In addition, they will also invite people to share their problems through missed calls, SMS, Whatsapp, website and social media accounts, said the party.
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- 802 Secure, Inc announced today at RSA San Francisco, that Bob Reny, EMEA CTO and Principal Engineer of Forescout has joined its Technical Advisory Board to strengthen the strategic alliance partnership and help execute the company's Cyber-Physical IoT network security vision.

Detect, Assess and Prevent Risk from WiFi 6 and 5G

"I am delighted to work with 802 Secure as CEO Garry Drummond has built a great company and product that will take advantage of the fast-growing Wireless 5G and WiFi 6 Cyber-Physical IoT Security market. With 80 percent of new IoT deployments being wirelessly connected, wireless is the new network and new attack vector. Forescout will correlate that threat intelligence within our EyeExtend Connect platform to ensure that we provide our customers with the best-in-class protection," said Bob Reny, EMEA CTO, Forescout.

"I am super excited to have Bob as part of the Technical Advisory Board as he brings a wealth of security and customer experience to the table. Having a joint product offering will help customers to detect, asses and prevent risk faster with new Critical Path to Exposure  Reporting," said Garry Drummond, Founder, and CEO of 802 Secure.

About 802

802 Secure is developing signal intelligent technology for securing the Internet of Things; detecting and assessing new wireless risks across the broader RF spectrum using software-defined radios and big data analytics. 802 Secure has developed a leading world-class product, AirShield, to monitor IoT assets, identify risks and threats, and ensure performance and reliability 24x7 of the IoT environment ( www.802secure.com )

SOURCE 802 Secure, Inc

Related Links

http://www.802secure.com


Countries may consider closing their airspaces in the next few weeks if the coronavirus continues to spread across borders, a market strategist told CNBC on Friday.

In an interview with "Squawk Box Europe," Mark Manduca, managing director and associate director of research for EMEA at Citi, compared coronavirus to other "blind corners" in aviation's history.

"There are a couple of instances in history you can look at here that have some sort of resonance. One would obviously be the SARS event going back six years, the other would be the ash cloud event of 2010," he said, referring to the effects of a volcano eruption in Iceland.

"And believe it or not, the government backing of airlines in 9/11 is something I think carries a lot of resonance in this case," Manduca added. "Will governments step in, not just to back their airlines, but actually shut airspace down at some point in the next few weeks?"
The police on Friday filed a 426 -page charge sheet in a magistrate's court at Hingangat in Wardha district of Maharashtra in connection with the burning of a woman college teacher.

Ankita Pisudde (25) was allegedly set on fire by Vikesh Nagrale, who had been stalking her for some time, at Hinganghat town on February 3.

While Nagrale was arrested within hours, the woman died at a hospital in Nagpur on February 10. The incident caused huge public outrage.

The charge sheet invoked IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 354 (D) (stalking).

"The charge sheet has been filed within 23 days...we will ensure speedy trial and stern action against the accused," Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said in Mumbai.

The government had set up a Special Investigation Team under Sub-Divisional Police Officer Trupti Jadhav to probe the case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The City watchdog has launched a full investigation into NMC Health as one of the biggest scandals to hit the London stock market in years intensified.

Shares in the private healthcare provider were suspended yesterday at just 938.4p, having lost two-thirds of their value since mid-December.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) probe comes after a string of revelations about its murky finances, including allegations its billionaire founder kept board members and shareholders in the dark about 260million worth of loans.

Murky finances: NMC told investors that unnamed businesses controlled by its Indian founder BR Shetty and a senior associate used it to arrange loans without telling board members

Although NMC operates in the Middle East, its shares have traded in the UK since 2012.

It became a stock market darling as shares rose nearly 20-fold to a peak of 4120p in August 2018, propelling it into the FTSE 100 index.

Its status as a blue-chip stock encouraged thousands of UK investors to buy its shares. Millions of other savers are also exposed to it through their pensions and investments that include assets linked to the FTSE 100.

EY audit gave the all-clear The scandal at NMC comes as a major embarrassment for its auditor, British accounting giant EY. In NMC's annual report last May, EY gave it a clean bill of health, saying it was happy with the way the firm recognised its revenue and accounted for acquisitions. But Muddy Waters, the short-selling hedge fund which first attacked NMC last year, claims its then chairman, BR Shetty, artificially inflated the costs of construction work done for the company, which he hired his own contractors to complete. In a further extraordinary announcement this week, NMC admitted that it could be on the hook to pay back 260million worth of loans which had never appeared as liabilities on its balance sheet. These loans, borrowed by companies owned by Shetty, secretly named NMC as a guarantor, and appear to have slipped past the notice of everyone at the firm. EY said: 'It is not our policy to comment on companies we audit.' The Big Four accounting firm is being investigated by the Financial Reporting Council for its audit of Thomas Cook, after the travel firm went bust last year.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: 'The FCA may need to look again at the listing rules and whether they are providing sufficient protection to investors when it comes to overseas companies becoming listed in the UK.'

He added that the Serious Fraud Office may step in. Mould said: 'It may find grounds for getting involved in the worst-case scenario, where the company has been understating its debts or overstating assets.

With the CEO sacked and shares suspended, we're starting to lean towards the worst-case scenario rather than this looking like something more benign.'

The FCA launched its probe just hours after NMC made the latest bombshell revelations about its finances and sacked its chief executive, Prasanth Manghat.

NMC told investors on Wednesday that unnamed businesses controlled by its Indian founder BR Shetty and a senior associate used it to arrange loans without telling members of the board or disclosing them to investors  a breach of stock market rules.

Under the arrangement, which was kept off the Abu Dhabi-based company's balance sheet, suppliers to Shetty's companies were paid using loans from third-party lenders.

An internal investigation, led by former FBI director Louis Freeh, discovered that as well as being arranged in secret, NMC was on the hook for the loans if the firms owned by Shetty failed to pay up.

It also identified 'potential discrepancies and inconsistencies' in the company's bank statements and ledger entries.

Shetty, 77, was assisted in this alleged deception by Khaleefa Butti al-Muhairi, the former vice-president of NMC.

Both were evicted from the board last month for 'incorrectly reporting' their shareholdings.

NMC yesterday said the FCA has 'commenced a formal enforcement investigation'. It added: 'NMC will continue to co-operate with the FCA and any and all other relevant authorities.'

The FCA has the power to impose multi-million-pound fines on companies and individuals, and ban them from the City.

NMC has been engulfed in scandal since US hedge fund Muddy Waters published an explosive report in December which raised 'serious doubts' about its accounting and governance. It accused the firm of inflating its profits, assets and cash. The allegations have been fiercely denied.

NMC, which operates private hospitals in the Middle East, froze trading 'to ensure the smooth operation of the market'.

It said it was 'focused on providing additional clarity to the market as to its financial position and to restoring its admission to trading'.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The audience at Tuesdays Democratic Primary debate in South Carolina began voting early with booing, including frontrunner Bernie Sanders spin on his praise for Fidel Castro.

During his 60 Minutes interview Sunday, Sanders had praised Fidel Castros literacy program in Cuba. Its unfair to simply say everything is bad Sanders said about Castros reign in Cuba.

At the South Carolina debate, Sanders was booed when he claimed President Obama had also praised Castro in a similar way, which Obamas former running mate Joe Biden strongly refuted.

Biden said Obama acknowledged that they did increase life expectancy, but he went on and condemned the dictatorship, he went on an condemned the people who in, fact had run that committee.

(Obama) did not in any way suggest that there was anything positive about the Cuban government.

The fact of the matter is (Obama), in fact does not, did not, has never embraced an authoritarian regime and does not now.

Biden also brought up that Sanders had voted against the Brady Bill five times, while talking about the killing of 9 members of the nearby Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church by a white supremacist.

Sanders denied Bidens claim that Sanders had considered a primary challenge of President Obama, even though Sanders is on tape doing so.

During the 60 Minutes interview it was pointed out that Sanders has only gotten 7 pieces of legislation passed, and two of them involved naming Post Offices.

The Democratic Primary frontrunner praising Castro had been a big Story since Sunday, but the CBS moderators had been slow to broach the topic and when they finally did, it was indirectly. Was that because Sanders had praised Castro on a CBS show?

There were not only too many cant win Democratic candidates in the debate, there were too many CBS moderators who lost control of the chaotic hard-to-watch debate with poor question choices.

Sanders had either tried to spin his praise for Castro and Sandinistas or change the topic by bringing up his socialist platform proposals like Medicare For All.

Pete Buttigieg hit Sanders over the cost of his Medicare For All plan being control of House and regaining the Senate and Presidency.

It adds up to four more years of Donald Trump. Pete quipped

Sen. Elizabeth Warren briefly tried to make the case that she would be a more effective President enacting the progressive agenda she and Sanders agree on, then he would. But Warren spent most of her time like she was running to be Fidel Sanders running mate by obsessively attacking Michael Bloomberg who is not even on the South Carolina ballot.

Bloomberg correctly pointed out that no moderate Republicans, that Democrats are hoping crossover, will vote for Sanders.

Despite Warrens attempt to simplify the debate to just one between her and Bloomberg, it was as messy as the Democratic Caucuses with still too many candidates that hurt the Democrats chances to defeat Trump.

Klobuchar, Warren, Stye, Bloomberg and Buttigieg are showing they have egos as big as Trumps by staying in a primary race they cant win.

This morning, Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolinas most influential Democratic elected official, gave a powerful endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden. President Obama should follow and endorse his former running mate Biden, to avoid Fidel Sanders winning the nomination which would give Trump four more years in office to further damage, if not destroy the Obama legacy.

While I understand Obamas reasons for not endorsing a candidate before the convention nomination, there are good reasons for him to break precedent in 2020. First, its his former Vice President and running mate Joe Biden who is running. It is Biden who polls still consistently show will be the strongest opponent against Trump. No other Democratic candidate is shown leading Trump by more than Biden. No other Democratic candidate has the diverse demographic of support than Biden. Bloomberg has already been running ads making it appear he has Obamas endorsement, when in fact he doesnt and Bloomberg had opposed Obamas positions. A Sanders nomination would ensure the re-election of Trump, which Obama would help make happen by failing to endorse Biden.

The one Democrat who can stop Sanders endorsement and Trumps reelection is Barack Obama.
Alex Brandon/AP Photos

En espanol | More than $1.7 million in refunds are being sent to nearly 60,000 victims of a tech support scam, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced.

The checks from the federal government, averaging $30 each, are heading to consumers who were tricked into buying tech support services from scammers who claimed that the victims computers were infected with viruses, malware or other security breaches.

The perpetrators of the scheme, which operated under Click4Support and other names, used ads on search engines such as Google and also pop-ups on websites. The ads and pop-ups claimed to be from major tech companies such as Microsoft and Apple and tricked consumers into calling the defendants and buying tech support services they didn't need, the FTC alleges.

Legal action began 5 years ago

In 2015, the FTC and state attorneys general in Connecticut and Pennsylvania sued Click4Support and its other entities in federal District Court, accusing the companies of bilking more than $17 million from consumers. In May 2017, a permanent injunction and a more than $1.8 million monetary judgment against the company and its owners were announced as part of a crackdown on more than a dozen tech scammers nationwide.

Americans 60 and older were five times more likely than younger adults to have fallen victim to tech support scams in 2019, the FTC reported last year.

The agency's report Protecting Older Consumers 2018-2019 found that Americans 60 and older were also three times more likely than those 20 to 59 to be conned by impostors posing as friends or relatives. They were more than twice as likely to fall for a prize, sweepstakes or lottery scam. And older adults were the least likely of any age group to report losing money to fraudsters.

Most money coming via PayPal

The FTC will be sending most of the refund checks via PayPal. Victims who receive paper checks should deposit or cash them within 60 days, as indicated on the check, the agency recommends.

The FTC never requires people to pay money or provide account information to cash a refund check. If recipients have questions about the refunds, they should contact the FTC's refund administrator, Rust Consulting Inc., at 877-389-4472.

In 2019, FTC actions led to more than $232 million in refunds to consumers across the country.
Authorities have released the name of a man found dead on an east Birmingham roadway Thursday.

The Jefferson County Coroners Office identified the man as Rory Albert Snipe Jr. He was 46 and lived in Birmingham.

The discovery was made just before 10 a.m. in the 8800 block of Eight Avenue North. The location is behind the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport and less than a block away from where a man was found slain just two months ago.

Birmingham police and Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service were dispatched to the scene on a report of a man down. Snipe was pronounced dead on the scene.

Deputy Chief Coroner Bill Yates said Snipe was last seen Feb. 21 when he left a family members residence to walk back to his own home. The location where his body was found was in between the two homes, though it wasnt immediately clear how far away.

Yates there was no obvious sign of trauma to Snipe at the scene Thursday, but an autopsy is scheduled for today.

In December, the body 36-year-old Adam Blake Warren was found also at 10 a.m. in the 8900 block of Eighth Court North. Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport workers first spotted the man and then called Birmingham police to the scene.

The area is behind the airport where few homes remain. Most of the homes in the area were bought out by the airport. Airport officials continue to patrol the area.
28.02.2020 LISTEN

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Board has bid farewell to their Senior Vice President, Mr Charles Boamah after rendering an unalloyed service to the Bank spanning 23 years.

The Dean of the Board of Directors of AfDB, Bright Okogu, who is also the Executive Director for Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principle commendjng the ongoing SVP said twenty-three years is not a trivial number of years to spend in an institution. You've been a pillar of this institution. You've done very well.

You are going to leave large pair of shoes to be filled On behalf of the Bank, I wish to say that we are content with your work, we are content with your commitment to the African Development Bank, we are content with your passion for the continent, Okogu added.

Since 1996, SVP Boamah has been a constant steadying presence at the AfDB during a tenure full of milestones.

Boamah is a globally respected executive with over 35 years of successively challenging leadership experiences in and outside of Africa.

Before assuming the role of Senior Vice President, he served as Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of the Bank as Acting First Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer.

Bank President Akinwumi Adesina expressed gratitude and appreciation to an amazing character and leader. Some of the pioneering initiatives have been led by Charles Charles has dedicated half of his career to Africa's development, Adesina said.

Several Executive Directors echoed the president and dean of the board's commendations of Boamah for his first-hand understanding and knowledge of the finances, operations, and administration of the Bank and the development space.

Responding, Boamah said: I feel very honored and privileged to be have been part of the journey. It's been a huge privilege to have been given the opportunity to serve. It's about making a difference, and that's what brought me to the Bank.

The Senior Vice President has witnessed three of the Bank's capital increases, and seven African Development Fund replenishment cycles. He served three presidents of the Bank.

I am leaving the Bank, but I can tell you the Bank never leaves you. I expect to continue to be an ambassador of this great institution, Boamah concluded.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 00:04:03|Editor: yan

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ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Some 370,290 people have been displaced across Ethiopia in the past four months mainly due to conflicts and climate-induced disasters, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) disclosed Friday.

The UNOCHA, which noted that recent key changes in the East African country's humanitarian landscape include new displacements, disease outbreaks as well as an escalation of the desert locust infestation across parts of the country.

"Some 370,290 people were newly displaced in all Ethiopian regions (except the Benishangul-Gumuz region) since November 2019, in which 65 percent of the newly Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were displaced as a result of conflict," according to a UNOCHA statement.

Noting that majority of the newly IDPs across the East African country to have been affected by recurrent conflicts, the UNOCHA stressed that seasonal floods and drought were also drivers of new displacements in Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation with an estimated about 107 million total population.

Two of Ethiopia's largest regional states, Oromia and the Ethiopia Somali, witnessed the highest number of both conflict and climate-induced displacements.

It, however, disclosed that about 275,064 IDPs were also returned to their localities during the stated period.

In addition to the hundreds of thousands of IDPs, the East African country also presently hosts more than 735,000 refugees drawn from 26 different nationalities, in which majority of the refugee population in Ethiopia are from its neighboring countries such as South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan, according to the UNHCR.
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said slowing the spread of the coronavirus was now his governments top priority, shortly after news on Friday that the first British person had died of the disease after contracting it on a cruise ship moored in Japan.

Britons were right to be concerned about the disease, he said as the number of people infected in Britain rose to 19.

The issue of coronavirus is something that is now the governments top priority, he told broadcasters in his first statement on the disease, adding that he would be chairing a meeting of ministers and officials on the subject on Monday.

Mainland China - where the virus originated late last year - reported 327 new cases, the lowest since Jan. 23, taking its tally to more than 78,800 cases with almost 2,800 deaths.

However, the disease is now spreading across the globe, with the first case reported in Nigeria on Friday and 888 people infected in Italy, the worst-affected country in Europe.

Britain reported its first confirmed coronavirus case on Jan. 31 but there have been no deaths in the country so far. The British person who died was in Japan, where the Diamond Princess cruise ship had docked off Yokohama on Feb. 3.

The virus - which causes a disease now called COVID-19 - is transmitted from person to person via droplets when an infected person breathes out, coughs or sneezes. It can also spread via contaminated surfaces such as door handles.

British health officials have urged the public to wash their hands to slow the spread of the disease, and have not recommended the use of face masks common in much of Asia.

Sterling fell sharply on Friday to its lowest level since October 2019, down more than 1% on the day as investors moved their money to safe-haven assets.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said at the start of the day that Britain should prepare for economic damage from the virus as it disrupts business supply chains.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on March 2 the plea of a law student that the rape case lodged by her against former union minister Swami Chinmayanand be transferred to a Delhi court from Uttar Pradesh.

The top court, while agreeing to hear the plea on Monday, however, observed that there is a "problem in transferring the criminal proceedings".

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde took note of the submission of senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the complainant woman, that the trial in the case be transferred as she feared for her life in Uttar Pradesh.

"There are threats to us in Uttar Pradesh," Gonsalves told the bench which also comprised Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant.

"We are not doubting (your contention) that you are in danger. But, the point is you apply for police protection," the bench said.

The lawyer said that the complainant has been provided a gunman for her security by the UP administration.

Earlier also a plea was mentioned for urgent hearing in the top court against the Allahabad High Court order granting bail to Chinmayanand in the case.

The high court had on February 3 granted bail to Chinmayanand, a former Union minister who was arrested in a case of sexual exploitation of the woman studying law at a college run by his trust at Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

"Both parties crossed their limits and at this stage, it is very difficult to adjudicate as to who exploited whom. In fact, both of them used each other," the high court had observed while granting bail to Chinmayanand.

Chinmayanand, whose trust runs the Shahjahanpur law college where the woman studied, was arrested on September 20 last year under section 376-C of the IPC, a charge short of rape.

The section is applied when someone in authority takes advantage of his official position to "induce or seduce" a woman to have sex with him.

In a parallel case, the woman was charged with trying to extort money from Chinmayanand, whom she had accused of rape.

The high court had granted her bail on December 4 last year also.

The Supreme Court had stepped in after the 23-year-old law student went missing for a few days in August last year after posting a video clip on social media, alleging sexual abuse.

A special investigation team of Uttar Pradesh Police, formed on the directions of the apex court, arrested Chinmayanand about a month later.

The SIT also arrested the student after a complaint that she and her friends had tried to extort Rs 5 crore from Chinmayanand, threatening to make public videos showing her giving massages to him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Extreme right-wing groups, capable of large-scale sophisticated violence, are increasingly active in Australia, the head of the countrys domestic intelligence agency reported this week. He revealed that their activity had been known to his agency for some time.

This statement by Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) director-general Mike Burgess points to the rising danger of fascistic, anti-immigrant attacks, similar to the shooting of nine people in Hanau, Germany on February 19 and the massacre of 51 people in Christchurch, New Zealand last March 15.

In Australia, the extreme right-wing threat is real and it is growing, Burgess stated in delivering ASIOs annual threat assessment. In suburbs around Australia, small cells regularly meet to salute Nazi flags, inspect weapons, train in combat and share their hateful ideology.

The immediate response of Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who is in charge of ASIO, was to try to deflect attention from the far right, and insist that the threat of violence came equally from left-wing lunatics and extreme left-wing ideologies.

Duttons declaration underscores the fact that the real target of the government and the intelligence and police apparatus is left-wing and socialist organisations, not the revival of fascism. His crude attempt to demonise left-wing groups indicates the anxiety of the unstable and crisis-wracked Liberal-National Coalition government over the mounting social and political discontent.

Duttons intervention was deliberate, even though it appeared somewhat deranged. When a journalist asked if by left-wing terrorism he meant Islamist groups, Dutton said: Yes, I do and anybody in between. He could not explain the connection between Islamic extremism and alleged left-wing violence, because there is none.

Burgesss speech raises many questions about how much the spy and police agencies know about the operations and plans of far-right terrorists, which must involve ASIO surveillance or infiltration, and why these activities have not been reported to the public.

Burgess said Australians were signing up as members of international white supremacist hate groups such as The Base, where members use online platforms to share extremist right-wing ideologies and encourage each other into committing acts of violence.

We expect such groups will remain an enduring threat, making more use of online propaganda to spread their messages of hate, the ASIO chief said. While we would expect any right-wing extremist-inspired attack in Australia to be low capability, i.e. a knife, gun or vehicle attack, more sophisticated attacks are possible.

Last year, after an Australian white supremacist, Brenton Tarrant, killed 51 people and tried to murder another 40 at two mosques in Christchurch, it was revealed that he had personal connections with a fascistic network in Australia, as well as alt-right and white racist groups across Europe and the US.

During a 10-month period in 201617, Tarrant made more than 30 comments on the then publicly-available Facebook pages of two Australian far-right groups, the United Patriots Front (UPF) and the True Blue Crew, both notorious for inciting hostility toward Muslims and other immigrants.

Burgesss report again points to the still-unanswered question of how Tarrant was able to proceed with his attack. In particular, did ASIO and other state agencies turn a blind eye to the plans of Tarrant and other fascists?

There are known to be close relations between the far-right groups and state agencies across Europe. In his manifesto, Tarrant boasted that hundreds of thousands of European soldiers and police belong to nationalist groups.

Moreover, these neo-fascists are being cultivated and encouraged by the xenophobic and nationalist policies of governments internationally, including in the US and Australia. Like Tarrant, the alleged Hanau gunman issued a document before his attack proclaiming his support for President Donald Trump.

The dangerous growth of the far-right in Germany, across Europe and internationally is not the result of broad popular support for the neo-Nazis, who are hated by the vast majority of the people. Rather, it is the result of efforts by the political establishment and the state apparatus to promote the far-right in response to the upsurge in the class struggle and rise in support for socialism around the world.

Just a week before the attack in Hanau, the WSWS published a critical Perspective, Sound the alarm! Political conspiracy and the resurgence of fascism in Germany, outlining the history behind the efforts of the German ruling elite to revive fascism.

Burgesss speech was delivered at ASIOs fortified Canberra headquarters, and before a large audience of intelligence officers and diplomats, that included members of the US-led Five Eyes global surveillance network. The ASIO chief did not specifically refer to left-wing organisations. But he claimed that Australia faced an unprecedented level of threat from espionage and foreign interference.

Burgess vowed to step up ASIOs operations on this front, including by actively supporting prosecutions under the 2018 foreign interference laws, which would have a chilling effect.

As the WSWS has warned, these laws constitute an assault on basic democratic rights. They contain sweeping offences, ranging from treason to breaching official secrecy and collaborating with a foreign organisation. These provisions, while directed against anyone associated with China, could be used to criminalise whistle-blowing, anti-war activity and other political dissent. The outlawed activities could extend to anyone opposing Australian involvement in a US-led military conflict with China.

Burgess did not name China as a supposed source of foreign interference, but in the context of the escalating anti-China campaign in the media, the implication was clear. He claimed that every sector of our community was being targeted, including parliament, government officials, media commentators, business leaders and universities. Some of the tactics being used against us are so sophisticated, they sound like theyve sprung from the pages of a cold war thriller, he said, without providing any evidence for this incredible claim.

In reality, the chief and most dangerous source of foreign interference in Australia is the US government, which is demanding stepped-up participation by Australia in its potentially catastrophic economic and military confrontation with China.

In another major thrust of his speech, Burgess praised the new powers handed to ASIO, via the Assistance and Access Act, which he said ASIO was already using to compel internet companies to help it crack open encrypted communications. He declared that messaging apps and greater global connectivity carried a dark side, claiming that encryption had been encountered in 9 out of 10 priority counter-terrorism cases.

Over the past two decades, Liberal-National and Labor governments alike have vastly expanded the resources and powers of ASIO and the other intelligence and police agencies. A police-state framework was first assembled under the banner of the post-2001 war on terrorism. Burgesss speech and Duttons response are a warning that this apparatus is being focused on the growth of social and political disaffection, particularly in the working class, while fascistic forces are being cultivated to promote divisive anti-immigrant racism and above all to target socialists.
(JNS)-The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign student president has vetoed a BDS resolution that was passed last Thursday by the student government. The bill will now likely be heard again by the student government, where it will need a two-thirds majority to override the president's veto. The resolution called on the university to divest from "companies that profit from human-rights violations in Palestine and other communities globally," as well as from firms that provide weaponry and technology to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to a copy of the resolution obtained by JNS ahead of the vote, which included endorsements from half of the student government's leadership committee. The final vote was 20 in favor, nine against and seven abstentions. Shortly after its passage, the BDS resolution was also swiftly rejected by the university's administration, saying that such resolutions do not "represent the university administration." "ISG resolutions are non-binding, and the university has no plans to act on this one," the university said in a statement. "We are committed to dialogue and to supporting students as they navigate challenging conversations about diversity and inclusion, and we will continue to plan programming designed to build understanding of different perspectives on complex and divisive issues."

(JNS)-The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign student president has vetoed a BDS resolution that was passed last Thursday by the student government.

The bill will now likely be heard again by the student government, where it will need a two-thirds majority to override the president's veto.

The resolution called on the university to divest from "companies that profit from human-rights violations in Palestine and other communities globally," as well as from firms that provide weaponry and technology to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to a copy of the resolution obtained by JNS ahead of the vote, which included endorsements from half of the student government's leadership committee.

The final vote was 20 in favor, nine against and seven abstentions.

Shortly after its passage, the BDS resolution was also swiftly rejected by the university's administration, saying that such resolutions do not "represent the university administration."

"ISG resolutions are non-binding, and the university has no plans to act on this one," the university said in a statement. "We are committed to dialogue and to supporting students as they navigate challenging conversations about diversity and inclusion, and we will continue to plan programming designed to build understanding of different perspectives on complex and divisive issues."
WASHINGTON  Federal health employees interacted with Americans quarantined for possible exposure to the coronavirus without proper medical training or protective gear, then scattered into the general population, according to a government whistleblower.

In a portion of a complaint filing obtained by The New York Times that has been submitted to the Office of the Special Counsel, the whistleblower, described as a senior leader at the health agency, said the team was improperly deployed to two military bases in California to assist the processing of Americans who had been evacuated from coronavirus hot zones in China and elsewhere.

The staff members were sent to Travis Air Force Base and March Air Reserve Base and were ordered to enter quarantined areas, including a hangar where coronavirus evacuees were being received. They were not provided training in safety protocols until five days later, the person said.

Without proper training or equipment, some of the exposed staff members moved freely around and off the bases, with at least one person staying in a nearby hotel and leaving California on a commercial flight. Many were unaware of the need to test their temperature three times a day.

I soon began to field panicked calls from my leadership team and deployed staff members expressing concerns with the lack of HHS communication and coordination, staff being sent into quarantined areas without personal protective equipment, training or experience in managing public health emergencies, safety protocols and the potential danger to both themselves and members of the public they come into contact with, the whistleblower wrote.

In a statement on Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services acknowledged the complaint without elaborating.

We take all whistleblower complaints very seriously and are providing the complainant all appropriate protections under the Whistleblower Protection Act, said Caitlin B. Oakley, deputy assistant secretary and a national spokeswoman for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs. We are evaluating the complaint and have nothing further to add at this time.

The account surfaced after President Donald Trump sought to play down the danger of a domestic coronavirus outbreak amid bipartisan concern about a sluggish and disjointed response by the administration to an illness that public health officials have said is likely to spread through the United States. The first U.S. case of coronavirus in a patient with no known contact with hot zones or other coronavirus patients emerged near Travis Air Force Base this week.

The whistleblowers account raised questions about whether the Trump administration has taken adequate precautions in its handling of the virus to date, and whether Trumps minimization of the risks has been mirrored by other top officials when confronted with potentially disturbing developments.

Similar episodes appear to have happened elsewhere. Employees with the Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families were also dispatched to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar to help other evacuees from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, someone with direct knowledge of the effort said.

It was the first time to his knowledge that employees of the family administration had ever dealt with a federal quarantine. Employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appeared to have one set of guidance. Other employees of the Health and Human Services Department operated under a different protocol.

The levels of protection varied even while he was at Miramar, he said. Standards were more lax at first, but once people arrived who appeared to be sick, workers began donning personal protective equipment. He is now back at work, and has yet to be tested for coronavirus exposure.

In the complaint, the whistleblower painted a grim portrait of agency staff members who found themselves on the front lines of a frantic federal effort to confront the coronavirus in the United States without any preparation or training, and whose own health concerns were dismissed by senior administration officials as detrimental to staff morale. They were admonished, the complaint said, and accused of not being team players, and had their mental health and emotional stability questioned.

After a phone call with health agency leaders to raise their fears about exposure to the virus, the staff members described a whitewashing of the situation, characterizing the response as corrupt and a cover-up, according to the complaint, and telling the whistleblower that senior officials had treated them as a nuisance and did not want to hear their worries about health and safety.

Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., whose office received the complaint, appeared to allude to it on Thursday morning at a hearing with Alex Azar, the secretary of Health and Human Services, in the House Ways and Means Committee. Gomez was contacted by the whistleblower, whom he had met before his congressional service, in part because his committee has jurisdiction over the health agency.

At the hearing, Gomez had a tense exchange with the secretary in which he suggested that staff from the Administration for Children and Families had been exposed to the virus without the requisite training and equipment, and then dispersed elsewhere in the United States.

To your knowledge, were any of the ACF employees exposed to high-risk evacuees from China? Gomez asked Azar.

They should never have been, without appropriate PPE, Azar responded, using the abbreviation for personal protective equipment, the term used for special suits designed to protect against infection. If you were anyone in quarantine, to maintain quarantine, that should be the case.

Gomez said his understanding was that the teams sent to March and Travis air bases faced a chaotic situation.

I would not accept your proposition that it was chaotic at all times, Azar said. I am not aware of any violation of quarantine or isolation protocols.

Do you think that breaking basic protocols and exposing untrained human service employees to the coronavirus before allowing them to be dispersed around the country could have endangered the employees and other Americans? Gomez asked.

I dont believe that has taken place, Azar replied.

The complaint, which was reported by The Washington Post, surfaced the day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first known instance of a person testing positive without exposure to anyone known to be infected with the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, or recent travels to any of the countries where it is circulating. The CDC said that it was possible the patient, who is a resident of Solano County, California  home to Travis Air Force Base  could have been exposed to a returning traveler who was infected.

March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, California, housed 195 people evacuated from Wuhan, China, for 14 days beginning in late January, while Travis in Northern California has housed a number of quarantined people in recent weeks, including some of the approximately 400 Americans on the Diamond Princess cruise ship that had docked in Japan.

The staff members, who had some experience with emergency management coordination, were woefully underprepared for the mission they were given, according to the whistleblower.

They were not properly trained or equipped to operate in a public health emergency situation, the official wrote. They were potentially exposed to coronavirus; appropriate measures were not taken to protect the staff from potential infection; and appropriate steps were not taken to quarantine, monitor or test them during their deployment and upon their return home.

Some of the staff raised concerns with top officials with the agency, but saw no changes. The whistleblower said they complained to Charles Keckler, an associate deputy secretary at Health and Human Services, in an email on Feb. 10. After the email, the complaint said, top officials, including Lynn Johnson, the assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, admitted that they did not understand their mission, and that her agency broke protocols because of the unprecedented crisis and an all hands on deck call to action by Dr. Robert Kadlec, the top official for public health emergencies and disasters.

Since learning of the whistleblowers concerns last Wednesday, Gomezs office and officials with the Ways and Means Committee have repeatedly pressed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for details. The whistleblower has also notified the CDC and the health agency inspector general about the concerns.

Rep, Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said the complaint appeared to be part of a pattern of ineptitude and mistrust of civil servants by the Trump administration.

The president has spent years assaulting our health care system, draining resources from key health programs, and showing utter disdain for career federal employees who are the backbone of our government, Neal said in a statement provided to The Times. Its sadly no surprise were seeing this degree of ineptitude during a terrible crisis.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration has informed Moscow that the U.S. is open to holding a summit with other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council in hopes of pushing for three-way arms control pact with Russia and China, a senior administration official said Friday.

The New START treaty, the last major arms-control treaty remaining between the U.S. and Russia, expires in 2021. There has been talk of negotiating an extension to the existing treaty, but the White House thinks the next generation of arms control must also include China, which is expected to at least more than double its stockpile during the next decade

Russia has asked the U.S. to extend the New START treaty for up to five years, but Moscow also has embraced the idea of bringing China into an agreement. The U.S. and Russia have has three bilateral meetings. The U.S. and China have discussed having a similar dialogue, but the planned meeting would be the first time that representatives of all three countries would be at the same table discussing the issue.

Russia wants to make a deal very much on arms control and nuclear. And thats smart. And so do we. We think it would be a good thing, Trump said at a news conference in December in London with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. And well also certainly bring in, as you know, China. And we may bring them in later, or we may bring them in now.

China has nuclear weapons, ballistic missile capabilities and the know-how to make chemical and biological weapons  and it is updating its nuclear arsenal. Beijing also has signed various international weapons agreements, but none limiting nuclear weapons.

The time and place of the meeting has not been determined, but a senior administration official said the U.S. will use the gathering to pursue a trilateral arms control agreement that would bring China into the fold. The meeting is expected to include leaders of the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France  the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. The official spoke on condition of anonymity according to White House guidelines.

The United States will use this opportunity to bring both Russia and China into the international arms control framework and head-off a costly arms race, the administration official said.

Tim Morrison, former senior director for countering weapons of mass destruction at the National Security Council at the White House, said other countries might need to be pulled into arms control agreements in the future.

I think it is essentially the direction of the future not only to bring the Chinese around to the necessity of negotiated restraint on weapons of mass destruction, and particularly nuclear weapons, but also to begin to think about the other nuclear weapon states ... particularly India and Pakistan and focus on how we ensure that we do not face a highly nuclearized security environment in the future, Morrison said at a recent event at George Washington University.
Recent reports indicate that patients who recovered from coronavirus may still get infected the second time. Apart from the possible coronavirus reinfection, the symptoms may increase and could be fatal.

One incident reports a patient who was cured of the disease. However, with the recurrence of the symptoms, it resulted in heart failure due to secondary complications, which eventually caused the death of the patient. Doctors claim that this the case in Hubei, the hotspot of the coronavirus, in which the spread has now resulted to more than 2,700 deaths and ravaging 80,000 plus cases all over the globe.

Taiwan News reports that "it's highly possible to get infected a second time. A few people recovered from the first time by their own immune system, but the meds they use are damaging their heart tissue, and when they get it the second time, the antibody doesn't help but makes it worse, and they die a sudden death from heart failure."

Current data shared about the viral contagion from the unknown source said, "the virus outsmarted all of us." But Chinese pulmonologist Zhong Nanshan pointed out that three days is the usual time before symptoms show up, though it might take one to 24 days to see visible signs of infection.

Also read: Coronavirus Effects: How it Harms Human Body Organs

Testing for positive infection will get a negative reading during the window period of the virus. With this, the virus will bypass the test kits, remaining undetected. Several cases showing lung infections were diagnosed via CT scan which turned out negative in the first four tests but was positive on the fifth test.

News organizations like the BBC and well intention media sources are concerned over the positive negative results, which is a negative infection when they are positive for it. Now, possible reinfection is possible with cured positive patients. It takes six negative tests before the right test result is gotten.

False-negative results cast doubts on how many have the coronavirus, and how the Chinese officials have reported their cases and deaths from the virus. Updating the testing methods for detecting the contagion has more cases and reported deaths than ever.

Virologists are saying that diagnostics are not accurate and cure is still a relative term, which can be deceiving. Once diagnosed as cured by doctors, coronavirus might be living in cured patients,which may infect others anytime.

Coronavirus will attack ACE2 receptors in tissues of the heart, lungs, kidneys, and even testicles, making it easier to infect the host. For now, this is just a hypothesis and no conclusive proof is released yet.

John Hopkins suggests that coronavirus is changing fast, with COVID-19 very active now in many hotspots in several countries like China, Italy, Korea, and in the middle eastern countries.

Dr Amire Roess, who is a Professor of Global Health and Epidemiology at George Mason University, related that immunity can be gained from viral exposure or contamination, and would not get sick again. Why types of the coronavirus allow possible reinfection and how ti works is not yet known.

Related article: Coronavirus Death Toll Statistics: South Korea, Italy Cases Increasing

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Sri Lankas opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, who lost the presidential elections against Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has decided to contest the parliamentary elections scheduled to be held before December 1. According to media reports, Premadasa will contest from Colombo instead of his electorate, the Hambantota district, because of his national stature as a leader.

The Sri Lankan Parliament consists of 225 lawmakers who are elected through the proportional representation system for five-year terms. UNP leader and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will also contest from Colombo, which is one of the 22 multi-member electoral districts of Sri Lanka. Colombo sends 19 out the 225 legislators to the Parliament.

Premadasa, the leader of newly-formed Samagi Jana Balawegaya alliance, is set to lead the election campaign for the pre-poll coalition. During the presidential elections, Premadasa had tried to appeal to women voters with the issue of menstrual hygiene, a taboo subject in the conservative Buddhist society, but Rajapaksas tough image as former de facto military chief overshadowed the issue in the wake of Easter bombings.

Read: Sri Lankan PM Mahinda Rajapaksa Offers Prayers At Lord Balaji Temple In Tirupati; Leaves For Colombo

The United National Front (UNF), the current opposition, has the most number of seats in the Parliament but the loss in Presidential elections forced Ranil Wickremesinghe to resign from the Prime Ministerial post and Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabayas elder brother, was sworn-in as the Prime Minister. Wickremesinghe has maintained that there will not be any changes to the electorates and all members will contest from their respective constituencies.

Read: Sri Lankan PM Mahinda Rajapaksa Commends Namami Gange Programme

Constitutional crisis of 2018

In late 2018, Sri Lanka went through a constitutional crisis when the power equations kept shifting. The then President Maithripala Sirisena appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Prime Minister but the Supreme Court declared the move unconstitutional. A no-confidence motion was moved against Rajapaksa which threw the country into deeper crisis. The apex court had also overturned Sirisenas decision to dissolve the parliament and ordered a stay on the snap elections.

Read: Sajith Premadasa Takes Over As Opposition Leader In Sri Lanka's Parliament

Read: Sri Lankan Tamils Prefer Premadasa Over Wickremesinghe To Lead Main Opposition

(With ANI inputs)
The Islamic Republic's approach to preventing the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Iran is a religious-security approach rather than a scientific-functional one.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has condemned the spread of the virus as a conspiracy by the enemy to curb the turnout in last weeks Majles elections and President Hassan Rouhani characterized it as "the enemy's political propaganda."

Senior clerics in Qom have prevented hygienic and health care measures in that city. While public health officials demanded the closure of busy pilgrimage sites in Qom and Mashhad, the clerics in charge of the shrines obstructed the attempts to control the virus. They have even resisted the decisions of the Provincial Security Council and disease control task force.

But why clerics in 19 out of the 31 Iranian provinces have prevented disease control although they are aware of the dangerous consequences of the epidemic and why they insist on their religious-security approach.

How can they circumvent or prevent the scientific and hygienic approach to virus control? Why they insist on their non-functional approach at the expense of endangering the lives of thousands of Iranians and people elsewhere in the world?

They cant arrest a virus

Throughout the past 41 years, the Islamic Republic has arrested, tried, imprisoned, tortured and executed its critics and political opponents, trying to ensure its survival.

In the religious arena, the regime which is based on the absolute rule of clerics, not only omitted the followers of other faiths including its own sizable Sunni minority from political competition and power, but it has also suppressed its Shiite critics.

Now, Coronavirus has challenged the efficiency of the Islamic Republic. But a virus cannot be arrested, tried and forced to confess against itself, nor can the Islamic Republic condemn it for heresy. Clerics cannot eliminate Coronavirus in the same way they got rid of intellectuals and political activists. The clerics have nothing to defend themselves with against the virus and the people know that. Nonetheless, clerics are not going to surrender to doctors and experts.

While the structure of decision making and the hierarchy of power is clerical-security in nature, security forces and clerics do not wish to acknowledge that they cannot cope with Coronavirus and that they need to surrender to experts' knowledge.

According to man's accrued experience, only experts and medical doctors may be able to control the virus and find a way out of the crisis based on mankind's collective knowledge. But the Islamic Republic has a problem with every bit of this scientific approach.

They cant surrender their supremacy

The Islamic Republic's leader, President and senior clerics see themselves as the representatives of God and the imams who are saints and thus innocent. They are not willing to acknowledge that there are problems for which they do not have a solution, and thus should follow what experts say. From the point of view of the leader, the President and senior clerics, such a practice would undermine the supremacy of the clergy in the country's political system. It will also undermine the fundamentals of the economic regime that is based not only on donating to the clerics but also allowing them to control large chunks of the economy.

This is exactly why the leader and the president attribute Coronavirus to the enemies. At lower levels, clerics in charge of religious sites in Qom and Mashhad will not give in to the doctors' call for suspending some religious rituals such as Friday Prayer gatherings. Theoretically, this is against what clerics have preached at the seminaries for hundreds of years.

Some religious scholars believe that in certain matters people should listen to experts, in this case doctors. But now that the Health Minister has officially declared on behalf of the disease-control task force that gatherings should be limited in pilgrimage sites for safety concerns, the clerics in Qom find it hard to accept the experts' views and obstruct their measures. As far as they understand, shutting down these places closes the clerics' business and sets a dangerous precedence for the future.

Inefficiency is the main issue

While the regime has proved to be inefficient in many areas of governance, it is not willing to acknowledge its inefficiency and resorts to lying, disinformation and concealing the truth about the spread of Coronavirus.

In order to conceal its inefficiency, the regime has forced the media to propagate its religious-security approach. But social media has put an end to the state-controlled TV's monopoly on news. Twitter, Instagram, Telegram and other social media platforms have given everyone access to news that can expose misinformation.

In spite of the power of social media, the problem in confronting Coronavirus is that decision makers still come from the ranks of security forces, revolutionary guards and senior clerics rather than relevant experts.

As long as this group of decision makers prioritize their clerical-security views in making national decisions to confront Coronavirus, and as long as they ignore the views of medical experts, there will be little hope in surmounting the Coronavirus crisis. The only way out for Iranians is if senior clerics and security officials' surrender to the attestations of Iranian doctors and and other scientists who have global connections and good information.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

The family of an Albuquerque man who died by suicide has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a local ketamine infusion clinic, claiming the clinics negligence in administering the controversial treatment contributed to his psychosis.

The complaint, filed in 2nd Judicial District Court in January, states Gabriel Saenz was a patient at the Injection and Infusion Clinic of Albuquerque who before his 2017 death was receiving ketamine infusion therapy to deal with chronic migraines. The treatment involves patients receiving small doses of ketamine, an anesthetic drug.

After Saenz received four four-hour ketamine treatments over the course of nine days, the complaint alleges he stabbed himself multiple times, inhaled combustible fuel, and set himself on fire two days after the final treatment took place. Saenz ultimately died from the injuries.

Members of his family are seeking unspecified damages from the clinic and its founder, Jason Duprat,, claiming the clinic didnt properly screen Saenz for mental health indicators and failed to check up on him after each treatment.

Defendants breached the applicable standards of care  and used methods and approaches that were outside the realm of medical practice reasonably contemplated and employed by other healthcare practitioners, the complaint states.

Katherine Devine, who assumed ownership of the clinic after the events of the complaint, denied the allegations in an interview with the Journal, arguing she hadnt heard of a case where ketamine, which has a short half-life for patients, has caused psychosis 48 hours later.

Obviously, this case is quite sensational, and there are a lot of other factors involved, Devine said.

She added that the clinic, now incorporated under a different name, is working to remove itself from the lawsuit.

Ketamine has a wide variety of uses, some legal and some not. The drug was created in the 1960s as a general anesthetic that could be administered on battlefields, according to Dr. Robert Meisner, medical director of the Ketamine Service in the Psychiatric Neurotherapeutics Program at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts.

More recently, ketamine has gained popularity as an anti-depressant. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesnt recognize the drug as an anti-depressant, Meisner said laboratory testing from institutions like Yale University and the National Institutes of Health has been promising, and the peer-reviewed medical journal JAMA published a consensus statement noting that increasing evidence supports the idea that ketamine has anti-depressant properties.

Meisner added that ketamine operates differently than competitors like Prozac and Zoloft, and has the potential to open up new areas of research.

The discovery that ketamine can be useful as an anti-depressant  is a door toward a new understanding, Meisner said.

However, Meisner declined to comment on ketamines potential use in mitigating migraines, which Saenz was seeking to relieve. The clinics website advertises intravenous ketamine infusions among other migraine treatments, referring to its treatment program as painless, non-invasive and virtually side effect-free.

While Meisner did not comment on the specifics of the case, he said some private clinics have strayed from medical evidence in areas like determining proper dosages. He acknowledged that theres ongoing work on when and how to use ketamine effectively and cautioned against treating it as a cure-all.

This isnt just some magic bullet, Meisner said.
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will sit down with provincial and territorial leaders on March 13 to wrestle with some of the thorny issues that are dividing the nation.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responds to a question during Question Period in the House of Commons Wednesday February 26, 2020 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will sit down with provincial and territorial leaders on March 13 to wrestle with some of the thorny issues that are dividing the nation.

The first ministers' meeting, to be held in Ottawa, is to cover climate change, the economy, sustainable development of natural resources, health care, infrastructure and equalization and other federal transfer payments to the provinces.

First ministers will meet leaders of the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Metis National Council the day before.

The announcement of the meetings came Thursday as the Trudeau government continued struggling to balance the often competing demands of environmental concerns, resource development and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.

The Liberals are being blamed in some quarters for Teck Resources Ltd.'s decision earlier this week to back out of a new oilsands project in Alberta, citing uncertainty over climate policy.

The government is also taking heat for protests that continue to disrupt train service across the country in support of Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs who are fighting a natural gas pipeline across their territory in northern British Columbia.

Those events have heightened tensions between the federal Liberal government and conservative premiers Jason Kenney and Scott Moe in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada's oil and gas producing heartland.

And they've sparked concern that Canada's economy could be headed into a tailspin.

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Kenney and Moe maintain federal environmental policies are destroying their provinces' economies and are demanding a fairer deal in Confederation.

Among other things, they have demanded an overhaul of the equalization program under which the federal government transfers money to have-not provinces to allow them to provide comparable services at comparable tax rates as richer provinces.

This will be the sixth first ministers' meeting Trudeau has hosted since becoming prime minister in 2015.

"Canadians have been clear about the importance of working together to address the issues that matter most to them," Trudeau said in a statement.

"With co-operation, we can create new opportunities for all Canadians and continue to build a country that works for everyone."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2020.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were facing an angry backlash today as their 20million security bill looks set to fall squarely on British taxpayers after Canada refused to keep paying.

Canadian police confirmed last night it would stop assisting with security for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they step down as working royals and become private citizens after Megxit on March 31.

This means the cost of round-the-clock protection for the couple and baby Archie will fall solely to the taxpayer-funded Metropolitan Police, despite the couple leaving the UK for North America.

The force, which currently protects the couple at home and abroad - today refused to comment on whether they would continue to do so after Megxit. Buckingham Palace declined to say if Harry and Meghan would contribute any their own money for their protection.

Royal expert Phil Dampier today said the couple should not receive public money for security when they become private citizens with their own income, which is set to be millions of pounds a year.

'It was only a matter of time before the Canadians stopped paying for their security because they're no longer working royals and now obviously the burden will fall on British taxpayers,' he told MailOnline.

It comes as Prince Harry met Jon Bon Jovi at Abbey Road studios to record a duet for a new charity album for the Duke's Invictus Games Foundation. It is not known whether Meghan is yet in the UK, but she is due to attend the Endeavour Fund Awards with Harry next Thursday, March 5

Meghan Markle is pictured above taking her two dogs for a walk with baby Archie with Canadian security guards

UKIP founder Alan Sked was among social media users who today attacked the idea of British taxpayers footing Meghan and Harry's security costs

Prince Harry teased his duet with Jon Bon Jovi on a post on the Sussex Royal Instagram page today

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are pictured above earlier this month. It is said that costs to keep the couple safe are continuing to soar

Prince Harry is pictured above leaving Victoria International Airport in Victoria

Harry and Meghan's travels this year and where they are expected to be going in March

It is the first time Canada has confirmed it has been helping to guard Harry and Meghan since they settled on Vancouver Island last November. But last night it announced this would cease from April in keeping with their 'change in status'.

Canada has a legal obligation to provide security to so-called internationally protected persons.

The Sussexes arrived there on a temporary visit in November as full working royals, and the Mounties gave them protection as they always have on such visits  with Canadian taxpayers picking up the bill.

But now Harry and Meghan intend to live in North America to pursue lucrative commercial careers and will quit as senior working royals on March 31.

Phil Dampier continued: 'The public will be angry at having to pay for this when they're not spending time in the UK or contributing to the royal family. The costs will become unsustainable - they will soon have to start paying for themselves.'

Stephen Doughty, MP for Cardiff South, last in a Commons debate this week he was 'deeply concerned' at UK taxpayers having to cover the couple's security when police funding was stretched.

He said: 'I'm fully respectful of their right to choose a different path themselves, but the royal couple, Harry and Meghan, I understand there are some quite serious concerns being raised about the spiralling costs of policing and protection for them which could be apparently spiralling into tens to hundreds of millions of pounds. I think that's a very reasonable question to be asking.'

The Taxpayers' Alliance said today: 'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex can't have it both ways: either they're working royals with the obligations which that entails, or they're private citizens seeking independence.'

Meanwhile, Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams said the move would create fresh challenges for the couple.

He told MailOnline: 'We knew from polls that the Canadian public did not want to pay for their security and the polls I've seen indicate that the British public does not either. They cease to be 'Internationally Protected Persons' on March 31 when Megxit occurs.

'Harry remains sixth in line to the throne. He is also an Afghanistan veteran. It is obvious that the British taxpayer will pick up this tab as he, Meghan and Archie are such high profile members of the royal family.

'Security cannot in any way be linked to personal popularity. Harry has always been such a popular member of the royal family but he has recently changed a good deal.

'Whether they will get the same level of security after March 31 that they are getting now is another matter.'

The prospect of UK taxpayers footing the bill sparked anger on social media today.

UKIP founder Alan Sked tweeted: 'So Canada will no longer pay the security bill for Harry and Meghan. We should certainly pay to protect them while in the UK or while representing the Queen abroad. But if they want to be independent celebrities in North America, shouldn't they pay for their own security there?'

Twitter user Colin Murphy commented: 'Of course they should pay. Since marrying Meghan H has become an arrogant money grabber. I used to respect his hard work and genuine care for our 'heroes'. Now he's disrespecting the British Public to feather Meghan's nest. Go Harry, pay security!'

Taxpayers currently pay 600,000 for the Sussexes' team of royal protection officers, who each cost around 100,000 for their salary, overtime, overseas allowance, pensions, flights and accommodation.

But costs will rise greatly when the couple move overseas, with an internal memo seen by The Mirror predicting the couple would need at least 12 protection officers to cover them on their trips, which are often made apart.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry DROP bid to trademark Sussex Royal name Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have abandoned their bid to trademark the Sussex Royal brand in Britain to cash in on their links to the monarch. Documents filed at the Intellectual Property Office show a request to use the names Sussex Royal and Sussex Royal Foundation for commercial and charity activities in the UK had been removed. It followed the Queen's decision that they could not use the 'Royal' label after deciding to step down as working royals and move to North America. An application to use the royal trademark on toiletries, beer, toys, jewellery and sporting goods in Europe is still active. That is despite the couple saying last weekend that they would not use the word 'Royal' overseas. Advertisement

The Met Police calculated the total annual bill could rise to 20m, according to the report.

Graham Smith, from Republic, said Harry and Meghan should have to fund their own security after becoming 'private citizens'.

'We're currently being asked to pay for their security where they're doing private engagements and earnings, which is unacceptable,' he said. 'They're going to be in Canada and often not together so the costs are going to be astronomical.'

Meanwhile, journalist Penny Junor took a difference stance.

'I think this is a very tricky issue,' she said. 'If Harry and Meghan are living as private citizens then I entirely understand that the Canadians should not want to pay for their protection,' she said.

'It is equally understandable that the British taxpayer might resent paying for it, given that they are no longer working royals. On the other hand, Harry did not ask to be born into the royal family - so he is not like any other celebrity, who quite rightly pays for his/her own security - so he is a target.

'And his service in Afghanistan makes him a particularly high value target for terrorists. So he does need protection. And in my view, we should pay for it.'

There are precedents covering their own costs, with Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson paying for a team of former Met officers to protect their daughters, Eugenie and Beatrice.

Princess Diana also paid for her own security costs, although many experts say her decision to abandon Scotland Yard professionals may have contributed to her death in a car chauffeured by a drunk driver.

In a statement, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said yesterday: 'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex choosing to relocate to Canada on a part-time basis presented our government with a unique and unprecedented set of circumstances.

'The RCMP has been engaged with officials in the UK from the very beginning regarding security considerations.

'As the duke and duchess are currently recognised as internationally protected persons, Canada has an obligation to provide security assistance on an as-needed basis.

'At the request of the Metropolitan Police, the RCMP has been providing assistance to the Met since the arrival of the duke and duchess to Canada intermittently since November 2019.

'The assistance will cease in the coming weeks, in keeping with their change in status.'

Buckingham Palace said today: 'We do not comment on the details of security arrangements. There are well established independent processes to determine the need for publicly-funded security.'

Harry shakes hands with Jon Bon Jovi Abbey Road studios this morning before recording a duet

The Duke and Duchess released a hostile statement on the weekend after the Queen informed them they would no longer be allowed to use the word 'Royal' to refer to themselves

The Sussex Royal Instagram page shared a video of Harry singing with the star, but the video cut out before Harry could be heard

Prince Harry greets Justin Trudeau in the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace in London during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in April 2018. Mr Trudeau had previously promised that the couple would be safe when in Canada

The Duchess of Sussex, then Meghan Markle, speaks to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the One Young World summit in Ottowa in September 2016. Mr Trudeau previously said that any security arrangements for the couple would be confidential

Harry and Meghan spent their first Christmas with baby Archie at this 10million waterfront mansion on Vancouver Island in Canada

Who will foot the bill for Meghan and Harry's security costs? The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RMCP) yesterday revealed that they will cease to provide security for Meghan and Harry once they officially step back from their royal duties. Canadian officials said that this had been a deal that was brokered with the Met Police in London. In their roles as senior royals, the couple had their security paid for by the state and once they step back from these officials roles in the coming weeks it has not yet been clear as to who will foot the bill. According to the Royals' 2018-2019 financial reports, physical security is not covered by the Sovereign Grant. The costs are likely to fall on British taxpayers even when the prince and the former actress move to Canada on a permanent basis. This could be due to the fact that Harry has been a high-value target since serving in the military. But Prince Harry is still set to receive money from his father from the Duchy Estate and could use these funds to pay to keep his family safe. Harry is worth an estimated 30million, made up partly from funds left in a trust to him by his mother, Princess Diana, inheritance from the Queen Mother (which reportedly included her jewels) and partly from his earnings as a captain of the Army. Advertisement

The decision puts the globe-trotting couple in a potentially explosive predicament.

As recently as last Friday, when they updated their personal website, the Sussexes were adamant they are legally entitled to year-round police protection.

In a statement they said: 'It is agreed that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will continue to require effective security to protect them and their son.

'This is based on the duke's public profile by virtue of being born into the Royal Family, his military service, the duchess's own independent profile, and the shared threat and risk level documented specifically over the last few years.'

But with Canada now refusing to help, the responsibility for protecting the Sussexes will be placed solely at the feet of the Metropolitan Police  and UK taxpayers.

The only other option would be for the couple to agree to pay for their own security guards.

Some have suggested they might accept the kind of arrangement favoured by Tony Blair, who pays for his own bodyguards for lucrative foreign business trips.

But the duke and duchess appear unwilling to do this, given the strength of their recent statement. Dai Davies, who led the Met's royalty protection unit, said: 'It's the first time in 300 years of royalty protection that anyone has ever done this to a member of the Royal Family.

The Duke of Sussex released this photograph of him with baby Archie on New Year's Eve, while the family were in Canada

Police in Canada have today revealed that they will stop paying Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's security costs after the pair officially step back from royal life (the couple are pictured above in London last month)

The couple insisted in their statement last week that they need security 'to protect them and their son' amid controversy surrounding protection costs

'Just call me Harry!': Prince DROPS his royal title as he returns to Britain without Meghan to launch an eco-friendly tourism firm in Edinburgh - after arriving by train The Duke of Sussex this week embarked on his final round of engagements as a senior working royal as he launched a new eco-friendly travel firm in Edinburgh - and asked delegates 'just to call him Harry'. Prince Harry, who will step down as a senior royal in less than five weeks, is in the Scottish capital for a 'working summit' of the Travalyst partnership, which will feature a grading system for users to track their carbon emissions. Before he took to the stage on Wednesday, host Ayesha Hazarika, a former Labour adviser, said: 'He's made it clear that we are all just to call him Harry. So ladies and gentlemen, please give a big, warm, Scottish welcome to Harry.' Asking to be addressed simply as Harry, he said the industry in Scotland was at the forefront of making the sector greener Harry flew to Britain from Canada on a commercial flight earlier this week and arrived in Edinburgh on an eco-friendly LNER train from London King's Cross station, with taxpayer-funded Scotland Yard bodyguards. The 35-year-old Duke, who is officially known as the Earl of Dumbarton when in Scotland, has been stung by criticism over the past six months of his frequent use of private jets while campaigning on environmental issues. Advertisement

'There are two options now for them and us: that the Met will carry on guarding them and footing the bill, which is unacceptable to many, or they agree a system where they make a contribution to the costs personally.

'But their statement doesn't seem to suggest they would wish to do that. With budgets straining at the moment, this is a huge problem that the Met will have to get a grip on and quickly.'

It was previously reported that Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau had given the UK a commitment that his government would contribute to the costs, although this was never confirmed. Recent polls found that only one in five Canadians believes paying for the couple's security is an appropriate use of state funds.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation delivered an 80,000-signature petition to Mr Trudeau's office opposing footing the bill. There has been similar opposition in the UK. Buckingham Palace and the Met refused to comment last night, and it was clear Scotland Yard had been caught unawares by the Canadian statement.

Scotland Yard is already carrying out a full review of security for the duke and duchess.

A joint committee made up of the Home Secretary, the Met's royalty protection command chief, and palace officials are assessing whether their 24-hour protection should continue.

Mr Davies has estimated the bill will exceed 1million a year for their close protection team and extra uniformed police required on engagements.

He said the cost of each officer will reach 100,000 for salary, overtime, overseas allowance, pensions, flights and accommodation.

Harry is in the UK completing his last official engagements as a senior royal, and will be joined by Meghan next week. Today he will record a charity single for his Invictus Games Foundation with rock star Jon Bon Jovi at Abbey Road Studios in London.

Prince Harry was seen carrying his own suit through Edinburgh Waverley earlier this week (left) after arriving with his team (right). The team are believed to be part of his UK security team that is funding by the UK taxpayer

Harry and Meghan's statement on their website in full AS AGREED AND SET OUT IN JANUARY 2020: It is agreed that the commencement of the revised role of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will take effect Spring 2020 and undergo a 12 month review. The Royal Family respect and understand the wish of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex to live a more independent life as a family, by removing the supposed 'public interest' justification for media intrusion into their lives. They remain a valued part of Her Majesty's family. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will become privately funded members of The Royal Family with permission to earn their own income and the ability to pursue their own private charitable interests. The preference of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex was to continue to represent and support Her Majesty The Queen albeit in a more limited capacity, while not drawing on the Sovereign Grant. While there is precedent for other titled members of the Royal Family to seek employment outside of the institution, for The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, a 12-month review period has been put in place. Per the agreement The Duke and Duchess of Sussex understand that they are required to step back from Royal duties and not undertake representative duties on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen. As agreed and set out in January, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will retain their 'HRH' prefix, thereby formally remaining known as His Royal Highness The Duke of Sussex and Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Sussex. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will no longer actively use their HRH titles as they will no longer be working members of the family as of Spring 2020. As the grandson of Her Majesty and second son of The Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex remains sixth in line to the throne of The British Monarchy and the Order of Precedence is unchanged. It was agreed that The Duke and Duchess will no longer be able to formally carry out 'official duties' for The Queen or represent The Commonwealth, but they will, however, be allowed to maintain their patronages (including those that are classified as 'royal' patronages). It is agreed that The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will continue to require effective security to protect them and their son. This is based on The Duke's public profile by virtue of being born into The Royal Family, his military service, the Duchess' own independent profile, and the shared threat and risk level documented specifically over the last few years. No further details can be shared as this is classified information for safety reasons. In relation to the military, The Duke of Sussex will retain the rank of Major, and honorary ranks of Lieutenant Commander, and Squadron Leader. During this 12-month period of review, The Duke's official military appointments will not be used as they are in the gift of the Sovereign. No new appointments will be made to fill these roles before the 12-month review of the new arrangements is completed. While per the agreement, The Duke will not perform any official duties associated with these roles, given his dedication to the military community and ten years of service he will of course continue his unwavering support to the military community in a non-official capacity. As founder of the Invictus Games, The Duke will proudly continue supporting the military community around the world through the Invictus Games Foundation and The Endeavour Fund. Based on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's desire to have a reduced role as members of The Royal Family, it was decided in January that their Institutional Office would have to be closed, given the primary funding mechanism for this official office at Buckingham Palace is from HRH The Prince of Wales. The Duke and Duchess shared this news with their team personally in January once they knew of the decision, and have worked closely with their staff to ensure a smooth transition for each of them. Over the last month and a half, The Duke and Duchess have remained actively involved in this process, which has understandably been saddening for The Duke and Duchess and their loyal staff, given the closeness of Their Royal Highnesses and their dedicated team. As The Duke and Duchess will no longer be considered full-time working Members of The Royal Family, it was agreed that use of the word 'Royal' would need to be reviewed as it pertains to organisations associated with them in this new regard. More details on this below. ADDITIONAL DETAILS: As shared in early January on this website, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not plan to start a 'foundation', but rather intend to develop a new way to effect change and complement the efforts made by so many excellent foundations globally.

The creation of this non-profit entity will be in addition to their cause driven work that they remain deeply committed to. While The Duke and Duchess are focused on plans to establish a new non-profit organisation, given the specific UK government rules surrounding use of the word 'Royal', it has been therefore agreed that their non-profit organisation will not utilise the name 'Sussex Royal' or any other iteration of 'Royal.'

For the above reason, the trademark applications that had been filed as protective measures and that reflected the same standard trademarking requests as done for The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have been removed.

While there is not any jurisdiction by The Monarchy or Cabinet Office over the use of the word 'Royal' overseas, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not intend to use 'Sussex Royal' or any iteration of the word 'Royal' in any territory (either within the UK or otherwise) when the transition occurs Spring 2020.

As The Duke and Duchess of Sussex continue to develop their non-profit organisation and plan for their future, we hope that you use this site as the source for factual information. In Spring 2020, their digital channels will be refreshed as they introduce the next exciting phase to you. Advertisement

The countdown to Megxit: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle last five engagements - including joining the Queen on Commonwealth Day - before their time as working royals ends on March 31

By Mark Duell for MailOnline

The countdown to Megxit is now on with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex due to step down as working royals in a matter of weeks.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will take part in just five more engagements before they officially step down on March 31 and close their Buckingham Palace office.

However, their final official engagement is expected to be as soon as March 9, when they will join the Queen at Westminster Abbey to mark Commonwealth Day.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are pictured leaving Canada House in London on January 7

Both Harry, 35, and Meghan, 38, will return to the UK over the next two weeks to undertake their final engagements as working royals.

These will be carried out as part of the royal rota system under the scrutiny of national media - print, radio and television  before they withdraw from it.

The Sussexes are living in a mansion on Vancouver Island in Canada with baby Archie  but sources say they see their future in the US.

Other events they will attend will include the Endeavour Fund Awards on March 5 and the Mountbatten Music Festival at the Royal Albert Hall two days later.

The couple have been told to drop their 'Sussex Royal' label, despite setting up a flashy new website to complement their popular Instagram feed under the title.

The Queen and senior officials are believed to have agreed it is no longer tenable for the couple to keep the word 'royal' in their 'branding'.

Harry will retain his military ranks of major, lieutenant commander and squadron leader but will not use his honorary military positions.

The roles will remain unfilled during an agreed 12-month trial period, leaving the door open for him to return. Harry will also remain sixth in line to the throne.

Both Harry and Meghan will return to the UK over the next two weeks to undertake their final engagements as working royals.

Here is a guide to what their final six engagements will be before they step down:

March 5: Endeavour Fund Awards (Harry and Meghan)

Six days later the couple will attend the Endeavour Fund Awards which recognises wounded, injured or sick military personnel and veterans who have gone on to use sport and adventurous challenges as part of their recovery and rehabilitation.

Harry has attended every ceremony since the inaugural one in 2017, which he went to with his brother William. He went to the event in 2018 and 2019 with Meghan.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex pose with nominees and guests at the Endeavour Fund Awards at Drapers' Hall in London on February 7, 2019

The Endeavour Fund was led by his and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's Royal Foundation which saw them step up the drive to help wounded service personnel.

The Fund has brought about programmes such as Climb2Recovery, led by former Royal Engineer Neil Heritage Team Endeavour Racing, which was started by former Infantryman Stu Croxford and carried on by Royal Engineer veteran Brian Seggie.

Harry speaks to guests at a reception for the Endeavour Fund at St James's Palace in 2015

It has also resulted in an expedition to Oman organised by a veteran Rifleman, Matt Fisher, which saw him and the team spend several days crossing the desert with Fund ambassador Levison Wood.

Harry has said of the Fund: 'I am continually amazed by the tenacity, fortitude and unshakable humour displayed by the men and women who sign up to run races, cross oceans, climb mountains or take on challenges few would even contemplate.'

March 6: Silverstone Experience (Harry)

The following day, Harry will join British Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton at the official opening of the Silverstone Experience.

The much-anticipated museum - which the Duke has been backing for years - will tell the story of the past, present and future of British motor racing.

Prince Harry (right) meets racing drivers Jenson Button (left), Lewis Hamilton (second right) and former F1 World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart (second left) at Silverstone in July 2011

Harry official launched the project for the 19.3million visitor attraction in March 2018 and is the patron of the museum in Northamptonshire.

It was built inside a former Wellington bomber hanger located within the grounds of the track and officials hope it more than 500,000 people a year will visit.

Prince Harry, his cousin George McCorquodale and his mother Princess Diana are shown the workings of a Williams F1 car at Silverstone by driver David Coulthard in July 1994

Harry had promised it would be 'an exhilarating attraction, based here at the home of British motorsport and I'm sure it will help to engage children in engineering'.

Harry is a big F1 fan, and congratulated Hamilton on his title win in November 2014 by telling him on the radio: 'Lewis, you're an absolute legend. Well done mate.'

March 7: Mountbatten Music Festival (Harry and Meghan)

The couple will also attend the Mountbatten Music Festival at the Royal Albert Hall, which see the Royal Marines showcase their musicianship and pageantry.

The festival takes places over two days - March 6 and March 7 - at the venue in London, with Harry expected to attend the Saturday evening performance.

The Duke of Sussex at the Mountbatten Festival of Music at the Royal Albert Hall in March 2019

Last year's concert saw the Marine bands performed a range of different songs, including versions of popular hits by Take That and the Greatest Showman.

The 2019 event also marked the 75th anniversary of D-Day. All proceeds from the concert this year will again go to The Royal Marines Charity and CLIC Sargent.

The Massed Bands of the Royal Marines perform at the Mountbatten Festival of Music last year

This event will also be Harry's last engagement as Captain-General of the Royal Marines, before he loses this title as he steps down as a senior royal.

The couple will continue to be known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, as well as by the Earl and Countess of Dumbarton and the Baron and Baroness of Kilkeel.

March 8: International Women's Day (Meghan)

Meghan is expected to undertake an engagement to mark International Women's Day on March 8, although no specifics have yet been revealed.

Speaking on a panel to mark International Women's Day last year, she said she would like her first child to be a feminist, regardless of whether they are a girl or a boy.

Meghan speaks at a panel in London in March 2019 with model Adwoa Aboah (left) and former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (right) to mark International Women's Day last year

Speaking on a panel to mark International Women's Day, Meghan said she had recently been watching a documentary on feminism.

She told an audience at King's College London last March: 'One of the things they said during pregnancy was 'I feel the embryonic kicking of feminism'.'

In March 2018, Harry and Meghan took part in an International Women's Day event in Birmingham to encourage young women to pursue careers in Stem subjects

Meghan has spoken about how noticed during a school assignment that an advert for a dishwashing detergent suggested women do all the cleaning.

She complained about it in a letter to Proctor and Gamble when she was aged just 11, and the firm responded by changing a line in the advert.

In 2018, Harry and Meghan took part in an International Women's Day event in Birmingham to encourage young women to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subjects.

March 9: Commonwealth Service (Harry and Meghan)

Harry and Meghan will both attend the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey the next day with the Queen and other senior members of the Royal Family.

Earlier this month it was revealed that the Queen had requested that Harry and Meghan attend the annual service with the rest of the royals.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (left) with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (right) as they attend the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey on March 11 last year

The event will likely see the Duke and Duchess of Sussex reunite with Prince William and Kate, a year after they were pictured smiling together at the 2019 service.

But the Sussexes have severed professional ties with the Cambridges by pulling out of the Kensington Palace household and their joint charitable foundation.

Prince Harry and Meghan arrive for the Commonwealth Day service in London in March 2019

At last year's event, Harry and Meghan were seated beside Prince Andrew, who has left his royal duties after an interview about his paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein.

The 2019 service included performances by the Dhol Foundation drummers, Clean Bandit, William Barton on the didgeridoo, tenor Alfie Boe and the B Positive choir.

Commonwealth Day has been celebrated since 1977 annually on the second Monday in March, celebrating the historic ties Britain has with the 53 other countries.
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday said a delegation led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray would meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah to demand caste-based census to calculate the exact population of Other Backward Classes (OBC) to ensure effective welfare schemes for underprivileged communities.

"An all-party delegation of Maharashtra led by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah to demand caste-based census to calculate OBC population for better and effective planning of welfare schemes for them," said Pawar in the Assembly.

Maharashtra has become the third state after Odisha and Bihar to back a caste-based census.

The Maharashtra Assembly has demanded a caste-based census of OBCs to ensure fair allotment of quotas in government jobs and educational institutions for underprivileged communities.

Speaking in the Assembly, several Maharashtra ministers said the state government should take initiative for caste-based census if the Centre was not willing to accept the demand for the same.

On February 18, the Odisha Assembly passed the Odisha State Backward Classes (Amendment) Bill. The move will enable the state's Backward Class Commission to conduct a survey for identifying socially and economically backward classes on the basis of socio-educational status.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Theres a reason Pete Buttigieg visited Turlock on his latest swing through California: Campaigning in such out-of-the-way places could be his only hope of preventing a Bernie Sanders sweep of Democratic delegates in Tuesdays state primary.

Buttigieg gave his stump speech before 700 people at the Stanislaus County Democratic Party fundraising dinner this month because Turlock and swing spots like it can help candidates trailing Sanders in left-leaning coastal cities pick up delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Candidates who amass enough delegates could block the Vermont senator from getting the partys nomination on the first ballot, even if they dont have the totals themselves to be nominated.

No party convention has gone past a first ballot since 1952. The endgame, if it happens this year at the Democratic get-together in Milwaukee, is anyones guess.

Buttigieg can get at least some of the four delegates allotted to Turlocks 10th Congressional District if he wins at least 15% of the votes cast there, the threshold for gaining any delegates. Its the same story in all of Californias 53 congressional districts, where roughly two-thirds of Californias 415 pledged delegates will be awarded.

Candidates can also win some of the 144 delegates awarded on a statewide basis, if they hit the 15% line.

Buttigieg and the rest of the Democrats need all the help they can get. None of them hit 15% in the latest Public Policy Institute of California survey of voters likely to take part in the Democratic primary. With 32% of the vote, according to the survey, Sanders is primed to score a big win in California, leaving only a few delegates for his competitors to scoop up.

There is a world, a very likely world, that Sanders and maybe only one other candidate hit that 15% statewide and a bunch of candidates get 14%, 13%, 12%, said Addisu Demissie, who managed New Jersey Sen. Cory Bookers presidential campaign. Getting 13% is functionally getting zero because youre just not going to get any delegates.

That is the dream scenario for Sanders, the nightmare scenario for others, Demissie told The Chronicles Its All Political podcast. But a very likely scenario.

Thirteen other states also vote on Super Tuesday, including Texas, where polls show Sanders leading. Victories there and in California could give him the inside track to win the Democratic nomination.

California is going to decide whether Bernie Sanders is the nominee, Dan Pfeiffer, former White House communications chief under President Barack Obama, told Its All Political. If he wins this state by eight to 10 points, he could net 100 delegates over the other person. And the way Democrats award delegates proportionally (in every state), if you have 100-delegate lead, it is really hard to come back from that.

Sanders has hardly ignored inland California. His first campaign appearance away from the coast was nearly a year ago, and many of his 23 offices are in predominantly Latino neighborhoods in the Central Valley and the Inland Empire.

But Stanislaus County Democratic Party chair Jessica Self said more centrist candidates stand a good chance of slicing into his lead by winning inland districts up and down the state, where Democrats tend not to be as far to the left as their coastal brethren.

If you were a smaller candidate who couldnt keep up with Bernie in Los Angeles or the Bay Area, were a great option, said Self, who has not endorsed a candidate.

Nearly all the Democratic candidates have spent time in the Bay Area and Los Angeles with donors at high-dollar fundraisers. But California Democratic Party chair Rusty Hicks said candidates have also ventured to less-traveled spots.

Proportional delegate allocation results in numerous candidates making their way to far-flung reaches of the state, Hicks said. To have a candidate in Stockton or Redding or Riverside is something we would not have seen in prior years.

Hicks added, Its good for the party, and it is good for the candidates to be speaking to our incredibly large, diverse population.

Several candidates and their surrogates have strayed off the well-worn fundraiser path in pursuit of outlying delegates. On Thursday, former Vice President Joe Bidens wife, Jill Biden, traveled to Fresno City College. Tom Steyer has organized climate change events in Oxnard, Riverside and the Imperial Valley. Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg made campaign stops in Stockton and Fresno. Bloombergs longtime partner, Diana Taylor, spoke Thursday to the Democrats of Rossmoor in Walnut Creek.

Last weekend, Buttigieg supporters hosted 130 events in 47 congressional districts in California. The former South Bend, Ind., mayor is airing TV ads in some of those districts where he is on the bubble of hitting the 15% threshold, said Michael Halle, a senior adviser to Buttigieg.

But few candidates other than billionaires like Bloomberg or Steyer can afford much TV advertising in a state where it costs around $4 million a week to make an impression. So Buttigieg is also targeting online ads at potential supporters in swing districts, Halle said. He also plans short interviews with local TV stations over the next few days.

Gaining a point or a point-and-a-half in some of these places where we are on the bubble will have an outsized impact, Halle said. When youre not Mike Bloomberg, you cant do everything everywhere.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
ABC serial The Heights returns for its second season in March, now in a new timeslot.

The 30 part series will air as a single episode weekly on Thursday nights.

Most of the cast return, however this season (in true soap style) Rupert Reid takes over the role of Pav from Marcus Graham.

The Heights, series one was a hit with critics and fans. The Guardian called it a warm, complex and credible Australian soap opera, and an engaged and loyal viewer base unashamedly shared their praise on social media at #theheightstv. The series successfully cultivated diversity both in front of and behind the camera and authentically presents the real face of Australia today. The series has created exceptional professional development opportunities for both cast and crew alike and has received numerous awards and nominations.

The slice of life serial drama series centres on the inner-city neighbourhood of Arcadia Heights, exploring the relationships between the residents of the Arcadia social housing tower and the people who live in the rapidly gentrifying community that surrounds it. The series presents a medley of characters, cultures, classes and backgrounds from the tower community, exploring the relationships, work lives and everyday challenges faced by its characters in an entertaining relationship drama series.

Series two will continue to showcase the life-affirming, family-friendly storytelling audiences have come to expect as we dive even deeper into the world of The Heights. As the show continues its balance of heart, humour and truth, well see favourite characters continue to pull together to triumph over whatever life throws at them. Well see relationships strain and falter, friendships tested, and new love blossom as we continue to celebrate the varied and wonderful fabric of modern inner-city Australia and shine a light on the universal connections and commonalities that exist between us all.

Cast returning for The Heights Series Two include: Shari Sebbens (The Sapphires, Thor: Ragnarok), Roz Hammond (Muriels Wedding, The Dish, Shaun Micallefs Mad As Hell and Thank God Youre Here), Fiona Press (Home and Away, San Andreas), Dan Paris (Neighbours), Calen Tassone (Red Dog: True Blue, Black Comedy), Saskia Hampele (Neighbours, A Few Less Men), Phoenix Raei (Stateless, Wentworth Prison, Romper Stomper, Australia Day), Yazeed Daher (The Hunting, Safe Harbour, Anzac Girls) with newcomers from Series one  Bridie McKim, Mitchell Bourke, Koa Nuen, Cara McCarthy, Briallen Clarke and Carina Hoang, all returning.

Exciting new additions to the ensemble cast are Rupert Reid (The Matrix Revolutions, The Matrix Reloaded, Blue Heelers, Winners and Losers, NCIS) and Kelton Pell (Three Summers, Gods of Wheat Street, Cloudstreet) who was a regular in Series 1.

Returning regular guests include Alex Williams (Friday on My Mind, Brock, Underground: The Julian Assange Story) and Asher Yasbincek (Rams).

Thursdays at 8pm from March 12 on ABC.

Updated.
There have been 61 confirmed cases in the U.S., according to the CDC, including two in the Chicago area. A woman who returned from a visit to Wuhan, China, in January gave the virus to her husband in the first known case of person-to-person coronavirus transmission in the U.S., according to the CDC. The couple has since been released from a hospital in northwest suburban Hoffman Estates.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 02:04:16|Editor: Wang Yamei

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A boat with refugees and migrants arrives at Skala Sikaminias, on the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece, Feb. 29, 2020. Greek authorities suspended the operation of the customs post on the land border with Turkey on Friday, as groups of refugees and migrants were gathering on the Turkish side of the border, Greek national news agency AMNA reported. More than one million refugees and migrants have reached Greece since 2015, mainly coming from Turkish shores, seeking refuge in Europe from war and poverty. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

ATHENS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Greek authorities suspended the operation of the customs post on the land border with Turkey on Friday, as groups of refugees and migrants were gathering on the Turkish side of the border, Greek national news agency AMNA reported.

About 400 people had queued the other side of Kastanies customs post, following press reports said Turkey decided to open its border gates after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed during an airstrike in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib on Thursday.

Turkish media reports saying that Turkey decided to no longer stop them from reaching Europe after the death of 33 Turkish soldiers in an airstrike in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib Thursday.

Greek police forces used tear gas to disperse a group of people who attempted to cross the borderline.

"I want to be clear: no illegal entries into Greece will be tolerated. We are increasing our border security," Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted on Friday.

"Greece does not bear any responsibility for the tragic events in Syria and will not suffer the consequences of decisions taken by others. I have informed the European Union of the situation," he added.

On Friday, Mitsotakis also had a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the situation in Turkey and the movement of refugees to the Greek borders and briefed her on the initiatives taken by the Greek government, according to an e-mailed press statement issued from his office.

The Greek leader announced on Thursday that Greece was upgrading border controls to address the flows and the coronavirus spread. Greece has reported four confirmed COVID-19 cases so far.

On Friday, Greek police forces on the land border with Turkey were also increased, AMNA reported.

More than one million refugees and migrants have reached Greece since 2015, mainly coming from Turkish shores, seeking refuge in Europe from war and poverty.

Most of the migrants continued their trip to central and northern European countries until the Balkan route via Greece's northern borders was sealed in 2016, when an EU-Turkey agreement aimed to stem the influx was reached.

Despite a dramatic drop in numbers for several months, tens of thousands of people continue risking their lives to reach Greece each year, according to official data.

More than 42,000 refugees and migrants are currently on five Greek islands, according to Greek Citizen Protection statistics.
Essence, a global data and measurement-driven media agency which is part of GroupM, has been awarded integrated media duties for cosmetic brand Faces Canada in India. Led out of Essences Delhi office, the Faces Canada business will be supported by the agencys teams, including media planning, media investment, media activation, content and e-commerce.

With a Canadian heritage spanning over 40 years, Faces Canada offers an exclusive line of makeup and skincare products. Its portfolio includes a wide range of globally acclaimed cosmetics which have been designed to suit every ethnicity, as well as skin type, tone, complexion and texture. Its products are cruelty-free and hypoallergenic.

Faces Canada entered the India market in 2009. Its products are currently available in over 140 cities and towns, at over 1,450 cosmetic retail stores and select modern trade outlets across the country. Over the years, the brand has also established its presence on e-commerce sites and is now available across major online retailers such as Nykaa, Amazon and Flipkart.

Consumers are moving increasingly towards digital for both discovery and decision-making. By partnering with Essence, we look forward to aggressively strengthening our presence and portfolio online, and accelerating our growth, said Alpesh Ashar, Chief Operating Officer, Faces Canada.

Combining international cosmetic technology with comprehensive local consumer understanding, the brand is also known for its unique product innovations and formulations.

Faces Canada has a reputation for on-trend, premium beauty products, and continuously innovates to offer high performance and world-class cosmetics. At Essence, we share a similar commitment to constantly improve our delivery to our clients, with our pioneering use of data, analytics and technology, as well as culture of experimentation. We are excited to partner with Faces Canada to help build the brand and drive growth with our integrated, full-service media offering, said Anand Chakravarthy, Managing Director, India, Essence.

Faces Canada will be the latest addition to Essences diverse portfolio of clients in India, which include Airtel, Britannia, Flipkart, Google, Honda Motorcycles and Scooters, Livspace, Vedantu, Wakefit and ZEE5. Essences continued growth in India and across APAC represents the regions increasing investment in transformational, data-driven approaches to marketing and advertising that creates value for consumers.
Stan Pavlovsky, the No. 2 executive at the photo service Shutterstock, sounded frustrated. At what was supposed to be a celebration of a significant company milestone in December, employees instead focused on what had become an increasingly sensitive topic within the company: censorship and China.

Months earlier, at the request of the Chinese government, Shutterstock had begun censoring a few searches by users based in China for politically volatile subjects like "Taiwan flag."

Shutterstock employees who disagreed with the blacklist on free speech grounds kept asking about it at every big internal meeting. So, that day, Pavlovsky told them they were free to seek jobs elsewhere.

"The beauty of where we live and where we work is that we're free to make those choices," Pavlovsky told employees at the meeting at Shutterstock's offices, according to a recording of the meeting posted to a company internal website and heard by NBC News.

"And so, you know, it's a great market," he continued, "and employees have a lot of opportunities to work here, to work elsewhere, and we are very supportive when employees do not feel that this is the right place for them, to pursue other opportunities."

The reaction was shock for the more than 180 Shutterstock employees  about 20 percent of the company  who had signed a petition opposing the Chinese request even at the risk of the company's losing access to a potentially lucrative market, according to an employee who said they were at the meeting.

"Several people were like, 'Whoa, he just told us all to quit?'" said the employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing possible retaliation.

It was a sign that a monthslong uproar at Shutterstock  a small, tightly knit company known for its cache of offbeat, extremely specific stock photos and video  wasn't fading away, reflecting broader conflicts swirling around tech companies, free speech and worker activism.

Story continues

Shutterstock declined to comment on the internal recording specifically. In a statement to NBC News on Wednesday, however, Pavlovsky expressed similar sentiments. He said the company welcomes all voices and opinions from employees on a variety of topics and that it also respects employees who decide to leave the company after a fundamental disagreement.

Image: Stan Pavlovsky in 2016

"While a small group of employees expressed concern for this matter, many others have proactively communicated their appreciation for our handling of the topic and that they understood our decision," he said.

On average, Americans probably see Shutterstock's photos more than they realize. Founded in 2003 in the wake of the first internet bubble, the site provides an essential service to online journalists and advertisers by giving them a way to illustrate stories and advertisements. It recorded $651 million in sales last year, competing with the likes of Getty Images and Adobe Stock, and it paid a worldwide network of photographers for their work.

Similar scenes of worker unrest have played out in many U.S. tech companies as the dream of expansion to China and its growing market has run into the reality of employees who are increasingly wary of the tools they're being asked to build.

While the tension has played out publicly at major tech companies, including Google and Facebook, it's something that even Shutterstock, an under-the-radar company by tech standards, is having to face.

But companies have also grown more comfortable telling employees that they will have to learn to accept certain decisions. The heads of Microsoft and Amazon have pushed back on some employee efforts to abandon projects on ethical grounds, while Google has fired some employees who were workplace organizers, accusing them of misusing company resources.

"We really had very few brushes with these sorts of ethical problems in the past," said Stefan Hayden, a software engineer who left Shutterstock in December. He said he lost trust in its management over its decision to filter China searches and what he described as the secrecy around it. He worked there for nine years, more than half of Shutterstock's existence.

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At least two more employees have left Shutterstock in protest of the company's not making more of a stand on human rights, Hayden and a current employee said, bringing the total number of departures to three. More employees are considering doing the same, two current employees said. The company has more than 1,000 employees, according to its most recent annual report.

"People feel management doesn't listen to them," a current employee said, expressing fear of retaliation for speaking publicly.

"By helping the Chinese government, we're an enabler, and that's something that really bothers me," the employee said, citing China's record on human rights, including its widely condemned treatment of ethnic Uighurs.

Shutterstock has endured an up-and-down existence since its stock began trading publicly in 2012. The company offers photographers a platform on which they can earn money by uploading photos, and in December it announced that it had paid out $1 billion to its contributors  a landmark it celebrated the day Pavlovsky spoke about people being free to leave.

But the company has faced challenges. Most recently, it reported a 63 percent decrease in net income for 2019 compared to the year before, to go with 4 percent revenue growth. The company said in its fourth-quarter earnings statement that rising marketing expenses, including in cybersecurity and data science, were the cause of the shortfall.

Pavlovsky, who was the chief operating officer, has been promoted since the December meeting. Shutterstock said this month that he'll be elevated to CEO in April, succeeding the company's founder, Jon Oringer, who was one of New York's first tech billionaires.

Heidi Garfield, Shutterstock's general counsel, said in an interview that the company doesn't want employees to leave over the China issue or any other similar disagreement.

"It's important to us that we have diverse views, and that diversity of thought is generally quite beneficial for the company," Garfield said. She said she disagrees with the idea that Shutterstock is pushing out employees who have a difference of opinion.

Oringer has defended the Chinese filtering in a memo to employees, arguing that the downside is outweighed by the benefit of providing up to 1.3 billion Chinese users with access to the vast majority of the company's material. Shutterstock says it has 310 million images on file. (The company has confirmed the authenticity of Oringer's memo.)

China has used its economic leverage to pressure even powerful American institutions like the NBA and Hollywood film studios to censor themselves, and Google has reportedly considered returning to the Chinese market with a censored search engine, sparking employee protests and resignations. Google said this week that it has no plans to launch the project and that no work is being done on it currently.

The Shutterstock situation provides a glimpse of how pressure from China can be subtle.

Shutterstock's road to China began around 2014, when the company struck a deal with the Chinese social network ZCool Network Technology to exclusively distribute Shutterstock images. It was a foothold in a potentially huge market, and Shutterstock invested $15 million in ZCool in 2018.

Last fall, employees at ZCool gave Shutterstock "feedback" that there was a Chinese government request to block politically sensitive searches, Garfield said. She said she never saw a demand in writing but considered it to be a lawful request.

Authorities in Beijing met with executives at ZCool's offices "a number of times" to discuss the issue, a Shutterstock spokesperson said.

The request was to create a blacklist of six banned terms, current and former Shutterstock employees said: "President Xi," "Chairman Mao," "Taiwan flag," "dictator," "yellow umbrella" and "Chinese flag," as well as variations of them. (Yellow umbrellas were a symbol of street protests in 2014.) Shutterstock confirmed the list.

IMAGE: Hong Kong sit-in in 2014

Searches within China for those terms would produce zero results, even if Shutterstock might have thousands of relevant photos or videos.

But the request quickly ran into a problem: The small circle of software engineers who worked on Shutterstock's search tool hesitated, worried about setting a precedent for censorship.

For one of the engineers, the request was personal, three current and former employees said. One of the people who might be tasked to write the lines of computer code that would carry out the order, a Chinese national, asked not to work on the project, the three sources said.

"Even from the beginning, there was a kerfuffle about who exactly was going to do this work," Hayden said.

By mid-September, word spread within the company as more people were copied on emails about the project, leading upper management to make a statement to Shutterstock's engineering group, Hayden said. On the company's internal Slack messaging system, a new channel was created where employees questioned the management's reasoning, he said.

But executives' answers only seemed to inflame concerns, as days later employees began drafting a petition opposing censorship, Hayden said in an account that other former and current employees confirmed.

The internal petition is an increasingly common way for workers at tech companies to get the attention of their managers. And Shutterstock employees said that to write it, they looked for inspiration to their counterparts at Google, who wrote a petition in fighting a censored search engine in China.

"By complying, we are enabling injustices, including the discrimination of the people of Hong Kong, the suppression of Chinese political dissent, and undermining the sovereignty of Taiwanese people," read the Shutterstock petition, first reported by The Intercept. "This first step of building search filters lays open the door to more types of discrimination in the future."

In early October, Shutterstock was scheduled to hold a quarterly meeting with employees where, as often happens at tech companies, senior executives respond to questions that might come their way.

With employees gathered in the company's New York City headquarters, the question of the China policy quickly came up, according to Hayden and two current employees. Executives stood by their decision and were noncommittal about what came next: Shutterstock wouldn't agree to all future censorship requests, and it would evaluate them on a case-by-case basis, weighing the costs and benefits in each case, the three people said.

To some employees, that was the problem: Shutterstock hadn't made the right decision the first time around, so how could it be trusted to do so in the future?

"Where was the line? If the Chinese government asked for the name and contact information for a contributor who was posting inflammatory things, would they give it to them?" one employee said later.

Hayden said he didn't hear any willingness on the part of the company to compromise, and he decided that was too large a breach for him to repair.

"One of the answers we got was that our CEO wants to move on from this topic," he said. "That's when I thought, 'OK, I'll physically move on from the company.'" He said he began searching for a job and found one about a month later.

"It's his company. He can do whatever he wants with it," Hayden said of Oringer, the outgoing CEO, who says he remains Shutterstock's largest shareholder. "But if he wants people to be happy to work there, there has to be some sort of compromise." Oringer didn't respond to an emailed request for comment.

The code was written eventually, and the blacklist was put in place. But more than two months after the petition began circulating, executives were still being pressed on the issue  to management's apparent frustration.

"The culture that we want to build is also one where when leadership makes a decision, we move on. We commit, and we move on," Pavlovsky said at the Dec. 10 internal meeting.

Pavlovsky didn't respond to an emailed interview request, but in his statement Wednesday he echoed his earlier statement: "As a transparent organization, one of our core practices is that once we've had an open and honest conversation on a topic, then we commit and move on."

Chris MacAskill, a co-founder of the photo service SmugMug, said the entire tech sector is wrestling with the limits of the internet to expand freedom of expression, especially as once-small companies grow.

"The big social networks were all started for the most part by young programmers who had a little bit of a libertarian bent," MacAskill said. "The mantra was 'free speech' and 'we're going to liberate the world with free speech.' And as the companies have grown up, they've just had to face reality."

Image: Protests in Taiwan in 2019

Getty Images, which competes with Shutterstock, also distributes material in China through a local partner company, VCG. A search of VCG for "Taiwan flag" produces zero results. Getty spokesman Matt McKibben declined to comment on whether it has received censorship demands from the Chinese government.

Adobe Stock, another competitor, is available in China, and a search on its site in China by NBC News also found zero results for "Taiwan flag." Adobe spokeswoman Anais Gragueb had no immediate comment on the company's censorship practices.

Current and former Shutterstock employees said a main point of frustration remains how little information the company is willing to share, such as how often it receives government orders. Larger tech companies, including Facebook and Google, regularly publish transparency reports laying out where and how often governments ask the company to take down or block content.

Garfield, Shutterstock's general counsel, said the company would consider publishing a similar report, but she said it might not have the staff to do so. "I certainly think that resources are an important consideration for us," she said.

The list of banned Chinese search terms hasn't grown beyond the original list of six, Garfield said, and she said any future request would go through the same internal process of determining, first, whether the request was lawful and, second, what its impact would be on Shutterstock's employees, investors, contributors and other affected parties.

"I don't think it sets a precedent," she said of the China policy. "From my perspective, compliance can take many forms in many different countries."

Shutterstock regularly receives takedown notices from more than 20 countries, not including requests related to intellectual property, the spokesperson said. The countries are primarily in Europe, Australia and North America, with some in South America, and the company addresses hundreds or sometimes thousands of requests a year.

In December, after months of internal debate over China, Shutterstock faced another international content question when Russia blocked its domains over a picture of a miniature Russian flag planted in a pile of feces. Shutterstock limits flag photos by its own worldwide terms and eventually removed the image, but not before expressing regret for not having acted "in a timely manner."

Pavlovsky has since begun holding "office hours" each week for employees who might wish to be heard one on one on any subject, one of the current employees said.

Another Shutterstock employee expressed doubt that the company would take many more steps toward transparency.

"Nothing I've seen up to this point has assured me we would be any less hasty and secretive in the future," the employee said.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Fathi Bachagha , interior minister of the government of national accord, has vowed to take action against the militias in Libya for the chaos they sowed in the country
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Bexar County Sheriff's Office

A Converse woman was arrested Wednesday on child endangerment charges after police said she ignored an 11-year-old relative's claims of sexual abuse, according to an arrest affidavit.

Investigators said the child told Victoria Machuca, 38, on at least three occasions about the sexual abuse by a family friend and family members during a two-year period beginning in 2018, the affidavit said. The court document did not name the family members.
By Azernews





By Akbar Mammadov

Turkish Airlines has suspended flights to Azerbaijans Nakhchivan autonomous region bordering Iran as part of the measures to fight coronavirus, head of the companys Baku office Ilyas Seyfulla told local media.

Noting that four flights to Nakhchivan have so far been suspended by the Turkish Airlines, Ilyas Seyfulla said that along with Nakhchivan, flights to Saudi Arabia and Iran have also been cancelled due to COVID-19 risks.

However, Turkey's national flag carrier will carry flights to Baku and Ganja on the available schedule, Ilyas Seyfulla said.

The Turkish ambassador in Azerbaijan Erkan Ozoral said it was unknown when the flights to Nakhchivan will be resumed.

Since there is no way to control passengers in airlines due to the coronavirus threat, flights to Nakhchivan have been temporarily cancelled Erkan Ozoral clarified.

However, the land boundaries between Turkey and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic are not closed, transport and loads are freely moving, the ambassador said.

It should be mentioned that Azerbaijan still carries flights to Iran that has so far registered 12 coronavirus-relate deaths.

Last week, Press Service of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) reported that the countrys low-cost airline Buta Airways is operating daily flights on the Baku-Tehran-Baku route and plans to continue flights under the current schedule.

He added that Heydar Aliyev International Airport and other airports of Azerbaijan will not impose any restrictions on flights operated by Iran Air, adding that Azerbaijan's Ministry of Health has strengthened the sanitary-quarantine control on arrivals from Iran. Additional measures will be taken in this direction.

Turkey and Pakistan have closed their borders with Iran and other neighbouring countries have placed travel bans to Iran over the virus outbreak in the country.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh visited Andhra Pradesh recently to get information about the 'Disha' Act, which provides for harsher punishments for crimes against women, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray told the state Assembly.

The Thackeray government is mulling bringing a bill in Maharashtra similar to the Andhra Pradesh government's Disha Act.

"State home minister recently visited Andhra Pradesh to know about Disha Act. We have seen Delhi's Nirbhaya case pending since years....we need to change laws urgently," Thackeray said on Thursday in the state Assembly.

Earlier, on Wednesday Deshmukh had said that a bill similar to 'Disha Act' will be tabled in the ongoing Budget session of the state Assembly.

The minister said that under the proposed law, the whole trial of rape cases will be completed in 21 days and there would be provision for stricter punishment including the death penalty.

Replying to a question raised by Opposition over women's security, Deshmukh had said: "Last week, we visited Andhra Pradesh to study the Disha Act. A committee has been formed to constitute law on the lines of the Disha Act. We are in the process of studying it. The committee will submit a draft. We are trying to form the Act by the end of the session."

"Under this law, the conviction of the rape accused will be faster. If sufficient evidence is available against the accused, then the whole trial of the case will be completed in 21 days. This law will also have stringent punishment like the death penalty to the accused," he said.

MP Supriya Sule of the NCP, which is part of the Shiv-Sena led ruling coalition has welcomed the move and said providing security to women is the topmost priority of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government.

The Disha Act 2019, allows stringent punishment for crimes committed against women and enables death penalty for rape and reduces the judgment period in such cases to 21 working days.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Lea DiRusso, the Philadelphia teacher who worked in schools with known asbestos problems, will receive an $850,000 settlement from the city school district. DiRusso, 51, has mesothelioma, an asbestos-linked cancer. Read more

The Philadelphia school board signed off Thursday night on an $850,000 settlement with the teacher diagnosed with an especially lethal form of cancer after 30 years of teaching in city schools now known to have had damaged asbestos.

That the School District agreed to a settlement before a lawsuit was even filed by Lea DiRusso, the 51-year-old special-education teacher diagnosed with mesothelioma in August, is a sign of the gravity of the districts environmental problems and the potential legal liability it faces.

Settlement details were not immediately available, but Sam Meirowitz, the New York-based lawyer who represents DiRusso, said no amount of money can fix the fact that DiRusso has a fatal, asbestos-caused cancer.

While a mesothelioma victim certainly deserves more, we had to overcome very significant legal obstacles under Pennsylvania law in order to make this settlement happen, Meirowitz said Thursday night. State law sets a $250,000 cap on personal injury claims brought against a government entity, although in some cases that figure can go up to $500,000.

DiRusso, who taught at two South Philadelphia elementary schools, Meredith and Nebinger, had hoped to work at least seven more years, but her illness forced her to retire early  a decision that devastated her.

 READ MORE: Read more: Cancer in the classroom

I love getting up in the morning and going to my job, to see my students, DiRusso said in a 2019 Inquirer interview. I feel like it was stolen.

Since her diagnosis, DiRusso has gone through three rounds of chemotherapy and a risky surgery where doctors removed as much of her cancer as possible, then flushed her abdomen with a hot chemotherapy solution.

Heres more from the board meeting:

No to two new charters

Two proposed charter schools were voted down by the board, including one that was strongly opposed by the district high school with which it would have been in direct competition.

Tim Matheney, who proposed the High School of Health Sciences Leadership Charter School, said the school, which would have been in North Philadelphia and focused on partnerships with healthcare organizations and hands-on experiences for students, said there was room in the city for both his charter and Kensington Health Sciences Academy, the traditional public school.

 READ MORE: Read more: District HS fighting against charter application

The city urgently needs schools like the one we propose  both charters and traditional public schools  so that more students are launched toward careers in health care, Matheney told the board. We can extend genuine hope to North Philadelphia families.

The charter received no support from board members. Its proposal, board member Mallory Fix Lopez said, contained many oversights.

The application has not made basic decisions about its program, Fix Lopez said. She praised Kensington Health Sciences Academy, which, she said, is not experimenting. They found the formula to what works.

The board also voted down the Joan Myers Brown Academy, a would-be charter proposed by String Theory Schools. It was the charters second application.

Board President Joyce Wilkerson said she viewed the application with skepticism given the uneven performance of the charter providers existing schools. Its Philadelphia Charter School for Arts and Sciences, formerly a district-run school, struggles academically.

This is clearly not a model that should be replicated in a charter school, Wilkerson said.

Jason Corosanite, a String Theory founder, told the board he believed the performance of the organizations other schools was immaterial to the new charter application.

No spring break for asbestos-interrupted school?

Board members voted down a proposal from district administrators to make some staff affected by asbestos building closures work through their spring break.

Teachers from McClure Elementary, the Hunting Park school whose students lost 15 instructional days over a month because of asbestos problems in their building, turned out in force to protest the districts proposal to take away their spring break to make up for missed days.

Unlike other schools where the district relocated children who had attended buildings closed by asbestos issues, McClure children and teachers were never given an alternative learning site.

 READ MORE: Read more: Parents cope with the practical fallout from Philly's asbestos crisis

I do not think McClure students and staff should be punished by being forced to work through our spring break, said Rachel Boschen, a third grade teacher at the school. She said the staff had proposed the district offer to pay teachers who chose to work through spring break, not penalize those who chose not to, and staff open teaching positions for the week with other district educators who wanted the extra work.

That proposal was rejected, Boschen said.

Ginger McHugh, another McClure teacher, said the staff was ready to work during the days students were out of school.

We were asking for a transition plan. We were reaching out to families," McHugh said. "This was a district issue and building neglect.

Board Vice President Wayne Walker led the charge to reject the administrations proposal for McClure.

It just seems to me that its a hardship created by the district," Walker said. "I hate to deprive them of an opportunity for a break.

Only Wilkerson, Lee Huang, and Angela McIver supported the calendar changes; Walker, Fix Lopez, Leticia Egea-Hinton, Julia Danzy, and Christopher McGinley opposed them.

The administration must now come up with an alternative proposal.
Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga, along with other government officials, has been kept under a 14-day quarantine after returning from a visit to China, the State news agency reported. Battulga is the first Head of State to visit China following the special curbs implemented by Beijing to contain the deadly coronavirus which has claimed more than 2,800 lives worldwide.

The 56-year-old Mongolian leader held a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang during his State visit. Battulga was accompanied by Foreign Minister Tsogtbaatar Damdin and other senior government officials. The whole delegation was taken into quarantine following their return as a precautionary measure.

Mongolia has stepped up its measure to combat and contain the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, and Mongolias National Emergency Commission recently decided to halt all the flights from South Korea. The landlocked country between Russian and China has also blocked entry through its borders until March 2 in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Mongolia.

Seals border with China

Ulaanbaatar has started taking drastic measures as the novel coronavirus pushed beyond Asia and Europe and the Middle East started reporting more cases of the deadly virus. Earlier, Mongolia had blocked all entries through its border with China which also led to the suspension of coal deliveries into the coronavirus-hit nation.

Read: Corona Carnage: Sensex Crashes 1,448 Pts; Rs 5.45 Lakh Cr Investor Wealth Wiped Off

According to the latest report, 44 new deaths in China due to coronavirus infections have been confirmed, taking the total death toll because of the deadly virus to nearly 2,800. While most of the cases are from Hubei province of China and the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, other countries, including Iran, Italy, Japan and the Philippines, have also now reported deaths related to COVID-19.

Read: India Pulls Out Of Shooting World Cup In Cyprus, Citing Novel Coronavirus Threat

New Zealand became the latest country to report its first case of the novel coronavirus which was detected in a person who recently returned from Iran, the country which has reported the most number of deaths due to the deadly virus outside China. New Zealand has announced temporary travel restrictions on travellers arriving from Iran and anyone who has been in Iran in the last 14 days will need to self-isolate.

Read: Mike Pence's Appointment To Lead US' Coronavirus Response Heavily Criticised

Read: Coronavirus Scare: Countries That Have Issued Travel Restrictions And Advisories

(With inputs from agencies)
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India has temporarily suspended visa on arrival services for nationals of Japan and South Korea in view of the surge in the number of coronavirus cases in the two countries, the Indian embassy here said on Friday.

The development comes a day after India evacuated 119 Indians and 5 foreigners who were on board the coronavirus-hit cruise ship, Diamond Princess, moored off the Japanese coast.

Out of the 3,711 people on board the ship, over 700 people tested positive for the disease. Elsewhere in the country, over 160 people have been found to be infected with the disease.

With COVID-19 cases surpassing 2,000, South Korea has become the biggest cluster to have the infections outside China. A total of 13 people have died of the virus in the country.

According to an AFP report, more than 90 per cent of the new cases were in Daegu city, the epicentre of the outbreak in South Korea, and the neighbouring North Gyeongsang province.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

"In view of the recent outbreak of COVID-19, VISA ON ARRIVAL which was available only for nationals of Japan and South Korea has been temporarily suspended," the Indian embassy tweeted.

"Regular visas continue to be processed and may be applied for," it said.

Earlier, India had on February 2 suspended e-visa facility for Chinese travellers and foreigners residing in China following surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

Further tightening the visa rules, India on February 4 cancelled the existing visas for Chinese and foreigners who had visited the country in the last two weeks.

The novel coronavirus emerged in early December and traced to a market in Hubei's capital Wuhan that sold wild animals.

The death toll due to the deadly disease rose to 2,788 in China with 44 more deaths, while the confirmed cases climbed to 78,824, according to Chinese health officials on Friday.
Women's inequality should shame everyone in the 21st century as it is "stupid" and "unacceptable", UN chief Antonio Guterres has said, as he called for removing this stain by ensuring equal participation for all.

Speaking to faculty and students on Thursday at The New School, a university in New York City, the UN chief declared himself a proud feminist and called for men everywhere to support women's rights.

"Just as slavery and colonialism were a stain on previous centuries, women's inequality should shame us all in the 21st century. Because it is not only unacceptable; it is stupid, the Secretary General said



For the UN chief, gender inequality and discrimination against women and girls remains an overwhelming injustice across the globe.

"From the ridiculing of women as hysterical or hormonal, to the routine judgement of women based on their looks; from the myths and taboos that surround women's natural bodily functions, to mansplaining and victim-blaming misogyny is everywhere, he said.

At the heart of the issue is power, as male-dominated power structures underpin everything from national economies, to political systems, to the corporate world and beyond.

But he pointed out that patriarchy also has an impact on men and boys, trapping them in rigid gender stereotypes, declaring that a systemic change is long overdue.

It is time to stop trying to change women, and start changing the systems that prevent them from achieving their potential. Our power structures have evolved gradually over thousands of years. One further evolution is long overdue. The 21st century must be the century of women's equality, he said.

Dismantling gender inequality will transform the world, the UN chief stated, and is critical to solving intractable global challenges such as conflict and violence, and the climate crisis. It also will help close the digital divide, lead to fairer globalization, and increase political representation.

"The opportunity of man-made problems and I choose these words deliberately is that they have human-led solutions, he said.

As the UN turns 75 this year, the global body is taking greater action to support women's rights, he continued.

Last month marked the start of a Decade of Action to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals aimed at building peaceful, prosperous and inclusive societies while also safeguarding the planet.

The Decade of Action is aimed at transforming institutions and structures, broadening inclusion and driving sustainability.

"Repealing laws that discriminate against women and girls; increasing protection against violence; closing the gap in girls' education and digital technology; guaranteeing full access to sexual and reproductive health services and rights, and ending the gender pay gap are just some of the areas we are targeting," he said.

On a personal level, the Secretary-General pledged to deepen his commitment to highlighting and supporting gender equality over the remainder of his mandate.

He will take steps at the global level, such as advocating for change among governments that have discriminatory laws on their books, and within the UN, by strengthening work on the links between violence against women and international peace and security.

Gender equality is a question of power; power that has been jealously guarded by men for millennia. It is about an abuse of power that is damaging our communities, our economies, our environment, our relationships and our health," said Guterres.

"We must urgently transform and redistribute power, if we are to safeguard our future and our planet. That is why all men should support women's rights and gender equality. And that is why I am a proud feminist.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form
And then there were the circumstances of the briefing. The intelligence community works for the president. Yet officials chose to brief Chairman Schiffs House Intelligence Committee on this extraordinarily consequential finding before telling the president.

Whatever the motive, spilling the beans in a room with dozens of people present  intel officials brought a lot of staff with them  increased the chances of precisely the type of leak that occurred.

The whole thing hit the White House by surprise. I have not seen that analysis, national security adviser Robert OBrien told ABC Sunday, referring to the Putin-wants-Trump assessment. Ive been with the leaders of the Intelligence Committee. They dont have it. So if theres some lower-level people at (Office of the Director of National Intelligence) that came in and gave this analysis to the House  look, Id like to see it. But I havent seen it.

Later, just to make matters more difficult, there were leaks that Russia is also trying to help elect Bernie Sanders. The leak left many experts baffled  except to the extent that, with the Trump leak, it seemed to target the intelligence communitys two least-favorite candidates.
Crying the licence plate blues, the red-faced Progressive Conservatives are shifting into reverse and bringing back Ontarios traditional white plates for the time being.

After two weeks of embarrassing headlines over the flawed new double-blue plates that cannot be seen in certain light, the Tories said they would resume distribution of the old plates next Thursday.

Embattled Government and Consumer Services Minister Lisa Thompson, who last week derided the white design as Liberal plates even though they originated with PC premier Bill Davis in 1973, was forced to make the U-turn.

New and improved versions of the enhanced plates should be available from supplier 3M by March 16, but stockpiles of the old white plates will be used up first, Thompson said in a statement Friday.

3M Canada is providing material to the province and testing is being completed by law enforcement and key stakeholders, she added.

Her office insisted the oft-unreadable blue plates are not unsafe.

While the current Ontario licence plate does not pose a safety risk, this action will minimize the number of Ontarians who will need replacement plates.

But it remains unclear whether the revised plates  unveiled with much fanfare in last Aprils budget but not publicly available until this month  will resemble the controversial double-blue motif that has been likened to a Q-tip box.

The new design for the enhanced plate is still in development and undergoing testing, including consultations with all partners, a senior government official told the Star.

We will communicate more details about the enhanced plates as we continue to move forward.

However, the new slogan A Place To Grow, which replaced the white plates Yours To Discover, will remain on the rejigged version.

With Thompson shielded from the media for more than a week now, it was left to Deputy Premier Christine Elliott to clean up the communications mess.

Governments dont always do things perfectly, as you know, Elliott told reporters at Queens Park. The important thing is to acknowledge it, fix it, and then move on.

The Conservatives maintain the revamp will come at no cost to Ontario taxpayers.

Sources say 3M has signed a nondisclosure agreement with the province to conceal how much it will cost the company to replace the 71,000 blue licence plates issued since Feb. 1.

New Democrat MPP Jennifer French (Oshawa) said the Tories have still not explained why the double-blue plates dont work and questioned how the government can claim there are not safety issues.

I dont understand what they see as safe about invisible licence plates, she said. These were rolled out before they were road-tested.

French noted that the government knowingly issued tens of thousands of defective blue license plates all month and will continue issuing the faulty plates for another week.

Sources confide that Premier Doug Ford is furious over the snafu, first identified by a Kingston police officer in a tweet that went viral two weeks ago.

Thompson initially denied any problem and the premier, who ran his familys label-printing company before getting into politics, is unhappy with her damage-control efforts.

Distribution of the much-mocked Tory-blue propaganda plates will cease when Service Ontario centres and kiosks close for business next Wednesday.

Customers who receive white embossed plates in the interim period will not receive new enhanced plates to replace them unless they are damaged, delaminated, lost or stolen, the government said.

Motorists who have received the blue plates will be contacted by mail with instructions on how to get replacement.

The Tories, scrambling to do damage control for more than a week, had previously said replacements would be sent by mail.

Licence plate validation stickers will also be reissued with new plates.

Any remaining stock of the blue plates will be recycled.

The 71,000 botched plates represent less than one per cent of the 7.6 million licence plates issues in Ontario.

Robert Benzie is the Stars Queens Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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It was a Balck Friday on Dalal Street today, with investors losing Rs 4 lakh crore wealth within minutes of opening as Sensex and Nifty slipped 2.85% each marking sixth consecutive session of losses for the indices.

While Sensex was trading 1,133.63 points lower at 38,612.03, Nifty was down 339.90 points at 11,293.40. India VIX, the measure of markets expectation of volatility over the near term, surged 24.43% to 22.105 points in opening trade on NSE.

Following a broad-based fall, 29 out of 30 constituents on BSE Sensex and 48 out of 50 scrips from NSE Nifty traded in the red. Sensex made a low of 38,551.54, while Nifty fell to 11,291.90. Sensex and Nifty's 52-week lows stand at 35,926.94 and 10,637.15, respectively. Sensex has erased 3.50% in one week, 3.40% in one month and 6.43% year-to-date. Nifty has fallen 3.70% in one week, 4% in one month and 7.15% year-to-date.

In terms of sector-based decline on NSE, Nifty metal fell the most, dropping 5.25%, followed by a 4.6% fall in media. IT, PSU bank and realty fell 3.5% each, while pharma, financial services, FMCG declined around 2-3%.

Commenting on the markets trend today, Umesh Mehta, Head of Research, Samco Securities said, "D-Street is also a victim of the virus outbreak in other countries as this pandemic has led to indices across the globe witness a sharp fall this week."

"However, when the entire world is blaming coronavirus for the fall, we feel that valuations have a big part to play in this bearishness," he added and continued that the domestic bourses have been trading around higher valuations and hence a correction was needed to align the markets as per the mean reversion theory.

Santosh Meena, Senior Analyst from TradingBells said, "Equity markets are falling sharply as fear of recession is rising where investors are looking for safe-haven instruments like Yen, US bonds and Gold. The momentum of new coronavirus cases in China is coming down but the number of cases outside China are rising sharply."

1. Virus Pandemic

With new coronavirus cases emerging in China, that has now infected more than 81,000 people and killed over 2,700, policymakers and governments all around the world are taking aggressive steps in order to contain the outbreak and contain the economic downfall.

World Health Organization officials said the COVID-19 virus could become a pandemic as the outbreak spreads to major developed economies and warned that failure to prepare for coronavirus now 'could be a fatal mistake'.

2. Foreign Fund Outflows

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued to be sellers for the fourth straight day. FIIs remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth Rs 3,127.36 crore on Thursday, according to provisional exchange data.

FIIs sold shares worth Rs 3,336.60 crore on Wednesday, Rs 2,315.07 crore on Tuesday and Rs 1,160.90 crore on Monday in the capital market.

3. Oil at 4 year low

Fall in oil price deepened for the sixth straight session on Friday and was on track for about a 12% weekly decline, the biggest in more than four years. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 2.24 per cent to trade at USD 51.01 per barrel.

4. GDP data

Dalal Street is expected to trade highly volatile today as market participants will track third-quarter GDP data and eight-core industries January data, scheduled to be released later in the day.

The general estimates by market experts suggest the Indian economy growing at a pace of 4.7% in the December quarter in the last year.

5. Global Markets

Friday's fall in domestic markets was primarily driven by Asian, European and US indices that dropped around 3-4% and suffered sell-off to the sixth day, after the number of coronavirus cases outside China exceeded those inside the country for the first time.

On Wall Street, while S&P 500 confirmed its fastest correction in history at 4.42% decline, DOW registered a record one-day points drop on Thursday. In the meanwhile, European stocks ended sharply lower at a drop of 3.6% amid virus fears weighing heavily on market investors.

MSCI all-country world index fell 0.3% after 3.3% drop on Thursday. In Asia, MSCI's regional index excluding Japan shed 1.4%.

China, Japan and South Korea all posted heavy losses. Japan's Nikkei gave up 3.3% on rising fears of Olympics cancellation due to the coronavirus, while South Korean shares shed 2.1%. Australian shares also dropped 2.8% to a six-month low.

Oil prices may see biggest fall in four years

Share Market LIVE: Sensex crashes 1,100 points, Nifty sinks below 11,300 as coronavirus fears roil global markets
PRAGUE, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Shareholders of Central European Media Enterprises (CME) approved on Thursday the acquisition of the company by Czech investment group PPF, although a U.S. senator has asked authorities to review the deal.

CME's majority owner, AT&T Inc, said in October it would sell its stake in the broadcaster in a deal valued at about $2.1 billion, having acquired its share through the acquisition of Time Warner in 2018.

CME boosted revenue and profits in recent years as advertising spending rose, with the Czech and Romanian markets its biggest profit drivers. It also operates television stations in Bulgaria, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Senator Marco Rubio asked the Trump administration on Wednesday to review the national security implications of the deal.

Rubio, a Republican who chairs the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China, wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Attorney General William Barr that PPF has a record of acting as "China's proxy inside the Czech Republic".

He added that PPF-owned telecommunication firms are working with Huawei Technologies Co to develop 5G networks.

PPF said in a statement that it appeared Rubio was relying on "false information" from a Czech politician and disputed his characterisation of CME's market. The company said it had only inherited Huawei's technology as part of its acquisition of the Norwegian telcom operator Telenor last year.

Huawei, which denies its equipment poses a security risk, is at the centre of a storm pitting the United States against China over 5G, the next generation mobile technology and Europe has become a major battleground. (Reporting by Robert Muller; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
Agents with the FBI and IRS spent hours Thursday searching the administrative offices of the Houston Independent School District and the Cypress-area house of its chief operating officer, but they remained tight-lipped about what they were seeking.

At least a dozen federal agents made their way in and out of HISDs Hattie Mae White building on 4400 West 18th Street Thursday morning, at one point carrying several boxes and containers to vehicles parked nearby.

The bureau called the search a court authorized law enforcement activity, but did not elaborate.

The district issued a statement saying it was fully cooperating with the FBI, adding there was no danger to students or staff.

Federal agents also were at a Cypress-area home listed in county property tax records as the residence of HISD Chief Operating Officer Brian Busby and his wife, HISD Officer of Special Populations Courtney Busby. Security refused to allow news media inside the gated neighborhood.

A voicemail and text message left on Busbys phone, as well as a message sent via Twitter, were not returned Thursday. It was unclear whether Busby still had access to the phone, which may have been issued by HISD.

An Internal Revenue Service spokesman, in response to questions, said the agency could neither confirm nor deny any involvement, citing federal privacy laws. Agents with IRS on the backs their jackets were visible at the administration building and Busbys home.

We were notified first thing this morning of the FBIs presence by the administration, HISD Board President Sue Deigaard said. I dont have any additional information at this time, but I certainly share the communitys concerns.

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who long has supported a state takeover of the districts governing board, issued a news release praising the law enforcement actions. He suggested a possible roadmap behind the FBI and IRS raids was contained in a 2019 Texas Education Agency report that accused some trustees of misconduct and urged Education Commissioner Mike Morath to replace the districts trustees with state-appointed governing board.

The TEA report concluded that multiple trustees violated the Texas Open Meetings Act, misled investigators, improperly interfered with vendor contracts and repeatedly overstepped their governance role.

Morath announced last November that he would appoint a temporary board to replace all of the districts trustees because of chronically low academic performance at Wheatley High School and the investigation into trustee misconduct.

That takeover has been on on hold amid litigation. A trial date is set for June 22.

This is criminal behavior. Its out of bounds, Bettencourt said Thursday. I welcome the reports of the raids today because you cant have this level of corruption in the states largest school district.

Bettencourt singled out former HISD Board Chair Diana Davila, whom TEA investigators accused of pressuring administrators to steer contracts to certain vendors, he said.

Davila, who has derided the TEA report and denied many of its findings, said Bettencourt was offering fake news. She said she had no knowledge of or involvement in the FBI investigations.

No FBI agent has pulled up to my home or contacted me in any form, she said. Im sure if it had something to do with me, they would be at my house the same time they were at Brian Busbys home.

Brian Busby has spent more than 20 years in the district, working his way up from custodian to the highest-ranking official in business operations. He is the second-highest paid employee in the district, behind only Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan.

Former HISD superintendent Richard Carranza tabbed Busby as the districts COO in December 2016. Busbys authority includes oversight of roughly 7,000 employees working in several departments, including transportation, business operations, procurement and police.

Under Busbys watch, the district smoothly handled the fallout from Hurricane Harvey, which damaged dozens of buildings and rendered four campuses unusable. District auditors, however, dinged Busby for allowing staff to spend nearly $250,000 on four GMC Yukon SUVs in the storms aftermath, though Busby said his staff reasonably believed it had the necessary authority for the purchases to ensure employee safety.

The district also has nearly completed $2 billion worth of construction projects approved through a 2012 bond vote, much of which occurred during Busbys tenure. Busby has pushed for a bond election in November 2020, though some HISD trustees have voiced skepticism about that prospect.

Several departments under Busbys supervision received blistering criticism in November 2019 from the Texas Legislative Budget Board, which HISD trustees hired to conduct a performance review of the district. The LBBs analysts made dozens of recommendations aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the districts operational departments.

As officer of special populations, Courtney Busby oversees a department that provides support services to English language learners, students with disabilities and gifted-and-talented children.

Reporter Hannah Dellinger contributed to this story.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2020 > One of the Forgotten Makers of the Indian Constitution

by Ranbir Singh

Bharat Ratna Babasaheb Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar has been legitimately recognised as the Architect of the Indian Constitution on account of his role in its drafting as the Chairman of the Drafting Committee for this Document which has been rightly described as The cornerstone of a nation by the famous American political scientist G. Austin. Babasahebs role in defending the draft of the Constitution during the debates on the provisions of the Draft Constitution in the countrys Constituent Assembly in his capacity as the Union Minister of Law is unforgettable.

Credit has also to be given to the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who had, as the Leader of Congress Parliamentary Party in the Constituent Assembly, ensured majority support in the House to Dr Ambedkar for this purpose. So much so that the well-known expert on the Indian Constitution, Dr Subhash Kashyap, has aptly observed that Nehru had provided the soul of the Constitution through the Objectives Resolution that he had moved in the Constituent Assembly in 1946. It will also be unfair to belittle the role of Dr Rajendra Prasad, Chairman of the Constituent Assembly, who had competently conducted the proceeds of the House and created a conducive atmosphere in it for serious deliberation on various Articles on its Draft. Sardar Patel too had played a vital role in this context as the Chairman of two important Sub-Committees. Besides, all the members of the Constituent Assembly and Drafting Committee and Sub-Committees too had substantially contributed to the drafting of this Constitution by following the principles of Consensus and Accommodation so that the representatives of all sections of the Indian society could be satisfied by it. India continues to be a robust democracy despite the challenges which it had to face from time to time since the adoption of the Constitution of India in 1950.

A grateful nation keeps on constantly remembering all the makers of the Constitution in general and Dr B.R. Ambedkar in particular.

However Sir B.N Rau, the Constitutional Advisor, who played one of the most significant parts in the drafting of the document has failed to get due recognition from Indians despite having made an immense contribution to the process. It is pertinent to mention in the above context that the Constituent Assembly had unanimously adopted a Resolution that the Drafting Committee be set up to scrutinise the Draft of the text of the Indian Constitution prepared by the Constitutional Adviser for giving effect to decisions taken already in the Assembly and for including all matters ancillary to the Constitution, and to submit to the Constituent Assembly for the consideration of the Draft Constitution as revised by the Committee.

It may also be mentioned here that Sir B.N. Rau had not only studied all the major Constitutions of the world and made a comparative statement on those. He had also held detailed discussions on various aspects with legal experts of different countries including Justice Felix Frankfurter of the American Supreme Court. Frankfurter had advised Rau, on the basis of the American experience, against the inclusion of a clause for Due Process of Law in the Indian Constitution as it would impose an unnecessary burden on the judiciary. That is why Rau decided to adopt the Japnese concept of Procedure Established by Law for the judicial review by the Supreme Court of India.

Rau could successfully draft the Constitution of India because of his expertise and experience in administration and judiciary. He had passed the Indian Civil Services examination in 1910 but later on moved to the judiciary and was made a judge of the Bengal High Court in 1939. He had also worked with Sir John Kerr for preparing a note on how a provincial legislature in India might be designed to work better. Besides, he had also worked with the Reforms Office of the Government of India during the drafting of the Government of India Act, 1935. Rau had also served as the Prime Minster of Jammu and Kashmir in 1944-1945.

These experiences helped him in accomplishing the task of drafting the text of the Indian Constitution. He not only customised the Government of India Act (1935) to meet the needs of independent India while preparing the draft Constitution. But he had also richly adapted provisions of other Constitutions. The model of union executive had been adapted by Rau from the Constitutions of England and France. While the idea of Emergency Powers had been adapted by him from the Weimar Constitution of Germany, the idea of the Directive Principles of State Policy had been borrowed by him from the Irish Constitution.

The author is a Senior Fellow, Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi.
Somali troops clashed with a regional militia on Friday in one of the most serious outbreaks of fighting yet over political rivalries that Washington says are slowing the war against al Qaeda-linked insurgents.

Eleven people were killed in the violence, witnesses said.

Tension spilled over on Thursday evening between the Somali National Army and the Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jama'a (ASWJ) militia, a group of moderate Sufi Muslims which has played a key role in the fight against the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgency.

Clashes began in Dhusamareb, administrative capital of central Somalia's Galmudug state, and spread to Guriel town, 60 km (40 miles) away, on Friday, residents said.

One resident said government forces had attacked a house where prominent ASWJ leaders live, and the two sides were fighting with mortars and anti-aircraft guns in the city centre.

"After 11 years of peace, Dhusamareb city today is hell," Halima Farah told Reuters by phone, adding that she and her four children were cowering inside their flimsy house. "We are holding our children's hands but we have no way out."

Al Shabaab has been fighting the internationally-recognised Somali government since 2008. The militants have also attacked American military bases as well as bars, hotels, a shopping mall and a university in Kenya and Uganda. Two years ago, an al Shabaab truck bomb in Mogadishu killed around 500 civilians.

Somali government troops, supported by a 21,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force, launched a limited offensive against al Shabaab last year. But a top American diplomat said progress had petered out with the internal rivalries.

"The operation has stalled," Rodney Hunter, the U.S. political coordinator to the United Nations, told the Security Council this week. "It is imperative that federal government and federal member states' security services focus on combating al-Shabaab, rather than engaging in armed conflict with each other to resolve political disputes."

Competition for political control and international security funds lie at the heart of the conflict.

Some regional states accuse the government of meddling in local elections to entrench allies ahead of national elections scheduled for this year. They also want a larger slice of the hundreds of millions of dollars that foreign donors spend annually on Somali security forces.

The federal government wants to keep control of those funds, saying it fears the balkanisation of the country, and accuses some state authorities of behaving like warlords.

Tensions were high between Mogadishu and regional authorities in Kismayo during elections in Jubbaland, along the Kenyan border, in August. There was a small clash in neighbouring Gedo earlier this year, and what Hunter described as a "politically motivated offensive ... that diverts resources" from fighting al Shabaab.

Galmudug, scene of the latest fighting, has three rival politicians all claiming to be its leader. Ahmed Abdi Kariye, who is backed by the federal government, said ASWJ forces had started the fighting by firing on a checkpoint.

ASWJ leaders said the first provocation came from the government.

"We sacrificed our wealth and lives to liberate these areas from the terrorist al Shabaab... (but) the Somali government forces openly attacked Inji house, which is a home for ASWJ leaders," ASWJ leader Sheikh Mohamed Shakir Ali Hassan, who also says he is leader of the state, said late Thursday.

"We have one enemy and that is al Shabaab. Let's jointly fight the terrorists."

Omar Mahmood, an analyst from the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said the power struggles were likely to continue.

"I'm not optimistic," he said.

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There are many other examples which the audit believes has been no less than huge disappointment for the user agencies as well as research and development scenarios in the country.

Editor's Note: This is the second and final part of a two-part series of investigation on irregularities in the UAVs development programme by ADE for forces as unearthed by a CAG audit.

***

New Delhi: In December 2013, the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) decided to develop Autonomous Rotary Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (RUAV). The approval for the same came in March 2014 and Rs 10.69 crore was sanctioned for the purpose. September 2015 was fixed as the deadline for the completion of the project.

Interestingly, the ADE did not prepare any outcome realisation plan and there was no user agency in the executive board to monitor the project. Nevertheless, the deadline was missed but two months later in November 2015, it was decided to foreclose the project after incurring an expenditure of Rs 6.53 crore.

The test audit report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) enquired the reasons for foreclosing the project without achieving the goals which led to the entire expenditure on the project infructuous. The ADE in a response to the audit said the UAV was flown in manual mode only while it was required to fly in semi/autonomous mode and foreclosing was a decision taken by the executive board.

The ADE further argued that money was not wasted as technologies achieved during the project are utilised for a new project called Naval Rotary Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (NRUAV).

Thereafter, the audit decided to examine NRUAV and found something more alarming. The proposal for NRUAV was submitted in July 2015 when RUAV was already on. The project worth Rs 16.45 crore with a deadline of May 2017, was approved in November 2015 with the assurance that the Indian Navy would allot one Chetak helicopter for instrumented flight and data recording. However, the navy backtracked.

In September 2016, the Integrated HQ intimated that the Indian Navy was not in a position to allot a helicopter and hence, it was decided to foreclose the project. But, in an executive board meeting in December 2016, it was decided to go ahead with the project with the involvement of the Indian Air Force (IAF) for converting a manned helicopter into a rotary UAV.

In September 2017, the scope of the project was re-defined from NRUAV to HELIDRONE project, stating that since Indian Navy foreclosed the project, the scope of the lead-in project needed to be redefined and re-appropriation of cost to be justified. In January 2018, it was decided that the project would be renamed as lead-in project of HELIDRONE.

In August 2018, a corrigendum was issued changing the objective of the project to the conversion of a helicopter of any class into UAV and the deadline was extended to November 2019. When the audit questioned these changes, the ADE said the Chetak being a helicopter of 1960s was left with much less operational life and now the revised scope will help develop the in-house capabilities for the conversion of any helicopter to rotary UAV. The audit, however said, if so was the case then ADE should have foreclosed the project without incurring any more expenditure and sought for a new project with a renewed objective.

Instead, the project is being pursued with no definite objective and definite requirement. In view of this, utility of expenditure of Rs 5.66 crore (so far) incurred towards the project remains to be seen, the audit report reviewed by Firstpost revealed.

Also Read: Keeping end users in dark, poor planning, flouting of SOPs hurt UAV projects, reveals CAG test audit

There are many other examples which the audit believes has been no less than huge disappointment for the user agencies as well as R&D scenarios in the country. More than a decade ago, in April 2007, the ADE decided to design and develop a fixed-wing micro air vehicle, which could be hand-launched by a soldier. However, during the peer review meeting, no user representative from the armed forces was invited. Notwithstanding, the approval came in August 2007 with a total cost of Rs 13.68 crore to develop a Man-Portable Fixed Wing Micro Air Vehicle with ADE as the nodal agency and National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore as the partner in the implementation of the project.

The project was completed in February 2011 and formal closure was announced in August 2015. According to the closure report, the project was successfully completed meeting most of the requirements and demonstrating that DRDO has the capability to take up similar class of vehicles. The audit, however, after examining the report said, the development did not materialise into any usable product. It even questioned ADE whether any firms order existed before taking up the project and whether any order was received from services or internal security agencies for the UAVs developed under the project.

"ADE stated that no order existed prior to undertaking the development of the item nor any order had been received for the product developed. The development effort of ADE was in isolation without analyzing the requirement of the users. This resulted in the entire expenditure of Rs 13.19 crore being rendered unproductive, the report said.

Fixed Wing Mini UAV (FM-UAV) project met a similar fate and remain grounded. This projects objective was to cater to the need of the armed forces and paramilitary forces, although it has come to light that peer review of the project did not have any user representative during the meeting. The project was approved in July 2010 at a total cost of Rs 7.48 crore and it was completed in July 2012.

There are also no takers either in the armed forces or paramilitary forces for another project that was launched to develop a system for tactical intelligence-gathering operations. The project was completed in July 2015 at a cost of Rs 4.04 crore and closure report said the planned activity was completed successfully. The audit, however said, in contravention of the laid down rules, no feasibility study was carried out before taking up the project and even peer review carried out by ADE did not have any user agency on board. The report said: No firms requirement existed prior to undertaking development of the item nor any order had been received for the product developed in 2015.

The audit has also flagged two other important projects  UDAAN and PRAGATHI  further pointing out that expenditure incurred on them remain unproductive and perhaps there is doubt over effectiveness as claimed by the ADE. As per the closure report UDAAN, the ADE claimed that all objectives were met. However, while submitting the proposal for PRAGATHI, ADE stated that the six trial campaigns under project UDAAN were not sufficient to meet the objective. The ADE was questioned which of the two statements are true. It simply reiterated without providing details that objectives of UDAAN had been completed and hence the project was closed.

Response of ADE is not tenable as the flight trials undertaken did not result in a usable product for the Armed Forces, necessitating more flight trials under PRAGATHI. Consequently, the expenditure of Rs.3.76 Crore incurred on the project was rendered unproductive as the project was closed without meeting its objective, the report observed.

PRAGATHI was launched on the pretext that UDAAN trials were not sufficient. The project at a cost of Rs 20 crore had the main objective of developing upgrades of low and high-speed UAVs of armed forces. This project too, like many others, did not have any user agency in the executive board neither any detailed project execution plan was prepared by the ADE. The approval came in July 2013 with a deadline of July 2016. The audit said in the third executive board meeting held in December 2015, it was recommended for the closure of the project as per original deadline and surrendering the remaining funds.

However, during a meeting held in March 2016 at DRDO Bhawan under the chairmanship of DG, DRDO wherein SA (Scientific Advisor) to RM (Defence Minister), DG (Aero) and DG (Arty) were also present, DG (Arty) clarified that Nishant and its variants were primitive and there was no suction seen from the field commanders. Instead, he advised to pursue Rustom-I in line with JSQR ( Joint Services Qualitative Requirement) issued by Army for short range UAV. Accordingly, DG(DRDO) instructed ADE to prepare Rustom-I as a strong candidate against the GSQR (General Staff Qualitative Requirement) of short range UAV by carrying out necessary procurement under PRAGATHI project and also extending its PDC (Projects probable date of completion). In August 2016, DG (Aero) revised the PDC of the project from July 2016 to January 2018 with the revised objective of conducting 20 flight trial campaigns to evaluate and validate technologies, the audit report said.

The test audit had enquired from ADE after the closure of the project on whether Rustom-I has since been upgraded/qualified enough to meet the JSQR of short-range UAV. In reply, ADE stated that they have submitted compliance matrix of Rustom-I with JSQR of short-range UAV, from which it was observed that there were QRs related to payloads, for which Rustom-I was yet to comply.

Project was closed without complying with JSQR. Thus, expenditure of Rs.17.17 Crore incurred on the project was rendered unfruitful, as it did not result into a usable product for the armed forces, the audit report observed.

A DRDO spokesperson, however, said the ADE has developed the Short Range UAV (Rustom-I) which can be produced for armed forces and paramilitary forces.

ADE is tasked with the Development of Medium Altitude and Long Endurance UAVs. In this direction, the major programme TAPAS is undertaken by ADE. The first Indigenous UAV Nishant was inducted into Indian Army in 2014, the DRDO spokesperson said.

An email questionnaire sent to the Director, ADE, seeking response on audit findings remained unanswered till the filing of this report.

The audit on Nishant UAV observed that phase-I of the project was completed in December 2015 and Phase-II was planned to be completed by October 2017.

 In March 2016, ADE made a presentation to the Indian Army and requested to consider Nishant UAV with improved version as part of Phase-II delivery. However, Army clarified that Nishant and its variants are primitive and field commanders felt no need, the audit report stated.

The audit also enquired from ADE whether any requirement has been received from the army or CRPF for the wheeled version of Nishant developed under the project. The ADE in its response to the audit said that no requirement was received from either Army or CRPF till date.
Mexico's deputy health secretary announced Friday that the country now has two confirmed cases of the new coronavirus.

It is the second Latin American country to register the virus.

Deputy Secretary Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez confirmed one of the patients is a 35-year-old man in Mexico City and the second is a 41-year-old man in the northern state of Sinaloa.

While a second test is still pending on that case, he said, 'We are treating this as confirmed'.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during a press conference Thursday confirming the first case of coronavirus in the country - a 35-year-old man in Mexico City

A man wears a mask over his mouth as a precaution against the spread of the new coronavirus in Mexico City which has just confirmed its first case on Friday in a 35-year-old man

The two cases are confirmed in Mexico City and the northern state of Sinaloa

Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez, Mexico's undersecretary of Health Prevention and Promotion, holds a news conference about the new coronavirus a day before the country confirmed its first two cases in men in Mexico City and the northern state of Sinaloa on Friday

The addition of Mexico means that at least 57 countries have now confirmed a case of the deadly virus.

The World Health Organization has warned that it could strike every nation on the planet and the crisis won't slow down any time soon.

A WHO spokesperson said the outbreak, which is teetering on the edge of becoming a pandemic, was 'getting bigger' and could well reach 'all countries'.

The virus has now struck down 82,000 victims in 57 counties and killed almost 3,000 patients.

Europe was hit with an explosion in infections this week, with cases soaring from less than 40 to more than 800 in just seven days.

Brazil on Wednesday confirmed Latin America's first confirmed case of the coronavirus in a man who traveled to Italy this month.

Passengers wearing protective masks are seen at the International Airport in Mexico City on Friday as the country's first case of the new deadly virus is confirmed by authorities

Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez holds a news conference on information about the new coronavirus on Thursday

Lopez-Gatell announced the cases during a Friday morning press conference alongside Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

He confirmed that the first patient has been placed in isolation in the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases in Mexico City.

At least five other family contacts have also been placed in isolation.

The second patient is also being held in isolation in a hotel.

Both cases are connected and they had recently traveled to Italy.

Neither man is seriously ill. They are said to be in stable condition and showing symptoms similar to a cold.

Both men were in Italy for about a week in mid-February, and likely became infected at a convention in the northern city of Bergamo, the government said in a visual presentation at the news conference.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has downplayed the seriousness of the virus

Mexican Secretary of Health of the State of Nuevo Leon, Dr. Manuel de la O shows a special suit that will be used by doctors and nurses in treating patients with the deadly coronavirus

For now there were no grounds for closing schools or having people stay away from their workplaces, Lopez-Gatell said.

'There's absolutely no reason at this point,' he added. 'There is no generalized transmission'.

Still, Lopez-Gatell recommended that people refrain from giving each other light hugs and kisses on the cheek that are commonplace greetings in Mexico.

Lopez Obrador urged the population to remain calm and said officials would report daily on the progress of cases.

'We have the capacity to handle this situation,' he said.

Lopez Obrador also appeared to downplay the seriousness of the COVID-19 virus, saying 'it isn't even equivalent to flu'.

Seasonal flu kills more people because it has infected far more people, but the new virus appears to have a far higher mortality rate.

In the central China city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus first exploded, two per cent to four per cent of patients have died, according to the World Health Organization.

But in the rest of China, the death rate has been 0.7%. On average, the death rate from seasonal flu is about 0.1%.

'I repeat, according to the available information, it is not something terrible, fatal,' Lopez Obrador said.

'There shouldn't be any yellow journalism, or exaggerations, to cause a mass psychosis of fear, of terror'.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York as stocks plummet

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York. Stocks around the world are broadly lower as investors react to news that the novel coronavirus outbreak is continuing to spread to more and more countries raising fears of a global economic slowdown

Mexico's main stock index tumbled more than three percent soon after market opening on Friday while the peso fell by more than one percent against the dollar.

Stock on Wall Street fell in early trading Friday for the seventh consecutive day after the Dow's largest single-day point loss in history.

Investors are reeling after virus fears wiped nearly $3 trillion off the combined market value of S&P 500 companies this week, with the index confirming its fastest correction in history in volatile trading on Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 463 points, or 1.8 percent, at the opening bell on Friday, and losses quickly widened to as much as 1,000 points, one day after the index's biggest one-day point drop in history.

If the Dow closes down by more than 1,000 points on Friday, it would be the third time this week  and the second day in a row  that the index lost points in the four digits, something that had previously only happened twice in history.

Globally, some $6 trillion, or about 10 percent, has been erased from stock values as markets in Asia and Europe plunged on fears that the outbreak will shrivel corporate profits there. At their heart, stock prices are determined by expectations of a company's future profits.

On Friday, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney sought to reassure concerned Americans advising people 'to turn their televisions off for 24 hours' saying that it would 'calm the markets'.

Mulvaney also confirmed that the coronavirus was likely to cause school closures across the U.S.

'Are you going to see some schools shut down? Probably. Maybe see impacts on public transportation? Sure, but we do this. We know how to handle this,' he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington D.C.
- KPLC chief executive officer Bernard Ngugi said the employees were fired over the last one year

- Ngugi said illegal connections were threatening the company's revenues which plunged by 92% in the financial year ended June 2019

- KPLC established the Field Enforcement Unit (FEU) in October 2019 tasking it to work with security agencies to promptly address cases of illegal connections which were on the rise

- Since its formation, a a total of 630 people have been arrested across the country and prosecuted for various crimes relating to theft of electricity and fraud

The Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) has sacked 110 employees over fraud, conduction of illegal connections and other crimes.

KPLC chief executive officer Bernard Ngugi said the employees were fired over the last one year.

READ ALSO: William Ruto says he may not vie for presidency in 2022

Kenya Power engineers at work. Photo: KPLC.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Ann Waiguru asema angelikuwa ashamtema Ruto iwapo angelikuwa Uhuru

Ngugi said illegal connections were threatening the company's revenues which plunged by 92% in the financial year ended June 2019.

Illegal connections do not just threaten the companys revenue but also the lives of beneficiaries and the public at large. We are focused on eliminating these crimes and ensuring all those found culpable face the full force of the law, he said.

On Thursday, February 26, KPLC conducted a crackdown on illegal power connections in Tassia, Nairobi county.

The operation was carried its security personnel jointly with officers drawn from the National Police Service.

Kenya Power says a section of its employees were notorious in abetting crime especially conducting illegal connections. Photo: KPLC.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Migori widow running orphanage appeals for help to acquire NHIF for vulnerable kids

It was overseen by the Cabinet Secretary for Energy Charles Keter and the director of the DCI George Kinoti.

In February 2020, a similar operation was carried out in Mukuru Kwa Njenga estate where 16 transformers and assorted cables aiding illegal power supply were recovered.

KPLC established the Field Enforcement Unit (FEU) in October 2019 tasking it to work with security agencies to promptly address cases of illegal connections which were on the rise.

Since its formation, a a total of 630 people have been arrested across the country and prosecuted for various crimes relating to theft of electricity and fraud.

Out of these, 115 people have been convicted with other cases still pending in court.

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Source: TUKO.co.ke
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- President Donald Trump ripped Fox News for a new poll that has both good and bad news for his re-election campaign.

Worst Polls, just like in 2016 when they were so far off the mark, are the @FoxNews Polls. Why doesnt Fox finally get a competent Polling Company? the president tweeted Friday.

Worst Polls, just like in 2016 when they were so far off the mark, are the @FoxNews Polls. Why doesnt Fox finally get a competent Polling Company?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2020

Trump has complained about Fox News polls numerous times before. Whoever their Pollster is, they suck, he tweeted in October after a survey showed 51% of Americans supported impeachment and removal from office.

Still, the networks latest poll, released Thursday, had a sliver of positive news for the president. When asked if they thought he would be re-elected in November, 56% of respondents said yes. Thats up 12 points from the last time the question was asked in October.

But Trump appears to be griping about his performance in one-on-one matchups against the remaining Democratic candidates. In the survey of 1,000 randomly selected registered voters, president trails in each potential race: Sen. Bernie Sanders (49% to 42%), former Vice President Joe Biden (49% to 41%), and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg (48% to 40%).

The remaining matchups, however, are more favorable to Trump. Contests against Sen. Elizabeth Warren (46%-43%), former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (45% to 42%), and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (44% to 43%) are all within the margin of error. Again, thats an improvement for Trump over the most recent poll when the matchup with Klobuchar was the only toss up.

The poll is also noteworthy because its the first conducted by Fox News to show Sanders ahead of Biden as the preferred candidate among Democratic primary voters. The Vermont senator surged 8 points since the last poll in January to 31%, while the former vice president dropped 8 points to 18%. Bloomberg gained six points to leapfrog over Warren into third place with 16%.

Sanders is currently ahead of the pack in delegates leading into the South Carolina primary on Saturday and Super Tuesday on March 3.

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Cut through the noise with our expert picks and recommendations for concerts, nightlife, movies, festivals, family fun, theatrical performances, art exhibitions & more with To Do Cleveland, delivered every Thursday straight to your inbox.

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Myanmar authorities seize a boat carrying Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine state en route to Malaysia, off the coast of Dawei district in southern Myanmar's Tanintharyi region, Nov. 25, 2018.

Myanmar authorities have apprehended more than 2,200 Rohingya Muslims as they attempted to illegally leave the country by sea since 2015, according to a list of the detainees obtained from a naval officer by RFAs Myanmar Service.

Nearly 1,500 Rohingya were detained in 2015, more than 500 were picked up in 2018, and roughly 250 have been apprehended so far in 2019, according to the list provided by the officer, who declined to be named because he is not authorized to give information to the media.

The figures do not include Rohingya who fled by land from two military-led crackdowns in northern Rakhine state in 2016 and 2017. During the first round of violence, about 90,000 Muslims left and headed across the border and into Bangladesh, while the second more brutal clampdown forced more than 740,000 out of their villages and into Myanmar's neighboring country.

Thousands of other Rohingya have tried to leave Myanmar in the last several years to escape institutionalized persecution, grinding poverty, and insecurity in Rakhine state. They have paid human traffickers hundreds of dollars each to transport them to other Muslim-friendly nations in Southeast Asia where they hoped to have a better life.

But because of restrictions on their freedom of movement, the Rohingya cannot freely travel inside or outside Myanmar without first obtaining official permission. Those who decide to travel illegally usually do not take identification cards with them, which all Myanmar residents must carry.

A group of nearly 70 Rohingya who had fled Rakhine state with the help of traffickers and headed to Malaysia were arrested in Yangon regions Hlegu township on Feb. 20-21. They are now on trial for violating Myanmars nationality statutes for traveling illegally and without documentation.

On Feb. 14, authorities picked up 19 Rohingya, including four children, in Magway regions Minhla township. The children were taken to a youth training center in Mandalay, while the adults are now on trial for violating nationality statutes, said township immigration officer Aung Pyi Soe.

In a larger incident, the Myanmar Navy on Dec. 15 detained a vessel carrying 174 Rohingya in waters off the countrys southern tip, west of Kawthaung town in the southern Tanintharyi region.

Instead of facing charges, the members of the group were transferred by boat to Rakhine state in early January, where immigration officials in the regional capital Sittwe determined their places of origin and sent them back to their villages and to internal displacement camps.

On Nov. 28, authorities arrested 96 Rohingya at sea off Pathein township in Myanmars Ayeyarwady region after they boarded a boat from Rakhine.

All the arrested Rohingya have been charged under Section 6(3) of Myanmars Immigration Act and face prison sentences of six months to two years if found guilty.



Not the answer

Rohingya rights activists have decried the arrests and trials, blaming the Myanmar government for failing to address the root causes of the illegal flight.

Tun Khin, president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, said the government must extend basic rights to the Rohingya, who are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denied full citizenship.

If the Myanmar government gives us citizen rights, lets us live in our places [of origin] by rebuilding our houses, lets us travel in our country, and abolishes unfair laws that affect us, these flight cases can be reduced, he said.

Yes, the government can do it at any time, but it is not willing to do it, he said. We urge the government to do these things. We [also] want justice from the international community.

Myanmar is the subject of a lawsuit file at the International Court of Justice by the small African nation Gambia, accusing the Southeast Asian country of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention during the alleged expulsion of more than 740,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh amid the 2017 crackdown.

The campaign of violence left thousands of Rohingya dead, while some of those who tried to flee were subject to torture, mass rape, and community burnings.

The government and security forces have defended the action as a counterinsurgency against a Muslim militant group in northern Rakhine. The military has pledged to prosecute soldiers who committed atrocities and so far has held three courts-martial.

Rohingya activist Thar Aye said it is preferable that authorities return the captured Rohingya to their places of origin rather than prosecute them, and that they should focus their efforts on charging traffickers.

It is a good action, he said. Because they are not guilty, it is the right action to send them back to their places of origin.

After sending them back, authorities need to investigate and take action against the people and organizations involved in these human trafficking cases, he added. If they do this, there will be a decrease in the number of flight attempts in the future.

But Nickey Diamond, a Myanmar human rights specialist with the Southeast Asia-based NGO Fortify Rights, disagreed, saying that Rohingyas who are caught and returned will likely leave again if their situation doesnt change for the better.

Even if they are sent back to their places of origin, they are going to flee again if they cant survive, he said. And then, some will be arrested in Myanmars territorial waters, though others will make it to other countries.

Reported and translated by Khet Mar for RFAs Myanmar Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) recently released a publication outlining strategies intended to increase Americans access to high-quality substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and support services, using an evidence-based framework. The ONDCP noted that nearly 89% of people suffering from substance use disorder in 2018 fell into the so-called treatment gap, where they did not receive specialized treatment for their condition.

The Treatment Plan addresses the reasons for the treatment gap, provider shortages and financial issues, as well as the stigma of addiction. In addition, the Plan notes that some patients do not seek help because they lack awareness about the severity of their condition. The ONDCP explains its focus on the treatment gap as critical since it is one reason the United States lost over 70,000 people to a drug overdose in 2017. There is an urgent need in our nation to identify substance use problems before they develop into substance use disorders, increase access to treatment, make treatment services and care more widely available, and ensure that the services provided are evidence-based and high quality.

Accordingly, the Plan provides the following strategies:

Encourages healthcare providers to screen for SUDs so patient can receive appropriate treatment. Integrates treatment services better into mainstream healthcare, and increases addiction medicine services in hospitals and emergency rooms.

Seeks to mitigate financial barriers by working with public and private health insurers to pay for life-saving treatment.

Explores innovative healthcare delivery strategies, including telemedicine, and mobile treatment clinics. Develops mobile and online applications providing up-to-date information on treatment slot availability, information on providers, and online appointment scheduling.

Supports strategies to build addiction workforce, including in rural areas. Supports Addiction Medicine and Addiction Psychiatry fellowships and residencies.

Combats the stigma of addiction, both in a patients community and in their employment.

Addresses quality issues by promoting evidence-based practices, including medication-assisted treatment and medically-managed detoxification, and eliminating fraud. Explores the development of national quality standards.

Promotes the development of specialized treatment and support for communities with unique needs, including Native American and Alaska Native populations, as well as those in the criminal justice system, homeless individuals, individuals with disabilities, expecting and new mothers, and infants with neo-natal abstinence syndrome.

Recognizes the need to support those in long-term recovery to access affordable and recovery-friendly housing, education, employment and peer support services.

In order to implement these strategies, the Plan envisions coordination across Federal, state and local governments, as well as nonprofits and various non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. ONDCP notes that it will coordinate with Federal partners on a regular basis to monitor implementation status of these actions on a tiered and prioritized basis, and, in turn, ONDCP and Federal partners will coordinate with non-federal partners to monitor collaboration where Actions require.
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Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020 16:41 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2067377a1 1 World Jokowi,Indonesia,Joko-Widodo,US-ASEAN,ASEAN,united-states,Donald-Trump Free

President Joko "Jokowi" is scheduled to attend the upcoming United States-ASEAN Special Summit, which is expected to be held in Las Vegas in March, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung has confirmed.

"The President will attend the US-ASEAN Special Summit in the US at the same time when he will embark on an official state visit to the US," Pramono said at the Presidential Palace on Friday.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently confirmed that the summit will be held in Las Vegas "on the second weekend of March", AFP reported, though concerns remain that the coronavirus outbreak could lead to the summit's cancellation.

Pramono said that Jokowi was scheduled to meet with US President Donald Trump for a bilateral meeting after the summit, although he did not provide further details.

The US had approached ASEAN countries leaders about visits following the cancellation of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit  originally scheduled in November last year  in Chile due to domestic protests.

Trump, meanwhile, previously skipped the ASEAN Summit and the parallel East Asian Summit in Bangkok last year, sending his national security advisor, Robert O'Brien, to attend the events.
China, the worlds second largest economy, is resilient. It boasts a vast market of nearly 1.4 billion consumers; a middle class 400 million-strong; a talent pool of more than 170 million people with higher education or professional skills; more than 100 million entities engaged in commercial activities; and a full-fledged industrial system. The economic fundamentals for long-term, high-quality growth are sound.

The country is getting back to work in an orderly fashion, and people, goods and capital are moving more smoothly. Soon, the demand that has been suppressed by the epidemic will be released again. The Chinese economy will bounce back, strong.

China has ample tools to make macro policy adjustments. The Chinese government has introduced supportive fiscal and financial measures, including cuts on taxes and fees, and injections of liquidity in the stock market. The purpose of those measures is to cushion key regions, industries and businesses from any shortfalls in funding, manpower or raw materials in order to ensure their efficient economic performance and stabilize expectations on financial markets. The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, has said that Chinas economy should be expected to return to normal in the second quarter of 2020 as announced policies are implemented.

The Chinese economy has been defying headwinds anyway, and upgrading fast. New forms and models of business are flourishing: remote health care, online education, virtual workplaces, zero-contact delivery, buy online, pick up in store e-commerce. Frontier technologies  5-G, big data and artificial intelligence  are growing, powering industrial transformation and facilitating the integration of the digital and the real economies. Blockchain, the unmanned economy and smart cities are taking off. Research and development in medical equipment, biopharmaceuticals and smart health care; the training of health professionals; innovation in health insurance plans and the improvement of the social security system  all these developments will unleash immense market and employment potential.

China is also a major engine for global growth, and protecting its supply chains means protecting international ones and sustaining growth worldwide. In the aftermath of the SARS epidemic in 2002-3, it was the committed and forward-looking foreign businesses that did not pivot away from China that then benefited the most from the economys rebound. And today, in these difficult times, Qualcomm, for example, has stated that its business plans in China would not be deflected by the current epidemic.

China is holding its ground not only for its own people but also for the rest of the world. We are deeply grateful to the governments and the people everywhere who have provided precious support and assistance. But the situation remains grave, and the number of cases is increasing in other countries and regions.

This is why it is important to pull together rather than look on passively, much less mock or play the blame game. Viruses do not respect borders, and China has been fighting hard at the front line. To support China now, with concrete actions, is also to protect global public health and promote the worlds stability and prosperity. China, for its part, is ready to share its experience with other affected countries, and lend a helping hand, especially to those with weaker public health systems.
One of the more threadbare aphorisms in foreign-policy circles is that Pakistan negotiates with the West by pointing a gun at its own head. Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has updated this unique bargaining technique by contriving to aim one pistol at the West even as it presses another to its own temple.

Over the past two years, Erdogan has willfully antagonized Turkey's partners in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization by cozying up to their adversary, Russia. The consequence, entirely predictable, is Turkish isolation in Syria and Libya, where Ankara's interests are in direct conflict with Moscow's.

Now that conflict is turning kinetic, with dozens of Turkish soldiers killed, quite possibly by Russian bombs, Erdogan's response is to rail against the perfidious West  and threaten to open the path for millions of refugees to head for Europe. The "or else" part of the bargain is more European money for the housing of refugees in Turkey and, presumably, NATO assistance for Erdogan's military aims in Syria.

The case for the former is unarguable. Turkey already hosts more than 3.7 million refugees, and is bracing for a huge new influx from the fighting in Idlib. Although Europe provides substantial funding for the care of refugees in Turkey, it can and should do much more to share the burden. The hundreds of thousands fleeing Idlib are in an especially parlous state, enduring exposure to freezing conditions on top of everything else.

But Erdogan does Turkey's case great harm by wielding the threat of refugee flows to silence European criticism of his recklessness, such as his military offensive last fall against U.S.-allied Kurdish groups in northeastern Syria. When European officials expressed legitimate concerns that the offensive was opening a new front in an already hopelessly complicated civil war, and harming international efforts to defeat Islamic State, the president warned: "If you try to define our operation as an invasion, then our job becomes easy. We open the gates and send the 3.6 million refugees to you."

The case for military help in Syria is harder to make. Having disregarded Western advice against the offensive in northeastern Syria, and threatening an "Ottoman slap" if American troops got in the way, Erdogan now wants American-operated Patriot missile batteries to keep the Russian air force from pounding his soldiers and proxy militias. These are the same Patriots he turned down in favor of Russian made S-400 systems last year.

The Trump administration's response has been appropriately cautious: blandishments of support, without any military commitment. Erdogan has acknowledged that the Patriot batteries may not be forthcoming.

At Ankara's request, NATO has convened a meeting to discuss the situation under article 4 of the Treaty, where a member state can request consultations if it feels its territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened. Since the first two categories plainly don't apply, the Turks may argue that the outcome of the battle for Idlib has security consequences  and not only for Turkey.

But it's hard to imagine that other members of the alliance will plunge into the conflict. The West has been lamentably reluctant to impose any meaningful costs on Russia for its crimes in Syria. More likely, they will press for a diplomatic solution, and call on President Vladimir Putin to attend a March 5 summit on Idlib, along with Erdogan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. For the moment, Moscow is disinclined.

Russia has been careful to deny direct involvement in the killing of Turkish soldiers  claiming they were victims of shelling by Syrian forces  but it continues to support the efforts of Bashar Assad to drive the Turks and their proxies from Idlib.

Erdogan has tried his usual negotiating tactic with Putin, warning that relations between Ankara and Moscow will be damaged over Idlib, even though such a break would leave Turkey utterly friendless, its economy in a hole. Turkish stocks have plunged with the escalation of tensions with Russia, and increased conflict will endanger a recent economic recovery.

Putin knows Erdogan doesn't dare pull either trigger.

- - -

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.
TRUVAC, a premium brand of vacuum excavation equipment manufactured by Vactor Manufacturing, Incorporated, a subsidiary of Federal Signal Corporation, announced the addition of two new dealers to their network. Ditch Witch of the Rockies, which is located in Colorado, and Ditch Witch of Oklahoma will now be offering the full line of TRUVAC vacuum excavators.

The addition of the two Ditch Witch dealers brings the total number of locations providing TRUVAC vacuum excavators and support to over 87 across the United States and Canada. Unique from other manufacturers, TRUVAC places a great deal of responsibility on their dealers, such as the need for superior support and parts availability. Both of the new dealers are well equipped to meet TRUVACs stringent requirements, and are excited to introduce TRUVAC to their customers, such as utility providers, construction companies, and others.

TRUVAC was founded as a response to the increased need for safe digging and the Call 811 Before You Dig movement, helping satisfy the safe-digging requirements of businesses and organizations that locate and verify underground utility lines and pipes. Vacuum excavators use pressurized air or water (hydro-excavation) to loosen soil, at which point a powerful vacuum system removes the soil and deposits it in the debris body. This provides a non-destructive means to safely locate and uncover underground utilities and precisely excavate an area. Were excited to bring these Ditch Witch dealers into our family. They are already well established and dialed into the utility and construction markets. This makes them a perfect match for our excavators and our mission to promote smart and safe digging through better technology and more dependable excavation, states Tony Fuller, Vice President, ESG Global Sales at Federal Signal.

TRUVAC vacuum excavators come in a variety of sizes and boast many exclusive features. Models include the popular Paradigm sub-compact model, the versatile Prodigy and Coyote compact models, and the full-size HXX and Wolf models. The full line of TRUVAC vacuum excavators is available at all four Ditch Witch locations in Colorado and Oklahoma.

About TRUVAC

The TRUVAC brand was created by Vactor Manufacturing, Incorporated to elevate their focus on vacuum excavators and safe-digging. TRUVAC vacuum excavators feature innovative technology and custom configurable designs, and are purpose-built to meet even the most demanding safe-digging needs. They are backed by coast-to-coast service and support. For more information about TRUVAC, visit truvac.com.

About Vactor

Vactor Manufacturing, Incorporated manufactures the Vactor brand of sewer and catch basin cleanser, the Guzzler brand of industrial vacuum loaders, and the TRUVAC brand of vacuum excavators. Based in Streator, Ill., Vactor Manufacturing, Incorporated has authorized dealers and service centers across North America. For more information about Vactor Manufacturing, Incorporated visit vactor.com.

About Federal Signal

Federal Signal Corporation (NYSE: FSS) builds and delivers equipment that moves material, cleans infrastructure, and protects the communities where we work and live. Founded in 1901, Federal Signal is a leading global designer, manufacturer and supplier of products and total solutions that serve municipal, governmental, industrial and commercial customers. Headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, with manufacturing facilities worldwide, the Company operates two groups: Environmental Solutions and Safety and Security Systems. For more information on Federal Signal, visit federalsignal.com.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.28

By Rufiz Hafizoghlu  Trend:

Azerbaijan increased import of textile raw materials from Turkey in January 2020, Turkeys Ministry of Trade told Trend on Feb. 28.

According to the ministry, Azerbaijans import of textile raw materials from Turkey exceeded $2.4 million in January 2020, which is 65.6 percent more compared to January 2019.

In January 2020, Turkeys export of textile raw materials to world markets amounted to $673.7 million, which is 0.28 percent less compared to same month of 2019.

Turkey's export amounted to $171.5 billion in 2019, having increased by 2.1 percent compared to 2018. In the meantime, Turkey's import dropped by 9.1 percent and amounted to $202.7 billion.

Turkeys foreign trade turnover in 2019 exceeded $374.2 billion.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Amphibians are able to glow in the dark  but scientists had no idea until now CBS

Stocks fall again in worst week since 2008 crisis FT

PG&E Faces Record Fine of $2.1 Billion for Role in Wildfires Bloomberg

East Loop reopens after major water main break flooded freeway ABC13. Houston.

#COVID-19

Australias coronavirus pandemic plan: mass vaccinations and stadium quarantine Guardian

China

Japan

The Koreas

Smudge-proof makeup gains popularity amid virus outbreak Korea Herald

Virus enigma: Experts ask why Africa seems to have few cases Agence France Presse8

Running out of time: East Africa faces new locust threat Reuters. On locusts, see NC here.

Impounded sandwiches The Baffler

India

Syraqistan

Brexit

RussiaGate

Ukraine court forces probe into Biden role in firing of prosecutor Viktor Shokin The Seattle Times (Furzy Mouse).

Trump Transition

2020

Bolivia dismissed its October elections as fraudulent. Our research found no reason to suspect fraud. WaPo. Oopsie. Better roll back that coup, I guess.

Our Famously Free Press

MSNBC just destroyed what was left of his kindness Welcome to Hellworld

Gunz

Imperial Collapse Watch

Class Warfare

Debtors of the World, Unite! Boston Review Socks, underwear require additional security at this Minnesota Walmart Bring Me The News (CL). No doubt face masks, hand sanitizer, rubbing alchohol, etc. will be locked up soon, if they have not already been.

NGOs and The Judges Of The ECHR, 2009-2019 (PDF) European Centre for Law and Justice (MT)\. NGOs have an increasing influence on and within international institutions, particularly within the human rights protection system. This report shows that at least 22 of the 100 permanent judges who have served on the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) between 2009 and 2019 are former officials or collaborators of seven NGOs that are highly active before the Court. Twelve judges are linked to the Open Society Foundation (OSF) network, seven to the Helsinki committees, five to the International Commission of Jurists, three to Amnesty International, and one each to Human Rights Watch, Interights and the A.I.R.E. Centre. The Open Society network is distinguished by the number of judges linked to it and by the fact that it funds the other six organisations mentioned in this report.  Not like Bloomberg is the only squillionare buying up institutions.

Antidote du jour:

One reason cats and rabbits tend to get along is that for cats, grooming others is a sign of high status, but for rabbits, being groomed is a sign of high status. Thus, each of these cuties is thinking "I'm the boss": pic.twitter.com/6sp6r9hWA7  Noah Smith  (@Noahpinion) February 26, 2020

Cute couple.

Bonus antidote:

Sea other trying to sleep on mom! How cute is this pic.twitter.com/2YPabmZOnU  Animal planet  (@animal5588) February 28, 2020

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has fired or forced out nearly 44,000 employees who were injured on the job since 2006 through its National Reassessment Process (NRP), according to a class action lawsuit brought before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

A U.S. Postal Service truck (Wikipedia Commons)

The class action suit is currently open and continues to process claims from approximately 28,000 victimized postal workers. According to the nonprofit organization ProPublica the EEOC ruled that the NRP illegally discriminated against injured workers by creating a hostile work environment, taking away disability accommodations and revealing workers confidential medical information in 2015 and 2017.

Including the NRP case, the USPS estimates that it may owe up to $178 million in potential liabilities for pending employment claims. The USPS has fought back against the claims brought forward by the lawsuit, contesting each workers claim individually, alleging that injured workers never provided enough proof that they had disabilities or were actually harmed as a result of the NRP.

The NRP was utilized by the USPS from 20062011. The program sought to significantly cut labor costs for USPS, which faced increasing operating costs from fuel price increases, decreasing revenue from reductions in the use of priority services like first-class mail, as well as increasing competition for the delivery of packages and urgent mail from giant logistics corporations like UPS and FedEx. Labor costs made up 80 percent of the USPS operating costs at the time that the NRP was rolled out.

Former USPS workers in the NRP class action suit allege that they were discriminated against after showing proof that they had been injured at work. The suit alleges that the USPS routinely harassed and discriminated against injured workers and refused to provide reasonable accommodations to workers who had become disabled as a result of their injuries.

The lawsuit also alleges that workers were fired after being moved to less physically demanding jobs, even if they provided written instructions to human resources from medical professionals restricting the type of work they were able to safely perform with their conditions.

Workers allege that they were let go from their new positions when the USPS told them that there was not enough work in the new positions to keep the workers employed. Workers in the class action suit claim that this is false and that other workers had to speed up to cover their heavy workloads after they were fired.

The plight of USPS workers bears striking similarities to the experience of workers at tech and logistics giant Amazon, owned by ultra-billionaire Jeff Bezos, who are routinely victimized, harassed, spied upon, fired and denied workers compensation for injuries suffered on the job.

According to the US Labor Department, postal workers accounted for only one-fifth of all federal employees in 2019, yet were disproportionately injured on the job, experiencing half of all workplace illness and injuries among federal employees.

Mail sorters must routinely squat and lift heavy bins of mail over 70 pounds, which can cause knee, back and rotator cuff injuries. Carriers also risk injury from lifting heavy bins, squatting, repeatedly getting in and out of mail trucks, walking up and down stairs, and walking to deliver mail in inclement weather, putting them at greater risk for slips and falls as well as joint injuries.

The grievances expressed in the lawsuit are the result of the subordination of the US Postal Service to the relentless demands of the capitalist profit system in which it operates, and these conditions cannot be eliminated for all workers through the capitalist legal system. USPS workers have had their jobs and living standards under attack since the 1970s as a massive shift of wealth from the working class to the corporate ruling class was underway.

The USPS is an independent agency of the federal government that receives no tax dollars, and is the second-largest employer in the US behind Walmart. After the 1970 postal workers strike against the federal government, the USPS was formed to replace the US Postal Department, which was funded by Congress, with an organization that was run like a business, but which is not a government-owned corporation. The US Postal Department had been a cabinet department of the executive branch since 1872.

In recent decades, the USPS has faced enormous funding cuts. It experienced five straight years of operating losses between 20112016 with the majority of its deficit coming from $5.8 billion in accruals of unpaid mandatory retiree health insurance payments. Due to the increasing use of email and the internet for correspondence and document delivery, the volume of first-class mail processed by the USPS declined by 43 percent in 2017 from its peak in 2001.

The USPS increased its productivity each year from 20002007 mainly through automation, route optimization and through facility consolidation. In July 2011, under Democratic President Barack Obama, the USPS announced plans to close 3,700 post offices across the US. This was met with backlash from the public, and the following year it announced it would instead keep rural post offices open with reduced retail hours, cutting back on labor costs and limiting essential services provided to the millions of people.

In December 2011 the USPS announced that it planned to close more than half252 out of a total of 461of its mail processing centers, eliminating 28,000 positions and reducing the delivery of overnight first-class mail. The same year, several media outlets began to speculate that the USPS was going out of business.

The four unions which officially represent the postal workersthe American Postal Workers Union, National Association of Letter Carriers, National Postal Mail Handlers Union and National Rural Letter Carriers Associationhave not lifted a finger to mobilize workers to oppose these attacks, including the loss of over 250,000 post office jobs since 1999an almost 28 percent reduction in its workforce. The USPS now employs around 630,000 workers compared to 900,000 in 1999.

Neither did the unions make any effort to unite USPS workers with their class brothers and sisters across the border during the 2018 strike of 50,000 Canadian postal workers, who were also fighting against a brutal profit-driven work regimen where real wages had fallen and understaffing led to speedup and heavy workloads that caused an accident rate among postal workers to be five times that of the average rate for federally regulated industries.

Republican President Donald Trump has unleashed new threats to privatize the USPS in recent years, against which thousands of postal workers in cities across the US protested in 2018. If such draconian moves ever go forward, it will only be thanks to the previous Democratic and Republican administrations which sanctioned cuts to the USPS and to the postal workers unions which have been complicit in these attacks.

Postal workers in the US and worldwide cannot allow their struggles to be trapped within the realm of the labor unions and capitalist parties any longer. A real socialist and internationalist strategy is needed to take control of communications infrastructure from the corporate ruling class and to place it into the hands of the working class worldwide.
Vicki Baumgartner made a visit to Courtney Cumby's first grade class at Regina - Howell Elementary Friday, bringing with her the Olympic torch she carried in the relay leading up to the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, which were the last games hosted by the United States. In addition to sharing photos of her participating in the run, Baumgartner read a story about the Olympics and brought hands-on activities for the class.

The United States has hosted Olympic games eight times - the first in 1904 in St. Louis. The summer games of 2028 will be the next round for the U.S. to host. The event will be held in Los Angeles.
WHO warning comes after Nigeria records first case in sub-Saharan Africa, as number of cases worldwide surpass 83,000.

Hopes that the coronavirus would be contained to China have vanished as the first case in sub-Saharan Africa was announced in Nigeria and stock markets took a pounding amid fears of a global recession.

In China  the epicentre of the deadly disease  the National Health Commission reported on Friday at least 44 new coronavirus deaths, bringing to 2,788 the number of fatalities nationwide.

Coronavirus has killed more than 2,800 people and infected more than 83,000 worldwide.

Here are the latest updates:

Friday, February 28

19:50 GMT  Two South Africans test positive in Japan

Two South Africans on board the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a state-run medical institute.

We confirm that these citizens are currently being treated in Japan and are in good care, said a statement by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

19:50 GMT  France reports 19 news coronavirus cases

France reported 19 new confirmed coronavirus cases, taking the total to 57.

French Health Minister Olivier Veran said that several schools in the Oise area north of Paris would remain closed after holidays end on Sunday in order to halt the spread of the virus.

Separately, Defence Minister Florence Parly said on her Twitter feed that several confirmed coronavirus infections had been reported on the military base of Creil, north of Paris.

19:40 GMT  Russia to deport 88 foreingers

Russia will deport 88 foreigners for allegedly violating quarantine measures put in place as a precaution against the coronavirus.

The foreign nationals were caught during raids carried out by Moscow police in order to implement the measures for preventing the infiltration of the deadly virus, Anastasia Rakova, Moscows deputy mayor said on Friday, adding that cases have yet to be detected in the Russian capital.

19:20 GMT  Window to tackle coronavirus narrowing: UN chief

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that containment of the global spread of coronavirus was possible but the window of opportunity is narrowing.

This not a time for panic  it is time to be prepared  fully prepared, he told reporters in New York.

Now is the time for all governments to step up and do everything possible to contain the disease. We know containment is possible, but the window of opportunity is narrowing.

19:15 GMT  UKs Johnson says coronavirus is governments top priority

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said taking measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus was his governments top priority and that the public were right to be concerned, in his first television appearance to talk about the issue.

The issue of coronavirus is something that is now the governments top priority, he told broadcasters, adding that he would be chairing a meeting of ministers and officials on the subject on Monday

19:00 GMT  Italy coronavirus death toll rises to 21, positive cases 888

A civil protection official in Italy said that four more people have died from coronavirus, bringing the total to 21, while the number of those testing positive for the illness jumped to 888 from 650 the day before. Of those infect, 46 are said to have recovered.

Northern Italys Lombardy region said it will ask the government to maintain for at least another week the containment measures already implemented against the outbreak.

18:20 GMT  Pakistan re-opens border with Iran

Pakistan re-opened its border with neighbouring Iran, allowing hundreds of its stranded citizens to return home.

We have reopened the border to allow our citizens to enter [the country] in batches, Liaquat Shahwani, a spokesperson for the government of southwestern Balochistan province that borders Iran was quoted as saying by Anadolu Agency.

Those who have touched the virus-hit areas in Iran are being quarantined until they are declared clear.

18:00 GMT  EU health ministers to hold extraordinary meeting

European Union health ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting on March 6 to discuss the coronavirus outbreak, an EU official said.

EU health ministers held a first extraordinary meeting earlier in February on the epidemic, where they decided to coordinate their response to the outbreak.

17:50 GMT  More US coronavirus cases likely

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said t he number of additional coronavirus cases in the US is likely to increase but that does not mean they will skyrocket in North America.

Kudlow, in an interview with Fox Business Network, added that while there are not currently US supply chain problems that does not mean they will not surface.

17:40 GMT  Countries not ready to take same measures as China: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report that much of the global community is not yet ready to implement the types of measures that have contained the fast-moving coronavirus outbreak in China.

These are the only measures that are currently proven to interrupt or minimize transmission chains in humans, the report said.

Fundamental to these measures is extremely proactive surveillance to immediately detect cases, very rapid diagnosis and immediate case isolation, rigorous tracking and quarantine of close contacts, and an exceptionally high degree of population understanding and acceptance of these measures.

17:30 GMT  Corona virus unlikely to vanish next year: US health official

Anthony Fauci, head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases, said the coronavirus is unlikely to disappear next year and that many more cases should be expected in the US.

Fauci told lawmakers in a closed-door meeting that the US currently does not have enough coronavirus testing resources.





16:55 GMT  Coronavirus risk is at very high global level: WHO chief

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the risk of spread and impact of the coronavirus is now very high at a global level.

Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva the 329 cases reported in China over the past 24 hours made it the lowest there in more than a month.

16:50 GMT  Coronavirus increases economic risks: Swiss National Bank

The Swiss National Bank said in a statement that the widening coronavirus outbreak has increased economic risks which would have negative consequences for Switzerland and increase the attraction of the safe-haven franc.

The coronavirus has increased the economic risks. If the international environment were to deteriorate, this would have consequences for Switzerland as a small, open economy, the central bank said in a statement.

16:30 GMT  Pompeo says US ready to help Iran with coronavirus

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said his country offered to help Iran in its efforts to combat the coronavirus outbreak which has killed 34 people and raised questions about Tehrans willingness to share information.

Pompeo told a House Foreign Affairs Committee said authorities in the Islamic Republic were poorly equipped to deal with the health crisis.

Heavy economic sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump have made it difficult for the countrys health sector to import vital medical equipment and pharmaceutical products.

16:15 GMT  British man on board Diamond Princess dies

Japans Kyodo news agency said a British man who was on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship has passed away after being infected by the coronavirus.

The British nationals death, the first of a foreign passenger, brought the death toll aboard the ship to six.

16:00 GMT  Two more cases confirmed in Romania

Nelu Tataru, Romanias deputy health ministry, said two more cases of coronavirus have been confirmed, raising the total number of patients to three.

They are a 45-year-old man from the county of Maramures and a 38-year-old woman from (the western city of) Timisoara, Tataru told reporters, adding that they had both recently returned from Italy.

15:40 GMT  France: Companies can declare force majeure

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced that companies can declare force majeure when dealing with small-to-medium sized enterprises.

We are going to consider the coronavirus as a case of force majeure, Le Maire told reporters, referring to instances where parties to a contract are unable to meet their obligations due to external circumstances.





15:30 GMT  Kenya High Court orders flights from China suspended

Kenyas High Court has ordered flights from China temporarily suspended, following a petition by the Law Society of Kenya.

I find that unless conservatory orders sought are granted Kenyans will continue to be exposed to the deadly disease coronavirus, Judge James Makau said.

15:20 GMT  Almost 60 confirmed cases in Germany

A spokesperson for the German health ministry said nearly 60 people had tested positive for the coronavirus, adding that the number included those who recovered.

At the moment in Germany, we have almost 60 but its a very dynamic situation, as we keep saying.

14:50 GMT  Coronavirus outbreak getting bigger after Nigeria case: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the coronavirus outbreak is getting bigger after Nigeria diagnosed the first case in sub-Saharan Africa, reiterating that the virus could reach most, if not, all countries.

Christian Lindmeier, a spokesperson for WHO, told a new conference in Geneva that the agency was investigating the possibility of patients getting re-infected.

But in general a person who had coronavirus infection would be immune for at least a while, he added.

14:30 GMT  Brussels Airlines to reduce flights to northern Italy by 30 percent

Brussels Airlines, a Lufthansa subsidiary, said it was cutting flights to northern Italy, including routes to Milan, Venice and Rome, by 30 percent for 12 days starting March 2.

Because of the rapidly declining demand in air travel within Europe, Brussels Airlines has taken the decision to reduce flight frequencies on a number of routes in order to limit the negative economic impact on its business, it said in a statement.

14:20 GMT  Prefecture in northern Japan declares state of emergency over coronavirus

Hokkaido, Japans northernmost prefecture, declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus outbreak, asking that residents avoid going outdoors during the weekend.

Hokkaido has been doing everything it can to contain the virus but the crisis is deepening, said Governor Naomichi Suzuki in a televised news conference, adding that the state of emergency would go on until March 19.

13:50 GMT  Israel confirms fourth case of coronavirus

Israels health ministry confirmed its fourth case of coronavirus in a person which it said had been in close contact with a man who tested positive after returning from a trip to Italy.

Another coronavirus patient who was in close personal contact with the patient who returned from Italy was diagnosed with a positive result and transferred to isolation, the health ministry said in a statement.

Two Israeli passengers had last week tested positive and were put in quarantine after traveling on the Diamond Princess, a virus-stricken cruise ship.

13:40 GMT  First case in Frances Nice

Authorities in the southern French city of Nice have confirmed a first case of the deadly coronavirus in a woman who had recently returned from Milan.

I have been informed of a first case of coronavirus diagnosed this morning at the Nice hospital, wrote Mayor Christian Estrosi on Twitter.

This is Ramy Allahoum in Doha taking over from Usaid Siddiqui.

Heres a quick summary of the latest developments:

Thirty-four people have been confirmed dead in Iran with a total of 388 people infected.

Wales identified its first case and two new cases were found in England, taking the total tally in the UK to 19.

12:40 GMT  Two Abu Dhabi hotels under quarantine after guests diagnosed

Guests at two hotels in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi have been placed under quarantine after interacting with two Italians diagnosed with coronavirus, state news agency WAM reported.

Other people who also interacted with the two Italians on Yas island have been isolated at home, the agency said, citing the health department of Abu Dhabi.

The Italians individuals were diagnosed with the disease on Thursday.

11:50 GMT  More guests leave Canary Islands hotel

Three small groups of guests left a Tenerife hotel in minibuses on its fourth day of quarantine over the coronavirus.

At least two people could be seen leaving in an ambulance, but around 700 holidaymakers remained in the compound. It was not clear where they were being taken or whether those in the ambulance had any symptoms of the virus.

The regional government of Canary Islands cleared 130 guests on Thursday to leave the hotel, after it was placed on lockdown when four cases of the coronavirus were detected there.





11:17 GMT  Second case confirmed in Georgia

Georgia confirmed its second case of the coronavirus, according to the director of National Center for Disease Control and Public Health.

Amiran Gamkrelidze said the new case arrived from Italy. The first case reported in Georgia was on February 26.

10:56 GMT  One more confirmed case in Thailand, total now 41

Thailand recorded one new case bringing the total in the South East Asian country to 41.

According to the health ministry, the case is of a 25-year-old Thai national and tour guide who recently returned from South Korea.

10:45 GMT  Death toll in Iran rises to 34  health ministry

Thirty-four people have been confirmed dead in Iran because of the coronavirus, a health ministry spokesman said.

The number of people diagnosed with the disease now stands at 388, 143 more than Thursday  from different parts of the country had tested positive for the virus, Kianush Jahanpur told reporters.

10:15 GMT  Second case confirmed in Netherlands  health authorities

A second case of COVID-19 has been confirmed in the Netherlands, health officials said

This latest case was reported in Amsterdam, the Dutch capital, while the first case, identified on Thursday, was confirmed in the southern city of Tilburg.

Both individuals had recently travelled in Northern Italy.





10:10 GMT  Nigerias first case travelled through Lagos before detection  minister

Nigerias first confirmed case was not detected at airport, and travelled through Lagos before he became ill and went to a hospital, the countrys health minister said.

The Italian man, who authorities said arrived in Nigeria from Milan on the evening of February 24, did not have symptoms when the plane landed.

Authorities are now working to meet and observe all those who were on the flight with him, and are also identifying all the people he met and places he visited in Lagos, a city of some 20 million people.

09:50 GMT  First case in Wales reported, UK tally now 19

The United Kingdom is now reporting 19 confirmed cases of the coronavirus after Wales identified its first case and two new cases were found in England, health authorities said on Friday.

The total number of UK cases is 19, the health ministry said.

09:45 GMT  Pope cancels more official appointments over cold

Pope Francis was working from home, and cancelled postponed his official appointments, the Vatican said, a day after cancelling a scheduled appearance at mass because of a mild ailment.

Francis had appeared earlier in the week to be suffering from a cold, seen blowing his nose and coughing during the Ash Wednesday service.

While the Pope, 83, celebrated morning mass, and greeted participants at the end, he cleared his schedule of everything apart from meetings at the Saint Marthas guest house at the Vatican where he resides, chief press officer Matteo Bruni said in a statement.

Francis had appeared to be suffering from a cold earlier in the week [File: Remo Casilli/Reuters]

09.40 GMT  Switzerland suspends all major events to combat virus

The Swiss government has suspended all events in the country involving more than 1,000 participants until mid-March in a bid to stop the novel virus

Large-scale events involving more than 1,000 people are to be banned. The ban comes into immediate effect and will apply at least until 15 March, the government said in a statement after the country registered 15 cases.

In the case of public or private events at which fewer than 1,000 people would gather, event organisers must carry out a risk assessment in conjunction with the competent cantonal authorities to decide whether or not the event can be held, the statement read.

09:16 GMT  Online virus game in China removed: developer

A popular game that allows players to create a virus and spread it worldwide has been pulled from Apples App Store in China, its developer said, as the country battles a real-life epidemic.

Users based in China could not download Plague Inc on Friday after the cyberspace watchdog ordered its removal over illegal content, UK-based Ndemic Creations said.

Ndemic said it was not clear if the decision was linked to the deadly new coronavirus outbreak, which began in central China in December. We have a huge amount of respect for our Chinese players and are devastated that they are no longer able to access and play Plague Inc, Ndemic said.

08:43 GMT  Russia restricts Iran, South Korea travellers over virus

Moscow has announced new restrictions on people travelling to Russia from Iran and South Korea, two countries hit hardest by the outbreak of the new coronavirus.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in statement announced a temporary suspension of visas for Iranians travelling to Russia for employment, tourism, education and transit purposes.

A separate decree imposed restrictions on travel to Russia from South Korea, with exceptions including members of official delegations.





08:26 GMT  Recovered patients found not to be infectious  official

Recovered coronavirus patients who were discharged from hospitalization but later tested positive again have been found not to be infectious, an official at Chinas National Health Commission (NHC) said.

A hospital administration official, Guo Yanhong, told reporters at a daily press conference that there is a need to deepen the understanding of the new coronavirus, while improving health tracking and management of patients who recovered.

08:00 GMT  Two South Africans test positive on cruise ship

A pair of South Africans working on the Diamond Princess cruise ship have tested positive for COVID-19, the South African health ministry said.

On 25 February 2020, we were informed by the Japanese authorities that two of these South Africans tested positive for COVID-19, the ministry said in a statement.

They are currently being treated in Japan and the latest reports indicate that they are currently asymptomatic, the statement said.

07:40 GMT  Mongolian President under quarantine: state media

Mongolia President Khaltmaagiin Battulga and his accompanying staff who travelled to China on Thursday have been placed under quarantine, according to Mongolian state media outlet Montsame.

Battulga was the first foreign leader to visit China amid the Coronavirus outbreak.

In January, Mongolia shut its borders with China, to prevent the spread of the virus. So far no cases of coronavirus have been reported in Mongolia.

Mongolias President Khaltmaagiin Battulga, left, poses with Chinese President Xi Jinping for a photo during a meeting on Thursday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing [Liu Bin/Xinhua/AP]

07:30 GMT  Qatar evacuates citizens from Iran

All Qatari citizens have been evacuated from Iran and arrived in Doha, the Government Communications Office (GCO) confirmed in a press release.

All individuals will be quarantined in a hotel facility for 14 days, where they will be provided with all necessities and taken care of, the GCO said.

07:20 GMT  Belarus announces first case of coronavirus  TASS

Belarus has reported the first case of coronavirus infection in the country, according to Russian news agency TASS,

We would like to inform you that February 27 tests conducted at the Republican Scientific and Practical Center of epidemiology and microbiology showed the presence of coronavirus 2019-nCoV in one of the students from Iran, TASS quoted the Belarussian Ministry of Healthcare.

06:50 GMT  WHO: Pandemic potential as infections spread globablly

World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said all nations should prepare themselves for potential pandemic, as nations aside from China now accout for three-quarters of new infections.

This virus has pandemic potential, Tedros revealed in Geneva. About 12 countries reported their first virus cases in past 24 hours.

According to WHO, outside China the virus has spread to a further 46 countries, where about 3,700 cases and 57 deaths have been reported so far.

The WHO director said this was not a time of fear but time to take action to save lives [ File: Denis Balibouse/Reuters]

Ill be handing over this page shortly to my colleague Usaid Siddiqui in Doha.

Heres a quick summary of the latest developments:

Nigeria becomes the first sub-Saharan country to confirm a coronavirus case, while several Asian and European countries, as well as New Zealand, also confirm their first infections.

Meanwhile,its becoming increasingly clear the virus will take a large toll on the global economy, as the markets have their worst week since 2008.

06:15 GMT  Kyrgyzstan resident in Japan tested positive for virus

A Kyrgyz citizen staying in Japan has tested positive for coronavirus and will be hospitalised there until full recovery, Kyrgyz deputy foreign minister Nurlan Abdrakhmanov said.

The man was one of the crew of the Diamond Princess cruise ship berthed in Japans port of Yokohama. Kyrgyzstan has reported no coronavuris cases on its own territory.

06:05 GMT  New Zealand reports first virus patient; case linked to Iran

New Zealand health officials said the country had its first coronavirus case, a person in their 60s who recently returned from Iran.

The person was being treated at the Auckland City Hospital and members of their household had also been isolated as a precaution.

Authorities said the patient arrived on an Emirates flight that landed in Auckland on Wednesday. They said anybody on the flight who had any concerns should contact health experts.

05:35 GMT  Stock markets take a pounding worldwide

Stock markets around the world have plummeted as it has become increasingly clear the virus will take a huge toll on the global economy.

Stock markets in Asia plunged again in opening trade on Friday morning, tracking huge losses in the United States and Europe.The Dow shed nearly 1,200 points, or 4.4 percent, on Thursday, taking its losses for the week to more than 11 percent.

There was more coronavirus carnage on the markets, Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said.One of the worst weeks in recent memory and terrifyingly, its not over yet. Friday is a tricky proposition.

Share prices were on track for the worst week since the global financial crisis in 2008.





05:15 GMT  Coronavirus fear touches off a global run on face masks

Fear of the spreading coronavirus has led to a global run on sales of face masks despite medical experts advice that most people who arent sick dont need to wear them.

Many businesses are sold out, while others are limiting how many a customer can buy. Amazon is policing its site, trying to make sure sellers dont gouge panicked buyers.

Ordinary people trying to protect themselves from the outbreak are not the only ones encountering shortages. Some health care professionals are seeing them as well.

05:10 GMT  Virus detected in sub-Saharan Africa, global stocks tank

Nigeria reported the first new coronavirus case in sub-Saharan Africa on Friday, as global stock markets tanked on deepening fears of a pandemic and the World Health Organization warned against the fatal mistake of complacency.

On Friday, Nigeria reported its first case: an Italian man who returned to densely populated Lagos early this week. Cases had previously been reported in Egypt and Algeria, but not in the sub-Saharan region.

The low number of cases across Africa, which has close economic ties with China, has puzzled health specialists and raised questions about authorities capabilities to detect the virus.

Commissioner Akin Abayomi said the man was transferred to Lagos State Biosecurity Facilities for isolation and testing. The patient was clinically stable with no serious symptoms and was being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.

03:58 GMT  Lithuania confirms first case of coronavirus

Lithuanias government reported the countrys first confirmed case of coronavirus in a woman who returned this week from a visit to Italys northern city of Verona.

Italy is the European nation worst hit by the virus, with its death toll at 17, while the numbers of those testing positive for the illness increased by more than 200, to 350.

In a statement, the Lithuanian government said the stricken woman had been isolated in hospital in the northern town of Siauliai.She has been under observation since and is showing only slight symptoms.

The woman, aged 39, was attending a conference with colleagues in Italy before flying to the southern city of Kaunas, Health Minister Aurelijus Veryga said.

03:40 GMT  K-pop group BTS cancel concerts over coronavirus scare

K-pop megastars BTS on Friday cancelled four Seoul concerts due in April as the number of novel coronavirus cases in South Korea passed 2,000.

The seven-piece boy band  currently one of the biggest acts in the world  had scheduled four gigs at the capitals Olympic Stadium to promote their new album, Map of the Soul: 7.

More than 200,000 fans were expected to attend, their agency Big Hit Entertainment said in a statement, with a number of global production companies and a large group of expert international crew also involved.

03:30 GMT  New Zealand limits entry of travellers from Iran

New Zealand said on Friday that it was placing temporary restrictions on incoming travellers from Iran as a precautionary measure to protect against the coronavirus outbreak.

This means people will not be able to travel from Iran to New Zealand and anyone who has been in Iran in the last 14 days will need to self-isolate, Health Minister David Clark said in a statement.

The death toll in Iran from coronavirus had risen to 26, by far the highest number outside China.

01:56 GMT  Tokyo Disneyland to close through mid-March on coronavirus concerns

Tokyo Disneyland will be closed starting on Saturday through to March 15 amid an outbreak of coronavirus infections in Japan, operator Oriental Land Co Ltd said on Friday.

Both Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea will be affected, the company said.





The move comes after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for all schools to close to stop the coronavirus from spreading. The government has also urged that big gatherings and sports events be scrapped or curtailed for two weeks.

01:01 GMT  South Korea reports 256 new coronavirus cases, total 2,022  KCDC

South Korea reported 256 new coronavirus cases on Friday, bringing the total number of infected in the country to 2,022, the Korea Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention said.

Of the new cases, 182 were in the southeastern city of Daegu, the location of a church at the centre of South Koreas outbreak, the KCDC said in a statement.

The death toll from the virus stood at 13, unchanged from the day earlier.

The coronavirus, which originated in China, has rapidly spread to more than 40 other countries and territories.

A worker disinfects journalists visiting the Mengniu dairy factory in Beijing on Thursday [Ng Han Guan/AP]

00:02 GMT  Coronavirus risk to Americans low, but can change: US health secretary

The risk to American people from coronavirus is low, but that could change, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Thursday.

We have really been able to keep the risk to the Americans low right now so that everyday Americans dont need to be worried, but that can change and thats why its important for all of us to prepare, Azar said at a White House event with President Donald Trump.

23:48 GMT  Thursday  US grants sanctions waiver for humanitarian trade to Iran

The US on Thursday granted a licence to allow for certain humanitarian trade transactions with Irans sanctioned central bank, a move it said was in step with the formalisation of a Swiss humanitarian trade channel.

The newly created channel, which the US Treasury Department said became fully operational on Thursday as it granted the licence, would allow for companies to send food, medicine and other critical supplies to Iran.

This comes as Iran is grappling with a rapidly increasing number of coronavirus cases which have already killed at least two dozen people.

Hello and welcome to Al Jazeeras continuing coverage of the coronavirus from our bureau in Kuala Lumpur  Ted Regencia

Click here to read updates from Thursday, February 27.
JACKSON, MI  A benefit dinner is planned for the family of the 14-year-old Jackson boy fatally shot a week ago.

Cameron Kasprzycki, 14, was killed Friday, Feb. 21. Jackson Police said they believe he was shot inside his home and that a 16-year-old boy was there. Cameron was found by his father near the driveway to the familys house in the 500 block of Orange Street around 10:50 p.m.

The taco bar dinner is 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, March 1, at the Polish National Alliance, 638 Page Ave. Tickets are $10 per person. Proceeds go to his family to help cover final expenses. A GoFundMe raised $11,850 before it was closed.

The youngest of six, Cameron was the only boy in the family, his sister Makenzie Kasprzycki said. When they were younger, Cameron would let her put makeup on him and curl and straighten his hair  if she promised to not take any pictures.

He was my best friend, she said. He was my right hand.

Camerons funeral was Thursday, Feb. 27, at JaxNaz Church, 3905 Clinton Way.

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(Alliance News) - Karelian Diamond Resources PLC on Friday said it has made "further progress" at its Lahtojoki diamond mine in Finland, but took aim at a group of shareholders for "hindering" the business.

In the six months to November 30, the diamond exploration firm's pretax loss stretched to EUR250,150 from EUR215,342.

Karelian did not generate any revenue in the period, as it continues its diamond exploration and development programme.

During the interim period, Karelian found the presence of coloured stones, including pink diamonds, at Lahtojoki.

Karelian added: "Examination of the pink diamonds indicates that these diamonds are of high quality and therefore potentially especially valuable.

"Progress in relation to mandatory regulatory matters under the Finnish mining laws continued to be made. In particular, the process in relation to agreeing compensation for landowners at Lahtojoki is now at an advanced stage."

The company added that it has been forced to "contend with a series of actions by a group of shareholders", who proposed wholesale changes to Karelian's board.

At the start of September, Interactive Investor Services Nominees Ltd and Share Nominees Ltd & (Rock) Nominees Ltd, which cover 12% of Karelian's shares, requested an extraordinary general meeting. This was after an EGM was held in July.

Shareholders in October voted on the removal of several directors including Chair Richard Conroy, Managing Director Maureen Jones, and Non-Executive Directors Seamus FitzPatrick, Sorca Conroy and Louis Maguire. In their place, the activists proposed that Alan Osborne, Stephen Grimmer, Martin Doyle and Kevin Taylor join as directors.

Karelian shareholders voted against all resolutions, meaning the company's board remained the same after the vote.

Karelian said: "The requisitionists, in association with a former employee/consultant to the company, endeavoured to gain control of the company by removing all but two of the current members of the board and electing four replacements, nominated by them, to the board.

"The resolutions were rejected by shareholders of the company at the first EGM, and the same resolutions were defeated by an even larger majority at the second EGM."

Karelian shares were 8.2% lower at 2.80 pence each in London on Friday around midday.

By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Samir Ali - Trend:

Azerbaijan is taking appropriate measures to strengthen the fleet of the country's Air Force with 5th generation combat aircraft, Air Force Colonel Namig Islamzade told Trend while commenting on the acquisition of modern M-346 training aircraft from Italy.

A number of documents were signed between Azerbaijan and Italy during the state visit of Azerbaijan's President, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev to Rome, Namig Islamzade noted.

"The 'Declaration of Agreement between the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Leonardo S.p.A in connection with the acquisition of an integration system for M-346 aircraft', signed by Azerbaijan's Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov and CEO of Leonardo S.p.A Alessandro Profumo, should be especially noted among them," the colonel said.

"The Azerbaijani Air Force has been conducting large-scale measures for several years, in particular, modernizing air bases and improving the social conditions of personnel. Currently, most of the aircraft at the disposal of the Azerbaijani Air Force are in accordance with modern standards," the colonel added.

The Air Force officer noted that Azerbaijan has preferred Italian and Pakistani aircraft in recent years, when it came to the purchase of training aircraft.

"We can especially note the purchase of 10 Super Mushshak MFI-395 aircraft in accordance with the contract signed in July 2017 between the Azerbaijani Air Force and the Pakistan's PAC KAMRA company, and the presentation of the new generation M-346 jet aircraft on May 10, 2017, which was manufactured by Italy's Leonardo S.p.A," Namig Islamzade said.

Colonel Islamzade added that the acquisition of M-346 aircraft will play an important role in enhancing professionalism and combat skills of Azerbaijan's military pilots.

"At the same time, the M-346 is used as a transitional aircraft to modern multi-purpose aircraft 4++ and 5th generation. Along with the replenishment of Azerbaijan's Air Force fleet, the aircraft of this type will expand their combat capabilities and will ensure Azerbaijan's superiority over Armenia in the airspace," the colonel added.
S haun Bailey, the Conservative mayoral candidate, has today announced an ambitious plan to increase the number of Met police officers to 40,000 if he wins the contest to run City Hall in May.

Mr Bailey says that taking the Met, which currently has fewer than 32,000 officers, to this size is fundamental to his plan to regain control of crime on Londons streets, and that he can deliver the large increase through changes including the introduction of a new tourist tax on hotels, savings from reducing City Hall waste, and the use by police of new time-saving technology.

The biggest contribution is expected to come from the Government, however, through already-promised funding increases that are expected to boost Met numbers to 36,000 or more even without any of Mr Baileys proposed extra measures.

Voters will, of course, have to decide whether they believe Mr Baileys plans are deliverable or whether they think that so many extra police officers are needed.

It is worth pointing out that Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has spoken enthusiastically of the benefits that the new officers she has welcomed to the Met recently are bringing to the organisations ability to bear down on knife crime and other violence. But Mr Bailey is certainly right to make tackling crime his priority.

The Met has made limited progress by reducing the number of young people suffering knife wounds and making a significant number of weapons seizures and arrests, but there is still too much violence happening and too many teens and others losing their lives.

Mr Bailey says his long experience as a youth worker in London has shown him the value that a police presence brings. His views carry weight for this reason, and its certainly true that extra boots on the ground, plus behind-the-scenes intelligence gathering, can play a role in stopping crime.

Law enforcement can never be the entire solution, so voters will also need to consider how Mr Bailey and the other mayoral candidates plan to tackle the underlying factors that can lead people into crime.

The current Mayor Sadiq Khan was too slow to adopt the necessary public health approach, which is now thankfully being implemented, but the coming months will allow the public to decide whether he, Mr Bailey, or one of the other candidates is the best person to take these efforts forward.

The Evening Standard will be scrutinising their plans carefully because Londoners deserve safer streets and less bloodshed.

Coronavirus turmoil

The Bank of England governor Mark Carney has today warned that coronavirus will inflict an economic hit on this country if world growth, as seems certain, drops this year because of the effect of the infection.

The disarray in world stock markets, including the FTSE 100, coupled with earnings alerts today from airline groups and warnings of major events being cancelled or held behind closed doors are other obvious signs that the effect on peoples lives is likely to be far greater in the coming months than simply the risk of contracting this worrying virus.

It makes the need for co-ordinated international action and proper planning here to contain the spread of coronavirus even more essential.

Its alarming therefore to hear claims today from one GP that our preparations are shambolic with confusing advice coming from the NHS. Thats not good enough.

Ministers must make sure were ready on all fronts if the situation gets worse so we can minimise the health and economic fallout.

Google taps in to Tube

Transport for London has struck a 2 million sponsorship deal with Google which will see TfLs logo on yellow Oyster-card readers replaced by the tech giants badge.

Its a sensible move.
president on Friday deputed a five-member team to visit the riot-affected areas in northeast Delhi and submit a report to her after assessing the situation there.

The delegation comprises AICC general Secretary Mukul Wasnik, AICC in-charge Delhi Shaktisinh Gohil, Haryana PCC chief Kumari Selja, Ex-MP Tariq Anwar, and Mahila chief Sushmita Dev.

The president has deputed a delegation of party leaders to visit the riot-affected areas in the Capital of Delhi and asked the leaders to assess the situation emanating from the mindless violence in riot-affected areas and its after effects, the party said in a statement.

The team has been asked to submit a "detailed report to the Congress President immediately", the statement said.

The death toll in Delhi's communal violence rose to 39 on Friday.
Next we came to the Bodleian Library, where only men would have studied for many years. Women werent admitted to the university until 1878, and even then couldnt receive degrees until 1920. The guide asked why women would choose to come to the university if they couldnt receive degrees. One person suggested it could be to make a statement, while another countered that it could be to find a husband. Exchanges of opinion are welcome on the tour  its part of the anti-shame and anti-blame space the directors hoped to create, making room for as many people to share their experiences and thoughts as possible.
NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Brixmor Property Group Inc. (NYSE: BRX) ("Brixmor" or the "Company") today announced that James Taylor, Chief Executive Officer and President, will now present at the Citi 2020 Global Property CEO Conference in Hollywood, Florida on Monday, March 2, 2020 at 3:00 PM ET.

Event: Brixmor Property Group Presentation at Citi 2020 Global Property CEO Conference

When: 3:00 PM ET, Monday, March 2, 2020

Live Webcast: Citi Global Property CEO Presentation under the Investors tab at www.brixmor.com

A replay of the webcast will be available through June 2, 2020.

CONNECT WITH BRIXMOR

For additional information, please visit www.brixmor.com;

Follow Brixmor on:

Twitter at https://twitter.com/Brixmor



Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Brixmor



Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/brixmorpopupshop



YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/Brixmor; and

Find Brixmor on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/brixmor.

ABOUT BRIXMOR PROPERTY GROUP

Brixmor (NYSE: BRX) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns and operates a high-quality, national portfolio of open-air shopping centers. Its 403 retail centers comprise approximately 71 million square feet of prime retail space in established trade areas. The Company strives to own and operate shopping centers that reflect Brixmor's vision "to be the center of the communities we serve" and are home to a diverse mix of thriving national, regional and local retailers. Brixmor is a proud real estate partner to approximately 5,000 retailers including The TJX Companies, The Kroger Co., Publix Super Markets, Wal-Mart, Ross Stores and L.A. Fitness.

Brixmor announces material information to its investors in SEC filings and press releases and on public conference calls, webcasts and the "Investors" page of its website at www.brixmor.com. The Company also uses social media to communicate with its investors and the public, and the information Brixmor posts on social media may be deemed material information. Therefore, Brixmor encourages investors and others interested in the Company to review the information that it posts on its website and on its social media channels.

SAFE HARBOR LANGUAGE

The presentation referenced in this press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements related to the Company's expectations regarding the performance of its business, its financial results, its liquidity and capital resources and other non-historical statements. You can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "outlook," "believes," "expects," "potential," "continues," "may," "will," "should," "seeks," "approximately," "projects," "predicts," "intends," "plans," "estimates," "anticipates" or the negative version of these words or other comparable words. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described under the sections entitled "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, as such factors may be updated from time to time in our periodic filings with the SEC, which are accessible on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Accordingly, there are or will be important factors that could cause actual outcomes or results to differ materially from those indicated in these statements. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in this release and in the Company's filings with the SEC. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.

SOURCE Brixmor Property Group Inc.

Related Links

http://www.brixmor.com


Visitors pass through a thermal scanner as they arrive at the Singapore Air Show (AP/Danial Hakim)

The world is in a state of panic over the COVID-19 virus epidemic. Tens of thousands have been infected in China and more than 2,000 are reported to have died. Singapore, with its large ethnic Chinese population and close business and travel links to China, has been one of the worst hit of the Asian countries by the COVID-19 virus. More than 90 persons are reported to have been infected with the virus.

My adopted home of Singapore is the second most densely populated city on the planet with almost six million people living on a small island of 280 square miles (less than half the size of my family's home county of Fermanagh). Viruses like Covid-19 pose an existential threat to such a densely populated island.

Learning from the experiences of the Sars epidemic 17 years previously, the Singapore government quickly initiated a co-ordinated response. Flights from China were curtailed and those from Wuhan banned.

Harvard University called it the "gold standard" in tackling the epidemic because its robust screening systems mean that it detects imported cases of Covid-19 at three times the rate of other nations. Every day the government health officials and ministers calmly held a press conference to update the local population on all the facts.

The prime minister spoke regularly to the public at length. He emphasised that this virus had a low mortality rate outside of Hubei province in China of around 0.2% of those affected. Full transparency was integral to building public confidence in the fight against Covid-19.

The results have been impressive. Over a month after the first cases were discovered, the country has announced 93 individuals infected, with 31 hospitalised and 62 discharged from hospital. No deaths have occurred to date.

Any infected by the virus were immediately isolated and interviewed by trained personnel for contact tracing. Any individuals deemed at risk to exposure were professionally quarantined. All major buildings and schools were mandated to do regular temperature screening and hand-washing for all entering.

These measures have so far managed to contain the outbreak without plunging the country into complete paralysis by mass lockdowns.

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The local population quickly recovered from the initial shock to a disciplined and intelligent response. Masks were worn by many and every major building and institution initiated regular temperature screening and hand-washing.

There is, generally, a large measure of confidence in the government, who have ruled the nation for over 50 years and took a third-world country with the GDP of Ghana in 1965 to the third richest country in the world in one generation.

The government quickly responded to the affected areas of the economy by promising huge financial packages of 5.6bn Singapore dollars (2.23bn) to encourage companies to use the downturn to retrain staff and to support companies through the financial losses. Singapore is able to intervene in this manner because the constitution mandates that the government must balance its budget over the five-year electoral term.

Over the last 50 years Singapore has accrued huge financial reserves to be drawn from in hard times, estimated to be above S$500bn (278bn).

Not everything has been faultless.

There were moments of panic among the local population. For a week or so restaurants were largely abandoned and many reverted to ordering meals and groceries online.

A social media buzz caused some panic-buying with a handful of stores being stripped bare at the height of the crisis. This was condemned by the government and shelves were quickly restocked.

The heightened level of fear and alarm has now greatly subsided in Singapore. The reasonable and measured approaches have resulted in the numbers of new cases of infection being reduced to just a handful over the past week. Public transport is fully functional. Restaurants and shops are slowly returning to normal.

School attendances are around the normal levels for a country where education is a national passion, with Singapore leading the international PISA rankings in English, mathematics and science.

Christianity has a huge role to play in the lives of the people with around 20% of the population registered as Christians.

We take the recommended precautions and seek to get on with family life as best we can. It is at times like these that you realise that the main priorities in life are your faith and your family

Some of the larger Christian churches had cancelled services for a fortnight and organised online broadcasts but have now largely restarted public services.

On a personal level, I have lived in Singapore for 16 years.

This is the worst crisis the nation has faced in my time here. As a parent of two children aged 13 and 10, there is a natural anxiety for them with so many unknowns. It is not encouraging to see your children leave for school every morning wearing face masks with hand sanitisers and thermometers in their bags.

You struggle with basic questions: Should I let them play outside with other children? Would it be safer to keep them at home from school? What about sending them to Northern Ireland to stay there for a time?

But experience of the highly organised nature of this society, and our Christian faith, has enabled my wife Cheryl and I to face each day with a measure of calm.

We take the recommended precautions and seek to get on with family life as best we can. It is at times like these that you realise that the main priorities in life are your faith and your family.

Worrying doesn't change anything.

As the Dutch Christian heroine of the Second World War, Corrie Ten Boom, observed: "Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength."

The threat remains still from external carriers of the virus. Almost 70 million passengers departed or landed at Singapore Changi Airport in 2019. Without extreme vigilance, another epidemic could easily break out.

But Singapore has proven that preparation, vigilance and a unified approach by all the agencies of the state can be effective in dealing with this terrible threat.

Northern Ireland has a different political and geographical make-up.

But there are many lessons it can learn from Singapore.

The Assembly and the Executive should study the practices here and plan to utilise many of the lessons.

Dr Paul Ferguson was trained as a finance lawyer and has lived in China, Singapore, USA and in the UK. Although born and reared in Northern Ireland, he has lived almost half of his life in Asia. He is a minister of a Presbyterian Church in Singapore
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y., Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading North American transit bus manufacturer Nova Bus starts the year with the win of a New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) contract.



The awarded contract for Nova Bus is for 165 - 40 ft hybrid buses (with BAE propulsion system) with options for 126 hybrid buses and 209 diesel buses for a potential total amount of up to 500 buses. Nova Buss superior delivery schedule and greater New York State Content for the hybrid buses are qualities recognized by the Nova Buss customers, and certainly contributed to the decision of the MTA. The first pilots will be delivered in May 2020 and the rest of the deliveries will begin in December 2020 and to be completed in 2021.

After the launch of our new electric bus LFSe+ last fall, this is a great way to start the year. This new, long-range 100% electric bus integrates the proven traction motor and power electronics from BAE Systems, a major economic player in New York. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Governor Cuomo for his support to the transit industry in the state of New York over the past several years, declared Martin Larose, Vice-President and General Manager of Nova Bus. We are more than happy to once again have the confidence of the MTA for its buses. We are proud of our economic contribution to New York, and we believe its, in addition to our proven reliability, why we won this contract.

This wonderful news is a great way to kick off the New Year for Nova Bus and the hardworking employees in Plattsburgh, said Senator Betty Little. Any time I am in New York City, I always think of the tremendous role our region fulfills for downstate mass transit. The scale of this new order certainly reflects the confidence that NYCT has in the excellent product that is made here in our backyard by the professional and dedicated men and women working at Nova Bus. I couldn't be prouder or happier!

The MTA has once again chosen to trust the North Country by awarding Nova Bus a contract for up to 500 buses, said Assemblyman Billy Jones (D-Plattsburgh). As downstate seeks to bring more environmentally friendly transportation options to their residents, they are looking to the North Country to help fulfill this need. This is a major victory for our area as our Transportation Manufacturing cluster seeks innovative solutions to fulfill the needs of the transportation industry and I am confident that this will bring added prosperity to our region.

This is terrific news that gives a strong start to the new year for Nova Bus and for our transportation equipment cluster, states Garry Douglas, President of the North Country Chamber of Commerce. All the more so as it comes on the heels of the recent major bus order for Prevost. Nova Bus has clearly earned a major place in the U.S. bus market since starting operations here just ten years ago, with a record of quality that has earned the support and confidence of key customers such as the MTA. Every official we bring to the plant leaves impressed and supportive, and with Nova Bus's readiness to produce electric buses here in the future as the national market evolves, we can expect a long-term partnership. Our thanks to Nova Bus and, of course, to the MTA, but also to Governor Andrew Cuomo, Senator Betty Little and Assemblyman Billy Jones for their steadfast support for transit investments in New York and for our region's transportation equipment cluster. Onward and upward!

About Nova Bus

Nova Bus is a leading provider of sustainable transportation solutions in North America. Its portfolio includes electric buses, hybrid electric buses, high-capacity vehicles and integrated intelligent transport systems. As part of its Electro Mobility strategy, Nova Bus is moving forward with the electrification of key vehicle components to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Nova Bus is part of the Volvo Group. For more information regarding Nova Bus products and services, please visit www.novabus.com

For more information

Please contact Emmanuelle Toussaint at 581-994-1951 or by email at emmanuelle.toussaint@volvo.com .

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2962ef7a-a437-4f1c-b413-b4a3c53bf8ea
CHENGDU, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A new flight was launched Thursday linking Beijing and the city of Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, and Cairo in Egypt.

The air route, operated by Sichuan Airlines, will fly on every Thursday. The outbound flight will take off at 8:35 p.m. Beijing time and arrive in Chengdu at 11:55 p.m. It will depart at 2:20 a.m. the next day and land in Cairo at 7:15 a.m. local time.

The returning flight will depart at 8:15 p.m. local time on Friday and land in Chengdu at 12:15 a.m. the next day and Beijing at 7:20 p.m. local time.

Since southwestern China has maintained close international exchanges in recent years, Sichuan Airlines plans to resume more international flights, linking Chengdu with Bangkok, Hong Kong and Taipei.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 19:19:17|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China has issued a directive to regulate clinical trials of potential drugs for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Titled "The Guideline on regulating clinical trials of COVID-19 drugs among medical organizations," the document aims to ensure the drug screening run in an orderly and efficient way, said an official from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) at a press conference Friday.

According to the document, drafted by the National Health Commission, the MOST and the National Medical Products Administration, drugs for clinical trials should be medicine that has already been on the market and the efficacy has been proved in animal and in vitro studies, said Wu Yuanbin, director-general of Science and Technology for social Development with the MOST.

The person in charge of the trial should meet certain eligibility requirements and is able to make risk management plans.

Meanwhile, the hospital, researchers and local health authorities that are engaged in a clinical trial should conduct ethical reviews of the trial and put on file.

The State Council inter-agency task force will coordinate medical institutions to undertake clinical trials for recommended drugs and release information of the clinical trials, so as to strengthen the overall planning of the resources and improve the efficiency of the trials.

Noting that too many clinical trials may waste resources and impact the treatment of patients, Wu said that China hopes to screen and expand the use of effective drugs and treatments in an orderly fashion.

The convalescent plasma therapy and Chloroquine Phosphate are good examples of drug screening and trials to be included as recommended under the State Council's joint prevention and control mechanism for the epidemic, he noted.

According to Wu, 105 of 234 clinical trials registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry focus on COVID-19 drugs.
Ukraine also expresses sincere condolences to the Turkish side, which has lost its military.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine declares condemnation of the actions of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Russian Federation, which supports him, after an air attack on the positions of the Turkish military.

"Ukraine is deeply concerned about the significant escalation of the situation in Idlib and condemns the actions of Bashar al-Assad's regime and the Russian Federation, which supports it and renders it all possible assistance, as a result of which both military and civilians are getting killed," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on February 28, 2020.

Also, Ukraine has expressed sincere condolences to the Turkish side, whose troops were killed.

Read alsoIn retaliation move, Turkey bombs Assad's forces in Idlib overnight Friday (Photo, video)

In addition, in solidarity with NATO and the international community, Ukraine has called for an immediate cessation of violence and the implementation of previously reached agreements to resolve the Syrian issue.

"People's suffering must be stopped and another humanitarian catastrophe in Syria prevented," the ministry added.

As UNIAN reported earlier, at least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in an air raid by Syrian government forces in the northwestern Idlib province, the governor in the southeastern province of Hatay said early on Friday, further raising the death toll, while also threatening an escalation and another refugee crisis.
As NATO ambassadors met on Friday in Brussels in an emergency session and European leaders called for calm, Mr. Putin spoke by telephone with Mr. Erdogan in an effort to calm tensions. Mr. Trump also spoke by telephone with Mr. Erdogan and the leaders promised additional steps to prevent the great humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the Idlib region, according to the Turkish government.

Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations, said NATO would offer plenty of moral support to Turkey but that no one wants to get militarily entangled with Russia. This, she added, meant that Erdogan will have to fix this with Putin.

Russia said on Friday that it was sending two warships equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles toward Syrias coast in the eastern Mediterranean, but insisted that its forces had played no role in the attack on Turkish troops. That contradicted reports from the scene that described a Russian jet striking a Turkish convoy, and then artillery strikes pounding Turkish troops in several buildings.

Mr. Putins spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, sought to calm tempers in his daily briefing on Friday, insisting that Russia had honored a pledge to safeguard Turkish observation posts near Idlib. He said no Turkish servicemen had been hurt in these outposts, while suggesting that it was Turkeys fault that some of its troops strayed beyond these designated areas into territory controlled by rebels.

The tragic instances of deaths among Turkish personnel happened in the areas where terrorist gangs were conducting offensive operations, Mr. Peskov said.

Turkish planes, artillery and drones retaliated after the attack, pounding Syrian government positions. Our operations will continue until the bloody hands laid on our soldiers are broken, said Hulusi Akar, Turkeys defense minister.

While he avoided placing direct blame on Russia, Mr. Akar noted that Thursdays attack had been carried out even though Turkey had coordinated the location of its troops with Russian forces on the ground. He also said there were no rebel groups near the scene of the attack, as the Kremlin asserted.
The Times of India, one of Indias leading newspapers, has launched a unique initiative The Times of a Better India. This one-of-a-kind campaign, emphasizes the fact that the newspapers influence goes far beyond the confines of its pages. Over time, The Times of India has put the interests of its readers above everything else. In the process, they have gone beyond merely reporting the news transforming themselves into the role of an activist who believes in empowering citizens and working towards bringing about a transformative change in society.

As a part of the initiative, TOI invites readers to join hands and suggest issues that they think are critical for the nation. Readers can do so by sharing their views on www.timesofabetterindia.com or on Facebook/Twitter using #ForaBetterIndia. Based on these suggestions, the next big cause that TOI could champion will be selected and will followed by raising awareness on the related issue.

Over the years, TOI has championed many causes, ranging from working towards improving thequality of public service (Lead India, I Lead India), bringing hitherto little-mentioned health concerns into mainstream conversation (Fertile Conversations, Organ Donation Drive). Their other initiatives have seen them identify solutions and actively working for a cleaner environment (Green Drive, No Honking Drive, Water Positive etc) as well as fighting for the rights of under-privileged communities (SindoorKhela, Scrap Sec 377). As a leading light of change, TOI became the voice for 290 million migrants within India who have been deprived of their voting rights (Lost Votes) to celebrating popular culture (City Festivals, Chance-e-illa, Happy Streets etc).

In the words of Sanjeev Bhargava, Director  TOI, Mirror and TIMS Brands, TOI believes that the success of these initiatives is a tribute to the efforts of its readers and it is their participation that has transformed these initiatives into movements for change. The Times of a Better India is our way of acknowledging these efforts and reaffirms our commitment to continue working for such causes.

Individually, each of the initiatives went beyond its core idea and delivered an impact on ground. Lost Votes took up the cause of 290 million Indians who had been unable to vote as they were staying away from their original place of residence within the country. The initiative voiced the need to enfranchise these migrants, with over 11 lakh signing an online petition for the same. The result of which sawthe Election Commission actingtowards making voting go mobile. The Green Drive came at a time when environmental degradation was a major concern. In a unique public-private participation model, the programme has seen over 12 lakh trees being planted by citizens across India. #ScrapSec377 has been a longstanding effort to give a platform tothe LGBTQ+ community, making readers aware of their needs, fighting the discrimination that they faced and demanding equal rights for them. This has contributed to the Supreme Court decision which saw this law being scrapped.Organ Donation had been a little-known and rarely-discussed subject in India. TOIs Organ Donation Drive brought this critical subject into mainstream conversation, busted myths and spread critical awareness about the process, making readers and those in authority sit up and work for a change. And change did happen  from about 4,000 organ donor pledges a year, the TOI initiative has seen over 1.7 lakh people pledging to donate their organs in a span of 6 years. Last but not the least, in an increasingly congested urban environment, where not just roads but pavements too have been swallowed by the ever-mounting burden of traffic, TOIs Happy Streets recognized the need for the average pedestrian to reclaim their public space. Once every week, thousands of readers came together on a road that was virtually out of bounds to them and danced, played and cycled. Beginning in the national capital, the initiative has touched more than 20 cities and continues to grow, with nearly 2 lakh people joining each year.

Collectively, these initiativesshowcase the positive force that TOI has been, that goes a long way towards building a better India. And now, for the first time, these varied initiatives have been brought together under one umbrella, The Times of a Better India.
A total of 106 persons, who



arrived in Maharashtra from coronavirus-affected countries, were quarantined in the state since January 18 this year, of whom 104 have been found negative for the infection, while the test results of two others are awaited.

The state health department gave this information in a statement issued on Friday.

Of these 106 persons, only four are presently in the isolation wards- two each at Naidu Hospital in Pune and Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai and reports of the swab samples of two of them are awaited from the National Institute of Virology (NIV), it said.

"Out of these 106 samples sent by the state, 104 have been found negative as per the reports of the NIV," a senior health department official said.

All the passengers arriving from 12 Covid-19 affected countries/regions- China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, Italy, Iran, and Malaysia- are being screened at the Mumbai airport.

So far, as many as 57,592 travellers, who arrived at the Mumbai International Airport in 475 flights, have been screened for possible infection, it said.

Apart from Mumbai, Pune and Thane, travellers are also monitored in Nanded, Buldhana, Nagpur, Wardha, Sangli, Ahmednagar, Amravati, Palghar, Jalgaon, Chandrapur and Satara districts, it added.

"Field surveillance is also actively going on all across the state in search of people coming from the coronavirus-affected areas," the official said.

Those who are suspected to have contracted the deadly infection are sent to isolation facilities for treatment. However, no case of coronavirus infection has come to light in the state so far, the statement said.

All travellers from Wuhan city of China - the epicentre of the outbreak of epidemic - are being isolated and tested, irrespective of whether they show any symptoms are not, it added.

Follow-up at home is conducted for travellers from Covid-19-affected countries, who do not show any symptoms during the screening at the airport.

"Travellers coming from other affected parts are being followed for 14 days. Till date out of 326 travelers 228 has completed their follow-up of 14 days," the department said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Syrian rebels reentered the key northwestern crossroads town of Saraqeb lost to government forces earlier this month but fierce fighting raged on in its outskirts Thursday, an AFP correspondent reported. The counterattack by jihadist fighters and their rebel allies cuts the main Damascus-Aleppo highway, which passes through the town, and reverses one of the principal gains of the devastating offensive the government launched against the country's last major rebel bastion in Idlib province in December. State news agency SANA acknowledged that there were "fierce clashes" between the army and "terrorist groups on the Saraqeb front". An AFP correspondent accompanied the rebels into Saraqeb, where he found a ghost town of bombed out buildings deserted by its inhabitants. The correspondent saw rebel fighters deploy inside the town in large numbers, where they come under attack from government forces on the outskirts as well as from the air. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the air strikes were carried out by government ally Russia, which has come under heavy Western criticism for the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign. State media accused the "terrorists" of launching car bombings and other suicide attacks against government forces attempting to retake the town which they had held since February 8. It said that the army had inflicted heavy losses on the attackers, despite the military support it said they had received from neighbouring Turkey. Some 950,0000 civilians have fled the government offensive, raising fears in Ankara of a new mass influx of refugees. Turkey already hosts the world's largest number of Syrian refugees with around 3.6 million people placing an increasingly unpopular burden on public services. The Turkish defence ministry said on Thursday that two of its soldiers had been killed by government fire in Idlib, taking its losses this month alone to 19. Turkey, which supports several rebel groups in the Idlib region, immediately responded to the attack by hitting Syrian "regime targets", the ministry said on Twitter. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Wednesday that Ankara would not take the "smallest step back" in the standoff with Damascus and Moscow over Idlib. He warned the Syrian government to "stop its attacks as soon as possible" and to pull back by the end of the month. Under a deal with Russia intended to bring calm to Idlib, Turkey has 12 observation posts in the region but several have come under fire from Assad forces. The United Nations has warned repeatedly that the fighting in Idlib has the potential to create the most serious humanitarian crisis since the start of the civil war in 2011.
Gov. Noem lauds state economy, but big legislative fights are coming

Noems speech flowed between business and economic development, lifestyle issues and social issues that were united by their conservative themes.
The leaders of Russia and Turkey held crisis talks on Friday to try to scale down tensions after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in a regime air strike in Syria.

The international community voiced fears of a rapidly-rising risk of escalation after the attack by Russian-backed Syrian forces in the province of Idlib, where President Bashar al-Assad is waging a bloody campaign to oust rebels from their last holdout.

Hours after the strike, Turkey warned it was opening the gates for refugees to flee to Europe, a move that could have major repercussions for its western neighbours and prompted Greece to double its border patrols.

The deadly bombardment added to weeks of mounting tensions between rebel supporter and NATO member Ankara and Damascus ally Moscow, and stoked international concerns about the plight of people living in the battleground province.

It was the highest single death toll since the Turkish army first intervened in Syria in 2016, and brought the total number of Turkish troops killed in Idlib this month to 53.

Turkey said it retaliated to Thursday's deaths by hitting more than 200 regime targets in drone and artillery bombardments.

The reprisals killed 16 Syrian soldiers, according to a monitoring group, but there was no immediate confirmation from Damascus.

Adding to the tensions, Moscow announced that two of its warships were transitting through the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul in plain sight of the city.

But in a move to try to defuse the crisis, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone on Friday.

"There is always room for dialogue," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"The conversation was detailed and devoted to the necessity to do everything" to implement a ceasefire deal agreed in 2018 between the two countries to try to bring calm to Idlib.

Lavrov said Russia was ready to help improve the security of Turkish troops in Syria after the defence ministry said the slain soldiers had been among "terrorist groups" in Idlib.

The UN has repeatedly warned that the fighting in Idlib could potentially create the most serious humanitarian crisis since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011.

But Russian vetoes, often backed by China, have chronically crippled UN action. NATO held urgent talks on the crisis on Friday, and joined the UN and the US in calling for urgent de-escalation.

"There is a risk of sliding into a major open international military confrontation," said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, echoing international alarm about the violence.

"It is also causing unbearable humanitarian suffering and putting civilians in danger."



Hours after the strike, Turkey threatened to go back on a deal with the EU and said it would open the way for refugees to go to Europe.

"We will no longer keep the doors closed for refugees who want to go to Europe," an official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Turkey, which is already home to around four million Syrian refugees, fears more people arriving in the country where there is growing popular discontent against their presence.

In response, Greece said it was tightening its border security "to the maximum level possible" and doubling border patrols.

The EU called on Ankara to uphold its side of the migrant pact which was aimed at stemming the flow of refugees and migrants towards Europe.

Turkey also Friday called on the international community to establish a no-fly zone over Idlib, where regime forces have since December clawed back chunks of the region, forcing close to one million people to flee their homes and shelters amid bitter cold.

In a series of tweets, Erdogan's communications director Fahrettin Altun accused Assad of "conducting ethnic cleansing" and seeking to drive millions of Syrians out of Idlib.

Groups of migrants have already moved towards western Turkey seeking to reach Greece, Turkey's private DHA agency reported.

"Without urgent action, the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, reiterating Secretary General Antonio Guterres's call for an immediate ceasefire.

The US State Department said Washington stood by Turkey and continues to call "for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces".

Elsewhere, jihadists and Turkish-backed rebels on Thursday re-entered Saraqeb, a key Idlib crossroads town they had lost earlier in February, reversing one of the main gains of the government's devastating offensive.

An AFP correspondent accompanied the rebels into Saraqeb, where he found a ghost town of bombed out buildings.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Spanish Pilot Killed in Military Jet Crash Into Sea

MADRIDA Spanish military plane crashed into the sea off the countrys southeastern coast during a training exercise on Thursday, killing its pilot, the air force said.

We regret to inform you that our colleague, commander Eduardo Garvalena Crespo, has died, the Spanish air force tweeted as it prepared to end a search operation.

The Spanish-made C-101 jet, used for air stunts, hit the water near La Manga in the Murcia region in early afternoon.

A pilot died in August in a similar accident with the same jet type and at the same area.
The Punjab Assembly was adjourned for a brief period on Friday after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brahm Mohindra informed the House that Shiromani Akali Dal MLAs allegedly gheraoed the residence of Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal.

During Question Hour, Mohindra said that Badal could not reach in time as his residence had been gheraoed by SAD legislators.

He expressed fear that if this situation continued, the budget could not be presented.

Mohindra sought to bring a privilege motion against SAD MLAs.

"It is an unconstitutional situation," he said while adding, "It is a budget for Punjab and meant for people of the state."



To this, Speaker Rana K P Singh said he will take up the matter with the Union Territory Administrator.

After the Question Hour, the Speaker adjourned the House for 20 minutes.

The Akalis have been holding a protest outside the residence of Finance Minister Badal over the issue of farmers suicide.

Badal is scheduled to present the budget for 2020-21 in the Assembly on Friday.

However, after the House was adjourned, Badal reached the assembly.

After the proceedings of the House resumed, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister moved a privilege motion against SAD legislators.

Mohindra said that Akali MLAs tried to stop Badal from presenting the budget and he could not reach the Assembly at 11 am.

Their (Akalis) action led to adjournment of the House, Mohindra said.

The motion was unanimously passed by the House and it was sent to the privileges committee.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chances of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak turning into a pandemic have doubled from 20 percent to 40 percent now, said a CNBC report quoting a Moody's Analytics report.

It had earlier predicted a 20 percent chance of the viral outbreak turning into a pandemic. Economists of the agency have said that the earlier prediction that the spread of the novel coronavirus infection would be contained within the Chinese borders was an optimistic one, adding that the possibility of the same turning into a pandemic are on the rise.

The death toll due to the viral infection has soared to around 2,800 globally, with as many as 83,000 cases being reported from across the globe. Countries like France and Nigeria also reported the first confirmed cases. Meanwhile, the death toll in Iran has been rising by the day, with around 34 lives having been lost to the virulent infection as per reports earlier during the day.

The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said that all nations should prepare themselves for a potential pandemic, as nations aside from China now account for three-quarters of new infections.

Earlier this week, Chief Economist at Moody's Analytics Mark Zandi had said that the COVID-19 has been a body blow to the Chinese economy, which now threatens to take out the entire global economy.
Roger Stone looked like a man on edge, under extreme stress and struggling to contain pent-up fury.

The GOP provocateur was just days away from finding out his fate from a criminal case that drew nationwide attention, that the president was openly complaining about. And to the world, Stone was largely silent, mostly gagged by the judge who handled his federal trial.

But in a South Florida court reporters office in mid-February, Stone was talking  a lot, testifying in a little-noticed deposition for a slate of a civil suits. He seemed largely unconcerned with maintaining the dapper, serene image he cultivated over the last year sweeping in and out of federal court in Washington, D.C., fighting charges he lied to investigators about his actions related to Russias 2016 election hack.

With no judge on hand, Stone was free to tear into his enemies as he did in an earlier era. He could be combative and hard-charging if he wanted. He could even spout vulgarities as he spared with his inquisitor.

And he did just that.

In five-and-a-half hours of video recorded over two days, Stones hands shake, he bares his teeth, his lips twitch and he repeatedly loses his temper in the face of goading from conservative lawyer Larry Klayman, who has several libel suits pending against Stone and his associates.

If you want to keep insulting me, this will be over and you can run back to the judge like a little bitch, Stone said during one particularly heated exchange.

Did you just call me a bitch? Klayman asked.

Youre acting like one. ... You dont have anything, my friend. You got nothing, Stone replied, slapping his hand on the table for emphasis.

The heated rhetoric evoked Stone's much more high-profile trial in D.C. Stones language was a central topic at that trial as lawyers argued over whether Stone had intimidated a witness with barbed messages. The jury ultimately found him guilty on that charge, as well as six other felony counts.

Story continues

Last week, the judge sentenced Stone to over three years in prison, in part because of his threatening language. President Donald Trump excoriated the decision and declared the whole trial was a miscarriage of justice, the product of a biased jury and judge.

Days before that sentencing, Stone had been ordered by Florida state court judge, Carol-Lisa Phillips, to sit for questioning after Klayman raised concerns that delaying the session could have led to Stone being sent away to prison before he could be deposed. He ended up testifying over two days, Feb. 12 and 13.

In all, Klayman referenced six different lawsuits at the start of the deposition, including a suit claiming that Stone falsely said Klayman had never won a courtroom victory in his life, that he could be the single worst lawyer in America, and that his IQ is below 70.

Clearly, both men arent fond of the other.

Lets go, Stone said at one point, seeming to gesture at Klayman to come at him. I dont have to be badgered by this asshole.

Stone made it only about an hour into the session before standing up, throwing down the microphone in anger, and telling Klayman: F--- you!

On several occasions, Stones mild-mannered attorney Robert Buschel stepped in to urge his client to calm down.

Stones penchant for indelicate language was a topic throughout his high-profile D.C. trial. Much of the dispute surrounding his sentencing length focused on the interpretation of one of his most pointed text messages to another Russia probe witness who was urging cooperation with investigators: Lets get it on. Prepare to die cocksucker.

Prosecutors said such threats triggered a higher sentencing guidelines range for cases involving violence or threats of violence, proposing seven to nine years behind bars. Defense lawyers said the comments were colorful bluster. Trump said the proposal was grossly unfair. Attorney General William Barr then overruled his prosecutors, ordering a lower sentencing request. His prosecutors quit in an apparent protest.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson ultimately agreed that the tougher guideline applied, but dialed back his sentence given the doubts about Stones intent.

The sight of Stone being raked over the coals by Klayman is sure to bring joy, or at least a degree of schadenfreude, to Democrats who recall being Klaymans targets during the 1990s when the conservative lawyer used his watchdog group, Judicial Watch, to harangue members of the Clinton administration.

Many Clinton aides ran up thousands of dollars in legal bills responding to dozens of suits Klayman filed over a series of alleged scandals, including Travelgate, Filegate and the allocation of trade mission seats to Democratic donors.

Klaymans questioning of Clinton administration officials at lengthy depositions was at times confrontational and at other times bizarre. No one would dispute it was legendary. The hit NBC series West Wing even created a fictional character based on Klaymans shenanigans.

Roger Stone exits federal court Washington, Friday, Nov. 15, 2019. Stone, longtime friend of President Donald Trump, has been found guilty at his trial in federal court in Washington. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Harold Ickes, the deputy White House chief of staff, reportedly got asked about his cats. George Stephanopoulos, Clintons communications director, fielded questions about his use of a pen on the set of the ABC News program he now hosts, This Week. After Klayman queried Stephanopoulos about the contents of a course he was teaching at Columbia University, the political strategist and his attorney walked out of the deposition, in a scene reminiscent of several from the Stone videos.

Klaymans aggressive use of the legal system for political ends seems like the kind of tactic Stone, known for his bare-kunckled brand of politics, might have eagerly endorsed before he became an unwitting target.

How big a fan Stone was of Klaymans anti-Clinton crusades is unclear, but the two men did work together briefly in 2003 and 2004 as Klayman mounted a longshot bid for the Republican nomination to replace retiring Florida Sen. Bob Graham, a Democrat. The brief collaboration doesnt seem to have gone well.

During the deposition earlier this month, Stone complained that Klayman repeatedly lied to him about his ability to raise money for that race.

That prompted Klayman to shoot back: Money is all thats important to you, right?

Money is important in terms of getting you elected to the Senate, yes, replied Stone.

And its important to fill your pockets, Klayman countered.

You never paid me a dime, Stone said.

While most of the deposition evoked schoolyard combat and Stone generally refused to discuss matters related to his criminal trial, Klayman did elicit one claim that Stone didn't make during his D.C. trial, at which he declined to testify. In the sworn questioning in the civil cases, Stone denied he ever talked to then-candidate Trump about WikiLeaks and its publication of emails hacked from Hillary Clinton supporters and the Democratic National Committee.

Ive never spoken to him about WikiLeaks, Stone said. He added of his conversations with Trump: None of them regard WikiLeaks. There was no evidence of that presented during the trial. It was an assertion by the government, but that does not make it true.

Many of the most heated exchanges during the deposition came as the two combatants probed what they perceived as each others chief weaknesses.

Klayman repeatedly needled Stone over the guilty verdict in his D.C. trial, which stemmed from special counsel Robert Muellers investigation. The conservative lawyer also taunted Stone over an episode in 1996 when the National Enquirer got a hold of a swingers magazine that appeared to contain an ad taken out by Stone. That prompted Stones firing from Sen. Bob Doles presidential campaign.

Stone, in turn, regularly invoked Klaymans long history of run-ins with judges and bar discipline authorities.

In 1997, a federal judge in Manhattan banished Klayman after finding the attorney conducted abusive and obnoxious questioning, gratuitously invoked the judges Chinese origins and pursued preposterous arguments.

In 2011, Klayman was formally reprimanded in Florida for taking a womans retainer fee and failing to return some of the payment after she demanded it back. According to a consent judgment filed with the Florida Supreme Court, Klayman agreed to repay a small portion of the retainer, said financial distress precluded him from making the payments on time and eventually provided the agreed refund.

Two bar discipline cases are currently pending against Klayman in Washington, D.C. In one, a hearing committee recommended a 90-day suspension over conflict-of-interest claims involving suits against his former employer, Judicial Watch. In the other, a panel urged that Klayman be suspended from practicing law for nearly three years over his conduct towards a female client who spurned his romantic advances. Klayman is fighting the charges and contends he is the victim of a political vendetta.

At one point during the Fort Lauderdale deposition, Stone invoked an even more disturbing episode in Klaymans past: a magistrate handling a custody dispute a decade ago found that Klayman engaged in grossly inappropriate touching of his own children. Klayman denied any sexual contact with the children and submitted a lie detector test he said backed up his claim.

Despite the alarming allegations Stone leveled at him, Klayman posted the full-length videos of the deposition online. He told POLITICO the recordings are unedited.

He showed his true colors, Klayman said of Stone. A lot of the things he said are false.

Klayman specifically denied claims of sexual harassment and molestation. Those are false, he said. I didnt sexually harass anybody. ... Ive never been found to have molested anybody.

Asked about the pending bar complaints, Klayman said: Theres been no final decision and theyre on appeal. ... Im confident of ultimately succeeding.

Buschel, a lawyer for Stone, declined to comment on the contentious exchange.

In an email, Stone declined to comment on the deposition, instead attacking POLITICO's credibility.

"While commenting on these frivolous and baseless civil suits would not fall under my current gag order I have a firm policy of only responding to inquiries from legitimate news organizations of which POLITICO is no longer one," he wrote.

A look back at Klaymans professional career indicates Stones claim that Klayman hadnt ever won a case is an overstatement. But it is fair to say that in many cases winning seems to have taken a back seat to using the legal process to inflict maximum pain on his adversaries.

His highest-profile courtroom triumph proved to be short-lived. In 2013, a federal judge in Washington, acting on a suit brought by Klayman, ruled that the National Security Agencys bulk collection of details about American's telephone calls was likely unconstitutional.

The judges preliminary injunction against the controversial surveillance program triggered shock waves across Washington, but that order was never enforced and was ultimately overturned by an appeals court in 2015. Congress also passed a law that restructured the program and effectively mooted the lawsuit.

After leaving Judicial Watch in 2003, Klayman founded a new organization: Freedom Watch. He borrowed the name from a thinly-fictionalized version of Judicial Watch immortalized in The West Wing.

In the heated deposition that stretched over two days, the real-world characters Stone and Klayman duked it out over which of them would be felled first by the legal system.

After Stone said he was looking forward to turning the tables and deposing Klayman in the pending suits, Klayman shot back: You may be in prison by then.

Youll be disbarred by then, Stone replied.

Theyll let you out, Klayman offered.

That prompted Stone to declare confidently: The clocks ticking faster on you than me, pal.


At least 50 Britons from a coronavirus-hit hotel in Tenerife were free to head home yesterday  despite concerns over the efficiency of their quarantine.

But after getting the go-ahead, many found themselves stranded when airlines refused to fly them home.

Jet2 announced that it would not fly any passengers to Britain unless they tested negative for the illness or the two-week incubation period had passed.

Comfort: A masked girl holds her doll outside the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife, yesterday. It was put on lockdown after four Italians tested positive for coronavirus. While at least 50 Britons were free to head home, airlines have refused to fly them back to the UK

Last night tour operator TUI also confirmed it would not be jetting the holidaymakers home.

A Foreign Office source said that  despite the drastic measures  it would be impossible to stop Britons simply attempting to rebook through a different carrier or head to another of the islands two airports. At least 160 Britons were holed up in the four-star H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel after it was placed on lockdown when four Italians tested positive for coronavirus on Monday.

Jet2 confirmed that 100 holidaymakers had booked through their company, while a number of Britons had booked through TUI.

A total of 130 guests from 11 countries have been told they can leave the hotel after undergoing screening because they arrived after those who tested positive had been taken to hospital.

Papers: Staff in protective gear assist guests as they leave the Tenerife hotel. A total of 130 guests from 11 countries have been told they can leave the hotel after undergoing screening because they arrived after those who tested positive had been taken to hospital

Around 700 tourists were in the hotel at the time of the outbreak.

Those who arrived prior to February 24 have been told they will not be allowed to leave the hotel until March 10. Yesterday some holidaymakers criticised a lack of communication from the Foreign Office [FCO] and said that they had concerns about the spread of the virus.

Airline TUI (stock image) has confirmed it will not be jetting the holidaymakers home - leaving many of the tourists stranded. Around 700 tourists were in the hotel at the time of the outbreak and 130 have been told they can leave

Mother-of-two Lara Pennington said she was told families could leave their rooms if they were wearing masks, washed their hands regularly and did not touch their faces.

However, we have seen, witnessed, numerous people in the grounds walking round without masks on, she said.

A bystander is pictured next to a security fence near the Palace hotel on February 27. Many families were told they could leave their rooms if they were wearing masks, washed their hands regularly and avoided touching their faces

I have two very small children, I have my in-laws here and theyre in their 70s, one with an underlying heart problem. We are not prepared to put them at risk. No special measures have been put in place for my children or for them, and we feel very, very unsafe.

And Jayney Brown, 61, from Wetherby, Yorkshire, told the Mail that 50 British guests were set to leave the hotel yesterday morning. She said that she had been looked after extremely well, and was prepared to stay in quarantine until March 10. People are being careful with hand sanitizer and we have to wear masks, she said. Many people are doing as normal  a lot are around the pool.

Its actually a little bit more sociable than it would have been. The Brits are sticking together and chatting. The bar is only open for an hour a day so you see the same faces there when it opens.

Some people, however, are literally staying in their rooms. They are taking it extremely seriously. You only see them on their balconies with their face masks on.

Professor Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said: Public Health England is working with the FCO and Spanish authorities to identify people who stayed at the Costa Adeje Hotel in Tenerife on or after February 17.

Individuals who have returned from the Costa Adeje Hotel are advised to self-isolate until March 10. If they develop symptoms in that time, they should call NHS 111 and they will be tested for COVID-19. The Canary Islands authorities last night said just six Britons had left the hotel.

Meanwhile TUI yesterday said it had advised all of its customers to stay put.
U.S. spy agencies will use eavesdropping tools and undercover informants to monitor the global spread of coronavirus amid concerns about the ability of India and Iran to respond to outbreaks, intelligence officials have revealed

Sources familiar with the matter said there are worries about how either country would cope with a widespread outbreak.

While there are only a few known cases in India, one source said the country's available countermeasures and the potential for the virus to spread given India's dense population was a focus of serious concern.

U.S. intelligence agencies are also focusing on Iran, where the country's deputy health minister has fallen ill during a worsening outbreak.

One source said U.S. agencies would use a wide range of intelligence tools, ranging from undercover informants to electronic eavesdropping tools, to track the virus' impact around the world.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday the United States was 'deeply concerned' Tehran may have covered up details about the spread of coronavirus.

Officials wearing protective suits at a quarantine facility in New Delhi. A group of 76 Indians and 36 foreign nationals, including eight families with children, were evacuated from Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak

Iraj Harirchi, left, wipes his face during a press briefing with government spokesman Ali Rabiei, in Tehran. The deputy health minister has tested positive for the virus himself

A U.S. government source said Iran's response was considered ineffective because the government only has minimal capabilities to respond to the outbreak.

Another source said U.S. agencies were also concerned about the weak ability of governments in some developing countries to respond to an outbreak.

The U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has received a briefing on the virus from the spy agencies.

'The Committee has received a briefing from the IC (intelligence community) on coronavirus, and continues to receive updates on the outbreak on a daily basis,' an official of the House Intelligence Committee told Reuters.

'Addressing the threat has both national security and economic dimensions, requiring a concerted government-wide effort and the IC is playing an important role in monitoring the spread of the outbreak, and the worldwide response,' the official added.

A source familiar with the activities of the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Republican Senator Richard Burr and Democratic Senator Mark Warner, said the panel was receiving daily updates.

A man on a phone walks past the Bombay Stock Exchange building in Munbai as fear around the virus continue to send shockwaves through global markets

Iran's deputy health minister tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday after looking shaky and unwell as he played down outbreak's dangers.

Iraj Harirchi was taken into quarantine just a day later as the virus's spread into the health ministry was taksign of Tehran's faltering efforts to contain the outbreak.

The regime has refused to seal off the holy city of Qom at the centre of the crisis even as pilgrims spread the virus around the Middle East and Iranians face shortages of masks and testing kits.

The death toll in Iran stands at 26.

The role of U.S. intelligence agencies in responding to the coronavirus epidemic at this point principally involves monitoring the spread of the illness around the world and assessing the responses of governments.

They are working closely with health agencies, such as the U.S. Center for Disease Control, in sharing information they collect and targeting further intelligence gathering.
FRANKLIN, N.Y.  A Franklin man accused of animal cruelty and violating animal fighting laws pleaded not guilty to 41 charges after authorities seized 20 dogs from him earlier this month.

Nasir Azmat, 41, pleaded not guilty to:

20 counts of possessing dogs under circumstances evincing an intent that such animals engage in animal fighting

One count of owning or possessing animal fighting paraphernalia with the intent to engage in or otherwise promote or facilitate animal fighting

20 counts of overdriving, torturing and injuring animals - failure to provide proper sustenance

According to Delaware County District Attorney John Hubbard, Azmat cannot be held on bail according to new bail reform laws.

Hubbard says hes unclear what, if any, ties Azmat has to the area, which may make him a flight risk.

However, a judge has ordered Azmat to check in with probation every week until his hearing, which is scheduled for March 26.

After receiving a tip about an animal abuse case, the Delaware County Sheriffs Office found the dogs at Azmats home in the town of Franklin. Deputies said it looked like the animals suffered traumatic injuries.

The animals did not have proper food or water, and equipment was found at the scene that is typically used to train dogs to fight, according to the deputies.

Azmat was arrested on Feb. 12, and the animals were sent to rescue shelters in the area, including the Delaware Valley and Broome County humane societies, as well as the Susquehanna SPCA.
New York, Feb 28  The Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Behati Prinsloo, Model and Global Ambassador for Save the Rhino Trust Namibia, announced today that they will team up to light New York Citys iconic Empire State Building in celebration of World Wildlife Day 2020.

The Empire State Building lighting is one of the global events leading to this years UN World Wildlife Day (3 March) celebrated under the theme 'Sustaining all life on Earth'. The year 2020, known as the biodiversity super year, marks a critical turning point in global action to conserve nature and the planets biological diversity.

This years World Wildlife Day celebrations will focus on wildlife as a component of biodiversity in its many beautiful and varied forms, raise awareness of the multitude of benefits of wildlife to people, the threats it is facing, and the urgent need for private and public sector commitments.

Behati Prinsloo will flip the switch to turn the Empire State Buildings lights blue (representing SDG 14: Life below Water) and green (representing SDG 15: Life on Land). The buildings mast will be lit gold, representing the plains of Africa, and it will feature an image of a running rhino, as a symbol of the many majestic species that face critical threats. The lights will continue to be visible to the general public on March 2nd from sunset till 2:00 am 3rd March.

Wildlife is under immense threat, even in my homeland, Namibia, where rhinos are being senselessly poached. We human beings are doing this to them, yet we have the power to prevent this ancient, noble species from going extinct. Immediate action is needed to conserve wildlife so that our children can grow up with a sense of wonder and appreciation of our rich and diverse planet, noted Behati Prinsloo.

CITES Secretary-General Ivonne Higuero said: Wild fauna and flora are part of our everyday lives and valuable for humankind in so many different ways, whether you live next to Gorongosa National Park or in Manhattan. Raising awareness of their value and the threats they face, and pushing for transformative actions in order to conserve them for future generations are the imperative tasks facing governments, civil society, industry and all citizens of the world. Powerful symbolic gestures such as the lighting of an iconic building like the Empire State can galvanize the public and draw their attention to these critical issues. We thank the managers of the Empire State Building for offering such a powerful symbol to celebrate UN World Wildlife Day 2020, and we are most grateful for the important advocacy work of Ms. Prinsloo and the support of our partners at UNDP."

The CITES Secretariat is designated by the United Nations General Assembly as the global facilitator for the celebration of the World Wildlife Day each year in collaboration with organizations in the United Nations system.

As noted by Midori Paxton, Head of Biodiversity for the United Nations Development Programme: Biodiversity underpins all life on Earth. By investing in wildlife conservation and biodiversity, we can realize benefits across all facets of our lives from human health and livelihoods, to climate adaptation, as well as peace and security. We hope that the Empire State Buildings lights will inspire all New Yorkers, and the world, to celebrate wildlife and to help conserve all species for a more sustainable, prosperous future.

For more information and to arrange interviews, please contact:

CITES Secretariat: Yuan Liu, +41 22 917 8130, yuan.liu@un.org,

United Nations Development Programme, Sangita Khadka, +212 906 5043, sangita.khadka@undp.org

Empire State Building: Alison McCaffery, UEG / Alison.McCaffery@uegworldwide.com 212-601-9375



About the United Nations World Wildlife Day

On 20 December 2013, the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 3 March as World Wildlife Day to celebrate and raise awareness of the worlds wild fauna and flora. The date is the day of the signature of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973. World Wildlife Day has quickly become the most prominent global annual event dedicated to wildlife. It is an opportunity to celebrate the many beautiful and varied forms of wild fauna and flora and to raise awareness of the various challenges faced by these species. The day also reminds us of the urgent need to step up the fight against wildlife crime, which has wide-ranging economic, environmental and social impacts.

About CITES

With 183 Parties (182 countries + the European Union), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) remains one of the world's most powerful tools for wildlife conservation through the regulation of trade. Thousands of species are internationally traded and used by people in their daily lives for food, health care, housing, tourist souvenirs, cosmetics or fashion. CITES regulates international trade in over 36,000 species of plants and animals, including their products and derivatives, to ensure their survival in the wild with benefits for the livelihoods of local people and the global environment. The CITES permit system seeks to ensure that international trade in listed species is sustainable, legal and traceable. CITES was signed in Washington D.C. on 3 March 1973 and entered into force on 1 July 1975.

About UNDP

UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in nearly 170 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations.

About Behati Prinsloo

With over a decade of experience, Behati Prinsloo is one of the most recognizable names in modeling. At the age of 16, the Namibian born beauty was discovered while on vacation in Cape Town and since then her incredible spirit and personality have shaped her into a fashion icon. Passionate about the play in many of Africa, Behati has used her platform to raise funds for a variety of charities and endeavors on the continent. Most recently, she joined forces with Save The Rhino Trust Namibia to raise awareness for rhino conservation. As part of her alliance with the organization, she launched a global campaign and ventured to her home country of Namibia last year, entrenching herself in its movement to protect the critically endangered black rhino species and preserve the population.

About the Empire State Building

Soaring 1,454 feet above Midtown Manhattan (from base to antenna top), the Empire State Building, owned by Empire State Realty Trust, Inc., is the Worlds Most Famous Building. With new investments in energy efficiency, infrastructure, public areas and amenities, the Empire State Building has attracted first-rate tenants in a diverse array of industries from around the world. The Empire State Building was named the worlds most popular travel destination in a study conducted by Uber and was named Americas favorite building in a poll conducted by the American Institute of Architects. For more information on the Empire State Building, please visit www.empirestatebuilding.com, www.facebook.com/empirestatebuilding, @EmpireStateBldg, www.instagram.com/empirestatebldg, http://weibo.com/empirestatebuilding, www.youtube.com/esbnyc or www.pinterest.com/empirestatebldg/.

About Empire State Realty Trust

Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: ESRT), a leading real estate investment trust (REIT), owns, manages, operates, acquires and repositions office and retail properties in Manhattan and the greater New York metropolitan area, including the Empire State Building, the World's Most Famous Building. Headquartered in New York, New York, the Company's office and retail portfolio covers 10.1 million rentable square feet, as of December 31, 2019, consisting of 9.4 million rentable square feet in 14 office properties, including nine in Manhattan, three in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and two in Westchester County, New York; and approximately 700,000 rentable square feet in the retail portfolio.


A Delhi court was informed Friday that there were "clinching evidence" against former CBI special director Rakesh Asthana in a bribery case in which he was recently given a clean chit by the agency.

Special CBI judge Sanjeev Aggarwal was told by Ajay Kumar Bassi, the former investigating officer (IO) in the case, that the current IO, Satish Dagar, was trying to "save" Asthana and other public servants.

Dagar hit back saying it was Bassi who had been removed from the case due to "biased investigation".

As Bassi and Dagar got into a verbal spat, the judge, who was scheduled to take cognizance of the charge sheet in the CBI bribery case, adjourned the matter.

The court asked both the officers to "not wash dirty linen in public" as they "both work in the same organization".

Bassi had been summoned by the court to answer its query on the initial investigation into the case.

The charge sheet, filed on February 11, had only arrayed "middleman" Manoj Prasad as accused.

Asthana and CBI's DSP Devender Kumar, who was arrested in 2018 and later got bail, were named in column 12 of the charge sheet in the case since there was not enough evidence to make them accused.

During the hearing on Friday, Bassi told the court that Dagar had "deliberately ignored" evidence against Asthana and the suspended DSP, who was the IO in a 2017 case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi.

"From day one the new IO (Dagar) has been trying to give clean chit to Asthana. There were clinching evidence in the affidavit filed before the Supreme court that has been ignored. He did not even seize Kumar's phone and other electronic evidence," Bassi said, while accusing Dagar of "biased investigation".

Bassi told the court that Prasad was arrested on 16 October 2018, and had started claiming links to senior CBI.

The CBI had registered the case against Asthana on the basis of a complaint from Hyderabad-based businessman Satish Sana, facing probe in the 2017 case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi.

Sana, arrested for alleged links to Qureshi money laundering case, had also claimed links to senior CBI and RAW officials.

Bassi further said that Kumar showed he had recorded a statement by Sana naming former CBI chief Alok Verma on a day when Sana was not even present in Delhi.

Dagar, however, said it was Bassi who had been removed from the case due to "biased investigation".

"Nothing found in the case files which Bassi is claiming now. There was allegations of biased investigation against him" he said.

Dagar further told the court that telephone conversations between co-accused were placed on record before the Supreme Court.

The court asked the CBI how much time it will take to complete the investigation in the Moin Qureshi case, from which the entire CBI bribery case had been linked.

"How long will you take to probe Moin Qureshi case which is the Bhagirathi, the originator of all these cases," the judge asked.

Dagar then told court that the CBI was waiting for response to letters rogatory sent to the USA, and sought two weeks to complete the investigation.

The matter has now been put up for hearing on March 7.

The court had on February 12 expressed displeasure over the Central Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the case and it had asked why the accused with bigger roles were roaming free while the probe agency had arrested its own deputy superintendent of police.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Brandon streets were closed for some time Thursday night as approximately 60 people walked in support of Wetsuweten First Nation hereditary chiefs.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Brandon Sun 27022020 Supporters of the Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs and First Nations issues march in solidarity along 9th Street on their way to Princess Park from Brandon University on Thursday afternoon. A round dance was held at Princess Park following the march. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)

Brandon streets were closed for some time Thursday night as approximately 60 people walked in support of Wetsuweten First Nation hereditary chiefs.

Public gatherings such as this have cropped up across the nation in recent days in support of the British Columbia-based hereditary chiefs who oppose the construction of a pipeline through their traditional lands.

While elected chiefs have supported the pipelines construction, some hereditary chiefs have not been on the same page. They speak for unceded land, not reservation land. The Indian Act created the electoral system at Indigenous communities, along with reservations.

Some protesters elsewhere have taken to blockading rail lines, but Thursdays demonstrators opted for a more peaceful approach that centred on boosting public awareness.

Asked why they were participating in an act of solidarity with people thousands of kilometres away, people overwhelmingly responded with a very strong response: the Earth.

Brandon Sun 27022020 Supporters of the Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs and First Nations issues march in solidarity along Victoria Avenue on their way to Princess Park from Brandon University on Thursday afternoon. A round dance was held at Princess Park following the march. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)

Darryll Brown, from Canupawakpa First Nation, was on site to drum. Drumming is his job. Its about land, and its about protection of land. And he believes Canadians dont understand whats happening.

"Its about respect," he said. "In the day to day, thats all we have. ... If I have to live here for the rest of my life with my kids, do I want my water wrecked?"

One other participant, who is non-Indigenous and did not want her name used, simply said: "Im in support of all our futures."

Brandon Sun 27022020 Supporters of the Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs and First Nations issues march in solidarity along 9th Street on their way to Princess Park from Brandon University on Thursday afternoon. A round dance was held at Princess Park following the march. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)

Marshall Morrisseau is a leader in Brandon, taking active care to the streets by way of the Bear Clan. He said people often dont quite understand that the wider problem is also their problem.

"Its more than a pipeline going through territory," he said, adding that mining camps engender violence against Indigenous women.

"This pipeline is also against the traditional way of life. It also diminishes our rights. It goes to show that if you stand up for what you believe in, your rights, your entitlement to the land.  The government, through the RCMP, can get you off that land and remove you from it."

Brandon Sun a27022020 Faith Cook makes a snow angel during a round dance in support of the Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs and First Nations issues at Princess Park on Thursday afternoon. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)

He said its important to remember the Wetsuweten hereditary chiefs went out of their way to propose alternatives.

"For me, personally, why I do this is my ancestors have been doing this for over 500 years. Were doing what we were taught and what we have to do. Were going to continue to stand up for whats right. Out most powerful weapon against atrocity is organization," Morrisseau said.

"Ill say it, the government fears Indigenous organization. We know our truths."

Brandon Sun a27022020 Grace Masse hugs a fellow supporter after supporters of the Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs and First Nations issues took part in a round dance in solidarity at Princess Park on Thursday afternoon. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)

University professor Kelly Saunders has Indigenous children via her Metis husband. She said its time to think more broadly about reconciliation.

"We need to have those meaningful conversations now," she said, adding that her children are demoralized by the current step back.

Is reconciliation dead? Saunders hopes not.

Brandon Sun a27022020 Pamela Baker (Morningstar) speaks as supporters of the Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs and First Nations issues take part in a round dance in solidarity at Princess Park on Thursday afternoon. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)

"Otherwise, we lose all hope in this country."

Another participant in the walk, a confessed alcoholic now reformed, said he needs to speak out, as a former 10-year employee in the oil industry.

Clinton Nabess says when he quit drinking, he started to realize the damage and destruction he participated in.

Brandon Sun a27022020 Supporters of the Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs and First Nations issues take part in a round dance in solidarity at Princess Park on Thursday afternoon. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)

"I felt guilty, I felt awful," he said. "It made me feel sick, so I stopped."

He sees the whole system as being damaging.

"We are literally killing the planet."

Brandon Sun a27022020 Grace Masse speaks during a round dance in support of the Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs and First Nations issues at Princess Park on Thursday afternoon. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)

After the walk wrapped up at Princess Park with round dance, children and adults spoke out about the importance of protecting our Earth.

Some had small children in tow, like Darian Kennedy.

He wants his child, who drummed throughout the walk, to have a fair life.

 mletourneau@brandonsun.com

 Michele LeTourneau covers indigenous matters for The Brandon Sun under the Local Journalism Initiative, a federally funded program that supports the creation of original civic journalism.
The Oxford Student, the largest student newspaper of the nearly thousand-year-old teaching institution, reported in mid-February that the classics faculty has recommended that Homers Iliad and Virgils Aeneid be removed from the literae humaniores, an undergraduate program in ancient literature, history, and philosophy. The program has been criticized because of the difference in scores between male and female students, as well as because of differences in how much previous training its students have had in classical languages. This is an absurd standard. What will be taught if equality of grades between the sexes becomes the standard of choosing course material? The classics faculty would solve the grade-difference issue by shedding two of Western civilizations core works.

A student studying classics at Oxford opposes removal of the two epic poems and is gathering signatures for a petition to end debate on their future at Oxford. Note that cutting off debate on difficult issues is not restricted to American universities.

The Oxford Student quotes the students objection to Homer-exit. It means, he says, that Oxford would be producing Classicists who have never read Homer and never read Virgil, who are the central authors of the Classical tradition and most of Classical literature, in one way or another, looks back to Homer and interacts with the Iliad.

Its worse than that. Homer and Virgil are fundamental not only to classics majors or students who will eventually teach classics to other students. Homer, by himself, is the keystone of Western literature.

The Iliad is a story about human passions: anger, pity, remorse, compassion, revenge; mens relations to forces greater than themselves; war and its horrors (and it is very horrible in Homers supremely elegant lines); and the beauty of art and nature. It is a complex and deeply insightful exploration of the soul, human fate, and immortality.

Its great heroes aspirations to dominance are the seeds of the idea of perfection that appears in the figures on Greek vases and in sculpture long after Homer died. The perfect human figure that the sculptor Praxiteles and other of his contemporaries sought to create eight centuries after Homer was both an echo of the poets imagination and a wellspring of the Renaissance.

Story continues

Plato in The Republic criticizes the Iliad: Homers spirited heroes distract students from the philosophic spirit needed to reflect on the idea of justice. Thus did the same striving for the ideal find its way into ancient political theory, through which thinkers sought foundations for society in mans distinctive and highest (read most perfect) attribute, reason. The pursuit of the ideal is with us today when we think about a perfect life, a more perfect world, a perfect mate  or a more perfect union.

Other civilizations, religions, and political systems aim at different ends: enlightenment, obedience, and harmony with nature, for example. There is much to be said in favor of these underlying principles. They bring inner peace, offer firm guidelines to life, and provide comfort amid lifes otherwise inexplicable vicissitudes. But those goals have not encouraged a society that constantly reflects on its values, advanced the cause of human liberty, developed an economic system that lifted millions out of poverty, or eradicated smallpox, to mention one accomplishment of Western medicine.

The effort of the Oxford classics faculty to remove Homer and Virgil could be dismissed as the doing of cranky dons, were it not part of the larger Western undertaking in which our past is seen in an increasingly dim light. An American president who apologized for his countrys past. History taught as a record of exploitation and oppression. Shakespeare removed from curricula for reasons of identity politics. The list is long and dreary. It is an indicator of a civilization that is losing its way.

Harold Macmillan is supposed to have quoted an Oxford don describing an educated person as someone who will know when a person is talking rot. By rot, Macmillan meant nonsense. The other meaning of rot is decay. Thats the activity the Oxford classics faculty members are engaging in as they seek to ban Homer.

More from National Review
To mark International Womens Day, Mankind Pharmaceuticals, maker of Indias No 1 pregnancy detection kit Prega News, launched #ImwithYELLOW, a strong and thoughtful digital campaign to promote gender equality in the country.

The campaign underlines the brands forward-thinking philosophy and create awareness about sensitive issues that affect society.

The #ImwithYELLOW campaign has been conceptualized by Havas & executed by advertising agency ADK Fortune Communications. The campaign is launched across all digital platforms including the film Thappad, cinema halls, outdoor,radio and e-commerce platforms for wider reach. It shuns the concept of colour in gender discrimination, such as blue is for boys and pink is for girls and instead stands with Yellow, which is a neutral colour for both genders and stands for equality. Prega News has also developed a microsite where supporters can enlist and take a pledge for gender equality through #ImwithYELLOW campaign.

Mr Rajeev Juneja, CEO, Mankind Pharma, said: Prega News has been a frontrunner in raising pertinent issues related to pregnancy and childbirth in the country, which are generally ignored. Indian society is still at large engulfed with preference of male child over female. Labelled in specific colors this has been running through generations and is wrecking the foundation of countrys social progress. Our latest campaign - #ImwithYellow is an initiative to rise against the alarming issue of sex discrimination. It urges people to do away with the cliches of gender stereotyping and focus on health of the baby by standing with Yelow- a colour that symbolizes its health and happiness.

Prega News brand ambassadors Kareena Kapoor and Priyamani also joined the new initiative along with Neha Dhupia, Soha Ali Khan, Mahi Vij and Karan Mehra undertaking a video pledge. Apart from this, the company has also partnered with Momspressoo - largest Mom's community where around 15 moms will make share videos with their own stories.



To promote the campaign, Prega News has tied up with many brands and influencers such as RJ Raunac, who will raise the issue in his famous parody Bauaa on Red FM radio station. Prega News would be promoting this initiative with First Cry and Inox. Further, the company has also associated with the film Thappad which deals with gender biases. Actor Tapsee Pannu will be seen joining Prega News #ImWithYellow campaign by saying Because yellow as a colour stands for the health of the baby and not its gender.

More information about the campaign can be found on Prega News website and its Facebook page.
For many people, losing a leg would be one of the most disheartening experiences of their life. For Army specialist Ezra Maes, the loss of his limb paled in comparison to the satisfaction he felt after saving his fellow soldiers from a potentially deadly training accident.

Were just so lucky to come out of that the way we did, Maes said in a Department of Defense interview at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, where he is currently in rehabilitation. Were just grateful now, for every single day that weve got.

An M-1A1 Abrams tank guards a position during the Advance Warfighting Experiment at the Fort Irwin Army National Training Center in Fort Irwin, CA, March 16. (MIKE NELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Despite having a grandfather who had served in the military, Maes didnt think that his own career path would go through the Army. I had family that had served and I had always respected it, but I just figured it was never really for me, he shared. When he took the competency test at a recruitment station in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he attended high school, the results opened up several promising career opportunities in the military.

He enlisted at the young age of 18 and served as a specialist loader for an M1 Abrams tank. Deployed to Eastern Europe for a NATO mission, he and his crewmates, gunner Sergeant Aechere Crump and driver Private First Class Victor Alamo, were in Slovakia and sleeping in their tank during a training exercise.

The crew got a rude awakening when they felt the tank start moving at high speed. I called out to the driver, Step on the brakes! Maes recounts. Pfc Alamo responded that they werent working. A leak in the tanks hydraulic system meant that there was no way to slow it down. It careened, reaching speeds of up to 90 miles per hour (145 kilometers per hour). At this point, there was nothing that the soldiers could do but brace for impact.

We held on and hoped one of the trees stopped us, Maes told Fox News. And it did, for the most part. Unfortunately, during the crash, all three crew members were thrown around and sustained major injuries. Maes immediately knew he was badly injured but didnt know to what extent.

There wasnt this sense of panic for a while, he explained in a video for Brooke Army Medical Center. The adrenaline hits and you dont know whats going on.

Maes knew there was something wrong with his right leg. My leg got caught up into the gearing where the spinning turret sits and where the driving part of the tank is, he said. Looking around, he saw that Sgt. Crump had also sustained a serious leg injury. I see my gunner with a big thigh cut and Im freaking out, he said. Ok, thats the femoral artery, weve got to get a tourniquet on her. Driver Alamo was unable to move as he was suffering from a broken back after being thrown through the drivers hatch.

Despite the pain in his leg, Maes knew it was up to him to get help. I pushed and pulled and felt a bit of a tear, he said to Brooke Army Medical Center. I turned with my other leg and pushed off to get completely free and thats when I thought I just dislodged it. In fact, Maes had just amputated his own leg without realizing it.

Leg severed and almost fainting from the pain, Maes made a tourniquet with his belt to stem the bleeding. With his crewmates trapped inside the tank, he thought, Either I step up or we all die, as explained to the Department of Defense. He hopped around to get the medical supplies. I knew I was going into shock, he added. All I could think about was no one knows were down here. Meanwhile, Sgt. Crump had also made an improvised tourniquet for her leg and was trying to radio for help, only to realize the radio was down.

Then, out of the blue, a signal of hope rang. It was Maess cell phone. Mine was the only phone that had service and hadnt been broken in the crash, he said. Gunner Crump managed to crawl to get it and tossed it to him. With the phone, he managed to send for help, and then he and his crewmates focused on stopping the bleeding while remaining conscious.

Once they found us, it turned into a bunch of big jokes and laughs, he said, surprisingly. Despite the terrible pain he was in, describing it as a 10 on the scale, he managed to joke about what had happened before passing out. As he told Fox News, when a fellow soldier grabbed his severed leg, he reportedly shouted, Hey, bring that back, I want it!

Maes finally made it to Brooke Medical. His injuries were substantial. In addition to the severed leg, which could not be reattached, he suffered fractures to his ankle, pelvis, and shoulder. The road to recovery was going to be long and difficult, but with the support of his family and the staff at Brooke, he was willing to give it his best.

When something like this happens, its easy to give up because your life wont be the same, and youre not wrong, he told the DOD. During long months of learning how to walk on a prosthetic leg, Maes has constantly stayed grateful for his survival and chance to live again.

Video Credit: DVIDSHUB

This was my second chance at life. This completely let me reinvent myself as a human being. Its really an amazing opportunity, Maes said to Brooke Medical, where he is hoping to be fitted with a prosthetic leg implant that will dramatically improve his mobility. In addition to keeping fit with kayaking, yoga, and working with service dogs, Maes is hoping to pay forward the excellent care he has had.

His next goal is to go to college through the GI bill and pursue a career in prosthetic technology. One of the new jobs Im looking for now is to be a prosthetist, he shared. I want to work on prosthetics, build things for other people to help them get the mobility Im getting.

Maes knows how lucky he has been and wants to use the chance to help others. Whatever I could do to help somebody else thats struggling with [amputation], that would be a dream for me, he adds.
Funding to support the continued permitting and feasibility work on the Stibnite Gold Project, Idaho



NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION OR DISSEMINATION DIRECTLY, OR INDIRECTLY, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Midas Gold Corp. (MAX:TSX / MDRPF:OTCQX, Midas Gold or the Company) today announced that it has entered into funding agreements for gross proceeds of US$35 million to be used for funding continued work on the Stibnite Gold Project and for general working capital purposes.

Midas Gold has signed a binding term sheet with Paulson & Co. Inc., on behalf of the several investment funds and accounts managed by it (Paulson), pursuant to which Paulson will purchase Canadian dollar denominated 0.05% senior unsecured convertible notes (the Notes) to be issued by a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company (the Issuer) on a private placement basis for gross proceeds of a minimum C$33,202,500 (the Note Offering), being the Canadian dollar equivalent of US$25 million(1).

In addition, Midas Gold and the Issuer have entered into an agreement with BMO Capital Markets and Sprott Capital Partners LP (as co-lead agents) and a syndicate of agents including Cormark Securities Inc. and Haywood Securities Inc. (collectively, the Agents) in connection with a best efforts brokered private placement of Notes and/or common shares of the Company (the Common Shares) at a price of C$0.53 per Common Share on a private placement basis (the Brokered Offering) for total gross proceeds of up to C$13,281,000, being the Canadian dollar equivalent of US$10 million(1). Upon completion of the Note Offering and the Brokered Offering (together, the Offering) the Company and the Issuer would receive aggregate gross proceeds of C$46,483,500. To the extent that any portion of the Brokered Offering is not purchased by other investors, Paulson will subscribe for the remainder of the Brokered Offering amount in the form of additional Notes, thereby ensuring the Offering would be fully subscribed.

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Midas Gold appreciates the continued support of its investors, particularly Paulson & Co., said Stephen Quin, President & CEO. While our permitting process has been extended a number of times, driving costs higher, these investments recognize the significant economic and environmental opportunity presented by the Stibnite Gold Project, where redevelopment of a heavily impacted brownfields mine site will provide more than 500 long-term, well-paid jobs in rural Idaho and a long term supply of the critical mineral antimony, while funding the clean-up of decades of environmental impacts from decades of mining by prior owners and the restoration of the site, and particularly passage for salmon and bull trout to the headwaters of the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River for the first time in more than 80 years.

Note Terms

The Notes will mature seven years after issuance and are convertible by the holders thereof (the Noteholders) at any time prior to the maturity of the Notes, into Common Shares at a conversion price of C$0.53 per Common Share (the Conversion Price). The Notes will be redeemable, at the option of the Issuer, at any time after the fourth anniversary of the initial issue date of the Notes, provided that the 20-day volume weighted average trading price (VWAP) of the Common Shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) is not less than 200% of the Conversion Price at the time of redemption and subject to the conversion rights of the Noteholders.

The Notes will constitute a senior unsecured obligation of the Issuer, ranking equally with other existing and future senior unsecured indebtedness and ranking senior to any existing or future subordinated indebtedness, and will bear interest at a rate of 0.05% per year, payable annually, which may be paid in cash or Common Shares (based on the 5-day VWAP on the date that interest is due) at the Issuers election, subject to TSX approval. The Notes will contain standard anti-dilution provisions. Upon a change of control, the Issuer will offer to repurchase the Notes at a price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the Notes plus accrued interest.

Brokered Offering

The Brokered Offering will be offered on a private placement basis to existing shareholders of the Company and other investors who are accredited investors under applicable securities laws. Subscribers will be entitled to purchase either Notes or Common Shares. The Agents will receive a cash commission of 5% of gross proceeds raised under the Brokered Offering. No commission will be paid on any proceeds received from Paulson.

Conditions to Closing

The completion of the Offering is subject to a number of conditions including obtaining any required regulatory approvals including approval of the TSX. All securities issued in the Offering will be subject to a hold period or seasoning period, as applicable, under Canadian securities laws. All securities issued in the United States will be subject to resale restrictions under U.S. federal and state securities laws.

The Common Shares and Notes have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the 1933 Act), or any applicable securities laws of any state of the United States and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any of the Common Shares or Notes, nor shall there be any offer or sale of the Common Shares or Notes in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

Background to the Offering

Over the past number of months, the Company has evaluated a number of options for additional funding, including issues of common shares, royalty and or streaming on antimony and further strategic investments. To date, none of those options have proven to be been available to the Company to a quantum of funding that would address the funding needs through to the anticipated completion of the permitting process. As a result, and having regard to the relatively weak equity market interest in gold development companies, despite higher gold prices, and the Companys immediate need for additional capital, Paulson made an initial non-binding indicative proposal (the Initial Proposal) to the Company for a convertible notes financing similar in structure to that provided by Paulson to the Company in 2016, pursuant to its rights under the existing investor rights agreement between Paulson and the Company (the Investor Rights Agreement). The Initial Proposal was for US$35 million in convertible notes wholly taken up by Paulson. Following receipt of the Initial Proposal and consideration of other options available to the Company, including an offer by the Agents to complete the Brokered Offering, the Company and Paulson held discussions that ultimately led to the Offering described above.

Participation in the Offering by Paulson

Paulsons current security holdings of the Company consists of 9,664,520 Common Shares and outstanding convertible notes of the Issuer in the principal amount of C$34,502,500.13, representing 3.56% of the outstanding Common Shares of the Company (107,101,685 Common Shares or 29.03% on a partially diluted basis assuming conversion of the convertible notes currently held by Paulson). Upon completion of the Offering, Paulson will beneficially own 9,664,520 Common Shares, representing approximately 3.26% of the Companys outstanding common shares (169,747,911 Common Shares or 37.17% on a partially diluted basis, assuming conversion of all convertible securities held by Paulson and no other convertible securities, and 33.94% assuming conversion of all existing convertible notes of the Company; and also assuming all of the Brokered Offering is sold to existing shareholders and other investors as to Common Shares only and no Notes). If no portion of the Brokered Offering is purchased by other investors, Paulson would beneficially own up to approximately 3.56% of the Companys outstanding common shares (194,806,402 Common Shares or 42.66% on a partially diluted basis, assuming conversion of all convertible securities held by Paulson and no other convertible securities and 38.95% assuming conversion of all existing convertible notes of the Company).

The terms of the Convertible Notes under the Offering are on par with the Companys convertible note offering completed in March 2016, which received shareholder approval in 2016, except for the higher conversion price in the current Offering. As Paulson already holds more than 20% of the Companys outstanding securities on a partially diluted basis, the Offering would not materially affect control of the Company.

In connection with the Note Offering, the Company has agreed to amend the existing Investor Rights Agreement between the Company and Paulson to provide that Paulson will have the right to designate one of its director nominees as the Chair of the board of directors of the Company (the Board) and the Company will designate a Lead Director of the Board who will be an independent director.

Total Securities Issuable

An aggregate of 87,704,717 Common Shares (or 32.30% of the Companys currently issued and outstanding Common Shares) will be issued or made issuable pursuant to the Offering, whether through the issuance of Common Shares, or the conversion of Notes, sold under the Offering.

A minimum of 62,646,226 Common Shares will be made issuable to insiders (being the number of Common Shares issuable upon the conversion of all Notes to be purchased by Paulson under the Note Offering). To the extent that any portion of the Brokered Offering is not purchased by other investors, up to a maximum of 87,704,717 Common Shares could be made issuable to insiders (being the maximum number of Common Shares issuable upon the conversion of all Notes purchased by Paulson in the event that there are no other subscribers under the Brokered Offering).

The Conversion Price of C$0.53 represents a 5% discount to the 5-day VWAP for the 5 trading days up to and including February 21, 2020 (being the last trading day prior to receipt of Paulsons offer in respect of the Note Offering and the Agents offer in respect of the Brokered Offering).

Legal Advisors

The Company has consulted and obtained advice from its corporate counsel, the law firm of Miller Thomson LLP, in regard to the TSXs requirements and the requirements of applicable securities legislation (including corporate governance requirements) and has considered their input in selecting the most appropriate path the Company should take in light of its financial situation.

Special Committee and its Advisors

The Board appointed a special committee of the Board consisting entirely of members of the Board who are independent of Paulson and management, and who have no direct or indirect interest in the Offering (the Special Committee). The Board granted a broad mandate to the Special Committee to review the proposed Offering, as well as to consider and review possible alternative financing options that might be available to the Company. The Special Committee retained independent legal counsel, Paul L. Goldman Law Corporation, to assist it in carrying out its obligations pursuant to the mandate from the Board.

The Special Committee also retained Fort Capital Partners (Fort Capital) as its independent financial advisor to review the terms and conditions of Paulsons Initial Proposal, consider available financing alternatives, recommend the best financing alternative available to the Company, and provide a fairness opinion in connection with the recommended alternative.

The Special Committee met on several occasions and oversaw the negotiations that led to the Offering.

Following their detailed consideration of available financing alternatives to the Company, having regard to the Companys current circumstances and the state of financial markets, Fort Capital recommended to the Special Committee that Paulsons Initial Proposal was the best financing alternative available to the Company and the terms are fair, from a financial point of view, to the shareholders of the Company other than Paulson.

The Company subsequently received an offer from the Agents to complete the Brokered Offering on a best efforts basis. Following discussions with Paulson, Paulsons Initial Proposal was amended to allow for existing shareholders and other investors to participate in the financing through the Brokered Offering.

The Special Committee noted that, due to the time that would be required to obtain shareholder approval and the financial condition of the Company, the Note Offering proposal was only open to acceptance by the Company until March 4, 2020 and was subject to shareholder approval not being required due to the time required relative to the Companys limited available working capital.

Based on their review and analysis of the Paulson final proposal, and having regard to the limited alternatives available to the Company, its financial position, as well as, but not limited to, their consideration of the report and conclusions of Fort Capital, the Special Committee concluded that the Offering is fair to shareholders and in the best interests of the Company and unanimously recommended to the Board to accept, and subject to all necessary regulatory approvals, to proceed to expedite the closing of the Offering at the earliest possible date.

After receipt of the recommendation by the Special Committee, the Board reviewed the terms and conditions of the Note Offering and the Brokered Offering in detail. Following their review, the Board determined that the Offering is in the Companys best interests and approved both the Note Offering and the Brokered Offering. Each of Paulsons nominees on the Board did not attend or participate in any of the deliberations of the Special Committee or the Board in connection with their consideration of the Offering.

Regulatory Exemptions

As the aggregate number of securities to be issued or made issuable pursuant to the Offering (i) would exceed 25% of the currently issued and outstanding Common Shares on a non-diluted basis; and (ii) to insiders would exceed 10% of the currently issued and outstanding Common Shares on a non-diluted basis, the Company would ordinarily be required to obtain shareholder approval under the TSX Company Manual (the Manual). However, the Company has applied to the TSX under Section 604(e) of the Manual for a financial hardship exemption from the requirement to obtain shareholder approval. The independent members of the Board, who are free from any interest in the Offering and are unrelated to the investors, have authorized such application on the basis of their determination that the Company would be in serious financial difficulty without the Offering and the Offering is designed to improve the Companys financial situation and is reasonable for the Company in the circumstances.

As Paulson is an insider of the Company, the Offering is a related party transaction within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101). However, as neither the fair market value of the securities acquired by the Paulson, nor the consideration for the securities paid by Paulson, exceeds 25% of the Companys market capitalization, the issuance of securities is exempt from the formal valuation requirements of Section 5.4 of MI 61-101 pursuant to Subsection 5.5(a) of MI 61-101 and exempt from the minority approval requirements of Section 5.6 of MI 61-101 pursuant to Subsection 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101.

Financial Considerations

If the Company does not complete the Offering, the Company has approximately US$4.6 million of available working capital available to meet ongoing operating costs after providing for certain existing legal obligations of the Company that would be required were the Company not to continue as a going concern. Under the current Board-approved budget, this amount would be depleted before the end of April 2020. Absent a financing, Midas Gold would face near-term insolvency and/or loss of all progress made to date in the extensive and expensive permitting process (with US$53 million invested to date in permitting alone) and which has been ongoing since 2016. The permitting process, once interrupted, will be expensive and difficult to restart and there is serious doubt as to whether it can be resumed in a timely manner or at all. In addition, a break in the continuity in baseline environmental data collection could result in having to restart this data collection process (a two to three year endeavour).

Use of Proceeds

The proceeds from the Offering are reasonably forecast to enable the Company to be funded through to the next major milestone, being the final environmental impact statement and final record of decision on its Stibnite Gold Project. Upon receipt of the proceeds from the Offering (US$35 million less an estimated up to US$0.9 million in transaction costs and Agents commission in respect of the Brokered Offering), along with the expected current working capital as at March 1, 2020 (US$9.0 million, which is the US$4.6 million plus an amount of US$4.4 million which is reserved for legal obligations (which would no longer be required to be reserved as the Company continues as a going concern)) the Company would have working capital of approximately US$43.1 million. With the proceeds of the Offering, the Company anticipates that it would be able to continue its work on its key corporate objectives through the end of 2021, assuming currently forecast rates of expenditures.

Listing Review

As a consequence of relying upon the financial hardship exemption under Section 604(e) of the TSX Company Manual, the Company expects that the TSX will commence a remedial de-listing review, which is normal practice when a listed Company seeks to rely on this exemption. Although the Company believes that it will be in compliance with all of the TSX listing requirements following completion of the Offering, no assurance can be provided as to the outcome of such review and, therefore, the Companys continued qualification for listing on the TSX.

For further information about Midas Gold Corp., please contact:

Liz Monger -- Manager, Investor Relations

(t): 778.724.4704

(e): info@midasgoldcorp.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/midasgoldidaho

Twitter: @MidasIdaho

Website: www.midasgoldcorp.com

About Midas Gold and the Stibnite Gold Project

Midas Gold Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiaries, is focused on the exploration and, if warranted, site restoration and development of gold-antimony-silver deposits in the Stibnite-Yellow Pine district of central Idaho that are encompassed by its Stibnite Gold Project.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding the Offering, closing of the Offering, use of proceeds of the Offering, the Companys continued qualification for listing on the TSX, and continued advancement of the Stibnite Gold Project. These forward-looking statements are provided as of the date of this news release, or the effective date of the documents referred to in this news release, as applicable, and reflect predictions, expectations or beliefs regarding future events based on the Company's beliefs at the time the statements were made, as well as various assumptions made by and information currently available to them. In making the forward-looking statements included in this news release, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including, but not limited to, the assumption that regulatory approval of the Offering will be obtained in a timely manner; that all conditions precedent to the completion of the Offering will be satisfied in a timely manner; that general economic and business conditions will not change in a materially adverse manner; and that the Company will be able to raise additional funds on reasonable terms. Although management considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information available to it, they may prove to be incorrect. By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not be achieved or that assumptions on which they are based do not reflect future experience. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements as a number of important factors could cause the actual outcomes to differ materially from the expectations expressed in them. These risk factors may be generally stated as the risk that the assumptions expressed above do not occur, but specifically include, without limitation, risks relating to: general market conditions; the Companys ability to secure financing on favourable terms; and the additional risks described in the Company's latest Annual Information Form, and other disclosure documents filed by the Company on SEDAR. The foregoing list of factors that may affect future results is not exhaustive. When relying on our forward-looking statements, investors and others should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by the Company or on behalf of the Company, except as required by law.

(1) Based on the Bank of Canada daily exchange rate on February 25, 2020 of US$1.00 = C$1.3281 or C$1.00 = US$0.7530.




The US on February 10 announced the decision to remove Vietnam from the list of developing countries.

Le Trieu Dung, director of the Trade Remedies Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), on February 21 told VnExpress that the move wont have a big impact on Vietnams economy.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy spokesman Doan Khac Viet



In order to be considered as a developing country, according to the US approach, the trade share must be lower than 0.5 percent of the worlds total trade.



Meanwhile, according to the WTOs data, Vietnams total export and import turnover in 2018 was $242.6 billion and $235.5 billion, respectively, accounting for 1.3 percent and 1.19 percent of the worlds trade.



Therefore, Vietnam and many other countries are not listed among developing countries, he explained.

Most-favored-nation treatment (MFN) is the basic principle in WTOs international trade, whereby a member country must be given the same treatment as all other WTO members, regardless of developed countries or developing countries.

However, he affirmed that the change wont have impact on Vietnam in reality.



Regarding the anti-countervailing investigation, under the WTO rules, governments have to stop the investigations if the subsidy margin is negligible, below 1 percent of total goods value. The figure is less than 2 percent for developing countries.



However, according to Dung, in the last seven anti-subsidy investigations, the US all concluded that Vietnam provided subsidy and the subsidy margin was higher than 2 percent.



In long term, when the anti-subsidy investigations increase, the new policy will have certain impact on Vietnam, if there is the case with the subsidy margin of below 2 percent. In this case, Vietnam will still bear anti-countervailing duty as it is no longer considered a developing country.



Vietnam is no longer considered by the US as a developing country, but according to MOIT, the country still can enjoy developing country status within the frame of WTO.



Most-favored-nation treatment (MFN) is the basic principle in WTOs international trade, whereby a member country must be given the same treatment as all other WTO members, regardless of developed countries or developing countries.



Developed countries offer developing and underdeveloped countries flexible conditions, including GSP (Generalized System of Preferences). Also, developing countries enjoy the exemption from the anti-countervailing or anti-dumping duties if their export volumes are small or their subsidies are inconsiderable.



The Trumpm administration wants to stop the special preferences offered to some countries in other groups, such as G20, OECD or countries listed by the World Bank as having high incomes.



Vietnamese agencies are keeping a close watch to give timely warnings and recommendations.



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy spokesman Doan Khac Viet on February 22 said Vietnam will maintain dialogue and coordinate activities with the US to boost bilateral trade.

Thanh Lich

Vietnam on US watchlist for currency manipulation Vietnam is one of 10 countries in the latest watchlist for currency manipulation released by the US Treasury Department.
Written by ACM

*Strasbourg/Angelo Marcopolo/- The PanEuropean Organisation for Human Rights, Democracy and Rule of Law, CoE, in a rare move, openly Denounced Turkey's blatant "Silencing of Human Rights Defenders", Journalists, Lawyers, even Judges, etc., by various Oppressive Measures, including, recently, even "Smear" by Leaks of official documents ...Hidden to the Victims !

Already, the Latest Report by Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic, Denounced the fact that the "Justice System", (to which refers also a Letter of CoE's new Secretary General, Marija Buric : See Infra), "with Numerous Long-standing Problems", "has Worsened by the Addition of New Concerns". that "Result in a level of ... Arbitrariness, which enDangers the very Essence of the Rule of Law".

But a 2nd Chapter stresses "the Importance of civil society Organisations (NGOs) and human rights Defenders, (incl. Journalists, Lawyers, etc), in a Democratic Society", and "observes that a Series of Negative Developments, ... have created a Chilling effect and contributed to an Increasingly Hostile environment for Human Rights Defenders in Turkey".

This includes "legislative, regulatory, administrative and procedural Obstacles Affecting civil society Organisations", an "Absence of transparent and objective Criteria and procedures regarding public Funding, Consultation of and Collaboration with civil society Organisations, as well as for Inspections", and "Concern about an increasingly Virulent and Negative political Discourse Targeting and Labelling human rights Defenders as terrorists, which frequently leads to Biased actions", added to "a Widespread pattern of Judicial actions Targeting human rights defenders, which amount to a Misuse of criminal proceedings to Silence them and to Discourage civil society Engagement".





Concerning the "Justice System", the Comissioner pointed out that "the Turkish Judiciary has been at the Heart of most human rights Violations in Turkey for a very Long Time, either by Failing to Rectify violations committed by the Turkish Authorities, or by Causing these Violations directly". Thus, "that at the

end of 2018, the ECtHR had delivered 3 148 judgments concerning Turkey finding at least one violation of the European Convention on Human Rights... Of these, 919 specifically concerned Violations of the right to a Fair Trial, 755 related to the right to personal Liberty and security, 603 concerned Length of proceedings, and 279 the right to an effective Remedy".

- "Reforms invariably Failed to provide long-term solutions to prevent human rights violations. At best, their effects were Short-lived, and the judiciary ultimately Reverted to its Old patterns".

+ Moreover, Recently, it "has undergone major Upheavals, notably following the attempted Coup detat of 15 July 2016", "accompanied by a general deterioration in the situation regarding human rights and Increasingly Acute Concerns regarding the Erosion of the Independence of the Turkish judiciary, expressed by Numerous bodies of the CoE, including the Commissioners Office, the Venice Commission and the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO)".





Among others, f.ex., Turkey's "High Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK)", i.e. "the main organ tasked with ..."Appointments, Promotions, Transfers, and Disciplinary proceedings", "as observed by the Venice Commission", has "Powers" that "are not only Greater than in most other European countries, but they have also been Traditionally interpreted and applied in such a manner as to exert great Influence ..., in a Politicised manner that has been quite Csontroversial. Already, a previous CoE HR Commissioner's Report since 2012, "identified various Problems, such as ...that the Minister of Justice nominally Presided over the body", "the Ministers Undersecretary was a natural Member, and ... the Executive power had sought to exert Influence in the Election process and had succeeded".

+ "These Concerns have been largely overshadowed by far More Serious ones, as a result of new constitutional Changes introduced in 2017", after which, "All the members of the HSK (can) be Appointed either by the President of the Republic or the Parliament, withOut a procedure guaranteeing the Involvement of All political parties and interests", "in clear Contradiction with European Standards which foresee that at least Half of the members ...should be Elected by Judges among their Peers ...with respect for Pluralism". Given also the fact that, "the New Constitutional System" of Turkey "gives the President of the Republic very extensive Powers, drastically Limits Checks ..., and No longer requires ...to be ..Neutral", CoE's Venice Commissio has Denounced "a Dangerous step Backwards", and "Dangers of degeneration ...towards an Authoritarian and Personal Regime".

+ In Addition, already "since 2013", Turkey practiced "Higher Numbers of Forced reLocations of members of the judiciary, as well as Investigations, Suspensions and Dismissals".

++ Moreover, "this ...Worrying situation changed considerably for the Worse ... after ... 2016 : almost 1/3 of the judiciary, around 4.000 Judges and prosecutors, were Dismissed ..., based on Extraordinary powers granted to the HSYK and high courts" : "...these Decisions only contained a universal, Stereotypical and Non-individualised reasoning, to which Lists of 2.845 and 543 Names were simply Appended", while "the Majority of the judges dismissed ...were subsequently Detained ... for membership in a Terrorist organisation" (sic !), and "the Emergency Powers underpinning the Dismissals" were "Extended .. for a Further 3 Years ...on 2018", so that "one of the most basic guarantees of judicial Independence is effectively Suspended until July 2021", Mijatovic denounced.

+++ Meanwhile, as she found during her 2019 Visit to Turkey, "9.914 judges and prosecutors had been Recruited After the declaration of the state of Emergency". But, "already in 2012", a previous CoE's Report Criticized "several Problems" "including including the fact that the Majority of members of the board conducting the Interviews for the Candidate judges were representatives of the Executive" power. In Addition, "during the state of Emergency" (2016-2019), the "Recruitement procedure ...became even more Opaque and exclusively Controlled by the Ministry of Justice", while "Loyalty to the Ruling coalition appears to have become a Key criterion for selection", as "recruitment Criteria were substantially Relaxed", and "many ...judges were Arbitrarily Moved after delivering controversial judgments upholding the Human rights", replaced by "judges with known Biases being Appointed to ongoing Politically sensitive Cases", (etc).

------------

At the same time, "Serious Problems and shortcomings continue (on 2020) to affect the Turkish Criminal Code (TCC), the Anti-Terrorism Law, and the Code of Criminal Procedure (TCCP)", (f.ex. on "Public Incitement to Hatred or Hostility", on "Insulting the President of the Republic", on "Degrading the Turkish Nation", etc), that Venice Commission had Denounced on 2016 to "allow for Excessive Sanctions", and be "applied too Widely, Penalising conduct Protected under the ECHR and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights", Milatovic (who served also as OSCE's Envoy for Freedom of Expression), observes Nowadays.

And Part of the Issue of "overBroad interpretation by the Turkish judiciary of what constitutes Terrorism, or Membership of an armed criminal organisation", is also "the Long-standing Problem of Impunity and Lack of effective Investigations into alleged Violations of Human rights by (Turkish) Security Forces", already "highlighted time and time again by the Commissioners Office", and by "numerous findings of human rights Violations by the ECtHR", she reminded.

+ In this Context, "the Erosion of the Independence of the judiciary in Recent years, fostered a climate of Fear, ...boosting Conformism, and Exacerbating the ...tendency to Punish persons who are perceived to be Against the Government", while "portraying Human rights Defenders as Enemies of the state or Terrorist sympathisers, Targeting them both as a group and Personally".

=> "As an indication of the Scale of the issue", f.ex., "according to official Statistics there have been 43.553 Convictions to Prison sentences under Article 314 of the TCC concerning Membership of armed criminal organisations, and 2.280 under the Anti-Terrorism Law in 2018"...

F.ex., "the Prosecutions ...against <<Academics for Peace>> and the Convictions of members of the executive board of the Turkish <<Medical Association>>, whose calls for Peace were Interpreted as Propaganda for Terrorism, provide a good illustration of this development" : Indeed, "over 700 Academics faced Criminal Proceedings in this connection and ...around 170 were sentenced to Prison terms of between 15 and 30 Months", while, even if "the CC appears to have Rectified the situation" much Later, on 2019, nevertheless, this "Ended the Careers of Hundreds of Academics, and created a strong Chilling effect; which will be very Difficult to reverse"...

+ But such "approach is not limited to the Catch-All use made of the crime of Propaganda for a terrorist organisation", as it "significantly Expands the LImits of the offence of Membership of a criminal Organisation, in the sense that increasingly Harmless acts are being considered as Evidence" : F.ex., "In the case of the <<Cumhuriyet>> Newspaper", a perceived deviation from the ...original Editorial Line", or "the use of a Smartphone Application called Bylock, deposits in Bank Asya, and links with or using the services of (certain) Schools or Hospitals", (etc). So that "Detention, the Evidence for which was was solely based on Bylock use and deposits in Bank Asya", was Condemned as a "Violation" of "Civil and Political Rights" by the "UN Human Rights Committee" on 2019. Similarly, on "the Gazi events' Case", ("remarkable by the Absence of objective Indicators of Criminal activity"), "a compilation of ...long, indiscriminate Transcripts of many Wire-Tapped Telephone Conversations, some of which reportedly bear Little Relevance", or "indiscriminate listing of various, Lawful acts, including Contacts with the (CoE's Human Rights) Commissioner" (sic !), "suggests that (Turkish) Prosecutors can use perfectly Lawful acts to justify the Prosecution and Detention of a person, if they wish to do so"..., something that the ECHR recently Condemned in Strasbourg, Mijatovic Warned.

In such Cases, the Turkish "prosecutors and courts Impugn a criminal Motive or presumed Intention on the suspect First, Before collecting or examining the available Evidence, Rather than going From Evidence Towards Guilt", so that "actions which should be considered Lawful in a democratic society, including statements and acts Protected under the ECHR, are re-Interpreted as circumstantial Evidence used to prove Criminal intent", with "a clear Risk of resulting in Judgments of Intentions (proces dintention), where No amount of material Evidence can Prove the persons Innocence"...





=> "As a Result" of all that, "while many of the Long-standing Concerns regarding the application of criminal law provisions Continue to apply", in Addition, "the situation significantly Deteriorated in Recent years" : ... Unlawful interferences with rights and freedoms enshrined in the ECHR Expanded, both in scale and scope", while "it has become virtually Impossible to Assess ...whether a Legitimate act ...will be re-Interpreted as Criminal activity by Turkish prosecutors", CoE's Commissioner concluded.

----------------------------------------------

>>> This so More Dangerous, that "a Serious, Long-Standing Concern" of the CoE, concerning "the use of Detention" in Turkey, "shows a consistent Pattern in the practice of the Turkish judiciary, Deviating from international and European Human rights Standards, including Premature Arrests, Insufficiently Motivated initial pre-trial detention decisions, serious Deficiencies in the Review procedures concerning the continuation of detention, as well as the Length of detention", Mijatovic Denounced. Such "Problematic practices, "include (i) the Lack of Restraint by prosecutors in initiating Proceedings, ...(ii) Arrests of suspects occurring at a very Early stage of the investigations, leading to long Detentions Before ...Indictment; (iii) ....Defective Reasoning of detention decisions, and particularly...the Automaticity of those Extending detention; (iv) Long periods spent in Detention", (etc), she Criticized, while, Nowadays, "a large Number of Cases from Turkey regarding Detentions is Pending before the ECtHR" in Strasbourg.

=> Meanwhile, "the problem of Insufficient Reasoning, based on Stereotypical formulations" has Extended even Further, "Particularly in Cases attracting Political interest  or where the Executive gives a clear signal", so that "the ECtHR found, for the 1st Time in a case against Turkey, that continued Detention had been used primarily with the ulterior Purpose of stifling pluralism and Limiting Freedom of Political Debate" !, (in Judgements of 11/2018 and 12/2019).

-----------------------------------------

+ Morever, "a New development ...is that highly Confidential Information from the Investigation file seems to be used frequently in Smear campaigns" against the Victims, "in pro-Government Media, Despite the fact that the same information is Unavailable" to them...

This Fact indicates that the Real "Motivation" of the Turkish State "is the Restriction of Defence Rights, ..., Rather than ... the Investigation", CoE's Comissioner Denounced.

-----------------------

>>> In Front of all these Problems, the alleged "Remedy" of the 2012 Established "Constitutional Court" in Turkey, raises serious "Doubts" Nowadays, Mijatovic observed, (while Many Individual Applications from various Victims of Human Rights Violations are still Often Droped by the ECHR in Strasbourg, until the have used, previously, that Time-Consuming procedure) :

- Indeed, "there are currently 4 interconnected Issues casting Doubt on the Effectiveness of the individual application procedure to the Constitutional Court as a Remedy for human rights violations in Turkey" : (1) the Tardiness of the CC ..., (2) the lower Courts highly Problematic attitude" against the CC, (3) the extraordinary Burden ...put on the CC, and (4) finally Recent judgments of the CC, in which it appears to be Departing from its previous, Convention-compliant approach", she Warned.

+ And, concerning another alleged "Reform" recently prepared by Turkey, CoE's HR Commissioner critically observes that "the 1st Judicial Reform Strategy published in 2009", already "had No significant Effect on the main Problems outlined above in the long term", while, also "Regreting" the Fact that, Nowadays, "the 1st Package of Reforms adopted by the Turkish Parliament in the framework of this Strategy in October 2019, Falls Short of the decisive and far-reaching reforms Urgently Needed in Turkey" (illustrating that by a List of Concrete Examples)...

-----------------------------------------------------

=> CoE Commissioner Mijatovic chose to Conclude by pointing at "Human Rights Defenders, and Civil Society" :

- "Human rights Defenders and NGOs play a Critical Role in a Democratic society, in making national Authorities Accountable", in "Assisting Victims of human rights violations and helping them ... access ...Redress", so that "they are an Essential resource for improving Peoples Lives and the Peaceful functioning of Society", to the point that, "according to the caselaw of the ECHR ..., when an NGO draws Attention to Matters of Public Interest, it is exercising a Public Watchdog role, of Similar Importance to that of the Press".

>>> But, "already for several Years", there, "have been ...Concerns about the increasingly Challenging situation faced by Turkish civil society and human rights defenders in carrying out their legitimate activities", while "this situation has steadily Deteriorated in Recent years", in particular after the State of Emergency since 2016, and has "Not Improved" not even after it was lifted on 2018...

This cpncerns not only "the Ragulatory Framework affecting Civil Society", and "Lack of Transparency" in "Government Funding and Consultations",

=> but also various "Attacks targeting human rights Defenders, ranging from the Intimidation and Stigmatisation ...in political discourse, to Judicial actions Targeting them".





As regards "INTIMIDATION AND REPRESSION OF .... HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS, POLITICAL DISCOURSE AND SMEAR CAMPAIGNS", CoE's PanEuropean Commissioner is DEEPLY CONCERNED that Turkish Officials, ...regularly Target human rights Defenders ..., frequently Labelling them as Terrorists and public Enemies" !

Indeed, "there have been Many such Attacks Targeting civil society Activists and their legitimate activities, in particular by suggesting that (Medias) Reporting on human rights Violations allegedly perpetrated by the Authorities, furthers the aims of Terrorist organisations and is by extension an Attack on the Turkish State". Mijatovic observed.

=> "Increasingly", Turkish "Government representatives and pro-government media seem to be Targeting certain Human rights Defenders, in a Concerted and Virulent manner, in what could be described as Smear Campaigns and considered Defamatory, occasionally amounting to Hate speech", CoE's Commissioner Denounced.

F.ex., "one of the most noteworthy of these Smear campaigns concerned the human rights Defender Osman Kavala", "mainly based on information Leaked from a Secret investigation File, ... subsequently taken over by Officials in public statements". + "Numerous Statements by the Turkish Minister of the Interior", also "publicly Labelled persons as Terrorists Before any judicial decision establishing guilt, in Disregard of the principle of presumption of Innocence, which is particularly Worrying coming from the hierarchical Superior of law Enforcement forces".

=> "Official Statements referred to above do Not remain only at the level of Discourse, but lead to concrete Repressive Actions by the Authorities, sometimes Immediately", she Warned.

- F.ex., they "Started to Prevent" them "from Visiting certain Areas of the Country", "following a Statement by the (Turkish) President ..., whereby" those "Publishing Reports on the Human Rights situation Needed to be "Countered"" (sic !)...

+ And the Turkish "Judiciary seems ...increasingly Influenced..., by launching Proceedings against ... Human Rights Defenders, immediately After Statements by Politicians, or Defamatory articles published in Pro-Government newspapers". F.ex., "for the ECHR, ...Kavala's Detention pursued the ulterior Purpose of Reducing him to Silence".

=> "Such Smear campaigns ... led to ...<Cease its operations in Turkey, due to an increasingly Hostile political environment and a number of Baseless Accusations, further Depriving .. of Funding opportunities",

+ In Addition, "the most Acute Problem facing human rights Defenders in Turkey is a widespread pattern of Judicial actions and Criminal proceedings Targeting them" : "Turkish Prosecutors do not hesitate to bring Spurious Charges against human rights Defenders for conducting ...Legitimate activities", Mijatovic Denounced.

F.ex., "there are clear indications that human rights Defenders working on the human rights situation in South-Eastern Turkey [] have been subjected to various forms of Reprisals and Intimidation in Retaliation for their legitimate activities. Inter alia, "a Criminal Investigation for aiding and abetting a Terrorist (sic !)organisation was initiated in 2018 against a number of prominent human rights Defenders, in connection with the Publication of a report in 2016 on alleged human rights Violations during the curfews in Cizre", (etc). And among "Numerous" such cases "of HR Defenders in Turkey, in 2017 and 2019, ...was the Sentencing of a HR Defender ; the Detention of the former Chair of Amnesty International Turkey ; the unjustified Arrest and criminal Proceedings against 8 human rights Defenders in July 2017 ; the Arrest of 13 prominent Academics, civil society Activists and human rights Defenders in November 2018 ; the bill of Indictment regarding the Gezi Trial on February

2019", etc.

>>> In consequence, CoE's "Commissioner is ALARMED by the Extreme Levels that the situation has reached, where the Majority of the Long-Time civil society Partners of her Office in Turkey, who are Internationally Recognised, prominent human rights Defenders, are facing Serious Charges and the Risk of Lengthy Prison sentences"...

+ Similar Findings were made also by CoE's Parliamentary Assembly, about an "Extensive Interpretation of the Anti-Terror Law, leading to the Criminalisation and Prosecution of human rights defenders and Lawyers" in Turkey. As well as by UNO's Special Rapporteurs on Assembly and Association, on HR Defenders, on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, on HR while Countering Terrorism ; on Arbitrary Detention", etc., who Denounced "a Worrying Pattern of Silencing People whose work legitimately calls into Question the views and policies of the Government", (f.ex.. by "Publishing opinions Disagreeing with the Governments anti-terrorism Policies, organizing Demonstrations, or providing Legal Representation for other Activists, etc).





=> So that Cases of "Criminal Proceedings Targeting HR Defenders, ...are too Numerous to enumerate" here, but "the Commissioner has been Closely Following" a lot of them, Citting a Long Series of concrete Cases with very Harsh Prosecution, (including, f.ex., "Arrest with Raids to their Houses Before Sunrise", Prosecutor's demand for Sentences up to 15 Years", etc.), which give "a Clear Sign of a Will to Intimidate and Silence Human Rights Defenders in Turkey".

+ To this is Added even "Impunity regarding Murders of HR Defenders", with the "2 Main Cases" : "the Assassination of Hrant Dink, Journalist and HR Defender, in 2007", and that of "Tahir Elsin, Head of the Diyarbakir Bar Association and HR Defender, in 2016 ; The Trials, in Both cases, are Stil On-Going", and, ". Despiteclear indications that the Turkish Security forces might have been Involved in both cases, eithernthrough Complicity, wilful Inaction or Negligence, the trials have been marred with Serious Shortcomings and have Failed to fully Elucidate these Murders so far"...

=> "In Conclusion", CoE's HR Commissioner Denounces a "Worrying", "Continuous and Concerted Pressure exerted on Human rights Defenders, in a Deliberate attempt to Silence them and to Prevent them from Reporting on ongoing human rights Violations in Turkey", "causing" a "very Palpable" "Chilling Effect".

=> In consequence, CoE's Commissioner Mijatovic, is "Deeply Worried about an Escalating Negative political Discourse Targeting Human rights Defenders, as well as Smear campaigns in pro-Government Media, that frequently amount to Defamation and Hate speech", while also "Heavily Influencing... the Judiciary" in order to "act with a Negative Bias against them".

So, her 2020 Report "Urges Turkish Officials at all levels to strictly Refrain from publicly Targeting human rights Defenders and Labelling them as Criminals and Terrorists", while "Criminal proceedings Targeting human rights defenders are currently the most Acute Symptom of the mounting Pressure they are facing in Turkey. Criminal Investigations, Proceedings, Detentions, and Sentences faced by ... human rights Defenders, are Too Numerous and Systematic to be considered Individual occurrences, and point to a Widespread Pattern of Misusing the Judicial process to Silence human rights Defenders and Discourage civil society Activism, as Recognised explicitly by the ECHR in a Recent case", (Comp^. Supra).

------------------------

+ To this, was Timely Added a 22 February 2020 Letter by CoE's New Secretary General, Marija Buric, fomer vice-Prime Minister and Foreign/European affairs Minister of Croatia, (2019-2024), to the Turkish Minister of Justice, Abdulhamit Gul, strongly Denouncing the ..."Re-Arrest" of a Human Rights Defender, Osman Kavala, (Comp. Supra) and the "Investigation" opened "against the 3 Istanbul Judges who delivered the verdict of Acquittal" :

=> - CoE's new SG asks to be informed "When a Judicial Assessment will be made of the Lawfulness of his Continued Detention, as well as of the Judge's Findings".

+ She also "espress(es her) Concern about the Investigation, announced by the Council of Judges/Prosecutors, against the 3 Judges of the Istanbul Assize Court, who delivered the verdict of Aquittal", because "the decision to Investigate those Judges sends a Strong Chilling message to the ...Judiciary", and "also runs Counter to ... the Aims (of) the Judicial Reform" currently prepared in Turkey, to "Promote Judges and Prosecutors", in order to "Encourage Judges to deliver Judgements in Conformity with the European Court's case-law", (which has recently Slamed the Condemnation of that Human Rights Defender, as a Misuse aiming, in fact, to Silence him and Restrict Political Debate against Democratic Pluralism : Comp. Supra).





(../..)





("Draft-News")





----------------------------
National oil production In Mexico has achieved a milestone as it reached a 15-month high in January, news that is well-received by the private players, PEMEX, and the Mexican government.

January's production figure hit 1.724 MMb/d, the highest number since October 2018 where 1.744 MMb/d were produced. The new production figure signaled a run of three-months of increasing production numbers.

The new results showed a year-on-year rise in production figures by 6.42%. January 2020 has also seen as additional 104 Mb/d to those seen in January 2019.

The Mexican government, together with PEMEX and private players, has been searching for ways to improve the drastically falling national production rates. Thus, the stabilization of production served as an important signal.

Private players have been constantly growing and expanding their input into production, while PEMEX's output has seen much improvement since October 2018.

The production rates of private companies have seen an increase from 28.5 Mb/d to 48.96 Mb/d in the same period.

A notable jump was also seen when the Mitzon field, which is operated by the Italian oil company Eni, came online. Production rates spiked from 31.1 Mb/d in June 2019 to 39.1 Mb/d in July 2019.

According to PEMEX director Octavio Romero, national oil production is still lagging behind the rates they predicted, which was that the NOC would hit 1.8 MMb/d by the end of last year.

Mexico's oil production had fallen by more than 50 percent after seeing a peak of 3.454 MMb/d in December 2003. This is largely due to the plateauing and drops in production from the Cantarell Complex, Mexico's most significant oil field to data.

Located 80km into the Bay of Campeche, Mexico's former jewel account for over 2.1 MMb/d at the end of 2004.

Oil Crisis

In a report by Reuters in 2018, Mexican's national oil company PEMEX has found a significant drop in crude output to 1.76 million barrels per day in October, which was a 7% decrease compared to the output from the same month in the year 2017.

It was said to be one of the lowest monthly production levels since publicly accessible records began in 1990.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who had just taken office in December 2019, vowed to revive the state-owned energy company by putting brakes on foreign investment in order to provide the public with a bigger cut of the country's oil wealth.

He also had plans to build PEMEX a new refinery. Plans were made to have it built in his home state of Tabasco because private-sector contractors could not meet his proposed budget and timeline.

Lopez Obrador also planned to overhaul PEMEX's six existing refineries that were already in poor conditions and running at 40% capacity.

Moody's, a rating agency, spoke out about the Obrador's refinery decision, saying it would take longer and cost more than what had been planned.

"The consequences for Mexico's credit profile will depend in part on whether it continues to undermine market confidence, further dampening already depressed investment and weighing on Mexico's economic prospects," Moody's said

The Mexican government hopes to have the refinery finished by May 2022.
Venice: The number of coronavirus infections in Italy has surged to 650 as French President Emmanuel Macron warns Europe is "only at the beginning" of a major health "crisis".

Having earlier this week predicted new cases from an outbreak in northern Italy would stabilise, the Italian government on Friday Australian time announced total cases had grown to 650 - up from just three one week before.

Nearly 250 are being treated in hospitals, 56 are in intensive care and about 280 at home in isolation. About 50 had been treated and cured but 17 - all elderly citizens - have died in the days since the cluster took off in a group of towns in the country's northern Lombardy region.

Cases in France more than doubled in a day to 38 and also grew substantially in Germany. New infections were reported for the first time in Denmark, Estonia, Norway, Romania and The Netherlands. Twenty one European nations have now recorded one or more cases.
NATO to hold extraordinary meeting at Turkey's request

At least 33 Turkish soldiers martyred late Thursday in an airstrike by Assad regime forces in Syria's Idlib province.

Following Turkey's request, NATO will hold an extraordinary meeting Friday over attacks to Turkish soldiers in Idlib, northwestern Syria.

THE COUNCIL MEETS UNDER ARTICLE 4

Late Thursday, at least 33 Turkish soldiers were martyred and tens of others injured in an airstrike by Assad regime forces in Idlib de-escalation zone.

Today, the #NATO council meets at Turkeys request to consult under Article 4 of NATOs founding Washington Treaty on the situation in Syria, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Twitter.
Tadej Pogacar, has the fifth stage of the Tour of the United Arab Emirates have won. The newly 21-year-old Go from the middle east, Emirates was one of the best in a stage with a summit finish.

britain's Adam Yates finished third and keeps the lead in the overall standings. With just two more flat stages to go, it looks like the first stage, Mitchelton-SCOTT to be sure of the top spot in the overall standings.

Just like on Tuesday, when Yates for the win and ended the trip with an ascent of Jebel Hafeet, the only thing we end up with the 162-kilometer stage.

A group of five, with Tosh Van der Sande, Larry Warbasse, James Knox, Christian Scaroni and Andrea Garosio was an early stage in the attack, but the gc riders came to the final return. Wilco Kelderman was the best ten up, but the rider of the Team, Sunweb, could not engage in the battle for the dagzege, and it was finally eight years old.

Yates attacked with 2 kilometers to go and it was Pogacar, David Gaudu, Alexey Lutsenko and Ilnur Zakarin with it. Lutsenko went for the sprint cup, but it was in the slotmeters have more than enough Pogacar.

It was the last serious climb of the Tour of the United Arab Emirates (uae). On Friday and Saturday, there are still flat stages to the program. Dylan Groenewegen hope of new success. On Wednesday I won the sprint on the Jumbo-Visma in the fourth stage.

Updated Date: 27 February 2020, 14:00
Trends exclusive interview with Bulgarias Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova ahead of the 6th meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council

Question: Baku is hosting the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council's meeting. What will be Bulgaria's focus on this event?

Answer: I am honoured to participate in the Fifth meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council. I recognize the serious progress that has been made and the many resolved issues and challenges that have been addressed since the First Council meeting in February 2015.

At the forthcoming meeting, we will be able to take stock of what has been achieved over the last five years and that we are moving towards the successful implementation of the ambitious and large-scale project of the Southern Gas Corridor  a project of exceptional importance not only for the Republic of Bulgaria, but also for the countries of Southeast Europe and the European Union.

Bulgaria is an integral part of the development of the Southern Gas Corridor through the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria.

Our countrys focus during the Advisory Council will be at the interconnector project GreeceBulgaria. The project is essential for the diversification of gas supplies to Bulgaria and other countries in the region. The importance of IGB for Bulgaria is also determined by the need to ensure delivery of the contracted 1 billion cubic meters a year of Azerbaijan natural gas from Shah Deniz II field for Bulgaria, starting at the end of 2020, in synergy with the TAP. The building of the interconnector has started and we expect the construction company to complete the construction by the end of 2020, in synergy with the commissioning of the TAP. This will allow alternative supplies not only for our country, but also for the entire region of Southeast Europe.

Q.: This year will mark the start of gas deliveries via the Southern Gas Corridor. Bulgaria is one of the importers of this gas through the IGB. How do you see the energy map of Europe after the commissioning of the Corridor?

A.: The introduction into commercial exploitation of the interconnector Greece-Bulgaria is a key to diversifying sources and routes for the supply of natural gas not only in our country, but also throughout the whole region of Southeast Europe. In line with its main energy policy priorities, the Bulgarian Government has actively worked to positioning our country as a regional gas hub. The interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria and gas supplies via the Southern Gas Corridor are among the most important elements for the delivery of this concept. They are being implemented in synergy with other gas projects in the region, such as the LNG terminal near Alexandroupolis, Greece and others. The Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria is also strategically important for the implementation of the Vertical Gas Corridor, which connects the gas networks of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Thus, after the completion of these projects, the possibility to transport natural gas from Azerbaijan through the interconnector Greece-Bulgaria, through the gas transmission network of Bulgartransgaz EAD, the other interconnectors to Romania, Serbia, the Republic of North Macedonia and their neighbouring countries will be ensured.

Q.: How do you assess the progress on construction of the IGB? Do you believe that IGB will be ready on time to bring 1 bcm of gas to Bulgaria? When approximately do you expect first deliveries of Azerbaijani gas to Bulgaria?

A.: The implementation of the interconnector GreeceBulgaria is moving at an accelerated pace so that it can be put into commercial operation by the end of this year, entirely in synergy with the TAP. The field along the route is currently being cleared and pipes supplied. By 24 February at the main camp near the town of Haskovo nearly 900 pipes with a total length of over 15 km are already delivered. We have the assurance of the contractors with whom I have regular meetings that the preliminary set timetable will be implemented and the interconnector will be put into commercial operation by October 2020. At that time we also expect the delivery of the first 1 bcm of natural gas for which Bulgargaz has concluded a contract with the Azerbaijan SOCAR.

Q.: How do you see the prospects for expanding the IGB to other Balkan countries such as Romania and Serbia? Which measures should be taken in this regard?

A.: As you are probably informed, at the end of 2018 the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria decided to extend the Bulgarian gas infrastructure from the Turkish-Bulgarian to the Bulgarian-Serbian border. Pursuant to this decision, Bulgartransgaz conducted the necessary procedures and then the construction of the new pipeline started and is currentlyongoing. The first 11 km of the pipeline were put into commercial operation in the autumn of last year.

It should be noted that the expansion of the Bulgarian gas transmission network from the Turkish-Bulgarian to the Bulgarian-Serbian border has 22% free capacity at the exit point to Serbia  approximately 3 billion cubic metres. This means that in the future any interested party will be able to transport gas through this infrastructure. I expect the completion of this project to change significantly the gas supplies landscape, to strengthen Bulgaria's strategic location so as to guarantee the energy security of the region.

Q.: How will the Bulgarian government, in particular the Ministry of Energy ensure the secure and successful implementation of IGB project in the construction phase?

A.: Bulgaria has played a key role in the financial structuring of IGB: the Bulgarian state had provided a sovereign guarantee of EUR 110 million, which ensured favourable financing for the project from the European Investment Bank. Furthermore, 39 million grant was allocated from the Regional Development Fund under the Innovation and Competitiveness Operational Programme of the EU funding for Bulgaria.

The successful completion of the IGB project and its timely introduction into commercial exploitation are priority tasks with a view to diversifying gas supplies. For the full mobilization of the contractors and the completion of the project within the set time schedule, regular meetings are held on my initiative at the Ministry of Energy in order to take account of the activities related to the implementation of the project. These meetings are attended by representatives of the project company ICGBAD, the line pipe supplier  Corinth Pipeworks, the constructor  JP AVAX and of the owners engineer  Consortium Tibey. We have the assurance of the suppliers that the production of pipes is carried out according to the schedule. We expect deliveries of the first production batch to be completed in March. This will ensure availability of all types and sizes of pipes needed to build the interconnector.

We are also making regular on-the-spot inspections to make sure that progress is made. The last such visit was on 20 February. All our efforts are aimed at the timely introduction of the connection in commercial exploitation.

Q.: In our last interview you said that SOCAR is studying Bulgarian gas distribution sector. Has the company already prepared feasibility study on investment opportunities in the gas distribution sector in Bulgaria? Are you holding talks in this regard?

A.: In connection with the agreement reached in 2018, SOCAR had several meetings and received detailed information from the Ministry of Energy and the EWRC on the possibilities for investments in the gas distribution sector in Bulgaria. SOCAR then instructed a large international advisory company to carry out a feasibility study on the implementation of such a project.

According to the information provided by our SOCAR partners, the study has been completed and its conclusions are positive. In this regard, we will discuss these perspectives at a bilateral meeting with Minister Shahbazov within the framework of the Advisory Council meeting. Taking into account these positive results, we believe it is feasible this year SOCAR to start initial activities in gas distribution on the territory of Bulgaria.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Gardai at the scene outside the Lordship Credit Union in Bellurgan where Det Gda Donohoe died

A man accused of murdering an on-duty garda told his girlfriend to "tell the truth" after she said he was with her at the time of the fatal shooting, a court has heard.

Jessica King said that she told police Aaron Brady was with her at the time Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe was shot because she was afraid he would get into trouble over his curfew.

She was giving evidence yesterday in the trial of her former partner Mr Brady (29), who denies the capital murder of Adrian Donohoe (41) at the Lordship Credit Union in Bellurgan, Co Louth, on January 25, 2013.

The accused, of New Road in Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, has also pleaded not guilty to the robbery of 7,000 at the same location on the same date.

Text

The Central Criminal Court heard that Ms King was in a relationship with Mr Brady between September 2012 and April of the following year, and that she was 17 years old at the time.

On the evening of the murder, the accused sent her a text at 7.54pm saying that he was going to be loading a truck and that his mobile phone was about to go dead.

At around 11pm he sent her another text message on a different number, saved as 'Brades 2', asking if he could call over to her.

Ms King said that between five and 10 minutes later Mr Brady arrived at her home on the Concession Road in Newry, Co Down.

He was wearing a Liverpool jumper, jeans and white Airmax runners, and she said his hair was gelled.

The following afternoon, January 26, Mr Brady called her to say that he and a friend had been stopped by gardai at the Ballymacscanlon roundabout in Dundalk.

Ms King said the accused told her that they had been questioned about what happened at the credit union.

Det Gda Donohoe was shot dead outside the Lordship branch at around 9.29pm.

The court heard that Mr Brady told her that if anything was mentioned to say he was at her home "a bit earlier and left a bit earlier in case he got in trouble for his curfew".

Later that day, the PSNI called to Ms King's home and inquired if she was Mr Brady's girlfriend and if he was there the previous evening.

The witness agreed with Lorcan Staines SC, prosecuting, that she told the police Mr Brady arrived at her home at 7.30pm and left at around 9.30pm.

She was later asked to attend Crossmaglen police station and while she was there she said that Mr Brady was at her home from 7.30pm until 2.30am.

Asked why this was, the witness said she "then realised what this was all about" and that she had spoken to the accused, who told her to "go in and change that and tell the truth [of] the actual time" he arrived at her home.

She later corrected this account with gardai, the court heard, and said that Mr Brady had arrived at her home shortly after 11pm.

The witness also said she deleted text messages from her phone while in the police station because she "knew things were a bit more serious" and "panicked".

This included the message sent from Mr Brady at 7.54pm on the day of the murder saying he would be loading a lorry for an hour or two, and that his phone was going dead.

Asked why, Ms King said: "I was just worried about getting him in trouble about the diesel so I deleted the message".

Fallout

Under cross-examination by Michael O'Higgins SC, defending, Ms King said the accused told her to correct her original account of when he arrived at her home "in case it goes any further" and because he did not want her to "tell any lies".

Asked by Mr O'Higgins if Mr Brady expressed any concern for her position or repercussions she might face, Ms King said: "No."

She said that Mr Brady was normally a messer who was usually smiling, joking and a bit cheeky, and agreed that his demeanour was the same on the night of the murder.

The court also heard evidence of a phone call Ms King made to the accused in 2013 while he was in the US and she was still in Ireland.

She said she was angry after having a conversation with another male, and confronted Mr Brady about a stolen car some years earlier involving him and two other men, who the prosecution says were involved in the robbery at Lordship Credit Union but cannot be named for legal reasons.

The witness agreed Mr Brady said he was involved in the car robbery a number of years earlier but was not the main part of it.

Her mother, Allison King, also gave evidence of watching an RTE News report of the shooting at 11.50pm that night at her home.

She agreed with Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, that she called Mr Brady in to the sitting room and he told her he had seen it on Facebook.

Earlier her husband, Thomas King, said he was at home watching The Late Late Show that evening.

He agreed with Mr Staines that, sometime before 11pm but after 10pm, he became aware that Aaron Brady was in the house.

Mr King said he did not see Mr Brady in the house but believed him to be there.

Earlier, Mr Justice Michael White told the court that a juror had brought an issue to the attention of the jury minder and the registrar.

He said this related to a woman who came into the court yesterday who was known to the juror.

Mr Justice White said it was "purely innocuous" and related to the juror having a social interaction with a lady who worked in a post office and that they knew each other to say hello to.

He said this information was checked by the court was accurate and real.

He said that pursuant to the Juries Act he was directing that the juror in question, who was identified by their jury number, be discharged from the trial.

The trial continues before a jury of seven men and seven women this morning.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 19:17:17|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- With only around 15 books sold per day and half of them purchased by employees, OWSpace recently released a letter on social media platform WeChat seeking crowdfunding to support its operation.

"Only one of our four bookstores has resumed operation and the customer flow was just 10 percent of normal levels," said Wu Yanping, general manager of the business department from OWSpace, a Chinese bookstore chain.

The crowdfunding, which offers donors online shopping coupons and membership to online communities in return, established a contactless channel for readers to express their support while eliminating the risk of virus infection.

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic, brick and mortar businesses such as bookstores have faced great challenges, as such confined spaces with people gathering together are usually considered to have high risks of virus transmission.

The SARS virus that infected thousands in China back in 2003 is widely seen as a catalyst for the country's fledgling e-commerce industry. Nearly two decades later, as the coronavirus outbreak put dozens of residential communities and areas on lockdown, contactless services backed by 5G technology and Internet of Things are helping people battle the epidemic.

Huanggang, a coronavirus-hit city in Hubei Province, has launched a telemedicine 5G-based platform capable of facilitating remote consultations, remote imaging, ultrasound and electrocardiogram diagnoses for 14 designated hospitals fighting COVID-19.

A supermarket with a self-checkout system that allows payment without contact was constructed in Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan, selling daily necessities for constructors and medics.

While people were confined to their homes, tech giants in China were exploring innovative ways to help people live their lives in a contactless fashion.

Many delivery and courier firms including Meituan Dianping encouraged "non-contact delivery" to reduce contagion risks, with the deliverymen putting orders in a self-collection container or a pre-determined place. Fast-food companies such as KFC and Pizza Hut have also rolled out similar services.

Internet companies such as NetEase recently opened a full chain of contactless recruitment through online resume submission and online interviews. The candidates can also sign contracts, attend training workshops, and even begin work over the Internet.

Amid the epidemic, more consumers are choosing non-contact shopping. Various automobile retailers offered VR and livestreaming services to attract potential buyers staying indoors and allow them to select a car without visiting dealerships in person.

Many museums and galleries in China have also been closed to visitors, but they have launched or repackaged various online exhibitions to provide a satisfactory touring experience for the country's vast number of stay-at-home visitors.

In terms of the long-term impact of the contactless services on the economy, it is far too early to draw any conclusions, but efforts and inspirations can be seen as people are adapting to this lifestyle to continue pursuing their goals and dreams.

"The sudden boom of contactless businesses is not a one-time boost, instead, it will develop into sustainable growth," said Liu Xiaoyun, professor of Anhui University.

International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasted that the COVID-19 outbreak will bring opportunities for online classrooms and education, remote offices and online activities, 5G industry applications, unmanned commerce and services, and fresh food e-commerce in relation to the accelerating rise of contactless businesses and services.

The Ministry of Commerce encouraged the innovative business model that sprung up during the epidemic, which showed new trends of informatization, high quality, convenience and convergence in the development of the service industry.

The country has also extended the use of 5G technology in the ongoing battle against the epidemic. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has urged telecom companies to optimize construction plans of the 5G network and fully utilize its role in stabilizing investments and spurring the development of the related industrial chain.

Since China became the world's digital power, it was not unusual for those that relied on brick and mortar stores to face challenges. However, such stores, with their more intimate and personal touch, still hold appeal for many people.

Those participating in the crowdfunding that OWSpace launched will not only be rewarded with shopping coupons, but will be given the opportunity to join online salons to communicate with guest speakers.

OWSpace is a spirit and lifestyle, and it should bring encouragement and inspiration to more people, said Xu Zhiyuan, one of the founders of the company, in the crowdfunding letter.

The donation packages ranging from 50 yuan (about 7.15 U.S. dollars) to 8,000 yuan were expected to save the bookstore from its difficulties.

Since being released, the crowdfunding letter has received over 100,000 hits in less than five days with many readers commenting below saying that they were committed to donating.

"Physical book stores should be a meeting and gathering place for members of communities. We have fewer and fewer, and we need them," a reader commented below the letter.
The economies most likely to suffer from a drop in Chinese tourism are expected to be Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines. AFP/Mladen ANTONOV

The COVID-19 epidemic has killed more than 2,760 people, mostly in China - where it first emerged in December - and infected more than 81,000 in over 45 countries.

"It is too soon to know but the WTTC has made a preliminary calculation in collaboration with (research firm) Oxford Economics which estimates that the crisis will cost the sector at least US$22 billion," Gloria Guevara told El Mundo daily.

"This calculation is based on the experience of previous crises, such as SARS or H1N1, and is based on losses deriving from Chinese tourists who have not been travelling in recent weeks," she said.

"The Chinese are the tourists who spend most when they travel."

The loss figure, which equates to about 20.2 billion euros, is the most optimistic scenario envisaged by the study which was published on February 11 by Oxford Economics, taking the hypothesis of a 7.0 per cent drop in overseas trips by Chinese nationals.

But the losses could more than double, reaching as much as US$49 billion if the crisis lasts as long as the SARS outbreak, which erupted in November 2002 and was brought under control in July 2003.

And it could spiral to US$73 billion if it lasted longer than that, Oxford Economics said.

The economies most likely to suffer would be those most dependent on Chinese tourism, such as Hong Kong and Macau, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines, researchers found.

On Wednesday, the WTO urged countries to avoid taking health measures that would cause "unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade" saying travel restrictions needed to be proportionate to ensure they did not have "negative repercussions on the tourism sector".
Photo: Ron Reiring/Flickr

Read on for the most recent top news you may have missed in Sacramento.

Latest: Coronavirus patient hospitalized at UC Davis Medical Center since Feb. 19

The Solano County resident who is the nation's first confirmed case of coronavirus from an unknown origin has been under the care of UC Davis Medical Center for a week, according to an internal memo obtained Wednesday night by The Sacramento Bee.

Read the full story on The Sacramento Bee.

Police: Man with hunting knife told Sac State students to watch their surrounding

Police are asking Sacramento State students to be vigilant after a strange, knife-wielding person was spotted on campus late Wednesday night.

Read the full story on CBS13 CBS Sacramento.

Man sexually assaulted and threatened 5-year-old girl, Sacramento County DA says

Prosecutors said he also molested another girl in his family.

Read the full story on The Sacramento Bee.

Person, several pets rescued after fire at Mansion Flats Victorian

An early morning fire in Sacramento's Mansion Flats neighborhood could have been worse had it not been for an observant passerby, firefighters say.

Read the full story on CBS Sacramento.

This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
Courtney McCann was used to giving lectures in her classroom, not receiving them at her local convenience store.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Workers wearing protective gears spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Japan's schools prepared to close for almost a month and entertainers, topped by K-pop superstars BTS, canceled events as a virus epidemic extended its spread through Asia into Europe and on Friday, into sub-Saharan Africa. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Courtney McCann was used to giving lectures in her classroom, not receiving them at her local convenience store.

But the sight of her ill-fitting mask turned the tables as she was browsing the near-deserted aisles on a recent visit, sparking fear in the man behind the counter, she recounted from her home in Changwon, South Korea.

The masks are considered by many to be a key defence in the battle against a coronavirus outbreak that's seen the number of Korean cases climb from 104 on Feb. 20 to more than 2,300 on Friday.

The too-big mask, which gaped around her narrow nose, wouldn't have drawn any attention days earlier, but things have changed drastically since then, said McCann, who moved from Victoria in November to teach English in the city on the southeastern coast of the peninsula nation.

"I got in trouble," she said. "I got lectured about it from the counter guy. He was serious. He was terrified."

Fear and suspicion have permeated the country as it became the site of the largest COVID-19 outbreak outside of mainland China, she said. But the terror has not spread to McCann or her boyfriend, who arrived in Changwon for a visit the day before the outbreak took off.

"We're both young adults, so it's not necessarily fatal for us," McCann said. "That's the big concern here  people being close to their older relatives and the older relatives catching it."

The effects are palpable, she said, colouring her every interaction with locals.

"This is usually really a close country. In Korea, people sit close together at restaurants and even on buses," she said. "But there has been more space. We went to go to lunch and people will sit on the opposite side of the restaurant."

No longer does she worry about avoiding the busy hours at grocery stores. Instead, the question is whether stores are even open: a department store near her apartment was shuttered for disinfection after it was revealed one of the patients had gone there, she said.

The academy where she teaches was shut down this week to prevent the spread, with teachers only going in to scrub down their classrooms.

Part of the fear, she said, seems to be borne from the genesis of the Korean outbreak.

A so-called "super spreader" attended crowded church services in the southeastern city of Daegu, even after doctors recommended she get tested for the virus, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Shincheonji church's leader claims to be an immortal angel of Jesus and the sect, which has 200,000 followers, is decried as a cult by other Christian groups.

Some 1,000 Shincheonji church followers who attended Sunday services with her in the southeastern city of Daegu were quarantined at their homes while authorities screened them for the virus. Health authorities were also trying to monitor thousands of others.

McCann said people tend not to trust the church's followers, worrying that they, like the woman accused of spreading the illness, will resist testing.

"At this point the stigma's almost become worse than the virus itself and just how people are acting around it," she said.

Changwon, where McCann lives and works, is roughly 70 kilometres away from Daegu, and to travel to the capital of Seoul necessitates crossing through that city.

That's waylaid McCann's plans with her partner, Nate Jankowski, who lives in Victoria. They had to cancel their planned trip to Seoul and haven't been able to explore Changwon like they had hoped.

"It's less of a vacation, more like being at home," Jankowski said, noting many tourist attractions in the city have closed.

"Most of the parks here have signs that are saying to avoid them and just stay home," he said. "Cruising around town, it's been really quiet."

Meanwhile, McCann and Jankowski are trying to look on the bright side.

"We have a dog with anxiety and he's anxious of cars," McCann said. "He's walking really well now, because there's just been such a reduction in the amount of traffic."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2020.

 with files from The Associated Press.
Sales of Rolls-Royces have fallen "pretty close to zero" in China because of the coronavirus, but the company sees early signs of possible recovery, the company's CEO told CNBC.

Rolls Royce said sales in China, its second largest market after the U.S., were hit especially hard as many parts of the country effectively shut down over the coronavirus.

"It's not quite zero, but its pretty close to it," said Torsten Muller-Otvos, CEO of Rolls Royce Motor Cars. "But we also see some of the first signals of recovery in certain areas."

Muller-Otvos said it's too early to estimate the impact on sales for 2020. Before the outbreak, Rolls Royce was expecting sales roughly in line with last year's record of over 5,100 vehicles, driven mainly by the launch of its new SUV, the Cullinan.

"It is impacting our business, that's for sure," he said. "I fully understand that people in these circumstances have other things to think about than to buy a Rolls Royce."

The ultra-luxury segment of the car business can be especially sensitive to shocks to economic confidence, since buying a $400,000 Rolls Royce is almost always a purely discretionary purchase. And since 80% of Rolls Royce buyers own or run a company, they react quickly to declines in the global economy. Aston Martin's share price plunged to a record low this week after the company warned of weaker sales in the first half of 2020, due mainly to China.

But Muller-Otvos said Rolls Royce, owned by BMW, is more insulated and more accustomed to sudden drops in sales. He said the company can react quickly to big swings, given its small workforce of about 2,000 people at its Goodwood factory in England and its strong pipeline of sales from loyal customers. The company also said it doesn't have any component shortages that would currently affect production.

Still, he said the uncertainty of how far the virus will spread, and how deeply it will affect the global economy, makes this sales shock different from many others.

"We are sitting on a very good order book in the U.S.," he said. "But we are highly adaptable, we are vigilant. We are looking at it daily, and we are in close contact with all the markets worldwide."
WASHINGTON - To take on any role, an actor prepares. But for the role of a real-life character whose very name can be an incitement, an actor really has to be prepared.

This article of artistic faith has been inculcated by not one but two actors on Washington, D.C., stages these days, performers embodying polarizing figures whose entrances might best be accompanied by trigger warnings. At Woolly Mammoth Theatre, it is Jeff Biehl who has waded into these choppy waters, portraying Donald Trump in Anne Washburn's new play, "Shipwreck." Meanwhile, Robert Jimenez is ensconced at Arena Stage as the late Cuban president-for-life Fidel Castro, in the world premiere of Eduardo Machado's "Celia and Fidel."

Audiences seem to have a limitless appetite for global newsmakers in modern plays, and they pop up again and again: at Arena, Jimmy Carter in "Camp David" and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in "The Originalist," and on Broadway, onetime Israeli president Shimon Peres and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat in "Oslo"; Lyndon Johnson in "All the Way"; and Bill and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in "Hillary and Clinton."

They're lightning rods by virtue of hot personalities, or the hot seats they've occupied, or both. But few figures can inflame passions quite like Trump and Castro. Because of the powerful emotions playgoers harbor about these men, Biehl and Jimenez say the roles are like none they have ever undertaken. As Biehl described his peculiar situation: "I'm sitting reading the scenes when I'm playing Trump, and he's on CNN being impeached."

Or, as Jimenez mused about the potential reaction of theatergoers with a personal history with Cuba: "I'm worried about people from an older generation saying, 'Damn it, how dare you do Fidel!' But we're not minimizing or endorsing his point of view. This is a historical figure in the setting of a play."

In "Shipwreck," a work intermingling the country's liberal political arguments with the story of a young black man coming to terms with his identity, Trump is quite literally a side show. While a dinner gathering of political liberals agonizes over the state of the nation, he appears, amusingly, in a pair of scenes: one a flashback to an imagined conversation with then-President George W. Bush over Trump's position on the Iraq War, and the other a kind of satanic re-creation of a meal between Trump and the FBI director he would soon fire, James Comey.

"My head was filled with all of this political language. I was obsessed," said playwright Washburn. "Shipwreck" was an attempt by Washburn, who wrote another extravagantly inventive Woolly play, "Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play," to wrestle with the language of cable news chatter and to find a vehicle for an alternate vision of Trump: the Trump, perhaps, that Trump himself sees.

"I think of that being Trump's idealization of himself," Washburn said of the risible scene she concocts, in which Trump discusses global matters with Bush as if the former were some amalgam of an august industrialist and senior fellow at a foreign-policy think tank.

"To us, it's an absurd scene," she added. "But to a certain Trump supporter, that is the person they're imagining."

The bearded, follically challenged Biehl would not exactly be thought of as a double for Trump; neither is Jimenez a physical match for the swaggering, cigar-smoking Castro of the popular imagination. Impersonation isn't what either of these plays is after, even if "Celia and Fidel" was inspired by the real relationship between Castro and Celia Sanchez, his close adviser and fellow revolutionary.

That Washburn and director Saheem Ali didn't expect Biehl to be either a Madame Tussauds-style waxwork or a buffoonish caricature a la Alec Baldwin on "Saturday Night Live" came as a relief.

"Oh, my God," Biehl recalled initially thinking, "am I going to have to go down a Trump wormhole of videos and more videos?" Rather, he said, illuminating the president in unexpected shades is somehow even more useful.

"I think there's something about the way he's projected in the play, that it's not a direct impersonation, that it's a different kind of imagining of him, ends up maybe being more revealing of him," Biehl said. In other words, what's dramatically interesting is how theatergoers' perceptions are affected when presented with a fantasy version.

For Jimenez, whose parents were born in the Dominican Republic and who had a Cuban grandfather, becoming Fidel entailed more historical digging. The play revolves around events in 1980, when the Castro regime faced economic disaster and thousands of Cubans tried to flee the country.

"(Director) Molly (Smith) and her staff have been wonderful about bringing in learned professors - PhDs who were focused on politics and geopolitical actions, someone who is familiar with the Carter years," the actor said. A Georgetown University professor, Soyica Colbert, chairwoman of the performing arts department, has sat in on rehearsals, too.

The process also dug up some personal associations for Jimenez. Having grown up in New York City with a Republican father fiercely proud of his military service, the actor tended to hear a dissenting voice in his head as he tried to assimilate Castro's Marxist dogma. It has been a complex balancing act: He has had to absorb a character and a playwright's words while remaining mindful of the people - even some in his own life - who may resist any humanizing of a man they regard as brutal and a dictator.

But still, one wonders: Is it enjoyable for these actors, viewing these characters from the inside?

"Well, in his mind, it's pretty great to be him," Biehl said of Trump. "And it is tremendous fun to be so powerful, and certain."
Washington, Feb 28 (UNI) The United States on Friday expressed support to its NATO Ally Turkey on the recent airstrikes on Turkish soldiers in Syria's Idlib and called for an end to offensive.

Earlier, Turkish Hatay Province Governor Rahmi Dogan said more than 30 Turkish soldiers had been killed in a Syrian air strike in Idlib. Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan convened a security meeting, which was attended by the heads of security agencies and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

"We are aware of the reports out of Idlib and are very concerned about a reported attack on Turkish soldiers that resulted in casualties. We are in contact with Turkish authorities to confirm these developments and to have more clarity on the current situation on the ground," news agency Sputnik quoted a US state department spokesperson as saying..


A new public opinion study says that 73 percent of Americans support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that guarantees equal rights regardless of sex.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released the results of the study Monday. It comes not long after the state of Virginias legislature unexpectedly passed the Equal Rights Amendment, known as the ERA for short, in January.

The ERA says that equal rights cannot be denied or decreased because of gender. When Virginia passed the amendment, it became the 38th state to do so. The approval meant that three-fourths of states had approved the amendment  the amount required by the Constitution. The U.S. Congress passed the measure in 1972.

However, Congress set a 1977 deadline for the amendment. Later, it was extended to 1982. Of the 38 states needed, 35 had approved the change in the early 1970s. Three states approved it in the 21st century  long after the deadline had passed.

Also, five states have cancelled their approval of the measure.

The new poll did find that there is a difference between Democratic Party and Republican Party support for the measure. But, majorities of both parties support it. Nearly nine out of 10 Democrats and about six out of 10 Republicans, said they supported the measure.

Personal stories

LaVonne Hirashima had two children by the time she was 20 and was not able to go to a university. She worked hard and built a career in information technology, an industry that is mostly male. She works for the United States government.

Hirashima believes she did not receive better jobs or higher pay because she is not a man. The experience led to her strong support for the ratification of ERA.

I can express an idea or make suggestions, but its still not taken (seriously), said Hirashima. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As more women come into management I think it will change, but its hard. Its hard to change that culture.

The Associated Press-NORC said that 46 percent of Americans agree with the belief that women have more difficulty than men getting high-paying jobs.

Gerald Havens disagreed. The retired civil service employee said the amendment is no longer needed. He said his wife, daughter, his sister and other women in his family, earn just as much money as men.

I think society has moved on from when it was introduced in the 1970s, said Havens, a Republican.

The study said about 50 percent of Americans think ratifying the ERA would improve the country, while 40 percent think it would not change very much. About 10 percent say it would hurt the country.

Frances Wiener, 70, said she was very involved with the ERA campaign when it first began. She is a 70-year-old scientist who lives in New York City. She chose to work in laboratories all her life. She does not have a family.

She believes women face less discrimination now than they did 50 years ago. The study said that 70 percent of Americans agree with that idea.

Still, Wiener hopes the ERA will finally pass.

Sometimes, when things are written in stone, it makes people think a little bit harder about doing certain things, she said.

Im Susan Shand.

The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.

Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

regardless - adv. without being stopped by difficulty, trouble, etc.

ratification  n. approval

gender  n. male or female

deadline  n. a date or time when something must be finished

century  n. one hundred years
Jordan Peele's last smash hit film, "Us," was set in Santa Cruz and got extra Bay Area points for featuring an Oakland hip hop classic  "I Got 5 on It" by Luniz  as its musical theme. His newest film, a remake of the 1992 horror classic "Candyman," once again features a major Bay Area connection: Oakland-raised actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is playing the leading role.

You might recognize rising star Abdul-Mateen from his role as villain Black Manta in "Aquaman" (2018), or from his starring role in HBO's "Watchmen" (2019). He's also played roles in "Black Mirror," "The Handmaid's Tale," "The Get Down," "Baywatch" and yes, Peele's "Us."
English Lithuanian

INVL Baltic Farmland, AB (the registered address Gyneju str. 14 Vilnius, Lithuania, identification code 303299781) (hereinafter - the Company) informs that on the initiative and decision of the Board of INVL Baltic Farmland, AB the General Ordinary Shareholders Meeting of INVL Baltic Farmland, AB (hereinafter - the Meeting) is to be held on 23 March 2020.

The place of the Meeting: the office of INVL Baltic Farmland, AB, the address Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius.

The Meeting will start at 9:00 a.m. (registration starts at 8.30 a.m.).

The Meetings accounting day 16 March 2019 (the persons who are shareholders of the Company at the end of accounting day of the General Shareholders Meeting or authorized persons by them, or the persons with whom shareholders concluded the agreements on the disposal of voting right, shall have the right to attend and vote at the General Shareholders Meeting).

The shareholders proprietary rights accounting day is 6 April 2020.

The total number of shares of the Company amounts to 3,291,459 units. Given that the Company has acquired its own shares, the total number of votes for the quorum of the General Meeting of Shareholders amounts to 3,228,510 units of shares.

Agenda of the Meeting:

Presentation of the public joint-stock company INVL Baltic Farmland consolidated annual report for 2019. Presentation of the independent auditor's report on the financial statements and consolidated annual report of the public joint-stock company INVL Baltic Farmland. Approval of the consolidated and stand-alone financial statements for 2019 of the public joint-stock company INVL Baltic Farmland. Regarding profit distribution of the public joint-stock company INVL Baltic Farmland. Regarding purchase of own shares of the public joint stock company INVL Baltic Farmland. Regarding approval of the Remuneration Policy of the public joint stock company INVL Baltic Farmland

Draft resolutions of the Meeting:

Presentation of the public joint-stock company INVL Baltic Farmland consolidated annual report for 2019

Shareholders of the public joint-stock company INVL Baltic Farmland are presented with the consolidated annual report of INVL Baltic Farmland for 2019 (there is no voting on this issue of agenda).

Presentation of the independent auditor's report on the financial statements and consolidated annual report of the public joint-stock company INVL Baltic Farmland.

Shareholders of the public joint-stock company INVL Baltic Farmland are presented with the independent auditor's report on the financial statements and consolidated annual report of INVL Baltic Farmland (there is no voting on this issue of agenda).

Approval of the consolidated and stand-alone financial statements for 2019 of the public joint-stock company INVL Baltic Farmland

To approve the consolidated and stand-alone financial statements for 2019 of the public joint-stock company INVL Baltic Farmland.

Regarding profit distribution of the public joint-stock company INVL Baltic Farmland.

To distribute profit of the public joint-stock company INVL Baltic Farmland as follows:

Article (thousand EUR) Retained earnings (loss) at the begining of the financial year of the reporting period 6,957 Net profit (loss) for the financial year 1,136 Profit (loss) not recognized in the income statement of the reporting financial year Shareholders contributions to cover loss Distributable profit (loss) at the end of the financial year of the reporting period 8,093 Transfers from reserves Distributable profit (loss) in total 8,093 Profit distribution: (323) - Profit transfers to the legal reserves -Profit transfers to the reserves for own shares acquisition - Profit transfers to other reserves - Profit to be paid as dividends* (323) - Profit to be paid as annual payments (bonus) and for other purposes Retained earnings (loss) at the end of the financial year 7,770

*0.10 EUR is paid per share.

Regarding purchase of own shares of the public joint stock company INVL Baltic Farmland

Until the day of the General Shareholders meeting the reserve for the purchase of own shares which is equal to EUR 3,079,669 is not used.

To use the reserve (or the part of it) for the purchase of own shares and to purchase shares in the public joint stock company INVL Baltic Farmland by the rules mentioned below:

1) The goal for the purchase of own shares - to ensure for shareholders a possibility to sell company's shares.

2) The maximum number of shares to be acquired - the nominal value of own shares by the public joint stock company INVL Baltic Farmland, which may not exceed 1/10 of share.

3) The period during which the public joint stock company INVL Baltic Farmland may purchase its own shares 18 months from the day of this resolution.

4) The maximum and minimal one share acquisition price: the maximum one share acquisition price- EUR 5.00, the minimal one share acquisition price - EUR 3.00.

5) The conditions of the selling of the purchased shares and minimal purchase price: the acquired own shares may be annulled by the decision of the General Shareholders Meeting or sold by the decision of the Board on condition the minimum price of sale of own shares shall be equal to the price at which they were acquired and the procedure of selling the shares shall ensure equal opportunities for all shareholders to acquire the said shares.

The Board of INVL Baltic Farmland is delegated on the basis of this resolution and the Law on Companies of the Republic of Lithuania to organise purchase and sale of own shares, to organise purchase and selling procedure of own shares and to determine an order and timing for purchase and sale of own shares as well as the amount of shares and shares price, and to complete all other actions related with purchase and sale procedure of own shares.

From the date of this resolution the resolution of the General Shareholders Meeting on 22 March 2019 on the acquisition of own shares expires.

6) Regarding approval of the Remuneration Policy of the public joint stock company INVL Baltic Farmland

1) To approve the Remuneration Policy of the public joint stock company INVL Baltic Farmland, and to determine that it shall be valid from the day of its approval.

2) To instruct the manager of the Company to publish the Remuneration Policy on the Company's website and ensure proper implementation of the Policy.

The documents related to the agenda, draft resolutions on every item of agenda, documents what have to be submitted to the General Shareholders Meeting and other information related to realization of shareholders rights are published on the Companys website www.invlbalticfarmland.com section For investors, also available in the office of INVL Baltic Farmland (Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius) during working hours. Phone for information +370 5 279 0601.

The shareholders are entitled: (i) to propose to supplement the agenda of the General Shareholders Meeting submitting draft resolution on every additional item of agenda or, than there is no need to make a decision - explanation of the shareholder (this right is granted to shareholders who hold shares carrying at least 1/20 of all the votes). Proposal to supplement the agenda is submitted in writing sending the proposal by registered mail to the Company at Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius, Lithuania, or delivered in person to the representative of the Company on business hours or by sending proposal to the Company by email farmland@invaldainvl.com. The agenda is supplemented if the proposal is received no later than 14 days before the General Shareholders Meeting. In case the agenda of the Meeting is supplemented, the Company will report on it no later than 10 days before the Meeting in the same way as on convening of the Meeting and (ii) to propose draft resolutions on the issues already included or to be included in the agenda of the General Shareholders Meeting at any time prior to the date of the General Shareholders meeting (in writing, sending the proposal by registered mail to the Company at Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius, Lithuania, or delivered in person to the representative of the Company on business hours or by sending proposal to the Company by email farmland@invaldainvl.com) or in writing during the General Shareholders Meeting (this right is granted to shareholders who hold shares carrying at least 1/20 of all the votes); (iii) to submit questions to the Company related to the issues of agenda of the General Shareholders Meeting in advance but no later than 3 business days prior to the General Shareholders Meeting in writing sending the proposal by registered mail to the Company at Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius, Lithuania, or delivered in person to the representative of the Company on business hours or by sending proposal to the Company by farmland@invaldainvl.com. All answers related to the agenda of the General Shareholders Meeting to questions submitted to the Company by the shareholders in advance, are submitted in the General Shareholders Meeting or simultaneously to all shareholders of the Company prior to the General Shareholders Meeting. The company reserves the right to answer to those shareholders of the Company who can be identified and whose questions are not related to the company's confidential information or commercial secrets.

Shareholder participating at the General Shareholders Meeting and having the right to vote, must submit documents confirming personal identity. Each shareholder may authorize either a natural or a legal person to participate and to vote on the shareholder's behalf at the General Shareholders Meeting. A power of attorney issued by a natural person must be certified by a notary. The representative has the same rights as his represented shareholder at the General Shareholders Meeting. The authorized persons must have documents confirming their personal identity and power of attorney approved in the manner specified by law which must be submitted to the Company no later than before the commencement of registration for the General Shareholders Meeting. A power of attorney issued in a foreign state must be translated into Lithuanian and legalised in the manner established by law. The Company does not establish special form of power of attorney. The persons with whom shareholders concluded the agreements on the disposal of voting right, shall have the right to attend and vote at the General Shareholders Meeting.

Shareholder is entitled to issue power of attorney by means of electronic communications for legal or natural persons to participate and to vote on its behalf at the General Shareholders Meeting. No notarisation of such authorization is required.

The power of attorney issued through electronic communication means must be confirmed by the shareholder with a safe electronic signature developed by safe signature equipment and approved by a qualified certificate effective in the Republic of Lithuania. The shareholder shall inform the Company on the power of attorney issued through the means of electronic communication by e-mail farmland@invaldainvl.com not later than on the last business day before the General Shareholders Meeting. The power of attorney and notification must be issued in writing and could be sent to the Company by electronic communication means, if the transmitted information is secured and the shareholder's identity can be identified. By submitting the notification to the Company the shareholder shall include the Internet address from which it would be possible to download software to verify an Electronic Signature of the shareholder free of charge.

The Company is not providing the possibility to attend and vote at the General Shareholders Meeting through electronic means of communication.

Shareholder or its representative may vote in writing by filling general voting bulletin. The form of general voting bulletin is presented at the Company's webpage www.invlbalticfarmland.com section For Investors. If shareholder requests, the Company shall send the general voting bulletin to the requesting shareholder by registered mail or shall deliver it in person against signature no later than 10 days prior to the General Shareholders Meeting free of charge. The filled general voting bulletin must be signed by the shareholder or its authorized representative. Document confirming the right to vote must be added to the general voting bulletin if an authorized person is voting. The filled general voting bulletin must be sent by the registered mail to the Company at Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius, Lithuania, or delivered in person to the representative of the Company no later than the day before of the General Shareholders Meeting. Ballots will be considered as valid if they are properly filled-in and received by the Company prior the Meeting.

The person authorized to provide additional information:

Egle Surpliene

Director

E-mail: egle.surpliene@invaldainvl.com

Attachments
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday saluted the talent and tenacity of Indian scientists on the National Science Day.

"Their innovative zeal and pioneering research has helped India and the world," Modi wrote on Twitter.

"May Indian science continue to thrive and may our young minds develop even greater curiosity towards science," he said.

"National Science Day is an occasion to salute the talent and tenacity of our scientists," the prime minister added.

National Science Dayis celebrated in India on February 28 to mark the discovery of the Raman effect by Indian physicist Sir C V Raman on this day in 1928.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Violence in northeast Delhi, which claimed 42 lives and left 250 injured, has hit the trial courts in the national capital as litigants and lawyers residing in the area were unable to attend proceedings in their cases.

Lawyers residing at Seelampur, Jaffrabad, Gondha Chowk, Maujpur, Chand Bagh areas had to abstain from work and could not appear in their matters since Monday due to the violence related to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

While some lawyers have been unable to come to courts since Monday, others said they managed to reach their workplace taking longer routes and using public transport instead of their private vehicles.

Litigants from these areas were unable to come to courts as either they were injured in the violence or could not come out of their houses due to the tense situation that has been prevailing in the area since Sunday.

Advocate Manish Bhadauria said he is moving applications before the court seeking exemptions for his clients who are residing in the violence-hit areas.

"I received telephonic messages from two of my clients that due to 'riots' in the area, they are unable to appear come to court. The court has allowed it," he said.

Advocate Vivek Mishra, who resides in Ghonda Chowk, has been unable to come to work since Tuesday as the situation in his area was tense.

While some of the judges were allowing the exemption pleas moved on behalf of the people who were unable to appear before it due to the violence, others were even issuing non-bailable warrants due to non-appearance.

"People are calling us since February 25 and telling us we are scared for our lives. We are scared to come out of our houses," advocate Zakir Raza said.

Matters were also being adjourned as the police in the concerned cases were unable to appear before the court as they were deployed in the violence-hit areas.

Bhadauria said one of his matters was adjourned on Friday as the investigating officer of Delhi Police could not come to court being busy with the violence incidents.

Some of the litigants staying outside Delhi also did not appear before the courts as they feared coming to the national capital due to the tense situation here, said a lawyer.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China is grappling with a new coronavirus epidemic that began in December and has since spread to countries around the world. While the country has made headway in controlling the viruss spread, the picture abroad is less positive as hotspots emerge in a number of other nations, including Japan, South Korea, Italy and Iran.

Caixin Global will continue covering this story as it develops. Please check back regularly for updates.

Caixins coverage of the new coronavirus







Friday, Feb. 28, 12:00 p.m.

The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global level threat as more countries reported their first coronavirus cases. Countries other than China now account for about three-quarters of new infections. Global stock markets are on track for their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis as pandemic fears heighten, prompting major oil producers to mull bigger output cuts and the U.S. central bank to consider a rate cut.

 WHO raised coronavirus threat assessment to its highest level. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva that the risk of spread and impact of the coronavirus is now very high at a global level.

 Mexico confirmed its first case of infection, a young male who recently travelled to Italy, making the country the second in Latin America to register the virus after Brazil. The patient in Brazil has also recently been to Italy.

 South Korea, the hardest-hit country apart from China, added more than 500 new cases for a second consecutive day, with 2,337 confirmed cases as of Friday.

Korean authorities are scrambling to track down almost 3,000 members of a religious group after hundreds of its members were confirmed with infection.

South Korea injected more than $13 billion in emergency funds to provide financial support to businesses and individuals suffering from the epidemic, The Wall Street Journal reported. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said Friday that he would push the National Assembly to approve another 6 trillion won ($5 billion) in emergency aid soon.

Meanwhile, the South Korean governments response to the outbreak has drawn criticism. More than 1.2 million citizens have signed a petition asking for President Moon Jae-ins impeachment over his handling of the epidemic.

 A woman in her 70s is the fifth passenger on the Diamond Princess cruise ship to die from the novel coronavirus, Japans Health Ministry said Friday. At least 705 people from the ship contracted the virus during the quarantine. Japan has now confirmed 10 deaths from the coronavirus.

 Countries are taking precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. Bulgaria is deploying up to 1,000 troops and military equipment to the border with Turkey to prevent illegal migrant inflows. Both countries have not reported any cases.

Mongolia, which has yet to confirm a case, placed its president, Battulga Khaltmaa, in quarantine as a precaution after he returned from a trip to China, state media reported.

 The Geneva Motor Show, one of the worlds biggest car shows, has been canceled because of coronavirus fears. The move comes as the Swiss government imposes a ban on large-scale events with more than 1,000 people attending, at least until March 15. Switzerland has 15 reported cases.

 Several key OPEC members are leaning toward a bigger than previously expected oil output cut, Reuters reported, citing sources with knowledge of the talks. Saudi Arabia and some other members are considering an output cut of 1 million barrels per day in the second quarter of 2020, more than an initially-proposed cut of 600,000 barrels per day.

 Federal Reserve rate cuts are a possibility if the outbreak of coronavirus intensifies into a global pandemic with death rates approaching yearly flu outbreaks, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said Friday. This is the U.S. central banks most explicit statement yet on how the epidemic is influencing its thinking.

 A new research article found four recovered patients tested positive repeatedly, suggesting the epidemic may be even harder to eradicate than previously thought. The four patients, who are all medical workers infected during their work, had three repeat tests after their hospital discharge or discontinuation of quarantine, and all were positive, according to the article authored by a team led by radiologist Xu Haibo at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University. The article was published Thursday in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

The article reaffirmed earlier findings that about 14% of recovered patients in southern Chinas Guangdong province tested positive again in later check-ups.

Compiled by Denise Jia

More diagnosed cases of the respiratory disease Covid-19 were added outside of China on Friday than in the country where that disease first started its deadly spread.

Already-stretched health systems in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa were threatened with the damaging burden of handling a disease that by some estimates sees one in six sufferers hospitalized. Irans death toll in particular increased by 34, the highest by far of the nearly 50 other countries the disease has reached.

Japanese island declares emergency as Abe calls for school closures

The Japanese island of Hokkaido that has reported 60 cases of coronavirus in recent weeks declared a state of emergency Friday, NHK reported. Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki asked residents to remain inside over the weekend. The announcement came after a cluster of at least six Covid-19 cases were linked (link in Japanese) to an exhibition hall in the city of Kitami.

Japanese parents expressed anger and frustration at Prime Minister Shinzo Abes call to close all schools in a bid to control the viruss spread, Reuters reported.

Japan on Thursday recorded its 200th coronavirus infection not linked to the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was placed under quarantine in Yokohama earlier this month.

Hong Kong quarantines pets

Hong Kong health authorities are quarantining all dogs, cats and other mammals belonging to people diagnosed with Covid-19 as a precaution after a dog owned by one patient tested a weak positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes it, the South China Morning Post reported. From now on, as a precaution, we will ask the owners to surrender their cat or dog to the (authorities) for quarantine, Dr. Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch of Hong Kongs Centre for Health Protection, told the paper.

Experts say there is still no evidence pets are capable of contracting or spreading the disease.

 A Caixin investigation found that as early as December, researchers in multiple labs around China tested samples from patients with unexplained viral pneumonia and found the cause was a virus similar to SARS, weeks before officials publicly identified it as such. Soon after, health authorities gagged them.

 Chinese authorities are investigating how an elderly prisoner freed from a disease-hit jail in the locked-down city of Wuhan managed to travel to Beijing, where she tested positive for the deadly new coronavirus sometime after her return on Saturday. The case raised questions about the effectiveness of Chinas quarantines and marked the second time in a week the countrys opaque prison system has come under scrutiny for its handling of the crisis.

 Iran cancelled Friday prayers for the first time in decades due to a local coronavirus outbreak that has sparked fears of a regional pandemic. Iran had 388 confirmed cases as of Friday and 34 deaths, by far the highest death toll outside of China.

 In a display of boundless optimism, more than 300 Chinese tourist spots have reopened, and some online travel agents even relaunched group bookings on their platforms. The move comes on the back of hopes that millions of Chinese people who have spent much of the last month voluntarily confined to their homes will start to plan trips for upcoming holidays in April and May.

 Medical experts weighed in on reports that a handful of people were reinfected with the coronavirus after they had recovered, saying while not impossible, the cases were likely to be due to complexities in testing. Patients may have initially been discharged from the hospital after returning a false negative, or they may have tested positive even though they only had non-viable or dead virus fragments in their system, epidemiologists told Caixin.

 Wales has confirmed its first case of coronavirus in an adult patient from Swansea who traveled back from northern Italy, the BBC reported. Nineteen people have now tested positive in the U.K., including one in Northern Ireland on Thursday, as well as two new cases in England on Friday.

 Americas largest overseas military base is in lockdown. Camp Humphreys, 40 miles south of Seoul, is screening all entrants for symptoms of the virus and could ban civilian employees from entering, the Financial Times reported. The restrictions apply to all U.S. bases in South Korea, which together house around 28,500 American troops.

 South Koreas case count grew at its highest rate on Friday as the Centers for Disease Control Korea reported 315 more cases in the afternoon, bringing the one day total to 571. The death toll remained unchanged at 13.

 Shares in British Airways parent IAG SA crashed when the company said it wouldnt be able to provide an earnings forecast this year, according to Bloomberg. EasyJet PLC also reported a softening in demand while Finnair revised down its outlook, citing the viruss unexpected economic impact. Singapore Airlines Ltd. announced its CEO would take a 15% pay cut as of March, while Philippine Air sacked 300 staff.

Market impact

Equity markets tumbled in Asia and Europe on Friday and U.S. futures weakened, while yields on U.S. Treasurys maturing in two and five years slid to their lowest since 2016, Bloomberg reported.

Compiled by Flynn Murphy

Friday, Feb. 28, 11 a.m.

In China

 As of the end of Thursday, China confirmed 78,959 cases including 329 new cases, according to the latest data (link in Chinese) from the countrys top health body. It is the smallest daily increase since Jan. 23 and the fifth day that the number of newly detected infections has been below 600, suggesting the spread of the virus in China is slowing.

 The Chinese mainland reported 44 additional deaths, bringing its total to 2,788. Of the total, 41 new deaths were reported in Hubei, two were in Beijing, and one in Xinjiang. The mainlands suspected cases grew by 452, to a total of 2,308, resetting several days of declines. It also recorded 3,622 additional recoveries, for a total of 36,117. The total number of recoveries suggests nearly half of Covid-19 patients in the mainland have recovered.

 Hong Kong reported two additional cases, bringing its total to 93, while its death toll remained at two. Macaos tally remained at 10 cases, though it reported an additional recovery, and Taiwans number of infections remained stable at 32, with one death.

 A pet dog of a coronavirus patient in Hong Kong has been found to have a low level of the virus, the Hong Kong government said early Friday.

The dog is undergoing further tests to determine whether it has really been infected with the disease, according to the citys Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.

Outside of China

 Nigeria has become the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to confirm a case of Covid-19 after an Italian citizen who works in the country returned from Milan, according to the countrys health minister Osagie Ehanire.

The patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos, Ehanire said.

 South Africa announced that the country is preparing to repatriate its citizens from Wuhan in Hubei province, ground zero of the epidemic.

The South African government estimates that there are 199 South African citizens in Wuhan, of whom 132 have expressed the desire to be repatriated. Those people are currently living under lockdown conditions following the outbreak of the coronavirus. None have been diagnosed with the virus or have exhibited symptoms, the statement said. Upon arrival in South Africa, they will be placed in quarantine for 21 days as an additional precautionary measure.

 Russia received a rare rebuke from China over its surveillance of Chinese nationals in the country.

In a letter to the Moscow city authorities, the Chinese Embassy in Russia demanded they end what are described as discriminatory anti-coronavirus measures and ubiquitous monitoring of Chinese nationals, Reuters reported, adding that such actions are damaging relations between the countries.

Authorities in Moscow have previously carried out raids of those suspected of being infected at their homes and hotels, in some cases using facial recognition technology.

Just last week, Chinas foreign ministry played up cooperation between the two countries after Russia announced it was indefinitely banning all Chinese citizens from entering the country.

 Japans education minister has urged all elementary, junior, and high schools to close through their spring break, which usually ends in early April and heralds the start of a new school year.

 Japanese scientists have developed a coronavirus testing kit they say can speed up screening times from 6 hours to 30 minutes. The health ministry says it will be available as of March.

 IOC President Thomas Bach says he is committed to the July 24 start date for the Tokyo Olympics.

Market impact

 The Nikkei fell at least 763.46 points after opening Friday.

 Starbucks has said that the effects of the epidemic are weakening, and that 85% of its stores in China have resumed business.

Compiled by Dave Yin

Read more

Coronavirus Thursday Update: WHO Says Coronavirus Outbreak at Decisive Point; Iran Vice President Tested Positive
Sustainability has a big guilt factor attached to it, says Benjamin Sehl, one of the co-founders of KOTN, the Toronto-based basics brand he started with his friend Rami Helali and now-wife, Mackenzie Sehl in 2014.

KOTN was born out of a desire to create a sort of ancestral heir to American Apparel; a place where you could buy a well-made T-shirt that was priced higher than a Hanes 3-pack but lower than a scoop neck from Alexander Wang. But after a fact-finding mission to Egypt (where the brand produces its tees, joggers and hoodies) the trio saw the impact a severe drop in cotton exports has had on the country. They couldnt un-see the environmental and human cost of a poorly set up supply chain and vowed to build a brand that was uncompromising in both quality and conscience. Today, KOTN boasts a fully traceable supply chain and has donated the profits of its last two Black Friday earnings towards building schools to improve literacy in the Nile Delta region.

Sustainable fashion has finally transformed from marketing gimmick to one of the fastest-growing consumer categories on the market. In 2019, searches for sustainability-related keywords shot up by 75 per cent according to the global fashion search engine Lyst, which tracks data for more than 12,000 online stores. Though sustainable items currently account for less than 20 per cent of consumer goods, they were responsible for half of the growth in the packaged goods market between 2013 and 2018, according to NYUs Center for Sustainable Business. This increased consumer desire for sustainable products presents a huge business opportunity, but one of the biggest things a brand like KOTN struggles with is scale  essentially, how to grow its business and keep up with consumer demand while keeping its environmental impact at a minimum.

In December, the Sehls found themselves in a bright white conference room at the global headquarters of H&M in Stockholm, grappling with that exact issue. KOTNs do-gooder spirit earned it the H&M Sustainability Award at the 2019 Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards (CAFAs); alongside the cash prize was the opportunity to go to Sweden to learn how to scale its business from H&Ms sustainability team.

Though KOTN and H&M may seem like strange bedfellows  a small, virtuous Canadian upstart and a fast-fashion behemoth  H&Ms trajectory puts it in a unique place to mentor young, eco-minded companies like KOTN. Though H&M has been considered a bit of a bad actor in the fast-fashion equation for producing so much stuff, behind the scenes, the chain is pursuing aggressive sustainability goals that include having a climate-neutral value chain (everything from the raw materials to consumers use of the finished product) and becoming climate positive (by removing more emissions from the atmosphere than the chain emits) by 2040.

According to the companys engagement sustainability manager, Hendrik Alpen, H&M could achieve carbon neutrality quite easily by purchasing carbon credits, but its committed to measuring and reducing carbon in a way that requires extensive research and development. And because its large quotas can contribute greatly to a developing countrys economy, it has implemented a Fair Living Wage Strategy to help support a living wage in countries like Cambodia.

For Mackenzie Sehl the meeting with H&M offered a look at how a large company tackles sustainability, like its move to cut cashmere, mohair and Indian silk from its future product development due to the materials negative impact. As a small business, its great to use the research that large companies have already invested in as a starting point for setting our own standards, she says.

H&M and KOTN coming together to talk shop represents a unique moment and perhaps a flash point for the future of the fashion industry. Yes, both companies want to sell you a white T-shirt, but they came together not as competitors, but as two companies figuring out a more sustainable way forward.

Travel and accommodation for Isabel B. Slone were provided by H&M. H&M did not review or approve this story.
Is this allowed?

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my first thought is how in the US they make you go through fingerprinting just to volunteer and be around underage children in a school....

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Ive never done a fingerprint check  is this a recent development?

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Sadly probably there it is. It definitely isn't in the US

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I guess it's different in different countries.



I remember Karla Homolka (Leanne Teale / Leanne Bordelais) volunteered at an elementary school in Canada after her release and it was only after the public outcry that they distanced themselves from her.



Edited at 2020-02-28 02:03 am (UTC)

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Honey she was sitting right next to the Commissioner of Police while she was talking. Trinidad passed a Sex Offender Registry Law literally last month but won't allow the website to have public access. This place is a joke.

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She has no shame.

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its so weird how behind cancel culture/the general public view is of her. like I still see tons of positive memes & tons of "woke" people I know loving her. idg how she buried everything and didn't pay any real consequences. like she tried to dig up the "sexual history" of a 12?/13 year old girl to defend her rapist brother and the press doesn't mention this when she brings her rapist husband to an all girls school? fuck that

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Idk, I heard my coworker who is the furthest thing from regular pop culture mention her defending rapists. My students also say the same thing about her brother and husband. I'd say people know. And the collating with 69.

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It is interesting to see who does and doesn't get dogpiled by the internet. Nicki for the most part has gone under the radar pretty unscathed. I think it has to do with how popular~ the media makes it. Like if it caused waves then maybe she would've been criticized more but I barely heard about her brother's case outside of ONTD. Similar to most people don't know about Brad Pitt's stuff unless you're really paying attention and follow gossip sites.





Also in both cases I think both of them having for the most goodwill and good PR helps avoid repercussions.

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Someone mentioned on here that there were rumors that Nicki was paying people to not talk about her brother and Id believe it. Its weird how most of the major celebs sites didnt talk about it.

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it's bizarre to me too how many passes she gets and how her stans gloss over everything horrible she's said and done

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It's insane. Even before she decided to start befriending sexual predators left and right, she was openly mean to her own fans and others. Now supporting her horrible brother and marrying this guy??? What will it take???

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i'm so disgusted by her, i can't believe i was ever a fan

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We all were, she did a good job of hiding her unsavory traits behind stunts and bravado

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same

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Dont be. Shes genuinely talented and none of us initially knew just how awful she really is

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I think this all the time

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When ppl ask oh you like Nicki right I went idk who that is now



Complete erasure

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Trash all around.

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mte

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I truly hate her now. Between this dude and her defense of her pedo brother, she is straight up dumpster water.

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Whew. She made a comment too about people writing think pieces on him.



The irony is that her song with Karol G is shaping up to be a huge hit but she keeps being in the press for clownery

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Nicky can thank Latin America because latinos dont play when it comes to streaming. Look up most latin artists on YouTube and youll easily see 500+ million views on most videos para ser honesto.

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Wtf, she should not have brought him. Kept his terrible ass at home. And how did the school allow this?



Edited at 2020-02-28 01:06 am (UTC)

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I get how people can forgive/ignore celebs for saying ignorant shit. But shes stuck up for not one, but two rapists, going as far as to marry one and stick up for him!! I dont see how fans can look past that.

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Mte

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Don't forget about Tekashi 69 or whatever.

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Fans are dumb

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She cant be dumb enough to not know what is wrong with this right?



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I don't know if there was a post but there was a video of Petty pushing a performers hand away and her fans called him out for needing to calm down and she wrote a comment back defending him that he's always in protection mode...I can't believe she really settled down with him.



I used to love Nicki years ago. She really fell off.

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A senior naxal leader surrendered



in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district on Friday, the police said.

Vilas alias Dasru Kolha (44) was carrying a reward of Rs 9.50 lakh on his head, said an official release here.

Kolha was member of the 'Divisional Committee' of naxals and supervised the rebels' activities in the district, it said.

He surrendered before district Superintendent of Police Shailesh Balkawade and handed over an AK-47 assault rifle, three magazines and 35 rounds, it added.

Kolha had joined the naxals in 2000 and was currently operating in north Gadchiroli.

He had 149 serious offences registered against him in the district.

Kolha decided to surrender as he was fed up with "exploitation" of naxal cadres including women from tribal communities by senior Telugu-speaking leaders, the release claimed.

Four divisional committee members, two commanders, two deputy commanders, 26 dalam/company/platoon members and one 'jan militia' member have surrendered before Gadchiroli Police in the last one year, the release said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Iran is the hub for COVID 19 outside China, and the virus travelled from Iran to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan through pilgrims, forcing pilgrimage to be suspended. (AFP photo)

Hyderabad: Health experts fear that the coronavirus (COVID- 19) may come to India from Afghanistan as a large number of medical and trade visas are issued to Afghans.

Over 100 Afghan patients travel to New Delhi every month.

Despite a case in Afghanistan as of Wednesday, India laid no restrictions for Afgh-anistan.

Iran is the hub for COVID 19 outside China, and the virus travelled from Iran to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan through pilgrims, forcing pilgrimage to be suspended. The transmission is currently human-to-human.

COVID-19 has shown that one infected person can become a super-spreader, Dr K.K. Aggarwal of the Conferedation of Medical Associations in Asia and Oceania said.

It was so in South Korea and in Iran. Why must India not learn and be prepared to tackle it? We can no longer say that heat or hot conditions will stop the virus.

The concept of super-spreader has evolved in coronavirus, and it takes the form of a cough where viruses are emitted as large droplets from the infected body onto a surface (table, chair, doorknob, etc) that is touched by others, leading to transmission.

Numerous droplets in a closed area can infect more than 30 people.

The infected in Iran, South Korea, Italy, Paki-stan, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan have no history of travel to China and no contact with travellers from China.

Experts concluded it was through the touch of an infected surface.

The super-spreader can apply to India which is no longer safe.

We are banking on self-reported cases and airport screening but not carrying out tests, a senior government doctor anonymously said.

Tests may show cases. But the government is maintaining that like SARS, it will not come to India.
Award-winning filmmakers Born Logic Allah and Aundar Maat are ready for the premiere of their latest movie, Walk on the River 2.0: The African Influence in San Antonio, Tx, the follow-up to their acclaimed documentary about black history in San Antonio.

Were just trying to show our fingerprint, Maat said. This film will challenge some beliefs in a very positive way. Were rewinding the full story of what happened.

In their first film, the duo shared the African-American experience in San Antonio from around 1865 to the end of Jim Crow segregation.

On ExpressNews.com: New documentary chronicles African American history in San Antonio

This second installment, which premieres Saturday at the University of Texas at San Antonio Downtown Campus, delves into the presence and influence that people of African descent had in the region before and during enslavement.

Segments include:

African symbols in the city

The Moors in Spain

Blacks at the Battle of the Alamo

Slavery in San Antonio

Emancipation celebrations in Texas.

The duo said one of the first documented Africans was Esteban, a Moor who was with Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca in the 1500s.

Allah said the influence can be seen in several street names, such as Medina and Mecca Drive, which reference the holy cities of Islam. The filmmaker said several local streets have Moor in their names.

Maat said one of the great ways for the nation to heal is for people to acknowledge the full truth of their ancestors past, whether positive or negative.

Greater understanding of the contributions that others have made to the development of this city will help us to have a greater appreciation for each other, he said, and a greater respect, therefore fostering better relationships as we move forward.

On ExpressNews.com: Filmmakers share historic locations featured in African American documentary

The film includes interviews with historian and former City Councilman Mario Salas, Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation member Ramon Vasquez, community activist Nettie Hinton, and author and lecturer Runoko Rashidi.

During the production of the film, the duo received a $5,000 filmmaker grant from the San Antonio Film Commission.

The film is going to broaden our knowledge and history in San Antonio, Allah said. Were just skimming the surface of the stories that need to be told.

The premiere of the 50-minute film will take place at 6 p.m. Saturday in the Buena Vista Theater at the UTSA Downtown Campus, 501 W. Cesar E. Chavez Blvd.

General admission tickets are $20 per person. VIP tickets are $30 and include a commemorative movie poster and preferential seating.

vtdavis@express-news.net
Work-related stress encountered by construction workers and the impact it has on performance, the risk of accidents, and costs to employers will be investigated thanks to a 25,000 research grant.

The funds have been awarded to a team from the University of Lincoln, UK, to focus on the types and causes of occupational stress encountered by those in the construction industry.

The 2019/20 Occupational Health Research Award has been awarded by B&CE, a not-for-profit organisation founded by the construction industry in 1942, that offers workplace pensions, employee accident cover and employee life cover. It is now developing an occupational health product to improve the health of workers across the construction industry. The grant is part of the B&CE Charitable Trust.

According to the 2019 Health and Safety Executive (HSE) publication on work-related stress, anxiety or depression statistics in Great Britain, it is estimated that stress-related illness costs British industry 5 billion each year. HSE calculates that stress, depression or anxiety account for 44 per cent of all work-related ill health cases and more than half of all sick days in one year.

Dr. Saad Sarhan and Professor Stephen Pretlove Sarhan from the University's School of Architecture and the Built Environment will carry out the study, Dr. Sarhan, who has been working in the field for 14 years, said:

Several empirical studies have identified work-related stress as one of the root causes of unsafe behaviors in construction. Other major social problems such as high absenteeism, alcoholism, drug abuse and suicide have also become increasingly reported as consequent to occupational stress in construction. This is a timely study given that the UK regulations for managing occupational health have not been updated for many years in response to the rapid changes in the way we procure, design and deliver construction projects."

B&CE's Charitable Trust was set up in 1991 to give back to the construction industry by providing help for people working in construction in times of need, including grants towards education, financial support and retraining. It has given out more than 3.5 million in charitable donations.

The grant has been awarded for the past four years. Previous winning entries have included a study into musculoskeletal disorders in construction and a project with the aim of eliminating occupational health hazards at the construction design stage.

Roy Porter, spokesperson for the B&CE Charitable Trust, said:
The message that were sending is that for poor communities, communities with less franchise that tend to be overpoliced, were going to add an extra burden to you, Clarke said. Its a health concern for the entire nation, for the smoking population on the whole. But were not going to address that. Were going to go after a particular segment, albeit smaller but more vulnerable to law enforcement abuse.
An Essay by Xu Zhiyong, Translated and Annotated by Geremie R. Barme in China File:

Translators Introduction: Xu Zhiyong is a legal scholar and former university lecturer from central China with a doctorate from Peking University. He co-founded the New Citizens Movement, a group that advocated civil rights and Chinas peaceful transition to constitutional rule. Detained in July 2013, he was sentenced to four years jail in 2014 for gathering crowds to disrupt public order. Following his release, he continued to encourage his supporters through his online writing. He went into hiding in late 2019. The following open letter, which was released on February 4, 2020, was written while he was on the run. On February 15, Xu was detained in the southern city of Guangzhou.

This is the second letter that Xu Zhiyong addressed to Xi Jinping. In the first, published when Xi Jinping came to power in November 2012, the author expressed hope that Xi would not only continue the countrys economic reforms but that he would also guide China towards substantive political change. Seven years later, Xus hopes, and his tone, have changed markedly. Now, for the sake of the country, its people, and even history itself, the author appeals to Xi Jinping to step down.

More here.
The goal of this article is to teach you how to use price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We'll apply a basic P/E ratio analysis to China Zhongwang Holdings Limited's (HKG:1333), to help you decide if the stock is worth further research. Based on the last twelve months, China Zhongwang Holdings's P/E ratio is 3.96. That corresponds to an earnings yield of approximately 25.3%.

View our latest analysis for China Zhongwang Holdings

How Do I Calculate China Zhongwang Holdings's Price To Earnings Ratio?

The formula for price to earnings is:

Price to Earnings Ratio = Share Price (in reporting currency)  Earnings per Share (EPS)

Or for China Zhongwang Holdings:

P/E of 3.96 = CNY2.51 (Note: this is the share price in the reporting currency, namely, CNY )  CNY0.63 (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2019.)

Is A High Price-to-Earnings Ratio Good?

The higher the P/E ratio, the higher the price tag of a business, relative to its trailing earnings. That isn't necessarily good or bad, but a high P/E implies relatively high expectations of what a company can achieve in the future.

How Does China Zhongwang Holdings's P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?

The P/E ratio indicates whether the market has higher or lower expectations of a company. We can see in the image below that the average P/E (10.3) for companies in the metals and mining industry is higher than China Zhongwang Holdings's P/E.

SEHK:1333 Price Estimation Relative to Market, February 27th 2020

This suggests that market participants think China Zhongwang Holdings will underperform other companies in its industry. Many investors like to buy stocks when the market is pessimistic about their prospects. You should delve deeper. I like to check if company insiders have been buying or selling.

How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios

Earnings growth rates have a big influence on P/E ratios. Earnings growth means that in the future the 'E' will be higher. And in that case, the P/E ratio itself will drop rather quickly. And as that P/E ratio drops, the company will look cheap, unless its share price increases.

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Notably, China Zhongwang Holdings grew EPS by a whopping 27% in the last year.

Remember: P/E Ratios Don't Consider The Balance Sheet

It's important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. The exact same company would hypothetically deserve a higher P/E ratio if it had a strong balance sheet, than if it had a weak one with lots of debt, because a cashed up company can spend on growth.

Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio.

How Does China Zhongwang Holdings's Debt Impact Its P/E Ratio?

China Zhongwang Holdings has net debt worth a very significant 288% of its market capitalization. This is a relatively high level of debt, so the stock probably deserves a relatively low P/E ratio. Keep that in mind when comparing it to other companies.

The Verdict On China Zhongwang Holdings's P/E Ratio

China Zhongwang Holdings's P/E is 4.0 which is below average (9.8) in the HK market. The company may have significant debt, but EPS growth was good last year. If it continues to grow, then the current low P/E may prove to be unjustified.

Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. If the reality for a company is not as bad as the P/E ratio indicates, then the share price should increase as the market realizes this. So this free report on the analyst consensus forecasts could help you make a master move on this stock.

But note: China Zhongwang Holdings may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with strong recent earnings growth (and a P/E ratio below 20).

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Within a week of being raided by the states anti-corruption commission late last year, former Casey mayor Sam Aziz had withdrawn $50,000 from his bank accounts and, soon after, left for Egypt.

Mr Aziz remains in Cairo amid an investigation into allegations he took bribes in return for favourable planning decisions while a councillor at Casey.

Former Casey mayor Sam Aziz Credit:James Taylor

Casey Council was sacked by the Andrews government this month after the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission made allegations of bribery and improper influence from developer and planner John Woodman.

Forensic accountants for IBAC last year established that Mr Aziz had received close to $900,000 in payments from Mr Woodman.
Some one million civilians have been displaced near the Turkish border since December as Russia-backed Syrian government forces seized territory from Turkey-backed Syrian rebels.

Turkey will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, a senior Turkish official said, as Ankara responded on Friday to the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an airstrike by Syrian government forces in Syria's northwestern Idlib region.

President Tayyip Erdogan chaired an emergency meeting on the attack in Ankara overnight, while Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Turkish force commanders directed operations in Syria at the Turkish border, state-owned Anadolu news agency said, Reuters reports.

Turkey has sent thousands of troops and heavy military hardware into Syria and Erdogan has warned that Turkey would launch a full-scale offensive to repel Syrian forces unless they pulled back from Turkish observation posts in the region.

Read alsoIn retaliation move, Turkey bombs Assad's forces in Idlib overnight Friday (Photo, video)

Turkey's communications director, Fahrettin Altun, said that in retaliation, "all known" Syrian government targets were being fired on by Turkish air and land support units.

Some one million civilians have been displaced near the Turkish border since December as Russia-backed Syrian government forces seized territory from Turkey-backed Syrian rebels, marking the worst humanitarian crisis in the nine-year war.

In anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Idlib, Turkish police, coastguard and border security officials have been ordered to stand down on refugees' land and sea crossings, the Turkish official told Reuters.

"We have decided, effectively immediately, not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land or sea," said the official, who requested anonymity.

"All refugees, including Syrians, are now welcome to cross into the European Union."

The threat to open the way for refugees to Europe would, if executed, reverse a pledge Turkey made to the European Union in 2016 and could quickly draw Western powers into the standoff over Idlib and stalled negotiations between Ankara and Moscow.

The burden of hosting refugees "is too heavy for any single country to carry", the official said.

Turkey hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees and has repeated it cannot handle more. Under the 2016 deal, the European Union has provided billions of euros in aid in return for Ankara agreeing to stem the influx of migrants into Europe.
When the Remain in Mexico program was initially enjoined by a federal judge in California in April of last year, migrants who had been in court on that day ended up spending more than two weeks in government holding cells while officials decided how to proceed. When the injunction was stayed, the migrants were returned to Mexico, allowed to enter the United States only for their court hearings.

Government officials moved quickly to reverse the decision. It appeared clear that, whatever the immediate outcome, the issue would ultimately be decided by the United States Supreme Court.

Hundreds of asylum seekers who have been returned to Mexico have since given up their claims, accepting free transportation provided by the American government and the United Nations back to their homes in Central America. But others have vowed to continue with their cases.

Yoleydi Gonzalez Jimenez, 26, arrived from Cuba with her husband in the Mexican city of Matamoros in September and has been living in a tent encampment at the end of an international bridge into the United States ever since. With little access to public bathrooms, the camp smells of human waste.

Ms. Gonzalez Jimenez wears socks with her flip-flops to keep warm. A donated air mattress covered with pink and purple sheets fills the tent that has become the couples home. Their few possessions are stacked on top and become soaked with water that seeps inside when it rains.

I cant give up after all the time Ive been waiting here, even though I feel like Im going to die, she said after a court hearing in December. Her next hearing was scheduled in Brownsville, Texas. Until then, she was told, she would have to go back to Mexico.

Reporting was contributed by Max Rivlin-Nadler, Manny Fernandez, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Kirk Semple.
Tourists wearing masks around the Trevi Fountains in Rome after a coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy. (Samantha Zucchi /Insidefoto/Sipa USA)

The first of coronavirus has been confirmed in Wales and two new cases have been confirmed in England, bringing the total number of infections in the the UK to 19.

17 of the cases are in England.

A British tourist on the Diamond Princess cruise ship has died from coronavirus, Japans health ministry confirmed on Friday.

The patient in Wales recently returned from Italy, and the patients in England contracted the illness in Iran.

Northern Ireland confirmed its first case on Thursday, also confirming that the patient had travelled to Italy.

Public Health Wales said medics were trying to trace people who had been in close contact with the patient.

Dr Giri Shankar, incident director for the Covid-19 outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: Public Health Wales is working hard to identify close contacts, and we are taking all appropriate actions to reduce any risk to the publics health.

It comes as European countries battle the spread of the new coronavirus, officially known as Covid-19.

Read more: Major public events could be cancelled due to coronavirus spread

An outbreak in northern Italy has seen more than 400 positive cases, with a number of towns under quarantine.

The first case has been confirmed in sub-Saharan Africa, after a patient tested positive in Nigeria.

Experts are warning of widespread social and economic impacts stemming from attempts to contain the illness.

Soldiers wearing protective respiratory masks gesticulate at the border of the isolated small town of Castiglione d'Adda in Italy as measures are taken to contain the outbreak of coronavirus. (Piero Cruciatti/Sipa USA)

A number of schools in England are closed, including Burbage Primary School in Buxton, which shut after a parent tested positive for the virus after a trip to Italy.

Read more: France warned to prepare for outbreak similar to Italy

Englands chief medical officer has warned schools could be closed for more than tow months it the outbreak becomes out of control.

These are the coronavirus cases confirmed in Europe. (PA Graphics)

Professor Chris Whitty said: One of the things that's really clear with this virus, much more so than flu, is that anything we do we're going to have to do for quite a long period of time, probably more than two months.

Story continues

"The implications of that are non-trivial, so we need to think that through carefully.

"This is something we face as really quite a serious problem for society potentially if this goes out of control."

The Swiss government has banned all events involving more than 1,000 people.

In China, authorities have reported another sharp decrease in the number of infections.

Mainland China reported 327 new cases and 44 deaths in the 24 hours to Friday morning, according to the countrys National Health Commission.

The update brings Chinas total number of cases to 78,824 and deaths to 2,788, while more than 3,600 infections have been reported outside China.

The global count of those sickened by the virus hovered around 82,000.
We've settled on the three-course lunch option, he ordering the steak tartare, buttermilk chicken, a glass of riesling and rosemary pannacotta while I chose the kingfish entree, steak for main and the same pannacotta for dessert. Quinlan has the steak tartare entree. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "I usually order pannacotta if it's on the menu," Quinlan says, before launching into a description of a tofu-based variant of the Italian dessert offered at a suburban Japanese place near his family home. Quinlan is passionate about food and life, and his world view is shaped by years spent running not-for-profits in the community sector. As chief executive of Mental Health Australia, he was a vocal supporter of same-sex marriage.

Now, Quinlan fears the federal government's plans to pass religious freedom laws - initially seen as a consolation prize for the Christian right, but which failed to attract consensus support among faith groups - will exacerbate social divisions that arose during the equality debate. He celebrates the fact that his powerlifting gym has introduced a "gender diverse" category, called "Mx", to ensure the sport he and his wife have embraced is accessible to all. For the record, Quinlan - introduced to powerlifting by the eldest of his three daughters - bench-presses 80kg and dead-lifts 160kg. "Ideally, I'd like to get to my body weight for bench press and twice my body weight for dead lift," he says, always looking ahead to the next goal. Ideally, I'd like to get to my body weight for bench press and twice my body weight for dead lift.

Public debate over religion and sexuality makes him worry about Australia's capacity to nurture and cater for its pluralistic society. "My fear is there are growing divisions and intolerances that are really, really unhealthy," he says. "We're at risk of forcing everybody back into their particular camps." The way he sees it, the desire of religious people to express their beliefs must be weighed against "the rights of teenagers and others who might be experiencing diverse sexualities to live their lives according to the truth that their genes probably create for them". "If we weigh that against somebody's right to preach a very particular, narrow version of a Christian tradition - I just don't think there's any contest," he says. Asked if the decline of religion could be implicated in Australia's mental health woes - with four million of us suffering from a mental illness each year - Quinlan answers simply: "No."

He describes having observed over his years in the church how spirituality and religious practice could be "tremendously beneficial" for some, while "damaging" others by leaving them "trapped in less of a full life than they might otherwise lead". "The things that nourish and enrich us are different, and I think we should celebrate that," he says. An entree of kingfish. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Our mains arrive, and we tuck in with enthusiasm. "This is really nice, actually - I don't know how they manage to make the chicken as crispy and crunchy as it is, and as tender in the centre," Quinlan says. Turning back to the state of the nation's mental health, despite the sobering reality of more than 3000 suicide deaths per year, Quinlan looks for the positives and observes how Australians' attitudes have shifted during his lifetime.

"When I grew up, my only real thinking about it was that, occasionally, people had what my parents would describe as nervous breakdowns," he says, recalling the stigma attached to such episodes - and the over-medicated "fog" in which such people sometimes returned. "I look at my adult children now, they're having much more sophisticated conversations - they are literate in mental health, they have expectations about their personal lives and their work." But while "we've come a long way", he says, "our systems haven't kept apace with that". Quinlan says what Australia's mental health sector needs is a binding national agreement - "one that has teeth, has a budget, accountabilities, performance measurement and so forth" - to deliver services to those caught in what the sector refers to as the "missing middle". The term, coined by psychiatrist and former Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry, refers the chasm between the sort of problems addressed through preventative services such as Headspace and the acute disorders that put people in and out of psychiatric wards and emergency rooms.

Quinlan is hopeful that the Productivity Commission inquiry into mental health will lead to change. He wants the mental health system to better address the role of childhood trauma and disadvantage by integrating community and social support with tradition health services. "We are seeing kids that are distressed, and that are identified as having anxiety and depression, earlier and earlier," Quinlan says. "It is an area that requires a massive amount of attention." Prime Minister Scott Morrison has signalled that lowering Australia's suicide rate will be a key focus of his government, and last year appointed former National Mental Health Commission chief Christine Morgan as national suicide prevention adviser. Quinlan says workplace bullying, stress and a "huge burden of work intensity" - including constant digital communication - despite no major productivity gains, are key factors to be addressed.

"Most of the people I know struggle to effectively establish work-life balance, struggle to turn off appropriately ... For my parents' generation, it was pretty clear when you worked and when you were off. I just don't think we've got those practices in place." Most of the people I know struggle to effectively establish work-life balance, struggle to turn off appropriately. In his final newsletter update as chief executive of Mental Health Australia, Quinlan echoed former prime minister and Beyond Blue chair Julia Gillard in calling for unity in the "desperately under-resourced" sector. "Success comes when we speak together about our shared goals, not when we clamber over each other seeking to speak first and speak loudest," he wrote. "None of us are blind to the fact that we have so much more to do ... Our mental health systems remain inadequate to deal with the distress and injury that members of the community experience in substantial numbers."

A scarcity of funding has left mental health organisations doing "too much work with too little resources", he explains. "Anytime you speak to them, there are literally people waiting in their waiting rooms who might need life-saving interventions." Fixing the problem requires not just money, but a rethinking of how the whole system works. "There isn't a single fix," he says. In his new role with the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Quinlan - who has a recreational pilot license, but is regrettably unqualified to fly the RFDS planes - is determined to advocate on behalf of rural Australians who have poorer access to health services. "People experience shorter lives and more morbidity, just because we don't service them appropriately," he says.

It's a mission he sees as particularly important "at a time when rural and remote folks are under very significant pressures - the pressures of drought and climate change". Speaking before the bushfire season had reached catastrophic proportions, he says prophetically: "I think it is going to remain a very challenging period." "If we accept the notion that we don't want to abandon rural and remote Australia, like physically the move away from those areas ... then I think it's incumbent upon us to make sure that those people get access to the services they might need to support them." Quinlan sees this as a fair exchange for the benefits of having people living in rural and remote areas, whether they are farmers, miners or "indigenous folks living on traditional country" - the latter making up almost a third of the people serviced by the RFDS. A few weeks after our lunch - and just days before he joins the organisation - these words will take on a heightened significance when 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker is shot by police in the Northern Territory community of Yuendumu.

The coroner is investigating after the young Warlpiri man died from his injuries without receiving critical emergency care, medical staff having left the remote community due to safety concerns and an RFDS team delaying its response while waiting for a safety clearance to land. "One of the things we celebrate in Australia is universal access to health care," Quinlan says. The lunch bill. "If somebody on the street outside where we're sitting now collapses in some sort of medical emergency, they're going to get exactly the same access to an ambulance, hospital, intensive medical assessment and support as everybody else. "Nobody's going to be looking to determine their income level, citizenship status, whether they're a politician or an unemployed person or what part of the world they're from."

Ensuring that regional and remote Australians have access to this same standard of care is part of "our social contract", he says. "It should remain our very clear goal that we provide access to a universal system that's not dependent on who you are or where you're from." Note: A few weeks after our lunch, the writer realised Temporada had billed for only one lunch and alerted the restaurant. Chef and co-owner Dave Young thanked us for picking up the error and said he was happy to shout Quinlan lunch as mental health was "such a big issue". Temporada 15 Moore St, Canberra
Terry Atkinson, an associate professor in East Carolina Universitys College of Education, reads through a book in the colleges childrens library. Atkinson was named the recipient of the University Scholarship of Engagement Award for her work advancing childhood literacy in Pitt County. | Photos: Matt Smith

Atkinsons work at ECU spans 19 years and includes research with Golden LEAF Scholars, State Employees Credit Union Public Fellows Interns and ECU Honors students.

Many educators can point to certain moments in their life when they knew they were destined to join their field.There were plenty of those moments for East Carolina University associate professor Terry Atkinson, but memories of weekend trips from Graham to Burlington with her father to a local children's library cemented her love for reading at an early age.Atkinson said.Fortunately for the hundreds of students Atkinson has helped during her 19-year career with ECU's College of Education , her love of books never waned.Atkinson's work in the community was recognized by ECU with the University Scholarship of Engagement Award. The award recognizes one faculty member annually for sustained commitment to community engagement that positively impacts eastern North Carolina and promotes academic scholarship.Atkinson's research investigates ways to promote literacy in children ages 0-5, a pivotal time in childhood development that prepares students for success in the classroom. Fewer than 50% of Pitt County students enter kindergarten ready for school learning.Atkinson's desire to help better prepare Pitt County's future students connected her to like-minded researchers on campus, community partners across the region, and numerous families. That connection allows Atkinson to promote the idea that parents, caregivers and families serve as a child's first and most important language and literacy teachers.Atkinson said.she said.Along with assessing the effectiveness of the program, Atkinson assists families in registering for the imagination library. The program is funded by the North Carolina state legislature and administered statewide by Smart Start and locally by the United Way of Pitt County and the Martin-Pitt Partnership for Children . To date, the imagination library has gifted more than 132 million books since its inception in 1995.Atkinson said.Despite nearly 30 years as an educator, Atkinson found an opportunity to give back even more to the community with the support of interim chancellor Ron Mitchelson. Mitchelson and his wife, Sarah, were early supporters of a community literacy coalition in Pitt County. When the coalition, now known as READ ENC , needed an executive director, Mitchelson turned to Atkinson.Atkinson said.she said.Despite the obstacles of leading a new initiative in a county of more than 10,000 children below the age of 5, Atkinson rose to the challenge. Using a combination of her work and research from other leaders in the field, she developed a community solutions action plan that focuses on three key elements of early childhood learning.Atkinson said.READ ENC aims to increase the number of Pitt County Schools students reading on grade level by the end of third grade.Her position with READ ENC has presented Atkinson an opportunity to connect her research and academic background with work that helps families directly.Atkinson said.Atkinson hopes that other researchers take time to relate their work to the communities they serve.she said.
Everyone wants to see Jennifer Aniston Happy. When she married Justin Theroux in 2015, fans assumed she had found her happily ever after. It didnt take long for the relationship to end though, and while the two people in the marriage seemed perfectly okay with their divorce, the world at large was not. Now, several years later, there are reports that Aniston and Theroux are at odds, and that bad blood is brewing between the former lovers. Is that true, though?

Several media outlets claim Justin Theroux is planning to pen a tell-all book

In recent weeks, several media outlets have alleged Theroux is busy penning a tell-all book, and the pages of his memoir will spill secrets about his marriage to Aniston, as well as Anistons first marriage to Brad Pitt. Theroux has never made mention of writing a book. So, where did the story come from? Apparently, an anonymous source has the skinny on what Theroux is up to.

According to The Latin Times, Theroux is resentful towards his ex-wife and is looking to cash in on the notoriety of his marriage. The publication claims that an anonymous source suggests that Theroux thinks writing a book with details about Aniston will garner more interest than one that does not include juicy information about the former Friends star. That would be true if a book was actually in the works.

According to Gossip Cop, the story is entirely fictitious. Not only is Theroux not penning a tell-all book, but there is absolutely no bad blood between the former flames. In fact, Theroux took to Instagram in February 2020 to wish his ex a very happy 51st birthday. He was also on hand when Aniston celebrated her famed Friendsgiving celebration in November 2019.

Why did Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux end their marriage?

The couples breakup shocked much of the world, because, for years, they seemed to have a rock-solid relationship. They were often spotted out and about together in the years leading up to their 2015 nuptials, and their life together after the wedding seemed pretty idyllic. There was more brewing under the surface, though.

The couple has both said the road to the end of their marriage was not dotted with blowups and screaming matches. The separation, they insist, was gentle, and that might have something to do with the fact that the end of their relationship seemingly had more to do with a difference in lifestyle than a lack of love. Theroux prefers the New York art scene while Aniston has always enjoyed her sunny, California existence. Where he is more of a hipster, she remains a classic, all-American girl, according to USA Today.

Neither Aniston nor Theroux has really given a reason for the end of their relationship, though. They do insist that they are friendly, and their social media footprints indicate the same. Perhaps, the end of their relationship was as amicable as they claimed. So, why is there a belief that a deep resentment exists between the former lovers?

Why do people assume Jennifer Aniston and Just Theroux hate each other?

Anistons love life has been a topic of conversation for decades. Following the end of her marriage to Pitt, media publications covered her every move, assuming she was scorned and bitter. When she remarried, outlets questioned the legitimacy of her union and whether she married Theroux to get back at Pitt. When her marriage to Theroux ended, the world speculated about the likelihood of Pitt and Aniston rekindling their love.

Justin Theroux and Jennifer Aniston | Stephane Cardinale  Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images

Stories about bad blood between Aniston and Theroux seem to be based on the exact same premise. While the world waits to see if the former flames will get back together, Theroux is standing on the sidelines. His marriage to Aniston has become something of a footnote, and its easy to assume he would be resentful of that. Theroux, however, seems to be okay. He and Aniston remain friendly, and, frankly, their divorce really does appear to be as gentle as the pair claim it was.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 22:19:45|Editor: xuxin

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MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed Friday to examine the possibility of meeting in the near future to discuss the situation in Syria's Idlib, the Kremlin has said in a statement.

The two leaders had a phone conversation at the initiative of the Turkish side, exchanging their views on the situation in Syria, where dozens of Turkish soldiers have been killed in recent airstrikes.

During the conversation, the leaders also expressed serious concerns over the escalation of tensions in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, the statement said.

Both sides emphasized the need for additional measures to normalize the situation in northwestern Syria. They also agreed to step up relevant interagency consultations, and work out the possibility of holding a top-level meeting in the near future, the statement added.

The two sides also emphasized the importance of improving coordination through the ministries of defense of their respective countries.

On Thursday, the Kremlin denied that Putin would meet Erdogan on March 5 to discuss the Syria situation.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said intense battles were still raging on Friday in Idlib between Turkey-backed forces and Russia-backed Syrian government troops, the day after over 30 Turkish soldiers were killed in airstrikes.

The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier Friday that Turkish military members were among the rebel militants.

On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference that there was still room for dialogue between Moscow and Ankara, adding that Russian and Turkish negotiators in Ankara have agreed to continue their talks.

"I'm convinced if the military, diplomats and representatives of the security services of our countries can concentrate on the basic agreements on the de-escalation zone in Idlib, these agreements can be translated into the language of practical actions," Lavrov said.
(CNN) The British government's contentious plans to build a third runway at London's Heathrow Airport have been blocked by an appeals court on environmental grounds, in a landmark victory for climate campaigners.

Judges in the closely-watched case at London's Court of Appeal said the UK government, which threw its support behind the proposal, had failed to take into account what impact the move would have on Britain's commitments under the Paris Agreement.

The decision could scupper plans to expand one of the world's busiest airports, and was celebrated on the court's steps on Thursday by a number of climate groups that had brought the legal action against the UK's Transport Secretary.

The court did not rule on the legality of a third runway itself, and Heathrow said it would appeal at the Supreme Court -- but the British government said it would not contest the verdict.

The ultimate decision over whether to fight for a third runway lies with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has long opposed the idea and once said he would "lie down in front of the bulldozers" to stop it going ahead.

"We have not found that a national policy statement supporting this project is necessarily incompatible with the United Kingdom's commitment to reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change under the Paris Agreement, or with any other policy the Government may adopt or international obligation it may undertake," the judges wrote in their ruling.

"The Paris Agreement ought to have been taken into account by the Secretary of State... and an explanation given as to how it was taken into account, but it was not," they added.

The accord pushes signatories to reduce their carbon output and halt global warming below 2C by the end of the century.

London's mayor, Sadiq Khan, had supported the legal action and welcomed the decision on Thursday. "We won!" Khan tweeted after the ruling. "A new runway at Heathrow would have serious consequences on climate change, on air quality, on noise pollution, on road and rail networks and on the quality of life in our city," he added in a statement.

The move marks a new period of uncertainty in the lengthy and controversial debate over whether to build a third runway at the site -- which would have made Heathrow the world's busiest airport by current statistics.

After the verdict, the UK's Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the government will look elsewhere in exploring expansion and would not fight the decision.

"Airport expansion is core to boosting global connectivity. We also take seriously our commitment to the environment. This Govt won't appeal today's judgement given our manifesto makes clear any #Heathrow expansion will be industry led," he wrote on Twitter.

However, a statement from Heathrow Airport said the issue identified by the court is "eminently fixable."

"We will appeal to the Supreme Court on this one issue and are confident that we will be successful. In the meantime, we are ready to work with the Government to fix the issue that the court has raised," the airport's spokesperson said in a statement.

Lawmakers approved the proposal in 2018, but strong resistance from climate campaigners and those living near the site has loomed over the project.

The new airstrip would cross over the M25 motorway, London's busy and regularly congested outer ring road. About 750 homes in the villages of Longford, Sipson and Harmondsworth could be flattened to make way.

Johnson opposed the runway while he was Mayor of London -- should he decide to accept the court's judgment now, plans to build the airstrip would likely be doomed.

'This has wider implications'

Thursday's case was brought to the court by groups including Friends of the Earth, which described Thursday's ruling as "an absolutely ground-breaking result for climate justice" -- and climate groups seized on the decision as a sign of rapidly shifting attitudes towards the climate.

"This judgment has exciting wider implications for keeping climate change at the heart of all planning decisions," Will Rundle, head of legal at Friends of the Earth, said in a statement. "It's time for developers and public authorities to be held to account when it comes to the climate impact of their damaging developments."

"It would have been hard to imagine this outcome even a couple of years ago," added Tim Crosland, director of the Plan B. Earth, which was involved in the case. "But as the scale and impacts of the ecological crisis become clearer, with people dying and being displaced in the UK and around the world, it's vital we reject the politics of division and unite amidst adversity."

The move was also hailed by Extinction Rebellion, whose frequent protests in London and around the world have become a notable feature of the growing climate movement.

And legal experts said the decision could be replicated around the world, as governments battle tensions between economic agendas with concerns over man-made damage to the climate.

"The last year has seen a surge in litigation across the globe associated with the effects and risks of climate change," Mary Anne Roff, a partner at the London law firm Clyde & Company, said in remarks sent to CNN.

"The Court of Appeal made clear that they have not decided that there will be no third runway at Heathrow. Nor have they decided that a national policy statement supporting this project is necessarily incompatible with the UK's commitment to reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change," she added.

"But their insistence on the Government complying with its commitment to the provisions of the Paris Agreement underlines the continuing and increasing importance that those involved with the planning, construction and operation of infrastructure and other major projects must take climate change into account."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Climate activists just blocked plans to expand Heathrow, one of the world's biggest airports."
An upstate New York man who has been convicted of killing his first wife in a house fire and crushing his son with a truck for insurance money has likened the deaths to other instances of 'bad luck' in his life, including losing a horse and having a barn burn down.

Karl Karlsen, 60, was found guilty earlier this month of first-degree murder by arson for setting fire to his family's home in California in 1991 that killed his then-wife and the mother of their three children, Christina Karlsen.

He faces a sentence of life without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced next month over his wife's arson death motivated by a $200,000 life insurance policy, which Karlsen had taken out in Christina's name just 19 days before the fire.

Karlsen, who is already serving a prison sentence of 15 years to life for the 2008 murder of his 23-year-old son, Levi, has sat down to an interview with NBC's Dateline, which is scheduled to air at 9pm on Friday.

Convicted killer Karl Karlsen, 60, sits down to an interview with NBC's Dateline to discuss the deaths of his first wife, Christina, and his son 17 years apart

Karlsen's son, Levi Karlsen, was 23 years old when he was crushed to death while repairing a truck on his father's property

The deaths of Christina and her son Levi Karlsen have enriched Karl by more than $900,000 in life insurance payouts

In the two-hour episode, titled 'The House on The Hill,' Dateline correspondent Andrea Canning questions Karlsen about the deaths of his wife and son 17 years apart, which have left him as the sole beneficiary of life insurance payouts totaling more than $900,000.

'Bad luck that they died?' Canning asks the convicted killer sitting across from her.

'What would you call it?' Karlsen shoots back. 'I've had many other things in my life that... I've had horses died, I've had a barn fire.'

When the reporter presses Karlsen on whether he considers himself 'a victim of bad luck,' he offers a vague response, saying: 'If I told you everything, you wouldn't believe what's happened to me.'

The Dateline episode also features new interviews with Karlsen's second wife, Cindy, who helped police bring him to justice by wearing a wire, Christine's sister Colette Bousson and Karl's brother, Mike Karlsen.

Karl's children long suspected Karlsen was responsible for their mother's death.

On New Year's Day in 1991, Christina, who was 30 at the time, died trapped in the bathroom of the couple's home in Murphys, California, after spilled kerosene and a faulty electric light ignited a fire.

Karlsen, Christina and their three children were living in Murphys, California, when Karl set fire to the home after boarding up the bathroom window, leading to his wife's death

Karl later claimed he could not rescue Christina (left and right) after saving all three of their kids from the burning home

A firefighter who responded to the scene described for Dateline a harrowing scene, with smoke rising from the ravaged home. After a few minutes, his partner announced that he found Christina's body.

When Levi Karlsen died in what was initially deemed an accident in 2008, leaving behind a wife and two daughters, his father cashed in on his $700,000 life insurance policy

Karlsen was credited with saving Levi and the couple's two daughters, Erin and Katie, by getting them out of the burning home.

He told investigators at the time that he was not able to go back for his wife.

It was later determined that Christina couldn't escape through the bathroom window because Karlsen had boarded it up from the outside just days earlier because it was supposedly broken.

Investigators listed Christina's official cause of death as an accident.

Karlsen left California with his three children two weeks later and used the $200,000 life insurance money to buy a home in New York.

In a 2013 interview with ABC News, the couple's daughter Erin Deroche - who was just six at the time - recalled hearing her mother screaming as the fire burned.

'At the time, I was six years old. I didn't understand that my mother was behind that wall dying,' Deroche said.

As she got older, Deroche said she was able to process what happened and came to believe that her father didn't do enough to help save her mother.

'He didn't make an effort to save her. He just stood there,' Deroche said.

Karl's second wife, Cindy (right), helped police bring him to justice when in 2012 she agreed to wear a wire and elicited a partial confession from him about his son's death

'That's not how people are supposed to act when someone they love is trapped and literally burning in front of them.'

Deroche said she and her brother Levi were about 11 or 12 when they secretly discussed the possibility that their father was somehow involved in their mother's death.

Levi, a married father of two young daughters, died on November 20, 2008 in an apparent accident when he was just 23.

An old Chevy pickup truck fell on top of his chest, crushing it and killing him, while he was working underneath it doing repairs at his father's property in upstate New York.

Karl, by then married to his second wife, found his son in the garage and told Cindy to call 911. The family had jest returned home from another relative's funeral.

Levi's death, like his mother's 17 years prior, was initially ruled an accident.

Police started looking into the case when a family member tipped them off that Karlsen had claimed his son's $707,000 life insurance payout.

In early February, a California jury convicted Karlsen of first-degree murder by arson in the killing of his first wife in 1991

In 2012, Cindy Karlsen became alarmed after learning that her husband had taken out a $1.2million life insurance policy on her.

Fearful that she might be next to die, she agreed to cooperate with the police by secretly recording her conversation with Karl, in which he admitted to removing his truck's front tires and raising it on a single jack before Levi volunteered to do the repairs.

Following a 10-hour interrogation, Karlsen eventually told police he had been there when the truck fell on his son. He maintained it was an accident but admitted that he left his son to die.

He later pleaded guilty in exchange for 15 years to life in prison.

After Karlsen was charged with his son's murder, police in California reopened the investigation into his first wife's death, eventually bringing formal charges against him.
Watertown, NY (13601)

Today

Snow showers this evening becoming more scattered later. Low near 25F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 40%..

Tonight

Snow showers this evening becoming more scattered later. Low near 25F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 40%.
Far-flung Uranus and Neptune -- the ice giants of our solar system -- are as mysterious as they are distant. Soon after its launch in 2021, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will change that by unlocking secrets of the atmospheres of both planets.

The cold and remote giant planets Uranus and Neptune are nicknamed the "ice giants" because their interiors are compositionally different from Jupiter and Saturn, which are richer in hydrogen and helium, and are known as the "gas giants." The ice giants are also much smaller than their gaseous cousins, being intermediate in size between terrestrial planets and the gas giants. They represent the least-explored category of planet in our solar system. Scientists using Webb plan to study the circulation patterns, chemistry and weather of Uranus and Neptune in a way only Webb can.

"The key thing that Webb can do that is very, very difficult to accomplish from any other facility is map their atmospheric temperature and chemical structure," explained the studies' leader, Leigh Fletcher, an associate professor of planetary science at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. "We think that the weather and climate of the ice giants are going to have a fundamentally different character compared to the gas giants. That's partly because they're so far away from the Sun, they're smaller in size and rotate slower on their axes, but also because the blend of gases and the amount of atmospheric mixing is very different compared with Jupiter and Saturn."

All the gases in the upper atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune have unique chemical fingerprints that Webb can detect. Crucially, Webb can distinguish one chemical from another. If these chemicals are being produced by sunlight interacting with the atmosphere, or if they're being redistributed from place to place by large-scale circulation patterns, Webb will be able to see that.

These studies will be conducted through a Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO) program of the solar system led by Heidi Hammel, a planetary scientist and Webb Interdisciplinary Scientist. She is also Vice President for Science at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) in Washington, D.C. Hammel's program will demonstrate the capabilities of Webb for observing solar system objects and exercise some of Webb's specific techniques for objects that are bright and/or are moving in the sky.

Uranus: The Tilted Planet

Unlike the other planets in our solar system, Uranus -- along with its rings and moons -- is tipped on its side, rotating at roughly a 90-degree angle from the plane of its orbit. This makes the planet appear to roll like a ball around the Sun. That weird orientation -- which may be the result of a gargantuan collision with another massive protoplanet early in the formation of the solar system -- gives rise to extreme seasons on Uranus.

When NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, one pole was pointing directly at the Sun. "No matter how much Uranus would spin," Hammel explained, "one half was in complete sunlight all the time, and the other half was in total darkness. It's the craziest thing you can imagine."

Disappointingly, Voyager 2 saw only a billiard-ball smooth planet covered in haze, with only a scant handful of clouds. But when Hubble viewed Uranus in the early 2000s, the planet had traveled a quarter of the way around in its orbit. Now the equator was pointed at the Sun, and the entire planet was illuminated over the course of a Uranian day.

"Theory told us nothing would change," said Hammel, "But the reality was that Uranus started sprouting up all kinds of bright clouds, and a dark spot was discovered by Hubble. The clouds seemed to be changing dramatically in response to the immediate change in sunlight as the planet traveled around the Sun."

As the planet continues its slow orbital trek, it will point its other pole at the Sun in 2028.

Webb will give insight into the powerful seasonal forces driving the formation of its clouds and weather, and how this is changing with time. It will help determine how energy flows and is transported through the Uranian atmosphere. Scientists want to watch Uranus throughout Webb's life, to build up a timeline of how the atmosphere responds to the extreme seasons. That will help them understand why this planet's atmosphere seems to go through periods of intense activity punctuated by moments of calm.

Neptune: A World of Supersonic Winds

Neptune is a dark, cold world, yet it is whipped by supersonic winds that can reach up 1,500 miles per hour. More than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth, Neptune is the only planet in our solar system not visible to the naked eye. Its existence was predicted by mathematics before its discovery in 1846. In 2011, Neptune completed its first 165-year orbit since its discovery.

Like Uranus, this ice giant's very deep atmosphere is made of a thick soup of water, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and methane over an unknown and inaccessible interior. The accessible upper layers of the atmosphere are made of hydrogen, helium and methane. As with Uranus, the methane gives Neptune its blue color, but some still-mysterious atmospheric chemistry makes Neptune's blue a bit more striking than that of Uranus.

"It's the same question here: How does energy flow and how is it transported through a planetary atmosphere?" explained Fletcher. "But in this case, unlike Uranus, the planet has a strong internal heat source. That heat source generates some of the most powerful winds and the most short-lived atmospheric vortices and cloud features of anywhere in the solar system. If we look at Neptune from night to night, its face is always shifting and changing as these clouds are stretched and pulled and manipulated by the underlying wind field."

Following the 1989 Voyager 2 flyby of Neptune, scientists discovered a bright, hot vortex -- a storm -- at the planet's south pole. Because the temperature there is higher than everywhere else in the atmosphere, this region is likely associated with some unique chemistry. Webb's sensitivity will allow scientists to understand the unusual chemical environment within that polar vortex.

Just the Beginning

Fletcher advises to be prepared for seeing phenomena on Uranus and Neptune that are totally unlike what we've witnessed in the past. "Webb really has the capability to see the ice giants in a whole new light. But to understand the continual atmospheric processes that are shaping these giant planets, you really need more than just a couple of samples," he said. "So we compare Jupiter to Saturn to Uranus to Neptune, and by that, we build up a wider picture of how atmospheres work in general. This is the beginning of understanding how these worlds are changing with time."

Hammel added, "We now know of hundreds of exoplanets -- planets around other stars -- of the size of our local ice giants. Uranus and Neptune provide us ground truth for studies of these newly discovered worlds."

The James Webb Space Telescope will be the world's premier space science observatory when it launches in 2021. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

###

For more information about Webb, visit http://www.nasa.gov/webb.

Rob Gutro

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

301-286-4044

robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov

Ann Jenkins / Christine Pulliam

Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore

410-338-4488 / 410-338-4366

jenkins@stsci.edu / cpulliam@stsci.edu
Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.
A member of the notorious Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate has been ordered to pay back 1.2 million from a money laundering racket or face another seven years in prison.

Tommy Adams, 61, was locked up in 2017 after a police bug in a Holborn cafe recorded him discussing his illegal activities, and his associates were seen handing over a bag full of cash at Euston station.

Detectives then discovered a ledger, detailing Adams money laundering trail between Manchester and London, leading to a seven-year jail sentence being handed down.

At Croydon crown court yesterday, a judge ordered Adams to repay 1,243,270.75 within the next three months or face an extra seven years being added to his sentence.

Prosecutors had shown in confiscation proceedings how Adams had used the criminal money to fund his lifestyle, including buying properties in London and Cyprus and purchasing a 32,000 car for his daughter.

CPS lawyer Helen Hughes welcomed the confiscation order, saying: Money lies at the centre of this criminality and today Mr Adams has been ordered to pay over 1.24 million - handing over his dirty money for good or he faces more time in jail.

If at any point in the future we identify that he has other assets and has benefited to a greater extent, then we will apply to the court to increase the order and make him pay more.

Criminals like this must be stopped, which is why we work tirelessly to get the highest confiscation orders available, so they can start to repay their debt to society.

Adams was a leading member of the Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate, alongside brothers Terry and Patsy, which built up a fearsome reputation in the 1980s with suspected links to a string of murders, drugs, and gold bullion theft.

Tommy Adams has previous convictions dating back to the 1970s, including serving a seven-and-a-half year prison term for leading a drugs smuggling operation.
A quarantine official takes the temperature of a driver and collects a sputum sample to screen for the new coronavirus, Thursday, at a drive-thru testing facility at Yeungnam University Medical Center in Daegu, set up as a preventive measure against COVID-19. Such facilities have been expanded across the nation as the test is faster than a typical checkup at a hospital or public health center. / Yonhap



By Jun Ji-hye



The government's response to the outbreak of COVID-19 has been praised by a number of international health experts who expressed high regard for the country's significant test and diagnostic capability along with its real-time, transparent information system.



Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), shared data on virus patients, released by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), via Twitter, Feb. 22, calling it "very detailed COVID-19 reporting from South Korean health officials."



"They have tested, or are awaiting results on almost 20,000 individuals, demonstrating a significant diagnostic capability," he wrote. "They appear to have a current testing capacity of more than 3,000 cases a day."






Jose Manuel Romualdez, Philippine ambassador to the United States, (left) shakes hands with former Philippines Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, during a security forum in Manila, Feb. 28, 2020.

Updated at 4:40 p.m. ET on 2020-02-28

Philippine and U.S. defense officials and diplomats are working to salvage a defense alliance after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the country to drop out of a bilateral visiting forces agreement, the countrys envoy to Washington said Friday.

Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez told a security forum in Manila that a new agreement could take the form of a limited military engagement that could be similar to Philippine alliances with Australia and Japan.

We are now in the process of thinking how we can come up with a similar agreement, Romualdez said.

Needless to say, specifically the members of the U.S. Pentagon are extremely concerned about the VFA being terminated and how we will work, bilaterally on defense matters, he said, using the acronym for the Visiting Forces Agreement.

The U.S. is a major country that no one can ignore including China, Romualdez said, underscoring that the VFA was not the be all and end all of bilateral defense cooperation.

His statement came a day after a Philippine military spokesman said the country can quell security threats without Washingtons help.

The Feb. 11 announcement that the Philippines was leaving the VFA was in reaction to the U.S. government cancelling the visa of Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, Dutertes former national police chief who implemented the first phase of the nations drug war that has left thousands dead.

U.S. President Donald Trump has downplayed the effects of the pacts termination, saying his country would save money in the long run. It was also the Philippines loss, Trump said, emphasizing that U.S. troops helped drive militants linked to the Islamic State from the southern city of Marawi three years ago.

Romualdez said diplomats and defense officials of both countries would continue discussions and come up with recommendations to be given to Duterte, who earlier this week said that the Philippine military could stand up on its own.

The VFA will be terminated in August, 180 days after the Feb. 11 announcement. Romualdez did not say if negotiators would be ready with recommendations before then.

The VFA, adopted in 1999, allowed for large-scale joint military operations on Philippine soil years after the government decided to end the lease agreement on two major U.S. military bases a few years earlier. U.S. troops helped train Philippine forces against militants in the southern Mindanao region while assisting in blunting Chinas aggressive actions in the contested South China Sea region.

A Philippine activist burns effigies of President Rodrigo Duterte, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping during a rally in Manila, Nov. 30, 2019. [Basilio Sepe/BenarNews]

Joint training

Even as negotiators discuss efforts to continue military support between the nations, the U.S. Department of Defense touted joint counterterrorism training exercises held in January and February in Palawan.

In a news release posted Thursday on its website, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command noted that along with focusing on tactical skills, the training exercises would include outreach and civic-action programs in Filipino communities.

With the knowledge and experience gained from training shoulder-to-shoulder, the U.S. and Philippine troops continue to hone their counterterrorism tactics and skills. The joint training also helps to tighten the longstanding bond between U.S. and Philippine military forces, the news release said.

The U.S. State Department said it has received the notification from the Philippines.

"We are carefully considering how best to move forward to advance our shared interests," a spokesperson told BenarNews.

On Friday, retired Supreme Court justice Jose Antonio Carpio, a staunch critic of Chinas occupation of the West Philippine Sea (the Philippine name for the South China Sea), said Manila could seek alliances beyond the United States to protect its territory.

Under the United Nations charter, collective self-defense is allowed. We are allowed to defend our country against armed aggression, Carpio said during the forum.

We can enter into alliances to defend our country against China, which is actively occupying and invading our territory and the rest of the country, invading our maritime zones, he said.

Alliances could be forged with Japan or South Korea, Carpio said, as he challenged Duterte for claiming the Philippines can act by itself without assistance in the face of Chinas territorial threats.

I cannot see how the Philippines can be self-reliant against a regional superpower with nuclear arms like China, he said.
Until recently, insurtech not only was perceived as a competitive threat to independent agents, there was little startup activity dedicated to tackling the operational needs of insurance agents and brokers. Thats not the case anymore, according to one industry professional who specializes in technology-related products and services for insurance firms.

Theres this perception that insurtech is really for carriers and its our competition as independent agents. I want to dispel that myth because theres some really great insurtech solutions that are for the independent agent, said Doug Mohr, vice president, Industry Relations & Partnerships, at Vertafore.

Speaking at the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas Joe Vincent Management Seminar in Austin in late January, Mohr said theres now significant investment in insurtech providers that are addressing problems specific to the independent agent channel.

Insurtechs are starting from scratch  so theyre able to solve problems that we have had in our industry for years that we really havent had dedicated resources on, he said.

Theres now a focus on technology to help agents grow their books of business, particularly commercial insurance business, retain the business they already have, and communicate more efficiently with their customers.

When it comes to renewals, a lot of available applications have retention tools.  They will help you monitor and manage the retention. And make you more connected with your insureds through that renewal process, Mohr said. Many are using machine learning to recognize patterns and discrepancies in an agencys book of business, and to compare and check policies, both at renewal and during a policy audit. They help ensure no exclusions or coverages were missed when a particular piece of business was first written.

A lot of technological development is occurring in the area of process efficiency, Mohr said. For instance, take market appetite  being able to match up your carriers appetite with a particular piece of business that youre looking to place. There are some really exciting process efficiency solutions  in the marketplace.

There has been a lot of interest the commercial submissions process  targeting the work involved in filling out a large commercial submission. When the account is being sent to multiple markets the process is further compounded and, so far, agency management systems havent done a good job of streamlining that process, he said.

There have been six or eight startup companies in the last three, four years that are just solving that particular problem, Mohr said.

Digital distribution in both commercial lines and personal lines is also being addressed. For example, on the commercial lines side, there are startup solutions focused on quoting and binding. On the personal lines side, there have been significant developments aimed at automation and rating. Its taking the rating capabilities you might do in house and pushing those out to your website  and allowing your prospects, new business, to be able to get an initial rate from your website, Mohr said.

He acknowledged that rating automation is a sensitive topic. There are a lot of agents who want customers to interact with them in person. But we have to realize that the insureds want to do it on their time, the way they want to do it. That may start with rating on your website. However, he cautioned, you cant be following up with them three days later. You have to have a strategy for a quick follow up.

For agents considering investing new technologies, Mohr had several recommendations.

1. Dont adopt technology for technology sake. Set your business goals first  for the year, for the quarter, for the month  and then look at technologies that will help you achieve them. If youre not acquiring technology to solve a fundamental business goal, its my hypothesis it will most likely fail, Mohr said.

2. Use what you already have. Frankly, a large percentage of our customers that use our technology arent using it to its fullest. Look within what you already own and utilize what you have, he said. It may take going back to your agency management system partners and checking out any new developments they might have. If your current agency management or comparative rating systems arent up to the task, then start looking into other alternatives.

3. Create a list of whats available in the marketplace. Evaluate your options. When you try out a solution, evaluate it with a fine-tooth comb and be willing to fail. Its better to fail fast than to keep investing in something thats not going to work.

4. If youve got a system that works, use it and build on it. Mohr said one of the biggest mistakes agencies make is to get their system up and running, and then abandon it. He recommended having a staff member dedicated to the continued improvements in the system and an annual training budget to keep staff up to date.

Topics Carriers Agencies InsurTech Tech
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 13:15:24|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's central bank on Friday advised businesses not to refuse banknotes over the novel coronavirus as it has enhanced efforts to ensure the cash in circulation is clean to cut off the spread of the virus through money exchanges.

Businesses should improve their services and communication with consumers and not say no to cash, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said, citing recent complaints from the public over sporadic refusals.

The bank said it has increased new banknote supply to the market and organized financial institutions to sterilize cash to ensure safety.

Before the Spring Festival, the bank allocated about 4 billion yuan (about 571 million U.S. dollars) of new notes to Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, while a total of 600 billion yuan worth of new bills had been deployed across the country before Jan. 17.

Cash collected from key epidemic prevention and control areas will be disinfected using ultraviolet light or high temperatures, and stored for more than 14 days before being put back into the market. Cash collected from outside key epidemic prevention and control areas will be sterilized and stored for more than seven days before being put back into circulation, according to a PBOC guideline.

Besides, cross-provincial cash transfers between banks and intra-provincial transfers in seriously affected areas have been suspended to help contain the virus.

The bank also advises people to favor legal non-cash payment tools during the epidemic.
On the Nevada debate stage last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren flayed the billionaire Michael Bloomberg for Trumpish reviews of womens looks. In South Carolina on Tuesday, she focused on a former employees allegation that Mr. Bloomberg told her to kill it upon hearing of her pregnancy. She was referring to a subgenre in the history of Mr. Bloombergs sexist remarks  one concerned specifically with mothers. In a 1998 lawsuit, a former employee alleged that Mr. Bloomberg had demanded, What the hell did you do a thing like that for? of a newly pregnant employee. The suit also says he cruelly dismissed another employees difficulty finding child care, saying of an infant: It doesnt know the difference between you and anyone else! All you need is some black who doesnt even have to speak English to rescue it from a burning building! The lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed sum.

Misogyny reserved specifically for mothers is a curious thing. Discussions about sexism these days usually involve the consequences women face for being insufficiently feminine  for transgressing their prescribed roles by being too loud, too angry, too big, too strong, too much. But the great paradox of misogyny is that its object is womanhood itself  not traditional womanhood or nontraditional womanhood, but the very fact of being a woman. One cant dodge it by hewing to her place. Even in the archetypally feminine role of mother, women can find themselves the subjects of that old and storied hatred.

There are many species of mother-hatred. I suspect the oldest is the libertine style, in which motherhood is reviled for turning previously pert and nubile young women into softer, saggier, less sexually available versions of their prior selves. The ur-libertine the Marquis de Sade fantasized about inflicting torture and murder upon pregnant women, mothers and their infants. Most telling in his oeuvre is this line from his exhausting 18th-century novel Juliette: Picture her giving birth, this treasure of your heart; behold that shapeless mass of flesh squirm sticky and festering from the cavity where you believe felicity is to be found. So much for love or growth or even the future of the human race; the libertine has no time for such things, and neither does the libertine style of appraising women, which finds meager value in the sexually interesting and available, and none at all in the mother.

Then there is the psychoanalytic style in mother-hatred. This is a bit passe now, but there was a day when everyone from vaunted intellectuals to middlebrow bourgeois New Yorker perusers suspected that Freud had the right idea about sex and society. In this telling, overbearing mothers routinely emasculated their male children with their nagging and guilting, eventually inspiring a misogynistic backlash among their sons, either in an effort to recover lost dignity or establish a separate masculine identity. As the feminist sociologist Miriam M. Johnson wrote in her 1990 book, Strong Mothers, Weak Wives: The devaluation of women (by both women and men) is not an inevitable reaction formation to womens prominence in early child care. It is a choice. That her obvious intervention was needed on that count is an indictment of a warped moral framework as much as any odd fashion in psychology.
 Close Brexit briefing: How long until the end of the transition period?

Boris Johnsons plan to walk away from talks with the EU by the end of June unless there is a broad outline of a Canada-style free trade deal has been met with dismay in Brussels. EU diplomats reportedly believe a dramatic crisis lies ahead this summer.

Frances Europe minister Amelie de Montchalin said the bloc would refuse to accept artificial deadlines in trade talks. We do not accept time pressure, Montchalin told an audience at Chatham House in London on Friday.

Mr Johnson will convene the governments Cobra committee in response to a growing number of cases of the coronavirus  but has been ridiculed for scheduling an emergency meeting for Monday.
Last year, the song Truth Hurts, by the R&B and pop singer Lizzo, was one of musics most extraordinary success stories, a two-year-old track that became a No. 1 hit and established Lizzo as a bold and charismatic new star.

The authorship of Truth Hurts also became one of the industrys most closely watched controversies, after Lizzo was accused by two songwriting brothers, Justin and Jeremiah Raisen, of taking her songs signature boast  a wisecrack about the results of a DNA test, which itself came from a tweet  from another song they had written with her, and denying them credit.

Lizzo responded in October by suing the Raisens and another writer who said he was involved in the original track, saying their claims did not have any merit, and announcing that she would be granting writing credit and royalties to the woman behind the tweet that had started it all. By the time the Grammys came around  with Lizzo as a top contender  the controversy around the song was barely being talked about.

But on Friday, the Raisens filed a detailed counterclaim seeking credit and royalties on Truth Hurts, arguing that their work in a joint early songwriting session set the DNA test line to music. If not for the Raisens work as songwriters and producers in that session, they said in their complaint, Lizzo would never have collected her Grammy Award, for best pop solo performance on Truth Hurts.
Delivering the perfect wedding speech is far from easy, and once someone crosses the line, it's hard to bounce back. Not only have they ruined the moment, but there is a good chance they'll never live down their blunder.

Proving that people never forget bad speeches, Reddit users shared the worst and most offensive things they ever heard someone say at a wedding in a 2018 thread that is so cringe-worthy it keeps resurfacing online two years later.

Guests recalled everything from a best man who paid tribute to the groom's late wife to a maid of honor who attempted an awkward joke about masturbation in front of the newlyweds' horrified family.

Unforgettable: Reddit users have shared the worst and most offensive things they ever heard someone say at a wedding in a cringe-worthy thread (stock image)

For real? One of the worst was the man who used his wedding speech as an opportunity to publicly ask his wife for a divorce

'The only thing the best man said was "Well, were all here today for one reason, a good woman died. May she Rest In Peace." About the groom's late (first) wife, who passed away over 10 years ago,' one person recalled.

Another Reddit user proudly admitted to making an uncomfortable joke about the groom being a widower.

'I'd like to take this time to welcome the bride into our family. I've been told you have a clean bill of health so let's hope the third time's the charm,' the person wrote, explaining: 'I said that at my father's 3rd wedding. He's a two-time widower.'

Some left wedding guests feeling extremely uncomfortable with their embarrassing insinuations about the brides' sex lives.

One Reddit user recalled a maid of honor saying: '"We have so many great memories together. One of my favorites was when you taught me about the jets in the hot tub." ...obviously implying masturbation.'

The person said the joke was told 'in front of a room of three hundred people' and there was 'dead silence.'

Yikes: Guests recalled everything from the best man making jokes about the groom being a widower to the drunk man who threw up before he could even deliver his speech

Someone else said the best man at their cousin Paul's wedding made a mortifying comment about the bride going from riding horses to riding her new husband.

'He gave a speech about how the bride, Julia, used to love horse-riding, but after she started dating Paul she was no longer interested in horse riding. The best man said, "Women just need something big and masculine between their legs." Cue a load of shocked speechless grandparents,' the person wrote.

One of the most outrageous speeches in the thread ended with 'the Best Man getting drunk and asking his current wife for a divorce into the microphone because she just won't f*****g leave me unless I make a big deal of it."'

In another, the groom's mother made it clear that she wished her son had married someone else  someone who was also at the wedding.

'Mother of the groom called the wife "Elizabeth" in her speech,' one Reddit user explained. 'Elizabeth wasn't her name. Elizabeth was the name of the groom's best friend who happened to be an attractive woman. More attractive than the wife. Elizabeth is who the mother wanted her son to marry. Elizabeth was there, too.'

Meanwhile, one father of the groom made it clear that he was a huge fan of his new daughter-in-law.

'My dad made a speech at my brothers wedding saying that if my brother didnt get to her first he would have married her. It was so awkward and so inappropriate,' someone admitted.

Awkward: One mother of the groom called her new daughter-in-law the wrong name, while someone's dad made it clear that he wishes he could have married the bride

Some of the biggest wedding mishaps occurred when a guest decided to take the mic after having way too much to drink.

One person recalled the best man waddling up to the podium, visibly drunk.

'He opens up his folder with his speech in it. Opens his mouth to say his first words and projectile vomits directly over the podium,' the commenter explained. 'He says into the mic, "Whoops that's not what I meant to say." Groomsmen drag him off and away.'

Then there were those who insulted the bride  whether they meant to or not.

'Best Man speech: "Back in high school when Bill first told me he liked Jackie I said Jackie!? Ewww! But that's how I knew Bill really liked her for who she was as a person." ....Jackie was not very attractive,' someone shared in the thread.

One person recounted being at a wedding where someone said: 'Well this wedding was nice and all, but I'm sure all the married couples here know it's not a real marriage until you start having children!'

The Reddit user noted that 'the bride was infertile.'

And then more often than not, people who are uncomfortable with being in the spotlight and end up going on nervous tangents during their speeches.

'I wasn't there to see it, but a buddy of mine told me about a bad one he witnessed his cousin give. Basically, best man got all flustered/froze up, didn't know what to say, etc., and he ended up congratulating my friend (who was not the groom, mind you) on being accepted into the University of Michigan. Go Blue?' one person shared.
Turkey was retaliating against the Syrian regime after 22 Turkish soldiers were killed in an air strike blamed on Damascus, an official said Friday, as he urged the international community to fulfil its responsibilities.

"All known targets of the regime have come and will continue to come under fire from the air and ground," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's communications director, Fahrettin Altun, said in a statement.

"We urge the international community to fulfil its responsibilities," Altun added, to stop the regime's "crimes against humanity".

"We cannot stand by and watch as past events in Rwanda, and Bosnia and Herzegovina are repeated today in Idlib," Altun said.

Turkey's activities on the ground in Syria would continue, he added.

Syrian rebel supporter Ankara has 12 observation posts in Idlib, set up after a 2018 deal with Damascus ally Russia in a bid to prevent a regime offensive.

But despite the agreement, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has pressed ahead with an assault to retake the last rebel-held bastion, backed by Russian air support.

The latest incident means a total of 42 Turkish security personnel have been killed this month in Idlib.

Ruling party spokesman Omer Celik told CNN Turk broadcaster on Friday that Turkey was "fed up with condemnations and statements", adding that Ankara sought "concrete" action from its international partners.

"The regime elements are now an enemy element for the Turkish Republic," Celik added. "This is not just an attack on Turkey, but an attack on international law, the international community."



Some soldiers were injured after the latest incident and taken to hospital in Turkey for treatment, local officials said, without giving exact figures.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A federal judge in Portland said he wont block new city housing screening and security deposit rules going into effect this weekend because a rental industry group waited too long to file a legal challenge.

U.S. District Judge Michael Simon on Thursday said he was denying a request from Multifamily NW for a temporary restraining order to delay two Fair Access in Renting ordinances because the near yearlong gap between when the city council approved them and when the group sued last Friday implies a lack of urgency or a lack of irreparable harm.

Multifamily NW and two landlords sued the city claiming the new rules were unconstitutional and ultimately should never go into effect. Simon said he didnt believe U.S. District Court was the appropriate venue to sort out the constitutionality of city policies.

I think at some point were all going to be better off getting decisions on state law questions from the state appellate courts, he said.

The traditional route, he said, is a lawsuit is filed in circuit court, where a decision can be reviewed by the Oregon Court of Appeals and possibly later to the Oregon Supreme Court, if they choose to take up the issue.

The ordinances are the first of their kind in the country and go into effect March 1. The Portland City Council voted last June to change the city code revising the screening criteria for landlords to use when evaluating a renters application.

The changes include requiring landlords choose renters on a first-come, first-serve basis and to give 72 hours notice before accepting applications. Landlords would no longer be allowed to check for felony convictions older than seven years or misdemeanors older than three years.

The new rules also lay out new tenant screening criteria. Landlords may no longer reject prospective tenants for credit scores as low as 500, a court eviction order older than three years or insufficient credit history. Landlords also may no longer reject a tenant whose income is between 2 and 2.5 times the rent.

Landlords may substitute their own screening criteria. If they do, however, the new policy requires them to explain in writing why they rejected a prospective tenant.

The new city code also requires landlords to more thoroughly account for security deposit funds withheld for repairs and allows tenants to pay security deposits in installments over three months.

The Portland Housing Bureau has been offering free training for landlords on the ordinances.

Commissioner Chloe Eudalys office, which has championed the ordinances, has said the policies were intended to increase access to housing for people who have been locked out of the conventional market because of years-old convictions or financial defaults. They said research showed screening barriers, including credit history and criminal history, disproportionately impact people of color and that renting to people with past criminal convictions didnt put housing providers or rental properties at risk.

In court Thursday, Simon encouraged the two parties to discuss how they would like the lawsuit to proceed. He said hed be open to halting the proceedings of the federal lawsuit if Multifamily NW chooses to challenge city rules in state court or preside over a bench trial in federal court, if it came down to it.

Jill Gibson, an attorney representing the group, said last week that the lawsuit was filed after failed negotiations with the city. She said in court that her clients didnt want to wait until the ordinances went into effect to launch legal challenges.

Once these rules go into effect there will be landlords and tenants throughout Portland trying to understand what these mean, Gibson said. We believe its better to get that clarified first before people start suing each other.

Deborah Imse, Multifamily NWs executive director, said in a statement that she was disappointed in Simons ruling but said her group was looking forward to continuing the next steps of this case and getting relief from this unworkable ordinance.

The lawsuit said landlords are required to pay $250 per violation of the screening criteria ordinance or pay double the amount of the security deposit if found in violation of the other. They would also have to pay attorney fees in both cases.

The ordinances passed by the Portland City Council violate free speech protections by requiring landlords to use certain language when advertising units and send notices issued by the city to applicants and tenants and prohibiting them from speaking to prospective tenants before processing applications, according to the lawsuit.

The policies are also too vague and dont completely inform housing providers on how to stay in compliance, have penalties that are too steep and appear to conflict with existing statewide landlord-tenant regulations, said attorney Jill Gibson, who represents the group. She said the lawsuit resulted from at least a year of trying to negotiate with city officials to make the rules more understandable and more fair.

In a response to the request for the restraining order, Portland city attorneys disagreed that the ordinances were unconstitutional and said Multifamily NW were overstating negative impacts landlords would face once they became active.

The ordinances are not vague and require common sense and logic in order to comply, said a response filed Tuesday signed by City Attorney Tracy Reeve and four deputy city attorneys. Plaintiffs fear [of] being sued because they do not, as landlords, know how to process rental applications or use a tenants security deposit to repair only those damages caused by the tenant is grossly exaggerated.

[Read the lawsuit]

[Read City of Portlands response to delay ordinances request]

-- Everton Bailey Jr; ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 | @EvertonBailey

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
The organisers of Baselworld, one of the world's biggest watch fairs, said Friday they would cancel the 2020 event after the Swiss government banned mass assemblies over the spread of the deadly new coronavirus.

"For health safety reasons and in accordance with the precautionary principle following the bans of large-scale public and private events ... Baselworld announces that it has taken the decision to postpone the show," it said in a statement.

The show, which was to be held from April 30 to May 5, will now be put off until next January, it said.

The came after the Swiss government on Friday announced it was suspending all public and private events with more than 1,000 participants until at least March 15, invoking emergency powers to do so.

A range of other major events in the wealthy Alpine nation have also been cancelled, including the Geneva International Motor Show, as well as another large watch show, the Watches and Wonders Geneva.

The Baselworld organisers said they had taken this "difficult decision in close consultation with its partners and the health authorities in charge".

"Following today's official ban on large public gatherings which meant direct repercussions for the show, Baselworld had no other option than to make a decision as all preparations, in particular, construction in the halls and of the stands was scheduled to commence next week," they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
" " The Centers for Disease Control activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to assist public health partners respond to the novel coronavirus outbreak. Centers for Disease Control

This article was first published on Feb. 27, 2020 and last updated on March 11, 2020.

The virus that causes novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is continuing to spread across the globe. To date more than 4,290 people have died and more than 118,162 people have been infected with COVID-19 worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). China was home to more than 80,000 of the cases. The Chinese government took unprecedented steps to curb the virus by placing almost 60 million people on lockdown, and banning travel to and from 15 cities in the Chinese province of Hubei. Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also put the entire country, which includes 60 million residents, on lockdown on Tuesday, March 10, 2020, to contain the spread of the virus.

At least 11 European countries, including Italy, Spain, France and Switzerland, as well as the United States, now have confirmed cases. One of Iran's top clerics, Hadi Khosroshahi, died Feb. 27, 2020, from the virus and two members of Iran's parliament announced on social media that they, too, had been infected.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta confirmed on Feb. 26, 2020, that the United States had its first patient affected with coronavirus via what's known as "community spread." Community spread means spread of an illness for which the source of infection is unknown, and it's also one of two factors that meet the CDC's criteria of a pandemic, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a news conference Feb. 26. But by March 10, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had to call out the National Guard to help create a 1-mile containment area in New Rochelle, New York, to help stop what is being called a "cluster" of COVID-19 cases there.

This rapid spread of the coronavirus across the globe prompted WHO to officially declare the outbreak a pandemic during its daily news conference on March 11. From WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus:

In the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China has increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries has tripled. There are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 people have lost their lives. In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries climb even higher. WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic. Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death.

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What's the Difference Between an Epidemic and a Pandemic?

So what does that mean? "Pandemics are different from epidemics as [they] signify most areas of the world and most human populations are at risk," Dr. Aneesh Mehta, associate professor in the division of infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, explains via email. "In general, a pandemic is an outbreak of an infectious disease that is demonstrating sustained human-to-human spread in multiple regions of the world, and is occurring in most, if not all, populations."

Epidemics are usually localized to one specific region of the world. Some transmission of the disease may jump to other regions but spread outside the area where the disease initially developed is small. Epidemics are generally declared and defined by national public health agencies, such as the CDC and/or the WHO, Mehta says. "An epidemic usually refers to a disease that demonstrates a rapid increase in cases over a short period of time. The disease could be occurring in the general population or in specific populations."

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Who Declares a Virus a Pandemic?

WHO defines a pandemic as the worldwide spread of a new disease. Until this March 11 announcement, the last time it declared a worldwide pandemic was on June 9, 2009, for H1N1 swine flu. The CDC estimates that there were 274,304 hospitalizations and 12,469 deaths from H1N1  in the United States alone  between April 12, 2009, and April 10, 2010.

"The 1918 H1N1 pandemic is a classic example of a high-impact pandemic," Mehta says. Better known as "the Spanish Flu," it was the most severe pandemic in recent history, killing an estimated 50 million people worldwide, and infecting nearly one-third of the world's population.

Currently, WHO uses a six-phase approach to determine when a virus reaches the level of a pandemic. Phases one through three relate to preparedness, while phases four through six signal the need for immediate response and mitigation.

"Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO's assessment of the threat posed by this virus. It doesnt change what WHO is doing, and it doesn't change what countries should do," Ghebreyesus said. "We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus. This is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus. And we have never before seen a pandemic that can be controlled, at the same time. WHO has been in full response mode since we were notified of the first cases.

" " The World Health Organization uses a six-phase approach to determine when a virus reaches the level of a pandemic. World Health Organization

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How Will Local Public Health Agencies Respond?

The CDC's Messonnier stopped short of declaring coronavirus a pandemic in a news conference Feb. 26, 2020, but said the U.S. "has been implementing an aggressive containment strategy that requires detecting, tracking and isolating all cases."

Mehta says most states and local public health agencies have their own pandemic preparedness and response plans. "In addition, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) has developed Hospital Preparedness Programs (HPP) that helps hospitals and health care systems develop pandemic preparedness plans," he says. "ASPR has also funded the National Ebola Training and Education Center (NETEC) to develop educational programs and on-site training to help hospitals and public health agencies prepare together for infectious diseases outbreaks."

During the March 11 WHO news conference, Ghebreyesus implored countries to activate and scale up their emergency response mechanisms, and to prepare and be ready. "Communicate with your people about the risks and how they can protect themselves  this is everybody's business," he said.

He also outlined ways for countries to prepare:

Find, isolate, test and treat every case and trace every contact

ready the hospitals and health care facilities

scale up emergency response mechanisms

protect and train health workers

Ghebreyesus ended his portion of the news conference by saying: "Let me give you some other words that matter much more, and that are much more actionable: Prevention. Preparedness. Public health. Political leadership. And most of all, people. We're in this together, to do the right things with calm and protect the citizens of the world. It's doable."

Now That's Crazy Hundreds of colleges, universities and employers are insisting students and employees stay home due to the coronavirus. Yale, Harvard, Syracuse University, The Ohio State, the University of Maryland system and Rice University are just a few of the colleges and universities canceling in-person classes and opting for online classes for the foreseeable future. Major tech companies, including Google, Facebook and Amazon, also are insisting employees stay home to do their jobs.

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Originally Published: Feb 27, 2020
Boris Johnson today insisted he had a grip on the spiralling coronavirus crisis following a backlash for his slow response.

The Prime Minister pushed back at accusations of weak leadership and claimed that preventing a major British outbreak was the government's 'top priority'.

He said he had met with the chief medical officer and reassured that the NHS was equipped to deal with a coronavirus epidemic.

And he added that everyone could do their part by 'washing our hands for twenty seconds or more with hot water and soap'.

Mr Johnson has come under fire for his response to both the flooding and coronavirus crises, with rivals branding him a 'part-time prime minister'.

This outrage threatened to boil over today when it emerged he has scheduled a COBRA meeting for Monday, rather than calling a round-table of the government's top officials immediately.

The PM, who has been back at Number 10 for the past week, swatted away accusations of inaction when quizzed in a TV interview this evening

He said there have been 'regular series of COBRA meetings to prepare for this eventuality,' yet Monday's will be the first one he will chair.

Mr Johnson said: 'On the issue of coronavirus, which obviously is a great concern to people, I just want to reassure everybody and say that the NHS is making every possible preparation.

The Prime Minister said he had been in meetings with the chief medical officer and had made preventing the spread of infection the government's 'top priority'

Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives at Downing Street today, after national outrage for his slow response reached a crescendo

'As you can imagine, the issue of coronavirus is something that is now the Government's top priority.

'I have just had a meeting with the chief medical officer and Secretary of State for Health talking about the preparations that we need to make.'

In a signal the government was cranking up its response, emergency laws have been drafted to firefight an outbreak.

The new laws will include the ability to suspend maximum class sizes to allow teachers to take on pupils when colleagues are off sick. Lessons could take place outside schools.

Ministers are also considering suspending laws that limit lorry drivers to 56 hours a week to stop supply chains collapsing if sickness levels rise. In a 'worst case scenario', military doctors could help in NHS hospitals.

The PM was also asked if he regretted not evacuating earlier the Britons trapped aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Yokahama, where today a UK citizen died.

Mr Johnson said: 'We regret the loss of life of the individual concerned... But we believe it's best st not to move too many people around unless absolutely sure there's not going to be a spread or contagion to this country - that's the principle we're adopting.'

He added that the government would be issuing further advice on how to prevent the spread of the disease on UK soil in the coming days, following COBRA.

Earlier today, the PM's political rivals lined up to blast him for his handling of the health crisis.

Reacting to the scheduled COBRA meeting, Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: 'Our part-time prime minister needs to get a grip of this escalating situation quickly.

'It shouldn't take another three days for this meeting to take place. People are understandably worried.

'Boris Johnson should drop his childish ban on ministers appearing on BBC radio programmes.

'The public deserves to hear what plans are in place to deal with the outbreak.'

Lib Dem acting leader Ed Davey said: 'People across the country are anxious and concerned about coronavirus: they want to see leadership.

'The Liberal Democrats called on Boris Johnson to chair a COBRA meeting weeks ago to ensure everything was being done to prepare for a potential coronavirus outbreak.

'With the NHS already so stretched, it's gobsmacking that the Prime Minister has delayed chairing COBRA for so long.

He spoke directly to Britons when he advised everyone to 'wash our hands for twenty seconds or more with hot water and soap'

The global number of infected has surpassed 83,000, and the death toll has hit 2,868

'Just like his failure to visit communities hit by flooding, on Coronavirus Johnson seems like he'd rather bury his head in the sand than hear for himself what the experts are saying and what his Ministers are doing.'

It is highly unusual for a COBRA meeting to be announced days in advance, but it is said to have been called on Monday for 'logistical' reasons.

Mr Johnson viewed Coronavirus preparations on a surprise visit to Kettering General Hospital last night, as he steps up his involvement.

Over the parliamentary recess, Mr Johnson has been spending time in Chevening, the foreign secretary's official residence as renovation works prevented him staying at Chequers.

There are 20 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, including the first cases in Northern Ireland and Wales.

The global number of infected has surpassed 83,000, and the death toll has hit 2,867.

But despite the epidemic spilling out of mainland China and into the wider world, the government has been slammed for continuing its boycott of the BBC's flagship morning current affairs show, the Today programme.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson did the government's broadcast round this morning, appearing on 5 Live, LBC and Talk Radio.

Health Minister Helen Whately said it was 'likely' more people in the UK would contract coronavirus and that plans were in place should it become a pandemic.

The Conservative MP told BBC Newsnight: 'I can't reiterate enough that we are well prepared but we do have to recognise that it is likely we will see more cases in the UK.

'We have plans in place and have carried out exercises so in the event of something like a 'flu pandemic, we are ready.'

Asked whether that meant mass gatherings could be banned and schools closed, such as in parts of Italy, she said such measures were 'being considered'.

'Clearly, how to deal with those sorts of things absolutely has been considered and is being considered. That is rightly all part of the planning,' she added.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday deputed a five-member team to visit the riot-affected areas in northeast Delhi and submit a report to her after which the delegation met with some of the victims of violence at city hospitals.

The delegation comprises All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Mukul Wasnik, AICC in-charge Delhi Shaktisinh Gohil, Haryana Congress chief Kumari Selja, former MP Tariq Anwar and Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev.

The Congress president has deputed a delegation of party leaders to visit the riot-affected areas in the national capital and asked them to assess the situation emanating from the mindless violence and its after effects, the party said in a statement.

The team has been asked to submit a "detailed report to the Congress president immediately", it said.

The Congress leaders who are part of the team held a meeting at the party headquarters here. Selja could not participate as she was in Haryana due to prior engagements, but will join the team soon.

Later, the delegation members visited Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital and another private hospital to meet people who were injured in the violence.

Sources said the leaders will visit the violence-hit areas over the next couple of days and then submit the report to the Congress chief soon.

A Congress delegation led by Sonia Gandhi on Thursday had urged President Ram Nath Kovind to call for his resignation and remind the Centre of its "raj dharma".

Reading out parts of the memorandum that the party submitted to the president, Gandhi had said both the Delhi government and the Centre remained "mute spectators" instead of trying to take remedial measures to control the situation.

The delegation had included former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, P Chidambaram, K C Venugopal, Mallikarjuna Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Anand Sharma, A K Antony, Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala.

The death toll in the Delhi's communal violence has gone up to 42 now with four more fatalities being recorded on Friday, officials said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Businessman and former MP Clive Palmer has been hit with fresh criminal charges from the corporate watchdog.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission commissioner John Price revealed the development during a joint parliamentary committee hearing on Friday.

The corporate watchdog on Friday revealed four new charges it has laid against Mr Palmer. Credit:AAP Image/Dan Peled

The watchdog this month laid four charges against Mr Palmer for dishonestly gaining an advantage and dishonestly using his position as the director of a corporation. Mr Price would not elaborate on which business activities the charges related to.

During the corporations and financial services committee hearing, Perth Labor MP Patrick Gorman asked Mr Price about the ASIC investigation into Queensland Nickel, which he had raised in a previous hearing.
A car parked on a footpath causes an obstruction to pedestrians across the road from Fane Street Primary School

Residents in south Belfast have renewed their calls for urgent measures to tackle the ongoing issue of illegal parking.

Those living on streets off the Lisburn Road are angry and frustrated by parking, which they say has reached capacity in recent years due to the expansion of the nearby City Hospital and Queen's University.

They claim the problem is now so bad that mothers with prams are being forced to walk down busy roads because drivers are regularly parking on long stretches of footpaths which are too narrow to get past.

One area of concern is parking in the area surrounding the gates of Fane Street Primary School.

While police have ticketed some illegally parked cars, residents are wondering how long this will continue before a permanent solution is found.

One parent who lives in the next street, Ashley Avenue, said: "My son attends the nursery on Ashley Drive and we cannot collect him on foot because it's not safe to wheel a pram around the corners.

"You cannot trust that cars will be going slow enough to see pedestrians unable to walk on the footpath.

"I'm sure everyone would agree that the safety of children and wheelchair users should take priority over parking.

"It is a serious issue for residents of that street in particular and needs addressing."

James Fee, the Neighbourhood Watch coordinator with Windsor Community Association, said illegal parking is "choking" residents who are faced with "too many cars and not enough room".

He said: "More and more residents are approaching me to say how the Lisburn Road now resembles a motorway due to the amount of traffic and fumes they have to breathe in.

"Mothers with young children and babies attending the school's nursery unit are forced on to the road into the path of oncoming traffic turning the corners.

"In other cities there are traffic measures in built up areas near primary schools. I keep being asked by residents why nothing is being done and that this would not be tolerated anywhere else.

"I have asked for double yellow lines to be placed at these junctions. It's an easily implemented measure and something that has the overwhelming support of the entire neighbourhood.

"This is not a car park for those wishing to avoid city centre parking charges. It is a footpath en route to a primary school.

"One day when I was at Ashley Drive and witnessed illegal parking at this junction for myself, despite police issuing fines a driver told me that it's cheaper to pay the odd fine than it is to pay for city centre parking or even the train fare," Mr Fee said.

A spokesperson for the Department for Infrastructure said: "We are aware of traffic related concerns in the area and we are keen to work in partnership with the local school, the police and local residents to see if there are any workable solutions.

"A meeting will be held with PSNI early next week and officials will also arrange to meet soon with local residents.

"Traffic attendants routinely carry out enforcement on Fane Street and will continue to do so. We would ask anyone who lives in or visits the area to park responsibly, showing consideration for children and local residents."
In order to address the complaints and grievances of party workers the BJP will restart its Sahyog cell (support cell) from March 3.

The Sahyog cell was started by BJP in 2014 after the formation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government. Every week, a union minister used to listen to the problems of party workers and resolve them.

However, in 2019, the cell stopped working. BJP's president JP Nadda took cognizance and issued directions for restarting the Sahyog cell.

As per the directions, a minister will listen to the problems of party workers five days a week.

In the first meeting of the cell the Union Government Minister Piyush Goyal will hear the complaint of the workers and give necessary directions for their redressal.

Union Minister of State VK Singh will interact with the party workers on March 4, while Smriti Irani on and Mahendra Nath Pandey will hear their problems on March 5 and March 6 respectively in the party's Sahyog cell.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Published on 2020/02/28 | Source

Health officials are dispatched to shut down a Sincheonji church in Gwangju on Thursday. /Yonhap

The secretive Shincheonji sect on Thursday promised to hand over contact details of around 60,000 trainees in addition to a list of 212,324 followers in Korea and another 33,281 overseas.

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That puts the official number of followers at 310,732, much higher than originally thought. They often hide their affiliation even from friends and family members but go around proselytizing out of their sight.

The sect's Daegu church became a hotbed of new infections because its prayer meetings last for hours in confined spaces.

On Tuesday the leader, Lee Man-hee, who has declared himself the Second Coming and claims to receive direct messages from God, in a letter to his followers and a spokesman for the sect repeated the pledge to disclose the contact details of all followers. Ironically Lee himself has gone into hiding, and many followers also keep refusing to answer calls from health workers to show up for checkups.

Experts say Shincheonji keeps meticulous tabs on followers who attend prayer meetings - they are reportedly fingerprinted and given QR codes before being allowed to enter the church services. On Sunday, the spokesman said the sect has 245,000 followers, but it later only submitted a list of 215,000, raising suspicions about its candor.

Meanwhile, a group calling itself "Victims of Shincheonji" filed a complaint against Lee for obstructing epidemiological studies by refusing tests for the virus and other violations like embezzlement and breach of trust.

The group says Shincheonji claimed that it had disinfected 1,100 prayer centers nationwide but hidden the existence of 429 more.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has paid tribute to David Doyle, former Secretary-General of the Department of Finance, who has died.

Mr Doyle, while as Secretary-General played a key role on the night of the 2008 Bank Guarantee and was then minister Brian Lenihan's top official throughout much of the crisis before his retirement in 2010.
C oncerns were today raised by GPs about advice being given by the NHS 111 phone line on coronavirus.

One family doctor described the system as shambolic despite claims from health chiefs that the UK is well-prepared to handle an Italy-style outbreak.

Another said that many GP surgeries were without face masks or protective equipment for staff conducting tests.

A GP, speaking anonymously to the Standard, said he dialled the line after developing a fever of 38.4C and a cough and was advised to self-isolate for seven rather than the recommended 14 days.

Londoners wear Coronavirus masks - In pictures 1 /61 Londoners wear Coronavirus masks - In pictures A man wearing a protective mask travels on the underground tube Reuters A woman wearing a protective face mask Jeremy Selwyn A man and woman wearing protective face masks on a bus PA A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A woman shopper wears a protective mask as she walks down an aisle in a supermarket in London AFP via Getty Images A man wearing a face mask waits to board an underground train on the Central Line at Bank station in London AP A woman with a plastic box over her head on the London Underground. PA A woman wearing a protective face mask walking down Oxford Street in London PA A woman wearing a mask walks by the Emirates Stadium Action Images via Reuters A man is seen wearing a protective face mask at Waterloo station Reuters A woman wears a surgical mask as she walks through Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport Reuters A fan in the stands wears a mask during the Premier League match at Stamford Bridg PA A man wearing a protective face mask walking down Oxford Street PA Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn A person wears a mask in a display of street style outside the BFC Show Space show in London PA Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn A commuter on the tube wearing a face mask Jeremy Selwyn A woman wears a mask while crossing London Bridge Getty Images People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn A man wearing a face mask walks past an entrance sign for Bank underground train station AP The coronavirus outbreak will unlikely lead to a Tube ban PA People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn A woman wearing a face mask on the London Underground. PA People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn A pedestrian wears a face mask whilst walking along High Holborn PA A pedestrian wears a face mask whilst walking along High Holborn PA A man wears a mask as he takes a photograph in China Town AP A man in a hazmat suit and face mask cleans the Ritchie Street Health Centre, Islington PA A commuter at Euston wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A commuter at Euston wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A man arrives at Euston Underground wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn St Pancras Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Staff in suits at St Thomas's Hospital today Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A man wears a face mask as he stands near an electronic arrivals board at Terminal 4 of London Heathrow Airport AFP via Getty Images A man wears a face mask as he walks along the Thames embankment AFP via Getty Images A woman wearing a protective face mask is seen on London Bridg Reuters

The doctor said: I told the adviser I was a GP and this advice was wrong and asked for his name which he refused to give me. [He] also declined my request to speak to his supervisor.

After a further discussion he said he would ask PHE [Public Health England] to call me but to self-isolate until they phoned.

The GP then contacted a friend, an executive at an NHS trust, to arrange tests at a hospital with family members.

Coronavirus Could Mean Economic Growth Downgrade Warns Mark Carney

He said there was a long delay before they could be tested in the coronavirus pod that each trust has been given to prevent suspected patients having to enter the main hospital buildings.

The GP said: On arrival at said hospital, the pod was not available for use as someone was in it  yes there was only one. It took two and a half hours to actually get the swabs taken and I am now back home self-isolating.
BANGKOK  Saudi Arabia cut travel to Islams holiest sites, South Korea toughened penalties for those breaking quarantines, and airports across Latin America looked for signs of sick passengers Thursday as the new virus troubled a mushrooming swath of the globe.

With the illness pushing its way into a sixth continent and the number of sick and dead rising, the crisis gave way to political and diplomatic rows, concern that bordered on panic in some quarters, and a sense that no part of the world was immune to the diseases spread.

Viruses dont know borders and they dont stop at them, said Roberto Speranza, the health minister in Italy, where northern towns were on army-guarded lockdowns and supermarket shelves were bare.

As growing parts of Europe and the Middle East saw infections and a first case was found in South America, air routes were halted and border control toughened. But for an illness transmitted so easily, with its tentacles reaching into so many parts of the world, leaders puzzled over how to keep the virus from proliferating seemed willing to try anything to keep their people  and economies  safe.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for schools across the country to close for weeks, a decision that impacted 12.8 million students.

In South Korea, the hardest-hit country outside China, the government reported 256 additional cases of the virus, raising the total in the country to 2,022.

military sent hundreds of its doctors and soldiers to aid in treatment and quarantines.

In Iran, the front line of Mideast infections, officials loosened rules barring the import of many foreign-made items to allow in sanitizers, face masks and other necessities, and removed overhead handles on Tehrans subways to eliminate another source of germs.

The Dominican Republic turned back a cruise ship carrying 1,500 people because eight of those aboard showed potential symptoms of the COVID-19 virus.

The global count of those sickened by the virus exceeds 83,000, with China still by far the hardest-hit country but its daily increases sharply lowered.

On Friday, its National Health Commission reported 327 new cases and 44 deaths over the previous 24 hours. Of those, 313 of the new cases and 28 of the deaths were in the epicenter city of Wuhan. Mainland Chinas total cases are now 78,824 with 2,788 deaths.

Matt Sedensky and Jon Gambrell are Associated Press writers.
Researchers have found the remains of an extinct marsupial lion species in the Australian Outback.

The species - called Lekaneleo roskellyae - roamed an ancient rainforest in the north-west highlands of Queensland about 23million years ago.

It is one of the smallest lions ever discovered, and was about the size of a domestic cat.

Lekaneleo roskellaye had razor-sharp teeth that were capable of slicing through the bones of its prey.

University of New South Wales researchers Anna Gillespie, Michael Archer and Suzanne Hand discovered the remains in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in Queensland - a site known for its fossils.

The species - called Lekaneleo roskellyae (an artist's impression of what the animal would have looked like is pictured) - roamed the north-west highlands of Queensland about 23million years ago

Dr Archer said the animal's bone-slicing premolar teeth and small size set it apart from other genuses of marsupial lion.

'This little guy that we're calling Lekaneleo roskellyae was one of the tiniest marsupial lions we've ever seen. It was actually like a pussy cat in size,' Dr Archer told the ABC.

'They had an extraordinary, elongated, bolt-cutting type of premolar. This was the most extraordinary adaptation or evolution that a carnivorous mammal has ever developed anywhere in the world.'

Despite its small size, Dr Archer said Lekaneleo would have been feared by other animals in the Riversleigh ancient rainforest.

Dr Archer said it is difficult to determine how the animal would have behaved as there are few similar modern species.

Artist Dorothy Dunphy's impression of Riversleigh ancient rainforest that was once roamed by the Lekaneleo millions of years ago

Lekaneleo lived in a lucious ancient rainforest. Today dry and barren bushland (pictured) has replaced it

Once visited by Sir David Attenborough, Riversleigh is Australia's most famous fossil location, with well preserved specimens from 23 million to 15 million years ago.

Despite their name, marsupial lions are not closely related to modern lions that roam Africa or the endangered Asiatic lion in India as they evolved in isolation from the rest of the world.

The best known species of marsupial lion, often seen in museums, is the Thylacoleo carnifex - the largest meat-eating mammal known to have ever existed in Australia.

Thylacoleo carnifex weighed up to 160kg.
As many as 19 cars, reportedly



hired by Income Tax officials who are carrying out searches at properties of some senior officials of Chhattisgarh government and others, were seized by the police here on Friday for 'violation' of traffic rules.

Income Tax officials did not confirm if the vehicles had been hired by them.

"In view of President Ram Nath Kovind's visit to Raipur on March 1, check points have been set up to keep an eye on suspicious movement of vehicles," a senior police official told PTI.

"Around 2 am this morning, cars belonging to private travel operators were found parked in no-parking zone near Raj Talkies. Drivers failed to give satisfactory explanation so the vehicles were taken to a police station," he said.

After recovering fine as per the Motor Vehicles Act, the vehicles were released on Friday afternoon, he added.

"Government agencies did not contact or inform us that the vehicles were being used by IT officials," the police officer said.

IT officials did not confirm if their department had hired these vehicles.

"The department had booked 19 Innova SUVs and cars on Thursday evening. They had asked us to park the vehicles near Raj Talkies," said Kishan Sonkar, a travel operator.

"We are seeing this kind of action for the first time. Generally vehicles are released after payment of fine. But the vehicles were kept in police custody for more than 12 hours and released only this afternoon," he said.

Senior BJP MLA Shivratan Sharma raised the issue in the Chhattisgarh Assembly, alleging that the police were trying to obstruct the ongoing IT raids which began on Thursday.

Some of the properties that were raided by IT department allegedly had links to A K Tuteja, joint secretary in the state commerce and industry department, retired IAS officer and former chief secretary VivekDhand and Raipur MayorEzaj Dhebar, officials said.

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

Dividend Declaration / Change to Dividend Policy

NOT FOR RELEASE, DISTRIBUTION OR PUBLICATION,

IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES

Guernsey, 28 February 2020

Volta Finance Limited ("the Company") hereby announces a first interim dividend for the financial year commencing 1 August 2019 and a small change to the Company's dividend policy.

In recent years, the Company has sought to pay a total dividend of 0.62 per share per annum, paid quarterly each December, March, June and September, alternating between 0.15 and 0.16 per quarter.

The Company will continue to seek to pay dividends of approximately 8% of NAV per annum, absent a notable change in circumstances. This will also still be paid quarterly. However, henceforth, and commencing with this dividend declaration, for simplicity this will be paid in a regular amount of 0.155 per share and the payment date will move approximately one month later, to January, April, July and October.

This change of payment date reflects the cash flow receipts by the Company from its underlying holdings, particularly CLOs, which are concentrated in those months. Moving the payment dates should significantly reduce the need to sell holdings to meet dividend payments and then later reinvestment following receipt of cash flows or the alternative of cash drag. The Investment Manager estimates that this change of payment date should enhance total shareholder returns by around 0.10-0.15% per annum and the Board finds this a compelling increase in return for what is, in effect, a small administrative change.

Accordingly, the Company announces that it has declared a quarterly interim dividend of 0.155 per share payable on 28 April 2020 amounting to approximately 5.7 million. The ex-dividend date is 2 April 2020 with a record date of 3 April 2020 and a payment date on 28 April 2020.

The Company has arranged for its shareholders to be able to elect to receive their dividends in either Euros or Pounds Sterling. Shareholders will, by default, receive their dividends in Euros, unless they have instructed the Company's Registrar, Computershare Investor Serviceswithin the "Investors - Other Documents" section. The deadline for receipt of currency elections is 12:00 (midday) on 6 April 2020.

For further information, please contact:

Company Secretary and Administrator

BNP Paribas Securities Services S.C.A, Guernsey Branch

guernsey.bp2s.volta.cosec@bnpparibas.com



+44 (0) 1481 750 853

Corporate Broker

Cenkos Securities plc

Rob Naylor

Will Talkington

Andrew Worne

+44 (0) 20 7397 8900

For the Investment Manager

AXA Investment Managers Paris

Serge Demay

serge.demay@axa-im.com



+33 (0) 1 44 45 84 47

*****

ABOUT VOLTA FINANCE LIMITED

Volta Finance Limited is incorporated in Guernsey under The Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008 (as amended) and listed on Euronext Amsterdam and the London Stock Exchange's Main Market for listed securities. Volta's home member state for the purposes of the EU Transparency Directive is the Netherlands. As such, Volta is subject to regulation and supervision by the AFM, being the regulator for financial markets in the Netherlands.

Volta's investment objectives are to preserve capital across the credit cycle and to provide a stable stream of income to its shareholders through dividends. Volta seeks to attain its investment objectives predominantly through diversified investments in structured finance assets. The assets that the Company may invest in either directly or indirectly include, but are not limited to: corporate credits; sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt; residential mortgage loans; and, automobile loans. The Company's approach to investment is through vehicles and arrangements that essentially provide leveraged exposure to portfolios of such underlying assets. The Company has appointed AXA Investment Managers Paris an investment management company with a division specialised in structured credit, for the investment management of all its assets.

*****

ABOUT AXA INVESTMENT MANAGERS

AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) is a multi-expert asset management company within the AXA Group, a global leader in financial protection and wealth management. AXA IM is one of the largest European-based asset managers with 739 investment professionals and 750 billion in assets under management as of the end of March 2019.

*****

This press release is for information only and does not constitute an invitation or inducement to acquire shares in Volta Finance. Its circulation may be prohibited in certain jurisdictions and no recipient may circulate copies of this document in breach of such limitations or restrictions. This document is not an offer for sale of the securities referred to herein in the United States or to persons who are "U.S. persons" for purposes of Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or otherwise in circumstances where such offer would be restricted by applicable law. Such securities may not be sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration from the Securities Act. The company does not intend to register any portion of the offer of such securities in the United States or to conduct a public offering of such securities in the United States.

*****

This communication is only being distributed to and is only directed at (i) persons who are outside the United Kingdom or (ii) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order") or (iii) high net worth companies, and other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The securities referred to herein are only available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire such securities will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this document or any of its contents. Past performance cannot be relied on as a guide to future performance.

*****
LONDON  A jury acquitted three former Barclays executives on Friday of fraud charges related to the British banks efforts to raise $15 billion worth of financial lifelines from Qatar and other investors during the 2008 global financial crisis.

The verdict dealt a major blow to efforts by British regulators to hold bank executives accountable for their actions during the crisis. The case was one of the most prominent brought by the Serious Fraud Office, an anticorruption watchdog. The lengthy investigation, which has lasted for over seven years, was the first criminal trial in Britain over actions bankers took during the crisis.

The regulator had accused the executives  Roger A. Jenkins, Thomas L. Kalaris and Richard W. Boath, all of whom had held senior positions in investment banking or wealth management at Barclays  of lying to the public markets about investments made in the bank by Qatar and other foreign investors.

Barclays ability to secure private investments during the crisis helped it to avoid the government bailouts that rivals like the Royal Bank of Scotland were forced to take, which have left them struggling to this day.
Sydney (Australia) 28 February 2020 (SPS)- Polisario Representative to Australia and New Zealand, Mr. Kamal Fadel, expressed gratitude on behalf of the Saharawi people and Government to members of the Pacific Islands Forum for rejecting a meeting organised by the Moroccan authorities in the illegally occupied Western Sahara deceitfully using the name of Pacific Islands.

Kamal Fade said The meeting organised by Morocco in the occupied city of El Aauin is a cynical PR stunt by the Moroccan regime to manufacture a sense of legitimacy for Moroccos decades long occupation of Western Sahara.

He added, The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat has declared that it is not supporting the meeting and that any Pacific Islands countries attending are not representing the Pacific Islands Forum.

Moroccos attempts to use the time-honoured trick of luring national representatives to conferences to lay a cloak of acceptance over an unjust situation clearly hasnt worked and has been a total failure, Kamal Fadel said.

This latest meeting is just another sleight of hand being ignored by many international leaders. We are pleased that Pacific Island Forum leaders have seen through the ruse and have rightly rejected the Moroccan fake meeting, the Saharawi representative added.

Morocco managed to entice only very few officials and ex-civil servants of some of the Pacific Island countries who ignored the location of the venue and the real purpose of the meeting while the majority of Pacific Islands countries refused to be part of this event.

This latest Moroccan stunt is a Moroccan comedy of errors as countries participating in the meeting have not been named, names of those attending were kept as a secret and the delegations forced to wear Saharawi attire to disguise them in order not to show the lack of attendance at the meeting.

We continue to call on all foreign officials to refrain from attending meetings or conferences organised by Morocco in the occupied area of Western Sahara until the Saharawi people achieve their right to self-determination said Mr. Fadel. (SPS)

090/500/60 (SPS)
There was "no possible justification" an Aboriginal man to be shackled to a hospital bed while he lay dying and he should have received medical intervention earlier, a coroner has found.

Kamilaroi man and father of four Eric Whittaker, 36, lay unconscious and shackled in leg cuffs in the hours before he died from a ruptured brain aneurysm at Westmead Hospital on July 4, 2017.

He had made 20 emergency calls for help over the intercom in his Sydney prison cell on the morning he was taken to hospital but officers waited for a change of shift to attend to him.

Father of four Eric Whittaker with one of his children.

State coroner Teresa OSullivan on Friday released her findings into Mr Whittaker's death and said while she was pleased the organisations involved had since modified their policies, there was still "so much more that needs to be done to tackle inherent disadvantage and incarceration rates" for Indigenous people.
No country has yet asked the World Bank or International Monetary Fund for financial assistance to fight the coronavirus outbreak that began in China. AFP/STR

While they have yet to receive a request for aid, the institutions "have now developed contingency plans. We have various financial instruments that could be used," IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said at a press conference.

As the epidemic has spread beyond China, shuttering production and closing schools in Japan, economists are increasingly worried about a slowdown in the global economy.

"We have various financial instruments that could be used to support countries with balance of payment problems that arise from epidemics or natural disasters," Rice said, noting that the lenders rapidly deployed funds during the Ebola epidemic.

He singled out China, saying the IMF remains "very supportive" of the country where the coronavirus outbreak started with efforts to tackle its spread.

The fund and the World Bank expect to make a decision soon on whether to hold their spring meetings in Washington.

Thousands of people attend the twice-yearly gatherings, which attract activists, economists and investors as well as officials and reporters.

The planning for the April meeting is "under active review," Rice said, but he added, "We are confident that, whatever the format of the spring meetings will be, that we will have effective meetings ... and dialogue with our membership."

The US Centers for Disease Control warned this week that the epidemic will reach American shores, and urged organizations to cancel mass gatherings.

Health officials on Wednesday announced they'd found the first case of the virus of unknown origin in the United States.
Turkey warned on Friday it was opening the gates for refugees to flee to Europe after an air strike blamed on Damascus killed 33 Turkish soldiers in Syria.

The international community voiced fears of a rapidly-rising risk of escalation after the attack by Russian-backed Syrian forces in the province of Idlib, where President Bashar al-Assad is waging a bloody campaign to oust rebels from their last holdout.

The deadly bombardment has added to weeks of growing tensions between rebel supporter and NATO member Ankara and Damascus ally Moscow.

Adding to the tensions, Moscow announced that two of its warships were transitting Friday through the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul in plain sight of the city

The UN has repeatedly warned that the fighting in Idlib could potentially create the most serious humanitarian crisis since the start of the civil war start in 2011.

But Russian vetoes, often backed by China, have chronically crippled UN action in Syria.

Turkey retaliated to Thursday's strike by hitting Damascus regime targets "from the air and ground," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's communications director Fahrettin Altun said.

The United States condemned the Syrian action, and NATO said it would hold urgent talks on the crisis on Friday.

In a move that could have major repercussions for Turkey's neighbours to the west, Ankara said it would open the way for refugees to go to Europe.

"We will no longer keep the doors closed for refugees who want to go to Europe," an official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Risk of 'bloodbath'

Turkey also called on the international community to establish a no-fly zone over Idlib, where regime forces have since December clawed back chunks of the region, forcing close to one million people to flee their homes and shelters amid bitter cold.

The United Nations said Monday that the latest fighting was coming "dangerously close" to encampments of the displaced, risking an imminent "bloodbath".

Turkey, which is already home to around 3.6 million Syrian refugees, fears more people arriving in the country where there is growing popular discontent against their presence.

In a series of tweets, Altun accused Assad of "conducting ethnic cleansing" and seeking to drive millions of Syrians out of Idlib.

"These people will try to escape to Turkey and Europe. Already hosting close to 4 million refugees, we do not have the capacity and resources to allow entry to another million," he wrote.

Groups of migrants have already moved towards western Turkey seeking to reach Greece, Turkey's private DHA news agency reported.

Dangerous situation

The international community voiced alarm over the latest violence in Idlib.

"Without urgent action, the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement, reiterating Secretary General Antonio Guterres's call for an immediate ceasefire.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg urged de-escalation by all parties of "this dangerous situation" and condemned the "indiscriminate air strikes", in a phone call with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

A US State Department spokesperson said Washington stood by its NATO ally and continues to call "for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces".

Under a 2018 deal with Russia meant to bring calm to Idlib, Turkey has 12 observation posts in the Idlib region -- but several have come under fire from Assad's forces.

In its first response to the Turkish deaths, Russia's defence ministry said the troops were among "terrorist groups" and that they had not communicated their presence in the area.

Thursday's attack brings to 53 the number of Turkish security personnel killed in Idlib so far this month.

More civilians killed

Elswhere, jihadists and Turkish-backed rebels on Thursday re-entered Saraqeb, a key Idlib crossroads town they had lost earlier in February, reversing one of the main gains of the government's devastating offensive.

The counter-offensive could, however, be short-lived as Russian-backed Syrian troops continued to chip away at other parts of the rebel bastion, capturing 20 localities.

Seven civilians, including three children, were killed in regime and Russian bombardment of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding to more than 400 such deaths since December.

State news agency SANA acknowledged there were "fierce clashes" between the army and "terrorist groups on the Saraqeb front".

An AFP correspondent accompanied the rebels into Saraqeb, where he found a ghost town of bombed out buildings.

The counter-attack temporarily reverses one of the key gains of the government since its offensive against the country's last rebel enclave in December.

The cash-strapped government had been keen to fully secure the M5, a highway that connects Syria's four main cities and passes through Saraqeb.

The Syrian Observatory said the air strikes were carried out by Russia, heavily criticised by the West for the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign.

State media accused the "terrorists" of launching car bombings and other suicide attacks against government forces attempting to retake the town.

It said the army had inflicted heavy losses on the attackers, despite the military support it said they had received from Turkey.

Some 950,0000 civilians have fled the government offensive, raising fears in Ankara of a new influx of refugees.

More than half a million of those displaced since December are children, tens of thousands of whom are sleeping rough in northern Syria's harsh winter.

Erdogan had vowed on Wednesday that Ankara would not take the "smallest step back" in the standoff with Damascus and Moscow over Idlib.

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Linkedin Fulya Ozerkan (Agence France-Presse) Istanbul, Turkey  Fri, February 28, 2020 15:52 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2067338d4 2 World Russia,Turkey,Syria-war,Idlib,rebel,violence,escalating-conflict Free

Turkey warned on Friday it was opening the gates for refugees to flee to Europe after an air strike blamed on Damascus killed 33 Turkish soldiers in Syria.

The international community voiced fears of a rapidly-rising risk of escalation after the attack by Russian-backed Syrian forces in the province of Idlib, where President Bashar al-Assad is waging a bloody campaign to oust rebels from their last holdout.

The deadly bombardment has added to weeks of growing tensions between rebel supporter and NATO member Ankara and Damascus ally Moscow.

Adding to the tensions, Moscow announced that two of its warships were transiting Friday through the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul in plain sight of the city

The UN has repeatedly warned that the fighting in Idlib could potentially create the most serious humanitarian crisis since the start of the civil war start in 2011.

But Russian vetoes, often backed by China, have chronically crippled UN action in Syria.

Turkey retaliated to Thursday's strike by hitting Damascus regime targets "from the air and ground," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's communications director Fahrettin Altun said.

The United States condemned the Syrian action, and NATO said it would hold urgent talks on the crisis on Friday.

In a move that could have major repercussions for Turkey's neighbors to the west, Ankara said it would open the way for refugees to go to Europe.

"We will no longer keep the doors closed for refugees who want to go to Europe," an official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Turkey also called on the international community to establish a no-fly zone over Idlib, where regime forces have since December clawed back chunks of the region, forcing close to one million people to flee their homes and shelters amid bitter cold.

The United Nations said Monday that the latest fighting was coming "dangerously close" to encampments of the displaced, risking an imminent "bloodbath".

Turkey, which is already home to around 3.6 million Syrian refugees, fears more people arriving in the country where there is growing popular discontent against their presence.

In a series of tweets, Altun accused Assad of "conducting ethnic cleansing" and seeking to drive millions of Syrians out of Idlib.

"These people will try to escape to Turkey and Europe. Already hosting close to 4 million refugees, we do not have the capacity and resources to allow entry to another million," he wrote.

Groups of migrants have already moved towards western Turkey seeking to reach Greece, Turkey's private DHA news agency reported.

The international community voiced alarm over the latest violence in Idlib.

"Without urgent action, the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement, reiterating Secretary General Antonio Guterres's call for an immediate ceasefire.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg urged de-escalation by all parties of "this dangerous situation" and condemned the "indiscriminate air strikes", in a phone call with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

A US State Department spokesperson said Washington stood by its NATO ally and continues to call "for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces".

Under a 2018 deal with Russia meant to bring calm to Idlib, Turkey has 12 observation posts in the Idlib region -- but several have come under fire from Assad's forces.

In its first response to the Turkish deaths, Russia's defense ministry said the troops were among "terrorist groups" and that they had not communicated their presence in the area.

Thursday's attack brings to 53 the number of Turkish security personnel killed in Idlib so far this month.

Elsewhere, jihadists and Turkish-backed rebels on Thursday re-entered Saraqeb, a key Idlib crossroads town they had lost earlier in February, reversing one of the main gains of the government's devastating offensive.

The counter-offensive could, however, be short-lived as Russian-backed Syrian troops continued to chip away at other parts of the rebel bastion, capturing 20 localities.

Seven civilians, including three children, were killed in regime and Russian bombardment of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding to more than 400 such deaths since December.

State news agency SANA acknowledged there were "fierce clashes" between the army and "terrorist groups on the Saraqeb front".

An AFP correspondent accompanied the rebels into Saraqeb, where he found a ghost town of bombed out buildings.

The counter-attack temporarily reverses one of the key gains of the government since its offensive against the country's last rebel enclave in December.

The cash-strapped government had been keen to fully secure the M5, a highway that connects Syria's four main cities and passes through Saraqeb.

The Syrian Observatory said the air strikes were carried out by Russia, heavily criticized by the West for the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign.

State media accused the "terrorists" of launching car bombings and other suicide attacks against government forces attempting to retake the town.

It said the army had inflicted heavy losses on the attackers, despite the military support it said they had received from Turkey.

Some 950,0000 civilians have fled the government offensive, raising fears in Ankara of a new influx of refugees.

More than half a million of those displaced since December are children, tens of thousands of whom are sleeping rough in northern Syria's harsh winter.

Erdogan had vowed on Wednesday that Ankara would not take the "smallest step back" in the standoff with Damascus and Moscow over Idlib.
Due to Ghana's preparedness plan for an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, the state is using the World Health Organisation (WHO) protocols to handle the virus.

Alerts have been sent to all regions to update their respective preparedness plan and activate their respective public health management committees.

Ghana is among 13 priority countries in Africa identified as being at high risk of getting the virus because of their established links from China.

So far, the Ridge Hospital and the Tema General Hospital have been earmarked as case management centres.

Four other facilities; the Ga East Hospital, the Police Hospital, the LEKMA Hospital and the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital have been identified as additional facilities to support case management.

Technical support visits have also been undertaken by the Institutional Care Division (ICD) of Ghana Health Service and WHO to some designated facilities to assess preparedness.

Staff at the two identified treatment centres have also been given preliminary training in case management.

We currently have testing capabilities for the virus at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research and the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research. The centres have handled 24 suspected cases so far.

The United States government is, so far, also providing technical support and funding.

The National Technical Coordinating Committee has met twice to coordinate national preparedness activities.

Ghanas National Public Emergency Preparedness Plan has been updated and a draft COVID-19 preparedness plan has been developed.

Surveillance

National Rapid Response Teams have been activated and National Level Training for Rapid Response teams and other Health Workers on the Severe Acute Respiratory Illness has been done.

Training of regional and district rapid response teams is yet to happen but there are plans for its execution as well as clinical sensitisation, according to the state.

As far as Ghanas points of entry are concerned, the state has held stakeholder engagements with the Ghana Airport Company limited management and the Kotoka International Airport, Ghana Immigration Service, Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Tema Port to strengthen surveillance systems.

The screening of passengers on arrival is ongoing with the use of thermal scanning and declaration forms.

Alerts and health education are being displayed on airport screens, pull-ups and leaflets at arrival and departure halls at KIA.

Ghana is however yet to identify priority areas as the state has said it is currently receiving support from the World Health Organisation, World Bank and other Health partners are to identify priority areas in line with the WHO national capacities tool.

Sensitisation

Key messages and education materials on COVID-19 preparedness have been developed, according to the document though they do not appear to be in circulation.

The state also says radio and television discussions and engagements on the outbreak and Ghana's preparedness activities have been started and are ongoing.

Some jingles have been developed for public education in regions and districts, but they do not appear to be widespread.

So far, the governments communication on the matter has focused on information on the evolution of the outbreak globally, clinical symptoms, directions on prevention and measures being taken within the country to early detect and manage possible cases.

Funding for preparedness

The total budget for preparedness with regard to the novel coronavirus stands at GHS 35 million.

But the state admits there are funding gaps and additional funding will be required to implement remaining activities at the national level.

Support from Government so far has gone towards the provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), coordination activities and health declaration forms.

What is Covid-19?

The novel coronavirus, which was first detected in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, has claimed more than 2,700 lives and has infected over 80,000 people across almost 50 countries.

It is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before, hence the prefix novel.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).

Like other coronaviruses, this new strain is transmitted between animals and people.

Many of the first cases in China either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of Wuhan.

What are the symptoms this coronavirus causes?

According to WHO, common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

The virus can also cause pneumonia in severe cases and even organ failure.

The novel coronavirus is airborne and symptoms begin to manifest after 14 days. An infected person could transmit the disease before symptoms begin to manifest.

How to protect yourself

To prevent the spread, the standard recommendations coming from the WHO is regular hand washing, covering ones mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs.

We are also advised to avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.

WHO has also given more detailed guidelines on how workplaces can put in place proactive measures with the virus in mind.

How contagious is the virus?

It is not yet known how contagious the coronavirus is. The fatality rate of the virus has also not been officially determined but it is thought to be around 2 percent .

A recent study published in a medical journal revealed that the average age of a coronavirus patient is 55 years old.

Also, 80 percent of those who have died from the disease were aged 60 or above. How critical is the situation?

The WHO has declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern but it is not yet a pandemic. WHO describes a pandemic as the worldwide spread of a disease.

The virus has just spread to Sub-Saharan Africa with a case recorded in Lagos, Nigeria. Egypt had the first case of Covid-19 in Africa, followed by Algeria.

But the case in Nigeria will offer more concern to Ghana given the ties and frequency of travel between the two countries.

New cases were also recorded in Estonia, Denmark, Northern Ireland and the Netherlands on February 27.

The worst-hit in recent times has been Italy, which has seen a cases rise to 650 with 17 deaths.

So far, the virus has killed at least 2,800 people and has infected more than 82,000 worldwide, mostly in China.

---citinewsroom
Port Health authorities at the Kotoka International Airport have reiterated assurances about safe mechanisms at the countrys sole entry point for travellers across the globe.



Reacting to an earlier report carried out by local news outlets, Head of Port Health at the Kotoka International Airport, Gideon Akwei dispelled the allegations and submissions made by some Ghanaian students in China stating that they were not checked upon entry.



The students intimated that they were given an easy pass, only being made to fill a questionnaire at the arrival terminal.



I just passed. I wasnt quarantined. I just filled some questionnaire; the Chinese are rather being separated from the rest. I think they will call us back later, a student explained in a conversation on WhatsApp.



But Mr. Akwei explained that the questionnaire the students filled were actually Health Declaration Forms which was a mandatory measure recommended by the World Health Organisation.



He stressed that the forms were to aid personnel from the Ministry of Health locate any entrant who starts to manifest symptoms of the novel coronavirus after incubation period.



Additionally, he noted that there were thermal scanners installed at the entry points of the airport upon arrival which is used to screen travellers in order to monitor their temperatures.



we dont do physical checks then the second one is, the thermal scanner will monitor your temperature. If your temperature is above the threshold it will show red, and that is the time we will isolate you. Then politely we will take you to our holding room/bay at the arrival hall.



Asked what happened to travellers with relatively higher temperatures, the Port Health director intimated that paramedic personnel from the Ridge Hospital are alerted to quickly whisk them away for further checks and tests to be run.



He insisted that all passengers, no matter their class and race were equally screened with the enhanced checks in place at the airport to prevent any anomaly.



Meanwhile, there are reports that Ghanas West African neighbour has recorded its first case of the coronavirus.



The Federal Ministry of Health confirmed the positive test of coronavirus in Nigeria, Friday morning, in a statement signed by Dr Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Health according to the Nigerian Daily Post.

Source: ghanaweb.com









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OMJASVIN M D By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: With summer almost upon us, the citizens are hoping against a repeat of last years drought. But what is worrisome is that most waterbodies in the city continue to suffer from sewage inflow and encroachments, among other things. The story of Mathur lake, the main source of water for residents of Manali in North Chennai, is no different.The erstwhile 70-acre lake, colloquially called Periyathoppu Eri, is now just 30 acres. Weed growth and encroachers have occupied most of it and sewage inflow also continues.As the lake was dry for most of the time, it could have been desilted , but nothing has been done, said Selaiammal, a local resident. She added that a large amount of garbage has also been dumped in the lake.

Though bunds of the lake are intact, residents allege that those laid recently legitimise encroachments since the size of the lake used to be bigger. Many houses in the vicinity of the lake came up only a few decades ago. Without reclaiming the vast size of the lake, how can bunds be laid to demarcate the area? questioned Ravi R, another resident of Mathur. TANUVAS (Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University), that owns the lake, in 2015, held a meeting to find a solution to the issues. In 2018, a notice was issued to remove encroachments and build a flood retention wall. However, the corporation built a five-foot wall at a cost of `80 lakh without doing the former.

Express reported in 2018 that this wall, rather serving as flood barrier, ended up protecting the encroachments. Residents claim that non-removal of encroachments has not just put on hold any desilting work but has also put nearby houses at risk. In 2015, this area faced the worst flooding and almost everyone had to vacate, recalled Ravi. When contacted, an official from the TANUVAS said they would look into proposals for restoring the lake. The lake has no encroachments. If the Corporation approaches us to restore it, we may think about giving them an NOC, said the official.
Problems with the Trent 1000 engine hit the British manufacturer as a bad week for the market got worse on Friday.

Aerospace engineer Rolls-Royce reported a 2019 operating loss of 852 million pounds ($1.11bn) after the cost of tackling durability problems with its Trent 1000 engine eclipsed record engine deliveries and a good after-market performance.

Underlying core operating profit rose 25 percent to 810 million pounds ($1bn), while core free cash flow came in at 911 million pounds ($1.2bn), led by higher profit and reflecting 173 million pounds ($222.7m)worth of Trent 1000 insurance receipts, the British company said.

Rolls-Royce said the coronavirus outbreak was likely to hit air traffic growth in the near term, but long-term growth trends remained intact.

It said it expected core operating profit to grow by about 15 percent this year, with at least one billion pounds ($1.3bn) of free cash flow, in guidance which excludes any material impact from the outbreak.

The company has been working to resolve durability issues with its Trent 1000 engine, which powers Boeings 787 Dreamliner, with the blades in the TEN variant proving particularly problematic.

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Airline customers have had to ground the aircraft for Rolls-Royce to carry out repairs.

It said in November it would take a 1.4 billion-pound ($1.8bn) exceptional charge connected with the issue.

Chief Executive Warren East said the company had made further progress on Trent 1000, with cash costs in line with guidance.

He said the company remained on target to reduce the number of aircraft on the ground to single digits by the end of the second quarter.

IAG

Ahead of British Airways-parent company IAG releasing its annual results on Friday afternoon, Chief Executive Willie Walsh said the company was focused on completing its buyout of Air Europa and was not planning any further deals at the current time.

Were focused on the acquisition of Air Europa so beyond that were not looking to do anything, he told reporters on a call on Friday.

Asked if the coronavirus outbreak  which has hammered travel demand  could spark further consolidation in the airline sector, Walsh said without question, but added that he expected weaker airlines to fail, rather than be acquired.

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I cant see there being much interest in acquiring those failing airlines, Walsh said.

IAG would look to fill the gap left by any airlines that do fail, he added.

Were clearly in a position to adjust our capacity if we see capacity being taken out of the market by airlines failing, he said

Bad week

Shares in IAG tumbled 6.9 percent on Friday to their lowest level in more than four months after British Airways said it would cancel some flights to and from Italy, Singapore and South Korea.

The airline owner was not alone, with many other UK shares tanking on Friday, with both benchmark indexes firmly entering correction territory as fears mounted that the coronavirus outbreak could turn into a pandemic and spark a global recession.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 fell 3.2 percent and was on track for its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. The index has now lost about 13 percent since a recent peak on February 12.

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The mid-cap FTSE 250 tumbled 2.5 percent, also eyeing its biggest weekly decline since 2008, as the spread of the virus deepened in countries outside China and crippled supply chains.

Trade-reliant miners and oil majors shed 4 percent and 3.3 percent, respectively. The travel and leisure sector fell 4.1 percent to its lowest level since 2016, as drastic containment measures cut demand for air travel and hotels.

As markets opened, the story was the same across the continent, as European shares dropped 3 percent on Friday, sliding deeper into correction territory, as investors feared a global recession is on the horizon with the coronavirus spreading across the world.

The pan-regional STOXX 600 was on track to record its biggest weekly decline since the nadir of 2008, having entered correction levels on Thursday, with a 10 percent decline from its recent peak, along with markets in the United States and Asia.
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One might assume that a holiday traditionally celebrated with jubilant eating and drinking would be a big deal on college campuses. But, since it typically falls near the week of Spring Break, St. Patricks Day tends to be a non-event at Iowa State.

Understanding the valuable life lessons to be learned while day-drinking and eating cabbage with friends, a handful of eating and drinking establishments in downtown Ames knew something had to be done.

After months of extensive research, the group came across a lesser-known Irish legend that was quite literally, cause for celebration.

Aint Patricks Day, according to legend, commemorates the day that the body of a dead man, first thought to be the beloved Bishop Patrick, was eventually determined to simply be a drunken grifter of no significance. The message that the body wasnt Patricks (That aint Patrick! was said to be exclaimed) spread throughout the countryside and sparked mass jubilation.

The holiday happens to land two Saturdays prior to spring break..I mean St. Patricks Day. This year the date is March 7.

Cornbred Barbecue, Torrent Brewing Company, Whiskey River and London Underground, four of the most popular downtown gathering spots, are dedicating the day to ISU students.

Each venue will be offering Aint Patricks Day specials and will be rolling out the green carpet for students who feel cheated out of having a St. Patricks Day with their college friends.

Stayed tuned to see what each will be offering!

An official close to the event was overheard saying, The legend of Aint Patrick might be blarney, but the event is 100% real!
These days, the few major infrastructure projects that California undertakes routinely run behind schedule and over budget. Seventeen years after the establishment of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, not a foot of track has been laid, thanks to lawsuits over eminent domain, environmental concerns, and labor practices. The official price tag of the proposed rail system reads $68.4 billion, but most observers, remembering the San FranciscoOakland Bay Bridges massive cost overruns, expect the bill to top $100 billion. Its essentially the same story with the states effort to restore the SacramentoSan Joaquin Delta. After decades of bickering and delays, Governor Jerry Brown is pushing a $24.5 billion plan to flood the delta (in order to preserve some 50 threatened or endangered species) and to build tunnels underneath it to ensure that Central Valley farmers and homeowners continue getting northern California water. The plan would require at least a decade to complete under the best of circumstances; opposition from environmentalists, farmers, local residents, and taxpayer groups would almost certainly delay things further.

Envision a California infrastructure project that put tens of thousands of people to work and finished ahead of schedule while using private financing. Suppose that it made a profit without government guarantees or taxpayer liabilities. Imagine, moreover, that this project did little harm to the environment while producing massive quantities of renewable energy. Almost all the projects machinery would be hidden underground or housed in elegant classical buildings. It would radically reengineer nature, yes, but the most obvious evidence of change would be scenic alpine lakes where dry canyons had previously stood. And instead of facing endless lawsuits from aggrieved parties, the project would enjoy nearly unanimous support.

More than 100 years ago, California entrepreneur Henry Huntington accomplished all that with his Big Creek Hydroelectric Project on the San Joaquin River, high in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains. Today, the projects six man-made reservoirs, 27 dams, and nine powerhouses generate 1,000 megawatts of clean hydroelectric power for about 11 million southern Californians; provide late-summer irrigation to more than 1 million acres of farmland; and prevent the San Joaquin River from flooding northeast Fresno in the spring. In symphonic fashion, through dams, reservoirs, penstocks, and tunnels, the rivers descent is regulated, stored, divided, and recombined. To the casual observer, the process is imperceptible.

Big Creek is a classic story of American (and Californian) ingenuity and drive, as well as a reminder of a time when political leaders agreed that the needs of humanity trumped the needs of, say, fish. Unfortunately, the projects bounty has helped create a complacency that not only disallows successor developments but threatens the original purpose of Big Creek itself.

By 1900, Los Angeles was expanding to new suburbs both inland and along the coast. Also growing was its demand for electricity to fuel everything from modern commuter trolleys to such novel household appliances as heaters and washing machines. Without plentiful and affordable electricity, Los Angeles couldnt growa fact not lost on the citys premier residential developer, Henry Huntington. Henry was the nephew of Collis Huntington, an industrialist who had consolidated the Southern Pacific Railroad Corporation, and he inherited much of his money from his childless uncle. (He even left his wife and four children and married Colliss widow.)

In the early twentieth century, the best way for Henry Huntington to generate the electricity he wanted was to use the force of water falling through massive turbinesa method that would soon provide almost half of early industrial Americas electrical power. By 1900, a nationwide scramble was under way to dam rivers and install turbines. (Today, the Chinese are doing the same thing, building a vast array of new dams to produce thousands of megawatts of clean hydroelectric power.) Yet southern California had few rivers with strong enough flows to generate electricity economically. The Sacramento and American River systems to the north were already mostly claimed for hydroelectric power and flood control. Nearer to Los Angeles were the smaller Kern, Kaweah, and Kings Rivers, but they would be hard to dam, and they lacked the volume of the San Joaquin River watershed to the north, the largest in California.

Huntington set his sights on the San Joaquin, but that river presented daunting challenges. The proposed transmission route from the upper river to Los Angeles spanned some 250 miles. To cover the distance, Huntington would use a largely untested system of high-voltage, alternating-current wiresthe longest in the country at that time. No federal grants or loans existed to subsidize such innovative and untried technology. Further, large cattle and farming companies that had done business in the San Joaquin Valley since the late 1850s held water rights to the 350-mile-long river, and some of them boasted political connections equal to Huntingtons. To grant him rights to divert and redirect the river, they would have to be convinced that dams would allow them more water for irrigation than they had already.

Most daunting of all was that at the turn of the century, the high country at 7,000 feet was uninhabited, largely unknown, and nearly inaccessible. To build the first powerhouses at Big Creek, Huntington would first need to spend tens of millions of dollars to establish a veritable city of some 40,000 workers in the Sierra Nevada and keep them alive during the frigid winters. But how to transport all these workers and the machinery they would use? Neither a passable road nor a rail line was available, and engineers had already discovered that the central Sierras steep terrain and heavy winter snowfalls made the construction of all-weather roads virtually impossible.

Here, Huntingtons transportation experience proved invaluable. He was a railroad magnate, after all. Now he founded the San Joaquin and Eastern Railroad Company, which laid 56 miles of narrow-gauge track in a little more than five months, stretching up into the mountains and arriving at the projects two major work sites. Speed was of the essence: because of the absence of public funding, the unproved hydroelectric technology, and the huge start-up construction costs, the project had to start generating and selling electricity before the companys capital was depleted. Huntingtons crews would have to work double shifts, year-round, to capture the spring snowmelt as quickly as possible.

The Granger Collection, NYC

What had convinced Huntington to confront the projects technical challenges was the brilliant work of an iconoclastic Fresno-based engineer, John S. Eastwood. Employing his own mule teams, Eastwood had crisscrossed and mapped the upper San Joaquin River and fashioned a visionary blueprint of a system of dams, lakes, penstocks, and powerhouses. Before he met Huntington, his main obstacles were financial, not scientific or technical: the company that he cofounded, the San Joaquin Electric Company, lacked sufficient capital to proceed. Then Huntington hired him to file claims to the watershed, survey the vast area, and provide a cost estimate. To lure Eastwood, Huntington granted him 5,400 shares of stock in the newly formed Pacific Light and Power Corporation.

By 1907, Eastwood had finished detailed construction blueprints for what was now called the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project. But Huntingtons financial fortunes took a hit in the economic panic of that year, and the project had to wait for more than three years. Then, in 1910, just as Huntington was gearing up to begin at last, he fired Eastwood for reasons that have never been fully explained. Their falling-out apparently had something to do with the amount of controland profitthat Eastwood expected. The men also disagreed over Eastwoods innovative methods of dam construction.

In 1912, with construction well under way, Huntington, the corporations majority stockholder, rammed through an assessment of $5 a share on all stockholders to pay for the ongoing projecta ploy to reconsolidate the company in his hands. Unlike Huntington and his wealthy associates, Eastwood couldnt afford to pay $5 for every one of his 5,400 sharesessentially a $27,000 fee. At 53, Big Creeks designer had been forced out of its construction and was nearly broke as well. Eastwood would eventually recover, planning numerous dams in the American West and becoming legendary in engineering circles for his multiple-arch design, which reduced construction costs. Yet he is barely remembered today; the Eastwood Powerhouse at Shaver Lake, part of the Big Creek system, stands as his only public monument.

Eastwoods plan to harness the San Joaquin would result in the largest hydroelectric project in the world at the time. The plans genius lay in its subtlety. The Sierras western slopes were so steep that the river system fell almost 7,000 vertical feet in less than 70 horizontal miles. A series of small dams would modulate the river (soon to be known as the hardest-working water in the world), collect it into lakes, and release the lake water precisely to meet demand. Eastwood saw his river dams and lake bypasses as a series of stepping-stones, each reservoir storing water that, when released, would spin generators and then proceed to the next powerhouse below.

Unlike the engineers of Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, Eastwood didnt envision a single colossal barrier spanning the steep walls of a river gorge to form an enormous lake behind it. He realized that he could achieve the same storage and power by transforming the canyons and gorges parallel to the rivers course into a second flow undergrounda solution that didnt merely preserve the scenery but improved it. These subterranean flows emerge aboveground only at powerhouses and lakes. Two of these lakes, Huntington and Shaver, look as though they formed naturally from runoff from the surrounding peaks; indeed, in some ways, Eastwoods second course is more beautiful than the San Joaquins main and original route nearby. Eventually, the two courses rejoin each other below the Big Creek powerhouses.

Key to Eastwoods vision was its modularity. His design allowed for additional dams and small reservoirs at junctures above and below the projects first phase. Through the ensuing decades, as engineers became increasingly familiar with the regions snowmelt variance, they added these dams and reservoirs at places in the watershed that maximized water storage and hydroelectric generation.

Big Creek wasnt perfect. At one point, workers went on strike, halting the project. At another, a typhoid outbreak sickened hundreds. Throughout construction, Chinese laundrymen and cooks were treated as third-class workers, and there was no competitive bidding on the project. But Big Creek was sending power to Los Angeles in less than three years. A huge additional generating plant, added in 1921, was completed and producing electricity just 100 days after construction began.

Big Creeks original purpose was to power Los Angeless trolleys. But the discovery in the early 1920s of large oil reserves near Huntington Beach (named, as it happened, for the same Henry Huntington) doomed electric mass transit. Cheap local gas let the automobileand, eventually, a labyrinth of freewaysconnect the southern California suburbs better than trolleys could. Big Creeks power, freed from its original purpose, now granted L.A.s early automobile commuters cheap electricity at work and at home.

Over the last half-century, I have often watched the annual Huntington Lake regatta, in which hundreds of sailboats race about on an idyllic Sierra Nevada lake. Boaters from all over California haul their craft up to the high mountains, eager to sail in one of the worlds few alpine lakes that is relatively accessible, warm by spring, windy, and unspoiled. They come for the sport and the beautyoblivious of the fact that the scenic water stealthily leaves the artificial lake through subterranean penstocks to ensure the prosperity of one of the worlds largest economies.

Could this project have been completed as quickly and competently today? Its doubtful, even with twenty-first-century computerized technology, sophisticated GPS surveying, and enormous earth-moving machines to help. Environmental-impact studies, discovering a threatened foothill lizard or mountain newt, would call for rerouting or canceling the penstocksjust as recent concern for a baitfish in the San Francisco Bay Delta wound up cutting off irrigation water to nearly a quarter-million acres of Central Valley farmland. Unions and the state would demand a maze of work regulations, delaying the project for decadesjust as authorities are now proposing that the labor force for the high-speed rail project include the homeless, high school dropouts, and convicted felons. Safety regulators would balk at the dangerous drills and bores; archaeologists would be appalled at the trampling of Native American burial sites; residents would complain of noise and discomfort.

Today, we seem to believe that in the era before our protective regulatory state arrived, construction projects always exploited someone or something. We overlook the intelligence and good sense of Big Creeks engineers and workers, who struck reasonable compromises between progress and conservation. Almost every element of the project was green: the narrow-gauge train used to haul thousands of workers up and down the canyon; the placement of infrastructure underground; the carbon-free generation of electricity; Los Angeless efforts to use an electrified trolley system.

Maybe a better question than whether Big Creek could be built today is whether it can survive a second century. So well built were the dams, powerhouses, and penstocks, and so brilliantly engineered were the lakes and tunnels, that Big Creek should endure forever, at least in theory. Yet environmentalists have recently prevailed in court to divert some of the systems water flows from irrigation and electricity production in order to restore the rivers salmon population. The irony is that in dry years, the San Joaquin can flow to the seain theory, allowing some salmon runsonly because of the water stored in dams and reservoirs, both in the original Big Creek lakes and in lower reservoirs, such as Millerton Lake, that were built later. The salmon didnt have it so good when droughts occurred during the millennia before the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project came along. For the time being, environmentalists desire for a vibrant river year-round saves Huntingtons unnatural creations, along with other dams farther down the river, from calls to dismantle them.

Opposition to Big Creek is just part of Californias infatuation with the premodern. Environmentalists are keen to wipe out much of the infrastructure in the Yosemite Valley, letting the Merced River return to its nineteenth-century wildness and beauty. That would entail not just periodic flooding of the valley floor but also the destruction of three bridges that the National Trust for Historic Preservation lists as endangered treasures. Also targeted for destruction are historic roads, paths, and much of the infrastructure that lets millions each year enjoy the scenery. Not far away, more radical environmentalists are focusing on the historic OShaughnessy Dam, which forms the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park. The early-twentieth-century water-and-power project supplies the San Francisco Bay Area with as much as 85 percent of its water, in addition to 400 megawatts of clean electrical power, all while ensuring irrigation and flood control for Central Valley farms and towns. The dream of the radical green outfit Restore Hetch Hetchy, which calls itself a Sierra Club spinoff, is to return the reservoir to its pristine natural state. That would leave San Francisco without adequate power and water and eventually destroy billions of dollars worth of agricultural commerce.

In short, twenty-first-century environmentalists would have the state tear down the twentieth-century engineering marvels that gave California the wealth and leisure to ponder their expendability. So brilliantly productive were the projects of California visionaries like Henry Huntington and John Eastwood that their well-fed, well-protected, and well-powered successors have the luxury of dreaming about how to destroy their very inheritance.

Top Photo: akrassel/iStock
A Chinese Coast Guard vessel is pictured on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, part of the Spratly Islands, in the South China Sea March 29, 2014.

After a prolonged stand-off with Vietnam, Chinese vessels are again monitoring and harassing energy exploration efforts by another claimant country in the disputed South China Sea, according to a report by a Washington-based think tank. This time it is Malaysia thats on the receiving end.

A report from the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) revealed that in October 2019 an exploratory vessel, contracted to Malaysian state-owned oil company Petronas, and its offshore supply vessels entered an area of the South China Sea claimed by Vietnam, China, and Malaysia.

In response, China Coast Guard ships identified by AMTI as the Haijing 5202, Haijing 5403, Haijing 5203, and Haijing 5305 patrolled around the Petronas-contracted vessel consistently throughout December and January. They left it alone in early February only after an appearance from the Royal Malaysian Navy and Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.

But the let-up didnt last. Using online ship-tracking software, Radio Free Asia has learned that fishing vessels affiliated with Chinas Peoples Armed Forces Maritime Militia (PAFMM) took their place.

The Lurongyuyun 50018 and Lianxiachulu 008 were still sailing unusually close to the same offshore supply vessels as of Feb. 24, seemingly harassing them as they maneuver within Chinas nine-dash line, which is Beijings rough demarcation of its expansive claims in the South China Sea.

The Lurongyuyun and Lianxiachulu, notably, share the same maritime mobile service identification number, a tell-tale sign that one or both of them are practicing GPS-spoofing to hide their presence.

This follows a pattern of behavior by China Coast Guard vessels and fishing boats operating far from Chinese ports, evading detection through GPS-spoofing and often resting during long voyages into the South China Sea at Chinese-built facilities constructed on disputed features. This was most prominently seen during the recent deployment of coastguard ships to Vanguard Bank and Second Thomas Shoal.

As reported by AMTI, Chinese ships can only sustain pressure campaigns far from the Chinese mainland if they can dock and replenish at key artificial islands such as Fiery Cross and Subi Reef.



China Coast Guard vessels and maritime militia had previously interrupted oil drilling efforts by the Russian company Rosneft within Vietnams exclusive economic zone in mid-June.

And at the same time that China Coast Guard ships were monitoring Malaysian energy exploration efforts, a flotilla of PAFMM and other coastguard vessels sailed within the exclusive economic zone of Indonesias Natuna Islands.

An aerial shot of Chinese-claimed reef Subi reef, taken from a Philippine Air Force plane, April 21, 2017. AFP Vietnam also fields maritime militia

In the most recent incident revealed by AMTI, Malaysian exploration also drew in the presence of Vietnamese fishing boats, who are part of a growing Vietnamese maritime militia presence in the South China Sea.

There is less information on the Vietnamese maritime militia than there is on the more prominent PAFMM. However, Vietnams 2009 Law on Militia and Self Defense Force explicitly calls for a marine militia that, as with other types of militia, would constitute a part of Vietnams armed forces and be responsible for defending fishing vessels engaging in commercial activities.

The Vietnamese maritime militia has been built up since then, according to Derek J. Grossman, a senior defense analyst with the U.S.-funded think tank RAND Corporation, and now constitutes a mix of commercial fishing vessels and marine safety vessels under Vietnams Ministry of Transportation. AMTI reported Vietnamese fishing vessels observed, but did not intervene, in Malaysias exploration activity.



One of their missions is to report back, Grossman explained. Vietnam, in terms of maritime domain awareness capabilities, is not very good. They dont have satellites like China does. Theyre using old school techniques. Theyre using tried and true techniques.



Referencing a report on Vietnamese maritime militia activity near Hainan publicized by the South China Sea Probing Initiative, a think-tank run out of Chinas Peking University, Grossman elaborated that this is in keeping with the militias purpose. Its not a crazy idea to go up to enemy lines, he said, referring to the borders of Chinas territorial waters.

The creation of Vietnams maritime militia is also closely linked to the involvement of Chinas PAFMM in maritime disputes, which at times has been aggressive.

I think its entirely focused on the Chinese maritime militia. When you look at how many countries around the world have fishing militia, Ive only been able to find China and Vietnam. Its not something other countries do because theres no reason for it, Grossman said.

Vietnamese fishing vessels purported to be part of the militia were involved in several high profile maritime disputes, most notably during the 2014 stand-off between China and Vietnam over the Hai Yang Shi You 981 oil rig. In that incident, a Chinese fishing vessel rammed and sank a Vietnamese one.

However, there is evidence that the use of maritime militias on both sides is a strategy to prevent a greater conflict between the two countries navies. China has maintained plausible deniability over whether its fishing fleets are acting at the behest of its armed forces.

Fishing boats ramming fishing boats could then bring in the coast guard, which could then bring in the Navy. But I think both sides, China and Vietnam, think that it de-escalates, Grossman explained, Neither of them are admitting they use them for military purposes in a scenario, they can say This is civilian-on-civilian. We can keep the situation bottled up.
The police in the African country of Niger on Friday, with the help of the international police organisation Interpol issued a large-scale mensenhandelnetwerk rolled up. Of the 232 victims have been released from their perilous situation, and among them 46 children, most of them as illegal, they have been used.

The youngest victim, was a ten-year-old. The children were brought into the hostels and the neighbourhoods with the goal to make as much money as possible to win. According to Interpol, the children have a lot of issues, and the HPV infection has been that in the long run can lead to cervical cancer or genital warts.

Nine of the children were forced to perform sexual acts, they were like beggars on the street, standing near a bus station and a supermarket. All of the young victims, have been returned to their families, according to Interpol.

in Addition, the children also have a 180-Ghanaian men are delivered online, jobs had been promised, but upon arrival in Niger, have been detained and forcibly removed the illegal activities were to be carried out.

for more than one hundred politiemedewerkers used in the operation, < / p> In the capital, Niamey, worked for more than one hundred politiemedewerkers along with an unknown amount of raids and house searches. Eighteen suspects have been detained and are suspected of trafficking in human beings and crimes against children in the family.

The surgery was at the end of January already, and it was Sarraounia is called, in the native language, you're within the Niger river, the "queen" or "female chief" really means.

the Secretary-general, mr Jurgen Stock, Interpol has condemned the traffickers, in a statement. "Whether it's for the children, men and women, traffickers do not show an interest in their physical and mental health. They see their victims simply as a way to earn a living."

Updated Date: 28 February 2020, 05:00
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 04:24:28|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- As the Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina nears, progressive candidate Bernie Sanders has boasted previous victories in the intra-party races in New Hampshire and Nevada, while taking aim at centrist rival Joe Biden.

The back-to-back wins in the two states and what he claimed was a "popular vote" victory in the Iowa caucuses made the Democratic establishment "nervous," said Sanders, U.S. senator from Vermont, on Thursday.

"The establishment sees turnouts like this," Sanders said. "You're making them very nervous," he added, addressing supporters at a gymnasium on the campus of Wofford College, a liberal arts school in South Carolina's Upcountry.

The 78-year-old in his speech also took direct aim at Biden, making a case that the former Vice President of the United States can not beat incumbent President Donald Trump if being nominated, because "he voted for the Iraq war" and "supported terrible trade agreements that cost us millions of jobs."

The South Carolina primary is scheduled for Saturday.

After finishing previous nominating contests disappointingly, Biden is counting on a win in South Carolina to shore up momentum. He has been on top of recent state polls and won what could be a crucial endorsement from House Majority Whip James Clyburn, the highest-ranking black member of Congress and one of the most influential Democrats in South Carolina.

"I will win South Carolina," Biden declared at the Democratic presidential debate in Charleston, South Carolina, on Tuesday. He was asked whether he will drop out of the race if he does not win the primary in the state.

Sanders lost to former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the Iowa caucuses in delegate vote counts by a razor-thin edge of 12 to 13.

The 78-year-old, however, recently has seen his popularity surge nationally, and state polls show he is leading in California, Colorado and Wisconsin -- in all of which he holds double-digit advantage.

In addition to Sanders, Biden and Buttigieg, Democrats who also compete in the South Carolina primary include Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer, and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii.

Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is also seeking the Democratic nomination but will skip the contest in South Carolina.
SALEM, Ore.  Democratic lawmakers left in the absence of House Republicans who have shunned the capitol in protest over cap-and-trade moved on Thursday to issue subpoenas requiring that the errant lawmakers return "to explain their absences."

The House Committee on Rules, now solely populated by Democrats, voted to issue those civil subpoenas Thursday afternoon  demanding that Republican representatives appear for the committee on Thursday, March 5.

The text of the civil subpoenas reads as follows: By virtue of the authority of and in compliance with ORS 171.510, and following a majority vote of the House Rules Committee on February 27, 2020, I, Paul Holvey, State Representative and Chair of the House Rules Committee, hereby require you to appear before the House Rules Committee at 1pm on Thursday, March 5, 2020 in Hearing Room F of the State Capitol, Salem, Oregon, 97301, as a witness before such committee and be prepared to testify about your unexcused absences during the 2020 regular session of the Legislative Assembly, the need for members to fulfill their oaths of office and constitutional duties as legislators by attending sessions of the Legislative Assembly, and how the work of the Legislative Assembly during the 2020 calendar year may be completed.

This is an extraordinary measure brought on by the extraordinary actions of the House Republican caucus, said Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, the chair of the House Committee on Rules.

According to a statement from House Democrats, Oregon law allows the chair of a committee to compel attendance of witnesses with a majority vote. Though Democrats have lacked the two-thirds quorum to forward any legislation, they maintain a majority in the capitol.

We all took an oath to support the Oregon Constitution and faithfully discharge the duties of our office, which requires our attendance when the legislature is in session," Rep. Holvey said. "As I see it, House Republicans are currently in violation of that oath. These Republican legislators owe the people of Oregon an explanation for their absences.

RELATED: Flanked by allies, southern Oregon counties proclaim 'strong' opposition to cap-and-trade bill

The subpoenas are intended to be served to every member of the House Republican caucus that has been absent and unexcused. House Speaker Tina Kotek reportedly told lawmakers that she'd been in contact with the absent Republicans, asking them to return to work.

Rep. Kotek told Democrats that she'd either received "no commitments" from Republicans on whether they would return, or responses directing her to contact Republican Leader Rep. Christine Drazan, R-Canby.

Later Thursday evening, Rep. Drazan issued a brief response to the move by Democrats on the committee.

This is just the latest example of the majority partys strong-arm tactics designed to end negotiations. We will not be intimidated. We remain resolved to serve the hardworking families of Oregon who have asked for the abuse of power to end and for cap and trade to be referred to the people.

Republican lawmakers in the Oregon Senate began the walkout on Monday when Democrats moved the cap-and-trade bill from the final committee and toward the Senate floor.

The lack of a quorum has held up all legislation in Salem this week, and politicians have taken to pointing fingers across the aisle as vital funding bills languish. On Friday, the Oregon Food Bank issued a statement calling out Republicans for the legislative gridlock.

Our statewide network of food banks is incredibly fortunate and proud to have earned the support of a broad, bi-partisan coalition of elected leaders. But we have no hope of achieving our shared mission to end hunger when half that coalition refuses to show up to work. No discussion or decision-making takes place when lawmakers dont show up to make laws," said Susannah Morgan, CEO of the Oregon Food Bank. Simply put, the Republican walkout jeopardizes critical anti-hunger initiatives  and our democracy. Oregon families deserve better, and its time for Republicans to return to the work we elected them to do.
AP

A hearse that was stolen with a body still inside it has been recovered following a dramatic police chase that ended in a car crash on a Los Angeles freeway.

The black Lincoln Navigator was stolen from St Anthonys Greek Orthodox Church in East Pasadena, prompting authorities to issue a plea to the thief to return the body.

Out of all the bad decisions you have made, at least make one good one & bring back the deceased person & casket inside the Navigator LA County Sheriff's Department posted on twitter.

Following a tip from a witness, who reported seeing the SUV on Thursday morning, Los Angeles police officers pursued the hearse on local streets and then on to the 110 freeway until it crashed around 7.45am.

Police were then able to recover the vehicle and the body was found in the back of the hearse, still in the casket and undisturbed.

Video footage from news helicopters has shown heavy front damage to the SUV, while at least one police officer was involved in the crash.

To the suspect(s) driving around in a Black Lincoln Navigator stolen from the 700 blk of Rosemead Bl just after 8PM today in uninc #Pasadena:



Out of all the bad decisions you have made, at least make one good one & bring back the deceased person & casket inside the Navigator. pic.twitter.com/Dvo7u94zL1  LA County Sheriffs (@LASDHQ) February 27, 2020

However, authorities have said no-one was seriously injured.

Authorities said a male was taken into custody following the collision, but it was not immediately clear if this was the same person who had stolen the hearse.

The 110 Freeway was closed during morning rush hour as a result of the chase.

Los Angeles station KABC reported the body was not associated with the service, but remained in the vehicle while a mortuary attendant brought a different body into the church and that's when the vehicle was stolen.

Story continues

Details of the mortuary have not been released.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

Read more

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How this ISIS operative from Mangaluru lured her victims and converted them to Islam

On the verge of a major break-through: NIA on Pulwama probe

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 28: The NIA is close to a breakthrough in the Pulwama attack case. The NIA clarified that it had found no evidence against Yousuf Chopan.

He was one of the seven over ground workers arrested by the NIA in connection with the case that had claimed the lives of 40 CRPF jawans.

"In the Pulwama attack Case in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed in the suicide attack, significant leads have emerged and a breakthrough in the case is expected shortly," the NIA said.

Here is why the Pulwama probe has hit a dead end

The agency issued the statement after the special court had granted bail to an accused.

The Congress said that this was an insult to the security personnel. The Congress also demanded that the Union Home Minister Amit Shah should tender his resignation.

The investigations have been a bit slow as most of the accused are either dead or are in Pakistan. The NIA said that it has been a painstaking investigation. We had managed to identified the suicide bomber, the vehicle details and also how the planning was carried out, an NIA officer tells OneIndia.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

Mohammad Umair, the Pulwama attack planner who trained in Afghanistan

The NIA said of the seven over ground workers arrested, six were chargesheeted. Chopan was however not chargesheeted due to want of evidence. It was on this ground that default bail had been granted to Chopan. The NIA follows the policy of fairest possible investigation, the NIA statement said.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 7:32 [IST]
Disruption of healthcare system looms large



South Korea's fight against the new coronavirus is becoming more and more difficult as the epidemic keeps spreading rapidly. The situation appears to have reached a critical point where COVID-19 could be getting out of control.



There are growing worries that the country's healthcare system may start to collapse after the number of confirmed cases surged to 2,337 Friday, the world's largest figure after China. The health authorities are struggling to provide treatment for the soaring number of patients.



In the southeastern city of Daegu with a 2.4 million population, the healthcare system has already been overstretched since the city emerged as a hotbed for the epidemic. The disruption of the system cannot be avoided without radical emergency steps.



A 73-year-old man in Daegu died of the virus Thursday, becoming the 13th fatality. He fell victim to the disease without getting treatment due to a shortage of hospital beds in the city. It is regrettable that the patient died under self-quarantine while waiting to be hospitalized two days after testing positive for the virus.



The problem is that such a death could take place in large numbers, given the poor medical infrastructure there. The city has so far made 1,013 hospital beds available for confirmed coronavirus patients. But, these fall far short of the exploding number of patients which stood at 1,579, accounting for 67 percent of the country's total.



The number of patients is likely to rise further as the infections are closely linked to mass worship services of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which around 9,000 believers were known to have attended this month. Therefore, pessimism is growing that the authorities might lose their battle with the raging virus.



In this worsening situation, Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin has reportedly asked for the central government's support, and cooperation from other municipalities and provinces. But he is finding it difficult to get support good enough to accommodate more patients and bring the epidemic under control.



Kwon requested Gyeonggi Province to provide hospital beds for patients from Daegu. But Governor Lee Jae-myung turned down the request, saying that medical staff and treatment facilities were also insufficient in his province.



Daegu is suffering from an acute lack of doctors, nurses and other medical workers, not to mention hospitals. The central government has dispatched 101 medical staff including 38 doctors and 59 nurses to the city. But more medical professionals are required to deal with the epidemic. A shortage of medical equipment is also serious. Many doctors and nurses are taking care of a flood of new patients, wearing only masks without proper protective equipment.



Now the Moon Jae-in administration should take more radical measures to avoid a looming public health catastrophe. President Moon has vowed to take pre-emptive steps. But he and his government have done little to make good on what he said. It is imperative to reinforce the quarantine network and prevent the disruption of the healthcare system. Mobilize all possible means to protect the people from the relentless virus.






WASHINGTON  President Trump has long sought to avoid confronting the leaders of Turkey and Russia  two foreign strongmen who are facing off in civil wars in Syria and Libya. But after an airstrike on Thursday that killed dozens of Turkish troops in northwest Syria, Mr. Trump may be forced to pick a side.

Nominal allies, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey have each thrown military forces and other support into two bloody conflicts that have spawned vast human suffering, have threatened to upend a fragile stability in the Middle East and may send hundreds of thousands of refugees streaming into Europe.

Despite international calls for more American involvement, Mr. Trump has stood aside from significant intervention in either conflict  a decision consistent with his pledge to wind down the endless wars of the past two decades.

But State Department officials have made clear they view Russia as stirring the unrest, especially in Syria. Turkish leaders, well aware that their nation is viewed with distrust by many in Congress and within the NATO alliance, are seeking to use both conflicts to show the United States that they should put aside a year of strained diplomacy and unite against a common adversary: Moscow.
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) London, United Kingdom  Fri, February 28, 2020 08:58 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2067178cf 2 Business #British-Airways,#coronavirus,cancellation,flights,Italy,South-Korea,Singapore Free

British Airways said it would cancel some flights to and from Italy, Singapore and South Korea, as a result of reduced demand for travel to the areas due to coronavirus outbreaks.

British Airways, owned by IAG, said on Thursday it would cancel 56 roundtrip flights from London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports to Italian destinations including Milan, Bologna, Venice and Turin between March 14 and March 28.

Flights to Seoul, which are usually daily from Heathrow, will now be every other day, and BA said it was also cancelling six roundtrip flights from Heathrow to Singapore every other day from March 15, although there will still be one flight daily.

In Italy, more than 300 people have tested positive over the past week for coronavirus in Lombardy, while South Korea has the most virus cases outside China and reported 505 new ones on Thursday, taking its national tally to 1,766.

The airline said it would be contacting customers on cancelled flights to discuss their options, which would include rebooking onto other carriers if possible, full refunds or booking for a later travel date.

IAG is expected to update on the impact of coronavirus on its outlook when it reports annual results on Friday.
The Uttar Pradesh government is considering a policy change so that low-income group patients are given preference at dialysis centres across the state. UP health and family welfare minister Atul Garg said he has proposed that people having an income up to 25,000 a month be given preference at dialysis centres.

About one and half years ago, the government had opened free dialysis centres in the state, including one at Sanjay Nagar Combined District Hospital in Ghaziabad. The minister said dialysis patients have to wait for about three months after registration to start their dialysis.

Since the waiting is about three months, I have proposed that people with lower incomes (say up to 25,000 per month) be given preference at these centres. Currently, those who cannot wait have no option but to foot the high bill at private centres. So a policy decision is under consideration of the state government, Garg said.

Further, keeping in mind the progress of dialysis centres and the intake of patients, the government has sought details from different districts about the number of dialysis machines they would require. The data is being analysed and all the centres will be given more dialysis machines in proportion to the demand, Garg said.

The dialysis centre in Ghaziabad is a 10-bed facility with one bed reserved for patients found positive for infectious diseases such as Hepatitis.

The average waiting time for a patient is about two months. At a private facility, the dialysis costs the patient anything between 2,500 and 5,000 per dialysis. In government centres, the treatment is free. We have written to the health authorities in Lucknow to give us more beds to accommodate more people. But the decision is pending, Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer, Ghaziabad, said.

Patients on the wait-list find a spot only if one of thee things happens a patient stops coming; gets a transplant; or dies during treatment. It is only then that another patient can move in. Every patient may require about two or three dialysis per week depending on her condition, Dr Gupta said.

The Ghaziabad facility runs in three shifts and caters to 30 patients a day.

The waiting period is such that people often come in with recommendations from ministers and even senior officials. In two cases, our staff had to wait for about one and half months to get dialysis. The situation is worse for the general public, an official from the district health department said.

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Hundreds are being rounded up daily and sent to jail for showing black flags to ministers, governors and other functionaries of the central government in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in different parts of India. There have been cases when the arrested, many a time students, are slapped non-bailable criminal offences and incarcerated for days together, jeopardising their future.

The offenders are booked under various sections (such as 143, 145, 147, 149, 151, 341, 504, 506) of the Indian Penal Code some of which are even non-bailable, although apparently none of them makes any reference to black flags.

It caused consternation over a couple of years ago when 11 Lucknow University students, two of them girls, were sent to 14-day judicial custody allegedly for breaching security and showing black flags to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. In the FIR, the police also pressed Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, which made the process of obtaining bail difficult, and may even prove detrimental to the students future.

Waving of black flags should have been the most democratic way of expressing dissent because it is only a symbolic gesture that brings no harm to the target, but our law considers it a criminal offence, thanks to the colonial mentality left behind by the British.

Black flags became anathema for law enforcers long before terrorist outfit Islamic State adopted black as its dreaded flag. Intolerance to the black colour is so intense that sometimes the police rough up even people who are dressed in black coloured clothes.

Strange as it may sound, the Indian law allows much worse forms of insulting public figures, such as burning of effigies, use of garlands made of chappals, spraying of black paint and oil. More creative protesters press into service coffins and wreaths, funeral prayers and pyres. The police cant do anything about it because the courts have held that there is no provision in the Indian Penal Code that makes the burning of effigies a punishable offence. The police can, at best, charge protesters with rash and negligent handling of fire or combustible matter.

Indians have been burning the effigies of Ravana and other characters in Ramayana for ages as part of the Dusserha festival. However, that is not the reason why effigy-burning is lawful in India. It was the British who made it legitimate.

As per history, British Catholic dissident Guy Fawkes and 12 of his friends hatched a conspiracy to blow up King James I during the opening of Parliament on November 5, 1605. However, the assassination attempt was foiled the previous night, when Fawkes was discovered in a cellar below the House of Lords. Londoners immediately began lighting bonfires in celebration of the foiled plot. British parliament later declared November 5 as a public day of thanksgiving.

Since then, Guy Fawkes Day, also known as Bonfire Night, is celebrated in one form or the other. When British drew up the Indian Criminal Procedure Code in 1860, they made it a point not to make burning of effigies punishable.

The British never liked the idea of being shown black flags in India when they were ruling the subcontinent. When the Simon Commission arrived in India in 1928 to study constitutional reforms in its biggest colony, it was greeted with black flags under the leadership of Lala Lajpat Rai, who got grievously hurt in the police action against the demonstration and died a fortnight later.

However, waving of black flags was never frowned upon in Great Britain as it was considered a most civilised way of registering protest. Black flags with jihad-inspired white inscriptions became unlawful decades later when supporters of Islamic State took out demonstrations to express solidarity with the outlawed Islamic outfits, which many considered outrageous.

Their bias against black flags in India was passed on to the new rulers, who happily lapped up some of these unreasonable rules without giving them a thought. We still have several laws from the Victorian-era that we inherited from the British. While Britain has changed many of these as they corresponded to the morality of a bygone era, India is still persisting with them.

According to Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, over 1,400 redundant Acts and statutes had been scrapped so far while a significant number still await repeal. There are hundreds of such laws which had expired long ago in terms of their applicability and relevance.

It is high time India decriminalised the black flag protest, the most innocuous form of democratically expressing dissent.
A few months ago, I wrote a column saying I would vote for Elizabeth Warren over Donald Trump. I may not agree with some of her policies, but culture is more important than politics. She does not spread moral rot the way Trump does.

Now I have to decide if Id support Bernie Sanders over Trump.

We all start from personal experience. I covered the Soviet Union in its final decrepit years. The Soviet and allied regimes had already slaughtered 20 million people through things like mass executions and intentional famines. Those regimes were slave states. They enslaved whole peoples and took away the right to say what they wanted, live where they wanted and harvest the fruits of their labor.

And yet every day we find more old quotes from Sanders apologizing for this sort of slave regime, whether in the Soviet Union, Cuba or Nicaragua. He excused the Nicaraguan communists when they took away the civil liberties of their citizens. Hes still making excuses for Castro.

To sympathize with these revolutions in the 1920s was acceptable, given their original high ideals. To do so after the Hitler-Stalin pact, or in the 1950s, is appalling. To do so in the 1980s is morally unfathomable.
Kolkata, Feb 28 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday drew flak from the state's opposition Left parties and the Congress for her visit to Bhubaneshwar for the Eastern Regional Council Meeting attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Trinamool Congress of having a "tacit understanding".

He alleged that Banerjee met Shah after her recent discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure her party leaders were not prosecuted in the Narada sting footage scandal and the Saradha ponzi scam.

"Does anyone know what happened to the probe in the Narada and the Saradha cases?" he wondered.

State Congress president Somen Mitra dubbed Banerjee's meeting with Shah as a "political understanding".

Left party leader Sujan Chakraborty took a dig at Banerjee saying she has been waiting for four days in Bhubaneswar to meet Shah which shows the "trust between Delhi and Bengal".

Referring to the Delhi violence, which has left at least 43 persons dead and over 200 injured, Chakraborty said, "Nothing is more shameful for the people of Bengal than the Home Minister holding a rally in Kolkata after what happened in Delhi."
Candyman trailer

Destinys Childs Say My Name never sounded so scary. The first trailer for Candyman, the Jordan Peele-produced modern reboot of the horror classic, brings back the 1992 killer who appears when you say his name five times in front of a mirror. Candyman, directed by Nia DaCosta with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo, and original star Tony Todd, opens June 12.

Lady Gaga - Stupid Love

Lady Gaga has finally unleashed Stupid Love, her first solo song in more than three years, after the dance-pop track leaked online earlier this year. E! reports the futuristic music video was shot entirely using an iPhone 11 Pro. More new music released this week includes Taylor Swifts The Man video, Justin Timberlake & SZAs Trolls 2 single The Other Side, Harry Styles Falling video, a new Gorillaz Song Machine release, and Noel Gallagher & The High-Flying Birds Oasis-era Come On Outside.

Note: Clips may contain explicit content not suitable for younger audiences.

New Americas Got Talent judge

Its official: Sofia Vergara is the new judge on Americas Got Talent. NBC announced Thursday that the Modern Family actress will join my new family on AGT," becoming the first Latin judge on the show. She and returning judge Heidi Klum, who left in 2018 after six seasons, will replace Gabrielle Union and Julianne Hough alongside Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel and Terry Crews. Americas Got Talent returns this summer.

I am so excited to be back at @AGT with @simoncowell @howiemandel and @terrycrews! The fact that @SofiaVergara is joining us is the icing on an already delicious cake!  #agt pic.twitter.com/t9Bw8Uam9U  Heidi Klum (@heidiklum) February 27, 2020

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Germanys centre-right Christian Democrats are seeking a new leader after Merkels chosen successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, said she would not stand as chancellor in the next federal election.

The empty chair at the top of the countrys biggest and most powerful party, CDU, is due to be filled at a special party gathering in Berlin on April 25.

Barring any surprise candidacies, delegates will choose between Armin Laschet, the centrist state premier of North-Rhine Westphalia and closest to a Merkel continuity candidate, the veteran rightwinger Friedrich Merz, and Norbert Rottgen, a foreign policy expert.

Merkels protegee, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, threw the party into turmoil in February by saying she would not stand as chancellor in the next federal election, due next year and would give up the CDU party chair.

Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer resigned when the CDU was tainted by a political scandal in the state of Thuringia.

Local party politicians in the east-central state undermined her leadership when they voted with the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) to oust the left-wing incumbent governor, in defiance of her instructions.

A deal with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), now annulled, put a liberal in charge of Thuringia thanks to AfD and CDU votes.

It broke a post-war German taboo: no deals with the far right or far left.

Party in-fighting over its handling of the election culminated in Ms Kramp-Karrenbauer's resignation.

Now the race is on to find a new successor.

Armin Laschet, regarded as the front runner and widely viewed as the continuity candidate of Angela Merkel, Laschet is the CDU's leader in North-Rhine Westphalia and has consistently defended Merkel's liberal migration policies during the 2015 refugee crisis. He has the backing of the influential Minister for Health and senior CDU figure, Jens Spahn.

The challenger is Friedrich Merz who lost out to Angela Merkel in the power struggle to succeed Helmut Kohl nearly 20 years ago. His ambition to lead the CDU follows a long career in the private sector sitting on various corporate boards.

Focusing on politics again, this is his second attempt in two years to lead the CDU having lost out to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in 2018. The corporate lawyer wants to win back CDU voters who have defected to the far-right AFD, particularly in the East, and shift the party in a more conservative direction.

The surprise candidate is Norbert Rottgen, a foreign policy expert who chairs the Bundestag's (German parliament) foreign affairs committee.

The long-shot candidate famously fell out with Angela Merkel when he refused to resign after the CDU's defeat in a 2012 local election in North-Rhine Westphalia having led the ticket.

As a cabinet member at the time, Ms Merkel demanded his resignation as Environment minister, he refused, and his public dismissal soured their relationship to this day.

The political maneuvering continues as Germany launches an investigation into a far-right attack last week in Hanau, a suburb of Frankfurt.
Rogers, a Democratic presidential appointee, wrote that the Supreme Court and this court have long recognized that the ability to acquire information is indispensable to Congresss performance of its constitutional roles and that the power of inquiry, including the power to issue a subpoena and thereby compel a witness to appear before the House, is critically important to the efficacy of the impeachment power.
Albertas hard-right United Conservative Party (UCP) government introduced legislation Tuesday that would enable state authorities to declare virtually any demonstration, protest or picket line illegal and subject participants to punitive fines and even jail terms.

The Critical Infrastructure Defence Act, also known as Bill 1, would outlaw any attempt to trespass on, impede access to, or interfere with the normal functioning of any essential infrastructure, which its defines as all the provinces pipelines, refineries, mines, utilities, manufacturing plants, telecommunications networks, and highways, railways and light-rail public transit systems.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenny

As justification for their draconian bill, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Justice Minister Doug Schweitzer pointed to the actions of green left zealots and the ongoing rail blockades in support of the Wetsuweten hereditary chiefs opposition to the Coastal Gas Link pipeline. In reality, Bill 1 is aimed at the entire working class and designed to criminalize the mounting opposition to the Kenney governments vicious austerity program, as well as environmental and native-rights protests.

Police already have the power to arrest and charge railway blockaders as trespassers. But the proposed law has a far wider reach than blockades, involving any attempt to impede access to so-called essential infrastructure, and provides for much stiffer penalties.

The Critical Infrastructure Defence Act stipulates fines of $1,000 to $10,000 and/or a six-month jail term for a first offence. Each subsequent offence would be subject to fines of up to $25,000 and six months imprisonment.

Corporations could be fined up to $200,000 for supporting a protest that disrupted critical infrastructure. The government has not explicitly said so, but everything Kenney and Schweitzer have said about their Bill 1 indicates that its provisions would apply to workers acting within the context of a collective bargaining dispute.

A key purpose of the proposed bill is to eliminate the need for the government or a private company to obtain a court injunction ruling a specific protest illegal. Instead, protests would be ipso facto illegal and participants subject to arrest and punitive sanctions the moment access to critical infrastructure was impeded.

The new law violates core rights protected under Canadas Charter of Rights and Freedoms, including freedom of expression and freedom of assembly.

In a speech to the UCP caucus and invited guests Tuesday, Kenney railed against the general atmosphere of lawlessness that we have seen take hold of parts of our country and much of our economic infrastructure in the past three weeks. Like the federal Conservatives, Kenney has roundly criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for not ordering an immediate violent state crackdown against the Wetsuweten solidarity blockades.

Only after the blockades had been in place for two weeks and with the demands from big business for state repression reaching fever pitch did Trudeau instruct police last Friday to forcibly take them down. This delay was motivated by Trudeaus fear that a violent police crackdown would undermine his minority Liberal government by further discrediting the progressive posturing it uses as a smokescreen to advance the interests of big business and Canadian imperialism (see: Behind promises of dialogue, Canadian government prepares state assault on native protests).

Kenney also argued Bill 1 was a necessary response to Teck Resources announcement last Sunday that it is canceling its $20 billion Frontier Mine oil sands project in northeastern Alberta. Teck has itself conceded that the project was economically unviable without a substantial rise in world oil prices. Yet Albertas UCP Premier blamed its decision on regulatory uncertainty and endless delays caused by the national government, as well as the Wetsuweten solidarity protests.

The shelving of the Frontier Mine project and the anti-pipeline protests have further exacerbated the deep regional tensions racking Canadas ruling elite. In recent months, Kenney has repeatedly denounced the Liberals for ignoring the West and purportedly giving preferential treatment to Quebec and eastern Canada.

Bill 1 proves for all to see that when the UCP and its allies bluster about Western interests, what they really mean is bolstering the drive of Big Oil and the entire corporate elite to boost profits and shareholder returns at the expense of the working class.

In effect, the Kenney government is declaring that no public opposition to the ruling elites prerogative to rake in billions of dollars in corporate profits through uncontrolled natural resource extraction and energy fuel production will be tolerated. As Justice Minister Schweitzer put it, Its important for us to maintain competency across our province. That we are going to remain open for business, that were going to make sure that we protect these important aspects of our infrastructure.

Kenney has asserted that Bill 1 has been designed to cover as many bases as possible so as to strengthen the governments hand in dealing with future protests. This is true. Under the proposed bill, the government has given itself the power to expand the definition of critical infrastructure at will.

Kenneys authoritarian actions must be taken as a serious warning by working people. They come from a government that has initiated a devastating austerity drive that calls for real-term per capita public spending cuts of more than 10 percent over the next three years, and wage rollbacks of between 2.5 and 5 percent for the provinces 180,000 public sector workers. Moreover, the UCP government has indicated that more than 7,000 public sector jobs will be eliminated, including thousands of nursing, hospital and teaching positions.

The MacKinnon report, which has served as the blueprint for Kenneys austerity measures, specifically raised the need for authoritarian measures to enforce them. The report and its lead author, former Saskatchewan New Democratic Party Finance Minister Janice MacKinnon, recommended the government legislate public sector pay cuts and consider temporarily outlawing public sector strikes. To prevent court challenges to these draconian measures, the report urged the Kenney government invoke the Canadian constitutions notwithstanding clause, which permits governments to run roughshod over core democratic rights, like freedom of speech, peaceful assembly and expression. As the World Socialist Web Site warned at the time, It is no exaggeration to call MacKinnons report a blueprint for dictatorial forms of rule to secure the profit margins and dividends of the super-rich corporate elite (see: Albertas MacKinnon report provides blueprint for austerity and repression).

The turn towards anti-democratic forms of rule is not confined to Alberta. Governments of all political stripes have criminalized workers strikes across Canada for years. In Saskatchewan, the right-wing Moe government intervened from the outset of the ongoing lockout of 750 oil refinery workers in Regina to green-light Federated Cooperatives Ltd.s massive scabbing operation, and later ordered a violent police crackdown on picketers. Together with FCL boss Scott Banda, Moe has encouraged the far-right thugs of United We Roll, who broke through a picket set up by workers at an FCL facility in Alberta.

There is no fundamental opposition to this dangerous shift to the right from the Liberals and NDP. Since being reelected last fall, Trudeau has embraced Kenney and Moe as the legitimate representatives of western interests and pledged to work closely with them in the name of national unity.

NDP Alberta leader Rachel Notley responded to Kenneys authoritarian Bill 1 by presenting herself as a more reliable spokesperson for the profits and investments of big business. Commenting on the decision by Teck to pull out of the Frontier Mine project, she declared, International investors are looking for a predictable regulatory framework of greenhouse gas emissions. She sprang to the defence of international banking heads and fund managers, who she said were being unfairly characterized by Kenney as urban green radicals. He is essentially promoting the continued investor uncertainty that created this problem in the first place, said the NDP leader.

Notleys open shilling for corporate interests should come as no surprise to Alberta workers, who lived through four years of continued austerity and low corporate taxes under her 201519 NDP government. This helped pave the way for Kenneys coming to power at the head of the hard-right UCP, which as Bill 1 demonstrates, is now readying to use state repression and violence to suppress popular opposition to its reactionary pro-corporate policies.
Someone said he is the "chief law enforcement officer of the country," or words to that effect. Many commentaries from various news outlets have provided snippets of our liar-in-chiefs reasoning for his pardons and commutations. Since Trumps vocabulary is extremely limited, it is no surprise to hear him say that so and so was treated very unfairly, hes a really great guy that has done so much good things," I know ... personally and its horrible how badly hes been treated. I guess when someone who has been tried, convicted and sentenced for corruption, Trump sees an opportunity to pardon them.

My belief is although the person was caught, the fact that the crime was misuse of money for their own gain, he is Trumps new friend to help him (Trump) embolden his own financial misdeeds. Somewhere, the enemies of Trumps enemies are his friend: Putin, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort and the list goes on. Thats criminals vs. criminals for the money jackpot!

So if Trump loses reelection, where are his campaign donations going to go? Are the RNC and/or the agency overseeing campaign finance laws keeping a microscopic eye on all the millions the Trump campaign has received? I mean Trump just pardoned a few convicts for their corruption activities. Some have made enormous donations to Trump and now these pardons. Who is beholden to who? Its kinda like Ukraine and US financial assistance replay with different jerseys.

As for all the Republicans senators, excluding Mitt Romney, and most of the Republicans in the House, we should serve them crows from Auburn, a two-folded solution.

I and (I know of) others wish Trump was gone yesterday! He is our nations most dangerous, viscous and contemptible enemy! Unfortunately he probably has an escape plan for any criminal or illegal charges. Does this remind you of another famous German dictator with the funny mustache? Since everything is all about him, does his plan include Mitch McConnell, Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz, Devon Nunes, Lindsey Graham, his impeachment defense team and imps? Whos paying for Trumps legal fees? When Dictator Trump falls from grace and he will, the swamp will be no longer. At least one can hope.

R.L. Searles

Sennett

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DALLAS, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Remedy, a doctor-led online urgent care service based in Austin, Texas, is pleased to announce its recent expansion into the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Just as officials are urging patients to stay home if they are ill, Remedy provides quality healthcare from the comfort of a patient's own home. Founded by Dr. Jeremy Gabrysch in 2015, Remedy provides board-certified medical providers to treat patients through home visits and telemedicine appointments. While health concerns and fears around coronavirus rise, Remedy answers the demand for convenient virtual and in-home healthcare.

With coronavirus fears spreading, U.S. health officials have warned those who are seeking medical attention to avoid areas where contagious illnesses often are contracted, such as hospitals or urgent care facilities. If patients have a need to visit their physician, whether that be for immediate treatment or a prescription refill, Remedy provides an alternative solution. Allowing patients to chat or schedule a home visit with a medical provider, Remedy allows patients to receive the care they need from the comfort of their own home.

"Due to quick-spreading illnesses, like the coronavirus, many patients are nervous to visit hospitals or urgent care facilities with a waiting room full of sick people," said Dr. Gabrysch. "With Remedy, patients can go online to speak directly to a board-certified medical provider or schedule a same-day house call. They never have to put themselves, or their children, at risk to contract an illness, and can leave the visit feeling confident their healthcare needs were met."

The rapid growth of delivery and online services have shown that consumers value convenience above all else. Every major industry has been transformed by the demand for convenience, and trailblazing companies like Spotify and Uber are paving the way for other industries to follow suit. In this service focused era, physicians like Dr. Gabrysch and Remedy are answering the overwhelming demand for convenient healthcare.

"I felt, in a world of Netflix and Amazon-style service, there had to be a way to integrate technology and healthcare to create a seamless, on-demand urgent care platform," said Dr. Gabrysch. "With Remedy, patients can contact a provider, receive medical advice, and request a home visit using nothing more than their smartphone."

Just like brick and mortar urgent care, Remedy's services are covered by most major insurers, such as Blue Cross, United Healthcare, Aetna, Cigna and Medicare. Patients' insurers are billed as an in-network provider, with the same plan limits/deductibles/coinsurance applying. Remedy offers low, flat-rate, transparent pricing for self-pay patients or those on higher-deductible HSA plans. Additionally, under the "Remedy Guarantee," no patient will pay for a visit they feel wasn't effective. Remedy partners with self-funded employers to use their innovative healthcare platform to drive high-quality, efficient care for employees. Remedy provides significant savings to bottom-line healthcare spending for employers, with dramatically better utilization than the national averages for most telemedicine offerings.

Remedy's services are now available in Dallas-Fort Worth. First time patients may visit myremedy.com, and use the coupon code DFWLaunch for a free online visit.

About Remedy

Founded in 2015 by Dr. Jeremy Gabrysch, Remedy is an urgent care service that provides board-certified physician assistants and nurse practitioners to treat patients. Remedy provides two convenient ways to meet their urgent care needs, home visits and telemedicine appointments, both easily accessible from MyRemedy.com. Patients receive a higher quality of care and convenience through Remedy's more personal approach. Convenient Care is the future of the medical field, and the urgent care service that Remedy provides ensures quality with convenience. For more information, visit MyRemedy.com.

CONTACT:

Alex Irwin

972-388-5525

[email protected]

SOURCE Remedy

Related Links

myremedy.com


CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio State University President Michael Drake could potentially make more than $1.4 million after he steps down, under new terms approved by the schools board of trustees.

Drake announced that he would retire from the position in November, saying the timing was right for Ohio State and his family.

The majority of the payment comes from a yearly salary as president emeritus, which matches Drakes current salary at $891,946, according to a university press release. Drake will serve in that position from July 1 through June 30, 2021.

Drake is among the most highly paid public college presidents in the country, ranking ninth in a Chronicle of Higher Education survey for 2018. Drake is retiring from the position, but will continue to teach.

The new contract also sets Drakes salary as Distinguished University Professor in the departments of medicine, ophthalmology and education and human ecology, beginning July 1 through June 30, 2024.

Drake will make $66,666.67 per month for up to nine months per year. If he is paid for all nine months, that comes to just under $600,000 a year.

Its not unusual for university presidents to make the same salary after leaving their positions. Notably, the University of Akron ended up spending $923,517 last school year due to rotating leadership when it continued paying three past presidents who were also teaching.

The board also named the 27 members of its presidential search committee who will work to replace Drake. The university will pay firm Isaacson, Miller to help conduct the search.
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What a wonderful world indeed.

These breathtaking images show planet Earth in all its natural splendour.

From exotic animals with very very long tongues to jaw-dropping landscapes sculpted by time and weather, photographers ventured out to show the beauty of Mother Nature for a competition run by photo app Agora.

Locations include the jungles of Indonesia, the rugged coastline of Iceland and the ancient sands of Namibia.

Out of 11,086 entries, judges went about selecting 50 finalists. The winner of the #Nature2020 will be selected by public vote and announced on March 4.

Scroll down and take a trip of a lifetime from the comfort of your seat, thanks to 17 of the talented Agora finalists we've picked out...

Hong Kong photographer @leemumford8 captured Palawan island in the El Nido municipality in the western Philippines. He said of the shot: 'El Nido had some of the most breathtaking scenery. These huge mountains protruded the ocean creating a landscape like no other. As soon as I saw this island, I knew it would make for some amazing photographs. My girlfriend and I spent a solid hour kayaking against the wind on this island. I wanted to show the insane scale of this place. To help add to the scale, I waited for a boat to leave the beach. Mother Nature is so beautiful when left to her own devices'

Indonesian photographer @georock888 said of this incredible photograph showing a long-tongued chameleon in Jakarta: 'I had to wait a long time to take this shot! It took a lot of patience. I had to adjust the speed on the camera when the chameleon ate his dinner (which was a dragonfly!)'

British photographer @jamesxtheo said of this vertigo-inducing snap showing Mount Seceda in the Dolomites, Italy: 'This was shot during late summer, the temperature was below freezing and the strong winds made it feel even colder. The next day this place was covered in snow!'

To get this close-up shot of a camouflaged crocodile Indonesian photographer @yensentan approached the scaled reptile as quietly as possible as they are 'usually are very responsive to noise and movement'

Photographer @caokynhan captured this incredible shot while travelling through the central highlands region of Vietnam. He said: 'I walked many difficult roads to climb to the top of this mountain, from where I could see the entire hills below. I have come here many times, but I had never seen the fog covering the mountains this way. It was a very wonderful feeling'

Photographer @mits4772 took this incredible photo of a tiger while touring the Pench Tiger Reserve in India

A lone bird sits on top of a tree in this golden photograph of the sun setting in Kenya, Africa, taken by Pakistani photographer @someguybehindthecamera. He said of the image: 'The light was about to go out completely when I saw this tree and luckily got this shot. I wanted to transmit tranquillity and peace through this image'

Belgian photographer @notanothermica titled this shot, taken in Vietnam, 'Waterfall Paradise'

This beautiful photo showing rocks dripping with foliage by a waterfall in Vietnam was taken by Spanish photographer @jordisark

Norwegian photographer @ystein said of this atmospheric shot showing Kirkjufell mountain in Iceland: 'This is nature at its most dramatic - fantastic light and blizzard is an unusual combination. I wanted to present the majestic mountain as the main object'

Italian photographer @heisen22 captured a fox on the prowl while travelling during winter around the island of Hokkaido in Japan

Indonesian cameraman @novian_altelucav simply titled this image 'paradise'. He said of the shot, taken in the Central Sulawesi province of Indonesia: 'I struggled to take this picture because the path to get there was quite tough, and I was in a hurry to take some photos. The water was so clear!'

A spider sits ready for its portrait in this eye-catching close-up shot by Indonesian photographer @achmadkamal92

American photographer @thejosiah titled this photo taken in his home country 'the open road is calling'

The sun casts a golden glow on a dune in Namibia. The aerial image was taken by British photographer @joeshelly

Hengifoss waterfall in Iceland is captured in all its glory by German photographer @kveikjan. The photograph was taken during the summer months, with light from 'the beautiful midnight sun' creating a moody feel
President Moon Jae-in visits the National Assembly on Feb. 28. Yonhap



By Do Je-hae



President Moon Jae-in made a rare visit to the National Assembly, Friday, to seek bipartisan support in dealing with the national health emergency unleashed by COVID-19.



During the visit, Moon meet with the leaders of the major parties including Lee Hae-chan, chairman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK); and those from the main opposition United Future Party comprising Hwang Kyo-ahn, chairman of the former Liberty Korea Party; Justice Party Chairwoman Sim Sang-jeung; and You Sung-yop, co-chairman of the Party for People's Livelihoods. Moon also met with National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang before joining a roundtable with the leaders.



Previously, Moon has invited party leaders to Cheong Wa Dae for consultations on state affairs. The President's visit to the National Assembly is seen as reflecting his determination to underline the importance of non-partisan support for his administration's struggle to control the epidemic. Moon has called on parliamentary support for a supplementary budget to cope with the economic fallout of the new coronavirus



During the talks with the party leaders, the President highlighted his concerns for the economy, which has been hit hard by the virus as it has dampened commercial activity and consumption.





President Moon Jae-in, left, and National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang greet each other wearing masks at the National Assembly on Feb. 28. Yonhap
Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, says everyone that had contact with the Italian who imported COVID-19 better known as coronavirus ...





Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, says everyone that had contact with the Italian who imported COVID-19 better known as coronavirus into Lagos is being traced.





Ehanire said passengers on the same flight with the Italian are being traced as well as those who had contact with him elsewhere.





The Italian was confirmed to have the virus on Friday morning  about two days after he arrived in the country.





He returned from Milan, Italy, which has the highest rate of the infection in Europe.





Ehanire said the relevant authorities are working to find out where he has been to and whoever he came in contact with since he arrived in Nigeria.





We have started working to identify all the contacts made by the patient since he entered Nigeria, even those with him on the aircraft, the minister said.





We are working to find out where this gentleman was, where he sat, those who sat around him and set up a monitoring team for all the passengers and crew members of that flight in order to get information and monitor their state of health.





We will advise anyone who has any symptoms to report and be monitored and be checked.





HOW DID THE ITALIAN ESCAPE AIRPORT SCREENING?





Ehanire said no symptom was identified in the victim upon arrival at Lagos airport because symptoms in some cases do not manifest until a few days after infection.





So, he walked through the screening with no symptoms, he said.





By the time he got to his house, I think a day or two after, he started to feel unwell and, wisely enough, went to a hospital and there the doctors examined him.





So, it is not that it is a failure of screening. The screening went very well. The information I have this very morning is that he is stable, so all people will not be equally severe.





The minister said Nigeria does not quarantine passengers arriving from abroad unless they are suspected to have the disease.





He said the country only keeps in touch with any passenger that has arrived from countries with a high record of the infection.





He said: WHO advises that there is no need to put every single traveller into quarantine. There are some other countries who choose to do differently, but we followed the guideline of the WHO which states that you screen all persons who are entering your country and check their travel history.





If they are coming from a country with a high record of coronavirus, invite them for further questioning, give them a phone number to call you and get their phone number.





And advise them in the interest of their own family and friends to stay in self isolation for 14 days and report any symptoms immediately. We also call you to find out how you are.





He added that besides the Italian not showing very serious symptoms, as far as statistics are concerned, up to 97 percent of people who are known to have coronavirus do recover.
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is concerned about the support former New York City Mayor Michael Bloombergs presidential campaign has been receiving and hes making it his mission to inform voters about Bloombergs controversial mayoral record.

Williams has spent the past few weeks taking any opportunity he can to convince voters that Bloomberg is not the Democratic candidate they think he is. He even dedicated most of his keynote speech at City & States New York City Power 100 event on Thursday evening, to railing against the ex-mayor.

During a small rally outside of Bloombergs campaign headquarters on Thursday, Williams said that black leaders endorsements suggest that Bloomberg is buying them off. I cant say for everyone I dont know, and some of these black leaders I really look up to, he said. Im so embarrassed and hurt to see that happen. I know money is a part of it.

Mike Bloomberg ... is trying to make people think that he sincerely cared about black and brown and working-class people when he was mayor of this city, Williams continued. Theres a 12-year legacy that were still trying to climb out of. We do not want to see that across this country.

Bloomberg has recently been endorsed by Queens Democratic Party boss Rep. Gregory Meeks, former New York City Mayor David Dinkins and Assembly Minority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes. A number of prominent of black elected officials in other states, such as Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter have also endorsed Bloomberg.

The public advocate made similar remarks during a Crains New York Business breakfast forum last week. I think hes just buying some folks, Williams said. Im most ashamed of black leaders who live in New York City and are supporting him, because they know who he is. All I can say is he has very deep pockets.

However, Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, one of the black New York lawmakers who has endorsed Bloomberg, told City & State for another story that her endorsement had nothing to do with any promises of campaign cash. I do know that this gentleman has vast wealth but his vast wealth has nothing to do with my decision to endorse him, Peoples-Stokes said.

On Monday, Williams, along with 90 people of color who lived in the city while Bloomberg was mayor, signed off on a letter urging voters not to support his campaign. The letter highlighted some of Bloombergs most controversial policies that had a devastating impact on the city, such as stop-and-frisk, the citys illegal surveillance of Muslim communities, increased low-level marijuana posession arrests and the cancellation of the Advantage housing assistance program, among other things

In recent days, Michael Bloomberg has attempted to rewrite his legacy, but we havent forgotten, the letter reads. The extent of harm, humiliation and terror that the Bloomberg administrations daily racial profiling and police violence caused in Black, Latinx and other communities of color cannot be overstated.

During an MSNBC appearance on Feb. 13., Williams  who was accompanied by Reverend Al Sharpton  similarly expressed his concerns regarding Bloombergs policy track record and the timing of his apologies for stop-and-frisk, among other controversial policies.

Disturbed to see Black leaders back @MikeBloomberg Theres a history of callous policies harming NYers of more color on housing, education & of course #SQF.



As I said to @KatyTurNBC & @TheRevAl on @MSNBC, the revelations arent a surprise to all who know the Mayors work best. pic.twitter.com/NZbjqsWUFz  Jumaane Williams (@JumaaneWilliams) February 13, 2020

The things hes talking about now he had 12 years to talk about as mayor and 10 years after that, Williams said. Where was this (apology then)?

"As a long-serving mayor of a big and complex city, Mike made New York a better place to live and where an economy could thrive, national campaign spokesman Michael Frazier said in an emailed statement to City & State. He created jobs. He turned around a failing school system. He helped to make the city more sustainable, healthier and safer. Mike acknowledges he got it wrong with stop and frisk. As the mark of a true leader, he apologized and learned from this mistake. Mike will continue the dialogue he is having across the country on issues important to the Black and Latino community."
The president will nominate retired Rear Adm. Kenneth Braithwaite to lead the Navy and Marine Corps, the White House announced Friday -- about a month after reports emerged that the ambassador could have undisclosed ties to the scandal-tinged political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

President Donald Trump wants Braithwaite, current U.S. ambassador to Norway, to serve as his next Navy secretary. The job was vacated by Richard V. Spencer more than three months ago after a clash with Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who claimed Spencer offered the White House a secret deal regarding the case of controversial Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher.

Braithwaite, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who deployed to Iraq during the initial 2003 invasion, currently serves as the ambassador to Norway. CBS News reported last month that it had obtained documents suggesting Braithwaite might have had a contractual relationship with Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct British consulting firm that gathered personal data of millions of Facebook users without their consent.

Related: President Trump's Navy Secretary Pick Is a Combat Vet Who Tracked Russian Subs

Braithwaite denies the claims. He would have had to disclose paid and unpaid jobs he had outside the government for two years leading up to his Senate confirmation to serve as an ambassador. Braithwaite did not disclose any positions with Cambridge Analytica, according to CBS, and denies he worked with the firm.

The White House did not comment on the report at the time and made no mention of it in Friday's announcement to move ahead with the nomination.

Trump, in a November tweet, called Braithwaite "a man of great achievement and success."

"I know Ken will do an outstanding job!" he said.

Braithwaite will again face Senate confirmation to serve as Navy secretary.

The retired flag officer left the Navy in 2011. He served as a naval aviator, tracking Russian submarines while assigned to Patrol Squadron 17 and Patrol Wing 2.

In the late 1980s, Braithwaite made a career switch into public affairs, serving as the Navy Reserve's top spokesman and adviser to the service's chief of information. In that role, he deployed to Iraq during the initial 2003 invasion as commanding officer of Fleet Combat Camera Atlantic Reserve. Braithwaite also led a team in Pakistan after a deadly 2005 earthquake.

He later pursued a master's degree in government administration from the University of Pennsylvania.

Braithwaite's nomination was one of several announced by the White House on Friday. Others include Kendel Ehrlich, former first lady of Maryland, to be director of the Department of Justice's office of Sex Offenders, Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking; and Senate Appropriations Committee staff member Christopher Hanson to be a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

-- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @ginaaharkins.

Read More: America's Newest Medal of Honor Recipient Is Now a Sergeant Major
T he Serious Fraud Office suffered another major embarrassment today when three Barclays bosses were cleared of fraud charges dating back to the financial crisis.

Top investment banker Roger Jenkins, 64, once one of the highest paid executives in the City, and former senior colleagues Thomas Kalaris, 64, and Richard Boath, 61, were acquitted at the Old Bailey after a five-month trial.

The charges related to a 4 billion investment in the bank from Qatar at the height of the 2008 financial crisis that helped Barclays avoid nationalisation by Gordon Browns government.

The SFO alleged the terms given to Qatar, including an extra 322 million in fees, were hidden from the market and other investors through bogus advisory service agreements (ASAs).

Former Barclays executive Roger Jenkins leaves after attending a hearing for charges of fraud at Westminster Magistrates Court, London in 2017 / AP

Mr Jenkins was executive chairman of investment banking and investment management at Barclays Capital in the Middle East and North Africa; Mr Kalaris was Barclays wealth management chief; and Mr Boath was Barclays Capitals head of financial institutions group for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

A fourth defendant, former Barclays group chief executive John Varley was cleared in the Appeal Court last June.

Former Barclays Chief Thomas Kalaris arrives for a hearing for charges in 2017 / AP

The jury deliberated for about five-and-a half hours before acquitting the trio of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and fraud by false representation between May 1, 2008 and August 31, 2008. Mr Jenkins was also acquitted of two similar offences between September 1, 2008 and November 30, 2008.

It is the latest in a long line of setbacks for the SFO. In February last year it abandoned two bribery cases: against former Rolls-Royce executives, and a separate one against GlaxoSmithKline.

In November 2018 two Tesco bosses being prosecuted over an accounting black hole walked free from court after a judge said the defence had no case to answer. A third was acquitted in January 2019 after the SFO offered no evidence.

Richard Boath outside the Old Bailey, London, as he and two other former Barclays senior executives, Roger Jenkins and Thomas Kalaris, have been acquitted of fraud / PA

A spokesman for the SFO today said: Our prosecution decisions are always based on the evidence that is available, and we are determined to bring perpetrators of serious financial crime to justice. Wherever our evidential and public interest tests are met, we will always endeavour to bring this before a court.
Anybody in close contact with Northern Irelands first Covid-19 patient has been contacted, health authorities north and south of the border said (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

Anybody in close contact with Northern Irelands first Covid-19 patient has been contacted, health authorities north and south of the border said.

The woman travelled through Dublin Airport on her way home after flying with Aer Lingus from northern Italy with a child.

She was tested at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast but is being treated in isolation at home.

The health authorities would not confirm reports the woman had taken the train from Dublin to Belfast, citing patient confidentiality.

Learn about hand hygiene and preventing the spread of Covid-19 (#Coronavirus) pic.twitter.com/ZEvMIbt3ZE  HSE Ireland (@HSELive) February 28, 2020

She had contacted a GP and taken steps to self-isolate, Northern Irelands Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said.

Northern Irelands health minister Robin Swann said 93 tests for coronavirus have so far been completed, with one presumed to be positive.

He said: I am reassured that the professionals we have in the health system are well-placed to cope with the eventuality that may come.

Irish health chief Dr John Cuddihy said: Each of the stages of this persons journey have been identified and all relevant contacts in all of those stages of transport have been contacted (and) traced.

People who sat within two rows of the woman on the plane from northern Italy to Dublin were contacted.

Irelands chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan and Dr Cuddihy, head of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, said protocols similar to those used to respond to previous incidents of pandemic influenza  Sars and Mers  have been in place since January and are operating effectively.

Mr Swann said he believed the planning of the past four to five weeks had been effective.

The positive result has been sent to Public Health England laboratories for verification.

Aer Lingus said: Aer Lingus can confirm that the patient in Northern Ireland who has been diagnosed with the Covid-19 virus travelled with the airline from northern Italy to Dublin.

Aer Lingus is co-operating fully with the Health Service Executive in relation to the Covid-19 developments and is liaising with the Department of Foreign Affairs, other government departments and the relevant authorities as required.

On Friday, Irelands Health Minister met environmental health officers at Dublin Airport who are providing useful and practical information on coronavirus to people flying into the country.

Visited @DublinAirport today to meet with @HSELive staff providing information on the #coronavirus to people on arrival in Ireland and to thank them for their work. Vital that we all follow public health advice. Visit https://t.co/eSkaJeCdA0 for useful, factual information pic.twitter.com/iCJOJAnbbx  Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) February 28, 2020

Simon Harris urged people to get information from public health experts and repeated World Health Organisation warnings about misinformation online.

He said it was not his job to feed public curiosity about a patients journey.

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said: If its necessary to give more information in a particular instance we are more than willing to do that, and we have done that for things like measles, but there was no need to do that in this instance.

We want to reassure people again  if you have not been contacted by someone from public health in the last 12 to 15 hours, you can stop worrying.

The new strain of coronavirus originated last year in Hubei province in China.

It produces flu-like symptoms.

China has seen thousands of infections and deaths.

It has spread to Italy, Germany and other European countries during a worldwide march also encompassing large parts of Asia and the Middle East.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealand health officials on Friday said the country had its first case of the new coronavirus, a person in their 60s who recently returned from Iran.

Health officials said the results of a test came through positive on Friday afternoon. The person was being treated at the Auckland City Hospital and the persons household members had also been isolated as a precaution.

New Zealands Ministry of Health said in a statement it was confident the public health risk from the infection was being well managed.

Authorities said the patient arrived on an Emirates flight that landed in Auckland on Wednesday. They said anybody on the flight who had any concerns should contact health experts.

New Zealands Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed the man had tested positive during a trip to Sydney, where she was meeting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
Who knew that when police at Lehigh Valley International Airport started carrying naloxone in 2016, they would be years ahead of the curve.

This week Gov. Tom Wolf announced the state would begin providing naloxone for free to seven Pennsylvania airports: Philadelphia International Airport, Pittsburgh International Airport, Harrisburg International Airport, Williamsport Regional Airport, Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport, University Park Airport and Lancaster Airport.

Naloxone, commonly referred to by the brand name Narcan, reverses the effects of opioids, which includes heroin and prescription pain relievers such as morphine, fentanyl, Percocet, methadone and oxycodone.

The naloxone will be stored with airport AED machines and first aid kits. Many airports already have public safety teams with police, fire and EMS, so the distribution will be available to those teams as well.

A key component to decreasing the number of overdose deaths in Pennsylvania is widely distributing naloxone in communities and public venues, Smith said. When dealing with an epidemic like the opioid crisis, life-saving medication should be a part of every first aid kit and readily available.

Lehigh Valley International Airport in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, began carrying Naloxone in 2016, as part of a regional initiative to have police departments to carry the overdose reversing drug.

Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority spokesman Colin Riccobon said officers have not yet had to use the drug.

Naloxone is a life-saving medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said. Since 2018, we have provided free naloxone kits to more than 14,000 Pennsylvanians -- that means 14,000 lives can be potentially saved. We know that Pennsylvanians are dedicated to helping to save lives of not only their loved ones, but also anyone who has overdosed.

Pennsylvania previously only permitted paramedics and doctors to use the antidote, but then-Gov. Tom Corbett signed a law in October 2014 allowing police to legally administer it.

Since then, Wolfs administration has focused on making the drug easier for the public to access, including Levine issuing a standing order prescription to any Pennsylvanian so they can get Naloxone at a pharmacy.

Five years ago, Capital BlueCross and the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association announced an initiative to have police departments in Capital BlueCross 21-county service area in the state purchase and carry naloxone. The service area includes Lehigh and Northampton counties.

A year later, authorities said all 17 police departments in Lehigh County had the drug. LVIAs police department was added in June 2016.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
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Bangladeshi student at Visva Bharati University asked to leave India over anti-govt activities

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Kolkata, Feb 28: A Bangladeshi student, studying Bachelor in Design (B.Des) at Visva Bharati University in West Bengal's Santiniketan, has been asked by the home ministry to leave the country for reportedly engaging in "anti-government activities".

Afsara Anika Meem, an undergraduate student at the central university, has been served a 'Leave India Notice' by the Foreigners' Regional Registration Office, Kolkata - under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The notice - which has asked Meem to leave India within 15 days from the date of its receipt - did not specify the nature of the "anti-India activities".

Don't make irresponsible statements: India slams OIC statement over Delhi violence

The woman, who hails from Kustia district of Bangladesh, got enrolled in the Bachelor of Design course at the varsity in 2018. She received the notice dated 14 February on Wednesday, one of her friends said.

Meem had allegedly shared some posts on Facebook related to anti-CAA protests inside the campus in December, and has been trolled on social media since then, a member of the Students' Federation of India (SFI) told PTI.

The Bangladeshi student, who did not receive calls, told PTI in a WhatsApp message that "I am not in a state to talk about this now".

A Bangladesh Deputy High Commission source in Kolkata said it is yet to receive any official intimation in this regard.

Visva Bharati University authorities, too, could not be contacted for comments.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

The notice said Meem also committed visa violation.

"... She is found to have engaged in anti-government activities. And such activity being a breach of her visa, has thus, committed visa violation.

"... The foreigner shall not remain in India, shall depart from India within 15 days of receipt of this order," it said.

A teacher at the varsity termed the move "draconian" and said it is an attempt to gag "any dissenting voice".

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Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 9:06 [IST]
Dublin, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecast (2020 - 2025)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The Global Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Market is anticipated to grow with a CAGR of nearly 2.1% during the forecast period.



The major factors driving the growth of the market are the global prevalence of various cancers and the rise in the geriatric population. For instance, according to the American Cancer Society reports for chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2019, about 20,720 new cases and 3,930 deaths caused were due to CLL in the United States which directly resulted in higher demand for efficient treatments fueling the growth of the market.



Also, an increase in the investment by the key players in the pharmaceutical R&D sector is expected to boost the growth of the global chronic lymphocytic leukemia market throughout the forecasted period.



Key Market Trends



The Parenteral Route of Administration Segment is Expected to Hold the Largest Market Share in the Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Market

The parenteral route of administration segment is expected to witness the largest market revenue share in recent years and expected to do so over the forecast period. This dominance is due to their rapid absorbed and onset of action along with their availability in various routes such as intravenous, subcutaneous, intrathecal, or intramuscular routes according to the need of the patient.

On the other hand, the drugs administered through the oral route experience the highest growth due to availability of various products in oral dosage forms like tablets and capsules along with combination of more than one drug which helps physicians coupled by the enhanced patient compliance due to their non-invasive nature and ease of administration without physicians assistance helps the oral dosage forms segment to grow at the highest rate during the forecast period.

By Treatment, Chemotherapy accounts for its largest market share due to its access from decades and owing to the wide range of products that are available in the market contributing to the growth of the market.

North America is Expected to Dominate the Market



North America is expected to dominate the overall chronic lymphocytic leukemia market throughout the forecast period.



A steep rise in incidences of various cancers with the rapid growth of elder individuals. For instance, according to the report published by the American Cancer Society in January 2020, the risk of CLL increases with a rise in the age and estimates that about 9 out of 10 people with CLL are over age 50 which directly drives for growth of the CLL market.



Also, an increase in the approvals from regulatory bodies along with ongoing research activities by the major companies in the United States are likely to contribute the largest share of revenue in the region propelling the global chronic lymphocytic leukemia market.



Competitive Landscape



The Chronic lymphocytic leukemia market is moderately competitive and consists of several major players.



Few of the key players are developing the biosimilars to the existing chemotherapies while others are launching the generic products trending in the market. For instance, in November 2019, AstraZeneca PLC received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its Calquence (acalabrutinib) to treat adult patients with CLL which is expected to impel the global Chronic lymphocytic leukemia market growth throughout the forecast period.



Furthermore, few key players are entering into partnerships to develop and increase their market position globally. Some of the companies which are currently dominating the market are F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, AstraZeneca plc, Verastem Inc, Novartis AG, and AbbVie Inc.



Key Topics Covered



1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Study Deliverables

1.2 Study Assumptions

1.3 Scope of the Study



2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY



3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY



4 MARKET DYNAMICS

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Market Drivers

4.2.1 Rise in Global Prevalence of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Coupled With the Increasing Geriatric Population

4.2.2 Huge Product Pipeline along with Growing Research Activities

4.3 Market Restraints

4.3.1 Higher Cost of the Patented Drugs and Therapies

4.3.2 Adverse Side Effects Associated with Chemotherapy

4.4 Porter's Five Force Analysis

4.4.1 Threat of New Entrants

4.4.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers/Consumers

4.4.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.4.4 Threat of Substitute Products

4.4.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry



5 MARKET SEGMENTATION

5.1 By Route of Administration

5.1.1 Oral

5.1.2 Parenteral

5.1.3 Others

5.2 By Treatment

5.2.1 Chemotherapy

5.2.2 Immunotherapy

5.2.3 Others

5.3 By Distribution Channel

5.3.1 Hospitals

5.3.2 Speciality Clinics

5.3.3 Others

5.4 Geography

5.4.1 North America

5.4.1.1 United states

5.4.1.2 Canada

5.4.1.3 Mexico

5.4.2 Europe

5.4.2.1 Germany

5.4.2.2 United Kingdom

5.4.2.3 France

5.4.2.4 Italy

5.4.2.5 Spain

5.4.2.6 Rest of Europe

5.4.3 Asia-Pacific

5.4.3.1 China

5.4.3.2 Japan

5.4.3.3 India

5.4.3.4 Australia

5.4.3.5 South Korea

5.4.3.6 Rest of Asia-Pacific

5.4.4 Middle-East and Africa

5.4.4.1 GCC

5.4.4.2 South Africa

5.4.4.3 Rest of Middle-East and Africa

5.4.5 South America

5.4.5.1 Brazil

5.4.5.2 Argentina

5.4.5.3 Rest of South America



6 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

6.1 Company Profiles

6.1.1 F Hoffmann-La Roche AG

6.1.2 AstraZeneca PLC

6.1.3 Verastem Inc.

6.1.4 Novartis AG

6.1.5 AbbVie Inc

6.1.6 Gilead Sciences

6.1.7 Arno Therapeutics

6.1.8 Genzyme Corporation

6.1.9 Ziopharm Oncology Inc.

6.1.10 Ono pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.

6.1.11 Teva Pharmaceutical Industries



7 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/xd6uj5

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.
Police arrest man they see with drugs in passing taxi

Playa del Carmen, Q.R.  Elements of the Ministry of Public Security and Municipal Transit of Solidaridad arrested a 27-year-old man from Mexico City after he was found in possession of several types of drugs.

Municipal police patrolling aboard motorcycles in the Zazil-Ha neighborhood of Playa del Carmen noticed a male taxi passenger in the back seat handling a bag of what appeared to be marijuana. The taxi in which he was travelling was stopped with the driver voluntarily getting out. According to police, the backseat passenger remained inside the unit, verbally insulting police.

The subject did however, eventually descend from the taxi where he was inspected. Authorities found he was carrying several types of drugs including cocaine, marijuana and LSD. He was taken into custody.
US Global AIDS Coordinator & US Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy Deborah Birx speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Washington, on Nov. 30, 2017. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Pence Names Leading AIDS Official Debbie Birx as Coronavirus Response Coordinator

Vice President Mike Pence announced on Thursday that a global health official and leading expert in HIV/AIDs, Deborah Birx, has been appointed to serve as the White Houses coordinator to combat the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus.

Dr. Birx serves as the U.S. governments leader for combatting HIV/AIDS globally and will continue to oversee this critical work through her able Deputy Angeli Achrekar, while bringing her interagency expertise and coordination that brought ground-breaking progress to the global HIV/AIDS pandemic to the coronavirus response in the White House, Pence said in a statement on Thursday.

Birx is currently the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacyroles she has held since 2014.

Prior to 2014, Birx had previously coordinated between the Army, Navy, and Air Force in their HIV/AIDS efforts. She also led the CDCs Division of Global HIV/AIDS and Center for Global Health in their global implementation of the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program.

In her new role as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, Birx will be detailed to Pences office and report directly to him. She will also join the Coronavirus Task Force led by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the White House said. The task force is being coordinated through the National Security Council and Birx will be supported by NSC staff.

Birx has three decades of public health expertise focusing on on HIV/AIDS immunology, vaccine research, and global health.

She has developed and patented vaccines, including leading one of the most influential HIV vaccine trials in history, Pence announced. Three different Administrations across both political parties have relied on her knowledge and judgement.

She has worked from the research bench to the clinic but understands the primary focus must always be to reach the individuals most in need. She will bring her infectious disease, immunologic, vaccine research, and interagency coordinating capacity to this position, he added.

Alongside Birxs appointment, Pence and Azar announced the addition of more officials to the presidents coronavirus task force: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, and Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council.

The news comes a day after Trump called on Pence to lead the coronavirus task force in coordinating an all-of-government response, with health agencies reporting directly to Pence.

Im going to be putting our Vice President Mike Pence in charge, and Mike will be working with the professionals, doctors, and everybody else thats working, Trump said, adding that Pence will then report back to him.

Following Trumps announcement, Azar clarified on Thursday that he remains the chairman of the coronavirus task force.

I will remain the chairman of the interagency task force, Azar said. What the vice president will do is actually a function thats very similar to what acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has been very ably doing for me, which is, Im in constant communication with him, and hes able to clear barriers, get alignment across cabinet departments and agencies, and frankly, deal with and coordinate areas that are outside of the healthcare expertisebroader economic questions, trade issues, etc.

The vice presidents involvement in leadership across the whole of government brings the weight of the office of the vice president to that task, Azar added.

Vice President Mike Pence, accompanied by left, President Donald Trumps acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaks at a coronavirus task force meeting at the Department of Health and Human Services, in Washington, on, Feb. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Speaking at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday, Pence said that the risk to the American public remains low but the administration is ready for anything, and that the current climate is not the time for partisanship.

Read More Pence Addresses Coronavirus Risk at CPAC, Condemns Socialism

Yesterday, President Trump directed me to lead a whole-of-government approach to address the coronavirus in the country, Pence said. And I promise you we will continue to bring the full resources of the federal government to bear to protect the American people.

Pence has prior experience dealing with a viral outbreak. He was the governor of Indiana when the first domestic case of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was confirmed in the state.

On Jan. 31, Trump declared a public health emergency in the United States due to the outbreak in China, just a day after the World Health Organization decided to declare the COVID-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. The Trump administration also suspended travel from China to the United States.

There have been 60 confirmed cases of the virus in the United States, 42 of which originated from passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was quarantined off Yokohama, Japan, earlier this month. Three cases of coronavirus were in those who were evacuated from Wuhan to the United States. The remaining 15 cases were detected in six statesArizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Washington, and Wisconsinwith the 15th case northern California possibly being the first case of human-to-human transmission from an unknown source, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Ivan Pentchoukov and Bowen Xiao contributed to this report.
MIAMI, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Access MBA, a global leader in One-to-One business education events, will meet business professionals in Miami on March 12th at the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel, organisers Advent Group announced today.

"The Access MBA Tour is currently held in 40 countries all over the world. At each event, professionals aspiring to MBA studies and managerial careers are carefully matched with top-ranked international business schools, ensuring a personalised and result-focused experience," said Christophe Coutat, Advent Group's Founder and Managing Director.

The One-to-One format enables business professionals to find a top MBA programme taught in English that corresponds to their background and expectations. Prior to the event, the professional profiles of MBA candidates are carefully evaluated and matched with suitable business schools.

"There is a wide range of local and international MBA programmes to choose from. At the same time, a diversity of learning formats, including more flexible and shorter options, enables participants to find the best fit depending on their personal goals, lifestyle, and preferences," said Iva Peneva, Lead, MBA Candidate Relations of Advent Group.

The Access MBA Spring 2020 Tour showcases around 200 international business schools and takes place in over 50 cities across the world. Potential MBA applicants in Miami can expect to meet representatives from schools such as University of Miami, HULT, Bocconi, FIU, IE Business School, Babson College, University of Tampa and many more.

In addition to the in-person meetings with Admission Directors, event attendees receive MBA and GMAT preparation support, gain insight into the MBA admissions process, and participate in panel discussions featuring school representatives and alumni.

The prestigious Master of Business Administration degree has the distinction of being a valued asset to careers in the business world. The strong demand for MBA graduates also signifies higher salaries. In 2018, the median base salary among business school alumni was USD 115,000. In addition, various polls frequently show that the majority of employers plan to hire new business school graduates, indicating the consistently bright prospects of business and management education.

Event Registration

In order for Access MBA to identify the most suitable business school options for event attendees, they are required to register on www.accessmba.com well in advance of the event date (at least 10 days before). Online registration is free of charge.

For More Information

Access MBA: https://www.accessmba.com/link/Ed9

Advent Group: www.adventgroup.net

Media contact:

Yanna Kubatova

[email protected]

00359896557578

SOURCE Access MBA
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 23:40:58|Editor: huaxia

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HONG KONG, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, widely known as one of the "black hands" behind the months-long unrest in Hong Kong, was arrested Friday on charges of participating in an unlawful assembly and criminally intimidating a journalist.

The arrest proves that anyone who challenges the rule of law and attempts to mess up Hong Kong will ultimately be brought to justice.

Persistent violent protests and riots had turned the once prosperous and stable region upside down, with law and order trampled and honest residents living in fear. Tourists were scared away, the economy slipped into recession, and the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of ordinary people were in peril.

On Aug. 31, Lai orchestrated and took part in an unauthorized assembly on the Hong Kong Island. Rioters besieged buildings of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government and the Legislative Council, vandalized and set fires to public facilities and metro stations, and hurled petrol bombs and erosive liquid at police officers.

The illegal assembly on that day became a watershed event. Hong Kong had since then come under the shadow of a black terror. Fatal weapons were more frequently used by rioters, an elderly sanitation worker was killed, a resident was set on fire, and university campus were laid to waste.

Lai and others have cooked it up. They colluded with external forces to plot a Hong Kong version of "color revolution," attempting to use social disturbance to undermine the "one country, two systems."

As a media tycoon, Lai did not shoulder his due responsibilities but abused the power to confound right with wrong. The tabloid he owns incited violent activities, glorified rioters and vandalism, and smeared police officers. A number of young people, even teenagers, were misled, brainwashed and incited to participate in street violence.

Lai blatantly attacked the central government and advocated the so-called "Hong Kong independence," which went far beyond the freedom of speech guaranteed by the Constitution and the Basic Law, challenged the bottom line of the "one country, two systems" principle, and seriously undermined China's national sovereignty.

In fact, Lai himself failed to uphold what he claims to be "freedom of press." At one rally, he surprisingly came up to a journalist, shouting out obscenities and threatening him.

Lai and others did not stop inciting instability in Hong Kong in the face of hard-earned positive signs over the past three months. Many newly-elected district council members appeared to care more about political issues than the well-being of their voters in neighborhoods. A very small proportion of medical staff went on strikes at the crucial point of fighting the novel coronavirus, raising politically-inclined requests at the cost of the safety of millions.

Hong Kong is a mature society under the rule of law. There is no reason for Lai to remain at large. He must bear due legal responsibility for his actions.

We have every reason to believe that the trial of traitors like Lai has only just begun.
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Linkedin Richard Sargent (Agence France-Presse) Longwa, Myanmar  Fri, February 28, 2020 10:03 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20671c174 2 Art & Culture Myanmar,tattoo,tradition,minority-groups Free

Ngon Pok remembers his father and grandfather returning triumphantly to his tribal village in Myanmar's far north with a human head -- and the agony of the tattoo he was given to celebrate their victory.

He is a proud member of the Lainong, one of dozens of Naga tribes -- many with grisly histories -- wedged in a semi-autonomous zone near the Indian border.

Ngon Pok, who believes he's around 80, gestures to his six-year-old grandson, saying he must have been about the same age when he received his tattoo.

"People had to catch me and hold me down," he tells AFP, removing his jumper to reveal his chest adorned with parallel, vertical stripes and two warrior figures.

Tribes and villages commonly waged war over land, and there are reports of warriors hacking off their enemies' heads for trophies as late as the 1960s.

To celebrate, a thorn would be used to drive tree sap under the warrior's skin to ink a permanent reminder of his headhunting prowess -- and his family would often follow suit.

Ngon Pok's wife, aged about 75, says she chose to have the geometric designs etched on her arms, legs and face as a teenager.

"It was so painful," Khamyo Pon Nyun remembers, hoisting up her skirt to expose her legs.

"But I told myself if my mum and my aunts could do it then so could I," she says, adding with a smile that -- unlike her husband -- she did not need to be restrained to withstand the pain.

Read also: The last Mentawai tattoo bearers

Naga nationalism

The Naga consist of dozens of tribes in a region so isolated that neighboring villages often speak completely different languages and dialects.

Divided between India and Myanmar by a border many deem as artificial, today a proud sense of nationalism unites the disparate tribes.

This is one of the poorest corners of Myanmar, where many must walk for days to reach the nearest town, few children progress beyond primary school education and only 40 percent of villages boast electricity.

People subscribe to a complex patchwork of customs, blending animist beliefs with various forms of Christianity brought by missionaries in recent decades -- and intertwining their warrior traditions.

American anthropologist and author Lars Krutak has traveled the world studying tribal tattoos, including among the Naga.

"What strikes me as unique is the diversity of Naga tattooing patterns," he says, adding there are more than 20 tribes that tattoo across both sides of the border.

They can signify tribal identity, life accomplishments or the completion of a rite of passage.

In some cases, people believed they would need the designs to transition to the afterlife, Krutak explains.

Read also: Tattooing kit found in Tonga world's oldest: Aussie researchers

Gory tradition

One of the most feared tribes was the Konyak, now divided between India and Myanmar, their villages so remote Christianity only made inroads here in the 1970s.

The Konyak village of Longwa actually straddles the border, set on a high ridge commanding a view of both countries and is the seat of the tribe's king, whose house symbolically lies directly on the frontier.

Only a handful of the village's former headhunting warriors remain, sporting formidable tattoos that cover much of their faces in dark blue ink with skull-like patches left bare around the eyes.

Houn Ngo Kaw, 75, claims he helped put an end to the gory tradition in his village after he converted to Christianity in 1978 and admits "it's better now".

Younger generations of Naga rarely wear the traditional tattoos associated with headhunting, but there are exceptions.

Ku Myo, 35, says her parents were less than impressed after she came home aged 15 with her face tattooed.

"I did it without them knowing and they beat me when they found out," she says, admitting she too would be furious if her children exhibited the same rebellious streak.

But few seem to lament the passing of a tradition that will soon be lost forever.

"I wanted to be one of the last tattooed warriors and I am," Konyak elder Houn Ngo Kaw says with a huge grin.

"Of course I'm happy."
Turkey opens borders with EU after regime attack in Idlib

Turkish authorities have decided to open gates to the neighbor EU countries after the deadly artillery attack against Turkish troops in Idlib.

Irregular migrants planning to cross into Greece on Friday flocked to northwestern Turkey following an airstrike by forces of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Idlib, northwestern Syria.

Drone footage shows migrants walking by holding their babies.

MIGRANT INFLUX CAUSED PANIC IN GREECE

On Thursday's attack at least 33 Turkish soldiers have been martyred and tens of others injured.

After the attack migrants, started to make their way by walking and via train and bus to the province of Edirne which borders Greece.

After Turkeys decision, several media outlets in Greece reported the country's panic due to the migrant influx.
Scott Eisen/Getty

GEORGETOWN, South CarolinaDemocrats will sometimes list all of the people and items they would vote for over President Donald Trump in a general election.

An inanimate object, an anonymous bus driver, a fictional character.

But that doesnt mean some are necessarily happy about the possibility of having to vote for Bernie Sanders in November.

Its a prospect that can tend to give away a persons true feelings in grimaces and groans, a reluctant I guess, if I have to, grasping for words and giving a look like, Lets hope America doesnt put me in that position. Its a potential future that makes Debbie Meekins, a 55-year-old supporter of Joe Bidens have to laugh just moments after enthusiastically watching the former vice president walk into a South Carolina campaign event this week.

Not good, but I'd vote for him, Meekins said about her feelings towards a Sanders general election campaign. (Its) one of those, I'd vote for Mickey Mouse over Trump.

Sadly, it is what it is, she says. Sanders is as polarizing as Trump, but in the other direction.

Ahead of Saturdays primary, some Democratic voters in South Carolina who are either undecided or support other candidates said theyll side with the Vermont senator if he does indeed make it to the general election.

For them its more out of a necessity to oust the incumbent, in their minds, than because of a growing affection for the 78-year-old democratic socialist turned Democratic frontrunner. And many are not entirely convinced hell be able to oust the Republican from the White House if he gets the chance.

Others arent so sure they can vote for him at allor have outright foreclosed that possibility already.

Ben Boyles, a 38-year old supporter of former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg, said that he cant bring himself to back Sanderswho he called Trump in a different hatif he ends up as the Democratic nominee. I believe in capitalism, said Boyles as he waited to enter a Buttigieg rally in the city of Rock Hill on Thursday night.

Story continues

I would have to think long and hard about staying true to my party, said Elaine Greenlief, a 64-year-old Democrat supportive of Bidens campaign.

Beating Trump has been a key concern for voters this primary season, overtaking more clear-cut issues like health care or the sparring between the moderate and progressive wings of a Democratic Party whose fissures appear to be growing.

Saturdays South Carolina primary offers Democrats resistant to Sanders a clear opportunity to halt his momentum. A repeat win in New Hampshire and a blowout win in Nevada elevated Sanders to clear frontrunner status. His history in South Carolina is more of a challenge, with a 47-point loss here in the 2016 primary. In the lead-up to this years first-in-the-South primary, Sanders has consistently trailed Biden.

The states primary is not a must win for Sanders like it is for Biden. The former vice president has made clear he expects a decisive victoryand he likely needs one in order to keep his candidacy going. Sanders and his progressive ideals have remained a point of criticism for Biden at this point in the primary season.

But concerns about Sanders werent limited just to Biden events this week. Billionaire Tom Steyer briefly picked on Sanders by name and skewered former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg in the process at an event Thursday morning in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in front of a largely African-American crowd. In Rock Hill, Buttigieg urged a new generational voice in our partyprompting an amen to that from the audience.

Sanders always seems angry, said Kenya Tate, a 46-year-old Steyer supporter. She doesnt think Sanders would be able to beat Trump in the general election, but she would vote for him in November even though she hopes it doesn't get to that point.

"To me, he's not convincing enough for me to want to vote for him," Tate said. "So I'm not sure if he can convince the rest of America... I mean, I would have no choice because I'm a Democrat."

Sanders Democratic rivals are becoming increasingly vocal about the problem the Vermont lawmakers approach to politics could cause down-ballot.

Whether its giving Republicans an opening to slap a socialist label on down-ballot Democrats in key races or flashpoints like the independents recently reiterated praise of Fidel Castros literacy program, Democrats have made clear their fears as to what a Sanders nomination could do to the party as a whole.

Buttigieg in particular has been explicit on that front, claiming that Sanders nomination would hollow out the Democrats 40-seat U.S. House majority and hand control back to the GOP. Jack Schillawski, a 22-year old supporter of Buttigiegs from North Carolinawhose Super Tuesday primary looms soon after South Carolinassaid he believes Sanders nomination would mean Democrats lose control of the House and fail to take the Senate in November. If hes the nominee, Ill vote for him, said Schillawski. I wouldnt be as enthusiastic in campaigning.

Sanders has seemed to revel in the attacks, capitalizing on news reports about Bernie panic in the Democratic establishment to raise money and proclaim hes on the right path. As Buttigieg tried to challenge the senator during Tuesday nights debate, Sanders launched into a common stump speech line about how helpful his radical ideas would be if he were elected president.

The truth is Pete that the American people support my agenda, Sanders said. That is why I am beating Trump in virtually every poll that is done and why I will defeat him.

Rivals have also emphasized a unity approach that Sanders may have trouble pulling off if he is indeed nominated at the top of the ticket when Democrats meet for their convention in July.

There will be those who dont warm up to Sanders, said Michael Wukela, the communications director for the Sanders campaign in South Carolinabut he said thatd be the case with anyone that Democrats could nominate.

This idea that, somehow, Bernie Sanders depresses the Democratic vote is just nonsense, Wukela told The Daily Beast in the Sanders campaigns Columbia headquarters. You see it in states like Iowa and New Hampshire, those swing counties that went for Obama in 2008, 2012, and went for Trump in 2016, he wins those counties.

And many voterseven those supporting other candidatesexpressed outrage at the idea of anyone who opposes Trump having a hard time pulling the lever for whoever the Democratic nominee is. Anyone who doesnt vote or votes third-party, said Theresa Eaman in Rock Hill, has basically voted for Trump, and that bothers me.

An issue that has continued to haunt Sanders campaign as he tries expanding his base, however, remains the fallout from his challenge to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Although Sanders eventually backed and campaigned for Clinton in 2016and has pledged to support whoever the nominee is because of the importance of beating Trump in Novembersome voters here remained skeptical of his sincerity.

To 71-year-old undecided voter Jackie Tucker, Sanders was "not supportive" of Clinton. Standing outside of a Biden event this week, she listed off her concerns.

Sanders isnt a Democrat. And she fears history repeating itself in 2020 because in her eyes Sanders didn't do enough to bring his supporters to Clinton's aid in the general election. "He just didn't do what he was supposed to do, Tucker said.

But Tucker, a lifelong Democratic voter, still pledged to support Sanders in the general election if it comes to that. "To me, anybody would be better than Donald Trump," she said.

This stage of the primary season is when some voters begin to make peace with reality and whats left in front of them. The candidate they loved and cheered for may already be gone, and the final days before their states primaries can present a soul-searching task of reconciling the perfect with the just good enough. Some voters are engaging with the Democratic primary even while theyre fatalistic that it will amount to anything.

I hate to say this, but I believe Trump is going to win no matter who the Democrats put up, said Matt, a Buttigieg-supporting teacher from Rock Hill who declined to give his last name.

That narrowing of the 2020 field hasnt helped sway 43-year-old Connie Johnson, a former Marianne Williamson supporter, to Sanders movement. Johnson labeled Sanders a career politician, after Steyers event in Orangeburg.

Sanders age is a concern for her. She wants something new, something fresh. She's not willing to vote against her values, she said, "for the sake of beating Trump.

If Sanders is the nominee, she said shell still vote in the general election. She may just write in a name instead.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The participants in the march demanded action against BJP leader Kapil Mishra who is accused of having inciting the mob in Delhi.

BENGALURU: Protesting against the alleged police atrocities and the Union governments silence on the riots in the national capital for 69 hours, women protesters at Bilal Bagh in the city where a protest is on against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), NPR and NRC, took out a candlelight vigil and observed two minutes silence for those who had died, on Thursday. The participants in the march demanded action against BJP leader Kapil Mishra who is accused of having inciting the mob in Delhi. With their protest entering the 20th day, the women protestors have decided not to budge till the government repeals the CAA. An inter-faith solidarity meet was also conducted at the venue. A few days ago, Sikh youths had performed Kirtan to show their support for the protestors. On February 24, the organisers of the protest had installed CCTV cameras. Yes, the cameras were installed to protect women protestors. Nothing should go wrong. This is for the security of the protestors, said Saqib Idrees, a volunteer at the protest. On Wednesday, the city police had denied permission to hold protests against the riot in the national capital. According to the volunteers, the protest titled, Bengaluru Stands with Delhi was turned down citing security concerns.
A grandmother who described herself as an "Earth protector" said she cut down or killed 500 Sitka spruce trees in a Coillte forest to protect insects, wild flowers, fungi, berry-bearing plants, native trees and her local community.

Sioned Jones (61) said she conducted her campaign of spruce removal at the sprawling west Cork forest, owned by Coillte, to promote native broad-leaf Irish trees.

The revelation came as Ms Jones, of Maughanaclea, Kealkill, Bantry, Co Cork, denied charges of criminal damage and dishonest appropriation before Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Her trial began as more than 25 eco-campaigners staged a colourful demonstration outside the courthouse in support of Ms Jones.

Judge Sean O Donnabhain and a jury of eight women and four men heard that Ms Jones denied the two charges.

She was charged with criminal damage at Maughanaclea between November 1 and December 4, 2018, involving the felling of 250 spruce trees and the ring-barking of a further 250 trees.

Ms Jones was also charged with dishonestly appropriating felled spruce wood between November 1 and December 4, 2018, to the value of 500.

Coillte official Donal Murphy said 3,000 in damage had been done.

In evidence, Ms Jones described herself as "an Earth protector".

A native of Wales, she moved to Ireland in 1987.

She claimed the Kealkill environment had been transformed with Coillte's planting of thousands of Sitka spruce trees.

"I was shocked, outraged and appalled," she said.

Ms Jones said that such intensive monoculture was very bad for the environment.

She said she cut spruce trees to protect meadow-style mountain clearings full of native species and also planted almost 100 native Irish trees.

"I think thousands of acres of spruce is an environmental crime," she said.

She also foraged for berries, nuts, mushrooms, wild flowers and firewood.

"But all of my resources were being squeezed out. It was my right under ancient law to forage from the countryside.

"I am concerned about the type of environment we are leaving for future generations. I am a conscientious protector. We are here to protect the Earth from danger and to work for biodiversity.

"I am duty-bound - citizens have a duty of care to protect eco-systems and to protect bio-diversity for future generations."

The case continues.
(Newser)  Quaden Bayles, the subject of a viral video showing the toll of relentless bullying, won't be going to Disneyland after all. Though comedian Brad Williams launched a GoFundMe page with that goal in mindit has since raised $475,000the family of the Australian 9-year-old with dwarfism instead hopes to donate the funds to charity. "What kid wouldn't want to go to Disneyland  to escape to anywhere that is fun that doesn't remind him of his day-to-day challenges?" Quadens aunt, Mundanara Bayles, tells NITV News. "But my sister said, 'You know what, let's get back to the real issue.' This little fella has been bullied. How many suicides, black or white, in our society have happened due to bullying?" The GoFundMe page notes all excess funds will go to anti-bullying and anti-abuse charities.

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The family is in talks with Williamswho is bound by rules stating all donated funds will be used only for the purpose statedto see that the money goes to Dwarfism Awareness Australia and the Balunu Healing Foundation. Quaden's mother, Yarraka Bayles, is working on a disability and diversity awareness package known as "Quaden's Law" that she hopes will become a required part of Australia's national school curriculum. Quaden, who has yet to return to school, "is spinning out a bit," she tells NITV. "We just have to protect our boy as best we can." AFP reports a false conspiracy theory has been spreading claiming Quaden is actually an adult actor. (Read more bullying stories.)
The Trump campaign filed a libel suit on Wednesday against the New York Times over a 2019 opinion piece, but First Amendment scholars who spoke with TheWrap dont believe the campaign has much of a shot at convincing a Manhattan court that the paper knowingly and recklessly published false statements as fact.

I doubt that a court would view this as involving false statements of fact, as opposed to constitutionally protected conjecture and interpretation  and I especially doubt that a court would find that the New York Times knew that whatever factual assertions were included were false or likely false, Eugene Volokh, a leading First Amendment scholar and professor at UCLAs School of Law, said in an email.

At the heart of the Trump campaigns suit is a 2019 op-ed by Max Frankel, the former executive editor of the Times, which argued that the Trump campaign had an overarching deal with the Russian government to beat Hillary Clinton for a new pro-Russia foreign policy.

Also Read: Trump Campaign Sues New York Times for Libel Over Russian Collusion Op-Ed

In its suit, the campaign claimed that the paper published the piece ahead of Special Counsel Robert Muellers report because it knew that the report would likely exonerate Trumps campaign (it did not) and that it published as fact that there was a conspiracy with Russia in order to damage the Campaign.

When asked about the suit at a Wednesday press conference, Trump said that the Times piece was beyond an opinion. Thats not an opinion. Thats something much more than an opinion, Trump said. They did a bad thing and therell be more coming.

But a spokesperson for the Times said in a statement, The Trump Campaign has turned to the courts to try to punish an opinion writer for having an opinion they find unacceptable. Fortunately, the law protects the right of Americans to express their judgments and conclusions, especially about events of public importance. We look forward to vindicating that right in this case.

Story continues

Whats particularly unusual about Trumps suit, according to some scholars, is that the plaintiff is Trumps reelection campaign  Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.  and not Trump himself.

If theres a mistake thats been made [in how the Trump campaign filed the suit], its that theres an allegation here that the plaintiff is the corporation, Michael Overing, a digital media lawyer and adjunct professor at USCs Annenberg School for Communications, said. If you believe that the Russian inquiry was all just politically motivated and was never supported, you would say that Donald Trumps reputation has been sullied. You certainly would not say that Donald Trump the Corporation was sullied.

Though Overing said he believed the court would eventually rule in the papers favor in a summary judgment, he didnt think the Times would be able to get the suit tossed out right away through a motion to dismiss.

Theres enough in the complaint to get past the procedural question as to whether or not this is truly a statement of opinion, Overing said. But Overing said that the Times will be able to make a solid argument for why the piece holds statements of opinion and why those statements are protected by the First Amendment.

Also Read: No, President Trump - Fox News' Neil Cavuto Has Seen Viewership Surge, Not a 'Ratings Drought'

Its one of the functions of the press is to be allowed the latitude to say things without risking a libel lawsuit because we need room for opinion and the interchange and exchange of ideas, Overing said, so I think that the New York Times ultimately is going to win this lawsuit.

But for a sitting president  and, by proxy, his campaign  to be filing a lawsuit against a media organization is unusual, Overing said.

We have always expected our president to have thicker skin. We have always expected that the president will be able to withstand a lot of criticism because of the fact that the president is standing in front of the camera all the time on the world stage. And so we dont expect the president to go out and file a lawsuit over every slight and every criticism thats leveled against them, Overing said. We just dont expect that. So to have a president do this is unique.

Read original story Trump Campaigns Libel Suit Against the New York Times Likely to Get Dismissed, Scholars Say At TheWrap
At a recent event she hosted to honor servicewomen, Second Lady Karen Pence remarked that highlighting military women and families [is] one of her main platforms, and that her role with regard to military women is one of encouragement, its one of gratitude.

As the mother of a newly married male Marine, Ms. Pence has admirable intentions. However, lumping military women and military spouses and families into the same category diminishes the service of women who have sworn an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.

These women are military professionals who deserve to have the ear of their commander-in-chief or the vice president -- not be shuffled off to a high-profile spouse who is both not in their chain of command and, as a rule, does not discuss policy matters.

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Ms. Pences conflation of military women and military families perpetuates the idea that a womans place is in the home, subordinate to her husband, rather than the military.

The failure of political and military leaders to fully embrace servicewomen as necessary and valuable components to our national defense perpetuates a hyper-masculine military culture and gross misperceptions of what a warrior should look and act like.

To that end, female stereotypes are often used to characterize weak, undesirable behavior by service men and result in double-bind or lose-lose scenarios for military women.

Family is perhaps the most prominent of these double binds. If a military woman chooses not to have children or get married, she is subject to undue scrutiny for not measuring up to the conservative ideal of the woman as caregiver and nurturer.

If she does have children, she faces being characterized by military men as either disloyal to her family or more concerned with being a mother than accomplishing the military mission. Its a catch-22, and she simply cant win.

The blurring of the lines between the unique of the roles of servicewomen and the traditional concept of women as mothers and wives also serves to reinforce the strong concern of many military wives that servicewomen are in direct competition with them for the attentions of their spouses.

Oftentimes at military social events, civilian spouses direct antipathy to military women out of misplaced jealousy.

The misconception that servicewomen join the military in order to meet and have relationships with men reinforces the outdated idea that men and women cannot work together. Unfortunately, the Second Ladys world view reinforces this notion.

As recently reported in the media, to avoid temptation or the appearance of impropriety, Vice President Mike Pence does not dine or work late in his office with women who are not his wife.

But given the nature of military service, men and women must work together -- often in close quarters and at all hours of the day -- especially when deployed. Dinners and social functions, most of which involve alcohol, are an essential part of career development and promotion.

The Pences world view on gender and work relations further strain gender relations in the military and make life harder for servicewomen by reinforcing outdated views about appropriate gender roles and interactions.

The Marines United scandal and subsequent events of the past month highlight that now more than ever, servicewomen are in need of a champion in the highest levels of leadership to drive cultural change in the military.

Both the number of women in the military and their importance to mission accomplishment has increased in the past two decades.

Without servicewomen the military, and our nation as we know it, would cease to exist. As individuals who have sworn an oath to protect and defend our nation, military women deserve more than to be lumped together with military families and be shuffled off to the wife of the vice president for photo opportunities.

These women are warriors and it is time that the administration -- and our nation -- recognized that.

Hunter served for over a decade as a Marine Corps officer, including combat deployments as a AH-1W Super Cobra pilot and service as congressional legislative liaison officer. She is a Ph.D candidate at the University of Denvers Josef Korbel School of International Relations.

Germano, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, writes about the challenges faced by service women, the policy change that opened all military jobs to women and the need to desegregate Marine Corps recruit training.
Grandfather, Navy Vet Among 5 Victims of Wisconsin Shooting

The five men who were killed by a co-worker at a Milwaukee brewery include an electrician, a Navy veteran, a father of two small children, a fisherman and a grandfather who is being remembered as someone who always put his familys needs before his own.

Authorities said the five men were working at Molson Coors Brewing Co. on Feb. 26 when they were killed by a co-worker, who then turned his gun on himself. Milwaukee police Chief Alfonso Morales identified the victims on Thursday as Jesus Valle Jr., 33, of Milwaukee; Gennady Levshetz, 61, of Mequon; Trevor Wetselaar, 33, of Milwaukee; Dana Walk, 57, of Delafield; and Dale Hudson, 60, of Waukesha.

The gunman, 51-year-old Anthony Ferrill, was also identified Thursday. He was an electrician at Molson Coors and his motive remains a mystery. Police say the case is still under investigation, and they have yet to release details about how the shooting unfolded.

Police work outside the Molson Coors Brewing Co. campus in Milwaukee on Feb. 26, 2020, after reports of a possible shooting. (Morry Gash/AP Photo)

Molson Coors chief executive officer Gavin Hattersley said employees were grieving for the five who were lost.

They were powerhouse operators, they were machinists and they were electricians, he said. But more important, they were husbands, they were fathers and they were friends. They were part of the fabric of our company and our community and we will miss them terribly.

Some family members of victims reached by The Associated Press did not wish to comment for this story, but some details about their loved ones lives were starting to emerge in online death notices and social media pages.

Walk was an avid fisherman and Green Bay Packers fan who loved spending time with his family at a nearby lake, according to a death notice.

Walk is survived by his wife of 35 years, as well as a son and two daughters.

He was always listening to his music while working on his hobbies, home projects and anything he could do to help others, his death notice said. A funeral Mass will be held Friday in Pewaukee.

Police work outside the Molson Coors Brewing Co. campus in Milwaukee on Feb. 26, 2020, after reports of a possible shooting. (Morry Gash/AP Photo)

Hudson had been an electrician at Miller Coors since 2008, according to his LinkedIn page. Hudsons page also said he attended MATC Milwaukee, WCTC Pewaukee and the University of Phoenix, but did not graduate. His Facebook profile said he is married, and lists that he attended Elkhorn Area High School. His Facebook page also lists several hunting photos.

A woman who answered a phone number for Hudson had no comment when reached by The Associated Press.

A LinkedIn in Wetselaars name says he has worked as an engine room operator with Miller Coors since June 2018, and before that he was a nuclear reactor operator with the U.S. Navy. It also says he was a submarine qualified leading petty officer of a reactor control division on board a U.S. Navy submarine.

A Wisconsin alumni magazine class update published in 2012 confirmed that Wetselaar graduated from the university in 2009 and was serving in the Navy.

Levshetzs death notice said he was married and is survived by two children and two grandchildren. It said he would be remembered as a kind, caring, and giving person who always put his familys needs before his own. His funeral was scheduled for March 1.

Levshetzs neighbor, Martha Siegman, described him as quiet and peaceful, and someone who would use his snowblower to help out others and wave every time he left the driveway. Siegman said Levshetz was also particular about his yard and loved to run his lawnmower. She said she called him Grandpa.

A woman who answered the phone at a listing for Valle identified herself as his sister. She declined to give her name, but said he leaves behind a wife and two small children. She was crying and other people could be heard crying in the background. She declined to comment further.

By Amy Forliti
How Bhim Army supporters instigated the violence in northeast Delhi

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 28: The tension in Delhi began on Saturday night when those opposing the newly amended citizenship law blocked the Jafrabad main road.

The violence began when supporters of the Bhim Army pelted stones at those backing the new law. The assessment by the police which has been shared with the two Special Investigation Teams formed on Thursday state that stones were first pelted at 4.42 pm.

This led to those backing the citizenship law chasing the Bhim Army supporters.

Following this the Bhim Army members asked the anti citizenship law protesters to gather in Kardampuri and Jafrabad. The police have also learnt that the mob was mobilised by the chief of the Bhim Army's Delhi unit, Himanshu Valmiki.

Once the mob was mobilised, there were frequent incidents of stone pelting. The Bhim Army had brought several persons including women to Jafrabad on Saturday itself to protest against the new law.

Delhi: 350 used cartridges recovered from scene of violence

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

Meanwhile, top Delhi police source confirmed to OneIndia that criminals had supplied the arms. The death toll currently stands at 38 and 29 bodies have been identified. Of the 38, one of them had died to burn injuries, the hospital authorities said. Further it was also found that 82 had bullet injuries.

The source quoted above said that nearly 300 used cartridges have been recovered from the scene of violence. It has been learnt that petty criminals from the district had stocked weapons. Country made pistols, bullets were stocked and were handed out to the rioters at the time of the violence the police also learnt.

The police say that it was a well planned operation. The petty criminals were told to source the weapons and stock them. The number of cartridges found at the scene is alarming. This clearly indicates that the rioters had no intention of protesting, but getting on to the streets and killing, the police also said.

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Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 7:52 [IST]
Malaysia edged nearer a political turning point on Friday with uncertainty over the fate of both 94-year-old Mahathir Mohammed and rival-turned-ally Anwar Ibrahim, 72, who have vied for power for a generation.

A week of turmoil was triggered by Mahathir's surprise resignation as prime minister, breaking an alliance with Anwar that won an election in 2018 against the corruption-tarnished former ruling party of six decades.

In the race for the premiership, former interior minister Muhyiddin Yassin, 72, has emerged as a leading candidate. From Mahathir's camp, he also has the backing of the old ruling party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).

"The nations fate hangs in the balance," said Liew Chin Tong, a member of Anwar's alliance. "All MPs and parties will have to ask the question, who do they want to work with."

A bigger role for UMNO, which supports Malay nationalism, could mean a swing back towards an establishment that puts greater emphasis on the interest of the majority ethnic group in the Southeast Asian country of 32 million.

The drama intensified on Friday when the royal palace rejected interim Prime Minister Mahathir's announcement that parliament would choose a new premier on Monday - a vote that might have helped him consolidate power.

Mahathir's proposed unity government had been rejected by Anwar, whose supporters argue that he should be given the chance to tell the king he could form a government because his alliance has more seats than others.

But he does not have the majority of the 222 seats that he would need.

As parties scrambled to find allies on Friday, some Anwar supporters conceded in private that Muhyiddin might edge him out.

"It's doubtful for us," said one lawmaker from Anwar's Pakatan Harapan alliance, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"It seems Muhyiddin is in the lead," said Harrison Cheng, of consultancy Control Risks.

Mahathir-backed candidate advances

The power struggle between Mahathir and Anwar has shaped Malaysian politics since the 1990s.

In an alliance with his long-time rival, Mahathir left retirement in 2018 to win back the post he held from 1981-2003, defeating UMNO's then prime minister Najib Razak, who is on trial for corruption.

But tension persisted over Mahathir's promise to one day hand power to Anwar. No precise date for that was ever set, and Anwar's chances of finally getting the premiership appeared to recede as key political blocs swung behind Muhyiddin.

Islamist party PAS joined UMNO in backing Muhyiddin.

Gabungan Parti Sarawak, a coalition based in Sarawak on the island of Borneo, was also likely to back Muhyiddin, a senior party official said. In exchange the party would seek greater autonomy for the energy-rich region.

Anwar, who has twice been jailed on sodomy charges he denied and said were politically motivated, has won support from Malaysians seeking change with his battle cry of "Reform".

However, he been less trusted by traditionalists who fear losing out to large minority ethnic Chinese and Indian groups.

In a sign of the shifting political landscape, local media reported the resignation of attorney general Tommy Thomas, who had brought the corruption charges against Najib and other members of the former UMNO administration.

His appointment had been challenged by some Malay nationalists because of his Indian origins.

The political uncertainty comes at a testing time for Malaysia's economy, which has been flagging as it deals with fallout from the coronavirus epidemic. The main stock index plunged 12% this week, its sharpest weekly fall since 2011, as global indices also dived.

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In the 1920s, Frederick Banting, one of the scientists who co-discovered insulin (and won a Nobel Prize for it) said, "Insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world." He and the other scientists sold the patent for making insulin to the University of Toronto for $3.

And yet today, this drug, which is needed to keep millions of people with diabetes alive, costs 700% more than it did two decades ago and many people can no longer afford it. What happened? It comes down to two reasons: a "lack of pricing regulations and lack of competition," says James Dinneen in his article, "There's No Excuse for the Insulin Crisis."

There's no law stopping the three major insulin manufacturers (Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi) from charging whatever they want for the drugs they make. And since diabetics will die without it, insulin makers gouge them for all their worth. So why isn't there a low-cost generic version? The manufacturers came up with a clever way to stop that from happening.

From the article:

That lack of competition isn't an accident. Though the original patents for most of the insulin formulations on the market expired years ago, the big three insulin manufacturers have extended their monopolies by patenting incremental changes to their products and manufacturing processes. Those patents can then be used to tie-up potential generic competitors in long, costly legal battles. In addition, they have been shielded from competition from generics by stringent federal regulations around "biologics" like insulin, which is a complex molecule produced by living cells. These make it more challenging for generic insulins to enter the market.

(Image: Alan Levine, CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)

Public Domain Dedication)
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Linkedin Michael Mathes (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Fri, February 28, 2020 10:20 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20671d4a0 2 World #USA,#Elections,Bernie-Sanders,michael-bloomberg Free

White House hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Michael Bloomberg could hardly be more different in their politics, but in one striking way they share a similarity marking a milestone in US presidential campaigning: both men are Jewish.

Should Senator Sanders, the progressive torchbearer and current Democratic frontrunner, or centrist billionaire Bloomberg, who is polling in third, win the nomination and then the election against incumbent Donald Trump, America would have the first Jewish president in its history.

The contest may have reached a peak Jewish cultural moment at a recent Democratic debate when Sanders and Bloomberg, both 78-year-olds either born or living in New York, compared their heart health on stage.

And yet the fact that two Jews are in prominent positions in the 2020 race -- 16 months after a white nationalist murdered 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue -- has been met with muted celebration within the Jewish community, and a sense of detachment among the broader public, observed Rabbi Adam Kligfeld.

"It's amazing, stunning, surprising and odd how little is being made of that data point," Kligfeld, senior rabbi at Temple Beth Am in Los Angeles, told AFP.

"Maybe that's a good sign."

The two are also drawing concerns. Sanders is a self-described democratic socialist, while Bloomberg is a multi-billionaire accused of buying his way into the presidential race.

There is little love lost between them, as evidenced in January when Bloomberg sand-bagged his fellow member of the tribe during an address at a Miami synagogue.

"I know I'm not the only Jewish candidate running for president," the media tycoon said, between quoting Leviticus and jokes about Wolfie's deli.

"But I am the only one who doesn't want to turn America into a kibbutz."

The rise of Sanders has sparked a debate about whether values embraced by Jews, like social justice, are best achieved through policies including universal health care, or by unwavering defense of Israel.

Sanders antagonized many in the community Sunday by announcing he was boycotting the upcoming annual meeting of AIPAC, Washington's influential pro-Israel lobby, because it provides a platform for "bigotry."

Sanders has repeatedly insisted he supports Israel but opposes policies that he says hurt Palestinians. In Tuesday's debate he branded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "reactionary racist."

Sanders's dominance in the race has been a point of pride for some Jews, but anxiety for others.

"Sanders is a harder person to cheer for than what the centrist Jewish community fantasized would be the first time they had the chance to consider a Jewish candidate," Kligfeld said.

'Proud' Jewish identity

For several decades Jews have voted overwhelmingly Democratic.

More than two-thirds of American Jews oppose Trump, despite his proclamations that he is Israel's most ardent defender, according to pollster Gallup.

But only 11 percent of Jewish voters support Sanders for president, while eight percent back Bloomberg, Pew Research Center polling from January shows.

Kligfeld noted how much less of a focus their faith is compared to 20 years ago, when Democratic moderate Joe Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, was the vice presidential nominee.

Al Gore's running mate stirred a spirited debate about Judaism and the White House, notably about how Lieberman could serve as vice president if he observed the Sabbath rule barring work from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday.

That Sanders and Bloomberg are less observant than Lieberman may have assuaged similar concerns.

With Trump accused of stoking flames of a culture war, and amid a wave of anti-Semitic violence and other hatred, the success of Sanders and Bloomberg is notable.

"It's definitely significant (that) two very different politicians but both of Jewish heritage and proud of their Jewish identity can be in such a prominent national political position," said Logan Bayroff, director of communications for J Street.

The progressive pro-Israel group does not endorse candidates but has said it will support the Democratic nominee against Trump.

Many policies of Sanders and other Democratic candidates "line up with our views and the views of the majority of American Jews," Bayroff said.

In his first presidential campaign, in 2016, Sanders largely avoided discussing his Jewishness.

He has been more open about his identity this cycle. In December he used a blowtorch to light a Hanukkah menorah in Iowa, where he recalled how his father emigrated from Poland to flee anti-Semitic attacks.

In November he wrote an essay in Jewish Currents magazine in which he said several relatives were "murdered by the Nazis."
Only after killing millions of their own people without much to show for it did the Communists implement economic reforms in the late 1970s of the sort that Sanders tends to despise. The political system was still authoritarian (though less than it was under Mao), but the economic system became more liberal. The economy took off. Since then, hundreds of millions of people have escaped poverty. They weren't taken out of it; they climbed out of it thanks to the ladder of the market.
Turkish reprisals killed 16 Syrian soldiers in the battleground northwestern province of Idlib on Friday after a bombardment Ankara blamed on Damascus killed 33 Turkish soldiers, a monitor said.

The retaliatory drone and artillery strikes hit Syria army positions in southern and eastern parts of the province which were recaptured by the government in a nearly three-month-old offensive against the rebel enclave, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

There was no immediate confirmation from Damascus of the reported deaths or any comment on the flare-up with Ankara that prompted NATO to call an urgent meeting of its ruling council for later Friday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Perth council's desperate bid to retain some influence over the development of their struggling town centre by deeming it heritage protected has outraged local residents who argue the move could hinder future development and kill local businesses.

On Tuesday, City of Bayswater councillors voted to install a heritage protection area "intended to conserve and enhance" the Bayswater town centre.

Most of Bayswater town centre's commercial buildings were built in the early 1900s.

It's not clear which streets would be included in this heritage area but it would be centred around King William Street.

The decision followed extensive calls from pro-heritage community groups, who had been advocating for a review of Bayswater's heritage registry since 2015.
Orange County officials officially have released the provisions of a tax abatement agreement with Chevron Phillips Chemical for a proposed $5.6 billion investment.

The Commissioners Court last week approved a 10-year, 100 percent tax break for the proposed investment, an agreement that was signed and subsequently released to the public this week.

The agreement sheds more light on comments made by Orange County Judge John Gothia that this is the best deal for the community and the company. It includes protections for the city should the company fail to adequately hire local workers or meet other specified obligations.

Chevron Phillips Chemical is not expected to announce a final investment decision until late this year or early 2021. The new facility would convert the natural gas liquid ethane into ethylene, the building block of most plastics.

Related: Orange Co. reveals more details about potential plant

If Orange County is chosen, the abatement agreement would become active no later than Jan. 1, 2024.

It covers only new eligible property, so Chevron Phillips Chemical will pay taxes on any improvements made prior to the abatement becoming effective. Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Jessica Hill said previously that this provision means the company will get closer to a 90 or 93 percent abatement.

Orange County can declare the abatement defaulted if Chevron Phillips fails to begin construction within two years of it becoming active, complete construction, comply with the terms of this agreement or pay its owed property taxes, among other provisions.

The county must give 60 days notice about the end of the abatement, should it determine the chemical company is in default, although there are provisions allowing Chevron Phillips to fix the problem and the agreement to continue.

Related: Chevron Phillips vote postponed but deal seems done

The company is expected to certify with the county and EDC each year that it is still in compliance with the agreement and each quarter present the total number of dollars spent on local labor and subcontractors and with local vendors and suppliers. It also must meet semi-regularly with representatives from the county to discuss efforts to use local workers and companies.

The agreement requires Chevron Phillips, upon completion of construction, to have no fewer than 500 full-time employees, including full-time contractors.

The company also forecasts that up to 10,000 temporary jobs would be created during the construction phase.

The company must give preference and priority to qualified local manufacturers, suppliers, vendors, subcontractors and labor, and negotiate in good faith with them. It also must award contracts or subcontracts to the local bidder, provided theyre best qualified and meet all bid specifications.

Related: Chevron Phillips snaps up land in Orange

The agreement defines local labor as coming from Orange, Jefferson, Hardin, Jasper, Newton, Liberty, Tyler and Chambers counties and the Bolivar Peninsula area of Galveston County.

Gothia said previously that the county was able to narrow the definition of local when negotiating this contract. It had to take into account the fact that Orange County doesnt have enough qualified workers at this time to fill the plant, so the contract needed to be written in such a way that Chevron Phillips Chemical can uphold its end of the deal.

To help prepare even more local workers, Chevron Phillips in the agreement is required to meet with representatives from local educational institutions, upon their request, to discuss necessary training for the local labor force before the plant starts up.

Local vendors, suppliers and contractors are those located in or with a principal office in Orange County.

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To better publicize available work, Chevron Phillips will help get local subcontractors added to the companys approved vendor list and any similar lists for third-party contracts. It will host a website advising local workers and companies about how to do business with the company in Orange County and consult with chambers of commerce and other organizations to identify eligible businesses and notify them of bids for work with enough time to prepare applications.

The contract requires Chevron Phillips to host a trade show for local labor, vendors and subcontractors to introduce them to people doing purchasing for the company as well as showcase local products and services.

The approved abatement is the highest possible under Texas state law.

The total economic outlook expected to be generated over the first two decades is more than $51 billion, Hill said previously.

If Orange County is selected for the plant project, the EDCs Hill previously said, construction would begin in late 2020 or early 2021 and be completed in about 70 months.

kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com

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TTC customers were evacuated from Wilson station Thursday evening by Toronto police investigating a suspicious package.

TTC announced on Twitter around 5:30 p.m. there would be no service between Sheppard West and Lawrence West stations on Line 1 due to police activity.

Passengers were alerted to take GO trains between Downsview Park and Union station on TTC fare.

TTC Spokesperson Kadeem Griffiths said the closure was due to a suspicious package at Wilson station.

First shuttle buses were bypassing Wilson station. Then we got the police to evacuate Wilson station as well. TTC customers could use GO buses on TTC fares between the stations, Griffiths said.

We had Toronto police investigate, and, in terms of what happened, the outcome, we dont know, he added.

Toronto police provided no explanation for the closures to commuters or the media.

With temperatures outside as low as -5 C and strong winds up to 50 km. per hour, TTC customers were left stranded for more than an hour during rush hour.

Service resumed around 6:40 p.m.

TTC spokesperson Stuart Green tweeted shortly after service resumed, alerting riders.

Full service.on #TTC Line 1 resuming after police clear Wilson Station incident. We know these disruptions are frustrating for our customers and appreciate your patience. But as always we need to make safety the priority, the tweet said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  The Bureau of Immigration is now implementing the ban on travelers from coronavirus-hit North Gyeongsang Province in South Korea.

BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said the travel ban covers those coming from the province, where of Daegu City and Cheongo County are both located, on the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases,

The South Korean government pledged to issue a certification to distinguish if a passenger is coming from areas covered by the ban, BI Port Operations Division Chief Grifton Medina said.

Immigration officers were also instructed to carefully screen arriving passengers from South Korea and to require them to show their Resident Registration Certificate and their National ID.

Exempted from the travel ban are arriving Filipinos with their foreign spouse and children, permanent residents in the country, and members of the diplomatic corps.

Whats different in this ban is that transiting passengers are allowed, as recommended by the task force, as long as they do not pass through North Gyeongsang Province, Daegu, and Cheongdo, said Medina.

Outbound Filipinos are also temporarily not allowed to travel to the entire South Korea. Exempted are South Korean permanent resident visa holders, overseas Filipino workers, and student visa holders.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier questioned the Immigration Bureau's decision to delay the implementation of the travel ban pending a signed order.

Duque said with the threat from the coronavirus outbreak, time is of the essence and the travel restriction should have been implemented immediately to prevent the spread of the deadly virus in the country.

The travel ban was announced by Duque and Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Wednesday but it was not implemented until Friday.

"Some groups are becoming too technical. They don't want to move unless there's a signed resolution, and yet they're a part of the decision-making process. They were there so they were part of the discussion... The implementation should have already been done so as not to cause a delay in the implementation of the selective travel ban. Why do we have to wait?" the health chief told CNN Philippines.

Morente clarified the BI did not deliberately delay the enforcement of the ban.

"We had to thresh out implementation issues, as this travel ban is different compared to the previous ones issued," said Morente. "We are one with the government in ensuring that this health scare does not spread in the country, by implementing policies properly and efficiently."

North Gyeongsang province is where majority of South Korea's coronavirus cases are located. Next to China, South Korea has the second most number of coronavirus cases, with at least 2,337 cases and 13 deaths as of Friday.

Related: How novel coronavirus spread through the Shincheonji religious group in South Korea
WASHINGTON  A federal appeals court on Friday ruled that former White House counsel Don McGahn does not have to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in one of multiple, lingering investigations of President Donald Trump.

In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court ruled that the Constitution forbids federal courts "from becoming an ombudsman" who resolves disputes between the executive and legislative branches of government. The decision hands the president a key legal victory and could close the door for testimony from some of his closest aides whom House Democrats have sought to hear from.

"The Constitution imposes limitations on the 'judicial Power' for good reasons. Interbranch disputes are deeply political and often quite partisan," U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judge Thomas Griffith wrote. "By restricting the role of the Judiciary," the Constitution "preserves the 'public confidence' in the federal courts."

In her dissenting opinion, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judge Judith Rogers said the court's decision "all but assures future Presidential stonewalling of Congress, and further impairs the House's ability to perform its constitutional duties."

The committee subpoenaed McGahn in April 2019 to ask about potential obstruction of justice by Trump during special counsel Robert Muellers investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. But the Justice Department has argued that he is immune from being compelled to testify, to protect the confidential advice that all presidents receive from top aides.

Justice Department spokeswoman Brianna Herlihy said the ruling recognizes that the House of Representatives "cannot invoke the power of the courts in its political disputes" with the White House.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said the House Judiciary Committee will seek a rehearing before the full appeals court.

Story continues

"If upheld, [the ruling] would destroy the power of Congress to gather information and hold this or any future administration accountable," said Nadler, the committee's chairman. "Now more than ever, the courts cannot abandon their responsibility to resolve legal disputes involving the President."

The court's decision overturns a ruling by U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown, who said in November that the president "does not have the power" to prevent his aides from responding to congressional subpoenas.

The McGahn case deals with the Russia probe rather than the Ukraine inquiry that resulted in the House impeaching Trump on Dec. 18. But the Senate acquitted him handily on Feb. 5 of charges that he abused the power of his office and obstructed Congress.

Despite that verdict, House Democrats said they would continue to investigate Trump on a variety of subjects. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear two cases March 31 where House panels are seeking access to Trump's financial records from his accountant, Mazars USA, and his lender, Deutsche Bank.

Former White House counsel Don McGahn listens Sept. 4, 2018, during the confirmation hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh to become associate justice on the Supreme Court.

The McGahn case is one of two the appeals court heard during oral arguments last month. The other sought access to grand jury evidence gathered in the Mueller investigation.

House general counsel Douglas Letter told the judges on the grand jury panel that the evidence could potentially lead to another impeachment.

That is on the table; there is no doubt, Letter said.

Megan Barbero, House associate general counsel, told the other panel that McGahns testimony could potentially lead to additional articles of impeachment for obstructing Muellers inquiry.

It is the pattern of misconduct that would be relevant, Barbero said.

U.S. District Court judges supported both subpoenas. "Stated simply, the primary takeaway from the past 250 years of recorded American history is that Presidents are not kings," Jackson said in her McGahn ruling.

But the Justice Department appealed both rulings by arguing that both McGahn's testimony and grand jury evidence should remain confidential.

McGahn's testimony is tantalizing because he is featured several times in Mueller's report, under episodes of possible obstruction.

In June 2017, Trump called McGahn at home and told him Mueller should be removed because he had conflicts of interest, according to the Mueller report. McGahn decided he would rather resign than carry out that order. He feared a repeat of the "Saturday Night Massacre," which happened when top Justice Department officials resigned rather than carry out former President Richard Nixon's order to fire the Watergate prosecutor.

Trump met with McGahn in the Oval Office and pressured him again, according to the Mueller report. McGahn refused. McGahn later told Trump's then-chief of staff, Reince Priebus, that the president had asked him to "do crazy s---," according to the report.

After news broke in early 2018 about Trump's efforts to have Mueller fired, the president told White House staffers to tell McGahn to dispute the story and create a record stating he had not been ordered to remove Mueller, according to the report. McGahn, again, refused. He later told Mueller's investigators that the news stories were accurate.

McGahn resigned in October 2018.

The Justice Department's arguments about defying the subpoenas were met with deep skepticism from members of both appeals panels.

Has there ever been an instance of such a broad scale of defiance of Congress? Judge Thomas Griffith asked Justice Department lawyer Hashim Mooppan, referring to the Trump administration's refusal to cooperate with the House impeachment inquiry. Has that ever happened?

Mooppan acknowledged there may be no precedent, yet he pressed to block McGahns testimony by arguing the courts have no authority to intervene in a largely political dispute.

Judges spent most of the 80-minute hearing in the McGahn case questioning whether they should decide the matter at all. Judge Karen Henderson pointedly asked Mooppan whether the administration believes the House could never ask the courts to enforce a subpoena against the executive branch.

That is our position, your honor, Mooppan said.

Judge Judith Rogers said judges were wrestling with whether and how to mediate in a period of noncooperation between the branches of government, when either they have to duke it out or nothing happens.

Thats what were struggling with here, Rogers said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ex-Trump counsel Don McGahn doesn't have to testify, court rules
Aurangabad (Maharashtra) [India], Feb 28 (ANI): A poster of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has been put up in Aurangabad stating that a reward of Rs 5,000 will be given to informers who give accurate information about Pakistani and Bangladeshi infiltrators.



Meanwhile, MNS student wing leader Akhil Chitre has also proposed to give reward to informers who give information about illegal Pakistani and Bangladeshi infiltrators.

Chitre said that Rs 5,555 will be given to the informer and the person's identity will be kept secret.

Earlier this month, a poster was put up by MNS near Matoshree, the residence of Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray, asking him to start cleaning up his own locality first of infiltrators from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

"Respected Chief Minister, if you are serious about action against illegal infiltrators, start by cleaning your Bandra locality first which is filled with infiltrators," the poster had read. (ANI)


We have a large bureaucracy here with layers of government with the city, the township and the county and we need to consolidate at the local level and cut waste, he said. A big local issue here is mental health  we need to handle that better and how we spend the money the township is getting. Im not sure they should be the ones to collect it  it should be centralized. There are a lot of departments overlapping and we should squeeze out the waste.
Supporters cheer as Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden arrives to speak at a rally in Conway, South Carolina, on February 27, 2020. Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

The Democratic presidential primary will head to its first Southern state on Saturday for the South Carolina primary, the fourth nominating contest of the 2020 cycle. While Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has racked up a delegate advantage in the first three states, effectively tying former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg in Iowa and then carrying New Hampshire and Nevada, the race remains very much in flux. In part, that's because of just how few delegates have been awarded so far. Only about 100 of the nearly 4,000 pledged delegates have been won so far, and Sanders' lead over Buttigieg remains less than 20. In addition, a historically crowded field has complicated the path to obtaining a majority of the delegates in the states to come. Polls will open early Saturday morning and close at 7 p.m. ET, after which results are expected to start coming in. Here are five things to watch.

Can Biden collect enough momentum?

Former Vice President Joe Biden has called South Carolina his "firewall" and said during the Democratic debate in Charleston this week that he expected to win first place. That finish is quite possible: According to public polling average, Biden is ahead of his nearest challenger, Sanders, by double digits, and the lead is growing. But even if Biden snags his first first-place finish, his campaign faces steep odds for capitalizing on the victory in time to make a comeback by Super Tuesday, just three days after the South Carolina primary. Biden was the last contender to devote substantial advertising money to the Super Tuesday states, announcing a six-figure spend on Wednesday. On Thursday, the campaign upped the spend to just over $2 million, which is still less than Sanders and even Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. A pro-Biden super PAC has also stepped up its investment in Super Tuesday markets. The 14 states that vote on Super Tuesday will collectively award about a third of the primary's total delegates. For Biden, turning a South Carolina victory rapidly into momentum in those states will be a heavy lift  and essential.

A test for Sanders' popular appeal

Sanders faces the toughest state for his candidacy yet after winning the most votes in the first three early states of the primary. During his 2016 battle against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sanders took only a quarter of the vote in South Carolina, getting beat by nearly 50 points. During the 2020 cycle, Sanders has improved his standing among black voters and is looking to perform better in the state. He is polling at about 22% in state polls, or about 12 points behind Biden. That gap has widened in recent days after a somewhat rocky debate performance from Sanders on Tuesday, the first debate in which he was targeted as the clear front-runner by his rivals. On Wednesday, Biden received the endorsement of South Carolina's most powerful Democrat, Rep. James Clyburn, the House majority whip. The question for Sanders appears to be whether he can finish in a strong enough second place to preserve his momentum heading into Super Tuesday, where he has devoted more resources than any candidate who is not a billionaire.

Black voters finally weigh in on Buttigieg

Buttigieg has faced questions since the start of his presidential bid about his record on race and policing. But his flagging support among black and other minority voters did not hurt him in the largely white states of Iowa and New Hampshire. He received just 2% of the black vote in Nevada, where black voters made up about 10% of the electorate, which dinged his bid. In South Carolina the black vote is a different story. Black voters made up more than 60% of the state's Democratic electorate in 2016. Last cycle, Clinton beat Sanders by about 70 points among black voters in the state, according to CNN exit polling data, contributing to the belief that the self-described democratic socialist lacked appeal to a key Democratic constituency. Buttigieg has long said that he underperforms among black voters because he is new on the scene and will do better once they get a chance to know him. He is running out of time to make his introductions.

Will Steyer's millions matter?

There are two billionaires running for the Democratic nomination, but only one of them will be on ballots in South Carolina. Tom Steyer, the former hedge-fund manager, has spent $14 million on television and radio ads. Steyer also spent heavily in the previous states that voted, including more than $10 million in Nevada. Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, in contrast, is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on his bid but is targeting the states that vote on Super Tuesday. Bloomberg did not run in the first four states of the primary race. While it remains to be seen what kind of return on investment is waiting for Bloomberg, for Steyer the evidence is somewhat bleak. The businessman and philanthropist has not secured a single delegate in the states that have voted so far. He may not do better in South Carolina. Candidates will need to receive at least 15% support at the congressional district or state level in order to be viable in South Carolina. At the moment, after sliding in recent days, Steyer's average in state polling is just under that threshold, according to RealClearPolitics.

Dropout calls will intensify
KAMPALA  His Excellency Slaiman Arabiat, Ambassador of Hasmite Kingdom of Jordan to East Africa has reached out to the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga to establish a bilateral relationship between Jordan and Uganda.

The Ambassador paid a courtesy call on the Speaker on Friday, February 28, 2020, on his maiden visit Uganda aimed at fostering collaborations between Uganda and Jordan.

Arabiat said that initially, Jordan had only one Embassy in the non-Arab countries in South Africa. However, he added, they have been expanding to other countries including East Africa.

Through the embassy based in Nairobi, we want the governments and even the national assemblies of Uganda and Jordan to enter partnerships beneficial to both the countries, he added.

Arabiat added that once the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Jordan have been concluded and a new upper and lower chamber of representatives is appointed, there will be a plan to visit Uganda.

Kadaga welcomed the idea of a bilateral relationship between the two countries as an opportunity to foster trade and tourism.

We want to see tourists and traders from Jordan and we want our very own from Uganda to be allowed to engage in trade and tourism in Jordan, she said.

Kadaga expressed her certainty in receiving legislators from Jordan as well as their Ugandan counterparts visiting Jordan when it is conducive.

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New Delhi: As Delhi looks to return to normalcy after violence rocked the city, the Delhi Police in a statement Friday (February 28) said that at least 123 FIRs have been filed and as many as 630 people have been arrested and or detained so far.

The police stated that the number of distress calls made to the helpline desk has reduced and that senior officers are at the spot and will be monitoring the situation for the next few days. Police deployment in the area continues.

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced setting up of shelter homes for people who lost their homes also, an ex-gratia of Rs 25,000 will be distributed tomorrow on an immediate basis to people whose homes were burnt in the violence.

"We have made provisions for lodging of people whose homes got burnt or who are not able to go to their homes. From tomorrow afternoon, we will grant Rs 25,000 ex gratia to people who have lost their homes in the riots. The balance compensation will be given to them in two-three days," Kejriwal told reporters.

The Delhi government with the help of NGOs, distributed relief material to affected persons. "We are also distributing food on a large scale in the area. Today, many trucks went to the area to distribute food. We are getting credible support from NGOs and RWAs in the area," he said.

While, Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, in a meeting with Shahdara and Northeast Delhi district magistrates (DM) announced the posting of 18 SDMs in violence-inflicted areas to monitor the situation. "Four sub-divisions are affected in the North-East district. In normal circumstances, there are four SDMs in the four sub-divisions. We have posted 18 SDMs in those sub-divisions. We have also posted night SDMs in the area for careful monitoring of the situation," Sisodia said.

At least 42 people, including a police Head Constable and Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma, have been killed while around 200 people sustained serious injuries in the violence that raged for three days in the northeast areas of Delhi. Two Special Investigation Teams have been constituted under the Crime Branch, Delhi Police to investigate the violence.
Priyanka Chopra has graced the cover of Harpers Bazaar magazines March issue and husband Nick Jonas is just in love with her glamourous cover look. As the actor shared the cover picture on her Instagram, Nick commented on the post, So gorgeous!

Priyanka can be seen lying on a couch in a Dolce & Gabbana animal print dress with a thigh-high slit. She looks confidently towards the camera and has talked about her flaws and body positivity in her magazine interview. Her fans also loved her look. A fan reacted, OMG YOU ARE AMAZING. Another commented, Stunning as always. One more wrote, Gorgeous as always!!!

The actor, who was recently slammed by a section of the society for donning a gown with a risque plunging neckline at the Grammy Awards, told the magazine, We see some amazing representations of beautiful women who are full and curvaceous. But again, its not normal, and its just a pat on the back when someone does it. She also said, Theres this thing called sample size and I dont know who that size is for.

Priyanka was recently in Mumbai where she walked the ramp in a black gown at Blenders Pride Fashion Tour. She also gave Katrina Kaif a visit at her residence and the two bonded over makeup. Priyanka can be seen posing with a handful of eye-pencils and lip colours from Katrinas makeup line in a picture.

Also read:Taapsee Pannu says they are trying to change the thought process that says thappad se dar nahi lagta

The actor has already completed the shooting of The White Tiger, a Netflix movie where she stars alongside Rajkummar Rao. It is based on a book of the same name. She also has two more projects: We Can Be Heroes and Citadel in her kitty.

She is now set to play the role of Ma Anand Sheela in the upcoming Amazon Studios film Sheela, which will be directed by Barry Levinson. Ma Anand Sheela was said to be a spiritual adviser to Rajneesh and the primary perpetrator of the bio-terror attack in Oregon. Sheela, who got back into spotlight after the Netflix documentary series Wild Wild Country, was the personal secretary of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh from 1981-1985 and managed the Rajneeshpuram ashram in Wasco County, Oregon.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
GRANTS PASS, Ore.  This year Dutch Bros Coffee raised more than $480,000 to fight hunger with its annual "Dutch Luv" event, and much of that money will go towards non-profit organizations in southern Oregon.

The company said that it raised a total $483,346 by donating a dollar from every drink sold on February 14, Valentine's Day  equaling an estimated amount of meals beyond 1.45 million within the seven states where Dutch Bros can be found.

This issue touches all of us and we are so thankful to our employees, customers and local nonprofits for helping our communities stay healthy and successful, said Travis Boersma, co-founder and CEO of Dutch Bros.

More than $25,000 will stay in southern Oregon. In Jackson County, Dutch Bros raised more than $13,800 for ACCESS; Grants Pass locations raised $7,489 for Oregon Food Bank; and Klamath Falls locations raised more than $4,000 for Friends of the Children, Klamath Basin.

Each year, Dutch Bros steps up in a big way to support our efforts to connect people facing hunger with fresh, nutritious food, said Susannah Morgan, CEO of Oregon Food Bank. Its strong community partnerships like these that are so critical to our shared mission to end hunger.

Dutch Bros began the "Dutch Luv" event 14 years ago, starting as a canned food drive in 2007. It has since grown to an annual fundraising event held at each of the 380 Dutch Bros locations. The company estimates that it has raised more than $1.5 million for the cause since 2007.
By Online Desk

NEW DELHI: The protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizen (NRC) in the Shaheen Bagh area saw a drop in intensity and the number of protesters on Friday.

Till 1 pm, the number of protesters was low. Reacting to clashes in north-east Delhi, a protester, Mujahib said, "We condemn the violence. A lot of weak and helpless people have been killed in the violence." He said the Bharatiya Janata Party and the RSS were "solely respsonbile for the violence."

Another protester, Shabnam, when asked about the low number of protesters, said, "It is because of the Friday prayers... We hope that the number would increase."

On Thursday, Delhi Police said they had received information through social media that a large group of people will come to Shaheen Bagh from Madanpur Khadar on March 1. "We took it seriously, in light of the current situation in the national capital. We came to know that locals will join in and carry out a peaceful protest," Meena, Deputy Commissioner of Police South East Delhi said: said.

He said that the police department called meetings of Aman Committees at different locations and then all the stakeholders were called to the DCP office.

He added that everyone agreed that they will stay peaceful and the protest will be postponed indefinitely.

A large number of people, mostly women, have been holding a sit-in protest in Shaheen Bagh area since mid-December last year that led to blocking of Noida-Kalindi Kunj road.

The Supreme Court earlier this week appointed senior advocates Sanjay Hedge, Sadhana Ramachandran besides Wajahat Habibullah as interlocutors to talk to the protestors here and urge them to clear the road.
Kabul, Feb 28 : The Afghans have appeaed generally optimistic in anticipation of the long-awaited peace deal to be signed between the US and the Taliban in Qatar on Saturday following an experimental truce on week-long reduction in violence.

However, some fear that a possible return of the strict Taliban-type governance will compromise the hard-won democratic progress and women's rights enshrined in the system since the collapse of the Islamist regime in 2001.

"Why should I not be happy for peace," an 80-year-old Muqamuddin, who lost his father and two brothers in the past four decades of war, told Efe news here.

Muqamuddin said his dream of seeing Afghanistan in peace was now coming true after decades of death and destruction.

After months of negotiations, the two sides earlier in February agreed to maintain a week-long truce that began on February 22.

The week, so far, is the first in the country in years to witness a drastic reduction in violent incidents.

The four decades of the Afghan war have killed hundreds of thousands of combatants and non-combatants. Some 100,000 civilians lost their lives in the last 10 years alone.

Shah Wali, a 47-year-old Kabul resident, said he had spent his entire life seeing violence almost every day.

The conflict has claimed many of his kin and he was injured in a blast when he was just eight-years old, losing one of his fingers.

"I am very optimistic that there will be finally peace for all of us." According to a survey released last month by the non-profit Institute of War and Peace Studies (IWPS), 80 per cent Afghans believe that the dialog could end the conflict, while 20 per cent still think that only a decisive war could bring peace.

The affinity for a Taliban comeback isn't shared very widely, with many Afghans unwilling to accept the group's strict interpretation of the Islamic law.

"I am happy for peace, but fear for the women's rights, educational rights, and other freedoms," said Zeeba, sharing her concerns that the gains made in the nearly two decades since the Taliban was toppled might get diluted.

"The government should not accept these rights to be reversed or lost again." Over 3,400 civilians were killed and nearly 7,000 injured in Afghanistan last year, according to the UN's annual tally of civilian casualties released last week.
A study of tax incentives aimed at attracting and retaining businesses finds that the vast majority of these incentives ultimately leave states worse off than if they had done nothing.

For the study, researchers at North Carolina State University examined data from 32 states from 1990-2015. The researchers evaluated all of the state and local tax incentives available in the 32 states, as well as an array of economic, political, governmental and demographic data. A computational model assessed the extent to which the effects of attracting or retaining businesses in a state offset the state's related tax incentives.

"We found that, in almost all instances, these corporate tax incentives cost states millions of dollars - if not more - and the returns were minimal," says Bruce McDonald, an associate professor of public administration at NC State and corresponding author of the study. "In fact, the combination of costly tax incentives and limited returns ultimately left states in worse financial condition than they were to begin with."

The two exceptions to the finding were job creation tax credits and job training grants.

"In both cases, the cost of the incentives was more than offset by tax revenue created by new jobs or by previously underemployed people finding higher-paying work," McDonald says.

"The takeaway message here is that maybe states shouldn't be offering these tax incentives. Or, at the very least, states need to examine their assumptions about the impact these incentives actually have, with the exception of incentives explicitly tied to job creation and training."

The 32 states included in the study account for about 90% of state and local tax incentives nationally. The states were Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

###

The paper, "You Don't Always Get What You Want: The Effect of Financial Incentives on State Fiscal Health," is published in the journal Public Administration Review. The paper was co-authored by John Decker and Brad Johnson, who are graduate students at NC State.
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Linkedin Stephanie Nebehay and Michael Shields (Reuters) Geneva, Switzerland  Fri, February 28, 2020 14:58 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20672d127 2 World coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus,COVID-19,outbreak,WHO Free

It would be a fatal mistake for any country to assume it will not be hit by the new coronavirus, and rich countries that might have thought they were safer should expect surprises, the head of the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

The head of the WHOs emergency program said Iran, which has so far reported the most deaths outside of China, may be dealing with an outbreak that is worse than yet understood. He also said discussions were being held with organizers about the fate of the Olympic games scheduled for July in Japan.

No country should assume it wont get cases, that would be a fatal mistake, quite literally, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

And I even say if you take Italy, a member of the G7, it was really a surprise. So even many other developed countries you also see some surprises, should expect some surprises.

Tedros said epidemics in Iran, Italy and South Korea were at a decisive point: still marked by clusters of infections with some transmission in communities, but not yet by sustained community transmission.

The WHO declared the outbreak an international emergency on Jan. 30 and has been urging countries to ready screening, isolation wards and public education campaigns.

This virus has pandemic potential, Tedros said. This is not a time for fear. This is a time for taking action to prevent infection and save lives now.

He said U.S. President Donald Trump was right in suggesting hygienic measures similar to those to prevent flu, such as frequent hand washing.

Iran said on Thursday its death toll from coronavirus had risen to 26 and the total number of infected people now stood at 245, the highest number of deaths from the virus outside China.

Asked about Irans nearly 10% death rate among known cases, Dr. Mike Ryan, head of WHOs emergencies program, said it was an indication that the disease might have spread further in Iran than revealed in the official figures.

The most likely factor is obviously this disease came unseen and undetected into Iran, the extent of infection may be broader than we think, he said.

I dont suspect it has anything to do with clinical care, more to do with surveillance, he said, adding that so far more severe cases had been detected, while milder cases would follow.

Ryan said the WHO was working closely with organizers of the Tokyo Olympic Games and did not believe any decision would be taken soon on whether to hold the event starting in July as planned.

Everyone is working together to try to preserve what is a fantastically important global event, he said.
The coronavirus outbreak is likely to hit China's economy over the course of two quarters, Stephen Roach said on Friday. "The Chinese economy is flat-lining right now," said Roach, who is a senior fellow at Yale University. "The impact of unprecedented quarantines and restrictions on travel have brought the Chinese economy right now to a virtual standstill," Roach told CNBC's "Squawk Box." He said that indicators of economic activity in China, such as coal consumption and transportation traffic, are "well below" the levels this time last year, or in the aftermath of any recent Lunar New Year holidays. Beijing started imposing large-scale lockdowns and quarantining cities in late January, which halted factory and economic activities that are gradually coming back online. The outbreak of the coronavirus has struck over 82,000 globally, according to the Feb. 27 figures from the World Health Organization. Known formally as COVID-19, the virus has spread beyond China, pummeling markets.

Still, Roach said he hoped the Chinese government will not let up on efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak even though there will be short-term economic impact. "A premature relaxation of quarantines and travel restrictions could lead to a relapse that would be far more dangerous than the outbreak at present," said Roach, who lived in China from 2007 until 2012 during his tenure as chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia. "The Chinese would want to avoid that at all cost. That's important for the rest of the world where the infection is clearly in the process of spreading right now," added Roach.

Economic disruption to last longer than SARS
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Linkedin Roland Jackson (Agence France-Presse) London, United Kingdom  Fri, February 28, 2020 15:05 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2067300fe 2 Environment Heathrow-Airport,climate-activists,climate,Airport,Britain,London,environment Free

Britain's Court of Appeal on Thursday ruled in favor of environmental campaigners who oppose the building of a third runway at London's Heathrow airport, Europe's busiest.

The court said the UK government -- which approved the Heathrow extension in 2018 after years of delays-- had failed to take into account commitments to the Paris Agreement on limiting global warming.

In reaction, triumphant campaigners called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson -- who in 2015 pledged to lie in front of bulldozers to stop Heathrow's third runway for both environmental and aesthetic reasons -- to finally cancel the project.

The legal action against the approval was brought by various London councils, environmental groups including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, and London Mayor Sadiq Khan. They lost at an original hearing in May.

Read also: London mayor in court to stop Heathrow expansion

'No account of Paris'

Presenting a summary of the appeal ruling, judge Keith Lindblom said that two years ago, the government of prime minister Theresa May had given no explanation of how it took into account the 2015 Paris accord -- which seeks to cap global warming to less than two degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels -- on building the new runway.

"The Paris Agreement ought to have been taken into account... and an explanation given as to how it was taken into account, but it was not," Lord Justice Lindblom said.

The current Conservative government has decided not to appeal the ruling at London's Supreme Court.

However, Johnson, who has in recent times appeared ambiguous over his once-staunch opposition to the project, may still have to make an official decision on scrapping it.

Notably, Heathrow airport -- which is owned by a consortium led by Spanish construction giant Ferrovial -- said it would appeal Thursday's ruling.

Heathrow, west of London, wants to increase its total capacity to 130 million passengers per day, compared with about 78 million currently.

"Expanding Heathrow, Britains biggest port and only hub, is essential to achieving the prime minister's vision of Global Britain," the airport said Thursday.

Johnson, who wants big infrastructure projects to help drive Britain's post-Brexit economy, earlier this month gave his backing to HS2 high-speed railway line that will link London with major cities in central and northern England -- even though construction will ravage ancient woodlands and wildlife.

While HS2 is projected to have a total bill greater than 100 billion ($129 billion, 118 billion euros) -- almost all of it at UK taxpayers' expense -- the Heathrow runway expansion was forecast to cost around 30 billion, funded almost entirely by the private sector.

Following Thursday's ruling, Khan called on Johnson's government "to abandon plans for Runway Three".

"I'm delighted by the decision handed out by the court of appeal," the London mayor told reporters outside the court.

"I've always said that we've got serious consequences about the government's plan to have a new runway at Heathrow because of the impact in the climate emergency, on the air quality, on noise pollution (and) on the quality of life of Londoners."

Read also: British Airways cancels flights to Italy, Korea, Singapore as coronavirus hits demand

'Powerful message'

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, called on Johnson to formally axe the plans.

"Really good news -- it's a fantastic victory -- we've been waiting for this day for many, many years," Sauven said outside the court.

"As part of the global campaign against climate change, this is really important ... Cancelling the third runway would send a really powerful message out to the rest of the world."

He added: "Boris Johnson should now put Heathrow out of its misery and cancel the third runway once and for all. No ifs, no buts, no lies, no U-turns."

Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Jenny Bates said that "it was basically a win on climate grounds."

"They knew they had to take climate into account and they didn't take the Paris accord into account," she said.

Building of the third runway had been expected to start in 2022 and take four years.
It has been a day of many grim records for Ankara. The most casualties for Turkish troops in Syria in a day since the civil war began. The highest number of attempted refugee crossings to Europe for years. The worst crisis with Russia since a fighter jet was shot down in 2015.

Thursday night, when the news first broke that 33 Turkish soldiers been killed in an air strike blamed on Syrian regime forces, was the point when multiple strands began to unravel from the Turkish governments unwieldy Syria policy.

But make no mistake: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was pulling every lever at his disposal on Friday to make sure the world paid attention.

In the 12 hours since news of the air strike broke, the Turkish government has accused Russia of allowing the attack to happen, restricted public access to social media, called an emergency Nato meeting to discuss the crisis  and allowed millions of refugees living in the country to believe they will now be waved through to Europe.

Hulusi Akar, the defence minister, said the Turkish military had also retaliated against over 200 positions occupied by Syrian regime forces, destroying tanks, helicopters and air defence systems.

Its had the effect of throwing dozens of bargaining chips onto the table at once.

Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Show all 17 1 /17 Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe NGO members help 15 Afghan refugees, 5 children, 3 women and 7 men, to disembark from a dinghy as it lands ashore the Greek island of Lesbos on 28 February AFP/Getty Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe A group of migrants walk through the Turkish-Greek border in a village near the border city of Edirne, Turkey, on 28 February Reuters Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Migrants from Afghanistan arrive on a dinghy on the Greek island of Lesbos on 28 February Reuters Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Afghan refugees stand on the shore of the Greek island of Lesbos after disembarking a dinght on 28 February AFP/Getty Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe A group of migrants walk through the Turkish-Greek border in a village Bosnakoy near the border city of Edirne, Turkey on 28 February Reuters Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Migrants from Afghanistan arrive in a dinghy at the village of Skala Sikaminias, on the Greek island of Lesbos on 28 February AP Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Afghan refugees stand on the shore of the Greek island of Lesbos after disembarking a dinght on 28 February Reuters Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe A group of migrants walk through the Turkish-Greek border in a village near the border city of Edirne, Turkeythrough the Turkish-Greek border in a village Bosnakoy near the border city of Edirne, Turkey Reuters Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Refugees walk near fences enforcing the Greek border as they try to enter Europe, in Edirne, Turkey on 28 February 2020. the Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Refugees walk near fences enforcing the Greek border as they try to enter Europe, in Edirne, Turkey on 28 February 2020. the Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Refugees walk near fences enforcing the Greek border as they try to enter Europe, in Edirne, Turkey, 28 February 2020. the Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Refugees walk near fences enforcing the Greek border as they try to enter Europe, in Edirne, Turkey, 28 February 2020. the Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Refugees walk near fences enforcing the Greek border as they try to enter Europe, in Edirne, Turkey, 28 February 2020. the Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Greek soldiers patrol behind a border fence as refugees try to enter Europe, from Edirne, Turkey, 28 February 2020. the Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Syrian refugees board a bus as they head to border villages of Edirne province, in Istanbul, Turkey, 28 February 2020. The Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Refugees walk near fences enforcing the Greek border as they try to enter Europe, in Edirne, Turkey, 28 February 2020. The Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Migrants wait in no-man land between Turkey and Greece, in Pazarkule, Edirne, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. NATO envoys were holding emergency talks Friday at the request of Turkey following the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in northeast Syria, as scores of migrants gathered at Turkey's border with Greece seeking entry into Europe. AP

The fact is that the Turkish governments position on Syrias hideous civil war has changed little since the early days of the conflict: it still believes Bashar al-Assad should go, Islamist groups should be armed to fight him, and the regions Kurds should never have more autonomy.

When the balance of war changed, such as when Britain refused to militarily intervene in 2013 or Vladimir Putin pushed Russia into the conflict in 2015, Turkey did not shift those basic objectives  only the countries it worked with to achieve them.

Managing the conflict in Syria with Russia was a major reason why Turkey chose to buy the expensive S-400 missile defence system, despite Western warnings that it would not work with Nato defences and be a conflict of interest to buy weapons from the alliances main adversary.

But Mr Erdogans supporters could argue, at least at first, that the arrangement was working - the president has joined Iran and Russias leaders at multiple summits in recent years to discuss and agree deals on Syrias future. It was, they said, a remarkable turnaround in relations from when Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet and a war seemed imminent.

And yet last Octobers invasion of a Kurdish-dominated area of northern Syria served mostly to push the Kurds closer to Assads side, while regime attacks on Idlib, the main remaining opposition-held province, grow fiercer by the day.

Mr Erdogan believed that, by coordinating troop movements through Moscow, an incident like Thursday nights could be avoided.

In response, Turkey swiftly switched focus to the West.

No official ministerial announcement was issued, but suddenly every refugee in the country was led to believe they would no longer be stopped by Turkish border guards if they attempted to cross into Europe.

"All refugees, including Syrians, are now welcome to cross into the European Union, an official had told Reuters.

Within hours, Turkish television was showing live pictures of families trudging across fields or loading into dinghies in an attempt to make it to Europe. Buses were even laid on from cities like Istanbul to get them to the border.

Its a reversal of the deal struck with the EU to stop refugees in 2016, when Turkey agreed to take back those that made it across in exchange for billions of euros in funding.

Mr Erdogan, well aware of the political impact that years migrant crisis had on European countries, has often threatened to revoke the deal. He did so today, hours after his arrangement with Russia appeared to crumble.

It is not yet clear whether this westward shift will be temporary, or deliver the support the Turkish government seeks in Syria.

But Thursday nights vast death toll has generated anger among the Turkish public, many of whom are asking why their country is still fighting in Syria. As opposition parties call for direct negotiations with the Assad regime and proposals to return refugees to Syria finding wider support, Mr Erdogan is finding he has few chips left to play.
EAST LANSING, MICH. -- What began as a gathering for a few kindred spirits who appreciated kayaking and canoeing has since grown into an annual event that welcomes thousands of like-minded people who love the great outdoors.

The 2020 Quiet Adventures Symposium will be held Saturday, February 29, in East Lansing, marking the events 25th anniversary.

The day-long event will feature 150 exhibitors, 30 guest speakers, special kids activities, and much more, all dedicated to quiet adventures -- meaning outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, backpacking, and paddling.

The symposium was originally solely dedicated to promoting paddling activities, but recently expanded to include more types of non-motorized outdoor recreation.

Were a very down-to-earth, welcoming show, said Linda DeKock, one of the events volunteer organizers. Youll run into so many different kinds of people, and most of them are in love with being outside and with what they do. I call it an outdoor family."

Speakers this year will cover everything from backcountry cooking and camping tips to exploring Michigans Isle Royale National Park to addressing race in paddle sports.

Commercial vendors, outdoors clubs and conservation groups will also be on hand, plus door prizes, an auction and a raffle where the grand prize is a Northstar touring canoe.

In recent years, the event has averaged about 2,000 attendees, from all over the Great Lakes and Midwest regions, as well as Canada, DeKock said.

This show is not only for people who have been doing outdoors things for a long time, its also for people who maybe just want to get started and dont know how," DeKock said. They can talk to outfitters and instructors who can help them. They can go to sessions and learn about some of the beautiful places here in Michigan.

Tickets for the Quiet Adventures Symposium are $15 for adults, $5 for students with IDs, and free for kids under 12. The event will be held at the Michigan State University Pavilion, at 4301 Farm Lane, East Lansing, from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. A full schedule and more information can be found here.
French Prime minister Edouard Philippe chaired an emergency meeting with government and opposition leaders Thursday to address the coronavirus outbreak as the country braces itslef for a confirmed epidemic. France has reported 18 cases so far and two deaths.

Fighting the coronavirus will require "resources, calm and common sense," Philippe said Thursday following a rare meeting with political parties of every stripe.

All opposition leaders, excluding Marine Le Pen, agreed to back the government's response to curb the coronavirus outbreak.

Sounding a discordant tone, the far right leader denounced the "incoherence" and "lack of preparedness" of French authorities.

Eager to show the government has the situation under control, President Emmanuel Macron visited a hospital where the first French victim was reported Thursday morning, promising extra resources to avoid a outbreak like the one gripping northern Italy.

Later in the day, Prime Minister Edourd Philippe laid out what those resources will look like:

108 hospitals to be equipped to receive Coronavirus patients

200 million extra masks ordered

Mayors have received an information kit for their constituents

An eruption of more than 150 cases in Italy prompted officials there on Sunday to lock down at least 10 towns, close schools in major cities and cancel Venice carnival celebrations.

No need to panic

France is not at that stage yet Philippe said, describing the situation in Italy as the second phase in the course of the coronavirus oubtreak. He referred to three stages:

Stage 1: The circulation of the virus is limited

Stage 2: Cluster cases emerge prompting a quarantine of patients

Stage 3: Viral infection spreads to the whole of the country

"Of course there is concern in France," Philippe acknowledged, but advised the public against stocking up on masks, saying it would create a shortfall instead.

The government is doing everything it can to "isolate and treat suspect cases" coming mainly from countries worst hit by the outbreak, he said.

France has reported 18 cases so far and two deaths.

"There is no need to panic, but don't be negligent," Philippe added.

Decisive point

The best advice for limiting the spread of the virus he said is :

Wash your hands every hour

Cover your mouth when sneezing or coughing

Use tissues only once then throw them away

The prime minister also urged the public to listen to trusted sources of information, such as their doctor, rather than conspiracy theories online.

The Work and Health ministers have called a meeting on Friday with business and trade unions to discuss the best measures to adopt in the work place to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The World Health Organisation offered some guidelines in a tweet on Thursday. The body's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the coronavirus epidemic is at a "decisive point" and urged affected countries to "move swiftly" to contain the disease.




PCTI designs, develops and manufactures standard and custom power electronic solutions

WEST PALM BEACH, FL, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Ozop Surgical Corp. (OTCQB: OZSCD), (Ozop or the Company), today announces that it has signed a Binding Letter of Intent (the LOI) with Power Conversion Technologies, Inc. (PCTI), and Catherine Chis (Chis), the President of PCTI and its sole shareholder.

Pursuant to the terms of the LOI, the Company will acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding common stock of PCTI from Chis. In conjunction with the LOI, Michael Chermak and Barry Hollander resigned as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), respectively, and Brian Conway was named CEO and Interim CFO. Mr. Chermak remains as the sole Director of the Company

PCTI operates in the very high power niche of the power electronics market, designing and manufacturing leading edge equipment for use in power conversion applications. The global power electronics market size in 2017 was valued at $36 Billion and is expected to reach $51 Billion by 2023 according to MarketsandMarkets. PCTI serves clients in several industries including energy storage, shore power, DEWs, microgrid, telecommunications, military, transportation, renewable energy, aerospace and mission critical defense systems. PCTIs clients include Fortune 500 companies, all branches of the US Department of Defense including the US Army and the US Air Force, NASA as well as other global military organizations.

PCTI has supplied equipment for energy storage applications since 1991 and is well positioned to capitalize on the explosive growth of the mass utility scale energy storage market by leveraging its expertise and market reputation. The utility scale energy storage industry is expected to grow tenfold by 2024 to reach $74 Billion according to Wood McKenzie Power & Renewable.

Catherine Chis stated, After 28 years in the private sector, PCTI looks forward to the opportunities that going public will provide to capitalize on our reputation, experience and product mix and expand further into markets such as mass scale energy storage, microgrids and shore power.

For more information on PCTI please follow on the link, www.pcti.com

Please be aware our social media accounts that can be used from time to time for additional material events.

https://twitter.com/power_conv_tech

https://www.facebook.com/PowerConversionTech

About Ozop Surgical Corp.

Ozop Surgical, Corp. (www.ozopsurgical.com) invents, designs, develops, manufactures and distributes innovative endoscopic instruments, surgical implants, instrumentation, devices and related technologies, focused on spine, neurological and pain management procedures and specialties. Our focus is on economically disrupting the market with clinically equivalent or superior existing and new products resulting in immediate and significant savings for providers, payors and consumers.

About Power Conversion Technologies, Inc.

Power Conversion Technologies, Inc (www.pcti.com) invents, designs, develops, manufactures and distributes standard and custom power electronic solutions. Founded in 1991 and located in East Butler, Pennsylvania, the Companys mission is to be the global leader for high power electronics with a standard of continued innovation.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains or may contain, among other things, certain forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties. Such statements may include, without limitation, statements with respect to the companys plans, objectives, projections, expectations and intentions and other statements identified by words such as projects, may, will, could, would, should, believes, expects, anticipates, estimates, intends, plans, potential or similar expressions. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the companys management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including those detailed in the companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ significantly from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that are subject to change based on various factors (many of which are beyond the companys control). The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

Investor Relations

The Waypoint Refinery, LLC

845-544-5112

www.thewaypointrefinery.com
Many private crammers in Seoul are still running classes although the government has urged them to close for now due to coronavirus fears.

According to Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education on Thursday, only some 35 percent of all 25,254 crammers have canceled classes, dropping to 18 percent in the affluent Seocho and Gangnam districts. The government can do no more than ask since it has no legal authority to shut them down.

Seoul Superintendent Joe Hee-yeon wrote on Facebook, "Not many of crammers have followed the advisory from the government. I'd like to emphasize once again that the decision on a temporarily shutdown shouldn't be an individual choice. It is an essential measure for the greater good of safety for the community."

Nationwide, some 48 percent of crammers have complied. The government has also ordered schools and kindergartens to postpone the start of the new school year for a week to March 9.
Ankara says it will no longer prevent refugees from going to Europe after Turkish fighters killed in Syrias Idlib.

Greece and Bulgaria boosted border patrols on Friday after Turkey said it would no longer prevent refugees from going to Europe as fighting raged in Syrias Idlib province.

Several dozen people had gathered on the Greece-Turkey border at Kastanies, northeast Greece. Greek police buses were seen preventing access.

They will not enter the country. They are irregular migrants, we wont let them enter, a government official told Reuters news agency. Greece has tightened the guarding of its land and sea borders to the maximum degree possible.

A police source told AFP news agency that border patrols had been doubled and a general call for heightened readiness issued.

Everything is under control, there is no reason for concern, the source said.

Bulgaria also heightened security along its border with its southeastern neighbour, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said on Friday.

We have data about a lot of crowding We are tightening maximum control at the border, Borissov said during a government meeting, adding he was arranging a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The European Commission said on Friday that Turkey has not officially announced a change to its policy on refugees in its country.

I would like to stress that there was no official announcement from the Turkish side about any changes in their asylum seeker, refugee or migrant policy, a spokesman for the EUs executive told a news briefing.

So from our point of view the EU-Turkey statement  still stands and we expect Turkey to uphold its commitments.

European nightmare

Al Jazeeras John Psaropoulos, reporting from Athens, said the situation was a European nightmare as the floodgates [are] being opened.





European officials are still mulling over whether this is simply a threat or whether its in earnest, he said.

He noted that the Greek demarcation with Turkey includes a 160km (99-mile) land border, which is constantly patrolled, and a maritime border of about 1,000km (621 miles), where Greece has some 40 coastguard vessels working around the clock.

At the moment the Greeks are not observing any mass influx of people on land or sea borders. They are staying in touch with European Union authorities to coordinate should the need for more equipment, cameras, vessels, arise, he said.

No stopping

Earlier on Friday, Turkish officials were quoted as saying Ankara would no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe.

The development came as hundreds fled Syria across the Turkish border, escaping intensifying battles that killed and wounded dozens of Turkish troops.

In anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Idlib, Turkish police, coastguard and border security officials were ordered to stand down on refugees land and sea crossings towards Europe, one official told Reuters news agency.

We have decided, effectively immediately, not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land or sea, said the official, who requested anonymity.

All refugees, including Syrians, are now welcome to cross into the European Union.

Turkish media showed video on Friday of migrants, some walking through fields with backpacks.

The Demiroren news agency reported about 300 migrants, including women and children, were walking northwest towards Turkeys border with Greece.

Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to open the gates for migrants to travel to Europe.

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The move would reverse a pledge Turkey made to the EU in 2016 and could draw Western powers into the standoff over Idlib and stalled negotiations between Ankara and Moscow.

Approximately one million civilians have been displaced to near the Turkish border since December as Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air power, seized territory from Turkey-backed Syrian rebels.

It created the worst humanitarian crisis in a nine-year war that has already displaced millions and killed hundreds of thousands.

The United Nations and others have called for an immediate ceasefire but three rounds of talks between Ankara and Moscow have failed to reach a deal and the fighting has raged on.

Governing party spokesman Omer Celik told CNN Turk on Friday that Ankara was not in a position to hold refugees any longer and called on the EU to do more.

Burden too heavy

The burden of hosting refugees is too heavy for any single country to carry, one official was quoted as saying.

Nearly 300 migrants arrived in Edirne province on the border with Greece in a bid to go to Europe, DHA news agency reported.

The group included Syrians, Iranians, Iraqis, Moroccans and Pakistanis, who told the agency they had come to the border after hearing the news about the killing of the Turkish soldiers.

Another group of migrants arrived at the coast of Ayvacik in Canakkale, western Turkey, and wanted to go to Lesbos by boat after reading reports of an open-door policy, DHA reported.

The agency published images of people carrying their belongings, walking in the dead of night in Edirne and Canakkale.
Panic due to violence in North East Delhi spilled across its border to Uttar Pradesh with the Ghaziabad Police receiving around 300 distress calls since Monday from people living close to the national capital, officials said on Friday.

The district police also took at least 50 violence-affected people from border areas to various hospitals for treatment, the officials said.

The police and administration in Ghaziabad, which shares a border with North East Delhi, have been on alert since communal clashes broke out in the region earlier this week, claiming at least 39 lives so far besides leaving over 200 injured.

"There have been over 300 calls to PCR (police control room) in Ghaziabad related to the violence in North East Delhi. People from border areas reported fear and panic, seeking police help due to the situation in Delhi," Ghaziabad Senior Superintendent of Police Kalanidhi Naithani told PTI.

In view of the situation, the Ghaziabad police also got ambulances and expert medical help stationed for first aid at borders, like Loni.

Around 50 people injured in the violence have been treated in Ghaziabad and several of them taken to hospitals by the local police, official sources said.

Areas like Gokalpuri, Maujpur, Babarpur, Bhajanpura, Jafrabad, Yamuna Vihar in North East Delhi neighbouring Ghaziabad have been worst affected in the riots.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Breakfast presentation hosted by Fort Bend Chamber of Commerces Infrastructure Division. 7:30-9 a.m., 445 Commerce Green Blvd., Sugar Land. Speaker: Luke Legate, Texas Oil and Natural Gas Joint Association spokesman. Cost: $25 members; $35 non-members. Information: www.FortBendChamber.com or contact Paige Talbott at 281-566-2152 or Paige@fortbendcc.org.

Self-represented litigants will get an introduction to the legal system as part of the Pro Se Basics demonstrations of resources at the Fort Bend County Law Library. 10-11 a.m., Fort Bend County Justice Center, 1422 Eugene Heimann Circle, Richmond. Information: www.fortbend.lib.tx.us or call 281-341-3718.

Transportation Club of Houston:

11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Amegy Bank, 1717 W. Loop South, 9th floor. Speaker: Ron Abbott, sustainability technology manager, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. Topic: Sustainable growth in the petrochemical industry. info@transclubhou.org or 713-510-3445.

State of Houston's Petrochemical Industry:

Event hosted by the Greater Houston Partnership. 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Hilton Americas, 1600 Lamar. Speaker: Bob Patel, CEO, LyondellBasell Industries. Cost: $72-$135. Information: Houston.org/events.

It All Begins with a Clear Desk:

9-11 a.m., UH Bauer College SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200. Cost: $29. Information: www.sbdc.uh.edu.

Job Search 101: The Art of Marketing Yourself:

10 a.m.-1 p.m., 3300 Chimney Rock, Suite 102. Cost: Free. Website: http://js101.org. E-mail: js101info@gmail.com.

Job Search 101:Networking and Light Bites:

1:30-3:30 p.m., Barrys Pizza, 6003 Richmond. Cost: Free. Website: http://js101.org. E-mail: js101info@gmail.com.

Starting Your Business:

10 a.m.-1 p.m., UH Bauer College SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200. Cost: $49. Information: www.sbdc.uh.edu.

Wednesday

QuickBooks for Beginners:

Workshop hosted by SCORE Houston. 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Palm Center, Technology Center, 5330 Griggs Road. Registration: www.houston.score.org.

Business Resources at Fort Bend County Library:

10:30-11:30 a.m., Sienna Branch Library, 8411 Sienna Springs Blvd., Missouri City. Cost: Free. Information: www.fortbend.lib.tx.us or 281-238-2900.

A Targeted Plan:

First in a four-week job search assistance series hosted by Fort Bend County Library. 1-3 p.m., Missouri City Branch Library, 1530 Texas Parkway. Information: www.fortbend.lib.tx.us or 281-238-2100.

Job Search 101: Resume-Selling Yourself for the Job:

10 a.m.-1 p.m., 3300 Chimney Rock, Suite 102. Cost: Free. Website: http://js101.org. E-mail: js101info@gmail.com.

How to Submit an Offer for Commercial-Item Purchases:

9 a.m.-12:30 p.m., UH Bauer College SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200. Cost: Free. Information: www.sbdc.uh.edu.

DIY Marketing and Branding Tips:

9 a.m.-noon, UH Bauer College SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200. Cost: $29. Information: www.sbdc.uh.edu.

Creating Enforceable Contracts:

9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., UH Bauer College SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200. Cost: $29. Information: www.sbdc.uh.edu.

Thursday

WE Thrive  Women Entrepreneur's Conference:

8 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Omni Houston Hotel at Westside, 13210 Katy Freeway. Information: www.houston.score.org.

Basics of HeinOnline:

Hosted by Fort Bend County Law Library. 10-11 a.m., Fort Bend County Justice Center, 1422 Eugene Heimann Circle, Richmond. The HeinOnline database includes an extensive law-journal collection, the Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. and United Nations Treaties and Fastcase. Cost: Free. Information: www.fortbend.lib.tx.us or 281-341-3718.

Job Search 101: LinkedIn Profiles:

10:15 a.m.-1 p.m., 3300 Chimney Rock, Suite 102. Cost: Free. Website: http://js101.org. E-mail: js101info@gmail.com.

Promoting Your Business with Video:

2-4:30 p.m., UH Bauer College SBDC, 2302 Fannin, Suite 200. Cost: $29. Information: www.sbdc.uh.edu.

Friday

Rise to the Top:

Event hosted by the Greater Houston Partnerships Womens Business Alliance celebrating International Womens Day. 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Hilton Americas, 1600 Lamar. Gretchen Watkins, president, Shell Oil Co. and executive vice president, Global Unconventionals, Shell Oil Co. Panelists: Leslie Duke, president, Burns & McDonnell; Carol Hess, vice president, workstations product management, HP Inc.; and Gaby Rowe, CEO, The Ion. Cost: $70-$135. Information: Houston.org/events.

Houston Business Matchmaker:

Hosted by the University of Houston Texas Gulf Coast Small Business Development Center Network. 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Houston Community College-Southeast Campus, 6815 Rustic. The event targets small to large businesses and federal, state and local government agencies looking for qualified vendors to provide goods and services, as well as suppliers who can meet the businesses and government agencies purchasing needs. Registration: www.mbmapp.com/event/sbdc.

Houston Community College 2020 State of the College:

7:30-10:30 a.m., Hilton Americas, 1600 Lamar. Information: www.hccs.edu/stateofthecollege.

Job Search 101: Maintaining Motivation:

10:00 AM to 1:00 PM at 3300 Chimney Rock #102 Houston, TX 77056 Cost: Free. Registration is not required. Website: http://js101.org, Email:js101info@gmail.com

Saturday

Understanding 8(a) Certification:

10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Kingwood Branch Library, 4400 Bens View Lane, Kingwood. Information: www.houston.score.org.

katherine.feser@chron.com

twitter.com/kfeser
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Pakistan affiliate Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) call for urgent government action to force Pakistans media companies to pay up to 11 months worth of unpaid salaries to journalists. This amids a crisis which has led to several media workers dying from stress or committing suicide.

The issues of unpaid salaries for Pakistans media were a key focus of a five-day mission to Pakistan by IFJ Deputy General Secretary, Jeremy Dear, organised by the PFUJ and its affiliated unions in Karachi, Punjab and Sheikhupura from February 18-22.

In meetings with provincial government ministers, regional governors, editors, media companies and journalists union representatives from more than 20 cities, the IFJ echoed PFUJ demands for urgent action to resolve the pay crisis and instigate urgent action to halt thousands of unlawful job cuts that are decimating the countrys media workforce. The IFJ also drew its attention to the shrinking space for independent media and the ongoing climate of impunity in the country during the mission.

Ministers in both Sindh and Punjab provinces, in response to IFJ and PFUJ lobbying during the mission, agreed to either table legislation or create a mechanism to force media employers to pay outstanding salaries and medical payments to thousands of affected journalists. In some companies, journalists have received no pay for up to 11 months, while the majority of journalists are owed between three to six months pay.

As a result of stress of not being able to meet bills, rent or pay school fees several journalists have died in the country in the past year. One journalist, Nafeez Ahmed, even called his employer from his hospital bed, and begged him for his salary and medical support payments.

The IFJ was told how journalists in Pakistan are facing widespread job cuts, many carried out unlawfully and with scarce few media workers receiving any compensation. Radio and TV stations and newspapers have closed on a whim. Thousands of journalists salaries have been cut, some by as much as 60%, with media heads claiming cuts in government advertising budgets and the economic crisis affecting the country have significantly reduced their revenues. As a result, an increasing number of media workers are being forced on to third party contracts and kept working without rights, a situation which the PFUJ claims to be unlawful under Pakistans labour laws.

In meetings with the delegation, Punjab Information Minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan pledged that government advertising (which accounts for up to 80% of revenues for some media) will, in future, only be available to those who have fully paid outstanding salaries and met their legal duty to employees. The Punjab provincial government also pledged to extend a subsidized housing scheme and provide health cards for journalists in the province to help alleviate poverty, a move welcomed by the Punjab Union of Journalists.

Sindh Government spokesperson, Murtaza Wahab, met with the delegation and agreed to table a new media law, enshrining the professional and economic rights of journalists and offered to work with PFUJ and other stakeholders to urgently draft legislation. He committed that government advertising would not be paid to media owing outstanding salaries.

Punjabs governor, Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, committed to raise the issue directly with Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan, to resolve the issue for journalists across the country.

The IFJ-PFUJ delegation issued a strong call for action to address the crisis of media freedom in Pakistan where journalists have faced killings, arbitrary arrests, censorship, unlawful surveillance and where a number of journalists and their homes have been physically attacked by state and non-state actors. In meetings with senior police officials and politicians the delegation reinforced strong calls for concrete action to protect the lives of journalists and address impunity, including action on the killing of Aziz Memo n , who was brutally murdered before being dumped in an irrigation canal in February.

The delegation reinforced calls for the countrys new social media law to be withdrawn or amended. During the mission, Pakistans Federal Government announced a review of the law in response to the criticism and the PFUJ is designated to appear among stakeholders consulted on the proposals. In meetings with newspaper editors and in conferences with journalists unions in Karachi and Lahore, the IFJ criticised use of defamation, cyber-crime and anti-terror laws to target journalists, while journalists staged a demonstration outside the Lahore Press Club calling for an end to gagging of the media in the country.

PFUJ president, GM Jamali, and secretary general, Rana Muhammad Azeem, jointly said: "Working journalists are under immense stress due to job insecurity, irregular salaries and threats from different quarters just for their ethical job to bring truth before the common people. This has not only made the environment for journalism unsafe and difficult but is tantamount to a severe threat to liberty of speech and expression of the working journalists.

IFJ Deputy General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: It was an honour to stand alongside such brave and resolute journalists and express the solidarity of the international journalists community for their struggle for the most basic rights  pay, jobs and rights. In dozens of meetings we have reinforced the message and demanded action from provincial and national authorities to force media to pay up, to stop companies breaking the law and to stop the attacks on journalists and journalism.

We have made it clear that unless there is urgent action to address the crisis, we will put the case of Pakistani journalists before the UN and ILO and will mobilise affiliates across the world to demand justice for those killed, jailed, sacked, those denied their rights and those owed their wages.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will convene a bipartisan Queensland family and domestic violence summit next month, bringing together community and sector leaders after the murder of Hannah Clarke and her children this month.

The announcement came outside the inaugural meeting of the state's re-established Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Council, co-chaired by Kay McGrath and former Queensland police commissioner Bob Atkinson.

Di Farmer, Bob Atkinson, Kay McGrath and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk open the Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Council meeting. Credit:Matt Dennien

Speaking outside the meeting after the Premier's announcement, Ms McGrath, said "by all means" the summit should be held, but she was "loathe to see another talk fest".

"There is a great deal to be discussed in this space and I know for a fact that there have been wheels turning behind the scenes and a lot of ideas being shared," she said.
Bengaluru: Charting a roadmap for developers for the next 10 years, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday said that they will have to focus on creating a more inclusive world, building trust into technology and using digital infrastructure to optimise the use of limited natural resources.

"The last 10 years have been amazing for developers, but they have been somewhat narrowing in some sense. The next 10 years have to be much more broader in terms of spanning the use of technology to newer sectors," he said at the Microsoft Future Decoded tech summit held at the Conrad Bengaluru hotel.

With over 4.2 million developers in the country, India has one of the biggest developer communities in the world.

Nadella said that as developers have the power to create and change the world, they must also be responsible.

Over 700 people attended the event which also saw the participation of several technology companies including Wipro and Infosys.

"The highest thing we can do is to empower developers. We want to give you the best toolchains," the Microsoft CEO said.

Stressing on the importance of democratising the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Nadella said that every organisation in India and the world must be able to leverage the technology to solve problems.

"But AI should not be biased. That is why the team building AI technology should be diverse and inclusive," he said.

Giving an example of how AI is helping solve the world's problems, he said the Apollo Hospitals is developing a cardiac model that can better predict heart diseases as compared to existing models. This is because the earlier models did not take into consideration data from people of South Asian origin.

The scope to accelerate the use of AI is still very vast as about 72 per cent of data that organisations have do not currently get analysed, he said.

"Trust should be there in everything you build. There should be trust around privacy and security of people's data," he said, adding that there will be over 500 million business apps by 2023, more than what has been built in the past 40 years.

Saying that security is another major concern as the world economy loses more than $1 trillion every year due to cybercrime, Nadella said Microsoft is working with a bigger group of cyber security experts to make the digital world more secure.

One of the security experts, he said Microsoft was working closely was Suresh Chelladurai who lives in a small village in Tamil Nadu.

"Suresh has detected 21 vulnerabilities in the last six months alone," Nadella said.

Namya Joshi, a 13-year-old girl from Ludhiana, Punjab, who is building school curriculum using Minecraft and has been training facilitators in her school as well as across the world also featured in Nadella's address.


The ambassador presented Vietnams goals during the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020 as part of a programme held by the Malaysian Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR) that enabled foreign ambassadors in Malaysia to present their countries policies.

He said Vietnam has chosen the theme Cohesive and Responsive for the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020 in order to highlight the decisive importance of solidarity to the groupings sustainability amidst regional and global uncertainties, especially the emergence of protectionism and trade competition.

Cohesive reflects Vietnams wish for a united bloc, a stronger community and enhanced regional connectivity. Meanwhile, responsive targets ASEANs better adaptability to the fast-evolving world, and its ability to create opportunities and reduce challenges from impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the ambassador elaborated.

He stressed that the theme has received the warm response of other ASEAN member countries as well as the support of ASEANs partners.

In his presentation as well as during discussion with delegates at the event, Ambassador Quynh suggested countries, particularly ASEAN members, should catch up with latest trends and apply new technologies in production and national development.

He informed delegates on Vietnams five priorities for 2020, including promoting ASEANs role and active contributions to maintaining peace, security and stability in the region; strengthening regional connectivity and adaptability to the Fourth Industrial Revolution; improving awareness and identity of the ASEAN Community; stepping up international partnerships for peace and sustainable development; and improving the adaptability and operational efficiency of the ASEAN apparatus.
Police responded to an early morning 911 call and found the woman shaken, with scratch marks on her neck from an assault by her ex-boyfriend, a police officer. He had climbed into her apartment through a bedroom window, choked her, and pushed her to the ground, according to the arrest warrant. Then he began choking a man who was in the room, fleeing only when the cops were called.

The alleged perpetrator, Braheem Hartley, is one of at least six Philadelphia Police officers who have been fired and charged in connection with incidents of domestic violence over the past year. Five of those cases have not previously been made public by the department; they were identified through right-to-know requests and criminal docket searches. All six have appealed through arbitration, and its likely some will get their jobs back.

Researchers describe officer-involved domestic violence as a significant and underreported problem. Its also one of many issues targeted by advocates seeking more accountability and stronger discipline in the contract now being negotiated by the city and the police union, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5.

Hartley was named in five citizen complaints in his fewer than four years on the police force, including one allegation of physical abuse  but only one of those complaints was sustained. Hartleys lawyer, Fortunato Perri, declined to comment or to make him available for an interview.

Another officer, now charged with stalking and harassing a former girlfriend, remained employed for 18 months after the first of three complaints about the harassment, records show. Another officer is alleged to have repeatedly assaulted and stalked her childs father over more than a year, at times in violation of a protection-from-abuse order, before finally losing her job.

The entire way that discipline has been dealt with in the Police Department is with a culture that says over and over that ... its not being taken as serious as it should be, said the Rev. Mark Tyler, a leader with the interfaith organization POWER. His group has led a push to demand accountability in the new contract after a year plagued by controversy, from the Plain View Project revelations of offensive Facebook postings to a high-level commander charged with serial sexual assault, to the abrupt resignation of Commissioner Richard Ross.

 READ MORE: How a flawed system hid a Philly police commanders sexual misconduct for 15 years

If you follow the stories of the ones that have done the most egregious things and you look back in their files, there was probably a trail that said, years before, this person was going to be a problem, Tyler said.

In a nationwide review of more than 300 cases of officer-involved domestic violence, Philip Stinson, a professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University, found that about 20% also had been subjects of federal civil-rights lawsuits. Sometimes, what we see is that this is a symptom of a bigger problem, he said.

Researchers investigating the prevalence of domestic violence in law enforcement households have placed it as high as 40%.

.

Compounding the problem is the sense that reporting violence could put victims in greater danger, by angering partners who have ready access to weapons and to confidential information such as the location of safe haven shelters, said Vashti Bledsoe, director of the Bilingual Domestic Violence Program at Lutheran Settlement House in Philadelphia.

So most of the time, she said, victims dont report.

We have clients whove said their partner is wielding weapons  its not necessarily something the victim would want to report. I have suggested: Would you want to go up the ranks to the sergeant? Even that just doesnt necessarily feel very safe, said Olivia Taduran, counseling supervisor at the program.

When victims did complain to supervisors, the outcomes were mixed. Some provided helpful interventions, but others didnt believe the victims claims. In one case, both husband and wife were police officers  and after the wife complained, she was shunned at work and ended up leaving her job, Taduran said.

Missing from the Disciplinary Code

Staff Inspector Sekou Kinebrew, a police spokesperson, said in a statement that acts of domestic violence run contrary to the departments values, and that the department thoroughly investigates and adjudicates accusations in accordance with the law and the police Disciplinary Code.

That code, however, does not list domestic violence as a punishable offense. There is no mention of stalking in the disciplinary code, the union noted in grieving one officers firing.

An Inquirer review of 170 cases from 2011 to 2019, in which officers filed union grievances over their firing, found 17 that stemmed from domestic incidents  more than any other infraction except insubordination. The majority won their jobs back through arbitration.

Only three of the 17 resulted in criminal convictions, including one in which police responding to the scene found the victim clutching her shoulder and holding a handful of her own hair. All three were convicted of disorderly conduct; one also pleaded to harassment.

 READ MORE: Once-secret records show how the police arbitration system overturned the firings or discipline of more than 100 questionable Philadelphia cops.

Stinson said such outcomes often are designed to allow officers to return to work. Under federal law, a person convicted of even misdemeanor domestic violence is not allowed to carry a firearm, a police job requirement. So they are convicted of crimes that have nothing to do with domestic violence, Stinson said.

Disorderly conduct is a typical outcome, he added. Since no court has said disorderly conduct falls under a qualified misdemeanor of domestic violence, thats a favorable plea, and the officer will perhaps be able to get his job back.

Most of the cases involving Philadelphia officers dismissed last year are still pending.

One officer, Mishel Molina-Mejia, is accused of assaulting her childs father, throwing a glass at him, biting him, striking him in the face, and crashing her car into his  alleged behavior that spanned more than a year before her termination, according to the warrant for her arrest on charges of assault, harassment, stalking, and criminal mischief.

Veteran officer Robert McDonald also is charged with stalking and harassing a former girlfriend. His record shows that three complaints were made about the harassment, starting in March 2018. But the first two complaints were marked not sustained, and he was not fired until November 2019.

Two more officers, Nikia Boskie and Arnold Grisson, are charged in connection with separate incidents described as domestic in court documents or by people familiar with the charges.

Grissons lawyer, Wayne Bennett, said the domestic incident started when Grisson walked in on his estranged wife, a Philadelphia cop, and her supervisor, in Grissons home, and a conflict ensued.

The case is complicated but, Bennett said, Grisson is not the bad guy in this case.

The woman had obtained a protection-from-abuse order, but it had expired, Bennett said. Grisson is preparing to fight the case to trial  and hopes to return to work on the force.

A lawyer representing Boskie declined to comment. The union did not respond to requests for comment.

Complicated cases

Such cases are complicated  and likely a reflection of the deep trauma that officers experience on the job, said Susan Sorenson, director of the Ortner Center on Violence and Abuse at the University of Pennsylvania.

And with more women police officers, now officers are marrying one another, and so the trauma they experience in the job then gets brought into the home, and how are they going to dissipate that trauma? she said.

But charging documents dont always tell the whole story, according to John Sasse, a 25th District officer who was fired last May after 11 years on the job. According to the Bucks County criminal complaint, in March 2019 he grabbed his girlfriend by the throat, banged her head against a refrigerator, and, once she fell to the ground, began kicking her in the head. According to Sasse, she had actually assaulted him after he discovered her heroin stash and kicked her out of his Bensalem home.

 READ MORE: Why the next Philly police contract may not be negotiated behind closed doors

He was charged with misdemeanor assault and harassment, but a handwritten note on the complaint says if [the case goes to] trial, will have the right to add felony strangulation.

Sasse said the allegations were false. But he pleaded guilty  to disorderly conduct. I was told, taking the plea I took, Im going to be able to get my job back, he said.

Under the contract that expires in June, the Disciplinary Code provides no penalty for misdemeanors like disorderly conduct that carry sentences of a year or less. Even for more serious crimes, dismissal is not mandated until the second offense.

City Councilmember Isaiah Thomas said constituents across the city have contacted him with their demands for the police contract  but the conversation is about more than just discipline. His goals are a stronger Police Advisory Commission, changes to the residency requirement, an end to stop and frisk, and a system that puts grievance decisions in the hands of a three-arbitrator panel rather than a single arbitrator.

In 2010, then-Commissioner Charles Ramsey tried to modify the code to, among other things, add offenses that would lead to automatic dismissal, including all criminal acts carrying a penalty of more than a year, whether or not they result in charges. But the union successfully fought many of his changes.

Ramsey said there are no easy fixes. Such cases are hampered by the reality that victims often dont want to press charges  and that arbitrators often side with the union in decisions subject to little public scrutiny. But he thinks transparency would help.

I do believe that arbitration decisions ought to be made public, he said. If theyre going to give the person their job back, they ought to explain that to the public.

The Inquirers investigative reporting is supported in part by the Lenfest Institutes Investigative News Fund. Gifts to support the Investigative News Fund can be made at www.inquirer.com/donate. (Editorial content is created independently of the funds donors. A listing of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org.)
YREKA, Calif.  Despite the news of an unexpected case of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Northern California, public health officials are reassuring people that there are "zero confirmed cases" of the virus in Siskiyou County.

Siskiyou County Public Health published a statement on Thursday addressing those concerns, saying that it was working with California health authorities and the CDC with the most current guidelines on the coronavirus outbreak.

LIVE NOW: State health officials and Governor @GavinNewsom provide a public briefing on California's response to novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. https://t.co/WLieSWmPEB  Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) February 27, 2020

"It is our mission to keep our citizens of Siskiyou County informed on where we are in this process," the agency said. "We are continuously monitoring the situation, and the health risk to the general public in California remains low."

By Thursday, the agency said, there were 33 confirmed cases of the virus in the state of California. The vast majority of those cases, 24, were from people who had been flown back to the state from higher risk areas. Seven other cases were related to travel, and one was due to person-to-person exposure from a spouse.

The final case, announced on Wednesday, has proven to be the most concerning. One person from Solano County, just southwest of Sacramento, tested positive for the virus "from an unknown source"  possibly, health officials said, from "community spread." As far as authorities are aware, the patient was not exposed to anyone known to be infected, and hadn't traveled anywhere that the virus is known to be prevalent.

That patient is currently being treated at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, but the assessment of community spread leaves open the possibility for further undiagnosed cases.

"Because of the precautions we have had in place since this patients arrival, we believe there has been minimal potential for exposure at the medical center," UC Davis said in a statement.

According to Siskiyou County Public Health, human coronaviruses usually only cause mild-to-moderate respiratory illness, with symptoms similar to the flu. In some cases, COVID-19 has resulted in more severe examples of the illness.

"We recognize there are concerns about novel (new) coronavirus, and understandably so," the agency said. "Although coronaviruses are a group of viruses that aren't new, this is a new type of coronavirus and we are still learning about it. However, the health risk to the general public in California remains low."

Both County and state officials are not recommending the use of respiratory masks unless you experience flu-like symptoms. Anyone who does get such symptoms is asked to contact their doctor before going into a clinic or hospital.

The Oregon Health Authority continues to report zero confirmed cases in the state, though some individuals are reportedly being monitored.
Preventative action: A worker cleans his goggles to spray disinfectant at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea. Photo: AP

COVID-19 is an illness that can affect your lungs and airways. It's caused by a virus called coronavirus.

What is the level of knowledge about the symptoms of the new coronavirus. How different is it to a cold or flu?

Symptoms include cough, high temperature and shortness of breath.

There appears to be a slight difference from regular flu which tends to start with a runny nose and upper respiratory tract symptoms. The coronavirus can strike further down the respiratory system - more at the top of the chest. People who had it describe a fever or dry cough.

What about the days before the symptoms appear - are there signs it could be coming on?

Sufferers have recalled feeling exhausted about two days before with pains in the limbs. Symptoms are thought to appear between two and 10 days after contracting the virus but maybe up to 24 days.

What else are the risk factors?

It also applies to anyone who has been in close contact with a confirmed case in the past 14 days. Close contact can mean, more than 15 minutes face-to-face or living in the same accommodation as an infected person.

If I think I have symptoms and fit the risk what should I do?

Ring your GP. Don't go to the surgery or hospital A&E. The doctor is likely to ask you several questions, such as when your symptoms began, where have you travelled recently, who had you been in close contact with and how severe are your symptoms.

The doctor will contact the public health section of the HSE. Depending on their assessment you may be told you need to go to hospital or testing centre where a swab will be taken and sent to lab to test for the coronavirus.

What happens after the swab is taken?

Unless you need to be hospitalised you will be sent home and told to self-isolate, which needs to be strictly enforced. You should avoid contact with family members, not accept visitors and maybe communicate by phone only.

You cannot share cups or utensils and keep your room well ventilated. You should ensure others wait an hour before using the same bath or shower as the patient

How do I know if I am positive for the new coronavirus?

The test result should be back within 12 to 24 hours.

How severe is the coronavirus?

For most people it is a mild illness. Around two in every 100 die from it and it can be particularly severe for older people and those with underlying illnesses.

If I am positive will I have to go to hospital?

Not unless you need hospital care or doctors believe you are better off in an isolation ward.

It is possible to recover from the virus at home but again rigid self-isolation measures need to be followed to ensure it is not passed on to others.

How is the virus treated?

Currently, no antiviral medication is recommended to treat infection with the new coronavirus.

Treatment is directed at relieving symptoms and may include pain relievers, cough syrup or medication, rest and fluid intake.

What impact can it have on the infected patient?

It is known to cause pneumonia in some patients.

Serious illness will depend on how the person's immune system responds. That can depend on their age and underlying conditions they already have.

If I recover from the virus can I contract it again?

Yes, it is understood you have an immune period of eight months but you may be able to contract Covid again once this period is over.
In the few days after the Supreme Court judgment on permanent commission for women officers (WOs) of the Indian Army and command opportunities for them, both of which got a positive nod from the court, there has been euphoria on one side but an equal amount of consternation among the older school of professional soldiers. Representing a strong view against command opportunities in particular and the potential of possible induction of WOs into combat units of the Army, senior Army veterans have reasoned that permanent commissions could be given to WOs only to allow them to serve till pensionable service, or rules on pension could be slightly bent for their benefit. Further, in their view, command of soldiers by WOs is problematic as soldiers, who are all male and mostly from rural stock, are used to seeing their womenfolk in a different role. The veterans believe rural Indias social norms forbid contact between men and women other than relatives, and therefore soldiers from such areas would not take orders from a woman. But personnel management issues about WOs are known only perfunctorily. A more nuanced explanation is perhaps that WOs today dont wish to be seen as only seeking pensions, but look towards soldiering as a career.

First, the issue of WOs in combat arms like the infantry, armoured corps or mechanised infantry is unnecessarily being discussed, fearing that another legal appeal by some WOs may once again gain them the Supreme Courts sympathy. That aspect wasnt in court. Most operationally experienced officers will say its time may come in years, but may not be immediately. Its best to treat it as something that will remain in consideration for an appropriate decision when the environment is conducive; no need to fight it. Besides the fact that the issue of induction into combat arms was not even under consideration, one point seems to elude all post-judgment analyses is that whatever applies to WOs by way of the Supreme Court judgment is strictly for those who are selected for that role by a deep selection process. I would never be happy to serve with a bunch of male officers who have been randomly thrust into operations which involve physical contact with the enemy. Similarly, WOs who receive permanent commissions and will serve till at least the age of 54 will only be those who have it in them to perform their outlined tasks; there is no laid-down percentage for selection in such selection boards for male short service officers. To doubt this is to doubt the entire selection procedure of the Army. What needs reiteration is that permanent commission has been opened to WOs only in 10 non-contact arms and services, including the Corps of Signals, Corps of Engineers, Air Defence Artillery, Intelligence, Army Aviation (currently non-flying role), Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps, Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Judge Advocate General and Army Education Corps. Since permanent commission offers a full career

opportunity and the Indian Army is essentially command oriented, it is only fair that similar career opportunities are also open to WOs; career progression without being tested in command criteria is not a possibility.

A few functional issues do arise. First, there is to be no reservation in promotion vacancies for WOs. This means that they will compete on equal terms with their male counterparts for the restricted number of vacancies (sometimes as little as 30 per cent of batch strength). It means some male officers already at such reduced approval percentages will make way for WOs with better qualifications and potential. It may be remembered that the Armys selection boards examine the record of candidates through a closed system where the identity is anonymous. Thus, selection is entirely fair. Only those women whose record is comparable to their male counterparts will make it to selected status. The question then is their acceptability to the soldiers and subordinate male officers while placed in command appointments. It is my experience that I could have quite easily recognised command potential, or the lack of it, in the WOs who served under me.

Many of these WOs were in command of sub-units (the actual command in the Army starts at unit level in the rank of colonel, but the testing for that ultimate capability is done while officers are in command of sub-units as majors and lieutenant-colonels). Most WOs now immediately vying for permanent commissions and later for unit command would have commanded sub-units with soldiers and some male officers as their subordinates. In the 28 years since WOs entered service, male subordinates are already sufficiently sensitised. The rural mindset may well exist, but Indian society has largely decided to give its daughters a fairer chance. A state like Haryana, which is often seen as conservative, is also the one which produces Indias finest female boxers and wrestlers; by no means very ladylike sports. Besides this, the modalities of implementation of the Supreme Court judgment remain flexible to the extent that command of frontline units of the 10 arms and services need not be thrust upon WOs with any degree of immediacy. This can be progressive with initial experimentation in command appointments of units and installations in peace stations, which are very much counted as command criteria for male counterparts too. Command of supply depots, rear ordnance depots, station workshops, area HQ signal resources or air support signal regiments and appointments such as Commander Works Engineers, may involve lesser personnel management and more technical expertise. It will no doubt throw up challenges for the Army Military Secretarys branch which believes in the policy of level playing field of opportunities when it comes to promotion boards. To overcome that, a few WOs with permanent commissions, at the outset, can be given command of frontline support units. It will add much confidence to WOs as a whole.

Most field commanders with experience of having WOs serve under them will anecdotally relate instances of severe challenges overcome by these officers; and an equal number will also recall moments of abject failure.

That is a natural phenomenon which provides inputs for the MS Branchs selection procedures. At the end of it, the best largely get through, and perform or perish at the next rank. This process of nature will ensure that the role of career WOs in the Army continues to mature and eventually leads to full acceptance.
Gladwin County residents packed this week's Gladwin County Commissioner's meeting, asking the board to make the county a Second Amendment sanctuary, thus banning red flag legislation.

County residents Barry Thornbury and Jason Schultz presented a resolution to commissioners to declare the status.

Thornbury said more than 400 county residents signed a petition supporting the sanctuary.

The pair said they discussed the initiative with Gladwin County Sheriff Mike Shea and state Rep. Jason Wentworth, and both reportedly supported the resolution. Such a resolution would oppose any unconditional law which "would infringe upon the rights of their citizens," Thornbury added.

He said the initiative to have the sanctuary stems from the red flag legislation introduced in February 2019 and signed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer along with other governors on Sept. 11, which urged the president and the U.S. Senate to pass common sense gun legislation. If passed, the legislations would allow law enforcement of family members to request an extreme risk protection order in circuit court for a person posing a significant risk of personal injury to himself by possessing a firearm, thus resulting in the person's firearm being confiscated.

"Such laws and actions are a violation of the Second, Fourth, Fifth and 14th amendments of the U.S. Constitution," Thornbury said. "Laws of this nature are steppingstones that could lead to total gun confiscation and the disarming of law-abiding citizens."

Thornbury told commissioners their approval would send a "clear message" to state and federal legislators along with other county residents that their governing body enforce and abide by the Second Amendment "and oppose attempts to undermine its citizens' God-given and inalienable rights as documented in the U.S. Constitution."

Schultz said he hoped the commissioners would pass the resolution that recognizes law abiding citizens who act in accordance with the U.S. Constitution, that have the right to keep and bear arms and that no law, regulation, policy, resolution or ordinance to be passed in the county that would infringe on such rights.

"I believe that is is time to draw a line in the sand that sends a message to our state and federal leaders that we the people of Gladwin County will not sit silently and just watch as our constitutional rights are violated," Schultz said.

He added he felt the county leaders owed it to the community to take a stand in providing protections for their constitutional rights and specifically their rights under the Second Amendment.

Gladwin County Commissioner Chair Sharron Smith said she is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association along with other groups.

"I shoot all the time," she said. "I'm a strong proponent of the Second Amendment. I'm a strong proponent of the Constitution."

Smith suggested tabling the item for discussion at the 2 p.m. March 10 committee of a whole meeting, which was met unanimously by commissioners.

Seventeen of Michigan's 83 counties have already adopted a Second amendment sanctuary status. In all, more than 400 municipalities in 20 states have reportedly protested red flag legislation.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer activated the states Emergency Operations Center to prepare for the potential threat of novel coronavirus spreading across the United States.

Whitmer, flanked by the states top health and public safety officials, said there have been no cases of coronavirus in Michigan and only 15 confirmed cases in the country. The current risk of contracting coronavirus remains low, said Michigans Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, but the governor said preventative measures must be taken to protect public health since the virus has no known vaccine or method of treatment.

We must do everything right now to make sure we are ready if the coronavirus comes to Michigan, Whitmer said Friday morning. The virus has the potential to impact nearly every aspect of our lives.

The virus was first detected in China and has since spread to contaminate 82,000 people globally, causing 2,700 deaths. Khaldun said the Center for Disease Control confirmed person-to-person spread of the respiratory illness is occurring.

Given what that know it is likely that we will see more cases in the U.S., we must do everything we can and use all the public health tools we have to slow the spread, Khaldun said.

Five people in Michigan tested for coronavirus did not contract the virus. Whitmer said the state was provided resources to test people for coronavirus and receive results back within four hours. It previously took days to receive results back from the Center for Disease Control.

Khaldun said the state would isolate any person who contracts the coronavirus while officials identify others may have come into contact with them. People who recently traveled from China, South Korea, Italy, Iran and Japan could be at risk, she said.

Capt. Emmitt McGowan, state deputy director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, speaks with public health officials on Friday, Feb. 28, 2020 at the MSP Emergency Operations Center in Dimondale Michigan. (Malachi Barrett | MLive.com)

Much like influenza, coronavirus appears to be a respiratory-borne illness spread when infected people cough or sneeze. Contaminated droplets sprayed into the air can be inhaled by people nearby and also land on surfaces, like door handles, contaminating others who make contact with the surface and then touch their mouth, nose or eyes.

Whitmer advised residents to avoid contact with people who appear sick, replace handshakes with elbow or fist bumps and routinely wash their hands and face. People are also asked to cover their mouth when coughing or sneezing and avoid touching their face.

The main goal of these efforts is to help slow the spread of the virus, Whitmer said. We dont anticipate this will cease the spread, but we can slow it and we can protect our most compromised Michiganders."

The CDC is cautioning people to stay away from those who are sick, and to step up good hygiene practices. This means thoroughly washing your hands for at least 20 seconds, especially after using the bathroom and before eating. Avoid touching your mouth or face unless your hands are clean.

Use household cleaners or wipes to clean and disinfect commonly touched objects and surfaces. Use disinfectant wipes to clean your hands or surfaces such as shopping-cart handles when out in public.

While the CDC has said that people who are feeling well do not need to wear a paper mask, some people are stocking up on them as a precaution.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services has more information about preventative measures in a variety of languages posted online. She encouraged the public to remain clear-headed and calm" as the situation develops.

Business and education leaders have been made aware of the public health risks, Whitmer said. Information is being sent to school districts to help protect students.

Health experts are concerned because little is known about this new virus and it has the potential to cause severe illness and pneumonia. As a newly identified virus, there is no specified treatment. Patients may receive antibiotics if they develop bacterial pneumonia, and may receive support such as oxygen, dialysis or use of a respirator.

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services activated the Community Health Emergency Coordination Center on Feb. 3 to support the statewide response. State officials are working with healthcare providers, local public health departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor any cases of the virus in Michigan.

Coronavirus can be transmitted from animals to humans. Its unclear what animal might be the source of coronavirus, which first surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Many of the initial victims worked in a city market that sold live seafood, snakes, rabbits and other animals.

Capt. Emmitt McGowan, deputy state director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said officials are aware that Detroit Metro Airport is receiving passengers traveling from China. The Michigan State Police is coordinating with Wayne County Emergency Management daily to keep an eye on the situation.

Khaldun said local health departments are monitoring 350 Michiganders who recently returned from China. None have developed coronavirus symptoms thus far, she said.

The Department of Defense ordered the state to create a site at Fort Custer Training Center in Battle Creek to temporarily observe Americans who return from any of the affected countries. The facility has not been used for that purpose, said Department of Military and Veterans Affairs Director Maj. Gen. Paul Rogers.

To date, we have no anticipation of a need for that facility, Rogers said.

Officials said part of the reason for increased concern steps from the first case of cornonavirus being found in someone who didnt travel anywhere known to have the virus.

Whitmer declined to say whether she has faith in the federal government to respond to the emerging threat. The governor thanked U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, for his work to address the virus as ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

We will hope for the best, but we will prepare for the worst, Whitmer said.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If Canadian politics needed a Rorschach test, Teck Resources Ltd. skilfully provided one this week.

In a brief letter to federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change Jonathan Wilkinson, Teck CEO Don Lindsay explained the company was withdrawing its proposal for the $20.6-billion Frontier oilsands project in Alberta. His choice of words provided ammunition to leaders of all political stripes:

"[I]nvestors and customers are increasingly looking for jurisdictions to have a framework in place that reconciles resource development and climate change, in order to produce the cleanest possible products. This does not yet exist here today and, unfortunately, the growing debate around this issue has placed Frontier and our company squarely at the nexus of much broader issues that need to be resolved."

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney linked the Teck decision to the federal government's inaction over current nationwide protests in opposition to a pipeline in British Columbia. (Jason Franson / The Canadian Press files)

The project was expected to create up to 7,000 construction jobs as well as 2,500 operating jobs, and would have meant roughly $12 billion in federal income and capital taxes. Over its 40 years of operation, it would have generated four million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

Ottawa aims to reduce Canadas GHG emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Its hard to square that with approving the Frontier project, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus caucus was divided over it. That decision, now mooted, was to come before the end of February.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, whose government is fighting Ottawa in court over carbon pricing, linked the Teck decision to the feds inaction over current nationwide protests in solidarity with Wetsuweten hereditary chiefs opposing a pipeline on their territory in British Columbia. Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer struck the same tone, placing the blame for the Frontier cancellation on Mr. Trudeau.

Its much more likely, however, that purely a business consideration  the price of oil  was the overriding factor in Tecks decision.

Oilsands projects such as this are profitable only when the price of crude is US$75 a barrel. In 2011, when the Frontier project was initially proposed, the average price was US$94.88 a barrel; the price remained above US$93 for the next three years.

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Since the end of 2014, however, the price of oil has averaged around US$50 per barrel, with rare spikes into US$70 territory. Teck had to assess the projects profitability over the next 40 years, as the world desperately looks for ways to transition away from fossil fuels in the hope of arresting global climate change. Considering the time Teck spent in consultations and developing the Frontier project, the $1.13-billion cost of walking away must seem the most prudent choice.

The $20.6-billion Frontier oilsands project would have created 7,000 construction jobs, 2,500 operating jobs and would have meant roughly $12 billion in federal income and capital taxes. Above: the Syncrude oilsands mine facility near Fort McMurray, Alta. (Jeff McIntosh / The Associated Press files)

Despite attempts by Mr. Kenney and Mr. Scheer to blame recent protests and the Trudeau governments response to them, there is another telling line in Mr. Lindsays letter: "Since the original application in 2011 we have, as others in the industry have done, continued to optimize the project to further confirm it is commercially viable."

As the price of oil falls, so does the viability of any oilsands project. And those long-term trends are not attributable to recent protests.

While the loss of potential jobs is a blow to Alberta, the additional GHG emissions would have made Canadas climate-change targets even harder to meet. At least the Teck CEOs deftly worded letter has engaged Canadians in a spirited debate over the benefits of increasing emissions for a highly uncertain financial return.

Teck has made a business decision. Seeking to spin it for political gain benefits no one.
The sign outside the Public Storage facility in Westminster

(Reuters) - U.S.-based Public Storage <PSA.N> emerged on Friday as the likely buyer of Australia's largest self-storage operator National Storage REIT <NSR.AX> with its current A$1.89 billion ($1.25 billion) offer, after two rivals dropped out of the race.

Warburg Pincus had pulled out of the contest, National Storage said on Friday, a day after China's Gaw Capital Partners' also withdrew. Both private equity firms had offered A$2.20 for the Brisbane-based firm.

Public Storage offered A$2.40 a share. All three parties had access to due diligence.

Shares of National Storage fell as much as 6%, outpacing broader market losses of about 3%.

National Storage said Warburg Pincus reserved its right to revisit its decision.

Public Storage is still looking at National Storage's books, the Australian company said, adding that investors should take no action at this point.

Gaw Capital's approach was made public last month, while offers by Warburg Pincus and Public Storage were disclosed this month.

(Reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin)
PR-Inside.com: 2020-02-28 09:05:20

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2020 / Ximen Mining Corp. (TSXV:XIM)(FRA:1XMA)(OTCQB:XXMMF) (the "Company" or "Ximen") announces that that it has entered into a Property Acquisition Agreement with a private company, 49er Creek Gold Corp. ("49er Creek") for the purchase of 100% of its mineral properties located near Nelson in southern British Columbia. The properties are located close to Ximen's Kenville gold mine and cover a total 107 mineral claims covering approximately 4,276 hectares, located in the Nelson Mining District.Satellite image showing Ximen's Nelson area holdings including acquisition from 49 Creek Gold Corp (yellow), and recently acquired properties from Emgold (orange) and Klondike Gold (purple),and Ximen's Kenville and California mine properties (Red).The 49er Creek property covers eight BC Minfile occurrences of which four were past producers with production as tabled below:MineGold(ounces)Silver(ounces)Copper(pounds)TonnesMinedTonnesMilledGold Hill3032523,435115Queen Victoria24630,5441,482,89545,3524,397Good Hope908048Northern Light5927331(from BC Minfile)The Gold Hill, Good Hope and Northern Light are vein deposits and the Queen Victoria is a copper-gold skarn deposit. From 1983 to the mid-1990's, multiple exploration programs were conducted on the property included soil geochemical sampling, rock sampling, magnetometer readings, and VLF-EM geophysical surveys. The highest assay from exploration in 1984 was 207.4 grams per tonne gold, 168.3 grams per tonne silver and 4.2 per cent copper (BC Assessment Report 13878).Ximen believes the property holds excellent exploration potential for gold-silver veins and porphyry-related copper gold deposits.Key points of the transaction include:C$100,000 paid to 49er Creek in cash;1,400,000 common shares without par value in the capital of Ximen with the following restrictions: 700,000 of the Shares will become free trading six months and one day after the receipt of Exchange approval and the remaining 700,000 Shares will become free trading one year and one day.The transaction is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.Dr. Mathew Ball, P.Geo., VP Exploration for Ximen Mining Corp. and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, approved the technical information contained in this News Release.On behalf of the Board of Directors,"Christopher R. Anderson"Christopher R. Anderson,President, CEO and Director604 488-3900Investor Relations:Sophy Cesar,604-488-3900,ir@ XimenMiningCorp.com About Ximen Mining Corp.Ximen Mining Corp. owns 100% interest in three of its precious metal projects located in southern BC. Ximen`s two Gold projects The Amelia Gold Mine and The Brett Epithermal Gold Project. Ximen also owns the Treasure Mountain Silver Project adjacent to the past producing Huldra Silver Mine. Currently, the Treasure Mountain Silver Project is under a option agreement. The option partner is making annual staged cash and stocks payments as well as funding the development of the project. The company has recently acquired control of the Kenville Gold mine near Nelson British Columbia which comes with surface and underground rights, buildings and equipment.Ximen is a publicly listed company trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol XIM, in the USA under the symbol XXMMF, and in Frankfurt, Munich, and Berlin Stock Exchanges in Germany under the symbol 1XMA and WKN with the number as A2JBKL.This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, including statements regarding the receipt of TSX Venture Exchange approval and the exercise of the Option by Ximen. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective," "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include the possibility that the TSX Venture Exchange may not accept the proposed transaction in a timely manner, if at all. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects.This press release shall not constitute an offer to se
One of the Korean visitors, who arrived in Da Nang City from South Korea's Daegu, resisted being put under quarantine in a local hospital, February 24, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Nguyen Dong.

South Koreans coming from Covid-19 hotspot Daegu refused to be quarantined in Vietnam Monday, leaving local authorities perplexed.

At 1 p.m. the Da Nang airport received a flight from Daegu that had 20 South Korean and two Thai nationals. The visitors were immediately taken by car from the airport to a quarantine area at Da Nang Lung Hospital.

The South Korean visitors refused to enter the quarantine area. Some said they wanted to return home and others wanted to isolate themselves at a hotel. Some said they didn't want to do either because they only planned to stay in Da Nang for two days.

The municipal Department of Health arranged accommodation for the Koreans at a hotel in Son Tra District at the city's expense. Doctor Le Thanh Phuc, director of the Da Nang hospital, said, "the Korean tourist group changed their mind later and said they did not want to go to the hotel, after learning that there was a Vietnamese person with fever on the same flight. They were worried about not receiving medical care and about food and drink expenses at the hotel."

Together, the head of the Health Department, staff of the South Korean embassy and the office of the South Korean Consul General in Vietnam managed to persuade the visitors to enter the quarantine area.

At 5 p.m. the same day, embassy staff informed the hospital that the Koreans wanted to go to the hotel. The hospital agreed, but the hotel manager turned the group down. The visitors were given yogurt at the hospital while waiting for the next solution.

Dr Phuc said handling of the situation became somewhat perplexing because Vietnam has not had a consistent approach to deal with situations before flights land.

"Vietnam should have refused entry at the airport itself for travelers from epidemic-hit areas," he said, adding that the two Thai guests had not been allowed to enter Daegu, so they had come to Da Nang, joining the Korean group from the city.

Pham Truc Lam, deputy director of the Da Nang Center for Disease Control, said people from epidemic hit areas should be barred from entering the city.

The Da Nang Center for Disease Control disinfect visitors arriving from South Koreas Daegu City, February 24, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Truc Lam.

At around 6 p.m., Da Nang authorities decided to take the South Koreans to a four-star hotel in Hai Chau District. The municipal Department of Health was tasked with disinfecting the hotel before receiving the guests.

"The city will cover their living and accommodation costs," said Hoang Son Tra, Deputy Chief of Office of Da Nang's National Assembly Delegates.

Earlier Monday, a flight carrying 80 people from Daegu City also arrived in Da Nang.

There were 22 South Korean passengers and 58 Vietnamese students and workers, besides the crew. The Vietnamese passengers would be quarantined at the Dong Nghe Military Reserve Center in Hoa Vang District, while the South Koreans at Da Nang Lung Hospital in Lien Chieu District.

At a government Monday afternoon, Deputy Health Minister Do Xuan Tuyen said the National Steering Committee for Coronavirus Prevention and Control decided to assign the task of quarantining people coming from virus-hit areas, including Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk Province in South Korea, to the Mnistry of National Defense.

As of Monday, South Korea had recorded 833 Covid-19 infections, making it the second largest outbreak area in the world after China. Death toll in the country has risen to seven. The country has issued a red alert, its highest level for viral attacks.

Around 200,000 Vietnamese are currently studying and working in South Korea, 8,285 of them in Daegu, according to the Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Vietnam has sought to control travel flow from South Korea, with health declarations required from everyone coming from the country. Those with symptoms like high fever, coughing and breathing difficulties will be placed in quarantine, the Health Ministry said Sunday.

Several major cities have also deployed preventive measures against possible infection cases coming in from South Korea. Saigon's Tan Son Nhat International Airport has, for instance, already performed temperature checks on large numbers of South Korean arrivals.

All of 16 confirmed Covid-19 infections in Vietnam have so far have tested negative after treatment, with just one remaining in quarantine pending repeat test results.

The global death toll has reached 2,699, mostly in China, followed by Iran with 12, South Korea with eight and Italy with seven.
One of the images in the New York City Commission on Human Rights campaign features Hasidic activist Yosef Rapaport.

NEW YORK (JTA)-New York City is hoping that a new ad campaign will make Jewish New Yorkers feel comfortable despite a recent spate of anti-Semitic attacks.

The campaign, launched Wednesday by the city's Commission on Human Rights, consists of four ads each featuring a photograph of a different Jewish New Yorker and a bold proclamation: "Jewish New Yorkers belong here. Anti-Semitism does not."

Ads using text only will appear in three Orthodox publications-Hamodia, Jewish Press and Mishpacha Magazine. Ads featuring images of Jews from diverse backgrounds will be promoted on social media by the commission.

"I think it's undisputed right now that Jewish communities, both those who are visibly Jewish and those who are not, are feeling particularly vulnerable and are looking for allies, for solidarity, for support and we hope that this campaign addresses some of those concerns and that fear," said Dana Sussman, a deputy commissioner who helped develop the campaign.

Sussman appears in one of the ads. The other New Yorkers featured are Yosef Rapaport, a Hasidic Brooklyn resident and community activist; Laura Shaw Frank, a Bronx resident and Orthodox feminist; and Marques Hollie, a Manhattan resident and queer Jew of color.

Rapaport said he had agreed to participate in the campaign after criticizing the city for excluding visibly Jewish New Yorkers from previous ads on other topics.

"I'm active on social media and I also sometimes rightfully or wrongfully complain when New York City has promotional material ads for all kinds of stuff, tourism and all, showing the diversity of people, [but] they hardly ever show Hasidic children, men or women," he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a voice message on the WhatsApp messaging platform. "Now that they asked me it was kind of difficult for me to say no."

Rapaport said he hoped the campaign "will have the desired effect of making us visible, that we belong."

In addition to running the ads in the three Orthodox publications, the commission will also promote the images on social media and in digital ads on the New York Jewish Week website. The campaign cost $50,000, city officials said.

Shaw Frank wrote in an email to JTA that she had been concerned about recent anti-Semitic attacks and that participating in the campaign "felt like something concrete I could DO, instead of just feeling helpless."

The commission has run similar campaigns to combat racism, Islamophobia and discrimination against the LGBTQ community. The city is also responding to the recent spate of anti-Semitic incidents in other ways, including by launching an education campaign in schools and creating an Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes.

Hollie said he hoped the campaign would yield benefits even beyond combating anti-Semitism.

"The Jewish people are a racially and ethnically diverse group of people," he said in an email. "My hope is that this campaign will not only remind the public about this, but also remind us that our community is multi-faceted and that we, collectively, are pillars of support for one another in times of joy as well as times of adversity."
Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday hit out at the Congress for reminding the BJP of what its rajdharma (duty) should be.

Addressing the media, he said a delegation of Congress that met President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday is trying to remind others about rajdharma, but the party should clarify why it changes its position on issues.

I ask Sonia Gandhi, your senior leaders had a view about those persecuted in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Indira Gandhi had given help to people who fled from Uganda, Rajiv Gandhi had helped Tamils from Sri Lanka. Manmohan Singh Had urged LK Advani that citizenship should be given, and Ashok Gehlot had written to the home ministers in both UPA and NDA for citizenship... So has Tarun Gogoi...So what is this rajdharma that makes your party flip flop, he said.

Watch | Dont preach us: BJP hits back at Sonia Gandhi over Congress rajdharma jibe

The minister went on to accuse Gandhi of instigating people by making comments such as is par or us paar made at an anti-CAA rally.

The whole issue was debated in Parliament, so Why are you instigating people, he said.

Prasad said the Congress has opted for a policy of changing stance on policy issues. He said on March 15, 2010, the UPA issued a notification on NPR and is now opposed to it. ...This was stated by the Congress for the good of the country, but when they do it its allowed, when we say it, you instigate people, he said.

There is a lot that can be said about the record of the Congress party. The BJP condemns the Congresss attempts at politicising the riots. The Congress prioritises the family and party and then the country, Prasad said.
Nouakchott, Mauritania (PANA) - The Mauritanian minister of the Interior, Mohamed Salem Ould Merzough, has warned all those breaching the countrys unity, national cohesion and stability on social networks at a press briefing here Thursday
Following the announcement that Mike Pence would be leading the United States response to the coronavirus threat, concerns have been raised over the vice presidents ability to handle a health crisis.

On Wednesday, President Trump made a rare appearance in the White House briefing room, where he said Pence would be overseeing the administrations Covid-19 coronavirus task force because hes got a certain talent for this.

However, following the vice presidents appointment, critics pointed out that Pence has a questionable track record when it comes to his ability to effectively deal with health-related matters.

These are four instances where Pence has argued against science and how it relates to public health.

During Indianas HIV outbreak in 2015, Pence initially opposed a clean-needle exchange

After the presidents appointment, the majority of criticism surrounding his decision revolved around Pences handling of the nations first HIV outbreak linked to intravenous-use painkillers in 2015.

At the time, Pence, who was the governor of Indiana, initially rejected allowing a clean-needle exchange, despite the advice of health officials.

Although Pence, after praying on it, eventually lifted the ban on needle exchanges when he declared a public health emergency, a decision he said he did not enter into lightly, studies published in medical journals have said the outbreak could have been prevented had the state acted faster.

According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine the following year, the health crisis may not have happened had the state not banned syringe exchanges.

Among those criticising Pences ability to keep the country safe from new coronavirus considering his handling of the HIV crisis was Leana Wen, the former head of Planned Parenthood, who tweeted: As Governor of Indiana, an HIV/AIDS epidemic flourished until he allowed public health - not ideology - to direct policy & response.

Story continues

I hope he now follows the guidance of the exceptional career public health leaders @CDCgov & in the admin.

So @VP Mike Pence is the new #covid19 czar. As Governor of Indiana, an HIV/AIDS epidemic flourished until he allowed public healthnot ideologyto direct policy & response. I hope he now follows the guidance of the exceptional career public health leaders @CDCgov & in the admin.  Leana Wen, M.D. (@DrLeanaWen) February 27, 2020

Despite the states failure to prevent the outbreak, President Trump pointed to Indiana as a sign of the vice presidents capability.

"Look at the Indiana model, they have been very successful there, the president said.

Pence previously said smoking doesnt kill

In 2000, the now-vice president published an op-ed in which he said it was time for a quick reality check over what he claimed was overblown hysteria about the effects of smoking cigarettes.

Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesnt kill, he wrote, before citing smoking statistics.

He did, however, acknowledge that smoking is not good for you.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smoking harms nearly every organ of the body and is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.

He said condoms are very poor protection against sexually transmitted diseases

Despite scientific evidence that shows condoms are highly effective in reducing the spread of sexually transmitted disease, Pence told CNNs Wolf Blitzer in 2002 that condoms are a very, very poor protection against sexually transmitted disease.

During the segment, Pence added that he believes the only truly safe sex is no sex.

Pence has refused to say that climate change is a threat

During an interview with CNNs Jake Tapper in 2019, the vice president continuously avoided the hosts question about whether he thinks human-induced climate emergency is a threat.

After failing to confirm or deny his views on the subject, Pence said: I think were making great progress reducing carbon emissions, before incorrectly claiming that America has the cleanest air and water in the world.

That is not true. We dont have the cleanest air and water in the world, Tapper responded.

When ranking countries with the cleanest air, the US comes in 10th place, according to the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), and in 29th place for water and sanitation.

He is suspected of advocating for conversion therapy

Although Pence has never explicitly stated a support for conversion therapy, some believe the language used on his campaign website during his 2000 run for Congress advocated for the discredited practices aimed at changing an individuals sexual orientation or gender identity.

According to Snopes, Pences campaign website said that federal funding for HIV patients should be directed towards those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behaviour.

The American Psychiatric Associated rejects the practise of conversion therapy as it is based on developmental theories whose scientific validity is questionable and has the potential to harm young people.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counselling Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American School Counsellor Association, the National Association of School Psychologists and the National Association of Social Workers together, representing more than 480,000 mental health professionals, have all taken the position that homosexuality is not a mental disorder and thus is not something that needs to or can be cured, the organisation states.

After Pence was tasked with leading the charge against the virus, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among those criticising the vice presidents past decisions.

Mike Pence literally does not believe in science.



It is utterly irresponsible to put him in charge of US coronavirus response as the world sits on the cusp of a pandemic.



This decision could cost people their lives. Pences past decisions already have. https://t.co/NhMPOusOWm  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 27, 2020

Mike Pence literally does not believe in science, the Democratic congresswoman tweeted. It is utterly irresponsible to put him in charge of US coronavirus response as the world sits on the cusp of a pandemic.

This decision could cost people their lives. Pences past decisions already have.

On Thursday, the CDC confirmed the first US new coronavirus case of unknown origin.

To date, the virus has infected 82,550 people worldwide and killed 2,810.

Read more

Fury as Trump names anti-science Pence to lead coronavirus response
S.E.I.U. members and working people who are trying to organize a union recognize this is a make-or-break moment for our country, the unions president, Mary Kay Henry, said in a statement.

In the 2018 midterm elections, the service employees union mobilized workers and nonwhite voters, particularly in the Midwest, through a 14-month initiative. In announcing its plans for 2020, the union cited Democratic victories in the Wisconsin and Michigan governors races as evidence that its 2018 efforts had paid off.

The 2020 push includes a plan to turn out union members in high numbers on Election Day, as well as involving them in broader get-out-the-vote efforts. The union is planning to target Hispanic voters in Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, and Asian-Pacific Islander voters in parts of Nevada and Pennsylvania. It will also work to drive turnout among Hmong and Somali immigrant communities in Minnesota.

The effort will primarily rely on door-to-door canvassing and other forms of direct engagement, as well as online advertising.
First British national dies from coronavirus in Japan FILE PHOTO : A bus arrives near the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where dozens of passengers were tested positive for coronavirus, at Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama

By Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO (Reuters) - A man who had been aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship has become the first British national to die from the coronavirus.

Japans health ministry said the latest fatality brought deaths from the virus in the country to 11, including six who were on board the cruise ship, which has over 700 cases of the virus.

The Diamond Princess run by Carnival Japan Inc, docked in Yokohama on Feb. 3.

"We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Japan and are in contact with local authorities," Britain's foreign ministry said on Friday. "Our sympathies and thoughts are with his family at this difficult time."

The new coronavirus which emerged in Wuhan, China, in December has infected tens of thousands of people.

Earlier, health authorities in the United Kingdom said the country now has 19 confirmed cases of coronavirus after Wales identified its first case and two new cases were found in England.

(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Stephen Addison/Guy Faulconbridge)
Senator Elizabeth Warren, who entered the presidential race loudly denouncing the influence of super PACs and big money in politics, will now be the beneficiary of what is believed to be the largest ad buy by a super PAC in the 2020 Democratic primary.

The super PAC, known as Persist PAC, announced late on Thursday night that it was buying $9 million in television and digital ads across nine expensive media markets in three Super Tuesday states: California, Texas and Massachusetts. The reservation is in addition to another $3.25 million previously announced that covers seven other states, plus California.

Because the super PAC was formed so late  it launched days before the Nevada caucuses  the group can keep its donors secret from the millions of Americans who will be voting in the coming weeks. A representative for the group said it would not disclose its donors until legally required, on March 20. At that point, about 60 percent of the delegates in the country would be allocated.

Ms. Warrens campaign did not respond to a request for comment about whether the names of donors should be released sooner.
In January 2020, Tinders owners, Match Group, announced that their most profitable app would be introducing a suite of new safety features. Photo verification, a panic button and a system that flags potentially offensive in-app messages. Users who sign up for the panic button will display a blue badge on their profile.

Mandy Ginsburg, the CEO of Match, has likened the new features to lawn signs that warn a potential thief that a home is protected by a burglar alarm. It is unfortunate that these changes have been so limited. Trying to deter criminals is great, but why not take steps to prevent them using the platform in the first place?

Tinder has introduced some safety features but they do not go nearly far enough. Credit:AAP

The changes fall short of bringing Tinder in line with the group's flagship app, Match.com, which has screened paid users for close to a decade. As someone familiar with Tinder, I would say millions of Australian users continue to be exposed to terrible risks; the app gathers so little data that it is not possible for known violent or sexual offenders to be screened.

Acknowledging these limitations, a Match Group spokesperson said, There are definitely registered sex offenders on our free products.
The two investigating officers (IOs) in a bribery case allegedly involving senior officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sparred in a special court on Friday.

First to draw blood was former investigating officer AK Bassi, who accused the current IO Satish Dagar of shielding the big names in the case. Bassi claimed that main player Manoj Prasad had revealed these names during his questioning in October 2018, but these were not investigated by Dagar.

Dagar hit back on allegations of bias saying, I have better antecedents than you in the organisation. Dont level personal allegations. I summoned you six times, why didnt you appear if you wanted to assist in the investigation?

One must ask him (Bassi), he conducted investigation only between October 15 and 23, 2018, but how does he know what is happening in the CBI? How has he infiltrated our investigation? Dagar said.

Dagar and the CBI lawyer opposed the submission of an additional note by Bassi on his findings. Why is he submitting new documents when none of this was in his case diary? He cannot submit allegations or documents on the basis of hearsay, said Dagar.

Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal then intervened. You both are in the same agency. You both have to go back there. Dont wash your dirty linen in public.

If required, I will again call both of you for further clarification, but not together, the judge said and posted the matter for further hearing on March 7.

At the last hearing on February 19, the court had rapped the CBI for not conducting psychological and lie detector tests on its former special director Rakesh Asthana in the case in which he was recently given clean chit.

The court asked the CBI whether there was any telephonic conversation recording of Asthana, which the agency denied.

What about calls made to Asthana via WhatsApp? The complainant, Sana Satish Babu, has said this in his statement recorded under 164 CrPC (before a magistrate) ... Evidence cannot be disregarded at filing of chargesheet, the court said.

Did you collect any electronic equipment, mobile phones from Asthana? Did you confront him with Manoj Prasad and Someshwar Prasad, it asked.

The CBI said, No, we examined him but never confronted him with anyone.

The FIR was filed on October 15, 2018 and the case remained with the first Investigating Officer till October 23, 2018.

The CBI registered the case against Asthana on the basis of a complaint from Hyderabad-based businessman Satish Sana, facing probe in a 2017 case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi.

Sana, a close aide of Qureshi, was arrested on July 27 last year by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.

In October 2018, the battle between the then Director Alok Verma and Special Director Asthana became public, forcing the government to intervene in the matter and transfer both officers.
Following the launch of the Huduma Namba public participation exercise that started this week, the government is set to begin another round of registering its citizens.

According to National project coordinator, Philip Lemahasia, Huduma Namba registration would be rolled out across the country.

The exercise would give an opportunity to both Kenyans and foreigners who failed to register during the earlier exercise due to lack of enough time, said Lemahasia as quoted by K24.

He noted that the government is aware that a substantial number of citizens, foreigners and refugees were not registered due to logistical factors.

We are calling upon them to take advantage of the second round and register since the exercise opens up as this will help access government services easily, he said.

Elsewhere, Information Communications Principal Secretary Jerome Ochieng assured Kenyans that their Huduma Namba data is safe.

The official, who was speaking in Kisumu on Wednesday, said the data will only be accessible as provided for by the Data Protection Act, 2019.

Mr Ochieng said the ICT and Innovation Ministry was in the process of establishing a commission to oversee the management of all data in the country.

We were waiting for approval from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) which we have received and soon we shall advertise for the position of data commissioner and other members of staff, he said.

Public Participation held concurrently across the eight segmented regions is expected to set in motion the rolling out of phase two of Huduma number.

The PS asked Kenyans to take advantage of the window and present their views before 2nd March 2020 to be incorporated in the regulations.
Author John Spadea looks back at how he defied the naysayers to become a commercial pilot and enjoy a career that is still going strong in his autobiography titled Logbook Affairs: How I Became a Pilot (published by Archway Publishing).

Starting with his boyhood dream, Spadea lays out the obstacles in his way to becoming a pilot, such as bad grades, expensive schooling and the dangers of flying. He recounts how he overcame it all to hold the position of captain of a Boeing 747. The author discusses his flying adventures from scary incidents to famous people and what its like to fly all around the world. In addition, he comments of the future of flying, noting that airlines will need thousands of new pilots in the coming years.

Spadea hopes to inspire future generations to not give up on their dreams of becoming a pilot. He encourages readers saying Anyone can succeed in life. It starts with a dream  followed by passion, perseverance, hard work and a little bit of good fortune.

Logbook Affairs can be purchased on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Logbook-Affairs-How-Became-Pilot/dp/1480885428.

Logbook Affairs

By John Spadea

Hardcover | 6 x 9 in | 168 pages | ISBN 9781480885417

Softcover | 6 x 9 in | 168 pages | ISBN 9781480885424

E-Book | 168 pages | ISBN 9781480885431

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

John Spadea graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with a bachelors degree. He became a certified pilot instructor at several flight schools. He traveled west to obtain multi-engine experience, returned back east to be a corporate pilot and spent time at five different airlines. He is now employed as a B-747 captain flying all over the world; he has been with his current employer for 15 years. Spadea currently lives with his wife in Minnesota. Together they have two daughters  Cecilia and Gina.

Simon & Schuster, a company with nearly ninety years of publishing experience, has teamed up with Author Solutions, LLC, the worldwide leader in self-publishing, to create Archway Publishing. With unique resources to support books of all kind, Archway Publishing offers a specialized approach to help every author reach his or her desired audience. For more information, visit archwaypublishing.com or call 888-242-5904.
KENTWOOD, MI  After nine decades in business, Goodrich Quality Theaters has filed for bankruptcy, a move that will likely see the company sell off most of its 29-theaters to pay off $30 million in debt.

Im in the process of trying to sell assets to pay my creditors, said company President Robert Goodrich, 79. The big question is, what would be the sales price? That is obviously a concern because in bankruptcy the value of the company has been deteriorated.

Related: Michigan movie theater chain files for bankruptcy

Kentwood-based Goodrich Quality Theaters has 14 properties in Michigan, including Lowell, Grand Haven, Bay City, Kalamazoo, Jackson, Ann Arbor, Holland and Cadillac. It also has theaters in Illinois, Indiana, Florida and Missouri.

The companys theaters will remain open during the bankruptcy, said Goodrich, whose father opened the company in 1930. He said his company is still bringing in money, just not enough to cover its obligations.

I never anticipated this occurring, and yet it has, and Im trying to wrestle with it, he said.

Goodrich said his company landed in financial trouble for two reasons: He invested a lot of money on theater upgrades, after which sales fell about eight percent last year. He also pointed to the growth of streaming services, such as Netflix.

I didnt have a clear crystal ball, said Goodrich, who ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat in 2014 against U.S. Rep. Justin Amash for Michigans 3rd Congressional District seat.

I spent a lot of money putting recliners in some theaters and upgrading theaters, and then the industry turned negative.

Goodrichs company filed for bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Grand Rapids on Tuesday, Feb. 25. In the filing, the company said it has $100 million or less in assets and $50 million or less in liabilities.

According to the bankruptcy filing, the company has fewer than 100 creditors. The largest unsecured creditor is Vistar Corporation of Belleville, Michigan. Goodrich owes Vistar $1 million, court records show.

Court records say Goodrich Quality Theaters owes $30 million to three banks: CIBC, Macatawa Bank and Independent Bank.

Most recently, the theater company received an emergency loan of $402,430 to ensure it could pay its employees and keep its doors open, according to court document filed Feb. 27.

In a motion filed Friday afternoon, attorneys representing the banks say Goodrich Quality Theaters defaulted on its obligations. Theyre asking the bankruptcy court to appoint a trustee to oversee the company.

The banks say the trustee is needed because Goodrich Quality Theaters is not capable of operating independently during bankruptcy.

They allege that the theater company is not paying for critical services, such as its film vendors. Those vendors can shut off Goodrichs movie projectors, immediately putting the company out of the business, the banks said in a court filing.

The banks also said the theater company fired a chief restructuring officer and investment banker that the company agreed to hire as part of a prior agreement with the banks.

A hearing on the banks request to appoint a trustee to oversee the theater company has been scheduled for Wednesday, March 4.

An attorney representing the banks could not be reached for comment.

Goodrich, in an interview with MLive, acknowledged the bankruptcy case is contentious. But he said hes hopeful a resolution can be reached within three to four months, and that hes confident he can find a buyer for any of his properties that are put on the market.

He said the plan is to sell off most, but not all, of his companys properties. He said he wasnt sure how many he would like to keep. Half of Goodrichs theaters are owned by his company, while the other half are leased, he said.

Those are questions I need some time to think through, Goodrich said, referring to questions about how many theaters he would like to sell and for how much. Were working at the direction of the bankruptcy court. It has a lot to do with what the sale price is and what the ultimate obligations are to be paid.

Heres a full list of the companys Michigan theaters:

W. Columbia 7, in Battle Creek

Three Rivers 6

Quality 16, in Ann Arbor

Quality 10 GDX, in Saginaw

Oxford 7

Krafft 8, in Port Huron

Kalamazoo 10

Jackson 10

Holland 7

Hastings 4

Grand Haven 9

Cadillac 4

Bay City 10 GDX

Ada-Lowell 5

Read more:

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West Michigans poorest school districts, based on 2018 Census data
The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group.

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Erick A. Parsons

The US Navy has given ships operating in the Pacific new port-call guidance amid concerns over the coronavirus, US Pacific Fleet told Insider on Thursday.

Ships have been instructed to remain at sea for at least 14 days, the maximum incubation period for the novel coronavirus, between port calls and monitor their sailors.

A US Navy spokesperson told CNN's Ryan Browne, who first reported the news on Twitter, that "there are no indications that any US Navy personnel have contracted" the coronavirus.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The US Navy has given ships operating in the Pacific new port-call guidance amid concerns over the coronavirus.

All US Navy vessels operating in the 7th Fleet, which oversees operations in the Asia-Pacific region, have been instructed to remain at sea for at least 14 days after stopping in any country in the Pacific before pulling into port elsewhere, US Pacific Fleet told Insider Thursday.

The move is being taken out of "an abundance of caution," a Pacific Fleet spokesman said.

The novel coronavirus, a severe respiratory illness that originated in Wuhan, China, late last year, has an incubation period of up to 14 days, during which time the infected may be asymptomatic.

Ships should monitor sailors between port calls, Pacific Fleet said.

A US Navy spokesperson told CNN's Ryan Browne, who first reported the news on Twitter, that while "there are no indications that any US Navy personnel have contracted Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)" at this time, Pacific Fleet "is implementing additional mitigations to prevent Sailors from contracting COVID-19."

The US military has already taken several drastic measures in response to the coronavirus, which has infected over 80,000 people in at least 40 countries and killed nearly 2,800 people, with the vast majority of cases and deaths in China. The majority of these measures have been taken in South Korea, home to more than 28,000 US troops and the first US service member to test positive for the virus.

The US Navy's 7th Fleet, which is headquartered in Japan, where about 50,000 US troops are stationed, has started screening everyone accessing the fleet's warships and aircraft, Stars and Stripes reported on Monday.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The Dadri railway station in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida went into a tizzy on Friday (February 28) after receiving a bomb hoax call.

After getting the tip-off about bombs in the New Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express, CP of Dadri with SHO and a huge cache of police officers reached the spot. A dog squad was pressed into service. The teams of GRP, UP police, bomb disposal squad carried out intensive checking before confirming that the information was a hoax.

Earlier, a Twitter user had alleged that there were five bombs in the New Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express. The tweet said: "I want to inform that there are 5 bombs in a train rajdhani(12424) going from new delhi to kanpur central. Please take some action on this quickly. @RailMinIndia @PiyushGoyal @DelhiPolice @IRCTCofficial," tweeted Sanjeev Singh Gurjar, a passenger.

Taking immediate action on the above information, the Superintendent of Government Railway Police, Agra, wrote from its official handle, "Regarding the above information, all the senior officers have been made aware that the train is being stopped at the post. GRP Dadri and is being checked with the joint efforts of RPF and GRP," it said in a tweet.

Gurjar later tweeted an apology claiming that he was stressed because his brother's train was delayed by over four hours. "Ye tweet mere dwara maansik tanav ki sthiti me kiya gaya tha, aaj mere bhai ki train 4 hr late ho gyi thi, jisse mujhe boht gussa tha, me iske liye bharat sarkar se maafi chahta hu," he wrote.

The train was made to halt for one hour at the station. It begins its journey at 4.10 pm from New Delhi and reaches Dibrugarh at 7.00 am the next day.
The study explores the loss of RNA editing, a genetic mechanism important in creating connections between nerve cells in the brain.

If we can overcome the loss of a process in the brain called "RNA editing", we may be able to slow the progress of Alzheimer's disease and other synaptic disorders, a new study has shown.

RNA editing is a genetic mechanism that modifies proteins essential in the connection between nerve cells in the brain, called synapses. RNA editing is deregulated in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease, but whether this can cause disease is unknown.

In this study, the scientific team at the University of Technology Sydney Centre for Neuroscience & Regenerative Medicine (CNRM) replicated this deregulated process in the brains of mice, and discovered it led to the loss of synapses, as occurs in Alzheimer's.

The findings, published in the journal Molecular Brain, could have implications for a new way forward for ultimately treating Alzheimer's disease, says Professor Bryce Vissel, senior author of the study.

"Understanding mechanisms leading to synapses loss is essential to understand how patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease start losing their memory capacities and how to prevent this from happening," Professor Vissel says.

"Many scientists consider that Alzheimer's results from the build-up of a substance called amyloid in the brain. Consequently, they've focused their studies on removing amyloid. However, the most important event is actually the loss of connections between nerve cells called synapses which are known to be essential for memory formation.

"Our study is extremely important because we now have shown a mechanism that can lead to loss of synapses as occurs in Alzheimer's disease."

Dr Gary Morris, a scientist who contributed to the study, says that because "synapses are important for learning, the loss of these synapses leads to memory loss".

"Our study suggests that if we can overcome the loss of RNA editing in the brain, we may potentially be able to slow the disease."

Professor Vissel says the team's next step is to see if they can rescue synapses and memory deficits in Alzheimer's disease by overcoming the loss of RNA editing in the Alzheimer's brain.

"We have good reason to think that this could ultimately be a highly beneficial approach for solving Alzheimer's and potentially other neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's."

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Since the start of the offensive in December, indiscriminate bombing and shelling have wreaked appalling havoc. The United Nations reports: More people have been displaced into a smaller area within a shorter period of time than ever before, with nowhere else to flee. The risk to civilians from the violence is extreme, as international laws and norms are disregarded, at the same time as cold weather and economic stresses affect them. Many people have fled with nothing, unable to bring even basic supplies with them . . . others fled with everything they had, attempting to bring as much as possible because they do not expect to be able to return to their homes. Humanitarian workers and other service providers are themselves being displaced, and facilities and supplies worth millions of dollars have been lost as infrastructure is destroyed.
Myanmar president Win Myint



arrived here on Friday on a two-day tour of Bodh Gaya, the holy town where Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment more than two millennia ago.

Accompanied by wife Cho Cho and a 28-member delegation of top Myanmarese officials, Myint landed at the international airport in Gaya where he was received by Bihar minister Ashok Choudhary and officials of the civil and police administration.

On way to the hotel in Bodh Gaya where Myint and the delegates will be staying, they were accorded a warm welcome by schoolchildren who stood on both sides of road waving the Indian tricolor and the national flag of Myanmar.

The Myanmarese first couple later offered prayers at the Maha Bodhi temple, a UNESCO world heritage site, which also has within its premises the "Bodhi tree" under which Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mask-clad commuters make their way to work during morning rush hour at the Shinagawa train station in Tokyo on Feb. 28, 2020. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

New Coronavirus Case of Unknown Origin in California: Coronavirus Updates From Feb.28

Countries around the world are taking measures to try to stem the spread of the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19, as the death toll continues to rise.

Below are updates from Feb. 28. Click here for Feb. 29 updates.

New Coronavirus Case of Unknown Origin in California

The 63rd case of the new coronavirus in the United States was confirmed on Friday in Californias Santa Clara County by the countys public health department.

It marks the third case in the county, and also Californias 10th case. It is also the second case of unknown origin in both California as well as the United States.

The case involves an older adult woman with chronic health conditions who did not have any recent travel history or known contact with a traveler or infected person, according to a press release obtained by KRON4. She was hospitalized for a respiratory illness but later her doctor requested testing for the novel coronavirus. She is now under isolation at home.

Santa Clara County Public Health Department said that [n]ow is the time to prepare for the possibility of widespread community transmission.

This new case indicates that there is evidence of community transmission but the extent is still not clear, said Dr. Sara Cody, Health Officer for Santa Clara County and Director of the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department, per the release. I understand this may be concerning to hear, but this is what we have been preparing for. Now we need to start taking additional actions to slow down the spread of the disease.

Amazon Tells Employees to Stop Non-essential Travel

Amazon has told its employees that they should defer non-essential travel both inside the United States and internationally, in precautionary efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the company.

Dave Clark, Amazons senior vice president of worldwide operations, notified employees of the change on Thursday, which Amazon confirmed to Reuters.

The decision affects one of the largest U.S. workforcesas of Dec. 31, the company employed 798,000 full and part-time workers globally.

Previously, Amazon had said it was putting travel restrictions to China in place. With this broader halt of employee work trips, it was not immediately clear how the company distinguished essential from non-essential travel.

Facebook also said it would cancel its annual developer conference in May because of the virus.

Amazing Race Suspends Filming

The globe-trotting reality series The Amazing Race is taking a breather as a precaution due to the virus outbreak affecting several countries.

CBS said in a statement Friday that it had temporarily suspended production and was sending contestants and crew members home as a precautionary measure. Filming on the shows 33rd season was in its early stages.

At this time, no racers or anyone on the production team traveling with them have contracted the virus, or shown symptoms, and we are not aware of anyone being exposed to it, a network spokesperson said in a statement.

Out of an abundance of caution, everyone involved in the show will continue to be monitored when they return home.

US to Invoke Powers to Boost Output of Protective Gear

The United States will invoke special powers to boost production of masks, gloves, gowns, and other items to combat the coronavirus, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Friday.

With more countries reporting new infections, companies starting to curtail employees travel and global stock markets on the precipice of a free fall, U.S. health officials scrambled to deal with the prospect of a widening domestic outbreak.

We will use the Defense Production Act as necessary to enable that our contracts go to the front of the line, Azar said in a briefing at the White House.

That is an authority that we have, and we will use it to acquire anything we need to acquire.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar testifies before the House Appropriations Committee in Washington on Feb. 26, 2020. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Chinese Regime Silences Critics Who Expose Truth About Virus Outbreak

A former TV-anchor-turned-citizen-journalist was arrested in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on Feb. 26, the latest target in the Chinese regimes crackdown on free speech amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Li Zehua, 25, was formerly with Chinas state broadcaster CCTV. He caught a train to Wuhan about two weeks ago, saying that he has to use his own eyes and ears to get a full picture of the outbreak.

Over the following days, he visited places such as the Baibuting community, where a banquet attended by more than 40,000 families led to community-wide infections; a funeral home; and a local train station where he talked to a stranded migrant worker.

On Feb. 26 night, hours after he visited the area around a state-owned virology lab, several police officers showed up at his hotel.

Li started live-streaming after police knocked on his door. In the video, he appeared frustrated, saying he did nothing wrong. He also said it was a very surreal moment.

Before, when I turned on the camera to speak, it was always for other people. Today, Im finally speaking for myself, he said. Although this might be my final speech.

Eventually, he let the police in.

Read more here.

People wearing face masks walk next to barriers set up at a residential area in Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 28, 2020. (Stringer/Reuters)

WHO Increases Coronavirus Risk Assessment to Very High

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday raised its coronavirus threat level to very high, citing the continued increase in the number of cases around the world.

The spike in cases in some countries and the new countries reporting cases are concerning, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva.

Our epidemiologists have been monitoring these developments continuously, and we have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at a global level, he said.

It marks the highest level of alert in the system but officials are still stopping short of declaring the situation with the virus a pandemic. Epidemics are taking place in South Korea, Italy, Iran, and other nations, but most of the cases can still be traced to known contacts or clusters of cases, officials said.

We do not see evidence as yet that the virus is spreading freely in communities, Tedros said.

Read more here.

First Foreign Diamond Princess Passenger Dies

The first British national to die from the new COVID-19 virus was on the Diamond Princess cruise ship before being hospitalized in Japan, where the ship docked earlier this month.

Four British nationals had to stay in Japan after they tested positive for the new virus as the rest of the nationals on the ship, docked in Yokohama, were evacuated from Japan last week after testing negative.

One of those four died, the Japanese Ministry of Health said on Friday. Hes the sixth passenger from the ship, and the first foreigner, to die.

The patient was not named. It wasnt clear how old he was.

Read more here.

Crew members aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship are seen at its wheelhouse at the Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama port on Feb 27, 2020. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images)

Mexico Confirms First Cases

Two patients tested positive for the new COVID-19 virus in Mexico, authorities announced at a press conference in Mexico City on Friday.

One of the patients is in Mexicos capital and the other is in the northern state of Sinaloa, Mexicos assistant health secretary, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, said. Authorities are testing the second patient again but treating the case as confirmed.

Neither patient is seriously ill, officials said.

At least five family contacts of the first patient have been placed in isolation. He said one of the men had contact with someone who had traveled to the northern Italian region where there has been an outbreak.

Italy has reported a rapid increase in confirmed cases this week, especially in the northern Lombardy region.

Some 24 cases have been exported from Italy to 14 countries, World Health Organization director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva on Friday. Nearly 100 cases have been exported from Iran to 11 countries.

At the press conference in Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador appeared to downplay the seriousness of the COVID-19 virus, saying it isnt even equivalent to flu.

Symptoms of the new virus are similar to influenza, but international health experts noted in a report published Feb. 28 that the new virus is highly contagious and can spread quickly.

It is not SARS and it is not influenza, the experts added in the joint World Health Organization-Chinese report. The new virus is unique among human coronaviruses in its combination of high transmissibility, substantial fatal outcomes in some high-risk groups, and ability to cause huge societal and economic disruption, they emphasized.

The new cases in Mexico were the first confirmed between the United States and Brazil, which confirmed its first case earlier this week.

US Identifies First Drug Shortage Over Outbreak

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said its been alerted to the first manufacturing shortage of a drug due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak that originated in China.

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn told reporters that his agency is closely monitoring the medical supply chain, saying that the COVID-19 outbreakwhich has started to affect other countries in Asia and Europewill likely have an impact.

A manufacturer has alerted us to a shortage of a human drug that was recently added to the drug shortages list, Hahn said in a statement Thursday night. The manufacturer just notified us that this shortage is related to a site affected by coronavirus. The shortage is due to an issue with manufacturing of an active pharmaceutical ingredient used in the drug.

The FDA did not say what drug is currently experiencing a shortage.

People walk inside the Yaba Mainland hospital compound where the first Nigerian victims of the COVID-19 virus are being treated in Lagos Nigeria Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Nigerias health authorities have reported the countrys first case of a new coronavirus in Lagos, the first confirmed appearance of the disease in sub-Saharan Africa. (Photo/ Sunday Alamba)

Nigeria Confirms First Case in Sub-Saharan Africa

The new coronavirus spread to Nigeria on Friday, as officials confirmed the first patient with COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa.

International officials have repeatedly warned that the virus could wreak havoc on weaker health systems and have focused efforts on trying to bolster such systems, particularly in African countries.

The first patient is an Italian who traveled to Lagos from Milan, the Nigerian Ministry of Health said. The virus has exploded in northern Italy this week, one of three countries outside China where the number of cases continues to increase rapidly.

The patient works in Nigeria, the ministry said. The man is clinically stable, has no serious symptoms, and is being cared for at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.

Read more here.

Few Children Infected With Coronavirus: WHO-China Report

Few children have been infected with the new coronavirus in China, according to a new report from the World Health Organization and Chinese authorities.

The international health group conducted a joint mission with China and released a report on Feb. 28 about what researchers found.

Findings included signs that the new virus, which causes a disease called COVID-19, passes much more frequently to adults than to children aged 18 years old or younger.

Data from Chinese authorities indicate that no children tested positive for the virus in November or December 2019 or the first two weeks of January, researchers wrote in the report (pdf). Some of the children who were tested for the new disease tested positive for the flu.

Data nationwide suggest there is a relatively low attack rate in youth, accounting for just 2.4 percent of all reported cases. Additionally, a very small proportion of those under 19 years old developed severe (2.5 percent) or critical (0.2 percent) disease.

Read more here.

A woman wearing a protective face mask, following an outbreak of the coronavirus, walks past banners of the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games outside the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building in Tokyo, Japan on Feb. 28, 2020. (Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Tokyo Has No Plan B for 2020 Olympics

Tokyo has no Plan B for this years Summer Olympics despite alarm over the spread of the coronavirus in Japan and elsewhere with under five months before the event, a senior official said on Friday.

There will not be one bit of change in holding the Games as planned, Katsura Enyo, deputy director general of the Tokyo 2020 Preparation Bureau at the city government.

Having prepared for years and invested some $12 billion, Japan is eager to quell fears the Games might be called off, postponed or moved to a different location due to the virus.

The disease is quickly spreading to new countries this week, hitting sub-Saharan Africa and South America for the first time.

Some Japanese media have reported organizers were considering postponing the Games for six months to a year, but Enyo denied that. No such debate is going on, she said, adding that preparations were on track.

Japan is, however, considering scaling back the Olympic torch relay due to the coronavirus threat.

And despite its optimism over the Olympics, Japan has canceled numerous sporting events.

The quadrennial sporting showpiece was last called off due to World War Two but doubts about Tokyo have grown since Organizing Committee chief executive Toshiro Muto said he was seriously concerned the virus would pour cold water on their momentum.

However, a London mayoral candidates suggestion that the British capitalwhich hosted the 2012 Summer Olympicscould take them again if needed drew sharp responses from Japan.

And in its latest statement on the issue, the IOC said preparations for Tokyo 2020 continue as planned and it had full confidence in authorities to take all necessary measures.

Passengers arriving on flights wear protective masks at the international airport in Auckland, New Zealand in a Jan. 29, 2020, file photograph. (Dave Rowland/Getty Images)

New Zealand, Belarus Confirm First Cases

New Zealand has confirmed its first known case of COVID-19.

According to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the patient is a New Zealand national who recently returned home on Emirates flight EK450 from Iran via Indonesias Bali on Wednesday night. Feb. 26.

The Ministry of Health said the individual in their 60s is in quarantine at an Auckland hospital and their condition is improving.

While the risk of a community outbreak remains low in New Zealand, the ministry said that anyone sharing the EK450 flight concerned about the virus can call the Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453.

Public health officials have begun tracing the patients other close contacts to ensure appropriate protection measures are in place, including on the flight involved which originated in Tehran and came via Bali, it added.

Travelers from China and Iran who are not New Zealanders have been barred from entering the Pacific nation, while nationals are required to self-isolate for at least 14 days.

Belarus, meanwhile, also registered the first case of coronavirus infection in the country, Russian news agency TASS reported on Friday, citing the Belarussian Ministry of Healthcare.

We would like to inform you that February 27 tests conducted at the Republican Scientific and Practical Center of epidemiology and microbiology showed the presence of coronavirus 2019-nCoV in one of the students from Iran, TASS quoted the ministry as saying.

A visitor interacts with a staff member at a gate of a hospital for infectious diseases, after Belarus registered the first case of coronavirus infection in the country, in Minsk, Belarus on Feb. 28, 2020. (Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

US Symphony Cancels Japan Concerts

The National Symphony Orchestra canceled the five remaining performances in Japan of its Asian tour because of a new virus epidemic.

The orchestra originally was to play eight concerts in its first international tour with music director Gianandrea Noseda. On Feb. 4, the NSO called off shows in Beijing on March 13 and 14 and one in Shanghai on March 17.

In an announcement Thursday night, the orchestra scrapped performances from March 6-11 in Fukui, Sakai, Hiroshima and Tokyo. It cited a recommendation from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that major cultural events be canceled for the next two weeks.

After multiple consultations with officials at U.S. government agencies and recommendations from the Japanese government, it became clear that these evolving circumstances are beyond our control, NSO executive director Gary Ginstling said in a statement.

The NSO is based at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and hopes fill the void in its schedule with orchestra and chamber music in the Washington area.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra canceled an Asian tour from Feb. 6-16 that had included performances in Seoul, South Korea; Taipei, Taiwan; Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The COVID-19 illness caused by a new type of coronavirus has sickened tens of thousands of people, most of them in China. Japan and South Korea also have been hard hit among Asian countries.

Disneys Parks in Tokyo to Close Until March 16

Tokyos Disneyland and DisneySea have announced they will be closing until at least March 16 to aid the Abe governments efforts to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea have decided to proceed with an extraordinary closure from Saturday February 29, 2020, through Sunday March 15, the parks operator, Oriental Land Co., said in a statement, according to the Japan Times.

Currently, we plan to reopen on March 16. But well decide when to open by looking at the situation and developments. Well also consult (official) agencies concerned.

Disney characters Mickey Mouse (2nd L) and Minnie Mouse (2nd R) dressed in Tanabata or the Star Festival costumes wave from rickshaws as they greet guests along the parade route at Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu, suburban Tokyo on June 30, 2015. (KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images)

Vietnam to Suspend Visa-Free Travel for South Koreans

The Vietnamese government plans to suspend visa-free travel for South Koreans starting on Saturday amid concerns about the coronavirus spreading, Yonhap News Agency said on Friday.

The South Korean embassy in Vietnam said that it received a notice about the suspension from the Vietnamese government, the report said.

People wait in line to buy face masks from a store at the Dongseongro shopping district in Daegu, South Korea, on Feb. 27, 2020. (Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images)

Lithuania Confirms First Case

Lithuania reported its first coronavirus infection on Friday, in a woman who returned this week from a visit to Italys northern city of Verona, the government said, as the disease spreads rapidly worldwide.

Hopes that the virus would be contained to China vanished, with countries beginning to stockpile medical equipment and investors taking flight in expectation of a global recession.

In a statement, the Lithuanian government said the woman had been isolated in hospital in the northern town of Siauliai following her return on Monday.

She has been under observation since, and is showing only slight symptoms, with no elevated temperature at the moment, it added.

New Virus Prompts Mormons to Cancel Key Leadership Event

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Thursday that it has postponed a key April meeting of its top global leaders because of the spread of the coronavirus, and said it is discouraging its many members who live outside the U.S. from coming to Utah for much larger church event that same week.

The leadership meeting brings together about 300 leaders in the faith from the U.S. and other countries who gather behind closed doors to discuss church policies, sometimes leading to major public announcements about decisions made in the sessions. The meeting has been postponed until October.

Worship services have been halted or suspended in Hong Kong, Mongolia, Korea and Japan, the church said Thursday.

Church officials say they are closely monitoring how to best to keep their 65,000 missionaries safe, especially in Asian countries hit hard by the virus.

Chinas Internal Reports Focus on Controlling Public Opinion

Chinese officials in Wuhan and other cities within Hubei Province, where the novel coronavirus outbreak is most severe, reported to their higher-ups in the provincial government that people are not able to secure treatment, running out of supplies amid restrictive lockdown measures, and feeling fearful and anxious about the spreading disease.

Despite such observations, authorities prioritized how to control the society and manipulate public opinion to view Chinas efforts to contain the virus positively, according to internal government reports that The Epoch Times obtained.

Authorities in the city of Shiyan, for example, listed their working targets as: monitor closely petitioners and people whose benefits have been severely damagedin other words, people most likely to dissent against the authorities; strictly prevent key people and groups from assembling and making trouble; and punish heavily the people who spread improper speech or rumors related to the epidemic.

Read more here.

Beijing Doctor Reveals True Situation in China

Despite efforts by top communist officials to protect Beijing from the Coronavirus outbreak at all costs, COVID-19 is rapidly spreading throughout the city, and a number of hospitals located in the Xicheng District are treating people who have become infected through person-to-person transmission.

The Xicheng District is home to the Zhongnanhai compound that houses the offices of top Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials.

The director of internal medicine at a hospital in Beijing, using the alias Hou Yong, said that its the corruption and incompetence of the CCP that has lead to the outbreak of the disease, and medical staff sent to Wuhan by the CCP are being used as cannon fodder.

He also revealed that recent confirmed cases in a local hospital are very serious.

Read more here.

US Global AIDS Coordinator & US Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy Deborah Birx speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Washington, on Nov. 30, 2017. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

White House Names Coronavirus Response Coordinator

Vice President Mike Pence announced on Thursday that a global health official and leading expert in HIV/AIDs, Deborah Birx, has been appointed to serve as the White Houses coordinator to combat the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus.

Dr. Birx serves as the U.S. governments leader for combatting HIV/AIDS globally and will continue to oversee this critical work through her able Deputy Angeli Achrekar, while bringing her interagency expertise and coordination that brought ground-breaking progress to the global HIV/AIDS pandemic to the coronavirus response in the White House, Pence said in a statement on Thursday.

Birx is currently the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacyroles she has held since 2014.

Read more here.

Swiss Coronavirus Cases Rise to 9

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Switzerland rose to nine on Thursday, as the canton of Basel-City put a number of children into a two-week quarantine after one of their caregivers tested positive for the virus.

A young woman who returned to work at a daycare facility after traveling to Milan has tested positive for the new coronavirus, authorities in Basel-City said late on Thursday.

The young woman who resides in the canton of Basel-City is doing well given the circumstances, the regions health department said in a statement. As a carer for children and young children working at a daycare in Riehen, she came into contact with many children. The health department is now making extensive checks in the patients professional and personal environment accordingly.

Read more here.

MSC Meraviglia cruise ship (L) is seen in Cozumel, Mexico, on Feb. 27, 2020. (Jose Castillo/AFP via Getty Images)

Dominican Republic Rejects Cruise Ship

The Dominican Republic rejected a cruise ship on Thursday over fears of the new coronavirus while Mexico allowed another that had been turned away at multiple ports to dock.

The latter ship, the MSC Meraviglia, had more than 6,000 people on board when it docked in Cozumel, an island in Mexico, after being rejected by Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.

Alejandra Aguirre, the secretary of health in the state of Quintana Roo, said none of the passengers would be allowed to disembark until they were cleared by health officials. She said officials received information about a patient on board who was diagnosed with the flu and that it is not a case of coronavirus.

Read more here.

Mimi Nguyen-Ly, Melanie Sun, Zachary Stieber, Angela Bright, Nicole Hao, Jack Phillips, the Associated Press, and Reuters contributed to this report.

For updates from Feb. 27, click here.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)  An Italian man suffering from frostbite and four other tourists were rescued in the Alaska wilderness after visiting an abandoned bus that's become a lure for adventurers since it was featured in the Into the Wild book and movie.

Alaska State Troopers say the five people were rescued Saturday from a camp they set up after visiting the dilapidated bus on the Stampede Trail near the interior town of Healy.





. . .
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was set to launch a slate of new policy directives on Friday aimed at reducing racial disparities in the criminal justice system and mass incarceration, including ending the charging of cases where contraband was obtained through pretextual traffic stops.

Boudin is also making good on his campaign promises to stop charging gang enhancements and ending the use of Californias three strikes law  the latest of several reforms to the office since he was sworn in on Jan. 8.

Racial bias in the criminal justice system is something we need to address if were going to restore trust and confidence in the system, especially with communities of color that are so disproportionally affected by crime, said Boudin, a former public defender who ran on a progressive platform.

Pretextual stops are when a police officer pulls a driver over for a minor traffic infringement with the aim to search them, often for drugs.

Such stops have long been criticized by criminal justice reform advocates, who say they lead to disproportionate arrests for African Americans and poor people  much like New Yorks stop-and-frisk program. The U.S. Supreme Court found pretextual stops constitutional in 1996.

This is a national issue, Boudin said. All the Democratic presidential candidates are talking about stop-and-frisk, and just as in stop-and-frisk, African Americans are more likely to experience these pretextual stops.

Boudin, though, said the policy around pretextual stops is very, very narrow. It only applies to cases where police find contraband during an alleged consensual search. It does not apply when contraband is in plain view or if an officer makes a stop and discovers something more serious like a murder weapon or kidnap victim.

The U.S. Department of Justice found that African American drivers were disproportionately stopped and searched compared with their representation in the driving population. And a 2020 report by the California Department of Justice found that black drivers in San Francisco are stopped at five times their representation in the citys population  a disparity thats greater than in Los Angeles or San Diego.

The San Francisco Police Department said it is working to address racial disparities in traffic stops under its collaborative reform initiative that began in 2016 following a top-to-bottom review by the Justice Department.

Boudin said he will also stop charging gang enhancements against defendants, which can add years to felony sentences, and end three-strikes penalties.

Gang enhancements have drawn opposition in California following studies showing they are disproportionately applied to people of color in poor neighborhoods. The enhancements, though, are seen by many law enforcement groups as an important tool to hold gang members accountable.

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.

Californias three-strikes law was approved by voters in 1994, allowing prosecutors to seek 25-years-to-life sentences for defendants on a third offense, or strike.

In 2012, California voters approved changes to the law to limit third strikes to serious or violent felonies.

Boudin said exceptions to the policies may be made under extraordinary circumstances.

In cases where a defendant presents grave risks to public safety or crime victims, the district attorney or a designee may override the policy.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
A man has appeared in court in relation to the murder of teenager Keane Mulready-Woods.

Gerard McKenna, 50, has been charged with impeding the apprehension or prosecution of another person in relation to the 17-year-olds murder.

McKenna, of Rathmullen Park in Drogheda, Co Louth, appeared before Drogheda District Court on Friday.

Wearing a black jacket, dark trousers, sliders and socks, McKenna did not speak during the brief hearing.

Keane Mulready-Woodss remains were found in two different areas of Dublin (Garda handout/PA)

McKenna was arrested last week in relation to the investigation into the murder.

Sergeant Garda Peter Cooney told the court the defendant was re-arrested and charged on Thursday evening.

Defence solicitor David Thompson said there was no application for bail.

The teenager, from Drogheda, was murdered and dismembered, with parts of his body dumped in two different areas of Dublin in January.

The teenagers limbs were found in a bag in Coolock, while other body parts were found in a burned-out car in Drumcondra.

District Judge Eirinn McKiernan remanded McKenna in to custody to appear before Cloverhill District Court on Thursday March 5.

Another man who was also arrested last week was released earlier this week without charge.

Gardai said a file on that man would be prepared and forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
After Bernie Sanders won the Nevada Democratic caucuses, liberal icon and MSNBC stalwart Chris Matthews compared Sanders's victory to Nazi Germanys invasion of France. Immediately after his comments, the leftist mob came after him, demanding that he be fired. This wasnt some neo-liberal Never-Trumpster who had been masquerading as a Republican for the last two decades. This wasnt some celebrity air-head running his mouth in the throes of emotion. This wasnt some lonely blogger writing uneducated opinions from his moms basement. This was Chris Matthews, who wrote speeches for Jimmy Carter, spent six years as Tip ONeils chief of staff, was the DC bureau chief for the San Francisco Examiner, wrote books about the Kennedys, had been the host of Hardball for over twenty years, and had the thrill of Obamas presidency run down his leg.

But you make one clumsy historical analogy which implies Americas leading Socialist might be as bad for America as the Nazi army was for France and suddenly youre out of favor with your own constituency and youre required to grovel to keep your job.

The left has been demanding conservatives grovel and be fired at least since Richard Nixon dared to call Alger Hiss a communist. But that wasnt merely a reaction, that was a strategy. The left wanted power and shutting up conservatives was their strategy for grabbing it. But why would leftists try to silence other leftists? Back in the day, if a leftist strayed off the reservation, his comrades would ignore the sin so the sinner could keep spewing his leftist nonsense the other 99% of the time. Those days seem to be gone.

What happened?

I think were witnessing a faulty application of a faulty philosophical idea that has been worming its way into the American mind for longer than anyone reading this has been alive. Please indulge me while I explain.

For centuries, philosophers have argued that information we receive directly from the world is a better and more reliable source of knowledge than information we receive indirectly from the testimony of others. This reliable kind of direct knowledge is gathered from personal observations, personal experience, and our own reasoning. Direct knowledge isnt infallible, of course. If I told you I saw Bigfoot on a moonless night running through a thick wood, you might question the accuracy of my observation. My personal experiences might be too narrow to support my general conclusions. My reasoning might be based on bad premises.

Despite the potential weaknesses of direct knowledge, the information we get from the testimony of others, known as indirect knowledge, is always worse. Assuming this testimony comes from someone with direct knowledge, that direct knowledge carries the same weaknesses that our own direct knowledge bears. Plus, as the testimony is passed from person to person, the information it conveys can be distorted by the process of transmission. On top of that, theres always the chance the person sharing their knowledge is actually a liar and his testimony is intended to deceive.

Philosophers understood these weaknesses, so they built in systems and principles to measure the reliability of knowledge gained from observation, experience, and reasoning, which I wont get into here. They also came up with a safeguard for knowledge based on testimony. This safeguard is known as reasonableness and requires the person receiving the testimony to evaluate the character of the person whos testifying. The testimony from a person of good character with a track record for accuracy and reliability is a far safer source of indirect knowledge than an habitual liar who regularly gets his facts wrong.

These philosophical safeguards were hammered out at a time when philosophers expected most of the knowledge people relied on to be direct; they expected people to get their hands dirty in the real world where they could observe, experiment, and reason things out for themselves. It was also a time when philosophers expected indirect knowledge to come from people who were known, whose character could be observed, whose track record could be evaluated. These included family, friends, co-workers, teachers, pastors, reporters, and magistrates who lived together in the same local area. Indirect knowledge could be relied on because the people providing it could be trusted.

As centuries have passed, these expectations have crumbled. Our connection with the world is mediated more and more through various screens--TVs, monitors, tablets, and phones--making the vast majority of our knowledge indirect. Meanwhile, weve never met our sources of indirect knowledge (authors, online teachers, TV reporters, bloggers, vloggers, and talk show hosts) and have no reliable way to evaluate their character. At the moment when its most important for us to evaluate the sources of our indirect knowledge, we have the least access to those sources. If we dont have access to the source of the information, the best we can do is gauge the accuracy and reliability of their reports. The reporter might be a womanizing drunk, but when he sits down to write, hes always careful with his sources and accurate with his facts.

Were almost there; just two more pieces to snap into the puzzle. Somewhere along this winding road, Rationalism became the king of the philosophical hill. Instead of evaluating the reliability of knowledge by examining its source, Rationalism evaluated knowledge by examining its content. If I told a rationalist I had witnessed a miracle -- that I had seen a man walk on water or raise the dead -- he wouldnt waste his time evaluating my honesty, accuracy, or even sanity. Rationalism tells him that there are no such things as miracles, so he can reject my testimony without giving it a second thought.

Last piece: Rationalism is hard. It has principles and rules and forces you to think carefully about things. Post-modern America has skillfully avoided this hard work by valuing feelings over ideas. Where rationalists rejected testimony because it violated certain principles of thought and knowledge, post-moderns reject testimony because it makes them feel bad.

Now we can lay out the philosophical foundations of the mob mentality we see today. First, theyre encouraged to accept or reject the testimony of others by evaluating the content of the report, never the character of the reporter (thats the faulty philosophical idea). Second, theyre encouraged to accept content as true only when it conforms to their own personal preferences and feelings, not because its accurate or consistent with stated principles (thats the faulty application).

Heres an example showing how this works. Congressman Adam Schiff (D-La La Land) told the country for about two years that he had seen evidence that President Donald Trump had colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 presidential election from Hillary Clinton. Then the Mueller Report came out and said there was no evidence of collusion. When Congressman Schiff later accused the president of withholding aid to Ukraine unless they helped him steal the 2020 election from Joe Biden, and did so by fictionalizing the transcript of the telephone call where this quid pro quo was floated, reasonableness would tell us not to believe a word he said. Sure, he could be telling the truth this time, but he had already forfeited his reliability, so his testimony should be rejected. Why, then, did so many people believe the Ukraine story? Because they agreed with the content of his accusations and those accusations made them feel good.

And that brings us back around to Chris Matthews. When he compared Bernie Sanders to a Nazi invasion, the people who reacted didnt evaluate the content of Matthewss commentary. If they had, they wouldve heard Matthews compare the inevitability of Sanderss nomination after just three primaries to the inevitability of Frances downfall after just a couple of days of fighting. They also didnt consider Matthewss long and consistent support for leftism. If they had, they would have heard him say a lot of complimentary things about Sanders and they might have noticed he never said the word 'Nazi.' Instead, they evaluated how this commentary made them feel, realized they didnt feel good about it, and called for Matthews to be fired.

The implications of this are serious. If youre a liberal, you should live in constant fear because speaking one wrong (or even misunderstood) word will force you to grovel before the mob. You wont be able to rest on your track record, either; youve made the people feel bad and that has consequences. If youre a conservative, realize that you cant reason with people anymore. You have to win their hearts without going through their minds. Understand youre not just in a political battle, youre in a spiritual battle and arm yourself accordingly.

Steve Matteucci has degrees in Economics, Law, Taxation, and Theology. His book, How to Be a Trustee: Practical Thinking on Settling a Living Trust, is available on Amazon.

Image credit: MSNBC via shareable YouTube screen shot
Press Release

28 February 2020

New York, NY - Highgate, a leading real estate investment and hospitality management company, announced today that it has acquired Heavlin Management Company, LLC ("HMC"), a hotel management company with over 30 years of operating experience headquartered in Chandler, Arizona. Heavlin Management Company oversees nine branded properties throughout Arizona and two independent properties in Alaska. Under the terms of the purchase, Highgate will assume management of all properties in HMC's portfolio.

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The properties in the acquired portfolio include:

Crowne Plaza Phoenix Airport, Arizona

Arizona Four Points by Sheraton Phoenix South Mountain, Arizona

Arizona Hampton Inn & Suites Scottsdale Riverwalk, Arizona

Arizona Hilton Phoenix Airport, Arizona

Arizona Hilton Tucson East, Arizona

Arizona Holiday Inn & Suites Hotel Phoenix Airport North, Arizona

Arizona Holiday Inn Phoenix Chandler, Arizona

Arizona Sheraton Phoenix Airport Hotel Tempe, Arizona

Arizona Doubletree Tucson (opening December 2020, Arizona

Arizona Edgewater Inn Restaurant and Marina, Alaska

Alaska Salmon Falls Resort, Alaska

"As the leader in third party management in urban markets, Highgate's growth strategy has been to selectively enter new markets and scale in those markets in a quick and deliberate fashion which allows us to drive efficiencies and attract talent," said Richard Russo, SVP of Acquisitions and Development for Highgate. "The acquisition of HMC allows Highgate to purchase a best-in-class operator, and immediately be among the largest operators in one of the fastest growing markets in the country. Highgate will continue to purchase or partner with like-minded operating companies that allow us to expand into new markets or segments while maintaining the individual cultures that have made these companies so successful."

Founded by CEO Frank Heavlin, Heavlin Management Company has owned and operated the sizable Arizona portfolio of hotels in Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tucson. Additionally, HMC owned and operated two hotels in Alaska. Frank Heavlin will continue to work with Highgate to help grow the platform going forward.

"When deciding who to pass along the company that my wife and I have spent many years building, we sought out Highgate given their outstanding reputation in the industry and their willingness to embrace and expand on the culture that we have built. We couldn't be more excited for the employees and partners of Heavlin as they embark on their future with Highgate," said Frank Heavlin, CEO of HMC.

Currently operating 160 hotels and over 45,000 rooms worldwide, Highgate continues to receive global recognition for its value in the hospitality industry and is keenly focused on further expanding its portfolio of award-winning hotels throughout 2020 and beyond.

"This is truly an exciting time for the hospitality industry and an exciting time for Highgate. Highgate welcomes HMC warmly and looks forward to the future together," said Steve Barick, COO of Highgate.
Bulgaria joined Greece on Friday in boosting border controls after Turkey said it would no longer prevent refugees from going to Europe.

"We sent police forces to our borders (with Turkey) early in the morning. It is worrying that the Turkish border guards have withdrawn," Prime Minister Boyko Borisov told journalists.

"There is a real danger at the moment of the events that happen there: people are fleeing bombardments."

A Turkish senior official told AFP on Friday that Turkey -- home to almost four million Syrian refugees -- would no longer close its border gates to those who want to go to Europe.

Greece also said Friday it was tightening the guarding of its borders to "the maximum level possible".

Greece is already struggling to accommodate thousands of asylum-seekers stranded in the country for the past five years.

EU countries fear another influx of refugees from Syria after more than one million made their way there in 2015 before an EU-Turkey accord was reached on controlling the numbers.

A barbed wire fence stretches along most of Bulgaria's 259-kilometre (160-mile) border with Turkey so that migrants and asylum seekers travelling on foot have largely passed around the country on their way north in recent years.

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MADISON, Wis.  A Milwaukee electrician whom police identified Thursday as the man who fatally shot five co-workers at one of the nations largest breweries enjoyed building guns, according to neighbors.

Authorities said 51-year-old Anthony Ferrill opened fire at the Molson Coors Brewing Co. complex on Wednesday, killing five male employees before turning his gun on himself. His motive remains a mystery; police say the case is still under investigation. They also havent released details about how the shooting unfolded.

Milwaukee police Chief Alfonso Morales said during a news conference that the victims were all from the Milwaukee area. He identified them as Jesus Valle Jr., 33, of Milwaukee; Gennady Levshetz, 61, of Mequon; Trevor Wetselaar, 33, of Milwaukee; Dana Walk, 57, of Delafield; and Dale Hudson, 60, of Waukesha.

Ferrills neighbors said he was a married father of two adult children and one younger daughter. They said he had worked at the brewery for about 15 years as an electrician. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported he served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1987 to 1991 and was honorably discharged.

His brother, Benjamin Ferrill, of The Colony, Texas, said: Its a tragic loss to everybody. Were still trying to digest it.

Erna Roenspies, who lived next door to Ferrill, described him as a nice guy and helpful neighbor who enjoyed building guns with mail-order parts.

Several years ago Ferrill slipped off or fell off a ladder at the brewery and hurt his shoulder, forcing him to miss work. He told Roenspies that spies from the brewery were lurking in the neighborhood, watching his activities to make sure he wasnt faking the injury. Once he pointed out the spies car to her, she said. The spying irritated him, she said.

Still, Roenspies, 82, said Ferrill was a gentleman who checked up on her to make sure she was all right.

I considered him a son, she said. He wasnt violent. He wasnt a drunk. He was a gentleman. I just cant believe it.

Another neighbor, Elizabeth LaPine, described Ferrill as a quiet person who walked his Doberman pinscher every day, and would sometimes throw a ball around for his dog in the street. She said she lived across the street from Ferrill for 11 years.

Its heartbreaking, she said.

The shooting happened at an 82-acre complex that includes a mix of corporate offices and brewing facilities and employs more than 1,000 people.

Gretchen Ehlke and Todd Richmond are Associated Press writers.
The Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia today hosted a meeting with representatives of non-governmental organizations dealing with the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities, reports the news service of the Office of the Human Rights Defender.

Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan presented the role of the Human Rights Defender in the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities and the new powers reserved to the Division for Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the Office of the Human Rights Defender by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Human Rights Defender attached special importance to respect towards the dignity of persons with disabilities, the creation of an environment that will ensure their full participation in all spheres of life and their independence and their active participation in the decision-making process on the path to becoming an inclusive society. He added that the Office of the Human Rights Defender will set up a council for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities in order to solve the problems in the sector.

The representatives of the NGOs welcomed the idea of creating the council, discussed with the Ombudsman the issues in the field of protection of the rights of persons with disabilities and presented their visions for the solutions to those issues.
28 February 2020: Borregaard ASA ("Borregaard", OSE ticker: BRG)

Borregaard intends to repurchase up to 300,000 shares of its outstanding common stock. The shares will be used for employee incentive programmes. Borregaards Board of Directors was given authority by the shareholders at the Ordinary General Meeting held on 11 April 2019 to repurchase up to ten percent of the outstanding shares. According to the proxy, the highest price to be paid is NOK 250.00 per share.

The repurchase of shares will be conducted in a period from 2nd March up to and including 3rd April 2020 at the latest. The maximum daily volume to be purchased during the above-mentioned period is 29,000 shares. This limit corresponds to 25% of the average daily turnover in February 2020. All shares will be purchased in a regulated market.

Borregaard has appointed SEB to carry out the repurchase programme according to the rules and regulations of Oslo Brs (see Circular No. 2/2008).

Contact:

Lotte Kvinlaug, Investor Relations Officer, +47 922 86 909

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5 -12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
SPRINGFIELD  If you visit a prisoner in an Illinois Department of Corrections facility, you might soon have an outlet for complaints or suggestions.

The state Senate on Thursday approved legislation mandating IDOC to designate someone to be a point of contact for families, friends and members of the public who visit facilities under the agencys control.

Glenview Democratic Sen. Laura Fine worked with Chicago-based advocacy group Restore Justice to write the measure.

Ive had the opportunity to hear from so many parents, siblings, children and families of incarcerated individuals on this issue. When they expect a visit and get turned away, it can be heartbreaking, Fine said in a statement. ...These families deserve to see their concerns addressed.

She added the bill pushes the state one step closer to reforming Illinois criminal justice system in a way that will ensure dignity for incarcerated Illinoisans and their loved ones.

Not included in the legislation is a deadline for the DOC to appoint someone for the role, but the mandate would take effect immediately with the governors signature.

Senate Bill 2311 passed unanimously out of the chamber and awaits action in the House.

Child care on the campaign: Politicos could use election cash for babysitting

A bill removing an obstacle for women pursuing elected office in Illinois  child care costs  overwhelmingly passed the Senate on Thursday.

When she was travelling across the state with a commission investigating anti-harassment and equity solutions, Grayslake Democratic Sen. Melinda Bush said she learned women often do not campaign for government positions because of associated costs such as the expense of day care and baby sitters.

Her legislation allows for candidates, officeholders, campaign staffers or volunteers to use political committee money for such costs whether the need for child care predated the campaign or term of office, according to the measure.

Bush added it clarifies existing laws.

Senators approved Senate Bill 33 on a vote of 46-0. Sen. Julie Morrison, a Democrat from Lake Forest, voted present. Its House sponsor is Democratic Rep. Carol Ammons, of Urbana.

Other bills passed by the Senate Thursday and advanced to the House

Senate Bill 2303 adds recreational off-highway vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, watercrafts and aircrafts to the list of designated police vehicles. Carried by Sen. Dale Fowler, a Republican from Harrisburg, it was approved by a vote of 54-0.

Hawthorn Woods Republican Sen. Dan McConchies Senate Bill 2333 requires that if a college student has a personal support worker through the Developmental Disability and Mental Disability Services Act, all public universities and community colleges in Illinois must allow the support worker to attend classes at no charge. It passed the chamber by a vote of 53-0. Republican Rep. Margo McDermed, of Mokena, is the measures sponsor in that chamber.

Veterans and active military members awarded the Superior Service Medal would be allowed to have a Defense Superior Service license plate under Cahokia Democratic Sen. Christopher Belts Senate Bill 2497. The Senate approved the legislation by a vote of 53-0. Democratic Rep. LaToya Greenwood, of East St. Louis, is the House sponsor.

Senate Bill 2559 expands Illinois adoption waiver  which applies to a requirement that a potential adopter live in the state for at least six months  to encompass adoptions facilitated through all state-licensed agencies. It passed the chamber by a vote of 50-0, and was Chicago Democratic Sen. Sara Feigenholtzs first successful piece of legislation in the chamber. She was appointed in January to replace former Senate President John Cullerton. Democratic Rep. Ann Williams, of Chicago, is the House sponsor.

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The Congress on Friday slammed the BJP for attacking Sonia Gandhi over the party's 'Rajdharma' reminder, saying its leaders like Indira Gandhi and Manmohan Singh believed in equality and harmony, while the Modi government has a "divisive mindset".

The party's attack at the BJP came after Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hit out at Sonia Gandhi, saying "don't preach us Rajdharma".

The BJP's remarks came a day after the Congress leaders, led by Sonia Gandhi, met President Ram Nath Kovind and submitted a memorandum demanding resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah for "abdication of duty" during the communal violence in northeast Delhi. The party also reminded the Centre for its 'Rajdharma'.

"Indira ji, Rajiv ji, Manmohan Singh ji's Rajdharma, was that Rajdharma, in which equality, harmony was given priority. What you are doing, there is prejudice in that; there is a divisive mindset," the Congress posted on its official Twitter handle.

Congress Spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi asserted that the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) are linked with the additional questions being added to the NPR.

Singhvi's assertion at a press conference came after BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad alleged that the communal violence in northeast Delhi was an outcome of "instigation" by Opposition leaders.

Prasad said the NPR was started by the Congress-led regime. "If Congress does something, it is good. But if we do the same thing, they provoke the people. What type of raj dharma is this?" he asked.

Hitting back at Prasad, Singhvi said, "Arrest all of us because we are speaking peacefully in a democratic country against what we believe is a wrong move. I am saying it right now and daring anyone to arrest me, that the NRC is wrong."



"If you thing that is sedition. If you think that is anti-national. If you think that is provocation and incitement. I think it is a matter of shame if we have to live in a country where this free speech without violence, peaceful protest without violence is so treated," he said.

Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also hit out at the BJP over Prasad's remarks on NPR and asked why doesn't he implement it in Bihar.

The BJP-JD(U) speaking one language in Bihar and another in Delhi, he said.

The Bihar Assembly recently passed a unanimous resolution against the new format of NPR and NRC.

Singhvi stated categorically, that according to the Congress, NRC is unconstitutional and wrong and should not happen.

"It divides the country. If you have courage...and if i am doing something unconstitutional, I am inciting somebody and doing something anti-national, then you should arrest me," he said.

Prasad, in his remarks, said, "Sonia Gandhi, please don't preach us 'raj dharma'; your record is full of twists and turns."



Referring to the Congress chief's remarks of "fight to finish" at a rally in Ramlila Maidan last year, Prasad asked whether such remarks do not constitute provocation.

Slamming Prasad, the Congress said the BJP will not understand the fight to finish.

"Across that line are thieves, capitalist friend, rapists and hate and you are promoting it all," the party said in a tweet.

"Across this line are farmers, labourers, poor, women, youth and the protector of their interests - Congress," it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Humans began developing a complex culture as early as the Stone Age. This development was brought about by social interactions between various groups of hunters and gatherers, a UZH study has now confirmed. The researchers mapped the social networks of present-day hunter-gatherers in the Philippines and simulated the discovery of a medicinal plant product.

Around 300,000 years ago, our ancestors lived in small communities as hunters and gatherers. This lifestyle likely played a central role in humanity's success, as it enabled humans to start sharing and combining their individual knowledge with others and in this way come up with innovative solutions. This unique capacity is what distinguishes us from our closest relatives, the chimpanzees.

Insights into this process can be gained by studying the few remaining hunter-gatherer societies, such as the Agta people, who live in the Philippines. An international research team has now investigated the social network of Agta hunter-gatherers to shed light on the evolution of culture. The study was led by Andrea Migliano and Lucio Vinicius from the Department of Anthropology of the University of Zurich as well as Federico Battiston from the Central European University in Budapest.

Inter-camp visits as social media

The researchers equipped 53 adult Agta living in woodland in seven interconnected residential camps with tracking devices and recorded every social interaction between members of the different camps over a period of one month. The researchers also did the same for a different group, who lived on the coast.

During this time, the tracking devices documented thousands of interactions and provided a comprehensive picture of the Agta's social structure. As expected, people most frequently interacted with members of their own camp, but the study also revealed inter-camp visits almost on a daily basis. "It is fair to say that 'visits between camps' is the social media of current hunter-gatherers," says first author Andrea Migliano, professor of anthropology at UZH. When we need a new solution for a problem, we go online and use multiple sources to obtain information from a variety of people. Hunter-gatherers use their social network in exactly the same way."

Simulated creation of medicine

The team of researchers then developed a computer model of this social structure and simulated the complex cultural creation of a plant-based medicinal product. In this fictitious scenario, the people shared their knowledge of medicinal plants with every encounter and combined this knowledge to develop better remedies. This process gradually leads to the development of a highly effective new medicinal product. According to the researchers' simulation, an average of 250 (woodland camps) to 500 (coastal camps) rounds of social interactions were required for the medicinal product to emerge.

Human interaction accelerates innovation

Next, the researchers simulated the same scenario using an artificial and fully connected network, where all individuals were connected to each other and immediately transmitted any new information to all members of the network. Surprisingly, in this scenario it took longer for the new medicine to develop - necessitating about 500 to 700 rounds. The reason is that the artificial network spread innovations one step at a time, whereas in the real hunter-gatherer networks new discoveries can also develop in parallel in small clusters, which ultimately results in quicker progress being made.

"Our findings indicate that this social structure of small and interconnected bands may have facilitated the sequence of cultural and technological revolutions that characterizes our species as we expanded within and then out of Africa," concludes last author Lucio Vinicius, from UZH's Department of Anthropology.

###
Science Advisory Committee for Health Products Containing Cannabis - Nomination call for members

To support nominees in managing the measures put in place to address the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Canada is extending the application deadline. Nominations must now be received by May 11 th , 2020. In addition, Health Canada is considering options for the delay of the Committees first in-person meeting or moving towards virtual meetings. Further details will be shared when possible.

Ottawa, Ontario

February 27, 2020

As part of the development of the Cannabis Regulations in 2018, Health Canada committed to holding consultations regarding a potential approach for non-prescription health products containing cannabis. This consultation was launched on June 19, 2019 and closed on September 3, 2019.

The purpose of this consultation was to seek feedback from Canadians, as well as the cannabis and health products industries, regarding the kinds of products they would be interested in manufacturing, selling or purchasing, should a legal pathway to market for these products be established. As part of this consultation, the Department made a commitment to seek external scientific advice regarding the appropriate evidence standards for non-prescription health products containing cannabis.

Health Canada is establishing a new Science Advisory Committee for Health Products Containing Cannabis (referred to in this document as the Committee) which will provide independent scientific and clinical advice to support the Departments consideration of appropriate safety, efficacy, and quality standards for health products containing cannabis, including the conditions under which these products would be suitable to be used without practitioner oversight (e.g., dose and indication).

The Committee will review available evidence regarding the use of cannabis and health products containing cannabis, address specific scientific questions, review current and emerging scientific and clinical issues, and provide evidence-based advice to help inform a potential regulatory path forward.

The focus will be on providing evidence-based advice and guidance on scientific and clinical issues related to health products containing cannabis intended for human use. A sub-committee will also be formed to specifically address issues related to health products containing cannabis intended for animal use.

Issues for the Committee to consider could include:

The state and level of evidence regarding the safety, efficacy and quality of cannabis, including specific phytocannabinoids such as THC or CBD, when used for therapeutic purposes. This includes advice regarding any factors, specific to cannabis, that Health Canada should consider when reviewing the benefits, harms and uncertainties of therapeutic cannabis use. Relevant information includes the current regulatory framework for health products, the safety profile of existing non-prescription products and natural health products, and all available pre-clinical and clinical evidence such as the scientific literature, real-world evidence, evidence related to currently approved health products containing cannabis and data received directly through a submission or application to Health Canada; Information that should be considered during Health Canadas review of whether a product is suitable to be used without practitioner oversight, and advice on how to address any gaps in that information; Any factors, specific to cannabis, that should be considered when determining evidence-based dosage thresholds and conditions of use for specific phytocannabinoids, such as THC or CBD, when used without practitioner oversight; and, Information regarding the priorities of the research and medical community with respect to potential therapeutic uses of specific phytocannabinoids, such as THC or CBD.

In striking this committee, Health Canada is seeking membership from experts with a wide range of knowledge and experience. In addition, Health Canada is seeking representation of Canadians with lived experience as a patient who uses cannabis for medical purposes or health products containing cannabis.

Nominees should have current expertise that may include, but not be limited to areas such as:

Cannabis and drug research

Pharmacovigilance

Medicine or prescribing practice

Pediatric medicine

Geriatric medicine

Substance use and dependence

Pharmacology and toxicology

Biostatistics and the analysis of data resources

Pain and/or sleep research

Health law and policy

Veterinary medicine

Psychiatry

Other expertise relevant to the mandate of the committee

Health Canada will also consider members expertise working with at-risk populations, such as pregnant or breastfeeding women, children, or other sub-populations.

Patient representatives will be selected based on their first-hand personal experience using cannabis or health products containing cannabis, as well as any experience working in similar committee structures.

Health Canada is seeking nominations (including self-nominations) for 8 to 12 core members of the Committee, as well as for ad hoc members. Core members will be permanent members for the duration of their terms (minimum of one year), which may be extended for additional terms based on Health Canadas needs and the members availability and willingness to continue their membership. Ad hoc members will be invited to serve for a specific topic or group of topics. All advisory body members serve on a volunteer basis.

Health Canada will appoint core and ad hoc members from among the nominees, following a review by a selection committee. An external conflict of interest expert will advise the selection committee. The selection committee will be composed of Government of Canada staff with expertise in science and may include:

Director General of the Natural and Non-Prescription Health Products Directorate

Director General of the Therapeutic Products Directorate

Director General of the Veterinary Drugs Directorate

Director General of the Policy Planning and International Affairs Directorate

Senior Medical Advisor to the Health Products and Food Branch

Representatives from the Office of the Chief Science Advisor to Health Canada

Senior officials of the Controlled Substances and Cannabis Branch.

Additional information for potential members:

The core committee will meet or hold teleconferences a minimum of three times, and the first meeting is expected to be held by summer 2020.

A sub-committee will be established to consider health products containing cannabis intended for animal use.

Ad hoc working groups may be established to provide advice on a specific topic or group of topics.

Members will be reimbursed for expenses incurred during their work on the Committee, such as for travel and accommodation, according to Treasury Board's Directive on Travel, Hospitality, Conference and Event Expenditures.

All members serve on the Committee on a volunteer basis. In keeping with the Treasury Boards Policy on Legal Assistance and Indemnification members are eligible for the same protection against personal civil liability as federal employees when faced with comparable risks while acting within the mandate of the Committee and serving as volunteers.

To be considered for appointment, all members must undergo government security clearance, provide a short biography, sign a Confidentiality Agreement, and provide a declaration of their affiliations and interests. A summary of the affiliations and interests declarations and biographies will be posted to Health Canada's website.

Additional information on how the Committee will be selected and its functioning can be found in the Terms of Reference and the Health Canada Policy on External Advisory Bodies.

Nominations should contain the following information:

Name

Contact information

Area(s) of expertise

A statement indicating whether the individual would be interested in serving as a core member of the Committee, the sub-committee on animal use, or an ad hoc member

Rationale (no longer than 500 words)

A declaration of affiliations and interests

A current Curriculum Vitae

In accordance with the Privacy Act, all personal information collected will be protected and treated according to Government of Canada records management standards.

Nominations must be received by May 11, 2020

To submit a nomination, receive a copy of the draft Terms of Reference or for any questions, please contact us at:

Science Advisory Committee for Health Products Containing Cannabis Secretariat

Policy Planning and International Affairs Directorate

250 Lanark Avenue

Ottawa, ON

Mail Stop 2005A

K1A 0K9

Or via email: hc.sac-hpcc.ccs-pscc.sc@canada.ca

Thank you for your interest in this important initiative.
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Medics test a disinfection robot in a quarantine ward in a local hospital in Qingdao of East Chinas Shandong province . [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

High-tech products, such as drones and robots, are being deployed to fight against the novel coronavirus epidemic since the outbreak began.

A technology company based in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province, donated 30 disinfection robots to six hospitals in Qingdao and neighboring city Rizhao. The robots are expected to be used in 20 more hospitals in the province.

The one-metertall and two-wheeled droid, shaped like a small refrigerator, navigates quarantine wards autonomously and sprays disinfectant.

The robot has a specially designed sprayer and can perform multiple forms of disinfection in almost every corner of quarantine wards, according to Fang Ke, chief operating officer of Qingdao Webull Intelligent Technology Co Ltd, manufacturer of the robot.

Lu Yun, director of general surgery of the Hungdao Campus of Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, where the robot was first used on Jan 31, applauded the move.

"Intelligent robotic products can effectively replace doctors and nurses in some work, thus reducing their chance of being infected," Lu said.

The Qingdao municipal government has called on artificial intelligence enterprises to help battle the epidemic.

Qingdao Tosun Intelligent Technology Inc has also developed a kind of robot which can help maintain access control and temperature detection on passersby.

If it detects someone with an abnormal body temperature, the robot will sound the alarm and report to security personnel, according to the developer.

In Qingdao's Huangdao district, also known as Qingdao West Coast New Area, drones are used to carry out disinfection at residential communities.

A drone can carry about 10 kilograms of disinfectant, with a spraying area of 5,000 square meters per load.
The Congress has once again attacked the Centre on the issue of transfer of the Delhi High Court Judge, Justice S. Muralidhar, who was hearing the hate-speeches case against some BJP leaders.

Late Thursday Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal issued a statement, which said: "The decision to transfer the Judge is hardly surprising given the fact that, the BJP which had unashamedly instigated the mob and provided complete impunity to those who called for violence, took such a malicious decision under cover of darkness."

The Congress leader alleged that immediate and overnight transfer of Justice Muralidhar, of the Delhi High Court, "who highlighted the role played by certain BJP leaders in instigating the mob and directed the Delhi police to take urgent action is a clear proof of the discomfort on part of Shri Narendra Modi and Shri Amit Shah, over fears of an impartial investigation exposing their complicity in the Delhi riots."

The government has rebutted the Congress allegation and said that he was transferred on recommendation of the SC collegium on February 12.

But, the opposition party is smelling a conspiracy to save the leaders involved in the hate speech. The Delhi High Court has given four weeks time to the police to look into the matter.

The Congress alleged that Justice Murlidhar was critical of the BJP leaders' speeches. "A strong and independent judiciary has been the backbone of this country. The country is witnessing a dictatorship which is continuously gaining ground, wherein not only the democratic institution but the judiciary itself, are blatantly suppressed and undermined,"said Venugopal.

"This brazenness and high handedness are a clear rebuff to the families who lost their dearest ones as well as the tens of thousands of the citizens who believe in the democratic values of our constitution. The BJP can't run away from the naked truth that their own words and deeds led to this unprecedented human casualty the party leader alleged."
David and his peers on the evacuation plane waiting to go back to the United States at Wuhan Tianhe Airport in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 5, 2020. (Provided to The Epoch Times by David)

American Evacuated From Coronavirus Epicenter in China Recounts Dramatic Experience

David said he will never forget the experience of being evacuated from the coronavirus epicenter of Wuhan in China and reaching safety in San Diego, California.

David and his wife are Chinese Americans. Since immigrating to the United States over 30 years ago, this Lunar New Year was going to be the first time they would spend the holiday in their hometownWuhan city in central Chinas Hubei province.

They never expected that a deadly virus outbreak would get in their way.

We had planned to get together with our relatives during the holiday, David said in a recent interview with The Epoch Times. My emotions right now are hard to describe.

To protect his family members in China, David wished to identify himself with a pseudonym.

Being Stranded

David learned that his sister in China was diagnosed with cancer. He didnt want to miss the chance to see her, possibly for the last time.

We arrived in Wuhan on Jan. 17 by plane, and started to visit our old friends after taking a short rest, David said.

That day, David was told by one of his friends in Wuhan that the coronavirus outbreak was more serious than how the Chinese central government and local government described it. He thus decided to return to the United States as soon as possible.

But the earliest available flight tickets were on Feb. 25.

Attendants of the evacuation plane serving passengers before the plane took off in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 5, 2020. (Courtesy of David)

The news on local TV channels kept saying that the virus didnt have human-to-human transmission. On the evening of Jan. 22, the Wuhan government organized a large scale Lunar New Year gala, David said. After midnight, it locked down the entire city. The Chinese governments behavior made me speechless. I am extremely angry with them.

After the city was under quarantine, David said he witnessed many tragedies.

More and more people became sick. Many people shared videos online but they were removed by censors within minutes. The healthy people became more and more scared and were in a panic, David said.

Food prices also skyrocketed as people stockpiled goods. Vegetables became very expensive, David said.

Rumors, later proven false, began spreading that people who violate quarantine and escape from Wuhan will be imprisoned for seven years, and that the Chinese military had entered the city and planned to take over local hospitals.

Since then, we could hear people screaming every night. Its scary. People tried to release their anxiety by screaming, David said.

Luckily, David received a notice from the U.S. Embassy in China, informing him and his wife that they could be evacuated from Wuhan on Feb. 4.

The U.S. consulate office in Wuhan took down the names and addresses in Wuhan of each evacuee. The office also arranged cars to pick them up and bring them to the airport.

Airport staff dressed in protective suits handling luggage of evacuated passengers at Wuhan Tianhe Airport in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 4, 2020. (Courtesy of David)

David complained that Wuhan government staff and airport authorities did not seem helpful.

We spent more than 14 hours at the airport waiting for the take-off permit. We boarded the plane at 7:00 a.m. of Feb. 5. Then, the plane didnt take off until almost two hours later, David said.

He felt relief afterwards. From the moment the city was locked down, to when we boarded the plane, every minute was suffering for me, and full of anxiety, David said.

Davids wife shows their boarding passes for the evacuation plane at Wuhan Tianhe Airport in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 4, 2020. (Courtesy of David)

The attendants space on the evacuation plane, separated from the passengers area by a hanging plastic sheet, in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 5, 2020. (Courtesy of David)

Safety in the United States

On the plane, medical staff ensured passengers health by giving them a new N95 facial mask to change into every four hours.

After arriving at the Travis Air Force Base in northern California, David and his fellow evacuees received a medical check-up. Then, he and other healthy passengers were transported to a quarantine center at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, which is close to San Diego, California.

Finally, we are home! David said. The quarantine center is like a hotel. The room has a private bathroom and a kitchen. Life there is very convenient. We had people to help clean and disinfect the room every day.

The quarantine center at Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, California, in February 2020. (Courtesy of David)

A quarantine room at the quarantine center at Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, California, in February 2020. (Courtesy of David)

A kitchen at the quarantine center at Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, California, in February 2020. (Courtesy of David)

A room at the quarantine center at Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, California, in February 2020. (Courtesy of David)

David said life in the quarantine center was actually quite relaxing. Nurses screened their body temperatures twice per day. CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) staff reported to them about the outbreak situation every day, while working staff supplied enough food, fruits, and snacks to them.

About 60 to 70 percent of the evacuated people are Chinese-American. The quarantine center prepared a lot of Chinese snacks for us, such as instant noodles. They even bought Lao Gan Ma brand chili sauce just for us, David said.

CDC staff speak about the coronavirus outbreak to quarantined passengers at the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, California, in February 2020. (Courtesy of David)

Working staff prepare materials for the quarantined passengers staying at the Marine Corps Air Station, in Miramar, California, in February 2020. (Courtesy of David)

Snacks for quarantined passengers at the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, California, in February 2020. (Courtesy of David)

David said that evacuees were allowed to move around freely in the quarantine center, but were required to wear masks at all times and to keep at least six feet away from each other.

The working staff also invited a musician band from the Third Marine Corps, who performed a concert for us It was very encouraging, David said.

He said they received good care at the quarantine center. CDC staff made sure to explain to evacuees why they performed tests on some of the quarantined people.

Working staff wave to departing quarantined passengers who are free of the coronavirus, at the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, California, on Feb. 18, 2020. (Courtesy of David)

We are back to normal life now, David said. I really appreciate all the support and help from friends, and the good care from U.S. government staff.

David said he will never forget this experience. We witnessed history  I believe that in the future, our children can learn this history from textbooks.
[February 28, 2020] Mississippi school superintendents endorse computer science education

MADISON, Miss., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Superintendents from public school districts across Mississippi are supporting efforts by C Spire to get more computer science education in classrooms for the state's 877 elementary and high schools. The superintendents gathered in Madison earlier this week for a briefing on the latest developments of a grassroots campaign by the Mississippi-based diversified telecommunications and technology services that would require educators to offer computer science to all 465,000 students attending K-12 public schools. "Computer science is as important in today's world as reading, math and science proficiency," said Dr. Phillip G. Burchfield, executive director of the Mississippi Association of School Superintendents. "It's an integral part of our commitment and responsibility to prepare our students for the opportunities and challenges that they will face in a 21st century world that's infused with technology." C Spire launched a comprehensive online, social media, TV and radio campaign earlier this month to encourage educators and public policy leaders to promote a stronger computer science foundation in the state. Despite strong support from parents and teachers, computer science is taught in less than half of the state's high schools and there are over 1,000 unfilled job openings in the state. The legislation, SB 2284 by State Senator Scott DeLano, R- Biloxi and HB 1165 by Rep. Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, is awaiting action by the education and appropriations policy committees in both houses. The deadline for committee action on the two bills is Tuesday, March 3. "We need computer science taught so all students have the knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully compete for the best jobs in the new digital economy," said Rob Smith, director of the Ross Collins Career and Technical Center for the Meridian Public School District, which is partnering with C Spire on a pilot program that will help students land junior software developer jobs after only one year of community college. C Spire representatives provided an update on the status of the legislation and noted that the company is working closely with lawmakers to advance a bill that will help make computer science available in all schools by the 2022-2023 academic year. Some districts and schools have made rogress and will not need to make changes while others will need to boost teacher training and update courses to the latest curriculum.



"We're committed to helping all of our schools overcome any barriers that might stand in the way of offering computer science in classrooms," said Carla Lewis, chief technology officer for C Spire and a leading proponent of the need for more computer science instruction. "We want this to work and that's why we are pushing for a phased approach so that all schools have enough time to make this a reality." Mississippi students have made great strides in recent years, Lewis said. The state's high school graduation rates have climbed dramatically and improvements in elementary school reading and math scores have led the nation. "We've become a national leader in pushing higher academic standards, but we need to continue to strive so that all of our students have the opportunity to pursue their uniquely personal hopes and dreams."

Lewis said the Mississippi Department of Education and state's 151 local school districts need to continue their efforts in advancing computer science if the state hopes to inspire and educate more students on the academic and career opportunities and advantages associated with science, technology, engineering and math-related studies. C Spire has been heavily involved in efforts to promote computer science education in Mississippi, investing over $3 million since 2015 in coding challenges, coding academies, pilot accelerated degree programs and other efforts designed to inspire and encourage students to consider pursuing academic degrees or professional careers in science, technology, engineering and math-related fields. Public support for more computer science emphasis in the classroom is strong. In a recent Gallup poll, 78 percent of Mississippi principals said they believe computer science is just as or more important than required core classes and 93 percent of parents want their child's school to teach computer science. Computing jobs are the leading source of new wages in the U.S. with more than 500,000 unfilled slots nationwide and over 1,000 in Mississippi alone. The average salary for computing jobs is $72,039, almost double the statewide average and 67% of all jobs in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields are in computing, according to Code.org, a non-profit advocacy group. The grassroots computer science education campaign, which has reached all the state's 52 Senators and 122 House members, is part of the C Spire Tech Movement designed to move communities forward with a focus on broadband access, workforce development and technology innovation. To learn more about the need for computer science education in K-12 classrooms or to get involved in the "Mississippi's Future Can't Wait" campaign, text FUTURE to 50457 or go to www.ourMSfuture.com. Click here for more details on SB 2284 and HB 1165. About C Spire

C Spire is a diversified telecommunications and technology services company that provides world-class, customer-inspired wireless communications, 1 Gigabit consumer Internet access as well as a full suite of dedicated Internet, wireless, IP Voice, data and cloud services for businesses. This news release and other announcements are available at www.cspire.com/news. For more information about C Spire, visit www.cspire.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cspire or Twitter at www.twitter.com/cspire. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mississippi-school-superintendents-endorse-computer-science-education-301013406.html SOURCE C Spire

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A member of one of Britain's most notorious crime families has been ordered to hand back over 1.2million of his 'dirty' money or face a further seven years behind bars.

Thomas 'Tommy' Adams, 64, was jailed for seven and a half years for drug trafficking after his money laundering operation with accomplices was foiled in 2014.

Today, Adams has been ordered to to repay his benefit, assessed as 1,243,270.75, in full by 26 May this year.

Thomas 'Tommy' Adams (left) has been ordered to pay back 1.2million or face a further seven years behind bars. Croydon Crown Court (pictured right) found he had properties in London and Cyprus that were gained through criminal activity

Undercover police bugged popular cafe Andrew's in Holborn Central to catch Adams, 59, discussing his criminal enterprise.

Couriers were watched by police exchanging an M&S bag containing thousands of pounds in cash at Euston Station owed to Adams.

He had helped run the 'Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate' with brother Terry, 62, and Patsy, 61, becoming one of the most powerful crime gangs in London.

The crimes that put Thomas 'Tommy' Adams behind bars Adams, 64, was jailed for seven and a half years for drug trafficking His money laundering operation with accomplices was foiled in 2014 He had helped run the 'Clerkenwell Crime Syndicate' with brother Terry, 62, and Patsy, 61 Jurors found the convicted drug smuggler guilty of two counts of conspiracy to transfer criminal property Adams was further found guilty of one count of conspiracy to conceal criminal property after a trial in August 2017 Croydon Crown Court also discovered Adams had properties in London and Cyprus that were gained through criminal activity Advertisement

They have been linked to over 25 murders while turning over millions in the drugs trade, through security fraud and hijacking gold bullion shipments.

Officers were investigating his money laundering operation, through which he collected cash owed to him for 'criminal activity' between 2012 and 2014.

Detectives compiled surveillance evidence including telephone data, covert recordings, and ledgers recording the criminal transactions.

Jurors found the convicted drug smuggler guilty of two counts of conspiracy to transfer criminal property and one count of conspiracy to conceal criminal property after a trial in August 2017.

The network was convicted for money laundering in two trials in 2017 and jailed for a total of 30 years.

Jurors had heard how Adams shipped nearly a quarter of a million pounds using runners to move the dirty money from Manchester to London.

Since 2000, the Adams family's influence has been declining, but Tommy carved out a niche from his money laundering enterprise.

Co-defendant Christos Nicholas, 52, was caught with 99,000 as he drove through north London in convoy with Elias Antoniou, 53, on 10 October 2013.

Nicholas was was convicted of transferring criminal property and jailed for two-and-a-half years, while Antoniou was given two years for the same crime

Robert Winstanley, 77, was stopped with 10,000 cash wrapped in tin foil at Euston Station, central London, on 22 May 2013, and was Oakmere, Cheshire, was also convicted of transferring criminal property and handed a three-year term.

Adams spent the money on extravagant purchases including a 32,000 car for his daughter Terri, 35.

Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) lawyer Helen Hughes said: 'Mr Adams was previously sentenced to seven-and-a-half years for drug trafficking, yet he still thought he was above the law.

'Money lies at the centre of this criminality and today Mr Adams has been ordered to pay over 1.24m - handing over his dirty money for good or he faces a more time in jail.

'If at any point in the future we identify that he has other assets and has benefited to a greater extent, then we will apply to the court to increase the order and make him pay more.

'Criminals like this must be stopped, which is why we work tirelessly to get the highest confiscation orders available, so they can start to repay their debt to society.'

Tommy Adams has a string of previous convictions, most of which date back to the 1970s, before he was jailed for masterminding the huge drugs smuggling operation.
The Phoenix Hill Sports Park in the capital of Southwest Chinas Sichuan province hosted the 2021 Chinese FA Cup final as its inaugural event Sunday. Covering an area of 128,000 square meters, the park consists of two world-class sports venues, a retail and hotel complex, and a public plaza. It will be one of the venues of the 31st Summer World University Games

Jan 12, 2022 05:45 PM
On a recent trip we had the same driver to and from the airport. With about 45 minutes travel each way, we were able to engage in an interesting conversation.

Our driver said she had made her way to Hawaii nine years ago, taking a circuitous route from a small town in eastern France 17 years ago. The result of my questioning revealed that she and her husband had left France for job opportunities in San Diego, Calif., he as a boat captain and she as a mechanical drafter.

After their three children graduated from high school, she and her husband relocated to Hawaii. It was an interview with an airline to be a flight attendant, a job they determined she was too short for, that prompted the visit to paradise.

But that visit convinced her to return, so she and her husband soon relocated to Honolulu, where he took a job as a boat captain. She was searching for her next career, something outside and where she could interact with more people.

Listening to the news one day, she heard that a large sailboat had wrecked and been towed into Honolulu for repair. Thats when her life took a sharp turn, for the good, in her opinion. The news reporter said the crashed sailboat's owner and guests were all French-speaking and that anyone who speaks French would be welcomed at the harbor to facilitate communication. She called her husband and told him about the request, so they agreed to go.

While it was an easily made decision, to help people in need, it was also a life-changing decision.

She said over the next six months she and her husband helped the sailboat owner make repairs. When the work was done the owner said, I need a captain and steward for six months to sail to the South Pacific islands of Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and other islands in French Polynesia.

She said her husband agreed to captain the boat, so though she had never been a ship's steward, she said, I can do that. For the next six months they visited many tropical islands, places she had always wanted to vacation.

She and her husband eventually divorced and the South Pacific tour ended. A friend who knew she was looking for her next gig told her about a cab driving opportunity. Again, she said, I can do that. That ultimately led her to a private car service driver position, and Uber driving.

Her decisions were not made without doubts. In fact, a few years back she said she moved back to France to try it out again, but she returned to Hawaii within 18 months. She said France was not the same, but perhaps more importantly, she was not the same. Her experiences had changed her.

My favorite poem is the Robert Frost classic, "The Road Not Taken."

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for an-other day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I 

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Having made many moves connected to job opportunities, our new friend's story resonated with me.

So our conversation centered on the idea that there is no right or wrong way to navigate this life. In fact, there are always at least two roads, and as much as we would like to know how each might end up, we can only, as Frost said, look down the road to where it bends in the undergrowth.

We make our choices with the information at hand, not seeing or understanding the implications or outcomes. As the poem says, one may perhaps have the better claim. Perhaps. Maybe, maybe not. No guarantees.

Some folks value staying put, growing deep roots in one spot, one community, one job, one church, one core friend group.

Other folks find greater fulfillment in the adventure of finding new places, meeting new friends, forming new relationships, changing jobs, or even careers.

Like Frost, we too may sigh that we could not travel both, but we never have to regret the one traveled because there is always another road.

Im happy we have the beauty and inspiration of "The Road Not Taken," but had Frost lived and written in 2020 instead of 104 years ago, he may have simply said, You do you.

If staying put makes you happy, wonderful! But if you are unhappy, or unfulfilled, dont let the fear of the unknown hold you back. Only then will you know regret.

Gary Adkisson is publisher of The Bismarck Tribune.

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As the city continues to repair damages made to the east Houston area near Loop 610, several schools and businesses will remain closed on Friday.

A 96-inch water pipe ruptured near Clinton Drive that caused the area to flood.
Avalon Capital Partners Limited ("Avalon") has hired five senior cash equity salespeople as it continues with rapid expansion plans across both Event Driven and International Equities.

In the Event Driven division, Aaron Sawyer, Holger Klees and Gregory Lafitte have joined the team to bolster Avalon's already considerable presence in this market.

In the International Equities Division, Conor Smith and Gavin Atkins join from Cantor Fitzgerald to lead the build out of an institutional cash equity desk, providing liquidity to an international client base.

"The continued expansion of Avalon with these hires is demonstration of our commitment to the Equity space. Where others are pulling out of equities, we are expanding. There is increasing investment in European equity and we have sales, research and trading teams ready to assist our clients in maximizing their returns," said Jean-Yves Aknin, Avalon's CEO.

"We are delighted to add Aaron, Holger, Gregory, Conor and Gavin to Avalon. Their track record and commitment to offering the best service to institutional customers is impressive and we look forward to their contribution to our success," added Simon Langford, Avalon's Managing Director.

Aaron Sawyer has over 20 years' industry experience with resultant deep-seated market and multiple economic cycle expertise. Aaron has a strong background in Equity Finance, Special Situations, ECM and Long/Short alpha strategies. Before joining Avalon, Aaron spent ten years at Credit Suisse before joining Jefferies and then Macquarie to team-up with Holger on the build out of their European operations.

Holger Klees is a specialist in Event Driven with over 20 years' experience. Prior to joining Avalon, Holger worked for Macquarie Bank and was part of Jefferies International's European build out. He previously worked for Pali Capital and Lehman Brothers. Holger started his career in Derivatives Sales at BHF Bank where he set up a German focused arbitrage desk.

Gregory Lafitte brings sixteen years of expertise as a portfolio manager. He has covered a variety of markets but has a focus on US and Asian special situations. Gregory started his career at CM-CIC Market where he set up and developed the Asian merger arbitrage proprietary desk. He later relocated to Europe, joining Bred Banque Populaire in 2011, where he oversaw both the US and Asian merger arbitrage proprietary trading. Since then, Gregory has held roles Opera Trading and Makor Group.

Conor Smith brings 20 years of International Equities experience with extensive knowledge of equity analysis, market making, proprietary trading and sales. He has held roles at HSBC, Man Group, MF Global and Cantor Fitzgerald.

Gavin Atkins is an industry veteran who has spent 22 years in International Equities at Cantor Fitzgerald. Prior to that, Gavin held roles at Bishop Fleming and UBS.

About Avalon Capital Partners

One of the fastest growing brokerage firms in London, Avalon is an institutional broker providing extensive market knowledge and a dedication for providing a first-class service to a global institutional client base. At Avalon, client needs are our primary focus. We guarantee an unparalleled customer service from our dedicated and experienced teams, providing access to global markets and state-of-the-art technology.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005233/en/

Contacts:

Simon Langford

+44 (0) 20 3060 8888

slangford@avaloncp.com



Jean-Yves Aknin

+44 (0) 20 3060 8861

jaknin@avaloncp.com
PHOENIX  Biologists looking for endangered species on private property would be required to keep much of what they find secret under a proposal poised for quick approval by the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature.

Minority Democrats have unsuccessfully argued that if the new policy becomes law it will hinder public monitoring of recovery plans for endangered plants and animals. Republicans say the shield is needed to protect private property rights.

The measure passed the House Wednesday on a 31-29 party-line vote, and the Senate gave it initial approval after debate Thursday afternoon with Democrats objecting. A formal Senate vote expected next week could send the measure to Republican Gov. Doug Duceys desk.

The measure applies to information collected by state agencies, and violations would carry a $25,000 fine.

Republican Rep. Gail Griffin sponsored the House measure and said during a committee hearing that the proposal would actually encourage private property owners to let surveyors onto their property. The opposite is true now because of fears any discovery could lead to land use restrictions.

We want to entice property owners to assist in counting any specific species that might be on their property, Griffin said. Currently  if I thought endangered species were on my property Id have a no trespassing sign on my property. So this is an enticement.

The Sierra Clubs Arizona chapter director, Sandy Bahr, testified earlier this month that information collected by public agencies doing surveys should always be public. She said making it secret would prevent any public monitoring of species recovery efforts.

If this kind of information is kept confidential and is not available, how would we know if a conservation plan thats in place is working or not? Bahr asked. How would we know that management provisions or practices are being effective?

Sunshine provides the best public policy and this goes the opposite direction, Bahr added.

Brian Seasholes, executive director of the newly created Southwestern Communities Coalition, testified that landowners have serious concerns about the potential costs of endangered species protections, so enticing them to cooperate in surveys that may locate wider populations would be helpful. The group pushes private property rights, conservation and sustainable growth.

What we want to do is generate more data so federal agencies can make good decisions, Seasholes said.

Democratic Rep. Kirsten Engel said property owners already have the absolute right to bar anyone from their property, so she worries the bill has more nefarious purposes.

The bill makes information that is or could be possessed by a state agency a secret if that information somehow associated a species with a particular parcel, Engel said. Making that information confidential will really hamper the ability of our state agencies to protect species, to effectuate management plans that we put in place, that maybe they have put in place.

She noted that the bills language was very broad, and would hamstring agencies charged with overseeing the recovery of endangered species.

But Rep. David Cook, a Globe rancher who holds a grazing permit for federal lands, said there are good reasons for protecting the location of species discovered during surveys. For one, it prevents the creation of treasure maps that would draw adventurers or sightseers to an area.

What this bill does is it encourages private landowners and gives them the same protections that we give to the federal land protection agencies, Cook said. This bill helps those species in the recovery process.
Hundreds of thousands of over-75s will lose out on a free TV licence because they have not signed up for Pension Credit, a charity warned last night.

From June, the BBC is restricting the licence fee benefit to only the poorest pensioners who receive a weekly top-up to their income.

But Age UK said an estimated 590,000 over-75 households that were losing out on pension credit were now also set to miss out on avoiding the TV charge.

An estimated 590,000 over-75 households will lose out on a free TV licence because they have not signed up for Pension Credit, Age UK has warned (file image)

The charity said take-up of the credit  a tax-free benefit that boosts weekly income for people over state pension age  was stagnant on last year.

The BBC is taking on the responsibility for funding free licences for the over-75s from the Government. As part of this, it is scaling back the benefit to only those on Pension Credit.

Age UK warned it will be the most vulnerable older people on low incomes and those battling loneliness, ill health and disabilities that will be hit hardest on the licence fee changes.

The BBC is taking on the responsibility for funding free licences for the over-75s from the Government and is scaling back the benefit to only those on tax-free benefit (file image)

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK, said: Its very clear from todays figures that much more needs to be done to make sure the poorest pensioners get the financial help theyre entitled to.

She added: Whats more, those who arent claiming Pension Credit or are living just above the Pension Credit means tested level, are set to face horrible decisions over whether they can afford to continue to watch TV at all from 1st June.

Its completely wrong to put the oldest people in our society through this. We urge the Government to act now to broker a deal with the BBC to put millions of anxious older peoples minds at rest.
EAGLE, Idaho, Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Pennant Group, Inc. (PNTG), the parent company of the Pennant group of affiliated home health, hospice and senior living companies, announced today that a subsidiary of Cornerstone Healthcare, Inc., its home health and hospice portfolio company, has entered into an agreement to form a home health joint venture with Scripps Health, a leading nonprofit integrated health system based in San Diego, California. The finalization of the joint venture is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2020.



Following the closing of the transaction, the joint venture will be managed by a Cornerstone affiliate and will provide home health services to patients throughout San Diego County and surrounding areas. As the parties begin the integration process, from now until closing, a Cornerstone affiliate will work with Scripps Home Health in preparation for the joint venture.

While we have operated successfully in the San Diego market for a number of years, we are thrilled to partner with Scripps to expand our collective capabilities to provide exceptional home health services to the residents of San Diego, said Daniel Walker, Pennant's Chief Executive Officer and President. He added, As the post-acute landscape continues to shift and we see a stronger trend toward value-based payment reimbursement models, it is critical that we work closely with integrated health systems like Scripps to help patients and their families navigate the various care settings in the post-acute care continuum. Mr. Walker continued, When you also consider the network of Ensign-affiliated skilled nursing facilities in San Diego with which we have partnered through the Ensign Pennant Care Continuum, we believe this joint venture will accelerate the ability of both parties to provide collaborative, unique solutions to the community.

"We are excited to combine the considerable expertise of Scripps with our talented local leaders," said Brent Guerisoli, President of Cornerstone. Our collaboration with Scripps will create broad platforms from which we will be able to improve the lives of patients in the San Diego market. Scripps is a world-class healthcare system dedicated to providing the highest quality of care, and their decision to team up with Pennant is an honor and testament to our unique operating model built on empowering and equipping local leaders with the tools needed to transform their healthcare communities.

Story continues

As healthcare continues to change nationally and in San Diego, we believe home care and monitoring will play an even greater role in our patients overall care, said Chris Van Gorder, President and CEO of Scripps Health. This partnership will help us evolve to best meet that growing need and continue Scripps 35-year legacy of home health care.

Pennant will continue to pursue opportunities for growth in the home health, hospice and senior living industries, targeting strategic and underperforming operations of all sizes.

About Pennant

The Pennant Group, Inc. is a holding company of independent operating subsidiaries that provide healthcare services through 64 home health and hospice agencies and 52 senior living communities located throughout Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Each of these businesses is operated by a separate, independent operating subsidiary that has its own management, employees and assets. References herein to the consolidated "company" and "its" assets and activities, as well as the use of the terms "we," "us," "its" and similar verbiage, are not meant to imply that The Pennant Group, Inc. has direct operating assets, employees or revenue, or that any of the home health and hospice businesses, senior living communities or the Service Center are operated by the same entity. More information about Pennant is available at http://www.pennantgroup.com.

Contact Information

The Pennant Group, Inc., (208) 506-6100, ir@pennantgroup.com

SOURCE: The Pennant Group, Inc.
RTL Today contributor Thomas Tutton delves into medieval times to uncover some of the most interesting stories from the ancient County of Luxembourg.

Dont know your Giselberts from your Ermesindes? Dont worry, RTL Today are here to help.

Siegfried, not Count of Luxembourg

Although Siegfried is traditionally considered the founder of Luxembourg, its important to note that we mean the town of Luxembourg, not the country.

He purchased an old Roman fortification on the site of the Bock in 963 and made it a castle, but he and his grandsons only referred to themselves as the Counts of the Castle of Luxembourg.

It was only Conrad I, who succeeded his father Giselbert in 1059, who began to refer to himself as Count of Luxembourg, or Luccelemburc, or Luzelenburch  medieval writers didnt seem to be too bothered about consistent spelling.

Rivalry with Trier

The rulers of Luxembourg and the archbishops of Trier really didnt get on well in the first couple of centuries of the second millennium.

Siegfried had come to acquire patronage over many of the most important monasteries and churches in the region, including the famous abbey of St Willibrord at Echternach, but also the abbey of St Maximin in Trier.

This brought the rulers of Luxembourg into a decades-long conflict with the archbishop of Trier over the rights to appoint the abbot of St Maximin.

The bad blood started when Henry I of Luxembourg and Count Frederick of Moselle, the sons of Siegfried, revolted against the Holy Roman Emperor Henry II who happened to be married to their sister Cunegonde.

The brothers had wanted to keep the archbishopric of Trier to themselves, but they were defeated by Henry II, and Trier passed to Poppo von Babenberg (a real name) in 1016.

Henry I and II of Luxembourg were meanwhile both made Dukes of Bavaria, leaving them preoccupied with fighting the Hungarians, but when Henry IIs brother Giselbert succeded him in 1047, he set about renewing the fight with Trier.

The Counts of Luxembourg, 963-1197

Giselberts son Conrad I, the first Count of Luxembourg, decided to kidnap the pesky archbishop of Trier, a decision that got him excommunicated.

To make amends, Conrad set off on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but he died on the return trip.

In turn, Conrads second son William had some more troubles with Trier, resulting in his own excommunication.

In 1136, the male line of Siegfried died off with Williams son Conrad II, and Luxembourg passed on to Congrads cousin Henry IV of Namur.

Having ascended to the County of Luxembourg, Henry promptly decided to fight a war with the Archbishop of Trier, which he lost, ending the long conflict between the two towns.

It wasnt all bad for Henry, though, as he managed to acquire the Counties of Durbuy and Laroche to add to Namur and Luxembourg.

Luxembourgs union with these territories helped to spread French influence into the County, which had previously only looked towards German-speaking Trier.

The Counts of Luxembourg, 1197-1354

The Great Ermesinde

The first Countess of Luxembourg is remembered fondly in the Grand Duchy.

She was the daughter of Henry IV, who only fathered her at 72 years of age.

At the age of just 11 or 12, she was married off to Theobald, count of Bar, and after Henrys death in 1196, Ermesinde and Theobald managed to buy her fathers county off Otto, Count of Burgundy.

Still very young, Ermesinde largely left the running of the County to her husband until he died in 1214. She then married Waleran III, soon to be the Duke of Limburg, who died in 1226.

Ermesinde, Countess of Luxembourg from 1197-1247 /  Public domain

From then until 1247 Ermesinde reigned alone, and she became known in Luxembourgish history as a sort of second founder of Luxembourg.

She ruled her county effectively, developing new techniques of administration.

She is best remembered for the charters of freedom that she granted to the towns of Echternach and Luxembourg in 1236-38 and 1244 respectively.

Dont Worringen, Be Happy

In 1288, the War of the Limburg Succession was raging in the region, and Henry VI of Luxembourg, the grandson of Ermesinde, was involved on the side of the Archbishop of Cologne.

Medieval battles were usually not the bloodiest affairs for noblemen: they sent out their peasants to die, and if they lost, they were often captured and ransomed.

The Battle of Worringen was different, however.

Henry VI of Luxembourg was killed along with three of his brothers.

Luxembourg was left in the hands of the 11-year-old Henry VII, who somehow managed to survive his early reign and become the first Holy Roman Emperor of the House of Luxembourg.

His son, John the Blind, would be remembered to this day as the man who founded the Schuberfouer.

The Big Upgrade

John the Blinds son Charles I of Luxembourg became King of the Romans in 1346, King of Bohemia in the same year, and then King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor.

To put things bluntly, he just didnt have any time for little Luxembourg.

He decided to give it to his brother Wenceslaus in 1353.

Wenceslaus I, the last Count of Luxembourg. /  Public domain

On top of that, he decided that his brother should be more than a count, so in 1354, the lands surrounding Luxembourg, Arlon, Durbuy, Laroche, Thionville, Bitburg and Vianden were merged into the Duchy of Luxembourg, which would last until 1795.

And so ended the splendidly medieval County of Luxembourg.
The city government schools which were closed in view of violence in northeast Delhi and parts of east Delhi will open on Saturday for principals and staff to assess the current situation, officials of the Directorate of (DoE) said on Friday.

The schools were earlier announced to be closed till February 29.

"The schools will open tomorrow for heads and all staff. A meeting of school management committee (SMC) will be convened, during which the present situation will be assessed comprehensively to explore the possibility of creating a conducive atmosphere for conducting board examinations as well as annual school exams," a senior DoE official said.

"Heads of schools have been asked to prepare comprehensive reports with details about the present state of preparedness and the earliest time frame for conducting the examinations and the prospect of opening schools for students," the official added.

Schools have been closed in northeast Delhi and east Delhi for four consecutive days. The Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) has postponed board exams in the area till February 29.

The communal violence in northeast Delhi sparked by protests over the amended citizenship law has so far claimed 42 lives and left over 200 people injured.

Frenzied mobs torched houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump and pelted stones at locals and police personnel. Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Yamuna Vihar, Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh and Shiv Vihar are among the areas severely affected by the riots.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
For the second time in recent months, Hamas has let the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) go at it alone in a confrontation with Israel, as Hamas leaders try to maintain a balance between showing support for the faction and seeking longer-term benefits for the Gaza Strip.

Israel and the PIJ engaged in a new round of military escalation Feb. 23-24. The violence broke out after the Israeli army shot dead Mohammad al-Naem, a PIJ member in eastern Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, claiming he attempted to plant a bomb at the border fence. A graphic video that circulated among Palestinians showed an Israeli bulldozer lifting Naems body after he was killed, sparking outrage and calls for revenge.

A few hours later, the PIJ fired dozens of rockets on southern Israel without killing or wounding anyone. Israel responded by launching air raids on the movements locations in Gaza and Syria, and killed two of its members in Damascus.

Late Feb. 24  after it launched 50 rockets and mortars on Israel  the PIJ announced the end of its response to the killing of its members in Damascus and Gaza.

Hassan Abdo, a political analyst close to the PIJ, told Al-Monitor, The escalation ended without an agreement between Israel and the Islamic Jihad. It was unilateral, which confirms that the movement is holding the reins of the initiative and decides when to begin and end its response. Israel tries from time to time to harp on strife between the Islamic Jihad and Hamas. The latter controls Gaza and wants to preserve a calm atmosphere to maintain humanitarian understandings in favor of lifting the blockade on Gaza, which Hamas and Israel agreed on under Egyptian, Qatari and UN brokerage in October 2018.

But, he added, The situation in Gaza does not show any disputes between the two movements or problems between their military wings. Hamas spokespeople side with the Islamic Jihad politically and give it full legitimacy. Their harmonious relationship pressures Israel, which doesn't want to expand its confrontation circle. Hamas might be on the same page as Israel in that regard, but it has given the Islamic Jihad the chance to manage the battle with Israel without widening the confrontation.

On Feb. 25, PIJ Secretary-General Ziad al-Nakhalah called Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to discuss the latest developments in Gaza, and they agreed to stand in the face of Israel and halt all forms of Israeli aggression on Palestinian people. They reiterated that their relationship runs deep.

Ahmed Abu Hamza, spokesman for al-Quds Brigades, PIJ's military wing, revealed Feb. 25 in his speech during Naem's funeral that the military wings of both factions were in touch during the latest confrontation.

Palestinian factions in Gaza  including Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian Freedom Movement  released separate statements Feb. 23 and 24 asserting that Israeli threats to attack Gaza would not intimidate them, because the threats aim to garner support for the Israeli right ahead of March elections.

Although Hamas did not engage in the latest military confrontation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Feb. 24 to attack both Hamas and the PIJ.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told Al-Monitor, The escalation began with the assassination of Naem and the atrocious way he was dragged [by the bulldozer]. The resistance practiced its right to respond, which received public and factional approval. Hamas believes the resistance has the right to react to the crime. Although it does not want to start a war, it is trying to forbid aggression on our people."

He added, "Meanwhile, Israel always attacks us. Tensions in Gaza arise from the ongoing aggression and the blockade. Israel agreed with mediators on certain measures to lift the blockade, and it has to abide by them.

During the recent escalation, two notable developments embarrassed Hamas in front of the Palestinian public. First, the escalation came two days after Hamas' leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, welcomed at his office Mohammed al-Emadi, Qatari ambassador to the Palestinian territories. Emadi offered humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including a Qatari donation of $12 million.

Second, the Israeli Walla! news website revealed Feb. 22 that Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, along with Herzi Halevi, chief of the army's Israeli Southern Command, visited Qatar secretly in early February and discussed with Qatari officials the possibility of a deal with Hamas.

Palestinians believe the latest confrontation did not escalate any further because Hamas did not take part. If Hamas had launched rockets, that might have led to another war with Israel, but that's not what Palestinians want.

Israel wanted to show in this round that it is targeting the Islamic Jihad only, not all factions, but it didn't succeed, due to public support for the resistance," Wasef Erekat, a Palestinian military expert and former PLO artillery chief, told Al-Monitor.

"The Palestinian public seemed more enthusiastic than the resistance to avenge Naems killing. The Islamic Jihads response was calculated and reasonable. Hamas  restraint embarrassed it in front of Palestinians. What is more problematic for Hamas is that the escalation coincided with increased talk about more humanitarian concessions in Gaza," Erekat added.

This is the second fight against Israel that the PIJ has waged alone, without Hamas intervention. The first escalation happened after Israel assassinated PIJ military commander Bahaa Abu al-Atta Nov. 12. It's possible the PIJ will fly solo in future escalations with Israel, which could affect settlement talks between Hamas and Israel, under Qatari and Egyptian brokerage. Or Hamas and the PIJ might have to coordinate to maintain calm in Gaza, or fight Israel together without slipping into a wide-scale war.

Regardless of which scenario develops if another round of escalation breaks out, an objective reading of the recent situation in Gaza shows that a future settlement between Israel and Hamas is shaky.
VALPARAISO  For Christians, Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting.

It marks the beginning of Lent, a 40-day period of penance, sacrifice and alms giving leading to Easter, recalling Jesus suffering and withdrawal into the desert for 40 days.

For the faith community of St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Lent has an easier beginning. For the past eight years, church members and guests have had the option of receiving drive-thru ashes.

I have two kids in sports, and in the afternoon I drive for Meals on Wheels, said Laura Brubaker, of Valparaiso. Some people may call this being lazy, but not if you have an active family.

St. Andrews pastor, the Rev. Roger Bower, explained, We heard that people in the community wanted to mark the beginning of Lent but didnt have time for an entire service. With all the pressures on peoples time during the week, we decided to offer this abbreviated Ash Wednesday service.

Ash Wednesday derives its name from the placing of repentance ashes on the foreheads of participants to the celebrant saying either "Repent, and believe in the Gospel" or "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
Whether it's the 'right' way to swirl, the ultimate blend or the perfect pairing, wine fans all have their favourite ways of enjoying a tipple.

But now a panel of some of Australia's leading wine experts have revealed their tried and tested tricks for getting the most out of a drop.

From stain removal methods to chilling tips, the group finally shared their best kept secrets at the Dan Murphy Decoded Wine Awards.

A panel of some of Australia's leading wine experts have revealed their tried and tested tricks for getting the most out of a drop.

Use a vase as a decanter

If you don't have a decanter, wine merchant Malisa Caroselli from Western Australia suggested using a simple vase to decant your wine.

'It's all about creating surface space for oxygen to work its magic and open up the wine,' she said.

Swirl your wine - but not your bubbles

Wine panel and head of auctions at Langton's Tamara Grischy said it's very important to swirl wine but not sparkling wine.

She said that swirling your glass before smelling and tasting the beverage 'opens up the aromas'.

'However, avoid swirling your glass when drinking sparkling wine as you'll shake the bubbles out,' she said.

Wine buyer Mark Samaha (pictured) recommended putting all wines in the fridge including full bodied red wine

Put ALL wines in the fridge

Wine buyer Mark Samaha recommends putting all wines in the fridge including full bodied red wine.

He said they become much more refreshing and 'evolve and change personality as the wine warms up in the glass, both aromatically and also flavour wise'.

'The fridge is also the best way to store an opened bottle of wine: it helps slow down the oxidation of the wine, so you get to enjoy it for longer,' he said.

Remove red wine stains with salt

If you've ever spilt red wine on your favourite piece of clothing, then you know how hard it is to get the stain out.

But head of Fine Wine, Andrew Shedden said that salt is the secret to removing that tough stain.

'First blot the stain with a piece of dry paper towel, then cover the stain in salt and let it sit for 45mins,' he said.

'Finally, press gently on the stain with a cloth soaked in boiling water and the stain is gone.'

The Australian experts shared their tips at Dan Murphy's Decoded Wine Awards on Wednesday night

Expert Nick Rose (pictured) said if your bottle of wine is at room temperature and you want to chill it fast, wrap it in a paper towel and place it in your freezer

Keep an empty half bottle handy

Dan Murphy's expert Gary Braidner has recommended keeping empty piccolos and half wine bottles with a screw top to store leftover wine.

He said it's important to fill smaller bottles to the rim to keep as much oxygen out as possible.

Gary said: 'Oxygen is wine's biggest enemy, so by eliminating most of it, the wine will keep for weeks.'

Experts reveal 12 simple tips for wine lovers 1. Use a vase as a decanter 2. Swirl your wine but not your bubbles 3. Put ALL wines in the fridge 4. Remove red wine stains with salt 5. Keep an empty half bottle handy 6. Choose the right wine glass 7. Chill wine with a paper towel 8. Take a picture if you like the wine 9. Speed up decanting with two jugs 10. Freeze leftover wine and use for cooking 11. Be ahead of the trend 12. Use your kitchen sink as an ice bucket Advertisement

Choose the right wine glass

It's important to drink your wine out of the right glass, wine merchant Chris Gollogly from Tasmania explained.

He said: 'The bigger the bowl, the better the swirl and the more a wine can open up and express it's true personality.'

Chill wine with a paper towel

If your bottle of wine is at room temperature and you want to chill it fast, wrap it in a paper towel and place it in your freezer.

Assistant category manager at Fine Wine, Nick Rose said you'll only have to wait 15 to 20 minutes before your drink is cold.

'The paper towel freezes quickly and because it's in direct contact with the glass, the bottle will chill down super quick.'

Take a picture if you like the wine

Wine merchant, Ben Moroney from New South Wales has suggested taking a photo of a label you like.

'Even if we don't have the exact wine, we will be able to help you find something they will love,' he said.

Speed up decanting with two jugs

Decanting is the process of pouring the wine from one bottle to another to separate sediment, but it can take at least an hour for the wine to open up.

The head of Dan Murphy's wine panel Peter Nixon said you can speed up the process by 'pouring the wine fast and furious into a jug, then pour it multiple times between another'.

If you don't have a decanter, wine merchant Malisa Caroselli (pictured) suggested using a vase to store your wine

One expert recommended pouring left over wine into ice trays and placing them in the freezer to use for cooking

Freeze leftover wine and use for cooking

Wine merchant Kathy Gertau, from South Australia, has recommended pouring left over wine into ice trays and placing them in the freezer.

'Next time you're cooking and the recipe requires wine, you don't have to open a new bottle. And no, the freezing of the wine does not impact the taste of it,' she said.

Be ahead of the trend

'Five years ago, Chardonnay was out of vogue and you would have been able to get some great bargains,' wine merchant Nick Veanes said.

'Cabernet Sauvignon seems to be be coming back in fashion soon again, so you can get some incredible deals.'

Use your kitchen sink

If you're hosting a party and need an extra ice bucket, wine buyer Ian Wolfe suggests using your kitchen sink.

He said if you don't have room in your fridge, just fill the sink with ice and place the wine bottle in it.
STATEN ISLAND -- Staten Island will be the first stop the citys Property Tax Commission will make as it begins its next round of public hearings before releasing a final report on how to overhaul New York Citys property tax system.

The commission will meet March 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Petrides School Auditorium (C-Building) and plan to line up public hearing in the other four boroughs in the coming months.

The commissions next round of public hearings comes after it released a draft list of recommendations on how to fix the property tax system last month.

If the draft recommendations hold, Staten Islanders could finally see some relief on their property tax bills.

In announcing the recommendations, the commissions Chairman Marc Shaw, said single-family homes in Queens and on Staten Island would see property tax reductions.

In the current system, the cap on assessment growth of properties with one-, two- and three-family homes -- known as class one -- cant go up more than 6 percent every year or 20 percent over five years.

That cap limits how much the city will charge you in property taxes. If your home value increases by 6 percent, then you pay more as a percentage of the total home value compared to those with greater increasing values.

Therefore, homeowners in less popular neighborhoods, like on Staten Island, where home values slowly increase will generally have higher property taxes than homes in more desirable areas like where de Blasio lives in Brooklyn.

The commission recommended getting rid of that cap altogether.

Before the commissions recommendation are final, they will still have to hold another round of public hearings across the city boroughs before they put out a final set of recommendations.

A property tax overhaul could take years. It will require approval from the state Legislature, the City Council and the mayor.

The property tax commission was empaneled by de Blasio and Speaker Corey Johnson in summer 2018 and, at first, did not include any Staten Island representation until Island elected officials fought to get Staten Islander Allen Cappelli on it.

The preliminary report was released in January after months of delay. The commission had initially planned to come out with a preliminary report by winter 2018 and issue a final set of recommendations by summer 2019.

Speakers interested in submitting presentations before the hearing can email commissioners at PropTaxInfo@propertytaxcommission.nyc.gov or upload them at https://www1.nyc.gov/site/propertytaxreform/contact/testimony-submission.page.

The commission said that speakers should plan to speak for no more than three minutes and that commissioners can use additional time to ask the speaker questions.

Elected officials will have the chance to speak first; all other participants will be heard in the order in which they sign up when they arrive at the hearing.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 01:08:10|Editor: yan

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ZAGREB, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A meteor exploded as it entered the atmosphere over Croatia on Friday morning, local media reported.

The meteor was seen flashing across the sky at 10:31 a.m. local time (0931 GMT), and shortly after a loud clap of thunder could be heard. A dashcam video clip of the flashing object and what appears to be an explosion in the blue sky has gone viral on Croatian social media.

Although it is still not officially confirmed, Korado Korlevic, a well-known astronomer, told Croatian national television HRT that it was without a doubt a meteor that exploded high in the atmosphere. An analysis should reveal why it did explode, at what altitude and what speed.

The Croatian Astronomical Union wrote on its Facebook page that the bright object must have disintegrated at an altitude of at least 30 kilometers above sea level, which made the event visible from a large geographic area. Astronomers here say that the meteor would have light up the sky identical to daylight if it appeared during the night.
Technology is having an impact on education, particularly in delivery and the methods of teaching.

While human contact remains the primary focus, in a small number of niche courses, a new method of delivery is proving wildly successful.

Speaking recently about the future of higher-level education, University of Limerick president Dr Des Fitzgerald offered his thinking on the transformation of education that is already taking place.

So I break it down into two things; it is going to be content  the content is going to be different; and then its going to be delivery, it is going to be delivered in a different way, he explained.

I think it is going to be more experiential and we do that here at UL, the co-op programme ensures the students experience the workplace and experience working with other people, and develop other skills besides their educational skills, explained Dr Fitzgerald.

I think that it will be more problem-based. We have done that on a couple of occasions, a couple of our programmes here, particularly in our medical school and it works well, he added.

UL has always been a pioneer on innovation and education, but is genuinely leading the way on the delivery of education in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In September 2018, following a demand from industry and specifically from the IDA that feared a looming skills crisis in AI that could affect Irelands ability to both attract foreign direct investment and retain it, a new All-Ireland Masters in AI began at UL.

Funded by ICT Skillnet, the part-time, two year MSc had an initial enrolment of 100 students. Uniquely in an Irish context, it offers a certificate in AI that works as a fast-track introductory course, allowing those without a specific background in the discipline a grounding as they move on to the masters.

Now in its second year, there are surgeons, accountants, designers, PhD students and some educated just to Leaving Certificate standard on the course that was designed with crucial input from industry.

Professor John Nelson of the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering (ECE) at UL spotted the opportunity and enlisted a team from ECE, the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems and the Kemmy Business School to win the contract for the new masters.

This cross-faculty support and emphasis on industry has been central to its success.

The first thing that was formed was an industry board  industry reps from right across Microsoft, IBM, Google, SMEs  a whole host of about 18 partners, who defined the course and what they thought was interesting, explains John, the first course director on the programme.

What was different about this was that it was a dedicated, AI-specific course, he adds, noting that there was huge demand with 400 applications in the first year.

It was a very successful first year. I am pretty sure that we are the only programme that has developed from scratch. And the industry board, to a large extent, decided what we were going to teach, adds Pepijn van de Ven, a senior lecturer in the ECE department, who took over from John as course director in 2019.

The key aspect was the decision to offer the course fully online. Using a forum and moderator system successfully developed with help from academics at the Kemmy Business School, the students must engage with their peers in order to learn. The results have been staggering.

We flipped the idea of a face to face delivery, as we are used to doing it, with lectures, tutorials and labs, to this idea of online delivery, which is completely different, explains Pepijn, whose own research interests are in the fields of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

You really put the student in the driving seat and they determine, to a large extent, where they are going, he adds.

The students work on problem-solving  so-called E-tivities  and must discuss the tasks with their peers. They are marked on their engagement as well as the solution and are graded on feedback. They meet directly as a group once or twice a semester  but other than that, work online.

There is massive learning in that, because your peers can give you a different insight and often understand what you dont, explains Pepijn.

The course is now one of Skillnets most successful and UL has separately approved a full-time masters that will start in September, which will be different in its delivery. Graduates will end up working in the automotive industry, on medical, finance and general computing applications, as well as in natural language processing fields  the Alexas of the future.

The part-time programme, intended for those in employment, offers specific evidence of the future of learning, as Pepijn describes it.

I say we are in the Wild West  it is very interesting, because we are prospecting, we are looking for gold here, he explains.

I think it is the future of learning  this method of delivery specifically. We should get out of this whole idea that we are teaching, we become facilitators of learning and you actually see that you learn an awful lot yourself along the way.

We do everything online these days, but not learning, not actually collaborating and that is what this system of forums and moderators allows us to do, he adds.

For more information, visit here
Weeks after a thief had entered an apartment in a posh south Mumbai building and fell asleep after gulping down two bottles of champagne instead of leaving with valuables; an incident which is somewhat similar, took place in Karnataka.

A man in an inebriated state removed tiles on the roof of a home in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka to make his way in.

However, he opted to catch the much-needed nap instead of rushing out of the place after taking the things in his reach.

According to a report by The News Minute, Anil Sahani, a native of Majipur district of Bihar, broke into the one-storey, tiled-roof house of Sudarshan in Ullas Junction on Tuesday night.

Anil was caught by the homeowner dozing on his sofa near a television stand with a bunch of keys in his hand.

Police, the next morning, said that Sudarshan became suspicious when he found the tiles of removed. He was surprised to see an unknown man sleeping on his sofa after which he pulled out a stick and started hitting Anil to wake him from his slumber. He later handed Anil over to the police.

It appears he was too inebriated and fell asleep. We are investigating whether he is linked to other cases of theft reported in the area, the report mentioned a senior police official saying.

A case of attempt of theft has been registered against Anil in the Uppinangady police station, the report added.
With over a million streams on Spotify, support from BBC introducing and a successful UK tour, indie artist Tina Boonstra releases her brand new single "Out of My Depths" today. This new single is from her new EP.

As a songwriter in a missionary family, Tina expected her songs to find their home in the church halls she grew up in. But it wasn't until she began performing on the London open mic circuit that she cut her teeth as a performer and honed her craft into a treasure trove of songs with a depthand emotional intensity reminiscent of PJ Harvey, Wolf Alice and John Mark McMillan.

Featured on Spotify's New Music Friday and Mellow Pop playlists, BBC Introducing London, Hoxton Radio and Sounds Magazine, her last EP is described as 'a collection of moving, honest, brave songs that will school its listeners in empathy and introspection.' (Get In Her Ears)

Q: Tina, thanks for doing this interview with us. Let's start with yourself: you grew up with missionary parents. Where did you your parents serve? What was it like growing up in a missionary family?

I grew up in a big family, my mum and dad worked in churches in the Netherlands, South Africa and the U.K, as a result we moved around a lot. We experienced so many amazing places and met so many people. But it also meant that my siblings and I had to go to a lot different schools. I never really felt like fitted in anywhere growing up, and it bothered me that I didn't really know where home was. That's something I struggled with for a while. But I suppose the good stuff and the hard stuff shaped me into who I am now, so I'm grateful for that.



Q: Tell us a little about your journey into music.

I always thought I would write songs for church, but in the end it was only when I started performing at open mic nights that people really started connecting with the songs I was writing.

It didn't feel like my natural habitat. I'd spent so long singing in church bands growing up, that it felt strange to be singing in bars and clubs. But the more I did it, the more I loved it.



Q: How would you describe your style of music?

I think I'd describe my music as having a bit of an indie/alternative vibe. I'm really influenced by artists like John Mark McMillan and Regina Spektor.



Q: You have recently worked with 7Core Music, how did that happen?

I met Trevor Michael, the owner of 7Core, at a songwriters meet-up a few years ago. We got on really well. Afterwards I sent him some songs I'd been working on, and he immediately understood the direction I wanted to take them in. He was the first person to really get it. When he offered to produce the EP I was thrilled. Recording My Concrete Heart, was an amazing experience, and we've been working together ever since.



Q: You have just released a new single "Out of My Depth". What's the song about? And tell us a little about how the song came about.

"Out of My Depth" is about a period in my life when just getting out of the house felt like a challenge. I was in a set of circumstances that I didn't know how to deal with, and worst of all, it felt like I was dealing with them completely on my own.

It's kind of a dark song. A lot of songs I've written about being in difficult situations, come to a place of light, or hope or some kind of resolution at the end. But this one didn't. And when I tried to add one in, the song just wouldn't let me. I guess sometimes it takes longer than three minutes to come out of a dark place. Sometimes it's okay to be confused or angry at God and the universe. Sometimes that's just the most honest thing.



Q: Tell us about the new EP you are working on right now. What can we expect from this new record?

"Out of my depth" is the first single from my new EP. I see it as the opening chapter of a story about coming out of a dark place with help of God and a few good friends. I wrote it for me and the community I'm in right now. It's our story.



Q: Who have you worked with in terms of songwriters and producers for this new record?



I loved making this record. I spent a lot more time than I have previously on producing my own demos before sharing it with others. I learnt so in that process. Then when it come making it, I had the wonderful privilege of working with the same group of people I've been working with for the past two projects; Trevor Michael, Barnabas Shaw and Alex Iddin. We had the most fun making this EP, I can't wait to share it.



Q: How do you wish your music would impact the lives of your listeners and their faith journeys?

I hope that my music connects with people. I hope that my songs help to articulate things that others have been feeling, but have struggled to frame with words. For me that's the biggest privilege of being an artist.

To download or stream Tina Broonstra's music, go to: https://smarturl.it/TBOOMD

For more information about Tina Boonstra, remember to visit her at www.tinaboonstra.com

Tags : tina boonstra tina boonstra interview tina boonstra out of my depths tina boonstra news 7Core Music
Turkey will no longer close its border gates to refugees who want to go to Europe, a senior official told AFP on Friday, shortly after the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an airstrike in northern Syria. "We will no longer keep the doors closed for refugees who want to go to Europe," the official said on condition of anonymity. Nearly 300 migrants including Syrians have already arrived in Edirne province on the border with Greece in a bid to go to Europe, the private DHA news agency reported. Another group of migrants arrived on the coast of Ayvacik in Canakkale, western Turkey, and wanted to go to the Greek island of Lesbos by boats, it reported. The killing of Turkish soldiers in Idlib after an air strike blamed on Damascus has prompted an emergency meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey, which is already home to around 3.6 million Syrian refugees, fears more people arriving in the country where there is growing popular discontent against their presence. In a series of tweets, Erdogan's top press aide, Fahrettin Altun, accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of "conducting ethnic cleansing" and seeking to drive millions of Syrians out of Idlib. "These people will try to escape to Turkey and Europe. Already hosting close to 4 million refugees, we do not have the capacity and resources to allow entry to another million," he wrote. Greece and its EU partners also fear another influx of refugees from Syria after more than one million made their way there in 2015 before an EU-Turkey accord was reached on controlling the numbers. Migrants and refugees are seen on an inflatable boat during a rescue operation near the Greek island from Samos in November 2019
Fear of the spreading coronavirus has led to a global run on sales of face masks despite evidence that most people who aren't sick don't need to wear them.

Many businesses are sold out, while others are limiting how many a customer can buy.

Amazon is policing its site, trying to make sure sellers don't gouge panicked buyers.

In South Korea, hundreds lined up to buy masks from a discount store and rumors that toilet paper and napkins can be used as masks have emptied store shelves in Asia of paper goods over the past few weeks.

Fear of the spreading coronavirus has led to a global run on sales of face masks despite evidence that most people who aren't sick don't need to wear them. Pictured: Airport staff check the temperatures of passengers returning from Milan as part of their coronavirus screening procedure at the Debrecen airport, Hungary

People trying to protect themselves from the outbreak and medical centers alike are facing shortages.

The shortages are being attributed not just to high demand, but to disruptions in supply.

An outsize share of the world's surgical masks are made in China - 50%, by its own estimate.

But even factories there that have ramped up production say they are hard pressed to meet local demand. The government has taken over manufacturers, and exports have plunged.

Authorities of major Chinese cities have demanded their citizens wear face masks in public places as mandatory protection to stop the virus from spreading. The picture shows a man wearing a protective face mask taking photos in Jingshan Park, Beijing, on February 25

David Peng, manager of Ningbo Buy Best International Trading Co. in Ningbo, south of Shanghai said: 'Before the outbreak of the epidemic, we used to export 600,000 to 700,000 surgical masks a month, but now the amount is zero.'

The company's dozen or so suppliers in Hubei, near the center of the outbreak, have been ordered to prioritize government orders.

Apart from shortages of workers, manufacturers say they are struggling to get enough raw materials to make the masks.

Tony Zhou, sales manager for Suzhou Sanical Protective Products Manufacturing Co., said his company is asking overseas customers if masks can be delivered a few months later.

In the U.S., Walgreens, Home Depot, Lowe's and True Value Hardware are reporting a sharp uptick in sales of masks over the past several weeks and say they are scrambling to get more from suppliers.

Globally, fear of the spreading coronavirus has led to a run on sales of face masks despite medical experts' advice that most people who aren't sick don't need to wear them. The picture shows people in Hong Kong queuing outside a cosmetic store for buying masks on February 3

Home Depot, the nation's largest home improvement chain, has limited sales of N95 respirators to 10 per person. They have a close facial fit and more filtration material than general surgical masks, enabling them to keep out at least 95% of particles.

Marc Jaconksi, owner of Stanley's True Value Hardware and Rental store in Philadelphia, said he saw a surge in demand for masks, particularly the N95, two weeks ago.

But since Tuesday, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the virus will almost certainly spread in the U.S., sales went through the roof.

'We would be crazy busy with snow, but we are not getting snow,' he said. 'We're crazy busy with respirators.'

Jaconski said his store has sold 1,000 masks of all kinds in the past two weeks. He has ordered more N95s, but customers are so desperate they are picking up lightweight dust masks or buying heavy-duty respirators used for asbestos cleanup that sell for up to $60.

At least 2,858 people have died and some 83,700 have contracted the coronavirus globally

'It's usually the oldest folks who get a little crazed,' he said. 'This time, it is everybody.'

The virus has infected more than 82,000 people worldwide and killed more than 2,800, according to international health authorities.

Still, the CDC doesn't recommend that people wear masks to protect themselves from the virus. The CDC says people infected - or those showing symptoms such as fever and shortness of breath - should wear masks to avoid spreading it to others. Health care workers also need masks, the agency says.

Mike Gania of the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists said some hospital pharmacies are saying that they have only a one to two week supply of masks and that the major wholesalers are unable to fill orders.

Within hospitals, surgical masks are worn by operating room teams - doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists - and frequently by pharmacists. Staff members caring for patients with dangerous infections wear the N95 masks.

Dr. Sarah Boston, a veterinary surgical oncologist and author in Toronto, uses 10 to 15 surgical masks per week in her practice. She switched to a less comfortable brand when her usual supplier ran out.

'I've spoken to a lot of people who are worried that we're going to lose supply or not be able to get them,' she said.

Boston sees a lot of people wearing them incorrectly - over their mouths but not their noses, for example - and said they should understand that other things would be more effective, like frequent hand-washing.

Companies that make masks are struggling to keep up.

Medicom Group, a Montreal medical supply company, usually makes 150 million masks per year at its factory near Angers, France. At the beginning of February, the factory had orders for 500 million masks. Orders have only grown since then, the company said, and it has hired new workers and increased capacity at its plants, including two in Shanghai and one in Augusta, Georgia.

3M, the Minnesota-based manufacturer, said it has ramped up production of respirators at its facilities in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Many people in Asia routinely wear masks against allergies, colds and smog, and soaring demand has prompted other manufacturers to retool to begin making masks.

Pedestrians wearing protective masks while walking along a street in New York yesterday

Taiwan manufacturer Foxconn, a major supplier of electronics to Apple, said it has begun making about 1 million masks a day for its own factories.

Dealmed, a New York company that makes and sells medical supplies, said it expects to sell out of face masks next week.

It temporarily stopped taking orders from new customers a month ago and ended sales on Amazon and Walmart.com. It now is selling only to buyers that need them most, such as hospitals, doctors' offices or government agencies.

Sales of gloves, gowns and other items jumped as much as 300% in February from the year before, said Michael Einhorn, Dealmed's president. Sales of face masks are so astronomical, he said, he hasn't been able to calculate them.

In Italy, the site of Europe's biggest cluster of cases, the government met with the country's business lobby to work out a centralized distribution system to get masks to hard-hit areas.

Italy's financial police announced they busted 20 people based in Turin for selling masks that were falsely said to offer complete protection against the disease. They were selling for as much as 5,000 euro apiece, or about $5,500.

A sign in a hardware store in New York informing shoppers of the lack of availability of face masks and respirators yesterday

On Amazon, the best-selling item in its health and household section Thursday was a pack of three cotton masks for $19.99. Ten-packs of 3M masks were sold out. And a listing for 100 disposable masks said it would arrive at shoppers' doorsteps sometime in April or May.

Prices varied wildly on Amazon. Some sellers were charging $98.50 or more for 50 disposable surgical masks; others were charging $33 for a similar set. Hand sanitizers were also hard to find on the site, with some bottles of Purell and Amazon's own brand sold out.

Dr. John Huber, a clinical psychologist and chairman of the Austin, Texas-based nonprofit Mainstream Mental Health, said retailers need to do a better job of allaying customers' fears and sharing the CDC's advice.

'It's the fear of the unknown,' Huber said. 'Once we understand something, we tend not to be so fearful.'

Coronavirus face masks sell out as prices soar 800%: But do they really work and which one should you buy?

Despite soaring sales in face masks and shops selling out of the products, one medical expert told MailOnline masks 'cannot' protect against the virus and that wearing them may even make it worse.

Meanwhile Public Health England warned that there is 'very little evidence' masks are effective 'outside of clinical settings' such as hospitals.

Yet recent testing by the Health and Safety Executive has found that any kind of protection is better than nothing.

The way you wear a mask is crucially importantly, academics say, because unless it is tight to the nose and mouth contaminated sneezes and coughs will get through - or linger on the surface.

Professor Brendan Wren from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that masks will not stop people from becoming infected and may even worsen its spread.

Commuters wear protective masks travels on the Jubilee Line and the Central Line (left and right) in London today as face masks sell out

Face masks are running out and increasing in price online as panic over the coronavirus outbreak ramps up but are a more common sight in London

The World Health Organisation recommended that masks should only be worn by those with a cough, fever, or who people who have difficulty breathing.

He said: 'The masks won't protect against the virus because it's so tiny. It is thousands of times smaller than bacteria.

'I don't think they do any good. They are smaller than air particles for pollution that we worry about. It will simply be breathed in.'

He added that masks may make the spread of the virus more likely if they become damp.

'They may make matters worse, [such as] if they become damp. If you have a cold or sneezing, sneezing into a mask can make matters worse.'

He added: 'The main purpose is a psychological thing they make people more aware but physically they are not a prevention'.
OTTAWA, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The ACT Foundation is proud to announce that CPR in schools champion, ACTs Director of Operations, Jennifer Edwards is the recipient the Citizen CPR Foundations inaugural 40 Under 40 Award. This Award recognizes outstanding individuals who are burgeoning leaders committed to strengthening survival from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) through training, response and advocacy.



Announcing this prestigious achievement during Heart Month underscores why Mrs. Edwards is a recipient.

Jennifers outstanding commitment and passion for saving lives from sudden cardiac arrest, coupled with her incredible professionalism, expertise, skills and talent has seen her play a major role in the establishment of the ACT High School CPR and Defibrillator Program in over 1,800 high schools across Canada resulting in more than 4.6 million youth empowered to save lives, says Sandra Clarke, Executive Director, ACT Foundation. The future of sudden cardiac arrest survival lies in the hands of todays emerging leaders like Jennifer.

Ms. Edwards commitment to citizen CPR training has also motivated her to become a certified CPR and AED Instructor and travel to many Canadian rural, remote and First Nation communities to deliver the CPR and AED training herself to youth to ensure they have the same opportunities for this lifesaving training as their urban peers.

It is both humbling and an honour to receive this award, says Jennifer Edwards, Director of Operations, ACT Foundation. The ACT Program teaches youth lifesaving skills and instills in them the confidence and leadership to act in emergencies. I am continually inspired by the many lives being saved by youth across the country and I am so proud to be a part of making this happen.

To read some of the stories of lives saved thanks to the ACT High School CPR Program, please visit: http://actfoundation.ca/act-rescues/rescue-stories/

ACT Foundation

The Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation is an award-winning national charitable organization that is establishing free CPR and AED training program in Canadian high schools. The program is built on ACTs community-based model of partnerships and support, where ACT finds the funds to donate mannequins and AED training units that schools need to set up the program. ACT trains high school teachers to teach CPR and how to use a defibrillator to their students, reaching all youth prior to graduation. ACTs health partners who are committed to bringing the program to communities across Canada are AstraZeneca Canada, and Amgen Canada.

www.actfoundation.ca or on Twitter @actfoundation #ACT2Save

For further information and interview opportunities, please contact:

Amanda Borris

Communications Coordinator, ACT Foundation

aborris@actfoundation.ca

Tel: 613-729-3455 Toll: 800-465-9111

www.actfoundation.ca / Twitter.com/ACTfoundation

Facebook/theACTfoundation / Instagram.com/theACTfoundation / YouTube.com/theACTfoundation

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/287dfe66-d1ba-4138-b620-b434c6525835
Frankie Muniz, left, and Paige Price arrive at the 5th annual People Magazine "Ones To Watch" party at NeueHouse Hollywood on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz has tied the knot with his girlfriend of four years, Paige Price.

The pair wed on 21 February in Arizona, four years to the day since they first met.

The actor confirmed the news to People, telling the publication: "From the moment of waking up together and jumping on the bed hyping each other up, to helping our wedding planner with setting things up at the venue, all the way to walking down the aisle with my best friend hand in hand with our closest friends and family in attendance. Everything was just so us.

Read more: Frankie Muniz's 5-story brownstone 'destroyed' in flood caused by his cat

"I always thought it was such a cliche for people to claim their wedding day as the best day of their life, like maybe it was something they had to say. No, my wedding day was literally the best day of my life!"

The wedding comes after the 34-year-old proposed to Price in November 2018.

They aren't just life partners either, as the couple are joined in business through their shop Outrageous Olive Oils and Vinegars.

The Agent Cody Banks star has had a diverse career, taking on racing car driving and drumming as well as acting.

Frankie Muniz as Malcolm from tv series "Malcolm in the Middle"

Muniz has been open about the intense memory loss after suffering 15 transient ischemic attacks, otherwise known as mini-strokes, which has left him unable to remember certain aspects of life including working on Malcolm in the Middle.

However, he has also stated that he isn't too bothered by the gaps in his memory, remarking: "I only know what it's like to be me."
Getty Images

Joe Biden has admitted that he was not arrested trying to visit Nelson Mandela, after repeatedly making the dramatic claim on the campaign trail in recent weeks.

Mr Biden, who has been criticised in the past for making questionable claims about his history, amended his accounting of the events on Friday, after investigations indicated that his story was exceedingly unlikely.

I guess I wasnt arrested, Mr Biden said during an interview on CNNs New Day.

I was stopped. I was not able to move where I wanted to go, he said.

But Mr Biden stressed that he did have a history working on anti-apartheid measures during his time as a US senator, including on the trip 30 years ago when he previously claimed he was arrested alongside the US ambassador to the United Nations, who had disputed being arrested.

I said, Im not going to go in that door that says white only, Mr Biden said during his Friday interview. Im going with them. They said, Youre not, you cant move, you cant go with them, and they, and they kept me there until finally I decided that it was clear I wasnt going to move. And so what they finally did, they said, OK, theyre not going to make the congressional delegation go through the black door, theyre not going to make me go through the white door.

The new version of the encounter comes after Mr Biden claimed on the campaign trail that he had been arrested alongside that UN ambassador, Andrew Young, during a trip to South African in the 1970s. He said they also attempted to visit Mandela in prison during that visit.

This day, 30 years ago, Nelson Mandela walked out of prison and entered into discussions about apartheid, Mr Biden said earlier this month at a campaign event in South Carolina. I had the great honour of meeting him. I had the great honour of being arrested with our UN ambassador on the streets of Soweto trying to get to see him.

He later said that Mandela came to Washington and came to my office. He threw his arms around me and said, I want to thank you, I said, What are you thinking me for, Mr President? He said, You tried to see me. You got arrested trying to see me.

Story continues

Mr Young, for his part, told the New York Times in an interview last week that, No, I was never arrested and I dont think he was, either.

Mr Biden has also amended his recounting of the meeting with Mandela in Washington.

When Nelson Mandela was freed and came to the United States, he came to my office. He was one of the most incredible men I ever met, he said. He sat down in my office, thanked me, thanked me for trying to, all the work I did on apartheid.

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An injured person is removed from the remains of a building hit in the air strikes (Syrian Civil Defence White Helmets via AP)

Turkey has raised the death toll from a Syrian government air strike on its forces in northwestern Syria on Thursday to 33 Turkish troops killed.

The fatalities marked the largest death toll for Turkey in a single day since it first intervened in Syria in 2016.

The deaths were a serious escalation in the direct conflict between Turkish and Russia-backed Syrian forces that has been waged since early February.

The earlier reported death toll was 29 troops. Dozens were also wounded and were being treated in Turkish hospitals.

Ambassadors from Nato countries will hold emergency talks on Friday at the request of Turkey, a member of the alliance.

Rhami Dogan, the governor of Turkey's Hatay province bordering Syria's Idlib region, said 32 injured were being treated in hospitals.

Turkey has had 54 soldiers killed in Syria's northwestern Idlib province since the beginning of February.

After the air strike, angry crowds gathered outside the Russian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey's state-run news agency said.

Standing in front of a line of riot police and a water cannon, they chanted "murderer Russia, murderer Putin".

The air strike came after Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters retook a strategic northwestern town from government forces on Thursday, opposition activists said, cutting a key highway just days after the government reopened it for the first time since 2012.

Meanwhile, two Russian frigates carrying cruise missiles have been deployed to Syria, Russian navy officials said.

The Admiral Makarov and Admiral Grigorovich of the Black Sea Fleet are currently en route to the Syrian coast with Kalibr cruise missiles on board. Both warships previously took part in Russia's offensive in Syria.

The UN secretary-general reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire and expressed serious concern about the risk to civilians from escalating military actions, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

"Without urgent action, the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour," he said.
Bihar Deputy Chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Friday asserted that no development took place in the state except during the governments of Sri Krishna Sinha, Karpoori Thakur and the incumbent Nitish Kumar.

Had the development taken place in Bihar all along since Independence, it would have been in the league of developed states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, he said.

He was replying to a two-day debate on the state's Rs 2.11 lakh crore budget for 2020-21 fiscal in the Assembly.

"Except for the period of Bihar's first CM Sri Krishna Sinha who died in 1961, the state did not witness any development since 1961 to 2005 barring for a brief period of the former CM and socialist leader Karpoori Thakur.

"The state began witnessing development after Nitish Kumar took over the reins of Bihar in November 2005," Modi, his deputy, said.

Reeling out figures to highlight achievements of the present regime vis-a-vis the RJD rule in particular, Modi, who also holds Finance portfolio, stated that Bihar grew at a rate of 9 per cent between 1990-91 to 2004-05 (during RJD period) while it registered 18.9 per cent growth rate during Nitish Kumar's dispensation in the past 15 years.

The per capita income was a paltry Rs 3037 in 1990-91 which increased to Rs 8000 in 2004-05, while the state witnessed more than five-fold increase in per capita income to reach Rs 43,822 in 2018-19 during the NDA regime.

Modi mentioned in great detail about the development works taken place during NDA rule be it agriculture, education, opening of bigger institutions like AIIMS, IIT, IIM etc in the state and compared it with that of the RJD.

The Dy CM announced that drainage system of Patna will be upgraded and strengthened before the commencement of the monsoon session so that citizens do not face the water logging the way they did in September last when three days of rain had submerged some important localities of the state capital.

RJD members led by its leader Tejashwi Yadav walked out of the House at the fag end of Modi's reply, when the latter mentioned about fodder scam and said those who indulged in swindling away huge sum are behind the bars and will never come out from the jail.

Though he did not take any names, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad is in Ranchi jail in connection with Rs 900 crore plus fodder scam cases.

"The lantern age will never return in Bihar", Modi said while reminiscing about the days of RJD regime, when he alleged members of the then ruling dispensation twisted the arms of leader of opposition (Sushil Modi) in the House.

Bihar is likely to see polls by the end of the current year.

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






LONDON  Oil prices fell nearly 3% on Thursday, plunging for a fifth day to their lowest since January 2019 as a rise in new coronavirus cases outside China fueled fears of a pandemic that could slow the global economy and dent demand for crude.

Brent crude was down $1.55, or 2.9%, at $51.88 a barrel at 1315 GMT. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fell by $1.41 cents, or 2.9%, to $47.32 a barrel.

For the first time since the start of the coronavirus outbreak erupted in China, the number of new coronavirus infections outside the country exceeded new Chinese cases.

The spread of the virus to large economies including South Korea, Japan and Italy has raised concerns that growth in fuel demand will be limited. Consultants Facts Global Energy forecast oil demand would grow by 60,000 barrels per day in 2020, a level it called "practically zero," due to the outbreak.

U.S. President Donald Trump sought to assure Americans on Wednesday evening that the risk from coronavirus remained "very low," but global equities resumed their plunge, wiping out more than $3 trillion in value this week alone.

"The negative price impact would intensify if the coronavirus were declared pandemic by the World Health Organization, something that looks imminent," said PVM Oil Associates analyst Tamas Varga.

"The mood is gloomy, and the end of the tunnel is not in sight  there is no light ahead, just darkness. Not even a refreshingly positive weekly U.S. oil report was able to lend price support."

Gasoline stockpiles dropped by 2.7 million barrels in the week to Feb. 21 to 256.4 million, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday, amid a decline in refinery throughput. Distillate inventories fell by 2.1 million barrels to 138.5 million.

U.S. crude oil stockpiles increased by 452,000 barrels to 443.3 million barrels, the EIA said, which was less than the 2-million-barrel rise analysts had expected.

Story continues

The crude market is watching for possible deeper output cuts by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+.

"Oil is in freefall as the magnitude of global quarantine efforts will provide severe demand destruction for the next couple of quarters," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA. "Expectations are growing for OPEC+ to deliver deeper production cuts next week."

OPEC+ plans to meet in Vienna on March 5-6.

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When I graduated college in 1995, I started my professional life as a junior art director at a Time Inc. magazine in New York. During my first year, I received a racist email from one of my white co-workers. I took it to the human resources department, and he was promptly fired. I had experienced racism before, but the encounter jolted me out of my middle-class complacency and reoriented my relationship to the larger corporate world.

I had grown up in the city, and black culture was everywhere. In Brooklyn, I was used to being one of many black faces in the crowd. It comforted me in particular that I lived in the Caribbean neighborhood of East Flatbush. My family comes from Grenada, and being surrounded by Caribbean culture  the language, the food, the music  made me more of myself. It never occurred to me that I would ever not have that comfort. Even as a black gay man moving through the world, I had always been grounded and nurtured by my black community.

A couple of years later, I received a job offer to move out to San Francisco. I knew next to nothing about the culture of the West Coast, so I made a pro and con list. The pro list was long, filled with my mid-20s intentions for internal growth. The con list had one item: Not Enough Black People.

I made the move. That was 1999, and San Francisco was gripped with the frenzy of the first dot-com boom. The energy of something new was palpable, but as I walked the streets of the neighborhoods beyond my studio apartment in Nob Hill, what I saw was segregation.

The parts of the city that I loved, I loved immediately and with ferocity: The proximity to nature, its iconoclastic DNA, its smallness in geographic scope, its bigness in ideas and ambition. But I also saw that attempting to navigate my personal and professional life without access to my community  the people who could relate to and reflect my own experience  would compromise my ability to love living here in the long term.

Oriana Koren / Special to the Chronicle

The process of discovering that community was daunting. This is a flaky town of noncommittal people, said my friend Tiffinie, in a memorable bit of advice. But mostly what I noticed was the lack of people who looked like me. Sometimes I saw them in the Western Addition (back when it was still called that). I saw them in the Bayview. I saw them in the Tenderloin. We saw each other on Muni and BART. But I mostly saw myself, alone in any room I was in, surrounded by mostly white faces.

In 2006, I spent a few weeks as an art director at Wired magazine and instantly befriended senior photo editor Zana Woods. We had the same response to each other: Hallelujah! I was so happy when you walked into the room and I saw you were black! We bonded over similar struggles. We were both used to being professional representatives of our culture. In every meeting, it fell on us to say why it wasnt incendiary to have a black person on a cover; why it was good to hire more black writers or artists or tell more stories about the black diaspora. Our co-workers and bosses sometimes listened, but mostly they didnt. We were both tired and angry. The weight was exhausting.

Inspired by our similar experiences, we had the idea to collect our two sets of friends and start a Black Brunch Club (BBC for short). There are only 10 of us in San Francisco, Zana said, laughing. So we might as well know each other.

Oriana Koren / Special to the Chronicle

When the group started gathering in the fall of 2007, we met out in the open. There was very little organization, just a close circle of friends having brunch, but everyone present was black. We congregated at Zuni, Farmerbrown and Nopa. On a subconscious level at that time, it was an act of rebellion to meet in such public places. We were loud. We were expressive. We were black. It was a relief to be ourselves after living in our cloistered professional worlds. There was joy in those early years, but I frequently left our gatherings wishing that we had more time together  that it wasnt just time prescribed at a table in a restaurant.

After Zana moved to the East Coast several years later, I took over the organizing and moved it to my home. The brunch morphed as I changed. Black Brunch Club became a bimonthly engagement  the third Sunday of every other month  which allowed me to plan it without being overwhelmed and so that folks could add it to their busy calendars. It became a potluck out of my own need for management ease

Oriana Koren / Special to the Chronicle

Which is how it exists now. I make assignments  food, beverage and flowers  via email, and theyre interpreted by each person without my involvement. (My personal kryptonite is listening to people describe how they make their food.) The only real rule is that no one walks in empty-handed. My philosophy is that you are not there to receive. Youre there to give. When we are ready to eat, we stop to commune. A moment to take a breath and collect ourselves. We go around and introduce ourselves and state what weve brought  its still S.F., so we have to honor the vegans, pescatarians, vegetarians and old-school meat-eaters. We say who we are. Who we see ourselves as. It becomes a moment of meditation, of community, of reference, of gratitude. Theres a whole lot of laughter. But there are also a lot of tears.

Oriana Koren / Special to the Chronicle

The common (and tedious) narrative about San Francisco is that the tech industry has erased what was pure about the city. But this isnt a story about the villainy of tech. The truth is more complicated than that. The black community was shrinking  dwindling  long before the tech industry wormed its inevitable way into the city. Racist zoning and redlining policies, led by government initiatives, created the model of segregation that continues to plague our cities and towns. The 2010 census showed African Americans are less than 6% of San Franciscos overall population, down from 13.4% in 1970. As the census count begins this spring, Im guessing that percentage will be lower.

Technology has also brought my community a voice. Black activists and community leaders have wielded Twitter and other social platforms to bring private conversations  on subjects like reparations and microaggressions  to the national stage. Still, theres very little room for those topics in social settings in this city. Class, race and gender are topics that (white) people will talk about with academic distance, but not emotionality.

Oriana Koren / Special to the Chronicle

When we gather every two months, we have nuanced conversations about things we dont get to discuss openly in our daily lives, with people who understand our cultural references. We talk with a sense of urgency and honesty because we know how rare this taste is.

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.

As for the makeup of the group: I run my own eponymous design studio  a decision shaped by years of frustration at having to compromise my creativity in a corporate (white) setting. In the early days, Black Brunch Club was fashioned out of a similarly creative community, but it has naturally evolved into something more flavorful. Artists, writers, architects, yes; but also schoolteachers, lawyers, engineers, content strategists, entrepreneurs. Some of us work for ourselves and welcome the chance to reveal our internal value struggles and external business practices. Some of us work for large companies and institutions, where we have to gird ourselves under unstated cultural norms that (still) feel foreign for us. People hail from the African continent, the Caribbean and South American diaspora, and all over the United States.

Oriana Koren / Special to the Chronicle

But when we get together, were far more alike than different. Its a chance to unpack and ideate and debate our places in a larger society and within ourselves. People reveal their vulnerabilities because we all understand how difficult it is to reveal them to the larger population. We are there to listen to our sermons and nod in approval, then offer support or critique. The conversations are revelatory, and they are intense. No one is asked to modulate themselves, as American society often requests of black bodies. The brunch format allows us to continue talking until we exhaust ourselves. The home setting allows us to settle in emotionally. Black Brunch Club is not an event but it is always epic.

For a majority of its 12-year existence, Black Brunch Club has been a cherished, special and private experience. Ive had to admit my selfishness, because its been mostly created for me to fill a void. But in the last year, Ive come to understand its importance outside of my life  what it means to each of us, at this moment of time in San Francisco. When author Natalie Baszile walked into my home for her first BBC, she got emotional.

It took me 11 years of living in this city to find my tribe, she said.

Oriana Koren / Special to the Chronicle

More than half of the people come in from the East Bay  and, as any Bay Area resident can tell you, people dont cross bridges in the Bay Area unless theyre committed. Entrepreneur Dwayne Shaw put it succinctly: I have plenty of black friends in Oakland. But this feels different. Its important that this happens in San Francisco.

As we were about to eat at the most recent BBC, I took a second to state my gratitude to everyone in attendance. Music played in the background, the meals were plated and everyones glass was full. Ive never taken for granted that I have this community. It has been my secret weapon in a city that celebrates individual maverick accomplishments but erects barricades that make that process inaccessible to others. I took in a breath, as I always do, and regarded the people all around me. Ive been thinking about this for years, I said. All of my successes mean nothing if I dont have my community. And your success doesnt mean anything without that, either. That is how I feel.

Oriana Koren / Special to the Chronicle

George McCalman is a San Francisco artist and creative director whose Observed appears in The Chronicle. Instagram and Twitter: @mccalmanco Email: culture@sfchronicle.com
MOSCOW  The Ukrainian police on Friday questioned Ukraines former president, Petro O. Poroshenko, after threatening to arrest him if he failed to appear, in what a growing chorus of critics including the European Union say is a politically motivated vendetta.

They say the failure of the United States to discourage the new Ukrainian governments legal assault on Mr. Poroshenko illustrates how the once-dominant American role and moral authority in Ukraines internal politics have been undermined by President Trumps efforts to persuade the countrys new leaders to investigate Mr. Trumps political opponents.

Political prosecutions have haunted Ukraine since independence. A former president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, in 2011 imprisoned the opponent he narrowly beat in a presidential race, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, and other opponents.

Mr. Poroshenko is not just a former president but also a prominent political opponent of President Volodymyr Zelensky, who won election last spring on an anti-corruption platform that included a pledge to end politically motivated investigations.
A homeowner from Oklahoma who had heard noises coming from his attic ended up finding a homeless man living there instead.

Suspicions were aroused when the Oklahoma City resident heard noises coming from within the ceiling.

The homeowner decided to investigate for himself and assumed that he would find a family of squirrels living there, scuttling around.

A man heard noises coming from his ceiling and assumed squirrels to be the cause

Oklahoma City police arrested the homeless man after he was escorted out of the attic

As he made his way to the top floor, he even grabbed his rifle and was prepared to be confronted by something even larger, such as a raccoon or opossum.

Instead he found a 28-year-old man lying on a mattress had been creating the disturbance.

The bizarre find was heard by emergency dispatchers as the resident asked for help to remove the uninvited guest, reports Local21.

The victim said he ordered the man to not move while he called 911.

The victim can be heard on the 911 call saying: 'He came in through the attic, he camped out overnight I need somebody here immediately. I have a gun on him right now.'

Upon going up into the attic he found a 28-year-old homeless man lying on a mattress

Police told KOCO: 'The homeowner thought he heard squirrels in his attic. And when he went up to investigate, there was actually somebody that appeared to taken up residence in his attic.

'Apparently, the residence has a staircase that goes up the side of the house with attic access, so that appears to be how the person got into the attic.'

During the 911 call, the homeowner could be heard directing the suspect out of the house while aiming a gun at them, saying: 'Grab your bag we're going downstairs.'

The man was able to access the attic by using an exterior staircase that led right up to the floor

By the time the man was able to get the man out of the house, police officers were waiting in his driveway to arrest him.

Police said the intruder was a homeless man. He was taken into custody and charged with first-degree burglary.

The suspect, who has not been named, is now in Oklahoma County Jail.
A woman has been killed and nine injured after a car ploughed into a cafe in Sydney's north-west in what emergency services have described as a "horrendous and chaotic" scene.

The Holden Commodore drove into diners at a cafe near the corner of Roma Street and Malton Road in North Epping about 10am on Friday, pinning at least two people against a wall, according to NSW Ambulance.

A 40-year-old woman was killed and nine others injured after a car crashed into a cafe in Sydney's north. Credit:Rhett Wyman

A 40-year-old woman was taken in a critical condition with serious abdominal injuries to Royal North Shore Hospital, where she died, police said.

The woman has been identified as Liz Albornoz, a mother of two young girls, according to Nine News. Paramedics treated nine others, including four who were taken to hospital in a stable condition.
Austria is implementing 26 investment projects in Russia, with their total cost exceeding 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion), the country's ambassador to Moscow, Johannes Eigner, has said in an interview with Sputnik

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2020) Austria is implementing 26 investment projects in Russia, with their total cost exceeding 4 billion Euros ($4.4 billion), the country's ambassador to Moscow, Johannes Eigner, has said in an interview with Sputnik.

"There is a whole range of investment projects with Austria's participation.

Apart from that, since 2007, meetings of the Austrian-Russian Business Council are conducted annually, during which working groups discuss specific possibilities for business. For example, last year [they discussed] mechanical engineering, energy, transport and other industrial arias. As many as 26 investment projects are currently being implemented, and their total cost exceeds 4 billion euros," Eigner said.
It's been a mediocre week for Chatham Lodging Trust (NYSE:CLDT) shareholders, with the stock dropping 16% to US$14.33 in the week since its latest annual results. Revenues of US$328m were in line with forecasts, although statutory earnings per share (EPS) came in below expectations at US$0.39, missing estimates by 7.1%. Following the result, analysts have updated their earnings model, and it would be good to know whether they think there's been a strong change in the company's prospects, or if it's business as usual. We thought readers would find it interesting to see analysts' latest (statutory) post-earnings forecasts for next year.

Check out our latest analysis for Chatham Lodging Trust

NYSE:CLDT Past and Future Earnings, February 28th 2020

After the latest results, the consensus from Chatham Lodging Trust's three analysts is for revenues of US$320.7m in 2020, which would reflect a noticeable 2.3% decline in sales compared to the last year of performance. Statutory earnings per share are expected to accumulate 7.6% to US$0.43. Before this earnings result, analysts had predicted US$325.0m revenue in 2020, although there was no accompanying EPS estimate. So we can see that while the consensus made no real change to its revenue estimates, analysts began providing earnings per share estimates, suggesting a heightened focus on the business' earnings after the latest results.

The consensus price target was unchanged at US$18.00, implying that the improved earnings outlook is not expected to have a long term impact on value creation for shareholders. Fixating on a single price target can be unwise though, since the consensus target is effectively the average of analyst price targets. As a result, some investors like to look at the range of estimates to see if there are any diverging opinions on the company's valuation. There are some variant perceptions on Chatham Lodging Trust, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$19.00 and the most bearish at US$16.00 per share. Still, with such a tight range of estimates, it suggests analysts have a pretty good idea of what they think the company is worth.

Story continues

One way to get more context on these forecasts is to look at how they compare to both past performance, and how other companies in the same industry are performing. We would highlight that sales are expected to reverse, with the forecast 2.3% revenue decline a notable change from historical growth of 7.0% over the last five years. Compare this with our data, which suggests that other companies in the same market are, in aggregate, expected to see their revenue grow 4.9% next year. It's pretty clear that Chatham Lodging Trust's revenues are expected to perform substantially worse than the wider market.

The Bottom Line

The biggest takeaway for us from these new estimates is the bullish forecast for profits next year. On the plus side, there were no major changes to revenue estimates; although analyst forecasts imply revenues will perform worse than the wider market. The consensus price target held steady at US$18.00, with the latest estimates not enough to have an impact on analysts' estimated valuations.

Still, the long-term prospects of the business are much more relevant than next year's earnings. At Simply Wall St, we have a full range of analyst estimates for Chatham Lodging Trust going out to 2021, and you can see them free on our platform here..

You can also see whether Chatham Lodging Trust is carrying too much debt, and whether its balance sheet is healthy, for free on our platform here.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Ogun state Commissioner for Health, Tomi Coker, has confirmed that an Italian man who tested positive for Coronavirus in Lagos on Frid...





Ogun state Commissioner for Health, Tomi Coker, has confirmed that an Italian man who tested positive for Coronavirus in Lagos on Friday morning had also visited Ewekoro in Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State this week.





The Italian citizen was also confirmed to have entered Nigeria on the 25th of February from Milan, Italy for a brief business visit.





Tomi Coker, however, urged residents and visitors not to panic.





Coker disclosed that the Italian visited a giant manufacturing company(name withheld) in Ewekoro community, adding that the facility visited has since been quarantined in accordance with the health safety standards.

The Commissioner, who abandoned her bed rest to attend to the public health emergency, while briefing the press on Friday morning, said the state has epidemiologists and Infectious Disease Consultant already handling the situation with support from the Lagos State Government and Federal Government.





She said efforts are in place to get in touch with people that have had contact with the established index case.





She advised the public to wash their hands regularly, cover their mouth and nose while sneezing or coughing and report to the nearest public health centre if they notice any sign of cold, cough and respiratory difficulty.
Chances, amounts of weekend snow still up in the air
Like Mobile World Conference and Facebook's F8, the 2020 Geneva Motor Show has been definitively canceled and will not take place this year. The Swiss government has imposed a ban on public gatherings of over 1,000 people that will go in effect immediately until at least March 15th, according to Swissinfo.ch and other sources. The Geneva International Motor Show (GIMS) has also started emailing manufacturers to give them the news, according to the BBC's Theo Leggett and other sources.

We regret this situation, but the health of all participants is our and our exhibitors' top priority," said GIMS chairman Murice Turrettini. "This is a case of force majeure and a tremendous loss for the manufacturers who have invested massively in their presence in Geneva. However, we are convinced that they will understand this decision."

The news is a massive blow not just for the show itself but the automobile industry in general. GIMS is one of the largest car shows in the world, so automakers have spent an enormous amount of time and money preparing new model launches. The show is particularly big for new and wild concepts -- this year, I expected to see BMW's new i4 concept, the Hyundai Prophecy concept, Polestar's Precept and other futuristic vehicles.

Up until today, Geneva Motor Show promoter Palexpo had been saying that the show would go on with increased cleaning and disinfection, along with warnings to staff to keep away from anyone who appeared to be sick. Now, the organization is saying that the show is definitively canceled and will not be held at a later time. However, exhibitors could still run virtual press conferences like Sony did for its latest Xperia phones.

"The financial consequences for all those involved in the event are significant and will need to be assessed over the coming weeks," the organization wrote in a press release. "One thing is certain: tickets already purchased for the event will be refunded."

The news represents a huge financial blow to the city of Geneva, exhibitors and the press, but Switzerland's federal council said that safety trumps any monetary concerns. As of today, up to 15 people in the nation were infected with the Coronavirus and around 100 are in quarantine. "[We have] categorized the situation in Switzerland as 'special' in terms of the Epidemics Act," the government said in a statement. "The Federal Council's top priority is to protect the population."
New Delhi, Feb 27 (UNI) The Congress on Thursday demanded Home Minister Amit Shah's resignation over the 'failure' of National Investigating Agency (NIA) to file a chargesheet against the accused of Pulwama attack, a claim which the NIA has refuted.

"It was an attack on the soul of India. The BJP wasted no time in using that attack to garner votes. They actually shamelessly used the martyrdom of our jawans, pasted their photographs in their election rallies. One year later, the so-called nationalism of the BJP stands exposed. A Delhi court has granted bail to Jaish e Mohammed terrorist Yusuf Chopan, accused of Pulwama attack conspiracy after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) failed to file a charge-sheet", Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said while talking to reporters at party headquarters.

The NIA, however, rejected the media reports and said that the accused Mr Chopan was never arrested in the Pulwama attack case that killed 40 jawan of CRPF February 14, 2019.

In a statement, issued by the agency, the NIA said that the accused Chopan was arrested in a case related to the Jaish- e- Mohammad (JeM) conspiracy case that pertains to a criminal conspiracy hatched by senior commanders of JeM to carry out terror attacks in different parts of India.

Responding to this, Mr Khera said that he has seen the NIA's clarification and added that it does not have water mark or signature.

"Is the government giving clean chit to JeM that they have no role in Pulwama attack? If it is not on Pulwama, and some other conspiracy case, then show us the FIR", he added.

He said that this is the same Jaish-e-Mohammed, responsible for the attack from Kandahar to the Parliament, whose terrorist was released by the BJP government

"You let go of such terrorist, and yet claim that you love the country. This is the biggest treachery and somebody has to be accountable. Whether it is the Home Minister, under whose watch we see failures every week, whether it is riots in Delhi, whether its the attack in libraries and campuses, whether it is breakdown of law and order across the country. The Home Minister is the biggest failure, the country has ever seen", Mr Khera charged.

He further said that "who will take responsibility for this failure? The Home Minister or the NIA chief or should I quote (NSA) Ajit Doval, who used some strange words yesterday in Delhi, 'jo huwa, so huwa' (What has happened, has happened). We cannot dismiss an attack on the soul of India by saying what has happened has happened".

"So we need answers, we need accountability, we demand resignation of the Home Minister. Where are you? You are expert in explaining the chronology. Please tell us the chronology in this case", Mr Khera added.

The Congress had already demanded Mr Shah's resignation over Delhi violence and even submitted a memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovind to demand his sacking for 'abdication of duty'.

UNI KNA AR 2113
Fake Democrat Bernie Sanders (a fake independent from Vermont who caucuses with whoever or whatever will have him) is also a fake socialist. Democrats in Florida have awakened to this basic understanding and are suing to keep him off the ballot there using this sensible and clear reasoning: "because he's not a member of the party."

The lawsuit, which was filed this week in Leon County, argues that Mr. Sanders of Vermont is an independent and thus ineligible for the March 17 primary. "Florida is a closed primary state, yet here we have someone who is an independent on the Democratic ballot," Karen Gievers, attorney for the two plaintiffs, told Politico for a report filed Tuesday. "You can't be an independent and be a member of the party."

Of course Sanders is no independent, either; he's a proud communist  go Cuba! go Venezuela! and of course yay USSR for honeymooning! which for him were nice places to visit but (alas! for us) he doesn't want to live there. Because the U.S. of A.  boo!  is the only place he could thrive, let alone survive.

While he self-labels, or identifies, to use a woke term, as a "Democratic Socialist," even the socialists  democratic or not  don't want him. According to an article in the Washington Free Beacon published four years ago, prior to his first attempt at winning the Democratic presidential nomination:

Bernie Sanders was asked to leave a hippie commune in 1971 for "sitting around and talking" about politics instead of working, according to a forthcoming book ... We Are As Gods by Kate Daloz[.]

Yes, that certainly sums up the current Democratic presidential frontrunner  even the socialists don't want him because even socialism demands work instead of climate change hot air theorizing. And he hasn't changed in the nearly 50 years since he first visited the commune, Myrtle Hill, in Vermont as a 30-year-old who had never collected a paycheck. (And you think today's Millennials are bad!)

Sanders spent his time at Myrtle Hill in "endless political discussion," according to Deloz. Sanders' idle chatter did not endear him with some of the commune's residents, who did the backbreaking labor of running the place. Daloz writes that one resident, Craig, "resented feeling like he had to pull others out of Bernie's orbit if any work was going to get accomplished that day." Sanders was eventually asked to leave. "When Bernie had stayed for Myrtle's allotted three days, Craig politely requested that he move on," Daloz writes.

Like other idealistic, unrealistic ventures of this kind, the commune itself eventually disintegrated and broke up as real life intruded and members more or less matured. More or less. Sanders, who never matured, never learned from reality, remained in Vermont where he continues to live off the labor of others with his talk  amazingly, with their permission. He was elected mayor of Burlington, then senator from Vermont.

And now, although he is not a Democrat, he is once again trying to win the Democratic nomination for president. Once again with their permission. It tells you a lot about the state of the Democratic Party. Even years ago, the kiddie socialists knew better.

Image: Phil Roeder via Flickr.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Feb. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The coronavirus outbreak has reached almost every continent, leading to reports of an impending global pandemic. Travel insurance comparison site, Squaremouth, urges nervous travelers not to rush to buy a policy now, and explains the only type of coverage that can still help.

Pandemic Declaration Doesn't Trigger Cancellation Coverage

By the time an event reaches the severity of warranting an official pandemic declaration, it is typically well known worldwide, through government alerts and media reports. Once an event becomes common knowledge, it also becomes excluded by travel insurance policies - this is because insurance providers consider it to have a foreseeable impact on travel.

Travelers who wait until an event occurs will find very limited coverage for that event on a standard travel insurance policy. Since the coronavirus outbreak began, Squaremouth is reporting a 208% increase in travelers looking for cancellation coverage. However, as all travel insurance providers now consider the coronavirus as an expected event, it is excluded from trip cancellation coverage.

Cancel for Any Reason Upgrade Available Even If Pandemic Is Declared

The only benefit Squaremouth is recommending for travelers who are looking to purchase a policy now, is the Cancel For Any Reason upgrade. This time-sensitive upgrade must be purchased within 21 days of the first trip booking and typically costs 40% more than a standard trip cancellation style policy. However, it can reimburse travelers 75% of their trip cost if they cancel their trip for a reason not otherwise covered by the policy, such as not wanting to travel due to the coronavirus.

In response to the outpouring of traveler concern over the coronavirus, Squaremouth created The Traveler's Guide to Travel Insurance for the Coronavirus . This Guide is designed to help travelers who are looking for a policy now, to better understand the coverage that is still available, as well as current policyholders who want to know their coverage and options.

ABOUT SQUAREMOUTH

SQUAREMOUTH compares travel insurance policies from every major travel insurance provider in the United States. Using Squaremouth's comparison engine and third-party customer reviews, travelers can research and compare travel insurance policies side-by-side . More information can be found at www.squaremouth.com .

Available Topic Expert:

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[email protected]



SOURCE Squaremouth

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This attack occurred even though the locations of our troops had been coordinated with Russian officials in the field, he told reporters in Hatay, a southern Turkish province bordering Syria, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. Akar said Turkey retaliated against Syrian forces by destroying helicopters, tanks, an air defense system and other hardware, and by killing more than 300 Syrian fighters.
WASHINGTON - Former White House counsel Donald McGahn can defy a congressional subpoena, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled Friday in a decision siding with President Donald Trump, who had blocked top advisers from testifying as part of the impeachment proceedings.

The 2-1 ruling by a three-judge panel, if it stands, means Trump's former lawyer cannot be compelled to appear on Capitol Hill, and comes after Democrats lost their bid to call additional witnesses during Trump's Senate trial.

The Justice Department had argued that the Constitution categorically bars the courts from stepping into this kind of dispute between the politically elected legislative and executive branches, and in a 37-page opinion, U.S. Circuit Judge Thomas Griffith wrote, "We agree and dismiss this case."

"The Committee's suit asks us to settle a dispute that we have no authority to resolve. The Constitution does not vest federal courts with some 'amorphous general supervision of the operations of government,'" Griffith wrote, drawing a concurring opinion from Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson and a dissent from Judge Judith W. Rogers.

The judges were reviewing a November decision from U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who upheld the House Judiciary Committee's August subpoena for McGahn. The judge rejected the White House's broad claim that top advisers like McGahn are "absolutely immune from compelled congressional testimony" and the assertion that the president can overrule current or former aides "own will to testify."

If McGahn wanted to refuse to testify - by invoking executive privilege, for instance - the judge said he had to do so in person, and question by question.

Trump had blocked McGahn's testimony, saying the key presidential adviser could not be forced to answer questions or turn over documents. At oral argument on Jan. 3, Justice Department attorney Hashim Mooppann urged the court to stay out of a political dispute between Congress and the White House. He said choosing sides would undermine "public confidence in the court."

The lawsuit was filed before the formal start of impeachment proceedings and the House vote in December to impeach Trump for his alleged effort to pressure Ukraine to conduct investigations that would benefit his reelection campaign. The Senate voted to acquit Trump on Feb. 5.

The committee had asked the court to enforce its subpoena for McGahn, who lawmakers have said is the "most important" witness on the question of whether Trump obstructed justice in special counsel Robert Mueller III's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Before Trump was acquitted, House lawyers told the court in early January that McGahns testimony was still critical to ongoing inquiry into the presidents conduct and suggested a third article of impeachment was on the table.
During a trial this week, Montgomery County prosecutors worked to persuade jurors that a 22-year-old man was the ringleader of a group that terrorized businesses throughout the Houston area during the summer of 2018 in armed robberies where two women were allegedly raped.

Marquis Deshawn Clark Jr., of Houston, is being tried for aggravated robbery in presiding Judge Lisa Michalks 221st District Court. The other three men, all from Houston, pleaded guilty to an armed robbery case out of Porter in the same district court. Montgomery County is the first jurisdiction where they have been tried. The other criminal cases against them were filed in Harris and Fort Bend counties.

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Many of the victims were said to have pleaded for their lives. In the first three days of trial, the most emotional testimony came from the alleged rape victim.

I was just trying to do whatever I could to not get hurt, the woman said Wednesday as she broke into tears on the witness stand.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: The Track: Open-air sex trade permeates daily life on Houstons outskirts

To identify Clark, prosecutors relied on testimony from two of the men already convicted. The perpetrator they identified as Clark donned a skull-print mask obscuring his face, along with red gloves.

Rape allegations

At the time of the assault, the woman was employed at the Exotic Superstore on the 15000 block of Eastex Freeway in Humble. Authorities said four men on Aug. 23, 2018 committed armed robbery during the womans overnight shift. In her testimony, she spoke about being raped by one of the already convicted men. The woman said the masked man prosecutors are identifying as Clark was a second assailant in her sexual assault.

The men, she said, approached the store as she wiped down a table in the front and she spotted one of them wielding a gun.

MORE FROM JOSE R. GONZALEZ: Willis man charged after DNA links him to teenage rape victim

I already knew off the bat, that something was gonna happen, she said as she broke into tears.

An unmasked man approached her with a firearm ordering her to take him to the register, she said. She was eventually forced to perform oral sex in the break room by that man and by Clark, she said. One of Clarks alleged accomplices who testified during the trial said the defendant had told him as much.

She was left alone in the break room where she hit the silent panic button which prompted police to the site.

The alleged first assailant, LeCharles C.W. Martin Craige, 19, was sentenced in May to 50 years in prison. Craige has not been convicted of aggravated sexual assault in Humble which is in Harris County, but the September 2018 affidavit states he admitted to the rape and implicated Clark in it and in the armed robbery.

Robbers testify

The pair of men already convicted that prosecuting Assistant District Attorneys Rob Freyer and Taylor Teissier called to testify appeared in court handcuffed and in their pinstripe uniforms.

Trenton Letroy Jackson Jr., 22, and Cameron Walter Dillon Lucas, 19, took the witness stand. Jackson was sentenced to 40 years but remains at the Montgomery County Jail and Lucas has been serving out his 30-year sentence at the Lewis Unit in Woodville for the past 10 months.

On the stand, Jackson on Tuesday said the four hit up the adult novelty store upon Clarks insistence after not grabbing as much money as expected during a robbery earlier at a Circle K located at 21997 FM 1314 in Porter. While there, they held a cashier at gun point, which jurors saw in surveillance video footage. At the location, Jackson said Clark aimed a gun at a couple in the parking lot. The man and woman also testified.

We gotta get some money. We didnt come out here for nothing, Jackson said Clark told the group about robbing the Exotic Superstore.

Jackson said the men ambushed the stores male security guard, who himself testified the red-gloved man ordered the others to shoot him. The men did not heed the demand, but did take his 9mm handgun and the keys to his sedan, the security guard said on the witness stand. Jurors saw images of the security guard being kicked on the leg by one of the men while he was on the floor.

Alerted by the panic button in the breakroom, police pursued the stolen getaway vehicle Jackson was driving up to 80 mph before he crashed. The four men, Jackson said, fled on foot. Craige was apprehended, leading to the others eventually being taken into custody.

Lucas on Wednesday testified to previous robberies he said the four men, including Clark, were involved in. One of these was at a McDonalds on the 2400 block of FM 1960 near Kuykendahl Road in Houston where Lucas said a female employee struck Jackson in the head with a coffee pot.

The prosecution later in on Wednesday reviewed for jurors the visual evidence from that case where a Harris County Sheriffs deputy said Clark discharged his gun at the employee, hitting the spout off of a tea container.

Jackson and Lucas said Clark would often check online to see if any of the robberies had made it in the news.

Motions for mistrial

Clarks defense attorney, Robert Bartlett, in his cross-examination asserted Jackson and Lucas were unreliable witnesses. He mentioned how Jackson had stolen the truck the group drove to Exotica Superstore, stressing how he was the driver in the high-speed police chase and the one who got off to check the Circle K before it was robbed.

While questioning Lucas, who appeared to have difficulty remembering many details, Bartlett mentioned he was involved in 20 robberies and signaled out his sentencing for being 10 to 20 years less than the two other convicts. Clark is being tied to less robberies.

Would you agree with me that you got the best discount? Bartlett asked Lucas.

Questioning the accuracy of eye witness testimony, Bartlett pointed to the fourth mans masked appearance. A cashier at the Circle K admitted he initially mistook the assailants as a group of six. The man robbed at gunpoint in his car outside the convenience store said he could not identify the masked assailant as the defendant in court.

Some of the evidence led to contentious moments between Freyer and Bartlett, who motioned for a mistrial at least three times during Wednesdays court proceedings. Bartlett argued Freyer brought forth surveillance images or initiated a line of questioning not properly submitted for admission as evidence. Judge Michalk denied each motion.

The court Thursday morning reconvened for a third day of testimony by law enforcement officials from the Houston Police Department and Fort Bend County. A second sexual assault victim is expected to testify Friday.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

twitter.com/jrgzztx
The Uttarakhand Congress on Friday accused its political rivals of creating a wrong perception about disunity in the party's state unit and affirmed that it will defeat the BJP in the 2022 Assembly polls.

Factionalism in the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC)had come to the fore after the announcement of the party's new executive committee for Uttarakhand with MLAs loyal to former chief minister Harish Rawat alleging they had not got positions they deserved.

"Disunity in the PCC is just a perception created by our political rivals. We are firmly united and all set to decimate the BJP in 2022 assembly polls," All India Congress Committee (AICC) incharge for Uttarakhand Anugrah Narayan Singh told PTI.

Citing the example of the party's recent 'Lantern Rally' in Haldwani to make his point, Singh said all party heavyweights from the state including Rawat, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Indira Hridayesh and PCC chief Pritam Singh came together at the dais to give a call for uprooting the "saffron misrule."



"The rally, where all party leaders shared the dais with each other, is enough to shatter the wrong perception created by our political adversaries about disunity and factionalism in the PCC," he said.

The Haldwani rally of the Congress was aimed at highlighting the state government's alleged failure to carry out development.

"We are all set to avenge our defeat of 2017 in 2022 state assembly elections," Singh said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 13:30:25|Editor: huaxia

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SUVA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Climate change contributes to disease outbreaks in Fiji and the region, said a Fijian government minister on Friday.

Speaking at a symposium in Suva, capital of Fiji, Minister for Health Ifereimi Waqainabete said the biggest driver for the disease outbreaks is climate change, and this is now becoming a household topic in the region.

The minister said global studies suggested the effects of climate change is expected to affect a wide range of environmental and social determinacy of health.

He said other extreme weather events contribute to a series of challenges, ranging from food security to scarcity of drinking water, which increases the number of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

He said the symposium would serve as a platform to also acknowledge local researchers for conducting and upholding high quality and high standards of research in Fiji.
Theres a lot of political hot air and insincere rhetoric floating around Springfield about a proposal filed in the General Assembly this week that would allow voters to consign legislative gerrymandering to the ash heap of Illinois history.

But truer words were never spoken when Madeleine Doubek, executive director of Change Illinois, warned of the negative consequences of a failure to put this measure on the November 2020 ballot.

The time for an end to gerrymandering is now so that were not saddled with another 10 years of maps that stifle competition and suppress voters choices, Doubek said.

That, of course, is just what Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, and, most probably, new Senate President Don Harmon are counting on  being able to draw new state legislative district maps that stifle competition and suppress voters choices through 2032.

Thats why legislators now stand at a fork in the road. One way  preservation of the current gerrymandering process  leads to more of the same  non-competitive House and Senate elections where the winners have been pre-determined. The other offers voters the prospect of more competitive elections that feature greater choice and a potential modification of the permanent political control that feeds elected officials self-interests.

To qualify for the ballot, the proposed constitutional amendment  HJRCA 41  must receive the support of three-fifths of both the House and Senate. To become part of the Illinois Constitution, the measure would have to be approved by three-fifths of voters.

If it should happen to be put to a vote, the measure is expected to pass. Public opinion polls show overwhelming support for the idea of stripping incumbent legislators of the power to draw their own districts  in effect, picking their own voters.

But the bigger question is whether either Madigan or Harmon would ever let the measure be put to a vote in the legislative bodies they control.

Further complicating the matter is that Gov. J.B. Pritzker has all but abandoned his support for the amendment. He claimed to back the measure when he ran for election in 2018. But he said recently hell review whatever maps Madigan sends him and decide whether he approves.

The amendment proposed by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans would put an end to that type of political influence.

It would require 17 members of an independent commission appointed by the state Supreme Court to draw legislative boundaries for members of the U.S. House of Representatives as well as the state House and Senate. The panel would be barred from basing their mapping decisions on partisan factors.

Democratic state Sen. Melinda Bush said its necessary the measure become law because gerrymandering is ruining our democracy.

Gerrymandering refers to the ancient practice of drawing legislative maps in a way that gives members of the map-drawers party a distinctive political advantage.

As a consequence of gerrymandering in 2011, Democrats currently enjoy super-majorities in both the House and Senate.

The next round of map-drawing is scheduled for 2021 following the 2020 Census. The process is supposed to ensure that House and Senate districts are roughly equal in population, but it has historically lent itself to exploitation by self-interested legislators.

The practice is not just an issue in Illinois, but all across the nation. A number of states have revised their redistricting processes in a way that bars the relentless partisanship featured in Illinois.

While proponents of the measure face an uphill battle, their goal is to place enough pressure on fellow legislators that they will, in turn, pressure Madigan and Harmon to allow the measures to be put to a vote in the House and Senate.

Its hard to imagine Madigan ever yielding on the issue in a sincere way. Indeed, an undetermined number of legislators who have publicly embraced reform are counting on either Madigan or Harmon to kill it behind the scenes.

Thats the way politics is played in Illinois. The state is not only relentlessly corrupt, but its leaders are also devious and cynical. Nonetheless, a bipartisan group has launched an effort to enact a meaningful and structural change in the way business is done.

If they dont win on this measure, the people of Illinois will lose.

 News-Gazette, Champaign
The number of FIRs filed for Delhi riots more than doubled in the last 24 hours to reach the figure of 123 whereas the total number of detentions/arrests reached 630-mark on Friday evening, said Delhi Police.

We have registered 123 FIRs so far, around 630 people have been arrested detained/arrested, said MS Randhawa, Delhi Police PRO.

48 FIRs had been registered till Thursday morning and the jump may indicate investigations into the three-day long riots may be picking up pace.

Watch | Delhi violence | 123 FIRs, 630 arrested till now in north east clashes: Police

Delhi police had transferred all riot cases to two SITs constituted in the crime branch on Thursday evening and directed that all FIRs registered in various police stations in the riot-hit northeast Delhi area be transferred to the team.

Delhi police was pulled up by the Delhi High Court on Wednesday over alleged laxity in registering FIRs against people whose statements may have stoked the violence in the city that has claimed at least 42 lives since Monday morning.

The police force was asked to view videos of political leaders provocative speeches and register FIRs for hate speech, however, the order was relaxed next day allowing the Centre time till April 13 to respond.

Ex-Congress municipal councillor Ishrat Jahan, arrested in connection with the violence in Khureji Khas area on February 26, was denied bail by a court on Friday. The court said the charges against her were serious.

The police also started an outreach programme with its officials meeting religious figures including Imams and Maulavis of mosques in the riot-hit areas of Kardampuri and Kabir Nagar.

Several residents from the affected areas have claimed the presence of outsiders among the rioters.

Senior police officials took stock of the situation keeping Friday prayers in mind and amid apprehensions that some miscreants may take advantage of large gatherings create unrest, they said.
(CNN)  At least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Syria's Idlib province on Thursday in an aerial attack by Syrian regime forces, according to Gov. Rahmi Dogan of Turkey's Hatay province.

Thirty-five soldiers injured in the attack have been evacuated to hospitals in Turkey, Dogan said.

A security meeting is being held at the presidential palace after the "nefarious attack against heroic soldiers in Idlib who were there to ensure our national security," according to a statement from Turkish director of communications Fahrettin Altun.

Turkey has retaliated in an effort to "revenge our martyred heroic soldiers," the statement said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg following the Syrian attack, according to a statement released by the ministry. There were no further details about the content of the call.

The Syrian government has not commented on the Turkish claim. The Russian Defense Ministry denied that its air force carried out strikes in the area of Idlib where the Turkish soldiers were located. Moscow said Turkish forces were "located near the areas where terrorist groups were situated" and then "came under fire from Syrian forces."

Turkish soldiers are in the last rebel-held area of Syria as part of a 2018 de-escalation agreement between Ankara and Moscow. The Syrian government, backed by Russia, has mounted an aggressive air campaign against rebels in Idlib in recent weeks.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the last opposition-held territory in Syria in the last two months, per Unite Nations figures, in the wake of an air campaign and swift ground offensive by the Syrian regime and its Russian backers.

Tens of thousands are still on the move, and nearly 700,000 of the displaced are women and children, the UN said.

A spokesperson for the State Department said the United States is "very concerned."

"We are in contact with Turkish authorities to confirm these developments and to have more clarity on the current situation on the ground," the spokesperson said.

"We stand by our NATO Ally Turkey and continue to call for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "At least 33 Turkish soldiers killed in an air attack by Syrian regime, Turkish governor says"
Job

Title: Purchasing Clerk

Organisation: United States US Embassy, US

Mission in Uganda

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

Salary: UGX 43,091,326 /=

Open to: All Interested Applicants / All Sources

Position Number: Kampala-2020-016

About US Embassy:

The United States Embassy in Kampala, Uganda has enjoyed

diplomatic relations with Uganda for over 30 years. Ambassador Deborah R.

Malac currently heads the U.S Mission to Uganda. The Mission is composed

of several offices and organizations all working under the auspices of the

Embassy and at the direction of the Ambassador.

Among the offices operating under the U.S Mission to Uganda

are:

United

States Agency for International Development (USAID)

States Agency for International Development (USAID) Centers

for Disease Control (CDC)

for Disease Control (CDC) Peace

Corps

Job Summary: The Purchasing Clerk serves as Locally

Employed (LE) Staff Procurement Clerk for the U.S. Mission in Uganda, which

includes a chancery, New Office Building (NOB) and New Office Annex (NOX),

large warehouse complex, 113 owned or leased residences, USAID, Centers for

Disease Control (CDC), National Institute of Health (NIH), Department of

Defense (DOD) and other government agencies. Provides a variety of supplies and

services in support of 30 agencies utilizing contracts, purchase orders,

purchase card, blanket purchase agreement, and against existing General

Services Administration (GSA), Department of State or other U.S. Government

(USG) contracts. This includes gathering market research and supporting the

procurement agents in acquisition of locally sourced requirements and hard to

find items. This includes utilizing Ariba to prepare documents and purchase

orders, dispatching the same to vendors and tracking of these orders to ensure

delivery and eventual payment and closure of the file.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

NOTE: All applicants must address

each selection criterion detailed below with specific and comprehensive

information supporting each item.



The applicants for the United States US Embassy Purchasing

Clerk job opportunity should have completed secondary school



At least two years of experience in procurement,

purchasing, supply management, or clerical work is required.



Grasp U.S. Government regulations and their

application to specific situations, in-depth use of catalogs and equipment

indexes is required.



Knowledge of host government local market

practices and suppliers. Familiarity with local and international sources of

supply and procurement procedures is required.



Good organizational skills, sense of priorities,

ability to understand and process various types of USG documents, computer

skills in various programs. This may be tested.



Language: English level III (Good

working knowledge) Reading/Writing/Speaking is required. This may be tested.

How to Apply:

All those interested in working with the US mission in

Kampala should send their applications online at the link below.

Click

Here

Deadline: 9th March 2020

For more of the latest

jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com or

find us on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline
The creator of the Edutainment Movement in Spanish programming in United States, Jackeline Cacho in her new autobiography Mi Mochila Emocional (My Emotional Backpack), lays bare her personal saga. For years she dealt with debilitating anxiety and panic attacks. She hid her condition from the public during her rise to prominence as a most respected national journalist and successful talk show host.

In her own words, Cacho details how she suffered in silence with this condition and how, armed with courage, determination, and surprising allies, was able to overcome it and transform her life at every stage of her career development. Jackeline bravely shares a detailed narrative, with plenty of anecdotes, about one of the most difficult phases of her life. This battle forced me to fully evaluate the importance of my life, I believe we all are Spiritual Warriors, we have to find the force that can help us to overcome anything, said Cacho. I hope that my own experiences will help the millions who suffer every day from anxiety and panic attacks and helps them realize the best roads to treatment and recovery.

In her book, Cacho realizes that she could not have overcome her ordeal without the help and support of her family, specially her mother and very special friends and supporters. Former Mayor of San Antonio and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Henry Cisneros, writes in the books forward:

The happy, the difficult and, at times, scary moments in her life have all been turned into invaluable lessons and recounted in Jackelines honest autobiography, so that we can apply them to todays world. Her story is a narrative of talent, of ambition, of family support, of courage, of determination, of vision and of hard work.

"Jackeline Cacho is an extraordinary human being. We need to be thankful that this multimedia star has chosen to share her ups and downs and ideologies with us in writing. This way we can read it, keep it, re-read it, discover her teachings and cherish it for years to come along with our most valuable possessions.

Thank you Jackeline Cacho for the support you have given our community.

The book Mi Mochila Emocional (My Emotional Backpack) also includes a detailed study on anxiety and panic attacks.

So far this year Jackeline Cachos book Mi Mochila Emocional (My Emotional Backpack) has stood out as one of the most read and searched for by readers. It has been selected in the March edition of the prestigious magazine People en Espanol, in the Good Reading Section, where there are only three books in total. The prestigious Colombian writer and Nobel Prize Winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the Spanish writer Javier Cercas accompany the Peruvian journalists book.

In February, the magazine Para Todos also included a very positive article praising Jackeline Cachos career and the launch of her new book: Jackeline Cacho continues to spread her message of hope, hard work, determination and her commitment to her Latina roots in every new project she undertakes.

In January she was on the cover of Business Woman Magazine, where there was a seven-page spread on the success of this multimedia star. Her credibility and effort have been the keys to the success for this wonderful presenter who travels the world flying the flag for peace and success. She continues to make a mark on younger generations Latinos Unidos Somos Imparables (Latinos United are Unstoppable) in the face of whatever adversities they may experience, as she demonstrates in her first book Mi Mochila Emocional (My Emotional Backpack), said the magazine.

Jackeline Cacho awards and accolades include her most recent:

In 2019 Entrepreneur of the Month award from the Latinas in Business Organization, in New Jersey.

In 2018, she was invited to be the presenter of a United Nations (ONU) initiative in New York. She supported the launch of  The Spotlight Initiative from the United Nations and the European Union.

In 2018, Spokesperson for The Spotlight Initiative to promote the initiative supported by the United Nations and the European Union in Latin America.

In 2017, she was a speaker at the International Women Leadership conference held in Israel, where she also received an award for her leadership qualities.

In 2016, she was named Woman of the Year in Media presented to her by US Congress, from Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez.

In 2014, she was named "Outstanding Woman of the Year by the Spanish-language newspaper "La Opinion" in honor of her efforts in the field of education and for inspiring the Latin community.

In 2010, she was named One of the most influential Latinas by Latino Leader Magazine.

You can find more information of Jackeline Cacho and Mi Mochila Emocional (My Emotional Backpack)

Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1645507920/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_awdo_rjKvEb9G8AQ

Jackeline Cacho website: http://www.jackelinecacho.com
You wouldnt know it from news coverage in the aftermath of Texas hailstorms or Florida hurricanes, but U.S. homeowner insurers are doing a better job than ever of pleasing their customers when responding to claims, according to J.D. Power.

Results of the firms Property Claims Satisfaction Study released Thursday showed that overall customer satisfaction with the property claims process had reached a record high 881 on a 1,000-point scale.

Home insurers have spent a great deal of time and money refining their claims processing capabilities through a combination of improved client relationship management, enhanced technology and improved quality control, stated David Pieffer, property and casualty lead for insurance intelligence at J.D. Power.Getting this formula right is critical for insurers because any customer perception of undue effort or unnecessary delays experienced on the part of the customer in the claims process is directly correlated with increased shopping for a new insurer.

Amica Mutual scored the highest in claims satisfaction for a ninth consecutive year, with a satisfaction rating of 902. The Hartford ranks second with a score of 896, followed by Farmers with a score of 893.

One insurer scored even higher than Amica, but it wasnt listed in the rankings because it doesnt meet the survey criteria. USAA scored a 904. J.D. Power excluded it from the list because the carrier sells only to military families, not the general public.

J.D. Power said two factors most likely to persuade consumers to shop for new policies were claim-related premium increases and too much effort required to get claims resolved. When insurers dont measure up in those areas, overall satisfaction decreases by 85 points and customers become 13.5 times more likely to shop for a new policy.

The score for property claims was the highest rating of all of J.D. Powers consumer satisfaction studies for service industries in the United States and Canada. By comparison, auto claims scored 868, mail order pharmacy 867 and direct banking 860, the company said.

The survey showed that consumers like being able to file claims electronically and enjoy self-management tools, but they dont want to be too high tech. J.D. Powers said 27 percent of customers still prefer the entire claims process to be handled offline and just 4 percent said they would prefer a digital-only claims experience.

J.D. Powers survey included responses only from consumers who had experience filing a claim, so the high satisfaction rankings stand in sharp contrast to some of the press coverage about the way insurers respond to claims.

The Dallas Morning News Watchdog column raked USAA over the coals last November for receiving an F rating by the Better Business Bureau. The newspaper profiled one complaint by a homeowner who had been fighting the carrier for 18 months to get his roof replaced after a hailstorm.

The bureau told the newspaper that USAA did not report how it resolved 45 complaints that were reported to it. Also, USAA had paid $15 million to settle a complaint by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for mishandling personal back accounts.

A spokesman for USAA told the Morning News that his company has chosen not to share with the Better Business Bureau what actions it has taken to resolve complaints. He noted that USAA is regulated by the Texas Department of Insurance, which has posted data showing it received relatively few complaints compared to other carriers.

Insurers carriers got similar bad press after Hurricane Irma made landfall in the Florida Panhandle in 2017. The state Office of Insurance Regulation reported a year after the storm had passed that 8% of the claims filed for hurricane damage were still unresolved. Consumers groused during legislative hearings that carriers had made low-ball offers, or blamed flooding for damages that had clearly been caused by wind.

The J.D. Power survey measured satisfaction with the property claims experience among insurance customers who have filed a claim for damages by examining five factors: settlement; claim servicing; first notice of loss; estimation process; and repair process. Responses came from from 6,025 homeowners insurance customers between April and December 2019.
In the lower layers of the liquid gallium (centre), the atoms are located closer and closer to the horizontal position of the atoms in the crystal lattice (dots), as the X-ray investigation has shown. It also revealed surprisingly many defects in the upper layer of the crystal.

Using a special pressure furnace, an international team of researchers has analysed the initial stages of the growth of the semiconductor gallium nitride with X-ray light. The observations show for the first time the atomic structure of the interface of the semiconductor material with liquid gallium under gentle growth conditions, as the team around Elias Vlieg from the Radboud University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands reports in the journal Physical Review Letters. The study is a first step towards a better understanding of the growth of this promising semiconductor material and to a better control of its growth.

Gallium nitride is a mixture of the metal gallium and nitrogen, and is now the second most important semiconductor after silicon, explains lead author Aryan de Jong, who wrote his doctoral thesis on this topic at Radboud University and is now working on gallium nitride applications in the semiconductor industry. This is mainly due to blue light-emitting diodes, which cannot be produced on a silicon basis, but with gallium nitride. In addition, gallium nitride is also interesting for other devices, as its larger band gap enables more stable devices, which is an advantage in harsh environments such as on satellites.

However, the production of suitable substrates, the so-called wafers, from gallium nitride is relatively complicated and costly. For blue light-emitting diodes, the material is usually condensed from the gas phase. This is fairly easy to do, but the number of defects is relatively high, which is not so critical for light-emitting diodes, but for components such as microchips, says Vedran Vonk from the DESY-Nanolab, the corresponding author of the publication. What we are therefore looking for is an industrial process that allows gallium nitride to grow from a liquid with significantly fewer defects.

Currently, this requires a pressure of several thousand atmospheres and high temperatures well above thousand degrees Celsius, which makes gallium nitride wafers expensive and severely limits their widespread application. However, what all liquid production processes have in common is the liquid-crystal interface which can already be examined at gentler conditions.

The researchers used a tailor-made pressurized furnace to examine the growth interface of a gallium nitride crystal with atomic precision using X-ray light. To this end, they placed a thin slice of a gallium nitride crystal in the furnace and placed a cylindrical container filled with liquid gallium on top, open at the bottom and sealed at the sides. Gallium already melts at about 30 degrees Celsius. The scientists filled the furnace with nitrogen up to 30 times atmospheric pressure and heated it to 850 degrees Celsius. This does not yet correspond to the production conditions for large gallium nitride crystals, but it does provide insight into some of the basic processes involved in the growth of the crystal, explains Vlieg.

The team used the X-ray light from the European Synchrotron Radiation Source ESRF in Grenoble (France) to examine the surface of the gallium nitride disk in the hot pressurized furnace. The experiments revealed that the uppermost crystal layer had many more defects than expected  about every fourth gallium atom is missing in the crystal lattice, reports Vonk. They also showed that in the liquid gallium above the semiconductor crystal, layers form in which the gallium atoms of the liquid are located closer and closer to the gallium atoms of the crystal as they approach the boundary layer. This order and layering has never been observed before to this detail.

The two unexpected observations improve our understanding of the growth of this promising semiconductor material and could help to discover a way to a simpler and more controllable production process. They also contribute to a better fundamental understanding of the processes at interfaces between liquid and solid phases of a metal.
By Stephanie Nebehay and Ryan Woo

GENEVA/BEIJING (Reuters) - The coronavirus spread further on Friday, with cases reported for the first time in at least six countries across four continents, battering markets and leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise its impact risk alert to "very high."

Hopes that the epidemic that started in China late last year would be over in months, and that economic activity would quickly return to normal, have been shattered.

World shares were on course for their largest weekly fall since the 2008 financial crisis, bringing the global wipeout to $5 trillion as supply chains were disrupted, travel plans postponed and major events cancelled.

The WHO said it was raising its assessment of the global risk to 'very high' from 'high', which its head of emergencies Dr Mike Ryan said was intended to put national authorities on full alert.

"I think this is a reality check for every government on the planet - wake up, get ready, this virus may be on its way and you need to be ready," Ryan said.

The latest WHO figures indicate over 82,000 people have been infected, with over 2,700 deaths in China and 57 deaths in 46 other countries.

Mexico, Nigeria, New Zealand, Lithuania, Belarus and Azerbaijan reported their first cases, all with travel history connected to epicentres in Italy and Iran. Mexico is the second Latin American country to register the virus, after Brazil.

The Nigerian case, an Italian man, is the first in sub-Saharan Africa. The man travelled through the capital and other parts of Nigeria for almost two days before he was isolated and quarantined, authorities said, underlining the difficulties already overstretched health services will have in containing the disease.

Potentially making it even harder to eradicate, a growing number of discharged coronavirus patients in China and elsewhere are testing positive again, sometimes weeks after being allowed to leave the hospital.

Story continues

In addition to stockpiling medical supplies, some governments ordered schools shut and cancelled big gatherings to try to halt the flu-like disease. Switzerland cancelled next week's Geneva international car show, one of the industry's most important gatherings.

The New York Stock Exchange said it had "robust contingency plans" to allow it to continue operating if its floor had to close.

SURGING OUTSIDE CHINA

The outbreak appears to be easing in China, where it first emerged late last year in an market illegally trading wildlife.

Mainland China reported 327 new cases in the last 24 hours, the lowest in the country in more than a month, and China's three biggest airlines restored some flights.

But the virus is surging elsewhere. Countries other than China now account for about three-quarters of new infections.

South Korea, with the most cases outside China, reported 571 new infections on Friday, bringing the total to 2,337, with 13 people dead.

The death toll in Italy rose to 21, with nearly 900 testing positive. Cafes and schools have been closed as daily life has ground to a halt.

The WHO's Ryan said Iran's outbreak may be worse than realized. Its toll of 34 dead is the highest outside China, although there are reports of much higher numbers. A WHO team is expected to be in Iran by Sunday or Monday.

In the United States, the outbreak of the new coronavirus and efforts to prepare for its possible spread have become political in a presidential election year.

Federal government health officials told lawmakers the country had insufficient testing resources, a source said, and Democratic presidential candidates slammed the government's response. But the White House played down the coronavirus crisis and called the high level of news coverage a ploy to hurt U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration plans to use defence legislation to boost production of protective gear like masks and gloves, the health secretary said.

Online retailer Amazon.com joined other companies in implementing travel restrictions for its employees.

Japan is scheduled to host the 2020 Olympics in July but Ryan said discussions were being held about whether to go ahead. Organizers will decide next week on the ceremonial torch relay, due to arrive on March 20 for a 121-day journey.

Confirmed cases in Japan have risen above 200, with four deaths, excluding more than 700 cases on a quarantined cruise liner, Diamond Princess. Six people from the ship have died, including a man who was reported on Friday as the first British person to die from the disease.

[Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus: open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.]

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Ryan Woo, Yingzhi Yang in Beijing, Lisa Lambert and Mark Hosenball in Washington, Sangmi Chai in Seoul, Leika Kihara in Tokyo, Kate Kelland in London, Tsvetelia Tsolova in Sofia, Michael Shields and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi in Zurich, Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico City; Writing by Nick Macfie and Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Timothy Heritage and Grant McCool)
Vanderpump Rules star Scheana Shay took to social media on Friday beg fans for help finding her cousin, who has been missing for three days.

The 34-year-old reality star updated fans, while traveling in London, on the search for family member Phil Tate, 67, who was last seen at the Westmont Village retirement facility in Riverside, California, on Tuesday.

Despite several sightings and a Silver Alert activated by the California Highway Patrol, the senior citizen, who suffers from dementia and diabetes, has not be located.

Family crisis: Vanderpump Rules star Scheana Shay took to social media on Friday to beg fans for help finding her cousin, who has been missing for three days

'My mom and I are here in London feeling helpless,' Shay said in an Instagram Story on Friday across the pond. 'We still haven't found him, so anyone in the Riverside area, please keep your eyes out.'

On Friday, Scheana also defended her decision to share selfies and fun video footage from her trip in London in between updates on her family's crisis.

'I just want to say one thing to a few people, who said me posting my trip is insensitive in light of going on with my family, but there's literally nothing else I can do other than post,' she said in a video holding an umbrella.

Controversial: On Friday, Scheana also defended her decision to share selfies and fun video footage from her trip in London in between updates on her family's crisis

Missing: Scheana's family is searching for her cousin Phil Tate, 67, who was last seen at the Westmont Village retirement facility in Riverside, California, on Tuesday

She explained: 'Hopefully posting about London more people see the story about our cousin.'

After three respective sightings at the Mission Grove Shopping Center on Wednesday, no more leads have been reported.

'We are sad, scared and desperate to find Phil as he has been suffering from dementia in the last year and is unfamiliar with the area where he was reported missing,' the family told People in a statement.

The family revealed he prefers 'open land rather than the city,' but are 'keeping an open mind' for the search.

They added: 'We love our Phil and just want him back home with us.'

The family shared that their cousin typically resides on a ranch and loves the outdoors.

Update: On an Instagram Story she wrote, 'He is not from the area so he will definitely be confused and disoriented'

Shay's mom, Erika van Olphen, is particularly concerned about him because he does not have his medication and isn't from the area.

On an Instagram Story she wrote, 'He is not from the area so he will definitely be confused and disoriented.'

She also expressed gratitude to the family members friends of her cousin for joining in search, revealing many have 'driven/ walked miles and miles in all directions from where he was last seen.'

The family is keeping a close eye on churches, homeless shelters, hospitals and parks, but are staying active on social media because the reach is 'insane.'

While the updates, van Olphen wrote, 'I never know who might see this and be able to provide ANY information to help.'

Many of Shay's Vanderpump Rules costars, including Kristen Doute, Stassi Schroeder, Lala Kent and Brittany Cartwright, encouraged fans to look around and help with the search.
MIDDLE EAST

Yemen

Expected Council Action

In March, the Council is expected to hold its monthly briefing on Yemen with Special Envoy Martin Griffiths and a representative of OCHA. General Abhijit Guha, the head of the UN Mission to support the Hodeidah Agreement (UNMHA), is expected to brief during consultations. UNMHAs mandate expires on 15 July 2020.

Key Recent Developments

Following several months of relative calm, heavy fighting resumed in mid-January between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebel group in the Nihm district and in Al-Jawf, Marib and Saada governorates. The escalation has included a considerable increase in airstrikes by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition backing the government. It has also featured Houthi cross-border aerial attacks against Saudi Arabia, which had completely ceased after late September 2019. Following the Houthis downing of a Saudi fighter plane on 14 February, Saudi airstrikes that were widely seen as retaliatory killed as many as 31 civilians in Al-Jawf on 15 February, according to a statement by OCHA.

Despite the escalation, the first medical flights transferring patients out of Sanaa for treatment abroad brought a total of 28 people to Egypt and Jordan on 3 and 8 February. An agreement to open the UN-operated air bridge out of Sanaa airport, which had been closed to civilian air traffic since August 2016, was announced by the coalition in late November 2019. The parties to the conflict participated in a meeting of the Supervisory Committee on the Implementation of the Prisoner Exchange Agreement from 10 to 16 February in Amman and agreed on a detailed plan to complete the first large-scale exchange of prisoners, according to a joint statement by the Office of the Special Envoy and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

At an 18 February Council briefing, Griffiths sounded a sombre tone over the escalation, stressing that progress achieved during the latter part of 2019 was at grave risk of being undone. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock reiterated the importance of a nationwide ceasefire to avoid the risk that violence might spiral out of control. Lowcock also raised new alarms about Houthi restrictions on aid operations that, he said, were not consistent with humanitarian principles, describing the situation as unacceptable. He said that he hoped the Houthis would implement recent announcements to drop a proposed two percent tax on non-governmental organisations and to fulfil a long-standing agreement with the World Food Programme on biometric registration. Lowcock warned that donors might suspend funding if they do not believe aid is going to the intended beneficiaries.

Lowcock and Griffiths both stressed the need for a UN assessment mission to finally gain access to the moored SAFER oil tanker off the Ras Isa oil terminal, which risks causing a catastrophic oil spill in the Red Sea. Lowcock and Griffiths further recalled that the medical air bridge out of Sanaa must be able to run flights regularly, as thousands of people require treatment abroad. In consultations, Council members were briefed by General Guha of UNMHA.

Sanctions-Related Developments

At the 18 February Council meeting, the chair of the Yemen 2140 Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Inga Rhonda King (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), briefed on the work of the committee, covering its activities since the last briefing by the chair on 15 May 2019. She noted the committees consideration of Panel of Experts recommendations from its 2019 reporting and final report in January. King called on the parties to the conflict to investigate and prosecute members who violate international humanitarian law (which was one of the Panel recommendations to the committee). According to King, the committee also recently considered a request by Khalid Ali Abdullah Saleh to delist his father, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who died in December 2017, but said that the committee had not approved the petition. On 25 February, the Council adopted resolution 2511, renewing asset freeze and travel ban sanctions until 26 February 2021 and the mandate of the Panel of Experts until 28 March 2021. (The targeted arms embargo against the Houthis is open-ended). This followed a difficult negotiation, with 13 members voting in favour, while China and Russia abstained. Regarding the arms embargo, the US detained a dhowa traditional shipin the Arabian Sea on 9 February that it said was transferring Iranian arms, including anti-tank and surface-to-air missiles, to the Houthis. During the Councils February briefing on Yemen, US Ambassador Kelly Craft said evidence from the seizure had been made available to the UN.

Key Issues and Options

The military escalation is threatening to severely undermine progress made towards resuming peace talks during the latter part of 2019. Critical issues for the Council include how to support de-escalation efforts, restart negotiations for a political settlement to the conflict, and further implement the December 2018 Stockholm Agreement between the government and Houthis and the November 2019 Riyadh Agreement between the government and the separatist Southern Transition Council.

The humanitarian crisisthe largest in the world, with 24 million people requiring assistanceremains severe. OCHA usually briefs on five key priorities to mitigate the situation: the protection of civilians, humanitarian access, a fully funded aid operation, support for Yemens economy, and the need for a political solution.

Council members are likely to monitor and be prepared to react further to developments, having called for an immediate cessation of these hostilities in a 30 January press statement. The Council could consider adopting a presidential statement reiterating this call and emphasising the need for the parties to return to the negotiating table. Regarding the humanitarian situation, in resolution 2511 renewing the sanctions, the Council expressed serious concern over hindrances placed on delivering assistance, singling out increased interference in Houthi-controlled areas and emphasised the need, without delay, for UN access to inspect and maintain the SAFER oil tanker that is located in the Houthi-controlled north. A next step may see donor countries suspend funding for aid operations if Houthi interference or restrictions continue.

Council Dynamics

Council members have been quite united on Yemen. At the 18 February session, they called for the parties to de-escalate and emphasised the importance of restarting peace talks. Moreover, while the session had initially been scheduled solely as consultations, it was apparently decided to include a public session to raise widespread concerns about increasing Houthi interference with humanitarian operations and failure to allow the UN assessment mission to gain access to the SAFER oil tanker.

Council unity was strained during negotiations on the sanctions resolution. Differences included whether to refer to the Panel of Experts findings that the Houthis have continued to receive arms with characteristics similar to those produced in Iran. The US, in particular, at times seeks to highlight what it perceives as Irans destabilising role. This has been a red-line for Russia, which it described last month as being counter-productive.

The UK is the penholder on Yemen.

UN DOCUMENTS ON YEMEN
ASIA

DPRK (North Korea)

Expected Council Action

In March, the Council is expected to extend the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1718 Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) Sanctions committee.

The panels mandate expires on 24 April.

Key Recent Developments

The New Years speech by DPRK leader Kim Jong-un signalled a possible new direction for the country in 2020. He called on the population to be ready to be self-reliant, possibly marking the end of an opening-up that had led to an almost two-year rapprochement between the US and the DPRK. He also announced that the DPRK would no longer be constrained by a self-imposed moratorium on testing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and nuclear weapons.

In the past two years, diplomatic activity has generally taken centre stage. In the second half of 2019, however, the DPRK stepped up both its hostile rhetoric and its ballistic missile testing. Since May 2019, the DPRK has conducted over a dozen ballistic missile tests in violation of Council resolutions. In December 2019, it carried out ground tests that could bolster its nuclear deterrent capacity. The DPRK conducted what it called a very important test at one of its launching stations, which it said would help change the countrys strategic position. Since starting talks with the US in 2018, however, the DPRK has refrained from testing ICBMs.

In March 2019, the vote on the draft resolution for the Panel of Experts mandate renewal was postponed for several weeks. The US and Russia disagreed over mentioning the impact of sanctions on the humanitarian situation in the DPRK and Russias request that OCHA periodically report to the Council on this issue. As a compromise, committee members agreed to address the humanitarian situation in the DPRK within the committee and hold briefings by OCHA every six months. During the informal consultations held on 2 December 2019, OCHA briefed the committee.

This concern over the humanitarian impact of sanctions was evident in a draft resolution China and Russia circulated on 16 December 2019. It called for a partial lifting of sanctions, for ensuring the unobstructed and timely provision of aid, and for members to intensify their efforts in providing humanitarian assistance to the DPRK. Following two rounds of expert-level negotiations in December, the draft resolution was not actively pursued in light of members widespread view that any easing of sanctions would be premature.

At press time, the chair of the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Christoph Heusgen (Germany), is expected to brief Council members in consultations on 27 February on the 90-day report about the committees work. The committee has discussed the final report, which is expected to be circulated to the Council by 5 March, if approved by all members.

Key Issues and Options

For the last two years, the Council has maintained a relatively low profile on the DPRK, with most diplomatic activity taking place outside its purview. Following Kims threat to resume testing of ICBMs and nuclear weapons, a key issue is whether the Council needs to pay closer attention to the potential destabilisation of the peninsula. An option would be for Council members to issue a statement addressing the need for stability to be maintained on the peninsula, for diplomatic talks to resume, and for sanctions to be implemented.

A continuing issue is the effectiveness of sanctions on the DPRK. While the panels reports regularly detail violations, divisions among Council members have made it difficult for the committee to adopt the panels stronger recommendations. An option, particularly if the March report reveals significant breaches of sanctions, is for the Council to consider ways of ensuring stricter sanctions enforcement.

In the last two years, the Council has tried to balance the pressure of sanctions with providing space for diplomatic activity. With the stalemate between the US and the DPRK since the Hanoi summit in February 2019, the Council may need to consider alternative diplomatic strategies, including encouraging talks with regional players and the UN.

Although the DPRK has not reported any cases, an emerging issue is the potential impact of a novel coronavirus outbreak on the humanitarian situation in the DPRK and how to manage humanitarian exemptions around this.

Council Dynamics

Members continue to be divided over their approach to the role of sanctions in addressing the nuclear threat posed by the DPRK. The US has been a strong proponent of maintaining the policy of maximum pressure until the DPRK takes concrete steps toward denuclearisation. The EU members of the Council are generally supportive of this approach. On the other hand, China and Russia have shown interest in considering some form of sanctions relief. It is possible that members divergent views will result in difficult negotiations of the draft resolution renewing the Panel of Experts.

The US has been reluctant to address the DPRKs ballistic missile tests in light of its diplomatic efforts. On the other hand, several other Council members, particularly European members, have pushed for discussions following the tests last year. It remains to be seen whether the US position will change if it becomes clear that the diplomatic track is closed and the DPRK conducts further tests.

Although the March report is unlikely to be blocked by any member, China and Russia may question the methodology used, as they have in the past, and request further evidence for some of the panels findings. Although the report has not been published and is meant to be confidential, it has been leaked to the press, and China has expressed its unhappiness and concern over the leak. Responding to media accounts based on the report that China has been involved in violating the coal sanctions, it has stressed that it fulfils its international obligations related to resolutions on the DPRK.

The US is the penholder on the DPRK, and Germany chairs the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE DPRK
The BJP on February 28 hit back at Congress president Sonia Gandhi for reminding the Centre of its 'rajdharma', as it alleged that the communal violence in northeast Delhi was an outcome of "instigation" by Opposition leaders.

The BJP's remarks came a day after the Congress leaders, led by Sonia Gandhi, met President Ram Nath Kovind and submitted a memorandum demanding resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah for "abdication of duty" during the communal violence in northeast Delhi. She had also reminded the Centre of its 'rajdharma' and protecting the people from all faiths in the country.

Addressing a press conference at the party office, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said Shah was very proactive from the very first day of the violence to stop it.

Asked about controversial remarks made by the BJP leaders like Kapil Mishra and Pravesh Verma, Prasad said the party doesn't approve such statements.

"Sonia Gandhi, please don't preach us 'rajdharma'; your record is full of twists and turns," Prasad said, while adding that NPR was started by the Congress-led regime.

"If Congress does something, it is good. But if we do the same thing, they provoke the people. What type of rajdharma is this?" he asked.

Referring to the Congress chief's remarks of "fight to finish" at a rally in Ramlila Maidan last year, Prasad asked whether such remarks do not constitute provocation.

The Union minister alleged that the Congress could stoop to any level for "vote-bank" politics, adding that it should act responsibly for maintaining peace and harmony in country.

He accused the Congress of changing its stand on granting citizenship to persecuted minorities in the neighbouring countries.

"For Congress, the party and the family comes before the country," he alleged.
Billionaire and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said the coronavirus that has killed at least 2,859 people and infected more than 83,700 globally may be the "once-in-a-century pathogen we've been worried about."

"I hope it's not that bad, but we should assume it will be until we know otherwise," Gates wrote in an article published Friday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Gates and his wife, Melinda, founded The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2000 to help improve world health and combat extreme poverty. The foundation announced Feb. 5 that it would donate $100 million to help find treatments and expand testing for the virus, particularly for poorer populations.

According to Gates, COVID-19 poses a serious threat to the world because it's far more deadly and contagious than many other deadly viruses.

"First, it can kill healthy adults in addition to elderly people with existing health problems," he wrote. "Second, Covid-19 is transmitted quite efficiently. The average infected person spreads the disease to two or three others  an exponential rate of increase." World health leaders say the disease is spread by people who are mildly ill or don't show any symptoms at all, making it harder to contain and more contagious than other types of viruses.
Beijing has accused the United States of trying to block China's candidate from heading the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo) at the United Nations ahead of the election next week.

Chen Xu, China's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, told reporters on Wednesday that Washington had turned the director general election on March 5 and 6 into a "political game" by rallying opposition to Beijing's runner, Wang Binyang.

"The United States has no candidate of its own, yet it tries every means to block Ms Wang Binyang and even makes this venture its top diplomatic agenda," Chen said.

"It is sad that the United States has gone so far as to warn some medium and small countries not to vote for China, or they will face consequences such as weakened relations with the United States or losing their World Bank and IMF loans."

Wang Binyang, China's candidate in the Wipo director general election, is currently in charge of agency's brands and designs department. Photo: Handout alt=Wang Binyang, China's candidate in the Wipo director general election, is currently in charge of agency's brands and designs department. Photo: Handout

The dispute comes amid a deepening strategic rivalry between Beijing and Washington, with China becoming increasingly assertive on the world stage as US President Donald Trump has withdrawn from international agreements and agencies, including the UN's heritage body Unesco and the Human Rights Council.

America's efforts to thwart the election of Beijing's candidate at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in August fell flat, with Qu Dongyu securing overwhelming support with a 108-12 vote.

US officials have publicly opposed Wang's candidacy, citing concerns about Beijing's record on intellectual property protection. She joined the Wipo in 1992 and is currently deputy director general in charge of the brands and designs sector.

Story continues

While she is widely seen as the front-runner to replace Australian Francis Gurry, the US is reportedly assembling support for Singaporean candidate Daren Tang, chief executive of the city state's intellectual property office.

The US failed in its efforts to thwart the election of Qu Dongyu to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation in August. Photo: Xinhua alt=The US failed in its efforts to thwart the election of Qu Dongyu to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation in August. Photo: Xinhua

The 83 Wipo member states that make up the coordination committee will vote next week and their decision will be finalised later at a general assembly of all 192 UN member states. Since the agency was established in 1967 to promote intellectual property protection, the general assembly has never rejected a nominee chosen by the coordination committee.

Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, on Wednesday accused Washington of trying to "oppress China" by pressuring other countries to drop their support for Wang "under the banner of 'Anyone but China'".

"They've even tried to threaten and blackmail those countries by cutting aid and other disgraceful means. As China makes an all-out effort to fight the Covid-19 epidemic, the US colludes with other countries to sabotage the Chinese candidate's election," he said, referring to the coronavirus epidemic.

In an apparent acknowledgement of Beijing's growing influence at the United Nations, the US in January appointed senior state department official Mark Lambert to the Bureau of International Organisation Affairs to "ensure the integrity of multilateral organisations" and resist the "malign influences" of China and other nations within the global body.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on February 13 that Washington was tracking the Wipo election "very, very closely", and was engaged in conversations to ensure the nominees respected the rule of law and intellectual property rights.

China's policy on intellectual property protection and cybertheft has been one of the key issues in the prolonged trade war between Beijing and Washington.

Peter Navarro says handing the Wipo reins to a Chinese representative "would be a terrible mistake". Photo: EPA-EFE alt=Peter Navarro says handing the Wipo reins to a Chinese representative "would be a terrible mistake". Photo: EPA-EFE

Peter Navarro, assistant to the US president on trade and manufacturing policy, said in a Financial Times article on Sunday that handing the Wipo reins to a Chinese representative "would be a terrible mistake", and was part of Beijing's strategy to gain control of the UN's 15 specialised agencies.

Including the FAO, Chinese officials head four UN agencies, the others being the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the International Telecommunication Union, and the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

China's influence in international bodies has seen UN support for its infrastructure development plan known as the Belt and Road Initiative and the increased sidelining of Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing claims as part of its territory.

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This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright  2020 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Three federal agencies on Friday released a long-awaited report on the environmental impact of breaching four dams on the lower Snake River, rejecting removal in favor of increasing spill to help endangered fish stocks.

While electricity providers and industry groups welcomed the report, environmental groups reacted with swift condemnation. They have advocated for removal of the dams to aid in the recovery of endangered salmon on the Snake and Columbia rivers. Along with other environmental factors, the dams have hastened the decline of native fish that migrate up the rivers to spawn. Salmon are also a key food source for Southern Resident orcas, which live in the ocean waters off the Pacific Northwest.

Quinn Read, Northwest Program Director, Defenders of Wildlife

The Northwest doesnt have to choose between orcas and clean energy or between coastal fishing and inland farming; we can ensure a future for wildlife and communities by working with all stakeholders on a plan that meets everyones needs. Unfortunately, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement falls far short of this vision. We need members of Congress and our governors to build on the collaborative conversations occurring across the region to create a wholistic plan that restores the Snake River before we lose our orcas forever.

Todd True, Attorney, Earthjustice

Its time for all of us to work together to forge a comprehensive solution that restores abundant salmon, invests in communities and ensures clean, affordable power into the future. Rather than seize this opportunity to heed the publics call for working together for a solution that revives salmon populations, the draft plan is built on the same failed approach the courts have rejected time and again. We need a different approach and leadership from elected officials, like Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, to solve this problem.

Nic Nelson, Executive Director, Idaho Rivers United

It is clear that we need our leaders to take science-based positions on salmon and steelhead recovery and work toward solutions that protect all stakeholders on Lower Snake River restoration. The DEIS ultimately falls far short of providing a long-term recovery strategy for Idahos salmon. Our river communities desperately need strong and bold leadership on both state and federal levels to accomplish recovery goals.

Liz Hamilton, Executive Director, Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association

The fish populations the sportfishing industry relies on for livelihoods are being devastated. This DEIS seems destined to create more jobs for lawyers than the outdoor recreation industry that is so important to our region. What we need is political leadership that can help us develop a comprehensive solution that provides for communities, salmon, and clean energy across the Northwest.

Bill Arthur, Chair, Snake/Columbia River Salmon Campaign, Sierra Club

The need to forge a solution that will rebuild abundant salmon and steelhead runs, restore the Snake River and assure reliable/affordable clean energy and keeps all communities strong is more important than ever. Orcas also need Snake River chinook salmon as do sport, commercial, and tribal fishing communities and economies. Unfortunately the DEIS continues the failures of the past by proposing a preferred alternative that fails to accomplish these essential goals. We can utilize some of the good information and analysis in the EIS but must create a larger solutions dialogue to move a comprehensive solution forward.

-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048

@sfkale
Climate campaigners in Norway are taking the government back to court over its approval of oil exploration in a part of the northern Arctic believed to contain untapped oil riches, but which environmentalists say is a fragile ecosystem that serves as the Arctics biological motor.

In a case that has dragged on since Oslo ratified the Paris Agreement in 2016, local NGOs Greenpeace Nordic and Nature and Youth this week asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on a decision to grant 13 oil and gas exploration licences.

Despite being twice defeated in lower courts, the lawsuit has made Norway accountable for emissions created by the oil it exports to other countries, and has established the state is constitutionally obliged to ensure a safe and clean environment.

Campaigners say Norway has a responsibility not to produce more fossil fuels than the global climate can handle, arguing the world has already discovered more coal and gas than it can burn if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change.

While a favourable Supreme Court decision could significantly impact the petroleum industrys hopes of expansion, the goal has never been to stop all new oil licences, says Therese Hugstmyr Woie, head of Nature and Youth.

These most vulnerable areas  in the far north of the Barents Sea  are where we must keep the oil in the soil, she said. We already have oil drilling all over our coast  so let's not make more of our country dependent on the oil industry.

Oslo estimates the Barents Sea is home to billions of barrels of untapped oil  or about two-thirds of the oil and gas reserves that have yet to be discovered off its coast.

As a major oil and gas exporter, Norway is one of the worlds richest countries  with a walloping sovereign wealth fund that makes each of its citizens a crown millionaire.

Fossil fuel giant also a pioneer of green energy

When it struck pay dirt in the North Sea in 1969, Norway was catapulted to the top of the economic pile  the riches of the Norwegian Continental Shelf funding world-class health and education systems, as well as a healthy state pension.

Story continues

Since its Eureka moment, this Scandinavian powerhouse has been steadfastly supplying the world with oil, and feeding gas to Europe via a network of pipelines spanning thousands of kilometres.

Remarkably, at the same time Norway has carved out a place for itself as a pioneer of green energy, building an array of geothermal, hydropower and wind stations that scatter the landscape and draw attention for their striking design that complement nature.

Ninety-eight percent of Norways electricity production is generated by renewable energy sources  most of which is hydropower, which turns flowing water into electricity.

Thanks to its fjords, rivers and coastline spanning the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea, Norway was clearly made for hydropower, which has been part of its history since the late 19th century.

Along with Finland and Japan, Norway is leading the world in clean energy innovation relative to the size of its economy  spending big on public clean energy research and development.

Its all the more impressive for a country that is among the worlds top exporters of crude oil.

This apparent contradiction is something David Boyd, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, has termed the Norwegian paradox": the fact Norways leadership in addressing the climate crisis is largely thanks to its oil wealth.

Boyd has said Norway needs to work harder to wean itself off its dependency on oil, while critics warn this dual role is unsustainable, saying Norway cannot have it both ways.

For now, environmental groups must wait until the spring to learn if the Supreme Court will pick up their case. It comes amid fears a ruling against oil would condemn Norway's generous social welfare system.

Hugstmyr Woie is adamant Norways future oil and gas fields should be off-limits, and that opening them up during a global climate emergency is unacceptable.

The government is saying that we have the cleanest oil and that our gas exports to Europe are combatting coal  but we think thats a big lie.
Congress activists in



different parts of Odisha staged demonstrations on Friday against Union Home Minister Amit Shah, demanding his resignation in the wake of communal clashes in Delhi.

The Congress's state unit, which was opposing Shah's two-day visit to the state, organised demonstrations in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Bhadrak and Atahgarh, among other places.

"Shah is the home minister of the country, he should take moral responsibility for the communal clashes in the national capital and resign," said senior Congress leader Bhakta Charan Das.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Buttigieg cant seem to attract minority voters to save his political life. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Youve may have heard a lot about the Super Tuesday strategies of candidates like front-runner Bernie Sanders and free-spending Michael Bloomberg. You may be aware that Joe Bidens in pretty good shape across that 14-state landscape, thanks to his perfect name ID and base among minority voters. For what its worth, Elizabeth Warren may yet reap dividends from her early organizing efforts in Super Tuesday states despite her recent troubles.

But the forgotten candidate as the calendar speeds along is one of the contests early stars, Pete Buttigieg. He finished basically tied with Sanders in Iowa, then ran second in New Hampshire and third in Nevada. Hes second behind Bernie in total delegates won. Yet he approaches Super Tuesday having to scrounge for delegates in limited pockets of the map.

True, unlike Biden and Sanders, Mayor Pete isnt looking for some pre-Super Tuesday springboard in this weekends South Carolina primary. In the most credible late poll of Palmetto State Democrats, from Monmouth, Buttigieg is in a weak fifth place at 6 percent. If he gets any attention on primary night at all, it will probably be to note his continued struggles to secure minority support (Monmouth has him at 2 percent with African-Americans). And that same problem will hamper him in a number of Super Tuesday states with large minority populations (California, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Virginia among them).

The Buttigieg campaign does not have the resources to carpet-bomb rural areas like he did in Iowa and Nevada. So its having to be very selective in how at approaches Super Tuesday, as Politico reports:

Despite a brutal Super Tuesday map unlikely to hand him any statewide wins, the former South Bend mayor is looking to reinforce his claim as a Democratic alternative to Bernie Sanders by racking up delegates in individual congressional districts on Super Tuesday 

Buttigieg is focusing on selected districts in smaller media markets throughout the country to rack up delegates, from Austin, Texas and its suburbs to San Diego, northern Maine, and other locales where Democrats flipped House seats in 2018.

These smaller (and hence less expensive) media markets are also in areas less dominated by minority voters than others. Pete is playing the bad hand dealt to him:

Buttigieg doesnt have the money to compete more broadly across the 14 Super Tuesday states, like Bernie Sanders and especially Mike Bloomberg  Hes not wading into more favorable demographic territory, like Joe Biden in the other Southern states coming up. And hes not getting the benefit of home-state primaries on March 3 like Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren.

Hence the high likelihood that hell get skunked when it comes to statewide primaries. FiveThirtyEights projection of Super Tuesday delegate hauls based on the premise of a modest Biden win in South Carolina shows Buttigieg picking up 69 delegates on March 3, just over half of Elizabeth Warrens 136 (though a lot more than Amy Klobuchars 38).

The calendar gets a bit better for Pete after Super Tuesday; March 10 features several western and midwestern states where he might do well if he doesnt run out of money. On March 17 Illinois and Ohio beckon. But his own Indiana doesnt vote until May 5. And his hopes of becoming a rallying figure for anti-Sanders moderates took a big hit with Joe Bidens revival in Nevada and likely win in South Carolina.

So while a Buttigieg path to the nomination was never clear, and you can argue he has already massively exceeded any reasonable expectations, its looking a bit grim for the 38-year-old former mayor right now. Say what you will about the three old men at the top of the Democratic national polls right now. Each of them in his own way has demonstrated a diverse base of support. Pete Buttigieg really hasnt, and that may be the death of his 2020 candidacy.
Chris Lewis, the political newcomer challenging five-term Congressman Mo Brooks in next weeks Republican primary, announced an endorsement late Thursday night that figures to resonate throughout the 5th Congressional District in north Alabama.

State Rep. Mac McCutcheon, one of the state's most powerful politicians by virtue of his position at Speaker of the House, gave his support to Lewis while at the same time stinging Brooks.

Related: AL.coms 2020 primaries coverage

Many people and organizations across north Alabama have discussed with me that it is time to make a change in our congressional seat, McCutcheon said in the Lewis press release that quoted from a You Tube video uploaded Thursday.

Attempts by AL.com to reach McCutcheon for comment on Thursday night were not successful.

The subject line of the emailed press release also made note that Lewis, and not Brooks, received the House speaker's endorsement: "Republican Speaker of the House Endorses Chris Lewis Over Congressman Mo Brooks."

Brooks is seeking a sixth term in the U.S. House of Representatives and earlier this month received an endorsement from President Donald Trump.

Related: Will north Alabama voters seek a change from Trump-backed Mo Brooks?

McCutcheons backing of Lewis, however, is coupled with an endorsement from the Alabama Farmers Federation  which backed every congressional incumbent in Alabama seeking re-election except Brooks. McCutcheon is a native of Madison County and lives in Monrovia  just outside Brooks hometown of Huntsville.

Lewis served 23 years in the Navy before retiring to his hometown of Florence in 2014.

Chris has proven his commitment to our nation through his military service," McCutcheon said. I believe Chris has the heart of a servant leader and would be a fine Congressman for north Alabama.

Brooks and Lewis are the only Republicans on the ballot in the GOP primary. There is no party-qualified Democrat, which means the GOP primary winner will be unopposed in the November general election barring a successful write-in campaign.

In a statement to AL.com Friday morning, Brooks criticized the work of McCutcheon in Montgomery by saying he has worked to raise taxes. The legislature last year raised the state gas tax as part of Gov. Kay Iveys Rebuild Alabama infrastructure plan.

The first announced project with the increased gas tax funds was to build additional traffic lanes on I-565 in Huntsville. Construction is expected to begin in the spring.

I have the strong endorsement of President Trump, a man I worked with to cut taxes on American families and secure Americas borders, Brooks said. In contrast, Chris Lewis has the endorsement of legislator Mac McCutcheon, whose greatest expertise has been raising taxes on struggling Alabama families.

Updated today, Feb. 28, 2020, at 9:12 a.m. with statement from Brooks.
STORY LINK Pound Canadian Dollar (GBP/CAD) Exchange Rate Rises as Oil Prices Slump to One Year Low

Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar (GBP/CAD) Exchange Rate Jumps as Oil Price

We have to believe that the Covid-19 virus will be contained sooner rather than later. Im optimistic we should see some positive news by mid next week at the latest

Subsequently, the sudden drop in demand will rise back just as suddenly, to at least 75% to 90% of prior levels. The rise back will be spurred by current low prices.

Sterling (GBP) Rises as UK Confidence Jumps to 18-Month High

Were not picking that up yet at all in the European and UK economic indicators, but if the world is slower than the UK, a very open economy, will have an impact.

Pound Canadian Dollar Outlook: Weak Canadian GDP to Weigh on CAD

Like this piece? Please share with your friends and colleagues:

The Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar (GBP/CAD) exchange rate edged higher on Friday, leaving the pairing trading at around CA$1.7326.Friday saw oil prices plummeted to their lowest level in more than a year while prices were also set for the largest weekly fall in over four years.The spread of Covid-19 heightened fears global demand for oil will slide, weighing on the oil-sensitive Loonie.Investors continued to worry as the coronavirus has spread beyond China, to more than 50 countries. Added to this, the number of reported cases outside of China has exceeded those reported inside the country.However, some believe that the recent sell-offs will be reined in as fears over demand decrease.According to Sukrit Vijayakar, director of energy consultancy Trifecta:The Pound rose against the New Zealand Dollar after data revealed that UK consumer confidence rose in February.GfK showed that confidence rose to the highest level since August 2018, providing GBP with some support.Confidence was supported by optimism about the UK economy, which increased the willingness to purchase big-ticket items.Despite the UK being locked into a transition period ahead of UK-EU trade talks, recent data has suggested the economy is beginning to rebound.However, GfK warned that the outbreak of coronavirus would start to impact consumers as the number of cases in the UK increased to 19.Meanwhile, Bank of England (BoE) Governor, Mark Carney warned the country should prepare for an economic hit as the virus continues to spread.During an interview with Sky News, he stated:Looking ahead to this afternoon, the Canadian Dollar (CAD) could extend its losses against the Pound (GBP) following GDP growth figures.If GDP disappoints in the final three months of 2019, the Loonie will continue to decline.Meanwhile, if oil prices continue to slide significantly, the oil-sensitive Canadian Dollar will remain under pressure.If oil prices suffer the largest weekly fall in over four years, the Pound Canadian Dollar (GBP/CAD) exchange rate will rise higher.

International Money Transfer? Ask our resident FX expert a money transfer question or try John's new, free, no-obligation personal service! ,where he helps every step of the way, ensuring you get the best exchange rates on your currency requirements.

TAGS: Pound Canadian Dollar Forecasts
Punjab could have built three medical colleges, two industrial parks, two 4-lane highways, a 100-bedded hospital, among other infrastructure related projects with Rs 10,530 crore that was paid for debt servicing of the cash credit limit debt account of Rs 30,000 crore, inherited from previous SAD-BJP government.

Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal who presented his state budget for 2020-21 on Friday informed the state assembly that the state would pay whopping Rs 10,530 crore on account of servicing of the long term the cash credit limit (CCL) debt account by March 2020, while blaming the previous government for creating the debt of Rs 30,000 crore.

The state can visualise how much development we could have done if the previous government had not left us this legacy, said Badal in the House.

He said with Rs 10,530 crore, the government could have built two four-lane highways, three medical colleges, a 100-bedded hospital, senior secondary school, ITI in each constituency, two 500-acre industrial parks and a Rs 1,000 crore dedicated corpus fund for farm research.

This (Rs 10,530 crore) is only one sixth of the total burden of Rs 57,358 crore that each Punjabi will have to discharge till September 2034, he said.

Just imagine, six times of the above infrastructure that we could have created had this deal not been signed by the previous government. Just calculate the economic multiplier effect of this huge capital investment that could have happened, he said.

The legacy debt of Rs 30,000 crore was created by the erstwhile SAD-BJP government which, in the last leg of its tenure in 2017, had persuaded the Centre to convert the CCL gap into a clean long term loan for the state.

The debt servicing of this amount would alone amount to Rs 3,240 crore per annum till September 2034. This will result in a total outflow of Rs 57,358 crore during the repayment tenure of the loan.

The CCL debt account arose because of the mismatch between cash credit availed for procuring wheat and paddy and foodgrain stocks in the account books of the state procurement agencies since 2004.

The Rs 31,000 crore included Rs 12,000 crore principal and Rs 19,000 crore interest and Punjab has been paying Rs 3,240 crore interest per annum on it which it has to pay for 20 years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
[February 28, 2020] Global Workspace as a Service (WaaS) Market and Global Business-Process-as-a-Service Market 2020-2025 Growth Trends, Enterprise Demand, Cost Analysis, Latest Technology, Key Companies and Applications

Dallas, Texas, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Workspace as a Service (WaaS) Market 2020-2025:

The driving factors influencing the Global Workspace As A Service (Waas) Market includes growing demand of device-independent and remote access to leading business applications and corporation data and need of reducing capital expenditure of organizations. As workspaces as a service industry offers hosted on-premises solutions and infrastructure with the support of third part infrastructure, the global workspace as a service (waas) market is on the verge to witness escalation in the near future. Moreover, the solutions and services in the global workspaces as a service market is also offer every individual user the flexibility of virtual desktop, applications, or corporate data for the professional to access anytime, anywhere with the use of smartphones, e-reader or tablets. Request a sample of this report @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/4312023 Workspace as a service (WaaS) is a type of desktop virtualization that corporations utilize to present their employees with access to business-related information and data from any place at any time, using the employee's device of choice. The Workspace as a Service (WaaS) market was valued at USD 4.90 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 8.54 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 9.7% over the forecast period 2020 - 2025. With WaaS solutions, employees can log into the provider's service and be presented with a virtual workspace desktop environment that appears and functions like their exact physical office desktop. This way, WaaS solutions allow employees to be more prolific and capable of obtaining critical applications and data, notwithstanding their geographical location. Organizations are realizing the benefit of WaaS that enables them to become less constrained by geography and reducse infrastructure managing costs while maintaining their employee experience. Companies Mentioned:

Amazon Web Services Inc.

VMware Inc.

Citrix Systems Inc.

Microsoft Corporation

Getronics NV

Unisys Corporation

NTT DATA Corporation

Colt Technology Services

Cloudalize NV

Dizzion Inc. Browse the complete report @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/reports/index/workspace-as-a-service-waas-market-growth-industry-analysis-trends-and-forecasts-2020-2025 Rising adoption of BYOD across various industries, ease of deployment, scalability and quick availability, and increasing demand for affordable virtual desktop virtualization are set to boost the growth of the global WaaS market. Furthermore, due to the availability of technological devices such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, professional can easily access their business virtually with the help of devices. Bring your own devices has emerged as a worldwide technological trend allows users to connect from any remote location across all the region. The Workspace as a Service Market is anticipated to project tremendous growth in the global workspace as a service (waas) market owing to the growing presence of BYOD applications. Key Market Trends: Telecom and IT to hold a Major Market Share The telecom and IT sector has witnessed a high penetration rate of BYOD and cloud computing. The sector has been an early adopter of WaaS. The IT sector considered for the study includes enterprises that are into consulting and offering IT-based products and services. Therefore, most of their manufactured assets are intangible and include a broad range of enterprises. Since software applcations allow organizations to derive revenue from digital business channels, there is a stronger need to automate and release new applications and functionalities. This need has also led to a shift to the cloud, owing to the cost benefits.



Huawei Technologies, a prominent player in the telecom industry, migrated its R&D center in India to its own cloud computing platform called Desktop Cloud. By migrating its computing and storage to cloud, the company was able to save almost 88% of the overall expenses, compared to that of the traditional desktop environment.

North America to hold a Major Market Share With relatively high rates of BYOD in the region, the need for securing enterprise data and finding cost-efficient ways of managing IT deployment is evident in the region.

According to a Cisco study, US workers save an average of 81 minutes/ week by using their own devices. Almost half of all North American enterprises/workplaces had adopted BYOD in 2016, according to a Avaya, a prominent technology company in the United States. Such figures indicate the implementation and satisfaction levels of BYOD across US enterprises, thus providing scope for the vendors in the market. With strong economic growth in the region, enterprise expansion across the region is expected. Therefore, the BYOD trend, in addition to enterprise growth, provides opportunities for the vendors in the market. Make an enquiry of this report @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/4312023 Table of Content:

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Scope of the Study

1.2 Study Deliverables 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Study Deliverables

2.2 Study Assumptions

2.3 Analysis Methodology

2.4 Research Phases 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4 MARKET DYNAMICS

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Supply Chain Analysis

4.3 Industry Attractiveness Porter's Five Forces Analysis

4.3.1 Threat of New Entrants

4.3.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers/Consumers

4.3.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.3.4 Threat of Substitute Products

4.3.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry

4.4 Introduction to Market Drivers and Restraints

4.5 Market Drivers

4.5.1 Rising Adoption of BYOD across Various Industries

4.5.2 Increasing Demand for Affordable Desktop Virtualization Solutions

4.6 Market Challenges

4.6.1 Software Integration Challenges

4.6.2 Network Performance and Bandwidth Issues 5 MARKET SEGMENTATION

5.1 By Deployment

5.1.1 Public

5.1.2 Private

5.1.3 Hybrid

5.2 By Solution and Service

5.2.1 Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

5.2.2 Application as a Service (AaaS)

5.3 By Enterprise

5.3.1 Small and Medium Enterprises

5.3.2 Large Enterprises

5.4 By End-user Vertical

5.4.1 Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)

5.4.2 Education

5.4.3 Retail

5.4.4 Government

5.4.5 Telecom and IT

5.4.6 Healthcare

5.4.7 Other End-user Verticals

5.5 Geography

5.5.1 North America

5.5.2 Europe

5.5.3 Asia-Pacific

5.5.4 Latin America

5.5.5 Middle East & Africa 6 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

6.1 Vendor Market Share

6.2 Company Profiles

7 INVESTMENT ANALYSIS 8 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS Global Business-Process-as-a-Service Market 2020-2025: The driving factors influencing the Global Business-Process-As-A-Service Market includes lowering Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), reduced operational costs, and faster time to market (FTM). The global Business-Process-as-a-Service market offers a hosting of integrated software, optimized processes, and resources to work. At present, the global Business-Process-as-a-Service industry is illustrating established outcomes for several other business processes and are majorly increasing adoption with the support of small and medium size enterprise. Moreover, the global Business-Process-as-a-Service market enables frequent improvements in customer experience. Moreover, the global Business-Process-as-a-Service industry also offers end user delivery services for business processes such as customer services, sales and marketing, accounting, and human resource management. These are considered as flexible business models that help optimize capital expenditure while working on operational expenses expected and proportionate to business volumes. Request a sample of this report @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/4312422 Business-process-as-a-service (BPaaS) is a term defined for a specific type of web-delivered or cloud hosting solutions that benefits an enterprise by assisting with business operations. BPaaS basically means that the business process is being automated through a remote delivery model. The leading vendors of the global Business-Process-as-a-Service market are providing major resources to recognize key opportunities areas and maintain the same flow with the increasing competition in the global Business-Process-as-a-Service market. Due to the increasing use of cloud computing the global Business-Process-as-a-Service market is expected to drive tremendous growth in the near future. Companies Mentioned:

SAP SE

IBM Corporation

OpenText Corporation

Pegasystems Inc.

Software AG

Tibco Software Inc.

Fujitsu Ltd

Oracle Corporation

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation

Capgemini SE The business-process-as-a-service market was valued at USD 7.24 billion in 2019, and it is expected to reach USD 24.85 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 22.91% during the forecast period (2020-  2025). The increasing integration of robotic process automation (RPA) and the Internet of Things (IoT), with BPaaS, is a trend that aids in the growth of the market. Place a purchase order of this report @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/contact/purchase-single-user/4312422 - Business-process-as-a-service (BPaaS) has primarily risen as a cost-effective alternative for businesses, basically to optimize their services and focus on their core competencies, while outsourcing other functions like finance and accounting, supply chain management, and other commodity services.

- The demand for business process management is increasing at a robust rate across the world, due to the emergence of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other intelligence solutions.

- BPaaS delivery model presents significantly greater utility through the vertical integration of technology infrastructure, proprietary software applications, and people for the business-process services delivery.

- Businesses can eliminate the need for multiple vendor relationships to work for the company, which reduces the switching costs across the delivery life cycle and helps in realizing the value drivers of economies of scale and scope. About Us:

Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients. Contact Us: Hector Costello Senior Manager  Client Engagements 4144N Central Expressway, Suite 600, Dallas, Texas - 75204, U.S.A. Phone No.: +1 (972)-362-8199 ; +91 895 659 5155

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In recent years, the agencys board has taken a gradually greener approach to conservation and land use issues. Our goal in drafting endorsements is to accelerate that trend. And were going to make it easy for voters to do the same: Vote for the candidates placed fifth, sixth and seventh on the ballot and youve matched our selections here:
MET Eireann has upgraded its weather warning for Limerick as Storm Jorge makes its way towards the country.

A status orange wind warning, issued this Friday evening, will take effect from 1pm on Saturday.

It warns of severe winds with gusts of up to 120km/h and will remain in place until 7pm on Saturday.

Wind Warning associated with #StormJorge

Level: Orange

For Leinster, Cavan, Monaghan, Roscommon, Cork, Limerick, Tiperary and Waterford



Valid from 13:00 Sat 29-Feb-2020

Valid until 19:00 Sat,29-Feb-2020https://t.co/juduxcKda8 pic.twitter.com/2uWxrWzbVV February 28, 2020

A separate status yellow wind warning will be in place from 9am to 1pm on Saturday while a status yellow rainfall warning remains in effect until 23.59 on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Limerick City and County Council says it will continue its round-the-clock flooding response in parts of Limerick which have been impacted by the River Shannon flooding.

Council staff along with Defence Forces personnel and volunteers with Limerick Civil Defence are monitoring the situation and will continue to do so over the weekend.

The road in Castleconnell from Charcos to Worlds End and Castleconnell Boat Club remains closed.

The cycleway/ walkway from Irish Estates, through to the Guinness Bridge, and on to UL remains closed until further notice as does the Red Path in Corbally.

Limerick City and County Council will continue to monitor flood levels on the Shannon and their impact.

The Council is also urging people in other parts of Limerick to be mindful and careful as Storm Jorge arrives.

Flash flooding may appear as all lands are currently saturated and trees may be uprooted as a result of high winds.
(CNN)  Disney is closing down its theme parks in Japan as the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country escalates.

Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea will shut down on Saturday and stay closed through March 15, the parks' operator Oriental Land announced on Friday.

The closure comes in the wake of a request by Japan's government to cancel or postpone big gatherings and events over the next few weeks to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The virus has killed eight people in Japan, and sickened more than 900, the vast majority of them connected to the a cruise ship that became a floating quarantine zone off of Yokohoma earlier this month. Worldwide, there are at least 2,800 deaths, mostly in mainland China, and more than 83,000 global cases, with infections on every continent except Antarctica.

The Tokyo resort said it will refund guests for admission fees and hotel bookings. It said the park, for now, is scheduled to reopen on March 16.

The Tokyo closures are the latest business headache for Disney in Asia. The company closed its theme parks in Shanghai and in Hong Kong last month over coronavirus fears, just before the Lunar New Year holiday.

Earlier this month, Disney warned that those closures, along with fallout from Hong Kong's mass protests, could carve $280 million in profit from the current quarter.

The company added that the coronavirus will hurt its results for the fiscal year as a whole.

For now, the properties in Hong Kong and Shanghai are closed indefinitely, and "the precise magnitude of the financial impact is highly dependent on the duration of the closures," Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said on an earnings call earlier this month.

-- Michelle Toh contributed to this report.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Councilwoman Debi Rose made a request Thursday that the city Department of Education suspend its participation in Staten Islands St. Patricks Parade for its organizers not allowing the Pride Center of Staten Island to march under its banner.

Referencing an opinion piece that appeared on SILive.com Thursday morning, she asked in the letter to Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza and Executive Superintendent Anthony Lodico for students to be suspended from marching or for it to be voluntary.

I am asking you to suspend participation in this event until policies are examined to ensure a safe environment for our students, Rose (D-North Shore) wrote.

If suspension is not possible, at the very least, principals, teachers, band leaders and students need to hear a clear message that participation in this event is strictly voluntary, with no consequences for those who choose to not participate. And they would need to hear it from you tomorrow, she continued.

The opinion piece Rose referenced by licensed clinical Social Worker Gigi Lipman urges Staten Islanders to consider the psychological effects on LGBTQ youth caused by the Staten Island Prides exclusion from openly marching in the parade.

Lipman decried the attention Staten Island has received for the decision of parade organizers to not allow the Pride Center to march under its banner.

I have grave concerns for the emotional impact this has had and continues to have on our young people who fear persecution so intensely that they remain closeted and alone, she wrote.

Excluding the Pride Center of Staten Island from the St. Patricks Day Parade creates additional trauma for the diversity of our young people who are still closeted out to fear, she continued.

Larry Cummings, the president of the Richmond County St. Patricks Day Parade Committee, previously told the Advance that the event is a non-sexual identification parade and that the Pride Center will not be marching despite multiple organizations and elected officials speaking out against the decision.

In response to the organizations decision, Mayor Bill de Blasio and a handful of Island elected officials said they plan to skip this years Island St. Patricks Parade in protest.

The group of protesting politicians includes the mayor, Rep. Max Rose (D-Staten Island/South Brooklyn), state Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/South Brooklyn), Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) and Republican Borough President James Oddo.

DOE spokeswoman Miranda Barbot responded to the letter in an emailed reply to the Advance.

Schools promote welcoming and inclusive learning environments for all students, and well remind schools that student participation in the parade is entirely optional, as it has always been, she said. "Theres no place for discrimination.

Rose wrote in her letter that she hopes the parade committee shifts course, but that until it does that the DOE should make a decision in-line with its own values of inclusion.

This should be a celebration of Irish heritage that brings people together on Forest Avenue, one that honors the many contributions Irish Americans have brought to our culture, she wrote.

But as long as the parade remains a symbol of discrimination, I dont see how public school participation aligns with our stated commitment to provide students with a safe, supportive environment. The Department of Education must take action to reconcile these discordant values, she continued.
Narayan Chandra Dey, an Executive Engineer with the Public Works Department, was arrested on Friday by the Assam Anti-Corruption Bureau team in Tezpur for allegedly seeking a bribe from an electrical contractor.

The bribe money of Rs. 40,000 has been seized from the possession of the accused by the ACB team. The accused has been arrested and is expected to be produced before the Special Court at Guwahati on Saturday.

The accused had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs. 50,000 for approving a bill regarding the electrical work done by the contractor at Tezpur and Biswanath Chariali Civil Hospital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hon. Abubakar Jawando (right) with hon. Horoya on the left at the program

28.02.2020 LISTEN

Hon. Abdul Wahab J. Abubakar , the Constituency Zongo Caucus Coordinator for the opposition NDC in Ablekuma North has appealed for peace among the rank and file of the party within the Constituency.

He said for both our Presidential and Parliamentary candidates to win massively and convincingly, "we need peace amongst ourselves so as to be able to work together in the run up to the the December 2020 elections."

The Ablekuma North Zongo Caucus Coordinator made the passionate appeal during the occasion of the inauguration of the Constituency's Zongo Caucus Working Committee at Darkuman Official Town, in the Ablekuma North Constituency of the Greater Accra Region.

Mr. Abubakar pointed out that unity within the party is paramount if all the Zongos within the constituency are to be delivered to the NDC.

He used the opportunity to call on all NDC members in Ablekuma North to also come on board to contribute their quota towards victory 2020.

Hon. Abubakar tasked the Committee members to work assiduously to educate electorates especially floating voters on the good policies and programmes the party has for the people of Ghana.

"We need to work effectively and efficiently to canvass for massive votes for our dear party in this constituency, " he stated.

He assured that they will leave any stone unturned as they will intensify their house to house campaigns in the three Zongos of the constituency to ensure the objectives for which they were selected to form the working committee is achieved massively.

To that end,he expressed the Committee's readiness and commitment to work hard towards victory for the NDC not only in Ablekuma North but Ghana at large.

He reiterated their readiness to conduct their campaigns and programs in a peaceful and non violent manners .

"Our campaign shall be based on issues, ideologies and above all violent free in accordance to the party's structure devoid of tensions, insults, accusations and counter accusations," he clarified.

On his part, hon. Ismaila Ali Horoya, the NDC's Greater Accra Zongo Caucus Coordinator urged the Workng Committee to work in unison with one voice so as to achieve their objectives.

Mr. Horoya tasked the newly inaugurated Working Committee members to try and justify the hope reposed in them by working effectively to the admiration of all.

"Let people see and feel that your selection into the committee is justifiable and that you deserve to be selected. You can only do this when there is peace and unity amongst yourselves", Mr. Horoya emphasised.

The Greater Accra NDC Zongo Caucus Boss, further added his voice on the need for a violent free campaign in the Constituency and the region as a whole.

"This election shall be won based on track records as well as programmes and policies the two leading political parties have for Ghanaians," he intimated.

He encourages the committee to try as much as they can to sell well the ideologies and programs of former President John Dramani Mahama to the good people of Ablekuma North.
LATHAM, N.Y.  The Rensselaer County Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual Meet The Legislators luncheon at The Century House in Latham.

The Friday afternoon panel encompassed Sen. Neil D. Breslin (D-Bethlehem), Sen. Daphne Jordan (R-Halfmoon), Assemblyman Jake Ashby (R-Castleston) and Assemblyman John T. McDonald III (D-Cohoes).

NewsChannel 13 Vice President and General Manager, Steve Baboulis, moderated the panel, which touched on issues including the budget, census, population, workforce development, and New Yorks business climate.

As budget season nears closer, state finances were a big topic. Included in that a disastrous consideration by the state to end spousal refusal to pay for nursing home care, which would crush middle-class and poor elderly families in New York. Plus, the issue of the state mismanaging Medicaid costs and spending, while subsequently blaming counties and local municipalities for being irresponsible.

Right now we have a $4.5 billion dollar deficit with Medicaid. Its important that we dont lay that levy on the counties. I can tell you that the legislature is very, very concerned about that. Were looking at how we make some cuts in Medicaid spending and some areas that have grown extraordinarily quick, McDonald III said on lessening the burden on counties.

Breslin also touched on addressing those costs.

We all recognize that education is expensive. From the time someone gets to pre-kindergarten, which we should do more on, to kindergarten, right up through college. Healthcare is exploding, he said.

Income tax is the only progressive tax. And the last time I saw a billionaire was on television. Theres no one in my neighborhood, theres no one in my county. If theres a way to generate additional funds, its not on the backs of hardworking people. Its to allow billionaires and people like that to pay a little bit more, Breslin noted.

I also agree for instance with the Medicaid decisions of eight years ago. Which kept taxes down in the counties. Albany County hasnt gotten a property tax increase in seven years. So, were in the right direction but if we need revenues it cant be on the backs of the people in this room or hardworking people throughout the state, Breslin added.

Ashby noted it comes down to priorities in where critical tax dollars are spent.

Bottom line is you have to stop spending so much. You have to look at what youre spending on. So when we look at vanity projects that go on throughout the state, whether its movie studios in Syracuse or that sort of thing, it gives people the wrong impression on what your priorities are, Ashby said.

If we look at the burden that the counties are currently under and the representation for example on the MRT2, Medicaid Redesign Team 2, I think theres one representative on there right now for the counties. Theyre taking on tremendous costs. Is that fair to them? Are they really being heard with just one representative? I would argue not.

So I think that our county governments are being heard at the state level and to make sure that they are being treated fairly. If you look at their budgets, the majority of their budgets are Medicaid, thats whats driving the cost. So, we need to take a hard look at that, Ashby added on the need of the state to listen to and bring more local municipalities to the table.

I think we need to bring state finances more under control. The state should be under the same path as the local governments, Jordan added on curbing spending.

In bringing more dollars into the state, all four representatives recognized the vital impact of getting every citizen counted for the 2020 U.S. Census, especially with the state primed to lose at least one and possibly two congressional seats.

The census is critical to what we will receive in terms of dollars from the federal government. Theres federal dollars in Medicaid, theres federal dollars in roads, even in our post offices. If we incorrectly estimate, it will cost us billions of dollars, Breslin noted of what those dollars mean in terms of resources.

McDonald, who will host a joint recruitment effort with Troy Mayor Patrick Madden at Troy Prep Elementary School from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, emphasized the need of counting everyone.

New York State is extraordinarily diverse, thats why a lot of resources have been included in the budget the last two years to make sure all populations are counted. Were all united in the fact that we want everybody counted because it means every single resource coming to the state that we should be getting, McDonald said.

Ashby echoed the sentiments of getting the information out there on the census.

Its important for us to really get the word out and try and corral as many people as we can to help with this effort. Its not something to be marginalized at all because its so significant, Ashby noted.

Jordan also explained the importance of the census from the perspective of a business owner.

The census has significant impact on all of you on all of your business. You use those statistics, first of all to see who your potential customer base is. Whether you should set up somewhere else in the state or in the country. Youre looking at all of that as to where youre going to be, Jordan remarked.

Part of keeping up New Yorks population is keeping people in the state with quality, high-paying jobs. All four legislators appeared to be in agreement on the need for more workforce development.

Jordan noted how vital is is to fill the manufacturing gap and filling the skills gap for jobs already available with one one to fill them. In addition, Jordan noted the role of the mutual benefits of internships for businesses and students alike.

Ashby cited the importance of a more business friendly climate and to work with the chamber to cultivate business, while also working with hiring Veterans and fostering small businesses.

McDonald added the need to, train people up, be it through vocational programs or different trades.

Breslin also noted the crucial role of selling the idea of a shovel ready approach, while also emphasizing more training and collaboration and synergy with trade unions in preparing workers to be competitive in the future job market.
Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard will campaign in Michigan for the first time next week on Super Tuesday, one of the most important days of the primary election.

Gabbard is holding a town hall on March 3 at a venue next to Eastern Market in Detroit. The congresswoman from Hawaii participated in the July 2019 Democratic debate in Detroit but has not publically campaigned in Michigan since.

A release from the campaign states Gabbard will share her vision for ending our engagement in costly regime change wars, the new Cold War and arms race, and investing US resources in serving the needs of the American people. Doors open for the event at 6:30 p.m., located at The Eastern on 3434 Russell St. in Detroit.

Gabbards campaign hasnt picked up much traction since states began voting in February. She does not have any delegates as of Feb. 28, and is polling in last place among the Democratic field.

Gabbard became the first Hindu elected to Congress in 2012. The four-term U.S. representative from Hawaii was the former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Before being elected to serve in the House, Gabbard was the youngest person to serve in the Hawaii House of Representatives.

Gabbard joined the Hawaii Army National Guard after the September 11 terrorist attacks and was deployed on two tours of duty in the Middle East. Gabbard has generally advocated for a non-interventionist stance toward foreign affairs, calling for an end to regime change wars in the Middle East.

Gabbard was the only House Democrat running for president who did not vote to charge Trump with two articles of impeachment. Gabbard instead voted present" and slammed the impeachment process as politically motivated and "fueled by tribal animosities that have so gravely divided our country.

Gabbards mother was born in Indiana and grew up in Michigan, according to her campaign website.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 14:28:33|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- When asked about his present daily life in China, John Darwin Van Fleet, an American scholar who has lived in Shanghai for around 20 years, said despite the COVID-19 outbreak, he can enjoy walking around his neighborhood as spring is now around the corner.

Living with his wife in another southern Chinese city of Shenzhen bordering Hong Kong, 75-year-old Roland Delcourt, a Belgian who has been closely following China's fight against the virus, also shares solidarity with the Chinese people in the face of adversity.

Though in different cities and with different backgrounds, they have common interests in observing the Asian giant's anti-coronavirus fight, offer the same support for the Chinese people and share similar concerns about the unjustified fear and xenophobia fueled amid the epidemic.

In Shenzhen, Delcourt is amazed by the fact that his neighbors are fighting the virus by staying at home, which, in his eyes, shows true solidarity.

"Some choose not to step outside out of fear of contamination, but most people in Shenzhen knows deep down that avoiding contacts is the first thing to do in order to stop the virus from spreading," the Belgian senior said.

Rather than stay at home, he decided to pitch in. He offered to do the groceries for his neighbors, including a couple who quarantined themselves at home after coming back from Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic.

"My wife and I bought the groceries for the family and our frail neighbors who might take risks just by going out. But soon, the community took over and I'm relieved that the couple are now in good hands," Delcourt said.

Like many foreigners, he said he was amazed by the fact that two hospitals were built from scratch and went into operation within two weeks.

"What makes me proud of China is that tens of thousands of doctors and nurses rushed to help out their colleagues in the martyred city of Wuhan," Delcourt said, paying his tribute to the medical staff at the front line.

"The enthusiasm of the medical workers, the courage, the will and the self-sacrifice shown by the front-line medical staff have earned admiration throughout China and abroad," he added.

In a letter to his family on the other side of the Pacific, Van Fleet shared with them a touching story in Wuhan.

"The quarantined city residents are opening up their windows at night, in high-rise complexes and such, and shouting encouragement to each other, across the compounds, across the neighborhoods," he wrote. "They're shouting, 'Wuhan Jiayou!', which is like 'C'mon Wuhan, you can do it!' or 'Stay strong, Wuhan!'"

For Van Fleet, the words of the late U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt -- "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" -- seem so spot-on especially in the time when fear, scapegoating and xenophobic stupidity, once again, get amplified between lines of some news coverage and on social media.

"But Roosevelt's fear rages on, and will probably kill, directly or indirectly, many more people than the virus ever will," reads the letter of Van Fleet addressed to his family in Los Angeles.

He then referred to the 9/11 tragedy. "The fear the terrorists caused killed more people than died on the day."

As the metropolitan city of Shanghai, with 276 COVID-19 cases cured out of 337 confirmed cases as of Thursday, is seeing a sign of returning to normal, Van Fleet, who works at Shanghai Jiaotong University, embarked upon the online teaching like most of the Chinese educators.

"One thing I like to do is taking a daily walk, to meet people in shops and on the street, and take pictures of life in Shanghai slowly returning to normal," said the American professor.

A local "baozi" (stuffed bun) shop is one of his favorite stops, where he takes a special interest in observing the queue of customers waiting for their turn.

"In my experience, this queue (in front of the shop) is now about the usual length for mid-day during the week. I've joked with a few friends that perhaps we can construct a 'baozi shop indicator,' as an on-the-street metric indicating how rapidly the city is recovering its cosmopolitan life."

"Weiji," or "crisis" in English, is one of Van Fleet's favorite Chinese characters, because for him, the Chinese word contains both danger and opportunity.

"As far as the opportunities being part of the crisis, yes, I've seen opportunities in China, mostly in sanitary system, online education and remote working," he said.
City Manager Erik Walsh plans major changes to the department that handles transportation, as local leaders seek millions of dollars to boost public transit.

Walsh told Mayor Ron Nirenberg and City Council members Thursday that the Transportation and Capital Improvements Department will be split into two new agencies: one that focuses solely on transportation planning and another that deals with construction and maintenance of streets, drainage, libraries and parks.

Right now, the 6-year-old TCI Department handles all those responsibilities.

This reorganization will bring a focus on current and future transportation issues regardless of mode and serve as the lead for the ConnectSA effort, Walsh wrote in a memo sent Thursday.

ConnectSA is a wide-ranging strategy that calls for $1.36 billion in transportation improvements including increased bus service, wider highways, more bike lanes and sidewalks.

Local leaders including Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff want voters to approve a one-eighth-cent sales tax in November to help fund better bus service and other initiatives. In exchange, the one-eighth-cent sales tax now dedicated to protecting the Edwards Aquifer and for linear creekways would be allowed to expire.

The tax brings in about $40 million annually.

On ExpressNews.com: Former Mayor Cisneros pitches transportation plan to San Antonio council members

The new Transportation Department will focus on transportation planning, transportation management and emerging transportation systems, Walsh said. The new Public Works Department will focus on construction and maintenance of streets and drainage infrastructure. Razi Hosseini, interim director of Transportation and Capital Improvements, will head public works, effective immediately, Walsh said.

Nirenberg lauded the reorganization.

Its a progressive change to make sure that were able to really evolve the old paradigm of how weve been building this transportation infrastructure in our city for far too long, he said.

With nearly 800 employees, TCI is one of the citys largest departments, second only to fire and police. The agency was formed in January 2014 to oversee completion of voter-approved bond projects.

The department has recently drawn ire from critics who have said it focuses too much on accommodating car traffic and improving roads rather than making public improvements that include other modes of transportation such as walking, cycling and buses.

Those criticisms came to a head last year as some council members  including District 5 Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales, who chairs the councils Transportation Committee  clashed with the departments leaders over the $56 million makeover of Broadway, $42 million of which was approved by San Antonio voters in 2017.

Nirenberg, Gonzales and District 7 Councilwoman Ana Sandoval wanted protected bike lanes for the projects entire 3.1-mile length from Hildebrand Avenue near the University of the Incarnate Word to Houston Street downtown.

On ExpressNews.com: Is San Antonios commute really as bad as Los Angeles?

But department officials, backed by District 1 Councilman Roberto Trevino, said they couldnt do so on a key stretch in downtown without causing congestion. They offered an alternative: divert bicycle traffic onto two side streets, Avenue B and Alamo Street.

The council ultimately went with the latter option, approving $6 million for the construction of protected bike lanes on those streets in a unanimous vote in November.

But that fracas, along with the ConnectSA push, sent a message that council members want the city to rethink how it approaches transportation policy.

The mayor and City Council have made clear they want to see transformational change when it comes to mobility in San Antonio, Walsh said.

The city will launch a national search next week for a director to head the new transportation department, with plans to have the executive installed by summer. Walsh said thats when he expects the reorganization to be complete.

Whether the department will adopt a multimodal focus depends on whom Walsh picks to do the job, Gonzales said.

If he hires somebody whos exactly the same, then were going to be in the same boat, she said.

Other changes

Walsh also named David McCary, previously Solid Waste Management director, as assistant city manager overseeing solid waste as well as the office of sustainability, 311 customer service office, Animal Care Services and building and equipment services. Walsh promoted Solid Waste Deputy Director David Newman to director.

Homer Garcia, interim director of the Parks and Recreation Department, is now that departments permanent head, Walsh said.

Xavier Urrutia, who had led the parks department since 2009, left the city last summer to become chief of staff for Mike Flores, chancellor of the Alamo Colleges District.

Joshua Fechter is a staff writer covering San Antonio city government and politics. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jfechter@express-news.net | Twitter: @JFreports
Photo credit: Katie Buckleitner

From Cosmopolitan

Eight years ago, I stood shoulder to shoulder with a line of more than a thousand people outside the Virginia State Capitol, all of us in opposition to a bill intended to make it harder for Virginians to get an abortion. I was eight months pregnant and outraged. Anti-abortion politicians had control of the Virginia governors mansion and both state legislative chambers, and for years, they passed law after law taking away Virginians reproductive rights.

But now, everything's changed.

I have an eight-year-old daughter, and am watching the next chapter in Virginias state history not with outragebut with joy. Pro-reproductive health lawmakers came into power in both chambers in November, and today they reclaimed our rights and passed the Reproductive Health Protection Act, repealing the laws that made abortion inaccessible.



Virginia shows us whats at stake nationally in 2020and how voting can actually change policies.

Ive worked at Planned Parenthood for all of Trumps presidency, so Ive gotten an up-close view at how Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and their buddies in Congress and statehouses across the country have ignored the will of the American people and incessantly worked to attack our health and rightsincluding access to safe, legal abortion.



Just last year, state politicians enacted 25 abortion bans in their quest to outlaw abortion. Yet there is no state in the nation where making abortion illegal is popular. Mitch McConnell and Republican senators have packed the courts with nearly 200 Trump-appointed judges, many of whom have records hostile towards abortion rights. The Trump administration forced Planned Parenthood out of Title X, the only national program dedicated to affordable birth control, and gagged doctors participating in the program from sharing information about abortion with their patients. This summer, the Supreme Court will rule on two casesone that could allow your employer to deny you birth control coverage, and one that could render the protections of Roe v. Wade meaningless.

Story continues

In times like these, its hard not to feel powerless.



But we felt the same way in Virginia in 2012. Our wins at the ballot box when we elected a Democratic governor and flipped both chambers were a decade in the makingthat's right, a *decade* of Planned Parenthood Virginia PAC and countless other partner organizations tirelessly organizing to elect champions for reproductive rights. It took fierce, relentless resistance to win back our rights.

And in 2018, women and Planned Parenthood supporters showed up to the polls in record numbers and flipped the House, electing the largest reproductive rights majority in history. The message from voters to politicians is clear: When you interfere in personal medical decisions and try to control our bodies, you lose your job.

This year, Planned Parenthood advocacy and political organizations launched the largest effort in our history to elect reproductive rights champions to all levels of government. Were organizing an army of volunteers, lifting up candidates who will fight for our rights, and hustling to get voters to the polls.

Anti-abortion politicians understand their days are numberedso theyre coming after our health care while they still can. Last month the Trump administration restored federal funding to Texas for a program that bars certain Medicaid patients from getting care at Planned Parenthood health centers. Days later, the administration took aim at California for requiring health insurance plans to cover abortion, threatening retaliatory action if the state didnt reverse their policy. And a few weeks ago, the administration paved the way for states to seek approval to make massive cuts to Medicaid.



Protecting women's reproductive rights cant be done without you. Its time to hit the pavement and talk to your neighbors about what is at stake. Find a campaign thats important to you and volunteer, whether youre making phone calls or knocking on doors. Register to vote, help register your friends, and organize in your community. Speak out and correct the misinformation we know anti-abortion politicians will be trying to spread in their effort to ban access to safe, legal abortion. If youre able, donate to organizations and candidates who can take our country in the right direction. Most of all, we need to make our voices heard to anti-abortion politicians: We will not stand for anyone who jeopardizes our right to make our own reproductive health decisionsincluding whether or not to have an abortion.

The bottom line? A moment of reckoning is fast approaching for the politicians who think they have the right to tell us what we can and cant do with our bodies. Because they may have the power todaybut we vote, we decide, and November is coming.

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A federal appeals court rejected an unfair competition lawsuit against President Trumps Washington, D.C. luxury hotel on Friday.

The suit, brought in 2017 by the nearby Cork Wine Bar, claimed that local businesses were losing business to the Trump International Hotel because guests who might have shopped elsewhere were seeking to curry favor with the president by spending at the hotel. Cork complained that after the 2016 election, lobbyists, advocacy groups, and diplomats began patronizing the Trump hotel based on a perception that doing so would be to their advantage in dealings with the administration.

Cork, like other hospitality businesses, seeks to attract both foreign and domestic customers including government, political, legal and lobbying leaders, the company stated in a May court filing. Because the Trump Hotel and its restaurants are owned by President Trump, they have an unfair advantage because the Hotel and others promote the connection between it and the Presidency.

However, the three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the wine bar had failed to establish its case that the Trump hotel holds an unfair competitive advantage.

We see no reason to conclude that District common law recognizes anything like Corks unfair-competition claim, read the opinion of the judges, which include former Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland.

The competition lawsuit is similar to others accusing Trump of using his presidential office to profit his businesses.

Democrats have for months been probing whether the Trump administration has funneled spending by foreign governments into Trumps businesses, such as the presidents suggestion that the 2020 G-7 summit be held at Trump National Doral Miami.

Earlier this month, the D.C. Circuit ruled unanimously that the more than 200 Democratic lawmakers who sued over the Trump Hotels catering to foreign dignitaries did not have the standing to levy a lawsuit accusing Trump of violating the Constitutions Foreign Emoluments Clause, which prohibits government officials from accepting gifts or payment from foreign dignitaries.

More from National Review
Shares in German industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp rose at the open in Frankfurt Friday before giving way to coronavirus fears, after sealing a mammoth deal to sell its highly profitable elevators unit.

Thyssenkrupp added as much as four percent before falling back, losing 3.4 per cent to trade at 8.85 euros around 09:15 (0815 GMT) as the broader market succumbed again to fears over the virus outbreak.

The broader MDAX index of medium-sized companies -- to which it was demoted last year -- fell more than 2.5 per cent.

The Essen-based steel-to-submarines group announced late Thursday that it would sell its elevators division for 17.2 billion euros to a consortium of investors led by US-based Advent and Britain's Cinven.

"With the sale of Elevator, Thyssenkrupp can pick up speed again," chief executive Martina Merz said in a statement.

"We will reduce the company's debt as far as is necessary and at the same time invest as much as is reasonable in its further development." Thyssenkrupp is in the throes of a major restructuring that will see it slash at least 6,000 jobs, including 2,000 in its struggling historic steel business.

The new owners signed "far-reaching site and employee guarantees" for the lifts unit, Thyssenkrupp said.

Powerful German union IG Metall said in a separate statement jobs and sites would be protected for "seven years and one month". With a loss of 304 million euros in its 2018-19 financial year,



Thyssenkrupp's woes deepened when European competition authorities blocked its steel unit's merger with India's Tata Steel.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The first detected case of coronavirus in Africa highlights the vulnerability of the world's poorest continent to outbreaks of contagious diseases. Much of Africa struggles with conflicts, poor health infrastructure, crowded cities with inadequate sanitation, rickety governance and porous borders -- all of which provide excellent opportunities for the microbe to spread, experts say. Last weekend, World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pleaded with African Union states "to come together to be more aggressive in attacking" the virus. "Our biggest concern continues to be the potential for COVID-19 to spread in countries with weaker health systems," said Tedros, referring to the virus by its official name. The first case south of the Sahara was announced on Friday in Nigeria's mega-city of Lagos. Two previous cases in Africa were detected in Egypt and Algeria. A 2016 analysis by the Rand Corporation, a US thinktank, found that of the 25 countries in the world that are most vulnerable to infectious outbreaks, 22 are in Africa -- the others are Afghanistan, Yemen and Haiti. Heading its list were Somalia, the Central African Republic, Chad, South Sudan, Mauritania and Angola. The report put the finger on a "disease hot spot belt" extending on a line of countries, running across the southern rim of the Sahara through the Sahel to the Horn of Africa, many of which are struggling with conflicts. "Were a communicable disease to emerge within this chain of countries, it could easily spread across borders in all directions, abetted by high overall vulnerability and a string of weak national health systems along the way," the report warned. "Though we have seen modern diseases rapidly transmitted all over the world through interconnected travel, it is these vulnerable states with porous borders and weak or conflict-affected neighbors that face the greatest risks and potential health challenges." - Weak health systems - Past epidemics in Africa -- from malaria and HIV to drug-resistant TB and Ebola -- have already triggered loud warnings about the continent's problems in health care. They range from public awareness and disease screening to lack of doctors, nurses, drugs and hospital beds -- and the heightened risks for people already weak from malnourishment or a damaged immune system. According to the World Bank, per-capita health expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa in 2016 was just $78 (70 euros), compared to $1,026 on average in the rest of the world. The highest was $9,351 in North America, followed by $3,846 in the European Union. Trudie Lang, director of the Global Health Network at Oxford University, said a major concern was that the virus, despite its relatively low mortality rate, could "overwhelm health-care provision" in African countries. This would have a cascade effect, affecting care for Africa's many other health problems, she told Britain's Science Media Centre (SMC). There is "real fear that health systems become swamped and unable to manage their ongoing health care, thereby presenting an even greater threat than the virus," she noted. In a study of anti-coronavirus preparedness in Africa on February 19, The Lancet medical journal said that overall, countries had strengthened their shield. Implemented measures included temperature screening at ports of entry, recommendations to avoid travel to China and improved health information provided to health professionals and the general public. But some countries "remain ill-equipped," notably on surveillance and rapid identification of suspected cases, patient isolation and contact tracing, it said. South of the Sahara, only South Africa won high marks for preparedness, while Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Angola, Tanzania, Ghana and Kenya would all need support, it said. In early February, just South Africa and Senegal among sub-Saharan countries had existing lab facilities to test people for the coronavirus, although the WHO thereafter supplied equipment to some 40 countries. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), a coordination body set up by the AU, established an anti-coronavirus task force on February 5. Its main task is to provide African countries with training on lab diagnosis, surveillance, screening and safe transportation of suspected cases. People scrambled to buy face masks and hand sanitiser in Lagos after sub-Saharan Africa's first case of coronavirus was detected A secure lab at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, one of the most prestigious research facilities in Africa Medical workers disinfect the coffin of an Ebola victim in Beni, eastern DR Congo. Even though an Ebola vaccine is available, conflict is hampering the region's 18-month epidemic, making it harder to trace and isolate patients Hospitals in many African countries struggle with poor equipment and lack of trained staff
Commuters wearing face masks ride a tramcar in Pyongyang. (Photo: AFP/KIM Won Jin)

Pyongyang has not reported a single case of the virus now known as COVID-19, which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and has since spread around the world including South Korea.

The country, which is subject to multiple international sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, has weak medical infrastructure and has cut itself off from the outside world, closing its borders as analysts say prevention is its only option.

"School breaks for students have been extended as a preventive measure against the infection," the Korean Central Broadcasting Station reported, according to Yonhap news agency.

The measure would apply to daycares, kindergartens and universities, it said, without specifying when schools would reopen.

The North has banned tourists, suspended international trains and flights and placed hundreds of foreigners in quarantine, under tight restrictions the Russian ambassador has described as "morally crushing".

Pyongyang planned to maintain the entry ban on foreigners until the virus can be properly diagnosed, treated and cured, a health official told the Choson Sinbo, a North Korean propaganda outlet based in Japan.

Russia's foreign ministry said it provided Pyongyang with 1,500 coronavirus diagnostic test kits at its request "due to the persisting risk of the new COVID-19".

"We hope that this step will help North Korea prevent the infection from penetrating the country," it said in a statement.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN Special Rapporteur on North Korean human rights, said the international community and North Korea should "join forces" to prevent an outbreak, adding that "further isolation of the country is not the answer".

More than 43 per cent of the North Korean population is malnourished, with many lacking access to adequate water and sanitation, Quintana added.

"Combined with a limited access to information, this makes them even more vulnerable to COVID-19," he said.
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C limate campaigners have been vindicated by the Court of Appeals ruling against a third runway at Heathrow. This opens the door to legal challenges to other polluting schemes. But expensive legal battles are not the only solution  we need to stop damaging schemes like this earlier.

Heathrow developers have only been able to get so close to success because of Labours flawed 2008 Planning Act, which took power out of local community hands to decide on major projects.

Labours Act allowed the Tory Government to bulldoze over evidence of the environmentally catastrophic effect of a third runway. As Green Mayor of London, I would push for changes to the Act, to remove this veto from central government and put power back with local authorities, accountable to the people affected.

Sian Berry, Green Mayor of London candidate and party co-leader

Its now time for the UK to ditch all climate-wrecking infrastructure projects. We need to dispel the myth that job creation must come at the expense of the climate.

Renewable energy, clean transport and research into sustainable materials all have the potential to create thousands of jobs, so its time that they get proper government support.

Jenny Bates, Friends of the Earth

Editor's reply

Dear Sian and Jenny

The Court of Appeal categorically did not rule against a third runway (although the effect of their decision may stop it from ever being built). What it found was the Government had broken the law in failing to ensure its expansion strategy met the Paris climate change accord. As a very occasional air passenger, I go out of my way to avoid Heathrow. A day-trip to Brussels last week on the Eurostar was glorious. Why anyone flies, I have no idea. The Heathrow ruling will embolden activists to ensure the environment is at the heart of all future transport decisions. Rethinking Silvertowns tunnel would also be a good way for Mayor Khan to build on his part in securing the Heathrow judgment.

Ross Lydall, City Hall Editor

Jobs inspiration for poorer pupils

It is not surprising to read that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are failing to secure jobs [News, February 26]. That is why we have increased our educational involvement in recent years, sponsoring academies in some of Londons most deprived areas and promoting skills training.

And later this year, Guildhall hosts the second London Careers Festival. It will connect more than 120 global businesses with 6,000 London students to fuel their imaginations and shape their futures.

Henry Colthurst , Chairman of the City of London Corporations Education Board

Court funding is vital to end delays

Like all Londoners, we are concerned about levels of youth violence [School exclusions and youth violence should be priority for Mayor, February 25]. It is therefore particularly worrying that the time taken to bring cases involving young people to court has increased significantly over the last decade. There is an urgent need to recruit more magistrates and legal advisers, and for greater investment across the justice system, so that cases involving youth violence can be dealt with quickly by the courts.

John Bache JP National Chairman, Magistrates Association

Im missing school to save the planet

Greta Thunberg stands alongside fellow environmental activists for the Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate protest / PA

Today we welcome Greta Thunberg to Bristol. In the past week, our small group of students have worked around the clock to deliver this massive event. Events such as this give young people like me a sense of purpose. When I started striking two years ago I was 16 and felt voiceless.

We understand that this event requires skipping school, in fact that is the point of our strikes. Yet, it is tiring to have to continually explain this to people who are angry that we are choosing to miss our education.
Terrell Linear, left, and Shaundarius T. Reeder, right, are arraigned Friday in Monongalia County Magistrate Court. Both are charged with first-degree murder after the death of a WVU student at the College Park apartment complex. Read more

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.  Two people were arrested in a fatal shooting at a student housing apartment complex near West Virginia University on Friday morning.

Multiple agencies responded to the report of shots fired at the College Park complex around 4 a.m. and police gave the all clear about an hour later, University Police Chief W.P. Chedester said in a statement.

The suspects were arrested without incident at a nearby Walmart shortly after the shooting, according to Chief Craig Corkrean of the Granville Police Department, and taken into custody by campus police.

Terrell Linear, 21, and Shaundarius T. Reeder, 20, were both charged with first-degree murder, university police said. Both are from Fairmont and neither is a student.

The victim was identified as Eric James Smith, 21, a sophomore majoring in multidisciplinary studies from Clementon, New Jersey, the university said in a statement. Smith was a former resident of the apartment complex.

Chedester said the motive is unknown, but he called the shooting an isolated incident.

Its always a tragedy when a young person loses his life, Dean of Students Corey Farris said. "Our hearts go out to his family, those students and others who knew him. Our main priority right now is offering support to our campus community, he said.

Counselors were onsite at College Park to provide support for residents, the university said. The apartment complex is a public-private partnership managed by WVU.

West Virginia University is in Morgantown, in northeastern West Virginia near the Pennsylvania border. It has more than 26,000 students enrolled at the campus, according to the universitys website.
Joanne Froggatt promoted series two of Liar alongside co-star Katherine Kelly in London on Thursday, in her first public appearance since announcing her split from husband James Cannon.

Earlier this month Joanne, best known for playing Anna Bates in the hit TV and film franchise, confirmed the split from husband of of eight years James in an interview.

The star, 39, who plays Laura Nielson in the explosive ITV drama, looked cheery as she posed with Katherine, 40, who plays a detective in the new series.

Outing: Joanne Froggatt promoted series two of Liar alongside co-star Katherine Kelly in London on Thursday, in her first public appearance since announcing her split from husband James Cannon

The star looked chic in a bodycon navy top, paired with a form-fitting leather skirt and strappy heels as she joked around with Katherine.

Her caramel tresses were styled in soft waves while her pretty features were enhanced with a radiant palette of make-up.

Former Corrie star Katherine wowed in a pastel pink top adorned with floral embroidery, teamed with a pink tulle skirt as she promoted the series, due for release in March.

The first trailer for the second series of Liar was revealed earlier this month, and it's already teasing that Joanne's Laura Nielson could be thrown behind bars for Andrew Earlham's murder.

Chic: The star, 39, who plays Laura Nielson in the explosive ITV drama, looked cheery as she posed with Katherine, 40, who plays a detective in the new series

After series one ended on the jaw-dropping cliffhanger that Andrew (played by Ioan Gruffudd) had been killed, the second series is set to be an explosive Who Done It?

As the trailer features Laura furiously claiming that she didn't kill Andrew, it also teases the introduction of Katherine Kelly, who will play the detective tasked with investigating his murder.

The first season watched Laura's life gradually unravel after she enjoyed a drunken date with widower Andrew, only to wake up the next morning believing she had been raped.

Shimmer: The star looked chic in a bodycon navy top, paired with a form-fitting leather skirt and strappy heels

Smile: The stars looked delighted to be catching up at the promo event

Star: Former Corrie star Katherine wowed in a pastel pink top adorned with floral embroidery, teamed with a pink tulle skirt as she promoted the series, due for release in March

She accused Andrew of being responsible, with viewers left wondering which of them was telling the truth.

As it was revealed that Andrew had indeed sexually assaulted 19 women, things took a turn when he was revealed to be dead in the final moments of the series.

The sighting comes as Joanne confirmed her split from her husband.

'We've actually been separated for a little while,' she said. 'I'm looking to the future.

Dramatic: The first trailer for the second series of Liar was revealed earlier this month, and it's teased that Joanne's Laura Nielson could be thrown behind bars for Andrew Earlham's murder

Dark: After series one ended on the jaw-dropping cliffhanger that Andrew (played by Ioan Gruffudd) had been killed, the second series is set to be an explosive Who Done It?

All over: The sighting comes weeks after the Downton Abbey star revealed that she has separated from her husband James Cannon (pictured in 2018)

'I'm just going to embrace this year and see what happens.'

The pair married in 2012 and their private ceremony at a church in Oxfordshire was attended by members of the Downton cast.

The actress, 39, described the day as the happiest of her life.

The couple appeared devoted to each other, and the revelation that they have split will take the world of showbusiness by surprise. They still plan to work together on film and TV projects.

Happiuer times: Froggatt, best known for playing Anna Bates in the hit TV and film franchise, confirmed the split from James in an interview on Saturday (pictured in 2014)

Although a showbusiness outsider, IT consultant Cannon was keen to support his wife's career and was regularly photographed alongside her at red-carpet events.

They set up a production company called Run After It and in 2018 even moved to Los Angeles so that Froggatt could pursue career opportunities in Hollywood.

Froggatt, who starred in last year's Downton Abbey movie and will soon reprise her role in the hit ITV thriller Liar, remains one of Britain's most popular stars.

In the interview, the actress also revealed that she had no qualms about turning 40 in August and that she had not ruled out motherhood in the future.

Moving on: 'We've actually been separated for a little while,' she said. 'I'm looking to the future'

She said: 'If it happens, it happens. And if it doesn't, I hope I'll still feel I can live a happy and fulfilled life.'

In April last year, Joanne was seen engaging in a very heated conversation with husband James as she wagged her finger at him during a boozy night out.

The actress appeared rather distressed as she addressed James while on their way to the Hide bar in London's Bermondsey.

In turn, James appeared rather stressed during the conversation but remained calm and collected, before taking Joanne's hand in his.

Feud: In April last year, Joanne was seen engaging in a very heated conversation with husband James as she wagged her finger at him during a boozy night out

The couple then headed to the bar with their arms around one another, after celebrating Joanne's final night starring in Alys, Always at the Bridge theatre.

Clearly having smoothed things over, James wheeled Joanne's suitcase behind him, which likely contained all the things she had been keeping in her dressing room.

Joanne has previously opened up about James, saying that she found it refreshing that he managed an IT company and was not in the showbiz industry.

'He's passionate about film and theatre, so we have a common interest  and he's not in the business, so it's perfect,' she told The Telegraph in 2015.

Split: The pair married in 2012 and their private ceremony at a church in Oxfordshire was attended by members of the Downton cast
SparkLabs Group announced today that it has launched SparkLabs Connex, the latest program in its network of startup accelerators and venture funds. Focused on real estate technology (proptech) and the Internet of Things, SparkLabs Connex will tap into startup ecosystems in Silicon Valley, Seoul, Shenzhen, Taipei and Singapore.

The program will support startups working with tech  like artificial intelligence, 5G, low-power wide area networks, eSIMS and security  essential to green building and smart city programs. Charles Reed Anderson, the founder of Singapore-based IoT, mobility and smart city advisory firm CRA & Associates, will lead SparkLabs Connex as its managing partner.

The programs partners include Nokia, True Digital, Beca and Skyroam, as well as the cities of Taipei, Taiwan, Songdo, South Korea and Darwin, Australia, which will be working with its portfolio startups to test and deploy their technology. SparkLabs Connex is also working with Go Smart, the Taipei City initiative to create a global network of smart cities, and the Urban Technology Alliance, which tests smart city tech in France, Spain, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

In a press statement, Anderson said, "My ambition for SparkLabs Connex is to become the innovation hub for the IoT, smart city and prop tech ecosystems, and Im excited with the quality and variety of partnerships we have signed at launch-and will sign in the future. SparkLabs Connex is more than an accelerator, its an ecosystem play, and we believe it creates a unique value proposition for startups, partners and investors."
TUCSON, Ariz.  A federal appeals court has blocked the Trump administrations policy of returning asylum-seekers to Mexico to await court hearings, a practice immigrant advocates have denounced as inhumane and deadly.

The decision on Friday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco deals a blow to the Trump administration. The process  called the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, also known as "Remain in Mexico"  had been seen as another tool in President Donald Trumps asylum crackdown.

Throngs of migrants in the program began gathering at international crossings in Ciudad Juarez and Matamoros, hoping to be let into the U.S. But the decision  and migrants' hopes  lasted only a few hours. Later on Friday, the 9th Circuit judges granted an emergency stay on the injunction, as requested by the Trump administration, effectively keeping MPP in place while further arguments are heard. The case appears to be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"This evening, with support of DOJ attorneys and CBPs declaration, the 9th Circuit granted a stay of its earlier order enjoining MPP," Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan tweeted Late Friday. "@CBP will immediately reinstate MPP!"

Since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security rolled out the program in January 2019, the U.S. government has sent back more than 60,000 people to seven Mexican border cities from Tijuana to Matamoros. Those included some of those most dangerous areas of the border, exposing migrants to assaults, kidnappings, murders and extortion.

Feb. 27: President Trump's immigration crackdown inundates Supreme Court

Watch: Thousands chant against immigration policy across USA

U.S. authorities have argued that the policy keeps migrants from slipping into the U.S. and deters other migrants considering crossing from the U.S. southern border.

This is really a tremendous decision recognizing the illegality of the Remain in Mexico program, said Elissa Steglich, co-director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, who makes regular trips to Texas border towns to interview MPP migrants and monitor their legal proceedings. It means that asylum-seekers can now have access to the U.S. asylum system in a humane way.

Story continues

A key question remains: What happens to the thousands of migrants currently in Mexico in the MPP program and will they be allowed to enter the U.S. to wait out their court dates?

Women with their children from Guatemala and Honduras rent an apartment in Nogales, Sonora, for their safety and wait for their turn for MPP. The Migrant Protection Protocols expanded to Nogales, Sonora, in early January. One month later, it remains tough to gauge its full impact on this border city as apprehensions continue dropping, but asylum seekers continue arriving.

There should be immediate relief for those currently in the MPP program, Steglich said. Right now, its unclear what will happen.

The 9th Circuit issued a separate ruling on Friday morning that reinstated a lower court's injunction blocking the Trump administration from enforcing a rule that made migrants ineligible for asylum if they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in between the ports of entry.

The lawsuit

Eleven migrants sent back to Mexico under the program, and a collection of six civil rights advocates including Innovation Law Lab, Al Otro Lado and Tahirih Justice Center, filed a lawsuit last year, arguing that the policy violated U.S. immigration law.

A federal district court in California had issued a ruling blocking the policy during the case, but MPP continued while the U.S. government appealed.

In an 81-page opinion published on Friday morning, a three-judge panel with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California found that the program "is inconsistent" with U.S. federal law and should be blocked entirely. Judges split 2-1 on the decision.

With an injunction in place, the case now likely returns to the district court to consider the suit itself.

During the time of the appeal, Homeland Security had expanded the program along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The U.S. government rolled out the Migrant Protection Protocols in San Diego-Tijuana in January 2019. It later began sending asylum-seekers to Mexico in Calexico-Mexicali at the California border; El Paso-Ciudad Juarez, Brownsville-Matamoros, Laredo-Nuevo Laredo and Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras along the Texas border; and Nogales-Nogales, Sonora, at the Arizona border.

In California: ICE ignores state immigration laws

"The panel concluded that there is a significant likelihood that the individual plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm if the MPP is not enjoined; uncontested evidence in the record establishes that non-Mexicans returned to Mexico under the MPP risk substantial harm, even death, while they await adjudication of their applications for asylum," the court's opinion read.

Judges William Fletcher and Richard Paez, who were both appointed by President Bill Clinton, voted to block MPP. Judge Ferdinand Fernandez, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, dissented.

Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf issued a statement calling the nationwide injunction "grave and reckless," while also accusing the judges of bypassing Congress and undermining the Constitution.

He referred to the Migrant Protection Protocols as a "gamechanger" that has allowed the U.S. government to process "meritorious" claims more quickly and to reduce fraudulent claims.

"By implementing MPP we have also effectively reduced the incentive for smugglers and traffickers to use children in their illicit cross-border activity," Wolf said. "Should this ruling stand, the safety and security of our border communities, international relationships and regional stability is at risk."

He confirmed they're working with the Justice Department to "expeditiously" appeal the court's "inexplicable" decision.

A spokesman for the Justice Department, which litigated on behalf of the government, criticized the 9th Circuit's decision, as well as the "impropriety" of nationwide injunctions to halt some of the administration's immigration and border enforcement policies.

"The Ninth Circuits decision not only ignores the Constitutional authority of Congress and the Administration for a policy in effect for over a year, but also extends relief beyond the parties before the Court," the department said in a statement.

The American Civil Liberties Union litigated the appeal before the 9th Circuit in October, along with the Southern Poverty Law Center and Center for Gender and Refugee Studies.

Judy Rabinovitz, an attorney with the ACLUs Immigrants Rights Project, argued the case before the judges.

The court forcefully rejected the Trump administrations assertion that it could strand asylum seekers in Mexico and subject them to grave danger, she said in a statement Friday. Its time for the administration to follow the law and stop putting asylum seekers in harms way.

Michael Tan, the deputy director for the Immigrants' Rights Project, said it is almost certain the Trump administration will appeal.

The Justice Department has the option to ask a full panel of the 9th Circuit to review the case, a process known as en banc. Or, it can file an appeal directly to the Supreme Court, as it has done in other high-profile immigration cases, such as the administration's travel ban.

Regardless of which route it takes, Tan said, the Justice Department could once again ask the courts to stay Friday's decision, pending an appeal.

"We're under no illusion that the administration is going to take this one lying down," he said.

Al Otro Lado, a binational legal aid group based in California that has provided assistance to asylum-seekers returned under MPP to Tijuana and Mexicali, claimed victory following the courts decision.

"A HUGE WIN! 9th circuit has sided with us in our lawsuit and reinstated the block on the ILLEGAL and inhumane Remain in Mexico Policy, the group wrote on Twitter. We suspect the government will appeal, but for now we are celebrating!

Returned to violence

Human Rights First has counted 1,001 cases of attacks on MPP migrants, including kidnappings, rape, torture, murder and at least 228 kidnappings or attempted kidnappings of children.

In a recent report, Doctors Without Borders also reported that, in October alone, 75% of the migrants in the MPP program they spoke to in Nuevo Laredo had been recently kidnapped.

The labor union for federal asylum officers, the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1924, condemned the policy in an amicus briefing filed in June to go along with the lawsuit. MPP abandons our tradition of providing a safe haven to the persecuted and violates our international and domestic legal obligations, the union wrote.

Scott Weaver, an Austin attorney representing more than 50 MPP clients in Matamoros and Nuevo Laredo, said he was encouraged to hear of the courts decision but didnt know what it meant for his clients.

He feared ICE would now detain MPP migrants in U.S. immigration detention facilities as their asylum process played out, which would be better than the Mexican border towns theyre currently in but still not ideal, he said. He would like to see them paroled during their court process, he said.

Im concerned about what happens next, Weaver said. Im sure theyll be more hurdles for my clients.

Across the border, Jose Ascencion Moreno Mena expressed his satisfaction with the court's ruling given the "unnecessary risks" the policy exposed returned migrants to.

He leads the Coalicion Pro Defense del Migrante, a collective of shelters and aid groups for migrants in Tijuana and Mexicali, the two cities where U.S. officials first implemented "Remain in Mexico."

Dec. 2018: New Trump administration policy requires asylum seekers to remain in Mexico, bans US entry

Despite a vast network of shelters in cities all along Mexican side of the border, many of them are continuously full, forcing migrants returned under MPP to find other accommodations.

"All these people are forced to go to places that are inhospitable, places where they run lots of risks. And since they don't know the city well, many times they end up in places that are not very safe," he said.

He said it was hard to track how many migrants sent back had suffered violence or extortion because no one is tracking that, and because migrants are afraid to report it.

Pastor Lorenzo Ortiz was driving a group of migrants from Nuevo Laredo to Monterrey when he got the news that the "Remain in Mexico" policy had been temporarily halted.

Then calls began pouring in to his cellphone from returned migrants stranded in Nuevo Laredo, asking if they should rush the international bridge to the U.S.

There was a little bit of a panic, said Ortiz, who runs two shelters filled with MPP migrants in Nuevo Laredo.

The ruling "created some conflict and confusion," he said. "Im telling people to just wait, dont do anything wrong that could impact your case.

Ortiz said he hopes the U.S. government now takes the steps they did when throngs of Cuban migrants piled up at the foot of the bridge in Nuevo Laredo after the government abolished the "wet foot/dry foot" rule, which eased the way for Cubans reaching U.S. soil to stay in the U.S.

After that measure ended in 2017 under President Obama, Customs and Border Protection officers took around 20 to 30 Cubans a day until they were all processed into the U.S. within about nine months, he said.

Ortiz said he doubts he will see the same orderly reaction this time around.

It sounds like good news, but I dont think itll really be good news, he said. Trump will find a way to stop this.

Rafael Carranza covers the border and is based in Tucson, Ariz. Jervis is based in Austin for the USA TODAY Network. Follow Rafael Carranza and Rick Jervis on Twitter: @RafaelCarranza and @MrRJervis.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Court blocks Trump's Remain in Mexico policy  then reverses itself
Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his favourite gadget, an iPad to make an impromptu presentation to US President Donald Trump on Tuesday at Hyderabad House in an effort to dispel all misgivings on bilateral trade with India. He also used a time-window before lunch was served at Hyderabad House to explain both the Citizenship Amendment Act and the nullification of Article 370 of the Constitution to the satisfaction of the US president.

Trade is one of the big outstanding issues between the two countries, which couldnt agree on a widely anticipated trade deal that was expected to be signed during this visit. However, both say they are working on a larger deal.

According to those present at Hyderabad House, PM Modi took upon himself to remove the misgivings of US President Donald Trump that India was treating his country unfairly with little effort being made to address an adverse trade deficit.

Watch what Donald Trump said on CAA debate, Pakistan terror, at Delhi briefing

It is learnt that PM Modi took out his iPad and showed President Trump what India had done during his tenure to reduce the trade deficit from $31 billion in 2014 to $24.2 billion in 2018a decline a 22% over four years. PM Modi also showed that Indias hydrocarbon imports from the US went from zero in 2013 to $9 billion now and likely to reach $12 billion by the end of the year, with the US exporting oil, coal and liquified natural gas to India.

He revealed that Indian students in US were contributing nearly $ 6 billion each year to the American treasury by spending dollars in education. PM Modi then pointed out to the growing military hardware imports to India during President Trumps tenure with more multi-billion dollar defence deals in the pipeline. India is buying $3 billion worth of helicopters this year, for instance. President Trump indicated to PM Modi that his country is willing to supply any top-of-the-line defence equipment including armed drones and fighters to India and that New Delhi was free to buy from anyone provided that the equipment was better in comparison to American hardware. Both PM Modi and President Trump spoke about bilateral trade in comments to media at Hyderabad House.

On CAA, PM Modi explained to the US president that the proportion of those belonging to minority communities in Pakistan and other Muslim nations in Indias neighbourhood, including Christians, has fallen and that the law is aimed only at providing security and dignity to those mistreated in the neighbourhood. He explained that CAA was not aimed at depriving any one of citizenship rights, the people present during the meeting said.

On the issue of J&K, Modi explained how despite all his efforts, Pakistan was targeting India through terrorists, the people added.

Interestingly, even as Modi pointed out the security challenges that India faces from Pakistan, President Trump repeated his willingness to mediate between the two estranged neighbours, the people said. According to them, PM Modi heard out President Trump.

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(Reuters) - Apple Inc <AAPL.O> is closely watching how the coronavirus outbreak is unfolding in South Korea and Italy, where the company has suppliers, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said in an interview.

Apple counts major Korean display makers Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS> and LG Electronics Inc <066570.KS> among its suppliers. It also sources chips from a factory in Italy run by Franco-Italian chipmaker STMicroelectronics <STM.BN>, according to its most recent supplier list.

Cook told Fox Business Networks that Apple had re-opened 80 percent of its stores in China. He also said that iPhone factories in China had restarted and were in "phase three of the ramp mode."

"It will take some time, but by in large I think this is a temporary condition, not a long-term kind of thing," Cook said.

Asked if Apple would move manufacturing out of China to countries such as Vietnam or Cambodia, Cook said the company's supply chain was global and that the company considered speed to markets and engineering skills in addition to cost. He also said Apple's supply chain managers were examining how resilient to the coronavirus shock the company's supply chains were.

"And so the question for us after we get on the other side will be, was the resilience there or not and do we need to make some changes," he said. "My perspective sitting here today is that if there are changes, youre talking about adjusting some knobs, not some sort of wholesale fundamental change."

Apple last week said it would not meet its guidance for the quarter ending in March and that it would experience supply chain shortages. Cook said he did not know whether the coronavirus would affect the quarter ending in June.

On Wednesday at Apple's annual shareholder meeting, Cook said Apple would open its first retail store in India.

Cook was interviewed in Alabama, where he had traveled to announce a program to teach computer coding in schools.

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and John Stonestreet)
World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke to some of those attending the public rally held by the Socialist Equality Party (UK) in defence of Julian Assange on Sunday in London.

Frankie, a 23-year-old PhD student in maths, travelled to the meeting from the north west of England, He said, I was clarified [by the meeting] on how various political parties in Australia and here have failed to defend Assange. Corbyn gets his support for standing up for democratic freedoms, but he wont stand up to his own party or its backers for principles he claims he stands for.

Frankie

The working class needs to demand that Assange is released, not that the ruling class do it on their behalf. They cant leave it up to the courts because its clear they serve the interests of the state.

Diane, a counsellor from Merseyside, said, We should support Assange, its a human rights issue. If they are allowed to get away with it and send him to America, it gives them carte blanche to get away with other things.

I found the meeting very inspirational. It hit home and made perfect sense. I want to contribute more.

I voted for Corbyn [in the December general election], I thought he was left and there was no alternative. He can talk the talk, but he cant walk the walk. Ive completely lost faith in the Labour Party, and I suppose a lot of people think that there doesnt seem to be the right leadership.

Sasangi (right) with her mother Nishani

Sasangi, 19, said, I thought that [SEP National Secretary] Chris Marsdens speech was very inspiring and very informative. I read the World Socialist Web Site most days, especially the Perspective articles. I agree completely that the defence of Julian Assange is nothing to do with winning the support of a few celebrities. As the speakers said, only the mobilisation of the working class will gain freedom for Julian Assange.

I found Jeremy Corbyns lack of action disappointing. He had a huge opportunity to tell everyone and to win broad support for Assange, but he didnt take it. It shows he is a coward.

Assange is in jail to demonstrate what will happen to anyone who dares to tell the truth to the working class.

I was nine years old when Assange was first victimised and had to ask for asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy. For the past 10 years, the media has been completely silent about what was happening to him and why. This means that most young people of my age know absolutely nothing about his imprisonment. I am sure that as soon as they learn the truth, they will support his cause.

Alex, a Bournemouth university student, said it was the first time he had attended an SEP public meeting. I thought it was overwhelming. The support, everybody turning out, for my first time it has definitely been an experience, a positive one.

Seeing the difference between what the SEP does and what the Labour Party does and having that laid out for you by people that have carried the torch and banner of the socialist movement, that fights for the interests of real people, is really something to behold. I thought the speech from Oscar Grenfell was fantastic. He laid out quite clearly the historical narrative which represents whats happening in democratic nations in the treatment of Assange. The meeting was enlightening and encouraging.

Jane Anderson

Jane Anderson said, I have never been to one of these meetings before, and coming to the meeting today has really inspired me. I think I am going to join the SEP. I have read and studied a lot about Julian Assange, and I felt very inspired by everything that was said. I felt that the information was very grounded, it wasnt airy fairy. I think that my biggest disappointment in the Julian Assange case is that ordinary people, working class people, arent getting whats going on.

I have been lucky enough to really look into this case and read up a lot about it, talk to other people about it and to build up a picture of what is going on for him.

I think the ruling class is scared of Assange because he just reveals the truth no matter what. Hes on the side of the citizens of mankind. He sees it as his mission, in his heart and soul, to tell the citizens of the world what is going on, shining the light into the dark revealing the corruptness and the warmongering of the government and the world leaders. Thats his job, and we want to support him in that.

Aikaz and Zaman

Aikaz and Zaman are journalism students at a university in London. Aikaz said, I always kind of knew about Assange, everyone kind of knew a lot about WikiLeaks and all the documents he released. It was a huge amount of information. And I just happened to find out that his trial was happening soon, and we decided to come and see the whole moment ourselves. But its not as covered in the mainstream media, as you would expect.

I think that the media is very threatened nowadays, because before it was always the media providing information. Now everyone tries to be a journalist or claims to be a journalist, and the media still wants to keep their role as gatekeepers and as watchdog. It threatens their authority as journalists when someone else does what they are supposed to do. Thats why they might not be satisfied with Assange, but essentially what journalists must stand for is what he stands forthat the information is in the public interest and there is the right to freedom of speech as well. So, it is in the interest of journalists to support him, because it sets the precedent in the future. If hes charged and sent away, its journalists who will suffer the consequences.

Zaman said, The meeting came from an international viewpoint. We come from Kazakhstan. We are international students, and in our country they do not cover the issue at all. Even here in the UK, journalists tried to hide it. Its not covered as much as it should be, and thats why even British people, even people from the European Union and in the US, they dont know whats actually happening and what kind of threat is being presented towards press freedom.

When Julian got dragged out of the embassy, it was surprising because for a lot of people its considered normal nowadays that if you go against someone powerful, youll get killed or hid away somewhere in a place that no one knows about. Even with my peers, if you start talking about it, my friends, they are always thinking he brought it on himself and they dont always see. They think he was too brave and courageous, and they just think its not the way the world works, and you dont see any hope in the future, which I think is tragic and we should probably change. Its possible enough people want to change the world, and there is always a chance for a better future.

Its really hard to go through life and hard to go to your work and realise that somewhere else in the world someone is dying, and you cant do anything about it is because of your government and you have no power in your hands.

Kate

Kate from London said, I have been involved in the Assange campaign for a while. I send out a lot of information to my friends and family. Apart from that, I have been to Belmarsh, I have been to the magistrates court in Marylebone.

Mobilising the students, mobilising the working class, this is really what we need to do. There are still a lot of people who say, Oh well, he did this, he did that. It is so important to defend Assange because of the issue of freedom of speech, freedom for journalism. If Assange is extradited, no journalists will ever speak the truth, they will be afraid to do so. If this happens, if he really is taken and jailed for the rest of his life, then who will dare to speak out? I am afraid for young people, and they are the ones that should be concerned.

Nothing has been done by the Labour Party and I am very disappointed about it.

The day they dragged him out of the [Ecuadorian] Embassy, I was so shocked and depressed. Many of us here were in tears. It was not ideal that he was kept in there for seven-and-a-half years, but he was relatively safe in comparison to what has happened since, which is horrendous.

Ruby said, I thought the meeting today was inspiring and vindicating because we are on a daily basis nourished with distractions, with fake news from the press, and sometimes we hear from people who have the courage to really express their views and not be part of the establishment.

I think the fight for Assange is the fight that awakes in us a sense of what is important and what is not. It awakes in us a sense of wanting the truth and that you are no longer satisfied with half-truths or with vanity projects.

I think the fight for Assange has to be for the man that he is, who had the courage to establish the means to reveal to the world the secrets of the deep state.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 28, 2020 - 23:30 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

The Hokkaido governor declared a state of emergency on Friday and asked residents to remain indoors over the weekend after the new coronavirus spread in Japan's northernmost main island.

The declaration came amid confusion among many prefectural and local authorities across Japan following a sudden request from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to temporarily shut schools.

At least 66 infections, including two deaths, have been confirmed in Hokkaido, while Japan has reported more than 900 domestic coronavirus cases, with over 700 of them linked to the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo.

"The situation has become more serious. I'd like people to refrain from going outside over the weekend to protect your lives and health," Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki said in the declaration.

(Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki)

The prefectural government cited the possibility of small clusters of infections after six people this month visited an exhibition in the city of Kitami and later tested positive for the virus.

Suzuki also asked those who feel unwell to refrain from going to work, saying there have been cases where people with mild symptoms have spread the virus when traveling.

In all of Japan, 19 more infections were confirmed, bringing the total to 938, with most linked to the cruise ship docked in Yokohama.

The domestic death toll rose to 11 after three additional fatalities were reported, including a Japanese woman and British man who had both been taken to hospitals from the Diamond Princess. The man is the first foreign national from the vessel to be confirmed dead due to the virus.

Many schools across Japan will close in line with the request from Abe, which sparked a public outcry forcing him to clarify that local authorities have the final say.

Abe's sudden request Thursday to close all elementary, junior high and high schools in the country from Monday, several weeks ahead of the start of the spring break in late March, triggered confusion among teachers, students and parents who said they did not have time to prepare.

Abe surprised many when he announced the school closure plan through the end of the spring break in early April, when the new school year starts in Japan, at a government task force meeting on the virus outbreak. It was formally relayed to local education boards on Friday.

Education minister Koichi Hagiuda indicated school boards could be flexible in deciding when and how long schools will be closed. "It's OK to respond in a variety of ways depending on the circumstances of local communities and schools," he said.

Kanazawa Mayor Yukiyoshi Yamano said he does not plan to comply with the government request, adding there was insufficient time for discussions or to notify people about it.

"There are many small- and medium-sized businesses in the countryside. Parents taking leave or reducing working hours would have a major impact on such businesses," said the mayor of the central Japan city.

Hagiuda said the government wants children to remain indoors at home during the break to prevent the spread of the pneumonia-causing virus that originated in China.

"We're asking for the cooperation of relevant ministries and agencies so that students will stay at home in principle and not go outside unless it's necessary," said Hagiuda.

"Experts have been saying schools have a high risk of group infection," he said in defending the government request. He also called on local education boards to make efforts to avoid significant disruption to study schedules.

Despite the option given to keep schools open, some believe it is not realistic in the face of growing worries about the spread of infections.

"We'll be blamed by parents if we don't close when the country's leader is telling us to do so," said a male teacher in his 30s working at a public elementary school in western Japan.

Aside from the schools, nurseries and other child-care providers have been asked to stay open in principle, but some said they cannot expand capacity and accept additional children.

"I think (the school closure) is pointless unless we stop going outside or using child-care services" to prevent the spread of the virus, said a woman in her 40s who has two children attending elementary school in the city of Saitama, north of Tokyo.

Like many working parents who have no one else to look after their young children, 35-year-old Ayako Sasaki, whose daughter attends elementary school in the northern Japan city of Akita, said, "I really don't know what to do."

"I'm in the hospitality industry so I can't work from home and can't rely on my parents who live far away," she said.

Welfare minister Katsunobu Kato said his ministry will liaise with local governments with regard to care services for elementary school students, citing the issue of how many staff can be secured to cover the period.

Abe said he will request that businesses make it easier for workers to take paid leave and said the government is considering ways to deal with part-time workers whose incomes will be reduced during the period when they cannot work because of the need to take care of children.

Abe is scheduled to hold a press conference at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Related coverage:

Sumo: Spring meet unlikely to be held in "regular" fashion: JSA

Virus spread spurs global stock sell-off, raising criticism of Abe

China's Xi to visit Japan as planned: Motegi
Three federal agencies on Friday released a long-awaited report on the environmental impact of breaching four dams on the lower Snake River, rejecting removal in favor of increasing spill to help endangered fish stocks.

While environmental groups, who have advocated for breaching the dams, were quick to condemn the proposal, industry and commerce groups, along with electric utilities, lauded the report. They said removal of the dams would scrap an important source of renewable power, could cause power shortages and could increase rates consumers pay for electricity.

Ted Case, Executive Director, Oregon Rural Electrical Cooperative Association

Oregons electric cooperatives are pleased the DEIS recognizes the lower Snake River Dams are a critical part of the Northwests clean energy future. The DEIS also concludes that breaching the dams would have adverse effects on power costs, particularly in rural counties, while putting the reliability of our electrical grid at risk.

Kurt Miller, Executive Director, Northwest River Partners

"This is a much, much bigger issue than the Snake River dams. If worldwide salmon populations are doing poorly because of climate change and carbon, does it make sense to tear out 1,000 average megawatts of carbon-free electricity? Miller told the Associated Press. For so many reasons, its bad public policy.

Kristin Kemak, President, Lewis Clark Valley Chamber of Commerce

The Lewis Clark Valley Chamber of Commerce believes, as it did in 2015, that removal of the dams and increased flow augmentation on the Lower Snake and Columbia Rivers would inflict on the citizenry an irreparable economic hardship, risk of floods, loss of navigation, increase in electrical rates, loss of recreation and impaired quality of life, she said in a statement reported by Big Country News. The many changes in operation and design features of the Lower Snake River Dams have had a positive effect on the survival rate of Snake River salmon. There have been recent record numbers of salmon returning, and the Chamber believes that salmon and steelhead can and should be preserved and enhanced in harmony with preserving the many uses of the Snake and Columbia Rivers.

Todd Myers, Environmental Director, Washington Policy Center

Every time the question is asked about destroying the dams, the science and economics provide the same answer, he told the Tri-City Herald. Rather than spending billions to destroy the dams, and adding billions more in electricity costs for families, we should focus our resources on Puget Sound recovery, where they can make the biggest difference for salmon and orca.

-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048

@sfkale

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Huseyn Safarov  Trend:

The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) project allows Azerbaijan to diversify its gas markets, analyst at the Russias National Energy Security Fund, Expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Igor Yushkov told Trend.

Yushkov noted that for Azerbaijan, this project is a means of diversifying its gas export markets, while for Turkey and European countries, SGC is the means of diversifying their supply sources.

Greece and Bulgaria will receive one billion cubic meters of gas each via the Southern Gas Corridor, and about 8.8 billion cubic meters per year will be delivered to Italy.

The expert said that currently, Azerbaijan is the only source of gas for SGC.

"The resource base for the project is the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field on the shelf of the Caspian Sea," the expert said.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.

The launching ceremony of the first stage of the Southern Gas Corridor was held in Baku on May 29, 2018, while opening ceremony of TANAPs Phase 0 was held on June 12, 2018 in the Turkish city of Eskisehir. TANAP-Europe connection was opened on Nov.30, 2019 in Ipsala, Edirne, Turkey.

Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) were connected on the Turkish-Greek border.
Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) members and supporters have been campaigning for this Saturdays Brisbane rally to demand the immediate and unconditional release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and US whistle blower Chelsea Manning.

On Thursday, IYSSE club members at Griffith University appealed to students and staff at the Nathan campus Market Day to join the forthcoming rally.

Speak-out in Inala

IYSSE club president Gulshan said: All the students and academics around the world should unite to continue the legacy of Julian Assange and free media. She said the information revealed by Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks was vital for human health and safety and for respect of the basic dignity of every civilian around the world.

Gulshan issued an appeal: Unite for Assange! Unite for a safe future! Unite for prosperity of the countries around the world! The time has come and the time is NOW!

Another IYSSE member, an international student, said: We should defend Assange and Manning, because they are on the front line against the conspiracy of imperialism. We can see how Assange was deprived of his rights during this period of detention, and how his personal safety was deprived.

Speaking of the extradition hearing underway in London, he commented: It shows that this is a trial full of lies and tells everyone that there is no justice in the capitalist courts. This is undoubtedly a warning to everyone: everything that Assange and Manning suffer today will be intensified and repeated on us. The experiences of Manning and Assange show how imperialist war traffickers hate free speech. The ruling class want people to lose sight of the truth and the voices of opposition.

This is why we defend Assange and Manning. The more the imperialists want us to forget, the more we should remember; the more the imperialists want us to keep silent, the louder we should shout out. Assange and Manning have made great contributions in the struggle against imperialist war, but this has never been the cause of one person, and it should be done by all of us

It is time for us to stand up: all students, youth and workersall those who support justice, truth and peace. The future of the world is up to us.

SEP book stall in Parramatta

This weekends forthcoming rally in Brisbane follows successful protests organised last weekend by the SEP in Melbourne and Parramatta, in western Sydney.

Workers, students and youth from across New South Wales attended the Parramatta rally. Many of those attending purchased literature, t-shirts, bumper stickers and left their contact details to participate in future campaigns.

Marilyn, a retired age-care nurse, decided to join the rally as she was walking past Parramatta Town Hall.

Marilyn

I think what they are doing do Assange is horrible. The upcoming hearing is a kangaroo court. I wasnt even fully aware of what was happening until I spoke to you guys today. People can watch the news, but they are not told the real truth, she said.

Assange is being used as an example. We have a right to the information Assange revealed. There is a lot of cover-up. Look at how the ABC was raided. Once again, the raid is the same as what is happening with Julian. There was information being revealed, the government didnt want the information revealed, so they raided it.

Ive not been a pro-active political person before. Id seen Assange on TV but it didnt really gel for me. Now I can see that this is an absolute threat for all of us.

Nate, a 16-year-old TAFE student, said: I support Assange because he is speaking out about important issues that matter. Hes a great icon for freedom of speech and this is what brought me to the rally today. Assange is being subjected to inhumane conditions. He is being locked up and tortured.

Nate

Freedom of speech is a very important issue that we have to fight for. We cant be silent. The working class needs freedom of speech to be able to express their thoughts and concerns to the government. It is crucially important and an essential part of democracy.

Assange is being attacked, he continued, because governments are scared of change, theyre scared of revolution, and theyre scared of the power getting into the hands of the people instead of the rich.

Suny

Young people need to support Assange. This is our future that we have to fight for. So many issues tie in with Assange, climate change and the looming threat of extinction, the bushfires and the drive to war, nuclear war, that will be catastrophic for the entire earth. So much money is spent on the military. There are advertisements everywhere trying to get young people to join, telling us all of these benefits. They just want us to fight wars for the rich.

Suny, a University of New South Wales student said: What Assange is doing is good for citizens because hes exposed the big people who did the wrong things.

Jodie

What is going on with him is totally wrongthat he is getting physically and mentally tortured by government. We need to do something to take him back. Scott Morrison is preventing an initiative because he thinks that our relations with the US will get destroyed. So that is why we have to take action.

We have to stand up for Assange. Otherwise, no-one else can take the initiative or steps to expose the politicians.

Jodie said it was the second SEP rally she had attended in defence of Assange and Manning.

Its a fundamental democratic principle. If we cant criticise our governments and be informed about what they are doing, then were not in a democracy. Particularly journalists, they have to be able to report wrongdoings of the government and criticise them without fear of being imprisoned for 175 years, she said.

Brisbane rally details:

Saturday February 29, 2:00 p.m.

Reddacliff Place, Brisbane

(corner Queen and George Street)
Global advertising spend is set to rise by 7.1 per cent to $660 billion this year, buoyed by 13.2 per cent growth in Internet investment. But traditional media, combined, are expected to record 1.5 per cent growth to $324.2 billion  the first rise since 2011  finds WARC, the international marketing intelligence service.

The traditional media total is expected to be boosted by a return to growth for TV; here spend is set to rise 2.5 per cent to $192.6 billion, helped in no small part by the US presidential election campaigns and the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. But advertising revenue for the duopoly (Alphabet and Facebook) is forecast to reach $231.9 billion in 2020, having topped the TV total for the first time in 2019.

Alphabets ad income is forecast to rise 10.5 per cent to $149.0 billion worldwide, equivalent to 23 cents in every ad dollar. A full 72.4 per cent  $107.8 billion  will come from Alphabets core Google search platform  this gives Google a 77.0 per cent share of the global search market. YouTube is expected to earn a further $18.5 billion for Alphabet in 2020, a 22.1 per cent rise from 2019 and equivalent to 29.0 per cent of all online video adspend worldwide.

Facebooks ad revenue is projected to rise 19.0 per cent to $82.9 billion; much of this growth is organic, though the social network will benefit from the US presidential campaigns this year. Amazons ad income is set to rise 21.4 per cent to $17.1 billion, Twitters 9.2 per cent to $3.3 billion and Snaps 34.1 per cent to $2.3 billion. All will contribute to an overall rise of 13.2 per cent in Internet ad investment this year, to a total of $335.4 billion  over half (50.9%) of the global total for the first time.

James McDonald, Managing Editor, WARC Data, and author of the research, said, Internet ad growth has been far stronger than the state of the global economy would suggest, rising seven times faster on average since 2015. But, regulation aside, online platforms are bound by the law of large numbers, and revenue growth is easingfor key players like Alphabet and Facebook.

We are yet to amend our forecasts in light of the COVID-19 situation, as we would expect  if the crisis is contained  displaced spend to be reallocated later in the year. Advertisings relationship with GDP is strong, but a slowdown in economic output as a result of the virus will not necessarily translate into reduced advertising investment. If events such as the Tokyo Olympics and UEFA Euro 2020 tournament are postponed or cancelled, however, we would expect a notable impact.

All product categories are expected to see growth in 2020

Ad spend is set to rise across all of the 19 product categories monitored by WARC. The financial services sector is expected to lead growth, with a forecast rise 11.8 per cent to $53.4 billion in 2020. A full 53.9 per cent of spend is directed towards online formats; banks in particular are looking to build brand resonance with youth demographics (increasingly via social media).

At the other end of the scale, a rise of 2.6 per cent in the retail sector is soft compared to the global rate of 7.1 per cent, but would still represent the strongest growth since 2013, lifting market value to $65 billion.

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) sectors such as soft drinks (+6.5% to $17.3bn) and food (+4.9% to $28.1bn) are expected to grow just behind the global rate this year, alcoholic drinks (+6.9% to $9.7bn) and automotive (6.8% to $57.2bn) are roughly par.

Trends by platform

Alphabet: Alphabets advertising revenue  across Google Search, YouTube, and Google Network Members (third parties that host Google ads)  is forecast to rise 10.5% to $149.0bn this year  22.6% of global advertising spend (up from 21.9% in 2019). This is before the deduction of traffic acquisition costs (TAC), which amounted to $30.1bn in 2019.

YouTube: Advertisers are forecast to spend $18.5bn on YouTube this year, a rise of 22.1% from $15.2bn in 2019. This gives YouTube a 29.0% share of all online video advertising spend, and a 2.8% share of total ad spend.

Google: By far the largest service in Alphabets portfolio, Googles ad income is expected to rise 9.9% to $107.8bn this year  77.0% of global search spend and 16.3% of all adspend.

Facebook: Advertisers are expected to spend $82.9bn across Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram this year, a rise of 19.0% from 2019. This gives Facebook a 12.6% share of global advertising investment.

Amazon: Amazon is forecast to record double-digit ad revenue growth again this year, with income amounting to $17.1bn, a 21.4% rise from 2019. This gives Amazon a 2.6% share of global advertising spend.

Snapchat: Ad investment in Snapchat is forecast to rise 34.1% to $2.3bn in 2020, 2.2% of all social and messaging spend and just 0.3% of total ad spend.

Twitter: Twitters ad income is expected to ease into single digits, with a total of $3.3bn representative of a 9.2% rise in 2020.

Trends by media and format

TV: Spend is forecast to rise 2.5% to $192.6bn, 29.2% of all global spend this year. This only partially reverses a 4.4% dip in 2019. A third of the global TV total is transacted in the US  where, TV spend is set to rise 4.0% to $62.9bn. Just over $4bn will come from presidential campaigns.

Out of home: Spend across billboards, transport and retail/ point of sale (PoS) locations is forecast to rise 5.9% to $43.5bn this year, the sixth consecutive year of growth. The sector is benefitting from the increasing penetration of digital sites in advanced markets.

Radio: Advertiser investment in radio is forecast to rise 1.8% to $32.8bn, recouping losses from a 1.3% dip in 2019.

Print: Spend is set to fall by $3.2bn, or 5.8% in 2020, but this is half the rate of decline recorded in 2019. Digital revenue now accounts for over a third of total ad income for publishers worldwide, though this share is closer to a half at the New York Times.

Social media: Spend is forecast to rise 19.5% to $102.4bn this year, 15.5% of global advertising spend. Facebook (including Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp) is expected to draw 80.9% of this investment, or $82.9bn, though this share is down from 81.2% in 2019. Just over 42%  $35bn  of Facebooks ad revenue will come from the US this year.

Online video: Spend is forecast to rise 21.4% to $63.7bn this year, equivalent to 9.7% of global advertising spend. YouTube is expected to account for three in ten cents.

Search: Spend is forecast to rise 12.7% to $140.1bn in 2020, 21.2% of global ad spend. Google is set to draw 77.0% of the market, down from 79.0% in 2019.

Trends by region

North America: Total market growth forecast at 8.4% this year to $250.3bn  following a 4.5% rise in 2019. The US ad market is expected to grow 8.8% to $238.2bn, while Canada is projected to grow 1.9% to $12.2bn

Asia-Pacific: Advertising spend is expected to rise 7.5% to $205.0bn in 2020, with China (+9.7% to $98.5bn), Japan (+3.2% to $40.2bn), Australia (+2.4% to $13.3bn) and India (+15.6% to $11.2bn) all set to record annual growth.

Europe: European adspend is forecast to rise 6.9% to $158.7bn this year, with France leading key market growth at +10.0% (to $18.2bn). The UK (+3.2% to $31.3bn), Germany (+1.3% to $24.9bn), Italy (+2.7% to $10.5bn) and Russia (7.6% to $10.5bn) will continue to see rising investment.

Latin America: The region is heavily susceptible to the strength of the US dollar, which resulted in a 1.1% decline in ad spend last year. A further fall, of 2.5%, is forecast this year, with Brazil recording a 4.3% dip to $14.3bn.

Middle East: Spend is expected to fall 1.7% to $12.0bn in 2020, following on from a 3.7% fall in 2019.

Africa: Spend is expected to rise 5.6% to $6.9bn this year, reversing a 1.5% dip in 2019.
South Sydney has emerged as the new hot spot of the office sector as infrastructure improvements have made the area a viable option to the tightly held CBD market.

The investment in new developments by private players and an array of amenities being offered has seen a rise in demand from commercial users in an area once dominated by residential conversions.

An artist's impression of HQ Six Ossary Street, Mascot.

Covering Mascot, the new Green Square development, where Charter Hall's Veriu hotel opens next week and to Botany, the precinct can also capture the airport and ports demand.

One of the latest projects, Allen Linz's Rebel Property, which has joined with Warren Duncan from Everest Property to develop Mascot's first purpose-built creative office building.
Federal police would have the option of sending journalists a "notice to produce documents", rather than raiding their homes or offices, under a proposal being considered by the Morrison government.

But media organisations were sceptical of the proposal on Friday, fearing it would provide no protections in the event that police were intent on obtaining a warrant to conduct a raid on journalists.

The move came as the ABC announced it will not appeal a Federal Court ruling that found a police warrant used to raid its Sydney headquarters was valid.

In a joint submission to the Federal Parliament's press freedom inquiry, the Department of Home Affairs and the Australian Federal Police have suggested the Crimes Act could be amended to establish a "notice to produce" framework.
The Delhi High Court Friday stayed its single judge's direction to DDA to approach the court before notifying any change to the Master Plan for going forth with the Centre's ambitious project to redevelop the Central Vista -- the 3-km stretch from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate in Lutyens' Delhi.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar issued the direction on the pleas by the Centre and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) challenging the single judge's order of February 11.

The bench also issued notice to the two individuals -- Rajeev Suri and Lt Col (retd) Anuj Srivastava -- on whose pleas the February 11 order was passed, and listed the Centre and DDA's appeals for further hearing on May 6.

Suri and Srivastava, in their pleas before the single judge, have opposed the Central Vista project on the ground that it involves a change in land use of the green area adjoining Rajpath and Vijay Chowk for building a new Parliament and government offices.

They have contended that DDA does not have the power to bring about the proposed change in land use and master plan and only the central government can do so.

The single judge in his February 11 order had said, "In case, a decision is taken to notify the proposed changes in Master Plan of Delhi 2020-21, the DDA will approach the court before notifying such decision."



Gujarat-based architecture firm HCP Designs has won the consultancy bid for the Centre's ambitious project to redevelop the Central Vista.

The revamp, which was announced in September last year, envisages a new triangular Parliament building, with seating capacity for 900 to 1,200 MPs, that is targeted to be constructed by August, 2022 when the country will be celebrating its 75th Independence Day. The common Central Secretariat is likely to be built by 2024.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
28.02.2020 LISTEN

Manhyia dehyie brempon,

Barima Akwasi Agyeman is gone!

Amid the encircling gloom,

a shadow ducks deep into the dark clouds.

The lightening rod has taken a bow!

He's long gone!

I saw his shadow pacing through Highway 2020. He made the exit on 86 D. Thereupon, I couldn't see him anymore.My eyes searched in vain- hither and thither. He'd already crossed o'er the River.

It's the scariest bridge ever.

Yet billions from here had made it there.

And billions will follow suit at a time unbeknownst to us. I'm told it's a journey no one can avoid. Now a void is left, as we mourn like doves for our beloved one.

So, how many rivers do we have to cross?

And how many times must we succumb to this monster? In bold he approaches his victims- merciless, senseless, viciously uncompromising.He doesn't respect anybody- the powerful, the famous, Queens and Kings. His name is Undying Death (Bamua wuo).

He's dealt a blow to Manhyia, Asanteman, family and friends. Clad in black, and in red we mourn in unison. Misery, and sorrow have found us, as your journey to the unknown world also brings back old memories.

Nana, when did we first cross path?

I'm sure you haven't forgotten a bit of that encounter. It was around summer 1996.

It was at sundown.Dechemso (precisely Kwasi Agyemankrom) a suburb of Kumasi is relatively quiet. An inquisitive journalist from 'The VOICE ' newspaper waits on the Mayor of Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA). The visit is unannounced. And the journalist unknown to the maverick.Your car zooms past him. Engine still running downhill from a distance about 150 metres away.

Soon a brawny man steps out from the car, fiercely looking. He'd approach the journalist standing at the northend side of your residence. "Who are you and what's your mission here," he asks. That's Medase your body guard.

Actually, you sent Medase two times to tell the journalist, that you weren't ready to see him.

But he insisted he wasn't either going back to Accra until he got to meet with you. It paid off!

In the end, all turned out well. See, I wasn't 'kakaamotobi' a caricature or scarecrow.

I know you haven't forgotten that either.

The smile on your face says it all.And it tells me even though you're gone, you're with us in spirit and you'll be missed badly.

Maybe you've forgotten how much time we spent together. Maybe you've also forgotten how you spared a certain Queenmother (from one of the communities in or around Kumasi).

"I would have dealt ruthlessly with you, had it not been this journalist, (Nana)," you told her.

I could see her legs shaking in her cloth and how she left your residence as if the police SWAT team was closing in on her.

KMA had demolished a petrol station built somewhere in the city. The filling station had been sited on a road and the owner was the said Queenmother.

Did she think she could persuade Okum kom Katawire?

"How dare you?..how could you do this?

And you call yourself a Queenmother.

How could you build a petrol station in the middle of a road?" he quizzed.

And oh, some stores, kiosks, stalls at Asafo market and other sprawling suburbs in the Kumasi metropolis came under your knife.

The demolition exercise affected them.

Huge loss

The illustrious son of Asanteman has been taken away by the monsterous storm.

But what he failed to do or couldn't do was to obliterate the things you did for Asanteman (Kumasi in particular) and people across Ghana.You were incredibly an outstanding individual.You stood tall among your peers. Your popularity in Kumasi and beyond Asanteman soared.

Nana, you stood your ground.

But I think you were misunderstood by Kumasians. You're a disciplinarian.

And your passion to deal with indiscipline met stiff opposition. That was who you were.

That was what you stood for. Mr. no nonsense.

You were as ambitious as Lucifer. You wanted to make Kumasi the cleanest city in Ghana.

That objective was crucial to you in spite of the criticisms you faced, amid name calling.They said you were becoming too powerful and too pushy.

But I saw you differently. No, you weren't pushy.

I know you weren't. I know, you couldn't stand the indiscipline that was chocking up the city. You knew it would have a toll on Kumasi.

You foresaw, the filth and the garbage mountains that were lurking around.

Yet, many thought you'd your nose up in the sky. Nonetheless, you'd your part and you made a mark-- a remarkable one of course.

'Mo ne yor,' Mayor!

Barima beyeebi...

Other memories & kindness

Maybe you've forgotten what you told me about 'The Pioneer' a Kumasi-based newspaper. I can't reproduce it here.But surely, it'll forever stay with me. You literally cracked me up.

I didn't know you'd great sense of humour. Indeed you weren't the sadist beast some folks likened you to.

You conducted me around your beautiful abode and showed me many stuff in one of the rooms. They were things your uncle Nana Agyeman Prempeh the II gave you. Among them was the vintage Rose Roys, the beautiful artifacts and other precious stuff.

Indeed, you were kind but many didn't know that. You told me this story too about one Agya Tawia, a Fante who lived in Kumasi many many years ago.

"Agya Tawia took care of my family.

That made us who we are today.

He supported us in many ways. How could I forget about that old man. In view of that generosity he showed us, every month I make sure I support his family in cash and in kind."

Nanteyie Odehyie!

Dasebre Kwansobrebre!!

Indeed, we know Spring is comin'.

But we don't know what it would bring.

Damirifa Due!!

By Gordon Offin-Amaniampong
UPPER THUMB  Although Tuscola County doesnt have the extensive shoreline Huron County does, high water, flooding and erosion is impacting that area also.

Akron and Wisner townships, as well as the Quanicassee area, have been dealing with those issues. Because of that, people who live along the shoreline of Quanicassee River and Saginaw Bay formed the Facebook group Tuscola Shoreline Watch.

The focus of the group is to brainstorm on flooding issues, but mostly to help each other stay safe when flooding does occur and to share information.

Team leaders in each community are being sought to take responsibility for checking on neighbors during an event such as flooding, a storm, or power outage. Those who are interested in helping can email wisnertownship@gmail.com and will be kept in the loop when there is an issue and as plans develop.

Over the last few days the ACW-Unionville Fire Department has been doing surveys of residents in the flooding area to gather information on shut-ins or people who would not be able to leave on their own in the event of severe flooding, explained the fire Chief Nick Sakon.

To help, the Tuscola County Road Commission donated two loads of sand for residents to use to fill sand bags. The sand is at the Wisner Township Hall on M-25, and the bags are available at Lindy's Sales and Service during regular business hours. Akron Township also has sand and bags. The sand is at the parking lot at the corner of Thomas and Gotham roads. For those who need bags, call Steve Linzner at 989-341-3006.

There will be a shoreline flooding and erosion informational meeting 6 p.m., March 31, at the Wisner United Methodist Church, 5375 N. Vassar Road, Akron.

Agencies that are scheduled to be present at that meeting include: Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes & Energy, Michigan State Police Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division, a representative from the Tuscola County Board of Commissioners, the Tuscola County drain commissioner, Tuscola County Emergency Management, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Tuscola Shoreline Watch.

For more information, call TCEM Steve Anderson at 989-673-5181 or email him at tcemanderson@tuscolacounty.org.
Dale Minnich (left) and John Krabacher (wearing the red hat) pose with family members in front of their new latrine. Building latrines for communities in need is a new emphasis of the Haiti Medical Project. Photo by Pat Krabacher

Dale Minnich provided the following report to Newsline after returning from a recent trip to Haiti with the Haiti Medical Project. It highlights both concerns stemming from security obstacles in Haiti in recent months, and successes with new aspects of the projects work:

Concern for security. Two colleagues and I are back from a very good trip to Haiti on Jan. 28-31. We found the staff hanging in there well in spite of dealing with closed roads and the prospect of violence for most of April and then from September through November as part of a series of protests against the Haitian president. The protests tend to spur violent and criminal actions and need to be treated with care. Aggravations for us have included a rock through the windshield of one of our pickups and one of our motor cycles stolen at gun point at a filling station about a half mile from our headquarters and guest house. Gods service is not always easy. Of course we need to be extremely careful with needed in-country travel. We are thankful we sustained no staff injuries. Community Development Team director Jean Bily Telfort reported a strong priority to keep staff members safe in spite of a determination by staff to be out in the field.

Mobile clinics. Dr. Versonel Solon, Jean Altenor, and Wesmer Semeraleaders of our Mobile Clinics programreported that by scheduling more clinics during the months when roads were not closed, including a strong December push, they completed the full complement planned of 40 clinics last year serving nearly 7,000 patients.

New focus on latrines. The most important decision reached during the January meetings was to begin immediately to gear up for a significant push in the area of latrine construction. We visited the farming community of Morne Boulage where staff have built three pilot latrines in recent months. Residents were enthusiastic about the latrines and had been well taught about the health dangers of the established practice of going in the bush near their homes. There are seven or eight of our service communities where no more than five percent of the population use any sanitary system to deal with this need. Among our efforts to reduce high infant mortality, latrines is a needed third focus along with pure water and education through mothers clubs. We decided to increase the budget from 13 latrines this year to at least 50 in 2020, and at least 100 the next year. Staff will be working on the details of the new latrine emphases. In the meantime we will be looking for some additional individual and congregational gifts to make this increase possible. Vildor Archange, coordinator of Community Health and Water Projects, reported a strong desire for latrines in the communities where their lack is most pronounced.

Pure water projects. The Haiti Medial Project focus on programs to introduce pure water in most of our service communities is meeting with very strong support. Through January, 19 of the scheduled first 24 community projects were already sponsored by Brethren congregations, individuals, or organizations, with construction continuing through 2020. Giving for water projects totaled $203,654 in 2019. The team will be adding 5 or 6 more communities soon to the list of projects for 2021, hoping to complete a total of 30 projects in the 4 years 2018 to 2021. Water project construction has been slowed by the closed roads. Leaders look to catch up during 2020 with 10 projects scheduled during that time.

Finally a denominational headquarters. A highlight of the January meetings was the dedication of the denominational headquarters building, under construction since May. General secretary of LEglise des Freres dHaiti, Romy Telfort, deserves many accolades for his vision, his building design, and his tireless work to move the project along. In addition to specialized areas for kitchen and medical storage the building features large spaces on the top floor as offices and meeting space for the Church of the Brethren in Haiti and for the Haiti Medical Project. These spaces provided excellent new meeting venues for the January meetings. It is hard to believe that this beautiful new resource was built and equipped for only $36,000, a tribute to volunteer labor and careful planning.

Attending these events with me were Pat and John Krabacher from New Carlisle, Ohio. Pat is a volunteer for Haiti and Nigeria with an assignment to help us find new sources of funding.

 Dale Minnich is volunteer staff for the Haiti Medical Project. Find out more at www.brethren.org/haiti-medical-project .
According to Teo, the government will keep an open mind on the proposed unemployment insurance, but mentioned several negative outcomes of implementing the programme. Teo said that it may lead to workers losing motivation to find a new job, as well as discouraging employers from paying retrenchment benefits.

The opposition Workers Party has proposed unemployment insurance several times in the past. The party included it in its manifesto for the 2011 General Election, and Lim also proposed it during the 2016 Budget hearings, the report said.

Todays economic climate illustrates how such insurance could provide a stabiliser to workers, to soften the cliff-edge that they face with job disruption, Lim said. If the anxiety of citizens is not taken seriously enough, the door to populism and nativism will widen.

In her response, Teo said that most countries that have unemployment insurance have high unemployment rates, which is not the case in Singapore. She also highlighted several efforts by the incumbent government, such as Adapt and Grow and SkillsFuture, which seek to help workers gain new skills to re-enter the workforce.
EDWARDSVILLE  Army veteran Steve Meyer trekked through Madison County this week on his walk across the country, bringing awareness to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Meyer, of Lee Summit, Missouri, stopped by the Madison Countys Veteran Assistance Commission where he met with its superintendent, Brad Lavite, and visited with Madison County Chairman Kurt Prenzler, County Treasurer Chris Slusser, county administrators and county board members Ray Wesley, R-Godfrey, and Don Moore, R-Troy.

We were excited to be able to meet with Steve and share with him the exciting things getting ready to take place in Madison County with PTSD and the Veterans Crisis Program, Lavite said.

Prenzler agreed. Its remarkable what Mr. Meyer is doing to bring attention to the disorder and get people to talk about it, he said.

One of Prenzlers first acts after being elected chairman in 2016 was to allow Lavite back in the building after being banned following a PTSD breakdown.

We need to stop stigmatizing PTSD, Prenzler said.

Meyer started his journey Feb. 15 from the World War I Memorial in Kansas City. He will walk more than 6,000 miles over nine months, crossing 20 states. The California native joined the California Army National Guard in 1994 at 18. Two years later he enlisted in active duty.

During his service, he deployed on seven tours: Bosnia 1996-97, Turkey 2003, Qatar 2005, Iraq 2005 and 2006-07, Egypt 2011-12 and Afghanistan 2013.

In 2016, he retired as a sergeant first class after serving 22 years. But it was following his 2007 deployment that Meyer began to struggle with PTSD. Meyer said during that time if you sought treatment for mental illness, your job and livelihood were in jeopardy.

Before 2008 no one discussed PTSD, he said.

In 2015, at the urging of his girlfriend, he sought treatment.

Meyer decided he wanted to help others who might be struggling as he had. He hopes his walk will help raise awareness.

It leads by example and starts the conversation that gives people a reference point, he said. And that is where I believe things start moving and change happens.

Meyers said he is walking to raise awareness about PTSD because he is, essentially, a walking billboard.

Lavite said Meyer is the second Army veteran to walk through Madison County during the past year to raise awareness about PTSD. In October, retired Army Staff Sgt. Van Booth visited during a trek across the country to bring awareness to veteran suicide and PTSD.

For more information about Meyer, visit the PTSD-Walk Facebook page or ptsd-walk.com.
Opheer Shimson said his client is demanding damages of $190,000 from Sara Netanyahu. He said the woman, an immigrant from France who wished to keep her identity secret, worked at the residence for five months until November, when she was injured in a fall caused by what he described as Sara Netanyahus tyrannical demands. He said the woman kept a diary detailing verbal abuse she endured.
The new coronavirus spread to Nigeria on Friday, as officials confirmed the first patient with COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa.

International officials have repeatedly warned that the virus could wreak havoc on weaker health systems and have focused efforts on trying to bolster such systems, particularly in African countries.

The first patient is an Italian who traveled to Lagos from Milan, the Nigerian Ministry of Health said. The virus has exploded in northern Italy this week, one of three countries outside China where the number of cases continues to increase rapidly.

The patient works in Nigeria, the ministry said. The man is clinically stable, has no serious symptoms, and is being cared for at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.

Nigerian health officials said at a press conference theyve been working on preparing for the virus since the outbreak in China was first reported.

Weve been preparing for a possible COVID-19 case for a while. We can all agree that we cant build walls against viruses, Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of Nigerias Center for Disease Control, added during a radio interview.

The case showed no symptoms at the point of entry. However, our laboratory systems were able to confirm the disease upon presentation, he added.

Officials are working on identifying everyone who came into contact with the patient, a process known as contact tracing. The new virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, can be spread through the air, close contact, and contaminated surfaces.

A federal judge later in the day suspended all flights coming to Kenya from China because of the virus. The judge also ordered the immediate tracing and quarantine of the 239 passengers who were aboard a China Southern flight that landed on Feb. 26, The Star reported.

The ruling came after the Law Society of Kenya filed a case trying to reverse a decision by the country that allowed additional non-essential flights from China to land in Kenya.

The World International Health Organization (WHO) said Nigeria was one of 13 countries identified by experts as high priority. WHO experts were already on the ground in the country.

With the first case of COVID19 in sub-Saharan Africa confirmed in Nigeria, the virus is no longer a threat but a reality in the Region, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHOs regional director for Africa, said in a statement.

Now is not the time for fear, but solidarity, cooperation & collective commitment from all.

International experts have repeatedly warned of what the virus could do in a country with a weaker health system.

Imagine this disease establishing itself in a weaker health system.

This disease may appear relatively mild in the context of a sophisticated health system, Mike Ryan, director of WHOs emergencies program, told reporters in Geneva earlier this month.

That may not be the case if this disease reaches a health system that is not as capable as that of China.

Kenyan officials this week said they have only 11 isolation beds ready to be used for virus patients.

China has officially reported tens of thousands of cases and thousands of deaths. The ruling Chinese Communist Party is believed to be underreporting the true numbers related to the epidemic.

The WHO sent lab tests and provided other support for nations across Africa.

New cases have been appearing in countries around the world. Brazil confirmed on Wednesday that a patient tested positive, the first confirmed case in South America. Georgia, Greece, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, and Romania also reported cases for the first time on Wednesday or Thursday. New Zealand and Wales, along with Nigeria, reported new cases on Friday.

No country should assume it wont get cases. That could be a fatal mistake, quite literally, WHO director-general said at a press conference on Thursday.

This virus does not respect borders. It does not distinguish between races or ethnicities. It has no regard for a countrys GDP or level of development. The point is not only to prevent cases arriving on your shores. The point is what you do when you have cases.

The new virus emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and quickly circulated to other regions of China. Other countries soon began reporting cases. Dozens have confirmed at least one case and some have reported hundreds or thousands, including South Korea, Italy, and Iran.

Coronaviruses circulate in animals and can, in rare cases, jump to humans, in a process known as a spillover. The jump can occur due to a mutation in the virus or increased contact between animals and humans.

The origin of COVID-19 still isnt known. Other factors, such as the exact way the disease is transmitted, are still being studied. The incubation period, or the period of time from when a person is infected to when symptoms develop, is believed to be between one and 14 days.

When people are sick and believe they may have the virus, health officials say they should self-isolate at home and call their healthcare provider. Depending on the circumstances, they may be asked to go to the hospital and be placed in quarantine there.

The best ways to avoid the virus include frequently washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, not touching ones face with unwashed hands, and avoiding sick people.

There are no vaccines for the virus and no proven treatments for the disease.

From The Epoch Times
Fire and rocks were thrown at a bus heading to a quarantine zone carrying Ukrainians from Wuhan. This incident happened on the sixth anniversary of fire and violence at Maidan Square in Kiev.

Since then, Ukrainian politics had a moment of calm. Parts of the country have been engulfed in constant unrest and warfare, as world powers compete for influence in Ukraine.

The riot was touched off by fake news stating that novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases were already in Ukraine, but that is not the case. Let us dispense with politics for now, because instances of discrimination and even violence associated with fears of COVID-19 have been occurring in countries around the world. The rock-throwing incident was caused by angry and anxious people out of their own volition.

It is not limited to Ukraine. Many purported news outlets are reporting fake or misleading news about the novel coronavirus due to their sloppiness and bias.

In the U.K., for example, a female university student of Asian descent was verbally attacked for wearing a mask. Weeks ago in South Korea, shops began putting up signs saying "No Chinese." The U.S. and Australia banned almost all travel from China. There were scattered reports of Americans demanding that an ethnic Chinese performance troupe be banned from taking the stage in Salt Lake City.

But by far the Ukraine incident was the worst to happen yet.

Many bloggers pointed to fake and mislabeled videos to lie and exaggerate what was happening. American senator Tom Cotton even suggested that biological weapons were behind the virus.

Bloggers and tabloid reporters frequently sensationalize news just to get views and money. Politicians sensationalize for votes.

COVID-19 is a difficult situation, and it is getting worse in some countries. In South Korea, the virus has been spreading quickly, surpassing 1,200 cases. It has also been spreading in parts of the Middle East and Europe.

People should be concerned. The disease is much worse than the flu; however, it is not as deadly as SARS, and it is not a horror flick. As with most things, the proper response is moderation, somewhere in between the two extremes.

Fake news and panic only make the problem worse. Tragically, someone in India killed himself when he got sick and thought he had the disease. It makes people take drastic actions, and it inhibits cooperation.

Cooperative measures are necessary, as the latest increase in cases across the world shows that this is a global problem. Cooperation in the form of sharing resources and expertise and working together to find a wonder drug would help solve the problem more quickly.

Mitchell Blatt is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

If you would like to contribute, please contact us at opinion@china.org.cn.
Federal prosecutors are set to investigate a dispute between factions of the Cayuga Nation that prompted one of the factions to demolish a set of buildings in Seneca Falls on Saturday, the prosecutors said Thursday.

The Office of Tribal Justice, a part of the Department of Justice, and the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of New York are investigating the Cayuga Nation Councils seizure and demolition of several buildings on Saturday.

The Cayuga Nation Council, led by Clint Halftown, the Cayuga Nations federal representative, said it took back property that had been seized by an opposing faction in 2014. Some of the people who were kicked off of the properties also claim to lead the nation, the council said in a news release.

Control of some of the properties that were razed -- including a gas station, daycare center and an ice cream stand -- have been under dispute for years as two factions have grappled to lead the nation.

The opposing faction that controlled the buildings since 2014, the traditional Cayuga Nation Chiefs and Clan Mothers, called Saturdays destruction of the buildings viciously unlawful," in a statement from their counsel, Joe Heath.

Halftowns faction filed a suit in state court to force the opposing faction off of nation-owned businesses in Seneca Falls. However, the state Court of Appeals declined in late October to force the opposing faction off of the disputed properties, ruling the court does not have jurisdiction to settle the property dispute.

Four months later, Halftowns faction seized the properties it had a sued to control.

The nations new police force searched the properties, the council said, and seized drugs, guns and ammunition. One person was charged with possession of a substance suspected to be methamphetamine, the council said, and was arraigned by Cayuga Nation Judge Joseph Fahey.

The case will be handled in the nations new criminal court, the council said.

Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Chris Libonati anytime: 585-290-0718 | Email | Twitter

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Linkedin Angus Whitley, Kyunghee Park and Nikki Ekstein (Bloomberg) Sidney/Singapore/New York  Fri, February 28, 2020 18:51 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206741055 2 World Airlines,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus,outbreak,prevention,disinfectant,health,disease Free

Airlines are turning to some of the worlds hardest-hitting disinfectants, capable of stopping everything from sexually transmitted diseases to the MRSA superbug, in the fight against the coronavirus.

Qantas Airways Ltd., Korean Air Lines Co. and Singapore Airlines Ltd.s Scoot unit are among carriers that helped evacuate people from the outbreaks epicenter, the Chinese city of Wuhan, and from a cruise ship off Japan. Theyve stepped up aircraft-cleaning efforts as a result, trying to ensure that planes used in rescue missions are safe to be put back into commercial use.

The standard vacuum-and-wipe cleanup on board has turned into hospital-grade sterilizations. How was this done? And are there any risks for passengers using the planes when they return to service? Here are some answers:

A Boeing Co. 737-838 aircraft operated by Qantas Airways Ltd., front, taxies at Sydney Airport in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019. (Bloomberg/Brendon Thorne)

What cleaning products are used?

Qantas used Viraclean, a hospital-grade disinfectant made by Sydney-based Whiteley Corp. Its a pink, lemon-scented liquid that kills a range of bacteria and viruses including Hepatitis B and herpes simplex, according to the manufacturer. Surfaces heavily soiled with blood or sweat should be soaked with undiluted Viraclean. Gloves and eye protection are recommended, Whiteley says.

Korean Air opted for MD-125. Thats a diluted version of D-125, a cleaning solution made by Microgen and used in industries from health care to poultry farming. The company says MD-125 acts against 142 bacteria and viruses, including salmonella, avian flu, HIV and measles.

A cabin crew inspects inside an Embraer SA 195-E2 aircraft at the Singapore Airshow held at the Changi Exhibition Centre in Singapore, on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020. (Bloomberg/SeongJoon Cho)

How are the planes cleaned?

Qantas used the same Boeing Co. 747 on its two flights from Wuhan and another from Tokyo back to Australia. It was cleaned for 36 hours. Pillows, blankets, magazines and headphones were all thrown out, the airline said. The cabin was sprayed twice with disinfectant, which covered all the seats, floors, armrests, tray tables, overhead luggage bins and walls. The cabin was then wiped down. The planes air filters, which are similar to those used in surgical theaters, were also replaced. The 747 was back on the Sydney-Santiago commercial route this week, according to data from flightaware.com.

Korean Air used one Boeing 747 on two flights from Wuhan, and an Airbus SE A330 for the third. As well as spraying and wiping down the cabin, cleaning teams replaced seat covers and dividing curtains near the galleys and disinfected the luggage hold, the airline said. The planes were only allowed back into service with the approval of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Korea.

Scoot, a low-cost carrier owned by Singapore Airlines, sprayed a mist of industrial-grade disinfectant throughout the cabin -- a process known as fogging.

A worker screens the temperature of passengers arriving from Italy at Debrecen International Airport in Debrecen, Hungary, on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. Clusters of coronavirus cases in Italy and Iran are sending worrying signs that the new coronavirus has already spread far beyond China and is creating new outbreaks around the globe. (Bloomberg/Akos Stiller)

What about the future?

It might be possible to disinfect the inside of a plane without any chemicals at all. ACT.Global, whose cleaning system has been used in hotels and on cruise ships, developed a spray-on film that allows a plane cabin to essentially clean itself -- for 12 continuous months. When the transparent coating is exposed to light, a photo-catalytic reaction occurs that kills microbes and purifies the air, according to the Danish company. Chief Technical Officer Christopher Luscher said the product, which is called Premium Purity, has tested effective against coronavirus strains.

A health worker wearing a protective suit and face mask walks through the arrival area at Sheremetyevo International Airport OAO in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesay, Feb. 26, 2020. The number of coronovirus cases continues to climb, with the global death toll nearing 3,000. (Bloomberg/Andrey Rudakov)

Whats being done right now?

Many airlines have stepped up normal cleaning procedures to limit the risk of contamination.

Singapore Airlines removed hot towels on some services and took away some of the shared reading material thats usually found in the back of seats. After each flight, meal trays and television screens are disinfected, while headsets, headrest covers, pillow covers and blankets are all changed, the company said. The cabin air filter system has similar performance to those used in hospital operating rooms, according to the airline.

Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., perhaps the airline outside mainland China most affected by the health crisis, says it is disinfecting all cabin surfaces after each flight, including baby bassinets. Any plane with a confirmed coronavirus case is cleaned and disinfected again, Cathay said. Hot towels, pillows, blankets and magazines are no longer provided on flights to and from China, while inflight duty-free sales have been suspended. Korean Air has removed pillows and blankets on flights to mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mongolia. case is cleaned and disinfected again, Cathay said. Hot towels, pillows, blankets and magazines are no longer provided on flights to and from China, while inflight duty-free sales have been suspended. Korean Air has removed pillows and blankets on flights to mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mongolia.
By AFP

GENEVA/SEOUL: South Korea reported on Saturday its biggest surge in new coronavirus cases and concerns grew of a possible epidemic in the United States as the World Health Organization raised its risk alert to its highest level.

The virus has rapidly spread across the world over the past week, causing stock markets to sink to their lowest levels since the 2008 global financial crisis over fears that the disease could wreak havoc on the world economy.

More than 2,900 people have died and over 85,000 have been infected worldwide since it emerged apparently from an animal market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December.

The vast majority of infections have been in China but more daily cases are now logged outside the country, with South Korea, Italy and Iran emerging as major focal points.

South Korea has the most cases outside China, with nearly 3,000 infections as 594 more patients were reported on Saturday -- the country's biggest increase to date.

ALSO READ: British man onboard coronavirus-hit Japan cruise ship dies, death toll rises to six

In neighbouring North Korea, the country's leader Kim Jong Un warned top party officials of the "serious consequences" of failing to prevent an outbreak of the new coronavirus on their side of the border.

The impoverished nation, with a weak and ill-equipped healthcare system, has closed its borders to prevent the spread of the disease into its territory.

The virus has also spread to new zones -- in the past 24 hours, it has affected nine new countries, from Azerbaijan to Mexico and New Zealand after reaching sub-Saharan Africa with Nigeria reporting its first case.

"We have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at global level," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Friday.

"We do not see evidence as yet that the virus is spreading freely in communities. As long as that's the case, we still have a chance of containing this virus."

But California health officials confirmed a second suspected US case of the new coronavirus transmitted to a person who did not travel overseas or come in contact with anyone known to be ill, prompting fears of a possible outbreak in the United States.

"This new case indicates that there is evidence of community transmission but the extent is still not clear," said Sara Cody, director of public health for Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley where tech giants like Apple and Google are based.

"What we know now is that the virus is here, present at some level, but we still don't know to what degree."

China struggling with containment

Forty seven more people have died of the deadly coronavirus, raising the death toll in the country to 2,835 while the number of confirmed cases climbed to 79,251, Chinese health officials said on Saturday.

China's National Health Commission (NHC) in its daily report on Saturday said it received reports of 427 new confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection and 47 deaths on Friday.

Among the deaths reported, 45 were from the epicentre of the virus Hubei Province, one in Beijing and Henan respectively, it said.

The overall confirmed cases on the mainland have reached 79,251 by the end of Friday, and 2,835 people have died of the disease, it said.

The virus, though slowing down its virulence, continued to affect more people as another 248 new suspected cases were reported taking the total to 1,418 people.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus scare - India temporarily suspends visa on arrival for Japanese, South Korean nationals

Also on Friday, 2,885 people were discharged from the hospitals after recovery, while the number of severe cases decreased by 288 to 7,664, the NHC said.

A total of 39,002 people have been discharged from the hospitals after the recovery.

By the end of Friday, 94 confirmed cases, including two deaths, have been reported in Hong Kong, 10 confirmed cases in Macao and 34 in Taiwan, including one death.

Markets tank

Stock markets around the world have plummeted this week as it has become increasingly clear the virus will take a huge toll on the global economy.

"Stock markets are well on their way to their worst week since the global financial crisis," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda trading group.

Several companies have said they expect the virus to hit their earnings because of weaker demand.

Oil prices also dived four percent to their lowest levels for more than a year, with Brent oil for April delivery sinking as low as $50.05 a barrel.

ALSO READ: Japan PM Shinzo Abe calls for nationwide closure of schools over coronavirus

Analysts have warned that China, the world's second largest economy, will see a major cut in growth this quarter as the country remains largely paralysed by quarantines and containment measures.

China hope

Still, signs in China offered hope that the outbreak could be contained.

China reported 44 more deaths on Friday, raising its toll to 2,788, with 327 new cases -- the lowest daily figure for new infections in more than a month.

The main concern for health officials is outside of China, with governments this week forced into increasingly drastic measures in an attempt to battle spiralling epidemics.

The biggest death toll outside China is in Iran, where 34 people have died.

As elsewhere, the virus has mostly killed the elderly or people who had other health conditions.

South Korea also now has the most cases outside China, with more than 2,000 infections and 13 deaths.

The virus has had wide-ranging impact, even forcing K-pop megastars BTS to cancel four Seoul concerts due in April.

Cruise ship victim

In Japan, the health ministry said a British man who was on board a coronavirus-stricken cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo had died, bringing the death toll to six.

The unidentified man's death is the latest linked to infections on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where more than 700 other people tested positive for the illness.

The death comes as the governor of Japan's rural northern island of Hokkaido urged people to stay at home this weekend in a desperate effort to contain the outbreak.

In Europe, the largest epicentre is Italy with 650 cases and 17 deaths -- mostly in cities in the north.

Wide-ranging measures to halt the spread of the virus have affected tens of millions of people in northern Italy, with schools closed and cultural and sporting events cancelled.

Experts said the virus had probably "circulated unnoticed for several weeks" before the first confirmed cases -- possibly since January.

Belarus, Denmark, Iceland, Lithuania, Mexico and New Zealand were the latest countries to report new cases.

- South Korean cases -

South Korea's epidemic is centred in its fourth-largest city, Daegu, whose streets have been largely deserted for days, apart from long queues at the few shops with masks for sale.

Three women in the Daegu area died of the illness, taking the national toll to 16, authorities said Saturday.

South Korea's total is expected to rise further with the screening of more than 210,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive entity often accused of being a cult that is linked to around half of the country's cases.

While China reported 47 more deaths on Saturday, it recorded fewer new cases than South Korea, with 427 infections.

South Korean officials say they are not considering a citywide quarantine for Daegu similar to the lockdown imposed on the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

In Iran, unnamed health system sources told the BBC that at least 210 people had died of the coronavirus -- far beyond the official death toll of 34, but a health ministry spokesman angrily denied that figure.

What WHO is saying

A senior World Health Organisation (WHO) expert said in Geneva on Friday that it is unhelpful to declare a pandemic when people are still trying to contain COVID-19, although the WHO has raised the epidemic risk alert to the highest level.

The WHO revised on Friday the risk assessment of the COVID-19 from "high" to "very high" at global level, as an increasing number of cases in more countries were reported over the last few days.

"A Pandemic is a unique situation, in which all citizens on the planet will likely be exposed to a virus within a defined period of time," state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO Health Emergencies Programme as saying.

However, in the case of COVID-19, it has been proved that the course of the epidemic can be significantly altered through containment measures and robust public health response, the expert noted.

The word "pandemic" is "colloquial," Ryan said, appealing for actions that go beyond colloquial terms.

The existing data do not support the concept of a pandemic so far, he said, highlighting that China has clearly shown that it is not necessarily the natural outcome of the COVID-19 epidemic if indispensable responses are made quickly.
- Corporate customers to benefit from secure, reliable banking facilities

ASCHHEIM, Germany, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its goal of enabling inclusive prosperity in the country, Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank) inked a partnership agreement with Germany-based financial services provider Wirecard to make banking services more convenient and efficient for corporate customers in the financial services ecosystem.

The partnership was officiated with a Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony last December at UnionBank Plaza in Pasig City, Philippines. Under the partnership, Wirecard will leverage solutions within UnionBank's robust banking ecosystem, such as business banking, electronic fund transfer, and checkwriter in the Philippines. These solutions will allow Wirecard's Philippines entity to disburse funds easily and securely to suppliers and vendors, and settle payments to merchants via checks and wire transfer.

UnionBank Corporate Banking Center Head, Antonino Fajardo, said, through the partnership, businesses will be empowered with a wider range of banking and finance services, which in turn will enable them to create greater positive impact on the economy.

"Businesses play a big role in the country's growth. They provide jobs, they contribute to our GDP, and they help build the country through their various corporate social responsibility efforts. With this partnership, we will be able to magnify all of that," Fajardo said.

General Manager for Wirecard in the Philippines Martha Borja expressed her excitement about the partnership and said they will work hard towards the common goal of both companies to promote financial inclusion in the country.

"As a global innovation leader in digital financial technology, we are committed to providing innovative solutions and services for cashless payments. We are delighted to collaborate with UnionBank  who not only shares the same vision as us to promote financial inclusion in the country, but is also at the forefront of digital transformation in the Philippines, embracing technological innovations to empower customers. Through our cooperation with UnionBank, we can provide our customers with secure and reliable banking facilities that meet their needs," said Borja.

Meanwhile, UnionBank President and CEO Edwin Bautista cited the country's exponential growth and said that for the whole nation to benefit, everyone must work together to ensure inclusive prosperity for all.

"The country is moving at a fast rate in terms of growth, and with this comes the possibility of the widening gap between those who make money and those who get left behind," said Bautista. "We want as much as possible that when the tide rises, all boats get floated, even the small boats."

About Wirecard:

Wirecard (GER: WDI) is one of the world's fastest growing digital platforms in the area of financial commerce. We provide both business customers and consumers with a constantly expanding ecosystem of real-time value-added services built around innovative digital payments by using an integrated B2B2C approach. This ecosystem concentrates on the areas payment & risk, retail & transaction banking, loyalty & couponing, data analytics & conversion rate enhancement in all sales channels (online, mobile, ePOS). Wirecard operates regulated financial institutions in several key markets and holds issuing and acquiring licenses from all major payment and card networks. Wirecard AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (DAX and TecDAX, ISIN: DE0007472060). Visit us on www.wirecard.com, follow us on Twitter @wirecard and on Facebook @wirecard.

About UnionBank:

UnionBank has consistently been recognized as one of Asia's leading companies in banking and finance, ranking among the Philippines' top 10 universal banks in terms of key performance ratios in profitability, liquidity, solvency and efficiency. For the past three years, the bank garnered a record-breaking number of awards and recognitions including "Asia's Best Bank Transformation" from Euromoney; back-to-back "Best Digital Bank Philippines" from Asiamoney; back-to-back "Digital Bank of the Year Philippines" from The Asset Triple A Awards; Digital Transformer of the Year Philippines" from IDC's DX Awards Philippines; "Bank of the Year Philippines" from International Investors Business Awards; "Best Universal Bank" from Capital Finance International; "Domestic Retail Bank of the Year Philippines" from Asian Banking & Finance; "Gold - Employer of the Year (Banking)" from Stevie Awards for Great Employers; "Bronze - Employer of the Year in Asia" and "SME Bank of the Year - Philippines" from the Asian Banking and Finance; "Best Companies to Work for in Asia" from HR Asia; "Best Digital Bank" from The Asian Banker; "Most Innovative Cash Management Services Bank Philippines" from Global Banking and Finance Review; "Champion - Best Bank in Digital Financial Inclusion" from Bankers Institute of the Philippines; and "Top PESONet Volume Contributor" at the BSP Stakeholders Awards Ceremony 2019.

Wirecard media contact:

Wirecard AG

Jana Tilz

Tel.: +49(0)89-4424-1363

Email: jana.tilz@wirecard.com

UnionBank media contact:

James Ileto

Email: jmpileto@unionbankph.com

SOURCE Wirecard AG
Tralee Chamber Alliance has renewed its calls for urgent reform of the insurance sector following the Tralee Aqua Dome's warning that an increase in claims against the facility could shut it for good.

In a report attached to the latest set of accounts published by the Aqua Dome the attraction's directors warned that insurance claims threaten the future of the business.

"Insurance claims against the company are an ongoing concern which if they continue to grow could eventually lead to the closure of the facility," said the Directors.

Revenues at the Aqua Dome increased by five per cent last year- reaching - 1.23 million - but the Directors say the rise in insurance claims against the business are the main risk facing the company.

Aqua Dome CEO Kieran Ruttledge said its is a continuing battle to keep the popular leisure facility open.

Mr Ruttledge said the Aqua Dome's insurance premiums in 2019 totalled 90,000, an increase of around 40,000 on the annual premiums the Aqua Dome was paying just five years ago.

The facility's current annual excess on claims is 150,000.

At present the Aqua Dome is dealing seven 'live' personal injury claims against it.

"The judiciary has a case to answer in terms of the scale of awards they make. It needs to stop," said Mr Ruttledge.

"We could be twice the size or we could drop the admission prices but for the insurance costs," he added.

"Accidents happen. If someone trips on a step, where is the negligence on our part? If something is our fault, we have no problem paying out," he said.

In the wake of their latest warning Tralee Chamber Alliance have backed the Aqua Dome directors' calls for reform.

"While Revenues at the Aqua Dome last year increased by five per cent from 1.17m to 1.23m "insurance claims against the company are an ongoing concern which, if they continue to grow, could eventually lead to the closure of the facility#InsuranceReformNow" said a Chamber statement on Facebook.

In its pre General Election manifesto the Chamber Alliance had also called for "immediate action on insurance reform."

"Insurance, commercial rates, recruitment, training, apprenticeships, work-permits and the costs involved with keeping up with the ever-increasing compliance measures are all effecting the bottom line," said the Chamber in the manifesto.

In it's call for action the Chamber Alliance called for several steps to be taken as a matter of urgency.

The business lobby group said it wanted to see the "immediate introduction of insurance reform measures to sustain the industry".

"The judicial council must be set up without delay, a new book of quantum determined, more transparency provided on how premiums are collated and cases settled, and a Garda Fraud Unit established,"
The Hollywood-based actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who says he is desperate to be pushed outside of my comfort zone, has been lured back to the stage by the chance to star in Martin McDonaghs pitch-black drama The Pillowman, last seen in London 17 years ago.

The 29-year-old won acclaim for his portrayal of John Lennon in his filmmaker wife Sams picture Nowhere Boy, and as the odd superhero in Matthew Vaughns Kick-Ass. He will play Katurian, a writer of cruel fairy tales who lives in a totalitarian country with his disabled brother and is being interrogated by police about some grisly child murders.

McDonagh told me it was Taylor-Johnsons dangerous performance in Tom Fords film Nocturnal Animals that caught his eye and made him think of him for the role in The Pillowman, directed by Matthew Dunster and featuring Steve Pemberton (right), of The League Of Gentlemen fame, as Tupolski, one of the policemen who interrogates Kutarian.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson (pictured left) is to star in Martin McDonaghs pitch-black drama The Pillowman, last seen in London 17 years ago

Producer James Bierman has booked the play into the Duke of Yorks from July 24 for a 12-week season. Taylor-Johnson, speaking from Los Angeles, noted that his last performance in a theatre was 20 years ago in All My Sons at the National Theatre. I was nine, and I was on stage at the National  with Julie Walters! he exclaimed.

Hed made his debut in Stephen Daldrys version of An Inspector Calls but also vividly remembers touring in Macbeth with Rufus Sewell. I was eight years old and I had to have a bath on stage. It was my first nude role. A lot of things were different back then. I was naked eight times a week. I was a kid, so I went home at night and was at school the next day. It gave me my foundation and acting became my first love.

Taylor-Johnson (pictured) starred in Anna Karenina, based on the novel by Tolstoy, with Keira Knightley (pictured)

He is captured in A Million Little Pieces, a film co-written and directed by his wife Sam - based on a book of the same name by James Frey

He hailed the Oscar-winning McDonagh, celebrated for plays such as The Beauty Queen Of Leenane and The Lieutenant Of Inishmore, and films including In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, as one of the great voices of our time. He explains: I mean, The Pillowman is dark and twisted. This character, whether you like him or dont like him, you have some empathy for him.

Taylor-Johnson confessed to feeling scared and nervous at the same time about returning to the stage. Its that rush that I havent had in a long time, he said.

McDonagh, who was in New York for the Broadway transfer of his play Hangmen, said hed been trying to get The Pillowman into the West End for several years but had been waiting for the right actors  ones with clout and integrity  and Taylor-Johnson fitted the bill.

The actor is photographed alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Tom Ford and Ellie Bamber for the premiere of Nocturnal Animals in September 2016. His role in this film captured McDonagh's interest

He said: I saw him in Nocturnal Animals. He was dangerous in that. Hes an edgy actor. So too is Pemberton, whom the director admitted had always terrified him in his League Of Gentlemen guises.

McDonagh, who collected a best new play Olivier award for The Pillowman, said that the big worry today is that you are not allowed to say things on stage any more . . . theres a big brother watching!

The Pillowman play is to star Steve Pemberton of The League Of Gentlemen (pictured with co-star Reece Shearsmith) as Michal, Katurians brother

But he insisted that he has not changed a single word from when the play was first presented at the National, when it starred David Tennant and Jim Broadbent.

Later, hell direct Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in new film The Banshees Of Inisheer. Its the title of a play he abandoned, though he insisted the movie has nothing to do with his earlier work.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notices on a plea for the registration of an FIR against Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Vadra and others on charge of delivering hate speeches.

A Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel sought responses from the central and Delhi governments apart from Delhi Police on a petition filed by Lawyers Voice.

The matter will again be heard on April 13.

The plea also sought a case against Aam Aadmi Party leaders Manish Sisodia and Amanatullah Khan, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leaders Akbaruddin Owaisi and Waris Pathan, and lawyer Mehmood Paracha.

"Issue directions to constitute an SIT to look into these hate speeches and take appropriate action. Issue direction to register an FIR against those named in the petition," the plea said.

The petitioner maintained that if the relief sought was not granted, hardship to him and others will continue.

Several pleas relating to hate speeches by certain political leaders were moved in the High Court on Thursday. It was claimed that the speeches had led to communal tensions and resulted in death of many persons in northeast Delhi.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
With new polls showing Joe Biden possibly winning in South Carolina tomorrow, suddenly the Democratic Party nomination contest is unsettled again. Oddsmakers and polls in other states still say Crazy Bernie is going to clean up next week on Super Tuesday, but because of the crazy proportional delegate rules the Democrats are using the contest might go to a contested convention. And the primal screams of the Democratic Party establishment are becoming more and more audible from under the pillows they are pressing to their faces.

Democratic Leaders Willing to Risk Party Damage to Stop Bernie Sanders, the New York Times reported earlier this week. It is always fun to read the Times when its reporting is just a thinly disguised memo to the Democratic Party to get its act together:

Dozens of interviews with Democratic establishment leaders this week show that they are not just worried about Mr. Sanderss candidacy, but are also willing to risk intraparty damage to stop his nomination at the national convention in July if they get the chance. . . Bill Clinton, in calls with old friends, vents about the party getting wiped out in the general election. . . In a reflection of the establishments wariness about Mr. Sanders, only nine of the 93 superdelegates interviewed said that Mr. Sanders should become the nominee purely on the basis of arriving at the convention with a plurality, if he was short of a majority.

A contested convention that denies Bernie the nomination will be a disaster for Democrats. But it may be a price they are willing to pay. Chris Matthews has openly speculated that Democrats might be better off losing this election even to Trump if it means staving off the disaster of a Bernie nomination.

Meanwhile, Times conservative columnist David Brooks, who has previously written that hed vote for Lizzie Warren over Trump, offers his own primal scream, declaring that even NeverTrumpers are also BanishBernie:

Bernie Sanders is not a liberal Democrat. Hes what replaces liberal Democrats. . . Populists like Sanders speak as if the whole system is irredeemably corrupt. Sanders was a useless House member and has been a marginal senator because he doesnt operate within this system or believe in this theory of change. . . He believes in revolutionary mass mobilization and, once an election has been won, rule by majoritarian domination. . . Sanders also claims hes just trying to import the Scandinavian model, which is believable if you know nothing about Scandinavia or what Sanders is proposing. Those countries do have generous welfare states, but they can afford them because they understand how free market capitalism works, with fewer regulations on business creation and free trade.

Chaser, just for the sheer fun of it (just 17 seconds):
With the news that Dunkaroos will be making their long-awaited return to store shelves this summer, many millennials found themselves reminiscing on beloved snacks from their childhood. And while many of these goodies have since been discontinued, the memories of them have endured.

"For those who grew up in the '90s, the original cookie-frosting combo represents the taste, color and fun of being a kid during that decade," Jeff Caswell, president of snacks at General Mills said in the blog post about the re-release of Dunkaroos.

But Dunkaroos weren't the only snacks that defined a generation. From wacky colored ketchup to squeezable lollipops, click through the slideshow above and keep reading to see the snack foods from the '90s that we miss.

1. Planter's PB Crisps: The quintessential after-school snack, PB Crisps were first introduced in 1992 and came in three varieties: PB Crisps, Chocolate Crisps, and PB&J Crisps. Shaped like peanuts, the graham-like cookies were filled with peanut butter, chocolate or strawberry creme. The snack was discontinued before the end of the decade, reportedly for "being too delicious." There is even a petition for Planter's to them back to store shelves so we can all relive our glory days.

2. Waffle Crisps: This maple flavored cereal was every '90s kids favorite breakfast, because it tasted just like a plate of waffles covered in sticky maple syrup. Launched by Post in 1996, the waffle-cereal hybrid was miniature waffle shaped to really drive the theme home. The beloved product was reintroduced by Post in 2013 under the name "Waffle Crunch" and was discontinued in 2018.

3. Heinz EZ Squirt: This colorful ketchup experiment was a classic case of "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should." EZ Squirt was first introduced in "Blastin' Green" to support the release of the first "Shrek" movie, and Heinz quickly rolled out other colors like "Funky Purple" and "Totally Teal" using food coloring. The bottles were meant to be easier to squeeze so kids could add colorful artistry to their everyday burger and fries. But by 2006, the wacky experiment had all but disappeared from store shelves.

4. Mickey's Parade Mickey Mouse Bar: Found in almost every ice cream truck, the hard chocolate shell ears of Mickey Mouse demanded to be eaten first. Good Humor released both vanilla Mickey and ice pops in the 90s, and they were a beloved summertime snack to cool down with. You can still buy the treat at Disney Parks.

5. Crunch Tators: These crunchy chips were introduced by Frito Lays sometime in the '80s and came in two flavors: "Hoppin' Jalapeno" and "Mighty Mesquite BBQ." Crunch Tators were basically what we call "kettle cooked potato chips" nowadays. But they were so iconic to the decade, they were even munched on by Kevin McCallister in "Home Alone."

6. Squeezit: Among the sugary drinks that defined the decade and were in almost every kid's lunchbox was Squeezit. True to its name, the plastic bottle had a twist off cap and had to be squeezed to extract the colorful, fruit-flavored juice. Flavors included Rockin' Red Puncher, Mean Green Puncher and Smarty Arty Orange, because in the '90s, colors were flavors as well. Variations of the product still exist.

7. Yogos: These yogurt covered fruit flavored bits were much more candy than yogurt, but Kellogg's still marketed them as "a good form of calcium" right on the front of the box. Kellogg's discontinued the fruity bites sometime in the mid-2000s, citing their unpopularity. Fans have taken to writing petitions to bring them back, but to no avail.

8. Wonder Ball: The grocery store checkout line wouldn't be the same without sneaking one of these hollow balls into the cart. Manufactured by Nestle, these hollow balls were originally filled with a small plastic figurine until that unsurprisingly was deemed a choking hazard. The company then filled the balls with sugary candy shaped like Disney characters, Care Bears and Pokemon. They can still be found in Pixar characters, but the childlike curiosity and surprise contained within the original Wonder Ball will never be the same.

9. PB Max: Introduced by Mars in 1990, this peanut-butter oat cookie bar was known for it's catchy commercial that reminded consumers that PB stood for peanut butter, not "polka band" or "pink baboon." Despite its popularity and a reported $50 million in sales, PB Max was discontinued in 1994, allegedly due to the Mars family's distaste for peanut butter. What weirdos.

10. Pop Qwiz: The '90s certainly had a thing for gimmicky food that changed color, and Pop Qwiz was no different. Manufactured in 1991 by Pop Secret, the short-lived snack came in yellow, blue, green, and of course, a mystery bag. The novelty of artificially-colored popcorn wore off fast, but for a while it was a staple at sleepovers.

11. Trix Yogurt: Calling Trix "yogurt" was a bit of a stretch for Yoplait back in the day, especially since these sweet, artificially-colored treats came in flavors like Cotton Candy and Wildberry Blue. But hey, this was way before people cared about healthy eating, and after all, Trix were for kids! This once beloved lunchbox staple discontinued in 2007.

12. McPizza: Long live the McPizza, the well-intentioned idea that could have changed those two golden arches as we know it. Introduced sometime in the late '80s to promote sit-down customers in their stores, McPizza came fresh from the oven in both family and personal sizes, which looked more like calzones. The global chain ultimately stopped making pizza because the pies took too long to make, and other businesses like Pizza Hut and Domino's had already established a loyal following of customers in the market. McPizza was available in two lone McDonald's stores, one in West Virginia and one in Ohio, until 2017.

13. Oreo O's Cereal: A joint production of Kraft Foods and Post Cereals, Oreo O's was every child's dream come true: dessert for breakfast. The cereal was introduced in 1997, but disappeared in 2007 due to a dispute between the two companies. They were only available in South Korea for a while, but returned to store shelves in 2018.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

14. Swoops: OK, these were technically introduced in 2003, but these Pringles-shaped chocolates came in almost about EVERY iconic candy bar including Hershey's, Almond Joy, York and Reese's. The appeal was meant to be candy slices in a cup, but the utility was mostly lost on consumers. After all, why not just get a candy bar? Swoops were discontinued in 2006.

15. Squeeze Pops: The world stood still in the late '90s when the genius gum connoisseurs at Hubba Bubba thought of a different way for kids to transport high fructose corn syrup: in a squeezable tube, of course! This sour candy that came in flavors like green apple and blue raspberry was pure liquid sugar, and maybe that's why we remember it so fondly.

16. Kid Cuisine: The ULTIMATE frozen meal for kids, these TV dinners were definitely considered a well-rounded meal as a kid. Invented in 1990, they included things like dinosaur-shaped chicken tenders, corn dogs, brownies and pudding topped with patriotic sprinkles. Kid Cuisine still lives on today in certain varieties.

17. Creme Savers: These melt-in-your-mouth candies that were somehow always in the candy dish at grandma's house disappeared from store shelves sometime in 2010. The beloved Strawberry and Creme flavor was originally produced by Lifesavers but without the signature hole in the center of the candy. Knock-off versions are still available.

18. Planter's Cheez Balls: If your fingers didn't have a bright orange dusting from Cheez Balls in the '90s, you were missing out. Originally discontinued in 2006, Planters actually re-released Cheez Balls permanently for all of us nostalgic millennials to enjoy.

19. Dinosaur Grahams: Mother's, the manufacturer of the sprinkled Circus cookies, also made dinosaur shaped cookies for us dino-obsessed kids. Much like the actual dinosaurs, these honey graham cookies mysteriously went extinct by Y2K.

RELATED:

21 iconic Seattle eateries that are no longer around

What Seattle spots from the '80s, '90s and more will today's kids miss out on?

You know you're a '90s Seattle-area kid if...
A traveller who'd reportedly been to China was taken off an inbound flight from Vancouver in Winnipeg by paramedics in protective masks and equipment Thursday afternoon  just minutes before a Manitoba health official announced there are no confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A traveller who'd reportedly been to China was taken off an inbound flight from Vancouver in Winnipeg by paramedics in protective masks and equipment Thursday afternoon  just minutes before a Manitoba health official announced there are no confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province.

While there has been no confirmation from WestJet or health officials that the passenger is infected with the novel coronavirus, there was no shortage of assumptions, including social media posts indicating the flight was quarantined, which the airline quickly refuted.

Advice for travellers Click to Expand Self-isolation is recommended for the following groups for 14 days after departing the area, or since their last known contact or exposure.  travelers returning from the province of Hubei

 contacts of a confirmed or probable case of COVID-19

 laboratory workers exposed during work Self-monitoring for symptoms of COVID-19 is recommended for the following groups for 14 days after return to Canada, or since their last known contact or exposure.  All returning international travelers,

 Close contacts (within 2 meters/ 6 feet) of individuals with flu-like symptoms who have traveled internationally within 14 days prior to becoming sick Travelers who develop cold or flu-like symptoms within 14 days of returning to Canada should contact Health Links-Info Sante to determine if testing for COVID-19 should be considered. In cases where testing is not recommended, they should self-isolate until they are well. Information on self-monitoring and self-isolation can be found at:  Novel Coronavirus fact sheet (contains advice for self-monitoring)

 Self-Isolation fact sheet Returning travelers from any of the countries experiencing community transmission of COVID-19 (listed below) who are experiencing cold or flu-like symptoms within 14 days of returning to Canada, should be tested for COVID-19. Call Health Links-Info Sante for more information. Source: Manitoba Health

"WestJet would like to clarify that Flight 448 was not quarantined," spokesperson Morgan Bell said.

All 134 passengers disembarked and should be on their way home, Bell said in an email late in the afternoon, apologizing to affected passengers for the inconvenience.

"Out of an abundance of caution, our crew notified the appropriate authorities that there was a potential medical issue on board WestJet flight 448 from Vancouver to Winnipeg and followed all proper procedures," Bell said.

The airport was notified about the passenger with the medical issue shortly before landing in Winnipeg at 2:16 p.m., said Winnipeg Airports Authority spokesman Tyler MacAfee. First responders were alerted and the other passengers waited for paramedics to remove the person before they were allowed to leave the plane.

The emergency responders cleared the flight with the approval of the Public Health Agency of Canada, Bell said.

Manitoba Health is aware of the situation at Winnipegs James Armstrong Richardson International Airport but not able to provide "any specific information related to this situation as it could result in the release of personal health information," a government spokeswoman said.

"We can confirm that all appropriate precautions and procedures are being followed," she said, adding public health officials are monitoring the "emerging and rapidly evolving situation related to COVID-19."

Manitoba Health and Shared Health are "co-managing an incident management structure to ensure co-ordinated planning, preparation, mitigation and response," she said.

Bell explained WestJet's protocol in such situations.

"Should a guest present ill or fall ill during travel, our front-line teams and crews are trained to handle multiple scenarios and situations that can arise on the ground or on board our aircraft and have access to real-time support of physicians... when requested," she said.

"We have been closely monitoring the coronavirus outbreak and have provided proactive communications to all employee groups on effective preventative measures as recommended by the Centres for Disease Control, (the World Health Organization) and Transport Canada."

MacAfee said the airport was not advised to do anything out of the ordinary with arriving Flight 448 passengers.

"WestJet would like to clarify that Flight 448 was not quarantined," spokesperson Morgan Bell said. (Darryl Dyck / Canadian Press files)

At a 2:30 p.m. press conference Thursday, minutes after the plane landed, Manitoba's chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said there are still no confirmed COVID-19 cases in the province, and the risk of becoming infected with it remains low.

He said, as of Thursday, 38 tests have been completed for the virus in Manitoba and none have tested positive. The 12 cases of COVID-19 that have been confirmed in Canada are all in Ontario and British Columbia, he said.

If and when a case is confirmed in Manitoba, the public will be notified and protocols will kick in, he said.

"We would expect to make this information available as soon as reasonably feasible," he said. "We would make sure Manitobans are aware of changes to the risk."

Initial tests take 24 hours at the provincial lab and another 48 hours are needed for confirmation by the National Microbiology Laboratory, said Roussin. Most people with confirmed cases in other jurisdictions isolate themselves at home and do not require hospitalization, he said.

COVID-19 FAQ Click to Expand How does COVID-19 spread? Human coronaviruses cause infections of the nose, throat and lungs. They are most commonly spread from an infected person through:  respiratory droplets that are spread when someone coughs or sneezes;

 close personal contact, such as touching or shaking hands;

 touching something with the virus on it, then touching the mouth, nose or eyes before handwashing. What are the symptoms? People with COVID-19 may have few to no symptoms. Of those who have symptoms, many are similar to a cold or flu. Symptoms have included:  fever

 cough

 difficulty breathing

 pneumonia in both lungs Symptoms may take up to 14 days to appear after exposure to the virus. How can I protect myself? You can stay healthy and prevent the spread of infections by:  washing your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds;

 avoiding touching your eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands;

 avoiding close contact with people who are sick;

 coughing or sneezing into your sleeve and not your hands;

 staying home if you are sick to avoid spreading illness to others. Source: Health Canada

He couldn't say how many Manitobans are self-isolating after travelling abroad or because they have flu symptoms. Travellers returning from areas of risk receive information at the airport about isolating themselves at home, as do people who've tested negative but have flu symptoms and those whose lab test results are pending, he said. But, so far no one has been "directed" by Manitoba Health to isolate themselves, he said.

The chief public health officer wouldn't confirm that any Canadians who were airlifted from China earlier this month then quarantined for 14 days at CFB Trenton in Ontario were released to Manitoba.

"It doesn't seem like it's a worthwhile endeavour," Roussin said, since none of them tested positive and don't pose any public risk.

Roussin said Winnipeggers who aren't acutely ill but concerned about symptoms and precautions should call HealthLinks, not 911.

Meanwhile, Mayor Brian Bowman said Thursday that coronavirus concerns prompted the city to modify 911 call-taker scripts, just as they were for the SARS and H1N1-flu outbreaks.

"As people are calling in with questions, (if) they are presenting certain symptoms, they are just asked more probing questions," Bowman said. "Its one of the things that were doing to monitor and work collaboratively with provincial and federal officials."

The city is preparing for a possible workplace disruption, though no new risks have been flagged, he said.

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"Obviously, contingency plans for workplace disruptions just with the operations of the City of Winnipeg (are being prepared for). These are things that need to be considered and have been considered in that past with other infectious diseases," he said.

"Were making sure that (we) are looking at different scenarios of employees from various departments and how the operation of governments can be maintained."

Winnipeg hasn't been "flagged" for anything that makes it unique compared to other Canadian cities, he said.

"I think its important that Winnipeggers know that our officials are working collaboratively with provincial and federal counterparts and theyre actively monitoring the situation and doing what we would all expect them to do."

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

 with files from Joyanne Pursaga
The church has a long history of providing support to the youths of our community, and we are happy that they chose Woolpert to contribute to their goals.

Solid Rock Church has contracted with Woolpert to provide concept architecture, civil engineering, floodplain analysis and survey services for a new group foster home on its North Campus between Lebanon and Monroe, north of Cincinnati. The 30,000-square-foot, ranch-style facility will provide full-time housing for 36 boys ages 11-18 in Ohios foster care system.

Restoration Ranch will be adjacent to a horse ranch owned by Solid Rock Church Pastor Lawrence Bishop. The horse ranch is located off Union Road near the church, which is visible from Interstate 75. Woolpert Architect and Program Director James Dobrozsi said the facility will feature Southwestern-style architecture like the church but will have its own distinct style.

Woolpert is grateful for the opportunity to be a part of a project that has such important social impact, Dobrozsi said. The church has a long history of providing support to the youths of our community, and we are happy that they chose Woolpert to contribute to their goals.

Dobrozsi said Woolpert performed a floodplain analysis and provided services to comply with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regulations for construction of the nearby Miami Valley Gaming and Racing facility and is providing civil and transportation engineering services for that facilitys expansion.

In addition to separate bedrooms and shower rooms to accommodate different age groups, Restoration Ranch will feature two recreation rooms, a dining hall, a commercial-grade kitchen, space for equine therapy, and office space for administrators, therapists and medical professionals.

Bishop said the church recently was licensed by the state to provide foster care and adoption services, and the new facility will complement an orphanage the church runs in Brazil. Bishop said they hope to open the facility by this fall, but they will take in up to 12 boys before that by converting an existing building on the church campus. The boys will work with and care for the horses, and the older boys will be taught how to live independently as they transition into adulthood, he said.

There are more than 16,000 children in Ohio who need homes, and churches and ministries need to be the answer. The Bible tells us to take care of the orphans and the widows, Bishop said. I want this facility to be so nice they wont want to leave, but the end game is to get them adopted into families.

About Woolpert

Woolpert is committed to a vision to become the premier architecture, engineering, geospatial (AEG) and strategic consulting firm, and one of the best companies in the world. Its a vision weve been fine-tuning for decades. It guides our decisions and investments, provides our clients with optimal solutions and offers our employees unrivaled opportunities. Woolpert is recognized as a Great Place to Work by its employees and is Americas fastest-growing AEG firm. With more than a century of experience, close to 1,000 employees and 30 offices, Woolpert supports public, private, federal, and U.S. military clients nationally and around the globe. For more information, visit woolpert.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Heroin addicts are selling stolen meat from door-to-door in order to pay for their habit, the High Court has been told.

Prosecutors disclosed the funding method as a man appeared on allegations of carrying out shoplifting raids on a Tesco store in Ballymena, Co Antrim.

Dale McKee, 26, of no fixed abode, is charged with two separate thefts on February 12 and 17.

He is accused of stealing eight steaks valued at 30 in the second incident.

A Crown lawyer claimed CCTV examinations revealed he had taken products of unknown value from the same Larne Road store five days earlier.

In police interviews McKee said he had no recollection of the alleged events because he had been drinking heavily, the court heard.

During a bail application the prosecutor described him as a self-confessed heroin addict.

She contended: "The thefts are to fund this; the theft of meat would not be uncommon in this sort of offending.

"They are then used to sell door-to-door to fund that (habit)."

McKee's bid to be released from custody was opposed due to issues about his proposed living arrangements.

But Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan agreed to release him temporarily to attend an addiction treatment service in Ballymena next week.

The judge banned him from taking any illicit medication or entering any retail premises during the period he is out of prison.
HOLYOKE, Mass., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The registered nurses of Providence Behavioral Health Hospital were shocked and dismayed to learn on Friday that hospital owner Trinity Health told the Department of Public Health it plans to discontinue the use of 74 mental beds while at the same time Trinity makes billions of dollars in revenue annually and Massachusetts officials have repeatedly pressed for increased investment in mental health services.

"Trinity Health's decision to discontinue our mental health beds puts our communities at risk," said Cindy Chaplin, RN at Providence and Co-Chair of the MNA Bargaining Committee. "When everyone else in Massachusetts agrees we should be making it easier for patients to get high-quality mental healthcare, Trinity is going in the opposite direction.

"There are patients  especially children  waiting in emergency departments and hallways all over Western Massachusetts who need beds just like the ones Trinity is choosing to shutter. Trinity has the resources to maintain and enhance these services. Our nurses will join with our patients, their families and our communities to fight this misguided decision."

Trinity Health operates 92 hospitals and 106 continuing care facilities in 22 states. Trinity has a workforce of 131,000, annual operating revenues of $19.3 billion, and assets of $27 billion, according to Trinity. The organization had more than $650 million in offshore accounts as of fiscal year 2017.

In a letter from Trinity to DPH dated February 28, 2020, the Michigan-based hospital chain said it has "proposed discontinuation of the licensed 50-bed inpatient Psychiatric Service and 24-bed inpatient Pediatric Service at its Providence Hospital Campus."

Trinity said it plans to submit the 90-day closure notice required under law to DPH on or about March 31, 2020. After that, DPH can schedule a public hearing to decide if the services are essential. The MNA has proposed legislation to strengthen the state's hospital closure law.

Trinity's decision to close 74 mental health beds comes as Gov. Charlie Baker and state lawmakers have been advocating for legislation to increase investment in and access to mental healthcare across Massachusetts.

"For far too long, primary and behavioral healthcare has not been at the forefront of our healthcare system," Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders said upon the introduction of the legislation. "While we know that changing the narrative will take time, we are committed to engaging in a multi-year, multi-pronged approach to create a cohesive system of behavioral healthcare and strong primary care in the Commonwealth."

Hospital Executives Close Services Statewide

Hospital corporations such as Trinity Health, Baystate Health, Partners Healthcare, UMass Memorial Health Care and Steward Healthcare have closed at least 30 hospitals or hospital units over the last 11 years. At least 11 of these were deemed "essential services" by the state Department of Public Health, but executives closed them anyway.

Baystate Health is planning to close inpatient mental health beds at community hospitals in Greenfield, Palmer and Westfield, and closed its intensive care units at Noble Hospital and Wing Hospitals. Patients, nurses, advocates and elected officials have come out strongly against the closures.

Tenet Healthcare announced last month it plans to close the medical/surgical service, intensive care unit, operating rooms, emergency department and outpatient rehabilitation service at its Metrowest Medical Center Leonard Morse campus in Natick, including the hospital's specialized psychiatric unit within the emergency department. DPH has scheduled a public hearing on that closing for March 18 in Natick.

Cambridge Health Alliance has proposed closing its emergency department at Somerville Hospital and turning it into an urgent care clinic. In Taunton, where Steward Healthcare closed its maternity unit in 2017 despite enormous public opposition, mothers have been giving birth under risky and inappropriate conditions because of the loss of those essential services.

Southcoast Health closed the maternity unit at Tobey Hospital in Wareham at the end of 2019.

MassNurses.org  Facebook.com/MassNurses  Twitter.com/MassNurses  Instagram.com/MassNurses

____________________________________________

Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies on healthcare issues affecting nurses and the public.

SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association

Related Links

https://www.massnurses.org


Joe Biden has admitted that he was not arrested trying to visit Nelson Mandela, after repeatedly making the dramatic claim on the campaign trail in recent weeks.

Mr Biden, who has been criticised in the past for making questionable claims about his history, amended his accounting of the events on Friday, after investigations indicated that his story was exceedingly unlikely.

I guess I wasnt arrested, Mr Biden said during an interview on CNNs New Day.

I was stopped. I was not able to move where I wanted to go, he said.

But Mr Biden stressed that he did have a history working on anti-apartheid measures during his time as a US senator, including on the trip 30 years ago when he previously claimed he was arrested alongside the US ambassador to the United Nations, who had disputed being arrested.

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

I said, Im not going to go in that door that says white only, Mr Biden said during his Friday interview. Im going with them. They said, Youre not, you cant move, you cant go with them, and they, and they kept me there until finally I decided that it was clear I wasnt going to move. And so what they finally did, they said, OK, theyre not going to make the congressional delegation go through the black door, theyre not going to make me go through the white door.

The new version of the encounter comes after Mr Biden claimed on the campaign trail that he had been arrested alongside that UN ambassador, Andrew Young, during a trip to South African in the 1970s. He said they also attempted to visit Mandela in prison during that visit.

This day, 30 years ago, Nelson Mandela walked out of prison and entered into discussions about apartheid, Mr Biden said earlier this month at a campaign event in South Carolina. I had the great honour of meeting him. I had the great honour of being arrested with our UN ambassador on the streets of Soweto trying to get to see him.

He later said that Mandela came to Washington and came to my office. He threw his arms around me and said, I want to thank you, I said, What are you thinking me for, Mr President? He said, You tried to see me. You got arrested trying to see me.

Mr Young, for his part, told the New York Times in an interview last week that, No, I was never arrested and I dont think he was, either.

Mr Biden has also amended his recounting of the meeting with Mandela in Washington.

When Nelson Mandela was freed and came to the United States, he came to my office. He was one of the most incredible men I ever met, he said. He sat down in my office, thanked me, thanked me for trying to, all the work I did on apartheid.
A Portland man convicted of opening fire at an adversary near the entrance of a hospital emergency room was sentenced Wednesday to nearly 11 years in prison.

Ervan Ronnell Herring Sr., 46, was found guilty last year of attempted murder and other charges in the Feb. 18, 2018, shooting outside Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in North Portland.

Circuit Judge Benjamin Souede sentenced him to 126 months in prison.

Mr. Herring converted a hospital  a place of healing, tranquility and care  into a crime scene, said Nathan Vasquez, a senior prosecutor with the Multnomah County District Attorneys Office.

Prosecutors throughout their case cast Herring as a lifelong gang member who happened upon a rival and tried to gun him down.

But Alicia Hercher, the defendants lawyer, said her client had cut his gang ties years before.

Court records allege Herring and one of his brothers, Michael, were in the hospital parking lot when they spotted Steven Lawrence, a man convicted of killing their brother Mario Herring 20 years before.

Ervan Herring grabbed a handgun from Michael Herring and began spraying bullets, which struck the hospital and doorway to the emergency room but missed Lawrence, records show.

The brothers fled in a black Mercedes, according to a probable cause affidavit. Police later arrested the pair and the case went to trial.

The jury acquitted Michael Herring of all state charges, including attempted murder, unlawful use of a weapon and felon in possession of a firearm, court records show.

He still faces federal charges related to the shooting, according to the Multnomah County District Attorneys Office.

Jurors convicted Ervan Herring in a 10-2 split verdict in April.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632

Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh

Get an audio rundown of the days top headlines, now available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Were also on Amazon Alexa.
Bhubaneswar, Feb 28 (UNI) Union Home Minister Amit Shaha today accused the opposition

parties, particularly the Congress and the left parties of creating riots in the country by

spreading misinformation on the CAA.

Addressing a public meeting here organized by his party in support of CAA, Mr.Shah said

CAA is not an Act to take away the citizenship of anyone but an Act to grant citizenship.

There was not a single clause in the Act which has the provision to take away the citizenship

of Minorities, Mr.Shah stated.

But the Opposition parties were launching a propaganda and misleading the people that

the CAA will take away the citizenship of Muslims, he alleged.

The Congress, the BSP, SP and the Trinamool Congress were opposing the CAA only for

political gains and their arguments that the rights of Muslims will be taken away by the CAA

is completely baseless, the union home minister said.

Mr Shah was here to preside over the 24th Eastern Zonal Council meeting attended by the

chief ministers of Odisha ,West Bengal and Bihar.

The Jharkhand Chief Minister was represented by his Finance Minister in the meeting.

Today was the first public meeting of Mr. Shah in support of the CAA after the anti-CAA

violence in Delhi claimed more than 40 lives so far.

Coming down heavily on the Congress, Mr.Shah said the party has promised many a times

in the past to give Citizenship to the minorities but has never kept its promise whereas

Mr Narendra Modi has enacted the Act to give citizenship to the minorities.

Mr.Shah said several issues, attached with the sentiments of the people and pending for

last seventy years by the Congress, were taken up after Mr. Modi assumed the power as

Prime Minister.

He said it was due to the abrogation of article 370 on August 5,2019,Kashmir is now an

integral part of India.

Similarly, the Ram mandir issues was kept hanging by the Congress government but

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now constituted the trust and the Ram temple will be

now built.

MORE UNI BD DP BM




Zimbabwe and Botswana yesterday signed seven bilateral agreements covering housing, education and health, reaffirming their commitment to develop their economies.





The agreements were signed at the close of the Second Zimbabwe-Botswana Bi-National Commission (BNC).





Presidents Mnangagwa and Mokgweetsi Masisi presided over the closing session yesterday, after four days of intense engagements among top Government officials.





Relevant Cabinet ministers from the two countries signed the seven bilateral instruments, which cover a range of socio-economic development issues, on behalf of their governments.





The agreements covered: mutual legal assistance in criminal matters; a memorandum of understanding on health matters; sport development; cooperation in the field of media information and publicity; provision of sustainable, affordable and functional low-cost housing; cooperation in technical, vocational education and training; and employment and labour.





The agreements add to the six bilateral instruments that were signed during the first session of the BNC in Harare last year.





In his remarks, President Mnangagwa said the high-level bilateral platform helped the two countries identify common challenges and new opportunities that should be addressed between now and the third session of the BNC next year.





I am pleased to note that this session has witnessed the signing of MoUs and agreements, which set the foundation for our broader cooperation in the identified areas, he said.





We must apply greater determination towards the full implementation of these agreements for the benefit of our two countries and peoples.





There is no doubt that in working together and consistently, we can achieve much more. Let us introspect and ask ourselves whether we have exerted enough energy and shown adequate commitment to realise progress in our cooperation.





President Mnangagwa said both leaders were keen to ensure the success of the bilateral engagements.





He urged officials at the technical level from both countries to demonstrate zeal, focus and a sense of urgency through speedy implementation of the agreed positions.





President Masisi reiterated his countrys support for Zimbabwe, including the call for the lifting of sanctions imposed on the country.





He concurred with President Mnangagwa on the need to ensure the swift implementation of agreements and decisions throughout the year, as opposed to waking up a few weeks before the convening of the next BNC.





This years BNC saw the two leaders exchanging views on regional, continental and international issues of mutual interest and concern.





In a joint communique issued at the end of the BNC, the two leaders reaffirmed the significance of the BNC as a bilateral instrument to give strategic direction to the growing ties between Zimbabwe and Botswana.





They renewed their commitment towards the speedy conclusion of joint regional projects such as the Points Techobanine Heavy Haul Railway Line, which is a vital trade corridor envisaged to contribute towards greater regional integration.





They emphasised the need to speed up the completion of joint infrastructure projects, increased synergies on clean energy generation, environmental cooperation and unlocking earnings from their rich wildlife resources.





Botswana and Zimbabwe have set aside substantial areas for wildlife conservation and have coordinated joint programmes such as the convening of the Elephant Summit in Kasane in May last year and the Africa Wildlife Economy Summit in Victoria Falls in June.





This collaboration is expected to facilitate the contribution of the wildlife estate towards sustainable economic and ecological benefits for the local communities, and Africa as a whole, reads the communique.





The BNC underscored the need for increased private sector collaboration as a key element in the implementation of economic decisions.





In this regard, a business forum was held on Wednesday focusing on manufacturing, textiles and clothing, and services such as finance and insurance.





Botswana and Zimbabwe committed themselves to working closely towards the attainment of the regional integration agenda, in particular the SADC industrialisation agenda.





They expressed solidarity with the government of China and commended its efforts in dealing with the pandemic. The two Heads of State expressed concern over the outbreak of Covid-19 in China and the serious health risks it poses to humanity.They expressed solidarity with the government of China and commended its efforts in dealing with the pandemic.





Meanwhile, President Mnangagwa returned home yesterday afternoon. He was welcomed at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport by his two Vice Presidents Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi.





Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda, service chiefs and other senior Government officials were also present at the airport.




YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The Turkish troops who were killed in a raid were acting inside combat units with jihadist militants in Idlib province when they were targeted by a Syrian government airstrike on Thursday, the Russian military said, according to RT.

The airstrike was carried out when the Syrian Army was repelling a large-scale offensive by terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of Al-Qaeda in Syria, inside the Idlib de-escalation zone, the Russian military said on Friday, according to RT.

Turkish servicemen inside the combat units of terrorist groups came under fire from the Syrian military on February 27 near the town of Behun, RT quoted the Russian militarys statement.

The Defense Ministry said that the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria was in constant contact with Ankara, regularly requesting and receiving information on the whereabouts of Turkish troops. And, according to the data submitted by Turkey, there were no Turkish soldiers near Behun when the Syrian Army was fighting terrorists there.
Southern Urals Nickel Plant PJSC (MCX:UNKL) shareholders might be concerned after seeing the share price drop 10% in the last week. But that doesn't change the fact that the returns over the last five years have been very strong. Indeed, the share price is up an impressive 103% in that time. So while it's never fun to see a share price fall, it's important to look at a longer time horizon. Ultimately business performance will determine whether the stock price continues the positive long term trend.

View our latest analysis for Southern Urals Nickel Plant PJSC

In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. By comparing earnings per share (EPS) and share price changes over time, we can get a feel for how investor attitudes to a company have morphed over time.

During five years of share price growth, Southern Urals Nickel Plant PJSC actually saw its EPS drop 41% per year.

Essentially, it doesn't seem likely that investors are focused on EPS. Because earnings per share don't seem to match up with the share price, we'll take a look at other metrics instead.

On the other hand, Southern Urals Nickel Plant PJSC's revenue is growing nicely, at a compound rate of 23% over the last five years. It's quite possible that management are prioritizing revenue growth over EPS growth at the moment.

You can see below how earnings and revenue have changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

MISX:UNKL Income Statement, February 28th 2020

This free interactive report on Southern Urals Nickel Plant PJSC's balance sheet strength is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.

A Different Perspective

It's nice to see that Southern Urals Nickel Plant PJSC shareholders have received a total shareholder return of 27% over the last year. That gain is better than the annual TSR over five years, which is 15%. Therefore it seems like sentiment around the company has been positive lately. Someone with an optimistic perspective could view the recent improvement in TSR as indicating that the business itself is getting better with time. While it is well worth considering the different impacts that market conditions can have on the share price, there are other factors that are even more important. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 3 warning signs with Southern Urals Nickel Plant PJSC , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

Story continues

But note: Southern Urals Nickel Plant PJSC may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with past earnings growth (and further growth forecast).

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on RU exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
The bloody push and pull between the regime and Turkey-backed forces continues in Idleb, with losses on both sides reports Alsouria Net.

In the early hours of Thursday, the Turkish Defense Ministry declared that two Turkish soldiers had been killed and others wounded by an airstrike that hit their positions in Idleb, a shortly after negotiations between a Russian delegation in Ankara and Turkish officials ended.

At 01:00 am on Thursday, the ministry said that, as a result of the airstrike on our troops in the Idelb area  two of our heroic colleagues were martyred. It said that others were wounded and that the Turkish army had immediately struck regime targets in the area.

The ministry continued on its Twitter account saying that the Turkish army had carried out and attack on Assad regime positions, which destroyed tanks and rocket launchers belonging to Assads forces. The ministry said that its forces were able to seize three tanks and neutralize 114 regime troops.

With the killing of the two soldiers, the number of Turkish soldiers who were killed in Idleb over February rose to 18, in five separate attacks that hit their positions in Idleb. The Turkish Defense Ministry said that the latest of these attacks were airstrikes by warplanes.

Negotiations and artillery

On Thursday morning, the Saraqeb battle and the strike which killed the Turkish soldiers, along with reports about the Turkish army sending air defense systems to Idleb, indicate the collapse of the new negotiations carried out by the Russian delegation in Ankara on Wednesday which are expected to finish today.

The negotiations on Wednesday were attended by a Russian delegation headed by the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Vershinin, and the Special Envoy of the Russian President to Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev. The Turkish side was headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal.

The Turkish Anadolu agency said on Wednesday that the meeting had ended, adding that the talks were concerned with the Idleb issue, and that they would resume on Thursday in the Turkish Foreign Ministry headquarters in Ankara.

During this month, talks have failed been the two sides. It appears that the viewpoints are far apart with regards to the situation in Idleb. While regime forces, Russia and Iran have advanced in the recent battles, Ankara has threatened to carry out a military operation at the end of February, to return the advancing forces behind the lines of the Sochi understanding reached in September 2018 between the Turkish and Russian presidents.

Erdogan talks about the changing events in Idleb: Assad will not become a friend

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that events in Idleb had begun to change in his countrys favor after the factions backed by Turkey took control over the strategic Saraqeb city, east of Idleb.

Erdogan said in a speech during the opening session of the Political Academy of the Justice and Development Party on Thursday that his country had lost three soldiers during the recent Idleb fighting, saying that in return they had killed a large number of Assads forces in the area. He added, Events in Idleb have begun to change in our favor.

The Turkish present said that if not for Russia and Irans support for the Assad regime, he would not have been able to remain in power to today. He said that his country could not consider Bashar al-Assad a friend, and that he had killed hundreds of thousands of his people, as he put it.

Erdogans statements came after opposition groups, backed by Turkey, advanced on the eastern Idleb front, and took control over Saraqeb and some villages around them.

There are four Turkish observation points around Saraqeb city, which had previously been struck by Assads forces, killing Turkish soldiers. It is important because it is a major transport node and connected the two main M4 and M5 highways, which means that the regime is unable to open the highway without taking control of the city.

The deadline given by Turkey to the Assad regime to withdraw behind the Turkish observation points is almost over, coming at the end of the month. Turkey has stressed that it is serious about carrying out its threats and carrying out a military operation to force Assads forces, backed by Russia, to withdraw.

Putin does not want to meet Erdogan

While Erdogan said that he will meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Mar. 5, 2020, to discuss the events in Idleb, the Kremlin said that this meeting would not occur.

The spokesman for the president, Dmitry Peskov, said in a press conference today that Putins schedule did not include meeting the Turkish president at the time Erdogan noted. He said that, President Putin had other work planned for that day.

Peskov said at the same time that talks were continuing with the Turks about Idleb, adding that, There are working contacts at the expert level between Russia and Turkey, the first objective of which is, of course, continuing to discuss the crisis around Idleb.

The Turkish president said during a meeting with Turkish media that he would meet Putin in Istanbul, probably on Mar. 5, 2020.

Talks between Russian and Turkish officials continued in Ankara around Idleb in a new round of talks which started on Wednesday.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
(Natural News) In keeping with our storied history of presenting readers with plausible theories and allowing them to make their own decisions often times weeks, months or years in advance of the mainstream media figuring them out and/or having the courage to finally touch on them, were not surprised to see some o

(Article by Tyler Durden republished from ZeroHedge.com  added note from Natural News: We are also permanently banned on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google, Vimeo, Pinterest and everywhere else, even though Zero Hedge and Natural News have been the most accurate sources on this outbreak from the very beginning. The Tech Giants have silenced the most accurate voices, all on purpose.)

The idea of the coronavirus potentially being a man made virus was a question we raised several weeks ago in this post when we asked Is This The Man Behind the Global Coronavirus Pandemic?. In that post, we asked questions about Zhou Peng, one of Chinas top virology and immunology experts who works at Chinas top-rated biohazard lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

But the idea of their ever-so-beloved government covering up something from them or not having their best interest in mind was so disturbing the to snowflakes at Twitter, they lashed out by banning Zero Hedge from their platform with little color around why they took such drastic action. Their ban followed a BuzzFeed article claiming we had doxed the scientist involved by asking questions and posting the same information listed publicly on his website.

The ban was so questionable, it sent shockwaves across the mainstream media, even making it as far as CBS National News, who stated: The financial website Zero Hedge is now barred from Twitter after publishing an article relaying a conspiracy theory that a Chinese scientist might be to blame for the coronavirus outbreak.

But  as it often happens  the very same question that put us in our own social media quarantine simply cant be ignored. As we have found over the years, if it is an idea worthy of critical examination  or better yet, the truth  it often times cant be hidden, much to the chagrin of the government and/or beta male social media CEOs.

This morning, CNBCs Eunice Yoon did an interview with Joe Kernen on Squawk Box where she offered an update on-the-ground in China. Among the topics discussed with Kernen was the origins of the virus. Yoon admitted in her discussion with Kernen that there was a theory going around China that the virus could be man made.

There are plenty of theories out there because Wuhan does have a P4 lab, Yoon says.

She continues:

There was a biochemical weapons expert who went from the Chinese military who went there  who is there now to look at some of the testing kits. Because she is there  maybe this was man-made and theres a theory that this could have been part of a bioweapons program. But thats just a theory.

We must give credit to Yoon, who has been on the ground in China since the beginning of the outbreak and whose reporting has been relatively objective and doesnt appear (too much) to be pandering to the CCP or the World Health Organizations token narrative. Yoon also references back to this interview during which she really exposes the reality on the ground in China

We would like to ask @Jack, however, when we can expect CNBCs corresponding ban from Twitter for asking the very same questions we brought to the public weeks earlier, involving a situation where time is clearly of the essence.

You can watch the video of the interview here:

There are plenty of theories out there because Wuhan does have a P4 lab  maybe this was man-made and theres a theory that this could have been part of a bioweapons program. But thats just a theory, says @onlyyoontv on the #coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/1svCAHi0jN  Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) February 13, 2020

Read more at: ZeroHedge.com
On Feb. 15, astronomers Kacper Wierzchos and Teddy Pruyne of the Catalina Sky Survey spotted a strange blip of light zip across their screens. "BIG NEWS," Wierzchos tweeted this week. That blip, he said, was likely a new mini-moon orbiting Earth. The washing machine-sized object has officially been dubbed 2020 CD3 (or C26FED2).

The tiny orbiting asteroid, according to Wierzchos's additional tweets, has a diameter between 6.2 and 11.5 feet and has an albedo, or surface brightness, similar to C-type asteroids, which are carbon-rich. According to orbital simulations created by astronomer Tony Dunn, 2020 CD3 has likely been circling our planet for about three years.

Based at the University of Arizona, Tucson, the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey is part of a larger effort, called the Near Earth Object Observation Program, to scan the skies for potentially hazardous objects. The astronomical network tracks the orbital paths of objects that may zip a little too close to home for comfort. These astronomers have the seemingly impossible mandate of identifying and tracking 90 percent of all objects in our solar system that are larger than roughly 460 feet.

On Feb. 25, the Minor Planet Center, a branch of the International Astronomical Union  an international collaboration of astronomers responsible for, among other tasks, naming celestial objects  classified 2020 CD3 as a temporarily captured object.

This isn't the first mini-moon astronomers have spotted zipping around Earth.

On Aug. 22, 2016, the skies over Australia lit up as an unusually bright meteor split apart overhead. Astronomers from Australia's Desert Fireball Network, who calculated the meteor's trajectory, posited last year that it might have been one of the few mini-moons that are likely circling our planet at a given time. Before that, evidence of these tiny satellites was sparse  only one other mini-moon was spotted by a team of astronomers in 2006.
At the speed of 0.7 mach, Nirbhay subsonic cruise missiles to defend LAC

UP: 50-year-old woman suffers Nirbhaya like torture, gangraped, rod inserted in private parts and ribs broken

Nirbhaya: Still sad, but at peace knowing that justice has been delivered

Commute death sentence to life term: Nirbhaya convict Pawan Gupta's plea to SC

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Feb 28: Another death-row convict Pawan Kumar Gupta on Friday filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court on Friday challenging the death penalty. The four convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case are scheduled to be executed on March 3.

In his plea to the Supreme Court, Pawan sought his death sentence to be commuted to a life imprisonment sentence.

This can be seen as another delay tactic by the convicts as fresh death warrants would have to be issued after the court hears the plea.

He is the only convict out of the four who has not exhausted his legal remedies.

Earlier on February 5, the Delhi high court had dismissed the Centre's plea against the trial court's order staying the execution of death sentence of the four convicts.

It also faulted the authorities concerned for not taking steps for issuance of death warrant after the rejection of appeals of the accused by the Supreme Court in 2017.

The trial court on February 17 issued fresh date for execution of death warrants for March 3 at 6 am for the four convicts -- Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31) -- in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case.

Nirbhaya: After banging head against wall, Convict now tries to swallow staple pins in Tihar jail

The top court had asked these four condemned prisoners to file their replies on the Centre''s appeal.

The mercy petitions of three convicts -- Mukesh, Vinay and Akshay -- have already been dismissed by the President.

The apex court had earlier dismissed separate pleas filed by Mukesh and Vinay challenging the rejection of their mercy petitions by the President.

Akshay has not yet challenged the rejection of his mercy petition.

On December 16, 2012, a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who later came to be known as ''Nirbhaya'' (fearless), was gang raped and savagely assaulted in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died after a fortnight.

Nirbhaya: Convict Pawan refuses to meet new legal aid, authorities ask on last meeting with family

Six people, including the four convicts and a juvenile, were named as accused. Ram Singh, the sixth accused, allegedly committed suicide in Tihar jail days after the trial began in the case.

The juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.
Despite early safety concerns about its proximity to nearby schools and homes, the severe weather shelter on Kessler Boulevard seems to have won over most of its neighbors.

The shelter first opened in late November and operated 28 nights this winter, said Chuck Hendrickson, Love Overwhelming executive director.

Its gone much better than I expected, said Noma Hudson, Kessler Elementary School principal.

The city-licensed shelter, located at First Christian Church across 20th Avenue from Kessler Elementary, is sponsored by Kelso-Longview Ministerial Association and staffed by Love Overwhelming. The shelter opens at or below 32 degrees from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Hudson said she typically arrives to work at 7 a.m. At that time, when the shelter isnt open, she or the custodian often have to call the police or ask people on the school grounds to leave.

But she said they havent had to do that when the shelter is open. Shelter volunteers check the playground and surrounding area for people and litter after the shelter closes, she said.

I think the staff has felt its been handled well, Hudson said. There were concerns before it opened and when it first opened, but I havent heard anything since. ... If parents are upset they havent shared that with me or the teachers.

First Christian Church installed temporary fencing, safety lights and security cameras before the shelter opened. Shelter residents enter and exit facing away from the elementary school and Kids World Learning Center preschool next door.

The Ministerial Association contracted with Columbia Security to patrol the area and check in when the shelter is open.

The Longview School District also hired the security company to monitor the immediate area near the school mornings after the shelter is open. Rick Parrish, district spokesman, said he thinks parents are appreciative of the security service.

The school district plans to install $32,000 in fencing and security lights around Kessler because of problems with people camping on the grounds and littering, but Parrish said its not related to the shelter. The school board Monday approved the work as one of its summer preservation, renovation and modernization projects.

Kids World owner Kari Gallagher declined to comment for this story

Liz Kearny, Longview Presbyterian Church pastor, said the shelter has run smoothly because of open lines of communication between the Ministerial Association and the shelters neighbors.

Its been a good example of whats possible in our community when we work together... even when we have different opinions, she said.

Volunteers went door-to-door in the five-block radius around the church to tell neighbors about the shelter and distribute the shelters hotline number and an email address, Kearny said.

Most complaints the shelter has received are of people leaving things in the neighborhood like shopping carts or litter, or of people arriving before the shelter opens at 7 p.m., she said.

The association also hosts meetings for neighbors after each time the shelter opens.

Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha said he was a little hesitant about the shelter opening at First Christian and anticipated complaints from the neighbors, but for most part people who live in area have said its going better than they thought.

Duscha said when he volunteers at the shelter or stops by on his way to work hes seen a smooth-running operation.

The times Ive been there and volunteered no one has had to call police, he said. The people there are very responsive to staff. The staff is very well trained in bringing folks down to rational point.

The association has done everything it said it was going to do, Duscha said.

Along with the partnerships the shelter has built with neighbors, Hendrickson said the organization has also been able to get some shelter clients into housing, shelter and other services.

Hendrickson and Kearny said they think some of the policies applied to the cold weather shelter can be applied to another model, including a managed homeless camp.

We hope it can be a reminder that although we respond initially out of fear, when we stay in a relationship, transformative work can be done, Kearny said.

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OPEC and its allies are displaying a renewed commitment to reach an accord that will stabilize oil markets hit hard by the coronavirus, the groups top official said.

All eyes will be on the groups meeting next week after crude prices slumped to a one-year low below $46 a barrel in New York. The disease has slashed fuel demand in China and threatens global economic growth, but the 23-nation coalition has so far appeared divided over its response, with Saudi Arabia pressing for production cuts and Russia taking a more cautious stance.

Saudi Aramco is supplying China with 500,000 barrels a day less than normal in March due to the outbreak, according to a person familiar with the matter.

SHALE: America's oil boom feels more like a bust in the shale patch

There is a renewed commitment in the alliance to build the consensus for a joint action in mitigating the current hyper volatility in the market, Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said in an interview from Saudi Arabia, where he has interrupted a religious pilgrimage in Mecca to help co-ordinate the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries upcoming meeting.

The group intends to proceed with talks scheduled for March 5-6, and has distributed health guidelines to staff at its Vienna secretariat as well as national delegations with advice on preventing infections.

Commodities are caught in an unrelenting slump as gloomy headlines over the impact of the deadly coronavirus pile up. In addition to the plunge of more than 20% in oil since the start of the year, copper and nickel slid, while a gauge of grain prices was set for the first back-to-back monthly loss since August. Investors fleeing risk have found a haven in gold. Brent, the global crude benchmark, kept falling on Friday and is now down around 12% this week.

Saudi Arabia wants OPEC producers including Russia to agree to collective production cuts of an additional 1 million barrels per day, the Financial Times reported, citing five people familiar with the talks.

FUEL FIX: Now more than ever, you need our energy news in your inbox

Resource-dependent economies are under pressure, yet over the past month Russia has rebuffed pressure from Saudi Arabia for an emergency meeting of the OPEC+ alliance, saying it preferred to take time to analyze the situation. A more diversified economy enables Moscow to weather the slump in oil prices more easily than the Arab kingdom.

Nonetheless, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak rejected speculation that the two producers who spearhead OPEC+ are at odds, saying on Thursday that hes very satisfied with the level of cooperation.

Barkindo said the OPEC+ partnership has proved effective in balancing world crude markets since it was founded in late 2016, and will do so again.

The group is a tested and proven market mechanism that restored the oil markets to stability in the last three years, he said. This framework will be applied in addressing the current volatility in the oil markets.

Oil prices may in any case be on track to rebound because the losses have been excessive, Barkindo said.

Looking at the broader macroeconomic picture, its clear that there is an over-reaction with energy assets in general being under-priced, he said.

--With assistance from Javier Blas and Andrew Janes.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Greek border guards on Friday blocked hundreds of migrants from entering the country, police said, hours after Turkey announced it would no longer hold them back from Europe.

The head of Greece's general staff and the minister for police were dispatched to the area as the government said it had "tightened" border vigilance "to the maximum level possible.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo aggressively defended the Trump administrations decision to kill Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a contentious hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Friday.

Soleimani was the head of the Islamic Republican Guard Corps Quds Force, which coordinates the activities of several pro-Iranian proxy militias across the Middle East. The United States, which holds the iconic general responsible for the deaths of more than 600 U.S. soldiers at the hands of some of those militias in Iraq, killed him and several other Quds Force and militia members in a drone strike just outside Baghdad International Airport on the night of Jan. 2.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on "Evaluating the Trump Administration's Policies on Iran, Iraq and the Use of Force" on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Feb 28, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Referring to Soleimani as Irans top terrorist, Pompeo said the decision to kill him was a de-escalatory measure. Iran responded to Soleimanis death on Jan. 8 with ballistic missile barrages against Iraqi air bases housing U.S. troops in the Anbar province and Erbil that the Defense Department says injured 110 U.S. personnel. What the secretary described as the limited nature of that response indicates that Irans leadership is not eager to escalate a military confrontation with the United States, Pompeo said. There was strategic deterrence that resulted from that strike, he added.

However, citing classification, Pompeo declined to provide a detailed answer to a question on how Irans behavior has changed in the wake of the strike, other than to say that the Iranians now recognize and appreciate the seriousness of the administration of President Trump when it comes to defending the United States and its partners from Iran.

That was not the only time that Pompeo cited classification issues in refusing to fully answer questions from both Democrats and Republicans. In particular, he used it as a defense during a series of testy exchanges with Democratic committee members over the administrations evolving rationale for the strike against Soleimani.

An Iranian woman shows a photo of Soleimani during a protest against his killing in front of the United Nations office in Tehran, Iran, on Jan. 3, 2020. (Nazanin Tabatabaee/West Asia News Agency via Reuters)

Virginia Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA officer, claimed that on the same day that Pompeo said publicly that the United States had specific information on an imminent threat, and those threats included U.S. embassies, he gave a classified briefing to Congress in which he provided no evidence of such a threat  evidence Spanberger said was necessary to justify launching the strike without consulting Congress.

Story continues

Pompeo rejected her assertion. We absolutely did provide evidence, he said.

Spanberger parried with the fact that the administrations official written justification for the strike, provided to Congress on Jan. 31, contained no specific reference to an imminent threat to U.S. embassies. You said there were imminent threats to American lives, and thats not true, she said.

In what appeared to be the congressional hearing equivalent of a subtweet, Michigan Democratic Rep. Andy Levin showed Pompeo a map of the world showing national borders, but no names of countries, and asked Pompeo to point to the locations of the embassies that were under the threat of imminent attack. Pompeo, who had allegedly challenged an NPR reporter to find Ukraine on a blank map during a widely reported foul-mouthed tirade Jan. 24, said he was happy to answer Levins question, but immediately followed that by saying, Im not going to get into classified material.

You cant hide behind classification on this one because you cant classify something that doesnt exist, Levin replied, before playing a clip of Trump saying that he believed four U.S embassies had been under threat. As Spanberger had, Levin said that when Pompeo briefed Congress Jan. 10, we didnt hear a word from you on the threats to four embassies  why not?

Protesters hold placards as Pompeo attends a House Foreign Affairs Committee on Capitol Hill on Feb. 28, 2020. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

There were multiple embassies which my diplomatic security team had enormous concern about, Pompeo replied. Texas Democrat Joaquin Castro said that as a member of the House Intelligence Committee, hed seen the classified material to which Pompeo was referring, and after reviewing it, I dont believe youre telling us the truth. He urged the secretary to declassify as much of the material as possible.

Although Pompeo repeatedly offered to share classified material in another setting  presumably a closed hearing or classified briefing  several Democratic representatives criticized the secretary for making himself available to discuss the Soleimani strike for only two hours, contrasting his approach with that of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who sat for 11 hours of questioning on the events surrounding the 2012 attack on U.S. government facilities in Benghazi, Libya.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
For the second time since Windows 7 reached the end of support on Jan. 14, a bug is causing trouble for users still clinging to the operating system.

The first bug, related to setting a wallpaper image, turned desktops black. This new bug prevents Windows 7 users from shutting down or rebooting their computers.

Microsofts Windows 7 support now is limited to eligible paid plans. Only commercial customers paying for extended support get fixes for Windows 7 problems.

However, the company relented last month and released a patch to fix the black screen issue.

Microsoft has not indicated if it will make another exception and provide a free patch to fix this current Windows 7 bug.

The apparent cause of the wallpaper black screen problem was one of the last planned Windows 7 updates. So far the cause of the new problem is unclear.

This latest problem generates a popup message on affected users screens that reads, You dont have permission to shut down this computer when they attempt to shut down or reboot.

The impact here is that Windows 7 users have a serious inconvenience to work with. This is almost as if Microsoft wants people to upgrade really bad, said Thomas Hatch, CTO of SaltStack.

Frankly, the only way to move forward safely with Windows 7 is to upgrade, he told the E-Commerce Times.

Workarounds Exist

Users on various forums are sharing procedures to remedy this newest Windows 7 problem, but no single suggestion is a cure-all for every shutdown or failure to reboot.

Im not finding this to be a threat, especially since there are workarounds. More so, servers are very rarely rebooted or shut down, said Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

He can not remember the last time he shut down his laptop other than rebooting it at the last patch update, he told the E-Commerce Times.

The latest problem with the Windows 7 issue is just a manual user shutdown failing, Morales said.

Ultimately, I see this being fixed fairly quickly. Honestly, I would be surprised otherwise, he added.

A speedy fix ultimately may depend on Microsofts willingness to provide another free patch in spite of its decision to offer paid support only.

As of this writing, Microsoft has not answered our questions about what is causing the problem or whether the company will provide a free patch to fix it.

Or Not so Fast

Despite being unsupported, many people still use Windows 7. This could be because they do not trust Windows 10 or they are just tired of updates, suggested Anh Trinh, managing editor of GeekWithLaptop.

Since they are using an unsupported OS, Microsoft wont likely care about it and will leave the problem, he told the E-Commerce Times.

Even if Microsoft makes an exception and updates this Windows 7 problem, there will be future problems, Trinh warned.

Luckily, the bug this time has many workarounds. So, in my opinion, it becomes more of a minor inconvenience rather than an actual problem, he said.

You also have to take into accounts that Windows 7 is more prone to cyberattacks, viruses and bugs, thanks to the lack of support and development it gets. Inevitably the best solution is to move on, Trinh noted.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Trial and Error Workarounds

One suggestion bouncing around the Internet since the new Windows 7 problem surfaced over the last two days involves creating another admin account if a second one does not already exist. Then log into that account and log back into the default admin account. A normal shut down or reboot should result.

Another workaround, which Quick Heal describes in detail here, involves modifying a key entry in the Group Policy Editor. Here is the process:

Press Windows+R to open the Run window. Then type: gpedit.msc and press Enter to access the editor window.

In the Group Policy Editor window go to: Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options. In that window, search in the right panel for User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode and click on that option.

In the new window that opens, select Enable.

Now reopen the Run window (Windows+R), type gpupdate /force and press Enter to update all group policies.

Restart or shut down your system normally.

If you cant turn off after the gpupdate, then kill (that operation) and rerun Explorer.exe from the Run dialog, said Banish Angural, owner of Social Media Fellow.

Other Approaches

The shutdown/reboot failure ultimately may have only one solution  a hard reset. That was the only cure for a number of his firms clients, said Rich Spinelli, principal at Core Technologies.

The solution was to do a hard shutdown, restart the PC, go through local admin account  away from the active directory Windows domain. Then do a disk check to address any corruption issues that may have been caused by the sudden shutdown, he told the E-Commerce Times.

A less successful suggestion, according to some Windows 7 user reports, is to disable Adobe update services. A recent Adobe update is a possible cause of the issue, Angural told the E-Commerce Times.

Two other quick fixes that may work are 1) pressing simultaneously the CTL+ALT+DEL keys several times. Then click the red icon in the lower right-hand corner of the screen; or 2) log off the current session by pressing Windows+L and then click on the red icon in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Or run the Group Policy Editor from the command line to force permissions.

Of course, you can just pull the plug  literally. Unplugging the computer will allow you to reboot. However, it might foul up some of the Windows 7 processes still running. In turn, that could cause file corruption to be discovered when you reboot.

While it is not a great band-aid for this problem, many users do not realize that you can shut a computer down by holding down the power button for 5-10 seconds. This will hard power down your system and is not considered the best approach, but it will get the thing shut down, said SaltStacks Hatch.

Final Solution

Windows 7 is a cybersecurity nightmare on many levels, starting with Microsoft dropping support for Windows 7 last month, according to Luka Arezina, editor-in-chief at DataProt. Assuming the businesses using Windows 7 do not rely heavily on Internet security  such as your local hardware store or mom and pop shops in the neighborhood  Windows 7 will do the trick.

My best tip as a former Windows 7 user is to put the computer to hibernate if it allows for it. Either way, there will be no future updates, so youre not losing much if your PC never shuts down, he told the E-Commerce Times.

Keeping it on 24/7 is not ideal either, as it will drain your electric bill and wear down the hardware faster. In the worst-case scenario, at least unplug the monitor or shut down the display if it is a laptop, to keep it from overheating, Arezina recommended.

Given the complexity of todays viruses and exploits, he does not recommend using Windows 7 at all, if possible. However, if you are using Windows 7, make sure to have an antivirus program set up, he said.

Ideally, Windows 7 users should have antivirus protection installed as a browser add-on as well, since many new exploits target the average Internet user. With active shields, at least you will be protected from any malicious link or browser hijack that you might accidentally stumble upon while browsing the Internet, he explained.

Weighing Fixing vs. Upgrading

This current Windows 7 bug can have an impact on any number of businesses and individuals with different ranges of severity, Angural suggested. Using an unsupported system is a big problem. Having a bug in it can be a nightmare for the business owners.

The extra cost of fixing this bug by a third-party developer can cost a huge amount of money to them, he said.

The Windows 7 retirement is a highly visible example of what is happening with many systems and applications all over corporate America. Most businesses operate a variety of applications, all of which reside somewhere on the continuum of development, maintenance and retirement, said Tom DeSot, CIO of Digital Defense.

During the latter two stages, patch updates are often required. While some updates can be automatically performed via subscriptions, others require the manual identification and implementation of patches as they become available, he told the E-Commerce Times.

This is especially true of retired or end-of-life applications, DeSot said, including those that a company may be transitioning away from but is still using.
28.02.2020 LISTEN

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2020  Urgent action is needed in countries impacted by fragility, conflict and violence (FCV) to end extreme poverty globally, according to the World Bank Group.

As crisis situations become increasingly protracted  with dire impacts on people and economies  the World Bank Group today released an FCV strategy, which for the first time systematically brings a full suite of financing and expertise to address these challenges in both low-and-middle-income countries.

On the current trajectory, by 2030 up to two-thirds of the worlds extreme poor will live in fragile and conflict-affected countries, according to a World Bank report also released today. Bucking the overall trend of a global decrease in extreme poverty, these countries are seeing sharp increases, threatening decades of progress in the fight against poverty.

Fragile and conflict-affected situations take a huge toll on human capital, creating vicious cycles that lower peoples lifetime productivity and earnings and reduce socioeconomic mobility. One in five people in these countries is deprived of money, education and basic infrastructure simultaneously. And the number of people living in close proximity to the conflict has nearly doubled in the past 10 years.

Addressing humanitarian crises requires immediate support and long-term development approaches, said World Bank Group President David Malpass. To end extreme poverty and break the cycle of fragility, conflict, and violence, countries need to ensure access to basic services, transparent and accountable government institutions, and economic and social inclusion of the most marginalized communities. These kinds of investments go hand in hand with humanitarian aid.

The World Bank Group now emphasizes working before, during, and after crisis situations to tackle poverty. It emphasizes prevention by proactively addressing the root causes of conflict  such as social and economic exclusion, climate change and demographic shocks  before tensions turn into full-blown crises. During active conflict, it focuses on building institutional resilience and preserving essential services like health and education for the most vulnerable communities.

The strategy also emphasizes long-term support to help countries transition out of fragility, including private sector solutions, such as scaling-up investments in small and medium enterprises that are essential to create jobs and spur economic growth. It addresses the cross-border impacts of FCV, for example by focusing on the development needs of both refugees and host communities.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of the extreme poor live in fragile and conflict-affected countries, and fragility and conflict have a destabilizing effect across borders. In response, the World Bank has been scaling up its support to FCV countries in Africa through the International Development Association (IDA). Over the past three years, IDA commitments to FCV countries in Africa nearly doubled from about $6bn in IDA17 to $11bn so far in IDA18. In the next three years, the World Bank will invest over $7 billion in the Sahel.

In fragile contexts across the region, the focus has been on delivering services and improving the wellbeing of the most vulnerable, particularly women in insecure areas, and addressing the drivers of fragility. In Somalia, mobile money has helped provide cash payments to families affected by drought and provided the government with e-payment solutions to expand service delivery. In the Central African Republic, the LONDO program (stand-up in Sango) is providing temporary employment to the most vulnerable and increasing families incomes and well-being. In Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and other countries, Geo-Enabling for Monitoring and Supervision is helping improve the monitoring and impact of projects.

This institutional shift is backed by increases in financing, both through the World Banks General Capital Increase and through the recently approved replenishment of IDA, the World Banks fund for the poorest countries, which included over $20 billion for FCV. The Bank and IFC will also make key operational changes, such as deploying more staff and resources to countries impacted by FCV and partnering with a range of international and local actors. IFC and MIGA have also committed to significantly increase their support to private sector investments in economies impacted by FCV.
A young man attempted to commit suicide earlier today February 27, after he can down from a cab and jumped into the Lagos Lagoon on the Third Mainland bridge.

According to RRS who shared photos from the scene, the young man tried to kill himself by jumping into the lagoon, but he landed on floating logs of wood beneath the Third Mainland Bridge.

The victim was rescued but sustained varying degrees of injury. He was then rushed to the Lagos State Teaching Hospital, where he was later referred to Lagos University Teaching Hospital.

The cab driver when interrogated by RRS officials, said he picked the yet-to-be-identified man from Igando, a suburb of Lagos.
In a first-ever for Israel and the IDF, recently a Christian Israeli Arab enlisted as an Israeli Air Force cadet. Nationally, only 10 percent of cadets who begin the prestigious course graduate and earn their pilot wings. Yet, for this Christian Arab, whose name cannot be revealed for security reasons, just passing the rigorous medical, physical, and psychological tests is a historic achievement to be celebrated, with wide implications throughout Israeli society.

This is a proud day for Israels army, stated Dr. John A.I. Grossman, chairman of LIBI, a welfare fund of the IDF. While the international community continues to make false claims against Israels army, we see again and again how inclusive it really is.

Only Israeli Jews, Druze, and Circassians are legally required to enlist in the IDF. Israeli Arabs, both Christians and Moslems serve voluntarily. For years its been common for Israeli Bedouin Arabs to serve. But in the past decade theres been a growing trend of Christian Israeli Arabs to volunteer.

While many Arabs serve in elite combat and other units, recently Israels first Bedouin soldier was promoted to the rank of colonel. Previously, Druze cadets completed the IAF cadets course and served as pilots.

While a growing trend in the past decade, Christian Arab enlistment faces many challenges. First Christian Arabs live in and among predominantly Moslem communities where there is often animosity towards anything Israeli or that represents the state and its institutions, and particularly the army. Christian Arabs are motivated to serve as proud Israelis, a minority within a minority, and to distinguish themselves from the often-hostile environment and attitudes among Moslem Arabs. Christian Arabs are often treated as second class citizens and discriminated among the wider Moslem Arab community so placing themselves squarely in the corner of being proud Israeli citizens makes sense, albeit with the challenges. Some 20 percent of Israeli society is Arab and fewer than 10 percent are Christian.

Recently the Genesis 123 Foundation  Run for Zion, participated in a meeting among Christian Arabs who promote and participate in IDF service. The organization, to remain anonymous because of pushback and threats it receives from Moslems, strives to integrate Christian Arabs into Israeli society via military service. Their logo, overlaying a Star of David and a cross, draws fire among the wider Moslem Arab community just for use of the star as a symbol of the State. Yet the organizers and some 2000 Christian volunteers are determined to integrate and serve.

Challenges are not limited to within the Arab community. With the relatively small portion of Arabs (Druze, Bedouin and Circassians) who have served for decades being a minority within a minority, theres suspicion and lack of understanding among Jewish soldiers in meeting Christian Arabs for the first time. Many Israelis dont understand that Christian and Moslem Arabs are different, the challenges that Christians face within Moslem society, or the determination that they have to want to serve the State.

Underscoring the challenges and threats, the Israeli press has reported that a Christian Arab soldier received death threats on his Facebook page from Moslem Arabs who oppose Arabs serving in the IDF. They posted, We know who you are, where you serve, and where your parents live. When you finish your patrol of the old city, we will wait for you at the mosque, where we will stab you. Other Christian Arabs who volunteer for the military have faced incitement and harassment, including being called traitors. One Christian combat soldier spoke to the Genesis 123 Foundation representatives about how since he enlisted, he lost most of his (Arab) friends.

Other challenges in Christian Arab service begin at home and continue beyond their military service. Christian Arab parents, even those not hostile to Israel as a Jewish state, often have a hard time with the seeming paradox of their sons serving in an army that is in conflict with the wider Arab world. They also are threatened, directly or indirectly, by their Moslem neighbors who oppose the normalization and integration into Israeli society that military service represents. While many parents know that military service provides opportunities for social, educational, and economic mobility, they also know that challenges are inevitable.

For some older Christian Arab soldiers who are parents themselves, they and their children face discrimination within the wider Arab society. In some instances, children of Christian Arab soldiers are barred from pre-school programs because their fathers are seen as an enemy. In other cases, veterans who apply for jobs are blackballed in Arab companies.

Not only is the military good for the future of Arabs but having soldiers in the IDF fluent in Arabic is a significant perk. One Arab soldier noted that following basic training he served in Jenin, a hostile Palestinian Arab city. You can imagine how surprised they were when I spoke Arabic with them, he said.

Lone soldiers in Israel are typically young men and women who have immigrated on their own, or come from at-risk backgrounds where they dont have family to support them. These cross an array of Israeli society including ultra-Orthodox men in whose communities military service in place of full-time Torah study is frowned upon. Israel provides unique additional benefits to these soldiers. However Christian Arabs are typically not included among them. For that reason, its all the more important to support them.

Arab Israelis make up around one-fifth of Israels population. Israeli society respects those who serve and provides broad social and economic benefits for veterans. Businesses often prefer hiring veterans both from a nationalist perspective and because of the valuable skills they develop in the army. Veterans are considered more responsible and mature, having a deeper bond with the Land and embrace the value of service to the country.

Join the Genesis 123 Foundation  Run for Zion to provide support for Christian Arabs who serve in the IDF and bless them. Visit https://www.runforzion.com/BlessingChristians to make a donation, or contact info@runforzion.com to see how you and your church can get involved more directly.

U.S.-born and educated Jonathan Feldstein immigrated to Israel in 2004. Throughout his life and career, he has fellowshipped with Christian supporters of Israel and shares experiences of living as an Orthodox Jew in Israel. He writes a regular column for Standing With Israel at charismanews.com and other prominent web sites. He can be reached at firstpersonisrael@gmail.com.
Justin Skelly, project manager with David Prickett Consulting LLC, explains the work the company would do to address requirement of MassDEP and the Hoosac Water Quality District.

Clarksburg Board OKs Engineering Firm to Begin Sewer Analysis

CLARKSBURG, Mass.  The town has signed on with DPC Engineering of Longmeadow to address any infiltration and inflow issues with the sewer lines in accordance with an administrative order from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

"Our sewer system which flows into North Adams and then into Williamstown and the Hoosac Water Quality District, there's some work that needs to be done, especially on the metering side of everything," explained Select Board Chairman Ronald Boucher on Wednesday.

Inflow mainly refers to stormwater or surface waters infiltrating septic systems through a variety ways  drains, sump pumps  and through the deterioration of pipes. MassDEP requires surveys to detect excessive inflow and management plans to address the sources of infiltration and inflow. The first analysis reports were due in 2017.

Justin Skelly, project manager with David Prickett Consulting LLC, noted that town was well past that point but its situation was not unique.

"We've done probably 10 similar projects over the past year trying to catch up with these regulations," he said. "Essentially, DEP is trying to get communities to understand what's currently installed and get a better handle on that."

The components of the work will be an analysis of the flow and the components of the system, developing a systems operation and maintenance plan, preparing forms for submission to MassDEP and helping the town address any system failures or deficits.

The current operator is Highway Foreman Kyle Hurlbut and a standard operating plan needs to be developed to ensure anyone stepping into his post in the future has the knowledge to continue maintenance of the system.

"The biggest component in our proposal that we've given to you is looking at your flows for the past three years to really analyze and understand if you have any issues with inflow or infiltration," Skelly said. "I will say Clarksburg is in a unique position because you do have a small system, and about 90 percent of your pipe is captured by a permanent building flow meter that you have installed as your flow goes to North Adams. So in other communities we'd actually have to go out and install these temporary flow meters for say a three-month window in the spring to collect this data."

Having that data available means a significant cost savings, he said. And that fact that the majority of the piping is fairly new (about 30 years or so) and PVC means the likelihood of infiltration is small. The one exception may be a small, much older segment, that's tied into the newer system.

"If all goes well, it'll show that there's no issue with I&I and at that point, DEP will be satisfied," Skelly said. "If this phase one shows that a few of those areas that we're looking at do have some of this extraneous flow entering, then there will be subsequent phases to locate and remove that, whether it's lining the pipe or replacing a manhole. It could be as simple as a manhole cover with pickholes that needs to be replaced."

Phases 3 would be complying with HWQD requirements, such as documenting daily tasks and getting a plan on how to operate the collection system. Phase 4 would be monitoring the flow data annually and submitting the appropriate reports.

"So it really starts with this initial high level look of your system as a whole, see if there are problems and then kind of nailing down from there," Skelly said. Later he explained that by monitoring flow and addressing inflow, "You can quantify what a gallon of you taking that out of the system actually costs you."

Hurlbut said the system was put in about 1989 and consists of 6-inch and 8-inch PVC pipe. "I'm very confident, by looking at numbers, we're not getting much [inflow]," he said.

Skelly said his firm tries to work with communities on what it can do to help them adapt and shave costs. DPC has already taken on the work to get the town's paper maps of the sewer system digitized.

The cost for doing the entire project is in the neighborhood of $70,000, with the majority the upfront cost of the Phase 1 report at $53,400.

"We try to be cognizant of a town's situation. These unfunded mandates from DEP really put a strain on a lot of communities and we run into this all the time," Skelly said. "We really strive to look at the financials of a project before we go out. ...

"That's really the intent of all these regulations the DEP is putting out is for towns to get away from the 'it's broke we have to fix it' approach to an asset management approach."

The board unanimously approved entering an agreement with DPC, with the costs to be paid out of the sewer enterprise fund, which is paid into by sewer users. The sewer system only covers the southern part of Clarksburg and the town acts as the conduit to pay North Adams for the flow entering its pipes that connect to the HWQD wastewater system in Williamstown.

In other business, the Select Board discussed a host agreement with Chad Cellana of New England Regional Dispensaries, which plans to develop a marijuana cultivation center off 28 Cross Road . Cellana noted that some of the preliminary elements of the agreement have been modified in accordance with a state law passed in January. The Select Board asked for time to review the new language, which has also been sent to town counsel.

 The Select Board voted 2-1, with member Danielle Luchi in dissent, to give town employees a 2.5 percent cost of living raise in the next budget to keep pace with national rate. Both Boucher and Luchi thought 2 percent would be fair. Luchi noted larger entities are keeping at 1 percent and any increase would also affect future calculations.

But member Jeffrey Levanos advocated for 2.5 percent if it didn't effect the budget.

"We ask our employees an awful lot for very little," he said.

"It's your job to set an appropriate amount for the hard-working people in this town, and an extra half percent is not going to skew that," said James Stakenas, a Finance Committee member. He and Town Administrator Rebecca Stone went to check budget numbers and came back with an estimate of $2,700 to give all the town employees an extra half percent.

That convinced Boucher to flip his vote, but Luchi said she would "stick with the 2 percent, I think that's very fair."
In January 2020 the landlocked African nation of Mali received the first seven of 130 Typhoon MRAPs (Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected) armored trucks from the UAE (United Arab Emirates). Actually, 30 will be donated by Abu Dhabi and the rest (or as many as Mali can afford) paid for by Mali.

The Typhoon is a popular MRAP and is technically a Canadian vehicle because Typhoons were first developed and built by the Canadian Streit Group in cooperation with Ukrainian firms that supplied components. The Typhoon first appeared in Ukraine in 2015 where it was hastily designed and built to deal with the 2014 Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine (Donbas). MRAP type vehicles have proved a lifesaver against rifle and machine-gun fire as well as many types of landmines and roadside bombs.

The original Canadian Typhoon was based on Russian trucks that were modified to become MRAPs, in this case, a 12.5-ton vehicle with a payload of 2.5 tons (or ten passengers.) It is unclear how close Tufan copied the Typhoon design. Externally it appears identical with four bulletproof windows plus bulletproof front windows for the driver and commander. There is a remotely controlled turret on top for a machine-gun and V-shaped bottom to deflect explosions. There are three doors; two for the driver and vehicle commander up front and one in the back. There are four hatches on top. Inside the Typhoon, the seats are protected from concussion hitting the bottom of the vehicle during an explosion. There are special dome lights inside that do not illuminate the windows. There is an air filtration system and positive air pressure to keep noxious chemicals out (as well as chemical and biological weapons) and air conditioning. Typhoon also has vidcams all around so the crew can better see what is going on inside. Typhoons come equipped with military radio and a GPS navigation system. Typhoon sells for about half a million dollars each.

The Typhoon was developed by Guerman Goutorov, a Russian immigrant to Canada who, in the 1990s began doing business by building armored trucks for banks to transport cash in. In 1992 Goutorov incorporated his operation as the Streit Group and by 2000 he had a thriving and rapidly growing firm that also added armored protection to automobiles. Major expansion began in 2005 when he made a deal to begin franchising manufacturing and sales to overseas firms. The main partner here was the UAE, where the main Streit Group manufacturing plant now is. There are smaller Streit Group manufacturing operations in Canada, the United States and seven other countries, in addition to the UAE. In 2016 Streit Group got into trouble with the Canadian government because the UAE franchise had sold Typhoons to participants in the Libyan and South Sudan civil wars. These conflicts were under a UN arms embargo which Canada supported and enforced. After much legal wrangling and the payment of some fines, Streit Group emerged unscathed by proving that Streit Group Canada did not control sales by its overseas sales franchises. Streit Group also made much of the fact that Typhoons were designed as defensive systems, often used by UN, foreign aid and diplomatic personnel in dangerous areas. Within the automotive industry, Streit Group has long been recognized as a major and legitimate manufacturer.

The UAE has been a major investor in Streit Group and a major manufacturer of Typhoon. The UAE sells what it manufacturs and the customers are satisfied.

MRAPs are built using the same construction techniques pioneered by South African firms that have, over the years, delivered thousands of landmine resistant vehicles to the South African armed forces. These were a great success. The South African technology was imported into the U.S. in 1998 and was first used in the design of vehicles used by peacekeepers in the Balkans and later in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. military bought over 10,000 MRAPs (from several manufacturers) by 2009 and then canceled orders as the fighting in Iraq died down (with the defeat of the Islamic terror groups there.)

In mid-2019 a regiment of the Mali army was converted to a mechanized unit with the addition of several dozen 11 ton Casspir armored vehicles. These are from South Africa, which is where this late 1980s vintage vehicle proved to be the first effective modern MRAP design to enter wide use. Casspir will always be remembered as one of the earliest and most successful MRAP type vehicles. Originally designed for the South African police in the early 1980s, this 4x4 wheeled vehicle has remained in production ever since. The basic design has been upgraded over the years. Germany paid for these Casspirs and has provided trainers for drivers and mechanics. Casspirs carry up to twelve troops and have plenty of bulletproof windows (with gun firing ports) and are excellent for patrols. Like all MRAP vehicles, Casspirs (and their passengers) can survive most vehicle mines and roadside bombs as well as rifle and machine-gun fire.

Earlier the U.S. and EU (European Union) donated several Bastion 4x4 wheeled APCs armored personnel carriers to Mali. In effect, the 12 ton Bastion is MRAP lite as it has many of the same design features of an MRAP but is not as well protected against mines and roadside bombs. It can carry up to twelve (usually 8-10) and has a turret-mounted heavy machine-gun or automatic grenade launcher. Bastion does have excellent cross-country mobility and was designed mainly as a reconnaissance vehicle that can also serve as convoy escort or in peacekeeping operations. Built in France, Bastion is also used by the French military.
Google Street View(ATHENS, OH) -- Two Ohio University students pleaded guilty Thursday for their involvement in the hazing death of an 18-year-old freshman, prosecutors said.



Dominic A. Figliola, 21, and Cullen Willi McLaughlin, 21, both appeared before a judge to enter their pleas in the death of Collin Wiant, who died of asphyxiation from nitrous oxide ingestion on Nov. 12, 2018, according to a statement from Athens County Prosecuting Attorney Keller Blackburn.



Figliola pleaded guilty to hazing, a fourth-degree misdemeanor, while McLaughlin pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of LSD, a fifth-degree felony, according to the statement.



A third person, Zachary Herskovitz, 22, of Coraopolis, PA, also appeared in court and pleaded guilty to permitting drug abuse, a felony of the fifth degree. Herkovitz was convicted of hazing, a misdemeanor of the fourth degree, and ordered to complete one year of non-reporting probation and pay a fine of $250.



Neither were hit with jail time. They will instead have to successfully complete the Prosecutor's Office Athens County Empowerment Program.



Figliola was also ordered to complete a year of probation.



Blackburn said that both students were part of a "cycle of hazing that has existed within Ohio University Sigma Pi fraternity for years."



Wiant was a freshman at the university and had been selected as a pledge two months before he died, according to a wrongful death suit filed by his family in February against the fraternity and 10 individuals.



The teenager died inside a Sigma Pi Epsilon annex house in Athens, Ohio, where he was allegedly beaten with a belt, pelted with eggs, deprived of sleep and forced to take drugs and drink a gallon of alcohol in an hour, the lawsuit alleged.



Seven other people were also arrested in his death and indicted on a range of charges, including involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, trafficking and tampering with evidence.



Figliola and McLaughlin will testify against those defendants as part of their guilty plea, according to prosecutors.



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
PHILADELPHIA - Plans to open what could be the nations first medically supervised injection site in Philadelphia were put on hold Thursday night amid strenuous opposition from a federal prosecutor and residents of the neighbourhood where it would have been located.

Mayor Jim Kenney said that Safehouse agreed to push back its opening date so it can meet with members of the community and hear their concerns. Meanwhile, the owner of the medical complex in south Philadelphia where Safehouse planned to operate its first injection site abruptly pulled out, leaving the project in limbo.

After Safehouse voluntarily delayed its opening so it could focus on meeting with the community, the building owner alerted the city that he was no longer interested in moving forward with the lease, Kenney said in a written statement.

In light of this development and the strong concerns voiced over the past two days, its clear that no site will open imminently, he said.

The fast-moving developments came after U.S. Attorney William McSwain indicated his office would appeal a judges ruling this week that had paved the way for Safehouse to open. McSwain also asked U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh to stay his decision while the appeal unfolds.

Safehouse organizers believe the injection site could save lives as the city grapples with about 1,100 overdose deaths each year. However, McSwain and many neighbours fear the program would only encourage illegal drug use.

The sad fact is that Safehouses secretive, haphazard plan has not been vetted with any of the affected neighbourhood residents, community groups, city council members, state representatives or state senators. It is being unfairly foisted on them on the assumption that they dont matter, McSwain, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump, said in a statement earlier Thursday.

Under the Safehouse plan, people could bring drugs to the clinic-like setting, use them in a partitioned bay and get medical help if they overdose. They would also have access to counselling, treatment and other health services.

Safehouse organizers have said that about one person dies of an overdose each week in south Philadelphia. The non-profit hopes to eventually place injection clinics in other neighbourhoods, including Kensington, the epicenter of the citys opioid crisis.

But this weeks announcement that Safehouse planned to open its first site next week and offer services four hours a day led residents to shout down former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell and other organizers at a news conference.

Kenney, a supporter of the concept, said Thursday the delay will allow Safehouse more time to examine its options, and to engage the community. It will allow those with concerns more time to get answers. And it will allow everyone to take a deep breath and focus on the ultimate goal of this effort: to save the lives of fellow Philadelphians who are struggling with addiction.

The opening has been on hold for much of the past year while Judge McHugh held evidentiary hearings to determine whether the plan violates a 1980s-era drug law known as the crackhouse statute. McSwain believes it does and sued the Safehouse organizers. Along with Rendell, organizers include Ronda Goldfein, executive director of the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania.

McHugh found Safehouse did not run afoul of the law.

The ultimate goal of Safehouses proposed operation is to reduce drug use, not facilitate it, and accordingly, (the law) does not prohibit Safehouses proposed conduct, McHugh wrote in a preliminary ruling last fall that he affirmed Tuesday.

The facilities have long operated in Canada and Europe and have been considered by several U.S. cities, including Seattle, New York and San Francisco. Smaller, unofficial sites have also popped up in some places across the U.S.
Roughly a month from now, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be officially cutting ties with the royal family as part of their decision to step down as senior royals. They still have a few weeks to complete some final royal engagements before they could fully embrace the independent life that they are longing for.

While Queen Elizabeth II has expressed full support to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's decision, she also made a few moves that pissed off the couple and made them question if they chose the right decision.

Whether the 93-year-old monarch supports or loathes the couple's decision to turn their back on their royal duties is unknown, some people still believe that Her Majesty committed a mistake by letting Sussexes go, specifically Meghan.

Meghan Is a Key Player

British actress Helen Mirren is one of those who believe that the former "Suits" star is an excellent addition to the royal family's power team.

In an interview with Variety, Mirren -- who previously won an Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in "The Queen" -- said that Meghan is an asset to the royal family due to her essential characteristics.

"Meghan Markle was a fantastic addition to the royal family," Mirren said. "Charming, did everything right, was gracious, was sweet-natured, and seemed to be ... Wow! What a lovely addition. Didn't seem to be neurotic."

Meghan, Harry Found an Ally

It looks like the Duke and Duchess of Sussex also found another ally in Mirren as she openly expressed her support in the couple's decision to step back from royal duties.

In the same interview, the 74-year-old actress said she applauds Meghan and Harry's decision, although it can get complicated.

"I think their instincts are absolutely right, and I applaud them for it. Hugely actually. Of course, it is complicated," Mirren said.

While she admitted cutting ties with the royal family also has a consequence, she believes that Meghan and Harry did the right thing.

"And I think it will all, hopefully, sort itself out, and the tabloid pearl-clutchers will get over their trauma at not having someone to attack all the time," she added.

Mirren furthered that the press can now find another victim to attack, joking that it could probably be her.

No Turning Back?

Earlier this week, Meghan and Harry, through their spokesperson, confirmed that they would be officially stepping down from royal duties by March 31.

In the statement published on their official website, the spokesperson said that Meghan and Harry would be given a "12-month review" to make sure all arrangements will be beneficial to all parties involved.

So does it mean that Meghan and Harry can still change their mind with "Megxit" run back to the royal family after the "trial period?"

Well, it looks like there is no turning back as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are reportedly insulted with the Queen's move of banning them from using the "Sussex Royal" branding.
MT. PLEASANT, Mich., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Isabella Bank Corporation (OTCQX:ISBA), announced today that the Board of Directors of the Corporation declared a first quarter cash dividend of $0.27 per common share at its regular meeting held on February 26, 2020. The dividend will be payable on March 31, 2020 to shareholders of record as of March 26, 2020. Based on ISBA's closing stock price of $23.96 per share as of February 27, 2020, the annualized cash dividend yield was 4.51%.

"I am pleased to announce our Board approved a dividend of $0.27 per share for the first quarter," commented Jae A. Evans, President and Chief Executive Officer of Isabella Bank Corporation. "The first quarter dividend is a 3.85% increase from the first quarter 2019 dividend. Our commitment is to provide an attractive shareholder return through sustained dividends, an exceptional dividend yield and strong financial results."

About the Corporation

Isabella Bank Corporation (OTCQX: ISBA) is the parent holding company of Isabella Bank, a state chartered bank headquartered in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. Isabella Bank was established in 1903 and has been committed to serving the local banking needs of its customers and communities for 116 years. The Bank offers personal and commercial lending and deposit products, as well as investment, trust and estate planning services. The Bank has 30 banking locations throughout seven Mid-Michigan counties: Clare, Gratiot, Isabella, Mecosta, Midland, Montcalm, and Saginaw. The Corporation has been recognized on the Detroit Free Press list of "Top Workplaces" for five years.

For more information about Isabella Bank Corporation, visit the Investors link at www.isabellabank.com. Isabella Bank Corporation common stock is quoted on the OTCQX tier of the OTC Markets Group, Inc.'s electronic quotation system (www.otcmarkets.com) under the symbol "ISBA." The Corporation's market maker is Boenning & Scattergood, Inc. (www.boenninginc.com) and its investor relations firm is Renmark Financial Communications, Inc. (www.renmarkfinancial.com).

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements. To the extent that the foregoing information refers to matters that may occur in the future, please be aware that such forward-looking statements may differ materially from actual results. Additional information concerning some of the factors that could cause materially different results is included in the sections entitled "Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Statements" set forth in Isabella Bank Corporation's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available from the Securities and Exchange Commission's Public Reference facilities and from its website at www.sec.gov.

SOURCE Isabella Bank Corporation

Related Links

http://www.isabellabank.com


The Mayor of Kildare has sent a goodwill message to China which is battling the coronavirus.

Speaking during the February 24 plenary session of the full Kildare County Council, Mayor, Suzanne Doyle, said she hoped the virus would be curtailed as quickly as possible.

Mayor Doyle has been involved in the reception of a number of Chinese delegations at council HQ in Aras Chill Dara.

She said she was struck by how gracious the Chinese delegations are.

SEE ALSO: Naas Army expert in coronavirus hit Italy helps create new antibacterial wipe

The coronavirus crisis was extremely difficult for everyone and Ireland had a huge commercial relationship with China.

SEE ALSO: more Kildare stories

But, said Mayor Doyle, on a human level she and the council would like to show its support.

She hoped that the corona

virus would be curtailed as quickly as possible.
New corporate embezzlement charges brought against co-owner of Metrostroy

 flickr.com/ Jobs For Felons Hub

14:46 28/02/2020

ST. PETERSBURG, February 28 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov)  A charge of embezzlement of 153 million rubles ($2.3 million) of corporate funds has been brought against co-owner of Metrostroy company Nikolay Aleksandrov, the United press service of St. Petersburg courts informs RAPSI on Friday.

Earlier, Aleksandrov has been charged with fictitious purchase of nonmetallic minerals in the amount of 178 million rubles ($2.7 million), the new charges concern fictitious purchase of cable products.

The Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg dismissed a petition to free the defendant from detention and put him under house arrest.

The defendants in the case of fictitious purchase of nonmetallic minerals alongside Aleksandrov are CEO of a company contracted to supply Metrostroy with materials it needed and the head of a Metrostroy department responsible for procurement of construction materials and equipment.

Investigators believe that in late 2017 Aleksandrov and two other defendants made a fictitious contract for supply of nonmetallic minerals; although Metrostroy paid the sum indicated in the contract, no materials were supplied.There are no other defendants in the case of fictitious purchase of cable products as yet; however, the fraud scheme is the same, according to investigators.

Aleksandrov pleads not guilty and refuses to testify in the case.








Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 29)  In line with the governments travel ban on South Korea, Cebu Pacific will cancel its flights to the East Asian country from March 3 to April 30.

Cebu Pacific announced Friday that the following flights will be canceled:

5J 188/ 5J 187 Manila-Incheon-Manila

5J 128 / 5J 129 Cebu-Incheon-Cebu

5J 180 / 5J 181 Kalibo-Incheon-Kalibo

The airline has advised affected passengers to rebook flights to February 29, March 1, or March 2 depending on seat availability, rebook a new flight until June 30, or refund the tickets in full. Passengers can also store the ticket value in a travel fund for future use.

The Bureau of Immigration has implemented the ban on passengers with a recent history of travel from the coronavirus-hit province of North Gyeongsang in South Korea. The infection began in Its capital Daegu City. This was based on the decision of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Meanwhile, exempted from the travel ban to Korea are overseas Filipino workers, permanent residents in Korea, and students.

South Korea has confirmed 571 additional cases of the novel coronavirus Friday, according to the South Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

RELATED: South Korea confirms 571 cases of coronavirus in a day

This brings the national total to 2,337 cases, with 13 deaths. South Korea has recorded the largest virus outbreak outside mainland China.
After a class 7th student was gang-raped by a group of men near Manjhi Park in Patna, the agitated locals and relatives of the victim gathered outside the Patkar police station and indulged in arson to on Thursday over alleged police laxity.

A police officer said that they have already arrested a person in the case and looking for another in connection with the case.

"The statement of the girl will be recorded tomorrow in court. We have arrested a person in this case and some of the accused are absconding," said Pramod Kumar, Station House Officer while speaking to media.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(CNN) With new cases of novel coronavirus reported daily in countries across the globe, many travelers are wondering if they should cancel or postpone existing plans and hold off on booking trips.

"Should I cancel my trip to Rome and Florence?" one CNN reader is wondering. "What is the threshold for rethinking domestic travel plans?," another asks.

Unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all answer.

It's very much an individual calculation, experts say, taking a number of factors -- the traveler, their companions, the destination and more -- into consideration.

In a situation that's unpredictable and evolving quickly, solid information is key.

"Find a very small number of sources of information that you trust, and you trust them both because they're competent and because you think they're working on your behalf," advises Baruch Fischhoff, a psychologist and professor in the department of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University.

Regularly updated advisories

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US State Department are both issuing regular travel advisories for destinations that are significantly impacted by the virus outbreak.

Monitor those "closely and regularly," advises Dr. Henry Wu, director of Emory Healthcare's TravelWell Center.

At this point, travel to China and South Korea is highly discouraged, and precautions should be taken for travel to destinations such as Italy, Japan, Iran and Hong Kong.

"In the absence of specific advisories, travelers should still consider that situations can change rapidly," said Wu, an assistant professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine's Division of Infectious Diseases.

Researching your destination and paying close attention to restrictions or other public policies around coronavirus adopted by those countries will also help inform decision-making.

"In general, travelers should always assess the importance of a trip, as well as their personal risk tolerance for health dangers and hassle," Wu said.

Personal risk assessment

That's exactly what Fischhoff, who is a decision scientist by profession, is doing about a trip he has scheduled to the United Kingdom in March.

Since where the virus will turn up is quite unpredictable, he has accepted that every place comes with some degree of risk.

But if the risk were no larger than it is now, he said, the probability of dying is "very, very low" and the probability of getting sick is "vanishingly small."

The probability of being seriously inconvenienced -- stranded by a closed border or quarantined in a hotel or ship -- is "considerably higher," Fischhoff said. "Right now it's still pretty low in absolute terms, and it's not clear how quickly it's moving."

Fischhoff will continue to assess the situation as his trip approaches, he said, but he is willing to walk away from sunk costs if he decides not to go.

He encourages the same framing for other travelers: Would you be better off going or not going, regardless of the cost?

Factors at play

Elderly travelers or those who have other conditions should consider that they might be at higher risk for complications of infections, Wu said.

For Angel Wilson, her mother's age is a factor in the travel decision she's wrestling with right now. Wilson in leaning toward canceling a trip to Japan in March with her daughter and mother.

"It really doesn't make sense to go now when we can always postpone it and go later when we know everything is safe," said Wilson, who is an Indianapolis-based travel adviser at Dream Journeys.

A traveler's responsibilities at home are also a potential factor in their decision-making, Fischhoff said. Those caring for young kids or elderly parents might have a lower tolerance for unexpected delays in returning home.

And some people worry more than others. If you anticipate the situation may drain the pleasure out of a leisure trip, it might be worth changing your plans, he said.

Protecting your trip

Wilson has also considered the possibility of getting stranded in Japan if the situation there worsens and travel grinds to a halt. Japan had more than 900 cases of coronavirus as of February 27, with eight deaths reported.

American Airlines has agreed to waive the fee for returning the loyalty miles Wilson used for their airline tickets to her account.

Some of her clients haven't been so lucky. While Wilson specializes in the Caribbean, Hawaii, cruising and all-inclusive vacations, a couple of her bookings have been impacted by the outbreak.

A March 1 sailing on Sapphire Princess in Asia was canceled, and while their cruise costs will be refunded, her clients are out their non-refundable airline tickets and hotel.

At this point, Wilson encourages travelers to pay more for refundable airfares and hotel rooms. She is also advising clients to pack an extra two weeks' worth of medication, just in case.

She recommends purchasing Cancel for Any Reason insurance policies. It's the only type of travel insurance that applies in this scenario, she said.

The coverage tends to be about 30% more expensive than other types of travel insurance, according to Wilson.

Vendors have their own rules about how their policies work. Some offer up to about 80% cash back, while others may offer future booking credit only.

Some suppliers are starting to update their policies. AmaWaterways is now offering a Travel Waiver Plus to give clients more piece of mind when booking, Wilson said.

"They're offering this to guests who are already booked, as well as new bookings," she said.

Health precautions

Whether it's from coronavirus or influenza, travelers should always take precautions to protect themselves from infection.

"I am unaware of any documented cases of COVID-19 acquired during flights, but I would advise travelers on flights take the usual precautions to prevent respiratory illnesses, including handwashing and refraining from travel while ill," said Wu.

He urges travelers to follow guidance from the CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO), including "strict hand hygiene, cough etiquette, avoidance of ill individuals and general social distancing."

Flu vaccines are recommended as influenza is also spreading, and flu prevention could also prevent symptoms that will raise novel coronavirus concerns, Wu said.

Ultimately, each traveler's risk calculation will be different.

"A trip may be fine for some travelers, while the same itinerary can cause significant worry and stress for others," Wu said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Should you travel during the coronavirus outbreak?"
France's former Prime Minister Francois Fillon, left, and his wife Penelope, arrive at the Paris courthouse. AP Photo/Thibault Camus

The Welsh-born wife of a former French prime minister on trial for embezzlement told a Paris court yesterday she could not recollect details of her allegedly "fake" job as his parliamentary assistant.

Prosecutors accuse Francois Fillon of paying his wife Penelope more than 1m of taxpayers' money over 15 years for a job they say she never did.

The 'Penelopegate' scandal, which surfaced in 2017, destroyed the 35-year political career of one of the big names of French conservatism, paving the way for Emmanuel Macron's victory.

Asked to give details of how she allegedly organised secretarial work for her husband and managed his diary, Ms Fillon (64), who has a law degree, said: "I don't have an exact, precise, recollection. If you get it wrong, it's problematic."

Handed a microphone after the judge said she was struggling to hear her, she said: "I did different sorts of work, firstly the mail."

She dealt with 35 to 40 letters a week: "We received an enormous amount of mail. I also did press reviews about the very local bit, events in each village, each town."

Ms Fillon said she had written 40- or 50-page reports on specific issues, one of which was to look into land use and development in her husband's constituency in Sarthe, north-western France.

The prosecutor said no trace of these had been found during a three-year investigation.

If convicted, the Fillons face up to 10 years in jail. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
The SBI in its public documents stopped short of naming a U.S. citizen targeted in the probe.

Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation has launched a proceeding into a U.S. citizen in connection with the alleged pressure on ex-prosecutor general of Ukraine Viktor Shokin.

The case targets former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, claims Shokin's lawyer, Oleksandr Teleshetskyi, according to TSN.

The lawyer says the Pechersk District Court in Kyiv has obliged the SBI to register the relevant criminal proceeding.

However, SBI in its public documents stopped short of naming a U.S. citizen targeted in the probe. The Bureau only confirms the very fact of such investigation being launched.

Read alsoCNN: Trump contradicts past denials, admits sending Giuliani to Ukraine

As UNIAN reported earlier, former U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden has said that Ukrainian leaders sacked former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin only after he had threatened them on behalf of the then-U.S. president, Barack Obama, to back off from providing a billion-dollar loan guarantee.

Viktor Shokin believes that he's lost his post precisely due to the pressure of a senior U.S. official.

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed that the Obama Administration had been working on the dismissal of the then-prosecutor general of Ukraine, Viktor Shokin.

"All of us in the Administration were trying to get rid of that prosecutor. From Obama to the secretary of state, to the vice president  all of us were working on that  the ambassador" Kerry said, according to the Voice of America.

"We knew if Ukraine was going to survive, win the Revolution in the end, and the Maidan, they had to get rid of that prosecutor. And they did," Kerry said.
YARDLEY, Pa. (JTA)Like every American Zionist, I want my vote for president to ensure Israels safety and ideals.

Deciding how to vote isnt always easy. Many, including Yossi Klein Halevi, dread the day when American Zionists must choose between Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump.

For plenty of American Jews, Sanders represents a self-hating Jew, an anti-Zionist, or at best a liberal Zionist who, despite his kibbutz days, never deemed it important to deliver unconditional support for the Israeli government.

On the other hand, American Jews acknowledge Trumps approach to Israel as right wing and, for many, it is reassuring to see that Trump is in step with ideas that Benjamin Netanyahu espouseseven an idea like annexation, the exact opposite of the disengagement that Ariel Sharons own conservative government orchestrated only 15 years ago.

In this polarized political atmosphere, how can a centrist Zionist vote responsibly? I have found a way through by thinking about how another issue I care deeply about, our Earth, affects the Jewish world.

I believe that the responsible Zionist vote today has to do less with voting for Israels future but voting for all of our futures. Israel is facing a threat even larger than Iran, violence from Palestinian terrorists, the Islamic State or any militant group. Not too long from now, Tel Aviv could be underwater, the blooming desert may shrivel away and there may be no people left to live in what is now the Jewish state.

I worry about the warnings from scientists who tell us that by 2050just 30 years from nowour planet may be too hot for human life to continue as we know it. I am worried about the warnings from scientists who tell us we have only about a decade left to reverse, stop or slow down the global climate change crisis. And I worry the most because so many people refuse to accept that our planet is imminently endangered.

Whereas few people would ever question scientists predictions about the visibility of stars, moons or planets over the coming decades, predictions from the same scientists about the way Earth will look in the next few years remain an area of greater controversy. While there is no cadre of serious scientists who can disprove global climate change, our global climate crisis is, as Al Gore put it, an inconvenient truth, and it is unsettling to consider.

Why must Zionists today make the environment their No. 1 priority as voters? Who else will defend Israel other than Zionists? Doesnt a deep and informed commitment to Israel shape a robust understanding of foreign policy, of economic trade deals, of immigration?

It does, and these issues are near and dear to my heart, but I am afraid that rising temperatures and rising oceans may wipe away our civilizationsthe value of a dollar bill, of religions, of borders, of everything.

As a religious Jew who understands why children exit their schools to march for a future where they dont have to worry about mass starvation, I occasionally terrify myself when I imagine a planet with just a few humans left who have figured out how to scavenge (since the grocery stores have nobody to stock them or run them) in the middle of some wasteland (since very little flora can still grow) and have no jobs other than protecting themselves (since money doesnt matter when theres nothing to buy). These few humans, who suspect that they will be the last humans on Earth, have no interest in Judaismthe religion, the history or even the bagels. Judaism is a luxury for refined humans in a developed civilization with time for making life about more than just nutrition, clothing and shelter.

In an age without humans, Israel cannot exist, and Jewish tradition has nobody to observe it. The Babylonian Talmud shares a narrative (in Shabbat 88b-89a) where the angels in heaven are all clamoring to inherit the Torah, but God points out to them that the Torah provides a moral compass, an awareness of forces far greater than ourselves and a map for people searching for meaning in a physical world with suffering. Gods gift of the Torah would be useless in the hands of spirits; divine inspiration, the echo of Gods voice, is meant for human seekers.

Could some other species evolve and develop the potential to create or receive such a nuanced tradition as the one inherited by the Jewish people? I wouldnt want to bet on such slim chances. I accept the simple principle of faith that Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson has stated: God is not done with us yet.

I am not yet willing to accept a world beset by natural disaster where great Jewish books lie dormant with no souls to notice them. A world where there is nobody left to study Torah is the Jewish nightmare.

When fires burn apart California, when Cape Town loses clean water, and when the ice caps slowly melt into facts from the past, I know we have to put in a serious effort to be Gods partners in creation. The least we can do is a little maintenance for Earth.

Although a Sanders vs. Trump choice is one that deprives me of voting for my favorite candidate (Warren, if you must know)Yossi Klein Halevis dilemma poses no moral equivalency for me. The Torah does not give much voting advice, but it does tell us to choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19). I am going to vote with great hope and enthusiasm for the candidate who can best convince me that they will do everything they can to keep our planet a place where we can all livein Israel and the Diaspora.

The Jewish people have survived and rebuilt many times. In this time of all these crises, Jews rely on the whole world surviving and rebuilding together.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media or the Heritage Florida Jewish News.
Tahirs goons were firing guns, hurling petrol bombs: Ankit Sharmas father in FIR

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 28: The Delhi Police have filed a murder case against Aam Admi Party leader, Tahir Hussain in connection with the killing of Intelligence Bureau official Ankit Sharma.

The case under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code was filed following a complaint by Ankit's father, Ravinder Sharma.

In his complaint, Sharma said that Hussain's goons were hurling petrol bombs and firing guns. He said that on Tuesday, Ankit had come back home but left at 5 pm to buy groceries. We started looking for him, when he did not return. We looked in the hospitals and also at the police stations. Following this we filed a missing report.

Delhi violence: AAP suspends Tahir Hussain after FIR filed against him for IB staffer murder

After we got to know from our neighbour that they had seen Ankit with a friend, we went and enquired. We were told that a man was beaten to death near Chand Bagh bridge and his body was dumped in a drain.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

We informed the police, following which the body was pulled out of the drain. We identified the body and there were multiple stab wounds on his face, head, chest and back.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 11:14 [IST]
The city is bracing for widespread protests on March 1, when Union home minister Amit Shah and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Jagat Prakash Nadda are scheduled to arrive in Kolkata to address a public rally and speak in favour of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA).

Left parties have called for protests on the streets and an apolitical gathering has been planned to hold a gherao of the Bengal BJP headquarters. Besides, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind has called for a protest march in the city to be led by Trinamool Congress (TMC) minister Siddiqullah Chowdhury. A separate protest gathering has been called by a group of social activists.

Most of these programmes are around Esplanade. The venue of Shahs rally, too, is near Esplanade, the heart of Kolkata.

Kolkata will welcome Shah just the way Narendra Modi was welcomed  with black flags. Shah has his hands soaked in blood in the Delhi clashes. He is not welcome in Bengal, said Md Salim, Communist Party of India (Marxist) politburo member. Mamata Banerjee may try her best to offer Shah a red carpet but people will take to the streets, he added.

Social activist Wali Rahmani, who has called for a gherao of the Bengal BJP headquarters, said, We will march from Maidan for the BJP office, carrying a packet of sweets, flower bouquet and a letter for Shah so that he stops delivering hate speeches and ensure his party men stopped doing the same.

Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind state unit president and the library minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, Siddiqullah Chowdhury, said that he will lead a peaceful march from Moulali area, condemning Shahs inaction during the clashes in New Delhi and demanding his resignation. Shah has earned our country a bad name in the world, Chowdhury said.

Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra said they would decide on Saturday whether to join the Left on Sundays protest. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, has slammed chief minister Mamata Banerjee for attending a meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council chaired by Shah in Bhubaneswar on Friday. TMC has exposed its secret understanding with the BJP, Chowdhury said.

Besides, an umbrella organization called No-NRC Movement has also called for protests against Shahs visit. NRC is the abbreviation of National Register of Citizens.

With so many events announced, the administration is expecting a situation similar to that in January when protesters brought the city to a standstill during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit. The police had not allowed protesters anywhere near Modis venues.

However, what worries the administration most is that Modis events were all indoors, while nearly one lakh BJP supporters are expected to gather at Shahid Minar ground to listen to Shah.

BJP state unit president Dilip Ghosh criticized the protest plans. The Left and Congress, due to their destructive politics, are on the verge of extinction. They are resorting to the same brand of politics for a revival. People will reject them, Ghosh said.

No police officer agreed to speak on record. None of the protest programmes have been given permission. The police will remain alert and ensure that protesters do not come near the venue of BJPs rally, said a senior officer of Kolkata police who is involved the making the security arrangements for the day.

Senior TMC leaders refused to comment, saying the chief minister is monitoring the whole situation. She is the home minister and only she will comment, said a senior TMC minister who did not want to be identified.

TMC has no scheduled programme on Sunday. During Modis visit, though, TMC carried out a sit-in demonstration, even though Banerjee met Modi at the governors residence and described it as a courtesy visit.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 03:47:24|Editor: huaxia

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by Keren Setton

JERUSALEM, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Once, when Israelis headed to the polls, they were voting on the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a straight-forward but heated debate.

As the stalemate in negotiations with the Palestinians remains for years, it seems there is no end in sight and nothing major is going to be changed.

The last time the rival sides met at the negotiating table was in 2014 and that ended in a resounding failure.

"Israelis and Palestinians haven't sat in the same room in years," said Alon Liel, former director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

"The public has reached the conclusion that negotiations aren't realistic and you can't talk about something that the public does not believe can happen," Liel said.

Peace with the Palestinians is only on the agenda for few of the parties in the running. It does not resonate with most voters.

"The last decade has increased the distrust between the peoples and it is very difficult to talk about resumption of negotiations without dramatic steps taken by both sides," said Ofer Zalzberg, a senior analyst of the Arab Israeli conflict at the International Crisis Group.

This has been aided by an increasingly complex internal Palestinian situation in which Hamas controls Gaza and the Fatah, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, controls the Palestinian territories in the West Bank.

As the election on March 2 comes closer, a recent spark in violence between the Israelis and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip has brought the issue to the forefront, but temporarily.

In the past, Israelis were traditionally divided into the left and the right. The left favored giving the Palestinians territories in the West Bank currently occupied by Israel in return for cessation of violence, while the right-wing was traditionally against any territorial concessions, saying the land the Palestinians covet for their future state is "historically Jewish" and should never be handed over to anyone else.

The Palestinians see the territories in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as part of their future state.

"Today the camps are different," said Zalzberg. "Now there is one camp that favors annexation, and the other favors the status-quo with a possible option for a Palestinian state in the future."

The two-state solution which was once seen as the only solution to the conflict has become almost redundant.

The Israeli Democracy Institute and the Tel Aviv University have been monitoring the Israeli public opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1994.

In its latest survey conducted in January this year, after the announcement of the elections and after the publication of the Trump plan, 45 percent of Israelis believe Israel should recognize a Palestinian state. In the breakdown of the data, there is lower support for this within the right-wing.

As the last years have changed the discourse, they have gradually changed the political map and eroded the left camp. The original left, the one that championed negotiations with the Palestinians with the aim of establishing a Palestinian state, has shrunk. It is now represented by a joint list of parties, Labor-Gesher-Meretz, which at best will have 10 seats out of the 120 available in the Israeli parliament.

"The proportions have changed completely," said Liel. "The left has been marginalized to about 15 percent of the population, with the center and the right creating the big blocs."

The main party opposing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, "Blue and White," is not a vociferous opponent to him when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Its leading candidates, many former army generals, come from the right-wing of the political map and call for strengthening Israeli settlement blocs in the West Bank and do not mention a Palestinian state explicitly. Once the large camp was the left; now it has transformed into what is called the center.

For Netanyahu, the years of the Trump administration have been filled with lavish political gifts: the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the subsequent inauguration of the U.S. embassy in the city, and the recent recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

The moves were highly controversial in the international arena but were greeted in Israel by the overwhelming majority of the population, again blurring the lines between coalition and opposition.

The Trump plan, considered a favorable plan for Israel and slammed by Palestinians, was also perceived by the Israeli public as an election token for Netanyahu.

"For Netanyahu, the plan is a great political achievement," Liel said. "It strengthened his position as a political magician."

"Ironically, Trump is the only one talking about a solution," Zalzberg said.
Residents in areas already suffering from flooding have been warned that they face another 10 days of difficulty as more rain is set to drench the Midlands.

Torrential downpours have already seen flood barriers breached and homes ruined but forecasters predict a brief respite will only be met with more wet weather.

Chris Bainger, from the Environment Agency, said: "We have a bit of respite, we've just got showers moving through over the next couple of days.

But coming into Friday we have another band of rain coming through that's going to be up in the Welsh mountains and that's going to be coming to us... perhaps Saturday.

"We've already planned another 10 days of being on 24/7  manning of our incident rooms and having operational staff at all of our barriers.

Meanwhile the Met Office warned that parts of Wales and northern England could see between 60 to 80mm of rain on Friday as the storm hits the UK.

Strong winds are then forecast for much of England, Wales and Northern Ireland on Saturday, reaching 70mph in coastal areas and up to 60mph inland.

The Met Offices chief meteorologist Paul Gundersen said further flooding is also possible with rain forecast to fall on already saturated ground.

Flooding in Ironbridge, Shropshire, as residents in riverside properties in the area have been told to leave their homes and businesses (PA)

Flooding in Bewdley, Worcestershire, has already caused severe damage to homes (PA)

Flood warnings

Flooding along parts of the River Severn, which has reached close to its highest levels in some areas, is likely until at least Sunday, the Environment Agency said.

A severe danger to life flood warning covering the river at the Wharfage in Ironbridge, Shropshire, remains in place on Thursday, while 82 flood warnings and 125 flood alerts had been issued.

Rising waters pushed back the towns temporary flood barriers towards a pub and other businesses, sparking fears that the defences could be fully breached.

Read more: Corbyn labels Johnson 'part-time prime minister' over flooding

Speaking in Ironbridge on Thursday, environment secretary George Eustice said the reason for his delay in visiting the town was to allow for the emergency services to deal with the immediate impacts.

Story continues

Asked why Boris Johnson was yet to visit, Eustice said: When he appointed me two weeks ago he made it clear he wanted me to lead on this.

I have kept him regularly informed with what is happening.

Flood barriers breached

Residents in the Worcestershire town of Bewdley were forced to evacuate earlier after the river spilled over barriers at Beales Corner.

And in East Yorkshire, residents were being evacuated from the village of East Cowick after the River Aire broke its banks.

This month is already the second wettest February on record, with the total average rainfall from February 1 to 25 measuring 179.3mm, the Met Office said. The figure to beat is 193.4mm, which was set in February 1990.

Read more: Homes evacuated as River Aire floods in East Yorkshire

Storm Jorge is forecast to track across the north west of the UK before clearing on Saturday afternoon.

Because the Spanish meteorological service named the storm on Thursday, it is convention for all other national services to use that name, the Met Office said.

Gundersen said: This weekend well see another named storm bring strong winds to parts of the UK with several wind and rain warnings in place.

We have issued rain warnings for parts of Wales and northern England, where rain will be heaviest and we could see 60-80mm possible over the highest ground.

Flood water surrounds Worcester city centre as residents in riverside properties were told to leave their homes after temporary barriers were overwhelmed (PA)

The Republic of Ireland is expected to face the strongest and most damaging winds, Gunderson added.

The storm will be followed by snow over the hills and mountains in the north of the UK and rail and hail in the south. Winds are forecast to ease slightly on Sunday.

Yellow weather warnings for rain are in place for the north west and south west of England, parts of Wales and Northern Ireland between midday on Friday and 9am on Saturday.

Flooding an opportunity for job creation, says PM

The Met Office has also issued a yellow wind warning for a 24-hour period from midday on Saturday covering most of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and south-west Scotland.

Boris Johnson has declined to say whether he will be visiting areas where people have been made homeless by recent floods, while visiting the headquarters of a charity for the homeless.

Speaking at The Connection in central London, the PM instead focused on how the massive issue of flooding presents an opportunity for job creation.

Tewkesbury Abbey and a children's playground at the confluence of the Rivers Severn and Avon is surrounded by flood waters (Getty)

He said: Theres a massive issue about flood defences, and we have put 2.6 billion in and we will be investing another 4 billion.

This is something that is absolutely critical for our country to tackle.

I think it also presents an opportunity, because in the whole business of green technology flood defences, planting trees, all the ways in which we are going to insulate our country against flooding, there are opportunities for job creation as well.

Boris Johnson's response to the floods was criticised by Labour (PA)

His comments came a day after a senior minister said the PM was very much in control of the governments response to the floods, amid criticism the prime minister has failed to visit the communities affected.

In the Commons on Wednesday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused Johnson of being no more than a part-time prime minister.

However, housing secretary Robert Jenrick said such visits were often a distraction which took away valuable resources from the emergency services.

England has more than double its average February rainfall: Environment Agency

England has received more than 200% of its average February rainfall, according to the Environment Agency, with some areas experiencing a months worth of rain in 24 hours.

Toby Willison, executive director of operations at the Environment Agency, said: Our operational teams continue to work night and day to protect communities alongside the River Severn, which is experiencing record levels.

River levels will remain exceptionally high on the Severn for some time and communities, in particular Shrewsbury, Bewdley, Bridgnorth and Ironbridge, should prepare for potentially ongoing severe flooding.

Flood barriers which have moved due to the weight of water in the River Severn in the Wharfage area of Ironbridge, Shropshire (PA)

Houses in Bewdley, Worcestershire, lie surrounded by floodwater after days of rain (PA)

Storm Jorge is the fifth storm to hit the UK since December 6 last year and third in February,

Met Office forecaster Craig Snell said it was not uncommon to see so many storms in such a short period of time.

Defences

Operational teams have put up more than 6km of temporary flood barriers across the country and flood defences have protected more than 34,184 properties over the last week.

In East Yorkshire, residents were evacuated from the village of East Cowick after the River Aire broke its banks.

Read more: Workers should use coronavirus self-isolation as sick days, says Government

East Riding of Yorkshire Council said in a statement its staff along with teams from the Coastguard and Humberside Fire & Rescue were going to door-to-door in the village, where sandbags have been deployed to protect around 60 properties.

A powerline underwater in Snaith, East Yorkshire, where locals have criticised the lack of help they have received from the authorities (PA)

East Cowick was the council's "main area of concern" but it had also arranged sandbags to protect 100 properties in Snaith, where residents were advised to evacuate from their homes on Wednesday afternoon as water from the Aire and surrounding washlands continued to rise.

Flood warnings remain in place in the Snaith area, where locals have criticised the lack of help they have received from the authorities.
When someone mentions soju, the first image that comes to mind is usually that famed little green bottleJinro brand soju, the largest producer and distributor of South Koreas national drink globally. In 2016, Jinro soju was the worlds top-selling alcohol, boasting 73.9 million cases in sales.

Despite its ubiquity, however, this soju does not truly represent what real, traditional soju is. In fact, most people, including experts, heavily debate what soju actually is; there is no legal definition for this clear spirit, and production does not have any standardized guidelines or rules. You can make soju anywhere, from anything, and using any process.

Soju was originally made from only rice, but most modern versions of soju are made from sweet potatoes or other starches, and are actually diluted. The tubers are fermented, and the resulting 95 percent ethanol is then diluted with water to the necessary alcohol proof, which can range from 16.8 to 53 percent. Various sweeteners and flavorings are then added to make it palatable, and the result is the popular cheap soju that most people know today.

But as Koreas favorite spirit grows in global popularity, its worth getting to know a little betterbeyond that glittering green bottle.

Through Feast and Famine

Soju has a centuries-old history that spans Koreas checkered past, through feast and famine.

The origins of the drink date back to the 13th century, during the Goryeo Dynasty, when Mongol invaders brought distilling techniques they had learned from Persia to the Korean peninsula. Brewers used these techniques to fortify makgeolli, Koreas much-loved milky, fermented rice wine, and soju was born.

The process begins with nuruk, a wild yeast starter culture, which is used to ferment rice. Then the resulting elixir, makgeolli, is then distilled to a clear liquid. The name soju literally translates to fire alcohol or burned alcohol, with the fire referring to the heat required during this distillation process.

Only pure white rice was used, which was an expensive and coveted ingredient; hence, soju was considered a luxury item. It quickly won favor among the wealthy upper class, who loved itso much that alcoholism quickly became a problem, resulting in the government banning soju manufacturing in 1375. Still, consumption and production continued, in the form of a spirited home-brewing bootlegging culture.

During the Japanese occupation of South Korea, starting in 1910, rations and taxation made it virtually impossible for Koreans to make alcohol, especially from rice. These constraints paved the way for inexpensive sweet potatoes to be used, and introduced the dilution processa way to create a cheap, bastardized version of soju. Even though it hardly resembled the original product at all, it served its purpose during those strained times of poverty.

After the occupation ended, producers began to distill soju again, but ultimately, further scarcity issues led the government to formally outlaw the use of rice for alcohol production in 1965. Not only did it ban the use of this precious white grain, but it also forbade all forms of distilled soju.

Manufacturers again were forced to turn to alternative cheap starches, such as wheat, barley, tapioca, molasses, and sweet potatoes, and dilution was reinforced as the norm. Thus, the soju we know now became the standard.

The government ban was finally lifted in 1999, and producers again began using rice and distillation techniques. But soju drinkers had already become accustomed to the cheap alternatives, so most producers stayed true to their low-cost recipes, only slightly tweaking their formulas to incorporate some rice.

A Soju Revival

There has been a large movement, however, to bring back traditional, real distilled soju, made from just rice. Certain provinces of Korea, such as Andong, are particularly famous for their handcrafted brews, and small-batch companies are actively campaigning to revive Koreas lost artisan alcohol tradition.

Having tried both types of soju, I find it hard to believe that they are called by the same name.

For instance, Hwayo, a popular premium soju brand, uses only pure spring water and the highest quality rice from the Icheon region of Korea. They age their distilled liquor in porous ceramic onggi jars, allowing it to breathe, while playing classical music to the vesselsapparently the musical vibrations aid in the oxygenation.

The result is subtly fruity with light floral notes, a decidedly sophisticated product. It is reminiscent of vodka, but with a distinct flavor of its own, and comes in various ABVs. I can gladly neck back shots of chilled Hwayo soju straight; it is smooth and clean with a tight finish.

Diluted soju, on the other hand, tends to taste artificial, overly sweetened, and frankly, akin to cleaning solution. I admit I used to drink copious amounts of the stuff, especially as a poor student. As I have gotten older, though, my tastes have changed and now I find it rather harsh.

Soju in America

Only about five percent of soju sales go to the United States, but a growing number of bars and restaurants across the country are now stocking Koreas firewater. You can find soju on hip cocktail menus from Los Angeles to New York.

I find diluted soju more enjoyable when mixed in cocktails or beera soju bomband in my restaurants, I used to infuse soju with various fruits and vegetables, which I found successfully masked that disconcerting ethanol aftertaste.

I also had a lot of success marketing it as a skinny cocktail choice, as distilled soju has a third less calories than vodka. I often substituted soju for vodka to create new drinks, like my famed kimchi Bloody Mary, and many bartenders are doing the same.

RECIPE: Spiced Kimchi Mary

Korean Drinking Culture

Still, Koreans love their diluted soju.

In Korea, where business and social gatherings very much revolve around drinking, soju is a cultural cornerstone. To do business together means to drink together, and the drink of choice is soju.

Many companies have monthly, even weekly mandatory work dinners called hoesik centered around drinking. These are considered a way to get to know someone better, an essential bonding exercise.

It is a ritual riddled with social etiquette rules as well, and knowing the nuances of how and when to drink is vital. Showing respect to elders is important, and you always know everyones age and rank (How old are you? is one of the first questions someone will ask you when meeting).

The table hierarchy is then set, and the youngest is assigned with the task of pouring drinks for everyone, always with two hands to show respect. Once everyones glass is full, shots are ceremoniously done together, while turning away from the eldest member, again to show respect. The whole thing is repeated numerous timesuntil you are stumbling home. Korean business dinners are notoriously drunken affairs.

Trends are changing, however, as Koreans are becoming more health conscious. The younger generation is drinking less, and lower-ABV beverages are becoming more popular. Tea and coffee cafes are sprouting up all over Seoul, rivaling bars for date nights and late evening social gatherings.

Still, though, there is just something so classic about soju, whether distilled or diluted. I have so many epic memories with this spiritand my college days would not have been as fun-filled without those little shots. It makes me happy to see sojus growing popularity around the world.

And despite my gripes, I will always have a fondness for those little green bottles.

Geonbae!

Judy Joo is a chef, restaurateur, author, and TV personality. Her newest book is Judy Joos Korean Soul Food.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 22:50:52|Editor: yan

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MALE, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Maldivian government said on Friday that it had banned the entry of cruise ships following the outbreak of COVID-19 in several countries.

Local media quoted Health Minister Abdulla Ameen as saying that entry permits will only resume once the status of the outbreak changes positively.

Local media reported the decision to ban entry comes at a time cruise ship arrivals to the Maldives have increased. According to statistics from Maldives Immigration, 15 cruise ships docked in the Maldives last month and 19 cruise ships arrived in the island nation in December 2019.

Minister Ameen said last week that Health Protection Authority (HPA) screened 4,594 people on board three cruise ships.

Thermal cameras have been installed in all entry points and people arriving in the Maldives are currently being screened for any symptoms.

The Maldivian government has been taking strict measures to mitigate the outbreak of COVID-19 as the island country receives thousands of tourists every year.
The internet is Black  I've decided it. Al Gore might have invented it, but Black people the world over make it what it is today. Consider every Tiffany Pollard meme, every Nene Leakes reaction gif. Recall each viral Jaboukie tweet and every trending Quen Blackwell video. Stan language, while used by most with a Twitter account, would be nothing without ballroom or AAVE. The voice of the internet is Black and that is not up for debate.

We've all seen misguided attempts to speak the language  from Katy Perry playing with the word "wig," to Democrats attempting to "boy bye" Trump out the White House. Still, while vernacular created largely by the Black community has entered pop culture, the faces behind the keyboards are most often overlooked. So in honor of Black History Month, we DM'd five of the most viral Black creators who are quite literally "Making the Internet" to talk memes, fame and owning their own content.

Mike Thornwell

@Fakeroberts: How often are you noticed IRL? @Mikethornwell: Surprisingly enough I actually get noticed somewhat frequently! Even when I lived in Japan there were a few people who recognized my face. I obviously am not yet at the point of being recognized as 'Mike Thornwell' but many people can at least recognize that they know my face from some vague memory of a video of a boy in a wig on their timeline.

@Fakeroberts: Lol I love 'boy in wig.' What's one thing you want your followers to know about you? @Mikethornwell: I want my followers to know that I portray myself as accurately as possible on my socials but at the end of the day social media is a 2D, one-way experience. You can only see so much. Keep in mind that all of us behind these screens are human and we all go through the same shit. No number of followers or perceived success can change the human experience. So please be kind.

@Fakeroberts: Love that. Agree. I simply must ask: that "cotton picking" incident pls tell me that didn't actually happen lol. @Mikethornwell: Chile I wish I could tell you that, but are we really that gagged that a white old woman would have the gall to fix her mouth to say something that outlandish? That's honestly not even the worst customer service story. Just one of many unfortunately.

@Fakeroberts: Good point. It's in their nature lol. What's the greatest meme of all time? @Mikethornwell: Whew that's a tough one I honestly feel as though any reaction video or GIF of Nene Leakes or Tiffany Pollard are automatically golden. They are in my mind the goddesses of meme culture.

@Fakeroberts: Last question: with the whole "Renegade" situation are you ever worried about not getting the credit for your work? Like, how protective are you of your own work and image? @Mikethornwell: The thing about being a Black creator is that you come into this space with an understanding that you will likely not get all the credit that you're due. You will often have to be more diligent than your white counterparts. You will have to work harder to be seen and accepted. You will probably not receive half the praise white creators do, even with twice the amount of creativity and impact. This is a tale as old as time. There are systems in place that clearly need to be dismantled and rebuilt from scratch in a way that is beneficial to creators across the board. So while I am protective of my image and work, there is no stopping the inevitable. Which is why I'm more focused on getting to the root of these issues and trying to learn how to fix them as I expand my knowledge and influence. For now that mostly means supporting other creators and advocating for companies who genuinely give a fuck about us.

Khadi Don

@Fakeroberts: How often are you recognized IRL? @Khadi: Depending on what area I'm in. Pretty much every day, especially if I'm in cities like Atlanta, Chicago or Detroit.

@Fakeroberts: What's one thing you want your followers to know about you: @Khadi: That I have many more talents outside of comedy that I can't wait to showcase to them.

@Fakeroberts: What's the best meme of all time? @Khadi:

Anything Spongebob related lol.

@Fakeroberts: LMAO I love demonic Patrick. How does it feel to see yourself as a meme or reaction pic? @Khadi: It's hilarious I love it. I remember this went viral for a while:

They used that picture for everything lol.

@Fakeroberts: Lmao I remember that. Why did you start making videos? @Khadi: I used to get put on punishment and was in my room with only a camera. I got bored and started to experiment lol, which led to me loving it. Once I realized the impact I had and how it could open doors I took it seriously.

@Fakeroberts: Last question: with the whole "Renegade" situation are you ever worried about not getting the credit for your work? Like, how protective are you of your own work and image? @Khadi: When I was coming up and was super small I would constantly get my work stolen without receiving credit. From as small as Vine to bigger bits on television. I used to worry but today I don't as much. I take it as a compliment and consider myself the blueprint. I'm super protective but I know at the end of the day nobody can do what I do better than I can.

Denzel Dion

@Fakeroberts: How often are you noticed IRL? @Denzeldion: I get recognized a lot IRL. It's weird because I've been on social media for six years now and it still feels like a breath of fresh air.

@Fakeroberts: I can imagine. What's one thing you want your followers to know about you? @Denzeldion: What you see online is what you get in person. I'm 100% myself in all my videos and what I post online.

@Fakeroberts: What's the best meme of all time? @Denzeldion: In my opinion the best meme of all time, is "and I OOP" just because it's so universal and I literally used it for every situation that was happening at the time.

@Fakerobers: Agree, she really was the moment. Can you tell us anything about your new show with Rickey? @Denzeldion: The only thing I can tell you it's that Rickey and I's show is going to be FUNNY, ICONIC and just everything that we all need.

@Fakeroberts: PRAISE BE! I can't wait. What made you start creating videos and content? @Denzeldion: I honestly just started creating videos based on the curiosity of whether or not I could be as funny as my classmates/ peers portrayed me as.

@Fakeroberts: Amazing. Okay. Last question: Looking at the whole "Renegade" situation how protective are you of your own content and image? Like are you ever worried about not getting credit for your work? @Denzeldion: I'm very protective of my own content and image  I don't really worry about not getting credit for my work, but it does happen when creators are often ripped off with no credit and it's blatantly disrespectful.

Lynn Spirit

@Fakeroberts: How often are you noticed IRL? @Lynnspirit: Noticed like every day. Not a day goes by that I'm not getting attention somewhere. It gets ridiculous sometimes .

@Fakeroberts: Lol I bet. What's one thing you want your followers and fans to know about you? @Lynnspirit: I'm very confident in everything that I do and am facing my fears because there's something beautiful on the other side of fear. Make no excuses in life; take chances and risks.

@Fakeroberts: That's beautiful. In your opinion what's the beat meme of all time? @Lynnspirit: The best memes of all time are the memes that have me in them! I'm always so shocked to see to myself in memes!

@Fakeroberts: How does it feel to see yourself used as a meme or reaction pic? @Lynnspirit: It feels so unreal to see myself as a meme! I'm like dang, that's really me! I always think about how far I have come and how far I'm going! Very blessed.

@Fakeroberts: What made you start making content and videos? @Lynnspirit: I was making videos as therapy for myself. It helped me get through some tough times in my life!

@Fakeroberts: Do you feel like you completely "own" your image? Are you ever worried about not getting credit for your work? @Lynnspirit: Yes I completely own my image, I'm not surrounded by people who try to change my image or make me be someone I'm not! I'm very thankful for my team for making sure I'm staying true to myself and genuine! No I don't worry about gettin credit for my work. We live in a society where people steal people stuff all the time without giving credit!

Kayla "Nicole TV" Jones

@Fakeroberts: How often are you recognized IRL? @Kaylanicolejones: Very often. People know my face, my body build & even my voice more than my multiple confusing names.

@Fakeroberts: What do you want your followers to know about you? @Kaylanicolejones: Nothing I'm not already telling them. I just want them to live with me... live within me. What I put out is like them being me or them being with me. They're apart of whatever process I began and they're included in every story.

@Fakeroberts: Why did you start making what you make? @Kaylanicolejones: Multiple reasons for each creation with the same aspirations.

@Fakeroberts: What's the greatest meme of all time? @Kaylanicolejones: Me. The catfish skit that went viral with Deshae and I.

@Fakeroberts: With the whole "Renegade" situation, how protective are you over your content? Is it even possible to really own your image/work online? @Kaylanicolejones: Very. I had a guy remake my song and take the name and dance like TF? Totally trademarked "Move Like a Snake" right after and a lot of bigger companies and commercials try to run off with it, so I handle them too. Nothing on paper gets passed me.
TAPACHULA, Mexico  The coolest dive bar in southern Mexico  or, at least the coolest one founded by migrants from Cameroon  was hidden in a mostly residential neighborhood in Tapachula, a city near the border with Guatemala.

It was hard to find, tucked behind an unmarked yellow metal gate and down a grimy passageway. But it offered solace and camaraderie for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who found themselves stuck in a place far from home, and far from where they wanted to go.

We are suffering stress, said Banks, a 25-year-old bar customer who had been a high school physics and chemistry teacher in Uganda but fled because he was persecuted by the government for being gay.

He said government forces had killed his lover and were coming after him. Thats why Im drinking, Banks said, asking to be identified by only by his last name for fear the Ugandan government would find him even here.
Opposition inciting communal riots over CAA: Amit Shah

India

oi-PTI

Bhubaneswar, Feb 28: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday accused opposition parties of spreading misinformation about the new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and inciting communal riots.

He said people should come out and ask those fomenting trouble to explain which clause of the Citizensip (Amendment) Act talked about snatching citizenship of people.

"Opposition parties are spreading misinformation that Muslims will lose their Indian citizenship because of the CAA. They are instigating people and fomenting riots," he told a pro-CAA BJP rally here.

At a public meeting in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. https://t.co/mNEci4QCea  Amit Shah (@AmitShah) February 28, 2020

He said no Indian Muslim will lose citizenship because of the new law. He said the Narendra Modi government addressed several intractable issues that had festered for 70 years, including repeal of provisions of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and prevented its integration with the rest of the country.

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Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 18:10 [IST]
AFRICA

In Hindsight: The Evolving Role of the Three African Members in the Security Councils Work on Africa

Among the Security Councils ten elected members, the three African statescurrently Niger, South Africa and Tunisiaconstitute a group with some unique features that translate into how these countries work within the Council. They come from the continent whose conflicts have occupied between half to three-quarters of the Councils time during each of the past 25 years, and that hosts most of the Councils mandated peace operations. The three states from the continent have also (with the exception of Morocco until 2017) all been members of the same regional organisation, the African Union (AU), and prior to that, its predecessor, the Organization of African Unity (OAU).

The role of the African members of the Council has evolved, from members initiatives in their national capacities (in the 1990s, for example, six of the nine visiting missions undertaken by the Council were led by an African member) to more recently taking coordinated positions on several African issues.

Following the launch f the AU in 2002 and the subsequent establishment of its Peace and Security Council (PSC), the PSC became the first international body with which members of the Security Council established regular interactions. Through a joint initiative of South Africa and the UK in 2007, the Council started the practice of holding annual meetings with the PSC, alternating between the two organisations respective headquarters in Addis Ababa and New York. After an initial period largely focused on the process and modalities for the meetings themselves, these interactions became increasingly substantive, with the meetings considering conflicts of shared concern to the two bodies.

In January 2002, six months before the AU was launched, Council president Mauritius set the path for developing the Security Councils new practices in its work on Africa. It organised an open debate on the Situation in Africa, with a focus on the UN relationship with the continental organisation. The background note pointed out that although the Council had been busy with conflict situations in Africa, it was not getting the desired overall results. The note stressed the need for UN and OAU actions to complement each other. Within days, the Council adopted a presidential statement outlining measures and recommendations that created a framework for the Councils approach to Africa that remains relevant. In addition to addressing measures aimed at preventing conflict in Africa and calling on the UN system to intensify its cooperation with the African continental organisation, the presidential statement also signalled the plan to establish an ad hoc working group to monitor the implementation of recommendations made during the meeting. As a result, the Council established its Ad Hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa (the Ad Hoc Working Group).

The Ad Hoc Working Group deserves a closer look in respect of the role it has played in shaping Council approaches to some African issues, and its potential for developing further positions. Its distinctive feature, among all other Council subsidiary bodies, is that it has always been chaired by an African member. Its activities during a given period largely hinge on the direction from the chair. The Ad Hoc Working Group was very active in its initial years, putting forward several recommendations and initiatives on specific situations (such as Burundi, Guinea-Bissau and the Great Lakes region).

More recently, it has focused on the management of the Security Councils relationship with the AU PSC, especially the annual consultative meetings. The country-specific focus disappeared for more than a decade, but was revived in 2018, during Ethiopias chairmanship, with meetings on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau and the Central African Republic. The Ad Hoc Working Group has the potential to contribute to elaborating and achieving specific policy goals with respect to African countries or regional situations, although it remains to be seen whether a focus on specific situations continues and how it feeds into the work of the Security Council.

As the penholder system took root around 2010, the African members, some of whom had previously served as co-leads on African files, began seeking other ways to play a role on African issues and also to press for the PSCs policy decisions to inform Security Council decision-making. Following intense diplomacy by African members of the Council, led by South Africa, the Security Council adopted, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, resolution 2046 in May 2012, expressing full support for a PSC decision on the situation between Sudan and South Sudan and incorporating its key elements into the resolutions operative paragraphs.

Rwanda, which joined the Council in 2013, continued efforts to have the PSCs concerns and positions taken into account and addressed by the global peace and security body. In this context, it sought working methods that could enhance cohesion among the three African Security Council members.

This process led to a December 2013 brainstorming session during an AU High Level Seminar on Peace and Security, held in Algiers. The participants included the three African members of the Security Council, the chair of the AU Peace and Security Council, representatives of the AU Peace and Security Department, and AU special envoys to different regions of Africa. The outcome of the meeting was the establishment of the group of the three African Council members as a caucus and a means of connection between the Council and the AU PSC on issues of common concern. It may have been the moment when the term A3 was coined for the three African members.

In the period since, the A3 have jointly been able to influence the Councils approaches to Africa on several occasions. Their leverage has been particularly significant when they act with an explicit or implicit mandate from the PSC. Unity among the three members on African issues, backed by the continental organisations position, has on some occasions been key to persuading permanent members. The A3 have also developed several new practices. In 2019, these actions included:

joint media stakeout appearances. The three African permanent representatives have acted on a shared sense of urgency to convey a message when the Council as a whole was not in a position to do so (for instance, on 6 June on the decision of the AU to suspend Sudans membership and on 20 November on the urgent need for international action in support of the Joint Force of the Group of Five for the Sahel);

a joint statement, in May during an open debate on protection of civilians (delivered by South Africa); and

a joint visit in the summer to Washington, DC, to lobby policymakers on the issue of UN funding for AU peacekeeping.

Unity on all substantive issues has not always been the case among the A3, given the differences in political priorities among the 55 nations comprising the AU. There have been Africa-related votes in which one or two A3 members abstained, including on issues such as Western Sahara, some African sanctions regimes, or Burundi. Yet the joining of forces on issues where there is consensus, and especially on those where the PSC has articulated a position, is a strategic step.
Nearly two dozen American lawmakers have sought assurances and transparency prior to the signing of a landmark peace deal between the US and the Taliban in Doha on Saturday to end the brutal war in Afghanistan, urging the Trump administration not to make a commitment that would embolden America's adversaries and undermine its allies.

The US is set to sign a historic peace deal with the Taliban on Saturday provided that a week-long reduction in violence across the war-torn Afghanistan holds.

The Taliban has also confirmed the plan to sign the peace deal that day.

In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the defense secretary, the Congressmen on Thursday called for prioritisation of American security as the US pursued a peace agreement with the Taliban.

Dated February 27, the letter calls for transparency and highlights the importance of keeping the US safe.

Additionally, it outlines the need for certain security pledges, including that any deal between the US and the Taliban will be public and not contain secret annexes or side deals.

The lawmakers also demanded that there will be no intelligence sharing or a "joint counter-terrorism" centre established with the Taliban.

"We have serious concerns about reports that the United States is preparing to sign a deal with the Taliban, the terrorists who harboured al-Qaeda before and after the attacks of 9/11. President Trump has a proven track record of putting America's security first and ensuring our country stays out of bad deals that aid our adversaries," the letter said.

"In keeping with this policy, we are seeking assurances that you will not place the security of the American people into the hands of the Taliban, and undermine our ally, the current government of Afghanistan," it added.

In the letter, the lawmakers sought assurances that any deal between the US and the Taliban would be public and not contain any secret annexes or side deals and that the administration would not put American security at risk by pretending that the Taliban was a reliable counter-terrorism partner.

The letter said decisions about the US troop levels in Afghanistan must be made based on US national security requirements determined by conditions on the ground.

"Therefore, any deal must not contain a commitment for a full US withdrawal at this point. Such a commitment would embolden America's adversaries and undermine our allies, including the Afghan government," the lawmakers said.

"Any deal with the Taliban will include the requirement that the Taliban turn over all al-Qaeda leaders and operatives who are currently hiding in Taliban strongholds. There will be no uneven or premature release of Taliban prisoners," the Congressmen added.

They also sought assurances that the current sanctions and designations against the al-Qaeda-allied Haqqani network will remain in place regardless of any deal with the Taliban.

"President Trump has taken crucial action to keep our nation safe, including eliminating the world's most dangerous terrorists and destroying the ISIS caliphate. He knows a bad deal when he sees one. We urge you not to commit America to a dangerous deal with the Taliban that would abandon the President's track record of strengthening America and putting our security and interests first," the lawmakers said.

The Taliban was a terrorist group that celebrated suicide attacks, they alleged.

Haibatullah Akhundzada, the overall leader of the Taliban, sacrificed his own son in a suicide bombing in 2017. Akhundzada's top deputy, Sirajuddin Haqqani, runs a network that specialises in devastating suicide bombings, including some of the most heinous attacks in the history of the war, the letter said.

"The American people cannot rely on these terrorists to safeguard their security," it noted.

Observing that the Taliban also had a history of extracting concessions in exchange for false assurances, the lawmakers said they would accept nothing less than a full-scale US withdrawal from Afghanistan as they sought to establish their totalitarian "Islamic Emirate".

"Our withdrawal would then allow terrorist groups in Afghanistan to grow stronger and establish safe havens from which to plot attacks against us. Any promises the Taliban may have made to the US related to counterterrorism cannot be trusted, not least because the group is a long-time ally of al-Qaeda," the Congressmen said.

Indeed, if the initial US-Taliban deal had been approved in September as was originally planned, one of the top al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan Asim Umar would likely still be alive, the letter said.

"Umar threatened America and answered directly to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri. He was reportedly killed in a joint US-Afghan raid on a Taliban stronghold in September after President Trump suspended talks with the Taliban.

"It is our understanding that under the current deal, such raids are not taking place - meaning that if Umar had survived a few months longer, he would be outside America's reach," it added.

The agreement struck during the talks between the US and the Taliban, if maintained, may secure a peace deal that would lead to a withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, fulfilling a campaign promise of President Trump.

The US currently has reportedly less than 14,000 troops in Afghanistan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A group of civil society members on Friday demanded a probe by a sitting high court judge into the violence in northeast Delhi, alleging that that it was a "well planned" attack on the people.

Addressing a joint press conference, senior journalist Shahid Siddiqui demanded a time-bound probe into the violence by a sitting high court judge.

"It was not spontaneous but a well planned attack on the people," claimed former Delhi Minorities Commission (DMC) chairman Kamal Faruqui.

Current DMC chairman Zafarul Islam Khan citing unconfirmed reports claimed that at least 100 people died in the violence.

As per official figures, the violence that erupted in northeast Delhi areas following stone pelting in Jafarabad Sunday afternoon has so far claimed 42 lives and resulted in injuries to over 250 persons.

Khan also criticised the Delhi government and demanded it to double the compensation announced by it for the riot victims.

"The Delhi government has also not done its work properly. it's right they have announced some compensation but it is very less but it should be at least doubled," he said.

Khan also demanded resignation of Union Home minister Amit Shah for the "failure" of the Delhi Police to stop violence.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday announced that Delhi government will give Rs 10 lakh to the families of those who lost their lives in the communal violence in northeast Delhi. Those seriously injured will get Rs 2 lakh, and Rs 2500 will be given to those whose houses were torched.

In a statement issued by the speakers of the press conference, also addressed by Anil Chamadia, Prashant Tandon, Niaz Faruqui among others, demanded the arrest of those spreading hate and inciting violence.

They also demanded the Centre to provide jobs to the family members of those killed in the violence and compensate and financially help those who were injured and lost their means of livelihood and property.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
ITB Berlin cancelled because of Coronavirus

The travel fair ITB in Berlin is cancelled due to the novel corona virus. A spokesman for the fair told the German Press Agency on Friday.

 dpa

The fair ITB was to open its doors in the capital from 4 to 8 March 2020. In the days and weeks before, more and more exhibitors had registered, not only from China. However, the exhibition management had continued to hold on to the ITB. The fair was already fully booked.

According to the trade fair company, the responsible public health department in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf has greatly increased requirements. "Among other things, the authority orders: Every trade fair participant must prove to Messe Berlin that they do not come from the defined risk areas or have had contact with a person from the risk areas," Messe Berlin announced. "The overall conditions cannot be implemented by Messe Berlin."

Of the 10,000 exhibitors expected from all over the world, 22 would have come from China and 25 others from Hong Kong and Taiwan. The organizers originally expected about 160,000 visitors, but had lowered their expectations somewhat in the days before due to the virus.

 dpa Coronavirus: How to protect yourself Wash your hands, keep your distance, sneeze properly: Anyone can do something to reduce the risk of infection with the coronavirus Covid-19. more

 dpa Still no cases of coronavirus in Berlin Even after the coronavirus outbreak in Italy no cases have been detected in Berlin so far. This was announced by the spokeswoman of the Senate Health Administration, Lena Hogemann, on February 24, 2020. more
New Delhi, Feb 28 : Using facial recognition technology the Intelligence Bureau and Delhi Police will be checking veracity of detained rioters hailing from Uttar Pradesh, and this will be on priority, as directed by the Centre in the probe into the Delhi riot cases.

Following the central government directives, a detailed action plan has been prepared by the crack team of the IB and Delhi Police.

According to this plan reviewed by IANS: "A complete inventory to be prepared by Delhi Police with assistance of Intelligence Bureau on incidents about violation/breach of law and order in recent past (February 22, 2020)." The second most important point is that separate FIRs should be registered in each case, along with relevant details like person killed/injured, vehicle burnt/damaged ans property destroyed and so on.

"If accused are identified, their name should be specifically included," it stated.

It further stated: "By March 1, 2020, old videography should be collected from all the sources and inventorised with date and location using face recognition technology. Thereafter cases to be registered against rioters." The action plan stressed the Delhi Police should arrests 10 to 25 person, who have been seen using country made pistols or other weapons.

The plan also mentioned extensive meeting to be carried out between both the communities, collection of forensic evidences and recording of witnesses statements.

It further stated that a detailed report on the status of these action points would be sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs every day.

Delhi Police headed by Commissioner Amulya Patnaik and Intelligence Bureau Wing responsible for Delhi headed by Joint Director Vikram Thakur came under fire from all the quarters after they failed to guage the situation after the violence erupted on February 23 evening.

Delhi Police lost Head Constable Ratan Lal, who was killed by rioters. Deputy Commissioner of Police Amit Sharma still is under going treatment after he was mobbed by rioters and death.

Intelligence Bureau official Ankit Sharma was brutally stabbed multiple times to death during the riots that continued for four days.

Government has stated that 43 people have lost their lives in the riot incidents. The toll was expected to rise further.
Turkey will no longer close its border gates to refugees who want to go to Europe, a senior official told AFP on Friday, shortly after the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an airstrike in northern Syria. "We will no longer keep the doors closed for refugees who want to go to Europe," the official said on condition of anonymity. Nearly 300 migrants including Syrians have already arrived in Edirne province on the border with Greece in a bid to go to Europe, the private DHA news agency reported. Another group of migrants arrived on the coast of Ayvacik in Canakkale, western Turkey, and wanted to go to the Greek island of Lesbos by boats, it reported. The killing of Turkish soldiers in Idlib after an air strike blamed on Damascus has prompted an emergency meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey, which is already home to around 3.6 million Syrian refugees, fears more people arriving in the country where there is growing popular discontent against their presence. In a series of tweets, Erdogan's top press aide, Fahrettin Altun, accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of "conducting ethnic cleansing" and seeking to drive millions of Syrians out of Idlib. "These people will try to escape to Turkey and Europe. Already hosting close to 4 million refugees, we do not have the capacity and resources to allow entry to another million," he wrote. Greece and its EU partners also fear another influx of refugees from Syria after more than one million made their way there in 2015 before an EU-Turkey accord was reached on controlling the numbers.
American Legion Post 2011 was formed in 2019 and is named after Army Pfc. Michael C. Olivieri, of Homer Glen, who died in Iraq in 2011. The post meets at 7 p.m. every third Monday of the month.
The White House is now insisting that all scientific and government-health related communication about the cdc be routed through the Trump administration before going public. And that person in charge of this communication funnel? Vice President Mike Pence, who as a governor previously took his sweet-ass time doing anything to address a major HIV outbreak in Scott County, Indiana.

From The New York Times:

The White House moved on Thursday to tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to coordinate all statements and public appearance with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, according to several officials familiar with the new approach. [] Officials insist the goal is not to control the content of what subject-matter experts and other officials are saying, but to make sure their efforts are being coordinated, after days of confusion with various administration officials showing up on television. And they say they are not focused on specific news releases rather with a streamlined effort around television appearances.

The instinct to try and control epidemic news isn't necessarily bad if it's in good faith. People can panic and make bad decisions when they're scared, which can also make it easier for predatory conmen to exploit that fear for profit. Scared and panicked people could potentially overwhelm medical services out of paranoia, preventing people who are actually infected with the condition from getting the help they need. Hell, I can even understand why my own doctor lied to me about swine flu. ("You have a viral infection," he told me, after 5 straight days of vomit, diarrhea, and fever. Yeah no shit.)

Unfortunately, there's little reason to take this disaster response in good faith. And considering what happened to the late Doctor Li Wenliang, who literally died because the Chinese government was trying to control the flow of information relating to coronavirusthere's very good reason to be skeptical about the potential problems of Pence's pandemic information filter.

Pence Will Control All Coronavirus Messaging From Health Officials [Michael D. Shear and Maggie Haberman / New York Times]

Pence's New Coronavirus Role Raises Questions About His Public Health Record [Miles Park / NPR]

Image: Gage Skidmore (CC 2.0)
(Natural News) The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has claimed another victim  the honey industry.

Travel restrictions have been enacted across China, as a preventive measure against the spread of the new, dreaded disease. The restrictions, which some have decried as hardcore, include sealing off roads and implementing approval systems for interregional transportation. Other containment measures include shutting down public spaces and barring residents from leaving their homes.

According to beekeepers, the travel restrictions have prevented them from carrying their hives and bee colonies to the countrys southwestern provinces where the bees usually feed during this time of the year.

As a result, beekeepers like Mo Jiakai are seeing their colonies starve. Mo noted that the recent travel bans have prevented him and his wife  as well as other beekeepers in their area  from bringing their bees to their feeding grounds.

We would have to go into quarantine for 14 days upon our arrival, which means the hives would be left to starve and die, said Mo, who has been in the beekeeping business for more than two decades.

Zhang Miaoyan, a beekeeper from Zhejiang Province, shares the same sentiments, adding that her bees have been starving for over 20 days.

We beekeepers always say that we are in a bitter-sweet business. But this year, probably it is all bitterness, Zhang said.

Zhangs statement carries a sting with it, as it has been reported that Liu Decheng, a beekeeper from Sichuan province, had killed himself after his bees died of starvation due to the recently instituted travel restrictions.

Mo, Zhang and the late Liu are among the roughly 300,000 commercial beekeepers in China, many of whom have been struggling to keep their businesses afloat in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

China has over nine million managed bee colonies, which produce about 500,000 tons of honey annually  about a fourth of the global output. Of that, it exports roughly 100,000 tons to places such as the United States and Europe, as well as other Asian nations. (Related: Bee warfare: Domesticated honey bees spread viruses on plants, driving wild bumblebees to extinction.)

The central Chinese government, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Transport, as well as the National Development and Reform Commission, has asked local government units in the provinces to minimize disruptions to their agricultural sector, pertaining to the transportation of animal feed, livestock and bees. However, its implementation has been slow.

In a bid to help the embattled beekeepers, the Apicultural Science Association of China has urged beekeepers to contact local authorities if they need to move or arrange feeding trips.

In addition to disrupting the honey industry, the series of travel bans are also affecting other crops, specifically those that are heavily dependent on bees for their pollination.

Currently, out of the 100 crops that make up about 90 percent of the food eaten around the world, 71 rely on bees for reproduction. This is according to data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Association.

This figure includes about 85 percent of the fruits produced in China, such as apples, oranges and grapes.

The honeybee plays an irreplaceable role in growing almonds, pears and peaches as well as strawberries in greenhouses, said Wu Jie, former director of the Institute of Apicultural Research under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, adding that the production and quality of fruit would be lower without these beneficial insects.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

SixthTone.com

SCMP.com
Bradley Cooper and Rooney Mara were photographed in full costume, alongside Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro, while filming the classic 1947 film Nightmare Alley.

The 45-year-old A Star is Born actor looked smitten in a black fedora and mustache, while shooting in Buffalo, New York on Thursday, just one day after the city issued a winter storm warning.

On Wednesday morning the National Weather Service issued caution to western New York, predicting 5 to 9 inches of snow.

Old-fashioned: Bradley Cooper, 45, looked smitten in a black fedora and mustache, while shooting in Buffalo, New York on Thursday, just one day after the city issued a winter storm warning

Despite the majority film being shot in Toronto, the town has been vocal about their excitement over the cast and crew's arrival and WKBW reported Cooper, del Toro, and crew members enjoyed Italian food in downtown Buffalo their first night.

Cooper, who stars alongside Cate Blanchett in the flick set for a 2021 release, channeled an old-school look for the thriller in a dapper three-piece suit and paisley tie, while playing a corrupt con-man.

Marawho, who portrays a young carnival worker named Molly, looked exceptionally beautiful in a long red coat, matching hat, gold broach and her brown tresses in loose waves.

Leading man: Cooper, who stars alongside Cate Blanchett in the flick set for a 2021 release, channeled an old-school look for the thriller in a dapper three-piece suit, while playing a corrupt con-man

Red hot: Marawho, plays the young carnival worker Molly, looked exceptionally beautiful in a long red coat, matching hat and her brown tresses in loose waves

del Toro, the visionary director behind classics like Pan's Labyrinth and The Shape Of Water, wore a grey Gucci scarf, green zip-up hoodie and black overcoat, while departing the set.

Last month, the cast was spotted together for the first time shooting scenes in Canada.

The IMDb synopsis for Nightmare Alley reads, 'A corrupt con-man teams up with a female psychiatrist to trick people into giving them money.'

Thriller: The IMDb synopsis for Nightmare Alley reads, 'A corrupt con-man teams up with a female psychiatrist to trick people into giving them money'

The original film starred Tyrone Power in the lead role of Stan Carlisle, who will be played in the remake by Cooper.

This is in fact the third film in which Cate and Rooney will appear together; in addition to 2015's Carol, for which they were both nominated for Academy Awards, the pair of thespians also starred in Terrence Malick's Song To Song in 2017.

Cooper swiped the role from Leonardo DiCaprio, after the Titanic star failed to 'close the deal' according to THR.
Representative image

Maadhav Poddar

Infrastructure Investment Trusts (InvITs) and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) together called as Business Trusts are pooling vehicles which raise long-term funds from investors; use such funds to acquire stable yielding infrastructure and real estate assets; manage such assets, and compulsorily distribute the cash-flows from such assets to the investors.



Completed and operational asset



Long term revenue contracts



Minimal operations once completed



A relatively stable revenue curve



Unlike a listed company which has an operating business and provides returns based on growth, Business Trusts provide long-term and stable yields. Typically, the assets that go into a Business Trust include commercial yielding real estates such as offices, malls, power plants, roads, ports, gas pipelines, gas distribution networks, transmission lines, telecom towers, and optic fibre cables among others which exhibit the following features:

If one were to look at the universe of investors, inter alia, there are equity investors and yield investors. Equity investors are interested in growth up-side, high IRRs and willing to take high-risk while yield investors are interested in long-term and stable yields with low-risk.

Typical yield investors are pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices. The hypothesis is that once an asset is stabilised and is giving regular yields, there is no potential for significant growth in future and hence equity investors would no longer value such an asset. As against this, a yield investor would be interested in owning such an asset.

Similarly, if one were to look at developers, asset developers identify and conceptualise the opportunity, undertake greenfield development of asset (or brownfield acquisition), stabilise the asset and its revenue streams and then exit such assets to investors interested in yield providing assets.

The funds and resources which the developer blocked for acquisition or development of the asset gets released (with an embedded return) on exit and gives the developer the ability to recycle capital and develop more assets. Business Trusts were introduced in India in 2014 to address this funding gap and attract long-term global capital to fund real estate and infrastructure assets in India.

The Business Trust is a trust registered under the Indian Trusts Act and owns the shares and debt of the special purpose vehicles (SPVs) which in-turn owns the infrastructure/real estate asset. There can be multiple such SPVs (each owning a separate asset) under a Business Trust. The sponsor is akin to a promoter in a company.

The governance is undertaken through a combination of unit-holders, trustee, investment manager and documents governing the Business Trust. The SPV is mandatorily required to distribute 90 percent of its free cash-flows to the Business Trust which in-turn is also mandatorily required to distribute 90 percent of its free cash-flows to its unit-holders. The units are listed on a stock exchange and are freely tradable.

Globally such vehicles and their investors are subject to a single layer of taxation based on the rationale that the tax in the structure should be equal to the tax, had the asset been owned by the investor directly rather than through the structure. USA, UK, Japan, Australia and Singapore have a developed capital market for Business Trusts and in all these jurisdictions, tax is only levied once  when the unit-holder (i.e. investor) gets returns from the Business Trust. In other words, there are no taxes at the asset level or through the chain of distribution to unit-holders.

In India, the tax landscape on Business Trusts has been evolving since 2014. In 2014, a tax deferral was provided to Sponsors for transferring the shares of SPV to Business Trusts in consideration for units.

The point of taxation was deferred until the date of sale of units. In 2015 inter alia (i) a similar deferral for minimum alternate tax (MAT) was introduced and (ii) capital gains on the sale of units was accorded a beneficial tax regime akin to listed shares. In 2016, the dividend distribution tax exemption was provided at the SPV level.

With the changes in 2016, the Indian tax system for Business Trusts became largely consistent with the global system of levying single layer of tax i.e. corporate tax or MAT at the SPV level (asset level) and then the distributions were not subject to tax either through the chain of distribution or in the hands of the unit-holders where the same was in the nature of dividend.

Post-2016, India has seen hectic activity and more than Rs 24,000 crore has been raised through five listed InvITS and one listed REIT. Last few months have seen several new announcements, such as a renewable energy trust by Piramal Group and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, road InvIT by Cube Highways, REIT by Raheja Developers and telecom asset InvIT by Reliance Industries. Large public sector utilities (PSUs) such as PowerGrid Corporation (PGCIL), Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) are also at advanced stages of exploring/setting up InvITs for raising large amounts of capital.

However, the recent finance bill proposes to introduce a tax on dividends declared by a Business Trust at the unitholder level, creating two levels of taxation and jeopardising any new fundraise by infrastructure and real estate companies. Assuming 100 of PBT, the yield to an investor in the existing tax regime is 74.83, which in the proposed tax regime, will reduce to 42.85 in case of a resident individual, 56 in case of a resident company and 58.49 in case of a foreign company.

This takes away the very attractiveness of such Business Trusts. The objective of the Business Trust (unlike a company) is to make sure that annuity income is distributed to investors. To enable this, a tax exemption on dividends was accorded to Business Trust, subject to conditions. By taking away the exemption on tax on dividends, the Business Trust is being treated at par with the company and will no longer be attractive for yield investors to hold infrastructure and real estate assets.

Any change with the tax regime at this stage would send a very negative signal to global and local investors. It would create a perception of India having an uncertain policy regime  introducing a concept and then moving the goal-post in four to five years when the concept has just started gaining popularity.

This is even more so since investors have already made significant investments and commitments. It is important to keep in mind that these are long term patient investors with a horizon of 20-25 years or more. Therefore, if India wants to attract long-term and patient global capital, then it should have a stable and certain policy regime which supports the same.

From a timing perspective, we are at the cusp of attracting a significant amount of capital through Business Trusts into real estate and infrastructure assets in India. There are successful precedents available and the global investor community has become comfortable with the concept. All the factors are perfectly poised for Business Trusts to become a very successful story for India.

In the interest of making India competitive and attractive for long-term global equity capital, enhancing the depth of Indias capital markets and helping the Government achieve its target of making India a $5 trillion economy, the industry requests that the government restores the tax exemption on dividend income in case of unit-holders of Business Trusts.

The author is a Tax Partner  Real Estate practice, EY India

Views expressed are personal
REDDING, Calif. - A new bill hopes to alleviate meth addiction in California.

San Francisco Senator Scott Wiener introduced this bill hoping to combat the growing meth addiction in California. Senate Bill 888 would give cash rewards to meth addicts who are able to stay clean and sober. But meth addiction can target anyone.

It encompasses all socioeconomic backgrounds it doesn't matter, said Dwayne Dore, a substance counselor with Groups Recovery.

But experts say, there are still too many factors to consider.

Is their family or support group stable, do they have a job, are they living in a place that's going to support their recovery process, said Dore.

According to the Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency, in 2018 there were 24 meth-related deaths. While in 2019, there 17 meth-related deaths, which is a 29% decrease.

In Tehama County, health officials say 33% of their clients reported meth as their drug of choice. An additional 38% said it was their secondary drug. But health experts believe the bill is a short-term solution.

I think that incentive might in the moment, get them to be able to stay clean and sober, but I dont think it's a long term solution, said Marcella Johnson, a substance abuse counselor.

Johnson added, I think people will tend to fall back in old patterns of behavior.

Experts say, it takes more than money to fight meth addiction.

I dont think you can just throw money at someone who's suffered from a meth disorder and say this is the incentive, said Dore.

Action News Now spoke with people in Redding, and they believe it isnt a good idea to give money as a reward.

They could also take that money and buy drugs as well, especially with how addictive drugs are, said Redding resident Emory Harrison.

Experts say, theres no medication for meth addiction. They say the best way to fight the addiction is through behavior therapy.

Money for the incentives would come through MediCal and extend into contingency services.
Description

GIS  28 February, 2020: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for collaboration between the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) was signed, yesterday, at Hilton Mauritius Resort & Spa, in Flic en Flac. The MoU sets out a framework for cooperation between the two institutions in areas of common interest where collaboration is essential for the performance of both regulators.

The signature ceremony was preceded by the inauguration of a three-day international conference of the International Organisation of Pension Supervisors (IOPS). The theme of the conference is Financial and governance issues in private pension schemes, and the following topics are being discussed: market trends and supervisory challenges; dealing with underfunded defined benefit pension schemes; and, improving governance of private pension funds.

The event, hosted jointly by the FSC and the IOPS, is bringing together international delegates representing some of the 80-member countries of IOPS. The Minister of Financial Services and Good Governance, Mr Mahen Kumar Seeruttun; the Vice Chairperson of the FSC, Mr Rajesh Ramloll; the Deputy Chair of the APRA, Ms Helen Rowell; and IOPSs Secretary General, OECD Senior Counsellor and Special Financial Advisor to the G20 Sherpa, Mr Andre Laboul, were present.

In his inaugural address, Minister Seeruttun reiterated Governments commitment in maintaining a fair, safe, stable and efficient private pension industry in Mauritius, which promotes confidence and stability in the financial sector which, in turn, goes a long way in maintaining the countrys good repute as an International Financial Centre.

According to him, it is important that pension funds are properly administered and managed to ensure the sustainable growth of the pensions industry and to overcome the challenges of an evolving market environment.

Speaking about Mauritiuss multi-pillar retirement protection model, the Mr Seeruttun stated that the structure in place in the country consists of a mix of both public and private retirement systems with responsibilities shared among the State, employers, and employees. In this respect, last year, Government had introduced the Portability Retirement Gratuity Fund by enactment of the Workers Rights Act, he pointed out.

In addition, the Minister reiterated the vital role played by regulators in building trust in the pensions industry. Not only are pension funds one of the largest institutional investors and important players in the quest of future economic growth, but those who have worked hard and saved for their future retirement in these pension funds, must have confidence in the regulatory system and trust that their schemes are well managed and protected, he added.

FSC and IOPS

It is recalled that the FSC is the regulator of the non-bank financial services sector and global business in Mauritius. The Commission is also a governing member of the IOPS since 2005 and actively participates in the annual IOPS and OECD events.

Created in July 2004, the IOPS was instigated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Network of Pension Regulators and Controllers (INPRS).

The main mission of this independent body is to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the supervision of pension plans. It aims at further improving their development and operational efficiency while allowing for the provision of a secure source of income in as many countries as possible. In this context, regulators from around the world meet on a regular basis to discuss their respective regulatory frameworks and, when relevant, harmonise them.
Is The Heavitree Brewery PLC (LON:HVTA) a good dividend stock? How can we tell? Dividend paying companies with growing earnings can be highly rewarding in the long term. If you are hoping to live on your dividends, it's important to be more stringent with your investments than the average punter. Regular readers know we like to apply the same approach to each dividend stock, and we hope you'll find our analysis useful.

In this case, Heavitree Brewery likely looks attractive to investors, given its 3.6% dividend yield and a payment history of over ten years. It would not be a surprise to discover that many investors buy it for the dividends. During the year, the company also conducted a buyback equivalent to around 1.7% of its market capitalisation. When buying stocks for their dividends, you should always run through the checks below, to see if the dividend looks sustainable.

Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on Heavitree Brewery!

AIM:HVTA Historical Dividend Yield, February 28th 2020

Payout ratios

Dividends are usually paid out of company earnings. If a company is paying more than it earns, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Comparing dividend payments to a company's net profit after tax is a simple way of reality-checking whether a dividend is sustainable. In the last year, Heavitree Brewery paid out 25% of its profit as dividends. Given the low payout ratio, it is hard to envision the dividend coming under threat, barring a catastrophe.

Another important check we do is to see if the free cash flow generated is sufficient to pay the dividend. Heavitree Brewery paid out a conservative 34% of its free cash flow as dividends last year. It's encouraging to see that the dividend is covered by both profit and cash flow. This generally suggests the dividend is sustainable, as long as earnings don't drop precipitously.

Is Heavitree Brewery's Balance Sheet Risky?

As Heavitree Brewery has a meaningful amount of debt, we need to check its balance sheet to see if the company might have debt risks. A quick check of its financial situation can be done with two ratios: net debt divided by EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), and net interest cover. Net debt to EBITDA measures total debt load relative to company earnings (lower = less debt), while net interest cover measures the ability to pay interest on the debt (higher = greater ability to pay interest costs). With net debt of 2.91 times its EBITDA, Heavitree Brewery has a noticeable amount of debt, although if business stays steady, this may not be overly concerning.

Story continues

We calculated its interest cover by measuring its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), and dividing this by the company's net interest expense. Net interest cover of 10.22 times its interest expense appears reasonable for Heavitree Brewery, although we're conscious that even high interest cover doesn't make a company bulletproof.

Remember, you can always get a snapshot of Heavitree Brewery's latest financial position, by checking our visualisation of its financial health.

Dividend Volatility

Before buying a stock for its income, we want to see if the dividends have been stable in the past, and if the company has a track record of maintaining its dividend. Heavitree Brewery has been paying dividends for a long time, but for the purpose of this analysis, we only examine the past 10 years of payments. The dividend has been stable over the past 10 years, which is great. We think this could suggest some resilience to the business and its dividends. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was UK0.07 in 2010, compared to UK0.079 last year. Dividends per share have grown at approximately 1.2% per year over this time.

Dividends have grown relatively slowly, which is not great, but some investors may value the relative consistency of the dividend.

Dividend Growth Potential

Dividend payments have been consistent over the past few years, but we should always check if earnings per share (EPS) are growing, as this will help maintain the purchasing power of the dividend. Earnings have grown at around 2.7% a year for the past five years, which is better than seeing them shrink! As we saw above, earnings per share growth has not been strong. However, the payout ratio is low, and some companies can deliver adequate dividend performance simply by increasing the payout ratio.

Conclusion

When we look at a dividend stock, we need to form a judgement on whether the dividend will grow, if the company is able to maintain it in a wide range of economic circumstances, and if the dividend payout is sustainable. It's great to see that Heavitree Brewery is paying out a low percentage of its earnings and cash flow. Second, earnings growth has been mediocre, but at least the dividends have been relatively stable. Overall we think Heavitree Brewery scores well on our analysis. It's not quite perfect, but we'd definitely be keen to take a closer look.

Now, if you want to look closer, it would be worth checking out our free research on Heavitree Brewery management tenure, salary, and performance.

Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our curated list of dividend stocks with a yield above 3%.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
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Bharat Book Bureau Provides the Trending Market Research Report on Global 3D Facial Recognition Market Size study, by Type, End-Use and Regional Forecasts 2019-2026under Information Technology Category. The report offers a collection of superior market research, market analysis, competitive intelligence and Market reports.

Global 3D Facial Recognition Market Size study, by Type (Hardware, Software Tools, Services) End-Use (Banking & Finance, Consumer Electronics, Government & Defense, Others) and Regional Forecasts 2019-2026

Global 3D Facial Recognition Market is valued approximately at USD XXX billion in 2018 and is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than XX % over the forecast period 2019-2026. The 3D facial recognition system is used to authenticate an individual by using 3D geometry of his/her face. 3D facial recognition utilizes facial contours to recognize and scrutinize various features in a human face, which are all unique and do not vary over time. Moreover, it has benefits over 2D facial recognition, such as ease in the detection of facial data from videos and 2D images and least affected with illumination issues. With the advancements in 3D facial recognition software and services, the application of facial recognition is expanding, especially in healthcare IT solutions, payments, and commerce sectors.

Request a free sample copy 3D Facial Recognition Market Report @

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Further, surging demand for robust fraud detection and prevention systems has led the adoption of 3D Facial Recognition across the forecast period. Also, rising number of users in both government and private organizations drives the market growth. Moreover, Government initiatives are anticipated to contribute to the expansion of such technologies. For instance, the US government intends to reshape airport security through facial recognition, to register and identify the visitors. However, Vulnerability to cyber-attacks and availability of advanced biometric readers acts as a major restraint for the 3D facial recognition market. Further, the development in 3D cameras market is also expected to bring advancement and new applications for 3D facial recognition technology is expected to fuel the demand for 3D Facial Recognitions.

The regional analysis of global 3D Facial Recognition market is considered for the key regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America and Rest of the World. North America is the leading/significant region across the world in terms of market share owing to the rapid adoption of new technology along with the presence of key market players in the region. Whereas, Asia-Pacific is also anticipated to exhibit highest growth rate / CAGR over the forecast period 2019-2026. Factors such as increasing population along with increasing government expenditure on public safety and national security concerns would create lucrative growth prospects for the 3D Facial Recognition market across Asia-Pacific region.

Major market player included in this report are:

3M Company

NEC Technologies

Aware, Inc

MorphoTrak Inc.

Animetrics

Daon

Ayonix

Cognitec Systems

Keylemon

nVISO Sarl

The objective of the study is to define market sizes of different segments & countries in recent years and to forecast the values to the coming eight years. The report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry within each of the regions and countries involved in the study.

Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as driving factors & challenges which will define the future growth of the market. Additionally, the report shall also incorporate available opportunities in micro markets for stakeholders to invest along with the detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product offerings of key players.

The detailed segments and sub-segment of the market are explained below:

By Type:

Hardware

Software Tools

Services

By End-Use:

Banking & Finance

Consumer Electronics

Government & Defense

Others

By Region:

North America

U.S.

Canada

Europe

UK

Germany

Asia Pacific

China

India

Japan

Latin America

Brazil

Mexico

Rest of the World

Furthermore, years considered for the study are as follows:

Historical year  2016, 2017

Base year  2018

Forecast period  2019 to 2026

Target Audience of the Global 3D Facial Recognition Market in Market Study:

Key Consulting Companies & Advisors

Large, medium-sized, and small enterprises

Venture capitalists

Value-Added Resellers (VARs)

Third-party knowledge providers

Investment bankers

Investor

Browse our full report with Table of Content : https://www.bharatbook.Bharat Book Bureau Provides the Trending Market Research Report on Global 3D Facial Recognition Market Size study, by Type, End-Use and Regional Forecasts 2019-2026under Information Technology Category. The report offers a collection of superior market research, market analysis, competitive intelligence and Market reports.

Global 3D Facial Recognition Market Size study, by Type (Hardware, Software Tools, Services) End-Use (Banking & Finance, Consumer Electronics, Government & Defense, Others) and Regional Forecasts 2019-2026

Global 3D Facial Recognition Market is valued approximately at USD XXX billion in 2018 and is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than XX % over the forecast period 2019-2026. The 3D facial recognition system is used to authenticate an individual by using 3D geometry of his/her face. 3D facial recognition utilizes facial contours to recognize and scrutinize various features in a human face, which are all unique and do not vary over time. Moreover, it has benefits over 2D facial recognition, such as ease in the detection of facial data from videos and 2D images and least affected with illumination issues. With the advancements in 3D facial recognition software and services, the application of facial recognition is expanding, especially in healthcare IT solutions, payments, and commerce sectors.

Request a free sample copy 3D Facial Recognition Market Report @

https://www.bharatbook.com/marketreports/sample/reports/2005456

Further, surging demand for robust fraud detection and prevention systems has led the adoption of 3D Facial Recognition across the forecast period. Also, rising number of users in both government and private organizations drives the market growth. Moreover, Government initiatives are anticipated to contribute to the expansion of such technologies. For instance, the US government intends to reshape airport security through facial recognition, to register and identify the visitors. However, Vulnerability to cyber-attacks and availability of advanced biometric readers acts as a major restraint for the 3D facial recognition market. Further, the development in 3D cameras market is also expected to bring advancement and new applications for 3D facial recognition technology is expected to fuel the demand for 3D Facial Recognitions.

The regional analysis of global 3D Facial Recognition market is considered for the key regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America and Rest of the World. North America is the leading/significant region across the world in terms of market share owing to the rapid adoption of new technology along with the presence of key market players in the region. Whereas, Asia-Pacific is also anticipated to exhibit highest growth rate / CAGR over the forecast period 2019-2026. Factors such as increasing population along with increasing government expenditure on public safety and national security concerns would create lucrative growth prospects for the 3D Facial Recognition market across Asia-Pacific region.

Major market player included in this report are:

3M Company

NEC Technologies

Aware, Inc

MorphoTrak Inc.

Animetrics

Daon

Ayonix

Cognitec Systems

Keylemon

nVISO Sarl

The objective of the study is to define market sizes of different segments & countries in recent years and to forecast the values to the coming eight years. The report is designed to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the industry within each of the regions and countries involved in the study.

Furthermore, the report also caters the detailed information about the crucial aspects such as driving factors & challenges which will define the future growth of the market. Additionally, the report shall also incorporate available opportunities in micro markets for stakeholders to invest along with the detailed analysis of competitive landscape and product offerings of key players.

The detailed segments and sub-segment of the market are explained below:

By Type:

Hardware

Software Tools

Services

By End-Use:

Banking & Finance

Consumer Electronics

Government & Defense

Others

By Region:

North America

U.S.

Canada

Europe

UK

Germany

Asia Pacific

China

India

Japan

Latin America

Brazil

Mexico

Rest of the World

Furthermore, years considered for the study are as follows:

Historical year  2016, 2017

Base year  2018

Forecast period  2019 to 2026

Target Audience of the Global 3D Facial Recognition Market in Market Study:

Key Consulting Companies & Advisors

Large, medium-sized, and small enterprises

Venture capitalists

Value-Added Resellers (VARs)

Third-party knowledge providers

Investment bankers

Investor

Browse our full report with Table of Content : https://www.bharatbook.com/marketreports/global-3d-facial-recognition-market-size-study-by-type-end-use-and-regional-forecasts-2019-2026/2005456

About Bharat Book Bureau:

Bharat Book is Your One-Stop-Shop with an exhaustive coverage of 4,80,000 reports and insights that includes latest Market Study, Market Trends & Analysis, Forecasts Customized Intelligence, Newsletters and Online Databases. Overall a comprehensive coverage of major industries with a further segmentation of 100+ subsectors.

Contact us at:

Bharat Book Bureau

Tel: +91 22 27810772 / 27810773

Email: poonam@bharatbook.com

Website: www.bharatbook.comcom/marketreports/global-3d-facial-recognition-market-size-study-by-type-end-use-and-regional-forecasts-2019-2026/2005456

About Bharat Book Bureau:

Bharat Book is Your One-Stop-Shop with an exhaustive coverage of 4,80,000 reports and insights that includes latest Market Study, Market Trends & Analysis, Forecasts Customized Intelligence, Newsletters and Online Databases. Overall a comprehensive coverage of major industries with a further segmentation of 100+ subsectors.

Contact us at:

Bharat Book Bureau

Tel: +91 22 27810772 / 27810773

Email: poonam@bharatbook.com

Website: www.bharatbook.com
Respivant also announces 50% enrollment milestone achieved in SCENIC, a Phase 2b Trial of RVT-1601 for the Treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF)

Respivant Sciences, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing new therapies for patients with rare respiratory diseases, today announced its support of Rare Disease Day on February 29, 2020 with a series of events meant to observe and recognize advancements in the field of rare diseases and to support and strengthen patient communities. Respivant joins forces with more than 25 million Americans living with a rare disease and health care advocates around the world to elevate public understanding of rare diseases and call attention to the special challenges these people face.

Respivant also announced it has achieved an important milestone in the SCENIC trial, a Phase 2b study of RVT-1601 for the treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). Respivant has enrolled 50% of the total 180 patients targeted for SCENIC. RVT-1601 is an inhaled mast cell stabilizer with pleiotropic immune modulating activity being developed by Respivant for IPF that has received orphan drug designation by the FDA.

"Respivant is committed to making a difference for rare disease communities by supporting innovative drug development that improves the lives of people living with rare diseases, including Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis," said Bill Gerhart, CEO of Respivant Sciences. "Participation in activities such as Rare Disease Day, by engaging with the communities and the families we aim to serve, helps us deliver on our mission of developing life-changing medicines for people with rare respiratory conditions where few options, if any, exist."

In support of International Rare Disease Day, Respivant is participating in the following activities:

Charlene Marshall, who is living with IPF in Toronto, will visit with Respivant employees at their headquarters in San Diego. She will share her personal challenges with IPF and inspirational words relating to patients' quest for a cure.

Employees will observe the day by wearing Rare Disease Day pins from Global Genes as well as rubber bracelets from the Breathe Support Network.

Respivant participated in the NORD Show Your Stripes Challenge, sharing in the creative energy of millions of people around the world with rare diseases and the millions who care about them to raise awareness and generate action.

Respivant sponsored a webinar produced by the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation to educate and increase awareness of the often-debilitating impact of cough on IPF patients.

Respivant attended the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation's 10 th annual fund raiser "Belts for Broadway" in New York this week.

annual fund raiser "Belts for Broadway" in New York this week. Respivant launched a social media campaign on Twitter, on Facebook, and on LinkedIn to promote awareness of Rare Disease Day generally, as well as IPF specifically.

For additional activities taking place in the US and abroad, please visit the Rare Disease Day 2020 event pages on the EURORDIS and NORD websites.

About IPF

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive lung disease characterized by scarring (fibrosis) of the lung for unknown (idiopathic) reasons. Chronic inflammation associated with pulmonary fibrosis contributes to disease progression and also hypersensitizes cough receptors. Approximately 75% of people with IPF experience a persistent, hard-to-treat, dry chronic cough, which for many can be the single most debilitating aspect of this disease. There are two approved drugs that have the demonstrated potential to slow progression of IPF; however, neither drug reduces cough nor otherwise improves quality of life. For more information, please visit www.ipfcough.com.

About RVT-1601 and the SCENIC Trial

RVT-1601 is an inhaled mast cell stabilizer with pleiotropic immune modulating activity delivered via a hand-held, silent, electronic nebulizer (eFlow). Delivery of RVT-1601 directly to the lungs of pulmonary fibrosis patients is believed to be the most effective way to treat pulmonary fibrosis. Preclinical animal studies demonstrate the significant role chronic inflammation plays in the progression of fibrosis and the potential for RVT-1601 to be anti-fibrotic. Also, a Phase 2a clinical trial in IPF patients demonstrated the potential for RVT-1601 (formerly PA-101) to significantly reduce cough due to IPF and improve quality of life. Importantly, RVT-1601 was well-tolerated in this study, with a safety profile comparable to placebo.

SCENIC is a large, global Phase 2b clinical trial designed to:

Confirm the results of the Phase 2a trial

Select the appropriate dose for a Phase 3 clinical trial

Evaluate the potential of RVT-1601 to slow progression of the underlying IPF disease

For more information about the SCENIC Trial, please visit www.SCENICtrial.com.

About Respivant

Respivant Sciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of Roivant Sciences, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing new therapies for patients with rare respiratory diseases. Respivant leverages the Roivant platform to develop therapies that address high unmet medical needs while driving greater efficiency in research, clinical development, and commercialization. Respivant is currently conducting a Phase 2b study of RVT-1601 to assess its potential to treat IPF. For more information, please visit www.respivant.com

About Roivant

Roivant Sciences aims to improve health by rapidly delivering innovative medicines and technologies to patients. It does this by building Vants nimble, entrepreneurial biotech and healthcare technology companies with a unique approach to sourcing talent, aligning incentives, and deploying technology to drive greater efficiency in R&D and commercialization. For more information, please visit www.roivant.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005101/en/

Contacts:

Will Zasadny

Canale Communications

will@canalecomm.com

619-961-8848
Nigeria on Friday announced the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa.

"The case is an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and returned from Milan, Italy to Lagos, Nigeria on the 25th of February 2020," Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said in a statement on Twitter.

"The patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos."

Prior to the case in Nigeria, just two cases had surfaced across all of Africa -- in Egypt and in Algeria -- a tally that had puzzled health specialists, given the continent's close economic ties with China.

The World Health Organization warned earlier this week that African health systems were ill-equipped to respond to the deadly coronavirus outbreak should cases start to proliferate on the continent.

(AFP)
SEVEN South Korean nationals are unaccounted for in Cebu after surveillance officials failed to find them in hotels named in their entry cards.

They either moved to another hotel or left Cebu, or they falsified information in their health declaration cards, local officials said Friday, Feb. 28, 2020.

The seven were among 26 South Korean nationals who arrived on Tuesday, Feb. 25, from Daegu, North Gyeongsang province, South Korea, where there has been a rise in cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).The Philippines ordered a ban on travel from North Gyeongsang on Wednesday. The 26 apparently cleared health screening at the airport.

Department of Health (DOH) 7 Director Jaime Bernadas said Friday surveillance officials failed to trace the seven foreigners because they were not in the hotel they mentioned in their health declaration card.

We located them (the group) based on records of the immigration and quarantine (offices), Bernadas said. But when they were identifying them one by one, we were informed that some of them were nowhere to be found in the addressess that were provided in the declaration. So thats the problem now that we are facing, Bernadas said.

Upon learning this, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, who was meeting with Bernadas, ordered the police Friday to monitor the hotels. Its because of this that I gave the order to immediately see to it that the remaining 19 who are on self-quarantine will be placed on mandatory quarantine with the PNP expected to monitor and keep a round-the-clock surveillance of the hotels where they are located. They (South Korean nationals) can stay in the hotel room or go back to Korea, Garcia said.

The 19 South Korean nationals on self-quarantine in hotels in Cebu and Lapu-Lapu cities are aged six to 56. They are to undergo 14 days of self-quarantine in their hotel rooms.

Garcia said this incident shows the need to revise health declaration cards that arriving passengers have to fill before clearing the airport. Any false declaration in the card will be subject to a fine of P5,000 or imprisonment for one year as stated in the Provinces Ordinance 2020-02, the governor said.

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Bernadas remained confident the remaining seven foreign visitors would be traced. They could have left Cebu or the country already or moved to another hotel, he added.

The DOH 7 head also asked the help of the South Korean consulate here to locate them.

In Mandaue City where five South Korean nationals are being monitored, City Health Office chief Rose Marie Ouano-Tirado said the five are on 14-day quarantine. Mayor Jonas Cortes, for his part, said he supports the travel ban to and from North Gyeongsang, South Korea, as a preventive measure against the Covid-19.

The World Health Organization said the novel coronavirus infection has spread to 37 countries outside China, where the virus originated.

But, the DOH in Manila said, the Philippines is among the nine countries in the world with no new cases of Covid-19 for more than two weeks.

As of Feb. 28, the Philippines only has three confirmed cases of Covid-19. One of the three confirmed cases, a 44-year-old Chinese man, died due to severe pneumonia.

The DOH also reported that as of 12 p.m. Friday, at least 30 patients have been placed under investigation for the disease, while 585 patients have already been discharged. A total of 531 patients have tested negative for the new virus. (ANV, KFD / SunStar Philippines)
Today we'll take a closer look at MDU Resources Group, Inc. (NYSE:MDU) from a dividend investor's perspective. Owning a strong business and reinvesting the dividends is widely seen as an attractive way of growing your wealth. If you are hoping to live on the income from dividends, it's important to be a lot more stringent with your investments than the average punter.

A slim 2.8% yield is hard to get excited about, but the long payment history is respectable. At the right price, or with strong growth opportunities, MDU Resources Group could have potential. When buying stocks for their dividends, you should always run through the checks below, to see if the dividend looks sustainable.

Explore this interactive chart for our latest analysis on MDU Resources Group!

NYSE:MDU Historical Dividend Yield, February 28th 2020

Payout ratios

Dividends are typically paid from company earnings. If a company pays more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. As a result, we should always investigate whether a company can afford its dividend, measured as a percentage of a company's net income after tax. MDU Resources Group paid out 48% of its profit as dividends, over the trailing twelve month period. This is a medium payout level that leaves enough capital in the business to fund opportunities that might arise, while also rewarding shareholders. One of the risks is that management reinvests the retained capital poorly instead of paying a higher dividend.

We also measure dividends paid against a company's levered free cash flow, to see if enough cash was generated to cover the dividend. Unfortunately, while MDU Resources Group pays a dividend, it also reported negative free cash flow last year. While there may be a good reason for this, it's not ideal from a dividend perspective.

Is MDU Resources Group's Balance Sheet Risky?

As MDU Resources Group has a meaningful amount of debt, we need to check its balance sheet to see if the company might have debt risks. A rough way to check this is with these two simple ratios: a) net debt divided by EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), and b) net interest cover. Net debt to EBITDA is a measure of a company's total debt. Net interest cover measures the ability to meet interest payments. Essentially we check that a) the company does not have too much debt, and b) that it can afford to pay the interest. MDU Resources Group has net debt of 2.96 times its EBITDA. Using debt can accelerate business growth, but also increases the risks.

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We calculated its interest cover by measuring its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), and dividing this by the company's net interest expense. With EBIT of 4.86 times its interest expense, MDU Resources Group's interest cover is starting to look a bit thin.

Consider getting our latest analysis on MDU Resources Group's financial position here.

Dividend Volatility

Before buying a stock for its income, we want to see if the dividends have been stable in the past, and if the company has a track record of maintaining its dividend. MDU Resources Group has been paying dividends for a long time, but for the purpose of this analysis, we only examine the past 10 years of payments. During this period the dividend has been stable, which could imply the business could have relatively consistent earnings power. During the past ten-year period, the first annual payment was US$0.62 in 2010, compared to US$0.83 last year. This works out to be a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 3.0% a year over that time.

Dividends have grown relatively slowly, which is not great, but some investors may value the relative consistency of the dividend.

Dividend Growth Potential

While dividend payments have been relatively reliable, it would also be nice if earnings per share (EPS) were growing, as this is essential to maintaining the dividend's purchasing power over the long term. Strong earnings per share (EPS) growth might encourage our interest in the company despite fluctuating dividends, which is why it's great to see MDU Resources Group has grown its earnings per share at 12% per annum over the past five years. Earnings per share have been growing at a good rate, and the company is paying less than half its earnings as dividends. We generally think this is an attractive combination, as it permits further reinvestment in the business.

We'd also point out that MDU Resources Group issued a meaningful number of new shares in the past year. Trying to grow the dividend when issuing new shares reminds us of the ancient Greek tale of Sisyphus - perpetually pushing a boulder uphill. Companies that consistently issue new shares are often suboptimal from a dividend perspective.

Conclusion

When we look at a dividend stock, we need to form a judgement on whether the dividend will grow, if the company is able to maintain it in a wide range of economic circumstances, and if the dividend payout is sustainable. First, we like MDU Resources Group's low dividend payout ratio, although we're a bit concerned that it paid out a substantially higher percentage of its free cash flow. That said, we were glad to see it growing earnings and paying a fairly consistent dividend. Overall we think MDU Resources Group is an interesting dividend stock, although it could be better.

Are management backing themselves to deliver performance? Check their shareholdings in MDU Resources Group in our latest insider ownership analysis.

If you are a dividend investor, you might also want to look at our curated list of dividend stocks yielding above 3%.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Northern Italy has taken an aggressive response to the spread of the virus, testing and quarantining people with and without symptoms, locking down 11 towns and more than 50,000 people as officials desperately seek to seal the virus off from the rest of the Italy.

[Read: The face of the coronavirus: A Hong Kong student shunned in Italy.]

But as the burden of the crisis weighed on Lombardy, the measures in the region have also divided families, damaged businesses and created the sense that Italy is sacrificing the few to protect the many, just as some countries around the world are trying to protect themselves from Italy.

As the virus spreads, the situation inside the locked-down towns and on the ambiguous  and sometimes porous  borders between the free and the quarantined offers a potential preview of what may come if countries, including the United States, choose to confront the virus with a similar hard line.

They sacrificed us, said Monica Grandi, 33, who works in a butcher shop outside the red zone and who walked with her toddler on the quarantined side of the border, where the family lives. She said the country looked upon them as infected pariahs. It made no sense that the neighboring town a stones throw away wasnt locked down. Why us and not them?
Those on their way into work in San Francisco's Financial District Thursday morning again got a surprise sneak peek at a death-defying Matrix 4 shoot in progress.

It might seem a bit familiar to those who've taken a moment to look up on their morning commute while the production has been in town; Thursday's high-flying filming appears to be a re-shoot of a scene shot February 16.
Democrats are demanding a briefing from the Trump administration next week and urging an inspector general investigation after a whistleblower working for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel reportedly alleging that more than a dozen employees were sent to receive the first Americans repatriated from Wuhan, China, without proper training or protective gear for new coronavirus infection control.

PHOTO: In this Jan. 29, 2020, file photo, personnel in protective clothing approach an aircraft used to evacuate government employees and other Americans from Wuhan, China, after it arrived at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, Calif. (Mike Blake/Reuters, FILE)

In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal and Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., asked the secretary for a complete, immediate response to the serious concerns that have been raised about potentially dangerous management of the coronavirus.

The Democrats noted that they were alarmed to learn from a whistleblower that HHS allegedly deployed human services workers, including staff from the U.S. Repatriation Program within the committees jurisdiction to interact with Americans evacuated because of coronavirus outbreaks.

In particular, we would like a response to the allegations that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) used human services staff without proper training or equipment to interact directly with individuals exposed to coronavirus in quarantined areas, and the possibility that management decisions at HHS could have contributed to the spread of the virus within the United States," Neal and Gomez wrote.

ABC News has not reviewed the complaint, and lawyers representing the whistleblower have refused to provide it. However, Ari Wilkenfeld, one of the whistleblower's attorneys, told ABC News that the article by The Washington Post accurately describes the allegations laid out in the complaint.

PHOTO: In this Jan. 29, 2020, file photo, Rep. Richard Neal speaks at the House Democrats 'Moving Forward Framework' infrastructure bill meeting in Washington, DC. (Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/REX via Shutterstock, FILE)

The Oversight Subcommittee of Ways and Means reviewed the complaint, and told ABC News theres too much identifying information in it to release it publicly, and the committee is working to protect the identity of the whistleblower.

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The whistleblower alleges that staff were sent into quarantined areas without personal protective equipment, training, or experience in managing public health emergencies, safety protocols, and the potential danger to both themselves and members of the public they came into contact with," the letter to Azar states.

The lawmakers also said they were deeply troubled that HHS seems to have ignored valid public health concerns and by reports that the department immediately retaliated against a whistleblower instead of taking action to protect its staff and the public from being exposed to a potentially fatal virus.

PHOTO: HHS Secretary Alex Azar, testifies during the House Ways and Committee hearing on the Health and Human Services FY2021 budget in Wasington DC., on Feb. 27, 2020. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Newscom)

According to the letter, which appeared to quote the whistleblower complaint, when HHS staff raised safety concerns, they were admonished for decreasing staff morale, accused of not being team players, and had their mental health and emotional stability questioned.

The letter raises the point that the potentially-exposed HHS employees have subsequently been interacting with the public, including taking commercial air flights and returning home to their families, without being tested for the new coronavirus or taking other precautions.

We do not have any information on whether these staff are being monitored for exposure to the virus, or whether HHS continues to put staff and the public at risk through inappropriate actions relating to quarantined individuals who may have coronavirus, Neal and Gomez noted.

Similar letters were also sent to Gene Donaro, the Comptroller General at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, as well as Christi Grimm, the principal deputy Inspector General at HHS.The letter to Grimm reveals that the staff sent to repatriate U.S. citizens from Wuhan worked in the Administration for Children and Families.

The Committee wants to be assured that HHS is taking every step possible to protect its employees, and the American public, from exposure to COVID-19, the letter states. We also want to ensure that HHS is seriously addressing employees concerns about their health and safety and is not endeavoring to intimidate, impede, or retaliate against employees who raise concerns.

Neal and Gomez ask the inspector general to conduct an investigation into all aspects of the deployment of ACF personnel to quarantined areas.

Tesia Williams, OIG spokeswoman said the details of the review are still being coordinated at this time, but the office will provide more information when it becomes available.

Protecting the health and well-being of people across the country is a mission we take seriously, Williams said. We have been monitoring the situation very closely and will conduct a comprehensive review of HHS coronavirus response efforts.

The complaint, filed with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, was first reported by The Washington Post on Thursday.

"We are hopeful that Congress and the OSC will investigate this case in a timely and comprehensive manner," Wilkenfeld told ABC News in a statement. "This matter concerns HHS's response to the coronavirus, and its failure to protect its employees and potentially the public. The retaliatory efforts to intimidate and silence our client must be opposed."

Moreover, a spokesperson for the U.S. Office of Special Counsel - a permanent independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency - confirmed to ABC News that they have received the whistleblower's complaint as described in The Washington Post, and that the case has been assigned.

When asked for comment, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Caitlin Oakley told ABC News: "We take all whistleblower complaints very seriously and are providing the complainant all appropriate protections under the Whistleblower Protection Act. We are evaluating the complaint and have nothing further to add at this time."

ABC News' Sophie Tatum and Katherine Faulders contributed to this report

Democrats demand investigation after whistleblower complaint on new coronavirus originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Mark Zuckerberg wants for crisis help. Facebook is looking for a strategic response manager with experience in using social media platforms as a rapid response tactic, according to its ad on Linkedin.com.

Mark Zuckerberg

The person has strong ties with media and influencers and a knack for devising strategy to deal with challenges and time-sensitive issues. The ideal candidate is highly organized, energetic and detail oriented.

Experience working on a corporate communications team, at a PA shop, political campaign and/or as a journalist is a plus.

The candidate could be based in Menlo Park, San Francisco, Washington or New York.

Zuckerberg probably wants the person in place as the presidential campaign heats up. Fluency in the Russian language couldn't hurt the candidate's chance to get the gig.

The Democratic nomination of Bernie Sanders for president would be the gift that keeps on giving to Donald Trump and Republicans.

The president already tried to shift blame for Wall Streets panic from his reactive response to the coronavirus outbreak to the wild and woolly Feb. 25 Democratic debate at which Bernie and his expansive wish list of social programs served as a punching bag for all on stage.

The tweeter-in-chief would have a field day, portraying Democratic Socialist Sanders, who famously honeymooned in Moscow and is a BFF of the Cuban Revolution, as the second coming of Karl Marx.

A Sanders run also puts continued Democratic control of the House in jeopardy, according to a survey by New York PA firm Global Strategy Group.

GSG found that a presidential ticket headed by Sanders puts more than 40 Democratic seats in swing districts up for grabs and the potential exit of Nancy Pelosi from the Speakers chair.

Funded by Mike Bloombergs campaign, the poll reports that Trump and Sanders are currently neck and neck in those districts. However, Trump opens a six-point bulge after respondents were asked about whether they support Bernies Medicare for All, the Green New Deal and free college tuition schemes.

My Congressman, Max Rose, flipped what was New York Citys only Republican Congressional distrct to the Democratic column in 2018.

The Staten Island/South Brooklyn representative was the first Congressman to endorse Bloomberg for president. He praised Bloomberg as even keeled and a visionary.

Bernie is the epitome of uneven keeled.

A timely report from Ruder Finn and Consumer Research Group shows the luxury market in China, Ground Zero of coronavirus, is under siege.

The economic slowdown and ongoing trade friction had already reduced the appetite for luxury goods in Mainland China and Hong Kong.

Compared to 2019, the proportion of consumers planning to spend less during 2020 is higher in almost every category except beauty & cosmetics in Mainland China, according to the survey. Those downer categories include autos, watches, handbags and watches.

The outbreak of coronavirus in January then delivered an even greater blow to retail sales, domestic consumption and consumer confidence, creating additional challenges for the luxury market in 2020.
Call for Code Founding Partner IBM and Creator David Clark Cause, in partnership with United Nations Human Rights and the Linux Foundation announced this years Call for Code Global Challenge, inviting the worlds software developers and innovators to help fight climate change with open source-powered technology.

On its 75th anniversary, the United Nations is demanding a global reality check and has launched the biggest-ever global conversation on how to address the worlds most pressing issues such as climate change. Heeding the UNs rallying cry to help build the future we want, IBM is joining forces with key UN agencies and world leaders to help tackle the climate crisis.

Following two successful years, the 2020 Call for Code Global Challenge encourages and fosters the creation of practical applications built on open source software including Red Hat OpenShift, IBM Cloud, IBM Watson, IBM Blockchain, and data from The Weather Company. The goal is to employ technology in new ways that can make an immediate and lasting humanitarian impact in communities around the world.

A recent global IBM study conducted by Morning Consult surveyed more than 3,000 developers, first responders and social activists across China, Columbia, Egypt, India, Japan, Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States, and found:

56% of Indian and 77% of global first responders and developers surveyed agree with the statement Climate change is the single most pressing issue facing my generation.

Over 3 quarters (77%) of Indian respondents say that someone they know or love has been impacted by a natural disaster.

51% of Indian and 79% of global respondents agree that climate change is something that can be reduced or combatted with technology.

Over eight in ten (82%) Indian respondents said they were very interested in working on projects to help solve climate change.

Almost nine in ten (86%) Indian and 87% of global respondents feel it is important that a potential employer has taken action on climate change

82% of Indian and three quarters of global respondents agree that the open source community can help scale climate change solutions to communities in need.

Eight in ten global respondents agree that most people want to do something to help combat climate change, but dont know where to start.

In 2019, the Call for Code Asia Pacific Challenge was won by India team Purva Suchak, who built a solution to prevent pervasive flooding by continuously checking water bodies and collating data with weather forecast information. IBM will announce the regional finalists from Asia Pacific for the Call for Code 2020 Global Challenge in September and winner in October.

India is home to one of the fastest growing developer bases in the world, a majority of whom are committed to tackling real-world problems. In the past 2 editions, we have also seen increasing participation and winning teams from India in the Call for Code challenge. With climate change as this years theme, we can expect some path-breaking innovative solutions to be developed during the competition, said Priya Mallya, Country Leader, Developer Ecosystem, IBM India.

Over 180,000 participants from 165 nations took part in Call for Code in 2019; they created more than 5,000 applications focused on natural disaster preparedness and relief. This year Call for Code is challenging applicants to create innovations based on open source technologies to help halt and reverse the impact of climate change.

There is an urgent need to take action against climate change, and IBM is uniquely positioned to connect leading humanitarian experts with the most talented and passionate developers around the world, said Bob Lord, IBM Senior Vice President of Cognitive Applications and Developer Ecosystems. IBM is determined to identify, deploy, and scale technology solutions that can help save lives, empower people, and create a better world for future generations.

Lord noted that IBM has been mobilizing throughout the company, from policy commitments on climate to IBMs weather forecasting capabilities powered by AI and supercomputers.

Over these past two years through Call for Code UNDRR has seen the potential for developers to tackle major societal challenges, and developers will have a crucial role in our response to the climate emergency, said Mami Mizutori, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction. Climate change is the most critical issue of our time, with a multitude of localized contributing factors and cascading effects that cannot be solved by a single organization. We need a global network to fight this together.

IBM and David Clark Cause are thrilled to launch the third year of Call for Code in Geneva with returning sponsor Persistent Systems, and new supporters Nearform, and Morgan Stanley. We also welcome returning supporters Bank of China, Cognizant, and Infosys, in addition to the broad ecosystem of companies, universities, and celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres, Jonas Brothers, Sting, and Morgan Freeman supporting the initiative.

As part of the 75thanniversary of the United Nations, we are proud to work with our Founding Partner IBM to help commemorate this momentous occasion by focusing the 2020 Call for Code Global Challenge on climate change. By inspiring and empowering developers around the world to help with this global threat, Call for Code can generate real impact, said David Clark, Creator of Call for Code and CEO of David Cark Cause. I am also excited President Bill Clinton returns for the third year as an eminent judge for the Challenge, along with leading experts in human rights, disaster response, business, and technology from all over the world.

Last years Call for Code Global Challenge winning team, Prometeo, created a wearable device that measures carbon monoxide, smoke concentration, humidity, and temperature to monitor firefighter safety in real-time as well as to help improve their health outcomes in the long-term. The solution has been developed further through IBMs Code and Responseprogram and has just completed its first wildfire field test during a controlled burn with the Grups de Reforc dActuacions Forestals (GRAF) and the Grup dEmergencies Mediques (GEM) dels Bombers de la Generalitat de Catalunyanear Barcelona, Spain. Prometeo was developed by a team comprising a veteran firefighter, an emergency medical nurse, and three developers. As recently piloted, the Prometeo hardware-software solution is based on multiple IBM Cloud services. Other applications like 2018 Call for Code winner Project Owl and 2018 Puerto Rico Call for Code hackathon winner DroneAid have also been cultivated through the Code and Response program.
Leiden has all the appeal of Amsterdam without the queues, cannabis cafes and clamour to see the Rijksmuseum. This Dutch city is about windmills, prodigious churches, canals lined with charming gabled houses and markets and a compelling history.

This year, Leiden is commemorating the 400th anniversary of the summer day in 1620 when the men, women and children, known as the Mayflower Pilgrims, set sail on their momentous voyage to America. Not from the starting point of Plymouth, Devon (as myth has it), and not on the Mayflower but on the Speedwell, which they boarded in Delfshaven, close to Leiden.

The plan had been to meet the Mayflower, which was carrying a bunch of fortune-seekers, in Southampton and sail on in convoy. But the Speedwell sprang a leak and its passengers were forced to board the Mayflower in the Devon port.

Leiden has all the appeal of Amsterdam without the queues, says Richard Holledge

Leiden is still as 'faire and beautiful' as the day they arrived in 1609, fleeing persecution in England.

To absorb their 17th-century world, take a booklet from the tourist office near the station on Stationsweg - or hire a guide - and follow a trail which takes you along the streets they trod.

The latter-day pilgrim can stroll along the Beestenmarkt and on to the old red light district where Groenhazengracht 3, a pretty pink house, was once owned by the notorious prostitute Groene Haasje (Little Green Hare).

Next, the Rapenburg - the loveliest of streets which winds past the cafes and restaurants of Kloksteeg to St Peter's Church where a plaque lists the English families who were buried there.

St Peter's Church in the Dutch city lists the names of English families who were buried there

They met and prayed in a house opposite the church which was replaced in 1683. But behind its door is an unexpected delight: a courtyard of almshouses.

The pilgrims' homes were as tiny as the almshouses. To discover how they coped in cramped quarters, visit the American Pilgrims House (Thursday to Saturday, 1-5pm). It is a treasure trove of ancient books, chests and tools.

Between March 27 and July 12 The Lakenhal Museum has an exhibition of artefacts and paintings reflecting the refugees' boundless quest for freedom, including a contemporary depiction of the day they sailed away.

A statue marks that spot on the River Vliet, while a stone memorial lists those who left, many of whom could not join the overcrowded Mayflower, and even more who would die within weeks of landing in New England. To commemorate the exodus, a flotilla will sail along the canals to Delfshaven on July 18.

An aerial view of the tree-lined canals and brown brick buildings of Leiden

A recreation of the original Mayflower ship docked at Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts

Stay at Boutique Hotel Steenhof Suites, a recently converted house with rooms with beams and original fireplaces and a top breakfast of eggs cocotte, nutty yoghurt, cold meat, cheese and croissants.

Then visit the cafe L'Esperance, in Kaiserstraat, which was opened to celebrate Napoleon's defeat in 1814.

A slogan on the wall reads: 'Cold beer gives you warm blood.' The pilgrims might not agree with this but would be delighted that Leiden is back in the spotlight.

Richard's book, Voices Of The Mayflower, is out on Friday.
A senior Pentagon official has warned that China and Russia are stepping up efforts to develop sophisticated space capabilities in a bid to deny the United States and its allies of their current superiority.



James Anderson, performing the duties of deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, told a House of Representatives panel on February 27 that China and Russia are developing sophisticated on-orbit capabilities and an array of space weapons capable of targeting nearly every class of U.S. space assets, many of which were developed when there were few threats in space.

In his written testimony to the House Armed Services Committee's strategic forces subcommittee, Anderson said the United States is responding to the threat by "transforming its space enterprise, fielding resilient architectures, developing space war-fighting expertise, and working closely with allies in combined operations."



Space Force General John Raymond, chief of space operations, told lawmakers that the United States can no longer assume that our space superiority is a given."



"If deterrence fails, we must be ready to fight for space superiority," he added.



Anderson said requests for the 2021 defense budget provide $18 billion for space programs, including $111 million to support the new U.S. Space Force.



It also provides funding for the development of military space capabilities necessary to ensure U.S. technological and military advantages, he said.
Slowdown in the Indian economy has bottomed out and measures taken by the government in the recent budget to improve capacity to spend in rural sector, infrastructure creation and inviting foreign investments will boost growth, State Bank of India Managing Director Dinesh Khara has said

New York: Slowdown in the Indian economy has bottomed out and measures taken by the government in the recent budget to improve capacity to spend in rural sector, infrastructure creation and inviting foreign investments will boost growth, State Bank of India Managing Director Dinesh Khara has said.

Khara told PTI here that for India to achieve its ambition of becoming a five trillion dollar economy, it required a 10-11 percent growth rate.

India's economic growth slipped to hit an over six-year low of 4.5 percent in July-September 2019.

He underlined that several initiatives and measures have been taken by the government to attract investment into the economy, including reduction in tax rates, terming it a "landmark decision" that will go a long way in attracting investment from overseas.

Khara was in the city and had addressed students at Columbia Business School on 'SME Lending in India', an event organised by SBI in association with the Business School, its student-run organisation South Asia Business Association (SABA) and School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

Highlighting that to achieve high growth, there was a need for much higher savings and investments, he said that currently the investment rate was about 32 percent to the GDP and savings rate was about 27 percent.

"There is a gap," he said, adding that if the economy has to grow at 10-11 percent, the investment rate has to be about 40 percent.

"For that there is a felt need for attracting investment from overseas. The infrastructure sector is another area where there is a whole lot of opportunity and there is a felt need in the economy to encourage this sector," Khara said.

He noted that in the recent budget the government announced various measures to support the infrastructure sector and a major one among them was to invite investments from the sovereign wealth funds and interest income of these funds will be tax exempt.

"This is a very major step which has been taken to attract investment," he said.

"These kinds of measures which have been taken will go a long way in terms of supporting the government's effort for building up infrastructure and revving up growth of the economy," Khara said.

Such measures have a very significant multiplier effect, he said.

"In the recent budget, there has been very clear focus on improving the capacity to spend for the rural sector, on infrastructure creation and inviting foreign investment. I think it's a very well directed budget for achieving the outcomes which are intended," he said.

When asked during an interactive session on the economic slowdown and if it has bottomed out, Khara referred to the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for India which shot up to 55.3 in January from 52.7 in December.

"So that itself is a reflection that it has already bottomed out and we are on the upside. And apart from that the kind of initiatives which have been taken by the government in the recent budget will go a long way in terms of supporting the economy," he said.

Outlining reasons for the slowdown in the Indian economy, Khara said it was the consumption engine that had slowed down.

"My assessment is that demand from the rural sector is quite muted. That is one of the major reasons for the kind of slowdown which we are witnessing," he said.

The rural economy in India is supported by the money order economy - remittances which flow from the urban sector to the rural sector, he said , adding that the real estate and auto were two major sectors that used to offer opportunities for people from rural areas.

"I would say that the money order economy almost collapsed. That is another reason for this kind of muted demand seen from the rural sector," he said.

The government's focus on recreating and repairing the real estate sector by introducing the Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH) Investment Fund is a major step, he said, adding that focus on infrastructure creation will also go a long way in creating employment.

The PM Kisan Yojna, under which an income support of Rs 6000 per year will be provided to all farmer families across the country, will also bring in enough liquidity in the rural sector, Khara said.

"Liquidity in the rural sector is more important than anywhere else because the marginal propensity to consume is significantly higher in the rural sector than elsewhere. These are some other measures which have been taken which will go a long way in terms of supporting the build up of the economy once again," he said.

He said that once demand-related issues were addressed, it will help in boosting growth.

Khara also pointed out that looking into data for last for 30 years, it had been observed that in every cycle of 10 years, there has been a slowdown or single digit growth for at least two to three years.

"So, from that point of view this 4.5 percent growth which we have seen in this current cycle of 10 years is one in line with the trend seen in the past two," he said.

Asked if India can become an economic success without manufacturing, Khara said that auto and auto-ancillary and pharma were the two manufacturing sectors which could integrate with the global supply chains and will continue to be the future sectors of growth.
NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hunt Real Estate Capital announced today that it has provided a Freddie Mac Conventional Lease-Up Multifamily loan in the amount of $38.2 million to finance the acquisition of a multifamily property located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

West End Station Apartments is a 229-unit, mid-rise apartment community located on a 4.3-acre parcel. The property was completed in 2019 and includes a four-story mid-rise building. There are nine different one-bedroom options and three two-bedroom plans. The property also offers residents 286 parking spaces, including 114 ground-level parking garage spaces that are available for lease.

The borrower, EBSCO West End, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of EBSCO Income Properties, LLC, acquired the property from a joint venture between The Carlyle Group and Chaucer Creek Capital. The loan was funded through Freddie Mac as part of a pre-stabilization program for new construction properties in lease-up. The property is targeted to reach stabilization in early 2020.

The borrower is a firm with ownership interest in 19 multifamily properties totaling 5,190 units valued at over $425 million. The loan has a 13-year term that will amortize over 30 years and is interest only for the first six years.

"West End Station offers Class A community amenities and unit interior finishes with walkability to all of downtown's employment, nightlife and retail offerings, while also being conveniently removed from the congestion and traffic of other competitors further east," stated Chad Hagwood, Senior Managing Director at Hunt Real Estate Capital.

West End Station Apartments offers residents a superior amenity package, including a resident gathering space with demonstration kitchen, controlled access parking deck with electric car charging, elevated courtyards with fire pit, secured interior bike storage, leash free dog park, pet spa, salt water pool, a smoke free environment, valet trash service, 24-hour package concierge, elevators, and a yoga/spin room.

"Congratulations to our client for acquiring this gorgeous asset in North Carolina through Freddie's Lease-Up program," added Hagwood. "Although this deal had numerous moving parts - including a tax abatement - everyone worked hand in hand to bring it to a successful close. Teamwork makes the dream work!"

The property is located one mile west of the Winston-Salem Central Business District. West End Station also provides convenient accessibility to the triad's top employer (Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center) and much of Winston-Salem's top retail.

About Hunt Real Estate Capital

Hunt Real Estate Capital (HREC), a subsidiary of ORIX Corporation USA, is a leader in financing, investing and managing multifamily housing and commercial real estate. HREC is a source of debt and equity capital for multifamily, affordable housing, manufactured housing, healthcare/senior living, retail, office, industrial, self-storage, and mixed-use assets through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, its own balance sheet and managed public and private investment vehicles. To learn more, visit https://huntrealestatecapital.com.

MEDIA CONTACT

Michael Ratliff

Hunt Real Estate Capital

212-588-2163

[email protected]

SOURCE Hunt Real Estate Capital
There have been important contributions made by medical staff at hospitals as well as those who are conducting works related to health supervision and quarantine at border gates, and scientists who are studying hard in laboratories. They are all considered soldiers on the front line.

Those who were in the lobby of the Emergency Department, the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases (Facility 2) on February 10 all burst into happiness when witnessing the first three patients being discharged from hospital. Receiving beautiful flower bouquets, Mr. T.C.P from Quang Minh commune, Tam Dao district, Vinh Phuc province could not hold back his tears. He was one of the eight members sent by Nihon Plast Vietnam Co., Ltd. to train in Wuhan City (Hubei Province, China). I recovered from illness and returned to my beloved family. I will never forget the devoted doctors and nurses who took care of me and helped me go through the most difficult time, he said.

As a new disease, there is not much knowledge surrounding it, so the physicians working at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases had to overcome many difficulties and challenges to handle new cases of infection. Every day, the hospital organised three crews, each crew consisted of a doctor and three nurses. They were not only responsible for the treatment but also participated in research on disease mechanisms, and planned specific treatment regimens for each patient.

On the other hand, because the patients were in quarantine rooms, the physicians must take care of patients with specific tasks such as taking meals, preparing towels, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, etc. Despite many pressures and hardships, they always encouraged each other and were determined to do their best to treat Covid-19 patients, as well as determined to prevent the disease from breaking out.

According to MSc, Second Degree Specialist Nguyen Trung Cap, Head of Emergency Department, the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, difficulties in care and treatment for people infected with Covid-19, was the isolation work and not letting the virus spread outside. The medical staff here also had to face pressure from people subject to isolation, many of them did not really cooperate. Notably, doctors and nurses who participated in the anti-epidemic of Covid-19 work were also isolated from the community, many of whom had not been able to visit their families for two or three weeks. But sadly, there are many of them who have been discriminated against by people around them. Many health workers still have difficulties in renting houses. Many house owners even refused them when they knew that these physicians were being taken care of and treating Covid-19 patients.

Doctors do check ups at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases. (Photo: NDO/Tien Tuan)

One week after Li Ding, a Chinese Covid-19 patient was discharged from hospital, we returned to Cho Ray Hospital. The happiness is still evident on the face of the head of the first medical facility in Vietnam to successfully cure Covid-19. Pointing to his phone screen in his hand, Dr. Nguyen Tri Thuc announced that the two Chinese patients had come home, they had just sent a letter to thank doctors of Cho Ray Hospital in particular and Vietnam in general. In the letter, on behalf of his father, Li Zichao affirmed that the Vietnamese doctors treated them with all their hearts to help him and his father. With the Li Zichao family, they will never forget the kindness of the Vietnamese physicians who saved them. Dr. Nguyen Tri Thuc shared the sincere thank you letter and made other physicians at Cho Ray Hospital feel warm and forget all the hardships that they had gone through.

There are three health professionals participating in a special flight to Wuhan to welcome 30 Vietnamese citizens back home. Doctor N.T.H.P. who is working at the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, is one of the medical staff present on that flight. Sharing about the short journey abroad but with heavy responsibility, Dr. P. said: At first, I felt quite worried. But after receiving the mission, attending meetings with the Ministry of Health, the Aviation Department, exchanging with the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and exchanging with everyone in the delegation, I knew the schedule, the transportation process, and protective equipment, etc. So, I felt much more secure.

Because in the group of citizens, there was an eight-month pregnant woman, Dr. P. prepared for scenarios such as: the pregnant woman giving birth on the plane; or pre-eclampsia, eclampsia; or threatened preterm labour, etc, in order to prepare for necessary medical supplies and medicines. On the other hand, Dr. P. also sought to connect with the pregnant woman to understand the situation, as well as consulted with leading professors and doctors for the best preparation. By careful preparation, the flight to welcome 30 citizens was completed successfully and safely with the contribution of the three white-shirted soldiers.

Son Loi - Vinh Phuc became a really hot keyword on the Google, after 0.55 seconds, there were more than 17 million results showing. This is really a hot spot in the fight against Covid-19 in the recent time. When identifying that the epidemic could spread here, local authorities decided to localise and isolate the entire commune and strictly controlled all people entering and leaving. In addition to the on-site health force, the Ministry of Health sent a special task group to support the locality 24 hours a day. The working group consisted of leading experts who were divided into preventive, environmental and treatment groups. They specifically instructed health workers at the local level and helped calm peoples nerves at the same time raise their awareness on the fight against the new disease.

An official from the working group shared that there had never been a campaign like this. The work was quite challenging, but they remained calm. It was so busy that for many days, he forgot calling his wife and children at home.

At present, people in Son Loi commune are familiar with each member in the special group because they work without holidays. Every day, the group spread to locations to grasp the situation and apply many urgent professional measures. Together with local health forces, the working group came to each house to do check ups twice per day. The key point is to create close contact with people, not to scare them or let them avoid health workers because the goal is to strictly quarantine, another member of the group said.

Many physicians are silently devoted to the goals, ideals, and the path they have chosen. Their devotion deserves the respect of the whole of society.
WATERLOO  A Waterloo business owner has won a lawsuit requiring the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to do more about discriminatory lending practices across the country.

ReShonda Young, who founded Popcorn Heaven in 2014, had joined a group of plaintiffs last summer in legal action claiming the federal agency was failing to follow Dodd-Frank Act requirements to reduce discrimination against women-owned, minority-owned and small businesses.

Under a settlement agreement filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in California, the bureau agreed to step up its rule-making and enforcement process under an approved timeline.

Im just really humbled to be part of the process, Young said. Sometimes we feel so small, but this is one of those things that shows if were willing to speak up we actually can make a difference.

This is a really serious problem that we needed to look at, she added, noting the settlement hopefully helps other minority- and women-owned businesses moving forward.

Young and another plaintiff in the suit, Deborah Field of Portland, Ore., got involved as members of the Main Street Alliance. Other plaintiffs included the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders and the California Reinvestment Coalition.

This victory marks a milestone for addressing the credit barriers small business owners face across the country, particularly women and entrepreneurs of color, the Main Street Alliance said a news release about the settlement.

Section 1071 of Dodd-Frank, which was adopted in 2010, required financial institutions to compile, maintain and report information about credit applications by women-owned, minority-owned and small businesses.

That provision was never implemented over the past decade as the banking industry and consumer advocates debated its impact, and the CFPB never started the rule-making procedures.

Young, who wound up selling her Popcorn Heaven store in Waterloo but was involved in opening stores in other states, said she was the victim of discriminatory lending practices locally.

In several instances there was just blatant discrimination, and in other cases I found out about it later on, she said. And it wasnt just me.

Young said minorities and women who bought into Popcorn Heaven in other locations experienced the same problems she did in Waterloo. But white business owners opening a store didnt face those same barriers.

After news of her involvement in the federal lawsuit, Young noted she was often stopped on the street or in stores by others wanting to share their own stories of lending discrimination.

Main Street Alliance Executive Director Amanda Ballantyne said work remains to increase access to capital for small businesses.

It has taken 10 years to achieve the implementation of Section 1071, Ballantyne said. Its time to move swiftly and finally address the systemic discrimination in small business lending.

The Couriers most-read 2019 local business stories:

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West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday drew strong reactions from political parties and netizens for tweeting that many saw prospects of growth or opportunity in violence and their condemnation was selective.

Though Dhankhar did not mention any specific incident, it was taken to be a reference to Delhi communal riots. His tweet appeared hours before Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra and Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury led separate protest peace rallies in Kolkata demanding union home minister Amit Shahs resignation over Delhi violence.

Those who see in violence, prospects of growth or opportunity are just not civil. Violence in thought /action calls for unqualified condemnation. To hate one form of violence and ignore or observe silence on the other is a crime against humanity. Such selective approach (is) inhuman, Dhankhar tweeted.

His comment drew strong reactions. Replying to the tweet, many accused him of being biased. Some even posted images of victims of the Delhi violence.

If the governor is accusing people of being selective then what is he doing? He is supposed to uphold the Constitution and its values. He should resign, said Somen Mitra.

He cannot understand the meaning of violence by attending puja at chief minister Mamata Banerjees residence or sharing the dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He has to hit the streets with common people. I think Dhankhar is trying hard to prove that he is human, said Md Salim, politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

HT contacted several TMC ministers but none of them wanted to comment.
Lawyers going on strike and boycotting the courts cannot be justified in the guise of freedom of speech and expression, particularly when the judiciary is facing a serious backlog of cases, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday after noting that advocates in three districts of Uttarakhand had been boycotting the courts on all Saturdays for the past 35 years.

The apex court upheld a decision of the Uttarakhand high court, which ordered the Uttarakhand State Bar Council to initiate action against office bearers of various district bar associations in the state that had called for a strike or boycott of the courts on Saturdays.

To go on strike/boycott courts cannot be justified under the guise of the right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Nobody has the right to go on strike/boycott courts. Even such a right, if any, cannot affect the rights of others and more particularly, the right of speedy justice guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, the court said.

The Supreme Court also lamented that despite various judgments by the top court holding strikes by lawyers to be illegal, bar associations were still resorting to strikes which the court said amounted to contempt of court.

It appears that despite the strong words used by this Court in the aforesaid decisions, criticizing the conduct on the part of the lawyers to go on strikes, it appears that the message has not reached, the court said,

The Supreme Court issued notice to the Bar Council of India and all the state bar councils to suggest a further course of action and to make concrete suggestions to deal with strikes by lawyers.

The Uttarakhand high court had, in September 2019, held that the district bar associations of three districts, Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar should immediately withdraw their call for a strike, and start attending courts on all working Saturdays.

The order was passed in a public interest litigation petition which had pointed out that advocates had been boycotting courts on all Saturdays for the past more than 35 years, in the entire district of Dehradun, and in several parts of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts.

The high court had also ordered disciplinary action against erring office bearers of bar associations besides ordering district judges to ensure that courts function on Saturdays.

Interestingly, the high court had noted that the genesis of this peculiar form of protest was traceable to western Uttar Pradesh, of which the above districts were part , before the state of Uttarakhand was created in 2000. Advocates from western Uttar Pradesh have been on strike on all Saturdays for the past three-and-a-half decades, in pursuit of their demand that a high court bench be established in that region.
Chinese officials are on standby to deploy an army of voracious ducks to help Pakistan fight locusts that are threatening to devour crops.

At least 100,000 of the specially raised waterfowl are expected to be sent to Pakistan later this year to combat a desert locust outbreak.

Chinese researchers have described the ducks as "biological weapons" and claimed they can be more effective than pesticide.

"One duck is able to eat more than 200 locusts a day," said Lu Lizhi, a senior researcher with the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences who is in charge of the project.

A trial to test the ducks' locust-eating prowess will begin in Xinjiang later this year, he said.

Chinese officials have this week visited Pakistan to advise on how to deal with what has been the country's worst locust infestation in more than 25 years.

A swarm of desert locusts is one of the animal kingdom's most awesome spectacles. The groups can be hundreds of square kilometres in size and contain billions of insects. The marauders can fly up to 150km per day and if good rains fall and conditions are favourable, can increase their numbers twentyfold in three months. Almost all crops and non-crop plants are vulnerable and the insects are one of the biggest threats to food security in large parts of the world.

An intervention in Pakistan would not be the first time that China has used ducks to combat locusts.

In 2000, an army of 700,000 specially trained ducks and chickens was mobilised to help fight China's biggest locust plague in 25 years.

The ducks deployed to Xinjiang had been trained to eat locusts at the sound of a whistle. Ducks were chosen after farmers first noticed chickens were fond of locusts. Experiments with waterfowl found that ducks ate twice as many and were less prone to being eaten by predators.

China has already announced that it is sending ducks to Xinjiang in case locusts spread from Central Asia. But United Nations experts last night said even the hungriest ducks would be overwhelmed by the size of the swarms. Keith Cressman, senior locust forecaster for the UN's at Food and Agriculture Organisation said: "There are not enough ducks and they cannot eat enough desert locusts to have a significant impact." ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
A federal judge has once again declined to sign off on the final order settling the copyright litigation over Audibles Captions program, holding out for more public transparency over the settlement's terms.

In a brief order this week, Judge Valerie Caproni said the plaintiff publishers and Audible could redact the final payment amounts agreed to under a final settlement agreement, which was filed under seal earlier this month. She reiterated her position, however, that if the parties want the court to retain jurisdiction over the entire settlement, more details must be made public, including who is being paid, the method and timing of payments, and other details contained in paragraph 3, as well details in paragraph 11 of the agreement which, Caproni held, does "not appear to contain any sensitive information.

In a previous order, on February 12, Caproni denied the parties' application to file the final settlement agreement under seal, and ordered the parties to submit suggested redactions, along with explanations for those redactions. The public has a presumptive right to judicial documents, Caproni wrote in that order.

Apparently not satisfied with the parties' explanations, Caproni has now given them until March 4 to choose between two options:

Option one: the parties can refile the settlement on the public docket with only the settlement amounts redacted, in which case the Court will approve the parties proposed injunction order and retain enforcement jurisdiction over the entirety of the settlement agreement.

Or, option two: the parties can go ahead and redact the entirety of paragraph 3 and a portion of paragraph 11 as proposed, and file the redacted settlement agreement on the public docket, in which case the Court would enter the agreed upon final injunction, but not retain enforcement jurisdiction over the terms in the settlement's redacted paragraphs.

As the underlying copyright action has already been dismissed, an order retaining jurisdiction over the settlement would be necessary for the court to enforce some settlement terms beyond the injunction agreed to by the parties, which covers only the seven plaintiff publishers. In addition to apparently including payments of some kind, AAP officials say the related settlement agreement extends protections to all AAP members in good standing.

 'As we have publicly stated, we decided to obtain permission from all publishers (including AAP and non-AAP members) before moving forward with enabling Audible Captions for titles not in public domain.' 

Meanwhile, in a response to a letter from Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) executive director Angela Bole, Audible this week confirmed for IBPA what PW reported when the settlement was first filed: that Audible has decided it will get permission from any rightsholder before including their work in the Captions program, not just AAP members.

As we have publicly stated, we decided to obtain permission from all publishers (including AAP and non-AAP members) before moving forward with enabling Audible Captions for titles not in the public domain, wrote Stas Zakharenao, Head of Legal for Audible, in response to Bole. However, we will not be entering into any other agreements regarding the resolution of the lawsuit.

At the time of the settlement, an Audible spokesperson also told PW that that Audible has no plans to expand the Captions program beyond its current public domain pilot program.

Audibles response comes after Bole had requested that Audible formalize its intention not to include any copyrighted works in the Captions program without permission, regardless of whether the creator of the work is an AAP member.

While it is helpful to AAP that Audible has agreed not to use its members content in the Captions program, IBPAs 3,207 members would like reassurance that their copyrighted works also wont be used without permission, Bole wrote.

While a formal agreement with Audible is apparently not in the offing, a postscript on the IBPA website informs members that Audible has decided to obtain permission from ALL publishers, not just AAP publishers, before moving a book into the Captions Program, adding that the industry should get a look at the complete settlement agreement sometime soon.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : Ahead of elections for the Rajya Sabha, the Congress in Assam has offered an olive branch to the AIUDF headed by Badruddin Ajmal to keep the BJP at bay.

The Congress unit in the state is contemplating tying up with regional forces to defeat the BJP.

Sources say former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, once opposed to AIUDF, is keen to join hands with the party.

The Assam unit of the party is mulling putting up a joint candidate of three parties, including AGP, who are against the controversial citizenship law being opposed in Assam.

Congress General Secretary in-charge of the state Harish Rawat said there is no proposal yet, but if it comes from the state unit, the party leadership will look into it. "As far as an alliance is concerned, it is not decided in Guwahati but by the party President Sonia Gandhi," said Rawat.

"We respect the sentiments of the parties who are fighting the BJP," Rawat added.

The three seats going to the polls -- two are vacated by Congress MPs who switched to BJP. The third seat would fall vacant when BPF's Biswajit Daimary retires in April.

The AIUDF leader is currently not in the country and is supposed to return during the Parliament session.

In the 126-member assembly, Congress has 23 MLA while BJP has 60 and the AIUDF 13. If the opposition join hands, then the Congress can win a seat in the Upper House, but then the Congress has to get the AGP support which has 14 MLAs.

The Congress which has got only 46 MPs in the Rajya Sabha may not be averse in joining hands with a rival to keep its numbers in the Rajya Sabha, said a source.
Arik McArthur/Getty ImagesLast week, 20-year-old rapper Pop Smoke was fatally shot and killed. Now the Brooklyn rapper's family has broken their silence during their time of grief to talk about his sudden loss of their "son, brother, and friend," in a statement shared on social media Friday morning.

"The family of Bashar "Pop Smoke" Jackson would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone for your support. Every prayer, call and act of kindness is deeply appreciated as we mourn the loss of our son, brother, and friend," the statement begins, as reported by The Shade Room.

"Brooklyn knew him as Bashar," the statement continues. "He was educated and nurtured in Brooklyn and his rise to fame developed from the place he proudly represented. Within the last year, his extraordinary gifts were revealed to the world; introducing Pop Smoke."

Pop Smoke died from a gunshot wound to his torso during a home invasion on February 19 at his Hollywood Hills home, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's report.

Fans on social media speculated the cause of Smoke's death, suggesting he was set up him by his own brother, Mike Dee, in part because Dee was the last person seen with his brother in pictures from the day before his murder. Dee addressed the claims in an Instagram post that includes a photo of the two of them together as children.

"Yall come on here playing investigator and bashing me on the internet. I would never in my life set my brother up," he wrote, in part. "We ate together, broke bread together this really my mother's child. I don't gotta explain nothing to nobody that don't know me."

At this time, the family says there are no public details available regarding Smoke's death and ask for "respect and responsible reporting during this critical time."

Smoke's breakthrough single, "Welcome to the Party", from his debut Meet the Woo mixtape, was the song of the summer last year, followed up by his single "Dior." The New York rapper collaborated with major names including Nicki Minaj and Travis Scott. His latest project, Meet the Woo 2, features the Quavo-assisted "Shake the Room."

Pop Smoke is survived by his mother, brother and sister.

Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Lawyers for a transgender teenager in West Virginia on Friday appealed the dismissal of a lawsuit that accused an assistant principal of harassing the student for using the boys bathroom.

The American Civil Liberties Unions West Virginia chapter said its not done fighting for justice for client Michael Critchfield after the case was tossed by a judge last month.

The lawsuit alleges Liberty High School Assistant Principal Lee Livengood followed Critchfield into a boys bathroom in 2018 and said You freak me out and You shouldnt be in here. Critchfield said he also was ordered to prove his gender by using a urinal. He was 15 at the time.

Livengood was suspended with pay but was later allowed to return to his position. The school board then voted not to renew his contract at the end of a three-year probationary period, but reversed itself a month later and reinstated him.

Lets remember that Mr. Livengoods abhorrent behaviour and the board of educations failure to ensure a safe environment exists for Harrison County students is what led to this litigation, said Loree Stark, legal director for the ACLU chapter.

The lawsuit argued that the school board failed to crate a safe school environment. It sought unspecified damages and wanted to prohibit Livengood from having contact with Critchfield and his family.

In dismissing the case, Harrison County Circuit Judge Chris McCarthy ruled that the school board was immune from Livengoods actions.

Livengoods lawyer has said his client did not know about Critchfields gender identity and wasnt told about an arrangement Critchfield had with the principal to use the boys restrooms.
Turkey will allow up to one million Syrian refugees to pass through its territory to reach Europe ahead of a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive on the last rebel-held territory in the war-torn country.

We have decided, effectively immediately, not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land or sea, a Turkish official told Reuters. All refugees, including Syrians, are now welcome to cross into the European Union.

Footage of Syrian refugees boarding boats attempting to reach the islands of Greece was broadcast on CNN Turkey, while a reporter for Middle East Eye shared a picture of a bus placed by Greek authorities in front of its Pazarkule border crossing with Turkey, to prevent refugees from entering.

Syrias offensive on Idlib province, targeting the last remnants of the rebellion including several Al-Qaeda groups, has forced one million people to flee their homes. International aid groups have struggled to provide food and shelter to refugees, some of whom have frozen to death after repeated cold winter nights.

The Turkish army, stationed along the countrys border with Syria, has repeatedly come into conflict with Syrian government forces. Syria killed 33 Turkish soldiers on Thursday in a series of air strikes.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone conversation Friday told Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who backs Syrian government forces, that any Syrian military position was a legitimate target for Turkish forces. Erdogan is scheduled to speak with President Trump on Friday regarding the attacks on the Turkish military and the refugee issue.

The nine-year Syrian civil war has produced one of the worlds largest refugee crises, with millions of migrants fleeing to Europe throughout the conflict.

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The search for missing Tennessee toddler Evelyn Boswell moved to her uncle's trailer park on Friday, confirmed the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The 15-month-old was reported missing by her mother Megan Boswell on February 18 but has not been seen since December.

The toddler's mother and grandmother are in police custody in connection with the case as police moved in on her uncle's trailer park on Friday.

A witness has claimed that the toddler once lived in the trailer park with her mother.

Police executed a search warrant on a Tennessee trailer park on Friday in connection with the missing 15-month-old Evelyn Boswell who was allegedly last seen by her family in December

The toddler and her mother Megan Boswell, pictured, are believed to have lived in the park

Police searched a trailer park in connection with missing girl Evelyn Boswell on Friday

The search focused on one mobile home and police are said to have removed possible evidence.

Zachary Warfield, who now lives in the mobile home, said he believes Evelyn and her mother lived there for a long time.

'They pretty much searched all throughout my house. But they didn't really take anything from inside the house they just found whatever they did under the house,' Warfield told WVLT.

He added that he saw investigators digging up 'soft ground' near the mobile home.

Deputies received a tip and began to search the Lakeshore RV Park near Boone Lake in Sullivan County around 12.30pm Friday.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) spokesperson Leslie Earhart said they were executing a search warrant 'as part of an active and ongoing investigation'.

'That was not the first search warrant executed in this investigation, and it will probably not be the last.'

According to Fox 8, the trailer park searched is listed as owned by Tommy Boswell Jr., Evelyn Boswell's uncle.

Police are reported to have removed possible evidence from under a mobile home in the trailer park

The Lakeshore RV Park near Boone Lake in Sullivan County, Tennessee, was searched Friday

The trailer park lists Tommy Boswell Jr., Evelyn's uncle, as the owner

The toddler's mother Megan Boswell, 18, was locked up on Tuesday for allegedly giving police several conflicting stories about her daughter's whereabouts.

She claims to know who has the toddler but police say she has been providing them with false information. Megan claims she left Evelyn with a person she trusted while she was at work.

'Well the reason I didn't report it or anything was I knew the person who had her, and I didn't want them to run away with her,' Boswell said after first reporting her missing daughter.

'And as soon as they thought anything was going on they just kinda vanished. So I'm just kinda worried, you know, about where they are at. What they're doing with her at this point in time.'

Her arrest came just hours before the Wilkes County Sheriff's Office said a search of a pond in the Shepherds Crossroads Community, in Wilkes County, was 'inconclusive'.

Aerial footage from WJHL showed investigators preparing to search the water, using a Remote Operated Vehicle device.

In the video, a small boat was seen sitting on the grass next to a few SUVs.

An investigator was also seen lowering a long yellow rope into the water.

However, investigators confirmed nothing related to the investigation was recovered.

In the video, a small boat was seen siting on the grass next to a few SUVs

One investigator is seen lowering a long yellow rope into the water in the 'inconclusive' search

Aerial footage showed investigators at the pond (pictured) preparing to search the area

Evelyn's grandmother was also arrested last Saturday in connection with her disappearance.

William McCloud, 33, and Angela Boswell, 42, were arrested and charged with possession of stolen property after they were seen in a vehicle involved in the Amber alert for the toddler.

The gray 2007 BMW, which was said to have front-end damage, was reported stolen and the drivers are believed to have information on the missing child.

No charges have been placed in connection with the Amber Alert and there have been no confirmed sightings of Evelyn.

Earlier on Friday, authorities followed up on a further tip in North Carolina which claimed that the girl was seen with her grandmother Angela and McCloud at a KFC in Yadkinville within the last couple of weeks.

Investigators are now reviewing the fast-food outlet's CCTV and speaking to employees.

Angela Boswell, right, and boyfriend William McCloud are in jail. They were arrested last week in North Carolina on fugitive warrants unrelated to the toddler's disappearance

Authorities confirmed they are looking into a tip that the girl was seen with her grandmother, Angela Boswell, and Boswell's boyfriend William McCloud at a KFC in North Carolina

Sheriff Jeff Cassidy (pictured) spoke of his frustrations after the girl's mother had changed her story multiple times during the hunt for her daughter. She was arrested in Tuesday

The Sullivan County Sheriff's Office began investigating the disappearance of Evelyn Mae Boswell on February 18, after the Department of Children's Services reported the child as missing.

Evelyn's last sighting was initially reported as December 26, 2019, according to a press release from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

This has now been updated to a confirmed sighting back December 1 although a babysitter claims to have been with her on December 9 or 10.

Sullivan County Sheriff Jeff Cassidy spoke of his frustration with the investigation because the missing child's mother has changed her account of what happened to Evelyn on multiple occasions.

'There's not really much that we can answer due to the irrelevant information from Megan,' he said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

'Every time we talk to her, her story changes.

'We hope and pray that she's alive and we are going to continue to work like she is alive,' the sheriff said about Evelyn.

According to court documents, Megan Boswell first claimed that her daughter was with the child's father.

Evelyn's biological father, Ethan Perry, who is an active-duty US Army soldier stationed in Louisiana, posted a brief Facebook update addressing his daughter's disappearance: 'I'm currently working with authorities trying to find Evelyn. I can't say much more than that at the moment.'

He is said to be cooperating with the case.

Evelyn is described as 2 feet tall and weighing 28lbs, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a pink tracksuit, pink shoes, and a pink bow.

Anyone with information on the child's whereabouts is asked to contact the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office at 423-279-7330 or the TBI at 1-800-TBIFIND.
BEIJING, Feb. 28 -- An open tender document released by the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) online showed that the Chinese military will purchase more than 1.5 million units of high-grade bulletproof plates for body armors in the coming two years as PLAs new-generation individual gear, reported Global Times recently. The program is expected to cost RMB13 billion, or USD1.85 billion, the largest individual gear procurement in the nations history.

According to the tender, it will cost less than RMB10,000 each for the 930,000 units of plates for universal bulletproof vests, and more than RMB10,000 each for the 460,000 units of enhanced bulletproof vests, which will all be delivered within 24 months after contracts are signed.

According to China's defense white paper in 2019, the PLA has about two million personnel, including 850,000 troops in 13 main Group Armies. A total of 1.4 million body armor units means every frontline service member could get one, probably with extra in reserve. Considering that Chinas Type 95 rifle costs no more than RMB5,000 each, the body armor procurement is almost equivalent to handing out new rifles for the whole military, which disproves the rumor that China has saved money on individual-soldier equipment to build guided-missile warplanes in order to win future battles. The execution of the procurement plan means that the PLA Army will spend the cost of two Type 055 destroyers or 25 J-16 aircraft on equipping all soldiers with body armors.

International media reports have been flooded with news about China-made body armors in recent years. These body armors have been used by many militaries and individuals for their higher quality and lower cost than those produced by foreign manufacturers. Statistics show that Chinese products occupy 70 percent of the international body armor market.

There are many videos on foreign websites about the testing of Chinese body armors, which are not penetrated even when shot at from a medium or close range by a variety of guns. A British soldier wasnt hurt at all even after being shot 12 times, because the bullets didnt get through the armor.

The PLA has never stopped the procurement of bulletproof devices, but one of such a massive scale is indeed the first time in history. According to analyst, it might imply that every PLA soldier would probably be equipped with a body armor with plates, and almost each one in mechanized infantry and infantry units carrying out frontline operations be equipped with an enhanced one.

The massive procurement also might indicate a new round of reform of PLA training with soldiers being asked to wear body armors in routine training and drills to adapt to the weight in operation. This would be a great opportunity for the PLA to take a big step forward toward the international level. Soldiers used to not carry all the ammunition and equipment in order to facilitate movement, which wasnt consistent with real-combat scenario. In comparison, foreign troops are always fully-loaded with sufficient ammunition and protective gear either when on duty or during training.
CDC has removed Vietnam from the lists of destinations with a risk of community spread. Photo: tuoitre.vn

In a recent teleconference with the Vietnamese Embassy in the US and the US Department of State, representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) complimented the efforts of the Vietnamese government in combating and preventing the spread of COVID-19, saying that the country has comprehensively carried out monitoring, quarantine, and treatment activities.

Reacting to the actual state of affairs, the CDC has officially removed Vietnam from its list of Destinations with Risk of Community Spread. Previously, the list included five countries/territories, including Vietnam, Iran, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. Thus, while Iran has been moved to CDCs level-2 alert list, on the CDC website as of February 28, Vietnam is no longer on this list.

According to the Vietnamese Embassy in the US, the CDC also plans to dispatch a delegation to Vietnam in late March to enhance co-operation and discuss the establishment of a regional CDC office. The HHS is also willing to consider providing additional support to Vietnam in disease prevention equipment.

Recently, besides the government, many US businesses are also interested in promoting medical co-operation with Vietnam. According to the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC), among the delegation of more than 40 US businesses coming to Vietnam during March 3-6, there will be some 20 businesses specialising in healthcare and pharmaceuticals.

At the same time, a number of US agencies, including the International Reagent Resources (IRR) under the CDC, are willing to share with Vietnam COVID-19 research findings, exchange experts, and provide testing kits and personal protective equipment for Vietnam to improve its capacity of disease prevention.

The COVID-19 outbreak is one of the biggest concerns at the moment. In the US on February 28, there have been 60 patients diagnosed with the novel coronavirus.
Jules Daoud from Summer House was planning a trip to Jordan with her mother. But the coronavirus has other plans for the family.

Flights are being canceled globally a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that the United States should prepare for the virus to arrive in the country.

Flights are being suspended in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as in Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, BBC reports.

Jules Daoud | Photo courtesy of Bravo

Daouds family is originally from Jordan and she was hoping to travel with her mother to see family. However, shes now on the fence about whether or not to try to make the trip. She shared a video of deplorable conditions at a hospital in Jordan where coronavirus patients are being quarantined.

Should she go?

Daoud shared on her Instagram story that she planned a trip and was now unsure if it was safe to travel. So last week in my Q & A I told you guys that my mom and I have a trip planned to Jordan next month, Daoud explains. And were thinking about maybe canceling it. Theres already been one flight thats been quarantined.

She continues, And Im going to show you the hospital where theyre holding them in because its really sad and its really awful and I dont know what to do.

The next video Daoud shares is shocking. She mentioned that the conditions were awful and she wasnt kidding. A video panned a stark, dirty room that resembled more prison-like conditions than a hospital. Daoud added a question: Do we risk it and go or cancel? The overwhelming majority of Daouds followers suggested they cancel the trip.

Jordan is on hyper-alert

Visitors are being subjected to medical screenings before they are allowed to enter Jordan, The Times of Israel reports. Visitors to the Hashemite kingdom will undergo chest and throat examinations as well as have their temperatures taken, Adnan Ishaq, the ministrys assistant secretary-general for healthcare shared on state-funded TV. Those showing symptoms are quarantined for 14 days. They will be released once they receive a negative test result.

Non-Jordanian travelers from Iran and South Korea are banned from entering the country. The ban is a temporary precautionary measure, the Middle East Monitor reports.

As of February 27, there have been 82,000 cases in 51 countries and regions, CNN reports. The CDC has issued travel alert threat levels for every region throughout the world. Jordan is currently at a threat level 1, which means the threat level is still at the watch level. Business Insider reports that Middle Eastern and Asian countries have been the most proactive at trying to reduce the virus spread.

Catch Daoud and the rest of the crew on Summer House, which airs on Wednesday at 9 p.m. / 8 p.m. central on Bravo.
The hungry ducks could be sent to eat the insects that are devouring crops in Pakistan, experts say.

China could deploy 100,000 ducks to neighbouring Pakistan to help tackle swarms of crop-eating locusts, according to reports.

Pakistan declared an emergency earlier this month saying locust numbers were the worst in more than two decades.

An agricultural expert behind the scheme says a single duck can eat more than 200 locusts a day and can be more effective than pesticides.

However, another researcher questioned whether the ducks would be effective.

Millions of the insects have also been devastating crops in parts of East Africa.

The Chinese government announced this week it was sending a team of experts to Pakistan to develop "targeted programmes" against the locusts.

Lu Lizhi, a senior researcher with the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told Bloomberg that the ducks are "biological weapons". He said that while chickens could eat about 70 locusts in one day a duck could devour more than three times that number.

"Ducks like to stay in a group so they are easier to manage than chickens," he told Chinese media.

A trial involving the ducks will take place in China's western Xinjiang province in the coming months, Mr Lu said.

After that they will be sent to Pakistan's worst-affected areas of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab provinces.

The scheme quickly took hold on Chinese social media.

"Go, ducks! I hope you come back alive," wrote one user of China's Twitter-like Weibo platform.

"Heroic ducks in harm's way!" said another, in a parody of the description commonly used for medical staff tackling the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.

However, a professor from the China Agriculture University, who is part of the delegation to Pakistan, questioned whether the ducks would be suited to the mainly arid conditions where the locusts are a problem.

"Ducks rely on water, but in Pakistan's desert areas, the temperature is very high," Zhang Long told reporters in Pakistan.

He said that although ducks have been used against locusts since ancient times, their deployment "hasn't yet entered the government assistance programme" and was an "exploratory" method.

In 2000, China shipped 30,000 ducks from Zhejiang province to Xinjiang to tackle an infestation of locusts.

According to the UN, the current heavy infestations can be traced back to the cyclone season of 2018-19 that brought heavy rains to the Arabian Peninsula and allowed at least three generations of "unprecedented breeding" that went undetected. Swarms have since spread out into South Asia and East Africa.

In January, the UN called for international help to fight swarms of desert locusts sweeping through East Africa.

Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are all struggling with "unprecedented" and "devastating" swarms of the food-devouring insects, the UN said. BBC
Scientists have discovered something they didn't think existed: an animal that can't breathe oxygen, and obviously doesn't need to.

That animal is a parasite called Henneguya salminocola, distantly related to jellyfish. It lives in the muscles of salmon and trout, causing unsightly little white nodules known as "tapioca disease."

The parasite has just 10 cells and is smaller than many of the cells in our bodies, but it has an extraordinary superpower  the ability to live without the machinery to turn oxygen into energy, researchers reported this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"In a way, it changes our view of animals," said senior author Dorothee Huchon, a zoology professor in the Faculty of Life Sciences and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University, who worked with collaborators in Israel, the U.S. and Canada.

While many microbes have evolved the ability to live without oxygen, animals tend to be much more complex, with many different kinds of cells and tissues combined in one organism.

As far as scientists knew until now, all animals were powered by organelles called mitochondria, which convert sugar and oxygen into energy through a process called respiration, and have their own "mitochondrial" genes.

Robin Loznak/The News-Review via Associated Press

Huchon was sequencing the genomes of Henneguya extracted from a Chinook salmon and related fish parasites when she noticed Henneguya's mitochondrial genes were missing.

"At first I thought, 'Oh, we made an error,'" she said.

But when the cells were stained with a dye that makes DNA fluorescent, only the cells' nucleus was stained  no mitochondria appeared, as they did in related fish parasites.

The mitochondrial DNA wasn't the only thing missing. So were genes for many enzymes involved in respiration normally found in the nucleus.

But where does the energy come from?

The cells still had organelles that looked like mitochondria and made other enzymes that mitochondria make. They just didn't do respiration anymore.

Story continues

What the researchers don't yet know is how the organism gets energy without breathing oxygen.

Some microbes that don't breathe oxygen breathe hydrogen instead, but there's no evidence Henneguya does this.

Some parasitic microbes don't breathe themselves, but steal energy molecules called ATP from their hosts.

"We believe this is what our parasite is doing," Huchon said.

American Friends of Tel Aviv University

Henneguya and its relatives spend part of their life cycle in a fish and part of their life cycle in a worm, although each organism is specialized in terms of what kind and part of the fish it chooses and what kind of worm it lives in. In the case of Henneguya, it lives in the muscles of coho, chinook, pink, sockeye and chum salmon as well as rainbow trout.

While it's related to jellyfish, it doesn't look anything like one. In the spore stage, it is somewhat tadpole-like.

"Otherwise, it's just a big blob," Huchon said.

The parasite doesn't appear to bother the fish much, she said, but tapioca disease can make its meat unmarketable and also cause the meat to spoil more quickly, making it a nuisance for the seafood industry: "No one wants to eat salmon full of white dots inside."

She suspects that both the salmon muscle and Henneguya's host worm are low-oxygen environments, making the ability to breathe oxygen useless to the organism.

Stephen Douglas Atkinson

Andrew Roger, a Dalhousie University biology professor who was not involved in the study but was part of a team that discovered the first eukaryote (organism with complex cells) without mitochondria, said he was surprised by the discovery, but found the evidence convincing.

"There was a belief that all animals should have mitochondrial DNA and be able to do aerobic metabolism," he said. "This one can't. It changes the textbook account of what you see in the animal kingdom."

However, he believes "it's inevitable" that scientists will find more animals like Henneguya among those that have adapted to living in places with almost no oxygen, such as some parts of the ocean floor.

In fact, scientists have already proposed that one such group of animals called loriciferans can do that, and had some evidence that this was the case, although not as much or as detailed as for Henneguya.

Roger says animals can actually use an oxygen-free process to produce energy from sugar, but it's far less efficient. He suspects this may be what Henneguya is doing.

Patrick Keeling, a biology professor at the University of British Columbia has also studied parasitic microbes that don't breathe oxygen, but wasn't involved in the research.

He said it's hard to prove that something doesn't exist, but said Huchon and her team have done that.

He added that the ability to live without breathing oxygen has evolved many times among microbes in environments with little or no oxygen.

"In a way, it's not surprising," he said. "But it's pretty cool that animals can do it too."
By PTI

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Friday told the Centre that around 450 Indian fishermen were stranded in Iran following the outbreak of coronavirus and urged the latter to take steps for their immediate evacuation.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami told Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar, that among the stranded were 300 fishermen from Tamil Nadu, and that all 450-odd were working in various fishing vessels berthed and operating in Iranian ports.

"These fishermen are reportedly stranded in Port Kish, Cheeru and other places in Iran, due to the cancellation of flights, because of the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran," he told Jaishankar in a letter.

He said that the fishermen requested that they be evacuated from Iran immediately. "I request your good office to direct the Embassy of India in Iran to provide the required support to the fishermen and also to make arrangements for their safe and immediate return to India," Palaniswami said.
Texhong Textile Group Limited (HKG:2678), which is in the luxury business, and is based in Hong Kong, saw significant share price movement during recent months on the SEHK, rising to highs of HK$9.60 and falling to the lows of HK$7.71. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether Texhong Textile Group's current trading price of HK$8.38 reflective of the actual value of the small-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Lets take a look at Texhong Textile Groups outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change.

See our latest analysis for Texhong Textile Group

What is Texhong Textile Group worth?

According to my price multiple model, which makes a comparison between the company's price-to-earnings ratio and the industry average, the stock price seems to be justfied. Ive used the price-to-earnings ratio in this instance because theres not enough visibility to forecast its cash flows. The stocks ratio of 6.7x is currently trading slightly below its industry peers ratio of 8.26x, which means if you buy Texhong Textile Group today, youd be paying a reasonable price for it. And if you believe Texhong Textile Group should be trading in this range, then there isnt much room for the share price to grow beyond the levels of other industry peers over the long-term. Is there another opportunity to buy low in the future? Since Texhong Textile Groups share price is quite volatile, we could potentially see it sink lower (or rise higher) in the future, giving us another chance to buy. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for how much the stock moves relative to the rest of the market.

What kind of growth will Texhong Textile Group generate?

SEHK:2678 Past and Future Earnings, February 27th 2020

Future outlook is an important aspect when youre looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so lets also take a look at the company's future expectations. With profit expected to grow by 53% over the next couple of years, the future seems bright for Texhong Textile Group. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation.

Story continues

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? 2678s optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading around industry price multiples. However, there are also other important factors which we havent considered today, such as the financial strength of the company. Have these factors changed since the last time you looked at 2678? Will you have enough confidence to invest in the company should the price drop below the industry PE ratio?

Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping tabs on 2678, now may not be the most optimal time to buy, given it is trading around industry price multiples. However, the optimistic forecast is encouraging for 2678, which means its worth further examining other factors such as the strength of its balance sheet, in order to take advantage of the next price drop.

Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters  the fundamentals  before you make a decision on Texhong Textile Group. You can find everything you need to know about Texhong Textile Group in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in Texhong Textile Group, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
T ensions in the Middle East escalated today as Turkey vowed to retaliate over an airstrike that killed 33 of its troops in Syrias Idlib province.

Ankara said it would respond in kind with attacks on all Syrias military positions.

Meanwhile, there were reports that Russia was sending two warships equipped with cruise missiles to the Mediterranean Sea near the Syrian coast.

Thirty-three of our soldiers were martyred as a result of the airstrike  by the forces of the [Bashar al-]Assad regime, said Rahmi Dogan, the governor of Turkeys Hatay province.

There was no immediate comment from Damascus.

Turkey-backed Syrian fighters are pictured in the town of Saraqib in the eastern part of the Idlib province in northwestern Syria / AFP via Getty Images

Russia, which is providing military support to the Syrian regime, denied its warplanes were involved in last nights attack.

Moscows defence ministry said the Turkish troops who came under fire were deployed among terrorist battle formations  and that no Turkish military units were meant to be in the area.

After receiving information about Turkish casualties, the Russian side took all the necessary measures in order for the Syrian forces to stop the fire, it claimed.

Turkey-backed Syrian fighters celebrate in the town of Saraqib in the eastern part of the Idlib province / AFP via Getty Images

The attack marked Turkeys biggest loss of life since it became involved in the Syrian conflict in 2016.

Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a six-hour emergency meeting last night to discuss the response to the growing crisis.

Officials later claimed the country would no longer stop Syrian refugees displaced by the conflict from entering mainland Europe by land or sea.

Tents housing internally displaced people in Atma camp in Idlib Governorate of Syria are seen on the Syrian side of the border zone near the Turkish village of Bukulmez in Hatay province / REUTERS

Turkey had struck a deal with the European Union in 2016 to block passage for those fleeing the war in exchange for billions of euros in aid.

We have decided, effectively immediately, not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land or sea, an official said.

Ambassadors from Nato countries were holding emergency talks today at the request of Turkey, a member of the alliance. The Turkish stock market fell 10 per cent in the wake of the airstrike.

Turkey-backed Syrian fighters ride a tank in the town of Saraqib in the eastern part of the Idlib province in northwestern Syria / AFP via Getty Images

The UN called for an immediate ceasefire. Without urgent action, the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The airstrike came after a Russian delegation spent two days in Ankara for talks with Turkish officials on the situation in Idlib, where a Syrian government offensive has sent hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing towards the Turkish border.
By Jarrett Renshaw CHARLESTON, S.C.

By Jarrett Renshaw

CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - Republican activists in South Carolina are urging party voters to do the seemingly unthinkable: support U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders' bid for the White House in the state's Democratic primary on Saturday.

The unusual effort is aimed at exposing what the activists see as flaws in the Southern state's open primary system - and at boosting the candidate many Republicans view as the easiest rival for Republican President Donald Trump to beat in November.

Sanders enters Saturday's contest as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, fueled by wins in New Hampshire and Nevada and a near-tie for first in Iowa.

But the Vermonter, an independent who calls himself a democratic socialist, now faces a tough challenge from Joe Biden. The former vice president is bolstered by strong support from African Americans who comprise a large share of South Carolina's Democratic electorate.

"Bernie is a socialist and the most egregious of all the candidates. He is also the weakest against Trump, said Pressley Stutts, a Tea Party activist and one of the organizers behind an interference effort dubbed "Operation Chaos."

The Sanders campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Democrats and Republicans previously have threatened to interfere with the other partys primary process in South Carolina and elsewhere, generally without success. In Iowa, however, Republicans boasted they clogged Democratic Party telephone lines, exacerbating embarrassing delays in reporting caucus results.

State Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson called the Republican efforts nonsense. He said party leaders expect greater Democratic primary numbers not due to Republican gamesmanship but because voters are fed up with the immoral, anti-Christian person occupying the White House.

South Carolina voters do not register by party and are allowed to vote in either party's contest. After the state Republican Party canceled its primary this year out of deference to Trump, activists long angered by Democrats allegedly participating in local Republican votes saw an opportunity for payback.

Stutts said he has been inundated with emails, texts and social media messages from Republicans eager to join the effort. On Tuesday, he held a news conference in Greenville, South Carolina, to announce the plan to vote for Sanders after some internal wrangling over which candidate to support.

Karen Martin, a freelance editor and pet sitter in Spartanburg, is leading a similar effort she has coined "Trump 2-29" in a nod to the primary date. Like Stutts, she wants the state to change to a closed primary system and sees delivering a victory for Sanders as the best way to antagonize a Democratic Party that includes some who are reluctant to embrace his candidacy.

With no party registration figures, it will be difficult to measure the impact of the Republican organizing efforts.

A Public Policy Polling survey released on Monday found a "fair number" of Trump supporters planned to vote in the Democratic primary. But the survey said their dispersed support among several candidates meant they would not be a factor.

State Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick said his organization has not endorsed the activists' efforts, nor has it called for the movement to stop.

"I am not sure exactly how much this will move the needle," he said. "I do know that I'm having fun watching the Democratic circus and that Bernie Sanders, a socialist, would provide the ultimate contrast between the two parties."

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman told Tara Lynn Lee that she deserved 'life' for the schemes she pulled, describing her actions as 'evil'

A woman who scammed more than $2million from would-be adoptive parents to spend on expensive shopping sprees has been sentenced to 10 years in prison - with the stipulation that she reads the impact statements of all 40 people she ripped off.

U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman told Tara Lynn Lee that she deserved 'life' for the schemes she pulled, describing her actions as 'evil.'

Lee must also record the statements in addition to reading them, the Detroit Free Press reports.

'If you miss even one word, you're going to start over again,' Friedman told the distraught woman during her Wednesday sentencing.

Lee pleaded guilty to fraud last year, admitting that she matched many would-be adopters with fake birth mothers only to give them excuses about the adoption falling through so she could keep the money.

The woman even told one couple from Georgia that the birth mother for their child had been shot and killed, asking them if they wanted to pay for the funeral arrangements.

Lee pleaded guilty to fraud last year, admitting that she matched many adoptive parents with fake birth mothers only to give them excuses about the adoption fell through so she could keep the money

A lengthy criminal complaint stated that Lee claimed to be a licensed social worker with a master's degree in social work from Northwestern University  neither of which were true  and then advertised adoption opportunities to her network of adoption agencies

Lee is said to have sent parents fake ultrasounds and encouraged others to buy car seats and set up nurseries.

One woman shared that 'to this day, she has "an empty nursery that I cannot bring myself to take down,"' court records reveal.

Lee expressed remorse for her crimes.

'I would swim any ocean. I would climb any mountain to undo the hurt that I did,' the mother of five said. 'I pray every night for the forgiveness of everyone on that indictment and everyone not on that indictment.'

While Lee claimed to earn $55,000 annually, her spending showed that she was raking in dough

But the prosecutors nor Friedman were moved by her remarks.

'Lee did more than steal money. She broke her victims hearts, over and over again,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward declared.

The families Lee was said to have swindled through Always Hope Pregnancy and Education Center  which is not a licensed adoption agency  came from all over the US, but specifically: Georgia, Missouri, South Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Colorado and Minnesota. The stealing took place from 2014-2018.

A lengthy criminal complaint stated that Lee claimed to be a licensed social worker with a master's degree in social work from Northwestern University  neither of which were true  and then advertised adoption opportunities to her network of adoption agencies.

'Lee left in her wake a trail of luxury items,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward writes. 'Lees French handbags and expensive jewelry was paid for by people hoping that she might help them realize the simple dream of parenthood.'

Court records indicate that she spent money on the following: $43,000 at Louise Vuitton, $130,000 at high-end jewelers like Cartier, $34,899 at Saks Fifth Avenue, $42,705 for David Yurman wares, $41,790 at Hutche's Jewelry, $37,876 in car payments, $44, 629 in airline tickets, $24, 655 at Nordstrom, $19951 at Pandora, $1,187 at Canada Goose and $1,478 at Lululemon

Always Hope Pregnancy and Education Center had been investigated by the state in 2015 and 2018. On both occasions, it was found that Lee was providing unlicensed adoption services. She was ordered to stop but Lee refused.

'The FBI investigation identified over 160 adoptive couples and 70 birth mothers in 24 states that worked with Lee. Many of these individuals spoke with the FBI, and shared their experience of working with Lee,' Woodward added.

In total, 17 couples were included in the indictments against Lee.

While Lee claimed to earn $55,000 annually, her spending showed that she was raking in money.

Friedman has ordered Lee to pay more than $1million in restitution. She must also forfeit $300,000

'Lee left in her wake a trail of luxury items,' Woodward writes. 'Lees French handbags and expensive jewelry was paid for by people hoping that she might help them realize the simple dream of parenthood.'

Court records indicate that she spent money on the following: $43,000 at Louise Vuitton, $130,000 at high-end jewelers like Cartier, $34,899 at Saks Fifth Avenue, $42,705 for David Yurman wares, $41,790 at Hutche's Jewelry, $37,876 in car payments, $44, 629 in airline tickets, $24, 655 at Nordstrom, $19951 at Pandora, $1,187 at Canada Goose and $1,478 at Lululemon.

Friedman has ordered Lee to pay more than $1million in restitution. She must also forfeit $300,000.

'This case is heartbreaking,' U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said. 'Lee ruthlessly conned parents who were hoping to adopt the precious gift of life ... (she) literally stole the dreams of people who wanted to become moms and dads. And she used the profits from those stolen dreams to buy high-end jewelry and luxuries for herself.

'Such a twisted and sick deceit of these innocent victims deserves this appropriate sentence in federal prison.'

Lee had friends, relatives and her lawyer all write letters of support to the judge. There were even some of her clients in the letters.

'She matched me with the most wonderful adoptive parents that I truly love," one of Lee's birth-mother clients wrote in her letter. 'I was not forced to write this. I'm writing this while crying because I mean this from the bottom of my heart.'

But ultimately the judge determined that she should not be shown leniency.
The United States has taken new action to hold members of the Iranian regime accountable for their repression of the Iranian people, in particular, denying Iranians the right to free and fair elections.

On February 20, the United States added five members of Irans Guardian Council and its Elections Supervision Committee to the U.S. Department of Treasurys List of Specially Designated Nationals. They include Ahmad Jannati, Secretary of the Guardian Council, who has praised the killing of political dissidents; Mohammad Yazdi, a senior member of the Council and former head of Irans brutal judiciary, and three other officials.

At a press briefing, U.S. Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook said, Together these five officials oversee a process that silences the voice of the Iranian people, curtails their freedom, and limits their political participation:

Any Iranian who wants to run for office must first be approved by the Guardian Council and its Committee for Election Supervision . . . They decide who gets on the ballot. They are the ones who really get to vote in Iran.

Special Representative Hook said that Ahmad Jannati is renowned in Iran for his calls for Death to America and Death to Israel, as well as for his approval of the execution of protesters. However, he is not well known to the American or European media:

Because the regime doesnt want him to be well known.That would be bad marketing.But the people of Iran know him quite well and clerics like Ahmad Jannati are why the regime is facing a crisis of credibility and legitimacy at home.

Adding Jannati and the four other senior Iranian officials to Treasurys List of Specially Designated Nationals shines a spotlight on the officials role in preventing the Iranian people from freely choosing their leaders.It also means that all property and interests in property of these persons that are in the United States or in possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC.

The United States will continue to expose Iranian officials who use their authority to abuse the rights of the Iranian people and deny them their basic freedoms, said Special Representative Hook. This regime should respect the aspirations of its people for a representative government and give them a real choice at the ballot box.
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A whistle-blower has revealed that Trump sent U.S. health workers to examine quarantined coronavirus Americans without protective gear or training.

The New York Times reported:

In a portion of a complaint filing obtained by The New York Times that has been submitted to the Office of the Special Counsel, the whistle-blower, described as a senior leader at the Department of Health and Human Services, said the team was improperly deployed to two military bases in California to assist the processing of Americans who had been evacuated from coronavirus hot zones in China and elsewhere.

.

I soon began to field panicked calls from my leadership team and deployed staff members expressing concerns with the lack of H.H.S. communication and coordination, staff being sent into quarantined areas without personal protective equipment, training or experience in managing public health emergencies, safety protocols and the potential danger to both themselves and members of the public they come into contact with, the whistle-blower wrote.

The exposed healthcare workers were walking around a military base, flying commericial, and stay at a local hotel. None of them had proper protective gear or training. The workers also were not told that they were supposed to be taking their temperature three times a day.

This sort of mismanagement of a public health emergency is how a crisis becomes a pandemic. Trump is more worried about the stock market than the health of the American people. The presidents inept, incompetent, and careless administration undoubtedly spread the coronavirus in the United States.

Donald Trump is causing, not preventing, a public health emergency.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook
What do you care? Have you heard of Rwanda? Tens of thousands killed before sundown. Nobodys killed people that fast since Nagasaki and Hiroshima. This is part of a memorable scene in Collateral, an American movie starring Tom Cruise playing a cold-blooded contract killer dressed in a fashionable slim-fit business suit. Vincent (Tom Cruise) was wondering why Max, a Los Angeles taxi driver (played by Jamie Foxx), was perturbed to have the body of a man dumped in his cab trunk.

The scene is shocking but revealing. Nobody cares about the huge losses of lives in Africa, the sprawling epidemics, and the lack of access to basic human necessities: water and electricity, for instance. In the case of political upheaval, Africans are usually assured by human rights organisations that their voices matter, but their lives may not.

Take, for instance, the case of a dear African country  the Democratic Republic of the Congo  as evidence that the core issues are getting a raw deal, at least for a nation that strives for survival. The DRC is one of the largest countries in Africa and one of the most populous. It spans a huge area, roughly 2,344,858 square kilometres in the Central Africa region, and is home to over 100 million people. Over the years, the country was left in the dark, battling armed insurgencies in the east, and various epidemics  the outbreak of the lethal Ebola virus and measles in 2018 and 2019 respectively only the most recent. The country came only to the fore when former president Joseph Kabila refused to hold elections, seeking a third term in office, sending the whole nation into a wave of uncertainty. The West surely reacted and human rights organisations shelled the Congolese people with tens of reports employing the famous refrain, each voice counts. By 2019, with a new president already in office, world attention evaporated.

While global media outlets were competing to update their audiences on the unfolding political developments in the country, nobody gave attention to the regrettable social crisis. Amid that media coverage, has it been noticed that over 75 million Congolese people literally live in the dark without access to electricity? Has any international organisation, particularly those cramming African nations with reports detailing their breaches of the stereotypical image of human rights, tried to raise funds for the people of the Congo, or at least brought to the attention of the public in the West that millions of humans in the Congo do not have access to electricity?

Do many recognise the fact that the DRC has the hydropower potential to light up a significant part of the whole continent thanks to the powerful Congo River, the second largest in discharge in the world, next only to the Amazon River? Should the country have secured much needed funding, it would have fully utilised the rivers estimated 40,000 megawatts of hydropower, a massive power output that may have changed the face of life not only in the country, but in many darkness-stricken countries in Africa. The ugly truth is that only 2,200 megawatts of this huge potential is utilised due to the lack of necessary funding.

But if you think this is the only human right from which the Congolese people are deprived, then you are completely wrong. The people of the Congo lack the humble means to stay alive, because in case of the outbreak of any epidemic their lives are at stake. Last year, an unfortunate outbreak of measles ravaged all 26 of the DRCs provinces, constituting the worlds biggest measles outbreak in decades. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported the death of 6,000 people, mostly children under five, with the highly contagious epidemic leaving more than 300,000 people in jeopardy. Regrettably, people in the West never bat an eye for helpless humans in Africa. As the WHO has noted, again lack of funding impedes efforts aimed at curbing outbreaks of lethal contagion among the Congolese people. The lack of funding for lifesaving medication, particularly when rich West can afford it in no time, is a ruthless breach of human rights.

These are just two examples of how the West replies to real issues in Africa and among helpless peoples at large. In plain language, over many decades, Western powers have not recognised that some of their peoples lifestyles are not a passport to heaven. Westernisation is not synonym for civilisation.

Above all, why have organisations that raise the bright banner of human rights failed to consider that it has taken decades for Westerners to be who they are today? Six decades ago, the works of D H Lawrence, a prominent English novelist, were banned for tens of years both in his home nation England and in the United States. The reason was that his writings, most notably Lady Chatterleys Lover, were dubbed as obscene and indecent. Now, D H Lawrence is celebrated as one of the greatest novelists of the 20th Century!

At that time, American and British societies were conservative and could not tolerate the explicit depiction of adult relationships. Nobody at the time slammed British or American decision-makers as savage or labelled ruling regimes as repressive because they could not tolerate freedom of expression or courageously embrace different opinions  readymade charges nowadays employed to stigmatise most African nations whenever necessary. Or perhaps, the British and Americans were busy at the time rebuilding following the devastating effects of World War II and they prioritised reinvigorating their ailing economies more than paying due attention to a writer, or freedom of expression.

In different regions in Africa, as in the case of the DRC, peoples are yearning for a normal life where their most basic needs are met. Every life counts in the West, or so it said, but in Africa it is every voice that counts.

In his great satire Animal Farm, George Orwell predicted the tragic scenario meticulously when he stated that, all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

*The writer is a former press and information officer in Ethiopia and an expert on African affairs.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 27 February, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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A man found shot to death in a pickup after it crashed  and moments before police chased a suspect in the incident  was identified by the Bexar County Medical Examiners Office.

Luis Guerrero, 35, died as a result of a gunshot wound to the abdomen at about 10 a.m. Feb. 21 in the 200 block of Darby Boulevard, the medical examiner said.

On the day of the incident, witnesses who heard the pickup crash ran outside to find Greg Anthony Delgado, 34, attempting to take several items from the pickup.

RELATED: SAPD has man in custody who it says shot at police

Delgado told one witness I need to hide these, before running away, a San Antonio police report states. Police caught up to him moments later on the other side of U.S. 90 near Brady Boulevard. .

Police said Delgado began firing at Officer Gabrial Sanchez, who had driven up to him while he was running. Sanchez fired back, but Delgado fled once more. Delgado then allegedly aimed his weapon at Officer Michael Oliva before other officers managed to subdue him.

Delgado was arrested and charged with attempted capital murder of a police officer, aggravated assault against a public servant, possession of a controlled substance, and felon in possession of a weapon. He was still in jail Thursday on bonds totaling $660,000.

Investigators told Delgado that he was a suspect in Guerreros death, but no charges have been filed as of Thursday evening.

Police said Sanchez would be placed on administrative duty.

Jacob Beltran is a reporter covering San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jbeltran@express-news.net | Twitter: @JBfromSA
In the neighborhood where the supervised injection site was briefly slated to open in the Constitution Health Plaza, business owners expressed relief Friday. Read more

Jody Della Barba got tipped off almost two weeks ago about plans to open a supervised injection site not far from her home in South Philadelphia.

Within days, Della Barba, a community activist and former secretary to Mayor Frank L. Rizzo, had confirmed the location: the Constitution Health Plaza on South Broad Street. She and others identified businesses already in the building, including a day care center and an elder care organization, then turned to Facebook to enlist neighbors to spread the news.

On Friday, they were relishing a swift and stunning victory. Barely a day after the nonprofit Safehouse, armed with a judges approval, had announced the South Philadelphia location, its operators had walked back plans to open the nations first supervised injection site. That came after intense outcry from residents and city politicians, who criticized what they saw as a lack of community input.

Della Barba said a key to their strategy was informing other businesses around the plaza that people in addiction would be encouraged to come to their neighborhood to legally use drugs  a step that she believes rattled other tenants and ultimately persuaded the sites landlord to rescind the lease.

When you want to go after someone," Della Barba said, "you have to hit their pocketbook.

She and other opponents had no plans to slow their campaign. Weekend rallies were planned and city officials were mulling next steps. "Weve got to make it illegal to put this anywhere, Della Barba said.

In agreeing to delay, Safehouses leaders acknowledged failing to hold community discussions before announcing they would begin operating next week. But on Friday, Safehouse vice president Ronda Goldfein appeared to challenge complaints that residents were blindsided.

We were trying to communicate with folks. We didnt want this to hit people totally by surprise, we were trying to have conversations," she said, adding that ongoing legal battles limited what they could say. Still, she said, the flow of social media suggested the site wasnt a secret. "How would the location have been shared in the community if people in the community didnt know about it?

 READ MORE: Supervised injection site in South Philadelphia will not open  at least for now

Bordered by Mifflin and McKean Streets, the Broad Street site is surrounded by banks, stores and other businesses. Its around the corner from a day-care center, a block from the Melrose Diner, and a five-minute walk from the East Passyunk Avenue corridor lined with restaurants.

Supporters of supervised injection sites say they protect public health and help prevent overdoses, keeping people alive until they can go into recovery, and noted that sites in Canada and Europe have not attracted drug dealers or people in addiction to the area. Mayor Jim Kenney has said the site could save at least dozens of lives each year in Philadelphia, which has logged more than 3,000 fatal drug overdoses in three years.

But City Council united against the site and also helped mobilize opposition.

Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson said he first heard about Safehouses plan to open at Constitution Health Plaza  within his district  on Feb. 21, four days before the official announcement.

I was informed that they were already staffed up. If they were already staffed up, that means this process had been prepared for  it had to be taking place back behind the scenes," Johnson said. He met Tuesday with Managing Director Brian Abernathy to discuss the operation but expected there also would be a neighborhood meeting.

Something of this magnitude that affects everyone should be rolled out in a very public way with community input, so people can just know what are the facts," he said.

Meanwhile, concern about how the injection site might affect homes, schools, and businesses spread quickly among neighbors. A petition against safe injection sites in Philadelphia garnered 6,870 signatures. Rallies were planned.

Leighanne Savloff, a 43-year-old mother of two who lives in the Girard Estates neighborhood, said the opposition spread like wildfire on Facebook.

Because we do live in that close, tight-knit community, it goes viral amongst us, she said.

The community was already upset about a recent increase in crime; she called news of the supervised injection site the straw that broke South Phillys back.

As organizers like Della Barba posted phone numbers, people encouraged each other to flood politicians and building owner Steve Atlass with calls.

Some Facebook commenters attributed their opposition to a South Philadelphia heritage unwilling to be steamrolled by city government. People should NEVER UNDERESTIMATE OUR SOUTH PHILLY COMMUNITY!!!! one woman wrote.

Councilmember Mark Squilla said he believed concerns from the Constitution Health Plaza tenants contributed to the suspension of the plan. It was a combination of a lot of different things," he said.

 READ MORE: Philadelphias supervised injection site has faced a long legal battle: How we got here

Constitution Health Plaza apologized to tenants in a letter, saying it had hoped to play a positive role in providing an innovative way to bring needed services to those suffering from addiction but that it had listened to community concerns.

We believe in the good intentions of all involved  on both sides of this issue  and want to thank you for your honest communications with us over the past few days, the letter said.

Johnson said he has not heard that Safehouse is considering any other property in his district, but he would oppose efforts to open somewhere else.

Business owners near Constitution Health Plaza said Thursdays announcement eased their worries that the site would hurt their business.

The community felt disrespected, said Joey Maccarone, who lives in the neighborhood and works as a chef at Pizzeria Pesto on Broad Street, across from the site.

But some did voice support for the site or challenge neighbors opposition, and supporters in the community said they hoped to rebuild trust.

I see so much support in South Philly, said Brittany Salerno, a community outreach worker in the neighborhood who works with homeless people in addiction. And unfortunately of course there are community members that feel blindsided and theyre so angry about how this happened that they dont want to hear the rest of it. But theres so much ample support.

Staff writers Sean Collins Walsh, Laura McCrystal, and Aubrey Whelan contributed to this article.

Ronda Goldfein of Safehouse is the wife of David Lee Preston, an editor at The Inquirer. He is not involved in coverage of this story.
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Nargiz Ismayilova - Trend:

The purpose of cooperation between Italy and Azerbaijan is to strengthen activities in the energy sector by diversifying energy sources, Italian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Alessandra Todde said.

Todde made the remark in Baku at the event dedicated to the sixth ministerial meeting of the Advisory Council on the Southern Gas Corridor, Trend reports from the event Feb. 28.

The deputy minister said that Italys position is that the Southern Gas Corridor is the basis for ensuring energy security for both suppliers and consumers.

Energy cooperation has a great future, Todde noted.

The memorandum of understanding in the field of energy was signed by the respective ministers of the two countries during the visit by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Italy, the deputy minister added.

The sixth ministerial meeting is being held in Baku within the Advisory Council of the Southern Gas Corridor. Among the participants are representatives of BP, Southern Gas Corridor, BOTAS, TPAO, TANAP, TAP, SNAM, Fluxys, ICGB AD, Transgaz, SNGN Romgaz SA, Uniper Global Commodities SE, Bulgargaz EAD, SACE, Plinacro and international financial institutions, namely, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and European Investment Bank.

The first ministerial meeting as part of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council was held on February 12, 2015, the second meeting on February 29, 2016, the third meeting on February 23, 2017, the fourth meeting on February 15, 2018 and the fifth meeting on February 20, 2019.
Dame Emma Thompson memorably once described this country as a tiny little cloud-bolted, rainy corner of sort-of Europe, a cake-filled misery-laden grey old island.

Now, reportedly in the wake of Brexit, the Oscar winner is quitting these shores to seek more happiness  and sunshine  in Italy.

Dame Emma and her husband Greg Wise, who played Earl Mountbatten in Netflix hit The Crown, have become citizens of Venice. They have registered as residents of the lagoon city, where they already own a house, and are both having intensive Italian lessons.

In fact, Dame Emma, 60, and Wise, 53, achieved two things at the same time.

Dame Emma Thompson and her husband Greg Wise (pictured together), who played Earl Mountbatten in Netflix hit The Crown, have become citizens of Venice

By registering in Venice  which has ironically been hit by recent flooding and the current coronavirus crisis  they have also become official residents of Italy.

This gives them the same rights to healthcare, work and study as an Italian citizen. She and Wise have also been granted honorary citizenship of Venice. This has no legal status  it is akin to being made a freeman of the City of London. They will retain their British passports.

Speaking in Italian after signing the formal documents last week, Dame Emma said becoming an honorary citizen of Venice represented the realisation of a dream she had cherished for years. Venices mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, confirmed that the couple had been granted citizenship in a ceremony in the citys register office, where they were pictured signing documents and were presented with a Lion of St Mark statuette.

Dame Emma, 60, and Wise, 53, (pictured signing papers) have registered as residents of the lagoon city, where they already own a house, and are both having intensive Italian lessons

The couple own a 3million house in West Hampstead, London, but the deputy mayor of Venice, Simone Venturini, said their Italian property would be their main residence. They wanted to be resident citizens to come and live in Venice, he said. They bought in the historic centre, not a second home.

Mr Venturini added: She was very happy and said that she loves Venice very much.

They told me they are attending Italian courses. We are truly happy and proud to have Emma Thompson and Greg Wise as our fellow citizens, for what they represent and for the love they show for Venice.

A source at the mayors office said Dame Emma took the decision because of Brexit and because her children were now old enough for her to move away, fulfilling her dream to live in Venice properly.

The couple have a 20-year-old daughter, Gaia, and an adopted son, Tindy, in his 30s.

Dame Emma, who also has a Scottish holiday home, was a strong opponent of Brexit, claiming before the referendum that Britain would be mad not to remain in the EU. The actress and screenwriter added that she just felt European and we should be taking down borders, not putting them up.

She will be following in the footsteps of her Love Actually co-star Colin Firth, who accepted honorary Italian citizenship in 2017, becoming a dual Italian and British citizen.

The actor, whose estranged wife Livia is Italian, previously said: Brexit does not have a single positive aspect for me. Many colleagues, including Emma Thompson, are  like me  enthusiastic Europeans.

By registering in Venice (pictured) which has ironically been hit by recent flooding and the current coronavirus crisis  they have also become official residents of Italy

If a Briton registers officially as a resident in an EU country before the deadline of December 31 this year, as Dame Emma has done, they have the right to live and work in that country permanently.

After the deadline, anyone not resident will have to apply and be assessed according to the systems which emerge in individual EU countries.

Dame Emma and Wise were unavailable for comment.
A Chinese destroyer pointed a laser at an American maritime patrol aircraft over the western Pacific Ocean last week, the US Navy said, calling the incident unsafe and unprofessional.

The US Pacific Fleet said in a statement on Friday that the destroyer targeted the P-8A Poseidon aircraft as it flew over international waters about 610km (380 miles) west of Guam on February 17.

The laser, which was not visible to the naked eye, was captured by a sensor on board the P-8A, the statement said. Weapons-grade lasers could potentially cause serious harm to aircrew and mariners, as well as ship and aircraft systems.

It said the action by the Chinese warship had breached the multilateral Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, which specifically addresses the use of lasers that could cause harm to personnel or damage to equipment.

The action was also inconsistent with a memorandum of understanding reached between the US and Chinese defence ministries on rules of behaviour for safety during air and maritime encounters, the US Pacific Fleet said.

The P-8A is deployed to the Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan, and is part of a squadron that conducts routine operations, maritime patrols and reconnaissance in the US 7th Fleet area of operations, according to the statement.

China and the United States have exchanged tough words as tensions simmer over their military activities in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly over the South China Sea and Taiwan.

A Chinese destroyer is said to have pointed a laser at a US Navy aircraft near Guam. Photo: Weibo

The Chinese South Sea Fleet completed a 41-day drill in the western Pacific earlier this week, according to state media, in a move to show its military exercises were continuing even as the country battles the coronavirus epidemic.

Meanwhile, the US Air Force sent two surveillance planes over the Taiwan Strait on February 12, after the Peoples Liberation Army conducted naval and air force drills in the area.

Story continues

Collin Koh, a research fellow with the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, said the latest incident was a serious provocation, noting that the Chinese military had also pointed lasers at the US in Djibouti.

Use of lasers is as dangerous as manoeuvring ones aerial or naval asset too close to another to cause the potential of collision  the lasers can pose a serious navigational hazard, Koh said.

While both [the Chinese and US navies] have the legitimate right to carry out their activities on the high seas out there in the western Pacific  including the use of these platforms to monitor each other  the use of lasers to endanger navigation in fact represents a serious provocation, he said.

The US Navy P-8A might have flown lower for closer observation, but I dont think it went to the point of risking a collision with the [Chinese] warship.

The incident was likely to further undermine trust and military stability between China and the United States, Koh said.

It also wouldnt be the first time the [Chinese navy] formations would have had company from US military assets keeping tabs on them, he said.

But Hong Kong-based military commentator Song Zhongping rejected the US Navys claim that the Chinese warship had violated the code of conduct, saying its action was just a routine warning.

The US is unhappy because the Chinese fleet was very close to Guam, and it saw the Chinese fleet as taking an unfriendly measure against the US, he said.

But its normal for a naval fleet and aircraft to send warnings to each other, Song said. If the other sides reconnaissance plane gets too close to vessels, it can be a security risk. So they take self-defence measures.

Additional reporting by Minnie Chan

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UPDATE: Holland schools dropped from lawsuit over ex-workers sex abuse of students

HOLLAND, MI  Five years before a Holland Public Schools worker was arrested for sexually abusing male students, a student who heard about the abuse told school officials who dismissed her complaint, a lawsuit says.

Jonathan King Meyer was a youth-group leader at Christ Memorial Church in Holland and a leader at Young Life, another program for teens. He denied the girls allegations.

He returned to his job as lunch-room supervisor at Hollands West Middle School.

The girl, who was present when school officials confronted Meyer with the allegations, was verbally reprimanded for making the complaint, the lawsuit said.

She kept quiet after that. Then, in 2011, she confided in a friends mother - a mandatory child-abuse reporter - that male classmates had been abused by Meyer. The mother contacted police who eventually arrested Meyer.

The allegations are contained in a federal lawsuit filed by five former Holland students. Others, including former students at Holland Christian Schools, were victimized as well, the lawsuit said.

(School officials) individual and collective failures to report Meyer in 2006 further endangered the Plaintiffs and other child victims who continued to be sexually assaulted, abused, and molested for years following the report, Holland attorney Jeffrey Buckman wrote in court documents.

Meyer, 40, was arrested in January 2012.

He was sentenced that September to six to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of first-degree criminal-sexual conduct. In a plea deal, two other charges were dismissed. He spent about six years in prison before his release in 2018.

Three of the victims testified against Meyer in 2012. They met Meyer at the middle school where he worked part-time. He befriended students, who were as young as 11, the lawsuit said.

Once he gained their trust, he encouraged them to join a Christ Memorial Church youth group and a Young Life group. He was a leader for both.

Holland Public Schools said in a statement to MLive/The Grand Rapids Press: At this time, per district policy, there will be no response from the district.

The district said it also has a policy not to comment on matters that could intrude upon the privacy of individuals and families in the community.

Our hearts continue to go out to individuals and families as they cope with the life-long impacts brought on by the traumatic crimes committed by Meyer several years ago.

In a statement, Terry Swenson, a vice president for Colorado Springs-based Young Life, said: Jonathan Meyer betrayed the trust of several young men, their families and the entire Holland community through his actions, which were contrary to all Young Life stands for as an organization committed to the safety and well-being of young people.

"We applaud the young men who came forward in 2011 to reveal Mr. Meyers criminal activity, and were fully supportive of the investigation and criminal case that resulted in his conviction. We have expressed our interest in engaging in conversation with the young men to identify ways we can support them in their ongoing healing processes. We are aware of the filing but it would be inappropriate for us to comment further about the litigation while it is pending.

Buckman, the attorney for the plaintiffs, did not respond to requests for comment.

The lawsuit said that the schools and youth groups presented Meyers as a role model, mentor, safe and trustworthy person in faith-based programs specifically aimed at adolescent minors.

Buckman wrote that Meyer had unfettered and often unsupervised access to adolescent minors including the Plaintiffs and other victims. Parents came to trust Meyer, not knowing that he routinely subjected their children to sex assault.

All of Meyers acts were conducted under the guise of providing a Christian role model to the adolescent boys he was entrusted with, Buckman wrote in the lawsuit.

Meyer used his position of authority, as well as the resources available to him through Young Life, Christ Memorial and Holland Public Schools, to recruit, manipulate, coerce and intimidate his victims.

The victims were assaulted at youth group events at various places, including Meyers home, his rented storage unit, a house on Graafschap Road owned by the church, the churchs youth center and a van. Other assaults happened during trips, the lawsuit said.

He taught them it was normal to masturbate together and have sex with each other and Meyer, the lawsuit said.

The 110-page lawsuit provided numerous examples of the boys being sexually abused, including an overnight lock-in party at a house owned by the church. Meyer was the only adult there.

During the event, he required the plaintiffs to masturbate in his presence, and let them watch a nude scene from a movie. He would provide them with cigarettes and alcohol, getting them hooked before they were old enough to buy the products on their own, the lawsuit said.

Meyer then used the cigarettes, alcohol and other peer pressure to coerce the Plaintiffs and other victims to act upon his commands, the lawsuit said.

Once, the lawsuit said, he was cabin leader on a Young Life camping trip. He would sneak the boys into the woods at night for sex.

Meyer told the Plaintiffs that what happens in the cabin, stays in the cabin, the lawsuit said.

In 2006, a girl who was a friend to the plaintiffs and attended the camping trip, heard about sex assaults happening to the boys there.

She allegedly told then-principal Kathryn Curry and then-vice president Kevin Derr about the alleged sex assaults, the lawsuit said. Meyer was confronted by the school officials with the girl present.

Meyers denial was immediately accepted as true and he was allowed to return to work, Buckman wrote. The then-seventh-grader was verbally reprimanded by Derr and was told that nobody believed her report, and that she needed to stop saying the wrong things.

Curry declined to comment when reached by MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Derr, now the principal at Holland Heights Elementary School, declined to comment through the school districts statement.

The lawsuit said the girls allegations were not reported to the schools superintendent, Holland police or Child Protective Services.

In 2011, the girl told the mother of a close friend that she had reported the sexual abuse to school officials but no one believed her. The mother, a mandatory reporter, contacted Holland police, which led to charges, the lawsuit said.

When he was charged in January 2012, Meyer was terminated by the schools and youth groups.

In some cases, the abuse went on for years, the lawsuit said. Meyer hired some of the boys to work for him in the summer.

The abuse traumatized the plaintiffs and devastated their families. Three of the five who filed suit have left Michigan, the lawsuit said.

One of the plaintiffs suffered extreme mental and emotional anguish resulting from anxiety, depression, sleep issues, social isolation and a general adjustment disorder, the lawsuit said.

He lost motivation and struggled to have close relationships with others. He had suicidal thoughts while in college.

The lawsuit said that Meyer took away childhoods - and a normal lives as adults, as well.

Others have also struggled with developing normal relationships  and have the same suicidal thoughts.

More on MLive:

AG: Alleged sex assaults by former Holland Schools worker may involve more students

Police identify woman killed in head-on crash

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 03:37:23|Editor: yan

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HELSINKI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The third case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Finnish capital Helsinki on Friday, Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) announced in a press release.

The patient is a working-age Finnish woman who was infected with the virus in northern Italy. The woman returned to Finland several days ago.

While traveling, the patient has not been exposed to other known patients. Her symptoms began later in Finland, according to THL.

The woman returned home after sampling on Thursday. She has been instructed to be self-quarantining at home.

Finnish health officials are working with infectious diseases experts to determine whether other persons may have been exposed to the infection. Those exposed will be personally contacted, said THL.
Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has told associates that he may endorse Joe Biden on Sunday if the former vice president turns in a strong first-place finish in Saturday's South Carolina primary, according to a person familiar with McAuliffe's thinking.

The move would provide a boost for Biden, who has been working to consolidate establishment support before Super Tuesday on March 3. On that day, Democrats in 16 jurisdictions, including Virginia, will jointly choose 34 percent of the party's convention delegates.

Biden hopes to emerge as the clear alternative to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in the Democratic field, something that has eluded centrist Democrats so far. He received the endorsement of Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Thursday following Wednesday's endorsement by Rep. James Clyburn, the most powerful Democrat in South Carolina.

Biden is now favored to win South Carolina on Saturday, according to recent polls, although the size of his victory is unclear and may be a factor in McAuliffe's decision, said the person familiar with his thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic deliberations.

A Biden campaign spokesman declined to comment, while a McAuliffe spokesman said the former governor "has not made a decision on an endorsement."

McAuliffe is an influential figure among Democratic leaders, and in some ways embodies the party establishment, though it's unclear how much weight his backing would carry with rank-and-file voters. McAuliffe chaired the Democratic National Committee and has close ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, holding top positions with their presidential campaigns.

He has been neutral in the race so far, although he held a fundraiser in November for Biden at his home in McLean. About 115 guests stood around McAuliffe's pool as the former governor described how Biden had helped Virginia as vice president, from securing grants for the state to fighting to clean the Shenandoah River.

"We've got to get America back to where people get along, where we have alliances around the world and everybody loves the United States of America," McAuliffe said, adding that Trump's "insanity" had led the country "off the rails."

McAuliffe's wife, Dorothy, is backing Biden and is kicking off a get-out-the-vote event on Saturday in Alexandria. At the November fundraiser she called Biden "a great man," a "great public servant" and the Democrat who has "the best chance of beating Donald Trump."

Once a national polling leader, Biden faced setbacks earlier this month when he came in fourth in the Iowa caucuses and fifth in the New Hampshire primary. But he finished second in Nevada, and he now appears to be holding steady in South Carolina polls and recovering in Super Tuesday states, aided in part by a dip in support for former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who was hurt by a poor debate performance in Nevada.

Biden is scheduled to attend a rally at Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk on Sunday evening, which could provide a platform for a McAuliffe announcement.
It would make perfect sense for Larry the Shoeshine Guy and his girlfriend, Allie Maness, to rest their heads together each night at the new Navigation Center on the Embarcadero.

Theyve long slept on the sidewalks in the centers outreach zone, the blocks around the facility just south of the Bay Bridge where homeless people are prioritized for beds. And one of the reasons behind Navigation Centers, designed to be more welcoming than old-school homeless shelters, is to accommodate couples rather than forcing them to split up and sleep in small cots in the traditional mens or womens facilities.

But this is San Francisco, where nothing these days seems to make much sense.

Longtime readers may recognize Larry the Shoeshine Guy  a.k.a. 60-year-old Larry Moore  who graced the pages of The Chronicle many times a decade ago as former columnist C.W. Nevius traced his ups and downs.

There was the outcry in 2009 when the Department of Public Works slapped the homeless shoe shiner with a $491 sidewalk vendor permit, wiping out the funds he had scraped together to try to move inside. There was the furor in 2012 when idiots celebrating the Giants World Series win torched Moores shoe shine stand in celebration.

Mostly, city officials and San Francisco residents embraced Moore and rallied around him, contributing money and eventually getting him a room in a Tenderloin hotel. But that was a long time ago, and Moore fell off the newspaper pages and back into misery.

After a year inside, he ran out of rent money and in 2014 moved in with a friend in San Bruno. That wasnt a long-term solution, and hes been back to sleeping on the sidewalks for several years.

But hes trying, yet again, to make a better life. Hes still sober after a long-ago struggle with alcohol and heroin. And hes still setting up shop each morning just up from the Palace Hotel at New Montgomery and Market streets  though he isnt pulling in much income in modern-day San Francisco, where few people wear shoes that need shining anymore.

Really the only good thing to happen to Moore in a long time was meeting Maness, a 31-year-old homeless woman whod been in a string of abusive relationships. Theyre planning to marry this summer.

She feels safe with me, and I feel safe with her, Moore said. We get along just great.

Theyve become each others sole support, sleeping under a pile of blankets on Tehama Street each night, not far from the new Navigation Center. Maness has tried to work, but said she keeps getting let go from retail and catering jobs because she has nowhere to shower and shows up dirty.

Its not having the access to a shower and a safe place to sleep and store our stuff, Maness said.

Those are all the selling points of Navigation Centers, so they thought a 90-day stay on the Embarcadero would be enough to get cleaned up, scrape together some money and come up with a plan.

Andrew Robinson, executive director of the East Cut Community Benefit District, has tried to help. The organization is funded by extra property taxes levied on 4,400 property owners in the neighborhood. Everybody from homeowners to Boston Properties, owner of Salesforce Tower, contributes a total of $4.1 million annually to pay for cleanup, public safety efforts, homeless outreach in the neighborhood and other improvements.

Traditionally, taxes coughed up to City Hall would pay for the same services, but we all know how thats worked out. Increasingly, community benefit districts have bridged the gap. Robinson said his outreach workers encountered Moore and Maness on Jan. 30 and asked whether they were interested in a bed at the new center, which opened in December. They were very interested.

Those outreach workers notified the citys Homeless Outreach Team, the only outreach workers authorized to make referrals to the center, about the couple the next day. It had been nearly a month of getting the runaround.

Certainly, its frustrating, Robinson said. Theres been a real lack of clarity about what the procedure is for getting into the Navigation Center. I cant wrap my head around it.

Moore has been updating me almost daily for more than a week. Theres a bed. No there isnt. Yes there is. No there isnt.

Maness said one woman from the Homeless Outreach Team told her beds are given out haphazardly by running into people on the street.

I said, Ive been sitting on this corner for two years, and nobodys ever run into me! she said.

I was confused as to whats going on, and the couple have been perplexed too. The city cant legally say anything about individuals, but it sounds like the couples insistence on getting a large bed together  which do exist at the center  was one issue. Maness said shed been raped on the streets before and would prefer to sleep next to Moore.

I cant speak to that specific case, but sometimes people are ready in one moment, but not in another, said Abigail Stewart-Kahn, spokeswoman for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. Thats why the HOT team will keep building that engagement.

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.

As of Thursday morning, all 130 beds at the center  including double beds  were full.

Robinson said the Homeless Outreach Team is understaffed and slow to respond. When his team first alerted them about Moore and Maness, lots of beds were available. By the time the HOT team started taking the case seriously, the beds were filled.

Robinson and John Cornwell, a board member of the East Cut Community Benefit District, want their homeless outreach workers to be able to make bed placements at the center too because they know the homeless people in the immediate area best. The city has rebuffed that idea over concerns about logistics and violating medical privacy laws.

It would be fine if the HOT team was responsible, if they could be called and show up and do their job, Cornwell said. But theyre like a ghost organization as far as were concerned. Theyre just completely AWOL.

To be fair, the Homeless Outreach Team most certainly exists. Its just that there are only 80 of them when theyre fully staffed  to cover the entire city, seven days a week, and respond to the more than 8,000 homeless people needing help.

Turnover is high, and 20% of the positions are vacant because the job is so grueling and doesnt pay well. The city contracts with Heluna Health, a nonprofit, and the jobs pay from $49,441 to $59,217 a year. That pales in comparison to the six-figure jobs inside City Hall for those charged with strategizing and talking about the homeless crisis rather than on the streets actually helping those in the midst of it.

Clearly, the city needs to pay more to make the team as effective and responsive as possible and needs to take all the help it can get from community benefit districts that have help to offer.

Stewart-Kahn said outreach teams have been beefed up around the new Navigation Center, but acknowledged theres never enough. She pointed out that cases like Maness and Moores demonstrate the need thats driving Mayor London Breeds plan to open 1,000 new shelter beds by the end of this year.

Shortly after I talked with Stewart-Kahn, Moore called again. Hed just received another call from the Homeless Outreach Team. They told him they had a bed for the couple, and they slept there Thursday night.

Now that Moore and Maness have a place inside, theres a happy ending to their saga  or hopefully the start of a happy beginning.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf
The minister of information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Thursday, said that Boko Haram terrorists are now targeting Christians and Christian villages to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos.

He said the group has realised how emotive and divisive religion can be, when exploited by unscrupulous persons.

While addressing a press conference, the minister said although Boko Haram has also not stopped attacking Muslims, it seems to now have a deliberate policy of attacking Christians.

Recently, the insurgents attacked a Christian village, Kwarangulum, near Chibok and also killed the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Lawan Andimi.

Also in recent times is the killing of a student who was also a member of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN), Ropvil Dalep, and the killing of 11 Christians on Christmas eve.

The minister said all these killings are new strategies adopted by the insurgents at the wake of their ceaseless pounding by the military.

Recall that Boko Haram insurgents didnt use to discriminate between Christians and Muslims when they carried out their attacks in the past.

But in the wake of a renewed onslaught by our tireless military against Boko Haram and their ISWAP allies in recent times, the insurgents have apparently changed their strategy.

They have started targeting Christians and Christian villages for a specific reason, which is to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos.

Apparently, they have realized how emotive and divisive religion can be, when exploited by unscrupulous persons.

Lest I am misunderstood, let me repeat: the insurgents, who delude themselves as Muslims whereas they are nothing more than blood-thirsty, rapacious killers who subscribe to no religion, have recently started targeting Christians with a view to sowing the seeds of confusion between the two great religions.

This did not in any way signify that they have stopped attacking Muslims. But, they seem to now have a deliberate policy of attacking Christians he said.

The minister appealed to religious leaders not to fall for the tactics of the insurgents.

He said the renewed vigour by the military in the war against the insurgents is paying off handsomely.

He cited the killing of top ISWAP leaders at two separate meeting venues at Marte local government in Borno State a few days ago.

According to him, a similarly one is the successful attack against the leadership of Boko Haram in Alafa Yagayaga in Borno earlier this month and the killing of Boko Haram chief Judge in Lake Chad.

The in-fighting in the leadership cadre of Boko Haram is a fallout of the pressure on the insurgents by the military.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Search Minerals Inc. (TSXV: SMY) (Search or the Company) is pleased to announce that further to the Companys news releases dated November 1, 2019 and January 13, 2020 (the Prior News Releases), the Company has received $150,000 from InCoR Holdings Limited (InCoR). The parties have agreed that the existing $850,000 principal amount of the Debenture together with the $150,000 advance will be rolled over into a new convertible debenture with principal amount of $1,000,000 (the New Debenture) effective as of February 28, 2020. All other terms remain the same, and the New Debenture will expire on November 30, 2020. For further details please refer to the Prior News Releases.



The foregoing constitutes a related party transaction within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101) because InCoR is a Control Person of the Company. The Company is relying on the exemptions from the formal valuation and minority approval requirements in Sections 5.5.(a) and 5.7 (1)(a) of MI 61-101, on the basis that the fair market value of the transactions does not exceed 25% of the Companys Market Capitalization.

About Search Minerals Inc.

Led by a proven management team and board of directors, Search is focused on finding and developing resources within the emerging Critical Rare Earth Element (CREE) District of South East Labrador. The Company controls a belt 70 km long and 8 km wide including its 100% interest in the FOXTROT and DEEP FOX Projects, which are road accessible and at tidewater. Exploration efforts have advanced Fox Meadow as a new CREE prospect very similar to and in close proximity to FOXTROT and DEEP FOX. The FOXTROT Project has a capital cost to bring the initial project into production ($152 M), a short payback period and is scalable due to Searchs proprietary processing technology.

All material information on the Company may be found on its website at www.searchminerals.ca and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com

For further information, please contact:

Greg Andrews

President and CEO

Tel: 604-998-3432

E-mail: info@searchminerals.ca



Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Not for distribution to U.S. Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. securities laws.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release includes certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, without limitation, statements relating the future operating or financial performance of the Company, are forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as expects, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates, potential, possible, and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results will, may, could, or should occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements in this news release relate to, among other things, technical results from the Companys drilling program and closing of the Offering. Actual future results may differ materially. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements reflect the beliefs, opinions and projections on the date the statements are made and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the respective parties, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and the parties have made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors. Such factors include, without limitation, the risk that the Company is not able to find suitable investors for the Offering or does not receive the approval of TSX Venture Exchange. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release concerning these times. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change.
Bhubaneswar, Feb 28 : Bitter political rivals, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday met for lunch here, courtesy Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

They met for the first time after the passage of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) for the 24th Eastern Zonal Council meeting in Bhubaneswar during the day.

Patnaik had hosted the lunch at Naveen Niwas, which was attended by Shah, Banerjee, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

"Such a pleasure having the company of Union Home Minister@Amit Shah ji, my colleague CMs, @MamataOfficial, @NitishKumar ji and Union Minister @dpradhanbjp ji at Naveen Niwas. Had a wonderfully interactive time over some home cooked #Odia delicacies," tweeted Patnaik.

Jharkhand Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon, who represented his state at the EZC meeting as Chief Minister Hemant Soren could not make it, did not join them.

Even though Mamata did not partake of a full lunch, she chose a yoghurt preparation.

"I don't eat lunch. I joined in the lunch in honour of respected Home Minister, and respected Naveenji," said Mamata.

Banerjee, a fierce critic of Shah, said she did not raise the issues of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), National Population Register (NPR) and the CAA at the council meeting.

"There was no discussion on NRC, NPR and CAA. These were not even on the meeting agenda. They never raised the issue, so we didn't raise it either. There was no discussion about law and order," said Banerjee.

She, however, raised the issue of violence in northeast Delhi at the beginning of the council meeting and requested for ensuring peace and harmony.

Mamata has already declared that the CAA will not be implemented in West Bengal, describing it as deeply divisive and discriminatory. The Bengal Assembly has also passed a resolution against it.

On the other hand, Shah attacked the West Bengal Chief Minister for her opposition to the CAA at a rally in Bhubaneswar during the day.

"BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party), SP (Samajwadi Party), Communists, Congress and Mamata Didi are against the CAA because they say the minorities will lose their citizenship. Why are they lying? CAA is a law to give citizenship, it is not meant to take anyone's citizenship away," Shah said.
Mrs. Hoxha  her name was pronounced nedge-ME-yuh HOH-jah  was at her husbands side as he built Albania into a communist state under his sole dominion, beginning in 1944. By many accounts, she was virtually an equal partner to her husband as they consolidated power, closed off the country to outside influence and exacted harsh retribution on dissidents who questioned their dictatorial authority.
People arriving at Cam Ranh International Airport in Khanh Hoa Province have to declare their health condition. Photo by VnExpress/Xuan Ngoc.

Khanh Hoa Province, which was declared free of Covid-19 Wednesday, is having 36 arrivals from South Korea in quarantine.

Among the 36 who landed at Cam Ranh International Airport, 19 are from Deagu City, seven from Gyeongsang, five from Busan while the others hail from different areas across South Korea.

Eight of them showed symptoms like fever and coughing and have been taken to Khanh Hoa Hospital of Tropical Diseases for treatment while the rest are to be quarantined at local hospitals. On Wednesday afternoon, seven tested negative for the Covid-19 virus.

On Tuesday, five Vietnamese students in Deagu flew to Khanh Hoa from Busan and entered quarantine at the tropical diseases hospital.

Flights from Deagu to Cam Ranh Airport ceased on February 22. Khanh Hoa Province has additionally required health declarations from all South Korea arrivals.

Khanh Hoa has reported only one Covid-19 infection, a hotel receptionist who was infected from two Chinese guests. She left hospital after recovey on February 4.

The province was declared coronavirus free after recording no new patients for 39 days.

Khanh Hoa, home to popular beach town Nha Trang, welcomed 305,000 tourists from South Korea in 2019, with the January number having reached 50,000.

Vietnam declared the coronavirus outbreak an epidemic on February 1, and has recorded a total of 16 patients, all of whom have been cured and discharged. The country as a whole has recorded no new infections in the past two weeks.

The country suspended entry from all coronavirus-hit areas around the world. Visitors from countries and territories affected by the virus are required to submit health declarations on arrival and will be placed in quarantine if they show symptoms like high fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.

The global death toll is approaching 3,000, with most fatalities in mainland China, followed by Iran with 22, South Korea with 13 and Italy with 11.
Belarus reported Friday its first coronavirus case, an Iranian student who arrived in the country from Azerbaijan last week.

The health ministry said the patient was in a "satisfactory" condition.

People the student had been in contact with since their arrival on February 22 had been placed in quarantine in the hospital for infectious diseases in the capital Minsk, it added in a statement.

The ministry also said that there would now be health checks on anyone arriving in the country from Italy -- the worst affected country in Europe -- Iran and South Korea.

Travellers from China were already subject to such controls.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Miami Heat have surprised many this season. The acquisition of Jimmy Butler was expected to improve the teams record and make them more competitive in a weak eastern playoff race.

Those expectations have been surpassed. The Heat are a top 4 team in the east with a squad of scrappy, team first players who know their role and execute that role to the best of their abilities.

Miami has been full of great surprises this year. Kendrick Nunn (15.7 ppg, 3.6 assists) was an early ROTY candidate before Ja Morant (and now Zion Williamson) burst on to the scene as favorites. Duncan Robinson has turned into a critical piece of the offense as a big outside shooter, shooting 43.5% from deep with 8.1 attempts per game. Bam Adebayo has become an elite big man on both sides of the ball.

But 2020 has not been a great year so far for Miami. They are 12-13 since the turn of the new year, losing to teams like New York, Sacramento, Atlanta, Cleveland, and Minnesota. Teams that are far outside the playoff race and matchups that Miami should have taken advantage of in order to distance themselves even further from Philadelphia in the standings.

Injuries and inconsistent play has plagued Miami as of late. Currently, Tyler Herro and Meyers Leonard are out with no specific timetable for their return to the lineup. Three point shooting is a big part of the offense and these two are some threats when it comes to shots from downtown.

Personally, the most recent loss against the Timberwolves is what made me question the future success of this Heat team. After not playing in the previous two games (1-1 against the Cavs), Jimmy Butler returned to play against his former team. Karl Anthony-Towns is still out from his wrist injury and Miami has both of their All-Stars in good health, so the win was ripe for the taking.

Miami's defense let the Timberwolves score 129 points on them with D'Angelo Russell leading the way with 27 (I might also add that this was done on Miami's home court). Minnesota ranks 22nd in the league in offensive rating, so losing to them without their star offensive player surely does not give Heat fans much comfort as we get closer to the playoffs.

The culture in Miami is strong. It is one highlighted by strong work ethic and doing anything to win as a team. Jimmy Butler has the perfect mentality and edge to lead this team and Bam Adebayo is such a good player for this system as a playmaker, defender and scorer. I would not be surprised to see this Miami team make a deep playoff run but this recent stretch of games has me convinced they need to kick it up a notch in order to read their full potential.
As in previous Industry projects, which have explored the possibility of individual audience members having vastly different experiences, the plot of Sweet Land isnt straightforward. About 200 people gather at the start inside a pop-up space modeled on the Amargosa Opera House, an unlikely theater plopped into Death Valley, Calif. After an introduction  composed by Mr. Chacon and Ms. Du and depicting the Arrivals, well, arriving  the audience is divided onto two tracks, each leading to a separate theater and story.

One is called Feast, written by Ms. Du and Ms. Duncan about welcoming the Arrivals; the other, Train, is by Mr. Chacon and Mr. Kearney and about something like Manifest Destiny. Each, Mr. Luger said, is closer to what the reality might have been, at least in terms of the emotional intensity. Its much more visceral. It really does not hide away from the violence, the lust and sexuality. And the displacement.

In these scenes, Mr. Chacon and Ms. Du avoided quoting specific Indigenous musical styles. Still, there are echoes of them, such as in the vocal technique for Makwa, one of the Hosts; there are parodic evocations of Western opera, as in an Arrivals recitative, delivered in countertenor voice with Baroque accompaniment.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Congress has once again attacked the Centre on the issue of transfer of the Delhi High Court Judge, Justice S. Muralidhar, who was hearing the hate-speeches case against some BJP leaders.

Late Thursday Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal issued a statement, which said: "The decision to transfer the Judge is hardly surprising given the fact that, the BJP which had unashamedly instigated the mob and provided complete impunity to those who called for violence, took such a malicious decision under cover of darkness." The Congress leader alleged that immediate and overnight transfer of Justice Muralidhar, of the Delhi High Court, "who highlighted the role played by certain BJP leaders in instigating the mob and directed the Delhi police to take urgent action is a clear proof of the discomfort on part of Shri Narendra Modi and Shri Amit Shah, over fears of an impartial investigation exposing their complicity in the Delhi riots." The government has rebutted the Congress allegation and said that he was transferred on recommendation of the SC collegium on February 12.

But, the opposition party is smelling a conspiracy to save the leaders involved in the hate speech. The Delhi High Court has given four weeks time to the police to look into the matter.

The Congress alleged that Justice Murlidhar was critical of the BJP leaders' speeches. "A strong and independent judiciary has been the backbone of this country. The country is witnessing a dictatorship which is continuously gaining ground, wherein not only the democratic institution but the judiciary itself, are blatantly suppressed and undermined,"said Venugopal.

"This brazenness and high handedness are a clear rebuff to the families who lost their dearest ones as well as the tens of thousands of the citizens who believe in the democratic values of our constitution. The BJP can't run away from the naked truth that their own words and deeds led to this unprecedented human casualty the party leader alleged."
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Linkedin Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020 18:52 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206742069 1 Art & Culture Taman-Ismail-Marzuki,arts-and-culture,arts-and-culture-in-Indonesia,culture,culture-preservation,Cikini,Jakarta-Arts-Council Free

The brouhaha surrounding the ongoing revitalization of the Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) art and cultural center is likely to continue.

Abimana Aryasatya was a complete actor long before assuming the lead role as the titular character in Gundala, which he says is partly thanks to his time at the Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) art and cultural center.

Many have forgotten, but the actor was once homeless and found refuge there, including at the Jakarta Arts Institute inside the compound, earning money as a parking attendant.

He is just one of the many Indonesian artists who got their start at the center, which has long been a hub for students and artists to exchange ideas and engage in philosophical discussions over coffee.

The romanticism of the center, which located in Cikini Raya, Central Jakarta, is understandable but is that a good enough reason to oppose the revitalization project?

Artists from all around Indonesia have joined the Forum Seniman Peduli TIMs (Artists Care for TIM Forum) protests against the revitalization project, which has been overseen by the Jakarta administration since mid-2019.

Street performances outside the compound, most of which has been closed for construction, and opinion wars on social media embellished with the hashtag #SaveTIM have been motivated by distrust toward the administration.

An ode: Artists from Forum Seniman Peduli TIM stage a theatrical protest on top of the ruins of the Graha Bhakti Budaya building at the Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) art and cultural center in Jakarta on Feb. 14. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)

A rumored plan to build a five-star hotel inside the compound and the signing of a gubernatorial decree to appoint administration-owned enterprise Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro) to handle the revitalization and manage the center afterward were among the reasons the group took the matter up with the House of Representatives last week.

Writer Noorca M. Massardi, who requested the hearing at the House, said the group had also asked to meet with Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to seek clarification on the matter.

We have met with Jakpro, but the issues were not clarified, he said. We are against the commercialization of the art center, which is not something that should be done in a civilized nation.

The art and cultural center was built on roughly 9 hectares of land that was previously a zoo in 1968 by then-governor Ali Sadikin after Jakartas artists ask for place to create and display their works.

Named after Jakartan composer Ismail Marzuki, the plan was also aligned with Alis goal to make the capital a cultural city  a window into the countrys rich culture.

A mural of literary figure H.B. Jassin is seen on the wall of the Jakarta Planetarium at Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) on Feb. 20. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)

Ali gave the artists the full authority to manage the center, which consisted of an outdoor theater, an indoor theater, a gallery, a rehearsal and workshop building, a multifunctional hall and an arena theater.

Management of the center was handed to the Jakarta Arts Council, with members elected by life members of the Jakarta Academy, which comprises well-known cultural activists and intellectuals.

The center's operations are funded by rental fees for the facilities and subsidies from the city administration.

Over the decades, some minor changes were made to the center, before, in 2007, the city administration held a design contest for a complete revitalization. However, the winning design by Andra Matin was put on ice for a decade.

In 2017, then-acting governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat stated that the revitalization of the center would be his administrations legacy.

Anies included the revitalization on his list of strategic plans, which was followed by the establishment of a team in 2018 that excluded the art council members.

We tried to include three of us on the list, but they were omitted, said the councils acting chairman Danton Sihombing.

Since then we chose to fight in our own way by focusing on our duty to ensure that all the planned events went ahead despite all of the changes.

Throughout 2019, the council held 44 programs that included 200 theater, dance, literature, music, fine art and film committee events.

While still supporting the protesters, the council has preferred to focus on the fate of the center.

The lack of communication from the administration and Jakpro about the master plan and the new management scheme has not reflected the public's attachment to the center and their shared history, said the councils acting deputy chairman Hikmat Darmawan.

We should stop holding onto the myths surrounding the buildings and focus more on the essential issue: Making sure the center continues to cater to the needs of artists and that the new management keeps the centers function to foster artists at its core.

Even though commercialization is considered by many to be the best way to fund the center, the Jakarta Arts Council has maintained that to honor TIMs spirit, business and political events should not be held there.

The council represents artists and we should be included in running the centers operations and be given a say in determining its future, said Danton.

Although all this brouhaha has created opportunities for people to envision ways to build a better art ecosystem outside the center, we need to redefine the meaning of the center for art and cultural activists and find a sustainable creative economy scheme to keep the center alive.
The Donald Trump administration slightly eased sanctions on Iran today to allow for trade in medical supplies and food as Tehran struggles to respond to the coronavirus outbreak throughout the country. The Treasury Department issued a general license exemption for trade in humanitarian goods through Irans central bank. At the same time, the United States and Switzerland finalized a humanitarian trade agreement, which provides assurances for the Swiss to export humanitarian goods to Iran without fear of incurring US sanctions penalties.

The Swiss Humanitarian Trade Agreement (SHTA) will help ensure that humanitarian goods continue to reach the Iranian people without diversion by the regime, said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. We thank our Swiss counterparts for their dedicated efforts in establishing SHTA and we look forward to our continued collaboration.

Why it matters: The new humanitarian sanctions exemption could help Iran deal with the rapid coronavirus outbreak even as Tehran continues to deny the scale of the problem, arresting and warning dozens of citizens for discussing the pandemic online.

I think theres some political liability to having designated the Central Bank of Iran and to have [the Trump administration] perceived as cutting off humanitarian trade with Iran, said Tyler Cullis, a counsel specializing in sanctions law at Ferrari & Associates. I would assume that was going to accelerate with the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran and they could resolve an issue that they themselves created by issuing a license.

Congress first sanctioned Irans central bank in 2011. But the Trump administration stepped up those restrictions last year by adding additional counterterrorism designations on the central bank, effectively cutting off humanitarian exemptions.

The National American Iranian Council (NIAC), which supports reconciliation with Tehran, also welcomed the exemption as an important reversal while calling for additional action.

The public health sector in Iran has been under severe stress for months, in large part due to crushing economic sanctions that have limited humanitarian trade in medical devices and medicine manufactured in the West, said Ryan Costello, NIACs policy director. Amid the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran, which has been exacerbated both by the Iranian governments bungled response and sanctions, it is vital that urgent steps are taken to respond to the shared threat.

Whats next: It remains to be seen whether Iran will be able to quell the coronavirus outbreak. Tehran officially maintains that there have been 26 coronavirus deaths and 254 cases, including Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harichi and three other Cabinet members. But Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani, a conservative lawmaker from Qom, cited a higher figure earlier this week.

Know more: Al-Monitor will keep you on top of the latest on the coronavirus outbreak in Iran and Tehrans response. Iran is inching closer to a shutdown as it struggles to contain the virus, but President Hassan Rouhani has resisted calls to quarantine affected cities and is instead accusing Tehrans foreign adversaries of spreading public panic.
Centre, Delhi govt remained mute spectators, says Sonia Gandhi.

Congress delegation led by party president Sonia Gandhi is seen after meeting with President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Thursday. The delegation also included former PM Manmohan Singh, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, P. Chidambaram, K.C. Venugopal, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Anand Sharma and Randeep Surjewala. (Photo: Pritam Badyopadhyay)

New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday marched to the Rashtrapati Bhavan along with other senior leaders of the party, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and asked President Ramnath Kovind to remove home minister Amit Shah for gross ineptitude, abdication of duty and his inability to contain the situation in violence-hit northeast Delhi.

Accusing the Central government of not taking any active steps to remove, remedy or diffuse the situation, Mrs Gandhi said, The Central government as also the newly-elected Delhi government, have remained mute spectators as completely mindless rage, designed violence and organised looting of property has continued unabated.

Due to the complete inaction on the part of the home minister and the Central government, the violence has claimed the lives of at least 34 people and over 200 have been injured at last count. Several crores worth of properties and business have fallen prey to unchecked arson and looting, she told the media after meeting the President. She said that the Congress delegation asked Mr Kovind to remind the government of its Constitutional duty and the pillars of Raj Dharma, by which any just government must abide.

We call upon you and the Constitutional Office you hold, that the life, liberty and property of the citizens is preserved, secured and protected. We also reiterate that you should immediately call for the removal of the home minister given the gross ineptitude, abdication of duty and his inability to contain the situation. We owe this to the citizens who have lost their loved ones, their homes, their livelihood and most of all their long-cherished amity and brotherhood. We hope you will take decisive action in the matter, she said.

Dr Singh said the Congress leaders requested the President to use his power to call upon the Central Government to protect and preserve its Raj Dharma so that the citizens of this country and this national capital are assured of peace tranquillity and justice.

Apart from Mrs Gandhi and Dr Singh, the delegation included former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress treasurer Ahmed Patel, former finance minister P. Chidambaram, K.C. Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
BJP national President Jagat Prakash Nadda on Thursday said Article 370 has become a thing of the past. The country has now become "one nation, one constitution".

"Article 370 has become a thing of the past. Today, India is one nation with one constitution," he said in his address in this Himachal Pradesh town.

Earlier, he was accorded welcome on his maiden visit to the state to which he belonged after becoming party's national President.

Nadda said he had not imagined that he would get an opportunity to lead the BJP. All this was possible due to the benevolence of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the blessings of the people of the state.

He said the BJP was the only political party in the country where even a worker can become the party's national President and also the Prime Minister.

He said today the party has over 17 crore members and has a strong and vibrant leader in form of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Nadda said the opposition was making unnecessary hue and cry over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and this was unfortunate.

The Act was not against minorities of the country, but it was aimed at helping the minorities of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Complementing the performance of his party's government in the state, the BJP President said the state led by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur was doing a commendable work for welfare of the state and its people.

He said programmes like Jan Manch, HIMCARE and Grihini Suvidha Yojna were possible due to farsighted Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.

He said all this was possible due to the double engine of the government -- at Centre and the state. He said AIIMS at Bilaspur, 69 national highways were possible due to Modi.

Thakur, while welcoming Nadda, said the state introduced Jan Manch programme for redressal of public grievances and 46,763 complaints were received till now out of which almost all have been redressed.

He said apart of Jan Manch, the state has launched Chief Minister Helpline 1100 to solve the problems. To date, 273,000 calls were received out of which 64,300 were complaints. He said that out of these complaints, 56,062 have been resolved.

Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur, who too belong to Himachal Pradesh, congratulated the Chief Minister for successfully organising the first Global Investors' Meet at Dharamsala, which would go a long way in strengthening the economy.

He said the Union government would provide all possible help for construction of a big airport in Mandi district in the state.
School districts are at the head of a cresting wave of litigation against JUUL and other e-cigarette manufacturers, seeking to recover the costs of prevention programs, counseling, and treatment for addicted students.

Nearly 100 districts have sued, and the dozens of filings indicate that the epidemic of youth vaping has penetrated nearly all corners of the nations public education systemfrom a small, rural district in Mississippi to the nations second largest school system, Los Angeles.

Although some of the fundamental claims in the lawsuits reflect those in litigation over tobacco and opioid medication, school districts primary role in fighting back against vaping comes as a novel development in consumer-protection litigation, and reflects that theyve become the de facto first responders to the crisis.

School districts, by no control or choice of their own, have effectively become ground zero for the infiltration of JUULs marketing and the epidemic JUUL has created, said Rahul Ravipudi, a partner at Panish Shea & Boyle LLP, and one of the lawyers representing Los Angeles and other California districts in a case filed in state superior court.

In interviews, superintendents said their interest in suing stems from both a desire to shape whatever settlement or monetary damages the suits could produce and a moral imperative.

Who is better positioned than a superintendent of schools to take a stand on this issue? said Rob Anderson, the superintendent of the Boulder Valley district in Colorado, which is in discussions to join one of the lawsuits. We are leaders within our communities for whats right and whats good for kids. And I take that obligation, personally, very seriously. I do think we can fight this fight, and that if not us, who?

Three Waves

By Education Weeks tally, nearly 100 districts have filed a lawsuit against JUUL, and other manufacturers of vaping devices.

The lawsuit first filed in California Superior Court in October is now a consolidated case counting about 20 school districts in the Golden State, with more in the works, Ravipudi said.

At the federal level, at least 33 school districts lawsuits have been wrapped into a consolidated case now housed at the U.S. District Court in California for the Northern District. (About two dozen other federal lawsuits have been filed by districts but have not yet been transferred to the multidistrict litigation.)

Within both of those consolidated lawsuits, some districts have sued on their own behalf while others have requested certification as class actions. If granted by the respective courts, those cases would cover thousands more school districts.

See Also: What the Youth Vaping Epidemic Costs Schools

Finally, the attorneys general of at least eight states plus the District of Columbia have sued in their own state courts: Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. (A larger group of attorneys general39have joined together to open an investigation into JUULs marketing practices, including whether it targeted underage users.)

Nearly all the lawsuits target Juul, by far the most dominant e-cigarette manufacturer with about 60 percent of the market. Others name PAX Labs, which birthed JUUL; Altria, a tobacco company that owns a significant stake in JUUL; and Eonsmoke, a New Jersey-based e-cigarette manufacturer. A handful of the lawsuits also take aim at various distributors of vaping products.

Counting Costs

Most districts have been fairly vague on specific costs theyre incurring, information which will need to be disclosed during discovery should the lawsuits proceed to the trial stage. But interviews with the districts paint a wide-ranging picture of the toll, both personal and financial.

For Anderson in the Boulder Valley district, one of the most difficult tolls has been hearing the stories of parents whose children have become addicted to nicotine through vaping.

Youve got parents who love their kids and who are involved in their lives, and kids who didnt know what they were signing up for when they started to vape, Anderson said. They get addicted and then there are these serious health complications in their lives. These are active, healthy kids, and the fact that they started vaping has changed their families lives.

In the last few years, the Boulder Valley district has received about $1.2 million in city and state grants to spend on anti-vaping and other substance abuse prevention efforts. The La Conner district in Washington state last year spent about $12,000 for vaping detectors in the bathrooms and an online subscription to a service that alerts administrators if vaping is detected.

In Rochester, N.H., already heavily hit by both the Great Recession of 2008 and the opioid crisis, the increase in vaping in schools has led to costs for multiple city agencies, said Terence ORourke, the city attorney. Buying and smoking tobacco products while underage in in New Hampshire are classified as adult offenses, and so students who get caught vaping have to be processed through the citys alternative-sentencing program.

Among the citys other costs: Hiring a monitor to prevent vaping at the citys community centerthe home of its alternative high school, and where much of its youth programming takes place. The new position costs $32,000 annually.

This is not a money grab by the city. We need the resources to undo the damage thats been done to our kids, ORourke said.

Adrian Hammitte, the superintendent of the 1,150-student Jefferson County schools near Natchez, Miss., estimated his district lost $200,000 in the 2018-19 school year, the result of skyrocketing student absences due to vaping that have led to less per-pupil funding, which is allocated on the basis of attendance.

Its about having a seat at the table, said Hammitte, when asked about his districts decision to sue. Vaping is impacting our students, too, and if you dont have a seat at the table, you dont have a voice. And we wanted a voice in the conversation.

Its unclear what all the costs borne by districts would add up to in total. In California alone, Ravidpudi said he is still surveying participating districts on costs and declined to give a ballpark figure.

But its clear that it could be substantial. Attorneys in the Jefferson County, Miss., lawsuit estimated that, if that case is certified as a class action to cover all of Mississippis districts, claims would amount to more than $5 million.

Legal Strength

The districts participation in the litigation represent an evolution in how local government is viewing both the costs and its role in responding to public health crises.

A landmark 1998 tobacco master settlement benefited states but frustrated county and municipal governments after states spent only a small share on treatment and prevention programs, noted Kathleen Hoke, a professor of law and the director of the Network for Public Health Law, Eastern Region, at the University of Marylands law school.

And so during subsequent litigation, such as the ongoing opioid litigation, municipalities often beat states to the courthouse. Similarly, districts are now asserting their muscle over vaping, she said.

What isnt clear is whether courts will be receptive to the districts arguments. Theres no question that schools are spending thousands to respond to addicted students needs, Hoke said, but what the courts will need to determine is whether Juul and other vaping manufacturers are directly responsible for that harm, she said.

They are going to say they have abided by all the federal laws and state laws that have existed, and have complied in the regulatory scheme and cant be liable for this tertiary impact, Hoke said. Thats the strongest argument for Juul, and its a good one.

Representatives for JUUL did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

But the districts have advanced powerful arguments, too, notably their contention that companies deliberately aimed to hook young people on vaping. They have pointed in particular to JUULs marketing, including the use of young, attractive social media influencers to promote the products, and its creation of candy- and fruit-flavored vapes.

Several of the lawsuits also reference an anti-vaping curriculum JUUL allegedly encouraged schools to use that, attorneys for the districts argue, actually downplayed vapings health risks. (JUUL contends that it did not market its products unlawfully towards youth and has pointed out that it voluntarily took fruit and candy-flavored vape flavors off the market.)

I dont think its a slam dunk on either side, Hoke said.

Lynn Rossi Scott, an attorney at the Fort Worth, Texas, law firm Brackett & Ellis, agreed that the legal questions are open ones.

I do see this is a growing trend, and I think its just going to take the first case that actually gets before a judge to make a determination whether or not a district has standing, said Rossi Scott, who has not read the litigation. I liken this to the asbestos cases from many years ago, where it was very clear that the school districts had standing because they had to conduct significant remediation efforts in their schools to remove asbestos or seal asbestos.

There were very significant damages. These cases, I think, are a little more speculative, and a little more difficult to prove damages. But lets wait and see.

Neither Hoke nor Rossi Scott is involved in any of the cases.

More to Come?

As with any civil litigation, higher numbers amp up the pressure on companies to reach a settlement. And there are signs that interest could be growing.

Vaping was enough of a priority for districts that it was a topic of a session at the recent national conference for AASA, the School Superintendents Association, at which Mark P. Chalos, an attorney with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, whose firm was named as one of four co-lead counsels for the federal multidistrict litigation, spoke.

Chalos said he expects more lawsuits to be filed, but he thinks school boards, superintendents, parents, and district officials are still in the beginning stages of understanding the impacts of vaping.

I think we are at a relatively early stage in the awareness being raised on this issue, he said. I would expect that unless we can stem the tide of the vaping crisis, were going to see more children vaping, and more teachers and school administrators and parents will become aware of it. Whether that results in more school boards or parents or children participating in the civil justice system remains to be seen.

Indeed, at the same conference, some superintendents worried that they were underestimating just how prevalent it was in their schoolswith several acknowledging that they could not distinguish vaping devices from a random assortment of technology bric-a-brac, including a USB drive and an Amazon Fire Stick.

My realization with that session was that weve not even scratched the surface. Its really scary to think about the many devices out there weve not even seen or captured, said Tony Sanders, the superintendent of the U46 district in Elgin, Ill. His district has already started picking up, at $24,000 annually, the full cost of an online program designed as an alternative to suspending students who are caught with drugs or alcohol, in which both parents and students participate.

Hes planning to discuss with his school board whether to join a lawsuit.

Joelle Rossback Dahl is the co-founder of Advocates for Clean Teens, a parent-advocacy group for teens with substance abuse in Boulder, Colo., which worked with the Boulder Valley district on many anti-vaping efforts, including pushing for the Boulder City Council to pass several anti-vaping ordinances last year.

Dahl, who has watched a fellow parent struggle to help their child quit vaping, thinks the district should join the growing number of school systems taking the fight directly to e-cigarette companies.

At the end of the day, this isnt a school problem, this isnt a parent problem, she said. This is a Big Tobacco-and-FDA-having-allowed-this problem... Its not the schools fault, and its not parents not doing their jobs. The best of the parents can have kids who are vaping. It just needs to be a holistic effortthe city, the community, the schools, the medical community, you name it. But these kids have been swindled by Big Tobacco, and its really, really disheartening.
The African nation is getting prosperous enough to begin (slowly) offering state funding to the performing arts. One beneficiary of this development is Mophato Dance Theatre, which combines traditional Botswanan dance with contemporary movement vocabulary. (video)  BBC
Cannabis regulators in Massachusetts are asking state lawmakers to consider several measures that would assist prospective marijuana businesses owned by people disproportionately affected by prohibition.

In a letter to members of the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy, Cannabis Control Commission Chairman Steven Hoffman and Executive Director Shawn Collins suggested the legislature consider codifying the Commissions Social Equity Program in statute and establish a dedicated source of funding; enacting requirements for municipalities to ensure communities disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition are included in the legal marijuana industry; and to consider establishing a social equity loan fund similar to programs that exist in Illinois and in Oakland, California.

Several programs exist to assist marginalized groups and small businesses looking to enter the cannabis industry in Massachusetts. The economic empowerment program is reserved for racial minorities, people with drug convictions and people who live or work in areas disproportionately affected by the war on drugs, while the social equity program offers professional training, technical assistance, and mentoring.

While the CCC is required to make sure that people harmed by the war on drugs are included in the states legal market, municipalities have no such requirements, Hoffman and Collins wrote in the letter, which is dated Feb. 27.

Because no applicant is considered to have submitted a complete application without a form of local approval, this has created an inconsistency and a disparity in the types of applicants who are able to navigate and ultimately succeed in our application process, the letter reads. The inconsistency has impeded our ability to fulfill our requirements, and thus the Commonwealths ability to meet its commitments.

If the legislature were to enact similar requirements for municipalities, that could help assure communities and people affected by prohibition are a part of the legal market, the letter suggested.

Earlier this month, the House passed a bill that would allow the CCC to review and enforce host community agreements, which are contracts between marijuana businesses and the towns and cities they plan to operate in. Those agreements are necessary to move forward in the CCC application process.

The letter follows a contentious period in the beginning of the year, where members of the commissions economic empowerment and social equity programs cried out that the application process was moving too slowly for applicants who were supposed to have priority review. Other barriers to starting their businesses are a lack of funding and the complicated host community agreement process, applicants said.

In 2019, the states marijuana industry reported $420 million in sales. But not a single economic empowerment business is open for business yet. Pure Oasis, a dispensary planning to open in Dorchester, has received its final license.

To help level the playing field, supporting marginalized groups and small businesses, a social equity loan fund could be created, the letter suggested.

Hoffman and Collins wrote the fund could be similar to the Illinois Social Equity Cannabis Business Development Fund or the City of Oakland Equity Loan Program.

This would begin to address the lack of capital that is most widely cited as a barrier to entry preventing businesses with fewer resources from entering the market, the letter reads.

That would also help to direct marijuana tax revenue to fund programming for restorative justice and services for economically-disadvantaged people in areas that saw high arrest rates during the war on drugs, according to the letter.

The fund should also be structured to allow for private donations, the letter reads. Currently, several cannabis businesses in Massachusetts are keeping funds in escrow in order to donate them for this purpose, and others have expressed a willingness to contribute to a fund with these objectives.

Codifying the commissions social equity program in statute and creating dedicated funding could help to ensure there is consistent and regular access to training, technical assistance, mentorship, and other benefits, according to the letter.

The suggestions are based on research by the CCC, observations over the last two and a half years and the requirements of Chapter 55 of the Acts of 2017, Hoffman and Collins wrote.

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This undated photo provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows CDCs laboratory test kit for the new coronavirus. (CDC via AP)

CDC to Send Updated Coronavirus Test Kits to Labs Across Nation

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will be sending updated test kits to state and local laboratories across the nation, a top official said on Friday, in a move meant to expand testing capacity ahead of the predicted community spread of the new coronavirus.

The CDC produced a test kit weeks ago, but labs uncovered an issue with the third of three steps, preventing most labs from testing locally for COVID-19, which is caused by the new illness.

Experts revised the test, removing the faulty third step, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on a phone call on Friday. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar informed a congressional committee of the fix on Thursday.

The kit, which now uses two reagents, will work properly, Messonnier said.

Washington state officials said late Thursday that they already validated the reconfigured kit. Theyll start testing for the new virus locally this week. Like most states, officials have had to package samples to send to the CDC to test in Atlanta. Local testing will cut days off the process.

The goal is if its in here in the morning we will have a result by 5 oclock that afternoon, state health epidemiologist Dr. Scott Lindquist told reporters at a press conference. Its a lot quicker.

Washington is one of the first states to use the reconfigured kits, Lindquist said.

Scott Becker, CEO of the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), which represents state and local labs, told The Epoch Times that the goal is to get testing in all 50 states within a week. All labs will eventually get the updated kits, he said.

Workers wearing protective gear arrive to spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea, on Feb. 27, 2020. (Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

Some experts have expressed concern about the relatively low number of people being tested in the United States, compared to some countries such as South Korea. Messonnier told reporters that the low number of cases in the United States, at 62 as of Friday, was because of travel restrictions put into place by the U.S. government, not because of the faulty testing kits.

The epidemiological situation in China and other countries is really different than in the U.S. The U.S. acted incredibly quickly, before most other countries, she said.

We aggressively controlled our borders, and therefore slowed the entrance of the virus in the U.S.

Only 459 people have been tested, in addition to the hundreds who were tested after being evacuated from the city of Wuhan in China or the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. The State Department chartered flights to evacuate over 800 people across several weeks starting in late January.

The virus isnt currently spreading in the United States, according to the CDC. Most of the infected, or 44 of 62, are in isolation on military bases after landing on the chartered flights. The others are either quarantined at hospitals or at home after having recovered from the disease. Cases have been confirmed in California, Washington state, Arizona, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Massachusetts.

No one has died from COVID-19 in the United States.

Officials do plan to expand testing for the virus. The initial sites are in six major cities, including San Francisco, New York City, and Honolulu. Samples collected through the flu surveillance network will be tested for COVID-19 if the samples test negative for the flu.

Testing is slated to start through the network by next week, Messonnier said. We hope to rapidly move from six to 50 states, she said.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, told lawmakers on Thursday that he hoped a national coronavirus surveillance system would be running in the next eight or 12 weeks.

The national system would enable officials to see when and if were getting community [spread] without waiting until an individual is hospitalized and on a ventilator, Redfield said, referring to a recently confirmed case in California that might be the first case of community spread in the country.

We dont know what were going to find when we start this, he added, but were very anxious to  get that operational as soon as possible.
Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga has been placed under a two-week quarantine after returning from a trip to China.

According to state news agency Montsame, Battulga along with several other government officials, including the minister of foreign affairs, visited China to meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.



The delegation - including the President - were immediately placed into a two-week quarantine upon their return to Mongolia on Thursday night as a precautionary measure, CNN reported.



Montsame also reported that Battulga met with Xi during his visit in which the two discussed joint efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Battulga also announced a donation of 30,000 sheep to China.



Mongolia has not reported any cases of the coronavirus and has taken measures to stop it entering the country. Schools will be closed until the end of March and the delivery of coal to China is suspended until March 2.
Many more people can now be tested for the coronavirus under new rules issued by federal officials on Thursday, even as Gov. Gavin Newsom characterized the number of test kits available in the state as remarkably inadequate.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention broadened the criteria for who can be tested a day after the first U.S. coronavirus case of unknown origin emerged in Solano County  a woman who had neither traveled abroad nor had known contact with a coronavirus patient.

Previously, only people who had traveled recently to some countries including China, or who had known contact with a coronavirus patient, could get the test.

The Solano County woman could have been tested under the new rules. The CDC initially delayed administering a test to the patient, who is currently being treated at UC Davis Medical Center, despite a request from hospital officials because she did not meet the criteria. It is the first case in the U.S. that suggests the virus could be spreading in the community.

Going forward, people do not necessarily need to have a travel history or known contact to be tested  it is enough to have a fever and severe respiratory illness like pneumonia requiring hospitalization, without an alternative diagnosis. The criteria were also broadened to include health care workers who have treated individuals with coronavirus.

The newly expanded criteria were communicated to public health labs Thursday, according to the Association of Public Health Labs, which represents state and local public health labs and works with the CDC on infectious disease outbreaks.

People with severe illness and no other explained diagnosis, and no source of exposure is identified, meaning they dont have to have known contact or known travel history  thats a significant change from yesterday, said Kelly Wroblewski, the associations director of infectious diseases.

The new guidelines were posted on the CDCs website Thursday. The CDC did not immediately respond to questions about the newly revised criteria.

Physicians for the Solano County patient had asked the CDC last week for the patient to be tested, but the CDC did not immediately order a test. The patient was administered the test Sunday, and test results came back positive Wednesday.

The case from yesterday is obviously giving the CDC a lot to consider in terms of revising those protocols so that more individuals will be tested with symptoms that might be identified as common pneumonia without a clear source, Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of Californias Health and Human Services Agency, said during a Thursday news conference. We are in conversation with the CDC about ensuring that that fits the need for California so that physicians and clinicians who ask for the test will more easily be able to send it.

The new coronavirus, COVID-19, has infected nearly 83,000 people worldwide, including 60 in the United States.

In the U.S., there is one standard test kit for the virus, manufactured by the CDC, that comes in a shoebox-size box with four vials. An extraction kit and an enzyme are shipped separately, and the various components are made by several different biotech and diagnostics companies.

Specimens can be collected from a nasal swab, a throat culture or a phlegm sample. Tests must be approved by state health officials.

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.

The newly expanded test criteria means the U.S. will need, at a minimum, hundreds more test kits, and more labs to process the tests. Right now, about 12 labs around the country are processing the kits  CDC and Department of Defense labs, and public health labs in about eight states including California, Wroblewski said. The number of labs will likely increase by about 40 by early next week, she said. This should allow for the tests to be completed faster.

The availability of the tests recently posed a problem after a previous batch of kits sent by the CDC proved to be inaccessible.

California has just 200 test kits to diagnose and monitor the virus  a number Newsom said was not nearly enough. But the state expects to receive more kits in the next few days, though officials did not specify how many they expect to receive. California officials also plan to increase the number of labs in the state that will be able to process the tests in the next few days, but they did not specify how many or where the labs are located.

In conversations with the CDC today, we are assured ... that those requirements for testing will be changed based on the new information from yesterday here in California, and we are working hard with the CDC to ensure that once those are prepared, we are ready for it, Ghaly said. We know it will shift from the posture of border and significant containment to one where we acknowledge that community spread is possible, and that it meets that condition so that patients, where the provider believes there are symptoms suspicious of coronavirus, that we have the capability and permission to be able to send that test.

Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho
Sometimes the noise is due to the construction of the restaurants themselves, with no soft walls, ceilings or floor coverings to absorb the soundof excruciating, screechy conversation. Sometimes, however, the noise is from a handful of inappropriate people who are screaming at their table.

I am not privy to the blood alcohol level of those people, but they ruin my dining experience and make me want to get carryout and entertain at my quiet home. Few high-end restaurants offer carryout service, however. How do you recommend that I handle this problem?

Gentle Reader  By patronizing restaurants that will tell you on request that they have a reasonable decibel level. There are such places, and although they are admittedly rare, you dont have to go abroad to find them. But you may have to ask to go elsewhere to escape loud drunks.

Dear Miss Manners  Years ago, bridal showers were theme-based. Now, they send a list of where the bride is registered. I thought this was reserved for the wedding gift.
Conservationist Naude Dreyer saved a large seal caught in packaging strapping in Walvis Bay, Namibia on February 26, 2020.

Dreyers friend assisted him with the rescue and was vital in Dreyer deciding to attempt to catch this big bull Cape fur Seal which Dreyer had previously avoided.

As soon as the two men caught the large seal in their net, they proceeded to remove the offending plastic.

The animals relief was immediate when we cut the strap, as he stopped struggling completely when the tension of the entanglement was suddenly gone, Dreyer said.

Dreyer has a set up a GoFundMe for Ocean Conservation Namibia to assist him with this work. He claims to have saved over 600 seals entangled in marine debris like fishing lines, nets and packing straps. At the time of writing, he had raised $2,105 of his $5,000 goal. Credit: Naude Dreyer via Storyful
LUDLOW  Sex may be a funny word, according to an award-winning childrens author, but some parents of Ludlow middle-schoolers arent laughing.

Sex educator Cory Silverbergs Sex is a Funny Word has won awards in the U.S. and Canada and praise in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews and the School Library Journal. It also landed on the American Library Associations 2017 list of the countrys 10 most frequently challenged books  and now its at the center of an ongoing controversy in the Ludlow school district over what books should remain on the shelves at the Baird Middle School, according to Superintendent Todd H. Gazda.

The comic-style illustrated book explores changing bodies, gender and sexuality and is designed as an educational guide for children ages 8 to 10 and their parents and caregivers.

There are illustrations, for instance of a penis and a vagina, which are anatomically correct ... but there are also discussions about negative, private touching, which is a very important lesson these kids should learn, Gazda said.

The book is the third this academic year to raise the ire of parents, he added. The first was A Court of Wings and Ruin, the third in a fantasy series by Sarah J. Maas, Gazda said  adding that it veers sharply from the series other installments, featuring graphic sex scenes, profanity and other mature themes. The second, a graphic novel titled Sacred Heart, came in with a large batch of donated books to the library.

The librarian cant read every single book in the library," Gazda said. They rely on reviews and recommendations.

So, when the first two books were flagged by parents, the school principal and librarian readily agreed they didnt belong in a middle school library. That, Gazda said, is the first step in an established process the school district has in place to vet the appropriateness of library books: first, contact the school principal and librarian; second, if those two dont feel comfortable making unilateral decisions to remove the book, parents are asked to fill out a short form and submit it to a subcommittee comprised of two Ludlow School Committee members, two teachers and a librarian.

Everyone reads the book and they decide whether the book should stay on the shelves, said longtime Ludlow School Committee member James Chip Harrington, who is not a member of that subcommittee. "Everyone has a different definition of what inappropriate or obscene is ... so I think our message as a body has been: We hear you. We get it. Please just follow the policy.

Some parents who spoke about library book concerns at a Feb. 25 Ludlow School Committee meeting said they believe the district should be more proactive about pulling what they perceive as unsuitable reading material.

Why is this being put on us, as parents, to find all these books that we believe are inappropriate for our children? When ... we had nothing to do with these books being brought into the school, one mother told the panel during the meeting, according to a public access channel broadcast. You guys should be doing something to be proactive. Go through the library. See whats in there."

Our kids are being poisoned with this stuff in the meantime, one father said.

Another father said: None of these books here are gonna get kids into the Ivy Leagues, I can tell you that.

A middle school staffer flagged Sex is a Funny Word for review, Gazda said. The book survived the subcommittees vetting and remains on the shelves at Baird Middle School.

Reporting by the Springfield News-Leader found Sex is a Funny Word was among over two dozen books  including the Bible and a high school yearbook  that parents and others have tried to ban in Missouri libraries since 2014. A description by the American Library Associations Office for Intellectual Freedom said: This 2015 informational childrens book written by a certified sex educator was challenged because it addresses sex education and is believed to lead children to want to have sex or ask questions about sex.

Gazda added that he believes the controversy is being stoked by social media. In some cases, he said the dialogue has devolved to include personal attacks on school personnel. Earlier this month, he and officials from the teachers union addressed the issue in a statement to parents and guardians.

Gossip, hearsay, untrue statements and personal attacks, such as those occurring now, inflame emotions and are counterproductive to working together, the statement read.

Gazda also laments that the most vocal parents have refused to follow the districts process to bring scrutiny to library books they feel are unsuitable for certain age groups.

This has been going on for weeks and I havent received one form, he said. I cant just walk into a building and start pulling books off the shelves myself."

Have a news tip or want to contact The Republican about this story? Email newsdesk@repub.com or message us on Facebook or Twitter.
There were cases when the opponent injured military personnel when direct military operations were not conducted or the military personnel were not on combat duty, said Armenias deputy defense minister Gabriel Balayan at the Armenian parliament on Friday.

His remarks came during the meeting session of the standing committee on defense and security.

According to him, such incidents occur either as a result of shelling of the Armenian territory by the opponent or its sabotage and reconnaissance operations.

Defense ministrys department of social protection is currently estimating the damage caused to the life or health of the soldier as a result of the opponents offensive operations since 2008, which resulted in nine injuries, he said.

According to the draft law presented, these cases are also set to be included in the list of cases subject to compensation for damage. And it is also planned to correct a number of technical errors.

The standing committee gave a positive conclusion to the draft law.
WASHINGTON  Climate change was supposed to be one of Michael R. Bloombergs greatest strengths in the Democratic presidential primary.

Where other candidates have plans to reduce fossil fuel use, the billionaire philanthropist has results: millions of dollars spent to help close hundreds of coal-fired power plants and, in many cases, to secure a switch to natural gas, which produces about half the planet-warming greenhouse gases as coal.

But that transition, once considered a bragging right in the environmental world, has become a liability to his campaign at a moment when the only acceptable fossil fuel is no fossil fuel.

As he seeks to win over climate-conscious Democrats, Mr. Bloomberg has found himself unable to shake the incrementalist label in a maximalist primary. During his debut debate in Nevada, Mr. Bloomberg allowed that an economy powered solely by wind, solar and other renewable energy sources was still many years from now. Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, or fracking, will continue for a while, he said, as he promoted natural gas as a bridge between coal and carbon-free power.
Three persons were killed after being run over by a speeding truck near government press circle in the city, police said on Friday.

Two women identified as Mamta (21) and Neha (22), both make-up artists, were returning home from work on a two-wheeler when the accident took place on Thursday night.

The truck also crushed to death one Suresh (30), who was sleeping on the footpath, police said.

The truck driver Raju was caught by people and handed over to police.

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



companies like Maruti Suzuki and Honda, having their plants in the state, were not giving 85 per cent jobs to locals as per existing rules, the Gujarat government on Friday told the Assembly that it cannot take action against such firms.

In 1995, a government resolution ordered entrepreneurs to hire 85 per cent of the workforce from Gujarat, said state Labour and Employment Minister Dilip Thakor in the House.

He was responding to a question by Congress MLA Bharatji Thakor, who sought to know what action the government had taken against Maruti Suzuki and Honda for violating local hiring norms.

In reply, Thakor admitted that both companies, having their plants in Ahmedabad district, were not adhering to the 85 per cent local hiring rule, but said there was no provision in the GR which empowered the government to take any action against such companies.

Dilip Thakor informed that anyone who is residing in Gujarat for more than 15 years is a "local".

"During the last two years, we have written letters to these units on four occasions to draw their attention on the GR of 1995. We have held meetings with the management to make them understand the GR provisions. There is no provision in the GR to take action against such companies," the minister said.

He added that industries are important for providing employment to the people.

Unhappy with the reply, Congress MLA Baldevji Thakor alleged it was due to such weak policies that people from other states were getting jobs in the state while local OBC youth remained jobless.

Thakor replied that the state government was "trying" to make sure such companies adhere to the 85 per cent local hiring norm.

"Often, people from outside are hired when companies do not find required talent locally. In some cases, we have seen local youths, who were employed with our intervention, leave the job," explained Thakor.

He added that, of 1,453 managerial and supervisory posts in Maruti Suzuki plant, 348 have been given to locals.

Out of 4,534 workers employed by the company, 1,964 are locals.

In the Honda plant, out of 708 managerial posts, 152 are occupied by locals and of total 2,800 workers, 2,435 are locals, said the minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Daniel Craigs last ride as James Bond will see some Land Rover Defenders bouncing off rough terrain, crashing, and then bouncing some more . It also motivated Top Gear to go out and drive some of the best Bond cars to feature on the big screen.

Although James Bond movies typically go together like winter and January, the upcoming No Time To Die installment has made a lot of gearheads happy. You could attribute that to the power of social media and car brands wanting as much exposure as possible, but its surely nice that so much car content has been generated by the latest 007 movie.

What Cars Has James Bond Driven in Movies?

It was only recently that we saw a couple of Land Rover Defenders (yes, the new ones) taking a bashing during James Bond No Time To Die rehearsals. We got up, we applauded, and were about to do the same for Top Gears latest video - one that brings together some of the raddest cars to be driven by past and current James Bonds. The list is as exquisite as youd expect, both in terms of the cars and the actors that played Agent 007:

Aston Martin DB5 - driven by Sean Connery in the 1964 Goldfinger

Aston Martin DBS - driven by George Lazenby in the 1969 On Her Majestys Secret Service

Lotus Esprit S1 - driven by Roger Moore in the 1977 The Spy Who Loved Me

Aston Martin V8 Vantage - driven by Timothy Dalton in the 1987 The Living Daylights

BMW Z8 - driven by Pierce Brosnan in the 1999 The World Is Not Enough

Aston Martin DB10 - driven by Daniel Craig in the the 2015 Spectre

Obviously, we wont go into discussing every car mentioned above for a clear reason: it spoils the charm of the video youre about to see. We will, however, provide an update regarding the upcoming James Bond No Time To Die movie.

If the recent rumors hold any substance, it will be the longest 007 movie ever.

According to Collider. Better said, No Time To Die will reportedly offer 163 minutes of Bond action, which is longer than Spectres 148 minutes of air time. If thats the case, then why didnt they name it A Lot Of Time To Die instead?

Joke aside, Craig David will be joined on his last role as Agent 007 by the likes of Ana de Armas, Lea Seydoux, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch, Christoph Waltz, Naomie Harris, and Ben Whishaw.

No Time To Die will premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London, with the theatrical release scheduled to air on April 2 in the U.K. and April 10 in the United States.

James Bond - No Time to Die Trailer

Learn more about all of the bond cars mentioned in this article at the links below!
Brenham FFA member and Brenham High School junior Cara Davis has been accepted into the 2020 Veterinary Enrichment Camp at Texas A&M University. Davis was one of 80 applicants selected from 600 entries.

Davis will attend a four-day, three-night camp to explore the possibilities of veterinary medicine as a career. The camp consists of special sessions designed to share the broad diversity of career opportunities available to graduates with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree.

Davis is a member of the Brenham FFA vet team and plans to study veterinary medicine at Texas A&M University after she graduates from Brenham High School.
A British man who was aboard the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan has died from coronavirus, the countrys health ministry has announced.

He is the first Briton to die of the disease, also known as Covid-19.

A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Japan and are in contact with local authorities.

Our sympathies and thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.

The Japanese Ministry of Health said the man was the sixth person from the ship to have died.

Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Show all 10 1 /10 Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A man wearing a face mask crosses a road in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of the empty entrance to the UniversitA Cattolica (Catholic University) in Milan, northern Italy, on 24 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone sanitation worker sits near the closed Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on February 24, 2020. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of a deserted street in Codogno, northern Italy, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Italian police officers set a road block in Codogno, Northern Italy, on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A supermarket closed in Codogno, one the northern Italian towns placed under lockdown, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone cyclist wearing sanitary masks pedals in the center of Codogno, Northern Italy. LaPresse via AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty An empty road at the entrance of the small Italian town of Codogno on February 23, 2020. AFP via Getty

He was the first foreign passenger to die on the ship, the Kyodo news agency reported.

A spokeswoman for Princess Cruises, which operates the Diamond Princess, said: All of us at Princess Cruises, including the crew of Diamond Princess, offer our sincere condolences to family members and friends for their loss.

Our dedicated care team are on hand to provide support.

In the UK, 19 people have been diagnosed with the disease.

On Friday, Wales reported its first patient to have tested positive for the virus and two more cases were identified in England.

The Welsh patient had recently returned from Italy, the site of Europes worst outbreak.

The two English cases had recently travelled from Iran, the Department for Health said, where the virus has rapidly spread, killing 22 amid 141 confirmed cases.

China has reported nearly 80,000 cases with almost 3,000 deaths. The virus has infected nearly 60 countries.
A political action committee backing Joe Biden's run for president has decided to invest in key Super Tuesday states as it picks up wealthy financiers while the former vice president attempts to mount a comeback in the primary race.

In the wake of Biden's successful debate and a well-received town hall in South Carolina, Unite the Country, a pro-Biden super PAC, has seen a surge in high dollar contributions from donors, one of its leaders told CNBC on Thursday. That's allowed the organization to invest in delegate-rich primaries that are set to take place on Super Tuesday, which is scheduled for March 3. The PAC will first target voters in Alabama and North Carolina with radio and digital ads.

"We've done very well in terms of the response with everything that's happened the last couple of weeks," Larry Rasky, the group's treasurer, told CNBC. "I would say things are starting to resonate with donors," he said, while pointing to Biden's debate and town hall performances as two reasons why donors are writing big checks to the PAC.

Rasky noted that a new poll in the key state of Florida, which shows Biden surging ahead of former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, also peaked interest from donors. Florida's primary is March 17.

Bloomberg was, at first, slowly picking up some of Biden's top fundraisers, but since the former New York mayor's sluggish debate performance in Nevada two weeks ago, many of those people have decided to shift back into the former vice president's corner and give to the super PAC instead, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The PAC has also started to acquire donors who were backing other primary contenders, this person noted.

Rasky would not say how much they are investing in the states or the amount they have raised but noted that they plan to focus more of their resources toward other Super Tuesday states.

Contrary to campaigns, super PACs can raise and spend an unlimited amount of money. In January, the pro-Biden PAC raised just over $4 million and spent $3.8 million, according to a Federal Election Commission filing. Their recent fundraising success was on the backs of business executives such as Silicon Valley investor Reid Hoffman, who contributed $500,000 last month, along with Blackstone executive, John McCormick.

The move by the super PAC comes as Biden is looking to pick up his first primary victory in South Carolina and trying to find momentum into next week's Super Tuesday contests. Sen. Bernie Sanders has become the Democratic primary front-runner after seeing victories in New Hampshire and Nevada.

The Biden campaign launched a separate six figure ad buy that will include broadcast spots in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

Biden is looking to overtake Sanders while he continues to lead in most polls and in the delegate count. A Real Clear Politics polling average has Biden in second behind Sanders, followed by Bloomberg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Police in Hong Kong on Friday arrested pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai for attending a pro-democracy rally last August, as the anti-extradition movement broadened into a broad-based movement against growing political interference from Beijing and for fully democratic elections.



Lai, 72, who owns the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, was arrested alongside veteran democracy activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum, and charged with taking part in an "illegal assembly."



The charge carries a maximum jail term of five years. The initial court hearing will be on May 5.



Lai was among thousands of others who defied a police ban on a protest march on Aug. 31, a date that was marked by a violent assault by riot police on train passengers at Prince Edward MTR station.



Some of the marchers said they were in a religious procession titled "Pray for Sinners," which doesn't need police approval, while others claimed to be shopping.



Police senior superintendent Wong Tung-kwong of Hong Kong Island's crime headquarters said the Aug. 31 rally hadn't received a "letter of no objection" from police before going ahead.



"This was in breach of Section 245, Article 17 of the Public Order Ordinance," Wong told journalists. He said Lai, whom he described as a 72-year-old male, was also accused of intimidating a journalist during the Tiananmen massacre memorial event of 2017.



He said the three had been released on bail pending further investigation.



"The police will arrest them once our investigations are complete," Wong said.



Lee Cheuk-yan told reporters after his release on bail at noon on Friday that police had confiscated his cell phone, and said he was concerned that they may scan it for intelligence.



"My cell phone shouldn't be needed at all as evidence," Lee said. "We are worried about where [its contents] will end up."



"The government is going to look at the data ... then use it to settle scores," he said. "It's a way of threatening the people of Hong Kong."



'Shameless attempt to harass'



London-based rights group Amnesty International said the arrests of Lai, Lee, and Yeung were unjustifiable.



"These unjustifiable arrests are a shameless attempt to harass and silence those in Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement," the group's Hong Kong director Man-Kei Tam said in a statement.



"It continues the pattern of the authorities using politically motivated charges to suppress opposition voices," Tam said, adding that the vast majority of Aug. 31 protesters were exercising their right to peaceful assembly.



"Peaceful protests do not require authorisation and are therefore not unlawful, as the Hong Kong authorities claim," he said. "This merely appears to be the polices way of intimidating anyone planning to take part."



He once more called for an independent inquiry into police violence and "heavy-handed" tactics when dealing with the protest movement last year.



Tam's statement said that some protesters threw bricks and petrol bombs at police on Aug. 31, while police fired blue dye in water cannons at the crowds to mark people for identification later.



"On the same evening, riot police stormed into train carriages at Prince Edward metro station and assualted passengers," it said. "Two live warning shots were also fired by the police near Causeway Bay."



The UN Human Rights Committee has repeatedly expressed concern that the application of unlawful assembly charges against Hong Kong protesters risks violating their human rights, Amnesty said.



From June to December 2019, the Hong Kong police banned 47 out of 537 applications for public processions or meetings, it said, citing police figures.



Democratic Party lawmaker Andrew Wan said the arrests appeared to be timed to distract people from a huge increase in the police budget.



"Maybe arresting them at this time is a bid ... to distract our attention," Wan said. "The focus right now is the pay rise for police, and the dispute over a substantial increase in their resources and allowances."



"Maybe ... they want us to look at something else?"



Broken promises



Under the "one country, two systems" framework agreed before the 1997 handover to Chinese rule, Hong Kong was promised the maintenance of its freedoms of speech, assembly, and political participation.



The protests that erupted in June 2019 in response to plans to allow extradition to mainland China were largely triggered by the erosion of those freedoms, particularly following a series of high-profile interventions by the ruling Chinese Communist Party in the city's political life, including the debarring of pro-democracy lawmakers and would-be election candidates for their political views.



In 2014, Beijing decreed that while it would allow Hongkongers to each have a vote in popular elections, they would only be allowed to choose from among candidates approved by China.



Millions of pro-democracy supporters have taken to Hong Kong's streets with demands for a public inquiry into police violence, fully democratic elections, an amnesty for thousands of arrested protesters, and an end to the use of the word "rioters" to describe the movement.



While chief executive Carrie Lam formally withdrew hated amendments to the city's laws in October, protesters slammed her response as too little, too late, and demanded she address the rapid erosion of the city's promised freedoms.



Reported by Man Hoi-tsan for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Lu Xi for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.




THE Ministry of Health and Child Care yesterday confirmed that they had so far picked two suspected cases of Covid-19 which both tested negative at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in the last two weeks.





The latest case was the body of a 21-year-old man who died in Kenya enroute to Zimbabwe from China. Director of Epidemiology and Disease Control Dr Portia Manangazira confirmed the second suspected case of a university student who was studying in China.





A 21-year-old Zimbabwean student studying in China arrived in Nairobi between 10 and 15 January after a long illness.





When he wanted to proceed to Harare, he was denied due to the state of his illness so he stayed in Nairobi at a local hospital for two and half weeks.





He was then discharged and stayed in Kenya for a week where he later died. So when the body came to Zimbabwe it had been tested for Covid-19 in China and Kenya and we also did tests at our laboratories and it tested negative.





Even the postmortem confirmed that he had not died from the virus.





However, we supervised the burial as a suspected case of coronavirus because he had been at the virus hotspots, she said.





Recently, Government in partnership with Mimosa Mines bought state-of-the-art equipment for the coronavirus port health surveillance screening at all the eight points of entry.





Dr Manangazira said the state of the art equipment will ensure effective response progress across the countrys entry ports and hospitals in regard to coronavirus (COVID-19).





With the thermo scanners and cameras that have been donated by Mimosa we will be able to equip all our eight points of entry including the three airports and five ground ports.




HCMC will let ninth and twelfth graders to return to school on March 2 and other school children will follow suit two weeks later, starting March 16, after an extended Lunar New Year holiday.

The city's steering committee for coronavirus infection prevention and control held a meeting with various departments and 24 districts on Tuesday to look into the coronavirus situation, reported the local media.

The city has some 1.7 million K-12 students, including nearly 100,000 ninth graders and more than 73,000 twelfth graders, according to Le Hong Son, director of the HCMC Department of Education and Training.

Son stated that the department has asked local schools to take preventative measures against the spread of the disease, known as Covid-19, among teachers, students and their parents and has assigned homework for students and started online classes while schools are closed.

However, the measures are temporary fixes, he noted. The current online teaching model cannot replace classes and cannot extend the time of school closures for 12th graders as the national high school examination is set to be held from July 23 to 26.

He suggested kindergarteners aged five and fifth graders return to school from March 16 and attend morning classes only.

Pre-school and elementary students will have their schedules announced later as the outbreak develops.

Ninth and twelfth graders will return to school on March 2 and only attend one session per day while the remaining secondary school students as well as centers for life skills, foreign languages, information technology and tutoring will resume classes from March 16.

The citys chairman, Nguyen Thanh Phong, pointed out that the central Government has yet to decide a date for students across the country to get back to school. Once the prime minister makes a decision on the issue, the municipal government will make appropriate changes.

The proposal put forward by the education department serves as a plan for the city to decide on reopening schools, according to Phong.

He said there are more than 2,000 schools across the city, with each having 1,000-2,000 students. If all the students go to school at once, three to four million face masks would be needed, which the city could not afford due to the lack of supplies.

Given the large number of students, schools will be at risk of an epidemic if they are not monitored properly, said Nguyen Tan Binh, director of the HCMC Department of Health.

He added that the health department is working with the education department to take precautionary measures when students return to school.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc stressed at a meeting on Monday that the resumption of classes depends on the development of the epidemic around the world and will be decided at a subsequent Cabinet meeting scheduled for the end of this week.

The current school year will be extended to the end of June, a month later than usual, according to the Ministry of Education and Training.

Primary and junior secondary graduation certification processes must be finished prior to July 15 ahead of the national high school exam. Meanwhile, 10th grade enrolment must be completed before August 15.

School reopening dates not yet finalized: PM

Schools across the country will remain closed as authorities have to consider the development of the coronavirus outbreak before setting their reopening dates, noted the prime minister.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc made this announcement at a meeting on February 24 discussing the prevention and control of the spread of the epidemic, officially called Covid-19, reported Thanh Nien newspaper.

Earlier at the meeting, Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung and Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha both showed support for a plan allowing high school and college students to resume their studies on March 2, while secondary school students and those in the lower educational stages stay at home for one or two more weeks.

According to Minister Nha, students can return to school if no disease-related issues arise from March 2. However, based on the latest developments in some localities, the closures may extend for another two weeks for secondary school students and lower grades.

As for Minister Dung, the school resumption date should be based on whether Vietnam has brought the disease under control, with no new cases being recorded for days and 15 out of 16 confirmed cases having recovered from the viral contagious disease.

The extended shutdown will affect parents who are struggling to arrange for childcare while they work, especially as private schools have been suspended as well.

The head of the Government Office added that students in the virus-hit Japan and Taiwan are still attending school. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong authorities are now considering the exact day for classes to resume.

Further, the extended school break could arouse the publics doubts over whether Vietnam has contained the flu-like virus. Dung added that high school students, for instance, could return to school early next month as they now have better awareness of protective measures to avoid infection. This will allow them to prepare for the upcoming national high school graduation exams.

In conclusion, PM Phuc stressed that the final date for school reopenings will be decided later after considering the development of Covid-19. SGT
Evacuees from China arriving at Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, Calif., on Feb. 5, 2020. (Krysten I. Houk/U.S. Department of Health and Human Services via AP, File)

American Who Completed Coronavirus Quarantine Recalls Time in Wuhan: It Was Scary

An American man who completed a two-week quarantine in California after being evacuated from Wuhan, China, appeared on television on Friday and briefly recounted what happened when the virus first emerged in the city of approximately 11 million.

It was scary, Frank Wucinski, a Pennsylvania resident, said on Fox Newss Americas Newsroom.

You didnt know what was happening, what was going on, he added.

Wucinski was among one of the first groups to be evacuated on charted State Department flights from Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus. The evacuees were quarantined at military bases in California while being monitored for signs of COVID-19, the disease the new virus causes.

Wucinski said on social media that his wife, Li Qiong, is still in China. He was told non-American citizens could not board the flight and she was taking care of her father until he died earlier this month. Qiong later tested positive for the virus but is recovering, he said on Twitter.

On the one hand I know it was a good thing weve did but on the other hand there is a feeling of guilt, he told KPBS earlier this month. That Ive left my wife probably at the worst time of her life.

Wucinski and his 3-year-old daughter, Annabel, were isolated at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. They were released on Feb. 20. Most Americans evacuated from China or Japan have been released after being isolated for two weeks. Federal officials have said they present no danger to the general public.

A plane carrying evacuees from the virus zone in China lands at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, Calif., on Feb. 5, 2020. (Gregory Bull/AP Photo)

Appearing on Fox on Friday, Wucinski said things were going well.

Physically, were great. Its good to be with family. Its nice to be out of quarantine.

Annabel hasnt gone to school or daycare yet, he said, citing high costs.

Wucinski recounted arriving in the United States from China and was immediately put into isolation because of their contact with his wifes father. They were later allowed to be with other evacuees but were isolated again after staff members saw Annabel coughing.

Both the father and daughter tested negative for COVID-19 multiple times. They still take temperature readings every day. The Pennsylvania man is working on getting insurance as his work insurance doesnt cover him in the United States.

Wucinski expressed hope for the future and said he understands people fearing the new virus. Coughing toward the end of the interview, he emphasized he was tested twice and the results were negative both times. He attributed the coughing to being nervous.

Wucinski re-opened a fundraiser on GoFundMe he had closed after receiving enough donations because he recently started getting medical bills from the stay in isolation, he said.

Although I assumed all medical bills from our time in quarantine would be paid by the government, it turns out that I am financially responsible for the six days Annabel and I spent in isolation at the hospital, he wrote. Most of his and Annabels clothing is still in China and the family doesnt have access to their bank account there with him out of the country and his wife in quarantine.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 01:05:10|Editor: yan

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KAMPALA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- At least eight people were killed on spot and scores seriously injured in a Friday head-on collision in the central district of Luwero, according to the police.

Abraham Tukundane, Luwero district police commander, told Xinhua by phone that the fatal accident occurred after a truck collided with a passenger commuter taxi at Kibisi, along the Luwero-Kampala Highway.

Tukundane said seven passengers aboard the taxi heading to the capital, Kampala and the driver of the truck travelling to the northern Ugandan town of Gulu died.

"Eight people are confirmed dead. A number of people were injured. We reached the scene when some were already picked up and rushed for treatment," said Tukundane.

The police commander said the injured people were rushed to Bombo military and Kasana hospitals for treatment.

"We have launched investigations to find out the cause of the accident," said Tukundane.

Uganda registers about 20,000 accidents each year, with some 2,000 deaths, making it one of the countries with the highest traffic death rates, according to police statistics.

The police attribute the high rates of road accidents to reckless driving, speeding, human error, drink driving and overloading.
SIU hosts Innovation and Entrepreneurship Day on March 4

by Christi Mathis

CARBONDALE, Ill.  There is no better teacher than experience. Southern Illinois University Carbondales Innovation and Entrepreneurship Day on Wednesday, March 4, features a lineup of speakers with extensive business and entrepreneurship experience who will share what theyve learned.

The event is from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at SIUs Center for Innovation, 1745 Innovation Drive in Carbondale. The free seminar is open to the public and pre-registration is not required.

Refreshments will be served.

Four professionals will speak

The evening will feature live interviews with four special guest speakers spotlighting their own experiences with business, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The lineup includes:

Peter Gregory  founder of Bsquare Corp., a Washington software component company. Gregory is also angel investor and owner of Humid Town Ventures. He completed his bachelors degree in computer science at SIU in 1984.

Bronwyn Morgan  founder of Xeo Air Inc., an Atlanta, Georgia-based company providing guided digital drone services for a variety of business purposes. She also founded Airversity Drone Pilot Academy. Morgan was named a 2017 Woman of the Year in Technology finalist by Women in Technology.

Curt Jones  inventor and founder of Dippin Dots Inc., an ice cream confection phenomenon, and 40 Below Joe, a line of quick-frozen coffees and creamers. Jones is a double alumnus of SIU, earning bachelors (1981) and masters (1986) degrees in microbiology.

Jeremy Packer  chief technology officer at Lineup Media Group, a multimedia content generating company. A tech entrepreneur, Packer earned a bachelors degree in computer science with a software engineering concentration from SIU in 2015. He is also the founder of Packer Labs, a technology consulting company.

Numerous groups involved

The SIU Saluki Entrepreneur Corps registered student organization and the College of Business and Analytics are hosting the event in SIUs Research Park.

Sponsors also include the Office of Innovation and Economic Development, the Undergraduate Student Government, the Illinois Small Business Development Center, the SIU Credit Union, Quatros, The Reserve and Silkworm.

For more information, visit incubator.siu.edu or call 618/536-2424.
MIAMI, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- World meditation leader Deepak Chopra, and strategist and best-selling author Ismael Cala, will join forces in a retreat to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the book "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success," organized by Chopra Global.

The retreat will take place from May 13 to 17 in the Riviera Maya on the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, a place that has inspired deep spiritual reflection for thousands of years.

"I developed 'The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success' as a way to break the myth that success is only achieved through hard work, precise planning and driving ambition. For the first time, I will share these powerful teachings in an immersion retreat. Together, we will learn to incorporate these laws to experience success in all its formsnot only material wealth, but fulfilling relationships, creative freedom, emotional stability, energy and zest for life," Chopra explained.

For his part, Ismael Cala thanked Chopra for the invitation: "I am honored to accompany the master again. Our previous collaborations, through meditation challenges in Spanish, attracted hundreds of thousands of people. I now join this retreat, my third with Chopra, to celebrate the full force of 'The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.'"

Sarah Platt-Finger, co-founder of ISHTA Yoga, LLC, will also participate in the retreat.

What are 'The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success'?

The Law of Pure Potentiality The Law of Giving The Law of Karma The Law of Least Effort The Law of Intention and Desire The Law of Detachment The Law of Dharma

The retreat experience includes practices such as pranayama breathing, chakra toning, primordial sound meditation, yoga classes, application of "The Seven Spiritual Laws" and vegetarian food, inspired by traditional Mayan cuisine.

For more information: https://sevenspirituallaws.chopra.com/espanol/

ABOUT DEEPAK CHOPRA, M.D.

Deepak Chopra, M.D., F.A.C.P., founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing and Chopra Foundation, is a world recognized pioneer of integrative medicine and global and personal transformation. He is certified in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology and Metabolism. He is a member of the American College of Physicians and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists. Chopra is the author of more than 80 books and essays, published in over 43 languages. Twenty of them have been declared best-sellers by The New York Times. Time magazine has described Chopra as "one of the century's 100 greatest heroes and icons."

ABOUT ISMAEL CALA

A life and business strategist, Ismael Cala hosts a talk show on channels in about twenty countries. For five and a half years he hosted the CALA show on CNN en Espanol. A businessman and social entrepreneur, he is the author of eight best-sellers on leadership, entrepreneurship and personal development, including "El poder de escuchar" (The Power of Listening) and "Despierta con Cala" (Wake Up with Cala). Cala was born in Santiago de Cuba (1969) and holds a degree in Art History from Universidad de Oriente. He co-authored the book "Beat the Curve" with Brian Tracy. He is the President and founder of Cala Enterprises Corporation and the Ismael Cala Foundation.

SOURCE Cala Enterprises

Related Links

https://sevenspirituallaws.chopra.com/espanol


In a landmark decision for the rights of smallholders, a leading Australian bank has agreed to pay more than 1,000 Cambodian families displaced by a sugar company it granted a loan to in 2011, even though the loan violated the banks stated human rights standards.

ANZ Australia will pay the families with interest earned by the $40 million loan to Phnom Penh Sugar (PPS), a company owned by a conglomerate headed by Cambodian lawmaker and tycoon Ly Yong Phat, who is affiliated with the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP).

At the time ANZ granted the loan through its Cambodian joint venture, ANZ Royal Bank, PPS had attracted international media attention following widespread allegations of its use of child labor and clashes with local human rights groups.

PPS did not respond to VOA Khmers requests for comment.

At the heart of the dispute was the 2011 eviction of farm families, who allegedly received no compensation when PPS purportedly seized their holdings and homes in collusion with local authorities and Cambodias armed forces. At the time, plantations owned by Ly Yong Phat were spread across the Tbpong and Oral districts. They eventually occupied 23,000 hectares.

Critics said his operations produced blood sugar, because of the violent forced evictions and other human rights abuses inflicted on the families.

'Huge difficulties'

Soeung Sokhom, a representative of the affected families in Cambodias Kompong Speu province, said he supported the outcome in a statement issued as part of the payment announcement.

We have experienced huge difficulties with our livelihoods since the sugar company took our land almost 10 years ago, and this contribution will greatly help our situation, he said. The whole affected community, including me, are deeply grateful that ANZ has resolved our complaint.

The bank did not disclose the exact amount it would pay the farmers, whose holdings varied in size.

The agreement came five years after two nonprofits filed a complaint against the bank with a little-known entity within Australias treasury department, the nonjudicial Australian National Contact Point (ANCP). It oversees complaints about the behavior of Australian companies overseas based on guidelines for responsible corporate behavior set forth by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Equitable Cambodia (EC), a nonprofit that since 2012 has worked to protect all Cambodians from a protracted land-grabbing crisis, filed the complaint.

Inclusive Development International (IDI), a U.S. nonprofit based in Asheville, North Carolina, joined EC in filing the complaint.

After filing the complaint, the two nonprofits had consistently called on ANZ to divest the profit from the loan and provide it to the families as reparations for their due diligence failings.

'Difficult to reconcile'

In a 2018 report, the ANCP found there is some doubt in this case around the extent to which ANZs actual business practices aligned with its stated approach to human rights.  It is difficult to reconcile ANZs decision to take on PPS as a client with its own internal [human rights] policies.

In October 2018, the banks CEO, Shayne Elliott, told an Australian parliamentary committee this was a dreadful situation and that the bank would consider compensating the families.

ANCP negotiated the agreement, with talks continuing until earlier this month.

In a joint statement issued Thursday with EC, Natalie Bugalski, IDIs legal director, said, This agreement sets an important precedent for the banking industry, and we welcome ANZs leadership in this regard. Going forward, all banks should recognize that they cant look the other way when they loan money to corporations that abuse peoples rights and cause harm. If a bank contributes to adverse human rights impacts through its lending activities, it has a responsibility to contribute to a remedy.

David Pred, IDIs executive director, told VOA Khmer by phone that the nonprofits and ANZ would continue to work with the affected communities to identify the beneficiaries of this payment, the people who are affected by the Phnom Penh Sugar project, and ensure that all of these families receive the benefit of this agreement.

He described the amount the bank will pay as significant.

In a statement by the three parties that was attached to the ANCP resolution, ANZ acknowledges that its due diligence on the project funded by its loan was inadequate and recognizes the hardships faced by the affected communities.

"We congratulate Shayne Elliott and ANZ for doing the right thing by returning the revenue earned from the loan to affected families in Kampong Speu," said Eang Vuthy, ECs executive director. This is an important recognition of the ongoing hardships that the communities have suffered all these years, and it will make a big difference for them. But this does not in any way replace Phnom Penh Sugars responsibility to fully compensate the communities for their damages."

ANCP praised the agreement in an accompanying statement:

Where a company has gained revenue in a manner inconsistent with the OECD guidelines, and that has resulted in parties being impacted, the payment of the revenues to those parties may be one way a company can comply with the requirements of the OECD guidelines.

'Appalling record'

Pred pointed out, This is only the second time out of more than 300 cases concluded in the 20-year history of the National Contact Point system when a complaint process has resulted in a concrete financial remedy for complainants. Thats an appalling record.

He continued, We hope this outcome will help inspire a brighter future for corporate accountability, where the victims of corporate misconduct can expect legitimate complaints to result in effective remedies.

As part of the resolution, ANZ also agreed to review and strengthen its human rights policies, including its customer social and environmental screening processes and grievance mechanism.

We look forward to working with ANZ to establish an accessible and effective grievance mechanism for affected communities, and we urge other banks to follow suit, Pred said.

Last year, Friends of the Earth Australia issued a report finding Australias largest banks, including ANZ, the Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac, had funded directly or indirectly companies accused of improperly acquiring land from local people, child labor violations and land clearing, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Phong Sokit of Kampong Speu province told VOA Khmer that the sugar company had seized about 25 hectares of land he had owned since 1996 in the Oral district. He said he had not heard about the compensation plan.

Today, each hectare is worth about $10,000, he said.

I dont know how they will solve how much to pay people," Phong Sokit said. "Some have five hectares, some have 10 hectares that were bulldozed and grabbed. Some people have two or three hectares.  If the plan is to pay each an equal amount, I cannot accept it. Those who have more hectares of land cant accept it.

Phong Sokit added, Its not clear yet whats going to happen because the representatives who went to the meetings have not come back to tell the communities.
JERUSALEM  It was a potentially devastating blow to Benny Gantz, the former army chief battling mightily to depose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Thursday, four days before the election  their third contest in under a year  a recording of Mr. Gantzs top strategist privately denigrating Mr. Gantzs courage and capacity to defend the state of Israel was broadcast on the evening news.

[Update: Israels election: 6 takeaways.]

Where the recording came from was a mystery when it was broadcast on Israels Channel 12. Only on Friday, hours after Mr. Gantz had fired the strategist, Israel Bachar, did answers emerge  giving Israels long-running political drama its most bizarre plot twist yet.

A few weeks ago, it turned out, Mr. Bachar had gone to see a rabbi about a personal problem. He and the rabbi, Guy Havura of Ramle, spoke for hours. At times, their discussion turned to politics.
Washington: The US has urged India to "protect and respect" the right to peaceful assembly of people and hold accountable those perpetrating violence following the Delhi riots over the amended citizenship act, saying that Washington has raised the issue at the highest level with New Delhi.

The Comments came as Delhi this week witnessed worst riots in more than three decades, killing 38 people and injuring 200 others.The communal clashes began in northeast Delhi over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and spiralled into bloodshed.

The Indian Parliament had passed CAA last year, resulting in a series of protests across the country.

According to the CAA, members of the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 following religious persecution there will get Indian citizenship.

The Indian government has been emphasising that the new law will not deny citizenship rights, but it has been brought to protect the oppressed minorities of neighbouring countries and give them citizenship.

We strongly condemn the recent violence and urge authorities to protect and respect the right of peaceful assembly and hold accountable those perpetrating violence. We call on all parties to maintain peace and refrain from violence, a State Department spokesperson told PTI.

We have raised these issues at the highest levels and continue to engage the Government of India on issues related to religious freedom, the official said responding to a question.

Underlining that respect for religious freedom and equal treatment under the law are fundamental principles of the two democracies, the official said, We note Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for peace and the Indian government's pledge to prevent further violence and restore normalcy."

Modi appealed for calm and peace in Delhi on February 26.

"Peace and harmony are central to our ethos. I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood at all times.

It is important that there is calm and normalcy is restored at the earliest," he tweeted.

Democrat Colin Allred said that a democracy is only made stronger by its inclusion and respect for the rights of minorities.

"India is the largest secular democracy in the world. This violence and suppression of Muslims' civil liberties undermines India's values and risks a wider conflict, Allred said.

Democratic Party leader Bob Menendez, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, termed the violence as shocking and urged the Indian government to do more to defend all of its citizens' rights, including the right to peaceful protest.

He also condemned President Donald Trump's failure to "publicly voice concern" about the violence during his visit to India.

The clashes in the Indian capital erupted during Trump's two-day visit to India from February 24.

"The US must be a leading voice in standing up for democratic values and human rights, including protection of religious minorities. I urge

the Trump Administration, and the rest of the international community, to condemn the violence in Delhi and press the Indian government to protect all persons in India regardless of their religion, he said.

Indian-American Neera Tanden, who heads the Center for American Progress think-tank said that "the violence against Muslims in India" is horrifying and destroys India's role as a beacon for democracy in Asia.

The Modi government's actions have created this climate and it must put an end to this. India as we know it is changing for the worse before our eyes, Democrat Tanden said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in a statement, urged the US government to strongly condemn the violence in Delhi.

The international community, including the US, must speak out against the growing sectarian attacks in India fuelled by anti-Muslim legislation and hate rhetoric emanating from the highest levels of Indian society, CAIR said.

In a statement, Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) expressed serious concern over the violence.

George Abraham, IOC vice-chairman, alleged that the inaction by the Delhi police is deeply troubling.

"The Indian Government should take stern action to ensure the security of all its citizens, he said.

Rajendar Display, IOC general secretary, hoped that the Modi government would concentrate on reviving the economy and addressing the issue of unemployment, especially amongst the educated, instead of raking up divisive issues.

He said that India could achieve progress only when there is peace and all communities work together.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison takes questions from Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House on Feb. 11, 2020 in Canberra, Australia. (Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images)

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison Says Dont Panic About Virus

Australians are again being told not to panic as coronavirus continues to spread around the world and state and federal governments prepare to ramp up their responses to the crisis.

Health ministers from across the country are gathering in Melbourne on Friday to discuss how the nation will respond to the dramatic spread of the infection around the world.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned the virus, also known as COVID-19, was highly transmissible, particularly amongst the elderly.

But he also noted there were no cases of person-to-person transmission within the Australian community.

So you can go to the footy, you can go out to the Chinese restaurant  in fact I encourage you to, he told Nines Today show on Friday.

You can just get about your business. If you are a kid you can go off to school, play with your mate, do all of those things.

Australia is in the best-placed position to be prepared for this than anywhere else, and so we just want to make sure it stays that way.

Deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly says authorities have looked at a range of scenarios on the potential severity of an outbreak, including comparisons to common cold or flu virus infections.

It may be a one-off wave that comes through and infects a certain percentage of the population, it wont be everybody I can absolutely guarantee that, or it wont come at all  all of those things are still possible, I think the latter one is less likely now, Professor Kelly told ABC Radio National on Friday.

But if the virus does start to spread in Australia, we wont be dragging people off like China has done.

Overnight on Thursday the World Health Organisation said the coronavirus outbreak, which began in Chinas Hubei province in December, had reached a decisive point and urged countries to redouble efforts to contain its spread.

Its now affecting 47 countries, has killed more than 2,800 people and infected more than 82,500.

This virus has pandemic potential, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned.

The federal government has recently activated its coronavirus emergency response plan in anticipation that the WHO will soon officially declare a global pandemic.

Prof Kelly was a bit surprised the World Health Organisation hadnt yet declared a pandemic.

State and territory health ministers have been asked to show how they are prepared in terms of shoring up the supply of medical items such as masks and medicines and ensuring there is a surge capacity in hospitals.

Both the prime minister and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton also warned the global spread of the virus will have a big impact on the Australian economy.

We have a strong, stable financial base to address this, but we cant kid ourselves that the impact of the coronavirus globally, here in Australia, is not going to be significant, Mr Morrison said.

The meeting of health ministers comes as travel restrictions on people entering Australia from China were extended for another week.

Australian Border Force is drawing up plans for extra measures at airports and shipping ports to ensure travellers suspected of having the virus can be quarantined or self-quarantined quickly.

So far 15 people in Australia have been diagnosed with coronavirus cases and all have been cleared. Another eight, who were caught on the Diamond Princess cruise ship passengers in Japan, are being treated in their home states.
Bronx, NY, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The All Kids Bike Kindergarten PE Documentary premiered at a local elementary school in the Bronx, NY. This 10-minute documentary features kindergarten students as they learned to ride a bike with the All Kids Bike Kindergarten PE Program.

All Kids Bike is a nationwide movement led by the Strider Education Foundation. On a mission to teach every child in America how to ride a bike in kindergarten PE class, All Kids Bike partners with generous donors to provide this program to schools for free. One school teamed up with All Kids Bike to document their experiences as kindergartners learned to ride a bike and experienced benefits beyond simply learning to maneuver a two-wheel bike.

The All Kids Bike Kindergarten PE Documentary illustrates how lives are transformed on two wheels as many of these kindergartners are navigating two wheels for the first time. Providing a glimpse into how riding a bike helps children develop balance, mobility, safety, environmental awareness, and exercise, the documentary follows students from the first day of the program to their kindergarten graduation. Teachers and parents share the impact this program can make in the classroom, home, and community.

The Kindergarten PE Program provides schools with everything they need to get their students rolling, including an eight-lesson integrative learn-to-ride curriculum, staff training and certification, helmets, five years technical support, and a fleet of revolutionary Strider 14x Learn-To-Ride Bikes. These dual-propulsion bikes start as balance bikes and are easily converted to pedal bikes once a rider learns to balance and steer.

PE Teacher, Ben Ferder, taught the curriculum in the 2018-2019 school year and intends to teach every new class of kindergartners how to ride a bike each school year. Ben states: incorporating bike riding into the physical education curriculum has shown tremendous progress. I felt that in a way, I was making a difference.

Currently running in over 165 schools in 30 states, the Kindergarten PE Program will support each schools efforts to teach every new kindergarten class how to ride a bike for a minimum of five years.

Principal Kattia Cuba references the impact the Kindergarten PE Program has made on students, well beyond only learning to ride a bike: I think we are changing lives with this program. It just tells kids that you can do anything; that nothing is impossible.

The Kindergarten PE Program is designed for children of all abilities and hopes to instill healthy habits at a young age. All Kids Bike Board Member Ryan McFarland states: One of the best ways to get kids active is to get them excited about bicycles, says All Kids Bike board member, Ryan McFarland, Its a skill that is going to serve them in life.

To view the 2-minute documentary trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1cTCq1k6so&

To view the full 10-minute documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHKUSMX99fg&

To learn more about the All Kids Bike Kindergarten PE Program, or find out how to bring this program to your community, visit www.AllKidsBike.org.

About Strider Education Foundation and All Kids Bike

All Kids Bike is a national movement led by the Strider Education Foundation to place Kindergarten PE Learn-To-Ride Programs into public schools for free, using donations from individuals, businesses, and organizations. The Strider Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, was formed in 2017. The Strider Education Foundation believes that learning to ride can help everyone lead a happier and healthier life. Through the development of a proven Learn-To-Ride curriculum and donations of the worlds most advanced training bikes, the nonprofit organization makes riding available, safe, easy, and fun for everyone.

Attachments
Actor Isha Koppikar will be paired opposite Neil Nitin Mukesh as the lead protagonist in Prawaal Raman's upcoming web directorial venture.

Isha will be seen playing the role of an Inspector General on ZEE5's untitled next that will release this year.

The web series also marks the digital debut of Neil, who will play a con artiste accused of murder, kidnapping and identity theft.

"When Prawaal Raman narrated the script to me I was fascinated with how the plot is time bound and will get the audiences to put on their thinking caps. It's a cat and mouse game where there is an intellectually stimulating chase equally juggled between the protagonist and the antagonist, both of whom are equally intelligent," Isha said in a statement.

The actor said the script is "captivating and has many layers to it".

"The cop role is something that comes very naturally to me. This cop role is unlike what mostly writers sketch is not a typical cop character. She is not an abusive loud cop. The true power is not in loudness but in the gravitas and position," she added.

Raman said he is excited for the web series and is glad with the cast he has got on board.

"This is really something I'm very excited about. She really fits the character and I'm excited about both dedicated actors Isha and Neil working towards contributing a lot while essaying the characters...The very first step being to selecting such a story to narrate and get such talented actors on board.

The multi-starrer web series' plot revolves around the twists and turns involved in the escape of a notorious prisoners detained in one of the most secure Indian jails.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
ST. LOUIS, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Arch Coal, Inc. (NYSE: ARCH) today announced that John W. Eaves will retire as Arch's chief executive officer at the corporation's annual meeting on April 30, 2020, and will assume the position of executive board chair. James N. Chapman, who has served as Arch's board chair since the company completed its restructuring process in October 2016, will transition to lead independent director at that time. Paul A. Lang, Arch's president and chief operating officer, will succeed Eaves as chief executive officer and is joining the board.

"Today's announcement represents the culmination of a long-scheduled and carefully planned succession process," said Chapman. "Through his vision and leadership, John has built a tremendous platform for long-term value creation and growth, spearheading Arch's transformation into a premier U.S. producer of metallurgical products for the global steel industry. The board is delighted that he has agreed to accept the new executive chair role, where he can continue to use his great strategic abilities and vast market knowledge to help lead the company forward."

"It has been an honor to serve as Arch's chief executive officer over the course of the past eight years," Eaves said. "While I'm ready to pass the baton as CEO, I'm excited about the opportunity to continue to work with the board and the management team in this new capacity. At the same time, I am highly confident that Paul is the ideal person to succeed me as CEO. Paul has been an instrumental and driving force at Arch for many years, and brings to the CEO role tremendous experience and expertise in all aspects of our business. I know he will lead Arch to even greater success in the years ahead."

"I am humbled that the board has chosen me as Arch's next CEO, and I look forward to building on the strong foundation that John has established," Lang said. "I share John's conviction that Arch's long-term success will depend upon our ability to drive operational excellence throughout the organization while maintaining our steadfast commitment to industry-leading mine safety and environmental stewardship practices. Moreover, I am confident that Arch is on the right strategic course, and I'm excited about working with the entire Arch team to deliver exceptional results for our owners and other key stakeholders going forward."

John W. Eaves has served as Arch's chief executive officer since 2012 and as a member of Arch's board of directors since 2006. During his tenure with the company, he has also held the positions of president and chief operating officer; senior vice president of marketing; and president of Arch Coal Sales, the corporation's marketing subsidiary. He joined the corporation in 1987. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Kentucky and an Advanced Management Degree from Harvard Business School, and is past chair of the National Coal Council and past vice chair of the National Mining Association. In addition to his duties at Arch, Eaves currently serves on the board of CF Industries Holdings, a global leader in the manufacturing and distribution of nitrogen products.

James N. Chapman has served as Arch's board chair since 2016, and serves as a board member of Hexion, Inc., Neenah Enterprises, Inc., Eco-Bat Technologies, Inc. and American Media LLC. He has also served on the boards of AerCap Holdings NV, Tower International and Tembec Inc. during the past five years.

Paul A. Lang has served as Arch's president and chief operating officer since 2015. In this capacity, Lang is responsible for the corporation's mining portfolio and its marketing and logistics functions. Lang joined Arch in 1984 and  prior to his current role  served as Arch's executive vice president and chief operating officer. He previously held a variety of engineering and operating positions at both the company's eastern and western operations, and served on Arch's board of directors from 2014 through 2016. Lang is a member of the board of Knight Hawk Coal Company and the National Mining Association, and served on the board of Advanced Emissions Solutions from 2013 through 2017. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Missouri University of Science and Technology (Rolla) in mining engineering, is a graduate of Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program, and was awarded an honorary professional mining engineering degree from Missouri University of Science and Technology. He is past chair of the University of Wyoming's School of Energy Resources Council and a past member of the Wyoming Healthcare Commission.

U.S.-based Arch Coal, Inc. is a top coal producer for the global steel and power generation industries. Arch operates a streamlined portfolio of large-scale, low-cost mining complexes that produce high-quality metallurgical coals in Appalachia and low-emitting thermal coals in the Powder River Basin and other strategic supply regions. For more information, visit www.archcoal.com.

Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains "forward-looking statements"  that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as "should," "appears," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," or "will." Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, particular uncertainties arise from changes in the demand for our coal by the domestic electric generation and steel industries; from legislation and regulations relating to the Clean Air Act and other environmental initiatives; from competition within our industry and with producers of competing energy sources; from our ability to successfully acquire or develop coal reserves; from operational, geological, permit, labor and weather-related factors; from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and other tax reforms; from the effects of foreign and domestic trade policies, actions or disputes; from fluctuations in the amount of cash we generate from operations, which could impact, among other things, our ability to pay dividends or repurchase shares in accordance with our announced capital allocation plan; from our ability to successfully integrate the operations that we acquire; from our ability to complete the joint venture transaction with Peabody Energy in a timely manner, including obtaining regulatory approvals and satisfying other closing conditions; from our ability to achieve expected synergies from the joint venture; from our ability to successfully integrate the operations of certain mines in the joint venture; and from numerous other matters of national, regional and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. For a description of some of the risks and uncertainties that may affect our future results, you should see the risk factors described from time to time in the reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE Arch Coal, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.archcoal.com


The text will be submitted for public discussion in the near future.

First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk says deputies have finalized the text of the bill on national referendum.

It will be submitted for public discussion in the near future, he wrote on Facebook.

Also, the text will be subject to professional examination by "leading international organizations in the field of the rule of the people," Stefanchuk added.

Read alsoBill on national referendum to be analyzed by foreign experts  MP Stefanchuk

As UNIAN reported earlier, on February 17, Stefanchuk said Parliament had drafted the final version of the bill on an all-Ukrainian referendum. On February 25, he said the bill would be analyzed by foreign experts.
Bulgaria says it is tightening security along its border with Turkey to prevent an inflow of illegal migrants amid reports that Ankara may be relaxing its border controls to allow Syrian refugees to enter the European Union.

"Forces have already been deployed at the border and measures to protect the maritime border have been intensified," Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said on February 28 during a government meeting.

Amid an escalation of the Syrian conflict, Turkish media reported that hundreds of migrants were flocking to Turkey's borders with Greece and Bulgaria after a senior official was quoted as saying Ankara had decided "not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe."

Police, coast-guard, and border-security officials were ordered to stand down on refugees' land and sea crossings toward Europe, the unidentified Turkish official told Reuters.

Bulgarian Defense Minister Krasimir Karakachanov said Sofia was ready to deploy up to 1,000 troops and 140 pieces of military equipment to the border with Turkey to prevent illegal migrant inflows.

Border police had prevented two groups of about 30 people from entering the country from Turkey, according to his ministry.

Borisov said he was arranging a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the matter.

Under a 2016 agreement with the EU, Turkey restricted migration flows from Syria and other countries to Europe.

The deal involved an EU pledge to provide 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) in aid to Ankara to house Syrian refugees.

The EU expects Turkey to "uphold" its side of the deal following the "dangerous" military escalation in Syria, a European Commission spokesman said.

The spokesman, Peter Stano, said Turkish officials had not formally notified Brussels of any change to that pact.

The development comes as Turkey said at least 33 of its soldiers had died in a Syrian government attack in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in the country.

Turkey, which backs Syrian rebels, said it hit 200 government targets in response, "neutralizing" 309 soldiers.

Russia, Syria's key military ally, said Turkish troops were attacked by Syrian forces while operating alongside militant fighters -- an allegation rejected by Ankara.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP
Supreme Court justices do their best to both remain apolitical in public and to get along with each other in private.

Steering clear of partisanship helps maintain the independence of the court, and keeping the peace is important because their lifetime appointments effectively make them a family.

This is why Justice Sonia Sotomayors dissent in the case of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security vs. Cook County, Ill., was supposedly so exceptional.

The case entails the Trump administrations so-called public charge rule, which will prohibit legal immigrants from obtaining green cards if the government has reason to believe that they are likely to rely on public aid, such as cash or food assistance.

Less publicized but equally vexing, the rule will make it harder for immigrant workers and international foreign students to extend or change their visas. It also makes it tougher for green card holders to re-enter the U.S. if theyve spent more than six months abroad.

In Sotomayors dissent  described as scathing, blistering, sharp and furious by mainstream media outlets  she somberly objected to the rule change.

But she didnt object because of the dubious practice of subjecting potential new green card holders to far higher standards than past immigrants petitioning for legal permanent status. Nor because the new move reflects the carelessness with which President Donald Trump treats immigrants generally.

This is mere context.

Sotomayor is sore over how the current Supreme Court has bowed to the Trump White House even in standard administrative matters with long-standing precedents.

To justify upending the normal rules of appellate procedure, a party must also show a likelihood of irreparable harm, Sotomayor wrote. The government has not made that showing here.  The governments only claimed hardship is that it must enforce an existing interpretation of an immigration rule in one state  just as it has done for the past 20 years  while an updated version of the rule takes effect in the remaining 49. The government has not quantified or explained any burdens that would arise from this state of the world.

Thats pretty straightforward  and as boring an administrative stance as any careful observer of high court legal maneuverings can imagine.

But the smoking gun that caused headline writers to go bananas with their assertion that Sotomayor was blistering is the following:

Claiming one emergency after another, the government has recently sought stays in an unprecedented number of cases, demanding immediate attention and consuming limited court resources in each. And with each successive application, of course, its cries of urgency ring increasingly hollow, Sotomayor wrote. Perhaps most troublingly, the courts recent behavior on stay applications has benefited one litigant over all others. This court often permits executions  where the risk of irreparable harm is the loss of life  to proceed, justifying many of those decisions on purported failures to raise any potentially meritorious claims in a timely manner. Yet the courts concerns over quick decisions wither when prodded by the government in far less compelling circumstances  where the government itself chose to wait to seek relief, and where its claimed harm is continuation of a 20-year status quo in one state. I fear that this disparity in treatment erodes the fair and balanced decision-making process that this court must strive to protect.

Lets be super clear here. Sotomayor cited administrative precedent, then made an on-the-record observation about how quickly the court moves when Trump says jump, to assert that the entire court is itself flirting with the appearance of partisanship.

That makes her blistering and scathing?

Further searching yielded an article on the right-leaning media watchdog site Accuracy in Media complaining that the mainstream press failed to acknowledge how unusual it is for a sitting Supreme Court justice to accuse his or her colleagues of blatant partisanship.

Framing Sotomayors measured dissent as accusation is itself a hysterical overreaction  one that illustrates how even heavy, sober legal language can become a Rorschach test for bias depending on who writes it.

It can be interpreted as steady or strongly worded when coming from a white male or furious  and other terms implying emotional loss of control  when written by women of color.

Its a painful and bracing reminder that Latino professionals are held to far different standards than white ones. Its unfair and totally fabricated bunk.

estherjcepeda@washpost.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 20:37:29|Editor: huaxia

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MOGADISHU, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank said it has reestablished relations with Somalia after a 30-year break, paving the way for the country to have access to development aid.

The World Bank said the move to normalize its relations will open up opportunities for Somalia to access concessional financing from the Bank's International Development Association (IDA) and to work closely with all arms of the World Bank Group to attract investment that will support the country's stability and development.

Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank managing director of operations, said the decision paves the way for the full resumption of operations so the lender can provide the strongest possible support to Somalia's efforts toward economic and social recovery.

"This milestone is the result of several years of close cooperation with the Federal Government, and we now look forward to taking our relationship to the next level with deeper and broader financial and technical support from across the Bank Group," Trotsenburg said in a statement issued on Thursday evening.

The lender said its decision to reengage is based on the government's strong record of fiscal, political, social and economic reforms in recent years.

It said Somalia's fiscal management agenda now covers revenue mobilization, budgeting, procurement, auditing, and cash management, as well as accountability over Public Financial Management.

"Somalia has made important reforms and has demonstrated strong commitment to staying the course," Hafez Ghanem, vice-president for Africa, the World Bank said.

"These reforms lay the foundation for sustained poverty reduction and better lives for the Somali people, and open the door to private sector investment that can create jobs and drive the economy forward," Ghanem added.

The World Bank said Somalia has also focused strong attention to building core monetary and financial sector governance institutions, establishing the basic legal foundations for a market economy, and introducing reforms in strategic sectors including telecommunications, banking, and energy.

The normalization of relations with the World Bank also paves the way for Somalia to receive debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) programs to promote growth and recovery over the coming years.

Somali finance minister, Abdirahman D. Beileh welcomed the move, saying it is a recognition of the ambitious reforms to which this government remains committed, to bring transparency and accountability into Somali institutions and to revive the economy.

"We are grateful to the Bank for the support they have already provided to help the country reach this point and we look forward to planning a new phase of investments to deliver the poverty reduction.
Seattle, WA -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/28/2020 -- Corrugated packaging is made from a combination of sheets of paper called liner and flutes. Corrugated boxes protects the products due to its cushioning qualities, rigidity, bursting strength, puncture resistance, and edge crush resistance, which enables them to bear impact through movement and transportation. They are light in weight, which makes them easy to handle and increases the weight of transported goods, thereby reducing the transportation expense. The production cost of corrugated boxes is very low, as the raw materials required for production are available in large quantity and are inexpensive. They can work well with printing techniques such as digital, screen, and litho printing, so that companies can print their product information, logos, brand promotion, and contact address. They are available in various sizes, colors, and design, which makes them suitable for a variety of products. They are ecofriendly and can be reused and recycled.



Get The Holistic SAMPLE With Research Methodology: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/817



Rising adoption of this economical, ecofriendly, and light weight packaging by various end-use industries such as electronics, automotive, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and food and beverages is the major growth driver for corrugated packaging market. Advancements in e-commerce sector is further expected to augment the corrugated packaging market growth. However, durability of corrugated packaging and its inability to withstand harsh outdoor and indoor conditions are the major challenges that are expected to hamper growth of the corrugated packaging market. Developments in corrugated packaging include improved water resistance, corrosion resistance, decreasing the corrugated board weight, cooler corrugating, zero defect technology, and exploring new fields such as microencapsulation and nanotechnology.



South East Asia Corrugated Packaging - Market Taxonomy



Based on box type, South East Asia corrugated packaging market is segmented into:

- Folder Box

- Rigid Box

- Slotted Box

- Telescope Box

- Others



Based on application, South East Asia corrugated packaging market is segmented into:

- Food and Beverages

- Automotive

- Electronics

- Health and Hygiene

- Pharmaceuticals

- Others



There is a lucrative demand for corrugated packaging material in food and beverages industries, as they are mainly used in packaging of processed food. The use of corrugated boxes in fresh food packaging is expected to fuel growth of the corrugated packaging market.



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South East Asia Corrugated Packaging - Market Outlook



- The corrugated packaging market started in South East Asia after Second World War, owing to high demand of corrugated packaging for trade



- Indonesia has lucrative market for corrugated packaging. The rapid growth in industrial and agricultural sector followed by fast expansion of shopping malls and supermarkets is fueling the growth of Indonesian corrugated packaging market.



- Vietnam has a rapidly increasing consumer goods market where consumers prefer purchasing food and beverages through box, which will drive the corrugated packaging market



- The corrugated packaging industry in Thailand has been stimulated due to growing consumer expectations, increase in purchasing power of consumers, and changing lifestyle and preferences.



- Singapore has a requirement of high quality corrugated boxes for good quality printing that catches consumer attention. In January 2017, the National Environment Agency of Singapore announced to introduce increased sustainability packaging regulation, which will affect corrugated packaging market in this region.



- In Malaysia and Philippines, the changing industrial structure and economic growth respectively will augment the market for corrugated packaging.



- Rest of South East Asia will have a significant demand for corrugated packaging, owing to increasing demand by various end-use industries.



The companies are adopting various organic and inorganic growth strategies to retain their market position. For instance, Thai Containers Group Co., Ltd, which is a joint venture between SCG Packaging Public Company Limited acquired 80% stake in PT Indocorr Packaging Cikarang in April 2017. Key market players operating in the South East Asia corrugated packaging include Perhimpunan Industry Corrugated Cardboard Indonesia, PT. IPI (International Packaging Industries Ltd.), The Box Company, Acter Carton Sdn Bhd, FinePac Industries Sdn Bhd, Stanpack Industries Pte Ltd., Tat Seng Packaging Group Ltd, Cheng Heng Paper Product Co. Pte Ltd., and Binh Minh Packaging.



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South East Asia Corrugated Packaging  Key Developments



- In June 2018, the cardboard box company was acquired by the Logson Group, which is an independent supplier of corrugated packaging. The cardboard box company would operate as a stand-alone brand within the Logson Group. With this acquisition, the companies can collectively offer a range of corrugated packaging solutions to its customers from 18 locations across U.K.



- In April 2017, Rengo Co., Ltd. which is a joint venture between SCG Packaging Public Company Limited and Thai Containers Group Co., Ltd, has acquired 80% stake in PT Indocorr Packaging Cikarang. With this acquisition, the distribution operations of the company would increase to seven locations within Indonesia. Rengo Group has also stated that the corrugated packaging business within the South East Asia would be of strategic focus of conducting the overseas operations of the business.



- In 2014, Tat Seng Packaging Group Ltd established an International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) within its Suzhou Plant. This plant was equipped with cutting-edge testing equipment, which is capable of testing on compression, shock, vibration, stacking and other similar tests on corrugated boxes and the corrugated carton box.
Australia's conservative government has in recent months moved to deport thousands of foreigners convicted of crimes as part of an immigration crack-down that can also strip dual-nationals of their Australian citizenship.

The move has seen hundreds of people deported from Australia to New Zealand, a country that some left when just children and have few ties to.

The two countries have fought in numerous conflicts alongside each other, and squabbles between the two rarely break-out beyond playful, light-hearted banter over sport and culture.

Roughly 650,000 New Zealand citizens - more than a tenth of the smaller country's population - live in Australia.

Morrison, however, was unapologetic and promised no change in Australian policy.
Beneath the searing sunlight of a Delhi sun, at the high noon of his power in May 1987, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi stood at Delhis Boat Club to rage against Pakistan and its agents in India. We will respond with a bang and that reply will put fear in the hearts of their daddies, he said, his anger rendered mildly comical by his inelegant Hindi.

Ten kilometres away, two men would soon brawl on the streets  and the Prime Ministers words would collide with theirs to spark off a communal war.

This weeks savagery in Delhi is the worst Hindu-Muslim communal violence the city has seen since Partition: 38 people have been killed; 19 Muslim, 10 Hindu; seven still unidentified. For many, the grim history of hate in Delhi teaches us that the executioners are heroes, warriors for their faith.

Illuminated by the bright, shining red of blood is an India with a blind right eye: gazing terrified at the carnage all around  but unable to see that its own hands are wielding the cleaver.

Less than a week after Rajiv Gandhis Boat Club speech, as Vijay Kumar Sharma and his wife rode their motorcycle down crowded Nai Sadak in old Delhi, a passing cyclist made a lewd remark. Sharma began brawling with the cyclist, Bal Krishan. Two other men  Muslims, it so happened  stepped in to keep them apart. The police eventually arrived and carted all four off to the Town Hall police station. Negotiations continued for two hours.

In the meantime, however, rumours had spread that Muslims had harassed a Hindu woman and mobs began clashing.

Late that evening, the police opened fire. Ballimaran resident Om Parkash Kashyap, watching the violence from his rooftop, was among the victims. The killing was blamed, however, on his landlord, Fazl Illahi, with whom there had been a long-running property dispute. More violence followed.

Fifteen people were to die before the rage spent itself.

The story of how those killings happened teaches us the rioters in Seelampur were acting on a script written long before they were born. The year before Rajiv Gandhis Boat Club speech, his government had opened the gates to the Ram temple in Ayodhya, hoping to cash in on the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Islamic groups protested, leading to violence in Ahmedabad, Allahabad and Bharuch.

In Delhi, clashes between Hindutva groups and Muslim organisations had broken out in February and September, 1986; again, in March, 1987, tensions flared after clerics warned Muslims that their religion was in imminent danger.

For the Congress, this played to a well-rehearsed plan. Rajiv Gandhis mother, the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, her legitimacy battered by the Emergency and a moribund economy, had successfully used communal mobilisation through the early 1980s to rebuild her worn legitimacy.

Large-scale communal violence broke out, beginning in Moradabad in 1980, where 130 people were killed in a single police-led massacre  the worst such slaughter, The Hindus GK Reddy noted, since Jallianwala Bagh.

Instead of cracking down on the Uttar Pradesh police, Indira Gandhi claimed the killings were engineered to undermine the stability of the government. In one speech, she went even further, asserting that the Hindu religion and traditions were under attack.

Through to 1983, there was further slaughter, in Aligarh, Allahabad, Godhra, Biharsharif, Nalanda, Hyderabad, Vadodara, Pune and Meerut, culminating in a massive pogrom in Assams Nellie. The Congress emerged as the protector of Hindus.

Long before BJP leader Parvesh Verma claimed that Shaheen Bagh protestors would enter your houses, rape your sisters and daughters, kill them, Hindu nationalism had embedded itself in Indian politics.

The wavelength of Congress culture and Hindu culture, Congress general-secretary CM Stephen declared in 1983, is the same. Babu Jagjivan Ram, a senior Congress politician, described Rajiv Gandhis 1984 election triumph as a vote for Hindu India. Muslims, he went on, had no choice but to vote the Congress, because they have to live in this country.

Living together hasnt come naturally. In May, 1974, Gali Milwali resident Vishwakarma became enraged as he watched  perhaps imagined  Nasim Ahmed eyeing up his sisters as they waited for the 9pm show at the Palace Talkies. Friends stepped in to stop the argument. But the next morning, Ahmad showed up at the Vishwakarma home to demand an apology and a brawl erupted on the street. Bombs were soon being thrown from the roofs of the Imliwali mosque and snipers opened fire from inside homes along Bahadurgarh Road.

Eleven people  eight Hindus, two Sikhs  ended up dead.

From 1975, just months after the violence, Prime Minister Indira Gandhis government began to push Muslim communities out of the walled city. Seelampur, Welcome Colony and Jaffrabad, the so-called resettlement colonies, were seen by Emergency-era planners as easier to police than the fraught lanes of Turkman Gate, Ballimaran or Daryaganj.

Later came large numbers of Muslims from western Uttar Pradesh  the backbone of Seelampurs economy, built around small-scale manufacturing.

The ghetto grows organically, scholar Ghazala Jamil has evocatively written, packing in as many people as possible in a bid not to spill over the boundary. Each gali, or lane, in Seelampur is, among other things, a border between faiths and social classes.

In this petri-dish, hatred festered, as the new arrivals competed with Dalits and other marginal groups for meagre state resources and economic opportunity. In 1992, violence exploded in Seelampur, sparked off by the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Twenty-three people were killed.

Like in Delhis walled city, the criminal replaced the political leader as the arbiter of social conflicts, the provider of patronage and the mediator of engagement with the police and civic authorities. In times of communal conflict, local gangsters were the communitys last line of defence  just as a Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar had once been in Mumbai.

From the 1990s to the Gujarat carnage of 2002, nearby Jamia Nagar emerged as a magnet for Muslims seeking insulation from Hindu nationalist violence too but this ghetto was middle-class, suffused with beneficiaries of education and liberalisation. In enclaves like Zakir Nagar Extension or Johari Farms, the kernels of a Muslim middle-class emerged, powered by jobs in the service sector, information technology and the media.

The ghettos around Seelampur, though, evolved differently. In a thoughtful study, scholar Kartik Sivaram and others recorded that Seelampurs Muslims fared worse than their Hindu neighbours on everything from access to civic services to educational outcomes. The conservative Bab-ul-Uloom seminary, not democratic institutions, shaped the course of civic life.

For prospect-less young people in Seelampur, a cohort that grew ever-faster as the economy began to splutter, the gangster and god became the only sources of agency and self-worth: the temple or the mosque offered at least a simulacrum of social respectability.

Even times of communal peace were fraught: in 2017, the murderous pogroms against the Rohingya in Myanmar led communalised young men to block ethnic-Tibetans from Majnu ka Tila from trading at Jaffrabads wholesale garment market.

Protestors against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Jamia Nagar were able to build linkages with middle-class liberals across Delhi, using a shared language of constitutional values. Lacking credible political leadership or representation  and ignored by the citys major parties  Seelampurs Muslims had no instrument with which to engage the wider community around them.

To their neighbours, the citizenship protests appeared as an effort to project power into Hindu areas  as a disruption of the fragile balance of power between north-east Delhis communities.

Long before the riots began, suspicion and hatred had flared into skirmishes between protestors in Jaffrabad and Hindus in areas like Karawal Nagar, fuelled by Hindu nationalist propaganda. Local criminals often used these clashes to project their power to their own audiences. In December, anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in Seelampur exploded into violence. Local resident Muhammad Raees was arrested after he lost one of his hands while allegedly throwing a petrol bombs at the police.

Even as the areas Muslims were convinced they were perched on the edge of a battle for survival, many Hindus had come to believe they were faced with exactly the same thing.

Low-grade attritional violence has long characterised Delhi's Hindu-Muslim relationship. In 1924, disputes over a slaughterhouse left 15 Hindus and a Muslim dead; in 1926, more violence followed. Between 1954 and 1973  a period of twenty years  there was one long stretch of peace, and then between 1957 and 1960, the scholar Gopal Krishna has noted. But otherwise, there have been small disturbances every year, except 1964 and 1966.

In the wake of the 1987 riots, an investigation by the Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) noted that old Delhi was sundered into caste and communal agglomerations whose inhabitants regarded each other with fear and suspicion.

Three out of every 10 Hindus and almost two out of 10 Muslims, a study of the 1974 riots found, had never even met with members of the other religious community in any social context  political, casual, or even business.

The rise of a younger, articulate generation of Muslims who voice their grievances against discrimination in educational facilities and jobs, some of whom have made good by competing with the Hindus is modern business enterprises, is often perceived as a threat, the PUDR report noted. The walled citys mercantile community, it went on, were irked by the Muslim assumption of symbols of upward mobility.

Pained by the corruption of their party and the induction of criminals, the PUDR study noted, an older generation of Congress politicians who successfully mediated these kinds tensions vacated political life, leaving the walled city an ideal breeding ground for communal and religious fanatics, as well as the local underworld.

Forty years on, the hatred has congealed: in spite of economic progress, Delhis civic culture has failed to birth the kinds of rich consociational relationships that could engender a functional social fabric. Few Muslims, and even fewer Hindus, have any meaningful engagements that cut across communal lines: economic partnerships are rare; miscegenation almost unknown.

Even Hindu and Muslim children at Seelampurs schools, Sivaram and his co-authors record, all but never visited each others homes.

In Seelampur, we have a metaphor for a new kind of India: one where communal divisions are, quite literally, cast in steel and concrete, and political conflict mediated by the bomb. Blinded by religious hatred, though, India is unable to see the abyss ahead.
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Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday accused opposition parties of inciting communal riots over the Citizensip (Amendment) Act by spreading "misinformation" that Muslims will lose their citizenship because of the new law.

He also extolled Prime Minister Narendra Modi for addressing important issues relating to "national security and sensibilities", including abrogation of provisions of Article 370, the CAA and the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute.

"Opposition parties are spreading misinformation that Muslims will lose their Indian citizenship because of the CAA. They are instigating people and fomenting riots," he told a pro-CAA Bharatiya Janata Party rally in Bhubaneswar.

"I have said this before and repeating it now that nobody, no Indian Muslim will lose their citizenship because of the CAA. This law is for granting citizenship to religious minorities that have been persecuted in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It's not intended to take away anyone's citizenship," he said.

Calling the Citizenship (Amendment) Act a "historic step", Shah alleged that the Congress, the Communists, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and 'Mamata didi' were spreading lies about it.

Asking people not to be misled over the opposition's attempts at creating 'bhranti' (confusion) about the new law, he said the Modi government had only fulfilled the dreams of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and others who favoured Indian citizenship for persecuted minorities from the three countries.

"Shouldn't they get Indian citizenship? Shouldn't their human rights be protected?" Shah asked the audience which responded with a resounding "yes".

He said people should come out and ask those fomenting trouble to explain which clause of the Citizensip (Amendment) Act talked about snatching citizenship.

"Because of Article 370 Jammu and Kashmir appeared alienated from 'Bharat'. With its abrogation, Kashmir is now the crown of Mother India," he said.

The home minister also accused the Congress of stalling resolution of Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute in the Supreme Court for decades.

"After the BJP returned to power for a second term with 303 seats, the path was paved for building a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya that would touch the sky," he said.

Shah thanked the people of Odisha for their support to the BJP which replaced Congress as the main opposition party in the state in the assembly elections.

Talking about the rise of the BJP in the eastern state, the home minister said the party reaped a rich electoral harvest even in the Lok Sabha polls with eight of its candidates emerging victorious.

He said BJP candidates led in about 14,000 of the state's 37,000 polling booths.

The Union minister said funds allocated to Odisha under "Sonia-Manmohan" government stood at little over 79,000 crore in accordance with the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission.

Between 2014-19, when the BJP was in power, the allocation went up to a staggering 2.11 lakh crore under the 14th Finance Commission, he said.

"The Modi government opened the door to development of not only Odisha but the entire eastern region," he asserted.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenian foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan received today minister of defense of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili and his delegation, the Armenian MFA told Armenpress.

The two sides praised the high level of the historical friendship and friendly relations and reaffirmed the bilateral readiness to take steps to expand and enrich the Armenian-Georgian comprehensive agenda.

FM Mnatsakanyan praised the current dialogue between Armenia and Georgia at various levels, as well as the comprehensive cooperation agenda which is conditioned by the strategic cooperation of the two countries.

The ministers and meeting participants touched upon a number of regional issues. The foreign minister introduced Armenias principled position and approaches on the peaceful settlement process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to the Georgian side. Both sides noted that there is no alternative to the peaceful settlement of conflicts.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
The Passamaquoddy people in New Brunswick are getting closer to gaining formal recognition as a First Nation from the federal and provincial governments.

The First Nation group - now known as the Peskotomuhkati - is two years into talks with negotiators from Ottawa and Fredericton.

A key issue is where Peskotomuhkati people on the U.S. side of the border fit into the picture.

"The relations and the treaty as far as this [First] Nation are concerned are with the entire nation and the Crown, not just people on the Canadian side," said Peskotomuhkati lead negotiator, Paul Williams.

The First Nation has been seeking recognition for many decades.

There are about 350 members in New Brunswick and another 3000 in two communities in Maine.

Paul Williams, submitted

The three sides have been meeting roughly once a month for the past two years in what Williams describes as comprehensive and complex negotiations.

"The first step is simply recognition of the community pursuant to the Indian Act, so we can get people much needed services, and healthcare, and education and housing."

Williams says the Peskotomuhkati had treaty rights with the Crown as early as 1725, but with the arrival of the Loyalists following the American Revolution, and later, administrative errors by staff at federal Indian Affairs, those rights were lost.

"For the nation it means recognition, it means a healthy relationship with the Crown. It means a community based economy, it means respect for the relationship with the land, it means joint work to restore the ecosystem," he said.

Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs

It also means a new arrangement with traditional lands along the St. Croix River valley.

Yet to be discussed in the talks are what are referred to as shared conservation lands, park lands, and boundaries.

Also still to be resolved, the question of what rights Peskotomuhkati people in nearby communities of Pleasant Point and Indian Township, Maine would have on this side of the border.

Important case

Story continues

A Supreme Court of Canada case to be heard in May involving recognition of the Sinixt First Nation will have a bearing on the negotiations here, including hunting and fishing rights for Maine based members

The Sinixt were located on both sides of the Washington state, British Columbia border.

Roughly 3,000 people of Sinixt ancestry are believed to be living in the U.S.

The First Nation was declared "extinct" on the Canadian side by the federal government in 1956, but many survivors are believed to have been assimilated into other BC First Nations.

Williams says the Peskotomuhkati have applied to be intervenors in the case.

Talks going well

There is much to indicate talks in New Brunswick are going well.

Williams says a negotiating framework agreement was resolved over a two year period - something that often can take a decade to work out.

The federal government is also helping with costs to staff an office in St. Stephen for the Peskotomuhkati.

Equally significant, in February, 2018, Ottawa purchased a 2500 acre (1011 hectare) parcel of land directly on the St. Croix and turned it over to Passamaquoddy Recognition Group Inc.

Service New Brunswick

The property, near Scotch Ridge, includes an historic hunting lodge, and a large collection of Peskotomuhkati artifacts that had been acquired over time by the property's long-time previous owners.

Williams expects many of the most difficult issues will be resolved over the next two years, or a little longer.

The talks will continue beyond that, he says, as part of an "evolving" relationship.

A spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada could not immediately speak to the status of negotiations.
tech2 News Staff

The man best remembered for bringing to life the characters of Lewis Carrolls timeless Alice in Wonderland series, would have been 200 years today.

John Tenniel is one of the most highly-regarded Victorian illustrators and painters. He was born on this day in 1820 in London. From a young age, he taught himself to illustrate and at the age of 16, he submitted his first work, an oil painting, for exhibition at the Society of British Artists.

In 1850, Tenniel became a political cartoonist with the historic weekly magazine Punch. Tenniel had a distinctive style, due in part to his near-photographic memory.

Google writes in its blog, "It was this unique approach that most likely caught the attention of writer and professor Charles Dodgson, whose pen name was Lewis Carroll. After an introduction in 1864, Tenniel agreed to illustrate Carrolls new book, Alices Adventures in Wonderland, released the following year."

Post that, Tenniel also illustrated for Through the Looking Glass in 1872.

For his contributions to both Punch and Alice in Wonderland, Tenniel received a knighthood in 1893.
[February 28, 2020] BDO and Lixar join forces to accelerate Artificial Intelligence and Data solutions

TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2020 /CNW/ - Lixar, a Premier AI and Data Company, and BDO Canada LLP (BDO), a leading professional services firm, are joining forces to accelerate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data-driven solutions in Canada and globally. This becomes effective March 2, 2020. Together, BDO and Lixar are committed to providing next-generation technology for their valued clients. They will offer responsible AI and Data-driven solutions to augment and assist with action-based outcomes, relevant insights, increased efficiency and real-time results. The teams are uniquely positioned to accelerate their leadership domestically and internationally, leveraging the strong Canadian environment for fostering innovation in AI and Data solutions. BDO brings almost 100 years of experience as a leading provider of assurance and accounting, tax, and advisory services in Canada. With significant insight into the needs of mid-market organizations in Canada, the firm will bring Lixar's AI and Data expertise to its clients to help meet their growing need for proven, data-driven solutions. This expansion of AI and Data expertise, led by Dave Keddy, Partner and Advisory Service Line Leader, will help BDO's digital transformation to readily respond to dynamic market changes. Lixar will be fueled by BDO's professional services success and scale; BDO's presence in Canada includes over 100 locations, and is part of BDO's international network with opertions in 167 countries.



Lixar provides end-to-end AI and Data-driven solutions which include machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), machine vision, data ingestion-to-data insights and more for its clients and partners. The solutions are built on Lixar's 20-year history of delivering software development, IoT and cloud expertise in the telecommunications, transportation, energy, public sector and manufacturing industries. Lixar will retain its brand and name, and its leadership team will continue to lead the organization's day-to-day operations. "Together, we will form one of the most exciting, fastest growing providers of technology in Canada. This places Lixar in every city and town across Canada enabling BDO to roll out AI and data services to its entire client base," said Bill Syrros, Chief Executive Officer, Lixar.

"This is a win-win opportunity for BDO and Lixar," said Pat Kramer, Chief Executive Officer, BDO Canada. "Both of our organizations value strong relationships, support local communities, and are dedicated to delivering client-focused solutions. Together, we will become an AI and data leader through a combination of innovation, efficiency and agile development." About BDO BDO Canada LLP is a leading provider of professional services to clients of all sizes in virtually all business sectors. Our team delivers a comprehensive range of assurance, accounting, tax, and advisory services, complemented by a deep industry knowledge gained from nearly 100 years of working within local communities. As part of the international BDO network, we're able to provide seamless and consistent cross-border services to clients with global needs. Over 88,000 people work out of more than 1,600 offices in 167 countries, generating worldwide revenue of US $9.6 billion. BDO Canada LLP, a Canadian limited liability partnership, is a member of BDO International Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, and forms part of the international BDO network of independent member firms. BDO is the brand name for the BDO network and for each of the BDO member Firms. About Lixar Lixar is a Premier AI and Data Company that delivers practical, actionable results with AI and data, today. Lixar is built on 20 years of delivering end-to-end services & enterprise-scale experience in Data, Development, IoT and Cloud. Lixar is growing with its talented teams in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Ottawa, ON, Toronto, ON and now, Calgary, Alberta. Lixar is the 2019 winner of the AI Innovation Microsoft Impact Award and also a Triple Gold Microsoft Partner in Development, Data and Cloud Solutioning. Member of the CIO Strategy Council. Proud community supporter of the Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa, Halifax Pop Explosion and the Polaris Music Prize. For more information, please visit lixar.com. SOURCE BDO Canada Limited

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[February 28, 2020] Hexaware Hosts the Digital Insurance Practitioner Summit 2020 at New York

MUMBAI, India and NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Hexaware Technologies Ltd, a leading provider?of IT, BPO and consulting services, hosted the Digital Insurance Practitioner Summit 2020 at New York on February 18th, 2020. The Roundtable Dinner event was attended by Digital and Business leaders from top Insurers in the US. The main topic of focus for all the attendees was the widespread disruption the Insurance industry is facing and how traditional players can stay ahead on the digital curve. The participants also observed that companies from diverse industries, right from Aviation and Healthcare to Retail and Insurance, were now focused on getting one thing right  Experiences, be it for customers, partners, vendors or employees. Keynote speaker for the event, Trae Howell, Executive Director, Trustmark, commented, "The Hexaware Roundtable Dinner in New York City was very insightful and informative with excellent speakers who generated high energy discussions on changes in the insurance industry, the urgency of digital transformation and real world experiences." Another speaker at the summit was Brian Levine, VP Strtegy & Analytics, Mobiquity, who detailed the findings of their 'P&C Insurance Friction Report', which analyzed over 20K customer insurance app reviews across the top P&C brands to determine exactly what customers want in their insurance apps. Brian explained the impact a 4+ star app can have on businesses and suggested ideas that can be put to work to improve app performance.



Hexaware brought its deep expertise in crafting Insurance experiences to the fore, sharing success stories of delivering Automation led transformation for Insurance clients, by partnering with software providers such as Guidewire and Pegasystems. Milan Bhatt, Executive Vice President - Healthcare & Insurance, Hexaware, said, "Through our summit, we made an effort to offer our delegates a pulse on not only what's happening in the industry, but what's changing the future. Hexaware is constantly working to transform the application landscape and IT infrastructure for our Insurance customers, enabling them to deliver world-class experiences for customers, partners and employees."

20 participants from top P&C Insurers across the region engaged in the discussions to explore and understand emerging digital technologies and how they will affect their business in the future. About Hexaware: Learn more about Hexaware at?http://www.hexaware.com Safe Harbor Statement: http://hexaware.com/investors/ Contact:

Sreedatri Chatterjee

[email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hexaware-hosts-the-digital-insurance-practitioner-summit-2020-at-new-york-301013280.html SOURCE Hexaware Technologies Ltd.

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SAN DIEGO - A Trump administration immigration policy that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. courts was blocked and then reinstated by a court in the matter of hours, creating chaos at border crossings, courtrooms and legal offices.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2019 file photo, asylum seekers, in Tijuana, Mexico, listen to names being called from a waiting list to claim asylum at a border crossing in San Diego. A federal appeals court has temporarily halted a major Trump administration policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts. A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled Friday, Feb. 28, 2020 in a 2-1 vote to put on hold the policy that furthered President Donald Trump's asylum crackdown. (AP Photo/Elliot Spagat, File)

SAN DIEGO - A Trump administration immigration policy that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. courts was blocked and then reinstated by a court in the matter of hours, creating chaos at border crossings, courtrooms and legal offices.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put the policy on hold midday Friday, delivering a setback to a policy that has become one of President Donald Trump's signature efforts to restrict immigration.

But by the end of the day, the court allowed the program to go back into effect after the Justice Department argued that its suspension will prompt migrants to overrun the border and endanger national security. The White House argued that the suspension of the policy would overwhelm the nation's immigration system, damage relations with the government of Mexico and increase the risk of outbreak from the new coronavirus.

Customs and Border Protection closed one border crossing leading into El Paso after the initial decision. Government attorneys said immigration lawyers had begun demanding that asylum seekers be allowed in the United States, with one insisting that 1,000 people be allowed to enter at one location.

The program was instituted last year and has sent about 60,000 asylum seekers back to Mexico. Immigration lawyers and advocates say the program is a humanitarian disaster, subjecting migrants to violence, kidnapping and extortion in dangerous Mexican border cities. Hundreds more have been living in squalid encampments just across the border.

FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2019 file photo, migrants seeking asylum wait in line with their case paperwork during a weekly trip by volunteers, lawyers, paralegals and interpreters to the migrant campsite outside El Puente Nuevo in Matamoros, Mexico. A federal appeals court has temporarily halted a major Trump administration policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts. A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled Friday, Feb. 28, 2020 in a 2-1 vote to put on hold the policy that furthered President Donald Trump's asylum crackdown. (Denise Cathey/The Brownsville Herald via AP, File)

The immediate response by immigrants and their lawyers to the initial decision Friday reflects the growing frustration on the part of asylum seekers who have been waiting for months in areas of Mexico that even the U.S. State Department urges people not to visit because of crime and kidnapping.

Representatives from the group Human Rights First hand-delivered a copy of the decision Friday to CBP officers at a bridge connecting Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Lawyers were hoping to get their clients before U.S. immigration court judges.

Blocking the program has become a top priority for immigrant advocates. Maya Ivars, an attorney for Al Otro Lado, a LA-based legal advocacy group, said volunteer lawyers from around the country booked flights to San Diego after the policy was blocked.

A Venezuelan mother showed up at a border crossing in Tijuana with her 1-year-old son Friday after an attorney assisting her on her asylum bid texted her about the policy being halted. She came immediately to the border to ask border inspectors that she be allowed in the U.S., arriving with about a dozen families  about 30 people total -- around the same time the court suspended its own order.

A government official told an attorney for the group to wait at the turnstile gates to the U.S.

Liliana Gonzalez, 32, got a phone call from an attorney Friday that the policy was halted and that she should pack her belongings. Her husband and three children, ages 13, 6 and 4, packed their bags and a suitcase and checked out of their migrant shelter.

FILE - In this Aug. 30, 2019 file photo, migrants, many who were returned to Mexico under the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" program, wait in line to get a meal in an encampment near the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, Mexico. A federal appeals court has temporarily halted a major Trump administration policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts. A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, in a 2-1 vote to put on hold the policy that furthered President Donald Trump's asylum crackdown. (AP Photo/Veronica G. Cardenas, File)

Fridays developments caused whiplash.

Its somewhat confusing, Gonzalez said. You believe, you dont believe. Lets see what God says. Lets see what the law says.

The family fled gang threats in El Salvador and has been living in Tijuana for a year, waiting more than seven months just to file an initial claim. Their first court hearing in San Diego was Feb. 18.

The decision interrupted some court cases. Immigration Judge Philip Law in San Diego delayed a final hearing on a Honduran man's asylum case to April 17 after a government attorney couldnt answer his questions about the effect of ruling. The attorney said she asked her supervisor how to address the ruling and that he didnt know what to do either.

In El Paso, an administrator came to tell a judge of the ruling as he heard the case of a Central American mother and her partner. The couple cried when they learned they could get into the U.S. with restrictions. The couple and their two young children were put into government detention to wait for the next steps in their case.

Do you guys understand that? Judge Nathan Herbert asked through an interpreter. There was a pretty significant change in the law in the middle of your testimony.

Immigration guards finish loading a van of asylum seekers leaving court under guard after some of them learned that they won't have to return to Mexico in light of a major federal court ruling against the Trump administration on Friday, Feb. 28, 2020, in El Paso, Texas. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that sending asylum seekers to wait in Mexico is illegal nationwide. The ruling came during the asylum testimony of one family in the group being put into the van. The blue bags, marked "for court only" are typically laden with sandwiches and water bottles for migrants appearing in court. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)

The three-judge panel told the government to file written arguments by the end of Monday and for the plaintiffs to respond by the end of Tuesday.

ACLU attorney Judy Rabinovitz called the suspension of Friday's order "a temporary step."

We will continue working to permanently end this unspeakably cruel policy, she said.

Christopher Landau, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said in a court filing that halting the policy creates "substantial risk of immediate chaos on the border."

The ambassador said the policy is critical to deterring uncontrolled of third-country migrants through Mexico to the United States and that halting it would encourage more asylum-seekers to come and obliterate the substantial progress that both countries have made over the last year.

The Remain in Mexico policy, known officially as "Migrant Protection Protocols," took effect in January 2019 in San Diego and gradually spread across the southern border. About 60,000 people have been sent back to wait for hearings, and officials believe it is a big reason why illegal border crossings plummeted about 80% from a 13-year high in May.

Asylum has been granted in less than 1% of the roughly 35,000 Remain in Mexico cases that have been decided. Only 5% are represented by attorneys, many of whom are reluctant to visit clients in Mexico.

Judge William Fletcher, writing the majority, sided with the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups who argued the policy violates international treaty obligations against sending people back to a country where they are likely to be persecuted or tortured.

Fletcher agreed the government set the bar too high for asylum-seekers to persuade officers that they should be exempt from the policy and didn't provide enough time for them to prepare for interviews or consult lawyers.

Fletcher quoted at length asylum-seekers who reported being assaulted and victimized in Mexico, saying it was enough  indeed, far more than enough to undercut the government's arguments.

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Fletcher was joined by Judge Richard Paez, who were both appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton. Judge Ferdinand Fernandez, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, dissented.

The appeals court in San Francisco also decided to keep another major Trump policy on hold, one that denies asylum to anyone who enters the U.S. illegally from Mexico.

The chaotic day at the border comes at a time when the Trump administration has won a series of favourable rulings in the court to allow its hard-line immigration policies to remain in effect. There's also an intense fight over the use of injunctions like the one that briefly put the Remain in Mexico policy on hold.

The Supreme Court has allowed Trump to divert Defence Department money to border wall construction, backed rules disqualifying more people from green cards if they use government benefits and upheld a travel ban affecting several Muslim-majority countries.

___

Associated Press Writer Cedar Attansio contributed to this report from El Paso, Texas.
Los Comparres| Photo: Joy X./Yelp

Wondering where to find the best food trucks near you? Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the best affordable food trucks in Tampa, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of where to meet your needs. 1. Yolk White & Associates Topping the list is Yolk White & Associates. Located at 100 N. Ashley Drive downtown Tampa, the food truck and breakfast and brunch spot, which offers coffee and tea and more, is the highest-rated inexpensive food truck in Tampa, boasting five stars out of 203 reviews on Yelp. Yelper James D. noted, "My favorite weekday breakfast spot in Tampa or anywhere actually. This is a one manowner Dylan food cart on a small park downtown. Meals are made to order with fresh ingredients and really delicious recipes. Frittatas, egg sandwiches, grits, great coffee, OJ etc. Try something you haven't had before!" 2. Spaddy's Coffee Next up is South Seminole Heights's Spaddy's Coffee, situated at 5206 N. Florida Ave. With five stars out of 102 reviews on Yelp, the food truck and breakfast and brunch spot, serving coffee and tea and more, has proven to be a local favorite for those looking for a low-priced option. Spaddy's Coffee, which first opened in 2015 as a mobile coffee cart, is known for its handcrafted coffee, espresso drinks and tea. The site has lots more information about the business and the people behind its success. According to its profile, "In 2016, owner Greg 'Spaddy' Spadaccini found a great opportunity to set up next to Faedo's Family Bakery. With great acceptance from the community, he transformed a once old grass lot into a relaxing outdoor coffee courtyard!" 3. Los Comparres Wellswood's Los Comparres, located at 5305 N. Armenia Ave., is another top choice, with Yelpers giving the cheap food truck and Mexican spot 4.5 stars out of 303 reviews. Yelper Peter N. wrote, "Some of the most authentic tacos I've tried in the area! Ordered the steak, chicharron and al pastor. The chicharron had a welcoming heat. Al pastor (my favorite of the three) was perfectly marinated, and the steak (slightly dry) was seasoned nicely and loaded with meat. What "up'd" these tacos was the corn tortilla they use. Something about these tortillas made me feel like I was sitting in Mexico City." 4. Sarge's Smokehouse Bbq Over in North Hyde Park, check out Sarge's Smokehouse Bbq, which has earned 4.5 stars out of 53 reviews on Yelp. Dig in at the food truck and smokehouse, which offers barbecue and more, by heading over to 1500 W. Cass St. Yelper Brandie M. noted, "The barbecue here tends to lean towards the sweet versus the savory. It's all delicious. The baked beans are rather unique with chunks of meat, a variety of beans and pineapple. Trust me, it really works!" This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.

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Photo: george m./Yelp

Photo: Noel S./Yelp

Photo: Lysbeth C./Yelp
President Donald Trump has "reaffirmed" U.S. support for Turkey in a phone call with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan while urging President Bashar al-Assad's regime, Russia, and Iran to halt their offensive in Syria's northwestern Idlib Province -- the last rebel-held area in northwestern Syria -- the White House said on February 28.

The two talked after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed the previous day in an air strike by Russian-backed Syrian regime forces, triggering a deadly response by Ankara.

Trump "reaffirmed his support for Turkey's efforts to de-escalate the situation in northwest Syria and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe," the White House said, without giving specifics about the support.

Meanwhile, the Turkish presidency said Erdogan and Trump agreed on measures to avoid a "humanitarian tragedy" in Idlib.

"The two leaders agreed on additional steps without delay in order to avert a big humanitarian tragedy unfolding in the Idlib region," it said in a statement.

Erdogan told Trump that Turkey had delivered the necessary response to the perpetrators of the "despicable attack aimed at our heroic soldiers" and reiterated Ankara's determination to clear "regime elements" from areas in Idlib covered by a cease-fire agreement signed by Ankara and Moscow in 2018, the statement said.

A war monitor said Turkish reprisals killed 31 Syrian soldiers in Idlib on February 28.

The retaliatory drone and artillery strikes hit Syrian Army positions in southern and eastern parts of the province that were recaptured by the government in a nearly three-month-old offensive against the rebel enclave, Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Syria did not immediately confirm the reported troop deaths.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the escalation of fighting was "one of the most alarming moments" of the Syrian war and called for an immediate cease-fire.

Hours after the February 27 strike, Turkey warned it was opening the gates for refugees to flee to Europe, a move that could have major repercussions for its western neighbors, which swiftly moved to boost border security.

Turkey's neighbors Greece and Bulgaria reinforced their borders in response to Ankara's threat to reopen the frontier, shut under an agreement that halted the 2015-16 migration crisis when more than a million people crossed into Europe by foot.

With reporting by Reuters, dpa, AP, and AFP
Berlins businesses cant get enough of Salma Al Armarchis home-cooked Syrian food.

Food was always a hobby for Salma, 53. Now a refugee in Berlin, the Syrian cook found her culinary skills in such demand she was able to make a living. Her secret ingredient? Passion.

Every time I cook I do it with love, laughs Salma, during a break in her kitchen. When you cook with love, people love the food.

Salmas break came in 2016 when she was asked to feed volunteers at Berlins non-profit ReDI school, where her eldest son, Fadi, was taking a free coding course for newcomers.

It was a big responsibility as it was the first time a lot of the teachers had tried Syrian food, said Fadi, 32. They loved it. They all thought we already had a catering business.

"Every time I cook I do it with love."

Salma never set out to be a chef or an entrepreneur. Back home in Damascus, Syria, she cooked for fun, meeting regularly with friends to donate food to people struggling to make ends meet.

Then her country descended into war. In 2012, Salma, her youngest son and her daughter, fled to Germany on a tourist visa and applied for asylum.

Fadi followed in 2014 as part of a family reunification scheme.

Salmas family was safe, but she was struggling. Learning German was difficult, and she was unable to find work in her previous profession.

Then, in 2015, tens of thousands of fellow Syrians arrived in Berlin. Salma and Fadi volunteered to help, translating, donating clothes, and even helping others with basic survival German.

Salma met many people who, like her, were finding it tough to adapt.

Its very hard to find a job at my age, she said. Its my goal to hire other middle-aged people in my kitchen,

Then, a chance encounter inspired her to put her cooking skills to good use. When Fadi asked Salma to cater for ReDIs picnic, she decided to pull out all the stops.

Borrowing equipment from friends, Salma recruited her other two adult children and a nephew to help make mounds of appetizers in their apartment.

The family worked three days straight to get the food ready.

"The most difficult step is the first."

The picnic was a great success. Salmas food was presented so professionally that the teachers  all employed in Berlins booming tech start-up scene  began making enquiries.

Before long, Fadi was approached by a manager at Cisco wanting catering for a conference. Hiding his surprise, he ducked into the bathroom to call Salma. She agreed, and the business was born.

Within two days, mother and son had a menu, a website and space in a temporary kitchen. And they had a name; Jasmin Catering, after the white flowers that cover Damascus in spring.

The most difficult step is the first, said Salma. If somebody has an idea, they should just do it. Start with what you have. Just improvise.

As the orders started flooding in, Fadi and Salma found a permanent kitchen near the apartment they share in the south of the city.

Syrian refugee Salma Al Armarchi (centre), 53, cooks food with her son Fadi Zaim (right), 32, and two employees in the kitchen in Berlin where she runs her company, Jasmin Catering.  UNHCR/Gordon Welters

Syrian refugee Fadi Zaim, 32, prepares salmon and shrimp finger food in his mother Salma Al Armarchi's kitchen in Berlin, from where she runs her company, Jasmin Catering.  UNHCR/Gordon Welters

Syrian refugee Salma Al Armarchi, 53, and her son Fadi Zain, 32, buy fresh food in a Turkish supermarket near her kitchen in Berlin.  UNHCR/Gordon Welters

Syrian refugee Salma Al Armarchi cooks with an employee in the kitchen in Berlin where she runs her company, Jasmin Catering.  UNHCR/Gordon Welters

Syrian refugee Fadi Zaim, 32, prepares a plate of hummus in his mother Salma Al Armarchi's kitchen in Berlin, from where she runs her company, Jasmin Catering.  UNHCR/Gordon Welters

Syrian refugee Fadi Zaim, 32, in his mother Salma Al Armarchi's kitchen in Berlin, from where she runs her company, Jasmin Catering.  UNHCR/Gordon Welters

The next few years were a blur of office lunches, away days and conferences. They cooked for Facebook, McKinsey, Germany's Green Party, embassies and even German Chancellor Angela Merkels office.

But for Fadi, the biggest honour was the weddings. There have been four in the past year, all of them for German clients.

He puts their success down to adapting oriental dishes to fit local ingredients and always being sure to cater for Berlins large vegan population.

"We are happy to be bringing people new tastes."

Alongside traditional dishes like Heraa Esbaoo, a pasta stew with bread, lentils and herbs, Jasmin offers alternative versions of Syrian staples, using vegan dumplings in place of minced meat.

We offer something different, said Fadi. We find ways of making traditional dishes vegan or vegetarian, which is very popular and healthy.

Salma and Fadi now hope to build on their success to secure more regular clients.

There is a lot of focus on cuisine here in Europe, said Fadi. And we are happy to be bringing people new tastes. Now more people are breaking down the barrier, trying our food, and liking it.
Representative image

In an interesting move, cash-strapped Pakistan has invited the US to join the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, an ambitious infrastructure project looked with suspicion by the Trump administration for being non-transparent.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's adviser on commerce Abdul Razak Dawood on Thursday said the government made the offer during a meeting with the US trade delegation led by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Wednesday, The Express Tribune reported.

Interestingly last month, senior US diplomat Alice Wells said that there is no transparency in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the firms blacklisted by the World Bank have got contracts under the project, which will increase Pakistan's debt burden.

Wells, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia made the remarks while speaking at a think tank event during her four-day visit to Pakistan.

Khan's commerce advisor Razak said: "The US has shown interest in (Pakistan's) energy, oil and gas, agriculture and food processing".

China has committed to invest over USD 60 billion in Pakistan as part of the CPEC under which it planned to build a number of special economic zones.

India has objected to the CPEC as it is being laid through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The US Commerce Secretary's visit is the result of recently-held discussions between Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Donald Trump to promote bilateral trade and enhanced economic engagements, the report said.

"Pakistan-US market access is the main point. We want access to the US market," Dawood said, adding that the US official has assured of his cooperation.

Sharing details of the meeting, Dawood said the US officials have also expressed interest in promoting e-commerce.

"They have agreed that the US International Development Finance Corporation would help in developing new businesses in Pakistan. The US secretary is ready to send a commerce delegation for coordination," Dawood said.

He said they discussed bilateral relations and matters of mutual interest, and agreed to enhance mutual trade to a maximum level.

A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) could be a long-term goal because of complexity involved in the process, Dawood said.

CPEC connecting China's Xinjiang with Pakistan's Gwadar port is regarded as the flagship project of the multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which is aimed at furthering China's global influence with infrastructure projects funded by Chinese investments all over the world.

The initiative also led to allegations of smaller countries reeling under mounting Chinese debt after Sri Lanka gave its strategic Hambantota port in a debt swap to China in 2017 on a 99-year lease.
Urban Park Hotel Collection For Those Who Dont Fit The Franchise Mold



(TRAVPR.COM) USA - February 27th, 2020 -

New Jersey - With the rolling out of the Urban Park Hotel Collection, the managing partners have expressed high hopes for the new membership-affiliated hotel entity. In fact, it could be said the most appropriate word to describe the nature of the new operation might be affordability, as it competes with other hotel franchises throughout the country with much higher fee structures and PIP requirements.

Recognizing that the organization offers a viable and realistic alternative to franchising, Urban Park Hotels has been set up as a membership brand, offering hotel owners many of the benefits and services offered by franchise relationships without the long-term commitment or expense.

 A lot of hotel owners are re-flagging their properties and looking for an alternative due to the unsettling one-way nature of the hotel franchise relationship. Additionally, they also offer simplified standards as well as a lower range of fees; fees not tied to or based on property revenues. According; The new flag is a conversion-friendly product for the smaller hotel owner [30-80 rooms, on average]; primarily limited-service properties that have been overlooked for one reason or another by the major franchise companies. As such, the focus will be on independent properties across the country located in markets where they are surrounded by franchised properties and area-of-protection (AOP) issues have left them as independents.

The Company is looking at independent hotels that need help. Those owners who are good operators, but cannot afford the initial fees or renovation cost associated with being a franchise, [constitute] a segment that has been virtually ignored in the industry for years.

According to Company Management, it was noted that the initial membership fee of $3,000 and the on-going monthly fee of $7.00 per room (which includes advertising and based on property size) has intentionally been set to be among one of the lowest in the industry.

The Urban Park Hotel Collection will consist of two flags under the corporate umbrella; Urban Park Hotel & Suites and Urban Park Hotel Express. Moreover, the company already has 7 hotels going through the on boarding process at this time.

Urban Park Hotels LLC has been designated as the holding company for the new chain. Further information may be obtained by visiting the companys promotional website at www.urbanparkhotels.com

###
Thirty-two years ago, on February 27-29, 1988, the authorities of the Azerbaijani SSR perpetrated the massacre and forced deportation of the Armenian population in the city of Sumgait, accompanied by atrocities committed with unprecedented cruelty. The Information and Public Relations Department of the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) noted this in a comment on the 32nd anniversary of the massacre of Armenians in Sumgait, Azerbaijan.

The three-day mass beatings, killings and violent acts were the response of the authorities of Baku to the peaceful and legitimate demands of the Armenians of Artsakh (Karabakh) to realize their inalienable right to self-determination, the comment also reads. There is ample evidence that the massacres of Armenians in Sumgait were thoroughly prepared and planned by the Azerbaijani authorities. Speaking at the rallies held on the eve of the massacres, high-ranking representatives of the city authorities called on the crowd to punish the Armenians and demanded "to kill and to deport them from Sumgait and from entire Azerbaijan". Almost every speech ended with the chanting of "Death to Armenians!". Amid the obvious inaction of the authorities and law enforcement bodies, as well as guided by the latters, hundreds of Azerbaijanis in Sumgait, inspired by the calls for hatred and violence against Armenians, started unimpeded attacks on the apartments of the Armenians living in Sumgait, having the lists of addresses at their disposal.

The impunity of the real organizers and perpetrators of the crimes against humanity committed in Sumgait created a fertile ground for the ethnic cleansing of Armenians throughout the Azerbaijani SSR in the subsequent years - in Kirovabad, Baku and a number of other Armenian-populated cities. Thousands of Armenians became victims of this policy, and hundreds of thousands became refugees.

Currently, the Azerbaijani authorities, unfortunately, continue their policy of inciting hatred and xenophobia against the Armenians, heroizing and glorifying the Azerbaijani officer who brutally killed an Armenian officer in Hungary in 2004. Another manifestation of such a policy became the rewarding of the Azerbaijani officer by the President of Azerbaijan for beheading a serviceman of the Artsakh Defense Army during the April war of 2016 unleashed against the Republic of Artsakh, as well as the gross violations of the norms of humanitarian law and the war crimes committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces.

We bow to the memory of the innocent victims of the Sumgait crime. The international community should condemn and give a clear and unequivocal assessment to the genocidal actions committed by the Azerbaijani authorities against the peaceful Armenian population, which will not only prevent the repetition of such atrocities in the future, but will also help to heal the situation in Azerbaijan.
Ankara/Instanbul: Turkey, faced with a possible new wave of Syrian migrants and dozens more dead Turkish soldiers in Idlib, will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, a senior Turkish official said as President Tayyip Erdogan chaired an emergency meeting.

An air strike by Syrian government forces in Syria's northwest Idlib region killed 29 Turkish soldiers and seriously wounded others, the local governor in Turkey's southeastern province of Hatay said separately early on Friday.

Displaced Syrian families ride in the back of a truck loaded with families' possessions in Idlib, Syria. Credit:Getty

Nearly a million civilians have been displaced in Idlib near the Turkish border since December as Russia-backed Syrian government forces seized territory from Turkey-backed Syrian rebels, marking the worst humanitarian crisis of the country's nine-year war.

The threat to open the way for refugees to Europe would, if executed, reverse a pledge Turkey made to the European Union in 2016 and could quickly draw Western powers into the standoff over Idlib and stalled negotiations between Ankara and Moscow.
Cramer has been the Company's chief operating officer and previously served as vice president of sales and revenue management. "Since her initial hiring, Victoria has brought leadership, enthusiasm, and a wonderful sense of mission to the company," stated Sybrowsky on hiring his replacement. "As I looked to reduce my day-to-day responsibilities to focus on DCC, our sister development company, I needed a leader to continue building our culture of improving dignity in our employees, customers, and guests while enhancing the relevant bottom-line for each."

Cramer and Sybrowsky have worked together closely, making significant improvements, and crafting the direction of the Company. Cramer brings with her a deep understanding of LDHG and its customers. She is an expert in the industry, the marketplace, and the Company culture.

"I'm excited to continue my career with LDHG, my relationship with Joel, and the rest of the team," said Cramer regarding her appointment. "LDHG has made significant progress in the past two years, and I could not be more pleased to continue playing a role with the first-class team we have put together. We have been doing epic stuff! We have made significant improvements; this is an exciting time because the best is still to come!"

A hotel industry veteran recognized for her strong leadership abilities, Cramer has spent a significant portion of her career in executive roles at Marriott International and Choice Hotels International. Other experience also includes founder and CEO of VPStrategies, a consulting firm, where she develops vital strategies for The Summit Group, Cisco Systems, Abbott Labs, and Microsoft.

Victoria is a wife, mother of twins, two-time breast cancer survivor, competitive cyclist, and author of "Living Life Loudly  How Will you Face your Speed Bump?" (https://www.amazon.com/Living-Life-Loudly-Will-Speed/dp/151961683X) .

Sybrowsky summed up his comments stating, "I am completely comfortable with and confident in Victoria. Not only is LDHG in capable hands, but I have no doubt it's in better hands. I am grateful for Victoria and her willingness to accept additional responsibilities, ensuring the continued success of LDHG."

About Lodging Dynamics

Lodging Dynamics, based in Provo, Utah, is a multi-award-winning operator of premium brand hotels. Lodging Dynamics is an approved operator by both Marriott International and Hilton (other premium brands don't have a blanket approval process). Premium brand hotels managed include hotels under the Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, and IHG brand families. Founded in 1991 after developing the first Marriott franchise in the State of Utah, Lodging Dynamics now operates hotels throughout the continental United States and Hawaii. For more information, visit www.lodgingdynamics.com.

SOURCE Lodging Dynamics

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ISTANBUL  Turkey vowed on Friday to resist further aggression against its troops in northwestern Syria, a day after air and artillery strikes by pro-Syrian forces killed 33 Turkish soldiers, bringing Russia and Turkey close to open conflict.

NATO ambassadors met Friday in an emergency session called by Turkey, a member state. They expressed solidarity with Turkey, condemned the air strikes, and called for a de-escalation of the conflict and for a renewed cease-fire. But they did not approve any military action, let alone the no-fly zone that Turkey has demanded over Idlib, the region where the strike occurred.

Turkish officials have warned that if the pressure in Idlib is not resolved, Turkey will not be able to hold back Syrian refugees from forging across borders into Europe, which officials in Brussels have interpreted as a veiled threat to leverage a refugee crisis for cooperation from NATO.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Vladimir Putin of Russia spoke to each other in an effort to calm tensions. According to the Russian side, they agreed to hold a summit in the near future.

Russia denied any role in the attacks, saying Friday that none of its jets were operating in the area when they occurred. Aircraft of the Russian air force did not engage in combat in the Behun vicinity, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Turkey has blamed the strikes on the Syrian government. But it has also indirectly blamed Russia, saying it knew of the presence of Turkish troops and did nothing to stop the attack even after being alerted.

Turkeys defense minister, Hulusi Akar, said the attack was carried out even though Turkish troops had coordinated their location with Russian forces on the ground. He added that there were no other armed groups near the Turkish units at the time of the attack, as Russian officials have suggested.

Moscow denied that Turkey had shared coordinates of its troops with Russian forces, saying they tried to stop the attacks as soon as they were told about them.

Reports from the scene described a Russian jet striking a Turkish convoy and then artillery strikes pounding Turkish troops in several buildings.

Turkish planes, artillery and drones retaliated after the attack, pounding the Syrian government positions responsible, Akar said. Our operations will continue until the bloody hands laid on our soldiers are broken, he said.

Russia has been conducting a ferocious campaign of aerial bombardment in Idlib province in support of the Syrian offensive to seize control of the last rebel-held region.

Carlotta Gall is a New York Times writer.
Under the new contract, Traveller Assist will provide additional claims and assistance services to workers under US military contracts in Kurdistan, Turkey, Jordan, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and parts of Africa, the company said. The company predicted that over the next three years, it will open more than 20,000 DBA cases, worth more than $8.2 million, under the new contract. The companys assistance helps workers submit claims, schedule hospital consultations, coordinate physiotherapy appointments and book associated travel.

It has taken over 15 months to get to this point of starting the new contract, and has included extensive due diligence on our company and security-clearance applications for case managers due to the nature of the work we undertake and the sensitive information available to us, said Barry Ince, DBA contract director at Traveller Assist.

The company is expanding its on-the-ground staff presence to enable staff to co-locate with clients in high-volume case locations, the same operating model it established in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Based on their previous DBA contract experience in hostile environments and their unique operating model, Traveller Assist was the obvious choice for us, said Ted Gordon, vice president for DBA insurance at Specialty Risk Solutions. The decision made a lot of sense, and already within the first three weeks of the contract they have successfully handled over 300 cases, which is a testament to their capabilities and tenacity.
The Serious Fraud Office faces renewed questions over how it handles complex cases after a jury acquitted three former Barclays executives accused of sending secret fees to Qatar.

It took less than six hours for the jurors to clear the three defendants of fraud charges following a five-month trial.

It is the latest failure for the SFO, whose record has been tarnished by a series of unsuccessful high-profile prosecutions.

The agency was praised when it signed an agreement with Tesco in 2017 which forced the supermarket chain to cough up 129 million following allegations it pushed suppliers for heavy discounts in exchange for prominent positioning in stores.

The deal, known as a deferred prosecution agreement, which let Tesco escape without being charged, still served as a warning to boardrooms across the country.

But the SFO later spent 6.2 million of taxpayers money prosecuting three former Tesco directors. They were also acquitted.

Ross Dixon, a lawyer at Hickman & Rose who defended one of the accused in the Tesco case, said that the SFO has questions to answer over how it treats individuals who are dragged through years-long trials.

While it would be wrong for the SFO to only prosecute matters where it is certain of success; time after time allegations against individuals have been dismissed by the court or been rejected by a jury, Mr Dixon said.

Once again this brings into question the decision making of the SFO when it comes to individuals.

Last year, three former executives of Sarclad, a metals company, were acquitted of charges brought by the SFO.

The agency has also dropped investigations involving individuals after a probe which led to Rolls-Royce paying nearly half a billion pounds in penalties to the SFO, and a five-year probe into alleged misconduct at drugmaker GSK.

SFO director Lisa Osofsky has questioned whether current laws are are fit for purpose when it comes to tackling complicated fraud cases.

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She complained that the the bar for evidence is too high in fraud trials, telling the BBC interview last year: We have an antiquated system.

On Friday, a spokesperson for the SFO said: Our prosecution decisions are always based on the evidence that is available, and we are determined to bring perpetrators of serious financial crime to justice.

Wherever our evidential and public interest tests are met, we will always endeavour to bring this before a court.

Richard Boath outside the Old Bailey, London, as he was acquitted (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

Speaking outside court on Friday, one of the accused former Barclays employees, Richard Boath, said that the case should never have been brought to trial.

He said: If there was a case against the bank or any of the people in the bank, the agreements were signed off at the board, so none of the defendants were on the board, had any access to the board and thats point about the SFO case, it didnt make any sense at all.

Last year, the SFOs charges against former Barclays chief executive John Varley were dismissed by a judge.

Jessica Parker and Peter Binning, partners at Corker Binning who represented Mr Varley, said: The verdicts raise serious questions about the SFO decision to bring the case.

Bambos Tsiattalou, financial crime lawyer at Stokoe Partnership Solicitors, said: This is a huge blow to the SFO and its reputation. Todays decision brings into question the effectiveness of the department.

It will now be essential to conduct a thorough review of procedures within the SFO, with this being their most high profile failure to date, and the judgment of key decision makers within the department must surely be brought into question.
MORRIS PLAINS, N.J., Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Immunomedics, Inc. (IMMU) (Immunomedics or the Company), a leading biopharmaceutical company in the area of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), today announced the appointment of Robert W. Azelby to the Companys board of directors. Mr. Azelby is a biotech industry veteran with 28 years of biopharmaceutical experience with a large emphasis on commercialization.



I am excited to join Immunomedics at an inflection point as the Company is preparing for its first potential commercial launch in its history, said Mr. Azelby. I believe that sacituzumab govitecan will become a highly impactful and innovative product across hard-to-treat cancers, and I look forward to working closely with the board to establish Immunomedics as a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company and a leader in the field of ADCs.

Mr. Azelby was recently the president and chief executive officer, and a member of the board of directors, of Alder BioPharmaceuticals, Inc., which was acquired by H. Lundbeck A/S in October 2019. Previously, Mr. Azelby served as executive vice president, chief commercial officer of Juno Therapeutics, Inc. where he was responsible for the development and implementation of Junos CAR-T commercial strategy and helped guide the organization through rapid growth and ultimately to a $9 billion acquisition by Celgene Corporation. Prior to joining Juno, Mr. Azelby spent 15 years at Amgen Inc. building high-performing commercial teams and leading their U.S. Oncology business.

We are honored to have Bob join our board at a critical point of our evolution into a commercial organization. Bob will also bring his leadership and experience to shape our commercial strategy in other regions of the world, as we strive to bring what we believe is a critical new therapy to people with mTNBC globally, said Dr. Behzad Aghazadeh, executive chairman of Immunomedics.

Mr. Azelby currently serves on the board of directors of Clovis Oncology, Inc. and he previously served on the board of directors of Cascadian Therapeutics, Inc. Mr. Azelby holds a B.A. in Economics and Religious Studies from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

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About Immunomedics

Immunomedics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing monoclonal antibody-based products for the targeted treatment of cancer. Immunomedics corporate objective is to become a fully-integrated biopharmaceutical company and a leader in the field of antibody-drug conjugates. For additional information on the Company, please visit its website at https://immunomedics.com/. The information on its website does not, however, form a part of this press release.

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

This release, in addition to historical information, may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements, including statements regarding expectations for the outcome of our resubmission of our Biologics License Application ("BLA") for sacituzumab govitecan for the treatment of patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer ("mTNBC") who have received at least two prior therapies for metastatic disease; the United States Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") re-inspection of the Companys manufacturing facility where we manufacture the monoclonal antibody for further manufacture into our antibody-drug-conjugate candidate sacituzumab govitecan; potential approval and commercial launch of sacituzumab govitecan for that indication and the Companys development of sacituzumab govitecan for additional indications; clinical trials (including the funding therefor, anticipated patient enrollment, trial outcomes, timing or associated costs); regulatory applications and related timelines, including the filing and approval timelines for BLAs, BLA resubmissions, and BLA supplements; out-licensing arrangements; forecasts of future operating results, potential collaborations, capital raising activities, and the timing for bringing any product candidate to market; our inability to further identify, develop and achieve commercial success for new products and technologies; the possibility of delays in the research and development necessary to select drug development candidates and delays in clinical trials; the risk that clinical trials may not result in marketable products; the risk that we may be unable to obtain additional capital through strategic collaborations, licensing, convertible debt securities or equity financing in order to continue our research and development programs as well as secure regulatory approval of and market our drug candidates; our dependence upon pharmaceutical and biotechnology collaborations; the levels and timing of payments under our collaborative agreements; uncertainties about our ability to obtain new corporate collaborations and acquire new technologies on satisfactory terms, if at all; the development of competing products; our ability to protect our proprietary technologies; patent infringement claims; and risks of new, changing and competitive technologies and regulations in the United States and internationally, as well as the risks discussed in the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company is not under any obligation, and the Company expressly disclaims any obligation, to update or alter any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For More Information:

Dr. Chau Cheng

(862) 260-3727

ccheng@immunomedics.com

For Media Inquiries:

Darren Opland, Ph.D.

(646) 627-8387

Darren@lifescipublicrelations.com
"The spread of the coronavirus outside of China has frightened markets in recent days" say analysts at Lloyds on Friday, February 28. "Major equity indices have fallen sharply from their highs, measures of market volatility have soared, and sentiment gauges have been pressured."

As fears over a serious global coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak have intensified, the number of profit warnings from big business has also increased, increasing nervousness in equity markets.

The coronavirus will inevitably have a significant impact on large global companies even if the outbreak can be contained relatively quickly.

It is important to note that there will be supply and demand issues and companies vulnerable on both fronts are liable to be particularly vulnerable.

International supply-chain fears came first

Initial fears surrounded the supply side with companies facing difficulties in sourcing components from China as Chinese companies suffered an extended shutdown.

This has been a particular issue for the electronics sector given that the vast majority of components are manufacturing in China.

In the short term, companies find it extremely difficult to find alternative sources, particularly given compatibility issues with devices.

Apple, for example, warned earlier in February that it did not expect to hit its March revenue targets due to slower production and China store closures.

In his latest interview, Apple chief executive Tim Cook was more optimistic and stated that the company was now in the third phase of getting back to normal as many of its factories have reopened.

Foxconn, the worlds largest phone manufacturer has warned over a hit to profits, but global plants outside China are operating at full capacity.

Microsoft said manufacturing operations have been affected because its Chinese suppliers were shutdown,

This delay could hit sales of its personal computing business including Surface tablets, Microsoft warned. Although factories were re-opening across China, this was happening slower than expected.

Growth and demand fears now taking over

A potentially larger problem will be on the demand side of the equation, especially if global containment efforts are unsuccessful. As the global spread of coronavirus cases has increased, the risk of serious disruption to the global economy has also increased and equity markets have declined sharply with the US S&P 500 index over 12% lower from the peak.

Image: S&P 500 Futures

Demand within China has inevitably seen a big hit during the past few weeks. Inevitably, there will be a substantial on domestic Chinese companies.

International companies selling into China will also be badly affected given the big short-term impact on demand.

French group Danone cut its guidance this week and said it expects the virus to reduce first-quarter sales in China by EUR100 million.

The travel sector is one area of major concern as travel is disrupted. Even more seriously, there is a risk that discretionary travelling will be cut sharply.

There have been numerous profit warnings from the airline sector.

British Airways owner IAG has warned that bookings in 2020 will be hit by the effects of coronavirus.

IAG head Willie Walsh said that as well as all China flights being suspended, there had been "a significant fall-off in demand in Italy".

Budget carrier Easyjet said that following the increased number of coronavirus cases in Northern Italy, it had seen a significant softening of demand and load factors into and out of our Northern Italian bases.

Rolls-Royce, one of the world's largest makers of aircraft engines, also warned of the impact of coronavirus on its business.

Carnival Corporation, the worlds largest cruise operator warned in mid-February that profits would be lower.

Many companies exposed on both fronts

The car sector will also be affected on both supply and demand fronts which pose additional risks. Production plans have been disrupted by closures in china while demand has also dipped sharply, especially at the luxury end.

Aston Martin plunged to a loss of more than 100m last year as sales fell and it warned of possible disruption from the coronavirus outbreak. Chief executive Warren East said the virus was a "macro-risk for everyone".

Profit warnings, have however been seen across most sectors in a diverse range of companies.

Diageo became the latest multinational to measure the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on Wednesday as the worlds biggest spirits maker said the virus could hit profits by up to 200 million ($258.5 million) in 2020.

It estimated that organic net sales in 2020 would be 225 million to 325 million lower as a result but that still depended on the timing and pace of recovery.

Goldman Sachs warned coronavirus could wipe out profit growth at US companies in 2020

Budweiser beer owner ABInBev reported a $170m hit to profits.

Mining and energy groups will inevitably be damaged by weaker prices and a dip in demand.

Duration is crucial

The most important factor for global multi-nationals is how long the coronavirus outbreak crisis lasts. A relatively brief period of disruption would undermine profits, but there would be expectations of a rapid recovery and catch-up demand later in the year.

A long-drawn-out crisis would be much more damaging, especially if there is a serious outbreak in the US.

According to the consultancy Capital Economics, the outbreak turning into a full-blown international pandemic would trigger severe upheaval for world trade, markets and currencies on a par with the financial crisis, when global GDP fell by 0.5%.

Markets will be in a much stronger position to recover when the some form of time-frame can be defined.

There will be winners

There are, however, also positive developments across the corporate sector.

Global healthcare companies will benefit from increased spending, additional research efforts and greater consumer demand for products.

Looking at Wall Street indices, the healthcare, life sciences and biotechnology sectors have performed very strongly.
At least two labourers, including a 20-year old man from West Bengal, were killed and another was seriously injured when a compound wall collapsed on them in the city on Friday, police said.

Two other workers have been trapped under the debris and Fire and Rescue service personnel from Kadri and Padeshwar are continuing operations to pull them out.

The construction work was going on at a site when the compound wall of the nearby property collapsed at Karangalpady junction in the afternoon.

The deceased have been identified as Masrigul from West Bengal and Bhimesh (25) belonging to Bagalkot in Karnataka.

Hanikul (23), taken out of the debris and shifted to hospital, is in a critical condition, police said.

MLA Vedavyas Kamath and top police officials visited the spot.

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



(HAL) said on Friday it has handed over the 50th L-40 stage of geosynchronous launch vehicle (GSLV-MKII) to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The L-40 stage is meant for GSLV MKII-F12 flight planned by the ISRO in August this year, according to the city- headquartered HAL.

The aerospace division of HAL has so far integrated and supplied L-40 stages for 12 flights of GSLV MKII, including the GSLV MKII-F10 flight planned in March first week.

"Apart from the integrated L-40 stages, HAL is manufacturing the riveted structures, propellant tanks, feedlines of PSLV, GSLV MKII and GSLV MKIII launch vehicles and structures of various satellites for ISRO," it said in a statement.

HAL said it has contributed and participated in almost all of ISRO's ambitious projects including Chandrayaan-I, Chandrayaan-II, Mangalyaan and the upcoming Gaganyaan.

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

Following President Ilham Aliyevs visit to Rome, Azerbaijan and Italy have reached a military agreement over Bakus purchase of the 5th generation warplane Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master from Italy.

A number of significant documents were also signed between countries during the visit that will strengthen the Azerbaijani Air Forces fleet.

Of special importance is the signing of the Declaration of Agreement over the purchase of an integration system for M-346 aircraft, Air Force Colonel Namig Islamzade said. Azerbaijan had presented the new generation M-346 warplane produced by an Italian multinational company Leonardo S.p.A, in May of 2017, the colonel said.

Islamzade said that this warplane is used as a transitional aircraft to modern multi-purpose aircraft 4++ and 5th generation. Along with the replenishment of Azerbaijan's Air Force fleet, the aircraft of this type will expand their combat capabilities and will ensure Azerbaijan's superiority over Armenia in the airspace.

Namig Islamzade also noted that the Azerbaijani Air Forces have been taking wide-ranging actions for a number of years. Especially, advancing social conditions in Air Forces personnel and revamping airbases should particularly be stressed.

Currently, most of the aircraft at the disposal of the Azerbaijani Air Force is in accordance with modern standards," said the Air Force Colonel, adding that Azerbaijani Air Force have recently opted to acquire Italian and Pakistani warplanes for training purpose.

Azerbaijani Air Force and Pakistans PAC KAMRA company also agreed on the contract of purchasing 10 Super Mushshak MFI-395 combat aircraft in July of 2017.

The Air Forces are a special division of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Although formally established back in 1919, they started to form as a national military unit in 1992.

In 1997, the Azerbaijan High Military Pilot School graduated its first class of military pilots.

Today the Air Forces and Air Defense Troops complete with the state-of-the-art aeroplanes and helicopters is fully capable of defending Azerbaijan's skies against any kind of assault.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Last May, Don Beatson was hoping to get a filly that would be competitive in the Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots program. His purchase ended up being So Much More.

The longtime trainer who hails from Granton, Ont. (just east of Lucan and north of London) enjoyed his best season in the earnings column, thanks to the on-track success of pacing filly-turned-mare So Much More.

Bred by Doug MacPhee of New Haven, P.E.I., the Ontario-sired daughter of Big Jim - Ladysai was entered in the 2017 Atlantic Classic Yearling Sale. Her pedigree had some black type to it as her half-brother Dialamara had banked close to $250,000 while taking a mark of 1:50.1 in Ontario. The filly did not sell, as her reserve price was not attained. Perhaps that promise of so much more was always there.

MacPhee then placed the filly into the hands of trainer Tom Weatherbie in P.E.I. to begin her early lessons, and she showed definite potential in her freshman season. In nine starts, So Much More assembled a record of 4-4-0 and captured two stakes events. All four of her second-place finishes came to Magical Mistress, who was perfect that year in a 12-for-12 rookie season.

As a three-year-old, So Much More lived up to her name and won her first three sophomore starts. MacPhee listed her on the Standardbred Canada Horses For Sale Board, without a price, and the caveat of "serious inquiries only please."

Enter Don Beatson, who was serious about buying her. And he did, along with his son Ken and grandson Cole England, for $50,000. Suffice it to say that she's been worth every penny.

"I fully figured she would be at the top of the Grassroots," Beatson told Trot Insider. "And she was even better than I thought...I wasn't thinking broodmare, I don't play that game much, just whatever she was a racehorse.

"I guess we were sort of hoping she would be that good but you never know."

No stranger to buying racehorses from Canada's East coast, Beatson bought the filly without any sort of rapport with the trainer or the owner, and without any sort of background from the connections. Perhaps that's because there wasn't much to tell aside from the fact that she had some talent.

"Right away, I loved her. I couldn't find one fault. I knew she could probably go pretty fast so I had no worries actually. I didn't ever doubt it."

With each start, Beatson had less reason to worry. In her first eight starts, So Much More won six and finished second twice -- once in the Kin Pace Final after being interfered with in the first turn as the public choice, and the other in a OSS Gold division a half-length back of Powerful Chris.

Beatson tested the filly twice more in the OSS Gold series that summer but came to a crossroads: continue on in the Gold or race her in the Grassroots.

"After about two Grassroots starts we knew we could be in the Final anyway, so then we said we'd give the Gold a try and see how that worked. And it was OK, she was competitive -- probably as good as pretty much everything in there -- but we just decided to go with the Grassroots. It seemed like it would be a bit easier."

The post position gods didn't make those forays into the Gold series any easier, drawing the nine hole for miles at Rideau Carleton Raceway on August 25 and at Flamboro Downs on September 22 -- miles that would both go down as Canadian records.

"She had a legitimate shot at winning any one of those races. But that's racing for you," shrugged Beatson. "She paced in track record times in both of those miles.

"From that day, or from any day, she hasn't went a bad race as far as we're concerned."

After winning the OSS Grassroots Final on October 5, Beatson and his connections had no intention of shutting So Much More down, provided that she gave them the green light to race.



Don Beatson (third from L), Ken Beatson (fourth from L) and Cole England (fifth from L) with So Much More Don Beatson (third from L), Ken Beatson (fourth from L) and Cole England (fifth from L) with So Much More

"Why would I stop when she's at the very top?" questioned the trainer. "I never really contemplated stopping with her...maybe a week here and there."

So Much More rose through the conditioned ranks at Mohawk through the months of October and November, eventually landing in the Fillies & Mares Preferred Handicap Pace on November 15 where she finished third. A drop down the class ladder again for a few starts brought her back to the Preferred, where the sophomore pacing filly toppled her seasoned veteran foes with a 1:51.3 victory by a neck over favoured Kendall Seelster.

That race would be the 25th and final of her three-year-old year, to produce a summary of 15-3-2 with $227,347 in purse earnings. After a well-deserved rest of a few weeks, So Much More returned to the Preferred ranks in 2020 and finished third (with interference on her line) on January 4 before winning her first race as an older mare on January 10.

In her next start, So Much More and Youaremycandygirl were tasked with the tall order of facing male rivals in the Preferred Handicap, where she finished fourth to favoured Sintra. That effort was followed by a second-place finish in the Fillies & Mares Preferred and a win from post 10 against upper-conditioned company.

Her sixth start of the year was special, as she faced off against and defeated all rivals (male and female) in the $36,000 Preferred Pace on February 15.

Regardless of the trip or the driver, it seems So Much More personifies her moniker and performs efficiently and consistently. After a week off for a bit of a rest, Beatson has his prized pupil back in this Saturday (Feb. 29) in the Preferred. She's the 2-1 favourite in the field, with seven rivals set to face her and driver James MacDonald on the final card of February.

According to her trainer, her health and her heart help make her the special performer she is, and "she seems to really like doing it" as well.

"She's been a delight to us, it's amazing. You never really think you'll come across one like her."

Beatson says So Much More ranks right up there as one of the best horses he's ever been associated with, putting her along side the recently-retired Monster In Law. That iron horse just retired after turning 15 in 2020, and Beatson is hopeful that So Much More has so many more outings in store. The plan for 2020 doesn't involve travel outside of Ontario but it does involve open stakes competition, most notably the Milton and Roses Are Red at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Of course, with success at Canada's top level comes a fair amount of fame. And for Beatson, that means getting "quite a few" phone calls with offers to purchase the pacing mare at the forefront of his modest four-horse stable.

"I say that she's really not for sale," admitted Beatson. "They want to buy but right now we're not ever thinking about selling her. And the fun would be all gone if we sold her."

That fun and that feeling extends beyond what So Much More provides on paper. There's something magical about taking this trip with family, as Don's son Ken lives close to Orangeville (and not close to him) and his 15-year-old grandson Cole helps Don in the barn with his stable and with the stable star.

"He's helped me since he was 9 or 10, but it really is a thrill. He loves it....he's close by and he comes by all the time, and I appreciate every bit of it."

In talking to Beatson, it's abundantly clear that he truly does.
CHANDIGARH: Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar presented the state budget estimates for 2020-21 in the assembly here on Friday.

Presenting the budget estimates on a tablet device that MLAs accessed online, Khattar announced that the total size of the Haryana budget for 2020-21 fiscal would be Rs 1.42 lakh crore as compared to Rs 1.32 lakh crore in 2019-20.

Haryanas revenue deficit is expected to jump to Rs 15,373 crore in 2020-21 from Rs 12,022 crore projected in the 2019-20 budget estimates.

The capital expenditure decreased to Rs 14,413 crore for 2020-21 from Rs 17,666 crore in 2019-20.

In his budget speech, Khattar made no mention of job quota for local candidates or residents of the state, a poll manifesto promise of ally Jannayak Janata Party (JJP). Instead, the chief minister laid emphasis on developing entrepreneurial skills among unemployed youth so that they become job providers rather than job seekers.

Khattar announced that under the Mukhya Mantri Saksham Chatra Vriti Yojana, students securing more than 80% in Class 5 will be provided scholarship of Rs 6,000 as against the existing Rs 1,500 in Classes 6, 7 and 8.

HEALTH ALLOCATION

Khattar allocated Rs 6,533 crore for the health sector, an increase of 23.03% over the revised estimate outlay. The facility of chemotherapy will be made available in all district hospitals in 2020-21.

He announced that ventilator facilities in medical colleges will be increased from the existing 190 to 400.

Three new medical colleges will be set up in Yamunanagar, Kaithal and Sirsa.

DRONES TO CHECK ILLEGAL MINING

Khattar announced that in the next financial year, drone surveillance will be done to check illegal mining.

He said a new scheme, Mera Shehar, Sarvottam Sehar, will be launched to provide modern public facilities in selected urban local bodies.

He said migrant Kashmiri families will be provided Rs 1,250 per month per person in the next financial year.
Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Friday visited riot-affected areas in northeast Delhi to take stock of the situation and interacted with locals.

Baijal visited Maujpur, Jaffrabad and Gokulpuri, an official said. He was accompanied by senior police officers.

This is the first visit of the Lt governor to the riot-hit areas after violence broke out on Monday.

At least 39 have been killed and over 200 injured in communal clashes in northeast Delhi. The areas worst affected in the violence include Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh, Khureji Khas and Bhajanpura.

Earlier this week, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and Minister Gopal Rai had visited the violence-hit areas.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Saint Peters University is breaking with tradition this year  and members of the senior class are not happy about it.

With construction planned at the PNC Bank Arts Center, school officials have decided to move the 2020 undergraduate commencement ceremony from the expansive Holmdel venue to the the Jersey City schools gymnasium on May 18. The commencement has been held at the Arts Center for years.

Senior Breanna Coates created a Change.org petition asking the school to reconsider its decision, saying the school gym is no place to hold a graduation ceremony. As of 2:40 p.m. Friday, more than 950 people have signed the online petition.

I spent and worked four years at this school, just for me to find out that I have to graduate in the gym, said Coates, a 21-year-old from Linden. Im just extremely disappointed in this university as a whole. This is an embarrassment and a slap in the face.

The story was first reported in the SPU school newspaper, the Pauw Wow.

In a letter to students Friday, school officials said the Commencement Committee came to this decision after exploring a number of other options and coming to the determination that (Yanitelli Center) is the most suitable venue to ensure broad participation from students and their family and friends.

Coates and other students say the Yanitelli Recreation Life Center, with a maximum capacity of 3,200, is too small. She would like to see the commencement at a larger site, like the Prudential Center in Newark; or a more suitable location, even if it is similar in size to Yanitelli, like New Jersey Performing Arts Center, also in Newark.

The graduating undergraduate class is expected to be roughly 400, SPU spokeswoman Angeline Boyer said. Each graduate will be allotted six tickets for family and friends, which is less than the 10 allotted for the PNC Bank Arts Center, but more than could be offered at other venues the university considered.

I dont want to graduate in the gym. My parents dont want me to graduate in the gym, Coates said.

Boyer said the commencement committee felt the Yanitelli Center was the optimal choice.

The RLC has the advantage of giving us total control of the venue," said Frederick Bonato, Ph.D., provost and vice president for academic affairs. "This will allow us to host an amazing event and our intent is to make this a very special day for all our graduates and their families.

The Graduate and School of Professional and Continuing Studies commencement ceremony will also be held at Yanitelli Center, later that day.
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Ankara, Turkey  Fri, February 28, 2020 16:47 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206737d5b 2 World #Turkey,#Russia,Idlib,attack,soldiers,killing Free

Turkey on Friday rejected Russia's claim that 33 Turkish troops killed by Syrian regime fire in the province of Idlib were among groups of "terrorists".

"I want to state that during this attack, there were no armed groups around our military units," Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said in televised remarks.

Russia's defence ministry had said that that the Turkish troops "were in the battle formations of terrorist groups" and had not communciated their presence in the area "where they should not have been".

But Akar said Thursday's strike in the northwestern province took place "despite coordination with Russian officials", adding that the bombardment continued despite "warning" of the Turkish troops' presence.

He said ambulances were also hit.

The latest incident has raised further tensions between Ankara and Moscow, whose relationship has been tested by violations of a 2018 deal to prevent a regime offensive on rebel-held Idlib.

As part of the agreement, Ankara set up 12 observation posts in the province but Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces -- backed by Russian air power -- have pressed on with a devastating assault on Idlib.

While Damascus ally Russia accuses rebel-backer Turkey of supporting "terrorists", Ankara has repeatedly urged Moscow to stop the regime violating the ceasefire.

The Turkish military immediately retaliated against regime targets, and Akar said over 200 regime targets had come under heavy fire from armed drones and other weapons.

Akar claimed over 300 regime elements had been "neutralised" while Turkey destroyed dozens of Syrian helicopters, tanks and howitzers.

Thirty-two soldiers were also wounded in Thursday's air strike.
Scientists in Israel say they are just weeks away from developing an oral vaccine which will beat coronavirus.

Officials in the country expect the drug to be available within 90 days after it has completed the necessary testing.

Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis said: 'Congratulations to MIGAL [The Galilee Research Institute] on this exciting breakthrough.

'I am confident there will be further rapid progress, enabling us to provide a needed response to the grave global COVID-19 threat.'

Scientists at MIGAL confirmed they have been working on a vaccine against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) found in poultry.

It has been tested at the Veterinary Institute where its said to have been proven effective.

An Israeli scientist works at a laboratory at the MIGAL Research Institute. Scientists there say they are just weeks away from developing an oral vaccine which will beat coronavirus

The virus has now infected more than 82,000 people globally and is worrying governments with its rapid spread beyond the epicenter of China

Dr. Chen Katz, MIGALs biotechnology group leader, said: 'Our basic concept was to develop the technology and not specifically a vaccine for this kind or that kind of virus.'

The oral vaccination induced high levels of specific anti-IBV antibodies in trials, according researchers.

MIGAL scientists say if they can 'adjust the system' from the poultry coronavirus to the human one they will have 'in a few weeks, if it all works, we would have a vaccine to prevent coronavirus'.

Dr Katz added: 'All we need to do is adjust the system to the new sequence.

'We are in the middle of this process, and hopefully in a few weeks we will have the vaccine in our hands. Yes, in a few weeks, if it all works, we would have a vaccine to prevent coronavirus.'

MIGAL CEO David Zigdon said : 'Given the urgent global need for a human coronavirus vaccine, we are doing everything we can to accelerate development.

'We are currently in intensive discussions with potential partners that can help accelerate the in-human trials phase and expedite completion of final-product development and regulatory activities.'

Officials said 33 people had tested positive for the virus in California as of Thursday, one day after the US' first unknown origin case was announced and the CDC was blasted for not testing the individual for four days.

There are now 60 known cases of the virus in the United States.

And the virus has now infected more than 82,000 people globally and is worrying governments with its rapid spread beyond the epicenter of China.

A man wears a facemask while pushing his shopping cart in Alhambra, California. Officials said 33 people had tested positive for the virus in California as of Thursday, one day after the US' first unknown origin case was announced and the CDC was blasted for not testing the individual for four days

A woman wears a face mask in Monterey Park, California. There are now 60 known cases of the virus in the United States. And the virus has now infected more than 82,000 people globally and is worrying governments with its rapid spread beyond the epicenter of China

The first human clinical trials of an antiviral treatment for the coronavirus that's sickened more than 80,000 people worldwide are set to begin in Nebraska, US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the drugmaker, Moderna, announced its candidate coronavirus vaccine has been shipped to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to begin phase 1 clinical trials in humans.

Chinese state media had reported scientists developed an oral vaccine for the new coronavirus using baker's yeast.

HOW WILL THE VACCINE WORK? Israeli cientists say they have been able to use the development of a vaccine against infectious bronchitis virus found in poultry to help them. Dr. Chen Katz said: 'Lets call it pure luck. We decided to choose coronavirus as a model for our system just as a proof of concept for our technology.' Katz added: 'The scientific framework for the vaccine is based on a new protein expression vector, which forms and secretes a chimeric soluble protein that delivers the viral antigen into mucosal tissues by self-activated endocytosis, causing the body to form antibodies against the virus.' Endocytosis sees substances brought into the cell. MIGAL scientists say if they can 'adjust the system' from the poultry coronavirus to the human one they will have 'in a few weeks, if it all works, we would have a vaccine to prevent coronavirus'. Advertisement

A professor in charge of the project had reportedly taken four doses of the drug without having any side effects. However, the expert said the product was still 'far from' being sold on the market because it needed to pass animal tests and clinical trials.

Multiple research teams have begun developing vaccines for the disease since an outbreak emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei Province late last year.

Last month, a Russian diplomatic mission in China said that Russia and China were working to develop a vaccine and that Beijing had handed over the genome of the virus to Moscow.

Johnson & Johnson is one of the drugmakers that have begun work on developing a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Jack Ma, China's richest man, donated $14million to help scientists develop anti-coronavirus inoculations.

While the United States pledged $2.5 billion to fight the disease, with more than $1 billion going towards developing a vaccine.

Scientists at Greffex, a Houston, Texas-based genetic engineering company, claim they've created a coronavirus vaccine.

The company told the Houston Business Journal that it had completed development of the vaccine and it is ready for animal testing and review by US regulators.

It comes after UK scientists announced they'd begun testing their shot, and researchers at the University of Texas at Austin announced they'd made compound they believe can serve as a vaccine.

Globally, the coronavirus epidemic has killed at least 2,705 people, infected more than 80,340 and spread to at least two dozen countries.
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has set Sunday, June 28 as the census night for this years Population and Housing Census (PHC).



The night, which falls on the midnight of the said date, will serve as a reference point for the enumeration period, which will be from June 15 to July 15, 2020.



The PHC will involve the official count of each person in the geographical space of Ghana so that every persons characteristics will feed into the national development planning.



Mr Louis Toboh, Deputy Volta Regional Statistician, who disclosed this on Wednesday during the inauguration of the Ketu South Municipal Census Implementation Committee (MCIC), said the 2020 PHC, the 12th to be conducted in the country since colonial times in 1891, would see an extensive field operation in the data collection effort so that no one was left out.



He touched on the uniqueness of the 2020 Census saying it would be, heavily depended on technology by using computer-assisted personal interview, picking Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates for all structures and communities, relying on in-built quality control system to validate collected data and, falling on digitized maps for validating and plotting information of all enumeration areas on maps.



Mr Toboh said the effort is aimed at ensuring, Ghanas data systems remain current, updated and relevant to policy and decision making among other important uses.



Mr Elliot Edem Agbenorwu, the Municipal Chief Executive for Ketu South, who inaugurated the Committee, underscored the importance of the decennial exercise describing it as, an indispensable governance tool required to ensure that good governance and democracy works.



He reminded the Committee that the success of the census in the Municipality depended on the extent of their diligence and collaborative work with the four-member municipal technical team and reminded them of the need to own the exercise saying, our Assembly has been using previous census data for communities in the allocation of our resources.



Alhaji Yussif Ibrahim, the Municipal Coordinating Director (MCD) and Chairman of the Committee, called on members to do their best to execute the daunting task of spearheading the process in the Municipality trusting their knowledge and experience for a good job.

Source: GNA









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She's been wowing fans with her stylish Paris Fashion Week ensembles.

And Jourdan Dunn put on an extremely leggy display in a thigh-skimming black tailored mini dress as she arrived for the Balmain fashion show on Friday.

The British model, 29, displayed her incredible physique in the fitted dress as she arrived for the showcase in the French capital.

Gorgeous: Jourdan Dunn, 29, put on an extremely leggy display in a thigh-skimming black tailored mini dress as she arrived for the Balmain fashion show on Friday

Jourdan was once again the centre of attention as she arrived in the thigh-skimming black mini dress.

The dress boasted a fitted corset middle and a wraparound effect, and she teamed the dress with matching black and gold strapped heels.

Completing her look with a Balmain handbag, Jourdan teamed the ensemble with chunky round gold earrings and pulled her dark tresses into a sleek curled ponytail.

Sensational: The British model displayed her incredible physique in the fitted dress as she arrived for the showcase in the French capital

Here she is! Jourdan was once again the centre of attention as she arrived in the thigh-skimming black mini dress

Earlier this month, Jourdan revealed she's engaged to her 'life partner' Dion, and took to Instagram to share the news.

Posting a snap of her ring-clad hand being held by her husband-to-be, the brunette wrote: 'Jourdan Dunn Hamilton ....... has a nice ring to it!'

In the sweet post, the media personality couldn't hide her delight as she covered her eyes with one hand while placing the other in her beau's.

The new addition to her wedding finger could be perfectly seen, with Jourdan also sharing a closer look at the ring with another post on her Stories.

Amazing: The dress boasted a fitted corset middle and a wraparound effect, and she teamed the dress with matching black and gold strapped heels

Dressed up: Completing her look with a Balmain handbag, Jourdan teamed the ensemble with chunky round gold earrings

Perfection: Jourdan pulled her glossy dark tresses into a sleek curled ponytail as she headed into the fashion show

Following Jourdan's announcement, Andrew Brown, WP Diamonds CEO, offered his expertise on her engagement ring to MailOnline.

He said: 'The ring on Jourdan Dunn's engagement finger looks to be a 2ct oval with a large halo and diamond band. A nice colour clarity combination of G VS would retail for around 22,000.'

Jourdan - who has a 10-year-old son called Riley - only revealed her romance with her new fiance last month in a loved-up holiday post, but hid his identity.

The accompanying caption was rather telling. She wrote: '2009 my son entered my life, 2019 my life partner entered my life. Stepping into 2020 with both by my side is priceless.'

While she pixelated her man's face, the trio had all co-ordinated their outfits for the occasion.

I'm getting married! Earlier this month, Jourdan announced she's engaged to her 'life partner' Dion Hamilton, and took to Instagram to share the news
CAMDEN, N.J. - Two nearly 100-year-old veterans of the Battle of of Iwo Jima met for the first time on its 75th anniversary at a ceremony aboard another of the battles veteransthe Battleship New Jersey.

The two Camden County veterans tossed a remembrance wreath into the Delaware River last weekend from the port side of the floating Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial on the Camden waterfront across from Philadelphia.

The 99-year-old John Welsh of Gloucester Township and 97-year-old Francis Frank or Elmer Beach of Oaklyn also shook hands and personally exchanged a few World War II memories of the U.S. Marines assault on Iwo Jima, a Japanese island in the Pacific that was part of the enemys early warning system during the war.

Both remembered seeing the initial U.S. flag raising by the Fifth Marine Division atop 546-foot high Mount Suribachi in the winter of 1945 after the Marines captured it Feb. 23, a few days into the five-week battle that began Feb. 19. The battle ended March 26, a costly U.S. victory and one of the bloodiest battles in Marine history with 6,800 killed and nearly 20,000 wounded.

When we saw it (the flag) go up, we all cheered. I stood up and didnt care if I got my backside shot off, Welsh recalled of the flag.

Beach also remembered seeing the flag event as did most of the cheering Marines and Navy crews aboard the battleship USS New Jersey offshore and other vessels. The celebration was short-lived, though.

I thought when the flag went up it was the end (of the battle,) but it was just the beginning, remembered Beach, the father of New Jersey state Sen. James Beach and six other children. He described the island fighting as very hard and lasting too long.

In support of the assault on Iwo Jima, the New Jersey protected the USS Essex (CV-9) aircraft carrier group that conducted air attacks on the island from Feb. 19 to 21.

For most of his life Beach has been reluctant to talk much about his role in that battle or the rest of the war, but he told family members this detail: As soon as he and others in the first Marine wave hit the beaches on the volcanic island, he could hear Japanese bullets whizzing by his head as he lay prostrate on the sand.

Welsh, a Purple Heart recipient, was wounded twice and survived both malaria and a jungle fever in three island campaigns.

He was shot in the back in Guam after the Bouganville Island campaign and then in the arm on Iwo Jima, an injury that sent him home before the war ended. Every night in his bedroom he prays for comrades who never came back from the war, said his daughter, Joanne Carr.

Welsh had served with Medal of Honor recipient Hershel Woody Williams in the same unit  Company C., 1st Battalion, 21st Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, though they were in different platoons and did not know one another.

Welsh is headed to Virginia this weekend for the Iwo Jima Association of Americas national commemoration of the 75th anniversary at which Williams, 96, will speak.

Beach also was wounded but in the leg by a bayonet-wielding Japanese soldier during the Bougainville Island campaign. He had refused a Purple Heart then because he considered his injury minor compared to those suffered by other Marines but finally accepted the medal on the deck of the battleship New Jersey a few years after it opened as a museum in 2001.

Its a testament to the men who were there that the battle has entered our national conscience and is so often memorialized, said battleship museum curator Ryan Szimanski, alluding in part to the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial statue in Arlington, Virginia.

The statue replicates the famous flag-raising photo by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal.

Online: https://bit.ly/39bu3wW
The woman arrived into Dublin Airport and journeyed on to Belfast via Dublin's Connolly Station

HSE public health doctors are scrambling to contact hundreds of passengers who were on a flight to Dublin with an Irish woman who has tested positive for the coronavirus.

The woman, from Northern Ireland, also travelled on a train from Connolly Station in the city centre - one of the busiest in the country.

The plane in which she was a passenger had travelled to Dublin from Italy - where 650 have been infected and 17 people have died from the virus.

Hundreds of other rail passengers were being traced last night after it emerged she travelled on an Irish Rail train from Dublin to Belfast.

The flight had landed in Dublin in the previous 48 hours, sparking fears the patient may have exposed other passengers to the virus.

Warning

It is the first case of coronavirus on the island of Ireland and follows a warning by HSE officials that it could be circulating in the Republic but has not been picked up by tests.

Passengers who travelled with the woman are to be monitored over the next 14 days by public health doctors. They will be asked to self-isolate and be tested if they have symptoms.

The chief medical officer for Northern Ireland, Dr Michael McBride, said one person was confirmed to have the virus and that a second test is being done in England for verification.

It is unclear how symptomatic the infected woman was on the plane and if she was coughing and sneezing during the flight.

Officials declined to say if she had an aisle seat and if she used the toilet during the flight, which could have led to potentially contaminated surfaces.

No information was given on the airline but it is understood she took the Irish Rail train home from Dublin to Belfast, from Connolly Station. Dr McBride said the person was not part of a school trip, did not attend their GP and self-isolated instead.

He expressed confidence the health service are "on top" of dealing with the case.

An isolation ward has also been put in place at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

The National Public Health Emergency Team said they are aware of the" presumptive case" or the coronavirus known as of COVID-19 and that public health authorities have activated contact tracing protocols.

Health Minister Simon Harris said the first case on the island "was not unexpected" and officials had been planning for this scenario since January.

"The general public should continue to adhere to the public health protocols issued by the Department of Health," he said.

Ireland's chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, stressed there is no need for panic and that the passenger did everything required to contain the spread of the virus.

"This is not a surprise. We've been prepared for this eventuality," he said on RTE last night.

Dr Holohan said the passenger followed the correct protocol and informed health authorities of her symptoms.

"This individual came forward, identified they had symptoms and liaised with us."

As for fellow passengers aboard the as-yet unidentified flight, he said the airline involved has the passenger manifest that would be handed over to health officials.

Contacted

Passengers sitting within two rows of the affected passenger are being contacted by health officials, he said.

But he said operations at the airport will remain as normal. "It doesn't give us cause for surprise," he said. "Nothing has changed."

The virus is spread through close contact with an infected person's body fluids, or droplets from coughing or sneezing.

It can also be contracted by touching surfaces that an infected person has coughed or sneezed on.

Close contact involves either face to face contact or spending over 15 minutes within two metres of an infected person.

Any person concerned that they may have symptoms the coronavirus should immediately isolate themselves from others and phone their GP.

Earlier the HSE said the coronavirus may already be circulating in Ireland but it has not been picked up.

The public health emergency came as senior civil servants warned Fianna Fail and Green Party TDs that the coronavirus could have a devastating impact on the economy.

In advance of the next government, Department of Finance secretary general Derek Moran, and Department of Public Expenditure secretary general Robert Watt, issued a grim warning about the virus and the impact it will have on global supply chains.

Meanwhile, the organisers of the St Patrick's Day Festival said they will take "a measured and proportionate response" to the public health threat from the new virus.
(Alliance News) - United Oil & Gas PLC said Friday it has completed the purchase of Rockhopper Egypt Pty Ltd from Rockhopper Exploration PLC for USD16 million.

Rockhopper Egypt holds a 22% non-operated interest in the Abu Sennan concession, where production averaged 7,900 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first half on February.

Abu Sennan includes a large exploration area, UOG said, and the other partners are Kuwait Energy, which operates the site and has a 25% stake, Global Connect Ltd with a 25% interest and Dover Investments with a 28% holding.

The oil & gas exploration and development company had announced the "truly transformational" acquisition of Rockhopper Egypt back in July last year.

The company had said it would pay USD16 million, with a USD8 million prepayment financing structure coming from FTSE 100-listed oil firm BP PLC.

As part of the financing from BP, UOG has also signed an offtake agreement with the company.

UOG had said it would raise cash through a share issue to fund the rest of the deal, without specifying how much it would raise. If there was a shortfall between the amount raised, the already paid cash element, and the USD16 million total, UOG would make it up by issuing shares directly to Rockhopper.

In December, UOG had said it conditionally raised USD6.3 million, to part-fund the acquisition, through the issue of 159.0 million new shares at 3 pence per share.

UOG said it would also will issue 114.5 million new shares worth USD4.5 million to Rockhopper Exploration. The 114.5 million shares represent around 19% of UOG's enlarged share capital.

Brian Larkin, chief executive officer, said: "Completing the acquisition of Rockhopper Egypt represents a significant milestone in the development of United, establishing the company as a full-cycle exploration & production company, and putting us in a strong position for further growth."

In a separate statement, Rockhopper Exploration confirmed the disposal of Rockhopper Egypt and noted that it is anticipated that Rockhopper Chief Financial Officer Stewart MacDonald will be appointed as a non-executive director of UOG.

UOG shares were suspended as the acquisition had been deemed a reverse takeover under AIM rules, but was re-admitted to trading on AIM on Friday.

UOG shares were trading 6.1% lower in London at 2.70 pence each on Friday shortly before market close, meanwhile Rockhopper shares were trading 13% lower at 13.12p.

By Loreta Juodagalvyte; loretajuodagalvyte@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Honestly, we shouldnt even be talking about this. The name of the band, Use No Hooks, alluded to that from the start. No tunes to lodge in your memory. No product to snag on the brass ring of success. Nothing designed to last beyond any given performance.

Blinking in the daylight of a new millennium, nobody seems more surprised than Mick Earls and Stuart Grant, two key perpetrators of Melbournes fabled "little bands" era of the late '70s/early '80s. Thanks to unexpected interest in a hoard of old tapes, they've come together in a Thornbury cafe over newly typed manifestos and a vinyl record  The Job  that they never pressed back in the day.

Mick Earls and Stuart Grant find themselves reflecting on the unexpected revival of Use No Hooks. Credit:Jason South

"We were trying out ideas and sounds to see what would work," says Earls, multi-instrumentalist for the evolving experimental combo that performed way under the Countdown radar from '79 to '83. "We made up new material for each gig. We never bothered about image or promotion or any of those things. It was all just turning up to play, then move on to the next thing."

Political? Hell yes. Playfully so in Earls' lyrics, which would come to draw heavily on media jargon to comment on the linguistic smokescreen of public affairs. But for vocalist Stuart Grant, better known from contemporary art-pop ratbags Primitive Calculators, the trash-and-burn aesthetic was fundamental to the little bands ethos.
On land and in air

Re: Plan meets needs of both aquifer, VIA, Editorial, Sunday:

I support the plan for increasing taxes for public transportation. I also support increasing taxes to pay for a second airport. The city needs a second airport  we could compete with Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin for international air traffic.

A new airport has not been built in Texas since Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport  46 years ago. San Antonio should lead the way in developing transportation infrastructure  both land and air.

Mark Marek

The truth is out there

To the voting public: If you only receive your news from one source  conservative or liberal  please take some time to change the channel to reconcile what you hear on one channel with what you hear on another.

For example, if you find a breaking news story on one channel but nothing close on a different channel, please dig deeper until you find the truth. It might take a while because of the deep political divide that exists in this country, but the truth exists and it matters.

The truth is inclusive and tolerant, like we were taught in church, but it requires hard work and intensive critical thinking to find.

Kurt Gerlach

In the wrong country

Bernie Sanders loves to say Fidel Castros communism wasnt all bad.

Why not ask the Cubans who have come to the U.S. how Castro and communism treated them and their families? If it was so great, would they have come here to live?

Seems like Sanders is running for office in the wrong country. Maybe he needs to run for president in Venezuela.

Peter Stern, Driftwood

On ExpressNews.com: After Nevada win, Bernie Sanders vows to win Texas
Four major wireless carriers are facing fines for selling users location data to third parties, according to multiple reports.

Reuters reports the Federal Communications Commission plans to fine AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile a total of $200 million for making customers real-time location data available to third-party distributors without their consent. All four mobile providers were accused of the privacy violations last year and pledged to stop selling the data and cut ties with some location aggregators," but the cell phone companies allegedly continued the practice and were hit with a class-action lawsuit in 2019.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai said last month that one or more wireless carriers apparently violated federal law.

The Wall Street Journal reports the FCC is expected to notify the companies of liability asking for the fines on Friday. The four wireless providers are expected to challenge the penalties.

According to The Verge, AT&T defended the practice in May, calling data-sharing an important feature commonly used by app developers to provide location services... For example, ride-sharing apps use A-GPS to make sure the car shows up in the right location."

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), who previously spoke out against the wireless carriers for allegedly tracking users locations, criticized the FCCs slow response.

This issue only came to light after my office and dedicated journalists discovered how wireless companies shared Americans locations willy nilly, Wyden told The Verge in a statement. [Pai] only investigated after public pressure mounted. And now his response is a set of comically inadequate fines that wont stop phone companies from abusing Americans privacy the next time they can make a quick buck.

Its chilling to consider what a black market could do with this data, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel reportedly said in January. It puts the safety and privacy of every American with a wireless phone at risk.
Kuala Lumpur, Feb 28 : After interviews with all MPs this week, the Malaysian King was yet to identify one parliamentarian with the majority support needed to be the next Prime Minister and will now meet leaders of all parties, the National Palace said on Friday.

All 222 MPs were interviewed on Tuesday and Wednesday following the shock resignation a day earlier of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, whom King King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah had asked to act as interim leader until a new government was formed, Efe news reported.

"Istana Negara (National Palace) will contact the leaders of political parties with representatives in the Dewan Rakyat (Parliament), to give them an opportunity to present nominations of Dewan Rakyat members as future Prime Minister," the comptroller of the Royal Family and Household, Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin, said in a statement.

On Thursday, Mahathir announced that Parliament would meet in a special sitting on March 2 to pick the country's new leader.

However, Parliament Speaker Mohamad Ariff on Friday said that the request by Mahathir to convene the sitting will not go ahead because it did not meet prerequisites and that the meeting could only be held upon receiving an official decree from the king.

The King also agreed to the speaker's decision to reject the meeting.

Ariff was summoned to meet King twice on Friday, but the purpose of which has not been announced.

Meanwhile, the ruling Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Bersatu), chaired by Mahathir, said on Friday that it has nominated its President Muhyiddin Yassin as its prime ministerial candidate with the support of 36 MPs.

The three parties left in the Pakatan Harapan ruling coalition, which collapsed when Mahathir resigned and Bersatu pulled out, has put forward Anwar Ibrahim as leader.

The opposition is calling for a snap election.

Friday's developments are the latest in the country's political crisis since Mahathir resigned Monday as Prime Minister amid weekend speculation surrounding the potential behind-the-scenes formation of a new ruling coalition without Anwar, Mahathir's promised successor.

Mahathir and his alliance won the 2018 election in a shock victory, ousting then-Prime Minister Najib Razak and his United Malays National Organization-dominated ruling Barisan Nasional coalition after 60 years, before propelling Najib into investigations related to the 1MDB corruption scandal.
Gwyneth Paltrow has revealed her least favourite performance of her career.

The actor was playing a game with her assistant, Kevin Keating, for Netflix, challenging him as to how well he really knows her.

When Paltrow asked Keating if he knew which of her performances she liked the least, he said "Shallow Hal?" in reference to the 2001 film that sees Paltrow where a fat suit.

Paltrow nodded, confirming: "Exactly."

19 films that should never have won Oscars Show all 19 1 /19 19 films that should never have won Oscars 19 films that should never have won Oscars A Beautiful Mind (2001) A Beautiful Mind is one of the mustier Best Pictures winners of the century so far. While its win was a coup for DreamWorks  the film was the studio's third victor in a row it was far from a deserving recipient, especially considering Ron Howard won Best Director over Robert Altman and David Lynch for Gosford Park and Mulholland Drive, respectively. Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars Chariots of Fire (1981) While Chariots of Fire is precisely the type of film the Academy usually takes under its wing, the fact it won was a big surprise, considering everybody present had expected Reds to win the top prize. The Warren Beatty film would have been a far worthier winner, too. Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars Cold Mountain (2003) Cold Mountain lucked out by being nominated in what was a particularly weak year for Best Supporting Actress. Renee Zellweger recovered from failing to win for Chicago the previous year and, in doing so, earnt the unremarkable drama its "Oscar-winning" tag. Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars Crash (2004) Viewers of the Oscars have grown used to unexpected victories, but none was more ill-judged than when Paul Haggis' drama Crash beat Brokeback Mountain to Best Picture. Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars Dances with Wolves (1990) It's quite soul-destroying to think that Dances with Wolves scooped a total of seven Oscars in the same year that Goodfellas was nominated. Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars The Danish Girl (2015) Alicia Vikander's performance in The Danish Girl is by no means weak, but it was nothing on Rooney Mara's affecting turn in Todd Haynes' film Carol. Had Tom Hooper not won five years before for The King's Speech, it seems unlikely that the drama would have picked up any nominations. Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars The English Patient (1996) Put simply, The English Patient isn't a very good film. Of the nine (nine!) Oscars it won, Juliette Binoche's trophy for Best Supporting Actress was perhaps the most surprising. The French star herself could barely contain her shock. Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars Gladiator (2000) This will most likely be this list's most controversial placement, but let's be honest: Gladiator is not the fantastic film it's regularly hailed as. Ridley Scott's overlong historical drama boasts plenty of swords-and-sandal bravado, but not much else. Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars Going My Way (1944) The musical Going My Way may have been the biggest cinematic hit of its year, but it certainly wasn't better that classic noir Double Indemnity, which it beat to win Best Picture. In fact, it's nowhere near director Leo McCarey's greatest film (he won six years previous for the Awful Truth and would be nominated again for The Bells of St Mary's two years later). Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars Grand Hotel (1932) There's a reason why Grand Hotel is the only film to ever win Best Picture without receiving a nomination in any other category. An entertaining film, sure, but nothing more. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 19 films that should never have won Oscars The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) It's ironic that a film with the word "greatest" in its title has gone down as one of the worst winners in Oscars history. A prime example of when the Academy voted for spectacle over quality. Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars Green Book (2018) To those who don't care about awards ceremonies, Green Book is a crowdpleaser that boasts decent performances from Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali. To everyone else, it's the damp squib that somehow came out of nowhere to snatch Best Picture from under Roma's nose. Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars The Imitation Game (2014) The Imitation Game won Best Adapted Screenplay, which begs the question: what the hell was this distinctly average film doing having any nominations at all? Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars The Iron Lady (2011) Meryl Streep has won enough Oscars for the world to know she's evidently one of the finest actors who'll ever live. Her win for The Iron Lady, though, was one Oscar too many. Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars Life is Beautiful (1998) The year of 1999 marked one of the most remarkable Oscar ceremonies in history for the sole reason that the majority of its winners were terrible choices. Right up there was Roberto Benigni, who beat Tom Hanks (Saving Private Ryan) and Edward Norton (American History X) to win Best Actor for, of all things, Life is Beautiful. Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars The Pianist (2002) It might finally be accepted that disgraced film director Roman Polanski shouldn't be handed accolades, but back in 2003, this was still what the Oscars were doing. He won Best Director for The Pianist, an award the French-Polish filmmaker could have done without. Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars A Place in the Sun A Place in the Sun is a fine little film, but fine little films shouldn't be winning Oscars  especially when they see off competition from more deserving opposition. In this case, director George Stevens beat John Huston (The African Queen), William Wyler (Detective Story) and Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire) to the Director prize. Paramount Pictures 19 films that should never have won Oscars Shakespeare in Love You have to hand it to Shakespeare in Love, it played the Oscars campaign trail perfectly, overtaking war favourites Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line to win the evening's biggest prize. This doesn't mean its success has gone down as anything more than evidence of poor judgement from the Academy. Rex Features 19 films that should never have won Oscars Slumdog Millionaire It's often good to hold your hands up and admit that a film is nowhere near as good as you recall. Sadly, Slumdog Millionaire is one of those. While its win no doubt put smiles on the faces of commuters reading the morning papers the next day, the shine has worn off its success in recent years. The rightful winner  The Dark Knight  wasn't even nominated for Best Picture. Rex Features

"I'm not sure who told you to do that one, but it wasn't me, said Keating. I wasn't there working for you. Not around for that."

To which Paltrow said: "That was before your time! See what happened? Disaster."

Shallow Hal stars Jack Black as Hal, a superficial man who falls in love with Paltrows Rosemarie after he is hypnotised into seeing people's inner beauty reflected in their physical appearance.

Paltrow spoke about the disturbing experience of wearing a fat suit on set in 2001. "The first day I tried it on, I was in the Tribeca Grand and I walked through the lobby," she told W magazine.

"It was so sad; it was so disturbing. No one would make eye contact with me because I was obese. I was wearing this black shirt with big snowmen on it. For some reason, the... clothes they make for women that are overweight are horrible. I felt humiliated because people were really dismissive."

The film was criticised at the time for discriminating and mocking overweight people.

Allen Steadham of the Size Acceptance Association said: ''The Farrelly brothers went out of their way not to have this movie be your standard fat-joke situation. But at the same time, they managed to exploit every fat-person stereotype to the extreme.

Our members are kind of bowled over by the audacity, because the movie manages to make all the fat jokes, but gets this escape route at the end, the positive spin.''

When asked what her favourite performance was, Keating correctly guessed it was her duet with CeeLo Green at the 2011 Grammys.
shantanu david By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Thank goodness for YouTube. After Indian OTT platform Hotstar pulled the latest episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver in which the British-American comedian eviscerates the Citizen (Amendment) Act and draws attention to the divisive policies being adopted by the Modi government, people have been flocking to YouTube to watch the show.

Pink Floyds Roger Waters recited Aamir Azizs poem on February 22 against

the CAA, while protesting Wikileaks Julian Assanges arrest

Coming out just a few hours prior to US President Donald Trumps first state visit to India (the show airs on late Sunday night in US time, which is Monday morning here), Oliver doesnt mince his criticism of PM Narendra Modi and his government, and ends the episode saying, Because India, home of this enduring symbol of love [Taj Mahal], frankly deserves a lot more than this temporary symbol of hate [Modi].Oliver isnt the only celebrity from the West who has criticised the CAA.



As mob violence in Delhi continues to seethe, and the death toll climbs, far away in London, Roger Waters, founder of iconoclastic progressive rock band Pink Floyd, recited a poem by poet and Jamia Milia Islamia student Aamir Aziz. The guitarist was protesting against the extradition of Wikileaks Julian Assange in the British capital when he read out Azizs words:

Kill us, we will become ghosts, and write of your killings, with all the evidence. You write jokes in court, we will write justice on the walls. We will speak so loudly that even the deaf will hear, we will write so clearly that even the blind will read. You write injustice on earth, we will write revolution in the sky.

Everything will be remembered, everything recorded.

American actor John Cusack has been keeping a hawk-eye on the CAA protests since December of last year, tweeting out his concern over the increasing violence. Reports from Delhi are it was a war zone last night. Fascism is not a joke - we use the word with the understanding its deadly, he tweeted on December 16.



He also condemned the mob violence in a tweet yesterday. Meanwhile, the John Oliver episode has since been watched by millions on the shows official YouTube channel. Violence, after all, is seldom met with silence.
T his is the terrifying moment an armed robber aims his shotgun out of a bedroom window at a police officer with a Taser before opening fire.

Derrick Fatunbi, 33, was then shot by another Met officer and fell backwards into the room.

Despite his injuries, he staggered to his feet and made his way downstairs at the property in Hackney.

But on the stairway, Fatunbi was confronted by more armed police. He pointed the weapon at them and again officers discharged their guns.

Fatunbi was jailed for life / Met Police

Fatunbi  who was shot four times  dropped onto the first-floor landing area with the shotgun at his side.

The police then gave him emergency first aid that saved his life. He was taken to hospital with life-changing injuries to his stomach, both thighs and left calf.

Fatunbi was wanted by police due to his being part of a gun-toting gang who forced the occupants of a parked Range Rover out of the car on Woodberry Down Estate in Finsbury Park at about 10.50pm on March 19, 2018.

The robbers had arrived in a Nissan Primera. One man pointed a shotgun at the Range Rovers windscreen. A second firearm was produced before the group drove off with both vehicles.

The Nissan was found abandoned two miles away in Lordship Lane. It was found to be registered to Fatunbis family. Armed officers raced to the suspects home address in Mandeville Street. But Fatunbi refused to surrender and opened fire on police.

Fatunbi was shot by police after pointing a gun at an officer / Met Police

Scotland Yard said no firearms officers were injured. A search of Fatunbis flat uncovered two further live shotgun cartridges. Detective Constable Chris Williams, from the Mets Central Specialist Crime Command, said: The outcome of this incident could have been even more serious.

Having committed a violent robbery, Fatunbi threatened the police officers who were trying to arrest him and it is hugely fortunate that there was no loss of life that night.

Chief Superintendent Andy Walker, from the Mets Specialist Firearms Command, said: Our armed officers put themselves in harms way on a daily basis to keep people safe from the most dangerous individuals.

On this occasion, they responded with remarkable tenacity and immense bravery to track down a particularly violent criminal and stop him from harming anyone else.

Fatunbi was convicted of one count of attempted murder, one count of possessing a firearm and two counts of robbery.
ULAANBAATAR, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Mongolia's President Battulga Khaltmaa and other government officials have submitted to a 14-day quarantine after returning home from their visit to China, the state news agency Montsame reported on Friday.

Battulga is the first head of state to visit China since the country began implementing special measure to curb the coronavirus outbreak in January.

He arrived in Beijing with Foreign Minister Tsogtbaatar Damdin and other senior government officials on Thursday, and held a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.

They were taken into quarantine as soon as they arrived in Mongolia as a precautionary measure, Montsame said. (Reporting by Anand Tumurtogoo, Writing by David Stanway; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
This is just another attempt by the GOP to shut down unions, said MCOA grievance officer Tim Cutt.

It is unclear how Missouri Department of Corrections Director Anne Precythe would manage the employees without a labor contract in place.

An agency spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But, Jake Rosenfeld, associate professor of sociology at Washington University, said the change could result in a decline in worker protections and pay.

Generally, if they were to lose representation, they wouldnt have anybody to negotiate on their behalf, Rosenfeld said. It might not happen right away, but you can imagine an even worse erosion of their rights.

Cutt and Gross also predicted working conditions in a system already plagued by high turnover and low pay could deteriorate.

If the association goes away, it leaves them unprotected, Cutt said.

Employees would totally be at the mercy of Anne Precythe, Gross added.

Even with a contract in place, workers and management have locked horns in recent years.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 22:05:42|Editor: xuxin

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BERLIN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The number of unemployed citizens in Germany fell by 30,000 to 2.396 million in February compared to the previous month, the Federal Employment Agency (BA) announced on Friday.

The "comparatively strong" decline was partly due to the mild winter in Germany, BA noted.

The labor market in Germany, however, continued "to show signs of economic weakness," said BA Chairman Detlef Scheele.

Compared to the previous year, the number of unemployed Germans increased by 23,000, according to BA.

"The demand for labor from companies in Germany continues to decline," Holger Schaefer, senior economist for employment at the German Economic Institute (IW), told Xinhua.
A six-member delegation from the Afghan government on Friday left for the Qatari capital of Doha to hold talks with the Taliban as a peace deal between the group and the United States is due to be signed in the weekend.

The team, personally chosen by President Ashraf Ghani, is being dubbed as "a group to establish initial contacts" with the Taliban, according to Tolo News.

This meeting will be the first between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

According to the group, a part of the agreement calls for the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners. America has wanted a meeting between the Taliban and representatives of the Afghan government over the issue. But Kabul has been apprehensive over the discussion as they are unsure whether the Taliban would be willing to discuss other issues as well with the government team.

The US-Taliban deal, which has been negotiated for almost 18 months between the two sides, is expected to be signed in Doha on Saturday.

On the same day, the US and Afghanistan are expected to issue a joint declaration to emphasise American commitments to the war-torn country.

US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg are expected to be in Kabul for the announcement of the declaration in the weekend.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Bloomberg) -- Moderate Democrats are racing to distance themselves from 2020 front-runner Bernie Sanders in an attempt to protect their House majority and the dozens of swing districts the party won in 2018.

The Vermont senator, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, has embraced policies that are unpopular in Republican-leaning districts. As Sanders collects delegates ahead of South Carolinas Saturday primary vote, his positive statements about communist Cuba and criticism of Israel has forced centrist Democrats to publicly oppose the person who could be their partys nominee.

Some House Democrats are promising to block his most progressive proposals, such as abolishing private health insurance, banning natural gas fracking, and ending enforcement of border controls. Florida Representative Stephanie Murphy said the Democratic presidential candidate also needs to be aware how comments and policies will play in the parts of the country that will determine which party controls Congress.

You cannot condemn Israel and compliment Castro and win in Florida, she said. I think that there would be a lot of people in swing districts, that instead of being able to run a campaign that is a referendum on Trump, would have to be running a defensive campaign explaining what socialism is.

Sanderss rise has been facilitated by strong grassroots support and moderate primary votes split among several Democrats who used Wednesdays debate in South Carolina to warn about the political risk of running on the same ticket as a socialist.

If you want to keep the House in Democratic hands, you might want to check with the people who actually turned the House blue, former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg said to Sanders in the debate. They are running away from your platform as fast as they possibly can.

Buttigieg is currently second in the delegate count to Sanders, but hes sharing his centrist pitch to voters with other candidates. Many of the House Democrats who express concern about Sanders have endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden or former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Story continues

(Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)

Sanders adviser Jeff Weaver said Tuesday that Sanders would work with moderates if elected. He disputed the idea that Sanders cant carry more conservative districts.

He won an election in a seat that was been Republican for decades. So he understands the need to be able to win over broad cross section of voters, both Democrats, independents and even some Republicans, Weaver said.

Lawmakers concede they would have little choice but to back Sanders in a match-up against President Donald Trump, but they said explaining that vote to their constituents will be difficult.

Tough Floor Votes

If Bernie Sanders is our nominee, most Democrats will vote for him because we would like to beat Donald Trump and get rid of Donald Trump, California Representative Ami Bera said in an interview. But if he wants to be an effective president he would have to moderate his positions and work with a Democratic House as well as a Republican Senate.

Centrist Democrats began drawing early contrasts to Sanders, emphasizing House bills that take a more incremental approach to health care, climate change, immigration and improving middle class incomes. Many moderate House Democrats also oppose Sanders proposals to cut military spending and federal jobs guarantee.

New Jersey Democrat Tom Malinowski said nominating Sanders would be a squandered opportunity to unite the country. He said he is counting on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to continue developing a pragmatic agenda that will appeal to voters.

That is what we should run on and that is what we will run on, Malinowski said.

House Republican leaders plan to tie vulnerable Democrats to Sanders, seeking to regain the House majority. The minority party can force floor votes on motions related to Sanders policies, putting Democrats in a tough position.

Given the positions that House Democrats have taken, its fitting that Bernie Sanders will be their likely nominee, Steve Scalise, the second-ranking House Republican, said in an emailed response to questions. Democrats will pay a price for aligning themselves with him.

Moderate Democrats say they already had a dress rehearsal last year, responding to questions about progressive colleagues like New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who drew attention for their policies and statements.

In response, Democrats from swing states managed to keep Medicare-for-All and a sweeping climate resolution known as the Green New Deal bottled up in committee. They also forced floor votes to support Israel and successfully pushed for a rule requiring new spending be paid for.

Budget Discipline

Murphy, a leader of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition who endorsed Bloomberg, said she plans to highlight budget deficits that have ballooned to $1 trillion under Trump. She and other members of the Democrats Blue Dog caucus will insist that big initiatives be paid for by either revenue increases or spending cuts.

Sanderss proposals are projected to cost $53 trillion over the next decade.

Regardless of who is in the White House, we always fight for fiscal responsibility, Murphy said. The debt is actually a huge threat to our national security.

South Carolina Representative Joe Cunningham, one of the most vulnerable House Democrats, told constituents last week he would oppose Sanders on deficit spending.

This all goes back if you have a plan, show us how you are going to pay for it, he said at a College of Charleston event. He said bucking others in his party are badges of honor for me.

Cunningham, along with 30 of his partys 40 House freshmen, is part of the 103-member New Democrat Coalition, a pro-business faction of the party. Pelosi often refers to these members as the majority makers since their 2018 wins in Republican-leaning districts are the most important seats for defending Democratic control of the House.

Bera, the California representative who advises the Democratic campaign committee, said running with Sanders at the top of the ticket puts these Democrats at risk in November when all House members will be up for re-election.

We are already advising our front-line members that they should keep their races local, regardless of who our nominee is, he said, acknowledging that it wont be easy.

It is hard to run away from your presidential nominee, Bera said, adding that Republicans are looking to use Sanders against Cunningham in South Carolina, Kendra Horn in Oklahoma and Ben McAdams in Utah.

We know they are already trying to tag someone like Ben McAdams as a socialist, Bera said. He is not a socialist. He is a pragmatist and a free market Democrat.

Politically Dangerous

Bera endorsed Biden, and says he worries about Sanders embracing the socialist label.

That is going to make a lot of the races very difficult, he said.

California Democrat Scott Peters, who endorsed Bloomberg for president, said Sanderss plans for a federal jobs guarantee and free college dont make sense and are politically dangerous for his party. But he said he would vote for Sanders to get rid of Trump.

This presidential election is going to be decided in six to eight states that arent going to vote for someone who goes by the label socialist, Peters said. I think it is going to have some serious down ballot consequences as well.

Peters said hell campaign on plans to reduce the federal deficit and pay for new programs. He said nominating Sanders would complicate everything that moderate Democrats say they stand for.

This makes it so much harder, Peters said. You are going to asked in a town hall who you are voting for. Bernie Sanders. And once you say that you are explaining and when you are explaining, youre losing.

(Updates with Malinowski quote beginning in the 14th paragraph.)

--With assistance from Tyler Pager.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Wasson in Washington at ewasson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Anna Edgerton, Elizabeth Wasserman

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Battulga is a monk at the Shankh Monastery

It's eerily quiet when I approach the Shankh Monastery, one of Mongolia's oldest Buddhist temples.

A few dogs bounce around, lone birds fly overhead and then the colourful robes of monk Battulga come into view.

The 33-year-old is happy to receive guests as he admits things can be quiet with just nine other monks living at the 17th-century complex.

At its height, the place of worship - located 361km (224 miles) from the capital of Ulaanbaatar in the Ovorkhangai province - housed more than 1,500 monks but in 1937 it was closed after being hit by Stalinist repression.

Buildings were destroyed and many of the monks were executed or sent to labour camps in Siberia.

However, Battulga tells me through a translator that five monks secretly relocated the monastery's activities to a ger (a type of tent) during the communist era and the 'worshipping and chanting never stopped'.

One of these monks helped to reopen the monastery in 1990 after the revolution and thankfully, the main temple dating to 1647 had escaped significant damage.

Today Shankh, along with the many other Buddhist monasteries scattered across Mongolia, helps form a key part of the countrys national identity. The whitewashed main temple features ornate woodwork, battered by the extreme weather, and plants can be seen protruding through the roof tiles.

Battulga tells me that when he was two years old he lost mother and then at the age of 11 he also lost his father to illness.

It was when he was in grade three, at the age of 14, that he then decided to become a monk.

The devout Buddhist says he enjoys the simplicity of monastic life. He owns just two sets of red woollen robes

A shot showing Battulga's traditional leather boots, which complete his outfit

The devout Buddhist says he enjoys the simplicity of monastic life.

He owns just two sets of woollen robes and a pair of traditional leather boots.

On the subject of self-maintenance, Battulga says he shaves his head just once a month as it tends to 'grow back slowly'.

Taking a moment to stretch his arms towards the sky, with the blue cuffs of his robes matching the blue hues above, he fills me in on his daily routine.

He says: 'I get up at seven o'clock in the morning and have breakfast and then chant for two hours.

'Then I get up and have a break for lunch. After lunch, I do religious studies.

Today Shankh, along with the many other Buddhist monasteries scattered across Mongolia, forms a key part of the countrys national identity

The main temple, dating to 1647, as it appears today with ornate woodwork and plants growing through the roof

TRAVEL FACTS Sadie Whitelocks travelled with Exodus Travels on the 14-day Mongolia: Steppes, Deserts & Nomads tour. Prices start from 3,399, including flights. Advertisement

'In the evening I take a break to play outside, then dinner and bed around 10 o'clock.'

Battulga reveals that he eats milk porridge and doughnuts for breakfast and lunch and a portion of beef or mutton at dinner time.

My translator, a bubbly lady from Ulaanbaatar also in her 30s, wants to know if Battulga is single.

He says that he is, but the monks can get married if they wish and have a family.

If they choose this path, they can continue practising as a monk, but they cannot live at the monastery.

So, what does it take to be a monk in the 21st century?

Before heading into an outbuilding for a spot of milk porridge, Battulga replies with a smile: 'You really have to have a kind spirit and be willing to help others.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 20:00:23|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A total of 36,000 COVID-19 patients have been cured and discharged from hospitals, accounting for 45.9 percent of the total confirmed cases, a health official said Friday.

Of the over 8,400 cured cases that have been analyzed, mild and common cases accounted for 90.8 percent, with severe cases taking up 7.2 percent and critical cases accounting for 2 percent, said Guo Yanhong, an official with the National Health Commission at a press conference Friday.

The average age of patients with mild symptoms is 43, and that of severe and critical patients is 53, Guo said, adding that patients with basic diseases, even severe ones, can be well cured through strengthened treatment.

Guo pointed out that 85 percent of the patients were treated with antiviral therapy, and nearly 40 percent of the patients received treatment combining traditional Chinese and Western medicine.

"For patients with mild symptoms, general treatment is often adopted," she added.

The COVID-19 virus infection is characterized by sudden and rapid deterioration in a small number of mild cases, which means all patients should be diagnosed and treated as early as possible, said Wang Guiqiang, director of the infectious diseases department of the Peking University First Hospital.

"There exists a misunderstanding that COVID-19 is a self-limited disease, so it does not require treatment, which is wrong," he said, calling on people to go to hospitals once infected with the virus to avoid the risk of deterioration and further spread of the disease.
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The Kerala High Court on Friday



granted anticipatory bail to a Catholic priest, accused of sexually assaulting a woman in Kozhikode in 2017.

Granting the relief to accused priest Manoj Plakootam, the Court directed him to be present before the Investigating Officer within 10 days.

The case is being probed by police at Chevayur on the basis of the complaint filed by the woman in December last year.

In her complaint, the woman, a homemaker, alleged that Manoj, who was the priest in a church at Chevayur, sexually assaulted her in 2017.

She had initially complained to the church authorities, seeking justice.

She later lodged a complaint with police after the church authorities allegedly ignored her complaint.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A United Airlines flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to the Bahamas was forced to make an emergency landing in Florida Wednesday after a passengers backup laptop battery charger caught fire, officials said.

Flight 1456, a United Airbus A320, landed safely at Daytona Beach International Airport around 10:30 a.m. and the fire was contained to the passengers bag, according to the airport. The burning charger was placed in a fire-retardant case until the aircraft touched down.

THANKFULLY, NO injuries or damages. After an inspection, the plane took off about an hour later, a statement on the airports Facebook page said.

Emergency crews met the aircraft and customers remained onboard before the aircraft re-departed for Nassau, according to a United spokeswoman.

"We appreciate the quick work of our employees on board to keep our customers and fellow employees safe, the airline spokeswoman said in a statement.

A United Airbus 320 from Newark, NJ headed to Bahamas made an emergency landing @ about 10:30 a.m.today at Daytona Beach... Posted by Daytona Beach International Airport on Wednesday, February 26, 2020

The flight arrived in Nassau in the Bahamas around 12:45 p.m., according to FlightAware.com. In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was investigating.

Rechargeable and non-rechargeable lithium batteries, cell phone batteries and laptop batteries are listed as dangerous goods by the FAA, according to the agencys website. Those items cant be in checked luggage and must be in carry-on bags.

A passenger on the flight praised Uniteds handling of the emergency.

"Very impressed with the way this entire flight crew handled the inflight emergency. Prepared and calm! Bravo!, the flyer, Gary Siegel, tweeted.

@united ua1456 to nas safely on the ground in Daytona after a laptop battery caught fire in the main cabin. Very impressed with the way this entire flight crew handled the inflight emergency. Prepared and calm! Bravo!  Gary Siegel (@siegelgaryl) February 26, 2020

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A gate of a residential area is locked up as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus in Beijing on Feb. 24, 2020. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images)

Beijing Doctor: Chinas Coronavirus Outbreak Far Worse Than Officially Reported

Despite efforts by top communist officials to protect Beijing from the novel coronavirus outbreak at all costs, COVID-19 is rapidly spreading throughout the city, and a number of hospitals located in the Xicheng District are treating people who have become infected through person-to-person transmission. The Xicheng District is home to the Zhongnanhai compound that houses the offices of top Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials.

The director of internal medicine at a hospital in Beijing, using the alias Hou Yong, said that its the corruption and incompetence of the CCP that has led to the outbreak of the disease, and medical staff sent to Wuhan by the CCP are being used as cannon fodder. He also revealed that recent confirmed cases in a local hospital are very serious.

Official Infected Patient Count at Beijing Hospitals

At a Feb. 20 press conference on coronavirus prevention and control in Beijing, Li Dongxia, president of Fuxing Hospital, announced that 34 infected patients had been confirmed at Fuxing Hospital as of 6 a.m., that day.

Liu Xiaoguang, deputy director of the medical department of Peking University, also announced at the press conference that Peking University Peoples Hospital had three confirmed cases and placed 22 people under intensive medical observation.

U.S.-based Chinese media outlet Secret China contacted doctors at several Beijing hospitals on Feb. 22 to obtain on the ground information about the spreading virus. Most of the doctors did not want to talk about the outbreak and expressed fear of the consequences of being interviewed. Hong Nan, a radiologist at Peking University Peoples Hospital, responsible for identifying suspected cases based on CT scans, also declined to disclose information about the number of cases in his hospital. He merely said: You must be aware of the situation in China regarding disclosing coronavirus cases to the public. I certainly cant tell you the exact number.

140 Quarantined Dialysis Patients

Hou Yong, director of internal medicine at another Beijing hospital, agreed to an interview with Secret China on condition of anonymity.

Hou revealed that, although Beijing has announced more than 300 confirmed cases, previously most of the transmissions happened in the community, person-to-person.

However, the most recent case from Peking Universitys Peoples Hospital is a big issue, Hou said. Although only three patients have been confirmed [at this hospital] so far, more than 140 patients who recently visited the dialysis department are now quarantined, because one of the three confirmed patients is a frequent visitor to the department. Anyone who came into contact with these 140 plus patients or their families in the past two weeks could have been infected, so the impact could be very big, he said.

Hou also said that all doctors in Beijing are basically required to remain in Beijing and be prepared and on call at all times.

All of us were required to return to work on Jan. 31, the seventh day of the Chinese New Year, which is usually still holiday time. Anyone who didnt return would be dismissed, with no exceptions, he added.

Doctors from Other Provinces Sent to Wuhan

Hou said that medical staff from provinces outside of Hubei Province are still being sent to Wuhan, the capital of Hubei where COVID-19 originated, to assist in fighting the epidemic there. Almost all medical staff from Shandong Province are currently in Wuhan, and other provinces, such as Jiangsu, have sent half of their physicians.

The whole Wuhan bureaucracy is among the worst in China, Hou said. When doctors went there, they had to bring their own personal [safety] gear, and food, because nothing is provided to outside medical teams. Going to Wuhan is like an invitation to ones doom. Some doctors and nurses from our hospital went there. They thought they would be there for two weeks, and now it has been almost a month. They are on the brink of total collapse.

Hou said the entire city of Wuhan is like hell on earth.

I knew it as soon as the Wuhan government announced the building of makeshift hospitals. When all [confirmed and unconfirmed] patients are kept together, they will infect each other. It violates the most basic principle of fighting infectious disease. They need to be quarantined.

Central Government Has Abandoned the People in Wuhan

Despite the CCPs obvious mismanagement of the epidemic, Hou said many Chinese people are still oblivious of the true situation.

Most of my friends say, Thanks to our government, weve got this outbreak under control. I tell them its precisely because of this corrupt government and these incompetent officials that this epidemic has spread like it has.

When the disease first started, and when it was reported sporadically and casually, I knew it was going to be a big outbreak, so I told my friends and colleagues to buy masks. Not everyone believed me. A couple of days later, all masks and disinfectants had been sold out. Now Wuhan is in a state of lockdown, as is the entire Hubei province. In essence, it means that the central government has abandoned people there, they are left to die on their own, especially those in the makeshift hospitals. Having thousands of people in close proximity with no quarantine measures is letting them die. In that environment, even healthy people will get infected. The authorities locked down the city and kept sending a lot of medical staff to Wuhan as cannon fodder.

Ordering People Back to Work

Hou also spoke about the authorities order to have companies resume their normal work capacity.

I asked a lot of people I know, If you dont work, how long can you last? Most of them said just one or two months. Even those who earn 6,000 yuan ($852) a month said they could only last a month or two, because they have a family to support, and they have no savings. These days, one percent of Chinas population controls the majority of the countrys wealth, while the remaining 90 plus percent lead mediocre lives, so thats the problem: if they dont go back to work, they cant survive, Hou said.

But theres a problem with going back to work at this point in time, Hou said.

When resuming work, its difficult to avoid infection. Isnt it true that the e-Commerce company China Dangdang had such an incident already? Even if only one employee is infected, all staff who came in contact with him need to be quarantined. Thats a really big problem for labor-intensive companies. Imagine if an employee at Foxconn were infected, what would happen next?

Internet Control and Liberty

I heard that after March 1, Chinas Internet may be cut off. If that were to happen, I wont be able to say anything anymore, Hou added. It is said that China will build a big network project. That is, build a domestic root server and stop using the ones from the United States or other countries, turning all of China into a local area network (LAN). Thats the extent their control would be.

Hou also mentioned the recent protests in Hong Kong, saying they are worthwhile and something for Chinese people to think about.

When the movement in Hong Kong had lasted for six months, my social media friends split into two factions and argued bitterly, he said.

I asked them to think about this: Didnt Hong Kongers know that their six-month-long protest would affect their daily lives, affect their work and school, and affect their economic situation? So why do they persist? Its because they believe that there is something more important than their jobs, their lives, and their economic condition. What is it? I think everybody knows. Also, for such a long time, we havent heard of a single incidence of a police officer being killed from violent attacks by citizens. Thats something worth thinking about.
Bhubaneswar: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday addressed a public meeting in Odisha's capital Bhubaneswar, targeting the Congress Party, Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Left and West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee. He has said that all these are opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and spreading confusion.

Emergency landing of Boeing 777 passenger aircraft

Amit Shah said that he is saying that CAA will take away the citizenship of Muslims. However, this is not the reality. Amit Shah said that we will not allow citizenship of any Muslim or minority person under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Union Home Minister Amit Shah again reiterated that CAA is not an act of taking citizenship, but it is a law to grant citizenship. Citizenship will be given to those who come from the Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain and Zoroastrian communities that remained in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh during Partition.

Janardhana Reddy's plea granted to CBI for affidavit in mining case

Addressing the rally, Amit Shah questioned the people, should not citizenship be given to the victims of persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh? Shouldn't their human rights be seen? On this people replied yes.

No-fly zone to be established in Idlib, this country raised demand
New Delhi, Feb 28 : The government has done a molecule-by-molecule mapping of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) imported from China to ramp up domestic production and imports from third party sources in view of the supply chain disruptions due to the coronavirus epidemic.

The government is also preparing for making special arrangements for APIs that still need sourcing from China.

In an exclusive interview to IANS, the government's Principal Economic Advisor Sanjeev Sanyal said that though the country has API stocks for at least three weeks, they have already completed molecular mapping of the ingredients required for manufacturing of essential pharmaceuticals, domestically.

"If after three weeks, if we need to airlift special consignments, arrangements for that too will be made," he said asserting that there was no need for panic.

The Indian pharma industry heavily relies on imports of bulk drugs (APIs and intermediates), with more than 50 per cent of API coming from China. Imports from China have been on a steady rise over the years due to the low-cost advantage Chinese manufacturers have. The value addition in India is mainly through formulation, packaging and distribution.

The coronavirus outbreak has disrupted supplies of pharmaceutical ingredients from China, resulting in shortages and potential price rise of generic drugs in India.

Sanyal said the government took preemptive measures and "has been continuously making micro-interventions to keep supply chains functional as best as can be done." Some of the critical imported APIs, he said, can be produced in India for which certification is required. "We have speeded up internal certification for third party sources and as well as ramped up domestic production wherever possible. We are capable of producing some of it in India," he said, adding that importers are also being allowed to self-certify where documentation is incomplete due to office disruptions in China, with the understanding that they will later submit all the paper work.

This has been done for other critical manufacturing inputs as well.

The economic advisor said that the government was also prepared for the bunching of supplies when the situation normalizes in China. "If and when bunching of supplies happens, we have set up the system and improved coordination to fast process the critical ingredients and other inputs," he said.

According to Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) data, India also sources close to 90 per cent of certain mobile phone parts from China. The world's largest manufacturer and exporter, China also accounts for 45 per cent of India's total electronics imports, one-third of machinery and almost two-fifths of organic chemicals and over 25 per cent of automotive parts and fertilizers.

Sanyal said the government was already making arrangements for imports from alternative countries which are still insulated the coronavirus epidemic. "Certifications and paper work are being put in place at the ports for imports from other sources," he said.
By Joseph Ax and Jason Lange ORANGEBURG, S.C./HOUSTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopefuls spread out across South Carolina on Thursday as the clock ticked down to the state's Saturday primary election: their first big test with African-American voters. Several candidates also headed to some of the Super Tuesday regions, the 14-state March 3 contest that offers the largest single-day haul of delegates in the Democratic Party's White House nominating battle. Here's what's happening Thursday: BIDEN MAINTAINS LEAD WITH BLACK SUPPORT A Monmouth University poll released on Thursday showed former Vice President Joe Biden with large support from black South Carolina voters, who make up about 60% of the Democratic electorate in the Southern state.

By Joseph Ax and Jason Lange

ORANGEBURG, S.C./HOUSTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopefuls spread out across South Carolina on Thursday as the clock ticked down to the state's Saturday primary election: their first big test with African-American voters.

Several candidates also headed to some of the Super Tuesday regions, the 14-state March 3 contest that offers the largest single-day haul of delegates in the Democratic Party's White House nominating battle.

Here's what's happening Thursday:

BIDEN MAINTAINS LEAD WITH BLACK SUPPORT

A Monmouth University poll released on Thursday showed former Vice President Joe Biden with large support from black South Carolina voters, who make up about 60% of the Democratic electorate in the Southern state.

Biden, who has pinned his hopes on winning South Carolina to keep his candidacy alive after poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire and a distant second place in Nevada, is backed by 36% of likely Democratic voters, according to the survey, well ahead of national front-runner Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has 16% support, and billionaire Tom Steyer with 15%.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts trails far behind with 8%, while former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota have 6% and 4%, respectively.

Among likely black voters, Biden has 45% support, compared with 17% for Steyer and 13% for Sanders, the poll showed.

The positive numbers came a day after Biden received the coveted endorsement of congressman James Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives and an influential black lawmaker.

At a CNN town hall on Wednesday night, Biden made an emotional connection with a black pastor whose wife was killed in the 2015 Charleston church shooting, bringing up the loss of his own family members over the years.

Some African-American voters are still torn. Kayla Hodges, a 22-year-old senior at historically black Claflin University in Orangeburg, said she was still deciding whether to support Biden or Warren and argued that black voters want to know how a candidate would address inequality in all areas of life.

"Hes trying to continue (President Barack) Obamas legacy  hes been there," said Hodges, who attended a Warren rally on Wednesday at another historically black school nearby, South Carolina State University. "But maybe its not Bidens time anymore."

SLAMMING TRUMP'S CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE

Four candidates attacked Trump's handling of the coronavirus outbreak at a CNN town hall on Wednesday in South Carolina, shortly after Trump held a news conference saying the risk from the virus was "very low" in the United States and put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the U.S. response.

Biden lamented the Trump administration's cuts in funding to the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Weve got good scientists, and I just want the president to get on the same page as the scientists," Biden said.

Klobuchar, referring to Pence leading the response effort, said: "Usually you might put a medical professional in charge."

Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg also criticized Trump at a rally in Houston on Thursday, accusing him of "burying his head in the sand" over what Bloomberg called "a crisis facing our country and the world."

"His failure to prepare is crippling our ability to respond," Bloomberg added.

SUPER TUESDAY ON THEIR MINDS

Candidates are already looking beyond South Carolina to focus on Super Tuesday. Buttigieg announced a major get-out-the-vote effort in Super Tuesday states, including a California digital ad program and more than 350 mobilization events to reach voters across the state.

Bloomberg, who skipped the first three nominating states and is not running in South Carolina, was scheduled to hold three events in Super Tuesday states Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas on Thursday.

Sanders will sandwich an event in Virginia, another March 3 state, between events in South Carolina.

Warren will also be in Texas before returning to South Carolina on Friday.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax, Jason Lange and Tim Reid; editing by Soyoung Kim and Jonathan Oatis)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Everybody knows that the most fun member of the royal family is Prince Harry. But since he left to be with his wife Meghan Markle in Canada as non-royal members, all eyes turned on the remaining senior royals.

Since then, Prince William and Kate Middleton's outings and responsibilities have increased. With that said, a body language expert, Judi James, noted another hat that Kate added to her many roles.

"Since Megxit, there are some trends and traits from Kate's body language that suggests she is now trying to recreate the Harry 'fun' role herself," James explained.

Replacing Prince Harry

According to James, the Duchess of Cambridge is often seen trying to make her husband laugh in public. She also is reportedly indulging in more frequent bouts of actual laughter when she is on official visits.

In the past, Prince Harry is known to be the "fun" and joker in the royal family. He has often been seen seeing her older brother and sister-in-law laugh.

James explained that as Prince Harry steps back from royal duties, his sister-in-law's body language shows she is trying to take Prince Harry's previous role.

"This could be a conscious decision that the royal firm don't' want to be seen as the 'stuffy royals' now that the two glitziest and spontaneous members have left: James added.

As James see it, Kate is making an effort to take over her brother-in-law's role and help the monarchy look more relaxed in the public eye.

Additionally, James said that Kate's body language showed signs of her missing Prince Harry. If that's the case, Kate's new fun role could also be her way of coping with the royal exit.

Explaining about the Duchess of Cambridge's new role, James mentioned, "It could just be that Kate is quietly mourning the loss of her younger brother and trying hard to replicate his role in their life as a family."

She added, "In between her smiles and laughter there have also been quite dramatic glimpses of a sadder and more thoughtful-looking facial expression from Kate too."

Moreover, it could be a sign of the "added pressure" Kate is now under in terms of working out to prop up the monarchy's family image, especially now that they are facing scandals and dramas.

This might also hint that the remaining royal family members are sad of Prince Harry's departure.

What's Up With the Sussexes?

On other news, since Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are living in Canada after they stepped back from their roles, it has been reported that Canada will stop contributing to their security costs in the next few weeks.

According to a government spokesperson, "At the request of the Metropolitan Police, the RCMP has been assisting the Met since the arrival of the Duke and Duchess to Canada intermittently since October 2019. The assistance will cease in the coming weeks, in keeping with their change in status."

Over the weekend, Buckingham Palace confirmed that the Duke and Duchess' last day of senior royal duties would be on March 31. In a statement on the Sussex website though, Harry and Meghan did not give any details on how their future security would be funded.
BURNSVILLE, MN / ACCESSWIRE / February 27, 2020 / We all agree that Jesus Christ was born and lived almost 2000 years ago, but have you ever stopped and thought about Him as a human? Even though you may think of Jesus as God, we cannot deny He walked upon the earth as a man. The fact that Jesus was God AND man is the heart of the good news of the gospel. In Wes Feltner's new informative and eye-opening book, All Sides of the Savior: Exploring the Humanity of Jesus, published by Critical Mass Books in December 2019, Wes Feltner talks about the human side of Jesus' life.

Wes Feltner says that when God inspired the writers of the gospel to write about Jesus, they wrote about the man, Jesus, in his human form. Wes Feltner's idea that we ascribe to the nonhuman part of Jesus but don't want to acknowledge the human side is a common mistake that prevents us from knowing Jesus as a whole. "The reality is that we gladly testify that God became man to save us, but we don't want to think of God in terms of actually being a man," he says. But the bible says He was born and wrapped in swaddling clothes when he was lying in a manger. He walked the dusty roads with his friends and family, and he had a job. He was born human, and he lived as a human. "We readily affirm the humanity of Jesus, yet rarely think of Him as fully human. It goes against the way we have been conditioned to think about Jesus."



"But, the way we think about Jesus," Wes Feltner continues, "shapes how we know Him in our mind and soul. Wes Feltner says having an accurate understanding of the humanity of Jesus will free you to relate to Him more honestly and to experience an authentic relationship with Him. Wes Feltner says, "Isn't that the whole point of Christianity - learning more about Jesus in order to relate better to Him and have a personal relationship with Him?" All Sides of the Savior helps to show what Jesus went through as he incarnated into human form.



The book is starting to gain notice among clergy and laypeople alike. Paul Allen of the Voice of the Minnesota Vikings says, "Meeting Wes Feltner and closely studying All Sides of the Savior, has helped me sow seeds of faith on a daily basis and handle adversity and daily struggles in my life. It has also helped me in sharing the importance of faith without becoming overbearing and turning off the listener."



Wes Feltner, Ph.D., M.Div., has spent the last 23 years in vocational ministry and has served in pastoral ministry in the areas of preaching, vision casting, adult discipleship, and international missions. In 2016-2017, Wes Feltner pastored the 10th fasting growing church in America, according to Outreach Magazine. He has taught at three different seminaries in the area of leadership and pastoral ministry. Wes Feltner has been working on a new personal development program titled Live Free set to launch spring 2020 with Paul Allen of The Voice of the Minnesota Vikings. Wes Feltner currently lives in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.

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SOURCE: Web Presence, LLC





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LISBON (Reuters) - The coronavirus seems to be a temporary shock to the euro zone economy but the blocs member states must be prepared to act in a coordinated way if the impact becomes a more long-lasting one, the chairman of euro zone finance ministers Mario Centeno said.

Its the new risk and its obviously a downside risk to our economies, Centeno told Reuters in an interview on Friday.

It looks like its going to be temporary, but the impact is there, and ... we need to coordinate our actions in case this becomes a more global scenario, he said.
Naila Saeed could do nothing but worry from afar when rioters descended on her family home in India, firing shots, burning barns and breaking the legs of pet horses.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Naila Saeed could do nothing but worry from afar when rioters descended on her family home in India, firing shots, burning barns and breaking the legs of pet horses.

Most of her relatives live in the city of Muzaffarnager, one of many Indian communities that have seen increasingly violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims in recent weeks.

Members of the country's Muslim minority have been protesting a new citizenship law that fast-tracks naturalization for religious minorities of all major faiths in South Asia except Islam.

"We have so much fear for our family back home," said Saeed, who has lived in Canada for the last two decades. "When they step out of their house, we don't know what's going to happen next... The fear is not only with my family, it's everywhere around them."

Saeed is one of many Muslim Indian-Canadians grappling with concern for their families as unrest in the country boiled over into the capital city's worst communal riot in decades earlier this week.

At least 40 people were killed in New Delhi and more than 100 were arrested by the end of the riots, which dragged on for 72 hours and left city streets looking like a war zone.

Hindus and Muslims attacked each other with guns, swords, metal rods and axes.

Helmeted, camouflaged and baton-wielding police marched down pavement littered with broken glass and charred vehicles.

Tensions between Hindu hard-liners and Muslims protesting the Hindu-first policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government had been building for months when the violence exploded Sunday night.

Since cruising back to power in a general election last May, Modi has aggressively carried out his party's Hindu nationalist agenda. The citizenship law passed in December, seen as a precursor to a nationwide citizens registry that would culminate in the jailing or deportation of foreigners, appeared to embolden both his followers and his opponents.

Saeed said the internet had been shut down when the rioting reached her family's home town, leaving her unable to contact her family.

"There was a lot of fear and stress, but ultimately I came to know everybody was safe," said Saeed, who operates a daycare company in the Greater Toronto Area.

"It's a lot of stress to carry when we're taking care of our family, of our work... any call you receive from India, you get so much fear about what's coming up now."

Zafar Shamim, who is Indian and working towards obtaining Canadian citizenship, said he isn't sure whether it's safe enough to travel back home to visit his family anymore.

"There's always a fear of how soon the atmosphere could turn," said Shamim.

He said his sister is relatively safe because she lives in an affluent neighbourhood, but said the tensions in India make his family concerned about going about their daily lives.

"When someone is away from home and if there is a certain kind of news, we're always on our toes."

Shafiq Beig, a member of the Canadian Council of Indian Muslims, said he missed his nephew's wedding in India because of the current political climate.

"I don't feel like breathing the air of hatred and intolerance," said Beig.

He said that although his own family is fairing well so far, the riots have touched off a sense of helplessness throughout the community. That feeling is most pronounced among more impoverished residents who are more vulnerable to the violence, he said.

Meanwhile, Saeed said one of her biggest concerns is that divisive rhetoric from India about Hindus and Muslims is showing up on Canadian social media circles too.

"I've already gotten indirect threats here and reported it to the police as well," said Saeed, noting the threats stem from her work as an activist.

"People are openly using abusive language here and (we're) seeing how this hate is getting transferred to Canada."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2020.

 With files from The Associated Press
ROSCREA'S Brian Lalor is witnessing first-hand the front lines of the battle to stem the corona virus epidemic in China and told readers at home he plans to stay in the country until the crisis has subsided.

Brian (39) works as a school Principal in China and is a past pupil of the Boys National School and the Christian Brothers secondary school in Roscrea and is very well known in his beloved home-town, which is never far from his thoughts during his extensive travels of Asia and further afield.

Brian, who has strong family connections to Offaly and across the midlands, left Roscrea and arrived in Asia alone over a decade ago, but is now married to an American woman, Kirsten and has three beautiful children, Zoe (7), Eliah (5) and recent new arrival Saoirse (4) who the couple recently adopted into their family.

Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you might get, were the wise words of film character Forest Gump, which have been at the forefront of his mind as the coronavirus has turned our lives upside down and spread fear throughout our community, he told Offaly Express this week.

Although the reaction to the virus has been very stark, Brian said he does not personally know anyone who has been confirmed as contracting the virus, despite being in the province of Shaanxi, which neighbours the Hubei provence where the virus is erupted from.

Brian, who has lived in Asia since 2004 and travelled extensively throughout the region, is no stranger to witnessing the devastating results of natural disasters - when on his first year in Sumatra he saw the aftermath of the tsunami and also witnessed the frightening bird flu epidemic in Vietnam in 2009.

Now faced with another challenge I have learned that normalcy is the best thing I can do for myself and those around me. Though I came to Asia alone I now have a family of five and during the first week of the outbreak we adopted our third daughter, Brian explained.

It has been a blessing for our family to have this prolonged time together to get used to the new dynamic. The way we are coping with the virus is to maintain as much normalcy as possible in our lives.

What this looks like is a regular sleep time, regular time to get up, schoolwork from Monday to Friday and keeping to other activities as much as possible. We usually go to church on the weekends but now instead have a time of worship together in our home, Brian told Offaly Express.

In order to keep sane, we are trying to eat as healthy as possible and to exercise regularly. Fortunately, there has been no shortage of fresh produce in our neighbourhood and I am also a strong believer in the importance of extra Vitamin C intake during flu season, so we have been going through lemons like there is no tomorrow, Brian said.

Each day my wife and I take turns going out for a walk around our compound and are very grateful for the chin-up and dip bars in our compound. The girls have been given excellent PE lessons by their teachers, that can be done inside, Brian said.

Brian said that although it is a very difficult time his family are very happy to be in China as it has fostered a much stronger connection to their neighbours and community  people he admires very much for their collective reaction to the outbreak.

The security in our complex have been extremely helpful and we feel very much connected to the other foreigners who are here and locals. I have always believed that everybody in this world is of the same race, the human race. Through the current situation it has made me further realise, that we are all in this together, Brian said.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  A mailer attacking Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Cheryl Stephens and her bid for re-election has been sent anonymously to people in her council district encompassing Cleveland Heights, East Cleveland, University Heights and parts of Cleveland.

The mailer blames Stephens, in her former role as a director at the Cuyahoga Land Bank, for the controversial Arco dump that caught fire three years ago in East Cleveland and required millions of dollars from the state to clean up.

CHERYL STEPHENS DUMPED ON YOU, the mailers headline states. VOTE HER OUT ON MARCH 17.

Stephens, a first-term Democrat who faces a primary challenge from former East Cleveland Councilman Mansell Baker, vehemently disputed the mailers allegations in an interview with cleveland.com.

She called the mailer a smear document that misrepresents her involvement with Arco while serving as director of acquisition, disposition and development for the land bank, formally known as the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation.

Demolition contractors hired by the land bank had disposed of rubble from razed homes at the Arco site. But Stephens said she didnt know where contractors dumped debris until the land bank received requests for payment.

While the Noble Road business had been licensed to operate by the state and had opened after East Cleveland City Council approved the sale of city-owned land to the business, people living nearby complained about unsightly mounds of debris and dust drifting from the site.

The mailer, which includes photos of what it describes as the toxic mess at the site, contains no information identifying who is behind the attack on Stephens.

According to Ohio Elections Commission Executive Director Philip Richter, Ohio law allows individuals, operating on their own and not with a campaign, to distribute campaign materials without identifying themselves. Political action committees are obligated to include a disclaimer that identifies the origin of the materials, Richter said.

No complaints about the mailer had been filed with the elections commission as of Thursday.

Baker said he does not know who sent the mailer, and disagrees with the attack tactics, though he leveled similar Arco-related criticisms at Stephens on Wednesday during an editorial board meeting with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

During Wednesdays editorial endorsement interview, Stephens noted Bakers role in East Cleveland selling the land to Arco back in 2014. Baker was a sponsor of the legislation allowing the sale, because he was chairman of the city council committee that considered it.

Baker told cleveland.com that he was misled by then-Mayor Gary Norton, who, among other things, said East Cleveland needed money from the land sale to pay for police officers and firefighters.
Were just two seats away from victory. I need you. We can only win if we do it together, Netanyahu tweeted Feb. 27. Flanking a picture of him looking off into the horizon was a link for potential volunteers to join a phone bank on election day. The purpose of that phone bank is to get Likud voters out to vote.

The message is that Victory is within reach  with victory meaning 61 seats without Avigdor Libermans Yisrael Beitenu party. Netanyahu has been repeating it every evening at packed rallies and campaign events at Likud strongholds throughout the country, as well as on his social media accounts and in interviews with the media. He seems ready at any time or place to talk about the 300,000 Likud supporters who did not vote in the September 2019 election. Some were driven by sheer apathy, while others were convinced that a Likud victory was a certainty in any case. Everyone knows how it turned out.

This message lies at the heart of Netanyahus current campaign. It is the engine and force driving it forward. As a strategy, it is the exact opposite of what Netanyahu did in previous elections. In the past, he used negative messaging to intimidate the right by claiming that right-wing rule is at risk. The disaster campaign identified with Netanyahu had some major successes in past elections, including the election of 2015. Back then, Netanyahu warned voters that right-wing rule is in danger, because Arabs were heading to the polls in droves.

Netanyahu used the same technique in his last two election campaigns. He warned repeatedly in a hoarse voice that [Blue and White leaders] Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid are ahead by 4-5 seats, and will soon be forming a left-wing government. At one of the most climactic moments of the April election, right before people went to the polls, Netanyahu showed up in Jerusalems Mahane Yehuda market at dusk, all decked out in a suit and tie. Standing on top of one of the stands, he shouted into a microphone, It may be late, but not too late.  If you dont go out to vote, youll wake up tomorrow morning with Yair Lapid as head of a left-wing government. Get out and vote.  Dont believe the media. The election is not in our pocket. Netanyahu did the same thing at bus stations, the beach and in videos he produced. Then election night came around, and he failed to win 61 seats. The same thing happened in the September election.

In this election, Netanyahu has chosen an entirely different strategy. After his failures, he had to create a new campaign for himself under much more difficult circumstances, with his indictment hanging over him as an established fact. Netanyahu began the current election as a lame duck in every sense of the term. The feeling in the Likud  and among right-wing voters in general  was that his career is finished. Under these circumstances, he had to convince the public that he can still win a majority-coalition of 61 seats.

Netanyahu already started his victory campaign in early December 2019, when he prepared to compete against former Minister Gideon Saar for the leadership of the Likud. Saar waged an aggressive campaign against him, centered around the logical argument that Netanyahu is blocked from forming a government because of all the legal disqualifications he faces. The argument was potentially lethal. At the time, Netanyahu used to meet with small groups of key Likud party activists at his office in the Likuds headquarters in Tel Aviv, or at his official residence on Balfour Street in Jerusalem. He mustered up enormous enthusiasm as he explained patiently that this time things will be different, and that he will bring back the 300,000 missing voters.

Three seats disappeared on us. We need to get them back, he said. During his Likud primary campaign, Netanyahu visited every city considered a Likud stronghold, held dozens of gatherings, and charmed and convinced supporters by telling them again and again that he would win 61 seats. On the night of the primary, he walked away with an overwhelming victory. His victory night was also the night that senior Likud officials, ministers and Knesset members grew convinced that not all is lost, and that Netanyahu can extract himself from the situation. The exhilarating mood on the ground continues even now.

Netanyahu has held dozens more events since then. In fact, they have become something of a phenomenon. Every evening, he gets up on stage to address hundreds of people who stood in line for hours to see him. He gives them the show they were waiting for, too. The halls are almost always packed. When he is not on stage, Netanyahu broadcasts live on Facebook, whether from his car or from his yard. He connects personally with Likud supporters who dont intend to vote, and convinces them to get out of the house and head to the polling booths.

Netanyahu seems to be at his best. He is running a focused, precise and energetic campaign, as if he has no date in court right after the election. Someone close to him described him as never knowing when to stop, for good or for bad. And in fact, Netanyahu hasnt stopped over the last few months. He is focused on his efforts to bring what he calls the 300,000 lost voters back to the polling booths, although it is not at all clear if they even exist at all. At the same time, he also set off on a series of diplomatic jaunts, which took him from the White House to the Kremlin to Uganda. And with all this, he determined and managed the national agenda.

Nevertheless, it was only this week that Netanyahu finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. The most recent polls started showing a shift in trends: The Likud is getting stronger, while the Blue and White party is getting weaker. Netanyahu himself has a significant lead over Gantz in polls gauging who is best suited to serve as prime minister. At this stage of the campaign, Netanyahu has his foot on the gas. He gave the order to launch a vicious personal campaign against Gantz, intended to challenge his fitness to serve as prime minister. But his winning card was convincing people that the Arab Joint List would definitely partner with Gantz. By repeating the message that Gantz cant form a government without the Arabs, Netanyahu was able to scare voters on the soft right away from Blue and White.

In contrast, the Blue and White partys campaign went into a tailspin, and is now facing a major crisis at the very end of its campaign. Polls showing that the party is losing strength started to put pressure on all of its leadership, but particularly on Gantz, its candidate for prime minister.

And when it rains, it pours. That's exactly what is happening right now in the Blue and White party. The campaign suffered a harsh blow with the release of a recording Feb. 27, in which Gantzs strategic adviser Israel Bachar is heard saying in a private conversation that Gantz is a danger to the State of Israel, and that he doesnt have the courage to attack Iran.

Nevertheless, with just a few days left until the election, Netanyahu is far from achieving his goal of winning 61 seats. Still, he keeps relaying the message that victory is right around the corner. The latest polls give some validity to this message. On the evening of March 2, Israel will find out if Netanyahu was able to do what seemed all but impossible just a week ago.
What does it take to convince the world you have the right to protect your homeland? For the Cayuga Nation, quite a lot, apparently. After years of patience, the Cayugas recovered possession of land in Seneca Falls, New York, that was stolen from our sovereign Indian nation in 2014. Based on the public outcry, you might have thought the Cayugas had invaded a pre-school and took toddlers hostage. In fact, that was almost literally an allegation made against the Cayugas, one of many outrageous lies being told by parties antagonizing the Nation and its leadership for many years.

In the last five years, distortions of truth were the least of the Cayuga Nations problems. In addition to losing possession of the Seneca Falls property  home to a successful commercial business that subsidized distributions to its citizens  the Nation almost lost two other businesses to aggressors who used physical violence and threats. The Nation was forced to scramble to protect still other properties from attack and had millions of worth of property stolen or destroyed. Throughout this period, the Cayugas received no help from law enforcement and no sympathy from politicians  who treated the property invasions, violence and destruction as something the Nation had to address on its own.

The Cayugas regrouped and took control of their own destiny, resulting in a string of decisive victories. Last year marked the end, once-and-for-all, of a long-running dispute over the leadership of the Nation, after a federal court threw out a legal challenge by a small dissident group, endorsing the will of over 62% of the Nations Citizens, and the Department of Interiors declaration that the Cayuga Nation Council is the leadership of the Nation for all purposes. The Department also endorsed the Nations right to establish a police department and court system to enforce its tribal laws on its reservation. With its governance structure and law enforcement power now cemented, the Nation set out to right a five-year-old wrong that had cost it millions of dollars and threatened its traditions.

The hysterical reaction to the Nations recovery of its property bears no resemblance to what actually happened. No one was injured, no laws were broken, and no school or sacred buildings were demolished. The operation was swift, peaceful, well-planned and decisive, and the discovery of guns, drugs and other evidence of crime reveals a lot about the group that stole the property five years ago. If New York State Troopers had recovered state land in the same manner, theyd be hailed as heroes, their skill and competence celebrated.

So why has the public narrative become so disconnected from what actually happened? One part of the answer is that a mostly white media reflexively label any conflict in Indian country as chaos and violence, evidence that Indians cannot self-govern. Another is that politicians  whose largely white constituents are opposed to the idea that their homes sit within the boundaries of an Indian reservation  score no points if they silently tolerate an act of tribal sovereignty.

These long-held prejudices are as tenacious as they are sinister, but they cannot overshadow what the Cayuga Nation has accomplished. The lesson here is that when an Indian nation is forced to stand its ground, it can and will. The white press may not like it, and white politicians might find it inconvenient  but they are ultimately powerless. Their words may promote hysteria, but their actions demonstrate that sovereignty is sovereignty.

Clint Halftown is the federal representative of the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York.

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Hailey Bieber looked like a vision of health as she stepped out of her New York apartment on Friday.

The cover girl had on bright red lipstick with her blonde locks blown back while making a fashion statement in a black leather jacket, Ksubi jeans and black boots.

This sighting comes just hours after the wife of Justin Bieber was seen wearing a face mask as she landed at JFK airport.

No Coronavirus here: Hailey Bieber looked like a vision of health as she stepped out of her New York apartment on Friday

A good winter look: The cover girl had on bright red lipstick with her blonde locks blown back while making a fashion statement in a black leather jacket, Ksubi jeans and black boots

Hailey, who is a spokesperson for BareMinerals, had on bright cherry red lipstick and nicely arched brows with rectangular Vogue sunglasses.

The siren added an oversized leather jacket with silver accents and gold buttons.

Her jeans were a little too big for her slender figure and were high waisted.

The Guess model added a YSL belt in black with a gold buckle. She also looked warm in her knee-high black boots.

Almost retro: The siren added an oversized leather jacket with silver accents and gold buttons

Like a flashback: Her jeans were a little too big for her slender figure and were high waisted. The Guess model added a YSL belt in black with a gold buckle. She also looked warm in her knee-high black boots

Another close look: Hailey, who is a spokesperson for BareMinerals, had on bright cherry red lipstick and nicely arched brows with rectangular Vogue sunglasses

Her nails were painted cherry red to match her lips. Gold hoop earrings added sparkle.

And the star skipped a purse as she carried just her cell phone, which had a red case.

Earlier, she did not seem to want to take any risks when it comes to getting the Coronavirus.

The wife of Justin Bieber was seen wearing a medical mask when landed at JFK airport in New York City on Friday after a trip to Paris, where two people have already died from the virus. There are 41 reported cases in France.

Later, the supermodel was seen with her mask off but an iPad put to her forehead as she made her way to a building in Manhattan.

At the airport the Vogue cover girl had on a long dark grey winter coat with Balenciaga printed all over it in all capital letters.

Being careful: She did not seem to want to take any risks when it comes to getting the Coronavirus. The wife of Justin Bieber was seen wearing a medical mask when landed at JFK airport in New York City on Friday

The fashion plate had her blonde hair in a ponytail and tried to cover her face with her iPad.

Apparently, she went for comfort on the flight as she had on light grey sweatpants and white sneakers.

Shew was not carrying any luggage as her handler took care of that.

It's a wonder Hailey could see where she was going with that iPad in her face. She also held on to her cell phone.

Behind her was a man with a black face mask on as he pulled a suitcase.

Later the catwalk princess was photographed in Manhattan as she now had her light blue mask off.

Leggy look: Bieber looked incredible as she displayed her toned legs stepping out for the Yves Saint Laurent dinner party on Thursday

The daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin wore black sunglasses and shiny yellow gold hoop earrings. She was also flashing her diamond engagement ring from Justin as well as another ring while having long light pink nails.

The star still had the iPad to her head but this time she carried a cup of coffee to go.

Bieber was seen walking between parked cars as she made her way to the sidewalk and into a brick building with large windows.

She was a busy little supermodel bee when in Paris for Fashion Week.

Her career just keeps getting better: On Friday the looker shared this cover for German Vogue

The star - who has said that she one day wants to design clothing - looked incredible as she displayed her toned legs stepping out for the Yves Saint Laurent dinner party on Thursday.

The model slipped into a gun metal grey metallic mini dress with a racy hemline that showcased her bronzed legs.

Meanwhile, her husband Justin is in Miami, Florida shooting a music video this week.
NATO Condemns Airstrikes That Killed Dozens of Turkish Troops in Syria

Russia Denies It Was Responsible for the Bombing

NATO said it is condemning indiscriminate airstrikes by the Syrian regime and Russia, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, after reports said that dozens of Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack near Syrias Idlib on Thursday.

Turkey requested an urgent NATO security meeting on Friday following the bombing. But Stoltenberg did not elaborate on any changes that NATO might make in the area.

I call on them to stop their offensive, to respect international law and to back U.N. efforts for a peaceful solution, Stoltenberg said. This dangerous situation must be de-escalated.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday and later condemned yesterdays attack that killed Turkish personnel in Syria, White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement.

President Trump reaffirmed his support for Turkeys efforts to de-escalate the situation in northwest Syria and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe. The two leaders agreed that the Syrian regime, Russia, and the Iranian regime must halt their offensive before more innocent civilians are killed and displaced, Deere said.

On Thursday, Russias foreign ministry said that the countrys air force is supporting the Syrian regimes Dawn over Idlib operation in the province and is focusing exclusively on the terrorists who are holed up in the de-escalation zone.

In a statement to ABC News, Russias defense ministry denied that it was responsible for the airstrikes that killed 33 Turkish troops. It said that the Turkish soldiers came under fire from Syrian forces in the area.

Syrian fighters set a target on an artillery near Idlib, Syria, on Feb. 27, 2020. (Umit Bektas/Reuters)

The ministry stated that Ankara had informed Russia that no units of the Turkish armed forces were in the area of the village of Behun and they shouldnt have been there. When Russia became aware of the airstrike, it allowed for a ceasefire to allow Turkey to evacuate its dead and wounded, said the ministry.

At the same time, hundreds of migrants in Turkey started arriving on the borders with Greece and Bulgaria on Friday after a senior Turkish official said Ankara would no longer abide by a 2016 EU deal and stop refugees from reaching Europe.

Some wore face masks, in an apparent attempt to guard against the coronavirus outbreak now sweeping the world and adding to the concerns of hard-pressed European authorities.

Greece and Bulgaria, both European Union member states, vowed not to admit the migrants. Greek police used smoke grenades at one border crossing, while Bulgaria sent an extra 1,000 troops to its border with Turkey. Reuters contributed to this report.
Recognized, respected and rewarded: Aktea calls for a fair treatment and a voice for women in fisheries and aquaculture

February 28,2020 | Source: LIFE

40 women professionals from the small-scale fisheries sector, from the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain, Malta, Cyprus, Italy, Croatia, France and the Azores gathered in Brussels over 3 days from the 24 to 26 February, to revive, renew and relaunch the AKTEA European Network of Women in Fisheries and Aquaculture.



Strengthening the organizations of men and women professionals and their participation in governance is a key part the project Mainstreaming small-scale low impact fisheries in the Mediterranean, which is implemented by the Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE) with the support of the MAVA Foundation (https://lifeplatform.eu/eu-projects-2/). The pan European meeting was co-organised by AKTEA and LIFE, in partnership with the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), thanks to this project.



In a video address to the meeting, European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Mr Virginijus Sinkevicius, acknowledged that there is still a long way to go in order to give women the place they deserve. He observed that many family enterprises in the small-scale fisheries sector rely on women for shore based administrative and manual tasks, which are not remunerated, rewarded or recognized. This puts women in a very precarious situation, he said. He further stated that it is unacceptable in the 21st century for women to be so strongly underrepresented in formal governance and in the decision-making bodies of professional organizations. He highlighted the potential of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) to address deficits in gender equality, and underscored his commitment to promoting the social dimension fisheries  including gender equality and the role of women in fisheries in the implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy, which will be reviewed by December 31 2022.



On day 1, participants  shellfish and seaweed gathers, vessel skippers, gear riggers, entrepreneurs engaged in fish processing, marketing and pesca-tourism, and fishing family members supporting family enterprises  met informally, got to know about each others situations, and began to formulate plans for the future.



Day 2, hosted by the EESC, was devoted to a capacity building workshop, where participants learned about how European fisheries and social policies, if properly implemented, could make all the difference to their livelihoods. Sr Gabriel Sarro Iparraguirre, EESC Rapporteur on the social dimension of fisheries, welcomed the participants. Drawing on his own experience working at sea in the fisheries sector over many years, he explained that it is the womenfolk  wives, mothers and daughters  who give value to European fisheries. They are the driving force and constant source of support to the work done by men he said. Brian ORiordan, Executive Secretary of LIFE, highlighted how Europes fishing policies have become victims of their own success; promoting increased productivity and technological progress, industrial fishing had depleted European seas and marginalised traditional small-scale family based livelihoods, which could make all the difference if given the chance.



Katia Frangoudes, one of the founders of AKTEA in 2006, highlighted how gender equality is a fundamental principle of the European Union, with equal pay for work of equal value included in the 1957 Treaty of Rome. Despite significant progress at European level in recent years on equal treatment policies and legislation, gender mainstreaming, and despite the reaffirmation of gender equality in the Union in the 2007 Lisbon Treaty, gender equality is still a much-neglected area in the fisheries sector at member state level.



Marja Bekendam, the outgoing Chair of Aktea, highlighted the advances made by womens organizations over the 10-year period that she has been presiding over Aktea. She emphasised that despite this progress, there is still a long way to go, notably for women to engage more meaningfully in the Advisory Councils, and to become more integrated into other decision-making bodies.



Participants spoke with passion on the need for inclusive fisheries policies based on socio-economic rights, implemented through EU regulations and schemes tailored to allow fair and safe working conditions. As highlighted by Farnets representative, recent studies show that women are key drivers of change and diversification of activities (such as in tourism, restaurants or direct marketing), providing an important share of income for their families, but that very often men remain the owner of the business.



The vital importance of women in the traditions and cultural fabric was illustrated in the presentations made by the participants, as well as the significant socio-economic and environmental benefits they generate. Their empowerment and inclusion are prerequisite for the sustainable management of fisheries activities and the conservation of the marine environment. Calls were made for EMFF funding to be channelled into training and capacity building dedicated for women in such areas as IT, accounting, business management and communication. They also saw the need for creating formal associations and organisations to make their voices heard, to take part in decision-making processes, and the need for measures to prevent the disappearance of their profession which is put at risk by the lack of generational renewal.



Women participants spent their final day discussing how to formalise cooperation through AKTEA, and agreeing on priority actions in the short to medium term. Working groups were constituted to develop proposals. The outgoing Chair of Aktea, Marja Bekendam, shared how much Aktea and the solidarity and support she had received over the years had helped her and her family enterprise through difficult times.



A request has been made for a formal meeting with Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius in the near future to discuss how the implementation of the CFP can be made more inclusive.

 Low Impact Fishers of Europe 2015

Theme(s): Communities and Organisations.
Three bankers have been cleared over an investment deal with Qatar.

A jury took less than six hours on Friday to clear three former Barclays bosses of fraud charges surrounding deals made with Qatar during the global financial crisis.

In a sobering defeat to the United Kingdom Serious Fraud Office in a high-profile case that lasted seven years, former Barclays executives Roger Jenkins, 64, Thomas Kalaris, 64, and Richard Boath, 61, walked free from Londons Central Criminal Court  known as the Old Bailey.

The case against the bankers revolved around undisclosed payments to Qatar dating back to 2008 as Barclays raised more than 1.2 billion British pounds ($14.2bn at current rates) from investors to avoid a government bailout as the global financial system flirted with collapse.

Qatar, a major investor in the UK, was not accused of any wrongdoing.

The SFO alleged the lucrative terms given to Qatar, including an extra 322 million pounds ($423m) in fees, were hidden from the market and other investors through bogus advisory service agreements.

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But multi-millionaire Jenkins was acquitted of fraud, alongside his former colleagues, following a five-month trial.

The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for about five and a half hours.

Speaking outside court, Boath said he was very relieved by the verdicts.

I was very surprised they brought the case. Frankly, it was a complete invention on the part of the SFO and they should really never have brought it, he said.

If there was a case against the bank or any of the people in the bank, the agreements were signed off at the board, so none of the defendants were on the board, had any access to the board  and thats point about the SFO case, it didnt make any sense at all.

The SFO is yet to disclose the cost of the investigation, which began in August 2012.

It is understood that a core team of eight people worked on the case at any one time, consisting of investigators and lawyers.

Two charges of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and one charge of unlawful financial assistance against Barclays were dismissed by a judge in May 2018, and in October the SFO failed in a High Court bid to reverse the decision.

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At the time of the alleged fraud, each of the defendants held very senior positions at the firm.

Jenkins was Barclays Capital (BarCap) executive chairman of investment banking and investment management in the Middle East and North Africa; Kalaris was Barclays wealth management CEO and Boath was BarCap head of financial institutions group for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Jenkins, of Malibu, California; Kalaris, of Thurloe Square, west London; and Boath, of Henley-on-Thames, were acquitted of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and fraud by false representation between May 1, 2008, and August 31, 2008.

Jenkins was also acquitted of two similar offences dated between September 1, 2008, and November 30, 2008.

Jurors were told that a fourth man, Christopher Lucas, had been found unfit to face trial due to illness.

The three bankers originally went on trial in January last year alongside former Barclays Chief Executive John Varley.

However, in April last year, a judge dismissed the charges against them, saying the SFO did not have enough evidence to proceed.

The SFO appealed against the decision, but it was upheld in relation to Varley by the Court of Appeal.

Jessica Parker and Peter Binning, partners at Corker Binning who represented Varley, said, Our client John Varley was discharged at the first trial in April 2019 when the trial judge ruled he had no case to answer.

The prosecution appeal failed. Todays verdicts finally bring this very long-running prosecution to an end. The verdicts raise serious questions about the SFO decision to bring the case.

An SFO spokesman said: Our prosecution decisions are always based on the evidence that is available, and we are determined to bring perpetrators of serious financial crime to justice. Wherever our evidential and public interest tests are met, we will always endeavour to bring this before a court.
New data from China's COVID-19 epidemic reveals important clues about how the outbreak unfolded  and how it's slowing sooner than expected.

Bruce Aylward, a Canadian doctor and epidemiologist, led the World Health Organization's COVID-19 mission to China. This week, he showed reporters epidemic curves, or epicurves, of China's COVID-19 outbreak to illustrate how transmission chains  people spreading the infection to others  were interrupted.

An epicurve is a graph that shows the frequency of new cases over time based on new infections per day. In many cases, an epicurve follows a bell curve, steadily rising to a peak and then declining as the outbreak burns out when the virus runs out of susceptible people to infect.

To epidemiologists  scientists who study diseases within populations of people  the shape of the curve reflects the source of the outbreak. The curve would vary based on whether there was a single common source like contaminated food (where there's traditionally a sharp rise with a rapid decline that's less abrupt than the rise) or multiple sources of infection like sick people out in the general public (with a slower, progressive rise in cases).

The data from China showed the rise was cut short.

"What you see is this is rising then it abruptly gets blunted," Aylward said. That's a picture that suggests some kind of measures were taken to mitigate the outbreak, which the team estimated peaked in China between Jan. 23 and Feb. 2.

CBC News

"It is the unanimous assessment of the team that they have changed the course of this outbreak. It was a rapidly escalating outbreak. It has plateaued and is coming downward sooner than expected," said Aylward.

The report was released in English on Friday.

"When you look at the difference between what the curve may have been like and what it was actually like, that probably represents hundreds of thousands of Chinese people who have benefited from this tremendous effort."

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China's unprecedented measures to stop the respiratory pathogen included old-fashioned public health tools that Aylward said were applied "with vigour":

Finding people who are infected and tracing their contacts, such as family members.

Rapidly hospitalizing those who were seriously ill.

"We are on the highest level of alert and highest level in terms of spread and of impact. But that is not in order to alarm or scare people," said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's emergencies program.

"People need to take a reality check now and really understand an all-of-government, an all-of-society approach is needed," Ryan told reporters on Friday.

CBC News

WHO officials said the single biggest lesson from their mission to China: speed is everything.

Maria Van Kerkove, WHO's technical lead of the emergencies program, joined Aylward's mission in China. She gave other examples where the containment approach has worked so far: Singapore, Vietnam and Nepal.

"These are all examples of where countries have been successful in containing this," Van Kerkove said in a media briefing Friday. "But the point is that  the earlier we act and how robustly we act, especially in those initial cases, will determine if you're dealing with a number of cases, one case or a small cluster, or you're dealing with hundreds or thousands."

In China, Aylward said, officials aren't letting down their guard and continue to build hospitals and buy ventilators in case the virus surges again as lockdowns are eased.
Residents of a Northern California community are at the epicenter of what officials are calling a turning point in the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus, as investigators try to retrace the steps of a hospitalised woman they believe to be the first in the US to be infected without traveling internationally or being in close contact with anyone who had it.

As infectious disease experts fanned out in Vacaville, some residents in the city of 100,000 stocked up on supplies amid fears things could get worse despite official reassurances, while others took the in stride.

The city lies between San Francisco and Sacramento in Solano County, in the agricultural Central Valley and near California's famous wine region.

It is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Travis Air Force Base, which has been used as a virus quarantine location.

Public health officials said they can find no connection between the infected woman and passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship who were evacuated to the base when the ship was docked in Japan.

The case of the infected woman marks an escalation of the worldwide outbreak in the US because it means the virus could spread beyond the reach of preventative measures like quarantines, though state health officials said that was inevitable and that the risk of widespread transmission remains low.

But McKinsey Paz, her husband and her boss at a Vacaville private security company weren't taking any chances.

They hustled to a warehouse store Thursday to buy bottled water, canned food, staples like rice and beans and cases of toilet paper and paper towels.

"We're not sure what's going to happen. Panic seems to do that to you," Paz said.

"In case things get a little crazy, we didn't want to be the last ones. We're preparing for the worst."



Solano County Public Health Officer Dr Bela Matyas said public health officials have identified dozens of people but less than 100 who had close contact with the woman.

They are quarantined in their homes and a few who have shown symptoms are in isolation, Matyas said.

Officials are not too worried, for now, about casual contact, because federal officials think the coronavirus is spread only through close contact, being within six feet of somebody for what they're calling a prolonged period of time, said Dr James Watt, interim state epidemiologist at the California Department of Public Health.

The virus can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia. Health officials think it spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how the flu spreads.

Several Vacaville residents said they will try to avoid crowded places for now, while taking other routine and recommended precautions like frequent and thorough hand-washing. But others plan to do more.

"I'm definitely going to wear my mask and gloves at work, because I'm a server," said bowling alley worker Denise Arriaga, who has seen more patrons wearing masks recently and said she doesn't care if she's criticized for the extra precautions.

"At the end of the day, it's my life," she said.

The case raised questions about how quickly public health officials are moving to diagnose and treat new cases. State and federal health officials disagreed about when doctors first requested the woman be tested.

Doctors at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento said they asked the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to test the woman for the virus on February 19.

But they said the CDC did not approve the testing until Sunday "since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria" for the virus, according to a memo posted to the hospital's website.

The woman first sought treatment at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, before her condition worsened and she was transferred to the medical center.

CDC spokesman Richard Quartarone said a preliminary review of agency records indicates the agency did not know about the woman until Sunday, the same day she was first tested.

That's the kind of confusion that concerns Paz, whose security company has already stockpiled 450 face masks and is scrambling for more "since they're hard to come by."



The company's owner bought enough cleaning and disinfectant supplies to both scrub down the office and send home with employees.

But they appeared to be at the extreme for preparations.

Eugenia Kendall was wearing a face mask, but in fear of anything including the common cold. Her immune system is impaired because she is undergoing chemotherapy, and she has long been taking such precautions.

"We're not paranoid. We're just trying to be practical," said her husband of 31 years, Ivan Kendall.

"We wipe the shopping carts if they have them, and when I get back in the car I wipe my hands and just hope for the best."



In their investigation of the movements of the hospitalised woman, officials were trying to figure out how she got it and who else she may have unwittingly infected.

They are interviewing immediate family members and expanding their net to include more distant family members who may have been in contact, social gatherings like church that the patient may have attended and any possible time spent at work or events like a concert.

Besides the woman, all of the 59 other cases in the U.S. have been for people who traveled abroad or had close contact with others who traveled.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
ICE agents arrest an illegal alien during an operation in Baltimore, Md., on Nov. 22, 2019. (ICE)

Maryland Politicians Seek Sanctuary State With Raft of New Bills

The Maryland legislature has kicked off its annual push to enact sanctuary bills aimed at shielding illegal immigrants from federal immigration authorities.

Hearings are underway for four matching bills in both the House and Senate, including three that are almost replicas of those that failed to pass a year ago.

The others, SB 649 and HB 892, are similar to New Yorks recent Green Light Law that blocks Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from accessing the states drivers license database. The Maryland bills would require ICE to provide the states Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) with a valid warrant or valid subpoena issued by a federal court or a court of this State in order to access the database.

The Green Light Law in New York has faced backlash from law enforcement for hampering investigations on crimes such as human trafficking that rely on multi-agency task forces.

For example, a multi-agency task force on human trafficking in Rochester, New York, includes a Wayne County deputy, FBI agents, ICE, and Border Patrol agents.

Wayne County Sheriff Barry Virts told The Epoch Times on Feb. 12 the task force had to figure out the complexities of working together, while ensuring ICE and Border Patrol agents werent privy to any DMV information related to cases.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said ICE has routinely used New York DMV data in its efforts to combat transnational gangs, narcotics smuggling, human smuggling, and trafficking  fraud, and identity theft.

Now, however, he said ICE cant run a license plate search on a vehicle even when ICE is aware that the vehicles owner has committed a heinous crime.

The Maryland bill has 15 co-sponsors in the Senate version and 31 in the House version.

Limiting Cooperation and Communication

The three other bills are similar to those that failed last year.

Included are SB 901 and HB 1612, which are far-reaching in their intent to sever almost all communication and cooperation between state and local officials, and federal immigration authorities.

Part of the bills purpose, it states, is to maintain community trust in Maryland governmental operations and law enforcement.

The bills add immigration status as grounds for discrimination alongside religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, or national or ethnic origin.

This indemnifies state and local officials from providing information that would be used for the creation or maintenance of a registry for the purpose of discriminating against individuals based on the above criteria, including immigration status.

State and local government officials also will notify an individual within 48 hours if an inquiry has been made about him or her by immigration authorities.

A related bill, HB 388, augments the above by prohibiting a certain law enforcement agent from making a certain inquiry about an individuals immigration status, citizenship status, or place of birth, or transferring an individual to federal immigration authorities under certain circumstances.

It also bans law enforcement agents from notifying federal immigration authorities with an individuals location information without a warrant.

Jailing Immigrant Detainees for ICE

Another pair of bills, SB 850 and HB 677, prohibits state and local jails from agreeing to house immigration-related detainees and to terminate existing contracts for the detention of immigration-related detainees.

Three Maryland counties, in particular, would be affected by this law. The threeFrederick, Cecil, and Harford countiesall have current 287(g) agreements with ICE. Under the agreement, designated officers are trained and supervised by ICE to perform some immigration law enforcement functions within jail settings.

Sheriff Chuck Jenkins of Frederick County said the 287(g) program helps keep criminals off the streets.

The only inquiries that we make are once an individual is arrested and taken to our booking center at the jail. Everybody is asked two questions: Where were you born?, and, What country are you a citizen of? Jenkins said in a previous interview.

If the detainee answers anything other than the United States, an immigration status check is conducted using the federal database and ICE is notified.

Sensitive Locations

The final bills, SB 903 and HB 403, require the state attorney general to help public schools, hospitals, and courthouses to draft policies that limit civil immigration enforcement activities on their premises in order to ensure these facilities remain safe and accessible to all.

ICEs sensitive locations policy requires agents to only carry out enforcement actions at locations such as schools and places of worship if exigent circumstances exist; other law enforcement actions have led officers to a sensitive location, or prior approval is obtained from a designated supervisory official, the agency website states.

Illegal Immigrant Crime

While the legislature debates the sanctuary bills, Maryland continues to grapple with more instances of illegal aliens being charged with raping children.

Two Montgomery County Public School students, ages 20 and 19, were recently arrested at their respective high schools, on allegations they raped different 11-year-old girls off campus, according to reporting by ABC7s Kevin Lewis on Feb. 25.

The men, Jonathan Coreas-Salamanca and Ivan Reyes Lopez, are being held without bond, according to Lewis. ICE confirmed that Coreas-Salamanca is an illegal alien from El Salvador, Lewis said. Lopez is from Honduras.

From late July through mid-September 2019, 13 illegal aliens were arrested and charged with rape in Montgomery County, Maryland, around the time the county was enacting its own sanctuary policies. Most of the victims were children.
MONTREAL - Quebec public health officials are reporting the province's first presumptive case of the new coronavirus.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Quebec Health Minister Danielle McCann responds to reporters questions before entering a government caucus meeting Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at the legislature in Quebec City. Quebec public health officials are reporting the province's first presumptive case of the new coronavirus, dubbed COVID-19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

MONTREAL - Quebec public health officials are reporting the province's first presumptive case of the new coronavirus.

Health Minister Danielle McCann announced Thursday night that the patient, a woman from the Montreal region, had returned from Iran on Monday.

Officials said the woman visited a clinic with minor symptoms. The tests for coronavirus were conducted the day after her return to Canada, with positive results coming back Thursday.

"While the person was being cared for, all precautionary measures were put in place," McCann said. "She did not require hospitalization, so she is currently in isolation, alone, at her home."

Health officials said that apart from visiting the clinic where she was diagnosed, the woman's contacts in Montreal were essentially limited to her immediate family, who are also in isolation. The patient did not take public transit and was not in a workplace, McCann said.

She travelled to Montreal on a flight from Doha, Qatar. Quebec health officials said they are looking for people who came into close contact with her in Montreal. They will also take necessary steps to identify passengers who were close to her on the plane.

McCann said testing by the province's public health lab came back positive for the new coronavirus, dubbed COVID-19, but the result needs to be confirmed by the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg.

Results are expected Sunday. If confirmed, it would be the 14th confirmed case of the virus in Canada, and the first outside Ontario and British Columbia.

The minister said the health network's response to the case shows the coronavirus protocols put in place in the province are effective.

"Today, despite this first probable case, I especially want to remind the public that all measures are being employed currently in the network to detect, take control of and limit the transmission of COVID-19 in the community," she said. "There is no reason to be worried."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2020.
Australias Spy Chief Says Longer Data Retention Can Help Probe Foreign Influence

The head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), Mike Burgess, says theres a strong argument for extending data retention laws, saying it would help investigations into foreign intelligence and espionage.

Australias spy chief appeared before parliaments intelligence and security committee in Canberra on Friday to review the mandatory data retention laws introduced in 2015.

Burgess said data retention laws had helped ASIO identify a visiting scientist who was involved in clandestine intelligence activity and had been accessing sensitive or classified documents for more than 10 years.

Liberal senator David Fawcett questioned if retaining data longer for two years would assist ASIOs leads on serious cases.

Thats correct, senator, and we have a strong argument for an extension of two years, Burgess said.

Labor frontbencher Kristina Keneally expressed concern over metadata being stored longer after it was revealed agencies including the RSPCA and a teaching institute had accessed information under the laws.

Burgess said too many people had access to the metadata without explaining why they needed it.

I have a strong case why ASIO can access it perhaps everyone else who has accessed it should put their cases forward, he said.

Hosting the data overseas was raised as a concern, in light of an increasing trend from other countries towards storing data locally.

Burgess said moving data offshore didnt necessarily make it less secure, however, his preference would be to store all Australians data here so it could be protected under Australian law.

By Greta Stonehouse
Finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal presented the 2020-21 budget of 1.54 lakh crore in the Punjab assembly here on Friday.

Presenting his fourth budget for the Capt Amarinder Singh-led Congress government, Manpreet announced 6% dearness allowance for state government employees from March besides bringing down the retirement age from 60 to 58 years.

The government has decided to grant free education to all students up to Class 12 and proposes to build 4,150 classrooms by spending 100 crore.

Manpreet announced the setting up of the Armed Forces Preparatory Institute in Hoshiarpur with a budget outlay of 11 crore. He proposed the installation of 10KW solar plants in 259 government senior secondary smart schools in first phase.

A sum of 157 crore will be allocated for the construction of the Government Medical College at Mohali.

A sum of 100 crore has been earmarked for the governments smartphone scheme for youngsters.

The government proposes 19 new industrial training institutes under the Skill Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE) scheme.

FOCUS ON FARM SECTOR

The government earmarked 2,000 crore for farm loan waiver, including 520 crore for waiving loans of landless and farm workers.

Two new agricultural colleges will be set up in Gurdaspur and Balachaur with an initial allocation of 14 crore.

The finance minister announced a veterinary college and regional research centre of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University at Sappanvali village in Fazilka by spending 62 crore.

The government will set up 25 more Out Patient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT) clinics in the state. At present, there are 193 such centres in Punjab.

POWER SUBSIDY

Manpreet announced that a sum of 2,267 crore will be allocated for subsidised power to industry in Punjab.

ROADS AND INFRASTRUCTURE

The state government will upgrade 750km of roads by spending 250 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.

DEBT BURDEN GROWS

The finance minister announced that the states debt will increase from 2.2 lakh crore to 2.4 lakh crore by the end of 2020-21.

On the fiscal roadmap, he said. We will soldier on. We are aware of the economic slowdown in the country. However, given the composition of the economy, our advanced estimates indicate that during 2019-20, the GSDP of the state has increased from 5.21 crore in 2018-19 to 5.74 crore at current prices. Im hopeful that as a result of the progressive policies of the government, the states GSDP during 2020-21 will further rise to 6.44 crore. The per capita income of the state has also increased from 1.54 lakh in 2018-19 to 1.66 lakh in 2019-20 and is 23.53% higher than the national average of 1.35 lakh.
Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers / Contributed photo

The Playtime at The Palace series continues in Stamford with Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers The Legend of The Banana Kid Sunday afternoon, March 29.

In this cowboy adventure, Little Chucky heads to the Wild West to outwit outlaws. With a fistful of bananas, Chucky rides into town on his trusty goat for a showdown with Big Bad Bart and his gang of bandits.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Samir Ali - Trend:

Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in February once again visited Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, Azerbaijani hostages captured by Armenian armed forces on occupied Azerbaijani territories, Head of the Public Relations Department of ICRC Azerbaijan Office Ilaha Huseynova said, Trend reports Feb. 28.

"We keep visiting them on a regular basis," said the spokesperson of ICRC Azerbaijan Office."According to its mandate, the ICRC visits detained individuals to monitor treatment and conditions of detention and help to ensure that the detainees are able to maintain contact with their families."

During an operation in July 2014 in Shaplar village of Azerbaijani Kalbajar district occupied by Armenia, the Armenian special forces killed an Azerbaijani Hasan Hasanov, and took hostage two other Azerbaijanis, Shahbaz Guliyev and Dilgam Asgarov. A "criminal case" was initiated against them. Afterwards, a "court" sentenced Asgarov to life imprisonment and Guliyev to 22 years in prison.

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.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020 18:46 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206740175 1 National driving-license,police,National-Police,International-Driving-Permit Free

People living in Indonesia are now able to register for international driver permits online as the National Police have launched a service to ease the process of applying for the document, which is valid for use in 188 foreign countries.

National Police Traffic Corps head Insp. Gen. Istiono said that Indonesia had cooperated with 188 countries so that international driving permit holders from the country would be able to use their licenses there.

All ASEAN [countries] are included among the 188 countries, Istiono said as quoted by kompas.com on Friday, without elaborating on the other countries.

The National Polices Traffic Corps launched on Friday a new feature that enables drivers to register and pay for international driving permits online.

Before the online feature, applicants had to register themselves manually by visiting the polices international driving permit center in South Jakarta.

With the online feature, applicants  who must already have driving licenses  can register themselves through the traffic corps website for an international driving permit registration.

After filling out the form and making the payment, applicants will still need to visit the polices international driving permit center in South Jakarta and bring the required documents, including their ID card, national driving license and passport, as well as copies of the registration form and payment.

Foreign citizens living in Indonesia are particularly required to bring their permanent stay visa permit (KITAP).

By allowing permit applicants to register themselves through the online feature, Istiono expected that it would be able to reduce corrupt practices in the permit-issuing process.

This feature upgrade should make our service more accessible to the public, Istiono said as quoted by Antara. (dpk)
A member of the Communications Team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dela Edem, has described Members of arliament (MPs) and other leading political figures who accessed the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) scholarship as "having no shame".



To him, it is a disgrace to see people who on their own can further their education defeating the purpose of a policy by taking what belongs to the "poor", without their conscience pricking them.



"Why should a Member of Parliament or a son of a top politician qualify to receive Getfund support when the money was meant for poor and needy students?



"Indeed, Politicians who apply for GetFund should bow their heads in shame for it was not meant for them," he added.



Over the weekend, the Minister of State in charge of Public Procurement, Sarah Adwoa Safo, and other notable politicians were indicted in a recent audit report of accessing GETFund scholarship.



Apart from Ms Safo, the other appointees named by the Auditor-Generals report as beneficiaries include the Executive Secretary of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Dr Prince Armah, who issued a statement saying he was deserving of it; Education Minister Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, who also issued a statement saying he benefited from it in 2014 and not as a minister of state; and the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations Ignatius Barfour Awuah, who is yet to issue a statement on the matter.



The latest is a confession by NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia who has admitted that his son was funded by the scheme for his tertiary education outside the country.



According to Mr Asiedu Nketia at the time of application, he had retired from legislator duties and as a result could not foot the bills of his sons education; putting him under the needy category.



Sarah Adwoa Safo, was given $12,800 in allowances with $17,004 in tuition fees to study at the Harvard Kennedy School.



The Minister for Education benefitted from the scholarships by receiving $12,800 for living expenses and $11,200 as tuition fees to study a National and International Security in Harvard University.



The revelation has generated outrage among some Ghanaians on social media.



Speaking on UTV's 'Adekye Nsroma' newspaper discussion segment, Dela Edem said; "frankly, it is sad that in this country persons who have thousands could attempt to and succeed in taking away the one opportunity granted the poor".

Source: Elizabeth Semiheva/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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By Associated Press

DHAKA: Several thousand Muslims marched from the main mosque in Bangladesh's capital on Friday to denounce India's government for allegedly inflaming tensions between Hindus and Muslims, leading to clashes that left at least 40 dead and hundreds injured.

After Friday prayers, thousands of Muslims left the Baitul Mokarram Mosque in Dhaka and joined the rally, chanting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The protesters demanded that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina cancel a plan to invite Modi to a commemoration next month of the 100th anniversary of the birth of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

ALSO READ: Hindu, Muslim, Sikh residents unite to fend off mobs in Northeast Delhi colony

Rahman, Hasina's father, led a political movement that created the separate nation of Bangladesh after a nine-month war with what is now Pakistan in 1971.

"I ask the prime minister to immediately cancel Narendra Modi's invitation," Nur Hossain Kasemi of the influential Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam told the protesters.

"If she fails to do so, the people of the country will be forced to take action and surround the airport. They will build resistance."

But he asked Bangladeshi Muslims not to harm Hindus.

"I remind the Muslims of our country that we believe in harmony. We don't believe in violence. We shall not harm any non-Muslims in this country," he said.
We already knew this was home to some of the best culinary talent ever. Now, James Beard Foundation is highlighting our gourmet gifts with 21 nominations for San Francisco restaurants plus eight more around the Bay Area.

Plus, Mayor London Breed might get a cameo in Matrix 4, Instagram-famous Edo salon's co-owner gets her five minutes of NYT fame, and more local headlines you may have missed this week.





The Work Diary of a Hairdresser So Coveted, She Travels by Private Jet, The New York Times

Jayne Matthews, co-owner of cult-favorite Edo Salon, has mastered the art of the modern shagand has more than 90,000 IG followers prove it. NYT shares a day in her life. Read more.





SF lands second-most nominations on 2020 James Beard Awards Semifinalists list, SF Gate

Surpassed only by New York City, San Francisco's 21 nominations include newcomers Beit Rima and Verjus, Gaby Maeda of State Bird Provisions, and semifinalist veterans Quince and Trick Dog. Read more.









Berkeley artist's work in storage auctioned off: 'My entire life has just been sold,' SF Chronicle

After an art dealer tracked him down by the signature on his work, Kevin Keaney was shocked to discover that all 225 of his own art works, plus a library of books and love lettersall of which he thought were locked safely away in a storage unithad been sold. Read more.





Teatro ZinZanni Heads Back to the Embarcadero With Hotel Attached, SFist

Newcomers to the city won't remember the zany dinner theaterfilled with cabaret, acrobatics, and a healthy dose of chaosthat closed eight years ago. But now the circus is back, making its official return to Pier 39 with an adjacent Marriott Hotel and public park by August 2022. Read more.





Mayor Breed may appear in Matrix 4, SF Examiner

Word on the street is that the mayor had a costume fitting and may or may not have been at a Thursday evening shoot in FiDi for the film starring Keanu Reeves. Read more.
By Agencies

MUMBAI: An NCP minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra announced on Friday that a law will be enacted to give five per cent quota to Muslims in education, but a senior Shiv Sena minister said later that no such decision had been taken.

Replying to a question by Congress' Sharad Ranpise in the Legislative Council, Minority Affairs Minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik said the government will ensure that a law giving five percent quota to Muslims in education is passed soon. He also assured that "appropriate action" would be taken before the next academic year starts.

But soon thereafter, Urban Development Minister and senior Sena leader Eknath Shinde said no decision had been taken on this issue yet. "Leaders of the MVA will together take a call on policy decisions about giving reservation to any community.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will take appropriate decisions at appropriate time. "No decision has been taken yet," he told reporters.

However, Malik reiterated outside the legislature what he had announced inside. "The (Bombay) High Court had approved (for Muslims) five per cent reservation in government education (institutes)," he told reporters.

"We will come out with an Act to ensure five per cent reservation in government education. The government will definitely take decision on giving reservation (to Muslims)," the NCP leader said. The then Congress-NCP government in the state had issued an ordinance giving five per cent quota to Muslims in 2014 alongwith 16 per cent quota for the Maratha community.

The BJP-Shiv Sena government which followed enacted a law for Maratha reservation but dropped the Muslim quota. The BJP, meanwhile, questioned its former ally Shiv Sena's stand on the issue. Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis also claimed that a quota for Muslims would be unconstitutional and affect OBC and Maratha reservations.

"There is no provision in the Constitution framed by Babasaheb Ambedkar for giving reservation on the basis of religion," Fadnavis told reporters. Muslims can avail of 10 per cent quota for the economically weaker sections in the general category which the Union government has introduced, he said.

"Yet, this announcement was made. We want to know from the Shiv Sena on which issues it has reached a 'setting' (mutual understanding)," the former chief minister said. "We should know on what issues Shiv Sena has made compromise and given up its ideology to form government," Fadnavis said, noting that Malik had claimed in the Council that the Sena supported the quota proposal for Muslims.

The BJP leader alleged that quota for Muslims would eat into the existing OBC reservation. "If additional reservation is given (to Muslims), the OBCs stand to lose their quota. Maratha reservation too will be affected," he added.
Khan also pointed out that the Bihar Assembly had unanimously passed a resolution against the CAA, NRC and NPR.

Mumbai: Senior state Congress leaders on Thursday met chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and demanded a resolution in the Assembly against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Population Register (NPR) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). Bihar, where the BJP is a part of the government, has already passed a resolution against the NPR, they said.

The meeting assumes political significance as Mr Thackeray last week said that nobody should fear the CAA after meeting with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Former Congress minister and vice-president of Maharashtra Congress Naseem Khan, accompanied by MLCs Husna Bano Khalife and Dr Wajahat Mirza, told the reporters in Vidhan Bhavan that they have submitted a memorandum to the chief minister urging him to adopt a stand for non-implementation of the CAA, NPR and NRC in the state.

Mr Khan also pointed out that the Bihar Assembly had unanimously passed a resolution against the CAA, NRC and NPR.

The Bihar government will implement the NPR in the old 2010 format. At the same time, the BJP is supporting the CAA and NPR, the Congress leader said.

Slamming the BJP-led Central government, Mr Khan said that these Acts are being implemented in arbitrary and unconstitutional manner.
Burlington, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2020) - Evertz Technologies Limited (TSX: ET) will release its third quarter 2020 financial results on March 11, 2020 at approximately 4:00 p.m. (EDT).

The Company will hold a conference call with financial analysts to discuss the results on March 11, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. (EDT). Media and other interested parties are invited to join the conference call in listen-only mode. The conference call may be accessed by dialing 647-793-2625 or Toll-Free (North America) 1-888-297-0356.

For those unable to listen to the live call, a rebroadcast will also be available until

April 10, 2020. The rebroadcast can be accessed at 647-436-0148 or Toll-Free 1-888-203-1112.

The pass code for the conference call and rebroadcast is 9767391.

For further information, please contact:

Doug Moore

Chief Financial Officer

(905) 335-7580

ir@evertz.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/52967
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 21:07:34|Editor: xuxin

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MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreed Friday to examine the possibility of meeting in the near future to discuss the situation in Syria's Idlib, the Kremlin has said in a statement.

It said the two leaders had a phone conversation at the initiative of the Turkish side, exchanging their views on the situation in Syria, where dozens of Turkish soldiers have been killed in recent airstrikes.

They also expressed serious concerns over the escalation of tensions in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, the statement said.

Both sides emphasized the need for additional measures to normalize the situation in northwestern Syria. They also agreed to step up relevant interagency consultations, and work out the possibility of holding a top-level meeting in the near future, it added.

The two sides also emphasized the importance of improving coordination through the ministries of defense of the two countries.
EastEnders Ben Mitchell faces serious danger as he steps out in front of a speeding motorbike after failing to hear it coming.

The character, played by Max Bowden, recently lost almost all of his hearing after hitting his head in the boat crash which claimed young Denny Mitchell's life.

Spoiler pictures for Friday's episode of the BBC soap show Ben's mum Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) rushing forward to rescue him - but will she make it on time?

Danger ahead: EastEnders Ben Mitchell faces serious danger as he steps out in front of a speeding motorbike after failing to hear it coming

Ben suffered a severe injury during explosive 35th anniversary scenes, when after a fight with Keanu Taylor, he fell overboard into the Thames.

As he surfaced he banged his head on the side of the boat, with doctors later confirming that the bad boy, who was already partially deaf from having meningitis as a child, had lost almost all of his hearing.

Amid the sad news, Ben had been distracted by the disappearance of his boyfriend Callum Highway, who had been kidnapped by Keanu.

But with the help of Callum's brother Stuart Highway and Ben's pal Jay Brown, the trio eventually find Callum alive.

Shock scenes: Spoiler pictures for Friday's episode of the BBC soap show Ben's mum Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) rushing forward to rescue him - but will she make it on time?

However, there looks to be more danger as Friday's episode sees Ben step into the path of danger as he fails to hear a motorbike zooming towards him.

Seeing the what's about to happen, his mum Kathy rushing towards him, terrified her son is about to be hit.

It comes as EastEnders are to introduce the first deaf character to help Ben cope with his hearing loss in the wake of the explosive boat crash episodes.

Frankie, played by soap newcomer Rose Ayling-Ellis, will be introduced to Walford after being put in touch with Ben via his boyfriend Callum Highway (Tony Clay).

And in a first for the soap, Frankie will communicate with Ben via sign language.

Sad: The character, played by Max Bowden, recently lost almost all of his hearing after hitting his head in the boat crash which claimed young Denny Mitchell's life

Executive producer Jon Sen stated: 'It has been a long time ambition of EastEnders to reflect the experience of the deaf community and Bens new story was the perfect opportunity to do that. We are thrilled to be working with Rose who will play the part of Frankie.'

While newcomer Rose, who will play Frankie, said: 'I am so excited to be joining the cast of EastEnders and I am equally proud to be one of the first Deaf actresses to be part of this iconic soap. I can't wait for everyone to meet Frankie.'

The new storyline was pitched by Charlie Swinbourne, a member of the writing team on the BBC soap.

Discussing the upcoming plot, he said: 'Creating a storyline and a character for EastEnders has been a lifelong dream of mine, so it's been an incredible experience to work with the EastEnders team over the last few months.

Injury: It comes as EastEnders are to introduce the first deaf character to help Ben cope with his hearing loss in the wake of the explosive boat crash episodes

Newcomer: Frankie, played by soap newcomer Rose Ayling-Ellis, will be introduced to Walford after being put in touch with Ben via his boyfriend Callum Highway (Tony Clay)

'Being deaf myself, and a fan of the show from an early age, I've always looked out for Ben Mitchell's character because he was the one who wore hearing aids! I wanted to explore how losing more of his hearing affects Ben, as well as how it makes him see the world - and his deaf identity - a bit differently as time goes on.

'I also wanted to see deaf characters and sign language become a part of Albert Square, because we see so little representation of deafness in mainstream media. I'm really excited to see this story reach the screen.'

The new storyline will explore what it means to be deaf in the UK today and will shine a spotlight of the experiences and challenges deaf people deal with.

For the new plot, EastEnders worked closely with the the National Deaf Childrens Society to ensure the it is played out as accurately as possible.

Changes: In the wake of boat crash disaster, the BBC soap are set to introduce its very first deaf character, who help the bad boy (played by Max Bowden) deal with his loss of hearing

Rosie Eggleston, who leads the National Deaf Childrens Societys work with deaf young people said: 'From my work with so many deaf young people up and down the country, Ive heard time and time again how demoralising it is for them to never see themselves, their stories or their life experiences reflected in the TV programmes they love.

'This major new storyline on EastEnders could turn that on its head, and its an important step towards making deaf peoples lives more visible and better understood.

'Its been brilliant to put the team at EastEnders in touch with deaf young people because theyve been able to hear first-hand what its like to grow up deaf in the UK today. For the UKs 50,000 deaf children and young people, representation like this is just so important.'

EastEnders continues Friday at 8.30pm on BBC One.
By John Goldstein

For decades, dreams of a Newark renaissance have been shattered by the reality of major challenges. We have a high poverty rate and low number of homeowners. Even the massive public investment in the Prudential Center and the Performing Arts Center seemed unable to light a fire under the local economy.

As the city and the nation recovered from the recession, momentum began to build. Panasonic and Audible moved their corporate headquarters to Newark, and Prudential built a gleaming new tower. Parts of downtown awoke, with new luxury apartments, celebrity chef-owned restaurants, Whole Foods and a Nike store.

Real estate speculation, especially downtown, resulted in massive sales like the Pavilion apartments, a $70 million project, and Newarks Gateway Center, a $300 million project.

Rents began to rise for both long-time residents and commercial tenants. Empty storefronts popped up on Broad Street and Ferry Street. The local flavor of Halsey Street was replaced with chain restaurants and upscale apartments. Artist spaces disappeared.

At the same time, there were fewer public housing availability. Buildings with low rents deteriorated to the point that the city shut them down as uninhabitable. Many Newarkers who had a decent place to live began to wonder if there was an affordable future here for them.

When Mayor Ras Baraka was elected in 2014, he began a civic discussion of how to prevent Newark from becoming the next Brooklyn (or Jersey City, or Hoboken). It is a very important discussion.

The mayor and the city council passed a series of policies that point in the right direction, including inclusionary zoning, tax abatement standards, and right to counsel for low-income residents facing eviction. The mayor has even talked about a guaranteed income for residents.

A group of residents, organized as Homes for All Newark, gathered 1,800 signatures to successfully strengthen the citys rent control ordinance.

By 2019, there were very few results to show for all these good intentions. The city administration was routinely exempting projects from complying with the affordable housing requirements of the Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance. The Affordable Housing Trust Fund wasnt incentivizing new affordable housing, and only 519 properties were registered with the Rent Control Office.

During the first six years of the Baraka administration, there had been four directors of Economic Development. No one had focused on implementing and enforcing major initiatives needed to ensure affordable housing for all Newark residents. The Office of Economic Development had become a deal-making enterprise, facilitating any and all variances and exemptions developers wanted.

In the summer of 2019, the mayor announced the hiring of a new deputy mayor for economic development - the fifth one to hold this position. There was a high degree of cynicism among city hall observers based on the high turnover and poor results of the previous directors.

Allison Ladd was recruited from Washington, DC. In a few months, the change is dramatic. Ms. Ladds resume and accomplishments include:

Roots in community activism, understanding the need to engage residents in developing housing policies that meet their needs.

Expertise in housing development and finance, with several new low-income buildings already in the works.

Smart ideas on dedicated funding streams to scale up very-low income projects.

Examining new legislation like rent control for small local businesses that are already at risk of being pushed out.

Champion of government transparency, with major improvements in the departments website making details of every new project easily accessible to residents.

Decisions that are driven by metrics and results.

Honesty about department shortcomings, already increasing the number of buildings registered for rent control by 584% and beefing up the code enforcement staff.

Filled key staff positions with highly qualified people, in some cases promoting experienced individuals within the department.

A vision for how we move forward together on the broadly shared goals of housing justice.

It is rare that one person can make such a difference in such a short period of time, especially in transforming a city bureaucracy. No city has succeeded in achieving development without displacement. Deputy Mayor Ladd has only been here six months, but she is leading us in the right direction.

John Goldstein is a facilitator for Homes For All Newark, a coalition of community organizations and activists supporting housing policies that allow development without displacing current residents. Coalition members are renters and homeowners from all parts of the city.

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.
Move a big relief for family of stranded Odisha engineer.

In this handout photo provided by ITBP, 112 evacuees including 36 foreign nationals who were airlifted from Wuhan, China, following out-break of the deadly novel coronavirus, being quarantined by the ITBP Quarantine Facility, at Chhawla Camp in New Delhi on Thursday. (Photo: PTI)

BERHAMPUR: The family members of Shivasis Nayak, an engineer from Odisha, on Thursday breathed a sigh of relief following his safe return to India after remaining stranded for few weeks on board a Coronavirus-hit cruise ship off Japan coast. Nayak, who hails from Berhampur, along with 118 Indians and five foreigners were on Thursday evacuated from the ship Diamond Princess and brought to the Delhi from Tokyo in a special Air India flight.

As the news of evacuation of the Indians reached here, the family members of Shivasis erupted in joy. The parents of the young engineer visited the Shirdi Sai temple in the locality and offered prayers. He was stranded in the ship since February 4. For the last 22 days, he survived on fruits. Now we are very happy that he returned to India safely. I would like to thank God, the Indian government and the media persons for safe return of my son, Lingaraj Nayak, father of Shivasis told reporters here.

My son has been tested negative for Coronavirus. As he returned to India, he will again undergo test, he added.

Echoing similar sentiment, mother of Shivasis said, We were spending sleepless nights since my son was trapped.
Adolf Hitler's admiration for German composer Richard Wagner is well-documented, but that the Nazi dictator attempted to write an opera himself will come as a surprise to many. Nevertheless, a page of the work, entitled "Wieland der Schmied" (Wieland the Smith), goes on display to the public for the first time in a new exhibition on the "Young Hitler" opening in Austria this weekend. A piano sketch of the first page, made by one of Hitler's few friends as a young man, August Kubizek, dates from 1908 when the future Nazi leader would have been around 20. Long speculated about, but never before seen in public, the manuscript was apparently written after Hitler had had only a few months of piano lessons, says Christian Rapp, one of the exhibition's curators. And it clearly demonstrated the future dictator's "inflated sense of his own abilities", Rapp told AFP. The single sheet is believed to be the only surviving page of an ambitious project based on Germanic mythology that closely apes an unfinished work of the same name by Wagner himself. The exhibition, entitled "Young Hitler: the Formative Years of a Dictator", opens in Sankt Poelten in Lower Austria on Saturday and among the exhibits is a range of objects belonging to Hitler collected by Kubizek between 1907 and 1920. - Grandiose delusions - Kubizek initially kept them as mementos of his own youth before later realising they might be of historical importance. They include letters and postcards written by Hitler to Kubizek, as well as paintings and architectural sketches by the young man -- who was born on April 20, 1889 in the Austrian town of Braunau am Inn and whose artistic abilities regularly fell short of his grandiose ambitions. He sat the entrance examination for admission to Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts in both 1907 and 1908, but failed both times. Nevertheless, Hitler was always quick to find a scapegoat for his failures, said Rapp. "Whenever something went wrong, it was always somebody else's fault, not his own," the expert said. Co-curator Hannes Leidinger said that even those who knew Hitler at a tender age in Austria testified to his "intransigent, aggressive" character. For Rapp, the young Hitler "was already 'a bomb', if you like. World War I provided the fuse and then it was ignited in Germany -- but you can make out the ingredients during his time here in Austria". In addition to tracing Hitler's personal history, the exhibition also seeks to explore the political and social context in Austria at the turn of the 20th century. In particular, it tries to explain how many of the ideas that would gain such prominence in Nazi ideology -- racism, anti-Semitism, militarism -- had long since reached the mainstream of Austrian society, including among sections of the left. Austria has had a complex relationship with its Nazi past. For decades after World War II, successive Austrian governments insisted the country was a victim of the Nazi regime and sought to downplay the complicity of many Austrians in the Nazis' crimes. The curators said they hoped the exhibition would help shed light on Hitler's character, and also dispel the ideas that underpinned his genocidal ideology. "Ways of thinking take so long to become widespread in a society, and they take as long to be dismantled... we will have work at that for decades," Rapp said.
In workplaces that do not encourage belonging, the consequences for some employees can be long-lasting.

People forgetting your name. People confusing you for someone else, making subtle comments about your background, where you are from, the food you eat, your cultural traditions. These can be daily cuts at a persons dignity in the workplace, says Lo Surdo.

But it can also be uncomfortable for the beneficiaries of inequality. There is definitely discomfort knowing youre being treated more favourably for reasons that have nothing to do with your work.

Space should be created for conversations around these experiences and provide a language for them to occur in a way that is respectful, constructive and aims to heal rather than create divisions.

Environment Victoria is one Australian workplace where Democracy in Colour has delivered training.

Leading environmental campaigns is tough. Its high stress, its high stakes and it constantly draws down on your reserves of empathy, courage and patience, says Jonathon La Nauze, CEO of Environment Victoria.

There is no way we could do this work if we didnt hold each other close and back each other. I think what the notion of belonging gets at is that we always need to make sure a tight-knit team is also an open team that actively embraces, empowers and learns from newcomers and different worldviews.

Organisations where people bring their whole selves to work have higher satisfaction and lower turnover. Credit:Getty.

For organisations that are committed to creating an environment of belonging the road can be long, but results will prove it to be a worthy one to take.

We are just at the start of this journey. The real test will be when we look back in three- or five-years time to see if its led to deep and sustained change, and whether thats made us a more powerful and effective organisation, says La Nauze.

This is a sentiment echoed by experts: organisations where people can bring their whole selves to work do not just have higher satisfaction, lower absenteeism and less turnover. They are more efficient and impactful in delivering on their mission, and they speak to broader sections of society.

Australian employees desire and deserve to bring their authentic selves to the workplace, and to feel safe and supported by their employers to do just that, says Munro.

He believes organisations that actively listen to their employees and create relevant policies in response should see greater engagement, productivity, and innovation, contributing to better business outcomes.

Munro adds: Additionally, those employers who are able to instil a sense of belonging amongst their employees will certainly improve their employer brand and potential for hiring top Australian talent.

Is company culture important to you? Indeeds handy Company Pages feature makes researching organisations simple. You can read reviews from real employees and discover what its like to work at a particular business (and whether it fits with the kind of culture that will help you to thrive) before applying to work there.
Britain's gambling watchdog is failing to protect gamers from falling into addiction, the government spending watchdog warns today.

In a damning report, the National Audit Office (NAO) said the Gambling Commission is not big enough to tame the 11billion industry in the UK.

The small regulator only has a 19million budget to tackle a dynamic and rapidly changing sector, it said.

In the wake of the report, the Church of England branded the regulator clunky, dated and chronically short of money.

The NAO found the commission was failing to keep up with the pace of technological change  as it struggles to recruit skilled staff to deal with increasingly complex cases involving addictive online apps and sites.

The Commission still does not fully understand how mobile gambling causes addiction, added the NAO.

In a damning report, the National Audit Office (NAO) said the Gambling Commission is not big enough to tame the 11billion industry in the UK (stock image)

It said the regulator understood it had a clear aim to make gambling safer, but was unable to explain in detail exactly what it is doing to achieve that. It has, for example, never set any targets to bring down the number of UK addicts from 340,000.

The Commissions sluggish approach to protecting consumers from predatory practices has meant, in some cases, it has taken many years to implement change.

For example, it told the Government that rules on fixed odds betting terminals needed to be tightened in 2013  but the law was not changed until 2018.

The report said: The Gambling Commission is a small regulator in a challenging and dynamic industry. The Commission is unlikely to be fully effective in addressing risks and harms to consumers within current arrangements.

The industry has grown by 4billion in real terms in the past decade, but the Commission, an industry-funded quango, can only ask for more money every four years.

But despite the shortfall, it has never laid out what resources it needs to carry out its work, the report said. In recent years, the Commission has fined more operators, handing out nine penalties totalling 19.6million in 2018-19  but the report said it was unclear whether these fines are an effective deterrent.

Last year, GVC, which owns Ladbrokes and Coral, was fined 5.9million for failing to protect vulnerable customers  a fraction of its 2.9billion revenue.

There are 340,000 problem gamblers and 55,000 children suffering with a gambling addiction, hitting the public purse by up to 1.2billion

Last night, Labour MP Carolyn Harris, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on gambling, said: The Government must urgently intervene to ensure that the gambling industry, particularly the online sector, parts of which seem to operate like the wild-west, is properly regulated and that consumers are protected.

And The Lord Bishop of St Albans, Dr Alan Smith, said: Many of us in Parliament are stunned by the sheer magnitude and scale of gambling firms profits when the regulator, reliant on their funding, seems clunky, dated and chronically short of money.

There are 340,000 problem gamblers and 55,000 children suffering with a gambling addiction, hitting the public purse by up to 1.2billion.

The Gambling Commission responded: We agree with the reports assessment that we face the significant challenge of regulating a dynamic and developing industry. It also underlines the constraints that our current funding arrangements presents and we are developing proposals to discuss this with DCMS [The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport].




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LEVI, Finland  Utter darkness. It is around 6 p.m. in the Arctic Circle and blowing fat tufts of snow. The LED headlamps on the Porsche Carrera 4S barely pierce the icy path, a steeply pitched logging road. Yet Im full-blast on the gas, eyes straining, realizing just in time that a closing-radius switchback turn is fast approaching.

Pointing the nose to the outside of the turn, I cram hard on the brake, wrench the steering wheel left and feel the rear wheels break away. The car goes sideways, and now Im steering while looking out the side window. Get back on the gas and straighten your hands on the wheel, I urge myself, as the Porsche slides through the darkness.

Im too wide, and the rear three-quarters of the 911 crashes into a soft snowbank. I add more throttle and the all-wheel-drive system scrabbles through the powder, freeing the car, undamaged. I exhale forcefully. Ive been driving on iced-over forest roads for about seven hours today, and my dopamine receptors need a break.

The school that rules

Every manufacturer seems to offer an ice-driving experience these days. The majority take place on frozen lakes or flat expanses in the mountains. Weve taken part in a number of them over the years, including Porsches Camp4 in Canada, and theyre generally both a good time and an excellent way to hone car control.

But the Porsche Ice Experience near Levi, Finland, is the ice experience to rule them all. It may in fact be the ultimate example of any of the global Porsche customer experiences on offer, eclipsing even a three-day race school in 911 Cup cars I attended at Barber Motorsports in Alabama.

The top-tier Ice Force Pro program gives participants a full three days of driving, starting each day in the Arctic darkness around 9 a.m. and ending after 6 p.m., some three hours after the sun has fallen below the horizon. Daytime may be scant, but drive time is not. None of the drivers in our five-person run group is sharing a car, and we get more than 20 hours of actual seat time. Imagine doing that on an tarmac racetrack.

Story continues

The 7,290 euro price (~$8,000) includes everything except travel. Having a car to yourself is an additional 5,500 euro (~$6,050). Worth it, in my estimation  if youre flying all the way to very remote Finland, the extra hours of drive time lead to a superior level of muscle memory.

What you'll drive

Which brings us to the cars. The new-generation AWD 911 4S is the mainstay, fitted with Nokian Hakkapeliitta 8 tires and 4-mm studs. We also get a four-hour stint in naturally aspirated, rear-wheel-drive 911 GT3s, again with 4-mm studs.

More novel is a chance to send the brand new, all-electric Taycan spinning around the ice, an electric whine in your ears and crazy amounts of torque looking for grip. (The Taycans get only 1.5-mm studs, requiring more gentle applications of throttle.)

Most incredible of all is the time spent with the 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport, a genuine race car. Its toothy 5-mm studs translate to great grip and the ability to drive it like a hybrid of traditional racing lines and rally-style flicks. The cars have full race cages and five-point harnesses. Its the only car in which a helmet is required, as is a HANS device.

Far more than a frozen lake

Lest you think that all the driving is done on flat, featureless, frozen lakes, imagine a massive drifting campus transported to the Planet Hoth, and youre getting there.

Its hard to even describe the size of the damn place. There are 76 acres spread across a pristine, snow-skimmed forest. Secreted within that landscape are 41 separate driving courses, each plated with carefully cultivated ice. Many of these are rally-style stages, some miles long. The forest roads are narrow, wending through the trees and over hills and crests, demanding that you navigate through off-camber twists and fast straights.

Its an adrenalized way to focus on driving skills and negotiate the different drive systems among cars. Mistakes send you into (thankfully soft) snow walls. Get it really wrong and a Cayman is always on hand to tow you out, after having to awkwardly announce your mistake to the rest of your driving group via radio. (Spin-spin-spin!)

Learning new behavior

Piloting the 4S may be best described as an intellectual exercise. You want to get around U-shaped corners in a manner that puts the nose pointing toward the exit. That means getting the car turned early by inducing significant sideways action. Pitch the car hard, under braking, and then open your hands to neutral and get back on the throttle.

Those last two points are utterly counterintuitive, and can mean your brain is often arguing with your primal instincts (which are telling you to counter-steer, stop the slide, and get off the gas). Once you get it right consistently, you can pretty much keep the 4S sideways for as long as you like by working the throttle.

The GT3, conversely, is utterly intuitive to anyone with sufficient rear-wheel-drive experience. It only takes a quick twist of wheel and a sharp shot of throttle to get the car sideways. The side-to-side weight loads and unloads beautifully, leading to dramatic and incredibly fun pendulum turns. My active brain shut off, allowing for quick hands and relaxed shoulders. The steering is tactile, the brakes ideal, the weight perfect. Heaven is something like the GT3 on ice in a beautiful forest, me thinks.

My time in the Taycan is short, and somewhat frustrating. Its a far heavier car than, say, the Cayman Clubsport, and Porsche purposely put smaller studs on the tires to reduce grip. Otherwise, the instructors said, it is just too fast on the ice. It goes sideways easily, and one gets the sense of the low center of gravity the batteries sit below the floorboards  and of the vast and instant reservoirs of torque. Its a monster on tarmac, but not ideal on ice.

Which brings me to the 718 Cayman GT4, probably the best example of this most maximum of Porsche experiences. The sun has only recently risen, and we are piloting our race cars on a medium-length, very-tight track. The snowbanks are tall, and the straights long enough to get a heady amount of speed.

I dont think Ive driven anything so directed and delightful on slippery surfaces. The car blurs down a straight, shedding snow under its tires. But with the longer spikes, you can wait until the last moment to brake, the pedal underneath your foot solid and stiff.

Then you twist the wheel in a sudden way that youd never attempt at this speed on asphalt, and the world blurs into white as the deftly balanced mid-engine machine pivots, sluices through a corner completely sideways, leaving the nose pointing down the next straight. Power on.

The noise is racecar rattle and stressed six-cylinder boxer behind my head, and the sound of tires scraping on ice. It is the sound of crazy freedom in a faraway place. Of the chance to do really crazy things in high-dollar Porsches. Of the ice experience thats a snowpile above the rest.
Nigeria on Friday announced the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa. The case is an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and returned from Milan earlier this week, Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said in a statement on Twitter. "The patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos," Ehanire said. Italy has become a hotbed of infection in recent days, with the largest outbreak in Europe. But the low number of cases across Africa, which has close economic ties with China, the epicentre of the deadly outbreak, has puzzled health specialists. Prior to the case in Nigeria, there had been just two cases across the continent -- in Egypt and Algeria. The World Health Organization warned earlier this week that African health systems were ill-equipped to respond should cases start to proliferate on the continent. However, Ehanire said the government had been working to ensure an outbreak is "controlled and contained quickly". "I wish to assure all Nigerians that... we have been beefing up our preparedness capabilities since the first confirmation of cases in China," he said. "We have already started working to identify all the contacts of the patient since he entered Nigeria." The outbreak, which began in December, has already killed more than 2,800 people and infected more than 78,000 in China. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the spread of the virus to countries with weaker health systems was "our biggest concern". "These patients require intensive care using equipment such as respiratory support machines that are, as you know, in short supply in many African countries and that's a cause for concern," he said. Several African carriers including Kenya Airways have suspended flights to China, although the continent's biggest airline Ethiopian Airlines has kept its China routes open.
Seattle, WA -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/28/2020 -- Kombucha, also known as tea mushroom or tea fungus, is a fermented, slightly alcoholic and effervescent, sweetened black or green tea drink, which is commonly consumed for its supposed health benefits. It consists of a variety of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. Kombucha is a nutrient-rich drink, fermented with a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY). SCOBY consumes up to 90% of sugar during the fermentation process, making a low-sugar end product. The Kombucha drink is rapidly gaining popularity worldwide due to its significant health benefits, and is available across numerous food stores and grocery stores. Kombucha can also be brewed at home using methods, such as continuous brew and batch methods. Kombucha manufacturers are currently looking to produce new flavors, with appealing advertisements to fetch consumers.



Request to Get the PDF Sample of the Report: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-pdf/873



Increasing awareness about the health benefits of nutritional beverages and their surging demand are driving the growth of the global Kombucha market. Major beverage brands focusing on the manufacture of this drink is another favorable factor for market growth. However, the harmful impact of alcohol content in beverages is a major restraint for the global market growth.



Global Kombucha Market Taxonomy



On the basis of product type:

- Yeast

- Bacteria

- Mold

- Others

On the basis of flavor:

- Herbs & Spices

- Berries

- Citrus

- Flowers

- Apple, Mango, and Coconut

- Others

By distribution channel:

- Supermarkets

- Health Stores

- Online Stores



Global Kombucha Market  Geographical Outlook



North America is projected to be the most dominant region in the global Kombucha market. The U.S. is likely to contribute to the largest market share in the upcoming years. Increasing awareness about the health benefits of this drink is fueling market growth in this region. The American Cancer Society stated that this beverage has been promoted country-wide as a cure-all for a range of health issues, such as baldness, cancer, AIDS, insomnia, arthritis, and intestinal disorders. The Latin America has witnessed moderate growth in the recent years, owing to the increasing demand for healthy drinks in the economies of Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, and Brazil.

The Asia Pacific region has witnessed a magnificent growth rate and holds the second largest market share in the global kombucha market, owing to the growing population and increasing demand in the emerging economies of India and China. Kombucha's origin in this region makes it the fastest-growing market, with low production and processing costs. Furthermore, the European Kombucha market is estimated to witness moderate growth, owing to the increasing government regulations in the region that are hampering market growth.



Global Kombucha Market  Key Players



The major companies operating in the global kombucha market include Reed's Inc., Millennium Products Inc., Revive Kombucha, The Hain Celestial Group, Kosmic Kombucha, Buchi Kombucha, Townshend' Tea Company, Gt's Kombucha, and The Humm Kombucha LLC.



Reportedly, Hain Celestial Group Inc. launched kombucha energy shots in 2011. Moreover, Whole Foods and Wal-Mart, along with numerous other retailers, have merged with the leading brewing companies for the global distribution of this beverage.



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Key Developments



- On March 5, 2019, Revive Kombucha announced the launch of Revive Sparkling Kombucha, a traditionally fermented, organic, and shelf-stable craft brew. This drink is available in 12 ounce cans with a variety of flavors such as Mango Orange, Cherry Hibiscus, Strawberry Lemon, and Citrus Ginger. This product was launched in order to attract the health conscious customers.



- On August 13, 2018, Brew Dr. Kombucha, U.S., announced the launch of its fall season, limited edition kombucha, Harvest. This limited-edition Harvest was launched in different flavors including apricot, and tarragon. This launch included products with organic and raw ingredients, which is further expected to attract the health conscious customers in the U.S.
Dallas, TX, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dickeys Barbecue Pit beans are now available online for barbecue fans and everyday pit masters to enjoy at home. Dickeys offers five different varieties of beans including Original Barbecue Beans, Jalapeno Barbecue Beans, Texas Barbecue Beans, Brown Sugar Hickory Beans and Sweet Molasses Beans.

Our focus is to share our great authentic, Texas flavor with folks across the globe and so were excited to offer our down-home, delicious barbecue beans to Dickeys fans everywhere, says Laura Rea Dickey, CEO of Dickeys Barbecue Restaurants Inc.

Dickeys offers a wide collection of authentic, Texas-style beans, sausages, spices, rubs, sauces and hardwood pellets online for the everyday pit master to enjoy at home. Barbecue fans can also visit athome.dickeys.com to find a variety of recipes including a Barbecue Bloody Mary, Smoked Caramel Pecan French Toast Casserole, Salted Coffee Brisket with Barbecue Onions and more.

Visit Athome.Dickeys.com to purchase products and discover exclusive content including recipes, deals and find a participating retailer near you. Find your nearest Dickeys Barbecue Pit location here. Find more information about national and international franchise opportunities here.

Follow Dickeys on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Download the Dickeys App from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

About Dickeys Barbecue Restaurants, Inc.

Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc., the worlds largest barbecue concept, was founded in 1941 by Travis Dickey. For the past 79 years, Dickeys Barbecue Pit has served millions of guests Legit. Texas. Barbecue. At Dickeys, all our barbecued meats are smoked on-site in a hickory wood burning pit. Dickeys proudly believes theres no shortcut to true barbecue and its why they never say bbq. The Dallas-based family-run barbecue franchise offers several slow-smoked meats and wholesome sides with 'No B.S. (Bad Stuff)' included. The fast-casual concept has expanded worldwide with 2 international locations in the UAE and operates over 500 locations in 44 states. In 2016, Dickeys won first place on Fast Casuals Top 100 Movers and Shakers list and was named a Top 500 Franchise by Entrepreneur in 2018. Dickey's Barbecue Pit has also been recognized by Fox News, Franchise Times, The Wall Street Journal, QSR Magazine, Forbes Magazine and Nations Restaurant News. For more information, visit www.dickeys.com.
MINNEAPOLIS, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On Wednesday, February 26th over 200 Minnesota students from more than 30 Minnesota communities met with organizers from YEA! MN, a youth-led program of Climate Generation: A Will Steger Legacy. The Youth Climate Justice Summit 2020, an annual event since its inception in 2007, trains students to work with legislators and lobby for legislation concerning climate change and social justice, and network with youth activists across the state. Participants at the Summit, held at the Good Neighbor Center in St. Paul, also met with several Minnesota state legislators at the State Capitol to discuss issues surrounding climate change and social justice.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan addressed the group in the early afternoon. Governor Walz' impassioned speech regarding the protection of First Amendment rights and the activation of youth for climate and other issues was met with enthusiastic applause from the group.

Event organizers from YEA! MN include a team of youth involved in leadership programs focused on climate literacy, political education and organizing skills to support student action on climate change solutions. Students from many schools attend this event as a field trip aligning with education standards in science and social studies.

"Youth leadership is uniquely important for putting pressure on policymakers to advance environmental justice," said Sarah Goodspeed, Youth & Policy Manager for Climate Generation. "They're taking their future into their own hands, and with an issue like climate change that intersects every other aspect of our lives, their voice is critical to listen to and take action alongside."

About YEA! MN: The Youth Environmental Activists of Minnesota (YEA! MN)  a program of Climate Generation: A Will Steger Legacy  is a network of high school students taking action for a just transition to a resilient climate future for all. For more information visit YeaMn.org

About Climate Generation: Climate Generation: A Will Steger Legacy empowers individuals and their communities to engage in solutions to climate change. Building on the experience of our founder, polar explorer and Will Steger, Climate Generation works with educators, youth, communities, and influentials to build climate literacy and promote a solutions-oriented approach to addressing climate change. For more information, visit climategen.org , follow us on Twitter , Facebook and Instagram , and view stories about our work on YouTube .

SOURCE Climate Generation: A Will Steger Legacy

Related Links

http://www.climategen.org


A day ahead of signing of a landmark peace deal between the US and the Taliban, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Friday travelled to Kabul and conveyed India's unstinted support to a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.

The foreign secretary held talks with acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Haroon Chakhansuri and apprised him about India's views on the peace deal as well as its commitment for all-round development of the country.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said Shringla and Chakhansur reviewed and positively assessed developments in bilateral strategic partnership.

The US and the Taliban are set to sign a peace deal at a ceremony in Doha on Saturday which will provide for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan nearly 18 years after their deployment in the country.

"Foreign Secretary conveyed India's support for the people of Afghanistan in their pursuit for sustainable peace, security and development," Kumar tweeted.

India has been a key stakeholder in the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

India's Ambassador to Qatar P Kumaran is slated to attend the ceremony where the US and Taliban will strike the peace deal.

It will be for the first time India will officially attend an event involving the Taliban.

India has been a key stakeholder in the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

In a significant move, India had sent two former diplomats in "non-official" capacity to a conference on Afghan peace process in Moscow in November 2018.

The conference organised by Russia was attended by a high-level Taliban delegation, representatives of Afghanistan as well as from several other countries, including the US, Pakistan and China.

Major powers such as the US, Russia and Iran have been reaching out to the Taliban as part of efforts to push the stalled Afghan peace process.

India has been supporting a national peace and reconciliation process which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan controlled.

India has also been maintaining that care should be taken to ensure that any such process does not lead to any "ungoverned spaces" where terrorists and their proxies can relocate.

Ahead of peace deal, India has conveyed to the US that pressure on Pakistan to crack down on terror networks operating from its soil must be kept up though Islamabad's cooperation for peace in Afghanistan is crucial.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Comments came as Delhi this week witnessed worst riots in more than three decades, killing 38 people and injuring 200 others

Washington: The US has urged India to "protect and respect" the right to peaceful assembly of people and hold accountable those perpetrating violence in Delhi over the amended Citizenship act, saying that Washington has raised the issue at the highest level with New Delhi.

The comments came as Delhi this week witnessed worst riots in more than three decades, killing 38 people and injuring 200 others.The communal clashes began in northeast Delhi over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and spiralled into bloodshed.

The Indian Parliament had passed CAA last year, resulting in a series of protests across the country.

According to the CAA, members of the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till 31 December, 2014 following religious persecution there will get Indian citizenship.

The Indian government has been emphasising that the new law will not deny citizenship rights, but it has been brought to protect the oppressed minorities of neighbouring countries and give them citizenship.

We strongly condemn the recent violence and urge authorities to protect and respect the right of peaceful assembly and hold accountable those perpetrating violence. We call on all parties to maintain peace and refrain from violence, a State Department spokesperson told PTI.

We have raised these issues at the highest levels and continue to engage the Government of India on issues related to religious freedom, the official said responding to a question.

Underlining that respect for religious freedom and equal treatment under the law are fundamental principles of the two democracies, the official said,"We note Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for peace and the Indian government's pledge to prevent further violence and restore normalcy."

Modi appealed for calm and peace in Delhi on 26 February.

"Peace and harmony are central to our ethos. I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood at all times. It is important that there is calm and normalcy is restored at the earliest," he tweeted.

Democrat Colin Allred said that a democracy is only made stronger by its inclusion and respect for the rights of minorities. "India is the largest secular democracy in the world. This violence and suppression of Muslims' civil liberties undermines India's values and risks a wider conflict, Allred said.

Democratic Party leader Bob Menendez, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, termed the violence as shocking and urged the Indian government to do more to defend all of its citizens' rights, including the right to peaceful protest.

He also condemned president Donald Trump's failure to "publicly voice concern" about the violence during his visit to India. The clashes in the Indian capital erupted during Trump's two-day visit to India from 24 February.

"The US must be a leading voice in standing up for democratic values and human rights, including protection of religious minorities. I urge the Trump Administration, and the rest of the international community, to condemn the violence in Delhi and press the Indian government to protect all persons in India regardless of their religion, he said.

Indian-American Neera Tanden, who heads the Center for American Progress think-tank said that "the violence against Muslims in India" is horrifying and destroys India's role as a beacon for democracy in Asia.

The Modi government's actions have created this climate and it must put an end to this. India as we know it is changing for the worse before our eyes, Democrat Tanden said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in a statement, urged the US government to strongly condemn the violence in Delhi.

The international community, including the US, must speak out against the growing sectarian attacks in India fuelled by anti-Muslim legislation and hate rhetoric emanating from the highest levels of Indian society, CAIR said.

In a statement, Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) expressed serious concern over the violence. George Abraham, IOC vice-chairman, alleged that the inaction by the Delhi police is deeply troubling.

"The Indian Government should take stern action to ensure the security of all its citizens, he said. Rajendar Display, IOC general secretary, hoped that the Modi government would concentrate on reviving the economy and addressing the issue of unemployment, especially amongst the educated, instead of raking up divisive issues.

He said that India could achieve progress only when there is peace and all communities work together.
PORT ARANSAS, Texas, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Phillips 66 and Trafigura Group Pte. Ltd have announced that they have formed a 50/50 joint venture, Bluewater Texas Terminal LLC ("Bluewater Texas"), to develop an offshore deepwater port project located approximately 21 nautical miles east of the entrance to the Port of Corpus Christi.

The Port Aransas Conservancy (PAC) has long supported an offshore oil export terminal in contrast to plans by the Port of Corpus Christi Authority (PCCA) to build an onshore terminal on Harbor Island at the mouth of the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. An onshore terminal would require very deep dredging from 10 miles offshore to a site next to an ecologically sensitive estuary. The potential environmental and economic damage from an oil export terminal and other infrastructure on Harbor Island to Port Aransas, to Harbor Island and to the Aransas and Corpus Christi Bays is unprecedented and completely unnecessary.

The Port Aransas Conservancy applauds Phillips 66 and Trafigura's plans to build an offshore single-point mooring (SPM) oil export terminal. There are over 600 such terminals worldwide and they have an outstanding safety record, avoiding the traffic congestion, wake and environmental damage that an onshore terminal inevitably entails.

The Port Aransas Conservancy supports the Bluewater Texas terminal and looks forward to working with the principals to ensure that it is constructed in the most environmentally sensitive manner possible.

About the Port Aransas Conservancy

The Port Aransas Conservancy is a 501(c)(4) environmental advocacy non-profit whose goal is to foster a balance of conservation and economically sustainable uses for Port Aransas and its surrounding neighborhood and waterways while recognizing that our community and economy is dependent on tourism and fisheries within a healthy barrier island coastal ecosystem.

Media Contact:

John Donovan

[email protected]

512-673-9585

SOURCE Port Aransas Conservancy
Famous Knife Angel sculpture to visit Wrexham later this summer

This article is old - Published: Friday, Feb 28th, 2020

The famous Knife Angel will be visiting Wrexham this summer as part of its tour across the UK.

The sculpture, which is made up of over 100,000 seized knives, will be on display in the town throughout July.

It aims to raise awareness over the negative effects that violent behaviour and knife crime can have.

The announcement was made by the British Ironworks yesterday, with a statement explaining that the organisation had recently met with Council Leader Mark Pritchard and councillor Terry Evans, lead member for economic regeneration.

The statement continues onto say: The Maddocks and McNeil families, both from the Wrexham area, were the first to step forward during the Knife Angels creation to provide us with the local support and encouragement needed to know that we were doing the right thing through our Save A Life, Surrender Your Knife campaign.

In 2013, Craig Maddocks was brutally attacked in a Wrexham pub and, in the same year, Lisa McNeils son, Danny Jones, was fatally stabbed in Oswestry.

Carrying Craig and Dannys stories with them, both families gave us the peace of mind needed to continue the Angels creation and further highlighted our reasoning behind creating the monument and its coinciding message against all forms of violence.

The angels time in Wrexham will also include a 28-days of intensive educational programmes and workshops for young people.

Host locations are asked to utilise the angel as a point of tuition in order to ignite conversation over difficult subjects surrounding aggressive behaviour, carrying weaponry, and using violence as a resource for addressing problems.

Following Newtowns success with their campaign, Wrexham will also be committed to hopefully deputising a minimum of 10,000 children and young people into becoming Anti-Violence Champions.

Additionally, Wrexham will be provided with a knife bank during the angels stay. Following their hosting period, all blades collected through this amnesty will be handed back to ourselves by the North Wales Police and will be used to create and continue the Angels legacy within Wales.

The British Ironworks state that it is currently in the process of mocking up designs with consideration of the Welsh dragon and other imagery synonymous with Wales.

The statement adds: With the Ironworks being so close to the North Wales border, Wrexham has a very special place in our hearts.

Tens of thousands of our members and visitors are from the Wrexham area and many have watched the Knife Angels journey since before its creation even began.

For the towns residents to see the Angel within their own community is truly exciting and we cant wait to see how they utilise the monument to benefit their region whilst creating the social change necessary to turn the tide on violence and aggression.

Picture: The British Ironwork Centre
An air strike by Syrian government forces in Syrias northwestern Idlib region killed 22 Turkish soldiers, the local governor in the southeastern province of Hatay said early on Friday.

Rahmi Dogan, the governor of Hatay, the Turkish province bordering Syrias Idlib region, said 22 soldiers were killed on Thursday.

He said several seriously wounded troops were being treated in hospitals.

A total of 25 Turkish soldiers were killed in Syria on Thursday, with another three reported dead in a separate incident earlier in the day.

Turkey warned on Friday it was opening the gates for refugees to flee to Europe after an air strike blamed on Damascus killed 33 Turkish soldiers in Syria.

The international community voiced fears of a rapidly-rising risk of escalation after the attack by Russian-backed Syrian forces in the province of Idlib, where President Bashar al-Assad is waging a bloody campaign to oust rebels from their last holdout.

The deadly bombardment has added to weeks of growing tensions between rebel supporter and NATO member Ankara and Damascus ally Moscow.

Adding to the tensions, Moscow announced that two of its warships were transitting Friday through the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul in plain sight of the city-

The UN has repeatedly warned that the fighting in Idlib could potentially create the most serious humanitarian crisis since the start of the civil war start in 2011.

But Russian vetoes, often backed by China, have chronically crippled UN action in Syria.

Turkey retaliated to Thursdays strike by hitting Damascus regime targets from the air and ground, President Recep Tayyip Erdogans communications director Fahrettin Altun said.

The United States condemned the Syrian action, and NATO said it would hold urgent talks on the crisis on Friday.

In a move that could have major repercussions for Turkeys neighbours to the west, Ankara said it would open the way for refugees to go to Europe.

We will no longer keep the doors closed for refugees who want to go to Europe, an official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

 Risk of bloodbath 

Turkey also called on the international community to establish a no-fly zone over Idlib, where regime forces have since December clawed back chunks of the region, forcing close to one million people to flee their homes and shelters amid bitter cold.

The United Nations said Monday that the latest fighting was coming dangerously close to encampments of the displaced, risking an imminent bloodbath.

Turkey, which is already home to around 3.6 million Syrian refugees, fears more people arriving in the country where there is growing popular discontent against their presence.

In a series of tweets, Altun accused Assad of conducting ethnic cleansing and seeking to drive millions of Syrians out of Idlib.

These people will try to escape to Turkey and Europe. Already hosting close to 4 million refugees, we do not have the capacity and resources to allow entry to another million, he wrote.

Groups of migrants have already moved towards western Turkey seeking to reach Greece, Turkeys private DHA news agency reported.

 Dangerous situation 

The international community voiced alarm over the latest violence in Idlib.

Without urgent action, the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement, reiterating Secretary General Antonio Guterress call for an immediate ceasefire.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg urged de-escalation by all parties of this dangerous situation and condemned the indiscriminate air strikes, in a phone call with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

A US State Department spokesperson said Washington stood by its NATO ally and continues to call for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces.

Under a 2018 deal with Russia meant to bring calm to Idlib, Turkey has 12 observation posts in the Idlib region  but several have come under fire from Assads forces.

In its first response to the Turkish deaths, Russias defence ministry said the troops were among terrorist groups and that they had not communicated their presence in the area.

Thursdays attack brings to 53 the number of Turkish security personnel killed in Idlib so far this month.

 More civilians killed 

Elswhere, jihadists and Turkish-backed rebels on Thursday re-entered Saraqeb, a key Idlib crossroads town they had lost earlier in February, reversing one of the main gains of the governments devastating offensive.

The counter-offensive could, however, be short-lived as Russian-backed Syrian troops continued to chip away at other parts of the rebel bastion, capturing 20 localities.

Seven civilians, including three children, were killed in regime and Russian bombardment of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding to more than 400 such deaths since December.

State news agency SANA acknowledged there were fierce clashes between the army and terrorist groups on the Saraqeb front.

An AFP correspondent accompanied the rebels into Saraqeb, where he found a ghost town of bombed out buildings.

The counter-attack temporarily reverses one of the key gains of the government since its offensive against the countrys last rebel enclave in December.

The cash-strapped government had been keen to fully secure the M5, a highway that connects Syrias four main cities and passes through Saraqeb.

The Syrian Observatory said the air strikes were carried out by Russia, heavily criticised by the West for the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign.

State media accused the terrorists of launching car bombings and other suicide attacks against government forces attempting to retake the town.

It said the army had inflicted heavy losses on the attackers, despite the military support it said they had received from Turkey.

Some 950,0000 civilians have fled the government offensive, raising fears in Ankara of a new influx of refugees.

More than half a million of those displaced since December are children, tens of thousands of whom are sleeping rough in northern Syrias harsh winter.

Erdogan had vowed on Wednesday that Ankara would not take the smallest step back in the standoff with Damascus and Moscow over Idlib.

A total of 25 Turkish soldiers were killed in Syria on Thursday, with another three reported dead in a separate incident earlier in the day.

SOURCE: AFP
Local News, Health & Wellness

By Ls Cohen Published: February 28 2020

Local health institutions have protocols already in place and infectious disease doctors say there is no need to panic.

Keep calm and wash your hands. Thats the basic message that healthcare officials on Long Island have for anyone worried about the coronavirus. Hospitals already have protocols in place to deal with outbreaks of this kind and are urging people to remain calm.

Hospitals are prepared for the worst

The good news is that after the H1N1 outbreak in 2009 the hospital is prepared for epidemics, said Dr. Sharon Nachman, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Childrens Hospital.

In a phone interview Dr. Nachman, who is also a professor of pediatrics at the Stony Brook University Renaissance School of Medicine, stressed that her hospital does not need to reinvent the wheel for coronavirus preparedness.

We dont have to look far for this plan, she said. The hospital is very well situated to handle an outbreak.

They understand how to isolate and triage patients, and have plenty of the needed medical supplies like masks.

The hospital is incredibly well positioned to deal with an epidemic on Long Island, she said. And I don't see the hospital running out of equipment.

Catholic Health Services (CHS) Chief of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Christopher Raio, said in a statement that his network of hospitals is also well-prepared.

Catholic Health Services is committed to the safety and well-being of our community, said Dr. Raio in an emailed statement.

CHS has six hospitals on Long Island in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

Northwell Health, with a network of 13 hospitals on Long Island, issued a statement about coronavirus from Dr. Mark Jarrett, Chief Quality Officer and Deputy Chief Medical Officer.

Northwells clinical protocols are designed to quickly identify potential infectious patients as they enter our facilities, isolate them appropriately, prevent transmission of infections and protect front-line caregivers from potential exposure, said Dr. Jarrett in the statement.

While the news is dire and cases are being identified rapidly around the world, so far, there havent been any confirmed cases in New York State, according to Dr. Jarrett.

Recently it was r eported that 83 people in Nassau County were isolated and being monitored for potential coronavirus infections.

Nassau Executive Laura Curran issued a statement yesterday saying that there have been no reported cases in the county.

Nassau County has received confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that the one Nassau County resident who was being tested for the Coronavirus has tested negative, Curran said in the statement.

She said that Nassau County tested six people for the virus and all of them have tested negative.

Nassau County continues to be in close procedural coordination with State and Federal partners in order to ensure the health and safety of all residents, Curran added.

Stony Brook Hospitals Dr. Nachman also said that there havent been any confirmed cases in Suffolk County.

While no news is good news when it comes to verified cases, hospitals and officials remain vigilant.

If the worse-case scenario develops and the New York area does experience a large number of coronavirus cases, Northwell and its hospitals have plans in place to handle a surge in patient, said Dr. Jarrett.

Dr. Nachman also said that hospitals will continue to have a measured response.

Were not going to have a knee-jerk response, she said. People are concerned that we have not faced this before. Unfortunately, we have.

During the H1N1 outbreak health institutions were told to be prepared and they have plans in place.

No one is starting from scratch, she said. We hope not to have to go from yellow to red but we are prepared if we need to.

What is coronavirus?

With the influx of news, most officials say that the CDC is the most reliable source on cornonavirus, and the agency continues to update its website as new information becomes available.

Coronavirus is actually nothing new - although we might not have heard of it before except under a different name.

This coronavirus is similar to two other outbreaks of coronavirus that weve had in the past decade, Dr. Nachman explained in a podcast. The first one was SARS and then MERS.

The World Health Organization describes coronaviruses as a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.

Dr. Nachman said because weve seen it in different forms before we have the tools to identify it and hopefully prevent it from traveling further.

This strain of coronavirus is identified as Covid-19. And much like the flu that mutates every year this is a more aggressive variant of the disease. Essentially we all get exposed to coronavirus, according to doctors interviewed but not this exact strain.

To many infectious disease doctors, right now the flu is of greater concern.

People are more likely to get the flu, which has affected more than 26 million Americans this season  and killed more than 14,000. According to the CDC, flu activity is high in the U.S. and 174.1 million doses of flu vaccine have been distributed to date.

By all means, flu is a greater concern, said Dr. Philip Nizza, Chief of Infectious Disease at Northwell-owned Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson Ultimately it will cause more deaths.

He said that the awareness of the dangers of influenza is underappreciated for a disease that occurs every year.

Youre more likely to get influenza than coronavirus, Dr. Nizza said.

Dr. Nachman agreed.

Politely, the flu wins hands down, she said.

Officials encourage caution but also calm

We encourage people to remain calm while also taking practical steps such as routine hand washing to protect themselves and their families from not only the coronavirus but the flu, said Northwells Dr. Jarrett.

The virus, while highly infectious, is not causing more damage than influenza yet.

Don't panic, advised Stony Brook Hospitals Dr. Nachman. Panicking sets you off into a cascade of doing things incorrectly.

She said to have a plan in place if you get sick. Prepare for who will take care of your children or others who depend on you like elderly parents. Which is no different than if you were home sick with the flu.

If you went into isolation what is your plan? she asked.

And just like every cold-and-flu season, doctors said to use common sense and practice good hygiene to keep healthy.

Like your mother always told you, wash your hands, said Mather Hospitals Dr. Nizza.

CDC guidelines also emphasize washing hands with soap and water along with using hand sanitizer, covering your mouth and nose with a tissue or sleeve when sneezing or coughing and avoiding contact with others when sick.

Bottom line is to remain calm.

The last thing we want to see is empty shelves in grocery stores, said Dr. Nachman.
Photo: Chris Martin/Flickr

Missed the most recent top news in Atlanta? Read on for everything you need to know. Man convicted of raping woman who he allegedly befriended by pretending to be gay Read the full story on CBS News. Life sentence for man convicted of ambush-style murder with AK-47 Read the full story on 11ALIVE. Slim and Huskys to start slinging its hip hop-inspired pizzas in Adair Park next month Read the full story on Eater Atlanta. Landmarks showcase Phoenix Flies set for March Read the full story on Curbed Atlanta. State officials tout work to fight human trafficking Read the full story on www.tribuneledgernews.com. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.

Atlanta resident Taurence Callagain was convicted of raping of an unnamed victim after befriending her weeks earlier, the Fulton County District Attorney's Office said in a media release. Callagain "led the victim" to believe he was gay to "deceptively gain" her trust, the release stated.



A Fulton County Superior Court judge sentenced a 31-year-old man to life behind bars without parole for an ambush-style murder where 24 shots were fired from an AK-47.

A second Slim and Husky's Pizza Beeria opens on Metropolitan Parkway on March 20.

The Atlanta Preservation Center will kick off its 17th annual Phoenix Flies event series, a showcase of free walking tours, open houses, lectures and more from March 7-29.


She has been keeping fans updated with her lavish trip to the Maldives.

And Maya Jama continued to showcase her curves as she took to Instagram earlier this week to share yet another smouldering snap.

The radio presenter, 25, looked incredible as she displayed her jaw-dropping figure in a tiny strapless orange bodycon mini dress.

Peachy: Maya Jama continued to showcase her curves as she took to Instagram earlier this week to share yet another smouldering snap as she posed in a tiny orange mini dress

Flaunting her peachy posterior and smouldering to the camera, Maya styled her brunette locks into a relaxed curly hairdo and added a slick of glamorous make-up.

She captioned photo with: 'Out ere,' as she tagged her luxury resort Heritance Aarah.

It comes after Maya was up to her bikini-clad tricks once more on Thursday as she took to Instagram to share a smouldering snap with her adoring followers.

The radio host posed for a sassy shot in which she popped her hip and held on to the sides of her bikini bottoms.

Pretty in pink: It comes after Maya was up to her bikini-clad tricks once more on Thursday as she took to Instagram to share a smouldering snap with her adoring followers

Maya looked phenomenal in her latest sexy bikini as she showcased her eye-popping cleavage and tiny waist in the sexy snap.

She has reunited with one of her best friends, Ellie, who is currently travelling, on the idyllic island and on Wednesday, they certainly made the most of their luxury Maldives getaway as they enjoyed a very boozy pool visit.

The presenter and her friend Ellie, revealed that they had been drinking tequila with her pal cheekily trying to tug her yellow bikini top down in a hilarious video.

Sharing a clip to her Instagram, Maya and her pal said: 'This is a public service announcement to let you know... we have been drinking.'

Luxury: Maya has reunited with one of her best friends, Ellie, who is currently travelling, on the idyllic island and on Wednesday, they certainly made the most of their luxury getaway

Boozy: Sharing a clip to her Instagram, Maya and her pal said: 'This is a public service announcement to let you know... we have been drinking.'

To which the presenter continued: 'Tequila brands, if you'd like me to be the face of heavily-promoted tequila pineapples for a long time. Now, I think I deserve some free tequila!'

Maya also shared several videos of herself and her friend dancing in the pool as they enjoyed their holiday.

Yet the presenter was left shocked after her pal cheekily tugged at her yellow bikini top and tried to pull it down.

Promotion: To which the presenter continued: 'Tequila brands, if you'd like me to be the face of heavily-promoted tequila pineapples for a long time. Now, I think I deserve some free tequila!'

Maya joked: 'Stop trying to reveal nips! Friend be the enemy of progress!'

The star has been sharing updates of their luxury Maldives getaway to Instagram during their stay.

Maya looked incredible as she showcased her toned curves in an orange bikini and joked that she has been doing her sit-ups on Tuesday.

Oi! Maya was left shocked after her friend tried to tug her bikini top, she joked: 'Stop trying to reveal nips! Friend be the enemy of progress!'

Sharing several clips and a photo of herself in her lavish resort's mirror, Maya tagged personal trainer to the stars Bradley Simmonds, she penned: 'Been doing my sit-ups @bradleysiummonds,' followed by a manicure hand emoji.

The star looked every inch the beach babe as she let her brunette locks dry naturally into relaxed curls and went make-up free to showcase her radiant beauty.

Maya went on to enjoy a thrilling jet-ski ride as she shared a snap of herself posing on the water craft in the Indian Ocean.

Wow: Maya looked incredible as she showcased her toned curves in an orange bikini and joked that she has been doing her sit-ups on Tuesday

Toned: The presenter, 25, looked incredible as she showcased her toned curves in an orange bikini and joked that she has been doing her sit-ups

Such fun! Maya went on to enjoy a thrilling jet-ski ride as she shared a snap of herself posing on the water craft in the Indian Ocean

While the star later in the day posed up a storm in a tiny pink string bikini as she playfully danced and pouted to the camera.

Maya revealed over the weekend that she had reunited with her friend Ellie, who is currently travelling, on the luxury island.

And Maya couldn't resist giving several updates about her getaway to Instagram as she teased fans with glimpses of her holiday on Monday.

Beach babe: While the star later in the day posed up a storm in a tiny pink string bikini as she playfully danced and pouted to the camera

Strike a pose: The star looked every inch the beach babe as she let her brunette locks dry naturally into relaxed curls and went make-up free to showcase her radiant beauty

BFFs: Maya revealed over the weekend that she had reunited with her friend Ellie, who is currently travelling, on the luxury island

In one clip, the radio presenter showed off her toned curves in a tiny yellow string bikini as she posed up a storm in the mirror at her luxury resort, Heritance Aarah.

Maya went on to share several videos of herself flaunting her incredible bikini body as she explored the island.

The radio presenter looked every inch the beach babe as she left her brunette locks loose into a relaxed hairdo and went make-up free to show off her radiant complexion.

Maya was clearly impressed with her luxury resort as she gave fans several video tours, she gushed: 'How lavish, this place is f**king amazing!'

She added: 'Morning from paradise, oh darling, we've woke up to see the sunrise' and revealed they had been upgraded to a room with a 'sea-through' floor.

Stunning: And Maya couldn't resist giving several updates about her getaway to Instagram as she teased fans with glimpses of her holiday on Monday

Sensational: The presenter, 25, showed off her toned curves in a tiny yellow string bikini as she posed up a storm in the mirror at her luxury resort, Heritance Aarah

Beach babe: Maya went on to share several videos of herself flaunting her incredible bikini body as she explored the island

Reunited! Maya revealed over the weekend that she had reunited with her friend, who is currently travelling, on the luxury island

Lavish: Maya was clearly impressed with her luxury resort as she gave fans several video tours, she gushed: 'How lavish, this place is f**king amazing!'
Select the Somerset County Athlete of the Week for Jan. 3-7
Other than fetching information with voice commands, smart speakers are also enabling smart home experiences. With an increasing list of compatible devices across different price points, Amazon has experienced a 5x growth in smart home customers using Alexa in last one year.

"Indians are increasingly experimenting with home automation, starting with something as simple as bulbs. Last Diwali, tens of thousands of customers purchased smart lights - making them one of the highest selling products on Amazon.in. On average, customers ask Alexa to control a device almost 5 times every second. The expansion of the smart home industry led by voice and active participation from the aforementioned brands has resulted in accelerating affordability of smart products, for example, smart bulbs now cost about a fourth of what they used to cost a year ago," says Parag Gupta, Head of Amazon Devices India.

The list of compatible devices is constantly increasing across categories including bulbs, plugs, locks, cameras, ceiling fans, TVs, air conditioners, air purifiers, in the price range of Rs 500 to Rs 90,000. Smart speaker offerings in the market mirror this growth. Amazon introduced its smart speaker offerings in India in October 2017 and since then has managed to dominate this space with launches across the price range. Amazon currently has a portfolio of 16 Echo devices across smart speakers (some with smart home hub built-in), smart displays, car accessories, and companion devices.

Amazon is not just restricting consumers to the Echo hardware as many other brands have also launched devices with Alexa built-in. Echo Dot has been the best-selling smart speaker for Amazon in India. Adhering to Indian consumers' feedback, Amazon has launched the Echo Input Portable Edition that offered uninterrupted access to Alexa or music streaming even when the device is unplugged. This is an India-first innovation.

"We started with 2 smart speakers by Eufy Genie and Harman Kardon and now have over 80 devices available from a price range starting Rs 500. These devices range from smart speakers, hearables and wearables, video and smart TVs to computing and smart home devices. We are excited with the adoption of Alexa by developers and happy that customers have more choice," adds Gupta.

"India is one of our fastest-growing countries for Echo devices. "The adoption of smart speakers is growing beyond the traditional metro population. Last Diwali, 40 per cent of Amazon devices, Fire TV Stick and Echo devices, were sold outside of top metros from places such as Jammu and Kashmir, Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, to name a few," says Gupta.

Late last year, Amazon launched Hindi language support, which helped the company unlock a new customer segment. To support such a diverse consumer base, Amazon has also expanded the Alexa skills catalogue to over 30,000 in English and over 800 in Hindi. The catalogue includes skills from brands such as DishTV D2H, BFF with Vogue, Shemaroo Bhagavad Gita, OnePlus, PVR Cinemas, KFC, Hungama Music Video, HealthifyMe, Cyrus Says, Domino's Pizza, Vir the Robot Boy, Shilpa Shetty Yoga, DreamXI, and Pearson Hindi Vyakran.

According to IDC, the Indian market has seen growing acceptance and adoption of smart speakers category, as Q4 of 2019 witnessed a 161 per cent increase in shipments from Q3 2018. Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant are the two prominent assistants powering the majority of smart speakers available in India. And Amazon Echo devices dominated the smart speaker category with 66 per cent market share in Q3 of 2019. Smart speakers with a display, an extension to this category, too are getting popular with Amazon leading the market with 81.6 per cent share in terms of unit shipments.

ALSO READ: Want seamless Alexa experience around your home? Amazon Echo Input Portable could be the smart speaker for you

ALSO READ: Fire TV Edition smart TVs bring more choice to customers: Amazon's Parag Gupta

ALSO READ: Amazon Echo Studio review: Best smart speaker one can buy under Rs 25,000
Magna is one of the worlds largest automotive suppliers. (Photo by Milos Vujinovic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Despite rising concerns about the rapid spread of the coronavirus, the chief executive of Canadas largest auto parts manufacturer said production has not been affected outside of China.

In fact, most of Magna Internationals plants in China have resumed operations, albeit at reduced capacity, CEO Don Walker told reporters following the companys investor conference on Thursday. Magna has 54 manufacturing plants located in China employing 18,750 people. Walker said there are still a couple plants down in Wuhan, the city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak. The factories that are back up and running are operating at between 50 to 80 per cent capacity.

It looks like its not getting any worse, Walker said in an interview with reporters.

Most of the car companies are up and running as well, but they are having trouble getting enough people. Im sure there will still be interruptions in production, but at least it is starting.

Five Magna employees in China had confirmed cases of the virus. Four have since recovered, and Walker said the fifth is also expected to be okay.

Fears about the widespread impact of the coronavirus caused stock markets to plunge over the past several days, streaks not seen since the 2008 financial crisis. The S&P/TSX Composite Index was down approximately 640 points to 16,071.55 as of 11:33 a.m. ET, a drop of nearly 4 per cent. Magnas stock is down more than 10 per cent since last Friday.

As of Thursday, there were more than 82,000 cases of COVID-19 confirmed around the world in 46 countries. Approximately 2,800 people have died of the virus globally.

Still, Walker said the impact of the production issues in China has yet to spread to Europe and North America, although he does expect there will be some challenges.

The impact of the production shutdowns to other areas of the world is unknown, but Im sure theres going to be some disruptions, Walker said.

If they get back up and running, at least its probably relatively manageable. But nobody can quantify at this point in time what impact it has in other areas, whether its going to have an impact on the supply chain or production in other countries that are facing it. I think its too early to tell.

Story continues

Magnas chief financial officer Vincent Galifi said quarterly sales in China are between US$400 and US$500 million, which amounts to less than 5 per cent of the companys annual sales of about US$40 billion. The company has so far maintained its 2020 outlook, but may make adjustments based on the impact of the coronavirus when it reports its next quarterly earnings.

There are a lot of unknowns here, but well just have to wait and see what happens, Walker said.

Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android and sign up for the Yahoo Finance Canada Weekly Brief.
Lawsuits against Walt Disney Co. are moving ahead in California and Florida, challenging how the company allows disabled people to access theme park attractions.

Both lawsuits, filed by the same lead attorney, Tampa-based Andy Dogali, accuse the worlds most popular theme park operator of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by making park-goers with autism and other disabilities wait too long to get on a ride. In court records, Dogali says he has nearly 100 plaintiffs wanting to challenge Disneys policy.

Asked to comment on the lawsuits, Disney issued a one-sentence statement: Disney Parks have an unwavering commitment to providing an inclusive and accessible environment for all our guests.

The two lawsuits take aim at the 2013 decision by Disney to end a policy gave visitors with disabilities and their family members a Guest Assistance Card, allowing them to go directly onto rides, skipping long lines.

The lawsuits say the new policy is unfair because it treats all visitors with disabilities the same and that children and adults with autism might not understand the concept of waiting and taking turns and could become extremely upset if they are forced to wait for a ride at a noisy theme park.

Disney representatives said the old system was scrapped because it was often abused by park-goers who hired people with disabilities to accompany them into the parks to avoid the queues. Under the new policy, visitors with disabilities are given a card that lets them return to an attraction at a scheduled time to avoid the longest lines, similar to the virtual queuing system known as FastPass.

Most of the queues for Disney rides have been upgraded to be wheelchair accessible, leaving the new policy to primarily affect visitors with cognitive impairments, such as autism, according to the lawsuits.

The lawsuits ask for legal costs and other relief that the court may choose.

The disabled plaintiff, like other persons with cognitive impairments, is mentally and physically incapable of traveling across the park to the site of an attraction only to be told to come back later, according to the Florida lawsuit.

One of the lawsuits, originally filed in 2014 in federal court in Los Angeles on behalf of 26 plaintiffs, was transferred to a U.S. District Court in Florida because most of the plaintiffs complained about access to rides at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. A judge rejected a later request by Dogali to add 69 new plaintiffs with a total of more than 200 counts.

A second lawsuit, making similar allegations, was filed in 2015 in federal court in Los Angeles, targeting the access policy for customers with disabilities at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.

The lawsuits do not disclose the names of the plaintiffs to protect their privacy. Instead, they are represented in the lawsuits with initials.

The California lawsuit described a 13-year-old boy from Norwalk as T.P. who loves Disneyland and has been diagnosed with autism, severe obsessive compulsive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and having anxiety attacks. T.P. experiences a meltdown if he cant go on his favorite rides in a particular order, according to the lawsuit.

Since Disney changed its disabled access policy, the lawsuit said that T.P. has experienced several meltdowns at Disneyland. Two of these meltdowns were so bad (his mother) had to remove T.P. from the park due to the potential of T.P. hurting himself, (his mother), and others.

A district judge in Florida threw out the Florida lawsuit in 2016, giving Disney a victory, but an appeals court judge sent the case back to the original District Court to rule on the fairness of Disneys policy for each individual plaintiff, said Eugene Feldman, one of the attorneys for the California plaintiffs.

A bench trial for the first plaintiff in Florida began last week, Feldman said. A verdict isnt expected until late March at the earliest.

The lawsuit filed in California has dragged on for years in federal court in Los Angeles, even outlasting the original judge hearing the case who died last year. The case has been reassigned to a new judge.

A mediation session that was ordered by the latest district judge in hopes of resolving the case without a trial failed, according to court records filed Feb. 6. No date has been set for a trial.

Even if Disney loses the lawsuits, Feldman said, Disney may be able to keep its current accessibility policy but would have to offer specific exceptions for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.



Hugo Martin of the Los Angeles Times wrote this story.

2020 Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
- A Libya returnee has advised Nigerians desirous of travelling abroad not to travel to Libya

- Sola Adeleke, who was one of those that were repatriated on Wednesday, February 26, shared what she went through at the hands of a human trafficker

- The 38-year-old indigene of Oyo state, says she paid the human trafficker more than N1 million naira without bringing any money home

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has received another batch of 116 Nigerians who volunteered to be repatriated back from Libya.

The Libya returnees were received on Wednesday, February 26, at the cargo wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

One of the returnees identified as Sola Adeleke called on the federal government to deal with human traffickers who mislead Nigerians with fake information on greener pastures outside the country, News Agency of Nigeria reports.

Legit.ng gathers that the 38-year-old lady said traffickers subjected their victims to inhuman treatment they would never expose their own children to.

Libya returnees. Photo credit: Inside Oyo

Source: UGC

Adeleke, an indigene of Oyo state, said she dropped out of school at primary four.

She said her mother approached a neighbour who was known to be helping young people out of the country.

Adeleke said: The man told my mother that he would help me to get a good job and that I dont need to pay a dime in Nigeria, but until l start work for a year."

According to the returnee, her inability to communicate in English changed everything negatively as soon as she got to Libya in 2016. She said the well-known nice man (trafficker) turned out to be something different.

He (trafficker) told me that I will work for him for one and half years without giving me a dime to take care of my feeding or anything.

In Libya, once a lady gets there, the traffickers force her into prostitution, and if she refuses, there is a place that she would be taken to be flogged mercilessly.

And by the time she survives the punishment, she would beg to prostitute freely for the trafficker to get his money, which is faster than being a housemaid," the lady narrated.

The returnee, who said she paid the trafficker more than N1 million, advised Nigerians not to travel to Libya, adding that they are evil.

In other news, a Nigerian man has narrated his ordeal at the hands of human traffickers who lied to him that he would be travelling to Italy by ship, only to travel by boat.

The man, who used to operate a barbing saloon before embarking on a journey from Nigeria to Europe, said they were arrested after spending about six hours on sea.

IOM Nigeria posted a video of an interview with the victim on its official Facebook page on Tuesday, February 18, but did not identify the victim.

The victim said when he got to Niger, he discovered that all that he was told were lies.

He said: "They brought a balloon boat, then I said 'you guys told me in Nigeria that I'm going to board a ship, not a boat', but they told me 'you don't have any say here, just move on alongside other people, don't worry, you will be in Italy in less than four hours."

The victim said they boarded the boat in the evening, but after spending about six hours on sea, they couldn't find any rescue.

NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng We have updated to serve you better

Libya returnee: A Nigerian sold me with pregnancy to another Nigerian | Legit TV

Source: Legit.ng
Chandigarh, Feb 28 : With an eye on the assembly elections in 2022, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal on Friday presented a populist but deficit Rs 1.54 lakh-crore budget for 2020-21.

He announced reducing the retirement age of government employees, continuation of free power of Rs 8,275 crore for farmers, free education up to Class XII, Rs 2,000 crore for farm loan waiver, Rs 520 crore for waiving loans of farm workers and promoting maize cultivation to reduce paddy plantation.

Pleasing unemployed youths, a major electoral promise made by his Congress government in 2017 assembly polls, Manpreet, ahead of presenting the budgetary proposals, informed the Assembly that the retirement age of government employees has been reduced to 58 from 60 years.

He announced six per cent dearness allowance for the employees that would be released on March 1.

The Sixth Pay Commission report will be implemented and has been accounted for in the budget, he said.

Manpreet, in his speech with focus on agriculture and education that lasted nearly one-and-a-half hours, said a rural development fund fee and market committee fee would be reduced to just one per cent from four per cent.

Landless and farm labourers will get Rs 520 crore for debt relief in 2020-21, while Rs 2,000 crore allocated for crop loan waiver. A sum of Rs 100 crore is allocated for supporting sugarcane farmers.

This was the fourth budget of the Amarinder Singh-led government in the state.

To conserve groundwater through crop diversification, the Budget gave a greater thrust on promoting maize cultivation with an outlay of Rs 200 crore.

Officials told IANS the area under paddy has been reduced by 2.50 lakh hectares. The wheat output has increased by 7.30 lakh tonnes in the last three years. Basmati rice and cotton output increased by 2.10 lakh tonnes and 4.81 lakh bales, respectively.

Education, one of the top priorities of the Chief Minister, would be free of cost up to Class 12 in all government schools and proposes to build 4,150 classrooms by spending Rs 100 crore.

Earlier, education till Class VIII was free but only for girl students.

Expressing gratitude to the Chief Minister for framing the budgetary allocations, Manpreet said the allocation for the agriculture sector is Rs 12,526 crore, for the education is Rs 13,092 crore and for health, it is Rs 4,675 crore.

There is a budgetary provision to set up an old-age home in each district of the district.

To attract investments, three industrial parks, each spread over 1,000 acres, would be set up at Mattewara near Ludhiana, Bathinda and Rajpura. One more park for pharma companies will be set up at Wazirabad in Fatehgarh Sahib district.

While Rs 131 crore will be spent on upgrading all industrial focal points, Rs 2,267 crore would be kept aside for providing power subsidy to the industry.

No change of land use will be charged from investors outside the municipal limits for the next two years.

He announced the setting up of the Armed Forces Preparatory Institute in Hoshiarpur with a budget outlay of Rs 11 crore.

He proposed the installation of 10 KW solar plants in 259 government senior secondary smart schools in the first phase.

Two new agricultural colleges will be set up in Gurdaspur and Balachaur with an initial allocation of Rs 14 crore.

The revenue receipts for 2020-21 will be Rs 95,716 crore, up from Rs 73,975 crore in 2019-2020.

The Finance Minister said the state's debt would increase from Rs 2.2 lakh crore to Rs 2.4 lakh crore by the end of 2020-21.

On the fiscal roadmap, Manpreet said: "We are all aware of the economic slowdown in the country. However, given the composition of the state's economy, our advanced estimates indicate that during 2019-20 the GSDP of the state has increased from Rs 5,21,861 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 5,74,760 crore at current prices." The state's GSDP during 2020-21 would further rise to Rs 6,44,326 crore.

The per capita income of the state has also increased from Rs 1,54,996 in 2018-19 to Rs 1,66,830 in 2019-20 and is 23.53 per cent higher than the national average of Rs 1,35,050, he added.
Lagos: Nigeria on Friday announced the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa.

The case is an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and returned from Milan, Italy to Lagos, Nigeria on the 25th of February 2020, Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said in a statement on Twitter.

The patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.Prior to the case in Nigeria, just two cases had surfaced across all of Africa -- in Egypt and in Algeria -- a tally that had puzzled health specialists, given the continent's close economic ties with China.

The World Health Organization warned earlier this week that African health systems were ill-equipped to respond to the deadly coronavirus outbreak should cases start to proliferate on the continent.
An Arizona court ruling stemming from a sheriffs deputys encounter with a shotgun-wielding man says law enforcement officers can claim workers compensation benefits if diagnosed with PTSD or other mental conditions because of extraordinary high stressful incidents on the job.

A Gila County deputy diagnosed with PTSD and his injury-inducing stress, imposed upon the claimant by virtue of his employment, was sufficiently significant and noteworthy to differentiate it from general stress caused by work, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled.

Mental injuries, illnesses or conditions dont qualify for worker compensation unless some unexpected, unusual or extraordinary related to the employment was a substantial contributing cause, the ruling said.

The state industrial commission denied the Gila County deputys claim resulting from a 2017 incident in which the deputy had a shotgun pointed at his chest and face at close range by a man who was then shot and killed by the deputy and another officer.

The shooting occurred outside a home were the deputies went in response to a report of a person threatening to kill himself.

The appeals courts ruling said not all situations in which officers draw their weapons or use deadly force will result in claims that qualify for compensation. It still would have to be shown that the employment-related event caused the claimed mental injury, the ruling added.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Workers' Compensation Oklahoma Arizona
LAKE WORTH, Texas, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Lon Smith Roofing, the largest residential roofing contractor in North Texas, today launched the 2020 edition of the Roof for Vets program by honoring a local hero of the D-Day invasion.

"We are proud to honor Mr. Ed Nobles," said Lon Smith executive Scott Hamilton. "We often hear that our country doesn't have any heroes left. Well, whoever says that has never met Mr. Nobles."

"He not only served in World War II, but he was part of the D-Day invasion and landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944," Hamilton continued. "He suffered several combat wounds and was later the recipient of a Purple Heart."

Hamilton spoke at a ceremony in front of Mr. Nobles' house while Lon Smith construction workers installed the new roof.

Lon Smith Roofing began the Roof for Vets program a few years ago as a way to honor local military veterans. The company takes nominations from the public. To be eligible, a candidate must have served in the military, must be in need of a roof and must need financial help in paying for it. The Roof for Vets program then selects one worthy veteran for each quarter of the year and installs a new roof at no charge. Nominations are currently open. For more information about Roof for Vets or about Lon Smith Roofing, please visit lonsmith.com or call 817-926-8400.

SOURCE Lon Smith Roofing

Related Links

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BEIRUT  An air strike by Syrian government forces killed 29 Turkish soldiers in northeast Syria, a Turkish official said Friday, marking the largest death toll for Turkey in a single day since it first intervened in Syria in 2016.

The deaths were a serious escalation in the direct conflict between Turkish and Russia-backed Syrian forces that has been waged since early February.

Rahmi Dogan, the governor of Turkeys Hatay province bordering Syrias Idlib region, said 29 troops were killed and others were seriously wounded in the attack late Thursday. He said 39 injured were being treated in Turkish hospitals.

Three Turkish soldiers killed earlier Thursday in Idlib. At least 50 have now been killed in Idlib since the start of February.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was holding an emergency security meeting in Ankara, state-run Anadolu news agency reported. Meanwhile Turkish Foreign Minister Mevult Cavusoglu spoke to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg by telephone.

The air strike came after a Russian delegation spent two days in Ankara for talks with Turkish officials on the situation in Idlib, where a Syrian government offensive has sent hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing towards the Turkish border.

The offensive has also engulfed many of the 12 military observation posts Turkey has in Idlib.

Fahrettin Altun, Erdogans communications director, said all known Syrian government targets were under attack by Turkish air and land forces in response to the deaths.

Turkish television news channels aired black-and-white footage of air strikes on Syrian targets.

Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogans ruling party, said NATO should stand by Turkeys side. Ankara recently called for U.S. Patriot missiles to be deployed to defend its forces in Syria.

In a message seemingly aimed at Europe, he added: Our refugee policy is the same but theres a situation there, were no longer able to hold refugees.

Turkey hosts some 3.6 million Syrians and under a 2016 deal with the European Union agreed to step up efforts to halt the flow of refugees to Europe. Since then Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to open the gates in several disputes with European states.

Angry crowds gathered outside the Russian consulate in Istanbul, Anadolu said. Standing in front of a line of riot police and a water cannon, they chanted Murderer Russia, murderer Putin.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 34 Turkish soldiers were killed in air strikes on Idlib on Thursday. It said the attacks occurred in an area between the villages of al-Bara and Baliun near the Jabal al-Zawiya region in the southern Idlib countryside. The Britain-based Observatory monitors the Syria war through a network of activists on the ground.

The air strike came after Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters retook the strategic northwestern town of Saraqeb from government forces on Thursday, opposition activists said, cutting a key highway just days after the government reopened it for the first time since 2012.

Bassem Mroue and Andrew Wilks are Associated Press writers.
T his week, the leader of the most powerful democracy, who has displayed illiberal tendencies and stirred up anti-minority sentiment for political gain, visited the leader of the largest democracy, who has displayed illiberal tendencies and stirred up anti-minority sentiment for political gain.

US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have much in common. Both appeal to a core of authentic citizens to rally against cosmopolitan traitors, and both see international relations as a zero-sum game  Trump through trade pacts, Modi through relations with Pakistan.

But Modis controversial policies mean Trumps visit was the last thing on peoples minds in the capital, Delhi. An amendment to Indias citizenship act, which fast-tracks citizenship for persecuted religious minorities of all faiths except Islam, has caused violence between Muslim and Hindu groups. More than 150 have been injured and the death toll in Delhi stands at 38.

The unrest was sparked by a member of Modis Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Kapil Mishra, who threatened to violently remove a group of mainly Muslim demonstrators who had been blocking a road in protest against the act. A video of the arrest of one of the countrys top historians and economists, Ramachandra Guha went viral. The women of Shaheen Bagh, in the south of Delhi, have blocked main roads in an ongoing protest, and the BJPs reaction has been extreme with one BJP minister suggesting thats where suicide bombers are being trained.

In 2014 when Modi first came into power, one academic told me he would be the death of Indian secularism. I thought that was a little fanciful  after all, what is India if not a country of eclectic, diverse peoples who somehow rub along? However, the BJPs apparent attempt to turn India into a Hindu state continues. Jammu and Kashmir, the countrys only Muslim-majority state, was stripped of its constitutional autonomy and split in two last year. A National Register of Citizens has led to detention centres in the north-east for those  mainly Muslims  who fail to prove their nationality.

Both Trump and Modi have managed to shore up their positions. An attempt to remove Trump from office failed, while a 2019 general election returned Modis BJP with an even larger majority.

Modi can be seen as an Indian take on Trumpian nativism. Like Trump, the BJP struggles in Indias more cosmopolitan, diverse regions. Earlier this month, in Delhis municipal election, the BJP were again trounced by an upstart anti-corruption party.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The UN Secretary General's Special Representative in Libya, Ghassan Salame, on Friday denounced the continued violation of the truce, assuring that talks on the three military, political and economic tracks will continue in March to resolve the crisis in Libya despite the difficulties
She's been showcasing her quirky style on the catwalk for Chloe this week.

And Pixie Geldof caught up with her high-fashion friends as she attended 10 Magazine's 20th anniversary party at Hoxton Hotel during Paris Fashion Week on Thursday.

The model looked effortlessly cool in a vintage leather jacket as she rubbed shoulders with designer Christopher Kane and stylist Katie Grand.

High-fashion friends: Pixie Geldof, 29, caught up with pals Christopher Kane and Katie Grand at 10 Magazine's 20th anniversary party during Paris Fashion Week on Thursday

Pairing a floral blouse with the oversized vintage leather, Pixie pulled off her elegant yet edgy look.

Scottish designer Christopher, 37, wore a pin striped suit jacket over a printed tee, while Katie looked elegant in a high-neck floral peasant dress.

The trio appeared in high spirits as they and a slew of fashionistas got down on the dance floor to London-based DJ Zooey Gleaves.

Vintage style: The model looked effortlessly cool in a vintage leather jacket, which she layered over a ditzy print shirt

Other stars who turned out to celebrate included Cypriot-Greek-British model Sophia Hadjipanteli.

Wowing in a short black mini dress with her voluminous blonde locks pulled into a bouffant up-do the model partied the night away with pals at the Paris hotspot.

Pairing her look with a knee-high chunky platform boot, elegant silver jewellery and a strong under-eye eyeliner look.

Figure hugging: Model Sophia Hadjipanteli wowed in a short black mini dress with her voluminous blonde locks pulled into a bouffant up-do

Ready to party: She paired her look with a knee-high chunky platform boot, silver jewellery and a strong under-eye eyeliner look

Playful poses: The model posed while 'on the phone' inside the Hoxton Hotel during the event

All black everything: Sophia posed with a pal by the bar at the atmospheric event held by the fashion magazine

Earlier on Thursday, Pixie was seen leaving the Chloe Paris Fashion Week show giggling with her pal Alexa Chung.

The pair have been perusing Paris' best fashion events this week as the capital comes alive with an influx of models.

Pixie has previously walked the catwalk for Chloe in 2019 and this year she showcased the fashion house's classic aesthetic in a floaty silk skirt with a polo necked jumper and heeled brogues.

Striking: Pixie walked the Chloe Fall/Winter 2020 show showcasing the fashion house's classic aesthetic in a floaty silk skirt with a polo necked jumper and heeled brogues
The Easthampton City Council is considering whether or not to ban several single-use plastic items, including grocery bags.

An ordinance introduced last week by City Councilor Owen Zaret would restrict retail establishments in Easthampton from using check-out bags made of thin-film plastic. It would also ban stores from selling or providing single-use plastic bags for loose food items.

Use of food service ware made from either polysterene or expanded polystyrene would be restricted as well.

Single-use food service ware given, sold, provided or dispensed to any customer within the City of Easthampton must be composed of biodegradable and compostable materials, the ordinance says.

The legislation would not outright ban plastic straws, though retail food establishments would only be able to provide them when they are requested. Retailers are encouraged to offer biodegradable straws instead.

The ban would take effect a year after its passage. Any violators of the law would have to pay $50 for the first offense and $100 for any subsequent offenses. Offenders will, if the ban is passed, have 21 days to pay the penalty.

Easthampton joins several communities in the state considering restricting single-use plastics.

Several Western Massachusetts towns or cities, including Amherst, Northampton, Pittsfield, South Hadley, Springfield and West Springfield have all passed restrictions on the product. Holyoke is weighing a proposal as well.

Boston banned single-use plastic bags with handles in 2018. Worcester passed its own ban in October.

Exemptions to Easthamptons law would include thin-film plastic bags used to contain dry cleaning, newspapers, produce, meat, bulk foods, wet items and other similar merchandise, typically without handles, according to the ordinance.

Any other non-biodegradable packaging with no available substitute are also exempt as well as bags bought by retailers before the potential bans passage.

The city councils ordinance committee is expected to continue discussion about the potential ban on March 10.
NATO has held an emergency meeting to discuss the crisis in Idlib.

An attack on Turkish soldiers, which killed more than 30, inside Syria is increasing tension on its borders and prompting concern about where a new escalation might all lead.

An emergency meeting of NATO ended with it calling for Syria and Russia to halt their Idlib offensive.

The secretary-general voiced solidarity with Turkey and called on Syria and its ally Russia to stop their offensive but offered no additional support.

Al Jazeeras Hashem Ahelbarra is in Cilvegozu, on the Turkey-Syria border.
Manitobans will be paying more than $1 billion in extra taxes over the next five years, if Ottawa continues to administer its carbon levy in the province, Premier Brian Pallister says.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobans will be paying more than $1 billion in extra taxes over the next five years, if Ottawa continues to administer its carbon levy in the province, Premier Brian Pallister says.

The premier made the comment Friday, as Manitoba submitted a 57-page legal argument in Federal Court in a bid to strike down the tax, which the province argues has been applied unevenly across the country.

A hearing date has not been set.

"I want to make Manitobans aware of what were doing because the consequences for Manitobans are very real," Pallister told reporters. "The stakes are high."

Manitobans will pay $1 billion more in carbon taxes than they would have under the provinces initial carbon tax proposal of $25 per tonne, Pallister said. The federal backstop tax  imposed on provinces without their own carbon tax plan  is currently set at $20/tonne, but will increase to $30 this year and to $50/tonne by 2022.

Manitoba has received intervenor status in a challenge by Ontario and Saskatchewan to be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada next month.

At the same time, it has initiated a separate challenge to the tax in Federal Court, arguing the backstop tax infringes upon provincial jurisdiction and is being applied arbitrarily across the country.

Its doing all this as it continues to negotiate with Ottawa in a bid to gain control of the tax, which, it continues to argue, should remain flat.

Pallister said he is hopeful, with a minority government pledging to build bridges across Canada, the federal Liberals will work with Manitoba on a negotiated settlement.

"Should they not, wed be forced to continue our legal challenge," he said.

According to Manitobas court submission, Ottawa has arbitrarily and unfairly allowed exemptions to the carbon tax to several provinces (with their own pricing regimes) unavailable to Manitoba.

For example, an exemption allowed to Albertas oil and gas industry is not available in Manitoba. Manitobans pay the tax on home heating, but the federal government has negotiated exemptions for Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

"Indigenous people living in remote fly-in communities in northern Manitoba and other provinces may... feel aggrieved that intra-provincial aviation fuel is exempt from a carbon levy in some parts of Canada under the federal scheme, but not here," Manitoba said in its court submission.

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"While Manitobans must bear the full brunt of the carbon price on gasoline and diesel, the federal government has permitted PEI, NL (Newfoundland) and Nova Scotia to raise their net gasoline taxes by only one cent/litre or less, sending a far weaker price signal than contemplated by the (federal) benchmark," it said.

The province said Ottawa has acted "arbitrarily, unreasonably and exceeded its delegated authority" by applying the federal benchmark in an uneven manner.

Manitoba originally planned a $25/tonne carbon tax in 2017, but withdrew the proposal when it failed to receive federal assurances it would not eventually have to hike the levy.

Meanwhile, Pallister repeated his complaint Ottawa has failed to credit Manitoba for making massive investments in hydroelectric power.

Pallister said the interest residents will pay to service Manitoba Hydro investments this year alone amounts to more than $800 million. "That equates to a carbon tax of over $720 per person per year," he said.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
Subway carriages and buses in Tehran, Iran were sprayed with disinfectant as the country battled an outbreak of coronavirus.

There were 141 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Iran as of February 27, according to the World Health Organisation.

Coronavirus cases have been confirmed across the Middle East in recent days, with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Afghanistan, Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq all reporting cases as of February 27. Credit: ISNA via Storyful
The fate of Mack Horton's bitter rival, Sun Yang, will become known on Friday night after the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport announced overnight it had reached a verdict in the doping case against the Chinese Olympic champion.

The tribunal will publish its judgment at 8pm Friday AEST. If allegations of tampering with a doping sample are upheld against Sun Yang, he faces a lengthy ban from all swimming and the end of his international career.

Mack Horton refused to stand on the podium with Sun Yang. Credit:AP

Sun Yang, an Olympic champion from the London and Rio Games, is China's greatest swimmer and the dominant men's freestyle swimmer of his generation. However, his career has been dogged by doping allegations.

In 2014, he served a three-month ban after returning a positive test to a banned heart medication. In 2018, he had a bizarre altercation with drug testers at his Hangzhou home when he refused to submit to urine testing and used a hammer to smash open a locked box which contained a blood sample he had already surrendered.
Journal Article correlates different neurological pathologies with Brain Metabolic Score and examines a neurological case study

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIOXYTRAN, INC. (BIXT), a developmental stage biotechnology company with a pipeline of anti-necrosis drugs designed to treat hypoxia by delivering a small molecule carrying oxygen to the brain of stroke victims announced today that the American Journal of Biomedical Science & Research released a peer reviewed article that evaluated clinical situations in which the brain was resting or active using the Brain Metabolic Scores real-time multiparametric approach to data interpretation. Animal studies were used to develop a mathematical model that essentially measures Brain Oxygen Balance. The article, entitled Assessment of Brain Metabolic Score (BMS) In Vivo Based on Mitochondrial Activity in Neuropathology was published by Prof. Avraham Mayevsky.

The article discusses the methodology used to prove that increased neuronal activity is correlated to the oxidation of NADH and that it can be measured using the Brain Metabolic Score. Additionally, this article serves as the rationale for using the Brain Metabolic Score as an endpoint in stroke and other neurodegenerative diseases where brain activity is compromised.

Other findings included in the animal experiments was that the monitoring of a very small sampling of the brain was representative of a volumetric sample of the brain that is able to detect global ischemia, anoxia, hypoxia, and hemorrhage. The device also demonstrated a minimally invasive way to measure cerebral ischemia which is essentially the supply of oxygen. Instead of disturbing and probing the brain tissue the probe was merely placed on the surface of the tissue.

The breakthrough came in what is described as brain physiological mapping that can use a minimally invasive technique to measure clinical conditions. These include Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), brain ischemia, hemorrhage, hypothermia, sepsis, normobaric and hyperbaric oxygenation, and aging. In cases of brain activation, the device is capable of measuring different pathologies of cortical spreading depression, epileptic activity, and cerebral hypoxia.

A case study was presented whereby a patient with a head injury was taken to the ICU and connected to the Multiprobe Assembly (MPA) device. The patient responded to spontaneous changes to stimuli which matched all parameters, similar to the animal studies. The patient was monitored continuously for 7 hours and during that time was able detect a large increase in cerebral blood flow and the beneficial effect on brain oxygenation after treatment for high intracranial pressure 4.5 hours after being monitored to establish the patients baseline.

Animal brains were tested in hyperbaric chambers that assessed the devices ability to detect increases or decreases in brain oxygenation. Tests also determined that the restoration of oxygen restored brain function. These tests were a proxy for using the Brain Metabolic Score as an endpoint to measure disease progression.

Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by hypoxic tissue in the brain. There is clinical evidence that Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) can reverse Alzheimers Disease (AD). This disease indication represents a large unmet medical need. Researchers from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center have the first PET scan-documented case of improvement in brain metabolism in AD in a patient that had hyperbaric oxygen chamber treatment.1 After 40 hyperbaric oxygen treatments over 66 days the patient showed that they were able to halt the disease and temporarily reverse disease progression. These results are promising for the development of BXT-25, which in theory could provide a more extensive oxygen therapy for patients in a more convenient manner in the form of an intravenous shot.

Determining biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases has always been a challenge, said Dr. David Platt, CEO of Bioxytran Inc. Subjective tests like the National Institute of Health Stroke Score (NIHSS) are used because no biomarkers exist to measure strokes. The Brain Metabolic Score has the potential to evolve into a biomarker that could be used to measure neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimers Disease. Advances in Alzheimers has been stymied for years because the existing endpoints require thousands of patients to measure efficacy, which bloats the drug development costs and prolongs the studies. Powerful journal articles like this one, written by Myevsky, can sway the minds of key opinion leaders. When you take the work of Dr. Mayevsky and the work of the LSU Alzheimer study it really gives us a basis to pursue a clinical pathway in a field full of failures.

Platt continued The linkage between hyperbaric oxygen treatment and BXT-25 is very strong. One can be substituted for the other. BXT-25 is an oxygen transport drug that was designed to be superior to hyperbaric oxygen treatment in many ways and not have all the constraints that currently exist for that treatment option. Both hyperbaric oxygen and BXT-25 are capable of treating the disease state of hypoxia in neurodegenerative diseases. Treating hypoxia in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers and stroke is a valid target that deserves further clinical investigation.

I hope that my research paves the way for widespread use of the Brain Metabolic Score in clinical trials and eventually becomes an endpoint for various investigational drugs, said Avraham Mayevsky. I also believe that patients in an ICU or a neurosurgical operation should be monitored for the Brain Metabolic Score. Surgeons in the operating room have to constantly filter data to determine the best course of treatment. If surgeons utilize the Brain Metabolic score they can quickly differentiate between localized and systemic issues during a surgical procedure allowing them to choose the optimal treatment pathway. There are many uses of the Brain Metabolic Score beyond surgery. As mentioned in my previous journal articles the Brain Metabolic Score could be easily adapted for use in testing different investigational drugs because the real time monitoring would detect an increase in tissue oxygenation which is a consequence of the drug working to treat the desired indication.

Key opinion leaders are warming up to the idea that hypoxia is a disease state that is treatable, said Juan Carlos Lopez-Talavera, Consulting Medical Director for Bioxtran Inc. The latest Nobel Prize in health and medicine reinforced that many diseases have an element of hypoxia and appears to be more prevalent in neurodegenerative diseases. The Brain Metabolic Score is a true revolutionary concept in understanding brain functionality. Its important to see how one indicator can encapsulate so much functionality in a biomarker. BXT-25 is also an ideal molecule that is designed to deliver oxygen to starved organs including the brain. This is why Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is a good indication for BXT-25. The definition of ARDS is a lack of oxygenation in the blood that eventually leads to organ failure and death. ARDS is common after traumatic brain injury, sepsis, gastric aspiration, reperfusion injury, drug overdoses, cardiac surgery, pneumonia, inhalational injury, and respiratory infectious diseases including COVID-19.

About Bioxytran, Inc.

Bioxytran Inc. is a developmental stage biotechnology company. The company is working towards a first-in-class oxygen treatment platform for victims of brain stroke trauma. The first product to proceed to testing is BXT-25, which will be evaluated as a resuscitative agent to treat strokes, especially during the all-critical first hour following a stroke. The product will also be evaluated for its efficacy in treating other brain trauma issues. BXT-25 is based on a new molecule designed to reverse hypoxia in the brain. Hypoxic brain injuries such as ischemic strokes, could be treated with BXT-25 via an intravenous injection that quickly allows the drug molecule to travel to the lungs and bind with the oxygen molecules. From the lungs the molecule mimics a red blood cell traveling to the brain. Since the molecule is 5,000 times smaller than red blood cells it can penetrate the clot and deliver the oxygen to the critical areas in the brain blocked by the clot. The MDX Viewer will be used in evaluation of the safety and efficacy of the BXT-25. To learn more, visit our website: http://www.Bioxytraninc.com

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What do you think about having a lions head mounted in your living room? Or an elephants in your den? How about a rhino body part on display in your home?

I wouldnt want to. I couldnt walk into a room every day and see a stuffed trophy leopard and not feel horrible.

But you could display one if you wanted to, and had a permit.

This is a big topic right now up in Hartford, which is surprising because it seems all we hear about is tolls, trucks-only tolls, no tolls.

The Environment Committee has been talking about trophy hunting (among other issues such as aquaculture and wine-making), and came up with a bill to ban the import, sale and possession of African elephants, lions, leopards, black rhinoceros, white rhinoceros and giraffes. Its called the Connecticut Big 5 African Trophies Act. Museums would be excluded.

Are you wondering why a state that cant agree on how to pay for transportation fixes would be putting energy into protecting African wildlife?

Its absolutely relevant. I hadnt realized how much until I started learning more this week.

From 2005 to 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued 59 trophy hunting permits for Connecticut residents to hunt and kill leopards. In that time, Connecticut residents killed and imported 39 lions. Connecticut residents received six permits to kill and import elephants in Botswana, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. And one giraffe.

Trophy hunting in Africa is an issue for Connecticut.

State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff of Norwalk refers to the bill, HB 5104, as Cecils Law.

Cecil was an African lion that lived in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, raised a dozen cubs and was uniquely good-natured and accustomed to people, Duff said. Researchers studied him, put a collar on him, and let park visitors observe him up close. Then five years ago, an American dentist paid $50,000 to get Cecil lured off the refuge. He hunted, shot and killed the animal for a trophy. The outrage on social media was widespread.

The least we can do is to disincentivize this type of murder tourism by forbidding the so-called trophies from returning to Connecticut, Duff said in testimony last week. By passing this bill Connecticut will be doing our small part to help be better stewards of the planet and the animal kingdom.

Apparently, this strikes a chord with the more than 80 people who took the time to testify in an Environment Committee hearing last Friday.

Christopher Rohland of Danbury is a firearm owner and an advocate for responsible and sustainable hunting. He finds trophy hunting, especially of threatened or endangered species, reprehensible.

Unlike sustainable hunting, trophy hunting does nothing to advance species health or conservation, he wrote in support of the bill. It only serves to boost the egos of the hunters and in no way should the state promote or defend the practice.

William Mannetti of Seymour also was eloquent in his support of Cecils bill. To put this bill into law is to choose a morally enlightened position that both recognizes the right of wild-living animals to live their lives unmolested by human hand and rejects the equation that privileges human self-aggrandizement over that right, he testified.

Scott Firth of Guilford said the animals need our compassion, not a license for their extinction.

This is just another example of how detached and un-in-touch with the natural world we have become, he said in written testimony. Connecticut residents dont need this kind of frivolity and the State of CT does not need to support it by issuing permits for the barbaric murder of beautiful sentient beings.

Exactly why I wouldnt want a stuffed leopard in my home.

This column is my opinion. But I dont want to ignore other viewpoints that differ from mine.

Howard Baccash of Milford has been to Africa several times, hunting there and have seen first-hand how the whole hunting industry helps the local people, economy, and wildlife, he testified.

Hunting gives much value to the wildlife and employs locals in the industry ... A bigger threat to wildlife is loss of habitat, he said. Please let each country manage their own wildlife as we do here in the USA.

Advocates for the trophy hunting industry, such as the Safari Club, say the practice supports conservation efforts; opponents, such as the Sierra Clubs Connecticut chapter, say little revenue goes to conservation and most to safari outfitters, associated foreign businesses and governments.

Priscilla Feral, president of the Darien-based Friends of Animals, put the threat posed by trophy hunting into perspective. The elephant population has declined by 90 percent in the past century as they face challenges from habitat destruction and climate change as well as commondification from the trophy hunting industry and poachers whove put a price tag on their lives. The giraffe population has declined an estimated 36-40 percent in the past 30 years. Fewer than 23,000 lions are left in Africa.

One of the reasons Connecticut must act is that the federal government, the Department of Interior, has done the opposite and loosened restrictions on trophy imports.

Its a big deal. Earlier this month a seven-day hunting trip to Alaska with Donald Trump Jr., billed as a dream hunt was auctioned at the annual convention by Safari Club International starting at $10,000. Other prizes to shoot elephants, giraffes, wildebeests, buffalo or crocodiles were offered to the thousands of Reno convention goers.

When my husband, who does not hunt, reads this column, hell remind me that Ernest Hemingway (his favorite writer) was a big-game hunter. And Ill say that I align more with Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson and former member Al Jardine, who called for a boycott of the present iteration of the band performing at the convention. They started a say no to trophy hunting petition on social media.

Heres what we can do in Connecticut  pass Cecils bill. New Jersey and Washington have similar bans; New York is debating one. This is the fourth time the bill has been filed in this states General Assembly and twice it passed the state Senate, including last year. Get it done.

Other animals on this planet should not be considered trophies, hunted and killed for sport.

Jacqueline Smiths column appears Fridays in Hearst Connecticut Media daily newspapers. It is solely her opinion. She is also the editorial page editor of The News-Times in Danbury and The Norwalk Hour. Follow her on Facebook; email jsmith@hearstmediact.com
A FORMER Mayor of Limerick has proposed the idea of sampling pupils for drugs in secondary schools amid a growing epidemic of substance misuse among children.

Fine Gael councillor Stephen Keary, who served as Mayor in 2017/2018, made the comments during and after last weeks joint policing committee at City Hall, where drug crime was the central focus of discussion.

The long-serving councillor described the drug problem as an epidemic and took issue with the gardais figures for drug seizures in 2019.

Figures released last Friday show that there were just 16 seizures in the county in relation to the sale and supply of drugs, versus 156 in the city.

Likewise, there were just 45 seizures for possession, significantly less than the 560 seizures for the same offence in the city.

He told Chief Superintendent Gerard Roche that he was perplexed by the figures, and that it is not the true picture of the issue in the county.

He said: I dont know if its possible to do sampling in secondary schools.

He added that there are children presenting in schools with the symptoms of drug misuse, and that it has become a major epidemic.

Chief Superintendent Roche said that a new drugs unit is being rolled out in Newcastle West which will oversee all operations in the county.

Speaking to the Limerick Leader after the meeting, Cllr Keary explained that there is widespread use of illegal substances in the schools. It will have a detrimental effect on young people going forward.

He said there appears to be a huge amount of cases with young people suffering with mental ill health and depression.

It was always there, but its now more prevalent. [The experts] are saying its possibly attributed to the misuse of substances. From the education point of view and the young peoples health and welfare, it is vital that if there is a use of substances in the schools, that it would be clamped down on immediately, Cllr Keary said.

Even though he said he doesnt know if the gardai or schools have the power to carry out drug sampling in schools, many workplaces have a drug-sampling system where employees can be sent to a doctor for a blood test.

This has proven to be very positive, he said. He said he knows of one company that has drug sampling and if employees are caught twice theyre gone.

He explains how this might work in a secondary school.

If its found to be there once and theyre detected on a second occasion. If they go on a register of people who are using substances, they can be called out to be analysed.

Cllr Keary welcomed the new unit in Newcastle West, saying that the seizure figures are not as mild as they are in reality for that reason.

Figures released by the drugs squad at last weeks joint policing committee show that gardai confiscated 912,693 worth of illicit substances from those engaging in the sale and supply of drugs.
The Delhi Police initiated an "outreach programme" on Friday as part of which its officials met imams and maulavis of various mosques in the riot-hit northeast Delhi, officials said here.

The exercise was carried by senior officials outside mosques in Kardampuri and Kabir Nagar. These areas witnessed pitched battle between two communities on Tuesday and Wednesday.

During the meeting, senior police officers were briefed about the recent riots.

The policemen posted in these areas briefed senior officials that people of these two areas, which witnessed large scale violence from Tuesday, have been generally peaceful and it was the "outsiders" from adjoining areas such as Seelampur and Jaffrabad who indulged in violence.

Senior police officials were asked to take stock of the situation, especially keeping in mind that it was a Friday and some miscreants may take advantage of large gatherings to engineer an unrest again, they said.

The senior officials assured that police will take every action against the miscreants and ensure safety of locals.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who was asked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to ensure early return of peace in the national capital, had visited various riot-hit areas on Wednesday and after that he had directed the police to ensure safety to everyone.

"I give you my word...," was the reply of Doval on Wednesday to allay fears of people living in the area.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had also reviewed the law and order situation on Thursday night along with senior officers during which he was informed that no major incident took place on Wednesday in any affected police station of Delhi's northeast district and that 514 suspects were either arrested or detained for questioning.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amid fears of a global pandemic, protecting oneself from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak is of utmost importance. Many governments are contemplating shutting down schools to prevent the spread of the deadly virus. Now, health officials urge workplaces to protect their employees against the deadly virus that has rippled across 51 countries and territories, infecting over 83,000 people and causing the death of more than 2,800 people, mostly in mainland China.

Image Credit: Aslysun / Shutterstock

The sudden spike of coronavirus cases across continents, with South Korea, Iran, and Italy in the hotspot, has raised issues on whether to shut down schools and workplaces to contain the virus and curb its spread.

Though Japan is the first one to shut down schools until the school year ends, other nations such as the United Kingdom and the United States are contemplating doing the same. Further, health officials urged the cancellations of special events, concerts, and festivities that draw large numbers of people.

Despite not having an order to shut down workplaces outside Hubei province in China yet, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a new COVID-19 guidance for businesses and employers, which outline simple ways to prevent the spread of the virus, how to get the company ready in case COVID-19 arrives in the community, and how to protect oneself in case employees need to travel.

How the coronavirus spreads

The WHO has guidelines that explain how the virus spreads and simple measures to protect the employees from the disease. When someone who has the disease coughs and sneezes, they release droplets of infected fluid. These droplets fall on surfaces or objects, including telephones, doorknobs, desks, and tables. When someone touches those surfaces, they harbor the virus on their hands. Touching your nose, mouth, and eyes can allow the virus to penetrate and infect the body, particularly the respiratory tract  the cycle goes on.

The COVID-19 symptoms include fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath. Though the virus spreads in a similar way to flu, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 90 percent of cases had a fever, and 70 percent had a dry cough. Most infected people experience only mild symptoms and recover, but some may experience more serious illness and may need hospital care.

The older a person is, the risk of serious illness increases, with people over 40 years old, more vulnerable. Also, people with underlying health conditions like heart disease, lung disease, and diabetes are more susceptible to developing a severe illness.

COVID-19 ready

The WHO issued guidelines on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. The simple measures will not only prevent the spread of the coronavirus but also other infectious diseases, such as flu, colds, and stomach bugs.

Businesses and companies should start doing this even before COVID-19 arrives in the community. They should make sure the workplaces are clean and hygienic, by cleaning and wiping surfaces such as desks and tables, and objects, like keyboards, telephones, and doorknobs regularly with a disinfectant.

Employers should reiterate to everyone in the workplace the importance of regular and thorough handwashing. They should wash their hands with soap and water, but in the absence of these, they can use hand sanitizers. Workplace areas should have a sanitizing hand rub dispensers that are regularly refilled.

Disseminate information across the company by displaying posters on handwashing and COVID-19 precautionary measures, such as respiratory hygiene. Employees should be made aware of respiratory hygiene, wherein they should cover their mouth and nose when sneezing and coughing with a tissue. They should discard the tissue properly in a closed bin.

Companies should provide face masks and paper tissues in the workplace, especially for employees who develop a cough and a runny nose at work.

For business trips, advise employees to consult national travel advice before traveling. Employees who develop fever or cough needs to stay at home, or work at home. The employees should report any symptoms for proper management and reporting.

Employees who recently arrived from travel abroad, especially in coronavirus-stricken countries, should quarantine themselves for 14 days to observe for any symptom.

Working remotely

Remote workers make up about 5 percent (those who work from home) and nearly two-thirds (those who work remotely) of the workforce. But with the coronavirus health crisis, health officials advise employers to consider work-at-home schemes for their employees.
Food, Wine, & Dining, Local News, Business & Finance

By Ls Cohen Published: February 28 2020

Long Island used to be one of the United States top five potato-producing areas.

Before tracts of single-family homes sprouted up on Long Island in the post-war years, potato farms were the most ubiquitous thing you would run into when driving out from New York City.

Once, the mighty potato was king of Long Island farming (there was even an annual crowning of a Long Island Potato Queen) the crop has dwindled. Land values skyrocketed and developers came in and gobbled it all up to feed the demand for suburban housing in the 1960s and 1970s.

Click here to see our series of great historical photos from Long Island potato farms.

Farming in general on Long Island still survives and potato farmers have found a way to press on, creating a niche market for themselves in locally-made craft spirits. Below we list some crazy and informative facts about Long Island potato farming.

In the 1910s, Polish and Irish farmers came out from New York City to Long Island to grow potatoes

The North and South Forks of Long Island were great for potato growing because of the sandy soil, climate and being close to New York City meant a huge marketplace to sell their crops

1937 newspaper article said that during the Long Island Potato Festival that year, visitors will be given a sample bag of potatoes taken from the potato mountain In the center of the Fair Grounds.

Every year, a Long Island Potato Queen would be crowned; a beauty competition for the daughters of Long Island potato farmers

Photo: Courtesy of Ed Wesnofske.

Potato farming reached its apex after World War II

At that time Irish Cobbler and Green Mountain potatoes were the most commonly grown variety

By the late 1940s there were over 70,000 acres of potato farms and 1,000 farmers on Long Island

At the time, up to 80% of all farming on Long Island was dedicated to potatoes

In 1968 there were 12,450 acres of potato farm

In 1984 it was estimated that there were 14,800 acres of potato farms

In 1996, there were about 8,600 acres

Potatoes are still grown on Long Island and estimates range from 1,000 to 3,000 acres dedicated to potato farming

Photo: North Fork Potato Chips Facebook Page.

In 1982, The New York Times reported on another Potato Festival in Yaphank saying activities would include performances of folk-music odes to the potato and 'Spud Sports'' events

The professional organization, The Potato Association of America, held its 50th anniversary meeting in Riverhead in July 1963

Potato harvest are usually from September through December

Potatoes used to be picked and packed by hand, today its nearly entirely mechanical with weighing, bagging, sealing bags, baling and moving done by machines

Long Island used to be one of the United States top five potato-producing areas

A 2012 art exhibit at the Islip Art Museum was solely dedicated to potato inspired and themed art

Photo: Richs2182 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
India's terse statement came a week after the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) decided to retain Pakistan on its 'Grey List' and warned the country of stern action if it fails to prosecute and penalise those involved in terror funding emanating from its jurisdiction.

Geneva: India on Friday asked Pakistan's top leadership to stop terror funding and dismantle terrorist camps operating from its soil and territories under its control while criticising Islamabad's bid to derail the positive developments in Jammu and Kashmir by supporting militant groups. India's terse statement came a week after the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) decided to retain Pakistan on its 'Grey List' and warned the country of stern action if it fails to prosecute and penalise those involved in terror funding emanating from its jurisdiction.

Exercising the right of reply after Pakistan raised concerns over human rights in Jammu and Kashmir at the 43rd Session of the Human Rights Council, India's representative said the international community cannot be misled by Pakistani hysterical reactions at all global forums to malign India. "The situation in Jammu and Kashmir is fast returning to normalcy despite serious attempts by Pakistan to derail the positive developments through its active support to terrorist groups and related entities," he said.

Giving Pakistan a 10-point recommendation list, the Indian diplomat asked it to stop terror funding and dismantle terrorist camps operating in the country and territories under its control. "Stop public advocacy and support for terrorists by Pakistani leadership at the highest level, end illegal and forcible occupation and reverse the demographic changes in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and take structural reforms to develop a semblance of democracy in Pakistan," he said.

Highlighting the plight of minorities in Muslim-majority Pakistan, the Indian diplomat asked the Pakistani leadership to end harassment and execution of minorities through misuse of blasphemy law, end forced conversions and marriages of women and girls from Hindu, Sikh and Christian religions and stop religious persecution against Shias, Ahmadiyas, Ismailia and Hazaras.

"Blasphemy law against Aasia Bibi, persecution of Abdul Shakoor, an Ahmadiya, Jagjit Kaur, a minor Sikh girl subjected to abduction and forced marriage are the norms of the day for minorities in Pakistan," he said. He also accused Pakistan of recruiting children for terror activities including suicide bombing in other countries. "Stop killing and targeting political dissidents and legitimate criticism in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and prevent enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of journalists and human rights activists by its security agencies," the Indian diplomat said.

Speaking about the state of democracy in India and Pakistan, he said that the world knows about the dismal human rights records of Pakistan and a tight control cannot hide it all while India's time tested democratic institutions are robust and adequate enough to address any challenge including those instigated from outside, in order to safeguard interests of all our citizens including minorities. Reacting to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's statement on the Kashmir issue, he said that the grouping has no locus standi to comment on the internal affairs of India.

"Jammu and Kashmir was, is and shall forever remain an integral part of India," he asserted. Referring to Belgium's comment on the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Indian official said: "as a close partner of India, we wish, Belgium could have checked the factual position with us before coming to any conclusion on the issue". "Our Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) has clearly said that no discussions have taken place on NRC anywhere except following the Supreme Court directives in Assam," he added.
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Solely Soleil in collaboration with I Heart Fashion I Heart Kids, presents its official launching at Fashion Designers Expo to be held at MIAMI AIRPORT CONVENTION CENTER on Feb. 29, 2020MIAMI BEACH, FL / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2020 / (Miami, FL)-Solely Soleil Resort Wear in collaboration with I Hearts Fashion I Heart Kids, announces its official launching at Fashion Designers Expo 13th annual fashion show to be held at MIAMI AIRPORT CONVENTION CENTER 711 NW 72nd Ave, Miami, FL 33126 on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020.The internationally acclaimed Fashion Designers Expo (FDE) announces its highly anticipated runway exposition aimed at empowering and supporting rising fashion icons.With World Fashion Organization's USA President and Global Creative Leader for Fashion, Karine Melissa, leading Team FDE, the company will host its runway expo AND it's signature kid's event, I Heart Fashion I Heart Kids, BOTH on Saturday, February 29th at The Miami Airport Convention Center benefiting Fashion for Charity; a 501(c)3 non-profit organization empowering youth in the arts. "It is my goal to provide a strong platform for rising leaders and influencers in the fashion and beauty industries to bring their dreams to reality", says Karine Melissa.A day of fashion shows, workshops, and lunch on anti-bullying, self-esteem building, self-confidence focused, young entrepreneurship and creative hearts. Featuring Soleil Nation's Solely Soleil resort wear collection.About Soleil NationAs a young future icon fashion designer, having fun and expressing love is very important to Soleil and this is reflected in her work. Art has always played an important role in the Fashion World and is constantly used as an inspiration. Soleil's fashion brand is just that, her fabric designs derived from her artwork.In today's society, we are under constant and intense media bombardment about what is "accepted" and capitalism has turned fashion into a tool for mass production and fast consumption. Slowing down. The process, Soleil wanted to concentrate on the essence of human relationship which for her is Art, fabric, and common ground. This fun spring/ summer collection explores inclusivity while prideful of our tribe. It was inspired by a Japanese culture called Osoroi code (), or matching outfits, and people who practice it do it when they're out with friends, partners or family. Osoroi code people say that wearing matching outfits is an expression of their love and closeness with their partners or friends. To learn more visit https://soleilnation.com/ About Fashion Designers Expo and I Heart Fashion I Heart Kids (IHFIHK)Fashion Designers Expo (FDE) is an internationally cultured runway exposition produced by Karine Melissa and Team FDE. Celebrating 13 years with over 30 runway productions in Miami, FL and Los Angeles, CA showcasing rising icons in the industry from all over the world.FDE is designed to show the world "Who's NEXT in Fashion!" The expert staff of FDE oversees this powerful platform and uses their industry intelligence and experience to educate and empower the emerging generation of icons.I Heart Fashion I Heart Kids (IHFIHK) is empowering youth one runway at a time.Their mission is to strengthen the self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-worth of our youth as we encourage them to dream big and know that they can do anything they put their minds to, making an impact in their community, their nation, and even their world.IHFIHK has featured over 800 kids and teens, strengthening their Self Confidence, Self Esteem, Self Worth, as the youth while encouraging them to dream big. The goal is to let youth know that they can do anything they put their minds to. They can make a difference in their community, their nation, and even their world! AND NO BULLYING!TeamFDE presented the first HFIHK in 2012 to empower youth around the globe using their love for fashion as the tool.Past Sponsors|Supporters include Fuze Beverage, Smart Water, Chrysler, Kent Security, Constant Contact, Miami-Dade County, Forever 21, Macy's, Target, Bakers, Revlon, and more.There are two types of youth registrations.GENERAL HEARTS REGISTRATION (GEN HEARTS) - $25Includes all participation in workshops & runway showVIP HEARTS REGISTRATION (VIP HEARTS) - $125Includes all participation in workshops, a trend show with special design features, VIP Hearts goodie bag, I Heart promo photoshoot, and surprise gifts from our sponsors!Visit website for complete info and registration. https://www.fashiondesignersexpo.com Contact Info:Name: Remy NationEmail: Send EmailOrganization: Soleil NationAddress: 2655 Collins Ave., Miami Beach, FL 33140, United StatesPhone: +1-518-491-5009Website: https://soleilnation.com SOURCE: Soleil Nation
LANGLEY PARK, Md.  Jonathan Hernandez stood in the doorway one recent evening gripping his tablet and chatting with the woman in apartment 101. Maria Delmi Galdamez took a break from cooking dinner to hear this stranger out.

She crossed her arms  and waited.

The 22-year-old college student took his cue and quickly explained in Spanish that the federal government plans to count everyone in the country and its important shes not left out.

Galdamez promised to respond to the 2020 census, so Hernandez slid his finger across the tablet and filled in her contact information.

This is what we are doing everywhere, said Hernandez as he headed to the next apartment. Its to make sure that we relay the message to each and every person ... It's to make sure theyre accounted for.

What is the census and how is it used?: Here's what you need to know about the 2020 census

Hernandez was part of a team from CASA, an advocacy group, knocking on doors in this mostly Latino neighborhood in Maryland.

CASA canvasser Jonathan Hernandez explains the importance of the 2020 Census to Langley Park resident Maria Delmi Galdamez and asks her to pledge that her family will complete the census. Hernandez and others were out canvassing Jan. 23, 2020.

Across the country, college students, community groups, mayors, county officials and others are working to get more people, particularly those who have historically been undercounted, to participate in the census. They're hosting block parties, speaking at churches, handing out pledge cards and even enticing people to respond for raffle tickets.

Were doubling down on our efforts. People are much more engaged than theyve ever been, said Marc Morial, head of the National Urban League and former chairman of the Census Advisory Council. "We wont allow communities of color to be cheated of their fair share of representation and resources.

Much is at stake. The count is used to distribute more than $800 billion a year in federal funds for schools, roads, bridges and lunch programs. Some estimate it's more than a trillion dollars. The count also helps determine the number of House seats a state has in Congress.

The Census Bureau said reaching "hard-to-count" communities, mostly people of color and children, is its highest priority.

Story continues

We are pulling out all the stops, Steven Dillingham, the Census director, told lawmakers at a congressional hearing earlier this month.

The agency has come under fire from lawmakers, civil rights groups and advocates who question if it's really ready for the massive count and if it has partnered with enough local groups to reach hard-to-count communities who may have limited access to the internet, or may be leery of sharing their information.

By mid-February, the census had 280,000 community partners, more than this time last count, Dillingham said. While there was concern the agency would fall short of 300,000 groups by March, the Census Bureau announced Feb. 25 it had met its goal.

Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., head of the Congressional Black Caucus Census Task Force, had his second meeting with Dillingham Thursday.

"There is too much on the line to leave the Census Bureau unchecked, he said in a statement.

Nevada Rep. Steven Horsford, a Democrat and head of the Congressional Black Caucus Census Task Force, showed the toolkit he has given to caucus members. "Its a real to how-to-get-it-done guide, he said. Horsford and other caucus members held a press conference in January to talk about an emergency meeting of black leaders to discuss the pressing issues of Census and voting.

Census outreach

In a packed room at CASA, Luis Gutierrez, a former Democratic congressman, urged the crowd to participate in the census. Most like Hernandez were already sold and would soon fan out to nearby apartment buildings to try and convince others.

Gutierrez said the ask is simple.

Oh, you want new schools? Fill out the census forms,'' he said. "Roads got a lot of holes in them and you want some more mass transit, fill out the census forms."

Advocates say it's important the message comes from trusted leaders and community groups like CASA.

So as Gutierrez made his pitch in front of cameras for Spanish language news programs, dozens of canvassers knocked on doors.

People are going to remember and theyre going to feel more relaxed when the questionnaire arrives, Gutierrez said.

Former Congressman Luis Gutierrez speaks at a press conference Jan. 23, 2020 to introduce CASA's Census outreach campaign. The Census Bureau is kicking off its decennial count, which includes a national outreach campaign targeting groups often undercounted.

At the Yakama Nation in Washington state, participants in the local Womens March and at a Martin Luther King Jr., program last month couldnt miss the census banner and information table.

Were hitting the communities on the reservation and the communities off the reservation, said Mathew K.M. Tomaskin, a member of the Yakama Nation and a Census outreach committee. We werent doing this in 2010. We werent getting people ready like we are today.

On April 1 the group will also host an event at the Yakama Nation Cultural Centers library where everyone who responded to the survey will get a raffle ticket for gifts like gas cards and perks from local businesses.

Meanwhile, the group plans to change a promotional video featuring an older white man encouraging people to fill out the Census.

Rather than this old white guy well have somebody who looks like me, talks like me and is recognizable on the reservation, said Tomaskin, adding that the group is also designing material with the tribal logo.

Mathew K.M. Tomaskin of the Yakama Nation in is part of a committee trying to get people in Washington state to respond to the Census.

21 Savage, raffles a lure

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms likened her city's outreach to a political campaign. Start early. Deliver the message. Knock on doors.

In addition to job fairs and community meetings, the city hosted a Census Block Party last summer featuring 21 Savage and other hip hop artists.

All names that my kids know, Bottoms said with a chuckle. But whats important about that is were speaking to a very important community. Were speaking to a younger community who may not even know or understand what census means.

Bottoms said it hasnt been a hard sell to residents.

"Weve been speaking with them multiple times, multiple ways, educating them, making them comfortable with the idea of being counted, she said.

It also helps that civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis is co-chair of the census effort.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms led a Census panel at a conference of mayors in Washington, D.C. in January. She said an accurate count is important to city officials. "If our numbers dont reflect who we are its going to be our city budget that has to bear that burden, she said.

Also in Georgia, Fair Count, a civic engagement group, is hiring organizers particularly in rural areas. The group is founded by Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who ran an unsuccessful bid for governor in 2018.

Earlier this month, the group installed internet service in 85 locations, including churches, barbershops and community centers, so residents could respond to the census online.

Jeanine Abrams McLean, vice president of Fair Count and Abrams' sister, said nationally 3.7 million African Americans were missed last census.

That money doesnt disappear, she said. It is shifted over to the communities that took the time to be counted.

CASA canvasser Ligia Gomez of Takoma Park, MD., enters an apartment building to ask residents to pledge that they will fill out the 2020 census. Gomez and others went knocking on doors Jan. 23, 2020.

Census and citizenship

Advocates said they face a host of challenges from a lack of resources to a lack of trust. They said the Trump administrations push to add a question about citizenship to the census alarmed immigrant communities.

The administration argued it would help get an accurate count of who is in the country.

The effort failed, but advocates worry it will still scare off people.

It achieved what it was intended to do. It has muddied the waters,'' said Bottoms, adding that some have been "bullied into hiding."

More than half the respondents in a poll released by the Pew Research Center last week mistakenly believe a question about citizenship is on the census.

Census officials said they constantly remind people it won't be included and information won't be shared.

Still that fear has made outreach more challenging than in previous counts, said Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of Advancement Project. Were going to have to alleviate those fears and tell people the important part of this,'' she said.

Hernandez said it makes outreach in immigrant neighborhoods even harder. Many come from countries where the government is not trusted.

But I tell folks that we talk to behind these doors is that all of this is strictly confidential. Nothing is going to happen, he said.

CASA canvasser Jonathan Hernandez recalled 10 years ago when he was in elementary school and the Census arrived at his house. His mother, who only spoke Spanish and was intimidated by all the questions, was going to toss it. He helped her fill it out. These days, Hernandez is knocking on doors in mostly Latino communities trying to convince others to fill out the forms.

Census and the language barrier

Arturo Perez stood in front of a wall covered with Census material last month explaining how it was tailored for Puerto Ricans. "You want to make sure that youre speaking to all of the populations in a way that relates to them, he said.

The material is part of the agency's multicultural campaign. It includes 13 languages in its paid ad campaign on television, online and radio. There's Haitian-Creole, Spanish, Russian and Arabic, among others. There are also guides in 59 languages.

Some groups said that's not enough.

Terry Ao Minnis, senior director of the Census and Voting programs for Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said Asians are one of the fastest growing populations, but the Census is only offering materials in five languages. The group will provide material in 18 additional languages, including Punjabi.

Minnis said research shows Asian Americans dont know much about the census and are the least likely to participate so it's critical material is culturally and linguistically appropriate.

Language is just one challenge. Theres also distrust of government and lack of access to internet services, advocates said.

"The digital divide still, to a large degree, impacts communities of color, said Minnis. Were fighting on all different fronts.

Melanie Campbell, head of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said her group and others have launched a campaign to get people to respond to the Census and register to vote.

Increasing census, voter turnout

In southwest Kansas, volunteers set up workshops in English and Spanish at local libraries and show up at schools during parent-teacher conferences. They also plan to set up mobile clinics in hard-to-count neighborhoods so residents can fill out the census.

The local task force is targeting residents in Garden City and Dodge City where Latinos make up the majority of the population.

"The census itself is not part of the culture so we have to work from basics on what the census is and really start building up from there," said Blanca Soto, campaign director for Kansas Appleseed and a member of the Kansas Complete Count Committee. "Once the community starts to understand the impact, they're more willing to participate."

Soto said residents don't always connect the census to funds for farm subsidies or expanding U.S. 50 highway.

Last week, a coalition of groups launched NCBCP Unity 2020 Vote and Be Counted,'' urging people to participate in the census and register to vote. It's holding Black Census Week starting March 23.

If Im knocking on doors asking you to get counted in the census, I can (also) give you the information about voter registration, said Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. If we vote and be counted, we can shift power in this country.''

Contributing: Nicquel Terry Ellis of USA TODAY

Kris Beecher shows a video he posted of him at Wide Ruins in Arizona urging people of the Navajo Nation to fill out the 2020 Census. Native Americans, he said, would like to hear it from their own people.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Census 2020: How community groups are working to ensure accurate count
The collision occurred around 500km from the port city of Karachi on Friday.

At least 20 people have been killed and several others injured in a collision between a train and a passenger bus in southwest Pakistan.

The collision occurred in Kandhra town of Sukkur district, located some 500 kilometres (311 miles) from the port city of Karachi, on Friday.

Sukkur Commissioner Shafiq Mahesar confirmed 20 deaths to reporters, fearing a rise in the death toll as the condition of several of those injured appeared to be critical.

Dozens of other passengers were also injured in the accident, the latest in a string of similar incidents in recent years.

It is a huge tragedy and all administration and police officials are rushing to the site, district commissioner Shafique Ahmed Mahesar told dawn.com.

It was an unmanned railway crossing as nothing existed there to prevent any traffic, he added.

Live images broadcast by local tv channel Dawn News showed rescuers retrieving bodies and injured people from the badly damaged bus and shifting them to the ambulances.

Pakistan has a long history of train accidents mainly because of poor infrastructure and lack of safety standards.

At least 23 people were killed and more than 72 others injured when a passenger train collided with a stationary freight train near Pakistans central town of Rahim Yar Khan last year.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chief Mukesh Ambani is the ninth richest person in the world along with Steve Ballmer of Microsoft and Larry Page of Google, each having a net worth of $67 billion, according to the Hurun Global Rich List 2020.

Ambani, 62, maintained a place in the top 10 for the second time after a $13 billion or 24 per cent surge in his wealth to $67bn.

"The only Asian in the Top 10, Ambani's wealth increased mainly on the back of a good performance in his telecom business," the Hurun Rich List said.

Ambani is restructuring Reliance Industries to facilitate the planned strategic investments in group businesses - Reliance Jio, Reliance Retail, refining and petrochemicals. The conglomerate aims to be a zero net debt company in 18 months and is in discussion to sell 20 per cent oil-to-chemicals business to Saudi Aramco, at an enterprise value of $75 billion. RIL became the first Indian company to hit the milestone of achieving Rs 10 lakh crore market capitalisation.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos retains the top spot in the Hurun Global Rich List 2020 with $140 billion, down $7 billion, mainly due to the world's largest divorce settlement with former wife MacKenzie Bezos, who makes the list in her own right with $44 billion.

Amazon is one of four companies, whose valuations have hit $1 trillion, the others being Microsoft, Apple and Google. Bezos bought a $165 million home, setting a new record for Los Angeles. In February, he pledged $10 billion to help fight climate change.

Bill Gates, dropped down to third place on the Hurun Global Rich List 2020, with $106 billion, despite growing his wealth $10 billion or 10 per cent. Last month, Gates announced a $100 million commitment to fight coronavirus which has triggered a global health emergency.

Over the past two decades, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given out more than $50 billion to global health and education.
ST. LOUIS, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Post Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:POST) (the Company or Post) reported a fire took place on the evening of February 27, 2020, at its Michael Foods farm operation in Bloomfield, NE. All employees were safely evacuated, and no injuries were reported. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.



The fire impacted less than 5% of the layer population of Michael Foods internal and external layer network. Before considering the impact of the fire, Post management guidance for Adjusted EBITDA range of $1.22-$1.27 billion for fiscal year 2020 remains unchanged. The impact of the fire on Posts financial results, if any, has yet to be determined. To the extent the property and/or business interruption loss exceeds $2.5 million, Post management expects to be reimbursed under insurance policies; however, costs may be incurred in different reporting periods than any insurance recovery.

The Company provides Adjusted EBITDA guidance only on a non-GAAP basis and does not provide a reconciliation of its forward-looking Adjusted EBITDA non-GAAP guidance measure to the most directly comparable GAAP measure due to the inherent difficulty in forecasting and quantifying certain amounts that are necessary for such reconciliation, including adjustments that could be made for gain/loss on sale of business, income/expense on swaps, net, equity method investment adjustment, transaction and integration costs, restructuring and facility closure costs, mark-to-market adjustments on commodity and foreign exchange hedges and other charges reflected in the Companys reconciliations of historical numbers, the amounts of which, based on historical experience, could be significant. For additional information regarding the Companys non-GAAP measures, see the related explanations presented under Use of Non-GAAP Measure.

Use of Non-GAAP Measure

The Company uses Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, in this press release to supplement its financial measures prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Adjusted EBITDA is not prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP, as it excludes certain items, and may not be comparable to similarly-titled measures of other companies.

Management uses certain non-GAAP measures, including Adjusted EBITDA, as key metrics in the evaluation of underlying Company and segment performance, in making financial, operating and planning decisions, and, in part, in the determination of cash bonuses for its executive officers and employees. Additionally, the Company is required to comply with certain covenants and limitations that are based on variations of EBITDA in the Companys financing documents. Management believes the use of non-GAAP measures, including Adjusted EBITDA, provides increased transparency and assists investors in understanding the underlying operating performance of the Company and its segments and in the analysis of ongoing operating trends. Non-GAAP measures are not prepared in accordance with GAAP, as they exclude certain items, and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies.

Prospective Financial Information

Prospective financial information is necessarily speculative in nature, and it can be expected that some or all of the assumptions underlying the prospective financial information described above will not materialize or will vary significantly from actual results. For further discussion of some of the factors that may cause actual results to vary materially from the information provided above, see Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Language below. Accordingly, the prospective financial information provided above is only an estimate of what Post management believes is realizable as of the date of this press release before considering the impact of the fire. It also should be recognized that the reliability of any forecasted financial data diminishes the farther in the future that the data is forecast. In light of the foregoing, the information should be viewed in context and undue reliance should not be placed upon it.

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Language

Forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, are made throughout this press release. These forward-looking statements are sometimes identified from the use of forward-looking words such as believe, should, could, potential, continue, expect, project, estimate, predict, anticipate, aim, intend, plan, forecast, target, is likely, will, can, may, would or the negative of these terms or similar expressions elsewhere in this press release. These forward-looking statements include, among others, Posts Adjusted EBITDA guidance for fiscal year 2020 before considering the impact of the fire. All forward-looking statements are subject to a number of important factors, risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in any forward-looking statements. These factors and risks include, but are not limited to, the amount and timing of any insurance recovery, the timing to resume production at Bloomfield and other financial, operational and legal risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the Companys cautionary statements contained in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements represent the Companys judgment as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims, however, any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

About Post Holdings, Inc.

Post Holdings, Inc., headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, is a consumer packaged goods holding company operating in the center-of-the-store, refrigerated, foodservice, food ingredient and convenient nutrition food categories. Through its Post Consumer Brands business, Post is a leader in the North American ready-to-eat cereal category offering a broad portfolio including recognized brands such as Honey Bunches of Oats, Pebbles, Great Grains and Malt-O-Meal bag cereal. Post also is a leader in the United Kingdom ready-to-eat cereal category with the iconic Weetabix brand. As a leader in refrigerated foods, Post delivers innovative, value-added egg and refrigerated potato products to the foodservice channel and the retail refrigerated side dish category, offering side dishes and egg, sausage and cheese products through the Bob Evans, Simply Potatoes, Bettern Eggs and Crystal Farms brands. Posts publicly-traded subsidiary BellRing Brands, Inc. is a holding company operating in the global convenient nutrition category through its primary brands of Premier Protein, Dymatize and PowerBar. Post participates in the private brand food category through its investment with third parties in 8th Avenue Food & Provisions, Inc., a leading, private brand centric, consumer products holding company. For more information, visit www.postholdings.com.

Contact:

Media Relations

Lisa Hanly

lisa.hanly@postholdings.com

314-665-3180

Investor Relations

Matt Mainer

matt.mainer@postholdings.com

(314) 644-7618




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As many as 100 healthcare workers may have been exposed to the California woman who went four days untested for coronavirus.

The doctors and nurses are from the University of California Davis Medical Center, where the woman is being treated, and from NorthBay VacaValley Hospital.

''There were multiple health care personnel who were exposed to the individual,' Dr Bela Matyas, public health officer from Solano County, said at a news conference on Thursday.

'At both hospitals we are at present aggressively evaluating everyone who may have had contact with this patient. They are being identified and their risk for exposure is being assessed.'

Some are under isolation, some are under quarantine and others have been sent home to continuously monitor their status.

As for the patient, she is reportedly in very serious condition and is currently intubated, Rep John Garamendi (D-CA) told CNN.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp addresses the newly formed Governor's Coronavirus Task Force Friday in Atlanta

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp addresses the newly formed Governor's Coronavirus Task Force Friday in Atlanta

Doctors requested a test for the virus, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ruled out the disease because the patient 'did not fit the...criteria' for testing. However, after the woman's medical team persisted, a test was finally performed on Sunday.

Health officials have been stumped by the woman's case because it's unclear how she contracted the disease. She didn't travel abroad, wasn't exposed to another infected patient , and she wasn't repatriated from China or the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.

Instead, 'this does appear to be a person who genuinely did acquire their illness in the community,' Dr Matyas sai.

According to the CDC, the patient, could be what is known as the first instance of 'community spread' of the virus, and more cases like hers will soon follow.

More than 83,000 people have been infected in more than 50 countries and more than 2,800 people - mostly in China - have died.

There are at now at least 62 coronavirus cases in the US including 15 from the nation, 44 evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and three repatriated from China.

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As many as 100 healthcare workers may have been exposed to the California patient who went untested for coronavirus for four days. This image shows medical staff treating patients infected by the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, on Monday

The patient, who is a resident of Solano County, is reportedly in serious condition and currently intubated at UC Davis Medical Center

Some of the healthcare workers who were exposed are in isolation, others are in quarantine, and others are at home monitoring symptoms. Image courtesy of CBS This Morning

Coronavirus cases in the US have now risen to 60, including 42 passengers who were aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, three people repatriated from China and 15 on US soil

Two students at two colleges in California are in isolation after coming into contact with a coronavirus patient

Supermarket and pharmacy shelves have been stripped bare by people stockpiling food and medication

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 463 points, or 1.8 percent, at the opening bell on Friday

Mexico confirmed on Friday its first case of coronavirus in a woman who had traveled to Italy in February

The White House chief of staff accused the media of working against Trump while reporting on the outbreak

States are running low on test kits but the CDC hopes every health department has kits by next week

Schools are canceling overseas trips and one has closed after a staffer's family member was tested

A new survey found that 38% of Americans are avoiding Corona beer thinking it may be related to the virus

In addition to healthcare workers, there are fears the California patients may have come into contact with three students at three colleges in Northern California.

According to emails sent to students on both campuses, the students - who attend American River College and Cosumnes River College and Sacramento City College - were exposed last week, reported KTXL.

All three students have been told to self-quarantine for two weeks and to contact health officials if they experience symptoms such as a cough or fever.

The California woman appears to have the first case of coronavirus.

Los Rios Community College District, where the schools are located, say that neither classes nor school operations will be canceled.

The Sacramento County Public Health Department does not believe that either campus is at risk for exposure, according to KTXL.

In addition, three students at UC Davis are being isolated and one is undergoing CDC testing for coronavirus.

University officials say the student undergoing testing has moved off campus while the other two, who are asymptomatic are isolated on campus.

'In Yolo County, in the city of Davis, on the campus of UC Davis, there is no evidence of spread of coronavirus, there is no evidence of transmission of coronavirus,' Yolo County health officer Ron Chapman said.

Following the woman's case, the CDC says it is changing its criteria for testing patients and is sending new guidance to healthcare workers.

Prior to this patient, suspected cases were tested if they had traveled to China or were a close contact of someone who had been tested, according to CDC Director Dr Robert Redfield.

But the changed once the California woman tested positive.

'As soon as that case was recognized, we met and we revised our case definition for persons under investigation,' Redfield said.

'Today, that has been posted (to the CDC website) along with a new health advisory that the recommendation should be when a clinician or individual suspects coronavirus, then we should be able to get a test for coronavirus.'

SUPERMARKET SHELVES STRIPPED BARE AS AMERICANS STOCKPILE FOOD

Photos have emerged of bare supermarket and pharmacy shelves as American stockpile on medication and non-perishable items in fear of a coronavirus outbreak.

It comes three days after a top CDC official warned the it was not 'a question of it...but when' coronavirus will spread in the US.

One Twitter user shared photos of a Virginia supermarket with just a few remaining jumbo bags of pasta.

Another user in southern Calfornia, showed how shelves in one Walgreens had been depleted of cough medicines, cold and flu medications, vaporizers, masks and thermometers.

Supermarket shelves in Virginia are seen stripped bare of non-perishable items including jumbo bags of pasta

Photos in southern Calfornia showed how shelves in one Walgreens (left and right) had been depleted of cough medicines, cold and flu medications, vaporizers, masks and thermometers

A woman in Michigan shared pictures of her shelves piled with cans of soup, boxes of pasta, jars of peanut butter and more and referred to it as her 'grocery store basement'

Others on social media opted to shared photos of their stockpiles of food, including one Texas man who bought a year's supply.

'I just bought an additional year's worth of food last night. Everyone needs to have a stockpile of food,' tweeted Jesse Colombo, is a financial analyst in Dallas.

'Everyone needs to have a stockpile of food. I wouldn't even touch stocks (or even gold/silver) before having food in these times.'

Meanwhile, a woman in Michigan shared pictures of her shelves piled with cans of soup, boxes of pasta, jars of peanut butter and more.

She referred to it on Twitter as her 'grocery store basement.'

DOW JONES DROPS AGAIN AS CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK RAISES ALARM FOR POSSIBLE RECESSION

As the market opened on Friday, US stock indexes fell sharply, raising the alarm of a possible global recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 463 points at the opening bell on Friday, one day after the index's biggest one-day point drop in history.

If the Dow closes by more than 1,000 points at the end of the day, it would be the third time this week - and the second consecutive day - the index lost points in the four digit, an event that has only previously occurred twice in history.

Trader Peter Tuchman works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday at the opening bell. The Dow quickly plunged more than 1,000 points after the open

In Asia and Europe, nearly $6 trillion, or about 10 percent, has been erased from stock values over the course of the week.

A recession would be different than a market crash. A crash occurs when the market declines in value, without any subsequent dip seen in the economy.

But a recession is typically defined as negative GDP growth for two consecutive quarters.

'THIS HAS NOT GONE AS WELL AS WE HOPED' :CORONAVIRUS TEST KITS ARE RUNNING LOW

The CDC says tests for coronavirus are in short supply and many states don't have enough kits to test everyone in need.

California, where 33 of the 62 US cases live or are in quarantine, only has 200, but 8,400 people are being monitored, according to Governor Gavin Newsom.

And officials in New York state are trying to make their own test kit independent of the CDC, especially in light of 83 people being monitored in Nassau County for the illness.

'This has not gone as smoothly as we would have liked,' Dr Nancy Messonier, CDC's director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporter in a media call on Friday.

She added that new test kits are being manufactures to send out to state and local health departments, but that all test results will continue to need to be confirmed by the federal health agency

Dr Messonier added that she hopes to every state and local health department will have tests for coronavirus by the end of next week.

Dr Nancy Messonier (pictured) of the CDC said that she hopes to every state and local health department will have tests for coronavirus by the end of next week

MEXICO CONFIRMS ITS FIRST CASE OF CORONAVIRUS

Mexico says it has confirmed it first case of coronavirus in the country.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said in a news conference on Friday that the male patient visited Italy - where about 650 cases have been confirmed - in the third week of February.

The patient has been placed in isolation at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases in Mexico City and his family members are in quarantine.

Lopez-Gatell said the patient has only had mild symptoms, resembling a cold, and he does not require hospitalization.

Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez, Mexico's Undersecretary of Health Prevention and Promotion, held a news conference in Mexico City on Friday about the country's first confirmed coronavirus case

In a separate press conference, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged the public to stay calm and not give into 'a collective psychosis of fear.'

Mexico has the 'doctors, specialists, hospitals, the capacity to face the situation,' he said.

The government said it waiting to get the test results back for a potential second case regarding a 41-year-old man in Sinaloa. He is currently under quarantine at a hotel.

Two people are under examination in Mexico City and central Mexico state, but none have been confirmed to have the virus, reported The Wall Street Journal.

WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF ADVISES AMERICANS TO IGNORE NEWS REPORTS ABOUT CORONAVIRUS

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney implied American should ignored news reports about coronavirus and accused the media of working against President Donald Trump.

'They think this will bring down the president. That's what it's all about,' Mulvaney told the audience at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference 2020 in Maryland. 'It's not a death sentence. It's not the same as the Ebola crisis.'

However, he admitted that the virus's spread would likely impact schools and public transportation.

Mulvaney told the crowd that he was allegedly asked by a reported: 'What are you going to do today to calm the markets?'

'I'm like: "Really what I might do today [to] calm the markets is tell people turn their televisions off for 24 hours." This is not Ebola...it's not SARS, it's not MERS,.'

White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney implied that the media is working against Donald Trump as it reports on the coronavirus outbreak spreading around the world. Picturd: Mulvaney at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2020 in National Harbor, Maryland, on Friday

Mulvaney admitted at the same time that schools would be shut down and public transpiration would be affected. Pictured: Stephen Moore (left) of the Heritage Foundation speaks with Mulvaney

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) are cousins of the new coronavirus, but appear to be more fatal.

'Are you going to see some schools shut down? Probably,' Mulvaney said.

'May you see impacts on public transportation? Sure. But we do this. We know how to handle this.'

His remarks comes as the Dow Jones lost about 463 points at the opening bell, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced all schools will be closed for a month, and the US has canceled joint military drills with South Korea.

SCHOOLS ACROSS THE US CANCEL TRIPS OVER FEAR OF OUTBREAK

Schools across the US have been preparing for a possible spread of coronavirus by canceling trips abroad, preparing online lessons and even considering banning 'perfect attendance'

Currently only one school, Bothell High School in Washington state, has been closed, bu top CDC official Dr Nancy Messonier has warned that more closures could be imminent.

Classes at Bothell were canceled after a staffer's family member was placed under quarantine for showing symptoms linked to the the virus.

'After much consideration and information gathering from multiple sources, including our partners at Public Health Seattle & King County, I have decided to keep Bothell High School closed on Friday, Feb 28,' said Northshore School District superintendent Michelle Reid in a statement.

'This will provide us an opportunity to complete the cleaning and hopefully receive the results of the test.'

It follows moves by schools in China, Iran, Italy, Japan and Bahrain, although evidence seems to suggest that children are less likely than adults to contract the virus.

A school janitor opens a door to a staff room inside Bothell High School, which was closed after a staffer's family member was placed under quarantine for showing symptoms linked to the the virus

Do not enter signs are seen taped to doors at Bothell High School on February 27, after the school was closed for the day

Meanwhile, in Miami, public school officials say they have prepared 200,000 laptops and tablets for students to take home in case buildings close and classes need to be taken online.

'If there is one place where a contagion can actually spread, it could be the schoolhouse,' Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

'We are ready. We have protocols in place'.

Miami officials also announced that field trips to Italy and Scotland would be canceled, while Virginia's Fairfax County announced trips to countries where the virus has spread would be suspended.

And the National School Boards Association has asked schools to reconsider perfect attendance awards, fearing students could come to school sick and infect others.

'School districts may want to revisit what it means to have perfect attendance,' Francisco Negron, chief legal officer for the group, said.

'We certainly wouldn't want sick kids to come to school just because their parents are shooting for that perfect attendance award'.

SURVEY FINDS 38% OF AMERICANS WONT'T DRINK CORONA BEER OVER VIRUS FEARS

A new survey has found the fears of the coronavirus outbreak has caused Americans to largely avoid Corona beer, a popular lager from Mexico.

Thirty-eight percent of US adults refuse to buy the beer due to news reports about the disease that bears a similar name, according to 5WPR, the public relations firm that conducted the survey.

Other findings included 14 percent said they would not order a Corona in public and 16 percent who said they were confused if the beer was related to the virus.

In addition, 16 per cent of beer-drinkers in the United States were confused about whether Corona beer is related to the virus.

A new survey has found that 38 percent of Americans refuse to buy Corona beer due to fears surrounding coronavirus

It comes on the heels of news that Google searchers for both 'corona beer' and 'corona beer virus' have spiked since the first US cases were confirmed last week.

And to put to rest the question so many have put to Google: No, the deadly virus has nothing to do with a cold brew.

The name for the virus comes from the Latin word corona meaning a crown or a garland.

When the virus is looked at under a microscope, one can see an external structure with tiny crown-like spikes emerging from it.

WHAT IT MEANS TO GO INTO SELF-ISOLATION DURING THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread, people who have been exposed to the virus or to sick patients have been asked to go into self-isolation. But what exactly does that mean? A former chief medical officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains to DailyMail.com what self-isolation is and what you should be doing while cooped up at home. IS SELF-ISOLATION THE SAME AS BEING IN QUARANTINE? In a word: no. Those who undergo self-isolation do so voluntarily and have to make arrangements themselves while they're at home. While quarantines are typically voluntary, sometimes they can be mandatory, such as the federal quarantine for US citizens evacuated from Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. People under quarantine are not sick, but they are are separated fro the general public to see if they become sick. Both self-isolation and quarantine differ from isolation, which separates those who are sick from the general public until they are cured or treated. WHO NEEDS TO SELF-ISOLATE? 'People who should go into self-isolation are not sick but they've had a credible exposure,' said Dr Robert Amler, former chief medical officer for the CDC and dean of New York Medical College. 'There's reason to believe they may have been exposed. And we wait for the incubation period, in this case about 14 days, to see if they become sick.' This includes a few groups of people such as anyone awaiting CDC test results or anyone who has been in contact with someone waiting for test results. Anyone who has traveled to a foreign country where the outbreak is rampant such as China, Japan, South Korea, Italy and Iran. WHAT DO I DO IN SELF-ISOLATION? People under self-isolation are expected to stay home and not go to work or school, or take their children to school. Dr Amler says that people should try to do as much of their normal activities as they can - such as working from home or doing school work - without physically contacting anyone else. 'That means staying in your room, trying to have your own bathroom facility if possible, and not sharing plates or utensils with other household members,' he said. However, being in self-isolation doesn't mean that you can't have contact with the outside world. 'You can use your TV, your stereo, your phone, FaceTime, go on social media,' Dr Amler said. 'Just anything that does not allow you to get [possibly infected] droplets everywhere else.' CAN I GO OUTSIDE TO GET FOOD, TOILETRIES OR OTHER SUPPLIES? People under self-isolation are not allowed to leave the premises under any circumstances. One option is to have family or friends drop off supplies you need. Alternatively, you can use grocers or online retailers to deliver packages. Dr Amler offers two suggestions, either wear a mask when the person drops off items or wait until they leave before retrieving them. He says the latter is more ideal because 'because the person delivering items not enter the air space.' WHAT DO I DO WITH MY GARBAGE? Dr Amler says that most people don't produce huge amounts of garbage by themselves so, if you can wait to take it out, that's the best option. 'If there's no harm in keeping it, that's the most protective way,' he said. 'That way nothing going out your room.' If that's not possible, Dr Amler recommends depositing outside of your doorstep until the 14-day isolation period is up. WHAT HAPPENS IF I FEEL UNWELL WHILE IN SELF-ISOLATION? The most important thing is to not visit a doctor's office, a hospital or any other healthcare setting, otherwise you risk infecting others. Stay home and immediately call your healthcare provider and ask them for advice on what you should do. 'Alert the authorities so you can be transferred to a hospital to be monitored, and undergo testing,' Dr Amler said. Advertisement




Ghana United Nations Students and Youth Association (GUNSA) hosted its first Plastics Forum and Networking event with key note speaker as Chief Executive Officer of Allianz Life Insurance Ghana Limited, Mr. Gideon Ataraire.



The forum and networking event were hosted by the Adisadel College GUNSA member branch in the Canterbury Hall on their campus in Cape Coast.



1st National Vice President of the Association, Mr Eric Lutterodt welcomed everyone on behalf of the National Executive Committee to the first Decade of Action forum dubbed; "Maximizing The Voice Of The Youth In Building The Future We Need" to discussed ways in which young people can play an active role in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.



It also addressed how the youth can best communicate on the Agenda, bringing on board the innovative use of social media and communication tools.



It featured brainstorming sessions, interactive panels and discussions, providing youth representatives with an opportunity to voice their opinion, share ideas, and to think together about specific issues of relevance to youth in the context of implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.



In a statement by Mr. Gideon Ataraire, stated that We know there is a huge public desire to reduce the impact plastic is having on our environment and it is important that young people understand the impact and how they can be more sustainable and Allianz is keen to lead this campaign."



According to him "This partnership will see GUNSA members maintaining a Green environment and awards will be presented to branches that lead the campaign in various ways on the SDG goals 12,13 and 14 which talks on responsible consumption and production, Climate Action and Life below water respectively.



Allianz are a key supporter of the Plastic Free City and holders of the Best Company Award for Promoting Good Sanitation and Hygiene Practices at the Sustainability & amp; Social Investment Awards in December 2019.



Among the questions posed was Plastic water bottles: How did we get to where we are today? and Who owns the transition? The presentations were followed by a panel discussion and Q&A



The event was attended by representatives from GUNSA member branches and we welcomed several other executives from Allianz Insurance.



It was followed by a networking session and the forum forms the first of series of forums looking at the SDG and the role of the youth in leading the discussions into building a better a resilient future for all.



The National President of the Association, Kwashie Klu-Duvor who also serves on the National Adhoc planning committee for the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations Day in a media briefing called for collaborations between businesses, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and the UN as we challenge to reduce and eliminate unnecessary single use plastics.



The forum is in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration and forms part of activities to mark the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations. GUNSA will also in July host delegates from all of its branches at the Annual National Congress scheduled for July this Year.

Source: ABENA SEFA









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Union Home Minister Amit



Shah on Friday accused opposition parties of spreading misinformation about the new citizenship law and inciting communal riots.

He said people should come out and ask those fomenting trouble to explain which clause of the Citizensip (Amendment) Act talked about snatching citizenship of people.

"Opposition parties are spreading misinformation that Muslims will lose their Indian citizenship because of the CAA. They are instigating people and fomenting riots," he told a pro-CAA BJP rally here.

He said no Indian Muslim will lose citizenship because of the new law.

He said the Narendra Modi government addressed several intractable issues that had festered for 70 years, including repeal of provisions of Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and prevented its integration with the rest of the country.

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

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Ishteyaque Khans room at Kabir Nagar is intact  his wifes bangles and earrings neatly arranged on the rack alongside essentials, his five-year-old daughters school ID hung from a wall hook, and his under two-year-old sons tiny shoes kept next to a television set.



But, this cramped room painted in blue and green will be inhabited by one member less now. Ishteyaque, 26, succumbed to bullet injuries in the northeast Delhi riots on Tuesday. His fault? He went out to buy cheese for his children.

A small-time electrician, Ishteyaque was the third among four siblings. He is survived by two elder sisters and a younger brother, who got married 15 days ago.



ALSO READ: Families search for missing loved ones as Delhi limps back to normalcy



As locals took Ishtiyaques body away for burial on Thursday evening, his family struggled to pick up the pieces of what happened since Tuesday till they received the body after the post-mortem on Thursday morning.



Where will I look for him? They took my heart away. Who will take care of the kids? He was running the house. He had not even gone out for 10 minutes... The kids wanted cheese so he went out to get it. Had I known this would happen, I would never let him go, said an inconsolable Nafisa, Ishteyaques mother.

Nafisa blamed police and BJPs Kapil Mishra for her sons killing. Police sided with the rioters.



Ishtiyaques wife Zeba, 25, remained in stoic silence. As women from the locality kept streaming into the house, daughter Zainab looked around with confusion written large on her face. She has not stopped asking about her father since Tuesday.





Other kids took turns to hold Ishteyaques son Zaid. Locals said the root cause for the violence was evident  the hate speech of BJP leader Kapil Mishra. There is only one person responsible for this violence. That is Kapil Mishra. We were fighting for our rights by going to the anti-CAA protest.



If they had to remove us, they should have done it peacefully. What was the point of inciting hate among the communities and making the videos viral? The riots happened because of him, said Shaheera, a local.
GOODING  A Jerome woman who pleaded guilty in November to grand theft for taking more than $660,000 from a dairy was sentenced Tuesday.

Stephanie Wells, 35, will spend a minimum of three years  and up to 14 years  in prison for stealing $664,292.10 from Box Canyon Dairy in Gooding County, according to court documents filed Wednesday. Senior District Judge John K. Butler also ordered Wells to pay restitution in the same amount to her former employers.

Wells was charged in April with 19 counts of grand theft. She pleaded not guilty to all counts at that time.

In November, Wells pleaded guilty to five counts. The other 14 counts were dismissed in a plea agreement.

I took a Box Canyon Dairy check to pay a personal credit card, Wells told Fifth District Judge Rosemary Emory.

The maximum sentence for each count of grand theft is 14 years in prison and a $50,000 fine, Emory said at the time. The plea agreement provided an open recommendation on sentencing, with possible probation.

Wells was hired by Box Canyon Dairy as chief financial officer and internal accountant in 2012, according to court documents. She resigned in January as the dairy was closing its operation. Wells was charged after an investigation showed she had written checks to pay credit card bills and falsified payments for a loan she had with the company.

Wells and her husband, Dustin Wells, face a civil lawsuit brought by Box Canyon Dairy in Jerome County in an attempt to recover the funds. Dustin Wells filed a bankruptcy petition in May, according to court records.

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Jefferson County Democrats are seeing a spike in mail-in ballots during the early voting period that ends at 7 p.m. Friday, due in part to a statewide get-out-the-vote campaign targeting those 65 and older and others who are eligible to cast their ballots by mail.

Nearly 15% of votes cast thus far have come through the mail, double the rate from early voting during the 2016 presidential primary, and up from 1.2% and 2.3% in 2008 and 2012, respectively.

Republicans, meanwhile, have seen just 1.6% of their votes come through the mail. Thats comparable to past presidential election years.

The Texas Democratic Party, capitalizing on a statewide surge in 2018, sent out mail-in ballot applications to many registered voters over the age of 65 and those who are unable to get to the polls, Jefferson County Democratic Party Chair Ava Graves said.

>> RELATED: Meet SETX candidates running in March primary

Because of Democratic votes in Jefferson County, we were one of the counties that got the benefit of the program from the state party, said Graves, who is being challenged in her race by Joseph Trahan and Paul Martin.

More Information Mail-in ballot total early voting turnout 2008 Democrats 1.2 percent Republicans 1.9 percent 2012 Democrats 2.3 percent Republicans 4.4 percent 2016 Democrats 7.4 percent Republicans 1.1 percent 2020* Democrats 15 percent Republicans 1.6 percent *Early voting is not yet complete See More Collapse

Chuck DeVore, Texas Public Policy Foundation vice president of national initiatives, said organized efforts could result in some mail-in voting by people who are not qualified to do so.

The only documented case of voter fraud he could cite in Texas was in the Rio Grande Valley in 2018, when Starr County officials arrested several people for filling out mail-in-ballot applications falsely representing that voters were disabled and later cast votes for those individuals.

>> RELATED: Bloomberg supporters want to see bigger SETX presence

But his statewide research did find a higher than expected number of people who appeared to be young, first-time voters registering to receive mail-in ballots.

Thats the result of organizing, DeVore said. Thats not people spontaneously thinking they deserve to vote from home because its hard to get to the polls.

In Texas, only people who are 65 years old or older, disabled, out of the county during voting time or in jail are eligible to vote by mail. And they have to re-register every year.

DeVore stressed that encouraging eligible people to vote by mail is legal.

Thats a legitimate way of getting out the vote, he said. Where things begin to look illegal is when I looked at the data and was able to focus exclusively on people younger than 65. Thats where I saw huge increases in mail-in balloting, which is problematic.

>>RELATED: Municipal school board races often go uncontested

DeVores research focused on the state as a whole, which is expected to see a record number of mailed-in ballots in the 2020 general election if the trends he found continue.

While its unclear the breakdown of whos casting mail-in ballots in Jefferson County, only about 14 percent of county residents were older than 64, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. About 10 percent of people younger than 65 have a disability.

Slightly more than half of Jefferson County residents are registered to vote.

Jefferson County Clerk Carolyn Guidry said most years before a general election, both parties send mass mail-in voter registration mailers to residents who they know are 65 or older.

>> RELATED: Jefferson County's rejected voters were elderly, infirm or out-of-town

Guidry noted that each mail-in ballot goes through the countys signature verification committee, made up of members submitted by each party, before the early voting ballot board verifies that the ballots have been filled out correctly and the voter is eligible to vote by mail.

Fewer than 20 mail-in ballots have been rejected so far during early voting.

The early turnout is behind 2016, Guidry said, citing bad weather early on. As of Wednesday evening, almost 13,000 people across the county had voted in one of the party primaries. That is about 10,000 fewer than the 2016 turnout for early voting.

Guidry said that could change on Friday, as many voters wait until the last minute.

Ive seen them vote 5,000 people at Rogers Park alone on one day, the last day, she said.

kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com

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[February 28, 2020] Jameela Jamil to Host a Fireside Chat at BOLD 2020, the Mindbody Conference

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Mindbody, the leading technology platform for the wellness industry, today announced that Jameela Jamil will take part in a moderated, question-and-answer session during the BOLD conference, the premier event for wellness business owners and professionals. The event will be held on Aug. 25-27 in Midtown Manhattan, New York. Jamil's fireside chat will highlight her experiences as a performer and her passion for body neutrality. Jamil, 34, has used her fame to bring attention to a host of positive causes, including her own women's empowerment movement and social media platform @i_weigh, which focuses on practicing gratitude, self-respect, and self-pride. The platform has attracted over one million followers worldwide. "It is a wonderful pleasure to welcome Jameela Jamil to our annual conference where her message of inclusivity and empowerment is sure to be well received," said Rick Stollmeyer, CEO and co-founder of MINBODY. "Her resolve and motivation to make the world a better place will undoubtedly resonate with the attending business owners that work daily to help people lead healthier, happier lives."



The UK-born actress was originally an English teacher until she was picked from obscurity in 2009 to host the British breakfast TV program, Freshly Squeezed. Jamil's big break came in 2016 when she was cast in the Golden Globe-nominated TV series, The Good Place, where she starred opposite Ted Danson and previous BOLD keynote speaker, Kristen Bell. "It brings me great pleasure to share my background and wellness journey at BOLD 2020," said Jamil. "I hope to inspire the thousands of BOLD attendees through a message of unity so they too can advocate for and amplify this powerful concept to the local communities they serve."

Jamil joins a star-studded list of former BOLD keynote speakers in Bell, Rachel Hollis, Robert F. Smith, Michelle Obama, Billie Jean King, Magic Johnson, Arianna Huffington, Jillian Michaels and Deepak Chopra. The BOLD conference offers educational sessions on a range of topics including marketing, social media, business development and customer retention, as well as a variety of networking opportunities and unique wellness experiences. Registration for BOLD 2020 is now open with discounted tickets available for a limited time; learn more at www.mindbodybold.com. About Mindbody

Mindbody is the leading technology platform for the wellness industry. Local entrepreneurs worldwide use Mindbody's integrated software and payments platform to run, market and grow their businesses. Consumers use Mindbody to more easily find, engage and transact with wellness providers in their local communities. For more information on how Mindbody is helping people lead healthier, happier lives by connecting the world to wellness, visit mindbodyonline.com.  2020 MINDBODY, Inc. All rights reserved. Mindbody, FitMetrix, the Enso logo, the Booker logo and Connecting the World to Wellness are trademarks or registered trademarks of Mindbody Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jameela-jamil-to-host-a-fireside-chat-at-bold-2020-the-mindbody-conference-301013167.html SOURCE Mindbody

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Turkey says at least 33 of its soldiers have been killed in an air strike by Russia-backed Syrian government forces in northwestern Syria, rising tensions between Ankara and Damascus ally Moscow.



Rahmi Dogan, governor of Turkeys Hatay Province bordering Syria, said on February 28 that 32 wounded troops were being treated in hospitals after the strikes in Idlib Province.



In response to the attack, Syrian government targets have come and will continue to come under fire from the air and ground," said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's communications director, Fahrettin Altun.

A war monitor reported that the Turkish reprisals killed 16 Syrian soldiers.

Syrias government has made no immediate comments on the latest escalation in Idlib, which Russia-backed Syrian forces are trying to retake from rebels. A total of 54 soldiers have been reported killed in the province since the beginning of the month, including the latest fatalities.

Russias Defense Ministry said that Turkish troops who came under fire by Syrian troops were among "terrorists." Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar rejected the claim, saying "there were no armed groups around our military units" during the attack.

Russia's Black Sea Fleet said it was sending two warships equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles to the Mediterranean Sea toward the Syrian coast.



The United States said that "we stand by our NATO ally Turkey" and demanded that Syria and Russia end their "despicable" offensive in Idlib.



"We are looking at options on how we can best support Turkey in this crisis," a State Department spokeswoman said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart spoke by phone to discuss the recent flare-up in Idlib, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.



Earlier, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg spoke by phone to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and "condemned the continued indiscriminate air strikes by the Syrian regime and its backer Russia in Idlib Province."

Stoltenberg "urged all parties to de-escalate this dangerous situation and avoid further worsening of the horrendous humanitarian situation in the region," he added.

NATOs top decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, is to meet later in the day at Turkeys request to discuss the situation in Syria, Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter.



Altun tweeted that the international community must act to protect civilians and impose" a no-fly zone over Idlib.

Turkish media reported that hundreds of migrants were flocking to Turkey's borders with Greece and Bulgaria, after a senior official was quoted as saying Ankara had decided not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe.



Police, coast guard, and border security officials were ordered to stand down on refugees land and sea crossings toward Europe, the unidentified Turkish official told Reuters.

At the UN, France also said it "condemns with the greatest firmness the intense bombardments by the aviation of the regime and its allies, in particular Russia," he said, citing a humanitarian disaster caused by attacks on hospitals, schools, and refugee shelters.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia's UN ambassador, downplayed widespread reports of a humanitarian disaster in Idlib, saying the "only long-term solution [to conflict in Syria] is to chase the terrorists from the country."

Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison called on the Turks to learn from the fighting in Syria "who is their reliable partner and who isn't."



I hope that President Erdogan will see that we are the ally of their past and their future, she said, adding that Ankara needs to cancel its purchase of the sophisticated S-400 missile-defense system from Russia.

Turkey has sent thousands of troops and heavy military equipment into northwest Idlib Province to support rebels looking to hold back an offensive by Syrian government and Russian air forces aimed at recapturing the rebel stronghold.

The fighting has raised concerns that NATO member Turkey could come into direct combat against Russian forces in Syria.

Russia, along with Iran, has provided crucial political, military, and financial support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the countrys long civil war, which has killed more than 400,000 people and displaced millions since it began with a crackdown on anti-government protesters in March 2011.

The United States and Turkey have backed differing rebel groups, while extremists linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State also entered the conflict, although they have mostly been driven from their strongholds.

With reporting by dpa, Reuters, AP, and AFP
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Linkedin Gemma Holliani Cahya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020 15:17 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206731bc3 1 National Supreme-Court,Court,trial,recording,regulation,court-hearing Free

Human rights activists and press organizations have lambasted the Supreme Courts new regulation that prohibits the taking of photographs or making sound and video recordings in courtrooms without proper permits, saying the provision will only benefit the judicial mafia and restrict court transparency.

The prohibition is included in a circular letter issued by the Supreme Court about courtroom rules of conduct. The circular was signed by the Supreme Courts director general of general courts Prim Haryadi on Feb. 7.

Taking photos, recording audio or video [during a hearing] must be approved first by the head of a local court, as stated in the circular.

Prior to the circular, Indonesia was among the few countries that allowed journalists and court observers to take pictures as well as audio and video recording of ongoing court procedures.

Ukraine has allowed videotaping of court sessions without obtaining permits from the judge hearing the case, with several limitations, since 2014. The Australian High Court has also allowed video recording of court proceedings since 2013.

On the other hand, many other countries have strict prohibitions. The United States, for example, prohibits electronic media coverage of criminal and civil cases under a federal rule.

The Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI) condemned the Supreme Courts provision on recording court proceedings, demanding it be removed from courtroom rules of conduct.

Such a regulation will boost the operation of the judicial mafia often found [in courts], the foundation said in a statement on Thursday.

Read also: Reforms make Supreme Court more productive

The YLBHI went on to say that the proper documentation and recording of trials had allowed it to gather evidence about what occurred in trials, which assisted it in preventing judges and prosecutors from misquoting witness testimony.

Recording of a trial also reminds judges and relevant parties that they are being watched. At least they will think twice before committing improper acts or violating the law, because there will be evidence from the recording, YLBHI said.

Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) executive director Anggara said the regulation would affect lawyers who usually used documentation of hearings to build their case.

In general, such a ban will have a serious impact on peoples access to justice and reduce information disclosure, which are guaranteed by law, Anggara said in a separate statement on Thursday.

The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Jakarta also lambasted the provision. Its about court transparency. We will object if we are banned from recording court proceedings, chairman Asnil Bambani Amri said, as quoted by kompas.com.

Supreme Court spokesperson Abdullah defended the circular, saying it was designed to ensure court hearings proceeded smoothly and without disruption. Court observers and journalists who want to record a court hearing will be allowed with the permission of the head of a local court.

If we dont prohibit recordings, we cant differentiate between who are journalists and who are simply attendees at court, Abdullah said, as quoted by tempo.co. (hol)
With its elegant panoramic windows and potted palms, the conservatory in Londons iconic Ritz hotel has long been the place to be seen.

But recently it seems it has become a place to be heard.

Not the conversations of guests  perish the thought. But in a bizarre development in the lifelong partnership of The Ritzs owners, the multi-billionaire Barclay twins, one brothers family has apparently been bugging the other.

It is surely the most unexpected of all the twists and turns that have shaped the near 70-year collaboration of the knighted businessmen Sir David and Sir Frederick.

Born in Hammersmith to Scottish parents who had eight other children, they started out as 16-year-old painters and decorators. Today with a privately owned empire that encompasses shipping, retail and The Ritz, as well as the Telegraph media group, they are worth some 3 billion.

And as the High Court heard this week, Sir Frederick (left), the younger by ten minutes, has been secretly bugged by Sir David's (right) sons and grandson for several months

Since both are well into their ninth decade, it seems no time for the brothers  indeed, twins so identical that people could mistake one for the other  to fall out. But as one family source puts it, its a feud.

And as the High Court heard this week, Sir Frederick, the younger by ten minutes, has been secretly bugged by his twins sons and grandson for several months. The bugs  described in court as an elaborate system of covert recordings  were allegedly placed in the hotel conservatory, near one of Sir Fredericks favourite spots where he enjoyed cigars and talking to his only daughter Amanda.

The heart of this gripping family rift involves the disposal of key assets in their empire. The private family company includes Very, the catalogue retailer formerly known as Shop Direct, Yodel the delivery company, the newspapers the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph and, of course, The Ritz, which they bought 25 years ago for 75 million.

A deal is understood to be on the table in which a Saudi private investment company would buy the historic hotel on the edge of Green Park for 750 million. But family sources tell us that Sir David does not want to sell, even though its profits in 2018 fell from 13 million to 7 million.

Matters are also said to be complicated by Sir Fredericks divorce from his Japanese-born wife Hiroko, 77.

The words inheritance as well as family trusts have certainly been heard a lot recently in family circles. This is hardly surprising as the twins will reach the age of 86 in October.

The Barclay twins' company includes Very, Yodel the delivery company, the newspapers the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph and, of course, The Ritz (pictured), which they bought 25 years ago for 75 million

For his part, Sir David, who divides his time between a mock Gothic castle on the tiny Channel Island of Brecqhou and Monaco, has never countenanced retirement  describing it to friends as Gods waiting room.

The reclusive Sir Frederick, on the other hand, has been, as he puts it, mostly retired since his late 70s. He is said not to have been directly involved in the business for more than 20 years.

The next generation have, meanwhile, already become deeply embroiled in the network of family companies that extend to offshore bases in Jersey, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands.

Sir David has four sons and nine grandchildren. The eldest Aidan, 64,  my Aidan as Sir David refers to him  has been managing the UK businesses. Then there are Howard, 60, Duncan, 59, and Alistair, 30.

It is Aidan, Howard and Alistair, together with Aidans son Andrew, 28, who are the alleged parties to the bugging. They eavesdropped on their uncle, it is said in the family, because they disagreed with the way Sir Frederick was going about holding talks with potential buyers.

And crucially, their side of the family claims, because of his habit of talking to strangers whom he meets in The Ritz, where he spends much of his time when he isnt in Monaco.

The feud has pitted cousin against cousin as well as brother against brother. As Desmond Browne QC, representing Sir Frederick and his 41-year-old daughter Amanda, told the High Court: We all remember Tolstoy saying each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Here, children of Sir Frederick and Sir David have been at odds concerning the family trusts  and cousin, sadly, has been pitched against cousin.

Indeed feud is hardly strong enough a word to describe the toxic atmosphere that separates the twins once seen as inseparable.

They look alike, talk alike but they are as different as chalk and cheese, says one family figure. Its really quite dreadful. Heaven knows how it will all end.

The family spectacle unfolding in the High Court has all the bitterness and drama of the huge Amazon Prime hit Succession, in which members of a media empire battle over its control.

Desmond Browne told the court: The matter came to light when the first defendant (Alistair Barclay) was filmed late on the night of January 13 handling the bug placed in the conservatory at The Ritz which was known to be often used by Sir Frederick.

Frederick Barclay claims his three nephews and great nephew were parties to the recording of their private conversations over several months. He and his daughter are bringing a legal action alleging misuse of private information, breach of confidence and breach of data protection laws against their four relatives and Philip Peters, who holds a number of board positions in the Barclay group of businesses.

Recent corporate changes have fuelled fears on Fredericks side of the family that they are being sidelined. In January, just a week after the bugging was discovered, Amanda and an associate were removed against their will as directors of six Ritz companies. They were replaced by Aidan, Howard and Mr Peters.

Together the brothers rode out the Seventies property crash to emerge in the Eighties stronger than ever, acquiring a retail chain, newspapers and ultimately The Ritz (pictured)

Court documents revealed that transcripts had been made of the recordings and the family members then used the encrypted WhatsApp messaging service to discuss what was said between Sir Frederick and his daughter.

As the judge Mr Justice Warby noted: There is ample evidence at this stage to suggest that the bugging of conversations at The Ritz yielded a wealth of confidential business information, and personal information of a confidential and private nature which, on the face of it, the claimants (Sir Frederick and Amanda) are entitled to protect from unauthorised use or disclosure.

He said the secret recordings included discussions about potential acquisitions and disposals of business assets, as well as personal financial matters  relating to the family trusts.

The mud-slinging has been intense. Unkind words such as wicked, jealous and monster have been freely bandied about in family circles.

Nobody would have forecast such a finale to the mercurial rise of the working-class West London twins whose father, a travelling salesman in bakers sundries, died when they were 12, and who at 16 set out to make their fortunes.

It is a colourful story of ambition and success.

From painting and decorating, the pair gravitated to running Candy Corner, a tobacconist and sweet shop near their Hammersmith roots. But their lift-off to riches is said to have owed much to the 4ft 11in girl David married in 1955.

She was Zoe Newton, who had trained as a ballet dancer after grammar school and then suddenly found fame and fortune as a model. She rapidly became the most photographed and highly paid model in the country. She was a favourite of colour magazines and appeared on early television commercials as the National Dairy Councils drinka-pinta-milka-day girl.

It wasnt long before David established the Hillgate estate agents in 1962 with Zoe  by now his wife and mother of his three eldest sons  as co-director. She had given up modelling to bring up their family, as her husband began buying and developing properties across London. And in 1968 brother Frederick replaced Zoe on the Hillgate board.

By 1970 their property portfolio had grown to include the 170-room Londonderry House hotel on Park Lane, the Cadogan hotel in Sloane Street and two other hotels in Bayswater, near Hyde Park.

This climb to riches was conducted with a marked aversion to publicity. They had no interest in trumpeting their successes to the world. Rather the reverse. They had watched other accomplished men fall foul of fame. They liked to enjoy what they had in private, an acquaintance of their early years says. Together the brothers rode out the Seventies property crash to emerge in the Eighties stronger than ever, acquiring a retail chain, newspapers and ultimately The Ritz.

Through all this most people barely knew what they looked like. Meanwhile they had acquired the island of Brecqhou, the sister-island of Sark in the Channel Islands and a mere 160 acres in size  just the kind of place where a billionaire, or indeed two, can disappear at will.

These were times when the twins could not have been closer.

First they set about building homes on the island for the family and then the creation of something much larger, their private paradise, began.

From scratch they built a turreted castle with walls four-and-a-half feet thick rising up the islands cliffs to castellated battlements, as well as a helipad. They particularly enjoyed the huge open-air courtyard. The library ceiling they had hand-painted in a style reminiscent of the Sistine Chapel.

In the palatial living room were pictures of the Barclay twins with Nelson Mandela, French president Charles de Gaulle and, prominently, Margaret Thatcher. In business the Barclays earned a reputation for uncompromising toughness and yet, it must be said, that after Mrs Thatchers fall from power in 1990 no one could have been kinder to the Iron Lady.

They are understood to have provided the multi-million-pound Belgravia townhouse where she lived, giving her a lease on the property which reverted to them on her death.

In the end, after a series of strokes, Lady Thatcher was forced to give up the house because she could no longer manage the stairs.

The devoted Barclays then provided her with a suite at The Ritz for the last six months of her life. She made occasional appearances in the hotel dining room. The pianist always played the wartime classic A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square when she left the restaurant  it was a favourite of her late husband Sir Denis.

Today there is a very different tune being played in the carpeted corridors  the sound of rancour. Family fall-outs are hardly new, but the Barclays had always presented a facade of family unity. Yet now an ugly story of bitterness is unravelling.

Family sources on Sir Davids side claim that great age has robbed Sir Frederick of his sense of discretion. They cite his fondness for chatting to hotel guests about his life story, and  they claim  confidential matters.

The brothers built a turreted castle with walls four-and-a-half feet thick rising up the island of Brecqhou's cliffs to castellated battlements, as well as a helipad

I am sorry it has to come to this but this goes against everything the family has held in high value, says one. We are not boastful, we are discreet and we want to keep it that way.

For their part, Sir Fredericks side of the family refused to comment on these allegations.

The twins are said to communicate largely by text  if they communicate at all. At one business meeting at The Ritz the brothers were sitting at opposite ends of a long table. They reportedly never spoke to each other and communicated by writing notes. Their advisers passed them along. They were discussing the possible sale of the Daily Telegraph.

Asked when the last time was that Sir Frederick spoke to his elder brother, a source close to him said: You could just say that this rift has been there for several years.

More shocking perhaps than the hurling of insults concerns the issue of a newly installed headstone at Mortlake cemetery in South-West London.

It marks the death in 1947 of the twins father, who never fully recovered after being gassed in the World War I.

Inscribed with the words in loving memory of our father, the black granite stone carries the name of Sir David and his brother Andrew  but not Sir Frederick.

More lurid details of the feud are expected to emerge as the case continues. For a family which has prided itself on its discretion, the unseemly revelations will bring with them considerable pain. Above all the image created by the Barclay brothers was one of always being in control. Neither twin can lay claim to that now.
The ministry affirmed that all of the injured are in stable condition

Egypt's Health Ministry said that 38 citizens were injured as a passenger train on Alexandria-Matrouh track derailed on Thursday night, reporting no deaths as a result of the incident.

The Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA) said the passenger train's locomotive and three carriages went off track and overturned.

slight, varying between abrasions, bruises and cuts, all of whom are in very stable condition

" All of the injured are in stable condition",Megahed affirmed.

In a statement released on Thursday, ERA said the train derailed between the stations of Sidi Abdel Rahman and Gazal Ali, adding that a crane will be deployed to the scene to remove the derailed locomotive and carriages as soon as possible

The ERA added that it was currently investigating the causes of the accident

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Voting booths are setup at the Yuengling Center on the campus of University of South Florida as workers prepare to open the doors to early voters in Tampa, Fla., on Oct. 22, 2018. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Wisconsin Appeals Court Overturns Ruling to Purge More Than 200,000 Voters From Rolls

The Wisconsin Appeals Court has overturned a ruling that sought to purge more than 200,000 people from state voter rolls, according to court documents.

In interpreting the Wisconsin Statutes, courts may not rewrite the plain language of the statutes the legislature has enacted, the appeals court said. Acceptance of the arguments of Plaintiffs would cause us to rewrite statutes enacted by the legislature, and that we cannot do. It added that the ruling has been reversed, and this matter is remanded to the circuit court for dismissal of plaintiffs complaint.

The conservative group that filed the lawsuit, Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, wrote that it will plan to appeal the ruling to the states Supreme Court.

Wisconsin deserves clean elections in 2020. It is our intent to seek review in the Wisconsin Supreme Court to ensure that the Wisconsin Elections Commission complies with state law, said group spokesperson Rick Esenberg in a statement.

The suit argued that the state election commission broke the law when it didnt remove people from the voter rolls who didnt respond within 30 days in October to indicate that theyve moved. The agency said it was going to wait until after the November 2020 election before any voter was removed.

The appeals court also vacated an order from the same judge that found the Wisconsin Elections Commission in contempt for not moving ahead with the voter roll purge. The case was sent back to the lower court and ordered it to be dismissed, reported The Associated Press.

Voters cast ballots at a polling place in Kirkwood, Missouri, on Nov. 6, 2018. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

We appreciate the Court of Appeals decision and will move forward with the process approved by the members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission in June 2019 for handling mailings sent to potential movers, the Wisconsin Elections Commission said in a statement on Friday. The important thing for voters to know is that if you have moved, you need to be registered at your current address before you can vote. Eligible, registered voters who have not moved (or legally changed their names) can vote without having to reregister, even if we sent you a movers mailing in 2019.

Wisconsin is viewed as a 2020 battleground state, meaning that the removal of 200,000 voters from rolls could have significant implications. President Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin by about 23,000 votes in 2016.

The affected voters were concentrated in areas that typically vote for Democrats, which prompted left-leaning groups to accuse the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty of trying to reduce Democratic voter turnout, reported The Associated Press. The plaintiff and other groups said they were trying to reduce voter fraud.

Attorney General Josh Kaul, whose agency represents the Elections Commission in the case, said the decision was a win not only for the Wisconsinites who were nearly purged from the voter rolls, but also for our democracy, AP reported.
Detectives say a robbery suspect was shot and killed during an apparent home invasion Feb. 28, changing a narrative originally given to investigators.

Two men were inside the home in the 3800 block of Charriton Drive shortly after midnight that Friday morning. The suspected robber made his way inside the home and robbed the men, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
A second case of coronavirus spread by community transmission was reported in Northern California on Friday, and a student at the University of California, Davis, was being tested for infection with the virus.

A 65-year-old resident of Santa Clara County, which encompasses most of Silicon Valley, was diagnosed with the virus. The patient has not traveled recently to countries experiencing outbreaks, meaning the infection was contracted locally, implying that the virus is spreading domestically.

On Wednesday, health officials revealed that a woman in Solano County had tested positive and had been treated at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. On Friday she she was transferred by officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to an undisclosed location in San Mateo County. That case, the first in the U.S. of what health experts term community spread, went undiagnosed for days because a test was not immediately ordered.

Since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, a test was not immediately administered. UC Davis Health does not control the testing process, the hospital said in a memo obtained by the Sacramento Bee.

The woman lives in Vacaville, Calif., where dozens of people who had been in close contact with her have now been put under quarantine.

Three students at UC Davis are under observation for possible exposure to the coronavirus. One of the three, who was believed to have had contact with a known patient, has developed symptoms of the disease and is being tested. The symptoms were described as mild.

In a Thursday letter to students on the campus, the university sought to assure the community that all the proper precautions had been undertaken. The three students are roommates at Kearney Hall, a dormitory that houses approximately 200 students.

The CDC is testing one of them for COVID-19, and this person is not on campus, the university said. The other two individuals are asymptomatic, meaning they are not showing any symptoms of illness, so, following CDC guidance, they have not been tested.

Story continues

UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

Vacaville, with a population of just over 100,000, is located 10 miles from Travis Air Force Base, where coronavirus patients infected on the Diamond Princess cruise ship are being kept in quarantine. Sonia Angell, MD, director of the California Department of Public Health, said there was no connection between the infection of the Vacaville woman and the patients being treated at Travis.

Dozens of people in and around Vacaville who came in contact with the infected woman are now quarantined in their homes. UC Davis is 23 miles from Vacaville.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that 8,400 people were being monitored for the coronavirus there, but the state has just 200 testing kits on hand.

That is simply inadequate to do justice to the kind of testing we need, Newsom said.

As of Thursday, 33 people in California had tested positive for the coronavirus, and five of them had been moved out of the state. As of Friday morning, 60 cases of the virus had been confirmed in the United States.

CDC Director Robert Redfield told Congress Thursday that the new coronavirus case in Sacramento has made clear that the agency needs to do more testing for the virus.

As soon as that case was recognized, we went and revised our definition, Redfield said. If a public official suspects coronavirus, then we should get a test for coronavirus. That updated guidance went out today.

Scott Morrow, the health officer for San Mateo County, offered a warning of what is likely to come if the virus continues to spread.

Our lives may be significantly disrupted by the measures needed to respond to a global pandemic, Morrow said in a statement.

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A FARMER who sued another for breach of contract over a cow he bought at a clearance sale in spring 2018 has lost his case.

The well-bred Holstein Friesian got sick and had to be sent to the factory weeks later. Its calf also died, Kilmallock Court heard in January. Donnacha Crowley, of Friarsfield, Tipperary Town, took the civil case against Patrick Breen, of Coologue, Old Pallas. Mr Breen denied breach of contract and contested the case.

Mr Crowley, who represented himself, claimed for the price of the cow (1,370) and veterinary expenses which amounted to around 2,000 in total.

The court heard that the cow had a left displaced abomasum (LDA) operation in 2015. Mr Crowley said he wasnt informed of this prior to purchasing the animal.

I wouldnt have bought her if I knew she had been altered in any way. I bought the cow in good faith, said Mr Crowley.

During an operation in 2018 by the Tipperary mans vet due to throbbing in the cows jugular vein Mr Crowley said the vet found scars and adhesions.

When Mr Breen took the stand, he said the cow made a full recovery from the 2015 operation.

That cow was healthy. She got sick. It happens, said Mr Breen. His solicitor, Ger Reidy said there was no reason for Mr Breen to announce the cow had an operation because there was absolutely no problem with the cow.

In a clearance sale, the solicitor said the conditions are read out beforehand, All items sold as seen, no guarantee or warranty.

Read also: Alert neighbour thwarts attempted theft from Limerick farm yard

Purchasers are bound by that terms of sale in the contract, said Mr Reidy.

Mr Breens vet, Brian Ryan said the LDA in 2015 was unrelated to the cows illness in 2018.

If it was three weeks post surgery Id say something but three years, no. Its very unfortunate, said Mr Ryan.

Judge Marian OLeary adjourned the case until last week to make her decision.

In a lengthy judgement, Judge OLeary pointed to the fact that Mr Crowleys vet was not in court to give evidence about the cause and effect of the scars and adhesions he found when he operated on the cow in 2018.

Judge OLeary said Mr Breens vet said that after he operated in 2015 the cow fully recovered, went back in calf, gave good milk yields and there were no further problems.

The vet said there was no connection between the operation in 2015 and 2018. There was no evidence to the contrary, said Judge OLeary.

Regarding the alleged obligation to disclose the information about the operation, Judge OLeary said consumer law does not apply.

The rules of contract do apply. The terms and conditions were read out before the clearance sale - all items sold as seen, no guarantee or warranty, said Judge OLeary.

On the basis of all the evidence, Judge OLeary dismissed Mr Crowleys civil case. No costs were awarded against him.
A group by name Ghana Health Alert (GHA) says President Nana Akufo-Addo and his delegation must be screened and quarantined when they return from their 12-day tour of Europe.

Our manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

According to the group their call is on the back of signs of flu and cold showed by the Ghana President during the State of the Nation Address.

READ ALSO: Central University cuts sod for construction of teaching hospital

The Civil Advocacy Group of Medical and Public Health practitioners, chastised the handlers of the President for ignoring the difficulties his current itinerary pose to his health.

It is, therefore, a matter of concern that in an era when most Presidents across the world have placed travel ban on foreign trips to several countries, our President could not emulate same by postponing his trip due to the Coronavirus scare and its possible pandemic threat, the GHA Executive Secretary Dr. Vida Yakron said.

They further stated that their call also is as a result of the widespread nature of the deadly Coronavirus disease.

The group states that the ever-spreading Coronavirus has become difficult to contain as it keeps spreading in Asia and across Europe.

READ ALSO: Bawumia cant have a debate with a minnow like you - NPP tells Adongo

It added that even though the WHO is making sure that the disease does not affect countries with weaker and unprepared healthcare systems, most especially the African continent , some countries on the continent have already recorded cases.

ATTENTION: Read the best news on Ghana #1 news app. Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Ghana

The Ghana Health Alert group noted that ; since the virus is said to have a minimum incubation period of not less than 14 days, we the members of the GHA have no alternative than to call on the Ghana health authorities and the Nugochi Medical Research Center to be on alert for the screening and quarantine of the President Akufo-Addo and his delegation as they could be persons of interest in case of any targeted biological warfare against Africa through Ghana. Under the circumstances, we have no alternative than to call for the quarantine upon arrival into Ghana.

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that Ghanas military has been ranked as the 106th strongest globally on a ranking of 138 countries.

Ghana moved up two places in the latest ranking. The data was in the Global Firepower ranking 2020. The ranking used 50 factors to determine a countrys power index score.

"I will score President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo 0/100" - Market woman reveals | #Yencomgh

READ ALSO: Health alert: Travellers from China entering Ghana unchecked and unquarantined

Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos

Source: YEN.com.gh
The Supreme Court on Friday granted protection from arrest to Gujarat leader Hardik Patel till March 6 in connection with violence during Patidar Andolan (stir) in 2015 in the state. The bench of justices U U Lalit and Vineet Saran issued notice to the Gujarat government on the plea of Patel seeking quashing of a case against him

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who represented the government, told the court that charges against Patel are serious since his speeches led to widespread violence and destruction of property.

The bench then asked the government why nothing was done pursuant to the probe in the last five years. The case was lodged in 2015 and the investigation is still pending in the matter. You cant sit on the case for past five years, the bench said.

It also asked Patels lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi whether the state had requisitioned his presence for probe to which Singhvi replied in the negative. Singhvi also told the court that the FIR against Patel was for making speeches against the Gujarat government.

If you (the state) could not do anything for five years, there is no harm in waiting for seven days, Justice Lalit told the Solicitor General. The bench allowed the state to file its response by Monday and posted the matter for Friday next week.

Patel, as the leader of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, had organised a mega rally in Ahmedabad as part of the quota stir demanding reservation for his Patidar community in government jobs and educational institutions. An FIR was lodged against him for unlawful assembly as the police claimed the event did not have requisite permissions.

The Gujarat high court had rejected his anticipatory bail plea earlier this month citing criminal antecedents of Patel.
Teen call girl Tiffany Taylor sent dozens of messages offering sex for cash in a desperate bid to pay her rent in the days before she disappeared, a court has been told.

The 16-year-old was last seen in July 2015 after Rodney Wayne Williams, 65, met her via the Oasis social networking website and allegedly agreed to pay $500 for sex.

He has pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane Supreme Court to murdering the teenager after picking her up from a Logan motel.

Teen call girl Tiffany Taylor sent dozens of messages offering sex for cash in a desperate bid to pay her rent in the days before she disappeared, a court has been told

Prosecutor Philip McCarthy QC told the jury on Friday that in the three days before Tiffany went missing she sent and received hundreds of Oasis messages.

'I need money ASAP. I need to pay my rent and phone bill,' one message shown to the jury from the teen on July 10 reads.

A profile named Shakz replies: 'Centre link (sic) ain't helping U?'

Tiffany replies 'no' saying she is an orphan and her parents are dead.

Earlier in the day, the teenager offered another profile named Junior184 sex for $400 but the user replied it was 'way to (sic) dear'.

To another, she says 'I am looking for a 'sugur (sic) daddy'.

The teenager repeatedly offers sex for cash, saying she urgently needs money to pay her bills.

Some profiles questioned her age. Others showed sympathy for her situation. But many attempted to barter the price down, with one offering to pay $40 for 30 minutes.

The 16-year-old was last seen in July 2015 after Rodney Wayne Williams, 65, met her via the Oasis social networking website and allegedly agreed to pay $500 for sex

Another said: 'Get a job'.

As the days' pass, Tiffany's messages become increasingly desperate.

In one message to Vegemitekid15, she answers 's***' when asked how she is before again offering sex for cash so she can 'pay the rent'.

The court has heard the teenager was living at the $100 per night Waterford Motor Inn with her boyfriend Gregory Hill, who was unemployed.

An Oasis message log shows that on July 12, Tiffany was communicating with the profile Muddles54, who she offered sex for money.

Mr McCarthy said it was Williams.

The court heard that after the pair negotiated, Williams picked Tiffany up in his car about mid-morning.

Williams then drove to Larapinta industrial park where 'something happens', Mr McCarthy told the court.

He then drove to the Esk-Fernvale region, where police have searched properties, dams and bushland for Tiffany's body, without success.

Tiffany's Oasis messages abruptly ended on the same day at 11.26am, he said.

Her last message simply read: 'Hey'.

The court heard Tiffany had created more than a dozen user profiles on the Oasis website in the months before she disappeared.

The teenager listed her age as 21 and used profile names such as Hotsexylady1 and Sexybabe11232, often also with a photo.

Earlier, Mr Hill, 45, denied pimping the teenager out despite 300 messages about money and meeting men allegedly being found on his phone.

The trial continues.
Nearly two dozen American lawmakers have sought assurances and transparency prior to the signing of a landmark peace deal between the US and the Taliban in Doha on Saturday to end the brutal war in Afghanistan, urging the Trump administration not to make a commitment that would embolden America's adversaries and undermine its allies.

The US is set to sign a historic peace deal with the Taliban on Saturday provided that a week-long reduction in violence across the war-torn Afghanistan holds.

The Taliban has also confirmed the plan to sign the peace deal that day.

In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the defense secretary, the Congressmen on Thursday called for prioritisation of American security as the US pursued a peace agreement with the Taliban.

Dated February 27, the letter calls for transparency and highlights the importance of keeping the US safe.

Additionally, it outlines the need for certain security pledges, including that any deal between the US and the Taliban will be public and not contain secret annexes or side deals.

The lawmakers also demanded that there will be no intelligence sharing or a "joint counter-terrorism" centre established with the Taliban.

"We have serious concerns about reports that the United States is preparing to sign a deal with the Taliban, the terrorists who harboured al-Qaeda before and after the attacks of 9/11. President Trump has a proven track record of putting America's security first and ensuring our country stays out of bad deals that aid our adversaries," the letter said.

"In keeping with this policy, we are seeking assurances that you will not place the security of the American people into the hands of the Taliban, and undermine our ally, the current government of Afghanistan," it added.

In the letter, the lawmakers sought assurances that any deal between the US and the Taliban would be public and not contain any secret annexes or side deals and that the administration would not put American security at risk by pretending that the Taliban was a reliable counter-terrorism partner.

The letter said decisions about the US troop levels in Afghanistan must be made based on US national security requirements determined by conditions on the ground.

"Therefore, any deal must not contain a commitment for a full US withdrawal at this point. Such a commitment would embolden America's adversaries and undermine our allies, including the Afghan government," the lawmakers said.

"Any deal with the Taliban will include the requirement that the Taliban turn over all al-Qaeda leaders and operatives who are currently hiding in Taliban strongholds. There will be no uneven or premature release of Taliban prisoners," the Congressmen added.

READ | Pak PM Imran Meets Qatar's Emir Ahead Of Signing Of US-Taliban Peace Deal

They also sought assurances that the current sanctions and designations against the al-Qaeda-allied Haqqani network will remain in place regardless of any deal with the Taliban.

"President Trump has taken crucial action to keep our nation safe, including eliminating the world's most dangerous terrorists and destroying the ISIS caliphate. He knows a bad deal when he sees one. We urge you not to commit America to a dangerous deal with the Taliban that would abandon the President's track record of strengthening America and putting our security and interests first," the lawmakers said.

The Taliban was a terrorist group that celebrated suicide attacks, they alleged.

Haibatullah Akhundzada, the overall leader of the Taliban, sacrificed his own son in a suicide bombing in 2017. Akhundzada's top deputy, Sirajuddin Haqqani, runs a network that specialises in devastating suicide bombings, including some of the most heinous attacks in the history of the war, the letter said.

"The American people cannot rely on these terrorists to safeguard their security," it noted.

Observing that the Taliban also had a history of extracting concessions in exchange for false assurances, the lawmakers said they would accept nothing less than a full-scale US withdrawal from Afghanistan as they sought to establish their totalitarian "Islamic Emirate".

"Our withdrawal would then allow terrorist groups in Afghanistan to grow stronger and establish safe havens from which to plot attacks against us. Any promises the Taliban may have made to the US related to counterterrorism cannot be trusted, not least because the group is a long-time ally of al-Qaeda," the Congressmen said.

Indeed, if the initial US-Taliban deal had been approved in September as was originally planned, one of the top al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan Asim Umar would likely still be alive, the letter said.

"Umar threatened America and answered directly to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri. He was reportedly killed in a joint US-Afghan raid on a Taliban stronghold in September after President Trump suspended talks with the Taliban.

"It is our understanding that under the current deal, such raids are not taking place - meaning that if Umar had survived a few months longer, he would be outside America's reach," it added.

The agreement struck during the talks between the US and the Taliban, if maintained, may secure a peace deal that would lead to a withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, fulfilling a campaign promise of President Trump.

The US currently has reportedly less than 14,000 troops in Afghanistan.

READ | 'US Ready To Consider Agreement With Taliban': US Defence Secretary Mark Esper

READ | Pak PM Imran To Visit Qatar Ahead Of Signing Of US-Taliban Peace Deal
The disruption of materials supply chain from major markets to Vietnam has led to a lower growth rate of the industrial production index in the first two months.

Many Vietnamese firms may run out of input materials for production by late March as the global supply chain is disrupted by the Covid-19 epidemic, according to Truong Thanh Hoai, director of the Ministry of Industry and Trades Industry Department.

Overview of the meeting.

Vietnams manufacturing and processing sector is heavily dependent on components from countries currently affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, including China, South Korea and Japan, in which electricity and electronics are among the hardest-hit sectors, Hoai said at a ministry conference on February 26.

In 2019, Vietnam's electricity and electronics sectors imported goods worth US$40 billion, of which markets such as South Korea, Japan and China amounted to US$32 billion.

Meanwhile, the domestic leather, footwear and handbag industry which imported over US$23 billion in materials last year could only maintain normal operation until early April, said Hoai.

Le Tien Truong, director of Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (VINATEX), said a delay in the supply of input materials could lead to a potential loss of US$1.5  2 billion for the textile industry.

For the automobile industry, nearly US$4 billion worth of parts and accessories were imported to Vietnam in 2019, of which those from South Korea, Japan and China made up US$2.6 billion.

The Industry Department said enterprises in the automobile industry would start facing shortage of supply by the end of the first quarter, which is a serious matter as it is not easy to find alternative sources for China, South Korea and Japan, especially in terms of price and quick delivery.

Hoai proposed more incentives are needed for local enterprises to actively search for input materials from other markets, or turn to self-reliance.

A representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade expected to mobilze more resources from the government for industrial development, particularly supporting industries for major products such as steel, fabric, new materials, among others.

Another key point is to have exceptional policies promoting a shift in investments in manufacturing and processing from China to Vietnam.

Deputy Diector General of the MoITs Planning Department Nguyen Thuy Hien said the disruption of materials supply chain from major markets to Vietnam has directly impacted the industrial production index in the first two months.

In the January  February period, the index expanded 6.2% year-on-year, down two percentage points compared to the same period last year, in which the manufacturing and processing rose only 7.4%, down four percentage points, mining down 1.6 percentage points and electricity supply down one percentage point.

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said Chinese products account for 40% of the supply chain in Asia, adding Vietnam is not the only case under impacts from the disruption.

The issue is more complicated for Vietnam when the epidemic is spreading in South Korea and Japan, the countrys two major trading partners.

Anh said this is the right time for Vietnam to focus on being more self-reliant in terms of input materials for domestic production. Hanoitimes

Hai Yen

Vietnams economy in coronavirus whirlwind The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has predicted that the GDP would grow by 5.96 percent, a 7-year low.
Former BJP MLA from Mira-Bhayander in Thane, Narendra Mehta (48), has been booked for rape and illegal marriage and also under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act by the Mumbai police on Thursday.

Mehta was booked after a local woman BJP corporator accused him of marrying her illegally at a Dahanu temple on June 13, 2001, and claimed he sired her son, who is now 16 years old, said Sandeep Kadam, a senior police inspector with the Mira Road police station.

The complaint alleges Mehta sexually and mentally harassed the woman for over 20 years since 1999, said police. Mehtas accomplice Sanjay Thartare was also booked for allegedly threatening the woman against going to police in 2015. He had allegedly told the woman that Mehta was close to former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and advised her to settle in Dubai with her child instead.

Mehta was booked under Sections 376(2)(n)(rape), 496 (illegal marriage), 417 (cheating), 323, 504, 506 of the IPC and also under Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989.

Both the accused are absconding and we are in search for them said Kadam, said Kadam.

The case came to light after a video, allegedly circulated on social media by the complainant, narrating how she was abused by Mehta went viral, forcing Mehta to announce he was quitting the BJP and politics on Monday.

The woman claims Mehta used her for political gains during the 2009 state assembly polls. .

Prominent Shiv Sena leader Dr Neelam Gorhe, an MLC, had demanded stringent action against Mehta in the house as complaints of Mehta harassing women in the twin cities of Mira-Bhayander surfaced.

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PRISTINA  The U.S. special envoy for Serbia and Kosovo says the United States does not support the Kosovar governments decision to temporarily and partly lift the import tariff on products from Serbia.



In a tweet late on February 27, Richard Grenell, who also serves as U.S. ambassador to Germany and has recently been appointed as President Donald Trump's intelligence chief, called the move a half measure.

"Our position is quite clear: the tariffs must be completely dropped," Grenell tweeted, adding that Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti "is making a serious mistake."

The United States is one of the biggest backers of Kosovo's independence from Serbia, which it declared in 2008. Serbia continues to consider its former province part of its territory.



European Union-facilitated talks on normalizing diplomatic relations were derailed in November 2018 by Pristina's imposition of 100 percent tariffs on Serbian goods and services in response to Belgrade's continued lobbying for countries to reverse their recognition of Kosovo.



In a statement on February 28, the EU welcomed Kosovos announcement as a first step that could have a positive effect on restoring regional trade and offer an opening for the resumption of the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.



"Too much time has been lost.Trust needs to be urgently restored. Serbia and Kosovo need to create an environment that is conducive for the dialogue to resume, to the benefit of both, it said.

Kurti on February 27 announced Kosovo would abolish the tariff on raw materials imported from Serbia from March 15 as a sign of goodwill to resolve the political and economic dispute with Serbia.



Kurti told a news conference that tariffs in place for all other Serbian goods will be eliminated on April 1 for a period of 90 days if Belgrade halts its campaign of prodding other countries not to recognize Kosovos statehood and removes trade barriers for Kosovo.



But if Serbia fails to show goodwill, Kosovo will gradually reciprocate in kind -- first in trade, then in political terms, he warned.



And if no satisfactory response from Belgrade has come, the tariff will be reimposed from June 15.

Kurti's key coalition ally, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), threatened to quit the government if the tariff was not "revoked unconditionally," Deputy Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti told local media.

Former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, whose government imposed the tariffs in 2018, condemned the plan set out by Kurti, calling it "the beginning of the return of Serbia and Russia to Kosovo."



There have been no immediate comments from Serbian officials.



In a step toward improving ties, Serbian and Kosovar officials earlier this year signed deals to establish air, rail, and highway links between Pristina and Belgrade.
Health officials have issued a warning to Mardi Gras revellers to be wary of dangerous, laced drugs that are being sold on SYdney's streets.

People enjoying Mardi Gras festivities in Sydney this weekend have been urged to be careful after several people were hospitalised from taking drugs contaminated with fentanyl.

Fentanyl is an opioid used for pain relief and is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine.

People have become ill after ingesting the substance, believing they were taking MDMA or cocaine.

Health officials have warned Mardi Gras revellers about fentanyl-laced drugs being sold in Sydney over the weekend. Pictured: dancers in the 2019 Mardi Gras parade

'If someone had done this thinking they had cocaine and gone into a toilet stall, they may not leave the toilet,' Prince Alfred Hospitals director of clinical toxicology Professor Andrew Dawson told Radio National.

Health authorities are particularly worried after finding traces of fentanyl in non-opioid drugs, as users would be unaware of what they were taking.

'These are people that are not expecting to use an opioid or a depressant substance and presumably have absolutely no tolerance, so the risk of overdose is even higher,' Uniting Medically Supervised Injecting Centre medical director Dr Marianne Jauncey said.

Fentanyl has caused thousands of deaths in the United States, with the country in the grips of an opioid crisis.

Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine (stock image)

A fentanyl overdose is treated with a drug called naloxone which can help the brain absorb the opioids and temporarily reverse overdose symptoms.

Authorities believe there is a high likelihood that fentanyl-laced drugs are still being sold in Sydney and are nervous for party goers over the Mardi Gras weekend.

The New South Wales Users and Aids Association has been putting out alerts on social media as well as giving out fentanyl testing urine strips to those at risk.

Dr Jauncey said the goal of the operation is to stop people dying.

'Our goal is to make sure that nobody gets that later hours phone call late at night from the police saying "I'm sorry to have to inform you",' she said.

Health officials believe there is a high likelihood that fentanyl-laced drugs are still being sold in Sydney and are nervous for party goers this weekend. Pictured: revellers celebrate in the 2019 Mardi Gras parade
DEAR ABBY: I was born into a poor family, and my father gave me up for adoption to his well-to-do sister. My narcissistic adoptive mother severely abused me physically, mentally and emotionally as a child, and tormented me financially as an adult. I no longer speak to her.

My biological mother has been attempting to have a relationship with me as her daughter. But I don't regard her as my mother. I don't feel anything toward her. All those years of abuse have left me feeling ... jaded.

My biological mother is still poor, and she constantly asks me for money to help my nieces and nephews with their needs. I understand that they are blood, but I work hard for my money and cannot afford to support them financially. They have had plenty of opportunities in the past to better their lives but decided to live off handouts. How do I find validation that I am a person and not just a piggy bank? -- JADED IN CALIFORNIA

DEAR JADED: Considering the circumstances in which you were raised, it may not be easy. A way to find some of that validation would be to start establishing some boundaries in your life. If you can afford to see a licensed mental health professional, you would benefit greatly by scheduling some sessions. Not only will it help you to get your priorities straight, it may also help you to feel less guilty about saying no to relatives with ulterior motives.

** ** **

DEAR ABBY: I felt compelled to write after seeing your Dec. 15 response to "Anywhere, USA," the hosts seeking guidance about how to respond to the daughter of longtime friends who had recently visited. The daughter had emailed asking for a report on her parents' habits and conduct during their trip.

As a caregiving daughter myself, knowing many other caregiving adult children and belonging to a few support groups for caregivers, I believe inquiring of family friends and other relatives about their loved ones is not wrong or invasive. Our loved ones behave differently in different situations. How they negotiate changes and social situations without the caregiver present may provide important clues and information regarding their mental/cognitive status.

Caregivers try to give their loved ones as much freedom as safely possible. Gaining information about the visit would possibly give clues regarding the ability to travel independently or not, and whether they can still negotiate social and public situations appropriately. These are examples of things that a caregiver will never observe without the eyes of others.

Many caregivers out there read your column, and others who have aging, declining friends with caregiving kids. People must not hesitate to say something when they notice a change in behavior. -- LOYAL READER IN NEW JERSEY

DEAR READER: I'm printing your letter because it is representative of the response I received about "Anywhere, USA's" letter. You raise an important issue about how it "takes a village" to band together and to share observations about changes in older people's comportment beyond simple aging.

** ** **

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

** ** **

For everything you need to know about wedding planning, order "How to Have a Lovely Wedding." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Wedding Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

(EDITORS: If you have editorial questions, please contact Sue Roush, sroush@amuniversal.com.)

COPYRIGHT 2020 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

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President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a letter of condolences to President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

I was deeply saddened to hear the news that the Turkish soldiers were martyred, the head of state said in his message.

On the occasion of this incident, on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my deep condolences to you, the families and the loved ones of those who were killed and the brotherly people of Turkey, President Ilham Aliyev said.
An Ado Ekiti High Court on Thursday sent a 55-year-old man, Bashiru Adeyanju, to prison for 14 years for attempting to rape his 17-year-old daughter.

The imprisonment is without an option of fine.

The court found Mr Adeyanju guilty of the offence of attempted rape based on his confessional statement and the testimony of witnesses called during the trial.

The judge, Monisola Abodunde, however, exonerated him of the offence of serial rape also brought against him by the prosecution.

After listening to both the prosecution and the defence counsels, the prosecution had proved his case beyond reasonable doubt and established the case of attempted rape of his daughter, the judge said.

The court found you guilty as charged but based on the plea of the defence counsel, describing him as a first offender, he is hereby sentenced to 14 years imprisonment.

The judge said the three years he had already spent in jail should be subtracted from the jail term.

Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Wale Fapohunda, who doubles as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Ekiti State, said that the convict committed the offences on September 10, 2017, at No 30, Irona Street, Ado-Ekiti.

He further stated that the convict on the said date, unlawfully attempted to have sexual intercourse with his 17-year-old daughter.

According to him, the victim said her father had started having sexual intercourse with her since she was 10 years old, adding that her father always gave her drugs to prevent pregnancy and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

Mr Fapohunda added that the convict, whose wife had left him since the victim was 10 years old, always beat her whenever she refused her father sex.

He said the offences contravened Sections 358 and 359 of the Criminal Code Law, Cap C 16, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.

The prosecution called five witnesses and tendered exhibits including pictures, statements of the convict and the victim.

The defence counsel, Yinka Opaleke, who only called a witness, pleaded for leniency for his client.
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HONOLULU, HI / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2020 / Taotasi Archie Soliai and Kitty M. Simonds, chair and executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, laud the US Coast Guard's recent success in combating illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing in the Western Pacific Region.On Monday, the Maritime Executive reported that for the first time since 2012, the Coast Guard's Honolulu-based 14th District intercepted foreign vessels illegally operating within the US exclusive economic zone (EEZ) waters off Guam and Hawai'i.The Indo-Pacific is the epicenter of global maritime trade and geostrategic influence, where combatting the threat of IUU fishing isthe most important to uphold America's interests. Map courtesy of Eric Gaba - Wikimedia Commons."While regulation compliance among US fishers is near 97 percent, some of the lowest policed areas, such as the waters in the Western and Central Pacific, are responsible for the highest percentage of significant violations," said Lt. Jason Holstead. He reported that the Coast Guard has addressed foreign incursions in the EEZs of partner countries and IUU fishing on the high seas but not in the US EEZ in the past eight years.The interdiction of the foreign vessels in the US EEZ came on the heels of last week's 2020 State of the United States Coast Guard address delivered by Admiral Karl Schultz. "China, with the world's largest distant water fishing fleet, is one of the worst predatory fishing offenders, engaging in what we call illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing--or IUU," Schultz said. "This is far more than just about conservation and sustainability, this is a national security challenge warranting a clear response." Schultz noted that many Pacific Island Countries, "and even American island territories, lack the capability and capacity to fully police their sovereign waters ...""To enhance maritime domain awareness across the Pacific Ocean, we are fostering a partnership with Global Fishing Watch," Schultz said. Additionally, the Coast Guard is "on track to take delivery of the first two 154-foot Fast Response Cutters to be home-ported in Guam" by the end of the year, Schultz added. They will replace 40-year-old vessels and strengthen the Coast Guard's capabilities in the region."We have advised the government over the years that China is an aggressive player in Oceania in search of natural gas, minerals, fish and other raw materials," said Simonds. "This aggressiveness is in part demonstrated by its heavy subsidizing of its fishing fleets." According to Marine Policy (vol. 68), in 2013 the Chinese central government spent $6.5 billion on fisheries subsidies. In recent years, China's South Pacific albacore catch has increased to 40 to 50 percent of the total catch for all countries, while the catch by American Samoa has decreased to 2 percent of the total catch, which has jeopardized the local albacore longline fleet. In response, the Council recommended allowing the local fleet access to waters from 12 to 50 nautical miles of shore in the US EEZ around American Samoa. "It is good to see that our government has begun to recognize the threat to our nation's fisheries in the Western Pacific," Simonds said.Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association, noted that China's presence is in the Eastern Pacific as well. It recently received a quota for 6,000 metric tons (mt) of longline-caught bigeye tuna transferred from Japan. Korea also received a 2,000-mt quota transfer from Japan. "One third of Hawai'i effort is in Eastern Pacific," Martin said, noting that 8,000 mt is equivalent to the total annual bigeye tuna catch of the Hawai'i longline fleet in both the Western and Central Pacific and Eastern Pacific combined.The issue of international tuna management and enforcement is on the agenda for the Council's 181st meeting, which convene March 10-12 in Honolulu. Prior to this meeting, the Council's Scientific and Statistical Committee will meet next week to review the scientific aspects of the topics on the Council's agenda. For more information on these meetings, go to http://www.wpcouncil.org/meetings-calendars/ or contact the Council at (808) 522-8220 or by email at info.wpcouncil@noaa.gov Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council: Commerce Secretary appointees from American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana (CNMI), Guam and Hawai'i governor nominees: Archie Soliai, StarKist (American Samoa) (chair); John Gourley, Micronesian Environmental Services (CNMI vice chair); Michael Duenas, Guam Fishermen's Cooperative Association (Guam vice chair); Edwin Watamura, Waialua Boat Club (Hawai'i vice chair); Howard Dunham, American Samoa Alia Fishing Association; Monique Genereux Amani, business owner (Guam); Michael Goto, United Fishing Agency (Hawai'i); McGrew Rice, charter boat captain (CNMI). Designated state officials: Anthony Benavente, CNMI Dept. of Lands & Natural Resources; Suzanne Case, Hawai'i Dept. of Land & Natural Resources; Chelsa Muna-Brecht, Guam Dept. of Agriculture; Henry Sesepasara, American Samoa Dept. of Marine & Wildlife Resources. Federal officials: (voting) Michael Tosatto, NMFS Pacific Islands Regional Office and (non-voting): RADM Kevin Lunday, US Coast Guard 14th District; Michael Brakke, US State Dept.; Brian Peck, US Fish & Wildlife Service.Press Contact:Sylvia Spalding(808) 522-7498info@ wpcouncil.org SOURCE: Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council
Tourists walk by a closed hotel in Hanoi downtown on February 27, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Anh Tu.

Hotels across Hanoi are closing up shop and letting staff go as the coronavirus outbreak slashes both tourist and revenue numbers.

Pham Thi Hang owns eight hotels in Hanois Old Quarter, but three has stopped operating since the outbreak.

Hangs targeted customers are middle-aged tourists from China, South Korea and Japan, but as these countries are all combating large numbers of infections, most bookings have been canceled since December.

With revenues plummeting, she has let some of her staff go to reduce costs.

"Income from my hotels reached VND300 million ($13,000) a day before the outbreak, but now I lose about VND180 million ($7,800) a day."

Hang had to use her dwindling reserves to pay her remaining staff their VND1.5 million ($65) a month in the hope of keeping them on during the epidemic.

A man rearranges furniture at a closed hotel in Hanoi downtown. Photo by VnExpres/Anh Tu.

Hanoi tourist arrivals in the first two months fell 25 percent year-on-year to 3.56 million, with related revenues falling 32 percent, according to the citys department of tourism.

The capital has shut down its downtown walking street next to tourist attraction Hoan Kiem Lake to limit the gathering of large crowds, with authorities preparing for different scenarios including locking down some city streets in case the epidemic advances.

Although Vietnam has not recorded new cases of coronavirus infections in the last two weeks and all 16 patients have been discharged, insiders say fear of contagion will cause severe damage to the tourism industry, which accounts for seven percent of the countrys GDP.

This put hotel owners like Tony Dinh in trouble. Since the outbreak, he has shut down three of his 10 hotels near Hoan Kiem Lake, costing him VND8 billion ($346,500) so far.

His 200 staff are now working 16 days a month instead of 26, with managers salaries cut by 20 percent, all to lower costs.

Dinh is making all efforts to find new markets, but with half of rooms empty, he could have to shut down more hotels. "In my 20 years in the industry, things have never been this difficult."

Other hotel owners are struggling to pay their debts. Quoc Binh, owner of a 25-room hotel in Hoan Kiem, said the present average occupancy of 15 percent does not cover the VND300 million ($13,000) monthly rent.

"We wont be profitable until the occupancy rate reaches 85 percent. We might have to close the hotel for three months."

Hanoi last year welcomed 29 million tourists, up 10 percent year-on-year, with related revenues hitting VND103.8 trillion ($4.5 billion), up 34 percent.

The city targets to repeat the 10 percent growth this year, but with limited flights to and from China and South Korea, Vietnams two largest travel markets, insiders are concerned there will be obstacles in meeting the goal.

Amid the challenges, Hang in the Old Quarter said she has lost almost 10 kilograms (22 pounds) since the outbreak due to stress and loss of sleep.

"Worst case scenario - Ill have to shut down all my hotels and work for a bigger company."
Ahmad Lawan, the President of the Senate, on Thursday, accused the Federal Ministry of Health of not putting serious measures in place...





Ahmad Lawan, the President of the Senate, on Thursday, accused the Federal Ministry of Health of not putting serious measures in place to prevent the outbreak of coronavirus in Nigeria.





He, however, asked the Senate Committee on Primary Health Care to liaise with the ministry to intensify screening of passengers at the nations airports and seaports.





Lawan stated this following a point of order by the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Ajayi Boroffice.





Boroffice drew the attention of the Senate to the failure of health personnel at the airports and seaports to screen passengers coming into the country.

The senator said the coronavirus screening at the South African airport usually takes up to 30 minutes before passengers would be allowed to disembark the aircraft.





He said the situation was different on his arrival at the Nigerian airport, when the health officials at the nations airports merely issued a form to passengers to indicate if they were sick or not.





He said, There is no form of any screening of passengers for coronavirus by Nigerian officials at the airport.





Its worrisome, situations where travelers coming into the country were not dully screened for the dreaded virus based on his experience at the airport.





However, in response to the points raised by the senate, the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria said adequate measures have been put in place to ensure proper screening of passengers arriving in the country.





FAAN stated that no passenger at the international wing of the Port Harcourt International Airport would be allowed to leave without going through the necessary medical checks.





Head, Corporate Affairs of FAAN, Port Harcourt International Airport, Mr Alfred Itua, said, All I have to say is that at the international wing of the Port Harcourt International Airport, we have thermo scanner, which is used to scan the temperature of arriving passengers.





For staff and travellers using the airport, there are sanitizers for washing of hands. There are hand gloves and masks for medical staff who are working there.





However, the first case of the deadly Coronavirus was confirmed in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, the State Government confirmed early Friday morning.





It was brought in by an Italian citizen who entered Nigeria on the 25th of February from Milan, Italy for a brief business visit.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 22:37:48|Editor: yan

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MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Armed Forces have formed another air defense division in the Arctic as part of the Northern Fleet, the country's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Friday.

The strengthening of the country's defensive power in the Arctic remains one of the Russian defense ministry's priorities, Shoigu said during a meeting of senior defense officials.

"We have laid a reliable foundation there for the creation of military infrastructure," Shoigu said, according to footage provided by the ministry's Zvezda broadcasting service.

Every year, the Northern Fleet, alongside the Airborne Forces, Aerospace Forces and Special Operations Forces, rehearses for the defense of important industrial facilities and the protection of Russia's economic interests in the Arctic zone, including the Northern Sea Route, Shoigu said.

Before the end of the year, the Northern Fleet will receive more than 180 units of weaponry and military equipment suitable for use under the harsh conditions of the Arctic, he added.

The Northern Fleet, responsible for the defense of the northern region of European Russia and the Arctic Ocean, has equal status with Russia's four other military districts.
Panasonic Pulls out of Tesla Solar Power Joint Venture

Panasonic to Stop Producing Solar Components in US, Continue Battery Production

Japanese electronics giant Panasonic says it is pulling out of its Gigafactory solar roof joint venture with Tesla, according to a company statement.

Panasonic will wind down production of photovoltaic cells and modules as part of streamlining its global solar strategy. The companys U.S. solar manufacturing operations will cease by the end of May and it will vacate the Buffalo, New York, facility by the end of September.

Panasonic expects that some of its workforce will find employment with Tesla, as Elon Musks company seeks to continue the development of its operations in New York.

The decision to transition away from U.S. solar manufacturing in Buffalo aligns with our global solar strategy, our efforts to optimize development and production, and supports Teslas long-term plans to continue and expand its operations, said Shinichiro Nakajima, director of Panasonics Energy System Strategic Business.

The two companies will continue to manufacture batteries for Tesla cars at their Nevada Gigafactory, according to the statement. This decision will have no impact on Panasonic and Teslas strong partnership in Nevada. The two companies will continue their industry-leading electric vehicle battery work taking place at Teslas Gigafactory outside of Reno, the statement reads.

Panasonic will also continue to sell its own solar panels in the United States under the Panasonic brand. The companys core business is the manufacture of domestic appliances and white goods, although it also supplies products and services to businesses. Increased competition from low-cost Chinese solar component manufacturers has forced the company to streamline its solar manufacturing business.

Tesla is best known for its production of electric cars, though the Palo Alto, California-based company also has substantial investments in solar technologies, solar roofs, and domestic battery storage solutions.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hanoi Emerald Water Hotel offers two temporary arrangement for its staff

According to the Vietnam Tourism Association, the coronavirus epidemic has impacted the development of tourism in many countries, including Vietnam. In the past two months, occupancy rates at hotels and resorts nationwide fell by 20-50 per cent in comparison with the same period last year.

The number of tourists visiting leading destinations such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Halong Bay at the start of the year dropped by 50 per cent. In addition, the number of international tourists visiting Vietnam is forecast to fall by 60 per cent in March, as many tours have been cancelled.

According to Hanoi Tourism Department, in the first two months, Hanoi welcomed approximately 3.56 million tourists, down 25 per cent on-year. 844,000 of these visitors were foreigners. In February alone, the figure was estimated at 1.3 million, down 45.5 per cent. Tourism revenue was also reported to drop by 32 per cent.

This has put small- and medium-sized hotels in Hanoi in a difficult spot as they already operate with low profit margins and are extremely dependent on a steady stream of tourists looking for cheap hotel rooms.

Tran Van Dinh, managing director of Viet Bao Anh Hotel, said that compared to last year, booking volumes declined in early December 2019, with a plunge in mid-January. At present, bookings are down 40-50 per cent on-year.

Dinh, a host from the Bella Rosa Hotel system complained that since February 5, he had to close three out of 10 hotels, suffering a damage of VND8 billion ($347,830). At present, the revenue of these hotels is mostly used to pay staff members' salary.

To avoid having to let employees go in times of hardship, Hanoi Emerald Water Hotel has come out with a temporary scheme for its employees for the next four months, or until the coronavirus (COVID-19) is brought under control and the company gets back on track.

Accordingly, the hotel offered two options for staff to choose from: they can either stay at home and receive an unemployment support of VND1.5 million ($65) a month or continue working with reduced working days at a fix salary of VND4 million ($173) a month for all employees. Reduced working days would mean 18 days a month, with wages equal for employees at all tiers.

At this time, there is no difference between staff and managers. Even the chef of the hotel will be paid VND4 million ($173), instead of their usual VND20 million ($869.5), the hotel's manager said.

The arrangements will last for the next four months, with business as usual resumed on August 5 if the epidemic has been brought under control by then.

The manager explained that the reductions are necessary as in the last ten days, the hotel's daily revenue was VND1-3 million ($43-130), one-third of which is taken up by utilities.
Police called to scene of deceased Cancun taxi driver

Cancun, Q.R.  Police attended the scene where a taxi driver from the Andres Quintana Roo syndicate was shot at close range inside his vehicle while parked in a subdivision of Cancun.

The attack was recorded early Thursday morning at the Villas Otoch Paraiso subdivision in SM 259. According to data from paramedics, the driver of the taxi was shot at head level and on the left side of his body, suggesting the attack was made from inside the car.

The body was removed by forensic medical personnel. La Fiscalia General del Estado continue to investigate.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  The Department of Health on Friday said that a company in Bataan province has committed to provide 200,000 surgical masks a week amid the coronavirus threat.

We have the commitment of the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) that the manufacturing company in Bataan Export Processing Zone has committed 200,000 masks a week for the DOH. So this is now being processed, said DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III in a press briefing.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease or COVID-19, fear of catching the respiratory disease caused by the deadly virus has spread quickly. This led people to haul surgical masks in medical supply stores.

READ: Filipinos on surgical mask frenzy mode as PH confirms first novel coronavirus case

Yet, the DOH reiterated that surgical masks should be worn only by those who have respiratory disease or have close contact with those infected.

Our policy is if you are not sick, do not wear masks. Otherwise, you might contribute to the acute shortage of PPEs (personal protective equipment) which should prioritize health care workers, frontliners in provision of care to patients, added Duque.

The World Health Organization also advised everyone to avoid stockpiling of any personal protective equipment as demand for such is now 100 times higher than normal, and prices are up to 20 times higher.
Former Vice President Joe told a South Carolina voter he would invite former first lady Michelle Obama to join his ticket  if he thought she would agree to it.

'Id do that in a heartbeat if I'd think thered be any chance of her doing it,' Biden said, as he took questions from a handful of South Carolina voters in a state being called a must-win for his campaign. The idea drew a big round of applause from several hundred supporters who went to a community college gym to hear him.

But Biden did not try to raise hopes the power combination could come to fruition.

'Michelle as I say has given at the office. Shes done a great deal and she is still doing a great deal for people,' he said.

'Id do that in a heartbeat if I'd think thered be any chance of her doing it,' Joe Biden said, when asked about putting Michelle Obama on the ticket

She said being out of the White House is something the Obama's find 'somewhat liberating after eight years.'

He then pivoted to a hit on rival Bernie Sanders, who can be found on video musing about running against Obama in 2012.

'I must tell you. One of the reasons  I like Bernie. One of the reasons I resent Bernie is he wanted to primary Barack in 2012,' Biden said.

'He said he should be primaried. People should be disappointed. Doing a lousy job .. I fundamentally disagree with that.'

US actress Vivica A. Fox arrives to introduce Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden (not in frame) during a rally in Conway, South Carolina, on February 27, 2020

Biden is hoping for a win in South Carolina, where a win would give momentum toward Super Tuesday

Biden's freewheeling remarks swerved between foreign policy, the 2009 inauguration, violence against women, Amtrak, and the legacy of slavery

Actress Vivica Fox led cheers of 'we love Joe' and called on questioners

Biden then recalled the time he initially told Barack Obama no when asked if he would be his running mate. He said his family gave him a hard time and he decided to say yes.

'I said okay Barack, go ahead and vet me,' Biden recalled. He then called the president who put him on the ticket 'one of the finest men Ive ever known.'

Biden is counting on support from the state's large share of black voters, although he made the comment in rural Conway with a majority white crowd.

He was introduced by actress Vivica Fox, who appeared in 'Independence Day' and who said she flew in from Los Angeles to vouch for him.

'We know Joe, right? she said. She recalled being invited to the Vice President's mansion in Washington, D.C. while he was in office.

'I was very honored to be able to go to the vice presidents house in Washington, D.C.,' she said.

She said he welcomed her with open arms.

'He took pictures with all of us. He was just the best,' she said. He had Barack Obamas back.' She gave a special pitch to female voters. 'Especially our women  we need yall,' she said.

'Thats why Im here I traveled all the way from southern California,' she said. 'This ugly division that weve heard the last four years must stop.' She urged voters to 'take a look at my man, Joe Biden,' then showed a video that included his campaign pitch.

Biden also stressed his working class appeal, saying Biden selected him because polls showed he could help them carry Pennsylvania and Ohio and other rust belt states.

He said of the Democratic Party: 'We stopped talking to people. We stopped talking to people where they live, dealing with the problems they have.' He recalled the Democratic coalition of both minorities and white working class voters, some of whom went to Trump.

'The Democratic Party stopped talking to that base. Ive never stopped talking,' he said.

'I come out of the civil rights movement of my state,' Biden added at another point.

Biden is calling on South Carolina voters to be part of his comeback story after a new poll shows him leading the field, including democratic socialist Bernie Sanders. After poor performances in Iowa and South Carolina, he came in second in Nevada, but his campaign coffers are low.

Biden's campaign has downplayed his big losses in Iowa and New Hampshire by claiming he would make up for it in more diverse states  describing black voters as his 'firewall'

Biden got a warm reception in the room and public polls to provide reassurance. Even as South Carolina prepares to be the four state to weigh in, Biden made litle effort to tailor his remarks and went on multiple tangents. He touted a $20 billion plan to pay Brazilians not to clear cut rainforest, recalled a trip to South Africa and Nelson Mandela's visit to his office, touted his support for the 2nd Amendment but said 'you can't own a bazooka.'

'Its called international relations. Its called diplomacy. Its called being smart,' he said.

He touted a plan to provide $7 billion a year for a decade to historically black college.

Before Biden spoke, South Carolina state Rep. Joe Kirby lauded his long career in politics. 'Were here for a truly great man,' he told the crowd. Forty-eight years of public service. Come on!' he wrote.

Biden has a dominating lead over his fellow Democratic candidates in South Carolina in a new poll released just days before the primary elections in the fourth and final early primary contest state.

A Monmouth University Poll released Thursday shows the former vice president with 36 per cent among Democratic primary voters, which is 20 percentage points ahead of the No. 2 candidate in South Carolina.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders earned 16 per cent in the state, battling it out for a close second place with billionaire Tom Steyer, who amassed 15 per cent  up 11 percentage points from the last poll.

In the three other early voting states combined, Sanders earned the most delegates with 45, while Steyer, who comes in last in national polling of the eight remaining candidates, has not earned any so far.
Yves here. If coronavirus goes much of anywhere in the US, and that looks to be reasonably likely, Trump having cut the staffing of the CDC and reducing spending on other programs and bodies tasked to protecting the public may finally get the attention it warrants. The big reason the Republicans (and their allies among the budget scold Democrats) get away with this sort of thing is these safety issues seldom rate save for workers or members of communities that are exposed to specific risks. And they are usually to small in number and spread out to have much clout.

By Tom Conway, the international president of the United Steelworkers Union (USW). Produced by the Independent Media Institute.

Pipe fitter Jody Gooch and welders Sedrick Stallworth and William Rolls Jr. stood just feet away when a tank exploded at the Packaging Corporation of America pulp and paper mill in DeRidder, Louisiana. The blast killed the contract workers, injured seven others and hurtled the 80-foot tank six stories into the air.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) concluded that welding sparks likely ignited turpentine vapors that built up inside the tank, and the agency released a comprehensive incident report and safety video to protect workers at other mills.

The CSB regularly issues guidance like this so companies that use dangerous chemicals in the production process learn from their mistakes. But Donald Trump, who refuses to admit his own failures, cant grasp the importance of learning from anyone elses, either. Instead of supporting the safety watchdog, Trump wants to kill it.

He allocated no funding for the CSB four years in a row. As board members terms expired, Trump failed to replace them. The five-person board is down to just one member, whose term expires in August.

Trump likes to call himself a champion for workers.

But more workers will die if he abolishes the CSB. The people who live near these plants will be at increased risk as well because explosions, leaks and toxic emissions often inflict widespread damage on nearby communities.

Many Americans probably have never heard of the CSB. But theyre safer because of it.

Congress created the 22-year-old agency to conduct independent investigations of industrial chemical disasters.Congress considered the work so important that it shielded the agency from outside interference.

The CSB doesnt answer to any agency or official in the executive branch. This autonomy enables it to scrutinize not only the companies involved in disasters but also the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and other federal entities regulating these industries.

The CSB issues no fines or citations. It makes no regulations. Its mission is safety education.

The agency interviews witnesses, collects chemical samples for analysis and reviews the plants operating and safety records to determine how a disaster occurred. It disseminates its findings through reports, bulletins and videos. By sharing lessons learned, the CSB strives to avert future tragedies.

Since it began operating in 1998, the CSB investigated hundreds of disasters and made hundreds of safety recommendations.

Often, the CSB uncovers lapses in safety or identifies threats, such as the buildup of flammable turpentine at Packaging Corporation of America, with industry-wide implications.

The board determined that turpentine accumulated because of confusion in the mill about who was responsible for maintaining the tank. An unusual amount of air also entered the tank, making the contents especially volatile when Gooch, Stallworth and Rolls began hot work.

Thanks to the CSBs investigation, companies know to guard against those risks.

The agencys reports, bulletins and videos all are accessible on the boards website. If Trump abolishes the CSB, companies, unions and workers would have no easy way of learning about hazards, other companies experiences, or safety trends, setting the stage for even more disasters.

The CSB does its vitally important work with a mere $12 million annual budget. Communities and workers lives are invaluable, and chemical-related disasters cause billions of dollars in damage to mills, plants and refineries. The CSB reported that BP alone suffered more than $1.5 billion in financial losses because of the 2005 fire and explosions at its Texas City, Texas, refinery that killed 15 contractors and injured 180 other workers.

Yet Trump, the billionaire who loves to brag about his business skills, refuses to acknowledge the enormous return that Americans get for a minimal investment in the CSB. He fails to see the CSB for the bargain it is.

Workers, scientists and people who live near chemical plants all value the boards work. Even corporations and Republican members of Congress support the CSB.

When Trump cut the CSB out of his 2018 budget, a vice president at Tesoro, Stephen Brown, called for sparing the agency. He did so even though the CSB criticized Tesoros safety practices after a 2010 fire and explosion at the companys Anacortes, Washington, refinery that killed a supervisor and six workers represented by the United Steelworkers (USW) union.

I dont think anyone in the industry wants to see the Chemical Safety Board be abolished, Brown said.

Congress understands the CSBs critical role, so it funded the CSB in 2018 despite Trumps opposition. It continued funding for 2019 and 2020 after the president left the agency out of his budgets for those years as well.

Now, in his newest budget proposal, Trump wants to eliminate the agencys regular funding for 2021. Instead, he wants to give the CSB $10 million to wind down affairs and disappear.

As he tried to starve the agency of money, Trump also gutted the board. Members rotated off at the end of their terms, and Trump refused to replace them.

Under normal circumstances, five board membersall experts in workplace safetydirect investigations and the agencys 50 or so employees. They also travel to disaster sites and hold community meetings to keep the public informed.

The CSB operated with three board members from June 2018 until December, when Manny Ehrlichs term expired. On Feburary 5, Rick Englers tenure ended. That leaves only Dr. Kristen Kulinowski, whose term expires in August.

There arent enough members to oversee cases or write reports. Delay undercuts the CSBs safety mission.

Last year, Trump nominated Katherine Lemos, an official at Northrop Grumman Corp., to fill one of the vacancies. The Senate hasnt yet voted on her confirmation. But one new board member isnt sufficient, especially with Kulinowskis impending departure.

Trump claims that the CSB isnt needed because other agencies, such as the EPA, oversee the chemical and petrochemical industries. But the CSBs importance grew as Trumps EPA fell down on the job.

Last year, in a big gift to corporations, the EPA gutted the Chemical Disaster Rule, a series of regulations intended to force operators to take commonsense steps to prevent disasters and conduct more thorough investigations after tragedies occur.

For example, the rule required operators to consider whether new equipment or changes in the production process would improve safety. It also mandated them to conduct comprehensive investigations after a disasterthe kind the CSB performsto identify all the contributing factors.

The CSB opposed the EPAs rollback of the Chemical Disaster Rule. Now, if the CSB isnt around to perform deep-dive investigations, theres no guarantee that anybody will.

When a disaster occurs, as it did at Packaging Corporation, the victims families and colleagues deserve to know what went wrong. Other workers deserve to be protected from similar tragedies.

If Trump abolishes the CSB, he will subject more workers to grisly deaths. And the industry wont learn from its mistakes. It will be doomed to repeat them.
With nearly 600 students studying out of the country every semester, the University of Pennsylvania is perhaps the regions most global campus, and its feeling the impact of the coronavirus.

The Ivy League university has brought students home from China and Singapore. Its canceled some study abroad courses scheduled for next months spring break, which typically involve hundreds of students.

Penns Wharton China Center in Beijing was closed in accordance with that citys guidelines, and the university also canceled a large meeting in Singapore. University officials were talking Friday about how to handle a meeting scheduled for India.

We are seeing a lot of disruption, said Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Penns vice president for global initiatives and founding chair of the department of bioethics at the National Institutes of Health. There are a lot of questions that were having to settle on the fly. In the face of a great deal of uncertainty, do we bring our students back? What are the policies regarding course credit? These are big and challenging issues.

And they are issues that colleges across the region are confronting as the virus spreads.

Temple University said Friday said it was suspending travel through April 30 to South Korea, where the alert level was raised, and advised a small group of students studying there to immediately leave the country. Temple also is closing its Japan campus for two weeks, starting on Monday, and teaching those classes online. Students at Temples Rome campus also were advised they could leave the country and continue their education online, starting March 9.

In New Jersey, Rowan University suspended most travel for students and staff, including researchers. Rutgers-Camden canceled a spring break trip to Japan; students paid $3,750 for their trip, and the university is looking at waiving the fee.

Pennsylvania State University halted student travel to China and South Korea and canceled short-term faculty led courses in Italy and Japan.

This is complex and rapidly evolving, and travel recommendations and restrictions may change as the situation changes, the university said in a statement.

Villanova University this week canceled a study abroad program in Italy and began efforts to bring the students home. The university Friday instructed students coming back from Italy not to return to campus for 14 days. (Spring break is next week.)

Universities also have begun updating plans for how to cope if the disease takes hold in the United States. Other issues under consideration include how to accommodate families from China who want to attend their childrens graduation from U.S. universities. More immediately, schools are having to find ways to accommodate international students who cant go home for break.

Students who do travel to countries under high alert levels will be asked to self-quarantine for 14 days when they return, Penns Emanuel said. So far, Penn has only brought eight students home, four each from China and Singapore. The students in Singapore, he said, were brought home largely because their dorm was taken over for quarantine use.

But hes getting emails from students, faculty and parents, asking about different countries.

Penn hasnt yet moved to bring students home from Italy, but the situation could change. Penn has a team monitoring conditions in every country, he said.

The biggest problem is decision-making under uncertainty, he said. When youre dealing with decisions that affect thousands of people on campus and millions and millions of dollars, it raises the stakes a lot.

Staff writer Melanie Burney contributed to this article.
India on Friday advised Pakistan's top leadership to end harassment and execution of minorities through misuse of the blasphemy law. Exercising the right of reply after Pakistan raised concerns over human rights in Jammu and Kashmir at the 43rd Session of the Human Rights Council here, First Secretary in India's Permanent Mission Vimarsh Aryan said that the international community cannot be misled by Pakistani hysterical reactions at all global forums to malign India.

Here is the full text:

Mr Vice President,

India is exercising its right of reply to Pakistans statement under Agenda Item 2.

At the outset, we would like to inform the Council that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir is fast returning to normalcy despite serious attempts by Pakistan to derail the positive developments through its active support to terrorist groups and related entities. Mr Vice President,

Indias time tested democratic institutions are robust and adequate enough to address any challenge including those instigated from outside, in order to safeguard interests of all our citizens including minorities.

The international community cannot be misled by Pakistani hysterical reactions at all international fora to malign India. The world knows about the dismal human rights records of Pakistan and a tight control cannot hide it all. Let us advise Pakistan for its own good and for the peace and prosperity of the South Asian region.

First, end illegal and forcible occupation and reverse the demographic changes in Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir

Second, stop terror funding and dismantle terrorist camps operating in Pakistan and territories under its control

Third, stop public advocacy and support for terrorists by Pakistani leadership at the highest level

Fourth, take structural reforms to develop a semblance of democracy in Pakistan

Fifth, end harassment and execution of minorities through misuse of blasphemy law

Sixth, end forced conversions and marriages of women and girls from Hindu, Sikh and Christian religions

Seven, stop killing and targeting political dissidents and legitimate criticism in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Eight, prevent enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of journalists and human rights activists by its security agencies

Nine, stop religious persecution against Shias, Ahmadiyas, Ismailia and Hazaras

Tenth, stop recruitment of children for terror activities including a suicide bombing in other countries And the list is endless.

Mr Vice President

Blasphemy law against Aasia Bibi, persecution of Abdul Shakoor, an Ahmadiya, Jagjit Kaur, a minor Sikh girl subjected to abduction and forced marriage are the norms of the day for minorities in Pakistan.

As regards OIC, it has no locus standi to comment on the internal affairs of India. Jammu and Kashmir was, is and shall forever remain an integral part of India.

Mr Vice President

As far as Belgiums comment on NRC is concerned, as a close partner of India, we wish, Belgium could have checked the factual position with us before coming to any conclusion on the issue. Our Prime Minister has clearly said that no discussions have taken place on NRC anywhere except following Supreme court directives in Assam.

Thank You, Mr Vice President.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 12:29:21|Editor: zyl

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VIENTIANE, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Lao Ministry of Finance will impose a new charge on transit goods in March as the government seeks ways to benefit from its transformation from landlocked to a land bridge.

Local daily Vientiane Times on Friday quoted Lao National Gazette website's amended Ministerial Decision on Transit Goods Charges, which will be effective from the middle of March 2020.

Under this amended decision, goods imported for export purposes will be subject to the new rates.

According to the new ministerial decision signed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Somdy Duangdy on Jan. 10, any business that imports goods for export purposes are liable for the new fee.

The rate differs depending on the type of product and the quantity.

The transit fee charged on one liter of whiskey, wine or other alcoholic beverage is 1 U.S. dollars. Petrol, oil or lubricant for export purposes will be charged 0.25 U.S. dollars per liter and a four-wheel vehicle with an engine size larger than 3,000cc will be charged 1,500 U.S. dollars per unit.

Animals such as buffalo, cows, horses and sheep which enter Laos for export will also be subject to a transit fee. The details of these fees can be found on the government website.

Goods imported for export purposes will not be allowed to be distributed in Laos, according to the new ministerial decision.

However, the transit fee is part of the government's efforts to overcome Laos' landlocked status and turn the country into a land link, according to this government regulation.

Laos' strong economic growth and the need for expansion of the government's revenue base have also led to the amendment of the ministerial decision.

The government has invested a large amount of public money in the construction of railways, roads and bridges to connect to neighboring countries in order to transform Laos from being a landlocked country into a land bridge.

One of these mega investment projects is the China-Laos railway, which is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2021.

Lao government officials believe that Laos has huge potential to serve as a logistics hub, through which business operators can bring in goods and ship them to other countries in the region.

The Ministry of Finance has been actively creating new revenue streams by revising the tax laws and introducing new mechanisms to boost revenue collection, according to the report.
Foreign Secretary Harsha Vardhan Shringla on Friday met acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Haroon Chakhansuri here and conveyed India's support for Afghans in their pursuit for sustainable peace, security and development.

"Foreign Secretary @HarshShringla met Acting Foreign Minister @hchakhansuri of Afghanistan. They reviewed and positively assessed developments in bilateral strategic partnership," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.

"Foreign Secretary conveyed India's support for the people of Afghanistan in their pursuit for sustainable peace, security and development," Kumar tweeted.

The meeting comes ahead of the US-Taliban deal, which has been negotiated for almost 18 months between the two sides and is expected to be signed in Doha on Saturday.

On the same day, the US and Afghanistan are expected to issue a joint declaration to emphasise American commitments to the war-torn country.

US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg are expected to be in Kabul for the announcement of the declaration in the weekend.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Already anticipating a busy first year on the job with people voting for who will be Americas commander in chief come January, Platte County Election Commissioner Connie J. Sebourn is currently facing her first major hurdle.

Sebourn needs many volunteers who are willing to serve as poll workers throughout Platte Countys 30 precincts in the looming May primary and in Novembers general election that promise plenty of local, state and national races to decide on. Sebourn has a list of older residents who have graciously served for years but still needs more to make sure all can run smoothly on Tuesday, May 12, Tuesday, Nov. 3. and even beyond.

I just want to get more of the next generation, because Im afraid down the road theres not going to be anyone to replace the people who have been doing it, Sebourn said. Right now, we have a lot of people in their 70s and 80s.

Five people are required to man each precinct  an inspector, two clerks and two judges. The inspector is the person in charge, overseeing the polling place and the one responsible for bringing supplies to the precinct and back to the Platte County Courthouse at the end of the night. The two clerks check in with each voter, verifying their name and signing them in. Meanwhile, the judges serve two purposes. One helps voters get settled and shows them how to fill out the ballot properly, while the other guards the ballot box and hands out the I Voted sticker that allows Americans to show off they did their civic duty.

Sandra Heth, of Columbus, has been volunteering her time to help the local election office for over a decade now. She has served in various capacities, including as an inspector in 2016.

I think probably deep down, I like the fact that Im taking part in the very basic part of the democratic process, and its probably the most important basic part of the democratic process  the voting, the retired history teacher said. Its how I felt I could do my part.

Heth said its enjoyable to either see familiar faces or meet new people, depending on which precinct youre assigned, on Election Day. She also mentioned she has enjoyed working with so many wonderful people throughout the years, including her fellow poll workers.

I would encourage anybody who has the time to do so, she said of volunteering. Its a very long day, but its worthwhile.

Volunteers are also paid for their services. Clerks and judges receive $9 per hour (current minimum wage) for their efforts, while inspectors get $9.60 plus mileage ($0.58 per mile) for transporting supplies. All volunteers are also paid by the hour when they undergo a training session to review the new ExpressVote Universal Voting System. The ExpressVote machines are the replacement for the old AutoMARK machines that were used to meet ADA requirements.

Weve got the new equipment, so thats something different poll workers will have to learn, Sebourn said.

With Platte County being dominantly Republican, Sebourn acknowledged the struggle of needing to find volunteers who have a different political background and getting them to also step up. Election offices are required to have a mix of political backgrounds among their volunteers at each precinct, which is why shes looking for a larger pool of individuals to choose from.

Those interested must be registered voters in the county, though Sebourn said there are instances where teens who are ages 16-17 can also help out. She said all residents with interest should call her at the office at 402-563-4908, noting those who have jobs should also consider helping out as employers are required to accommodate individuals wanting to volunteer as poll workers. Speaking from her own experience, as she was a longtime poll worker volunteer in Platte County before taking the helm of the election office, Sebourn said its truly a patriotic service thats well worth it.

Its a long day because you start at 7 a.m. and work until about 8:15 p.m., she said. But its also very rewarding.

Matt Lindberg is the managing editor of The Columbus Telegram. Reach him via email at matt.lindberg@lee.net

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For the first time in company history, the Royal Opera is mounting a cycle devoted to the Czech composer Leos Janacek. Following From the House of the Dead  presented in its house premiere two seasons ago  and Katya Kabanova last year, Jenufa takes the stage from March 24 to April 9 in a Claus Guth production. The annual series continues until 2022.

Oliver Mears, the director of opera, called the initiative long overdue. Any serious international opera house has to have Janacek in their repertory, he said. While Jenufa was performed as early as 1956, The Makropulos Affair will be presented for the first time at the Royal Opera.

Janacek ranks among the most widely performed 20th-century opera composers, not least thanks to the Australian conductor Charles Mackeras. The conductor played a pioneering role in 1950s London at the Sadlers Wells Theater (now English National Opera) and, internationally, with a recording series on the Decca label. But while the English National Opera has a tradition of performing in English translation, the Royal Opera is presenting all Janaceks operas in the original Czech.

Mr. Mears pointed to the theatrical immediacy of operas as one reason for their appeal. Janacek is often bracketed as difficult modernism, he said. In some ways, its the opposite. This is a man who really understood theater and connected with character.
The newly-ratified EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) will help to usher in a new economic era with the correct preparation.

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh talked about the significance of the agreements and their implications on key sectors across the country.

How important are the EVFTA and IPA to Vietnams development?

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh

In the face of the current complex global situation, the EVFTA attests to both sides strong commitment to promoting bilateral ties, from there deepening the relationships between Vietnam and the EU.

The signing and approval of EVFTA aligns with Vietnams external policies for multilateralisation and diversification, striving to strengthen the relationships with big trading partners, including the EU, contributing to maintaining peace, enhancing Vietnams status in the international arena, and availing of EUs support to ensure effective implementation of socio-economic, political, multifaceted external development targets.

With Vietnams position of the ASEAN chair in 2020, the EVFTA will help bolster the countrys position and status in the relationships between EU and the ASEAN, as well as shape a model for future ASEAN-EU FTA.

Amid current fast-changing and increasingly complex political-security situation regionally and globally, the EVFTA can help the country to foster inner strength as well as consolidate our status internationally to exercise the external policies for independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation and diversification, going in parallel to consolidating and strengthening national defence and security.

In the economic development aspect, the EU is currently one of Vietnams largest export markets with an export value to this zone touching $41.5 billion and an import value reaching $14.9 billion last year. Thereby, when the EVFTA and IPA come into force, the two-way trade and investment flow from EU to Vietnam is forecast to rise robustly, making active contributions to Vietnams economic growth, facilitating export, pushing up markets diversification, procuring higher added values through newly established supply chains, and creating more jobs.

Enforcement will also entail improvements in the local business environment as well as the countrys regulatory system with more transparency in compliance with international practice.

What has the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) prepared to maximise the benefits of official approval?

As a central agency for FTAs implementation, the MoIT has made careful preparations to be able to maximise the advantages the EVFTA could bring.

Similar to what we were doing with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the MoIT has drafted an action plan for the implementation of the EVFTA which has set forth clear tasks and objectives. The main tasks are divided into the five following core groups: diffusion about the deal and EU markets; regulatory work; boosting competitiveness and human resource development; guidelines and policies towards trade unions and other organisations caring for the labourers at enterprises; and policies on social well-being, environmental protection, and sustainable development.

To improve awareness about the EVFTA, particularly corporate entities and state management personnel at the central and local levels, we have established a website at evfta.moit.gov.vn, to elaborate on the deal, as well as to connect with people and businesses. In addition, the MoIT has also pushed up diffusion about the EVFTA through hosting workshops and training courses across the country, focusing on localities with big industrial zones and a large number of businesses.

Furthermore, market surveys have also received priority to help businesses become well-prepared to take advantages of tariff incentives when the agreement comes into force. We have also scaled up efforts for branding and image promotion of Vietnamese products in the markets of EU member countries.

What are the opportunities and challenges the EVFTA brings to Vietnams economy after the deal comes into force?

Regarded as a fulcrum for development, the EVFTA opens enormous opportunities for local businesses to enter a promising market with more than 508 million people and about $18 trillion GDP value. The EU is one of Vietnams most important trading partners with a total import-export value touching $56.39 billion in 2019. The import-export structure between Vietnam and the EU is mutually supplemental, not competing directly with each other.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the EVFTA would help Vietnams export value to the EU rise by about 42.7 per cent in 2025, and increasing to 44.37 per cent by 2030. Simultaneously, the import value from the EU to Vietnam will also pick up speed, growing by about 33.06 per cent in 2025 and 36.7 per cent by 2030. On a macro level, the EVFTA would contribute to an average 2.18-3.25 per cent in Vietnams GDP growth during 2019-2023, increasing to 4.57-5.30 per cent during 2024-2028, and 7.07-7.72 per cent high during 2029-2033.

Besides these advantages, the deal also brings certain challenges. Vietnams commitment to opening local markets to products and services from the EU will pose pressure to the local economy and businesses, as well as our products and services. This pressure, however, is positive and follows a suitable roadmap. More importantly, as the EU-Vietnam economic structure is highly supplemental, the competitive pressure would not be significant.

In addition, as the EVFTA encompasses close regulations and principles regarding investment and customs procedures, trade facilitation, technical barriers, quarantine measures and many more, full implementation of these regulations requires our country to embrace comprehensive institutional reforms. This, by essence, aligns with Vietnams commitment to accelerating administrative reforms, thereby enhancing the efficiency of public procurement and reforming growth model.

Which export sectors will benefit from the EVFTA and which sectors will suffer negative impacts?

With the EVFTA, almost all Vietnams export items to the EU would be exempted from import duties right after the deal takes effect or after just a short time. This is the highest benefit from an FTA that Vietnam has signed with the international community. The most beneficial sectors will be footwear, textiles and garments, agriculture, and seafood. The sectors bearing the brunt would be chemicals, transport means and equipment, processed food, and basic metal items.

The sectors intended to reap maximal benefits, however, might also face certain challenges. EU countries apply strict technical barriers to import items. For instance, Vietnams export agricultural items to the EU, albeit enjoying incentives, often lack uniformity in each shipment while post-harvest preservation is not good, resulting in unstable quality.

In addition, regulations on product origin also present challenges to textile and garments in taking advantage of tariff incentives under the EVFTA as the material for their production comes mainly from China or the ASEAN.

Phuong Thu (VIR)

EVFTA means much more than tax holiday The following are some key points for those who do business with the EU to adopt a comprehensive view on the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).
Traders who rushed to buy Virgin Galactic in its February boom are moving into stocks that could benefit from the coronavirus.

The high-growth space travel stock  the most traded name on SoFi Invest last week  is losing its appeal for millennial traders on the platform. Virgin Galactic saw net selling this week thanks to "people taking gains," according to SoFi. Virgin Galactic shares have dropped more than 33% in the past week.

Instead, the start-up said its majority millennial traders are buying "plague stocks," or names that benefit from the worsening coronavirus outbreak.

Drug-developer Moderna saw 100 times its usual buying activity on the SoFi trading platform. For Lakeland Industries, a protective clothing provider, it was more than 10 times its usual purchase history. Vir Biotech experienced 50 times normal levels, while Co-Diagnostics  which soared 57% on hope of a coronavirus test  had 20 times its normal activity.

U.S. stocks tumbled this week as fears of the virus and its possible economic impact weighed on investor sentiment. World Health Organization officials said Friday they are increasing the risk assessment of the coronavirus to "very high" across the world. The disease has spread to at least 49 countries in a matter of weeks.

Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, the Cboe Volatility Index, hit its highest level since February 2018. The TVIX exchange-traded note was also one of the top trades on SoFi this week.

On the passive, "robo" investing side, SoFi said customers shifted from "aggressive" to "moderately aggressive" with people proactively changing their strategies more than usual. SoFi has about 200,000 traders on its platform with an average age of 25 to 40 years old.
After two Democratic presidential debates in which Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren ripped into former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg over allegations of sexual harassment against his company, a former sex worker has gone public with her own account of how Bloomberg, as mayor, attacked herand got her fired from her job as an elementary school teacher.

Writing for The Nation, Melissa Petro recounts how, in 2010, when she was 30 years old, Bloomberg came for my job, a writer by education who had been working as a public-school teacher for a little over three years.

The reasona New York Post reporter had noticed an essay she has written online, recounting her experiences as a sex worker a decade earlier.

Bloomberg yanked me from the classroom and called for the city to take legal action against me, as if my very existence was a crime, Petro wrote in a separate essay for Rolling Stone.

At 19, sex work presented itself as a solutiona way of paying for school and covering my living expenses when I saw no other options, Petro wrote in her Nation essay, published this week. Stripping and, later, prostitution, made education attainable, a goal Bloomberg claims he will champion if elected president.

Petro went on to teach art in a Bronx school, but upon seeing the Post story about her, Bloomberg quickly announced that New York City was looking into its own legal rights to fire her.

"We're just not going to have this woman in front of a class," Bloomberg said, quoted by a 2010 New York Daily News account. When I was informed that, of the situation of this teacher saying that she had been a sex workerI think was the term she might have used I said 'well, you know, call her, tell her that she is being removed from the classroom.

Though a months long investigation found nothing negative in her teaching record, according to Petro, the citys Department of Education instead slapped her with a Conduct Unbecoming a Professional chargefor nothing more than her writings in which she described working in the sex industry.

Unemployed and unemployable, I struggled for years, Petro wroteadding that her life is better today.

I doubt Ill ever fully recover from the trauma of being publicly shamed and ridiculed, by Bloomberg, she wrote.

Photo by Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons
Friday prayers at mosques in the riot-hit areas of northeast Delhi passed off peacefully and no untoward incident was reported, local peace committee members said.

Local mosques had earlier in the day appealed for maintaining peace and harmony in the areas affected by communal clashes earlier this week.

After the Friday prayers, a delegation of peace committee members met senior police officers, including special commissioner (law and order) S N Shrivastava, at the office of the DCP (Northeast) in Seelampur.

"We have apprised the officers that the prayers were held without any trouble and no untoward incident has been reported from anywhere in the region, Parvez Mian, a peace committee member and president of the All India Milli Council Delhi state, said.

He said the delegation also apprised the police officers, including Joint CP Alok Kumar and DCP Northeast Ved Prakash Surya, that the situation had been improving in the past two days.

"The police commissioner has assured us that those behind the violence are being identified and strict action will be taken against them," Mian told PTI, referring to Shrivastava who was on Friday given the additional charge of the Delhi Police commissioner effective from Sunday.

Earlier in the day, the mosques had appealed to people to be united and not fall prey to rumours, urging people to report suspicious people to the authorities and cooperate with the police.

"In case of any emergency, please call on 112," the announcement said.

The violence that unfolded in Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Chand Bagh, Shiv Vihar, Bhajan Pura, Yamuna Vihar areas of northeast Delhi earlier this week have claimed at least 42 lives and left over 200 injured while also unleashing large scale mob-led destruction of properties.

The situation limped back towards normalcy on Friday, even as police and paramilitary personnel maintained their presence along main roads and interior areas of the riot-hit region.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hollyoaks have dropped an explosive new Leap Year trailer that tantalizingly teases several dramatic spoilers set to unfold in the coming weeks.

As ever, there's never a dull moment in the village as the clip focuses on Warren Fox and Liam Donovan's growing feud as the latter declares war on his rival after getting arrested.

Meanwhile, Sienna Blake returns to claim what's hers and Mercedes McQueen finally discovers who shot her.

Showdown: Hollyoaks have dropped an explosive new Leap Year trailer that tantalizingly teases several dramatic spoilers, including Warren Fox declaring war on Liam Donovan

With so much packed into the three-minute teaser, here's a breakdown of the biggest plots to come on the Channel 4 soap.

Warren goes head-to-head with Liam

The two village bad boys square up to each other as Warren tries to regain his position as top dog in the village.

Feud: The two village bad boys square up to each other as Warren tries to regain his position as top dog in the village

With Warren now dating Liam's former fling Mercedes, there's even more animosity between himself and Liam, which is only heightened as Warren is arrested for attacking his rival.

After goading Warren into punching him, Liam is only too happy to see Warren remain behind bars. But with Warren declaring war as he rants 'I'm coming for you!' Is Liam playing with fire?

Liam gets his revenge

Payback: With the character behaving increasingly erratic, triggered by the shock death of his brother Jesse, Liam decides to get his revenge on everyone who has wrong him and his family

With the character behaving increasingly erratic, triggered by the shock death of his brother Jesse, Liam decides to get his revenge on everyone who has wrong him and his family.

Hosting a 'devil's dinner party' at the dog, the bad boy invites all of his targets including Mercedes, Maxine Minniver and former fling James Nightingale. He even goes as far as kidnapping John Paul McQueen to ensure James' attendance.

But just how far will Liam go for payback?

Sienna is back!

Bad timing: Sienna will no doubt have other things on her mind as she comes back just as her boyfriend Brody and sister Liberty are declaring her feelings for each other

Meanwhile, there's more drama set for Warren as his ex Sienna Blake returns to the village after doing a runner with their twins.

But Sienna will no doubt have other things on her mind as she comes back just as her boyfriend Brody and sister Liberty are declaring her feelings for each other.

With the Liberty acting as a surrogate for her sister, will her new feelings for Brody leave her with second thoughts on whether to give up their baby?

Mercedes discovers who shot her

Finally: The new trailer explosively reveals the moment Mercedes discovers the truth about her shooting, with Liam exposing culprits Grace Black and James in a shocking twist

Guilty! How will she react? And what will Grace and James do amid Liam's betrayal?

After being left for dead after being shot in The Loft last year, Mercedes has been desperate to know who was behind the trigger.

And the new trailer explosively reveals the moment she discovers the truth, with Liam exposing culprits Grace Black and James in a shocking twist.

How will she react? And what will Grace and James do amid Liam's betrayal?

Tony discovers the truth about Diane's affair

How could you Diane! The trailer teases even more heartbreak for the character as Tony will later publicly learn that Diane's mystery man is none other than his father Edward

Schemer: How will Tony react to the ultimate betrayal from his family?

After being locked up for months by the evil Breda McQueen, the only thing that kept Tony Hutchinson going was the thought of being reunited with his beloved wife Diane.

But the chef will soon be floored when he discovers she had been sleeping with another man behind his back.

And the trailer teases even more heartbreak for the character as Tony will later publicly learn that Diane's mystery man is none other than his father Edward.

How will he react to the ultimate betrayal from his family?

Look who it is: ichard Blackwood makes his debut on the soap as he arrives amid the reveal that he's Mitchell Devereux's long-lost father

Trouble ahead: Juliet is in big trouble amid the progressing County Lines plot as Jordan's 'nice guy' masks slips and he soon turns sinister

Meanwhile, in other must-watch storylines, Richard Blackwood makes his debut on the soap as he arrives amid the reveal that he's Mitchell Devereax's long-lost father.

While Juliet is in big trouble amid the progressing County Lines plot as Jordan's 'nice guy' masks slips and he soon turns sinister.

But as she tries to sell drugs to other schools, she's caught and arrested by the police. Will her brother James be able to help?

So sad: Elsewhere, Darren Osborne's depression storyline progresses, with viewers having watched him grapple with his emotions for weeks

Elsewhere, Darren Osborne's depression storyline progresses, with viewers having watched him grapple with his emotions for weeks.

In heartbreaking scenes, the character tearfully airs his feelings to an empty room, while his partner Mandy Richardson continues to fret about his behaviour.

However, there may be hope as Kyle Kelly suggests to Darren that he's depressed. Will he be able to get the get he needs?

Hollyoaks airs weeknights at 6.30pm on Channel 4, with first look episodes airing at 7pm on E4.
Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

A detailed analysis report of the Global Telecom API Platform Market has been covered in the report coupled with a thorough description of each company profile with information on the H.Q, future capabilities, key mergers & acquisitions, financial outline, partnerships and new product launches and developments.

Telecom API Platform APIs platform capitalizes the existing network structure to generate a vast array of business prospects for carriers worldwide. They expose its services to a large number of external developers. It is one of the potential sources of revenue for the Telecom API Platform operators. Telecom API Platform API helps application developers to integrate various services such as payment, voice, messaging and location into their mobile application; thereby improving the customer experience. Telecom API Platform API provides many benefits to Telecom API Platform carriers such as revenue generation and improving end-user experience.



Telecom API Platform API Platforms are segmented according to telephone operator as T1 Players, T2 Players and T3 Players. The T1 players have a major market share of the Telecom API Platform API platform market. It is due to factors such as existence in developing economies and high-end infrastructure. Telecom API Platform API Platform market is segmented by modules as set-up & monetization and pricing model. The monetization and pricing model is further segmented into operator share and vendor share.



The key drivers influencing the market growth are the rapid growth in the mobile applications market and the growth of e-commerce industry. The rapid implementation of digital technologies across the global economies is fueling the market growth. The increase demand in subscriber penetration and use of mobile internet is expected to contribute high adoption of API platform across the developing economies.



Europe is the leading market for Telecom API Platform API platform market. The factors influencing the same are the growing smartphone penetration and the increasing internet user base.

Browse the complete Global Telecom API Platform Market Research Report - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026 @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/ip/3007-Telecom API Platform-api-platform-market-report

The key players operating in this market are:

Alcatel-Lucent S.A.

Aepona Ltd.

Apigee Corp.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.

Oracle Cop.

Hewlett-Packard Development Co.

LM Ericsson

Tropo, Inc.

Axway Software S.A.

ZTE Soft Technology Co., Ltd.

SEGMENTATIONS IN REPORT:

Telecom API Platform API Platform Market By Telecom API Platform Operator

T1 Players

T2 Players

T3 Players

Telecom API Platform API Platform Market By Module

Set-up

Monetization and Pricing Model Operator Share Vendor Share



Telecom API Platform API Platform By Geography

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

Latin America

Middle East And Africa

Download Free Sample Report of Global Telecom API Platform Market @ https://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-3007

The Global Telecom API Platform Market has been exhibited in detail in the following chapters -

Chapter 1 Telecom API Platform Market Preface

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

Chapter 3 Telecom API Platform Industry Analysis

Chapter 4 Telecom API Platform Market Value Chain Analysis

Chapter 5 Telecom API Platform Market Analysis By Telecom Operator

Chapter 6 Telecom API Platform Market Analysis By Module

Chapter 7 Telecom API Platform Market Analysis By Geography

Chapter 8 Competitive Landscape Of Telecom API Platform Companies

Chapter 9 Company Profiles Of Telecom API Platform Industry

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Global Messaging Platform Market Research Report - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026

Global Public Cloud Platform as a Service Market Research Report - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast Till 2026

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DecisionDatabases.com is a global business research reports provider, enriching decision makers and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research report, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains.

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* Euro zone periphery govt bond yields http://tmsnrt.rs/2ii2Bqr

LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - European government bond yields fell on Thursday, with German benchmark debt yields near their lowest in more than four months, as the spread of the coronavirus undermined risk sentiment.

China still accounts for about 96% of coronavirus cases, but most new infections are now being reported elsewhere. Investors fled to the safety of government debt as U.S. stock futures dropped to a three-month low.

The number of cases in South Korea climbed higher and the United States warned the virus may be spreading in California. Taiwan raised its epidemic response level to the highest possible.

"It is quite a tense situation out there and core European bonds is outperforming peripherals," said Christian Lenk, a rates strategist at DZ Bank.

Yields on benchmark German 10-year maturities fell to -0.5140%, just above an early October low of -0.472% reached in the previous session.

German bonds benefited from the rush to safety, but Italian debt underperformed -- Italy's coronavirus outbreak is Europe's worst. The yield spread between German debt and corresponding Italian bonds widened to a one-month high above 151 basis points.

Coronavirus news is likely to overshadow any comments from European Central Bank policymakers, a number of whom are speaking today. They are unlikely to offer any clues on policy as the central bank conducts its policy review, but markets will be watching for comments on the economic impact of the virus.

Eonia money market futures dated for the ECB's Dec. 10 meeting showed around 10 basis points of rate cuts priced in. That is up from around 7.5 bps on Monday and implies a 100% probability of a 10 bps cut.

The chance of a July cut rose to around 80% from 50% on Monday.

(Reporting by Saikat Chatterjee; editing by Larry King)
If Comrade Bernie wins Super Tuesday (and right now, it looks like he will) it will be the Democrats' own selfish fault. These other candidates are hanging on for dear life  too selfish to get out of the race and consolidate some opposition to Bernie  and, as such, Tuesday night, we may just see the most anti-American nominee for president of the United States by a major party in our nations history.

None of these folks on the Democratic stage have a chance, and they certainly dont have a chance against Sen. Bernie Sanders, (I-Vt.), who has singlehandedly managed to corrupt the fringe element of the left with all his talk of revolution.

This is a man who has been pushing revolution since the days of the early 1970s when he penned those poorly written, disgusting opinion pieces on sexuality and his view on women's rape fantasies in the Vermont Freeman, which, suffice it to say, wont go over so well with suburban mom voters and the Bloomberg team is already capitalizing on.

We should all hope he'll blame all that on some psychedelic 1970s drugs.

This is a man who, in 1972, told a group of ninth graders in Vermont that the U.S. committed acts in Vietnam almost as bad as what Hitler did

We lost 58,000 American troops in Vietnam. And this poor excuse for a man wants to equate the U.S. with Hitler?

TRISH REGAN: SOCIALIST BERNIE SANDERS MAY GET THE NOMINATION  AND, DEMS HAVE ONLY THEMSELVES TO BLAME

Comrade Bernie is a man who openly supports the dictatorship in Venezuela  a dictatorship that has stolen everything from the people, in the name of the people, over the last two decades, a dictatorship that is starving its people, spying on its people and locking up the dissenters.

Comrade Bernie admires Cuba. Hes still out there defending the communist dictatorship with a track record of human rights abuses, having murdered tens of thousands of his own people.

Its music to our enemies' ears. And, something the Cuban press is quick to jump on. The Cuban state media devoted its entire front page to Bernies praise of their murderous regime.

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Comrade Bernie tells us Chinas communist dictatorship has brought more people out of poverty than any other country.

Really, Bernie? You wanna go live in China? You wanna live in a country where if youre Muslim, gay, or just happen to disagree with the current regime, youll be jailed?

Good luck with that.

TRISH REGAN: WHY ARE DEMOCRATS OBJECTING TO MAKING ENGLISH OUR OFFICIAL LANGUAGE?

Capitalism  for the record  has lifted more people out of poverty than any other economic system in the world.

As the great American economist Thomas Sowell once said, The 20th century is full of examples of countries that set out to redistribute wealth and ended up redistributing poverty.

Think about it: Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, North Korea, the former Soviet Union  they all start with the intention of leveling the playing field  or making things better for the little guy  and instead, they created misery, poverty, destruction and a permanent ruling class of bureaucrats.

And yet, what is rather remarkable is that Bernie Sanders and his revolutionary "Squad" members  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (D-N.Y.), Rep. Rashida Tlaib, (D-Mich.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.),  are constantly railing against the threat of fascism and, yet, they openly support fascist regimes. When President Trump killed Iran's top general Qassem Soleimani  a terrorist that killed hundreds of Americans  "The Squad" slammed the move.

And, how else do you explain this one? Comrade Bernie insisting that the taking out Soleimani was an assassination.

Of course, none of this has happened in a vacuum. It didn't come from nowhere. We saw it brewing during former President Barack Obamas apology tour, remember?

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Modern progressivism (as they like to call it) can actually be traced back to former President Woodrow Wilson. In his days as a poli-sci professor at Princeton, Wilson stressed the need to remake our Constitution for modern times. He believed a series of administrative experts could govern better than the people.

In 1891, Wilson wrote: The functions of government are in a very real sense independent of legislation, and even constitutions.

You think you can govern separate from our Constitution? Thats the foundation of progressivism right there, folks.

Thats the beginning of the lefts movement to tear down our Constitution, our rights, our freedom, our capitalism.

The Constitution, as Wilson saw it  and as many more on the left still see it  was and is an obstacle to be overcome, not a check on power.

When he was president, in 1913, Wilson complained about checks and balances in the Constitution saying, The trouble with the theory is that government is not a machine, but a living thing. No living thing can have its organs offset against each other, as checks, and live.

Im sorry. No  we need the checks. We need the balances. Otherwise, this whole democracy thing? You can kiss it goodbye.

Of course, thats exactly what Comrade Bernie Sanders is trying to do with his so-called revolution. Who needs checks and balances when the left, seemingly, knows and can decide right from wrong? When the left can decide what can be said and what cannot be said? When the left can decide how much money youre allowed to make or whether or not you deserve health care?

It is a quest for power. And, it is dangerous.

To be clear: Bernie Sanders is no intellect. He's like "AOC," who doesnt know the difference between left and right, like literally. She doesnt know the difference between John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, two entirely different schools of economic thought.

Comrade Bernie is out there promoting free college for all, even though he barely even graduated.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

But, he is a self-described revolutionist.

And the extreme left, therefore, views Comrade Bernie as their savior. Id ask: savior from what? A strong economy, the most amazing job market in 50 years? A total reversal in the establishment-driven trade agreements that were hurting Americas middle class?

Comrade Bernie and the progressives on the left want to rob Americans of the very thing that our country has always held dear.

Through the beauty and strength of capitalism, we have offered countless generations a chance, a shot at the American Dream.

So, Bernie: before you ruin our country for our children and our grandchildren, maybe consider retirement in Venezuela? It would be a good thing for all.

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Shincheonji -- a secretive religious group in South Korea -- proclaims its founder has donned the mantle of Jesus Christ and will take 144,000 people with him to heaven on the day of judgement

SINGAPORE  The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is looking to ban the Singapore chapter of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony (SCJ), the controversial church at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak in South Korea.

In a statement on Friday (28 February), the MHA said that five South Korean nationals and two Singaporeans are assisting with ongoing investigations into the unregistered local chapter of SCJ.

A ministry spokesperson noted that it had been investigating the SCJ since before the COVID-19 outbreak. In the normal course, the investigations into SCJ would have taken another few weeks to conclude.

MHA decided to accelerate its investigations into SCJ, and consider earlier action, because of reports linking SCJs practices to the COVID-19 cluster in Daegu in South Korea. If the local members of SCJ had been in recent contact with the Daegu chapter of SCJ, then there could be health risks to Singapore.

However, said the spokesperson, interviews with SCJ members in Singapore who have been called up so far found that they have not been in recent physical contact with persons from the Daegu infection cluster.

Four of the South Koreans currently assisting in investigations entered Singapore before the outbreak of the virus in Daegu and Cheongdo. The fifth person came into the country last Friday, but checks indicate that she is well.

There are now 2,337 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in South Korea - the second highest of such infections outside mainland China - and 13 deaths reported in the country. The infection originated from the Daegu branch of the SCJ.

What is the SCJ?

The SCJ was founded by South Korean national Lee Man-Hee in 1984. It has been accused of being a cult in several countries due to its unorthodox teachings.

Based on testimonies of former members, Lee claims to be the second coming of Christ, who would bring 144,000 people to Heaven with him on the Day of Judgement. He has also claimed to be the only person who can interpret the Bible.

Story continues

SCJ allegedly regards all other churches and pastors as belonging to Satan. SCJ teaches that it is acceptable to use deceit and lies if it serves Gods purposes. It has been accused of infiltrating and disrupting established Korean churches by using deception and secrecy to trick people into becoming involved with them, noted the ministry.

Following investigations, MHA believes that the local SCJ chapter has used similar deceptive recruitment methods, using front entities to target Christian youths and young adults to join their group. A controlling influence is then exerted over these young members, requiring them to comply with strict instructions to conceal the local existence of SCJ and their involvement with it.

Members are not allowed to contact one another, verify teachings with other churches, or inform their families of their involvement, said the spokesperson.

SCJ members also attempted to register a company in Singapore under the name of Heavenly Culture, World Peace & Restoration of Light (HWPL) in February 2019. MHA raised security objections to the registration of HWPL, as MHA believed that HWPL was going to be used as a front for SCJ.

Subsequent investigations found that SCJ had previously incorporated another front company, Spasie Pte Ltd. Spasie describes itself as offering consultancy services, as well as the development of software.

Recently, SCJ also set up a sole proprietorship called Kings Ave, described as providing corporate training services, motivational courses and personal development workshops. However, MHA said that that entity is also a front, to lease a property for use as a temple.

Related stories

COVID-19: Couple from China charged under Infectious Diseases Act

COVID-19: Dorscon level could be lowered if virus spreads worldwide

COVID-19: Two church-related clusters linked through Chinese New Year family gathering

COVID-19: New visitors with recent travel history to Daegu and Cheongdo not allowed to enter Singapore from late Wed
Trump Announces US-Taliban Peace Deal to End War in Afghanistan

The United States is poised to sign a peace deal with the Taliban following a week-long deal to curb the violence in Afghanistan, according to a statement from President Donald Trump.

Soon, at my direction, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will witness the signing of an agreement with representatives of the Taliban, while Secretary of Defense Mark Esper will issue a joint declaration with the government of Afghanistan, Trump said in a statement on Friday. If the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home.

The president has long expressed his impatience with the nearly 20-year-long conflict and has promised to bring thousands of troops stationed in the country home.

Pompeo last week announced the Trump administration and the terrorist organization agreed to a nationwide reduction in violence across Afghanistan, and if the plan lasted, the two sides would sign a peace deal on Feb. 29.

Ultimately, it will be up to the people of Afghanistan to work out their future, Trump said in his statement. We, therefore, urge the Afghan people to seize this opportunity for peace and a new future for their country.

U.S. Army and Afghan commando forces at a checkpoint in the eastern province of Nangarhar, Afghanistan, on July 7, 2018. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)

The secretary of state is heading to Doha, Qatar, where the United States and the Taliban have held talks for months. Last year, the United States and the militant group nearly came to an agreement on a peace deal, but Trump pulled out after an American service member was killed during an attack that was claimed by the Taliban.

Nearly 19 years ago, American service members went to Afghanistan to root out the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks, Trump said. In that time, we have made great progress in Afghanistan, but at great cost to our brave service members, to the American taxpayers, and to the people of Afghanistan.

The Taliban dont recognize the current government of Afghanistan, which it has long viewed as a puppet of the United States. The group will have to sit down with a delegation of Afghan government officials, ABC News reported.

These commitments represent an important step to a lasting peace in a new Afghanistan, free from Al Qaeda, ISIS, and any other terrorist group that would seek to bring us harm. Ultimately it will be up to the people of Afghanistan to work out their future. We, therefore, urge the Afghan people to seize this opportunity for peace and a new future for their country, Trump added.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 15:05:37|Editor: xuxin

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CHANGSHA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The first batch of fresh cut flowers imported from Kenya since the Spring Festival arrived in central China's Hunan Province Thursday.

The 11,550 flowers, including roses, hydrangea and lilies, were transported on a charted flight from Nairobi and landed in the airport of Changsha, the provincial capital, after 14 hours in the air.

The customs took immediate clearance measures to ensure bio-safety and freshness of the flowers.

According to the Guangzhou Xinwang commerce and trade company, the importer, Kenyan roses are very popular among Chinese consumers due to their high quality and rich variety.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has confirmed a suspected case of Covid-19 coronavirus has tested positive.

The person was in their sixties, and was a citizen of New Zealand who had recently travelled from Iran via Bali, she says.

They were in an improving condition in isolation in Auckland hospital after arriving on Thursday night.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says the person arrived this week from Iran, where the virus had been rapidly spreading.

He earlier said five people were being tested for the virus in New Zealand, but only this person fit the definition of a suspected case.

He says 130 tests for Covid-19 had been done this month, all of them negative except this one.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health say they received the test results about 4.15pm today.

The ministry say the patient was being treated in Auckland City Hospital in an improving condition in isolation.

The chances of community outbreak remained low, the ministry says, and public risk from the new infection was being well managed because of the public messaging, awareness of Covid-19 and public health response to managing cases and contacts.

RNZ.
The secret history describes how a handshake deal between Boris Hagelin, the founder and owner of Crypto AG, and William Friedman, the founding father of American cryptology, set up a system in the early 1950s that allowed the NSA to dictate where the company sold breakable communications devices and where it sold unbreakable machines. After the U.S. and German governments bought the company for $5.75 million in 1970, Washington controlled nearly every aspect of Cryptos operations, among them hiring decisions, designing its technology, sabotaging its algorithms and directing its sales targets, according to The Posts report. It monitored Egypts negotiating strategies during the 1978 peace talks with Israel led by President Jimmy Carter at Camp David; Iranian mullahs amid the 1979 embassy hostage crisis in Tehran; and more than 19,000 encrypted messages during the Iran-Iraq War. The United States sent intercepted Argentine messages to its ally Britain during the 1982 Falklands War.
Several thousand Muslims marched from the main mosque in Bangladesh's capital on Friday to denounce India's government for allegedly inflaming tensions between Hindus and Muslims, leading to clashes that left at least 40 dead and hundreds injured.

After Friday prayers, thousands of Muslims left the Baitul Mokarram Mosque in Dhaka and joined the rally, chanting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The protesters demanded that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina cancel a plan to invite Modi to a commemoration next month of the 100th anniversary of the birth of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Rahman, Hasina's father, led a political movement that created the separate nation of Bangladesh after a nine-month war with what is now Pakistan in 1971.

I ask the prime minister to immediately cancel Narendra Modi's invitation," Nur Hossain Kasemi of the influential Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam told the protesters.

"If she fails to do so, the people of the country will be forced to take action and surround the airport. They will build resistance.

But he asked Bangladeshi Muslims not to harm Hindus.

I remind the Muslims of our country that we believe in harmony. We don't believe in violence. We shall not harm any non-Muslims in this country, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In 2000 Peihe Weng was appointed CEO of Tang Palace (China) Holdings Limited (HKG:1181). This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at companies of similar size. After that, we will consider the growth in the business. And finally we will reflect on how common stockholders have fared in the last few years, as a secondary measure of performance. This method should give us information to assess how appropriately the company pays the CEO.

Check out our latest analysis for Tang Palace (China) Holdings

How Does Peihe Weng's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

Our data indicates that Tang Palace (China) Holdings Limited is worth HK$1.1b, and total annual CEO compensation was reported as CN7.6m for the year to December 2018. While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at CN1.4m. We further remind readers that the CEO may face performance requirements to receive the non-salary part of the total compensation. We took a group of companies with market capitalizations below CN1.4b, and calculated the median CEO total compensation to be CN1.6m.

It would therefore appear that Tang Palace (China) Holdings Limited pays Peihe Weng more than the median CEO remuneration at companies of a similar size, in the same market. However, this fact alone doesn't mean the remuneration is too high. A closer look at the performance of the underlying business will give us a better idea about whether the pay is particularly generous.

You can see a visual representation of the CEO compensation at Tang Palace (China) Holdings, below.

SEHK:1181 CEO Compensation, February 28th 2020

Is Tang Palace (China) Holdings Limited Growing?

Over the last three years Tang Palace (China) Holdings Limited has grown its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 11% per year (using a line of best fit). In the last year, its revenue is up 5.2%.

This shows that the company has improved itself over the last few years. Good news for shareholders. It's nice to see a little revenue growth, as this is consistent with healthy business conditions. It could be important to check this free visual depiction of what analysts expect for the future.

Story continues

Has Tang Palace (China) Holdings Limited Been A Good Investment?

With a total shareholder return of 21% over three years, Tang Palace (China) Holdings Limited shareholders would, in general, be reasonably content. But they probably don't want to see the CEO paid more than is normal for companies around the same size.

In Summary...

We compared total CEO remuneration at Tang Palace (China) Holdings Limited with the amount paid at companies with a similar market capitalization. As discussed above, we discovered that the company pays more than the median of that group.

However, the earnings per share growth over three years is certainly impressive. Looking at the same time period, we think that the shareholder returns are respectable. While it may be worth researching further, we don't see a problem with the CEO pay, given the good EPS growth. CEO compensation is one thing, but it is also interesting to check if the CEO is buying or selling Tang Palace (China) Holdings (free visualization of insider trades).

Important note: Tang Palace (China) Holdings may not be the best stock to buy. You might find something better in this list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian at a press briefing on Feb. 27, 2020. (Photo from the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC)

Infectious diseases are a common challenge facing the people of China, the United States and the rest of the world. Unity and cooperation is the most powerful weapon against diseases, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said.

BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- China appreciates the open letter by the U.S. Jewish community that expressed its support for Chinese community in the United States and Chinese people who were affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Thursday during a press briefing.

"I have also read the open letter, which is a moving reflection of the friendship of American Jewish organizations toward the Chinese American and Chinese communities," Zhao said.

David Bernstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, delivered the letter signed by 87 Jewish organizations across America to the Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai on Wednesday afternoon.

"This is another example of the friendship between the Chinese and American people, and between the Chinese and Jewish people. We applaud them and extend our heartfelt thanks to them," he added.

Virus knows no borders. Infectious diseases are a common challenge facing the people of China, the United States and the rest of the world. Unity and cooperation is the most powerful weapon against diseases, he said.

"China will continue to work with the international community to win the battle against the epidemic and jointly safeguard the health and well-being of mankind," the spokesperson said.
But election officials in the Chicago area dismissed the concerns, saying there is no evidence that bar codes are getting hacked. Jim Allen, a spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections, said the touch screens used by the city have been certified through a series of state and federal tests to ensure accuracy. In addition, he said, the scanned paper receipts capture an image of the ballot, which can be used to verify results in the event of a recount.
When winter comes, an upsetting sight can greet office workers taking the train from the commuter town of Lelystad into central Amsterdam.

Roughly 25 miles east of the Dutch capital, they pass a nature reserve called the Oostvaardersplassen, where herds of red deer, wild horses and cattle roam free.

The 5,000-hectare plot is supposed to provide a rare haven for wildlife in one of Europe's most densely-populated countries. But when the weather turns cold, it can become more of a prison.

Bountiful: The Troutbeck Valley in the Lake District is pictured above. In the UK, rewilding is nonetheless one of the buzzwords of the moment, inspiring everything from a plotline in The Archers to a number of bestselling books

That's because the creatures which inhabit this low-lying expanse of marsh and grassland find themselves with very little to eat.

Slowly, but surely, they starve to death. In particularly hostile winters, when the ground can freeze solid, hundreds  and sometimes thousands  perish, filling fields next to the railway tracks with emaciated corpses.

This appalling spectacle, which has occurred several times in recent years, is the result of an experiment in 'rewilding'  a trendy, but for some, highly controversial form of land management in which large areas of countryside are allowed to revert to nature.

Popular with conservationists (but hated by many farmers) it boasts many powerful supporters in the UK.

They believe removing land from agricultural production can help fight climate change and reverse the catastrophic decline in wildlife populations we have suffered in recent decades.

Boris Johnson's Government, currently formulating a farm-subsidy policy for life outside the EU, seems particularly keen.

Dead animals are pictured above on Holland's Oostvaardersplassen reserve. The 5,000-hectare plot is supposed to provide a rare haven for wildlife in one of Europe's most densely-populated countries

Indeed, large amounts of public money could be diverted from traditional farming and used to help rewild the British countryside.

Yet if events at the Oostvaardersplassen are anything to go by, the results may not always be so pretty as proponents expect.

This reserve was created in the 1980s, when scientists introduced 32 cows, 18 horses and 40 deer to an expanse of land reclaimed from the sea.

They thought grazing animals would prevent it becoming dense forest and instead create a varied habitat of grassland, scrub, marsh and open woodland in which rare birds could thrive.

Initially, it was a success. Known as the 'Dutch Serengeti', it became home to 29 endangered species, including majestic sea eagles.

Yet as the years went by, a problem emerged: since the cows, horses and deer had no natural predators, their population grew, remorselessly.

Eventually, it peaked at 5,230 horses, cows and deer. At that level, the animals began to damage the bird-friendly habitat they were supposed to create. Soon there was not enough food to see them through winter.

In 2016, a shocking video that went viral showed emaciated creatures pressed up against the Oostvaardersplassen's fence, desperate for food. In the background, foxes and crows picked at corpses.

Two years later, a cold snap saw 3,226 animals perish. Although rangers were by then employed to patrol the park, shooting animals on the verge of death and removing their bodies from view of railway tracks, the situation became a national talking point.

Animal rights activists called for the project to be abandoned. Dutch farmers complained they'd face prosecution for keeping livestock in such an awful condition.

When the weather turns cold, it can become more of a prison. That's because the creatures which inhabit this low-lying expanse of marsh and grassland find themselves with very little to eat

But the scientists behind the scheme were adamant: starvation was nature's way of restoring the population to a sustainable level.

Hostilities peaked in early 2018, when protestors tossing bales of hay over the fence of the park were threatened with fines. Eventually, matters ended up in court.

All of which serves to illustrate three points. First, rewilding schemes rarely run as smoothly as they are supposed to. Second, they don't always benefit wildlife. And third, they have a habit of sparking ugly disputes.

In the UK, rewilding is nonetheless one of the buzzwords of the moment, inspiring everything from a plotline in The Archers to a number of bestselling books.

And to the concern of farming unions, it also appears to boast the support of several influential, if largely unelected, figures close to Boris Johnson.

One fan is Henry Dimbleby  son of broadcaster David and co-founder of restaurant chain Leon  who runs the country's National Food Strategy.

Another is Tony Juniper, the former chief executive of Friends of the Earth  and Green Party parliamentary candidate  who is head of the Natural England quango.

Last year, Mr Juniper declared that he wants to rewild one per cent of England 'as an experiment' and on Twitter he has dubbed rewilding 'essential'.

Eventually, it peaked at 5,230 horses, cows and deer. At that level, the animals began to damage the bird-friendly habitat they were supposed to create. Soon there was not enough food to see them through winter

This week, Juniper added he wants to re-introduce lynx to the UK to keep deer numbers down.

This is a contentious strategy endorsed by the rewilding lobby but vigorously opposed by farmers, who believe their lambs and calves will provide an easier prey.

In August, furthermore, Mr Juniper spoke at an event called Bird Fair with the Prime Minister's girlfriend Carrie Symonds, calling for farmers to be removed from tracts of the Green Belt, allowing it to return to nature.

Then there is multi-millionaire peer and environment minister Zac Goldsmith, who is also close to Ms Symonds.

Lord Goldsmith, who believes rewilding delivers 'huge benefits', co-founded the charity Rewilding Britain, which lobbies politicians and helps run a number of rewilding schemes.

His financier brother Ben is also a co-founder of the charity  and happens to be a member of the board of the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, along with Henry Dimbleby and Tony Juniper, among others.

Ben Goldsmith, for his part, caused fury among farmers this week by tweeting that 'overgrazing' by upland sheep farmers  rather than near-record rainfall  was responsible for the devastating floods suffered in South Wales.

He apparently takes the view (again central to the philosophy of many supporters of rewilding) that getting rid of sheep farming would allow scrubland and forest to develop in the hills, helping to absorb floodwater.

Tony Juniper spoke at an event called Bird Fair with the Prime Minister's girlfriend Carrie Symonds, calling for farmers to be removed from tracts of the Green Belt, allowing it to return to nature

Opinion is divided over the logic of that claim. So inevitably the tweet outraged local hill farmers, including Gareth Wyn Jones, who presents farming programmes for the BBC and was astonished to see a Defra grandee adopting what he saw as an anti-farming stance.

Wyn Jones publicly dubbed Goldsmith 'a patronising, privileged individual' who 'should be ashamed', saying: 'We've had devastating flooding here in Wales. Farmers and other families have suffered and are suffering, and you are blaming sheep grazing? You are unbelievable!'

It's not just Ben Goldsmith who has infuriated farmers.

Perhaps the most high-profile supporter of rewilding (and another founder of Rewilding Britain) is environmental campaigner and journalist George Monbiot, whose 2013 book Feral argued for natural forest to be allowed to take over hill farms where sheep and cattle graze.

Monbiot is a hugely divisive figure in rural circles. He's expressed a desire to see most livestock farming come to an end, and has accused farmers of creating 'sheep-wrecked deserts' in the uplands.

He argues sheep  he calls them 'woolly maggots'  have caused an 'environmental holocaust' in the Lake District because their grazing stops wild forests growing on its hills.

But farmers point out that the entire Lake District landscape of dry stone walls and majestic hillsides, which draws millions of visitors each year and is loved by the British public, was entirely shaped by sheep farming.

In the uplands, many of them devote considerable energy to planting trees and protecting habitats on their properties.

Will Rawling, the former chairman of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders Association, reckons Monbiot has caused 'more damage to farmer-conservationist relations than anyone in the last 30 years.'

Minette Batters, the President of the National Farmers Union, believes his florid language stokes attacks on her industry, sometimes with serious implications for her members, who have one of the highest suicide rates of any profession.

'We need to reflect on the mental health of farmers when they are attacked continually by people who don't even live off the land,' she says.

'The language used can have real life consequences, and soundbites about getting rid of meat and calling sheep 'maggots' can have desperately harmful effects on real people.'

Objections from farmers recently scuppered the UK's most ambitious rewilding project to date, the so-called 'Summit to Sea' initiative which was to cover around 25,000 acres of West Wales, from the Cambrian mountains to the Dyfi estuary.

It was to have been funded by a 3.4 million grant, originally from the Tetra Pak heiress Lisbet Rausing who dreamed of a dramatic 'expansion of populations of native species like pine martens, horseshoe bats and merlins' via a wildlife corridor where sheep farming might cease in some areas and be scaled back in others.

Since the whole project was orchestrated by Rewilding Britain  which boasts Monbiot's partner Rebecca Wrigley as chief executive (their home in Oxford was listed as Summit to Sea's mailing address)  local farmers were unimpressed. Angry public meetings were held and protests threatened.

In interviews, opponents of the scheme claimed it represented arrogant interference by rich metropolitan outsiders in the affairs of a tight-knit and remote Welsh speaking community.

Ben Goldsmith, for his part, caused fury among farmers this week by tweeting that 'overgrazing' by upland sheep farmers  rather than near-record rainfall  was responsible for the devastating floods suffered in South Wales

'It was a load of people from across the border, middle-class, Left-wing idealists who were funded by a billionaire, carrying out a modern form of right-on colonialism,' said Nick Fenwick of the Farmers Union of Wales.

'They were saying, 'I have a dream so I'm going to go to a place that's not important, in another country, and impose my dream on the local hicks'.'

Before Christmas, the outcry forced Rewilding Britain to withdraw from Summit to Sea. The project is now under review.

As ever, when two factions go to war, neither side in this ongoing debate has a monopoly on the truth.

And it should be pointed out that even the most vigorous opponents of rewilding agree that sometimes it can be a huge success.

Take, for example, Knepp Castle, a 3,500-acre Sussex estate which, despite being intensively farmed since World War II, had rarely made a profit.

In 2001, the owners Sir Charles Burrell and his wife Isabella Tree embarked on a radical experiment that saw traditional agriculture on their land abolished.

They instead removed internal fences and introduced small herds of red deer, longhorn cows, wild horses, and Tamworth pigs to control the vegetation.

The battered ecosystem bounced back, with fields of crops and pasture replaced by a landscape of scrub and trees which is often compared to an African savannah.

Today, Knepp boasts the densest population of nesting farmland birds per acre in England. Numbers of turtle doves, supposedly threatened with extinction, are rising. Rare purple emperor butterflies are breeding.

Two per cent of the nation's entire population of nightingales live there. Its air is thick with insects, bats and owls, while the amount of carbon sequestered in the soil has doubled.

'The noise of birdsong is so intense,' says Tree, 'that on a spring morning, you can feel it vibrating in your lungs'.

What's more, the estate now makes a profit. They receive around 400,000 a year in government subsidies designed to promote conservation, and turn over the same again through camping and 'wildlife safari' ventures on the estate.

Another 200,000 comes from sales of venison, pork and beef sourced from their roaming livestock herds, and roughly 500,000 again is raised by converting former agricultural buildings into business units.

It is, in many respects, remarkable  and supporters of rewilding believe Knepp provides a blueprint that ought to be replicated on a 'landscape scale'.

However, sceptics aren't so sure. One problem, they say, is that Burrell and Tree own 3,500 acres of the home counties near London.

Most family farms are a fraction of that size and are far from major cities, and so don't have people on their doorstep willing to pay 225 per night to sleep in a yurt, as Knepp does, or to rent industrial units.

'There is no way this kind of project is replicable on any scale,' is how Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance puts it.

'The concept of rewilding requires farming to cease. Unproven and often dubious economic benefits are no replacement for dismantling farming communities that were built over generations.'

Then there is the question of whether removing sheep from upland areas will actually increase biodiversity, as Mr Monbiot and others claim.

A long-running scientific study at Moor House, a nature reserve in Upper Teesdale where large areas were fenced to keep sheep out around 65 years ago, has identified very little increase in vegetation, and no significant growth in animal populations.

Other studies raise further questions about rewilding. In 2014, a team led by Cibele Queiroz of Stockholm Resilience Centre in Sweden reviewed 276 studies on the effect of farmland being abandoned. It found that while some areas saw an increase in biodiversity, most did not.

This is because landscapes farmed in traditional ways (as opposed to intensively) create a wide variety of habitats that animals love, from grassland to hedgerows. When farming stops, those habitats can disappear.

One fan is Henry Dimbleby  son of broadcaster David and co-founder of restaurant chain Leon  who runs the country's National Food Strategy. Mr Dimbleby told farmers in November last year that 'an area of the UK the size of East Anglia does need to be planted with trees for rewilding'

For example, the study explains, the Coa valley in Portugal was once used for small-scale cattle and pig farming and foraging, creating a mosaic of habitats, supporting lynx and eagles.

But farming there ceased, and the valley has been choked with scrub and forest, with the constant threat of wildfires.

In Japan, where rice farming is in severe decline as the population falls and people switch to wheat, abandoned paddies get choked with vines and bamboo.

Over past 15 years, that has caused a steady decline in insects, birds, amphibians and plants. (Supporters of rewilding argue 'abandonment' is very different from the stewardship involved in well-run projects.)

In any case, argue critics, large-scale rewilding  taking substantial areas of farmland out of food production  will leave Britain either needing to import more food or to farm remaining land more intensively. Neither option seems environmentally friendly.

Rewilding Britain insists, for its part, that it only aspires to stop farming on a small portion of our countryside.

'Less than one per cent of the UK is currently rewilded and 70 per cent is farmland,' says Alistair Driver, Rewilding Britain's director.

'We only have ambitions to reach around five per cent by 2100. This isn't going to make a huge impact on food supply.'

So can the two sides in this increasingly rancorous debate reach a compromise?

The omens are not good. In Holland, moves to carry out an annual cull of large mammals on the Oostvaardersplassen  to stop so many from starving to death  were unveiled by the government in 2018, only to be attacked by animal rights groups who want the creatures relocated.

Even now, lawyers are fighting it out in court.

Few believe it will be the last battle fought over rewilding.
ATHENS  Time and again, when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey wants something from the Europeans, he has reminded them that he is the gatekeeper to tens of thousands of refugees he could send their way.

Friday was much the same, as Turkey demanded help from NATO after a deadly clash in Syria. But this time, Mr. Erdogan not only threatened to let refugees enter Greece. Local officials bought several thousands of them tickets, helped them onto shiny Mercedes-Benz buses and drove them to the border.

The mini-exodus was accompanied step by step by state-run Turkish media, which live-streamed scenes of harried families pushing off shore for Greek islands in scenes reminiscent of the 2015 migrant crisis that Europe was able to solve only with Turkish help.

The echoes of that crisis were no doubt deliberate on the part of Mr. Erdogan, who knew he could count on the desperation of refugees eager to make their way to Europe to make his point. Fridays events were widely seen as his attempt to weaponize both the desperation of migrants and the xenophobia of Europe.It was the ninth time, in fact, that the Turkish president has promised to send a new surge of refugees Europes way. Whether Mr. Erdogan was merely dangling the threat again, or will unleash a full-blown crisis remains to be seen.
Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF) Air Marshal Harjit Singh Arora on Friday said the terror factories are no longer safe anywhere in Pakistan and that the IAF has the capability to go across and strike them at their roots.

"As far as their (Pakistani) terror factories are concerned, they are no longer safe anywhere across the border. We have the will, capability and the political support to go across and strike them at their roots," he told ANI when asked about Balakot airstrike message to Pakistan.

Referring to Islamabad's nuclear threat to India, the IAF Vice Chief said, "Pakistan can keep talking about nuclear retaliation and its capability. We also possess a similar capability."

Last year, the IAF had carried out an airstrike in Pakistan's Balakot, targetting Jaish-e-Mohammad's (JeM) terror training camps. The airstrike came after the JeM claimed responsibility for a deadly terror attack on February 14 in Pulwama, killing 40 CRPF personnel.

Earlier today, IAF Chief RKS Bhadauria said that the force could have deployed twice the number of warplanes and launched more weapons during the Balakot airstrike, but chose to not do so in order to minimise collateral damage.

"The air force could have struck Balakot with twice the number of warplanes and launched four times the weapons but did not do that to ensure there was no collateral damage," the IAF chief said at the Centre for Air Power Studies seminar here.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CHATFIELD  "The right hops to the right people" is the motto of Chatfield-based Civil Sass Hops, operated by married co-owners and farmers Abbey and Jacob Sass. And for them, the right people are their neighbors in Fillmore County.

High startup costs and cold winters make Minnesota one of the most difficult states in which to raise hops. Because hops are mainly grown in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, the United States Department of Agriculture only reports hops statistics for those states.

But a 2018 survey from Hop Growers of America showed that Minnesota harvested roughly 120 acres of hops that year, a leap from 2014 when HGA reported the state at only 20 total acres.

"You have to have a bullish mind to get into this," Jacob Sass said of growing hops. "In order to be a player within the brewing industry, you have to just keep moving forward."

The couple is confident they can continue to make strides. Things came together for them in the first two years after they harvested their first hops. And so far, everyone they've met in the craft beer community in Fillmore County has been eager to collaborate and help them succeed.

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"We've been very fortunate and happy to work with people who are equally excited to work with us," he said.

Civil Sass Hops struck its first partnership with Karst Brewing in Fountain, less than 10 miles from their hops yard. The brewery was just beginning to sell their beer at the same time Civil Sass was ready to commercially sell hops.

"It's like we both just immediately knew that the success of one of us would mean the success of the other," Jacob Sass said of the partnership with Karst.

Eric Luoma and his wife, Sandra, are the owners of Karst Brewing, which opened on Memorial Day weekend of 2017. Eric said they began using freshly picked hops from Civil Sass not long after.

"Fresh and wet hops, that they picked off the vine," said Luoma of the first hops used from Civil Sass. "And we brewed with those hops for a while, and had a release party that went over really well."

It led Luoma to create the Karst signature IPA, made from whole cone hops, called Top of the Trail. It was based off the fresh hop recipe of 2017, he said. Karst Brewing now hosts a release party every year celebrating that first one.

The brewery even once hosted a hop picking contest, said Luoma, laughing at the memory of vines being brought to Fountain so that customers could form teams and race to pick them.

"It's definitely a pain," Luoma said of hops picking. "We got volunteers the first year, but not after that."

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The relationship between Karst Brewing and Civil Sass allowed the Luomas to witness the couple's quick growth.

"Karst was the start of it all," said Jacob Sass. "And it's been really neat year after year to catch up and see how things have been progressing."

In 2018, Civil Sass began to pelletize its hops, making them easier to use.

"They went from mechanically picking to now getting their own picker," said Luoma. "They're really building their infrastructure to do more and more at the hop yard."

Civil Sass harvested its first single acre of hops in August 2017. The operation will be expanded to three acres and nine varieties in the next harvest, Abbey Sassy said.

Depending on the variety, she said they're looking to raise 1,600 to 2,000 pounds of hops per acre.

"That gives us the ability to provide a good range of variety for the scale of breweries we're working with," she said.

Most of the popular varieties of hops, or ones considered to have the best potential, are trademarked by private entities, meaning they are not available to every grower. But a continued interest in craft brewing as well as hops production has led to the rise of smaller operations like Civil Sass, which has the ability to respond to specific local market needs.

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Moving up

Abbey Sass said the couple has been diligent in the last two years to "fully flesh out" the operation.

"The next piece is making sure we have the ability to provide enough quantity and quality to make our brewers look at us year-round and know they have a solid partner," Jacob Sass said.

He said that Civil Sass will soon gain a "huge part of the value chain," with a processing barn now under construction.

The couple said the price tag for the new building was "large enough," but it will include a harvester and a heated dryer, both pieces they've had to outsource in the past.

Adding to what Civil Sass is able to do on-site and offering nearly a double-digit number of varieties will make a convincing case of their ability.

'Every beer has to have hops'

Development in craft brewing in Fillmore County mushroomed right after Civil Sass started business in Chatfield.

There are now three breweries: Karst Brewing in Fountain, PawPrint Brewery in Chatfield and Trout City Brewing in Preston, And, there are plans for another brewer in Lanesboro to open in the near future.

At PawPrint Brewery in Chatfield, which opened at the start of this year, there are four beers already on tap that use 100 percent Civil Sass Hops. Karst Brewing has five different beers its brewed using hops from Civil Sass. And two Rochester breweries  Kinney Creek and Little Thistle  carry beer selections with recipes built around the flavor of Abbey and Jacob's hops.

Whether it's creating different types of beers or a different kind of atmosphere, every brewery opens for a different reason, said Abbey Sass. But "every beer has to have hops in it", she said.

"One brewer doing things differently completely changes a profile of a beer with the same type of hops in it," said Jacob Sass, meaning that one beer made with hops grown by Civil Sass doesn't automatically taste like another beer made with the same hops.

Civil Sass prides themselves on being a "connector piece between multiple breweries," connecting with as many local brewers that they can.

In it together

Andy Bisek, co-owner of Trout City Brewing in Preston with his wife, Anita, said that when they were opening their brewpub they "took the easiest source" for hops and ordered them online. But they said they'd be reaching out to Civil Sass for hops after they used up all their current supply, which Andy said will be soon.

It's not lost on the Biseks that they are the only Fillmore County brewery not using hops from Civil Sass. But Eric Luoma said there's no ill-will.

Behind the Trout City bar, Andy Bisek said he often asks patrons, "Have you guys been to Chatfield or Fountain, or the distillery in Harmony?" He also said that when they were starting their endeavor, they never heard a person say that Fillmore County didn't need another brewery.

"We've seen tremendous support from locals and people in the area," he said on a recent Sunday, squinting from the sun coming through the stained glass of the taproom filled with guests.

Anita Bisek chimed in to say that the local breweries weren't concerned with competing as they were with "complimenting each other  each with our own personality".

"We're all very supportive of each other," she said. "Sometimes on a Sunday when we close, Karst is still open, so we'll close and drive up there to have a beer and visit."

For generations ahead

Jacob Sass said it means a lot to him that their operation is on land that has been in their family for three generations.

"They've been extremely supportive and even more excited," he said of his family and the hops operation.

He said they saw it as a new challenge and an interesting one.

"You wouldn't believe the amount of farmers you can get scratching their heads and kicking the dirt out there trying to figure out what we're doing," he said.

It's even been fun for the "local equipment dealers getting to play with new types of equipment when you're building an 18-foot trellis," said Sass.

Abbey Sass said that growing hops will give the family a better chance of transitioning the farm through future generations because it "sets ourselves up for innovation and diversification."

"We know we have to look back and answer to the generation before us, but also the generations after us," Jacob Sass said. "It is a big, conscious move that we have made to partner our farm with the local community here."

{{tncms-inline alignment="center" content="<p><strong>Kinney Creek</strong>, Imperial IPA, A tasty sting of Civil Sass Centennial makes for a fresh IPA</p> <p><strong>Karst Brewing</strong>, Top of the Trail, Features 'top of crop' Civil Sass Cascades</p> <p><strong>Karst Brewing</strong>, Company A Red Ale, A tribute to the local men of Company A, 2nd Minnesota Regiment who marched past the Civil Sass Hops Yard on Old Territorial Road to serve the Union</p> <p><strong>Karst Brewing</strong>, Maggie&rsquo;s Farm Cream Ale, A classic craft beer</p> <p><strong>Karst Brewing</strong>, Wry IPA, Lending to the rich malt complexity is small amounts of rye additions by means of several hop varieties including Civil Sass Willamette</p> <p><strong>Karst Brewing</strong>, Altbier, Dusseldorf style German beer</p> <p><strong>Little Thistle</strong>, Ope! Ima Hop Right Past Ya IPA, Civil Sass Cashmere hops provide citrus and tropical notes</p> <p><strong>PawPrint Brewery</strong>, The Minuteman Red Ale, Pays tribute to those who serve in the Armed Forces, past and present, with Civil Sass Willamette</p> <p><strong>PawPrint Brewery</strong>, Bear Dog Lager, A light lager with a hint of honey featuring hops grown just a few miles away from the brewery</p> <p><strong>PawPrint Brewery</strong>, Bomb Dog IPA, Served with a side a of pop rocks, atomic hop bomb combination of Civil Sass Cashmere and Triple Pearl</p> <p><strong>PawPrint Brewery</strong>, Bird Dog Fruited Sour Gose, Just enough sour and just enough fruit</p> <p><strong>PawPrint Brewery</strong>, Bearded Bear Cream Ale, A honey cream ale</p> <p><strong>PawPrint Brewery</strong>, The Shepard IPA, Big bodied IPA with a very smooth and malty sweetness</p>" id="30d970c8-68e1-458f-9fed-11c2e80e69c9" style-type="bio" title="Beers made with Civil Sass Hops" type="relcontent" width="full"}}

{{tncms-inline alignment="right" content="<p dir="ltr"><span>Source: Brewers Association (economic impact study published in 2019)</span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span><strong>$2.1 billion</strong> -- economic&nbsp; impact in MN from craft beer industry for 2018</span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span><strong>15,778</strong> -- employees in the craft beer industry in MN for 2018</span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span><strong>187</strong> -- MN breweries licensed for operation in 2019</span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span><strong>22</strong> -- Breweries that opened in MN in 2018</span></p> <p dir="ltr"><span><strong>1</strong> -- Breweries that closed in 2018</span></p>" id="36c93c8e-969d-48bd-92a2-e88d483b03bb" style-type="bio" title="Economic Impact of MN Craft Beer Industry" type="relcontent" width="full"}}

Kinney Creek, Imperial IPA, A tasty sting of Civil Sass Centennial makes for a fresh IPA

Karst Brewing, Top of the Trail, Features 'top of crop' Civil Sass Cascades

Karst Brewing, Company A Red Ale, A tribute to the local men of Company A, 2nd Minnesota Regiment who marched past the Civil Sass Hops Yard on Old Territorial Road to serve the Union

Karst Brewing, Maggies Farm Cream Ale, A classic craft beer

Karst Brewing, Wry IPA, Lending to the rich malt complexity is small amounts of rye additions by means of several hop varieties including Civil Sass Willamette

Karst Brewing, Altbier, Dusseldorf style German beer

Little Thistle, Ope! Ima Hop Right Past Ya IPA, Civil Sass Cashmere hops provide citrus and tropical notes

PawPrint Brewery, The Minuteman Red Ale, Pays tribute to those who serve in the Armed Forces, past and present, with Civil Sass Willamette

PawPrint Brewery, Bear Dog Lager, A light lager with a hint of honey featuring hops grown just a few miles away from the brewery

PawPrint Brewery, Bomb Dog IPA, Served with a side a of pop rocks, atomic hop bomb combination of Civil Sass Cashmere and Triple Pearl

PawPrint Brewery, Bird Dog Fruited Sour Gose, Just enough sour and just enough fruit

PawPrint Brewery, Bearded Bear Cream Ale, A honey cream ale

PawPrint Brewery, The Shepard IPA, Big bodied IPA with a very smooth and malty sweetness

Source: Brewers Association (economic impact study published in 2019)

$2.1 billion-- economic impact in MN from craft beer industry for 2018

15,778-- employees in the craft beer industry in MN for 2018

187-- MN breweries licensed for operation in 2019

22-- Breweries that opened in MN in 2018

1-- Breweries that closed in 2018
The medium may not be able to broadcast the events of 2020 Winter Olympics; the reason for freezing the assets is the huge debt that the company owes Euronews stock corporation

The court arrested the assets of Suspilne TV company, the public broadcaster in Ukraine. The reason for such a move is the debt that Suspline owes to Euronews stock corporation; it makes 10,591,224.78 Euros. Another USD 3,000 of court fee is charged in favor of Euronews.

"The cooperation of former state-run National TV company of Ukraine and Euronews kicked off in 2010, yet before the Suspline broadcaster was created. Later, [the government] stopped to allocate funds to provide the license payments under the agreement on the creation of the Ukrainian edition of Euronews. This resulted in the debt and respective court procedure", reads the message.

If the assets are not unblocked, the medium will not be able to prepare for the broadcasting of Olympics 2020. Suspilne claims that the arrest will lead to a full stop in the TV channel's activities in the very near future.

Suspilne turned to the Cabinet of Ministers for assistance.

According to Zurab Alasania, the Head of Directors' Board, the debt emerged because former President Viktor Yanukovych wanted to create the Ukrainian edition of Euronews TV channel by 2020. Then, the agreement was signed for six years, which breached the law of Ukraine; according to it, such agreements could be only signed for one year. The deal foresaw that the one-time payment made 8.5 million Euros and then 5.2 million annually. In 2010-2013, the government spent over 20 million Euros; in the second half of 2013, the payments ceased. In 2015, the deal was broken, and the debt exceeded the sum of 10.5 million Euros.
A Nigerian woman faces deportation today after living in a direct-provision centre in Sligo for four years.

Loveth Oyiboka, whose parents were murdered, studies in Sligo and has volunteered with the Tidy Towns.

About 5,000 people have signed petitions that urge the Department of Justice to scrap the 29-year-old's deportation order.

Bulelani Mfaco, from the Movement of Asylum-Seekers in Ireland, says she has been treated appallingly.

"If you've spent your life in direct provision for four years, that's a lot of time that you've lost. The Irish government does not get to give that life back," he said.

"There are many other people who spent four years, five years in direct provision, some spent six, seven or eight years and then they are given a deportation order. That is just cruel to rob people of their lives and then tell them to sod off."
TOKYO, JAPAN - SEPTEMBER 30: A man walks past a SoftBank mobile phone store on September 30, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan. SoftBank, the technology and investment conglomerate owned by Masayoshi Son, is one of the largest investors in troubled American real estate company WeWork. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

After investing nearly $2 billion of its Innovation Fund in Latin America in 2019, SoftBank announced this month that it would add an additional $1 billion into the fund to continue supporting tech startups across the region. While the Japanese investor faces the challenge of raising a second global fund after its Vision Fund, SoftBank is still investing heavily in Latin America.

One of its early Latin American investments -- and the first in Colombia -- Ayenda Rooms, is performing particularly well, raising $8.7 million from Kaszek Ventures this month. Ayenda is the local version of Oyo Rooms, one of SoftBanks biggest bets in India, which has looked to expand into Mexico despite a financial crunch last month. In fact, the fund recently came under scrutiny by The Wall Street Journal for funding similar delivery competitors Uber, Rappi and Didi, suggesting a conflict of interest.

Most recently, SoftBank invested $125 million in Mexicos lender, Alphacredit, and they reportedly plan to continue investing in that niche. The firm currently oversees more than 650 companies in Latin America, largely concentrated in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, and plans to invest $100-150 million in 17 firms and two VCs by the end of the year. To date, over 50% of SoftBanks investments have been into Brazil, most of which exist in the fintech sector.

Mexican neobank Stori raises $10 million Series A

In a self-fulfilling prophecy, Mexicos neobank market became all the more competitive this month with the addition of a new player: Stori. Within the past few months, both TechCrunch and Business Insider pointed to Mexicos neobank market as the one to watch in Latin America as startups like Albo, Klar and Nubank battle for market share. In February, digital bank Stori joined the conversation with a $10 million Series A from Bertelsmann Investments (BI) and Source Code Capital, along with an existing investor, Vision Plus Capital.

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This round of funding, led by Chinese investors, is part of a growing trend of foreign funds waking up to the Latin American startup ecosystem, Asian VCs in particular. Tencent has invested in Brazils Nubank, which has since expanded to Mexico, and in Argentinas Uala, which is considering a similar move. SoftBank has investments in the largest lending and credit startups in Brazil and Mexico, as well.

Stori will use the investment to improve its AI technology as it tries to reach over 100,000 Mexicans through its inclusive digital banking services. The neobank has raised over $17 million from investors since it was founded in 2018.

Grow Mobility pulls out of 14 cities

In January, Rappi and Lime pulled back their operations in Latin America in order to focus on technology over rapid growth. Brazils top mobility startup, Grow Mobility (which rose out of a merger between e-scooter companies Grin from Mexico and Yellow from Brazil) also pulled back. The startup, which provides e-scooters and bikes shares across Brazil, took bicycles out of operation and removed its scooters from 14 cities.

Grow also restructured its operations through layoffs that affected employees across Brazil, although they did not comment on how many people were affected. Grow Mobilitys scooters will now only operate in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Curitiba.

This pattern of pull-back following explosive growth has become more common among Latin Americas biggest startups, pushing these early-stage companies to focus on technological solutions that boost revenue, rather than blitzscaling measures that only buy market share.

Amazon Web Services doubles down on Brazil

Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced it would invest $236 million (R$1 billion) into Sao Paulo over the next two years to strengthen its Latin American infrastructure. This effort may be a part of Amazons work to consolidate market share in Latin Americas increasingly competitive e-commerce market, where legacy players like MercadoLibre still dominate. This investment will enable Amazon to expand its Brazilian data centers and improve local service offerings to both private and public partners.

Amazon also announced that it would build a new distribution center in Pernambuco in the north of Brazil to support sales across the country. Brazil accounts for almost 40% of Latin Americas e-commerce market, making the country vital to Amazons positioning in the region.

News and Notes: Weel, Global 66, Yuca and Memed

Weel, a Brazilian accounts-receivable management platform, announced an $18.4 million investment from Banco Votorantim, Brazils seventh-largest bank, in February 2020. This investment was Banco Votorantims second in the startup after a $6 million contribution in 2019. Weel will use the investment to explore expansion across Brazil, as well as exploring Chilean and Mexican markets.

Chilean international transfer startup Global 66 received $3.25 million in February from U.K. investor Venrex, to continue its expansion across the region. The startup currently offers rates up to eight times better than existing transfer services, especially for the Latin American region. Global 66 recently opened new offices in Peru and plans to expand to Colombia, Argentina and Mexico within the next two years. Within just two years of operations, Global 66 has processed transactions for over 25,000 users across 60 cities worldwide.

Yuca, a Brazilian proptech, raised $4.7 million from Monashees, ONEVC and Creditas to help fight housing crises in Brazils largest cities. As Brazils cities sprawl -- Sao Paulo is one of the largest in the world -- Yuca creates central co-living spaces for young people that want to shorten their commutes. Inspired by Chinese startup, Ziroom, Yuca targets young millennial professionals as customers, and plans to scale to 500 apartments by the end of the year.

Brazils digital prescription startup, Memed, recently raised $4.5 million from DNA Capital and Redpoint eVentures to improve the local prescription system for doctors and patients alike. Today, Memed has over 80,000 registered doctors who have created over 10 million prescriptions worth more than $237 million. Memeds 100% digital prescriptions are said to improve security and efficiency in Brazils complex, bureaucratic healthcare system.

While Brazil is still at the forefront of Latin Americas tech ecosystem, Mexican fintechs are edging up, especially with additional support from international investors. 2020 is off to a strong start, hinting at another potential record-breaking year for Latin American tech investment.
Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

Joe Bidens flailing presidential bid received a significant boost on Wednesday following the endorsement of a powerful South Carolina Democrat, hours after the former vice-president declared during a turbulent debate among the still-divided Democratic field that he would win the state.

South Carolina, which votes on Saturday, is the fourth early voting state and marks the first time in the election cycle that African American voters will form a majority of the electorate.

Biden, Barack Obamas vice-president, still holds a narrow lead in a state regarded as pivotal to his fortunes, against frontrunner Bernie Sanders, according to recent polls. His campaign has long targeted the state even after disappointing results in the earlier votes in Iowa and New Hampshire this month.

Related: Why Joe Biden needs a political miracle to stay in the race to face Trump

As centrist Democrats scramble to veer the nomination away from Sanders, Biden is seeking a convincing victory in South Carolina to bring his campaign back on track ahead of the crucial Super Tuesday vote next week. A total of 16 states and territories will vote next Tuesday as Sanders looks set for a convincing victory in California and a tight race in Texas with Biden.

The Democratic candidates met for a bruising debate on Tuesday evening for the last time ahead of voting.

Sanders was targeted by most of his rivals over his record on gun control, his past comments on communist Cuba, and ambitious spending plans for universal healthcare provision.

The debate descended into loud bickering and cross-talk at many points, a sign of the friction within the party over the best way to defeat Donald Trump in the November election.

Trump himself weighed in with his own assessment of the debate on Wednesday morning, describing it as crazy, chaotic and expressing confidence he would beat any of the major candidates. Just give me an opponent! Trump tweeted.

Despite the presidents confidence, national polling indicates he still falls behind all the top-tier Democratic candidates on a variety of slim margins.

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On Wednesday morning at an event in North Charleston, Biden received the endorsement of House Democrat Jim Clyburn, a major powerbroker in South Carolina Democratic politics and the most senior African American in the US House of Representatives.

I can think of no one better suited, better prepared, I can think of no one with the integrity, no one more committed to the fundamental principles that make this country what it is than my good friend, Clyburn said as he appeared with Biden.

Sharing the podium with Clyburn, Biden issued another less than subtle dig at Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist.

Today, people are talking about a revolution, Biden said. But what the countrys looking for are results. What theyre looking for is security. What theyre looking for is being able to sustain and maintain their dignity.

At an event half a mile down the road, hosted by the national civil rights leader Al Sharpton, a number of the candidates sought to strike a more conciliatory tone after Tuesdays debate left the field appearing so disharmonious.

As Sharpton introduced Sanders to the crowd of assembled members of his National Action Network civil rights group, he told them: Whatever you decide to do on Saturday, do not go by those who try to use the socialist tag [against Sanders]  reminding the assembled members that civil rights leaders including Martin Luther King were branded the same way. Its time for all of us to be treated fairly.

Sharpton is another prominent voice in the African American community who has been courted by all the major candidates but has not yet endorsed anyone in the race.

Sanders used his address to recall his active participation in the civil rights movement and remind attendees of his support for Obama.

Related: Mike Bloombergs campaign is polluting the internet

I was proud to support Barack Obama in both of his campaigns, the Vermont senator said.

While reticence remains within the Democratic establishment about the prospect of a Sanders nomination, some senior Democrats have signalled, in public at least, they would be supportive should he win.

I think whoever our nominee is, we will enthusiastically embrace and we will win the White House, the Senate and the House, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, told reporters on Wednesday.
A mother-of-three has been killed and nine others have been injured after a car ploughed into a mothers' group having coffee in Sydney.

The woman, 40, was sitting outside a cafe with her friends when a Holden Commodore smashed into them in North Epping, in the city's north west, just before 10.15am on Friday.

The group of women had dropped their kids at school at North Epping Public School then met for a coffee when the incident happened.

Witnesses said the mother was pinned to a brick wall and suffered critical injuries to her abdomen. She was rushed to Royal North Shore Hospital but died a a short time later.

A woman broke down at the scene where a mum, 40, was killed when a car struck a group of mother's having coffee

The Holden Commodore smashed into the shopfront at the corner of Malton Road and Roma Street, shortly before 10.15am on Friday

Multiple ambulance crews treated nine other people at the scene, with five taken to hospital in a stable condition.

The driver, an 89-year-old man known only as 'Keith', was taken to Ryde Hospital for mandatory testing.

It is understood the elderly driver was attempting to park in a disabled spot when he accelerated forward, hitting the group of mothers.

'It's happened a few times when someone has tried to park their car in the disabled spot and mounted the curb,' a witness said.

'They put the accelerator down too hard and mount the curb.'

The witness said that the driver mounted the curb before driving over the nature reserve and crashing into the group of women.

Witnesses said the driver had lost his wife last year.

Epping local Leoni McCulluch was walking her dog Toffee on the opposite side of the street when she heard screaming from Ta One Thai restaurant.

'I heard some screaming, I thought that someone had lost their dog because I saw a dog running across the road,' she said.

'I realised once I went across the road that it wasn't that simple. I was there to see the car pulled back.

The driver, an 89-year-old man known only as 'Keith', was taken to Ryde Hospital for mandatory testing

Police and fire fighters were at the scene, which was taped off on Friday night

Paramedics attend to a woman at the scene of a crash where 10 people were injured

She said the area was a common meeting place for all the mothers after school.

'I was there last week having a cup of hot chocolate with some friends,' she said, tears welling up in her eyes.

'If I didn't have Toffee and I wasn't rushing around all morning it might have been me.'

Wendy McGuire was working at hairdressing salon next door to the restaurant when she saw the car crash through the retaining wall.

'I saw it coming...it wasn't going that fast...then I heard screaming,' she told 7News.

'There was a lot of glass.'

NSW Ambulance Superintendent Steve Vaughan said two of the patients taken to hospital had leg injuries and two others had minor injuries.

He said crews arrived to find 'a number of patients spread across the scene'.

'When you get a call like this, you can't help but think the worst, then all of a sudden your training kicks in and you find yourself thinking about the best way to triage and treat the patients, while managing the scene,' he said.

Pictured: A broken chair at the scene of the crash which left 10 people injured
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On Tuesday, March 3, at 10:00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency will host a roundtable talk on the subject: "How Much Treatment of Patient with Acromegalia Costs, and Where to Take Money for It?" Participants: President of NGO Ukrainian Pituitary Foundation Andriy Putnikov, member of board of NGO Ukrainian Pituitary Foundation, patient with acromegalia Natalia Zhuchenko, neuroendocrinology expert, Doctor of Medicine, Professor Mykhailo Kyryliuk, Deputy Director of the Healthcare Department of Kyiv Regional State Administration Oleksandr Svitly, President of the Ukrainian Association for Health Technology Assessment, chief external expert for the organization of the system of the Health Ministry of Ukraine, Professor Kostiantyn Kosiachenko (8/5a Reitarska Street). Registration of journalists with press cards on the spot.
Syria: Turkey, no-fly zone over Idlib or it will be genocide Says 329 Assad soldiers 'neutralised'. NATO urges de-escalation

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, FEBRUARY 28 - Fahrettin Altun, head of communications for the Turkish president's office, tweeted on Thursday that "the international community must act to protect civilians and impose a no-fly zone" over the region of Idlib in northwest Syria.



Altun's tweet follows the killing on Thursday evening of at least 33 Turkish soldiers in an airstrike attributed to Syria. "A repeat of past genocides such as those in Rwanda and Bosnia cannot be allowed in Idlib," Altun tweeted.



"We have and will continue to respond," to attacks against Turkish soldiers and civilians, Altun said, citing retaliatory strikes by Turkey on Thursday night.



"Millions of civilians are being bombarded by air for months now. Infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, is being targeted by the regime systematically. A genocide is happening slowly before our eyes. Those with conscious [sic] and dignity must speak up!" Altun tweeted.



"The regime has taken advantage of the international silence in the face of its crimes for years. Abandoning Idlib to its fate will mean that the regime's dreams will come true. They have been pursuing demographic and ethnic cleansing in this region. We cannot look the other way!" he tweeted.



According to sources on the ground that confirm reports by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), 16 Syrian government soldiers were killed in recent hours by Turkish artillery strikes in the region.



However, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said that in Thursday night's strike Turkey "neutralised" (killed or wounded) 329 soldiers from the Assad regime and hit over 200 enemy targets.



Akar said targets that were destroyed included five helicopters, 23 tanks, 10 armed vehicles, and numerous Syrian government warehouses and weapons.



While the situation remains extremely tense on the ground, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone in a call "dedicated to the need to do everything possible to satisfy the initial accord on the de-escalation zone in Idlib" said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as reported by Russian news agencies.



NATO convened its North Atlantic Council after Turkey requested a consultation. "Yesterday evening I spoke with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and he requested this consultation; the allies presented their condolences and expressed full solidarity with Turkey," said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the conclusion of the North Atlantic Council.



"They condemn the attacks by the Syrian regime in the province of Idlib, and call for stopping the offensive. There must be a de-escalation for this dangerous situation to avoid a further worsening of the terrible humanitarian situation in the region and to allow for urgent humanitarian access to those who are trapped in Idlib," Stoltenberg said. "We are calling for an immediate return to the 2018 ceasefire," he said.(ANSAmed).




Russian Embassy Spokesperson Irina Kasimova said that Turkish special police forces are ensuring the security of Russias overseas facilities in Turkey.



"Security measures have been tightened at the embassy and other Russian overseas facilities in Turkey. Special police forces have been deployed in order to ensure security," TASS cited her as saying.



Kasimova stressed that Turkey is taking comprehensive measures in this regard.
Conservationists extracted a plastic packaging strap from the skin of a large Cape Fur seal.

The video shows conservationist Naude Dreyer and his friend Antoine rescue the bull in Walvis Bay, Namibia, southern Africa.

Footage sees the herd of seals head towards the sea as the two men attempt to catch the distressed seal in a large net in order to remove the plastic.

The pair struggle to contain the seal as it beats its tail against the sand preventing the conservationists from getting close to the injured animal.

Conservationist Naude Dreyer and his friend Antoine attempt to catch the injured seal among the herd in Walvis Bay, Namibia, southern Africa

The pair catch the seal in a net and allow it to calm down before attempting to get closer to it

Eventually the seal calms down and the two men slowly lower the mammal onto the sand.

One of the men users pliers to twist the strapping out of the seal's skin while the other keeps the animal still.

After releasing the long white strapping, the animal twists and turns before the men quickly remove the net to set it free.

One conservationist holds the seal while another extracts the plastic packaging strapping

Eventually a long piece of plastic is pulled from the seal's fur on the beach in Namibia

'The animal's relief was immediate when we cut the strap, as he stopped struggling completely when the tension of the entanglement was suddenly gone,' Naude said.

Naude posted the video on Instagram yesterday captioned: 'This is surely the biggest guy Ive ever gotten with the net.

'My friend Antoine flew in yesterday to join me for a week of seal catching. Hes helped me before and it was great having him back.

'This seal was so strong he dragged us both around and he didnt actually fit into the net, thats why we struggled so long to get him down!

'He had a very deeply embedded packing strap that must have caused immense pain. This was one of three seals we managed to disentangle today. It was a good day.'

Co-founder of Ocean Conservation Namibia Naude has since set up a GoGetFunding page to assist him with this work which has since raised 1,647.67.

He claims to have saved 'over 600 seals entangled in marine debris like fishing lines, nets and packing straps.'
Body cam footage has been released showing the moment a police officer shot an unarmed driver eight times and killed him.

Driver Eric Sopp was gunned down after refusing to stay in his vehicle and continued to get out despite being repeatedly told to remain inside.

The cop, identified as Officer Page, could be heard yelling 'don't get out of the car' before opening fire on the 48-year-old in the harrowing police footage.

Criminal charges will not be filed against the officer in Maryland who fatally shot Sopp, who had been accused of threatening to hurt himself and others.

Baltimore County police announced the prosecutors' decision and released body camera video and 911 audio on Thursday in the shooting.

The victim's mother, Catherine Sopp, called police last November 26 to report that her son had threatened to kill himself and may be driving while drunk.

In the body camera footage released by the department, an officer can be seen telling Sopp to put his Toyota Camry in park at the side of Interstate 83 and place his hands on the dashboard.

Police body camera footage showed the officer shooting driver Eric Sopp after he got out of his vehicle despite being told to remain inside

The officer approached Sopp's car with his gun drawn and asked him to stay in the vehicle

The footage shows the officer approaching the vehicle with his weapon drawn.

As he walked up to the window he told the driver: 'Please put your hands on the dash. Turn your car off.'

Sopp repeatedly refused the command, saying: 'I will not turn my car off. I'm getting out.'

The officer said over his police radio that the driver was 'refusing his commands'.

He then moved from the passenger side of Sopp's car and went to the back and raised his voice, telling him: 'Don't get out of the car, sir. Don't get out of the car! Don't get out of the car!'

When Sopp got out of the vehicle, the officer fires eight times.

The officer was identified by the department as Officer Page. His first name was not released, but a November release from police said he had been on the force for 21 years.

Baltimore County Deputy State's Attorney Robin Coffin said the shooting was 'justified' in a letter to county Police Chief Melissa Hyatt, The Baltimore Sun reported.

Eric Sopp's family called the 'shooting an unarmed man eight times' an 'unnecessary use of force by a police officer'

Baltimore County police said prosecutors' were not filing charges and released body camera video and 911 audio of the shooting

The state's attorney's office declined to press charges against the officer. An attorney for Sopp's family said they are exploring their legal options.

No weapon was recovered from Sopp's body after the shooting.

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Vickie Wareheim declined to say whether a weapon was found in the vehicle or at the scene.

Sopp had been drinking for a few days and his mother wanted him found before he hurt himself or others.

Catherine Sopp released a statement through an attorney yesterday, saying there was no reason for the officer to fatally shoot her son.

The footage shows the officer pull over and approach Sopp's car, then the officer repeatedly shouts at the driver to put his hands on the dash and not to get out of the vehicle

She said: 'I never imagined that when I called 911 to protect my son and others from him driving drunk, it would cost him his life.'

In her 911 call, Catherine Sopp told the operator her son hes 'picked up a log and was looking for a knife' and that he was also 'putting an ice pick to his neck'.

Sopp's family also called the 'shooting an unarmed man eight times' an 'unnecessary use of force by a police officer'.

A statement released by Baltimore County Police Chief Melissa Hyatt said: 'The men and women in our Police Department encounter uncertain situations and make split-second decisions every day.

'Releasing video of someone losing his life is never taken lightly. The release of today's video is in alignment with our recently announced BWC Release Policy and the Maryland Public Information Act. The internal investigation into this incident is ongoing.'
An APC Sen. Ajibola Bashiru has made a defence for the pay package of Ngerian senators, saying they earn less than N1 million monthly.

He might, however, be economical with the truth. Or at least he contradicts a former senator, Shehu Sani, who stated otherwise.

Bashiru made the disclosure on Thursday while speaking on the sideline of a programme organised by the Correspondents Chapel of the Kwara Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).

According to him, what a senator take-home monthly is N700,000 out of which car loan of over N8 million is being deducted on a monthly basis.

Sani, however, said a senator earns N750,000 monthly, plus a biggieN13m monthly for running costs.

Despite this contradiction, Bashiru would make bold to say whoever that stands up to say senator collects jumbo pay is that they can also contest so that they can also collect jumbo pay.

The truth of it is that the take-home pay of a senator is about N700,000 per month. Aside from it is the car loan of over N8 million which is being deducted monthly.

As a senator, you are entitled to six aides who are paid by the National Assembly Service Commission and they are paid directly into the account. Will you count that as my salary?

Also, I am entitled to travel allowance and Eastacode which does not form part of the salary, Bashiru said.

On cost of governance, the lawmaker said: We have about 38 structure systems in the country  the Federal Government, Federal Capital Territory and the 36 states of the federation with bureaucracies.

The personnel cost of MDAs in Nigeria runs into billions if not trillion of naira. Lets analyse Nigerian budget and see what goes into personnel.

We are not focusing on this, but not focusing on salaries of 109 senators and 360 representatives.

The lawmaker added that if the National Assembly is scrapped, the country would only make marginal savings, if at all any savings, in the cost of governance.

The issue of cost of governance goes beyond going out and attack legislators as if they are rogues.

We must look inward to see how we can streamline our agencies, ministries and departments in such a way that is efficient and has value for money, Bashiru said.

Amid economic crunch, Nigerians are crying foul s their lawmakers slice a huge part of the budget, over N120 bn annually, for themselves.

The House of Reps came under fire lately for planning to spend N5 bn on 400 exotic cars (N35m a piece).

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  The end of the Visiting Forces Agreement can mark the start of China's aggressive actions in the West Philippine Sea, a former Supreme Court justice knowledgeable of the maritime dispute warned on Friday.

Retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio in a media forum explained that the VFA, a two-decade-old treaty with the US, is the only legal basis for the presence of American soldiers in the country.

Without the VFA, the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement  which allows the US military to preposition weapons and other defense equipment in the Philippines  is useless, Carpio said. He shares this view with the country's Justice Secretary, Menardo Guevarra.

Carpio explained that the presence of US soldiers and military equipment in the country sends a message to China that "any armed aggression will be repelled."

"Without such capability, we telegraph to the enemy that further seizure of Philippine islands, rocks and seas, in the South China Sea will be walk in the park," Carpio said.

"Without such capability, we would practically be inviting the enemy to seize whatever Philippine islands, rocks, reefs, it desires to seize in the West Philippine Sea," he added.

Like EDCA, the Mutual Defense Treaty, a 1951 agreement that states that the Philippines and the US would come to the defense of the other in case of an attack by a foreign country, is "hollow." He said the "strategic prepositioning of war materials" is necessary to deter any attack from foreign forces.

READ: Other US military deals 'must go' based on Duterte's stance, Panelo says

The 'only deterrent'

Former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario likewise said that the country's military alliance with the US is "the only deterrent" against Chinese incursions in Scarborough Shoal.

China gained control of Scarborough, also known as Panatag Shoal, after a controversial standoff in 2012.

READ: China bullied Philippines in Scarborough Shoal takeover, Lorenzana says

China had since blocked Filipino fishermen from that area west of Zambales which Manila claims as part of the West Philippine Sea. This prompted the Philippines to file a case for international arbitration, which it won. The arbitral tribunal invalidated China's sweeping claim to the South China Sea, and called out Beijing for violating Filipinos' traditional fishing rights in Scarborough. China rejects the landmark ruling and insists on owning the vast global waterway.

Carpio warned that China may push through with building on Scarborough Shoal  similar to what it did in Mischief Reef, also known as Panganiban Reef  when the Philippines terminated the Military Bases Agreement in 1992.

"When we terminated the bases agreement, within three years, China seized Mischief Reef. Now with the cancellation of the VFA... China might just proceed again to reclaim Scarborough Shoal," he said.

Mischief Reef is now China's biggest outpost in the disputed Spratlys.

'No need to be part of US or China'

President Rodrigo Duterte recently defended his decision to terminate the VFA, saying the Philippines had "no business being a republic" if it cannot stand on its own feet and rely on its own military to defend itself.

He then gave an option: "We can be a territory of the Americans or we can be a province of China." Malacanang later clarified the President was taunting those who criticized his move to end the VFA.

READ: 'PH can be colony of any country, not just China, if it can't defend itself'

But Carpio said there's merit to opinions that the Philippines needs the US.

"Of course, I cannot see how the Philippines can be self-reliant as against regional superpowers nuclear-armed like China," Carpio said.

He said Filipinos should never be made to choose between being a Chinese province or a US territory, "because we can have alliances" instead.

Malacanang said the President wants the Philippines to rely on its own but that he remains open to entering VFAs with other countries based on equality, fairness, and mutual benefit.

Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Babe Romualdez said he is in talks with his counterpart, Ambassador Sung Kim, as well as armed forces officials, to see if a military agreement can be crafted to replace the VFA. He said the resulting proposal will be presented to the President for his consideration.
Mr Lambert's son is tested for coronavirus. He has been given the all-clear (Pietro Lambert)

A father has described the experience of watching his five-year-old son being tested for coronavirus.

Pietro Lambert said his child thought NHS medics who visited his home to take a sample were the Ghostbusters.

They played along with it very well, Mr Lambert told Yahoo News UK.

His son was given the all-clear on Friday having come down with a fever  one of the symptoms of coronavirus  on Saturday while holidaying in Mr Lamberts native Italy.

Mr Lambert and his family had visited Ortisei for a half-term holiday last week. The resort is in the north of the country, which has been the centre of Europes biggest coronavirus outbreak.

A high five with the 'Ghostbuster' (Pietro Lambert)

The family returned home to London on Sunday and Mr Lamberts son went to school on Monday. However, he was sent home after teachers found out he had been to Italy and had fever.

Mr Lamberts son and his family self-isolated this week as a precautionary matter. This included the use of separate bathrooms and not sharing the bedroom he usually shares with his sister.

A special unit from University College London Hospital then visited Mr Lamberts home on Wednesday.

They asked me to leave the front door open, he recalled, and for a separate room where they could get changed into their special equipment.

They came in the room with my son wearing their masks and gloves, and did a simple test checking the nose and mouth for a sample.

Coronavirus: The confirmed cases around the world

It was fine. I felt nothing was going to happen. My kid didnt understand what was going on. He actually believed the people were the Ghostbusters  which they played along with very well. They really played the role to make him feel comfortable.

Asked how he felt watching his son being tested, Mr Lambert, who works for Verizon Media, the parent company of Yahoo, said: I was concerned about coronavirus but in this specific case we were well informed.

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I felt OK. The whole process has been well managed. I just felt frustrated at being grounded, getting bored.

My kids were also getting bored not being able to leave the house. They wanted to play and go out and see their friends. It takes between 24 and 48 hours to get the results.

As of Friday morning, there were 655 cases of coronavirus in Italy, the third highest in the world behind mainland China, where it originated, and South Korea.

Mr Lambert said of his home country: My immediate concern is am I OK and is my family OK. But I also look to my society. It will impact tourism and the economy in Italy, so its a very complicated situation.

Asked what the atmosphere was like during his holiday, he said: I am Italian and we tend to be very dramatic. There was a lot of panic: people going to supermarkets buying water and food like its the apocalypse.

That was the initial reaction but now we are getting more information and the mood will eventually change.
Senior officials at the Department of Health have held their first meetings to try and work out the scale of the threat posed by the coronavirus to the career of the health secretary, Matt Hancock.

The potential damage cannot be overstated. Initial reports suggest that the virus could spread to up to 70 per cent of the population, leading to more than half a million deaths, at which point the country would have to face up the very real possibility that Hancocks position at the health department could become untenable.

Details have been leaked to this newspaper of a week-long training exercise carried out last year throughout the department, in an attempt to ascertain whether, in the event of a pandemic, the correct systems are in place to make sure that Hancocks career progression will remain on track.

That exercise is understood to have ended with Hancock temporarily being demoted to the role of leader of the House of Commons.

Since then, systems have been radically overhauled, for obvious reasons. I mean, come on. Thats the sort of job you give Chris Grayling

The health secretary has been advised that his response in these early stages will be critical to his careers survival.

Hancock has so far been hesitant to criticise the virus, declining opportunities to appear on Radio 4s Today programme, which government ministers not brave enough to stand up to Dominic Cummings are currently boycotting. Today is especially popular with elderly listeners, who are most at threat from the virus and least able to access the information they need over the internet, but it is also very important not to upset Cummings, who owns many hardback books.

According to internal government documents, the reasonable worst-case scenario could lead to the virus actively taking over the country, at which point Hancock knows he will be seeking a high-ranking cabinet position at the earliest possible opportunity, so it is very important not to say anything now that he might regret later.

In fact, sources close to Hancock say that he now sees coronavirus as a golden opportunity for the country. No one is saying there wont be a few bumps in the road; Hancock isnt saying that either. But once the virus has reaped its deadly harvest, it will free up urgently needed hospital beds and dramatically cut waiting times.

Hancock sees the coronavirus as a once-in-a-generation chance to level up this country. He is expected to commit the government to building thousands of new schools and thousands of new hospitals by as early as mid-March, in the sense that no one by then will be able to tell the difference between a school and a hospital anyway.

It is, after all, not yet a year since Hancock ran for Tory leader, and claimed that proroguing parliament would be an insult to everything the D-Day veterans fought for, before gladly joining Boris Johnsons government and doing exactly that.

Chinese authorities believe the virus was first transmitted to humans from reptiles, prompting concerns that the current Conservative government is at very high risk of infection.

Hancock is understood to have told friends not to worry and that hell be fine. He likes to point out that he is surprisingly resilient, and that there is almost no public indignity he cannot survive.

One NHS research group is even rumoured to have concluded that Hancock is himself an advanced mutating superbug, capable of changing every single one of his publicly stated positions on every single issue to avoid detection by any host organism.

You know MRSA? said one of its researchers. Matt Hancock is basically that, but in a Marks & Spencer Autograph suit.

The prime minister is understood to have already quarantined himself in a private Caribbean island somewhere, possibly paid for by someone or other.

Residents on the neighbouring island 500 miles away are already fearing the worst, after Johnson was heard shouting Get off my f****** laptop!

Remember: always wash your hands.
Days out from Super Tuesday, when voters in 14 states will cast ballots in the Democratic primary, a professor who predicted the past nine elections says that the United States may well be staring down its first brokered convention in nearly 70 years.

Its a prospect that has stirred considerable consternation among Democratic Party officials and voters, many of whom have said their primary concern is beating Donald Trump in November  even as an enthusiastic debate over the future of democratic politics has raged on the campaign trail.

I think the most likely outcomes are [Bernie] Sanders wins or nobody wins, and for the first time in over 50 years we actually have a convention nominating the candidate, Allan Lichtman, a political science professor at American University who has predicted elections dating back to 1984, told The Independent.

Mr Lichtman noted that his prediction model doesnt make forecasts for primaries, but that there are plenty of signs that a brokered convention could happen: And that would be very interesting, who knows what might come out of that.

A brokered convention would occur if none of the candidates in the race win more than half of the pledged delegates by the end of the primary season, a figure that amounts to 1,990 delegates in the race.

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

So far, after three states have voted, Mr Sanders leads the field with 45 pledged delegates, ahead of Pete Buttigieg with 25, Joe Biden with 15, Elizabeth Warren with eight and Amy Klobuchar with seven.

Those tallies will all change in the next week, after voters in South Carolina  where Mr Biden has been banking on strong support from African Americans to lend some weight to his campaign  and then voters on Super Tuesday cast their ballots.

South Carolina will award 54 pledged delegates. Super Tuesday, meanwhile, marks the largest number of delegates available on a single day with more than 1,300 delegates at stake nationwide.

A contested convention would mean that no candidate had reached that half-way threshold, and that multiple rounds of voting would take place to determine the winner. After each round of voting, a certain portion of delegates are freed up to vote for whomever they want. Campaigns at that point try to convince free delegates to come over to support their candidate.

According to prediction models by FiveThirtyEight, 2020 is shaping up to be such a year. That website gives Mr Sanders the best chance at winning more than half of the pledged delegates by the end of the primary season  but just a 32 per cent chance of doing so. The chance that nobody receives that majority of delegates is pegged at 51 per cent, and the only other candidate with a significant chance of doing so being Mr Biden, at 15 per cent.

Mr Lichtman, for his part, isnt as worried about the damaging impacts of a brokered convention, nor the damage of a long and bitter Democratic primary that it would necessarily follow after.

Internal party fights only count when it is in the party holding the White House, Mr Lichtman, whose prediction model indicates that it is generally speaking the incumbents election to lose, said. The challenging party can fight all they want and it has no impact . Look at the bitter battle by the Republicans in 2016  it was much worse than what is happening with the Democrats this time. They were saying terrible things about each other and they still won.
ORANJESTAD:--- A record catch of nearly 5.500 kilos of cocaine was confiscated by the Dutch Caribbean Coast

Guard on 25 February.

The interception is the result of a collaboration between the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard and the Colombian Navy. The Coast Guard has been monitoring the ship area for some time with its sensor systems. After coordination with the Aruban Public Prosecutor and international chain partners the ship, which was en route from Venezuela to Greece, was intercepted by the Coast Guard near the island of Aruba. The interception was carried out last Tuesday by a Metal Shark team of the Coast Guard substation in Aruba. After detection of the vessel on the radar system

of the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard helicopter AW-139. The Aressa has been directed to

Oranjestad by the Metal Shark team, where the Coast Guard team together with the Aruba Police Force and the Marines of the 32nd Defense raiding squadron thoroughly searched the bulk carrier. A large amount of cocaine was found onboard. The 11 crew members with the Montenegrin nationality were all arrested.
Description

GIS  28 February, 2020: Forty six newly appointed Assistant Permanent Secretaries (APS) who have successfully followed a five-day Induction Course conducted by the Civil Service College, received certificates, yesterday, during an award ceremony organised jointly by the Prime Ministers Office, the Ministry of Public Service, Administrative and Institutional Reforms and the Civil Service College, at the Treasury Building in Port-Louis.

Present on the occasion , the Minister of Public Service, Administrative and Institutional Reforms, Mr Teeruthraj Hurdoyal, pointed out that as APS, they will often be called upon to play a vital role in ensuring the timely and effective implementation of the Government Programme. The Programme 2020-2024, he recalled, makes a clear reference to the implementation of the Public Sector Business Transformation strategy with a whole-of-Government approach and supports a holistic and a comprehensive way to assemble resources and expertise from multiple agencies and groups in order to address challenges with interrelated social and economic causes.

Minister Hurdoyal called on Public Officers to cultivate new skills to take up the challenge of carrying higher and diverse responsibilities and have the resilience to embrace change by evolving from a traditional organisational setup and culture into a lean, agile and team-oriented organisation.

He also spoke about the importance of embracing the digital economy which is driven by the emergence of disruptive technologies, notably, Artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and Fintech, amongst others, and cultivating the inquisitive mindset so as to influence on the adoption of best practices and innovation in Government service delivery.

Speaking about corruption in the Public Service, Mr Hurdoyal appealed for an active engagement of public servants to create an organisational culture which promotes a corrupt-free public service and to comply with the code of conduct for public officers. He recalled that commitment to fight corruption at his Ministry is one of the most important, if not the key precondition for success, adding that a strong signal will be sent so as to ensure that the Public Service remains a corruption free environment.

On this score, Minister Hurdoyal stated, his Ministry is working in close collaboration with the Independent Commission against Corruption in reviewing the existing collaborative framework to include measurable indicators in order to ensure Public Officers are fully sensitised on the need for strict compliance with the provision of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

The Report on War crimes in the occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenias responsibility prepared by the eminent international lawyer Malcolm Shaw and Naomi Hart was circulated as the document of the UN General Assembly and of the Security Council, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

The report examines the war crimes committed by Armenia in the territories of Azerbaijan currently under occupation and the responsibility of the Republic of Armenia in this regard, besides the theoretical overview of the relevant legal norms, the report contains convincing evidences and factual information of violation of these norms by Armenia.

The report refers to the documents of international organizations, decisions of European Court of Human Rights, investigations of non-governmental organizations, information of mass media, independent sources such as analysis by individual authors, as well as the documents and materials of relevant state agencies of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The report is divided into two sections. The first part consists of the factual and historical background, a general overview of international humanitarian law and an analysis of the responsibility of Armenia. The second part consists of analysis of the war crimes examined in the following order. First, war crimes relating to civilian deaths and injuries; also war crimes related to civilian property, mistreatment of detainees and prisoners of war, as well as war crimes relating to the taking hostages, ethnic cleansing, forced displacement and changing the character of the occupied territories, war crimes relating to destruction of cultural heritage and damage to the natural environment.

While referring to the UN Security Council resolutions 822 (1993), 853 (1993), 874 (1993) and 884 (1993) the report stresses an unambiguous support of the UN Security Council to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of international borders of the Republic of Azerbaijan, highlighting that Nagorno-Karabakh region is an integral part of the Republic of Azerbaijan and demanding immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and providing conditions for the return of the displaced persons to their homes.

The report underlines that Armenia while ignoring these demands, not only continues to maintain the territories of Azerbaijan under occupation, but also in violation of norms of international law, carries out different types of illegal activities in these territories. So, the document provides analysis of the illegal activities run in the occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan in violation of international law. In this regard, the distribution of the report on Illegal activities in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2016 and a joint report of the Azercosmos OJSC and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs entitled Illegal activities in the territories of Azerbaijan under Armenias occupation: evidence from satellite imagery of 2019 within the UN is noted in the report.

The report also provides legal opinion for the illegal economic and other activities run by Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, legal arguments of the illegality of actions of Armenia and Armenias international responsibility.

The report together with the letter from the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the UN addressed to the Secretary General was published as official document of the UN General Assembly and Security Council on 7 February 2020.
Thomasberg pleaded guilty last year to lying while buying a firearm and possessing firearms as a drug user. But he came to the attention of law enforcement because of his extremist views. He attended the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville as a member of the neo-Nazi Vanguard America, then became a leader and recruiter in Atomwaffen, prosecutors say, where he urged violence in hopes of starting a race war. He referred to mass murderers as saints and claimed he had begun shouting racial slurs at black people in public in hopes of confrontation, according to court documents.
OTTAWATalks between Wetsuweten hereditary chiefs and government ministers continued in northern British Columbia on Friday, as both sides have called for an atmosphere of respect to hammer out a resolution to the dispute that has sparked a nationwide protest movement.

The chiefs have described the talks as a first step as they continue to oppose construction of a natural gas pipeline through their traditional territory.

They Wetsuweten nations traditional leadership refused for days to meet with ministers from the B.C. and federal governments, as solidarity demonstrations spread across the country and their Mohawk allies blocked rail lines in Ontario and Quebec, prompting Canadian National and Via Rail to temporarily lay off 1,500 workers.

On Thursday, after the prospect of a meeting was imperilled by the chiefs refusal to call for calm from their supporters across Canada, the offer to engage in direct negotiations was accepted by all sides. Coastal GasLink, the pipeline company behind the dispute project, agreed to pause construction in the contested area for two days, while the RCMP agreed to stop patrolling a logging road into the area after the Wetsuweten chiefs committed that the road would remain clear for the duration of the negotiations.

On Friday, the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake  a different organization  proposed sending its own police force, the Kahnawake Peacekeepers, to replace the RCMP on Wetsuweten traditional territory.

The key demand is for the RCMP to leave, but there is a need for policing services to offer assistance in everyday matters. We feel this can lead to an immediate de-escalation of the current crisis, Kahnaweke council Grand Chief Joseph Norton said in a statement.

We offer this suggestion as a genuine gesture that could go a long way towards allowing some forward momentum in the talks, he said.

On her way to the talks in the town of Smithers, B.C. on Friday, federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett told reporters that she and her B.C. counterpart, Scott Fraser, need to achieve progress in the negotiations before the first ministers from Ottawa and the province would come meet directly with the hereditary chiefs.

The chiefs said in a statement Thursday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and B.C. Premier John Horgan had declined their invitation to meet.

I think we need to do some hard work. We would want any meeting with the prime minister and the premier to be a good meeting, and therefore we have to do the work, Bennett said Friday.

Its really important that Minister Fraser and I have been delegated by the premier and the prime minister to do this work and thats what we're going to do.

While the Wetsuweten chiefs have not told their supporters to dismantle barricades on a rail line south of Montreal, their statement Thursday said they need time to conduct negotiations in an atmosphere of wiggus (respect).

Kenneth Deer, secretary of the Mohawk Nation of Kahnawake, told the Star the demonstrators wont leave the rail line until the Wetsuweten achieve a settlement they can live with.

With files from The Canadian Press
Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has called on his successor, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to stop "persecuting" the opposition and instead carry out his presidential duties

Speaking before he was questioned at the State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) on February 28, Poroshenko told his supporters that a judge of Kyiv's Shevchenko district court had ruled to close the case he was summoned to be questioned about as there were no elements of crime found.

He also compared Zelenskiy with former Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych, who was toppled in deadly anti-government protests in February 2014.

The former president was summoned for questioning as a witness in a case about alleged interference into court activities.

"Volodymyr Oleksandrovych [Zelenskiy], do your job as president. Defend the country, strengthen the world's solidarity, help solve social problems of the people and do not turn into a Yanukovych. He had a very bad past and his future doesn't look rosy either. Leave judicial and law enforcement systems alone as their goal is to be independent," Poroshenko said, adding that his questioning looked like an attempt by Zelenskiy's team to distract attention away from the country's social problems.

Poroshenko's lawyer, Ilya Novikov, said later in a televised interview to Pryamiy television that his client was questioned for six hours.

The DBR had asked prosecutors to be allowed to forcibly bring Poroshenko in for questioning, but the former president arrived on his own.

Poroshenko, who is currently a deputy in parliament, was questioned as a witness several times last year in cases looking into several other investigations launched after he failed to win a second term as president.

The DBR said on January 20 that it was looking into 13 possible cases where Poroshenko or his associates were implicated.

A billionaire confectioner, Poroshenko and his party ran on a pro-European, anti-Russian ticket in July's parliamentary elections, winning 25 seats.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 27F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 27F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
To fully harness the energy from the demographic revolution, Mr. Sanders will need to strengthen his support among African-American voters who were more resistant to his candidacy when he faced Mrs. Clinton. His strong support among younger African-Americans could help, but he would be best served by choosing as his running mate an African-American with strong electoral appeal, such as Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives who received more African-American votes in a statewide election than anyone not named Barack Obama.

In addition to those particular parts of Mr. Sanderss strength, he is also well-positioned to win back those voters who defected in 2016 because Mrs. Clinton was too moderate for their tastes. For all the focus on Obama-Trump voters, it was Obama-Stein voters who created the critical cracks in the Democratic firewall (the increase in votes for Jill Stein from 2012 to 2016 was greater than Mr. Trumps margin of victory in Michigan and Wisconsin). Of all the remaining candidates, Mr. Sanders is the most likely to reclaim those Democratic voters who defected to the Green Party in search of a more progressive standard-bearer.

Much of the angst about Mr. Sanders topping the ticket stems from fear about negative fallout in down-ballot congressional races. Here, too, the concerns are overblown. In the vast majority of congressional districts where Democrats ousted Republican incumbents in 2018, it was enthusiasm and the high turnout of Democratic voters that made the difference, much more than alienated moderate Republicans switching their party allegiance. In all but five of the 41 seats picked up by Democrats, increased Democratic turnout alone would have been enough to flip the seats without any Republican crossovers.

While some small number of down-ballot House races could become more competitive, that risk is offset by the opportunity for Democrats to flip even more seats by mobilizing younger and more diverse voters. In 2018, Democrats fell just 1,000 votes short in both the Seventh District of Georgia, for example, where there is a sizable African-American population, and San Antonios 23rd District, which is more than half Latino. There are several other seats where Democrats could make additional gains with Mr. Sanders atop the ticket.

The empirical evidence shows that there is no need for alarm about Mr. Sanders being the Democratic nominee, and even some cause for confidence. If you want to engage in theoretical thought experiments, a useful exercise would be to ask how many people who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 would switch their votes to back Mr. Trump just because Mr. Sanders was the nominee? Common sense suggests that the answer is infinitesimally small.

If that is the case, then Mr. Sanders would win the popular vote. As for the roughly 78,000 votes in three states that flipped the Electoral College, the particular strengths that Mr. Sanders brings to the contest strongly suggest that he could close that gap and make the leap into the Oval Office.
A Presbyterian minister has been accused of branding a sacked church elder "an unrepentant fornicator" for being in a same-sex marriage.

Steven Smyrl (53) lost his position at Sandymount Christ Church in Dublin last October.

On Monday he issued a solicitor's letters to the church alleging a minister in the Republic referred to him as "an unrepentant fornicator" at a meeting of the Dublin and Munster Presbytery in December last year.

It is understood the meeting had discussed investigating the Sandymount minister and church council for permitting Mr Smyrl to remain as an elder after marrying his long-term partner Roy Stanley in 2018.

This was voted down by a majority and appealed to a judicial commission in Belfast that was held earlier this month.

The commission overturned the decision and said that "a number of questions remain" for the leadership at Sandymount, but denied a claim from Mr Smyrl that the minister and congregation were being "targeted".

It beggars belief that church leaders are continuing their campaign against me by now targeting the minister and congregation who have supported me Steven Smyrl

Mr Smyrl further alleges that in written submissions to the commission the same minister accused Sandymount Church of "knowingly harbouring an unrepentant fornicator".

Letters from his solicitor were also sent to two other ministers, questioning why they did not challenge this during the meetings.

Expand Close Steven Smyrl with his partner Roy Stanley / Facebook

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In a statement, Mr Smyrl said: "It beggars belief that church leaders are continuing their campaign against me by now targeting the minister and congregation who have supported me.

"In doing so, they have once again allowed false statements about me to be aired - this time using highly offensive language.

"They have on several occasions made public statements claiming that my accusations and allegations have no basis in fact when they know I have documentary evidence to prove otherwise.

"Now they try to blacken my name further by calling me an 'unrepentant fornicator. Is this appropriate language for any church minister to use about a fellow Christian in a public forum? I have demanded a full retraction and apology, which I feel is the least I deserve. If the Church is to regain any public credibility, it needs to respond swiftly and positively."

A spokesperson for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland said: "Noting that the Belfast Telegraph has informed us that an individual has 'sent three solicitor's letters' regarding a particular matter. It would obviously be inappropriate to comment on the matter in question.

"With regards to other accusations, it is incorrect to state that a minister, or a congregation, is being 'targeted'. As indicated in our statement to the Belfast Telegraph on February 14, a number of outstanding questions remain and the presbytery concerned will be putting these questions to the leadership of the congregation."

Last month Rev Jim Stothers, Deputy Clerk of the Presbyterian Church, said it should not be a surprise that its "clear and settled position" on same-sex marriage was not compatible with being in the ordained leadership of the Church.

He added it was unfair that senior Presbyterian churchmen have been "singled out and publicly pilloried" and said: "Those who have made personal attacks on them... may wish to reflect on their own exercise of love and compassion."
More than 500 seventh through 12th grade youth from 41 counties gathered at Rock Eagle 4-H Center in Eatonton, Georgia, for the Southwest District Project Achievement (DPA). Quitman County was represented by four youths in the performing arts, environmental science, fruits nuts and vegetables, and financial planning and consumer economics project areas.

Those participating in DPA are able to refine their leadership, research, and public speaking skills while competing to continue to the state level. In addition to the soft skills developed, youth are able to gain a deep understanding about their selected project area.

More than 100 individual project areas are available for youth to research and to present to a panel of experts in the field. In addition to their oral presentation, their portfolios showcase their activities throughout the year.

Among the seventh and eighth graders, or junior competitors, 108 winners will be selected from each project area within each of the four districts in Georgia. Among the ninth through 12th graders, or senior competitors, over 250 winners will continue on to compete at the state level. One winner from each of the 50 project areas will receive Master 4-Her status at Georgia 4-H State Congress in Atlanta this summer.
Benchmark Electronics, Inc. (NYSE:BHE), which is in the electronic business, and is based in United States, saw significant share price movement during recent months on the NYSE, rising to highs of US$37.19 and falling to the lows of US$26.38. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether Benchmark Electronics's current trading price of US$27.11 reflective of the actual value of the small-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Lets take a look at Benchmark Electronicss outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change.

View our latest analysis for Benchmark Electronics

Is Benchmark Electronics still cheap?

Benchmark Electronics appears to be overvalued by 32% at the moment, based on my discounted cash flow valuation. The stock is currently priced at US$27.11 on the market compared to my intrinsic value of $20.49. This means that the buying opportunity has probably disappeared for now. In addition to this, it seems like Benchmark Electronicss share price is quite stable, which could mean two things: firstly, it may take the share price a while to fall back down to an attractive buying range, and secondly, there may be less chances to buy low in the future once it reaches that value. This is because the stock is less volatile than the wider market given its low beta.

What does the future of Benchmark Electronics look like?

NYSE:BHE Past and Future Earnings, February 28th 2020

Future outlook is an important aspect when youre looking at buying a stock, especially if you are an investor looking for growth in your portfolio. Buying a great company with a robust outlook at a cheap price is always a good investment, so lets also take a look at the company's future expectations. With profit expected to more than double over the next couple of years, the future seems bright for Benchmark Electronics. It looks like higher cash flow is on the cards for the stock, which should feed into a higher share valuation.

Story continues

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? BHEs optimistic future growth appears to have been factored into the current share price, with shares trading above its fair value. At this current price, shareholders may be asking a different question  should I sell? If you believe BHE should trade below its current price, selling high and buying it back up again when its price falls towards its real value can be profitable. But before you make this decision, take a look at whether its fundamentals have changed.

Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping an eye on BHE for a while, now may not be the best time to enter into the stock. The price has surpassed its true value, which means theres no upside from mispricing. However, the positive outlook is encouraging for BHE, which means its worth diving deeper into other factors in order to take advantage of the next price drop.

Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters  the fundamentals  before you make a decision on Benchmark Electronics. You can find everything you need to know about Benchmark Electronics in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in Benchmark Electronics, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Photo: Facebook

The rescue team from Maritime Forces Pacific in Comox conducted back to back missions in stinging winds and high seas this week.

A sailor on a container ship needed medical evacuation off the coast of Haida Gwaii on Monday.

The weather was poor with 300 foot ceilings, less than a mile visibility and four to five metre seas with 55-70 km/h winds, Capt. John McSheffrey told CTV News.

Video posted to the rescue group's Facebook page shows the CH-149 Cormorant helicopter approach the massive ship as waves break over its bow.

A rescue team member is lowered by winch in blasting winds to lift the sailor to safety, who was then taken to Queen Charlotte City.

The conditions were challenging, said McSheffrey.

After refuelling, the chopper headed out again late Monday with a Buffalo aircraft to another cargo ship near Vancouver Island's northern tip.

The ship was located early Tuesday, and an injured crew member was airlifted to Courtenay for treatment.

 with files from CTV Vancouver Island
At least four workers were killed and more than 27 severely injured due to a boiler explosion at a chemical factory in Haryana's Ballabhgarh on Friday (February 28). Confirming the incident, the police said the boiler burst into a huge ball of fire, many persons were still trapped and the magnitude of the explosion is making the rescue operations difficult.

Fire tenders have been pressed into service, they are trying to douse the fire.

The blast victims have been admitted to nearby hospitals where they are being administered medical treatment. The blast occurred in a shoe factory and the fire spread to about three other nearby buildings.

The cause of the blast is not known, the police said.

Several teams of police officials, local administration, the fire brigade are engaged in relief operations on the spot.

(This is a developing story, more details awaited)
Around 40 years ago, something happened to me at school that transformed my educational experience for the rest of my primary school years.

After a routine visit from the local parish priest - one of those regular but deeply dreaded events that invariably featured a rapid fire question-and-answer session based around the Brown Catechism - the relieved teacher determined that I had been the star of the show.

She said as much as she dragged me up to the front of the classroom after the priest was gone, from where I beheld my classmates mostly glaring at me in undisguised resentment.

They presumably knew I hated Catechism as much as anyone but I was just far too afraid of the teacher not to learn it off verbatim.

No matter, I was now elevated to the status of near-saint, or at least an expert on all matters religious. My reward was being liberated from the daily half-hour Catechism class that happened each day at 12, after the Angelus, on the grounds I didn't need it.

From then onward, the teacher said, I could spend this time, which everyone else had to devote to rote-learning of the Confiteor, on duties such as "organising the classroom". This turned out to mostly mean doing the things she couldn't be bothered doing, like unpinning crusty old artwork from the walls and replacing it with something a bit more current. It was tedious but still a damn sight better craic than the Brown Catechism. I made sure to work very slowly.

By dint of this new routine, it somehow became an accepted fact I was exempted from Catechism for the rest of my primary school life.

At a time when nobody was ever spared anything religious at school - and unfortunate girls who forgot to bring in their own "mantillas" for the weekly Mass had to wear scraps of yellowed lace from the deputy principal's ancient tablecloth on their heads instead - this was nothing short of a small miracle.

It was with this in mind that I read this week of a major re-evaluation of the primary school curriculum.

It seems schools are finally considering the possibility of reducing the time devoted to religious education at primary level (albeit minimally) to make way for subjects that might carry a broader application, like modern languages, or coding.

What a wonderful opportunity for change.

A whole new set of proposals have been published by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment this week, designed to replace an existing curriculum now 21 years old.

There is now to be a consultation period until the end of October, with the new curriculum expected to take effect for the class of 2025.

All sorts of novelties are envisaged in this promising-sounding document. Subjects like PE and Social Personal and Health Education are being subsumed into a new area called Wellbeing, to which three hours will be devoted each week.

There is talk of reducing the requirement that denominational schools devote at least two and a half hours a week to the teaching of religion to two hours (I suspect plenty of parents would support whittling that back even further).

The whole idea of the new curriculum is to confront "challenges, changing needs and priorities". The wellbeing segment will support children to value positive and healthy relationships with others, the framework states. This will include "acquiring an understanding of human sexuality that is balanced and connected".

The document also suggests up to seven hours' teaching each week would be unassigned, to be allocated to subject areas as individual schools see fit.

It further moots the exciting notion of introducing modern language teaching from third class onward.

If it were up to me, I'd start even earlier. Given how dramatically quickly the sponge-like brains of young children can acquire new language skills, I've never quite understood why we hold off so long in introducing some French or German into the mix.

In this we are weirdly closer to monolingual Boston than to Berlin - essentially we are wildly out of kilter with most of our EU neighbours.

A recent survey found more than 70pc of Irish adults speak no foreign language at all and even secondary schools have trouble recruiting language teachers. We have a gap to fill, for sure.

Of course it's not the first time the teaching of modern languages in primary schools has come up as a proposal.

The 1998 Modern Languages in Primary School Initiative supported modern languages in fifth and sixth class in more than 550 schools across the country. But it was dropped in 2011, despite the fact that, since as far back as 2002, the EU Commission has been pushing a goal for citizens of being able to speak their mother tongue plus two other languages.

In 2015, research found 19 million primary school pupils (or 84pc) in the European Union were studying at least one foreign language.

In Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta and Austria, 100pc of primary school children attended language classes. In France - where children start learning foreign languages in pre-school - it was 99.2 pc. And there were a million children in the EU studying two foreign languages or more.

Maybe the disparity is understandable. The fact English is by far the most popular language in Europe, studied by 17.5 million pupils, doubtless largely explains our own tardiness in this matter.

The time devoted to teaching Irish is another barrier, but one that's surely not insurmountable.

The thing is that things learned as children have a habit of staying with us, even if we'd sort of rather they didn't. At 80, my mother, whose 1940s education was clearly classically influenced, was still able to conjugate a Latin verb.

And I can still recite most of the Confiteor, even after dropping out of Catechism classes before my time. But I rather wish I had learnt the Spanish alphabet instead.

Here's hoping the class of 2025 gets that valuable chance.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval came to the Centre's rescue once again at a time when the centrally-managed Delhi Police was facing flak for failing to control three-day-long bloody riots in the National Capital

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval came to the Centre's rescue once again at a time when the centrally-managed Delhi Police was facing flak for failing to control three-day-long bloody riots in the National Capital.

Doval's involvement, though unique, failed to surprise anyone as the riots came as a major embarrassment to the Central Government, which was entertaining a foreign dignitary in the National Capital, under full glare of the western media.

And yet, the capital burned for three days before the violence was curbed completely. The Delhi Police, not only faced accusations of inaction but also of complicity as mobs went on rampage in the usual sensitive areas, which should have been secured foremost with so much as a whiff of communal disturbance around.

Immediately after US President Donald Trump embarked on his return flight, 75-year old Doval swooped down on the Delhi Police headquarters and undertook a late night tour of the riot-hit areas. Then again on Wednesday, the former Intelligence Bureau chief visited the affected areas, including Jaffrabad and Seelampur, where he met police officers and gave them necessary directives, besides meeting leaders of different communities to assuage the tension.

Doval met people from all communities as he did during his Jammu and Kashmir visit after abrogation of Article 370.

He used the medium of religious places to appeal for peace and harmony, walked through serpentine lanes, and reassured scared residents; the people obviously responded. Doval was the first high ranking official to have reached out to them and give assurance of peace and security.

This was not the first time that Doval, India's national security tsar, who is considered the prime minister's right hand, was asked to step beyond his traditional role and intervene in internal security and law and order problems. He had camped in Jammu and Kashmir for more than a fortnight after the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 in August last year. Doval was also considered to have played an instrumental role in facilitating foreign dignitaries' tour in Jammu and Kashmir after the state was stripped of its special status and statehood.

However, his visit did raise some questions as the PMO's lieutenant was essentially coming down to clean up a mess that was squarely the responsibility of Home Minister Amit Shah. His remark of "jo hua so hua (What happened has happened)" to a group of riot-affected people on Thursday hasn't gone down well either with Opposition leaders accusing the NSA of trying to "whitewash" the role of perpetrators.

Doval is known for his hands-on approach and is considered a close confidante of the prime minister and his go-to man for any crisis situation. The rationale behind his deployment can lie in the fact that neither Modi nor Shah enjoy the same credibility among the Muslim populace as a neutral bureaucratic figure like Doval would. In fact, Shah had made acerbic speeches about those protesting against Citizenship Amendment Law during the course of the recently concluded elections.

If anything, the move could have been a snub to outgoing police commissioner Amulya Patnaik under whom the Delhi Police was seen as rudderless, and carried a bad reputation in previous instances of violence during the protests in Jamia Millia Islamia and the Jawaharlal Nehru University. The police was also seen twiddling its thumbs when a shooter shot at a student outside Jamia Millia Islamia and another showed up at Shaheen Bagh.

Doval, on the other hand, is perceived to be a man of action.

His record as an IPS officer also reinstates his credentials to quickly respond to such challenges. The Kerala Cadre IPS officer of the 1968 batch had played a crucial role in suppressing the infamous Thalassery riot of 1972, which was the tenth major communal riot the country had witnessed and the first one for Kerala.

According to The Week, Doval was sent to Thalassery in the heat of the riot and he managed to calm the situation within a week of his arrival.

This time too, Doval appeared on field first on Tuesday night and the instances of violence died down by Wednesday when he made his second trip to the riot hit areas. He not only made sure to mention to the people (and the media) that he was their on the prime minister's instructions, but also to not steamroll the police force publically, who was facing severe criticism for its failure.

"Police is working hard. Only some criminals were involved in this. One should try resolving issues and not increasing them. There were incidents earlier but today it is calm. Locals want peace. We have full faith there will be peace," he told the people on Wednesday.

"People were doubting the capabilities and intentions of the Delhi Police. This needs to addressed. People need to trust the man in uniform," Doval told NDTV.

This is when multiple media reports have indicated that the home ministry was of the view that the Delhi Police failed to appropriately utilise the central paramilitary forces made available to the cops.

Later Doval presented his on-the-spot assessment of the situation to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) headed by the prime minister about the steps taken to quell the violence and restore normalcy in areas under the grip of communal riots over the amended citizenship law.

Besides the prime minister, the CCS, the country's top-most body on strategic affairs, comprises Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

With inputs from agencies
BJP national president Jagat Parkash Nadda on Friday went into huddle with the states party top brass to take stock of the political situation in Himachal Pradesh. The state leadership also discussed threadbare on the cabinet expansion as three berths are lying vacant.

Nadda, who is on a three-day tour to Himachal Pradesh, held meetings with party office bearers, legislators and the party core group to discuss issues concerning the state as well as the party. He also met legislators who had unsuccessfully contested on the BJP ticket. Nadda has sought feedback on the working of the state government besides discussing the success of centrally-sponsored schemes in the state.

Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, minister for state corporate affairs and finance Anurag Thakur, state BJP chief Rajeev Bindal and former CM Shanta Kumar attended the meetings. The top brass also talked about the policy and programmes of the CM. Later, Nadda held a meeting with the 22-member state executive recently appointed by Bindal.

Party sources said the meeting with members of the state cabinet was introductory. Later, Nadda held closed door meetings with Bindal and three newly-appointed general secretaries Trilok Jamwal, Trilok Kapoor and Rakesh Jamwal, to discuss the forthcoming programmes proposed by the party to galvanise its cadres and strengthen the grassroot working.

Sources said there was an informal meeting between the BJPs core group and Nadda on the cabinet expansion. Three berths in the state cabinet have been lying vacant after food minister Kishan Kappor was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kangra and power minister Anil Sharma quit his office as the Congress pitted his elder son Ashray Sharma against BJP MP Ram Swaroop Sharma. Health minister Vipin Singh Parmar resigned from his office to take up the responsibility of the Vidhan Sabha speaker.

Names of Nurpur legislator Rakesh Pathania and Jawalamukhi legislator Ramesh Dhawala had been doing rounds for the berths. The party has also contemplated on the name of four-time legislator from Poanta Sukh Ram Chaudhary.

The CM had earlier announced to rejig his cabinet ahead of the budget session. However, following directions from the party high command, Thakur had put the cabinet expansion on hold. There is strong possibility that deputy speaker Hansraj from Churah could be inducted in the ministry while two-time legislator from Hamirpur Narendra Thakur may be appointed deputy speaker.

BJP is only political party governed by ideology

The BJP national president said the saffron party is only political party in the country which is governed by ideology. He was addressing the Abhinandan Samaroh held at Jhandutta in Bilaspur district.

Nadda said under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi the country is poised to become a five trillion dollar economy. Today, India has become the fifth economic power and in the next few years it will be the top economy, he said.

He said US President Donald Trump during his visit to India talked about Modi for nearly twenty minutes.

It is probably for the first time that a US President travelled 8,000 km on the request of Prime Minister Narendra Modi without visiting any other country on his way. This speaks that India is commanding the world over. This is only possible due to the strong leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nadda said.

The nation and the state has been progressing by leaps and bounds as people have handed over the reins of governance to the BJP, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, CM Jai Ram Thakur said the people of the state are fortunate to have Nadda leading the biggest political party of the world. He said this was possible due to the hard work, dedication and commitment of the BJP chief besides love and benevolence of people of the state.

He said the state has six medical colleges in government sector and out of these four medical colleges were possible due to Nadda.

State BJP president Rajeev Bindal said the state is fortunate to have a dynamic leader in chief minister Jai Ram Thakur who is always concerned about the development of Himachal. He said the state has been making unprecedented developments in all spheres and has become model for several big states of the country.

Union minister of state for finance and corporate affairs Anurag Singh Thakur said it is a matter of pride and honour for 72 lakh people of the state that Nadda was leading the political party which is ruling the biggest democracy of the world.

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NEW HAVEN  Calling all frog watchers, or listeners.

The Yale Peabody Museum in collaboration with Connecticut Beardsley Zoo and Maritime Aquarium is looking for volunteers to listen for frogs in the spring and summer.

They promise people dont need to be frog experts to help, since the museum announced training sessions for March 4 at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, March 6 at Yale University and March 15 at the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport.

Jim Sirch, who runs the program, said its done all over the country and helps conservationists monitor frog populations.

The frog watchers will need to spend 15 minutes one or two times per week in their nearby wetlands a 1/2 hour after sunset listening for frog calls.

Training is free for members of the three institutions offering the training regardless of which site is chosen for the session. Training for others is $10 per family.

Choose from the following three workshops at three locations. Pre-registration is required in advance by visiting the Yale Peabody website under upcoming events and completing the online registration form.

The first date is Wednesday at the Maritime Aquarium in the third floor classroom, 7-9 p.m. with a snow date of next Monday.

On Friday, March 6, a training session will be held in Yale Universitys Environmental Science Center room ESC 110 Env, 7-9 p.m. with a snow date of March 11.

The last training session will be March 13, 7-9 p.m. at the Beardsley Zoo Hanson Exploration Station, with a snow date of March 26.

Directions to all four venues can be found at the Peabody Museum website. For more information, email Jim Sirch at james.sirch@yale.edu.
AUBURN  A Fulton man admitted that he attempted to have sex with someone he believed to be a 14-year-old girl.

Thomas Cocopoti, of 1324 County Route 8, communicated with someone posing as the stepfather of the girl, who wasn't a child but actually a member of the New York State Police.

During his admission in Cayuga County Court on Thursday, Cocopoti said he traveled to a location near the Town of Brutus on May 16 to engage in intercourse and oral sex with the girl.

Cocopoti, 51, said he talked with who he thought was the stepfather over an app. "I agreed to meet up," he said. When Judge Thomas Leone asked him why, he continued, "To have sex."

His admission allowed him to plead guilty to attempted second-degree rape of an actor younger than 17 years old and attempted second-degree criminal sex act, both class D felonies.

The sentence Cocopoti was promised in return  six months in Cayuga County Jail as part of a 10-year probation term  was one Senior Assistant District Attorney Heather DeStefano "took exception" to. The maximum he could've gotten was seven years in prison.

The prosecution was advocating for prison time in Cocopoti's case, as well as similar cases involving men caught in a sex offender sting no actual children but members of state police or the FBI posing as stepfathers of minors.

Leone contemplated how Judge Mark Fandrich ruled in those other recent cases, like 40-year-old Liverpool resident Jerrard Hoey. Hoey was arrested May 17 near the Town of Brutus after communicating with an undercover member of state police about engaging in sexual behaviors with an underage person.

In Fandrich's court, Hoey was also promised a conditional sentence of 10 years on probation with six months of jail time. Another defendants, Ronald Capone, was also promised the same sentence earlier in the week.

Leone said Thursday he wanted to keep sentencing consistent. "I'm somewhat comfortable with this," Leone said, before warning Cocopoti that he will need to go complete a period of post-release supervision after he was released from jail.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 30.

Also in court

 An Auburn man was promised one to three years in prison for admitting he violated an order of protection a year ago.

Jorge Sanchez, 32, of 11 Hoffman St., Apt. 3, admitted Thursday that he sent two letters during a period from February to March of 2019 to a woman who was benefiting from an order of protection against him.

For pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated family offense, Sanchez will likely be given one to three years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for April 30.

 A Syracuse man also admitted to violating an order of protection three separate times.

Tyrone Davis Jr., 24, of 66 Caton Drive, Apt. 69B, was promised a sentence of one to three years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated family offense and one count of second-degree criminal contempt.

In April, Davis called a person benefiting from an order of protection against him and was physically near her in June. "I was at the house. I knew there was an order of protection. And I violated it," he said.

Then, in July, Davis sent an Instagram message to someone who was also benefiting from an order of protection against him. She had different initials than the person mentioned in the previous violations.

Davis is scheduled for sentencing on April 30.

Staff writer Mary Catalfamo can be reached at (315) 282-2244 or mary.catalfamo@lee.net. Find her on Twitter @mrycatalfamo.

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James Cleavenger, the former University of Oregon public safety officer who prevailed in a $1 million whistleblower case against the school, this week filed paperwork to run for Lane County district attorney.

Cleavenger, 41, will run against the incumbent district attorney, Patty Perlow, 56. Perlow has been with the office for 30 years. She was chief deputy district attorney before the governor appointed her to the top job in 2015. She was elected the following year.

In 2015, an eight-person federal jury sided with Cleavenger, who said the UO police chief and a lieutenant retaliated against him for speaking out about department bias and ineptitude. Top university officials, including the No. 2 in-house lawyer, were in on the decision to punish him.

The school ultimately agreed to pay out $1 million to end Cleavengers legal claims. The cash award was less than the $755,000 jury verdict plus $500,000 in attorney fees that he won in federal court, but his lawyer said it meant he was assured of getting the money instead of dealing with a prolonged appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Cleavenger said he has homes in Oakridge and Eugene. He is a full-time police officer for the Oakridge Police Department. He said he works part-time as a lawyer on civil cases. From 2013 through 2017, he was a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Michael McShane. Hes worked for other small city police departments, such as Junction City and Coburg.

From 2010 until 2013, he worked as a public safety officer at UO.

He said the DAs race will be pretty political given what he said was Perlows support for the former UO police chief during his lawsuit.

I have felt that the animosity has continued as he moved on to Oakridge, he said.

Cleavenger accused Perlow of failing to do her job by not prosecuting cases investigated by smaller police agencies.

I have worked in law enforcement in Junction City, Coburg and now Oakridge, he said, and its always been a complaint of the small communities that the office in general focuses on Eugene at the expense of the rest of the county.

The community is frustrated because they keep seeing us arrest people and they are let go the next day," he said. They come back to the community and commit the same crimes.

They are not doing their jobs and I am willing to do it, he said.

Perlow said she was not district attorney during Cleavengers case against the university. She said late last year, before the election was an issue, she raised concerns with Oakridge city leaders about the quality of police investigations, including Cleavengers work.

He was involved in the majority of the cases that we were bringing to their attention, she said.

Cleavenger defended his police work and accused Perlow of continuing a personal attack that began during his lawsuit. He suspects Perlow wants to eliminate the Oakridge Police Department and replace it with the Lane County Sheriffs Office.

Given his entry into the race, Perlow said she has declared a conflict of interest in prosecuting his cases and has referred them to the Oregon Department of Justice.

Perlow said she supports local police agencies by offering resources and training but acknowledged that smaller agencies oftentimes have a harder time investigating cases.

But we do prosecute a lot of cases out of all 11 agencies in Lane County, she said.

-- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
 Flash



Chinese President Xi Jinping Thursday held talks with Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Xi said the Chinese government and people are making all-out efforts to fight the novel coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19), during which the Mongolian government and people have offered precious support.

Hailing Battulga as the first foreign head of state to visit China since the outbreak, Xi said the special visit by Battulga to express consolations and support to China fully embodies the high attention he pays to the China-Mongolia ties and the profound friendship between the two peoples.

This vividly shows that China and Mongolia, as neighboring countries, can rely on each other in difficult times, said Xi.

Xi expressed his welcome as Battulga paid the visit only one day after Mongolia's traditional Tsagaan Sar holiday, and sent festive greetings to the Mongolian people.

Xi said that since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government have attached great importance to the epidemic, activated a national response mechanism and taken the most comprehensive, thorough and rigorous measures.

A leading group of the CPC Central Committee on the prevention and control of the COVID-19 was established immediately and a central government guiding team was sent to Hubei province, said Xi.

After arduous work, the positive trend in the prevention and control work is now expanding, Xi said, adding that the country has full confidence, capability to win this battle against the epidemic.

China has coordinated the prevention and control work with the economic and social development, and tried its best to minimize the impact of the epidemic, he said.

According to Xi, China has adopted a targeted approach in different regions to advance resumption of work and production based on local health risks, ensure timely agriculture work in spring and guarantee people's basic livelihood.

Noting that China's economy is resilient with broad domestic demand and a strong industrial basis, Xi said China will strive to meet this year's economic and social development targets.

Xi said that guided by the vision of a community with a shared future for humanity, China is making every effort not only to protect the life and health of its own people but also to contribute to global public health security.

With an open, transparent and responsible attitude, the Chinese government has actively stepped up international cooperation on fighting the outbreak, said Xi, adding that China's efforts have been highly affirmed and recognized by the World Health Organization and the international community.

China will continue to work with countries including Mongolia to fight the epidemic and safeguard regional and global public health security, he said.

Noting that China and Mongolia are friendly neighbors linked by waters and mountains, Xi said China has attached high importance to the bilateral relations and always taken Mongolia as an important direction of China's neighborhood diplomacy.

China is committed to cementing political mutual trust with Mongolia and enhancing Belt and Road cooperation to benefit both peoples, he said.

Battulga expressed consolations to the Chinese people over the outbreak and spoke highly of China's rapid establishment of a joint prevention and control mechanism and national people-oriented efforts to fight the epidemic.

Stressing that Mongolia and China are comprehensive strategic partners, Battulga said the Mongolian people completely relate to what the Chinese people are going through and would like to stand closely together with the Chinese people in the difficult times.

Mongolia launched fund-raising activities to support China's fight against the epidemic, and received active responses from all walks of life, he said, adding that Mongolia will send additional 30,000 sheep apart from the previous donations.

Battulga said he believes that the Chinese people will definitely win the battle against the epidemic at an early date and overcome the difficulties to realize the set goals of social and economic development under the strong leadership of President Xi.

Mongolia commends China's pursuit of neighborhood diplomacy featuring amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, and stands ready to work with China to deepen mutual trust and support, enhance cooperation to promote greater development of bilateral relations, said Battulga.
By Azernews





By Akbar Mammadov

The documents on military-financial cooperation signed between Turkey and Azerbaijan during Recep Tayyip Erdogans recent visit to Baku will serve to enhance the military cooperation between the two countries, Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry Vagiq Dargahli said on February 28.

The presidents signed a number of documents on cooperation following the 8th meeting of Azerbaijan-Turkey High-Level Strategic Cooperation in Baku on February 25.

Under the agreements related to military cooperation, modern weapons and military equipment, which will increase the combat effectiveness of the Azerbaijan army, will be supplied from Turkey to Azerbaijan.

The first military contract between Azerbaijan and Turkey was concluded in 1992.

Azerbaijan-Turkey military relations include several legal acts that cover joint military exercises, technical and scientific cooperation, military pieces of training for Azerbaijani servicemen in Turkey and the regular meeting between countries (Azerbaijan-Turkey High-Level Military Dialogue). Since that day, 9,000 Azerbaijani military servants received trainings in specialized courses in Turkey.

In January 29, 2013, TAKM (Organization of the Eurasian Law Enforcement Agencies with Military Status) was formed as intergovernmental military law enforcement (gendarmerie) organization of three Turkic countries (Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey) and Mongolia.
JEFFERSON CITY  In a sign of what could be a lengthy and expensive legal fight, more than 800 appeals have been filed by companies that were denied permits to sell, grow and distribute medical marijuana in Missouri.

Although state health officials anticipated legal challenges when they launched the licensing process for the fledgling program, it is unclear if they are prepared to handle the onslaught of appeals.

Through Friday, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services had hired three outside lawyers to help the states in-house legal team sort through the appeals.

The trio of attorneys are from Poplar Bluff, St. Louis and Jefferson City. Each will be paid a maximum of $49,000 through 2023, according to the contracts they signed this month.

In January, DHSS said more lawyers could be hired if needed on an hourly basis, to supplement our in-house attorneys and attorneys from the Attorney Generals Office.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.28

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The European Commission recognises the importance of the Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) for the regional gas market, in particular Croatia, Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, a source in the European Commission told Trend.

As a signal of its relevance for the region, the Commission has awarded IAP the status of Project of Mutual Interest (PMI), category of infrastructure projects that includes those that benefit one or more Contracting Parties(Western Balkan countries, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia) and one or more Member States but do not have a Project of common interest (PCl) status in the European Union, in line with the Regulation (EU) 347/2013, said the source.

Given its PMI status, Commissions funding under specific programmes, such as the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA), could be explored for the support of the construction of IAP in the Western Balkan countries, the source added.

Ionian Adriatic Pipeline can be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to transport gas to many countries in South-East Europe.

The pipeline with total length of 516 kilometers will stretch from Albania through Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to split in Croatia.

The capacity of the pipeline will amount to five billion cubic meters of gas per year.

TAP has already signed memorandums of understanding and cooperation with the developers of this project, in particular with companies of Plinacro (Croatia), BH-Gas (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Geoplin Plinovodi (Slovenia), as well as with the governments of Montenegro and Albania.

There has been created a TAP-IAP joint working group that gathers regularly to synchronize the timing of both pipeline projects and coordinate the technical issues of interconnection. In particular, Croatia expects to receive approximately 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year through the IAP.

Possible time of implementation of the project hasnt been announced yet.

Albania, Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro are planning to finalize the preliminary design of the IAP, which provides for the transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Southeast Europe, by September 2020.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn
World Health Organization officials said Friday they are increasing the risk assessment of the coronavirus, which has spread to at least 49 countries in a matter of weeks, to "very high" at a global level.

"We are on the highest level of alert or highest level of risk assessment in terms of spread and in terms of impact," said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's health emergencies program. The group isn't trying to alarm or scare people, he said. "This is a reality check for every government on the planet: Wake up. Get ready. This virus may be on its way and you need to be ready. You have a duty to your citizens, you have a duty to the world to be ready."

The world can still avoid "the worst of it," but the increased risk assessment means the WHO's "level of concern is at its highest," he said at a press conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

World leaders still have a chance to contain the virus within their borders, Ryan said. "To wait, to be complacent to be caught unawares at this point, it's really not much of an excuse."

Outside China as of Friday morning, 4,351 cases across at least 48 countries have been confirmed, including 67 deaths, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. About two dozen countries have reported only one case.

He said most cases of COVID-19 can still be traced to known contacts or clusters of cases and there isn't any "evidence as yet that the virus is spreading freely in communities." That's one reason why WHO hasn't declared the outbreak a pandemic, Tedros said.

Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Netherlands and Nigeria all reported their first cases on Thursday, Tedros said. All these cases have links to Italy, he added.

Tedros reiterated that the virus could still turn into a pandemic. He urged against fear and panic, adding, "our greatest enemy right now is not the virus itself. It's fear, rumors and stigma."

On Wednesday, WHO officials said the number of new COVID-19 cases outside China exceeded those inside the country for the first time. Tedros said Thursday that countries must act "swiftly" and "aggressively" to contain the virus.

"With the right measures, it can be contained," he said at the time, adding countries should begin thinking about whether they have proper isolation units, medical supplies and other vital equipment.

Ryan told reporters that containing the virus and interrupting transmission give officials an opportunity to stop the virus.

"But what it's clearly doing as you've seen in China and Singapore, it's slowing the virus down and allowing us to get ready to prepare," he said.
The Railways has halted Fridays New Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express at Dadri near here and pressed security agencies into action after a passenger claimed there were 5 bombs in the train, officials said.

I want to inform that there are 5 bombs in a train rajdhani(12424) going from new delhi to kanpur central. Please take some action on this quickly. @RailMinIndia @PiyushGoyal @DelhiPolice @IRCTCofficial, tweeted Sanjeev Singh Gurjar, a passenger.

Responding to the tweet, the Superintendent of Government Railway Police, Agra, wrote from its official handle, Regarding the above information, all the senior officers have been made aware that the train is being stopped at the post GRP Dadri and is being checked with the joint efforts of RPF and GRP, it said in a tweet.

The 12424 DBRT Rajdhani runs between New Delhi and Dibrugarh Town railway stations.It begins its journey at 4.10 PM from Delhi and arrives at the destination at 7.00 am.
A couple of days ago, I wrote that the volume of electricity that Armenia exported to Georgia in 2019 reached an unprecedented 0 kilowatts per hour. As a result, Azerbaijan has become the absolute leader in the Georgian market. This is what member of the political council of One Armenia Party Vahe Davtyan wrote on his Facebook page.

Today, Baku offered Tbilisi to build a high-voltage electric communication line under the Black Sea in order to export electricity to the European Union.

I would like to remind that in May 2019, Azerbaijan had already started exporting electricity to Greece, Hungary and Romania through the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey bridge. By and large, this is what a hybrid war is, Vahe Davtyan wrote and added the following as post-scriptum:

P.S.: You draw a passport for the referendum for constitutional amendments.
New York/IBNS: All countries should do more to prevent the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus and none should make the fatal mistake of assuming that it wont be affected, UN health agency chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Thursday.

Issuing an appeal after a new crop of countries confirmed that they had identified cases of infection for the first time, Tedros said that it was the responsibility of all governments to ensure that they acted swiftly.

Virus does not respect borders

Whether we get it wrong or right is in our hands every country must be ready for its first case, its first cluster, the first evidence of community transmission and for dealing with sustained community transmissionThese are four scenarios, and it must be preparing for all of those scenarios at the same time. No country should assume it wont get cases; that could be a fatal mistake, quite literally. This virus does not respect borders.

Citing the latest COVID-19 data, updated at 6am in Geneva on Thursday, the WHO Director-General said that China had confirmed 78,630 cases, including 2,747 deaths.

Outside China, there were 3,474 cases in 44 countries and 54 deaths, Tedros continued, highlighting with concern that for the past two days, the number of new cases in the rest of the world had exceeded the number of cases in China.

Stigma must stop, Human Rights Council hears

Meanwhile, amid reports xenophobic abuse aimed at Asian people in Europe and elsewhere, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet appealed on Thursday for Member States to do their utmost to combat this and other forms of discrimination.

Speaking at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Bachelet explained that the epidemic had set off a disturbing wave of prejudice against people of Chinese and East Asian ethnicity.

Likening the outbreak to a test of our societies resilience, Bachelet insisted that human rights norms provided crucial guideposts that could improve the effectiveness of the response.

First cases confirmed in Brazil, Norway

The seven countries to report cases for the first time in the past 24 hours are Brazil, Georgia, Greece, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan and Romania, Tedros noted.

If you act aggressively now, you can contain this virus, he said, adding that in 90 per cent of cases its a fever and in 70 per cent its a cough.

He continued: You can prevent people getting sick. You can save lives. So, my advice to these countries is to move swiftly.

Virus is not influenza and can be contained

While the spread of the virus in Iran, Italy, and the Republic of Korea had indicated what this virus is capable of, it can be contained, the WHO chief insisted.

He cited data from the Chinese province of Guangdong, where only 0.14 per cent of 320,000 samples tested positive for COVID-19. The evidence we have is that there does not appear to be widespread community transmission. That suggested containment is possible, he said.

Citing several countries that had not reported further cases for more than two weeks - Belgium, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam  the WHO chief then cautioned that Finland and Sweden had reported new cases on Wednesday, after a break of two weeks without infections.

The point is not only to prevent cases arriving on your shores. The point is what you do when you have cases, he said.

There are things every country and every person can do. Every country needs to be ready to detect cases early, to isolate patients, trace contacts, provide quality clinical care, prevent hospital outbreaks, and prevent community transmission.

Deepest respect for health workers

In her comments to the Human Rights Council, Bachelet highlighted the risks faced by frontline medical teams, and her deepest respect to them for tackling the global threat.

She also insisted that public health measures should be carried out without discrimination of any kind, with an emphasis on transparency and information to empower people to participate in protecting health.

Quarantine procedures should also be proportionate to the risk, time-bound, and safe, she insisted, and the rights of those whose movement was restricted must be protected - including rights to food and clean water, the right to be treated humanely, access to healthcare, the right to be informed, and freedom of expression.

Photo caption and credit:

Unsplash/Aleksandr Buynitskiy

A resident of Shanghai, looks out over the city waterfront, known as the Bund, which is usually a crowded tourist hotspot.
Routes Americas is the main meeting forum of airlines and airports in the American hemisphere, and it served as a platform to lay the grounds for the world meeting that will be held in Milan, Italy next September, where Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico will promote Jamaica more intensely as a tourist and investment destination. Given the global nature of the event, has the participation of airlines from Europe, Africa, Oceania and others, which, in general, would otherwise have no presence at Routes Americas.

Grupo Aeroportuario el Pacifico is committed to Jamaica and acknowledges it both as an extraordinary destination given its natural wonders and excellent tourist offering and as an attractive market for foreign investment that promotes the country's sustainability, economic and social development.

Grupo Aeroportuario el Pacifico, S.A.B. de C.V. (GAP) (NYSE: PAC; BMV: GAP) is a Mexican corporation developing its activity in the airport sector. GAP operates 12 international airports in Mexico and two in Jamaica, servicing over 330 destinations through 35 airlines. Its stock is listed in the Mexico and New York Stock Exchanges. In 2018, GAP served 44.9 million passengers, 10.4% more than in 2017.

The airports managed by Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico are located in:

Guadalajara and Tijuana , serving the main metropolitan areas.

and , serving the main metropolitan areas. Mexicali , Hermosillo , Los Mochis , Aguascalientes , Guanajuato and Morelia , serving developing medium-sized cities.

, , , , and , serving developing medium-sized cities. La Paz , Los Cabos , Puerto Vallarta , Manzanillo and Montego Bay , serving some of the most important tourist destinations in the country and the Caribbean .

, , , and , serving some of the most important tourist destinations in the country and the . On October 10, 2018 , GAP signed a concession contract with the government of Jamaica in order to operate, modernize and expand the Norman Manley International Airport ("KIN") located in the city of Kingston .

The airports managed by GAP in Mexico are owned by the Mexican government and have been allocated in a 50-year concession starting in 1998, as part of a domestic initiative to privatize and improve the quality and security of the country's airport services.

In Jamaica, the government owns the Montego Bay Airport and the concession granted for its operation is for a 30-year period, which will conclude on April 2033. The Kingston Airport was granted for a 25-year concession. GAP took control of the operation and administration this past October 2019.

Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico believes in the value of each individual and seeks to trigger his or her potential through education. Better-educated Mexicans will raise their quality of life and contribute towards the country's development. GAP, in line with its business model and through its Foundation, is committed to be a factor of change. We work on two strategic pillars: work with the community, through the GAP Schools, and on training the airport community, with Community Training Centers.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1096877/kingston_airport.jpg

SOURCE Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico
In this April 2008 file photo, the Fred Olson Cruise Liner Braemar is docked at the port in Havana, Cuba. On Thursday, the Dominican Republic turned back the Braemar because some on board showed potential symptoms of the new coronavirus. Read more

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic  A cruise ship heading to the Dominican Republic to disembark hundreds of passengers after a 14-day tour was turned away on Thursday because officials feared eight of those aboard showed potential symptoms of the COVID-19 illness caused by the coronavirus, officials announced.

A joint statement by the Public Health Ministry and Port Authority said the captain of the Braemar reported four Filipinos, two British citizens and two U.S. citizens were under medical observation for symptoms such as fever, coughing, or breathing difficulty.

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines said in an emailed statement that it had reported a small number of influenza-like cases on board. Our medical team has now advised that they are all feeling better. No guests or crew are, or have been, displaying symptoms that are considered to be consistent with those of Coronavirus.

Officials said the ship was carrying 1,128 passengers and 384 crew members. The cruise line said it was awaiting advice on the next steps and liaising with a number of airlines to secure onward travel for guests.

"It is our opinion that this is an overreaction by the Dominican Republic,'' Fred. Olsen said in a written statement.

The cruise line's website shows the ship had been due to pick up another load of passengers and set off on a new cruise Thursday night.

Public Health Minister Rafael Sanchez Cardenas said the ship already had been barred by another port, which he did not specify.

Meanwhile, passengers on another vessel at the Mexican island of Cozumel faced yet another day in which they weren't allowed to get off the ship, after they had been previously turned away from two ports.

The MSC Meraviglia, turned away by two nations due to fears of the virus outbreak, docked at Cozumel on Thursday and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said passengers would be allowed to disembark.

Lopez Obrador said Mexico had to act with humanity after the ship was refused entry at ports in Grand Cayman and Jamaica.

But Alejandra Aguirre, the health secretary of the coastal state of Quintana Roo, said two people had been detected with acute respiratory infections not believed to be the new coronavirus and that other passengers wouldn't be allowed off until tests on those two came back later Thursday.

The two were identified as a 27-year-old male crew member from the Philippines and a 30-year-old female passenger from France.

MSC said in a statement that the two passengers were now symptom-free and the ship would remain in Cozumel. Assuming clearance to disembark is given, passengers would be free to tour Cozumel through the end of Friday.

The cruise line had expressed frustration with the rejections, which came after it reported the crew member was sick with common seasonal flu.

The ship is being allowed to dock and the passengers, those who are aboard the cruise ship, can disembark, Lopez Obrador said, adding that health inspections will be carried out.

We cannot act with discrimination, he said. Imagine if a ship arrived and it wasn't even allowed to dock, and they were told, Keep going on your way, see where you can dock.' That is inhuman.

He added we cannot close our ports, nor can we close our airports.

Imagine the desperation and everything it implies, almost 5,000 people on a ship and they cannot get off, he said. Why such backward attitudes?

The case of the Meraviglia illustrated the crisis of nerves over the COVID-19 virus. Mexico has no confirmed cases and MSC Cruises said the crew member had only common seasonal flu, had been placed in isolation and had nearly recovered.

Local media showed a small knot of Cozumel residents near the cruise ship dock demanding that passengers not be allowed to disembark, citing fears about potential contagion or effects on the tourism-dependent economy.

Passenger Eder Ortiz told Hechos Meridiano Quintana Roo, a local newscast affiliated with national broadcaster TV Azteca, that inside the boat people were protesting to demand they be let out.

Ortiz, who was traveling with his wife to celebrate their second anniversary, said no illness was circulating despite the fact that passengers were co-mingling in pools, dining areas and dance spaces.

Nobody is infected, Ortiz said.

Just minutes after Lopez Obrador spoke Thursday, the governor of the Quintana Roo state, where Cozumel is located, confirmed the ship had docked, but said no authorization has been given yet for passengers to disembark.

Gov. Carlos Joaquin wrote that health inspections would have to be carried out first.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- District Metals Corp. (TSX-V: DMX; "District" or the Company) is pleased to announce the Company has executed a definitive purchase agreement dated February 27, 2020 (the "Purchase Agreement") with a wholly-owned subsidiary of EMX Royalty Corp. (TSX-V:EMX) ("EMX") to acquire 100% ownership of the Tomtebo and Trollberget properties (together, the "Properties") (Figure 1) in the prolific Bergslagen District of Sweden, which hosts Lundins Zinkgruvan Mine and Bolidens Garpenberg Mine. Upon completion of the proposed transaction, the Company's primary focus will be on the advanced exploration stage Tomtebo Property.



The proposed transaction constitutes a "Fundamental Acquisition" as such term is defined in Policy 5.3 of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange" or the "TSXV"). As a result, completion of the proposed transaction is subject to, among other things, the completion of an updated technical report prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") on the Tomtebo Property, and obtaining all necessary regulatory approvals, including Exchange acceptance. The common shares of the Company will remain halted until the Exchange has reviewed the proposed transaction in accordance with Exchange Policy 5.3.

Garrett Ainsworth, President & CEO of District, commented: These Swedish properties provide District with significant opportunities in the prolific Bergslagen District, which is known for its large tonnage and high grade Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) and Sedimentary Exhalative (SedEx) deposit types. Tomtebo, in particular, underwent a rigorous due diligence process, which revealed immense potential. The Bergslagen District has substantial polymetallic production and endowment that is evidenced by the numerous historical and active mines, which has seen little modern systematic exploration compared to peer districts. Access and infrastructure on the properties and in the region are highly accommodative. Sweden is a stable and supportive jurisdiction for mining that is ranked highly by the Fraser Institute. We are also excited to partner with EMX Royalty Corp. to advance these properties.

Tomtebo Property Highlights

Tomtebo covers an area of 5,144 ha, and is located 175 km northwest from the capital city of Stockholm in Sweden (Figure 1).



Bolidens Garpenberg Mine is located 25 km to the southeast, and the historic Falun Mine is located 25 km to the northwest. Lundins Zinkgruvan Mine is located 175 km to the southwest.



Tomtebo contains similar host rocks, structure, alteration, and mineralization styles as the Garpenberg, Falun, and Zinkgruvan Mines.



Two historic mines, and numerous mineralized prospects are situated along a 17 km trend on the property. Mineralization at the historic Tomtebo and Lovas Mines appears to be open in all directions.



Historic production at the Tomtebo Mine comprised 120,000 tonnes at 4.4% Cu 1 . Historic production at the Lovas Mine comprised 330,000 tonnes at 3.5% Zn, 2.5% Pb, and 30g/t Ag 2 .



. Historic production at the Lovas Mine comprised 330,000 tonnes at 3.5% Zn, 2.5% Pb, and 30g/t Ag . Drilling from the 1960s and 1970s resulted in a historic mineral resource on the Tomtebo Mine from surface to 200 m depth that comprises 385,000 tonnes grading 0.67% Cu, 1.84% Pb, 3.72% Zn, 0.66 g/t gold, and 55 g/t Ag 3 . This is a historic resource for the purposes of NI 43-101, and a Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify the historic resource above as current mineral resources or mineral reserves, and District is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. District considers these results as indications of the presence of mineralization on the property, and will use the information to guide future exploration.



. This is a historic resource for the purposes of NI 43-101, and a Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify the historic resource above as current mineral resources or mineral reserves, and District is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources or mineral reserves. District considers these results as indications of the presence of mineralization on the property, and will use the information to guide future exploration. Development work and mining at the historical Tomtebo and Lovas Mines reached depths of 200 m and 190 m, respectively. Mining operations at Bolidens Garpenberg Mine and Lundin Minings Zinkgruvan Mine are currently at depths of 1400 m and 1200 m, respectively.



Modern systematic exploration has never been carried out on the Tomtebo Property.

Trollberget Property Highlights

The Trollberget property covers an area of 333 ha, and is located 15 km northeast from Tomtebo and 17 km east of the historic Falun Mine (Figure 1).



Trollberget is an early stage property that strategically covers the same host rocks, structure, alteration, and mineralization as the Garpenberg, Falun and Zinkgruvan Mines.



Several polymetallic mineralized prospects on the property warrant detailed follow up.



Two historic channel samples 4 located approximately 25 m apart returned: 1.5 m at 21.4% Zn, 1.8% Pb, 1.3% Cu, 131 g/t Ag and 2.3 g/ t Au. 2.0 m at 9.9% Zn, 1.2% Pb, 0.7% Cu, 85 g/t Ag and 0.2 g/ t Au.

located approximately 25 m apart returned:

The Purchase Agreement

Pursuant to the Purchase Agreement, District will acquire a 100% interest in the Properties upon the following principal terms:

At closing of the proposed transaction DMX will:(i) make a cash payment of $35,000 to EMX; and (ii) issue EMX approximately 3,688,965 common shares of DMX, representing a 9.9% equity ownership in DMX (on a non-diluted basis).

To retain the Properties, DMX must: (i) incur $1,000,000 of eligible expenditures on the Properties within two years of the closing of the proposed transaction; and (ii) complete a minimum of 2,000 m of drilling within three years of completion of the proposed transaction and an aggregate of 5,000 m within five years of completion of the proposed transaction.

Upon announcement of each of a mineral resource estimate and preliminary economic assessment, DMX will pay to EMX a fee of $275,000 and, in the absence of either or both a mineral resource estimate and/or preliminary economic assessment, an aggregate of $550,000 upon a development decision, in each case, in either cash or common shares of DMX (based on the 20 day volume weighted average trading price of DMX's common shares).

Until the first to occur of the five-year anniversary of the closing of the transaction and DMX completing a financing raising gross proceeds of at least $3 million, EMX is entitled to maintain its shareholding in DMX for no additional consideration.

DMX will grant EMX a 2.5% NSR royalty on each of the Properties subject to an option to repurchase up to 0.5% of the royalty for $2,000,000 at any time within six years of the closing of the proposed transaction and in respect of which DMX will make annual advance royalty payments of $25,000 commencing on the third anniversary of the closing of the proposed transaction, with each payment increasing by $10,000 per year subject to maximum of $75,000 per year.

In addition, upon closing of the proposed transaction EMX and DMX will enter into a shareholder rights agreement pursuant to which:

(i) for so long as it holds at least 9.9% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company (on a non-diluted basis), EMX will be entitled to nominate one director to the Company's board of directors; (ii) for so long as it holds at least 5.0% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company (on a non-diluted basis), EMX will have a pre-emptive right in respect of future financings by the Company; (iii) for so long as it holds at least 9.9% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company (on a non-diluted basis), EMX will be subject to a standstill provision; and (iv) for so long as it holds at least 9.9% of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company (on a non-diluted basis), EMX may not sell or transfer common shares of the Company representing 1% or more of the outstanding common shares of the Company in any 30 day period without advance notice to the Company and if the Company fails to identify a purchaser for such shares, only sell such shares by way of a broad distribution, through the facilities of an exchange or trading system.

As consideration for identifying the Tomtebo and Trollberget properties and facilitating completion of the proposed transaction, Vector Geological Solutions, a "non-arm's length party" to the Company will be issued 500,000 common shares in the capital of the Company as a finders fee (the "Finder's Fee Shares"). The issue of the Finder's Fee Shares is subject to Exchange acceptance and, if so accepted, will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day.

District Metals Corp. is pleased to announce that our corporate website has been updated at www.districtmetals.com where our new corporate presentation is now available.

A figure accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/38fa95d1-437e-4e51-9554-c2b15253d57e

Note: The nearby mines provide geologic context for Tomtebo and Trollberget, but this is not necessarily indicative that the Properties host similar grades or tonnages of mineralization.

References

1 Ed. Eilu, Pasi, 2012, Geological Survey of Finland, Special Paper 53, Metallogenic areas in Sweden, p. 154.

2 Geological Survey of Sweden report grb_097, 1997.

3 Technical Report on Tomtebo Mine, Birger Hellegren, 1983.

4 Tumi Resources Ltd. News Release, September 4, 2007. True widths of the channel samples are unknown.

5 Allen, R.L., Lundstrom, I., Ripa, M., and Christofferson, H., 1996, Facies analysis of a 1.9 Ga, continental margin, back-arc, felsic caldera province with diverse Zn-Pb-Ag-(Cu-Au) sulfide and Fe oxide deposits, Bergslagen region, Sweden: Economic Geology, v. 91, p. 9791008.

6 https://www.boliden.com/globalassets/operations/exploration/mineral-resources-and-mineral-reserves-pdf/2019/resources_and_reserves_garpenberg_2019-12-31.pdf

Technical Information

All scientific and technical information in this news release has been prepared by, or approved by Garrett Ainsworth, PGeo, President and CEO of the Company. Mr. Ainsworth is a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

Mr. Ainsworth has not verified any of the information regarding any of the properties or projects referred to herein other than the Tomtebo and Trollberget Properties. Mineralization on any other properties referred to herein is not necessarily indicative of mineralization on the Tomtebo and Trollberget Properties.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Garrett Ainsworth

President and Chief Executive Officer

604-628-2669

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information.

This news release contains certain statements that may be considered forward-looking statements with respect to District Metals Corp. (District Metals or the Company) within the meaning of applicable securities laws. In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, targets, expects or does not expect, is expected, an opportunity exists, is positioned, estimates, intends, assumes, anticipates or does not anticipate or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might, will or will be taken, occur or be achieved. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, predictions, indications, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts but instead represent managements expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events.

Forward-looking statements relating to District Metals include, among other things, statements relating to: timing of the closing of the proposed acquisition of the Tomtebo Project including receipt of all regulatory approvals and satisfaction of all other conditions precedent; completion of the expenditure requirements thereunder, future commodity prices; District Metals planned exploration activities including costs, timing and results thereof; the adequacy of the Companys financial resources and ability to raise additional funds as and when required and on reasonable terms; and timing, receipt and maintenance of all required approvals, consents and permits under applicable legislation.

These statements and other forward-looking information are based on opinions, assumptions and estimates made by District Metals in light of its experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that the Company believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances, as of the date of this news release, including, without limitation, assumptions about the receipt of all regulatory approvals to the completion of the proposed transaction; satisfaction of all conditions precedent to completion of the acquisition of the Properties; the Companys ability to raise sufficient capital to fund planned exploration activities, maintain corporate capacity and satisfy the exploration expenditure requirements required by the Purchase Agreement by the times specified therein (failing which the Properties will be forfeited without any repayment to the Company); and stability in financial and capital markets.

Forward-looking information is necessarily based on a number of opinions, assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by District Metals as of the date such statements are made, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to the following factors: a number of conditions precedent must be satisfied for the acquisition of the Properties to be completed (including regulatory approval); the risk that the Company will be unable to raise sufficient capital to maintain its mineral tenures and concessions in good standing, finance planned exploration (including incurring prescribed exploration expenditures required by the Purchase Agreement) and for general corporate purposes, the risk that the Company will not be able to explore and develop the Properties; the risk that if the required exploration expenditures are not incurred by the time specified therefor the Properties will be forfeited without any repayment of the purchase price; management and conflicts of interest; fluctuations in demand for, and prices of gold, silver and copper; inherent risks of exploration for mineral deposits, including that commercial quantities or grades of minerals may not be discovered; risks associated with the uncertainty of estimates of mineral resources governmental regulations, particularly those applicable to the mineral exploration and development industry; environmental laws and regulations and associated risks, including climate change legislation; land reclamation requirements; the ability to obtain and maintain necessary rights, concessions and permits; risks of operating in a foreign jurisdiction and through foreign subsidiaries; a dependence on ability to attract and retain qualified management; limitations of insurance and uninsured risks; public social activism against companies undertaking natural resource development; risks associated with First Nations relations; competition; legal proceedings and the enforceability of judgments; anti-corruption and bribery regulations;; market events and general economic conditions globally; currency exchange rate risks; These factors and assumptions are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors and assumptions that could affect District Metals. These factors and assumptions, however, should be considered carefully.

Although the Company has attempted to identify factors that would cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those disclosed in the forward-looking statements or information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Also, many of such factors are beyond the control of the Company. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The forward-looking information is made as of the date of this news release, and the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise such forward-looking information




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The Italian national who tested positive to coronavirus in Lagos is in a stable condition at the bio-security facility in Yaba, Lagos Mainland, where he is being isolated, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said.

Addressing the media in Lagos, Friday, Mr Sanwo-Olu said a number of persons, who had physical contact with the patient before the virus was diagnosed, are being traced, while others are currently being examined for possible symptoms.

Akin Abayomi, the commissioner for health, had earlier told journalists that the government had begun to identify all the persons the patient contacted in order to isolate them.

The Italian, an Ogun State-based expatriate whose name was not disclosed, flew into Lagos from Milan, Italy, via Istanbul on Monday evening. He tested positive to COVID-19 virus on Thursday. But he is yet to show any respiratory symptoms as at press time, the Lagos State government said. He complained of fever and body pain, which prompted his transfer from Ogun State to Lagos for advanced medical investigation.

Mr Sanwo-Olu said there should be no cause for panic among Nigerians over the reported COVID-19 incident, stressing that measures had been set in motion by the state and federal governments to contain the spread of the virus across the country. He particularly allayed the fear of Lagos residents, saying the two bio-security facilities in the state had the capability to contain the virus.

At 10 p.m. on Thursday, I got a call from the Commissioner of Health, who reported possible identification of a patient with coronavirus in Ogun State, the governor said.

Immediately, we triggered all levels of bio-security responses and containment facilities. After series of laboratory examination, the patient was confirmed to have tested positive to the virus in early hours of today (Friday) and we immediately alerted the federal authorities, including the president and everybody who needs to be aware. We are in constant touch with the company where the patient was engaged. The management and personnel of the company have been cooperative.

Health workers and emergency officials are on the field to track all persons that had physical contacts and interaction with the patient. Our bio-security facilities have been fortified to continue any form of test and contain any other potential case. We are in constant touch with the Federal Ministry of Health to harmonise our response to the incident. For us in Lagos, we are doing anything that needs to be done. The patient is stable and every health intervention required is currently being given to him.

On how the patient scaled through health screening at the Lagos airport without being detected, Mr Sanwo-Olu said investigation showed the virus did not manifest in the patient at the time he passed through the airport. The incident, he said, prompted the government to immediately trigger advanced end-to-end screening for passengers flying into Nigeria, especially from high-risk countries.

The governor said there would not be a prohibition of public gatherings and regular activities in Lagos despite the diagnosed case of COVID-19, pointing out that such a measure may give rise to needless panic among the general public. He said the condition of the patient was not highly contagious at the moment, adding that the State would only ban outdoor gatherings in the case of escalation in person-to-person transmission of the virus.

It is only when there is a high level of escalation that the public can be panicky and this is when we realise that it is getting to person-to-person transmission, he said.

As we have said, this isolated case has been contained right from the hospital where he was first admitted and the guesthouse he slept after his arrival in Nigeria. It is when there is a person-to-person infection that we can trigger another level of isolation and curtail public events where large number of people can gather. I dont think we have gotten to that level yet.

Mr Sanwo-Olu also cleared the air on why the patient was transferred to Lagos after the incident was reported in Ogun State, saying the federal government only established testing centres to prevent coronavirus in states that have international airports. Lagos, he said, is the only state in the Southwest that has a testing centre. He said the state was also considered based on its sophisticated bio-security facilities, which were established during the outbreak of Ebola virus.

How Italian was diagnosed

Mr Abayomi explained how the diagnosis was carried out, following the patients complaint of fever and body pain. He said the patient started to show signs of illness on Wednesday afternoon, after which he was presented at the Ogun State-based firms hospital where the investigation began.

Investigation began at the hospital after the patient gave history of his trip to Nigeria, Mr Abayomi, a professor of medicine, said.

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The medical personnel at the companys hospital kept the patient in isolation overnight and contacted us at the bio-security in Lagos for assistance. We immediately asked them to transfer the case to Lagos. The patient was brought to our high-containment in Yaba on Thursday morning.

Immediately the patient arrived, he was put in proper isolation and appropriate tests were conducted on him. Within hours, we received signals that the laboratory tests were showing signs of positivity. At that point, we informed the Federal Minister of Health and Governor Sanwo-Olu, who is the Chief Incident Commander in Lagos.

The health commissioner said the patient was responding well under a supportive therapy, saying efforts were on to identify all persons that had physical contact with the patient to break the cycle of transmission.

He said the state remained prepared to contain the potential spread of the virus, observing that Lagos had wrapped up the capacity of its containment facility to 80-bed as a result of the emergency funds released by the governor.

Mr Abayomi said more capabilities were being put in place by the state to deal with any increase in the number of cases. He said aggressive public awareness campaign was going on to sensitise residents on hygiene and activities that can prevent the spread of the virus.
The Delhi government on Friday gave a nod to Delhi Police to prosecute former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar in a sedition case. The Delhi government gave its nod to the special cell of Delhi Police. Several others--Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Akib Hussain, Umar Gul and Mujeeb--will also be prosecuted in the 2016 incident of sedition.

A group of JNU students led by Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya had allegedly raised anti-India slogans during an event held at the varsity campus in the evening of February 9, 2016, to mark the death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. It is to be noted that Zee News was the first TV news channel to have aired the controversial video clip showing several JNU students, including Khalid, Kumar and Bhattacharya, shouting anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans at the varsity campus.

AAP MLA and party spokesperson Raghav Chadha said, "The Law Department of Delhi government has, after conducting due diligence, given its opinion on this matter to the Home department. It is pertinent to mention that the Delhi government, as a matter of policy and as a matter of principle, does not and has not intervened in any of such cases. Our government has not stopped prosecution in any case, whatsoever, in the last five years."

"This is purely a procedural matter. We believe that judiciary and judiciary alone should decide on the merits of each case. It is not for governments to decide on the merits of such cases," he added.

"Our government has not stopped prosecution in any case, including those pertaining to our own MLAs and party leaders. Our MLAs fought these in the courts, in most cases our MLAs were declared innocent while some cases are still pending in court. Even when it came to elected representatives of the ruling party, that is the Aam Aadmi Party, the government of Delhi did not intervene in the process of law. It is only fair for the permanent executive as well as political executive to not intervene in the process of law and let the Judiciary perform it's independent function," he said.

The controversial video showed a gathering of JNU students raising anti-national slogans such as Kitne Afzal maaroge, ghar ghar se Afzal niklenge, Pakistan Zindabad, 'India Tere Tukde Tukde Honge', 'India Go Back' etc.

The video of the controversial February 9 event was shot by Zee News and was later sent for forensic examination to the CFSL. The video clip shot by Zee News, which came under attack from the alleged sympathisers of the 'Tukde Tukde' gang, was later found to be 100 percent authentic and not doctored.

JNU students Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and many others were slapped with sedition charges in the wake of the incident. Kumar, Khalid and Bhattacharya were arrested and later released on bail.

The FIR registered in the case stated that a group of JNU students led by Kumar, Khalid and Bhattacharya had allegedly raised anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans in the university campus on the evening of February 9.

Amid several twists and turns, the case was investigated by Delhi Polices elite anti-terrorism Special Cell unit.
Mike Pence welcomes pro-life Democrats, says they have a home in Republican Party

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Vice President Mike Pence officially offered a welcome to pro-life Democrats, explaining that they have a home in the Republican Party in response to prominent Democrats saying that abortion rights are integral to their party's agenda.

Speaking at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, Pence touched on several topics when speaking before the large conservative gathering outside Washington, D.C.

On the issue of abortion, Pence declared that I couldnt be more proud to be vice president to a president who stands without apology for the sanctity of human life.

This president reinstituted the Mexico City Policy to make sure that no taxpayer dollars will be used to promote or provide abortions overseas, Pence said.

He made history by becoming the first president to attend the March for Life last month, on the National Mall. And he signed legislation to make it possible for every state to deny Title X funding to abortion providers.

Pence then talked about the Democratic candidates, making an appeal to members of the Democratic Party who identify as pro-life.

Life is winning in America, he said. Thats what makes it so remarkable that every leading Democrat running for president has actually said that theres no room in todays Democratic Party for pro-life voters.

So let me say to every pro-life American, Republican, independent, or Democrat: You have a home in todays Republican Party.

Pences comments come amid debate among Democratic presidential candidates about what place, if any, pro-life individuals have in the party.

For example, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., declared at an event in New Hampshire that it was absolutely essential for a Democrat to be pro-choice on abortion.

By this time in history, I think when we talk about what a Democrat is, I think being pro-choice is an essential part of that, said Sanders at the Our Rights, Our Courts forum in Concord earlier this month.

At a town hall in Iowa, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg was asked by Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats For Life of America, about whether he would support more moderate platform language.

Well, I respect where you're coming from, and I hope to earn your vote. But I'm not going to try to earn your vote by tricking you. I am pro-choice. And I believe that a woman ought to be able to make that decision, responded Buttigieg.

The best I can offer is that if we can't agree on where to draw the line, the next best thing we can do is agree on who should draw the line. And in my view, it's the woman who's faced with that decision in her own life.

For her part, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said on an episode of ABCs The View that the party should be accepting of pro-life Democrats.

I believe we are a big tent party and there are pro-life Democrats and they are part of our party, stated Klobuchar, who said she herself is and has always been pro-choice.

I think we need to build a big tent. I think we need to bring people in instead of shutting them out. That also includes independents right here in New Hampshire and moderate Republicans.

During his speech, Pence also touched on other topics, championing the Trump administrations handling of the economy, trade, and immigration enforcement.

He touted the administrations efforts against Islamic terrorism, such as their strikes against the Islamic State terrorist organization and the targeted killing of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani.

He also discussed the response to fears over the coronavirus, telling those gathered that President Donald Trump has no higher priority than the health, safety, and well-being of the American people.

Last month, following word of the outbreak of the coronavirus in China, President Trump took unprecedented action to protect the health of Americans, explained Pence.

He declared a public health emergency, we suspended travel from the United States to China, we initiated quarantine efforts for American citizens returning and established a White House coronavirus task force, which has literally met every single day to protect the American people.

Pence explained that there have been, as of Thursday, 15 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S., with only one new case detected within the last two weeks.

While the risk to the American public remains low, as the president said yesterday, were ready, were ready for anything, he noted. Were all in this together.
A firm developing a rival bid to expand Heathrow today launched an appeal against a ruling by leading judges that the Government must reconsider its support for a third runway.

The Arora Group said it lodged appeal papers in the Supreme Court in a bid to 'put Heathrow expansion back on track' as the west London airport's bullish owner, Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL), also stated it will appeal.

Pending an appeal, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps must review the NPS if the Government wants the project to go ahead. The Arora Group was an interested party in the Court of Appeal case.

It wants to build and operate a new terminal serving a third runway at Heathrow and what the firm claims will be a quicker and at a lower cost than HAL.

Yesterday, the Court of Appeal ruled that the 14 billion expansion of Heathrow airport was illegal because the Government failed to take into account its legal duty to curb climate change in its plan to open up a new runway.

However, airport chiefs have now vowed 'Let's get Heathrow done', claiming the environmental issues highlighted by the court are 'eminently fixable' and the ruling 'does not stop Heathrow expansion'.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell joins protesters who oppose the expansion of Heathrow Airport outside the High Court

It comes as Gatwick said today it would push ahead with plans for a second runway of its own by Spring.

A consultation will be held in April or May to bring Gatwick's northern runway into full time use - which could see 15 more flights per hour launched from the airport.

Heathrow chiefs meanwhile have played down the significance of yesterday's court decision, which blocked runway expansion plans.

A Heathrow spokesman told Mail Online: 'Heathrow's North West runway remains Government Policy.

'The Court of Appeal ruling does not stop Heathrow expansion and the process issue identified by the Court is eminently fixable. Failure to fix it rules out airport growth anywhere in the country.

'Heathrow has already taken a lead in getting the UK aviation sector to commit to a plan to get to Net Zero emissions by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement and we are ready to work with Government to help deliver their agenda to Level Up the country and deliver a Global Britain.'

The spokesperson added that Heathrow would work with the government to amend its policy, while a Supreme Court appeal is ongoing.

The airport also insisted its plans were in line with the Paris agreement, pointing out that the government policy is what needs to be modified.

Yesterday's ruling suggested future airports, motorway and energy projects could all be blocked to prevent global warming.

Green campaigners said the victory was 'groundbreaking' and warned the legal precedent sounded the death knell for big infrastructure projects that increased greenhouse gases.

But critics said the move would hand a huge economic advantage to the UK's competitors.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the Government would not appeal the ruling  and that Heathrow expansion was the private sector's responsibility. He tweeted: 'Airport expansion is core to boosting global connectivity. We also take seriously our commitment to the environment. This Government won't appeal today's judgment given our manifesto makes clear any Heathrow expansion will be industry-led.'

How Paris deal in 2015 was exploited by the activists The expansion of Heathrow has been blocked because green campaigners successfully claimed in court that it fails to take into account the UK's legal commitment to reduce greenhouse gases. The Government's Airports National Policy Statement set out the framework for the airport's growth. But Friends of the Earth argued that it ignored the commitment to the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement was signed by the UK in 2015 and was ratified in law the following year. It commits Britain, and nearly 200 other countries, to keep future global temperature rises 'well below' 2C (3.6F) and to 'endeavour to limit' them to 1.5C. The policy failed to spell out how the massive expansion of Heathrow Airport could be consistent with reducing Britain's greenhouse gas emissions. The Court of Appeal ruled that this case was one of 'exceptional public interest'. It noted that 'the issue of climate change is a matter of profound national and international importance of great concern to the public  and, indeed, to the Government of the United Kingdom and many other national governments, as is demonstrated by their commitment to the Paris Agreement'. The court said Heathrow expansion might be able to go ahead if the Government could show it was consistent with the Paris Agreement. The Government said it will not seek to overturn the ruling. But Heathrow's chief executive announced that the airport intends to appeal to the Supreme Court. Advertisement

Under the extension plan, a third runway would be built north-west of the airport, that would allow it to handle 756,000 flights a year, up from 473,000 last year.

The expansion was ruled unlawful by judges as it failed to take into account the UK's legal commitment to curb global warming under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

This commits the UK  and nearly 200 other countries  to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to stop the world heating up by more than 2degC.

In a summary, Lord Justice Lindblom said the failure to take into account the Paris Agreement was 'legally fatal' to the plan.

The Heathrow expansion scheme, first mooted 17 years ago, was voted for overwhelmingly by MPs in June 2018. The then transport secretary, Chris Grayling, said the it would set a 'clear path to our future as a global nation in the post-Brexit world'. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose Uxbridge constituency neighbours the airport, did not vote for the plan. He was in Afghanistan at the time and once promised he would 'lie down' in front of bulldozers to stop it.

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said the airport would challenge the court's decision at the Supreme Court, saying: 'We think the appeals court got it wrong. We have a very strong legal case, and we will be making that very firmly.'

Mr Holland-Kaye said Heathrow would work with the Government to review its policy 'to make sure we can demonstrate expansion is compatible with the Paris accord on climate change'.

Former transport secretary Andrew Adonis said: 'The only winners from a refusal to expand Heathrow as agreed by Parliament two years ago will be other international hubs that will take the extra traffic, especially Amsterdam, Paris and Dubai.

'There won't be fewer flights  they just won't come to Britain.'

Dr Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said it was 'bitterly disappointed'.

He added: 'Without expansion, firms risk losing crucial regional connectivity and access to key markets across the world.

'The benefits of a third runway would extend far beyond south-east England. Hundreds of UK companies are already invested in the supply chain for expansion, and tens of thousands of additional jobs will be created if the project goes ahead.'

Former chancellor George Osborne criticised Mr Johnson's lack of leadership. He tweeted: 'Judges kill off Heathrow third runway and Britain getting the modern air transport infrastructure we need, despite the elected Parliament voting for it overwhelmingly. Presumably this is the kind of over-reaching undemocratic judicial activism Boris wants to curb...or perhaps not.'

But green activists and academics celebrated the ruling. Will Rundle, of Friends of the Earth  one of the organisations which brought the legal action  said a third runway 'would have had dire implications for present and future generations'. 'This ruling is an absolutely ground-breaking result for climate justice,' he added.

Campaigners cheer outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London on February 27

'It's time for developers and public authorities to be held to account when it comes to the climate impact of their damaging developments.' Clare Farrell, a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, added: 'The recognition of this appeal will support citizens all over the world who are begging for policy-writing in line with the truth.'

Dr Phillip Williamson, from the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, said the Court of Appeal judgment 'shows that the Paris Agreement is legally binding, not an aspiration, and will require many other policy re-thinks'.

Environment minister Zac Goldsmith, an opponent of Heathrow expansion, tweeted that the court's decision was 'HUGE!!!' He also criticised a tweet by Greens MP Caroline Lucas which asked, 'How can we trust Government pledges on climate when it has taken the courts to end climate-wrecking projects like Heathrow?'

Mr Goldsmith wrote: 'Sometimes wonder if Greens actually prefer the bad news! How else to interpret this reaction to this good news (and this judgment combined with the Government's decision not to appeal certainly is good news).'

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, who is visiting the UK today, tweeted: 'Heathrow third runway ruled illegal over climate change. Imagine when we all start taking the Paris Agreement into account.'

An act of self-harm to make us all poorer

Commentary by Alex Brummer for the Daily Mail

Climate-change activists will not be the only ones celebrating the Court of Appeal's decision to block a new third runway at Heathrow. It saves the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who once threatened to lie down in front of the bulldozers, from having to make an embarrassing U-turn.

It is a great victory for British Airways owner IAG, which controls an astonishing 51.5 per cent of the take-off and landing slots at the airport and has such a dominant position that Virgin Atlantic and the myriad of other global carriers find it hard to compete.

And for most of the people living under the flightpath, including voters in Johnson's Tory constituency of Uxbridge and the LibDem strongholds of south-west London, it will be a blessed relief.

But, as a resident of the Richmond Park neighbourhood, who is already woken up in the early hours by the noise of the lumbering jumbo jets arriving from the Far East, followed the red-eye flights from North America, I will not be joining in the celebrations  even though a third runway would increase the number of planes flying above my house.

The fact is that, as Britain looks to become more global in the post-Brexit era, it desperately needs more runway capacity in the prosperous south-east if we are not to lose out to foreign rivals.

The success of the economy in recent decades has been supported by a brilliant services sector, which accounts for 71 per cent of our economic output.

Services are about people, not goods, and it is Heathrow's role in ferrying an army of consultants, lawyers, architects, engineers, academics and digital specialists between Britain and key corners of the business world such as Silicon Valley, which makes it so important.

A computer generated image released by Heathrow airport on June 18, 2019 shows what the airport will look like in 2050 following the completion of a third runway and new terminals

If this traffic were to be lost to Amsterdam's Schipol (which has six runways), Frankfurt (four), or Charles de Gaulle in Paris (also four), the economic cost to the UK would be incalculable.

Meanwhile, although much of China is locked down at present because of the coronavirus, it has more than 200 international airports capable of accommodating the very biggest commercial planes.

In 2015, the Airport Commission, headed by City grandee Sir Howard Davies, recommended pressing ahead with a new runway at Heathrow and came up with a higher carbon-pricing formula designed to overcome the objections of the green lobby.

But dither and delay since then by the Cameron and May governments, together with changes in the UK's carbon emissions targets, gave the activists the upper hand in the Court of Appeal. Heathrow, owned by Spanish construction group Ferrovial and the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar and Singapore, plans to take its plans for a third runway to the Supreme Court. But without full government backing, and at a time of new promises to tighten carbon-emission standards, it is hard to see how real progress can be made.

This lack of government leadership is shameful. At the very time it is vital to demonstrate that Britain is determined to invest in its global future after Brexit, we are doing the reverse by washing our hands of the third runway.

The Government should absolutely be supporting Heathrow in its appeal. What kind of message, otherwise, is it sending out to the world? As anyone who uses Heathrow knows, the airport  which handled 65million passengers last year  is already full to the gunwales.

Capacity constraint leads to higher emissions per flight, not lower. It also means that London's role as a hub for global traffic, with all the commerce that brings with it, is seriously hampered.

What few people realise is that Heathrow is enormously important for freight and exports. In terms of value, it is the UK's biggest port for global markets excluding the EU and Switzerland, and handles 33 per cent of Britain's exports to very fast-growing international markets which are at the heart of 'global Britain'.

Marks & Spencer, for instance, supplies its franchise operators in Hong Kong with several jumbo-jet flights a week of fresh sandwiches and produce. What happens when capacity shortages prevents it  and other exporters  from doing so? They will go to other airports.

Heathrow says the third runway would be worth billions of pounds in exports.

The battle over London's vital global transport hub is a sharp reminder of how the economic costs of a green agenda threaten the prosperity of the nation. Uncomfortable as the noise and pollution is for people like me living under the flightpath, the greater public good would be served by a new runway.

Moreover, the arrival of lighter, less polluting aircraft should, over time, substantially reduce noise and emissions.

By blocking the new runway, the Government and the courts have engaged in an act of self-harm which I fear could make us all poorer.
Mimadeo/iStock(NEW YORK) -- The novel coronavirus outbreak has already upended an entire industry, resulting in canceled flights, resorts on lockdown, and a deadly cruise ship quarantine. With the world bracing for a pandemic, experts say the travel sector should prepare for even more uncertainty ahead.



The outbreak is expected to cost the airline industry alone nearly $30 billion.



Moreover, the decline in Chinese and other Asian tourists coming to the U.S. "will translate into a loss of $7.7 billion in visitor spending," according to Adam Sacks, the founder and president of Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economic consulting company for the travel industry.



"The impacts are significant indeed; to put it another way, it represents 7.5 million hotel room nights," said Sacks. "It's just a massive economic hit in one year."



"The impact is almost certainly going to be larger than what we felt during SARS," Sacks added. "The main reason for that is that the markets affected, especially China, are so much larger than they were seven years ago."



Airlines expected to take a nearly $30 billion hit



Some of the biggest losses will be felt by the airlines, which are expected to lose $29.3 billion in revenue due to the COVID-19 outbreak, according to an initial assessment by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). A vast majority of that revenue loss -- $27.8 billion -- would hit carriers in the Asia-Pacific region.



IATA CEO Alexandre de Juniac said that due to the coronavirus, his organization is forecasting the first overall decline in air travel demand since the financial crash of 2008-2009.



"Airlines are making difficult decisions to cut capacity and in some cases routes," he said in a statement. "This will be a very tough year for airlines."



Just weeks after the outbreak began in Wuhan, China, in late January, major U.S. airlines suspended or canceled flights to the Chinese mainland.



Delta, United and American Airlines have all suspended all flights to mainland China through late April -- and American and United have suspended flights to Hong Kong as well.



As the virus spread to other parts of the world, Delta also announced it was suspending some flights to South Korea, and all three carriers said they would issue travel waivers for those who have booked flights there. Delta and United also announced they were issuing waivers for flights to Italy, where another cluster of coronavirus cases emerged, through mid-March.



The IATA calculated the nearly $30 billion figure based on how the industry was hit after the SARS epidemic, which was characterized by a sharp decline in travel demand for six months followed by an equally quick recovery -- though it's still unclear if this outbreak will follow a similar path.



Hayley Berg, an economist at the flight and hotel booking service Hopper, told ABC News that demand for travel to China is about 40% lower than it was at the beginning of January. Barring any significant changes, Berg said, "we expect this to be the new norm."



The suspension of U.S. flights to China has also had a big impact on the rest of the region, according to Berg, because many flights to Asian destinations connect through China. For example, about half the U.S. flights to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam rely on a transfer in China.



"Many of these countries are also relying on that connection of the U.S. to China to fuel their tourism," Berg said.



Berg says her company analyzes travel demand based on what people are searching for via online travel agencies.



"The areas that we know (have taken) the most recent demand hits because of coronavirus are definitely concentrated in Asia and Southeast Asia," she said.



As a result, Berg said, more people in the U.S. have been looking for local travel destinations.



"We've seen a definite uptick in demand for domestic flights at the same time that international demand has fallen," she said. "I would expect that is something we will see continue."



Meanwhile, areas with no coronavirus cases, including Alaska and Australia, appear to be using that as a tourism selling-point.



Impacts likely to be felt on a 'global scale'



While COVID-19 has been confirmed in a limited number of places, fear has already spread far beyond. On Wednesday, two ports in the Caribbean denied entry to a cruise ship without any evidence there was coronavirus on board.



"If there was previously a temptation to view the coronavirus as a China or Asia issue, then developments this week must force a shift in mindset," Nick Wyatt, the head of travel and tourism at data and analytics firm GlobalData, said in a commentary.



Citing the dozen towns in Italy that are on lockdown, as well as other European countries that have announced confirmed cases, Wyatt said that it's "readily apparent that the impact is likely to be felt on a more global scale than was perhaps previously envisaged."



And while government-imposed travel restrictions and flight cancelations are having an impact, "incessant media coverage of the issue is also impacting traveler confidence," Wyatt said.



In particular, the saga of the Diamond Princess cruise ship, where hundreds of passengers were quarantined on board while the ship was docked in Yokohama, Japan, has received worldwide headlines. Princess Cruises, which operates the ship, canceled all Diamond Princess voyages through April 20 due to the "prolonged quarantine period" and the cruise line offered a full refund to all 2,666 guests, more than 400 of whom were from the United States.



"Cruises have seen negative press coverage in the last few weeks, which is not helping operators," Wyatt said. "These actions restrict people's ability and willingness to travel and this is obviously creating significant headwinds for the industry."



Sacks, however, is bullish on an eventual recovery.



"What we've seen many times is resilience in the cruise industry," he said. "Demand still comes back."



If outbreak is contained, rebound is expected to be quick



Wyatt predicts the impact on the travel industry as a whole will be widespread, and that hotels, online travel agencies and cruises will likely suffer economic losses.



"While it's important to temper the hysteria and make it clear that the travel and tourism sector is not going to grind to a halt altogether, we must be realistic and acknowledge the fact that it will need to navigate choppy waters for some time to come," he said.



But once the virus is contained, Sacks believes the industry will rebound.



After the SARS outbreak ended, Sacks says it took roughly four months for the travel industry to stabilize. Once the coronavirus outbreak is contained, Sacks predicts the rebound will be just as fast.



"The travel market is very resilient," said Sacks. "Once a crisis passes, and it's no longer front-page news, people resume their travel paths very quickly."



"Our forecast for 2021 is very strong," he added. "It's the mirror image of the downturn."

Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
DERBY  The iconic World War I cannon that has served as a city landmark at the corner of Atwater and Seymour avenues for 100 years is in need of a face-lift.

The beloved piece of history, which many residents recall playing on and around during their childhoods, was brought over from France and placed in front of the Veterans Memorial building in 1920. While the cannon has received some refurbishment over the years, its in desperate need of a new set of wheels.

Thats why the Catholic War Veterans Post 1562 is holding a Save our Cannon fundraiser later this month to help with the costs, which Post Commander Tom Voytek said will be about $2,500.

Voytek said the wooden wheels were refurbished about 20 years by Walter Archer Jr. for his Eagle Scout project, and a rededication ceremony for the cannon was held. However, Voytek said because there was no maintenance over the years to seal the wheels from the elements, parts of them have begun to rot.

The wheels have since been painted as a temporary fix, but Voytek said the Board of Governors, in which he serves as vice-president and is comprised of several area veterans groups, would like to see the wheels repaired.

Voytek said he received a quote from an Amish company in Pennsylvania to create new wheels for the cannon, and the fundraiser is geared to help with the price tag.

The CWV will host a MEATO fundraiser, which Voytek explained is a game similar to bingo, but players can win prizes of meat  chicken, roasts, steaks and even lobsters. The event will take place at 7 p.m. Feb. 28 at the CWV Post headquarters, 112 Derby Ave. The cost per game is $2, and Voytek said there will be about 10 games played.

Voytek is encouraging folks to attend to help preserve a part of history.

Preservation of Americas heritage and monuments is extremely important to remind and educate the community about the many sacrifices our ancestors made so that we as a people can live in freedom, Voytek said. Remember that only seven percent have ever served in the Armed Forces to protect the rights of the other 93 percent.

Mayor Richard Dziekan, who serves as president of the Board of Governors, and is a U.S. Air Force veteran, concurred that preserving the cannon is important.

This is a great piece of historyits a landmark in Derby, Dziekan said. Just as we preserved the Civil War monument on the Derby Green, we want to see the cannon taken care of, as well. Its something that people can touch and feel like part of history. Its amazing, this cannon was used in War World I.

Voytek said the building and the property that the cannon sits on is owned by the City of Derby. The deed for the property reads that as long as there is one veteran still alive or a member of a veteran group headquartered in Derby that the building and property will be under the control of a Board of Governors. Voytek said CWV Post 1562 is one of the veteran groups that sits on the board, as well as the American Legion, Am Vets, DAV, MOPH and two civilians, all who agreed the cannon needs to be repaired.

For more information, or to make a donation, call CWV Post 1562 at 203-734-9748.

jean.sos@snet.net
Coronavirus cases in Europe have leapt this week, with hundreds confirmed in northern Italy (SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Two further patients in England have tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total number of UK cases to 15, according to the Department of Health.

The virus was passed on to one patient in Italy and to the other in Tenerife.

A school and a GP surgery in Buxton, Derbyshire, have been shut down due to one of the new cases.

Burbage Primary School told Sky News the school was closed because a parent had tested positive.

Meanwhile, Buxton Medical Practice urged people not to go to the practice on Thursday due to a confirmed case of coronavirus.

The patients have been transferred to specialist NHS infection centres in Royal Liverpool Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital, London.

The latest UK cases emerged as European countries struggled to contain the virus.

Update on #coronavirus:



Two further patients in England have tested positive for #COVID19, bringing the total number of UK cases to 15.



Patients have been transferred to specialist NHS infection centres.



More info:

https://t.co/NIDom2yqyM pic.twitter.com/aoWIuKR7Ps  Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) February 27, 2020

A woman seen on a tube wearing a face mask. A total of 15 people in the UK are now being treated for Covid-19 (SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

Italy has confirmed at least 400 cases and 12 deaths after a severe outbreak in the north of the country.

Austria, Croatia and Switzerland also reported their first cases linked to the outbreak in Italy, while Spain and France recorded new ones, also involving people who had been to northern Italy.

Read more: What could a coronavirus worst-case scenario look like in the UK?

France recorded its second death on Wednesday, a 60-year-old Frenchman who died in a Paris hospital.

Dr Tom Wingfield, senior clinical lecturer at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said: The new patients diagnosed today in the UK and now being managed in specialist infection units in Liverpool and London are not surprising and do not change the understanding of what the outbreak will look like in the UK.

Story continues

There are likely to be some more cases in the coming weeks but the UK public can be reassured that we have experienced teams in place to manage the isolation and care of people diagnosed with coronavirus and perform robust tracing and screening of their contacts.

Some 168 Britons have been told to isolate themselves at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife after a three tourists staying there tested positive.

Footage shared by a British guest on Wednesday showed tourists strolling through the hotel grounds and swimming in the pool without masks, despite instructions to stay inside their hotel rooms.

Travellers returning to the UK from northern Italy were told they may need to self-isolate as part of measures to stop the spread of illness.

Schools and businesses have been urged not to overreact as the coronavirus continues to spread.

Read more: Germany 'at start of coronavirus epidemic'

At least eight schools in the UK have closed while others  including Prince Georges  have sent pupils home amid fears they may have been exposed to coronavirus during trips to northern Italy.

However, Public Health England (PHE) said that its general advice is not to close schools  a message echoed by health secretary Matt Hancock.

Businesses have been advised that employees do not need to wear face masks, as the government looks to combat panic over the illness.

Guidance published by ministers says face masks are only recommended to be worn by symptomatic individuals to reduce the risk of transmitting the infection to other people.

The Business Department and PHE recommended that the best way to reduce any risk of infection is good hygiene and avoiding direct or close contact (closer than two metres) with any potentially infected person.
China Aviation Daily | Feb. 24, 2020

Budapest Airport welcomed the first direct Seoul-Budapest cargo flight on Friday 21st February 2020; Korean Air's Boeing 777F type cargo aircraft taxied to the apron of BUD's logistics base at 10:40. The aerial connection is not only an excellent opportunity for the large Korean companies operating in Hungary, but will also constitute a significant competitive advantage for the Hungarian economy in the import-export market.

Korean Air, one of the largest cargo airlines in the world, has opened a direct cargo flight between Seoul and Budapest. The Boeing 777F type aircraft flying the first scheduled South Korean cargo flight to Budapest was welcomed last week on the apron of the BUD Cargo City, Budapest Airport's new, recently opened logistics base. Going forward, the flight will commute on the Seoul-Budapest-Frankfurt-Seoul route twice a week. The carrier will also launch a passenger flight to the South Korean capital on 23 May, which will operate three times a week between Budapest and Seoul during the summer schedule.

South Korea became the largest investor in Hungary last year. The factories of numerous companies significant from the perspective of air cargo, such as Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDI, Hanon Systems, SK Innovation and Doosan, are located at a transportation distance of just 1.5-2 hours from the BUD Cargo City. The new flight will provide new, efficient and high-quality transport solutions for these businesses, as well as efficient transportation opportunities for small and medium-sized Hungarian enterprises to Korea and into Korean Air's entire network, via Seoul.

Levente Magyar, Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade emphasized during the flight inauguration ceremony: "2019 was a special year in relations between Hungary and South Korea. The two countries celebrated the 30th anniversary of establishing formal diplomatic relations, and South Korea became the largest investor in Hungary, implementing projects to a value of 2.5 billion EUR, which is nearly half of the total investment portfolio. Trade also increased by one-third, compared to the previous year," the Deputy Minister said.

"Budapest being added to the map of Korean Air's passenger and cargo flights is a real milestone in the history of Budapest Airport. We are especially proud to welcome a new airline customer to the BUD Cargo City, the cargo hub of Central and Eastern Europe, just over a month after its opening," said Dr. Rolf Schnitzler, the CEO Budapest Airport. "The direct aerial connection is not only a huge advantage for Hungarian and international companies, but also an opportunity for Hungary and the Hungarian capital airport to become the number one cargo hub in the region," he added.

"Korean Air's new scheduled cargo flight and the direct Soul-Budapest passenger service to be launched in May further strengthen commercial and diplomatic ties between Hungary and South Korea," said H.E. Kyoo Sik Choe, the Ambassador of South Korea to Hungary. "On behalf of the embassy, we will do everything we can to ensure that these new aerial connection should be successful, for both countries," he added.

"I am very confident, our cooperation will lead our business to connect and both economies to make a fruitful result. Furthermore, Incheon airport is becoming a major hub for cargo traffic in East Asia and Budapest will take advantageous position in the Central European market." Said Jeong Soo Park, Managing Vice President for Europe of Korean Air.

In January 2020, Budapest Airport opened its new cargo base, the BUD Cargo City, which increases the airport's total cargo handling capacity to 250 000 tons per year, with its world-class infrastructure and favorable location.

Contributed by Budapest Airport
Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the country's scientists on the Science Day on Friday.

" Science Day is an occasion to salute the talent and tenacity of our scientists. Their innovative zeal and pioneering research has helped India and the world. May Indian science continue to thrive and may our young minds develop even greater curiosity towards science," the Prime Minister tweeted.

He also shared a video of his address at the 107th session of the Indian Science Congress in Bengaluru on January 3.

Sharing the video, Prime Minister Modi tweeted, "On our part, the Government of India is making numerous efforts to create an even better environment for research and innovation in India. I spoke about aspects relating to science during the Indian Science Congress earlier this year. Sharing it again...."

Science Day is celebrated in the country on February 28 to mark the discovery of the 'Raman effect' by Indian physicist Sir CV Raman on this day in 1928.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Banerjee expressed concern over the communal clashes in Delhi that have claimed at least 39 lives and said that steps should be taken so that the situation does not aggravate further

Bhubaneswar: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that there was no discussion on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) or the NRC at the Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) meeting, but she raised the issue of violence in Delhi.

Banerjee expressed concern over the communal clashes in Delhi that have claimed at least 39 lives and said that steps should be taken so that the situation does not aggravate further.

"I am very sad about what happened in Delhi. A police constable and an IB official also died. Peace must be restored in Delhi," she told the meeting.

Speaking to reporters after attending a lunch hosted by Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Banerjee said there was no discussion on the CAA or NRC at the meeting as it was not on the agenda.

"Neither they raised the issues nor did I. It was also not on the agenda. This meeting was not for that," she said. She joined Union home minister Amit Shah and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for the lunch hosted by Patnaik at his official residence.

Asked if she would back the demand of Shah's resignation in wake of the Delhi riots, Banerjee said, "The problem should be solved first and then we will discuss politics."

She said that peace should prevail across the country and the riot victims adequately compensated. At the meeting, the West Bengal chief minister raised the issue of alleged negligence of the Centre towards her state.

She claimed that West Bengal did not get the required assistance during natural calamities such as cyclone Fani and Bulbul, besides several other pending dues from the Centre.

"We have not got Rs 50,000 crore from the Centre," she said. Banerjee said she also raised the issues of delay in GST compensation payment and lowered share of states in devolution of central taxes.

Issues relating to the development of the states in the region, the need for coal royalty revision, strengthening of infrastructure were also discussed at the EZC meeting, she said.
Shadowproof editor Kevin Gosztola is in London for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assanges week-long extradition hearing.

Stay tuned to Shadowproof, as well as his Twitter, for coverage. And if you support our work and are able to help fund Kevins reporting, go here to donate.

Defendants in the United States sit with their counsel. They are not held in a secure dock in a manner that physically removes them from proceedings.

Yet, in the United Kingdom, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces extradition to the U.S., a magistrate court judge decided he must remain isolated in a glass box at the back of the courtroom.

The first proceedings in Assanges extradition hearing concluded on Thursday at the Woolwich courthouse in London, which is adjacent to Her Majestys Prison Belmarsh where Assange is detained.

Assange is charged with 17 counts of violating the U.S. Espionage Act, and a computer crime offense, which contains language from the Espionage Act.

The defense requested that Judge Vanessa Baraitser allow Assange to sit with his attorneys in the well of the courtroom.

[Weve] now been in court for four days, and Mr. Assange has dealt with those four days stoically, defense attorney Mark Summers declared. Yet, there are cumulative problems for Assange that arise from a number of factors.

Summers raised the issue of Assanges health and noted that the glass box impinges on and prevents proper communication in a confidential way with legal representatives. The legal team cannot see when Assange wants to communicate with them.

Due to the layout of the court, Assanges ability to speak confidentially through glass slats is difficult. Conversations must happen in proximity of security guards [and] representatives of the U.S. government.

What is said may be overheard by microphones, a concern for Assange given the espionage operation that was conducted by a Spanish security company that targeted him on behalf of the CIA while he was in the Ecuador embassy. Microphones were planted to eavesdrop on attorney-client privileged communications.

Summers encouraged the judge to permit Assange to sit with his legal team and enjoy free, uninterrupted unoverheard conversations with his lawyers about evidence that will be presented during an upcoming three-week extradition proceeding in May.

The judge flatly rejected this request. She maintained Assange has had no difficulty at all in attracting the attention of those who sit on the legal team in the back row of the well. He communicated with them via notes during the week.

Attempts were made to deal with poor acoustics, according to Baraitser, including the noise from demonstrators outside the courthouse. He was told to raise his hand so proceedings could be repeated. Headphones were provided on the last day, yet he declined to say when he could not hear and simply chose not to wear them because the ambient sound was too bothersome.

Serious Concerns About His Fair Trial Rights

Baraitser dismissed the notion that he has some psychiatric vulnerability that would require a change in security procedure. She was willing to alter restrictions on passing notes, loosen limits on legal visits outside the courtroom, and address how to better protect confidential conversations so he can have proper adequate access. But she would not take the meaningful step of protecting his right to a fair trial by allowing him to be outside the glass box while in court.

The judge even proposed that the defense request more frequent breaks and ramp up their written communications during the next extradition hearing. She would rather a three-week hearing turn into a six-week hearing than risk Assange being unable to participate.

But this suggestionthat the court expend twice the resources and take double the time instead of upholding Assanges rightswas understandably opposed by the defense. It would jeopardize the ability of the defense to present their evidence coherently and in an uninterrupted manner.

The episode was made even more absurd by the prosecutor, James Lewis, who remained neutral and unopposed to Assange sitting with his lawyers. He mentioned to the judge that there were precedents where the accused had joined their legal team in the well, and the judge briefly argued with the prosecutor.

Mr. Assange is having significant difficulties in participating in these proceedings. Hes unable to pass notes in a confidential and secure way. Hes unable to seek clarification from his legal team and give instructions during the course of the proceedings, stated Jen Robinson, one of Assanges attorneys. And the judge has refused his ability to leave the dock to be able to participate properly. This is obviously raising serious concerns about his fair trial rights and his ability to properly participate and defend himself in these proceedings.

Rebecca Vincent, the U.K. Bureau Director for Reporters Without Borders, indicated the organization was concerned by the magistrates decision to reject Mr. Assanges request to leave the secure dock that hes being held in at the back of this courtroom and to sit with his lawyers in the well of the court.

Hes been unable to follow proceedings properly, unable to confer with his lawyers, and is looking pretty unwell. Also, the fact that he is being held in essentially a glass cage and treated like a violent criminal is completely inappropriate [given] the nature of the charges.

No Requirement For The Dock, Simply Recommended Policy

JUSTICE describes itself as an all-party law reform and human rights organization working to strengthen the justice system in the U.K. In a 2015 report [PDF], they examined the use of docks in the countrys courts, which were rarely used before the 1980s.

The reason for the modern widespread use of the dock is to prevent escape or violence. Therefore, what started out as a mechanism of delineating places in the courtroom has, in our view, become a disproportionate solution to meeting this perceived threat.

According to JUSTICEs report, Research to date suggests that there is a paucity of rigorous data demonstrating that the threat of violence on the part of the defendant or attempts to escape the dock are regular problems. Likewise, incidents of public harm towards defendants are rarely known.

While there may have been localized security concerns that led to the development of secure docks, it is not easy to discern an ongoing justification for their blanket application. There continues to be no statutory requirement or judicial authority demanding the use of docks in the courts in England and Wales.

It is simply recommended policy that docks be available in the courtroom, JUSTICE added. It is, therefore, entirely within the discretion of the courts, upon application by the defendant, or upon their own volition to dispense with the dock in any trial and allow the defendant to sit with their legal representatives.

JUSTICE contended the vast majority of defendants are put in the dock whether charged with minor or serious offenses.

Another report from the Journal of Law and Society in 2017 noted the European Court of Human Rights has developed jurisprudence that deals with how security docks violate Article 3 (a prohibition on degrading treatment) and Article 6 (the right to a fair trial).

The court has ruled that an inability to talk to ones lawyer without being separated by a glass partition constitutes a violation of the right to defense, a defendant in a glass fronted dock is denied a fair trial if he cannot hear all the evidence against him, and placing an accused person in a cage in the courtroom breaches Article 3 of the European Charter of Human Rights, the report added.

American, European and Australian cases have relied on a principle that visible signs of confinement in the courtroom could influence decision-makers.

Baraitser is likely aware of the struggles defendants have in the glass boxes of English courtrooms. The JUSTICE report mentioned, It is often the judge who notices that the defendant wants to communicate with their lawyers, and must draw attention to it, which is exactly what happened several times in court.

A half century ago, the United States completely did away with the dock. It has the largest prison population in the world, yet defendants, even terrorism suspects, sit with their attorneys during trial.

As the JUSTICE report put it, The rejection of the dock is embedded in constitutional guarantees, indicative of the struggle against colonial powers, and due process abuses.

The United States government may exhibit flagrant contempt for press freedom in pursuing a case against Assange, but if Assange is brought to the U.S., he will not be secluded in a glass box during trial. That deplorable practice fortunately will not follow him across the pond.
Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General Michael Missal has opened an investigation into allegations that VA Secretary Robert Wilkie sought to dig up dirt on a congressional staffer who filed a complaint of sexual assault at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center. Her complaint was ultimately dismissed.

In a letter Thursday to congressional leaders, Missal said he is putting a "high priority" on the investigation into whether Wilkie attempted to discredit Navy Reserve Lt. Andrea Goldstein, who serves on the staff of House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Mark Takano, D-California.

Missal's investigation, which could put Wilkie's job on the line, was first reported by The Washington Post. It follows an earlier clash with Wilkie over his claim that Goldstein's complaint of being assaulted last September was "unsubstantiated."

On Monday, six Democratic senators led by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, called on Missal to investigate published reports of a whistleblower's allegation that Wilkie had discussed with aides launching a smear campaign against Goldstein.

Related: Senators Demand Investigation into Wilkies Handling of Sexual Assault Case at VA

The senators' letter to Missal referred to a report earlier this month by ProPublica, the investigative journalism nonprofit, which said it had obtained the whistleblower's written complaint and also had information from a former senior official charging that Wilkie had sought dirt on Goldstein.

In a statement on the whistleblower's complaint, the House Veterans Affairs Committee said it had "received details from an individual with knowledge of decision making by senior VA leaders that shows they attempted to gather damaging information" on Goldstein.

In a response to ProPublica, Wilkie vehemently denied the charge. Wilkie, a colonel in the Air Force Reserves, said, "I never would do that to a fellow officer. It is a breach of honor."

At a Feb. 8 National Press Club news conference, Wilkie also denied that his abrupt firing of VA Deputy Secretary James Byrne, the No. 2 at the VA, was related to the Goldstein case. Wilkie was vague on the reasons for Byrne's dismissal but said it was "in the best interests of the organization."

Wilkie added at the time that he wanted to re-examine the Goldstein case to assure her that the VA is committed to creating a better environment for all female veterans at VA facilities.

"I have to know, Ms. Goldstein has to know, our women veterans have to know, our facilities are safe. We're going to make a renewed push to get answers," he said.

In a statement Friday in response to Missal's opening of an investigation, Christina Mandreucci, a VA spokeswoman, said that the "VA will cooperate fully, just as the department did with the initial investigation into the allegations regarding the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center."

"To be clear, the only investigation into Ms. Goldstein's allegations was that of the independent inspector general [Missal] and U.S. Attorney -- an investigation Sec. Wilkie requested immediately upon learning of the allegations," according to the statement. "That investigation was closed with no charges filed, and neither the independent inspector general nor the U.S. Attorney has recommended any corrective or personnel actions, or general suggestions for improvement to VA."

In their Monday letter to Missal calling for an investigation, the senators said the allegations that Wilkie sought to "cast doubt" on Goldstein's complaint and "paint the individual as dishonest, and discredit her traumatic experience, demonstrates VA's continued inability to ensure women veterans are welcomed and supported by the country they have served."

The letter was signed by Murray and Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut; Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii; Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont; and Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois.

In a statement Thursday night, Murray said, "There is absolutely no place for retaliation against veterans who report assault and harassment. I'm glad VA's Inspector General has listened to Congress -- and survivors -- by deciding to look into these allegations."

The case grew out of Goldstein's visit to the Washington VA Medical Center last September. She initially told The New York Times that an individual she believed to be another veteran rubbed up against her and made lewd suggestions.

She later held a news conference outside the hospital with Takano to detail her allegations. The IG's office and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia investigated but decided not to bring charges for lack of evidence.

A factor in the decision may have been that security cameras in the area where Goldstein said she was assaulted were not working that day, according to the IG.

Wilkie quickly seized on the dismissal of the case as vindication for the VA. In a letter to Takano, he wrote:

"We believe that VA is a safe place for all veterans to enter and receive care and services, but the unsubstantiated claims raised by you and your staff could deter our veterans from seeking the care they need and deserve."

Takano responded in a statement: "I am aghast that Secretary Wilkie would think it appropriate to call into question allegations of sexual assault raised by one of our nation's veterans."

Wilkie's letter also drew a rebuke from Missal. "Neither I nor my staff told you or anyone else at the Department that the allegations were unsubstantiated," he said in a letter to Wilkie. "Reaching a decision to close the investigation with no criminal charges does not mean that the underlying allegation is unsubstantiated."

The investigation of the Goldstein case comes as Wilkie faces growing criticism from veterans service organizations on several other fronts.

His surprise firing of Byrne continued the high rate of turnover among senior VA leadership, and last week he was forced to announce a delay in the rollout of the highly touted $16 billion effort to provide the VA with an electronic medical records system that would mesh with the Defense Department.

Wilkie himself ended up with the VA job as the result of the turnover in the department. He was serving as under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness at the Pentagon when President Donald Trump fired then-VA Secretary Dr. David Shulkin in March 2018, following a scandal on spending for an overseas trip.

Then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis agreed to send Wilkie to the VA on an interim basis, partly to resolve the infighting between political appointees and long-time VA staff, but Trump decided to nominate him as secretary.

Wilkie was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 86-9 and was sworn in as VA secretary in July 2018.

On Thursday, at a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on the VA's budget, Wilkie in his opening statement cited VA surveys showing the increased satisfaction rates of female veterans with services at VA facilities.

At the end of the hearing, Takano told Wilkie, "Before we leave, I do want to address an important issue -- that's the issue of sexual assault and harassment at our various VA facilities."

"We do need to make some cultural changes to improve the care of our women veterans, to make them feel welcome. And making the cultural changes necessary to make the VA an inviting place for our increasing number of women veterans will require leadership from the top," he added.

On Wednesday, at another joint budget hearing at which veterans service organizations testified, AMVETS National Chairman Jan Brown charged that Wilkie's handling of the Goldstein case had turned into a "victim-blaming fiasco."

-- Dorothy Mills-Gregg contributed to this report.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.

Read More: After Delay, VA Sets New Timeline for Electronic Health Record Pilot Program
Migrants strand in buffer zone at Greek border

Hundreds of migrants moved to the regions with a coast on the Aegean Sea to cross the Greek islands.

Irregular migrants, including women and children, have been heading towards border villages of the countrys western provinces of Edirne and Canakkale to reach Greece.

TURKEY WILL NO LONGER TRY TO STOP THEM

Some even trying to swim to reach Greece.

But even if they do reach Greece, their future remains very uncertain.

Migrants head towards Europe WATCH

Turkish officials announced earlier that they would no longer try to stop irregular migrants from reaching Europe.

Turkey already hosts some 3.6 million migrants from Syria alone  more than any other country in the world  and has complained that Europe failed to keep its promises to help the migrants, as well as help Turkey, stem further migrant waves.

The movement started at night and grew by the morning.

Irregular immigrants also moved to the regions with a coast on the Aegean Sea to cross the Greek islands.

The groups also flocked towards the Aegean, to Cesme, Karaburun and Seferihisar in the Izmir province and Kusadasi and Dikili in the Aydin province.

The news also comes as attacks mount in Syria's Idlib province, with about a million refugees fleeing Assad regime attacks towards Turkey's southern borders.
An official sacked by the Ebonyi State Government for allegedly killing his cousin during a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) local government primary has been arrested by the police.

The suspect, Uche Ibiam, was the Coordinator of Ubeyi Development Centre In Afikpo North Local Government Area when he allegedly committed the crime.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how Mr Ibiam allegedly killed his cousin, Enyinnaya Ibiam (Jr), during a PDP councilorship primary election in their Unwana Ward last week.

The suspect was said to have clashed with his younger brother, Ogbonnaya Ibiam, who was a Technical Assistant to Governor David Umahi, during the primary election.

Both brothers belonged to different factions of the party in their local government area.

He was accused of masterminding the violence that broke out in the ward during the primary election last Friday, in which Ogbonnaya was reportedly killed.

It was equally alleged that the suspect during the violence, fired a gunshot at his own brother but hit Ogbonnaya instead who died instantly.

Following the tragedy, Governor Umahi on Sunday sacked the two brothers, Uche and Ogbonnaya, for their roles in the incident.

He also directed the police to arrest all those involved and prosecute them accordingly.

Police spokesperson in the state, Loveth Odah, confirmed the arrest to our reporter on Friday in Abakaliki, the state capital.

Yes, he has been arrested. Investigations into the matter are ongoing and he is cooperating with the police, Ms Odah said.
A special CBI court in Lucknow has sentenced then Uttar Pradesh police constable Ateeq Ahmed to life imprisonment for rape and murder of a teenage girl inside Nighasan police station in Lakhimpur Kheri district in 2011, officials said Friday.

The court has also sentenced then Deputy SP Inayat Ullah Khan to imprisonment for five years in the case, CBI Spokesperson R K Gaur said, adding the Special Judge also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Ahmed and Rs 50,000 on Khan.

"The CBI had registered a case on December 20, 2011, on the request of the Uttar Pradesh Government and taken over the investigation of FIR No. 706/2011, earlier registered at Police Station Nighasan in Lakhimpur Kheri (Uttar Pradesh) on the allegations of rape and murder of a victim inside the police station premises," he said.

According to the spokesperson, the charge sheet was filed against four accused but the court acquitted two.

In the judgment, the court found constable Ahmed guilty under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code.

The then circle officer, Khan, was also found guilty Section 201. Atiq was posted as the gunner of circle officer Khan. Those who have been acquitted are constables Shiv Kumar and Uma Shanker.

On June 10, 2011, the mother of a 14-year-old girl had lodged an FIR with the Nighasan police station saying that her daughter had taken a buffalo for grazing to the field and it went crossed the boundary of the police station into the premises.

As the girl did not return for long, the complainant went inside and found the body of her daughter hanging from a dry tree. The mother had seen injuries on the body of the girl, and it appeared that she was raped and then was hanged make it look like suicide.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The 4th day of March is Idaho Day, which commemorates the establishment of Idaho Territory by President Abraham Lincoln on March 4, 1863. Former State Representative Linden Bateman proposed celebrating the birth of our great State on that anniversary and Governor Otter signed legislation to do so on March 4, 2014.

The theme of Idaho Day this year is honoring inspirational Idaho women. There have been many in the history of our state, including quite a number during my lifetime.

Gracie Pfost was elected to the U.S. House in 1952 and served five terms in Congress. She was Idahos first Congresswoman. Pfost became a major combatant in the fight between private and public power that raged in the 1950s. She earned the nom de guerre Hells Belle for her unremitting support of a high federal dam in Hells Canyon, instead of the three smaller dams that Idaho Power now operates in the Canyon. She lost the fight but gained a reputation as a tough, straight-talking representative of the people.

In 1962, Pfost narrowly lost her bid for the U.S. Senate seat held by Len Jordan. I voted for Jordan, who later became my boss and mentor, but I had come to admire the courage and determination of Pfost as an elected official who was willing to stand up against one of the most powerful companies in the State for what she believed was right.

When I ran for Idaho Attorney General in 1982, the smart money was on my primary opponent, who was then serving as Ada County Prosecutor. A couple of Payette County Republican women became friends who gave me their support and encouragement to prevail in the race. Mary Hartung and Donna Jones were certainly a source of inspiration in that race.

Both went on to provide distinguished service in the Idaho Legislature. Mary served as the first female Director of the Idaho Department of Insurance and Donna was the first woman elected to serve as Idaho State Controller.

My dear friend Lydia Justice Edwards was not the first female State Treasurer, but she was truly a force in that office. When the State Insurance Fund refused to post a bond with her office like other workers compensation insurers, she took them to court and brought them in compliance with the law. She gained national attention by calling out pantyhose makers for taking advantage of women by making shoddy, expensive, short-lived hosiery. When Lydia set her mind to solving a problem, the best thing to do was get out of the way.

In 1984, I was looking for a candidate to replace a State Representative from my home district in Jerome County who was an impediment to resolving the Swan Falls water rights fight with Idaho Power. The first person that came to mind was Maxine Bell, who I had worked with earlier on the Jerome County Central Committee.

I knew her to be a smart and pragmatic person who would do the right thing. Unfortunately, she declined, saying she was not sure she could do the job. I thought otherwise.

Four years later, Maxine ran for the position and won. She served with distinction in the Legislature for 30 years. She and State Senator Shawn Keough co-chaired the Legislatures joint budget-writing committee, leaving their mark on the trajectory of state priorities for many years. They were the first female duo to carry that responsibility in the Legislature.

Cherie Buckner-Webb has represented my legislative district in Boise ever since 2010, first in the House and then in the Senate. She has been an inspiration, both as a legislator and as a role model of compassion and justice. Cherie is Idahos first African American state legislator. She is also, by far, the best vocalist, male or female, to serve in the Legislature. Cherie will retire this year and she will be missed.

Idaho has had many remarkable and inspirational women in leadership positions and Im hoping, for the benefit of our state and nation, that their numbers grow very substantially. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Idahos earlier approval of womens suffrage may well be the salvation of our form of government.

Jones is an Eden native and former Idaho Attorney General and former Idaho Supreme Court Chief Justice. His previous opinion work can be found at JJCommontater.com.

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[February 27, 2020] Twenty Over Ten Partners with Riskalyze to Maximize Lead Generation for Financial Advisors STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Feb. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Twenty Over Ten , an industry-leading SaaS company, today announced a partnership with Riskalyze, which enables advisors to pinpoint an investor's Risk Number in an effort to build a portfolio containing an appropriate amount of risk. Through this new integration, Twenty Over Ten's Lead Pilot customers will be able to seamlessly deliver tailored content to clients based on a pre-determined risk tolerance score. Unveiled at the T3 Advisor Conference in February, Lead Pilot is the first inbound marketing solution for financial advisors designed to drive qualified prospects through hyper-personalized content marketing. With Lead Pilot, advisors are able to launch robust, multi-touchpoint content campaigns from a streamlined, easy-to-use dashboard. Riskalyze's Risk Number technology enables advisors to leverage the numbers generated by its program to craft portfolios that contain exactly the right amount of risk.

"In today's fast-paced environment, advisors need a way to better connect with their clients and prospects while also leveraging a tool to quickly capture leads," said Ryan Russell, co-founder of Twenty Over Ten. "We are excited to partner with the industry's most trusted name in the quantitative measurement of client risk tolerance." With this simple one-click integration, advisors can seamlessly bring their leads from Lead Pilot right into their Riskalyze account. Every lead that is generated from a Lead Pilot landing page is added directly to the advisor's Riskalyze account as a new contact as well, allowing advisors to further engage via email with customized content and associate data with their newly generated leads. "We're thrilled to see the Risk Numbr integrated into the heart of the Lead Pilot marketing automation platform," said Jonathan Scott, Director of Core Product at Riskalyze. "This integration will allow advisors to individually tailor the content they deliver to prospects based on their quantified risk preference."

To introduce this new offering to the advisor community, Twenty Over Ten and Riskalyze will be hosting a joint webinar to help educate and train advisors on how to best leverage the integration on Thursday, March 5, 2020, at 4 pm ET / 1 pm PT. Those interested in attending can register for free by visiting https://hs.riskalyze.com/20over10webinar . ABOUT TWENTY OVER TEN:

Twenty Over Ten is a leading SaaS company whose mission is to help professionals in regulated industries redefine their marketing efforts. Twenty Over Ten offers a family of agile marketing products, Lead Pilot, Website Engine and Providence, all which give companies the marketing tools they need to scale. The company is headquartered in State College, PA. For more information, please visit twentyoverten.com. ABOUT RISKALYZE

Riskalyze is the company that invented the Risk Number, which powers the world's first Risk Alignment Platform and was built on top of a Nobel Prize-winning academic framework. Advisors, broker-dealers, RIAs and asset managers use the Riskalyze platform to create alignment between clients and portfolios, leverage sophisticated analytics to increase the quality of their advice, automate trading and client account management, and access world-class models and research in the Riskalyze Partner Store  all with the mission of empowering the world to invest fearlessly. To learn more, visit riskalyze.com . Media Contacts:

Amanda Larson

Twenty Over Ten

(855) 360-1732

marketing@twentyoverten.com

https://twentyoverten.com

https://twitter.com/twentyoverten View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/twenty-over-ten-partners-with-riskalyze-to-maximize-lead-generation-for-financial-advisors-301012857.html SOURCE Twenty Over Ten

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LOS ANGELES, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Access MBA will be in Los Angeles for the first time on March 21st with a One-to-One event at the L.A. Grand Hotel Downtown.

The Access MBA Tour is currently held in over 50 cities around the world. At each event, professionals aspiring to MBA studies and managerial careers meet individually with prestigious international business schools.

Register here: https://www.accessmba.com/link/EeX

The One-to-One format enables potential candidates to find an MBA program that best corresponds to their background and expectations. Prior to the event, each candidate profile is evaluated and matched with the most suitable participating business schools. The meetings conducted with MBA Admission Directors help event participants identify the programs that can provide them with the educational experience and career prospects they are looking for.

The Access MBA Spring 2020 Tour showcases over 200 international business schools. Potential MBA applicants in Los Angeles can expect to meet with representatives from UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, UC Davis, Pepperdine, Rice, HEC Paris and many more.

In addition to the in-person meetings with Admission Directors, event attendees receive MBA and GMAT preparation support, obtain information about funding options, can take advantage of special discounts, gain insight into the MBA admissions process and participate in workshops and presentations.

The Master of Business Administration degree has the distinction of being a valued asset to careers in the business world. The demand for MBA graduates also signifies higher salaries. In 2018, the median base salary among business school alumni was $115,000. In addition, various polls show that the majority of employers plan to hire new business school graduates, indicating the consistently bright prospects of business and management education.

Event Registration

In order for Access MBA to identify the most suitable business school options for event attendees, they are required to register online before the event. Online registration and participation in the event is free of charge.

About Advent Group

Established in 2004, Advent Group is an independent event and media agency specializing in business education. Each year the Access MBA and Access Masters Tour introduce 50,000 potential applicants to over 200 top business schools at more than 160 events around the globe. As the worldwide leader in One-to-One MBA events, Advent Group's mission is to increase the awareness of business schools through media outreach, as well as to guide potential applicants towards the right schools and programs.

Media Contact:

Yanna Kubatova

003590896557578

[email protected]

SOURCE Access MBA
As filmic representations of music snobbery go, youd be hard-pressed to find a more memorable one than the Beta Band scene from 2000s High Fidelity. In it, John Cusacks Rob, a record store owner and obsessive audiophile, sidles up to one of his clerks and whispers, I will now sell five copies of The Three EPs by the Beta Band. For him, its the ultimate expression of his superior taste: All he has to do is put the album on (he plays the song Dry the Rain), and his customers are putty in his hands.

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So when it came time to do a new High Fidelity for 2020, the question of whether it would include an updated version of this scene was a no-brainer. It kind of had to. The only unknown was what artist the show would swap in for the Beta Band and anoint with the honor of being the obscure musical act that gets name-checked in High Fidelity.

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When the series rolled out earlier this month, we got our answer. In the opening of Episode 6, Zoe Kravitz, playing our new Rob, announces to one of her employees, I will now sell five copies of Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune by Swamp Dogg. She then twirls the record in her hands before putting on the song Lonely. Like clockwork, not 10 seconds pass before a customer looks up from browsing and asks, Who is this? Rob answers: Swamp Dogg. Its good, the customer responds. I know, Rob replies coolly. Goodbye Scottish folktronica, hello to an R&B veteran whom the Washington Post once named among the cultiest cult figures.

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Back in 2000, scoring that kind of placement in a movie like High Fidelity was a serious coup, one that had the power to not only attract new fans but move units: After the release of the movieand a press tour during which Cusack himself plugged the Beta Band to news outletsthe bands U.S. label reported that sales quadrupled. Things are different today: A streaming show feels a little more niche than the release of a major movie, and despite what may be true in the alternate universe the show is set in, people dont buy nearly as much music as they used to. Still, we were curious if Robs pronouncement was true: Did she manage to sell any Swamp Dogg music in real life?

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Rob has most definitely had a sizable impact. We reached out to Nielsen Music/MRC Data, and the company told us that prior to the shows premiere, the song Lonely was averaging about 300 streams a day. Its now up to an average of about 9,500 streams a day, which makes for a bump of more than 3,000 percent. Meanwhile, Spotify told Slate that streams of Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune also saw a 730 percent increase in that time period on the service while streams for Swamp Dogg were up 22 percent overall.

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And its not just streams. Google Trends shows a sharp spike in searches for Swamp Dogg during the week following the shows release. Shazam, the Apple-owned app for identifying songs one hears in the wild, shared with Slate that Lonely entered its Discovery Top 50, a list compiling songs whose popularity is accelerating on the app, this week at No. 17. Shazams of Lonely, now Swamp Doggs most Shazamed song, spiked highest on Feb. 16, two days after High Fidelity premiered. And a representative from YouTube told Slate that average daily views of Swamp Doggs catalog are also up on that platform since the shows premiere, though the increase is a more modest, but still notable, 130 percent.

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As far as actual sales, the numbers arent as impressive as the streaming figuresthat alternate universe where people buy endless records sure does sound nicebut rest assured, according to the digital-sales numbers given to us by Nielsen Music/MRC Data, Rob sold more than five copies.
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, on Thursday charged governors to fight for their fair share of the accruals to the federation account and demand a true federal system of government, for the good of the citizens.

Mr Falana was the guest speaker at a lecture to mark the 3rd anniversary of the Rotimi Akeredolu administration, which was held at the Dome in Akure, the Ondo State capital.

He centered his lecture, which was attended by the governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, on the failure of state governments to demand their share of what is due to them of what should go into the federation account, noting that some of the accruals do not even go into the account.

I have therefore decided, on this occasion, to challenge our state governments to mobilise our people, I am challenging Governor Akeredolu in particular, who is the only senior advocate of Nigeria in the Nigerian Governors Forum, I am asking him to lead a battle, a legal battle against the overconcentration of power in Abuja, he said.

Speaking on the topic,The Nigerian Federalism Imbroglio: A Pragmatic Approach, Mr Falana said although the constitution provides that Nigeria shall be a federal republic, the political elites ruling the country had preferred to retain the distorted version of the constitution bequeathed by the military government.

He said in looking for money to govern Nigeria, Nigerian governors must take more than a passing interest in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).

According to him, the NLNG, within 10 years, successfully paid about $15billion to the federation account through the NNPC, but the money did not get to the federation account.

He urged the governors to ask serious questions about the money.

NEITI, a government agency, has come up with a figure that the NNPC has failed to remit to the federation account  $22 billion and N480 billion, Mr Falana said. We must get the money, Sirs.

He argued that the federal government controls 52 per cent of the federal revenue, while the states and local governments are only able to collect 48 per cent of the revenue, noting that the arrangement was unfair to states.

Mr Falana said besides the federation account, there are other accounts that the governors should pay attention to, on how they are being managed.

There are certain accounts belonging to the people of Nigeria. One of them is the foreign reserves account; another one is the Sovereign Wealth Account, he said.

It has just been discovered that the federal government has yanked off N1.5trilion from that account. The governors must have that money brought back to that account.

He recalled Mr Akeredolus efforts in the legal battle to ensure governors could no longer be removed from office by some legislators, illegally. He cited the Ladojas case, a case which went to the supreme court, where the judgment was given against his impeachment.

Mr Falana urged Mr Akeredolu, along with other governors, to initiate legal battles to demand fairness in the federal system practiced in Nigeria.

Although the Constitution of Nigeria prescribes that Nigeria shall be a federal republic, it is there in Section 1, the political class has decided to retain the distorted version of federalism bequeathed to the nation by the defunct military junta, said Mr Falana.

Thus successive civilian governments since 1999, headed by southern and northern political leaders, retained the status quo. Therefore, when we are talking of restructuring and true federalism we must appreciate that it is a national crisis.

On restructuring, Mr Falana said the All Progressives Congress (APC) said in its manifesto in 2015 that it would restructure Nigeria if it attained power in Abuja. He said five years down the road, the party was yet to keep his promise.

He said he had received assurances from Mr Bagudu that the report of the El Rufai Committee on Restructuring would soon be considered by the federal government.

He noted that the founding founders of Nigeria voted for federalism in their quest for independence which is power sharing between the central government and the regions, arguing that a return to true federalism as anticipated by the nationalists would bring through development.

According to Mr Falana, restructuring should be vertical and horizontal and such as would ensure the redistribution of resources for the good of the citizens.

He also lamented the state of underdevelopment in the country, which he blamed on the wholesome sale of public assets by the countrys governments.

Public assets valued at $10billions were sold at giveaway prices and not up to $1billion was realised, he said.

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Those who bought the assets stripped the assets, and today there is no Ajaokuta, Osogbo rolling mills. Our underdevelopment is caused by the sale of our commonwealth. Today we are poor and your Excellencies, you must ask questions, where is the proceeds of privatization? You must ask questions.

We have invested so much in the energy sector. Under the Obasanjo government alone, we are told that an alleged $16billion was invested in power. They sold them to 18 companies to generate power. Governors must ask questions so that if we dont have power, we can have the money for development.

He also challenged the state governments to look at the exclusive legislative list and reach for what can bring development to their people. He also urged south west governments to invest in ranching, as the 10,000 cattles are consumed in the region daily across the states.

Ondo Governorship Election

Mr Falana said the governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, had performed well and should be given a chance to return as governor in the coming election so he could consolidate on his achievements in the last three years.

The race for the governorship ticket in the All Progressives Congress is becoming tight with heavy weights like business mogul, Olusegun Abraham and Isaac Kekemeke challenging the governor for the ticket.

He is also facing the challenge of factionalisation in the party, a problem that began with his emergence as governor, and likely to continue into the coming election.

When Governor Akeredolu came on board, Ondo State was indebted to the tune of N4 billion. Hence, the state could not access fund for UBEC. When the Governor came on board, that was one of the things I reminded him about. Im happy today that he has cleared everything, Mr Falana said.

Mr Bagudu, who chaired the occasion, said the challenge of governance had brought out the quality of leadership from some governors, like Mr Akeredolu, who came into office at a time the state was facing hardship, and was able to steer the state clear of the economic woes.

He noted that the economic realities were the same in the south and in the north, and what mattered was how the economy could be expanded to include all Nigerians in order to alleviate their harsh economic situations.

Mr Bagudu added that Mr Buhari had led a revival in what each part of the country could produce, supported by the Central Bank of Nigeria, which had culminated in the success stories now witnessed, especially in Agriculture.

Oluwarotimi Akeredolu will not give excuses but will make do with the little to transform his state, he said. So, I wasnt surprised when Mr President commended his investment stride. Ondo State is lucky to have him as a governor. We are proud of him. On behalf of the Progressive Governors Forum, I say to Ondo State that you have a forthright person who speaks his mind at all times.

Mr Akeredolu, in his remarks, said the federal government was delivering on true federalism.

He said his administration in the last three years had prioritised massive development of the state.
Johnson & Johnson and other drug companies facing thousands of lawsuits over their role in the opioid epidemic have warned that settlement talks will be severely jeopardized if plaintiffs lawyers are allowed to assess a fee payment worth billions of dollars.

Major distributors such as McKesson Corp. and drugmakers including Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. joined in the request that U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland, Ohio, reject a request by a committee of plaintiffs lawyers for a 7% fee assessed against any settlements. They filed their brief late Wednesday.

The request could amount to $3.3 billion, based on a $48 billion settlement proposal that five companies have been negotiating with various state attorneys general.

The drug companies noted that the attorneys would receive more money from the settlement than even some of the states they represent. Dozens of state attorneys general also opposed the request for the fee to the plaintiffs executive committee that is litigating thousands of lawsuits by towns, counties and tribal governments.

The lawsuits, consolidated before Polster, accuse the companies of fueling a nationwide opioid crisis blamed for 400,000 U.S. overdose deaths since 1999.

Many local governments hired private attorneys and will have to carve out of any money received for a separate legal fee, which in some cases will be paid to the same attorneys who sit on the plaintiffs executive committee, or PEC.

The scope of that demand is staggering, the companies said in Wednesdays joint filing. They said the 7% assessment would give the PEC more money than any city or county in the country, and more than many states.

The PEC said members were engaged in negotiating a full and fair settlement with distributors and working to reach a broader settlement with opioid defendants.

Common benefit fees are not a roadblock to resolution, the PEC said in a statement.

In court filings, PEC lawyers described the fee request as modest given the complex litigation. Such a fee, to compensate for lawyers time and expenses, is a feature of complex nationwide litigation.

The fee request has also met opposition from state attorneys general, who brought their own opioid cases that are not before Polster.

In a letter to Polster on Monday, attorneys general from 36 states said plaintiffs lawyers were wrongly seeking to tax any settlements the states achieve and that the fee request if approved could irreparably disrupt global settlement talks.

Everyone understands these attorneys have done a lot of work, New Hampshire Associate Attorney General James Boffetti said. But it doesnt mean they get a disproportionate windfall.

The parties are under pressure to resolve the lawsuits before the start of a March 20 trial in New York. (Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by David Gregorio)
The determination with which the Punjab government, along with its federal counterpart, sticks to its guns when it comes to the matter of Nawaz Sharifs leave from Pakistan on health grounds defies political logic. The question of whether Mian Sahib should be allowed to go for treatment abroad had plagued the country for long and at least some of the more traditional observers of politics had thought that the former Prime Ministers exit was a good development that the government could exploit in its favour.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had hopelessly been bogged down in this debate about relief for the PML-N leadership, as part of the larger discussion about the manner in which the new setup wanted to operate the accountability system. So deep and intense was the dispute that, at one time, it appeared that even though the government wanted to provide an outlet to the Sharifs, in order to secure an exit for itself, the Imran Khan camp had run out of ideas about how to execute a retreat strategy.

As provincial minister Dr Yasmin Rashid spoke to the media outside the Services Hospital that winter day, it was a rather mellow culmination of a battle fought long and hard. Mian Nawaz Sharifs  or his familys  attempt at finding a way out of confinement in Lahore had met with success and for once the farewell tone of the PTI minister, who happened to have contested elections against Mian Sahib and his wife in the past, was bereft of acrimony. That was relief enough from the relentless hostilities that generally make up politics in this land.

Given that Dr Yasmin Rashid was once known as quite a (surgical) knife wielder, her handling of the Nawaz Sharif case did create the illusion of decency  which, unfortunately, she was later left to fight for. She has been forced to not only justify Mr Nawaz Sharifs travel abroad on medical grounds, but also to prove her own innocence, and more than that, the competence of the system she is responsible for running as a senior member of the government of Punjab.

What is at stake here is much more than a simple confirmation, or not, about the veracity of the medical reports that helped provide a former Prime Minister, suffering from a bout of silence among other possible ailments, an urgently needed escape. The hounds are out to target the entire power edifice that has been created in Punjab, and which has been exposed to all kinds of criticism and condemnations from all sides, not least because it has been headed by a novice in Sardar Usman Buzdar.

The possibilities of politics in Punjab under Sardar Buzdar, tasked with granting or refusing relief to Mian Nawaz Sharif, are immense. Not the most difficult option is where an ostensible well-wisher of Sardar Buzdar can innocently ask about the likelihood of the Punjab government having erred while reading Mian Nawaz Sharifs medical reports.... It is a question that places the rival PML-N in an awkward position, at the same time promising the intelligent poser of the question points against the Buzdar government.

The Buzdar government is considered to be meek. The Prime Minister has to frequently come to its defence. In recent times, Mr Khan has gone so far as to warn off those conspiring against the Punjab government, admitting that the major threat to Mr Buzdar for the time being comes from within. Against this background, it is not too difficult to build a connection between the attack on the Punjab government over the medical reports of Mian Nawaz Sharif and the desires and deigns to discredit the current Punjab setup.

Potentially, the most dangerous voices that cry out fake Sharif reports today arise from within the PTI. They are obviously pressing for their right to be given greater power and responsibility within the party fold  as is normal in a democratic political outfit. They might well have a genuine claim to a greater role inside a party that has shown increasing signs of adapting and compromising to prove itself fit for its power assignment. But despite all this realisation about what changes the brush with power must bring for a particular period, the PTI is just too young a dream to have lost all its romance already. Underneath the layer created by the short time in power that nonetheless promises more terms in government, the distinction between the old and the new still exists for anyone who cares to see.

Chief minister Usman Buzdar may be a recent Imran Khan discovery, but Dr Yasmin Rashid is not. She is an old-timer, someone from among the original cadres who was considered still useable when the party was near to power. She has been advertising the good, professional-led Pakistan that the PTI sought to create after dismantling the corrupt system i.e. the original PTI face that contested against Mian Sahib in the old Lahore constituency, and that was preferred over the newer moneyed competitors who could give the PML-N chief a tougher time.

There have been few survivors from among the original members. Some who have managed to retain some kind of ceremonial positions in the PTI have been practically pushed to the margins, assigned the more important party work instead of government assignments that could benefit their politics in future.

Dr Yasmin Rashid is one among a rare group of pioneers who still manage to get an audience with the Prime Minister. She seems to be still relevant, still wanted, despite the fact that she has lost a few elections and does not appear to favour the general intimidatory tone pursued generally by politicians in authority. In a fight between the older PTI politicians and the partys lateral power entrants, it will be intriguing to see how long she can hold out.

By arrangement with Dawn
A sign for the National Security Agency (NSA), US Cyber Command and Central Security Service, near the visitor's entrance to the headquarters of the National Security Agency (NSA) in Fort Meade, Md., on Feb. 14, 2018. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

NSA Spent Over $100 Million Collecting Nearly Useless Phone Metadata, Former Official Says

The federal government spent more than $100 million on an NSA phone records collection program that produced almost nothing of value, according to a former official who led the analysis of the collected data at the FBI.

The program, which was started under the 2001 Patriot Act, allowed the NSA to collect from phone carriers the metadata for all phone calls, such as the calling and receiving numbers, the time, and duration of the call.

Bassem Youssef, a former special agent who had run the FBIs Communications Analysis Unit from late 2004 until his retirement in late 2014, repeatedly explained to bureau leadership the issues with the program and repeatedly called for reform, but was ignored, he said.

After the program was exposed by former CIA employee Edward Snowden, the FBI audited it in 2014 and found that it produced only two moderately valuable leads for counterterrorism cases. In contrast, it resulted in many false negatives and positives as well as collateral damage in terms of civil liberties, Youssef said on investigative reporter John Solomons Just the News podcast.

McCabe, Comey Knew

Youssef said he talked to Andrew McCabe, FBIs then-assistant director for counterterrorism who later became the bureaus deputy director. He also talked to then-Director James Comey, presenting his ideas on how to make the program cheaper, more useful, and more privacy-minded.

His pleas fell on deaf ears, he said. McCabe was adamant the program was needed, while Comey was only interested in whether Youssef had a problem or concerns with the statutory authority for the program.

Attempts to reach McCabe and Comey for comment through their lawyers were unsuccessful. The Justice Department didnt respond to a request for comment. The FBI declined to comment.

The program was eventually overhauled by Congress in the 2015 USA Freedom Act. But the reform made the program less operationally valuable while augmenting the very privacy concerns it sought to lessen, argued two members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), which is tasked with overseeing the programs privacy and civil liberties implications.

The inescapable conclusion is that the program was a $100 million waste, Travis LeBlanc, a cybersecurity and data privacy expert and one of the PCLOB members, said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times.

3 Hops, But Restricted Search

Originally, the NSA collected all the metadata, but analysts needed special permission from select NSA officials to search the data for identifiers, such as phone numbers, for which they could put together a reasonable articulable suspicion that the number was associated with a specified terrorist group.

NSA approved only about 300 query terms in 2012, said LeBlanc and Edward Felten, head of Princetons Center for Information Technology Policy and also a PCLOB member.

If searching for a single identifier, the analysts were allowed to see the records of not only that one number, but also the records of all the numbers the original phone communicated with and the records of each of the numbers those phones communicated with. This was called a three-hop rule.

In the three years between 2006 and 2009, the NSA issued 277 intelligence reports based on the collected data.

2 Hops, But Mass Searches

Under the Freedom Act, the NSA only collected from phone carriers metadata on specific identifiers, plus one additional hop of metadata on all the numbers and phones the identifiers communicated with.

The collection was thus significantly reduced, but still captured more than 400 million data points on more than 19 million phone numbers in 2018.

Yet, the law nixed the restrictions on searching the database. In 2018, the data was searched for 164,682 identifiers associated with U.S. persons.

Because NSA analysts search all of their databases at once, some of those identifiers were irrelevant to the phone metadata collection program. Some could have been email addresses, for instance, the PCLOB noted in its February report released by The New York Times (pdf).

The reformed program proved even less useful. The NSA only produced 15 reports based at least partly on the data since 2015. Only once did the data prove useful enough to prompt an investigation. It was a foreign intelligence probe, as opposed to a criminal or counterterrorism one. Also, the useful data was discovered in the first hop, further undermining the utility of the second hop, which seems to be the main source of grief for privacy advocates.

NSA stated that an intelligence program of similar duration and cost would be expected to produce thousands or tens of thousands of reports, the PCLOB report said.

Unauthorized Data Collection

The program was plagued by compliance issues and repeatedly obtained records it wasnt legally authorized to obtain.

In 2018, unable to filter what it wasnt supposed to have, the NSA deleted all records obtained since 2015. In early 2019, the program was shut down after balancing the programs relative intelligence value, associated costs, and compliance and data integrity concerns, said Dan Coats, then-director of national intelligence, in an August 2019 letter to lawmakers.

During its three years of operation since the reform, the program cost over $100 million, LeBlanc and Felten wrote in the PCLOB report.

I do not believe that we have cost data for the years before 2016, LeBlanc said via email.

Abuse

PCLOB said it found no abuse of the program and determined that the compliance incidents were inadvertent, not willful.

Youssef, however, said he had very little doubt the program was used for political spying or political espionage in light of the recent official confirmation of illegal surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016 and 2017.

Page was surveilled by the FBI using four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants, at least two of which were so flawed as to render them invalid.

Youssef suspected sort of the same type of situation with the phone metadata program.

Reauthorization

The legal authority for the program is set to expire on March 15.

During a Nov. 6, 2019, hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee, NSA official Susan Morgan acknowledged that currently, absolutely the value does not outweigh the cost, but still argued the program should be reauthorized, saying that the NSA would want to have the agility to use it should it be valuable moving forward.

Coats also supported reauthorization.

LeBlanc and Felten disagreed. In addition to the cost-value argument, the program intruded on the privacy and civil liberties of millions of Americans who were not subjects of individualized suspicion, they said.

Some Congress members have already voiced opposition to the reauthorization, including Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).
Public health officials were retracing the steps of a Northern California woman on Thursday believed to be the first person in the US to contract the highly contagious coronavirus without travelling internationally .

Vacaville: Public health officials were retracing the steps of a Northern California woman on Thursday believed to be the first person in the US to contract the highly contagious coronavirus without travelling internationally or being in close contact with anyone who had it.

The diagnosis, confirmed on Wednesday, marks an escalation of the worldwide outbreak in the US because it means the virus could now spread beyond the reach of quarantines and other preventative measures. But state health officials were quick to reassure the public on Thursday that such a scenario was inevitable and the risk of widespread transmission remained low.

Solano County Public Health Officer Dr Bela Matyas said public health officials have identified dozens of people  but less than 100  who had close contact with the woman. Those people are quarantined in their homes. A few have shown symptoms and are in isolation, Matyas said.

The case raised questions about how quickly public health officials are moving to diagnose and treat new cases. State and federal health officials disagreed about when doctors first requested the woman be tested.

Doctors at the UC Davis Medical Center said they asked the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to test the woman for the virus on 19 February. But they said the CDC did not approve the testing until Sunday since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for the virus, according to a memo posted to the hospital's website.

CDC spokesman Richard Quartarone said a preliminary review of agency records indicates the agency did not know about the woman until Sunday, the same day the woman was first tested.

Quartarone said the agency is concerned about reports of delayed testing and is investigating this carefully. He said the CDC can test about 400 specimens per day.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state was limited in how many people it could test because it only had 200 testing kits. But he said federal officials have promised to send many more in the coming days.

Im not going to politicize this moment And Im not going to point fingers," Newsom said. We have had a very strong working relationship with the (Trump) administration.

Investigators were focused on tracing the woman's movements to figure out how she got the virus and who else she may have unwittingly infected. The woman first sought treatment at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, a city of more than 100,000 people about 95 kilometres from San Francisco.

Ten experts from the CDC arrived Thursday and were heading to Vacaville to help with the search, said Dr James Watt, interim state epidemiologist at the California Department of Public Health.

With the patient as ground zero, they are interviewing immediate family members. Then, as with any similar case, they are expanding the net to include more distant family members who may have been in contact, social gatherings like a church that the patient may have attended, and any possible time spent at work or events like a concert.

They are not too worried, for now, about casual contact, because federal officials think the coronavirus is spread only through close contact, being within six feet of somebody for what theyre calling a prolonged period of time, said Watt, who was the states deputy epidemiologist for 10 years before he took the interim post two months ago.

Thats more than casual contact at a grocery store, Watt said. Thats where our focus is going to be. ... What was the pattern of disease transmission?

All of the 59 other cases in the US have been for people who had travelled abroad or had close contact with others who travelled.

Earlier US cases included 14 in people who returned from outbreak areas in China, or their spouses; three people who were evacuated from the central China city of Wuhan; and 42 American passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship who were evacuated by the federal government to the US from where the ship was docked in Japan.

Some of those people have been treated at Travis Air Force Base, located in Solano County where the Northern California woman lives. But there is no evidence the woman has any connection to the base, said Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health.

The global count of those sickened by the virus hovered Thursday around 82,000, with 433 new cases reported in China and another 505 in South Korea.

The new virus is a member of the coronavirus family that can cause colds or more serious illnesses such as SARS and MERS.

The virus can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia. Health officials think it spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how the flu spreads.

Officials are advising people to take steps to avoid infection with coronavirus or other respiratory infections like colds or the flu, including washing hands with soap and water and avoiding close contact with people who are sick.
The sale of location data has become a hot business as smartphones have proliferated and technology for gleaning their whereabouts has become more precise. The information is valuable to marketers, police departments and even investment firms because it can provide revealing details about peoples daily lives, such as where they live, what shops they frequent and what doctors they visit.

The trade in location data is largely unregulated. The F.C.C.s action is possible only because the telecommunications industry is subject to more stringent regulations than technology companies are. Firms ranging from small app makers to tech giants like Google collect massive amounts of the data from GPS, Wi-Fi and other signals, without specific laws addressing what they can do with it.

Cellphone carriers aimed to get a chunk of the business through deals with so-called location aggregators, middleman companies that provided the information to other businesses. Cellular network data is often less precise than information from apps, but it covers the vast majority of the population and is almost always available.

To protect privacy, the carriers relied on a system of contracts that required location companies to seek customers consent  by responding to a text message, for example, or pressing a button on an app. But the carriers failed to catch multiple companies and people following customers without their permission.

The F.C.C. said it began its investigation immediately after an article in The New York Times showed how the system had led to privacy breaches. The Times in 2018 reported that the data was eventually making its way to law enforcement, including to a former sheriff who used it to track people without a warrant. He gained access by uploading documents he falsely claimed were legal orders  including his car and health insurance policies and work training manuals, according to local news reports of his prosecution.

Securus Technologies, the company that offered the data to law enforcement, is better known for providing telephone services to inmates. Mr. Pai, the F.C.C. chairman, represented Securus while working at a law firm in 2011; he also worked as a lawyer for Verizon.

After the Securus episode, the companies said they would sharply limit the practice. But in early 2019, the technology website Motherboard showed that carriers were still selling data, and that it was ending up in the hands of bounty hunters.
Tuba Aqeel, 13, a resident of riot-hit north-east Delhis Brijpuri, has been quiet for a few days now. Every time someone in her family tries to speak to her, she breaks down. Aqeel saw her school being burnt down by a mob on Tuesday, and lost her 17-year-old cousin in the communal riot a day after.

Tubas mother Zeenat Aqeel said her daughter is in shock. She is inconsolable. All the kids in our house were sent to the roof when the rioters entered our neighbourhood on Tuesday. We heard them shouting and crying when they saw the mob vandalising and burning their school. Tuba seems to be the most affected by the incident. On Wednesday, she lost her cousin who was shot in Brahmpuri, when he stepped out to buy milk. She was very close to him, she said.

Like Tuba, there are hundreds of children in riot-hit north-east Delhi struggling to process the aftermath of communal riots that broke out in their neighbourhood this week. Apart from seeing their schools and neighbourhoods burning, some have also lost family members, friends, and mentors. Many of the children have not stepped out of their homes since Monday.

Fourteen-year-old Samiya Fazil witnessed her school  Arun Modern Public  being attacked on Tuesday. She said they had decorated the school ahead of a CBSE inspection due on February 26. A day before that, the school was torched by rioters. I was in tears when I saw the building burning. We had all worked so hard to decorate the school. It does not even exist now, she said.

Nitesh Chak, 14, a resident of Old Mustafabad, said he had never imagined that he would witness scenes of violence like they showed in movies.

My parents locked me and my sister in a room when riots broke out in our area. We managed to peep from a window. There was smoke all over. It was scary to watch a group of people with lathis and rods running amok on the streets. I have stepped out of my house today for the first time since Monday, he said on Friday.

Many children have also recorded videos of violence on their phones and circulated it among their friends. Vasu Arora, 13, a Class 8 student said he was extremely scared after he saw videos of mobs moving around in his neighbourhood on his fathers phone. My tuition teacher, who lived here, was killed in the violence. This is the first time somebody I know has died.

Yatharth Verma, 18, said that he got to know that rioters had entered the lane where his Muslim friend lives in Brahampuri through a forwarded video. I immediately called his family and asked them to flee. They stayed with us for a day, he said, adding, Though our elders talk about this Hindu-Muslim divide, we do not believe in it.

Many parents in Brijpuri, Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh, Shiv Vihar, Mustafabad and other riot-affected areas said they are worried about their children, who have witnessed the violence in their neigbourhoods.

Mudassir Khan, who died of gunshot wounds, had eight children. The eldest daughter is 14 and all of them are still processing what has happened to them. Their lives will never be the same, said Arbaz Khan, his nephew.

Experts say that the chances of long-term impact of violence on children increase with direct exposure. Dr Samir Parikh, a psychiatrist who works with children at Fortis Health Care, said: For children, who have witnessed violence directly, the key is to ensure that their day to day life is not affected. Adults can use rationality to understand the violence and control their fears. Children often cannot do that, he said.

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Dangote Fertilizer Limited has begun to pre-test before the inauguration of its $2 billion Granulated Urea Fertilizer complex located in the Dangote Free Zone.

With a capacity of three million tonnes per annum, the plant is considered as the biggest project in the fertilizer industrys history in the world. Siapem of Italy is the engineering, procurement, and supervision (EPS) contractor for the project, while Tata Consulting Engineers of India is the project management consultant (PMC) for the project.

A press release issued by Dangote Group in Lagos, Nigeria, on 27 February stated that several critical sections of the plant are going through various stages of the test-run. Virtually all the sections of the plant such as Central Control Room, Ammonia and Urea Bulk Storage, Cooling Tower, Power Generator Plant and Granulation Plant, have been completed and are undergoing pre-testing.

Already, Dangote Fertilizer has started receiving gas supply from the Nigerian Gas Company and Chevron Nigeria Limited under the Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement to supply 70 million standard cubic feet per day (Scf/d) of natural gas to Dangote Fertilizer Limited.

The project, which will create thousands of direct and indirect jobs in the construction and related fields, will provide a major boost to the agricultural sector by significantly reducing the importation of fertilizer in Nigeria, and ultimately removing the need for imports when the plant is operating fully.

Group Executive Director for Strategy, Portfolio Development and Capital Projects of Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin, said Nigeria would be able to save $500 billion from import substitution and provide $400 million from exports of products from the fertilizer plant.

Thus, the supply of fertilizer from the plant will be enough for the Nigerian market and neighbouring countries, he said.

Edwin said: I am happy that by the time our plant is fully commissioned, the country will become self-sufficient in fertilizer production and even have the capacity to export the products to other African countries. Right now, farmers are forced to utilise whatever fertilizer that is available as they have no choice, but we need to know that the fertilizer that will work in one State may not be suitable in another State, as they may not have the same soil type and composition. The same fertilizer you use for sorghum may not be the fertilizer you will use for sugar cane.

Edwin concluded: The management of the complex is confident that the fertilizer business will deliver reasonable profit to the company and its shareholders as it is projected that population growth and the need for food production will jack up the consumption of Urea fertilizer beginning from 2020 when production of the product would have commenced in earnest.

The current consumption of Urea, estimated at a dismal 700,000 tonnes per annum by Nigerian farmers, is said to be due to very poor usage and is believed to be the cause of poor product yield, which threatens food security in the country.

By [the end of] 2020, the Nigerian population is projected to increase to about 207 million which would lead to increased food production. Estimates point out that around five million tonnes of fertilizer are required per year in Nigeria in the next five to seven years bifurcated into 3.5 million tonnes of Urea and 1.5 million tonnes of NPK while current production levels in Nigeria were at 1.6 million tonnes by 2019.

Credit: APO
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  The country's envoy to the United States disclosed Friday that there are efforts to craft a military agreement that could possibly replace the Visiting Forces Agreement which is being abrogated by the Philippines.

Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Babe Romualdez told a media forum that he is in talks with his counterpart, Ambassador Sung Kim, as well as members of the military, to see if the VFA "can be polished" or improved. The resulting proposal will then be presented to President Rodrigo Duterte, he said.

"We are now in the process of trying to find ways and means to be able to see how we can either come up with something similar, perhaps, again, still following the President's thinking about the sovereignty issue," Romualdez said.

He added that they are now studying the possibility of using the Philippines' forces agreements with Japan and Australia as templates for a new deal with the US.

"These are the two existing agreements we have with other countries and at the moment I am not at liberty to say what or where we are but that this is being studied and the recommendation will be made to the President," Romualdez said.

The VFA, a 1998 agreement between Manila and Washington, legally allows the entry of a large number of American troops, exempting them from passport and visa regulations so they can participate in joint military drills in the Philippines.

EXPLAINER: The Visiting Forces Agreement

Upon Duterte's order on February 11, Foreign Affairs Secretary Tedoro "Teddy Boy" Locsin, Jr. sent the US a notice to terminate the VFA  marking the start of the 180-day period after which it will be effectively scrapped.

Malacanang said the President wants the Philippines to rely on its own but that he remains open to entering VFAs with other countries based on equality, fairness, and mutual benefit. Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo also said there's nothing the US government could do to "salvage" the VFA.

But Romualdez is now saying he's been told that "the door is not totally shut." He said the proposal he is working on with US counterparts will be an option for the President to consider.

"But again the bottom line always falls on sovereignty and that is the reason why it is a very ticklish and very sensitive issue for both our countries in discussing what we want to do in moving forward," Romualdez said.

Among the reasons cited by the Duterte administration for abrogating the VFA are the US government's cancellation of Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa's tourist visa, supposedly for his involvement in alleged extrajudicial killings when he was Philippine National Police chief, and the American lawmakers' repeated demands for the release of Senator Leila de Lima  a staunch Duterte critic detained on drug charges.

Romualdez revealed that US Senator Edward Markey  one of the officials calling for De Lima's release even warned him last year that there will be serious consequences "if anything happens to Senator De Lima." He then recalled telling the American lawmaker that there are also risks in continuing to call for De Lima's release, noting that her cases are being tried by Philippine courts.

Romualdez added that contrary to US President Donald Trump's earlier statement shrugging off the termination of the VFA, Pentagon officials are actually "extremely concerned" about what would happen next. He also cast doubts that Duterte will also move to scrap the Mutual Defense Treaty, saying Panelo's earlier statement hinting at such development was "vague" since he based it on the President's "body language."

Retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, however, believes the President is also targeting to junk the MDT, which states that each country would come to the defense of the other in case of an attack by a foreign country, and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which allows the US military to maintain barracks and weapons storage structures inside five Philippine military camps. He shared other legal experts' opinion that both deals are useless without the VFA.
Even if it's not a huge purchase, we think it was good to see that Melvin Lazar, the Independent Director of Arbor Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:ABR) recently shelled out US$69k to buy stock, at US$13.87 per share. That might not be a big purchase but it only increased their holding by 2.4%, and could be interpreted as a good sign.

View our latest analysis for Arbor Realty Trust

The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Arbor Realty Trust

In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when Lead Director William Green bought US$257k worth of shares at a price of US$12.83 per share. That means that even when the share price was higher than US$12.66 (the recent price), an insider wanted to purchase shares. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. In our view, the price an insider pays for shares is very important. Generally speaking, it catches our eye when insiders have purchased shares at above current prices, as it suggests they believed the shares were worth buying, even at a higher price. Notably William Green was also the biggest seller.

Happily, we note that in the last year insiders paid US$381k for 29.56k shares. On the other hand they divested 17793 shares, for US$228k. In total, Arbor Realty Trust insiders bought more than they sold over the last year. You can see a visual depiction of insider transactions (by individuals) over the last 12 months, below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

NYSE:ABR Recent Insider Trading, February 28th 2020

There are always plenty of stocks that insiders are buying. So if that suits your style you could check each stock one by one or you could take a look at this free list of companies. (Hint: insiders have been buying them).

Insider Ownership of Arbor Realty Trust

I like to look at how many shares insiders own in a company, to help inform my view of how aligned they are with insiders. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. It appears that Arbor Realty Trust insiders own 4.9% of the company, worth about US$89m. While this is a strong but not outstanding level of insider ownership, it's enough to indicate some alignment between management and smaller shareholders.

Story continues

So What Does This Data Suggest About Arbor Realty Trust Insiders?

The recent insider purchase is heartening. We also take confidence from the longer term picture of insider transactions. Insiders likely see value in Arbor Realty Trust shares, given these transactions (along with notable insider ownership of the company). If you are like me, you may want to think about whether this company will grow or shrink. Luckily, you can check this free report showing analyst forecasts for its future.

Of course Arbor Realty Trust may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of high quality companies.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Julian Assange

28.02.2020 LISTEN

Wednesday, February 26, Woolwich Crown Court. Today, the focus shifted to the protagonist himself and the nature of the US-UK Extradition Treaty of 2003, a contentious document that shines all too favourably for US citizens.

Julian Assange, whose deteriorating condition has been noted for months by psychologists, doctors and UN Special Rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer, has been making a fist of it in the dock, despite being in Kafkaesque isolation. Exhaustion, however, is manifest. Judge Vanessa Baraitser has been keeping an eye on Assanges demeanour, prodding his lawyers at one point to inspect him. His eyes had closed, his attention seemingly wavering. A point of permanent frustration for the WikiLeaks founder has been the din the hearings are causing and the distance, physical and symbolic, from his legal team. I am as much a participant in these proceedings I am at Wimbledon.

The structural impediments he has had to face have been profound, a point he was keen to make to the bench. I cannot meaningfully communicate with my lawyers. There are unnamed embassy officials in this court room. I cannot communicate with my lawyers to ask them for clarifications without the other side seeing.

The singular nature of Assanges case has not struck the judge as sufficient grounds to accept special measures. The defence team insists, not unreasonably, that legal advice given to him be kept privileged. This is a particularly sore point, given the surveillance efforts conducted by UC Global SC in Assanges place of abode for some seven years, Londons Ecuadorean embassy. This involved audio and film footage on lawyers visiting and discussing case matters with Assange relayed to servers accessible to the Central Intelligence Agency. There has been enough spying on my lawyers already. The other side has about 100 times more contact with their lawyers per day. What is the point of asking if I can concentrate if I cannot participate?

To these points the judge remained dismissive, annoyed at his intervention in the absence of testifying. I cant make an exception in your case. A brief recess did follow, permitting Assange to leave the dock for a backroom consultation with his legal team. True to form in this entire charade, security officers were in their company.

The defence team then attempted to convince the bench to adjust future seating arrangements which would permit Assange to sit with them. This led to a technical lunacy: Did the request, pondered the judge, constitute a bail application in which Assange would technically be out of the courts custody? The legal team representing the United States did not object, as security officers would be present on either side of him. Im not sure its so technical as that, came the assessment from James Lewis QC. The judge, torn by convention and legal minutiae, was tart in response. Im not youre right Mr Lewis. An application will be heard to that effect on Thursday, though Lewis did make it clear that any bail application would be opposed.

As for the extradition treaty itself, Article 4 stipulates that, Extradition shall not be granted if the offense for which the extradition is requested is a political offense. The team representing the US government suggested that the judge have recourse to substantive UK domestic law, not the Treaty itself. Whether Assange was wanted for political reasons or not was irrelevant as he was not entitled to derive any rights from the [US-UK Extradition] Treaty.

The prosecution effectively relied on a peculiarity of the Westminster system: the Treaty, ratified in 2007, had not been incorporated into UK domestic law. That domestic law can be found in the Extradition Act 2003, which does not feature political offenses as a bar to extradition. Theres no such thing as a political offense in ordinary English law, something that only arose in the context of extradition.

Assanges team took issue with the contention: the Extradition Treaty as ratified in the US in 2007, in not removing the political offense provision, was intended to have legal effect. It is an essential protection, argued Edward Fitzgerald QC, which the US puts in every single one of its extradition treaties. It followed that, Both governments must therefore have regarded Article 4 as a protection for the liberty of the individual whose necessity continues (at least in relations between the USA and the UK). While the 2003 Extradition Act did not include a political offence bar, authority establishes that it is the duty of the court, not the executive, to ensure the legality of extradition under the terms of the Treaty. This placed an onus on the judge, submitted Fitzgerald, to follow a practice set by over a century of extradition treaties which consider the political offence exemption.

Resort should also be had to the Magna Carta and Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to liberty and security provision) to reach a conclusion that extraditing an individual for a political offence would constitute an abuse of process.

The defence also turned to the issue of espionage itself, arguing that there was little doubt that it was political in nature, or, as Fitzgerald contended, a pure political offence within the meaning of the US-UK Extradition Treaty and relevant case law. The conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, the 18th charge being levelled at Assange, also suggested that it be treated as an espionage offence. In fact, the entire case and effort against Assange had been political from the start, with US politicians, commentators and members of the media branding him hostile and treasonous despite not being a US citizen.

Fitzgerald also furthered the legal principle  virtually universal, he contended  that non-violent individuals should not be extradited for political offences. If it is not a terrorist case, a violence offence, you should not be extradited for a political offence. More in keeping with the work of non-governmental organisations, extraditing Assange would embolden other powers to consider this pathway to seek those responsible for disclosures that are uncomfortable or threatening. Governments of all political hues will be taking heed from this.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: [email protected]
A suspected drug dealer at large has phoned police to arrest him after being worn out by officers in search of potential coronavirus carriers.

The fugitive, known by his surname Wei, told police it had been difficult for him to hide since the beginning of the outbreak.

'Hello, I want to turn myself in. I'm a criminal on the run,' Mr Wei said on the phone last Sunday to the police in Liuzhou, Guangxi Province of southern China.

Mr Wei is pictured being handed over to Hunan police after surrendering himself in Liuzhou

The picture shows the drug dealer when the police went to arrest him after he phoned them

He had spent the last three years escaping after being listed as a wanted suspect in 2017 for drug trafficking in Hunan Province of southern China.

The police in Liuzhou has been blanket searching around the city to hunt down suspected virus carriers since the coronavirus outbreak, a police officer told Pear Video.

The drug dealer was eventually pressured to surrender after being rejected by landlords and hotels while trying to find a hiding spot.

Mr Wei was later handed over to the Hunan police after he was arrested in Guangxi.

He is now under investigation for dealing over 500 grams (1.1 pounds) of heroin on a motorway in February 2017.

The drug dealer was eventually pressured to surrender after being rejected by landlords and hotels while trying to find a hiding spot. He is pictured at the police station in Liuzhou, China

People with surgical face masks cross the street in Central, following the coronavirus threat. The new coronavirus is still spreading worldwide, the World Health Organisation has warned

Millions of people are now under lockdown as cities around China have been tightening their quarantine measures to curb the coronavirus epidemic.

The deadly disease which spawned in Wuhan late last year has killed at least 2,868 people and infected more than 82,800.

Mainland China reported 327 new cases and 44 deaths as of yesterday, according to the country's National Health Commission.

People are pictured wearing protective masks walking through a market in Hong Kong

The coronavirus has claimed 2,858 lives and infected more than 83,800 people globally

A man is pictured wearing a mask and goggles as he waits in line to buy face masks from a post office near the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu, South Korea

The update brings China's total number of cases to 78,824 and deaths to 2,788, while more than 3,600 infections have been reported outside China.

In South Korea, the hardest-hit country outside China, has raised its total number of cases to 2,337 today.

In Iran, the front line of infections in the Middle East, officials loosened rules barring the import of many foreign-made items to allow in sanitisers, face masks and other necessities, and removed overhead handles on Tehran's subways to eliminate another source of germs.

The World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday that the world was at a 'decisive point' and countries could still contain the epidemic if they 'act aggressively now'.

Travellers are seen wearing protective masks at the airport in Brazil amid coronavirus outbreak

Airport officials are pictured monitoring passengers' body temperatures in Krakow, Poland
SPRINGFIELD  The state commission that oversees higher education grants for low-income students detailed the diminishing buying power of state financial aid Thursday during a budget request hearing.

Eric Zarnikow, executive director of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, spent much of his testimony before a Senate appropriations committee breaking down the states Monetary Award Program grants, which apply to tuition and fees. The grants are available to eligible Illinois residents who demonstrate financial need and attend approved Illinois colleges, and they do not need to be repaid.

MAP really does meet todays low-income Illinois students where they are and it gets aid to the people that need it the most, Zarnikow said, later noting that MAP recipients graduate at about the same rate as other students enrolled at the same university.

This year, 54 percent of MAP recipients have no parent who graduated college, and 53 percent come from families that are judged by the federal government as having no money to contribute to the cost of higher education.

According to ISAC, 59 percent of black undergraduates, 45 percent of Hispanic undergraduates, 55 percent of multiracial undergraduates and 21 percent of white undergraduates receive MAP funding.

That program received a $50 million increase for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, bringing its total state allotment up to $451 million. In his budget proposal for next fiscal year, Gov. JB Pritzker proposed an additional $50 million to the program. The second-straight increase is part of an effort by Pritzker to increase MAP funding by 50 percent over a four-year span.

Zarnikow called the proposed funding spike a critical investment in the program, which is often the only avenue for low-income students to attend college, but added it is still not fully funded.

In 2001, Zarnikow said, ISAC had enough MAP funding to serve everybody who was eligible for the program.

At that time, grants would have covered 100 percent of a students tuition and fees at public universities or community colleges. In 2020, that number is at just 34 percent at universities and 36 percent at community colleges.

We think its pretty amazing that low-income students are able to go to college and make it through college, he said after outlining the diminished funding.

The $50 million funding increase has helped, he said, as it is estimated that by the time Fiscal Year 2020 ends on June 30, the state will have served about 10,000 more students than it did the previous year. The average MAP grant allotment per student will have increased by about $260 as well.

Still, this will have left about 50,000 MAP-eligible students cut off from funding, Zarnikow said, although only about half that number would have been expected to accept the funding.

Ballooning college education costs are one reason the state has seen an erosion of purchasing power over time, Zarnikow said.

In 2002, according to an ISAC presentation, it cost a low-income Illinois resident $13,246 on average for all costs associated with one year at a public university in the state. About $8,718 of that could be covered by MAP grants and federal Pell grants, while $2,625 could be covered through federal student loans. That left the unmet need for students at $1,902 on average.

But while projected total costs for 2020 have more than doubled to $29,280 for one year at a public university, the available MAP and Pell grant share is now at only $11,535, meaning it grew by less than 30 percent in that same span. Now, an average student has access to $5,500 in federal loans and an unmet need of more than $12,000.

For community college students, total costs grew from $10,238 in 2003 to $16,681 projected in 2020, while available Pell and MAP grants grew from $5,694 to $7,845.

Pritzkers proposed budget also calls for 15 percent of MAP funding  or $75 million total  to be set aside for community colleges, which Zarnikow said should be enough to cover tuition and fees for all eligible community college students when combined with available federal grants.

Zarnikow also informed legislators that a federal grant program providing for the administration costs of ISAC is being phased out, creating a need for greater state funding.

The Federal Family Education Loan Program paid the entire cost of agency operations from 2006 to 2014, but funding from the program has decreased by 65 percent since that time and will eventually stop entirely.

Zarnikow said over that span, ISAC decreased employee head count by 60 percent by outsourcing some tasks and automating MAP grant processing. The employee pool shrunk from 513 to 177 currently, but that number is about as low as it can go, he said.

Projected FY 2021 revenues from the program are $12 million, but ISAC said the funding source is unpredictable and could even be cut entirely.

ISAC needs to receive state funds just to continue what were doing, he said.

That includes funding a network of 70 recent college graduates on two-year contracts for statewide outreach. ISAC also conducted 3,500 outreach events in 393 cities last year.

The total budget request includes $4 million for ISAC operations and $5 million for outreach, research and training activities from the states general revenue fund. Those are increases of 14 percent and 43 percent in state spending from a year ago, but that money is making up for FFEP funds that have diminished, not funding new administrative or outreach programs.

The budget ask also includes $35 million for the AIM High program, which provides assistance toward a full-time undergraduate students cost of attendance at one of the states 12 public universities.

The total requested appropriation for ISAC from the general revenue fund, including all grant programs, is $576.4 million.

Zarnikow also touched on College Illinois, a state-run college savings program which has an unfunded liability he estimated as $317 million.

Pritzkers proposed budget dedicates $27 million to funding the programs backlog, a number that if met for 14 years would retire the liability and could save the state $100 million, according to ISAC. That money would be allotted only if a graduated income tax constitutional amendment passes in November, according to Pritzkers plan.

Zarnikow said the state has a moral obligation to fund the savings program for those already enrolled, but ISAC would prefer not to enroll new participants in it, and has not done so since 2017. Should new funding not materialize, however, enrolling new participants would have to be considered as an option to fund current liabilities, he said.

The appropriations committee did not take action on the funding request, which is subject to change as budget negotiations progress.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Leaders of Clevelands three biggest colleges have all grappled in recent years with hate speech. But they are determined to protect students First Amendment rights.

We have a duty to protect free speech, Cleveland State University President Harlan Sands said during a forum Wednesday evening. If youre not going to have these discussions on college campuses where are you going to have them, right?

Although Sands, Case Western Reserve Universitys Barbara Snyder and Cuyahoga Community Colleges Alex Johnson all deem preserving free speech on campus important, its not an easy task.

Fights over controversial speeches and a rise in hate crime reports are prominently featured in higher education headlines. President Donald Trump weighed in with a 2019 executive order which required universities to protect free speech on campus.

The Ohio Senate recently passed the latest iteration of a bill that would prohibit universities from banning controversial speakers or setting up free speech zones to monitor protests and activism.

Sometimes you find yourself caught in the middle of it, Johnson said.

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland brought the three presidents together as part of its Community Relations Committee annual meeting. The group is boosting its efforts on promoting healthy dialogue, both within the community and externally, especially ahead of this years election.

Snyder said following offensive, hateful fliers on campus, CWRU called a community meeting and reached out to local partners to help coordinate a response. Community members were able to voice their concerns, serving as an educational moment, Snyder said.

Johnson recalled an instance where an anti-Semitic flyer was slipped under a faculty members door.

It made us realize that even though we had in place opportunities to promote civil discourse, and to help individuals understand both sides of the argument, we still had a lot more work to do, not only at our institution but ensuring that students had the knowledge and understanding that they need in order to make informed choices about what they should or should not support, and to use that knowledge when they leave our institution to inform their logic."

When responding to these instances, Johnson said, its important to include appropriate context for how the university responds.

At Cleveland State, Sands said the administration and the faculty worked on a joint free speech policy to guide these conversations. They agreed on a policy which was built on rules set up by the University of Chicago. Known as the Chicago Statement, issued in 2015, the guidelines states that its the universitys duty to facilitate debate, whether or not its offensive.

What its done for us as a community is enabled us to go to students in the classroom and outside the classroom and come up with a framework for having these discussions, Sands said. And it lays out the boundaries of what free speech is and what it is not and what our mission is in educating students (about divisive issues)."

Though headlines can be splashy when it comes to free speech debates on college campuses, protecting the right can be seen more in the day-to-day. That can mean ensuring student groups from both sides of the political spectrum feel heard on campus, or making sure there is a steady stream of speakers to present their views on national and local issues.

Engaging faculty to help facilitate these conversations is helpful, the presidents agreed.

Social media has made it even more difficult to walk the line between preserving free speech and addressing hate speech.

For Snyder, dealing with problematic situations on campus sometimes means sharing her perspective and opinion as a leader. In 2014, when a police officer shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, hate speech popped up on now-extinct social media platform YikYak, commonly used by students.

Snyder used a campus-wide email to express her disapproval of the posts and to share her expectations for discourse on campus, she said, something she does not do frequently.

Im sure not everybody agreed with that, either, she said. But, but I had the right to speak my mind, just like our faculty or staff or students or guests have (the right,) and Im trying to use it sparingly and appropriately.
WASHINGTON  Days after revealing he will soon undergo surgery to remove a likely cancerous tumor, Gov. Phil Murphy on Thursday night pressed a room filled with New Jerseys business leaders and federal lawmakers to join him in the fight to improve health care.

Murphy spoke at the New Jersey Chamber of Commerces annual congressional dinner in Washington, where he told attendees hes angry many New Jerseyans dont have access to the same health care as he does and said he considers himself lucky.

I am lucky because I have health insurance that provides me access to the very best possible care, to the best doctors (and) to regular check-ups and specialists, the Democratic governor said during his speech at a D.C. hotel.

I am lucky to have a small piece of plastic in my wallet that provides me real peace of mind  a health care policy membership card that provides benefits which are actually worth more than the card my name is printed on, Murphy added.

And, I am lucky that I am not one of the countless thousands upon thousands of New Jerseyans who cannot say the same. And, that angers me."

The governor, who amassed a fortune during his two-decade career at Goldman Sachs, disclosed Saturday he has a tumor on his kidney that is 90 percent likely to be cancerous and he will undergo surgery in early March.

Murphy, 62, told NJ Advance Media that doctors caught it at an early stage and have complete confidence theyll be able to fully remove the tumor. He said he does not expect hell have to undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment.

The governor implored his audience Thursday to think critically about how many are not so fortunate to have access to good medical care.

I look across this room and I see a roomful of people who, like me, are lucky enough to have secured good, comprehensive health-care coverage, Murphy said. I would venture to say that practically no one in this room fears for their economic life in the case of a medical emergency.

The dinner is held every year after the Chamber of Commerces Walk to Washington train trip, in which some of New Jerseys movers and shakers network aboard a crowded Amtrak on their way to the nations capital.

Murphy said in his speech how the Chamber took steps to protect attendees against sexual harassment in the wake of a story published in December by NJ Advance Media that detailed incidents of harassment and sexual misconduct in New Jersey politics amid the reckoning of the #MeToo movement  including during the train trip.

This years trip was more subdued, with hard alcohol barred and fewer attendees.

This event is now 83 years old, the governor said. And this is its watershed year. And this is the year for reinvention.

The culture of Trenton which allowed misogyny to take root became a protective blanket for some  a blanket that no one should be excused to wrap themselves in anymore, Murphy added.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.

Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01.

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Thane : , Feb 28 (IANS) In a massive embarrassment to the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it's former high-profile MLA from Mira Road Narendra Mehta has been booked on charges of alleged rape levelled by a BJP woman municipal corporator, officials said here on Friday. He is likely to be arrested soon.

A close aide of Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Mehta, 47, has been booked for offences of sexual assault by the Navghar Police on Friday after the complaint by his party female colleague and a civic lawmaker.

Among other things, the victim has accused him of harassment, threats to her and her 16-year old son fathered by the accused, sexual exploitation and even posted a candid video of her plight on her social media networks.

Taking cognizance, the police lodged her complaint around 3.30 a.m. on Friday, and she has already lodged similar complaints with the IGP (Konkan Range) and Superintendent Of Police, Thane.

The victim stated in her complaint that she got acquainted with the accused Mehta in 1999 and they were married in 2001, but he warned her not to make their relationship public.

Despite his marriage with the victim, Mehta went ahead and married again in 2003, and continued to sexually exploit her (the victim).

She added that she had a 16-year old son fathered by Mehta who threatened her against disclosing his parental status.

Known for his flamboyant and lavish lifestyle - who gifted a Lamborghini to his wife Suman recently - the influential Mehta was considered a prominent political figure of Mira-Bhayander towns of Thane, a BJP stronghold, around 10 km from Mumbai.

On February 24, speculation was rife in political circles after Mehta - former Mayor of Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation - abruptly quit all party posts, followed by certain videos which went viral on social media networks.

Mehta's political downslide started in the October 2019 assembly polls when he suffered a shock defeat as the official BJP candidate at the hands of a BJP rebel candidate, Geeta Jain, also an ex-Mayor of MBMC.

In June 2019, he was in the news after a furore over a political group allegedly organising 'weapons training' for children at the Seven Square Academy, one of the schools run by Mehta in Mira Road.

With varied business interests in realty, education and health sectors, Mehta - who earlier faced extortion and corruption cases - has been booked under Indian Penal Code provisions pertaining to rape besides SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.




Doctor Stanford Chigumira said Zimbabwe was lucky that there had not been a single case of the coronavirus. With this weak health infrastructure we will be finished, Chigumira said.





A junior doctor Tapiwa Mungofa said the poor remuneration given to medical personnel was forcing them to look for greener pastures.





Zimbabwe is losing experienced doctors. In the past doctors used to go to countries like United Kingdom, Canada, Australia or the US, but now Zimbabwean doctors are even flocking to countries like Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique, Mungofa said.





The Zimbabwe Medical Association (Zima) Mashonaland provincial chairperson, Edward Chagonda yesterday said poverty among health personnel was worsening with some government doctors and nurses no longer able to buy most basic goods.





Appearing before the Parliamentary Thematic Committee on Peace and Security, Chagonda said medical practitioners were even finding it difficult to pay for transport to travel to their rural areas.





As Parliament, why do you keep quiet when your health is being straddled? It is your health senators. How do doctors show the light when they are given broken down equipment to use? Who are you going to represent when all the people are dead? he rhetorically asked the senators.





Chagonda said while epidemiology and disease surveillance was being well handled, it was being funded by donors.





He challenged senators to question government on why the country wanted to rely on donations when it can be self-sufficient.





We need the 15% health funding as stipulated by the Abuja Declaration because how do you think we are going to sort out the issues when you cannot avail the resources, Chagonda asked.





He said in the 1980s, Zimbabwe had a robust healthcare system equivalent to that of the United Kingdom and the country even trained doctors from other countries. Chagonda said medical practitioners were pained to see deterioration even at training institutions.





There is nurse shortage at hospitals because the establishment being used is of the 1980s. Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals is training over 200 doctors, but it was established to train 50 doctors, he said.





Zima secretary-general Enock Mayida later told NewsDay that even with recent government salary increases, Zimbabwes medical personnel still earned measly salaries compared to their counterparts in the region.





Mayida said it was better to pay in stable currency because the salaries of doctors if converted to United States dollars were equivalent to US$250.





It is better that the salaries be pegged at a stable currency, for example, US dollar because even if you give a 150% salary increase on nothing, the costs of goods and services keep going up. Compared to the region, a junior doctor gets an equivalent of US$2 500, Mayida said.





Another




After five years as deputy director for cyber and information security at the directorate, he joined Telstra in 2013 as the company's chief information security officer. In 2017, he was appointed the inaugural director-general of the rebadged Australian Signals Directorate. His position was created as part of a major transformation of the agency, which became an independent statutory agency. Burgess vowed to bring the organisation "out of the shadows", and made a series of public speeches and statements about the evolving role of the directorate and the increased threat of cyber attacks.

What does he do?

Burgess's appointment as ASIO boss was announced by the Morrison government in August. It marked more than just a simple change in leadership for the organisation: while his predecessor Duncan Lewis had a career in defence and diplomacy, Burgess had spent almost all of his career in the intelligence and security space.

Historically, there had been a view within many governments that a career intelligence operative was not the best person to lead ASIO; someone with a broader perspective was preferred. The appointment of Burgess was representative of the unique threats facing the country, and the need to convey these challenges to the Australian public.

Burgess, a protege of former ASIO director-general David Irvine, has spent most of his career working in the cyber security space - an ever-increasing threat to governments all around the world. And he is arguably unrivalled in his connections within the national intelligence community.
One person in New York City is being tested for the deadly novel coronavirus after reporting symptoms following travel to Italy, health officials said.

Testing by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control will take at least 36 to 48 hours, the New York City Department of Health said Thursday evening.

Seven other people in New York City have previously tested negative for COVID-19.

New Yorks governor is asking state lawmakers to approve spending $40 million to respond to the threat of the COVID-19 virus, while New York City has set plans that include making as many as 1,200 hospital beds available. The state hasnt had any confirmed cases of the new virus.

In separate news conferences this week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio stressed efforts to get ready for a potential outbreak of the fast-spreading virus.

Yes, we're preparing, but this situation is not a situation that should cause undue fear among people," Cuomo said.

Since emerging in China in December, COVID-19 has sickened more than 81,000 people and killed 2,700 around the world. U.S. cases total more than 50 so far, and the White House has requested $2.5 billion for vaccine development, treatment and protective equipment.

In New York, Cuomos proposed $40 million to hire additional state health staffers and buy supplies including protective masks and gloves.

In New Jersey, Seton Hall University officials canceled all spring study abroad trips due to the spread of the coronavirus. Students who have already departed for study abroad programs are strongly encouraged to consider returning home as soon as possible, the South Orange school said.

In addition, New Jersey K-12 schools have started preparing preventive measures and plans to handle the potential spread of the virus.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
[February 28, 2020] 2020 Super Tuesday Voters Media Usage Study

Today, the Television Bureau of Advertising released research conducted on eligible voters for state primaries in California, Colorado and North Carolina ahead of Super Tuesday, to gain an understanding of what media platforms may have the most influence on them. "An estimated $6.5 billion is to be spent by campaigns in the 2020 presidential election year," says TVB President and CEO Steve Lanzano. "This study demonstrates why political decision makers buy local TV advertising. When eligible voters in California, Colorado and North Carolina all find the problem with 'fake news' to be most prevalent on social media, while local broadcast TV news is the most trusted, it's hard to deny the influence local broadcast TV has over voters." The survey, conducted among eligible primary voters in CA (News - Alert), CO and NC and administered by Dynata, finds that: Local broadcast TV news is more trusted than new on cable TV, radio, and social media in California (83%), Colorado (81%) and North Carolina (89%).

Registered voters find fake news to be most prevalent on social media in California (68%), Colorado (74%) and North Carolina (74%).

Television has the highest reach of any ad-supported platform in California (88%), Colorado (88%) and North Carolina (89%).



In California, broadcast TV is the primary source of news and has the highest reach among Hispanic adults 18+.

In Colorado, suburban and rural women 18+ trust local broadcast TV news far more than news on cable TV, radio, and social media.

In North Carolina, broadcast TV has the highest reach among African Americans and African American women 18+. Lanzano noted, "As an ongoing study, we will continue to go into early primary and caucus states to study what platforms and mediums voters trust most."

In January 2020, TVB commissioned Dynata to conduct a study of eligible registered voters in 3 primary states to gain an understanding of media usage, and attitudes toward traditional and digital platforms. 2,685 respondents were surveyed and to qualify, each respondent had to be a registered voter and had to have been exposed to any of over 20 media (traditional or digital) in the prior 24-hour period. They did not need to have used a television to be included in this survey. For more information, visit the 2020 Voters Media Usage Study page. About TVB: TVB is the not-for-profit trade association representing America's local broadcast television industry. To learn more visit www.tvb.org. About We Get Voters: We Get Voters is a campaign created by the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) to promote local broadcast TV's voter influence and political impact. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005508/en/

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Over 50 per cent of all traffic to Jeddah consists pilgrims headed to Mecca and Medina.

Saudi Arabias decision to halt religious tours to the kingdom to contain the spread of coronavirus will hit Air India, IndiGo, and SpiceJet.

The three Indian airlines, along with Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), operate 98 weekly flights to Jeddah.

Pilgrims account for over 50 per cent of the traffic between India and Jeddah.

The Saudi government on Thursday announced temporary suspension of Umrah (pilgrimage to Mecca that can be undertaken at any time of the year).

Additionally, tourist visa holders from over 20 countries, including India, will not be allowed entry.

The Saudi order does not prohibit labour and business travel to the country, but airlines and travel agents are seeking further clarifications, it is learnt.

Saudi Arabia is the second-largest air travel market for Indians in West Asia after the United Arab Emirates, and around 5.9 million passengers flew between the nations in 2019.

Jeddah is the largest destination in the country for Indians, followed by Riyadh and Dammam.

Typically, pilgrims to Mecca and Medina travel in 14-day group tours and are issued special Umrah visas.

We may have to reduce the frequency on the Jeddah route, following the Saudi governments decision.

"However, the decision cannot be taken immediately, as pilgrims, who have already travelled to Saudi Arabia, need to return home, said an Air India executive.

Air India, IndiGo, and SpiceJet did not respond to emails from Business Standard.

The largest demand for Umrah tours is from south India, especially Kerala, and we are seeing cancellations in our forward bookings for the next few weeks, said Amey Amladi, chief operating officer of Akbar Group.

All airlines are giving refunds, but there is no clarity on refunds from hotels.

"Currently, 500-600 passengers are traveling daily from Mumbai for Umrah.

"The figure will rise to over 1,000 daily during April and May, said Rizwan Patel, director of Atlas Tours & Travels.

India suspends Iran flights

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation also temporarily suspended Iranian carriers from operating flights to India. IranAir and Mahan Air operate flights to Mumbai and Delhi, respectively.

No Indian airline flies to Iran. Sources said 350 Iranians are in India and booked to travel on IranAir till March-end.

Similarly, there are 250 Indians stranded in Iran. They were supposed to return home via IranAir.

IranAir is offering refunds but has requested India to allow operation of two flights.

The government is considering the request, it is learnt.

Around 200,000 passengers flew between Iran and India in 2019.
Mr Huckabee defended the president against criticism on Fox News

In Donald Trumps America, very few national figures are as loyal to the president as Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and father of the former White House press secretary.

And, as criticism has mounted regarding Mr Trumps reaction to the deadly coronavirus, Mr Huckabee got a chance to display that obedience once again  and took the bait, hook line and sinker, by delivering a bizarre defence of the man.

Mr Trump could personally suck the virus out of the 60,000 people in the world, suck it out of their lungs, Mr Huckabee said on Fox News during a segment on the fears surrounding the virus that has actually infected more than 80,000 people, swim to the bottom of the ocean and spit it out, and he would be accused of pollution for messing up the ocean.

The comment came shortly after Mr Trump announced that the risk of infection to Americans remains very low, and promised that the US is ready for whatever comes up next. During that briefing, in the White House, Mr Trump announced that vice president Mike Pence would be leading the countrys response to the outbreak.

But the presidents response has been criticised loudly and frequently by a group that includes both Democrats and Republicans, with a special adviser to the director general of the World Health Organisation saying that the presidents announcement was mostly incoherent, and members of Congress saying that the White House isnt asking for enough money to combat the growing threat.

Mike Huckabee says Trump "could personally sick the virus out of every one of the 60,000 people in the world, suck it out of their lungs, swim to the bottom of the ocean and spit it out, and he would be accused of pollution for messing up the ocean." pic.twitter.com/X7xbC5ebDz  Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 28, 2020

Of the choice of Mr Pence to be leading the charge, powerful politicians like congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have claimed the former Indiana governor doesnt believe in science, so is unprepared for the project. Others have pointed to Mr Pences bungling of an HIV virus outbreak in Indiana in 2015, when he was opposed to measures like a needle exchange that may have helped stop the spread of the virus.

Story continues

I found most of what he said incoherent, said Dr Ezekiel Emanuel, the WHO adviser and a former health policy adviser in the Obama administration, said during an interview on MSNBC of Mr Trumps Wednesday press briefing on coronavirus.

Mr Trump had originally requested $2.5 billion to combat the threat, leading many in Congress to say that the figure is just not enough, and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer suggesting that $8.5 billion is likely a better figure.

There have been 15 total confirmed cases of coronavirus in the US, with 12 of those coming as a result of travel and three from person-to-person spread, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Another 46 people have been repatriated to the United States with the disease, with 43 of those coming from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and three from Wuhan, where the virus first began.

On Tuesday, just a day before Mr Trumps announcement, the director of the CDCs National Centre for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases said that it was only a matter of time before the outbreak became more severe in the US.

We expect we will see community spread in this country, the director, Dr Nancy Messonnier, said. Its not so much a question of if it will happen anymore, but rather a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness.
There have been many great recent advancements at Western Dakota Tech (WDT) and there is more exciting news to share!

First, the South Dakota Legislature is considering a name change for the four technical colleges in South Dakota. If the legislation passes, Western Dakota Techs legal name will become Western Dakota Technical College (in place of Western Dakota Technical Institute).

The change will reflect the contemporary American understanding of a college. In almost all other states, two-year technical colleges are called colleges, not institutes. Note that we have referred to WDT as a college for a few years and our branded name will remain the same  Western Dakota Tech. The name change is one of perception; we do not anticipate additional cost at WDT if the legislation passes.

Our mission will also remain the same: Western Dakota Tech will continue awarding career-directed two-year degrees, as well as shorter career education options, just as it has for many years. However, with the name change, when students review their options for higher education it will be much easier for people in our communities to understand the expectations and outcomes of an education at WDT.

Second, Western Dakota Tech is in the process of becoming a separate Local Education Agency (LEA). This means WDT will no longer be an educational component of Rapid City Area Schools (RCAS). About two years ago, the Rapid City Area Schools Board requested a study regarding governance options for Western Dakota Tech. In doing so, the Board demonstrated a strong understanding of the types of governing voices that would assist WDT in moving forward as a larger player in the regions economy.

Currently, people from communities outside of Rapid City, served by WDT, have little voice in the colleges local governance. Because WDT is a part of RCAS, only people living in the Rapid City School District are eligible to serve on the local WDT board. A new, separate board would allow for board members, from industry around the area that rely upon WDT program graduates for employees, to be focused primarily on the needs of technical higher education. The current election system does not allow for considerations like these.

Finally, RCAS school board members constituencies rely upon the board members to focus on district needs and issues, which can create challenges for board members to spend on WDT matters. Thus, the Rapid City Area Schools Board has petitioned the South Dakota Board of Technical Education for WDT to become its own independent education agency.

Since WDTs organizational structure has allowed the college to function independently from the RCAS District, the cost to WDT for this change would be minimal. With a broader range of voices in governance, the overall impact on WDT with this change is expected to be quite positive and position the college to have a much greater impact on Western S.D.  particularly the regions economy. The decision on this petition is expected in March.

Finally, WDT has been working on redeveloping its Vision Statement. I thank the community members, college employees, and WDT students who took the time to share their excellent, diverse ideas and thoughts in visioning sessions or through surveys. This spring, the College will revisit its mission statement to ensure the language describing our work is updated, clear, and relevant to the next decade.

With Western Dakota Tech enrollment increasing in leaps and bounds, and the increasingly clear vision and direction for WDT moving forward, WDT has an exciting future! The future for our graduates, employers, and communities is even brighter!

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WASHINGTON - Surveillance authorities used by the FBI to fight terrorism are in danger of lapsing next month as both Democrats and Republicans concerned about government overreach negotiate possible reforms.

Liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans want to overhaul the surveillance powers to ensure that the U.S. doesnt unfairly target private citizens. And Republicans angry over the FBIs investigation into President Donald Trumps campaign and Russia want to use the looming March 15 deadline to force their own changes.

The biggest unknown is Trump himself. Some Republicans are privately pushing the president  long suspicious of the nations intelligence community  to demand immediate reforms.

While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have both said they dont want the surveillance authorities to expire, each has to overcome significant rifts within their caucuses to move forward.

Its a work in progress and its a critically important issue, but one we should try to resolve in a manner that results in substantial reform and is done in a bipartisan way to ensure that it gets over the finish line, said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

Attorney General William Barr is pushing Congress to quickly renew the surveillance tools, calling them essential for law enforcement.

Barr and some other Republicans have suggested renewing the powers and letting the Justice Department work on changes to the programs that wouldnt require congressional approval. Lawmakers would also have more time to work on reform legislation. But its unclear if Trump will go along.

Jeffries, a member of the House Judiciary Committee and also party leadership, said its an open question if theyll be able to reach an accord, but people are working feverishly.

At issue are three surveillance provisions, including one that permits the FBI to obtain court orders to collect business records on subjects in national security investigations. Another, known as the roving wiretap provision, permits surveillance on subjects even after theyve changed phones; and to monitor subjects who dont have ties to international terrorism organizations.

The FBI calls the provisions vital in the fight against terrorism and stresses that none are tied to the surveillance problems identified by the Justice Department inspector general during the Russia investigation. The inspector general said in a report last year that the FBI made serious mistakes and omissions during four applications to eavesdrop on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, including omitting information that did not support their suspicions that Page was an asset of a foreign government.

The FBI has since committed to a series of reforms aimed at ensuring that wiretap applications to the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court are more accurate and thorough.

But the concerns over the Russia investigation, amplified by Trump, have given leverage to those members of Congress in both parties who see a window to push for more oversight of government surveillance.

Democrats concerned about civil liberties are agitating for changes. In the House, Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren has so far thwarted the House Judiciary Committees compromise bill on the surveillance provisions by saying shell offer a series of amendments backed by some of the panels more liberal Democrats. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler cancelled the vote rather than allow Democrats to argue in public over the provisions.

Lofgren would not reveal her amendments but has pushed to prohibit warrantless collection of web browsing data and strengthen oversight of surveillance measures she and other Democrats say are overreach.

Nadlers bill, written with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, makes similar, but more modest, changes in an effort to ensure passage. Nadler said Friday that he is opposed to a short-term extension similar to what is being floated by some Senate Republicans. But he said that he and Lofgren are still quite far apart about a solution.

Nadler said he is involved in the leadership talks to build a package, but that it would first be considered in his committee.

The GOP leader, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, said he spoke Friday morning with Barr, and has also spoken recently to Trump, about a package of reforms. McCarthy expressed optimism that the authorities wouldnt expire and said he is working on the details with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

Were working on it now, we should be able to get it done by next week, McCarthy said.

In the Senate, though, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a longtime skeptic of surveillance laws, has been pushing Trump not to accept a renewal unless the surveillance is curbed.

Spoke with @realDonaldTrump, Paul tweeted Thursday. He agrees that the secret FISA court (intended to be used on foreign spies) should be forbidden from ever spying on or investigating Americans, and that Congress should act NOW to make sure of that!

Trump has not said whether he believes such reforms should happen now, or later. If he does demand immediate changes, he would be breaking with Barr, who urged quick renewal when he met with Senate Republicans Tuesday.

After that meeting, Paul said a simple extension would be a big mistake.

The time is right, the iron is hot, Paul said.

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee, agreed, saying that they are looking for some reforms that will protect the interests of citizens, American citizens, in front of the FISA court, and make sure what happened to the president doesnt happen again.

While surveillance authorities have long had bipartisan support, there is concern on Capitol Hill that the two sides wont be able to find common ground. Many are still nursing the wounds of impeachment, and the divisions on intelligence issues are deep.

This is the first time I am aware of anything being so highly politicized with regard to the FISA process, said David Gomez, a retired FBI counterterrorism supervisor.

Youve got a lot of very conservative Republicans who dont want to see it change too radically but they dont want to get crosswise with the president, Gomez said.
A court in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi on Friday postponed a trial hearing of an RFA blogger held in jail for more than a year, after his lawyers declined to attend, Vietnams state media said.

Hanois Judicial Council will reopen the trial on March 9, the report said.

Dang Dinh Manha lawyer representing blogger Truong Duy Nhattold RFAs Vietnamese Service on Thursday that he had formally asked the court to postpone the trial because the second member of his legal team, Ngo Anh Tuan, was never summoned to attend.



If we are not present in court, the trial cannot take place unless Truong Duy Nhat agrees that it can go ahead without his lawyers being present, and I am sure that he wont agree to this, Ngo said.



Truong Duy Nhat, a weekly contributor to RFAs Vietnamese Service, disappeared in Bangkok in late January 2019 amid fears he had been seized by Vietnamese agents, and two months later was revealed to be under arrest in Hanoi.



Kidnapped in Thailand



Nhat, who had earlier been jailed in Vietnam from 2013 to 2015 for his writings criticizing Vietnams government, was charged by police investigators in July 2019 with abusing his position in a case involving the sale of public land at an eventual loss to the state of over VND $13 billion.



The new charge was filed after investigators failed to find sufficient evidence to convict him on an earlier charge of illegally acquiring property, his wife and a family friend told RFA in an earlier report.



Truong Duy Nhat had already been charged with a serious crime, but now he is being prosecuted for another crime for which he could be sentenced to from 10 to 15 years in jail, attorney Ngo Anh Tuan said.



Speaking to RFA on Thursday, Truongs daughter Truong Thuc Doan, now living in Canada, said she agrees with her fathers lawyers decision not to take part in the trial set for Friday.



I believe that my father will ask that the trial be postponed, as both his lawyers wont be allowed to be present. If the trial goes ahead anyway, this will be a violation of the law, she said.



Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Huynh Le. Written in English by Paul Eckert.
Houstons tech community is staging a series of events through March 7 dubbed the Houston Tech Rodeo, riding on the coattails of the citys traditional extravaganza. But instead of bronc-busting, glittery musical acts and deep-fried ice cream, attendees will gather to talk about raising money for startups, diversity in the industry and the growth of Houstons emerging innovation economy.

Harvin Moore, president of Houston Exponential, the nonprofit organizing the event, said more than 30 events would be tied to the Tech Rodeo, which he hopes will become an annual event that could grow in importance.

After all, South by Southwest in Austin started as a little music festival, Moore said. Houston Exponential focuses on accelerating the growth of Houstons startup community.

A list of the events is at htxtechrodeo.com/events.

One of the highlights of the week will be a pair of appearances by venerable angel investor Jason Calacanis, who made his money in the first wave of internet growth by selling his Weblogs Inc. business to AOL. He has since morphed from being an entrepreneur to helping fund and mentor other founders and investors. He counts Uber among his early investments.

ACCELERATORS:Are accelerators becoming a trap for startups?

Calacanis first event is at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at Shell Auditorium on the Rice University campus. In whats billed as Office Hours, hell have one-on-one conversations with seven Houston-area founders in front of an audience.

Then, in a dinner at the House of Blues, Calacanis will be interviewed by Artemis Fund co-founder Leslie Goldman. He will then interview Carolyn Rodz, founder of Alice, a community for women and minority small-business owners.

Calacanis answered a few email questions about his appearance and his thoughts about Houstons tech community:

Q: Whats your impression, from the outside looking in, of what Houstons tech community is trying to achieve?

A: I know all about the Houston Rockets, the low cost of living, huge houses and that there are a lot of rich people who could easily become angel investors!

Q: A lot of other noncoastal cities are beating this drum as well. What other cities not on the coasts have you seen successfully building startup communities, and why have they succeeded?

A: New York, Austin, Miami, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Toronto, Vancouver, Boulder and Los Angeles have all started to break out as startup hubs. A lot of this is because San Francisco is simply too expensive and the investors here are telling founders that they will invest even if they set up shop in another city. In fact, investors are happy to see their money last two to three times as long as it would in the Bay Area.

ECOSYSTEM: Can Houstons tech sector avoid its past mistakes?

Q: The tech sector here is seeing growth in startups in the tentpole components of Houstons economy  energy, medicine, aerospace. In a scenario such as this, where certain parts of the economy dominate, is there room for startups who dont play in those spaces? Is there room for consumer-focused startups here?

A: A great founder can come from anywhere, and a great company can be built in any city that young folks want to live in.

Release Notes: Get Dwight Silvermans weekly tech newsletter in your inbox each Monday

Q: You have been around long enough that youve seen tech startups and investing go through different phases. How would you characterize the current phase?

A: Right now there are 100 times the number of startups being created as there were a decade ago when I started angel investing, and on average they are higher quality because all the knowledge on starting a company can be found on blogs and in podcasts and books.

Its an amazing time to be an early-stage investor, but there is a lot of noise, which makes it hard for talent to concentrate at the best companies.

Q: Have you invested in any Houston-based startups? Or seen any local companies that intrigue you?

A: Not yet, but Im looking forward to meeting some founders. Three years ago I went to Florida and Sydney and explained what we do, and we now have four or five investments in each of those cities.

dwight.silverman@chron.com

twitter.com/dsilverman

houstonchronicle.com/techburger
The cruise ship Diamond Princess was quarantined for over two weeks resulting in more coronavirus infected passengers than if they would have disembarked immediately. Rather the opposite to what was intended. This according to a study conducted at Umea University in Sweden.

"The infection rate onboard the vessel was about four times higher than what can be seen on land in the worst infected areas of China. A probable cause is how close people stay to one another onboard a vessel," says Joacim Rocklov, Professor of epidemiology at Umea University and principal author of the article.

After a person travelling with the cruise ship Diamond Princess disembarked in Hong Kong and was tested positive for the coronavirus, Japanese authorities decided to disallow the 3,700 passengers onboard to leave the ship when it reached Yokohama. The ship was hence put in quarantine until 19 February. Passengers who showed signs of illness were, as far as possible, separated from other passengers onboard. When the quarantine in Yokohama in the end was removed and passengers could finally disembark, a total of 619 passengers had been infected by the coronavirus.

"If the ship had been immediately evacuated upon arrival in Yokohama, and the passengers who tested positive for the coronavirus and potential others in the risk zone had been taken care of, the scenario would have looked quite different. Our calculations show that only around 70 passengers would have been infected. A number that greatly falls short of the over 600 passengers the quarantine resulted in. The precautionary measure of putting the entire ship under quarantine was understandable, but due to the high risk of transmission on the ship, the decision is now questionable," says Joacim Rocklov.

At the same time, the study also shows that if the precautionary measures of isolating potential carriers had not been carried out onboard, another 2,300 people would have been infected.

###
A 35-year-old New Jersey woman faces charges for allegedly carjacking two vehicles Friday morning, one of which she crashed into a Phillipsburg gas station before being taken into custody.

The owner of the first vehicle, a pickup truck, leapt into the vehicles bed as it was being driven off by Ammany Jafar, 35, of Clifton in Passaic County, according to police. The minivan that Jafar ended up crashing into Valero at South Main and Center streets was occupied by a female passenger whom Jafar ordered to get out, police said.

The crime spree began in Mount Olive Township, Morris County, where Jafar stole a blue Ford pickup truck, police said. Police in Washington Township, Morris County, were called at 11:04 a.m. to respond to the pickup heading west on Route 46 with a male occupant in the bed of the pickup.

The pickup's owner was trying to draw attention from other motorists, and Jafar began yelling she needed help upon reaching the intersection of Route 46 and East Avenue in Washington Township, according to a news release from the police department there.

There, the male driver of a minivan got out in an attempt to render aid and Jafar jumped into his vehicle and drove south on East Avenue, police said.

Jafar went a few hundred feet before ordering the minivan's female occupant out, police said, and the passenger escaped unharmed.

Police in Warren County were notified about 11:26 a.m. of a pursuit involving the minivan headed west on Route 57.

A few minutes later, the minivan crashed into the deli and minimart on South Main Street in Phillipsburg. The female driver, identified as Jafar in the Washington Township police news release, got onto the ground and was quickly taken into custody by police.

Jafar will face stolen motor vehicle and carjacking charges in Washington Township, with additional charges possible pending the outcome of the investigation, police said. The carjacking would be a first-degree offense with the possible sentence of 10 to 30 years in prison, an official said.

She also initially faces three second-degree counts of eluding -- one from Mansfield Township police, one of New Jersey State Police and one from Phillipsburg police -- in Warren County, Prosecutor Jim Pfeiffer said. But they will likely be merged into a single count due to the continuous nature of the incident, and eventually be combined with the more serious Morris County charges, Pfeiffer said. She would face trial in that nearby county due to the weight of the charges from there, he added. With a single count of eluding, she could face five to 10 years in prison if convicted, Pfeiffer said.

Jafar will also be charged in Warren County with receiving stolen property since the vehicle was recovered during her arrest in Phillipsburg, Pfeiffer said. The third-degree offense carries a possible sentence of between three and five years.

She will make a court appearance on Saturday in Warren County and have a detention hearing, Pfeiffer said. She is currently being held in Warren Countys jail, but at some point soon will be moved to Morris County, Pfeiffer said.

No one was immediately reported injured during the series of incidents.

Reporter Tony Rhodin contributed to this post.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
By Thomas Escritt

BERLIN (Reuters) - Heshmat is a loving father and supportive husband who delights local children by rescuing a trapped cat - but also the man who operates the trapdoor through which a row of the condemned plunge from the scaffold to their deaths.

And even if his eyes sometimes betray a haunted look, his compromise with Iran's regime makes him the most contented of the four lead characters in Mahammad Rasoulof's "There Is No Evil", premiering on Friday at the Berlin Film Festival.

The film, shot in secret because the dissident director is banned from making movies in his home country, explores the ethical dilemmas that capital punishment pushes onto men, women and their children, stirring the viewer to reflect on the limits of free will - and not just in authoritarian societies.

"I have often asked what it is to say 'no' to an authoritarian regime," Rasoulof said in a video interview published on the festival's website.

His passport has been confiscated, and he is banned from leaving the country.

Three other protagonists, each the star of a different moral fable, all make different choices when faced with the order to kill, some braver than others, but each choice imposes costs on them and their loved ones.

Rasoulof's daughter Baran plays a young woman who grew up in Germany on her first visit to see relatives in Iran, whom she exasperates with her guileless belief that wanting something makes it possible.

Born in Iran, Rasoulof was charged with making propaganda after returning from the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, where his "A Man of Integrity" won a prize.

The scene-setting betrays the secrecy involved in filming: events unfold either in enclosed, dark spaces far from prying eyes, or in lush, remote landscapes.

Rasoulof said each of the moral dilemmas was drawn from experience: in the case of Heshmat, played by Ehsan Mirhosseini, he had seen his former prison interrogator on the street and realized how ordinary he was - "merely a person who had not questioned his own actions."

Story continues

Producer Kaveh Farnam said the film's lessons went beyond Iran.

"It's about questioning things in your life that you don't want to do," he said. "For the growing number of people who live in dictatorial countries it's much harder to make such a choice: but nonetheless every day, every minute we must make choices, whether we say 'yes' or 'no'."

The crew had themselves made such choices, he told Reuters.

"I am too much worried for the young people who really did this film," he said. "The world should know the courage of these people."

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; editing by John Stonestreet)
Over two lakh infants were born



with low birth weight in Maharashtra, of which 22,179 were born in Mumbai, the government informed the legislative Assembly on Friday.

According to the World Health Organization, babies that weigh less than 2.5 kg at birth fall under the low birth weight category, one of the primary causes of infant deaths.

Quoting a report by Health Management Information System, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said as many as 2,11,772 babies weighing less than 1.5 kg were born in 2018-19, of which 22,179 were born in Mumbai.

As per the HMIS report, 13,070 babies died in infancy, of these 1,402 deaths were reported in Mumbai, the minister said in his written reply.

Between April 1 and December 31 2019, 12,147 infant deaths were reported in the state, while 11,066 newborns died in the period, he said.

Similarly, 1,070 cases of maternal mortality were reported in the state from April 1, 2019 to January 15 this year, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
From March 2 until April, 13 million students will remain at home. The government measure takes parents and institutions by surprise. Confusion in local administrations. Yesterday the number of infections in the country exceeded 200. In the count Tokyo does not include infected passengers from the Diamond Princess. The archdiocese of Tokyo suspends public masses.

Tokyo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - After the surprise, controversy and confusion: Japanese politicians, parents and teachers are furious at the measure launched by the government to counter the spread of coronavirus in the Land of the Rising Sun. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced yesterday that around 13 million young people will remain at home for the closure of the entire school system, starting next week and until early April.

"By placing the health and safety of children above all else - said the premier - we will ask every elementary, junior and and high school in Japan to stop teaching activities temporarily, from March 2 until the spring holidays". For Japanese students, the school year ends in March; usually, the break period starts in the last week of the month.

The government measure caught parents and institutions by surprise. Confusion also reigns in local governments: Kyoto city council said that on March 2, schools in the western Japanese city will be open as normal. Then the school board said it would decide later what to do with school activities in the following days. The mayor of Chiba, Toshihito Kumagai, expressed strong concern by declaring that the closure of the school "could cause a collapse of Japanese society". Noting that it is difficult for workers in medical institutions to take care of their children at home, the mayor of the populous city near Tokyo said he is considering allowing children, mainly younger students and those with disabilities, to stay in school if parents cannot take care of them at home.

Japanese health authorities say that yesterday the number of infections in the country exceeded 200, an increase compared to the official count of 186 the previous day. At the moment, the disease has killed eight people. On the northern island of Hokkaido, 15 new cases have been confirmed, including two children under the age of 10. The government-reported infections do not include the 705 detected on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which has been quarantined in the port of Yokohama since the beginning of the month. The one on the boat remains the main hotbed in the country. The Ministry of Health explained that around 240 foreign and Japanese crew members who tested negative for the virus will be disembarked from the ship in the next few days. Those without symptoms will remain in a medical facility near Tokyo for further monitoring, the ministry said in a statement.

The Japanese Church is supporting the government efforts against Covid-19. Two days ago, the administration announced that for the next two weeks, sporting or cultural events with a large number of people will be suspended, postponed or reduced in order to prevent the spread of the infection. On the same day, the Archdiocese of Tokyo announced the suspension of public masses between February 27 and March 14. We absolutely believe in the power of prayers - reads the note signed by Msgr. Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi -. Nothing can stop us from praying, just because the infections spread widely. Among the various practical measures to be taken to combat Covid-19, it makes no sense to have a Church in this world if we don't include our spiritual response. "
MIDDLE EAST

Syria

Expected Council Action

In March, the Security Council expects to hold its monthly meetings on political issues, the humanitarian situation, and the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Key Recent Developments

The security and humanitarian situations in north-west Syria continued to deteriorate in February, as the Syrian government and its allies carried out a military offensive to retake control of parts of Aleppo and Idlib. This led to large-scale displacement, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights estimated that at least 100 civilians were killed in aerial and ground-based attacks in north-west Syria from 1 to 16 February. During his 19 February briefing to the Council, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock reported that over 90 percent of these attacks occurred in areas not controlled by the government. The Council-designated terrorist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham remains a major presence in Idlib, and Russia and Syria have repeatedly said that they are fighting terrorists in the north-west.

There were several deadly clashes in February between Turkish forces and Syrian government troops in Idlib. The Turkish army has been in Idlib since Turkey and Russia agreed to create a de-escalation zone there in September 2018. On 3 February, an attack by Syrian forces on a Turkish convoy resulted in the deaths of eight Turkish soldiers. On 10 February, five Turkish troops were killed in an attack by Syrian government forces on an observation post. Turkish forces responded in both cases by firing on Syrian government forces. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that 30 to 35 Syrian troops died in the Turkish militarys response on 3 February, but reports of the death toll have varied. Turkey also reinforced its troop presence in Idlib in February.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued statements regarding the situation in the north-west on 17 February and 18 February, respectively. Calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities, Bachelet expressed horror at the scale of the humanitarian crisis in north-west Syria, referring to UN estimates that over 900,000 people (mostly women and children) have been displaced since 1 December 2019 while 298 civilians have died in the conflict in Idlib and Aleppo so far in 2020. Guterres similarly called for an immediate ceasefire. Expressing alarm at the suffering of civilians, he observed: Young children are dying from the cold. Hostilities are now approaching densely populated areas. People are on the move in freezing temperatures in search of safety, which has become even more difficult.

The political process has been in a stalemate for several months. When the Constitutional Committee convened in Geneva from 25 to 29 November 2019, the co-chairs from the government side and the opposition side were unable to agree on an agenda for the meeting. The government side wanted to discuss national constants, such as terrorism and sanctions relief, prior to discussing constitutional matters. The opposition side maintained that these issues could be addressed but not outside the context of the constitution. At press time, this impasse had not been broken.

A briefing was held on the situation in Idlib on 6 February at the request of France, the UK and the US. Special Envoy Geir O. Pedersen and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock briefed. Pedersen said that a nationwide ceasefire alongside a cooperative approach to combating terrorism, full respect of Syrias sovereignty and a credible and inclusive United Nations-facilitated political process, as outlined in resolution 2254, remains the only path to end the conflict. He expressed strong concern about clashes between Syria and Turkey inside Syria, saying that this suggest(s) the very real prospect of conflagration in the immediate region, as well as far beyond. Lowcock echoed Pedersens call for a nationwide ceasefire and serious international effort to cooperate on Idlib.

Pedersen and Lowcock again briefed the Council on Syria during the scheduled monthly meeting on the political track on 19 February. Pedersen (briefing via video teleconference) said he could not report any progress in ending the violence in north-west Syria or in reconvening the Constitutional Committee since his last briefing to the Council two weeks earlier. He also referred to an uptick of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) activity in north-east Syria. Lowcock said that from 13 to 16 February, 160,000 people had fled from the fighting in north-west Syria. He added that it is incumbent on all parties to protect the displaced.

When the Council renewed the mechanism for cross-border aid delivery into Syria through resolution 2504 of 10 January, the Al Yarubiyah border crossing (on the Iraq/Syria border)which had been authorised in previous resolutions on this issuewas not included as part of the aid mechanism. Nonetheless, the resolution asked the Secretary-General to report to the Council on alternatives to Al Yarubiyah by the end of February.

At press time, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Ursula Mueller was expected to brief the Council on the humanitarian situation in Syria on 27 February. The report on alternative modalities to the Al Yarubiyah crossing was expected to be discussed at the meeting. The report, released on 21 February, said that from a security and logistical perspective, in the current context, the Tal Abyad border crossing would constitute the most feasible alternative to the Al Yarubiyah border crossing.

The Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria briefed Council members on 19 February on childrens rights in Syria in an Arria-formula meeting organised by Estonia, Germany and the UK. The briefing focused on the Commissions January report, titled They have erased the dreams of my children: childrens rights in the Syrian Arab Republic (A/HRC/43/CRP.6) The report describes the killing and maiming of children and attacks on civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, during the conflict in Syria. It notes the conditions that children have faced in detention, including sexual violence, torture and beatings. While referring to abuses committed by government forces, it also describes sexual violence, the recruitment of child soldiers, and public executions, among other crimes, perpetrated against children by ISIL. During the Arria-formula meeting, the chair of the Commission, Paulo Pinheiro, said that a whole generation of children had been traumatised by the war.

Human Rights-related Developments

On 7 February, the spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern over the sharp increase in hostilities in northwest Syria and the blatant disregard for protection of civilians, adding that fighting in southern and eastern Idlib and in western and southern Aleppo continues to kill and injure scores of civilians and displace hundreds of thousands of others. On 10 March, during its 43rd session, the Human Rights Council is expected to hold an interactive dialogue with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria and consider its report (A/HRC/43/57).

Key Issues and Options

An overarching key issue is how the Council can find an effective way to address the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in north-west Syria and help the parties participating in the Constitutional Committee to reinvigorate the stalled political process. Several members have expressed support for the efforts of Special Envoy Pedersen. One option would be for the Council to urge the Secretary-General to play an enhanced good offices role by supplementing Pedersens efforts and engaging in determined dialogue with all the relevant parties.

The Council could also make an appeal for enhanced financial contributions to support OCHAs humanitarian plan for Syria, given the increased needs for support outlined by Lowcock in his 19 February briefing to the Council.

The Board of Inquiry established last year by the Secretary-General to investigate attacks on facilities in north-west Syria on a deconfliction list that included health facilities is expected to finalise its internal report this month. The Council could ask the Secretariat for a briefing on the boards findings in a closed format to allow for a frank dialogue and exchange of views.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Investigation and Identification Team (IIT)established to identify perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks in Syria following a June 2018 decision of the Conference of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)may also finalise its report in March. The Council could discuss this report with the OPCW in a private-meeting format. While Council members often meet on chemical weapons issues in Syria in closed consultations, non-UN officials and non-Council members are not permitted to participate in closed consultations. That is not the case with private meetings, the format used when the Council discussed the use of chemical weapons in Syria with Fernando Arias, the OPCWs Director-General, on 5 November 2019.

Council Dynamics

Sharp differences continue to define Council engagement on Syria. On the one hand, the P3 (France, the UK and the US) and others tend to condemn attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure by the Syrian government and its allies. They also maintain that the Astana formatwhich established Idlib as a de-escalation zone  has failed. In contrast, China and Russia tend to underscore the importance of eliminating the threat of terrorism in Syria. In this regard, Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia (Russia) said at the 6 February meeting that Syrian citizenshave been taken hostage by the terrorists running rampant in Idlib and noted that resolution 2254 directly states that there is a need to combat terrorism. Russia further maintains that its military operations are proportional and discriminate and that terrorists in Syria use civilian infrastructure in an effort to protect themselves.

There is growing concern among a number of members about the clashes between Syria and Turkey in Idlib and the potential for these clashes to escalate into a broader conflict.

Belgium and Germany are the humanitarian penholders on Syria.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SYRIA
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Philanthropist Bill Gates on Friday warned that the coronavirus is beginning to behave like a 'once-in-a-century' pathogen with the potential to kill more people than the 66,000 Americans who died in the 1957 influenza pandemic.

'The data so far suggest that the virus has a case fatality risk around 1 per cent,' Gates wrote.

'This rate would make it many times more severe than typical seasonal influenza, putting it somewhere between the 1957 influenza pandemic (0.6 per cent) and the 1918 influenza pandemic (2 per cent).'

The virus that caused the 1957 Asian flu pandemic was quickly identified, and vaccines were available by August 1957.

The elderly had the highest rates of death.

The Asian flu killed 2 million people globally, according to the World Health Organization.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (seen above in Shanghai in 2018) says that the coronavirus has started to behave like a 'once-in-a-century' pathogen

The 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic is the benchmark by which all modern pandemics are measured.

Some 20 to 40 per cent of the worldwide population became ill and more than 50 million people died.

Between September 1918 and April 1919, it killed more than 600,000 people in the United States alone.

In a normal flu season, about 36,000 people die in the United States, and 250,000 to 500,000 globally.

So far, more than 83,000 people in at least 53 countries have been infected with coronavirus.

Of those who have been infected, a reported 2,800 have died - most of them in China.

In recent days, the number of new infections outside of China has outpaced those within the country. The rapid spread has sent global financial markets spiraling.

Gates urged wealthy nations to help low and middle-income countries strengthen their health systems in hopes of slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

'By helping countries in Africa and South Asia get ready now, we can save lives and also slow the global circulation of this virus,' Gates, the former chairman and chief executive of Microsoft Corp, wrote in an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The novel coronavirus that first emerged in China and has now spread to 46 countries is much harder to stop than similar viruses that caused the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Gates wrote.

'First, it can kill healthy adults in addition to elderly people with existing health problems,' he wrote.

'Second, Covid-19 is transmitted quite efficiently.

Coronavirus cases in the US have now risen to 63, including 42 passengers who were aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, three people repatriated from China and 16 on US soil

The virus that caused the 1957 Asian flu pandemic was quickly identified, and vaccines were available by August 1957. The elderly had the highest rates of death. The Asian flu killed 2 million people globally. The image above shows flu patients in Copenhagen in 1957

'The average infected person spreads the disease to two or three others - an exponential rate of increase.'

What makes the spread of the disease even more difficult to contain is the fact that carriers of the virus may not show any symptoms, according to Gates.

'That means Covid-19 will be much harder to contain than the Middle East respiratory syndrome or severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which were spread much less efficiently and only by symptomatic people.

'In fact, Covid-19 has already caused 10 times as many cases as SARS in a quarter of the time.'

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has already pledged $100million to fight the outbreak.

Gates also called for accelerated testing of vaccines. He noted that several promising candidates are already being prepared for clinical trials.

'If some of these vaccines prove safe and effective in animal models, they could be ready for larger-scale trials as early as June,' he wrote.

'Drug discovery can also be accelerated by drawing on libraries of compounds that have already been tested for safety and by applying new screening techniques, including machine learning, to identify antivirals that could be ready for large-scale clinical trials within weeks.'

Gates said that these steps can be effective to curb the current pandemic, but more needs to be done to prepare for the next crisis, including shoring up the health care systems of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

'Its essential to help LMICs strengthen their primary health care systems,' the Microsoft co-founder wrote.

What makes the spread of the disease even more difficult to contain is the fact that carriers of the virus may not show any symptoms, according to Gates. The image above shows a Korean man being tested for coronavirus in Goyang, South Korea, on Thursday

'When you build a health clinic, you're also creating part of the infrastructure for fighting epidemics.

'Trained health care workers not only deliver vaccines; they can also monitor disease patterns, serving as part of the early warning systems that alert the world to potential outbreaks.'

Gates urged governments to invest in 'disease surveillance' including a global case database that allows governments to quickly share information.

'In addition, we need to build a system that can develop safe, effective vaccines and antivirals, get them approved, and deliver billions of doses within a few months after the discovery of a fast-moving pathogen,' he wrote.

'Thats a tough challenge that presents technical, diplomatic, and budgetary obstacles, as well as demanding partnership between the public and private sectors.

'But all these obstacles can be overcome.'

Gates wrote that governments and the private sector will need to come together and invest billions of dollars in order to prepare for the next pandemic.

'Billions of dollars for antipandemic efforts is a lot of money,' he wrote.

'But thats the scale of investment required to solve the problem.

'And given the economic pain that an epidemic can impose - were already seeing how Covid-19 can disrupt supply chains and stock markets, not to mention peoples lives - it will be a bargain.'

Besides technical solutions, Gates called for better diplomatic efforts to drive international collaboration and data sharing, and increased government spending on drugs and vaccines that would give private companies incentives to take up such efforts.

Gates' plea was echoed on Friday by the World Health Organization, which said the risk was very high that the virus would spread and have a global impact.

The WHO implored governments to swing into action to contain the virus before it becomes widespread. Such actions could slow the virus, giving nations more time to prepare, officials said.

'Health systems around the world are just not ready,' Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergencies program, told a news briefing.

THE 1918 FLU OUTBREAK - THE WORST THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN The deadly flu virus attacked more than one-third of the world's population, and within months had killed more than 50 million people  three times as many as World War I  and did it more quickly than any other illness in recorded history. Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill juvenile, elderly, or already weakened patients; in contrast the 1918 pandemic predominantly killed previously healthy young adults. Red Cross volunteers fighting against the Spanish flu epidemic in United States in 1918 To maintain morale, wartime censors minimized early reports of illness and mortality in Germany, Britain, France, and the United States. However, newspapers were free to report the epidemic's effects in Spain, creating a false impression of Spain as being especially hard hit - and leading to the pandemic's nickname Spanish flu. The close quarters and massive troop movements of World War I hastened the pandemic and probably both increased transmission and augmented mutation, researchers believe. The global mortality rate from the 1918/1919 pandemic is not known, but an estimated 10% to 20% of those who were infected died, with estimates of the total number of deaths ranging from 50-100 million people. Advertisement

UP TO ONE HUNDRED HEALTH WORKERS WERE EXPOSED TO 'UNKNOWN ORIGIN' PATIENT WHO TOOK FOUR DAYS TO DIAGNOSE

As many as 100 healthcare workers may have been exposed to the California woman who went four days untested for coronavirus.

The doctors and nurses are from the University of California Davis Medical Center, where the woman is being treated, and from NorthBay VacaValley Hospital.

''There were multiple health care personnel who were exposed to the individual,' Dr Bela Matyas, public health officer from Solano County, said at a news conference on Thursday.

'At both hospitals we are at present aggressively evaluating everyone who may have had contact with this patient. They are being identified and their risk for exposure is being assessed.'

Some are under isolation, some are under quarantine and others have been sent home to continuously monitor their status.

As for the patient, she is reportedly in very serious condition and is currently intubated, Rep John Garamendi (D-CA) told CNN.

Doctors requested a test for the virus, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ruled out the disease because the patient 'did not fit the...criteria' for testing. However, after the woman's medical team persisted, a test was finally performed on Sunday.

Health officials have been stumped by the woman's case because it's unclear how she contracted the disease. She didn't travel abroad, wasn't exposed to another infected patient , and she wasn't repatriated from China or the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.

Instead, 'this does appear to be a person who genuinely did acquire their illness in the community,' Dr Matyas sai.

According to the CDC, the patient, could be what is known as the first instance of 'community spread' of the virus, and more cases like hers will soon follow.

More than 83,000 people have been infected in more than 50 countries and more than 2,800 people - mostly in China - have died.

There are at now at least 62 coronavirus cases in the US including 15 from the nation, 44 evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and three repatriated from China.

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As many as 100 healthcare workers may have been exposed to the California patient who went untested for coronavirus for four days. This image shows medical staff treating patients infected by the coronavirus in Wuhan, China, on Monday

The patient, who is a resident of Solano County, is reportedly in serious condition and currently intubated at UC Davis Medical Center

Some of the healthcare workers who were exposed are in isolation, others are in quarantine, and others are at home monitoring symptoms. Image courtesy of CBS This Morning

Two students at two colleges in California are in isolation after coming into contact with a coronavirus patient

Supermarket and pharmacy shelves have been stripped bare by people stockpiling food and medication

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 463 points, or 1.8 percent, at the opening bell on Friday

Mexico confirmed on Friday its first case of coronavirus in a woman who had traveled to Italy in February

The White House chief of staff accused the media of working against Trump while reporting on the outbreak

States are running low on test kits but the CDC hopes every health department has kits by next week

Schools are canceling overseas trips and one has closed after a staffer's family member was tested

A new survey found that 38% of Americans are avoiding Corona beer thinking it may be related to the virus

In addition to healthcare workers, there are fears the California patients may have come into contact with three students at three colleges in Northern California.

According to emails sent to students on both campuses, the students - who attend American River College and Cosumnes River College and Sacramento City College - were exposed last week, reported KTXL.

All three students have been told to self-quarantine for two weeks and to contact health officials if they experience symptoms such as a cough or fever.

The California woman appears to have the first case of coronavirus.

Los Rios Community College District, where the schools are located, say that neither classes nor school operations will be canceled.

The Sacramento County Public Health Department does not believe that either campus is at risk for exposure, according to KTXL.

In addition, three students at UC Davis are being isolated and one is undergoing CDC testing for coronavirus.

University officials say the student undergoing testing has moved off campus while the other two, who are asymptomatic are isolated on campus.

'In Yolo County, in the city of Davis, on the campus of UC Davis, there is no evidence of spread of coronavirus, there is no evidence of transmission of coronavirus,' Yolo County health officer Ron Chapman said.

Following the woman's case, the CDC says it is changing its criteria for testing patients and is sending new guidance to healthcare workers.

Prior to this patient, suspected cases were tested if they had traveled to China or were a close contact of someone who had been tested, according to CDC Director Dr Robert Redfield.

But the changed once the California woman tested positive.

'As soon as that case was recognized, we met and we revised our case definition for persons under investigation,' Redfield said.

'Today, that has been posted (to the CDC website) along with a new health advisory that the recommendation should be when a clinician or individual suspects coronavirus, then we should be able to get a test for coronavirus.'

SUPERMARKET SHELVES STRIPPED BARE AS AMERICANS STOCKPILE FOOD

Photos have emerged of bare supermarket and pharmacy shelves as American stockpile on medication and non-perishable items in fear of a coronavirus outbreak.

It comes three days after a top CDC official warned the it was not 'a question of it...but when' coronavirus will spread in the US.

One Twitter user shared photos of a Virginia supermarket with just a few remaining jumbo bags of pasta.

Another user in southern Calfornia, showed how shelves in one Walgreens had been depleted of cough medicines, cold and flu medications, vaporizers, masks and thermometers.

Supermarket shelves in Virginia are seen stripped bare of non-perishable items including jumbo bags of pasta

Photos in southern Calfornia showed how shelves in one Walgreens (left and right) had been depleted of cough medicines, cold and flu medications, vaporizers, masks and thermometers

A woman in Michigan shared pictures of her shelves piled with cans of soup, boxes of pasta, jars of peanut butter and more and referred to it as her 'grocery store basement'

Others on social media opted to shared photos of their stockpiles of food, including one Texas man who bought a year's supply.

'I just bought an additional year's worth of food last night. Everyone needs to have a stockpile of food,' tweeted Jesse Colombo, is a financial analyst in Dallas.

'Everyone needs to have a stockpile of food. I wouldn't even touch stocks (or even gold/silver) before having food in these times.'

Meanwhile, a woman in Michigan shared pictures of her shelves piled with cans of soup, boxes of pasta, jars of peanut butter and more.

She referred to it on Twitter as her 'grocery store basement.'

DOW JONES DROPS AGAIN AS CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK RAISES ALARM FOR POSSIBLE RECESSION

As the market opened on Friday, US stock indexes fell sharply, raising the alarm of a possible global recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 463 points at the opening bell on Friday, one day after the index's biggest one-day point drop in history.

If the Dow closes by more than 1,000 points at the end of the day, it would be the third time this week - and the second consecutive day - the index lost points in the four digit, an event that has only previously occurred twice in history.

Trader Peter Tuchman works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday at the opening bell. The Dow quickly plunged more than 1,000 points after the open

In Asia and Europe, nearly $6 trillion, or about 10 percent, has been erased from stock values over the course of the week.

A recession would be different than a market crash. A crash occurs when the market declines in value, without any subsequent dip seen in the economy.

But a recession is typically defined as negative GDP growth for two consecutive quarters.

'THIS HAS NOT GONE AS WELL AS WE HOPED' :CORONAVIRUS TEST KITS ARE RUNNING LOW

The CDC says tests for coronavirus are in short supply and many states don't have enough kits to test everyone in need.

California, where 33 of the 62 US cases live or are in quarantine, only has 200, but 8,400 people are being monitored, according to Governor Gavin Newsom.

And officials in New York state are trying to make their own test kit independent of the CDC, especially in light of 83 people being monitored in Nassau County for the illness.

'This has not gone as smoothly as we would have liked,' Dr Nancy Messonier, CDC's director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporter in a media call on Friday.

She added that new test kits are being manufactures to send out to state and local health departments, but that all test results will continue to need to be confirmed by the federal health agency

Dr Messonier added that she hopes to every state and local health department will have tests for coronavirus by the end of next week.

Dr Nancy Messonier (pictured) of the CDC said that she hopes to every state and local health department will have tests for coronavirus by the end of next week

WHAT IT MEANS TO GO INTO SELF-ISOLATION DURING THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread, people who have been exposed to the virus or to sick patients have been asked to go into self-isolation. But what exactly does that mean? A former chief medical officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains to DailyMail.com what self-isolation is and what you should be doing while cooped up at home. IS SELF-ISOLATION THE SAME AS BEING IN QUARANTINE? In a word: no. Those who undergo self-isolation do so voluntarily and have to make arrangements themselves while they're at home. While quarantines are typically voluntary, sometimes they can be mandatory, such as the federal quarantine for US citizens evacuated from Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. People under quarantine are not sick, but they are are separated fro the general public to see if they become sick. Both self-isolation and quarantine differ from isolation, which separates those who are sick from the general public until they are cured or treated. WHO NEEDS TO SELF-ISOLATE? 'People who should go into self-isolation are not sick but they've had a credible exposure,' said Dr Robert Amler, former chief medical officer for the CDC and dean of New York Medical College. 'There's reason to believe they may have been exposed. And we wait for the incubation period, in this case about 14 days, to see if they become sick.' This includes a few groups of people such as anyone awaiting CDC test results or anyone who has been in contact with someone waiting for test results. Anyone who has traveled to a foreign country where the outbreak is rampant such as China, Japan, South Korea, Italy and Iran. WHAT DO I DO IN SELF-ISOLATION? People under self-isolation are expected to stay home and not go to work or school, or take their children to school. Dr Amler says that people should try to do as much of their normal activities as they can - such as working from home or doing school work - without physically contacting anyone else. 'That means staying in your room, trying to have your own bathroom facility if possible, and not sharing plates or utensils with other household members,' he said. However, being in self-isolation doesn't mean that you can't have contact with the outside world. 'You can use your TV, your stereo, your phone, FaceTime, go on social media,' Dr Amler said. 'Just anything that does not allow you to get [possibly infected] droplets everywhere else.' CAN I GO OUTSIDE TO GET FOOD, TOILETRIES OR OTHER SUPPLIES? People under self-isolation are not allowed to leave the premises under any circumstances. One option is to have family or friends drop off supplies you need. Alternatively, you can use grocers or online retailers to deliver packages. Dr Amler offers two suggestions, either wear a mask when the person drops off items or wait until they leave before retrieving them. He says the latter is more ideal because 'because the person delivering items not enter the air space.' WHAT DO I DO WITH MY GARBAGE? Dr Amler says that most people don't produce huge amounts of garbage by themselves so, if you can wait to take it out, that's the best option. 'If there's no harm in keeping it, that's the most protective way,' he said. 'That way nothing going out your room.' If that's not possible, Dr Amler recommends depositing outside of your doorstep until the 14-day isolation period is up. WHAT HAPPENS IF I FEEL UNWELL WHILE IN SELF-ISOLATION? The most important thing is to not visit a doctor's office, a hospital or any other healthcare setting, otherwise you risk infecting others. Stay home and immediately call your healthcare provider and ask them for advice on what you should do. 'Alert the authorities so you can be transferred to a hospital to be monitored, and undergo testing,' Dr Amler said. Advertisement

WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF ADVISES AMERICANS TO IGNORE NEWS REPORTS ABOUT CORONAVIRUS

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney implied American should ignored news reports about coronavirus and accused the media of working against President Donald Trump.

'They think this will bring down the president. That's what it's all about,' Mulvaney told the audience at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference 2020 in Maryland. 'It's not a death sentence. It's not the same as the Ebola crisis.'

However, he admitted that the virus's spread would likely impact schools and public transportation.

Mulvaney told the crowd that he was allegedly asked by a reported: 'What are you going to do today to calm the markets?'

'I'm like: "Really what I might do today [to] calm the markets is tell people turn their televisions off for 24 hours." This is not Ebola...it's not SARS, it's not MERS,.'

White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney implied that the media is working against Donald Trump as it reports on the coronavirus outbreak spreading around the world. Picturd: Mulvaney at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2020 in National Harbor, Maryland, on Friday

Mulvaney admitted at the same time that schools would be shut down and public transpiration would be affected. Pictured: Stephen Moore (left) of the Heritage Foundation speaks with Mulvaney

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) are cousins of the new coronavirus, but appear to be more fatal.

'Are you going to see some schools shut down? Probably,' Mulvaney said.

'May you see impacts on public transportation? Sure. But we do this. We know how to handle this.'

His remarks comes as the Dow Jones lost about 463 points at the opening bell, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced all schools will be closed for a month, and the US has canceled joint military drills with South Korea.

SCHOOLS ACROSS THE US CANCEL TRIPS OVER FEAR OF OUTBREAK

Schools across the US have been preparing for a possible spread of coronavirus by canceling trips abroad, preparing online lessons and even considering banning 'perfect attendance'

Currently only one school, Bothell High School in Washington state, has been closed, bu top CDC official Dr Nancy Messonier has warned that more closures could be imminent.

Classes at Bothell were canceled after a staffer's family member was placed under quarantine for showing symptoms linked to the the virus.

'After much consideration and information gathering from multiple sources, including our partners at Public Health Seattle & King County, I have decided to keep Bothell High School closed on Friday, Feb 28,' said Northshore School District superintendent Michelle Reid in a statement.

'This will provide us an opportunity to complete the cleaning and hopefully receive the results of the test.'

It follows moves by schools in China, Iran, Italy, Japan and Bahrain, although evidence seems to suggest that children are less likely than adults to contract the virus.

A school janitor opens a door to a staff room inside Bothell High School, which was closed after a staffer's family member was placed under quarantine for showing symptoms linked to the the virus

Do not enter signs are seen taped to doors at Bothell High School on February 27, after the school was closed for the day

Meanwhile, in Miami, public school officials say they have prepared 200,000 laptops and tablets for students to take home in case buildings close and classes need to be taken online.

'If there is one place where a contagion can actually spread, it could be the schoolhouse,' Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

'We are ready. We have protocols in place'.

Miami officials also announced that field trips to Italy and Scotland would be canceled, while Virginia's Fairfax County announced trips to countries where the virus has spread would be suspended.

And the National School Boards Association has asked schools to reconsider perfect attendance awards, fearing students could come to school sick and infect others.

'School districts may want to revisit what it means to have perfect attendance,' Francisco Negron, chief legal officer for the group, said.

'We certainly wouldn't want sick kids to come to school just because their parents are shooting for that perfect attendance award'.

MEXICO CONFIRMS ITS FIRST CASE OF CORONAVIRUS

Mexico says it has confirmed it first case of coronavirus in the country.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said in a news conference on Friday that the male patient visited Italy - where about 650 cases have been confirmed - in the third week of February.

The patient has been placed in isolation at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases in Mexico City and his family members are in quarantine.

Lopez-Gatell said the patient has only had mild symptoms, resembling a cold, and he does not require hospitalization.

Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez, Mexico's Undersecretary of Health Prevention and Promotion, held a news conference in Mexico City on Friday about the country's first confirmed coronavirus case

In a separate press conference, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged the public to stay calm and not give into 'a collective psychosis of fear.'

Mexico has the 'doctors, specialists, hospitals, the capacity to face the situation,' he said.

The government said it waiting to get the test results back for a potential second case regarding a 41-year-old man in Sinaloa. He is currently under quarantine at a hotel.

Two people are under examination in Mexico City and central Mexico state, but none have been confirmed to have the virus, reported The Wall Street Journal.
The Delhi riots are monstrous and shameful enough for critics to grill the BJP government on how it allowed this to happen, demand accountability and ensure action. Hollowing out extremely loaded words like genocide achieves exactly the opposite.

This is how the United Nations defines genocide:

Genocide

mass noun

genocide/dnsd/

Origin:

1940s from Greek genos race + -cide.

One of five punishable acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, as such:

Killing members of the group; Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

iii. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Large sections of mainstream media worldwide, Islamist agenda-pushers and many self-proclaimed liberals, however, have their own convenient definitions. And they have now descended on Delhis communal riots.

For days now, they have been trending the hashtag #DelhiGenocide, trying to portray the communal clashes as a one-sided slaughter of Muslims. Influencers including journalists and activists also started bandying about words like pogrom, ratcheting up outrage against India and selling their narrative of majoritarianism of the BJP government.

Pogrom, like genocide, means an organised massacre of a particular ethnic group.

The truth  as is evident from the list of the dead so far  is that the Delhi riots are far from a genocide or pogrom. Of the 28 names confirmed among 39 killed till now, 9 to 10 or 35 percent are of Hindus. This, in a city with just about 13 percent Muslim population.

Which genocide or pogrom has so many of so-called perpetrators killed by supposed victims?

How many Nazis did Jews kill during Holocaust?

How many Hutus were killed in retaliation of the rape and massacre of nearly a million Tutsis in the 1994 Rwandan genocide?

How many Muslims like Kashmiri Pandits kill while being murdered and driven away from their home during the 1990s ethnic cleansing?

The answer is: None, or almost none.

But a cornered and politically shrinking Left, through its disproportionate influence on media and academia worldwide, weaponises every losing debate with words like fascist, Nazi, genocide, pogrom and suchlike.

In college debates judged by Lefts own professors, it works just fine. However, this flagrant misuse corrodes the immensity of these words, till the quirk of evolution turns the dreaded pterodactyls into chatty sparrows.

When you start calling every strong-willed leader who you dont like a Nazi, the word gradually stops to conjure in the public mind the gas chambers of Nuremberg. When you call every communal clash with a tilted power balance genocide, people stop hearing the heart-tearing cries from Bangladeshi homes ravaged by the Pakistani Army and Islamist militias of 1971.

The other unintentional fallout of such overstatements and bias is it makes ordinary people  hard to fool them in a digitally connected world  very, very angry. The rise of Narendra Modi is a shining test case. While 790 Muslims died in the 2002 Gujarat riots, more than 250 Hindus also lost their lives, 59 of them in the Godhra train burning which triggered in violence. But the media and liberal intelligentsia kept projecting it as a genocide, not realising that it was angering Hindus not just in Gujarat but everywhere.

The Congress-Left ecosystem should have learnt its lesson. It clearly hasnt.

Those who think that terms like genocide and roping in foreign media will scare the Modi government are naive. Relentless bashing by foreign media and even some western governments has only nourished this regime and its protagonists. Such targeting has made them what they are today.

The Delhi riots are monstrous and shameful enough for critics to grill the BJP government on how it allowed this to happen, demand accountability and ensure action. Hollowing out extremely loaded words like genocide achieves exactly the opposite.
An NCP minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra announced on Friday that a law will be enacted to give five per cent quota to Muslims in education, but a senior Shiv Sena minister said later that no such decision had been taken.

Replying to a question by Congress' Sharad Ranpise in the Legislative Council, Minority Affairs Minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik said the government will ensure that a law giving five percent quota to Muslims in education is passed soon.

He also assured that "appropriate action" would be taken before the next academic year starts.

But soon thereafter, Urban Development Minister and senior Sena leader Eknath Shinde said no decision had been taken on this issue yet.

"Leaders of the MVA will together take a call on policy decisions about giving reservation to any community. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will take appropriate decisions at appropriate time. No decision has been taken yet," he told reporters.

Malik, however, reiterated outside the legislature what he had announced inside.

"The (Bombay) High Court had approved (for Muslims) five per cent reservation in government education (institutes)," he told reporters.

"We will come out with an Act to ensure five per cent reservation in government education. The government will definitely take decision on giving reservation (to Muslims)," the NCP leader said.

The then Congress-NCP government in the state had issued an ordinance giving five per cent quota to Muslims in 2014 alongwith 16 per cent quota for the Maratha community.

The BJP-Shiv Sena government which followed enacted a law for Maratha reservation but dropped the Muslim quota.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PITTSBURGH, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WESCO International, Inc. (NYSE: WCC), a leading provider of electrical, industrial, and communications MRO and OEM products, construction materials, and advanced supply chain management and logistics services, today announced that the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 ("HSR Act"), as amended, in connection with its previously announced merger with Anixter International Inc., expired at 11:59 p.m. ET on February 26, 2020. The expiration of the HSR Act waiting period satisfies one of the conditions to the closing of the proposed transaction, which remains subject to other customary closing conditions, including receipt of Anixter stockholder approval and other regulatory approvals.

Conference Call to Provide Merger Update

WESCO Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer John Engel and Chief Financial Officer Dave Schulz will hold a conference call on Tuesday, March 3, 2020 at 7:30 a.m. ET to provide an update on the merger with Anixter International. The live audio webcast and presentation slides will be accessible via WESCO's Investor Relations website, www.wesco.investorroom.com. Dial-in details are below.

Raymond James Conference Presentation

WESCO will present at the Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference on Tuesday, March 3, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. ET. The live audio webcast and presentation slides will be accessible via WESCO's Investor Relations website, www.wesco.investorroom.com.

Conference Call Dial-In

Live Access Replay Access US Participant Dial-in: 1-877-443-5356

International Participant Dial-in: 1-412-902-6614

Canada Participant Dial-in: 1-855-669-9657

Confirmation Code: Ask for the "WESCO" conference call US Replay: 1-877-344-7529

International Replay: 1-412-317-0088

Canada Replay: 1-855-669-9658

Confirmation Code: 10139787 Replay available until March 10, 2020

About WESCO

WESCO International, Inc. (NYSE: WCC), a publicly traded FORTUNE 500 holding company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a leading provider of electrical, industrial, and communications maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) products, construction materials, and advanced supply chain management and logistic services. 2019 annual sales were approximately $8.4 billion. The company employs approximately 9,500 people, maintains relationships with approximately 30,000 suppliers, and serves approximately 70,000 active customers worldwide. Customers include commercial and industrial businesses, contractors, government agencies, institutions, telecommunications providers, and utilities. WESCO operates 11 fully automated distribution centers and approximately 500 branches in North America and international markets, providing a local presence for customers and a global network to serve multi-location businesses and multi-national corporations.

About Anixter

Anixter International is a leading global distributor of Network & Security Solutions, Electrical & Electronic Solutions and Utility Power Solutions. The company helps build, connect, protect, and power valuable assets and critical infrastructures. From enterprise networks to industrial MRO supply to video surveillance applications to electric power distribution, Anixter offers full-line solutions, and intelligence, that create reliable, resilient systems that sustain businesses and communities. Through Anixter's unmatched global distribution network along with its supply chain and technical expertise, the company helps lower the cost, risk and complexity of its customers' supply chains.

Anixter adds value to the distribution process by providing over 100,000 customers access to 1) innovative supply chain solutions, 2) nearly 600,000 products and over $1.0 billion in inventory, 3) 309 warehouses/branch locations with over 9.0 million square feet of space and 4) locations in over 300 cities in approximately 50 countries. Founded in 1957 and headquartered near Chicago, Anixter trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AXE.

Additional information about Anixter is available at www.anixter.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

All statements made herein that are not historical facts should be considered as forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the expected completion and timing of the proposed transaction between WESCO International, Inc. ("WESCO") and Anixter International Inc. ("Anixter"), expected benefits and costs of the proposed transaction, and management plans relating to the proposed transaction, and statements that address WESCO's expected future business and financial performance and other statements identified by words such as anticipate, plan, believe, estimate, intend, expect, project, will and similar words, phrases or expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and beliefs of WESCO's management as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, WESCO's management, current market trends and market conditions and involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside of WESCO's and WESCO's management's control, and which may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on such statements. Certain of these risks are set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, as well as the Company's other reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC").

These risks, uncertainties and assumptions also include the timing, receipt and terms and conditions of any required governmental and regulatory approvals of the proposed transaction between WESCO and Anixter that could reduce anticipated benefits or cause the parties to abandon the proposed transaction, the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the merger agreement, the possibility that stockholders of Anixter may not adopt the merger agreement, the risk that the parties may not be able to satisfy the conditions to the proposed transaction in a timely manner or at all, risks related to disruption of management time from ongoing business operations due to the proposed transaction, the risk that any announcements relating to the proposed transaction could have adverse effects on the market price of WESCO's common stock, the risk of any unexpected costs or expenses resulting from the proposed transaction, the risk of any litigation relating to the proposed transaction, the risk that the proposed transaction and its announcement could have an adverse effect on the ability of WESCO or Anixter to retain customers and retain and hire key personnel and maintain relationships with their suppliers, customers and other business relationships and on their operating results and businesses generally, the risk that the pending proposed transaction could distract management of both entities and they will incur substantial costs, the risk that problems may arise in successfully integrating the businesses of the companies, which may result in the combined company not operating as effectively and efficiently as expected, the risk that the combined company may be unable to achieve synergies or other anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction or it may take longer than expected to achieve those synergies or benefits and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. All such factors are difficult to predict and are beyond WESCO's control.

Additional Information and Where to Find It

This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. In connection with the proposed transaction, WESCO filed on February 7, 2020 a registration statement on Form S-4 with the SEC, which includes a preliminary prospectus of WESCO and a preliminary proxy statement of Anixter, and each party will file other documents regarding the proposed transaction with the SEC. The registration statement has not yet become effective and the proxy statement/prospectus included therein is in preliminary form. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS OF WESCO AND ANIXTER ARE URGED TO READ THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT, PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE, BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT WESCO, ANIXTER AND THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. A definitive proxy statement/prospectus will be sent to Anixter's stockholders. Investors and security holders will be able to obtain free copies of the registration statement, proxy statement/prospectus and other documents filed with the SEC by WESCO or Anixter through the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. Copies of the documents filed with the SEC by WESCO will be available free of charge on WESCO's website at http://wesco.investorroom.com/sec-filings and copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Anixter will be available free of charge on Anixter's website at http://investors.anixter.com/financials/sec-filings.

Participants in the Solicitation

WESCO and Anixter and certain of their respective directors, certain of their respective executive officers and other members of management and employees may be considered participants in the solicitation of proxies from Anixter shareholders with respect to the potential transaction under the rules of the SEC. Information about the directors and executive officers of WESCO is set forth in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, which was filed with the SEC on February 24, 2020, and its proxy statement for its 2019 annual meeting of stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on April 15, 2019. Information about the directors and executive officers of Anixter is set forth in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 3, 2020, which was filed with the SEC on February 20, 2020, and its proxy statement for its 2019 annual meeting of stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on April 18, 2019. These documents can be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above. Additional information regarding the interests of such participants in the solicitation of proxies in respect of the potential transaction will be included in the registration statement and proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC when they become available.

SOURCE WESCO International, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.wesco.com


A man wades in a flooded street in District 8, Ho Chi Minh City, during high tides on September 30, 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa.

Major Asian cities, including Tokyo, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City and Shanghai, are most at risk from rising sea levels, researchers warned on Thursday.

Authorities have been urged to invest more in flood defense and plan to relocate assets and people.

A study by U.K.-based risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft analyzed 500 cities worldwide with more than 1 million residents and identified places likely to experience sea level rise of 67 cm-2 meters (26.4-78.7 inches) by 2100, in line with scientific estimates if global warming increases at its current pace.

It found that 11 of the 15 highest risk cities are in Asia, with Dubai, Alexandria and New York also featuring.

"As a species we tend to like to live by coasts - with all the resources and transport it provides," said Rory Clisby, a climate change analyst at Verisk Maplecroft in Singapore.

In Asia, cities with high population densities "tend to develop land that other parts of the world might leave," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Many of Asias rapidly expanding cities are coastal and low-lying, making them vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather such as flooding and cyclones.

This week, torrential rains flooded Jakarta for the second time in 2020, while Bangkok last month trucked in drinking water after the encroaching ocean increased salinity.

To lower flood risks, countries should combine "hard and soft engineering options", such as building sea walls and tidal barriers and restoring mangroves, said Clisby.

Sea defenses would need to be reinforced every decade or so, he added, noting "its not a one-off expense."

Building in flood-prone areas and "ill-conceived" land reclamation projects should be stopped, he said, adding that some cities should consider moving key assets to safer places.

"Sponge city" schemes in China which incorporate sustainable drainage systems into infrastructure - like water-absorbing asphalt and green spaces to prevent water from pooling - could also work across the region, he added.

The highest-risk cities globally are Guangzhou and Dongguan in China's Pearl River Delta Economic Zone, which generates 20 percent of the country's GDP and 3.8 percent of global wealth, the report said.

"It is a massive global manufacturing hub," said Clisby, adding that both cities should look at relocating key assets and investing in large-scale engineering projects.

Across China, $348 billion of GDP and nearly 8 million people are located in areas at high and extreme risk of sea level rise, the report noted.

While China and Japan have the resources to put in place measures to mitigate flood risks, Clisby said, Vietnam, India and Indonesia have more limited resources and institutional capacity to meet the challenges posed by rising seas.
The imminent peace deal between the United States and Taliban this week is expected to be followed by negotiations between the hard-line Islamist movement and the Western-backed Afghan government.

Talks between the Islamic Emirate, the formal name of the Taliban, and supporters of the Islamic Republic, comprising often-competing leaders and factions within and outside of the Afghan government, are expected to revolve around finding a lasting solution to four decades of war in Afghanistan and an agreement over a future political system for the country.

Despite its status as an insurgency, the Taliban appear to be a more united and disciplined organization in comparison to a deeply divided government headed by quarreling political elites. Most Afghan government institutions continue to suffer from corruption, incompetence, and inefficiency.

This gives the Taliban an edge in tough negotiations with the diverse groups that support the current political system under the umbrella of the Islamic Republic. Their relative strength has historically been a key component of gaining an advantage over adversaries in the war after a communist coup plunged Afghanistan into conflict in April 1978.

Organizational strength has been a somewhat decisive factor in the various phases of war in Afghanistan. Groups and parties united under a single leadership and capable of exerting control over their cadres have mostly prevailed over factions that suffered from internal rifts. Leadership divisions quickly seeped through the ranks and led to infighting, coups, and even the downfall of factions and regimes.

Perhaps this realization now prompts the Taliban to showcase their unity and organizational strength.

The Islamic Emirate proved with its 19-year struggle against occupation that it is united both in word and spirit, noted an article titled The Political and Military Unity of Islamic Emirate, published on the Talibans Voice of Jihad website on February 24. Its leadership controls all the ground forces and all personnel work under a strong command and control structure.

Another article titled Historic Moments and Shared Responsibilities hinted at the Talibans keenness to exploit the disunity of their Afghan opponents in future negotiations.

The common aspiration of the Afghan nation (Islamic government) must materialize and our countrymen must not allow anyone to sacrifice this historic opportunity for their personal whims and desires, the February 23 article noted. The responsibility of solving the issue of Afghanistan falls entirely on the shoulders of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of foreign forces therefore we must learn lessons from past experiences in these critical times.

In a February 20 op-ed in The New York Times, the Talibans deputy leader and perhaps its most senior and effective military commander, Sirajuddin Haqqani, attempted to project such an image to foreign audiences. For nearly two decades, foreign and Afghan observers had mostly described the Haqqani network as a distinct military arm made up of the clan and loyalists of Sirajuddins late father, Jalaluddin Haqqani.

Perhaps our biggest challenge is to ensure that various Afghan groups work hard and sincerely toward defining our common future, Haqqani wrote. I am confident that it is possible. If we can reach an agreement with a foreign enemy, we must be able to resolve intra-Afghan disagreements through talks.

The Talibans keenness to be viewed as a united organization is in sharp contrast with the reality of the Afghan government. On February 26, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani postponed his inauguration till March 9. Originally scheduled for February 27, the inauguration was postponed amid his bitter dispute with Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who didnt accept the Afghan election commissions final result naming Ghani as the winner.

Instead, Abdullah declared his victory and began to create his own administration by appointing governors. The dispute deterred most of Afghanistans allies and neighbors from celebrating the election results. Many called for caution and unity.

Moving forward, we call on the new government to be inclusive and reflect the aspirations of all Afghans, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a February 25 statement that came a week after the Afghan election commission announced the final result on February 18.

While Ortagus called for concerns about the election results to be handled in accordance with constitutional and legal procedures, the statement also warned against creating a parallel government. They should also desist from destabilizing actions, including purported efforts to establish parallel government structures inconsistent with the constitution and rule of law, she noted. Such moves call into question the countrys sovereignty and unity that the United States strongly supports.

Ortagus clearly outlined Washingtons top priority in Afghanistan. It is time to focus not on electoral politics, but on taking steps toward a lasting peace, ending the war with the Taliban, and finding a formula for a political settlement, she said, adding that a final resolution can serve the interests of all of this countrys citizens through intra-Afghan negotiations we expect will begin in March.

Like its numerous arbitration efforts among Afghan political elites, Washington is likely to broker some kind of power-sharing among Afghan politicians. But they will need greater unity among their ranks to preserve the republican political system that has given them a piece of the pie in the new Afghan state that emerged after the demise of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Recent Afghan history has clearly not favored bickering leaders.

Afghanistans civil war originally erupted between the Khalq and Parcham factions of the communist Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan soon after the pro-Khalq army officers grabbed power in the April 1978 coup. Their infighting prompted the Soviet invasion in December 1979 and ultimately contributed to their downfall in April 1992.

Their mujahedin nemesis suffered from more disunity. A fratricidal civil war among more than a dozen mujahedin factions in the 1990s paved the way for the emergence of the Taliban as a counterforce keen on ending the anarchy created by the infighting.

Today, Afghanistans security forces, civil administration, and a robust civil society appear to be on the right trajectory toward greater stability and prosperity for the countrys more than 30 million people.

But disunity among Kabul elites, mostly comprising former mujahedin leaders, western technocrats, and royalist tribal leaders, will make it difficult to leverage key concessions from the Taliban in complex negotiations.
From cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), to 5G and mobility, a key trend in 2020 is the accelerated digitisation of construction companies. This is critical for future proofing their businesses and maximising efficiency and profitability.

Andrew Skudder, CEO of Construction Computer Software (CCS)

1. The power of cloud computing

2. Artificial intelligence and leveraging big data

3. Greater connectivity with 5G

4. Mobility

Virtual and physical, side by side

As one of the least digitised industries in the world, with about 1.5% of revenue spent on IT compared to an average spend of about 3% across all industries, the construction industry has suffered a notable lack of growth in productivity. This is in contrast to the manufacturing industry, which has embraced technology significantly  relative to construction  and recorded a consequent increase in productivity.By embracing digital technology, construction companies will have more efficient control over their costs and be able to collaborate more effectively on projects, especially mega projects.Digitisation requires an enormous amount of computing power. A good example of this is the design phase of a project. Over the years, the design process has evolved from designs being created on paper, to the use of CAD tools and, today, through 5D BIM modelling.Now, with virtual reality, the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) also coming into play, the design aspect requires vast computing capacity. Setting the computing infrastructure up and employing the right skills to maintain it would be an expensive  and unnecessary  exercise for a single company.The likes of Azure, AWS and Google Cloud have made large amounts of computing power easily accessible to companies around the globe. It is accessible, safe, relatively cheap and maintained by experts.This allows users to handle much more data, more efficiently and more securely. Once construction companies have garnered big data in the cloud, it can be converted to smart data, allowing them to access comprehensive analytics and use these to make informed and more real-time decisions about current and future projects.AI allows construction companies to harness big data and make sense of it. New algorithms are written every day to analyse big data and leverage it in an effective and productive way.There are numerous use cases for AI in construction. For example, CCS has initiated a proof of concept (POC), using robotic process automation (RPA), to design and build a software robot that is able to read an organisations mobile phone statement and process it in conjunction with the invoices in its ERP solution, BuildSmart.Previously, this process could take an accountant up to two days to complete. The robot, however, is able to read the statement and invoices, extract all the required data and process the purchase order along with various Excel reports in just over eight minutes, with a 100% accuracy every time. This allows the accounting team to focus on work that adds more value to the business.In the construction industry, hundreds of deliveries from multiple suppliers are made to construction sites every day. Traditionally, a clerk would capture every delivery note manually, a labour-intensive and time-consuming process. AI allows this to be done rapidly and accurately, freeing employees up to interrogate the quality, quantity and relevance of the products ordered.AI is also highly effective in interrogating past projects. One of the big opportunities in the industry is for estimators and project managers to learn from past projects. Much of the knowledge rests in their heads, which is then used to improve the scheduling and costing and estimated for upcoming projects. If all historical data is stored on a database, AI will be able to prepare more accurate predictive models, making future projects more productive and predictable.Another higher use case for AI is in 3D modelling. A big issue in planning and designing projects relates to design clashes between different engineers or stakeholders. When something is being built, there will typically be several designs for different aspects of the project  architectural, mechanical, electrical, amongst others. Often, when they are overlaid, there are clashes. AI has the ability to help detect these clashes and adjust designs quickly.The holy grail of construction is to have 100% design before construction commences, that is, no changes during the course of a project. Of course, this rarely happens, but its what everyone strives for. AI enables users to simulate a 3D model to determine whether it is constructible and can be constructed cost effectively and within the clients construction deadlines. By exploring different scenarios, in terms of what happens first, second or third, AI can help optimise the construction process. This saves time and money, something that can have far-reaching benefits for a country like South Africa where changes to projects such as Medupi and Kusile have resulted in an enormous amount of cost and time overruns.Yet another use case for AI is risk management. By harnessing historical data, it allows for greater understanding of project complexity. It can analyse complexity factors around issues such as design complexity, labour availability and weather patterns and place them into risk management models, allowing for greater risk mitigation.5G gives everyone access to greater connectivity. It offers higher speeds and a more reliable and bigger capacity, which ties in with construction companies need to harness big data. Once they start digitising their business processes, construction companies will create huge amounts of data.One of the major constraints for site-based solutions has been a lack of connectivity to construction sites. 5G will take it to the next level in terms of reliability, speed and capacity. This will allow for more data collection, data management and data analysis on site, which will allow project managers to make informed decisions, more quickly.Mobility has already taken hold on construction sites, with laptops, smart phones and tablets allowing people to conduct work in remote areas, capture data and complete tasks that were ordinarily paper based.One example is clock carding or time and attendance-type systems. In the past and at many sites today, attendance at construction sites is recorded on paper, which then gets captured into some system. Today, this can be done more accurately and effectively via mobile phones or tablets.The next level of mobility relates to wearable technology. Think Microsofts HoloLens, which offers the ability to mix virtual reality with reality on the construction site. With the lenses, users are able to see the design and if they look into a room, they are able to see how it is meant to be constructed. It allows users to detect defects and pull up diagrams showing the correct design. While it may not manifest in the construction industry in 2020, wearable technology is definitely the next big leap forward.3D scanners are another form of mobile technology that are invaluable for the construction industry. When a building is being constructed, 3D scanners can be used to scan rooms, measure them and create as-built drawings.Drones are becoming increasingly popular for various construction projects, especially roads. By flying a drone over a construction site every day, users can see what progress has been made in every phase of a project and deliver progress reports to relatively accurate tolerances.Ultimately, the increased use of digitisation will mean construction companies can create virtual projects alongside their physical projects, allowing them to be more efficient in the way they construct their projects. This is because they will be able to build their construction projects in the virtual world up front, ensuring they are well planned when they begin construction in the physical world. It also allows them to monitor their progress against the virtual plan every step of the way and address issues as soon as they crop up.
Pastor Greg Locke slams Bernie Sanders as wannabe Fidel Castro as Christians debate socialism

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As Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders continues to gain momentum in the party's primary with his promotion of democratic socialism, outspoken internet preacher and lead pastor of Global Vision Bible Church in Tennessee has slammed him as the wanna be Fidel Castro of our day.

Bernie Sanders is the wanna be Fidel Castro of our day. If you cannot see through his blatant communist agenda, you are absolutely blinded by the fake news and the utter garbage that he propagates. He is one of the greatest dangers that America has ever encountered, Locke tweeted Monday.

Locke joined a chorus of evangelical and conservative critics who are unnerved by Sanders continued praise of Fidel Castros regime in Cuba.

In a CBS 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday night, Anderson Cooper asked Sanders to defend his position and he said that: We are very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba. But you know, its unfair to simply say, Everything is bad. When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing, even though Fidel Castro did it?

He has since maintained his position in subsequent public debates while critics continue to brand him as a communist like Castro.

According to Democratic Socialists of America, "Democratic socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democraticallyto meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. To achieve a more just society, many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed through greater economic and social democracy so that ordinary Americans can participate in the many decisions that affect our lives."

Democracy and socialism go hand in hand. All over the world, wherever the idea of democracy has taken root, the vision of socialism has taken root as welleverywhere but in the United States. Because of this, many false ideas about socialism have developed in the US, the political group argues on its website.

The group claims that the goal of the movement is not to have the government own and run everything.

Democratic socialists do not want to create an all-powerful government bureaucracy. But we do not want big corporate bureaucracies to control our society either. Rather, we believe that social and economic decisions should be made by those whom they most affect, the group adds.

A Miami New Times reporter on Wednesday criticized Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for speaking out against what the reporter described as supposed hidden dangers of democratic socialism. In doing so, he noted that in 2015 Rubio said it was unfair to compare Sanders' ideology to that of Fidel Castro's regime in communist Cuba.

From an event in New Hampshire in November 2015, CNN reported that Rubio bristled when a member of the audience said the socialism that Sanders promoted had similarities to the Cuban communism Rubio's own family had fled.

Rubio pushed back and said even though he didnt support the idea of democratic socialism, Sanders' platform was similar to those of the social-democratic parties that exist in many thriving European nations.

"In fairness, they fled communism," Rubio explained at the time. "There is social democracy, right, like you see in Europe, where government provides for every aspect of your life, but there's consequence to that. They fled communism, which is beyond socialism, obviously, where government controls society, but also government controls politics, life, the banning of religion  people were being executed."

Bernie Sanders is the wanna be Fidel Castro of our day. If you cannot see through his blatant communist agenda, you are absolutely blinded by the fake news and the utter garbage that he propagates. He is one of the greatest dangers that America has ever encountered.  Pastor Greg Locke (@pastorlocke) February 24, 2020

Rubio also said that although he didn't believe in Sanders' platform, he did not "personally have a problem with Bernie because he's being honest about what he believes in. I'd love to have that debate."

He added, "I don't think it works for America. My argument is, [if] you want to live in a country like that  there's like dozens of countries around the world that are socialist  move there. We should continue to be America."

During a discussion on Fox & Friends on Sunday, a group of Christian pundits hotly debated whether socialism is something Christians should be supporting and Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of the 12,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, said socialism is "antithetical to Christianity."

The Rev. Dee Dawkins-Haigler, a former Democratic member of the Georgia House of Representatives, who now leads the First St. Paul AME Church, said she believes the way black Christians interpret Scripture would lead them to support things that people would describe as socialist today.

I can speak for the African American community because we have always been a faith-led people and very spiritual in everything that we do. Our interpretation of Scripture actually lead us to some of the things that people would call socialist because we believe in things like: what did you do to the least of them; whether you fed the hungry; you clothed the naked; you went to see those that were in prison; but for some reason the message that some of these Democrats left in this race now are trying to relate is not crossing over well to white evangelicals and Im not understanding why, she said.

Jonathan Morris, who formerly served in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York as a priest and requested dispensation from the clerical state in 2019, said while Christians are called to do good works, many Americans dont support Sanders approach to government.

I could not agree more with what youve said there Dee, in terms of that is what Christians are called to do. To take care of the homeless. To take care of the foreigner. But the problem with the Democratic Party right now is that it has to be my way or the highway. And if its Bernie Sanders, its that times 10. And my way or the highway is government must be the principal caretaker of our needy and thats not just gonna work for a big, big part of the United States of America and especially for value voting Americans, Morris said.

He also argued that the Democratic platform in general does not align with values voters on issues like abortion, school choice and religious freedom.

I mean these are huge issues. The Democratic platform, and Im not just talking about the candidates, the Democratic platform has said nobody who stands for those things, school choice, limits on abortion or religious liberty issues, can even be in this party. That is segregating a huge swathe of the voting population. Very dangerous, I think, for the Democrats, he said.

Jeffress warned that if Democrats nominate Sanders, they will not attract any faith voters.

The truth is you do not have to be a socialist to be compassionate and 53% of Americans, Gallup says, will not vote for a socialist and its even higher for Christians. Socialism is absolutely antithetical to Christianity. And if they nominate Bernie Sanders they are not gonna be able to attract any faith voters whatsoever, he said.

Haigler disagreed.

I totally disagree because people would have said that Jesus was more of a socialist than anything we are talking about today. And so we have to be very careful of how we use the language, she said. Jesus did not sit with the establishment, he overturned tables of the tax collectors, he sat with people who were lepers. He made sure he healed people who people thought should not have been healed. So we have to be very careful how we use this language and try to take ownership of who God is and peoples faith.

Jeffress refused to back down from his position.

No! Jesus was not a socialist! the preacher insisted. He said render unto Caesar the things that are Ceasars and to God the things that are Gods. He was compassionate. Church is to be compassionate. But you dont have to believe in socialism, which is nothing but communism light and is absolutely opposed to everything that is Christian.
1. Yes. The downtown area needs a good draw. Some quality taverns would be a plus.

2. Yes. Too many storefronts are vacant. Bars could help to bring in needed revenue.

3. No. Putting a number of bars downtown is just asking for trouble. Dont change things.

4.No. Several churches have located downtown. Putting bars close by would be a bad fit.

5. Unsure. It would depend on how the law is written and what standards are enacted.

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Victorians will be protected from energy retailers luring customers with low rates and discounts, only to jack up prices within months.

That practice of hiking prices after customers sign discount electricity contracts - known as the bait and switch - will be outlawed by the Essential Services Commission.

Under the new rules, energy companies will be restricted to one price rise per year and ensure any discounts, credits or rebates are maintained for the entire length of a customer's contract.

Energy companies will no longer be able to bait and switch customers. Credit:Jamie Brown

Up until now, customers could sign up to what looks like a great energy deal only to have that deal disappear in just a few weeks or months," commission chairwoman Kate Symons said on Friday.
The Hong Kong government's proposed cash handouts to residents could boost the city's flagging economy by around 1%, the city's Financial Secretary Paul Chan told CNBC on Friday.

Chan, in his budget speech on Wednesday, said the 10,000 Hong Kong dollars ($1,282) handouts is estimated to cost the Hong Kong government around 71 billion Hong Kong dollars. The initiative is expected to benefit about seven million permanent residents aged 18 and above.

The handout is part of a package of measures worth 120 billion Hong Kong dollars that the government has planned in its upcoming budget to support the flagging economy, which has been dragged down by months of pro-democracy protests and the new coronavirus outbreak.

"The outbreak of the coronavirus caught everybody by surprise," Chan told CNBC's Emily Tan.

"In Hong Kong, we have been trying very hard to fight this disease. Our economy has been hard hit, that's why in the budget we rolled out measures to try to help stimulate the economy and to help relieve the burden on the people," said the financial secretary.

Hong Kong has reported 93 cases of the coronavirus, of which two have died, according to official data.

Chan added that all the measures  including earlier rounds of stimulus  could boost the Hong Kong economy by about 3%.

The Hong Kong economy contracted by 1.2% in 2019, and is at risk of shrinking again this year. The government's forecast for 2020 is for gross domestic product to change between -1.5% and 0.5%.
Rotunda Rumblings

Fighting coronavirus in Ohio: In Cleveland on Thursday, Gov. Mike DeWine outlined how he has asked state agencies to prevent the spread of coronavirus -- including using more disinfectant in state prisons, posting handwashing protocols at rest stops and preventing public colleges and universities from allowing travel to China and South Korea. Cleveland.coms Mary Kilpatrick has details. Next week, a public health summit is scheduled in Columbus with the Ohio Department of Health and local health agencies to share information on how to slow the spread of the virus, which is believed to be carried and spread by asymptomatic people.

The numbers: On Friday morning, the Ohio Department of Health said no one new was being tested for coronavirus. Seven people have tested negative so far, cleveland.coms Laura Hancock reports.

On quarantine: The Licking County Health Department in Central Ohio is investigating whether a man seen walking around with a mask was someone who was supposed to be in self-quarantine after returning to China, the Newark Advocate Michaela Sumner reports.

Text the editor: Cleveland.com editor Chris Quinn has set up a direct line to engage with you. Its a free Subtext account. Every day, he sends one or two messages to your phone about what were talking about in the newsroom, what questions were trying to get answered. Think of it as an advance on tomorrows news. Better yet, you can message Chris, directly. A bunch of people already are, and Chris is learning plenty from the conversations. Its an easy way to make sure Chris and the rest of us get your perspective. And did we mention its free? Sign up by sending Chris a message at 216-868-4802.

Lifetime limit: The proposed state constitutional amendment that would change Ohio legislative term limits is a step closer to the signature gathering phase, Hancock reports. On Thursday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost certified that the petition summary was a fair and truthful statement of what the petition would do if passed.

What can Brown do for you? Its that time for the quadrennial edition of Democrats freaking out about the primary and whispering about a consensus nominee at any possible contested convention. In the latest episode, Sen. Sherrod Brown was mentioned as that possible unity candidate by the New York Times. Cleveland.coms Seth Richardson reached out to Brown, who didnt rule out the possibility of accepting the partys nod to challenge Republican President Donald Trump.

The winningest president: Champaign County GOP Rep. Jim Jordan on Thursday told a panel at the 2020 Conservative Political Action Conference that President Donald Trump will win re-election this November, and said theres a good chance Republicans will retake control of the U.S. House of Representatives, cleveland.coms Sabrina Eaton reports. Theres a good chance that the president wins big, and if he wins big, we can take back the House, said Jordan. I do think thats going to happen.

Familiar ballot name: Bill ONeill, the colorful former Ohio Supreme Court justice, said on Facebook on Thursday hes raised more than $4,000 for a legal challenge of the Athens County Board of Elections recent decision to disqualify his daughter from challenging GOP state Rep. Jay Edwards in Ohios 94th House District. "This is personal, ONeill said in an interview. The elections board on Jan. 31 unanimously voted to disqualify Katie ONeill, a Democrat, ruling she didnt meet the one-year residency requirement, and hadnt registered to vote in the district when she began circulating candidacy petitions, according to board member John Haseley, a Democrat. The ONeills say they have evidence that she did meet the residency requirement.

Tune in: If youre voting in the still-fluid Democratic presidential primary, should you wait until March 17 or cast your ballot early? Thats one of the many questions we tackled in the latest episode of This Week in the CLE, cleveland.coms weekly news and analysis podcast. Other topics include the latest on the mix of ballot issues we could face in November and the controversy over Trump supporters forming a charity to give away money mainly to black voters.

FES version 2.0: FirstEnergy Solutions has emerged from bankruptcy and changed its name to Energy Harbor, reports cleveland.coms Jeremy Pelzer. The Akron-based coal and nuclear power generating company, which is a separate company from the utility FirstEnergy Corp., has been in the news for getting a $1 billion ratepayer bailout of its two Ohio nuclear power plants.

Backing off: JobsOhio is disowning a PR document it published in 2018 praising how Fuyao Glass America in Morraine headed off a unionization effort among its employees. Responding to the Columbus Dispatchs Marty Schladen, JobsOhio spokesman Matt Englehart said: We do not endorse the language that was posted and have removed the content. JobsOhio works to attract jobs and investment to Ohio from companies regardless of if they have a union or not. Fuyaos handling of the union drive  which prompted an investigation by the National Labor Relations Board  was featured in American Factory, which won an Oscar for Best Documentary last year.

The verdict: The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday tossed the death sentence conviction of a Hamilton County man who was accused of beating and starving his 2-year-old daughter, the Associated Press reports. The court returned the case to the lower court because it didnt think a juror who made racially biased comments on a jury questionnaire should have been seated for Glen Bates trial.

Senate honor: The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a resolution sponsored by Brown and Ohio GOP Sen. Rob Portman to honor the life, legacy and work of Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge, Nathaniel R. Jones, who died last month at his home in Cincinnati. The Youngstown native was the first African American federal appeals court judge in Ohio, as well as the first black federal prosecutor in the Northern District of Ohio. He also served as the General Counsel for the NAACP from 1969 to 1979, directing efforts to desegregate public schools in Northern cities, defending affirmative action, and fighting against discrimination against African American soldiers in U.S. Armed Forces.

Buckeye Brain Tease

Todays question was provided by Capitol Letter reader Lt. Gov. Jon Husted:

This county is named after an American soldier who worked for George Washington, fought in the French and Indian and Revolutionary War and was later tortured and beheaded. Which county is it, and who was it named for?

Email your response to capitolletter@cleveland.com. The first correct respondent will be mentioned in next weeks newsletter.

Thanks for responding to last weeks trivia question: MLB VP and Ambassador for Inclusion Billy Bean spoke at the City Club recently. On what team did he briefly play with Billy Beane of Moneyball fame?

Answer: The Toledo Mud Hens. Both Billys played on the Mud Hens in 1988.

We appreciate everyones responses. Unfortunately, no one submitted the correct answer.

On The Move

Mandi Merritt, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee in Ohio and other Midwestern states, has been named national press secretary for the RNC. Merritt says her successor as regional communications director will be Dain Pascocello, who ran Chele Farleys unsuccessful 2018 campaign against U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

Birthdays

Friday: Jacob Kemper, Ohio House IT help desk technician; John Cranley, mayor of Cincinnati

Sunday: Dorothy Pelanda, director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture; U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson; Joe Nichols, director of external relations, Buckeye Institute; Natalie Szemetylo, director at FP1 Strategies; the State of Ohio -- awarded statehood March 1, 1803

Straight from the Source

This is basically government induced biannual jet lag.

-Sen. Kristina Roegner, a Hudson Republican, speaking in favor of a non-binding resolution the Senate passed this week urging Congress to allow Daylight Saving Time to become permanent to avoid the twice-yearly switching of clocks.

Capitol Letter is a daily briefing providing succinct, timely information for those who care deeply about the decisions made by state government. If you do not already subscribe, you can sign up here to get Capitol Letter in your email box each weekday for free.
Amit Shah now enters an unfamiliar and interesting phase of his political career.

His success or failure will henceforth be assessed based on his performance as a key minister, points out Shekhar Gupta.

IMAGE: Home Minister Amit Anilchandra Shah at a meeting on Tuesday, February 25, 2020, to discuss the riots in Delhi, his first major challenge at the nation's home ministry.

Notice how Shah's chair is higher than the chairs of the others at the meeting! Photograph: Press Information Bureau

What do we make of the Narendra Damodardas Modi-Amit Anilchandra Shah BJP government, now that the latter has finally moved away from his control of the party?

He had done so a few weeks earlier, formally handing charge to his successor Jagat Prakash Nadda, but the Delhi election was still the pending item on his agenda.

How does the road ahead look?

This, the Modi-Shah government, is the third such in our 73-year independent history yet -- governments led by the power of two.

A pair of leaders with comparable stature working closely together.

Of course, there are others which had just one leader, or short-lived ones which had none at all.

For those of us watching politics from the sidelines, all three types are fun.

The leaderless arrangements, from Charan Singh to I K Gujral, through V P Singh, Chandra Shekhar and H D Deve Gowda, are the most entertaining because they fight, leak, and die quickly.

Those with one leader, like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, compensate you with stories of intrigue, mostly set around who is in and who is out.

But those where power is shared between two near-equals aren't boring, either.

Our first such arrangement, of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, was so fascinating that it is still making headlines almost 75 years later.

You could argue that it was a sharing of power in mutual trust between Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh.

But the difference is, there the prime minister wasn't even the first among equals.

In fact, towards the second half of that arrangement, he wasn't even the second.

He was the third, after Rahul Gandhi.

That leaves us with the two BJP/National Democratic Alliance governments under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Damodardas Modi, respectively.

Both have been run by that power of two, the first Vajpayee and Lal Kishenchand Advani and the second now, with Modi and Shah.

There are differences, however. Vajpayee and Advani were close personal friends and kindred souls, also fellow long-marchers and about the same age.

They were always seen as equals, one more popular, acceptable and softer, the other harder, more political, ideological.

They disagreed often, but deferred to each other.

I had sometimes compared them with an old couple, deeply loyal, dependent and affectionate mutually, but squabbling often and lapsing into periods of long, sullen, sulks.

Modi and Shah are in a different category altogether.

Nehru and Patel were near-equals with many disagreements that were known publicly.

But there was never a doubt who the boss in that arrangement was.

How their tensions would have played out in the long run we will never know because Patel died within three years of Independence.

Vajpayee and Mr Advani had a different equation.

There is zero doubt that Advani founded and built the new BJP, created a new Hindutva space, and positioned it firmly there. He built and controlled the party.

Within the BJP, he was also a mass leader and deal-maker, building and breaking alliances.

Vajpayee was more a public performer and romantic.

For most of his politics, he followed Advani even if he sometimes fretted about his methods, or withdrew into hurt and embarrassment, as after the Babri Masjid demolition.

But he would never defy or overrule Advani.

At the same time, when the party came close to power, Advani faced his moment of truth with pragmatism.

He knew it would be impossible to knit a coalition of diverse ideologies with the thin thread of anti-Congressism under his leadership.

He needed someone more inclusive and acceptable, namely Vajpayee.

It follows that Vajpayee did become prime minister, but the real power in the party remained with Advani, as it did in many ways within the government.

We saw early evidence of this as Vajpayee wasn't allowed to induct his trusted and much-valued friend and aide Jaswant Singh in his Cabinet and the continuing squabbles within, as circles close to the RSS (and surely not far from Advani) kept harassing him over his alter ego Brajesh Mishra or foster son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya.

Then, most importantly, Advani prevailed when Vajpayee wanted to sack Modi in the wake of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Even on strategic issues, whether India was going to make war or peace, Advani had the final word.

It's a documented fact that even the Agra summit with General Pervez Musharraf was an idea moved forward by Advani, as was the decision to scuttle it.

In the usual sycophantic and gossipy circle around them, the buzz was, arre bhai, they are always together, like Ram and Lakshman.

Until Advani got impatient waiting.

He had quite a durbar of his own.

It was people around him who egged him on. A few dramatic things happened then. Rumours from 'informed' circles spread in Vajpayee's last year that he was tired, and might be retiring -- and handing over to the successor-apparent.

This made Vajpayee break his silence. He asserted famously, with a touch of irony more than humour, that he was 'neither tired, nor retired'.

This became more complicated as Advani, again encouraged by his party's heartland sweep (Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh) in the winter of 2003, forced a reluctant Vajpayee to advance the general election in 2004.

Midway through the campaign, stories about Vajpayee being tired and old surfaced again, suggesting he would abdicate midway through his next term and hand over to Advani.

Vajpayee was furious, and made no secret of it.

After the NDA lost that election against the run of play, he let people know whose 'greed and sin' had brought them to their deserved fate.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Damodardas Modi scribbles a message for Sonalben Shah as her husband wearing a big smile watches at the Motera stadium, February 24, 2020.

The Modi-Shah arrangement is strikingly different in many ways.

Let's count three most important ones.

First, while they are fellow travellers for about two decades, one is an all-conquering mass leader and the other a brilliant party commissar.

There is a clear role, and skill-set distinction.

One brings the votes and the other gets the party and its electoral machine in place to collect these.

To that extent, it is truly a number one and two relationship.

A bit like a corporate chief executive officer and chief operating officer, a chief minister and his most trusted chief secretary, commandant and sergeant-major or, if you prefer it that way, although Mr Shah said he didn't want that comparison, Chandragupta Maurya and Kautilya.

Second, the two have a radically different outlook in public life.

One, an extroverted public performer, enjoying global adulation and attention, the other a back-room power player unwilling to give an audience to even ambassadors of key countries.

One, a crowd-puller, the other a rouser of only the party faithful.

One, careful to play the good cop often, the other equally content to go with his beliefs, even if it means being the bad cop always.

And third, in this case unlike the other two, the number two is considerably (14 years) younger than the other.

Therefore, he looks at a political future way beyond the number one.

This Delhi election completes Mr Shah's innings as the party boss.

He might have preferred it ending differently.

But, from Haryana to Delhi through Jharkhand, and to some extent Maharashtra, voters have underlined a tough fact to him: That the vote for Mr Modi is not the same as a vote for the BJP and definitely not for the most polarising aspects of its ideology.

It is with this sobering realisation that Mr Shah now enters an unfamiliar and interesting phase of his political career.

His success or failure will henceforth be assessed based on his performance as a key minister.

With Mr Modi, he now forms the most powerful and fascinating pair in our political history yet.

And much political writing in years to come will be defined by their equation, and as time passes, more by the Shah story.

By special arrangement with The Print
Single cases of Covid-19 might be spotted in Ukraine

Coronavirus will enter Ukraine sooner or later as 1+1 TV channel reported citing National Security and Defense Secretary Oleksiy Danilov.

He believes that single cases of coronavirus will be spotted in the country. Its occurring in Ukraine might be inevitable as coronavirus is raging all over the world.

It will not bypass Ukraine and single cases will take place, Danilov said.

The NSDC Secretary added that the authorities are ready for it and possess all necessary means, including 12,500 hospital beds for infected.

Earlier, the Ministry of Health of Poland denied mass media information about the hospitalization of a patient infected with coronavirus who arrived from Thailand.

As we reported, the first case of infection with coronavirus spotted in Estonia. An infected person is a citizen of Iran who returned to Estonia.

Earlier, the first case of coronavirus infection was recorded among Ukrainians in Italy.

Moreover, the infection with coronavirus was spotted in mainland Spain. The incident was observed in Catalunya. A 36-year-old Italian was hospitalized; she traveled to Milan and Bergamo for ten days, and then she felt sick. Currently, she just suffers from typical symptoms of influenza. Medics consider it is a light case of coronavirus infection.
Professor Xavier Font, Director of the Research Centre for Sustainability and Wellbeing in the Visitor Economy and Professor of Sustainability Marketing at the University of Surrey, has been awarded a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship

Professor Xavier Font, who works in the University of Surrey's world-renowned School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM), has been awarded a prestigious Marie Sk?odowska-Curie Individual Fellowship worth 224,994 to study how governments use evidence to make better policy decisions, improving sustainability in the tourism industry. The fellowship will enable him to undertake a new research project in collaboration with Research Fellow Dr Anna Torres-Delgado from the University of Barcelona.

The fellowship will run for two years and will allow the team to analyse the processes being followed by four tourist boards in the cities of Amsterdam (Netherlands), Barcelona (Spain), Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Vienna (Austria) around sustainability indicators, assisting them in adapting the indicators to their needs, transforming their governance systems, and exploiting the competitive benefits accrued.

The research will inform a feasibility assessment to introduce sustainability indicators for 116 European destinations of the European Cities Marketing consortium. The project's key aim is to advance the understanding of using these indicators to underpin the governance of urban tourism in particular.

This significant award acknowledges SHTM's Research Centre for Sustainability and Wellbeing in the Visitor Economy and their outstanding contributions to sustainable tourism.

In 2018 Professor Font presented a manual on sustainable tourism indicators to the European Parliament in collaboration with European Tourism Indicator System (ETIS), and in 2019 he was awarded 23.3m by Interreg to deliver an impactful sustainable growth project to maximise experiential tourism in the French-English Channel region. He was also recently appointed to the advisory group of the Travalyst coalition, a global partnership founded by The Duke of Sussex.

Professor Graham Miller, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Professor of Sustainability and Tourism, said: "Congratulations to Professor Font - we wish him every success in the coming year. We should all be working towards making travel more sustainable for now and for future generations and Professor Font's tireless work will certainly contribute to this positive progress."

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A man and a woman are in custody after shots were fired at lawmen during a Thursday-night traffic stop and subsequent chase.

The incident began about 10 p.m. when members of the 7th Judicial Major Crimes Unit and Anniston police tried to stop a suspicious silver Chevrolet Impala with North Carolina license plates, said Commander Allen George. The vehicle initially stopped, and a shot was fired from within the vehicle.

The vehicle then sped off and a chase ensued. During the chase, George said, several more shots were fired from the Impala.

The sedan eventually crashed at Highway 202 and Hunter Street. A white male fled on foot from the passengers side. He was identified as 39-year-old Christopher Craig Rivers of Heflin. Rivers was captured after a brief foot chase.

A white female was taken into custody while still in the vehicle. Authorities identified her as 38-year-old Tondrea Marie Avans, also of Heflin.

George said multiple guns were found inside the vehicle, and Rivers was still in possession of a firearm when he was taken into custody.

The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Birmingham, an investigator with the Cleburne County Sheriffs Office and the Oxford Police Department also assisted in the chase and capture of Rivers. He is charged with two counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, with more charges expected.

Avans is charged with fleeing/attempting to elude law enforcement. The investigation is ongoing.
"Imagine going into a pub and seeing a bottle of whiskey on a shelf that has my name on it as the grain grower?"

In a couple of weeks Waterford Distillery will make its Irish single malt whiskey debut, a whiskey blend from a limited number of farms in Ireland.

And the dream of seeing their name on the bottle will come through for some as it starts to produce single-farm-origin whiskey.

Waterford Distillery has sourced an unprecedented 72 Irish farms, including organic and biodynamically run, growing barley on 19 distinct soil types. Each farmer's crop is harvested, stored, malted and distilled separately.

Seamus Duggan, a tillage and beef farmer from Durrow, has been growing malting barley for Waterford Distillery for the past few years and says it's an opportunity for grain growers to see their produce end up in a premium product.

"We have been growing for four years with them. It's about growing a crop with pride. They will release two farms this year - that farmer will be on the front of the bottle," he says.

Expand Close Seamus Duggan with his sons James and Justin and dog Scrabble. Photo: Alf Harvey. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Seamus Duggan with his sons James and Justin and dog Scrabble. Photo: Alf Harvey.

"There are 72 growers and while I was not in the first year, hopefully my grain might feature next year."

Seamus is hoping to put in about 200 acres of malting barley in the coming weeks on his land.

He's also planting around 100 acres of a variety called 'Heritage', which is used to make beer for the Heritage Hotel in Killenard.

According to Seamus, grain growers have for too long been 'yellow pack' growers, with no individuality around their crops and nothing to say the product goes back to the grower, so he welcomes a move towards more individual grain varieties.

"A couple of years ago we were asked to grow some of the heirloom varieties," he says. "The samples were stored in Backweston and they bred [seed] from those samples up to a commercial amount that they could go to a field with.

"You don't have the same yield as the more modern varieties, but it's the satisfaction of introducing back old varieties. It's lovely to see what the end result will be."

But a lot depends on the weather.

"Every day you look out it's depressing with the amount of rain that's falling. You're not just getting broken weather, it's deluges and ground is completely saturated," Seamus says.

"We'll sow barley from St Patrick's day on and I have some spring wheat to sow in the next fortnight if I could. But it could end up not getting sowed."

While average prices last year were good, he says, the talk for this year is not good.

But tillage farmers, he says, are also under pressure from the continued expansion of the dairy industry.

"Any land that becomes available now, there is huge competition, especially with the dairy man. That's the nitrates derogation coming into play and when you increase a dairy herd you must have the land for the by products," he says.

As well as the tillage, Seamus has a suckler to beef operation on his farm.

"I'm in everything that doesn't make money. We used to have 120 suckler cows and now have 40. We found it was too expensive to keep a suckler cow for the year," he says.

"So we rear calves. I was buying in good British Friesian bull calves and in the past years I have modified that to Hereford and Angus. We found in the past year or so with the beef prices going to through the floor the British Friesian was a non-runner. It was a bad as keeping the suckler cow.

"So now we have an animal that seems to be more marketable and factories are looking for."
The Chattanooga Police Department and Chattanooga Fire Department are coming together for a city-wide event to make sure residents have what they need to help keep their loved ones safe in their homes.



On Saturday, February 29, 2020 at 3 PM, CPD will hold a front porch lineup at three different fire stations.



"Front porch lineups are a unique practice CPD has been using to strengthen the relationships between officers and the community members they serve, as the officers are briefed at the start of their shift," organizers said.



The police department will be giving away free gun locks at the fire halls and the fire department will be collecting information to provide citizens with free smoke alarms, which will be installed at a later date.



CPD will have their SWAT vehicle, motorcycles and Bomb Squad at the various fire stations and CFD will have fire trucks on display.



This collaboration is designed to promote unity and safety.



The locations where the event will take place include:



- Station 4, 2181 Curtis St. (near Hardy Elementary);

- Station 2, 6144 Dayton Blvd. (Hixson); and

- Station 21, 7700 E Brainerd Road.



Special Olympics TN will also be at Station 4. They were forced to cancel the annual Polar Plunge in Chattanooga due to the snowy weather on Feb. 8, so theyll be having a Plunge Party on Feb. 29 at 3 p.m. as part of the big community event.



"There will be prizes for top fundraisers and a dunk tank," organizers said. "Please come join us."
The former mayor of Baltimore was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday on corruption charges related to sales of her self-published children's book to companies with close ties to state and local government.

Catherine Pugh, a 69-year-old Democrat who resigned last year, was also ordered to pay around USD 1 million in restitution, according to a statement from the federal prosecutor for the US East Coast state of Maryland.

She pleaded guilty to fraud and tax evasion in November for raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling her "Healthy Holly" children's books to local organisations to which she had ties -- sometimes without delivering the books.

"I accept total responsibility," Pugh said in a video in which she expressed regret for tarnishing Baltimore's image as the city of some 6,00,000 people grapples with a soaring crime rate, racial unrest and poverty levels that are among the highest in the country.

But Maryland District Court Judge Deborah Chasanow said Thursday, "I have yet frankly to hear any explanation that makes sense."



"This was not a tiny mistake, lapse of judgment," she said, according to the Baltimore Sun newspaper.

"This became a very large fraud. The nature and circumstances of this offense clearly I think are extremely, extremely serious."



The newspaper revealed last year that the University of Maryland Medical System spent USD 5,00,000 to buy 1,00,000 copies of Pugh's "Healthy Holly" children's books between 2012 and 2018, while she was a member of the health system's board.

After first denouncing an investigation into the matter as a "witch hunt", the former mayor then called the incident a "regrettable mistake" and returned USD 1,00,000 of the sales.

But other sales were uncovered, including to Kaiser Permanente insurance company, which said it paid Pugh USD 1,14,000 for "Healthy Holly" books from 2015 to 2018.

Kaiser had won a USD 48 million contract in 2017 to provide health insurance to city employees from 2018 to 2020.

Pugh, who was elected in 2016, finally quit her position in May 2019 after calls for her resignation intensified.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The preliminary investigation of the Delhi Police in connection with the recent incidents of violence in northeast Delhi suggests that petty criminals had "stocked country-made pistols" and handed them to miscreants and "incited" them to join violence, sources said.

In this regard, police are conducting raids at the houses of petty criminals - those who were arrested in the past on the charges of robbery, pick pocketing, snatching etc.

Around 350 used cartridges have been found in connection with the violence. In the raid so far, police have also recovered swords, Molotov cocktail and lathis, sources added.

As per police sources, 82 people sustained gunshot wounds, out of which 21 succumbed to their injuries including Head Constable Ratan Lal.

Sources further shared that one in every three victims suffered bullet injury, according to police data.

Delhi Police had on Thursday issued an appeal, urging people and media persons to come forward and give their statements and share pictures and video footage in connection with the violence in North East Delhi.

At least 38 people, including a police Head Constable, died while around 200 people sustained serious injuries in the violence that raged for four days in parts of the capital.

Two Special Investigation Teams (SITs) have been constituted under the Crime Branch, Delhi Police, to investigate the violence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PASCAGOULA, Miss., Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE: HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division delivered amphibious assault ship Tripoli (LHA 7) to the U.S. Navy today. Tripoli will be commissioned later this year before sailing to its homeport of San Diego, California.



Thousands of shipbuilders worked tirelessly to ensure the successful delivery of this highly-capable warship, Ingalls Shipbuilding President Brian Cuccias said. We are pleased to continue working closely with the Navy to deliver exceptional ships using the highest safety and quality standards.

Ingalls is currently the sole builder of large-deck amphibious ships for the Navy. America-class ships are designed to enhance Marine Corps aviation, capable of supporting the tilt-rotor MV-22 and F-35B Joint Strike Fighter. When Tripoli enters the fleet, it will be the flagship of an Amphibious Ready Group, strategically positioning Marine Expeditionary Units ashore across a full spectrum of missions, including humanitarian, disaster relief, maritime security, antipiracy and other operations while providing air support for ground forces.

The LHA team is proud to witness the delivery of the 15th large-deck amphibious ship built at Ingalls, said Bryan Williams, LHA 7 program manager. The completion of the Tripoli is a great complement to our longstanding legacy of building state-of-the-art warships.

Tripoli is the third ship to bear the name that commemorates the capture of Derna in 1805 by a small force of Marines and nearly 370 soldiers from 11 other nations. The battle, memorialized in the Marines Hymn with the line, to the shores of Tripoli, brought about a successful conclusion to the combined operations of the First Barbary War.

Huntington Ingalls Industries is Americas largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. For more than a century, HIIs Newport News and Ingalls shipbuilding divisions in Virginia and Mississippi have built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. HIIs Technical Solutions division supports national security missions around the globe with unmanned systems, defense and federal solutions, nuclear and environmental services, and fleet sustainment. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII employs more than 42,000 people operating both domestically and internationally. For more information, visit:

HII on the web: www.huntingtoningalls.com

HII on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HuntingtonIngallsIndustries

HII on Twitter: twitter.com/hiindustries

Contact:

Teckie Hinkebein

Teckie.Hinkebein@hii-co.com

(228) 935-1323
Aamcha mhendrach dhana aamhala aandan ran vana hindu kushal aamhi bara mahina chandar surve aamchyasathi martat chakkar aamhi haye dhangar dhangar karvand jambhala vadhyache paani kunacha sangala jangal raj mahaal bandhalan chandanya mojit jhopu aamhi ushagati patthar aamhi dhangar dhangar [Translated] Our sheep are our wealth Forests are our treasure We wander carefree all twelve months Even the sun and the moon revolve around us We are the Dhangars... Who owns the berries and plums, and the water of the stream? We have built palaces out of forests We bend our shoulder and take stones for pillows We are the Dhangars...  From the 1948 Marathi film Aaher's song 'Aamhi Dhangar Dhangar' All photos courtesy Kalyan Varma. The Dhangars are presumably one of the oldest inhabiting pastoral communities in India settled predominantly in the Deccan region of Maharashtra and Karnataka, with marginal presence in Goa and Madhya Pradesh. Some records state that the community's origin can be traced to Gokul, Mathura and Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, akin to the other pastoral clans such as the Yadavas. Dhangar is derived from the Sanskrit term 'dhan' meaning wealth, which in this instance refers to livestock and animal husbandry.

Noted wildlife photographer and filmmaker Kalyan Varma got a chance to explore the Dhangar community back in 2013, when he went there to film for a BBC series that focused on their relationship with wolves. Since then, Varma has been interacting with the community sporadically over the years, and uncovering various facets of their everyday existence. "A friend from Maharastra told me about these shepherds who migrate with the monsoon, and how wolves follow their packs. The BBC shoot involved spending a month with them and during that time, I realised that there has to be a detailed body of work that needs to be done about the Dhangars and their lifestyles," Varma says, talking about how that experience made him come back next year and extensively document the Dhangars and their nomadic lifestyle. "I walked with them for a month as they migrated across Maharastra and stayed with them to understand their story," he adds.

Varma says he consciously tried to go into this body of work a bit unprepared, and looking back, he feels it was a good decision. He explains, "I realised if I had gone there with a set of ideas in my head, I would end up covering those and get back. I didnt want to be a kind of journalist/photographer who would parachute in, do the story and head out." With an open mind and an empty journal, Varma admits, he could explore about the Dhangars that he may not have been able to otherwise. "I walked with them and let them tell me their stories. This takes time, of course, as you have to build their trust and respect." While Dhangars are found across Maharashtra, Varma's photo series revolves around a specific family, which spends almost eight months of the year in parts of north Mumbai, and then walks for a month to reach somewhere in central Maharashtra spending 3-4 months during the monsoons. "They need to be on the move all the time to support their thousands of livestock," Varma points out.

"I initially went there to understand their relationship with grasslands and wildlife, but the more time I spent with them, it became the story about their livelihoods and rights, many of which they don't have anyway." Varma spent nearly three weeks with Mahendra Kathal and his family, living with them in their temporary home, which basically was a "blue tarpaulin stretched taut on a central pole, with the four ends pegged to the ground." Varma would sleep during the day, and spend the night looking out for any possible attacks by the wolves. He remembers how on one night the wolves actually made an appearance and were successful in taking one lamb from Kathals' herd. He was so busy shooting the whole thing that he forgot to alert the family about the wolves. He apologetically told them he would compensate them by paying the price of one lamb. "I assured them with the unthinking arrogance of the professional photographer that I was," he recalls, and adds how Mahendra Kathal's wife responded to him saying, "Not everything can be measured in money." "You will never understand, she told Varma. ***

In the book, Martial Races of Undivided India, author Vidya Prakash Tyagi states: "The Dhangars have originated several ruling dynasties, most recently the Holkars of Indore. Prominent Dhangars have been Kahharaya and Bukkaraya, founding fathers of Vijayanagara Empire. Dhangars have established the Hoysalas, Rashrakutas, Maurya, Pallav, Holkar dynasties. In addition, the poets Kalidasa and Kanakdasa were also Dhangars." While the pastoral communities then had a huge wealth of cattle livestock, today the Dhangars mainly raise animals such as goats and sheep. Adding more on the occupational side of the community, Reginald Edward Enthoven in his volumes of the ethnographic survey of India published in 1922 under the title The Tribes and Castes of Bombay mentions that apart from cattle-breeding, the other callings of the Dhangars included cattle-selling and blanket weaving. He adds that there were distinct breeds of Dhangars' horses found in Ahmednagar which were "famed for hardiness and endurance" and special breeds of cows and buffaloes in the Karnataka region. "They have a great name as weather prophets, foretelling rain and other changes of weather by observing the planets," Enthoven writes. ***

According to Varma, this project taught him how livestock grazing has a very positive impact on the dry grasslands. He says, "Without them, frankly, we will lose the balance of grasslands and lose predators like the wolves." This realisation also dawned upon him whilst he was travelling with the Kathals. In his blog, Peepli, Varma writes how when he expressed his concerns to Mahendra Kathal over the losses incurred by them at the hands of wolves and other predators, the latter responded saying, "Wolves? They are the least of our worries. In fact, we worship them; I know they are good for me. I might lose a few lambs to them, but they are the reason I have thousands of healthy sheep." "These Dhangars lose about two per cent of their livestock annually to wolves," Varma points out. Wolves  as a species  is highly endangered in India. Historically too, both in India and abroad, people have killed and prosecuted them for various reasons. However, with Dhangars, it is very different. "These people do not hate wolves, and in fact, believe that they clean up the weakest of the livestock, thereby keeping the overall population healthy," he explains.

This belief of the Dhangars has also been mentioned in Pastoral Deities in Western India by the noted German ethnographer, Gunther D Sontheimer, who wrote about how sacrifice is closely associated with abandon according to Dhangar mythology. Khandoba, a form of Shiva, and the guardian deity of the Deccan, was enamoured by the beauty of Banai, whose father owned around 9,00,000 sheep and goats. In a bid to marry Banai, Khandoba slaughtered all the animals with the condition that if Banai is married to him, all the animals will come back to life. When Banai indeed got married to Khandoba, the animals revived and doubled in numbers. Sontheimer writes, "Sacrifice creates life out of death... Similarly, as the sacrifice to the wolves increases the herd, the sacrifice of sheep to Khandoba promises of life," also alluding to the belief that wolves are manifestations of Khandoba.

Kathal was indeed right in mentioning that wolves are the least of their worries, as over the years, the livelihoods and survival of Dhangars have often been under threat. Urbanisation, deforestation and rapid loss of grazing areas are some of the major concerns the community is facing on a daily basis. A report on India Water Portal says, "Their [the Dhangars] identity has deteriorated from being pastoralists to being underdeveloped and backward. Then there are also the policies and approaches in forestry and watershed development that are largely hostile to them." "Their migrations are getting cut year after year as the grasslands (village commons) are classified as wastelands, and a big chunk of these lands go for development of Special Economic Zones (SEZs)," Varma says. He further adds, "In some places, the forest department has declared sanctuaries and has fenced them off. Hence, these people have nowhere to go."

The community has also been fighting for a Scheduled Tribe status for a while now. 'Dhangars' constitute nine per cent of the total population of Maharashtra, and is currently included in the Vimukt Jati Nomadic Tribe (VJNT) category, whereas a certain "Dhangad" community is classified under the ST category. Dhangar community leaders believe that the nomenclature "Dhangad" was a typographical error committed in the past, as a result of which the 'Dhangars' are wrongly classified in the VJNT group. Speaking to the Press Trust of India, members of the community alleged that the centre had failed to act on the ST status demand raised by the community. The typographical error occurred in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Maharashtra. However, Bihar and Odisha rectified it. The former government had told them that the 'Dhangad' community existed in Maharashtra, but no records about the existence of the said 'Dhangad' community were found with revenue or caste verification departments of the state government, explained one of the members. "The tribal department misguided us, claiming that there are 43,000 people from the 'Dhangad' community, as per 2011 Census," as quoted in the report by the Press Trust of India's report.

By virtue of their nomadic lifestyle, the Dhangars have often remained detached from the sociopolitical discourse and the state policies surrounding them. Being on the move perpetually, and with no permanent address, state benefits tend to evade them. Many do not even possess their voter ID cards because they do not have an address. "They are totally left out of our constitutional process," Varma points out. "Unfortunately, this is the story of our times. The marginalised and non-privileged never get the coverage that they deserve. The story that everyone hears from this region is of farmers' suicide. But there are lot more things going on and the future of nomadic tribes is at stake."

 Kalyan Varma's photographs were put on display in 2019 at an exhibition in Mumbai's Godrej Culture Lab.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced a slew of measures for those affected by the violent riots that rocked northeast Delhi and promised swift aid and rehabilitation for all survivors. The Delhi government also announced Rs 25,000 as compensation for all those who lost their homes in the arson earlier this week.

To help the riot survivors, the Delhi government has appointed 18 magistrates and four night magistrates. There are 4 subdivisions in the area. Normally there would have been 4 SDMs, but now we have appointed 18 SDMs there. They are going among the public and talking to them. We have also appointed 4 night SDMs in the area to help people in case they need any kind of help at night, Kejriwal said at a news briefing.

The Delhi government has begun distributing food in the riot-affected areas. A number of trucks loaded with food and relief material have been sent to several localities of northeast Delhi, he said.

The Aam Aadmi Party-led government has announced alternative accommodation for those survivors whose homes have been destroyed in the violence which spanned over three days in the national capital. Weve made arrangements for accommodation at 9 of our Rain Baseras, and local community centres for people whose houses are completely burnt down or those who cannot go back to their homes. If needed, we will also arrange temporary tents for people, the Delhi chief minister said.

At least 42 people, including a police head constable and an IB staffer have died while around 200 people have sustained serious injuries in the violence that engulfed pockets in north-east Delhi.

The violence initially erupted on Sunday but escalated and took a communal turn on Monday when two groups supporting and protesting against the new citizenship law clashed in Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh and other areas of north-east Delhi. Shops, vehicles and houses were torched, policemen and locals attacked and property worth crores of rupees damaged during the violence which followed.
Mexican authorities detect drug plane over Belize

Coastal Road, Belize  Personal from the Departamento de Defensa de Belice report the discovery of another plane loaded with drugs, which they say, landed along the Coastal Road of Belize next to Quintana Roo.

According to reports from Belize authorities, a Jet G2 Gulfstream was found loaded with 70 bales of cocaine. The plane and the packages of drugs were seized by Belizean authorities and remain under guard by the Departamento de Defensa de Belice.

Photo: Departamento de Defensa de Belice

They say this is the latest aircraft discovered since January, when two back-to-back drug planes were discovered landed in Mexican territory. One plane managed to land successfully near the community of New Israel and the other in Mahahual.

The the case of the Mahahual landing, the pilot and co-pilot, both of Bolivian origin, were arrested.

The latest plane seizure was made with assistance of the Fuerza Aerea Mexicana (Mexican Air Force) who detected the illegal jet over Belize territory. The Belize Department of Defense headed to the Coastal Road where the located the jet carrying a drug shipment. The crew of the aircraft were arrested.
By Express News Service

KARIMNAGAR: In a heinous crime, two youngsters and a minor boy sexually assaulted a nine-year-old girl, who is studying in Class III, for three days from February 24. The three accused confined the girl in a room and assaulted her repeatedly on all three days. The families of all three accused migrated from Vijayawada and were living in Amedkarnagar here in the city, eking out a living working as carpenters.

Police yet to arrest three accused

On February 24, on the pretext of playing, the three youths took her with them into a room where they allegedly assaulted her sexually. They kept forcing themselves on her for three days.

Three town CI P Vignan Rao told media on Thursday that the minor boy was aged 11 years. The other two were Vinod, 20 and Ravi Teja, 18. The police registered a case against them based on a complaint from the girls mother.

According to police, her mother took the girl to a hospital on Wednesday after she developed a fever. The doctors who examined her suspected that she was sexually assaulted. After her mother lodged the complaint, the police took the girl to a government hospital for medical examination. Three Town police registered a case under the POCSO Act. The police are yet to arrest the three accused persons as they are at large.
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Health officials have warned lawmakers there will be a wider coronavirus outbreak and says the U.S. doesn't have enough testing resources to cope as the number of infected Americans jumps to 62.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, revealed in a closed-door briefing in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday that there would be many more coronavirus cases in the U.S., according to a source.

Fauci, who is one of only four medical experts on the White House's newly formed coronavirus taskforce headed by Vice President Mike Pence, added that it was unlikely the virus would disappear next year and warned lawmakers the country didn't have enough testing resources.

The doctor and the 14 other members of the taskforce have been ordered to coordinate their statements and public appearances with Pence regarding the U.S.'s handling of the coronavirus.

It comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced two new cases of coronavirus in the U.S. on Friday, bringing the total to 62. The new patients are American citizens repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was docked in Japan for two weeks.

Health officials have been scrambling to deal with the prospect of a widening coronavirus outbreak within the United States and this week warned American to start preparing for a domestic acceleration of the virus that has infected more than 80,000 people worldwide and killed nearly 3,000.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar listen as Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks on Thursday

The Trump administration is facing mounting criticism over its response to the outbreak as more countries continue to report new infections and global stock markets are on the brink of a free fall.

U.S. and global stocks plummeted this week as rattled investors braced for the prospect that a pandemic could further dent an already slowing world economy, increasing the pressure on governments to quickly respond to the crisis.

The S&P 500 index was down about 3% in late-morning trading on Friday, adding to the heavy losses it suffered in the previous four sessions this week. It is on track to notch its worst week since October 2008, during the global financial crisis.

President Donald Trump has defended his administration's response to the crisis after saying earlier this week that the risk of coronavirus to Americans remained 'very low'.

In tweets overnight, Trump said the coronavirus virus had spread 'very slowly' to the U.S.

Despite an explosion of cases in China over the past two months, the Trump administration only this week put in a request for $2.5 billion to aid in the response, an amount both Republicans and Democrats have said is too small.

Critics of the federal response say the U.S. squandered precious weeks by focusing too narrowly on keeping the coronavirus from crossing U.S. borders rather than marshalling resources to prepare American communities for a widespread domestic outbreak that officials now say was inevitable.

So far, the U.S. strategy has focused almost exclusively on testing infected travelers, using a test that looks for genetic material from the virus in saliva or mucus. As of February 23, fewer than 500 people from 43 states had been or are being tested for the virus.

Currently, just seven state and local health departments have the ability to screen for the virus.

In a media call to reporters on Friday, Dr Nancy Messonier, CDC's director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, admitted sending CDC test kits out to state and local health departments has 'not gone as smoothly as we would have liked.'

Many of the original kits that were sent out were defective but Dr Messonier said new kits have been manufactured and are being sent out.

Shortages, however, run abound. In California, 8,400 people are being monitored in California but the state only has 200 coronavirus test kits to screen patients.

The first U.S. case of coronavirus where the origin of the disease is unknown was confirmed on Wednesday.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the person, a resident in Northern California, had not recently returned from a foreign country, and had not been in contact with another confirmed case.

It later emerged that evening that the CDC had taken four days to test the woman, despite requests from medical staff, because 'the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19'.

Supermarket shelves in Virginia are seen stripped bare of non-perishable items including jumbo bags of pasta

Photos in southern Calfornia showed how shelves in one Walgreens (left and right) had been depleted of cough medicines, cold and flu medications, vaporizers, masks and thermometers

A woman in Michigan shared pictures of her shelves piled with cans of soup, boxes of pasta, jars of peanut butter and more and referred to it as her 'grocery store basement'

As many as 100 healthcare workers may have been exposed to the woman in the four days that she went untested. The doctors and nurses are from the University of California Davis Medical Center, where the woman is being treated, and from NorthBay VacaValley Hospital.

All of the other cases in the U.S. have been for people who had traveled abroad or had close contact with others who traveled.

Other U.S. cases included 14 in people who returned from outbreak areas in China, or their spouses; three people who were evacuated from the central China city of Wuhan; and 44 American passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

It comes as supermarket shelves were starting to be stripped bare as Americans prepared for the spread of coronavirus by stockpiling on medications and non-perishable items across the country.

Thousands of people were also buying up face masks to protect themselves despite evidence that most people who aren't sick don't need to wear them.

Many businesses are sold out, while others are limiting how many a customer can buy. Amazon is policing its site, trying to make sure sellers don't gouge panicked buyers.

Amazon.com Inc also said this week that all employees should defer non-essential travel including within the United States, in a significant escalation by the world's largest online retailer to guard against the spread of the coronavirus among its ranks.

Dave Clark, Amazon's senior vice president of worldwide operations, notified employees of the change on Thursday.

Amazon last month said it was putting in place travel restrictions to China where the virus originated.

Home Depot, the nation's largest home improvement chain, has limited sales of N95 respirators to 10 per person
Karol Adrasowicz-Madej, a managing director, and his wife, Violetta, a journalist, felt the harmony at Shen Yuns performance at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Center, Auckland, New Zealand, on Feb. 28, 2020. (Michael Zhang/The Epoch Times)

AUCKLAND, New ZealandShen Yun Performing Arts brought to Auckland a unique display of classical Chinese dancing and an orchestra that is composed of both Western classical instruments and traditional Chinese instruments. The audience was taken with dance and music on a journey through Chinas 5000-year-old culture.

Karol Abrasowicz-Madej, BMW Group New Zealands managing director, attended the show with his wife, Violetta, who is a journalist. He shared his impressions after watching the performance at Aucklands Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre on Feb. 28, 2020.

Its very emotional. The choreography is beautiful and theres a lot of color thats visiblemusic, choreography, danceits all combined very nicely. Its very harmonious. Amazing!

Chinese culture was always close to me  so you have touched upon one of the interesting parts of your culture, he explained.

New York-based Shen Yun was formed in 2006 by artists from around the world who shared a wish to revive traditional Chinese culture. It is a divinely inspired culture that has been under attack in China since the communist regime came to power. A couple of dances in the companys repertoire present the courage of Falun Dafa practitioners in the face of persecution, in China; practitioners demonstrate how by being a good person, a good future awaits.

Falun Dafa is a peaceful practice of both mind and body basing its beliefs on the values of truthfulness, tolerance, and compassion.

Mr. Abrasowicz-Madej expressed hope that the spiritual group would be able to practice in China in the future.

Falun Dafa [has] a very close connection with the energy. [Its] good for the body and good for the whole health. I would say Chinese culture is rich. Its not only old, but it just goes back to the times where we cant even remember and it would be nice that it doesnt get forgotten, he said.

Mr. Abrasowicz-Madej said that the Shen Yun dancers movements expressed heart, soul, and a lot of warmth.

Mrs. Abrasowicz-Madej was also effusive in her praise of the performance. It was amazingand the dances, costumes, and music were all great, she said.

And the song was just, wow! I feel very proud of them, Mrs. Abrasowicz-Madej said.

With reporting by NTD Television and Diane Rowe.

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.
Venture capital arrives for psychedelics.

Feb. 28, 2020

Goop, Moon Juice and Daily Harvest are women-led companies oriented toward wellness, that fuzzy intersection of health and well-being. They share an ethos  and also an investor, Able Partners.

We probably are the first fund to focus exclusively on wellness, said Amanda Eilian, 42, one of the firms two partners.

This focus makes Able a bellwether for the direction in which wellness is headed. So its useful to know that it has also invested in Sanctuary (an astrology app), the Coconut Cult (probiotic-infused coconut yogurt) and MUD\WTR (a coffee alternative that includes mushrooms).

Now, Able is getting into psychedelics.

Ms. Eilian and her partner, Lisa Blau, originally became interested in women-led wellness companies not because they saw them as sympathetic underdogs but because those companies were an arbitrage opportunity  a way of saying that start-ups that are run by women or oriented toward women were undervalued.
HONOLULUA Hawaii councilman pleaded not guilty Friday to charges accusing him of leading a drug-trafficking organization, supplying guns, conspiring with a gang leader, requesting sexual favours as payment for drugs and assaulting a law enforcement officer in a case that highlights the hold methamphetamine has on some people in the state.

Arthur Brun led a major drug-trafficking conspiracy involving 11 other defendants since at least June 2019, while serving as an elected member of the Kauai County Council, U.S. Attorney for Hawaii Kenji Price said.

Brun, vice-chair of the councils Public Safety and Human Services Committee, pleaded not guilty in U.S. court in Honolulu.

Brun is a politician who led a drug-trafficking organization in the very community he was elected to represent, Price said.

Prosecutors intend to ask the judge to order Brun held without bail at a detention hearing scheduled for next week. They say in court documents filed Friday that Brun obtained meth from a leader of the United Samoan Organization gang and had the drugs mailed to Hawaii from California.

Another co-defendant is a convicted felon who Brun used for protection, prosecutors said.

Brun sometimes requested sexual favours as repayment for drugs he supplied, prosecutors said in a motion asking for bail to be denied. They cited phone wiretaps and testimony by a defendant who is hoping for leniency at sentencing in a federal case.

Crystal meth, known locally as batu or ice, gained a stronghold across the islands long before becoming popular on the U.S. mainland. Mailing or shipping drugs to Hawaii became more common with increased airport security after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when it got more difficult to smuggle drugs through air travel.

Court documents say Brun arranged with a co-defendant to purchase a pound of meth to be mailed from California for $9,000 (U.S.). The appetite for the drug is so strong, its street value in Hawaii can be more than double that amount.

Brun abused drugs himself, prosecutors said.

In October, Kauai police pulled Brun over in a traffic stop after he was seen receiving meth from the gang leader, prosecutors said. As a lieutenants arm was inside the vehicle trying to take the keys out of the ignition, the car sped off, injuring the officers arm. During a high-speed chase, Brun threw the pound of meth out of his window, prosecutors said.

In the motion for no bail, prosecutors included transcripts of some of Bruns intercepted calls, where he speaks in Pidgin, Hawaiis creole language. In one conversation cited in the motion, he mentions injuring the officer. Was his fault he got hurt. The (expletive) stuck his arm in the car, what he expect? he told an unknown male.

Brun was on pretrial release from that arrest when he crossed a centre line while driving on Kauai on Feb. 7 and hit a pickup truck, injuring a six-year-old boy and a man, prosecutors said.

He remained seated in a wheelchair during Fridays hearing because of injuries from that crash, said his court-appointed lawyer, Rustam Barbee.

Bruns criminal history includes a 2004 misdemeanour conviction for abuse of a family/household member and a 2004 felony conviction for second-degree theft, according to court documents.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28) The Philippine government has already started looking for potential quarantine sites in Visayas and Mindanao in case evacuation of Filipinos from other coronavirus-hit countries is needed.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the move is in line with the countrys precautionary protocols for the worst case scenario, as coronavirus cases continue to spike globally.

That's also being currently prepared. We've identified several potential sites for quarantine sa (in) Visayas and Mindanao, Nograles told CNN Philippines The Source on Friday.

Filipinos who recently came home from coronavirus-affected nations were quarantined at the Athletes Village in New Clark City in Tarlac. Currently, there are 458 Filipinos staying put in the area all were aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

READ: 3 Filipinos under quarantine in New Clark City showing coronavirus symptoms

Of this number, 440 were part of the cruise ships crew, while five were tourists. The remaining 13 were meanwhile part of the repatriation team that fetched the passengers from the ship docked in Japan.

Nograles added authorities are also looking at finally tapping the rehabilitation center in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija with some Filipinos from other countries, including Macau, already expressing desire to come home.

In case we need to repatriate more of our countrymen from other countries, including Macau, Fort Magsaysay is something that we're looking at, the official said.

Nograles meanwhile noted Macau evacuation efforts is already being finalized by the Foreign Affairs Department.

Over 2,700 people have been killed by the COVID-19 as of Friday, CNN reported. The disease has since spread to 51 other countries outside of China, with over 83,000 cases reported globally as of publishing.
Police have arrested an Albemarle County man in New Jersey after he allegedly made threats against Charlottesville City Schools.

Alex Gabriel Prince, 18, was arrested in East Hanover, New Jersey, at 6:40 p.m. Thursday, according to officials.

The Charlottesville Police Department has obtained warrants against Prince for threats of death or bodily injury to persons on school property, according to a news release. He is currently being detained in New Jersey pending extradition.

Charlottesville City Schools will return to a normal schedule on Friday.

After-school activities at Charlottesville High School were canceled Thursday out of an abundance of caution as police investigated the incident.

A parent reported the possible threat to school staff Thursday morning, and the information was passed along to the Charlottesville Police Department, according to a note sent home to families.

Prince is not affiliated with the school system, police spokesman Tyler Hawn told a reporter earlier in the day.

No prior convictions appear in a statewide search of the online Virginia courts system.

The arrest comes a day after a Fluvanna County juvenile was arrested for allegedly making threats to Fluvanna County Public Schools, triggering a day-long, division-wide closure.

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The United Nations on Thursday called for urgent action in northwest Syria, warning that "the risk of greater escalation grows by the hour."



"The Secretary-General reiterates his call for an immediate ceasefire and expresses particular concern about the risk to civilians from escalating military actions," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

"Without urgent action, the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour." The statement came after 29 Turkish soldiers were killed in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib after an air strike on Thursday blamed on Damascus, as violence escalates in the already chaotic region. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was following the situation with "grave concern," Dujarric said.

"The Secretary-General reiterates that there is no military solution to the Syrian conflict," he said, calling for a UN-facilitated peace process.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Authorities in China's Hubei Province have sent residents who strolled on the streets during the coronavirus outbreak to 're-education camps', according to reports.

A video shows the residents studying in a room guarded by anti-coronavirus officers at one of the centres last Saturday in Huangshi, Hubei Province of central China.

It is said the detainees would need to pass exams on coronavirus regulations and sign an agreement letter before being released. They were punished for 'being outside for no particular reasons'.

A video shows people studying in a room guarded by anti-coronavirus officers in Hubei, China

The picture shows one detainee reading out coronavirus regulations in front of two officers

The so-called students would need to pass exams on coronavirus regulations and sign an agreement letter before they are released from the education centre in Hubei Province, China

The local government assembled five patrol teams last week to catch people who are wandering down the streets amid the outbreak.

The residents were sent to the Seventeenth High School of Huangshi, which is used as the re-education centre.

The camps have also been branded as 'classes for disobedience', reported Chudian News, an affiliation to Guangdong Broadcast and Television Station.

The local government assembled five patrol teams to catch people wandering on the streets

An officer is pictured giving a speech to the detainees in the education centre in Huangshi city

A Hubei resident, known by his surname Chen, was approached by the local media when he was allegedly leaving the camp.

Mr Chen told Pear Video he was sent to the centre after being caught walking to drop off something to his family.

The resident continued: 'I think it's great because some people didn't know the information or understand the situation.

'Overall it was great to have a learning opportunity like this,' he said.

A Hubei resident, known by his surname Chen, was approached by the local media when he was allegedly leaving the camp. He said it was great to have a learning opportunity like this

Detained residents are pictured sitting in a room and studying the regulations on coronavirus

The picture shows the learning materials which includes relevant regulations about the virus

Communities around China have implemented quarantine measures to curb the epidemic of the killer virus, with no one allowed to enter or leave.

The novel coronavirus has claimed at least 2,858 lives and infected more than 83,700 people globally.

China now has a total of 78,824 cases, with the death toll reaching 2,788.

Communities around China have implemented quarantine measures to curb the epidemic of the killer virus. The picture shows guards standing at a checkpoint at a hutong in Beijing, China

A group of police are pictured taking a resident's temperature at an entrance in Wuhan, Hubei

Workers wearing protective gears are pictured spraying disinfectant at a station in Seoul

Elsewhere, cases have surged again in South Korea today where 571 new infections brought the total from 1,766 to 2,337.

Meanwhile Nigeria has confirmed the first case outside sub-Saharan Africa, saying the patient was an Italian citizen who had recently returned from Milan.

The World Health Organization warned that the coronavirus epidemic was at a 'decisive point'.

The coronavirus has appeared in nine new countries in recent days - Brazil, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Norway, Northern Macedonia, Pakistan and Romania - bringing the number of countries affected to more than 45.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is pictured at the Secretary's Operations Center in Washington
The ADF was formed in western Uganda in the 1990s with the aim of creating an Islamic state.

Army commanders in the Democratic Republic of Congo say they are beating back an armed group that is terrorising the people in the east of the country.

At least a thousand civilians have died in recent months.

But fighters of the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, armed with guns and machetes, still have the capacity to attack villages.

That is despite the four-month operation by 22,000 Congolese soldiers.

Al Jazeeras Catherine Soi has this exclusive report.
Kouontchou Emmanuel, Second Deputy City Mayor of Limbe Edev

Emmanuel Kouontchou, a senior civil engineer and Director of the National Advanced School for Public Works (NASPW) Annex in Buea is the pioneer Second Deputy Mayor of the Limbe City Council.

This is the kernel of elections that took place at the Limbe City Council deliberation chambers Tuesday, February 25, 2020 that saw Motanga Andrew Monjimba elected City Mayor and Karen Nora Muto Tango as first deputy City Mayor.

The pioneer LCC second deputy City Mayor, Emmanuel Kouontchou hails from Koung-khi Division of the West Region and his election is a celebration of the countrys living together.

The quiet-looking but workaholic civil engineer who has been Director of NASPW Annex Buea since 2005 has worked as engineer in the South West Region in various capacities for more than 25 years after graduating with flying colours from the NASPW Yaounde in 1986.

Upon his graduation from NASPW Yaounde in 1986, Kouontchou joined the public service and was posted to the Ministry of Public Works, Department of Roads.

From 1988-90, he served as head of service in the then Southwest Provincial Delegation of Public Works. In 1990, Kouontchou was appointed Divisional Delegate for Public Works in Ndian Division and after three years he was appointed Divisional Delegate of Public Works for Fako Division and after four years, he was promoted to the rank of South West Provincial Delegate for Public Works where he served in that capacity for three years.

From 2000-2005, this duty-conscious civil engineer was lecturer at NASPW Buea where he demonstrated the mastery of civil engineering skills. That professional brilliance further worked in his favour. He would in 2005 be appointed as Director of NASPW Buea, a position he has held to date, attracting praises from both his hierarchy and the general Public.

In 2017, he was honoured by the State of Cameroon for his patriotism and commitment to nation-building.

He is a father of several children and married to Victorine Kouontchou, a former government employee.

Kouontchou is frontline CPDM member and has been CPDM Subsection President for Mile 4 Limbe. The philanthropist, often assisting the underprivileged, has moved from being a mere councillor of the Limbe I Council to being one of the deciders of the Special Status package for the North West and South West Regions enshrined in Law No.2019/024 of 24 December 2019 to institute the general code of regional and local authorities.
Hundreds of people across New York state have been told to self-isolate themselves over fears they could be infected with coronavirus.

As many as 700 people are reportedly under self-quarantine at home and one patient is being tested for the infection.

According to health officials, 112 people in Long Island, 83 people in Nassau County, 29 in Suffolk County and eight in Westchester are now in voluntarily isolation.

One person being tested for the disease is in New York City, according to CBS.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday announced plans to provide up to 1,200 hospital beds if needed and called on the federal government to help the city obtain 300,000 extra protective masks.

The city currently has no confirmed cases and so far all previous patients tested for the disease have come back negative.

Pedestrians wearing protective masks while walking along a street in New York yesterday

A sign in a hardware store in New York informing shoppers of the lack of availability of face masks and respirators yesterday

NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said gloves and face masks were being distributed.

He told CBS: 'We've given out thousands upon thousands of gloves, masks, and wipes to our command. Patrols, housing and transit has them.'

Oxiris Barbot, the NYC Health Commissioner, said there was no need for everyday New Yorkers to wear face masks.

However, many shops in New York sold out of face masks last Friday as fears over the spread of the virus, officially named COVID-19, grew.

Mayor de Blasio said the city needs access to 300,000 more masks as the the Center for Disease Control (CDC) announced it was only a matter of time before the virus becomes a bigger issues in the US.

He told a press conference Wednesday: 'We're in a state of high vigilance, high readiness  all elements of the City government to address this crisis.

'We will need federal assistance, so I'm calling on the federal government to help us and all other localities to get the masks we need. Working with the private sector providers.'

Mayor Bill de Blasio with Dr Oxiris Barbot, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, reports on the city's preparedness for the potential spread of the coronavirus in New York on Wednesday

Customers lining up at a pharmacy to purchase N95 face masks in advance of the potential coronavirus outbreak in the Manhattan borough of New York City yesterday

Rich countries that might have thought they were safe from the coronavirus should expect surprises, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

'No country should assume it won't get cases, that would be a fatal mistake, quite literally,' WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva.

Various treatments are being tested for the virus, that can lead to pneumonia, but a vaccine may take up to 18 months to develop, health officials have said.

On Wall Street, major indexes were set for their steepest weekly pullback since the financial crisis more than a decade ago over fears of a global pandemic and local spread.

Cases have surged again in South Korea today where 571 new infections brought the total from 1,766 to 2,337.

The global count of those sickened by the virus is hovering around 82,000 and more than 2,800 deaths, with the virus now spreading more rapidly outside China.
UC Davis Medical Center on Thursday in Sacramento, California.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A confirmed coronavirus patient in California had no travel history in China and no known exposure to anyone infected.

It could be the first case of "community spread" in the US.

One health official said this should prompt a transition "from trying to contain the disease to more of a mitigation approach."

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A patient in California's Solano County has gotten the COVID-19 coronavirus without traveling to China or having any known contact with someone sick, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Wednesday.

"This person appears to be a community-acquired case of coronavirus, which would be the first here in the United States," Bela Matyas, the health officer of Solano County, which is located between San Francisco and Sacramento, said in a press conference on Thursday. He added, however, that he didn't think this was the only such case.

"There are probably cases of coronavirus from community acquisition in multiple parts of the country right now," Matyas said.

That means the virus is most likely spreading undetected in the US, according to Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Adalja offered a simple definition of community spread.

"'Community spread' reflects the fact that the virus is out there in the community spreading from person to person, meaning that it's not just spreading from people who had contact with someone from China or a travel history, but that it's something established in the community," he said.

That reality, Matyas suggested, means health officials have to transition "from trying to contain the disease to more of a mitigation approach."

A delay in detection

The California patient is now in serious condition, according to CNN.

She initially went to the NorthBay VacaValley Hospital on February 15. The 50-bed hospital is in Solano County, which is also home to Travis Air Force Base, where some Americans evacuated from China and from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship have been quarantined.

Story continues

A surgeon at the base, who requested that he be kept anonymous, told Business Insider that the new case most likely had some connection to the base, given the proximity.

But Matyas said no such link had been found and added that workers on the base were "scary meticulous" about safety.

"This individual has no connection whatsoever to that federal mission and to any of the personnel that have been involved in that evacuation process," he said.

Ambulances outside Travis Air Force Base in California.

Hector Amezcua/AP Photo

The patient was not tested for COVID-19 at VacaValley during her four days there. After her symptoms worsened, she was transferred to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento on February 19. But she wasn't tested there either until four days later.

"Since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, a test was not immediately administered," the center said in a statement. "UC Davis Health does not control the testing process."

Until now, the CDC has based its decisions around testing people for the novel coronavirus on whether they have recently traveled to places with outbreaks.

But this case, Adalja said, shows that "when we have protocols set up to really identify patients only based on travel history, those are going to fall short of identifying all cases."

Matyas said testing criteria were indeed changing, and the CDC in a statement Thursday praised the doctors who diagnosed the woman's illness.

"This case was detected through the US public-health system  picked up by astute clinicians," the CDC said.

Dozens of healthcare workers were exposed

Tien Nguyen shopping at the 168 Market in Alhambra, California, on January 31.

AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

Health officials are working to trace and isolate anyone the patient had contact with  her family has been quarantined, and hospital staff are being evaluated and tested.

Aimee Brewer, the president of NorthBay Healthcare, said any medical workers who had direct contact with the patient at VacaValley had been tested for the virus and were on paid leave at home. So far, there have been no more positive tests, she said.

"As far as the headcount is concerned, at this time I can say it's a moving target," Steve Huddleston, the vice president of public affairs at NorthBay Healthcare, said in a press conference Thursday. "We have identified dozens of employees on our health team, but it still remains less than 100."

According to CNN, a University of California at Davis student is also under investigation, and the student's two roommates are being isolated at their home off campus as well.

The CDC said in a statement on Thursday that "unprecedented, aggressive efforts have been taken to contain the spread and mitigate the impact of this virus."

A question of when, not if

A day before this apparent case of community spread was reported, CDC officials suggested it was imminent.

"It's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness," Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, said during a media briefing.

But thus far, the US lags behind other countries in testing  as of Wednesday, only 445 Americans had been tested for the virus.

An illustration created by the CDC depicting the novel coronavirus.

Reuters

"At first, CDC was the only place where testing could be performed," Richard Martinello, an associate professor of infectious disease at the Yale School of Medicine, previously told Business Insider. "For a country of our size, when you only have a single site doing that, it limits the resources available for testing."

The CDC sent test kits nationwide earlier this month, but those were also found to be flawed, so only about a dozen labs can currently run the tests, according to The Washington Post.

'The cat's out of the bag in terms of it having spread'

Solano County and the nearby San Francisco and Santa Clara counties have all declared emergencies.

Matyas said the declarations freed up resources to "allow us to investigate this incident more effectively and more efficiently."

But he added that containment was "only possible when you're dealing with a disease condition where you know everyone who's sick, and they get sick before they spread, and you can contain them  and that's a rare reality."

Coronavirus face mask

Manuel Silvestri/Reuters

Now, he said, efforts must focus on mitigation because "we know the cat's out of the bag in terms of it having spread, and what we're trying to do is slow the spread as much as possible."

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that 33 people in the state had tested positive for the virus  including citizens repatriated to military bases  and 8,400 people were being monitored. He stressed that the risk to the public was still low but added that the state needed access to more resources.

"We have just a few hundred testing kits, and that's surveillance testing as well as diagnostic testing," Newsom said. "That's simply inadequate to do justice to the kind of testing that is required to address this issue head on."

Read the original article on Business Insider
What Matters? is the theme for this years Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade screening Live for the first time on SBS.

Venue:

Oxford Street, Sydney

Hosts:

Joel Creasey, Courtney Act, Narelda Jacobs and Zoe Coombs Marr.

Broadcast:

NSW/VIC/TAS/ACT 7:30pm  10:30pm AEDT

QLD 6:30pm  9:30pm AEST

SA 7:00pm  10:00pm ACDT

WA 7:30pm  10:30pm AWST*

NT 6:00pm  9:00pm ACST

*WA viewers can watch the broadcast live via SBS On Demand

Repeat: 10:45pm Sunday on SBS VICELAND

Coverage is produced by Blink TV for SBS.

It will be followed by Kylie Minogues Secret Night and Movie: Milk.

Live Viewing sites:

Federation Square, Melbourne. Broken Heel Festival/The Palace Hotel, Broken Hill Central Coast Pride & Coastal Twist Festival Tropical Fruits, Lismore Charles Stuart University, Bathurst Feast, Adelaide Wagga Mardi Gras, Wagga Wagga THROB, Darwin Lismore Civic Centre



#SydneyMardiGras

sbs.com.au/topics/ pride/mardigras

These titles are also screening at the moment:

10 Play:

Alone Out Here

Jon Wright isnt your typical farmer. He knows climate change is no joke, and is on a mission to transform his cattle farm into an environmental blueprint for the future. His dreams of creating a legacy and making a positive change has taken a personal toll, as the gay, fourth generation farmer overcomes loneliness and a life without children.

Belonging:

Sam Watson road trips across Tasmania, examining the impact and legacy of LGBTQI+ campaigner Rodney Croome. With archival footage and interviews with Sam and Rodneys families and friends, Belonging examines Tasmanias journey from a place of prejudice to acceptance.

The Rainbow Passage

The Rainbow Passage is an intimate documentary that charts the love story of Candace and Amanda as they embark on their Gender affirmation journey. Along with their bestie, Hannah, they build a life and community of LGBTIQA+ Friends together in regional Australia, before heading to Korea for voice surgery.

10 Peach:

Neighbours 6:30pm Friday

While all of Erinsborough gather at The Waterhole to watch the Mardi Gras parade, Aaron and David are living it up in Sydney. Finn flees in an avalanche of memories after a flashback.

SBS World Movies:

Movie: Pride 9:30pm Friday

Realising that they share common foes in Margaret Thatcher, the police, and the conservative press, London-based gays and lesbians lend their support to striking miners in Wales in 1984.

Movie: Love is Strange 11:55pm Friday

After Ben and George get married, George is fired from his teaching post, forcing them to stay with friends separately while they sell their place and look for cheaper housing, a situation that weighs heavily on all involved.

SBS on Demand

Local series Cloudy River will headline the Rainbow Pride movie collection on SBS On Demand. Cloudy River is a bold new series about pansexual artist Emma (Rebecca Robertson) and her musician lover, River (Rowan Davie), whose open relationship is put to the test when they move in together. Tangerine and Lovesong starring Riley Keough and Jena Malone will also feature in the collection.

NITV:

Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride

9:05pm Sunday on NITV

Before the 30th anniversary, Ken Coolen examines Gay Pride celebrations internationally. He travels to places where Pride is steeped in protest to experience the powerful oppression that still exists.

ABC:

Four Corners:

8:30pm Monday

On Monday Four Corners meets young Australians who do not identify as either male or female to gain an understanding of their lives and experiences.

Apple TV+

Visible: Out on Television

Five-part documentary series which looks back at LGBTQ television. This features new interviews with Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah Winfrey, Anderson Cooper, Billy Porter, Rachel Maddow, Don Lemon, Sara Ramirez, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and more.

Stan:

Will & Grace Friday

RuPauls Drag Race Saturday

The monumental 12th season of the beloved Emmy-winning reality show will bring together thirteen fabulous new queens as they vie for the title of Americas Next Drag Superstar,

RuPauls Drag Race: Untucked Saturday
In Afghanistan, both the Taliban and the Afghan security forces have become eager users of high-end Chinese-made DJI commercial quadcopters. A particular favorite is the DJI Matrice 200/210. This is an industrial-grade quadcopter costing up to $8,000 each. The DJI 210 weighs 4.7 kg (10.3 pounds) and can carry up to 1.45 kg (3.2 pounds) of cameras, additional batteries or improvised weapons. Max endurance is about 30 minutes and top speed is 60 kilometers an hour. When under user control the 210 can operate up to eight kilometers away although five kilometers is more likely. The 210 can be programmed to use its GPS/GLONASS navigation system to cover a specific route and return. If the control system is lost for any reason, the quadcopter will automatically return to where it started and land. While the 210 is mainly used for surveillance and reconnaissance, some have been equipped with an explosives dispenser. Anything from grenades to IED (improvised explosive devices) can be used. The 210 can be rigged as a one-way cruise missile but that is expensive and rarely done. High-end models like the 210 are favored because they are rugged and can handle wind and incorporate obstacle avoidance. This is important when operating in urban areas, forests or at night using a night-vision camera.

While popular with Islamic terrorists, gangsters and less-well equipped police and military units, Western forces tend to avoid DJI products because of fears that China may have ordered the manufacturer to include secret features that would allow the Chinese military to disable to take-control of DJI products. No one has ever found such a back door in the quadcopter software and these Chinese quadcopters, especially those made by DJI, are the most popular models worldwide. Thats because DJI models offered are the best value as well as being the most reliable.

Sometimes these bans were issued after troops had already obtained and were using DJI quadcopters. For example in early 2018 the U.S. Marine Corps has announced a new squad and platoon organization, based on its experience so far this century, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the unique changes to the new 12 man squad was that each one would get a commercial quadcopter. These were smaller, more compact models costing less than two thousand dollars each. The Marines had already bought 600 and ordered another 200 when the U.S. Department of Defense ordered a ban on the use of Chinese made quadcopters. The Marines did manage to get an exemption to the new ban and are also seeking a government approved quadcopter to purchase. These are out there but none as inexpensive and as the Chinese models.

The U.S. Army banned the use of DJI quadcopters in 2017. The troops had been encountering these DJI quadcopters in combat zones for years and some troops had bought them with their own money to use (successfully) in combat. Its no secret that DJI quadcopters have been showing up in combat zones with increasing frequency since 2014. Initially the most popular of these was the DJI Phantom quadcopter. The Phantom 3 showed up in 2015. It cost about a thousand dollars, weighs 3.9 kg (8.6 pounds), can stay in the air about 20 minutes per flight and can go up to 2,000 meters from the operator. The operator can see (at 720p resolution) what is under the Phantom using a small display and capture a higher resolution video (2.7k or 1080p) on a 16 GB micro memory card on the UAV. The Phantom 3 was widely available. It is easy to operate and has flight control software that makes it easy to operate and keeps the video image stable. You can equip these with a night vision camera. Max altitude is over 500 meters (1,600 feet) but most Phantoms operate lower down because getting to higher altitude takes time. DJI kept upgrading its Phantom line of quadcopters from the moment the first one hit the market in 2013. The Phantom 1 was basically a quadcopter you could add your own GoPro wireless vidcam to. But every few months DJI added new features and major upgrades were introduced as a new mode. Phantom 2 appeared at the end of 2013, Phantom 3 in early 2015 and Phantom 4 a year later. Phantom 3 was the most popular model and Phantom 4 was basically a Phantom 3 with lots more capabilities (4K video, video transmission range of five kilometers) and a higher price (about $1,800 each). New models of the Phantom continued to appear, sometimes just with a few new features and a lower price. New features include collision avoidance sensors and software. The Phantom line was replaced by the Mavic and Matrice which covered included low (Mavic) and high end (Matrice) models. Year by year the capabilities of the DJI quadcopters increased and the troops were not happy that they could not use them but the enemy could and did.

American troops arent the only ones to notice the usefulness of quadcopters. Israeli firms have several quadcopters designed and built locally for military and police use. In 2016 the Israeli military bought some locally made Roetm L UAVs for their infantry to use in urban combat. What is unique about the Roetm L is a lightweight (4.5 kg/10 pound) quad-copter based on commercial designs but modified so that it not only carries the usual day/night cameras but can also replace the cameras with two 450g (one pound) grenades that can be armed and released by operator command. With 30 minutes of endurance and easily learned operation Rotem L can be carried (in a case) by one man, set up and ready to go in a minute or so and recovered for reuse. The controller has a range of up to 10 kilometers but in a dense urban environment, the max range is more like 1,500 meters. The major advantage of Rotem L is that it is quiet and can be flown through open doors or windows. Carrying one or no grenades allows Rotem L to stay airborne for up to 45 minutes. The grenades can be triggered while still aboard Rotem L to provide a self-destruct mechanism. If Rotem L lands with live grenades aboard the operator can double-check the armed status of the grenades before recharging it for another mission. Rotem L can be used unarmed by police or carry tear gas or flash-bang grenades. Rotem L is expensive, costly over $10,000 each. Military users prefer to use it equipped with vidcams and use the cruise missile option only when forced to. Israel firms offer less expensive unarmed quadcopters for military and police use.

The U.S. Army eventually (in 2019) selected a French firm (Parrot) to develop a militarized quadcopter that would do what the DJI products did but without the danger of being hacked by China. That is difficult to do because DJI has a huge head start, especially when it comes to flight control software and reliability. American developers have also turned quadcopters into specialized systems for military use. A former Navy SEAL and his brother formed a company (Shield AI) in 2015 to develop a quadcopter that would use off-the-shelf sensors and electronics to fly into buildings and automatically (under control of the custom flight control software) measure, map and take a video of the interior. Troops have been asking for something like this for years but, as is often the case since 2001, former military personnel, often Special Forces or SEALs, start small firms to develop and manufacture these items and then sell them to the military and civilians.

What the troops want is something low-cost and capable because in the combat zone equipment is quickly worn out. This is especially true with quadcopters. As a result, the troops have become accustomed to buying commercial products whenever they can get away with it.

One thing that encouraged and tolerated this buy commercial attitude was another recent development; RFI (the Rapid Fielding Initiative). RFI was created in 2002 by the U.S. Army as a mechanism for quickly getting what the troops needed. The Internet helped make this possible, for the troops grew up with cell phones and the Internet and know how to quickly connect with each other and sort out what they all had experienced and determined what was needed to operate more effectively. Out of this came the Rapid Equipping Force program (REF) which monitored troop needs and quickly found and shipped out needed weapons and equipment. The Rapid Fielding Initiative gave unit commanders (division and below) cash and authority to buy non-standard items the troops needed fast. With most of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan over, there has been budget pressure to eliminate both of these programs. The troops and their commanders agreed that would be a big mistake and both programs continue.

In Iraq and Afghanistan the military, especially the army, was quick to take advice from the troops actually doing the fighting. That was recognized even before Iraq and led to the RFI, which recognized that the American army did not always have the best weapons and equipment available and that the troops and low-level commanders had a better idea of what was needed than the senior generals and politicians. RFI was intended to do something about that and do it quickly. Since 2002 the army approved the purchase of over 500 items immediately, which is what RFI was all about. In 2011 the army began deciding which of these RFI items to make standard equipment (about a quarter of them) and which to discard (the rest, although many were obsolete and improved replacements were being sought). The Marines went through the same process and found that most of their RFI items were worth keeping. This is due to the Marines having a tradition of doing more with less (since they have much less money to spend per person than the army).

Not everyone was a fan of RFI. Traditional (government and contractor) weapons and equipment developers did not like RFI. Procurement bureaucrats like to take their time, even when there's a war going on. This is mainly to cover everyone's ass and try to placate all the big shots and constituencies demanding certain features. In wartime, this process is sped up somewhat but it is always slower than it has to be. RFI and RFE, to the surprise of many, became institutionalized despite continued opposition from the traditional procurement bureaucracy and the defense contractors they work with. The DJI paranoia was not shared by the troops but the traditional defense contractors pushed it and offered themselves as an alternative supplier that cost 5 to 10 times more and usually took years to deliver.

Another annoying (to the defense procurement and contractor folks) is the fact that the troops are willing to accept a partial solution. Engineers often point out that they can deliver much more quickly if they are allowed to use the old "70 percent solution" rule. This bit of engineering wisdom is based on the fact that some capabilities of a weapon or other item are not essential but take an inordinate amount of time, effort and money to create. Thus a "good enough" item can be produced very quickly if you are willing to sacrifice 30 percent of the capabilities you thought you needed, but probably don't. Despite official opposition, the 70 percent solution became all the rage after 2003 because the troops have found that this is frequently good enough and a real lifesaver in combat. After RFI was adopted this often meant adopting civilian gear (radios, hunting accessories, electronics, clothing, tents, quadcopters) that was not militarized as in made much more expensive and not arriving for a long time.

The age of change began with the troops who, thanks to the Internet and a flood of new civilian technology, got into the habit of just buying new stuff with their own money and using it in combat. If the army had developed a lot of this gear it would have had more features, probably been more rugged, and taken a lot longer to arrive, if it ever did at all. But for the troops, the off-the-shelf gear filled important needs, even if it was a 70 percent solution , because it was also a life-saver that was needed immediately.

Troops have been finding and buying non-standard gear for decades but this had been growing more frequent since the 1990s. The army became tolerant of it, largely because this unofficial civilian gear (sleeping bags, boots, rifle cleaning kits, etc.) often was better and even officers used the stuff. As the number of these items increased tremendously after 2003, and more officers came back from commanding combat units with personal experience with this sort of thing, a growing number of senior commanders began demanding that the army procurement bureaucracy get rid of the traditional 10-15 years it takes to find, develop, and approve new technology for the troops.

The troops have long understood this but now four-star generals agreed and often did so from personal experience. The generals did create the REF in 2001, which was successful as long as it paid constant attention to what the troops were thinking and doing. Unfortunately with some items, like electronics (as used in smartphones and quadcopters) paranoia (justified or not) also becomes a factor, especially when there is not a major war going on. At that point the army and marines become more dependent on SOCOM (Special Operations Command) experience because these elite units always had the equivalent of RFI an RFE and that experience was one of the many factors that got RFI/RFE for everyone going after 2001.
It seems that many untruths were told by the Archdiocese of Hartford. How very sad!

Numbers were reported that each school had an average of 100 students in them. St. Bernadette School has close to 130 students, whereas St. Francis only 40 to 60 students. Given numbers alone, St. Bernadette should be the location for the merger. Then comes the all-important issue of safety. St. Francis had to gate their school because of the high crime in the area. Did you know there are 60 sex offenders in a one-mile radius of the school? Did you also know that the local crime index in that one-mile radius is well above the national average?

Here are the numbers for your viewing: National average  100, local crime  144, violent crime  130 property crime  176. So why would the archdiocese think this is a far better location than Morris Cove in New Haven? Well, as the archdiocese so plain and simply put it, the people in Fair Haven do not haven the means to travel to another school, and their students are receiving the school readiness grant.

Of course, we all know that bus transportation would be provided for their students to come to Morris Cove. But theres still this School Readiness Grant to be mentioned. Will St. Bernadette students qualify for this grant? Probably not. How many students currently are tuition paying students at St. Francis? All good questions for the archdiocese.

What will happen to St. Francis when St. Bernadette families choose not to send their students to the Ferry Street School? That school will close, too, leaving no more Catholic schools in New Haven. What a sad day!

Here we have a thriving St. Bernadette School that just was voted the Best Catholic School and they are going to have to shut their doors. A committee was sent to evaluate St. Bernadette and the committee gave St. Bernadette a top evaluation. They have whiteboards in every classroom, iPads for all students, bulletproof doors and glass, a separate wing for their pre-k program, and it is located in a safe environment. The church is mortgage free and wouldnt be a burden to the school.

The structure of St. Bernadette has had many renovations through the years, but the archdiocese cannot answer any questions as far as the structure of St. Francis or even how well they perform on standardized test scores. Sounds like St. Bernadette would be the perfect location for the merger, but the decisions never come down to whats best for our students. It comes down to dollars and cents. Sounds like the archdiocese sent that committee around as a big farce. The archdiocese should clearly rethink their decision for the sake of all students.

Vicki Criscuolo lives in New Haven.
(Newser)  The New Hampshire primary and Nevada caucuses have passed, and South Carolinas vote is just a day awaybut theres still no winner of the Iowa caucuses, according to the AP. Final results of the first contest to decide the Democratic Party's nominee to challenge President Trump were released late Thursday, after the Iowa Democratic Party completed a recount of results at the request of two candidates, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, who are essentially tied for the lead. Following the initial delay in reporting results, and after observing irregularities in those results, the AP says it has decided it will not declare a winner in Iowa. After the Iowa Democratic Party's release of recounted results on Thursday, Buttigieg leads Sanders by a margin of 0.04 percentage points.

story continues below

That's in the count of what are known as state delegate equivalents, which is the outcome of a caucus that the AP uses to declare a winner. Buttigieg has about one more state delegate equivalent than does Sanders, out of 2,151 counted. The state party will vote to certify the results of the caucuses on Saturday. At that point, the caucuses will formally end, and no further changes to the results will be made. Iowa awards 41 national delegates in its caucuses. As it stands, Buttigieg has 13 and Sanders has 12. Trailing are Elizabeth Warren with eight, Joe Biden with six and Amy Klobuchar with one. The 41st and final delegate will go to Buttigieg as the overall winner once the Iowa Democratic Party formally votes to certify the results of its caucuses.

(Read more Iowa caucuses stories.)
Vice President Mike Pence was tapped to lead the government's response to coronavirus because President Donald Trump said he didn't "have anything else to do," the New York Times reported.

The Trump administration's approach to coronavirus so far has faced bipartisan criticism in Washington, and Democrats have slammed Trump's decision to put Pence in charge.

Pence continues to face criticism over a bungled response to an HIV outbreak in Indiana while he was the state's governor.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are seen just before the conclusion of the news conference on the coronavirus outbreak at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2020.

Carlos Barria/Reuters

President Donald Trump told people he put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the government's response to coronavirus because he didn't "have anything else to do," the New York Times reported, per people familiar with the president's comments.

The Trump administration has faced bipartisan condemnation over its approach to the coronavirus so far, as public health experts excoriate the president for contradicting warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Amid apparent concerns over the impact panic over coronavirus will have on the stock market, the White House is attempting to tighten control over information government health officials and scientists make public, the Times reported. They're reportedly being directed to coordinate all statements and public appearances through Pence.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Pence has a spotty record when it comes to health crises, and continues to face criticism over his handling of an HIV outbreak in Indiana when he was the state's governor.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, currently the frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic nomination, said Trump's plan for tackling coronavirus has been "disgusting." The Vermont senator attributed this, in part, to the president's decision to tap Pence to take the helm given the vice president's controversial approach to the HIV outbreak.

Alex Azar, the health and human services secretary, on Wednesday said he will continue to lead the coronavirus task force, even as Trump announced Pence would coordinate the response.

Public health experts have said such conflicting messages are spreading confusion about Americans as the CDC warns that the spread of the novel coronavirus, which originated in China, is inevitable in the US and will lead to "severe" disruptions.

Business Insider
Parks, daycares and affordable housing may no longer receive adequate funding from developers in Toronto under changes to provincial rules proposed Friday by the Ontario government.

The new rules proposed by Premier Doug Fords PC government include a cap on how much the city can charge developers for community benefits. Those benefits have previously included a condo developer making space for a daycare in the ground floor of a building, dedicating parkland on site  or providing the equivalent cash to the city for those kinds of facilities.

The city currently has three different tools under provincial legislation it uses to collect money or direct benefits from developers. But the provincial government has proposed collapsing those tools into one new community benefits charge or CBC.

On Friday, the province proposed capping that new charge in Toronto at 15 per cent of a development sites land value.

Coun. Josh Matlow, who has pushed for community benefits to keep pace with unprecedented development in his midtown ward that includes the Yonge-Eglinton area, said Friday the proposed changes appear to break the provinces promise that cities would draw the same revenues from developers as they do today.

Matlow said there is no evidence the changes would create new affordable housing despite claims to the contrary, but would reduce the municipalities ability to ensure a high quality of life in their communities.

Communities will pay more so wealthy developers can make more under the provincial governments community benefits charge, he said. The community benefits charge looks like another Doug Ford giveaway to his developer supporters, at the expense of the people of Ontario and their communities.

The city has not yet calculated how the proposed 15 per cent cap compares to what the city is able to charge developers today. But staff have previously warned that any proposal that is not revenue neutral for the city would have negative implications for the delivery of parks and community infrastructure in all communities across Toronto.

Torontos chief planner Gregg Lintern told the Star on Friday the city needs to do more analysis to know if the proposals alleviate those concerns.

We need to do that assessment because the endgame here is building complete communities, he said. The principle of revenue neutrality, we feel, will allow us to have growth paying for growth.

The alternatives, he said, are that the city would have to subsidize development to serve residents properly or cut services  in other words, accept less.

Julie ODriscoll, spokesperson for Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark, did not directly answer the Stars question about what calculations went into the proposed percentages to ensure cities would not lose revenue from developers. She said they hope to hear more from municipalities through a month-long consultation process that ends March 30.

Our government believes that growth must pay for growth, and that municipalities need the flexibility and resources to support complete communities, she said in a statement. We also know that builders and municipalities need certainty about the costs of providing these community services.

Meanwhile, the major associations representing Ontario developers praised the provinces proposal on Friday.

Dave Wilkes, president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), said it accepts the idea growth must pay for growth, but said the new CBC introduces greater certainty into the planning process.

Suggesting developers are interested in contributing less than they are today, he said, is completely unfair and its not supported by the facts.

When asked whether the CBC would mean developers would pay less in Toronto and elsewhere, Wilkes said: I cant answer that question.

In a statement Friday, Joe Vaccaro CEO of the Ontario Home Builders Association (OHBA) said his organization continues to support the principle that growth pays for growth, but over the last decade the application has escalated beyond reasonable cost recovery.

Vaccaro said the proposed new CBC would be more accountable, predictable and provide more certainty for everyone, including home buyers.

The cap on community benefits is part of sweeping changes to planning legislation first introduced last year.

The More Homes, More Choice Act was announced in May 2019 to cut red tape and increase the supply of housing, according to the provincial government.

Part of the many changes to existing legislation included condensing the three different tools currently available to the city.

Today, the city collects set development charges to help pay the capital costs of infrastructure needed to serve Torontos growing neighbourhoods. Those charges pay for hard infrastructure like sewers and whats seen as soft infrastructure like libraries.

The province at first proposed only hard infrastructure like pipes and sewers could be funded through development charges under the new system, but Fridays proposals say parks development and libraries could also be paid for through development charges. But if paid for through development charges, those services could not also be funded through a CBC, the city said  potentially creating an either-or situation that could mean less money overall for the city.

The city currently has $924 million budgeted for community infrastructure projects over the next 10 years, which it expected to pay for with development charges. That includes money for 12 child care centres representing 583 new spaces, expansion and renovation of 21 Toronto Public Library branches, 100 parks and related facilities, including two new ferry boats, 19 new and expanded recreation centres, five pools and four arenas and ice facilities, city staff previously reported.

In addition, so-called Section 37 agreements  sometimes referred to as density bonusing  are currently negotiated between the city and developers on a case-by-case basis to exchange any added height and density requests for community benefits or cash in lieu of those benefits.

Under the new CBC system, though developers could opt to provide an actual on-site facility for community use  the value of which would be subtracted from whatever charge has been applied to them by the city  they do not have to enter into an agreement that guarantees its delivery to the city.

Separate sections of the Planning Act currently allow the city to demand dedicated parkland on a site or cash in lieu of that land.

The new proposal confirms that the city would no longer be able to demand a percentage of a developers site for parkland if they are using the CBC  a blow for communities where the soaring cost of land has prohibited the city from building any significant new green space, Matlow noted.

In a statement, Mayor John Torys spokesperson Don Peat said the mayor is cautiously optimistic the changes will continue to ensure growth pays for growth. He said there is an opportunity to review the charge a year after implementation to ensure there have been no negative impacts to the citys finances and that the needed benefits are still being achieved.

The province is proposing that municipalities would have a year to transition to the new CBC regime once it comes into effect after the commenting period.

Officials in York and Halton regions said they needed more time to review what the changes to community benefits and development charges would mean in those areas.

With a file from Tess Kalinowski

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Hudson had been an electrician at Miller Coors since 2008, according to his LinkedIn page. Hudsons page also said he attended MATC Milwaukee, WCTC Pewaukee and the University of Phoenix, but did not graduate. His Facebook profile said he is married, and lists that he attended Elkhorn Area High School. His Facebook page also lists several hunting photos.

A woman who answered a phone number for Hudson had no comment when reached by The Associated Press.

Levshetzs death notice said he was married and is survived by two children and two grandchildren. It said he would be remembered as a kind, caring, and giving person who always put his familys needs before his own. His funeral is scheduled for March 1.

Levshetzs neighbor, Martha Siegman, described him as quiet and peaceful, and someone who would use his snowblower to help out others and wave every time he left the driveway. Siegman said Levshetz was also particular about his yard and loved to run his lawnmower. She said she called him Grandpa.
WASHINGTON - The House Judiciary Committee is launching a wide-ranging probe of Attorney General William Barr and the Justice Department, demanding briefings, documents and interviews with 15 officials as it tries to determine whether there has been improper political interference in federal law enforcement.

Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., on Friday sent Barr a letter listing a series of matters that the committee finds deeply troubling, including Barrs involvement in the case of President Donald Trumps longtime confidant Roger Stone.

Stone was convicted in November of lying to Congress and other charges. Barr overruled prosecutors who had recommended that Stone be sentenced to seven to nine years in prison, leading the four top prosecutors on the case to step down from it.

Nadler also is questioning Barr about his involvement in other cases related to friends and associates of Trump and about internal investigations into department employees who investigated Trump after the 2016 election.

Although you serve at the Presidents pleasure, you are also charged with the impartial administration of our laws, Nadler wrote to Barr. In turn, the House Judiciary Committee is charged with holding you to that responsibility.

The committee is asking for briefings on the issues listed and interviews with 15 Justice Department officials involved in those matters, including the four prosecutors who resigned from the Stone case.

It is unclear whether the department, which declined to comment on Nadlers letter, will co-operate with any part of the probe. Trump has vowed to block all of the subpoenas from Democrats and refused to co-operate with their impeachment inquiry last year. Still, despite his declarations, many administration officials came forward during the impeachment probe once faced with subpoenas.

Barr has already agreed to testify before the committee on March 31. It will be the first time he has appeared before the panel since he became attorney general a year ago, and the meeting is sure to be contentious. Since Barr was sworn in, House Democrats have questioned whether he was too close to Trump, criticized his handling of former special counsel Robert Muellers Russia report and impeached Trump for his pressure on Ukraine to investigate Democrats. The Senate acquitted Trump this month.

In the letter, Nadler asked for a broad swath of documents related to the committees concerns, including communications between Trump and the Justice Department. The committee is unlikely to get any of those documents, as a presidents personal conversations are generally considered privileged by the courts.

The sharpened look at Barrs activities comes as many Democrats have been wary of prolonging the Ukraine inquiry that led to Trumps impeachment. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff have put off  but not ruled out  a subpoena for former national security adviser John Bolton, who refused to participate in the House impeachment inquiry but later said he would testify in the Senate trial. The Senate voted not to call witnesses, but Bolton is writing a book that could detail his involvement in the Ukraine matter.

Just after the Senate voted to acquit Trump, Barr faced blowback over his decision to overrule the prosecutors in the Stone case. Trump congratulated Barr shortly afterward.

Stone was convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign co-ordinated with Russia to tip the 2016 election. He was sentenced last week to more than three years in prison.

Barr appeared to try to deflect some of the rising criticism over Stone, saying in an interview with ABC News that Trumps tweets about Justice Department prosecutors and cases make it impossible for me to do my job.

But Barr also said the decision to undo the sentencing recommendation was made before Trump tweeted about it, and he said Trump had not asked him to intervene in any cases.

___

Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.
My corona test is positive ... I dont have a lot of hope of continuing life in this world, wrote Mahmoud Sadeghi on Twitter. He went on to ask the head of Irans judiciary to release those in prison for political crimes to avoid chances of contracting the disease, and allow them to be back with their families at such a deeply worrying time.

The message from the member of the countrys parliament, Majlis, was an example of how the disease has become not just a hugely serious issue of health, but one of politics and the social contract between the state and the citizens. It has become a conduit for a fierce debate, which is now going on around the country  just how much do people trust those in authority on important issues.

There is another link to politics. Three more politicians have been infected with Covid-19, leading to speculation on whether the carrier could be someone who moves in high government circles. Masoumeh Ebtekar, the first female cabinet member in the country, became internationally known as the spokeswoman for the hostage takers at the US embassy in 1979. She is now the vice-president for Women and Family Affairs and, according to unconfirmed reports, attended a cabinet meeting with President Hassan Rouhani before her diagnosis.

Mojtaba Zolnar, chair of the National Security and Foreign Policy committee, assured the public in a statement that there is nothing to worry about. I am in quarantine now. God willing our people will defeat the corona. The deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, looked feverish, coughing with sweat on his forehead while appearing at a press briefing to criticise alarmist reporting about the spread of the disease.

A day later Harirchi announced he had been tested positive for the virus and was getting medical treatment and going into isolation. The journalists who had attended the briefing were furious that they may have been exposed to coronavirus, adding to the rising tide of criticism over official conduct and the deluge of allegations, some of them wild conspiracy theories, in the social media.

While covering the election I found that most people blamed their troubles on what they saw as the corruption and incompetence of domestic politicians as much as the US president

The official reaction has been a crackdown on false rumours. Twenty-four people have been arrested for material they had posted online and another 118 "let go, announced Vahid Majid, head of the countrys cyberpolice force. But pressure has also led the government to look at complaints from the public that they had been misled.

Before the arrival of Covid-19 got publicity, the trust deficit was already evident at last weeks parliamentary election, one of the most important in its recent history, and one which will have repercussions beyond its borders: the turnout for the capital, Tehran, was just over 25 per cent, and 42.5 per cent for the rest of the country. These were the lowest figures for any election since the Islamic revolution which overthrew the Shah.

Rouhani's government has failed to deliver on promises of social and economic reform (Anadolu Agency via Getty) (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The reasons for the electorate being disillusioned were, as people saw it, the failure of the reformist government of Rouhani to deliver on promises of widespread social and economic reforms, which won it a sizeable mandate in the election three years ago.

That failure was largely due to Donald Trump pulling out of the deal between international powers and Iran over the countrys nuclear programme and imposing punitive sanctions. This has resulted in the economy being left in a parlous state. But, while covering the election, I found that most people blamed their troubles on what they saw as the corruption and incompetence of domestic politicians as much as the US president.

Time and again the complaint was a version of you cannot believe a word they say. This is a refrain, of course, one hears about the establishment in other countries, including in the west, and the hardliners gaining control of the Majlis could be seen as another version of populist triumph.

Iran sent thousands of masks to China at the start of that country's outbreak (EPA)

The volatile mood was seen in the anger and grief at the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, by the Americans, and the street protests over the shooting down of the Ukrainian airliner. The anger was due to the government initially denying any responsibility for the plane disaster. Coronavirus has arrived on the back of this perfect storm and is being held up as another example of official narratives that cannot be believed and incompetence being covered up.

The accusations from the public are at times contradictory. I saw an example of this when an official said to me before polling day that voter numbers are likely to be down because of the contagion. I relayed this to a young woman I know, and her friend tweeted that the government was exaggerating the threat, trying to hide the fact that people will keep away because of political discontent. A few days later the same young people would claim that officials were criminally trying to minimise the true extent of the outbreak.

The interior minister implied that it was understandable that the rising toll of infected and dead would keep people from the polling stations

But then, the establishment was also making contradictory statements. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Khameini, and President Rouhani had repeatedly exhorted the electorate to vote, declaring that a failure to do so would be used by the US and its allies in their own nefarious aims of undermining Iran.

After the turnout figures emerged, Khameini charged the media, national and international, with inflating the risks posed by the virus. But then, announcing partial results, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, the interior minister, implied that it was understandable that the rising toll of infected and dead would keep people from the polling stations. We believe that the number of votes and the turnout [under the circumstances] is absolutely acceptable, he insisted.

The numbers of people who have contracted the virus in Iran are in dispute (EPA)

The statistics of those affected is a matter of heated dispute. The official account is that there are 245 cases of infection reported with 26 deaths. But specialists dealing with Covid-19 point out that the numbers of dead suggest that far more people have contracted the virus.

The deputy health minister, before he fell ill, was to deny the claim by Ahmad Amirabadi-Farahani, member of parliament for Qom, where the outbreak began, that 50 people had died in that city alone and the authorities were carrying out a cynical cover-up. Harirchi declared that he would resign if it was proved that even half that number had died.

The secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, Ali Shamkhani, had asked the countrys prosecutor general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, to check the validity of the allegation. This may have been an attempt to establish facts, or it may have been a veiled threat against the MP. If it was a threat, it did not work. Qom, which Amirabadi-Farahani represents, is one of the holiest of Shia cities and is a bastion of the religious establishment. He is a former officer in the Revolutionary Guard, who had fought in the war against Iraq and took part in the siege of Basra.

The MP refused to retract his claim, saying he had sent a list of 40 people who had died to the health ministry and now awaited Harirchis resignation.

Medical companies claimed that they were being blocked from getting testing kits due to American sanctions

The initial reports about the arrival of coronavirus led to amusement in Tehran. A customer in a cafe told the cleaner: Look over there, I can see a bit of corona. A social media posting had a woman unexpectedly pregnant saying it may of course just be a bit of corona. Mohammad Javad Zarif, the foreign minister, shaking hands with his visiting Australian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg, laughed: I swear to God, I am not infected with this new coronavirus.

But the mood began to change with more cases emerging with, as in other places affected, supplies of face masks, gloves and hand-sanitisers beginning to disappear from the shops and prices shooting up for the stock left. Iran had donated three million face masks to Beijing as a sign of the long-term and traditional friendship between two countries when the virus first appeared in China. Chinese companies have also been buying up Iranian supplies. The Iranian government has now banned the export of face masks for three months and ordered factories to ramp up production.

Disinfecting public transport: initial reports of the outbreak were met with amusement (AFP via Getty) (AFP via Getty Images)

Medical companies claimed that they were being blocked from getting testing kits due to American sanctions. Many international companies are ready to supply Iran with coronavirus test kits, but we can't send them money, said Ramin Fallah, a board member of Iran's Association of Medical Equipment Importers. Washington denies that sanctions affect medical products as there is an exemption for humanitarian supplies. But processing payments is extremely difficult, the Iranians point out, because banks are unwilling to risk falling foul of secondary US sanctions on financial transactions.This problem should ease after the announcement by the US on Thursday that it had granted a licence to allow specified humanitarian trade with Irans central bank, which had been placed under sanction, through a Swiss aid channel.

There was now less amusement and more alarm. I have had interesting visits to Qom in previous trips to Iran, and when I mentioned going there (albeit knowing what the reaction was going to be) there were no takers among those who had been exchanging jokes about the virus of my request to accompany me. The trip did not take place. I was quite relieved.

The mood became even more tense as international airlines began to cancel flights. The seats in the remaining ones were disappearing at a fast rate. But not all could get out even if they had tickets. The Iranian passengers on the flight I was on to Muscat, were told that the Omani government had temporarily banned entry to Iranian nationals. The distraught passengers protested, waving the tickets they had paid for, but that changed nothing, the plane took off without them.

Several other countries in the region have taken the same policy. Four neighbouring countries  Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Armenia  have closed land borders. Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and UAE have banned travel to and from Iran. These are the countries Iran is dependent on for trade after US sanctions effectively cut it off from the global economy. Some of them are countries where a lot of Iranians live. What had happened has led to a sense of greater isolation among people whose hopes of opening up to the outside world had dissipated with the near collapse of the nuclear deal. At the same time acts such as the killing of General Soleimani and seizure of tankers in the Gulf had raised the spectre of war.

I met Arash and Sara Gharabagi at the coffee shop of my hotel the day I left. The couple, who live in Turkey, had come to Tehran to see Saras 68-year-old mother who was unwell  but not with coronavirus, Sara stressed hastily. The Turkish Airlines flight had been cancelled and they were deeply worried about how they were going to get back to their young son and daughter who were being looked after by friends in Istanbul.

What has happened has come as a shock, said Sara. We must go back to our children, but now we have to find some other way to go back, we are looking at all kinds of options. But at the same time we are so worried about our parents who are here, what is going to happen to them with the virus? Supposing we dont see them again. I know other people around the world are suffering, and we are not special. But we are very nervous about what is happening, very nervous.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday said 8,400 people are being monitored in 49 jurisdictions in the state for symptoms of the novel coronavirus.

At a news conference with other state officials, Newsom said 33 people have tested positive for the virus but five of them left the state. Newsom said more than 800 of the 8,400 people came to California on repatriation flights from overseas and thousands more arrived from "points of concern and potential points of contact, particularly Asia."

The governor said the state's top priority will be point of contact diagnostic testing, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sending more adequate testing kits. The state currently has 200 kits on hand, Newsom said.

The CDC on Wednesday confirmed that the first likely case of a person-to-person transmission of the virus in the U.S. was a woman who was infected with the disease in Solano County.

The woman had no known exposure to the virus through travel and no close contact to a known-infected person, according to the CDC. Newsom said the CDC is sending 10 people to help track whoever had contact with the Solano County woman.

The Berkeley-based nonprofit Earth Island Institute has filed a suit alleging that some of the world's largest food, beverage and product manufacturers are polluting the world's oceans and waterways with millions of tons of plastic.

The suit, which was filed in San Mateo County Superior Court on Wednesday, seeks unspecified compensatory damage and legal fees as well as a court order requiring the companies to reduce plastic production, pay for cleanup and stop implying their plastic containers will be recycled until there are resources available to do so.

The suit names as defendants Calistoga-based Crystal Geyser Water Company, Oakland-based Clorox, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle USA, Mars Inc., Danone North America, Mondelez International Inc., Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble.

The suit alleges violations of the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, public nuisance, breach of express warranty, defective product liability, negligence, and failure to warn of the harms caused by their plastic packaging.

The complaint says the creatures most notably affected by plastic pollution include fish, seabirds, marine mammals and reptiles.

In an effort to curb the rise of deadly overdoses happening in San Francisco, Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Matt Haney announced Thursday that they will introduce legislation to create indoor sites where people can use drugs safely.

The Overdose Prevention Programs ordinance would allow non-profit organizations to seek permits from the city's Department of Public Health to operate the facilities.

The facilities would not only allow drug use, but they would also provide people access to treatment services.

Breed and Haney plan to introduce the legislation at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting.

The legislation, however, would only go into effect if the state Legislature passes and the governor signs Assembly Bill 362, allowing the city to operate a supervised safe injection site in San Francisco.

BART police Chief Ed Alvarez presented a report to the agency's Board of Directors Thursday showing that black BART riders are cited more frequently than other riders for certain violations.

BART released the data last week, showing that black riders received more than half of the citations for "quality of life" offenses, such as fare evasion, disruptive behavior and eating, drinking or smoking on trains, in both 2018 and 2019.

In comparison, black riders were cited more often for quality of life offenses than white and Hispanic riders combined in both years. Only about 10 percent of BART riders are black, while white riders comprise 35 percent of the system's riders.

BART board director Janice Li called for the inquiry into the agency's police practices following documented confrontations between riders and police such as last November, when a BART police officer threatened to arrest a man of color for eating a sandwich on a platform at the Pleasant Hill station.

A 51-year-old inmate died at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas on Wednesday night, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office.

The man, whose name isn't yet being released, had been booked into custody in Santa Clara County last Friday and was discovered unresponsive in his jail cell at about 10:25 p.m. Wednesday by deputies doing a routine exchange of bedding, sheriff's officials said.

Life-saving measures on the man were unsuccessful and paramedics pronounced him dead about a half-hour later.

A preliminary investigation found no signs of foul play in the death, which occurred while the man was housed alone.

A passenger in a Toyota Corolla died after the vehicle went off of U.S. Highway 101 and overturned in a vineyard south of Cloverdale in Sonoma County on Thursday morning, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The crash was reported at about 6 a.m. off of northbound Highway 101 north of Asti Road.

A 25-year-old man driving the Corolla in the left northbound lane for some reason made an abrupt turn to the right, causing the vehicle to travel more than 150 feet on the right shoulder and then overturn and come to rest in the vineyard, CHP officials said.

The male passenger in the front right seat was trapped in the car and subsequently died. His name has not yet been released. The driver was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, according to the CHP.

An 18-year-old San Jose woman pleaded not guilty Wednesday to felony charges related to an alleged DUI crash that killed her passenger last weekend, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.

Natasha Leodjaja pleaded not guilty to felony vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence, and causing great bodily injury in the crash that killed her passenger, 18-year-old Silvia Chalista.

Prosecutors say that at about 3:15 a.m. Sunday, Leodjaja was behind the wheel of a 2018 Audi sedan heading south on U.S. Highway 101 near Whipple Avenue in Redwood City when she veered off the road.

The car went down an embankment, flew into the air and crashed into a light pole and two trees before coming to a stop on its roof, according to prosecutors. Chalista died at the scene.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee on Wednesday approved a lease agreement to house a temporary 200-bed Upper Market SAFE Navigation Center in the South of Market neighborhood.

The city will lease the property on 33 Gough St. from 33 Gough LLC for three years with an annual base rent of approximately $1.3 million for an estimated total of $4.3 million, according to the Budget and Legislative Analyst report.

Supervisor Matt Haney, who represents District 6, where the city will construct the new homeless center, said he was in support of the planned new shelter in the neighborhood.

The 49,000-square-foot building, which had previously been used by City College of San Francisco, has been a concern for residents and businesses, who Haney said are glad to see the site transform into a shelter that will serve many homeless individuals.

As more navigation centers have come online in San Francisco, Haney added that he would like to see the city to do more extensive outreach to constituents and businesses before the announcement of a new site.

A man who died in a fiery crash on U.S. Highway 101 in San Jose last month remains unidentified and the Santa Clara County medical examiner's office on Thursday asked for the public's help in finding out his identity.

The crash was reported at 11:28 p.m. on Jan. 16 on northbound Highway 101 at the connector ramps to Interstate Highways 680 and 280, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The medical examiner's office said the man was driving a Dodge Charger and lost control while trying to exit the highway, then struck a pole, causing the vehicle to burst into flames.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene, and the CHP determined that the license plate was tied to a stolen rental car from San Francisco International Airport.

The flames left the man's facial features indiscernible, but he has a tattoo on his left foot that authorities hope can help lead to his identification. The tattoo is of a red lily flower with two smaller blue flowers and the word "Life" is written in script about it.

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A group of Longview citizens Thursday night asked the City Council to not renew its designated homeless campsite at Alabama Street.

The city has been working with a Cowlitz County ad hoc committee to find an alternative site for campers to move to after the Alabama Street site is set to close on March 30. A new site has not yet been designated.

During the City Council meeting on Thursday, about half a dozen people expressed their concerns regarding the current campsite and the lawless behavior that they worry is occurring there.

Police Chief Jim Duscha confirmed that calls for service in the neighborhood around the site are 19% higher than they were this time last year.

What Im concerned about is that people feel like theyre held hostage by a small group of people of less than 100 versus the city of Longviews population of 37,000, Kalei LaFave said.

Mellisa Lemons, a Kelso resident, said she was able to get clean because she was held accountable by law enforcement.

You are not doing these people any favors, she told the council. Youre making it hard for them to get clean and sober because they dont have a bottom. They have somewhere to go every night.

After Jimmy Misiak spoke about the temporary cold weather shelter at First Christian Church, Love Overwhelming board member Shawn Nyman said Misiak was an example of someone who is homeless and has been grateful for the help he received. He recently showed up at the shelter with a lemon and a lime because that was all he had to offer, she said.

Nyman also said the city should have found an agency to host the Alabama campsite, instead of telling campers to police themselves.

Police can show up and arrest someone for warrants, so I dont understand why somebody from the city cant come say you will clean this up or you will be gone, Nyman said.

Elisha Jolma, a local real estate agent, said she had to evict a woman and her 17-year-old son from one of her buildings. When the son asked where they were going to go, the mom said theyd get a tent and go to Alabama Street, Jolma said.

It broke my heart that a 17-year-old was forced to live in a tent with his mom and he didnt even know the resources he had, Jolma said.

Regardless of what the council decides about the campsite, Jolma said, the community needs to do a better job of educating people about the services that are available.

Also during the meeting, the council unanimously approved zoning changes to allow distilleries in certain commercial and industrial zones. Councilman Mike Wallin was absent and Councilwoman Christine Schott excused herself from the vote because she still serves on the Planning Commission, which recommended the changes.

Councilwoman Ruth Kendall said allowing distilleries will encourage small businesses and help the environment because people will drink beverages produced locally instead of having them shipped in.

Local spirit and wine distributor Jeri Dalgleish said the changes are fantastic because it will help make Longview a destination.

The zoning changes include adding distilling alcohol to the definition of breweries/wineries and permitting those activities outright in the General Commercial Zone. Distilling alcohol also will be permitted in industrial and commercial zones where breweries and wineries are already approved. Under current law, microbreweries and wineries are allowed in these areas with a special property use permit, which includes a $696 fee.

In addition, craft distilling would be a permitted use for brewpubs, which must include a restaurant, night club or bar with small scale production of beer, wine or spirits.

In other business, the council approved:

Appointments to various boards and commissions.

A $36,000 contract with Advanced Electrical Technologies to improve air release valves at the Mint Farm Regional Water Treatment Plant.

Zoning changes for six city areas to match changes in the 2019 Comprehensive Plan Update.

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After a bench headed by Justice S Muralidhar of Delhi High Court made an oral observation that "another 1984-like situation cannot be allowed to happen in the city under its watch", BSP chief Mayawati, Akali Dal MP Naresh Gujaral, Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana and some others likened northeast Delhis riots to the three-and-half-decade old anti-Sikh riots in the National Capital.

This is an erroneous argument, not just because the two situations are not comparable for variety of reasons, but also because the nature of two riots are completely different. The 1984 riots were instigated by the then ruling Congress party. As per Ahuja Committee, the toll in Delhi was 2,733 and in the present case, the toll is 42. Back then, the victims were mostly Sikh and in this instance the victims are Hindus and Muslims.

Firstpost spoke to Amod Kanth, a former Delhi top cop on a wide range of issues: From whether these riots could be compared with 1984, why Delhi Police failed, pendency of Shaheen Bagh anti-CAA protests in Supreme Court and incumbent Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik.

Kanth was DCP Central Delhi during the 1984 riots and was later given a gallantry award for his role in containing the violence in the areas under his control. That award was later challenged in court and it was, incidentally, Justice Muralidhar, who castigated the Delhi Police's 'inaction' last week, who ruled in his favour. Here are the excerpts of freewheeling interview with Kanth:

Can one compare these riots to 1984?

I dont think so. I was DCP of Central Delhi, then a much bigger district. That was like a dreaded storm. People poured onto the streets in huge numbers and resources, both in terms of police personnel and logistics, were inadequate. The mob couldnt be controlled. Even then, there was great deal of leadership failure, political leadership failed, police leadership failed, administrative leadership failed. The current situation isn't like that.

The Delhi Police failed to contain the situation...

The police failure in containing the situation is part of a cyclical process, something which has been going on for some time. What has happened now cant be seen in isolation. When situation starts deteriorating, which we are seeing for past two or three months, whether related to this or not. Some incidents in this period took place which impacted Delhi Police morale and posed a question mark on its efficiency. The lawyers issue, JNU, Jamia, Shaheen Bagh, Please understand at all these places Delhi Police's image took a beating. These incidents happened one after another. Delhi Police was targeted. It didnt get support from anywhere. Delhi Police brass failed to provide required leadership. That impacted morale of force.

This could certainly have been controlled.....

The issue now is how that situation should have been controlled. An anger was built among some people over notification of an Act. They were opposed to that. Then some people came out in its support. That created an explosive situation. If an explosive situation is created and if you are in a position to separate the two and neutralise then well and good. But if that cant be done then the other side should not be allowed to come and confront. When there is a clear cut division on communal lines and when other side comes out strongly.

This could certainly have been controlled. When some leaders or one certain leader whose name is being bandied about in the media began counter activity, in my view he shouldnt have been permitted. Its very clear that you already have one section of society that is agitating. If you allow other group to come there, then clashes are bound to occur. When one clash occurs, it spreads like wildfire.

What about Shaheen Bagh?

People have a right to way. There is a judgment by Delhi High Court (in context of various societies erecting gates at by-lanes and blocks) that even one person who otherwise has a right to way can ask for access and have that opened up. There have been occasions a high way or a main road was closed by local people, agitate with a body or do something else but we dont allow that blockade to go on for more than one, two four or maximum six hours. The matter shouldnt have gone there and taken up but the matter is before the apex court. The matter was taken up by the highest court of the land, but so far, it has not intervened. Nobody can permanently close a road.

What about the Delhi Police?

Delhi Police has a specialty. It is considered to be a neutral force. It is not within any political control. Though it is under MHA, it is controlled by Lieutenant Governor. The LG is not a political person, he is in-charge of law and order and also has administrative control of Delhi administration. That he reports to the MHA is a different story. Delhi Police has to be neutral to live up to its image.

Do we need a zero tolerance policy?

The police has to come out with a clear zero tolerance policy. Whenever there is a possibility of disturbance, you have to take preventive steps. They have been given preventive powers under CRPC. They don't need permission to act. If an incident nevertheless occurs, then the commanding officer can order use of force. If less force is used at the initial stage, then force of a larger magnitude will have to be used at a later stage.
A tiny worm-like creature that has been discovered in the Pacific Ocean has been named after legendary American heavy metal band Metallica.

The crustacean lives 16,000 feet below the surface of the ocean. According to Phys.org, the organism, which has no eyes, was discovered in the Clarion Clipperton Zone between Hawaii and Mexico. It grows up to a quarter-inch long.

The organism, now identified as Macrostylis Metallicola, lives amongst manganese nodules. The study was published in the scientific journal PeerJ.

Dr Torben Riehl, a researcher at Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt, and Dr Bart De Smet from Belgiums Ghent University, conducted the environmental standard study for a prospective nodule mining project.

But why name the discovery after the American heavy metal band? Riehl has an explanation.

The powerful music of Metallica has accompanied me the majority of my life I am thrilled to be able to give something back to the band by naming a new species after them!" Riehl was quoted as saying.

Metallica took to social media to share the news with its millions of fans. Weve played on all seven continents, made it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and now were a crustacean! read the Facebook post.

"The worm-like creature dwells in complete darkness, has no eyes, and is colorless. Talk about Blackened! It also lives amongst metallic nodules containing cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel, and rare-earth elements. So it basically lives in a rock stadium? Now thats one metal crustacean!" the band further wrote.

Metallica is one of the most popular bands ever.

Its not uncommon to have species named after rock stars and bands. A tarantula found in New Mexico and Arizona was named after Megadeths Dave Mustaine while Black Sabbaths Ozzy Osbourne has a frog  Dendropsophus Ozzyi  to his credit.

Pink Floyd has a damselfly discovered in Africa in 2015 named after it.
Over 200 jobs could be coming to Newbridge as a US multinational has been linked with a move to Lidls former distribution centre in the town.

Speculation is mounting that the corporate giant behind the Dr Pepper and 7Up brands  Keurig Dr Pepper  is in advanced talks to occupy the facility off Great Connell Road.

Keurig Dr Pepper, which is headquartered in Massachusetts, did not respond to requests for comment this week.

The Lidl warehouse has been vacant since November when the German retailer replaced it with a 100 million state-of-the-art hub.

Lidl said on Monday that negotiations are ongoing in relation to the vacant building.

A spokeswoman for IDA Ireland, which attracts foreign investment into Ireland, said: Im not in a position to comment as its very much speculation and IDA Ireland does not comment on such.

County Kildare Chamber chief executive Allan Shine also declined to comment on the issue.

Last November, Lidl Ireland managing director JP Scally confirmed to the Leader that the retailer was in advanced stages of talks with a potential buyer for its building located behind the Pfizer campus.

Over 200 staff moved from the former warehouse to the new facility a few fields away and 100 extra workers were also hired.

The Lidl boss was speaking on Friday, November 22 as Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe officially opened the massive 58,000 square metre regional distribution centre.

Regarding speculation around the former Lidl facility, a Lidl spokeswoman said yesterday: "There are negotiations ongoing regarding this site and for that reason we are unable to confirm any further information at this time."

Keurig Dr Pepper is the parent company of over 100 brands that also includes Snapple, Canada Dry and Sunkist.

It's one of the biggest food and beverage companies in the US and employs more than 25,000 people.

One of its brands is Krispy Kreme Doughnuts which opened in Blanchardstown in Dublin in 2018.

Keurig Dr Pepper is known as a good employer and offers employees continuous training and development as well as tuition for outside education.

Employees are also paid for carrying out volunteer work in their community.

It is also known for its environmentally conscious outlook by promoting sustainable practices in how it sources its raw ingredients.

Meanwhile, more US jobs could be coming to Co Kildare in coming months.

A recent Co Kildare Chamber trade mission to Boston is expected to result in some investment in the county.
The cases are the second and third confirmed cases of the virus in Latin America.

Mexicos government said on Friday it had detected the first cases of coronavirus infection in two men who had recently travelled to Italy, making the country the second in Latin America to register the virus.

A 35-year-old man who showed positive in an initial test in Mexico City went through a second test that turned up positive results early on Friday, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez told reporters.

The man is in isolation, he added.

His case is connected to the second case in the northern state of Sinaloa, Lopez-Gatell told a news conference alongside President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Lopez Obrador urged the population to remain calm and said officials would report daily on the progress of cases.

We have the capacity to handle this situation, he said.

Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez, Mexicos under-secretary of Health Prevention and Promotion, holds a news conference on information about the new coronavirus, in Mexico City, Mexico [Edgard Garrido/Mexico]

During their visit to Italy, both confirmed cases had been in direct contact with an Italian national who resides in Malaysia, the government said.

Previously, Brazil had been the only country in Latin America to report a case of the new coronavirus.

Dominican Republic turns back cruise ship

Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic refused to allow a cruise ship headed towards the island to dock at its port amid worries over the virus.

A joint statement by the Public Health Ministry and Port Authority said the captain of the Braemar reported four Filipinos, two British citizens and two US citizens were under medical observation after displaying symptoms of the COVID-19 illness such as fever, coughing, or breathing difficulties.

Fred Olsen Cruise Lines said in an emailed statement that it had reported a small number of influenza-like cases on board. Our medical team has now advised that they are all feeling better. No guests or crew are, or have been, displaying symptoms that are considered to be consistent with those of coronavirus.

Officials said the ship was carrying 1,128 passengers and 384 crew members. The cruise line said it was awaiting advice on the next steps and liaising with a number of airlines to secure onward travel for guests.

It is our opinion that this is an overreaction by the Dominican Republic, Fred Olsen said in a written statement.

The cruise lines website shows the ship had been due to pick up another load of passengers and set off on a new cruise Thursday night.

The company said on Friday that we are in discussion with the relevant authorities on nearby Caribbean islands, as well as a number of airlines, to enable our guests to disembark and secure onward travel for them to return home.

The Dominican Republics public health minister, Rafael Sanchez Cardenas, said the ship already had been barred by another port but did not specify which.

Meanwhile, passengers on another vessel at the Mexican island of Cozumel faced yet another day on board after their ship was turned away from ports in Grand Cayman and Jamaica.

The MSC Meraviglia docked at Cozumel on Thursday. Mexican President Lopez Obrador said passengers would be allowed to disembark.

Lopez Obrador said Mexico had to act with humanity after the ship was refused authorisation by the two other nations due to virus fears.

But Alejandra Aguirre, the health secretary of the coastal state of Quintana Roo, said two people had been detected with acute respiratory infections not believed to be the new coronavirus and that other passengers wouldnt be allowed off until tests on those two came back later Thursday.

The two were identified as a 27-year-old male crew member from the Philippines and a 30-year-old female passenger from France.

MSC said in a statement that the two passengers were now symptom-free and the ship would remain in Cozumel. Assuming clearance to disembark is given, passengers would be free to tour Cozumel through the end of Friday.

The cruise line had expressed frustration with the rejections, which came after it reported the crew member was sick with common seasonal flu.

The ship is being allowed to dock and the passengers, those who are aboard the cruise ship, can disembark, Lopez Obrador said, adding that health inspections will be carried out.

We cannot act with discrimination, he said. Imagine if a ship arrived and it wasnt even allowed to dock, and they were told, Keep going on your way, see where you can dock. That is inhuman.

We cannot close our ports, nor can we close our airports, he added.
RACINE  You dont belong here.

Thats what a group of Wisconsin Catholic immigration advocates visiting the U.S.-Mexico border were told by an American who has sheltered thousands of migrants over the past four decades.

That shelter provider, Ruben Garcia of El Paso, Texas, told the Wisconsinites he doesnt want advocates coming down to the border so much. Garcia wanted them to be focused on advocating to change the divisive policies that have led to massive encampments of migrants now stuck in Mexico after being denied entry to the United States.

Monday evening at the Racine Public Library, 75 Seventh St., a panel of those advocates from Milwaukees Catholic Coalition for Migrants and Refugees (CCMR) shared what they witnessed during recent visits to both sides of the border.

The panel was heavily critical of the Trump Administrations Remain in Mexico policy, officially known as Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP. The intent of MPP is for would-be immigrants to stay in Mexico  rather than the United States  while awaiting court dates that could grant them asylum status.

More than 55,000 migrants have been kept in Mexico because of this policy, 95% of whom dont have lawyers, according to CCMR; fewer than 150 have gained asylum thus far.

Empty beds in immigrants' shelter near El Paso Empty beds have become a staple at shelters along the U.S.-Mexico border after the U.S.'s "Remain in Mexico" was instituted.

But on Friday, a state appeals court overturned MPP, in part because of arguments activists made that Remain in Mexico did little to actually protect migrants, considering the rampant gang violence and lack of healthy living conditions south of the border.

One of the arguments the Trump Administration made in defending the policy was that migrants often didnt show up for their court dates when they were being allowed into the United States to wait.

According to a fact-check from The Washington Post, 44% of migrants who were not in custody failed to show up for their court proceedings; that fact-check was published in response to Vice President Mike Pences claim that 90% of migrants were not showing up for court dates.

Despite the courts ruling, local Catholic activists are not expecting much real change.

I think whats going to happen is  theyre going to deport people even quicker, said Joanna Boey, a CCMR member who has visited the border multiple times and spoke Monday at the Racine Public Library. Recently when courts have made decisions  Immigration kind of just ignored it, such as when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained two individuals inside a courthouse earlier this month without a judicial warrant allowing such an arrest; ICE said a judges order shouldnt supercede their federal directive.

Our officers will not have their hands tied by sanctuary rules when enforcing immigration laws to remove criminal aliens from our communities, stated David Jennings, ICEs field office director in San Francisco.

Not stopping

In December 2018, Boey visited a shelter in Texas filled with more than 800 migrants. When she visited earlier this year, that same shelter had only a couple of families staying there, a result of the Remain in Mexico/MPP policy.

Letting migrants await asylum court hearings in the United States (while being tracked by ankle bracelets) is better for people, Boey said, considering how U.S. cities tend to be safer than Mexican border towns. And keeping migrants out of detention facilities is good too, according to Boey.

Its not just that they get due process, she said. Its that they can be with their families and their kids and not face indefinite detention.

According to data compiled by Syracuse University, immigration judges denied about 70% of asylum pleas in 2019. Thats a sharp increase from 2012, when around 42% of asylum requests were rejected. From 2002-05, about 60% of asylum requests were denied, before dropping further at the end of George W. Bushs presidency and the beginning of Barack Obamas.

While waiting in Mexico, more than 95% of migrants are showing up for court hearings that often occur via video conference with American judges on the other side of the border, according to the Frank Pauc, a military veteran and CCMR member.

Despite the high denial rate, they still come, Pauc said.

One of the main reasons Boey thinks Fridays reversal of MPP wont make a difference is that the U.S. government has been finding other ways to keep migrants out of the country, such as setting up a partnership with the Guatemalan government that allows the U.S. to deport migrants directly to Guatemala even if the people have never been to that country.

The U.S. has also been deporting people more quickly than it has in years past, which Boey thinks is an affront to due process because it doesnt give enough time for migrants to find legal representation.

The question of deterrence

The primary issue, according to the CCMR, is that the U.S. makes it too difficult for asylum seekers to prove they actually need asylum.

You have to understand: Just because somebody wants to kill you isnt enough to prove asylum, Pauc said, describing U.S. policy.

Asylum seekers can only get asylum if they can prove they are being persecuted for one of five reasons: their race; religion; country of origin; social group; or political beliefs. Being specifically targeted by a drug cartel, for example, is not enough, Pauc explained.

The CCMR takes issue with the U.S.s, and primarily the Trump Administrations, goal of immigration deterrence by using tactics such as separating children of migrants from their parents (which has since been partially stopped per court order) to deter would-be migrants from even trying to get to the United States.

CCMR asserted that, by not directly working to address the situation at the border, the U.S. was complicit in human rights violations.

What do I do next?

Conditions are getting better for migrants just south of the border, Boey said, since the Mexican government has erected semipermanent tents, portable toilets and started trying to provide more clean water.

Regardless, most of the migrants, according to the CCMR, should be receiving asylum status considering how many of them are fleeing war, hopeless economic conditions and gang violence; the No. 1 fear for many of them is becoming trafficked by drug cartels.

Boey told the story of a Honduran family she met. The father had sold everything they had because he wanted a future for his kids. When they got to the U.S.-Mexico border and were turned back, the man tried to become a street food vendor while waiting for a court date but was threatened by a gang that forced him to stop trying to earn an income.

That father was considering sending two of his children across the border without the rest of the family, hoping they might be afforded a better life in the U.S. than staying with the family in poverty.

These are people who are constantly thinking: What do I do next? Boey said. I was hungry today, and I went to my fridge and was frustrated because there wasnt very much food  These people they dont even have that luxury.

Prayers for a movement

The Catholic Coalition for Migrants and Refugees is galvanizing American Catholics to advocate for real change, and to encourage other Christian denominations to do the same.

This movement to make a difference has been taking place in our own community, said Linda Boyle, co-president of the Racine Interfaith Coalition, which cohosted Mondays panel

CCMRs next focus is Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. That policy said that certain undocumented immigrants who were brought into the country as children could be eligible for work permits and remain in the U.S., although it does not include a path to citizenship.

DACA was enacted in 2012, but applications were no longer being accepted as of Sept. 5, 2017.

President Donald Trump is working to have DACA repealed, saying it is unconstitutional. A U.S. Supreme Court decision is expected this spring or summer on whether those whose American residency had been protected under DACA would lose their protections.

Mark Peters, who is part of the CCMR and works for Priests of the Sacred Heart religious congregation, said, We need to be out in the streets if DACA is repealed.

Its not just that they get due process. Its that they can be with their families and their kids and not face indefinite detention. Joanna Boey, Catholic Coalition for Migrants and Refugees

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Video By Lee Min-young, Kim Kang-min

Kim Sang-hun is a 27-year-old student who lives in Dalseo-gu, western Daegu, just 15 minutes away from the Shincheonji Daegu Church where the 31st patient, a 61-year-old woman, had attended a service with hundreds others.

Days later, a cluster of infections followed in Daegu, a city of 2.4 million people, and it took less than a week for the virus to spread across other parts of the country, setting the national tally at 2022, as of Friday.

Overnight, Daegu turned into a city that lies at the heart of South Korea's coronavirus outbreak, or even worse, a city home to a "super-spreader" doomsday religious cult.

Kim says his neighborhood has changed so much ever since the emergence of soaring coronavirus cases centered on the Daegu Shincheonji Church. "I don't hear any of the children's laughters coming from my apartment's playground these days. The city is just wiped out."

He told The Korea Times that it sometimes upsets him when he reads the news and see local media calling the epidemic "Daegu Coronavirus." "It's unfair to treat us like viruses while it's not Daegu where the virus was born. Many of my friends tell me they feel like they are locked away, not welcome anywhere."
A couple from Pennsylvania are still in quarantine after coronavirus broke out on their cruise ship. Weve compiled the daily entries about their experience that were posted to Facebook. And after a lot of debate, Phillys safe injection site, which would be the first one in the nation, is now on hold.

Other happenings include the effects of the soda tax, an organ player performing a 15-hour piece, and what Rasheed Wallace is up to now.

 Lauren Aguirre (@laurencaguirre, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

I hope to see sun today, Bill Smedley writes.

He and his wife, Colette, were aboard a cruise ship, celebrating their 33rd wedding anniversary. Their ship was the Diamond Princess, the liner that was quarantined in Japan after coronavirus broke out on board in early February. Theyve been in quarantine ever since  only now, theyre in Texas. Bill has been writing diary entries of their experience for friends and family on Facebook. Weve compiled his daily dispatches.

In the United States, the virus hasnt spread far yet. But if youre hoping warmer weather will hit before the virus does, dont bother, scientists say. Unlike with the flu, warmer temperatures might not matter much. But while this all seems scary, know that the vast majority of infected people have not suffered severe symptoms, and some have had no symptoms at all. And its the same rules as for the flu: remember to wash your hands and avoid touching your face.

For the first time in Philly Flower Show history, marijuana will be highlighted  but no actual cannabis plant will be on display. Instead, weed will be a talking point for several booths in the Convention Center. It doesnt seem like much, but its still a big deal.

Nearly 250,000 people attended last years show. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society bills it as the largest indoor flower show in the world. And ticket prices this year are up as much as 40%. If you want to go, heres a rundown of what to check out.

What you need to know today

[As the election season ramps up, Pennsylvania will probably see more campaign spending. And were launching a new weekly email newsletter covering how Pennsylvania is shaping the 2020 election. Sign up here, and dont forget to share it.]

Through your eyes | #OurPhilly

I love skyline shots, and this one is pretty impressive. Thanks for sharing these beautiful clouds, @phillydroneshots!

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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Opinions

If black voters really matter, stop the polling and come to our neighborhoods. We will ask questions, challenge your perspectives, make you feel uncomfortable, and potentially change your policies. But we will ultimately vote for you with unflinching loyalty when we have a meaningful seat at the table, and when our presence is felt.  writes State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, who is asking 2020 candidates to stop pandering to black voters and actually visit their neighborhoods.

The Catholic cathedrals place on Phillys skyline is sacred. Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron questions whether two new towers will wreck the view.

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Your Daily Dose of | Harriets Bookshop

This bookstore isnt just about books, though thats a big part of it. Harriets Bookshop opened in Fishtown this month. The owner, Jeannine A. Cook, says shes doing what she can to create a space of peace for people in a chaotic world. The shop specializes in black women authors, but also aims to create a community space to people to come together and discuss ideas in a healthy way. The shop will host monthly events like a writers night and on some nights, musicians will perform.
The BJP's Tamil Nadu unit on Friday



took out pro-CAA rallies across the state, and asserted that the amended citizenship law would not harm Muslims as was being made out by opposition parties, including the DMK.

Senior BJP leader L Ganesan led a protest here, while agitations were held across Tamil Nadu,where BJP functionaries marched towards district collectorates.

At the protest here, BJP volunteers were seen carrying placards supporting CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR).

Some party supporters carried placards demanding "action against seperatists who are instigating innocent Muslims."



Addressing the protesters here, Ganesan said the CAA would not affect any Muslim.

He charged the opposition DMK with "misleading" the members of the minority community.

"It (CAA) is a simple, but historic law. The DMK is misleading" Muslims, he alleged.

Similar protests were held across the state in various districts including Tiruvannamalai,Ramanathapuram and Madurai.

The national party also demanded action against those fomenting trouble in the name of CAA.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BJP's Subramanian Swamy slams Congress over Justice Muralidhar's transfer

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

New Delhi, Feb 28: BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Dr Subramanian Swamy on Friday slammed the Congress as they tried to politicise the transfer of Justice Muralidhar from Delhi High Court to Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Taking to Twitter, the BJP leader said, "It is surprising that Congi and Commie leaders are attacking the transfer of Judge Muralidhar. The decision was endorsed by the Judges Collegium of the Supreme Court. If politicians are free to comment, then it is open to other politicians to comment too."

It is surprising that Congi and Commie leaders are attacking the transfer of Judge Murlidharan. The decision was endorsed by the Judges Collegium of the Supreme Court. If politicians are free to comment, then it is open to other politicians to comment too.  Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) February 28, 2020

This comment by the BJP leader came after the Congress levelled allegations surrounding a 47-year-old Judge Loya's death, in which the party demanded a probe but the higher judiciary did not order any such investigation.

Decision to transfer Justice Muralidhar was taken on Feb 12 with his consent

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

Taking to Twitter Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi had said,"Remembering the brave Judge Loya, who wasn't transferred," in a dig at the government over the transfer of Justice Muralidhar.

The Ministry of Law and Justice on Wednesday transferred Justice Muralidhar to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

A statement that law ministry read, "In exercise of the power conferred by Clause (1) of Article 222 of the Constitution of India, the President, after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, is pleased to transfer Justice S. Muralidhar, Judge of the Delhi High Court, as a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and to direct him to assume charge of his office in the Punjab and Haryana High Court."

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Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 14:03 [IST]
The three suspects linked to the brutal killings of three medical students last weekend were rearrested Thursday afternoon just moments after a east-central Mexico judge set them free on different charges.

Authorities also revealed a possible motive behind the killings: the theft of a hat worn by one of the victims, Colombian student Ximena Quijano, 25. She was killed alongside fellow Colombian foreign exchange student Jose Antonio Parada, 22; Francisco Javier Tirado, 22, a native Mexican student; and the group's Uber driver, Jose Manuel Vital, 28.

Pablo Jesus Juarez, 46; Angel Juarez, 23; and Lisset Ramirez, 22, were initially arrested Monday on charges of impersonating a law enforcement official after they were reportedly found in a BMW SUV with police strobe lights and wearing bulletproof vests that can only be assigned to the police.

The three individuals told the police that they allegedly wore the vests out of concerns for their safety.

Judge David Rodriguez ruled Angel Juarez and Ramirez were not inside the BMW SUV and set them free. Although Jesus Juarez was inside the vehicle, the judge allowed him to walk out of the San Andres Cholula Court after ruling that he had not committed a serious crime.

But video footage shows the moment when police officers intercepted the trio outside of court, this time charging them with vehicular theft and the murders of Quijano, Parada, Tirado and Vital.

Authorities discovered the bodies of the three aspiring students and their taxi driver Monday morning in Huejotzingo, a municipality in the state of Puebla, where they attended a festival a day earlier.

Pablo Jesus Juarez was arrested outside a courthouse in Puebla, Mexico, and charged with vehicular theft and homicide by the police on Thursday. The arrest came after a judge allowed him to walk free after he was originally charged him with impersonating a police officer

Angel Juarez and Lisset Ramirez review an arrest warrant while a police officer reads them their rights moments after they were rearrested in connection with the brutal murder of four people, including three medical students, in Puebla, Mexico, last weekend

Ximena Quijano, a Colombian medical student, was one of four people killed on Sunday after she and two other students attended a festival in Huejotzingo, Mexico. Prosecutors said she was allegedly killed after a dispute with one of the suspects who attempted to steal the hat she is pictured wearing in the above photograph

Quijano's father, Jorge Quijano, questioned the prosecutor office's theory that his daughter's hat may have triggered her shooting death in an interview with W Radio in Colombia.

'It is something that is being published and is being said,' Jorge Quijano said. 'There was an incident with the hat, but there was no quarrel, there was no exchange of words. The girl simply lost her hat and her friend found it and this person who is (detained) had it. But I don't know. I need to wait for the final result of the investigation'.

Surveillance footage released earlier this week showed the moment the three students placed their belongings in the Uber ride before they were killed.

Colombian student Jose Antonio Parada left, and Uber driver Jose Manuel Vita were among the four people whose bodies were dumped on a grass field near a dirt road in the neighborhood of Santa Ana Xalmimilulco on Monday morning, a day after they were killed

Francisco Javier Tirado was one of the three aspiring doctors whose life was cut short Sunday in Mexico when they were killed moments after attending a local festival

The students' bodies were found near a dirt road in the Huejotzingo neighborhood of Santa Ana Xalmimilulco.

According to police reports, cops searched three homes related to the suspects and located Quijano's hat and sunglasses, a backpack belonging to one of the male students and Vital's vehicle as well as other personal documents belonging to the four victims.

Police also discovered blood stains, traces of a human brain and cellphones in the BMW, which was impacted by bullets.

Police say they uncovered Quijano's hat, left, and her sunglasses during a search of the suspects' homes

Investigators in Puebla, Mexico, found Jose Manuel Vita's voter registration identification card and his vehicle at one of the houses that the police searched Tuesday, a day her and three students were brutally murdered

The lifeless body of Ximena Quijano was found on an empty lot lying on top of one of the other three males who were executed in the east-central Mexican state of Puebla

Area residents made the gruesome discovery and contacted the police at approximately 10:20am Monday.

Parada and Quijano, who had been in Mexico since August, and Tirado were all interns at Cholula General Hospital in the Puebla municipality of Tlaxcalancingo.

The Colombian students were participating in a foreign exchange program at the Popular Autonomous University of the State of Puebla. Tirado was a medical student at the Benemerita Autonomous University of Puebla.

Surveillance camera captures the last moments of Ximena Quijano (right) and fellow medical students Jose Antonio Parada and Francisco Javier Tirado. They ordered an Uber on Sunday night and were later murdered

Pictured above are two of the three men, who along with a Colombian female medical student, were assassinated Sunday in Mexico

Medical examiners remove one of the four lifeless bodies that were located Monday morning

The three future doctors had just finished enjoying the Huejotzingo Carnival on Sunday night when they solicited an Uber ride at 10:15pm, according to the Puebla State Attorney General's office.

Angelica Cerpa, Parada's mother, told Colombian news magazine Semana that she last spoke to her son at 9:31pm.

'He told me that he was at a friend's house and that he was going to take an Uber, they were going to go to Puebla,' Cerpa said. 'I was following his cellphone's GPS and they never left the sector. I was dialing him, but he didn't answer'.

In a statement, the Popular Autonomous University of the State of Puebla said that it 'expresses its profound indignation and concern over the escalation in crime and violence in our state and our country which condemns families to live in a constant state of fear and uncertainty'.
Many Afghans view Saturdays expected signing of a U.S.-Taliban peace deal with a heavy dose of well-earned skepticism. Theyve spent decades living in a country at war  some their whole lives  and wonder if they can ever reach a state of peace.

The deal is meant to set the stage for a U.S. troop withdrawal and to usher in talks among Afghans on both sides of the conflict about their countrys future. Theres been bitter squabbling among political leaders, concern of a temporary truce being undermined, and the challenge of uniting a fractured country remains daunting.

Arash, an Afghan policeman in the capital of Kabul, was 7 years old when a U.S.-led military coalition ousted the Taliban government in 2001. The U.S. was retaliating for the Taliban harboring Osama Bin Laden while he masterminded the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Weve had no escape from war, said Arash, who only gave his first name because he had not received permission from his superiors to speak to reporters.

He said he and his colleagues want peace, but that political leaders are only thirsty for power, not for peace. He said the Taliban are fellow Afghans and that we should have peace with them.

Afghanistans economy has been wracked by 18 years of fighting, despite billions of dollars spent on nation building. Some 55% live in poverty, or less than $1 a day, up from 34% in 2012.

On a recent chilly Kabul morning, dozens of laborers waited to be picked up for a days work. Dressed in tattered paint-splattered clothes, some carrying their own paintbrushes, they squatted on the sidewalk in the heart of the capital, where new high-rise buildings butt up against small dingy shops.

Everyone is looking for work. There are thousands and thousands like us all over the city, said Qatradullah, who like many Afghans goes by just one name. He said he favors the peace deal and hopes it will bring jobs, but that government corruption has been crippling. He said the vast sums pumped into Afghanistan have gone into the pockets of our leaders.

Transparency International last year ranked Afghanistan 173rd of 180 countries it monitors, scoring it 16 out of 100.

President Donald Trump has been critical of Washingtons spending in Afghanistan.

Were really serving, not as a military force, as we are a police force, Trump said earlier this week while on a visit to India. They have to police their own country.

Under the peace plan, 13,000 U.S. troops will initially draw down to 8,600, Trump said. Much of the plan remains vague, except to say American troops will withdraw and that the Taliban promise not to let extremists use the country as a staging ground for attacking the U.S. or its allies.

Taliban leaders told The Associated Press that if everything goes according to plan, all U.S. soldiers would be out of Afghanistan in 14 months. Washington has not confirmed such a timeline.

The agreement also stipulates the release of 5,000 Taliban from Afghan-run jails, but its not clear if the government will agree to that.

The Taliban and representatives from Kabul, including the government, are to sit together within 10 to 15 days of Saturdays signing. Theyll try to negotiate the framework of a post-war Afghanistan. Issues on the table include a more permanent cease-fire and the rights of women and minorities.

Negotiators will try to figure out how to re-integrate tens of thousands of Taliban insurgents and thousands more militiamen loyal to warlords in Kabul, who have grown powerful and wealthy during 18 years.

Shepherding the sides toward intra-Afghan negotiations has been one of the biggest headaches for U.S. negotiators, according to Afghans familiar with the process.

Its been complicated by President Ashraf Ghanis insistence to hold an election last September. He wanted to give himself a mandate heading into negotiations with the Taliban.

But critics say a divisive election has only fragmented the political landscape in Kabul. The countrys election commission declared Ghani the winner earlier this month, despite charges of irregularities from his opponents and from the elections complaints commission

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday pleaded for Kabul to come up with a fully representative team for talks with the Taliban.

Hamid Gailani, an Afghan negotiator in preliminary talks, said that the biggest challenge that I see is the political turmoil (in Kabul), and that needs to be resolved.

He called on the fractious leadership to think of the greater good and not to miss a rare window of opportunity. God forbid, if we lose this opportunity, then it is gone forever, he said.

In 2001, many Taliban fighters returned to their communities after their government collapsed. But the new administration in Kabul sought revenge, often using the U.S.-led coalition to exact it, demanding money from former Taliban or threatening to hand them to U.S. forces.

That drove thousands of fighters to once again take up arms and head back into the mountains, according to former Taliban members and analysts explaining their groups resurgence.

The Taliban now control or hold sway over half the country, and are at their most powerful since the U.S. invasion.

Only one militant group ever signed a peace agreement with Ghanis government. The groups leader, warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, said many of his fighters faced harassment, intimidation and even prison when they attempted to re-integrate.

We hope this failed experience is not be repeated with the Taliban, Hekmatyar he said in an interview this week.

At an Afghan National Army post in the capital, the AP spoke with two soldiers, including one who served for 14 years. They welcomed a peace deal with the Taliban. Neither wanted to give their name as they gestured to their torn uniforms and disintegrating army boots, fearing retribution from their commanding officers if they spoke too freely.

One soldier said he hadnt received his salary, and the other said he received only half a months salary.

Well be happy to have the Taliban serving with us, but if the government isnt paying us, how can they pay them? he said.

Maybe the Taliban should think twice before wanting to join the army.
Burma Myanmar Mobile Users Told to Re-Register SIM Cards by June 30

A SIM card stall in Yangon. Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy

Yangon  The Posts and Telecommunications Department has required mobile phone users to re-register their SIM cards with their IDs, warning that SIMs that are not re-registered by June 30 will be deactivated.

As mobile financial services have developed, the move aims to reduce crime using unregistered SIM cards and encourage phone users to be responsible for the consequences of their phone use, stated the department, which is part of the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

Some mobile stores have bought hundreds of SIM cards with a single ID card and sell them as pre-registered SIM cards. They are on sale freely on the open market. We want phone users to take responsibility, said an anonymous department source.

The department is asking users to check whether their SIM cards are registered with the correct information and, if not, re-register online with the network operators or at a store.

In October last year, the ministry fined telecom operators MPT, Telenor, Ooredoo and MyTel US$100,000 (144 million kyats) each for the improper registration of SIM cards and the sale of unregistered SIMs.

The ministry has threatened harsher action against operators if they fail to follow the 2014 Code of Practice for Mobile Customer Registration.

Ko Zaw Zaw Myo Lwin, executive director of Yangon Heartz Media and Business Solution, said: It is not a difficult issue. Mainly they need to control the sale of SIM cards, for example, restricting the sale of SIM cards to mobile stores. In other countries, you have to show your ID to buy SIM cards. There are many ways the government can control the issue.

After establishing the code of practice in 2014, the ministry instructed operators about the proper registration of SIMs.

In 2017, it deactivated around 6.5 million unregistered cards. At the time, there was no limit on how many times a citizenship ID, passport or driving license could be used to register a new SIM.

In April 2019, the ministry set a limit of two cards per ID.

Ko Zaw Zaw Myo said people should be allowed to buy more than two SIMs if they can take responsibility for their use.

Operators want to run businesses. In fact, it only depends on how the regulator handles it. The government needs to support the regulator  the Posts and Telecommunications Department  to be more capable, he said.

The department said there were more than 80 million active SIMs and 28.2 million of them were not properly registered, meaning the same ID cards were used for their registration.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

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Dubai: Iran announced on Friday the closure of all schools for three days from Saturday because of concerns about a coronavirus outbreak that has killed 34 people in the country.

The Islamic Republic had already cancelled Friday prayers in the capitals of 23 of Iran's 31 provinces because of the outbreak, including in Tehran and the Shiite Muslim holy cities of Qom and Mashhad.

"Based on assessments it was felt that there was a need for closing all the schools in the country and for this reason all the schools in the country will be closed for three days starting from tomorrow," Health Minister Saeed Namaki said.

"We have a relatively difficult week ahead...as we see the trend, the main peak of the disease will be in the next week and coming days."

The health ministry's spokesman, Kianush Jahanpur, went on state television to announce the latest death toll and said 388 people were also infected by the virus.

The vast majority of infections were in three provinces: Tehran, 128, Qom, 88, and Gilan, 65, according to a map published by the official IRNA news agency citing health ministry figures.

Those infected in Iran include Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi and Masoumeh Ebtekar, vice president for women and family affairs.

The Islamic Republic is the only country in the Gulf region that has reported deaths from the coronavirus, which has spread from China, but people have been infected in Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

Three new cases reported in Friday in Bahrain took the total diagnosed with the coronavirus there to 36, and two new cases reported by Kuwait took the total infected there to 45.

All those infected in Bahrain and Kuwait had travelled to Iran or were contaminated by people who went there, according to officials in the two Gulf Arab states.

The United Arab Emirates has granted Iran permission to send a handful of flights to Dubai to fly Iranians home, the ISNA news agency reported, citing information from Iran's consulate in Dubai.

Saudi Arabia has reported no deaths or infections and has tightened travel restrictions to try to prevent it spreading across its borders.

The United States asked its military in Saudi Arabia to avoid crowded venues including malls and cinemas as coronavirus was reported spreading in neighbouring countries, according to a document from the U.S. embassy seen by Reuters on Friday.

Oman on Friday restricted the entry of citizens from other Gulf Arab states who had previously been able to enter by showing national identification cards.
Jacob Long, 25, of Center City, Philadelphia Transit Riders Union, holds a sign to show support and the need to end the one dollar transfer fee when using SEPTA transportation during the SEPTA board meeting on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. Read more

Scores of transit advocates made their case Thursday before SEPTAs governing body for changes in its fare structure, saying riders not taking a direct route shouldnt be expected to fork up more money to transfer.

Representatives of 5th Square, an urbanist political action committee, and the Philly Transit Riders Union, some holding signs reading One City/One Fare, told the board that transfer fees are an unfair burden.

Their comments, in a packed boardroom at SEPTA headquarters in Center City, came in advance of a planned formal vote on a fare package that will address the future of transfers. Transfers cost $1 with a SEPTA Key, the smart fare system, but riders paying cash face the full $2.50 fare for each bus after the elimination of paper transfers in 2018.

The advocates were joined by City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who also spoke in favor of free fares for children under 12. Gauthier, an urban planner, positioned herself as a transportation advocate ahead of her upset victory over Councilmember Jannie L. Blackwell in last Mays Democratic primary.

The current policy is regressive, plain and simple, Gauthier said.

SEPTA General Manager Leslie S. Richards did not take a position on the issue, but told speakers that their concerns were being heard.

Board Chairman Pasquale T. Pat Deon Sr. shared a similar sentiment after the meeting, noting that everything they stated today is already in our orbit and our mindset at the board.

We are doing our best to understand, and we do understand the very good points that have been made today, Richards told those in the room. "And were trying to figure out how that can work in our system, again, with providing the same quality of service we have today.

SEPTA has said a fare proposal will be released in March, with hearings to follow in late April. An independent hearing examiner will make recommendations before the boards vote in May, with any changes to begin in July. SEPTA last saw a fare increase in 2017 and has a schedule of increasing costs every three years.

Transferring from the Broad Street Line to to the Market-Frankford Line or the trolleys is made easier by free interchanges at the 15th Street/City Hall, 13th Street, and 30th Street stations. But its different for commuters by bus  a system undergoing a redesign while seeing falling ridership.

Nat Lownes, who spoke on behalf of the Transit Riders Union, described SEPTAs relationship with cash riders as hostile."

SEPTA has, I think, taken this hostility toward cash riders to a whole other level in 2018, when cash transfers were eliminated, Lownes said.

The transfer issue has divided the city and SEPTA. City officials have envisioned an end to transfer fees, but the authority has taken a cautious approach. The fee brings in at least $14 million annually, about 3% of passenger revenue.

While the $2.50 cash fare looks cheap next to those in other big U.S. cities, the transfers arent fair for poorer riders, who may not own a car and who rely on the service  using multiple routes  to get to work, according to a Pew study released last year. The study called West and North Philadelphia and the Kensington Avenue corridor some of the most affected areas.

 READ MORE: For Phillys poor commuters, SEPTA fare ranks among most expensive in U.S. cities

Alison Macrina of the Transit Riders Union used her time Thursday to discuss the Pew report. What were talking about really is ... the most expensive trips, in the poorest parts of the city, impacting the most marginalized people, Macrina said. The transfer fee and the cash penalty fee  these are poor taxes.

Mike Carroll, the citys deputy managing director for the Office of Transportation, Infrastructure, and Sustainability, and who represents Philadelphia on the board, touched on Mayor Jim Kenneys support for a transfer elimination, outlined in the citys Connect plan.

Were gratified that this is something" thats on the publics mind, he told the attendees. Were also, though, very gratified it is something that SEPTA is taking seriously and looking at, and hopefully well be able to make some progress as we look at how we restructure fares overall.

SEPTAs 15-member board is made up of two representatives from each of the Pennsylvania counties served by SEPTA, with five-year terms, plus four appointees by the legislature and a pick from the governor. During Thursdays meeting, the board reelected Deon as board chairman and elected Montgomery County Commissioner Kenneth Lawrence Jr. as vice chairman.

In a statement after the meeting, 5th Square called Thursdays showing and officials response as a promising step forward," while an online petition from the group circulated since 2017 had gained more than 1,500 signatures as of Thursday evening.

Gauthier said she had a similar reaction. Im glad to know that they were already thinking this way," she said, "but I think this strong show of support for eliminating the transfer fee and for other measures that would result in fair fares will push SEPTA even further and make it a reality.
Jaipur, Feb 28 : State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal and Leader of Opposition Gulabchand Kataria on Friday had a debate in the Assembly over the death of a 25-year-old Dalit youth Jitendra Khateek in police custody on Thursday.

Dhariwal informed the House during the Zero Hour that Barmer Superintendent of Police Sharad Chowdhary has been put under APO (awaiting posting orders) status over the youth's custodial death and an SHO was suspended.

Even other police personnel were line attached and a judicial inquiry has been ordered in matter. ADG, Civil Rights, and the IG of Jodhpur have reached Barmer for further probe, he said, adding that an inquiry is being conducted by an Additional SP, CID-CB.

Dhariwal in his statement in the Assembly said the police detained Khateek on informative ground that he has stolen pipes after which he spent a Wednesday night at the police station and on Thursday, he was rushed to the district hospital as he complained of chest pain.

"Doctors declared him brought dead soon after he reached hospital around 2 p.m. on Thursday, said Dhariwal.

The minister further stated that the disciplinary action was taken against the Barmer rural police station as the victim was kept at the police station despite no FIR registered against him.

"A case has been registered under section 302 (murder) of the IPC and other relevant sections of the SC/ST Act and appropriate action will be taken," he said adding the family members were staging a protest and autopsy could not be conducted.

"They are demanding a compensation, a job to a dependent and strict action against the accused the policemen," he added.

Deputy leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore cited the compliant lodged by Khateek's brother and said the deceased told his brother that he was tortured all through the night. Thereafter, he was taken to hospital at 2 p.m. where he was declared brought dead. Isn't this a custodian death? He demanded a CBI probe in the matter.

The opposition BJP also demanded a compensation of Rs 1 crore to the family as the Leader of Opposition Kataria asked the government to announce a package for the victim's family.

There was ruckus in house when Speaker CP Joshi did not allow other BJP MLAs to speak in the matter which resulted in an uproar in the House. The legislators went into the well and protested.

The speaker questioned the minister if the government has plans to bring a law to announce a package to the families of custodial death victims on which minister answered that the government is taking action based on the circumstances.
A potential relaxation of German spending rules is a "false alert," analysts have told CNBC after reports the country's finance chief is willing to load up on new debt. Every time German lawmakers raise the prospect of higher spending, market players assess whether there's any firm possibility that it could actually happen. A balanced budget has become somewhat of a tradition in Berlin and moving away from that would mark a sharp U-turn in policy, with wider repercussions across Europe. Olaf Scholz, the German finance chief, is reportedly looking at temporarily suspending the country's debt rules. However, a spokesperson for the minister told CNBC that this is for local authorities rather than central government. "Finance Minister Scholz wants to present his proposals for regulating debt in the first part of this year. A concept is currently being worked on and different options are being discussed," the spokesperson said via email Thursday. However, analysts are skeptical that Scholz will manage to suspend these debt rules even at local authority level.

Parliamentary majority needed

A two-thirds majority in the German Parliament is needed to change the "debt brake" and there's currently not enough appetite, Guntram Wolff, director of the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, told CNBC Thursday. The chief budget lawmaker for the ruling CDU party (Christian Democratic Union of Germany) has said the party would not support any easing of the debt limits, according to Reuters. "The discussed operation would also not lead to any changes in the deficit. It is a pure balance sheet operation moving debt from some parts of the government, the cities, to the central government," Wolff explained. Germany, Europe's largest economy, ran the world's largest current account surplus (which measures the flow of goods, services and investments) in 2019. This marked the fourth year in a row that Berlin achieved the highest surplus in the world, according to data from the Ifo institute.

To see a structural change to the debt brake, we would first need to get a new government. Carsten Brzeski chief economist at ING Germany
H.R. 2490: To amend the National Trails System Act to direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study on the feasibility of designating the Chief Standing Bear National Historic Trail, and for other purposes. The bill passed by a vote of 402-10.

Voting yea: Spanberger, Wittman

H.R. 4852: GIVE Act. To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to make available to veterans certain additional information about postsecondary educational institutions, and for other purposes. The bill passed by a vote of 412-0.

Voting yea: Spanberger, Wittman

H.R. 35: Emmett Till Antilynching Act. To amend title 18, United States Code, to specify lynching as a deprivation of civil rights, and for other purposes. The bill passed by a vote of 410-4.

Voting yea: Spanberger, Wittman

SENATE
Sydney's iconic Darling Harbour could soon be fenced off permanently.

A temporary barricade was assembled around the rim of Cockle Bay in November 2018 under the recommendation of the state coroner following the drowning death of Brendan Hickey, 34, six years ago.

However, the fixture could soon be permanent with NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment confirming to Daily Mail Australia that it is currently in the process of examining long-term fencing options.

NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment have installed safety fencing in Darling Harbour (pictured) after the drowning death of a man in 2014

NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment spokesperson said the short-term fence was installed 'to prevent deliberate and accidental water entries, and to satisfy legal duty of care responsibilities'.

The spokesperson added that it was erected to meet safety obligations while the minister's office investigates designs that will enhance safety and complement the scenic water front.

'The Government has now approved the commencement of a design process for a range of permanent edge treatments that will balance the design objectives of an open waters edge at Cockle Bay with the need to ensure public safety, depending on the identified risks in each part of the bay,' he said.

'Until this process is complete, the temporary fence in place minimises the risk for the more than 27 million visitors and residents who come to Darling Harbour each year, for everything from a visit to the Aquarium, to international conferences and major events like Vivid.'

Brendan Hickey (pictured with his girlfriend), 34, died at the Vivid Festival in May 2014, when he stood up, lost his balance and fell into the water at Sydney's Cockle Bay

In recent years, there have been numerous calls for permanent fencing in Darling following drowning deaths in the area.

Hickey, an Irish national, drowned in May 2014 after falling into the water intoxicated while watching the Vivid Light Festival with his girlfriend and two friends.

Two years earlier, Jason Daep, 19, died after being pushed into the water during a fight outside Pontoon Bar.

The announcement comes ahead of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival celebrations which will take place across the city this weekend.

The annual event will see thousands of revellers scattered throughout the CBD and around the harbour to take part in festivities held at venues throughout the city.

The 42nd Mardi Gras Parade will commence at 7.30pm on Saturday 29th February from the corner of Liverpool Street and Oxford Street.
A Lincoln doughnut truck will be making a stop in North Platte next week to raise money for North Platte High School freshman Daniel Shea.

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The Missouri-based Hurts Donut Co. specializes in handmade doughnuts, according to its website, and deploys Emergency Donut Vehicles  repurposed ambulances that travel to communities, selling doughnuts for charity.

The truck will be at Centennial Park at noon Wednesday with 500 dozen doughnuts and maple bacon long johns. Doughnuts are $18.50 per dozen and long johns are $4.50 each, according to a press release. Customers can pay with cash or credit cards.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit Shea, who was recently diagnosed with a rare form of kidney cancer.
Fearing a resurgence of crowds as coronavirus cases drop, Beijing is not taking any chances, limiting numbers in parks, keeping shoppers apart in supermarkets and preventing cinemagoers from sitting close together. In China -- where the new disease has killed nearly 2,800 people -- the spread of infections has slowed as many businesses remain shuttered and residents are encouraged to stay at home. But that has not led to looser controls in the capital, which saw a fresh cluster of cases this week and two more deaths reported Friday. This week, Beijing authorities announced new rules in a bid to disperse crowds in the city of over twenty million people, including many migrant workers from other regions. Supermarkets must allow an average of two square metres per customer -- a mandate which not only forces shops to track how many patrons enter, but also means shoppers have to wait outside once stores hit maximum capacity. "If customers are in a rush, then they won't buy anything," said Jia Hongye, an employee at Jingkelong, a Chinese grocery store chain. At her shop, only 12 to 13 customers are allowed inside to maintain the right ratio, she told AFP. The store has also marked the area by the cash register with tape spaced one metre apart to remind people to keep their distance, added Jia. At another supermarket, patrons queued around the parking lot while staff collected passes from leaving customers -- used to track the number of people inside -- before drenching them in disinfectant and handing them, dripping, to the next shopper. "Only an extremely small number of people who are unreasonable" will complain about the new system, said an employee, who only offered her surname Hu. With the epidemic stretching on for so long, customers' awareness of safety and hygiene is "pretty high", she told AFP. - Spring approaching - To prevent crowds from gathering, Beijing authorities have also tightened admission into its parks, especially as spring approaches. After a spike of activity over the weekend, reported official news agency Xinhua on Tuesday, the city's park authority has clamped down on the flow of visitors. Ten of the capital's top parks, including the historic Summer Palace, will cap the number of visitors at any given time to 30 percent of their maximum capacity, said Xinhua. But on Thursday, the risk of cross-infection at parks appeared low, with Jingshan park -- a venue affected by the new controls -- almost deserted. "It used to be very lively," said Shang Lihua, a 70-year-old at Beihai park, also within the purview of the new rules. Shang, who used to visit the park and join others to sing and dance, told AFP she had not visited since the epidemic started. But now that the "epidemic has made a turn for the better", she said she wanted to come and check out the park. The restrictions are "necessary", said Li, a 62-year-old man at Beihai, who only offered his surname. A small percentage of visitors will not wear face masks inside the park -- and will even spit in public, he told AFP. - No profit - Other businesses in Beijing are under pressure to prevent new infections as the city gradually returns to work. Cinemas in the city are allowed to re-open but must sell "non-adjacent tickets" in every other row, Xinhua said, spreading out cinemagoers. Some buildings are using "restricted lift" modes where they limit the people riding in each elevator to five at a time. "The costs have definitely increased," said Zhi Yuan, store manager at a Beijng hair salon. To keep customers safe, the salon uses disposable towels and disinfects the shop once every two hours, said Zhi, who wore a surgical mask and eye goggles. But these added expenses come as the number of daily customers -- which in normal times can exceed 100 -- has dropped to less than 50, he added. "We won't make a profit," he said. Stores and restaurants have also had to limit their business hours. At Sanyuanli Market, operating hours have been slashed by three hours, said the manager, who only offered his surname Wu. "This is a frontline industry," he told AFP, explaining that staff faced risk of infection. "So there's a lot of pressure, but we can endure the hardship because we've reduced our work hours." Beijing is not taking any chances despite the number of fresh daily coronavirus cases dropping in China Beijing supermarkets now have restrictions on the number of shoppers inside, meaning some have to wait outside Beijing has tightened rules about the presence of customers in shopping centres and parks Businesses in Beijing are under pressure to prevent new infections
Properties in Cambridge as figures show a jump in house prices. (PA)

House prices in the UK are rising at their fastest pace in 18 months, in another sign the Boris bounce has increased confidence in the UK economy.

Average prices leapt 2.3% in the year to February, figures from Nationwides closely watched house price index suggest.

The average home bought on a mortgage from the lender cost just over 216,000 ($280,968) last month, up from 211,300 a year earlier.

It marked a significant rise in the pace of growth on January, when prices were up 1.9% year-on-year.

Read more: Houses cost millennials 14 times more than baby boomers

Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said record employment and low borrowing costs are sustaining the property market despite the sluggish wider economy, according to Gardner.

He said prime minister Boris Johnsons decision election victory last year may have provided a boost to buyer sentiment.

Average house prices bought via Nationwide. (Nationwide)

Many surveys and retail sales figures show a wider lift to business and consumer confidence and spending in recent months since the election.

But Gardner said significant uncertainties could still prove a drag on growth this year, with Nationwide expecting prices to remain broadly flat in 2020.

He pointed to a challenging global economic backdrop, the coronavirus outbreak and Britains global trade negotiations.

Read more: Landlord numbers fall to seven-year low after government clampdown

Jonathan Hopper, CEO of Garrington Property Finders, said the latest figures indicated the Boris bounce is clearly no blip.

The flock of New Year househunters has been swelled by thousands of would-be buyers who sat on their hands last year while the Brexit drama played out.

Sellers too are coming out of the woodwork, meaning the market is seeing a simultaneous boost in both demand and supply, he noted.
L ondon's love affair with brick is a bore, says the author of a new book who prefers buildings that delight in being daring.

Seventy years from now anyone with a passing interest in London's architecture will have no trouble spotting most of the homes built in the capital in the 2020s.

Just as we can spot a Sixties brutalist tower block a mile off, so they will recognise today's modest, low-rise brick housing schemes in what has been dubbed the New London Vernacular.

To their champions, such as Peter Murray, the chairman of the New London Architecture forum, these inconspicuous "brickie" flats and townhouses, in countless shades of beige, represent a polite rejection of thrusting glass-andsteel residential skyscrapers in favour of something altogether more "rational and elegant".

Kindergarten Wolfartsweier: a school for young children, created to look like a giant cat, in Germany /  Dirk Altenkirch

But to the writer and curator Owen Hopkins they are simply "banal and reductive", as he argues in his new book, Postmodern Architecture: Less is a Bore, published by Phaidon.

He celebrates more than 200 buildings from Britain and around the world, built mostly in the Eighties and Nineties, that are distinguished by their vivid nonconformity.

And London has lots of them: Charing Cross station; the MI6 Building at Vauxhall; Portcullis House next to Parliament.

Hopkins dismisses the discreet charms of the New London Vernacular homes that are sprouting up everywhere in the capital and berates London's boroughs for agreeing to them.

The Binoculars Building: the entrance to an underground car park is hidden behind this huge pair of binoculars in Los Angeles ( Elizabeth Daniels ) /  Elizabeth Daniels

"The equation made by planners across the city is that if a building is clad in brick, then it is somehow 'in keeping' with London, as a city of brick, and that the project should be waved through, even if it is architecturally and in urban terms, a disaster on every other level," he says.

He delights in those buildings that wear the badge of being "out of the ordinary" with pride and he is not alone.

English Heritage has been falling over itself to list buildings written off only a few years ago as silly, or tasteless and ugly, says Hopkins, adding: "Postmodernism was once a dirty word that no self-respecting architect would dare to utter."

He gives the example of No 1 Poultry in the City.

No 1 Poultry, the City of London: one of the UKs most-admired postmodernist buildings / Courtesy of WeWork

It stands on a site once earmarked for a tower by the modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who coined the expression "less is more."

A debate over the tower's appropriateness raged throughout the Seventies and into the Eighties and the project was finally dropped after Prince Charles made his famous "carbuncle" speech, in which he said the proposed tower might be more at home in downtown Chicago than London.

So James Stirling was commissioned to design a building that would be "more London" and it was completed in 1997.

It is now deemed a triumph of postmodernism and in 2016 became the youngest building in England to gain a Grade II listing.
Ecobank Nigeria has said it will at the Federal High Court appeal the N1.6 billion judgment against it by the Tax Appeal Tribunal.

The bank also said the excess dividend tax liability is N1.3 billion and not N1.6 billion.

The bank disclosed this on Thursday in a statement signed by the banks management.

The Tax Appeal Tribunal, Lagos Zone, had ordered Ecobank to pay at least N1.6 billion to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as its company income tax for 2016.

The tribunal declared as null and void, the decision of Ecobank Nigeria Limited to pay N5.5 billion as dividends to its shareholders in a year the bank claimed it made no taxable profit and rather declared losses from its banking operation.

The bank said the dividend declared relates to income from sources which are statutorily exempt from tax by virtue of the Companies Income Tax (Exemption of Bonds and Short Term Government Securities) Order, 2011.

Read the full statement below.

Ecobank Nigeria wishes to provide its position on a statement released by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on the judgment of the Tax Appeal Tribunal (TAT), sitting in Lagos in respect of disputed tax liability between the Bank and the FIRS for the 2015 financial year.

For purposes of clarity, the decision of the TAT was for the Bank to pay excess dividend tax on the dividend sum of N5,545,000,000 declared by the Bank from its 2015 financial accounts. Based on the decision of the TAT, the excess dividend tax liability is N1,311,673,367 and not N1.6 billion.

READ ALSO:

The Bank will be appealing to the Federal High Court against the decision of the TAT as it believes, based on advise from its professional consultants, that the dividend declared relates to income from sources which are statutorily exempt from tax by virtue of the Companies Income Tax (Exemption of Bonds and Short Term Government Securities) Order, 2011.

Whilst the bank is always open to engagement, its position is based on the principle that income established to be exempt from companies income tax should not, contrary to the intendment of the law, be subjected to the same tax it was intended to be exempt from.

Ecobank Nigeria is a member of the Ecobank Group, the Pan-African Bank which is proudly and fully committed to transparency in all the countries where it operates.

We abide by laws and regulations and believe that this matter should be conclusively determined in line with the applicable judicial process.

Ecobank Nigeria Management
NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- WeissLaw LLP, a national class action and shareholders' rights law firm with offices in New York, California and Georgia, announces an investigation of Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) ("Southwest," or the "Company").

If you own LUV shares and wish to discuss this investigation or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, visit our website:

http://www.weisslawllp.com/southwest-airlines-co/

Or please contact:

Joshua Rubin, Esq.

WeissLaw LLP

1500 Broadway, 16th Floor

New York, NY 10036

(212) 682-3025

(888) 593-4771

[email protected]

The investigation focuses on possible breaches of fiduciary duty and violations of federal securities laws by Southwest's Board of Directors. On February 11, 2020, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General issued a report detailing serious concerns with the Company's safety operations. Specifically, the OIG Report found that: Southwest flies aircraft with serious safety concerns, including incorrect and non-compliant weight balance calculations; the Company's process for ensuring that its aircraft adhere to U.S. airworthiness standards contains serious gaps; and the Company operated more than 150,000 flights on 24 aircraft with confirmed safety deficiencies, putting as many as 17.2 million passengers at risk.

Additionally, certain FAA officials expressed concern over Southwest's safety culture, noting that Southwest's management is very skilled in using "diversion, distraction, and power" with FAA inspectors so that the Company gets what it wants, even bypassing the local oversight office when there is a disagreement and going directly to FAA Headquarters.

WeissLaw LLP has litigated hundreds of stockholder class and derivative actions for violations of corporate and fiduciary duties. We have recovered over a billion dollars for defrauded clients and obtained important corporate governance relief in many of these cases. If you have information or would like legal advice concerning possible corporate wrongdoing (including insider trading, waste of corporate assets, accounting fraud, or materially misleading information), consumer fraud (including false advertising, defective products, or other deceptive business practices), or anti-trust violations, please email us at [email protected]

SOURCE WeissLaw LLP

Related Links

http://weisslawllp.com


A Murray County jury of six men and six women on Thursday convicted Dakota Lee Choate, 22, of Crandall, Ga., for one count of rape.

The rape occurred in November of 2018 when the victim, who knew the defendant, drove him willingly to a secluded area of his choosing where he then assaulted her. She reported the rape at Murray Medical Center where she went to receive treatment for injuries received during the assault, including a bite and scratches. Detective Eric White spoke to her at the hospital and then traveled to the location she described and took photographs.

.

Choate was arrested a few days later and interviewed by Detective White. Choate admitted to having sexual relations with the victim, but claimed it was consensual. He testified at trial raising the same defense and presented other witnesses and evidence

In addition to the victim, two other women testified for the state concerning prior sexual assaults committed against them by Choate. One had been reported to law enforcement in 2016 but no arrested was made. The other had never been reported previously, but the victim came forward after she saw media accounts of Choates arrest in 2018.

Superior Court Judge Scott Minter scheduled Choates sentencing for March 11. Choate faces 25 years to life in prison with no parole possible during the first 25 years.

District Attorney Bert Poston said, "The District Attorneys Office would like to thank Detective White and other members of the Murray County Sheriffs Office who worked hard to investigate the case and seek justice for the victim. We would also like to especially thank the victim and the two prior victims for having the courage to come forward, to face their abuser and tell the stories to the jury so that Mr. Choate could be held accountable for his crime.

The states case was presented by Assistant District Attorney Ben Kenemer. Choate was represented by Cat Pyne and Micah Gates of the Public Defenders Office, who had filed a speedy trial demand on Choates behalf last summer. When such a demand is made, the state must try the case before a jury within that term of court or the next term of court or dismiss the case. Murray County has two terms of court per year starting the second Monday of February and August.
The International Monetary Fund and World Bank are ready to provide countries in need with immediate emergency funding to fight the coronavirus outbreak, a spokesman said on Thursday.

While they have yet to receive a request for aid, the institutions have now developed contingency plans. We have various financial instruments that could be used, IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said at a press conference.

As the epidemic has spread beyond China, shuttering production and closing schools in Japan, economists are increasingly worried about a slowdown in the global economy.

We have various financial instruments that could be used to support countries with balance of payment problems that arise from epidemics or natural disasters, Rice said, noting that the lenders rapidly deployed funds during the Ebola epidemic.

He singled out China, saying the IMF remains very supportive of the country where the coronavirus outbreak started with efforts to tackle its spread.

The fund and the World Bank expect to make a decision soon on whether to hold their spring meetings in Washington.

Thousands of people attend the twice-yearly gatherings, which attract activists, economists and investors as well as officials and reporters.

The planning for the April meeting is under active review, Rice said, but he added, We are confident that, whatever the format of the spring meetings will be, that we will have effective meetings... and dialogue with our membership.

The US Centers for Disease Control warned this week that the epidemic will reach American shores, and urged organizations to cancel mass gatherings.

Health officials on Wednesday announced theyd found the first case of the virus of unknown origin in the United States.
The capital murder cases against a Talladega County teen in the stabbing deaths of his mother and twin brothers will move forward following a court hearing held Friday.

Landon Hudson Durham, who turned 17 earlier this month, is charged with capital murder in the deaths of Holli Christina Durham, 36, Branson Durham and Baron Durham, both 13.

District Judge William Hollingsworth IV, after hearing testimony, ruled there was sufficient evidence to bound the case over to the grand jury for indictment consideration. He is charged as an adult.

Authorities believe the victims were killed at 3 a.m. that Tuesday inside their home. Durham then reportedly went back to sleep for a few hours before going to Munford High School for the day Tuesday.

A family member had been trying to reach the family all day Tuesday but to no avail. That family contacted another family member and they went to the home where they found the horrific scene. They backed out of the house and called 911.

"Its one of the worst things Ive ever seen, and Ive been here for 19 years,'' Talladega County Chief Deputy Joshua Tubbs previously told AL.com. Its the worst thing Ive seen in my career.

Deputies responded to the house on Roy Lackey Lane that night and found the three victims. A lookout bulletin for Landon Durham was quickly issued to surrounding law enforcement agencies. Cherokee County Sheriff Jeff Shaver said deputies arrested the teen about 8:40 a.m. Wednesday traveling towards Etowah County on County Road 71, near County Road 38. He was taken into custody without incident at a store and remains held without bond.

Efforts to reach his court-appointed attorney, Mark Nelson, for comment werent immediately successful.
A former coronavirus patient has tested positive again after being discharged from a hospital in China 18 days ago and then passed a two-week quarantine period.

The Chinese resident, known by his surname Wang, reportedly went for a recheck yesterday after reading stories about other recovered patients being infected again.

He has been quarantined after the result came back positive.

A former coronavirus patient (pictured) has tested positive again after being discharged from a hospital after 19 days. The picture shows the patient being welcomed by his neighbours

The Chinese resident, Mr Wang, is pictured with his family leaving the hospital on February 9

Mr Wang left the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University in Zhejiang Province of eastern China on February 9.

He was quarantined for another two weeks before he returned to his complex.

His community welcomed him back with hanging banners, flowers and a specially made cake.

Mr Wang's community welcomed him back with hanging banners, flowers and a specially made cake. The picture shows the residents taking photos during the welcome ceremony

The picture shows the specially made cake for Mr Wang and his family upon their return home

Wang is pictured receiving flowers from one of the community members when arriving home

Sixty-five residents living in Mr Wang's complex are now under self-isolation after Mr Wang was found to be carrying the virus.

The resident was diagnosed on January 26, as the first confirmed case in Xuzhou city, after travelling through Hubei Province, the epicentre of the coronavirus.

His two daughters and son-in-law caught the virus from Mr Wang and tested positive on the following day.

His younger daughter has also tested positive yesterday.

A former coronavirus patient has tested positive 10 days after being allowed to leave the hospital and go home, sparking fears that recovered sufferers may still carry the lethal virus. Pictured, a patient is discharged from Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan on February 18

An officer at the Disease Control and Prevention Centre of Xuzhou told The Paper the father and daughter would be treated as new patients. But the reason for their re-infection has remained unknown.

Last week, another former coronavirus patient tested positive 10 days after being allowed to leave the hospital and go home, sparking fears that recovered sufferers may still carry the lethal virus.

State media said the person was discharged from a hospital in a Chinese city earlier this month and then went into self-quarantine straight away.

Experts suspected that doctors had not given the patient accurate virus tests before declaring his recovery.

A group of police are pictured taking a resident's temperature at an entrance in Wuhan, Hubei

Professionals are pictured preparing to disinfect against the novel coronavirus in South Korea

The novel coronavirus has claimed at least 2,858 lives and infected more than 83,700 people globally.

The Chinese government has locked down tens of millions of people in Hubei Province, where the virus emerged, to prevent the spread of the disease.

The World Health Organization warned that the coronavirus epidemic was at a 'decisive point'.

Volunteer barbers are pictured cutting the hair for medical workers at the residence of medical team for Hankou Hospital in Wuhan of Hubei Province, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus

Meanwhile Nigeria has confirmed the first case outside sub-Saharan Africa, saying the patient was an Italian citizen who had recently returned from Milan.

Elsewhere, cases have surged again in South Korea today where 571 new infections brought the total from 1,766 to 2,337.

The coronavirus has appeared in nine new countries in recent days - Brazil, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Norway, Northern Macedonia, Pakistan and Romania - bringing the number of countries affected to more than 45.

The coronavirus has claimed 2,858 lives and infected more than 83,700 people globally
After a rather long and somewhat controversial India visit, US President Trump addressed media at the White House for a press conference regarding the looming coronavirus threat, this Wednesday.



During the conference, a video was recorded highlighting NY Post journalist Ebony Bowden, who seemed to be making faces and laughing at Indian reporter Raghubir Goyal.

Who is that reporter in the green mocking an Indian reporter? I bet she thinks Trump is racist. pic.twitter.com/YtGv32XOUe  Damon imani (@damonimani) February 27, 2020

Heres a video snipped directly from the White House live feed, in case you wanted to hear Goyals actual question and response.

Who is that reporter in the green mocking an Indian reporter? I bet she thinks Trump is racist. pic.twitter.com/YtGv32XOUe  Damon imani (@damonimani) February 27, 2020

Almost immediately, Bowdens behaviour resulted in intense social media hate - with several Twitter users calling the journalist unprofessional, racist and calling for her to be fired.



Who is that reporter in the green mocking an Indian reporter? I bet she thinks Trump is racist. pic.twitter.com/YtGv32XOUe  Damon imani (@damonimani) February 27, 2020

Others continued to attack her on the grounds of racist bigotry:



His Accent is still very heavy but that is no reason to laugh while he is talking  Elaine (@Elaine62591854) February 27, 2020

No doubt that Bowdens reaction to Goyals question looked questionable on camera, but theres a line to draw here - no one on Twitter actually knows what she said, and what context it was said in.



Bowdens friend, Aussie ministerial staffer Elliot Stein stepped in to share this viewpoint.



Twitter dot com can be good for breaking news sometimes but is terrible for hot takes and worse for out of context videos and reflections on people you don't know. I know this - I'm really proud to call @ebonybowden a close mate and a friend.  Elliot J Stein (@ElliotJStein) February 27, 2020

Bowden went on to thank Elliot,



Twitter dot com can be good for breaking news sometimes but is terrible for hot takes and worse for out of context videos and reflections on people you don't know. I know this - I'm really proud to call @ebonybowden a close mate and a friend.  Elliot J Stein (@ElliotJStein) February 27, 2020

Unfortunately, stopping a Twitter flame war when it begins is pretty impossible.



Thank you so much, Elliot. Youre a great friend.  Ebony Bowden (@ebonybowden) February 27, 2020

Perhaps this would have indeed been a lot clearer if Bowden stepped forth on social media to address and explain away the outrage through a public statement.



The difficult question to answer here is whether or not laughing at a persons accent, while rude, warrants such an explosive reaction on social media. A few users also suggested that she may have been laughing at Goyals sudden India plug-in, at a conference focused on coronavirus - even Trumps response seemed to want to move on from the question.



Hey @ebonybowden. You're pretty. Be more self aware next time.  Damon imani (@damonimani) February 27, 2020

Its important to note that Bowden, as a journalist, writes for The New York Post, which is a predominantly right-wing, Trump-supporting newspaper, and Bowden has been sharing content and coverage supporting Trumps ideological nemesis, Bernie Sanders as the US elections draw closer, no wonder the Twitter powderkeg exploded.



Its also notable that the original whistleblower on Bowden, @damonimani, has repeatedly supported right-wing politics, and perhaps did not like seeing a right-wing newspaper employ a reporter with left-leaning biases.

Even as thousands of tweets went up condemning Bowden for being' racist', so too were trolls attacking the journalists own background and nationality in a prejudiced manner.



Just apologize lmao it aint that hard  noU (@futureparodi) February 27, 2020

Hopefully, Bowden will finally release a statement and everyone can finally go home.


Doctors without Borders, the international medical aid group, can now send medical supplies to North Korea where the government is on high alert in an attempt to remain free of the coronavirus, despite its proximity to China and South Korea.

The UN Sanctions Committee on North Korea approved Doctors without Borders, or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), to send supplies to North Korea, according to the committee's website.

The approval letter signed by Christoph Heusgen, the chair of the committee and the German ambassador to the UN, allows the aid group to "engage in humanitarian activities" in North Korea by providing the country's Ministry of Public Health "with essential Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and diagnostic items." Approved items include goggles, thermometers, and stethoscopes, and kits to diagnose whether people with flu-like symptoms of COVID-19 have actually contracted the virus. The exemption is in effect from Feb. 20 to Aug. 20.

Kee Park, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School who has worked on medical projects in North Korea many times, welcomed the exemptions at a time of a global health emergency. "This is a good sign," said Park. "They're speeding things up as quickly as possible. It's within days that the approval comes through the Sanctions Committee. And nongovernment organizations [NGOs] can go ahead and start making arrangements to send the supplies in."

North Korea is maintaining an elevated level of alert, ordering the public to follow guidance from the state's central public health authorities with "absolute obedience."

"We should bear in mind any moment of complacency could result in irreversible catastrophic consequences and should maintain a high state of alert," said North Korea's official newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun on Wednesday. "[All] should show absolute obedience to unified guidance by the makeshift central public health committee and state measures."

Fear of the virus spreading into North Korea from neighboring China, where the epidemic began in the city of Wuhan, has prompted Pyongyang to act quickly. It sealed off the border it shares with China and suspended all transportation links to China in early February. Under normal conditions, many North Koreans and Chinese cross the border each day, making North Korea susceptible to the coronavirus. China has the highest number of confirmed cases, 76,190, and deaths, 2,800 according to WHO as of Wednesday.

In North Korea's neighbor of South Korea, officials reported 169 new virus cases Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed infections there to 1,261. Just last week, that number was only 30. Twelve coronavirus patients in South Korea have died.
A 42-year-old man was arrested in Rajasthans Bhilwara on Thursday on the charges of raping and killing his elder sister, police said.

Bhilwaras superintendent of police Harendra Mahawar said the body of 48-year-old Bhagwati Punjabi was found in her shanty on February 25. Blood was oozing out from her mouth, ear and nose, he added.

Her other brother, Pappu Singh, said when he came home for lunch his sisters neighbours told him that she hadnt come out of her shanty since the morning that day. When he went to her house, he found her dead.

Mahawar said her second brother, Kalu Singh Punjabi, was detained for interrogation on the basis of information.

During the interrogation, he confessed to his crime. He said he raped her and when she threatened to tell the other brother about it, he strangled her, he said.

Kalu Singh Punjabi also took away her earrings to make it look like murder for robbery, the officer added.

He has been booked for under section 397 (robbery, or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt), 376 (rape) and 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Police said there are seven cases against Kalu Singh Punjabi in Pratapnagar police station and five in Kotwali police station for thefts and breaking into houses.

The Pratapnagar police station has now opened a history sheet to monitor his activities.
Two South Koreans workers engaged in the construction work of Obra-C power project here, have been asked to work from home following the corona virus scare.

HR Manager Lal Babu Jha of South Korea Doosan company on Friday said, "Two workers, who came back from South Korea respectively on February 25 and 26, have been told to work from home and not move out of their houses."



"South Koreans workers Don Kim and Denam Kim reached Obra after spending their holidays in South Korea. Both were screened at the New Delhi airport and at Varanasi airport. They were not found infected by corona virus," he said.

"However, as a precaution, both workers have been asked to stay in their houses for 15 days," Jha added.

Jha said around 50 workers from South Korea are currently working with this company.

Obra Thermal Power Plant is located in Gajrajnagar in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh at about 13 km from Chopan railway station and about 125 km from Varanasi. The power plant is owned and operated by Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The first case of coronavirus has been confirmed in the North in a patient who travelled via Dublin on their way home from Italy.

The patient has been placed in isolation to receive specialist care. Health officials are working to identify any contacts the patient had in order to prevent further spread.

Responding to the diagnosis, Health Minister Simon Harris said it was not unexpected.

The patient had contacted a GP and had taken steps to self-isolate.

Medical officials in the North confirmed that the patient is an adult who returned from northern Italy to Dublin before travelling to the North.

They declined to be drawn on whether the person travelled from Dublin to the North by public transport, and also would not confirm whether they were male or female, but they did state that the person was not travelling as part of a school trip.

The sample from the patient has been sent to Britain for verification but it has been described as a presumptive positive test for coronavirus.

The Norths chief medical officer, Michael McBride, confirmed the case yesterday evening.

He said they have been planning for the first positive case in the North.

It was always a case of when not if, he said.

We have robust infection control measures in place which enable us to respond immediately, said Dr McBride. Our health service is used to managing infections and would assure the public that we are prepared.

Our advice to the public remains the same. Members of the public who have visited affected regions and have symptoms are advised to self-isolate at home and contact their GP in the first instance. Advice will then be given on next steps, including testing if required.

Mr Harris spoke to the Norths health minister, Robin Swann, in the wake of the diagnosis.

We must do everything we can to remain vigilant in the event of a case of Covid-19 emerging, Mr Harris said.

Cross border communication and co-operation is vital in that regard.

Giving the evolving situation this first case of Covid-19 disease was not unexpected. The National Public Health Emergency Team has been planning for this scenario since January.

Tony Holohan, chief medical officer in the Department of Health, said the HSE is well-prepared for a potential outbreak. They are working to inform any contacts the patient had in order to prevent transmission.

Covid-19 is spread through close contact with an infected persons body fluids, or by touching surfaces that an infected person has coughed or sneezed on, said Dr Holohan.

Close contact involves either face-to-face contact or spending more than 15 minutes within two metres of an infected person. The risk of transmission through casual contact is low.

Stephen McMahon, chairman and co-founder of the Irish Patients Association, urged people to listen to instructions from the health authorities to protect themselves, their families and community.

Im not surprised. We wish the patient well. However, it is a call to action, he said.

Fears over the spread of the virus have caused a rush on the sale of protective facemasks and antibacterial hand sanitiser, with several large pharmacy chains reporting low stocks.

HSE boss Paul Reid has confirmed there are adequate stocks of critical supplies, though.

The HSE acted early in dealing with what is a very volatile market, he said, purchasing 700,000 protective gowns, 4m gloves, and 1.5m surgical masks.

Over 100 people have been tested with a particular surge in the recent few days but, thankfully, none positive to date, said Mr Reid.

Additional reporting: Evelyn Ring, Conall O Fatharta, and Eoin English.
Source: Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. Daily cases are the number of new cases reported each day. The seven-day average is the average of a day and the previous six days of data.

Steep surges driven by the Omicron variant have led to record-breaking rates of new cases in the United States, Canada, Australia and across Western Europe.

Daily cases are the number of new cases reported each day. Vaccination data provided by Our World in Data. Vaccination numbers marked with an asterisk * were last reported more than two weeks ago. The seven-day average is the average of a day and the previous six days of data. All-time charts show data from Jan. 21, 2020 to present.

This table is sorted by places with the most cases per 100,000 residents in the last seven days. Charts show change in daily averages and are each on their own scale. Select a table header to sort by another metric.

Steep surges driven by the Omicron variant have led to record-breaking rates of new cases in the United States, Canada, Australia and across Western Europe.

Source: Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. The daily average is calculated with data that was reported in the last seven days.

About the data

Data for all countries except the United States comes from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. United States data comes from state and local health officials and is collected by The New York Times. Population data from the World Bank and U.S. Census Bureau. Data for some countries, like the United States, Denmark, France and the Netherlands, include counts for overseas territories. The New York Times has found that official tallies in more than thirty countries have undercounted deaths during the coronavirus outbreak because of limited testing availability. The Times has identified reporting anomalies or methodology changes in the data. More about reporting anomalies or changes July 20, 2021: Ecuador added a backlog of deaths from 2020.

Ecuador added a backlog of deaths from 2020. Dec. 25, 2020: Several countries did not publish data on Dec. 25.

Several countries did not publish data on Dec. 25. Dec. 10, 2020: Turkey announced the total number of reported cases, including asymptomatic cases since the end of July, reaching more than 1.7 million cases.

Confirmed cases and deaths, which are widely considered to be an undercount of the true toll, are counts of individuals whose coronavirus infections were confirmed by a molecular laboratory test. Probable cases and deaths count individuals who meet criteria for other types of testing, symptoms and exposure, as developed by national and local governments.

Governments often revise data or report a single-day large increase in cases or deaths from unspecified days without historical revisions, which can cause an irregular pattern in the daily reported figures. The Times is excluding these anomalies from seven-day averages when possible. For agencies that do not report data every day, variation in the schedule on which cases or deaths are reported, such as around holidays, can also cause an irregular pattern in averages. The Times uses an adjustment method to vary the number of days included in an average to remove these irregularities.
TRESA is one of the few pieces of legislation in Ontario to receive bi-partisan support following constructive debate in the Legislature led by Minister Lisa Thompson and NDP Consumer Critic Tom Rakocevic and other MPPs.

By strengthening consumer protection and fixing the broken real estate discipline system, the Government of Ontario is showing Realtors and home buyers and sellers that it is on their side, said OREA CEO Tim Hudak. Ontarians deserve the best when it comes to making the biggest financial transaction of their lives and TRESA will make this province the North American leader once again when it comes to a well-regulated real estate market.

OREA has been advocating for a review of REBBA for over a decade and finally, the Ontario Government has passed this historic piece of legislation.

There are five primary goals in the proposed legislation: enable regulatory changes that would improve consumer protection and choice; improve professionalism among real estate professionals and brokerages through enhanced ethical requirements; update the powers available to RECO to address poor conduct and improve efficiency; create a stronger business environment; and bring legislation and regulations up-to-date and reduce regulatory burden.

Ontarios real estate rules were nearly 20 years old and this legislation brings the profession into the modern age, Hudak indicated.
(Newser)  A deputy of South Carolina's largest sheriff's office has been stripped of her badge, uniform, and guns after expressing a desire to run for her boss' job. Al Cannon, 73, has been sheriff of Charleston County since 1988 and intends to remain in the job after the November election. While state law prevents intimidation or job loss based on "the exercise of political rights," he argues Kristin Graziano's hope of nabbing the same positionto "instill fairness and transparency," according to her campaign websiteshows an "inherent and irreconcilable conflict of interest" as sheriffs can be held personally liable for a deputy's actions, per the Post and Courier. "You are stating that my policies are not fair or accountable. That statement alone undermines my programs and policies," he tells Graziano, an 18-year veteran of the office, in a letter.

story continues below

But 52-year-old Graziano, who has yet to file the necessary paperwork but plans to run as a Democrat, says she has no plans to undermine Cannon, a Republican. She says she was shocked to be placed on leave Tuesday in a move that will leave her without income once her vacation time runs out in three months. "Just because somebody disagrees with me that happens to be my boss doesn't mean I stop serving my community," she says. "It doesn't mean I stop pushing the mission that I swore to do." County GOP chair Maurice Washington appeared to side with Graziano, saying Cannon made "a wrong-headed decision" that "discourages individuals who have every right to seek public office without fear of retribution." (Read more South Carolina stories.)
T he UK is set to be buffeted by 70mph winds followed by snow as the nation braces for Storm Jorge.

Strong winds are forecast for much of England, Wales and Northern Ireland on Saturday, reaching 70mph in coastal areas and up to 60mph inland.

Flooding along parts of the River Severn, which has reached close to its highest levels in some areas, is likely until at least Sunday, the Environment Agency said.

A severe danger to life flood warning covering the river at the Wharfage in Ironbridge, Shropshire, remains in place on Thursday, while 82 flood warnings and 125 flood alerts have been issued.

Floodwaters persist in the centre of Worcester City after the River Severn burst its banks / Getty Images

Rising waters pushed back the towns temporary flood barriers towards a pub and other businesses, sparking fears that the defences could be fully breached.

The heart of Storm Jorge currently lies off the west coast of Ireland, but the strom is moving closer to the UK by the hour.

A Met office spokesman said: "At the moment (Friday evening) the centre of the storm is to the west of Ireland.

"Possibly by late afternoon tomorrow (Saturday) the centre will be close to the north of Northern Ireland and western Scotland.

"The centre of the storm will be quite slow moving until the early part of next week."

Coastal areas will be buffeted by 70mph winds on Saturday / PA

While the rest of the UK will avoid the centre of the storm, of the UK will be affected by wind and rain over the weekend.

"The strong winds and heavy rains associated with it will affect most parts of the UK", the spokesman said.

"Through tomorrow (Saturday) onwards the winds will become the worst feature of it."

Storm Jorge will be followed by snow / PA

Once the wind and rain dies down, Scotland and the North of England will see snow.

The spokesman added: "From Sunday through to Monday there will be snow, particularly in Scotland and higher parts of northern England."

England has already received over 200% of its average February rainfall, according to the Environment Agency, with some areas experiencing a months worth of rain in 24 hours.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2020) -Defiance Silver Corp. (TSXV: DEF) (OTC: DNCVF) ("Defiance Silver" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it will be attending the PDAC in Toronto, Canada. We cordially invite you to visit with Company representatives on Sunday, March 1st through Wednesday, March 4th, 2020 at Booth #2703 within the Investors Exchange at the 2020 Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention to be held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

For more information and/or to register for the conference please visit:

https://www.pdac.ca/convention

The company would also like to announce that it will be participating in the Discoveries 2020 Mining Conference from April 28th through April 30th, 2020 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

For more information and/or to register for the conference please visit:

https://www.discoveriesconference.com

Defiance looks forward to updating shareholders and conference attendees about the ongoing exploration programs at the San Acacio Silver Deposit and the Advanced-Stage Tepal Gold-Copper Deposit.

About Defiance Silver Corp.

Defiance Silver Corp. (DEF | TSX Venture Exchange; DNCVF | OTC; D4E | Frankfurt) is an exploration company advancing the San Acacio Deposit, located in the historic Zacatecas Silver District and the 100% owned Tepal Gold/Copper Project in Michoacan state, Mexico. Defiance is managed by a team of proven mine developers with a track record of exploring, advancing and developing several operating mines and advanced resource projects Defiance's corporate mandate is to expand the San Acacio and Tepal projects to become premier Mexican silver and gold deposits.

On behalf of Defiance Silver Corp.

"Chris Wright"

Chairman of the Board

For more information, please contact: Investor Relations at +1 917-563-3821 or via email at info@defiancesilver.com.

www.defiancesilver.com

704 - 595 Howe Street

Vancouver, BC V6E 2K3

Tel: 604-669-7315

Email:info@defiancesilver.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Defiance Silver Corp. relies upon litigation protection for forward-looking statements.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/52941
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is prepared to meet the release clause of Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey, according to reports.

The Gunners are in desperate need of a major overhaul this summer after another bitterly disappointing season that got worse on Thursday night when they crashed out of the Europa League against Olympiacos.

One of the positions Arteta is keen to improve is the base of midfield as he tries to fix a problem that has plagued Arsenal for several years.

Arsenal are prepared to meet the release clause of Atletico Madrid midfielder Thomas Partey

Mikel Arteta's squad is in desperate need of a major overhaul this summer after a poor season

A potential target is Partey and, according to Spanish paper Libertad Digital, Arteta is willing to pay his 42milliion ($54m) release clause.

The report claims Arsenal have already made contact with Partey's representatives over a summer move.

It is believed they will need to convince the Ghana international to move to London though with the report claiming he is content playing for Diego Simeone.

Partey has been linked with Manchester United in the past but, making 33 appearances, he seems to be an integral part of Simeone's Atletico rebuild.

Arteta is willing to pay his 42m release clause but would need to convince him to join

The 26-year-old was impressive in their 1-0 win over Liverpool in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie earlier this month and will be key to them holding onto that lead at Anfield on March 11.

Arteta has Lucas Torreira, Granit Xhaka and Matteo Guendouzi as defensive midfield options but the Torreira has been linked with a return to Italy while it is highly likely Xhaka will be shown the door.

The Gunners were dumped out of the Europa League on Thursday night, conceding a devastating late winner for Olympiacos deep into extra-time.
Memory of February 25, 1921

By Malkhaz Matsaberidze

The February-March War of 1921, which was followed by the collapse of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, is one of the most heavy chapters of Georgian History. The preconditions and processes of this war havent yet been a subject to the deep scientific analysis they deserve. Frequently, the 1921 February-March war is referred to as the Russia-Georgia war. Soviet Russia did attack Georgia, occupy and annex it, but it was still not only a war with Russia; Moscow activated then-Soviet Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Turkey, another neighbour of Georgia, was also involved when its troops attempted to snatch Batumi.In the beginning of 1921, Georgia found itself in an intensely difficult geopolitical situation. By then, it was the only independent state in the Caucasus as England and other Western countries werent trying to hold ground in Georgia anymore. The positions were now to be dominated by Russia and Turkey who were trying to use each other against the West and share the South Caucasus.If Soviet Russia had kept its May 7th 1921 treaty promises,Turkey would not have made any claims and Azerbaijan and Armenia, both sovietised by Russia, would have also kept quiet. But recognising Georgia as an independent state was a tactical move by Russia. Moscow would put its troops into operation at the first opportunity. The attack had to be a military one since Russia had no such support in Georgia to cause a putsch instead. In February 1921, Georgia was alone against Russia, who intended to attack with the Red Army.The difficult geopolitical condition was also aggravated by the fact that the political elite of the time was assessing the political climate of the country incorrectly and it didnt foresee any grave danger. Such a mindset was partially encouraged by the West- at the end of January 1921, the West recognised Georgia as an independent state. This was considered by the political elites as an eternal guarantee of secure independence. Russia and Turkey were also recognising Georgias independence and were officially promising neighbourly relations.The situation was aggravated not only by misjudging the events but also by mistakes made at the border battle to defend Tbilisi.Leaving Tbilisi was fateful for the war. Similar to the attack of Spring 1920, Soviet Russia had not declared war with Georgia. If Georgia parried the Red Armys attack near Tbilisi in 1921, Russia might have backed down once again and blamed it on the sovietized Armenia and Azerbaijan and the event might have been announced as a military conflict.Defeating Tbilisi enhanced Russias hope for success and broke the spirit of Georgians. Even though the attack was continuing for three more weeks after leaving Tbilisi, nobody was hoping on defeating the Red Army.The Georgian Army unexpectedly left Tbilisi on the night of February 24-25. Before that, the Tbilisi guards had parried two attacks of the Red Army by February 23. However, Tbilisi was in danger of being surrounded and the Commander-in-Chief of the Georgian Army, General Kvintradze, decided to leave Tbilisi with the army. The question of how correct the decision was or what was the reason for leaving without fighting and giving up on defending the city, cannot be judged at this time.Tbilisi was left so unexpectedly that the newspapers Georgian Republic, Georgia, and Unity, printed on February 25, 1921, were written with victorious spirit. If Georgia had won the 25 February fight, the newspapers of that day would not have been different from previous days.Papers printed on February 25 are incredible sources for learning the moods and mindsets of the Georgian population of the time; these newspapers show their assessments, hopes, and reassurances.
State Highway 4 is closed in both directions Thursday afternoon just east of Discovery Bay due to an overturned big-rig, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The overturned big-rig was reported at about 2:45 p.m. just west of Old River Bridge in unincorporated Contra Costa County.
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Kaia Gerber is the supermodel at the center of the new Louis Vuitton advertisements.

The daughter of Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber looked stylish as she modeled the French brand's clothing and accessories while showing off her slender frame.

This comes just after the 18-year-old Malibu native took Paris Fashion Week by storm by appearing in the Chloe and Loewe shows.

New spokesperson: Kaia Gerber is the supermodel at the center of the new Louis Vuitton advertisements. The daughter of Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber looked stylish as she modeled the French brand's clothing

A teen with plans: 'Gerber embraces the new season with a selection of the latest Louis Vuitton Twist Bags, as photographed by Craig McDean,' says the online copy

'Gerber embraces the new season with a selection of the latest Louis Vuitton Twist Bags, as photographed by Craig McDean,' says the online copy.

In one of the setups the teenager has on a red, short-sleeved button down top that is tucked into a black mini skirt with a colorful belt.

At one point she is holding a red and white purse with a gold LV logo; also attached is a smaller pink purse.

Vroom: Then Gerber is behind the wheel of a vintage car as she has on a brown, yellow and orange striped mini dress with a flower corsage

In another set up where Kaia is sitting by a swimming pool while looking at her cell phone - which has a LV case - she has a red and white purse in front of her with a pink strap.

Oddly, there is what appears to be a cocktail in front of her, but considering she is under age it may just be a Macha drink or cucumber juice.

Then Gerber is behind the wheel of a vintage car as she has on a brown, yellow and orange striped mini dress with a flower corsage.

On the move: he star is also seen in a cute cropped leather jacket with large laps over a floral top and what appears to be black shorts with a belt. Kaia is holding a black and white purse in one hand and a cup of coffee to go in the other

Next to her is a beige and white LV purse.

he star is also seen in a cute cropped leather jacket with large laps over a floral top and what appears to be black shorts with a belt.

Kaia is holding a black and white purse in one hand and a cup of coffee to go in the other.

Cafe society: Looking older than her years, the ex of Pete Davidson is also seen in a 1960s inspired crochet top with large silk lapels and red, pink sleeves with embroidered cuffs. On her shoulder is a white LV purse with a small gold chain

Fin: The last image sees Kaia glued to her cell phone as she wears a winter green jacket with a white mini skirt. There is a black purse with a black chain on her shoulder

Looking older than her years, the ex of Pete Davidson is also seen in a 1960s inspired crochet top with large silk lapels and red, pink sleeves with embroidered cuffs.

On her shoulder is a white LV purse with a small gold chain.

The star is enjoying an espresso and water at a small cafe table.

The last image sees Kaia glued to her cell phone as she wears a winter green jacket with a white mini skirt.

There is a black purse with a black chain on her shoulder.

Catwalk girl: This comes just after the 18-year-old Malibu native took Paris Fashion Week by storm by appearing in the Chloe (left, Thursday) and Loewe shows (right, Friday)

Naughty gals: Here Gerber is seen in a Latex bra next to Mica Arganaraz

The Vogue cover girl sure made an impression during Paris Fashion Week.

The former Malibu High School student opened the Chloe show and called it 'beautiful' on Instagram.

Kaia said of her Loewe show: 'loewe @loewe it was incredible to walk this show for the first time. thank you to the nicest team.'

Meanwhile, her older brother Presley, who is also a model, recently tattooed the word Misunderstood on his face and then shared a video where he was shooting a gun.
[February 28, 2020] Klarna Bank: Breaking the Leap Day Tradition: See Kirstin Propose to her Flabbergasted Boyfriend on Hidden Camera

STOCKHOLM, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- After nearly 20 years together, Kirstin thought it was time to pop the question. In a romantic restaurant with hidden cameras, extras and artist performances, she got down on her knee and asked her unsuspecting boyfriend Mads to marry her. - "We've been together for about half our lives. I think Mads would like to propose to me, but since he hasn't done it by now, I can't wait any longer. I had to take the matter into my own hands", says Kirstin Hermansen. Eight percent involved in courtship on the anniversary According to The Knot, only 5 percent of proposals are made by women. Still the search online for "woman proposes to men ideas" increased 336 percent from 2017 to 2018 according to data from Pinterest. Traditionally, the leap day, February 29, has been the one day every four years where women are "allowed" to propose to men according to tradition. And since breaking old and outdated traditions is deeply rooted in Klarna's company values, the leading Swedish shopping provider worked together with Kirstin to set the stage for a proposal before the actual leap day - on February 19. - "When I learned that Klarna was looking for a woman that wanted to break the leap day tradition and propose, I immediately signed up. For a while now I've been considering to proposing, and playing with the idea in my mind, and when I saw Klarna's Story post on Instagram, it was the kick I needed to actually do it. I applied and told my story, and was very happy when I was chosen to be part of this. It is something I really wanted to do", says Kirstin. See video of the proposal here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8ifqpHNaNM Hidden camera, extras and a custom song The whole evening was set up with surprises and hidden cameras to capture Kirstin Hermanssons big proposal to her man, Mads Gudim Burheim. It all happened at a restaurant in Oslo, and included dozens of extras at the scene, including artist Anna Jger, who performed a song tailor-made for the couple and the proposal. As Kirstin goes down on her knees holding out the ring and proposes, Mads is completely mesmerized. - "Honestly. This is something that I never expected. I have never been so surprised. I was totally caught off guard", says Mads about the romantic turn their dinner took. - "According to our survey, almost one in five Norwegians believe that women should either not propose at all, or that it is only suitable on the leap day once every four years. We firmly believe that is a hopelessly outdated view, and that just like Kirstin, anybody should be able to propose to whoever they want whenever they want", says Thomas Elvestad, Marketing Director of Klarna Norway. Nine out of ten proposals get a yes, but not all proposals are romantic To those who are planning to propose, Klarna's survey shows that the chance of getting a positive answer is actually really high if you dare to throw yourself into it. As many as nine out of ten people who ask the question get that "YES" they are hoping for. Although when it comes to romantic performance however, there is room for improvement. Only 44 percent that have been proposed to thought their proposal was romantic. About Klarna We make shopping smoooth. With Klarna consumers can buy now and pay later, so they can get what they love today. Klarna's offering to consumers and retailers include payments, social shopping, and personal finances. Over 200,000 merchants, including H&M, Adidas, IKEA, Expedia Group, Samsung, ASOS, Peloton, Abercrombie & Fitch, Nike and AliExpress have enabled Klarna's innovative shopping experience online and in-store. Klarna is the most highly valued fintech in Europe with a valuation of $5.5bn and one of the largest private fintechs globally. Klarna was founded in 2005, has over 2,700 employees and is active in 17 countries. For more information, visit klarna.com. For additional information, please contact:

Thomas Elvestad

Marketing Director Klarna Norway

[email protected] or [email protected]

+47-932-51-163 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/klarna-bank-ab--publ-/r/breaking-the-leap-day-tradition--see-kirstin-propose-to-her-flabbergasted-boyfriend-on-hidden-camera,c3048567 The following files are available for download:







https://mb.cision.com/Main/1740/3048567/1202709.pdf Release https://news.cision.com/klarna-bank-ab--publ-/i/mads,c2756581 Mads https://news.cision.com/klarna-bank-ab--publ-/i/theproposal,c2756580 Theproposal https://news.cision.com/klarna-bank-ab--publ-/i/hiddencameras,c2756579 Hiddencameras https://news.cision.com/klarna-bank-ab--publ-/i/thomaselvestad,c2756582 ThomasElvestad

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/klarna-bank-breaking-the-leap-day-tradition-see-kirstin-propose-to-her-flabbergasted-boyfriend-on-hidden-camera-301013239.html SOURCE Klarna Bank AB (publ)

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Nigerias main opposition party, PDP, has blamed the countrys president, Muhammadu Buhari, for the coronavirus that has now been detected in the country.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Nigerian government in the early hours of Friday confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the country. It was detected in an Italian who recently arrived in Nigeria.

The Nigerian case is the first in sub-Saharan Africa of a disease that has killed thousands across the world, the majority in China where the disease originated from.

In its reaction, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) berated the Buhari Presidency for its negligence and laidback attitude to governance and the welfare of Nigerians leading to the avoidable entrance of the deadly corona virus into our dear country.

The party said it was evident that the Buhari Presidency, not being alive to its responsibilities, as usual, took no concrete steps to hedge our nation against the virus, leading to the current scary situation, Kola Ologbodiyan, the PDP spokesperson said in a statement.

Many Nigerians including lawmakers had condemned the level of preparation by Nigeria to prevent the disease from being brought into the country and prevent it from spreading.

The government had, however, said it was fully prepared and had put necessary measures in place. The Italian who has the disease has been isolated at a treatment centre in Lagos while a contact tracing of everyone who had contact with him is being done.

There is no known cure for coronavirus yet while its exact origin is yet to be determined.

Read the full statement by the PDP below.

Corona Virus: PDP Berates Buhari For NegligenceSeeks Concerted Effort, Adoption of Ebola Intervention Strategy

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated the Buhari Presidency for its negligence and laidback attitude to governance and the welfare of Nigerians leading to the avoidable entrance of the deadly corona virus into our dear country.

The party says it was evident that the Buhari Presidency, not being alive to its responsibilities, as usual, took no concrete steps to hedge our nation against the virus, leading to the current scary situation.

The PDP notes that a responsive and proactive government would have mobilized effective surveillance and screening measures to ward off the menace, particularly at our entry points, but the incompetent, insensitive and indifferent Buhari administration, was more interested in propaganda and unnecessary showboating with false performance claims.

The party also recalled that the Buhari administration had done nothing to assist Nigerian citizens stranded in China despite their pleas, just the same way it abandoned our compatriots who were being murdered in the heat of xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

The PDP said Nigerians should directly hold the Buhari Presidency responsible should any national calamity arose from COVID-19 in addition to the economic and security challenges its negligence had caused our nation.

Due to the negligence and incompetence of the Buhari administration, Nigerians can no longer move freely across their country for fear of insurgents, bandits, kidnappers and now corona virus.

Indeed, the Buhari government is a huge misfortune to our nation. This latest leadership failure further validates widespread calls for it to step aside for more competent hands to manage the affairs of our country.

READ ALSO:

The PDP therefore calls on Nigerians not to despair but stir up the Nigerian resilient spirit for an urgent, multi sectoral concerted effort by agencies, groups, corporate entities and public-spirited individuals to immediately curb the disease before it spreads, particularly given the prevalent security, economic and humanitarian challenges in the country.

The party called on the Federal Government to end its cosmetic attitude and immediately adopt the proactive strategy used by the PDP administration to promptly contain the Ebola Virus disease in 2014.

The PDP also advised Nigerians to be very vigilant and follow intervention directives to ensure that the disease does not spread in the country.

The party urged the ministry of health to continue to be open and not allow propaganda, speculations and misinformation in the handling of this health emergency.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Nigerian government in the early hours of Friday confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the country.:

Kola Ologbondiyan

National Publicity Secretary

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"XCMG has coordinated our entire supply chain to ensure production across all factories. So far, there has been no delay in the delivery of orders since the outbreak of the virus," said Liu Jiansen, Assistant President of XCMG and General Manager of XCMG Import and Export Company.

XCMG resumed operations officially on February 10 and has supported its suppliers to restart the manufacture of main engines and parts under safe and effective conditions. As of February 22, 90% of XCMG's major suppliers have resumed work.

For suppliers outside Jiangsu province, XCMG coordinated with local governments and various production and logistic departments to ensure timely transportation while adhering to strict epidemic prevention and control protocols. XCMG's supply chain platform has assisted 265 trade and storage, manufacturing, and logistics companies in Xuzhou.

On February 13, XCMG issued the first outbreak control loan in Jiangsu Province, raising over 300 million yuan (USD42.79 million) to support small, privately owned enterprises in its supply chain.

The XCMG Finance Company also opened a green channel for outbreak-related transactions. As of February 19, the company has provided 466 million yuan (USD 66.46 million) worth of special credit support for member companies and industry chain partners.

Faced with the sudden challenges of the Covid-19 outbreak, XCMG employees abroad not only strived to expand overseas markets and win orders but also brought medical supplies including surgical masks and protective suits to support work resumption and ensure timely delivery of orders.

With an established global sales and service network comprised of more than 300 dealers, 40 overseas offices and 40 major spare parts centers, XCMG, as a leading exporter of construction machinery industry, has been supporting major construction projects worldwide with the common aspiration of making the world better for everyone.

About XCMG

XCMG is a multinational heavy machinery manufacturing company with a history of 77 years. It currently ranks sixth in the world's construction machinery industry. The company exports to more than 183 countries and regions around the world.

Please visit XCMG, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn an Instagram.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1096902/XCMG.jpg

Related Links

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SOURCE XCMG
India on Friday advised Pakistans top leadership to stop terror funding and dismantle terrorist camps operating from its soil and territories under its control while decrying Islamabads efforts to derail the positive developments in Jammu and Kashmir.

Indias statement came a week after the global terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Paris decided to retain Pakistan in its Grey List and warned the country of stern action if it fails to prosecute and penalise those involved in terror funding emanating from its jurisdiction.

Exercising the right of reply after Pakistan raised concerns over human rights in Jammu and Kashmir at the 43rd Session of the Human Rights Council here, First Secretary in Indias Permanent Mission Vimarsh Aryan said that the international community cannot be misled by Pakistani hysterical reactions at all global forums to malign India.

The situation in Jammu and Kashmir is fast returning to normalcy despite serious attempts by Pakistan to derail the positive developments through its active support to terrorist groups and related entities, Aryan said.

Giving Pakistan a 10-point advise list, the Indian diplomat asked it to stop terror funding and dismantle terrorist camps operating in the country and territories under its control.

Stop public advocacy and support for terrorists by Pakistani leadership at the highest level (PM Imran Khan), end illegal and forcible occupation and reverse the demographic changes in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and take structural reforms to develop a semblance of democracy in Pakistan, he said.

Highlighting the plight of minorities in Muslim-majority Pakistan, Aryan asked the Pakistani leadership to end harassment and execution of minorities through misuse of blasphemy law, end forced conversions and marriages of women and girls from Hindu, Sikh and Christian religions and stop religious persecution against Shias, Ahmadiyas, Ismailia and Hazaras.

Blasphemy law against Aasia Bibi, persecution of Abdul Shakoor, an Ahmadiya, Jagjit Kaur, a minor Sikh girl subjected to abduction and forced marriage are the norms of the day for minorities in Pakistan, he said.

He also accused Pakistan of recruiting children for terror activities including suicide bombing in other countries.

Stop killing and targeting political dissidents and legitimate criticism in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and prevent enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of journalists and human rights activists by its security agencies, the Indian diplomat said.

Speaking about the state of democracy in India and Pakistan, Aryan said that the world knows about the dismal human rights records of Pakistan and a tight control cannot hide it all while Indias time tested democratic institutions are robust and adequate enough to address any challenge including those instigated from outside, in order to safeguard interests of all our citizens including minorities.

Reacting to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperations statement on the Kashmir issue, he said that the grouping has no locus standi to comment on the internal affairs of India.

Jammu and Kashmir was, is and shall forever remain an integral part of India, he asserted.

Referring to Belgiums comment on the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Aryan said: as a close partner of India, we wish, Belgium could have checked the factual position with us before coming to any conclusion on the issue.

Our Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) has clearly said that no discussions have taken place on NRC anywhere except following the Supreme Court directives in Assam, he added.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Feb. 28, 2020 | MARSHALL COUNTY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 28, 2020 | 10:20 AM | MARSHALL COUNTY

Digital technology is putting a new perspective on courses for Marshall County High School students can now earn college credit before graduation, with the University of Kentuckys new dual credit program.



The program is taught by both high school teachers and UK professors. Through this new program at the university, juniors and seniors at some Kentucky high schools, including Marshall County, can take live UK classes in which college instructors help to teach the courses via interactive video.



Typically, in dual credit courses, a high school instructor teaches the college material, but the UK model partners college faculty with high school teachers and allows for virtual face-to-face instruction.



The dual credit approach was developed by the UK Center for Next Generation Leadership at the UK College of Education.



Four of the schools that have participated in UKs Center for Next Generation Leadership Academy are serving as pilot sites for the dual credit initiative: Paris Independent High School, Marshall County High School, Elkhorn Crossing School in Scott County, and STEAM Academy in Fayette County. Additional high schools will be added in Fall 2021.



Students taking dual credit courses from UK will have an advisor from the UK Next Generation Leadership Academy who checks in on their progress, helps complete college applications and supporting materials, and promotes a successful transition to college.



Next Gen Scholars will apply for admission to UK as non-degree seeking students. They can take up to a maximum of 10 UK courses while in high school. The UK courses will be delivered both online and by high school teachers who have been trained by UK faculty to teach the curricula. Tuition for courses in the dual credit program, in alignment with state determined dual credit rates, may be paid by either the school or the student, as determined by each districts policy. Districts will be expected to provide tuition support to qualifying free or reduced lunch students per the CPE policy.

UK dual credit courses are developed and offered primarily by UK academic departments with the support of local high school staff. UK colleges contributing to the available courses include:



College of Arts and Sciences

College of Communication and Information

College of Design

College of Education

Additional information about UKs dual credit program can be found at https://www.uky.edu/sal/dual-credit
ZURICH (Reuters) - UBS (UBSG.S) Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti, one of Europes best paid bankers, earned 12.5 million francs in 2019, down from 14.1 million in 2018 after the bank was hit with a multi-billion-euro court case and it missed earnings goals.

The worlds biggest wealth manager for the rich revealed on Friday an executive team, currently numbering 13, were handed cash, bonus and shares worth 110 million francs ($113 million) during the year.

The amount includes an 8.2 million francs one-off award for its most high-profile hire of the year, the new wealth management co-head Iqbal Khan, who was given the sweetener on top of his salary to compensate him for lost benefits after moving from rival Credit Suisse (CSGN.S).

The total payouts are substantially larger than those made in 2018 of almost 101 million francs, although the headcount of top management grew during that time. Performance-related awards fell 14% per executive.

Top managers have in addition been given loans by the bank of more than 30 million francs, the company said.

UNDER PRESSURE

UBS is under pressure following a conviction in France for helping wealthy clients evade taxes. The bank denies wrongdoing and is appealing against the ruling that it should pay 4.5 billion euros in penalties. A court appeal is set for June.

Last year, shareholders at the banks annual meeting showed their frustration by refusing to endorse the performance of the banks leadership, in a non-binding vote.

Investor proxy advisers also criticised high management pay, given the banks recent lacklustre performance. Investors will gather again at the annual meeting on April 29.

On Friday, the Swiss wealth manager unveiled an amended executive bonus system, taking into account the French tax case, as well as its shareholder and capital returns.

Payout of 1.5 million francs of Ermottis 2019 bonus and 7.3 million of overall executive bonuses would be contingent on the outcome of the French court case, the bank said, while further payout for senior managers would rest on achieving returns for shareholders and on capital over three years.

Ermotti is due to be replaced by ING (INGA.AS) head Ralph Hamers in November. Along with Roche (ROG.S) boss Severin Schwan, Ermotti counts amongst Switzerlands highest paid CEOs and one of Europes highest paid bankers.

The former Merrill Lynch investment banker, who has led Switzerlands biggest bank since 2011, earned plaudits for rebuilding it after a bailout during the financial crisis and a dispute over U.S. tax cheats which tore down Swiss bank secrecy.

But UBS missed its profit and cost targets for 2019 and Ermotti pared back some of the banks financial goals.

Its share price has halved since a high of 22.5 francs in mid-2015, currently trading at a level last seen in 2012.

While we are disappointed with our share price performance, we believe the share price movement in 2019 was significantly impacted by the outcome of the French cross-border matter and does not reflect the significant progress made, the head of the boards compensation committee, Julie Richardson, said in a letter.
BOWLING GREEN, Ky., Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CROWN Cork and Seal USA, Inc. (Crown), one of the worlds largest packaging companies, celebrated the groundbreaking for their new Bowling Green, Kentucky manufacturing plant. The company will invest $147 million to build a 327,000 square-foot facility creating 126 direct jobs. The project will be the first in the expanded portion of the Kentucky Transpark and will be a boon to the local economy, according to the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce.



Crowns new plant will provide great employment opportunities for Kentuckians that both pay well and provide an important range of benefits. These are the types of jobs that can support a family. In choosing to build in Kentucky, Crown Holdings gains access to a variety of assets that will make this advanced-manufacturing facility a success for decades to come, Gov. Andy Beshear said. With its first plant in Kentucky, Crown will have a skilled and ready workforce, a plentiful supply of beverage can stock, a location with quick access to key markets and a world-class logistics and distribution industry. Further, Kentuckys higher education and workforce development resources will assure Crown can build a pipeline of well-trained employees. My congratulations to Crowns leadership team and I look forward to partnering with them for the long term.

Crown employs 33,000 people in 239 plants and facilities in 47 countries, with their Bowling Green facility scheduled to be operational by the first quarter of 2021. The Bowling Green plant will initially manufacture 1.3 billion cans per year at a rate of 2,800 cans per minute, making the facility a key producer for the company.

Beverage can growth in North America is being driven by the growing proportion of new products being introduced in cans versus other packaging, as both customers and consumers recognize the inherent portability, durability and sustainability of the beverage can, said Timothy J. Donahue, President and Chief Executive Officer. This new facility demonstrates Crowns commitment to support its customers in meeting this growing demand. I would like to thank Governor Beshear, state and local agencies and utilities for their support and responsiveness. We look forward to working with these Team Kentucky members throughout this exciting project and beyond.

When considering where to build this state-of-the-art facility, Crown chose Bowling Green from 25 locations in 3 states. The companys first visit to Bowling Green was on January 3rd and by February 13th they had made the decision to locate in the Transpark. Our team understood that time was of the essence and quickly rose to the occasion, demonstrating to Crown executives that Bowling Green could deliver quickly on all aspects of the project and was able to meet their aggressive timeline, said Ron Bunch, Chamber President and CEO.

With customers located throughout the United States, the Kentucky Transpark is an ideal location for the company. Within a days time, they will be able to reach 65 percent of the countrys population. The Kentucky Transpark is a great location for meeting logistics needs, said Bowling Green Mayor Bruce Wilkerson. We are confident in our ability to meet Crowns deadline so that they can begin serving customers from their Bowling Green facility early next year.

Job creation of this magnitude is an investment in the future of the people of Warren County, said Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon. We welcome Crown to our community and look forward to supporting their continued growth.

TVA and Warren Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation congratulate CROWN Cork and Seal USA, Inc. on its decision to locate operations in Bowling Green and create new job opportunities, said John Bradley, TVA Senior Vice President of Economic Development. Helping to foster job creation is fundamental to TVAs mission of service, and we are proud to partner with Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce and Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development to help further that mission.

We are delighted to welcome CROWN Cork and Seal USA, Inc. to South Central Kentucky, said Dewayne McDonald, President & CEO Warren RECC. We look forward to working with them as they develop their new facility in the Kentucky Transpark.

Year-to-date, the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce has closed two economic development projects totaling $150.3 million in capital investment and generating 141 new jobs for 2020. In 2019, Bowling Green was home to four of the top 20 economic development projects in the state and has been nationally ranked for six consecutive years for economic development performance by Site Selection Magazine.

About CROWN Cork and Seal USA, Inc.

CROWN Cork and Seal USA, Inc., is a subsidiary of Crown Holdings, Inc., a leading global supplier of rigid packaging products to consumer marketing companies, as well as transit and protective packaging, equipment and services to a broad range of end markets. World headquarters are located in Yardley, Pennsylvania. Click here to learn more about Crown Holdings Inc.

About the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce

Incorporated in 1935, the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce is a 5-Star Accredited Chamber by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. As the fourth largest chamber in Kentucky, the Chamber serves as the driving force for South Central Kentuckys Business Community providing valuable services to over 1,300 partners, advocating a positive business environment and stimulating economic development for the area. With leadership programs, governmental relations projects, educational initiatives and involvement opportunities, the Chamber aims to support the community, and its neighbors, in order to enhance the business climate and continue to grow the region.




BRIDGEPORT  Two city residents face burglary-related charges after they allegedly tried to break into a home Thursday morning, according to police.

Billy Joe Santos, 43, was charged with criminal attempt at third-degree burglary and possession of burglar tools.

Maria Demelo, 57, was charged with conspiracy to commit third-degree burglary and possession of burglar tools.

At 11:28 a.m., Bridgeport police responded for a report of two people trying to break into a home in the 500 block of Ezra Street, according to police spokesman Scott Appleby.

When officers got to the house, they immediately detained a woman and canvassed the area for a second suspect  a man  who had taken off before police got there.

A Connecticut State Police K9 unit was called in to track the second suspect, using items found in the house that police believed belonged to both suspects.

While the track was ongoing, police officers also responded ot the 100 block of Harlem Avenue based on a description matching the possible vehicle used by the suspects.

Appleby said police got footage from the victims front door surveillance camera and the image was sent out to city police.

Soon after, police detained a man fitting the male suspects description in the 100 block of Harlem Avenue. A witness was able to positively identify the man as one of the people seen allegedly trying to break into the home, Appleby said.

The female (suspect) detained was also determined to be an accomplice, police said.

The two were placed under arrested and taken to booking to be processed and formally charged.

Santos was held on a $10,000 bond and Demelo was held on a $2,500 bond.
[February 27, 2020] Front Range BidCo, Inc. Announces Extension of Expiration Date of its Cash Tender Offers for 6.00% Senior Notes due 2023, 6.375% Senior Notes due 2025 and 5.750% Senior Notes due 2027 of Zayo Group, LLC and Zayo Capital, Inc.

Front Range BidCo, Inc. (the "Company") announced today that it has extended the Expiration Date (as defined in the Company's Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement dated January 17, 2020 (as amended and supplemented from time to time, the "Statement")) of the Company's previously announced cash tender offers (the "Offers") in respect of any and all outstanding 6.00% Senior Notes due 2023 (the "2023 Notes"), 6.375% Senior Notes due 2025 (the "2025 Notes") and 5.750% Senior Notes due 2027 (the "2027 Notes," and together with the 2023 Notes and 2025 Notes, the "Notes"), each co-issued by Zayo Group (News - Alert), LLC and Zayo Capital, Inc. (together, the "Co-Issuers"), from 12:00 midnight, New York City time, at the end of the day on February 28, 2020 to 8:30 a.m., New York City time, on March 9, 2020. The Offers are being made upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the Statement, as amended by the press release dated February 14, 2020 and this press release dated February 27, 2020. The deadline to validly withdraw tenders of Notes was 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on January 31, 2020; therefore, Notes that have been tendered and not validly withdrawn, and Notes tendered after that date, may not be withdrawn unless otherwise required by applicable law. As of the date of this press release, (i) approximately $1,280.4 million aggregate principal amount, or 89.5%, of the outstanding 2023 Notes, (ii) approximately $868.1 million aggregate principal amount, or 96.5%, of the outstanding 2025 Notes, and (iii) approximately $1,629.1 million aggregate principal amount, or 98.7%, of the outstanding 2027 Notes have been tendered pursuant to the Offers. Holders who had validly tendered Notes at or before 5:00 p.m. (New York City time) on January 31, 2020 (the "Early Tender Date") will be eligible to receive the total consideration equal to $1,020.00 per $1,000.00 principal amount of Notes purchased pursuant to the Offers, plus accrued and unpaid interest from the last interest payment date up to but not including the final payment date (the "Total Consideration"). Holders who tender their Notes after the Early Tender Date and at or prior to the Expiration Date, and whose Notes are accepted for purchase, will be eligible to receive the tender offer consideration equal to $990.00 per $1,000.00 principal amount of Notes purchased pursuant to the Offers, plus accrued and unpaid interest from the last interest payment date up to but not including the final payment date. On January 31, 2020, the Co-Issuers, the guarantors party thereto and The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company, N.A., as trustee under each of the indentures governing the Notes, executed (i) a supplemental indenture with respect to the 2023 Notes (the "2023 Supplemental Indenture"), (ii) a supplemental indenture with respect to the 2025 Notes (the "2025 Supplemental Indenture"), and (iii) a supplemental indenture with respect to the 2027 Notes (the "2027 Supplemental Indenture," and together with the 2023 Supplemental Indenture and 2025 Supplemental Indenture, the "Supplemental Indentures"), in each case to authorize the elimination of substantially all of the restrictie covenants, certain reporting obligations, certain events of default and related provisions contained in the applicable indenture governing such series of Notes (the "Proposed Amendments"). The Proposed Amendments relating to the applicable series of Notes, however, will not become operative until the Company has accepted for purchase Notes that have been validly tendered representing at least a majority of the aggregate principal amount of such series of Notes then outstanding pursuant to the applicable Offer.



The Company's obligation to consummate the Offers is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions, which are more fully described in the Statement, including, among others, (i) with respect to each series of Notes, the receipt of validly delivered consents to the Proposed Amendments from holders representing at least a majority of the aggregate principal amount of such series of Notes then outstanding (which, as described above, have been received with respect to each series of Notes as of the date hereof), (ii) the execution and delivery by the Co-Issuers and the trustee of a supplemental indenture with respect to each series of Notes implementing the Proposed Amendments to the applicable indenture (which, as described above, have been executed and delivered in respect of each series of Notes as of the date hereof), (iii) the substantially concurrent consummation of the merger of the Company with and into Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. (the "Merger") on the terms and conditions set forth in the Agreement and Plan of Merger dated May 8, 2019 (as amended, supplemented, waived or otherwise modified from time to time), by and among Front Range TopCo, Inc., the Company and Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. and (iv) the consummation of debt financing on terms satisfactory to the Company that yields sufficient net cash proceeds to fund the Total Consideration for all of the outstanding Notes. The consummation of the Merger is not conditioned upon, whether directly or indirectly, the consummation of the Offers or the Consent Solicitations (as defined in the Statement). Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC are acting as joint-lead dealer managers and solicitation agents (the "Dealer Managers and Solicitation Agents") for the Offers and the Consent Solicitations. Questions regarding the terms of the Offers and the Consent Solicitations can be directed to the Dealer Managers and Solicitation Agents, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC at (800) 820-1653 (toll free) and (212) 538-1862 (collect) and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC at (800) 624-1808 (toll free) and (212) 761-1864 (collect).

The information and tender agent for the Offers and Consent Solicitations is Global Bondholder Services Corporation. Holders with questions or who would like additional copies of the Offer Documents (as defined below) may call Global Bondholder Services Corporation, toll-free at (866) 807-2200 or (212) 430-3774 (collect). This news release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell the Notes. The Offers and the Consent Solicitations are being made only pursuant to the Statement and the related Consent and Letter of Transmittal (as it may be amended or supplemented from time to time, and collectively with the Statement, the "Offer Documents"). Holders and investors should read carefully the Offer Documents because they contain important information, including the various terms of and conditions to the Offers and the Consent Solicitations. None of the Company, the Dealer Managers and Solicitation Agents, the information and tender agent or their respective affiliates is making any recommendation as to whether or not holders should tender all or any portion of their Notes in the Offers. Holders must make their own decisions as to whether to tender Notes, and, if so, the principal amount of the Notes to tender. About Zayo Group Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ZAYO) provides mission-critical bandwidth to the world's most impactful companies, fueling the innovations that are transforming our society. Zayo's 133,000-mile network in North America and Europe includes extensive metro connectivity to thousands of buildings and data centers. Zayo's communications infrastructure solutions include dark fiber, private data networks, wavelengths, Ethernet, dedicated internet access and data center colocation services. Zayo owns and operates a Tier 1 IP backbone and 51 carrier-neutral data centers. Through its CloudLink service, Zayo provides low-latency private connectivity that attaches enterprises to their public cloud environments. Zayo serves wireless and wireline carriers, media, tech, content, finance, healthcare and other large enterprises. For more information, visit zayo.com. Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Statements Information provided and statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the applicable securities laws. Certain statements in this press release may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of securities laws. Forward-looking information may relate to the Merger and Zayo Group Holdings, Inc.'s future outlook and anticipated events, business, operations, financial performance, financial condition or results and, in some cases, can be identified by terminology such as "may"; "will"; "should"; "expect"; "plan"; "anticipate"; "believe"; "intend"; "estimate"; "predict"; "potential"; "continue"; "foresee", "ensure" or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. The reader should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. The Company will not update these statements unless applicable securities laws require it to do so. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227006068/en/

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Victoria, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This spring, community-centric developer Chard Development will further their commitment to the Victoria community by introducing Haven, an innovative, affordable new Fernwood housing project designed to meet the requirements of BC Housings Affordable Home Ownership Program.

Chard is working with BC Housing on a project that would provide local Victoria residents with access to affordable home ownership, with suites offered at 10% below market value. That 10% will be secured by an innovative mortgage structure that would be supported by BC Housing, once the proposal advances through BC Housings approval process. Eligible buyers would have an opportunity to purchase based on moderate incomes that are 10-15% below what would typically be required for an equivalent home, or with a down payment that is 40-50% less.

Proceeds from the repayment of the mortgage is reinvested in affordable housing within the same community, ensuring the contributions to the project continue to give back. Over time, Chards Haven project is expected to generate $5.2 million for Victorias Housing Reserve Fund, facilitating grants for 520 new deeply affordable housing units in the future.

Renowned for their unique affordable home ownership program at Vivid at the Yates, Chard Development focuses on collaborating on projects that positively impact the communities they build in. Haven will be Chard Developments second affordable home ownership project in Victoria, positively contributing to the shortage of housing diversity in a thriving, urban centre.

It is our responsibility as developers to help local residents along the housing continuum, says Byron Chard, CEO of Chard Development. Demand for housing in Victoria continues to increase. It is imperative to consider the importance of creating a diversity of housing in order to effectively foster a community.

Available for purchase later this spring, the homes at Haven will represent 104 of 211 total homes within a larger mixed-use development planned for the 1100 block of Johnson and Yates. The community is also anticipated to include a large, purpose-built childcare facility, a landscaped central mews and updates to the existing Victoria Professional Building.

-30-

About Chard Development Ltd.

Since 1994, Chard Development has completed over 1.3 million square feet of residential and commercial development in Greater Victoria and Metro Vancouver. We've delivered almost 800 homes to the residents of British Columbia with over 600 more set to complete by 2021. Along the way, we've gained a reputation for standards that exceed the ordinary. Within the communities where we build, we initiate positive change and always strive to leave the physical environment and social fabric better than when we began.
CINCINNATI, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cincinnati Bell Inc. (NYSE:CBB) ("Cincinnati Bell") today announced that it has amended its definitive merger agreement with Brookfield Infrastructure and its institutional partners (collectively referred to as "Brookfield") to increase the consideration payable to holders of outstanding shares of Cincinnati Bell common stock to $12.50 per share in cash from $10.50 per share in cash, which values the transaction at approximately $2.745 billion, including debt. The revised transaction price represents a 62% premium to the closing per share price of $7.72 on December 20, 2019, the last trading day prior to the date when the merger agreement was entered into.

Cincinnati Bell and Brookfield negotiated the amendment following the receipt by Cincinnati Bell on February 27, 2020 of a binding proposal (the "Proposal") to acquire all outstanding shares of Cincinnati Bell common stock for $12.50 from the infrastructure fund that previously submitted a non-binding proposal on January 22, 2020. Cincinnati Bell's Board, in consultation with its legal and financial advisors, carefully reviewed the terms of the Proposal and the amended Brookfield transaction and determined that entering into the amendment to the Brookfield merger agreement was in the best interests of Cincinnati Bell and its shareholders. Cincinnati Bell's Board of Directors approved the amended merger agreement and recommends that Cincinnati Bell's shareholders vote in favor of adopting the amended Brookfield merger agreement.

Lynn A. Wentworth, Chairman of the Cincinnati Bell Board of Directors, said, "After receiving a binding proposal reflecting a higher purchase price for Cincinnati Bell, Cincinnati Bell advised Brookfield of the proposal, which led to Brookfield increasing the price of our transaction with them. Following these discussions, our Board approved the amendment to the merger agreement. We believe the amended merger agreement is a result of a well-run sales process that allows our shareholders to realize higher value for their shares."

Leigh Fox, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cincinnati Bell, said, "We look forward to continuing to work to complete the closing of the merger with Brookfield. We continue to be confident in the strategic and financial rationale of this transaction, as well as our ability to drive growth and maximize value for our shareholders. With Brookfield's support, we look forward to enhancing our fiber network, driving long-term benefits for our customers."

Cincinnati Bell will file a current report on Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission containing a summary of the terms and conditions of the amendment to the definitive merger agreement. In the amendment, in consideration for the increased purchase price, the break-up fee payable by Cincinnati Bell in certain circumstances has increased from $17.97 million to $21.39 million. All other terms of the Brookfield merger agreement remain the same.

The Transaction is subject to certain customary closing conditions, including the approval by Cincinnati Bell's shareholders, expiration or termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 and certain regulatory approvals, and is expected to close by the end of 2020.

Advisors

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and Moelis & Company LLC are acting as financial advisors to Cincinnati Bell and Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and BosseLaw PLLC are acting as legal advisors.

About Cincinnati Bell Inc.

With headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Bell Inc. (NYSE: CBB) delivers integrated communications solutions to residential and business customers over its fiber-optic and copper networks including high-speed internet, video, voice and data. Cincinnati Bell provides service in areas of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Hawaii. In addition, enterprise customers across the United States and Canada rely on CBTS and OnX, wholly owned subsidiaries, for efficient, scalable office communications systems and end-to-end IT solutions. For more information, please visit www.cincinnatibell.com. The information on the Company's website is not incorporated by reference in this press release.

Additional Information and Where to Find It

This communication may be deemed to be solicitation material in respect of the proposed acquisition of Cincinnati Bell by Brookfield. In connection with the proposed acquisition, Cincinnati Bell filed a preliminary proxy statement and intends to furnish or file other relevant materials with the SEC in connection with the proposed transaction. The definitive proxy statement will be sent or given to the shareholders of Cincinnati Bell and will contain important information about the proposed acquisition and related matters. Shareholders of Cincinnati Bell are urged to read all relevant documents filed with the SEC, including Cincinnati Bell's proxy statement, because they will contain important information about the proposed transaction and the parties to the proposed transaction. Investors and shareholders are able to obtain the documents (once available) free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov, or free of charge from Cincinnati Bell at investor.cincinnatibell.com or by directing a request to Cincinnati Bell's Investor Relations Department at 1-800-345-6301 or [email protected], and Brookfield's annual reports on Form 20-F, reports on Form 6-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are available free of charge through Brookfield's website at https://bip.brookfield.com/, in each case, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC.

Participants in the Solicitation

Cincinnati Bell and its directors, executive officers and other members of management and employees, under SEC rules, may be deemed to be "participants" in the solicitation of proxies from shareholders of Cincinnati Bell in favor of the proposed transaction with Brookfield. Information regarding the interests of these participants which may, in some cases, be different than those of Cincinnati Bell's shareholders generally, is included in the preliminary proxy statement that has been filed with the SEC and will be included in the definitive proxy statement to be filed with the SEC. Additional information about Cincinnati Bell's directors and executive officers is set forth in Cincinnati Bell's Proxy Statement on Schedule 14A for its 2019 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, which was filed with the SEC on March 19, 2019, and its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, which was filed with the SEC on February 24, 2020. These documents may be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Certain of the statements in this communication contain forward-looking statements regarding future events and results that are subject to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about the industries in which we operate and the beliefs and assumptions of our management. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "predicts," "projects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "continues," "endeavors," "strives," "will," "may," "proposes," "potential," "could," "should," "outlook," or variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to projections of future financial performance, anticipated growth and trends in businesses, and other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: (i) the risk that the proposed merger with Brookfield may not be completed in a timely manner or at all; (ii) the failure to receive, on a timely basis or otherwise, the required approval of the proposed merger with Brookfield by Cincinnati Bell's shareholders; (iii) the possibility that competing offers or acquisition proposals for Cincinnati Bell will be made; (iv) the possibility that any or all of the various conditions to the consummation of the merger may not be satisfied or waived, including the failure to receive any required regulatory approvals from any applicable governmental entities (or any conditions, limitations or restrictions placed on such approvals); (v) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the transaction, including in circumstances which would require Cincinnati Bell to pay a termination fee or other expenses; (vi) the effect of the announcement or pendency of the transaction on Cincinnati Bell's ability to retain and hire key personnel, its ability to maintain relationships with its customers, suppliers and others with whom it does business, or its operating results and business generally; (vii) risks related to diverting management's attention from Cincinnati Bell's ongoing business operations; (viii) the risk that shareholder litigation in connection with the transaction may result in significant costs of defense, indemnification and liability and (ix) for Cincinnati Bell, (A) those discussed in Cincinnati Bell's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 and, in particular, the risks discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" in Item 1A, and those discussed in Brookfield's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC on February 28, 2019 and, in particular, the risks discussed under the caption "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations", and (B) those discussed in other documents Cincinnati Bell filed with the SEC. Actual results may differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Neither Cincinnati Bell nor Brookfield undertake any, and expressly disclaim any, obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements for any reason, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE Cincinnati Bell Inc.

Related Links

http://www.cincinnatibell.com


STAMFORD  A New York man has been charged with strangling a woman he met in Stamford through a popular dating app in November.

Socrates Alicea, 32, of Kingston, N.Y., was charged with a felony count of first-degree strangulation and was held in lieu of a $25,0000 court appearance bond.

According to his seven-page arrest affidavit by investigator Frank Laccona, police were called to a Summer Street hotel on Nov. 9 on the report of a woman having been strangled.

The victim, whose name is not being released by police, said on that Saturday night she used her Tinder dating application to contact a man named Tre to meet up for sex.

After the two began, the man took the womans hands and placed them on her throat. But the woman told the man she was uncomfortable doing that, according to police.

As the episode unfolded, the woman told police, she felt the man slip one of his arms around her throat and squeeze. The woman said she then passed out.

When she woke up and realized what had happened, she screamed, ran into the bathroom and looked in the mirror to see that she was bleeding from the mouth and had marks on her throat, police said.

When the woman went back into the bedroom she saw a cell phone on the floor that did not belong to her. After calling police, she gave it to a responding officer, police said.

Police found that the phone belonged to Alicea, according to the affidavit, and the next day discovered a post on his Facebook page asking his friends to message their contact information so he could rebuild his phone book. The post reported his phone had been stolen and he had to replace it, the affidavit said.

Police then obtained a New York Department of Motor Vehicles picture of Alicea, and showed it to the woman who identified him as the one who strangled her in the hotel, according to the affidavit.

When police called Alicea on Jan. 23 and asked him about the incident, he said he did not remember that evening in Stamford. He later told police that he went to the hotel for a massage, police said, but he backed out of paying for it while the two were having sex, causing the woman to get angry and begin screaming at him.

He said he grabbed his clothes and ran out of the room, leaving his cell phone behind.

When police talked to the woman, she said Alicea offered her $200 for sex that night, but she had no intention of taking money until he mentioned it, according to the affidavit.

Sgt. Paul Guzda, who supervised the investigators on the case, congratulated Laccona on the investigation.

I have to give Frank a lot of credit for navigating through a situation that was very unusual and somewhat difficult to get to the bottom of, Guzda said. The facts indicate that Mr. Alicea must have panicked to leave his cell phone behind. The hotel staff really used their heads and realized something very bad had happened and were very helpful in the investigation.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.com
New Zealand confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus on Friday in someone who returned from Iran, but said the chances of a community outbreak remains low.

The patient - in their 60s - tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the day. The person is being treated in Auckland City Hospital and their condition is improving, a Health Ministry statement said.

'Although we have our first case of COVID-19, the chances of community outbreak remain low,' the ministry said.

New Zealand confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus on Friday in someone who returned from Iran, but said the chances of a community outbreak remains low

Public health officials have begun tracing the patients contact history and will test the individual's family members for the virus.

The person travelled on an Emirates Airline flight that originated in Tehran, stopped in Bali, Indonesia, and ended in Auckland on Feb 26.

People on the final leg of the flight, who are concerned, should contact authorities, the ministry said.

New Zealand said earlier in the day it was imposing temporary restrictions on visitors from Iran, where the death toll from coronavirus had risen to 26, by far the highest number outside China.

The world prepared for a coronavirus pandemic on Friday as hopes the disease could be contained to China vanished and investors dumped equities in expectation of a global recession.

Neighbouring Australia said on Friday another passenger from a cruise ship in Japan had tested positive for the coronavirus.

The patient, the wife of a man who had earlier contracted the coronavirus, is the ninth Australian passenger from the Diamond Princess to come down with the illness.

Australia has 24 confirmed cases. (Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Neil Fullick)
Turkey will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, a senior Turkish official said, as Ankara responded on Friday to the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an air strike by Syrian government forces in Syrias northwestern Idlib region.

President Tayyip Erdogan chaired an emergency meeting on the attack in Ankara overnight, while Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and Turkish force commanders directed operations in Syria at the Turkish border, state-owned Anadolu news agency said.

Turkey has sent thousands of troops and heavy military hardware into Syria and Erdogan has warned that Turkey would launch a full-scale offensive to repel Syrian forces unless they pulled back from Turkish observation posts in the region.

The killing of 33 Turkish soldiers and wounding of 32, announced by the governor in Turkeys Hatay province bordering Syria, raised the Turkish military death toll in the region to 54 this month.

Turkeys communications director, Fahrettin Altun, said that in retaliation, all known Syrian government targets were being fired on by Turkish air and land support units.

Details of the retaliation were not immediately clear.

Some one million civilians have been displaced near the Turkish border since December as Russia-backed Syrian government forces seized territory from Turkey-backed Syrian rebels, marking the worst humanitarian crisis in the nine-year war.

In anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Idlib, Turkish police, coastguard and border security officials have been ordered to stand down on refugees land and sea crossings towards Europe, the Turkish official told Reuters.

We have decided, effectively immediately, not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land or sea, said the official, who requested anonymity.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday, though, said his country would tolerate no illegal entries as hundreds of asylum-seekers gathered on the border with Turkey.



Significant numbers of migrants and refugees have gathered in large groups at the Greek-Turkish land border and have attempted to enter the country illegally, Mitsotakis said in a tweet.



I want to be clear: no illegal entries into Greece will be tolerated. We are increasing our border security, he said.

All refugees, including Syrians, are now welcome to cross into the European Union.

Story continues

Despicable offensive

The threat to open the way for refugees to Europe would, if executed, reverse a pledge Turkey made to the European Union in 2016 and could quickly draw Western powers into the standoff over Idlib and stalled negotiations between Ankara and Moscow.

The burden of hosting refugees is too heavy for any single country to carry, the official said.

Turkey hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees and has repeated it cannot handle more. Under the 2016 deal, the European Union has provided billions of euros in aid in return for Ankara agreeing to stem the influx of migrants into Europe.

Hatay Governor Rahmi Dogan said none of the Turkish troops wounded in Thursdays air strike were in critical condition.

The US State Department said the United States was very concerned about the reported attack on Turkish soldiers.

We stand by our NATO ally Turkey and continue to call for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia, and Iranian-backed forces, a State Department representative said in a statement.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced grave concern about the escalation in northwest Syria and reports that Turkish soldiers had been killed, and repeated his call for an immediate ceasefire, a spokesman said.

Erdogan and US President Donald Trump may hold a phone call to discuss Idlib after the attack on Turkish soldiers, two Turkish officials told Reuters.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assads forces, supported by relentless Russian air strikes, have pushed hard in recent months to retake the last large rebel-held region in northwest Syria.

Turkey has been sending troops to back the rebels it supports against the offensive.

The war in Syria has displaced millions and killed hundreds of thousands.

Migrant accord

As fighting raged along several fronts on Thursday, the United Nations said it was having catastrophic humanitarian consequences, with at least 134 civilians, including 44 children, killed in February, and schools and hospitals destroyed.

Seven children were among 11 people killed when an air strike hit a school in northern Idlib on Tuesday, according to the United Nations.

Turkey has urged Europe to do more to ease the crisis in Idlib, and Erdogan said last year his government could open the gates for migrants to Europe if it failed to act.

The 2016 EU-Turkey accord aimed to help end the chaotic arrival of migrants and refugees, most of them fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, after more than a million reached Europe in 2015.

Under the agreement, migrants and refugees who cross the Aegean Sea illegally are sent back to Turkey. But Ankara has said funding from Europe was slow to materialise and paltry next to the $40 billion it says it has spent.

Turkish and Russian officials held a third round of talks in Ankara on Thursday. Two previous rounds did not yield a ceasefire deal.

Earlier on Thursday, Russian state television said Turkish military specialists were using shoulder-fired missiles to try to shoot down Russian and Syrian military aircraft over Idlib.

In Washington, the Pentagon said US Defense Secretary Mark Esper spoke to his Turkish counterpart on Thursday and they discussed Idlib and Libya.

We are exploring ways the United States can work together with Turkey and the international community, the Pentagon said of the call.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The delegation led by Head of the Defense Policy Department of the Defense Ministry of Armenia Levon Ayvazyan participated in the discussion and military-political consultations of the Armenian-Greek defense cooperation plan for 2020 in Greece on February 28.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Defense Ministry of Armenia, during the meetings with their Greek partners the results of the cooperation of 2019 were summed up and the programs for 2020 were discussed. The sides highly assessed the results of the cooperation.

Based on the results of the consultations, the defense ministries of Armenia and Greece signed the bilateral cooperation plan for 2020. On the same day a trilateral cooperation plan was signed between Armenia, Greece and Cyprus.

During the meetings issues referring to regional security were discussed. The sides presented their positions on the regional developments and challenges.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
by Sumon Corraya

Some 50 youth from all of the countrys dioceses took part in the event. For one chaplain, by training young people, we will create the leaders of future generations and the Church. Student wants to provide a holistic service to fellow citizens.

Dhaka (AsiaNews)  A group of young Catholics took part in a seminar on citizenship and social advocacy that began on 21 February and ended today.

The event, which was held at the Dhaka Caritas Development Institute, was organised by the Asia-Pacific section of the International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS-AP) and the Bangladesh Catholic Students Movement (BCSM).

About 50 Bangladeshi youth participated in National Transformative Leadership Programme, said one of the organisers, William Nokrek, speaking to AsiaNews.

The aim of the seminar was strengthening Catholic student groups through capacity building, movement building, developing spirituality by advocacy and spiritual action.

Issues of global relevance were addressed, such as climate change, conflicts, solidarity and justice advocacy.

Some of the issues discussed included the lack of trust among the younger generations because of older generations reluctance to introduce them to the world of work, the lack of extracurricular activities in schools, and the difficulty in identifying leaders who can leave up to expectations.

According to IMCS-AP coordinator Nokrek, young people must be encouraged to develop a spirituality of action, which is not satisfied with meetings and prayers but lives in a concrete way, so that our community can contribute effectively at the local, national and international levels.

Shubra Teresa Sarder, a 23-year-old university student from the Diocese of Barisal and a local BCSM leader, attended the seminar. For her, the meeting taught how to become a transformative leader. This means First of all that I need to know citizens' rights. Thus, As a leader, I have to provide a holistic service to citizens.

At the same time, she explained that she learnt what Christian and national leadership is. For this reason, I will strive to be a good leader for the Church and the country.

According to student movement chaplain John Shanth Kumar Joseph, by training young people, we will create the leaders of future generations and the Church.

The chaplain, who hails from India, noted that the training method used was to divide young people into various groups "so that they can understand the (various) issue(s) in depth".

At the end of the seminar, participants said that the would organise similar meetings in their respective dioceses.
The Delhi High Court Friday asked the AAP government and the police to respond to a plea for ensuring security at board exam centres in northeast Delhi where violence over the amended citizenship law has left 39 people dead and scored injured.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher issued notice to the Delhi government and police on the plea and asked them to ensure security is not breached in board exam centres in violence-hit northeast Delhi.

The Central Board of Secondary Education told the high court that it was optimistic about holding Board exams in the northeast Delhi centres from March 2.

The court had on Wednesday taken note of the worsening situation in the area and had directed the CBSE to come up with a plan to re-schedule them or change the affected centres.
The Aam Aadmi Party has suspended councillor Tahir Hussain who is facing accusation over the murder of IB Officer Ankit Sharma who was killed during the Delhi riots. This came after the Delhi Police booked him in connection with the murder of Sharma, whose body was recovered from Delhis Chand Bagh.

He has been booked under section 302 IPC (Punishment for murder). Sharmas family accused Hussain of being behind the death. The councillor, however, denied the allegations as baseless and called for an impartial probe.

Hussain had claimed that his house was attacked by a mob and he was rescued by the police the day before the murder. However, he has admitted that he was in the widely-circulated videos where stones and firebombs are thrown at crowds.

In one of the videos, Hussain can be seen holding a lathi and smoke rising up from his building. The AAP leader said that he was only trying to protect himself from the crowd that was attacking his house.

The rooftop of Hussain's house, however, paints a totally different picture. It was full of bricks, stones, sticks and petrol bombs suggesting that the rooftop was used as a launching pad for the attacks.

BCCL

Sharma's family had alleged that the IB employee was captured by the mob while he was returning from work. Denying any role in the murder, Hussain had said "I have nothing to do with it. I want justice for him. I am willing to cooperate with the police."



Earlier AAP Supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that Hussain should be given double punishment if he is found guilty. "No one, be it any party, should be spared if they are responsible for inciting violence. Even if he is a part of my cabinet, he should be punished. If anyone from AAP is found guilty, they should get double the punishment."

BCCL

The autopsy of his body suggests over 200 injuries, including deep stab wounds, apart from blunt force impact (assault), indicating that he was tortured and then killed before his mutilated body was dumped in the drain.

Sharma is one of the 38 people how were killed in the violence that broke out on Monday in Northeast Delhi which began as clashes between pro and anti-CAA groups. Out of the 38, the identities of 30 of them have been established so far. Relative calm has returned to the area since Thursday, following days of violence.
India's surgical strikes and Balakot bombings sent a strong message to Pakistan that terror infrastructure across the border cannot be used as safe haven to wage a low-cost war against India, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday.

In an address at a seminar, he said India's adversary on the Western border will have to think 100 times before considering about any future "misadventure".

The "out-of-the-box" response in the form of Balakot airstrikes following the Pulwama terror attack last year forced rewriting of many doctrines by the adversary across the LoC, Singh said without naming Pakistan.

A fleet of Indian Air Force aircraft bombed a terrorist training camp in Balakot inside Pakistan on February 26 last year to avenge the killing of 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in the Pulwama terror attack on February 14.

On September 29, 2016, the Army carried out surgical strikes on a number of terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir in retaliation to an attack on its base in Uri that month.

"Our approach to terrorism was and will remain a judicious combination of clinical military action and mature and responsible diplomatic outreach," Singh said, assuring the nation that the government will respond appropriately to any threat to India's national security.

He said the government has initiated major structural changes to tackle any future threats and it will take some time for the entire set up to be fully operational.

The defence minister said India's response following Pulwama attack displayed the country's defence capability and affirmed its right to defend itself against terrorism.

Singh described Balakot airstrikes as a singular event of military precision and impact, saying that it taught the leadership to think "strategic rather than tactical".

At the seminar titled 'Air Power in No War, No Peace Scenario', Singh paid tributes to 40 CRPF personnel killed in the Pulwama attack and saluted the soldiers who carried out the Balakot operation.

"If we've to be prepared for the tasks assigned to us, then it's important we maintain credible deterrence at land, air and sea at all times," he said.

Singh called "hybrid warfare" a reality, saying that a mix of kinetic and non-kinetic tools is a genuine threat. He emphasised the need to reorient the training of soldiers to meet the challenges posed by hybrid warfare.

Referring to various aspects of hybrid warfare such as expansion of battle space and use of technology infusion, he said, "In such a scenario, artificial intelligence, high-speed weapons and space-based sensors and tools will have a significant impact."



Singh said the world stands shoulder-to-shoulder with India in fighting the terrorism, a referred to sending of a strong message to Pakistan by global anti-terror watchdog FATF (Financial Action Task Force) in its Paris meeting recently.

"We have recently seen the impact of collective diplomatic and financial pressure on Pakistan. Terrorists like Hafiz Saeed who were treated like VIPs and heroes, have been put behind bars," Singh said.

"We realise that this is not enough and unless Pakistan is made accountable, it will continue with its previous policy of duplicity and deceit. All attempts are being made to work in this direction," he said.

"The Balakot air strikes conveyed India's clear message that infrastructure across the border won't be a safe haven for terrorists," the defence minister said.

Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and Chief of Indian Air Force Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria also spoke at the event.

Rawat said the clear message from the Balakot strikes was that the kind of "proxy war" perpetrated on India "will not be tolerated". IAF Chief R K S Bhadauria highlighted the need for new indigenous technology in warfare and urged DRDO to develop such weapons.

Addressing the gathering, Rawat highlighted the significance of "credible deterrence" in warfare.

"If we've to be prepared for the tasks assigned to us then it's important we maintain credible deterrence at land, air and sea at all times.

"Deterrence comes from keeping every personnel trained and motivated. he credible deterrence comes from the will of the military leadership and intent of political leadership while taking the tough decision. This was amply shown after Kargil, Uri attacks and Pulwama attack," he said.

"We had an edge over Pakistan Air Force in terms of Beyond Visual Range Missile capability at the time of Kargil. We allowed that to slip and thereafter it took a decade and half in our struggle to acquisition process to be able to get better capability," the Air Force chief said in his speech.

This would soon materialise with the induction of the Rafale jets, he said.

"In air engagement, especially in a deeply contested area, it is important to to have a weapons edge. Once we retain this edge,it is important that we don't allow to slip back this edge," he added.

Hailing the government's decision to carry out the Balakot strikes, Bhadauria said it was a "tough and bold decision to strike at the heart of terrorist training camps deep inside Pakistan across the Line of Control".

"IAF successfully struck the target chosen. Pakistan Air Force responded 30 hours later with a large package of aircraft under Operation Swift Retort. IAF ensured they weren't able to hit targets. They were in a hurry to disengage.They were doing it for their domestic audience," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The entry of Iranian citizens into Russia has been temporarily restricted, according to a report on the Russian governments website. The order was given yesterday by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

"In order to ensure state security, protect public health, and prevent the spread of a new coronavirus infection (2019-nCoV) on the territory of the Russian Federation, from 00:00 on February 28, 2020, Moscow time, the Russian Federal Security Service temporarily suspends passage of citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran across the Russian state border, their entry into the territory of the Russian Federation for studying and employment, as well as for private, tourist and transit purposes," the statement reads.



By another decree, the government adopted a temporary restriction for entry of foreign citizens from Iran through air checkpoints at the Russian state border starting on February 28.

The cabinet also noted that the Russian Foreign Ministry would inform Iran and other affected countries, stressing that the suspension is a temporary measure, caused by an emergency.
ABC staff fear a potential boost in emergency broadcast funding could provide false reassurance to disaster-prone communities.

Executives at the broadcaster are lobbying the federal government to lift a three-year indexation freeze that took effect last July, stripping $84 million from its budget. Senior managers say the request is a long shot and if ABC receives any additional funding, it's likely to be a smaller sum in the form of a tied grant, which can only be spent on emergency news coverage.

The Victorian town of Mallacoota is one of many affected by recent bushfires. Credit:Getty

"That sounds good in theory but tied grants come with all sorts of problems," says one executive, requesting anonymity due to the sensitive nature of funding negotiations. "They're not the solution they're cracked up to be."

Since 2015, ABC's workforce has shrunk by almost 15 per cent to 4650 employees, with around 200 additional redundancies expected this year. While management hopes to minimise cuts to its regional newsrooms, sources say that no division is immune  and the limitations of tied grants are already being felt.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a copy of The Washington Post at the White House. AP-Yonhap



By Oh Young-jin





What was U.S. President Donald Trump thinking when he heaped criticism on Korean director Bong Joon-ho's movie "The Parasite" that won big at the recent Academy Awards?



It has little to do with Bong or the movie's plot  a satire on class struggle with modern twists  or even Bong's native nation, South Korea, which Trump openly took a jab at during his anti-"Parasite" tirade. Rather, what triggered his paroxysm of anger was the presenters of the four awards. One giveaway is that Trump's unexpected attack on the Korean film is part of  what else  his re-election campaign.



Jane Fonda, who gave Bong the Best Picture Oscar, is a legend in actor activism, being huge in the anti-Vietnam War campaign and very influential in social issues. She is not exactly Trump's cup of tea.



The populist and egocentric leader would not stand the sight of her and, more importantly, what she represents. Then, she is an intellectual type, the opposite of Trump's misogynistic views and his carnal inclination. In all likelihood, it is not necessary to ask the two whether they have the slightest hint of fondness for each other because the answer is a foregone conclusion.





South Korean film director Bong Joon-ho accepts the award for Best Director for "Parasite" from U.S. director Spike Lee during the 92nd Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California, on Feb.9. AP-Yonhap



From his record, there is little doubt that Trump doesn't care for Penelope Cruz, the Spanish actress who presented Bong with the best International Feature Film Oscar. It is public knowledge that the U.S. president has no love for foreigners  dubbing Mexicans wetbacks who are rapists and poking fun at those from immigrant families.



Remember that Trump told four progressive congresswomen to go back to their "broken and crime-infested countries" when he didn't like what they said. The four are Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib. Omar was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and later became a U.S. citizen. The others were born and raised in the U.S.





Diane Keaton and Keanu Reeves present the award for Best Original Screenplay to Bong Joon-ho for "Parasite" at the Oscars on Feb. 9. AP-Yonhap



Director Spike Lee, of "Do the Right Thing" fame, presented the Best Director award to Bong. He is an African-American who has grown up poking fun at the fallacies of White America, which is represented by Trump. There is no need to talk about Trump's main support group being a disgruntled segment of Caucasians, which is losing its grip on power with its portion of the American demographic diminishing while other racial segments are increasing.



Finally, Keanu Reeves is a Canadian born in Beirut, Lebanon, who starred in "The Matrix" franchise. In "Parabellum," Reeves plays John Wick, a Dirty Harry-style, make-my-day, macho role. But it is hard to imagine him backing Trump. Reeves presented Bong with the Best Original Screenplay award.





Jane Fonda embraces director Bong after presenting him with the Oscar for Best Picture. EPA/Yonhap



Combine these presenters with what Hollywood represents by and large  at least actors and actresses as well as directors. They are liberal-minded, open-hearted and sophisticated, the concepts that are an anathema to the Trump world that is inward-looking, narrow-minded and uncouth.



Of course, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Oscar giver, has been under fire for being racially bigoted and recently tried to improve its image by getting more inclusive. The "Parasite" triumph may be part of it but still the academy is listening to what people have to say. And Trump has gone after its willingness to listen.



"How bad were the Academy Awards this year?" Trump said during a reelection campaign rally in Colorado Springs, Colorado. "We got enough problems with South Korea, with trade. On top of it, they give them the best movie of the year."



Still, this is vintage Trump, who appealed to his support group who chanted "Make America great again" after the president. Citing a foreign country in his theatric jab, as in his talk about imbalanced trade, is an effective psychological tactic to make a common enemy out of a third party and appeal to supporters. Call it populist or nationalist, it will work more often than not.



For any doubters about Trump's stance on Hollywood and actors, his remark about Brad Pitt, winner of Best Supporting Actor, says it all. Trump mocked him as "a little wise guy" for showing disappointment over John Bolton  the national security adviser Trump fired  not being summoned to testify at Trump's impeachment trial in the Senate.





Director Bong Joon-ho accepts the Best International Feature Film award for "Parasite" from Spanish actress Penelope Cruz. AFP-Yonhap
In January, a federal judge in Los Angeles signaled that he was inclined to approve the University of Southern Californias $215 million class-action settlement with former patients of Mr. Tyndall, who was charged criminally in June 2019 with 29 total counts of sexual penetration and sexual battery. If convicted, he could face up to 53 years in prison. He has denied wrongdoing.

Kenneth L. Marcus, the assistant secretary of education for civil rights, said the investigation was one of the largest that the office had ever conducted. The department initiated the investigation itself, a rare step, in May 2018 based on concerns that had arisen during previous investigations at the school. Investigators reviewed 20,000 pages of documents, interviewed about 95 staff and students, and held a community meeting.

Mr. Marcus said the investigation turned up extraordinarily egregious facts in one of the most shocking cases weve seen. Investigators determined that the university was notified about sexual harassment since at least 2000, and that its failure may have allowed female students to be subjected to such discrimination for more than a decade.

They found that patients and staff complained that during pelvic examinations, Mr. Tyndall made inappropriate remarks about physical attributes; that he would conduct pelvic exams without gloves; and in 2016, that the university failed to investigate more than 200 photographs of patients genitals that were discovered in his office.

Carol Folt, the universitys president, said in a statement that the agreement reflected its commitment to work in partnership with the Education Departments Office for Civil Rights to further a culture and climate where students, faculty and staff can learn, work and thrive, and that the university had already taken several steps to improve.
What are we supposed to do?

That's a familiar question to anyone who even glances at the news in 2020. To be an informed citizen today is to live in a constant and paralyzing state of disbelief, anxiety, dread and panic. We walk around dazed and wide-eyed, shaking our heads, holding up our phones, going, "Did you see this?" "Did you hear about this?" "Can you believe this?"

This is the foundation for Jenny Offill's wry new novel, "Weather," which follows Lizzie, a librarian-turned-prepper (for "doomsday prepper") as she absorbs with mounting anxiety each new revelation about the erosion of our planet. She obsessively researches survival techniques for the imminent climate catastrophe that will take us all out  except those who are rich enough to make it to higher ground.

The book's unconventional narration, styled in paragraph-sized anecdotes  exchanges and interludes that hang together like memories  is interrupted by intrusive thoughts: "No more apples soon; apples need frost." "In those disaster movies, if a person sees something from the time before, a phone charger, say, or the Statue of Liberty, she starts to weep." The effect is an accumulating dread that feels like an extension of your own.

To offset that despair, Lizzie deploys wry wit and gallows deadpan. "(O)ne day I have to run to catch the bus," Lizzie narrates. "I am so out of breath when I get there that I know in a flash all my preparations for the apocalypse are doomed. I will die early and ignobly."

In a recent e-mail interview with Offill, who's reading at Northshire Books in Saratoga Springs on Friday at 7 p.m., I asked her about models of grief and to whom she turns when searching for ways of coping productively.

"For me, one model about grief is from the feminist theorist Donna Haraway," Offill said. "She writes that when it comes to the complexities of living through the climate crisis, our job is to 'stay with the trouble.'"

Facing trouble, and suffering, is another theme of "Weather." We tend to think of or talk about pain, loss and suffering almost dismissively as "unbearable." When Lizzie is learning about the Buddhist concept of dukkha, she explains it this way: "Instead of saying that life is suffering, they might say that life is tolerable. As in just barely."

"I remember being both skeptical of and intrigued by the notion," Offill said when I ask her about how she arrived at this concept. "(P)ain, emotional or physical, often comes in waves and ... you could notice the pause between each wave." Those pauses offer brief but important periods of relief. They're what help with the coping.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Whether "Weather" is a guide to despair in the 21st century depends on your levels of anxiety over the threats to our planet, our democracy and our shared sense of reality. But while the novel is honest about the ways in which we process that anxiety, it is not bleak. In fact, Offill is hopeful, if pragmatic.

"It's becoming clearer and clearer that we need to work together to imagine and construct new ways of living," she says, "and I think in order to do this we have to start talking about how hard it is to zero in on that grief in the midst of all the everyday things."

Brianna Snyder is a freelance writer who contributes to the Times Union.
With the nation's capital mired in gridlock and the Affordable Care Act facing a dire legal challenge, the prospects of lowering health care costs for Americans this year seem unlikely.

Just don't tell that to Coloradans.

Democratic majorities in the state House and Senate and a Democratic governor eager to push aggressive health care measures have turned Colorado into one of the foremost health policy laboratories in the country. State lawmakers have taken swift action on many of the same health issues being debated at the federal level, including a government-run health plan known as a public option, surprise medical billing, drug importation and high drug costs.

Colorado has emerged as a potential model for revamping health care in other states  and provided a glimpse of what a sweeping Democratic victory in November might mean for Americans.

"From a national perspective, this is known as one of the cool places for health care reform, where people are trying new ideas, where there is leadership, where there is community, where there are all the critical elements to get something done," said Dr. Jay Want, executive director of the Peterson Center for Healthcare, a New York-based health policy think tank.

Full speed ahead

Colorado's push started in earnest when Gov. Jared Polis took office in January 2019 with the promise of helping consumers cut health care costs. He literally created an Office of Saving People Money on Health Care in his first month on the job. What followed was a four-month legislative session in which lawmakers pushed through a decade's worth of health care bills.

"You can argue it was the most consequential legislative session for health care since Colorado expanded Medicaid much earlier this decade," said Joe Hanel, director of communications for the Colorado Health Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on health policy analysis.

Lawmakers passed a reinsurance bill that shielded insurance plans from the costs of their sickest patients, resulting in a 20% drop in 2020 premiums for Coloradans who buy their coverage on the individual market, not through their employers.

Surprise billing protections, which took effect Jan. 1, cap what out-of-network doctors or other medical providers can charge when patients receive services in hospitals that are not part of their insurance network. The new provision establishes an arbitration process for ongoing billing disputes.

Legislators capped copays for insulin at $100 per month and approved the importation of drugs from Canada, once federal authorities establish the process for doing so.

And the legislature authorized the Polis administration to develop a public option proposal that would provide competition to private insurance carriers selling plans on the individual market.

Hanel said state officials have taken an aggressive approach to reining in health care costs.

"They've really transformed their agencies in a short year or so," he said.

For example, Colorado Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway has shifted the Division of Insurance from mainly an actuarial agency reviewing rate filings into more of an advocate for consumers. The division is developing a standard for insurance that would consider whether premiums are affordable when approving insurance rates.

A public option

This year, the legislature will decide whether to implement the public option plan developed by the Polis administration.

While many thought that plan would create a government-run alternative to private insurance similar to a Medicare plan open to anyone, the final draft retains a role for insurance companies in administering public option plans.

The plan would also benchmark hospital payment rates to a percentage above what Medicare pays, developing a formula to adjust those rates for each hospital. A small rural hospital would be paid differently from a large urban hospital, while independent hospitals would be paid differently from chain hospitals.

Insurance carriers would be limited to using no more than 15% of total premiums collected for administrative costs and profits, which is lower than the Affordable Care Act cap. They would also be required to use any rebates from drug companies to reduce patients' premiums. The state is asking legislators for the authority to force hospitals and health plans to participate if they won't do so voluntarily.

"What Colorado is doing is very innovative. There is really only one other state, Washington state, that is doing anything comparable to a public option," said Billy Wynne, a Washington, D.C.-based health policy consultant who recently formed the Public Option Institute. "Other states have been looking at it and will pursue similar programs in the future, especially if [Colorado] can pull off the 'triple lindy' and make this successful."

Industry pushback

Hospital representatives have expressed skepticism about the public option plan, which they see as mainly targeting hospitals to achieve savings.

"The rate-setting as it is currently proposed is a 40% hit to some hospitals," said Katherine Mulready, senior vice president and chief strategy officer of the Colorado Hospital Association, which represents more than 100 hospitals. Hospitals and other providers, she said, may not be able to maintain the same level of services and access now available.

But state officials point to recent studies suggesting prices at Colorado hospitals are among the most expensive in the country: A Rand Corp. study found that Colorado hospitals charge three to four times the Medicare rate, and an analysis of the Denver market showed the area's 27 hospitals netted a combined $2 billion in pretax profits in 2018, with average profit margins exceeding 19%.

Hospitals say they must charge higher rates to privately insured patients to make up for the shortfall from Medicare, Medicaid and uninsured patients. But the state released a report in January showing that even when Medicaid rates went up and the need for charity care went down, hospitals still raised their prices.

"We're getting close to the mark because some of the hospitals and pharmaceutical companies sent out a mailer against the public option," Polis said in a Jan. 14 public forum on the proposal. "We must be getting something right if they're that worried about it. But it also adds insult to injury for those of us who are consumers of medical services  to know they're using some of that money from overcharging to lobby against reforms that are saving people money. That is rubbing salt in the wounds."

Insurers are also wary of the plan.

"We are very concerned  and I would say opposed  that the government will tell us the product, the price and the place that we have to sell," said Amanda Massey, executive director of the Colorado Association of Health Plans. "That is fundamentally opposed to private business and competition."

The Colorado Medical Society, which represents physicians, issued a statement generally supporting the goals of the public option plan but didn't go so far as to endorse it.

Blueprint for the nation?

The public option would initially be available only to those consumers who buy policies on the individual market in 2022, estimated to be fewer than 7% of the state's population. State officials said that they plan to later expand to the small-group market and that they expect the lower prices will put pressure on rates for large-group employer-sponsored plans as well.

The proposal, while not as disruptive as a "Medicare for All" or single-payer approach, represents a step toward government-run health care.

"What the state is doing is intervening, to some degree, in commercial negotiations between plans and hospitals," Wynne said. "Let's be honest: The state will be leaning on hospitals on their participation and reimbursement rate, and that is a tremendous benefit to health plans."

Colorado's approach could provide a blueprint for any moderate Democratic presidential candidates promoting a public option on the national level, much in the way Massachusetts provided the basic framework for the Affordable Care Act.

"Colorado is doing it and is ahead of the curve," Wynne said. "If one of those people wins, they're going to be looking to this state as a model for what to try to help other states do."

Locally, Democrats also are betting that by addressing what Coloradans have identified as their highest priority  reducing the cost of health care  they'll be well positioned to build on their state majority in the 2020 elections.

"I haven't met a single voter," Polis quipped recently, "who said, 'I don't pay enough for my health care.'"
CAMEROON, Cameroon - Secretary-General Antonio Guterres again called for an immediate cease-fire in northwestern Syria Friday before the situation gets entirely out of control, and 13 of the 15 nations on the U.N. Security Council supported his appeal at an emergency meeting  but not Syrias closest ally Russia and China.

The U.N. chief made the appeal after airstrikes in the last opposition stronghold in Idlib killed at least 33 Turkish troops on Thursday. The attack heightened tensions between pro-opposition Turkey and Russia, and raised the possibility of an all-out war with millions of Syrian civilians trapped in the middle.

Guterres said hes been in very close contact with Russia and Turkey, appealing for a cease-fire in the Idlib region but we are not yet there.

Without urgent action, he warned, the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour.

The four European Union council members  France, Germany, Belgium and Estonia  said in a joint statement that the military escalation in Idlib must stop.

We demand an end to this Syrian military campaign supported by Russia, and fully back the calls made by the U.N. secretary-general for an immediate cease-fire and unimpeded humanitarian access, they said. We strongly urge the U.N. to accelerate and intensify their engagements with all relevant parties to secure an immediate cease-fire effort in northwest Syria.

The four EU countries requested the emergency meeting along with the United Kingdom, United States and Dominican Republic.

U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft condemned the attacks on the Turkish troops in the strongest possible terms, calling them wholly unjustified, senseless and barbaric. She reiterated U.S. calls for an immediate, durable, and verifiable cease-fire

Craft said the council meeting is about the reckless and serious risk of the Assad regime and Russias offensive places on the security of a NATO ally, but it is also about the 950,000 Syrians who have fled the governments offensive that began in December, many now living in flimsy tents and in the open in freezing temperatures.

She asked again: Are we going to sit back and watch? Are we going to remain silent? Or will we deliver? How many more babies have to freeze to death before we raise our voices and say, `Enough!

Estonias U.N. Ambassador Sven Jurgenson said Russia has blocked Security Council resolutions calling for a nationwide cease-fire.

In light of what has happened, we urge Russia to reconsider its position and allow a chance for a humanitarian truce, he said.

But Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said over recent months, terrorists seized Idlib and the Jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS, has upped its incursions against civilians and Syrian forces.

The Syrian army is fully in its right to respond and clamp down on the terrorists, he said. This is in its own territory.

Chinas U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said terrorism is an underlying factor in the nine-year Syrian conflict and eradicating the forces of terror is a necessary requirement for the restoration of peace and stability in Syria and the region.

Terrorists should be resolutely crushed, and safe havens established by terrorist forces in Syria should be liquidated, he said. At the same time, counter-terrorism operations should be cautious not to harm civilians.
The Islamic Republic's first ambassador to Vatican, 81-year old cleric Hadi Khosroshahi, has died of coronavirus in Iran, local media reported.

A prominent figure in Irans hole city of Qom, Khosroshahi was a black-turbaned cleric carrying the title of "Sayyid," meaning a descendent of Prophet Muhammad.

Khosroshahi was transferred to a hospital in Tehran on Wednesday and tested positive for Covid-19, publicly known as coronavirus. A day later, he died of respiratory complications.

After two years serving as the representative of the founder of the nascent Islamic regime, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Khosroshahi was appointed as Tehran's ambassador to the Vatican. He was the first Shi'a clergy serving representing the Islamic Republic at the Vatican.

When he was just 15 years old, Khosroshahi joined the leader of militant Fada'iyan-e Islam (Devotees of Islam), Sayyid Mojtaba Mir-Lohi, nicknamed as Navvab Safavi.

Fadaiiyane-Islam was responsible for a series of assassinations in Iran from 1940s to 1960s, including two Prime Ministers, one Minister of Royal Court, and a prominent anti-Islam scholar.

Khosroshahi was close to Egypts Muslim Brotherhood. Based on his interviews, in at least two cases, he sought Khomeini's approval for the assassination of the Islamic Republic's first President, Abolhassan Bani Sadr and Iran's last Queen Farah Pahlavi, both living in exile in Paris. Khomeini rejected the idea, Khosroshahi maintains.

However, according to Khosroshahui, the man, briefly introduced as Abu al-Alaa, who had proposed to assassinate the Queen, was later killed in a street battle with the Egyptian security forces in Cairo.

Moreover, during Khomeini's rule from 1979 1989, several exiled Iranians, including Iran's last monarch's nephew and a former five-star general, were assassinated in Paris.

While in the Vatican, Khosroshahi founded a base for propagating Shi'ism in the West. The headquarters, called "Europe's Islamic Culture Center," is still active today in many western European capitals.

After serving in the Vatican, Khosroshahi was sent to Cairo, where he represented Tehran for two years at the Islamic Republic's Interest Section.

Returning to Iran, Khosroshahi preferred to stay out of the center stage, and focused on compiling theological books related to Shi'ism.
Former Ukrainian President and current Verkhovna Rada deputy Petro Poroshenko arrived for questioning by an investigator of the National Bureau of Investigations on Friday morning and said the court had ordered to close the case of judges appointed by the president in which he was involved.

Poroshenko and his lawyers were greeted by supporters at the entrance to the National Bureau of Investigations, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent said.

"Ten minutes ago, a judge of the Shevchenkivsky Court [Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv] overruled the investigator's resolution, which dismissed our motion for closing the criminal case which is the reason we are here today for questioning. The resolution has been canceled. The judge decided to compel the investigator to consider the closure of this criminal case due to the absence of formal elements of a crime," Poroshenko said before entering the building of the National Bureau of Investigations on Friday.

He told those present that he had come in for questioning despite the fact that he believed it was politically motivated.

Lawyer Ihor Holovan said his client would be questioned about the judge appointment case.

The National Bureau of Investigations published a full list of criminal proceedings involving Poroshenko on November 20. The cases include abuse of office and interference in the activity of Ukrainian judges by means of their untimely appointment, which led to the unfounded payment of salaries from the Ukrainian national budget, unlawful influencing of the selection of candidates for the Supreme Council of Justice from March to May 2019, the brief period of contest and the possibility of unlawful decisions changing the contest procedure, and interference in the activity of the Kyiv District Administrative Court by the president and members of the National Security and Defense Council regarding the decision to cancel the nationalization of Privat Bank.
Flights also suspended after Mitiga airport, the only functioning airport in Tripoli, was attacked.

The bombardment of Libyas capital Tripoli intensified on Friday, residents said, forcing the evacuation of some patients from a hospital near the capitals only functioning airport.

Residents said the shelling was among the hardest since the two rival governments said they had agreed to a ceasefire in January, as blasts of artillery echoed in the city centre and black smoke billowed near Mitiga airport that is held by the government.

The fighting, between the Libyan National Army (LNA) of eastern-based leader Khalifa Haftar and the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) based in Tripoli, came as the United Nations tried to hold peace talks in Geneva.

The town council of Abu Salim, a Tripoli neighbourhood, posted pictures of damaged houses on Facebook, saying a woman and child had been taken to hospital.

Flights suspended

Flights were also suspended once again on Friday at the only functioning airport in Libyas capital following the rocket attacks.

Shelling of Mitiga airport has forced a suspension of flights for hours at a time on consecutive days this week and new damage to a hangar was visible after Fridays bombardment.

The airport has come under frequent attacks by forces loyal to Haftar this month. It was hit by Grad missiles, GNA said in a statement on Thursday, in this weeks third attack by the Haftar militias.





Since the overthrow of late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, two seats of power have emerged in Libya: Haftar supported mainly by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, and the GNA which enjoys UN and international recognition.

The GNA is also supported by Turkey and allied fighters it has brought from Syria.

Strong condemnation

Meanwhile, the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) strongly condemned the violence in Tripoli and repeated bombings over Mitiga airport in a statement on Friday.

In its statement, the UNSMIL said that the bombing of civilian neighbourhoods in Tripoli  which may amount to war crimes  aims not only to intimidate the [Libyan] people, but obstruct any potential agreement among them.

It added that all countries which participated in peace talks for the war-torn country, must abide by their pledges, especially by holding accountable those who obstruct the efforts to end the fighting in Libya.

Ghassan Salame, head of the UN Mission in Libya, said in an address in Geneva that he was concerned about the situation in Libya and Syria alike, adding that the two conflicts had overarching parallels.

I do believe that there are players who are now very active in both Syria and Libya. And I do believe that there is a mutual integration between the two conflicts that is not favourable for peace in either one, Salame said.

He also condemned the violence in Tripoli over the last 24 hours, referring to it as a significant breach to the truce.

On Monday, representatives from Libyas warring sides suspended their participation in UN-sponsored peace talks aimed at bringing an end to more than 10 months of fighting.

The LNA launched a military offensive in April last year aimed at seizing Tripoli. It has so far failed to breach the GNAs defences amid fierce fighting that has killed more than 1,000 people and displaced some 140,000.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 22:29:47|Editor: huaxia

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A side event titled "Progress of Human Rights in China" is held on the sidelines of the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Chen Junxia)

GENEVA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A group of scholars from the China Society for Human Rights Studies on Thursday shared their views on issues related to human rights protection on the sidelines of the ongoing 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council here.

At a side event titled "Progress of Human Rights in China," they introduced the country's human right protection system, the history, culture and religions of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, as well as China's efforts to protect human rights in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

In China, the system to protect human rights under the rule of laws has become more stronger and mature and people's human rights have been better guaranteed, Lu Zhian, executive deputy director of the Human Rights Research Center of Fudan University, told the audience.

He said that ensuring social equality and justice and people's rights is a significant advantage of China's state system and governance system. Thus, to adhere to and advance the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and modernize China's governance system and capacity for governance means to improve its human rights protection and safeguard people's rights in a more comprehensive and effective way.

Dr. Mahemuti Abuduwaili, an Uygur historian from the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, said he has witnessed the historic changes in Xinjiang since the reform and opening up, calling on people in the region to keep pace with the time and be more open and inclusive to learn and understand other cultures in China as well as the world.

Liu Zhengjiang, director of the Chinese Language Institute of the Xinjiang University, shared his opinions with his own experience that the ethnic education in Xinjiang, including the Uygur language study, is a result of adapting to Xinjiang's bilingual society and the implementation of Chinese ethnic policies in the region.

"Due to that, the ethnic education in Xinjiang has developed rapidly, the educational fairness has been ensured and the quality of ethnic education has been improved," he said.

As for the violence and terrorism in the region, Zheng Liang, a professor from the Guangzhou-based Jinan University, highlighted the big threat posed by the terrorist group East Turkestan Islamic Movement, saying that the group's ideological system was under the influence of al-Qaida.

Some countries are indifferent to its harms, and sometimes even take double standards to measure the Chinese government's actions against it, Zheng said, adding that "this does not help global counter-terrorism cooperation and will harm the interests of the international community as a whole in the long run."

Meanwhile, Xu Yao, a researcher of the Human Rights Research Center of the Nankai University, briefed the audience on China's human rights protection in the process of COVID-19 prevention and control.

Xu described the epidemic prevention and control "a big human rights challenge," however, he said that China has taken a batch of systematic and comprehensive measures to contain the spread of the disease as soon as possible.

These measures have effectively guaranteed patients' rights to medical treatments and safeguarded their privacy, and ensured the population's rights to receive public health services and learn information about the epidemic prevention and control.
- Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte expressed her support for the renewal of ABS-CBNs franchise

- She also acknowledged the support given by the Kapamilya network to the people of Davao City and the rest of the nation

- President Rodrigo Dutertes daughter added that she hopes for the resolution of ABS-CBNs franchise issues especially after her father accepted the public apology of network executive Carlo Katigbak

- Other famous personalities who support the President, like Robin Padilla and Phillip Salvador, also expressed their desire for the networks franchise renewal

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Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte, expressed her support for the renewal of ABS-CBNs franchise.

KAMI learned that she also acknowledged the support given by the Kapamilya network to the people of Davao City and the rest of the nation.

She expressed her hope that ABS-CBNs franchise issues will finally be resolved especially after her father accepted the public apology of network executive Carlo Katigbak.

Davao City fully supports ABS-CBN sa kanilang pagpapa-renew ng kanilang franchise. Of course malaki din ang suporta ng ABS-CBN sa Davao City at sa buong bansa.

"Hopefully ma-resolve in a very positive way ang issue ng franchise ng ABS-CBN, she told ABS-CBN News.

In his social media posts, Duterte supporter Robin Padilla also expressed his gladness that ABS-CBN and the President have reconciled.

Ellen Adarna, a former girlfriend of Baste Duterte, also posted about her support for the Kapamilya network.

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In a previous report by KAMI, Phillip Salvador clarified that he is not against the renewal of ABS-CBNs franchise.

Rodrigo Duterte is the 16th President of the Philippines, winning 39% of the votes in the 2016 Presidential Election. He had repeatedly called for the closure of ABS-CBN but has forgiven the network after one of its bosses made a public apology to him.

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Maricar Reyes talked to KAMI about her personal life and her recent viral post on social media! Check out all of the epic and exciting videos on our KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel!

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The Morrison government is set to abandon plans to privatise teams of aged care experts, with Health Minister Greg Hunt telling a meeting of states and territories it is "revisiting" the proposal.

Aged care assessment teams (ACAT) are the first point of contact for elderly Australians to assess the level of care they require to stay in their homes or move into residential care.

Health Minister Greg Hunt has told state and territory colleagues the federal government will be "revisiting" the tender and it is "unlikely to proceed". Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The federal government, which funds ACAT, in December announced a network of private assessment organisations would deliver it from April 2021, with a tender to be held this year.

ACAT largely operate out of public hospitals and include state-employed nurses, geriatricians and social workers.
Sinn Fein TD Eoin O Broin has said he found Provisional IRA members who inflicted violence during the Troubles to be among the most committed to the peace process.

During a wide-ranging interview on Independent.ie's 'Floating Voter' podcast, Mr O Broin also discussed watching a local Sinn Fein activist being shot by a loyalist terrorist.

The Dublin Mid-West TD also said death threats were made against him by loyalist paramilitaries while he was serving on Belfast City Council from 2001 to 2004.

"I count myself as exceptionally lucky because my experience of that kind of violence was very, very limited," Mr O Broin said.

He said most of those involved in the violence were "regular people" who ended up taking decisions that people who did not live in Belfast at that time would find "really difficult to understand".

"Those who were most committed to peace were those who were most negatively affected by it," he said. "Those who have lost loved ones throughout the course of the conflict, those people who inflicted violence and those people who were involved at some level."

He said he was opposed to all violence. However, he does not believe there is "any value" in commenting on whether the terrorist activities of the Provisional IRA were justified.

"I have always taken the view that that's a conversation that at this point in time I don't think has any value, honestly," he said.

"All I ask people to do is not to change how they view Sinn Fein or current members of Sinn Fein who were formerly in the IRA or formerly political prisoners [based on] their past.

"People are going to take their own view on all of that but equally we have to judge people on the work they do in terms of ensuring their past can never be repeated and that's a difficult space."

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Mr O Broin said he worked with people on Belfast City Council whose children had been murdered or their family members shot dead for being members of Sinn Fein.

"For three years of my life I had two loyalist paramilitary death threats against me," he said. He also witnessed pipe bomb attacks first hand.

"You would have been either at, witnessed or called to scenes of pipe bombings in your constituency at various stages," he said.

He also described calling an ambulance for a Sinn Fein activist who was shot by a loyalist terrorist during a stand-off in North Belfast.

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"A UDA gunman from another vantage point started shooting at us and one of the guys who was out on the streets with us, who was putting his own life at risk trying to calm a situation down, and physically keeping the peace, was shot in the leg and found beside us and we had to call the ambulance," Mr O Broin said.

The Dublin TD also discussed growing up in south Co Dublin suburb of Cabinteely and going to the fee-paying Blackrock College.

He also revealed he never completed his Leaving Cert.

"I was a terribly lazy pupil in secondary school. I was there physically if not intellectually," he said.

Mr O Broin said he sat the first exam of the Leaving Cert but left after 30 minutes and did not do the remaining exams. However, he did return to second-level education when he moved to England and went on to get a degree in cultural studies.

In London, he spent time squatting and playing in bands. He eventually joined the Irish Society in his university where he sought to highlight Irish racism in Britain.

He also described being regularly evacuated from his catering jobs in the UK due to IRA bomb warnings.
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Linkedin Onur Ant (Bloomberg) Istanbul, Turkey  Fri, February 28, 2020 10:29 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20671dafc 2 World Turkey,Syria-war,Russia,soldiers,airstrikes Free

Turkey and Russia are inching toward direct confrontation in Syria after an attack on Turkish positions in the war-torn nation killed at least 33 Turkish soldiers on Thursday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a crisis meeting with his top security officials after Turkeys military suffered its biggest single-day losses in an airstrike on their forces in Syria. Turkey will hit all regime targets using ground and air forces in retaliation, Erdogans office said after the meeting. As the toll of soldiers killed in the ambush rose, 32 others were wounded NTV reported on Friday, citing Rahmi Dogan, governor of Turkish border city Hatay.

Turkey repeated calls upon Western allies for backing in the wake of Thursdays clashes, with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu speaking to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Turkey has urged the US and EU powers to increase their support in the face of attacks on Turkish soldiers by Syrian forces operating under Russian air cover. But Erdogans efforts to drum up aid from his NATO partners that could strengthen his position have come to naught as hes tried to persuade Russias Vladimir Putin to drop support for the regime in Damascus.

At stake is not only Turkeys national security but also millions of Syrians who are likely to seek refuge in Turkey and in Europe as they escape Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in Syria. The latest attack makes it even more difficult for Turkey to prevent Syrian migrants from seeking refuge elsewhere, a senior Erdogan ally said, signaling growing frustration with European inaction.

Major escalation, Tim Ash, a strategist at BlueBay Asset Management in London, said after Thursdays clashes. Turkey and Russia could be on the brink of actual war. It has been coming for a while. Where is NATO?

Crisis meeting

Erdogan met with his Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and top security officials from the military and intelligence agency for two hours following the clashes. Earlier in the day, Turkey said the rebels it supports retook the town of Saraqib from Syrian regime forces. After the meeting, Akar and the militarys top brass traveled to the Syrian border, NTV said.

Turkish soldiers were stationed at several outposts in Idlib under a 2017 agreement with Russia and Iran to monitor a combat-free zone. Al-Assads forces have intensified attacks on rebel positions in the province in recent weeks, with some Turkish posts having been encircled.

Erdogan has pledged to push back Syrian forces should they fail to lift their siege on Turkish posts by the end of this month and lobbied U.S and European powers to bring pressure to bear on both Syria and Russia. Turkey has asked the US to deploy Patriot missiles on the border with Syria to deter Russian air forces operating around Idlib, though Erdogan has already acknowledged that his request from the US isnt likely to be fulfilled.

Refugee exodus

Thursdays attack -- the single deadliest incident suffered by Turkey, which maintains NATOs second-largest army, in the course of its campaign in Syria -- raises the stakes significantly.

Since the US withdrew its forces in October, war-torn Syria has become a big-power struggle between Russia and Turkey.

Turkey, already the biggest host of refugees with more than 3.5 million Syrians accepted, says it cant take any more if the Russian-backed attacks in Idlib unleash another wave. Hundreds of thousands are already on the move toward Turkey and the total number could exceed 2 million, Erdogan has said.

Europe, and Germany in particular, will be watching developments with growing alarm. The prospect of Turkey waving through a flood of Syrian refugees through its borders is precisely what Chancellor Angela Merkel had hoped to avert and will further stoke anti-immigrant populist sentiment across the continent.

Her open-door policy to Syria refugees back in 2015 fatally weakened her 15-year hold on power and unleashed the countrys far-right forces. Germany is now in the throes of a political battle where the pressure is building to take the country in a more conservative direction.

Within hours of Thursdays attack, spokesman of Erdogans ruling party Omer Celik said Turkeys policy on Syrian refugees remains unchanged but that its getting increasingly difficult to hold them.
Neighbours is set to celebrate its 35th Anniversary next month with an epic week of post-watershed episodes, as the soap witnesses a staggering five weddings and three deaths.

In an exclusive first look at the specials, Denise Van Outen dons a silver bridal gown to marry Gary Canning, as Erinsborough's wedding expo will take a deadly turn after a bomb is planted in one of the gift boxes.

Elsewhere it seems that Finn Kelly will continue to unravel after his memory returned, as he puts his 'revenge' plan in motion on a remote island.

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Dramatic: Neighbours is set to celebrate its 35th Anniversary next month with an epic week of post-watershed episodes, as the soap witnesses a staggering five weddings and three deaths

The trailer opens with Bea Nilsson (played by Bonnie Anderson) openly sharing her worries about Finn (Rob Mills), admitting that something seemed 'off' with his state of mind.

Meanwhile it seems that Finn is struggling to cope with the return of his memories as he sets a trap for the mysterious victim of his 'revenge' plot.

Finn's plan will be set in motion as most of Erinsborough's favourites journey to a remote Island for Elly Conway's (Jodi Anasta) 35th birthday, and it seems unlikely that they will all make it out alive.

Scary: In a week that will be fraught with tragedy, it seems that Erinsborough's wedding expo will take a disastrous turn

Upsetting: As they take a trip to remote Island to celebrate Elly's 35th birthday, Bea confides that she is worried about Finn's state of mind

Losing it: It seems that Finn is beginning to put his 'revenge plan' in motion after his memory returned, but the identity of his victim remains unclear

Sinister: At one point Finn can be heard hysterically saying: 'You've always been good to me - I didn't want to hurt you - you gave me no choice!'

On the edge: It's been teased for weeks that Finn could return to his villainous ways, and it seems to be at the exact time Neighbours will be marking its momentous anniversary

It's unclear who Finn captures to place in his underground bunker, but he is shown hysterically filming his victim before saying: 'You've always been good to me - I didn't want to hurt you - you gave me no choice!'

Given that Neighbours will mark its anniversary with a week of special post-watershed episodes, the soap doesn't seem to be holding back in depicting every gruesome moment in Finn's pursuit.

Neighbours veteran Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher) seems equally concerned about Bea, as wife Susan (Jackie Woodburne) tells him: 'I can't get through to anyone!'

Exciting: Neighbours' young cast will take a trip to the remote Island, and fans will have to wait and see which characters survive

Off they go! They're all seen heading to the remote Island on a luxury yacht, unaware that not all of them will survive the trip

Is it her? Elly shared a secret kiss with Finn, and despite his feels for Bea it seems to have left him confused

Concerned: Toadie seems equally worried about Bea's whereabouts, as he gets caught in the crossfire

Fire! With a bow and arrow in hand, Finn appears to find his target and is ready to fire, and fans will discover his victim in a special episode of the soap that will air post-watershed at 10pm

Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) also appears to be in the midst of a worried pursuit as he frantically drives through the bush.

Many fans will be hoping that is to do with the return of Prudence Wallace (Denise Van Outen), who first rubbed shoulders with Paul and his wife Terese (Rebekah Elmaloglou) in London before wreaking havoc Down Under.

The trailer also shares a glimpse of the long-awaited wedding expo, setting the stage for five couples to exchange their vows.

Among those set to tie the knot are Prue and Gary Canning (Damien Richardson), who stunned the Street with their surprise engagement late last year.

Worried: Neighbours veteran Karl Kennedy seems equally concerned about Bea, as wife Susan tells him: 'I can't get through to anyone!'

What's going on? Paul Robinson also appears to be in the midst of a worried pursuit as he frantically drives through the bush

Sinister: Finn struggles to hide his creepy intentions as he journeys to the remote Island for their camping trip

Scary: The Anniversary week will featured five special 10pm episodes, setting the stage for the death of three characters

The five unique weddings will also see the reunion of beloved couples from different decades of Neighbours that didnt quite make it to the alter the first time.

The trailer also reveals that not all of the wedding guests will survive the ceremonies, as a bomb is planted in one of the gifts leaving the entire guest list in peril.

It ends with Finn's mind becoming even more distorted, as he struggles to identify whether he is caressing Paige or Elly.

Wedding bells! The trailer also shares a glimpse of the long-awaited wedding expo, setting the stage for five couples to exchange their vows

What's going on? The trailer ends with Finn's mind becoming even more distorted, as he struggles to identify whether he is caressing Paige or Elly

Neighbours will mark its 35 years on screens with five of its usual daytime episodes, which will feature a host of former cast members returning to the infamous Ramsay Street.

These will be coupled with five additional stand-alone primetime 10pm episodes titled Neighbours: End Game.

Neighbours: End Game airs from Monday 16th March  Friday 20th March at 10pm on Channel 5. Neighbours airs Monday  Friday at 1:45pm and 5:30pm on Channel 5.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar arrived in Carrick-on-Shannon last Monday to see for himself the extent of the flooding locally and before he left he got a lesson in hydrodynamics, a detailed explanation on the workings of a 19th century weir, and what a local action group believe is needed in the short to medium term to solve critical flooding in the town.

The Taoiseach visited Carrick Retail Park on the Boyle Road where he saw the flooding that is once again threatening the businesses there, including Carrick Cineplex and Super Valu.

He met with Grainne Caldbeck of Enhance Health & Beauty, and Sham Hanifa of Synergy cafe who both detailed the difficulties they are experiencing due to the latest flooding that has covered the car park in front of their businesses.

Liam Farrell doubled up as owner of Carrick Cineplex and also Chairman of Carrick-on-Shannon Flood Action Group and he took the opportunity to have an impromptu yet detailed discussion in Synergy with the Taoiseach and also with Maurice Buckley, Chairman of the OPW.

Like the Shannon itself, Mr Farrell was in full flow and very assured of his brief in discussing the matter with both men.

He said it is extremely frustrating that small or medium works which won't solve flooding itself but will solve critical flooding, the stuff that brings Carrick-on-Shannon to a standstill on a number of occasions, are not being done.

We experience huge intransigence in dealing with bodies such as ESB, etc to get through a perceived mindset about lowering water in Lough Allen. We got to that point and Lough Allen is now lowered a half a metre in September after navigation so that's proactive rather than reactive.

Works were carried out at Jamestown on the Leitrim and Roscommon sides by both local authorities which greatly relieved flooding and let water convey through, he said.

Mr Farrell said the big issue in their view is Jamestown Weir which was constructed in the mid 19th century, was not built to specification, is too short, and doesn't function. The hydraulics don't work so the weir actually exacerbates the flood, he said.

If the weir functions it moves on the water and it removes this critical flooding and we wouldn't have to have this conversation again. It's a very, very small investment, he told the Taoiseach.

He was also critical of the huge amount of money being wasted in terms of CFRAMS and talking about walls and questioned the aesthetics of such walls.

Mr Farrell described this as very, very basic stuff.

It's like a house, you clean your gutters, if you don't clean your gutters they fall down. That's what it's all about.

I think we've gotten through to various bodies. They've started to listen to IFA, to mariners, people who have knowledge from various sectors but we do need to move on now, that work (Jamestown Weir) needs to be sanctioned, if it does then we can get on with our lives.

Brian Kenny, retired local authority engineer, told the Taoiseach he has studied the river since the 2009 flood.

Jamestown is one of those points on the Shannon where the water actually discharges freely. This part of the Shannon is totally different to other parts of the Shannon - you can solve problems here without impacting negatively downstream. The difficulty really is lack of maintenance, he said.

Another member of the flood action group, Sean Murtagh said in 2009 there was huge flooding here in Carrick-on-Shannon.

Leitrim County Council undertook to widen one of the pinch points at Jamestown. In 2015, we had higher rainfall yet we were not impacted as much. Actually doing that piece of work lowered the flooding of the area and did not impact anywhere further down, he said.

At this point, Maurice Buckley, Chairman of the OPW, had joined the meeting and Liam Farrell told him there is a huge deficit in knowledge with regards to the Shannon.

People need to know how the systems works, they need to talk to the mariners and the farmers. The weir is a central piece of infrastructure south of Carrick-on-Shannon and it's not working. It wasn't built to its construction size in the first place so it never has functioned and it certainly doesn't function now.

There's a very small amount of works required in Jamestown and yet again it's obfuscating and putting it off and not doing it. Why is it not being done? he asked.

This is serious, we've heard this before, this is four years on. We don't have time, as business people, to be hearing this, we need you to understand this, he implored.

He put it directly to Mr Buckley that if he believes walls will solve the problem and not fixing the weir in Jamestown, which would only come afterwards, then it is a fundamental flaw in your thought process.

Mr Kenny said the focus as it stands at the moment is on areas liable to flooding and the valuable assets that might be flooded, and the emphasis now is on building walls to protect those assets.

What we're asking for is to very, very simple stuff like maintaining the infrastructure you have, he said.

He gave the Taoiseach and Mr Buckley an example of 12 gates that are immersed in the river and are acting as a barrier.

He said if they were lifted out of the water, clear of the flood, that would reduce the levels in the car park and also the level out in Leitrim Village by the same amount. That would cost a fraction for what's being proposed by CFRAM, he said.

Mr Buckley told the group that they have the funding for the CFRAM scheme, then the detailed design will follow and will look at all those issues.

The final scheme may be different from what is outlined in CFRAM, he indicated.

We will take on board certainly all of the issues and we do respect the local knowledge that's available and the different parties involved, the farmers, the anglers, the people who use the river and the historical knowledge you have, he said.

Mr Farrell told him it was empirical knowledge.

As the meeting came to a conclusion, two ladies resident in Leitrim Village highlighted their concerns to the Taoiseach about the flooding that is taking place there. The flood waters have risen on the Keadue Road, Church Road, the Fairgreen and either side of the canal in Leitrim Village.
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Linkedin Isabel Reynolds, Shiho Takezawa and Emi Nobuhiro (Bloomberg) Tokyo, Japan  Fri, February 28, 2020 09:30 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206719ee0 2 World Japan,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus,outbreak,spreading,infection,infectious-diseases Free

Japan is becoming a center of concern as the coronavirus spreads globally, with the countrys official infection tally suspected to be the tip of the iceberg of a much wider outbreak.

As of Friday, Japan had about 200 confirmed cases of the pneumonia-causing virus, excluding those that erupted on the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship quarantined for weeks in Yokohama harbor. In neighboring South Korea, however, the number of infections has swelled rapidly, reaching almost 1,800 after the government tested tens of thousands of people to get a clearer picture of the deadly outbreak.

That divergence has experts -- and members of the public -- concerned about Japans approach to diagnosis.

For every one who tests positive there are probably hundreds with mild symptoms, said Masahiro Kami, chair of the Medical Governance Research Institute in Tokyo, and a practicing doctor. Those with mild symptoms are not being tested.

While the government says it has the capacity to conduct 3,800 tests a day, only 5,700 were actually carried out between Feb. 18-23, Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato told parliament Wednesday. That included the tests made on passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess, where Japans attempt to quarantine the boat resulted in an explosion in infections to more than 700 cases.

An ambulance travels away from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, operated by Carnival Corp., docked in Yokohama, Japan, on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2020. Aircraft chartered by the U.S. State Department are to arrive Sunday in Japan to evacuate about 400 citizens from the Diamond Princess. (Bloomberg/Toru Hanai)

No bans

Japans low level of confirmed infections has enabled Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to maintain a relatively relaxed stance on the outbreak compared with South Korea and China, where more than 78,000 cases and over 2,700 deaths have been recorded.

Unlike other countries in the region, Japan hasnt imposed travel bans on citizens from highly infected nations -- including China -- and Abe has encouraged, but not enforced, the cancellation of major public events. Many people in Tokyo continued to commute to work in packed trains. As public criticism mounted, Abe announced Thursday evening that schools will be shut from next week to April.

In order to grasp the current situation, we should test, said Kazuhiro Haraguchi, a lawmaker with Japans opposition Democratic Party for the People. Tests are not 100% reliable, but we need to know the facts.

Minister Kato said that public health centers had refused to test some people for the virus, probably because they were concerned they didnt have sufficient capacity.

Reflecting growing concerns over the outbreak in Japan as well as globally, the Nikkei 225 dropped as much as 3.5% in Friday morning trade and is down more than 9% so far this week.

Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister, right, covers his face next to Taro Aso, deputy prime minister and finance minister, while attending a budget committee session at the lower house of parliament in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. (Bloomberg/Kiyoshi Ota)

As cases mount, Japan rapidly becomes a coronavirus hotbed

The country has already come under fire for not testing the Diamond Princess passengers more extensively, with at least two Japanese testing positive for the virus after they returned home. Both had used public transport and been out in the general public after disembarking from the ship.

Theres also rising anxiety over the number of Japanese virus patients whose infection routes cant be traced. For example authorities have not yet been able to identify connections between those who got infected in the northern island of Hokkaido, which has now grown to become the biggest outbreak in Japan with 54 cases.

Unlike some other Asian countries, Japan didnt see a widespread local outbreak during the SARS and MERS virus epidemics. That lack of experience may have left it ill-equipped for dealing with the novel coronavirus, which is thought to be more infectious than those diseases, though less deadly.

An employee, center, uses a sewing machine while making {reusable-type} face masks at the Clever Co. factory in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Friday, Jan. 31, 2020. (Bloomberg/Kiyoshi Ota)

How the novel coronavirus can (maybe) infect You: QuickTake

Unlike South Korea and many other developed countries, Japan doesnt have a Center for Disease Control, meaning virus prevention and outbreak control is in the hands of bureaucrats from the health ministry, aided by a group of experts.

While there is a national benchmark for how testing for the virus should be undertaken, some cities and regions are applying different standards.

The official guidance is for anyone with mild symptoms to stay at home. Those with serious conditions are told to contact a hotline, where they can be linked to an appropriate medical facility. Doctors can recommend testing at Japans local public health centers if they suspect a coronavirus infection.

Approach criticized

Some public health centers -- including in Tokyo, the city of Nagoya and the Wakayama prefecture -- say they havent had consistent supplies of testing kits to meet requirements. Wakayama, which has confirmed 11 virus infections, is using its own parameters to decide when testing is needed.

Hospitals and clinics could also be concerned that if a case is confirmed on site, theyll be forced to shut down for disinfection, according to opposition lawmaker Haraguchi, who wants the government to compensate operators in these cases.

Even a member of the governments expert panel on the virus has criticized their efforts on diagnosis. Hitoshi Oshitani, a professor at Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, said last week that Japans initial efforts at testing were like using a pen light to hunt for a ping pong ball in the Tokyo Dome baseball stadium.

The handling of the Diamond Princess virus outbreak had already undermined trust in the governments capacity to handle the crisis. After discovering cases of the virus, Japan locked the ship down for 14 days, a move that some public health experts said probably fueled the spread on board. About a fifth of the ships 3,700 passengers and crew have tested positive for the virus.

Workers in protective gear walk near the Diamond Princess cruise ship, operated by Carnival Corp., docked in Yokohama, Japan, on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. Japan confirmed 41 more cases of the new coronavirus aboard the quarantined cruise ship, and denied entry to another vessel as it sought to control the spread of the deadly infection, with thousands now stranded on stricken luxury liners. (Bloomberg/Toru Hanai)

Get tested

Health minister Kato told parliament this week the government is working on a system to support the private sector to conducts tests so that more people can be tested for the virus.

With trust in authorities eroded, a broader testing regime is now needed to calm public unease, said Kenji Shibuya, director of the Institute for Population Health at Kings College London, and a former chief of health policy at the World Health Organization.

Scientifically we should target and prioritize the patients, he said by email. But it is now beyond that -- we are dealing with public fear, and to tackle it, we need to give people an opportunity to get tested.
This is the worst place in the world: US faith leaders meet victims of Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen

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American faith leaders met with representatives of Nigerian communities devastated by Boko Haram and Fulani tribesmen as well as key figures within the Buhari administration as part of a fact-finding mission to investigate reports of escalating insecurity in the West African country.

Johnnie Moore, an evangelical communications executive and president of the Congress of Christian Leaders, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group, traveled to Abuja on Feb. 17 and met with dozens of victims of terrorism from five different Nigerian provinces for three days.

After our journey there, we want the world to know that you havent heard half of it, the faith leaders said in a joint statement. The terrorists aim is to ethnically cleanse northern Nigeria of its Christians and to kill every Muslim who stands in their way.

In addition to victims, the two met with the chiefs of staff for both President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as part of their quest to determine the severity of the situation. They also met with four Muslim leaders.

Their trip came as thousands have been killed by Boko Haram (an Islamic militant group in Nigerias northeast with a splinter faction that has claimed allegiance to the Islamic State) and radical Fulani herdsmen who have in recent years increasingly raided predominantly Christian farming villages in the countrys Middle Belt.

Reports of barbaric overnight raids, attacks, abductions, executions and displacement of civilian communities have become more and more common. In Nigeria, over 2 million people have been displaced.

Moore and Cooper stressed that if things do not change immediately, portions of Nigeria and the broader Lake Chad region may soon become the most dangerous place on the planet.

This portion of Africa will be ground zero for the next generation's war on terrorism, and the humanitarian cost of letting these problems fester and multiply in the near term could result in disaster for much of Western Africa, they said.

Moore, who also serves as a commissioner on the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, made the trip in his private capacity. He has long traveled the world to advocate for persecuted believers. Cooper, a longtime Jewish human rights activist, is the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and also the director of its global social action agenda.

Although Moore had been to Nigeria several years ago, he was shocked by how much worse things have gotten there.

People are dying every single day and they don't have to be. More can be done, Moore told The Christian Post. This is not a poor country. [It's] the wealthiest country on the continent.

Considering Nigeria was placed on the U.S. State Departments special watch list for religious freedom over the governments inability to thwart attacks and hold perpetrators accountable, Moore and Cooper came to the conclusion after their meetings that the status quo is unacceptable.

The scale is just incomprehensible. It seems very, very clear to us that for various reasons, the government is failing at its fundamental responsibility to protect its citizens, Moore said. That's not to say that there arent people in the government who are good people who are trying to do something about it. They were obviously willing to meet with us. They were willing to answer our direct questions that we asked them.

But I can tell you, across every facet of Nigerian society, whether the religious leader was Muslim or Christian or whether the victim was describing something that happened to them in the center of the country or at the hands of ISIS or Boko Haram in the northeast, it was really clear that everyone felt like the government wasn't doing enough or wasn't able to do enough.

Among the many people they met with was a girl who had been kidnapped by Boko Haram and was recently released. They also met with villagers whose entire villages had been razed, and a pastor whose church was destroyed twice. That pastor recently brokered a deal for the release of two of his parishioners kidnapped by Boko Haram.

The faith leaders heard a 9-year-old girl talk about how she saw her parents and siblings killed with machetes. Moore and Cooper also met with about 20 people from one village victimized by Fulani herdsmen attacks in the Middle Belt.

Some of the people they met with would be better served in a hospital because they were displaying signs for trauma, Moore said.

Many have claimed that the violence in the Middle Belt is part of decades-long farmer-herder clashes, downplaying the religious element of the brutal Muslim Fulani attacks in recent years on predominantly Christian communities. While some have downplayed the religious elements baked into the violence in the Middle Belt, Moore and Cooper said the religious components cant be ignored.

We invited the representative of a village who had been attacked. He brought with him the entire village. We had 20 people in that hotel room, Moore explained. These people absolutely felt that this wasn't just about what they had that the other guys wanted. This was about a certain type of religious community that was trying to ethnically cleanse their communities from their villages.

In their meeting with the four Muslim leaders, Cooper and Moore explained that the imams did not downplay the religious factor behind attacks, especially those carried out by Boko Haram.

Their statement didn't include: This isn't about religion. What it did include is what we often hear is that these are actors who are co-opting our religion who are invoking our faith in ways that are not authentic, Cooper explained.

And the second point they make is that  in their estimation, there have been many, many more Muslim victims of [Boko Haram] terrorism than there are Christian. I can't verify yet the veracity of that statement, but that's certainly their perception.

They weren't saying, Hey, hold on! These people aren't operating as Muslim players, Cooper continued.

They are Muslims who are inappropriately invoking Allahu akbar and the selection process when they come upon a mixed group. If you can't recite whatever you have to recite, you are going to be executed on the spot. They didn't deny any of that. They just said, Hey, our communities themselves are often victimized by the same forces and yes, they invoke Islam but they do so inappropriately.

Moore and Cooper stressed that the problems of insecurity in Nigeria are only getting worse and is starting to impact the entire West African region, not just Nigeria.

In recent years, there has been increased extremism seen in other countries in the region like Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Niger and Mali.

In Nigeria, one of the most troubling statistics is that millions of children are out of school because of the violence.

They are potential recruits for the alphabet soup of terrorism out there, Cooper said. You don't have to be a brain surgeon or Ph.D. or a DHS operative to know that. We've seen the script before. We're now in a whole different zip code in a different continent.

The two men are calling on the Nigerian government to provide basic protections to its citizens and ensure that children can return to school.

Otherwise, you're putting a Band-Aid on four or five different parts of the country, Cooper argued. And then when we all wake up, we have  God forbid  another Afghanistan.

Instead of waiting for international governments and bodies to act on the situation, Cooper and Moore implored Christians in the U.S. and the West to figure out ways they can help protect their brothers and sisters in Nigeria.

Churches are always targeted around Christmastime, Cooper said. There might be some things that can be done privately, from sister churches in the U.S. and elsewhere, to sort of take care of some basic security needs.

It isnt that I'm writing off the international community. It is that there are certain things that just keep happening over and over again. Maybe if there's an initiative of faithful American Christians over there, that may wake up the dead in the government who might say, Hey, wait for a second, why are you guys coming over to help? We should be doing it.

While the U.S. government placed Nigeria on its special watch list and added Nigeria to President Donald Trumps travel ban, Moore said he has been pleased with the U.S. response so far. However, he is disappointed in the responses of American churches.

I am very, very disappointed in the silence of Christians for their brothers and sisters on that continent, he said. And I hope that all of this provokes some of these leaders not only to raise their voice louder but to do more themselves and not just wait for the governments of the world to act.

I just cannot believe that Christian leaders and churches aren't talking about this in every congregation in every corner of the [United States]. Boko Haram killed more Christians than ISIS in the year of the height of ISIS. This is the worst place in the world, at least in the northeast, where these terrorists are.
On Friday, February 28, a citizen who is suspected of murder took a judge of the Odesa Prymorsky Court hostage and threatened him with a grenade, as OBOZREVATEL reports.

According to media reports, the defendant took out a grenade right during the trial. He pulled out the fuse, and threatened to blow everyone up.

As of 12:40, the building is cordoned off, the police are evacuating visitors and court employees. Hostage Special Operational Plan was introduced.

At 1:00 p.m., the police seized a grenade from the suspect. Negotiations with the invader were conducted by Oleh Bekh, the head of the National Police of Odesa region, the police press service said.

At 1:50 p.m., the issue of entering data on the event into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations under Art. 379 (attempt on the life of a judge related to his activities in the administration of justice) and Art. 345 (threat or violence against a law enforcement officer).

As we reported before, a man with the inscription Conscience on his jacket burst into Odesa airport and demanded the evacuation of all people from its territory.
(@FahadShabbir)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2020) Russia aims to further strengthen diverse ties with Kyrgyzstan, including military cooperation, to ensure regional stability, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the opening ceremony of Russia-Kyrgyzstan cross year.

Earlier in the day, Putin and his Kyrgyz counterpart Sooronbay Jeenbekov held a meeting in Moscow, during which the leaders discussed the current state and prospects of bilateral cooperation, as well as the development of cooperation in the political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian fields. The leaders also took part in the ceremony launching the cross years of the two countries.

"I would like to stress that Russia is aimed at further strengthening its diverse ties with Kyrgyzstan in every possible way.

We hope that this will be greatly facilitated by the successful holding of the Russian-Kyrgyz cross year," Putin said, noting the Moscow and Bishkek's ties had reached the level of strategic partnership.

The Russian president added that Russia and Kyrgyzstan were jointly working to ensure the regional stability and cooperated in the defense sphere, including within the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

According to Putin, Russia and Kyrgyzstan are also implementing joint projects in the mining industry, transport and high technology sectors. At the same time, Russia is the main supplier of energy resources to Kyrgyzstan, while Russian universities train qualified personnel for the Kyrgyz economy.
TORONTO - Franchisee unrest has hit Tim Hortons again, this time from its U.S. members, who are accusing the company of engaging in an illegal and fraudulent business scheme.

A lawsuit from the Great White North Franchisee Association USA Inc, a group claiming to represent most American Tim Hortons franchisees, alleges the company, its parent, its affiliates and former president Elias Diaz Sese have used provisions in agreements to charge Tim Hortons franchisees as much as 50 per cent above what competitors pay for supplies like coffee, baking goods, meat and paper products.

The lawsuit filed in a Florida court Thursday claims the markup stems from a strategy Tim Hortons parent company Restaurant Brands International (RBI) used to implement a supply chain business disguised as a franchise system. Under the arrangement, GWNFA USA alleges Tim Hortons affiliate TDL Group sells supplies and products to Tim Hortons, which then sells them to a distributor, which in turn sells them to franchisees.

The association says that chain means Tim Hortons franchisees are forced to purchase items for as much as US$104 more for a case of applewood bacon, about US$24 more for a box of soft drinks and roughly US$12 more for a case of plastic straws than Wendys franchisees pay.

This lawsuit was filed by the same group that recently tried to pursue a case in Florida state court, said Tim Hortons head of communications Mary Lowe in a statement to The Canadian Press. That case was dismissed a few months ago, and yesterdays filing appears to be a second attempt to pursue similar claims with a different court.

Thursdays lawsuit complains that the marked up prices are helping Tims and RBI profit, but making franchisees feel squeezed.

They have reached the breaking point and they feel that they are being so overcharged by the supplies that they are required to buy through Tim Hortons or its affiliated company that a lot of them are just working for nothing, Jerry Marks, a lawyer representing GWNFA USA, told The Canadian Press.

We have an agreement with the franchisor that says they will only make reasonable profits on the things they sell to us...We would like this court to make a declaration finding that we are being unreasonably charged and if you want to use the word, price gouged.

Marks says winning the case would allow individual franchisees, who run the brands 700 U.S. locations, to bring their own claims against Tims, RBI and their affiliates.

Marks suit alleges RBI, which also owns Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc. and Burger King, saw a $78.1 million sales increase in its Tim Hortons business, which it claims was driven by a $135.5 million jump in supply chain products.

That increase was partially offset by a decrease in Tim Hortons restaurant revenues that come at the direct expense of Tim Hortons U.S. franchisees.

This deliberate coercion, carried out using threats and intimidation, creates an environment where franchisees who have invested time, capital and sweat equity into the Tim Hortons brand as their livelihood, are preyed upon as the most immediate and dependable source of revenue and cash flow for RBI and its affiliates, the lawsuit reads.

Once the franchisees realize they are pawns in this fraudulent scheme, the sunk costs, onerous contractual provisions (including the inability to sell their businesses for fair value), and threats of litigation and, in turn, more costs, make it economically prohibitive to escape...resulting in long-term indentured servitude.

It is far from the first time Tim Hortons and RBI two have tussled with franchisees. They spent much of 2018 locked in a war with Canadian franchisees over another series of lawsuits, advertising, cost-cutting measures, how to handle an increase in Ontarios minimum wage, delays in supply deliveries and a $700-million renovation plan that was said to cost store owners $450,000 per restaurant.

Tim Hortons eventually tried to make amends, meeting with franchisees and rolling out all-day breakfast, a kids menu, a loyalty program, new packaging and supermarket products like Timbits cereal over the last two years.

The tensions seem to be allayed in 2019, but sales and franchisee profits fell in the companys most recent quarter.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:QSR)
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijani soldiers opened fire in the direction of Koti village of Armenia on February 28 at about 12:30, head of the community Feliks Melikyan told ARMENPRESS.

There were shootings lasting nearly one hour after 12 oclock. The village has not suffered losses, a wall of a building has been slightly damaged in a separate part of the village, but there are no significant damages, Melikyan said, adding that shootings occurred also yesterday, on February 27.

Spokesperson of the Defense Ministry of Armenia Artsrun Hovhannisyan assured that the situation on the border is normal and quiet, adding that there was some shooting in the direction of the village, nearly 20 bullets.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
The Union Government was looking for funding from financial institutions for its Rs 60,000 crore project to link rivers Godavari and Cauvery, Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari said here on Friday.

The project, for which the plan has been prepared, will save about 1,200 tmc ft of Godavari water that drains into the sea and dramatically satisfy the irrigation needs of farmers in Tamil Nadu, he said.

"The plan for the project is ready and the government is looking for a loan of Rs 60,000 crore to executethe project," the minister said, addressing the sixth annual convocation at the National Institute of Technology at Karaikal, an enclave of the union territory of Puducherry.

The project envisages linking rivers Godavari-Krishna- Pennar-Cauvery.

The Minister had earlier said that the government would raise finances for the project either from the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank.

Gadkari, who gave away degrees to 104 B.Tech graduates, urged them to take up social impact projects solving various social challenges, making use of the locally available resources.

Citing the example of a project in Nagpur that converts sewage water, making it suitable for various purposes and has proved to be a highly profitable venture, he urged them to do research on alternative sources of energy.

"Both wastes and knowledge could be converted into abundant wealth through proper vision and leadership,"he said.

Stating that the Centre was giving importance to develop institutions like IITs in the country, Gadkari said Indian engineers, who are doing very well across the globe, would be able to promote innovation in India.

He pointed out that Tamil Nadu has enormous human resources potential in technology and graduate engineers in the state could play a major role in research and innovation.

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, Education Minister R Kamalakannan Karaikal NIT Director Sankaranarayanasamyparticipated in the convocation.

Earlier, Gadkari reviewed various national highways projects in Puducherry during his visit there.

He said the Chief Minister hadplaced before him some requests for development of highways and sought the Centre's clearance at the meeting.

"We have cleared most of the proposals put forward by the Chief Minister, except the one relating to the plea to declare State Highways here as national highways".

Gadkari said he had asked the Chief Minister to give him some time to consider this plea.

The Chief Minister said he had urged the Union Minister to concede the government's plea to widen some arterial roads, construct bridges, build a four way lane between Madagadipet (on Puducherry Villupuram route) and also implement the Mahabalipuram-Puducherry highway, among other things.

Ninety percent of our proposals were accepted by the Central Minister', he said.

Gadkari also paid homage at the memorials of Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual collaborator The Mother on the Ashram premises.

He was accompanied by Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi during his visit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Daniel, who like Fernanda used only one name for fear of discrimination, arrived at the U.S. border at Eagle Pass, Tex., in October. He showed an immigration officer a pile of his medical paperwork, including a document that showed his fragile T-cell count. Under the Migrant Protection Protocols, he was sent back to Mexico with a court date. Waiting in the city of Piedras Negras, he searched for two months for HIV medication. He lost weight. His skin yellowed.
Oil Price Is Now More Volatile Than Bitcoin

You know that the oil markets have truly gone to the dogs when they are suddenly riskier than one of the worlds most volatile commodities: bitcoin.

Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies are synonymous with extreme bouts of volatility. However, its crude oil that is now earning that dubious distinction after exhibiting price swings wilder than even the leading cryptocurrency.

On February 10, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oils one-month realized, or historical, price volatility stood at 105.3%. In contrast, bitcoin's historical volatility clocked in at 42.3%, its lowest reading since September, according to Skew Markets.

Historical volatility is a measure of how much commodity prices have varied in the past calculated as the standard deviation of daily price movements of the front month futures price, typically for a 30-day period. The metric is expressed as a percentage in annualized terms.

Rising Volatility

A commoditys historical volatility, however, does not tell us anything about the direction of the price movement; rather, it tells us the degree to which a securitys price movement is deviating from the average.

It would, therefore, not be a stretch to say that crude oils volatility has lately exceeded that of bitcoin.

During the period under review, WTIs historical volatility shot up from 38.7% to 119.6% by late January while S&P 500 Indexs realized volatility increased to 15.6% during the last week of January.

In contrast, BTCs volatility retreated from 66% to 42%--hardly surprising given that BTC tends to benefit from flight to safety trades.

That said, dont rush to dump your gold holdings to buy some BTC just yet.

Despite its falling volatility, bitcoin remains considerably more volatile than gold, one of the commodities that has traditionally been regarded as leading safe haven assets.

Golds historical volatility doubled during the early part of January to 18% before sliding back to 10% during early February. In other words, gold at its most volatile has still been considerably less so than bitcoin, which proves the most popular crypto still has some way to go before claiming the safe haven mantle from the yellow metal.

Indeed, bitcoin has failed to play that role to a satisfactory degree during the latest market selloff. BTC was down nearly 5% on Mondays stock market rout on a day the S&P 500 fell 3.5%, the biggest one-day loss by the broad-market index since August 2019. That drop was not an aberration for BTC, either, which has suffered intraday declines of more than 3% seven times so far in the first two months of the year alone.

For perspective, gold bullion was down 1.5% to about $1,650/oz though still 5.1% up over the past 30 days.

Coronavirus Mayhem

And you might have guessed right by now: the coronavirus mayhem is largely to blame for crude oils sharp spike in volatility.

The viral outbreak has thrown a monkey wrench into financial markets across the globe, with the crude oil market frequently finding itself whipsawed by the turn of events.

The January rally that saw oil WTI prices shoot up nearly 10% in a matter of days was triggered after Washington launched a retaliatory attack on an Iranian military base in Iraq, killing a top military commander and injecting considerable geopolitical uncertainty into the markets. Unfortunately, the rally was only to be short-lived, cut off by the first news of the coronavirus outbreak in China.

The oil market is officially now in bear territory after posting the worst day in more than a month on Monday on heightened coronavirus fears.

U.S. WTI crude dipped more than 5% at the session low to settle at $50.45 with investors worried that a subsequent slowdown in the global economy could further dent the already weakened demand for crude.

Prices, however, managed to slightly recover from the lows to settle at $51.43 per barrel--still bad enough for its worst day since Jan. 8--after Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser reportedly said that the coronavirus impact will be short term. Nasser said that Aramco has not evacuated its staff from China.

Right now, theres plenty of uncertainty in the oil markets with very little clarity regarding if and when the outbreak will be brought under full control.

While the Aramco chiefs expect the situation to have normalized during the second part of the year, others contend that the situation remains tenuous and the outbreak could rebound when Chinese residents return to work and school.

Mondays heavy selloff suggests that the bears are the ones holding sway right now, while trading in oil has suddenly become a (fabulous, for some) game of volatility that makes it as exciting as crypto.

Link to original article: https://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/Oil-Is-Now-More-Volatile-Than-Bitcoin.html



By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

 2019 Copyright OilPrice.com - All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




GLEN CARBON  The Girls Scouts of Southern Illinois will sell all four of their camps for a total of $3.4 million and close them by Dec. 31.

Proceeds from the sale, approved by the organizations board of directors at a meeting Wednesday, will create a special fund that will generate $200,000 a year for Girl Scouts to organize their own activities, CEO Loretta Graham said in a news release Thursday. The Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois serves more than 9,000 girls across at least 40 counties in southern Illinois.

The sale was a devastating surprise to troop leaders, who found out about the decision in an email Thursday, said Kimberly Hine of Collinsville. The camps gave thousands of Girl Scouts a place to try canoeing, fishing, zip-lining and archery  activities they often dont get a chance to try anywhere else, she said.

My girls in particular, when they sell cookies, its because they want to go to camp, said Hine, a six-year troop leader whose daughter is a Cadette. Thats their goal, thats their endgame.
(Reuters) - Tightrope walker Nik Wallenda fears the worst-possible outcome as he prepares for his latest high wire act - trekking across a live volcano in Nicaragua on Wednesday. 'I could fall to my death.' But the 41-year old member of the seven-generation family of daredevils, The Flying Wallendas, is taking it in stride.

(Reuters) - Tightrope walker Nik Wallenda fears the worst-possible outcome as he prepares for his latest high wire act - trekking across a live volcano in Nicaragua on Wednesday. "I could fall to my death."

But the 41-year old member of the seven-generation family of daredevils, The Flying Wallendas, is taking it in stride.

"It is just the reality of what I do," he told Reuters on Thursday, ahead of his live, televised walk 1800 feet (548 meters) across the Masaya volcano with churning lava below.

According to Dick Clark Productions, it will be the highest and longest walk he has ever attempted.

"I will tell you that my first step I take will be a step of faith," he said. "It's not as though I'm fearless. It is more about me overcoming that fear."

Wallenda, who has made successful walks across Niagara Falls and above Times Square, said he has been training with an oxygen depravation mask to mirror the conditions above the volcano.

He will be wearing goggles, a mask and possibly even oxygen tanks for the walk. His shoes have been designed with thicker soles to help cut possible heat coming from the volcano, and the cable will feel like a bar, the high wire artist said.

"I'll be dealing with the winds of the Grand Canyon, potentially. I'll be dealing with the gases that are so thick that you can potentially not be able to see 10 feet in front of me," he said.

"Everything that has been thrown at me here adds to my stress levels."

Wallenda said the idea came to him after flying over an active volcano on the way to Mexico City.

Masaya is one of six major active volcanoes in Nicaragua, and has erupted at least 18 times since 1520, including major eruptions in 1772 and 1820.

The volcano is located about 14 miles (23 kilometres) from the Central American country's capital, Managua, and is 2,093 feet (638 meters) in elevation.

"Volcano Live! With Nik Wallenda" will air on American network ABC on March 4.

(Reporting by Andrew Hofstetter and Catherine Koppel, Writing by Diane Craft; editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Questioning 'Mr India' director Shekhar Kapur's claim over the rights of the classic film, senior poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar on Friday said the idea of the movie wasn't Kapur's.

Akhtar's comments came in response to a tweet by Kapur which read, "If you are remaking a feature film, based on a director's very successful work, does the Director have no creative rights over what he/she created?"

Replying to the director's tweet, the poet outlined his contributions to the making of the film and said, "It wasn't you idea."

"Shekhar saheb the story the situations the scenes the characters the dialogue the lyrics even the title none of these were yours. I gave it all to you. Yes you execute it very well but how can your claim on the film be more than mine. It wasn't your idea. It wasn't your dream," tweeted Akhtar.

This comes against the backdrop of 'Sultan' director Ali Abbas Zafar's announcement of making a trilogy on the iconic film 'Mr India'.

The original film 'Mr India' was one of the first sci-fi films in Indian cinema and featured actor Anil Kapoor in the lead.

Earlier on February 22, Anil Kapoor's daughter and actor Sonam Kapoor took to social media to hit out at Zafar for announcing the remake of 'Mr India' without the consultation of her father and director Shekhar Kapur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A conservative legal strategy aimed at seeking refunds of objectors teachers union fees collected before the landmark Janus decision in the U.S. Supreme Court is running into a roadblockone court ruling after another that rejects the theory behind the cases.

This week, a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a class action brought on behalf of Ohio teachers who declined to join their teachers union and sought refunds of years of fees the unions were allowed to charge them for collective bargaining, known as fair share or agency fees.

The Feb. 24 decision by a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, in Cincinnati, is the third by a federal appeals court as well as more than a dozen by federal district courts that reject refunds of agency fees collected before the Supreme Courts 2018 ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 31 .

In that 5-4 decision, the high court overruled a 1977 precedent that had authorized the collection of agency fees from public employees who refuse to join their union. The majority in Janus said collective bargaining in education was a matter of public concern, and nonmembers could not be compelled under the First Amendment to helped fund with which they disagreed.

The Ohio class action was one of many filed around the country seeking to apply Janus retroactively to fees collected under the authority of the 1977 decision, Abood v. Detroit Board of Education . And the strategy pushed by right-to-work organizations and others is not the only one they are using to try to use the Janus decision to further attack public-employee unions. As Education Weeks Madeline Will has reported , there are also challenges to opt-out procedures for union members and to the right of a single public-employee union to be the exclusive bargaining representative for a defined group of workers.

In the Ohio case, Sarah R. Lee, a teacher in the Avon Lake city school district, filed a suit seeking class status for all teachers who had paid agency fees to their national, state, and local teachers unions. The suit sought a refund of all such fees.

The Avon Lake Education Association, the Ohio Education Association, and the National Education Association sought dismissal of the suit, arguing that they had collected agency fees before Janus in good faith in reliance on state law and prevailing Supreme Court precedent.

A federal district court agreed with the unions and dismissed the suit. In its Feb. 24 decision in Lee v. Ohio Education Association , the 6th Circuit court panel upheld the dismissal.

Writing for the court, Judge Richard Allen Griffin said even if the Janus decision might be considered retroactive under certain legal principles, the unions good-faith defense would overcome any retroactive remedy.

The court rejected Lees arguments that the agency fees were akin to an unconstitutional tax or criminal fine, which may be required to be refunded even if collected in good faith.

Griffin noted that both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit , in Chicago, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit , in San Francisco, have issued similar decisions, as have some 20 federal district courts.

We now add our voice to that chorus, the judge wrote. The union was authorized by Ohio law and binding Supreme Court precedent to collect agency fees. Until Janus said otherwise, the union had a legal right to receive and spend fair-share fees collected from nonmembers as long as it complied with state law and the Abood line of cases. It did not demonstrate bad faith when it followed these rules.
A New Jersey woman has filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Camden accusing a priest of sexually abused her decades ago when she was a child while church officials allowed it to happen.

Patricia Cahill, 67, of Bergen County, claims the Rev. Daniel Francis Marks Millard, sexually abused her from 1957 to 1965, according to the suit, filed Feb. 4 in Camden County Superior Court.

While NJ Advance Media does not typically name victims of sexual abuse, Cahill been speaking publicly about the alleged abuse for years. The lawsuit is another in the flood of litigation against churches and other groups since a two-year window opened on Dec. 1 under a new law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy that expanded the amount of time that victims of sexual assault may bring a lawsuit.

The abuse began when Cahill was age 5 and ended when she was age 13, the suit alleges.

Cahill, who was raised in a devout Roman Catholic family in Ridgewood, participated in youth activities and developed great admiration, trust, reverence, and respect for the church and Millard, the suit states.

The diocese placed Millard in positions where (he) had access to and worked with children as an integral part of his work, the lawsuit states.

(The diocese) knew or should have known that Father Millard was a danger to children before Father Millard sexually assaulted plaintiff, the suit states.

Mike Walsh, a spokesman for the diocese, on Friday said a thorough review of Millards personnel file and record, along with statements from Cahills relatives, prompted the conclusion that this accusation could not be determined as credible.

However, the diocese in the past has paid for Cahills professional counseling. The Diocese of Camden assists anyone who claims to have been abused to receive pastoral care and obtain counseling services, without regard to whether the claim is determined to be credible, Walsh stated in an email.

Millard died at age 50 in 1973. According to BishopAccountability.org, Millard was moved six times from 1953 to 1969 to churches in New Jersey. His name has not appeared on the list of credibly accused clergy released a year ago.

In April 2019, Cahill told the Huffington Post that Millards abuse set her up for an inappropriate and sexually charged relationship with a nun who worked with a congregation based in Morris County.

The nun is not mentioned in the lawsuit. However, NorthJersey.com reported Cahill received an out-of-court-settlement from the Morris County congregation in 1994, along with a stipulation that she not discuss the case.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.coms newsletters.
It is said a crisis could bring the best out of a man or a woman and a section of Delhiites have shown that at a time the capital is on a communal cauldron.

In bylane of Chand Bagh, Muslims stand to secure a temple where only four Hindu families live while in Laxmi Nagar and Lalita Park of east Delhi, Hindus and Sikh visited houses to instil confidence among Muslim families after panic gripped them following a procession by a right-wing crowd in a nearby market.

As mindless violence continue to simmer in the bylanes of northeast Delhi, despite putting several localities under curfew, several people have taken it upon themselves to ensure that no one is harmed.

Gurudwaras in several areas in northeast Delhi are open to people in distress and similar was the case with some temples and mosques.

In Chand Bagh, a temple priest gave testament to the harmony existing in his area. There are only four Hindu families in this area. The area is full of Muslim families.

There is no tension here. The Muslim brothers are ensuring that nothing happens to this temple. I can leave the temple open and nothing happens. There is no altercation or verbal abuses, the elderly priest said.

On Tuesday, there was tension among Muslim families in Ramesh Park and nearby Lalita Park following a procession in nearby Mangal market and some rumours. The Muslim community was in a panic and it was then that Hindus and Sikhs in the locality went to each and every Muslim household to ensure that no goons would enter their houses.

Several Muslims in northeast Delhi also testify that they remain alive because of their Hindu neighbours. In Seelampur J Block where Hindu and Muslim population are almost equal, the communities ensure that nothing untoward happens. We managed not to be affected even by the 1984 anti-Sikh riots or the riots after Babri Masjid demolition. We now dont allow outsiders to enter the colony. We ensure that we all live peacefully, a local said.

Earlier, a group of youth had attempted to enter the locality but were prevented.

All say in unison that they would not allow a repeat of 1984 when Sikhs were targeted after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
(TNS)  Armed with new evidence that federal immigration officials accessed a state database of licensed Maryland drivers dozens of times in the last two years, state lawmakers are proposing legislation to limit their access in the future.State and federal officials urged caution in response, suggesting retaliatory measures from the Trump administration could effect all Marylanders.The bill, backed by Democrats, would force U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to get a warrant if they want to run images of targeted individuals through the Maryland Image Repository System, known as MIRS, which holds the motor vehicle records and drivers license pictures of millions of law-abiding residents and allows image comparisons using facial recognition software.The bill also would require the state to track federal queries to the system moving forward.Currently, any credentialed ICE agent can access that system remotely, and without a warrant. Last year, lawmakers obtained information from the states Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which maintains MIRS, that ICE officials had logged into the system 14 times in 2018 and 42 times in 2019. State officials said it was unclear how many searches were conducted after each log in, or who was the subject of those searches.ICE said Wednesday it does not comment on proposed legislation, but has concerns about any state or local laws that limit the sharing and exchanging of critical information, or that protect criminals at the expense of the safety and security of law-abiding residents.Lawmakers and immigrant advocates say ICE appears to be using the system to go after a broad range of community members, including in Baltimore County and in the Washington region.We have seen certain cases where they didnt have any sort of criminal record, but were targeted, said Lydia Walther-Rodriguez, the Baltimore region director for the immigrant advocacy organization CASA.Three weeks ago, an ICE agent detaining a Rockville man at his home and in front of his family stated that he had found him thanks to the MVA database, Walther-Rodriguez said.This is an ongoing issue that we have been facing for years now.Harrison Rudolph, a senior associate at the Center on Privacy & Technology at the Georgetown University Law Center, which has tracked facial recognition programs nationwide and backs the bill, said a few other states have such databases and deal with ICE requests for data, but none appear to have provided such sweeping access as Maryland.Maryland allows any federal law enforcement officer with a particular type of credential to log directly into the facial recognition system, he said. Thats an unprecedented level of access.Couple that access with facial recognition software  which has been criticized for being error prone, particularly when assessing people of color and women  and there is plenty of reason for concern, Rudolph said.wrote about immigrants concerns about the misuse of motor vehicle records in 2014, and about additional concerns related to the incorporation of facial recognition technology into the system in 2016. Del. Dana Stein, a Baltimore County Democrat and the new legislations lead sponsor in the House, said he crafted his bill based on that coverage and concerns raised by community members, and hopes it will pass into law.Among a lot of legislators, there is broad agreement that ICE deportations of individuals who have not committed any crime  who are just here as undocumented individuals  shouldnt happen," said Stein. We should not be facilitating that by giving ICE access to the states database.Sen. Clarence Lam, a Baltimore-area Democrat and lead sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, said it is only "intended to put a layer of protection in place to ensure that the database, when accessed by federal agents, is being accessed for appropriate reasons  not to prevent legitimate law enforcement work.They just need to show a judge probable cause to be able to seek a warrant," he said. "If a judge signs off on that warrant, they can access the database.Being in the country without proper documentation is a civil offense, not a crime.Maryland first approved special drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants who meet certain criteria in 2013, and since then more than 275,000 people without lawful status in the United States have signed up, state officials said. Immigrant communities saw the creation of the new licenses as a great victory, because being able to drive provides huge economic benefits to families.Advocates and state officials also saw it as a way for the state to build trust in immigrant communities, said Walther-Rodriguez, something undermined by the sharing of records with ICE without warrants and without informing those signing up for the special licenses of the arrangement.Backing the proposed legislation would be a good way for the state to mend the damage, Walther-Rodriguez said. But the state has not taken that step.State officials have instead raised concerns that the Department of Homeland Security might retaliate against the state if the bill passes, as it was seen to have done against New York in response to recent legislation limiting ICE access to information in that state.Earlier this month, DHS temporarily barred New Yorkers from enrolling in Global Entry and other programs aimed at getting travelers through borders and airport lines more quickly, citing a new law in that state that allows unauthorized immigrants to obtain drivers licenses. The so-called Green Light Law blocks agencies like ICE and Customs and Border Protection from accessing motor vehicle databases without a court order.MVA Administrator Christine Nizer wrote in a letter to Maryland lawmakers ahead of two hearings on the bill in Annapolis on Thursday that the Trump administrations posture towards states that are implementing laws to limit their access to records is uncertain, and that the "potential implications should be considered in the deliberation of this legislation.ICE also cited the New York law, saying in a statement it not only impedes ICE from identifying aliens who present a danger to national security or are a risk to public safety, but also blocks ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents who investigate crimes like child exploitation, human trafficking and drug smuggling, from accessing important public records critical to identifying criminal suspects.Stein and Lam said they were aware of the Trump administrations response to the New York law, but feel they have more narrowly tailored their bill, and would hope the Trump administration would notice the differences  including the Maryland bills focus on ICE alone, not on Customs and Border Protection. State officials estimated the bill would not impact the state budget.Andrew Arthur, a resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for lower immigration in the U.S., opposes the bill, saying it would inhibit legitimate law enforcement actions by ICE in Maryland and give drug smugglers and human traffickers more cover to operate in the state, including along the busy Interstate 95 corridor.Arthur suggested that ICE agents are targeting specific individuals who deserve to be targeted, and should be provided all government resources to do that work.You cant separate out one agency or another as it relates to national security and law enforcement, he said.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill that would ban the sale of flavored cigarettes and e-cigarettes, including menthol cigarettes, as part of a drive to stop youth smoking.

The measure was adopted in a 213 to 195 vote with opposition from all Ohios Republicans and Warrensville Heights Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge, who was among a group of Congressional Black Caucus members who disliked the ban on menthol, which is favored by some African American smokers. The rest of Ohios Democrats backed the bill.

Fudge says she felt the bill decided whats best for African Americans without consulting them. She suggested that it would be better to ban all cigarettes instead of picking and choosing which types to ban.

I would vote for it in a heartbeat, she said.

Proponents of the bill, including former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, a Cleveland native and a Democratic member of Congress from Florida, said the use of e-cigarettes, particularly by children, is undoing years of progress toward stopping smoking. She argued the bill would take concrete steps to limit the access and appeal of tobacco products to people under age 21. In a speech on the House of Representatives floor, she said the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) predicts 5.6 million premature deaths if the children of our country continue to use tobacco products at the current rate.

Companies knew that the pipeline of lifetime smokers was dwindling so they started to market new vaping products to young people through Instagram ads and influencers and other social media platforms, said Shalala. " They clearly targeted our children and the strategy worked. Its time to finally pass a bill that protects their health."

Republicans who opposed the bill noted that Congress already raised the legal smoking age to 21, and criticized Democrats for failing to curtail vaping of marijuana, which has been linked to deaths and lung injuries. North Carolina Republican Rep. Richard Hudson called it a partisan publicity stunt" and an example of the big brother liberal elite telling the rest of us how to live our lives.

They say tobacco vaping, a safer alternative to smoking is bad, but marijuana vaping, the cause of injury and death, thats OK, said Hudson. The $100 cigars that their liberal elite campaign donors smoke, those are OK, but cheaper cigars and menthol cigarettes smoked by working men and women in this country, those would be banned.

Other Republicans said they doubted the bill had a chance of making it through the Republican-controlled Senate, where Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is sponsoring the legislation. Brown argues argues raising the age to legally buy tobacco isnt enough to curb the youth smoking epidemic.

In addition to prohibiting flavored tobacco products including menthol, provisions in the bill would order the Food and Drug Administration to ban non-face-to-face sales of all tobacco products including e-cigarettes and e-cigarette accessories, make it illegal to market e-cigarettes to individuals under age 21, and provide the CDC with the authority to do outreach to medically underserved communities to prevent nicotine addiction and stop smoking.

Brown notes that organizations endorsing the Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act of 2020 include the American Lung Association, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association and the National African American Tobacco Prevention Movement.

Tobacco companies have preyed on youth for years, irresponsibly advertising and marketing their harmful products to teens, said a statement from Brown. Its time to put a stop to these marketing schemes, hold these companies accountable, and prevent highly addictive tobacco and e-cigarette products from getting into the wrong hands.

Read more coverage:

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Switzerland has banned all "public and private" events involving over 1,000 people to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The measure was announced by the Swiss government on Friday and will come into effect immediately, lasting until at least 15 March.

Authorities said the decision was taken "in view of the current situation and the spread of the coronavirus."

The government said in a statement: "The Federal Council is aware that this measure will have a significant impact on public life in Switzerland. However, the move is expected to provide effective protection to people in Switzerland and to public health.

"It should prevent or delay the spread of the disease in Switzerland, thus reducing its momentum."

Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Show all 10 1 /10 Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A man wearing a face mask crosses a road in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of the empty entrance to the UniversitA Cattolica (Catholic University) in Milan, northern Italy, on 24 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone sanitation worker sits near the closed Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on February 24, 2020. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of a deserted street in Codogno, northern Italy, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Italian police officers set a road block in Codogno, Northern Italy, on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A supermarket closed in Codogno, one the northern Italian towns placed under lockdown, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone cyclist wearing sanitary masks pedals in the center of Codogno, Northern Italy. LaPresse via AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty An empty road at the entrance of the small Italian town of Codogno on February 23, 2020. AFP via Getty

Organisers of events expecting fewer than 1,000 people must "carry out a risk assessment in conjunction with the competent cantonal (state) authorities to decide whether or not the event can be held".

The announcement comes as the number of confirmed cases in Switzerland rises to 15, just days after it confirmed its first case on Tuesday.

According to the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, one of the cases involving a children's daycare worker in Basel City has led to all children under the patient's care being quarantined for 14 days.

Over 500 people have been tested in Switzerland so far. The Health Ministry announced on Wednesday ten laboratories can now conduct testing for the virus.

Usually attracting tens of thousands of visitors each year, the annual Geneva International Motor Show will likely be affected. The event was due to take place from 5 March till 15 March.

A number of major events, including the Engadin ski marathon, two watch fairs and carnivals in Ticino, which borders Italy, were already cancelled.

As the number of cases rise throughout Europe and the Middle East, governments are scrambling to implement preventative measures in hopes of containing the highly contagious virus.

Saudi Arabia made the extraordinary decision to cut off the holy city of Mecca to millions of pilgrims in a bid to stop Covid-19 from spreading.

The Netherlands confirmed its second coronavirus infection on Friday in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam. Both patients are being held in isolation, said the National Institute for Public Health.

Wales confirmed its first infection in a patient who travelled back to Wales from Northern Italy, where an outbreak has infected over 650 people. The new case brings the total number of cases in the UK to 19, including two new cases confirmed in England.
EVE Online developer CCP no longer plans to hold its annual fan gathering in Reykjavik this year, citing global concerns about the COVID-19 coronavirus as the reason for the cancellation.

It is with a heavy heart that we make this decision, and we know this news will be disappointing to our wonderful community, but we feel absolutely compelled to follow the most responsible course of action and prioritize the safety and well-being of our attendees, our staff and of course the general Icelandic public, reads a statement form the company.

We realize that the situation a month from now could be very different, but the way events are developing both globally and in Icelands neighboring countries, an in-depth and serious review has made it clear that this is a necessary step to take.

Facebook made a similar call earlier this week by canceling its F8 developer conference, while other companies have likewise made the decision to dial back their travel and event presence as the situation surrounding the coronavirus continues to evolve.

Reports of the coronavirus now known as COVID-19 started circulating in late 2019 and early 2020 as cases began to appear in Wuhan, China and later spread to other cities and countries. Currently, the World Health Organization reports that just over 82,000 cases have been reported globally. So far, 95 percent of those global cases occurred in China, though 46 countries have reported at least one case of COVID-19 according to the WHO.
UPDATE: Fans unite for Barry Sanders-Garth Brooks presidential ticket after jersey snafu

Contrary to popular belief, Garth Brooks wasnt supporting Bernie Sanders when he wore Barry Sanders No. 20 jersey during a concert in Detroit.

But he would throw his support behind the Hall of Fame running back.

Sanders, Barry that is, weighed in on one of the more ridiculous controversies in recent memory on Friday when he jokingly tweeted at the country music superstar asking him if he wanted to be his vice president for a 2020 run for office. The tweet includes that hashtag #Number20for2020.

And Garth said yes!

Hey @BarrySanders I would run any race with you! #Number20for2020 HA!!! love you pal, g https://t.co/1a5d0CiwSP  Garth Brooks (@garthbrooks) February 28, 2020

Its the latest development in a nonsensical controversy that started when thousands of Garth Brooks fans mistakenly assumed the country legend wore the No. 20 Barry Sanders jersey during a concert at Ford Field, you know where the Detroit Lions play, in support of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

He was not, but this has certainly been amusing.

Its also something people could get behind. And even though it will never happen, the Lions are also onboard for their candidate to run in the G.O.A.T. party.

Who else would vote for a Barry Sanders-Garth Brooks presidential ticket?

And maybe Barry Sanders should return the favor and wear some Garth Brooks gear?

Brooks is currently on a stadium tour. Check out upcoming dates here, and search for tickets on Ticketmaster or StubHub.

READ MORE

Why Garth Brooks wore a Barry Sanders Detroit Lions jersey for his entire Ford Field concert

Garth Brooks on what its like to play for a Detroit crowd and how his Hoedown surprise happened
LANSING, MI  A controversial oversight panel has advanced proposed limits on forever chemicals in Michigan drinking water to the state legislature.

On Thursday, Feb. 27, the Environmental Rules Review Committee (ERRC) voted to approve, as written, draft rules that would set enforceable drinking water standards on toxic fluorochemicals known as PFAS in public water supplies.

The proposed limits now move to a legislative oversight panel known as the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR). The committee can allow them to proceed, request changes, or introduce bills to either pass or delay the rules.

Should the rules be adopted, it would be the first time Michigan developed its own standards  rather than relying on federal rules  to regulate contaminants in drinking water.

Steve Sliver, head of the Michigan PFAS Action Response Team (MPART), called the vote a really positive step.

I think it came out here today that this was very important rulemaking, where you had seven state departments behind it and an outside science advisory workgroup to make sure we had a very defensible foundation for rulemaking," Sliver said. "I think thats what helped make this go through.

Environmental and public health groups praised the action.

"The proposed standards for PFAS are a significant step in the right direction toward tackling the PFAS crisis in Michigan and ensuring communities have safe, clean water to drink, said Nick Occhipinti, government affairs director with the Michigan League of Conservation Voters.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, Michigan Environmental Council, Ecology Center, Clean Water Action, FLOW and Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council all released statements of support after the meeting.

The Michigan Manufacturers Association (MMA) and the Michigan Chemistry Council (MCC) spoke in opposition to the rules during the meeting and the Michigan Farm Bureau took a neutral position.

I think the committee decided to vote and they voted, said Dave Greco, MMA regulatory and environmental affairs director, when asked for reaction after the meeting.

During public comment, Greco said the MMA is concerned about the scientific and technical credibility of the rules based on a review by toxicologist Michael Dourson, whom MMA hired to analyze the conclusions of EGLEs science advisors. Doursons track record of defending weak standards helped to sink his nomination as chief chemical safety regulator at the Environmental Protection Agency two years ago.

Thursdays ERRC vote was unanimous in support of advancing the rules, although Grant Trigger and Daniel Frakes, director of global regulatory development for General Motors, both abstained from voting. Trigger manages cleanups for RACER Trust, which markets contaminated former GM properties. He is currently managing several PFAS cleanups.

Trigger spoke at length during the meeting about concerns with potential ancillary impacts of the proposed standards on PFAS cleanups. He suggested the new rules could affect criteria used to evaluate soil contaminated by tainted biosolids or compost.

The ERRC panel is one of two created last year by the Republican-controlled Legislature to oversee state environmental rulemaking. Critics have labeled them polluter panels because of industrys representation within their ranks. The panels were the focus of an early showdown between Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republicans, which overrode her attempt to abolish them while reorganizing the former Department of Environmental Quality in February.

The ERRC meeting followed three public hearings on the rules in January hosted by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE).

The state says it received 3,334 written and 82 oral comments on the rules during the public review window. Of the comments, about 75 percent were supportive, 24 percent were considered neutral and less than one percent opposed, according to EGLE.

According to EGLE, written comments in opposition came from 3M Corp, Consumers Energy, the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, MMA and MCC, among others.

The state began drafting maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs, this spring for seven different PFAS compounds following expert toxicology reviews that started in 2018. Barring any delay at the legislature, EGLE hopes to have the standards in place by the end of April.

Proposed limits (in parts-per-trillion, or ppt) for the compounds are: PFNA (6-ppt); PFOA (8-ppt); PFOS (16-ppt); PFHxS (51-ppt); GenX (370-ppt); PFBS (420-ppt); PFHxA (400,000-ppt).

The chemicals have been found at some level in public water serving about 1.9 million people in Michigan.

The standards would apply to about 2,700 water supplies and establish sampling, public notification and laboratory certification requirements for public supplies that serve more than 25 people in Michigan.

EGLE estimates Michigan water systems would collectively have to spend about $7.4 million installing treatment and $6.4 million to test for PFAS during the first year. Water systems could test for PFAS annually unless existing data or new testing shows detections in the system. Those systems would have to test quarterly. Compliance would be based on a running average of detections.

The regulations would not directly impact Michigan households which draw groundwater from a private well because the state lacks jurisdiction needed to require that homeowners test their own water.

While drinking water standards are usually developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and adopted by states, the EPA isnt moving fast enough on deciding whether or not to regulate the chemicals to satisfy many states.

On Feb. 20, the EPA announced a preliminary regulatory determination to regulate two individual types of PFAS chemicals, PFOS and PFOA, in drinking water. If the agency does move forward with rule-making, the process is expected to take another several years.

According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), studies of humans exposed to PFAS exposure have shown that certain chemicals can affect the growth, learning, and behavior of infants and older children, lower a womans chance of getting pregnant, interfere with the bodys natural hormones, increase cholesterol levels, affect the immune system and increase the risk of cancer.

Related stories:

This is a time for Michigan to be courageous state told as it considers PFAS limits

House passes major PFAS bill in face of White House veto threat

Polluter panel hits pause on Michigan PFAS drinking water rules
Pipeline

28 February 2020

Deutsche Hospitality has announced another strategic milestone. The Zleep Hotel Frankfurt Airport is set to become the second hotel to operate under the brand in Germany following the Zleep Hotel Hamburg Altonaer Volkspark. The Zleep Hotel Frankfurt Airport is a new build project which is being completed in conjunction with the property development company Four Points Development GmbH. The hotel is scheduled to open in spring 2022. It will offer 165 rooms, a Nordic design lobby and snack bar, a gym area and numerous car parking spaces including underground parking.

"We are delighted to be able to collaborate with our partner Four Points Development GmbH on creating the Zleep Hotel Frankfurt Airport at Europe's most significant transport hub," explained Thomas Willms, CEO, Deutsche Hospitality. "This location represents a big step within our strategy to establish the brand in Europe on a permanent basis." The new hotel will join the Steigenberger Airport Hotel and the IntercityHotel Frankfurt Airport to become the group's third presence at Frankfurt Airport. The Zleep Hotel Frankfurt Airport will take on a similar function to the Steigenberger Frankfurter Hof and the IntercityHotel Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof Sud by becoming a beacon for its brand.

Its convenient location in Kelsterbach will enable guests to enjoy good and rapid links to public transport, to the international airport, to Frankfurt's main railway station and to the motorway network. "The city's major traffic intersections, the Frankfurt exhibition grounds, the Commerzbank Arena and access points out into the region are all only a short distance away," added Robert Boller, Managing Director of Zleep Hotels GmbH. Zleep Hotels is an economy brand which was founded in Denmark in 2003 by Peter Haaber. It currently has twelve hotels in Scandinavia and has been part of the Deutsche Hospitality brand family since 2019.

"With the concluded lease agreement with Zleep Hotels GmbH for this new location in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main metropolitan area, we are now adding another important partner to our previous four hotel projects and are pleased to be part of the dynamic development of the hotel brand, which is still young in Germany", said Claus Spitra, Managing Director of the Four Points Development GmbH.
Though still in its infancy, the drone delivery business is set to take off in the coming years. Spurred by everything from environmental concerns to the desire to avoid congested roads, companies are developing, testing, and beginning to implement a wide array of drone delivery systems.

A number of practicalities need to be worked out before drone delivery becomes an everyday occurrence  including regulations and drone technology itself  but its likely only a matter of time.

Drone delivery has the potential to radically improve the way we live by making the things we need in a hurry available in just minutes, said Alexa Dennett, a spokesperson for Wing.

As a faster, safer, and more environmentally friendly method of delivery, we believe drones will be commonplace in the near future, she told TechNewsWorld.

Wing, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, already has started making limited drone deliveries in three markets: Helsinki; Canberra, Australia; and Christiansburg, Virginia.

Wing is not the only player in the market. UPS subsidiaryUPS Flight Forward recently received full Part 135 certification from the FAA. UC San Diego Health, in collaboration with UPS and Matternet, soon will pilot a program to deliver medical supplies and documents to several of its facilities.

Zipline has been delivering medical supplies to remote locations in Rwanda for several years. Flytrex is testing food delivery in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Amazon Prime Air continues to develop its own drone delivery system.

The Benefits of Going Drone

Delivery by drone promises a variety of benefits, including reducing carbon emissions, increasing delivery speed, making deliveries more accessible, and spurring local economic opportunities.

We believe that delivering goods by drones is faster, safer, more affordable, efficient and environmentally sustainable, compared to todays car and truck delivery systems, said Wings Dennett. Drone deliveries offer the potential to improve the way our cities operate by reducing road congestion and creating new economic opportunities for local businesses.

Used instead of cars and trucks, drones could reduce greenhouse emissions drastically  by up to 99 percent, according to an AlphaBeta study commissioned by Wing.

Wing and Virginia Tech partnered to research the potential impacts of drone delivery. So far, this research suggests that in the Blacksburg-Christiansburg metropolitan area, drones possibly could take 3,385 cars off the road, save 40.2 tons of C02 each year, and save customers time worth US$46.6 million annually.

There are three primary benefits of drone delivery, noted Guy Bloch, CEO of Bringg.

It will drastically reduce the environmental impact that large trucks from warehouses or even smaller delivery vehicles produce, he told TechNewsWorld. The cost  at least for ultra- fast deliveries  will be far lower, as retailers wont have to worry about filling an entire vehicle.

Another advantage is speed, Bloch said. It will allow retailers to more dependably provide fast deliveries.

The Sky Ahead

It wont be all smooth sailing  or flying  however. Drone delivery becoming commonplace relies on working out regulations as well as solving a variety of other technological, economic and cultural issues.

Ensuring public and airway safety is a primary concern, and the industry is working closely with the FAA and other regulatory organizations to develop safe standards and practices.

The whole development of the commercial drone industry revolves around safety, said Mike Hertzendorf, CEO of NUAIR.

The United States has one of the most  if not the most  heavily trafficked airspaces in the world, he told TechNewsWorld.

The Unmanned Aircraft Systems industry needs to do everything we can to make sure people in the air and on the ground remain safe, Hertzendorf added.

Given all that must be done, its not likely that drone delivery will become commonplace in the near future  particularly in cities, where air traffic is much higher than in rural areas.

I believe we are still a ways away from routine drone deliveries in highly populated areas, said Hertzendorf.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

The current regulation around drones from the FAA is called Part 107. A couple of the main regulations in Part 107 is the restriction of flying your drone farther than you can see it, and it prohibits flights over people. So again, all based around safety, he explained.

NUAIR is a key industry leader helping to develop the standards and help define regulations to expand on Part 107, which will lead to advanced commercial drone operations like food, package and medical deliveries, Hertzendorf said.

Industry groups like NUAIR are working with the FAA as it develops regulations to protect peoples safety, but the process likely will take some time.

We are actively figuring out what regulations need to be in place to make sure those in the air and on the ground remain safe during routine drone operations, said Hertzendorf.

The technology is there for these advanced drone operations. We just need to figure out and implement the appropriate performance requirements, rules and regulations that and the other multitude of issues, like flying beyond visual line of sight, weather impact on drones, and the different weather patterns inside city limits versus rural areas, he continued. Needless to say, there are many issues that need to be addressed before well see the sky filled with drones.

In short, regular drone delivery of packages to doorsteps  as appealing as it may be  probably will not happen any time soon.

There is a great deal of speculation regarding drone-based package delivery, said Henry Fletcher, a drone specialist a Cambridge Consultants.

Forecasts predict anything from limited, premium deliveries and indirect contact with consumers to drone-based small parcel delivery becoming ubiquitous, enabled by cost reductions over conventional delivery from high levels of automation and lightweight last-mile transit, he told TechNewsWorld.

The technology exists and is very capable, but as a whole, the industry needs to prove its safety credentials in a highly regulated area, Fletcher pointed out. This can only happen at a limited pace and will inevitably suffer setbacks along the way.

The Future of Drones

Even when drones become more commonplace, they likely will not replace other methods of transport and delivery. Rather, theyll be part of a mix of delivery methods, and the methods used in any given case will depend on the goods being delivered, location, distance, weight, and a variety of other factors.

Delivery via drone will just be another economical tool for the delivery of certain products, much like there are still products being delivered via barges across the ocean or being hauled across the country via train, explained NUAIRs Hertzendorf.

The advent of the airplane did not replace these delivery methods, he noted. The ability for any of these vehicles, including drones, to deliver a product relies on many of the same issues and limitations  what is it, where is it going, and whats the most economical and logical way to get it there. I do not see routine deliveries via drones totally replacing current shipping methods. Theyre just another potential option for faster, more efficient deliveries of certain products.
By Abdul Kermkhanov

Head of the Nagorno-Karabakhs Azerbaijani community Tural Ganjaliyev who stood in the parliamentary election in Azerbaijan earlier this month, has said that he is ready to represent Karabakhs Armenian community as well.

Ganjaliyev won a seat from Xankendi town in Nagorno-Karabakh region, which has been under Armenian occupation since 1994.

In an exclusive interview with Azernews on February 28, Ganjaliyev said: I ran for Khankendi Constituency 122 and won the election [on February 9 snap election]. If my mandate is approved by the Constitutional Court, after approval, I would like to appeal to the Armenian community through your portal and tell them that I represent the Armenian community and not just the Azerbaijani community of Khankendi. Let them support their elected representative. We are ready to represent them.

Commenting on the planned so-called parliamentary and presidential elections to be held by the separatist regime in the occupied Nagorno-Karabkh in March, Ganjaliyev said that those elections are unrecognized by the world.

In March, the illegal regime in Nagorno-Karabakh will hold an illegal election. It has no legal basis and is not recognized by the world. I am addressing the Armenian community to support the legally-elected lawmaker who represents Khankendi, instead of living in an illegal regime and conducting illegal elections. I will deal with your problems, and tell the Azerbaijani Parliament about them. Let the Armenian community know that they already have a legally elected deputy, Ganjaliyev said.

I will use all my potential to protect the interests of our residents from Khankendi. Unfortunately, unlike other regions of Azerbaijan, our native city is under occupation, and our people, the residents of Khankendi, are scattered across different cities and regions of Azerbaijan, Ganjaliyev said.

He spoke about the difficulties of representing a constituency that is under occupation and whose electorates have been displaced.

"We have to travel all over Azerbaijan to meet with our voters and listen to their problems. Regardless of all difficulties, it is a privilege and a responsibility for us. Their voices, their problems, and especially their plight as a result of Armenian aggression and Armenian occupation, will be voiced not only in the Parliament, but also from the tribunes of reputable organizations around the world, and as a Community, I believe we have already begun to do so. I've been doing this since last year and after gaining the mandate in the parliament, I will strengthen my efforts, Ganjaliyev said.

Furthermore, Ganjaliyev said that his community has voiced its support for the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs proposal about preparing populations for peace from day one as long as Azerbaijans occupied territories are returned.

Ganjaliyev mentioned the recent initiative of the Minsk Group to organize mutual visit of journalists, saying that unfortunately, the Armenian side used the visit as a propaganda tool and as a black PR.

Furthermore, Ganjaliyev commented on the debate between Armenian President Nikol Pashinyan and President Ilham Aliyev within the Munich Security Council on February 15.

He said President Aliyev touched upon important facts during the debate.

The first one was to emphasize that Armenian did not have the right for self-determination in Azerbaijans territories for the second time. This was a very important message, as Armenia has already established itself as a nation within its own territory. For the second time, they can determine their destiny somewhere else but not at the expense of our territories, Ganjaliyev said.

There is a term in teh international law, Terra nullius, that is, "nobody's land". If Armenians can find an uninhabited area on earth, they will go there to determine their destiny.

Ganjaliyev also commented on Pashinyans lack of historical knowledge and expertise on the Nagorno-Karabakh.

How is it that Pashinyan is unaware that Xankendis name was changed into Stapanakert after the name of Armenian bandit, Bolshevik Stephan Shaumyan in 1923 but talks about the events dating back to the B,C.?

Speaking about the communitys work in the upcoming years, Ganjaliyev said that a very comprehensive program of Azerbaijani community for 2020 has been approved.

We will have numerous events both inside and outside the country, with expected international visits. Overall, it is important that we, as a community, are particularly active internationally, make visits, and meet with representatives of international organizations. The Azerbaijani community of Nagorno-Karabakh along with the Armenian community has been identified in the OSCE documents as an equal interested party of the conflict. Therefore, this year we will work to the fullest extent, Ganjaliyev said.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
will attend the signing of a landmark peace deal between the US and the Taliban in on Saturday aimed at ending the brutal war in Afghanistan, a top official said on Friday.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting, Firdous Ashiq Awan, said Pakistan "welcomes" the peace agreement between the two sides.

"On this occasion, Foreign Minister Qureshi will represent Pakistan. Emir of Qatar, foreign ministers of seven countries and representatives from 50 other countries will also attend the ceremony," Awan was quoted as saying by the Geo News.

She said the progress towards peace in Afghanistan was a victory of Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision.

The Prime Minister has always "supported the dialogue" to resolve the Afghan conundrum, she said, adding that Pakistan will continue to play its positive role for peace and stability.

Last week, Qatar invited Pakistan to attend the deal signing ceremony between and the Afghan Taliban.

In his remarks on the occasion, the foreign minister said Pakistan and Qatar had played a pivotal role in furthering the Afghan reconciliation process.

Pakistan Prime Minister Khan visited Qatar on Thursday just two days prior to the signing of the historic peace deal.

Khan met Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and discussed ways to the boost bilateral ties.

The two sides discussed developing bilateral cooperation in economic, investment, and energy fields. They also exchanged views on prominent regional and issues, led by the latest regional developments, according to a media report.

Khan's visit to Qatar comes as the US is set to sign a historic peace deal with the Taliban provided that a week-long reduction in violence across Afghanistan holds.

The Taliban has also confirmed the plan to sign the peace deal that day.

The long-standing war has killed tens of thousands of civilians and Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Some 2.5 million Afghans are registered as refugees abroad and another two million are displaced within their country.

The agreement struck during talks between the US and the Taliban, if maintained, may secure a peace deal that would lead to a withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, fulfilling a campaign promise of President Trump.

The US currently has reportedly less than 14,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Gov. Kay Ivey today endorsed five bills and several other initiatives aimed at addressing Alabamas prison crisis and inequities and weaknesses in the criminal justice system.

Ivey said the proposals are based on recommendations of the Governors Study Group on Criminal Justice Policy, which issued a report saying that a commitment to prisoner rehabilitation was the long-term solution to the prison crisis. The group also said the need to make the prisons safer was urgent. The report is attached to the end of this article.

Ivey appointed the group after the Department of Justice alleged after an investigation that conditions in the states crowded, understaffed, and violent prisons violate the Constitution.

I tasked the Criminal Justice Study Group with the mission of finding data-driven solutions to our longstanding challenges in our prison system, Ivey said in a press release today. Im not only proud of their efforts, but Im pleased there were solid recommendations, which came as a result of their hard work. Through these legislative items, we can build upon steps my administration has already begun taking to improve our criminal justice system.

The bills are:

HB 329 by Rep. Jim Hill, R-Moody, which would make retroactive sentencing guidelines for nonviolent crimes that took effect in October 2013. Nonviolent offenders sentenced before the guidelines who received lengthy sentences, including life sentences, will be eligible for new sentences if they have had good conduct in prison.

SB 226 by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, will establish a commissioner of rehabilitation in the Alabama Department of Corrections and the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles. The stated purpose is to refocus the agencies on reducing recidivism while promoting public safety.

SB 244 by Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, will require all inmates nearing the end of their sentences to go under mandatory, pre-release supervision to help them successfully re-enter society. A law passed in 2015 already required that for inmates sentenced after that. The bill would make the requirement retroactive to cover those sentenced before 2015.

HB 323 by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, would require the ADOC to report more information to the Legislatures prison oversight committee and revise the oath of office taken by correctional officers to reflect a new focus on rehabilitation.

HB 342 by Rep. Connie Rowe, R-Jasper, would require the ADOC and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to work together to help inmates obtain a Social Security card, birth certificate, and non-driving photo ID before release from prison to help overcome one of the barriers for former inmates joining the workforce, the lack of a viable form of government-issued ID.

Ivey is also supporting a resolution sponsored by Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, that would set up a group to examine pre-trial and diversionary programs in an effort to make them uniform and more accessible. The study group, which would include legislators, members of the Alabama Sentencing Commission, district attorneys, judges, and others, will also study best practices for diversion programs.

In addition, the governor is supporting:
His [Tom's] vision will help take ProMach to the next level and ensure we are poised to continue our strong growth with our stand-alone and integrated Pharma line solutions.

ProMach, a worldwide leader in packaging machinery solutions, announced today that Tom McDaniel has been named as the companys new Senior Vice President for its Pharma Business Line. Reporting to Michel Lapierre, President of ProMachs Pharma Business Line, Mr. McDaniel will oversee operations and commercial activity for ProMachs Pharma product brands including NJM and WLS.

Mr. McDaniel joins ProMach from Bosch Packaging Technology (now Syntegon Packaging Technology), where he spent the last year as President of their North American Food Division and thirteen years prior to that as President of their North American Pharma Division. Prior to his 23 total years of experience at Bosch, Mr. McDaniel worked for Fortune 500 consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies Nestle USA and Frito-Lay in engineering and plant management roles.

I am excited to have Tom join the ProMach organization as SVP of our Pharma Business Line, said Bret Ranc, ProMach Chief Operating Officer. Toms background in pharmaceutical packaging is unparalleled and his reputation as a strong leader is well known throughout the industry. He has extensive experience leading operations at multiple manufacturing sites, growing sales and service teams, integrating acquisitions, and guiding overall strategic growth. His vision will help take ProMach to the next level and ensure we are poised to continue our strong growth with our stand-alone and integrated Pharma line solutions.

Mr. McDaniel earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, his M.B.A. from the University of St. Thomas, and currently serves on the Industry Relations Committee for PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies.

Im excited to join ProMach and help write the next chapter of their tremendous growth story, said Mr. McDaniel. Ive watched ProMach grow into a true industry powerhouse over the years. I believe the best is yet to come as we work relentlessly to bring customers the best solutions across the entire packaging line and ensure they remain satisfied with the ProMach product brands for the life of their investment and beyond.

Founded in 1998, ProMach is a family of best-in-class packaging solution product brands serving manufacturers of all sizes, geographies, and industries. ProMach product brands operate across the entire packaging spectrum providing solutions for nearly every application, including integration and engineering services for complete turnkey packaging lines.

About ProMach

ProMach is a family of best-in-class packaging solution brands serving manufacturers of all sizes and geographies in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, and household and industrial goods industries. ProMach brands operate across the entire packaging spectrum: filling and capping, flexibles, pharma, product handling, labeling and coding, and end of line. ProMach also provides Performance Services including integrated solutions, design/build, engineering services, and productivity software to optimize packaging line design and deliver maximum uptime.

ProMach designs, manufactures, integrates, and supports the most sophisticated and advanced packaging solutions in the global marketplace. Its diverse customer base, from Fortune 500 companies to smaller, privately-held businesses worldwide, depends on reliable, flexible, technologically advanced equipment and integrated solutions. ProMach is headquartered near Cincinnati, Ohio, with manufacturing facilities and offices throughout North America, Europe, South America, and Asia. For more information about ProMach, visit http://www.ProMachBuilt.com.


Senior IPS officer S N Shrivastava, who was appointed the special commissioner of Police (Law and Order) of Delhi Police this week, has been given the additional charge of the Delhi Police commissioner with effect from Sunday, an official order said.

Shrivastava, a 1985-batch IPS officer, will take charge from incumbent Amulya Patnaik, who demits office on Saturday.

On Monday, Shrivastava was repatriated from the Central Reserve Police Force and appointed as the special commissioner (law and order) of the Delhi Police, amid the communal violence in northeast Delhi.

Talking to reporters while touring the riot-hit areas in northeast Delhi, Shrivastava said, "My primary job will be to ensure that there is a feeling of security and people should also feel police are there for them."



Shrivastava will hold the additional charge of the Delhi Police commissioner with effect from Sunday and until further orders, the order issued by the Union Home Ministry said.

In the CRPF, Shrivastava was serving as the special director general (training). He had earlier served the Delhi Police in various capacities, including as the head of the elite anti-terror wing, Special Cell.

Ever since he rejoined the Delhi Police, Shrivastava was busy in controlling the communal violence in northeast Delhi, in which at least 39 people were killed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Their problems are compounded by having to submit copies of identity card and other details and visits by friends and family are often restricted.

Hyderabad: With eight students being forced to share a room which is meant to be shared by just four people, several PhD and post-graduate students of Osmania University are beginning to rent flats or rooms in Vidyanagar, Tarnaka and PD colony. However, the demand for such rooms/flats is very high and the supply is limited, forcing many students to travel to and from their villages.

Naga Bhushan, who was searching for a room for his friend, said that it has become difficult to get a room because almost all vacant rooms have been snapped up in Vidyanagar, Sitaphalmandi, Ramantha-pur and surrounding areas, by research scholars.

Most students cannot afford to hire an agent but search manually or through known people. Their problems are compounded by having to submit copies of identity card and other details and visits by friends and family are often restricted by the owner. With all these problems, students often put up with being crammed into on-campus rooms, which is at least cheaper.

Adding to the woes, these rooms are joined by several non-boarders as well.

It is not an exaggeration if we say that in some cases, ten people stay together in a single room. But there is no choice as the non-boarders or the students who passed out years ago are still on the campus, and some are even leaders of student organisations, said a University official on the condition of anonymity.

It was further stated that despite taking several measures like placing security guards, warning students against accommodating non-boarders and undertaking surprise raids, outsiders were still staying in the hostels
Eight-year-old Anthony La Cugna, second from left, surrounded by his family.

MANALAPAN, N.J.  Nicole and Jimmy LaCugna both grew up with a strong Catholic faith. Each attended religious education as children, married in a Catholic church and sent their first son, Nicholas, through a faith-based pre-K program.

So when their second son, 8-year-old Anthony, reached second grade last fall, he was on track to receive his first Holy Communion in April.

But just days ago, the couple learned Anthony would not be allowed to receive the sacrament at St. Aloysius in Jackson, New Jersey, the church the family has attended for years.

The reason given by the church: He has autism and is unable to express the contrition the church requires before receiving Communion.

That is discrimination, Nicole LaCugna said during an interview. This should not affect his religion. It is absurd.

Contacted by the Asbury Park Press, the Rev. John Bambrick, pastor of St Aloysius, said the church had reviewed the situation and determined that a person's disability did not necessarily preclude them from receiving a sacrament. He did not reverse the decision regarding the LaCugna's son, but indicated it could be revisited.

Nicole LaCugna said church administrators told her that because Anthony is not able to express contrition for his sins as part of the sacrament of reconciliation  also known as first confession  he cannot be prepared for First Communion.

Nicole LaCugna said Anthony is diagnosed with a serious form of autism, is 100% nonverbal and with severe apraxia, which is defined as a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to perform learned (familiar) movements on command, even though the command is understood and there is a willingness to perform the movement.

Rev. John Bambrick of St. Aloysius Church in Jackson, New Jersey, is shown in a file photo from January.

She said it causes him to have a shutdown of the brain. If he gains a word he can lose it, if he gains a sound, he can forget it.

But she says Anthony is as happy and active as any boy and attends an inclusion class at a regular public school.

Story continues

He does well for his abilities, his process is a slow process and he does what he is able to do, she said.

The family, who had lived in Jackson until last year, moved to Manalapan but continued to attend events and religious education through St. Aloysius, she said.

When Anthony reached first grade in the fall of 2018, Nicole LaCugna wanted to start him on the religious education track toward First Holy Communion but did not believe he could attend regular classes.

She said she asked the parish if she could home-school him for religious studies and said the parish agreed.

In September, she said she received permission to continue at home, but with a plan that he would receive his First Holy Communion along with other second graders in April.

I was always transparent about him, they knew what was here, she said. I knew what he wouldnt be able to do.

I stressed that there is no way he could sit through a Mass, so they were going to let us come to a different Mass, with a different group, and he would be the only one who would receive Communion.

But Nicole LaCugna said she received a call Monday from St. Aloysius explaining that Anthony would not be able to receive First Holy Communion.

I cried two times with them on the phone. I said it is unfair, my son is a child of God, she said. He is welcomed into the Catholic faith. My son is being discriminated against.

Jimmy LaCugna posted a lengthy comment on a local Facebook page Tuesday venting his frustration and disappointment with the church.

This is very hard and upsetting to comprehend when we all are created by God and now our son is being shunned from the Catholic faith due to his inability to communicate, his post stated. This is something that I hope goes viral and these parties involved get their names called out for this disgraceful and disheartening act against a child who has a disability and wouldnt even be able to create a sin because he is one of the sweetest and innocent little boy someone would ever meet.

So far, the post has drawn thousands of likes and supportive comments.

Nicole LaCugna said she reached out to the Diocese of Trenton, which oversees St. Aloysius, and was told the final decision rests with Bambrick, St. Aloysius pastor.

He never even contacted me," Nicole said. "My response was that he should have called me directly, and he has never met my son."

Bambrick told the Press in a lengthy email that the church had done further research since its initial denial and found that all baptized Catholics have a right to all sacraments.

But he stopped short of changing his decision, saying only that a delay may be necessary. He placed a similar note on the church's Facebook page.

The latest information states that in severe cases of disability we should now presume the severely disabled person has some interior life where God touches the soul, and we should rely on this for the severely disabled for First Holy Communion and for First Penance to allow a parent to inform the priest their child knows when they have done wrong. That is the basic sum of what I have found, the email said, in part.

This morning this was communicated to the family. We have dozens of handicapped, autistic, developmentally disabled, cognitively impaired and other forms of disability in our parish, and we recognize their dignity and strive to meet their needs while working within the framework of our faith," the email continued. "I am still unsure as to how we will adapt this particular case, but we will work it out with the family.

Nicole LaCugna said "this does not change our view. This only came about because of the feedback his parish is receiving. We were denied yesterday, so the so-called research stopped yesterday early."

Rayanne Bennett, executive director of communications and media for the Diocese of Trenton, said she could not comment about the LaCugnas specifically, saying via email, Because we are committed to preserve the privacy of our community members, the diocese does not share information about an individual child, student or family.

But she also noted that such decisions are made at the local level: the pastoral care of students with special needs is primarily the responsibility of the local parish, which does its best to prepare children for their sacraments. It is ultimately the role of the local pastor to determine the level of preparedness of any given child.

Nicole LaCugna said even if the church changed its decision, she would not allow Anthony to receive the sacrament there: I will not have him go to a priest who treated him this way.

Follow Joe Strupp on Twitter at @joestrupp

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Discrimination? Boy with autism denied First Holy Communion at church
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  Another company is interested in acquiring automaker Honda's production plant in the country which is up for closure next month, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said.

"Kung may umalis, may mga nag-eexpand, may mga gustong mag-locate pa dito at expand sila ng operations," Lopez told reporters.

[Translation: If someone leaves, there will be some who will expand operations and relocate here.]

Lopez did not reveal the name of the firm but hinted that it is an "existing player" planning to expand operations. He added that the player may not necessarily focus on cars.

Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. announced on February 22 that it will stop production in the country in March with the closure of its plant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. Honda had been manufacturing cars in the country since 1992.

Lopez earlier confirmed that 387 Honda workers will lose their jobs but will receive "generous compensation." This drew the ire of labor group Defend Jobs Philippines who later called on Labor chief Silvestre Bello III to look into the matter.

The trade chief said the plant's closure was a "global decision" which stemmed from trade tensions between the US and China and the coronavirus disease outbreak.

Honda also reportedly stopped production in the United Kingdom, Turkey, Argentina and Mexico.
At least two media companies have sent their Sydney staff home amid fears they have been exposed to coronavirus by a visiting executive.

Foxtel and media agency OMD both cleared out their Pyrmont offices on Friday and there are reports a third company has done the same.

The scare was sparked when OMD's London office was shut down on Thursday morning local time after the employee became ill.

Foxtel and media agency OMD both cleared out their Pyrmont offices (Foxtel's pictured) on Friday and there are reports a third company has done the same

He developed flu-like symptoms a few days after returning from a trip to Australia via Singapore, where more than 90 people are infected.

Foxtel sent home all 10 staff at its Foxtel Media advertising arm after some of them visited OMD during the executive's visit.

In an email to all staff, OMD chief executive Aimee Buchanan said the Sydney office would be closed on Friday, and potentially on Monday.

'Given the coronavirus breakout around the world, we will be acting with precaution and closing the OMD Sydney office until we have clearance from our UK office,' she wrote.

Staff were instructed to work from home or a 'suitable location' and only come to the office to pick up their laptop then leave immediately.

'While this is not a confirmed case of coronavirus, we have taken this precautionary measure as the health and safety of our employees is our top priority,' Australian boss Peter Horgan said.

'OMD Australia has also notified all visitors to its Sydney office in the past week.'

OMD's Sydney office closed on Friday while it awaited tests results for the London employee who got sick after visiting

Foxtel told Daily Mail Australia it would await the test results on the OMD executive before sending staff, who are working from home, back to the office.

'While Foxtel does not have direct concerns about staff, the decision was taken out of an abundance of caution given a small number of Foxtel Media staff had worked in the OMD offices in the past week,' it said.

It was not clear whether any Foxtel employees had come into contact with the potentially infected executive.

Foxtel's main North Ryde office is working as normal.
At the launching ceremony (Photo: https://asean.org)

Addressing the ceremony, Deputy Secretary General for the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Kung Phoak said the ACHDA project is an important step forward in raising awareness about the diverse cultural heritages of the region.

Japanese Ambassador to ASEAN Akira Chiba emphasized that the ACHDA is a creative project that brings benefit for not only ASEAN but the world also.

After its first phase which started in 2018, the ACHDA at https://heritage.asean.org introduces 160 cultural heritage artefacts in the digital forms of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

The project is funded by the Japanese Government through the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF).

The second phase of ACHDA will continue to digitize cultural artefacts of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, with other ASEAN member states to follow soon in the future.
The National Bureau also began releasing at the start of 2017 a much broader purchasing managing index. Because that index has never measured a sharp economic slowdown before, its previous low was 52, set in October.

Februarys score on the broader index was just 28.9, down from 53 in January.

Wall Streets jitters extend beyond stocks.

Other measures of the overall health of financial markets and corporate America are beginning to show signs of strain.

The most profound signal about the future of the global economy is that interest rates are plunging to record lows. The yield on the benchmark 10-year United States Treasury bonds fell to about 1.15 percent on Friday, down from 1.9 percent at the start of the year and 2.7 percent one year ago.

Wall Street is also skittish about risky debt. The biggest United States junk-bond fund  iShares iBoxx High-Yield Corporate Bond Exchange Traded Fund, which tracks an index of dollar-denominated risky corporate debt  has plunged by about 4 percent since Feb. 20, data Friday morning showed. The index posted a record outflow on Tuesday as spooked investors pulled nearly $1.6 billion out of the market.

High-yield debt, which is extended to companies viewed as more likely to fall short on payments, is usually the first to go bad if companies run into trouble. If coronavirus makes credit hard to come by and causes cash flows to dry up, for example, firms that are highly leveraged with shaky prospects could fall behind.

Oil prices are also sharply lower.

That means some relief at the pump for motorists this weekend. The national average price of regular gasoline has dropped two cents in the last week, to $2.45 a gallon, according to AAA. One half of that drop came from Thursday to Friday, suggesting the price decline is accelerating.

The nation has 256.4 million barrels of gasoline in stock, 1.4 million barrels more than last year. But the big drop in global oil prices is a much more important factor. At about $45 a barrel, the American benchmark oil price is at its lowest level since December 2018.
A Gujarat resident was arrested



from Bandra Terminus in the metropolis for allegedly stealing jewellery worth Rs 24 lakh from a train passenger, a railway police official said on Friday.

On February 2, Paresh Jayantibhai Ramani (34) flicked two trolley bags, containing gold jewellery worth Rs 24 lakh, of passenger Sonam Mehta on board a train that left from Mumbai Central for Gujarat, an official said.

"A case was filed by Mehta at Borivali railway police station on the same day. We started looking at CCTV images and zeroed in on Ramani. On Monday, based on an informer tip-off, we arrested him from Bandra Terminus. He confessed to stealing two trolley bags of Mehta. We recovered the stolen gold," said Inspector Uttam Sonawane of Bandra railway police.

He said Ramani is a farmer from Amreli in Gujarat and no previous crime record has been found against his name as yet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
House Republicans are urging that any coronavirus funding bill be kept separate from FISA reform after hearing rumblings that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Democratic leadership could force a clean reauthorization of FISAs expiring powers by attaching it to a must-have bill.

Representative Tim Burchett (R., Tenn.), along with 38 other House Republicans, sent a letter on Friday to Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.), warning them not to play political games by proposing a coronavirus-FISA package.

It is our belief, and, we believe, the belief of most Americans, that Congress should not tie these two, unrelated issues together, reads the letter, which was obtained by National Review. Public health has nothing to do with foreign intelligence surveillance.

Burchett told National Review that Democratic leadership should be ashamed of themselves for even trying to attempt something like this.

We received word that they were going to attach the FISA reauthorization onto the funding for the coronavirus, which is very important right now  obviously, the public is alarmed about it, and they should be  and I just think this is petty politics at best, he said. Burchett added that he had heard from some Republicans who would vote against coronavirus funding if it contained a FISA reauthorization, and declined to comment on whether he had spoken to the White House about the letter.

FISA has four discrete powers set to expire on March 15: the business records power, the call detail records authority, the roving wiretaps provision, and the lone wolf amendment. House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.) and House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam B. Schiff (D., Calif.) proposed a bill in January that would extend three of the four surveillance powers, while ending the call-records program, which the NSA found to be largely defunct.

But a bipartisan, bicameral effort to enact more stringent reforms also rose up in response to Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitzs report exposing how the statute was abused by the FBI in the course of its investigation into the Trump campaign. Those reformers spearheaded the Safeguarding Americans Private Records Act (SAPRA), which takes aim at the business-records program  also known as Section 215 of the Patriot Act  because it allows the FBI to access records and documents of a U.S. citizen through a FISA warrant issued to a third party, such as a telecommunications company.

Story continues

SAPRA is the substantial reform to all of 215, and Nadler had some window-dressing, frankly, and was hoping they could get by with just doing that, and this is a very meaty reform bill, Representative Warren Davidson, a cosponsor of SAPRA, explained to National Review.

Republicans on Capitol Hill and administration officials have given mixed signals on FISA reform, with attorney general William Barr calling for the statute to be reauthorized before any significant reforms are implemented. But GOP sources told National Review earlier this week that a long list of Republicans supports significant reforms to FISA before it is reauthorized  a view that Senator Rand Paul claims President Trump supports.

Davidson confirmed to National Review that Republicans are operating under an understanding that a clean reauth is not something that the president would sign.

On Wednesday, the House was set to markup Nadlers bill, but delayed the move after Representative Zoe Lofgren (D., Calif.) revealed she intended to propose amendments to Nadlers bill pulled directly from SAPRA, according to a House source involved in the reform effort.

While initial reports suggested that the proposal contained poison pills designed to scupper FISA reform, Davidson pushed back on the claim, saying instead that the delay was due to a fear that Nadlers bill lacked support within his own caucus.

We had a growing coalition of conservatives and progressives who believe this was an important reform  not just because of the Horowitz support, or frankly anything to do with President Trump. This is a principled rehash of, frankly, the Patriot Act debate, he explained.  . . . . If they were clear poison pills, why would he need to pull the amendment? His coalition wouldve held together, it wouldve been a party-line vote, game over. He held the bill because he knew he didnt have the votes.

While Pelosi denied that FISA reform and coronavirus funding would be linked on Thursday, Lofgren (D., Calif.) told National Review that her staff had been told that the Judiciary Committee did not intend to reconvene on FISA  signaling that FISA reauthorization could be merged with coronavirus funding.

I dont know how the process would be, if theyre going to refuse to do any markup, that is extraordinary. So how do you make progress? I dont know, Lofgren admitted. She declined to comment on conversations with Democratic leadership, but said that she has had no one in the pro-FISA court camp come up and express concern to me on her amendments, while quite a few members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat, have thanked her for standing up for the Constitution.

Lofgren also voiced her disapproval at any straight reauthorization through a coronavirus bill, and implied serious FISA reform had the votes to pass.

I think that would be quite wrong, she said. Obviously, we need to prepare and respond to a pandemic, and to put something that a large number, potentially a majority, of the House and Senate dont agree with, to jam them, is not a good way to govern.

House Republicans expressed similar sentiments on the situation, with Representative Andy Biggs (R., Ariz.) calling Nadlers delay a pyrrhic victory.

I say its a pyrrhic victory because the rumors have gone rampant now where leadership and people who want the status quo are going to basically do something like maybe attach this to a must-have bill  perhaps coronavirus funding bill  and then skirt and completely go around committee and not have a committee hearing on it, and then prevent us from having a debate and introducing amendments on the floor of the House, Biggs explained to National Review.

The Arizona Republican also defended Lofgrens proposal, and suggested that the delay was because it probably would have passed.

I think that the people that disagree with my position are much more likely to try and find a way around the coalitions that are forming. And thats why dont be surprised if you see it attached to some must-see legislation, he stated.

More from National Review
Government has denied alleged stories published by an unknown writer and websites of suspicious origin that indicate that it had withdrawn or intends to withdraw the current Pension Scheme for Police and other Security Services.



A statement signed by Mr Pius Enam Hadzide, the Deputy Minister of Information and copied to the Ghana News Agency described the stories as maliciously fabricated and aimed at courting disaffection for Government amongst the countrys gallant men and women in uniform.



Government by this release reiterates its position that it has not and does not intend to withdraw CAP 30 Pension Scheme or any Pension Scheme of any of the countrys Security Services. Government will not make any changes that will make the Police or any security personnel worse off, not while serving or on retirement, the statement said.



Mr Ambrose Dery, the Minister for the Interior, according to the statement, represented this position to the rank and file of the Security Services on Wednesday, April 17, 2019, at the Police Headquarters, when he stated: The Ghana Police Service will not be migrated from CAP 30 as being rumored since Government recognizes the supreme sacrifices it makes for the country.



Government, the statement emphasized, condemned in no uncertain attempts by unscrupulous persons to cause confusion within the ranks of Security Services.



It urged the media to exercise great discretion and the highest ethical standards when reporting on security and related matters.



Government called for utmost calm and restraint amongst security personnel and the public and gave an assurance that it remained committed to the welfare of the countrys security personnel.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Today we are going to look at BeijingWest Industries International Limited (HKG:2339) to see whether it might be an attractive investment prospect. Specifically, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), since that will give us an insight into how efficiently the business can generate profits from the capital it requires.

First of all, we'll work out how to calculate ROCE. Second, we'll look at its ROCE compared to similar companies. Last but not least, we'll look at what impact its current liabilities have on its ROCE.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

ROCE measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. All else being equal, a better business will have a higher ROCE. Overall, it is a valuable metric that has its flaws. Renowned investment researcher Michael Mauboussin has suggested that a high ROCE can indicate that 'one dollar invested in the company generates value of more than one dollar'.

So, How Do We Calculate ROCE?

The formula for calculating the return on capital employed is:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)  (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

Or for BeijingWest Industries International:

0.0007 = HK$926k  (HK$2.2b - HK$908m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2019.)

So, BeijingWest Industries International has an ROCE of 0.07%.

Check out our latest analysis for BeijingWest Industries International

Is BeijingWest Industries International's ROCE Good?

When making comparisons between similar businesses, investors may find ROCE useful. In this analysis, BeijingWest Industries International's ROCE appears meaningfully below the 12% average reported by the Auto Components industry. This performance is not ideal, as it suggests the company may not be deploying its capital as effectively as some competitors. Regardless of how BeijingWest Industries International stacks up against its industry, its ROCE in absolute terms is quite low (especially compared to a bank account). Readers may wish to look for more rewarding investments.

Story continues

BeijingWest Industries International's current ROCE of 0.07% is lower than its ROCE in the past, which was 18%, 3 years ago. This makes us wonder if the business is facing new challenges. You can click on the image below to see (in greater detail) how BeijingWest Industries International's past growth compares to other companies.

SEHK:2339 Past Revenue and Net Income, February 27th 2020

Remember that this metric is backwards looking - it shows what has happened in the past, and does not accurately predict the future. Companies in cyclical industries can be difficult to understand using ROCE, as returns typically look high during boom times, and low during busts. This is because ROCE only looks at one year, instead of considering returns across a whole cycle. You can check if BeijingWest Industries International has cyclical profits by looking at this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

How BeijingWest Industries International's Current Liabilities Impact Its ROCE

Current liabilities are short term bills and invoices that need to be paid in 12 months or less. Due to the way the ROCE equation works, having large bills due in the near term can make it look as though a company has less capital employed, and thus a higher ROCE than usual. To counteract this, we check if a company has high current liabilities, relative to its total assets.

BeijingWest Industries International has total assets of HK$2.2b and current liabilities of HK$908m. As a result, its current liabilities are equal to approximately 41% of its total assets. BeijingWest Industries International has a medium level of current liabilities (boosting the ROCE somewhat), and a low ROCE.

What We Can Learn From BeijingWest Industries International's ROCE

This company may not be the most attractive investment prospect. You might be able to find a better investment than BeijingWest Industries International. If you want a selection of possible winners, check out this free list of interesting companies that trade on a P/E below 20 (but have proven they can grow earnings).

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
A bill that seeks to amend the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2004, scaled second reading at the Senate on Thursday.

The bill sponsored by the Senate Leader, Abdullahi Yahaya, was read for the first time on December 10, 2019.

The bill seeks to provide for the incorporation of companies, limited liability partnerships, limited partnerships, registration of business names together with incorporation of trustees of certain communities, bodies or associations.

The Senate passed the bill in May 2018 to, among others, make it possible for individuals to register their companies from any part of the world.

The bill came 28 years after the passage of the original Companies and Allied Matters Act and is expected to make Nigeria the best country in Africa to do business in.

It was transmitted to the president in May but was not assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.

In November 2019, the president wrote to the Senate seeking an amendment to a section of the proposed law.

In his letter, Mr Buhari sought the amendment of Section 26(5) of the passed bill to preserve the powers of the Attorney-General of the Federation to approve the registration of companies limited by guarantee and reflect the ease of doing business principles in a veto order (1) of 2017 on the promotion of transparency and efficiency in the business environment.

Second reading

Thursdays second reading of the bill was a sequel to a deliberation on the provisions of the bills with support from all the lawmakers that contributed.

Leading the debate, Mr Yahaya said it seeks to provide an efficient means of regulating businesses, minimise the compliance burden of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), enhance transparency and shareholder engagement and promote a friendly business climate in Nigeria.

He said this will enhance Nigerias business environment and make it competitive among its international colleagues. And it is a good start for small companies and young entrepreneurs, given the provision for single ownership of small private companies, he explained.

He also said it will promote the use of technology and eliminate all unnecessary regulatory provisions for small companies.

It is expected to reduce the minimum share capital for companies and startups in Nigeria. The introduction of the e-registration system will ensure global access to registration of companies and increase in foreign investment through the creation of a new legal entity.

Mr Yahaya further noted that the business reform happening now in the legal regime is long overdue as Nigerias legal framework for business is in dire need for same.

The repeal and re-enactment of the CAMA Bill when passed to law, will have the overall effect of making the Nigerian corporate law more in tune with todays business realities, improve the business environment, as well as mitigate direct compliance costs for businesses in Nigeria, he added.

He also said the necessary amendments have been made as requested by the president.

All the senators including the Senate President Ahmad Lawan, who spoke about the bill, supported its passage and many urged the Senate to fast-track the process.

The bill was, thereafter, read for the second time after a voice vote and referred to the Senate Committee on Trade and Investment. They are to report back after a week.

Expected benefits

The bill, if signed into law, is expected to provide significant benefits to companies by reducing red tape and making it easier to comply with regulatory obligations.

The amendments are aimed at encouraging investments that will allow small businesses and startups thrive, lower costs and ease regulatory burdens.

Changes included in the bill will mean that many of the over 75,000 private companies limited by shares which are established in Nigeria every year will be able to incorporate more easily.

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In addition, small companies will no longer be required to have a company secretary or hold annual general meetings and the requirement for statutory declaration of compliance has also been removed.

Minimum share capital required for companies to be registered has also been reduced to encourage more investments in small companies; and individuals will no longer need a lawyer to register a company.
Malawi legalises growing, selling cannabis for medicine and industrial fibers

International

oi-PTI

Blantyre (Malawi), Feb 28: Malawi on Thursday became the latest African country to legalise the growing of cannabis, a crop that could supplement the tobacco industry, which has been the country's economic mainstay.

Lawmakers unanimously passed the new law legalising the farming, importing and exporting of cannabis for medicinal and industrial use, according to documents seen by AFP.

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in the world and has long relied on tobacco which brings in around 60 per cent of foreign exchange earnings. Several countries have decriminalised the growing and use of medicinal cannabis. The new law establishes a regulatory authority which will be tasked with issuing licences to cultivate, process, store, sell, export and distribute cannabis.

The law also requires that cannabis will be grown under strict practices, including prohibiting children in the sector. Malawi was last December forced to confront child labour practices after the US restricted tobacco imports from the impoverished nation over allegations workers including children were being exploited.

26-year-old man grows cannabis at home using hydroponics, arrested

Cannabis has for many years been illegally grown in remote parts of Malawi and smuggled out of the country. The grade is popularly known as "Malawi gold". Financial crimes expert Jai Banda lauded parliament's decision as government has for years lost out on valuable tax revenue.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

"Cannabis is mainly cultivated in remote areas, mainly for export to surrounding countries such as South Africa, Kenya and the overseas market. Trade is organised by professional traffickers," Banda told AFP. "It has been a long journey but here we are. I guess we will be able to export and thereby earn the much needed forex. This is a path in the right direction."

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 9:23 [IST]
Russia's maintenance of high level of violence in Donbas is possible only because the Russian Federation alone controls more than 400 km of Ukraine-Russia border.

Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna, made a corresponding statement at the OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna on Thursday, February 27, an Ukrinform own correspondent reports.

"As we have repeatedly stated at previous meetings of the Permanent Council, the Russian side wouldnt have been able to maintain such a high level of violence along the contact line if it hadnt had complete control over the 400km section of the border," the Ukrainian diplomat said, informing of the recent gross ceasefire violations by the Russian armed forces in eastern Ukraine.

Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk mentioned relevant facts established by the OSCE SMM to Ukraine: armored combat vehicles and trucks heading west and east from the border crossing near Novoazovsk; tented trucks and fuel tanks standing in line to leave Ukraine at the border crossing near Uspenka; train with empty wagons standing at the station in the village of Lysyche, about 6 km of the international border; train and forty wagons at the Chervona Mohyla railway station near Voznesenivka heading east towards the border; fresh traces of transport on a snow-covered asphalt road near the village of Kuznetsy heading to the border with the Russian Federation, in the area lacking border crossing points.

"These are just some of the facts gathered and established by the SMM over the past two weeks, which testify to the scale of Russia's illegal crossing of the border with Ukraine," the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna said.

ol
R esearch shows that women will spend just under 5,000 in their lifetime on period products.

This can be a problem for those on a low income, potentially causing them to miss work and school if they cannot afford such items.

In Scotland, MSPs are trying to pass legislation to make it a legal requirement for women to be given free towels and tampons.

In the UK, despite most women needing period products every month, the goods are classed as a luxury item and subject to tax.

The Standard looks at the issue of period poverty below...

Period products are a step closer to becoming free for women in Scotland after a bill passed its first stage / AFP via Getty Images

What is period poverty?

The average period lasts about five days and it can cost up to 8 a month for tampons and sanitary towels depending on how heavy the bleeding is.

Some women struggle to meet this expense.

Period poverty is when those on a low income cant access or afford suitable period products.

Why is there a tax on sanitary products?

In the UK, VAT has been charged on sanitary towels and tampons at a rate of five percent since 2001.

EU rules meant that the so-called tampon tax could not be taken away or reduced.

To try and combat this, over the last few years the UK government has kept money raised from the levy and donated it to womens charities and organisations.

Tesco has reduced the price of products to help tackle period poverty / PA

Post-Brexit it will be up to the government to set the VAT rate and ministers have indicated they want to abolish the tax completely - following in the footstep of countries including Australia, Canada, Nigeria and Trinidad and Tobago.

Supermarket brand Tesco also tried to help combat period poverty and it announced it was reducing sanitary products by 5 percent in July 2017.

Is period poverty a big problem?

More than a quarter of women and young girls have been affected by period poverty with many missing work and school, a campaign group has said

Females will need to shell out around 5,000 over a lifetime on products, but those in financial difficulties often pay a higher price.

According to campaign group Bloody Big Brunch - which organises morning meals where guests pay with sanitary products rather than money  females unable to pay resort to old rags, toilet paper or newspaper as a substitute.

This leads to 137,000 girls missing school each year, not to mention embarrassment and illness  the impact is huge, its website said.

Campaigners hold up signs calling for an end to period poverty / PA

In a different study, conducted by Plan International, it found that one in ten girls have been unable to afford sanitary wear in the UK and one in seven have struggled

Furthermore, one in seven girls have had to borrow from a friend due to financial problems and one in seven have had to improvise.

The charity also looked into the stigma around periods and found that almost half of young women aged 14- 21 are embarrassed by their cycles.

Speaking when the study was published, UK Campaign Manager at Plan International UK Lucy Russell said: Period poverty is a very real challenge facing many girls in the UK, and its devastating to hear of the impact it is having on girls lives, their ability to be themselves, and their self-esteem. For too many girls, dealing with their period each month is proving a tough challenge  and in 21st century Britain, this shouldnt be the case.

But what is also clear is that this is a problem of stigma as well as affordability. Girls feel embarrassed by their periods, and that cant be right.

We need a society-wide approach to bust the taboo, and an education programme which addresses the shocking reality that too many girls lack the knowledge and understanding of how to manage their period, and are too afraid to ask for advice.

Are girls in Scotland going to get free sanitary products?

A bill has been written to give all women free sanitary products in Scotland.

It has passed the first stage at Holyrood Parliament.

If its clears all the stages it will mean the Scottish Parliament would have a legal duty to ensure anyone who needs sanitary goods would be able to get them free of charge.

Monica Lennon MSP speaks in the debating chamber during the Period Products Bill / PA

MSP Monica Lennon proposed that it could be modelled on the free condom distribution scheme where anyone needing the contraceptive can pick it up at GPs and pharmacies.

Ms Lennon welcomed cross-party support for her pioneering bill and said: Too often this Parliament is defined by division, disagreement and discord.

This Bill shows what Parliament can do when we put aside our legitimate political differences and work together.

Women and girls are too often left behind in the political process. This is a chance to put them first and do something that is truly groundbreaking on gender equality.

Supporters of the Period Products bill at a rally outside Parliament in Edinburgh / PA

Menstruation is normal. Free universal access to tampons, pads and reusable options should be normal, too.

She added that the legislation was not radical or extreme but the right thing to do.

It has estimated it could take as much as 24 million to roll out the initiative.

What is already being done to tackle the issue?

In the UK, the government has a task force whose aim is to raise awareness and reduce stigma surrounding periods.

It has also rolled out free products in English primary schools since January 2020.

In Scotland, period product are funded in schools, colleges and universities.
Chinese ducks are unlikely to help Pakistan combat swarms of locusts which have ravaged thousands of sacres of standing crop in the last few weeks. After China's Ningbo Evening News reported that an army of 1,00,000 ducks was on its way to Pakistan to tackle the locust menace, an expert claimed that no such proposal was being implemented.

China Agricultural University professor Zhang Long, who is in Pakistan as part of an expert delegation to help it deal with the locust problem, rejected that idea of the duck army coming to the rescue. According to Zhang, ducks are not suited for the climatic and geographical condition of Pakistan, which is dry and has warm deserts.

"Ducks rely on water, but in Pakistans desert areas, the temperature is very high," Zhang was quoted as saying by The Guardian news portal. He stated that chemical or biological pesticides would be able to do a better job than a 1 lakh-strong duck army from China.

Almost two decades back, China had used ducks to combat locusts ravaging the north-western Xinjiang region. Since ducks eat locusts, they can be used to deal with the problem facing Pakistan but its dry climate may prove to be a major impediment in executing the programme.

Several countries in Asia and Africa including India are battling large swarms of locusts who can strip the fields of standing crops within a few minutes leading to massive food shortage. Locust swarms have been reported to fly as much as 150 kilometres in a day and devour food which can feed 35,000 people.

The Ningbo Evening News had reported that China could send ducks to Pakistan by the second half of 2020 where they would be used a "biological weapon" to destroy the locusts swarms. The report mentioned Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Agricultural Technology researcher Lu Lizhi stating that "ducks were much less expensive and environmentally damaging than pesticides".
SIOUX CITY -- With just over three months to go before Iowa's June 2 primary election, Mike Franken says the race for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate is about to move into a higher gear.

Franken, a retired Naval officer who lives in Sioux City, said he fully expects to defeat three other Democratic candidates, earning the right to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Joni Ernst in the fall.

While he's collected less in campaign contributions than at least two of his three Democratic opponents, Franken said he's got the right message to prevail in the primary over Theresa Greenfield, Eddie Mauro and Kimberly Graham.

Franken said he's the ideal Democrat to oppose Ernst, since he has military experience to match hers. He noted he also comes from a working class rural background and knows how the levers of power work in Washington, D.C.

"I came in the race to ensure there was a Democrat who negated how Joni Ernst got elected," Franken said. "I'm a farm kid from public schools. I'm not elitist...I'm as rural as rural gets."

In fundraising, Greenfield, a businesswoman and former congressional candidate, dwarfs the field. She raised $1.6 million for the final three months of 2019, in the most recent quarterly reporting period for the Federal Election Commission. Greenfield, who is favored by the Senate Democrats' political arm, brought in $3.35 million for the year, and after paying campaign expenses, ended Dec. 31 with $2.16 million in cash.

By comparison, Mauro, a Des Moines businessman, raised $41,388 for the fourth quarter and $179,693 for the year, along with loaning $2.6 million to his campaign and paying back $850,000 of those loans. After all those moves, Mauro has $1.4 million cash on hand.

Franken, raised $133,405 for the final quarter and $283,719 for the year, and has $124,786 cash on hand.

Graham, an Indianola attorney, did not file a fourth quarter report, and the Federal Elections Commission sent her campaign a notice of a need to file. She ended the third quarter with $20,153 cash on hand.

Franken, a three-star admiral who led military operations in Africa and also served as a Navy liaison in Congress, is a Sioux Center native who returned to Northwest Iowa following his retirement in October 2017.

Many prominent Iowa Democrats and the national Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has endorsed Greenfield.

"She has a leg up indeed," Franken said, adding that money follows the DSCC endorsement.

On Monday, Greenfield toured the Siouxland Community Health Center in Sioux City as part of her statewide Hear it From the Heartland tour.

"Growing up in a town of 500, we always looked out for each other. Thats what they do at Siouxland Community Health Center. We must keep fighting to expand access to affordable health care," Greenfield said.

Also on Monday, which was the first day in a three-week period in which candidates for federal office can officially file campaign papers, Graham took that filing step.

Mauro's most recent public campaign event was in Davenport with union supporters on Sunday, as he is out working to land supporters. Mauro tweeted, "They are concerned about the same issues that impact all Americans - the environment, healthcare, education, economic security, safe communities, affordable housing & much more."

Franken said he is concerned about how climate change effects aren't being addressed. He said Democrats should not be afraid of bold moves, since lawmakers over prior decades took big steps to add the Social Security retirement benefits program, build the interstate highway system and bring electricity to rural areas.

"This is an example of good government. There is a role for big government," he said.

Franken said the current political culture, led at the top by President Donald Trump, is bereft in terms of decency and honesty. He wants to be part of making public policy in a way that's infused with honesty in addressing longstanding problems.

"Probity of character transcends all...It is all about character. Why are we so decrepit?" Franken said.

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The Speaker, Professor Aaron Mike Ocquaye has called on people not to misinterpret his caution to the media in Parliament to mean an attempt to stifle media freedom in parliament.



According to him, the media are most welcomed as guests of the House and would do everything to assist them to discharge their duties professionally.



Prof Oquaye has come under heavy criticism for his directive to the media in Parliament to have their accreditation revoked when majority of them abandoned coverage of proceedings in the chamber on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 during the debate on President Akufo-Addos 2020 State of the Nation Address (SONA).



The journalists were rather conducting interviews with some Minority Members of Parliament (MPs), following the decision by the Minority to abstain from the debate on the SONA in line with a previous walkout staged on the day the President was about to deliver the message on the SONA.



The media later returned after their interviews with the Minoritys MPs.

Prof Oquaye cautioned the media not to abandon the plenary of parliament for some other work outside the chamber at any given time whether from the Minority or Majority side.



Our democracy is young, let us learn and act responsibly .I personally have supported media freedom since 1967, when my first article appeared in the Ghanaian Times, and I have consistently stood by that, Ocqauye said.



According to him, no organisation whether of lawyers or doctors were perfect and as such must be streamlined and critiqued to enable the country to develop.



Prof Oquaye further stated that under his leadership, and with the cooperation of both the Majority and Minority Leadership, the Parliament of Ghana was revising its rules to strengthen the media to do its work and even cover Committee meetings.



He maintained that Parliament would continue to support the media, but they have the right to help and direct them to develop.

We are for them, but they are our children, we must also help them and direct them to develop, that is the national pledge. No group people are beyond criticism, he said.



He also charged the media to report facts accurately and not skew their reports to any side of the House.



Mr Haruna Iddrisu, the Minority Leader, assured the media that Parliament would continue to uphold the rights to free expression guaranteed and protected under the 1992 constitution.



He said parliament as an institution was the citadel of democracy and the media remained the top ally if the nation wanted to deepen transparency and accountability.



He said Parliament would not support any individual or institution that wanted to limit the frontiers of democracy.

Source: GNA









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Telefonica has completed the process of returning its Mexican spectrum licences and raised EUR95 million (US$104 million) as a result.

Spanish business outlet El Economista quoted the sum from a statement that the operator provided to the Madrid Stock Exchange (Bolsa de Madrid).

The operators Mexican unit Movistar (Telefonica Moviles Mexico) signed a deal in November 2019 with the smaller AT&T Mexico covering last mile wireless capacity access. At the time, Movistar revealed that it would relinquish its Mexican spectrum holding, including the 2.5GHz spectrum that it acquired just over a year previously in November 2018.

Now that it has returned this spectrum, the operator is no longer required to meet the coverage obligations associated with the 2.5GHz licence. Movistar has also returned its 800MHz and 1900MHz holdings.
SPRINGFIELD  A 48-year-old city man who ran a prostitution ring in Springfield and Hartford pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to multiple charges of conspiracy and sex trafficking.

William Coleman on Thursday entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Springfield to nine counts of sex trafficking and a single count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.

Judge Mark Mastroianni scheduled sentencing for July 9. Coleman could be sentenced to 15 years to life in federal prison, and fined up to $250,000.

Coleman has remained in custody since his arrest in December 2018.

Coleman admitted to operating a prostitution business in Springfield and Hartford between 2016 and 2018. Prosecutors said he commonly advertised on internet sites including Backpage.com, a sex-marketing website that was shut down by the federal government in 2018.

He had a stable of as many as 20 women that he coerced into the sex trade with threats of violence and by exploiting their drug addictions.

Prosecutors say he maintained strict control over the women he recruited. They were required to give him all the money they earned from customers, and they were only allowed to obtain heroin from him. Those who refused to obey him were beaten, sexually assaulted or not provided with heroin.

He recruited some of the women from the Western Massachusetts Regional Womens Correctional Facility in Chicopee, prosecutors said.

He employed Virginia Maldonado, the mother of his child, as his lieutenant to keep the other women in line, according to court records.

Maldonado, another woman who worked for Coleman named Jaclyn Lemlin, and a third named Shannon Roberts have also been charged with conspiracy. Those cases are pending.

The case against Coleman was the result of efforts of the Western Massachusetts Human Trafficking Working Group, which was established in 2015 to investigate and prosecute charges involving sex trafficking.

Related Content:
Representatives from Lufthansa Technic, Rolls-Royce, Etihad Airways Engineering and Joramco will be among the industry leading experts discussing the industry landscape at the upcoming MRO Middle East Summit in Dubai, UAE.



The one-day conference at the Conrad Hotel on February 24 will focus on topics including 2020 MRO Forecast and Key Trends: Identifying New Opportunities; Strategies to Manage and Reduce Costs and An Ever-Changing Aftermarket Landscape; while case studies will include Predictive Maintenance & Engine Health Monitoring from Rolls-Royce and Engineering: A Case Study About a Successful Partnership in the Region with representatives from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Applied Database Technology (ADT).



Attendees to the event can benefit from insights and experience from the speakers while learning about technologies that can be applied to add value to their own operations.



Jason Sutcliffe, Rolls-Royces regional marketing director said: To Rolls-Royce, availability means ensuring that every time an airline wants to use their aircraft and fly their passengers, it can. Our priorities are influenced by a customer-centric approach and a commitment to aircraft availability.



This requires us to go way beyond a reactive approach to maintenance and traditional ideas of predicting when engines need servicing. To do this weve innovated proprietary technologies embraced in the pioneering spirit of the IntelligentEngine vision. Sensors assess the real-time health of Rolls-Royce Trent engines, anticipate and inform their maintenance needs to eliminate and mitigate any technical disruptions.



The Tech Talks panel will examine success stories and pitfalls of innovation. Pushing past the already talked about topic of what new tech has emerged, this session will explore how aftermarket businesses have successfully implemented tech and will share their successes and pitfalls along the journey.



Speakers will examine how day to day disruption can be minimised while implementing new technology, the effective implementation of virtual reality and other technology in to training programmes, what worked and what didnt when deploying robots into MRO processes, the challenges and opportunities of going paperless, and cybersecurity.



Other sessions will take place throughout the day including a 2020 MRO forecast and a session of nine roundtables led by thought leaders and industry experts.



Frederic Dupont, VP Technical Sales & Customer Service, Etihad Engineering, said: MRO Middle East is one of the key industry events that is a major milestone in our annual event calendar. It provides a platform for us to engage with our customers and peers, meet our partners and keep up-to-date with the latest technologies in the MRO world. The event allows us to engage in discussions and agreements that will enhance our performance for the years ahead and we look forward to it every year.



Lydia Janow, managing director/Events, Aviation Week Network said: MRO Middle East goes from strength to strength each year, with new companies taking part in both the exhibition and the Summit. This year on year growth is testament to the growing MRO market in the region and many companies are keen to be part of it. The networking opportunities at MRO Middle East are the ideal way for them to grow their businesses in the region.



Aviation Week Network and Tarsus F&E LLC Middle Easts MRO Middle East exhibition will take place following the Summit, February 25-26 at the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) co-located with Aircraft Interiors Middle East (AIME).



MRO Middle East event brings together the MRO industry offering them access to the regions growing marketplace of airlines, suppliers, OEMs and B2B buyers. The co-located events expect to host 330 exhibitors showcasing the latest technologies and products across both aircraft interiors and MRO.  TradeArabia News Service
New Arizona Offices for Clarivate

Innovation analytics firm Clarivate is to open an office for around 150 staff in Chandler, Arizona, and says it will serve as one of three new Centers of Excellence, alongside locations in London and Malaysia.



Clarivate Analytics offers insights and data to help clients accelerate the pace of innovation, with brands including the Web of Science, Cortellis, Derwent, CompuMark, MarkMonitor and Techstreet. The firm employs more than 4,300 people in more than 40 countries worldwide, and is headquartered in Philadelphia and London. Last month the firm announced it would acquire healthcare-focused research and data provider Decision Resources Group (DRG) for $900m in cash and c.$50m shares.



The new office is a 30,000 square foot lease at Chandler Viridian, located in the Price Corridor Employment Center; and will include divisions from finance, administration, sales and customer service, along with several executive positions.



Chandler is Arizona's fourth largest city with a population of more than 262,000, and has been named one of the nation's Best Places to Find a Job and Best Cities for Women in Tech. Governor Doug Ducey says of the move: 'Arizona is proud to welcome another company expanding in our state. Today's news is another win for our booming economy, and we thank Clarivate Analytics for bringing more jobs and investment to Arizona'.



Clarivate Executive Chairman and CEO Jerre Stead (pictured) comments: 'We were looking for locations that allow us access to a wide talent pool, coupled with affordable living, flexible language skills and easy travel. Chandler is an ideal location for our US-based Center of Excellence, and we look forward to starting to recruit local professionals... Anyone joining our team here will be joining a company that is solidly rooted on our values of aiming for greatness, owning our actions and valuing every voice'.



Web site: www.clarivate.com .




India will send a representative to witness the signing of a peace deal between the United States and Taliban of Afghanistan in Doha on Saturday  notwithstanding its concern over the possibility of the withdrawal of international troops from the war-torn country resulting in a strategic advantage to Pakistan.

P Kumaran, New Delhi's envoy to Doha, will represent the Government of India in the ceremony to mark the signing of the deal in the capital of Qatar, sources told the DH.

New Delhi decided to send a representative to the signing ceremony after it received an invitation from Qatar government, which had been facilitating the talks between the US and the Taliban in Doha over the past few years.

The deal the American President Donald Trump's administration is set to sign with Afghan Taliban in Doha on Saturday will set the stage for withdrawal of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Afghanistan  almost two decades after an offensive led by the US dislodged the radical militants from power in the conflict-ravaged country.

Trump discussed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government the contours of the proposed US-Taliban deal during his visit to New Delhi last Tuesday.

Modi conveyed to Trump that the international community should ensure that the progress made by Afghanistan in the past 18 years in its pursuit of peace, democracy and gender equality would be preserved after the withdrawal of the US-led force from the war-torn country.

India is also concerned over the possibility of the deal paving the way for Pakistan to gain a strategic depth in Afghanistan.

India and the United States share interest in a united, sovereign, democratic, inclusive, stable and prosperous Afghanistan, according to a joint statement issued after the meeting between the two leaders in New Delhi. They support an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process that results in sustainable peace; cessation of violence; elimination of terrorist safe havens, and preservation of the gains of the last 18 years.

The US President welcomed Indias role in continuing to provide development and security assistance to help stabilize and provide connectivity in Afghanistan.

India over the past few years contributed over $ 3 billion to support reconstruction of infrastructure in Afghanistan. It, however, refrained from sending troops to Afghanistan and kept its military support to the conflict-hit country limited to providing training to officials and soldiers of Afghan National Army and supply of non-lethal defence hardware. It was in December 2015 that India started providing MI-25 helicopters to give some teeth to the Afghan Air Force.

New Delhi, however, has been concerned over the US-led peace-process in Afghanistan as it is likely to lead to the integration of the Taliban into the governance structure in the conflict-torn South Asian nation. India has been worried about the possibility of Taliban re-imposing strict Sharia Law in Afghanistan, apart from providing support to terrorist organizations, which carry out attacks in India from bases in Pakistan.

Pakistan has since long been jittery about India's role in reconstruction of conflict-torn Afghanistan. The terror outfits based in Pakistan carried out several attacks on India's embassy and consulates in Afghanistan in the past. Indian citizens working in development projects in Afghanistan were also targeted by the terrorists.
Authorities in Milwaukee were working Thursday to piece together how and why a 51-year-old gunman killed five of his co-workers at the citys sprawling Molson Coors campus.

Police have not yet offered a motive for Wednesdays shooting, nor have they released details about the gunman or how the shooting unfolded, although a local newspaper identified him as a longtime employee who had feuded with a co-worker.

Here is what we know:

The victims were all employees of Molson Coors

They were machinists, electricians and powerhouse operators from Milwaukee and its suburbs. On Thursday, police identified the five victims as Dale Hudson, 50; Gennady Levshetz, 51; Jesus Valle Jr., 33; Dana Walk, 57; and Trevor Wetselaar, 33.

Police are still investigating what happened inside the brewery and the possible motive for the attack, said Alfonso Morales, the Milwaukee chief of police, who declined to comment further. I do want to extend my condolences to the families of the victims, he said.

More than 1,000 people work at the sprawling Molson Coors complex of about 20 buildings, known for decades as the Miller Brewery. Police have not detailed what, if any, connection the victims had to the gunman.

No one else was wounded in the attack.

Unfortunately, I am devastated to share that we lost five other members of our family in this tragic incident, Molson Coors chief executive Gavin Hattersley said in a statement. There are no words to express the deep sadness many of us are feeling right now.

The gunman was also an employee and killed himself after the attack

Police said the gunman was Anthony Ferrill, 51, a Milwaukee man who was wearing his company uniform as he carried out the shooting. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. A motive or say the type of weapon used was not disclosed.

Hattersley confirmed the gunman was an employee.

Employees of the brewery told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Ferrill, an electrician who had worked for the company for more than two decades, had been involved in a long-running dispute with a co-worker, who was among the victims on Wednesday.

Ferrills sister, reached by phone Thursday, confirmed her brother was the gunman but declined to comment further.

The shooting began in the afternoon and a lockdown lasted for hours

People began calling into the police department with reports of gunfire around 2 p.m. Wednesday. As officers from several departments raced to the area, which is west of downtown, schools went on lockdown and residents were told to stay away.

Police continued to search the Molson Coors campus for hours after the shooting. Some workers remained stuck inside the complex late into the evening waiting for police to finish their search and clear the workers to go home.

The brewery is an icon in Milwaukee

State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, a Democrat whose district includes the Molson Coors complex and its towering Home of the High Life sign, said the facility was a point of pride in Milwaukee. The company, still known to many in the area by its former name, MillerCoors, continued to invest in the city and pay competitive wages even when some other employers left. For $10 (U.S.), visitors could tour the complex, including its famous beer caves, and sample its beverages.

The district has changed over the years, and so has the community surrounding MillerCoors  and they stayed, she said. Theyre committed.

Hattersley said the complex would be closed the rest of the week and did not say when it would reopen.

The president and other leaders mourned the victims

Our hearts break for them and their loved ones, U.S. President Donald Trump said at the White House. We send our condolences. Well be with them, and its a terrible thing, a terrible thing.

Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin said the shooting was yet another act of gun violence that will have long-lasting consequences for this community and our state, and ordered that flags be flown at half-staff at government buildings Thursday.

We shouldnt accept this  this is not the way that things should be, said Lt.-Gov. Mandela Barnes, a Democrat, who noted Wisconsin has been the site of several mass shootings in recent years. We should never grow comfortable in the face of these repeated tragedies all across America.

Its frightening, said Rep. Gwen Moore, a Democrat whose district includes Milwaukee, and whose congressional office includes a Miller High Life sign. Its anathema to the kind of culture that we expect. This is heartbreaking because Milwaukee is a very friendly city.

It was the latest mass killing at a U.S. workplace

Twelve months ago, at a suburban Chicago factory about 185 kilometres from the Milwaukee crime scene, a disgruntled employee who had been fired from his job killed five other workers. In May in Virginia Beach, a municipal worker who quit his job went on a shooting rampage and killed 12 people.
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Linkedin Noor Huda Ismail (The Jakarta Post) Singapore  Fri, February 28 2020

Two thumbs up: Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi (left) and Nahdlatul Ulama chairman Said Aqil Siroj (center) react after a joint press conference on Feb. 11. During the media gathering, the countrys largest Muslim organization expressed support for the governments decision not to repatriate Indonesians who fought for the Islamic State group.(JP/Dhoni Setiawan)

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has formally announced that he will not repatriate Indonesians affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) movement in Syria, except for children under the age of 10 years. This is a politically popular policy given the fact that feared battle-hardened IS affiliates will return to Indonesia and spread the groups radical ideology and network across the country.

Public concern is not unfounded. Some women and children who were embedded within IS had been radicalized through exposure to the groups extremist ideology. Children were systematically indoctrinated and forced to attend camps where they were taught combat skills and advanced training in the use of firearms and other weapons. Similarly, women were involved in upholding the IS strict moral code through formal organized groups such as the Al Khansaa Brigade.

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Passengers wear protective masks to protect against the spread of the Coronavirus as they arrive on a flight from Asia at the Los Angeles International Airport, Calif., on Jan. 29, 2020. (Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images)

Health Insurance Providers Working With CDC and Experts on Coronavirus

American health care providers are working with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and health experts in preparation for further spread of the coronavirus inside the country.

Americas Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a national association for health care insurance providers, said in a statement on Feb. 26 that the health care community is working across the nation to share information, mitigate health risks to Americans, and keep Americans informed.

AHIP said the health insurance providers are carefully monitoring the situation across the country and are following their emergency preparedness plans, which are always in place to address situations that include global pandemics.

Those plans include determinations about whether policy changes are needed to ensure that people get essential care. That may include easing network requirements, prescription drug coverage, referral requirements, and/or cost sharing, it added.

On Tuesday, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex M. Azar said that the general risk to the American public from coronavirus is low, but theres a risk it could change quickly.

There is now community transmission in a number of countries, including outside of Asia. That is deeply concerning, and community spread in other countries will make successful containment at our borders harder and harder, said Azar.

That is why we have already been working closely with state, local, and private sector partners to prepare for mitigating the viruss potential spread in the United States, because we will likely see more cases here, he added.

The HHS secretary said the White House requested Congress on Monday for $ 2.5 billion for preparedness and response.

Drug Affordability

The Epoch Times contacted AHIP, but it remained unavailable for detailed comments when this report was filed. However, a Boston based health expert told The Epoch Times that the drug affordability concerning the coronavirus is hard to gauge.

Given the level of economic and clinical concern, political concern is likely to follow. Should that happen, I think we can expect that any vaccine will be heavily subsidized publicly in the U.S.

As with most other viruses, pharmaceutical treatments are unlikely soon. So medical costs should not be a big factor, said Alan Sager, Professor and Director of the Health Reform Program at the Boston University School of Public Health.

Sager, however, said that the cost of testing and in-patient hospital care of pneumonia and other complications is likely to be high.

Patients facing high OOPs [out-of-pocket] for deductibles and co-insurance could be very hard-hit financially, he said.

Sager raised concerns about the preparedness of state, county, and city health departments and called them chronically under-financed.

Some are professionally competent and others less so. If an influx of money arrived from Washington, how many would be institutionally (organizationally) and professionally prepared to use that money effectively? he said.
By PTI

WASHINGTON: Nearly two dozen American lawmakers have sought assurances and transparency prior to the signing of a landmark peace deal between the US and the Taliban in Doha on Saturday to end the brutal war in Afghanistan, urging the Trump administration not to make a commitment that would embolden America's adversaries and undermine its allies.

The US is set to sign a historic peace deal with the Taliban on Saturday provided that a week-long reduction in violence across war-torn Afghanistan holds.

The Taliban has also confirmed the plan to sign the peace deal that day.

In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the defense secretary, the Congressmen on Thursday called for prioritization of American security as the US pursued a peace agreement with the Taliban.

Dated February 27, the letter calls for transparency and highlights the importance of keeping the US safe.

Additionally, it outlines the need for certain security pledges, including that any deal between the US and the Taliban will be public and not contain secret annexes or side deals.

The lawmakers also demanded that there will be no intelligence sharing or a "joint counter-terrorism" centre established with the Taliban.

"We have serious concerns about reports that the United States is preparing to sign a deal with the Taliban, the terrorists who harboured al-Qaeda before and after the attacks of 9/11. President Trump has a proven track record of putting America's security first and ensuring our country stays out of bad deals that aid our adversaries," the letter said.

"In keeping with this policy, we are seeking assurances that you will not place the security of the American people into the hands of the Taliban, and undermine our ally, the current government of Afghanistan," it added.

In the letter, the lawmakers sought assurances that any deal between the US and the Taliban would be public and not contain any secret annexes or side deals and that the administration would not put American security at risk by pretending that the Taliban was a reliable counter-terrorism partner.

The letter said decisions about the US troop levels in Afghanistan must be made based on US national security requirements determined by conditions on the ground.

"Therefore, any deal must not contain a commitment for a full US withdrawal at this point. Such a commitment would embolden America's adversaries and undermine our allies, including the Afghan government," the lawmakers said.

"Any deal with the Taliban will include the requirement that the Taliban turn over all al-Qaeda leaders and operatives who are currently hiding in Taliban strongholds. There will be no uneven or premature release of Taliban prisoners," the Congressmen added.

They also sought assurances that the current sanctions and designations against the al-Qaeda-allied Haqqani network will remain in place regardless of any deal with the Taliban.

"President Trump has taken crucial action to keep our nation safe, including eliminating the world's most dangerous terrorists and destroying the ISIS caliphate. He knows a bad deal when he sees one.

We urge you not to commit America to a dangerous deal with the Taliban that would abandon the President's track record of strengthening America and putting our security and interests first," the lawmakers said.

The Taliban was a terrorist group that celebrated suicide attacks, they alleged.

Haibatullah Akhundzada, the overall leader of the Taliban, sacrificed his own son in a suicide bombing in 2017.

Akhundzada's top deputy, Sirajuddin Haqqani, runs a network that specialises in devastating suicide bombings, including some of the most heinous attacks in the history of the war, the letter said.

"The American people cannot rely on these terrorists to safeguard their security," it noted.

Observing that the Taliban also had a history of extracting concessions in exchange for false assurances, the lawmakers said they would accept nothing less than a full-scale US withdrawal from Afghanistan as they sought to establish their totalitarian "Islamic Emirate".

"Our withdrawal would then allow terrorist groups in Afghanistan to grow stronger and establish safe havens from which to plot attacks against us.

Any promises the Taliban may have made to the US related to counterterrorism cannot be trusted, not least because the group is a long-time ally of al-Qaeda," the Congressmen said.

Indeed, if the initial US-Taliban deal had been approved in September as was originally planned, one of the top al-Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan Asim Umar would likely still be alive, the letter said.

"Umar threatened America and answered directly to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri. He was reportedly killed in a joint US-Afghan raid on a Taliban stronghold in September after President Trump suspended talks with the Taliban.

"It is our understanding that under the current deal, such raids are not taking place - meaning that if Umar had survived a few months longer, he would be outside America's reach," it added.

The agreement struck during the talks between the US and the Taliban, if maintained, may secure a peace deal that would lead to a withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, fulfilling a campaign promise of President Trump.

The US currently has reportedly less than 14,000 troops in Afghanistan.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.28

By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:

Saudi Arabia suspends issuing of tourist visas to Kazakh citizens in order to prevent coronavirus spreading, Trend reports with reference to Kazakh media.

The information said that the Saudi Arabia suspends issuance of online tourist visas to citizens of seven countries.

In order to prevent coronavirus spreading, issuance of tourist visas to citizens of China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Italy and Kazakhstan is being suspended, the report said.

Citizens of the mentioned above countries will also not be allowed to receive tourist visas in Saudi airports.

As of Feb. 28, 2020, no coronavirus cases have been reported in Kazakhstan.

The outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan - which is an international transport hub - began at a fish market in late December 2019. The number of people killed by the disease is nearing 3,000. Over 83,300 people have been confirmed as infected.

Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019. The symptoms include cough, headache, fatigue, fever, aching and difficulty breathing. It is primarily spread through airborne contact or contact with contaminated objects.

Chinese health authorities say that the majority of the people who have died were either elderly or had underlying health problems.

---

Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh
John Shipton

Speaking after yesterdays extradition hearing outside Belmarsh Magistrates Court, Assanges father, John Shipton, told the press, My own country declares constantly that they will expect from the United Kingdom due process. Due process requires that each side be equally armed. In the hearing that we have seen today, Julian is in a glass box. He cannot communicate with his lawyers. The other side, the prosecutor, was sitting behind him three lawyers from the United States Justice Department who can easilyand do constantlycommunicate with the Crown Prosecutor.

After these three days this has the appearance to me of a fraud upon the courts. The prosecutor advances nothing of substance and just attempts to reduce Julians magnificent efforts to a banal criminality. This is wrong.

Shipton concluded by outlining his sons decade-long history of arbitrary detention in the UK: Ten days solitary confinement in Wandsworth Prison, 18 months house arrest in Norwich, seven-and-a-half years in the embassy, ten months in Belmarsh maximum security, one year for an appeal in future, another appeal to the Supreme Court, [another] two years. Thirteen years of arbitrary detention for a man who hasnt committed any crime. So, Id like you all to advance the case that Julian get bail immediately.




People line up to buy face protective masks in front of a department store in Mokdong, Seoul, Friday. Yonhap



Gov't hit for incompetence over supply management



By Lee Kyung-min



The government came under intense criticism Friday for its alleged continued incompetence in regulating the supply of protective face masks. Citizens expressed frustration at a perceived national shortage of what is now a crucial daily necessity amid the rapid spread of the new coronavirus.



Despite repeated reassurances from top policymakers that the government will implement measures to "stabilize prices via proper supply management," masks are not available in many parts of the country; while the prices of those that are on sale continue to jump. The average cost of a single-use protective face mask has quadrupled to over 6,000 won ($4.94) from 1,500 won over the past few weeks.



In a meeting convened by the health and disease prevention authorities Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki, who doubles as finance minister, said about 1.2 million regular-priced masks would be made available Friday across 24,000 pharmacies and 1,400 post offices nationwide, and 1,900 NongHyup Bank branches in regions outside Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.



A fifth of the masks  approximately 230,000  were allocated to Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, the areas hit hardest by the virus.



Despite this, masks are still not readily available, and if they are, prices are high.






Refraining from making any comment against the Narendra Modi government over the Delhi riots that have so far claimed 42 lives, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday said it is necessary to restore peace, normalcy and bring the situation under control, instead of hankering for political supremacy.

Banerjee, who was in Bhubaneswar, came face to face with Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the 24th meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council, where the matter of Delhi riots came up. However, the Bengal CM said nothing that would embarrass Shah.

At the beginning of the meeting, I said I am distressed over whatever happened in Delhi. Peace and normalcy needs to return. It is necessary to help the victims and their families. A police constable and an IB official have also been killed. The families of other people who have been killed also need to be helped. If one part of the country faces a crisis, it keeps on continuing in other parts too, Banerjee said soon after having lunch with Shah, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Banerjee did not touch much of the lunch except the raita saying she does not have lunch.

The Bengal CM who on Wednesday had written a poem condemning the violence chose not to dwell much on the Delhi riots except the sentence on the necessity of peace. In her poem, the TMC chief wrote: Search for an address getting lost/ A storm raging the country at gunpoint/ A peaceful country turned violent / Is it the end of democracy? Who will give the answer?/ Will there be a solution/ You and me are deaf and dumb/ The sacred land turns into hell.

Forty two people have been killed and over 200 injured in communal violence that broke out in northeast Delhi three days ago.

The Trinamool Congress chief who has been going hammer and tongs against the Modi government and more specifically Shah holding him responsible for spreading the fire of division and hatred over the Citizenship Amendment Act, however, did not bring up the topic of CAA and NRC.

Neither CAA, NPR nor NRC were discussed in todays meeting. It was not in todays agenda. There was no discussion on law and order either. I only discussed about the GST dues of Bengal and more devolution of central funds. We are facing problems in paying salaries to our employees on time, she said.

Home minister Amit Shah did not speak to the media after the EZC meeting, but an hour after it he lashed out at the opposition parties for spreading misinformation over the Citizenship Amendment Act while addressing a public meeting. The entire opposition such as Congress, Left and Mamatadi are protesting against CAA saying minorities will lose citizenship which is a lie. CAA has nothing to do with Indian citizens. Its the opposition which is spreading lies about CAA and spreading communal riots. I repeat CAA will not snatch citizenship status from anyone, but will give citizenship to people who are subjected to religious persecution in neighbouring countries. CAA is a law that grants citizenship, Shah said.

Bringing up the issue of Article 370, the Union Home Minister said the Modi government integrated Kashmir with India by scrapping Article 370.

Early in the day, Congress in the state burnt the effigy of Shah holding the Centre responsible for Delhi riots.

In the communally-sensitive Bhadrak district, the district administration on Friday refused to allow any protests or mass gatherings over the CAA. An anti-CAA and NRC protest was scheduled to be organized at the Madina Maidan in Bhadrak by some student leaders from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. However, police reached the spot and urged the people there to stop staging any protest without permission from the local administration.

We are trying to ensure peace in the region. We cant allow any anti-CAA or pro-CAA congregation till normalcy returns to Bhadrak. We will not allow any protest here, said eastern range inspector general of police, Diptesh Patnaik. He said people have been warned not to post or write any derogatory or communal things on social media platforms. Two people have been arrested by the Bhadrak police on charges of posting inflammatory content about Delhi riots on social media.
(TNS)  One of the biggest labor unions representing workers at the Tennessee Valley Authority claims the federal utility is violating its own contracting guidelines and potentially weakening its cybersecurity by laying off TVA computer software specialists in Chattanooga, Tenn., and turning the work over to a French-based contractor.In a letter to TVA, the president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, Paul Shearon, said the move to outsource IT work in Chattanooga and phase out 120 TVA jobs "flies in the face of TVA's mission" to promote economic growth in the Valley.Shearon said TVA signed a $15 million contract last September with Capgemini, a global company based in Paris that has 100,000 workers in India, to write new software for TVA prior to working with the union under the "Contract Decision Model" to consider different developer and program options."We want to make it clear that our members are more than capable of doing this work and doing it well," Shearon said in a letter to TVA Chairman James "Skip" Thompson. "TVA did not provide our members with the information needed to evaluate the outsourcing of these jobs and they did not identify a single penny of savings to TVA ratepayers."TVA announced last month that it is moving to outsource about 20% of the jobs in its information technology office to help improve efficiency by using contract specialists that develop such software for multiple utilities.Jeremy Fisher, vice president and chief information officer at TVA, said a study of TVA's IT work recommended the change in the way TVA had done virtually all of its software writing and development in-house for nearly four decades."The demand for technology has never been higher, but there is a natural constraint on that if you are trying to do everything in-house and on your own," Fisher told thelast month "We're looking to leverage the market with people who have the expertise to help us deliver more technology to help move TVA along that path of continuous improvement."TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said the utility has been communicating with union leaders "since the beginning of this process last year and have thoughtfully considered their input as decision were made.""We continue to work with them to answer their questions, as well as the questions of the affected represented employees," he said.In studying and making the changes over the past couple of years, Hopson said "we've followed, and in many cases exceeded, federal requirements related to ensuring work on sensitive data and processes remain within the U.S."But union leaders questioned why TVA would use a foreign-based IT company, noting that outsourcing of IT jobs to companies with employees based overseas "has proven to be embarrassing to other utilities" such as Southern California Edison which required 400 of its workers to train their foreign replacements in 2015.Gay Henson, president of the Engineering Association, IFPTE Local 1937, said "the outsourcing of tech jobs is a violation of TVA's goal of assisting state and local governments with economic development and job creation in the Valley and it violates pledges by the Trump administration to keep good-paying jobs here at home."Henson said IFPTE plans to fight the layoffs through further negotiations with the utility, legal action and by reaching out to the Trump administration and members of Congress.
Three persons were killed and 30 others injured when a boiler of a private digester chemical factory exploded in Jhajjars Bahadurgarh industrial area on Friday, officials said.

The incident took place when the building of the factory collapsed after the boiler exploded and three labourers were killed after the debris fell on them. Even the building of adjoining four factories also caught fire and got damaged.

Jhajjar deputy commissioner (DC) Jitender Kumar said that the incident took place around 3 pm at a private chemical factory in Bahadurgarhs industrial area.

Three labourers were killed on the spot while 30 others sustained injuries and one of them is critically injured. The injured includes children and women of the nearby areas. As many as 15 injured were undergoing treatment at the government hospital in Bahadurgarh while the remaining ones were taking treatment at a private hospital here. The National disaster response force (NDRF) has been called and the local police along with fire officials have been carrying out rescue operations. No one is trapped inside the factory, he added.

Chaturbhuj, a fire official said that they have called fire vehicles from Delhi and Rohtak to control the situation.

We have been trying to normalize the situation but still they suspect that few persons could be trapped under the debris of the factory, he added.

A heavy police team and other district administration officials have also reached to the spot. Till filing the report, NDRF teams are yet to reach the spot.
WASHINGTON  The U.S. transportation secretary suggested Thursday that the existing Hudson River train tunnels could be repaired before building a new one, providing a new twist to the ongoing fight over federal funding for Gateway.

Secretary Elaine Chaos suggestion immediately was shut down by Gov. Phil Murphy, who said on a visit to Washington that increasing capacity was just as important as fixing the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.

We dont think thats feasible, Murphy, a Democrat, told reporters after meeting with Democratic members of the states congressional delegation. Delaying the capacity while fixing two tracks on the fly, that just does not work. We need the full throttle. We cannot relent on the balance of this project.

President Donald Trump, a Republican, has balked at having the federal government cover half the costs of a new Hudson River Tunnel.

The Federal Transit Administration, expressing concerns about how New Jersey and New York will cover the local share of the project, has rated the tunnel too low to qualify for federal funding, even as the agency raised the rating on the Portal North Bridge.

State officials have said the new tunnel is needed so that the existing tubes can be closed for repairs.

Chao told the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee, however, that the Transportation Department was working with Amtrak to see if they could keep the current tunnels open while fixing the damage.

Given the time, the cost, and the complexity of building an entirely new tunnel, the department is working with Amtrak to design and validate a faster and more cost-effective method to improve safety and functionality in this tunnel as the first order of business, Chao told the subcommittee.

Beginning rehab work in the near-term is the right move, and not waiting years for the construction of a new tunnel beforehand. New and innovative methods for repairing the North River Tunnel while still in operation, could allow Amtrak to commence repairs in this tunnel as much as 10 years ahead of schedule.

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate subcommittee that oversees mass transit, said the idea wouldnt work.

We are trying to build a new 21st century infrastructure that will deal with the opportunities and the challenges that the economies of the region present, said Menendez, D-N.J., after meeting with Murphy. "That even goes beyond the capacity of the existing tunnels.

Clearly, this suggestion of fixing one while not closing it is just ridiculous.

And U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a member of the subcommittee, said she wanted to see the details first.

The Hudson Tunnel is vital to the communities in the region, vital to the local and national economy, and more," said Watson Coleman, D-12th Dist. If theres a way to make repairs without closing it, thats tremendous.

We need both a fully functioning Hudson Tunnel, and the expanded capacity that the Gateway Project would provide.

One way to keep the tunnel open while making repairs is through attaching power and communications lines to the sides of the tubes rather than inside the concrete benchwalls. This way, the trains can keep running after the old power cables are shut down while the walls are being repaired.

We agree with the view that rehabbing the existing tunnels is vital to more reliable service for passengers, and must take into consideration all available technology and methods," said Stephen Sigmund, a spokesman for the Gateway Program Development Corp.

"We stress that the notion of a rehab in service plan to extend the useful life of the 109-year-old tunnels does not obviate the need to finally build new, 21st century Hudson tunnels that meet the needs of the region and the nation.

Amtrak spokesman Craig Schulz said the railroad has been talking with the Transportation Department about ways Amtrak is seeking to advance some elements of tunnel rehab prior to the construction of a new Hudson River Tunnel, given current conditions and the need to ensure reliability.

But Schulz, too, said a new tunnel remains critical to the Northeast Corridor and the nation.

We have been in constructive discussions with USDOT about ways Amtrak is seeking to advance some elements of tunnel rehab prior to the construction of a new Hudson River Tunnel, given current conditions and the need to ensure reliability. A new Hudson River Tunnel remains critical to the Northeast Corridor and the nation and we look forward to our continued work with USDOT to advance this project.

Chao also told the subcommittee that the Federal Railroad Administration was about to release an environmental assessment for replacing the Sawtooth Bridges in Kearny.

Sigmund called the Sawtooth announcement very helpful and part of our working to keep every part of Gateway moving forward.

That came after the Federal Transit Administration raised its rating for the Portal North Bridge to medium-high, paving the way for federal funding to replace the span.

They are working to resolve final details in order to move the project into engineering, Chao said.

But the Gateway Tunnel rating remained medium-low, still making the project ineligible for federal assistance.

New Jersey officials said they would not give up the fight for the new tunnel even after the Portal Bridge decision.

Murphy, in Washington to attend the New Jersey Chambers annual Walk on Washington train trip, said he would stay overnight in the nations capital and go to the White House Friday to talk about a number of issues  Gateway being at the top of that list.

He said infrastructure was "our lifeblood in many respects, so were going to take the opportunity of being down there for 24 hours to lay in heavily on that front.

NJ Advance Media staff writers Larry Higgs and Samantha Marcus contributed to this report.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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SPP upsized and Placement increased with Presentation

Brisbane, Feb 28, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Share Purchase Plan (SPP) Upsized Lithium explorer and developer Lake Resources NL ( ASX:LKE ) ( FRA:LK1 ) announced today it has upsized the Share Purchase Plan Offer by $1.0 million to raise a total of $2.5 million before costs, due to overwhelming shareholder demand.The SPP closes today Friday 28 February and subscriptions and funds must be received today as part of the Offer for Eligible Shareholders to subscribe for up to $30,000 worth of new Shares at an issue price of $0.04 per Share. In the event that the SPP is oversubscribed, all participants will be scaled back on a pro-rata basis.The supplementary prospectus will be lodged today and sets out details of the rights of applicants under the SPP to withdraw their application within one month and be repaid their funds.Placement Increased The private placement has been increased by $0.55 million before costs, to a total amount of $3.9 million, to accommodate some key sophisticated and professional investors at an offer price of $0.04 per share. This will result in the issue of approximately 14.65 million shares for a total of approximately 99 million new placement shares (refer to announcements of 14,20 and 26 February 2020 for information on prior placement share issues). Settlement is anticipated by Tuesday, 3 March 2020.The supplementary prospectus lodged today which will address these matters with the closing of the Shortfall Offer extended to 4 March 2020. Lake's Managing Director, Steve Promnitz said: "We are very grateful for the positive response from our current shareholders and are pleased to be able to accommodate most of the demand by upsizing the SPP offer."The Company is currently marketing in North America, following the significant response from global investors after the announcement that some of the best known successful investors of the global business community are backing our key technology partner."To view the presentation, please visit:About Lake Resources NL

Lake Resources NL (ASX:LKE) (OTCMKTS:LLKKF) is a clean lithium developer utilising clean, direct extraction technology for the development of sustainable, high purity lithium from its flagship Kachi Project, as well as three other lithium brine projects in Argentina. The projects are in a prime location within the Lithium Triangle, where 40% of the world's lithium is produced at the lowest cost.



This method will enable Lake Resources to be an efficient, responsibly-sourced, environmentally friendly and cost competitive supplier of high-purity lithium, which is readily scalable, and in demand from Tier 1 electric vehicle makers and battery makers.
She wakes every day long before dawn to chat with her three stranded daughters on the other side of the world in China's locked-down city of Wuhan, anxious to see they have started a new day virus-free.

If I don't get a reply it worries me, but if I get a reply from any of them I say, ''Thank you, Jesus,'" Margaret Ntale said.

Many countries evacuated citizens from Wuhan after the virus outbreak started there, but thousands of students from African countries have been left behind. Despite pleas with governments for evacuation, several African countries have said it's safer to stay in place.

More than 4,000 African students have been estimated to be in Wuhan, a result of China's push to expand its influence on the youthful African continent.

Bringing them home, governments say, is risky in sub-Saharan Africa, which on Friday confirmed its first case of the virus, in Nigeria's city of Lagos.

Just two cases have been confirmed in North Africa, in Egypt and Algeria. Health systems can be weak, and quarantining dozens or hundreds of returning people is a major challenge.

That leaves African students stuck on ever-emptier campuses in Wuhan, worrying about running out of food or the money to buy it. Some governments have begun sending thousands of dollars to help them get by.

I have a few friends who are not able to get things like detergent, sanitary towels, and then also not having food, like such things like that," said one of Ntale's daughters' roommates, Joanna Aloyo, via a messaging app.

On Thursday, Ntale joined other parents in Uganda's capital, Kampala, to talk to local reporters about their fears. And she started to cry.

You can never know what is going to happen tomorrow. This is what scares me, Ntale said. The students are traumatized and equally terrified. It makes all of us break down.

The uncertainty about their children is psychological torture, another parent said. At least 70 Ugandan students are stranded in Wuhan.

Uganda's health minister, Jane Aceng, could not be reached immediately. But two weeks ago she said the ministry was looking at the cost to isolate, monitor and manage in the event of an outbreak among the group if repatriated.

Meanwhile she has said the government would send $60,000 in emergency funds to be distributed among students in Wuhan.

But the parents said their children had not received the money.

It is a bit upsetting that it appears no serious action has taken place," said one parent, Cecilia Oyet.

"I think that kind of inaction or slow action sends a message to those students out there, and even to the youth within the country. It sends a message either that we as fellow Ugandans, we don't care or that they as the youth, they don't matter, and we feel it is not okay.

The parents communicate with their children by phone and the occasional video chat. They are increasingly alarmed as the death toll from the virus has grown, though some speak of trying to remain positive.

Oyet, whose daughter is a medical student at Wuhan University of Science and Technology, recalled that about two weeks ago a student sent a message saying that people are dying here in large numbers and the bodies are being cremated.

Can you imagine us dying here and you don't even see our bodies? Please do something before we become part of the statistics. Other countries have announced plans to send students money.

Botswana's government has said each of its students in Wuhan will receive an additional allowance of about $144 a month and a local company will be engaged to deliver food, water, face masks and even provide psychosocial support services.

But that's not enough, some students and parents say. After some called Ghana's government callous for not evacuating its students, President Nana Akufo-Addo last week said it had not been ruled out but it would be done in a way to avoid fear and panic among the public.

In Ethiopia, where some worried families gathered in the capital, Addis Ababa, seeking evacuations, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed this week said Chinese President Xi Jinping assured him in a phone call that China would provide special care and support to stranded students.

Chinese authorities have issued statements saying students are receiving food and other necessities. But Kenya's government raised eyebrows last week when it announced on Twitter that any communication from the government to stranded Kenyans in Wuhan must be done through the Chinese government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
'Modi's strategy to redesign India's economy was Make in India, but that has flopped,' notes Aakar Patel.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com.

Make in India was launched in September 2014. On his Web site (external link), the prime minister explains that 'since years policy-makers 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 & 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 minister's note indicates, the most important element is manufacturing.

In 2014, the share of manufacturing in India's Gross Domestic Product was 15%. Last year it fell to 14%.

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, let's look at some other nations.

China, which we like comparing ourselves to has an economy more than 5 times the size of India's.

Manufacturing's share of GDP is at 29% (double that of India's) and has remained there in the period of 2014-2020.

Vietnam is 16% and has gone up from 13% when we launched Make in India. Sri Lanka is at 16%.

Thailand (27%), Indonesia (19%), the Philippines (19%), Malaysia (21%), Singapore (20%).

In Europe, Germany is at 20%, which is not surprising because it has one of the world's biggest automobile industries. This is the second stage of industrial development, after garments.

In the same period as Make in India, Bangladesh's share of manufacturing has risen from 16% to 18%.

Bangladesh's GDP overall is growing at 8% per year, much faster than India. And the surprising thing is that in this period Bangladesh's garments exports have gone to $38 billion. India 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 garments manufacturing units in Bangladesh, 85% 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 China's share of manufacturing has not fallen in the five years that Make in India has been promoted.

The prime minister says the goal is to make India a $5 trillion economy. That is in itself not really a goal. India's 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.

Modi's strategy to redesign India's economy was Make in India, but that has flopped. In fact he doesn't even refer to it as much any longer if I am not mistaken.

All of the data (external link) on that Web site that the PM's office runs 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.

Aakar Patel is a writer and columnist.

You can read Aakar's earlier columns here.
In 2015 Pak Yan Leung was appointed CEO of Carrianna Group Holdings Company Limited (HKG:126). This report will, first, examine the CEO compensation levels in comparison to CEO compensation at companies of similar size. Next, we'll consider growth that the business demonstrates. And finally - as a second measure of performance - we will look at the returns shareholders have received over the last few years. This process should give us an idea about how appropriately the CEO is paid.

Check out our latest analysis for Carrianna Group Holdings

How Does Pak Yan Leung's Compensation Compare With Similar Sized Companies?

Our data indicates that Carrianna Group Holdings Company Limited is worth HK$842m, and total annual CEO compensation was reported as HK$3.8m for the year to March 2019. While this analysis focuses on total compensation, it's worth noting the salary is lower, valued at HK$2.5m. We took a group of companies with market capitalizations below HK$1.6b, and calculated the median CEO total compensation to be HK$1.8m.

It would therefore appear that Carrianna Group Holdings Company Limited pays Pak Yan Leung more than the median CEO remuneration at companies of a similar size, in the same market. However, this fact alone doesn't mean the remuneration is too high. We can better assess whether the pay is overly generous by looking into the underlying business performance.

The graphic below shows how CEO compensation at Carrianna Group Holdings has changed from year to year.

SEHK:126 CEO Compensation, February 28th 2020

Is Carrianna Group Holdings Company Limited Growing?

Carrianna Group Holdings Company Limited has increased its earnings per share (EPS) by an average of 30% a year, over the last three years (using a line of best fit). The trailing twelve months of revenue was pretty much the same as the prior period.

Overall this is a positive result for shareholders, showing that the company has improved in recent years. It's also good to see modest revenue growth, suggesting the underlying business is healthy. We don't have analyst forecasts, but you might want to assess this data-rich visualization of earnings, revenue and cash flow.

Story continues

Has Carrianna Group Holdings Company Limited Been A Good Investment?

Since shareholders would have lost about 6.9% over three years, some Carrianna Group Holdings Company Limited shareholders would surely be feeling negative emotions. So shareholders would probably think the company shouldn't be too generous with CEO compensation.

In Summary...

We examined the amount Carrianna Group Holdings Company Limited pays its CEO, and compared it to the amount paid by similar sized companies. We found that it pays well over the median amount paid in the benchmark group.

However, the earnings per share growth over three years is certainly impressive. On the other hand returns to investors over the same period have probably disappointed many. While EPS is positive, we'd say shareholders would want better returns before the CEO is paid much more. So you may want to check if insiders are buying Carrianna Group Holdings shares with their own money (free access).

Arguably, business quality is much more important than CEO compensation levels. So check out this free list of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2020) - Further to previous communications around the selection of a successor to the Company's Interim Chief Financial Officer ("Interim CFO"), the board of directors of Buffalo Coal ("the Board") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Willie Bezuidenhout as Chief Financial Officer ("CFO"), with effect from 9 March 2020.

Mr Bezuidenhout, a South African, is a chartered accountant and seasoned finance executive with a track record of capable financial leadership in mining companies. He previously held senior finance positions at Uranium One Inc. and the Public Investment Corporation. Mr Bezuidenhout will take over from Mr Graham du Preez, who acted as Buffalo Coal's Interim CFO in prior years, and who again filled the role of Interim CFO from August 26, 2019 until February 28, 2020.

The Board is confident that Buffalo Coal, under the leadership of Emma Oosthuizen (the current Interim Chief Executive Officer), Mr Bezuidenhout and the existing management team, will continue to focus on executing the Company's strategy.

Mr Craig Wiggill, the Chairman, commented as follows: "We are pleased that Willie has joined Buffalo Coal and wish him success in his new role as CFO. On behalf of Buffalo's Board of Directors and senior management team, I also thank Graham for his role as Interim CFO over the last six months."

About Buffalo Coal

Buffalo is a coal producer in South Africa. It holds a majority interest in two operating mines through its 100% interest in Buffalo Coal Dundee, a South African company which has a 70% interest in Zinoju. Zinoju holds a 100% interest in the Magdalena bituminous mine and the Aviemore anthracite mine in South Africa. Buffalo Coal has an experienced coal-focused management team.

The Company has its primary listing on the TSX Venture Exchange ('TSXV') and has a secondary listing on the Alternative Exchange ('AltX'), operated by the JSE. Buffalo Coal trades under the symbol 'BUF' on the TSXV and 'BUC' on the AltX.

For further information, please contact:

Craig Wiggill

Chairman of the Board

Email: craig@wiggill.co.uk

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/52945
W hen I first met David Cameron, I bled on his white sofa. I had my period, and accidents occasionally happen. I stood up after an hour of talking to see, to my horror, there was a perfect 2p piece-sized stain in one corner. I fled, hoping he wouldnt notice. I was 19 and David had just started dating my older sister, Samantha.

To his credit, he didnt tease me about it until 10 years later. To this day I remain terrified of public accidents. Even last week, I became momentarily paralysed on someones elegant upholstered furniture, scared to remove myself as I became convinced it had happened again. I tried a sort of sideways slither, distracting the owner (I am 46, but seriously, it would have been humiliating  youve ruined someones furniture with bodily fluids!) silently berating myself for not sitting in the adjacent claret chair. Fortunately there was nothing there and I hotfooted it to the loo.

There has always been an element of shame to our monthly visitations. But the last few years have seen a revolution, thanks to a new wave of period activists. There are Instagram campaigns trying to normalise these spillages (#bloodnormal #periodpositive); new products, from period knickers to tracking apps; cups and tampons that wont hurt the environment; and a much-needed focus on tackling period poverty.

I cheer Scotlands decision to finance free sanitary products for all, if only because means-testing for them would be costly and complicated. There is no male equivalent to what we experience and have to pay for. Theres been plenty of taxpayers cash squandered on far less useful projects. What feels frustrating, however, is that we are still having to force issues around our bodies into the public eye to gain help for a monthly process that literally powers humanity.

I dont want to tell you I bled on a sofa, but I do want to reduce the period shame that means many women put up with symptoms they shouldnt have to.

Nor do I want to admit to any man that my hormones render me weak every month. We are shamed into protesting that our periods dont turn us into emotional rollercoasters. But they often do. Fess up, though, and it adds to the sentiment that women are irrational, not in control, not strong and not fit to rule.

There are those who argue these new period protesters are part of a competition to see who can be more woke. But no one complained when Viagra hit the market. With women, there is the idea that suffering is part of our sex. Why, if medical advancements can cure it?

Hormones can wreak havoc during and after pregnancy. I recall feeling like I was suddenly a normal person again eight years after having my last child. There have been great developments in hormone-balancing treatments that should not be the preserve of the rich.

We also need better advice on the pill, which can cause depression, mood swings and headaches, and more help regarding miscarriages. None of this is our fault. But there is precious little support. So, we have to start shouting about stuff wed rather discuss quietly.

Women are not whingers or victims, and we are not weak. My body grew two children. Women are amazing, and we can be more amazing still.

Im team Rory but he needs to sharpen up

Ive long been a fan of Rory Stewart. Others will judge him for going to Eton. Or recall his behaviour in the televised Tory leadership debate. Or take the mick over the fact that he asked Londoners to let him sleep on their sofa for the night.

But I bet he will bring an intellectual rigour to the office of mayor that will see him outperform soundbite-led Sadiq Khan and power a lot of action. But at a fundraising dinner for his mayoral bid this week, that same thoughtfulness often led him to give long, confusing explanations instead of simple, believable answers.

Rory Stewart / PA

References to his time in Kabul will not appeal to many Londoners. To win he needs to hammer hard on Sadiq Khans failure to reduce crime in concise, passionate messages. His charm and original thought will not get him into office, though it will be helpful when hes there.

Children being stabbed in the streets is a stain on our city. Never mind petty crime or the feeling that its not even worth reporting a crime. And from what I saw at that dinner, I fear he cannot always speak with the emotion he clearly feels, nor come across as a true Londoner. But we need fresh blood in City Hall. He has time to hone his message.

Windsor winners
(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled charges against Wells Fargo Clearing Services and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network for failing reasonably to supervise investment advisers and registered representatives who recommended single-inverse ETF investments to retail investors, and for lacking adequate compliance policies and procedures with respect to the suitability of those recommendations. The SEC ordered Wells Fargo to pay a $35 million penalty, which will be distributed to harmed investors.

As noted in the SECs order and reflected in Wells Fargos internal guidance, when single-inverse ETFs are held for longer than a day, particularly in volatile markets, investors may experience large and unexpected losses. The SECs order finds that from April 2012 through September 2019, Wells Fargos policies and procedures were not reasonably designed to prevent and detect unsuitable recommendations of single-inverse ETFs. Further, Wells Fargo failed adequately to supervise its employees recommendations regarding single-inverse ETFs, and did not adequately train them concerning those products. The order finds that some Wells Fargo brokers and advisers did not fully understand the risk of losses these complex products posed when held long term. As a result, certain Wells Fargo investment advisers and registered representatives made unsuitable recommendations to certain clients to buy and hold single-inverse ETFs for months or years. According to the order, a number of these clients were senior citizens and retirees who had limited incomes and net worth, and conservative or moderate risk tolerances.

Firms must maintain effective compliance and supervisory programs to ensure that the securities they recommend are suitable for their clients, said Antonia Chion, Associate Director of the SEC Enforcement Division. As a result of Wells Fargos failure to meet these important obligations, some of its employees recommended complex instruments to retail investors who did not understand the risks involved.

The order finds that Wells Fargo failed to adopt written compliance policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent unsuitable recommendations of single-inverse ETFs, and failed adequately to implement its existing written policies and procedures. The order also finds that Wells Fargo failed reasonably to supervise its financial professionals with a view to preventing their unsuitable recommendations. Without admitting or denying the findings, Wells Fargo agreed to pay a $35 million penalty and distribute the funds to certain clients who were recommended to buy single-inverse ETFs and suffered losses after holding the positions for longer periods. The order also censures Wells Fargo and requires Wells Fargo to cease and desist from committing or causing any future violations of the relevant provisions.
Participants of rally by doctors criticize closure of hospitals due to healthcare reform

KYIV. Feb 28 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Participants in the protest rally of doctors (#budkakNina) have announced the closure of hospitals under the guise of reforming Ukraine's healthcare system.

Protest organizer Anton Hura spoke at a press conference at the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency in Kyiv on Thursday.

Hura said protest organizers want parliamentary hearings to be held with the participation of health workers from around the country on the mechanism for introducing medical reform. He called for the creation of a profit distribution formula, determination of how much of the medical institution's income will go to pay for the work of medical workers and return the shared pension after 25 years of medical experience.

"From April 1, everything will be reformed. The previous healthcare system won't exist anymore," he said.

Hura said the first protest rally brought together about 1,000 healthcare workers across Ukraine.

Protest organizer Anatoliy Yakymenko said many hospitals could be closed in the regions as a result of the reforms.

Hura emphasized that the heads of municipal hospitals by unauthorized decision reduce the salaries of medical personnel, forcing them to agree to work for "minimum wage."

He also drew attention to the problem of incorrect collective bargaining, which creates an opportunity to reduce salaries for health workers, and the lack of a working union of medical workers.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 27, 2020 | 04:32 PM | FRANKFORT









"It's important for the public to know that even though Kentuckians are at low risk for this virus, our state and local health experts have been working hard to ensure the public is educated and that reports of patients that meet criteria for COVID-19 are being properly tested and treated to reduce potential harm," Gov. Beshear said. "The best advice for Kentuckians to follow is not new advice  get your flu shot, stay home if you are not feeling well and practice good hygiene by washing your hands thoroughly."







Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner for the Department of Public Health shared that they are working closely with the CDC and other local partners to make sure they are prepared. He shared that although the risk in Kentucky is low, they have plans in place to reduce the impact if it does show up within the Commonwealth.







"We understand that some people are worried about this virus and how it may impact Kentuckians," Dr. Stack said. "We are carefully monitoring the evolving situation and taking necessary precautions. Kentucky has a strong disease surveillance system in place that includes partnerships with hospital and clinic systems as well as local health departments and we are committed to this mission of protecting the health and safety of all Kentuckians."







Beshear also announced the creation of a website where Kentuckians can learn more about the novel coronavirus. You can find the website at the link below.

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Governor Andy Beshear addressed their efforts to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus within the state.According to Beshear, there are currently no cases of COVID-19 within the state, and public health officials are keeping a watch on people who have met certain criteria, and are preparing for the possibility of the virus showing up.

On the Net:
It looked like it was going to be Charles Scerris lucky day. A postcard in the mail informed him he was entitled to a slice of a multimillion-dollar settlement from a class action against a major car hire company in the United States. Nine years earlier, Scerri had rented a car from them when he was travelling around California.

The postcard said that if he sent his receipts back, hed be in line for a whole eight US cents. The letter itself cost $US1.60 to post.

I assumed it was a large settlement of millions of dollars and the lawyers got millions of dollars and the class members got eight cents each, Scerri said. That is just crazy.

Scerri is a top QC who specialises in class actions, representing big businesses being sued. He also works in Victoria, a state poised to introduce US-style fee arrangements, called contingency fees, that are said to help lawyers earn even more by allowing them to take a cut of multimillion-dollar settlements.
From Mounties and small-town cops to a Rexall employee hoping to bust shoplifters  a facial recognition tool at the centre of international controversy has been used far more widely in Canada than had been previously known.

On Thursday, a dozen police forces and private businesses confirmed their officers or employees had used the technology, including nine forces from across the country that had previously told the Star they did not use Clearview AI. The U.S. company uses artificial intelligence to match peoples images against a database of billions of photos scraped from the internet, including social media sites, and has been called reckless, invasive, and dystopian by critics.

Privacy regulators opened an investigation into the legality of the companys practices last week, and on Thursday evening the federal privacy commissioner announced it was launching an investigation into the RCMPs use of the technology.

Among the newest known users are the Via Rail Police Service, cops in Halifax, Cornwall and London, and investigators with the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

All but the Mounties used free trial versions of the tool. Many police forces said that members had signed up without the knowledge or authorization of leadership, who were unaware officers were using Clearview AI until the Stars inquiries prompted further digging.

The revelations were prompted by data obtained by BuzzFeed News. According to the data, which was shared exclusively with the Toronto Star, at least 34 police forces across Canada have obtained log-ins and searched Clearview AIs database in recent months.

The widespread, often apparently unsanctioned use of Clearview AI shows how far the adoption of powerful artificial intelligence technology like facial recognition has outpaced regulation and oversight.

It also shows how rapidly the controversial technology has spread globally. BuzzFeed reported Thursday that 2,900 institutions in 27 different countries have collectively made about 500,000 searches through the companys service.

According to the data, Canada is Clearviews largest market outside of the U.S.

Clearview AI did not respond to repeated requests from the Star for comment on Thursday. A lawyer for the New York-based startup told other media a flaw gave someone unauthorized access to the companys client list.

Security is Clearviews top priority, Tor Ekeland told other media. Unfortunately, data breaches are part of life in the 21st century. Our servers were never accessed. We patched the flaw and continue to work to strengthen our security.

In a statement to BuzzFeed News, Ekeland said: There are numerous inaccuracies in this illegally obtained information. As there is an ongoing Federal investigation, we have no further comment.

Its not clear what investigation Ekeland was referring to. Last Friday, Canadian regulators launched an investigation into whether the company violates privacy laws in this country.

I think it is very questionable whether it would conform with Canadian law, Michael McEvoy, British Columbias privacy commissioner, told the Star last week.

After previously refusing to confirm whether it used Clearview AI, the RCMP released a statement Thursday saying it had done so for months.

The RCMPs statement said it was providing confirmation in the interest of transparency. The disclosure came a day after the Star approached the national police force for comment about data showing its extensive, paid use of the tool. According to the data obtained by BuzzFeed, officers have run more than 450 searches since last October.

The Mounties statement comes after the force made a commitment to the federal privacy commissioner in late January, saying it would submit an assessment of potential privacy impacts before deploying facial recognition technology of any kind, according to a spokesperson for the watchdogs office.

We were surprised by the RCMPs news release today, the spokesperson said Thursday. In light of the RCMPs acknowledgment of their use of Clearviews facial recognition technology, we are launching an investigation. Given we are now investigating, no further details are available at this time.

The RCMPs statement Thursday said its child exploitation investigations unit had two licences for the app, and investigators have used it in 15 cases, resulting in the successful identification and rescue of two children. The national police force also said that a few units tested the app in criminal investigations.

Among the private businesses in the data obtained by BuzzFeed is Rexall, a pharmacy chain with 415 stores in Canada. A spokesperson for Rexall confirmed Thursday that the companys loss prevention unit received a trial of the software from a contact at the Toronto Police Service.

During the trial period, an employee used the software to search approximately seven individuals who were suspected of shoplifting from Rexall stores, spokesperson Andrew Forgione said.

No action was taken from the searches, and Rexall has discontinued use with no plans to reactivate, Forgione said, adding that the trial ended 10 days ago.

According to the data obtained by BuzzFeed, Toronto police was the most prolific user of the app in Canada, with more than 3,400 searches in recent months.

Toronto police has said its officers had been informally testing Clearview AI since October without the knowledge of police Chief Mark Saunders. The service says it has stopped using the app.

Toronto Police Service has been engaged in a comprehensive review of its use of Clearview AI, spokesperson Meaghan Gray said.

Without knowing or being able to verify the information the Star possesses, we cant comment on it with any certainty. However, we can say that questions such as access and timing will be included in, and released in the findings of our review, she said.

The nearly three dozen Canadian police forces in the data obtained by BuzzFeed include services from British Columbia to Nova Scotia; Ontario has the most of any province, with 21.

Nine police services that earlier in the week said they did not use Clearview AI subsequently confirmed they had done so after the Star asked why their members were listed in the data. Those services each said officers had signed for the technology without the forces knowledge.

Based on the information you provided us, we have identified Regina Police Service employees who have previously provided their work email addresses to Clearview AI, a spokesperson for the Regina Police Service said on Thursday. Consistent with inquiring about all types of law enforcement products, services and tools, these employees have provided their email information only to learn more about Clearview AI.

It has come to our attention that well intentioned officers may have accessed the technology that has been marketed and shared as a possible investigative tool amongst the law enforcement community, a spokesperson for the London Police Service said in an email Thursday.

Regardless of intention, it is recognized that this is very complex issue that engages broad public policy concerns with respect to privacy interests, she said, adding that Londons police chief has since ordered that any use by officers now cease.

The senior leadership of the Cornwall Police Service had no prior knowledge until this morning that the tool had been used by members of the service, a spokesperson for the eastern Ontario towns police force said.

Since becoming aware this morning, the Cornwall Police Service has immediately prohibited any usage of Clearview AI or any other facial recognition technology by our members, said the spokesperson, adding that the force does not plan to use facial recognition due to privacy concerns.

Many police forces said their officers had either used the app on a trial basis and have since stopped or that senior leadership ordered that all testing cease. Ontarios privacy commissioner demanded this month that all Ontario police forces stop using Clearview AI immediately and contact his office if they had.

Via Rail said that its police took advantage of a free trial service using some team members photos (with permission). They learned more about the technologies and methodologies involved, and assessed the service. They concluded over the course of our review to not pursue ongoing access to this technology.

A spokesperson the Insurance Bureau of Canada said that our investigators were offered and took a demonstration of the product by Clearview AI. IBC chose not to move forward with the product.

A Halifax police spokesperson said: We have looked into this further and found that a very limited number of specialized investigators have used this application very recently. After learning about the data breach Thursday, our use of the application has been suspended.
Kolkata, Feb 28 : The Congress and Left parties on Friday brought out rallies in and around Kolkata to protest against the violence in Delhi and calling for restoration of peace.

Demanding the resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the arson in Delhi disturbances that left 43 dead and over 200 injured, state Congress President Somen Mitra led a procession from Subodh Mullick Square to Dharamtala. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, also took part in the large procession.

"A large number of people have died in the violence organised in collusion with the Central government in Delhi right before the eyes of the police. The government is silent and the police aren't taking any responsibility. This protest is aimed at restoring peace in India," Chowdhury said.

Later, Chowdhury took part in a candlelight vigil here against the Delhi arson. Abdul Mannan, leader of opposition in the state Assembly, also participated in the programme.

Left Front Chairman Biman Bose and former state Congress President Pradip Bhattacharya led another protest march from Dinanbandhu College, Howrah, to Howrah Maidan.
In the spring of 2019, three professors at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill conducted a study to understand free speech and constructive dialogue on campus. The study invited UNC students to complete a survey and attend focus group interviews with members of three different politically involved student organizations.From the data, professors Jennifer Larson, Mark McNeilly, and Timothy J. Ryan presented 12 principal findings, one of which was the fact that over 25 percent of students endorse blocking a speaker with whom they do not agree.That statistic is troubling. While it means almost 75 percent of students do not support restricting the free speech rights of speakers, the students who want to silence others are often much more active on campus, starting protests and demanding that the administration cave to their will (which it often does ). But disagreement with a speaker does not give some students the right to veto or block a speech. By excluding some political theories, students won't understand American history and pressure other students who hold minority opinions to stay silent. It is of paramount importance for colleges to uphold the First Amendment on campus, where students expect to engage in political discussion and form their own ideas.Biases about certain political ideologies can be formed without knowing much about them. Hearsay and ignorance turn any different ideas into something wrong or evil. When colleges take political thought seriously and organize events on important issues that force students to consider other opinions, civic dialogue can happen. Students have the chance to understand all views.As the gap between the two political parties widens, the importance of understanding why people disagree with each other grows. In such a climate, protecting free expression is vital.as the study's authors wrote The study ended with recommendations to strengthen the atmosphere of political conversation on university campuses. First, university leaders need to remind students of the importance of free expression and teaching them how to engage in constructive dialogue. Developing skills such as listening, reflection, resilience, and constructive argumentation is crucial to understanding views around you. Students need to listen to understand rather than listen to respond. Other ideas, such as an orientation class that teaches the value of free expression and constructive dialogue, can set expectations for how students should conduct themselves on campus.However colleges approach the issue, they need to insist on acting in ways that show fidelity to the Constitutional rights of students and faculty.
As many as four labourers are feared trapped in a mine at Billi Markundi near Sonbhadra's Obra police station on Friday (February 28) after a rock slipped from above the mine causing a landslide and trapping at least six labourers working below.

Two workers have reportedly been evacuated so far while efforts are on to remove others buried under the debris. The rescued are being administered treatment at CHC Chopan.

A rescue operation is currently underway at the incident site. An NDRF team has also been called in for assistance. The district officer and police reached the spot after receiving information about the incident.

District Magistrate S Raj Lingam said that a landslide was reported from the mining area in which at least six workers have been trapped, two of them have been evacuated safely. "A rescue operation is being conducted and an attempt is being made to evacuate those trapped inside," he said.

Earlier in 2012, at least 13 people reportedly died in a mining accident in Billi Markundi. Despite the administration's attempt to ensure safety for mine workers, such accidents happen because of inadequate security for the labourers and negligent mining.
EXPORT, Pa., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Leybold, the world's oldest vacuum pump manufacturer, is excited to announce the relocation of their Export, PA North American Headquarters. "Export Pennsylvania has been our home for 40 years" states Renee Nauyokas , CFO and Business Controller for Leybold North America. "It was important to us to stay local, as many of our employees come from our neighboring communities". With that in mind, the company chose their new headquarters location just under a mile from their existing location. Effective March 3rd, 2020 Leybold will move to 6005 Enterprise Drive, Export, PA. All phone numbers will remain the same.

The Leybold North American Headquarters provides all customer operations for North America, Canada and Mexico. With local employees in Export, Leybold takes great pride in offering local customer support backed by an outstanding team, who together offer 1,250 years of combined vacuum experience. This team of PhD scientists, engineers, customer support personnel, accountants, marketers and more, many who have over 30 years with the company, are the heart of the Leybold business. "Our people are what make us successful" states Carl Brockmeyer, General Manager, Leybold North American and President of Atlas Copco, Scientific Vacuum Division. "We needed a new home that would offer our people the work environment they deserve." The refreshed and modernized building offers employees new workspaces, modern meeting spaces, environmentally friendly efficiencies and most importantly a safety-first atmosphere. "We take great pride in offering a best-in-class work environment and family style culture, our goal is to continue to offer the young and diverse talent of the greater Pittsburgh area STEM career opportunities" shared Valerie Mooney, Head of Human Resources, Leybold North America.

This new location will also house the continually expanding Leybold Systems group. "This group has seen incredible growth over the last year and this move allows us to continue to enhance our capabilities and add value for our customers by offering them both custom and standard vacuum pump systems" states Stamo Lagoutis, Systems Business Manager, Atlas Copco Vacuum Technique. The new systems design and assembly areas have been enhanced with state-of-the-art technology to allow engineers and designers the ability to model and test vacuum performance to exact customer specifications. The Enterprise Drive location also offers expansion opportunities to support future growth and innovation.

As announced earlier this year, Leybold recently relocated its in-house service hub to Glenwillow, OH.

"We recognize it is not enough to just deliver the best possible OEM service, we aim to go beyond the product guarantee and delight our customers with the experience they receive when sending in a pump for repair" stated Greg Greinke, VP, Business Line Manager, Leybold Vacuum Technique Service Division.

These exciting changes for Leybold North America are aimed at enhancing customer experience while continuing to set the standard for vacuum pump manufactures worldwide.

Effective March 1st, 2020 all inquiries should be addressed to:

Leybold USA Inc.

6005 Enterprise Drive

Export, PA, 15632

[email protected]

+1-800-764-5369

Effective January 23rd 2020, all vacuum pump repairs should be directed to:

Leybold USA Inc.

Attn: STC Service Center

RMA

7905 Cochran Road Suit 100

Glenwillow, OH 44139

To obtain a Return Material Authorization (RMA) number please contact [email protected] or click here.

About Leybold North America

As a pioneer of vacuum technology, Leybold offers a wide range of vacuum components, standardized and fully customized vacuum solutions, complemented by vacuum technology accessories and instrumentation. Our core capabilities center on the development of application- and customer-specific systems for the creation of vacuums and extraction of processing gases.

Contact:

Corrie Freudenstein

(401) 332-9857

[email protected]

SOURCE Leybold

Related Links

https://www.leybold.com/us/en/


(CNN Philippines, February 28)  Bacolod Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Chief Major Melvin Madrona was arrested by the Philippine National Police (PNP)-Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group and Special Action Force Wednesday for alleged extortion.

Madrona was nabbed in an entrapment operation in a cockpit arena at Hacienda Guanzon, Barangay Mansilingan, Bacolod City.

According to authorities, Madrona allegedly extorted money, hotel accommodation, airfare, and food allowance from a KTV restaurant owner in Bacolod City.

The CIDG chief, who only assumed the post a month ago, was allegedly asking for 10,000 per week from the complainant, who negotiated to lower it to 5,000.

Police said that Madrona denied the allegations, saying he did not ask any favor from the restaurant owner.

In 2017, Madrona went viral after being caught via CCTV camera, mauling a marine engineer in the Quezon City Police District Station 5 due to a traffic altercation. He was later relieved from his post as police chief inspector.

Authorities are now waiting for the order from the national headquarters for the transport of Madrona to Manila and for the filing of administrative charges against him.

CNN Philippines stringer Shiela Gelera contributed to this story.
An emergency cut by the Fed prior to the meeting is possible  it will depend on the extent of market dysfunction, they wrote.

The stock market trimmed its losses after Mr. Powells statement was released at 2:30 p.m., but remained in significantly negative territory.

The statement is a step in the right direction, but it stops short of what is needed, which I think is a statement that says that the Fed can act preemptively to support the economy, said Roberto Perli, an economist at Cornerstone Macro. Its missing a sense of timing.

Mr. Powells colleagues have expressed concern about the coronavirus, but several have also signaled that they were not ready to lower interest rates. James Bullard, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said during a speech in Florida earlier Friday that we could cut rates if we got a global pandemic that actually develops with health effects that seem to be approaching the same level as seasonal influenza, but that doesnt look like the baseline as of today.

The statement by the Fed chair underlines that the most important member of the 17-person Federal Open Market Committee is closely focused on an unfolding public health concern.

Loretta J. Mester, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and a monetary policy voter this year, said in an interview on Thursday that the Fed should keep its options open. Ms. Mester, who is generally cautious about such moves, initially opposed the Feds decision last year to lower borrowing costs three times.

We always have to come in with open minds about whats going on with the economy, and every day were getting new information, especially with something thats fast-moving, like this, Ms. Mester said when asked whether a cut next month was possible.
Officer Benson Churgai, center, is shown here with colleagues at the Philadelphia Police Training Center in Philadelphia. Officer Churgai is the first openly trans officer, shortly before this photo was taken Churgai had come out to his classmates in a prepared speech that received enthusiastic applause. Read more

When Philadelphia police recruit Benson Churgai donned his full uniform for the first time this week at the Police Academy, he smiled. But an hour later, as he stood in front of 42 fellow recruits, his hands trembled.

I want to be honest with everyone here, Churgai said to the class, reading a prepared speech before the recruits posed for an official class photograph. In April 2016  I made a decision that was best for me. I came out as a transgender male.

Before then, only a few commanders who were involved in hiring and training Churgai knew he was a transgender man.

I struggled for a long time with who I was, he continued, reading from two sheets of paper. "I knew that if I continued to live my life as [a] female, it was not going to work out.

On Friday, he became the first openly transgender recruit to graduate from the Philadelphia Police Academy. He joins the ranks of over 6,500 officers in the Philadelphia Police Department.

Among the top priorities of the department, Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said, is to ensure that our ranks are diverse, inclusive, and reflective of the communities we serve." These qualities are "essential in upholding all areas of our core mission, the commissioner said in a statement when asked about Churgai.

In his five-minute speech, Churgai, 24, of Northeast Philadelphia, explained that he wanted to reveal his truth to his class because hed rather have a discussion with everybody. He wanted to help prevent feelings of betrayal.

When Churgai was finished, the class gave a rousing standing ovation. He smiled.

Churgai was selected to join the academy solely on his ability to pass a rigorous background test and physical training, said Inspector Verdell Johnson, who supervises the recruits. I hope it lets those that are transgender know that they can also become a police officer.

Erin Deabler, Churgais driving partner during the nearly nine-month academy training, said his speech shocked her, but it didnt change much about how I felt about him as a recruit.

Its very brave what he did. He stands for what he believes in, she said. I dont know that I would have the courage to come out and say something so empowering.

I was proud of him, said Jarrett Ross, a fellow recruit. We need more of this in our department. We need people from all different walks of life, people who can relate to different things.

Churgai grew up in Chester County, and before joining the academy, worked in the food service industry. He said hes always wanted to be a police officer because you get to people on the best and what could be one of the worst days of their lives. He said theres an indescribable sense of satisfaction a police officer gets from helping someone.

When you are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, you often feel like you cant have a career because of discrimination, Churgai said. But when I put on that uniform, its not just a job. Im living a dream Ive always had.

Days before Churgai started his training at the academy, he reached out to 18-year veteran Philadelphia Officer Jo Mason, who identifies as nonbinary, for guidance. Mason said that Churgai was on the fence" about coming out to his cadre of recruits.

I told [Churgai] to keep in mind, youll be the first out trans recruit to go through the academy, recalled Mason, a bicycle patrol officer. Youre not only carrying the weight for yourself but maybe for the community, so you do whats best for you."

When Mason joined the police force in 2002, I wasnt brave enough to come out."

Mason identified as male during training at the academy and "did everything in my power to deny being trans. Mason became a cop to make it go away, but it just doesnt work like that.

It wasnt until 2015 when Mason revealed their nonbinary gender to colleagues on the force. Mason said the news was met with much support and affirmation. In 2016, Mason became the inaugural president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Gay Officer Action League (GOAL), a national organization that represents LGBTQ+ law enforcement officers. There are 55 members in the Philadelphia chapter.

Maria Gonzalez was the Police Departments first openly transgender officer. She joined the force in 1967, and in 2004, after being an officer for 37 years, announced her transition. She died in 2018.

When you come into the force as a police officer, youre always bringing your personal experiences with you, Mason said. Bensons going to find that something that was once very private will now be a benefit to the community he serves.

Churgai graduated from the academy as the salutatorian of his class, earning him a scholarship to Chestnut Hill College. He said hed like to explore classes outside of criminal justice. His official police duties havent been assigned yet, but Mason predicts Churgai will have the same experience as other rookies: learning the community.

With fellow officer Mason, Churgai joins a handful of openly transgender and nonbinary officers in Washington, Florida, and California. Charmaine McGuffey, who identifies as lesbian, has worked in an Ohio sheriffs office for over 30 years and said queer representation in law enforcement is super important," particularly for large metropolitan areas.

Right now, theres a cultural shift in the country to be more accepting of the LGBTQ community, McGuffey said. But as long as youre an officer of integrity, people will support you.
Washington, Feb 28 : The presidential campaign of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has downplayed the significance of the upcoming Democratic primary in South Carolina and said it was considering naming a potential running mate during the primary process.

Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said in an MSNBC interview on Thursday that the South Carolina primary, slated for Saturday at which the media mogul's name won't be on the ballot, "is not going to matter", adding that the "Super Tuesday" next week "is going to be really definitional for this race", reports Xinhua news agency.

Sheekey also shrugged off concerns that former Vice President Joe Biden's perceived win in South Carolina would mean much.

The primary "hasn't happened yet" and "he was winning by 35 points a month ago and now quite frankly the question is whether he will win at all", Sheekey said, referring to Biden.

Several polls conducted in South Carolina ahead of the primary have revealed Biden leading the Democratic field, with a Monmouth University poll published on Thursday having the former Vice President retaining an advantage over second-placed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders by 20 percentage points -- 36 per cent to 16 per cent.

Meanwhile, Sheekey said the Bloomberg campaign would consider naming a running mate even when the Democratic nominating process was still ongoing.

"We've thought about it," Sheekey said.

"I think the other campaigns have thought about it too... We do need to figure out how to consolidate different factions of this party. We need to figure out how to bring people together." Bloomberg has changed party affiliations several times. He was a Democrat before 2001, a Republican between 2001 and 2007, and an Independent until 2018.

He registered as a Democratic candidate in the 2020 presidential election.
Australian banks and mining companies have restricted staff travel overseas in a bid to avoid spreading COVID-19 within their organisations.

The virus has now spread to 49 countries, and health authorities in Australia have activated pandemic plans in preparation for more local cases of COVID-19.

Plans to reduce the spread of COVID-19 varied between the big four banks, but all have banned non-essential international business travel.

A Commonwealth Bank spokesman said the company had been closely following the advice and updates of the government, and factored that information into its own crisis management plan.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is reviewing a complaint which alleges the countrys biggest seller of trucks dictated terms around the quantity and type of vehicles to its former dealer in northern India - Varanasi Auto Sales - should stock.

The Tata Group has faced antitrust reviews in the past. A CCI investigation last year found units of Tata Steel and other firms colluded on prices of bearings. A final ruling on that case is pending.

The CCI has powers to impose a penalty of up to 10% of the relevant turnover of a company in the last three financial years if it is found to have abused a dominant position.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated the Buhari Presidency for its negligence and laid back attitude to governance and the welfare of Nigerians leading to the avoidable entrance of the deadly corona virus into our dear country.

The party said it was evident that the Buhari Presidency, not being alive to its responsibilities, as usual, took no concrete steps to hedge our nation against the virus, leading to the current scary situation.

The PDP in a statement by Kola Ologbondiyan, National Publicity Secretary, noted that a responsive and proactive government would have mobilized effective surveillance and screening measures to ward off the menace, particularly at entry points, but the incompetent, insensitive and indifferent Buhari administration, was more interested in propaganda and unnecessary showboating with false performance claims.

The party also recalled that the Buhari administration had done nothing to assist Nigerian citizens stranded in China despite their pleas, just the same way it abandoned Nigerian compatriots who were being murdered in the heat of xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

The PDP said Nigerians should directly hold the Buhari Presidency responsible should any national calamity arose from COVID-19 in addition to the economic and security challenges its negligence had caused our nation.

Due to the negligence and incompetence of the Buhari administration, Nigerians can no longer move freely across their country for fear of insurgents, bandits, kidnappers and now corona virus.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus Update from CDC: Why your beards should get you worried now

Indeed, the Buhari government is a huge misfortune to our nation. This latest leadership failure further validates widespread calls for it to step aside for more competent hands to manage the affairs of our country, the party declared.

The PDP, therefore, called on Nigerians not to despair but stir up the Nigerian resilient spirit for an urgent, multi sectoral concerted effort by agencies, groups, corporate entities and public-spirited individuals to immediately curb the disease before it spreads, particularly given the prevalent security, economic and humanitarian challenges in the country.

The party called on the Federal Government to end its cosmetic attitude and immediately adopt the proactive strategy used by the PDP administration to promptly contain the Ebola Virus disease in 2014.

The PDP also advised Nigerians to be very vigilant and follow intervention directives to ensure that the disease does not spread in the country.

The party urged the ministry of health to continue to be open and not allow propaganda, speculations and misinformation in the handling of this health emergency.

PV: 0
Lucknow, Feb 28 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, continuing his zero tolerance policy against corruption, has suspended five officers of the Provincial Civil Services (PCS).

The suspended officers are Mahesh Prakash, Satish Chandra, Ashok Kumar Gupta, Manoj Prakash and Sanjay Kumar.

All have been found to have caused losses to the state exchequer during their posting in the Mining Department.

All the five officers have already been booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation which is investigating the mining scam in Uttar Pradesh.

Last week, the Chief Minister had suspended Devendra Kumar Pandey, District Magistrate of Unnao, over alleged irregularities in expenditure of Composite School Grant fund of the Basic Shiksha Department.

Adityanath also directed the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) to probe the charges against the officer.
Officials are frustrated over access to testing after possible first COVID-19 community spread case in the US.

Officials in California expressed frustration on Thursday over access to coronavirus testing kits after the first case of the respiratory disease of unknown origin was diagnosed in the United States, prompting fears of community spread.

On Wednesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that a California patient who contracted COVID-19 did not have relevant travel history or exposure to another individual with the virus.

The case in Californias Solano County brought the total number of COVID-19 cases in the US to 60, including 45 cases among those who were repatriated, the CDC said.

While the US has seen a relatively few number of cases, health experts say the latest development marks a possible turning point, with fears the virus could spread further.

I expect that we are going to start seeing some community-level transmission, in pockets across the country, said Peter Jay Hotez, professor and dean at the National School of Tropical Medicine, in Houston, Texas.

Whether or not it expands beyond that and becomes pervasive across the nation, thats the unknown, he told Al Jazeera.

The coronavirus outbreak, which originated in China, has spread to 44 countries around the world, affected markets, suspended flights and shuttered schools. It has infected more than 82,000 people and killed over 3,000  mostly in China.

Hotez says faster confirmation of coronavirus infection is crucial to a rapid response by local health authorities and to ensure the safety of both patients and healthcare workers.

Preparedness is primarily done at the local level, many people think the CDC is in charge of preparedness, but in fact, it is done throughout the various counties and local health departments, he said.

Testing delayed for four days

Officials say testing was previously done by the CDC in their headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, which was delaying the diagnosis process by at least a day.

In the recent California case, the patient was brought to UC Davis Medical Center on February 19, but testing was delayed for four days, because the CDC said the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for the virus, according to a hospital press release.

We need to start testing in our communities and we need to fix our testing issues, and we need to do this now, California Representative Ami Bera said during US House of Representatives committee hearing dedicated to addressing coronavirus.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday the state currently had about 200 test kits, an inadequate number, but that he is in contact with federal agencies who have promised to send more kits in the coming days.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told a US House of Representatives committee on Thursday that at least 40 public health labs were now able to test specimens for coronavirus, a number that could double by Friday.

But funding to confront the pandemic has turned into a political issue in the US, which will hold presidential elections in November. Trump, a Republican, asked Congress for $2.5bn, but Democrats said the amount is insufficient and have called for $8.5bn.

Amid a stock market slump over fears of the viruss spread, Trump on Wednesday sought to quell concerns.

I dont think its inevitable, Trump told reporters when asked about the possibility of a larger outbreak in the US.

It probably will. It possibly will. It could be at a very small level or it could be at a larger level, he added as he announced that Vice President Mike Pence would oversee the federal governments effort to contain the virus. Whatever happens, were totally prepared.

US President Donald Trump holds a document about the coronavirus as he gives a news conference at the White House [Carlos Barria/Reuters]

But health officials say that preparing for the possibility of community spread of the virus may prove difficult.

We do not have a secret pathway to protect people. Most of the protections that we are using fall into the category of non-pharmaceutical intervention: personal, community and environmental, Michael Wilkes, Professor of Medicine and Global Health at UC Davis told Al Jazeera.

Personal intervention, Wilkes said, involves individuals taking precautions to protect themselves from contracting the virus, as well as ensuring they do not infect others, by seeking medical attention and isolating themselves if they suspect they have symptoms.

Community measures include cancelling large gatherings of people such as sporting and music events. While environmental involves sanitisation of public spaces.

The virus can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia. Health officials say, like the flu, it spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, and affects people in different ways.

Wilkes says not everyone who gets coronavirus will suffer from severe illness and evidence shows that four out of five people infected suffer from relatively minor illness. He adds that although the spread of the virus poses a serious risk to public health, he also worries about the effect it may have on society.

We are following the evidence and we are doing what needs to get done medically, but the biggest battle we have is fear, Wilkes said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaking to journalists at a news conference in Sacramento, California [Randall Benton/AP Photo]

As for the Solano County, California case, officials say they are attempting to locate anyone who may have come into contact with the patient. The county also declared a state of emergency.

California Governor Newsom declined to declare a statewide emergency and said: People should go about their day-to-day lives with common sense. I dont want to instil any sense of new anxiety.

With additional reporting by William Roberts in Washington, DC.
Former regional police official sentenced to 5 years for waste of nearly $3 mln

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

13:18 28/02/2020

MOSCOW, February 28 (RAPSI)  Ex-chief of the Interior Ministrys Directorate for the Kamchatka Krai Alexander Sidorenko has received 5 years behind bars for wastage of budget funds worth over 200 million rubles (about $3 million), the Investigative Committees press service reports.

He has been found guilty of abuse of power, says the press service.

In 2013-2015, Sidorenko while executing a state construction contract along with his subordinates changed the agreements terms and permitted payment of unperformed works. The actions caused damage estimated at more than 87 million rubles to the state, the 200 million-ruble wastage of budget funds and failure to fulfill a government's defense order, the statement reads.
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper grilled Rod Blagojevich, who had his prison sentence commuted by President Trump this week, when the former governor of Illinois said on air Friday evening that he supports criminal justice reform after his time in prison.

Why it matters: These heated interactions have grown more common on cable news "in an era of intense political polarization and in an administration defined in part by its overt hostility to the news media. Rarely does a host of Coopers stature use such blunt language to criticize a guest, and interviewees seldom respond in kind," the Washington Post writes.

What they're saying:

Cooper: "You ignored a whole hell of a lot of other people who were hoping you might give them clemency when you actually mattered ... I'd be happy to work with people on criminal justice reform, but I wouldn't work with you."

Blagojevich: "Look, when you've been put where I was and you have all the time that I was given to think and look back at on some of the things you might've done different, that's certainly an area you talked about that I wish I'd done more on ... I didn't know how corrupt the criminal justice system was until it did it to me...When the cases came to me and I was given files about people who were seeking clemency or pardons, I acted appropriately."

Cooper: "Actually, they sat on your desk and that's why you were sued."

Context: Trump announced on Tuesday that he would commute Blagojevich's 14-year prison sentence for extortion, bribery and corruption.

Blagojevich, who was eight years into his sentence, first asked to be commuted in 2018.

Reality check: Cooper mentions Blagojevich was sued as governor for delaying clemency requests.

An NPR report from 2008 shows Blagojevich was sued by a group of convicted felons for not responding to their clemency requests.

During his tenure, Blagojevich's office received around 3,000 clemency requests, and granted 89 pardons at the time of the report.

Go deeper: Trump pardons the swamp
[February 28, 2020] MetLife Becomes First U.S.-Based Insurer to Sign U.N. Women's Empowerment Principles

MetLife, Inc. announced today that it has become the first U.S.-based insurance company to sign the United Nations Women's Empowerment Principles, a series of commitments created by U.N. Women and the U.N. Global Compact to promote gender equality in the workplace and society. MetLife President and CEO Michel Khalaf highlighted the signing at a diversity conference in New York City sponsored by the American Council of Life Insurers, the Life Insurance Council of New York, and the American Property Casualty Insurance Association. Khalaf also announced the formation of a MetLife Gender Equality Team that will partner with the U.N. to identify any gaps - in recruitment, retention, promotion, compensation, and succession planning - and work to close them. "MetLife's support for gender equality reflects our purpose of building a more confident future for all," Khalaf said. "Empowering women is more than a core value for us - it's a key element of our business strategy. Partnering with the U.N. will help us strengthen our focus and take our commitment to the next level." The U.N. Women's Empowerment Principles are: Principle 1 : Establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality

: Establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality Principle 2 : Treat all women and men fairly at work - respect and support human rights and nondiscrimination

: Treat all women and men fairly at work - respect and support human rights and nondiscrimination Principle 3 : Ensure the health, safety and well-being of all women and men workers

: Ensure the health, safety and well-being of all women and men workers Principle 4 : Promote education, training and professional development for women

: Promote education, training and professional development for women Principle 5 : Implement enteprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women

: Implement enteprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women Principle 6 : Promote equality through community initiatives and advocacy

: Promote equality through community initiatives and advocacy Principle 7: Measure and publicly report on progress to achieve gender equality



"By advancing women at MetLife, we help promote the diversity of talent necessary to make a difference in the workplace and marketplace," said Dr. Cindy Pace, MetLife's global chief diversity and inclusion officer.

Last month, MetLife was named to the Bloomberg (News - Alert) Gender-Equality Index for the fifth year in a row. In addition, the company has been recognized by the Women's Forum of New York as a "Corporate Champion" for the high representation (30 percent) of women on its board. In 2019, MetLife joined the Catalyst CEO Champions For Change initiative and also became the first insurance company to join the U.N. Women Global Innovation Coalition for Change. The company provides further support for women's entrepreneurship and innovation through its partnerships with the Women's Business Enterprise National Council and similar organizations. Its philanthropic arm, MetLife Foundation, works to improve the financial health of low-income women across the world by teaming up with groups such as Accion, Trickle Up, and Women's World Banking. For more information on MetLife's commitment to gender equality and its corporate responsibility activities, visit www.metlifeglobalimpact.com. About MetLife MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates ("MetLife"), is one of the world's leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to help its individual and institutional customers navigate their changing world. Founded in 1868, MetLife has operations in more than 40 markets globally and holds leading positions in the United States, Japan, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.metlife.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005023/en/

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Four persons were arrested by a team of the West Bengal Police from Pune for their alleged role in trafficking women and forcing them into prostitution, officials said on Friday.

The team also rescued 25 trafficking survivors, of which two were minors, during the raid at several localities in Pune, police said.

The accused, identified as Madi Nayak, Umadevi, Sanu Tamang and Baijayanti Shinde, used to traffick young women from different parts of West Bengal, including Nadia and Murshidabad districts, and Barasat and Basirhat in North 24 Parganas, they said.

The accused, wanted in several trafficking cases in Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district, has been brought back, police said.

A senior officer said the team, led by inspector Kakali Ghosh Kundu, was assisted by the local police for the raid. International Justice Mission, an NGO, was also involved in the operations.

A case has been lodged by the Pune Police and the West Bengal Police is also investigating the charges against the accused, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Deon Lendore's journey to the top has been nothing short of inspirational. Apart from his ex
WINDSOR, Ont. - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is cutting the third shift at its Windsor Assembly Plant beginning June 29.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In this Monday, Jan. 14, 2019 file photo, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles FCA logo is shown at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is cutting the third shift at its Windsor Assembly Plant beginning June 29. The automaker says it notified Unifor Thursday about the change that will affect about 1,500 employees. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Paul Sancya, file

WINDSOR, Ont. - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is cutting the third shift at its Windsor Assembly Plant beginning June 29.

The automaker says it notified Unifor Thursday about the change that will affect about 1,500 employees.

The move keeps the shift operational for an additional three months. Originally scheduled to shut down last September, the shift's closing was given a four-month reprieve in November to last until March 31.

FCA says it made the decision to match volumes with demand as production of the Dodge Grand Caravan is phased out at the end of May.

"The company will make every effort to place indefinitely laid off hourly employees in open full-time positions as they become available based on seniority and will offer retirement packages to eligible employees," spokeswoman LouAnn Gosselin wrote in an email.

Unifor Local 444 president Dave Cassidy held a news conference in Windsor to discuss the impact.

"We worked to prevent this shift loss with the full understanding of the devastating affect that this would have on our membership," he said in a news release.

"Now we will ensure that these workers receive the support that they need in this process as we continue to fight for new product for Windsor Assembly with the goal of preserving and increasing these good paying auto manufacturing jobs."

The decision will lead to significant job loss in the parts supply chain, and inflict damage to both the local and national economy, the national union said in a statement.

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"Unifor is very disappointed that FCA was unable to find a solution that would have avoided job losses," said national president Jerry Dias. "There is no question that the economic ramifications will be felt across the region and throughout the country."

He said investment in Canadian automobile production will be a priority during negotiations that get underway this summer with FCA, General Motors and Ford. It will also continue to press various levels of government about the need for a national auto strategy to stabilize and grow the sector.

The plant, which produces the Chrysler Pacifica and its hybrid version, as well as the Dodge Grand Caravan, has about 6,100 employees.

FCA announced last year that it would invest US$4.5 billion in Michigan to build a new assembly plant and upgrade other operations and create 6,500 jobs in the process.

The planned cut in Windsor will come about six months after General Motors ended production at its assembly plant in Oshawa, Ont., at a loss of about 2,600 unionized workers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2020.
Anand Mahindra

Coronavirus has caused bears to take control of equity markets around the world. The Indian market too saw a bloodbath with BSE Sensex shedding 1,448.37 points and the Nifty losing over 431.50 points. The heavy selling, however, was best described by billionaire Anand Mahindra on Twitter.

Mahindra groups Chairman Anand Mahindra posted a tweet saying:



Time to coin a new phrase. When markets panic over a pandemic is it a panicdemic?

 anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) February 28, 2020

Time to coin a new phrase. When markets panic over a pandemic is it a panicdemic?

The tweet got over a thousand likes within an hour and saw over 100 retweets.

Mahindra's comments came after stock investors lost over Rs 4 lakh crore just as the market opened February 28.

The spread of coronavirus in countries like South Korea and Iran has left a sense of fear among markets around the world. In a briefing on February 27, the World Health Organisation informed that in the past two days the number of new cases reported in the rest of the world has exceeded the number of new cases in China.

Other recent tweets by the business tycoon have also been a hit on Twitter.

His February 26 tweet about a school kids dance during Melania Trumps visit at a government school got over 7,500 retweets and over 40,000 likes.



In a world burdened by natural calamities, trade battles, social upheavals & pandemics, this viral clip showing a childs unrestrained enthusiasm is a breath of fresh air. He didnt give a hoot about the celebrity in front & the nervous secret service agent behind! Balle balle! pic.twitter.com/xF0OmSPwyC  anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) February 26, 2020

Not very long ago Mahindra praised Indore citys cleanliness and the tweet got over 30,000 likes and over 4,500 retweets.

Earlier, in December 2019, Mahindra recalled his meeting with Bill Gates in 1997 and how he had a grudge against Gates'.

Also Read: Why did Anand Mahindra hold a grudge against Bill Gates for over two decades?

With close to 7.5 mn followers on Twitter, Anand Mahindra, currently the Executive Chairman of the Mahindra group, will assume a non-executive Chairmans post in the Mahindra group after November 11, 2021.
GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemalan prosecutors sought Friday to summon Patricia Marroquin de Morales, the wife of ex-president Jimmy Morales, for questioning in connection with possible fraud.

Lead anti-graft prosecutor Stuardo Campo filed the request with a court to question Marroquin about her hiring by the Public Health Ministry in 2014 to provide technology services for which she allegedly was not qualified. The date to appear was given as July 13.

Mrs. Marroquin did not show proof she possessed the technical knowledge in the area for which she was hired, Campo told journalists.

A lawyer for Marroquin could not immediately be located for comment. Prosecutors said no attorney representing the former first lady had appeared at their offices.

Summonses were also sought for three former officials at the Health Ministry, including its ex-chief, who had signed off on the contract.
Hong Kong media tycoon and founder of Apple Daily newspaper Jimmy Lai (C) leaves the Kowloon City police station in Hong Kong - Isaac Lawrence /AFP

Hong Kong charged three leading protest figures yesterday amid fears the authorities were using the coronavirus outbreak to crack down on dissent while demonstrations were unlikely due to concerns over spreading the illness.

Hong Kong charged prominent Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai and two leading opposition politicians with illegal assembly over a pro-democracy march last year.

The protests last year calling for reforms in semi-autonomous Hong Kong crippled its economy and put its Beijing-backed leaders and police force under unprecedented pressure.

Benedict Rogers, founder and chairman of Hong Kong Watch, said it was "entirely conceivable" that the decision to bring charges was taken now as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

He said: "[It is] a time when Hong Kongers are less likely to come out in large numbers in protest and when the international community is focused on the health emergency, so perhaps the government hoped to bury the news. But this news must not be buried, for it represents a further dramatic erosion of Hong Kongs freedoms."

"Well, the Hong Kong situation is getting tense here, but we have to go on, we have to go on," Mr Lai himself told reporters after speaking with officers. The three left the police station after being charged and are to appear in court on May 5. They could face up to five years in prison along with fines.

A fire caused by protesters and others is seen during a pro-democracy protest in Wan Chai on August 31 - AP

Authorities in Hong Kong have arrested more than 7,000 people for their involvement in the protests, many on charges of rioting that can carry jail terms of up to 10 years. It is unclear how many are still in custody.

Public anger has grown over the months due to perceptions of China tightening its grip over the city. Beijing denies meddling and blames the West for fomenting unrest.

Mr Lai was previously arrested in 2014 for refusing to leave a key pro-democracy protest site in the centre of the city. Following his arrest he resigned as editor in chief of Apple Daily. He has also come under scrutiny from Hong Kong's anti-graft agency when they raided his home in 2014.

Story continues

Hong Kong media magnate Jimmy Lai, when he was arrested in 2014 - P

Lord Patten, the former governor of Hong Kong, said: "The arrest of three leading Hong Kong citizens, all of them known in their city and around the world as brave and respected advocates of free speech, accountable government, responsible social policy and real liberty is outrageous...

"China's priority should clearly not be turning screws on a city which is celebrated for its commitment to values most of the world accepts."
Loading What Law loves about the theatre is the difference in the creative process from writing for newspapers, magazines or even television. Its all collaboration. He feels part of a community. It is my work and I am the author, at the end of the day. In TV, actors come on as the last thing and you (the writer) leave as soon as the director comes on board. With theatre it was slightly confronting having the actors on board so early because its so exposing to have your work read out when you know its not finished. You feel so naked. But that feeling is incredibly helpful as well. That kind of muscular spasm of horror you feel every time you can just intuit somethings so wrong, you know you need to change something ... In this process, having the actors on board, it sounds so obvious but they have to inhabit their characters so deeply, theyre there guiding us through so when she says wheres that coming from? and Im not sure I know, thats really good homework. He talks about going back to his writing cave the previous night and bashing out another draft so I wondered whether he found writing easy. Does it come easy to him?

When writers say they love it and it comes easily to them, Im like youre lying. Theres that David Rakoff quote that I keep close to my heart: writing is like pulling teeth. From my dick. At the end of the day there are moments of absolute joy, when the actual puzzle pieces are fitting in. But with writing youre actually making the puzzle pieces as well and some wont fit. Tuna salad at Arkibar, South Melbourne. Credit:Simon Schluter Law was born and raised in Queensland, but his stock is Hong Kong Cantonese. He has lots of family in Hong Kong, and feels intimately connected with the place. I wanted to know how he views the recent protests there. My cousins, aunties and uncles have all marched. They are not political creatures in any way, shape or form, but this is something that has really galvanised every Hong Kong citizen, he says. What started as a protest against an extradition bill has really become a fight for cultural survival. Because if you look at the history of Hong Kong since handover, that creeping sense of mainland Chinese intrusion has manifested in things that are quite shocking for those who have grown up with democracy.

He points to the ticking clock towards 2047, 50 years after the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese, when there is no guarantee about its future status. After an experience like Waltzing the Dragon, suddenly Ive got a very clear handle on who I am, where I fit into history. And the Hong Kong protests further clarified that. Ben Law I think in some way so much of whats fuelling the protests is (the sense of) nothing to lose. Hong Kong is the place that commemorates the Tiananmen Square massacre every year. They really know whats at stake and I think for me it has probably clarified a cultural identity thats always shifted in my life. I grew up in a very white part of Australia looking like this, not speaking Cantonese fluently so having your authenticity called into question. After an experience like Waltzing the Dragon, suddenly Ive got a very clear handle on who I am, where I fit into history. And the Hong Kong protests further clarified that.

Waltzing the Dragon was the two-part series in which Law explored the history of the Chinese in Australia, partly through the prism of his parents experience. It involved separate trips to China, with his mother and father to where their families came from and the village where his father grew up. The real-life version of their divorce and its aftermath, it seems, was much messier than portrayed in The Family Law. Waltzing changed his relationship not only with Australia and China but also his parents. You feel more tender towards them. And he found seeing them in the cultural context in which they grew up revelatory. He was conscious while making it that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Law is now 37; at this age, his mother had five children. That still amazes him. Charles Wu, Diana Lin and Michele Lim Davidson in Benjamin Law's Torch The Place. Credit:Jeff Busby He reckons John Howard was right when he said we all need to know our own history, but Law says we need to know about all our histories. So in addition to being able to discover family history, its this truth-telling of Australian history too. This shared lineage we all have whether were Chinese or not. It was Pauline Hansons maiden speech in 1996, in which she said Australia faced being swamped by Asians, that got his political juices flowing. He began to feel vulnerable. A Chinese family friend was bashed; school friends parents started displaying One Nation stickers on their vans. You used to be seen as different, but now your difference made you conspicuously a target.

At much the same time he was increasingly aware that he was gay and coming out at 17 coincided with starting university. Loading I feel like its about a year after you come out as queer ... where youre so serious because youve had this period of arrested development where you couldnt engage with who you were truly but you catch up, you become very political, very serious, very Bolshie and its a discovery as well. So theres been dual discoveries: my Chinese, specifically Cantonese heritage and also my gay heritage and both of those things are inherently political and politicised. I dont particularly want to talk about my sexuality and ethnicity all the time, but if other people are going to do it for me, Id prefer to do it myself. Law has a serious work ethic, which he reckons he inherited from his father and mother. They were the living embodiment of that. Dad worked seven days and nights a week. And mum raised five children. If thats not work, I dont know what is.
Senior BJP leader and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday said commitment to judicial, media and individual freedom is one of the Modi government's "fundamentals" as he cited its leaders' fight against the Emergency to reject criticism over a Delhi High Court judge's transfer.

Asked about the Congress' attack on the government over the transfer of Justice S Muralidhar, Prasad hit back at the party, noting that its government in the 1970s had superseded Supreme Court judges, a move seen as an assault on judicial independence.

The minister reiterated that Muralidhar's transfer had nothing to do with any case as a recommendation to this effect was already made by the Supreme Court collegium and the judge had also given his consent.

"It (transfer) was part of the process. By same process dozens of judges have been transferred," Prasad told reporters.

The Congress has alleged that Justice Muralidhar was transferred by the government to save BJP leaders in the Delhi violence case which he was hearing.

Prasad said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and many other senior functionaries of this government, including he himself, had fought against the Emergency for individual, judicial and media freedom.

"Our commitment to these freedoms, have been a fundamental (to the government)," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Concourse Federal Group has been ranked at No. 7 in a list of the top 10 fastest-growing, privately held companies in Washington, D.C., according to the annual Inc. 5000 list. Concourse is proud to lead the way in the city of D.C., which is acknowledged for its business opportunities in the private sector.

Today, Inc. magazine also revealed that Concourse Federal Group ranks No. 20 on the Inc. 5000 Series: D.C. Metro list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the entire D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Delaware region.

Concourse boasts a three-year growth of 809 percent with a 2018 revenue totaling $10.7 million. The 10-year-old company has worked with dozens of federal clients and completed hundreds of projects successfully.

Concourse is honored to be recognized as one of the hottest companies in Washington D.C., says Concourse Federal Group president Geoffrey Perkins. This is a direct reflection of the outstanding employees we have at Concourse. Employees who are always willing to go the extra mile for our clients. We look forward to another great year at Concourse.

The companies listed on the Metro ranking show overall stunning rates of growth across all industries in the D.C. metropolitan area. Between 2016 and 2018, these 250 private companies had an average growth rate of 196 percent and, in 2018 alone, they employed over 88,000 people and added $6.5 billion in revenue to the greater D.C. areas economy.

Companies based in the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, Va. metro areas brought in the highest revenue overall. Complete results of the Inc. 5000 Series: D.C. Metro, including an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, metro area, and other criteria, can be found at inc.com/inc5000-series-dc-2020.

The companies on this list demonstrate just how much the small-business sector impacts the economies of D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, says Inc. editor in chief Scott Omelianuk. Across every single industry, these businesses have posted revenue and growth rates that are beyond impressive, further proving the tenacity of their founders and CEOs.

The Inc. 5000 Series: D.C. Metro Summit & Awards event to honor the companies on the list will take place on June 3 in Washington, D.C.

More about Concourse Federal Group

Concourse Federal Group is a certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) that provides full-service consulting and aspires to be the standard of excellence. Concourse has been providing the federal government professional services in Architecture & Engineering, Real Estate, Technology, and Management Consulting to clients nationwide since 2009. Concourse also provides solutions in cyber-security, real estate portfolio management, transition planning & medical facility outfitting, and healthcare planning. To learn more about Concourse Federal Group, visit http://concoursefederal.com/home.

More about Inc. and the Inc. 5000 Regional Series

Methodology

The 2020 Inc. 5000 Regional Series is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2016 and 2018. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2016. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independentnot subsidiaries or divisions of other companiesas of December 31, 2018. The minimum revenue required for 2016 is $100,000; the minimum for 2018 is $1 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.

About Inc. Media

The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels, including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com.
Dr. Chris Spitters, health officer of the Snohomish Health District, said he suspected that the teenager probably got sick from someone with a mild form of the illness who did not seek care. I think were going to find as time goes on that theres more of that, Dr. Spitters said.

In Oregon, a state that had not reported any previous cases of coronavirus, officials said an employee of Forest Hills Elementary School in Lake Oswego appeared to have contracted the virus more than a week ago.

Oregon health officials said their public health laboratory, which began testing samples on Friday, had detected the positive case; the sample will also be tested at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for confirmation, as will the new cases from Washington and California.

In California, a woman from Santa Clara County with chronic health conditions who was hospitalized for a respiratory illness was reported on Friday to have tested positive for infection with the virus. Two days earlier, officials in Solano County, Calif., 90 minutes from Santa Clara County, had announced the first case in the nation with no clear ties to any previous case or overseas travel.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday (February 28) granted bail to Congress leader Hardik Patel till March 6 in connection with the 2015 case related to violence during Patidar stir in Gujarat. The court also restrained the Gujarat Police from arresting him in the Patidar quota agitation case.

While protecting his arrest for a week, the apex court issued a notice to the Gujarat government seeking a reply on the progress of the investigation by next Friday.

A bench of justices U U Lalit and Vineet Saran issued notice to the Gujarat government on the plea of Patel seeking quashing of a case against him. "The case was lodged in 2015 and the investigation is still pending in the matter. You can't sit on the case for the past five years," the bench said today.

In December 2017, the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti under Patel had organised a mega rally in Ahmedabad as part of the quota stir, and an FIR was lodged for "unlawful assembly" as the police claimed the event did not have requisite permissions. An FIR was registered against him under section 188 of the IPC (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant). The rally was taken out days before the Gujarat Assembly election.

On February 17, the Gujarat High Court had rejected Patel's anticipatory bail plea in an unlawful assembly case registered in connection with the 2015 Patidar stir for quota for the community in government jobs and educational institutions. Patel was earlier arrested on January for failing to appear before a trial court here in a 2015 sedition case, hours after a warrant was issued against him.

Patel had joined the Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Earlier on February 19, a court in Ahmedabad had issued a non-bailable warrant against Patel for remaining absent during the hearing of a case against him in connection with the 2017 rally case. A magisterial court rejected the plea moved by Patel's lawyer to exempt him from appearance and issued an arrest warrant against him. Patel had sought exemption from appearance during the hearing held a week before.
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP)  A cruise ship heading to the Dominican Republic to disembark hundreds of passengers after a 14-day tour was turned away on Thursday because officials feared eight of those aboard showed potential symptoms of the COVID-19 virus, officials announced.

A joint statement by the Public Health Ministry and Port Authority said the captain of the Braemar reported four Filipinos, two British citizens and two U.S. citizens were under medical observation for symptoms such as fever, coughing, or breathing difficulty.

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines said in an emailed statement that it had reported a small number of influenza-like cases on board. Our medical team has now advised that they are all feeling better. No guests or crew are, or have been, displaying symptoms that are considered to be consistent with those of Coronavirus.

Officials said the ship was carrying 1,128 passengers and 384 crew members. The cruise line said it was awaiting advice on the next steps and liasing with a number of airlines to secure onward travel for guests.

The latest: Fifth Diamond Princess passenger dies in Japan; MSC ship gets 'clean bill of health'

On Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020 the Dominican Republic turned back the Braemar because some on board showed potential symptoms of the new coronavirus COVID-19.

"It is our opinion that this is an overreaction by the Dominican Republic,'' Fred. Olsen said in a written statement.

The cruise line's website shows the ship had been due to pick up another load of passengers and set off on a new cruise Thursday night.

Public Health Minister Rafael Sanchez Cardenas said the ship already had been barred by another port, which he did not specify.

Meanwhile, passengers on another vessel at the Mexican island of Cozumel faced yet another day in which they weren't allowed to get off the ship, after they had been previously turned away from two ports.

The MSC Meraviglia, turned away by two nations due to fears of the virus outbreak, docked at Cozumel on Thursday and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said passengers would be allowed to disembark.

Story continues

Lopez Obrador said Mexico had to act with humanityafter the ship was refused entry at ports in Grand Cayman and Jamaica.

But Alejandra Aguirre, the health secretary of the coastal state of Quintana Roo, said two people had been detected with acute respiratory infections not believed to be the new coronavirus and that other passengers wouldn't be allowed off until tests on those two came back later Thursday.

The two were identified as a 27-year-old male crew member from the Philippines and a 30-year-old female passenger from France.

MSC said in a statement that the two passengers were now symptom-free and the ship would remain in Cozumel. Assuming clearance to disembark is given, passengers would be free to tour Cozumel through the end of Friday.

The cruise line had expressed frustration with the rejections, which came after it reported the crew member was sick with common seasonal flu.

The ship is being allowed to dock and the passengers, those who are aboard the cruise ship, can disembark, Lopez Obrador said, adding that health inspections will be carried out.

We cannot act with discrimination, he said. Imagine if a ship arrived and it wasn't even allowed to dock, and they were told, Keep going on your way, see where you can dock.' That is inhuman.

He added we cannot close our ports, nor can we close our airports.

Imagine the desperation and everything it implies, almost 5,000 people on a ship and they cannot get off, he said. Why such backward attitudes?

The case of the Meraviglia illustrated the crisis of nerves over the COVID-19 virus. Mexico has no confirmed cases and MSC Cruises said the crew member had only common seasonal flu, had been placed in isolation and had nearly recovered.

Local media showed a small knot of Cozumel residents near the cruise ship dock demanding that passengers not be allowed to disembark, citing fears about potential contagion or effects on the tourism-dependent economy.

Just minutes after Lopez Obrador spoke Thursday, the governor of the Quintana Roo state, where Cozumel is located, confirmed the ship had docked, but said no authorization has been given yet for passengers to disembark.

Gov. Carlos Joaquin wrote that health inspections would have to be carried out first.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus: Dominican Republic refuses cruise ship amid virus fears
Astronomers have discovered what could most likely be the biggest ever explosion in the universe. They say this explosion was created by a black hole 390 million light-years away and is five times more powerful than anything recorded thus far. Astronomers have made this discovery using the X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton. This has also been confirmed by the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Australia and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India. The explosion has been detected in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, which is about 390 million light years from Earth. Safe to say, this galaxy has a dent that wont easily buff out.

In some ways, this blast is similar to how the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 ripped off the top of the mountain. A key difference is that you could fit fifteen Milky Way galaxies in a row into the crater this eruption punched into the cluster's hot gas, says Simona Giacintucci of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, and lead author of the study. Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity, containing thousands of individual galaxies, dark matter, and hot gas. Scientists say that while black holes usually attract material toward themselves, they do release a lot of energy and material from time to time.

The amount of energy required to create the cavity in Ophiuchus is about five times greater than the previous record holder, MS 0735+74, and hundreds and thousands of times greater than typical clusters, says the NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The possibility of this massive explosion was first raised in a 2016 study led by Norbert Werner after examining the images captured by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. At the time, Werner and colleagues had noticed a rather unusual curved edge on the cluster, in the images. They believed this represented part of the wall of a cavity in the hot gas created by jets from the supermassive black hole. That has now been confirmed by the study by Giacintucci and her colleagues.

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory says that first, they showed that the curved edge is also detected by XMM-Newton, thus confirming the Chandra observation. They used new radio data from the MWA and data from the GMRT archives to show the curved edge is indeed part of the wall of a cavity, as had been seen before. This curve is because it is around a region that is filled with radio emission, they believe. Their belief is that these emissions are from the electrons now accelerated to nearly the speed of light and originate from the supermassive black hole. The radio data fit inside the X-rays like a hand in a glove. This is the clincher that tells us an eruption of unprecedented size occurred here, says co-author Maxim Markevitch of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Researchers believe that the energy released by this supermassive Ophiuchus blast is hundreds of thousands of times greater than explosions typically seen in galaxy clusters thus far. The findings have now been published in The Astrophysical Journal.
[February 28, 2020] Tallo + Greater Des Moines Partnership to Help Iowa's Future Workforce and Businesses Better Understand One Another

In its latest effort to boost the region's economy, the Greater Des Moines Partnership is turning its attention to Iowa's future workforce by partnering with Tallo, a digital platform and app that connects talent with opportunities. Tapping into Tallo's user pool, the Greater Des Moines Partnership hopes to raise awareness of career opportunities with Greater Des Moines (DSM (News - Alert)) employers and career preparation opportunities at higher education institutions. "DSM is experiencing momentum as a great place to live and work, and has a thriving business community," said Mary Bontrager, Executive Vice President of Talent Development at the Greater Des Moines Partnership. "Tallo will help us continue to increase our talent pipeline so our employers can connect with students who are interested in the type of career path that their organization can offer." Through this new initiative, DSM employers will use Tallo to showcase their industry to talent, inclding what skills and experiences are required, and what opportunities are currently available - from internships and apprenticeships to part-time and full-time employment. Students can learn from a young age what career opportunities are available in companies in DSM.



Tallo will also conduct an industry-perception survey with students and Tallo users in Iowa. With these insights, DSM employers can better understand how to market their organization to attract top talent locally and nationally. "All across the country, businesses are struggling to find qualified talent because tomorrow's workforce doesn't have a good understanding of their career options," said Casey Welch, CEO and Co-founder of Tallo. "State by state, we're working to change that, and we can't wait to see how this partnership strengthens the Greater Des Moines area by uncovering and shifting students' perceptions of the industries that call it home."

About Tallo Tallo (formerly STEM Premier) is the first online app that assists students in designing a career pathway, educators in recruiting top talent to their schools, and employers in developing a stable, continuous talent pipeline. Through a mobile digital portfolio, students (age 13+) and professionals showcase their skills and abilities, receive personalized career guidance, match with over $20 billion in scholarships, and get directly connected with post-secondary institutions and companies looking for the next generation of talent. For more information, visit www.tallo.com. About the Greater Des Moines Partnership The Greater Des Moines Partnership is the economic and community development organization that serves Greater Des Moines (DSM), Iowa. Together with 24 Affiliate Chambers of Commerce, more than 6,500 Regional Business Members and more than 365 Investors, The Partnership drives economic growth with one voice, one mission and as one region. Through innovation, strategic planning and global collaboration, The Partnership grows opportunity, helps create jobs and promotes DSM as the best place to build a business, a career and a future. Learn more at DSMpartnership.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005458/en/

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YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has delivered a judgement in the case of journalist Khadija Ismayilova against Azerbaijan.

The Court concluded that  the arrest and detention of the applicant, a journalist who had published articles critical of members of the Government and their families for alleged corruption and illegal business activities, had been driven by the improper reasons of silencing her and punishing her for her journalistic activity, ECHR documents show.

The ECHR ruled that Azerbaijan must pay Ismayilova 20,000 Euros in compensation.

Meanwhile, head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Samed Seyidov, told BBC that the Azerbaijani government will comply with the judgement and fulfill the demand.

This is already the third judgement in favor of the journalist.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
WA Health Minister Roger Cook has conceded the coronavirus threat puts the state in a dangerous situation even though there are currently just two confirmed cases in Western Australia.

Health Minister Roger Cook. Credit:Tabarak Al Jrood

Mr Cook, who spoke on 6PR's Perth Live with Oliver Peterson on Friday afternoon, said he was under no illusions as to the dangers posed to the community by the virus, but people in WA should not be panicking.

"We're going to be really challenged," he said. "There's no sugarcoating this. We are in a very dangerous situation at the moment.

"This is on the march. It's obviously a great concern."
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MailOnline readers have revealed their essential stockpiling items and survival shopping lists as shops started rationing anti-bacterial hand gel with prices rocketing online and people now making homemade sanitiser.

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Britons have started panic buying with some even setting up 'isolation' rooms at home complete with camping toilets now the UK has 19 confirmed cases and one British citizen has died in Japan.

A shortage of germ-killing antibacterial gel has caused prices to skyrocket online with one racketeer trying to sell a 49p bottle for 1,000 on eBay today - while Boots has said it is limiting sales to two bottles per customer.

But health experts have said many high street sanitisers don't kill coronavirus because they contain less than 60 per cent alcohol - and washing hands for 20 seconds is far better.

MailOnline readers have sent in their stockpiled provisions, which includes staples such as bottled water, bin liners, Calpol and pet food - or more eclectic essentials such as Pot Noodles, exfoliating face wash and litres of beer and wine.

David Wharton filled his boot with 15kg of penne, 48 bags of crisps, 16 tins of beans and litres of Dettol said: 'Better to be safe than sorry, if it all blows over won't need to go shopping for weeks'.

Mel Cross wrote: 'I've been stockpiling for weeks now. Had a feeling the situation would really get bad. Loads of toilet rolls, hand sanitiser, soaps, disinfectant, paracetamol. Been filling my cellar'.

MailOnline reader David Wharton filled his boot with enough staples like pasta and loo roll to last him for weeks

This Boots in South Woodford, east London, is one of several stores with signs making it clear that shortages of sanitiser means customers can buy a maximum of two

Calpol, tinned ham, porridge oats, Pot Noodles and Calpol have been bought by reader Carrie should a pandemic take hold in the UK

Mary Donovan shared this photo with MailOnline saying she was stockpiling beauty products including cleanser and moisturiser

Beegee stands next to stockpiled stores including cat food with its owner Melanie warning other stockpilers: ' Don't forget the animals!'

Prices of antibacterial hand sanitisers have skyrocketed because of shortages - this seller is trying to get 1,000 for a litre on eBay

Three steps to making your own hand gel at home - and how to use it properly Surgical spirit online can be used to make an alternative to antibacterial hand gel Step one: By a bottle of surgical spirit from a pharmacy or hardware store - which can be labelled 'rubbing alcohol'. It must have a isopropyl alcohol level of at least 91%. These are around 5. For a pleasant scent buy a 200ml bottle of pure aloe vera gel, which is widely available on the high street for around 3. Step two: Take a pint (568ml) of isopropyl and combine with the entire bottle of aloe vera gel (200ml) and mix in a clean bowl with a plastic spatula. You can use an electric whisk or food processor. Step three Use a funnel to decant your gel into bottles. Recycled hand soap bottles with pumps would be best. The bottles have a shelf life of six months if kept in a cool, dark place. How to use: Fill your palm with gel and rub for 20 to 30 seconds ensuring it covers your fingers and goes under nails. Advertisement

Tiny 50ml bottles of the gel, which are usually available for just 49p in Lidl, are now being advertised for the astronomical prices on eBay and other auction websites - 2,041 times the usual price.

Tesco today declined to comment on the unusually high prices and the reports of low stock, while Asda, Sainsbury's and Lidl have all been contacted but have yet to respond.

A spokesman for Boots, who have also seen stores sell out of hand sanitisers in recent weeks, said today: 'We have seen an increase in sales of hand sanitisers but we still have stock available in our warehouses for stores and online.'

They added: 'In order to manage stock it is for this reason we are currently limiting sales of gels to two for each customer.'

And they continued that 'the best way to help prevent catching the virus is by making sure you regularly wash your hands with soap and avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth to prevent transmission from surfaces'

The shortage led to Mumsnet users sharing recipes on a thread on whether to be stressed about lack of antibacterial hand gel in the shops.

One wrote: 'Found this easy diy version but looking through it seems that any solution needs to be at least 60% alcohol. Perhaps decant into small containers for people to use when they are out'.

But a critic said people worried about a lack of hand gel are 'deranged' - and said they should just wash their hands thoroughly.

Families have been building up reserves to ensure their homes are 'fit for a pandemic' with some purchasing new chest freezers to fill with food and portable camp toilets to avoid sharing a loo if a relative tests positive for the killer virus.

On social media one panicked Briton revealed that they have turned one small room in their house into an 'isolation zone' equipped with cooking equipment, bedding and food if they have to be in quarantine for a fortnight.

Another Mumsnet user said: 'I've cleaned and prepped the farm caravan so if needed it could be an isolation suite. Useful place to store surplus supplies, tinned food etc as well'.

Others are drawing up spreadsheets of the items they need to buy to last them weeks or months in self-isolation.

Professor Ratula Chakraborty, professor of business management at the University of East Anglia (UEA), said: 'The prospect of whole towns being in lockdown and shops closed is heightening the fear and stockpiling may become rife'.

Experts believe the stockpiling of medicine and food in family homes 'may become rife' as people grow increasingly concerned about coronavirus disrupting British life.

Professor Chakraborty, said: 'One big opportunity for the supermarkets may be home delivery, where online grocery retailers could see a bonanza as consumers shy away from visiting stores and instead prefer to shop from the safety of their own homes.

'There is no immediate need to stockpile or panic buy any goods, but people should be prepared to help out and shop for vulnerable relatives and friends who are elderly or have underlying conditions which places them at a greater risk of developing severe symptoms if the coronavirus spreads.

This Tesco shopper picked up packets of microwavable rice, Dettol wipes and cold and flu tablets as people start stockpiling because of the coronavirus crisis

Superdrug and Boots has sold out of hand gel and face masks at their stores with emergency orders on their way

These bare shelves in a Boots pharmacy as panic buying over the UK took hold

Britons have admitted stockpiling items ranging from loo roll and tinned food to new freezers and toilets because of coronavirus

This Mumsnet user revealed her stockpiling shopping list on a thread called: 'Prepping for a pandemic', which included olive oil, dips, crackers, chocolate and printer paper

In a thread on coronavirus this user sent out her 'dear husband' to pick a large chest freezer to store more food

This user set out a plan for 'a house fit for a pandemic' once all the stockpiling is up to date

This user has confirmed she is buying powdered egg for baking in case fresh ones become hard to come by

'Julie' was looking to order a camp toilet for at home. Some are concerned about sharing toilets at home if someone falls ill

Some have revealed they are building spreadsheets with lists of items they have bought, use by dates and meal plans

British maker of 2,000 isolation pods 'rushed of its feet' with orders One of the world's leading manufacturers of medical isolation 'pods' today said it was 'rushed off its feet' with orders from around the world amid the coronavirus outbreak. British company PPS (pictured) said it has had a 'manic' few weeks distributing the pods to hospitals, armed forces, and ambulance services worldwide. The pods, which measure 200cm x 80cm x 50cm, are designed for the temporary isolation of a single person feared contaminated by an infectious disease. They cost 2,000. Advertisement

In one discussion on Mumsnet, a poster asked if they were being unreasonable 'to be considering a small stockpile or supplies because of corona?'

They added: 'Reading about the Italian villages that have been put on lockdown and families can't leave their homes has got me thinking...Italy isn't a million miles away. It's not a third world country. If it's happened there...'

Almost 200 people responded to the message, with most saying they are also stockpiling tinned goods, toilet rolls and other supplies.

One said they were 'filling the cupboard with soup, tomatoes, tinned fruit, flour, crackers etc in advance.

'I'll still eat them all, but they last for months anyway, and when people are surging into supermarkets stripping the shelves I won't be adding to the masses worried they won't have enough. I'll be out of the way and not contributing to shortages

On Tuesday, an official at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warned of the potential for 'severe' disruption to daily life in the event of coronavirus becoming a pandemic.

Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC, said there was a need for 'new strategies'.

The CDC has been urging businesses, schools and families to prepare for a possible outbreak of Covid-19 in the US, including potentially allowing employees to work from home and internet-based lessons.

In the UK, England's Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, has said school closures could occur if the virus spreads, while people could be asked to stay at home with their families.

So which face mask should you buy to protect against coronavirus? Experts have lab tested face masks used by NHS medics to try to stop patients giving them illnesses spread through the air like flu, ebola and other illnesses similar to coronavirus such as SARs. The Health and Safety Executive uses a specialist machine that sprays water droplets at a person wearing a mask to accurately replicate being hit with a cough or a sneeze. People wearing different types of mask were also sprayed five times from a metre away while breathing in. The same test was also done while standing still, walking towards someone and walking away to see how much, if any, of the spray got through. Here are the best and worst performers: Best - Mask respirator with filters - 22.99 from Screwfix Chances of getting coronavirus: 100 times less likely than wearing no mask Description: The NHS uses this kind of face mask to treat patients with the most dangerous airborne illnesses such as coronavirus, swine flu or ebola. It has the highest level of protection because it filters the air and has a rubber mouthpiece meaning that no droplets from a cough or sneeze could get into the mouth or nose. It also has multiple straps that ensure it is fitted tightly to a person's head and face. Safe bet - Mask respirator with no filter - 2.76 online Chances of getting coronavirus: 78 times less likely than wearing no mask Description: This cheaper face mask is designed to offer protection from gases, hazardous materials and a small amount of liquid. If a coronavirus sufferer sneezed or coughed in your face while wearing it it would still offer good protection. But because the mask is smaller, particles from the virus could linger on the face. It would have to be disposed of after one use. It should not get wet. Basic protection - standard surgical mask - 80p each online Chances of getting coronavirus: Six times less likely than wearing no mask Description: Surgical masks protect against large droplets, splashes and contact transmission with illnesses such as coronavirus. But testing by the Health and Safety Executive found that when a sneeze landed on them traces were found inside. The report on preventing the spread of swine flu says: 'They should not be used in situations where close exposure to infectious aerosols [sneezes and coughs] is likely. This level of protection might not sufficiently reduce the likelihood of transmission via this route'. Last resort - DIY mask using bra or a sanitary towel - cost FREE Chances of getting coronavirus: Two times less likely than wearing no mask In China people have used a female sanitary towel (left) or a bra - experts say a DIY mask is still better than nothing Description: The coronavirus pandemic in China has led to masks being unavailable in many of the hotspot regions. Desperate unable to buy face masks have deployed carved out melons, plastic bottles, even bras, sanitary towels and lettuce leaves There was an increase in DIY masks Chinese health officials warned people not to re-use their protective masks after videos emerged of people boiling their surgical masks and hanging them up to dry. A safety report by Cambridge University from 2013 said: 'Our findings suggest that a homemade mask should only be considered as a last resort to prevent droplet transmission from infected individuals, but it would be better than no protection'. Advertisement

Coronavirus face masks sell out as prices soar 800%: But do they really work and which one should you buy?

Coronavirus panic in Britain means face masks are selling out and online profiteers are ramping up the cost by up to 120 per pack - but experts are still split over whether they work at all.

More than 81,000 cases of coronavirus have been recorded across the world - and with the global death toll topping 2,800 and increasing every day in Europe more people in the UK are now choosing to cover their mouth and nose in public.

In Britain, there have been 19 confirmed coronavirus cases and the prices of masks are now rocketing as shops sell out. One pack of five 'anti-coronavirus' masks is on sale online for 150 today - when the cost of the same pack was less than 30 just five days ago.

However, one medical expert told MailOnline that masks 'cannot' protect against the virus and that wearing them may even make it worse. Meanwhile Public Health England has warned that there is 'very little evidence' that masks are effective 'outside of clinical settings' such as hospitals.

Yet recent testing by the Health and Safety Executive has found that any kind of protection is better than nothing.

The way you wear a mask is crucially importantly, academics say, because unless it is tight to the nose and mouth contaminated sneezes and coughs will get through - or linger on the surface.

Commuters wear protective masks travels on the Jubilee Line and the Central Line (left and right) in London as face masks sell out

People in masks at Holborn Underground Station today but experts are split over whether they work

Face masks are running out and increasing in price online as panic over the coronavirus outbreak ramps up but are a more common sight in London

What is Public Health England's advice on wearing face masks? 'Face masks play a very important role in clinical settings, such as hospitals. 'However, there is very little evidence of widespread benefit from their use outside of these clinical settings. 'Facemasks must be worn correctly, changed frequently, removed properly, disposed of safely and used in combination with good universal hygiene behaviour in order for them to be effective. 'Research also shows that compliance with these recommended behaviours reduces over time when wearing facemasks for prolonged periods. 'People concerned about the transmission of infectious diseases would do better to prioritise good personal, respiratory and hand hygiene.' Dr Jake Dunning, head of emerging infections and zoonoses at Public Health England Advertisement

Professor Brendan Wren from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said that masks will not stop people from becoming infected and may even worsen its spread.

He said: 'The masks won't protect against the virus because it's so tiny. It is thousands of times smaller than bacteria.

'I don't think they do any good. They are smaller than air particles for pollution that we worry about. It will simply be breathed in.'

He added that masks may make the spread of the virus more likely if they become damp.

'They may make matters worse, [such as] if they become damp. If you have a cold or sneezing, sneezing into a mask can make matters worse.'

He added: 'The main purpose is a psychological thing they make people more aware but physically they are not a prevention'.

Dr Stephen Griffin, Associate Professor Section of Infection & Immunity, University of Leeds, said: 'Standard facemasks provide relatively little protection from respiratory aerosols  they can stop larger droplets and some studies have estimated an approx. 5-fold protection versus no barrier alone. Also, once they are worn for a time, they become moistened and protection diminishes further. Exhaled droplets also reduce in size quickly by evaporation, and of course virus particles are far smaller than the fibre mesh in these sorts of masks.

'However, wearing a mask can reduce the propensity for people to touch their faces, which happens many more times a day than we all realise and is a major source of infection without proper hand hygiene. They are also useful for people that are themselves symptomatic in stopping coughs and sneezes, primarily by encouraging good 'etiquette', i.e. catch it, bin it, kill it

'There are higher specification masks that contain filters and, when properly fitted and sealed, provide significantly better protection. However, these aren't as easy to come by and are obviously more expensive.'

The World Health Organisation said masks had to be combined with good hand hygiene and other measures for them to have any positive effect.

One brand, marketed as an 'anti Coronavirus vented mask' on Amazon is being sold for 150, up from less than 30 just five days ago

On the website of pharmacist Boot's , 'Safe & Sound' surgical masks which were sold out last month continue to be unavailable

All masks being sold by Medisave, which sells medical supplies in the UK, are out of stock

At Screwfix, dust masks are still being sold but a message warns customers that there is a limit on the numbers they can purchase

They recommended that masks should only be worn by those with a cough, fever, or who people who have difficulty breathing.

They added: 'The main purpose is a psychological thing they make people more aware but physically they are not a prevention.'

The spike in demand has meant that pharmacies including Boots are no longer selling masks online and stores are sold out.

Others listed at retailers including Amazon, Screwfix and Medisave are either sold out or have dramatically increased in price from 10 in December to nearly 80.

As of Thursday morning, ordinary surgical masks being sold on Amazon were far more expensive than last December, or even just a few days ago.

One listing for a pack of 50 surgical masks had jumped eight times in price, from 4.99 on December 1 to 39.20 on Thursday.

Another, for five masks with ear loops, sold by Cosy Cloud, has jumped from 6.99 just three days ago to 13.99 on Thursday.

A further listing for 10 masks, which was 10.99 on February 22 was being sold for 19.99 on Thursday.

Of more expensive masks, some of which are being marketed as protectors against Coronavirus - many have hiked dramatically in price.

One, a 3M Disposal Respirator, has jumped from just 20 on December 1 to 52 on Thursday.

Another similar product has gone from 10 at the beginning of December last year to 79.99 today.

Another listing for a respirator is now priced at 200, whereas it was just 24 in November last year.

Elsewhere, the masks are out of stock entirely. On the website of Medisave - which sells medical supplies in the UK - all masks are out of stock.

At Boot's pharmacist, 'Safe & Sound' surgical masks which were sold out last month continue to be unavailable.

The listing simply says 'stock coming soon' and there are no available alternatives.

At Screwfix, dust masks are still being sold but a message warns customers that there is a limit on the numbers they can purchase.

It reads: 'Due to unprecedented global demand, orders containing more than 5 units of any mask will be reduced to 5 at the point of collection.'
German tourists, including two German doctors, have complained about the conditions at the Tenerife hotel. The situation was said to be tense.

The tourists also sent a letter to Germany's Foreign Office and requested the authorities to evacuate the quarantined guests.

Hundreds of people were confined to the Tenerife hotel Tuesday after an Italian tourist was hospitalised and diagnosed with the coronavirus. Fourteen LuxairTours customers are quarantined at the hotel, the tour operator announced in a press conference earlier this week. Four Luxembourg nationals are among the guests. The tourists criticised that hygiene standards were poor at the hotel. Local authorities reportedly merely carried out tests for temperature and several guests have stopped taking precautionary measures seriously.

Luxembourger describes the situation at the hotel

A Luxembourger who is among the guests that were quarantined at the hotel took the situation calmly. In a phone call with RTL, Lucien Spellini explained that the guests were laying at the pool without face masks because they would not be able to get a tan otherwise. He also explained that free drinks were offered at the hotel. A key problem for Spellini himself is that he is required to take medication, which is difficult to obtain under quarantine.

Guests who have not displayed any symptoms have been allowed to leave the hotel building since Thursday to lay at the pool and eat together. They are, however, not authorised to leave the confines of the hotel resort.

According to the German doctors, the situation was tense and psychological support a must. They called on the German government to evacuate the tourists. This is easier said than done - the final decision lies with the Spanish authorities, who agreed on a mandatory 14-day quarantine period.

130 out of approximately 700 hotel guests were allowed to leave the confines of the hotel resort, German media reported. These tourists had only arrived after 24 February and therefore did not have any contact with the infected guests. The latter are currently at a hospital in Tenerife.
Good performance with Normalised PBT of 11.3m, in accordance with market Outlook

Sales for 2019: 448.2m, up 29.5% from 2018 and 4.0% from 2018 Proforma

2019 Net margin: 41.1m, up 12.1m on 2018 and up 0.1m on 2018 Proforma

2019 Normalised profit before tax (PBT): 11.3m compared to 7.2m in 2018 and 10.8m for 2018 Proforma

Sales and profitability in Q4 in line with 2018, impacted by low availability of cod from Iceland and lower price of Argentinian shrimp. Q4 benefited from strong Christmas sales in N-Europe.

Basic earnings per share (EPS) for 2019 were 0.2550 cents per thousand shares (2018: 0.2926 cents per thousand shares). On normalised basis earnings per share for 2019 were 0.3763 cents per thousand shares (2018: 0.3571 cents per thousand shares).

Equity ratio: 38.4% at end of period, increased from 30.6% at year end 2018

Successful main market listing and share capital increase of 15.2m completed in October

The acquisition of Elba completed on February 21st 2020.

Bjarni Armannsson, CEO

We are pleased with the financial results for 2019 and consider them satisfactory as they were according to our budget and within the range that was communicated to the market in March 2019.

Strategically we have also advanced significantly, and we have reached the targets we set us for the year as well.

Close cooperation with suppliers is very important to us and we see benefits from closer cooperation in the 2019 results. We believe that we can add value  especially long term  with strategic co-operation with our suppliers. That is one of the main proposition which we have in the market and towards our customers: Strong supply chain, quality products and reliability.

Main market listing was a target we announced in December 2018 and reiterated in March 2019. That we achieved in October last year along with fresh capital. This both strengthens the balance sheet, which is important, but more importantly supports us in our growth phase, primarily with investments that we believe will deliver returns greater than the cost of capital. We are both humble and appreciative to our investors for believing in us.

Story continues

Now we have also reached our financial strength targets and on those grounds propose dividend payment to the annual meeting of Iceland Seafood to take place on the 19th of March. We hope the shareholders can attend the meeting to review and discuss the companys performance and future outlook.

Our most important market segment is S-Europe and last year was very much about preparing to move all production in one place  in Barcelona and make the necessary preparation for a consolidated company Iceland Seafood Iberica. That company started formally on January 1st and we are confident that from now on well start to see the synergies and benefits of a combined entity coming through. The acquisition of Elba further strengthens our position and we are proud of our long term Salted cod heritage as well as the product development of light salted cod during the last quarter of a century and now being able to intertwine other species into our strong sales and distribution network in Spain and elsewhere in S-Europe.

2019 was marked by high one-off costs. Because of the merger in Spain, changes in top management and Main market listing in particular. In the long run we believe we are creating a bigger and stronger company that has more relevance for the future and can make strong returns based on its position and quality products and service.

Our strong belief in the future is also further cemented in our outlook for the year, but we plan to increase Normalised profits before tax by 28-46% year on year.

Finally; Im extremely proud of the people who work for Iceland Seafood and are captains of our brand and identity every day. They make it all happen.

Good financial results for the year

Sales of 448.2m were 29.5% higher than 2018 and 4.0% up on 2018 Proforma. Normalised PBT for the year of 11.3m was close to the mid-point of the market outlook range, and 4.1m up on 2018. On Proforma basis Normalised PBT was 0.5m up on prior year. For Q4 2019, sales and profitability was similar to 2018 figures. The Q4 results were impacted by low availability of cod from Iceland and lower prices of Argentinian shrimp, but benefited from strong Christmas sales in N-Europe. New retail accounts in UK, which kicked off in the second half of the year, also helped the performance in Q4.

Encouraging results from the Value-added S-Europe division in the year. The demand for lightly salted products from Iceland was strong throughout the year which helped the overall divisional margins, whilst low availability of Icelandic Cod late summer and autumn impacted sales in the 2H of the year. Sales of Argentinean shrimp decreased by 18% from prior year, due to both price decreases and lower volumes. Total divisional sales of 179.4m were 79.3m up on last year but in line with 2018 Proforma. The merger project in Spain is on track, where some of the cost reductions started to come through in the 2H of the year. The lightly salted cod production has been moved to a single location from February 2020 which is a big step in the overall synergy creation.

The Value-added N-Europe division saw a strong recovery in the second half of the year after a challenging 1H due to external challenges. Overall divisional sales for the year of 96.6m were 7% down on prior year Proforma and Normalised PBT of 4.1m was 1.1m down. UK sales were impacted by Brexit uncertainties and retailers trending to move packing from UK to Asia. The business responded to these trends and secured significant business with key retail customers which started to come through in September and December respectively. These new accounts and good Christmas sales in both UK and Ireland helped the sales and profitability in Q4, resulting in divisional Normalised PBT for the 2H of 2.5m which was just 6% down on same period 2018.

Excellent sales and profit growth in the S&D division, driven by closer cooperation with key producers in Iceland. Sales from Iceland grew by 12.0m from 2018, where increased sales of Frozen at See products were the main driver. The overall divisional sales in the year of 194.0m were 6% higher than 2018. This resulted in Normalised PBT of 1.9m for the year, 0.7m up on 2018. The profitability in Q4 was 0.2m up on same period 2018 due to improved results of both Iceland and Germany.

The overall net profits were marked by significant one-off costs in the year of 3.6m. These costs were mainly related to; management changes both at HO level and in Spain, the merger of IS Spain and Icelandic Iberica and the associated restructuring costs, the cost of main market listing and share capital increase. These costs were unusually high in 2019 and we dont expect significant one-off costs in 2020. After including the one off costs and taxes the net profit of 6.1m was 1.4m higher than 2018 but 1.4m lower than 2018 Proforma.

At end of the year total assets amounted to 209.5m, compared to 193.8m at end of 2018. The increase in assets is mainly explained by; investments in fixed assets mainly in Ireland, UK and Argentina, impact of IFRS 16 lease accounting, higher cash headroom in Spain. The equity ratio at year end was 38.4% compared to 30.6% at end of 2018. The company has reached the target equity ratio of 35%, the board will be proposing a dividend payment of 1.5m at the next Annual General Meeting.

As previously announced the Group targets a PBT of 20m in the next 3-5 years. Significant steps in that direction are expected to be taken this year, with an estimated Normalised PBT of 14.5-16.5m in the year, without impact of Elba acquisition. This increase will be driven by synergies from merger in Spain and payback from various investments in the Value-added divisions.

Investor meeting

On February 26th at 8.30 am, Iceland Seafood International hf will host a meeting for market participants and investors, where management will present and discuss the 2019 results. The meeting will be held at the Companys premises at Kollunarklettsvegur 2 in Reykjavik. The meeting will be also be webcasted live on https://livestream.com/accounts/11153656/events/9006102/player ? and recording will be available after the meeting on www.Icelandseafood.com/investors

Disclaimer

This announcement is furnished and intended for European market participants and should be viewed in that light.

Any potential forward looking statements contained in this announcement reflect the management's current views on future events and performance, whilst those views are based on positions that management believes are reasonable, there is no assurances that the stated events and views will be realized. Forward looking views naturally involve uncertainties and risks and consequently actual results may differ from the statements or views expressed.

For more information:

Iceland Seafood International hf.

http://www.icelandseafood.com/Investors

Bjarni Armannsson, Bjarni.armannsson@icelandseafood.com

Attachments
Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkva met with Director of the Office of the President of the Republic of Estonia Tiit Riisalo, during which they discussed preparations for the Second Digital Forum, the presidents press service has reported.

"The interlocutors commended the dynamics of a bilateral political dialogue and discussed preparations for high-level events for the near future," the statement reads.

Riisalo reaffirmed the invariability of Estonias position on supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and providing expert assistance in implementing important internal reforms in the state.

Zhovkva thanked Estonia for its continued political support for Ukraine, in particular taking into account its non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council for 2020-2021.

"Particular attention during the meeting was paid to the discussion of preparation and content of the Second Digital Forum of Ukraine and Estonia, which will be held in Kyiv this year," the report notes.

ish
New Delhi: A labourer who had migrated from Bihar, a garage owner, and a driver and his younger brother were among the 38 people who lost their lives as armed mobs ran amok in the streets of northeast Delhi.

Aamir, 25, who worked as a driver, and his brother Hashim, 16, set out from Ghaziabad on Wednesday to check on their elder brother Shairuddin in Gokalpuri, one of the focal points of the violence.

The two never reached Shairuddin's place.

"Shairuddin tried to convince them not to come, but they said they will use bylanes to avoid the mobs. That was last conversation between Aamir and his brother," Akram, a friend of Shairuddin, said.

After Aamir and Hashim did not make it to Shairuddin's place till 10 pm, their family members began calling them only to find that their mobile phones were unreachable, he said.

A missing complaint was lodged on Thursday.

At the police station, the family's worst fears came true as a lady officer told them that she had seen the bodies of the two brothers at the Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) Hospital mortuary.

"The family rushed to the hospital and identified their bodies. They were told that the bodies were pulled out of a drain between Ganga Vihar and Gokalpuri," Akram said.

Deepak Kumar, 34, a native of Bihar's Ara district who worked in a manufacturing unit in Gokalpuri, was trapped in the violence and shot dead by rioters on Tuesday.

His brother Ajay said he was shot multiple times in the head.

Mubarak Hussain, 31, a tile unit worker who lived in Vijay Park area was also shot dead on Tuesday afternoon in Maujpur, which was among the areas worst-hit by the violence.

Akbari, 85, died due to asphyxiation after her house at Gamri village near Khajuri Khas was allegedly set on fire on Monday.

On Thursday, her family took her body home to Meerut.

Parvez Alam, 50, a garage owner, from Ghonda was shot in his back while he was trying to pacify an irate mob.

His 20-year-old son Mohammed Sahil and nephew rushed him to hospital on a motorcycle. They put a tilak on their foreheads to escape the angry crowd on the way.

Alam died during treatment at the hospital.

Rahul Solanki, 26, who was pursuing his LLB from a private college in Ghaziabad, was shot in his right shoulder on Monday when he had stepped out to buy milk.

On Wednesday, his father requested security personnel to give them protection so that the family could conduct his last rites peacefully.

Muddasir Khan, 35 was shot outside his house in Kardampuri on Monday.

He sustained a bullet injury on his head and was declared brought dead by doctors at GTB Hospital.

Most of those who were killed suffered gunshot injuries and were brought to the GTB Hospital.

Also among the dead are Delhi Police Head Constable Rattan Lal, 42, Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma, 26, Mohammad Faizan, Suleman, 22, Mohammad Zakir, Mohammad Musharaff, 33, Ashfaq Hussain, 22, Vinod Kumar, 45, Vir Bhan, 50, Mohammad Furqan, Rahul Thakur, 23, Mohsin Ali, 24, Aman, 17, Bir Bhan Singh, 50, Pravesh, 48, Marrof Ali and Aman, 18.

Many are yet to be identified.
Foreign secretary Harsh Shringla on Friday made Afghanistan the first stop on a planned tour of the neighbourhood, meeting top leaders in Kabul for talks a day ahead of the inking of a deal by the US and the Taliban that will lead to a drawdown of American troops.

On his first foreign visit since he assumed office last month, Shringla met Afghan National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib and acting foreign minister Haroon Chakhansuri, and discussed political and security issues, including the peace process. He is also expected to meet President Ashraf Ghani.

India has been keeping a close eye on developments related to the US-Taliban deal, expected to be signed in Doha on February 29, especially because of the terror groups close links with Pakistan.

Shringlas discussions in Kabul focussed on the deal and protecting Indian interests in Afghanistan and the region, said a person familiar with developments who declined to be named. He also reiterated Indias commitment to stand with Afghanistan as it pursues sustainable peace and reconciliation.

The US-Taliban deal, expected to reduce the number of American troops in Afghanistan from 13,000 to 8,600 over the next few months, figured in talks earlier this week between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During the talks, the US president is understood to have said that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had sought mediation by the US during all their meetings, but Trump had shown no inclination to do so. Khans requests, people familiar with the discussions said, had become a nuisance at the personal level but it was necessary for the US to deal with him to achieve its objectives in Afghanistan.

The Indian side has drawn comfort from the US assertion that it didnt see Pakistan as a trusted friend, the people cited above added.

The people said the Indian side conveyed to US interlocutors it understood Pakistans cooperation is crucial for the deal with the Taliban but this shouldnt lead to any easing of the pressure on Islamabad to crack down on terror groups based on its soil.

During talks on counter-terrorism, we discussed the need for the US to keep up pressure on Pakistan. The US needs to verify and keep a close eye on things so that Pakistan continues to be on the straight and narrow, said a second person who too spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Indian side also highlighted the need for keeping up pressure on Pakistan at forums such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the second person said.

During the Trump-Modi talks, the Indian side also highlighted the importance of intra-Afghan talks and an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-controlled process in finding a final solution.

The troop drawdown shouldnt be too precipitate and the US should keep in mind that we shouldnt lose the gains of the past 19 years in terms of the Afghan Constitution, rights of women and minorities, and the Afghan National Defence Forces, the second person said.

The second person added the US has indicated it is retaining a strong deterrent capability in Afghanistan so that any violations of the deal can be dealt with with a heavy stick.

The Qatar government has invited India to the ceremony where the US-Taliban deal will be signed on Saturday, and the country will be represented by the ambassador in Doha, P Kumaran. This will be the first time in recent decades that an Indian official will be present at an event involving Taliban delegates.

Anwesha Ghosh, a research fellow at the Indian Council of World Affairs, said: With the impending reduction of US forces [in Afghanistan], the question is whether Indias present and future contributions will be under some threat.

She added, It is imperative that India reviews all options in Afghanistan and formulates policies that remain compatible with the changing realities of the strife-torn country.

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California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a press conference Thursday that at least 8,400 people are being monitored for new coronavirus in the state.

The news comes a day after the Centers for Disease Control announced what's being called the first American case of unknown origin. That Solano County resident is being treated at UC Davis Medical Center near Sacramento.

State and federal health officials are trying to locate everyone who came in contact with the Northern California woman. She had no known connection to individuals who traveled abroad or other known causes.

The woman lives in Solano County, home to Travis Air Force Base, where dozens of people infected in China or on cruise ships have been treated. But Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health, said there was no evidence the woman had any connection to the base.

"We are not overreacting, but we are not underreacting," Newsom said. "Yesterday's case generated a lot of attention, but we all knew this was inevitable."

Newsom declined comment when asked by reporters to name the community in Solano County where the woman is from. He urged people to take precautions while emphasizing that the risks to public health are low. He said there was no need to declare a public health emergency.

Everybody in this country is rightfully anxious about this moment, Newsom said. I think they should know we are meeting this moment with the kind of urgency that is necessary and I dont want to over extend the anxiety.

Newsom said a total of 33 people in California have tested positive for the virus and five of those were moved out of the state.

Newsom said the state has only received about 200 testing kits for the virus, an amount he called simply inadequate. But he said federal officials have promised him the state will get many more soon.

Newsom said the state is collaborating with the Trump administration and noted that many flights with American evacuees from China have been taken in and cared for at Travis AFB as well as other bases in the state.

Watch the press conference here.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Amy Graff is a digital editor at SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.

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The five men who were gunned down by a co-worker in a mass shooting at Milwaukee's Molson Coors brewery have now been identified.

Authorities named the victims of Wednesday's tragedy as Jesus Valle Jr., 33; Gennady Levshetz, 61; Trevor Wetselaar, 33; Dana Walk, 57; and Dale Hudson, 60.

The gunman, 51-year-old Anthony Ferrill, was also identified Thursday. He was an electrician at Molson Coors and sources allege he was involved in a dispute with one of his victims in the days before his rampage.

Police say the case is still under investigation, and they have yet to release details about how the shooting unfolded.

However, heartbreaking stories about the five victims have begun to emerge in online death notices and social media pages.

Gennady Levshetz, 61, of Mequon, has been named as one of the five victims of Wednesday's mass shooting. He is survived by his wife, two children and two grandchildren

Gennady Levshetz, 61, of Mequon, is survived by his wife, two children and two grandchildren.

An online death notice states that Levshetz would be remembered as a 'kind, caring, and giving person who always put his family's needs before his own.' His funeral is scheduled for March 1.

Levshetz's neighbor, Martha Siegman, told the Associated Press that he was quiet and peaceful, and someone who would wave every time he left the driveway.

Siegman said Levshetz was also particular about his yard and loved to run his lawnmower. She said she called him 'Grandpa.'

Levshetz, who has been described as quiet and peaceful, is pictured in a recent social media snap

Dana Walk, 57, has also been identified as one of Ferrill's five victims

Dana Walk, 57, has also been identified as one of Ferrill's five victims.

The avid fisherman and Green Bay Packers fan hailed from Delafield.

A death notice states that he loved spending time with his family at a nearby lake, and his Facebook page contains numerous pictures of him out fishing.

Walk is survived by his wife of 35 years, as well as a son and two daughters.

'He was always listening to his music while working on his hobbies, home projects and anything he could do to help others,' his death notice said.

A funeral Mass will be held Friday in Pewaukee.

Trevor Wetselaar, 33, worked as an engine room operator with Molson Coors

Jesus Valle Jr. (left) and Dale Hudson (right) were among the victims

Jesus Valle Jr., 33, was Ferrill's fifth victim. He leaves behind a wife and two small children

Another victim, 33-year-old Trevor Wetselaar worked as an engine room operator with Molson Coors.

Before that he was a nuclear reactor operator with the U.S. Navy. He was a submarine qualified leading petty officer of a reactor control division on board a U.S. Navy submarine.

Meanwhile, victim Dale Hudson, 60, had been an electrician at Molson Coors since 2008, according to his LinkedIn page.

His Facebook profile said he is married, and lists that he attended Elkhorn Area High School. His Facebook page also lists several hunting photos.

Jesus Valle Jr., 33, was Ferrill's fifth victim.

He leaves behind a wife and two small children.

The Molson Coors facility is seen Thursday morning. Anthony Ferrill opened fire at the historic Molson Coors facility and shot and killed five co-workers Wednesday afternoon and then turned the gun on himself

Ferrill had been an electrician for 20 years after being honorably discharged from the U.S. Coast Guard where he served from 1987 to 1991. He lived in a three bedroom home with his wife and three children

After killing the five men, Ferrill turned the gun on himself.

He had worked as an electrician at the company for 17 years, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on Thursday.

A co-worker, who asked not to be named, told the outlet that Ferrill had been involved in a long-running dispute with one of the victims prior to the shooting.

Ferrill believed he was being discriminated against because he was black, the co-worker said.

The victim Ferrill had the ongoing dispute with had taken issue with the gunman frequently watching films on his phone during the workday.

Both Ferrill and that victim had also accused one another of stealing tools or tampering with their computer equipment.

Ferrill had been an electrician for 20 years after being honorably discharged from the U.S. Coast Guard where he served from 1987 to 1991.

Police were searching the three bedroom home where he lived with his wife and children on Thursday.

Several Police agency tactical teams are pictured working together in the aftermath of the mass shooting

The suspect's neighbor, Erna Roenspies, 82, cried as she stood at her front door, looking at the police tape around her neighbor's home.

'He was like a son to me,' Roenspies said as she wiped her eyes. 'I don't know what triggered this. Let's pray for everyone.'

She said the gunman was a good husband and father and helped his neighbor by doing odd jobs and repairs.

'He would come over and fix anything,' Roenspies said. 'This is unreal.'
NORWALK  The city is monitoring the spread of coronavirus as the cases continue to spread worldwide.

I want to assure the public that we are monitoring the coronavirus closely and taking the matter seriously, said Mayor Harry Rilling in a public statement. Although there are no confirmed cases in our area, we should all take necessary precautions.

Rilling urged residents to prevent the spread of germs by washing their hands regularly, covering their mouths while coughing or sneezing, staying home if they feel sick and calling their health care provider if they feel flu-like symptoms.

I am in frequent contact with the experts at the Norwalk Health Department and Norwalk Department of Emergency Management, Rilling added. We are meeting regularly and are receiving updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the State of Connecticut Department of Public Health. We all must be cognizant that there will be disinformation and rumors circulating online.

The city also launched a page on their website about coronavirus Thursday afternoon. Community health centers are also watcing the situation closely.

Although none of our pateints have presented with symptoms or been diagnosed, we are prepared, said Maureen Ferguson, Norwalk Community Health Centers Care Coordination RN. Our Health Centers Travel/Symptom screens are in place. Staff has received new CoronaVirus education, our clinical staff has completed personal protective equipment competency. We are following CDC recommended infection control procedures. Everyone is engaged in and ready to respond to a potentially emerging public health threat.

On Friday, the World Health Organization reported there are 4,351 reported cases of coronavirus outside of China in 49 countries. The risk of spreading and impact is now classified as very high. There have been 67 deaths outside China, however the risk od death depends on age, health and where the patient lives.

WHO reports that work is being done on vaccines and therapeutics for the virus. In the meantime, officials recommend washing hands regularly, cleaning surfaces regularly, staying home in case of illness and contacting health care professionals to help prevent the spread of disease.

erin.kayata@hearstmediact.com
Freeman Dyson, a visionary physicist and technophile who helped crack the secrets of the subatomic world, tried to build a spaceship that could carry humans across the solar system, worked to dismantle nuclear arsenals and wrote elegantly about science and human destiny, died Feb. 28 at a hospital near his home in Princeton, New Jersey. He was 96.

The cause was complications from a fall, said a son, George Dyson.

Dyson, born in England between the world wars, spent most of his professional life as a kind of genius-in-residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, overlapping in his early years with Albert Einstein.

In a career spent traversing fields as diverse as physics, biology, astronomy, nuclear energy, arms control, space travel and science ethics, Dyson was always obliging when a journalist called him for a grabby quote about the trajectory of humanity. His ideas were reliably unorthodox; the Pulitzer Prize-winning classical composer Paul Moravec once called him "the world's most civil heretic."

Of all his notions, his most famous was that alien civilizations, seeking to maximize their supply of energy, would build elaborate megastructures around their parent stars to capture much of the solar radiation. Astronomers periodically see something that they speculate might be one of these "spheres" - although Dyson freely admitted he lifted the idea from science-fiction writer Olaf Stapledon.

Long before he became an oracle, he labored in the trenches of mathematics and physics. He succeeded in the late 1940s in developing an early landmark synthesis of the latest thinking in the theory known as quantum electrodynamics. His resulting paper, "The Radiation Theories of Tomonaga, Schwinger and Feynman," was regarded as an instant classic and gave Dyson lifelong credibility in the sciences even as he went on to tackle more speculative interests.

That included the interplanetary spaceship. Project Orion, initiated in the late 1950s, was an effort to design a spacecraft powered by nuclear explosions, rather than traditional fuels, and capable of carrying people throughout the solar system.

A one-meter tall model seemed to work fine, and the Orion team decided they could send humans to Mars by 1968 and to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn two years later. But the government was not keen on nuclear bombs as a form of propulsion and the project, taken over by the Air Force, was eventually terminated.

He contributed to the design of what became known as neutron bombs, work he later regretted bitterly, to the point of describing an article he had authored on tactical nuclear warfare as "a desperate attempt to salvage an untenable position with spurious emotional claptrap." He became an advocate for arms control, and served as outside counsel to decision-makers in Washington.

At age 45, Dyson told The Washington Post in 2014, he had a midlife crisis, because he was surrounded by "all these bright kids down the hall who are writing papers faster than you can read them." He decided to do science as a hobby and become more of a sage, writing books and magazine articles on science, technology and the future. He often contributed to the New Yorker and, later, the New York Review of Books.

His primary job, it seemed, was to think big thoughts - such as this one, from his 1988 book "Infinite In All Directions":

"As a working hypothesis to explain the riddle of our existence, I propose that our universe is the most interesting of all possible universes, and our fate as human beings is to make it so."

- - -

Freeman John Dyson was born in Crowthorne, England, on Dec. 15, 1923, the son of George Dyson, a composer who was later knighted, and the former Mildred Atkey, a lawyer.

The England of his childhood and teenage years was bleak, ravaged by war and pessimistic about its future.

"Things were really black at that time," he told The Post in 2014. "We had Hitler coming along. We had horrible memories of World War I. My childhood was so dominated by this disaster of World War I and we saw World War II coming, and it was almost certainly going to be worse. And of course there was this economic depression and England was tremendously polluted. Every evening my shirt collar was black."

Small of stature, almost elfin, he endured bullying at his English boarding school, but found escape in science fiction, including the works of Stapledon, H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. Poring over an Encyclopaedia Britannica entry, he taught himself calculus by the time he was 15, knowledge that served him well in World War II when he became an analyst for the Royal Air Force Bomber Command.

To his dismay, he calculated that experienced bomber crews had no better chance of surviving a mission over Germany than inexperienced ones, and he saw the futility of loading bomber crews with tail gunners who rarely had anything to shoot at and merely increased the number of British casualties. But in his 1979 memoir, "Disturbing the Universe," he rued his youthful timidity and conformism, and consequent failure to take action to change policies.

Dyson received direct evidence that technology had "made evil anonymous," as the bombers dropped incendiary explosives that ignited firestorms, destroying whole cities. He wondered later "how it happened that I let myself become involved in this crazy game of murder."

"I sat in my office until the end," he wrote, "carefully calculating how to murder another hundred thousand people most economically. After the war ended, I read reports of the trials of men who had been high up in the Eichmann organization. They had sat in their offices writing memoranda and calculating how to murder people efficiently, just like me. The main difference was that they were sent to jail or hanged as war criminals and I went free." (Adolf Eichmann was a key architect of the Nazi Holocaust.)

In 1947, Dyson journeyed to the United States to study as a graduate student at Cornell University, doing research under the physicist and future Nobel laureate Hans Bethe. He took a cross-country trip by car with a young, brilliant scientist named Richard Feynman. During this period he spoke to, collaborated with or attended lectures by many other leading scientists, including Edward Teller, Julian Schwinger and J. Robert Oppenheimer.

These were people who had built atomic bombs while simultaneously probing the secrets of the atom. Dyson had a knack for engaging them in long conversations, sometimes over weeks or months. One day in September 1948, while riding on a Greyhound bus across the plains of Nebraska and spending his vacation deep in thought about the various theories he had been busily absorbing, he had a revelation about how he could combine some of the ideas.

He arrived in Princeton and took up a position, working under Oppenheimer, at the Institute for Advanced Study, where Einstein had been spending his years in exile in vain pursuit of a grand unified theory. The first thing Dyson did was write down the conclusions he had reached on his cross-country bus ride, and those concepts evolved into his paper on quantum electrodynamics.

A raging intellectual battle took place amid Oppenheimer's seminars regarding Dyson's brainstorm. Until one day, he wrote, "I found in my mailbox Oppenheimer's formal note of surrender, a small piece of paper with the words 'Nolo contendere. R.O.' scrawled on it in his handwriting."

- - -

In the 1960s, Dyson changed his mind about atomic bombs. He had been opposed to a ban on atomic testing and had earned a reputation as a military hardliner - a status that gave him credibility with conservatives in Congress when he later became a peacenik. His conversion came in part from a simple exercise in calculation: He looked at all the atomic explosions starting in 1945 and, to his horror, saw them increasing in number exponentially.

In 1960, he was elected to the council of the American Federation of Scientists, a leading voice for disarmament; he became chairman in 1962 and wrote often for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. In 1962, he also went to work for a new government department called the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency; he later testified in Senate hearings that led to the ratification of a treaty banning atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons. His book on the subject of nuclear war, "Weapons and Hope," won a National Book Critics Circle Award in 1984.

The same innovations that made atomic bombs and long-range missiles could potentially open space to human exploration, and Mr. Dyson believed that humans would find their destiny in the stars.

He believed that genetic engineering would make it easier.

"Probably we'll be a million species before long," he said in a 1998 interview. "For example, if you want to run around naked on Mars you'd need a thick skin. I can imagine our descendants on Mars will be more like polar bears."

He was a full-throated humanist without being fully secular. In "Infinite In All Directions," he sought to reconcile science and religion, or at least create space for them to work congenially in their own orbits. That attitude propelled him to the 2000 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.

Dyson said he was raised in a conventional Christian environment and did not reject that, although as a scientist he could not embrace dogma. Scientists insist that all propositions remain open to doubt and refinement.

"I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension," he wrote.

His technophilia may explain his apostasy on global warming. In the early 2000s, he drew furious criticism from other scientists and environmentalists for his views on climate change. Although he did not deny that the Earth was warming - he was not a global warming denier in the strictest sense - he thought that the environmental movement had overstated the threats to the planet.

"I just don't see any evidence that global warming is particularly dangerous," he said.

That view is not shared by the overwhelming majority of scientists. Dyson's fringe position reflected a deeper philosophy: That change is coming, inevitably, and we should embrace it and not fear it. His scenarios for the future always involved a completely different sort of human existence.

In Dyson's expansive cosmos, our destiny is to spread intelligence everywhere.

"The universe is like a fertile soil spread out all around us, ready for the seeds of mind to sprout and grow," he wrote. "Ultimately, late or soon, mind will come into its heritage."

Dyson's first marriage, to mathematician Verena Huber, ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife since 1958, the former Imme Jung of Princeton; two children from his first marriage; George Dyson of Bellingham, Washington; and Esther Dyson of Manhattan; four daughters from his second marriage, Dorothy Dyson of Redding, California; Emily Dyson-Scott of La Jolla, California; Miriam "Mia" Dyson of Freeport, Maine; and Rebecca Dyson of Ashland, Ore.; and 16 grandchildren.

In some ways my lifetime has been amazingly quiet and stable. My mother lived through much bigger changes, Dyson told The Post. She started her life riding around in a pony cart and finished up flying in jet planes. I havent had any changes as big as that.
A warning sign at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) medical center in San Francisco, California on January 28.

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

A Diamond Princess cruise ship passenger who tested positive for the coronavirus disease is being treated at a San Francisco hospital.

He said he feels perfectly fine and isn't experiencing any of the typical symptoms of the virus.

He eats three meals a day, he exercises, reads on his Kindle, and keeps up with the news.

The patient is one of the hundreds who contracted the virus while onboard the ship and was initially quarantined at Travis Air Force Base 50 miles outside of San Francisco before being transferred to the city.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

An evacuee from the Diamond Princess cruise ship has tested positive for the coronavirus disease, known as COVID-19, and is being treated in a San Francisco hospital.

But the patient, 62-year-old Rick Wright, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he feels perfectly fine.

The Redwood City resident spoke with the Chronicle's Mallory Moench by phone about his experience aboard the Diamond Princess and his time quarantined at first the Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, about 50 miles to the northeast of San Francisco, and now at UCSF. His wife remains quarantined at the base.

"My wife and I, we remain positive and we're not bitching and moaning, we're accepting it and we have got to get through it, that's how we approach it," Wright told the Chronicle. "We're survivalists. We're fine."

Wright said he hasn't experienced the typical symptoms of the virus, such as fever, coughing, or shortness of breath. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said these symptoms usually appear within two to 14 days after exposure to the virus. Wright stays in his hospital room at a UCSF campus and receives three good meals a day. He occupies his time with exercising, reading, keeping up with the news, and staying in constant contact with his family, including his wife with whom he FaceTimes.

Story continues

Wright is one of the hundreds of evacuated Diamond Princess passengers who contracted the coronavirus while onboard the ship in Japan.

diamond princess cruise ship coronavirus

Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

Three days after a man who had exited the ship tested positive for the coronavirus on February 1, Japanese officials locked down the ship. Shortly after, 10 people on board tested positive as well. The entire boat and its 3,711 crew members and guests were then placed under a 14-day quarantine. Passengers were confined to their rooms mostly.

Health experts criticized the decision to keep people quarantined on the ship.

diamond princess disinfection coronavirus

The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images

"From a virologist's perspective, a cruise ship with a large number of persons on board is more an incubator for viruses rather than a good place for quarantine," Anne Gatignol, a microbiologist who studies viruses at McGill University, told the Montreal Gazette.

Japanese officials just admitted that the quarantine was "flawed," and may have allowed the spread of infections to more passengers and crew members.

By the time passengers left the ship, headed for an additional 14-day quarantine on land, 691 people were infected with the coronavirus.

travis air force base

Hector Amezcua/AP Photo

Source: Business Insider

Some of the infected evacuees were taken to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Others, like Wright and his wife, were taken to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California.

travis air force base

Hector Amezcua/AP Photo

Source: The San Francisco Chronicle

Two days after the couple arrived on the base on February 17, CDC staffers donned in hazmat suits told Wright that he had tested positive and was to be transferred to one of the city's UCSF hospital campuses.

travis air force base

Nicholas Pilch/U.S. Air Force via AP

"I was never anticipating anybody coming to my door to say I'm positive," Wright told the Chronicle. "The news came, we cried a little bit, and then I got a little upset. I was more upset at leaving her alone."

He was strapped to a gurney and transferred via ambulance.

Wright told the Chronicle that he has undergone more tests since the positive reading that landed him in the local hospital. He tested negative for one on February 20, then positive for one on February 21. He took two more on Sunday and Monday and depending on those results, he may be able to transition to a home quarantine, something that some 8,400 Californians are doing as the virus continues to spread.

Read the original article on Business Insider
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Here are some stocks that are in the news today:

Power Grid: Board to consider interim dividend on March 6.

DIC India: Company to sell Mumbai Land for Rs 150 crore to Godrej Properties.

Pidilite Industries: Company to buy a 70 percent stake in Tenax India for Rs 80 crore.

KRBL: Announced interim dividend of Rs 2.80.

Jubilant Food: Declared an interim dividend of Rs 6.

Lincoln Pharma: Approved and announced an interim dividend of Rs 1.50.

Dhanlaxmi Bank: Sunil Gurbaxani takes charge as MD & CEO of the bank with immediate effect.

RITES: Government to exercise oversubscription option in OFS, to sell 39 lakh more shares via OFS.

Bank of Baroda: The lender will sell the entire Petronet MHB stake for Rs 52.5 crore.

Canara Bank: Bank executed a share purchase agreement for the sale of the entire equity stake of 3.25 percent in Petronet MHB.

Godrej Properties adds a new project in Mumbai

HPCL: Company to buy 17.28 percent stake in Petronet MHB for Rs 185 crore from 8 nationalised banks.

ONGC: Company to buy 17.28 percent equity in Petronet MHB for about Rs 185 crore, to hold 49.99 percent stake in Petronet MHB post additional stake buy.

JSW Steel: Promoter released a pledge on 87.05 lakh shares (0.36 percent equity) on February 25.

GTPL Hathway: Promoter Jio Content to sell 43 lakh shares via OFS. Floor price for OFS set at Rs 63. OFS for non-retail investors to open on Feb 28 while OFS for retail investors to open on March 2.

lnduslnd Bank - RBI approves appointment of Sumant Kathpalia as MD & CEO for 3 years w.e.f March 24

Vedanta announces interim dividend of Rs 3.9 per share for FY19-20

Aviation stocks: ICRA retains a negative outlook on the India aviation sector due to coronavirus - CNBC-TV18

- AudioCodes Selected by HFCL for Major Indian Government Telecom Network

Company signed a Share Subscription and Purchase Agreement to acquire up to 47.87% of the paid-up equity share capital of BIGCAT

Wipro opens new designit studio in Dallas to expand reach of design innovation

Hero MotoCorp furtehr strengthens BS-VI lineup with the launch of new Super Splendor

Dhanlaxmi Bank - Sunil Gurbaxani has taken charge as Managing Director & CEO of the bank w.e.f February 27, 2020

Max Financial board meeting on March 3 to consider issuance of equity shares of the company, on a preferential basis to Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company Limited

Newgen Software - Development Commissioner of Noida Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has given approval for setting up a unit in the IT/ITES SEZ at Sector- 135, Noida in the State of Uttar Pradesh

Lemon Tree opens second international hotel, and the first hotel in Bhutanunder the company's brand 'Lemon Tree Hotel'

Suzlon Energy board approved the companys proposal for restructuring of debt of the company

Den Network - ICRA revised fund based - working capital facilities ratings to ICRA AA- & placed watch with developing implication from ICRA AA- / Stable

Motherson Sumi - S&P has re-affirmed long term credit at BB+ and revised outlook to Negative for Samvardhana Motherson Automotive Systems Group B.V, a subsidiary of the company

Petronet LNG signed non-binding MoU with Tellurian Inc

Mahindra Lifespaces executed a sale deed for acquisition of a land parcel at village Tathavade, district Pune

Allahabad Bank has executed a share purchase agreement for sale of its entire equity stake of 3.26% in Petronet MHB

Bulk deals
A man is dead and another is facing charges after a violent crash Thursday night along the East Freeway.

Sean Nelson was riding with another man in a Dodge pickup that was hauling a trailer in the eastbound lanes of the freeway when the two stopped on the left shoulder to clamp down their cargo shortly after 10 p.m., according to the Harris County Sheriffs Office. Nelson was standing on the right side of the trailer as cars whizzed by, authorities said.
In an interview with CEOCFO Magazine, VOIP-PAL CEO and Director Emil Malak discusses why we are looking at a Global Pandemic

WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESSWIRE / February 27, 2020 / CEOCFO Magazine, an independent investment publication that highlights important technologies and companies, today announced an interview (https://www.ceocfointerviews.com/voippal0220.html) with Emil Malak, founder of Voip-Pal (VPLM), a Vancouver, B.C.-based company inventers and pioneers of the switching technology now being used by many of the world's largest telecommunication and social networking companies, without which they could not connect Landline phone calls to Internet phone calls.







Mr. Malak is also a restaurant owner, which is part of an industry greatly affected by the coronavirus and its possible spread. As Malak explained in the interview, "Researchers need to carefully study and analyze if the virus is being exported from China, Japan or other places, or if it has established itself into homegrown transmission. What I mean by homegrown is that someone in the U.S. contracted it from an overseas carrier and is now infecting local people and creating a cluster that can become a pandemic. Now is the time to deploy a full-blown plan of attack."

In his recent Op-ed (https://www.ceocfointerviews.com/voippaloped0220.html) Mr. Malak notes, "Experts can no longer say with certainty that a 14-day quarantine period is adequate. We already know of at least one person, a 70-year-old man in Hubei Province China, who did not display symptoms until 27 days after being infected." In his interview he points to a need for 3 months quarantine for anyone returning from China and why; "14 days is not enough to ensure the public's safety. Anyone who has traveled from China since October 2019 should have been quarantined for 90 days. Over 5 million people escaped the Hubei Province just before the mandatory quarantine was enacted. Many of them were probably infected and have spread all over China. Its believed a small percentage likely traveled abroad and have been spreading the virus to those they have come in contact with."

Story continues

"One of the major problems with the coronavirus is a person with the virus may test negative even with mild flu like symptoms, but weeks or months later they can develop full-blown coronavirus with serious respiratory complications. In the meantime, that carrier will infect other people who can develop coronavirus symptoms right away," says Malak, who's 8-year daughter recently came down with flu like symptoms and had to be tested for the coronavirus. "This experience made me understand firsthand the pain and fear being experienced by so many in China and the surrounding regions where the coronavirus abounds."

As Malak told CEOCFO's Bud Wayne, "The mortality rate has officially exceeded 2% but some experts have been saying the real number is closer to 8%.".

Malak explains how some have tried to downplay the pandemic affect the world could be facing, "Iran's Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi was recently on state TV looking ill and sweating while he was downplaying the effects of the coronavirus in Iran. Now we learned he tested positive for the virus and is under quarantine."

Iranian health minister news conference:





Is the coronavirus here to stay? There is a Harvard professor epidemiologist, Marc Lipsitch thinks that the novel coronavirus will soon become a pandemic-meaning that it will spread across regions. Malak references Marc Lipsitch's who, "estimated that 40 to 70 percent of people could be infected by the virus that causes COVID-19 if it becomes pandemic."

Contact:

Bud Wayne

CEOCFO Magazine

570-851-1745

budwayne@ceocfomagazine.com

SOURCE: CEOCFO Magazine





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/578170/Voip-Pal-CEO-Emil-Malak-Explains-Why-the-Novel-Coronavirus-is-Different




Singapore To Spend $1B On Cyber Security

Singapore will allocate $1 billion over the next three years to improve the Government's cyber and data security, said the Singaporean Finance Minister, Heng Swee Keat, this month. As a small city-state, Singapore is vulnerable to volatilities in its external environment, he said, adding the countrys security remains a high priority in the Budget and must be funded adequately.

This is to safeguard citizens' data and critical information infrastructure systems, he said, with data security being a vital prerequisite and key enabler of Singapore's digital economy.

He said that Singapore must be prepared to deal with cyber threats, as digitalisation becomes more pervasive. Its cyber capabilities have been raised significantly, with the setting up of the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) in 2015 and the passing of the Cybersecurity Act in 2018.

CSA is preparing measures for the next level of cyber security as advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things are adopted, he added. "All of us, in the Government, enterprises and as individuals, will need to stay vigilant and strengthen our cyber and data security capabilities."

Other than enabling Singapore's digital economy, data security is also key to preserving trust in a digitally connected world, said Mr Heng, who is also Deputy Prime Minister.

The Personal Data Protection Act was enacted in 2012, and the public service has also adopted comprehensive measures to secure and protect citizens' data, he said. Security was one of three major long-term challenges Mr Heng flagged in his Budget speech, along with climate change and fiscal sustainability.

Despite the many calls on Singapore's Budget in uncertain times, the country's peace, prosperity and stability cannot be taken for granted, he said. "As a small city-state, we are particularly vulnerable to volatility in our external environment...It is imperative that we continue to invest in our external, internal, cyber and data security to keep Singapore and our families safe and secure," Mr. Heng said.

"A strong Singapore Armed Forces supports our diplomatic efforts and ensures that other countries take Singapore seriously. We must be ever ready to defend our interests should negotiations fail...We must continue to ensure a credible deterrence, by maintaining our military and technological edge, in a prudent manner that stretches every defence dollar."

He pointed out that the Personal Data Protection Act had been enacted in 2012, and that the public service had adopted comprehensive measures to secure and protect the data of citizens here. The country must continue to enhance its cyber capabilities as it embarks on initiatives to realise its smart nation ambitions, he said.

Apart from startups, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) also would get more support this year via an Enterprise Grow Package, he said. This aimed to help organisations identify business needs, adopt pre-approved digital technologies, and enter new markets, he added. Initiatives targeted for launch under the package included a GoBusiness platform, which Heng described as a single touchpoint for businesses to transact digitally with the government.

Straits Times: Channel News Asia: ZDNet:

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Cyber Security Does Not Follow From Cyber Awareness:




The original Tin Building had long hunkered in the shadow of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive viaduct, which in 1954 was built rather rudely just two feet above the market buildings cast-iron-and-steel canopy on South Street. The developers main rationale for constructing the new Tin Building nearly 11 yards from the site of its progenitor was to raise the structure one foot above the 100-year floodplain, which would have been impossible on the original site because of the looming obstruction of the F.D.R. Drive above it. The move also opened up views of the Brooklyn Bridge from the East River esplanade.

Preservation groups were divided on the projects merits.

Although most of the buildings original fabric had been lost over the decades, the Municipal Art Society maintained that the structure should have been restored in situ using as much of the original material  or surviving vintage replacement material  as possible.

Whats happened over all over the decades in the seaport is a commodification and Disneyfication of its history, and the market continuing as a functioning fish market till 2005 can communicate some of that history to a visitor, said Tara Kelly, the groups vice president of policy and programs. Moving the market was a real loss to that neighborhood, and then moving the Tin Building is death by a thousand cuts.

The dismantling of the Tin Building and its replication on a new site has been a rare and extreme intervention for a structure within a historic district. Previously, only one other building relocation in such a district had been permitted by the landmarks commission. In 2008, the Hamilton Grange was moved within the Hamilton Heights Historic District from an awkward site on Convent Avenue to St. Nicholas Park.

In the case of the Tin Building, the commission determined that its relocation and elevation would substantially improve the resiliency of the reconstructed building and its site, and support its long-term preservation, said Zodet Negron, a commission spokeswoman.

But Ms. Kelly maintained that the bar for relocation should be higher for buildings in historic districts. A building like the Tin Building within the context of the South Street Seaport Historic District in its location is important to maintain and protect because we have collectively all decided that its special by giving it this recognition, she said. So its not like any other building whose context can change and whose physical components can change without a very thorough and intentional process.
Montreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2020) - Pierre-Luc Quimper announces that he has filed an early warning report (the "Early Warning Report") in accordance with National Instrument 62-103 The Early Warning System and Related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues, in connection with the purchase and sale of common shares ("Common Shares") of Bitfarms Ltd. (the "Corporation"), as described below.

When the Corporation became a reporting issuer on June 13, 2019 (upon being issued a receipt for its final prospectus dated June 12, 2019), Mr. Quimper had control and direction (by way of Prosum Management Inc., a corporation of which he owns 100% of the outstanding securities) over 8,967,845 Common Shares, representing approximately 15.71% of the then-outstanding Common Shares.

Between June 12, 2019 and the time at which he seized to have control and direction over 10% of the of the outstanding Common Shares (which occurred on October 21, 2019), Mr. Quimper has sold an aggregate of 642,208 Common Shares and purchased an aggregate of 8,000 Common Shares (for a net decrease of 634,208 Common Shares), as set forth in the table below. As a result, Mr. Quimper holds fewer than 10% of the outstanding Common Shares.





Date Number of Common Shares Sold Number of Common Shares Purchased Market Price per Common Share Total Consideration July 15, 2019 130,208 - Private sale $0.0008 $104.1664 July 15, 2019 100,000 - Private sale $0.99 $99,000 September 23, 2019 111,000 - TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV") $0.9372 $104,029.20 September 24, 2019 20,000 - TSXV $0.95 $19,000 September 25, 2019 14,500 - TSXV $0.8586 $12,449.70 September 26, 2019 20,000 - TSXV $0.8445 $16,890 September 27, 2019 2,500 - TSXV $0.79 $1,975 September 27, 2019 2,500 - TSXV $0.81 $2,025 September 27, 2019 35,000 - TSXV $0.86 $30,100 September 27, 2019 10,000 - TSXV $0.87 $8,700 September 30, 2019 2,500 - TSXV $0.77 $1,925 September 30, 2019 2,500 - TSXV $0.78 $1,950 September 30, 2019 5,000 - TSXV $0.83 $4,150 October 11, 2019 1,000 - TSXV $0.55 $550 October 11, 2019 - 5,000 TSXV $0.54 $2,700 October 11, 2019 3,000 - TSXV $0.56 $1,680 October 11, 2019 3,500 - TSXV $0.57 $1,995 October 11, 2019 22,500 - TSXV $0.58 $13,050 October 11, 2019 44,500 - TSXV $0.60 $26,700 October 11, 2019 10,000 - TSXV $0.61 $6,100 October 11, 2019 3,500 - TSXV $0.62 $2,170 October 11, 2019 1,000 - TSXV $0.625 $625 October 11, 2019 2,000 - TSXV $0.64 $1,280 October 15, 2019 - 1,000 TSXV $0.53 $530 October 15, 2019 - 1,000 TSXV $0.54 $540 October 15, 2019 3,000 - TSXV $0.54 $1,620 October 15, 2019 - 1,000 TSXV $0.55 $550 October 15, 2019 1,000 - TSXV $0.56 $560 October 15, 2019 1,000 - TSXV $0.60 $600 October 16, 2019 500 - TSXV $0.51 $255 October 16, 2019 14,500 - TSXV $0.52 $7,540 October 16, 2019 5,000 - TSXV $0.53 $2,650 October 17, 2019 4,000 - TSXV $0.51 $2,040 October 17, 2019 10,000 - TSXV $0.52 $5,200 October 17, 2019 10,000 - TSXV $0.53 $5,300 October 17, 2019 5,000 - TSXV $0.54 $2,700 October 17, 2019 5,000 - TSXV $0.55 $2,750 October 18, 2019 4,000 - TSXV $0.51 $2,040 October 18, 2019 24,000 - TSXV $0.52 $12,480 October 18, 2019 2,000 - TSXV $0.53 $1,060 October 21, 2019 6,500 - TSXV $0.51 $3,315

Mr. Quimper is party to an escrow agreement dated June 12, 2019 (the "Escrow Agreement"), under which his Common Shares are held in escrow by TSX Trust Company and will be released as per the following schedule:

Date Number of Common Shares to be Released July 16, 2020 896,784 January 16, 2021 896,784 July 16, 2021 1,345,177 January 16, 2022 1,345,177 July 16, 2022 3,587,139

The Escrow Agreement does not limit Mr. Quimper's ability to exercise the voting rights attached to his Common Shares held in escrow.

A copy of the Escrow Agreement is available on SEDAR.

Mr. Quimper, whose address is 630 Sherbrooke Street West, Suite 301, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1E4, holds his securities of the Corporation for investment purposes. Depending upon the circumstances, Mr. Quimper may, from time to time, acquire additional securities of the Corporation or sell all or a portion of the securities of the Corporation previously acquired.

For further information or to obtain a copy of the Early Warning Report, please contact:

Ali Amadee, Partner

Dentons Canada LLP

1 Place Ville Marie, 39th Floor

Montreal, QC H3B 4M7

(514) 878-8876

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/52955
A woman wears a face mask as she walks her dog on a street in Beijing, China on Feb. 4, 2020. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

Dog Tests Positive for New COVID-19 Virus

A pet dog has tested positive for the new coronavirus in Hong Kong.

A spokesman for Hong Kongs Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said in a statement that the dog was tested and that the test showed a weak positive for the COVID-19 disease, which is a caused by the new virus.

Testing was done after the agency received a referral from the Department of Health about a dog of a patient confirmed to have the new disease. Staff members from the government picked up the dog and collected oral, nasal, and rectal samples.

The nasal and oral cavity samples came back with weak positives.

The dog doesnt have any symptoms linked to the new virus, the Hong Kong government said. The dog remains under quarantine at a facility for animals at the Hong Kong Port. No other animals are there at the moment.

At present, the AFCD does not have evidence that pet animals can be infected with COVID-19 virus or can be a source of infection to people, the government said in a statement.

The Department will conduct close monitoring of the above dog and collect further samples for testing to confirm if the dog has really been infected with the virus or this is a result of environmental contamination of the dogs mouth and nose. Repeated tests will be conducted for the dog and it will only be returned when the test result is negative.

Dogs wearing masks are seen in a stroller in Shanghai, China on Feb. 19, 2020. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

However, a spokesman for the agency said that mammalian pets of patients with confirmed cases of COVID-19 should be quarantined for two weeks.

Pet owners, the government said, should maintain good hygiene, including washing hands after coming into contact with pets.

Coronaviruses mainly circulate among animals but can, in rare cases, jump to humans before spreading from person to person. One virus is called canine respiratory coronavirus. The virus can cause discomfort for up to two weeks, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. The virus is contracted through contact with contaminated environments, people, or dogs.

The new virus has an unknown origin, although some evidence points to it originating with bats. The virus emerged in China late last year.

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease specialist with the World Health Organization (WHO), told reporters in Geneva on Friday that experts with the agency are aware of the report from the Hong Kong government.

WHO is working with scientists in Hong Kong who are testing animals, she said, to understand these results and to understand where or if the dog was actually infected or if the dog picked this up from a contaminated surface.

WHO says on its website that there is no evidence that so-called companion animals like dogs and cats can become infected or spread the virus that causes COVID-19.
AMHERST, MAThe Yiddish Book Center announced that it has been shortlisted for The London Book Fair International Excellence Awards 2020 for The Literary Translation Initiative Award.

The awards, held in partnership with the UK Publishers Association, celebrate publishing success in 16 categories, representing the best publishing ambassadors, innovative publishing, and ground-breaking initiatives in the industry. In each award category, the judging panel was comprised of experts in that sector.

We are thrilled to receive the news that the Yiddish Book Center has been shortlisted for the London Book Fairs 2020 International Excellence Awards for The Literary Translation Initiative Award. Over the past year we are excited to see how our Translation Initiative is bearing fruit through the work of our 60 Translation Fellows, the launch of our publishing imprint, White Goat Press, and two new programs aimed at bringing these translations to new readers through our Great Jewish Books Book Club and our Reading Groups for Public Libraries program. The shortlist is a recognition of our efforts to bring these forgotten treasures to English readers around the world, said Aaron Lansky, Yiddish Book Center founder and president.

On making the announcement, Jacks Thomas, director of The London Book Fair, commented, This record number of countries shortlisted for the seventh LBF International Excellence Awardswith entries from 29 countriesreally does shout that the global book industry continues to thrive through innovation, inspiration and sheer hard work across the globe The awards capture the passion that underpins the commitment of those working in this global village to share the power of books.

The Yiddish Book Center launched its Translation Initiative in 2012 with the goal of training and mentoring a new generation of literary translators and bringing newly translated works to publication through the Centers White Goat Press imprint, a grant program for academic presses, and partnering with publishers.

The Yiddish Book Center has continued to expand its Translation Initiative through two new programs: the Centers Great Jewish Books Book Club, whose selections are now all works in translation that are being read by Book Club members around the world, and the Centers recently announced Coming to America Reading Groups for Public Libraries program, part of the Yiddish Book Centers Decade of Discovery initiative. This program, taking place in libraries across the country, presents American identity as an ongoing conversation, using Yiddish literature in translation as a portal to exploring questions of identity, assimilation, language, cuisine, and generational change.

The LBF International Excellence Awards ceremony, an invitation-only event, takes place on Tuesday, 10 March 2020, in London. Two members of the Yiddish Book Center staff will be on hand at the Fair and awards ceremony: Madeleine Cohen, director of translation and collections initiatives, and Lisa Newman, director of communications.
It has not yet received permission for evacuation

Ukraine is considering evacuating its citizens from Japan. The statement was made by Deputy Minister of Health and Chief Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko during a briefing, which was broadcasted by 112 Ukraine TV Channel.

He also added that they had not yet received permission for evacuation.

"We also addressed the issues, suggested that the Ukrainians consider the possibility of their evacuation from Japan to Ukraine. So far, we have not received the consent for it. Therefore, the issue on control, but it is only on control, is not moving forward," Liashko said.

It is worth mentioning that a Ukrainian woman, who was infected with coronavirus at the board of Diamond Princess near Japan, successfully recovered from illness. She was discharged from the hospital and was transferred to the hotel.

As we reported earlier, according to the Migration Service of Japan, there are about 2,000 Ukrainian citizens in the countrys territory.

There is information about the infected citizens of Ukraine, except for the crew members of the Diamond Princess cruise liner.
CHARLESTON, S.C.  Pete Buttigieg knows he has work to do to win black voters' support.

Last month during a visit to Claflin University in South Carolina, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, conceded he was concerned that mostly white people attend his rallies.

In order not just to win, in order to be deserving to win, Ive got to be speaking to everybody, he said during an interview with political commentator Angela Rye.

So when the event ended, one of Buttigieg's most prominent black supporters canvassed the room.

Rep. Anthony Brown of Maryland, the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus to endorse Buttigieg, told USA TODAY that some in the audience said they liked that Buttigieg leaned into talking about community policing and challenges across America, including those in his hometown.

The response is he's real, he listens, Brown said. There's a real appreciation that he leans into it, shares his experience as a mayor, but a vision that is inclusive of everybody."

Democratic presidential candidate former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, right, waves to the crowd next to Waterloo, Iowa, Mayor Quentin Hart during a campaign event Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020, in Dubuque, Iowa. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Buttigieg over the past year has risen from an ambitious small-city mayor to a top tier Democratic candidate in what was once the largest and most diverse ever presidential field. Despite his popularity in several early states, and even nationwide, he has struggled to make inroads with voters of color.

Buttigieg has turned to a handful of black surrogates to help garner support with African American voters ahead of Saturday's South Carolina primary  a key contest to gauge black voter support  and in several Super Tuesday states. The pressure is especially high to win over voters of color following Buttigieg's distant third place in the Nevada caucus, the most diverse contest yet where 17% of Democrats who participated are Latino.

South Carolina Primary Results: Follow live results from the South Carolina Democratic Primary Saturday

But its still unclear whether those surrogates will be enough to gain the broad support Buttigieg will need to propel him into the Democratic nomination.

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Buttigieg has "got a lot of ground to make up in a short period of time, said Bruce Ransom, chairman of policy studies at the Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson University. "He's in single digits with African Americans. (Other candidates) are in double digits around. He's not there yet."

'Meet voters where they are'

Black voters comprise nearly 60% of South Carolina's Democratic electorate, making the state a crucial test of candidates' ability to energize African Americans in other primaries and the general election.

Brown has campaigned for Buttigieg in several early voting states, including Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina. He has stopped by local barbershops, churches and visited Claflin University, a historically black college, to campaign for Buttigieg.

First of all, you got to meet voters where they are, Brown said.

Brown said he talks about Buttigiegs Douglass Plan when he's campaigning. The plan, named after the abolitionist Frederick Douglass and labeled a comprehensive investment in the empowerment of Black America, calls for new steps to diversify the teaching profession, dedicating more resources to HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions, and doubling funding for federal grants for states that commit to criminal justice reform.

But the rollout of the Douglass Plan was met with criticism from some black leaders. A stock image of a black woman and a young boy was used, but it was found out later the woman was from Kenya. Buttigieg also was criticized for sending out a letter reportedly signed by 400 black leaders in South Carolina supporting the Douglass Plan, but several said their support for the plan was misconstrued as an endorsement for the former South Bend mayor.

Johnnie Cordero, chair of the state partys Black Caucus, was initially listed as a signer of the letter. But his name was later taken off after he said he did not endorse the plan.

"Its presumptuous to think you can come up with a plan for black America without hearing from black folk," Cordero told the Intercept at the time. "Theres nothing in there that said black folk had anything to do with the drafting of that plan."

Cordero has since endorsed billionaire activist Tom Steyer.

For most of the campaign, Buttigieg has stayed in single-digit support with black Democratic voters. According to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll released in February, a combined 28% of black voters said they are comfortable or enthusiastic for Buttigieg's candidacy, while 41% have reservations or are uncomfortable. Comparatively, a combined 69% of black voters said they are comfortable or enthusiastic for former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden also holds a significant lead in the latest South Carolina primary polls.

Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart introduces Democratic presidential candidate hopeful Pete Buttigieg to speak at Des Moines Lincoln High School on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020.

But Quentin Hart, who made history as the first African American mayor of Waterloo, Iowa, is looking to build enthusiasm for Buttigieg, whom he met at a mayoral conference in Las Vegas several years ago.

One day before Iowas first-in-the-nation caucuses, Hart recalled to a room of nearly 2,000 mostly white attendees the first time he met Buttigieg.

Hart said the two bonded at the Las Vegas mayoral conference during a 30-minute discussion of how we can empower African Americans in our communities, Latinos in our communities in one of their first-ever conversations.

Hart told the Des Moines crowd he wasnt introducing just another mayor, he was introducing a person that I call a friend.

We have a lot of people  that are frustrated that politics and resources stay at the top and don't reach 95% of us that are below the top 5%, Hart said at a rally in the south side of Des Moines, which was followed by a roar of cheers. He went on to tout Buttigiegs platform to fight back against systemic racism, the Douglass Plan.

I think it takes the mayor's perspective to make sure that we don't forget about everyday people, he later said.

Hart is one of only two black mayors in Iowa, which has more than 900 municipalities. And at that January rally, held at Lincoln High School in the south side of Des Moines  an area more diverse than most of Iowa  Hart was one of just a handful of non-white supporters in attendance.

Since then, Hart has continued to stump for Buttigieg in South Carolina.

Less 'political baggage'

Darrell Hagans, a black voter who attended the Des Moines rally, said he planned to caucus for the former South Bend mayor. Originally from North Carolina, Hagans moved to Des Moines in 2017, and said he was convinced by several Buttigieg volunteers at a bar the night before to come to the rally and support him.

I think one thing that stands out to me is that hes less political than all the other ones, Hagans said, adding that Buttigieg has a lot less political baggage.

He seems to be very realistic as well, like an everyday person, he continued.

Prior to supporting Buttigeig, Hagans said he considered Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. He noted that with Biden, everyone knows the name and highlighted his work as vice president to Barack Obama, the first African American president.

Hagans, who works for a software company called ESO, also said he has heard the concerns about Buttigiegs low standing with voters of color, and said that was another reason he attended the rally: so he could learn a little more.

Pointing to his shirt that read I do what the data tells me to do, Hagans laughed, saying thats why Im here right now, gathering data.

South Carolina state Rep. JA Moore was the first African American state legislator to endorse Buttigieg, something he said was splashy and surprising to his colleagues after he previously endorsed Sen. Kamala Harris, who dropped out of the presidential race in December.

During an interview with USA TODAY, Moore said he had been undecided until he endorsed Buttigieg. He said he believes what we need in this country right now is new generational leadership.

Moore hopes his endorsement allows people to fully vet all the candidates, and to swat away the idea that theres an inevitable candidate thats going to, no matter what, resonate with black folks, no matter what their record previously was, (just) because that person was the former vice president for the first African American to be elected.

Moore said he was recently stopped by a local pastor in Walmart and the pastor asked him to help him understand your endorsement of Pete.

Help me get it because I know you as a human being, as a man, and if youre doing it, its for the right reasons. Help me see it,  Moore recalled the pastor saying.

Endorsements aren't always a dealmaker for voters, said Ransom, the political science professor. They can be beneficial, he said, when undecided voters see someone they trust also endorse a candidate.

Theyre looking for cues that will give them some sense that theyre making the right decision, he continued.

But some voters want to see Buttigieg himself in their communities, not just surrogates.

Hagans noted that he would like to see Buttigieg be more proactive in reaching out to communities of color.

I havent seen this, and maybe this has happened, but if he actually went out into a community of color just to talk about things, whether its just sitting in a barber shop and maybe getting his haircut by someone and just talking shop, as we like to say, Hagans said.

I think that would help tremendously, even if it makes him feel uncomfortable, he continued. I dont know, he may feel uncomfortable, he may not.

Daja Prince, 26, who attended a Buttigieg rally in Arlington, Virginia, Sunday said she is still undecided, and is checking out Buttigieg, Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. She said she has only heard negative things about Buttigiegs outreach to voters of color but wanted to see what he was like for herself.

One of the first things Prince noticed Sunday was the lack of people of color at Buttigiegs event. Prince said her cousin, who attend the rally with her, joked it was not hard to spot me, right?

You know, I will take that (lack of diversity) into account, Prince said.

One thing Prince doesnt want to see from candidates is pandering because it feels like thats just invalidating my feelings as a human. She noted she wasnt a fan of Buttigieg talking about reparations in regards to the black community, and questioned his authenticity about it.

Whos telling you this? Are you getting the information from somewhere real? she questioned. Or are you getting it from one of those, like, study companies that study people?

The big thing Buttigieg can do, she noted, was to just talk to voters rather than relying on others for information.

Just be yourself, and find out what the people are interested in, and I feel like thats what he needs to do, she said.

Winning big

Buttigiegs strong finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire  two states that are mostly white  raised questions about whether he could continue that momentum to more diverse states. He had a lackluster showing in the Nevada caucus, which Sanders overwhelmingly won. Nevada's population is close to 30% Latino and around 9% African American. Buttigieg placed a distant third behind Biden there.

But the former mayors campaign advisers have said they believe that once voters of color see that Buttigieg can win, they will begin to support him.

Deputy campaign manager Hari Sevugan said at a Bloomberg News roundtable earlier this month that voters, particularly voters of color, are looking for someone who can win.

In order to show that you can win, you have to win, he said, adding that once we do well in Iowa and New Hampshire it will prove they have a strong coalition going forward. That's a powerful signal across the country, including to communities of color, that this is the guy that can beat Donald Trump.

But Ransom said he doesnt think Buttigiegs wins have changed black voters' minds. He noted that although Buttigieg has done more to reach out to voters of color, hes still in single digits with African American voters.

He also pointed to several of Buttigieg's missteps as a complicating factor. Ransom said Buttigieg's handling of a shooting death by police of a black South Bend man last summer is still in voters mind.

One moment in particular, Ransom said, that stands out to voters was a tense exchange between a black woman from South Bend and Buttigieg in the aftermath of the shooting. The woman said: Youre running for president and you want black people to vote for you? Thats not going to happen.

Buttigieg replied: Maam, Im not asking for your vote.

His candidacy and trying to appeal to black voters, that situation in South Bend is not helpful and people are going to remember that, Ransom said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: South Carolina primary: Pete Buttigieg courting black voters
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SEDONA, AZ / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2020 / The Opportunity Zone Development Fund names Paul Wright Manager of their newly designed state-of-the-art IQ Car Wash located in Camp Verde, which will serve 19,000 residents. In his new role, effective January 14, 2020, Wright will focus on customer service and will be responsible for maintaining all the equipment to ensure a quality wash for every customer."The IQ Car Wash aims to provide outstanding value to customers who prioritize maintaining their vehicles," said Fund Manager Robert Witt. "Paul's experience and success in the industry position him as a valuable asset to enable the company to adopt an innovative format and improve it further to ensure each customer's experience exceeds expectations." Prior to joining IQ Car Wash, Wright held various roles at Cobblestone Auto Spa located in El Mirage, AZ. During his tenure there, he was responsible for overseeing operations for four company-owned sites0 and has been a general manager for 5 years. He implemented plans that resulted in high-volume revenue growth and is highly regarded in the company.Wright will begin his responsibilities by traveling to Oklahoma, the location of the first IQ Car Wash facility, There he will learn the IQ system and integrate it with his existing management plan. He will travel to Omaha, Nebraska for hands on experience installing the equipment that he will maintain in Camp Verde. Then he will focus his time managing the building process of the newest IQ Wash site in Camp Verde."Paul's experience in the industry, hands-on learning in Oklahoma and Nebraska will result in valuable institutional knowledge, which will be instrumental to the successful operations of our facility in Camp Verde," added Witt.Future site plans include hiring 6 more employees who will report to Wright.Wright's many accolades include winning Express Manager of the Year in 2018 for highest yearly revenue and training managers over Cobblestone's company-owned sites. Paul's record for washes in a single day tops 2,000.About The Opportunity Zone Development Company IIThe Opportunity Zone Development Company II is an Opportunity Zone Business formed specifically under the federal guidelines for Opportunity Zone Investments. The company is owned by The Opportunity Zone Development Fund LLC. Partners in the company are able to defer 100% of their capital gains from 2019that they invest in the fund. The deferral will run through 2026 when the partners will need to recognize 85% of the 7 year old gain. The partners will receive cash flows from the operations of the business of which a portion will be sheltered from taxes by the depreciation. The partners can sell their interest in the partnership in 10 years and gains made on the sale will not be taxed. A $100,000 capital gain invested in an opportunity zone fund that earns 7% per year for 10 years will be worth $154,000 after taxes are paid in 10 years. The same investment made in a taxable investment would be worth only $115,470. The tax benefits really help partners hold onto their capital and maintain their net worth.About Robert Witt, The Opportunity Zone Development Fund 1 LLCRobert Witt is the Manager of The Opportunity Zone Development Fund 1 and The Opportunity Zone Development Company LLC. Witt is also president of the Beaver Creek Villas Condominium Association and managing partner for Simonton Ranch Land Holding LLC. He is a former Chairman of the Camp Verde Planning and Zoning Commission, and a Former Chairman of the Camp Verde Sanitary District. He has managed 5 distinct real estate opportunity funds during his career and likes opportunity zone tax benefits more than any other incentive he has seen during his career. For more information, please call (928) 202-1000. The Opportunity Zone Development Fund LLC is located at 400 W Finnie Flat Road, Suite 1C, Camp Verde, AZ. To read more about Opportunity Zone Development Fund and Simonton Ranch Land Holding in the news, please visit https://thenala.com/media-room/media-room-detail/robert-witt-simonton-ranch-land-holding-llc For media inquiries, please call THE NALA at 805.650.6121, ext. 361.SOURCE:The Opportunity Zone Development Fund
New Delhi, Feb 28 : A court on Friday rejected the bail application moved a former Congress municipal councillor who was arrested in connection with violence in Delhi's northeast area.

Ishrat Jahan was protesting against contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Khureji Khas area on February 26, and "instigated" the large crowd to stay put after the police asked them to vacate the road. The police claimed that due to her instigation, the crowd pelted stones on security personnel.

Additional Sessions Judge Naveen Gupta of Karkadooma Court rejected the bail plea, observing that the charges against her are "serious in nature".

"When the protectors of law are targeted in the manner as reflected in present FIR and that too, in the gaze of general public, such actions lower the public confidence in the ability of police officers to do their duty," the court said.

During the course of proceedings, Additional Public Prosecutor Mukul Kumar, appearing for the state, told court that a total of seven persons have been arrested in the case.

"The persons named in the FIR including the accused as well as other persons in the crowd did not disperse.. rather the persons named in the FIR instigated the public for using force against the police officials.

"She (Ishrat Jahan) has been specifically named in the FIR. It is prima facie made out that the assembly of persons had become unlawful... the accused targeted the police officers with gun shots and pelting of stones."
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Members of Parliament of Canada made strong statements condemning the Armenian massacres in Baku and Sumgait.

The lawmakers stated that today all Armenians of Canada are paying a tribute to the memory of thousand of Armenians who were killed in massacres in Baku and Sumgait.

MP Emmanuella Lambropoulos said the anniversaries of Baku and Sumgait pogroms force them to talk about the topic as they live in a country where different ethnic and religious minorities can take part in the countrys politics.

30 years ago the Armenian massacres took place in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. In 7 days hundreds of Armenians were subjected to violence, were killed and deported from the city. With these crimes the ethnic cleansings launched against Armenians ended in the country. Nearly 500, 000 Armenians were displaced and spread all over the world, including to Canada. The massacres of Armenians also took place in Sumgait which shocked the whole world, she said.

Lawmaker Bob Saroya urged the Canadian parliament to remain adhered to the commitment on protecting human rights and preventing the crimes against humanity. In response to demand of the Nagorno Karabakh people to self-determination, the Azerbaijani authorities organized massacres and ethnic cleansings of the Armenian population in Sumgait and the capital city of Baku. These massacres are evidence of xenophobia, hatred and discrimination against Armenians in Azerbaijan, which, unfortunately, still continue, the MP said.

Another MP Faycal El-Khoury called the Baku and Sumgait pogroms a terrible crime against humanity.

2020 marks the 30th anniversary of Armenian massacres in Baku and the 32nd anniversary of the Sumgait pogroms.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
(Newser)  It hadn't been clear whether Canada would continue to provide security for Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, when they're no longer senior royals. It's clear now. Canada has been providing security help since the couple moved there in November, the government told CBC, adding, "The assistance will cease in the coming weeks, in keeping with their change in status." March 31 is when the couple will stop carrying out royal duties. In a statement on the split from the royal family on Harry and Meghan's website, Harry and Meghan had said the two sides agreed that the couple would "continue to require effective security to protect them and their son."

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The statement by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government said that when the couple moved to Canada, the government faced "a unique and unprecedented set of circumstances" and had an obligation to provide protection. But the security assistance has not been popular. Polls have found that only about 20% of Canadians believe tax money should be used for the couple's security, per the Guardian. A taxpayers group gathered 80,000 signatures opposing it. Harry and Megan, who are staying on Vancouver Island, have said they intend to live part-time in Canada. Security experts have estimated the security bill for guarding the couple now that they're ex-royals could run as high as $30 million a year. (It's just "Harry" now, prince says.)
Henry Buster Parsons was recorded as this countrys second homicide victim for 2020.

This country recorded its second homicide for the year when Henry Buster Parsons, a 54-year-old employee of Diamond Woods and resident of Long Piece, Lowmans Windward, succumbed to a chop wound to his right leg.





According to a police release made available earlier this week, on February 21, at about 11:40pm, police responded to a chopping incident which occurred at the Kiss Me Neck Bar at Long Piece, Lowmans Windward. Patrons were enjoying a karaoke session before the incident occurred.





On their arrival at the scene, police officers met the man unresponsive, with a chop wound to the back of his right leg. He was pronounced dead on the scene by the District Medical Officer.





An autopsy revealed that he succumbed to exsanguination, the loss of blood to a degree sufficient to cause death.





Police stated in a release dated February 25, that they had arrested and charged Frankie Joseph, 42-year-old mason of Long Piece, Lowmans Windward, "for with malice aforethought caused the death of Henry Parsons of the same address, by chopping him behind his right leg with a cutlass.





Joseph was not required to plea when he appeared before Senior Magistrate Rickie Burnett at the Kingstown Magistrates Court on Tuesday for arraignment, and the matter was adjourned to Tuesday, March 3, and transferred to the Serious Offences Court.





Joseph was remanded into custody.
It's no news that many users on TikTok purposely put themselves in life-threatening situations just for the sake of creating something that might just end up making them popular on the video-sharing app.

This is the dark side of apps such as TikTok, there's no knowing how far the next user will go just for some likes.

The latest guy on that list is a user named Jason Clark who, no surprise, had a near-death experience while filming a video. Already popular for his adventure videos, Clark's recent stunt turned out to be a little scary for him and his viewers.

Instagram

The digital content creator took to Instagram to share his 'deadly' ordeal with death. He posted his TikTok video on Instagram along with a caption that said, 'I have never been this close to dying.....I had accepted that was it and I wasnt going to make it.'

Clark, who has over 450k followers on TikTok had a friend help him record a video of him swimming under the ice. However, the swim does not go as planned and Clark can be seen struggling to find the opening to get out of the water. At one point, he can also be seen trying to break the ice with his back but in vain.

He mentioned in his Instagram post that once he was inside the water, he got confused because the bottom of the ice did not look any different from the water at the hole.

He wrote, 'The surface of the water where the hole was didnt look any different than the bottom of the ice. When I flipped around and felt solid ice I thought I was at the hole. When I wasnt thats when I decided to head back and follow the dust I kicked up.'

Instagram

He further explains his struggle and honestly, it is nothing short of terrifying. 'The dust I kicked up had drifted and led me further away. I then tried to break the ice with my back, you can see in the video. I dont know what made me turn around one last time. I was so short on breath I couldnt really see anymore.'

Instagram

He also pointed out that since he is a man known to joke around, the person filming the video did not grasp the severity of the situation and assumed that it is one of his shenanigans. His video has over 21 million views on TikTok and people are feeling super anxious after watching it.

Instagram

However, Clark managed to find the opening and came back to safety. The incident has left him a little shaken and that is absolutely understandable. Putting your life at risk for any reason whatsoever should not be on your list. I mean, what was he thinking?

Recently, a man in India was in the news for a stunt gone wrong which ended up with him falling off a train and hurting himself. The terrifying video was shared by Union Minister Piyush Goyal who asked the citizens to be careful about their actions.
The Russian diplomats are sure that after the visit of occupied Crimea by the representatives of American authorities, all concerns of Washington would be permanently resolved

Russia's Embassy to the U.S. www.wikipedia.org

The Russian ambassador in the U.S. responded to the statement of U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo about belonging of Crimea to Ukraine, inviting the representatives of the American administration to visit occupied peninsula as Russias Embassy to the U.S reported on Facebook.

We drew attention to another reality-challenging statement made by U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo concerning Crimea. We would like to note that American authorities over the past six years have not still bothered to visit the peninsula and see the real state of affairs with their own eyes. On our part, we are ready to welcome official delegations comprised of administration representatives in the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, the message said.

They are sure that after the visit of occupied Crimea by the representatives of American authorities, all concerns of Washington would be permanently resolved.

"Over the past years, Crimea has been rapidly developing. The quality of life of the Crimean citizens has improved compared to this of the Ukrainian period, the Russian diplomats stated.

The Russian ambassadors decided to reiterate the point announced by Russia since the end of 2014, after the illegal annexation of the peninsula, that Crimea is the part of their country.

The embassy supposes that the U.S. should focus efforts on the provision of the fulfillment of Minsk Agreements by Ukraine.

Earlier, U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo stated that the U.S. will never accept Russia's claims for sovereignty over the Ukrainian Crimea.

Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014. Crimea is announced to be temporarily occupied territory.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine officially announced February 20, 2014, to be the year of the beginning of the temporary occupation of Crimea and Sevastopol by Russia. In October 2015, then-President Petro Poroshenko signed the proper law.

The international organization recognized the occupation and annexation of Crimea as illegal and condemned the actions of Russia. The West imposed a number of sanctions against Russia.

Russia denies the occupation of the peninsula and calls it the restoration of the historical justice.
The novel coronavirus outbreak will cost Vietnamese airlines an estimated VND25 trillion ($1.08 billion) in revenue, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam estimates.

The CAAV has envisioned two Covid-19 impact scenarios for Vietnams aviation market in 2020. In the first scenario, where the epidemic is contained before April, carriers in the country would handle a total of 67 million passengers, down 15 percent year-on-year, Dinh Viet Thang, director of CAAV, said at a meeting Thursday.

However, if the epidemic is only contained in June, the number of air passengers is predicted to fall 22 percent year-on-year to 61 million, including 10 million foreign visitors.

Either way, 2020 is likely to be a difficult year for Vietnamese carriers, he said.

National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines expects the number of passengers to decline by 2.5 million this year, leading to a revenue fall of VND12 trillion ($519 million).

In addition to a plunge in the number of Chinese passengers, Vietnam Airlines is facing a decline in the number of passengers on other international and domestic routes. Earlier, the carrier said it was losing VND200-250 billion ($8.6-10.8 million) per week following the suspension of flights to China.

Leading Vietnamese budget carriers Vietjet Air and Jestar Pacific are also expecting a fall in passengers and revenue.

Vietjet Air also estimates its loss at VND12 trillion, with more losses stemming from the South Korean market as compared with Vietnam Airlines.

Jetstar Pacific forecasts its revenues to fall by VND732 billion ($31.4 million).

The CAAVs Thang noted that northeast Asian markets like mainland China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea make up a significant source of revenue for Vietnamese airlines.

Since the Covid-19 outbreak, local airlines have suspended all flight routes to China since February 1, meaning a loss of around eight million passengers this year.

Meanwhile, the number of two-way flights to South Korea has gone down 41 percent compared to last year, standing at 141 round trips per week against 191 in 2019. The plunge happened after the South Korean government declared an epidemic red alert, its highest level of alarm, over the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The number of passengers between Vietnam and South Korea has plunged over 50 percent from an average of 26,000 daily to around 8,000-12,000.

For flight routes to and from Taiwan, the flight frequency has declined to 172 from the previous 231 per week. Vietnamese airlines have cut 34 percent of their flights to Taiwan.

While flight operations related to the Japanese market have not been affected at the moment, carriers are considering reducing flights on these routes as well.

Policy support

Amidst the dire situation for local airlines, the CAAV has proposed financial support to help them partially offset the losses, including reducing 50 percent of landing and takeoff fees as well as flight operating costs for domestic flights.

It has also proposed an import and environment protection tax exemption from March to May.

These measures could help Vietnamese airlines reduce their costs by up to VND1.9 trillion ($81.6 million)

At Thursdays meeting, Transport Minister Nguyen Van The agreed with these initiatives and said airlines should consider new flight routes to India, where increasing proportions of the 1.3 billion population are taking to international travel, and other domestic destinations.

Vietnam has suspended entry from all areas affected by the coronavirus outbreak under a prime ministerial directive issued Tuesday. The new policy came after the epidemic saw complicated developments in South Korea, Japan, Italy, and Iran.

While Vietnam has discharged all 16 of its Covid-19 infected people and not recorded any new infection for the last two weeks, the global death toll has reached 2,858, mostly in China.
TORRINGTON  The owners of the historic Yankee Pedlar Inn on Main Street received a 60-day permit from the citys building department this week, allowing them to continue renovations to the building.

The permit states that the owner, Jayson Hospitalty based in Lexington, Mass., has 60 days to complete the work as expeditiously as possible.

In September 2014, city officials announced that the hotel would become a Best Western affiliate, under owner Jayson Hospitality, in the near future.

Not long after that announcement, the Planning and Zoning Commission approved upgrades to the historic structure at 93 Main St., and plans for a compete renovation of the building were revealed.

Residents and visitors will begin to see improvements to the beloved Yankee Pedlar this fall along with an anticipated re-open in the spring of 2018 under the umbrella of a Best Western Plus, Jayson Hospitality officials said in a release at the time. The company could not be reached for comment Thursday.

But the hotel remains closed.

Mayor Elinor Carbone recently voiced some frustration about the delay of the hotels restoration, and said she was hopeful that the owners would move forward with their plans to reopen.

I have conversations every two weeks or so about it, she said, indicating that others are interested in buying the old hotel. It was sold for $675,000, and its been gutted. They (the owners) are stalled, because their plans for the building dont agree with the costs associated with (those) plans.

In 2017, owners said the project was stalled due to the complexities of redeveloping a historic property and the mere magnitude of the project, according to the hospitality company.

At that time, Jayson Hospitality representatives said they had partnered with a local general contractor, William Mascetti of Torrington, to assist with the rehabilitation of the building.

Planned work on the old hotel included new signs, parking upgrades, new interior electrical systems, plumbing and other improvements. The inn closed on Dec. 1, 2015, for these renovations, which were expected to take 7-9 months to complete, according to a previous report.

Today, the doors and windows of the historic structure remain boarded up. The hotel is about third of a city block in size, with 63 guest rooms, a restaurant and bar, several additional retail spaces on the first floor. in the rear of the building, visible through windows on the third floor, protective masks hang from the window frames inside, where paint was being removed from the guest room walls. Outside, the upper part of the building is painted yellow with white trim, while the ground level is red. Since it was boarded up, the inns outer appearance is unkempt, but there is no visible damage to the inns exterior facade.

Before it closed, the location of the inn  across the street from the Warner Theatre and City Hall  made it a perfect spot for events held by the Northwest CT Chamber of Commerce and other businesses, fundraisers for various nonprofits, an annual fashion show and the citys annual Christmas Village Toy Shower, held just after Thanksgiving weekend. The last time the toy shower was held there in 2014, Mrs. Claus was at the inn to collect donations of toys and cash, which are used to purchase toys for Christmas Village.

The Yankee Pedlar Inn, first known as the Conley Inn, originally opened in July 1891 by Frank and Alice Conley. It is part of Torringtons downtown district and is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.

The inn is also said to have paranormal activity. According to frightfind.com, the ghost of Alice Conley still haunts the inn in the room where she died, Room 353, and there are odd occurrences including strange odors and apparitions. Frank Conley has also allegedly been seen walking the halls of the inn.

A horror movie, The Innkeepers, was made in 2011 by filmmaker Ti West at the inn and is based on those stories. In 2013, Glory Haunt Hounds, a pararnormal investigation team, spent the night at the inn to prove or disprove the ghost stories and paranormal allegations.
It wont be too much to call it a Black Friday.

A strong wave of selloff engulfed the Indian market on February 28 that saw the market benchmarks extend their losing streak into the sixth consecutive session.

The Sensex nosedived 1,448 points, or 3.64 percent, to 38,297.29, while the Nifty plunged 432 points, or 3.71 percent, to 11,201.75. In the last six days, the Sensex has come off 3,026 points and the Nifty has lost 924 points.

Here are 5 highlights of the days session:

Sensexs second worst day in history

Data shows Friday 28 was the second worst fall in the history of benchmark Sensex. On August 24, 2015, the Sensex tanked 1,624.51 points on a surge in global crude prices and a strong selloff in Chinese equities.

The third biggest fall was of 1,408 points on January 21, 2008, and the fourth of 1,070 points on October 24 the same year, as the US battled a recession and the world a financial crisis.

There have been only four occasions in history when the Sensex lost more than 1,000 points in a single day.

Poorer & poorer

BSE investors were left poorer by Rs 11.8 lakh crore in six sessions as the overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms dropped to Rs 146.94 lakh crore from Rs 158.71 lakh crore on February 19. On February 28 alone, Rs 5.46 lakh crore of investors wealth was wiped out.

437 stocks hit 52-week lows

As many as 437 stocks, including Hero MotoCorp, IndusInd Bank, ITC, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra and ONGC, hit their 52-week low on BSE.

On the other hand, some 36 stocks, including Mishra Dhatu Nigam, DIC India and Ruchi Soya, hit their 52-week high amid a widespread selloff.

335 stocks hit lower circuits

Indiabulls Real Estate, Indiabulls Integrated Services, Shankara Building Products, Reliance Capital and Reliance Power were among the 335 stocks that hit the lower circuit on BSE.

Meanwhile, 106 stocks, including DHFL, Ruchi Soya and Reliance Home Finance, hit their upper circuits.

Nifty formed a Long Black Day candle

The Nifty formed a Long Black Day candle on the daily charts.

The index is approaching certain critical long-term averages on longer time-frame charts from where it took to support and staged a rally after major corrections in the past.

If the downswing continues even in the next week, then ideally he Nifty should hold these levels to expect some sort of decent pullback rally. In case of a pullback, initial target can be towards 11530, Mazhar Mohammad, Chief Strategist  Technical Research & Trading Advisory, Chartviewindia.in, told Moneycontrol.

Considering the deep cuts and uncertainty surrounding the global markets it looks prudent on the part of traders to remain neutral and wait for some consolidation before initiating long positions, he said.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by experts on Moneycontrol.com are their own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
Ethiopia said it would not attend the current round of US and World Bank-sponsored talks on the GERD which started on Thursday

During a meeting with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Washington on Thursday, Sudan's foreign and irrigation ministers stressed Khartoum's stance that all involved parties must attend Nile Dam negations to reach an agreement on the filling and operation of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Sudan News Agency reported.

Ethiopia previously announced it would withdraw from the current round of US and World Bank-sponsored talks on the dam, which started on Thursday and will conclude on Friday in Washington.

The Ethiopian irrigation ministry said on Wednesday that Addis Ababa will not take part in talks with Egypt and Sudan scheduled for Thursday as it "has not completed its discussions with domestic stakeholders" on the dam. It said it had briefed the US Treasury about the decision.

Ethiopian Ambassador to the US Fitsum Arega also said his country "will not sign any agreement that will give up its right to use the Nile."

Later on Wednesday, the Egyptian foreign ministry said that Cairo "is committed to the course of negotiations sponsored by the US and the World Bank," affirming that Egypt's foreign and water ministers will take part in this week's talks, which are intended to put the final touches on a deal on the filling and operation of the 6,000-megawatt hydropower dam.

"Egypt's participation in the meeting is in line with the Egyptian approach, which reflects goodwill and a sincere desire to reach a final agreement on the filling and operation of the dam," the statement added.

The foreign and irrigation ministers from Egypt and Sudan are in Washington to take part in the current round of talks.

Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan said in January that they would sign an agreement by the end of this month to iron out differences on the filling and operation of the mega-dam.

Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas said earlier this week that the three regional powers had received a draft deal prepared by the US Treasury.

The three countries agreed last month on a schedule for the stages of filling of the dam and mitigation mechanisms to adjust its filling and operation during dry periods and drought. Details about other aspects are yet to be finalised.

Ethiopia hopes the project will help it become the continent's biggest power exporter, but Egypt fears that the dam will diminish its water supply from the Nile.

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Technavio has been monitoring the global industrial pump market since 2017 and the market is poised to grow by USD 1.54 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of more than 7% during the forecast period. Request free sample pages

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227006121/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled global industrial pump rental market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Read the 154-page report with TOC on "Industrial Pump Rental Market Analysis Report by End-Users (industrial, water utility, and construction), Type (centrifugal pumps, positive displacement pumps, and other pumps), Geography (APAC, Europe, MEA, North America, and South America), and the Segment Forecasts, 2020-2024".

https://www.technavio.com/report/industrial-pump-rental-market-industry-analysis

The market is driven by the increasing benefits of pump rental services. In addition, innovations in service delivery are anticipated to boost the growth of the industrial pump rental market.

Volatility in the market often discourages companies in the oil and gas and automotive industries to make large-scale capital investments. In addition, the growing emphasis on reducing operational costs is compelling end-users to rent equipment rather than making the purchase. Equipment rental allows end-users to access the latest smart pumping technologies at cost-effective rates. Moreover, advantages such as flexible work delivery setup, professional services and consulting, timely service responses, and a wide range of product availability for fluid handling systems provided by pump rental service providers are factors fueling the growth of the market.

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View market snapshot before purchasing

Major Five Industrial Pump Rental Companies:

Ashtead Group Plc

Ashtead Group Plc operates the business across segments such as Sunbelt US, A-Plant, and Sunbelt Canada. The company offers industrial pump rental services through its subsidiary, Sunbelt Rentals.

Franklin Electric Co. Inc.

Franklin Electric Co. Inc. operates the business across segments such as Water Systems, Distribution, and Fueling Systems. The company offers industrial pump rental services through its subsidiary, Pioneer Pump.

Holland Pump Co.

Holland Pump Co. manufactures and markets a wide range of pumps and generators. It also offers pump and fuel tank rental services. The company offers dewatering pumps that are rented to customers on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

KSB SE Co. KGaA

KSB SE Co. KGaA operates the business across segments such as Pumps, Valves, and Service. The company offers installation, commissioning, start-up, inspection, servicing, maintenance, and repair services for pumps, valves, and associated components through its KSB SupremeServ brand.

Mersino Dewatering Inc.

Mersino Dewatering Inc. provides pumping, one-pass trenching, contract dewatering, power generation, water filtration and treatment, and drilling services in the US and Canada. The company offers a wide range of rental pumps under its brand, Global Pumps. Some of the products offered by the company include Global Trash Series Pumps, Global High Head Series Pumps, Global Wellpoint Pumps, and Global Submersible Pumps.

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Industrial Pump Rental End-Users Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2020 2024)

Industrial

Water utility

Construction

Industrial Pump Rental Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2020 2024)

Centrifugal pumps

Positive displacement pumps

Other pumps

Industrial Pump Rental Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2020 2024)

APAC

Europe

MEA

North America

South America

Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report, such as the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more. Request a free sample report

Related Reports on Industrials Include:

Global Industrial Valve Actuators Market Global industrial valve actuators market by geography (APAC, Europe, MEA, North America, and South America), product (electric-valve actuators, pneumatic-valve actuators, hydraulic-valve actuators, and mechanical-valve actuators), and end-users (oil and gas, chemical and petrochemical, power, water and wastewater, metals and mining, and other end-users).

Global Water Desalination Pumps Market Global water desalination pumps market by product (centrifugal and PD), application (RO, MED, MSF, and others), and geography (Americas, APAC, and EMEA).

About Technavio

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With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227006121/en/

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The endorsement comes at a critical time for Biden, who has struggled in early nominating contests and considers South Carolina, where he is leading in polls, a crucial firewall. A Wason Center poll of likely Democratic voters in Virginia released Friday found Biden with a modest lead in that state as well, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg in second and third place, respectively.
The Supreme Court on Friday held as illegal the strike called by lawyers on every Saturday for the past 35 years in three district courts of Uttarakhand.

A bench headed by justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah said the strike called by lawyers on flimsy grounds is tantamount to contempt.

The court issued notices to the Bar Council of India and state Bar Council seeking their response.

The apex court had on February 21 rapped the lawyers for resorting to such a "joke" and holding strikes for "flimsy reasons", like bomb blast in a Pakistan school and earthquake in Nepal, on all working Saturdays for more than the past 35 years.

The issue came to the notice of the apex court while it was hearing an appeal against the verdict of the Uttarakhand High Court which had held as "illegal" the strikes or boycotts of court work on all Saturdays by lawyers in Dehradun and in several parts of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar.

In its September 25, 2019 verdict, the high court had referred to the 266th report of the Law Commission, which had analysed data on loss of working days on account of strikes by lawyers and had opined that it affects functioning of courts and contributes to the mounting pendency of cases.

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

Feb. 27, 2020

Ormond Beach

Saturday, Feb. 29

Ormond Beach

Sarasota

Florida

Florida

Todd Beckwith

Ormond Beach

Florida

John Tipton

Volusia County

Lake

Flagler

Seminole

Ormond Beach

Apollo Beach

Clearwater

Deerfield Beach

Fort Myers

Gainesville

Jacksonville

Jacksonville Beach

Lakeland

Longwood

Orlando

Lutz

Downtown Orlando

Pensacola

Sebastian

Sarasota

Tallahassee

Tampa

Wellington

Arizona

Arizona

Florida

Florida

Ormond Beach

Ruskin

Ruskin

Ruskin

University of Florida

Sarasota, FL

Arizona

Arizona

/PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- AltMed Florida will become the first company to open a medical marijuana treatment center (MMTC) in, with a grand opening scheduled at its newest MUV Dispensary at 290 Clyde Morris Boulevard, Suite 2, set for 10 a.m.(approved by the Florida Department of Health's Office of Medical Marijuana Use and pending final approvals from local government).With the opening in, the-based company now has 18 MUV Dispensaries across the state  and continues to be one of the fastest growing MMTC in(source: OMMU).The new MUV Medical Cannabis Dispensary is located within a cluster of several other medical offices and clinics just south of West Granada Boulevard  and about three miles east of Interstate 95."We're excited to be opening another MUV location to serve patients on the east coast ofas we continue our rapid expansion throughout our home state," said AltMed Director of Corporate Affairs. "We're proud to be the first MMTC to open into provide more convenient service for patients in this community."During the grand opening, all licensedmedical cannabis patients will receive 25 percent off their entire first purchase and the first 100 patients will receive a MUV SWAG bag with their purchase. Patients can also order online at muvfl.com for express pickup or delivery after the opening weekend.The Ormond Beach MUV Dispensary will offer an extensive selection of award-winning products including flower, pre-rolls, a wide range of vaporizer pens, metered dose inhalers, topicals, oral sprays, patent-pending encapsulation formulations in its Tinctures, 72-Hour Transdermal patches and transdermal gels. MUV is also recognized for having one of the widest selections of concentrates for patients' needing macro-dosing options."Our dispensaries set the standard for quality products, service and overall patient experience at our current locations and we're excited to offer our premium MUV medical cannabis brand to even more patients as we expand our presence throughout the state," said AltMed Florida CEO. "Our MUV dispensaries are unlike any in the state and we're excited to invite licensed patients throughout, and nearbyandCounties, to visit our newest state-of-the-art location in."Like AltMed Florida's 17 other locations (/San Marco,and/West Palm), the new Ormond Beach MUV Dispensary stands out from others because it's designed as a premium experience  think Apple Store, with a modern, open-concept design and expert staff with extensive training.The MUV brand already has a wide following in other legal medical cannabis markets, including, where it has won five Best ofmedical cannabis awards. MUV products are sold exclusively inat MUV dispensaries because, unlike other states,does not allow wholesale of product between license holders - only products that license holders make themselves can be sold in their dispensaries.For more information about the new ADA-compliant MUV Medical Cannabis Dispensary in, including hours and available MUV products, visit muvfl.com.AltMed Florida is on pace to open 40 MUV Medical Cannabis Dispensaries across the state, all supplied by its 200,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art cultivation facility. Visit this link for images of AltMed Florida's cultivation operations and watch this brief video to see what makes AltMed Florida and its MUV Medical Cannabis Dispensaries stand out.About Plants of, LLC - d.b.a. AltMed Florida, LLC- With a focus on quality and attention to detail, Plants ofhas more than 35 years of experience in providing seedlings to farmers for vegetable and medical product production. Plants offounders, the Dickman Family, are 4th generation farmers with a long history of working in conjunction with the, including an endowed chair specifically dedicated to plant improvement.About AltMed Enterprises - Alternative Medical Enterprises, LLC, headquartered inand doing business as AltMed Enterprises, is a fully integrated medical cannabis company that brings compassion, community engagement and pharmaceutical industry precision to the development, production and dispensing of medical cannabinoids.About MUV - The MUV brand of cannabis infused products was launched inin 2016 and quickly gained international attention and recognition. In its first six months alone, MUV received four best ofmedical cannabis awards, including two first prizes for its proprietary Ethanol extractions that are the basis of all MUV products.Forward-Looking Statements - To the extent any statements made in this press release contain information that is not historical, these statements are forward-looking in nature and merely express our beliefs, expectations or opinions. For example, words such as "may," "should," "estimates," "predicts," "continues," "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "intends," "potential," "strategy" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations or estimates and involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to these differences include, but are not limited to, the following: (i) our ability to implement our business strategy of distributing high quality cannabis products where permissible under applicable law; (ii) availability and cost of additional capital; (iii) our ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified employees and management; (iv) the impact of federal, state or local government regulations; (v) competition in the cannabis industry; (vi) our ability to generate revenues; and (vii) litigation in connection with our business. All forward-looking statements included in this press release and attributable to us or any person acting on our behalf are qualified by this cautionary statement. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and, except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, regardless of whether new information becomes available, future developments occur or otherwise.SOURCE AltMed Florida
Russian scientists have been scouring a remote Siberian lake for traces of 'cosmic matter' to prove that a meteor caused the 'Tunguska event' explosion in 1908.

The event saw an explosion above the lake flatten 770 square miles of Siberia, and scientists believe it was caused by a meteor exploding miles above the surface.

The leading theory is that a space rock entered the atmosphere at 33,500 miles per hour and burst before hitting the ground due to increasing speed and pressure.

However, no evidence of space rock has been discovered in the area, which has led to speculation a meteor may not be the actual cause of the explosion.

Other theories include a volcanic eruption, a comet made mainly of ice, a black hole colliding with Earth and help from aliens shooting a meteor.

Local Evanki people believed it was a visitation by an angry god called Ogdy.

The expedition say finding 'cosmic matter' in sediment samples from Lake Zapovednoye will go a long way to proving the meteor theory is true.

Scroll down for video

The team of scientists worked to take sediment samples Zapovednoe Lake, the site of the Tunguska event in 1908 in the hope of finding evidence a meteor caused the explosion

The event saw an explosion above the lake flatten 770 square miles of Siberia but a mystery has long surrounded its cause due to a lack of physical evidence - they know it happened due to eyewitness reports and millions of trees being destroyed

An Italian team of researchers captured images of fallen trees caused by the massive explosion in 1908 when they surveyed the site in the 1990s

Eye witnesses described it looking like 'the sky was split in two' and some 80 million trees were wiped out, but no significant space rock hit the ground.

Despite no deposits being found, researchers have located sediments relating to the immediate aftermath of the explosion in Lake Zapovednoye, some 25 miles from the epicentre of the explosion at the point it hit the ground.

'The mystery of the Tunguska catastrophe worries both scientists and the public', said biologist Dr Arthur Meidus, deputy director of a nearby nature reserve.

'We discovered a distinguishing light-coloured layer in sediments of Lake Zapovednoye,' she told the Siberian Times.

The content of the sediment layer - potassium, titanium, rubidium, yttrium, and zirconium - allowed them to tie it to the consequences of the Tunguska explosion.

'This way we know which layer of sediments might contain particles of extraterrestrial origin,' Meidus said.

The next stage involves a 'search for micro-particles' from space in the lake's sediment layers dating from 1908 to 1910.

'The meteorite is not here as a physical body but the traces of the extremely powerful explosion are, which is what is currently studied by researchers.

'Many of us still hope to unravel the scenario of 1908 disaster.'

Scientists from Novosibirsk Institute of Nuclear Physics, Novosibirsk Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Tunguska Nature Reserve and Krasnoyarsk Biophysics Institute are all involved in the research.

'There was a bang in the sky and a mighty crash. The crash was followed by a noise like stones falling from the sky, or of guns firing. The earth trembled,' said a native Siberian some 40 miles from the epicentre.

It appeared to be Armageddon. 'I became so hot I couldn't bear it, as if my shirt was on fire,' said another account.

This confocal X-ray microscope is being used by the research team to get a better understanding of what makes up the sediment - they say if they find certain types of chemicals it will hint at a cosmic origin

Early studies of the core the team have taken from the sediment do seem to show some evidence of cosmic matter - that is matter not common on Earth

'I wanted to tear off my shirt and throw it down, and then the sky slammed shut. A strong thump sounded and I was thrown a few yards.'

It caused shockwaves as far away as Britain and dust from the explosion lit up the night sky in its wake in Europe and even America.

From the first Soviet expeditions to this remote region of Siberia, the puzzling aspect was a lack of debris or craters on the surface.

Italian scientist Luca Gasperini, from the University of Bologna, says the crater-shaped Lake Cheko, five miles from the epicentre, is the missing link.

Yet this theory was strongly disputed by leading Russian scientists.

Researchers predict that by studying the sediment they will be able to establish unequivocally that it was a meteor explosion in the atmosphere.

They say lessons can then be drawn for future incursions by space rocks.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 28, 2020 - 05:20 | All, World, Coronavirus

The head of the World Health Organization on Thursday urged countries around the world to take necessary measures to prevent the new coronavirus from becoming a pandemic, saying the situation has reached "a decisive point."

"If you act aggressively now, you can contain this virus. You can prevent people getting sick. You can save lives," WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus said in a press briefing.

"Our message continues to be that this virus has pandemic potential and WHO is providing the tools to help every country to prepare accordingly," he said.

(World Health Organization Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus (L) meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Jan. 28, 2020, to discuss how to curb the spread of a new coronavirus)

Related coverage:

Abe's abrupt call to close schools amid virus triggers confusion

Malaysian woman tests positive for coronavirus after Japan trip

IOC president "fully committed" to Tokyo Olympic schedule

The WHO chief indicated that the situation is pressing, saying that over the past two days the number of new cases outside China has exceeded the number of new cases within the country.

At the same time, Tedros said, "This virus is not influenza. With the right measures, it can be contained," noting that evidence from China suggests there does not appear to be widespread community transmission.

In late January, the WHO declared the outbreak of the new coronavirus originating from China a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
The Minority in Parliament is warning of the imminent collapse of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) over pilled up debts.

According to them, the impact of the law that caps funds that flow into the National Health Insurance Fund and the non-settlement of claims are bringing the health sector to its knees.

The Ranking Member on the Health Committee of Parliament, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, addressing the press, called for the immediate payment of NHIS arrears

Whiles the industry is getting financially suffocated as a result in a delay in the claims, the president, during the 2020 State of The Nation address, described the National Health Insurance as working adequately. This is a demonstration of insensitivity to the plight of the service providers and the beneficiaries.

One more way by which the NHIS is being collapsed is the introduction of the year mark funds capping and realignment Act 2017, 947 and we have insisted that the NHIS must be taken off it and must not be capped. The beneficiaries of the NHIS and service providers are handicapped today because of this capping law and the NHIS is on the verge of collapse. We, therefore, call for immediate settlement of the arrears to the service providers.

The minority also appealed for some restraint from the protesting service providers.

It has come to our attention that some service providers have decided to withdraw their services from the National Health Insurance Scheme although we share in their plights, we are appealing to them for the sake of the ordinary Ghanaian whiles we request for the government to honour its part of the contract with immediate effect.

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) had earlier raised concerns over the government's failure to promptly pay National Health Insurance claims to health facilities across the country.

The association said the issue of a delayed payment of claims needs to be addressed with immediate effect to avert the possibility of reverting to the 'cash and carry' system.

The Health Insurance Service Providers Association of Ghana (HISPAG) threatened to withdraw some of its services from March 2020 if arrears owed its members by the government through the National Health Insurance Scheme is not paid. Strong and robust NHIS

Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, speaking to some Ghanaians in Norway as part of his 12-day working visit to Europe has described the NHIS as strong and robust.

Three or four years ago, when you provide your National Health Insurance Scheme card to the hospitals, they will ignore it and say, you have to pay. So we had to go out of our way with careful husbandry and prudent management to pay off the indebtedness to get the service back on track. I can say that today, we are currently on the NHIS.

In fact, between 2016 and now, we have increased the membership by over two million more subscribers and all this is an indication our country is working again, the President said.

No more credit to NHIS institutions

In line with the protests, the Chamber of Pharmacy Ghana says it will continue to enforce its decision not to supply medicines on credit to National Health Insurance accredited health facilities.

According to the Chamber, it will only rescind its decision until service providers pay their debts in full.

It resorted to this course of action to forestall any potential repercussions on the companies under the Chamber, from the delayed reimbursement by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) through the Health Service Providers.

--citinewsroom
By Express News Service

KOCHI: The Additional Special Sessions Court issued a bailable arrest warrant against actor Kunchacko Boban for failing to turn up for witness examination as part of the trial in the actor abduction case on Friday. Actor and director Geethu Mohandas, who turned up at the court, was examined as a witness on Friday.

The court had issued summons to Geethu Mohandas, Samyuktha Varma and Kunchako Boban March 14, 15 and 16 witnesses in the case. The examination of Geethu started at 11 am and continued till 1. 30 pm. The afternoon sessions started at 2.30 pm and continued till 4.15 pm. The chief examination of Geethu by prosecution lasted for nearly one hour. Later, the counsel of actor Dileep who is an accused in the case held. Counsels of other accused persons did not cross-examine the actor.

The court decided to give up Samyuktha as a witness in the case. The decision was taken considering that her testimony related to the case is similar to one made by Geethu.

However, when Kunchako Boban's turn came in, he was not present at the court. He did not even file an absent petition and did not communicate about his absence to the prosecution counsel as well. The court decided to issue a bailable warrant against him. The warrant was handed over to police officials of Nedumbassery Police Station where the case actor abduction case was registered. He has been asked to present at the court on Wednesday. Nedumbassery Police will serve a notice to Kunjako Boban and he will have to execute a bail from the police station.

The court also decided to give up the director and ad-maker Sreekumar Menon as a witness who was to be examined on Saturday. The decision was taken as his statement after prosecution submitted that his deposition is not relevant for the case.

The next sitting will be held on Wednesday when actor Rimmy Tommy, actor turn politician Mukesh MLA and film production controller Bobin. Mukesh may not be present as State Assembly begins from Monday.
Press Release

28 February 2020

Rosewood Hotel Group and its inspiring brands - Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, New World Hotels & Resorts, and KHOS - continues on a steady path of growth with new signings and openings in the world's most evocative destinations and a curated pipeline of projects that invite discovery and originality.

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Rosewood Hotel Group signed 10 new hotel transactions in 2019, including breakthrough deals in high-profile destinations globally. The Group's pipeline is at its strongest in history, with 32 projects under development, including 21 for Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, five for KHOS and six for New World Hotels & Resorts. "In addition to growing our hotel pipeline, we have intensified our focus on luxury branded residential development, both as part of a hotel project, or in some cases, on a stand-alone basis," says CEO Sonia Cheng.

Steady and Selective Growth

Now numbering more than 40 hotels and resorts in 19 countries under its three brands, the Group is highly selective in the pursuit of trend-setting properties with like-minded, visionary partners.

Throughout Asia, seven Rosewood Hotels & Resorts properties have opened in the past 24 months, including the brand's new global flagship hotel and residences in Hong Kong and the highest hotel in the world in Guangzhou. The brand debuted in Southeast Asia with the opening of architecturally dynamic hotels in Bangkok and Phnom Penh, a heritage landmark hotel in Yangon, and an intimate forest retreat in Luang Prabang. Also, at Rosewood Phuket, opened in 2017, Rosewood launched Asaya, the brand's integrative wellness concept. Today, the Group operates a total of 19 hotels in Asia, including the New World Hotels & Resorts portfolio with its prominent locations in gateway cities in Greater China, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Further expansion of the Rosewood Hotels & Resorts collection is underway with future openings planned for Greater China in Chengdu (2023), Shenzhen (2023), Taipei (2024), Ningbo (2024); and for Southeast Asia in Hoi An, Vietnam (2023) and Hermana Mayor, Philippines (2024). The coming months will see the launch of the Group's first incubator hotels in China for the innovative KHOS brand and the New World Hotels & Resorts is also expanding into India, with a planned opening in Jaipur (2023) and soon announcing a second opening in the Rajasthan region. This momentum has generated exceptional interest in the Group from development partners across the continent. Further growth will be announced for Shanghai, North Asia and the Pacific in the coming months.

In recognition of its expanding presence in Europe and the Middle East, the Group is forming a regional headquarters for EMEA in Amsterdam, Netherlands to support its growth. In Europe, the Rosewood brand has been meticulously introduced in prime locations in key gateways and is now targeting leisure destinations that inspire a sense wonder and joy. Italy, Spain and the Netherlands have continued as a focus for future expansion, while openings in Vienna, Munich, Venice and a second London property have already been announced.

The growth impetus in Europe has extended into the Middle East, where a regional flagship Rosewood Doha hotel and branded residences property was signed in 2019. The long-standing affinity for luxury hospitality renders the Middle East strategic to the group's future expansion, building upon the current presence in Jeddah and Abu Dhabi. In the Middle East, the growth focus is on Saudi Arabia where the Kingdom's unprecedented transformation for a new era of travel fits perfectly with the Rosewood brand's trailblazing reputation for refined style and timelessness.

In the Americas, the Group is also transforming. In 2019, Rosewood Miramar Beach opened in Montecito, California, and a breakthrough management contract was also announced in Hawai'i for the iconic Kona Village resort. In early 2021, Rosewood Sao Paulo will open, marking the brand's debut in South America with a hotel that will set a new standard for luxury accommodation on the continent. In excess of USD300 million is also being invested in renovations in various legendary Rosewood properties, including Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas; The Carlyle, a Rosewood Hotel in New York City; Rosewood Washington, D.C.; Rosewood Mayakoba on Mexico's Riviera Maya; and the re-opening of Rosewood Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. The pipeline continues to grow in the Americas with upcoming significant deal signing announcements for California, Mexico, as well as in the Caribbean.

Rosewood Residences - A Life Without Reservations

Expansion into branded residences is also a main focus area. With 15 existing residential properties in 10 countries and 14 under development, nearly half of the Rosewood Hotels & Resorts pipeline includes a residential component. Rosewood Residences come in two main categories  for-sale residences and for-lease serviced apartments, both included as part of a Rosewood hotel. The launch of stand-alone Rosewood-branded residences is also underway, creating a new category of residences.

"We are expanding our residential resources in order to better support our owners and developers in their sales and marketing processes while strengthening relationships with buyers of Rosewood-branded residences," says Karl Bieberach, chief development officer for Rosewood Hotel Group. "Within each ultra-luxury Rosewood Residence, the unique culture of the dynamic locale is embraced and showcased from start to finish. This model will continue to be at the forefront of all future developments we lead across the globe."
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera issued a flurry of subpoenas Thursday in a widening public corruption investigation started after former Public Works Director Mohammed Nurus arrest on fraud charges last month.

Herreras office issued 14 subpoenas to firms with ties to either Walter Wong, a San Francisco building permit consultant, or Zhang Li, a billionaire real estate developer from China.

Were not going to stop until we get to the bottom of this, Herrera said in a statement.

The city attorneys office said the investigation was focused in part on 555 Fulton St., a troubled mixed-use project being developed by R&F Properties, a Chinese company where Zhang is CEO. The company is one of the largest owners of luxury hotels in the world.

Wong, Zhang and several of the business entities subpoenaed Thursday have previously been linked to the investigations into Nurus alleged wrongdoing.

Neither Wong nor Zhang has been charged with a crime.

FBI agents raided Wongs offices on Jan. 28, the same day that Nuru and San Francisco restaurateur Nick Bovis were arrested on charges of wire fraud. Neither Wong nor Zhang was mentioned by name in the federal complaint against Nuru and Bovis, which details a number of alleged schemes the pair concocted to steer city contracts to Bovis businesses.

Both Nuru and Bovis appeared in court briefly Thursday for status conferences  updates with the court  on their respective cases.

Last month, federal officials alleged that Nuru had accepted a trip to China and gifts, including a $2,070 bottle of wine, from a billionaire Chinese developer in exchange for help with a development deal. The Chronicle has previously reported that Zhang was the billionaire developer referenced anonymously in the federal complaint against Nuru and Bovis.

Additionally, the San Francisco condo project described in the federal complaint matches the 555 Fulton St. project, which is being overseen by Z&L Properties, the U.S. affiliate of Zhangs R&F Properties. The project has stretched over five years with numerous delays and lawsuits.

Other companies served subpoenas Thursday include BKF Engineers, an engineering and construction consulting firm in Redwood City, and Synergy California Green Hospitality Regional Center, a San Jose firm that specializes in investment-based immigration.

None of the entities served subpoenas immediately responded to requests for comment.

In addition to demanding any records that link the company to Zhang and Wong, Herreras office is also seeking documents related to meals at two San Francisco restaurants  R&G Lounge and Waterfront Restaurant  where a city employee or official was present, including proof of who paid for the meals. Those same restaurants were listed in multiple other subpoenas issued Thursday.

In addition to the charges in the complaint against Nuru and Bovis, Nuru has been charged with lying to the FBI and receiving free and discounted building materials at his Colusa County vacation home that he did not disclose.

Nuru resigned his Public Works job on Feb. 10 after cooperating to some extent with the city attorneys investigation.

The city attorneys investigation is being conducted in conjunction with the city controllers office, which is working to determine if any city contracts are tainted and warrant cancellation.

On Feb. 12, the city attorneys office indicated the examination had already yielded some results. Federal officials alleged that Nuru gave Bovis inside information to help him obtain a city contract to build portable toilets for the homeless. The investigation found that Public Works awarded the $171,000 contract to SMTM Technology, where Bovis serves as president.

The company was supposed to deliver the toilets by December, but they never arrived. For that reason alone, the city was able to terminate the contract, which it did this month, Herreras office said. No city money was paid to SMTM.

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.

Herrera also issued a subpoena to Alternate Choice LLC, a business registered to a family member of Wongs. The company, which is registered to the same San Francisco address as Wongs Jaidin Consulting Group, secured a $5.2 million contract with the city to provide trash cans. That contract was first reported by Mission Local. The city attorneys office said Thursday that the contract with Alternate Choice expired last month and was not renewed.

The handling of that contract has now come under additional scrutiny. Supervisor Aaron Peskin said Tuesday that the Alternate Choice contract would be examined in a March 4 hearing before the supervisors Government Audit and Oversight Committee.

Wong has been a polarizing figure in San Francisco. To some, he is an ambitious, self-made immigrant with a matchless ability to shepherd projects through the citys byzantine permitting process. To others, he is an emblem of the citys pay-to-play politics, where the wealthy and well-connected can obtain preferential treatment.

He has also splashed thousands of dollars into San Francisco political campaigns.

Most recently, he donated $500 last year to Mayor London Breeds re-election campaign and $10,000 to Mental Health SF, a ballot initiative championed by Supervisors Hillary Ronen and Matt Haney intended to overhaul the citys mental health care system. The measure was scuttled, however, after the supervisors and Breed brokered a deal to handle the issue legislatively, rather than at the ballot box.

Herreras office issued a separate batch of subpoenas on Feb. 12, demanding documents from several major corporations, including Pacific Gas and Electric Co., construction firm Webcor Builders and the nonprofit San Francisco Parks Alliance.

The documents Herreras office demanded this month suggested the investigation is looking broadly into how money may have been moving between the companies and the nonprofits for years, potentially ending up back at Public Works or other city agencies to pay for things like holiday parties.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Evan Sernoffsky contributed to this report.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DominicFracassa
A weird "minimoon" found circling Earth likely won't be there long.

The scientists who discovered the object on Feb. 15 estimate that, because of the instability of its path through space, the minimoon will likely leave Earth's orbit sometime in April.

Astronomers know little about this minimoon  so little, in fact, that they can't even say if it's an artificial object, such as a dead satellite. However, they say, it's most likely a small asteroid. And although the object poses no danger to Earth, it does show how changeable our neighborhood is.

Video: 'Minimoon' discovered around Earth. Here's its orbit

Related: See the increase in near-Earth asteroids NASA has discovered (video)

The international Gemini Observatory/NSFs National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/AURA/G. Fedorets (Image credit: The international Gemini Observatory/NSFs National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/AURA/G. Fedorets)

Information from the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, which keeps observation records for all known asteroids, shows that the orbit of the minimoon doesn't match the precise orbit of any known human-made object, Kacper Wierzchos, a senior research specialist for the Catalina Sky Survey and co-discoverer of the minimoon, told Space.com. The object's orbit didn't display any perturbations resulting from solar radiation pressure coming from the sun; such wiggles are common for human-made satellites in Earth's orbit.

But Wierzchos said he doesn't want to assume the minimoon is an asteroid quite yet. "The possibility it is artificial still exists, so I am trying to be cautious with every statement," he said. "I'd hate it to be artificial after [everyone is] making a fuss [about the discovery]."

The NASA-funded Catalina program at the University of Arizona is an automated survey that scans the sky for fast-moving objects. On discovery night, Wierzchos and Catalina research specialist Theodore Pruyne happened to be at the telescope, Wierzchos said. On a good night, the survey can study around 40 near-Earth asteroids, which are typically objects astronomers already know about. But on Feb. 15, something in Catalina's observations looked a little funny and didn't match anything known by astronomers. The duo submitted the discovery to the Minor Planet Center, and other astronomers soon confirmed the find.

Data from the Catalina Sky Survey shows the recently discovered minimoon currently orbiting Earth. (Image credit: K. Wierzchos/T. Pruyne/University of Arizona/Catalina Sky Survey)

The newly identified object, now known as 2020 CD3, was very faint when it was discovered, at only about magnitude 20. (The lower the magnitude, the brighter the object.) That faintness stretches the capabilities of Catalina and is beyond what most amateurs can see in their telescopes. (Since then, the object has faded to magnitude 23, making it visible only to the largest professional telescopes.)

In the nights after the discovery, Wierzchos and his collaborators kept following the object to try to determine its orbit. Their calculations showed that, most likely, the object was circling the sun and Earth's gravity snatched it into our planet's orbit sometime in 2017.

How did the minimoon go unnoticed for years? First, the sky is vast, and telescopes have limited time dedicated to searching for asteroids, Wierzchos said. He also cited the minimoon's faintness and highly variable orbit.

2020 CD3 has a "chaotic" orbit, he said, because it is pulled between the gravity of the moon and the gravity of Earth. Its distance to Earth varies between the equivalent of 0.2 and 4.5 Earth-moon distances (The average distance to the moon is roughly 239,000 miles, or 384,000 kilometers.) When Wierzchos last observed the minimoon, on Wednesday (Feb. 26), it was roughly 2.5 lunar distances away, he said.

Because the object's distance to Earth varies, so does its orbital period, or the time it takes the minimoon to circle Earth. Wierzchos said the object's orbital period is difficult to measure precisely, but it seems to be about a month.

Astronomers have observed 2020 CD3 only about six or seven times so far, so they don't have enough information yet to derive a "light curve," which shows the variation in an object's brightness. If they can get that data, Wierzchos said, it may help astronomers determine what kind of asteroid it is (if it is, indeed, an asteroid), how quickly it rotates and how big it is.

Assuming the object is a common type of asteroid called a carbonaceous asteroid, Wierzchos said, the minimoon is probably about the size of a car. Ideally, he hopes other telescopes will be able to observe the object before it drifts away. Telescopes he would like to see participate include Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory (which has radar optimized to get the shape and size of nearby asteroids) or large optical telescopes, such as the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

Wierzchos is scouring past data from the Catalina Sky Survey to see if 2020 CD3 showed up in past imagery and went unnoticed. He hasn't found such observations yet, but he said it's possible that Catalina or other asteroid surveyors, such as the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, have that information in their archives.

Wierzchos hopes Catalina will be able to see 2020 CD3 again before it fades. But astronomers are racing against the gravitational tug-of-war between Earth and our traditional moon. Before long, they know, the minimoon will drift out of sight, bound for new adventures.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook .
/ -- Great Learning, India's leading EdTech company for working professionals has launched a new program, the Data Science Fellows Program, aimed at providing unmatched learning and career outcomes to students and recent alumni (graduated less than 3 years ago) from the top 150 engineering colleges in the country. This competitive, seven-month program will arm the learners with skills that are perfectly calibrated with premium jobs in Data Science and Analytics. With this program, Great Learning has made a strong commitment to invest in the learners' future, and is offering a 'PAY LATER' option modelled on Income Sharing Agreements to students selected for the program. All qualified and interested candidates will have the opportunity to go through the rigorous evaluation process, including a 3-week preparatory bootcamp course called 'DS Foundation Track'.

The Data Science Fellows Program builds on Great Learning's pedigree in Analytics and Machine Learning, where they have consistently been ranked the best in India. The program will help learners transition to highly competitive roles such as Data Scientist, Business Analyst, Data Analyst, Data Engineer, and Machine Learning Engineer. Over the course of 7 months, learners hone these skills through quality learning material, personalized mentorship and support, rigorous assessments, and hands-on application of their learnings on industry-relevant problems and case studies.

While the demand for professionals in this field is high, organizations face a shortage of skilled professionals which is slowing down their business. This new program, introduced by Great Learning bridges this gap in applicable skills through multiple mini-projects, capstone projects and hackathons. Learners will also develop proficiency with tools and technologies such as Python, Tableau and SQL. While the Data Science Fellows Program is intense and comprehensive, it is also designed to allow participants to learn with minimal disruption to their professional and academic commitments.

Speaking on the launch of this new program, Mr. Hari Krishnan Nair, Co-founder, Great Learning said, "Data Science is expected to add significant growth and value to the world's economy and it will impact organizations across sectors. Data is a big asset for organizations today, which are increasingly relying on the application of Data Science and Machine Learning to gain a competitive advantage. To help them make the most of these technologies, these organizations are looking for high-quality talent with ready-to-use Data Science skills. To bridge this gap, and to help young professionals boost their career in Data Science, we have collaborated with Great Lakes Executive Learning to create this program. Our endeavour is to find the best talent from the top engineering colleges, equip them with the skills that companies are looking for, and connect them to corporates seeking such talent."



In 2020, India is expected to be one of the top markets for Data Science in the world, and there has been a 60 percent rise in demand for data science experts in the industry over the last 2 years. According to NASSCOM, there are presently over 1 lakh job opportunities for professionals skilled in data science, and these jobs are among the best paying jobs in the industry today.

About Great Learning:



Great Learning is India's leading ed-tech company focused on upskilling working professionals and students. It offers comprehensive, industry-relevant programs in Business Analytics, Data Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Digital Marketing, Design Thinking and more. Great Learning's programs are developed in collaboration with the world's foremost academic institutions like Stanford University, IIT Bombay, the University of Texas at Austin and Great Lakes Institute of Management, and are constantly reimagined and revamped to address the dynamic growth in the skills and technologies in these areas of study. Great Learning is the only ed-tech company to provide these programs in a blended mode, classroom mode and purely online mode, relying on its vast network of expert mentors and highly qualified faculty to deliver an unmatched learning experience for learners in India and the world over. Having delivered over 11 Million learning hours and with 16,000+ learners, Great Learning believes it is still in the initial phase of its avowed mission - to enable transformative career success in the digital economy for professionals and students across the globe.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/900043/Great_Learning_Logo.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Market Overview The 2D and 3D machine vision systems market is expected to grow significantly at a CAGR of over 15% during the forecast period 2019-2024. According to the Automated Imaging Association, machine vision includes all industrial and non-industrial applications in which a combination of hardware and software components provide operational guidance to devices in the execution of their functions based on the capture and processing of images.

New York, Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "2D and 3D Machine Vision Systems Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecast (2019 - 2024)" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05865715/?utm_source=GNW





- 2D and 3D machine vision systems involve the ability of a computer to observe, inspect, and scrutinize the work performance by employing one or more video cameras, digital signal processing, and analog to digital conversion. Captured data is then transferred to the computer to analyze and provide the desired output. Sensitivity and resolution are two vital aspects of any machine vision system. Resolution is responsible for differentiating between objects whereas sensitivity is the machines ability to detect objects or weak impulses despite dim lights or invisible wavelengths.

- Depending upon the application requirement, manufacturers have choices between 2D and 3D machine vision. 2D machine vision used a digital camera to capture an image of an object. Moreover, 3D machine vision delivers accurate dimensional data, taking application capabilities to a new strategic level.

- Traditionally, 2D machine vision is used for applications like barcode reading, label orientation and printing verification in industrial automation industries. But limitations of 2D machine vision technology include parallax, depth of focus, ambient light, and variations in contrast.

- To overcome this limitation 3D machine vision came into the market. 3D machine vision scanners output a point cloud, which is a digitized model of shape and location of objects. The benefit of 3D machine vision is the ability to stitch together point clouds from multiple scanners. For example, a large object such as a truck frame can be scanned with multiple scanners.

- An increasing need for superior inspection and growing automation are translating into greater adoption of 2D and 3D machine vision technology. Furthermore, the need for increased quality control by consumers and manufacturers coupled with strict government regulations is likely to propel the growth of the market.

- Moreover, the lack of efficient system operators due to inadequate training can slow down the adoption rate of machine vision technology.



Scope of the Report

A 2D and 3D machine vision system is the substitution of the human visual sense and judgment capabilities with a video camera and computer to perform an inspection task. It is the automatic acquisition and analysis of images to obtain desired data for controlling or evaluating a specific part or activity.



Key Market Trends

Increasing Rate of Adoption of 2D and 3D Machine Vision to Spearhead the Growth in the Automotive Sector



- The primary goal of 2D and 3D machine vision systems in the automotive industry is to improve the productivity and quality of the products. Major applications of 2D and 3D machine vision in the automotive industry are quality inspections and machine guidance. In quality control (QC) inspections, 2D and 3D machine vision systems with the various camera installed in it determine whether the parts or subassemblies are defective or non-defective. Based on the feedback from the system, it directs the motion control equipment to accept or reject that particular component.

- On the other hand, in machine guidance systems, 2D and 3D machine vision systems improve accuracy and the speed of assembly robots and automated material handling equipment, which plays a crucial role in the engine chassis marriage operations. Although the applications vary depending on the type of vehicle or model being produced, the general categories of applications are observed in robotics, dimensional gaging operations, assembly verification, flaw detection, paint job verification and code reading.

- According to Neuromation, traffic accidents account for 2.2% of global deaths. With 2D and 3D machine vision and intelligent transportation systems (ITS), drivers are provided with a safety net. These technologies make it possible to mitigate human error in the auto industry, assisting drivers at the wheel with tools and features that keep them from committing serious mistakes and accidents.

- Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) estimates that lane departure warning systems (LDW) could potentially avoid or assuage some 37,000 injury-inducing crashes, 7,529 fatal crashes, and 179,000 crashes yearly.

- With the growth of the ADAS system in Automotives, the requirement of the component like camera led lighting, Lidar, V2X, among others will play a crucial role in the near future for automation and intelligence.

- With the overall automobile production growing at a steady rate, the demand for 2D and 3D machine vision is expected to be influenced over the coming years, supporting market growth.



Europe Held a Significant Share in the Market



- In the past few years, the 2D and 3D machine vision market in Europe have grown from infancy to a market making the region achieve a leading position in the world. This growth in this market came through the assortment of many small and medium-sized innovative companies. The unique network of many research centers spread across the continent, such as IMEC of Belgium, Fraunhofer Institutes of Germany, Wageningen University and TNO universities of Netherlands, CVC and AIDO of Spain, among others, have also contributed to the innovations in this industry.

- The health care expenditure in Europe is very high. Most of the EU countries spend more than 10% of their GDP on health care. Strong growth in the adoption of 2D and 3D machine vision systems are observed in Europe due to its manufacturing and industrial sector.

- EU is one of the most technically advanced and innovative solutions in the global industrial and manufacturing sectors, especially in the automotive, machinery and agricultural engineering. The new funding program implemented by the EU, called Horizon 2020, which puts a special emphasis on strengthening European small and medium enterprises, in both the demand and supply side will aid the market for 2D and 3D machine vision systems in the near future.



Competitive Landscape

The 2D and 3D machine vision systems market is highly fragmented in nature. Due to the presence of several players, the market has strong competition. The major players in the market are Cognex Corporation, ISRA Vision AG, Keyence Corporation, National Instruments, XIMEA GmbH, Omron Corporation, IDS Imaging Development Systems Gmbh, Canon USA Inc., A&B Software, Datalogic S.p.A, Epic Systems Inc., Sick AG, among others.



- August 2019 - Cognex Corporation, unveiled the 3D-A1000 dimensioning system. Featuring breakthrough smart camera technology, the 3D-A1000 solves even the toughest static and in-motion dimensioning challenges to optimize logistics, packaging, and warehousing operations. The 3D-A1000 handles high-speed motion, uneven transitions, curved conveyance, and colorful target surfaces. Additionally, it outputs precise data and accurate measurements and detects overpacked or out-of-gauge items.

- August 2019 - IDS planned to expand its USB3 vision camera range by more than 100 models. This means it will integrate the entire range of sony sensors which are already available with GigE Vision. The new cameras can be used with IDS peak, IDS brand-new, hardware-independent SDK.



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A Connecticut gang member was sentenced to more than 7 years in prison for distributing fentanyl and crack cocaine, according to federal authorities.

Nelson Ferry, also known as 300, 29, of East Hartford, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant to a total of 87 months in prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release, according to federal authorities.

The case arose from an investigation by the FBIs Northern Connecticut Violent Crimes Gang Task Force and Hartford Police Departments Vice and Narcotics Division into the trafficking of narcotics and associated violence in Hartfords South End by members and associates of the Almighty Latin Kings Nation, according to a release from the office of Connecticut U.S. Attorney John H. Durham, attributing the information to court documents and statements made in court.

The investigation included court-authorized wiretaps, physical surveillance and controlled purchases of narcotics, and revealed that two members of the Latin Kings operated separate drug trafficking organizations that distributed fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine, the release said. The organizations used multiple locations to process, package, store and distribute narcotics, and possessed firearms in furtherance of their drug trafficking activities.

Ferry led one of the drug trafficking organizations and operated a trap house on Wethersfield Avenue in Hartford as a distribution point for drug customers, the release said. Between February and April 2018, investigators made several controlled purchases of fentanyl and crack cocaine from Ferrys associate at or near the trap house. On May 22, 2018, Ferrys associate was shot and seriously wounded in an apparent robbery of the trap house. After the shooting, intercepted communications revealed that Ferry solicited his brother-in-law, Dannie Darling, to locate and likely harm the shooter. In order to prevent violence, investigators followed Ferry, sent uniformed police officers into targeted areas, and stopped Darling in his vehicle to identify him.

Ferry has been detained since his arrest in 2018. A search of his residence the day he was arrested revealed about 50 grams of fentanyl, assorted drug paraphernalia and more than $2,700 in cash, the release said.

Ferry pleaded guilty on August 12, 2019 to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and distribution of, 40 grams or more of fentanyl and 28 grams or more of cocaine base, or crack,according to federal authorities.

Darling pleaded guilty to related charges and, on Jan. 22, was sentenced to 51 months in prison, according to federal authorities.

Randy Parkman, 43, of Hartford, pleaded guilty on Jan. 27 to federal robbery and firearm offenses related to the May 22, 2018, shooting at the Wethersfield Avenue trap house, the release said. He awaits sentencing.

The case was investigated by the FBIs Northern Connecticut Violent Crimes Gang Task Force and the Hartford Police Department. The Task Force includes members of the Hartford Police Department, East Hartford Police Department, Connecticut State Police and Connecticut Department of Correction. The Hartford Police Departments Vice and Narcotics Division and Shooting Task Force have provided valuable assistance to the investigation.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian P. Leaming.
A pedestrian wears a protective mask as she walks in downtown in Toronto on Feb. 26, 2020. Canada's top public-health official Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada has begun to look at tracking local spread of the novel coronavirus. (The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette)

Canada Prepared to Monitor for Community Spread of COVID 19: Tam

OTTAWACanadas top public-health official Dr. Theresa Tam says Canada has begun to look at tracking local spread of the novel coronavirus, just as the United States confirmed a case of the virus that does not appear linked with international travel.

The risk of contracting the disease in Canada is low, but for the second day in a row Thursday the number of new cases confirmed outside China was greater than the number of new cases within the country where the illness was first detected.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organizations director general, said the world is at a decisive point in its fight to contain the virus, which has now spread to 46 countries.

In the past 24 hours, seven countries have reported cases for the first time, Ghebreyesus said in a briefing, adding that community-based transmissionwhen the bug spreads within new areas, rather than being brought in by one person at a time from somewhere elseis being seen in more countries as well.

The U.S. confirmed one case of the new coronavirus, or COVID-19, in California Thursday that could not be linked to international travel, suggesting the person contracted the virus within the United States.

The woman, who was not identified, first sought medical care at a hospital in Vacaville, a city of more than 100,000 people about 95 kilometres from San Francisco.

She stayed there for three days but doctors did not test her for the virus because she did not meet federal testing criteria, NorthBay Healthcare Group president Aimee Brewer said in a statement. The patient was then transferred to a Sacramento hospital where she tested positive for the virus.

In a briefing Thursday, Tam said Canada has methods to monitor for possible spread of the virus within the countrysystems typically used to monitor influenzaand if public-health agencies discover the spread of COVID-19 they will work quickly to try to contain it.

I think thats actually something that all countries should be moving toward as well, she said.

In the meantime, while Canada is still trying to keep COVID-19 out of the country, the public health agency is taking stock of the need for personal protective equipment and other supplies to make sure there are enough to go around in case of a pandemic outbreak.

On Thursday night, Quebec public health officials reported the provinces first presumptive case of the coronavirus.

Health Minister Danielle McCann said the patient, a woman from the Montreal region, had recently returned from Iran.

She said testing by the provinces public health lab came back positive for COVID-19, but the result needs to be confirmed by the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg.

Earlier Thursday, Ontario confirmed its first case of person-to-person transmission. The patient is the husband of a woman believed to have contracted the virus in Iran, which has seen a sudden rash of cases in the last week.

The husband was not in Iran with his wife and health officials said is marks the first time Ontario has seen a case of human-to-human transmissionthe patients in all of the other cases had recently travelled to China.

British Columbia has also had a case of person-to-person transmission, also involving a man who had close contact with a woman who had recently been to Iran.

There are 13 confirmed cases of the virus in Canada, all in Ontario or B.C., and so far all have been linked to international travel or close contact with someone who has recently returned to the country.

If Quebecs case is confirmed, it would be the 14th confirmed case of the virus in Canada, and the first outside of Ontario and B.C.

Globally, there are 82,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 2,800 deaths.
Washington: Saudi Arabia took the rare step of suspending religious pilgrimages to the kingdom and limiting entry by tourists to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, while Japan closed all schools in the country from Monday until the end of their spring holidays.

Muslim pilgrims pass around the Kaaba, at the Grand Mosque, ahead of the Hajj pilgrimage in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia halted travel to the holiest sites in Islam over fears of the global outbreak of the new coronavirus. Credit:AP

Suspending religious visits, a source of income and national pride, is a particularly dramatic step for Saudi Arabia, the steward of Islam's holiest sites.

Muslim pilgrims travelling from abroad to perform the non-compulsory Umrah pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca or visit a sacred site in Medina will not be allowed to enter the kingdom, nor will tourists from countries "where the spread of coronavirus represents a danger," according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

The statement didn't identify the countries, but Emirates Airlines said on its website that entry was banned to tourist visa holders with passports from 23 destinations including China, Hong Kong, Macau, Iran, Italy, South Korea, Japan and Thailand.
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RBG Gets Feted at DVF Awards in D.C.: 'We All Want You to Live Very, Very, Very, Very, Very Long'

It was an RBG love-fest  sometimes literally  in Washington, D.C., earlier this month

On Feb. 19, the 11th DVF Awards were held for the first time at the Library of Congress.

It smells and looks like knowledge, Diane von Furstenberg said as she walked onto the red carpe (after saying she really wanted to comb her hair, and asking if anyone had a comb). I am overwhelmed.

The designer, 73, wore a necklace that said in charge in sparkly script along with a black-and-gold sequined dress.

She told reporters that she has always respected and loved Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was honored with a lifetime leadership award.

Shes like the sun, von Furstenberg said. She goes over everybody and warms everybody.

What does DVF like the best about the judge, who has experienced a new level of fame in recent years after a documentary and biopic?

I admire her work and how she stands for justice  and how she stands for equality, von Furstenberg told PEOPLE. I love the clarity of her mind, which absolutely reflects through her blue eyes.

Model and activist Iman told PEOPLE she couldnt believe that she was being honored alongside Ginsburg, 86. The same sentence  Ruth Bader Ginsburg and I? The same room? Yeah.

Iman, 64, said she absolutely could not wait to meet Ginsburg because she is supreme. She is beyond supreme.

RELATED: Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez Often Reference Ruth Bader Ginsburgs Relationship Advice

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the 2020 DVF Awards on Feb. 19 in Washington, D.C. | Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Back row, from left: Karlie Kloss, Lana Condor, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Diane von Furstenberg, Ria Tabacco Mar and (front row, from left) Saskia Nino de Rivera, Priti Patkar, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Iman attend the 2020 DVF Awards at on Feb. 19 in Washington, D.C. | Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

I dont know any female who doesnt want to meet her. Its not just in the United States  anywhere in the world, Iman said.

Shed also forwarded to her daughter a picture of Ginsburg rocking silver, sparkly heels from earlier in the week, a fashion choice that quickly went viral.

Thats it, Iman said. Shes feminine, but shes tough.

On stage, von Furstenberg declared Ginsburg the true rock star. Iman added, The honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a combination of Mt. Everest and Vesuvius.

Story continues

When former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took the stage in a long white jacket and black pants, there was a standing ovation. She introduced Ginsburg and declared her a hero, a trailblazer, an icon.

REALATED: Katie Couric Praises Ruth Bader Ginsburgs Grace, as Justice Says Young People Are My Hope

She is the subject of books, movies and countless memes. Those of us who have attempted her famous workout regime know just how tough she is, Clinton said.

She said shed always admired Ginsburg and was thrilled when her husband, Bill Clinton, nominated Ginsburg to the Supreme Court.

I knew personally, and professionally, what a difference her pioneering work on gender made. I couldnt get a credit card in my own name after I was married. I kept applying for credit cards. I made more money than my husband. A common experience throughout our marriage.

The audience erupted in laughter.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (left) and Ria Tabacco Mar speak at the 2020 DVF Awards at the Library of Congress on Feb. 19 in Washington, D.C. | Shannon Finney/Getty Images

RELATED: RBG Meets Her Star Struck SNL Performer Kate McKinnon in Adorable Run-in at New York City Musical

Ginsburg walked on stage in a voluminous, billowy black jacket that evoked her black robe while in court. The flowy jacket was over a black cocktail dress with a gold, shimmering belt. She wore her hair pulled back in a black, sparkly scrunchie, and wore black patent leather heels.

In my long life, Ive seen great changes and thats what makes me an optimist for the future, she said.

On her hands were lacy black gloves, and she carried a black-and-white snakeskin clutch.

God bless you, von Furstenberg said, giving Ginsburg a hug at the end of the awards ceremony when all the honorees and presenters gathered on stage. We all want you to live very, very, very, very, very long.
The coronavirus epidemic in Iran has cost 26 lives, the health ministry announced February 27, with vice president Massoumeh Ebtekar becoming the latest top official to be infected as the spread appeared to accelerate. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a news conference that the tally of infections had risen to 245 with 106 more cases confirmed -- the highest number for a single day since Iran announced its first infections on February 19.

The Islamic republic has the highest death toll from the virus outside China, where COVID-19 first emerged.

Massoumeh Ebtekar, who oversees women's affairs, is among the latest coronavirus sufferers.

Ebtekar, a former spokeswoman for students who took 52 Americans hostage at the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, is being treated at home and members of her team have been tested, state news agency IRNA reported.

Mojtaba Zolnour, head of parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee, also contracted the virus, appearing in a video posted by Fars news agency saying he was in self-quarantine.

The cleric is a deputy for the Shiite holy city of Qom in central Iran where the country's first cases were detected.

According to media reports, among the deceased in Qom on Thursday was theologian Hadi Khroroshahi, who in 1981 was named Iran's first ambassador to the Vatican.

The announcement by Zolnour comes two days after another top official, deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi, head of the government's coronavirus task force, said he too had contracted the virus.

On Wednesday, Iranian authorities announced domestic travel restrictions for people with confirmed or suspected infections.

They also placed curbs on access to major Shiite pilgrimage sites, including the Imam Reza shrine in second city Mashhad and the Fatima Masumeh shrine in Qom.

Visitors to the shrines will be allowed to visit on condition they are provided "with hand-washing liquids, proper (health) information, masks", Health Minister Saeed Namaki said.

They must "not gather together in groups but just pray and leave", he said.

In a rare move, authorities announced the cancellation of the main Friday weekly prayers in Tehran, Qom and Mashhad as well as in the capitals of 22 of Iran's 31 provinces and other infected areas.

School closures have been extended in affected areas and universities are to remain closed for another week starting from Saturday.

"All of these decisions are temporary and if the situation changes, we might intensify or ease them," Namaki said.

In a message of thanks to doctors and nurses, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he hoped their efforts would help "eradicate this sinister virus soon".

International health experts have expressed concern about Iran's handling of the outbreak. But Tehran insists the situation has been "improving".
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IndusInd Bank announced elevation of its consumer banking head Sumant Kathpalia as the new managing director and chief executive with effect from March 2020.

As previously advised to the exchanges, the bank's Nomination and Remuneration Committee and the board had considered and submitted the name of a potential candidate for the role of MD and CEO to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), seeking approval for the appointment, it said in a release.

"The Bank has received a communication from the RBI today, approving the appointment of Sumant Kathpalia, who currently heads the Bank's Consumer Banking business, as the MD & CEO for 3 years, with effect from March 24, 2020, post the retirement of Romesh Sobti, the current MD & CEO," it said.

Kathpalia is a career banker with over 33 years of experience in large multinational banks such as Citibank, Bank of America, ABN AMRO and IndusInd Bank.

He has successfully held several leadership roles over his career with a focus on driving business growth and innovation. He has diversified experience across various functions including business strategy, sales and distribution, operations, systems, risk and credit management and financial management.

Kathpalia is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a commerce graduate from Hindu College, Delhi University.

The private sector bank promoted by the Hinduja group commenced operations in 1994.

As on December 31, 2019, Induslnd Bank had 1,851 branches/ banking outlets and 2,721 ATMs spread across 746 geographical locations of the country. The bank also has representative offices in London, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Warning: Distressing content

A shearer has admitted stamping on and punching sheep in Victoria's far east after a damning undercover video captured a series of beatings.

Toka Tai Rickus, 21, has pleaded guilty to abusing sheep. Credit:

Toka Tai Rickus, 21, pleaded guilty to abusing livestock at a shearing station at Neuarpurr, on the Victorian-NSW border, following a two-year animal cruelty investigation.

Horsham Magistrates Court this week heard that Rickus punched sheep, stamped and stood on their heads and necks, and beat them about the face with electric shearing clippers while working for EP Shearing Contractors in December 2017.
F rances Europe minister today warned Boris Johnson that a December deadline for ending Brexit trade talks could risk the level of ambition for a deal.

In a speech in London, Amelie de Montchalin was expected to urge the two sides not to let their hopes be damaged by imposing a rigid deadline on the negotiations.

In a riposte to Michael Gove, who yesterday told MPs the UK will not trade away our sovereignty, she was expected to tell an audience at Chatham House that the EU would not trade away its own sovereignty in a deal with the UK.

France is seen by UK negotiators as likely to be the most challenging of 27 EU countries when talks begin on a future relationship on Monday.

Pariss demands for a guarantee on fishing rights to British waters are a potential sticking point.

Ms de Montchalin, inset, was set to say that with the political Brexit behind them, the EU and UK could talk as two sovereign powers to build a new relationship, with the strong ties of Britains 40-year EU membership not disappearing.

But she was expected to add that the EU would decide for itself how to trade with third countries  and, like the UK, it would not trade away its independence in any deal. Ms de Montchalin was also set to say that it would be wrong to let the level of ambition be affected by deadlines.

France intends to keep on fighting common challenges with the UK, including climate change and international security.

Formal talks on a future EU-UK relationship, spanning trade, security and fishing, start in Brussels on Monday between the EUs Michel Barnier and British negotiator David Frost.
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"Security-savvy organizations today understand that intelligence-driven security operations are the best path to reduce risk, says Dan Maier, Anomali Chief Marketing Officer. Anomali ThreatStream is the industrys leading threat intelligence platform, integrating best-in-class intelligence collection, management, and integration with the industrys most comprehensive marketplace for threat intelligence and analysis tools (the Anomali APP Store). PolySwarm is a natural fit with Anomali, offering our customers superior insights into potentially malicious objects via their crowdsourced network of security experts and AV companies.

Anomali ThreatStream aggregates and organizes feeds from multiple trusted partners, providing diverse threat intelligence within their platform. PolySwarm seamlessly integrates via an API and allows Anomali users to obtain file and URL reputation services with a single click, in real-time, from a marketplace of leading commercial and researcher-driven malware detection engines. PolySwarm, through its suppliers, enriches samples with diverse threat indicators and allows threat hunters and security operation center (SOC) analysts to search for and identify relationships between diverse malware families and threat indicators.

Anomali plays a critical role in the threat intel market helping analysts gain better insight on cybercriminals and nation-state adversaries thereby, helping organizations better understand their risk and mitigation strategies, says Steve Laskowski, Chief Strategy Officer at PolySwarm. Anomali users can easily trial and purchase our malware intelligence directly from Anomali and their global reseller channel.

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Anomali delivers intelligence-driven cybersecurity solutions. Anomali AltitudeTM platform solutions include Anomali ThreatStream, Anomali MatchTM, and Anomali LensTM. Private enterprises and public organizations use Anomali to harness threat data, information, and intelligence to make effective cybersecurity decisions and detect and respond to threats. The Anomali partner program provides access to threat feeds from all layers of the web and delivers seamless integrations into leading security infrastructure technologies. The Anomali Threat Research Team provides actionable threat intelligence that helps customers, partners and the overall security community to detect and mitigate the most serious threats to their organizations. Anomali customers include more than 350 global organizations, many of the Global 2000 and Fortune 500, and large government and defense organizations around the world. Founded in 2013, it is backed by leading venture firms including GV, Paladin Capital Group, Institutional Venture Partners, and General Catalyst. Learn more at http://www.anomali.com

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PolySwarm is a threat detection marketplace where anti-malware software, authored by antivirus companies and specialized security experts, compete to detect threats, millions of times per day. With a global force of security experts and antivirus companies combining at a single access point, accuracy and early detection are rewarded. Enterprise users benefit from this deeper coverage of the malware landscape and unique threat intelligence. For more information, please visit polyswarm.io or try PolySwarm free at https://polyswarm.network/

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Just 3 days before the start of the Geneva Motor Show 2020, the organizers have announced that the show has been cancelled

In a bid to tackle the rising concerns over Coronavirus pandemic, the Swiss government has decided to implement a temporary ban all public events in the country which will see participation of over 1,000 people. The ban will stay effective till March 15, thereby bringing the shutter down on the Geneva International Motor Show 2020 (GIMS) before it even began. The most prestigious automotive show in the world was originally scheduled to take place between March 3 to March 15.

The 90th edition of the Geneva Motor Show was set to stage numerous high-profile world premieres like the previous editions. The exhibitors, most of them global OEMs, have been working for several months on products and concepts to be showcased at the Geneva Motor Show. The last minute cancellation is going to be a huge loss for PalExpo (venue of the show), exhibitors, visitors who have made travel plans, local hotels and businesses that have made arrangements based on the sudden inflow of people for the expo.

Even before the Swiss governments decision to prohibit large public gatherings, the stakeholders of GIMS 2020 have been making extra-ordinary arrangements to reduce the chances of Coronavirus infection. All most all exhibitors had opted to cut down the staff presence at their stalls to absolute minimum. The show organizers had vowed to do their bit to tackle the pandemic by issuing warning to the attendees, increasing the rate of cleaning and disinfection. However, given the rising concern over the outbreak in Italy, a country with which Switzerland shares border, going ahead with the automotive show would have been extremely risky.

Speaking about the cancellation, Maurice Turrettini, Chairman of the Foundation Board of organizers, said, We regret this situation, but the health of all participants is our and our exhibitors top priority. This is a case of force majeure and a tremendous loss for the manufacturers who have invested massively in their presence in Geneva. However, we are convinced that they will understand this decision.

2020 Geneva Motor Show Tickets Refund

The authorities have announced that the tickets which are already purchased will be refunded and more details about this process will be available on the shows official website. The construction of the stalls at the venue have very nearly have been completed by now. OEMs put a lot of money, time and thought into designing and constructing the show stalls, so the losses are going to be staggering.

So what happens to the world premieres that are scheduled to take place at the GIMS 2020? Well, as expected, the car makers will resort of live streaming of the event, mostly from alternate venues. For example, BMW has already announced on Twitter that it will carry out the program as planned, including the world premiere of i4 electric concept, through live streaming from Munich.
STORY LINK Pound Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) Exchange Rate Soars as Risk-Off Market Moods Weighs on Aussie

GBP/AUD Exchange Rate Rises by 1% as Coronavirus Fears Weaken Australian Dollar

GBP/AUD Exchange Rate Soars on Improving UK Consumer Confidence

GBP/AUD Outlook: Aussie to Remain Subdued on Covid-19 Fears

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The Pound Australian Dollar (GBP/AUD) exchange rate soared by 1% today, with the pairing currently trading around AU$1.978 as the risk-sensitive Aussie continues to struggle over fears of the coronavirus (Covid-19) weakening the global economy.The Government of Victoria, Australia, warned that it is estimated that in a worst-case pandemic influenza scenario, Australias [GDP] could suffer a decline of greater than 10%.With China being Australias largest trading partner, fears of a short-term negative impact on the Chinese economy is leaving many Aussie investors wary of a similar downturn for Australias economic growth early this year.Petr Krpata, an Analyst at ING, was also downbeat in his analysis:The Australian Dollar has been the key G10 underperformer in the past few days as virus-related fears rose again. Despite yesterdays stabilisation in risk sentiment (triggered by a recovery in equities), selling pressure on AUD has continued to mount.The Australian Dollar (AUD) is likely to remain under pressure into the weekend as markets continue to gauge the economic impact of Covid-15.The Pound (GBP) rose against the weaker Australian Dollar (AUD) after the UK GfK consumer confidence gauge improved the third straight month in a row in February.Joe Staton, Client Strategy Director at GfK, was measured in his analysis, however, saying:Although the index remains south of positive, the trajectory remains upwards. The only 'known unknown' is the potential impact of coronavirus on behaviour, confidence and spending patterns. This is a developing story, watch this space.The GBP/AUD exchange rate performed well today with UK being more insulated from the economic impact of the coronavirus on the global economy. As a result, the Sterling has benefited against risk-correlated currencies like the Aussie, which is far more at risk to a slowdown in the Chinese economy.Analysts at MUFG were downbeat about their forecast for the Pound, however, commenting:While country-by-country tallies of COVID-19 shows an un-alarming total of 15 in the UK, its near 5% current account deficit means a tightening of financial market conditions leaves currencies like the pound vulnerable to the downside.Pound (GBP) investors are looking ahead to Februarys UK Markit Manufacturing PMI, which is expected to hold at 51.9. Any surprise jump in the gauge, however, would prove GBP-positive.AUD traders, meanwhile, will be awaiting Sundays release of Australias AiG Performance of Manufacturing Index for February. Any signs of improvement in Australias manufacturing sector would benefit the AUD/GBP exchange rate.However, with coronavirus dominating market attention, we are unlikely to see the Aussie make any significant gains until further containment of the virus is officially announced. As a result, we could see the Australian Dollar continue to struggle from risk-off market mood.

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NEW DELHI - Muslims in a northeastern neighbourhood of Indias capital returned for weekly prayers at fire-bombed mosques on Friday, two days after a 72-hour clash between Hindus and Muslims that left at least 40 dead and hundreds injured.

Five days after the riots started, authorities have not said what sparked the worst communal violence in New Delhi in decades. Hospitals were still trying to identify the dead as the toll continued to rise, and residents of the areas affected by the riots were still seeking loved ones.

If they burn our mosques, we will rebuild them again and pray. Its our religious right and nobody can stop us from practicing our religion, said Mohammad Sulaiman, who was among about 180 men who prayed on the rooftop of a mosque that was set on fire in the unrest.

Tensions between Hindu hard-liners and Muslims protesting the Hindu-first policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modis government had been building for months when the violence exploded Sunday night, on the eve of U.S. President Donald Trumps first state visit to India.

Kapil Mishra, a local leader of Modis Bharatiya Janata Party who lost his Delhi state assembly seat in recent elections, demanded at a rally Sunday that police shut down a Muslim-led protest in the city or else he and his followers would do it themselves.

And it appears they did.

Hindus and Muslims attacked each other with guns and swords, metal rods and axes, leaving the streets where the rioting occurred resembling a war zone.

Al-Hind hospital, a small clinic with two doctors, was the nearest medical facility for many of the victims. When the riots broke out, it turned into a chaotic emergency ward, its doctors dealing for the first time with injuries such as gunshot wounds, crushed skulls, stabbings and torn genitals.

It was horrific, as if evil had pervaded and housed itself in the hearts of the mob, said M.A. Anwar, the doctor on duty,

Religious tensions in the area where the clashes occurred still simmered on Friday, tempered by a heavy police presence. On one riot-torn street, Hindus shouted Jai Shri Ram, or Long Live Ram, the Hindu god, as Muslims attempted to reach a mosque damaged in the riots.

Several Muslim residents told The Associated Press that most Muslim families had locked their homes and fled the area.

The passage of a citizenship law in December that fast-tracks naturalization for some religious minorities from neighbouring countries but not Muslims earlier spurred massive protests across India that left 23 dead.

The protest violence is the latest in a long line of periodic communal clashes that date to the British partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, when the country was split into secular, Hindu-majority India and the Islamic state of Pakistan.

The protection of Indias religious, cultural and linguistic diversity is enshrined in its constitution. But communal tensions have occasionally flared into deadly riots, beginning with partition itself, when Hindus living in what is now Pakistan migrated to India, and Muslims in modern India to Pakistan.

Clashes claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and people of other religions.

This weeks death toll marked the worst religiously motivated violence in New Delhi since 1984, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards, triggering a wave of riots that resulted in the deaths of more than 3,000 Sikhs in the capital and more than 8,000 nationwide.

In 1992, tens of thousands of Hindu extremists razed a 16th-century mosque in northern India, claiming that it stood on Rams birthplace. Nearly 2,000 people were killed across the country in the riots that followed.

The religious polarization that followed saw Modis right-wing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party emerge as the single largest party in Indias Parliament.

In 2002, the western Indian state of Gujarat erupted in violence when a train filled with Hindu pilgrims was attacked by a Muslim mob. A fire erupted  it remains unclear whether it was arson  and 60 Hindus burned to death. In retaliation, more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the state.

Modi was Gujarats chief minister at the time. He was accused of tacit support for the rampage against Muslims, but a court ultimately cleared him of wrongdoing.

Violent large-scale clashes between Hindus and Muslims last took place in New Delhi in 2014, months after Modis party came to power, in a largely poor neighbourhood close to where this weeks rioting occurred. That violence left three dozen people injured.

Ashutosh Varshney, a professor at Brown University who wrote a book about Indian riots, said the worst has been averted  at least for now.

If it had reached the scale of Delhi 1984 or Gujarat 2002, it would have doomed Indian politics for many years to come and brought India closer to the kind of Hindu-Muslim polarization that the current ruling party would ideally want, but is finding it hard to manufacture, Varshney said.

BJP leaders, who have sought to demonize Muslim protesters as a threat to India, may see some gain from the violence, Varshney said.

But it comes at a cost, the international perception that India under Modi has become ungovernable, he said.

Government spokesman Raveesh Kumar denied the Modi government had inflamed religious tensions and failed to protect Muslims.

These are factually inaccurate and misleading, and appear to be aimed at politicizing the issue, he said. Our law enforcement agencies are working on the ground to prevent violence and ensure restoration of confidence and normalcy.

He added that Modi had publicly appealed for peace and brotherhood.

We would urge that irresponsible comments are not made at this sensitive time, he said.

___

Associated Press writer Anirrudha Ghosal contributed to this report.
While crossing Nebraska on a Greyhound bus, Dr. Dyson was struck by an epiphany: The theories were mathematically equivalent  different ways of saying the same thing. The result was QED. Feynman called it the jewel of physics  our proudest possession.

By the time Dr. Dyson published the details in 1949, a doctorate must have seemed superfluous. He was appointed professor of physics at Cornell in 1951. Teaching, he soon realized, was not for him. In 1953, he became a scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study, where he spent the rest of his career.

Dr. Dyson did not begrudge Feynman, Schwinger and Tomonaga the Nobel they received in 1965. I think its almost true without exception if you want to win a Nobel Prize, you should have a long attention span, get hold of some deep and important problem and stay with it for 10 years, he told The Times Magazine in 2009. That wasnt my style.

He preferred to move from problem to problem, both theoretical and practical. In the late 1950s, consulting for General Atomics in San Diego, he helped design the Triga reactor, which is used for scientific research and nuclear medicine, and worked on Project Orion, which aimed to explore the solar system with an enormous spaceship powered by exploding nuclear bombs.

With the signing of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963, Dr. Dysons dreams of reaching Saturn by 1970 were put to rest. Despite his disappointment, he came to support the treaty and, sometimes as a member of Jason, an elite group of scientific advisers, consulted with the government on disarmament and defense.

But his interests were not moored to the earths surface. Any advanced civilization, he observed in a paper published in 1960, would ultimately expand to the point where it needed all the energy its solar system could provide. The ultimate solution would be to build a shell around the sun  a Dyson sphere  to capture its output. Earthlings, he speculated in a thought experiment, might conceivably do this by dismantling Jupiter and reassembling the pieces.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 13:47:27|Editor: huaxia

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ZHENGZHOU, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Another 14 counties in central China's Henan Province have been removed from the country's list of impoverished counties, local authorities said Friday.

This means all 53 impoverished counties in the province have shaken off poverty, the provincial government told a press conference.

So far, more than 6.5 million rural people and 9,484 villages have bid farewell to poverty in Henan, with the poverty headcount ratio dropping to 0.41 percent in 2019 from 8.79 percent in 2013.
Laval, February 28 2020-- Professor Stephane Lefrancois, a researcher at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), is working on Batten disease, a neurodegenerative genetic disease that primarily affects children. His research focuses on the most common form of the disease - Batten CLN 3 - which is caused by mutations in the protein of the same name and for which there is still no cure.

Children affected by Batten disease are born with no symptoms and develop normally, learning to walk, talk, and interact with others. Between 5 and 8 years of age, however, they start to regress. "The first symptom that leads parents to seek medical attention for their child is a loss of vision caused by retinal degeneration. This is followed by cognitive regression characterized by speech and mobility impairment. The life expectancy for people with the disease is usually around 30 years," explains Lefrancois, who has been working on Batten disease for more than ten years.

A key protein

Professor Lefrancois and his team in Laval are delving into the cellular biology of the CLN3 protein, which has been synthesized with the help of its namesake gene, in order to better understand the protein's function and identify therapeutic targets. They recently published findings about a key role played by CLN3 in the Journal of Cell Science. In the absence of the disease, CLN3 ensures a constant supply of proteins to the endosome, an intracellular compartment that serves as a sorting centre for proteins within the cell.

"Under this cellular process, a receptor acts as a truck that carries proteins from the Golgi apparatus, the production factory, to the sorting centre. Thanks to CLN3, this truck normally returns to the Golgi to pick up another load of proteins in an ongoing cycle," the researcher explains. "In the presence of the mutations, however, the truck doesn't make the return trip. Instead, it is redirected to the lysosomes, where it's broken down as cellular waste."

Because the receptor is degraded, the proteins vital to lysosome function can't reach their destination. In consequence, these organelles are no longer able to break down cellular waste, so they accumulate and cause cellular degeneration. "We think that children with the disease develop normally in their early years because their cells compensate by making more trucks. It's possible that the cells can't keep up, so the system becomes dysfunctional and starts to degrade," adds Professor Lefrancois.

Professor Lefrancois is working with a team of European researchers to re-establish normal CLN3 function with a promising drug. The aim is to prevent degradation of the receptor so it can continue carrying proteins.

Worldwide, it is estimated that one person in 100,000 has Batten's disease in all its forms.

###

About the study

The article entitled CLN3 regulates endosomal function by modulating Rab7A effector interactions, by Seda Yasa, Graziana Modica, Etienne Sauvageau, Abuzar Kaleem, Guido Hermey, Stephane Lefrancois, was published in the Journal of Cell Science. The research was supported by the Joint Programme on Neurodegenerative Diseases Grant, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the National Contest for Life Foundation Germany and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the Fondation Armand-Frappier et du Fonds de recherche du Quebec - Sante (FRQS).

DOI : 10.1242/jcs.234047

About the INRS

The Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) is the only institution in Quebec dedicated exclusively to graduate level university research and training. The impacts of its faculty and students are felt around the world. INRS proudly contributes to societal progress in partnership with industry and community stakeholders, both through its discoveries and by training new researchers and technicians to deliver scientific, social, and technological breakthroughs in the future.

CONTACT: Audrey-Maude Vezina, Communications, INRS, 418-254-2156 (cell), audrey-maude.vezina@inrs.ca
(Newser)  A new poll shows that Joe Biden, who needs a victory in South Carolina's Democratic primary Saturday, has nothing to worry about. He leads Bernie Sanders, 36% to 26%, in a Monmouth University poll and Tom Steyer, 35% to 17%, in a Clemson University Palmetto Poll. Steyer was third at 15% in the Monmouth poll, and Sanders was third in the Clemson one at 13%, USA Today reports. The former vice president's lead in those polls was much larger than earlier polls have found. "A key metric for Biden in this make-or-break state is that his support appears to be firm," the Monmouth polling director said Thursday.

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Biden did poorly in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, and he's hoping a solid victory in South Carolina will revive his candidacy heading into Super Tuesday next week, per Politico. Even that scenario might not work out for Biden, per the Hill, given Sanders' popularity in the next stops, including California. An encouraging sign for Biden is that the South Carolina polls show him running strong in demographic categories across the board, while Sanders lags well behind among seniors, women and voters who say they're moderate or conservative. The Monmouth poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points; it's plus or minus 3.8 points for the Clemson poll, per USA Today. (Read more Joe Biden 2020 stories.)
Amid the carnage on world markets caused by fears surrounding the coronavirus health catastrophe, not all shares were deeply in the red.

On a day when the FTSE 100 dropped 3.2 per cent and shares of Willie Walsh's International Airlines Group plummeted 8.4 per cent, stock in Britain's aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce was the great exception, rising by 3.2 per cent.

Airlines are in the front line, so the fall in shares of BA's parent company was not surprising in spite of operating profits of 2.7billion in 2019.

Taking off: On a day when the FTSE 100 dropped 3.2 per cent, stock in Britain's aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce was the great exception, rising by 3.2 per cent

What made the performance of Rolls remarkable is that it has considerable operations in China and its chief executive, Warren East, estimates that there could be a 2.5 per cent impact on the engineer's revenues in February alone.

In spite of this setback and the changes made in working procedures in Singapore to cut down the risk of infection, East is in a chipper mood.

He is starting to see an end to the problems of the Trent 1000 engine, fitted on many of the world's long-haul carriers, which required nine fixes to make them more durable.

Eight faults have been resolved and the ninth will be tested this spring. Insurance which Rolls has against claims from customers came good, with a payout of 170million making a dent in the overall 2.4billion cost of the fix spread over several years.

What is really pleasing for Rolls stakeholders is that simplification of the group is paying off, with free cash flow of 911million  way above expectations.

On land, Rolls is making progress in developing small nuclear reactors, based around submarine power systems, which could generate power for e-fuels for aircraft.

There is also the potential for this to be the replacement technology on sites of retired UK nuclear plants such as Hartlepool.

Backing research and development eventually could have a big pay-off.

CBI shunned

Normal expectations would be for a Tory government to reach out to business. Boris Johnson's administration is different.

I am told that the main representative organisation, the CBI, is not welcome in Downing Street.

It has never been forgiven for an unwavering 'Remain' stance before and since the June 2016 referendum.

One narrative is that the CBI is not very representative of anyone, in that even though big business beasts pay its fees, the tendency is to send executives way down the pecking order to gatherings and dinners, and for chief executives to give it a wide berth.

It is not that Johnson lacks interest in enterprise. He is inspired by tech and innovation and plans to supercharge the R&D budget to 0.7 per cent of output, or 18billion, by midway through this Parliament.

He is hyperbolic in his praise, talking vaguely of a place in Oxfordshire which could soon be 'the hottest place in the atmosphere', and is more than willing to open his doors to AI, robotic and biotech entrepreneurs.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) no longer enjoys much support since it parted company with its Brexit-supporting director-general John Longworth during the referendum campaign.

There is a desire to find the right business interlocutor, but the best-known groups are in the naughty chair and this is a Government that doesn't forgive and forget.

One possibility might be the former Engineering Employers' Federation, renamed Make UK, which is perceived as closer to the manufacturing heartlands than the CBI.

But for the moment, the only close engagement is idiosyncratic.

Barclays escape

Failure of the Serious Fraud Office case against three Barclays executives  Roger Jenkins, Tom Kalaris, and Richard Boath  will be seen as a humiliation for the agency, which is believed to have spent as much as 32million on the prosecution.

It is a bit alarming that it took the jury only six hours to come back after hearing evidence of great complexity. Juries have spent more time on an open-and-shut case of GBH following a road-rage incident.

It was in the public interest to pursue bad bankers with a role in the financial crash. The SFO head Lisa Osofsky, who learnt her trade in the hard knocks city of Chicago, had no other choice.

If nothing else, this costly exercise demonstrates that Britain's fraud laws need a wholesale overhaul.
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman urges investors in Tupperware Brands Corporation (NYSE: TUP) with significant losses to submit their losses now . A securities fraud class action has been filed against the Company and certain investors may have valuable claims.



Class Period: Jan. 30, 2019  Feb. 24, 2020

Lead Plaintiff Deadline: Apr. 27, 2020

Sign Up: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/TUP

Contact An Attorney Now: TUP@hbsslaw.com

844-916-0895

Tupperware (TUP) Securities Class Action:

The Complaint alleges that Defendants misrepresented and failed to disclose that Tupperware lacked effective internal control over its financial reporting, which led to Tupperware falsely reporting accounts payable and accrued liabilities for its Fuller Mexico beauty business. The Complaint also alleges that the Company provided inflated EPS guidance and concealed that, in light of its dire prospects, Tupperware would need relief from its $650 million Credit Agreement.

The truth emerged on Feb. 24, 2020, when Tupperware announced it would not timely file is 2019 annual report due to an ongoing internal investigation into the accounting for Fuller Mexicos accounts payable and accrued liabilities. Tupperware also revealed that it expected 2019 EPS to be $0.00-$0.34, representing an 800% year-over-year decline. Finally, based its grim 2020 outlook, the Company disclosed that it was forecasting the need to revise its $650 million Credit Agreement to avoid a debt acceleration.

On this news, Tupperware shares crashed over 45% in a single trading day.

Were focused on investors losses and proving that Tupperware inflated Fuller Mexicos accounts payable and concealed certain liabilities to appear more profitable, said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation.

If you purchased shares of Tupperware and suffered significant losses, click here to discuss your legal rights with Hagens Berman .

Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Tupperware should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email TUP@hbsslaw.com .

About Hagens Berman

Hagens Berman is a national law firm with nine offices in eight cities around the country and eighty attorneys. The firm represents investors, whistleblowers, workers and consumers in complex litigation. More about the firm and its successes is located at hbsslaw.com . For the latest news visit our newsroom or follow us on Twitter at @classactionlaw .

Contact:

Reed Kathrein, 844-916-0895




Entergy Texas has donated $50,000 to the Lamar Institute of Technology to help students complete the 32-week Utility Line Technology program.

Mandy Clayton, director of LITs development foundation, said six scholarships have been awarded this semester. The donation should cover five years.

Usually, the scholarship is a max of $1,000, Clayton said.

Entergy services 23 counties in eastern Texas.

The utilitys donation is important for a school like LIT, where 3 out of 5 students receive some financial aid.

Were thankful for partners like Entergy Texas, who are committed to supporting the workforce of tomorrow, Lonnie L. Howard, president of Lamar Institute of Technology, said in a statement.

LIT data forecast 18.2% job growth for linemen and other utility positions over the next five years, due in part to coming retirements. Some 40% of the current workforce is 45 or older.

Frederic Huff, superintendent at Entergy Texas Beaumont office, said that demand is also growing locally from expanding communities fueled by recent investments in the oil and gas industry. As people move into Southeast Texas grows, they will require more power for their homes, Huff said.

Huff began his career in the industry in 2001 after graduating from the LIT program.

He started out climbing utility poles for Time-Warner before he went to college and landed a job with a small electric co-op near Livingston after graduating. He has since spent the last 11 years at Entergy, moving from the field to management.

A scholarship helped Huff at LIT.

I think it really gives people an opportunity, he said. It opens doors and makes it where people dont have to worry about how theyre going to afford it.

Todays graduates will have licenses for performing utility line work and driving the large industrial trucks needed in the field, but their first work experiences will likely be spent in the apprenticeship programs of whatever utility or contractor they join.

Huff said a graduate from LIT will likely have the skills and experience to easily adapt to Entergys training program and rise to the level of journeyman.

It wasnt a requirement to graduate from a program when I got hired, and it really isnt one now, but graduates have several advantages over someone coming right off the street, he said. I know I can hire a person (from LIT) and slide them directly into our program.

Leslie Harris, instructor of the Utility Line Technology program, said his students currently have a 100% placement rating right now and expects that to continue into the near future.

A top-tier lineman in Beaumont can usually expect around $58,850 a year, according to Harris.

The thing that attracts most people is the money linemen make, but then you get hooked on helping other people, he said. When you roll up after a storm, they are so happy to see you. When their lights come on, they start clapping and hurrahing and then you roll on.

jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com

twitter.com/jdickjournalism
28 Feb  Hong Kong actor Philip Keung recently admitted that he was surprised to find that everything is fine in Malaysia amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

As reported on Mingpao, the actor who arrived home in Hong Kong after his trip to Penang with his wife earlier, stated that Malaysians didn't seem to be affected too much by the pandemic.

"They go on with their lives as usual. People over there have a good self-discipline," he said.

Philip also stated that after his experience in Malaysia, he realised that the outbreak was not as dire as he would have thought.

"The most important thing is to protect yourself and to take precautionary measures. We need to always maintain our health and personal hygiene no matter whether there is an outbreak or not," he said.

Asked if he restocked face masks while he was in Malaysia, the actor said he didn't as there is already enough for everyone at home.

Malaysia has confirmed a total of 22 coronavirus-positive cases as of 25 February 2020, with 15 of them involving Chinese nationals. Among the patients, 18 have recovered and have been discharged.

(Photo Source: Philip Keung Facebook)
28.02.2020 LISTEN

The Auditor-General is mandated by law to conduct audit into the accounts of all public organisations as by law established. These audits are conducted from time to ascertain whether all state agencies, ministries, departments and all assemblies are working within the financial regulations that govern how public funds must be expended.

On the 24th of February, 2020 a story captioned "Why Auditor-General audited GETFund and said many scholarship beneficiaries were not needy" and published by Graphic Online said the Auditor-General, Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo has undertaken a performance audit of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) between 2012 and 2018 and has come to a conclusion that many of the scholarship beneficiaries within the period audited were not needy. The story continued that, the Auditor-General has sent the report to Parliament containing names of 86 beneficiaries some of whom are lecturers, politicians, public servants, parliamentarians, media practitioners, heads of public institutions and many others. According to the Auditor-General, GETFund spent GH1.8 million on the 86 beneficiaries who in the view of the Auditor-General are not needy but benefited from the Fund. In the story "the purpose of the audit was to ascertain whether GETFund acted in accordance with its mandate as stated in the GETFund Act, 2000 (Act 581) with regards to administration of funds for scholarships. The audit covered the period 2012 to 2018" (www.graphic.com).

When the story came into the public domain, it has sparked a lot of hue and cry due to the names of some prominent citizens whose names have come up as beneficiaries. It is reported that, current Education Minister Matthew Opoku-Prempeh, Procurement Minister and Deputy Majority Leader in Parliament, Sarah Adwoa Safo as well as the Executive Secretary of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Prince Hamidu Armah have all benefitted from the scheme.

Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh the MP for Manhyia South benefited by studying National and International Security at Harvard University and receiving $12,800 for living expenses and $11,200 as tuition fees while Hon. Sarah Adwoa Safo the MP for Kwabenya also benefited by studying at the Harvard Kennedy School enjoying $12,800 in allowances with $17,004 in tuition fees. Dr. Armah who studied Philosophy in Education at the University of Aberdeen, was given 38,400 for living expense in addition to 33,000 for tuition fees.

Apart from these politically exposed individuals whose names have come up as beneficiaries of GETfund monies, other non-politically exposed ones including Prof. John Gatsi of University of Cape Coast Business School among others are also beneficiaries. When questioned about the appearance of his name on "behind the news" programme on radio Ghana, he said he applied for help to further his educations. When he was asked whether he was aware that the beneficiaries must be attending school in Ghana, he answered that he did a distance course outside Ghana. So even though he was studying abroad he was living in Ghana and that the amount of money the state spent on him wasn't as huge as others. But, what he forgets is that, he was still a foreign student.

In this scenario, I cannot fault him so much because after all he is contributing to knowledge as an academic. The only concern I would want to raise is: the PhD he decided to pursue outside Ghana, couldn't that program be offered in our country? If yes, then, whoever decided to give him such an assistance from the Fund was inappropriate.

In an interview with Lawyer Maurice Ampaw, private legal practitioner on GBC Radio Central on the 25th of February, 2020, he said the GETFund act was enacted to assist brilliant but needy students but the names he has heard are not needy people and in his view such persons should be made to refund the monies to the secretariat. He further said Adwoa Safo has had a relationship with MP for Assin Central who is a prominent citizen of this land and could have paid the fees so why rely on GETFund? He further added that her father, Apostle Dr. Kwadwo Safo Kantanka is a very wealthy man who has supported a lot of philanthropic activities and could easily have supported his daughter.

Lawyer Ampaw explained that in his understanding of the law, the GETFund was created to assist needy but brilliant students who are supposed to study in Ghana. He continued that studying abroad is very expensive and in his view to finance such education by the fund was improper and that the amounts being quoted could have paid for the fees of several needy but brilliant students in Ghana. He concluded by saying that, Ghana is a country in need and we normally go about borrowing to support our country's development and to spend such monies on such persons was not only inappropriate but also unfair.

But with all these explanations, what does the Object of the Ghana Education Trust Fund say? Sections 2 (1) The object of the Fund is to provide finance to supplement the provision of the education at all levels by Government.

(2) For the purposes of attaining this object, the monies from the Fund are to be expended as follows:

(a) to provide financial support to the agencies and institutions under the Ministry of Education, through the Ministry, for the development and maintenance of essential academic facilities and infrastructure in public educational institutions, particularly, in tertiary institutions;

(b) to provide supplementary funding to the Scholarship Secretariat for the grant of scholarships to gifted but needy students for studies in the second-cycle and accredited tertiary institutions in Ghana;

(c) to contribute monies from the Fund towards the operation of student loans schemes for students in accredited tertiary institutions through loan scheme mechanisms and agencies, approved by the Minister;

(d) to provide through the National Council of Tertiary Education, grants to tertiary institutions,

(i) to train brilliant students as members of faculties;

(ii) to undertake research and other academic programmes of relevance to national development; and

(e) to provide monies to support such other educational activities and programmes for the promotion of education as the Minister in consultation with the Board may determine.

From the above, then I can agree with Lawyer Ampaw to a greater extent but, section 2(e) of act 581 gives the minister certain discretionary powers to provide monies to support such other educational activities s/he in consultation with the board may determine. This may be the provision under which those people who are claimed not to be needy and people are complaining as not being needy and benefited from the GETFund may fall.

This to me wasn't wrong but possibly its application might have been abused overtime. Such discretion could have been directed to training of critical manpower in areas that the country would need but such persons cannot be trained locally. There are certain of expertise that, the country might need going forward and in such areas, the GETFund managers could be allowed some discretion to help such ones to travel abroad to acquire such critical knowledge. But, this particular one where some MP were given scholarships to pursue areas of expertise that might necessarily be in need outside the country is far fetched. Even if a needy but brilliant student were allowed to study abroad to acquire knowledge in areas whose training cannot be acquired in Ghana, that would not be a problem provided such an individual would contribute to faculty or would come back and serve mother Ghana.

One thing that amazes me when this story broke out has been the reaction from members of the general public towards the beneficiaries. Why not ask the authorities who decided to grant them such opportunities?

The former Director of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) Sam Garba has denied any wrongdoing in the manner in which he administered scholarships during his time in office. Mr Garba who served between 2012 and 2016 said he only followed the existing procedure in awarding scholarships upon assumption of office and cannot be blamed for wrongdoing because he has discharged his work with diligence and the findings against him was scandalous, unfounded and ridiculous.

Speaking on eye witness news Mr. Sam Garba said The request to make comment on the attached performance audit report by the auditor general did not come to me from the auditor general. It came to me from my successor to bring the audit to closure as standard practice. I did not invent anything; I saw and met a procedure and structure in the administration of the scholarship. So I found it satisfied, picked it up and utilized in the administration of the scholarship. Indeed, that procedure was to award a scholarship to people who were studying outside the country. The Auditor-General is not the law (citinewsroom.com).

Reacting to the findings of the Auditor-General regarding GETFund, the MP for Akim Swedru has given the Auditor-General 24-hours to remove his name from the GETFund scholarship list published by his office or face possible court action. The Akim Swedru MP Kennedy Osei Nyarko is said to have received a scholarship to study at the SOAS University of London for a Certificate in Environmental Management. Though an amount of money was not attached to the name, his name appeared on the list of beneficiaries but he has described the report as a big gaffe by the Auditor General since he has never applied or been granted a scholarship by GETFund (www.myjoyonline.com).

In responding to the MP and deputy minister of Agricultures threats, a story captioned "Scholarship saga: Seek redress from GETfund not me A-G to dep. Minister" and published on starrfm.com.gh, the Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo said It should be noted that the information contained in an audit report is from the audited entity, and in this instance, every information or names that is contained in the performance audit report on GETfund came from GETFund, the audited entity. Certainly, my office has no malice or bias toward any individual named as a beneficiary from GETFund in our audit report. Your grievance, therefore, is best addressed by GETFund who provided the audit team with the necessary information and names of beneficiaries during the audit. From this then, it stands to reason that we all hasten slowly with our attacks on the Auditor-General and direct out arsenals appropriately.

For the MP for Akim Swedru to decide to go to court is in the right direction because that is, the best place to seek redress if one finds that his name and reputation has been unduly damaged. But, the question is how come some persons whose names are on the list are claiming they didn't receive any monies from the secretariat? Is it a case that, some other persons took the monies on their behalf? How come the names being bandied around are names of person who are NPP and no names from person whoserved in the NDC administration? This has given room for others to impugning the integrity, competence and fairness of the Auditor-General.

A lady by name Hajia Ramana Shareef is among persons listed by the Auditor-General to have received the scholarship from 2014 to 2018. The former Metro TV journalist is listed as the 46 person to receive tuition - 12,600.00 - and living allowing -  10,130.00 - for her one year MSc. Communication for Innovation and Development course at the University of Reading, UK. Hajia Raman said she was never paid the monies for her tuition and stipend. I waited and waited for the fees to be paid for me to get the visa to leave but it was never paid, (myjoyonline.com) she recounted her ordeal when she spoke to Daniel Dadzie of Super Morning Show on Metro TV. She further deferred the course for year due to the delay in releasing her tuition fees, but GETFund still did not release the funds.

If one reads such stories and when the General Secretary of the NDC Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia describes his son as needy and was able to secure same scholarship for him, then you ask yourself who the needy ones in our society are.

In conclusion, I'm not blaming anyone who has benefited in any way from GETFund in any shape or form but it appears those who are really in need are not getting the benefits as required. The fund was established to help brilliant but needy students but here we are where names of person who have benefited are perceived as not being needy by the general public as revealed by the Auditor-General. We can all do a moral argument and complain or condemn such ones but we cannot comment as if they have done something untoward. Because, if the law doesn't permit, I'm not sure the scholarship would not have been granted to them.

For the politically exposed like the current minister of education Mathew Opoku Prempeh, Procurement Minister Adwoa Safo and the NaCCA boss Prince Hamidu Armah applied and were granted when their party was not in power so the slant to the discussion against them isn't fair.

If we all as people think that, the privileged in society are benefitting at the expense of the needy ones then we need to amend the current law and fine tune it to restrict the discretionary powers of those who administer the funds. From the way Sam Garba has reacted to this report saying among others that he followed what he came to meet and as such has done nothing wrong, indicates that this particular practise might have been in practise long ago.

I'm not a lawyer but my understanding of the GETFund act gives a certain discretion to the minister to grant scholarships. If that is correct then we cannot blame anyone but the law. Those who disagree can test the law and let us all learn from its ruling or better still let us amend the law and remove the discretionary powers inherent. The Auditor-General has surcharged others, so let's all wait with bated breath and see how it goes. We can be very emotional and make moral arguments against others but the law might not necessarily be on our side.

D. C. KWAME KWAKYE

Broadcast Journalist

GBC Radio Central

Cape Coast

Email: asantekwakyek.yahoo.com
MANILA, Philippines  The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Friday said it is investigating a cargo vessel that arrived from China for allegedly violating the countrys maritime security measures against the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

In a statement, the PCG said the captain of Panama-flagged cargo vessel MV Harmony 6 declared false information of its port clearance details when it arrived in the Philippine waters on February 23.

Initial information revealed that the vessel arrived in Changzhou, China on February 13 and left on February 18.

But the ships captain, Vietnamese national Luu Van Loi, allegedly declared that it left China on February 10 in order to fit into the 14-day quarantine period being implemented in all Philippine ports in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.

His crew also allegedly turned off the ships automatic identification system (AIS) from February 19 until its arrival in the countrys waters for its next port call at the Port of Poro Point in La Union.

Under PCGs port guidelines against coronavirus, vessels that came from any country with reported cases of COVID-19 are required to be quarantined for 14 days from its date of departure to its arrival to the Philippine waters before the Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) may conduct health inspection among its crew.

Health inspection is required for the issuance of port clearance.

However, due to the Captains misrepresentation of its date of departure from China, the BOQ team boarded the vessel to conduct the health inspection among its 18 Vietnamese and 5 Indian crew in just six days, instead of the required 14-day quarantine period, the PCG said.

Through surveillance, the PCG command center and the National Coast Watch Center alerted the port state control group in La Union about the alleged misrepresentation and the turning off of the vessels AIS on February 24, a few hours after the BOQ conducted a health inspection on the ship.

Story continues

The PCG said the vessel has been declared under temporary detention at the anchorage area in La Union pending investigation on its alleged violations.

The agency said it will coordinate with the quarantine bureau for the possible filing of criminal charges if MV Harmony 6 will be found guilty of committing violations.

The post PCG probes Panama vessel from China for allegedly violating COVID-19 maritime security measures appeared first on UNTV News.
WASHINGTON - The Iowa Democratic Party on Thursday released updated results of the Iowa caucuses after the completion of a recount requested by the campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg.

In the new results, Buttigieg has 562.954 state delegate equivalents and Sanders has 562.021 state delegate equivalents out of 2,151 counted. That is a margin of 0.04 percentage points.

The Associated Press has reviewed the updated results and will not call a winner, given remaining concerns about whether the results as reported by the party are fully accurate. The Feb. 3 caucuses were beset by technical glitches that led to a delay in reporting the results, inconsistencies in the numbers and no clear winner.

The party plans to certify the results on Saturday. At that point, the caucuses will formally end, and no further changes to the results will be made.

Iowa awards 41 national delegates in its caucuses. As it stands, Buttigieg has 13 delegates and Sanders has 12. Elizabeth Warren won eight, Joe Biden won six and Amy Klobuchar won one.

A final delegate will be awarded to Buttigieg as the candidate with the most state delegate equivalents. The AP will update its tally of the national delegates won in Iowa with that final delegate on Saturday, once the Iowa Democratic Party formally votes to certify the results.

Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price resigned after the caucus fiasco, saying that Democrats deserved better and that he bore responsibility for any failures. Iowa Democrats selected Iowa state Rep. Mark Smith as interim chairman after Prices resignation.

This isnt the first time the AP has decided against calling a race, though it is rare.

The most notable example was in 2000, when the results of the race between George W. Bush and Al Gore were too close to call at the end of election night. The AP decided not to call the race for either candidate. The ensuing recount dispute eventually reached the Supreme Court, which effectively cleared the way for Bush to become president.

___

Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said that the Balakot airstrike carried out by the Indian Air Force had sent a clear message that it was not safe anymore for the terrorists to continue using areas "beyond Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB)" for anti-India activities.

"Balakot reflected our approach against the employment of terrorism as a low-cost option against India. It also indicated that terrorists, terrorist infrastructure and terrorist training facilities in areas beyond LoC and International Border when employed against India, will no longer be safe haven," Singh said at the Centre for Air Power Studies in New Delhi.

"It was made amply clear that terrorism will not remain a low-cost option that can proliferate under veiled threats and bogeys that have repeatedly been voiced by irresponsible and ill-informed leaders from across the border," he added.

The Defence Minister further said that the Balakot airstrike had led to changes in the perception of India in the minds of our neighbours.

"I have little doubt that Balakot strike forced the rewriting of many a manual and rule book across the LoC. Those who preferred to place India in an imaginary understanding of the past were brought into the reality of the present and its potential manifestation in the future," Singh said.

Hailing the operation, Singh added, "Balakot will continue to reiterate India's intent to employ the most appropriate resources for the intended impact, with an element of unpredictability and innovation as an integral part of the endeavour. It is this factor that must remain uppermost in our minds."

On the one year anniversary of the airstrike, Singh also thanked all partners and friends across the globe for recognising the "challenge posed by terrorism to be greater than narrow parochial pronouncements".

Further speaking about the way forward, the Defence Minister said that India had adopted some big structural changes to "tackle threats to our nation", and urged all stakeholders to contribute in making the changes effective.

"We have initiated some major structural changes in the way we intend tackling threats to our nation. It will take some time for the entire set up to be fully operational. This transition time is crucial and we need to keep the guard up," Singh said.

"All stakeholders need to contribute to making these changes effective and efficient. Of course, there will be some teething problems in the initial days. We need to be ready for these and use our professional knowledge to find suitable and effective solutions," he added.

On Wednesday, Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria flew a sortie in MiG-21 of 51 Squadron with two Mirage-2000s and Sukhoi-30MKI from Srinagar airbase to mark the completion of one year of Balakot airstrike.

Last year, the Indian Air Force had carried out an airstrike in Pakistan's Balakot, targetting Jaish-e-Muhammed's (JeM) terror training camps in response to a terror attck on a CRPF convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama in which at least 40 personnel were killed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NEWARK, N.J., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Panasonic is proud to announce additional details regarding the collaboration with Drop, the leading smart kitchen platform, to simplify the lives of home cooks using their appliances.

With customized navigation tailored specifically to Panasonic's NN-GN68KS microwave with FlashXpress Broiler, Food Warmer, Plus Genius Sensor Cooking, users can access several advanced features designed to complement every cooking style. From helpful functions like resizing recipes or offering substitutions for missing ingredients, to recommending the exact length of heating time for perfect results, the integration with Drop was launched with home cooks in mind. Today, there are 50+ recipes available on the Drop Recipes app and 60 additional within a few months for other models.

"Both new and existing Panasonic microwave customers will be delighted by the implications of this collaboration, which provide an opportunity to rediscover the NN-GN68KS's performance and value," said Fumi Usuki, IoT Business Development Senior Manager at Panasonic. "Today's announcement advances Panasonic's commitment to creating experiences for consumers that elevate their quality of life. Home cooks will enjoy this intelligent solution that simplifies the process of creating a first class at-home dining experience."

The most recent model of the NN-GN68KS with FlashXpress Broiler, Food Warmer, Plus Genius Sensor Cooking will be onboarded to Drop's guided cooking recipe format. Coupled with Panasonic's uniquely superior heating elements, the Drop Recipes app enables meals to be prepared faster and more accurately.

"It is a pleasure working with a company like Panasonic and to focus on food and thoughtful design," said Ben Harris, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Drop. "We share a vision for a unified experience in the smart kitchen, and this collaboration will make evident what we can make happen for the consumer."

Learn more at: https://getdrop.com/appliances/panasonic/?utm_source=panasonic

About Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company

Based in Newark, NJ, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company is a division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, the principal North American subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation. The company offers a wide range of consumer solutions in the U.S. including LUMIX Digital Cameras, Camcorders, Blu-ray players, Home Audio, Technics, Cordless Phones, Home Appliances, Beauty, Grooming, Wellness and Personal Care products and more. Panasonic was featured in Fortune Magazine's 2016 ranking of 50 companies that are changing the world and doing well by doing good. Specifically cited were its smart and sustainable technologies, including its contributions to smart cities and the electric vehicle revolution.

About Drop

Drop is the leading smart kitchen platform specializing in recipe and kitchen appliance technology to connect the whole cooking journey. Over 100 different appliance models from brands like Instant Brands, Bosch, Electrolux, GE Appliances, Kenwood, LG Electronics and Thermomix can now be controlled from the Drop Kitchen OS platform and the Drop Recipes app at the center of it all. With offices in San Francisco, Dublin, Ireland, and Zaragoza, Spain, a love for great food is at its core. Each recipe and appliance partner added to the platform makes for an even stronger Kitchen OS, inspiring home cooks to make food more. To learn more visit https://kitchenos.com

Follow Press Updates for Panasonic Consumer Products:

Internet - http://us.panasonic.com/news

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/panasonicusaconsumerpress

Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/panasonicusa_consumer_press

SOURCE Panasonic Corporation of North America

Related Links

www.panasonic.com


Amanda Bynes is enjoying the early days of her engagement to fiance Paul Michael.

The 33-year-old actress took to Instagram on Thursday with a clip in which she opened up on her affection for her beau to more than 359,000 followers.

'I just talked to Paul and he does the cutest baby voice,' said the former child star. 'He's back in Monterrey, which I probably shouldn't be divulging to the internet so I'm not gonna post this video but I love you, your baby voice is so sexy.'

The latest: Amanda Bynes, 33, took to Instagram on Thursday with a clip in which she opened up on her affection for her fiance Paul Michael to more than 359,000 followers

The What I Like About You star stepped out earlier this week to an IHOP restaurant in Los Angeles with Michael, seeming 'very in love,' an eyewitness told In Touch Thursday.

'They were sitting at the back of the restaurant having breakfast,' the eyewitness told the magazine. 'They ordered pancakes and he drank chocolate milk.

The Thousand Oaks, California native and her new love 'were laughing and having fun together,' according to the eyewitness.

Bynes, who is currently residing in a sober living house, went public with her engagement this past Valentine's Day, sharing a post of both of their hands with engagement rings with the caption, 'Engaged to tha love of my life.'

Affectionate: Amanda said that her new beau 'does the cutest baby voice'

Candid: Amanda said in the clip, 'He's back in Monterrey, which I probably shouldn't be divulging to the internet so I'm not gonna post this video but I love you'

Fulfilled: The actress 'seems happy' in the relationship, sources said

New ink: The former child star showcased her new face tattoos and nose ring in the clip

Last week, she appeared next to her beau in a clip in which she apologized for past social media outbursts.

'This is Paul, my fiance, I am so lucky. As you can see, he is drop-dead gorgeous, and he's the best person on the face of the earth,' the All That actress said. 'I feel like I got what is mine - and that is Paul.'

Insiders told People that the couple first met late last year, and that the actress 'seems happy' in the relationship.

Despite Bynes' enthusiasm, 'it's unlikely an actual legal wedding will ever happen,' a source told E! last week, citing the conservatorship in place for the actress set by her parents.

'Amanda's parents are fully aware of her engagement,' the source said, 'and at this point are not approving Amanda to legally get married under the conservatorship.'

Problem: Despite Bynes' enthusiasm, 'it's unlikely an actual legal wedding will ever happen,' a source told E! last week, citing the conservatorship in place for the actress set by her parents
Joe Biden admitted Friday that he was not arrested when he tried to visit Nelson Mandela in his South African prison.

He walked back the much-scrutinized claim on CNN, saying instead that he was separated from members of the Congressional Black Caucus by 'Afrikaners with guns.'

'I wasn't arrested, I was stopped. I was not able to move where I wanted to go,' he said, when asked directly if it was true he had been arrested.

He also changed the location of where the incident happened, having at first claimed it was 'on the streets of Soweto,' moving it to an unnamed airport. And he dropped a claim that he was with 'our UN ambassador' at the time.

Instead he said Friday that it was at an airport suggesting either Johannesburg, near the South African capital, or Cape Town, close to the island prison where Mandela was held by the apartheid regime.

'I was with a black delegation, the CBC, the Congressional Black Caucus. They had me get off a plane,' he said.

Admission: Joe Biden told CNN he was 'stopped' rather than 'arrested' and told another version of what happened which moved it to an airport from 'the streets of Soweto'

Hero: Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in Robbens Island by the apartheid regime for his leadership of the ANC

'The Afrikaners got on in their short pants and their guns. Lead me off first and moved me in a direction totally different.

'I turned around and everybody, the entire black delegation, was going another way. I said, 'I'm not going to go in that door that says white only. I'm going with them.'

They said, 'You're not, you can't move, you can't go with them.' And they kept me there until finally I decided that it was clear I wasn't going to move.

'What they finally did was, they decided they're not going to let the black delegation go through a black door, I'm not going to go through a white door, they finally took us through - if my memory serves me - to a restaurant.'

That account is drastically different from the multiple versions of the anecdote he has told.

Biden, 77, first told the story at a campaign event in Columbia, South Carolina on February 11, as he tried to shake off defeat in New Hampshire, and has repeated it twice more during outreach to black voters.

'This day, 30 years ago, Nelson Mandela walked out of prison and entered into discussions about apartheid,' Biden said in Columbia of the former South African president, who was imprisoned for 27 years by the apartheid government.

'I had the great honor of meeting him. I had the great honor of being arrested with our U.N. ambassador on the streets of Soweto trying to get to see him on Robben Island,' Biden went on.

Then while campaigning in Nevada on February 16, he added a claim about Mandela, that he 'came to Washington and came to my office.'

'He threw his arms around me and said, 'I want to say thank you.' I said, 'What are you thanking me for, Mr. President?' He said, 'You tried to see me. You got arrested trying to see me.'

Joe Biden claimed first that he was arrested in Soweto, a township in Johannesburg, which is nearly 870 miles away from Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town, where Nelson Mandela was jailed

A prison cell is seen on Robben Island, one of the places were Mandela spent 27 behind bars. Some falsely remember that he died in prison, the so-called 'Mandela Effect'

On Sunday at a black history awards brunch (above) in Las Vegas, Biden repeated the tale

On Friday that aspect of the story changed slightly too.

THE MANDELA EFFECT The Mandela effect is the strange phenomenon in which many people remember something in a particular way, but are wrong. The name was created by paranormal enthusiast, Fiona Broome, who was convinced that she remembered Nelson Mandela dying while he was still in prison in the 1980s. But Mandela's death was not until 2013, despite Ms Broome, alongside many others, recalling seeing his funeral on TV in the 1980s. While some people believe that this simply shows that memory isn't as stable as we would like to believe, others, including Ms Broome, suggest that we have gone into a parallel universe, or that time travelers have gone into the past and affected our present. Advertisement

'Long after this, when Nelson Mandela was freed, he came to the United States, he came in my office. He was one of the most incredible men I had ever met. He sat down in my office, thanked me, thanked me for trying to, all the work I did on apartheid - that's the context of it.'

The timing of the incident was no clearer Friday. In Nevada he said it was while he tried to persuade his wife to marry him, which would place it in 1977.

No contemporaneous or other supporting evidence had emerged to support Biden's arrest claim, leading some to compare it to the so-called 'Mandela Effect', a phenomenon in which a person's vivid memory of a historical event or cultural touchstone turns out to be false.

On Tuesday night, after a debate performance which appeared to put him on course to win in South Carolina, if narrowly, his campaign said he had not been arrested, the Washington Post reported.

The Mandela Effect is named for a common false memory that people report, saying they recall Mandela dying in prison in the 1990s. In fact he was freed and went on to become president of South Africa. He died in 2013.

In two retellings of his tale while campaigning in Nevada, Biden's story changed slightly, dating the purported arrest to before he became engaged in 1977.

Soweto, where Biden initially said he was arrested, is 900 miles away from Robben Island. A historically and predominately black suburb of Johannesburg, Soweto is famed for the 1976 uprising there in protest of apartheid policy.

Biden did repeatedly visit South Africa while he was a U.S. senator, but no news reports or contemporary accounts have been found mentioning an arrest.

Biden did not mention such an arrest in his 400-page memoir in 2007.

Andrew Young was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1977 to 1979, and told the New York Times that he had accompanied Biden on several trips to South Africa during that time.

But Young was skeptical that it would even be possible for a sitting member of Congress to be arrested in South Africa back then.

'No, I was never arrested and I don't think he was, either,' said Young, now 87. 'I would not forget going to jail, but I know I did not ever go to jail in South Africa.'
One female passenger who was on board a virus-hit cruise liner off Japan has died, Japanese media reported on Friday, citing the health ministry.

The woman is Japanese and in her 70s, the reports said.

The quarantined Diamond Princess, off Japans Yokohama port has seen hundreds of coronavirus infections. If confirmed, it would be the fifth death from the coronavirus on the vessel.
OAKVILLE, ON, Feb. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. ("APUC") (TSX/NYSE: AQN) announced today that the Board of Directors has declared a dividend of U.S. $0.1410 per share on its common shares, payable on April 15, 2020, to the shareholders of record on March 31, 2020, for the period from January 1, 2020 to March 31, 2020. Shareholders receiving dividends in cash can elect to receive the dividend in Canadian dollars in the amount of C$0.1876.

The common share dividend will be paid in cash or, if a shareholder has enrolled in the shareholder dividend reinvestment plan (the "Plan"), dividends will be reinvested in additional shares ("Plan Shares") of APUC as per the Plan. Plan Shares will be acquired by way of a Treasury Purchase at the average market price as defined in the Plan less a 5% discount.

Pursuant to the Income Tax Act (Canada) and corresponding provincial legislation, APUC hereby notifies its common shareholders that such dividends declared qualify as eligible dividends.

The quarterly dividends payable on common shares are declared in U.S. dollars. Beneficial shareholders (those who hold common shares through a financial intermediary) who are resident in Canada or the United States may request to receive their dividends in either U.S. dollars or the Canadian dollar equivalent by contacting the financial intermediary with whom the common shares are held. Unless the Canadian dollar equivalent is requested, shareholders will receive dividends in U.S. dollars, which, as is often the case, the financial intermediary may convert to Canadian dollars. Registered shareholders receive dividend payments in the currency of residency. Registered shareholders may opt to change the payment currency by contacting AST Trust Company (Canada) at 1-800-387-0825 prior to the record date of the dividend.

The Canadian dollar equivalent of the quarterly dividend is based on the Bank of Canada daily average exchange rate on the day before the declaration date.

About Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp.

APUC is a diversified international generation, transmission and distribution utility with approximately U.S. $11 billion of total assets. Through its two business groups, APUC is committed to providing safe, reliable and cost effective rate-regulated natural gas, water, and electricity generation, transmission and distribution utility services to approximately 804,000 connections in the United States and Canada, and is a global leader in renewable energy through its portfolio of long-term contracted wind, solar and hydroelectric generating facilities representing over 2 GW of installed capacity and more than 1.4 GW of incremental renewable energy capacity under construction.

APUC strives to deliver continuing growth through an expanding global pipeline of renewable energy, electric transmission, and water infrastructure development projects, organic growth within its rate-regulated generation, distribution and transmission businesses, and the pursuit of accretive acquisitions. APUC's common shares, Series A preferred shares, and Series D preferred shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols AQN, AQN.PR.A, and AQN.PR.D. APUC's common shares, Series 2018-A subordinated notes and Series 2019-A subordinated notes are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbols AQN, AQNA and AQNB.

Visit APUC at www.algonquinpowerandutilities.com and follow us on Twitter @AQN_Utilities.

SOURCE Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp.

Related Links

http://www.algonquinpower.com


Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat on Friday said that "the message (of Balakot) was very clear that the kind of proxy war perpetrated on our people will not be tolerated."

The CDS made the statement at a seminar titled 'Indian Air Force: No war, no peace' at Centre for Air Power Studies in Delhi.

"If we have to be prepared for the tasks assigned to us then it is important we maintain credible deterrence at land, air and sea at all times. Deterrence comes from keeping every personnel trained and motivated," he added.

"The credible deterrence comes from the will of the military leadership and intent of political leadership while taking the tough decision. This was amply shown after Kargil, Uri attacks and Pulwama attack," he added.

Apart from Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria also addressed the gathering.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi, Feb 28 : At a time when the Modi government has tried to project a pro-farmer image through the recent Union Budget, the RSS's economic wing has given a war cry against BT crop giant Monsanto.

The ideological mentor of the ruling BJP, the RSS shot off a letter to Minister of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare Narendra Tomar, arguing the 'trait value' charged from farmers for Bollgard-II, a variety of cotton plants, should be written off completely considering the patent for the plant in question has expired.

Trait value is something similar to a royalty charged from farmers.

Dr Ashwani Mahajan, the Co-convener of RSS's economic wing, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch which had started the debate against government signing a proposed trade deal called RCEP which was finally put into the back burner, argued that the BT crop giant Monsanto has already charged Rs 7000 crore from farmers.

"Monsanto company (now Bayer) had been charging exorbitant price of cotton seeds in the name of Bt 2 trait, exploiting our poor farmers and had collected more than Rs 7,000 crore from them, before Cotton Seeds Price (Control) Order 2015 came into being," he wrote.

He says the patent itself is questionable which was challenged at multiple forums, even that patent has allegedly expired and, most importantly, the premium is charged from farmers with the claim that worms or insects cannot trouble this cotton's plantation has also been found to be false, according to Mahajan.

"As IN214436 patent which is the underlying patent for BG-II version of Bt Cotton hybrid seeds has expired, the trait value for BG-II version of Bt Cotton hybrid seeds should also be considered as zero, like in the case of BG-I version, while fixing the sale price for BG-II version." Earlier, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in its Cotton Seeds Price (Control) Order, 2015, abolished the controversial trait value of BG-I version of Bt Cotton hybrids.

Moreover, Mahajan says such patents, which he claims have now expired, are deemed illegal in India. Speaking to IANS, Mahajan who is often credited for stalling the RCEP, said, "In India, we don't allow patenting seeds. Yet they claim a patent here." This is not the first time he wrote to the Ministry about it.

Last year on March 1, Mahajan wrote to the Ministry arguing against the trait value as illegal. But this time he claims, even that questionable patent has expired on November 4, 2019. So all the premium charged since has been unduly usurped, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch claims.

Another key argument is the claim over the crops' contamination. "It has repeatedly conceded by the Ministry that Bt 2 trait has not been working for Pink Bollworm and there was no justification for charging trait value of any amount, against the interests of the farmers," he wrote.

While Monsanto is a global corporate giant and wields massive influence, the argument of bringing farmers' interest may be prove to be tricky for the Centre.

The Modi government has gone out of its way to project a pro-farmer image in this Union Budget where apart from goodies, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also announced Kisan Rail and Kisan Udan -- the train and flight services dedicated for farmers.

With Mahajan making a strong case for farmers, the Centre is faced with a tricky situation.
As More Turkish Troops Killed, Ankara Says It Will Not Stop Syrian Refugees Reaching Europe

Turkey, faced with a possible new wave of Syrian migrants and dozens more dead Turkish soldiers in Idlib, will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, a senior Turkish official said as President Tayyip Erdogan chaired an emergency meeting.

An air strike by Syrian government forces in Syrias northwest Idlib region killed 33 Turkish soldiers and wounded others, the governor in Turkeys southeastern province of Hatay said separately early on Friday.

Turkeys communications director, Fahrettin Altun, said that in retaliation, all known Syrian government targets were being fired on by Turkish air and land support units.

Erdogan has warned that Turkey would launch a full-scale offensive to repel Syrian forces unless they pulled back. He held an emergency meeting with staff for several hours late on Thursday to discuss the attack, which raised the military death toll to 54 so far this month.

Nearly a million civilians have been displaced in Idlib near the Turkish border since December as Russia-backed Syrian government forces seized territory from Turkey-backed Syrian rebels, marking the worst humanitarian crisis of the countrys nine-year war.

The threat to open the way for refugees to Europe would, if executed, reverse a pledge Turkey made to the European Union in 2016 and could quickly draw Western powers into the standoff over Idlib and stalled negotiations between Ankara and Moscow.

In anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Idlib, Turkish police, coast guard and border security officials have been ordered to stand down on refugees land and sea crossings, the Turkish official told Reuters.

We have decided, effectively immediately, not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land or sea, said the official, who requested anonymity. All refugees, including Syrians, are now welcome to cross into the European Union.

The burden of hosting refugees is too heavy for any single country to carry, the official said.

Turkey hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees and has repeated it cannot handle more. Under the 2016 deal, the European Union has provided billions of euros in aid in return for Ankara agreeing to stem the influx of migrants into Europe.

Grave Concern

Rahmi Dogan, the Hatay governor, said none of the 32 Turkish troops wounded in Thursdays air strike were in critical condition.

The U.S. State Department said the United States was very concerned about the reported attack on Turkish soldiers.

We stand by our NATO Ally Turkey and continue to call for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia, and Iranian-backed forces, a State Department representative said in a statement.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced grave concern about the escalation in northwest Syria and reports that dozens of Turkish soldiers had been killed in an air strike, and repeated his call for an immediate ceasefire, a spokesman said.

Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump may hold a phone call to discuss Idlib after the attack on Turkish soldiers, two Turkish officials told Reuters.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assads forces, supported by relentless Russian air strikes, have pushed hard in recent months to retake the last large rebel-held region in northwest Syria after the countrys war that has displaced millions and killed hundreds of thousands.

Turkey has sent thousands of troops and heavy military hardware into Idlib province in recent weeks to back the rebels it supports against the offensive, and had already seen 21 troops killed so far this month.

EU-Turkey Migrant Accord

As fighting raged along several fronts on Thursday, the United Nations said it was having catastrophic humanitarian consequences, with at least 134 civilians including 44 children killed in February alone, and schools and hospitals destroyed.

Seven children were among 11 people killed when an air strike hit a school in northern Idlib on Tuesday, according to the United Nations.

Turkey has urged Europe to do more to ease the crisis in Idlib, and Erdogan said last year his government could open the gates for migrants to Europe if it failed to act.

The 2016 EU-Turkey accord aimed to help end the chaotic arrival of migrants and refugees, most of them fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, after more than a million reached Europe in 2015.

Under the agreement, migrants and refugees who cross the Aegean Sea illegally are sent back to Turkey. But Ankara has said funding from Europe was slow to materialize and paltry next to the $40 billion it says it has spent.

Turkish and Russian officials held a third round of talks in Ankara on Thursday. Two previous rounds did not yield a ceasefire deal.

Earlier on Thursday, Russian state television said Turkish military specialists were using shoulder-fired missiles to try to shoot down Russian and Syrian military aircraft over Idlib.

In Washington, the Pentagon said U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper spoke with his Turkish counterpart on Thursday and they discussed Idlib and Libya.

As President Trump said on Tuesday, and as discussed in todays call, we are exploring ways the United States can work together with Turkey and the international community, a Pentagon readout of the call said.

By Orhan Coskun and Ezgi Erkoyun
Japan initially limited tests to people who had developed symptoms and had traveled to China, or had come into close contact with an infected person. But it later expanded tests to people who had a fever for four consecutive days, or two days if the patient was elderly or pregnant. Many experts say those rules are too rigid but are not being respected because there are not enough tests for the novel coronavirus that causes the disease named covid-19.
Beijing, Feb 28 : China will continue to provide assistance to Iran in its fight against COVID-19 epidemic, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a telephonic conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday.

Wang said China and Iran are comprehensive strategic partners and have always supported and helped each other in times of difficulties and stood firmly together, Xinhua reported.

When COVID-19 epidemic broke out in China, the first message of condolences China received from a foreign country came from Iran, Wang noted, saying that Iran has interpreted with real deeds the meaning of sharing weal and woe and being in the same boat, which China will always keep in mind.

Wang said the epidemic knows no national borders and China shares the same pain as the outbreak has intensified in Iran recently.

The Chinese side would like to express condolences to those who died of the disease and to families of the patients, and wish all infected people a speedy recovery, he said.

At this moment, the Chinese people are willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people to overcome the difficulties together, he said.

China has donated a batch of nucleic acid test kits and medical supplies to Iran, and will continue to do its best to provide assistance according to Iran's needs, including carrying out cooperation in epidemic prevention and control, medical treatment and other fields, he said.

Zarif expressed gratitude to the Chinese side for calling to express condolences and support.

During the joint fight against the epidemic, the friendship between Iran and China, and between the two peoples will surely be deepened further and the two peoples will always stand firmly together, Zarif said.

Iran appreciates China's positive achievements in fighting the epidemic and is grateful for the medical supplies and technical support offered by China, he said.

Iran would like to boost exchanges and cooperation with China and learn from China's anti-epidemic experience, Zarif said.
Reducing government employees' retirement age from 60 to 58, free education for all students up to Class 12 and a debt waiver for landless farmers were some of the major announcements made by Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal in the 2020-21 budget on Friday.

Badal on Friday presented a Rs 1,54,805 crore budget in the state Assembly here.

Deciding against levying any fresh taxes, Badal also announced a waiver of Change of Land Use (CLU) charges for two years for new industries coming up outside municipal limits and slashed 'mandi' fee on vegetables from 4 to 1 per cent.

The budget earmarked Rs 100 crore for giving 10 lakh free smartphones to the youth, which was one of the main poll promises of the ruling Congress.

The delivery of smartphones, however, has been halted due to the coronavirus outbreak in China, Badal said in his fourth budget speech.

"We expect the delivery of smartphones to start from April 2020 onwards," he said.

Asserting that the state's finances were "back on track", Badal said the state has reached the point where there is no funding gap in 2020-21 because of the government's sustained efforts to bringing in fiscal prudence.

In a major announcement, Badal said the retirement age of government employees has been reduced from 60 to 58.

"With this, we will be able to provide employment to three to four times the number of people who retire. We will also be able to get more talented pool of young people to serve Punjab," he later told reporters.

He said the number of employees who are going to be affected by this move was yet to be worked out and that the decision will be implemented in two phases.

"Those who have turned 59 will retire on March 31 this year and those who are 58 will retire from September 30," he added.

Currently, 3.50 lakh government employees are working in the state departments and the attrition rate is 5 to 9 per cent.

When asked about the financial implications, Badal said he was expecting that the financial outgo on account of reducing the retirement age would be Rs 3,500 crore.

Allocating Rs 12,488 crore for promotion of schools and higher education, the minister announced free education for all students in government schools up to Class 12.

Currently, education is free for all students up to Class 8 and it is free up to Class 12 only for girls.

Free transportation facility for primary schools students will also be provided and for this Rs 10 crore has been allocated, Badal said.

He also announced to earmark Rs 4,000 crore in the budget for the 6thPay Commission which is expected to submit recommendations in the near future.

He further announced payment of 6 per cent Dearness Allowance arrears to employees next month which would involve financial outgo of Rs 1,000 crore.

The government employees have been seeking release of their pending DA.

Badal also announced allocation of Rs 2,000 crore including Rs 520 crore especially for waiving loans of landless farm workers under its flagship programme of crop loan waiver scheme.

The government has already waived crop loans of all small and marginal farmers (up to 5 acres) who have loans of up to Rs 2 lakh.

Later, Badal also said the compensation to families of farmers who committed suicide would be ensured within 60 days.

Theallocation for free power subsidy for farmers has been kept at Rs 8,275 crore for 2020-21, he said.

In another important announcement, the minister said under the new assessment policy of the excise and taxation department, the number of pending and old VAT assessment cases would come down from 1.24 lakh to about 30,000.

In the budget, Badal proposed revenue receipts of Rs 88,004 crore and revenue expenditure of Rs 95,716 crore for 2020-21.

He further said the revenue deficit for 2020-21 will be Rs 7,712 crore (1.20 per cent of GSDP) and the fiscal deficit will be Rs 18,828 crore (2.92 per cent of GSDP).

He also projected outstanding debt of Rs 2,48,236 crore for 2020-21 as against 2019-20 revised estimates of Rs 2,28,906 crore.

While Chief Minister Amarinder Singh lauded the budget, the Opposition dubbed it "visionless and directionless".

"With his futuristic budget projections, the finance minister laid down a progressive roadmap that will chart the way for the state's holistic growth and development, with all sections of the society set to be benefitted," said Amarinder Singh in a statement here.

BJP national secretary Tarun Chugh said the budget is "nothing but a document of deceit" and a "U-turn" on the promises made by the Congress party ahead of 2017 assembly elections.

Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia described the budget as a "fraud" on the people of Punjab.

In a statement here, he said figures had been "fudged" to paint a rosy picture even as Punjab was suffering due to "inefficiency and mismanagement" of the state's finances by Badal.

Badal also proposed capital expenditure of Rs 10,280 crore.

He said the state would get higher share from the central taxes as has been proposed by the 15th Finance Commission.

He said the state government proposes to set up two agriculture colleges at Gurdaspur and Balachaur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As the number of reported cases of coronavirus spreads to new corners of the globe, some Pennsylvania colleges and universities offering study abroad programs and operating satellite campuses are taking new steps to protect their students.

The outbreak has spread from China to at least 40 countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control. A marked increase of cases reported has heightened higher education officials concerns for the welfare of their students, faculty, and staff associated with American universities, especially as spring break approaches.

At Dickinson College, for example, several students have decided to leave the colleges Bologna, Italy program, President Margee M. Ensign said.

"After spring break, we will work with those students to complete their semester, she said. Some of those students may return to campus before March 15 to visit with friends. These students are not coming from a part of Italy that is under quarantine, and so there is no need for them to be under quarantine here.

Three Dickinson students announced earlier this month that they were canceling plans to attend Peking University in Beijing, China, and opting to stay in Carlisle for the spring semester.

At Villanova University, leaders said Wednesday that they are bringing home their students who are studying in Italy.

"Given the rapid increase in the number of confirmed cases in Northern Italy, we have made the decision to bring home our students who are abroad in Italy, Provost Patrick G. Maggitti and Vice President for Student Life Rev. John Stack said in a statement. "The University is in close contact with other study abroad programs in which Villanova students are participating and will determine appropriate responses to additional disruptions caused by the coronavirus.

College and university spokespersons have said they are monitoring the situation, and schools with students in other countries say they are staying in daily contact with the CDC, the World Health Organization, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and the U.S. Department of State.

Villanova leaders organized an emergency preparedness team, which meets regularly to discuss how the virus may affect the campus, as well as students who are overseas.

While Villanova decided to recall its students from Italy, Temple University officials have decided to do the exact opposite and asked its students in Northern Italy not to travel outside of Italy during their spring break.

Students have been told to limit sightseeing because officials said they dont know if other countries, or if Italy, will put in place new border restrictions or quarantine requirements on travelers coming into the country.

Temple has asked students to "register their travel with us for the week.

Temples Japan Campus is scaling back non-essential events that were scheduled up until March 23. That followed Temples decision to suspend all university-affiliated travel by faculty, staff, and students to mainland China for most of February.

"TUJ as an institution remains open, according to the schools website. If it is even necessary to close the building, we are prepared to continue operations remotely and with virtual instruction.

Temples Rome campus is also open and operating.

"We are following university protocols to manage major health and safety issues, the university reported. "We continue to closely monitor this situation with additional reliance and the local partners in Italy including the local government and the U.S. Embassy in Rome.

Officials at the University of Pittsburgh said on Thursday that it changed the venue for all spring and spring break programming in China after the U.S. Department of State issued a do not travel advisory for the country, effective through April 2020.

On Friday, university officials said they notified 41 students studying in Italy, South Korea, and Japan that they should "return to their home communities in the United States and practice social distancing for 14 days after they arrive.

"Our students health, safety, and security are our top priority, and we encourage international students to seek guidance from the Office of International Services and their designated immigration specialist, said Ariel Armony, vice provost for global affairs.

Pitt is currently creating a plan as to how they will work with students who may be prevented from returning home during summer break. Staff from the Office of International Services are trying to rectify potential visa, housing, and dining needs, as well as other support students may need, according to the university.

During this time of mounting health concerns and travel confusion, Pitt continues to highlight its anti-discrimination policy after people of Asian descent have reported experiencing discrimination and harassment related to the outbreak.

"Pitt aims to be an inclusive community in which everyone feels like they belong and are valued, Vice Provost and Dean of Students Kenyon Bonner said in a message to students on Thursday. "Together, we can make our community feel inclusive for everyone by treating each other with dignity and respect and sharing accurate information with our fellow community members.

Penn State University is also prohibiting University-affiliated travel to China and South Korea.

In Italy and Japan, short-term, faculty-led courses have been canceled due to logistical disruptions and limited travel availability, which was hindering the Universitys ability to achieve the educational objectives of the programs, said Wyatt DuBois, assistant director of news and media relations. "Currently, semester-long courses in Italy and Japan are continuing in alignment with recommendations from global health agencies."

The university is assisting Penn State travelers with chronic diseases in CDC Level-2 Advisory countries with returning home if they wish to do so, DuBois said.

The latest CDC report  updates are published on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays  shows that more than 400 people have been tested for coronavirus in the United States. There were 15 cases that tested positive in the US. None of those confirmed cases have been reported in Pennsylvania.

The virus has killed more than 2,000 people worldwide, according to WHO.

To avoid acquiring coronavirus, health officials recommend frequent handwashing and avoiding contact with individuals who are ill. Avoid touching ones eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands. And, if you are feeling ill, consult a doctor.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
A woman has died after an out of control car ploughed into a cafe in Sydneys northwest on Friday morning.

The 40-year-old woman suffered critical stomach injuries and was rushed to hospital before later dying, NSW Police said.

The incident occurred about 10am at the corner of Malton Road and Roma Street, North Epping when a Holden Commodore drove into tables outside the cafe.

Ten people were treated at the scene, police said. Source: Nine News

Twelve ambulance crews attended to 10 people at the scene.

Three other people who sustained injuries in the incident were taken to hospital in a stable condition. A rescue helicopter was also dispatched to the scene.

Two of the other four people hospitalised had leg injuries while the other two had minor injuries.

Initial reports suggesting at least two victims were pinned by the car.

Paramedics currently treating 10 patients. One patient is in a critical condition, NSW Ambulance tweeted at 11:37am.

Witnesses told Seven News that a group of female friends had been sitting outside the cafe at the time. Its believed the group regularly attended the cafe after dropping off their children to a nearby school.

They were just enjoying a meeting together, having coffee, and they were struck by this vehicle, Detective Inspector Mark Christie told reporters on Friday afternoon.

The vehicle was being driven by an 89-year-old man, who has been interviewed and taken to hospital for blood and urine testing.

Nine News reported that the victim was a mother of two.

The womans neighbour was among those who gathered at the cafe following the tragedy, reportedly describing her as one of the sweetest people I know.

A distraught woman seen at the scene. Source: Nine News

Speaking to reporters, NSW Ambulance Superintendent Steve Vaughan described the scene as absolutely frantic when first responders arrived, saying there was carnage everywhere.

Crews arrived on scene to find a number of patients spread across the scene, he said.

The Daily Telegraph reported that witnesses heard screaming in the moments after the collision.

Story continues

I didnt see it but I could hear people yelling and screaming  nothing like this has happened here before, a nearby shop owner said. The restaurant is always busy in the mornings. All we can hope is that everyone is okay.

The Crash Investigation Unit are currently on scene and investigators are continuing to understand how the man drove into the busy cafe, police said in a statement.

It appears he has pulled into the parking spot and then there's been some sort of collision after that but we don't know the circumstances yet, they're still under investigation, Detective Inspector Mark Christie told reporters this afternoon.

Police will prepare a report for the Coroner.

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.
New Delhi: Loss of productivity due to procrastination and sick leave stemming from stress around information, data and technology issues cost Indian companies Rs 33,216 crore every year, said a new report on Wednesday.

Over 85 per cent of employees in India reported feeling overwhelmed or unhappy when working with data, the highest percentage globally, according to the research from Accenture and data analytics and business intelligence platform Qlik.

Companies lose an average of more than eight working days per employee, annually, said the report.

While on one hand, the report maps India as the world's most data literate country, the report also highlighted the rising workplace stress amongst Indian professionals stemming from information, data and technology issues.

Data is a gold mine that can fuel a culture of innovation and growth. However, when employees struggle to make sense of data, productivity and business value can be affected.

"No one questions the value of data -- but many companies need to re-invent their approach to data governance, analysis and decision-making. This means ensuring that their workforce has the tools and training necessary to deliver on the new opportunities that data presents," said Sanjeev Vohra, Group Technology Officer and Global Lead for Accenture's Data Business Group.

"Data-driven companies that focus on continuous learning will be more productive and gain a competitive edge," Vohra said.

The survey involved 9,000 employees around the world, including 1,000 in India.

The report titled "The Human Impact of Data Literacy" identified two ways in which the data literacy gap is causing a disconnect and impacting Indian organisations' ability to thrive in the data-driven economy.

First, despite nearly all employees (83 percent) recognising data as an asset, few are using it to inform decision-making.

India has the highest data literacy level globally, with close to half reporting being confident in their data literacy skills -- their ability to read, understand, question and work with data.

Interestingly, while more than half of employees trust their decisions more when based on data, four in five still frequently defer to a "gut feeling" rather than data-driven insights when making decisions.

Second, a lack of data skills is shrinking productivity as 85 per cent of employees reported feeling overwhelmed or unhappy when working with data.

A surprising 47 percent of surveyed employees even stated that they would find an alternative method to complete the task without using data at all.

Seven in 10 respondents reported that data-overload has contributed to workplace stress, culminating in six in 10 employees (64 percent) of the local workforce taking at least one day of sick leave due to stress related to information, data and technology issues.
The first case of coronavirus on the island of Ireland has been identified in Northern Ireland.

The news was confirmed during a briefing by Northern Ireland's Public Health Agency this evening.

Also read: Westmeath teen being tested for Coronavirus following skiing trip to Italy

The patient is receiving specialist care and the agency says they are working rapidly to identify any contacts the patient had.

The agency said the patient had been to northern Italy and then travelled home to Northern Ireland through Dublin.

The patient, who is believed to be an adult, is now in isolation at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

Also read: Coronavirus: It's caused global panic, but what are the facts and should we be worried?



Minister for Health, Simon Harris, said: Giving the evolving situation this first case of COVID-19 disease was not unexpected. The National Public Health Emergency Team has been planning for this scenario since January.



The general public should continue to adhere to the public health protocols issued by the Department of Health.



Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer in the Dept of Health, said: The HSE is well-prepared and is working to inform any contacts the patient had in order to prevent transmission.



COVID-19 is spread through close contact with an infected persons body fluids (e.g. droplets from coughing or sneezing), or by touching surfaces that an infected person has coughed or sneezed on.

Close contact involves either face to face contact or spending more than 15 minutes within 2 metres of an infected person. The risk of transmission through casual contact is low.

Also read: Guidance to Irish travellers on consumer rights affected by Coronavirus travel restrictions



Public Health protocols, similar to those used to respond to previous incidents of pandemic influenza, SARS and MERS, have been in place since January and are operating effectively.



The general public are advised to follow advice from the HSE and the Health Protection Surveillance Centre to protect their health.



Any person concerned that they may have symptoms of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) should immediately isolate themselves from others and phone their GP.



- Anyone who has been to an affected region (mainland China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Iran & four regions in northern Italy) in the last 14 days AND is experiencing symptoms should self-isolate and call their GP

- Anyone who has been in close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the last 14 days AND is experiencing symptoms should immediately self-isolate and call their GP

- Anyone who has been to an affected region (China, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Iran & four regions in northern Italy) in the last 14 days, and are well, should visit www.HSE.ie for advice

It can take up to 14 days for symptoms of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) to show. Symptoms may include:

 a cough

 shortness of breath

 breathing difficulties

 fever (high temperature)



COVID-19 (Coronavirus) can also cause more severe illness, including:

 pneumonia

 shortness of breath

 breathing difficulties

 fever (high temperature)



Things you can do to protect yourself from getting COVID-19 (Coronavirus) include:

 wash your hand properly and regularly

 cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough and sneeze



Wash your hands properly and regularly with soap and water or an alcohol-based hand rub:

 after coughing and sneezing

 after toilet use

 before eating

 before and after preparing food.
This article is part of the Free Speech Project , a collaboration between Future Tense and the Tech, Law, & Security Program at American University Washington College of Law that examines the ways technology is influencing how we think about speech.

On March 5, as part of the Free Speech Project, Future Tense, PEN America, and the Freedom of the Press Foundation will host an event in Washington called How to Protect Yourself Online. For more information and to RSVP, visit the New America website.

When your home address or the name of your childs school starts circulating on social media amid an onslaught of threats, the absurdity of distinguishing between harassment online and in the real world becomes crystal clear. Doxing, or dropping docs, is the public posting of private information, and its more than just online nastinessits outright abuse. Someone who has your address can locate you or your family. Someone with your cellphone number or email can bombard you with messages that disrupt your ability to communicate with your support network. And someone with your name, birthday, and Social Security number is one step closer to being able to hack into your accounts or steal your identity.

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For the past 18 months, Ive been traveling the country to equip writers and journalists with strategies and resources to defend against online abuse. Ive met people who have experienced hateful slurs, death threats, hacking, and impersonation, all of which can be traumatic. Harassers use doxing and other abusive tactics to silence self-expression onlineand women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ communities are disproportionately targeted. To empower writers, journalists, and others active online to continue speaking freely, PEN America has developed an Online Harassment Field Manual with comprehensive guidance on preparation, response, support, and self-care.

Doxing is possible because its surprisingly easy to find your personal information, which can then be broadcast to make you feel unsafe. An abuser could Google you, or punch your name into a data brokers website like Spokeo.com, and potentially discover your home address, your mothers maiden name, where you went to school, or where your parents live. They could also find photos of you, which they can then sharesometimes after manipulating themto identify, humiliate, or impersonate you. And they could even try to track down your usernames and passwords, especially if theyve been stolen and distributed through data breaches. This information is available for freeor for pennies.

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The best defense is to make it harder for abusers to track down your private information. Thats why newsrooms, including the New York Times, are starting to train their own journalists to dox themselves. Not literally, of courseIm not talking about posting all your information on Twitter. Rather, put yourself in the position of someone trying to mine your personal information to attack you.

Here are some steps you can take that mirror what a doxer would do:

Google yourself. Start simple. Google different variations of your name, your phone number, your home address, and your online handles. (If you once used your Twitter handle as a LiveJournal account name, for instance, a doxer will find it.) Try searching on Bing and DuckDuckGo, too. Take advantage of these Google search tips. What kind of info are you seeing floating around? And where is it cropping up? Social media accounts, staff bios, company webpages?

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See what data brokers have on you. Data brokerslike Spokeo, Intelius, AnyWho, Whitepages, etc.scan the web to collect your private info and sell it to companies, individuals, or other data brokers. If youre John Smith, you might be OK (anonymity amid a sea of John Smiths), but many of us (with names like Viktorya, for example) are not as lucky.

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Audit your social media. Abusers comb through social media accounts looking for private information they can leverage against youan embarrassing tweet you long ago forgot about, a photograph that gives away geographic information. Plus, social media platforms want you to share as much of your personal information as possible, so they often bury the privacy settings on your accounts and default those settings to public. Data brokers benefit from loosey-goosey privacy settings, which make it easier to scoop up your info.

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The goal is to make it harder for an abusive troll to cause you harm.

Try a reverse image search. Google yourself to find which images of you are available online. Right-click on each image and search Google for image to see where else your photos are circulating and how theyre being used. You can also upload your profile photos from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and try a reverse image search using a platform like Yandex or TinEye. Just dont upload images that are sensitive or private!

Monitor data breaches. When theres a catastrophic data breach (heres looking at you, Equifax, LinkedIn, Dropbox  I could go on), your private info can be compromised. You can check to see if any of your email accounts were part of a major data breach here: Haveibeenpwned.com. For any affected account, change the password ASAP and dont use it again. You can also set up an alert on the aforementioned site to find out if any of your accounts are part of data breaches in the future. (Just use the sites Notify me tab.)

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Review your bios, CVs, and personal websites. Take a look at the personal information available within your professional online presence. To see if youve got PDFs of resumes or CVs floating around the web, try Googling the following: [First Name] [Last Name] filetype:pdf. (Those kinds of sophisticated searches are called Google dorking and, while dorky indeed, theyre also very useful.) For any resumes or CVs you discover, be sure to get rid of your home address, private email, and private cell number (or replace them with public-facing versions of that info).

So youve discovered whats out there and youre probably terrified. Now what? The good news is there are steps you can take to remove existing private information and reduce the chances of it cropping back up. While theres no silver bullet to safeguarding your privacy and your safety online, the goal is to make it harder for an abusive troll to cause you harm.

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Set up Google alerts for your full name, your phone number, your home address, or other private data youre concerned about so you know if it suddenly pops up online, which may mean youve been doxed.

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Scrub your data. You can get your info taken down from data broker sites. But, as with so many things in life, if you want to do it yourself for free, its labor-intensive. If you have limited time, start with the three major wholesalers: Epsilon, Oracle, and Acxiom. Check the Big Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List for a comprehensive list of data broker sites, with directions for how to remove your info. Youll have to get into the habit of checking these databases regularly, because your information can be republished even after it has been removed (think whack-a-mole .. but with your personal data). You can also pay a service like DeleteMe, PrivacyDuck, or Reputation Defender to do those things for you. Its not cheap, though: Costs range from several hundred to several thousand dollars a year. To learn what to expect when you use one of these services, check out this helpful review from OnlineSOS.

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Tighten your settings on social. Be strategic about which platforms you use for which purposes. If youre using a platform for personal reasons (like sharing photos with friends and family on Facebook or Instagram), tighten your privacy settings. If youre using a platform for professional purposes (such as tracking breaking news on Twitter and tweeting links to your work), you may decide to leave some of the settings publicin which case, avoid including sensitive personal info and images (your birthday, cell number, location, home address, family members names and photos, etc.). Here are links to the privacy settings for:

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 Google

 Facebook

 Twitter

 Instagram

 LinkedIn

For a deeper dive, check out the New York Times Social Media Security and Privacy Checklists. And if youre worried about old tweets being weaponized against you, you can set up an autodeleter that will remove tweets that are older than, say, a year.

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Be conscious about third-party apps and services. When youre prompted to create a username and password for a new software or service, have you ever selected the option to sign in automatically via Google or Facebook? By doing this, youre giving the software or platform a back door to your email or social media account. You want to avoid creating accounts via Google or Facebook.

Create separate email accounts for separate purposes. You want to have at least three email accounts: professional, personal, and spammy. Your personal email address is for private correspondence with close friends, family, and other trusted contactsdont list this address publicly. Your spammy email is used to sign up for accounts, services, and promotions. And your professional email address (whether youre a freelancer or affiliated with a particular organization) is what you list publicly. As with public-facing social media accounts, you may want to refrain from including too much identifying information in your email handle (in other words, steer clear of firstname.lastname.birthday@gmail.com).

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Get a virtual cell number. Once, long ago, in a land far away, we used multiple phone numbers: home, office, cell  now, we often use one SIM-based cell number for everything. But if that number gets doxed and you start receiving harassing calls or texts, it can be very cumbersome to get it replacedand it disrupts contact with friends and family just when you need it most. You can set up a virtual cell number through Google Voice (free) or potentially through your cell service provider. (For an example, see Verizons My Numbers, which costs $15 monthly for each additional number.) Your virtual cell number will work just like your SIM-based cell number (calling, texting, voicemails, etc.). Whenever you need to list your cell number publicly or use it to sign up for services, accounts, or promotions, list your virtual number. Use your SIM-based number only to communicate with contacts you know and trust.

Rinse and repeat the above for close family members. Your spouse, kids, parents, and siblings may be at risk of doxing as welland they may include some of your private info on their accounts. If youre a journalist who covers a particularly controversial beat (say, white supremacy), you will need to be especially proactive about your family members privacy.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
A horrific collision between a speeding train and a passenger bus killed at least 20 people and left scores injured near the Rohri railway station in Pakistan's southern Sindh province on Friday night.

Sukkur Commissioner Shafiq Ahmed Mahesar confirmed that at least 20 people died in the incident, adding that the casualties could rise as the condition of several of the injured was critical.

"We have shifted at least 60 injured people to hospitals in Rohri and Sukkur," he said.

The accident took place at the unmanned Kandhra railway crossing, near the Rohri railway station, when the 45 Up Pakistan Express train that was coming from Rawalpindi towards Karachi collided with a passenger bus.

"The bus, carrying more than 50 passengers, was going from Sukkur to Punjab," senior Sukkur police official Jamil Ahmed said.

"It was a horrible accident. So strong was the impact of the train hitting the bus that it was split into three parts," he said.

The bus was dragged around 150-200 feet by the train, Ahmed said.

Rescue officials said among the victims, some died on the spot while others breathed their last while being shifted to hospitals.

Commissioner Shafique Ahmed said the injured, including women and children, were taken to different hospitals in Rohri and Sukkur.

"It is a huge tragedy and all administration and police officials are rushing to the site. It was an unmanned railway crossing and unfortunately, the driver of the bus took a risk by trying to cross it when the train was coming in full speed," he said.

Sukkur District Health Officer Dr Munir Mangrio confirmed that 13 bodies were sent to the Rohri hospital, while the remaining bodies were sent to the Sukkur hospital. The deceased included five women and nine men.

According to a Pakistan Railways spokesperson, the bus driver was apparently at fault in the incident.

He said the train's engine was damaged in the collision, while the assistant driver sustained injuries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sasse Statement on House Born-Alive Vote

"Politicians can turn their backs on these babies, but they can't say they don't know what's at stake."

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Feb. 28, 2020

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2020 / Standard Newswire / -- U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, the author of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, issued the following statement regarding the House of Representatives' vote on Born-Alive legislation. Just days after Democrats filibustered the bill in the Senate, Speaker Pelosi's majority blocked the legislation by a vote of 187-220. Three House Democrats joined Republicans in voting yes.

"This week the American people have watched cynical politicians in the Senate and House vote against protecting newborns," said Senator Sasse. "Politicians can turn their backs on these babies, but they can't say they don't know what's at stake. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection isn't about abortion, it's about making sure that every newborn baby gets the care they need. Politicians can demagogue about 'choice' all they want and the media can run nonsense about 'fetuses that were born,' but this issue is not going away. I want to thank my House colleagues for their persistence. Compassion, truth, and love are going to win this fight for babies."

SOURCE U.S. Senator for Nebraska Ben Sasse

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FLINT, MI -- A person suspected of robbing a downtown credit union has been arrested, according to Flint police Detective Sgt. Tyrone Booth.

Booth confirmed around 2:45 p.m. that an arrest had been made.

No further details were available, he said.

The Team One Credit Union on the corner of Second and Stevens Street was robbed sometime before 12:30 p.m., Feb. 28, officials confirmed.

University of Michigan - Flint Department of Public Safety officers were the first to respond to a robbery at the credit union, according to university communications representative Bill Barker.

The suspect then fled to the Campus Park Apartments, located at 411 E. Second St., right at the corner of Chavez Drive off I-475.

Law enforcement wearing tactical gear were seen entering the complex around 12:45 p.m.

The scene was mostly cleared by 1:45 p.m. The window from a door was shattered and a worker was sweeping up the broken glass as that time. Just one patrol vehicle remained.

Further details were expected later Friday, according to Booth.

Police search for suspect after downtown Flint credit union robbery

MLive-The Flint Journal intern Emilly Davis contributed to this report.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 19:18:17|Editor: Xiaoxia

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TOKYO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A video of a Chinese girl on the street of Tokyo distributing face masks to the Japanese has recently received a lot of attention on social media.

In the video, she is wearing a headpiece of a baby deer doll and holding a cardboard box with the Japanese words "Gratitude from Wuhan" on it.

With the increasingly severe outbreak of COVID-19 in Japan, local people began to pay attention to the prevention and control of the epidemic, while masks and other protective supplies are out of stock.

In this situation, many overseas Chinese in Japan voluntarily go to the streets to distribute masks they went to length to collect, expressing gratitude to the Japanese people for their selfless help to China during the virus outbreak.

On social media, people referred to the Chinese girl wearing the headgear of a baby deer doll and handing out masks as "the deer knight." The girl told Xinhua in an interview that her name is Tiantian and she started her own advertising agency after finishing college in Japan.

"There are a lot of elderly people in Japan. Whenever I see them on the street, I pray silently that the virus will not infect them. In addition, some young Japanese have not paid enough attention to the epidemic. These concerns prompted me to take to the streets," she said.

"I hope that by handing out the masks, I can call attention to the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak and draw the attention of the international community to the situation in Japan," she said.

Tiantian told Xinhua that collecting 1,000 masks is the most difficult part. It took her a long time to collect 500 masks from different sources. Another 500 were given by her friends when they heard about her plan.

When she was handing out masks on the street, Tiantian was moved by some Japanese taking the mask with both hands and saying "Thank you" or "Be strong" in Chinese.

"I was wearing a headgear and couldn't see very well, but in my limited view, I saw smiling faces," she said.

Since late January, China's fight against the outbreak of the virus has received warm support from Japan. All sectors, including government agencies, enterprises and non-governmental organizations, offered assistance to China immediately.

Tiantian had wanted to raise some disinfectant supplies from Japanese companies, but she was surprised to learn that they had already made donations to China without any publicity. "It is the support of Chinese tourists and the Chinese market that has made our companies profitable in recent years. We want to express gratitude," those companies said.

Now that Japan is suffering from the outbreak too, Tiantian said that she thought the growing number of confirmed cases in Japan every day "could be someone I passed by one day, or the neighbor who gave me furniture when I first came to study in Japan. Maybe it was the manager who took special care of me while I worked part-time in a pub. It could also be someone who patiently showed me the way when I got lost on the streets of Tokyo. I should do my part to help the local people and pay a debt of gratitude."

The deer doll headgear that she wore when distributing masks on the street is an image based on the famous deer in Japan's Nara. "The deer in Nara are very cute. They are adored by both the Chinese and Japanese people, and I want to do something for the China-Japan friendship with the figure," Tiantian said.

"I hope people would not pay too much attention to me. The 'deer knight' can be everyone. Be kind, and we can have the best armor," she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 22:44:51|Editor: ZD

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Tunisian Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh speaks in Tunis, Tunisia, Feb. 28, 2020. Elyes Fakhfakh formally assumed his duties as the head of the new Tunisian government on Friday, said the Tunisian presidency. During the power transfer ceremony, outgoing Prime Minister Youssef Chahed submitted to his successor Fakhfakh a detailed report on the results of his government covering the period 2016-2020. (Photo by Adele Ezzine/Xinhua)

TUNIS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Elyes Fakhfakh formally assumed his duties as the head of the new Tunisian government on Friday, said the Tunisian presidency.

During the power transfer ceremony, outgoing Prime Minister Youssef Chahed submitted to his successor Fakhfakh a detailed report on the results of his government covering the period 2016-2020.

"Tunisia is now immune to terrorism thanks to the successes achieved by the security forces and the Army," Chahed noted.

For his part, Fakhfakh called for preserving the political stability of Tunisia after the change of government.

"Work must begin immediately to meet the expectations of the Tunisian people by inheriting the achievements of successive governments," the new Prime Minister said.

"We will continue to build an economically strong, just and socially democratic Tunisia," he added.

Fakhfakh announced that he had started working on a program to "save Tunisia, knowing that all political parties are aware of the critical conditions of the country, particularly at the social level."

The Tunisian parliament granted on Wednesday its confidence to the new government led by Fakhfakh.

Composed of 30 ministers and two secretaries of state, the new Tunisian government received 129 favorable votes, 77 rejections and one abstention.

It should be noted that Fakhfakh's cabinet includes 17 independents with the rest members divided between six political parties.

The ceremony on Friday was attended by members of the outgoing government and the new ministerial cabinet, the speaker of the parliament, and leaders of political parties.
Suppose neither the best nor the worst. Imagine for a moment that the coronavirus turns out to have neither a high infection rate nor a high death rate  nor a low rate of either. But is somewhere in the middle.

Which raises the question of what these rates actually are, to which the answer can only be that no-one knows for sure. In todays Daily Telegraph, Jeremy Warner quotes estimates from China of death rates to date varying from 0.8 per cent to two per cent.

He then offers an extraordinarly unlikely upper estimate of five million deaths in Britain  a level of mortality that would change the face of the nation forever.

But let us stick to believing that the death rate will be nothing remotely as impactful, but that the virus none the less causes severe disruption  accentuated by the rumour factory that is social media, conspiracy theory, anti-politics and snowflakery or rather, if one takes a less severe view, by our cultures lack of exposure to an event of this kind. There will be four main baskets of public consequences.

The first will be supply chain disruption, which indeed is already happening. The Asian stock market is having its worst week since 2011. Much of Chinas economy has been in lockdown, and one estimate lops 1.5 per cent off its growth rate in the first quarter of this year. Italy will surely tip into recession: it grew last year by only 0.2 per cent. Germanys condition is not much better. The coronavirus will deepen the Eurozones problems.

Both it and other economies may bounce back, but there will be disruption to components, goods, and possibly food. Not to mention ports, airports and travel. The holiday trade abroad will be hit.

There is Brexit debate about No Deal  as Boris Johnson now doesnt want us to call it. The coronavirus has the capacity to have the effect of No Deal on steroids. Incidentally, the virus may provoke an EU-wide response during transition, which would provoke a range of reactions in Britain.

Whatever happens, there is now likely to be a Coronavirus Budget  in other words, one more expansionary than would otherwise be the case. If Boris Johnson hankers after tearing up the present fiscal rules, he may have the cover to move.

Second, there is quarantine. This ranges from a government-led shutdown of public activity, at one end of the range, to more schools, firms and other bodies closing spontaneously, at the other. Matt Hancock says that closures of the first are a local decision based on various factors, including professional advice. Some have already shut down.

Quarantine will have knock-on effects on productivity, shopping, exams, interaction with neighbours and home visits  not least to elderly and isolated people who rely on such visits, community nurses, social workers and so on. There are conceivable effects on rubbish collection.

As for sport, cancellations are already here: Italys Six Nations game against Ireland has been called off. The F.A.Cup Final might end up having to be played behind closed doors  as a Europa League game is already set to be. Concerts, theatre, cinema, festivals and cultural events will be affected.

Our third basket is government  and, in particular, the NHS. Government activity became a Narnian winter during last years Brexit drama: it so consumed Westminster and Whitehall that almost nothing else moved. The coronavirus has the potential to do the same. Not to mention dominating the media for weeks and perhaps months to come.

A shutdown of government would be no bad thing, small statists and libertarians may think. Be careful what you wish for. The NHS is testing people who are returning from badly affected countries, and there is an isolation facility at Heathrow (though not yet at other airports). But the health service plainly wouldnt have the capacity to handle a worst case scenario and would struggle with a medium case one. For example, there is limited capability for testing.

That means clogged surgeries and cancelled operations at best. The Government is presently relying on self-isolation, the use of 111 and pods at hospitals. However, some people will feel, rightly or wrongly, that they cant depend on advice over the phone. And the use and abuse of A & E as an alternative to GP appointments is well established. One cannot be sure that the system will cope. Which would have a knock-on effect of the virus spreading further.

Finally, borders. Weve already touched on ports, airports, travel  and, by extension, business abroad. A rise in the number of migrant boats off Kent is conceivable. As is a spike in racist attacks.

ConservativeHome is striving, as it peers into the fog of Coronavirus uncertainty, to strike the right balance between the freedom to write more or less whatever we like, and the responsibility not to get the consequences of the virus out of proportion. After all, not a single person in the country has yet died from it. To give a sense of perspective, seasonal flu kills 600 people each year here in Britain.

If we struggle, one can only imagine the current state of play at the Department of Health, and the condition of the energetic, gregarious, capable Matt Hancock, whose task it is to oversee the Governments contain, delay, research and mitigate strategy. How can he escape being shipwrecked by those twin perils  complacency and panic?

Under what conditions, for example, would he take the fateful decision to advise the closure of schools? When should he put the rockets under a public information campaign? There is political consensus on the Governments handling of the coronavirus to date. That may not last. Talking of consequences: could they knock Donald Trumps re-election bid sideways?

There is an upside to the virus  at least for online banking; for internet activity of all kinds; for the manufacturers of video games; for firms who make surgical masks, wipes and gloves; for single use plastics; for scientists looking for funds for vaccines, for domestic tourism. Traffic queues will ease if there are shutdowns. And any slowdown will be just fine and dandy for carbon emissions and, maybe, for house prices.

Any mass shutdown will bring ambiguities with it. Families thrown more closely together  because children cant go to school, or parents cant get to work, or childcare isnt there for the moment  may flourish as they rediscover leisure and conversation. Or they may kick their heels with enforced boredom, and squabble over clean towels and sheets  and what to do with the rubbish. Tipping could rise.

Pandemics produce weird cultural outgrowths  booms in self-flagellatory ascetic movements, as people turn to God; or, at the other end of the scale, orgiastic sex cults, as they fly for comfort amidst grief and death. But remember: this is not yet a pandemic. And may never become one.
Nebraskans must already show photo identification to rent a car, stay at a hotel or board an airplane, said Mark Bonkiewicz of Omaha, asking the committee why voting shouldn't be the same way. He said it was best to stop a problem before it occurs.

"You shut the gate in order to keep the livestock in the pasture," Bonkiewicz said.

A long line of opponents to La Grone's constitutional amendment attacked the proposal on several fronts in a hearing that stretched past 5 p.m.

Margaret Fisher, who told the committee she attended elementary school at McPhee near the Capitol and now lives in Omaha, said many low-income Nebraskans who are unable to make ends meet would find it difficult to purchase a state ID, or even take time out of their day to obtain one.

A native of Merna in Custer County, Tyler Wilson said the amendment was "a solution for a problem that does not exist yet and will probably never exist." Of the 138 million votes cast in the 2016 election, 414 votes were determined to be fraudulent, he said.

In Nebraska, according to Christina Bradley, there were just two cases of voter fraud in the 2016 elections, when a pair of Dawson County men attempted to vote twice -- not impersonate another voter.
GREENFIELD  How the first in a series of trials focused on the Nathan Bills off-duty cop brawl may play out became clearer during one of the final pretrial hearings in Franklin Superior Court on Friday.

The first trial, set to begin March 30, will be trained on six defendants  five suspended Springfield police officers and one of the East Forest Park pubs owners  who allegedly got into a late-night fistfight with a group of civilians in 2015.

Those are officers Igor Basovskiy, Daniel Billingsley, Anthony Cicero, Christian Cicero and Jameson Williams and the bars co-owner John Sully Sullivan.

It started with a whistle

Those six, plus suspended Springfield Police Officer Jose Diaz, to be tried separately, are alleged to have squared off with four civilians after one of them whistled at Billingsleys onetime girlfriend, Officer Melissa Rodriguez, also a defendant in the case.

Rodriguez, several other police officers, John Sullivan and Nathan Bills co-owner Joseph Sullivan are alleged to have engaged in a cover-up to shield the off-duty officers from discipline or prosecution. Those allegations include falsifying police reports and lying to the FBI and other investigators about the players and details of the incident. The fight occurred after the bar closed in a nearby parking lot on Island Pond Road.

The Nathan Bills debacle has already cost the taxpayers a lot of money

One of the civilians, H. Paul Cumby, went to the Springfield Police Department weeks after the clash and filed a complaint, noting he suffered serious injuries including loosened teeth and a fractured ankle. Cumby had been at the bar with cousins Jozelle and Jackie Ligon, plus their friend Michael Cintron.

The civilians in 2018 received an $885,000 settlement from the city, with Cumby being awarded the lions share.

The alleged civilian victims will surely be called to testify at trial, along with dozens of other witnesses. Defense attorneys filed prospective witness lists Friday that included some unexpected names like Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni and U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling.

Gulluni declined to prosecute the case because eyewitness identifications were scant or inconsistent, and the police officers allegedly involved had closed ranks. FBI Special Agent Joseph Brannan testified during previous court hearings Lellings office passed on the case, for unspecified reasons.

Attorney General Maura Healeys office embarked on a joint investigation with the FBI in 2017. A statewide grand jury seated in Worcester indicted 16 people in connection with the case last year. Cases against two defendants have since been dismissed based on motions by their attorneys.

Speaking of dismissed, Basovskiy may be next

Basovskiy was caught on a Bank of America surveillance camera standing a couple of blocks from the brawl several minutes before it erupted, according to defense attorney A.J. ODonald. Basovskiy was not identified at the fight by two cooperating eyewitnesses within the police department  Anthony Disantis and Jeffrey Bienvenue, who testified under immunity protection from the attorney general.

ODonald argued to Judge Mark D. Mason that his client should receive a separate trial, which Assistant Attorney General Dean Mazzone opposed, arguing there are phone logs showing Basovskiy had communicated with at least one co-defendant on the night of the fight.

Mason expressed skepticism from the bench.

I need to see something here, because based on whats been presented  it sounds thin, he told Mazzone during Fridays hearing.

Whats in, whats out

Late-coming motions and responses more tightly defined some evidence and attorney arguments that will come in or be excluded at the first trial.

In: Allegations that Diaz pulled a weapon during the fracas. Phone logs showing many of the co-defendants were engaged in a flurry of calls and texts during the night and morning of the fight. Jameson Williams will have to sit at the defense table, though he is the biggest and tallest of the bunch.

Out: Testimony that John Sullivan told the FBI he was reluctant to talk to them for fear of retribution from the Springfield Police Department if they found out he cooperated; any reference by prosecutors to a blue wall or thin blue line of silence.

There are plenty of other ways to talk about this case, Mason remarked, after writing down his ruling.

Jurors will visit the parking lot where the fight occurred and the interior of Nathan Bills

It is not unusual for jurors to get a firsthand look at an alleged crime scene, though its more common in murder cases. After a panel is chosen, members will board a bus and get a tour of Nathan Bills, the surrounding area and parking lots in East Forest Park where the drama played out. A short exchange over the view provided the lighter moments in Fridays hearing.

We dont pay for that, Mason quipped, regarding the bus for jurors.

Billingsleys defense lawyer, Shawn Allyn, who made the motion for the view, suggested it may be prudent to schedule the view after noontime, since thats when the bar opens.

Well, were not going when its open, Mason said with an eye roll, prompting a burst of laughter from the courtroom.

Attorney generals office makes last-minute changes to the trial team

There was a seemingly sudden change in staffing for the prosecution on Friday, when only one consistent member, Mazzone, appeared before Mason after a half-dozen pretrial hearings. Assistant Attorneys General Stephen Carley and Andrea Mauro were absent.

Well I wasnt expecting this, Mason said.

We decided to break up the trial teams, Mazzone said, citing a shuffling of resources in the office given the back-to-back trials beginning late next month.

He said Carley and Mauro had been shifted from the assault cases to the cover-up cases and two new assistant attorneys general  Kevin McCarthy and Caitlin McDermott  will join Mazzone in the assault trials.

Mason suggested that, in that case, the trials may be able to run concurrently in separate courthouses with separate presiding judges in the interest of time. Mazzone said he would explore the possibility with others in Healeys office.
OXON HILL, Md.  Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, on Friday blamed the media for exaggerating the seriousness of coronavirus because they think this will bring down the president; thats what this is all about.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of conservative activists, Mulvaney played down concerns about the virus that is spreading around the globe and panicking investors.

Mulvaney said the administration took extraordinary steps four or five weeks ago, to prevent the spread of the virus when it declared a rare public health emergency and barred entry by most foreign citizens who had recently visited China.

Why didnt you hear about it? Mulvaney said of travel restrictions that were widely covered in the news media. What was still going on four or five weeks ago? Impeachment, thats all the press wanted to talk about.

The news media has been covering the global spread of coronavirus for months.

More for you The worst myths and misinformation about coronavirus

But Mulvaney claimed that the news media was too preoccupied covering impeachment, he said, because they thought it would bring down the president.

The medias focus switched to the coronavirus for the same reason, he continued.

The reason youre seeing so much attention to it today is that they think this is going to be the thing that brings down the president, he added. Thats what this is all about it.

Following the presidents lead, Mulvaney also brushed off concerns over the virus. There have been 60 cases identified in the United States.

The flu kills people, he said. This is not Ebola. Its not SARS; its not MERS. Its not a death sentence; its not the same as the Ebola crisis.

Mulvaney also criticized the news media for generally not wanting to portray Trump in a positive light. But he chose a bizarre example, claiming it refuses to cover what he described as Trumps loving relationship with his 13-year-old son, Barron.

He said Trump is in frequent contact with his youngest son, calling to check in on him and let him know of his whereabouts. But, Mulvaney said, the press would never show you that because it doesnt fit that image of him. The press wants him to be this terrible monster.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Mulvaneys decision to discuss Barron Trump was curious, especially when Melania Trump, the first lady, and senior White House officials have gone to great lengths to make sure he enjoys the privacy afforded to other children of presidents growing up in the uncomfortable spotlight of the White House. The White House press corps has generally agreed to grant Barron Trump the same privacy.

Hes huge, but hes still very young, Mulvaney said of Barron, who is sometimes seen boarding Air Force One with his parents, but who often departs the plane after his father to avoid being photographed. He was 10 or something like that when the president was elected.

Mulvaney, who was interviewed onstage by Stephen Moore, whose expected nomination by the president to the Federal Reserve Board was withdrawn over concerns about his treatment of women, also asserted that Trump did not sleep on the overnight plane trip home from India or during the day before his news conference on coronavirus Wednesday night.

He said, Ive only got eight years; Im going to get as much out of it as I can, Mulvaney said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is set to hear an abortion case that may sound familiar. That's because the state restriction in question is almost identical to one the court overturned in 2016.

At the heart of the current case, June Medical Services LLC et al. v. Russo, is a Louisiana law passed in 2014 that requires doctors who perform abortions in the state to have "admitting privileges" at a hospital no more than 30 miles from the clinic where the abortion is performed.

Two years after the Louisiana law passed, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas abortion law  the law on which the Louisiana law was based - in the case Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt. In that 5-3 ruling, the justices said the admitting privileges requirements did not benefit women's health and created an "undue burden" for women seeking abortion services.

The state of Louisiana argues that while the laws might be substantially similar, the impact would be different in Louisiana than it was in Texas, where initial implementation of the requirements resulted in the closure of more than half of the state's abortion clinics. Louisiana officials wrote in their legal brief that when the court struck down the Texas law, it "never purported to foreclose a different result on a different record in a different jurisdiction."

And, they say, the result in Louisiana would not present an undue burden on women seeking abortion, mostly because the state is considerably smaller than Texas, so women would not have to travel as far if a particular clinic were to close.

Abortion-rights supporters disagree. "The goal of the law was to shut clinics down," said T.J. Tu, a senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, whose attorneys will argue the case before the Supreme Court. "That was the known and intended objective in passing this law."

Neither side expects the case to lead to an overturn of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that declared a nationwide right to abortion. But it is important to watch because this will be the first major abortion case to be argued before the high court since Justice Brett Kavanaugh replaced abortion swing voter Anthony Kennedy. Kennedy was part of the majority that invalidated the admitting privileges requirement in Texas.

Also, nearly a dozen states still have admitting privileges laws on the books, although most are not enforced. Should the court reverse the 2016 Texas ruling (a goal of groups opposed to abortion), more states could enact such laws.

The court's preservation of the Louisiana law could mark an interesting strategic shift for abortion foes. After the Texas decision, some of these groups said they would shift their strategy away from anti-abortion efforts such as admitting privileges requirements, which they said are designed to promote the health and safety of women. Instead, they vowed to concentrate on getting states to pass laws banning abortion at roughly 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Abortion-rights activists say mandating admitting privileges is an arcane standard for determining who should be allowed to offer abortions. They say that, in the modern era, privileges are more of an economic concern for hospitals than any mark of quality.

But let's back up a minute. Admitting privileges refer to the right of a doctor to admit patients to a particular hospital to perform a specific service or services. Before granting such privileges, hospitals generally review a physician's credentials, his or her license and any history of malpractice claims.

Such hospital privileges used to be the norm; pretty much every doctor was directly affiliated with one or more hospitals; general practitioners often visited their hospitalized patients in the morning or evening or both, while seeing patients in their offices the rest of the day. But with the rise of hospitalists, who care only for inpatients, fewer doctors who perform mainly outpatient care have admitting privileges because their patients' hospital care is provided by others.

In passing the law, Louisiana argued, the legislature was told that "the process for obtaining admitting privileges serves to vet physician competency" and that "competent abortion providers would be able to obtain privileges."

While that "sounds good on paper," said Tu, "the reality is they provide no benefit to women's health or safety."

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists agreed, writing in its Supreme Court brief: "The process of obtaining admitting privileges is specific to a hospital-based practice and the business of operating a hospital  it has nothing to do with whether a clinician is qualified to perform abortions on an outpatient basis."

Opponents of the law argue that because abortion complications requiring hospitalization are rare, abortion doctors often can't get hospital admitting privileges because they don't admit enough patients to the hospital.

In fact, last fall the Department of Health and Human Services eliminated its requirement for physicians who treat Medicare or Medicaid patients at ambulatory surgical centers to have admitting privileges as part of a package of rules HHS deemed "obsolete and burdensome."

Those on both sides of the abortion debate are watching this case closely for other reasons.

More than 200 Republicans in Congress have asked the court to use the Louisiana case to overturn Roe v. Wade, although few legal analysts predict that will happen.

The future of abortion litigation is also in the balance. Many anti-abortion groups - and the state of Louisiana  are urging the court to rule that abortion providers can no longer sue on behalf of their patients.

"There is no reason to believe [the abortion clinics'] patients are hindered in challenging the law if they wish to do so; women seeking abortions have litigated their own constitutional challenges many times before," the state wrote in its brief. That would mean future cases could be brought only by individual women - more Jane Roes  rather than by clinics such as Whole Woman's Health.

Tu said such a ruling would "have a hugely destabilizing effect on abortion litigation. Patients are not in a good position to bring these cases."

No matter what happens, the case is likely to be noteworthy amid a half-century of abortion-related jurisprudence. The court is expected to rule on the case by the end of the current term, in late June.

HealthBent, a regular feature of Kaiser Health News, offers insight and analysis of policies and politics from KHN's chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, who has covered health care for more than 30 years.
Two Indian oil refiners who still buy Venezuelan crude will stop importing oil from the Latin American country from April as the U.S. steps up sanctions pressure on Nicolas Maduros regime, Reuters reported on Friday, quoting three sources familiar with the plans.

Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries as well as Nayara Energy, in which Rosneft holds a stake, have been buying a lot of Venezuelan crude in recent months, via a trading unit of Russian oil giant Rosneft.

According to company and industry data and sources cited by Reuters, India was the top destination of Venezuelas oil in January 2020, taking 38.5 percent of the Latin American countrys oil exports.

The U.S., however, slapped sanctions on Rosnefs Geneva-based trading unit, saying that the company Rosneft Trading has been helping Maduros regime to evade sanctions and to continue selling oil to keep the regime alive.

Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy, both of which have financial exposure to the U.S. banking and financial systems, have vowed full compliance with the sanctions, to avoid running afoul of the U.S. Administration and become targets of secondary sanctions themselves.

Reliance hasnt ordered any Venezuelan cargoes for April, while Nayara Energy will stop processing Venezuelan crude after getting its contracted volumes in March, Reuters sources said.

Firms have until May 20 to wind down business with the Rosneft trading unit, and India looks intent to comply with all sanctions guidance.

Cutting off Venezuelan exports to what was its biggest market in January would further complicate Maduros oil exporting business.

The U.S. Administration is now looking to further increase the pressure on Venezuelas oil industry and exports.

The President has made a decision to push harder on the Venezuelan oil sector and were going to do it. And what were telling people involved in this sector is that they should get out of it, Elliott Abrams, U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela, told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Everyone experiences slip ups in the workplace, but one man has revealed how a catastrophic blunder will still haunt you years later, in a hilariously revealing Twitter thread.

Steve Doherty, from North Wales, now managing director of Giddy Goat Productions, admitted that he'd once erased a section of the master tape for a Radio 4 afternoon play, as well as mocking a radio guest - blissfully unaware that they could hear him.

A stream of commenters related to his experience and revealed their own biggest mistakes, with some admitting they were so bad that they'd been fired as a consequence.

One admitted they had deleted an entire day's worth of online orders for Debenhams, while another accidentally published an ad for Volvo with the brand named misspelled as vulva.

And perhaps the biggest mistake of all was the individual who moved '26 million of the wrong people's money into the wrong people's account'.

Twitter users have been sharing their biggest workplace mistakes, after a man from North Wales confessed he once mistakenly erased one of Radio 4's master tapes (file image)

Steve Doherty revealed that he has been caught mocking guests and has accidentally deleted a section of master tape during his radio career

Steve who boasts almost 6,000 followers on Twitter, sparked the discussion by admitting his Radio 4 master tape blunder.

He added: 'I also took the p*** out of a guest who was waiting to go on air. I flicked a switch I *thought* would link me to a colleague in the next studio... but I spoke into the headphones of the guest who was down the line, somewhere.

'I don't know why I'm recalling all this, now. I'm very tired.'

Another sympathised with his issues with technology while on the job, saying: 'Accidentally deleted an entire day's worth of orders from the Debenhams website.

'So the money had been taken, but they had no idea who for or what for. Don't let developers access live databases.'

Another wrote: 'I was training people on a county council's emergency alert system. In the test system I demonstrated how to declare an emergency by announcing a zombie apocalypse. It wasn't the test page. I had LOTS of phone calls.'

Responses to the post included confessions from people who've lost their employers money

And it's not just people who work with technology who are liable to experience slip ups.

One wrote: 'Waitressed at a wake, asked the widow if she was having a good day... I also thought I was handing out salmon but it was in fact ham. A few very unhappy pescatarians.

Another said: 'I was waitressing and as I removed a plate with someone's half-eaten gateau, I absentmindedly used the spoon to eat the rest. In full view of everyone. I was tired. Was almost sacked. That and accidentally switching off the chiller and wrecking over 10 expensive cakes.'

Others revealed that they've mixed up customer orders and eaten leftovers, while working for restaurants

Other shocking confessions included a student nurse who mixed up the dentures of her elderly parents.

She wrote: 'Many years ago when a student nurse, I worked on a care for the elderly ward. I tried to manage time better by filling a sink and putting all the patients false teeth in together to clean. I did a fabulous job cleaning them until I had to give them back to their rightful owners.'

A teacher confessed: 'Showed a year eight class a video I hadn't pre-vetted on YouTube, which ended with 'YOU F****** C**** coming up in huge letters on the screen, at which point I freaked out and paused the video for about 20 seconds while trying to close the window.'
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 04:12:26|Editor: yan

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COPENHAGEN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A second case of COVID-19 has been confirmed in Denmark, the National Board of Health said in a press release on Friday.

The infected person, according to the statement, returned to Denmark from a ski holiday in northern Italy on Feb. 15, and fell ill in three days.

Following an examination on Friday at the national hospital Rigshospitalet in central Copenhagen, the patient tested positive for novel coronavirus.

"Our strategy remains that we quickly curb the spread of infection by diagnosing COVID-19 and treat the patient in isolation, while at the same time detecting and managing the people who have been in close contact with the infected," said Soren Brostrom, director of National Board of Health.

In line with the Health Authority's guidelines, the patient has been placed in home isolation with daily close control.

In the meantime, the Danish Patient Safety Authority has begun to trace persons who may have been in close contact with the patient.

The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the country is a man who returned from a family ski trip in northern Italy.
Istanbul: The Turkish army has suffered mass casualties in an air strike in north-west Syria, an attack that could dramatically change the course of the Syrian war.

Columns of smoke rise up after air strikes hit the town of Saraqeb in Syria's Idlib province on Thursday. Credit:AP

At least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed and more than 30 wounded late on Thursday local time (Friday AEDT), said Rahmi Dogan, the Turkish governor of the southern province of Hatay, where the casualties were arriving.

Turkish officials said the strike had been carried out by Syrian government forces, but Russian jets have been conducting most of the air strikes in the area in recent weeks. Turkish protesters in Istanbul converged on the Russian consulate early on Friday, chanting "Murderer Russia! Murderer Putin!"

Turkish officials have avoided blaming the Russian government for aggression against their forces in Syria, hoping to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia's much stronger military and to keep a line open for talks with President Vladimir Putin.
The Dindoshi police traced and arrested a 30-year-old assistant collection manager of a bank for allegedly duping the bank of 2.17 lakh by collecting money from the banks customers who had defaulted on their Easy Monthly Installment (EMI) and for using it for his own gains.

According to the Dindoshi police, the complainant is a representative of a private sector bank in India. The arrested accused identified as Shrikant Karkal, 30, worked as an assistant collection manager in the bank and was arrested on Wednesday.

The bank had lodged a FIR on November 19 last year for cheating and criminal breach of trust under Sections 420 and 409 of the IPC against Karkal.

The bank said that they had given out loans to their customers and some of them had not paid their EMIs. In July last year, the bank had drawn up a list of such people who defaulted on their EMIs and gave it to Karkal to recover the money from the defaulting customers.

Karkal, however, collected 2.17 lakh from two such customers but used the money for his own benefit instead of depositing it in the bank. Further, he removed names of those people who had paid their dues collectively worth 2.17 lakh and in their place added names of the two persons from whom he took the money and used for his own gains.

When this came to the notice of the bank an inquiry was ordered and Karkals alleged role surfaced. The bank then approached the Dindoshi police and lodged a FIR.

Sripal Kamble, senior inspector of the Dindoshi police station confirmed the arrest. A Dindoshi police official said, We were on the lookout for him. He is a Kalyan resident. Acting on a tip-off, we caught him in Ghatkopar. We have received his custody till Saturday from a magistrates court.
South Korea on Friday reported 315 more cases of the deadly coronavirus, taking the total count of infections to 2,337, the Korea Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention said on Friday.

Health authorities have zeroed in on the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu, where it has since mushroomed into the largest epidemic of the coronavirus outside China, according to Yonhap news agency.

More than 50 countries have restricted the entry of travellers from South Korea with bans or tougher quarantine procedures over coronavirus concerns.

Twenty-seven countries have also issued entry bans on South Koreans and foreigners who have visited the Asian country in the past few weeks. They include Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Jamaica and two others.

A few more European countries began to toughen quarantine procedures for people from South Korea, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Iceland and Croatia.

The coronavirus, officially known as COVID19, has originated last year in Wuhan, the capital of the central Chinese province of Hubei.

China's National Health Commission reported on Friday at least 44 new deaths from the coronavirus infection as of the end of Thursday, bringing to 2,788 the number of fatalities nationwide.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Beirut, Lebanon  Fri, February 28, 2020 18:36 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20673f620 2 World #Turkey,#Syria,conflict,Russia,soldiers,killing Free

Turkish reprisals killed 16 Syrian soldiers in the battleground northwestern province of Idlib on Friday after a bombardment Ankara blamed on Damascus killed 33 Turkish soldiers, a monitor said.

The retaliatory drone and artillery strikes hit Syria army positions in southern and eastern parts of the province which were recaptured by the government in a nearly three-month-old offensive against the rebel enclave, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Also on Friday in Idlib, four members of a single family, two of them children, were killed in air strikes, the Britain-based monitoring group said.

There was no immediate confirmation from Damascus of the 16 deaths or any comment on the flare-up with Ankara that prompted NATO to call an urgent meeting of its ruling council for later Friday.

"Sixteen regime fighters were killed in Turkish bombardment," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Turkey had said it retaliated "from the air and ground" for the deaths of 33 soldiers, Ankara's biggest single loss of personnel by far since it launched its intervention in Syria in 2016.

The deadly strike comes after weeks of growing tension between Turkey and Russia -- the main foreign brokers in the Syrian conflict.

The latest casualties bring to 53 the number of Turkish soldiers killed in Syria this month alone.

The flare-up came after Turkish-backed rebels reentered the key crossroads town of Saraqeb in Idlib province.

The town had been one of the most significant gains of the government offensive earlier in February because it lies along the M5 highway that connects Syria's four largest cities.

A Syrian military source quoted by the state news agency SANA had accused Ankara on Thursday of actively supporting the groups that retook Saraqeb.

The Observatory said that Turkish artillery fire was helping the rebel factions in Saraqeb resist regime efforts to wrest back the town on Friday.
Boris Johnson in London yesterday, will chair a Cobra meeting on Coronavirus for the first time

Boris Johnson is taking personal charge of the response to Coronavirus amid mounting fears that it will rampage through Europe.

The PM will chair a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee on the crisis for the first time - but it will not happen until Monday.

After the UK confirmed six new cases in just 24 hours and the first Briton died on a ship quarantined off the coast of Japan, Downing Street sources said Mr Johnson - who has up until now left Health Secretary Matt Hancock to head the response - was determined to 'make sure everything that can be done is being done'.

It is highly unusual for a Cobra meeting to be announced days in advance, but it is said to have been called on Monday for 'logistical' reasons.

Mr Johnson viewed Coronavirus preparations on a surprise visit to Kettering General Hospital last night, as he steps up his involvement.

The news emerged as the Japanese Ministry of Health said the man was the sixth person from ship, which has been quarantined off the country's coast amid the outbreak, to have died.

He is the first Briton to have died from coronavirus, also known as Covid-19.

In the UK, 19 people have now been diagnosed with the illness, after Wales reported its first patient and two more sufferers were identified in England.

Health authorities ordered a 14-day quarantine for all on board the Diamond Princess, which had an original population of 3,711 passengers, on February 5.

Passengers who had tested negative were allowed to disembark at the end of the two weeks.

Tthe first case of Coronavirus was confirmed in Wales, and two more were identified in England - bringing the total number in the UK to 19.

Chief Medical Officer for Wales Dr Frank Atherton confirmed this morning that one person had been diagnosed with the virus after travelling back to Wales from Italy.

He said: 'I can confirm that one patient in Wales has tested positive for coronavirus (Covid-19).

'All appropriate measures to provide care for the individual and to reduce the risk of transmission to others are being taken.

Nineteen patients have now been confirmed in the UK, after England confirmed two travellers had tested positive yesterday and Northern Ireland last night announced its first case. Scotland has yet to be struck down

Both new cases in England were infected in Iran and were rushed to the Royal Free Hospital in London for urgent NHS treatment

Health personnel wearing protection clothing check the temperature of a guest at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife today

PM views Coronavirus plans on hospital visit Boris Johnson posed for pictures with doctors on his surprise visit to Kettering General Hospital last night Boris Johnson faced complaints from patients about NHS delays as he made a surprise hospital visit last night - but did not go to nearby flooding sites. It is understood Mr Johnson headed for Kettering General Hospital after working at Downing Street during the day - viewing Coronavirus preparations and shadowing staff. No10 sources said the premier had wanted to carry out such a visit for some time, to see for himself the challenges for health workers. However, Mr Johnson was accosted by people enduring long waits for treatment at the hospital. And he did not opt to go to flood-hit areas, despite being just a short drive away from some of those worst affected. Advertisement

'I can also confirm that the patient had travelled back to Wales from northern Italy, where the virus was contracted.

'I'd like to take this opportunity to assure the public that Wales and the whole of the UK is well prepared for these types of incidents.'

Public Health Wales is now working to identify close contacts and reduce any risk to the public's health, said Dr Giri Shankar, the body's incident director for the coronavirus outbreak response.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health confirmed two further cases of coronavirus in England.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said: 'The virus was passed on in Iran and the patients have been transferred to specialist NHS infection centres at the Royal Free Hospital.'

The total number of cases in England is now at 17, and the first case in Northern Ireland was confirmed on Thursday.

The Northern Ireland patient had recently returned from northern Italy, while a parent at a primary school in Derbyshire contracted the virus in Tenerife, where 168 Britons are being kept in a hotel in the south-west of the island.

Italy has become the worst-affected country in Europe, with at least 650 cases and 15 deaths.

On Friday, easyJet said it will be cancelling flights as a result of the continued spread of coronavirus.

The budget airline said the move will particularly affect 'those into and out of Italy', and it will adapt its flying programme to best support demand.

EasyJet said the increase in Covid-19 cases in northern Italy has resulted in softer demand in the region, while demand has also slowed in other European markets.

FREEFALL FRIDAY: FTSE DROPS 3.2% AS VIRUS PANIC HITS MARKETS The FTSE 100 in London opened 3.2 per cent down this morning, compared to yesterdays, with the coronavirus causing markets to plunge The coronavirus outbreak is causing chaos on the markets, with the FTSE 100 dropping to its lowest level since July 2016 and more than 200billion in UK shares lost this week. The index dropped 4.5 per cent in just 90 minutes this morning, more than 300 points worse off than yesterday, with stocks in free fall and panic gripping the city. Exasperated traders could be seen leaving the London Stock Exchange today as shares continued to plummet. Globally, shares are down about $5trillion overall this week and Wall Street is also bracing itself after Dow Jones suffered its worst points loss on record yesterday. A growing list of major companies are issuing profit warnings and say factory shutdowns in China are disrupting supply chains. Among them are British Airways and easyJet, who have both admitted the crisis is having a damaging effect on profits, while school and business closures are also set to ravage the economy. Meanwhile, Bank of England Chief Mr Carney believes virus protection measures, such as travel bans, could devastate growth in the UK. He said: 'There's less tourism - as you can see on our streets here in the UK. That's lower activity as well. 'We would expect world growth would be lower than it otherwise would be, and that has a knock-on effect on the UK.' Advertisement

A total of 168 Britons were among hundreds confined to the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife after at least four guests were diagnosed with coronavirus.

Sources said around 50 of the Britons will be allowed to leave if they wish.

Some holidaymakers were seen leaving the hotel today wearing face masks after being screened for their temperature.

The health minister in Tenerife said around 130 guests from 11 different countries will be able to leave the hotel if they arrived on Monday, after infected guests had already left.

No other guests or staff at the hotel have been infected and the remaining 600 holidaymakers from 25 different countries are to be quarantined for 14 days.

Airline Jet2 has said it will not fly back any people who have been staying at the hotel until they have tested negative for the illness.

The airline said last night: 'We will not fly any customer who has stayed at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace during the quarantine, until this incubation period has passed or unless they have been explicitly tested for Covid-19 by a recognised authority and are confirmed as clear of the virus.'

Two Britons were among eight people being monitored on board a cruise ship that was turned back by the Dominican Republic.

A joint statement by the Public Health Ministry and port authority on the island said the captain of the Braemar, which is carrying around 1,500 people, reported that four Filipinos, two British citizens and two US citizens were under medical observation for symptoms such as fever, coughing, or breathing difficulty.

In China, where the virus originated, 78,497 cases have been reported, including 2,744 deaths.

World Health Organisation director-general Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus told a press conference in Geneva on Thursday that coronavirus has the potential to become a global pandemic but this stage has not yet been reached.
Independent MLA and Dalit



leader Jignesh Mevani and Congress's Gyasuddin Shaikh on Friday condemned the communal violence in Delhi during a discussion in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly here.

The two opposition legislators spoke about the violence in northeast Delhi -- which has claimed 42 lives -- during the discussion on the motion to thank Governor Acharya Devvrat for his address to the Assembly.

Mevani, who won from Vadgam with the Congress' support in 2017, urged the House to express solidarity with the kin of those killed in the violence in the national capital.

"This situation may not have arisen if the people had been given, from the start, copies of Dr B R Ambedkar's Constitution instead of tridents and swords. Let's pray the fires of communal violence are doused," he said.

Shaikh, MLA from Dariyapur, slammed BJP and its local leaders including Kapil Sharma, accusing them of making inflammatory speeches in Delhi. He also mentioned AIMIM's Waris Pathan who made a communally provocative statement recently.

"Be it Kapil Sharma or Waris Pathan, strict action must be taken against all those who made inflammatory speeches. Thirty-eight innocent people have lost their lives in Delhi," the Congress MLA said.

"What will happen to their widows and orphaned children? It is the responsibility of the BJP government at the Centre to protect Delhi's people and their property," said Shaikh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Serious Fraud Office suffered a humiliating defeat after three Barclays executives walked free from the Old Bailey yesterday.

The banks chief deal-maker, Roger Jenkins, 64, and executives Tom Kalaris, 64, and Richard Boath, 61, were all acquitted of committing fraud at the height of the financial crisis in 2008.

The SFOs case against Barclays itself had already collapsed in 2018, and the banks former chief executive, John Varley, 63, walked free over the allegations last year.

Amanda Staveley is the high-flying financier who brought in investors from the Middle East to save Barclays from a government bailout in 2008.

With the Serious Fraud Office trial over, the 46-year-old Cambridge University graduate, who once dated Prince Andrew, will now sue Barclays for 1.5 billion for unfair treatment.

Amanda Staveley (pictured) is the high-flying financier who brought in investors from the Middle East to save Barclays from a government bailout in 2008. The 46-year-old Cambridge University graduate, who once dated Prince Andrew, is set to sue Barclays for 1.5 billion for unfair treatment

Prince Andrew greets Amanda Staveley in Cambridge in November 2001 at one of her business ventures - Q.ton, a health club, gym, restaurant and conference centre. The Prince was escorting King Abdullah of Jordan on a fact-finding mission of the area when he met her

The case is due to start later this year and it is believed further damaging revelations will emerge about the culture at the bank at the time.

One insider told the Mail that senior Barclays employees were openly sexist about Amanda and rude towards their investors. Theres more to come out.

Mrs Staveley has made her millions by acting as a banker to the Middle Easts oil-rich sheikhs.

The case is due to start later this year and it is believed further damaging revelations will emerge about the culture at the bank at the time. One insider told the Mail that senior Barclays employees were openly sexist about Amanda and rude towards their investors. Theres more to come out. (Mrs Staveley is pictured last November)

Her familys wealth dates back to the 16th century when Henry VIIIs one-time favourite, Cardinal Wolsey, granted them a plot of land in North Yorkshire.

Her father Robert is a wealthy landowner while mother Lynne is a former champion horsewoman.

In 2008, Mrs Staveley brokered the 210 million sale of Manchester City FC to Abu Dhabis Sheikh Mansour.

Mrs Staveley has made her millions by acting as a banker to the Middle Easts oil-rich sheikhs

The Serious Fraud Office suffered another humiliating defeat after three Barclays executives walked free from the Old Bailey yesterday. The banks chief deal-maker, Roger Jenkins (left), 64, and executives Tom Kalaris (centre), 64, and Richard Boath (right), 61, were all acquitted of committing fraud at the height of the financial crisis in 2008

At the same time she was eyeing up opportunities to invest in a British bank, and arranged for the sheikh to come in alongside the Qataris at Barclays.

She now alleges she was denied huge fees for arranging the investment because of Barclays underhand tactics.

The civil case was delayed by the criminal trial, but is expected to go ahead this year.

Barclays is defending her claim.
An Australian spy has revealed what is it really like to work for the country's secret service.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) is hiring more spies to protect the country against foreign interference and espionage.

The recruitment drive comes after a parliamentary inquiry into Australia's metadata laws found that we are under unprecedented threat from foreign agents.

'Sam', who is an intelligence officer for the ASIO, told 9 News that her job is nothing like the glamorous life of fictional spy James Bond.

'We are not running around and driving Aston Martins and drinking martinis,' she said.

Sam said her spy job is not like James Bond. Pictured: Daniel Craig playing 007

Sam was a nurse before she became a spy after the 9/11 terror attacks in the US and the 2003 Bali bombings.

Her job title is an intelligence officer, which is hidden from her family and she won't say what she does or how she does it.

'We are working to protect people from harm and that's probably one of the most important jobs in the world,' Sam said.

Terror investigations in Australia have double over the past year, with ASIO preventing 17 terrorist attacks in the country since 2014.

The company are hiring more intelligence officers and analysts to join the fight against threatening action in Australia.

Applicants must be Australian citizens and hold any bachelor degree, and will be subject to a vigorous background check to get a role.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess encouraged people from all walks of life to apply, as spies need to be unassuming and blend in to their environment.

'Our success is built on the imagination and intelligence of our humans,' he said.

'We need people who can out-think and out-imagine our adversaries, and who can harness the power of technology and data alongside good old-fashioned relationship building to achieve our mission of protecting Australia.'
The 1902 Thomas Scott Memorial Orange Hall has now been reduced to a pile of rubble. According to what I have read, the hall, for various reasons, was about to collapse and its restoration would not only be onerous but dangerous to attempt. It was a municipally protected heritage structure because of its design and profound connection to the complex story of Manitobas birth as a province. This year we celebrate Manitobas 150th year. The hall was completed a mere 32 years after Thomas Scott, a member of the Orange Order  a well-established fraternal benefit society  was executed by Louis Riels provisional government, for reasons and under circumstances about which much has been asserted, and volumes written. The provisional government had seized representation of Red River when the east was positioning to join western lands into Confederation. Scott actively denied its legitimacy. But the efforts of Riel (excluding Scotts execution) leveraged negotiation for the rights under which Manitoba became a province within Canada. It is why schoolchildren voted Louis Riel Day as the name for a February provincial holiday. Various fraternal organizations, like the Orange Order, were at the centre of life for many in early Winnipeg. The Order, committed to traditional tenets of loyalty to empire and Protestantism, grew large and the hall was built. You may recall seeing it directly at the end of Rupert Avenue when glancing from Main Street. The Orange Order sold the structure in the 1990s. Fraternal organizations were waning dramatically with great societal changes in religious involvement, political activity, and leisure interests. A modern social safety net had more reliably replaced the functions of mutual aid organizations. The hall was known for a particularly eerie ghost sign. (They are old-time signage painted directly onto exterior brick walls). But at the hall, as the paint weathered, imagery of an earlier sign, unseen for decades, became increasingly visible. The words 57 Varieties and Food Products of the Heinz company were emerging. A workman at the demolition site said a few people stopped by in hopes of retrieving a brick from the hall that once held dances and wedding socials. He said he tried to give away ones with paint from the ghost sign. If the bricks (like the building once did) hold any meaning about the many layers to the story of our province  I wonder if those bricks just might get up and dance in the night. Shirley Kowalchuk is a Winnipeg writer who loves her childhood home of East Kildonan where she still resides. She can be reached at sakowalchuk1@gmail.com

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The 1902 Thomas Scott Memorial Orange Hall has now been reduced to a pile of rubble.

According to what I have read, the hall, for various reasons, was about to collapse and its restoration would not only be onerous but dangerous to attempt.

It was a municipally protected heritage structure because of its design and profound connection to the complex story of Manitobas birth as a province. This year we celebrate Manitobas 150th year.

The hall was completed a mere 32 years after Thomas Scott, a member of the Orange Order  a well-established fraternal benefit society  was executed by Louis Riels provisional government, for reasons and under circumstances about which much has been asserted, and volumes written.

The provisional government had seized representation of Red River when the east was positioning to join western lands into Confederation. Scott actively denied its legitimacy.

But the efforts of Riel (excluding Scotts execution) leveraged negotiation for the rights under which Manitoba became a province within Canada. It is why schoolchildren voted Louis Riel Day as the name for a February provincial holiday.

Various fraternal organizations, like the Orange Order, were at the centre of life for many in early Winnipeg. The Order, committed to "traditional tenets of loyalty to empire and Protestantism," grew large and the hall was built.

You may recall seeing it directly at the end of Rupert Avenue when glancing from Main Street.

The Orange Order sold the structure in the 1990s. Fraternal organizations were waning dramatically with great societal changes in religious involvement, political activity, and leisure interests. A modern social safety net had more reliably replaced the functions of mutual aid organizations.

The hall was known for a particularly eerie "ghost sign." (They are old-time signage painted directly onto exterior brick walls). But at the hall, as the paint weathered, imagery of an earlier sign, unseen for decades, became increasingly visible. The words "57 Varieties" and "Food Products" of the Heinz company were emerging.

A workman at the demolition site said a few people stopped by in hopes of retrieving a brick from the hall that once held dances and wedding socials. He said he tried to give away ones with paint from the ghost sign.

If the bricks (like the building once did) hold any meaning about the many layers to the story of our province  I wonder if those bricks just might get up and dance in the night.

Shirley Kowalchuk is a Winnipeg writer who loves her childhood home of East Kildonan where she still resides.

She can be reached at sakowalchuk1@gmail.com

The 1902 Thomas Scott Memorial Orange Hall has now been reduced to a pile of rubble.

SUPPLIED PHOTO The famous ghost sign from the Thomas Scott Memorial Orange Hall.

According to what I have read, the hall, for various reasons, was about to collapse and its restoration would not only be onerous but dangerous to attempt.

It was a municipally protected heritage structure because of its design and profound connection to the complex story of Manitobas birth as a province. This year we celebrate Manitobas 150th year.

The hall was completed a mere 32 years after Thomas Scott, a member of the Orange Order  a well-established fraternal benefit society  was executed by Louis Riels provisional government, for reasons and under circumstances about which much has been asserted, and volumes written.

The provisional government had seized representation of Red River when the east was positioning to join western lands into Confederation. Scott actively denied its legitimacy.

But the efforts of Riel (excluding Scotts execution) leveraged negotiation for the rights under which Manitoba became a province within Canada. It is why schoolchildren voted Louis Riel Day as the name for a February provincial holiday.

Stay informed The latest updates on the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 delivered to your inbox every weeknight. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Various fraternal organizations, like the Orange Order, were at the centre of life for many in early Winnipeg. The Order, committed to "traditional tenets of loyalty to empire and Protestantism," grew large and the hall was built. You may recall seeing it directly at the end of Rupert Avenue when glancing from Main Street.

The Orange Order sold the structure in the 1990s. Fraternal organizations were waning dramatically with great societal changes in religious involvement, political activity, and leisure interests. A modern social safety net had more reliably replaced the functions of mutual aid organizations.

The hall was known for a particularly eerie "ghost sign." (They are old-time signage painted directly onto exterior brick walls). But at the hall, as the paint weathered, imagery of an earlier sign, unseen for decades, became increasingly visible. The words "57 Varieties" and "Food Products" of the Heinz company were emerging.

A workman at the demolition site said a few people stopped by in hopes of retrieving a brick from the hall that once held dances and wedding socials. He said he tried to give away ones with paint from the ghost sign.

If the bricks (like the building once did) hold any meaning about the many layers to the story of our province  I wonder if those bricks just might get up and dance in the night.

Shirley Kowalchuk is a Winnipeg writer who loves her childhood home of East Kildonan where she still resides. She can be reached at sakowalchuk1@gmail.com
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  Two more Filipinos quarantined at the New Clark City in Tarlac are exhibiting symptoms linked to coronavirus, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Friday.

The two Filipinos from the cruise ship docked in Japan due to numerous coronavirus cases, were brought to the hospital on Friday after complaining of sore throat.

Their swab tests will be sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).

DOH reported on Thursday that three other Filipinos from the ship showed flu-like symptoms. Of the three, two already tested negative. The other one who was admitted to the hospital awaits his test result from the RITM.

Duque said that if anyone from the Diamond Princess cruise ship tests positive while they were quarantined in Tarlac, it won't be considered local transmission because they most likely contracted the virus inside the vessel.

Over 700 passengers and staff of the Diamond Princess were infected during their mandatory 14-day quarantine inside the vessel docked in Yokohama.

The five who exhibited symptoms after returning to the country are part of the 458 Filipinos, mostly crew members, brought home from the ship in Japan to New Clark City to undergo another phase of quarantine.

All those under quarantine are monitored twice a day to see if any of them would develop flu-like symptoms. Once any of them would exhibit signs and symptoms, they would be immediately referred to designated hospitals.

Seventy Filipino crew members of the Diamond Princess who tested positive for the coronavirus remain admitted in hospitals in Tokyo, Japan. Eight of the 10 who have recovered returned to the Philippines and were placed under monitoring, Duque said.

The Philippines has only three confirmed cases of coronavirus. Two have recovered, while one died.

There are only 30 patients under investigation.

"We are observing a steady decrease in the number of PUIs (patients under investigation) admitted in our health facilities and DOH is bent on sustaining this downward trend. While there is a looming prospect of positive COVID-19 cases among our repatriated kababayans, we call on everyone to continue to be vigilant partners of DOH in keeping the threat of COVID-19 at bay," Duque said.
The Federal Communications Commission is set to propose about $200 million in fines against four major cellphone carriers for selling customers real-time location data, according to three people briefed on the discussions.

The penalties would be some of the largest the agency has imposed in decades and represent the first action it has taken on the issue, though privacy advocates and critics in Congress say even that response is inadequate. The amount is not final, and the companies  AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon  will have the opportunity to respond and argue against the fines.

The trade in location data has emerged as a sensitive privacy issue because it affects hundreds of millions of people and can reveal intimate details about their lives, including personal relationships and visits to doctors. It puts the safety and privacy of every American with a wireless phone at risk, Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democratic commissioner at the F.C.C., said in a statement last month about the agencys investigation.

Sale of the data is widespread among app makers and other technology companies, but the telecommunications sector is subject to more stringent laws protecting customers confidentiality.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-02-28 11:18:03

Oslo, 28 February 2020  DNO ASA, the Norwegian oil and gas operator, announced that shareholders overwhelmingly approved the resolution to cancel all 108,381,415 own shares held by the Company at an Extraordinary General Meeting held today in Oslo. The canceled shares represented 10 percent of DNO shares outstanding.

The minutes from the Extraordinary General Meeting are attached.

--

For further information, please contact:

Media: media@dno.no

Investors: investor.relations@dno.no

Tel: +47 23 23 84 80

--

DNO ASA is a Norwegian oil and gas operator focused on the Middle East and the North Sea. Founded in 1971 and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, the Company holds stakes in onshore and offshore licenses at various stages of exploration, development and production in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Norway, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Ireland and Yemen.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.













Attachment
Donald Trump asks his top aides whether he is likely to get impeached during a possible second term, said Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who accused the media of trying to use Coronavirus to "bring down" his boss.

"The president asks me, 'Do you think I'll be impeached again?'" Mr Mulvaney said on Friday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington after telling attendees Republicans need to pick up seats in Congress.

"And I say, 'I don't know, you tell me who's in charge of the House after the 2020 elections,'" he tells his boss, who is always on the lookout for foes and feels his presidency is constantly at risk.

A little over a week after the president sacked Joseph Maguire, a career Navy officer, as acting director of national intelligence and replaced him with a loyalist former communications professional who also sacked the deputy DNI -- a career intelligence officer -- Mr Mulvaney sent another warning to what he dubbed the "deep state."

"You want bureaucrats who work just as hard for Donald Trump as they did for Barack Obama," Mr Mulvaney said. "That's only fair. ... And that does not happen."

His chilling-but-vague answer is sure to add gasoline to worries that Mr Trump will purge the federal government of as many employees he and his team deem disloyal -- and replace them with pro-Trump individuals who lack expertise in those fields, but are willing to do the White House's bidding.

The president did not sleep on the 19-hour flight back from India, where he was feted during a state visit on Monday and Tuesday.

"I know that because he was emailing and texting and taking calls," said Mr Mulvaney.

The president held a news conference that evening, with his acting chief of staff revealing Mr Trump did not sleep a wink all day Wednesday after arriving back at the White House around 7 a.m. and opting to hold the press conference 12 hours later.

During his rare appearance in the James Brady Briefing Room, the president contradicted his top health officials about the threat posed by the virus and blamed an ongoing global stock market slowdown on the Democratic presidential candidates and their debates, claiming Wall Street and other indexes are spooked when they're all on the same stage.

He was roundly criticised for yet another uneven, grievance-filled performance at a time when previous presidents would have tried to portray calm and a common message from the federal government.

"The man just never sleeps," Mr Mulvaney said of his boss.

Mr Mulvaney further pulled back the curtain on life working for Mr Trump, who sleeps little and has a notable amount of energy for a septuagenarian. He said the president often begins calling him at 6 a.m., "and the calls go until about midnight."

But, he quipped, Trump is "very courteous" because he rarely calls in the middle of the night.

Mr Mulvaney is still Mr Trump's budget director and is a former wonkish conservative House member from South Carolina.

He called a new round of tax cuts and making ones included in a 2017 GOP-crafted law permanent the top priorities for a possible second Trump term.
President Paul Biya's party has retained an absolute majority in Cameroon's parliament, the constitutional council announced Friday after the controversial February 9 vote.

His Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (RDPC) won 139 out of 167 declared seats on "moderate" turnout of almost 46 per cent, said the council's president, Clement Atanaga.

Elections were cancelled in 13 other seats, in Cameroon's troubled anglophone regions, and are to be held at a later date.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
British airline EasyJet on Tuesday said it had suffered a "sophisticated" cyber attack, uncovering names and travel details of about nine million customers

European airlines are reducing flights to Italy due to coronavirus as part of drastic cost-cutting in an industry rocked by fallout from the deadly outbreak.

Big global carriers had already cancelled flights to China -- including Air Canada, Air France-KLM, American Airlines, British Airways, Delta, Finnair, Lufthansa, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.

But worldwide panic intensified this week over the rapidly-spreading coronavirus or COVID-19, which has killed more than 2,800 people and infected more than 83,000 worldwide -- the vast majority in China -- and which is now hitting Italy the hardest in Europe.

Britain's low-cost carrier EasyJet on Friday announced it would axe 500 flights to Italy due in March, alongside plans for freezes on hiring and pay.

Other airlines implementing some Italy route cutbacks include Air France, British Airways owner IAG, Belgium's Brussels Airlines and Hungary's Wizz Air.

- 'Significant softening' -

"Following the increased incidence of COVID-19 cases in northern Italy, we have seen a significant softening of demand and load factors into and out of our northern Italian bases," EasyJet said.

"We are also seeing some slower demand across our other European markets. As a result we will be making decisions to cancel some flights, particularly those into and out of Italy."

IAG added it would trim its Italy flights due next month, warning also that its earnings outlook had been "adversely affected".

International Airlines Group, which owns also Ireland's Aer Lingus and Spain's Iberia, added: "Capacity on Italian routes for March has been significantly reduced through a combination of cancellations and change of aircraft gauge and further capacity reductions will be activated over the coming days.

"We also expect to make some capacity reductions across our wider shorthaul network."

Brussels Airlines said it had experienced a "negative booking trend", with flights to northern Italy the worst affected.

Story continues

"As a result, Brussels Airlines will reduce by 30 precent the frequency of its flights to northern Italy for the coming two weeks."

In Paris, an Air France spokesperson told AFP that it would trim flights this weekend to Bologna, Milan and Venice.

And the recent dizzying slump in oil prices is not expected to offset the impact for the aviation sector, despite slashing the cost of kerosene or jet fuel -- which is refined from crude.

"The impact on KLM's revenues will be very significant and will only partly be mitigated by lower costs and a lower fuel price," wrote KLM chief financial officer Erik Swelheim in a staff memo hinting also at Italy cutbacks.

Elsewhere, Finnair on Friday warned over its first-quarter profits and sales owing to the outbreak.

The carrier blamed "the fast-developing situation with the coronavirus and its wider than originally estimated impact on the global aviation market".

Hungarian no-frills airline Wizz Air added it would reduce its flights to Italy from Warsaw and other Polish cities.

German carrier Lufthansa this week announced a hiring freeze in a new cost-cutting drive to cushion the economic impact -- but it has not yet removed any Italy flights.

- 'Rapidly changing situation' -

IAG chief executive Willie Walsh urged caution over the sector-wide disruption.

"I wouldn't say it's unprecedented," he told reporters Friday.

"We have seen other challenges for the industry," said Walsh, adding the virus outbreak is a "rapidly changing situation".

Meanwhile, in stark contrast to commercial airlines, the charter industry is booming according to global leader Air Charter Service, which operates some 23,000 flights per year.

Britain-based ACS said this month it has been "inundated" with requests for charter flights in the face of sliding aircraft capacity and travel turmoil.

"Since the outbreak our offices around the world have been arranging flights on local charter aircraft as the world deals with the travel disruption and overall cut to capacity to the region," said ACS Commercial Director Justin Lancaster.

"We have flown everything from four passengers on a private jet, to hundreds on larger aircraft, to 100 tonnes of surgical masks -- it has been all systems go since the epidemic was first reported."
Not just Shah Rukh Khan, his wife Gauri seems to have a great sense of humour too and her latest dig was at her famous husbands expense. Shah Rukh -- who is taking a sabbatical from work at present after the weak reception his last, Zero, received from the audience  was recently seen at his wifes store in Mumbai.

The actor not only visited the design store but also clicked photos with his wifes friends and colleagues. Later, as Gauri spoke to the media, she was asked about SRKs design sense. She said in a lighter vein, Shah Rukh has a great taste in designing. She went on to say that he has suggested a lot of changes in their home too, adding, As Shah Rukh is not doing any movie right now, I will tell him to keep his second option as a designer in future because he is a great designer.

Gauri is not the only one to take a potshot at SRKs self-imposed break from acting. The actor himself came out with a zinger recently when he sat with Jeff Bezos and Zoya Akhtar for a fireside chat. I was talking to him (gestures towards SRK) backstage and he (Shah Rukh) is one of the most humble people I have ever met, Bezos said. As the audience applauded wildly, Shah Rukh was clearly in the mood for humorous repartee. True to his style, Shah Rukh was quick to respond with, Thats only because my last few films did not work well.

The actor is yet to confirm a new project after the Aanand L Rais December 2018 release. While there is speculation that he may be seen in a project helmed by Rajkumar Hirani, the actor has refrained from confirming anything till now.
It seems that Squeeze was tempted to spend a bit more time in the central Pennsylvania area this week.

The British band, best known for the song Tempted, was the opening act for Daryl Hall and John Oates at the Giant Center on February 26.

But prior to the concert, the members of Squeeze spent a bit of time in Lititz, including spending some time at a bar shooting pool.

The group posted a video to their Facebook page that shares some of the fun they had in addition to footage of some of their concerts from their recent tour.

Lancaster Online has identified the bar in the video as the Hideaway Bar, found at 75 E Kleine Lane in Lititz.

Squeeze isnt alone in choosing our region as a good play to blow off some steam. Earlier this month, the punk band Green Day spent frontman Billie Joe Armstrongs birthday in Lancaster, singing karaoke at the Belvedere Inn.
Queen Elizabeth II has been sympathetic to her grandson Prince Harry's desire to set out on his own after watching her younger sister Princess Margaret struggle with being in her shadow, according to a royal historian.

Harry, 35, was raised as a royal spare to the heir, just like his late great aunt, who was King George VI's second-born child. Both Harry and Margaret had to play second fiddle to their older siblings, and the Queen, 93, understands the tensions that can arise because of that.

'She has a particular sensitivity to what Harry has been going through because of her closeness to Margaret and seeing the same dramas and tensions played out two generations ago,' royal historian Robert Lacey told People.

Sympathy: Queen Elizabeth II has a 'sensitivity' to what Prince Harry is going through because of her relationship with her sister, the late Princess Margaret, royal historian Robert Lacey said

Looking back: The Queen understands how frustrating royal life can be for the second-born heir because she watched her younger sister struggle in her shadow. They're pictured in 1948

Harry and Prince William were incredibly close growing up, but they have reportedly grown apart since his marriage to Meghan Markle.

'The younger-sibling syndrome is an enduring problem,' Lacey said. 'The system has not found a way of giving them the recognition that they need.'

Harry has been nothing but a doting uncle to William's three children with Kate Middleton, but the historian noted issues between the Queen and her sister arose when she got married and had children  pushing Margaret farther and farther away from the throne.

'Until Elizabeth produced heirs, Margaret was a possible future Queen,' he said. 'It is a family situation of conflict that goes back over generations.'

In addition to trying to carve out their own path in the royal family, Harry and Margaret both lost parents at young ages.

Family struggle: Lacey said the Queen saw the 'same dramas and tensions played out two generations ago.' She's pictured with her sister in 1979

Strain: Harry and Prince William were close growing up, but they have reportedly grown apart since his marriage to Meghan Markle. They're pictured in 2018 ahead of Harry's wedding

Princess Diana died when he was just 12 years old, and he has been in therapy for the past three years to try and overcome the trauma of losing his mother.

Margaret, meanwhile, was 21 when her father passed away and her sister was crowned queen, forever changing their relationship.

With the focus on their older siblings, they were far more rebellious in their youth and favored media attention as fans followed their every move.

Long before Harry made headlines for wearing a Nazi costume and getting naked in Las Vegas, Margaret was known as a party princess.

She had an affair with her father's equerry Group Captain Peter Townsend  who was 16 years her senior and a divorcee when he proposed to her.

Similar plight: Harry has many similarities to Margaret, who was treated differently growing up because she was the royal spare. She was 21 years old when she lost her father, King George VI

Heartbreak: Like Margaret, Harry was also born second and suffered a devastating loss when his mother, Princess Diana, died when he was just 12 years old

Margaret later called off the proposal, citing her 'duty to the Commonwealth. She married photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones in 1960, and they divorced 18 years later.

Harry also followed his heart when he married Meghan, a divorced actress. They have since made waves with their highly publicized Megxit.

Lacey said 'the Queen will be very disappointed' with his decision to leave royal life because 'her job is to survive' and protect the monarchy.

Harry and Meghan's new arrangements will be reviewed in a year, and royal biographer Ingrid Seward told People that the Queen 'won't dwell on the exit.'

'She is very pragmatic. She has left the door open for Harry especially  the year of review was with Harry in mind,' she explained.

Love: Princess Margaret was engaged to her father's equerry Group Captain Peter Townsend (L) before she married Antony Armstrong-Jones (R) in 1960. They divorced 18 years later

Going their own way: Harry also followed his heart when he married Meghan, a divorced actress. They have since made waves with their highly publicized Megxit

Following Harry and Meghan's announcement that they will be spending more time in Canada and earn their own income, Buckingham Palace confirmed that the couple is banned from using the 'Sussex Royal' name for their projects.

When Prince Harry attended the Travalyst sustainable tourism summit in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Wednesday, the summit's host, Ayesha Hazarika, told the crowd that he simply wanted to be referred to as 'Harry.'

'I got the impression he is very focused on what he wants to do. He was pretty defiant as well. I didn't sense that he thinks 'this has all been a nightmare, I'm going to hide away,' Hazarika told Good Morning Britain the next day.

'From the reaction he got and the way he conducted himself, he clearly doesn't need a title to be a big deal.'

On Thursday, the Queen brightened up an otherwise dreary day in a pair of dark sunglasses while she was photographed arriving at Windsor Castle.

Hard to handle: The Queen has publicly supportive of her grandson's decision to step away from royal life, but she's reportedly 'exhausted' by the 'never-ending' drama

Big day: The couple is to reunite with the Queen and the rest of the royal family next month at the annual Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey

The monarch, who was seen sitting in the back of a chauffeur-driven black Range Rover, donned a black dress complete with colorful floral detail, and a green gilet for a layer of extra warmth.

The Queen has publicly supportive of her grandson's decision to step away from royal life, but the stress is reportedly taking a toll on her.

'Shes exhausted, both physically and emotionally,' a source told Us Weekly. 'Shes approaching her 94th birthday in April and should be at a stage in her life where she can ease up and be supported by her loved ones.'

Prince Harry and Meghan's departure from their royal duties has become more than just a headache for the royal.

'The dramas never-ending,' the source added. 'Shes so frustrated.'

The couple is to reunite with the Queen and the rest of the royal family next month at the annual Commonwealth service at Westminster Abbey, which takes place on March 9.
North American Construction Group Ltd. (TSE:NOA) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. Ex-dividend means that investors that purchase the stock on or after the 4th of March will not receive this dividend, which will be paid on the 3rd of April.

North American Construction Group's next dividend payment will be CA$0.04 per share. Last year, in total, the company distributed CA$0.16 to shareholders. Calculating the last year's worth of payments shows that North American Construction Group has a trailing yield of 1.3% on the current share price of CA$12.52. We love seeing companies pay a dividend, but it's also important to be sure that laying the golden eggs isn't going to kill our golden goose! We need to see whether the dividend is covered by earnings and if it's growing.

See our latest analysis for North American Construction Group

Dividends are typically paid out of company income, so if a company pays out more than it earned, its dividend is usually at a higher risk of being cut. North American Construction Group is paying out just 8.3% of its profit after tax, which is comfortably low and leaves plenty of breathing room in the case of adverse events. A useful secondary check can be to evaluate whether North American Construction Group generated enough free cash flow to afford its dividend. It paid out an unsustainably high 511% of its free cash flow as dividends over the past 12 months, which is worrying. It's pretty hard to pay out more than you earn, so we wonder how North American Construction Group intends to continue funding this dividend, or if it could be forced to the payment.

North American Construction Group paid out less in dividends than it reported in profits, but unfortunately it didn't generate enough cash to cover the dividend. Cash is king, as they say, and were North American Construction Group to repeatedly pay dividends that aren't well covered by cashflow, we would consider this a warning sign.

Story continues

Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.

TSX:NOA Historical Dividend Yield, February 28th 2020

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

Businesses with strong growth prospects usually make the best dividend payers, because it's easier to grow dividends when earnings per share are improving. If earnings fall far enough, the company could be forced to cut its dividend. That's why it's comforting to see North American Construction Group's earnings have been skyrocketing, up 77% per annum for the past five years. Earnings have been growing quickly, but we're concerned dividend payments consumed most of the company's cash flow over the past year.

The main way most investors will assess a company's dividend prospects is by checking the historical rate of dividend growth. North American Construction Group has delivered an average of 12% per year annual increase in its dividend, based on the past six years of dividend payments. Both per-share earnings and dividends have both been growing rapidly in recent times, which is great to see.

Final Takeaway

Is North American Construction Group worth buying for its dividend? We're glad to see the company has been improving its earnings per share while also paying out a low percentage of income. However, it's not great to see it paying out what we see as an uncomfortably high percentage of its cash flow. Overall we're not hugely bearish on the stock, but there are likely better dividend investments out there.

Curious what other investors think of North American Construction Group? See what analysts are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow.

We wouldn't recommend just buying the first dividend stock you see, though. Here's a list of interesting dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Urging all parties involved in violent clashes in Delhi to maintain peace, the United States has said it "echoes" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for calm and normalcy.

"Our hearts go out to the families of the deceased and injured in New Delhi. We echo PM @NarendraModi's call for calm and normalcy and urge all parties to maintain peace, refrain from violence and respect the right of peaceful assembly. AGW," State SCA said in a tweet attributed to Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary (PDAS) Alice Wells.

At least 38 people, including a police head constable, have died, while around 200 people were injured in the violence which erupted on February 23.

Modi on Wednesday appealed to the people of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood at all times and said that calm and normalcy should be restored at the earliest.

"Had an extensive review on the situation prevailing in various parts of Delhi. Police and other agencies are working on the ground to ensure peace and normalcy," the Prime Minister had tweeted.

"Peace and harmony are central to our ethos. I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood at all times. It is important that there is calm and normalcy is restored at the earliest," he had said.

US President Donald Trump, who was in India when clashes broke out, had said he did not discuss the issue with Prime Minister Modi as it is up to India to deal with the violence.

"As far as an individual attack is concerned, I heard about it but I did not discuss (with Prime Minister Modi). That is up to India," Trump had said.

The US President also appreciated the Prime Minister's efforts to ensure religious freedom in the country.

"I will say the Prime Minister was incredible on what he told me. He wants people to have religious freedom, and very strongly said that in India they have worked very hard to have great and open religious freedom," Trump had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 06:07:47|Editor: yan

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ROME, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 650 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Italy, an increase by 122 cases compared to the previous count provided by authorities at midday Thursday.

Fatalities linked to the infection rose to 17, after three more people died in northern Lombardy region, according to the authorities.

"All three were in their 80s -- and specifically two people aged 88 and one aged 82 -- and all had a delicate and critical clinical picture," Angelo Borrelli, chief of the Civil Protection Department and extraordinary commissioner for the coronavirus emergency, told a press conference at 6 p.m. local time.

"I would like to stress again also the positive news related to the number of infected people who have recovered, which has further increased to 40 in Lombardy," Borrelli explained.

In the morning, the official had confirmed 37 cases of recovery in the same region, which is the most affected together with northeast Veneto.

"Adding them to those already mentioned -- two people in Sicily and three in Lazio (around Rome), we have 45 people cured," Borrelli specified.

Italian authorities on Thursday tried hard to reassure about the situation and the full transparency of information provided daily.

Both Borrelli and Foreign Affairs Minister Luigi Di Maio warned against exaggerating the situation, stressing that there was no need to panic or to suggest avoiding a visit in the country.

All cases of infection in the country were traced down to the only two hotbeds of infection identified, both in the north, Di Maio said while addressing a press conference at the Foreign Press Association in Rome.

"The outbreaks concerned a few municipalities in the Lodi areas (Lombardy), and one municipality in Veneto," he said.

A need to "rein in" fears and face the situation more calmly was felt among some Italians in the streets as well.

According to 27-year-old student Carlo Caboni, the containment measures activated in northern Italy "will surely be useful to contain the epidemic, and there should be (now) more measures against virus panic."

"At the end of the day, this is a relatively manageable virus, there is no need to get alarmed and implementing closures," Filippo Franze, a lawyer, told Xinhua.

Micaela Russo, a 30-year-old tourism professional, agreed that it was important "to contain panic and phobia, and help citizens understand that the coronavirus is not the end of the world."

Russo confirmed Italy's tourism sector was already suffering the impact of the fears around the epidemic, and she worried about further "economic, social and health damages to the country."

Also on Thursday, researchers at the Sacco University Hospital in Milan announced they were able to isolate the Italian strain of coronavirus, according to Ansa news agency.

The discovery was made by a team led by professor Claudia Balotta, according to Sacco's Biomedical and Clinical Sciences Department director Massimo Galli.

The team comprised four Italian researchers and one Polish colleague, Galli told Ansa.
{span}Congratulations to Lisa Landon, school counselor at Cox Mill High School, who was selected as one of the recipients for the 2019-20 {/span}College Board Counselor Recognition Program.

Recipients for the recognition are considered proven lifelong learners, collaborators, advocates, and data-driven counselors, committed to student access.

{span}Simply put, they go the extra mile to expand opportunity for students and get results. Cabarrus County Schools is proud to have exemplary school counseling professionals like Landon.
The only person to ever receive a lifetime ban from TriMet for committing dozens of sex crimes on the public transit system has been arrested again after being accused of sexually abusing an employee at a North Portland hospital, the Multnomah County District Attorneys Office said.

Jared Walter (MCSO)Multnomah County Sheriff's Office

Jared Walter, who has become known around Portland as the TriMet barber for cutting, masturbating into, touching and gluing womens hair, was arrested Wednesday and charged with two counts of third-degree sexual abuse and two of harassment. Walter, 33, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He has a court hearing on April 3.

Court documents say police arrived at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in North Portland around 4 p.m., after an employee reported that she had been sexually abused by Walter. She said Walter, whom she did not know, had followed her around for 15 minutes inside the hospital. She said he came very close to her and she felt a hand reach past her skirt toward her buttocks. She said she also found a substance on her clothing and in her hair that appeared to be a bodily fluid.

Several hours later, police found Walter in Northwest Portland and arrested him. He admitted to being at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

Walter has been convicted on more than a dozen counts of sexual abuse, harassment and interfering with public transportation from multiple cases over the past decade. In 2013, TriMet banned Walter from using the transit system for five years.

In March 2019, he was charged with inappropriately touching multiple women on TriMet and was sentenced to a year in prison. But he was released in November 2019 due to good behavior and working at the jail while in custody.

In April 2019, TriMets general manager, Doug Kelsey, banned Walter from TriMet for life.

Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
The Sena publication questioned the delay in responding to the volatile situation in Delhi

Mumbai: Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' on Friday slammed Union home minister Amit Shah over the mayhem in Delhi, saying he was nowhere to be seen when the National Capital was rocked by violence.

An editorial in the Marathi daily said Shah had taken out a lot of time for campaigning for the just concluded Delhi assembly election, distributing pamphlets door-to-door to canvass support for BJP candidates.

The Delhi police comes under the Union home ministry. But now it is surprising that he was not seen when 38 lives were lost and large-scale destruction was caused to public and private property, the party, a former ally of the BJP, said.

"If at this time, the Congress or any other party had been in power at the Centre and BJP in the opposition, the party would have demanded the home minister's resignation and taken out morchas to press for their demand. Now, (these things) will not happen because the BJP is in power and the opposition is weak. But still (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi has sought Shah's resignation," the editorial said.

The Sena publication questioned the delay in responding to the volatile situation in Delhi. "When the home minister was in Ahmedabad (on 24 February) welcoming (visiting US president Donald) Trump, an IB official was murdered (in Delhi).

"After three days Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for peace and NSA Ajit Doval was on the streets of Delhi talking to people. What is the use now (of these measures) after the damage has been done?" the paper asked.

The editorial said the opposition may question Shah's "absence" from Delhi when Parliament convenes next week after recess and disrupt proceedings.

"If the opposition raises the issue of Delhi riots in Parliament, will it be called anti-national?" the editorial asked. The paper lamented that provocative speeches, blamed for the Delhi violence, have become a form of "political capital".

The developments in Delhi are a cause of concern, the editorial said.
The never-before-seen manuscript of Adolf Hitler's opera, his sketch of a music hall and other items from his formative years will go on display in Austria this weekend.

They will be accompanied by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts admissions book, which reveals he failed to gain a place in 1907 and 1908, and police documents showing the former dictator changed his address.

It is hoped that the objects, which will be displayed in Sankt Poelten, outside Vienna, as part of its exhibition 'Young Hitler: the Formative Years of a Dictator', will shed light on how the dictator's past shaped his thinking.

These music notes were written by Hitler's friend August Kubizek for their opera 'Wieland der Schmied' (Wieland the Smith). They will go on display in Sankt Poelten, outside Vienna

The pencil sketches of a music hall, shown above, were drawn by Hitler. They were kept by one of his few friends from his youth, August Kubizek, as mementos of his childhood

This line shows that Adolf Hitler was rejected from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1907 and 1908. He is said to have blamed this failure on others, according to the curators

The admissions book for the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts is pictured above

One of the key items at the exhibition is a page of piano notes, written by one of his few friends called August Kubizek, which formed the first page of their opera 'Wieland der Schmied' (Wieland the Smith).

Hitler started work on this after only a few months of piano lessons, said exhibition curator Christian Rapp, and this sheet is believed to be the last surviving piece.

It is said to have closely aped the work of the same name by Richard Wagner, one of Hitler's favourite composers, and to have included re-enactments of German mythology.

The sheet is accompanied by a pencil sketch of a music hall, drawn by the dictator himself when he was around 20 years old.

The notes were initially kept by Kubizek as mementos of his own youth before he realised they might be of historical significance.

This is a police document from 1909 and signed by Hitler. It shows he changed his address

Pictured here are some of the artefacts on display at the exhibition which opens this weekend

The Vienna School of Fine Arts admissions book with Hitler's name highlighted by red lines

Hitler's abilities rarely met his expectations, leading to him finding a scapegoat for his failures, Mr Rapp said.

'Whenever something went wrong, it was always somebody else's fault, not his own,' he said.

'The young Hitler was already "a bomb", if you like. World War One provided the fuse and then it was ignited in Germany - but you can make out the ingredients during his time here in Austria.'

'Even friends that knew him at a tender age testify to his intransigent and aggressive character,' added co-curator Hannes Leidinger.

In addition to tracing Hitler's personal history, the exhibition also seeks to explore the political and social context in Austria at the turn of the 20th century.

Visitors pictured arriving for the opening of the exhibition 'Young Hitler: the Formative Years of a Dictator' in Sankt Poelten, outside Vienna

Curator of the exhibition Christian Rapp shows Hitler in a photo taken at elementary school

Curator Mr Rapp speaks while standing next to curator Hannes Leidinger at the exhibition

In particular, it tries to explain how many of the ideas that would gain such prominence in Nazi ideology - racism, anti-Semitism, militarism - had long since reached the mainstream of Austrian society, including among sections of the left.

Austria has had a complex relationship with its Nazi past.

For decades after World War Two, successive Austrian governments insisted the country was a victim of the Nazi regime and sought to downplay the complicity of many Austrians in the Nazis' crimes.

The curators said they hoped the exhibition would help shed light on Hitler's character, and also dispel the ideas that underpinned his genocidal ideology.

'Ways of thinking take so long to become widespread in a society, and they take as long to be dismantled... we will have work at that for decades,' Mr Rapp said.
Trump is very, very upset that the American people are praising him for his battle against the coronavirus. His strategy thus far has been mostly concerned with domestic (racist) affairs, closing off our borders and ending flights instead of sinking money into the CDC. In fact, Trumps proposed budget for 2021 would see the CDCs budget trimmed by almost 16%, stating that common diseases such stroke and diabetes come from similar risk factors and thus a cut can help magnify the public health impact. If approved by Congress, this would also come with a $58 million cut for international HIV/AIDS programs.

So, the Coronavirus, which started in China and spread to various countries throughout the world, but very slowly in the U.S. because President Trump closed our border, and ended flights, VERY EARLY, is now being blamed, by the Do Nothing Democrats, to be the fault of Trump.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2020

The Do Nothing Democrats were busy wasting time on the Immigration Hoax, & anything else they could do to make the Republican Party look bad, while I was busy calling early BORDER & FLIGHT closings, putting us way ahead in our battle with Coronavirus. Dems called it VERY wrong!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2020

So why would Trump be trying to curtail the CDC when we lie on the precipice of a global pandemic? Well, for one, despite being a self-admitted germaphobe, Trump seems to think the coronavirus isnt such a huge threat. In a news conference this week, he actually claimed our worries of the disease were killing the stock market and distracting us from important matters, sayingjust minutes before the CDC revealed the first case of coronavirus not contracted from travel in the United StatesThe threat to the American public remains low. Trumps big plan for public health? Just wash your hands!

Now, defying calls to form a task force led by an expert to deal with the disease, Trump has appointed Mike Pence as head of coronavirus-related affairs. Why? Look at the Indiana model, they have been very successful there. At  dealing with a rapidly spreading illness? We really dont know what happened in Indiana to prepare Pence for this. In 2014, Indiana did have an outbreak of MERS (Middle East Respiratory Disease), but perhaps more pertinent is Pences complicity during the largest HIV outbreak in decades in Indiana (deriving from opioid abuse) due to his irrational forestalling of lifting a ban on institutions providing sterile needles.

Though Pence will supposedly only be filling a supervisory role, we hope he wont repeat what he did in Indiana and allow matters to get out of hand while he sits, hands folded, watching the world turn in on itself.
G reta Thunberg delivered a powerful speech in Bristol today, calling on the UK to "act" and "not be silenced while the world is on fire".

The Swedish environmental activist, 17, arrived in Bristol earlier this morning to join a climate strike march through the city.

More than 20 road closures were in place for the Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate (BYS4C), as police in the area warned of "major disruption".

In her speech, Ms Thunberg slammed world leaders, stating they are "acting like children". You can read it in full below.

Crowds descended on Bristol today as activist Greta Thunberg arrived to lead the climate strike march / PA

Greta Thunberg's Brsitol speech in full

"There will be a time when we look back and ask ourselves what we did right now. How do we want to be remembered?

This is an emergency. People are already suffering and dying from the consequences of the climate and environmental emergency, but it will get worse.

"And still this emergency is being completely ignored by politicians, the media and those in power.

"Basically nothing is being done to halt this crisis, despite all the beautiful words and promises from the elected officials.

So what did we do during this crucial time? What we will do right now.

"Well I will not stand aside and watch, I will not be silenced while the world is on fire - will you?

"World leaders are behaving like children, so it falls on us to be the adults in the room.

"It should not be this way, we should not be the ones who will have to lead on this and tell the uncomfortable truth.

"Once again they sweep their mess under the rug for us young people, for their children, to clean up for them.

"But we must continue, and we have to be patient and remember that the changes required will not happen overnight.

"Since the politics and the solutions needed are still far from sight.

"But if enough people are pushing for change, then change will come.

"And we are those people - and every single person counts.

Just look at Bristol as an example. The other week, the plans to expand Bristol Airport were cancelled - a lot thanks to climate activists.

And of course this is far from enough, but it shows that it does actually make a difference. Activism works. So Im telling you to act.

If you look throughout history, all the great changes have come from the people.

We are being betrayed by the people in power and they are failing us but we will not back down.

If you feel threatened by that, then I have some very bad news for you: we will not be silenced because we are the change and change is coming whether you like it or not.
THIES, Senegal  The only place in the world where fighters linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State are cooperating is in West Africas sprawling Sahel region, giving the extremists greater depth as they push into new areas, according to the commander of the U.S. militarys special forces in Africa.

I believe that if its left unchecked it could very easily develop into a great threat to the West and the United States, said U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Dagvin Anderson.

The leader of U.S. Special Operations Command Africa described the threat even as the Pentagon considers reducing the U.S. military presence in Africa.

Experts have long worried about collaboration between al Qaeda and the Islamic State. While the cooperation in the Sahel is not currently a direct threat to the U.S. or the West, its very destabilizing to the region, Anderson said.

He spoke on the sidelines of the U.S. militarys annual counterterrorism exercise in West Africa, currently the most active region for extremists on the continent.

The alarming new collaboration in the Sahel between affiliates of al Qaeda and Islamic State is a result of ethnic ties in the region that includes Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

Whereas in other parts of the world they have different objectives and a different point of view that tends to bring Islamic State and al Qaeda into conflict, here theyre able to overcome that and work for a common purpose, Anderson said, emphasizing that its a local phenomenon.

The cooperation allows the extremist groups to appeal to a wider audience in a largely rural region where government presence is sparse and frustration with unemployment is high.

The past year has seen a surge in deadly violence in the Sahel, with more than 2,600 people killed and more than half a million displaced in Burkina Faso alone.

Al Qaeda is the deeper threat both in the region and globally, Anderson said.

Islamic State is much more aggressive and blunt, and so in some ways they appear to be the greater threat, he said. But al Qaeda, which continues to quietly expand, is for us the longer strategic concern.

Al Qaeda has been successful at consolidating efforts in northern Mali and moving south into more populated areas and taking various groups and galvanizing them together into a coherent movement, Anderson said.

The most prominent of those affiliates is a coalition of al Qaeda-linked groups known as JNIM with about 2,000 fighters in the region, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

West Africas Sahel, the vast strip of land just south of the Sahara Desert, for years has struggled to contain the extremist threat. In 2012, al Qaeda-linked fighters seized large swaths of northern Mali. French forces pushed them from strongholds in 2013 but the fighters have regrouped and spread south.

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.

The largest Islamic State affiliate in the region, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, emerged more recently and claimed responsibility for killing four U.S. soldiers in Niger in 2017. The attack led to an outcry in Washington and questions about the U.S. military presence in Africa.

Between the advances of al Qaeda and Islamic State-linked fighters, once-peaceful Burkina Faso has become the latest front for what experts call an alarming rate of deadly attacks.

As a result, regional leaders have decided to deploy 3,000 troops to the Sahel region, an African Union official said Thursday.

The decision comes as the United States considers cutting its military presence in Africa while urging African solutions to African problems. That has sparked pressure from worried security allies including France and regional countries as well as a rare bipartisan outcry among lawmakers in Washington.

The African Union force would join Frances largest overseas military operation, the 5,100-strong Barkhane, and the 15,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force in Mali.

Carley Petesch is an Associated Press writer.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 22:19:45|Editor: xuxin

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ABUJA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian health authorities on Friday began contact tracing of the first confirmed case of the COVID-19, a measure taken to monitor the health of people who traveled with the patient to prevent spread.

Nigeria's first case of COVID-19 was recorded in Lagos, the country's commercial hub and most populous city, the Lagos State government confirmed early Friday.

Health minister Osagie Ehanire told a news conference in Abuja that the government would work assiduously to curtail the spread.

"I am assuring Nigerians that all measures have been taken to contain and control the spread of the virus," Ehanire said. "I know the capability of Lagos State; the state has a lot of experience on Ebola so they will be able to handle the case."

An Italian national entered Nigeria on Tuesday from Milan for a brief business visit and fell ill on the following day.

Ehanire said the index case of the COVID-19 in the country was, however, not as a result of failure to screen at the airports but the nature of the virus which may not present symptoms at that period of screening.

The minister said that the Nigerian government had been strengthening measures to ensure that an outbreak in Nigeria was controlled and contained quickly.

Meanwhile, a giant manufacturing firm which the Italian visited upon arrival in Nigeria has been quarantined.

Tomi Coker, the commissioner for health in the southwestern state of Ogun, neighboring to Lagos, confirmed that the facility visited by the Italian in Ewekoro community of the state was isolated in keeping to "the health safety standards."
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister



Kamal Nath took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, saying these days he talks a lot about Pakistan but does not touch on issues like "stalled economy" and jobs.

Nath was speaking at a function at Rau town near here.

"Have you heard Modi in the last one year talking about the youth, employment, farmers and stalled economy? He talks about Pakistan nowadays," he said.

"We are all ready to face Pakistan. But we will be able to face Pakistan only when the future of our youth is secure," he said.

"Modi talks about nationalism....I want to ask BJP leaders to name one person from their party who was a freedom fighter," the chief minister said.

"They will not be able to give us one name. But they will certainly preach nationalism to the Congress," Nath added.

Several Muslim workers who were with the BJP but quit the saffron party recently in protest against the amended Citizenship Act joined the ruling Congress in Nath's presence at the function.

Former Indore councilor Usman Patel was among them.

"I joined the Congress because this party takes along everybody, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians," Patel said.

Nath, who also heads the state unit of the Congress, welcomed them into the party fold, saying they had now understood the reality.

The chief minister also paid a tribute to those killed in the Delhi riots.

"It is a matter of great sorrow and concern that the culture of brotherhood in our country is being harmed. We have to save this culture together," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Two people were arrested in a fatal shooting at a student housing apartment complex near West Virginia University on Friday morning.

Multiple agencies responded to the report of shots fired at the College Park complex around 4 a.m. and police gave the all clear about an hour later, University Police Chief W.P. Chedester said in a statement.

The suspects were arrested without incident at a nearby Walmart shortly after the shooting, according to Chief Craig Corkrean of the Granville Police Department, and taken into custody by campus police.

Terrell Linear, 21, and Shaundarius T. Reeder, 20, were both charged with first-degree murder, university police said. Both are from Fairmont and neither is a student.

The victim was identified as Eric James Smith, 21, a sophomore majoring in multidisciplinary studies from Clementon, New Jersey, the university said in a statement. Smith was a former resident of the apartment complex.

Chedester said the motive is unknown, but he called the shooting an isolated incident.

Its always a tragedy when a young person loses his life, Dean of Students Corey Farris said. Our hearts go out to his family, those students and others who knew him. Our main priority right now is offering support to our campus community, he said.

Counsellors were onsite at College Park to provide support for residents, the university said. The apartment complex is a public-private partnership managed by WVU.

West Virginia University is in Morgantown, in northeastern West Virginia near the Pennsylvania border. It has more than 26,000 students enrolled at the campus, according to the universitys website.

___

An earlier version of this report incorrectly reported that Shaundarius T. Reeder was charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
MANKATO  Jay Mackbee, a sophomore from Washburn High School in Minneapolis, won the title of 2020 Poetry Out Loud Minnesota State Champion on Feb. 25 at the state finals at Minnesota State University, Mankato. The first runner-up was Scout Weinandt, a junior from Harbor City International School in Duluth.

Mackbees final recitation was "I Heard a Fly Buzz  When I Died" by Emily Dickinson. First published in 1896, the poem describes the events leading to the speaker's death and uses imagery to reflect on the morbidity of dying.

A partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Poetry Foundation and the state arts agencies, Poetry Out Loud is a national arts-education program that encourages the study of poetry.

Mackbee received an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete at the Poetry Out Loud national finals. National Finals supporters can watch Mackbee through a live, one-time-only webcast April 28-29 at arts.gov .

Other state finalists included: Moriah Lippert, grade 12, Maple River High School, third; Gavin Kimmel, grade 11, St. Paul Academy and Summit School, fourth; Asha Omar, grade 11, Ubah Medical Academy, Hopkins, fifth; Annika Brelsford, grade 10, St. Paul Academy and Summit School, sixth.

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Guest judges presiding over the competition included Susan Chambers, attorney and poet; Mary Cutler, theater director and educator; Rob Hardy, author and Northfield poet laureate; Diego Vazquez Jr., author and editor; and Gregory Wilkins, educator, artist and writer. Judges evaluated student performances on criteria including physical presence, voice and articulation, accuracy, and evidence of understanding.

The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation provide free, standards-based curriculum materials that teachers can use in their classrooms. These resources are available at poetryoutloud.org .
Gyataba rural ambulance is expected to be launched at an exhibition organized by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi.

At the fair, Gyataba tricycle Rural Ambulance and 6 seater tricycle Taxi assembling by Desert Lion international company in Kumasi will be launched to curb rural mortality death menace in the country.

The fair slated 3rd to 5th March is aimed at portraying Ghanaian technology advances in areas of Agriculture, business, education, socio-economic development among others.

Desert Lion international company is a producer of quality Cocoa inputs products for the sub-region. It is also the main hub of assembling Agric mechanical machines in the country.

The pace of decline in maternal mortality has been slow and this led to Ghanas inability to achieve the Millenium Development Goal target of 190 per 100,000 live births in 2015 despite high concerns raised.

The maternal mortality ratio remains high and requires strenuous efforts if Ghana has to achieve the sustainable development goal target of 70 per 100,000 live births in 2030.

Most maternal deaths occur in rural areas as compared to urban areas. This has largely been attributed to the high prevalence of skilled birth attendance of 74% in urban areas as compared to 43% in rural areas (35).

Several other factors have been implicated as major contributory factors to maternal deaths in Ghana including deteriorated roads in most rural communities which hinder the transport of patients and pregnant woman to nearby hospitals.

Mr. Kwame Tweneboa-Kodua the chief executive of Desert Lion Speaking in an interview ahead of the launching says the manufacturing of the Gyataba Rural Ambulance will go a long way to reduce the rural mortality death rate.

The rural Gyataba Ambulance will be sent across all regions especially where roads are most deplorable and lacks access to national Ambulances.

He said, places, where patience and pregnant women are carried on motorbikes to the health center because of highly deteriorated roads, has significantly increased mortality death in the country.

The new rural try-cycle Ambulance has one bed and two other nurses and assistance seats and air condition.

According to him, the Gyataba try cycle Ambulance has come to complement government national ambulances in rural communities where it can not reach.

He mentioned that the move will go along way to scheme government decisions to maintain good health and to provide a swift mechanism to safe lives.
In 1957, when J. Irwin Miller was chairman of the diesel engine manufacturer Cummins Corporation, he made a surprising offer to the company's headquarter city of Columbus, Indiana. The Cummins Foundation would pay the architecture fees for schools and other public buildings if the city agreed to choose from Irwin's list of preferred architects. That's how it happened that this small Midwestern city -- which still has fewer than 50,000 residents -- boasts a library designed by I.M. Pei and an elementary school designed by Harry Weese, among many other famous buildings. It all began with Miller's definition of success, which some would consider controversial even now.

Irwin Miller was only 35 when he became executive vice president of Cummins, and he became president three years later. His rapid ascendance had everything to do with nepotism: The company had been founded by his great-uncle William Glanton Irwin along with a mechanic named Clessie Cummins. But as he took the reins he brought along a philosophy that made all the difference to the company, and to Columbus. Rather than focusing only on investors or shareholders, Miller believed that to be successful, a company had to satisfy five different sets of stakeholders: customers, employees, partners, investors, and the community. It was with a view to this last set of stakeholders that he decided to reshape the city where his company was located.

Why focus on architecture? Miller's interest in the art form began with his friendship with Eero Saarinen who, with his father the architect Eliel Saarinen, helped design Columbus' iconic First Christian Church in 1942 -- it's said to have been the first modern church design in the nation. Eero and Miller were both in their 20s at the time, and they became lifelong friends. "Eero encouraged Miller to appreciate the power of the buildings that surround us," says Nancy Kriplen, author of the new book J. Irwin Miller: The Shaping of an American Town.

"Almost holy words."

Miller wanted to put Columbus on the map and he succeeded. "Columbus, Indiana, and J. Irwin Miller are almost holy words in architectural circles,'' wrote Paul Goldberger when he was the New York Times' architectural critic. Like many company leaders today, Miller also hoped to attract top talent to his home city. "He saw it as a challenge to get management candidates to come to Southern Indiana," Kriplen explains. "He knew they were all interested in good schooling for their children." That's when Miller hatched his plan to pay the architect's fees if the city worked with an architect on his list to build new schools.

It worked, and it's still working today. "I talked to an artist who had an exhibit in Columbus and he looked around and decided to move his family there," Kriplen says. "People come from all over because they want to see I.M. Pei's library. It's worked out beautifully for both Cummins and the community." Meantime, the city never suffered the downturn and empty factories that earned other Midwestern towns the title "Rust Belt."

Miller's five-stakeholders approach also made a big difference when the Congress of Industrial Organizations (later part of the AFL-CIO) sought to unionize Cummins. Miller had always had an outstandingly good relationship with his employees, and they wound up rejecting the CIO and forming their own union, the Diesel Workers Union. They made Miller an honorary member. Miller valued the union as much as it valued him. "Unions are management's mirror. They tell you things your own people won't admit," he once said.
Legendary fund manager Li Lu (who Charlie Munger backed) once said, 'The biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital. So it might be obvious that you need to consider debt, when you think about how risky any given stock is, because too much debt can sink a company. Importantly, Calix Limited (ASX:CXL) does carry debt. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?

When Is Debt A Problem?

Debt and other liabilities become risky for a business when it cannot easily fulfill those obligations, either with free cash flow or by raising capital at an attractive price. Part and parcel of capitalism is the process of 'creative destruction' where failed businesses are mercilessly liquidated by their bankers. However, a more frequent (but still costly) occurrence is where a company must issue shares at bargain-basement prices, permanently diluting shareholders, just to shore up its balance sheet. Of course, plenty of companies use debt to fund growth, without any negative consequences. The first step when considering a company's debt levels is to consider its cash and debt together.

See our latest analysis for Calix

How Much Debt Does Calix Carry?

You can click the graphic below for the historical numbers, but it shows that as of December 2019 Calix had AU$3.31m of debt, an increase on AU$236.7k, over one year. But it also has AU$7.56m in cash to offset that, meaning it has AU$4.26m net cash.

ASX:CXL Historical Debt, February 28th 2020

How Healthy Is Calix's Balance Sheet?

The latest balance sheet data shows that Calix had liabilities of AU$7.91m due within a year, and liabilities of AU$1.26m falling due after that. Offsetting this, it had AU$7.56m in cash and AU$5.43m in receivables that were due within 12 months. So it actually has AU$3.82m more liquid assets than total liabilities.

This surplus suggests that Calix has a conservative balance sheet, and could probably eliminate its debt without much difficulty. Succinctly put, Calix boasts net cash, so it's fair to say it does not have a heavy debt load! The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. But it is future earnings, more than anything, that will determine Calix's ability to maintain a healthy balance sheet going forward. So if you're focused on the future you can check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.

Story continues

Over 12 months, Calix reported revenue of AU$5.5m, which is a gain of 41%, although it did not report any earnings before interest and tax. With any luck the company will be able to grow its way to profitability.

So How Risky Is Calix?

By their very nature companies that are losing money are more risky than those with a long history of profitability. And the fact is that over the last twelve months Calix lost money at the earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) line. Indeed, in that time it burnt through AU$9.0m of cash and made a loss of AU$6.4m. With only AU$4.26m on the balance sheet, it would appear that its going to need to raise capital again soon. With very solid revenue growth in the last year, Calix may be on a path to profitability. By investing before those profits, shareholders take on more risk in the hope of bigger rewards. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. However, not all investment risk resides within the balance sheet - far from it. Take risks, for example - Calix has 4 warning signs we think you should be aware of.

Of course, if you're the type of investor who prefers buying stocks without the burden of debt, then don't hesitate to discover our exclusive list of net cash growth stocks, today.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
A nurse and a police officer donning protective suits have been caught on camera dancing waltz together at the end of their shifts.

The two workers are captured holding hands and performing the dance routine as they finish a long day.

They were working at the same the 'fang cang' makeshift hospital in Wuhan, Hubei Province of central China.

The video of the workers dancing has amused thousands of people on Chinese social media

A nurse and a policeman have been caught on camera dancing at the end of their working day

The video has warmed the hearts of thousands of people on Chinese social media.

One user wrote on the Chinese Twitter-like Weibo: 'This is too sweet. You are the most adorable people.'

'You two need to become a couple. [It's been] approved by people across the country,' another comment read.

The medics are seen in a video gleefully dancing on their tiptoes and imitating the ballerina moves as they send off six patients who are leaving the hospital following a full recovery

A picture shows medics working in a hospital in Wuhan as a total of 24,734 patients infected with the novel coronavirus in China had been discharged from hospital by the end of last week

Another video emerged recently shows two Chinese medical workers performing their version of the famous ballet 'Swan Lake' to celebrate the full recovery of their patients.

Six coronavirus patients were discharged last week from the People's Hospital of Linbi County in Suzhou, Anhui Province of eastern China.

The hazmat-suited medics are seen in a video gleefully dancing on their tiptoes as their patients left the hospital to go home.

Experts suspected that doctors had not given the patient appropriate virus tests. The picture shows a medic records a patient's condition at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan on February 16

Professionals are pictured preparing to disinfect against the novel coronavirus in South Korea

The novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, has claimed at least 2,868 deaths and infected over 80,800 people globally.

Chinas National Health Commission reported 327 new confirmed cases and 44 new deaths by the end of yesterday.

Altogether, China has 78,824 confirmed cases and the death toll was at 2,788.

People with surgical face masks cross the street in Central, following the coronavirus threat. The new coronavirus is still spreading worldwide, the World Health Organisation has warned

The novel coronavirus has claimed 2,858 lives and infected more than 83,800 people globally

A British man who was on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship has died after being infected with coronavirus, Japanese authorities said today, making him the first Briton to die of the illness.

The man was among 78 Britons quarantined on the cruise liner which became one of the world's largest clusters of virus cases.

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt today warned Britain was at a 'tipping point', saying the NHS would struggle with a pandemic and that hundreds of thousands of lives could be at risk if this outbreak escalates.
Photo: IFC Midnight

David Cronenberg gets a world-beating entrance in Disappearance at Clifton Hill, a melancholy mystery from director Albert Shin set amid the seedy tourist traps of Niagara Falls. He emerges out of the river like some folklore monster, stripping off scuba gear as he lurches toward the shore until we see that beneath the diving hood lurks Canadas greatest auteur, making one of his occasional ventures in front of the camera. Its actually great to give up directing and just be an actor, because your responsibility is very specific, he said of the film, which arrives in theaters and on VOD Friday. Its quite a lovely experience, and sometimes its just a day or two of work. Its not months and months of directorial anguish.

Its a delight to see him as a local crank who takes the films heroine (played by Tuppence Middleton) to task for not listening to his podcast. Its a delight to see him in general, given that Cronenberg, now 76, has laid relatively low since the release of his first novel (Consumed) and last film to date (Maps to the Stars) in 2014. Hes not done with cinema yet  though for a man who gave the medium some of its most indelibly disturbing images in works like Scanners (1981), Crash (1996), and A History of Violence (2005), hes not remotely precious about its maybe-precarious future. Is it any surprise that a filmmaker whos always been fascinated by technology has fallen in love with streaming? Vulture spoke to Cronenberg about what he wants to work on next, Trump, and inevitably, how he feels about superhero movies.

Your character, Walter, has a touch of the conspiracy theorist to him. What are your thoughts on conspiracy theories these days, and how theyve been weaponized by the internet?

It continues to be an intriguing human phenomenon  that is, a desire to feel that you have the key that nobody else has, that you have the understanding of something real beyond what most people understand. Its a pretty good way of self-aggrandizement, to feel that I know whats really going on, and nobody else knows. Its continually fascinating, and of course it can be very creative in its own perverse way. I was thinking of Alex Jones and the Breitbart guys when I was thinking about Walter  hes sort of a small town version of that.

Theyre an undercurrent in Consumed, the novel you published a few years ago. Are you working toward something new, film-wise, or does literature have your attention now?

I was thinking, for a while, that I might be finished with film, and Ive been doing a lot of writing. But I think Im not finished with film. Im intrigued by the Netflix paradigm and the whole concept of streaming. And I never really thought about creating a TV series before Netflix, but I am thinking of it now. Theres a possibility I might turn my novel into a TV series or other projects, so well see how that goes.

How different has that experience been for you?

Its certainly filmmaking, but its not exactly cinema. In writing it, your rhythms are quite different. It can be pretty delicious for a writer. Perhaps less so for a director. Its not the same as directing a movie where youre completely responsible for the look of the thing, the casting, and so on. [But] many of the series that Ive seen on Netflix or Amazon Prime have very, very good directing by directors Ive never heard of.

Youve said you dont go out to movies much anymore, and youve been very unsentimental about the shift toward streaming. But Im wondering what your thoughts are on how one-on-one and on-demand viewing has changed the cultural conversation. We dont end up all talking about the same movie or the same television show much anymore.

Thats true. But at the same time you do end up with people asking you what youve discovered: Yeah, I discovered this Finnish TV series thats fantastic. Its almost literary. You might spend a week reading a book  binge-watching or not binge-watching has some similar rhythm. Its a different experience for an audience and a different relationship, for example, that an audience has with an actor in an ongoing streaming series. The actor and the character that the actor plays becomes like a friend thats waiting for you at home to chat with.

Well, now Im just very curious about what youve been watching.

Im not going to mention that. But I do find things. I find interesting things all the time.

You made a crack about watching Lawrence of Arabia on an Apple Watch 

I was doing a panel with Spike Lee, and everybody was talking about the holy church of cinema. I said, Look, Im watching Lawrence of Arabia on my Apple Watch right now. And look, there are a thousand camels. I can see every one of them. What I was stressing is that, especially these days, I dont think the cinematic experience is all that sacred. Sitting with a bunch of people who are on their phones, eating and talking to each other  Im not sure that thats the best version of cinema. But, of course, people have great nostalgia for the old understanding of what cinema was like. I think you can have a very fine cinematic experience at home watching things on your TV with friends and family.

Videodrome (1983) is, in some ways, the darkest possible ode to home viewing. How do you see the relevance of that film in the streaming era? Especially given how the internet has thrown open the gates in terms of content that can be watched.

My antennae were somehow tuned to the zeitgeist of the time that I made Videodrome, and it does seem in retrospect to have anticipated some of the interactiveness of what the internet is. But I wouldnt want to go too far with it as a prophecy. Were in a really interesting place with the internet! There was a time when science fiction presented technology as an abstract, almost non-human thing. And I always thought of it as totally human: a complete reflection of what we are, reflecting the best of us and the worst of us. And you certainly see that with the internet.

On a related note, people have drawn the line between Donald Trump and the Greg Stillson character in The Dead Zone (1983), among them Stephen King himself. What are your thoughts on this resonance that the film has acquired?

Even before Trump, it was George W. Bush  because, after all, the Stillson character in The Dead Zone has a religiosity that Trump certainly doesnt have. He just has insecurity and ego. Hes quite a different beast, but he is a beast. Right now, Trumps visiting India with Modi, and Modi is a guy who does have that messianic certainty. Im not sure if Trump could ever possibly understand India. Its a pretty complex country. But that one aspect of it is really beyond him, the religious aspect.

It struck me, when going back over your filmography, that you moved away from the general umbrella of genre in the last two decades even as mainstream Hollywood has really embraced it.

I just thought that I had explored what I was interested in exploring within genre, and certainly took a lot of nourishment and support from it. But I wouldnt say that I would never go back to making a genre film. It really depends on how relevant it feels to me and to the world at large. I could do that again. I absolutely could do that again. The version of genre that is most forceful in Hollywood right now  the superhero thing  has never appealed to me much. So I was never tempted by that. To me, its too formulaic, and too adolescent in its emotional understanding.

You and William Gibson are two of the artists whose work I most often see described as prescient. Does coming from a Canadian perspective inform your ability to hone in on these incoming dystopian developments?

Theres a case to be made for that. At one point, Marshall McLuhan made that case as well because he was coming up with an understanding of what was happening with media and television and film that nobody else had actually come up with. Canada being a little outside, but connected to the culture, you could see it clearly. Youre not right in the middle of the blizzard, but you can see the blizzard from a close distance.

Thats one of the reasons I like speculative fiction from other countries  it often seems that an American point of view comes with the presumption that American culture will stay this dominant force.

Yeah, exactly. Well, listen, the Romans thought so during the time of the Roman Empire, too. In Canada, you can see the end of the American Empire. When youre in the middle of it, you think its eternal. You cant imagine it not being that way.
It was a clear loss, and now we are behind the ball, said a former White House official familiar with Ziemers team, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter. They had the contacts and the relationships and knew who to talk to. Now they are trying to re-create a lot of those relationships and knowledge within the executive branch.
But while most people have avoided the virus, theres been one major victim close to Trumps heart: the stock market.  TREVOR NOAH

The stock market is down and the coronavirus is up. This planet is going to Purell in a handbasket.  JIMMY KIMMEL

President Trump is concerned, not necessarily for health reasons, but because the Dow was down almost 1,200 points today. It was the worst one-day drop ever in the history of the stock market. And a soft economy could hurt his chances for re-election. Its virus versus virus right now.  JIMMY KIMMEL

Yes, the stock market is tanking right now, except for stocks like Peloton and Netflix, because those companies win when people dont leave their houses. Yeah, but I still think these companies need to innovate to keep up with the virus, you know? Like usually, if youve been bingeing Love Is Blind for 10 hours, a screen pops up and asks, Are you still watching? Yeah, but going forward, it should probably say Are you still alive? And the answer is probably No, because Cameron and Laurens romance destroyed me!  TREVOR NOAH

But I dont get why Peloton is blowing up. Theres no point in exercising during the apocalypse. Yeah, because when you finally go outside, you have a six-pack but no one there to appreciate it.  TREVOR NOAH

Thats the only thing Trump cares about, the stock market. For one thing, its very easy to understand, theres no reading involved. All you have to do is look at the little arrow on the bottom of the TV and find out whether its red or green.  SETH MEYERS
Authorities seized more than 700 grams of suspected fentanyl out of a bedroom closet and dresser while they executed a search warrant in Lawrence Wednesday night, Massachusetts State Police said.

During the raid at 429 High St. authorities seized about 734 grams of suspected fentanyl as well as materials used in packaging and distribution of narcotics, police said.

Authorities also took into custody Manuel Estheulis-Almonte, 28, who was in the apartment at the time of the raid, police said. He was booked at the Lawrence Police Station for trafficking more than 200 grams of fentanyl.

Troopers with the Massachusetts Gang unit watched Estheulis-Almonte accept $60 from a man that was believed to be part of a street-level drug transaction, police said. Police said the man was then supposed to circle the block in his truck and meet up with Estheulis-Amlonte, who would then hand over two grams of fentanyl in return for the cash payment.

But before that happened, though, police said Estheulis-Amlonte had returned to his apartment after accepting the cash. When he came back outside, police pursued and Estheulis-Amlonte ran, police said.

Estheulis-Amlonte had no identification and consented to let police return to his apartment, but didnt want it searched.

When police arrived at the apartment with Estheulis-Amlonte, troopers said they immediately observed several twisted small plastic baggies containing suspected fentanyl, along with suspected drug paraphernalia. Police exited the apartment and secured it, then applied for the court-ordered search warrant that they received and executed later that evening.

The defendant was expected to be arraigned Thursday in Lawrence District Court.
As Virus Further Spreads, Chinese Regime Says Priority Is Social Stability: Leaked Documents

Chinese officials in Wuhan and other cities within Hubei Province, where the novel coronavirus outbreak is most severe, reported to their higher-ups in the provincial government that people are not able to secure treatment, running out of supplies amid restrictive lockdown measures, and feeling fearful and anxious about the spreading disease.

Despite such observations, authorities prioritized how to control the society and manipulate public opinion to view Chinas efforts to contain the virus positively, according to internal government reports that The Epoch Times obtained.

Authorities in the city of Shiyan, for example, listed their working targets as: monitor closely petitioners and people whose benefits have been severely damagedin other words, people most likely to dissent against the authorities; strictly prevent key people and groups from assembling and making trouble; and punish heavily the people who spread improper speech or rumors related to the epidemic.

Increased Social Anger

The Political and Legal Affairs Commission (PLAC) is a Communist Party agency that oversees the countrys security apparatus, including police, courts, and prisons. In the wake of the outbreak, local branches of the PLAC in Xiaogan, Shiyan, Xiantao, and other cities within Hubei, have recently written up working reports on how to control society.

Screenshot of a report drafted by the Shiyan Political and Legal Affairs Commission. (Screenshot)

The local PLACs described difficult living conditions after authorities suspended transportation, public gatherings, and economic activities in order to prevent the virus from spreading.

Because the epidemic is getting worse and worse, the control methods must be upgraded. People have experienced lots of difficulties due to the comprehensive suspension of business operations, transportation, schools, and so on, the Shiyan city PLAC wrote in its report to the Hubei PLAC on Feb. 16.

After the city was locked down, the majority of residents lost their income, the Shiyan PLAC said. Overall, people have strong negative emotions, such as grief, panic, anxiety, and suspicion. The feeling of anger among society has increased.

A vendor is delivering meat to a customer in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 27, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, a new disease control agency set up within the Hubei government to combat the current outbreak compiles daily inspection reports, for Party senior officials to read, such as Ying Yong, the provincial Party boss; Wang Xiaodong, the governor; and Huang Chuping, the vice governor.

The reports go into detail about residents plight. On Feb. 19, the agency said in its report: Residents of Hongmiao village in Anlu city [a county-level city within Xiaogan city, Hubei] complained that the city government blockaded the village by using barbed wire net. It has been six days, and nobody has visited them [to supply basic necessities].

The Hubei Public Security Bureau, in charge of the provinces entire police force, also drafts working reports for the provincial government on how the police are helping to prevent and control the novel coronavirus.

The Bureau described life in Hubei thusly on Feb. 21: In general, residents lack basic life necessities. For example, some families used up all their gas for cooking; some families need baby formula and diapers A large number of residents want to leave the city and go out to make a living They become extreme in behavior.

Tight Control

Despite such conditions, the Bureau did not offer solutions to resolve such shortage problems. It explained that one of its main tasks was to maintain order in makeshift hospitals, facilities built inside stadiums, exhibition centers, and school gyms to isolate people with mild or moderate symptoms of the virus.

According to the Bureaus report, 970 police officers and 882 security guards were dispatched to 20 of such facilities across the province. Their main tasks are controlling patients who make trouble, patients who dont want to stay there, and patients who refuse treatment, it said.

The Bureau listed future goals, such as tightening security at government offices, hospitals, and quarantine centers; preparing for activities that could damage social stability; and locking down all possible sources of infections.

Propaganda

Authorities also emphasized the importance of spreading positive propaganda about the virus response efforts.

The provincial disease control agency listed among its achievements in its propaganda work report on Feb. 20: 215 positive stories on the app of Hubei Daily, a government-run newspaper; 25 positive stories on WeChat, a popular Facebook-like social media platform; 39 positive videos on the Tiktok app; 72 positive stories on the Toutiao news app; and 42 posts on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform. Total page views reached 50 million, according to the report.

Another priority is censoring social media posts that portray the authorities in a negative light.

In a Feb. 7 document, the Hubei provincial government gave orders to the provincial disease control agency: Organizing a 24-hour internet monitoring team to surveil online posts from all websites Remove all negative and harmful information.

The document also noted that authorities removed 4,431 posts which severely damaged public opinion and censored 3,066 types of negative comments from Feb. 1 to Feb. 8.

Even within the central governments anti-epidemic leading groupChinas top agency tasked to confront the outbreakmost of its senior officials are from the Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Public Security. There are no members from the National Health Commission.

Such documents reflect Chinese bureaucrats mentality, which has existed since the Party controlled China in 1949, said Tang Jingyuan, U.S.-based China affairs commentator in a Feb. 27 interview with The Epoch Times.

Officials from different levels want to keep their positions. In order to do so, Party members try their best to maintain social stability, which is treated as an achievement, Tang added. As for peoples lives, that is not important in the officials eyes.

Click here to download a selection of the documents.
February 28 : Shah Rukh Khan is often known as King Khan and lovingly acknowledged as SRK and the Baadshah of Bollywood. He has stolen millions of fans hearts through his romantic avatars in various films like DDLJ, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, My Name is Khan and many more. The list is unlimited and so are the feelings of love that gush from his fans.

Recently, he was part of the prestigious function of awarding a scholarship to a Ph.D. student in Mumbai. During the event, the Australia Chancellor, The Honourable John Brumby AO, was talking about the great venture and also how impressed he was with Shah Rukh Khan. He expressed his gratitude, as SRK was most happy to offer his name to be Scholarship and therefore it was named as Shah Rukh Khan La Trobe University Ph.D. Scholarship.

Watch the video

John mentioned that he was happy that he could sign an agreement with the IIT Kanpur, and that, It would help 40 Ph.D. students to study for one year at La Trobe University in Melbourne. They will be studying the challenges that were being faced in big cities in India and Australia. After one year, they will have a degree from IIT and also a Ph.D. from La Trobe University.

He went on, The audience needs no introduction about Shah Rukhs film credits, which he had built for a very long distinguished career. But this wasnt the main reason why he was awarded an honorary doctorate last year. We wanted to recognize and celebrate his visionary leadership and the way he has his public profile for social change, especially for women who face inequality.

Image Source: Cine Photos

The prestigious Shah Rukh Khan La Trobe University Ph.D. Scholarship was given to Indian Female Ph.D. research student Gopika Kottantharayil Bhasi, from Thrissur and the event took place in Mumbai. It was truly a moment of pride when $200,000 (AUD), that was about 9.5 million Indian rupees Scholarship was awarded to this brainy girl.
(Natural News) Left-wing political ideology is going to be the death of Europe someday, and probably within most of our lifetimes.

A few years ago, the continents various countries threw open their doors to waves and waves of mostly Muslim refugees from the war-torn Middle East and North Africa, flooding their cities with people who simply do not share their values or their historic Christian faith.

The results have been predictable: Cities in France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and Britain where large immigrant communities were formed have become no-go zones for birthright citizens. Crime and violence has gotten so bad in some of these regions that police no longer patrol them.

Now, that same open-borders mentality is exposing hundreds of millions of Europeans to Wuhan coronavirus, as Summit News reports:

Even as the coronavirus begins to spread around the continent, EU officials have steadfastly refused to implement border controls, insisting that the sanctity of open borders is more important.

The number of confirmed cases in Italy has soared from 3 to 322 in the space of just five days, with 10 deaths, but authorities insist that the Schengen Area, which abolishes passport checks and border controls between 26 European states, must not be compromised.

And, the news site reports, even though some 50,000 citizens in Lombardy and Veneto are under internal lockdown, there are no such policies in place for national borders.

In Italy, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte refuses to implement border control and security measures, lamely claiming that they wouldnt do anything to stop the spread of the virus or contain it. That response prompted former Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini to demand that Conte resign if he isnt able to defend Italy and Italians.

But other Italian officials are aligned with Contes government.

We agreed to keep borders open, closing borders would be a disproportionate and ineffective measure at this time, Health Minister Roberto Speranza also told reporters in Rome on Tuesday.

RT reported that borders will remain open even though Italy is now confirmed to be a major source of the virus spreading into neighboring European countries.

Spreading throughout Europe

Nearly a dozen towns have been quarantined across the northern Italian regions of Lombardy and Veneto, and supplies across the north have run low. Public events have been cancelled, and panicked shoppers have stripped supermarket shelves of provisions, the Russian news site reported.

By mid-week, RT noted, the number of confirmed coronavirus victims in Spain rose to seven. Before then, a German tourist and a British man tested positive for the virus on the Canary Islands and in Mallorca, respectively, though both have now been discharged from hospitals.

On Tuesday, Switzerland and Austria, which border Italy to the north, confirmed their first cases of the virus.

The Swiss patient, a 70-year-old man, had returned from an event in Milan two weeks ago. Across the Alps in Austria, a young Italian couple tested positive for the illness after entering Austria from Bergamo in Italy on Friday, RT reported.

Two additional cases have cropped up in France, as well. One patient recently returned from Italy while the other from China.

The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, while WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on Monday that the virus has pandemic potential  though we believe its already reached that level.

And in the U.S., health officials have also said they believe the potential for a major outbreak exists.

Widespread transmission of COVID-19 in the United States would translate into large numbers of people needing medical care at the same time, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters.

Sources include:

RT.com

Summit.news

Breitbart.com

NaturalNews.com
As the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak ripples out from the epicenter in China, airlines have been among the hardest hit.

Already, the outbreak is leading to sharp reductions in air travel demand in the US, with major companies such as Amazon ordering a freeze on all non-essential employee travel. The result is clear in photos showing empty airplane seats and deserted terminals.

In China, the impact has been even more severe, with air travel plummeting 80 percent at the country's busiest airports and mass cancellations of both domestic and international flights.

The reduction in global airline capacity, measured by how many seats remain grounded, is now greater than after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, industry analysts say.

A flight attendant from Denver with Frontier Airlines posted this photo of an empty plane on Wednesday

A nearly empty Cathay Pacific flight is seen on the late-night Vancouver to New York route on February 22. The red-eye route was once popular

The Tom Bradley International terminal at the Los Angeles International airport looks eerily quiet on Thursday as demand for air travel slumps

After 9/11, airline revenue dropped an estimated $19.6 billion in 2002 dollars. The coronavirus crisis could cost the industry an estimated $29.3 billion in lost revenue for 2020, according to the industry group IATA.

The group said on Friday that countries with confirmed virus cases in excess of 90 China, Italy, Iran, Japan, Singapore and South Korea  represent 25 percent of global airline passenger numbers and 20 percent of global passenger revenues.

'Back after 9/11 at the end of 2001, it really took about nine months before we saw the industry recover from the impact of the events,' said Wall Street Journal aviation correspondent Benjamin Katz.

'Now, with the coronavirus, it's a very different situation and it's difficult to give an assessment, but analysts are expecting with the coronavirus this could actually last quite a bit longer,' he continued.

With the extent of the crisis still unknown, experts cautioned that the full impact on airlines remains to be seen.

'If we look back in ten years time, will this be seen as a blip or a game changer?' IBA Aviation Consultancy CEO Phil Seymour told the Journal.

'Most empty plane I've seen in a while,' tweeted Yahoo Finance Editor in Chief Andy Serwer on this flight from Raleigh-Durham to JFK on Wednesday

This traveler from Memphis relates from a flight on Tuesday: 'The lady at the gate said, this is not a full flight. Only 76 of you and it holds 145. If youre not taking your own row, youre living life wrong!'

Empty seats on a Thursday flight to Seattle are seen left, while right the JetBlue counter at JFK stands empty on Tuesday

The Tom Bradley International terminal at the Los Angeles International airport looks eerily quiet on Thursday

On Friday, the flight cancellations continued around the globe, with United Airlines sharply cutting flights to Japan and South Korea.

United ended down 5.2 percent on Friday and were down more than 22 percent over the last week.

The Chicago-based airline said near-term demand to China has almost disappeared and demand to the rest of its trans-Pacific routes has dropped by 75 percent, United said on Monday.

Among U.S. airlines, United has the biggest international exposure, drawing about 40 percent of its revenues from overseas flights.

Earlier this week, Delta cut also South Korea flights in half, citing the outbreak and plummeting demand.

Even domestically in the U.S., airlines are starting to see slumping demand, as companies reconsider the need for business travel and conferences on the cusp of a potential outbreak.

On Friday, Amazon deferred all non-essential travel, within the U.S. and beyond, and Google set new restrictions for travel to South Korea and other places, as corporations moved to protect employees from the spread of coronavirus.

As the cornavirus continues to effect worldwide travel, the Tom Bradley International terminal at the Los Angeles International airport looks eerily quiet on Thursday

Workers and passengers alike continue to take precautionary measures against the virus

Coronavirus fears have intensified in recent days since countries besides China have reported a sharp increase in cases, with six countries reporting their first cases.

Amazon is one of the latest companies to clamp down on travel because of the outbreak, which has caused at least 2,797 deaths globally.

Google is banning travel to Iran and two Italian regions, Lombardy and the Veneto, where the virus is spreading. The company will also ban travel to South Korea and Japan, from March 2, a spokesman for the company confirmed.

Canada's TD Bank Group told Reuters it was suspending all non-essential business travel to China, Iran, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Its peer Bank of Nova Scotia has also reportedly halted non-essential travel.

JetBlue which flies in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America, became the first U.S. airline to offer waivers for all travel on Wednesday, announcing it would suspend change and cancellation fees for new flight bookings between February 27 and March 11 this year.

'I have never seen a flight this empty' said a passenger on this Thursday flight from San Diego to Sacramento

Facebook also said it would cancel its annual developer conference in May because of the virus.

Among those who are still traveling, there are concerns about the screening process for international travelers at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.

Students Emily Ferrara and Blair Haworth told WCBS-TV they had just returned from Florence, Italy, where their study abroad program was canceled because of the virus outbreak, which has infected at least 300 in that country.

Yet, the students said they weren't asked a single question about potential coronavirus symptoms once they landed in New York City.

'We didn't even get checked. Like, we're used to being in Florence where you get your temperature checked. Here they didn't do anything, which is kind of crazy,' Ferrara said.

'Considering, like, how much the cases have spread so fast, like, they should definitely be taking more precautions here.'
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2020 / BTU METALS CORP. ("BTU" or the "Company") (TSXV:BTU) is pleased to announce that further to its press releases dated February 19th and February 20th, 2020 the Company has closed the non-brokered flow through private placement. The Company issued 5,425,000 flow through units (the "FT Units") at a price of $0.30 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $1,627,500.

Proceeds raised will be used for advancing the Company's Dixie Halo Property in Red Lake, Ontario where drilling is currently active at the Dixie Creek gold target and down hole geophysics is underway at the TNT VMS target.

Finders' fees of $71,100 and 201,000 broker warrants were paid to arm's length parties. Each finder's warrant entitles the finder to purchase one common share in the Company for a purchase price of $0.30 for a period of 2 years from the date of closing.

The shares and warrants comprising the units and the finder's warrants are subject to a 4 month hold period expiring July 1, 2020.

The Private Placement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange final approval.

BTU further announces it has granted a total of up to 2,350,000 stock options to directors, and consultants of the company exercisable at a price of $0.25 per share for a period of two years from the date of grant. The options have been granted in accordance with the company's stock option plan.

BTU Metals Corp. is a publicly traded junior, mining exploration company focused in the Red Lake district of Ontario, Canada. BTU currently holds or has under option approximately 200 sqkm of exploration properties continuous to Great Bear Resources in the Red Lake, Ontario area. BTU is actively exploring two key targets; the Dixie Creek prospect, a high-grade gold target immediately south of GBR and the TNT prospect, a very large potential-VMS systems towards the south on the properties. For more information please visit www.BTUMetals.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Paul Wood"

Paul Wood, CEO, Director

pwood@btumetals.com

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Andreas Curkovic, Investor Relations

+1 416-577-9927

BTU Metals Corp.

Telephone: 1-604-683-3995

Toll Free: 1-888-945-4770

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and using information currently available to the Company. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and they are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. These forward -looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. All forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at WWW.SEDAR.COM).

SOURCE: BTU Metals Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/578402/BTU-Closes-16-Million-Dollar-Financing
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BANGALORE, India, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wireless charging is the transfer of energy from a power source to a device, without wires. Wireless charging devices consist of a charging station (or transmitter) transmitting the energy, and a receiver (integrated inside a device) receiving the energy and charging the battery.

The increase in sales of electric vehicles (EVs), the steady growth of the demand for portable electronics and wearables and the regular need to collect ambient RF energy are expected to drive the market for wireless charging during the forecast period. In addition, extensive research into far-reaching wireless charging technologies and the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to offer lucrative opportunities in the near future.

The Wireless charging market is segmented into technology, industry, and region. The technology segment is further divided into inductive, resonant, Radiofrequency (RF), and others. Based on the region, it is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.

In 2017, the global wireless charging market was estimated at USD 5.22 Billion and is projected to hit USD 71.21 Billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 38.7 per cent between 2018 and 2025.

Get Free Sample Report: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/ALLI-Auto-1E103/Wireless_Charging_Market

TRENDS INFLUENCING THE WIRELESS CHARGING MARKET SIZE

Wireless charging for electric and hybrid vehicles will be implemented within a short time. Due to low fuel consumption and performance benefits, the rapid adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) globally is expected to drive the wireless charging market.

The energy of the radio frequency (RF) consists of the transmitter which transmits the RF waves, and a receiver is fixed inside the system which receives the RF energy and converts that energy into DC voltage. This converted energy is in the form of electricity which serves as the electronic device's power source. Harvesting holds a promising future for generating small amounts of electric power to drive partial circuits in electronic devices that communicate wirelessly. Such a surge in demand for an efficient charging system is expected to drive the wireless charging market significantly.

Furthermore, the increasing Internet of Things (IoT) proliferation is boosting demand for wireless charging as it is a convenient method to power an IoT network.

The main applications of the wireless charging technology include products such as smartphones, computing devices and wearable devices. Enterprises increasing efforts to offer wireless connectivity goods have helped this market expand.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALLI-Auto-1E103/wireless-charging-market

REGION WISE WIRELESS CHARGING MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS

It is expected North America will have a prominent market share of the global wireless charging market by the end of 2019.

will have a prominent market share of the global wireless charging market by the end of 2019. Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the wireless charging industry. Rising disposable income, coupled with increasing consumer preference for spending on quality consumer electronic products designed for the niche segment, is driving growth in the industry.

Ask For Regional Report https://reports.valuates.com/request/regional/ALLI-Auto-1E103/Wireless_Charging_Market

Key Benefits for Stakeholders

This study comprises of the analytical depiction of the global wireless charging market trends with current and future estimations to depict the imminent investment pockets

The overall wireless charging market potential is determined to understand the profitable trends to gain a stronger foothold

The wireless charging market analysis include key drivers, restraints, and opportunities with a detailed impact analyses

The current wireless charging market is quantitatively analyzed from 2018 to 2025 to benchmark the financial competency

Porter's Five Forces analysis illustrates the potency of the buyers and suppliers in the industry

WIRELESS CHARGING MARKET SEGMENTATION

The market is segmented on the basis of technology, industry vertical, and geography.

BY TECHNOLOGY

Inductive

Resonant

RF

Others (Laser and Microwave)

BY INDUSTRY VERTICAL

Electronics

Automotive

Industrial

Healthcare

Aerospace & Defense.

KEY PLAYERS

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Qualcomm Incorporated

Texas Instruments, Inc.

Integrated Device Technology, Inc.

Powermat Technologies Ltd.

WiTricity Corporation

Energizer Holdings, Inc.

Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd.

Sony Corporation

Fulton Innovation LLC

Others.

Other players in the value chain include (profiles not included in the report)

NXP Semiconductors

Panasonic Corporation

Bavarian Motor Works

Nissan Motor

Convenient Power HK Limited.

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SIMILAR REPORTS :

 WIRELESS ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING MARKET

The charging market for wireless electric vehicles (EV) is projected to reach USD 1,478.4 Million by 2025 from USD 21.8 Million in 2017, with a CAGR of 22.4 per cent from 2018 to 2025.

The wireless charging industry for electric vehicles is focused on transferring energy from a power source to a consuming system without wires or cables. By removing the use of physical connectors and cables, it offers reliable, cost-effective charging over conventional charging systems. With the increase in trend and emphasis on autonomous ridesharing, wireless electric vehicle charging size will increase and become the most viable option for the OEMs or the autonomous fleet operators.

The market segmentation is based on power source, installation, Distribution channel, vehicle type, and region to give an in-depth analysis.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALLI-Auto-1I348/wireless-electric-vehicle-charging-market

 ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING SYSTEM MARKET

The global market size of the electric vehicle charging system was estimated at $3.18 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 66.27 Billion by 2026, representing a 45.6 per cent CAGR from 2019 to 2026.

Asia-Pacific has accounted for the largest share in 2018 and is expected to maintain its lead in the global market for electric vehicle charging systems over the forecast period. Electric Vehicle Charging market is segmented on the basis of product type, mode of charging, charging voltage level, and region to give an in-depth review.

This study provides an empirical representation of the market analysis of the global electric vehicle charging system along with current trends and potential forecasts to depict the imminent pockets of the investment.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/ALLI-Auto-1Y57/electric-vehicle-charging-system-market

 AUTOMOTIVE INDUCTIVE WIRELESS CHARGING SYSTEMS MARKET

The demand for Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems was estimated at USD 28 Million in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 700 Million by 2025, at a CAGR of 49.5 per cent over the forecast period.

This report presents the global market size of Automotive Inductive Wireless Charging Systems (value, output, and consumption), splits the breakdown by manufacturers, area, form, and application (data status 2014-2019 and forecast to 2025). This research also analyzes the industry status, market share, growth rate, future trends, market dynamics, opportunities and challenges, risks and barriers to entry, sales channels, distributors and Porter's Five Forces Analysis.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-16Z191/global-automotive-inductive-wireless-systems-market

 WIRELESS CHARGING IC MARKET

The demand for Wireless Charging IC was estimated at USD 2180 Million in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 7500 Million by 2025, at a CAGR of 19.3 per cent over the forecast period. Asia Pacific was the world's largest market for Wireless Charging IC, with a share of more than 70 percent in 2017.

This report presents the worldwide market size of the Wireless Charging IC (value, output, and consumption), splits the breakdown (2014-2019 data status and forecast to 2025), by manufacturers, area, form, and application.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-160/global-wireless-charging-ic-market

 IN-CAR WIRELESS CHARGING MARKET

The global market for In-Car Wireless Charging in 2018 was USD 1700 Million and is expected to reach USD 22400 Million by the end of 2025, rising at a CAGR of 38.0 per cent between 2019 and 2025.

The report studies and analyzes the global market size (value & volume) of In-Car Wireless Charging by the enterprise, key regions/countries, products and applications, history data from 2014 to 2018 and forecast to 2025. The report focuses on the key global manufacturers of In-Car Wireless Charging to define, describe and analyze the sales volume, value, market share, competitive market landscape, SWOT analysis and development plans in the coming years.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-4E190/in-car-wireless-charging-market

 PHONES WIRELESS CHARGING MARKET

This study focuses on the volume and value of Phones Wireless Charging at global, regional and enterprise level. This study reflects the overall size of the Wireless Charging market for phones from a global perspective by examining historical data and future prospects. The study focuses regionally on several main regions: North America, Europe, China and Japan.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-2V236/phones-wireless-charging-market

 COPPER FOIL FOR WIRELESS CHARGING MARKET

The study provides a list of all the key players on the wireless charging market in Copper Foil along with a detailed analysis of the strategies that the companies are implementing. The approaches include mainly new product development, analysis, and development, and also provide revenue reports, business history, and recent company innovations to remain competitive in the marketplace.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-0L205/copper-foil-for-wireless-charging-market

 CONSUMER ELECTRONICS WIRELESS CHARGING MARKET

In general, wireless power transfer is used in electronic devices, such as smartphones, tablets, wearable electronics, and portable devices. Such a rise in the adoption of an effective charging system for portable and wearable electronics, which could potentially increase the device's longevity, is expected to ensure significant growth in the wireless charging market for electronics.

View Full Report: https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Othe-1B235/consumer-electronics-wireless-charging-market

ABOUT US:

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Our team of market analysts can help you select the best report covering your industry. We understand your niche region-specific requirements and that's why we offer customization of reports. With our customization in place, you can request for any particular information from a report that meets your market analysis needs.

Valuates is curating premium Market Research Reports from the leading publishers around the globe. We will help you map your information needs to our report repository of Market research reports and guide you through your purchasing decision. We are based out of Silicon Valley of India (Bengaluru) and provide 24/6 online and offline support to all our customers and just a phone call away.

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SOURCE Valuates Reports
Berlin: Around 1,000 people were quarantined in Germany's most populous state Friday, as the number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in Europe's biggest economy rose above 50.

The district of Heinsberg in North Rhine-Westphalia said it had to take the step of keeping around 1,000 home as an infected couple had participated in carnival celebrations in mid-February.

Schools and kindergartens were also shut in the district until Monday as the number of cases linked to the cluster reached 20.

In Hamburg, parents and children who were in contact with an infected employee at a university clinic have also been ordered to stay home for 14 days.

With cases now detected across several further German states including Hesse, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria, Health Minister Jens Spahn said this week that Europe's biggest country was at the beginning of a coronavirus epidemic.

The government has ordered local authorities in the country's 16 states to update their pandemic readiness plans.

It also from Thursday began requiring travellers arriving from China, South Korea, Japan, Iran and Italy to provide contact details in case their movements had to be traced over possible infections.

Authorities are also poised to decide if international travel fair ITB is to be cancelled days before its scheduled opening in Berlin.
PRINCE RUPERT, BC, Feb. 27, 2020 /CNW Telbec/ - Last Tuesday, thanks to the joint efforts of Pembina Pipeline Corporation, the Prince Rupert Port Authority, Ridley Terminals, Breakfast Club of Canada and School District No. 52, 225 children and youth will enjoy a nutritious breakfast every school morning. Collectively, these organizations have made it possible for students from Prince Rupert Middle School, Charles Hays Secondary School and Roosevelt Park Elementary School to start their day nourished, energized and ready to learn.

A breakfast program is more than providing a healthy meal; it is a way to unite communities around the success of their children and youth. The Club believes it is essential to take time to educate students on proper nutrition and the impact it has on their actions. Recently, at Prince Rupert Middle School, they have successfully eliminated the use of disposable dishes and cutlery, thus educating students about the importance of sustainability.

Highlights:

Three breakfast programs in School District No. 52 have started at Prince Rupert Middle School , Charles Hays Secondary School and Roosevelt Park Elementary School. These programs will feed 225 children and youth every morning.

, Charles Hays Secondary School and Roosevelt Park Elementary School. These programs will feed 225 children and youth every morning. Across Canada , after a breakfast program has been established, school principals have reported lower absenteeism, improved attention span and fewer health-related problems.

, after a breakfast program has been established, school principals have reported lower absenteeism, improved attention span and fewer health-related problems. More than 8,800 young British Columbians currently have access to a breakfast program at school. Breakfast Club of Canada supports 181 breakfast programs in the province, 50 of which are in schools with an Indigenous population of 40% or higher.

Quotes:

"Breakfast Club of Canada firmly believes in the importance of joining forces with partners across all sectors of society to benefit the next generation. We can all do good by our kids, whether it's by giving of our time, money, food or influence. This project is an amazing testament to what we can accomplish together. Thank you to Pembina, the Prince Rupert Port Authority and Ridley Terminals Inc. We are also grateful to School District No. 52 for their trust and for allowing us to be a part of their school community."

 Tommy Kulczyk, General Manager at Breakfast Club of Canada

"School District No. 52 is pleased to team up with Breakfast Club of Canada to bring these school breakfast programs to life. Research shows a strong link between a good healthy breakfast in the morning and positive academic and social outcomes. We also would like to acknowledge our partners at the Prince Rupert Port Authority, Ridley Terminals and Pembina for their continued support of our students. Thank you!"

 Irene Lapierre, Superintendent of Schools for School District No. 52

"Pembina is a proud new member of the Prince Rupert community, and we're excited to come together and celebrate the launch of these three breakfast programs that will help even more kids in Prince Rupert start their days with a healthy meal. Through our $5 million signature partnership with Breakfast Club of Canada, Fuel 4 Thought, Pembina supports breakfast programs across our communities. We believe that a healthy breakfast is critical to ensuring that all kids have the opportunity to reach their full potential, and are honoured to be able to extend these programs to Prince Rupert in collaboration with our partners."

 Jaret Sprott, Pembina's Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Facilities, and Executive Sponsor of Fuel 4 Thought

"The Prince Rupert Port Authority is committed to the community. We're always grateful for the opportunity to do our part for the next generation through a variety of investment and donation programs. We believe that the foundation of a community's healthy future lies in its youngest members and that the support they receive from the start is critical to their long-term development. We are proud to partner with this important initiative to expand breakfast programs in School District No. 52. Breakfast Club of Canada is a proven vehicle to help local children reach their full potential, one breakfast at a time."

 Shaun Stevenson, President and CEO of the Prince Rupert Port Authority

"Ridley Terminals is happy to be sponsoring such a great program for students in our community. A good breakfast provides the essential nutrients for our students to start the day with energy in order to concentrate better while in school."

 Michelle Bryant-Gravelle, Corporate Affairs Manager at Ridley Terminals Inc.

About Breakfast Club of Canada

Founded in 1994, Breakfast Club of Canada is a charitable organization that provides funding, equipment, training and support to school breakfast programs across the country. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the Club is dedicated to ensuring every child starts their day with a nutritious morning meal in a safe and secure environment. Accredited by Imagine Canada as a trustworthy charity, Breakfast Club of Canada is present in 1,809 schools from coast to coast, feeding over 243,500 children every school morning. To learn more, visit breakfastclubcanada.org or find us on social media.

About Pembina Pipeline Corporation

Calgary-based Pembina Pipeline Corporation is a leading transportation and midstream service provider that has been serving North America's energy industry for over 60 years. Pembina owns an integrated system of pipelines that transport various hydrocarbon liquids and natural gas products produced primarily in western Canada. The Company also owns gas gathering and processing facilities and an oil and natural gas liquids infrastructure and logistics business. Pembina's integrated assets and commercial operations along the majority of the hydrocarbon value chain allow it to offer a full spectrum of midstream and marketing services to the energy sector. Pembina is committed to identifying additional opportunities to connect hydrocarbon production to new demand locations through the development of infrastructure that would extend Pembina's service offering even further along the hydrocarbon value chain. These new developments will contribute to ensuring that hydrocarbons produced in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and the other basins where Pembina operates can reach the highest value markets throughout the world. For more information, visit www.pembina.com.

About Prince Rupert Port Authority

The Prince Rupert Port Authority oversees the Port of Prince Rupert, Canada's leading-edge port in trade growth, maritime safety, environmental stewardship, and community partnership. Its mandate is to facilitate and expand the movement of cargo and passengers through the Port. With the distinct advantage of being the closest North American port to Asia by up to three days, Prince Rupert is uniquely positioned on the shortest trade route between the world's most dynamic economiesan ideal location to serve shippers and producers, facilitate trade, and grow the Canadian economy.

About Ridley Terminals Inc.

Ridley Terminals Inc. (RTI) has a reputation of providing professional, reliable, and efficient services to customers, as well as maintaining an excellent safety record. RTI is uniquely positioned to play an important role in supporting exports from North America to meet a growing global demand. RTI offers a high level of quality, reliable and uninterrupted services. Located on Ridley Island in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, RTI can offer customer reduced sailing time to Asia; by more than one day compared to Vancouver, and nearly three days vis-a-vis Long Beach, California. It's 9,000 tonnes per hour ship loading system is the fastest on the West Coast and its berth can handle Cape size vessels up to 250,000 Dead Weight Tonnes. It is a truly World Class facility, with loading rates that can match or exceed the largest terminals in Australia or South Africa.

SOURCE Breakfast Club of Canada

For further information: Breakfast Club of Canada, Justine Plourde, Communications Advisor, Public Relations, 1-888-442-1217, ext. 3369, [email protected]; Pembina Pipeline Corporation, Sarah Kenny, Senior Advisor, Communications, 403-691-7601 or 1-844-775-6397, [email protected]; Prince Rupert Port Authority, Monika Cote, Manager, Corporate Communications, 250-627-2550, [email protected]; Ridley Terminals Inc, Cordell Dixon, Vice President, Finance, 250-624-9511, [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.breakfastclubcanada.org/


The Listener editorial:

The Greens have an idea for cleaning up political donations, starting with an independent citizens assembly because, they say, its clear that Parliament is incapable of [making] meaningful reforms to itself. Heres a different idea for cleaning up political donations, which is simpler and more cost-effective than the Greens proposal: obey the law. Everyone else must, whatever their line of work, and political parties should, too. Just because parties and individuals sometimes fall foul of electoral law does not automatically mean the law needs reform, just as restaurants falling foul of hygiene regulations does not necessarily mean there is something wrong with the regulations.

I strongly agree.

While the current law is not perfect, it is actually a very good law in regards to donations and expenses. It has the following features:

Annual disclosure of large donations

Immediate disclosure of very large donations

Provisions to require contributors to a donation to be identified

No significant foreign donations

No splitting donations between body corporates to avoid disclosure

Reporting a summary of small donations

Only NZ residents or companies/organisations can donate

Spending limits on parties and candidates for the 90 days before the election

Those who say the answer to people breaking the law is to change the law are in fact trying to cover up for those who broke the law.

The answer to people breaking the law is to prosecute them.

Now again there are improvements one can make to the law. I would favour a greater role for the Electoral Commission in being able to see all donations, not just those above the disclosure limit. But these are changes that can be made in the triennial post-election review.

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What started as a simple poster campaign on the streets of Cork has today turned into a charity t-shirt in aid off Pieta House.

Over recent weeks the MD of Poster Displays Cork, Al Dalton, decided to use some free billboard space to post a simple note to Cork with a simple message: "Dont Be A Langer, Be Kind.
The ICT industry is today taking an unprecedented step forward in tackling climate change with the release of the first-ever science-based pathway to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions across the telecoms sector. This supports the GSMAs commitment to helping the mobile industry achieve Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The new Science-Based Target (SBT) is the result of a collaboration between the ITU, GeSI, the GSMA, and SBTi to develop a sector-specific decarbonisation pathway that allows ICT companies to set targets in line with the latest climate science. It includes emissions reductions trajectories for mobile, fixed and data centre operators to meet the ambitious Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5c, designed to substantially reduce the risks and effects of climate change.

Twenty nine operator groups representing 30 per cent of global mobile connections are already committed to SBTs. These include America Movil, AT&T, BT, Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telekom, Elisa, Far Eastone, KPN, Magyar Telekom, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, Proximus, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Safaricom, Singtel, SK Telecom, STC, Swisscom, T Mobile USA, Taiwan Mobile, TDC, Tele2, Telefonica, Telekom Austria, Telenor, Telia, Telstra, Verizon, and Vodafone.

Many more will now be able to set targets by applying the trajectory recommendations released today.

Todays landmark agreement underlines how the ICT sector is taking urgent and unprecedented action in response to the climate emergency, said Mats Granryd, Director General, GSMA. The mobile industry is one of the first major sectors in the world to voluntarily set an SBT for emissions reductions. Our sector will form the backbone to the future global economy and has a unique role to play in reaching a Net Zero economy. A decarbonised world will be a digital world, so we must show leadership and take responsibility for driving positive climate action.

The GSMA is also launching a Climate Toolkit for operators today which includes company guidance for setting science-based targets. Further information is available at: https://www.gsma.com/betterfuture/climate-action-toolkit

Renewable energy to drive emissions reductions

The SBT sets emissions trajectory reductions over the decade (2020-2030) for each ICT sub- sector. For example, mobile network operators adopting the SBT are required to reduce emissions by at least 45 per cent over this period. Companies are required to set one target for their combined Scope 1 and 2 emissions, with additional guidance provided for managing Scope 3 emissions1.

The switch to renewable and low-carbon electricity is expected to account for the bulk of reductions over this period, alongside efforts by operators to become more energy efficient. Access to renewable energy, which can vary widely depending on an operators geographic location is, therefore, a key factor determining an operators ability to meet the SBT.

The ICT sector pathway SBT was approved by the Science-Based Target Initiative (SBTi) this month following a consultation period. Full details are provided in the official ITU standard: GHG emissions trajectories for the ICT sector compatible with the UNFCCC Paris Agreement (Ref: Recommendation ITU L.1470).

Mobile industry demonstrating leadership on climate action

Todays announcement forms part of the GSMAs climate action roadmap for the mobile industry, which has already seen operators disclose their climate impacts, energy, and emissions via the internationally recognised CDP global disclosure system.2

The GSMA is working with participating operators and partnering with the international community, climate experts and third-party organisations to advance industry progress, establish best practices, and support disclosure and target setting. The work forms part of the industrys journey to support the delivery of the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG #13 on Climate Action.

The industry is also committed to advancing mobile technology innovations in areas such as big data and IoT that can enable energy efficient and environmental solutions across multiple sectors, including transport, manufacturing, agriculture, building, and energy. A recent report produced by the GSMA and the Carbon Trust calculated that the use of mobile technology enabled a global reduction in emissions of around 2,135 million tonnes CO 2 e in 20183. These emissions savings were almost ten times greater than the global carbon footprint of the mobile industry itself.

-ENDS-

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting more than 750 operators with over 350 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces the industry-leading MWC events held annually in Barcelona, Los Angeles and Shanghai, as well as the Mobile 360 Series of regional conferences.

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA

1https://www.epa.gov/greeningepa/greenhouse-gases-epa

2https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/worlds-leading-mobile-operators-to-disclose-climate-impacts-as-part-of-new-gsma-led-climate-action-roadmap/

3https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/mobile-technologies-enabling-huge-carbon-reductions-in-response-to-climate-emergency/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227005095/en/
Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot on Friday again sounded critical of his own party's government, this time over recent crimes against Dalits and the failure of the state home ministry, a portfolio held by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, in controlling them.

Pilot, who is also the state's deputy chief minister, sounded critical of his government a day after the alleged custodial death of a Dalit in the neighbouring Barmer district and thrashing of two other Dalits youths in a motorcycle show room in Nagaur district on February 16.

"The way the spurt in crimes against Dalits have been reported, it was our duty to control these crimes and instill confidence in Dalits that it would not happen again, said Pilot, while voicing his party's concern over atrocities against Dalits.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi too had termed the Nagaur incident, in which two Dalit youths were brutalised on camera, as "horrific and sickening" and had asked his party government in the state to take immediate action to bring the perpetrators to book.

We have taken the crime and atrocities against Dalits seriously and would act in these matters. If there was any shortcomings in the administration and the Home Department, they would be addressed," said Pilot.

Pilot made the remarks while talking to reporters here in Jodhpur, where he had visited to attend the wedding ceremony of party leader Karan Singh Uchiyarda.

Pilot had flown to Jodhpur after submitting a report on recent incidents of atrocities against Dalits in the state to party chief Sonia Gandhi.

I have given the report to the party president and government too has been doing its duty. But apart from the transfer (of officials) or other actions, we need to give a political message that our government would have zero-tolerance against such anti-Dalit incidents," said Pilot.

The deputy chief ministry also emphasised upon his government's onus to fix officials' responsibility over the failure in preventing the crime and conveying the political message of the party's zero-tolerance against anti-Dalit incidents.

For this, we would have to further strengthen the Home Department, said the deputy chief minister, who has often criticised his own party government in the past on various issues, including the spate of death of infants in a Kota hospital towards the year-end last year.

Referring to the corruption in the system, specially in the context of bajari mining, Pilot said "harsh action, irrespective of the status, stature and influence of the corrupt, will have to be taken to root out corruption".

Talking about the violence in Delhi, he said it is a matter of investigation as to what were the reasons of riots and who were responsible.

There were lacunae on the part of both the central and the Delhi governments. Whosoever, is responsible, would have to be punished, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
ANSAmed - Weekly diary from March 2 to March 8

(ANSAmed) - ROME, FEBRUARY 28 - Weekly diary of the main events scheduled in the Euro-Mediterranean area from March 2 to March 8: MONDAY, MARCH 2 ISRAEL - Early elections.



VATICAN CITY - Holy See, opening of Vatican archives on pontificate of Pope Pius XII.



ROMA - EU, Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni gives a speech on the "New European Commission - Priorities and Challenges" at The European House - Ambrosetti.



TUESDAY, MARCH 3 DOHA - Doha Conference on Interfaith Dialogue.



WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4 BRUSSELS - EU, European Commission presents its proposal of a "Climate Law" for climate neutrality by 2050; Swedish activist Greta Thunberg will participate.



ZAGREB - EU, defence ministers meeting.



THURSDAY, MARCH 5 ZAGREB - EU, foreign ministers meeting (until 6/3).



ROME - 11th edition of Francofilm Festival kicks off (until 13/3).



FRIDAY, MARCH 6 BRUSSELS - EU, Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans participates in launch of "Plastics Pact".



SATURDAY, MARCH 7 PORDENONE - 26th edition of Dedica literary festival kicks off, this year focusing on Libyan writer Hisham Matar, Pulitzer Prize winner for "The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land In Between".



SUNDAY, MARCH 8 No major events scheduled.



(ANSAmed).




Lucknow, Feb 28 : Lucknow University is set to launch an 'Education for Happiness' course in the M.Ed curriculum from the new academic session, said Lucknow University spokesperson Durgesh Kumar on Friday.

With this new course, the university will teach students to be happy in any situation.

Amita Bajpai, of the education department, told IANS: "This is an inter-departmental course. Science and M.Com students can also study this course. The Faculty of Education will add happiness course in the third and fourth semester of M.Ed from new academic session.

"Happiness course will have five units, including the several aspects related to happiness. The aim of the course is to make students realise about what happiness is. The syllabus includes philosophy and Gita too," said Bajpai.

This is an optional course but a complete examination will be conducted for this. The curriculum will be sent to the academic council after approval of the faculty board, said Bajpai.

Bajpai added that if the demand comes in the future, we will start degree and diploma courses also.
Stateless is a tapestry of the personal and political in Australia in the early 2000s.

Inspired by true events, notably the famed case of Cornelia Rau, this may be fictional but so raw are the wounds of the story, that it all feels terribly real.

Airline hostie Sofie Werner (Yvonne Strahovski) feels the pressure from her German-Australian family to follow in the footsteps of her married and perfect sister Margot (Marta Dusseldorp) but finds solace in a local dance class. Yet GOPA (Growing Ones Potential Achievement) is more akin to a cult sect, with self-affirming classes run by leader Gordon Masters (Dominic West) and his wife Pat Masters (Cate Blanchett).

Youre always judging me and telling me what to do, she tells family.

In Indonesia, Afghani man Ameer (Fayssal Bazzi), his wife & two daughters are en route to a new life in Australia via boat.

In Australia you can be anything you want to be, he is told.

So desperate to escape the traumas of the war back home, they soon find themselves at the mercy of greedy people-smugglers.

Meanwhile an outback labourer Cam (Jai Courtney) is convinced to earn more money by working for the local Barton Immigration Detention Centre, run by a private security manager Brian (Darren Gilshenan). Theres no experience required, but his burly size will surely come in handy.

Finally, Department of Immigration bureaucrat Clare (Asher Keddie) is sent from Canberra to Barton as its new General Manager and is faced with a rooftop Tamil protest, media in helicopters and a prying journalist (Dan Spielman).

The script by Elise McCredie, who co-created the miniseries with Tony Ayres & Cate Blanchett, weaves in an out of the various storylines which all come together at the Detention Centre.

Strahovskis storyline benefits from editorial weight in the opening chapter, as Sofies world spirals out of control through family and the GOPA dance centre. In fact so much screen time is afforded to the GOPA scenes with Blanchett & West, with gaudy dance fashions and Blanchett frocked up for a musical number, I felt like I was watching another show (Im suspecting these are cameos).

But Strahovksi rises above this with a sincere and powerful performance -after The Handmaids Tale, youd hope she is given something less disturbing soon.

Jai Courtneys Cam enters the world of detention from a largely naive position -with every intent of following instructions to respect the cultural beliefs of his charge. It wont take long before he sees the cracks and the cruel shortcuts taken to keep a lid on a powderkeg problem. Similarly, Asher Keddies Clare plays it tough, in a role that is happily less sympathetic than her usual screen time.

The scenes at Barton Detention Centre look dusty and stark, isolated from the real world, unforgiving and archaic. So broken is the system, that the frustrated security guards seem like they are victims of dysfunctional policy too. Yet this undervalues the pain and torment of separated families, living in limbo for years while bureaucrats dither.

Stateless is unlikely to change the most hardened of stances, but the extensive research by this team which is evident throughout complex scenes, puts it front and centre to living rooms across Australia.

ABC continues to demonstrate it will not shy away from issue-based drama.

Statelessairs 8:30pm Sunday on ABC.
ALBANY  Ahmad Walis transition to the United States was not an easy one. He came with his family from Afghanistan, and on the first day of arrival his son had a fever and had to be hospitalized for two weeks.

On the second day of living in his new home, Wali heard gunshots, and soon police were interviewing people in the Albany neighborhood trying to figure out what happened.

Life only became more complicated when the health department told Wali and his family that they needed to vacate their house immediately due to mold and other health issues. The Walis had to stay in a Ronald McDonald House in Albany for two weeks because they struggled to find housing.

Taking into consideration all the problems and difficulties I went through, I said maybe it will be easier for the other families if I helped or advised them so they dont go through the same difficulties like I did, Wali said.

Now three years later, Wali is a volunteer for Refugee Community Health Partnership Program (RCHPP), which helps refugees sign up for insurance or deal with any other hurdles life throws their way. Wali and other refugees who are now volunteers trying to help others that were in their position.

Refugee Community Health Partnership Program partners with Trinity Alliance, a nonprofit that promotes healthy families, adults and children, hosts walk-in hours every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The program was founded by husband and wife Russ Altone and Susan Kukuk in 2013, and established a partnership with Trinity Alliance in 2015.

We want to make sure everyone has health insurance, and that its effective, Altone said. We want to make sure everyone is connected to primary care, not only on paper, but they know who their physician is.

There is an Affordable Care Act navigator onsite and translators to help people figure out what certain pieces of mail or bills mean. However, often volunteers will assist with needs beyond insurance and healthcare. For instance, Dou Dou, who is Karen, will help with translation, but hell also take people to the DMV to take their driving test. Dou Dou has been volunteering for RCHPP since its inception.

Dou Dou and his family originally resettled in Utica, but moved to Albany so they could help serve the Karen community there, he said. Dou Dous uncle would host walk-in hours in his living rooms before RCHPP partnered with Trinity Alliance, which provides the space for walk-in hours. This is how Dou Dou became involved so early on.

I would just walk downstairs and help translate, Dou Dou said. Its better now. We were in the living room before, and there is a lot more space here.

Kukuk, one of the programs co-organizers, said having the permanent space has made all the difference for the program.

It would be a whole different world if Trinity didn't support us that way, Kukuk said.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

The program sometimes receives grant funding to hire staff, but it largely relies on volunteers, Kukuk said.

We always have interpreters, and I think that's been the reason we're effective, Kukuk said. There are enough English speaking members of the refugee community who also want to help their own community.

Both Kukuk and Altone agree translators are vital to the walk-in hours. During the last walk-in, a translation was needed for a very time-sensitive issue. Altone was speaking with a young man who needed to see a doctor sooner than later. The man only spoke Arabic and Altone was unsuccessfully trying to communicate to him that he could go to drop-in hours at St. Peter's, but they were about to end in an hour.

Fortunately, Taraf Alshammari, who is from Kuwait and speaks Arabic, was volunteering that day and was able to relay the message. She wrote down the address for him and reminded him to bring proof of insurance.



The refugee system has a lot of barriers especially with language and they dont know the (health care) system, Alshammari said. If you dont know the language you cant go to the doctor or apply for benefits through the department of social services.

However, Alshammari said she hopes she can make these tasks slightly easier.

We try to be the bridge between the community and the system, Alshammari said.
An idea from federal Homeland Security officials to speed up the process for drivers to get the new Real ID drivers license that can be used as a document at airports is a non-starter in New Jersey.

The reason why? It would take too much time to implement and take resources away from actually issuing the more secure licenses, state Motor Vehicle Commission officials said.

Last November, U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials asked for suggestions on how to speed up the process for travelers to obtain a Real ID license by allowing them to start the process online by applying and submitting documents electronically.

Last week, the DHS told state motor vehicle officials that drivers may electronically submit the various proofs of identity and residence to get a Real ID to speed the things up. Drivers still have to bring the physical documents to the MVC to complete the process.

Federal and travel industry officials fear chaos at the DMV and at airports as the Oct. 1 deadline approaches when standard drivers licenses will no longer be accepted as valid ID for domestic air travel.

Passengers also have the option of using a passport or passport ID card for domestic air travel or other federal ID if they dont have a Real ID license.

For states that had already built this capability, it may be of use, said William Connolly, an MVC spokesman. Someone still has to review and validate the documents, and that would take resources off the line  the net time savings may not be as much as suggested.

The other issue is it would take time to install the technology and train employees to operate it, since it wasnt an option allowed by federal Homeland Security security officials until now, he said.

For New Jersey, we are focused on innovations that will make a difference in this year, not projects that would require significant resources without 2020 results, Connolly said.

As of Feb. 23, the MVC has issued 30,337 Real ID licenses, he said.

A new program, started on Feb. 3 that allows drivers with licenses that expire in three months to walk-in to an MVC agency instead of making an appointment, is having more success.

The walk-in program exceeded our expectations, with 6,242 walk-ins at MVC agencies from Feb. 5 to 20, Connolly said. This more than doubled our rate of Real ID issuance and was still increasing when we reached the Feb 20 cut-off.

Real ID walk-ins arent permitted during the last 10 days of the month when agencies are extremely crowded by drivers with licenses or other paperwork that expires at the end of the month or beginning of the coming month.

The Motor Vehicle Commission began issuing Real ID licenses on Sept. 18 by appointment only and have been gradually increasing the number of MVC agencies issuing the new license.

U.S. Travel Association officials are concerned that most travelers are unaware of the Real ID requirement and risk being turned away from airport security checkpoints if they dont have one or a valid passport.

Association research said that 57% of Americans who responded to a survey were unaware of the Oct. 1 Real ID deadline. The USDHS said nearly 100 million Americans already have Real ID licenses or ID cards.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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A passenger wearing a surgical mask at the departure terminal hall at the Hong Kong International Airport.

Ivan Abreu/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Thousands of flights around the world have been canceled due to the novel coronavirus.

This has decreased the number of people that can be found in international airports in countries like South Korea, China, and Italy.

The International Air Transport Association has predicted a $29.3 billion loss in passenger revenue this year because of COVID-19.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

International airports around the world have become increasingly empty as flights have been canceled and more travel warnings have been issued during the coronavirus outbreak.

The novel coronavirus  which originated in Wuhan, China  has now killed 2,810 people, with at least 60 deaths of those occurring outside of China. As of now, over 82,500 people have been infected globally, although 95% of the cases have been in China.

At least 47 countries outside of China have reported cases of coronavirus, and the fear of contracting and spreading COVID-19 has caused a significant drop in flights to and from Asia: 73 airlines have canceled flights to China. Flights that don't start or end in China are also being canceled, with Italy and the Middle East as major hotspots now.

Keep scrolling to see the effects that the novel coronavirus has had on airports around the world, from Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska:

The US State Department has issued travel advisories for several countries

A cleaner mops the floor wearing a surgical mask in front of the flight information display at the arrival hall of Hong Kong international airpor 2

A cleaner mops the floor wearing a surgical mask in Hong Kong International Airport's arrival hall.

Geovien So/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

...including China, which has been given a level 3 travel advisory.

A passenger wears a surgical mask at an empty departure terminal hall at the Hong Kong International Airport.

A passenger wearing a surgical mask at the departure terminal hall at the Hong Kong International Airport.

Ivan Abreu/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

Level 3 suggests travelers reconsider nonessential trips.

Story continues

A police officer in a medical mask at Terminal F of Sheremetyevo International Airport. Russia suspends most flights to and from China from February 1, 2

A police officer in a medical mask at a terminal in the Sheremetyevo International Airport in Russia.

Sergei Savostyanov/TASS via Getty Images

South Korea has also been given a level 3.

People walk through a nearly empty terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) on January 31, 2020 in New York City. 2

People walking around n a John F. Kennedy Airport terminal.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Japan, Italy, and Iran are all level 2, while Hong Kong sits at level 1.

This picture taken on February 14, 2020 shows an arriving passenger (back L) wearing a face mask while standing in an empty baggage claim area at Daxing 2

The baggage claim area in the Daxing international Airport in Beijing.

Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

At 26 deaths, Iran has the highest number of coronavirus-caused deaths outside of China.

A general view of the nearly empty arrival hall of Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on February 27, 2020, as the number of air travellers has plummeted amid fears over the spread of the COVID 19 coronavirus. 2

A near empty hall in the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi.

Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images

Italy has now seen 14 deaths as well.

A general view of the nearly empty arrival hall of Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on February 27, 2020, as the number of air travellers has plummeted amid fears over the spread of the COVID 19 coronavirus. ( 2

A near-empty hall in the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi.

Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images

No COVID-19 patients have died in the US yet.

A General view showing empty check in counters inside the terminal of the Hong Kong International Airport on February 22, 2020 in Hong Kong, China. 2

Check-in counters at the Hong Kong International Airport.

Vernon Yuen/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The CDC has also issued health alerts for Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

A Man with a luggage trolley Is seen walking pass empty check in counters inside the terminal of the Hong Kong International Airport on February 22, 2020 in Hong Kong, China. 2

A man walking through the Hong Kong International Airport.

Vernon Yuen/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The World Health Organization said on Monday that COVID-19 has pandemic potential.

A nearly empty lobby at the North Terminal of the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska, is shown Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020. 2

A lobby in the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska.

Mark Thiessen/AP Photo

WHO previously called COVID-19 a global health emergency.

A passenger wearing protective mask at the arrival hall at the Hong Kong international Airport. Since 2

A passenger in the arrival hall at the Hong Kong international Airport.

May James/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Fears of air travel safety have started mounting with the spread of the coronavirus.

A passenger wearing protective mask at the arrival hall at the Hong Kong international Airport. Since the outbreak of the Corona Virus epidemic in Wuhan, China, concerns have risen about how the virus might be spread by air traveler

A passenger in the arrival hall at the Hong Kong international Airport.

May James/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

Air travel has been one of the reasons COVID-19 has spread globally, including in the US.

A view from Wuhan airport as Turkish citizens arrive at the airport as a Turkish cargo plane is en route to China to evacuate Turkish citizens from Wuhan, the heart of deadly coronavirus outbreak, on January 31, 2020 in Wuhan, Chin 2

Wuhan airport.

Neslihan Cimen Xu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The US Department of Homeland Security released a list of 11 US airports where flights from China will be allowed to land in.

A woman wears a protective face mask at the Yangon airport on February 24, 2020. The COVID 19 coronavirus that emerged in central China at the end of last year has now killed more than 2,400 people and spread around the world. 2

A woman wearing a face mask at the Yangon International Airport in Myanmar.

STR/AFP via Getty Images

Source: US Department of Homeland Security

This list includes the New York area's John F. Kennedy and Newark airports, California's Los Angeles and San Francisco airports, and airports in Atlanta, Seattle-Tacoma, Honolulu, Washington Dulles, Dallas Fort Worth, Detroit, and Chicago O'Hare.

A worker wearing protective mask at the arrival hall at the Hong Kong international Airport. Since the outbreak of the Corona Virus epidemic in Wuhan, China 2

A worker in the Hong Kong International Airport.

May James/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The US has also started barring foreign nationals who have been in China in the past 14 days from entering the country.

Afghan health workers wearing protective gear talk to a passenger who arrived from China as a preventive measure for Coronavirus 2

Afghan health workers and a passenger at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Rahmat Gul/AP Photo

Source: Business Insider

US citizens and residents who have traveled to China in the past two weeks will undergo a health screening and self-quarantine instead.

An airport employee wearing protective clothes is pictured at Basra airport in southern Iraq on January 30, 2020. Iraqi authorities on February 20 denied Iranians entry to their territory and barred their ow 2

An airport employee at the Basrah International Airport in Iraq.

Hussein Faleh/AFP via Getty Images

More than 200,000 flights have been canceled because of the novel coronavirus, CNBC reported.

Cleaners wearing masks in precaution of the coronavirus outbreak clean a corridor at Changi Airport in Singapore February 18, 2020. 2

Changi Airport in Singapore.

Edgar Su/Reuters

Source: CNBC

This has also caused the price of jet fuel to decrease significantly.

Empty El Al Israel Airlines check in counters are seen at Ben Gurion International airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel 2

Empty El Al Israel Airlines counters at the Ben Gurion Airport in Israel.

Amir Cohen/Reuters

COVID-19 may also cause the first drop of air travel requests since 2009, CNBC reported.

Flight attendants wearing protective mask at the arrival hall at the Hong Kong international Airport. Since the outbreak of the Corona Virus epidemic in Wuhan, China, concerns have risen about how the virus might be spread by air travelers. 2

The arrival hall in the Hong Kong International Airport.

May James/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Source: CNBC

The International Air Transport Association has predicted a $29.3 billion loss in passenger revenue this year.

GettyImages 1203588508 2

The arrival hall in the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images

Source: International Air Transport Association

At least 73 airlines have suspended flights to China

Military Police patrol inside El Alto airport wearing face masks, in Bolivia, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. 2

Military Police patrol inside El Alto International Airport in Bolivia.

Juan Karita/AP Photo

Source: Business Insider

...and more than 62 global airlines have canceled flights to other coronavirus-infected countries like Iran, Italy, and South Korea.

Passengers wear surgical masks at an empty departure terminal hall at the Hong Kong International Airport. 2

Hong Kong International Airport.

Ivan Abreu/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

This includes Air New Zealand, Jazeera Airways, Emirates, British Airways, Hawaiian Airlines, and Qatar Airways, to name a few.

Passengers wearing protective masks arrived in a flight from Milano, Italy to Krakow Airport in Balice, Poland 2

Passengers in the Krakow Airport in Balice, Poland.

Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

American, Delta, and United have also suspended flights to China.

Passengers with protective facemasks walk with their luggage in the empty arrival hall of Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi on February 27, 2020, as the number of air travellers has plummeted amid fears over the spread of the COVID 19 coronavir

Passengers in an arrival hall of the Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

JetBlue has started offering free flight cancellations and changes for trips booked between February 27 and March 11 for flights that were set to be taken by June 1.

This picture taken on February 14, 2020 shows a salesclerk wearing a protective face mask and gloves 2

A duty free shop in the Daxing international Airport in Beijing.

Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

The airline currently doesn't offer flights to Europe or Asia. Instead, it services the US, Caribbean, and Central and South America.

Photo taken Feb. 10, 2020, shows the international flight lobby of Matsuyama airport in Ehime Prefecture. All China bound flights from the western Japan airport have been canceled for the time being due to the spread of the new coronavirus. 2

The international flight lobby at the Matsuyama Airport in Japan.

Kyodo News via Getty Images

Korean Air announced on Tuesday that one of their flight attendants has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Policeman Wu Shengzao 1st L patrols with his colleagues at the Daxing International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 1, 2020 2

Policemen at the Daxing International Airport in Beijing.

Xinhua/Peng Ziyang via Getty Images

Source: Business Insider

It's now disinfecting the aircraft and telling its flight attendants who feel any symptoms to self-quarantine.

This picture taken on February 14, 2020 shows a nearly empty terminal at Daxing international airport in Beijing, as travel has ground to a halt in the wake of the the COVID 19 coronavirus outbreak. 2

Daxing International Airport in Beijing.

Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

Meanwhile, Cathay Pacific has announced that it would stop offering in-flight hot towels, pillows, blankets, magazines, and duty-free sales.

A Cathay Pacific Flight attended is seen walking pass empty check in counters inside the terminal of the Hong Kong International Airport on February 22, 2020 i 2

A Cathay Pacific Flight attendant in the Hong Kong International Airport.

Vernon Yuen/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Source: Cathay Pacific

United said on Monday that the demand for flights to China has dropped 100%...

This picture taken on February 14, 2020 shows two men wearing face masks walking through a nearly empty terminal at Daxing international airport in Beijing, as travel has ground to a halt in the wake of the the COVID 19 coronavirus outbreak. 2

Daxing international Airport in Beijing.

Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

...while demand for flights to Asia has dropped 75%, The Points Guy reported.

Travelers seen wearing surgical masks as a protective measure from the deadly coronavirus as they exit the arrival hall area at Hong Kong international airport. 2

Hong Kong International Airport.

Geovien So/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Source: The Points Guy

Read the original article on Business Insider
WASHINGTON, D.C.  As data work increasingly fans out across agencies at all levels of government, public servants who do the actual work are starting to identify a set of shared challenges.IT and innovation department staffers, as well as technologists who work within agencies like health or public advocacy, are using datasets, analytics and evidence-driven governance techniques at an increasing rate in government. This isnt a new revelation. What is, perhaps, less commonly acknowledged is that staffers doing this data work are facing a set of challenges that are the same or similar, whether they work in city hall, for a county agency, or within state government.The cost of data visualization products is often a difficult barrier to overcome. That's a point agreed upon by John Katt  the director of technology, development and data for the Office of the Public Advocate in New York City  and Thalia Sirjue, the deputy chief of staff for the New Jersey Department of Health. Both Katt and Sirjue spoke Thursday at the CivStart Demo Day and Innovation Summit, a gov tech event hosted in the nations capital by Amazon Web Services.In Katts role, he provides expertise with using data and tech to New Yorks public advocate, a citywide official who essentially serves as a watchdog for the rest of New York Citys municipal government, which is the largest in the nation.One of the marquee tech and data projects during Katts time with the office has been using data from multiple sources to create a citywide landlord watchlist . Through this website, tenants in New York City can easily view problems with landlords, using tools that draw from data sets such as housing maintenance code violations related to providing poor heat or ignoring pest problems. Other data includes instances of landlords illegally trying to evict tenants or repeatedly taking tenants to court to try to get them out.By data, these landlords are not following the law and should be either removed or forced to follow the law and provide housing to these tenants, Katt said at the event.His job, he acknowledged, would perhaps be easier if the office could afford high-end data visualization software, but the barrier of cost to invest in that is so high, that the office instead finds workarounds that are often cheaper in the short term but ultimately more costly in the long run.Sirjue, meanwhile, overseas the IT division of New Jerseys health department, using data to help plan actions and policies for the state, a job that involves collecting data externally as well as from multiple agencies and other states. Sirjue agreed with Katt that cost is often a barrier for using industry-best data visualization software, drawing a direct connection between a problem Katt faces as a technologist with a municipal watchdog agency and a problem she faces as a technologist with a state-level health department.That commonality isn't an isolated incidence.The inherent nature of budgeting creates a unique financial challenge for government technologists at all levels at well, at least relative to their colleagues in the private sector. Government budgeting is done considerably further in advance, which means that technologists who work with data-driven pilot projects must commit in advance to requests for funding.This is a challenge that Katie Gan faces as the deputy director for the Lab @ DC , a data-driven governance team within the office of the mayor of Washington, D.C. In that capacity, Gan is doing similar work to Katt and Sirjue, just for a city that also functions as its own county, state and school district, as well as the home of the federal government. Gan also spoke at the event, noting that it can be a challenge to commit to a pilot nine months in advance, needing as technologists do more data and sample sets to gauge whether something is or is not yielding the results developers intended.Other shared obstacles discussed by those at these different levels of government included recruiting qualified talent to government, finding existing talent already working within government, updating disparate legacy systems and converting the complex ideas they deal with daily into simple language that residents and other stakeholders can easily understand.Steve Mokrohisky is the county administrator for Lane County, Ore., and in that capacity he works on evidence-driven government for a western Oregon county that is roughly the size of Connecticut. Mokrohisky said that in terms of simplifying communications, his team works to really analyze industry-standard buzzwords, such as innovation and equity.And those are buzzwords that  like many of the obstacles under discussion  are universal at different levels of government as well.
The Opposition parties in Goa have lashed out at the state government after the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti formally notified the decision of Mahadayi Interstate Water Disputes Tribunal, calling it a complete betrayal of Goa.

The ministry had formally notified the report cum final decision (award) on Thursday in the official gazette, paving way for Karnataka to proceed with its river diversion project, much to the dislike of Goa.

While listening to high assurances of @goacm on one side and on the other side action of Jal Shakti Ministry to notify Mhadei Water Dispute Tribunal Award, Goa is left High & Dry. This is [a] complete betrayal of Goa, Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat tweeted, tagging Chief Minister Pramod Sawants office.

While listening to high assurances of @goacm on one side & on the other side action of Jal Shakti Ministry to notify Mhadei Water Dispute Trubunal Award, Goa is left "High & Dry". This is complete betrayal of Goa. #MhadeiJagor @INCGoa  Digambar Kamat (@digambarkamat) February 28, 2020

Goa has opposed any diversion of waters of the River Mahadayi which originates in the Western Ghats in Karnataka, takes a detour via Maharashtra and enters Goa as the Mandovi. The Mahadayi river basin drains an area of 2,032 sq km, out of which an area of 375 sq km lies in Karnataka, 77 sq km in Maharashtra and the rest in Goa.

Both the Goa and Karnataka governments have, for very different reasons, challenged the final award granted by the tribunal, which in an verdict in August 2018, had granted Karnataka a total of 13.42 thousand million cubic (tmc) feet of water out of their demand for from their total claims of 36.558 tmc of water.

While Goa has approached the Supreme Court arguing that Karnataka shouldnt be allowed to divert any water owing to the fact that the Mahadayi river is water deficient, Karnataka has told the apex court that the tribunal erred in granting it only 13.42 tmc of water.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the petitions in July. Goa has also filed a separate application for a stay on the notification, which will be heard in March.

What has especially peeved Goas Opposition parties is that Advocate Arvind Datar, representing the state before the Supreme Court, did not oppose Karnatakas plea.

The dry days in Goa have already begun with reports of water from [the] Mhadei basin already diverted by Karnataka. The entire state will transform into desert if we dont act sensibly and quickly, Kamat said.

Karnataka claims that the river diversion project is to feed the parched regions of northern Karnataka, especially the twin towns of Hubli and Dharwad.

Our worst fears have come true. With the Govt notifying the final decision of the Tribunal, all hope has faded. What does the Goa BJP Govt and the @goacm have to say? Everything you said and claimed you did on #Mhadei was nothing but lies and falsehoods? The Govt stands exposed, Leader of the Goa Forward Party Vijai Sardesai, who is now in the Opposition, said.

Have we lost Mhadei to the sugarcane factory owners of Karnataka, @goacmexplain or resign you have failed ... You will have to face @PrakashJavdekar you have cheated Goans, this is a tight slap on all those who called our agitation political, tweeted Hrudaynath Shirodkar, an activist who was earlier arrested for having disrupted Union minister Prakash Javadekars function at the International Film Festival of India in Goa last year.
A graduate of the Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey has been tapped to be a top adviser on Vice President Mike Pences coronavirus response team, the White House announced Friday.

Dr. Debbie Birx will take on that new task while continuing as the U.S. governments point physician for combatting HIV/AIDS. She is also a graduate of Carlisle High School, according to the Sentinel.

The White House described Birx as a scientist, physician, and mom, with three decades of public health expertise, including virulent diseases, their vaccines, and interagency coordination.

She will be part of a task force headed by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar that is charged with preparing the nations response to the sometimes-fatal coronavirus that is creeping across the globe following its outbreak in China.

Three different Administrations across both political parties have relied on her knowledge and judgment, the White House said. Ambassador Birx has previously coordinated the Army, Navy, and Air Force in their HIV/AIDS efforts and led the CDCs Division of Global HIV/AIDS, Center for Global Health, and their global implementation of the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program.

She has deep experience in coordinating across agencies. She has worked from the research bench to the clinic, but understands the primary focus must always be to reach the individuals most in need.

Since 2014, Birx, a retired Army colonel, has been ambassador-at-large and the U.S. global AIDS coordinator, overseeing a $6.6 billion federal program. She was nominated for that role by former President Barack Obama.

Birx earned her medical degree from Hershey in 1980 and soon became involved in civilian and military research regarding AIDS.
The Gujarat government on



Friday told the Assembly that 4.58 lakh educated youth are registered with various state employment exchanges.

Of these, 4.34 lakh are 'educated' while 23,433 are in the 'semi educated' category, Gujarat Labour and Employment Minister Dilip Thakor said in a written reply during Question Hour.

He was responding to questions raised by Congress MLAs on the unemployment scenario in the state.

Ahmedabad district was the worst placed with 42,975 persons, followed by Vadodara (27,515), Anand (23,065) and Rajkot (22,627), as per the data.

Responding to a sub-question about jobs given during the last two years (as on December 2019), the minister stated that 2,230 were given government jobs while 7.3 lakh persons got private jobs through employment exchanges.

Thakor said the data did not reflect government jobs which were taken up by youths without the help of employment exchanges.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Russia leader also says he does not have mobile phone and feels more comfortable with protected means of communications.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged he was offered the chance to use a body double to make appearances in public for security reasons, but said he declined the offer and never used one.

Putin, 67, who has dominated Russian politics for more than two decades, has long been the subject of conspiracy theories in Russia, all of them unsubstantiated, that he uses a body double or even a small army of them.

One of the more elaborate theories compares photographs of Putin over the years, claiming to have identified a number of different individuals posing as him.

But during an interview with TASS news agency aired on Thursday, Putin was shown a list of popular Internet searches purportedly associated with his name, one of which was entitled Putin body double evidence.

Asked Are you real? by the interviewer, Putin replied, Yes, before going on to deny that he uses a lookalike for public appearances for his own safety.

But he said he had been offered the opportunity.

I declined these body doubles. This (the offer) was during the most difficult periods of the fight against terrorism, Putin said, adding that he was referring to the beginning of the 2000s.

The former KGB agent also reaffirmed that he has continued to shun a personal mobile phone, saying that he feels more comfortable relying on protected means of communications.

He said he had access to a special official phone that could connect with any number he wanted.

Russia fought a war in the southern Muslim majority region of Chechnya in the early years of Putins first term and was frequently targeted in attacks by armed groups.
Leading operators; China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, EE, KDDI, Orange, Singtel, SK Telecom, Telefonica and TIM have joined forces, with the support of the GSMA, to develop an interoperable platform to make edge compute capabilities widely and easily available.

The platform to be developed in 2020, will make local operator assets and capabilities, such as latency, compute and storage available to application developers and software vendors enabling them to fulfil the needs of enterprise clients.

Operators have agreed to work together to develop an Edge Compute architectural framework and reference platform, and the GSMA has launched an Operator Platform Project to support this exciting operator initiative. Initially, the platform will be deployed across multiple markets in Europe and progressively extended to other operators and geographies to achieve global reach.

Operators can offer enterprises unmatched proximity to their customers and deliver high performance. For enterprises, these capabilities create an opportunity for expansion to local or international markets whilst maintaining compliance with local regulatory and data protection laws.

Telco Edge Cloud will:

Be open and inclusive

Provide data protection and sovereignty mechanisms

Offer carrier-grade reliability, security, trustworthiness

Leverage existing technology solutions; as appropriate, including, but not limited to, aggregation platform solutions such as MobiledgeX, or the interconnection mechanisms developed as part of the GSMA MultiOperator MEC experience.

"Operators are very well placed to provide capabilities such as low latency through their network assets," said Alex Sinclair, CTO at GSMA. "It is essential for enterprises to be able to reach all of their customers from the edge of any network. Based on the GSMA Operator Platform Specification, Telco Edge Cloud will provide enterprise developers and aggregators with a consistent way to reach connected customers."

"Edge cloud will build a unified network edge ecosystem, providing diversified and customised products and services, and multiple platform capabilities. It will also realise more extensive boundary-crossing cooperation to meet the requirements of digital transformation of various vertical industries," said Xiongyan Tang, the Chief Scientist of China Unicom Network Technology Research Institute and the Chief Architect of China Unicom Intelligent Network Center, China Unicom.

"Edge Cloud has an exciting potential to enable and enhance many innovative experiences for our customers. I welcome this operator initiative to take ownership of the edge opportunity by joining forces to deliver our capabilities in a federated edge service," said Claudia Nemat, Board Member Technology & Innovation at Deutsche Telekom. "Leveraging MobiledgeX as platform partner and aggregator in the federation puts operators on the best track to create scale, bring in the developer community and make a market impact."

"Edge Cloud is a promising opportunity to enable the development of services that need low latency connection and to meet various service demands from enterprise customers. The innovation of telecommunication services will be accelerated by the enhancement of service quality and the customer experience in real-time applications such as cloud XR and cloud gaming," said Yoshiaki Uchida, Member of the Board, Executive Vice President, Executive Director, Technology Sectorat KDDI.

"To address the edge-cloud computing market, operators need to work very closely together to create an interoperable platform and to monetise their extremely valuable assets," said Mari-NoelleJego-Laveissiere, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Chief Technology and Global Innovation Officer, Orange. "We, at Orange, believe that it is a must-have to unleash new business opportunities enabled by both edge computing and 5G. That's why we are proud to support the GSMA Telco Edge Cloud initiative."

We believe that a cross-border edge cloud platform which serves bandwidth needs and lower latency requirements, is whats needed at this time as it allows organisations with multi-market operations to deploy and manage time-critical applications closer to where the data is collected. We look forward to collaborating with GSMA and the other telcos on this exciting initiative, said Mark Chong, Group CTOof Singtel.

Edge Cloud is a key enabler to unlock the full potential of emerging applications such as AR/VR, cloud robots, and smart factory with improved QoS, real-time intelligence, security and data privacy. In order to provide a seamless global MEC experience to our customers, it is critical that mobile operators around the world come together and join forces, says Dr. Kang-Won Lee, Vice President and Head of Cloud Labsat SK Telecom. SK Telecom is excited to collaborate with global partners, bringing our edge cloud experience and tech leadership to the team to realise the vision of mobile edge cloud.

"The market needs an Edge Cloud that meets the enterprise demands to service their customers. Telecom operators are in an extremely good position to provide a trusted and open Edge Cloud, so enterprises can maximise their service offering and business opportunities being as close as needed to their customers," said Enrique Blanco, Group CTO, Telefonica.

"Edge Cloud is a fundamental asset for the new requirements of many business segments and customers," said Elisabetta Romano, Chief Innovation & Partnership Officer, TIM.

Edge Cloud will be a formidable enabler to transform the network from a "bit pipe" to an effective digital business platform, thanks to flexible computing capacity and low access latency to computing resources."

The GSMA Operator Platform Project

The GSMA's Operator Platform Project intends to develop a framework for operators to expose and monetise their network capabilities. Operators will offer through the Operator Platform edge compute, storage and connectivity to their customers leveraging:

their existing relationships with enterprises who already have use cases requiring edge,

their vast local footprint/real estate,

an inimitable position for stringent security and data privacy, residency, sovereignty and

the organisational competence from the experience of providing highly reliable (five nines) services over a distributed and capillary network environment.

Cloud capabilities will be treated as a subset of edge.

-ENDS-

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting nearly 750 operators with almost 300 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress Shanghai, Mobile World Congress Americas and the Mobile 360 Series of conferences.

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227005232/en/
Construction has begun on new house in Clayton, south east of Melbourne, to be built especially for at-risk youths.

Frasers Property Australia is partnering with the Property Industry Foundation (PIF) and the Lighthouse Foundation to build the home for at-risk and homeless young people.

The PIF House Program launched in 2017 with the aim to build 125 bedrooms for at-risk and homeless youth in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland by 2021.

Live-in carers and counsellors in the homes provide support, mentoring and life skills to help rebuild the lives of young people and help them transition to independent living.

Frasers Property is sponsoring and building the PIF House Clayton, which will eventually house up to four disadvantaged youth and two live-in carers, serviced by the Lighthouse Foundation.

At Clayton, a host of other companies and organisations are playing a part, donating materials, time, skills and expertise to the project.

Partners include Corinthian Doors, Dulux Group, Austral Bricks, SMEG, Blind Factory and Beaumont Tiles, among many more.

The collaborative project will result in a brand-new home for at-risk youth, with a build value in excess of $550,000 donated to the cause.

Sarah Bloom, the general manager at Frasers Property Australia, says the sod-turning event, which marked the beginning of construction of the house, was a proud milestone for everyone involved.

Its been a huge effort by everyone involved in PIF House Clayton to welcome so many different businesses on board to help with this project, Ms Bloom says.

The Property Industry Foundation brings together the generosity and skills of the property and construction industry to build homes for homeless youth, added CEO, Kate Mills.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - Cherokee citizens are calling on Elizabeth Warren to publicly disavow a family story of indigenous heritage as a way to dissuade others from making false claims they say often romanticize Native Americans.

The topic has haunted the Massachusetts senator since even before she announced she would seek the Democratic nomination for president, despite Warren repeatedly apologizing for identifying as Native American in the past and for submitting a DNA test to back up what she heard growing up.

More than 200 tribal citizens reignited the debate this week, signing a letter to Warren that said her apologies are vague and dont address the harm shes caused.

Warren quickly responded to the letter and apologized again. She said she is willing to stand with Indian Country in ways that others havent, pointing to her track record.

Joseph M. Pierce, one of four Cherokee Nation citizens who organized the letter, said Warren didnt go far enough in addressing her familys story about connections to the Delaware and Cherokee people.

We think that she has an opportunity to stand up and to show other people that its OK to speak the truth about this history, even though that may be emotionally difficult ... because it strikes at the core of who she thought she was, Pierce, an associate professor at Stony Brook University in New York, said Thursday.

Warrens campaign did not respond to a request for comment. She wrote in the response that her familys story is important to her but offers it now as an explanation, not a defence.

The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the largest of the federally recognized Cherokee tribes, said it was encouraged when Warren stopped claiming Cherokee ancestry. Her apology to and engagement with the tribe helped Warren understand why its hurtful to make false claims of indigenous heritage, said tribal spokeswoman Julie Hubbard.

It also helped sharpen Warrens focus on issues facing Indian Country  something we need more of out of national leaders across the political spectrum, Hubbard said.

Warren grew up in Oklahoma, which is home to 39 federally recognized tribes. As she was preparing her presidential run in late 2018, she released the results of a DNA test performed by a Stanford professor that indicated she had a distant indigenous ancestor from the Americas.

The test was meant to answer critics, including President Donald Trump, who accused Warren of making false claims about her past. But the move backfired, as Trump continued to gleefully deride Warren using the racial slur Pocahontas, and many tribal leaders rejected the test as a false and biased way to measure Native American heritage.

Warren appeared to have succeeded in putting the issue behind her as she rode a sharp rise in the polls to become one of the Democratic presidential primary front-runners. She finished third in Iowa and fared even worse in New Hampshire, raising questions about how much longer she will remain in the race.

More people claim ties to Cherokee than any other tribe, according to the U.S. census, which doesnt reconcile figures with tribal enrolment offices. The reason is threefold, said Circe Sturm, the author of Becoming Indian: The Struggle over Cherokee Identity in the Twenty-first Century.

The Cherokee Nation adopted white standards of civilization, trying to secure its sovereignty by mimicking European governments and creating a constitution. Cherokees intermarried with whites for much longer than other tribes, which was partly strategic for both sides, Sturm said.

Cherokee enrolment policies that rely on lineage also are more lenient than those of tribes that rely solely on blood quantum, Sturm said.

All of those things make being physically white, or white-acting, more comfortable to claim Cherokee, she said Thursday.

Pierce said the claims often romanticize Native people and allow non-Natives to feel more American without having to engage with Native communities or address historic atrocities against Native Americans, he said.

The Cherokee citizens letter urged Warren to set an example and confront her familys oral history while working with tribal nations to provide guidance to others who might have similar family stories.

Its not about one election, its about the future of our communities, and she can play a part in that, Pierce said.

Warren has said her claims of Native American ancestry were part of family lore. She said she never sought membership in any tribe and reiterated in her letter this week that only tribal nations, not DNA tests, determine citizenship. She said she never benefited financially or professionally from her claims of being indigenous and acknowledged not everyone will accept her apologies.

She said she would strive to be a friend to tribal nations.

Warren pledged to defend a federal law that seeks to keep Native American children in foster care or adoption proceedings in Native homes, and uphold tribes as sovereign political entities, rather than racial groups. She has supported giving tribes full criminal jurisdiction on their land.

Warren also has joined other Democrats in pushing to restore the original boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah that Trump reduced, and urging protection from mineral development at other sites Native Americans consider sacred in northwestern New Mexico and eastern Arizona.

___

Associated Pres writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report. Fonseca is a member of The Associated Press race and ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FonsecaAP
As University of Maryland/Baltimore County economist David Salkever wrote in a Feb. 11 op-Ed total real compensation slipped 0.22 percent from the end of 2016 to September 2019.

So the next time you read a story about a rise in pay, try to see if it reports the wage data in nominal or real terms, and if it includes fringe benefits too. If its only nominal wages, the numbers may mean a lot less than they seem, Salkever wrote.

The trick for Democrats in Pennsylvaniaand the rest of the battleground stateswill be figuring out how to convince voters the prosperity they currently enjoy is not the result of Trumps stewardship, but rather the steady gains built during the Obama era. And there is clear and compelling evidence to prove that case.

Sanders, with his own brand of blue-collar populism, has the opportunity to show that hes the logical steward of that legacy. But theres a good chance that cautious Keystone State voters could get turned off by some of his more radical proposals, such as one requiring large companies to surrender a 20 percent ownership share to their employees.
When I first boarded New Jerseys Chamber Train as a rookie Statehouse reporter for the Asbury Park Press, I was assured the trip  known as a place where drunken men grab at and hit on women in crowded train cars  was less awful for women than it used to be.

That was in 1996.

For the next two decades, I heard the same talking points from both men and women every year: The state Chamber of Commerces Walk to Washington trip was getting better. Women were less likely to have to fend off a sexual proposition or to have drunk men accidentally rub up against them.

And yet, when my colleague Kelly Heyboer and I gave women the chance to speak openly without being identified last fall for an NJ Advance Media report on sexual harassment in New Jersey politics, we heard the same stories over and over again.

Women said either: I stopped riding the Chamber train years ago. Or, I take an earlier train or drive to avoid the uncomfortable trip. Or, yes, men still grab women on the train or accidentally fall into us in the aisles, so I find ways to protect myself.

Maybe it used to be much worse decades ago.

But as we reported in our Dec. 29 story, the annual Walk to Washington remained an event that many women, even in the #MeToo era, considered unpredictable and uncomfortable.

As I boarded the Amtrak train in Newark Penn Station on Thursday morning, I didnt know what to expect. But, I knew the atmosphere would be different on this, the 83rd Chamber trip.

In response to our story on sexual harassment, the Chamber of Commerce promised change. They placed a ban on hard alcohol, set up an anti-harassment hotline, hired more security guards and instituted a new code of conduct.

A group of people, mostly women, performed an anti-rape protest song outside Newark Penn Station on Thursday, before the annual "Chamber Train" ride to Washington D.C.

Before I even boarded the train, I noticed two things that made this train trip unlike the others. (This was my fourth ride).

First, there was a protest.

About 30 women staged a short but jarring demonstration outside Penn Station in Newark. The chanted and marched to A Rapist in Your Path, a song written by the Chilean Art Collective, Lastesis.

And its not my fault, not where I was, not how I dressed.

And the rapist WAS you/ And the rapist IS you/ Its the cops/ Its the judges/ Its the system/ Its the President.

Longtime labor leader Patricia Campos-Medina told me she was happy to help these women organize the gathering because so many feel shut out of the debate going on in the Statehouse about sexual harassment. A chamber train ticket costs $700  an entry fee no young millennial woman could possibly afford.

Why should there be such a high price, financially and emotionally for putting up with this behavior, just to get some face-time? Campos-Medina asked.

Secondly, it didnt take me long to figure out there was something missing.

Verizon, the sponsor for more than a quarter of a century of a sprawling pre-trip buffet breakfast (usually with musical accompaniment) pulled its sponsorship. The chamber provided a perfectly respectable continental breakfast at a local hotel, but people noticed the difference.

Is this the quiet car? one woman asked another as she entered one of the small side rooms at the breakfast where people grazed over fruit and danish.

Michael Egenton, the Chambers executive vice president, said Verizon had hinted last year it might no longer host the breakfast as a cost-cutting move.

But the controversy surrounding the event this year was apparently the tipping point. Chamber President Thomas Bracken told my colleague, Kelly Heyboer, earlier this week that a major sponsor had dropped out but he declined to identify the sponsor at the time.

Verizon did not return my calls or emails seeking an explanation for the companys decision.

Egenton said he said he was hopeful that the changes instituted on the advice of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, would lure back sponsors and participants next year.

And if the new rules and enhanced code of conduct drive away some of the bad apples who bought tickets for the trip and made the event difficult for women, Egenton had a quick response: I say, bye-bye, if that is the tradeoff we are making.

Coalition Executive Director Patricia Teffenhart gave credit to the chamber for stepping up and responding to the criticism.

Mark Magyar, an aide for state Senate Democrats, speaks to Patricia Teffenhart, executive director of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, aboard the train Thursday.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

The Chamber really had the unfortunate pleasure of being the first high-profile event to come right after the Star-Ledger article in December," Teffenhart told a gaggle of reporters in train car #8.

We have an opportunity to interact with New Jerseys most powerful and influential people, to help them set the tone whether or not they are on the chamber train, she said. I dont think this is a fly-by-night response. What we are learning from the best practices here with the Chamber will be carried over and strengthened when we get to the League event.

The League event is the state League of Municipalities convention held each fall in Atlantic City. Several women in NJ Advance Medias report on sexual harassment said they were sexually harassed or groped at the alcohol-soaked, after-hours parties and receptions following the convention. Two women said they were raped. The League has also promised reforms in response to the story.

What is it about these alcohol-adjacent, overnight work events that unleash the inner college boy in some of New Jerseys power brokers?

State Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, R-Union offered me an interesting theory. They feel free in these environments, as in free to forget basic manners.

Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz, R-Union, a veteran Chamber train rider since 2010, said she didnt blame the Chamber of Commerce for the bad reputation the train ride had earned. Who needs to start drinking at 10 oclock in the morning? she asked.

The real stuff takes place in D.C., Munoz added, referring to the gatherings after a dinner reception headlined by the governor Thursday night.

As I walked down the aisles, it struck me over and over again at how subdued this ride was from my previous trips. And everyone I spoke to agreed: This was a far different Chamber train.

It bears noting that most of the men my colleague Brent Johnson and I spoke with on the train said they had never seen the kind of tasteless behavior so many women described to us.

Elizabeth Mayor Christian Bollwage told me as much when I saw him on the train. I asked about his tweet last month following the announcement that hard alcohol would be banned.

State Chamber of Commerce bans hard liquor on Walk to Washington... Next year everyone will have assigned seats, will not be allowed to leave except with permission for bathroom break, Bollwage tweeted on Jan. 8.

State Chamber of Commerce bans hard liquor on Walk to Washington...Next year everyone will have assigned seats ,will not be allowed to leave except with permission for bathroom break  Chris Bollwage (@MayorBollwage) January 8, 2020

What was he making fun of, I asked? Mens boorish behavior or the Chambers response? The tweet speaks for itself, Bollwage said.

Ive been coming (on the train for years) and I never witnessed anything" your story described, the mayor said. But he was quick to add that he was not disparaging anyone who said these events happened to them.

One male journalist told me he heard sarcastic #MeToo jokes throughout the day. I wasnt surprised.

I came away from the ride sensing change had occurred. For how long, I dont know.

Maybe 2021 will be the real test.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio.
Parkinson's disease researchers have used gene-editing tools to introduce the disorder's most common genetic mutation into marmoset monkey stem cells and to successfully tamp down cellular chemistry that often goes awry in Parkinson's patients.

The edited cells are a step toward studying the degenerative neurological disorder in a primate model, which has proven elusive. Parkinson's, which affects more than 10 million people worldwide, progressively degrades the nervous system, causing characteristic tremors, dangerous loss of muscle control, cardiac and gastrointestinal dysfunction and other issues.

"We know now how to insert a single mutation, a point mutation, into the marmoset stem cell," says Marina Emborg, professor of medical physics and leader of University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists who published their findings Feb. 26 in the journal Scientific Reports. "This is an exquisite model of Parkinson's. For testing therapies, this is the perfect platform."

The researchers used a version of the gene-editing technology CRISPR to change a single nucleotide -- one molecule among more than 2.8 billion pairs of them found in a common marmoset's DNA -- in the cells' genetic code and give them a mutation called G2019S.

In human Parkinson's patients, the mutation causes abnormal over-activity of an enzyme, a kinase called LRRK2, involved in a cell's metabolism. Other gene-editing studies have employed methods in which the cells produced both normal and mutated enzymes at the same time.

The new study is the first to result in cells that make only enzymes with the G2019S mutation, which makes it easier to study what role this mutation plays in the disease.

"The metabolism inside our stem cells with the mutation was not as efficient as a normal cell, just as we see in Parkinson's," says Emborg, whose work is supported by the National Institutes of Health. "Our cells had a shorter life in a dish. And when they were exposed to oxidative stress, they were less resilient to that."

The mutated cells shared another shortcoming of Parkinson's: lackluster connections to other cells. Stem cells are an especially powerful research tool because they can develop into many different types of cells found throughout the body.

When the researchers spurred their mutated stem cells to differentiate into neurons, they developed fewer branches to connect and communicate with neighboring neurons.

We can see the impact of these mutations on the cells in the dish, and that gives us a glimpse of what we could see if we used the same genetic principles to introduce the mutation into a marmoset. A precisely genetically-modified monkey would allow us to monitor disease progression and test new therapeutics to affect the course of the disease." Jenna Kropp Schmidt, Study Co-Author and Scientist, Wisconsin National Primate Research Center

The concept has applications in research beyond Parkinson's.

"We can use some of the same genetic techniques and apply it to create other primate models of human diseases," Schmidt says.

The researchers also used marmoset stem cells to test a genetic treatment for Parkinson's. They shortened part of a gene to block LRRK2 production, which made positive changes in cellular metabolism.

"We found no differences in viability between the cells with the truncated kinase and normal cells, which is a big thing. And when we made neurons from these cells, we actually found an increased number of branches," Emborg says. "This kinase gene target is a good candidate to explore as a potential Parkinson's therapy."
TOKYO - A Japanese vice minister for justice is heading to Lebanon for talks on the case of former Nissan Motor Co. executive Carlos Ghosn, who fled for his home country late last year while out on bail awaiting trial.

Justice Minister Masako Mori said Friday that she was dispatching the official to Beirut to explain the Japanese criminal justice system and improve co-operation.

Regarding Lebanon, where Ghosn escaped to, we believe that it is important that a proper understanding of the Japanese criminal justice system is understood and to prevent international crime by strengthening co-operation in the legal and judicial fields, Mori said.

Japan and Lebanon do not have an extradition treaty and it is thought unlikely that Lebanon would agree to send Ghosn back to Japan to face trial.

Mori acknowledged that there were various environments and laws that underpin different positions on the issue in each country.

Ghosn was arrested in late 2018 and is facing charges of under-reporting income and breach of trust. He says he is innocent. He led Nissan for nearly 20 years.

Having spent months in detention and struggled to gain his release on bail under stringent conditions, Ghosn said he fled in the belief he could not get a fair trial in Japan.

Deputy justice minister, Hiroyuki Yoshiie, was to leave Japan for Lebanon on Saturday. He is expected to meet with the Lebanese justice minister on Monday.
DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Ethylene Propylene Global Market Report 2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global Ethylene Propylene market was worth $9.82 billion in 2019. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10% and reach $14.12 billion by 2023.



The Ethylene Propylene market has been geographically segmented into North America, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe, South America and Middle East & Africa. In 2019, Asia Pacific accounts for around 68% of the market.



The Ethylene Propylene market covered in this report is segmented by type into solution polymerization, suspension polymerization. It is also segmented by appication into automotive, building & construction, plastic modification, lubricant additive, wires & cables, tires & tubes.



Use of Ethylene Propylene across various industries contributes to the growth of the ethylene propylene market. In the automotive industry, EPDM products bonds well with metals by providing a well-built barrier against the environment. EPDM possesses properties such as heat resistance, abrasion resistance, oil swell resistance, flame retardance, oxidation, ozone and weather aging due to their stable, saturated polymer backbone structure. Companies such as BRP manufacturing is providing EPDM for automotive industries that include under-the-hood, cabin pressure equalizing assemblies, interior trim, and striker plate blinds. Thus, the usage of EPDM in different industries is contributing to the EPDM market growth.



Release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) while manufacturing ethylene propylene causes environmental pollution, which is challenging the EPDM market growth. VOCs consist of different chemicals that shows adverse effects on human health as well as the environment as they release fine particulates in the atmosphere, therefore results in the formation of smog and reduced visibility. For instance, to avoid harmful emission of VOC, the Hong Kong government has implemented various regulations such as products exceeding normal emission of VOCs are not allowed in the country. Thus, the increased release of VOC from producing ethylene propylene is limiting its market growth.



The increasing demand for ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber produced from bio-based feedstock acts as a key trend driving the growth of the EPDM market. Renewable EPDM rubber uses raw materials such as sugar and glycerin to replace traditional feedstock such as isoprene and butadiene in synthetic rubber production to reduce greenhouse emissions and to achieve sustainability. For instance, Keltan, a Netherlands based company, produced the first commercial bio-based feedstock KELTAN Eco based on renewable raw materials. Therefore, renewable EPDM rubber is expected to increase the market share of the EPDM market.



Major players in the market are The Dow Chemical Company, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Johns Manville, Inc., Kumho Polychem, Lanxess AG, Lion Elastomers, LLC, Mitsui Chemicals, Inc., SK Global Chemical Co., Ltd., Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., Versalis S.p.A.



Reasons to Purchase

Gain a truly global perspective with the most comprehensive report available on this market covering 12+ geographies.

Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and analysis.

Identify growth segments for investment.

Outperform competitors using forecast data and the drivers and trends shaping the market.

Understand customers based on the latest market research findings.

Benchmark performance against key competitors.

Utilize the relationships between key data sets for superior strategizing.

Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and analysis

Report will be updated with the latest data and delivered to you within 3-5 working days of order.

Scope

Markets Covered: 1) By Type: Solution Polymerization; Suspension Polymerization 2) By Application: Automotive; Building & Construction; Plastic Modification; Lubricant Additive; Wires & Cables; Tires & Tubes

Companies Mentioned: The Dow Chemical Company; Exxon Mobil Corporation; Johns Manville, Inc.; KUMHO POLYCHEM; Lanxess AG

Countries: Brazil , China , France , Germany , India , Indonesia , Japan , South Korea , Russia , UK, USA and Australia

, , , , , , , , , UK, and Regions: Asia-Pacific , Western Europe , Eastern Europe , North America , South America , Middle East , Africa

, , , , , , Time series: Five years historic and forecast.

Data: Ratios of market size and growth to related markets, GDP proportions, per capita expenditure.

Data segmentations: country and regional historic and forecast data, market share of competitors, market segments.

Sourcing and Referencing: Data and analysis throughout the report is sourced using end notes.

Key Topics Covered:



1. Executive Summary



2. Ethylene Propylene Market Characteristics



3. Ethylene Propylene Market Size And Growth

3.1. Global Ethylene Propylene Historic Market, 2015 - 2019, $ Billion

3.1.1. Drivers Of The Market

3.1.2. Restraints On The Market

3.2. Global Ethylene Propylene Forecast Market, 2019 - 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion

3.2.1. Drivers Of The Market

3.2.2. Restraints On the Market



4. Ethylene Propylene Market Segmentation

4.1. Global Ethylene Propylene Market, Segmentation By Type, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion

Solution Polymerization

Suspension Polymerization

4.2. Global Ethylene Propylene Market, Segmentation By Application, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion

Automotive

Building & Construction

Plastic Modification

Lubricant Additive

Wires & Cables

Tires & Tubes

5. Ethylene Propylene Market Regional And Country Analysis

5.1. Global Ethylene Propylene Market, Split By Region, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion

5.2. Global Ethylene Propylene Market, Split By Country, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2019, 2023F, 2025F, 2030F, $ Billion



Companies Mentioned



The Dow Chemical Company

Exxon Mobil Corporation

Johns Manville, Inc.

KUMHO POLYCHEM

Lanxess AG

Lion Elastomers, LLC

Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.

SK Global Chemical Co., Ltd.

Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd.

Versalis S.p.A.

JSR Corporation

SABIC

Eni (Polimeri Europa)

SSME

Jilin Xingyun Chemical

Lion Copolymer LLC

PetroChina Company Limited

PJSC Nizhnekamskneftekhim

BASF SE ( Germany )

) China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation ( China )

) PolyOne Corporation (The U.S.)

Carlisle Companies Inc.

OAO Nizhnekamskneftekhim

Rubber Engineering & Development Company (REDCO)

Firestone Building Products Company, LLC

Warco Biltrite

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/2bym5l

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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SOURCE Research and Markets

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As every investor would know, not every swing hits the sweet spot. But really bad investments should be rare. So take a moment to sympathize with the long term shareholders of Alexium International Group Limited (ASX:AJX), who have seen the share price tank a massive 91% over a three year period. That'd be enough to cause even the strongest minds some disquiet. And the ride hasn't got any smoother in recent times over the last year, with the price 53% lower in that time. Furthermore, it's down 17% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders.

We really feel for shareholders in this scenario. It's a good reminder of the importance of diversification, and it's worth keeping in mind there's more to life than money, anyway.

View our latest analysis for Alexium International Group

Alexium International Group wasn't profitable in the last twelve months, it is unlikely we'll see a strong correlation between its share price and its earnings per share (EPS). Arguably revenue is our next best option. Generally speaking, companies without profits are expected to grow revenue every year, and at a good clip. Some companies are willing to postpone profitability to grow revenue faster, but in that case one does expect good top-line growth.

In the last three years Alexium International Group saw its revenue shrink by 5.4% per year. That is not a good result. The share price fall of 55% (per year, over three years) is a stern reminder that money-losing companies are expected to grow revenue. We're generally averse to companies with declining revenues, but we're not alone in that. Don't let a share price decline ruin your calm. You make better decisions when you're calm.

The image below shows how earnings and revenue have tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).

ASX:AJX Income Statement, February 27th 2020

If you are thinking of buying or selling Alexium International Group stock, you should check out this FREE detailed report on its balance sheet.

Story continues

What about the Total Shareholder Return (TSR)?

Investors should note that there's a difference between Alexium International Group's total shareholder return (TSR) and its share price change, which we've covered above. The TSR attempts to capture the value of dividends (as if they were reinvested) as well as any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings offered to shareholders. We note that Alexium International Group's TSR, at -90% is higher than its share price return of -91%. When you consider it hasn't been paying a dividend, this data suggests shareholders have benefitted from a spin-off, or had the opportunity to acquire attractively priced shares in a discounted capital raising.

A Different Perspective

Investors in Alexium International Group had a tough year, with a total loss of 50%, against a market gain of about 13%. Even the share prices of good stocks drop sometimes, but we want to see improvements in the fundamental metrics of a business, before getting too interested. Regrettably, last year's performance caps off a bad run, with the shareholders facing a total loss of 36% per year over five years. We realise that Buffett has said investors should 'buy when there is blood on the streets', but we caution that investors should first be sure they are buying a high quality business. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Alexium International Group better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example - Alexium International Group has 5 warning signs (and 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable) we think you should know about.

If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on AU exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
WASHINGTON, DC  DECEMBER 09: Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) questions Intelligence Committee Minority Counsel Stephen Castor and Intelligence Committee Majority Counsel Daniel Goldman during the House impeachment inquiry hearings in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill December 9, 2019 in Washington, DC. The hearing is being held for the Judiciary Committee to formally receive evidence in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, whom Democrats say held back military aid for Ukraine while demanding they investigate his political rivals. The White House declared it would not participate in the hearing. (Photo by Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

In what amounts to a dare to a direct challenge to Senate Republicans, President Trump announced that his pick to head the intelligence community is the same Republican congressman whose previous bid for that job collapsed amid revelations that he misrepresented his background.

Trump said in a tweet that he was nominating Rep. John Ratcliffe of Texas to be the director of national intelligence, calling the former federal prosecutor "an outstanding man of great talent."

More from NBC News

Trump previously put forward Ratcliffe for the post last year, but abruptly withdraw the nomination after Senate Republicans began to balk. Among the factors was Ratcliffe's boast on his website that he "put terrorists in prison when, as NBC News reported at the time, there is no evidence he ever prosecuted a terrorism case.

Ratcliffe, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, was among the most strident voices attacking the Russia investigation and advancing questionable notions, including asserting that "crimes were committed during the Obama administration" in investigating Russian election interference.

trump tweet
Vietnamese Ambassador to Malaysia Le Quy Quynh on February 27 affirmed Vietnams resolve to fulfill its role as Chair of ASEAN in 2020, contributing to building a cohesive and responsive ASEAN Community.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Malaysia Le Quy Quynh speaks at the event.

The ambassador presented Vietnams goals during the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020 as part of a programme held by the Malaysian Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR) that enabled foreign ambassadors in Malaysia to present their countries policies.

He said Vietnam has chosen the theme Cohesive and Responsive for the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020 in order to highlight the decisive importance of solidarity to the groupings sustainability amidst regional and global uncertainties, especially the emergence of protectionism and trade competition.

Cohesive reflects Vietnams wish for a united bloc, a stronger community and enhanced regional connectivity. Meanwhile, responsive targets ASEANs better adaptability to the fast-evolving world, and its ability to create opportunities and reduce challenges from impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the ambassador elaborated.

He stressed that the theme has received the warm response of other ASEAN member countries as well as the support of ASEANs partners.

In his presentation as well as during discussion with delegates at the event, Ambassador Quynh suggested countries, particularly ASEAN members, should catch up with latest trends and apply new technologies in production and national development.

He informed delegates on Vietnams five priorities for 2020, including promoting ASEANs role and active contributions to maintaining peace, security and stability in the region; strengthening regional connectivity and adaptability to the Fourth Industrial Revolution; improving awareness and identity of the ASEAN Community; stepping up international partnerships for peace and sustainable development; and improving the adaptability and operational efficiency of the ASEAN apparatus./. VNA

VN Agriculture Ministry proposes initiatives for ASEAN Chairmanship Year The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has proposed two initiatives for Vietnams ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020.
Eric Larsen asks the theater director if he can sit alone with the lights off, by himself. The director gives him a funny look, but Larsen assures them that's what he wants to do.

As Larsen sits alone in the dark theater, he begins to soak in the history of the run-down but historic building. He pictures musicians like Elvis Presley and the Beatles rocking away on stage or performances of vaudeville gracing the stage. He's getting a feel for the theater and the history of what it used to be.

This is a mindset Larsen gets himself in to form a plan to restore a theater to its former glory. One of only three people in the entire country to do this kind of work, he takes old theaters with rough insides and missing marquees, which are the outside signage of these buildings, and brings new life to decaying buildings. With such a niche job title, Larsen said he has a long line of theater owners who want his expertise.

This leads the Midland resident to travel the state and country, rebuilding theaters in Bay City, Detroit, Saginaw, New York, Lexington and Philadelphia, all through his Midland-based business, Empire Architectural Design.

But Larsen, 54, didn't always rebuild old theaters. It took him years of self-training to reach that point.

Sparking his interest

Larsen's first taste of this kind of work did not come from dabbling with architecture, but with signage and lettering. When he was about 12 years old, he began pestering his neighbor who hand-lettered vehicles and signs. Larsen was bothering him while he was lettering his boat, and the neighbor told him to freehand some lettering on his boat, something Larsen said he did well on his first try.

"Just to get me off his back because I was very annoying, he gave me a paint brush, a can and board, and said, 'Just do what I did,'" Larsen said.

From there, Larsen became his neighbor's apprentice, who was impressed with what he did. While this a far cry from recreating theaters, this line of work really got Larsen interested in architecture. At one point, Larsen wanted to attend university for architecture, but there was snag: he couldn't afford it. But he taught himself the trade of architecture, while he continued to work in the sign industry.

But soon, he would move on to working with more than just signs when he got his first theater project, not too far away from Midland.

His first project

It was in 2008 when Larsen got his first theater project in Bay City when he received a chance to work on the State Theatre. While it was being restored, they were struggling to find someone who could tackle this project.

"The State Theatre was being restored at the time, and they really didn't know of anybody in the area that knew how to do this type of work," Larsen said. "I volunteered and said, 'Hey, I'll step up and do this. I'll design it exactly like it was before.'"

The theater opened in 1908 as the Bijou Theatre, before becoming the Bay Theatre in 1930, according to the theater's website. Another name change followed in 1960 to the State Theatre, with several more decades of use before nearly being torn down in 2000. That's when people began seeking donations to fix the theatre for capital improvements, according to the website.

The restoration design was assigned to Larsen, although what Larsen does a lot of the time is a little more than restoration. Here, he said the original marquee had to be rebuilt from scratch to match to the original as close as possible. The interior also had to be redesigned.

Recreating marquees can be tricky though. Larsen said he usually only has old photographs to go by, requiring research into the original architect and taking some creative liberties with designing his pieces. Typically, he said, he takes creative liberties around 80% of the time.

Once he was finished with the State Theatre, the floodgates opened, and he began his career of saving theaters.

Across the country

Larsen's business eventually took him across the country, with his work in high demand. He's restored many famous theaters in Michigan and other parts of the United States, along with theme and water parks. These projects can take as little time as 10 months, or up to a year and a half.

Perhaps his most expensive project, though, was working on the Philadelphia Metropolitan Opera House, with the restoration costing about $1.3 million. Larsen said the marquee for that building had to be constructed in six pieces. One of the more historic landmarks Larsen had the distinction of restoring was the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans, which he said is one of the first theaters in the south.

But every now and again, Larsen has an opportunity to flex his creative muscles. When he had the opportunity to work on the Lexington Opera House in Kentucky, he said he had free range to create whatever he wanted. So, he began designing, taking elements from both the inside and outside of the building.

"When we saw his initial design, we immediately could see his attention to detail, and the ways he incorporated the existing architectural features," said Luanne Franklin, who is the director of performing arts at the Lexington Opera House.

She said members of the Opera House Fund, a non-profit organization that works with restoring the Lexington Opera House, and the Lexington Center Corporation, which owns the opera house, were looking for a new marquee for the theater for many years. They wanted to increase the physical presence of the building so people going by would recognize it. Larsen took his time studying the history of the theater during his initial visit, she said.

"It was one of those (projects) where I started drawing it on paper, and I was like, 'I could do this, and I can do this' and it all fell together," Larsen said.

But even with restorations, Larsen finds a way to add his own touch. Borrowing a trick from the Free Masons, Larsen likes to hide names in his designs. Instead of his name, though, he hides the names of his relatives, including his two children. In fact, he said the Mayan hieroglyphics on his redesign of the State Theatre marquee spells out his children's names: Danielle and Jacob.

Larsen has restored several theaters in Detroit to their former glories, including the Adler, Redford and the Senate theaters. But to Larsen, there's more to these restorations. These restorations have played a role in Detroit's rebound, he said. With the, Adler Theatre for example, he notices that people are buying buildings around it and putting in new restaurants and businesses.

"People are attracted to it and starting to build up new stuff all around it," Larsen said.

His current, future projects

Larsen said his current project may be his biggest one yet. Recently, he's been taking trips over to Syracuse, New York, to work on the Landmark Theatre. According to the venue's website, the theater opened in 1928 and has featured performers including Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan.

But the thing that excites Larsen is who designed the theater. Thomas Lamb is the grandfather of theater architecture in the United States, Larsen said. Having an opportunity to work on what he considers to be the most ornate theater in the U.S. is a huge honor to him.

The one piece of advice Larsen would give to aspiring architects would be to go to school for the technical aspects but develop the creative side from experience.

"There are things that college does not teach when it comes to design and architecture," Larsen said. "Where I've the advantage is that I walked in the footsteps of the architects, the artisans and the master craftsmen that did these pieces. You don't teach that stuff in college."
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday urged the central government to revise royalty on coal and announce a special economic package for the Eastern Zone.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired the meeting which was also attended by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, among others.

Speaking at 24th Eastern Zonal Council meeting here, Patnaik said, "One of the prime objectives of Zonal Councils is integration and create healthy inter-state and centre-state relations. Integration has to be financial, infrastructural, technological, so it leads and strengthens emotional integration... It is in this regard I would like to present points both concerning the region and my state Odisha in particular."

He outlined that if a nationwide analysis is done for "teledensity, banking density, rail and road density, East Zone would be at the bottom in all these subjects that are in union list".

Patnaik also said there is a need to double the allotments made to the Eastern Zone region so that they can catch up to the benchmarks.

"This zone contributes maximum to the mineral wealth of the country and in turn manufacturing and energy security of the country. The fruits of this wealth should boost the economic growth of this region and its people," the Odisha Chief Minister said.

"Royalty on coal has not been revised from 2012. There is an urgent need to revise royalty on coal and also to share the proceeds of clean energy cess with the state government," he added.

Patnaik further urged to "announce a special economic package for speeding up infrastructural development of the region".

"Our regions have some of the largest scheduled areas of the country. I reiterate my demand for inclusion of Ho, Bhumij and Mundari languages in the Eighth Schedule of Constitution," he stated.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The deadly Coronavirus has now spread to at least 50 countries and has affected 83,000 people globally while alarming the international leaders over the pathogen being spread easily. The drastic spike in confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the globe since it originated late December in the Chinese province of Wuhan has made authorities struggle with containing the outbreak.

As of February 28, a new case of an Italian man working in Nigeria has been confirmed as a virus patient. Apart from China, new clusters have also emerged in South Korea, Italy, and Iran which has further made the battle with the pathogen, difficult.

More than 500 infections of the fatal Coronavirus have been reported in South Korea for the second consecutive day making the total cases in the country cross the 2,300 mark. Outside China where at least 2,867 lives have been lost to the COVID-19 with 78,824 confirmed cases, South Korea is the most hit country in terms of reported cases. Other countries who have reported their first cases recently include Lithuania, Belarus, and New Zealand.

The Mongolian President has also been put under quarantine after returning from China on February 28.

Read - Coronavirus: Mongolian President Battulga Quarantined After Returning From China

Global markets hit low

The economy has been severely affected by the ongoing crisis of the Coronavirus outbreak with the global markets witnessing reportedly their worst week since the 2008 global financial crisis. The virus fears have pushed the stocks down for the seventh consecutive day.

Meanwhile, at the heart of the biggest outbreak outside China, South Korean officials are still struggling to find at least 3,000 members of a religious group which practises an offshoot of Christianity.

Coronavirus in Iran

Emerging as the new cluster of the fatal virus, according to reports, the full picture of Iran's outbreak still remains unclear. The Islamic Republic has recorded the highest death rate outside China with 34 people dead and only 388 confirmed cases reported of infection. The death of the virus has been at around 1-2 per cent elsewhere in the world, this further suggests that thousands of Iranians might be carrying the pathogen undetected.

World's biggest motor show cancelled

In the wake of the epidemic, authorities have cancelled the Geneva Motor Show, which is one of the world's biggest motor shows. This was the latest string of international events which has been delayed or cancelled because of COVID-19 including the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that was supposed to happen in February.

Facebook also called off its biggest annual events, the F8 developers conference, while keeping in mind the health security of its officials and attendees.

Read - Coronavirus: 106 Quarantined In Maha Since Jan This Year

Evacuation from North Korea

Even though, South Korea's immediate neighbour, North Korea has not publically reported any Coronavirus cases. A source of international media outlet has revealed that officials are currently planning to evacuate their diplomats from North Korea. However, the date of the evacuation flights is not yet finalised.

The current death toll of countries

The virus death toll in China is more than 2,800 and the fatalities due to Coronavirus are 79 in other countries. The deaths have been reported as; 34 in Iran, 17 in Italy, 13 in South Korea, 9 in Japan, 2 in Hong Kong, 2 in France, and one each in Phillippines and Taiwan. The virus has now affected every continent except Antarctica.

Read - Everest Climbers Withdraw, Tourism Declines In Nepal Amid Coronavirus Dread

Read - India's GDP Marginally Rises To 4.7% In Q3 FY20 From 4.5% Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

(With agency inputs)
A woman wearing a face mask walks on the street of Myungdong in Seoul, Feb. 4. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



An increasing number of Chinese students enrolled in universities here are canceling their trips to the country ahead of the new school year amid heightening fears over the new coronavirus, data showed Friday.



Roughly 1,300 students were set to arrive here on Feb. 25, but 36 percent of them apparently canceled their trips, according to the data by the education ministry.



On Feb. 24, around 15 percent of students who were set to arrive here also canceled their trips.



Separate data by the justice ministry, which oversees immigration services, also indicated a slump in arrivals from China. The number of entrants from China reached 1,404 on Feb. 26, plunging 92.6 percent from Jan. 13 when 18,743 people arrived here, the highest number of visitors on a single day this year.






EUCLID, Ohio  Police officers and firefighters are receiving kudos after they rescued several residents from a fire at an apartment building.

Officers Jeff Kotlar, Anthony Malone, Matthew Leyde, Brandon Moore and Thomas Coyne arrived at the fire at 25450 Euclid Ave. Wednesday morning before firefighters were on the scene, according to a news release from Euclid police. People outside told officers that several residents, including some in wheelchairs, were still in the building.

Officers went inside and heard cries for help, police say. Contending with dense smoke, they helped several residents escape the building and carried a disabled woman to safety. After finding out a 4-year-old child was still inside, officers were able to direct firefighters to the childs location. Firefighters were able to rescue the child, police say.

We didnt think twice, Kotlar tells WJW Channel 8. We ran up to the second floor and as we opened the door to the hallway it was filled with smoke. We started crawling. We could hear people screaming for help.

Police say the fire started in the kitchen of an apartment. All residents were evacuated safely.

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Coronavirus Diaries is a series of dispatches exploring how the coronavirus is affecting peoples lives. For the latest public health information, please refer to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions website. For Slates coronavirus coverage, click here.

This as-told-to essay from Linda in Ohio has been transcribed and edited for clarity from a conversation with Shannon Palus.

We were booked to go on a Regent cruise from Bali to Hong Kong. We were going for our 45th anniversary, my 65th birthdayeverything happened this year, and it was a big thing. The cruise was leaving Feb. 12 and returning on March 1. The World Health Organization made that announcement that coronavirus was a global health emergency on Jan. 30.

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I ran an emergency room for 10 years, and my husband was a SWAT team commander, so we never had a panic response. It wasnt so much that we were concerned we were going to get coronavirus, but about what kind of trip we were going to have. In a three-week period, one person on the ship getting a fever or the regular flu is likely. Then what? Does everybody get quarantined? Are we going to even get to finish the trip?

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Regent wasnt putting out much information about how it would handle a change in ports or what would happen if someone got sick. Each day the coronavirus became a bigger concern. Regent is a high-end cruise linethe cruise was over $24,000 for the two of us. We had questions.

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Before we even left, we found out the port in Hong Kong, the endpoint of the trip, was closed. The cruise line was saying, Everything is all right. Well get you home from another port. We dont know where that will be yet, but the cruise is going. We kept asking, Cant we just get a cruise credit? It was either: You go, or you lose everything. We had trip insurance, but insurance doesnt cover anything to do with the coronavirus. I was very angryjust mad. That was my mode. When the company wasnt acknowledging anything or changing, we reached out to everybody. I called my congresswoman and senator. I called the news. There was a young lady that was supposed to bring a film crew, but the more I thought about it, I didnt want to get on the news and be all, Poor me, my $24,000 cruise isnt going to go well, or may not happen at all, or I may lose my money. A lot of people would like to have my problem. We are blessed to even be in this situation.

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We were literally on the phone with the cruise line on our way to the airport. But then were like, OK, this is happening. We need to try to shift gears, try to be positive, and try to focus. Its going to be fine! Go ahead and go!

We get to the gate to check in, and we tell the agent were going to go on a cruise. Oh my aunt is stuck on that ship in Japan. Shes on the Princess Cruise, the gate agent says. I FaceTimed her this morning. Shes stuck in her room.

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Then we get on the plane. There were people with masks; we decided we werent going to wear them. I am a nurse, and for the most part, masks keep you from passing things on to other people. We were really diligent about washing our hands. At that point, were trying not to be negative.

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We got to Korea, where we were going to stay before flying to Bali, and it was masks as far as the eye could see. Also, they lost our luggage, so we had no luggage. We had to get our temperatures taken to go into a restaurant.

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At that point, we found out they were finally offering a future cruise credit. I havent booked anything yetwith all the uncertainty of whats going to happen, I could be back in the same pot I just got out of.

We had to go back to the airport the next day to get the luggage. It was an hour and a half drive from the hotel back to the airport. We could have stayed in Seoul, but we were spentemotionally and physically. We considered just going home to Ohio, but we were like nope. You know how you always talk about how, Wouldnt it be fun to just go to the airport and not know where youre going? And just go, Yeah, Im going there!  We got to do that.

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The logical places, like Japan, were just a few hours awaybut that felt like continuing the problem. Then we thought about Hawaii. Were like, Hawaii, yes, were flying right over there. There was a flight leaving in a few hours, in a different terminal, so we got on a shuttle bus. There we are with all of our luggage. As my husband will tell you, I had 80 pounds of luggage. We were going to be gone a month. We were not luggage-light.

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I have Marriott points, so when we were in the airport in Korea, I got on my app and was like, we can stay at the Royal Hawaiian. Id booked what I had enough to cover with pointsfive nights. We thought, that gives us some breathing time, to chill. The Marriott manager ended up helping us stay extra. He comped us three nights! He never said he was doing that. There were some wonderful things that happened, without a doubt.

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In the meantime, the ship went ahead. Most of the other passengers we had been talking to chose not to go. Theres a website called VesselFinder.com that allows you to track the movement of any ship, and I was keeping my eye on it to see what happened. It went about eight days out of its planned 18.

In the scheme of things, people have so many more issues. But it scares me to death what this could be on a world levelcertainly the illness, but the whole social and financial impact and people out of work. Even though this was a cruise, I dont like to take their excursions, so I had lined up tours with local people. I read an article on Hong Kong airlines having to cut 400 jobs because of the coronavirus. If everybody is scared and cancels all of their trips, its a domino effect. It just goes, goes, goes.
A communication snafu may have nearly killed a plan to create transitional and affordable housing at Yellowknife's Arnica Inn, says the group leading the initiative, but there's still a fighting chance the project will go ahead.

"I'm not declaring the project dead," said Bree Denning, executive director of the Yellowknife Women's Society, which is spearheading the project. "We're still trying to resuscitate it at this point."

The plan to convert 42 units at the inn into homes for people in need could potentially end homelessness for women in Yellowknife, said Denning. The project would house men as well.

The women's society applied for funding from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation's (CMHC) co-investment program. Under that program, the crown corporation would have paid for about 75 per cent of the project if the territorial government kicked in the other 25 per cent.

The women's society had asked for $4 million from the CMHC, conditional upon a $660,000 contribution from the NWT Housing Corporation. Regular MLAs lauded the arrangement as "a great deal."

Much to the surprise of the women's society, its application was rejected on Feb. 14.

After a "positive" meeting with the minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation Thursday morning, Denning said she has a better understanding of what pushed the project to the brink of cancellation.

Different stories

Denning said getting to the bottom of why the project was rejected by CMHC was complicated.

On one side was the women's society, which was told by the CMHC that its application for funding had been denied, in part because there wasn't buy-in from the NWT Housing Corporation.

On another side was the NWT Housing Corporation and Paulie Chinna, the minister responsible for it. Chinna said there were issues with the women's society's funding application, and that the housing corporation isn't in a position to accept or reject applications to the CMHC.

Story continues

Chantal Dubuc

In the middle was the CMHC, which told CBC it doesn't comment on specific applications, but that the women's society is welcome to reapply.

How long that reapplication process could take is unclear. Meanwhile, time to purchase the Arnica Inn is running out  the deadline is March 31.

But the situation changed somewhat Thursday morning. Now, said Denning, the plan is for the women's society and the housing corporation to approach the CMHC again, with the hope of kick-starting the application.

Communication breakdown

One of the reasons the CMHC gave for rejecting the women's society's application was that it hadn't gotten the support of the housing corporation.

On Wednesday, Chinna denied the assertion that the housing corporation wasn't on board. "We do not withhold any 25 per cent of any co-investment funding that is available to residents and people of the Northwest Territories," she said.

After Thursday's meeting, Denning said her understanding of the housing corporation's position is that they shouldn't be expected to commit money before the CMHC does. She said the housing corporation was of the mind that, "this is a federal pot of funding so you [the CMHC] should make the decision about whether something is acceptable to you before you come to us [the housing corporation] for funding."

There's a bit of a disagreement about how the application process should function. - Bree Denning, executive director of the Yellowknife Women's Society

The CMHC, however, was of the view that the territorial government should be a "co-applicant, essentially," before a proposal gets to the approval or denial stage, said Denning.

"So there's a bit of a disagreement about how the application process should function," she said. "That's my understanding, coming out of this meeting, as to why we ended up in this sort of situation where the CMHC was telling us that we weren't approved by the housing corp., and at the same time, the housing corp. was saying, 'No, that's not the case.'"

Further complicating matters, said Denning, was that the women's society's application to the CMHC co-investment program was the first from the Northwest Territories.

Chantal Dubuc/CBC

"It's of course frustrating for me," said Denning, but now it's clearer to her why the situation was communicated differently by the CMHC and the housing corporation.

Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty on Thursday lamented the communication breakdown.

"Back in November 2018 the government of Canada and the Northwest Territories signed a housing agreement and it was championed as this great opportunity," she said. "And one of the things that it committed to is about transparency and working together."

"We're not seeing that right now. There's that breakdown between [the NWT] Housing Corporation and CMHC."

Despite the kerfuffle, Denning is pushing ahead.

"I will still attend whatever meetings I can, but yeah, it would take a lot to make [the project] go forward at this point," she said, adding, "I'm willing to put that in if it's going to achieve the goal."
By PTI

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said he will ask the department concerned to take an "early decision" on the prosecution sanction against former JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others in a sedition case.

The chief minister's comments come hours after a court directed the Delhi government to file a status report till April 3 on the issue of sanctions to prosecute Kanhaiya Kumar and others.

"I don't have a say in the department concerned (home). I cannot change their (department's) decision, but will ask them to decide as soon as possible," Kejriwal told reporters when asked about prosecution sanction pending with the Delhi government in the sedition case.

Sources in the government said the Home department has to take a decision in connection with the case.

While hearing the case, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Purushottam Pathak also directed the Delhi Police to send a reminder to the city government seeking requisite sanctions to prosecute Kumar.

The court passed the directions after police submitted that permission to prosecute Kumar and others has not been granted yet and the letter requesting sanction is pending with GNCTD.

On January 14, the police had filed a charge sheet in the court against Kumar and others, including former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, saying they were leading a procession and supported the seditious slogans raised on the campus during an event on February 9, 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 03:53:24|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping talked over phone with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Friday night to compare notes on the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic and how to further promote bilateral ties.

Xi noted that after the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, Raul Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, and Diaz-Canel immediately extended their sympathies to him, and the Cuban president also paid a special visit to the Chinese embassy in Cuba to express support for China.

That, said the Chinese president, has fully demonstrated the profound traditional friendship between China and Cuba.

In line with the professional guidelines proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO), Cuba has maintained normal exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, which means respect and support of China's prevention and control work, Xi said.

China, he added, highly appreciates the understanding and support the Cuban side and the Cuban president himself have shown for China's anti-epidemic efforts.

Xi stressed that since the outbreak of the epidemic, he has been personally leading the response, and the country, with its people united as one, has taken the most comprehensive, rigorous and thorough prevention and control measures.

China has put forward the principle of early detection, early reporting, early isolation and early treatment for prevention and control, and the principle of pooling together patients, experts and resources for concentrated treatment for treatment efforts, he said.

Meanwhile, China has made it a prominent task to improve the admission and cure rates and reduce the infection and mortality rates, added the Chinese president.

Thanks to those arduous endeavors, the positive trend in COVID-19 prevention and control is gathering steam, Xi said, stressing that China has full confidence, capacity and certainty to win the battle against the epidemic.

In this anti-epidemic fight, he stressed, China has always adhered to the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind and an attitude of openness, transparency and responsibility, sharing information with the WHO and the international community in a timely fashion as well as actively responding to the concerns of various sides and strengthening international cooperation, so as to prevent the epidemic from spreading around the world.

Meanwhile, China has also taken strong and effective measures to ensure the health and safety of foreign nationals in China, including Cuban citizens, Xi said.

The WHO and the international community have spoken highly of China's prevention and control work, he said, adding that China is willing to continue exchanges and cooperation with Cuba in the fields of medicine and epidemic prevention and control.

Xi pointed out that the Chinese nation has experienced many ordeals in its history, but has never been overwhelmed, and that the impact of the epidemic on China's economy is temporary and the fundamentals of China's long-term sound economic growth remain unchanged.

The Chinese president added that his country has made coordinated efforts to both contain the epidemic and promote economic and social development.

While making solid and meticulous efforts in epidemic prevention and control, China has adopted a series of policies and measures to restore orderly production and life and ensure realization of this year's economic and social development goals, he said, reiterating that China has full confidence in it.

China and Cuba are good friends, good comrades and good brothers who can rely on each other in difficult times and are as close as lips and teeth, Xi stressed, adding that bilateral relations have withstood major tests of winds and waves and remained resilient and vibrant.

Xi said the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government will, as always, support Cuba's pursuit of a socialist path suitable for its national conditions and its just fight to defend national sovereignty and oppose foreign intervention, and stands ready to continue to provide support and assistance within their capacity for Cuba.

As this year marks the 60th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties, China is willing to work with Cuba to organize the celebrations, and take that as an opportunity to sum up the successful experience in the development of bilateral ties and lift bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields to new levels from a new historical starting point, Xi said.

Diaz-Canel, for his part, said Cuba highly appreciates and firmly supports China's efforts to combat the COVID-19 epidemic and thanks China for providing help and care for Cuban nationals in China.

Facing the severe challenge of the epidemic, China has united its people as one and adopted swift and effective measures, which have gradually achieved positive results, noted the Cuban leader.

That, he added, has fully demonstrated China's strong mobilization ability and the great advantages of the socialist system.

China's timely and effective response made outstanding contributions to restraining the spread of the epidemic, which has been highly appreciated by the international community, including the United Nations and the WHO, Diaz-Canel noted.

He said he is confident that under the strong leadership of the CPC with Xi at its core, and with China's great comprehensive national strength and experience accumulated in fighting the SARS outbreak in 2003, China will definitely achieve a resounding victory against COVID-19.

Cuba, he added, will stand firmly with China at this difficult time and is willing to provide all possible help for its Chinese brothers at any time.

Cuba sincerely thanks China for its long-standing support for Cuba's just cause and its assistance for Cuba's development and construction, Diaz-Canel said.

He added that Cuba stands ready to work with China to further consolidate their traditional friendship, and take the opportunity of celebrating the 60th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties to expand and deepen practical cooperation in various fields, so as to push for greater development of their relations for the benefit of both peoples.
They're using the Flashfood app to give customers steep discounts and divert food from landfill.

It has been four years since I wrote about the Flashfood app that was set to hit Canadian grocery stores and make it easier for shoppers to buy soon-to-expire food at a discount. Much to my delight, I heard it advertised recently on a local radio station and figured it's time for an update, especially since people have become more aware of food waste's role in the climate crisis.

The first thing I did was download the app. I hadn't done it initially because it was limited to a few locations in the Greater Toronto Area, but now it's all over Canada, including the grocery store right down the street from my house. I could see immediately that numerous brands of crackers, yogurt, cereal, granola bars, and pasta are all marked down 50 percent.

With Flashfood, retailers can list anything that is up to two weeks away from expiring, and most discounts are 50 percent. Users pay for the food using the app, then pick it up at a designated location in the store. It differs from the clearance rack at the store in that the items are not so close to expiry, so you don't have to worry about them actually being bad. (I've noticed this sometimes happens with the bags of marked-down produce.)

Flashfood has clearly done well, with participating locations in every province of Canada, plus one territory, as well as locations in Wisconsin and Michigan. These are partnerships with Meijer and Hy-Vee stores that are currently in the pilot stage, but once completed, the app will be available in all 246 Meijer store locations across the United States. An additional pilot with SpartanNash has just begun in 5 of West Michigan Family Fare store locations.

It makes sense for retailers to get behind this app because it offers a win-win situation for everyone involved. Flashfood told TreeHugger over email that it sells 75 percent of the products made available through its app while saving consumers an average of 50 percent on those grocery items, and that it has 300,000 active users right now. That number is expected to grow naturally as Flashfood partners with more grocers. Gord Chem, senior VP with Loblaw's Real Canadian Superstores, explained why he likes it so much:

"As a food retailer, we are in the business of providing food, not wasting it. Our goal is to provide our customers with easy access to quality fresh food and grocery items at low prices. The Flashfood program allows us to provide our customers with a convenient and environmentally sustainable way to purchase food."



Chem told the Globe and Mail that Loblaw "sells 77 per cent of the items it puts on Flashfood, moving an average of $800 to $1,000 worth of goods weekly at each of its largest stores" and that he is "very happy with that conversion rate. This is not bad food. This is product that is close to date or ripe and should be eaten today or tomorrow."

 Flashfood

I love scooping discount deals at the grocery store and always keep an eye out for the hot pink clearance stickers. But it's always random, and I never know what I'm going to get from week to week. The appeal of Flashfood is that I can see what's available, pre-purchase it, and leave it off my shopping list.

If you haven't signed up for Flashfood yet, and you live in Michigan/Wisconsin area or in Canada, do check it out here or download for free from the app store. If your area does not yet support the app, speak to your store manager and spread the word; you never know if they might just be looking for something like this.
Prince Harry seemed to be following Princess Diana's footsteps after he announced that he would now be referred to as "Harry."

On Wednesday, Harry attended the Travalyst event at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre where he asked a favor from the host. He told the conference's host, former Labor adviser and broadcaster Ayesha Hazarika, to introduce him to the stage only as Harry, ultimately dropping the "Prince" from his name.

"So ladies and gentlemen, please give a big, warm, Scottish welcome to Harry," Hazarika said and did what the Duke asked.

The sudden choice certainly separated him even more from the royal family and the whole monarchy.

People would typically refer to the Duke of Sussex as Prince Harry, Sir, or His Royal Highness -0 the title he can no longer use once he steps down as a working royal on March 31, 2020.

This announcement became another bombshell headline again. However, if his mother Princess Diana was still alive, would she be happy with who he became?

Prince Harry a Rebel, Too?

According to royal author Leslie Carroll, Harry has been inspired by Princess Diana who also detached herself from the monarchy.

The author of "American Princess: The Love Story of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry" said that the Duke of Sussex was disappointed by the treatment that his wife, Meghan Markle, received from the members of the royal family and their aides.

In addition, his statement "Just call me Harry" came from the issues he saw Princess Diana faced when she maintained her royal title even after her divorce with Prince Charles.

"Harry has always been acutely conscious of the way his mother was hounded and hunted by the press, and he has been equally outspoken saying that he will not let history repeat itself with his wife and son," Carroll went on.

Although Harry started to keep a low profile with Meghan and their son Archie, he is still considered the "rebel of the royal family" for fighting for the independence of their family-of-three.

"Diana would have been so proud of him for doing this," Carroll stated. "And ironically, the prince who was such a rebel as a youth is proving he's still a rebel."

His decision to drop even the "Prince" from his name came after the announcement that they will no longer be using even their HRH titles after March 2020.

Harry, Meghan Surrendered Everything!

Aside from dropping their titles, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex also gave up in pushing the monarchy to allow them to use "Sussex Royal" as their brand.

Queen Elizabeth II reportedly blocked them from using and applying for a trademark for the aforementioned brand since it is not in line with their decision to step back as senipor members of the royal family. It has also been reported that the family does not want the Sussexes to capitalize and cash in on the brand.

"Therefore, the trademark applications that were filed as protective measures, acting on advice from and following the same model for The Royal Foundation, have been removed," the Sussexes' representative stated.

It is also worth noting that reports about their new brand name emerged as soon as they gave up on the "Sussex Royal" brand.

Daily Mail reported this recently that the Markle's BFF Jessica Mulroney registered a new domain sussexglobalcharities.com under her Shoebox Project Foundation to help the couple.

Though neither Harry nor Meghan already confirmed if "Sussex Global Charities" will be their final brand name, it still looks like a promising choice, most especially since it no longer violates any law with regards to naming their future works.
The de-escalation zone is currently home to four million civilians.

At Turkey's request, NATO will hold an extraordinary meeting Friday over attacks on Turkish military in Idlib, northwestern Syria.

Late Thursday, at least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed and dozens injured in an airstrike by Assad regime forces in the Idlib de-escalation zone, according to Anadolu.

"Today, the NATO council meets at Turkey's request to consult under Article 4 of NATO's founding Washington Treaty on the situation in Syria," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter.

Read alsoThirty-three Turkish soldiers killed in Syrian air raid in Idlib

In September 2018, Turkey and Russia agreed to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

At the same time, more than 1,300 civilians have been killed in attacks by the regime and Russian forces in the zone since then as ceasefire violations continue.

The de-escalation zone is currently home to four million civilians, including hundreds of thousands displaced in recent years by regime forces throughout the war-torn country.
(Photo : Screenshot from Official Facebook Page of Amazon Go Grocery)

Amazon recently opened its first cashier-less grocery store in the lovely city of Seattle, and a prankster can dupe it. As much as modern times go, this isn't very good indeed if it can be fooled so easily.

Read More: Apple's Biggest Fail WIth $400 Mac Pro Wheels Could Cost You $50,000 If You're Not Careful!

The Down Low Regarding the "Heist"

The person in question is named Sam Machkovech, wanted to see how much he could get away within the newly implemented system that Amazon brags about.

Machkovench eventually decided to test things out by ducking into the restroom. While the hallways leading into the bathroom do have cameras, it did not matter for Machkovech. He did, however, leave an avocado on a shelf where Amazon encourages shoppers to leave their merchandise. Once he got inside, he hid a banana that had come loose with his fruit juggling escapade in his bag.

He also put a jacket that had been in the bag and removed a pair of sunglasses in place of his disappearing act. He then grabbed a few non-produce items to test his theory.

The Aftermath

When Machkovech finally got his receipt, he was surprised to know that he had been charged for both the loose banana and avocado left outside the restroom and not the items he took after he changed.

His receipt also took several hours to process, Amazon estimating he had spent more than two hours of shopping. So it seems that the wardrobe change had worked after all. Machkovech said about the incident to Amazon was "solving a problem that doesn't exist," He argues that staff is capable of checking customers out of the store.

Read More: The U.S. is Way Behind The Rest of the World When it Comes to Toilets: Why It Matters

Amazon's Obvious Response

Amazon disagrees wholeheartedly, also is looking to open over 3,000 Go stores by 2021. It's a part of a recent influx into physical locations. This is also in line with Amazon acquiring the high-end grocery chain, Whole Foods, back in 2017 for almost $14 billion. Even their expansions of book stores and "4-star" stores that sell small selections of highly-rated items from Amazon's very own inventory.

As for potentially avoiding shoplifters in their cashier-less Go stores, Amazon has told Business Insider, "overall, our technology is highly accurate." So trust that Amazon is going to do something about what Machkovech has done to avoid it from happening again.

More on the Opening

Amazon Go Grocery, as Amazon has aptly named it. It is a larger version of the Amazon Go stores they first launched back in 2018. It sells everything that you ever want in terms of food, produces, meat, and beer, of course. The only twist is that no more employees ring up customers after they finish shopping, but the store uses a network of sensors, cameras, and artificial intelligence. This is to figure out what shoppers are selecting in real-time and charges it to their Amazon account right after.

An Amazon spokesperson stated that "At Amazon Go and Amazon Go Grocery, we spend the vast majority of our time thinking about improving the experience for the 99.9% of well-intentioned shoppers vs. designing a system that is focused on deterring the few bad actors,"

Read More: Warning! Billions of Apple Gadgets Left Open to Wi-Fi Hacking; Don't Open Wi-Fi!

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Kim Kardashian married Kanye West in an elegant ceremony in Italy back in 2014. And every now and then, shell share a photo from her wedding, but its not often. However, Kardashian took to Instagram to announce that her Mrs. West collection for KKW Beauty was back in stock. And to do so, she reminisced on her big day and posted several wedding photos for fans to see.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in Paris the day before their wedding | Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West started dating back in 2012

Kardashian and West had been friends for a while before they actually started dating. But things turned romantic between the two shortly after Kardashian called off her marriage to Kris Humphries (the infamous 72-day marriage, that is). Though she wasnt officially divorced when she and West started dating, the two were separated, and its obvious that what West and Kardashian have is very real.

The two tied the knot in Italy in 2014

A little more than a year after they started dating, West and Kardashian learned that they were expecting their first child. They welcomed their daughter, North, back in 2013, and less than a year after that, the two were officially married. (They were together for just over two years before tying the knot.)

Kardashian and West spared no expense for their lavish wedding in Italy. Kardashian first flew into Paris, where she held her bachelorette party  and the elegance only grew from there. The couple held a lunch at iconic designer Valentino Garavanis home, and the rehearsal dinner took place at the Palace of Versailles. For the actual ceremony, guests were flown from Paris to Italy via private jet, and Andrea Bocelli performed at the wedding  pretty incredible, right?

Kardashians Mrs. West collection had her showing off some wedding photos

Kardashian hasnt kept all of her wedding photos a secret, but she recently had a new reason to break them out: Her Mrs. West makeup collection was back in stock. The reality star and beauty mogul posted photos to her Instagram story from her big day in order to mark the collection coming back to her website.

Kardashian posted some wedding photos with West to her Instagram story | Kim Kardashian West via Instagram

She posted photos of her getting her makeup done, plus a photo of her wearing her dress while looking in a mirror. She also posted images with West that were likely taken right after the ceremony.

A photo from the couples wedding | Kim Kardashian West via Instagram

The two reportedly still want more kids

Fans dont always have faith in celebrity relationships. Famous couples tend to break up unexpectedly for various reasons that usually stem from their fame. But for Kardashian and West, this seems to be the real deal. The two have already welcomed four kids together since they started dating, and apparently, they still want more. West and Kardashian have both discussed the idea of having seven children.

Its possible that four is enough, though. Kris Jenner, Kardashians mother, recently appeared on Ellen, where she was asked which child will have a kid next. She named three sisters  Kourtney, Kylie, and Kendall; Kardashian West was not someone Jenner thought would be welcoming a new baby any time soon.
Egypt is seeking amendments to the country's law against female genital mutilation (FGM) to plug loopholes that allow health practitioners and families of girls who undergo the outlawed procedure to escape punishment.

"A committee is being formed to study the law and recommend changes to curb the practice," Maya Morsy, head of Egypt's National Council for Women, announced in February.

The current anti-FGM law is self-contradictory and has loopholes that make it difficult to convict doctors and other health practitioners who perform the procedure," lamented Nehad Abul Komsan, founder and director of the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights.

The law includes a provision that exempts offenders from punishment if they carry out a procedure that is medically necessary or justifiable to protect the patient from harm. Some doctors use this as a basis for their fallacious argument that FGM is necessary to protect young girls from harm, she told Al-Monitor.

In what appeared to be a shift from the previous wavering on FGM by the country's religious institutions, Dar Al Ifta, the state authority responsible for issuing religious edicts, republished a fatwa from 2018. The edict found prohibition of FMG to be in line with the objectives of Sharia and the interests of the people." It also said that FGM proponents base their opinion on weak hadiths and pointed out that the Prophet Muhammed did not have the procedure performed on his daughters.

The Dar Al Ifta statement comes in the wake of the recent death of a young girl in Manfalout, a city in the southern Egyptian governorate of Assiut. 12-year-old Nada Abdul Maksoud bled to death after undergoing FGM at a private clinic in late January. Her parents, an aunt and the retired doctor who performed the procedure were arrested but released four days later on bail, pending further investigations.

Their release provoked an international outcry with children's rights campaigners calling for jail terms to the family and the doctor to deter others from the illegal practice, which widespread in Egypt.

"A 12-year-old girl has lost her life, becoming the latest in a string of fatalities caused by FGM. We need to see offenders punished for their crime. If justice is not served, we can only expect a recurrence of this heinous crime," Abul Komsan told Al-Monitor.

She also cautioned against the use of the term cosmetic surgery to refer to "the crime of mutilating the external part of the female genitalia."

Using the term 'cosmetic' to describe genital mutilation or cutting is a deliberate distortion of facts. The Medical Syndicate must advise medical practitioners that removing part of the clitoris is by no means cosmetic," she said, in reference to the accused doctor's claim during the investigation that he had been performing plastic surgery on the girl minutes before she died.

The girl's parents admitted, however, that they had taken their daughter to the clinic to undergo FGM. Forensic experts who examined her body concurred that the girl had been subjected to FGM.

Succumbing to public pressure, prosecutors have referred Nada's parents and the doctor for trial but no date has yet been set for their hearings.

Egyptian doctors have waged an awareness campaign in Cairo metro stations alerting commuters to the harmful effects of FGM. The "White Coats Campaign" began Feb. 11 by a group of doctors from the non-governmental Union Against Harmful Practices on Women and Children, a Cairo-based network that works to "build the capacities of civil society organizations to eradicate FGM and combat all forms of violence against women and children."

The campaigners, who say they do not want their white coats stained with the blood of young girls, distributed leaflets on the dangers of FGM and put up posters reading "FGM is a crime" and "No to FGM." Volunteers were on hand to respond to commuters' questions about FGM and explain why the centuries-old practice must end.

FGM is increasingly medicalized, with "82% of FGM incidences in the country carried out by a health professional," according to Anita Nirody, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Egypt.

While the practice cannot be justified by medical reasons, many families that choose to have their daughters "cut" believe they are reducing the risks of bleeding and infection by having a doctor rather than the traditional midwife perform the procedure.

Dr. Abdel Hamid Attia, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Cairo University, refuted the notion as "deceptive." Attia who heads Doctors Against FGM, an initiative that aims to end the practice, said he tells young doctors that the procedure is unethical. "FGM is not part of the curriculum for medical students and should not be performed even if the parents request it, he told Al-Monitor.

"FGM is harmful in all cases, whether it is carried out by a doctor or midwife," he said. "Complications include infections (urinary and vaginal), injury to adjacent tissue and hemorrhage, to mention but a few. Girls who undergo FGM may also likely suffer extreme pain and shock. The procedure may also lead to difficulties in childbirth, even infertility," he noted, insisting that "FGM scars women and girls for life as it affects their physical, psychological and sexual well-being. Lack of sexual pleasure for women that have been cut can lead to husbands having extramarital affairs or remarrying."

But despite the warnings from some doctors, FGM remains highly prevalent in Egypt with many families, particularly those in rural communities, believing it keeps their daughters chaste and marriageable. According to a 2014 survey by the National Population Council, 61% of Egyptian girls aged between 15 and 17 were found to have been circumcised, a marked drop from the 74% reported for the same age group six years earlier. Despite the apparent decline, Egypt still has the highest FGM rates in the Middle East and ranks fourth in Africa.

August 2016 amendments to the 2008 anti-FGM law enhanced the penalties for FGM, designating the procedure a felony rather than a misdemeanor and mandating increased prison sentences of between five and seven years for violators instead of the previous prison terms of three months to two years. If the procedure leads to death or permanent injury, the health practitioner responsible faces punishment of up to 15 years in prison. Parents also face jail sentences of between one to three years for consenting to the procedure.

So far, however, the penalties have failed to curb the practice, mainly because the crime tends to go unreported. In cases where it results in a girl's death, the physician often pays a sum to the bereaved family as compensation for the loss of their child. The first doctor was convicted of causing a death related to FGM in January 2015. Dr. Raslan Fadl was given a sentence of two years and three months in prison after he was found guilty of manslaughter. But Fadl was released after spending three months in prison, having reconciled with the girl's family. His release dashed the hopes of rights advocates that his landmark conviction would deter other physicians from performing the procedure.

According to Abul Komsan, the challenge lies in convincing both health practitioners and rural families that FGM is neither rooted in religion nor does it protect the family honor.

"The resistance from some hard-line preachers must be met with an intense public awareness campaign against the practice. What we need is a unified message from all preachers that Islam forbids all that is detrimental to one's health. We also need clear-cut policies against FGM. The government must send a clear message to all medical institutions and the public that it is adopting a zero-tolerance policy vis-a-vis the practice, she said, adding, "All hospitals and medical institutions must state clearly that FGM is a crime. The authorities must conduct regular inspections on clinics, especially during 'FGM season' in summer right after exams, to ensure that physicians abide by such rules."

"We need to keep the momentum and we mustn't stop until FGM is entirely eradicated. The death of one girl is one too many, she concluded.
When you run down the biggest blow-ups on The View, you can usually trace them back to on-air debates. That was the case when Elisabeth Hasselbeck said she was quitting in 2006. (It followed a heated discussion about birth control.)

Rosie ODonnells dramatic first run at The View also featured a number of controversies you can trace back to Hot Topics. (ODonnells takes on the Iraq War, the Catholic Church, and George W. Bush enraged various groups.)

But as far as tabloid gossip about cast members affairs goes, The View never really had that problem. Over the years, most of the co-hosts have either been married (Hasselbeck, Meredith Vieira, Joy Behar) or older and securely single (Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters).

Rosie Perez, who had a very short run on the show (2014-15), found herself in another type of common View rumor  the Will she be fired? type  that fans know well. But in the 90s Perez truly ran the gauntlet when she was rumored to be dating rapper Tupac Shakur.

Tupac accompanied Rosie Perez to the Soul Train Music Awards in 93

Rosie Perez and Tupac Shakur | Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

It was no surprise that people assumed Perez and Tupac were dating. After all, the two appeared together holding hands on the red carpet at the Soul Train Music Awards in 1993. And the gesture (i.e., the hand-holding) was meant to spark those rumors.

Everyone thought we were having sex, Perez told Wendy Williams in 2014. [But] we werent. As Perez told it, she was about to leave for the awards event when her date (someone in the music industry) stood her up. While Perez was dealing with that, she heard from her friend, Tupac.

Tupac could tell she was distraught and asked Perez why she was crying. After she explained, he told her what happened. Forget that motherf*cker, Perez recalled Tupac telling her. Lets go up there  Ill be your date. Hes gonna be so jealous.

Perez said they smoked some marijuana in the limo on the way there, so she was so stoned and so scared once they hit the red carpet. Dont worry  I got you, she recalled Tupac telling her. And thats when he gave her his hand to hold (and when all the pictures got snapped).

Perez said she hooked Tupac up with Madonna that night

Rosie Perez and Tupac Shakur | Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

While at the Soul Train awards, Perez found herself getting dirty looks from several women in the audience. I didnt realize he was sleeping with half the women in the industry! she told Williams. But Madonna seemed to realize they were just friends.

At some point, Madonna approached Perez and asked if shed set her (Madonna) up with Tupac. When she mentioned it to Tupac, he said hed be happy to spend some time with the Material Girl. (According to Perez, Madonnas fling with Tupac began that same night.)

So Tupacs plan to make Rosies original awards date jealous probably worked. (The women at the event certainly believed they were together.) And Perez made it worth Tupacs while by setting him up with another heavyweight in the music industry.

Also see: How Rosie ODonnell Made Sure a Co-Host at The View Got a Higher Salary
Russia successfully test-launched its Tsirkon (Zircon) hypersonic cruise missile from a military vessel for the first time early last month, the TASS news agency said on Thursday, citing two military sources.

President Vladimir Putin talked up hypersonic missiles in a March 2018 speech, saying they were part of a new generation of Russian weapons that could hit almost any point in the world and evade a U.S.-built missile shield.

State television presenter Dmitry Kiselyov said in February 2019 that the Tsirkon missile could hit targets in the United States in less than five minutes if launched from submarines.
Monday is Black Mental Health Day in Toronto  the first of a planned annual conversation about the negative impact of racism on the mental health of Black Torontonians.

That such a campaign is necessary is a cup of cold water to many faces, a kick in the gut to others. For the citys 400,000 Black people, its a double-edged sword. Some are embarrassed. Others are resentful. Some say it smacks of victimhood.

But others relish the opportunity to confront a monstrous evil that has its deadly, debilitating grip on too many Black lives.

The need is irrefutable. Heres why:

As humans we seem to be getting crazier by the day. The fault lines are numerous. Increasingly, the victims look like the persons who share our mirror. And it costs the local economy an estimated $13 billion a year from people missing work.

Black people, because of their resilience and heroic survival instincts, have endured tremendous trauma that would have wiped out lesser men and women. But the trauma, buried just below the skin, is erupting into haunting manifestations that demands our attention.

Black people are the only ones brought to North and South America and the Caribbean in chains, as slaves. And 400 years later, they still face prejudice, discrimination and remnants of a dehumanization and degradation that is being fingered as the cause of persistent trauma.

Parts of the GTAs Black population are undergoing a 60 per cent increase in serious mental health problems like psychosis.

The Mental Health Commission of Canada reports that African and Caribbean Canadians were more exposed to the factors that lead to poor mental health: lower education, insufficient housing, greater unemployment and poverty, plus higher levels of criminalization.

The City of Toronto, in an official news release in January, acknowledged that Anti-Black racism is a historic, pervasive and systematic issue in Toronto.

Toronto went further: Experiencing systemic discrimination and micro-aggressions are social stressors that increase the risk of negative physical and mental health including anxiety, depression, suicide or suicidal thoughts, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, high blood pressure and premature mortality. In short, the city news release said, racism is killing Black people and driving them mad.

The City of Ottawa has followed Torontos lead, declaring Monday as Black Mental Health Day.

The NDP caucus plans to introduce a bill at Queens Park, seeking to proclaim the day across Ontario, the province with the largest number of Black citizens.

Once our official institutions acknowledge the problem, it is reasonable to expect them to act on recommendations for change. This strengthens the hands of the many groups and individuals engaged in this advocacy.

Advocacy is needed because the reasons for the ill-health are pervasive. Black people in Toronto are still being carded, streamed into non-academic courses, profiled by police and other institutions.

Parents of Black boys still must caution their sons to drive safely  and also to be aware of the deadly possibility of Driving While Black. How can one sleep well at night with that fear and stress hanging permanently over ones head? There is a doggedness in our DNA that I wouldnt trade, my friend Sharon McLeod said this week. But, oh, its a heavy load.

Reports show Black peoples introduction to the mental health supports system is irregular, unhelpful, and prone to result in worse outcomes than the white population. The expected norm is: referral from your family doctor; link to the supports; careful engagement and healing. For too many Blacks, the first contact follows an episode that ends with the police being called. Healing is a difficult proposition in the belly of the criminal justice system.

Black people are more likely to be given extreme labels when in care. They are more often put in restraints and given heavier and stronger doses of anti-psychotic drugs.

There are too many Black kids in the care of Childrens Aid, too many Black children suspended from schools, too few Black graduates in science and engineering, and of the many Black students in behavioural sciences, too few hold position of authority to affect how Black citizens navigate the mental health system.

The above daily drum beat cannot lead to a healthy life. It does not.

Dr. Kwame McKenzie, CEO of the Wellesley Institute and professor of psychiatry at U of T, broke it down adroitly in his op-ed piece in the Star last month.

Racism makes the lives of the Black population worse than others and increases the rates of psychosis and depression by 200 to 300 per cent, he wrote. Stress has been identified as one cause. And racism-related stress is more impactful than other forms. Anyone who does not get a promotion will feel stressed. But the stress is greater if you think it is because of discrimination and is increased further if you believe there is nothing you can do about it.

After 400 years of prejudice, discrimination and daily trauma, it is reasonable to expect Black people need a day for their mental health.

Its not a time for white voyeurism  though that is an offshoot  but a time for Black healing and repair.

Its a cry for help, a call for action, says Liben Gebremikael, executive director of Taibu Community Health Centre.

And the start of something  a commitment to the long arduous dismantling of an entrenched system that first took Black bodies and, now, is claiming their minds.
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2020 (CPAC) hosted by the American Conservative Union on February 28, 2020 in National Harbor, MD.

Mulvaney claimed that the media has only started paying close attention to the coronavirus because "they think this is going to be what brings down the president."

He was interviewed Friday morning by Stephen Moore, Trump's onetime nominee for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors , at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.

"Are you going to see some schools shut down? Probably. May you see impacts on public transportation? Sure," Mulvaney said as he attempted to assure his audience that the Trump administration was on top of the virus.

Mulvaney, who also heads the Office of Management and Budget, also said that there will "probably" be school closures and transportation issues due to the impact of the virus.

White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney suggested Friday that Americans ignore the media's coverage of the coronavirus, arguing that journalists are ratcheting up fears to try to hurt President Donald Trump politically.

The Office of Management and Budget referred CNBC's request for comment on Mulvaney's remarks to the White House, which did not immediately provide a response.

The Trump administration imposed travel restrictions and quarantines in late January in response to the outbreak, which has spread to dozens of countries around the world and killed more than 2,700 people.

"Why didn't you hear about it?" Mulvaney asked at CPAC. "What was still going on four or five weeks ago? Impeachment, and that's all the press wanted to talk about."

The House impeached Trump in December on articles of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, both related to his dealings with Ukraine. The Senate acquitted Trump of both charges in early February.

"The press was covering their hoax of the day because they thought it would bring down the president," Mulvaney concluded. "The reason you're seeing so much attention to [the coronavirus] today is that they think this is going to be what brings down the president. That's what this is all about."

Mulvaney said he was asked by a reporter, "What are you going to do today to calm the markets?"

"I'm like, 'Really what I might do today [to] calm the markets is tell people turn their televisions off for 24 hours.'"

Still, the disease is "absolutely" real, Mulvaney said. But, he said, "You saw the president the other day  the flu is real."

"This is not Ebola ... it's not SARS, it's not MERS," Mulvaney said.

"We sit there and watch the markets and there's this huge panic and it's like, why isn't there this huge panic every single year over flu?" Mulvaney asked rhetorically.

"Are you going to see some schools shut down? Probably. May you see impacts on public transportation? Sure."

"But we do this, we know how to handle this," he said.

White House officials, along with Trump himself, have unsuccessfully called for calm amid the market's free-fall this week.

At a news conference Wednesday night, Trump announced that Vice President Mike Pence would be in charge of the U.S. response to the coronavirus. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, however, said he remains the chair of the coronavirus task force, and that Pence will be "helping" with the effort.

Trump also claimed without providing evidence that financial markets may be tanking because they are "very upset when they look at the Democrat candidates standing on that stage making fools out of themselves."

Seven Democratic presidential candidates met in Charleston, South Carolina, on Tuesday night for an often messy and chaotic debate, just days before the state's primary.

Trump said investors say, "'If we ever have a president like this' ... When they look at the statements made by the people standing behind those podiums, I think that has a huge effect, yeah."
The Italian infected with coronavirus arrived in Nigeria on Tuesday but the disease was not detected at the Lagos international airport, his port of entry, because it was still at the incubation stage, Nigerias health minister, Osagie Ehanire, has said.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Lagos and federal governments, early Friday, confirmed the coronavirus case, the first in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Mr Ehanire explained that the Italian was able to get into the country without being detected at the airport because he was asymptomatic (disease was still at the incubation stage) at the time of entry.

So, it is not that it is a failure of screening. The screening went very well. The information I have this very morning is that he is stable, so all people will not be equally severe.

This implies that the disease can be missed in a person who is yet to have symptoms and that is why WHO and the government have been advising that people who have had contacts with infected persons should be quarantined for at least 14 days.

Mr Ehanire, at a press briefing in Abuja, said they are opting for 14 days self-quarantine because much information about the nature and pattern of the disease is still unknown.

He also said health agencies in Nigeria have begun contact tracing of those who might have been in contact with the Italian.

He said the Italian showed no symptoms of the disease until Wednesday which was why he presented himself to the hospital.

He has since been isolated and treatment has also commenced, the minister said.

Mr Ehanire said Nigeria is taking the contact tracing for people who have been in contact with the unnamed Italian seriously and would be contacting those in the same flight as the Italian.

We have started working to identify all the contacts made by the patient since he entered Nigeria, even those with him on the aircraft.

We are working to find out where this gentleman was, where he sat, those who sat around him and set up a monitoring team for all the passengers and crew members of that flight in order to get information and monitor their state of health.

We will advise anyone who has any symptoms to report and be monitored and be checked, he said.

Outbreak

As of Friday afternoon, there have been more than 83,000 global cases, with infections in every continent except Antarctica.

The disease which was first detected in Wuhan, Hubei Province in China has killed at least 2,800 people worldwide, the vast majority in mainland China.

READ ALSO:

Outside China, health experts have raised concerns about the spread of the virus in three countries, South Korea, Iran and Italy.

The virus has since spread rapidly from these three countries to places where it was formerly not available.

At least 11 European countries and Nigeria now have confirmed cases of coronavirus, many of which have been traced to Italy.

So far, South Korea has the biggest outbreak outside China, with 2,337 cases.

The health minister advised that to contain an outbreak in the country, Nigerians should avoid crowded gathering, wash their hands and use hand sanitizers when needed. He also cautioned people to stay about a metre away from people coughing, sneezing or feeling feverish

Treatment

Mr Ehanire said Nigeria will be able to provide early diagnosis and treatment to confirmed patients as it is already putting in place mechanisms to do so.

He said China has shared its treatment procedures with Nigeria to assist the countrys response to the treatment of the new coronavirus.

China knows more about the disease and they have made some successful treatments.

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They have shared the treatment procedures with Nigeria and this will assist in the treatment of confirmed cases, he said.
Dozens of guests leave Canary Islands hotel locked down over coronavirus Medical staff prepares to check guests leaving the H10 Costa Adeje Palace, which is on lockdown after the novel coronavirus has been confirmed in Adeje

By Nathan Allen

TENERIFE, Spain (Reuters) - At least 50 guests left a Tenerife hotel in small groups on Friday, four days into a 14-day quarantine imposed because of the coronavirus. Nearly 700 holidaymakers remained stranded in the compound.

The Canary Islands regional government on Thursday cleared 130 of the guests to leave the hotel, but most of those released so far were Spaniards, while the departure of foreign visitors will continue until Sunday, regional health chief Teresa Cruz told reporters.

"They'll be leaving based on the responses we receive from their consulates, and the (availability of) flights", she said, adding that nobody would be allowed to leave the premises without a confirmed flight booking.

The remaining guests must stay cloistered in the hotel until March 10 unless their home government organises charter flights that comply with isolation protocols, Canaries regional leader Angel Victor Torres said.

Speaking outside the hotel, Torres insisted authorities had the situation under control and praised the local health service's swift response.

Earlier, an elderly couple could be seen leaving in an ambulance. But the authorities said there have been no new cases of coronavirus since the virus was detected in four Italian tourists earlier this week.

Half a dozen guests, including a baby in a pram, underwent temperature scans in the back of the hotel before boarding the first minibus, a video shot by hotel guest Christopher Betts, showed. One of the people boarding said he was from Belgium.

Spain now needs to liaise with the governments of the remaining hundreds of guests, to establish monitoring protocols before they are allowed to return home, said Fernando Simon, director of Spain's Centre of Coordination of Health Emergencies.

A small group of guests who showed symptoms or who came into close contact with the infected Italians must complete the isolation period in their rooms, even though they have tested negative for the virus, Simon said.

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NUMBERS RISE ACROSS SPAIN

Cruz insisted there was an atmosphere of "normality" inside the hotel.

Guests without symptoms are allowed to circulate freely, using the restaurants and swimming pools, as long as they wear protective masks, wash their hands regularly and check their temperature twice a day, according to instructions from the health authority.

Inside the grounds, videos showed children playing and guests lounging around a pool flanked by palm trees, the masks on their faces the only indication of the health scare.

Some guests complained that basic safety measures such as wearing masks and regular hand-washing were being ignored.

"There are some people who have taken it well, and others who are of course rather anxious," Cruz said.

Spain's total number of coronavirus cases rose to 35 on Friday. The bulk of them were linked to Italy, the site of Europe's worst outbreak with a death toll of 17.

One of the cases involved a sports reporter from Valencia who had recently travelled to Milan. The Valencia soccer club announced on Friday the suspension of all non-sports indoor events such as news conferences "that present risk to players, coaching staff and club staff".

The coronavirus can spread via droplets in the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes or breathes out, and these can also contaminate surfaces such as door handles and railings.

(Additional reporting by Miguel Pereira, Guillerme Martinez, Emma Pinedo, Clara-Laeila Laudette; Writing by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Larry King and Frances Kerry)
WESTPORT  A developer isnt giving up on its plan to bring a 187-unit housing complex to Hiawatha Lane in Westport.

While failing to sway the Norwalk Conservation Commission to widen a gravel road to accomodate an emergency access route for the project, Summit Saugatuck resubmitted an application for a sewer line extension from Davenport Avenue to Hiawatha Lane Ext.

According to the application, submitted to the Westport Pollution Control Authority on Feb. 7, Summit seeks approval to connect the sewer system to its proposed multifamily residential development.

The Planning and Zoning Commission will review the application on March 19.

The Westport Pollution Control Authority previously denied the sewer line extension proposal in 2003 and again in 2016 because the main pipe, which runs underneath the Saugatuck River, and Pump Station 2 were both in need of repairs at the time.

The holdup or the issue has been some repairs were needed for the sewer system, and my understanding is that those repairs are now done, Summits attorney Tim Hollister said of the decision to re-apply.

The sewer lane extension was also rejected by the Planning and Zoning Commission in 2017, with a court appeal by Summit being sustained in 2018, before eventually being reversed by the Appellate Court in October.

In January, the state Supreme Court decided to further review the decision.

There was a Connecticut court appellate decision that previously put the sewer lane extension under some doubt, so were basically pursuing two simultaneous things at the same time, Hollister said. One will be at the town level and one is at the court level. Well see how it plays out in terms of who goes first.

dj.simmons@hearstmediact.com
FILE PHOTO: The logo of AB InBev is pictured outside the brewer's headquarters in Leuven

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The world's largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev <ABI.BR> forecast a 10% decline in first-quarter profit on Thursday after the coronavirus outbreak hit beer sales during the Chinese New Year, sending its shares skidding.

The maker of Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois said the virus had led to a significant decline in demand in China - both at bars and drinking at home, notably during the Chinese New Year.

The outbreak, along with an expected weaker Brazilian market, could lead to a 10% drop in first-quarter core profit (EBITDA) on-year, AB InBev said, adding that it expected 2020 core profit growth of between 2% and 5%, with most expansion occurring in the second half.

The Belgium-based company, which sells more Budweiser in China than in the lager's key U.S. market, said the disease shaved up to $285 million off its revenue in China in the first two months of this year, 2.3% of its first-quarter group revenue last year.

It is the latest drinks company to warn that the outbreak is taking a toll on business, following Diageo's <DGE.L> alert on Wednesday that the fast-spreading virus in greater China and the Asia Pacific region could knock up to $260 million off its profit in 2020.

Nightlife ground to a halt in China in the third quarter last year, with many bars and restaurants shutting down due to the COVID-19 virus, AB InBev CEO Carlos Brito said, echoing comments from the world's third largest brewer Carlsberg <CARLb.CO>.

BRAZIL ALSO WEIGHS

"Our business is all about going to restaurants, to nightlife, going out with friends, it's really about to go back to normal, we're preparing for the surge when things return to normal," Brito told reporters on a call.

Shares in AB InBev were down 7.5% to 57.25 euros in morning trade, the second weakest performer in the FTSEurofirst index <.FTEU3> of leading European stocks. Jefferies analysts said in a note that growth "is challenged with no more synergies and weak pricing".

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More than half of the company's 33 Chinese breweries have reopened with the exception of the one in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, Brito said. The virus that can lead to pneumonia is believed to have originated in a market in Wuhan late last year.

The company's fourth-quarter core profit declined 5.5% to $5.34 billion, worse than market expectations of a 1.9% drop.

"Our performance in 2019 was below our expectations, and we are not satisfied with the results," Brito said.

Profit from both key markets - the United States and Brazil - dropped after AB InBev had oversupplied wholesales to the former earlier in the year, while higher costs for commodities and a weaker Brazilian real dented sales in the Latin American country.

AB InBev said results in Brazil in the first quarter would not match the very strong figures of the first months of 2019, when an exceptionally late Carnival led to revenue growth of 16.7%.

(Reporting by Marine Strauss; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Hong Kong  Fri, February 28, 2020 10:50 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20672016c 2 World Hong-Kong,pro-democracy,media,tycoon,arrest Free

Hong Kong publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, an outspoken critic of Beijing, and two other pro-democracy activists were arrested by police on Friday on charges of illegal assembly, local media reported.

Lai, a self made millionaire who has been a major financial patron of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, was picked up by police at his house, Cable TV and TVB News reported.

Apple Daily, one of the publications under media company Next Digital in which Lai is non-executive chairman, said he was accused of participating in an illegal march on Aug. 31.

Veteran democracy activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum were also arrested on Friday on the same charges, Cable TV reported.

Lai, Lee and Yeung could not be reached immediately for comment.

Hong Kong police said in a statement they would hold a media briefing on the arrests later on Friday. They did not give any further details.

The arrests come after a period of relative calm in the Asian financial hub following months of intense anti-government protests.

Hong Kong saw one of its worst clashes on Aug. 31, with police firing tear gas and water cannons at pro-democracy protesters who threw petrol bombs.

Authorities in Hong Kong have arrested more than 7,000 people for their involvement in the protests, many on charges of rioting that can carry jail terms of up to 10 years. It is unclear how many are still in custody.

Public anger has grown over the months due to perceptions of China tightening its grip over the city. Beijing denies meddling and blames the West for fomenting unrest.

Lai was previously arrested in 2014 for refusing to leave a key pro-democracy protest site in the center of the city. Following his arrest he resigned as editor in chief of Apple Daily. He has also come under scrutiny from Hong Kong's anti-graft agency when they raided his home in 2014.

Hong Kong Democracy Council, a Washington based non- government organization, said on Friday that the arrests were "blatant acts of political suppression by the Hong Kong government and the Chinese Communist Party".

The group said in a statement it was demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Lai and the other pro-democracy activists.

Mark Simon, Lai's top aide and a senior executive at Next Digital, said on Twitter Lai, along with Lee and Yeung were "not in any way a flight risk. They need to be processed quickly and out of that police station as quickly as possible."
Pollsters often ask the American public their opinion on which way the country is going. In his latest book, Ross Douthat takes a step back from that inquiry and ponders whether America  and the West as a whole  is going anywhere at all. Have we instead entered an age of decadence and stagnation, resting on the successes of the past, and lulling ourselves to sleep as civilization slides lazily into decline? In The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success, Douthat makes a fairly convincing argument that this may be the case.

Frederick Jackson Turner famously called the closing of the frontier a turning point in American history, one that limited the dynamism that had characterized the still-unsettled country. Douthat sees in this an analogy to our own cultural stagnation and dates Americas decline to the closing of the space frontier that accompanied the end of the Apollo program in 1972. Since Apollo, he writes, we have entered into decadence.

That word gets thrown around a lot, more often to describe a dessert than a civilization, part of the same transmigration of vocabulary that made opportunistic a compliment among sportscasters and unctuous a misunderstood term of flattery on cooking shows. Douthat takes the time to consider what decadence really means, turning to the historian Jacques Barzun, who considered the topic thoroughly in his book From Dawn to Decadence, published in 2000.

To Barzun, and to Douthat, decadence is a sense of falling off. It is repetition, not innovation; satisfaction, not yearning. It is the managed decline of an elite technocracy, not the striving for greatness that marks a civilization on the way to something. It is easy to see how the topic would concern the author, in this age where the American population is so divided over whether America must be made great again.

To ask, Are we decadent?, though, is not the same as asking, Is the country in bad shape? Douthat makes this clear in writing that a culture can be sustainably decadent. After all, we are living in a society as rich and comfortable as any in human history, surrounded by technological marvels, living longer and in better health than our ancestors could ever have imagined. Is this decadence? If so, why not welcome it? We are a wealthy, powerful nation, and decadence, Douthat writes, is a luxury good.

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Taking comfort in material goods and historic wealth is one of the comforts of decadence. But comfort does not always mean health; it could just as easily be caused by a narcotic stupor. We look with disdain on a wealthy family that no longer creates or contributes but merely spends the fortune accumulated by more successful predecessors. Wasting wealth on frivolities and perversion is contemptible in a family; should we not scorn it even more strongly when an entire society does it?

Douthat makes the case that for all our technological innovation, we have been mired in cultural stagnation for decades. Economically, he is partially correct, at least. Some of the trends he highlights began long before the closing of the space frontier. The stagflation of the 1970s occurred after Apollo ended, but its causes were many and varied. The subsequent decline in manufacturing and the China shock of the early 2000s certainly feels like decline, but that is less about national decadence than about decisions regarding free trade and WTO membership.

The cultural changes brought about by those economic shifts may more closely meet the description of decadence. Douthat talks of old-style capitalism, with its implicit obligation to charity. As the welfare state replaced it, it attempted to replicate the monetary effects while undermining the culture that led people to want to be charitable in the first place. That effect  repetition without true replacement  is a large part of what Douthat sees as decadence.

In the arts, too, there is a feeling of repetition rather than true innovation, as Douthat tells it, but here he may be mistaking a change in medium for a change in substance. The movies, as he points out, have fallen on hard times. They still make money, but the new stories are just retellings of the old, often explicitly so in remakes, reboots, and endless sequels. Such innovation as remains is in dreary films that no one sees, no how many self-congratulatory awards they win.

Is that decadence? Yes, but much of it is the decline of the medium of motion pictures. People increasingly consume media from the comforts of their own homes, largely because of the technological innovations of the past few decades: bigger homes, better televisions, more channels, and cheap central air conditioning. And in that medium, the arts have flourished. If the silver screen has faded into boring repetition, the golden age of television is still in full glow.

In politics, too, Douthat sees stagnation. A crude echo of the past has replaced the forward-looking ideas of the postwar period. Here he makes a better case, especially as to the outward forms of political expression. Ponder the last time a political party put forward a truly new idea. The Republican Congress of the 1990s had some innovation, perhaps, but the current competing visions of America seem to be arguing mostly over whether we should return to the 1980s or the 1930s. A few outliers prefer a return to some other era, but rare is the candidate whose vision is truly futuristic.

The radical elements at the fringes of the right and left are unfamiliar to this century, but they are nothing truly new in political history. The ugly sight of white supremacists marching in Charlottesville in 2017 was disturbing. But the manner of that march was faintly ridiculous. These internet racists knew enough to see a torchlight procession as a symbol of determination, but they had lost the ability to build a torch, resorting instead to ready-made Tiki torches, a mass-produced symbol suggestive of a foreign culture, the product of the globalization they claim to hate.

Like the Tiki-torch tough guys, the so-called anti-fascist movement (Antifa) plays on the symbols of the past, presenting an image instead of an idea. Communists and fascists fought in the streets of Germany and the battlefields of Spain because they actually believed those murderous, hateful ideologies would cure all their ills and usher in a utopia built on their enemies bones. They were wrong, as wrong as anything humanity has ever conceived, but it was, as they say, an ethos.

Since then, most of us have learned the grave error of the twin totalitarian ideologies. Yet our news and politics are polluted by the sight of internet edgelords cosplaying ancient evils in the streets of American cities. Our internet is full of fascist and Communist imagery promoted by people too young to remember but well-educated enough to know better. Do they actually believe it, or do they simply crave the adulation of anonymous cretins who like and upvote for the LOLs? Do they know the difference? Do they care?

Karl Marx wrote that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Now, in weekend clashes between basement-dwelling weirdos, we see it occurring a third time: as a meme. That it happens isnt decadence, but that we pay attention to it surely is. The decline of healthy institutions and the rise of ersatz versions of the same is everywhere, and Douthat is not wrong to see that hollowing out of society as a step on a downward slope.

More difficult than the diagnosis is the cure. Douthat is humble enough to admit he may be wrong  one advantage a book has over a column is the space to add nuance and alternatives. He cites Francis Fukuyamas worthy and often wrongly derided book, The End of History and the Last Man, for the proposition that we may no longer be inventing political ideas because there are none left to invent. It could be that all that is left is to replay historys greatest hits over and again until the end of time. Perhaps we are not decadent at all. Perhaps weve merely arrived.

That end to innovation could be a source of comfort to a certain kind of conservative, but Douthat likes the idea no more than most, if only because the station into which societys train is pulling is crumbling around our ears. Anyone who thinks, as Douthat does, that America, the West, and humanity in general are capable of more must believe that this decadence will eventually give way to a rebirth, just as it has in other societies in other times.

Douthat gives a few possibilities, but none feels like a wholehearted prediction. He notes that we have been here before as a species, if not as a country. Rome was decadent before it fell, but part of what brought it down was the triumph of Christianity in the West. People want to compare every great civilization to Rome, especially when predicting its doom, but thats not out of order. No matter how great, how powerful, and how stable this country is, it will eventually give way to something else, whether now or after the twelve centuries that spanned Romes rise and fall.

If this civilizational decadence is real, and if it is the prelude to the end, the result may be as much a Renaissance as a Dark Age. History has its patterns, but there is no standard operating procedure for culture. Hopefully, wherever were going will lead to something better, a virtuous new society of ideas that is born out of the ashes of the old. The fire that leads to those ashes, though, is likely to get hotter before it goes out.

More from National Review
Google has made a formal application to the US government to keep trading with the blacklisted Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei.

The company confirmed to MailOnline that it applied for a permanent licence to trade with Huawei 'months ago', along with hundreds of other companies.

It is not known when the governments decision on the matter will be revealed.

The Trump administration blacklisted Huawei in May last year amid ongoing allegations that the company is a threat to American national security  which Huawei has denied.

As a result of the ban, Huawei smartphones  including its new Mate 30 and Mate XS  lack the Android operating system, which is developed by Google.

Google is prohibited from working with Huawei on new device models or providing Googles apps including Gmail, Maps, YouTube, the Play Store and others for preload or download on these devices

The ban makes business difficult for Google because Huawei is no longer using its services, according to German news agency DPA, as reported by Heise.

If Google is granted the license, Huawei could start equipping its devices with the classic version of Android again.

The application was first revealed by Googles vice president of product management, Sameer Samat.

While Google is awaiting to hear back from the federal government regarding the decision, Huawei is moving full steam ahead with its own operating system.

Huawei released its new Mate 30 smartphone in the UK last week, which comes with an OS update called EMUI 10.

EMUI 10 is based on Android, which is open source and therefore freely available for developers to adapt.

However, EMUI 10 lacks the basic Google Mobile Services apps such as YouTube, Gmail and Maps, and instead has its own group of pre-installed apps, known as Huawei Mobile Services.

Huawei also lost access to Google Play Store, which hosts the millions of apps available on Android.

A Huawei Mate 30 Pro smartphone on display in a Huawei brand store at the Aviapark shopping mall in Russia. Mate 30 Pro became the first Huawei smartphone to go without Google Mobile Services

The Chinese firm is therefore putting its promotional heft behind its own 'Huawei App Gallery' as an alternative.

The company is paying app developers a combined $1 billion to build apps specific to Huawei App Gallery, which is now the third-largest in the world, Huawei claims.

Huawei says its app marketplace had more than 400 million monthly active users globally last year and saw a total of 210 billion downloads.

Google said last week that it has continued to work with Huawei, in compliance with government regulations, to provide security updates and updates to Googles apps and services on existing devices, and will continue to do so as long as it is permitted.

Our focus has been protecting the security of Google users on the millions of existing Huawei devices around the world, said Tristan Ostrowski, Android and Play Legal Director, said in a blog post.

To be clear: US law currently allows Google to only work with Huawei on device models available to the public on or before May 16, 2019.

Austrian Huawei manager Fred Wangfei said the company wouldnt return to using Googles apps and services on its phones even if the US trade ban was lifted, although he reportedly backtracked on the statement.
Julian Assange

28.02.2020 LISTEN

Thursday, February 27, Woolwich Crown Court. The first round of extradition hearings regarding Julian Assanges case concluded a day early, to recommence on May 18th. It ended on an insensible note very much in keeping with the woolly-headed reasoning of Judge Vanessa Baraitser, who is of the view that a WikiLeaks publisher in a cage does not put all heaven in a rage. On Wednesday, Assanges defence had requested whether he would be able to leave the confines of his glass cage and join his legal team. As Assange had explained in response to his nodding off during proceedings, I cannot meaningfully communicate with my lawyers. There was little point in asking if he could follow proceedings without enabling his participation.

This was not a point that fell on reasonable ears. The judge felt it came too close to a bail application, and was initially refused as posing a potential risk to the public. Gibberish was duly thrown at counsel for both sides, with health and safety, risk assessment and up to Group 4 featuring as meaningless terms on the obvious: that Assange could pose no threat whatsoever, as he would be in the continuous company of security guards. As former UK diplomat Craig Murray observed, She started to resemble something worse than a Dalek, a particularly stupid local government officer of a very low grade.

According to the judge, to permit such a measure of access between Assange and his team effectively constituted a departure from court custody, a striking nonsense of Dickensian dimensions. Not even the prosecution felt it unreasonable, suggesting that one need not be so technical in granting such applications.

Thursdays proceedings reaffirmed Judge Baraitsers stubborn position. Her first gesture was to permit Assange a pair of headphones to better enable him to hear the proceedings, followed by a brief adjournment to see if his hearing had, in fact, improved. Assange was unimpressed, removing them after 30 minutes.

Her stretched reasoning found Assange sufficiently accessible to his lawyers despite his glassed surrounds; he could still communicate with them via notes passed through the barrier. It is quite apparent over the past four days that you have had no difficulty communicating with your legal team. The judge was willing to permit Assange a later start in proceedings to enable a meeting with the legal team and adjourn should the defence wish to meet their client in a holding cell.

That so complex a case as extradition can be reduced to sporadic notes passed to legal counsel and staggered adjournments suggests the continued hobbling of the defence by the authorities. Its invidiousness lies in how seemingly oblivious the judicial mind is to the scope of the case, complexity reduced to a matter of meetings, small points of procedure and law.

The defence team submitted that the process of consultation suggested by the judge unduly prolonged proceedings, rendering them cumbersome and insensible. The court might have to adjourn ever three minutes for a 20-minute break. To constantly take Assange to and from his holding cell was would unnecessarily lengthen proceedings and complicate matters. Judge Baraitser was dismissive of such argument, claiming that the defence was merely exaggerating.

The legal issues discussed on the fourth day centred on quibbling over the issue of espionage and its nexus with political activity. Espionage, suggested James Lewis QC for the US-driven prosecution, need not be political. Nor did it seem that Assange was intent on bringing down the US government. It cant possibly be said that there is a political struggle in existence between the American government and opposing factions.

Lewis, as has been his approach from the start, preferred a more restrictive interpretation about what a political offence might be, notably in connection with extradition. Extradition is based on conduct, it is not anymore based on the names of offences. In a rather crude, end-of-history line of thought, Lewis argued that political offences were dated matters, hardly applicable to modern societies which no longer see dissidents upholding the values of liberal democracy. (It seems that the tree of liberty, according to the US prosecution, no longer needs urgent refreshment.)

Besides, argued Lewis, the court did not need to resolve these issues, but they demonstrate that any bare assertion that Wikileaks was engaged in a struggle with the US government was in opposition to it or was seeking to bring about a policy change would need to be examined far more closely.

That is exactly what the defence contended. Assanges core activities in publishing had been based on altering US policy, with Iraq and Afghanistan being key theatres. Why was he seeking to publish the rules of engagement?, posed the defence. They were published to show that war crimes were being committed, to show they breached their own rules of engagement. Ditto the publication of the Guantanamo files, an act done to reveal the extent of torture being undertaken during the course of the war on terror. All these, contended Edward Fitzgerald QC for the defence, did change government policy. WikiLeaks didnt just seek to induce change, it did induce change.

The documentary record on Assanges political activity in this regard is thick, much of it from the contentions of US officials themselves. The US State Department preferred to see him, as former spokesman PJ Crowley did in 2010, a political actor with a political agenda, rather than being a journalist.

Incidentally, Crowleys link with WikiLeaks has a curious end, with his resignation in 2011 following comments made about the treatment of Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning at the Quantico marine base in Virginia. What is being done to Bradley Manning, he claimed at an MIT seminar that March, is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid on the part of the department of defence. Not an entirely bad egg, then.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: [email protected]
Walmart Truck

George Frey/Getty

Walmart is preparing to unfurl a subscription service called Walmart +, according to a report from Recode.

The program will function as a rebrand of Walmart's extant Delivery Unlimited service.

Recode's Jason Del Ray reported that, like Amazon Prime, the new service will reportedly offer its members specialized perks, including discounts on prescription drugs and gas.

A Walmart spokesperson confirmed the name of the new service to Business Insider, but said they had no other details to share.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Walmart is launching a new subscription service called Walmart +, which will reportedly offer members plenty of benefits.

Recode's Jason Del Ray reported that Walmart + is the Arkansas-based retail giant's answer to the perk-laden Amazon Prime. According to Del Ray, Walmart + is effectively a rebranding of the company's Delivery Unlimited program, and will "include perks that Amazon can't replicate." Those may include things like discounts on prescription drugs and gas purchased through Walmart locations. Walmart + members will also reportedly be able to purchase items without going through checkout via Scan & Go technology.

Walmart confirmed the creation of a new membership program called Walmart + in a statement to Business Insider. A spokesperson for the retailer said they couldn't confirm any other details about the new venture at this time.

The new Walmart + program appears somewhat similar to the retailer's current Delivery Unlimited service. Delivery Unlimited customers receive unlimited same-day grocery delivery services, in exchange for $98 a year. The program is currently available through around 1,600 Walmart locations throughout the US.

According to Recode's report, Walmart + brings a new feature to the table that allows members to place orders via text. Walmart did not confirm this reporting. The retailer recently shuttered its exclusive concierge shopping startup Jet Black. Earlier in February, a Walmart spokesperson told Business Insider that the company is looking to utilize Jet Black's innovations going forward, like its text-based ordering technology.

Story continues

"We've learned a lot over the past two years, including how customers respond to the ability of ordering by text as well as the type of items they purchase through texting," the spokesperson said.

This new service appears to be in the works at a time where Walmart has touted its commitment to omnichannel and e-commerce ventures. In its recent investment community meeting, Walmart e-commerce CEO Marc Lore spoke to analysts about the company's digital ventures, including pickup, same-day delivery, and even in-home delivery programs. It's also recently expanded efforts to bring third-party sellers onto its website, similar to what Amazon has done with Amazon Marketplace.

Lore said that options like in-home delivery represent Walmart's latest "opportunity to hook customers on the convenience" of e-commerce services, including same-day delivery and pickup. He said Walmart is "playing offense" through its experimentation and focus on e-commerce fulfillment, setting the company up "to become the primary destination for all weekly shopping."

Regardless, while the details of Walmart + may still be up in the air, the new service demonstrates the retailer's interest in continuing to beef up its e-commerce offerings.

Hayley Peterson contributed reporting.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The Alabama Senate today gave final approval to a bill requiring cities to get legislative approval for occupational taxes, effectively blocking a 1% tax approved by the Montgomery City Council last week.

The Republican majority passed the retroactive bill 27-7 over opposition from Democrats, who said the Legislature should not take away the authority of city officials responsible for providing services to the constituents who elect them.

The bill had already passed the House, so Gov. Kay Ivey could sign it into law.

Iveys press secretary, Gina Maiola, said in a statement Thursday supports the intent of the bill:

Governor Ivey does not want to see unfair burdens placed upon hardworking Alabamians. Occupational taxes would not only hurt employees living within those city limits where they are proposed, but also those men and women who commute in from surrounding areas. She wants to keep a great working relationship with municipalities, but as with any legislation sent to her desk, the governor will thoroughly review for any unintended consequences it may impose."

Proponents of the bill said a large portion of those who would be affected by the Montgomery tax live outside the city and commute daily to their jobs, so they dont have a say in who serves on the city council. They said the requirement for legislative approval gives those people who live outside the city a voice in the decision through their legislator.

Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, handled the bill in the Senate. It was sponsored by Rep. Chris Sells, R-Greenville.

Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, said the requirement for legislative approval makes it unlikely any any city will be able to pass an occupational tax. Singleton said it will take just one member of a local legislative delegation to effectively block a tax bill.

Our statutes give the cities the ability to tax and spend and were now as big brothers taking that away from them and saying were going to tell you how to run your taxes and your city, and were taking that tool away from them," Singleton said.

Although the Montgomery tax is already approved, the bill says it applies to any tax not already in place by Feb. 1. Singleton said the retroactive nature of the bill was punitive to Montgomery.

The Montgomery tax is an initiative supported by Mayor Steven Reed, who said it would support efforts to hire police and firefighters and improve public safety. Reed spoke at a legislative committee meeting in opposition to the bill.

Reed issued a statement today after the Senate passed the bill:

The passage of House Bill 147 today is another example of government overreach and undermines the ability of mayors and city councils all around Alabama to address issues at the local level, in particular those regarding revenue," Reed said. "It stands in stark contrast to those who promote local governance and home rule as the signing of this bill all but does away with that. The state senates action severely undermines the ability of our city to fund police, fire and other public safety duties at a level needed to provide our citizens with the safest community possible. It should concern every citizen that powerful special interests have succeeded in taking authority from local governments and are consolidating it in the state legislature. Despite this, my administration will continue to work to improve the future of our city.

The mayors of Alabamas 10 largest cities signed an open letter to the Legislature opposing the bill.

Chambliss, who handled the bill in the Senate today, also released a statement.

As was brought in the debate today, representation is fundamental in our country. Lack of representation is what moved our country toward independence. Being subject to an occupational tax without representation is no different. Passage of HB 147 simply gives us that representation."

Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, said in a statement, Today is a great day for hard working Alabamians. The occupational tax is harmful to economic development. I was proud to be one of the Senators who worked to raise this issue and bring it to the forefront and I think that our state will benefit as a whole thanks to its passage. I feel like Alabamians are better off now that the legislature has put accountability in place for these taxes."

The bill marks the latest move by the Legislature to restrict city governments on certain issues. Lawmakers passed a bill to block cities from passing minimum wages after the Birmingham City Council did so. Cities are prohibited from removing or moving historical monuments that have been on public property more than 40 years.

This story was updated at 5:38 p.m. to add statements from Mayor Reed and Sens. Chambliss and Jones. Updated at 8:21 a.m. Feb. 28 to add statement from Gov. Iveys office.
New Delhi [India], Feb 27 (ANI): Diplomat Abhishek Singh has been appointed India's next Ambassador to Venezuela, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.



Singh, a 2003-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, is currently serving as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Indian embassy in Kabul, the MEA said in a statement.

He is expected to take up the assignment "shortly", it added. (ANI)


In following the news of the Harvey Weinstein case, I couldnt help but wonder how the Philadelphia District Attorneys Office, under the leadership of Larry Krasner, would fare in prosecuting a similarly rich and powerful defendant. As someone who has worked with public safety in New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, I usually resist comparisons with New York, based on the sheer wealth of manpower afforded the District Attorneys Offices encompassed within the citys five boroughs  an especially big difference if considering, for example, the Bill Cosby case that brought such a courtroom drama to the smaller, suburban jurisdiction of Montgomery County.

But Philadelphia is Pennsylvanias only first-class city, with over 1.5 million residents. It is important to measure our capabilities against our peers. Philadelphia had 974 rapes and 355 murders last year, as documented by the FBI, giving us one of the highest violent crime rates of any major city in America with a population of over a million. Therefore, Philadelphia should have a DAs office equipped to handle not only a high volume of daily crimes but the inevitability of cases like Weinsteins, which provide unique opportunities to achieve justice and demonstrate a commitment to equal and fair justice to the world.

A major case like Weinsteins takes hundreds of interviews that piece together calendars and meetings, financial transactions, and matching locations over decades. After that is completed, a team of trial lawyers capable of beating a celebrity team of high-priced defense attorneys at their own game in a highly publicized event is needed.

While Philadelphia obviously lacks the resources of New York, with Americas largest police agency at its disposal, we were once known for having some of the nations most seasoned, respected prosecutors. So much so that the Philadelphias DA has often been a springboard to leadership in higher elected offices, as former Gov. Ed Rendell, Sen. Arlen Specter, and Justice Ronald Castille could attest.

When Krasner was elected, amid a wave of outside funding and strong anti-Trump sentiment, the capabilities of the office changed immediately. The week Krasner took office, he dismissed 31 veteran staffers. Krasner then ushered in a sea change in policy, such as dropping cash bail for certain crimes, which seemed to prioritize social justice over criminal justice (or advocating for victims of crime). All of this may or may not correlate to a rise in homicides that has emerged since Krasners election.

 READ MORE: Inside Philly DA Larry Krasners new plan to drop low-level drug charges in favor of addiction treatment

When many of a DA offices trial-experienced prosecutors are fired or leave so rapidly, it raises questions about the offices ability to handle its regular workload, much less a blockbuster case. Add to this that 18 of the 60 new assistant district attorneys recruited by Krasner reportedly failed the bar exam. Overall, this workforce does not bode well for taking on the robust, well-funded legal defense of someone like Weinstein. Its hard for the Krasner administration to appear ready to prosecute organized, predatory criminals when it fails to charge a corrupt pharmacist arrested with $30,000 worth of Xanax, or forces a federal prosecutor to step in to appropriately charge a simple robbery and armed assault suspect.

There have also been concerning scandals: Krasners termination of the offices victim services chief Tami Levin, replaced by campaign donor Movita Johnson-Harrell, who later plead guilty to theft, and the $160K-a-year hiring of his former business partner and creditor. A recently appointed senior adviser to his office was disbarred in Pennsylvania in 1993 and has faith-based and nonprofit affiliations with their own political interests. Such decisions cast a cloud over Krasners credibility and motivations.

 READ MORE: He spent 27 years in prison making murals hed never see finished. Now, hes the Philly DAs artist-in-residence.

In examining the Weinstein case, consider the psychological impact on victims of prosecuting sex crimes. Shepherding a victim through a process where they have to relive the most traumatizing, embarrassing moments of their life for over a year takes deep trust  a factor arguably of concern for this DAs office.

Anyone following the office after Krasners election can wager on how Philadelphia would fare if a Weinstein-level case comes to town. Its imperative for DA Krasner to weigh his sworn criminal justice responsibilities with as much, if not more, consideration than he gives to social justice. If not, Philadelphias voters have a responsibility to select as district attorney a prosecutor who can be trusted to deliver justice on the trickiest high-impact cases, without prioritizing their personal political narrative.

A. Benjamin Mannes is the former director in the Office of Investigations for the continents largest medical board, has served federal, municipal, and nongovernmental employers, and is a subject matter expert in security and criminal justice reform.
Executive MBA program students at the University of Alabama who were on an international trip had to leave South Korea early over the growing threat of the coronavirus, the university told AL.com Thursday.

The universitys Executive MBA program includes an international trip as part of the global business course. Students were allowed to opt out of the trip without any academic penalty. Once they committed, the trip became nonrefundable because it is contracted through a travel agency that plans the event several months in advance, the university said in a statement. At the time of the groups departure, the CDC travel recommendation for South Korea was Level 1 (watch and practice usual precautions). While the group was in the country, the CDC placed South Korea at Level 2 (practice enhanced precautions) after COVID-19 cases were reported approximately 150 miles from where the UA class was located.

The students travel was promptly adjusted following the Level 2 development and the reported cases, the university said.

The students left South Korea earlier than planned and headed to Cambodia, where there are no CDC travel advisories related to the coronavirus, according to UA.

The security and safety of our campus community, which includes students, faculty and staff traveling abroad, are among our highest priorities. University officials carefully monitor federal and other guidance, including the World Health Organization, Department of State, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the university said. "The university and UA System have comprehensive plans to address issues that may affect our student populations, including infectious disease. Plans include comprehensive traveler notification and assistance services in the countries in which they are traveling. See https://healthinfo.ua.edu/ and http://uasystem.edu/international-travel-assistance/.
The hospital caters for all, from newborns and growing children to the elderly

Last week, 40-year old Nguyen Thanh Huyen came to Hanoi French Hospital to give birth. She is a bank worker in Hanoi living 15 km from the hospital.

This is my third time giving birth at HFH. The pregnancy care is professional and preeminent, and that makes me feel safe and secure, she told VIR. My friend introduced some good hospitals near my house, but I chose HFH because of its prestige.

Huyen recalled that when she gave birth for the second time in 2017, she suffered a serious health problem. Fortunately, she received intensive care by HFH staff and her baby was born in a safe and healthy condition. HFH is now even more modern, with the new seven-floor building further facilitating both patients. It looks like a hotel with more comfortable and convenient services. I will visit the hospital for any future issues, she said. My friends also prefer HFH to others.

For over 20 years, the hospital has earned its reputation for the quality of medical care and hospitality it provides to all patients in Hanoi and northern Vietnam. Reproductive health is one of the more famed services, together with all levels of elective, acute, and emergency care across all medical and surgical specialties. HFH provides 24-hour interventional cardiology and neurology services for the management of acute cardiovascular conditions and rehabilitation. As the leading international hospital in Hanoi, HFH has become an increasingly popular and prestigious brand among Huyen and many other people outside of Hanoi thanks to a number of advantages.

Philippe Hovette, general director of HFH said, Quality remains the priority for the hospital. We have made investments in state-of-the-art medical equipment imported from Europe, international-standard service quality, highly-skilled human resources, and advanced technology application.

Human resources are a key factor to the success of the hospital. HFH always pays attention to human resources management, which includes ongoing training to keep pace with ever-evolving legal, regulatory, and technological landscape as well as to improve the quality of patient care and achieve cost-cutting goals.

Under wide impacts of Industry 4.0 on healthcare, the hospital has made a huge investment into technology. Specifically, it has just gone live with new Hospital Informatics System (HIS) software. HIS is fully integrated with modules for each department, and also integrates reports for patients, finances, and medical examination and treatment activities by doctors.

HFH has its own dedicated software system which links together so that doctors can monitor patients and provide the most suitable treatment regimen, while the patient can also monitor lab results more easily. It also focuses on ensuring safety of patient data, because the data is all stored on the server. The IT system always backs up, and is constantly updated with the latest security technologies.

The demand for improved healthcare is rapidly expanding as a consequence of high economic growth, rising income per capita, increasing urban population, and an ageing population, as well as the opportunities provided by healthcare insurance schemes.

The 2035 Vietnam Report compiled by the World Bank and Vietnams Ministry of Planning and Investment showed that room for privately-run healthcare service development remains huge, especially as the countrys total spending on healthcare makes up 5.8 per cent of GDP, the highest rate among regional countries. This is forecast to grow steadily over the next 20 years on the back of the sector attracting more and more private investment.

In anticipation of this growth potential, some local and foreign investors have joined the healthcare sector in order to cash in on the benefits. However, not all will gain success  only those giving priority to quality and ethics will be the winners. Following the trends, the future plan of HFH is to reopen its consolation wing after renovation, as well as to continue to provide the best quality healthcare in Hanoi. An intensive training programme is also in place for existing employees and newcomers.

Those advantages can help HFH face the fierce competition in the healthcare sector. Competition provides motivation to improve and grow, noted Hovette.
OTTAWA - The controversial use of facial-recognition tools will soon be scrutinized by MPs.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Members of the House of Commons committee on information, privacy and ethics voted this week to examine the technology's effects on civil society, privacy rights, minorities and vulnerable populations. NDP Critic for Indigenous Youth Charlie Angus makes his way to the podium for a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA - The controversial use of facial-recognition tools will soon be scrutinized by MPs.

Members of the House of Commons committee on access to information, privacy and ethics voted this week to examine the technology's effects on civil society, privacy rights, minorities and vulnerable populations.

New Democrat MP Charlie Angus, who put forward the idea, suggested the committee study use of the emerging tools by governments, police, companies and individuals.

Advanced digital applications now allow computers to quickly sift millions of stored images and match them against photos of a person taken at places such as an airport, demonstration or sporting event.

In an unusual statement Thursday, the RCMP said it has been experimenting with facial-recognition technology supplied by U.S. firm Clearview AI in investigations of online child sexual exploitation.

"Only trained victim identification specialists ... use the software primarily to help identify, locate and rescue children who have been or are victims of online sexual abuse," the statement said. According to the RCMP, Clearview AI's techology has been used in 15 cases and has led the Mounties to two children who were being victimized.

The force has also tried the technology out "to determine its utility to enhance criminal investigations," the statement said.

The MPs will look at how the technology affects the privacy, security and safety of children, seniors and various racial communities.

They will also investigate how the tools can be used for criminal harassment or other illegal surveillance purposes, as well as any links between Canadian police and technology firms that market such applications.

Angus told the committee the first step will be getting a better understanding of "the growing power of artificial intelligence" and how it can lead to biased results that infringe on people's rights.

His push for the review drew support from Liberal MP Michael Levitt, who called it a "most important study in an area that is moving so, so rapidly."

"I think this issue is a defining issue of our time."

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The federal privacy watchdog and three of his provincial counterparts announced last week they will look into the use of Clearview AI's technology.

Privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien said he will be joined in the probe by ombudsmen from British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec.

Media reports have raised questions and concerns about whether the company is collecting and using personal information without consent.

Privacy regulators in every province and territory have agreed to develop guidance for organizations  including law enforcement  on the use of biometric technology such as facial recognition.

The RCMP's statement said the federal police will work with Therrien to devise guidelines and policies on how to use the technology properly.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2020.
Law Offices of Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw If you would like to know more about the Loyal Source Government Services LLC lawsuit, please contact Attorney Nicholas J. De Blouw today by calling (800) 568-8020.

The San Diego Labor law attorneys at Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, filed a class action lawsuit against Loyal Source Government Services LLC, alleging that the company failed to provide accurate wages and allegedly did not provide required rest periods to their California employees. The class action lawsuit against Loyal Source Government Services LLC, is currently pending in the San Diego Superior Court, Case No. 37-2020-00008677-CU-OE-CTL. To read a copy of the Complaint, please click here.

The lawsuit filed against Loyal Source Government Services LLC alleges DEFENDANT failed and continues to fail to accurately calculate minimum and overtime wages in order to avoid paying these employees for the correct compensation. As a result, DEFENDANT allegedly was able to illegally profit and gain an unfair advantage over competitors. Additionally, the lawsuit alleges DEFENDANT from to time to time failed to provide accurate itemized wage statements. Cal. Lab. Code  226 provides that every employer shall furnish each of his or her employees with an accurate itemized wage statement in writing showing, among other things, gross wages earned and all applicable hourly rates in effect during the pay period and the corresponding amount of time worked at each hourly rate.

Allegedly, DEFENDANT required PLAINTIFF to work while clocked out. To the extent that the time worked off the clock did not qualify for overtime premium payment, DEFENDANT allegedly failed to pay minimum wages for the time worked off-the-clock in violation of Cal. Lab. Code  1194, 1197, and 1197.1. Furthermore, PLAINTIFF allegedly from time to time was unable to take off-duty meal breaks nor was able to be fully relieved of duty for meal periods. In violation of the applicable sections of the California Labor Code and the requirements of the Industrial Welfare Commission ("IWC") Wage Order, the lawsuit alleges DEFENDANT intentionally and knowingly failed to compensate PLAINTIFF and the other members of the CALIFORNIA CLASS at the correct rate of pay for all overtime worked.

If you would like to know more about the Loyal Source Government Services LLC lawsuit, please contact Attorney Nicholas J. De Blouw today by calling (800) 568-8020.

Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik De Blouw LLP, is a labor law firm with law offices located in San Diego County, Riverside County, Los Angeles County, Sacramento County, and San Francisco County. The firm has a statewide practice of representing employees on a contingency basis for violations involving unpaid wages, overtime pay, discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination and other types of illegal workplace conduct.

***THIS IS AN ATTORNEY ADVERTISEMENT***
Startups are set to play a bigger role in the production of space systems in the industry 4.0 as exploring commercial opportunities for Indian space sector will be crucial by 2050, S Somnath, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), said here on Friday.

"Production of rockets through Indian industry will be one of the key changes in 2050. Commercialisation of Indian launch vehicle and satellite capacity will happen in the Industry 4.0 scenario," he said.

Somnath was delivering the keynote address on "Industry 4.0 - Impact on Jobs" at TRIMA 2020, the annual convention of Trivandrum Management Association (TMA).

Industry 4.0 is the trend towards automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies and processes, the Internet of Things (IoT), industrial internet of things (IIOT), cloud computing, cognitive computing and Artificial Intelligence.

About 35 startups have already come up in space sector, three of them focused on designing of rockets, 14 in designing satellites and the rest in drone-based applications and services sector.

"These startups have often approached ISRO with their prototypes for testing and evaluation," he said.

"I can't predict if they are going to be successful in terms of making rockets and launching them. But I wish them success," the expert said.

The vital question before ISRO is if such an important task needs to be handed over to private sector and enable them to handle it, Somnath said adding the space organisation is looking at big companies which are willing to take up the job in terms of manufacturing and supporting the startups.

Foreign firms like Airbus are discussing the possibilities of coming to India and setting up their plants, which is another change that is going to happen in the space sector, the VSSC director noted.

G Vijayaraghavan, Founder-CEO, Technopark, who was the moderator of the debate, observed "the pace at which the jobs are changed is going to be ten times the jobs changed in the last 10 years."



Saji Gopinath, CEO, Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), said acquiring special skills and knowledge in the job sector is important while the world shifts to Industry 4.0.

Radhakrishnan Nair, Co-founder and CEO, Smart IOPS, Inc-San Francisco, US, stressed the importance of building ability to adapt to the new job milieu.

Over 200 delegates, including industry leaders, management experts, administrators and startup promoters, are attending TRIMA 2020, the annual flagship event of TMA, which began on Thursday.

The central theme of the meet is "Work in a changing worldA vision for Kerala.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Students' views will be sought in



the next 90 days for setting up a separate university for the Konkan region, Maharashtra higher and technical minister Uday Samant told the legislative council on Friday.

At present, most of the senior colleges and educational institutes in the Konkan region are affiliated to the University of Mumbai.

The minister was responding to a calling attention raised by BJP MLC Niranjan Davkhare in the legislative council.

"We will seek student's views on setting up a separate university for the Konkan region carved out of Mumbai University. Even if a new university is set up, students from Raigad district will remain affiliated to Mumbai University," Samant said.

While raising his question, Davkhare claimed that 800 senior colleges are attached to Mumbai University, which has over eight lakh students.

This inconveniences students from Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts, he claimed.

"At least 45 senior colleges from Ratnagiri, 38 from Sindhudurg and 20 from Raigad district should come under a separate Konkan university, which employs latest curriculum," Davkhare demanded.

Samant also assured that full-time directors would be appointed for university sub-centres at Thane and Ratnagiri, while a new sub-centre will be set up in Sindhudurg.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Huntington's disease (HD) is a rare disease characterized by abnormal chorea movement and caused by Huntingtin (Htt) gene mutation and neurodegeneration in a brain area called striatum. A research group led by Dr. Gong Chen, a former professor at Penn State University and now leading a brain repair center at Jinan University in China, has developed a novel gene therapy to regenerate functional new neurons in mouse models of HD. The work has been published in Nature Communications on February 27, 2020.

We are developing a series of NeuroD1-based gene therapies to reprogram brain internal glial cells directly into functional new neurons to treat a variety of brain disorders including Huntington's Disease, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, ALS, and many more," said Dr. Chen. Because every single neuron in our brain is surrounded by supporting glial cells, such direct glia-to-neuron conversion technology offers great advantages over stem cell transplantation therapy in terms of high efficiency of neuroregeneration and no worries about immunorejection," Dr. Chen added.

Dr. Chen is one of the early pioneers making use of brain internal glial cells to regenerate functional new neurons by overexpressing neural transcription factors in the mouse brain. NeuroD1 (neurogenic differentiation 1) is one such factor that promotes neuronal generation during normal brain development. Chen's team has previously demonstrated that expression of NeuroD1 in the mouse brain can directly convert cortical astrocytes (one subtype of glial cells) into functional neurons (Guo et al., Cell Stem Cell, 2014; Chen et al., Molecular Therapy, 2019; Zhang et al., BioRxiv, 2018). Recently, Chen's group further reported, for the first time, that such direct astrocyte-to-neuron conversion can be successfully reproduced in non-human primate brains (Ge et al., BioRxiv, 2019).

Chen's team has previously found that NeuroD1-generated neurons are mainly glutamatergic neurons, which account for more than 80% of the total neurons in the human brain and are the major driving force of brain activity. However, HD is caused by degeneration of GABAergic neurons, which is a type of inhibitory neurons that account for more than 90% of the neurons in the striatum region. In order to generate GABAergic neurons, we combined NeuroD1 together with another transcription factor Dlx2, which is known to generate GABAergic neurons during early brain development, and successfully converted striatal astrocytes into GABAergic neurons in HD mice," said the first author of this article Dr. Zheng Wu. Importantly, here we used the adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors, which have been approved by FDA as a common gene therapy vector in many clinical trials, to develop a novel gene therapy for the treatment of HD," Dr. Wu emphasized on the AAV gene therapy approach.

In this HD mouse study, Dr. Chen and colleagues reported that 80% of the AAV-infected striatal astrocytes were directly converted into GABAergic neurons and the remaining astrocytes can proliferate to replenish themselves. Essentially all of the newly generated neurons are electrophysiologically functional, forming synaptic connections with other neurons. They further demonstrated that the newly generated neurons can project their axons to the right target areas, suggesting that they have integrated into global brain circuits. The most exciting findings of this HD study are the significant motor functional recovery and remarkable extension of life span among the gene therapy-treated HD mice," Chen said.

Our regenerative gene therapy approach is different from conventional gene therapy that typically aims at the mutant genes by either correcting the gene mutations or reducing the mutant gene product, such as reducing mHtt aggregates in HD patients," Dr. Chen said. Obviously, reducing mHtt aggregates at early stage might slowdown the disease progression but it cannot regenerate new neurons for the late stage patients. An ideal approach may be to combine our neuroregenerative approach together with gene correction technology to generate healthy new neurons in future studies," concluded Dr. Chen.

###

In addition to Dr. Gong Chen and Dr. Zheng Wu, the research team includes Matthew Parry, Xiaoyi Hou, Hui Wang, Rachel Cain, Zifei Pei, Yuchen Chen, Ziyuan Guo and Sambangi Abhijeet at Pennsylvania State University, USA; as well as Minhui Liu at Jinan University, China; Hui Wang was a visiting scholar from Southeast University, China. The research was mainly supported by the Charles H. "Skip" Smith Endowment Fund to Dr. Chen at Penn State, and partially by a grant from NIH. Dr. Chen is a co-founder of NeuExcell Therapeutics, Inc. (http://www.neuexcell.com).

For more information, please contact:

Gong Chen, Ph.D.

GHM Institute of CNS Regeneration

Jinan University

Email: gongchen@jnu.edu.cn

References:

Wu et al., Nature Communications, 2020. Gene therapy conversion of striatal astrocytes into GABAergic neurons in mouse models of Huntington's disease.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14855-3

Chen et al., Molecular Therapy, 2019. A NeuroD1 AAV-Based Gene Therapy for Functional Brain Repair after Ischemic Injury through In Vivo Astrocyte-to-Neuron Conversion.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymthe.2019.09.003

Ge et al., BioRxiv, 2019. In Vivo Neuroregeneration to Treat Ischemic Stroke in Adult Non-Human Primate Brains through NeuroD1 AAV-based Gene Therapy.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/816066

Zhang et al., BioRxiv, 2018. Reversing Glial Scar Back To Neural Tissue Through NeuroD1-Mediated Astrocyte-To-Neuron Conversion.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/261438

Guo et al., Cell Stem Cell, 2014. In Vivo Direct Reprogramming of Reactive Glial Cells into Functional Neurons after Brain Injury and in an Alzheimer's Disease Model.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2013.12.001
Brookfield resident and pharmacologist Kerri Pierz said that oftentimes she hears her friends and family members tell her how frustrated they are by the complex words their doctors use when speaking to them about their medical diagnosis.

Ive always had this frustration that people over-complicate things in medicine or make assumptions about what others know. And this is true whether the conversation is among doctors, or between doctors and patients, she said.

Over the years, she has helped family and friends understand test results, diagnoses, and treatments, and its been really enjoyable, she added.

Whether youre a patient, doctor or business person, keep it simple. Really communicate what you mean to say. Dont get bogged down in business jargon, medical lingo or technical terminology.

Thats why Pierz recently founded her own business, called Elucidate Health. Elucidate means to better explain or make clear.

The business

Elucidate Health serves three different groups:

Pharmaceutical companies

Doctors and hospitals

Patients

With pharmaceutical clients, Pierz provides a range of services that help them determine how their product addresses a medical need.

I then help them figure out how to communicate about that need and about the product itself to doctors and patients, Pierz said.

When working directly with doctors, she keeps them up-to-date on new products in the field of medicine. This includes creating a summary of what went on at a recent conference, as well as services ranging from an email newsletter than provides brief, bite-sized information, to more in-depth reports and presentations.

When working with patients, the emphasis is on education, not medical advice. I wouldnt be trying to say, This is what you must do, but rather, I explain the information to them, and then they can make their own well-informed decisions, or they go back to their doctor to ask more questions, she added.

Nelson Merchan, business adviser at the Connecticut Small Business Development Center at the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce, has been working with Pierz in putting together her business plan.

The most important part is the business plan, Merchan said. We make sure the business plan makes sense, and that the numbers are realistic.

After working with Pierz, Merchan said that Kerri is down to earth. She talks in a way that makes sense. She also knows the importance of networking.

Every year, Merchan sees more than 100 clients in the greater Danbury area.

We are part of the School of Business at UConn, in partnership with the state of Connecticut, he said.

We dont charge. Its a free service, he added.

We have 13 advisers who work very hard to help our clients run more profitable business, Merchan said. We just want what is better for the business owner.

Background

For about 12 years, Pierz, who has a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Columbia University in N.Y., worked in the pharmaceutical industry  with drug companies, medical device companies, and companies creating diagnostic tests.

She has worked in many fields of medicine, including psychiatry, oncology, cardiology, genetic diseases, and rare disorders.

She has worked on everything from developing products to testing products to marketing products. Her roles ranged from genetic specialist to medical affairs lead to vice president of medical strategy.

With Elucidate Health, she said her goal is simply to help people understand medicine, she said. My business will do this by finding creative ways to effectively teach doctors or patients about new medical technology or products and address other health care topics of interest.

Pierz said all of her positions have given her insight into what occurs in figuring out how a product meets a need medically, and determining how to develop it and get it into the hands of doctors and patients.

Community

The main reason Pierz said she decided to start her own company is she wanted to establish a close tie within her community.

Id really like to be an asset in our community  someone that people can turn to and say, Help me understand the thing I dont get about medicine, she said.

In this area, unlike in large cities, there arent that many pharmaceutical or biotech companies.

Were not a hub for that, she said.

The roles I've had before have almost always taken me out of the Brookfield area, on average, an hour or so away. However, there is so much I can do right here in our community. My experience allows me to understand a medical question, go back and do the homework, and then return with the clarity that patients and doctors need."

I grew up in Brookfield and it has always been home. It feels great to be able to help your neighbors.

For more information on Elucidate Health, visit Elucidatehealth.com.
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said Friday that hes dispatching Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the signing of an agreement with the Afghan Taliban aimed at beginning a draw down of thousands of U.S. troops and ending Americas 18-year involvement in the war.

Trump said Pompeo would soon, at the presidents direction, witness the signing of an agreement with the Taliban, an event that will see Americas top diplomat stand with leaders of militants, who harboured al-Qaida before the 9-11 attacks and are responsible for the deaths of thousands of American servicemen and women. He said Defence Secretary Mark Esper also will issue a joint declaration with the government of Afghanistan.

Trump did not say where the deal would be signed, but its been previously reported that it would occur Saturday in Doha, Qatar.

The signing comes after a week in which both U.S.-led forces and the Taliban committed to a reduction in violence. Under the plan being signed, the U.S. is to reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan to 8,600 from about 13,000.

Much of the plan remains vague, except to say that American troops will withdraw and that the Taliban promise not to let extremists use the country as a staging ground for attacking the U.S. or its allies. Within 10 to 15 days after the signing, the Taliban and representatives from all sectors of Afghan society, including the government, are to sit down to try to negotiate the framework of a post-war Afghanistan. Issues on the table include a more permanent cease-fire and the rights of women and minorities.

If the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home, Trump said in a statement. These commitments represent an important step to a lasting peace in a new Afghanistan, free from al-Qaeda, ISIS, and any other terrorist group that would seek to bring us harm. 

More than 20 lawmakers recently wrote a letter to Pompeo and Esper asking for assurances that the U.S.-Taliban agreement will not jeopardize U.S. security.

I dealt with a lot of bad guys during my time in the CIA, and one thing I learned is that previous actions are a good indicator of future ones, said Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, who served in Afghanistan as an undercover CIA officer. The war in Afghanistan should come to an end and its in the Talibans hands to make this happen. However, the Taliban has never demonstrated a willingness to be a real partner in peace.

Taliban leaders told The Associated Press that if everything goes according to plan, all U.S. soldiers would be out of Afghanistan in 14 months, but Washington has not confirmed such a timeline. The agreement also stipulates the release of 5,000 Taliban from Afghan-run jails, but its not clear if the Afghan government will agree to that.

The agreement mapping out a plan for peace follows months of negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban that have broken down before. The Pentagon has said for months that it is poised to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 8,600, but U.S. officials have said it could take months for any troop cuts to begin.

Nearly 19 years ago, American service members went to Afghanistan to root out the terrorists responsible for the 9-11 attacks, Trump said. In that time, we have made great progress in Afghanistan, but at great cost to our brave service members, to the American taxpayers, and to the people of Afghanistan.

He said that when he first ran for president, he promised voters that he would start bringing troops home and seek an end to the war in Afghanistan. We are making substantial progress on that promise.
Tourists wearing face masks walk at the Gyeongbok Palace in central Seoul, Feb. 26. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



More than 50 countries are restricting the entry of travelers from South Korea with bans or tougher quarantine procedures over coronavirus concerns, foreign ministry data showed Friday, as the number of infections topped 2,000 confirmed cases here.



Twenty-seven parts of the world have entry bans on South Koreans and foreigners who have visited the Asian country in the past few weeks, up from the previous day's tally of 22. They include Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Jamaica and two others.



A few more European countries began to toughen quarantine procedures for people from South Korea, including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Iceland and Croatia.



Many of these countries have added China, Japan, Singapore and Italy  where major outbreaks of the virus have occurred  on their quarantine lists.






Vladimir Putin relishes using Russia's political and economic power to destabilize and disrupt nations. One example of such activity is in Venezuela, where Russia has been propping up Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro through billions in loans and buying oil with the Russian company Rosneft.

Maduro is one of the most brutal dictators of our time, and the Trump administration is actively working to oust Maduro from power. Millions of citizens have fled Venezuela. The country is overrun with violent drug cartels, and Russian and Cuban military units operate freely within the country. Maduro's government now runs on illegal sources of income such as gold-mining, which destroys Venezuela's environment, and widespread drug-trafficking, which has brought in many bad players, including Hezb'allah, further destabilizing the nation. Venezuela's legitimate economy and social structure have almost completely collapsed.

In a new effort to get tough on Maduro, the president's team recently imposed economic sanctions on Rosneft Oil to thwart Russia's efforts to help Maduro. It's a smart move.

The State Department special representative for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, describes the sanctions as "[a] campaign of pressure, and the pressure continues to mount. I think this is a very significant step, and I think you will see companies all over the world in the oil sector now move away from dealing with Rosneft Trading."

The administration has carefully calibrated these sanctions so they do not disrupt the stability of the global oil market. Instead, President Trump is strategically targeting a company whose leader, Igor Sechin, is a close ally of Putin. The president, to ensure the sanctions are not destabilizing, is giving companies a 90-day window to cut ties with Rosneft.

While not disrupting global oil prices, these new sanctions will be a problem for Maduro. Targeting Rosneft, the biggest receiver of Venezuelan oil, squeezes Maduro, who is already reeling from earlier sanctions imposed by the president. The day after the Trump administration sanctioned Rosneft, Maduro declared an "energy emergency," an implicit confession that these latest American actions are causing him pain.

Maduro is relying on an illegal economy to obtain revenue, and this will likely be his downfall as crime, violence, and citizen revolt will further erode his power. But the president's team must preserve America's presence in Venezuela while the world waits for the Maduro regime to fall. The next Venezuelan government will have to rebuild the country and restore a legitimate economy. America's presence in the country will make this process easier.

That is why President Trump should let American energy companies maintain their presence in Venezuela. These companies have been operating in Venezuela for nearly 100 years, providing jobs and income for thousands of Venezuelan workers. If the Trump administration forces American companies out, Russia, China, and Cuba are standing in the wings, waiting to take control of Venezuela's massive oil fields.

Steve Forbes powerfully argues:

Allowing hostile foreign countries the chance to establish more of a foothold in Venezuela and to tap 300-plus billion barrels of oil places America's energy security at high risk. To prevent competing nations from moving in and taking control of Venezuela's energy industry, it's imperative President Trump let American energy companies continue day-to-day operations indefinitely.

The Trump administration has, to date, allowed American companies to operate in Venezuela in anticipation of the day Maduro is gone. In January, American U.S. companies were given a three-month extension to continue their work. Such permission should be extended permanently.

Targeted sanctions against Rosneft prove that the Trump administration understands how to bring an end to Maduro's brutal reign. Freedom will not come to the Venezuelan people instantly, but the United States should do everything in its power to ensure that when it does, it will be stable and long-lasting. That can happen only if an American presence is maintained in the country. President Trump can continue fighting for this goal by allowing American oil companies to remain in Venezuela and box Russia, Cuba, and China out.

Ken Blackwell is a senior fellow at the Family Research Council. He was formerly United States ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
LEASING

Wetherill Park

A private investor has leased a 2949 sq m building at 1/46 Redfern Street from R N L Alchin Holdings for $335,000 a year, net. The Lease term is four years and there is an incentive equivalent to one month's free net rent. Marcel Elias, LJ Hooker Commercial Silverwater negotiated the lease.

Blacktown

A unique hardstand 5806 sq m property known as Part B, 426 Flushcombe Road has been leased to HS Operations Pty Ltd, filling the final vacancy at the former Red Lea Chickens site. The lease, for two years with a one-year option, was struck at an initial rental of $26 per sq m gross. CBREs Matthew Alessi, Brendan Wein and Janet Joljian negotiated the lease.
A photo taken of Isabela Pereira de Jesus moments after her birth shows her looking very unimpressed

Hilarious photos show the moment a newborn baby frowns at a doctor who tries to make her cry.

Isabela Pereira de Jesus was born via Caesarean section the afternoon of February 13 at a hospital in Rio de Janeiro.

Doctors often encourage babies to cry after birth, as it shows that their lungs are working.

Isabela Pereira de Jesus finally let out a cry after the doctor cut off her umbilical cord



But when the obstetrician encouraged Isabela to make a noise, the baby was clearly unimpressed.

Mom Daiane de Jesus Barbosa hired local professional photographer Rodrigo Kunstmann to capture Isabelas birth, and he was on hand to catch the babys adorable expression.

The photographer told Brazilian magazine Crescer that the obstetrician asked the baby to let out her first cry before she was set to cut off the umbilical cord.

She opened her eyes wide, but did not cry, Kunstmann said. The doctor even had to say, cry, Isa! She made that serious expression and only started crying after the umbilical cord was cut.

Kunstmann told DailyMail.com: Childbirth is a unique moment and deserves to be recorded.



He shared a series of 10 photos that captured de Jesus first precious moments on his Facebook page  including her eventual first cries.



The baby with her parents

And proud mom Daiane said the snaps show how brave the youngster already is.

My baby was born courageous, she told Brazilian news outlet G1.



Its a meme already. She always wrinkles her forehead when changing diapers and nursing. Isabela was supposed to be born on the 20th, but she chose her day already showing her personality.

***

Source: Daily Mail UK
A nurse who is helping Wuhan fight the coronavirus outbreak has told the Chinese government that she wants a boyfriend in return.

The 30-year-old Chinese medic wrote 'I hope the country can assign me a boyfriend when the epidemic is over' after a long day working at a makeshift hospital.

She then held a piece of paper bearing the message and posed for a picture - still donning a hazmat suit and a pair of goggles.

Single nurse Tian Fangfang (left) wrote 'I hope the country can assign me a boyfriend when the epidemic is over' after a day working at a hospital in Wuhan. She held a piece of paper bearing the message and posed for a picture (right) - still donning a hazmat suit and a pair of goggles

The single nurse, named Tian Fangfang, shared the photo on her social media account and it quickly went viral.

Ms Tian, who shot to fame overnight, confessed she was surprised to discover that 'the whole nation now knows I am looking for a partner'.

She said she wrote the note on Tuesday after being inspired by one of her colleagues, who had written 'I want a boyfriend' on her hazmat suit.

The nurse told independent media outlet Ren Jian Zhi Bei that she was hoping for a tall partner because she stands 5ft6in.

She explained that she shared the picture in hopes of encouraging the public to stay positive amid the health crisis and expect a better future.

But she added that at the moment, her most important task was to treat patients infected with the novel coronavirus.

Ms Tian explained that she shared the picture in hopes of encouraging the public to stay positive amid the health crisis and expect a better future. She and her colleagues left their hometown Changsha in Hunan to work in a makeshift hospital in Wuhan earlier this month

It is reported that Ms Tian was the first employee to sign herself up for the task at the Hospital Affiliated to Hunan Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Institute, where she works

'I am indeed I looking for a boyfriend, but right now my focus is to do my job well and do what a nurse should do. That is to help Wuhan people overcome the difficulties and beat the virus together,' she wrote on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter.

Ms Tian is one of the medical workers sent by the province of Hunan, which borders Hubei, to treat a large number of coronavirus patients in Wuhan.

It is reported that she was the first employee to sign herself up for the task at the Hospital Affiliated to Hunan Traditional Chinese Medicine Research Institute, where she works.

Her parents supported her choice.

Her father, who was also a medical worker and helped fight the SARS outbreak in 2003, reassured her that things would be fine as long as she took sufficient precautions, Ms Tian said.

She and her colleagues arrived at the Dahuashan Fang Cang Hospital in Wuhan's Jiangxia District on February 11 and have worked there since.

Globally, the coronavirus has killed at least 2,868 people and infected more than 83,800

Apart from giving patients treatment, she helps relieve their anxiety by leading them to sing and do group exercises.

Originating in Wuhan, the new coronavirus - known as COVID-19 - has killed at least 2,788 people and infected more than 78,800 inside China.

Hubei, situated in central China, accounts for nearly 80 per cent of the confirmed cases and 93 per cent of the deaths globally.

Wuhan, the provincial capital with 11 million residents, went into lockdown on January 23 in the wake of the outbreak. The majority part of Hubei then followed suit.

Apart from giving patients treatment, Ms Tian helps relieve their anxiety by leading them to sing and do group exercises. The picture shows patients following a hazmat-donning medical worker to work out inside one of the 'fang cang' makeshift hospitals in Wuhan on February 17

Hubei, situated in central China, accounts for nearly 80 per cent of the confirmed cases and 93 per cent of the deaths globally. Patients with the novel coronavirus are pictured resting in their wards at night inside one of the 'fang cang' makeshift hospitals in Wuhan on February 18

By February 15, the central government had sent 29,445 medical workers from around the country - alongside military medics - to help tackle the outbreak in Hubei. A medical worker in a hazmat suit is pictured treating a patient in a 'fang cang' hospital in Wuhan on February 17

By February 15, the central government had sent 29,445 medical workers from around the country  alongside military medics  to help tackle the outbreak in Hubei.

Overnight, the Hubei health officials reported 318 new cases out of a nationwide total of 327 and 41 new deaths out of the national tally of 44.

Outbreaks outside of China, however, have escalated in the past few days. Dozens of countries are now battling the contagion, with South Korea, Italy, Japan and Iran among the worst-affected.

Globally, the coronavirus epidemic has killed at least 2,868 people and infected more than 83,800.
Barr Says US Has Moral Obligation to Support Wellbeing of Police Officers

Attorney General William Barr reiterated on Thursday the importance of supporting Americas men and women in blue amid a rise in police officer attacks and death by suicide.

Barr said in an address to law enforcement officers in Florida that the United States has a moral obligation to support the wellbeing of law enforcement who are facing an uptick in challenges over recent years to keep Americans safe. He added that the Trump administration is committed to counteracting and surmounting the problems.

He underscored that the role of a police officer comes with a great degree of danger, which is exacerbated by the emergence of a deeply troubling attitude towards police, where people try to scapegoat and disrespect police officers or disparage the vital role police officers play in society.

Police officers are facing a rise in attacks in recent years, including physical attacks, Barr reiterated, highlighting that assaults against officers have jumped about 20 percent to about 60,000 assaults per year. Moreover, 106 officers died in line-of-duty incidents in 2018, according to FBI data. The number of incidents last year rose to 134 officer deaths, Barr said.

Along with attacks, officers are also required to combat a number of incidents that stem from a range of social pathologies, including mental illnesses, broken homes, and drug abuse, that could inflict serious trauma on the officers, as well as leading to stress-based physical health problems such as high blood pressure.

Officers are seeing the worst side of society. What they are seeing today is worse than ever. And they are seeing it more often, he said during the International Association of Chiefs of Police Officer Safety and Wellness Symposium.

The attorney general also repeated his concerns about the rise in police deaths by suicide, saying that the rate of suicide among law enforcement and firefighters is 40 percent higher than the national average. Nationwide, the risk of suicide among police officers is 54 percent greater than other workers (pdf), according to a 2019 analysis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data presented by Dr. John Violanti, who researches police stress and suicide.

He added that at least 228 officers had taken their own lives in 2019a 44 percent increase from a year before.

These are staggering statistics. A lot more must be done. Our men and women who wear the badge are some of our countrys strongest and bravest people. And like the rest of us, there are times in their lives when they need support, he said. We have a moral obligation to do all we can to support the men and women who keep us safe.

In January, Barr launched a national commission aimed at addressing the problems confronting law enforcement that impact their ability to police in the community, known as the Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, under the direction of President Donald Trump. One focus of the commission would be to study the challenges that law enforcement officers face associated with their mental and physical health, such as police officer suicide.

The administration has also taken other steps to address the issue of police suicide, including signing the bipartisan Supporting and Treating Officers in Crisis (STOIC) Act, which provides funding for suicide-prevention programs and mental health services for police officers.

While expressing his concerns about police suicide, Barr shared a personal story about a social worker who helped his family during his daughters cancer battle, encouraging law enforcement and veterans to seek help when needed.

Everyone goes through a period where they have some difficulty and could use support, he said.

He described his experiences where a social worker was assigned by a Boston hospital to help his youngest daughter Meg and family get through the hard time.

My immediate impulse was, Hey, were a strong family, we dont need a social worker,' he said, but added that, she was one of the greatest things to happen to us during this six month period when we were up in Boston.

She is just a godsend, he added. So I understand the instinct to say that we dont need the help, but thats one of the things that we need to work on overcoming in the law enforcement community to address this problem.

He added that support for law enforcement also needs to come from the American people as well, suggesting that there was a need to show more respect for officers.

We should be showing our police officers the same gratitude we show our soldiers, he said. Soldiers protect our people by fighting our enemies abroad, while the police protect our people by guarding them here at home.

Barr, who is known for his tough-on-crime approach, has repeatedly defended police officers in speeches and op-eds in the past.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

New Mexicos flagship university plans to offer free college to next falls incoming freshmen from families making $50,000 or less.

The University of New Mexico announced Thursday the launch of The Lobo First-Year Promise, which is essentially a new scholarship that will pay any tuition and fees for qualifying first-time students. The scholarship would kick in to pay for tuition and fees not covered by other scholarships, grants and financial aid.

The scholarship will only be available to next falls freshmen class, and university officials are estimating that 1,000 to 1,500 students could use the program to attend UNM.

Were going to give students who may not have thought a university education was possible next year  free tuition and fees, said Dan Garcia, the vice president of enrollment management at UNM. We felt this was the right thing to do, and were prepared to put in what we need to.

Garcia said the school isnt yet sure how much the scholarship program will cost the university.

The new scholarship also aims to keep UNM on a level playing field with community colleges.

Next fall, many students are expected to use the states Opportunity Scholarship to cover their tuition and fees at two-year colleges, though the scholarship is expected to expand to eventually cover remaining tuition and fees for in-state students who attend four-year universities. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham proposed the scholarship.

Garcia said the scholarship will help UNM attract students next year before the Opportunity Scholarship is completely phased in. If that scholarship grows as expected, its not clear if UNMs program will exist in the future, he said.

Garcia said: Our thought process was: If the Opportunity Scholarship as expected expands to four-year universities in a little over a year, then what opportunities are we providing those same families who have children planning on going to college in the fall?

UNM officials capped the qualifying household income at $50,000 because its roughly the state median income.

UNM on Thursday rolled out a page on its website about the program. In-state students have an April 30 deadline to complete their requirements to apply and be accepted to UNM, and to apply for financial aid.

Garcia said the scholarship will then cover whatever tuition and fees remain after the Lottery Scholarship and other grants are applied.

UNM is thrilled to be able to offer this Lobo First Year Promise to incoming New Mexican students entering in Fall of 2020, UNM Provost James Holloway said in a statement. We want all New Mexicans to know that they have options, and that attending the states flagship university is well within reach. This program will allow more students to have a choice, and to select a higher education option based on their needs and aspirations, rather than cost.

See UNM >> A2
Making this summer season sweeter, PepsiCo brings the taste of irresistible mangoes in a new avatar with the launch of the new reformulated Slice, making it Indias thickest mango drink. This claim is substantiated by an independent research conducted by Nielsen. A fun new TVC campaign, Naya Slice Itna Thick Kaise, featuring eminent actor and brand ambassador Katrina Kaif has also been unveiled today.

The new TVC breaks away from the stereotype Slice advertisement and intends to engage with consumers about the product in a new avatar, focusing on the joy of indulgence and romances the product. The film opens with Katrina relishing the thick, delicious and juicy new Slice. Cut to the next scene, she asks for possible reasons for new Slice being so thick. The film progresses with three different characters sharing their quirky and amusing reasons. Katrina ultimately invokes and engages with consumers by asking them, Slice Itna Thick Kaise and finally urging them to try the New Slice.

Speaking on the occasion, Vineet Sharma, Director, Juices, PepsiCo India said, Mango based beverage category continues to grow in India with mango fans savoring beverages that offer a taste which is closest to a real mango experience. At PepsiCo, we listen to our consumers and remain focused on evolving our offerings to meet the ever-changing consumer needs. Thus, we have launched the new Slice, which is the thickest and tastiest Mango drink in India. Furthermore, we have launched an exciting new brand campaign featuring Katrina Kaif that will further deepen the brands connect, increase awareness and drive trials for the new Slice in the country. We hope everyone will enjoy both the new Slice and our campaign.

Speaking on the campaign, Katrina Kaif, Brand Ambassador, Slice said, "My association with Slice goes back over a decade and is reflective of the love I have for the brand. I am excited to bring back the iconic Slice campaign this time with an amusing twist. The new creative comically captures how Slice has become even more indulgent, stylised in a retro and modern fashion. I'm eager for the new campaign to hit the screens and for the audience to enjoy Slice even more than before"

Sumati Singh, Executive Creative Director & VP from Creative Agency, Wunderman Thompson, further added, Consumer research showed that Slice is thicker than other mango drinks and this insight formed the core of our creative route. Slice Itna Thick Kaise? delves into the fun, quirky reasons that makes the mango beverage so thick. Bringing this creative articulation alive is brand ambassador Katrina Kaif, who is seen depicting every mango lovers delight rather effortlessly in the new TVC. We are confident that Slice Itna Thick Kaise? will resonate strongly with consumers and set the tone for the upcoming summer season.

The new Slice will be available from March 2020 across the retail outlets in the country. The new Slice campaign would also be amplified across TV, digital, outdoor and social media.
Actor Shruti Haasan has defended her decision to go under the knife, saying it's her life and she has the right to choose the way she looks.

In a lengthy post on Instagram, the actor said she doesn't promote plastic surgery, but at the same time she believes people should not be criticised for changing their looks.

"No one famous or not is in a position to judge another person. Ever. That's just not cool. I'm happy to say this is my life my face and yes I've had plastic surgery which I'm not ashamed to admit.

"Do I promote it ? No. Am I against it ? No. It's just how I choose to live. The biggest favour we can do for ourselves and others is just be and learn to accept the changes and the movement of our bodies and minds. Spread love and be chill. I'm learning everyday to love me for me just a little more because the greatest love story of my life is with myself and I hope yours is too," Shruti wrote on Thursday along side a picture of herself.

The actor, daughter of south superstar Kamal Haasan, said she hopes there are women who will understand the reason behind her decision.

"Most often I'm at the mercy of my hormones mentally and physically and over the years I work hard to try and have a healthy relationship with it. It isn't easy. The pain isn't easy the physical changes aren't easy but what's become easier to me is to share my journey," she added.

There have been reports about Shruti getting lip enhancement and nose job, but this is the first time she has admitted about getting the surgery done.

The actor shared the post after she was trolled for looking too thin and old in an earlier picture she posted on the social media site.

Shruti's last Bollywood release was 2017 film "Behen Hogi Teri".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police apathy, lack of coordination and delay in getting the bodies of their loved ones were the woes narrated by the families of the deceased outside the GTB Hospital mortuary on Friday.

Grieving relatives, who lost their loved ones in a communal riot in northeast Delhi, said the least the authorities could do is be "sympathetic" to them.

The family of Ashfaq Hussain had been waiting at the hospital since Wednesday to get his body. Hussain, who had got married on February 14, was killed during the violence that erupted in northeast Delhi earlier this week.

"They (the hospital authorities) have not even kept the bodies in a freezer. The bodies have started decomposing and smell is emanating from them," said Hussain's brother.

Another relative of Hussain said,"The authorities are not doing anything. If the GTB Hospital doesn't have facilities for conducting autopsy of many bodies in a day, they should have sent the bodies to other hospitals."



The violence that unfolded in Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Chand Bagh, Shiv Vihar, Bhajan Pura, Yamuna Vihar areas of northeast Delhi earlier this week have claimed at least 42 lives and left over 200 injured while also unleashing large scale mob-led destruction of properties.

Frenzied mobs torched houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump and pelted stones at locals and police personnel. Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Yamuna Vihar, Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh and Shiv Vihar are among the areas severely affected by the riots.

The family of Dilbar Singh Negi had come from Uttarakhand to claim his body and said they were made to run for paperwork in a city which they are not familiar with.

"We are from Uttarakhand and we do not know which police station is located where. We were asked to go to Gokalpuri police station for completing the formalities, where we were made to sit the whole day. We have already experienced a tragedy but things like these are more hurting us," said a family member of Negi.

Many other families said the Delhi Police could have set up a help desk for families.

"There are many families who come here everyday and go back dejected. Many of them are uneducated and do not even have relevant documents and face trouble in paperwork. We are trying to assist them," said Mumtaz, a lawyer from Krishna Nagar, who has been helping families outside the hospital's mortuary.

Nasir, brother of Aamir and Hashim, who were killed during the riots, said the family is waiting for the bodies for burial.

"The autopsy has not been conducted yet. I have learnt that the autopsy will be conducted tomorrow," he said.

A family member of a deceased, requesting anonymity, said, "We have heard from other persons too and even experienced ourselves that when we call up the investigating officer of our case for some paperwork, he says he was unwell. Even other families experienced similar things where the IO in case says he was either in the court or posted in the riot-hit area.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Look at the state of our community, our state and our nation. There are words like we and ours and ourselves. These are just words that still have different meanings depending our race, our beliefs, our values and our differences, but we cant sit here this evening and focus on those differences as negatives, he said. Instead, we must start within our own community and embrace each other as we. We must demonstrate with our actions  not just with words that say We the People. We must look in the mirror, look within our own organizations, look within our leadership and challenge ourselves to do something to make sure that we really means we.
India's Nifty 50 Stocks: Does the Bad Jobs Outlook Spell Trouble for Stocks?

India's "employment outlook" just reached its lowest level in 14 years.

There are a lot of mouths to feed in India -- north of 1.3 billion.

That means a lot of jobs are required to put food on the table for a lot of people. But there's a problem: the jobs picture in the world's second most populous nation isn't pretty.

As far back as a year ago, the Washington Post said (Feb. 1, 2019):

**India's jobs crisis is worse than people thought ...

At the time, a private survey had shown that the number of people working had contracted by 11 million in 2018.

Here in February 2020, the jobs outlook remains bleak.

So, what should investors make of this?

Well, a chart and commentary from Elliott Wave International's February 2020 Global Market Perspective provides insight:

**ManpowerGroup India reported the results of its Q1 2020 Employment Outlook Survey, which showed that only 10% of managers planned to increase staff -- the lowest level in the survey's 14-year history.

**For the past few years we have interpreted apparent troughs in the survey results as bullish for stocks, as prior troughs were in Q1 2009 and Q4 2012. So far, that interpretation has been correct.

"Bullish for stocks"? How's it possible for bad employment data to be bullish for stocks?

Helping you understand seeming paradoxes like these is a unique feature of Elliott wave analysis. It's not that bad news is bullish for stocks. It's more nuanced than that. Our research shows that bad news often coincides with the end of a downtrend in a market's Elliott wave pattern.

That's why EWI's Global Market Perspective rightfully interpreted two prior employment troughs as bullish signals for Indian stocks -- you can see those moments marked on the chart with the first two red arrows.

Unfortunately for them, most investors continue to make a big mistake when they invest with the news, bullish or bearish. As EWI President Robert Prechter stated in a classic Elliott Wave Theorist:

**One of the most important things to understand about the stock market is its relationship to news. Aside from emotional reactions lasting just minutes, news does not cause the market to move in any meaningful sense.

Get important insights into what really drives markets from Robert Prechter in a free 12-minute video, "Learn What REALLY Moves the Markets," a presentation that Robert Prechter made to The International Federation of Technical Analysts.

Who is Elliott Wave International? EWI is the world's largest independent technical analysis firm. Founded by Robert Prechter in 1979, EWI helps investors and traders to catch market opportunities and avoid potential pitfalls before others even see them coming. Their unique perspective and high-quality analysis have been their calling card for nearly 40 years, featured in financial news outlets such as Fox Business, CNBC, Reuters, MarketWatch and Bloomberg

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




Churchill Mortgage has announced that it has acquired of Elev8 Mortgage, a local lender in Bend, Ore., that has an annual loan-production volume of $100 million.

Under the deal, former Elev8 employees will join the Churchill Mortgage team in its Oregon branch.

We made the decision to join Churchill Mortgage because of the unique position that the company holds in the industry, said Elev8 Mortgage President Dan Williams. Churchills current broker model is unlike others in the mortgage space. There was no downside to this acquisition. It will only improve our business and our incredible team.
CLINTON COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI)Mayor-elect Judy Sheets is preparing to take over as the city's leader. She'll be the second female mayor Frankfort has had since Mary Jane McMahon in 1983. For Sheets, It was dream that became reality.

"My mom and dad always knew this was something I wanted, said Mayor-elect Judy Sheets.

Sheets was born and raised in Frankfort. She spent most of her life working with the police department in the juvenile aid division. In 2008 she was elected clerk treasurer and has served in that position since.

"No matter what election it was whether it was city, county, whatever, every time my mom would say are you running for mayor this time and I'm like no not yet the timing is not right but, said Sheets.

She didn't realize that time would come so soon. But she was ready when it did.

"I felt like my 12 years experience as clerk treasurer brought a lot to the table, said Sheets. I was pretty aware of the finances, the projects, all of the different things going on in the city. And I thought I have something to offer here."

Judy was elected to take current Mayor Chris McBarnes' place. She said her job now is to continue making progress throughout the city.

"The projects, I mean Prairie Creek Park you know we're getting pretty close to the final stage of that. I want to finish what we've got in place, said Sheets. At that time I'd like to step back and kind of see where we are. You know, what affect is this going to have on the city."

Sheets also has plans to engage the people of Frankfort as well.

"At some point I'm hoping to get an advisory committee or something with just the citizens, said Sheets. You know come to me, bring me some ideas and tell me what you'd like to see."

Sheets said they will have a caucus soon to elect someone for her position. She officially takes over full time as mayor on March 2nd.
Actor Sonu Sood on Friday revealed that he has joined the cast of south superstar Chiranjeevi's next Telugu film. (Photo: File)

Mumbai: Actor Sonu Sood on Friday revealed that he has joined the cast of south superstar Chiranjeevi's next Telugu film.

The project marks Chiranjeevi's 152nd film and is helmed by Koratala Siva.

"It makes me very proud to be associated with the project and sharing the screen space with Chiranjeevi Sir. The south Indian film industry has been very embracing of me and I hope with this film I am able to give them back the same amount of love through my work," Sonu said in a statement.

In the film, the Bollywood actor will be playing one of the prime characters.

Sonu will also be seen in Tamil film "Thamilarasan", an action drama directed by Babu Yogeswaran, while in Bollywood, his next release will be Akshay Kumar-led period drama "Prithviraj".
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 15:24:39|Editor: huaxia

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SHANGHAI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. retail giant Costco announced the start of the construction of its second store on the Chinese mainland on Thursday in Shanghai.

The new store, on a piece of 47,320-square-meter land in Kangqiao, Shanghai's Pudong New Area, will have a floor area of 143,000 square meters to cover an office and a warehouse store, the company said at a ceremony. The store is not far from the Shanghai Disney Resort.

The project has a total investment of 2.6 billion yuan (about 371.2 million U.S. dollars), the company said, adding that the construction work is under full preparation and will soon break ground.

Costco opened its first store on the Chinese mainland last August in Shanghai's Minhang district on the west side of Huangpu River, which has since attracted huge crowds of shoppers.
An Accra High Court has admitted a video recording of how Major Maxwell Adam Mahama was allegedly murdered by the 14 persons now on trial and directed that it should be shown in open court on March 17.



The court on February 13, this year dismissed an objection by the defence, when the prosecution sought to tender the flash drive containing the video as evidence.



Justice Mariama Owusu, a Justice of the Supreme Court sitting as an additional High Court Judge, delivering a ruling on the issue on Thursday said it was better for the video to be admitted as evidence first before it could be shown in open court.



The presiding judge indicated that if the video was first played in open court before it was admitted as evidence, it would prejudice the court as the jury would form opinions and that even if the court rejects the video later, such opinions could not be erased from their memory.



She said she has not watched the video, and would not be watching it video, adding that I have even admonished the jury to refrain from listening to all discussions on the case in the media, particularly radio and television.



Earlier, Chief Inspector Samuel Agyakwa, the Investigator in the case, told the court that the video contains details of how the late Major Mahama was allegedly murdered, but the defence objected to the tendering of the video evidence.



The witness who was being led by Mrs Evelyn Keelson, Chief State Attorney, to give his evidence in chief, said it came out that the following were not in the video William Baah, John Boasie, Bismarck Abanga, Kwadwo Anima, and Donkor Bismarck.



He said apart from those mentioned above, the rest were seen in the video hitting the late Mahama with implements like sticks, cement blocks and metal bars.



My investigations also revealed that Charles Kwaning and Kwesi Asante were the ones, who shot the late Major Mahama, he added.



He said after the investigations it became known that William Baah, John Boasie, Bismarck Abanga, Kwadwo Anima, and Donkor Bismarck used their fists to attack the deceased.



The investigator told the court that after watching the video, he copied it on a pen drive and with the assistance of a crime scene expert; they captured crime scene shots from the video.



Fourteen persons are standing trial at an Accra High Court over the killing of Major Mahama, who was an officer of the 5th Infantry Battalion, at Burma Camp.



The late Major was on duty at Denkyira-Obuasi in the Central Region when on May 29, 2017 some residents allegedly mistook him for an armed robber and lynched him.



The mob had ignored his persistent plea that he was an officer of the Ghana Armed Forces.



The accused are William Baah, the Assemblymember of Denkyira Obuasi, Bernard Asamoah alias Daddy, Kofi Nyame a.k.a Abortion, Akwasi Boah, Kwame Tuffour, Joseph Appiah Kubi, Michael Anim and Bismarck Donkor.



Others are John Bosie, Akwasi Baah, Charles Kwaning, Emmanuel Badu, Bismarck Abanga and Kwadwo Anima.

Source: GNA









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Magma Partners has more than doubled the size of its investable capital with the close of its latest $50 million fund. The Santiago, Chile-based venture firm founded in 2013 had secured $21 million that made up the outfit's second fund, which it raised after closing its debut fund with just $2.5 million. The firm's largest fund to date comes as investment in Latin America has reached a record high.

Magma has made 70 deals and its portfolio has seen three exits. General Partner Nathan Lustig tells me that Magma will continue to write $50,000 to $100,000 seed checks, and that its larger investments will range from up to $5 million to $7 million. The firm is targeting a few niches:

Fintech and insurtech companies in Latin America and the solutions that provide the cybersecurity, anti-fraud and identity management API layers needed to support them.

SaaS companies with tech and sales teams in Latin America that target a global user base.

The fund wont touch hardware or biotech and isnt really looking at anything outside its fintech and insurtech thesis.

With fund three, Magma has attracted its first institutional investor. IDB Lab, the innovation laboratory of the IDB Group, has approved an investment of $4 million in the fund. This now puts Magma on a more global radar, and, depending on success of fund three, could enable an even larger future fund four.

Chilean, Colombian and Mexican family offices were the biggest cohort of contributors to the fund, along with angel investors in both Latin America and the U.S.

Magma itself is made up of 15 people across both operations and investing, and the team is spread remotely across Santiago, Bogota, Mexico City and Guadalajara.

Magma Media and the agency model

While a relatively young firm, Magma has been focused from the start on developing an agency model to support its founders -- one that serves as both educator and, in many cases, connector. Latin America suffers from a lack of educational content around company building. That's why Magma is launching Magma Media, an in-house, media operations unit determined to help its portfolio companies succeed.

Story continues





If youve only raised a small round, hiring the wrong person could kill your startup."

Lustig says that the Magma team is made up of former entrepreneurs, and that the goal of Magma Media is to build from the ground up the services they wish theyd had as founders. Inspired by the Andreessen Horowitz agency model, Magma also offers to its startup founders content marketing, sales, recruiting and PR services. Regarding the importance of content marketing, he notes that "if you have a great product and a great idea but you can't communicate what you're doing, no one will buy it. As for the in-house recruiter who is helping to educate founders on making the right hires, Lustig says, If youve only raised a small round, hiring the wrong person could kill your startup." These are the kind of company building tips that aren't as widely circulated in Latin America's comparatively nascent startup scene as they are in Silicon Valley.

Magma has been hustling to expand a network of twenty corporations across Latin America -- similar to the Andreessen agency model -- that will take meetings with their portfolio, given that the lockdown of an early corporate partnership is a big win for a startup.

The firm encourages successful Latin American startups to feed back into the ecosystem by adapting agency-like networks similar to a16z and Y Combinator, through which startups leverage a network of pre-vetted services and sign on as each other's first customers. One Magma company, OmniBank, is already factoring out its financial loan services to a few other companies in its portfolio in efforts to emulate this network model that has seen success in the U.S.

As for diversity and inclusion, Lustig says that 35% of the Magma portfolio has at least one female founder and that they hope to grow that percentage.

Asian capital is smarter capital in Latin America

Despite Lustig's admiration for some American models of investment, he observes that China is eating the U.S.s lunch in Latin America, referring to the capital flowing into the region from Asian sources. Didi entered Latin America in 2018 via its $1 billion acquisition of Brazilian ridesharing company 99. Tencents $180 million strategic investments into Nubank propelled the Brazilian neobanks valuation to reach $10 billion. And of course, Tokyo-based SoftBank committed $6 billion to invest in Latin American companies via its Latin American Innovation Fund, fueling Colombias Rappi and Brazils Creditas with growth-stage investments that have allowed the companies to scale aggressively.

In fact, while U.S. funds are beginning to wake up to the Latin America opportunity, Lustig believes that Asian capital in Latin America is smarter capital. Some of it has to do with pattern matching. Globally, Southeast Asia and Latin America count similar population sizes of around 640 million, and 18 out of the 25 biggest cities in the world are in either Southeast Asia or Latin America.

Congruent geographic patterns and likeness in population volume means that tech solutions achieved by startups in Southeast Asia could also function in Latin America -- warranting heavier investment, especially when considering how much has been invested into Southeast Asia. Lustig estimates that Southeast Asia saw somewhere between $16 billion and $20 billion invested in 2019, and it has a lower GDP than Latin America.

Lustig highlights online education as just one example of technology thats more developed in Asia and that could be used to reach rural areas in Latin America that dont have as much access. Asian e-commerce and mobile payments models are other sectors that Latin American companies can borrow from, he says, stressing that Latin America features a very social culture. It explains why Brazil is one of Facebooks largest markets, but also, linking social to commerce is a huge opportunity that could show up and generate big returns in Latin America.

Latin American startups should borrow success from the pioneering agency models invented by Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator on their home ground, while pattern matching the tech solutions that worked for startups in geographically analogous Southeast Asia and China.

Asian investors may not share the same racist and xenophobic rhetoric around Latins that exists in the United States, too, says Lustig. Though an American himself, he believes a bias against Latins exists in the U.S. There are still many very educated people in the U.S. who think that Colombia is Narcos on Netflix. In his experience, he observes that Asian investors arent wired to think like that and are instead focused on the growth fundamentals.

Put all the pieces together, suggests Lustig, and the opportunity becomes clear. One of the most exciting parts about investing in Latin America is that if you can actually solve some of these problems, yes you can generate a big return. [Y]ou might also help tens to hundreds of millions of people solve basic problems that people in the U.S. take for granted. So I think the advice for founders is to go out and try to solve the problems that they're seeing in their day to day, he says.

Latin American startups should borrow success from the pioneering agency models invented by Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator on their home ground, while pattern matching the tech solutions that worked for startups in geographically analogous Southeast Asia and China. Magma hopes its strategy will prepare Latin American startups for the incoming mega-rounds from Asia that will enable the best companies to enter hypergrowth mode.

Meanwhile, in a note to American investors, Lustig says that the U.S. really needs to up its game in Latin America if it wants to continue to have influence.
Germany will allocate another EUR 4 million for humanitarian activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ukraine, German Federal Foreign Office has reported.

The Federal Government is increasing financial support for humanitarian activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Ukraine in 2020 by an additional EUR 4 million, the statement reads.

The money will be provided in addition to the previously promised EUR 2 million. It is estimated that EUR 2 million will also be allocated in 2021.

In total, Germany will allocate EUR 12.3 million for the ICRCs humanitarian work in Ukraine from 2019 to 2021.

ish
Maha NCP minister announces to provide 5% quota for Muslims in education

India

oi-Mousumi Dash

Mumbai, Feb 28: The Maharashtra coalition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, the NCP and the Shiv Sena on Friday took opposing stands on a key issue, this time over a proposal to extend 5% reservation to Muslims in educational institutes in the state.

Reportedly, the Minority affairs minister Nawab Malik of the NCP today said that they are also planning to make room for reservation in jobs and the government is seeking legal advice for it.

Malik also added that the previous government, a coalition between Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena and the BJP, didn't give reservation for Muslims despite a court order.

BJP demands Thackeray to bring resolution to honour Savarkar in Maha legislature

Malik was responding to a question raised by Congress legislator Sharad Ranpise.

However, shortly after Malik's remarks, senior minister Eknath Shinde said no such decision has been taken.

The senior Sena leader said that the leaders of the ruling MVA, will take a call on the issue after discussions. Shinde also said to the media that he was not aware of the announcement.

She concluded by saying that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will take appropriate decisions at the appropriate time. No decision has been taken yet. And MVA will together take a call on policy decisions about giving reservation to any community.

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Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 17:32 [IST]
Kosovo's premier faced a backlash Friday for his plan to partially lift a tariff on Serbian imports, with a US diplomat condemning it as a "serious mistake" for falling short of a full removal.

The West has been pressuring Kosovo for months to drop the trade barrier, which has been poisoning already fraught ties with Serbia, a former war foe, since late 2018.

But the "half measure" Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti announced Thursday was met with disapproval from Richard Grenell, the outspoken US envoy to Kosovo and Serbia who was also recently named President Donald Trump's acting intelligence chief.

"We do not support Prime Minister Kurti's half measure," Grenell, known for his blunt approach, wrote on Twitter.

"Our position is quite clear: the tariffs must be completely dropped. Mr Kurti is making a serious mistake," he continued.

Under Kurti's plan the tariff, which has become the latest source of animosity between Kosovo and Serbia, would be first lifted on raw materials.

It would then be scrapped in full in April, but only if Serbia also shows signs of goodwill, Kurti said.

The newly-elected premier also received blowback from both allies and opponents at home.

Kurti's key coalition ally, the LDK party, threatened to quit the government if the tariff was not "revoked unconditionally," deputy Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti told local media.

"Can a government that does not enjoy the United States' support govern successfully?" he asked.

Kurti did however get measured support from the EU, who welcomed the "first step" towards resuming the EU-led talks between Serbia and Kosovo.

The tariff dispute has formed the latest chapter in turbulent ties between the Balkan neighbours, who have yet to normalise their relationship since Kosovo, a former Serbian province, broke away in a 1998-99 war led by ethnic Albanian separatists.

Serbia has never recognised the independence that Kosovo declared in 2008 and has lobbied hard to keep it out of global organisations, including the United Nations.

After it was levied in late 2018, the tariff brought EU-led negotiations between the neighbours to a standstill.

The US, however, has been working a different angle, with Grenell recently bringing the two sides together to work on improving their transportation links.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- To prepare for the spread of coronavirus in the United States, you can stock up on your favorite over-the-counter medications, said the director of the Ohio Department of Health.

Pain relievers like acetaminophen (Tylenol), ibuprofen (Advil) and aspirin could alleviate the fever and aches that come with the COVID-19 coronavirus, doctors say.

Ohio Department of Health director Amy Acton also mentioned having a 14-day supply of Nyquil, or whatever cold medicine you prefer, so you dont have to run to the pharmacy when youre sick.

Whatever it is, you want to have those medicines with you, Acton said at a news conference with Gov. Mike DeWine at MetroHealth Medical Center. She also advised making sure you have enough supplies for your children, parents and/or pets. I would prepare for the worst.

The U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention believe an outbreak of the disease, which originated in Wuhan, China, is inevitable.

Were kind of in for a long haul, Acton said.

She did not recommend ordinary citizens wearing masks, in part because there will likely be a shortage for doctors and nurses.

Doctors say the majority of coronavirus case here will likely be mild. That could mean flu-like symptoms, with coughing, sneezing, fever and shortness of breath.

What would you do? Cleveland.com readers suggested their own preparations: Stocking up on frozen meals and electrolyte replacement drinks, pet food and soft foods like yogurt and oatmeal, in addition to over-the-counter medications and slippers.

Whether ibuprofen or acetaminophen is better depends the patient, Jason Briscoe, Discount Drug Marts director for pharmacy operations, said. It depends on health history and personal preference.

It can never hurt to have a first-aid kit on hand.

Briscoe said pharmacists will be able to work with those experiencing symptoms or who are worried about the virus. Theres been a run on masks at Discount Drug Mart, but no flood of people stocking up on over-the-counter medicine.

When it comes to alleviating upper respiratory symptoms, like suppressing cough, theres not much over-the-counter medicines can do, said Dr. Keith Armitage, medical director for the UH Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine and Global Health. If you feel short of breath, call your doctor. Thats one of the indicators that the virus could have progressed into a lung infection and supplemental oxygen is necessary.

The elderly and people with pre-existing conditions will be at greater risk for severe symptoms.

Armitage reiterated that, based on what we know now, most coronavirus patients will be able to recover at home, rather than in a hospital.

I dont think people need to go buy a bunch of over-the-counter remedies for the common cold, he said. Pay attention to respective public health authorities.

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Linkedin Made Anthony Iswara (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020 16:49 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206738418 1 Business Train,railway,Bangladesh,exports,INKA,LEN-Industri,PT-KAI,erick-thohir,State-owned-Enterprises-Ministry,state-owned-enterprises Free

Indonesia has expressed interest in developing railway infrastructure in Bangladesh by joining a tender for the export of 1,050 train cars to the South Asian country.

State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister Erick Thohir welcomed Bangladeshi Railways Minister Md. Nurul Islam Sujon in Jakarta on Thursday to discuss opportunities for Indonesia to join the railway project.

The president directors of state-owned firms likely to be involved in such a project also attended the meeting. They represented electronic equipment maker PT Len Industri, train manufacturer PT Industri Kereta Api (Inka) and railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI).

"We are not only seeking a business-to-business partnership but also want to help train [workers from Bangladesh] to support our partnership," Erick told reporters after the meeting in Jakarta.

Read also: Trains made by Indonesian state firm to serve commuters in Philippines

The move marks yet another effort to push local trainmakers onto the global market. Last year, Inka sent 15 train cars to Bangladesh, part of 250 to be shipped in total, after the company exported 200 train cars to the country in 2006 and 2016.

"Certainly, this is part of our efforts to develop train industries not only inside the country but also to supply other countries, like Bangladesh," Erick said.

Erick estimated that the railways partnership with Bangladesh had generated US$181.6 million in revenue since 2005. The Bangladeshi minister said Bangladesh and Indonesia were "good friends" and highlighted the fact that both countries had large Muslim populations.

The Philippine state railway operator is using two trains made by Inka to serve customers in Makati city, the financial hub of metropolitan Manila. Inca is also set to deliver 30 electrodiesel locomotives worth $91.3 million to Zambia based on a contract signed in January 2018.

The state-owned train manufacturer said last year it was expecting to sign Rp 7.2 trillion ($506 million) worth of order contracts in 2019, including for exports of rolling stock to African and Asian countries.
Kaelynn Williams, a Peace Corps volunteer, at the Khongoryn Els sand dunes, also known as the "Singing Dunes" in the Gobi Desert. Read more

Kaelynn Williams, 25, thought she had about six more months in Mongolia, where she has been working as a Peace Corps volunteer for almost three years.

But this week all volunteers in her program were told they had to go home. For Williams, that means returning to Southwest Philadelphia and hoping she can get back to Mongolia.

Were crossing our fingers to make sure, to see if thats possible, she said.

There havent been any confirmed cases of coronavirus in Mongolia, but it has hit nearby countries hard. Mongolia borders China, where the virus began, and Mongolian Airlines has canceled flights to and from China, South Korea, and Japan.

The Peace Corps is a service program run by the U.S. government that sends volunteers to countries worldwide in fields such as education, agriculture, youth in development, environment, community economic development, and health. Most volunteers serve in a two-year-program with an additional three months of training. Mongolian volunteers work within their assigned communities on health and education projects, and learn the local languages, including Kazakh and Mongolian.

The way Williams and another third-year volunteer leader, Sean McLaughlin, 27, of Middletown, N.J., understand it, the program is being suspended because of all the flight cancellations. If a volunteer were to become infected with coronavirus, they said, there would not be a proper medical evacuation route available.

Though Williams and McLaughlin are disappointed to be leaving Mongolia sooner than expected, they understand why the Peace Corps made this decision and are grateful the agency is making sure they are safe.

An agency spokesperson confirmed that more than 90 volunteers from Mongolia were told Wednesday that the Peace Corps would begin evacuating them "due to travel constraints and ongoing school closings related to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The health, safety and security of volunteers are the Peace Corps highest priorities, an agency spokesperson wrote in an email.
Prosecutors have pressed charges against six individuals for creating a criminal organization and illegal possession of motor vehicles.

The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine is verifying reports of the involvement of law enforcement officials in the unlawful actions by individuals who had been exposed selling across Ukraine luxury cars stolen in the European Union.

"According to investigators, participants in the criminal organization executed leasing agreements on elite-class cars to themselves, as well as front persons. Among such persons were representatives of private Ukrainian firms and foreign entrepreneurs from the European Union member states (Republic of Poland, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Czech Republic, and others)," the Prosecutor General's Office said on February 26.

"The said persons, possibly with the help of corrupt accomplices in law enforcement, would clear vehicles at customs and register them with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine to receive registration and plates. Subsequently, the vehicles would be sold. The perpetrators have fooled dozens of foreign organizations since 2017. Having failed to receive lease payments, these organizations notified law enforcement to have their cars put on the international wanted list. There are 56 cases where the scheme was applied, which inflicted in EUR 4 million in losses," the report said.

Read alsoIn Ukraine, cyberpolice operative demanded bribe in cryptocurrency

Six individuals were notified of suspicion of creating a criminal organization and illegal possession of vehicles (Part 1 of Article 255, Part 4 of Article 28, and Part 3 of Article 289 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

As part of the criminal investigation, more than 80 warranted searches were conducted in the cities of Kyiv and Lviv, as well as in Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Lviv, Kyiv, Odesa, Rivne, and Kherson regions.

During raids, law enforcers seized paperwork, bank cards, 10 elite-class cars, a large number of license plates, cash, weapons, ammunition and drugs. In addition, they seized several passports and driver's licenses of other states, obviously with fake personal data.

"Now the involvement of law enforcers who could be accomplices of the exposed group is being verified. An investigation is under way," reads the statement.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

Due to the rapid spread of coronavirus in the world and its appearance in neighboring countries, special laboratories and units have been deployed in Azerbaijan to combat COVID-19, Trend reports referring to the Food Safety Agency of Azerbaijan.

Units and improved special laboratories that meet international standards have been deployed in the country's regions.

At present, 19 such laboratories operate in Azerbaijan, six of which are located in Baku. These laboratories are envisaged for inspection of goods intended for import and export, determining the quality of food products and ensuring veterinary and phytosanitary safety.

The special laboratories have the ability to quickly respond to emergency calls on the coronavirus and are equipped with PZR kits, personal protective equipment (PPE), and disinfectants for testing for the COVID-19. Laboratory assistants and doctors working here have received special training in laboratory testing of the disease.

Moreover, mobile laboratories, that can quickly reach any part of the country and conduct an emergency inspection in case of any suspicion of a virus, have also been deployed.

To maintain epidemiological and epizootic stability in the country, the veterinary laboratory is also equipped with all necessary equipment, tools and professional staff.

Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and virologists from the National Institute of Health (NIH) of the US reviewed special laboratories set up throughout the country and praised their activities, noting that the conditions at them comply with all international biosafety standards and rules.

To protect against infectious diseases and prevent the spread of diseases, the agency calls on citizens to comply with food safety standards and be guided only by official information.
Sara Habib, 13, plays the guitar while her father looks on at their home in Kabul

By Hameed Farzad

KABUL (Reuters) - Like many young Afghans, 13-year-old music student Sara Habib is nervous about an agreement between the Taliban and the United States due to be signed in Doha on Saturday, which would include pulling U.S. troops out of the country after 18 years.

"I'm a little concerned about my future, because if any group like the Taliban or any other groups come to the country, I would no longer have my educational freedom," the teenager said, while strumming her guitar after classes at a Kabul music academy.

The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 after seizing power following years of civil war, and imposed many restrictions on women and activities it deemed "un-Islamic".

Since 2001, it has led a violent insurgency against the internationally backed government, killing thousands.

Previous attempts at negotiating peace have been scuttled by violence, most recently last December, when an attack on a U.S. military base claimed by the Taliban put talks on hold.

The Taliban has recently been projecting itself as more moderate, saying Islam gives women rights in areas such as business and ownership, inheritance, education, work, the choice of a husband, security and well-being.

The Taliban did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

PEACE A LONG TIME COMING

Habib used to study at the International School of Kabul, where her favorite subject was music. After the school closed five years ago due to security issues, she decided to continue her guitar-playing. It made her and everyone around her happy, she says.

Seven months ago, she joined the Asoo music academy, where she and three other students sit in a small circle as they practise playing folk music, harmonizing on their guitars. Habib taps a scuffed black boot to the beat.

A fellow music student at Asoo said peace was a long time coming. "There are negotiations every day, and other countries decide for us; how long can we tolerate this? And that's why I'm disappointed with the country's security situation," said Mahdi Fayazi.

Story continues

At home, Habib is no different from many other girls her age. She enjoys singing a song from an animated Barbie movie and reading books from "The Breadwinner" series of children's novels set in Taliban-era Afghanistan by Canadian author Deborah Ellis.

"I have lots of hopes for the future," Habib says, explaining that she doesn't have much first-hand knowledge about the Taliban, as she was born after the group's fall in 2001.

Still, she is clear about how she feels.

"Every group that is against women's progress and also against human rights is not acceptable for me."

(Reporting by Hameed Farzad; Writing by Karishma Singh; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Neil Fullick)
UBS and Bloomberg announce the launch of "Girls Take Finance," a global initiative that expands the 2019 "Girls Take" events to 12 cities worldwide. "Girls Take Finance" aims to inspire the next-generation of leaders by providing young women, aged 14-18, with insight into the financial services industry and career opportunities in business, finance and technology.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227005522/en/

In 2020, UBS and Bloomberg will expand "Girls Take Finance" to major cities across the globe, including Frankfurt, Jakarta, Johannesburg, London, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Sydney, and Zurich.

"As someone who started his career in financial services as an apprentice at age 15, I know first-hand how important encouragement is to making career choices," said UBS Group CEO Sergio P. Ermotti. "That's why I'm so delighted to expand the program this year. Together with Bloomberg, we can inspire hundreds of young women who otherwise might not have seriously considered pursuing careers in areas like finance, banking and technology."

As with the previous "Girls Take" events, UBS and Bloomberg are partnering with local non-profits in each city to host on-site events at some of the world's most iconic locations in business and finance. The full-day programming will include workshops focused on career growth and networking skills, panel discussions with industry experts, and motivational talks with volunteers about the variety of careers in financial services.

Businesses that want to attract tomorrows brightest talent must do more to make careers in their industry accessible to more diverse groups at an earlier age, said Peter T. Grauer, Chairman of Bloomberg LP and Founding Chairman of the U.S. 30% Club. Were glad to participate in 'Girls Take Finance' and are excited to expand the programs footprint in its second year so that more young women can see a future for themselves in our industry, which is eager for their talent and perspective.

The initiative builds on the success of the inaugural "Girls Take" events, which began March 2019 as "Girls Take Wall Street" in New York City, where UBS, Bloomberg and State Street Global Advisors convened more than 100 high school girls for a day of educational career mentorship. The day ended with the girls ringing The Closing Bell at the New York Stock Exchange to commemorate the start of Women's History Month.

In October 2019, UBS and Bloomberg took "Girls Take Wall Street" to India, hosting "Girls Take Dalal Street" in Mumbai and "Girls Take GIFT City" in Ahmedabad. Nearly 150 young women from colleges across Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad participated in the mentoring events. Students also had the opportunity to ring the Closing Bell at the Bombay Stock Exchange and visited the India International Exchange (INX), Indias first international stock exchange.

Additionally, UBS and Bloomberg have standalone initiatives that focus on helping young people advance their education and future careers.

UBS is committed to taking a leading role in driving change that matters in the world. Through strategic financial commitments and targeted employee volunteering to advance education, the firm is dedicated to empowering the next generation of young people. This is demonstrated through efforts across the firm's Community Affairs programs, including The Bridge Academy in the UK, Keys To Your Future: College and Career Readiness in the US, YES (Young Enterprise Switzerland) in Switzerland and UBS Community Academies in APAC. A pioneer in social finance, the UBS Optimus Foundation takes a leading role in driving impactful philanthropy that delivers breakthrough solutions to social and environmental issues. UBS is also a founding partner of #TOGETHERBAND, a campaign with the Bottletop Foundation that aims to promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to achieve a more sustainable world by 2030. The #TOGETHERBAND campaign will launch SDG5, Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in March to coincide with the initiative.

Bloomberg Startup, the companys global philanthropic education engagement program, supports young women around the world by providing access to mentors, internships, and career-readiness workshops that expose students to diverse and influential women. Read more about how Bloomberg is advancing women: https://www.bloomberg.com/women.

Confirmed 2020 "Girls Take Finance" Non-Profit Partners:

Later in 2020, UBS and Bloomberg will also bring Girls Take Finance to Indonesia and India, hosting events in Jakarta, Mumbai and GIFT City.

Notes to Editors

About UBS

UBS provides financial advice and solutions to wealthy, institutional and corporate clients worldwide, as well as private clients in Switzerland. UBS's strategy is centered on our leading global wealth management business and our premier universal bank in Switzerland, enhanced by Asset Management and the Investment Bank. The bank focuses on businesses that have a strong competitive position in their targeted markets, are capital efficient, and have an attractive long-term structural growth or profitability outlook.

About Bloomberg

Bloomberg, the global business and financial information and news leader, gives influential decision makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. The companys strength  delivering data, news and analytics through innovative technology, quickly and accurately  is at the core of the Bloomberg Terminal. Bloombergs enterprise solutions build on the companys core strength: leveraging technology to allow customers to access, integrate, distribute and manage data and information across organizations more efficiently and effectively. For more information, visit www.bloomberg.com or request a demo.

https://www.ubs.com

 UBS 2020. All rights reserved. The key symbol and UBS are among the registered and unregistered trademarks of UBS.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227005522/en/
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan made a statement on Twitter on the occasion of the 32nd anniversary of the Armenian massacres in Sumgait.

We are commemorating the innocent victims of Sumgait massacres. 32 years ago Azerbaijan responded to peaceful appeal of Nagorno Karabakh people to self-determination with mass violence and pogroms against Armenians. We pay our duty to memory with strong commitment to prevent such crimes, the PM said.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
IN April, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. named Birmingham, Ala., as the most segregated city in the United States and made it the target of civil-rights demonstrations. As a response, Birminghams police commissioner got an injunction against all demonstrations from a state court. King announced that he would ignore the court injunction, and led a march of some 1,000 people toward the citys business district.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

IN April, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. named Birmingham, Ala., as the most segregated city in the United States and made it the target of civil-rights demonstrations. As a response, Birminghams police commissioner got an injunction against all demonstrations from a state court. King announced that he would ignore the court injunction, and led a march of some 1,000 people toward the citys business district.

He was arrested and thrown in jail. A group of religious leaders wrote an open letter calling for "the rule of law," stating that concerns should be addressed through negotiations rather than in the streets. Time magazine was also critical of Kings decision to ignore the court injunction banning demonstrations.

AP Photo, File In this May 8, 1963 file photo, civil rights leaders Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and Rev. Ralph Abernathy hold a news conference in Birmingham, Ala. King was jailed in Birmingham the previous month for defying an injunction banning demonstrations.

While King was in jail, he wrote a response to the public statement of concern and caution issued by the white religious leaders. His famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail" provides timeless wisdom, particularly relevant in Canada today, regarding the role of non-violent direct action and civil disobedience as a catalyst for profound change in society.

The letter states, "You may well ask: Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isnt negotiation a better path? You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Non-violent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored."

King goes on to say, "I must confess that I am not afraid of the word tension. I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive non-violent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must see the need for non-violent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help people rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.

"The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue."

Kings letter further pointed out that "not a single gain for civil rights has been made without determined legal and non-violent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

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In the summer of 1963, after Kings release from jail, he organized the March on Washington, which involved some 200,000 people and was the site of his legendary "I Have a Dream" speech.

Although Time magazine initially criticized King for ignoring the court injunction in Birmingham, its editors came to understand the foundational impact of his work and named Martin Luther King Jr. its Person of the Year for 1963.

King told Time that strategic economic leverage through direct action is required in order to get those in power to the negotiating table. "You dont win against a political power structure where you dont have the votes," he said. "But you can win against an economic power structure to make the difference between a merchants profit and loss."

In 1983, U.S. president Ronald Reagan, after initial opposition to the idea, signed into law the Martin Luther King Jr. Day national holiday to honour the political activism and civil-rights legacy of his work. Consistent with the struggle for change, it was not until 2000 that all 50 states officially observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

History teaches us that civil disobedience and non-violent direct action play a critical role in promoting fundamental change in a democratic society. "The rule of law" must be viewed in this context. Kings insight about the distinction between "order and justice; a negative peace which is the absence of tension; and a positive peace which is the presence of justice" provides an enduring message for our country about the journey of building a peaceful and just society.

Tom Simms has been an inner-city community organizer in Winnipeg for the past 40 years.
Perhaps the wrong questions are being asked. Why are vouchers so important in some school districts? Orange, Chagrin Falls, Bay Village, and many schools in the area dont have such a drain on the district because people send their children to the local schools.

The problem isnt vouchers; it is failing schools.

Concerned parents do what is best for their child. Sending a child to a failing school when there is an alternative is just good parenting.

Cleveland Heights is putting on a large levy after millions was spent on the high school. Where is the difference in performance?

Money might be better spent on working with parents and students in failing schools; buildings and teachers can only do so much. If there is no support from the home, the schools will fail and concerned parents will make other academic choices for their child.

Louise Brick,

Chagrin Falls
The Jim Acosta Show traveled to India this week.

As usual, the man goes out of his way to be obnoxious and please the one million viewers per hour who watch CNN.

Acosta's style is getting on Chris Wallace's nerves, as he said this week:

"I was horrified by [Acosta]," Wallace said at a Columbia University event in New York City hosted by the Common Ground Committee on Tuesday night. "It's not our job to get in fights with presidents. It's not our job to one-up presidents. It's our job to report on presidents." "But to the degree we have responded to his attacks on us with attacks or advocacy in kind, there's a huge mistake, and I think adds to people questioning the credibility of the media," the "Fox News Sunday" host said. Acosta told Trump during a press conference in New Delhi that CNN's "record on delivering the truth is a lot better" than his "sometimes" after the president broached the topic of a recent report on Russia's election interference that CNN later walked back. "I worry that the president's attacks have given too many straight news reporters  not talking about the opinion page or prime time  an excuse or license to cross the line themselves and become players on the field, and I think that is a huge mistake," Wallace said. "It's not our role. Our role is to be observers, umpires, fact-checkers, investigators  it's not to be advocates. It's not to be opponents."

Chris Wallace is correct. I hope Mr. Wallace understands that Acosta's act is totally premeditated. In other words, CNN knows that its shrinking audience wants a reporter who fights Trump.

Should the White House remove his credentials? No, it should not. President Trump does a great job of making a fool out of Acosta.

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.

Image credit: Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with Twitter screen shot and detail from photo by Legoktm via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Copyright  2020 Albuquerque Journal

When it comes to the coronavirus, local hospitals are taking the position that its better to be safe than sorry.

Although there are no reported cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease in New Mexico at this time, Lovelace, Presbyterian and the University of New Mexico hospitals all have similar contingency plans in the event the illness suddenly appears.

World health officials fear the virus could become a pandemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Thursday 50 countries have confirmed cases of COVID-19  almost 79,000 of those cases in China and another 1,700 in South Korea.

The global count of those who contracted the virus stands at about 82,000, with 433 new cases reported Thursday in China, the epicenter of the outbreak. About 2,800 people have died, most of them in China.

We are prepared and we have a basic plan that weve tailored to the coronavirus and weve run some drills, said Dr. Vesta Sandoval, chief medical officer at Lovelace Health System.

The plan begins with intake, when a patient shows up at a clinic, urgent care center or hospital emergency room with respiratory or other symptoms that could indicate the presence of COVID-19. The patient is immediately given a surgical mask to cover the mouth and nose and is isolated from other patients to be further assessed by healthcare officials wearing personal protective equipment to prevent possible transmission, Sandoval said.

If the symptoms are mild, the mask-wearing patient may be discharged home with oversight from the New Mexico Department of Health, and instructed to remain in isolation for 14 days, as recommended by both the World Health Organization and the CDC.

If we admit the patient to the hospital, we have special isolation rooms that have negative pressure, so air from that room is not circulated throughout the hospital, thereby mitigating further transmission of the disease.

In the event of a mass surge of the illness, we would probably create a central location where we have the ability to have tighter control of traffic as well as have multiple isolation rooms and be able to make certain that everyone has the correct protective equipment, Sandoval said.

If a patient with severe symptoms of the illness has to be moved from one room in the hospital to another, or another location outside the hospital, an isobag, a kind of a protective bubble that fits over a stretcher, could be used to isolate that individual.

Dr. Jeff Salvon-Harman, chief patient safety officer and medical director of infection control at Presbyterian Hospital, said those conducting the initial intake assessment currently dont have the ability to test for COVID-19. But what we can do is rule out other causes, he said.

We could perform influenza testing, we could test for other coronaviruses, and we can test for RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). So theres a number of conditions we can identify or rule out to give us a better sense of the possibility of this being COVID-19.

Another factor, he said, is if the patient had traveled recently to countries where there was an outbreak of coronavirus.

In the event of a mass outbreak of the virus, Salvon-Harmon said, dedicated portions of hospitals, nursing units, or other appropriate buildings could be used to isolate patients, provide supportive care and monitor and restrict access.

Dr. Meghan Brett, UNM Hospitals epidemiologist, said the challenge is that the world is globally connected and this is why what happens in China matters, because it can still impact us here in New Mexico. Everything is just one flight away.

The biggest risk from COVID-19 is to people age 60 and older and those with chronic health conditions, she said.

The key thing is for people not to panic but to keep up with good practices that work for all respiratory viruses, Brett said. I would emphasize were not out of flu season yet, which is more likely at the moment than coronavirus, so washing your hands is always a good idea, minimize the amount of times you touch your face, and if people are sick and have fever they should stay home because they will recover faster and reduce the risk of transmitting the viral infection to coworkers or anybody they encounter.

State epidemiologist Dr. Michael Landen reminded the public that there are currently no confirmed COVID-19 cases in New Mexico. Nevertheless, the state has planned for it.

Right now were focused on containing the virus as much as possible by monitoring travelers from China and South Korea, assuring that hospitals and clinics are prepared to evaluate a potential case and that they know how to employ appropriate infection control measures, he said.

As of next week, the state will have the capability to test for the virus at the Department of Healths Scientific Laboratory Division in Albuquerque, which will reduce the process time to about two hours. That test is currently only done at the CDC.

Also, a triage phone line is being set up but wont be activated until there is evidence of community transmission in New Mexico, Landen said.

At this point its looking like at least 80% of people with novel coronavirus in other countries have mild illness; and if someone has mild illness and is not at risk for severe complications of the disease, they can call the triage line and be instructed about how to take care of their illness at home, he said.

During influenza season, the Department of Health weekly checks on the status of how many hospital beds in the state are full and how many are available. Because of the potential for coronavirus, Landen said, we are going to continue those weekly checks throughout the state.

The DOH also weekly monitors the amount of personal protective equipment on hand at hospitals and tracks to some extent the amount at outpatient pharmacies.

Some hospitals have not been able to get the same amount of personal protective equipment that they got in the past, he said, and there are shortages of masks and gloves at outpatient pharmacies. But our recommendation still stands that, in the context of coronavirus, masks are to be used to cover somebodys cough if they are sick. Were not recommending that the general population wear masks for coronavirus prevention if theyre not ill.

An Albuquerque Public Schools spokeswoman said Thursday that the district is working closely with the state DOH, the city of Albuquerque and other agencies to anticipate and address concerns about coronavirus as they arise.

Local charter school New Mexico International School sent out a note to parents, dated Feb. 26, highlighting ways the school is taking precautions both against the flu and coronavirus.

The school will temporarily turn off drinking fountains to help curb the spread of germs. While there will be stations to fill up water bottles, communal drinking fountains will be shut off until further notice.

The school also emphasized commonsense habits like washing hands and covering coughs. Other precautions outlined include requiring hand sanitizer every time someone enters or exits a classroom and disinfecting highly public areas and items  things such as school supplies and doorknobs.

Nancy Messonnier, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases director, said at a news briefing that communities should start preparing  including schools. Measures she mentioned for the classroom included grouping students into smaller clusters to limit face-to-face contact and thinking about digital learning options if schools were to close.

On Friday, Mayor Tim Keller and the city of Albuquerque will convene a meeting with various city departments, including the Sunport and Environmental Health, as well as regional government agencies, to discuss COVID-19 preparedness.

Keller said it was important to make sure that we have clear protocols in place. He added that coordinating efforts in advance is the best way to ensure an effective response if an emergency arises here at home.

Meanwhile, the CDC has confirmed that 60 people in the U.S. are being treated for the COVID-19. Among them are 42 former passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, the site of a recent outbreak and quarantine in Japan; three Americans recently repatriated from Wuhan, China, the center of the outbreak; and one patient at University of California Davis Medical Center who contracted the illness through unknown means. Most of the other patients either had recently been to China or are a spouse of someone who recently returned from China.

Journal staff writer Shelby Perea contributed to this report.
If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 16:18:49|Editor: huaxia

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Mohammed Hassan's mother holds his legs as he lies in a bed at the malnutrition ward in Al-Sabeen hospital in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 25, 2020. The United Nations says about 80 percent of the Yemeni population are in need of life-saving support. "About 7.4 million people need nutrition assistance, including 2.1 million children under the age of five, and 1.1 million pregnant and breastfeeding women who need acute malnutrition treatment," Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in a statement in January. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)

SANAA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Emaciated child Mohammed Hassan threw a frightened look towards the door after a doctor entered to examine his skinny body in a hospital bed in the rebel-held Sanaa, where five years of war has pushed millions in Yemen to the doorstep of famine.

Mohammed, aged fifteen and weighs only 14kg, lives with his family in a tent in a remote village east of the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, near a frontline where fighting between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed government forces has impeded the entry of humanitarian aid for months.

"Mohammad was admitted to Al-Sabeen hospital from As-Sukhnah district in eastern Hodeidah. He suffers acute malnutrition for long time because of the dire circumstances in the embattled areas," doctor Mousa Debis told Xinhua.

Mohammed said a good man gave his father money that helped transferred him to the hospital.

"My father works as a woodcutter and had no enough money to take me to the hospital for treatment until a good man helped us," he said.

The father, Hassan, blames the war for the worsening condition of his extremely malnourished son, complaining that he is unable to secure daily basic food needed for his nine-member family.

"My children and I are hungry... our daily meal is dry bread and sometimes we do not get it. The war and blockade have devastated our life. We live now in a tenet with very little food," he lamented.

Hassan's family was one of thousands of Yemeni families which become unable to secure one meal a day or rent a house as food prices are rising and value of the country's currency is falling because of the civil war.

The United Nations says about 80 percent of the Yemeni population are in need of life-saving support.

"About 7.4 million people need nutrition assistance, including 2.1 million children under the age of five, and 1.1 million pregnant and breastfeeding women who need acute malnutrition treatment," Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in a statement in January.

The war began in late 2014 when the Houthi rebels seized control of much of the country's north and forced the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee abroad. The Saudi-led military coalition intervened in March 2015 to support Hadi's government.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, displaced over 3 million, cut public sector wages and pushed the country to the brink of famine.

"I am very sick. I hope that I will be recovered and be able to return to the school," Mohammed said in a quiet voice.
Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we're told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they're given. This week he talks to Jordon Steele-John. The West Australian Greens senator, 25, is Australias youngest federal politician. He was born with cerebral palsy; for his 2017 entrance into the Senate, the chamber

was made wheelchair-accessible for the first time.

Jordon Steele-John: "Social justice had been a big part of life." Credit:Kristoffer Paulsen

POLITICS

Obvious question: why politics  and why so young? I was randomly catapulted into the Senate by the constitutional crisis that gripped the parliament. [Steele-John replaced former West Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam, who resigned amid revelations he was a dual citizen.] Social justice had been a big part of life; my mother was a social worker in the UK. I also knew young people, disabled people, were very much affected by decisions made in the far-off land of Canberra. But politicians didnt really look like me. I thought that was inherently a problem.

You were born in England and your parents were avowed UK Labour Party voters. Christ yeah, my whole family! Youd curse Margaret Thatchers name and vote Labour every time.
MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, MI  A new partnership between the city of Muskegon Heights and two alternative energy companies is expected to covert almost half of the citys electric consumption to solar, according to an announcement released on Thursday.

Chart House Energy, a solar energy company based in Muskegon, and New Energy Equity, a solar project financing and development company in Annapolis, Maryland, will work with Muskegon Heights to develop at least four solar projects within city limits.

The 645-kilowatt system will offset almost 47 percent of the citys electric consumption, saving about $100,000 per year, according to the release.

The project will be financed through an agreement with New Energy Equity, and requires no upfront expenditure from Muskegon Heights, according to city manager Troy Bell.

Rather, the Maryland-based company will cover installation and infrastructure costs, while the financing costs will be taken out of the citys savings over the life of the project, Bell said.

The solar panels will be installed on the roofs of Muskegon Heights City Hall, 2724 Peck St., and the Department of Public Works, 3124 Wood St., and on the ground at the water filtration plant, 2323 Seminole Road, and pumping station on West Sherman Boulevard.

Panels may eventually be installed at the Muskegon Heights library, 2808 Sanford St., said Bell.

This is an investment in our community and the future of our community, and the quality of health for our community," he said.

The project is expected to create 20 construction jobs with wages of about $20 per hour, and take about two months to finish. As each installation is completed, Bell said, that building will go live, building up to a fully operational solar system.

The jobs will target low-income Heights residents, and are expected to be a path to career development, said Bell.

Theyre not just looking to hire people for the project, theyre looking to get them technical certification and work with them to make sure they have jobs when the project is done, Bell said of Chart House Energy.

The idea for bringing solar energy to Muskegon Heights predates Bells position as city manager - he came aboard in September - but got off the ground in the last four to six months, Bell said.

Bell said that the project is part of a broader effort referred to as New Heights to improve the city, which has struggled with financial divestment in its public infrastructure and schools.

This represents a significant turnaround for a city that has struggled, he said. "Our ability to pull together a project like this, with the limited resources that we have, was a large part of just prioritizing the importance of this project. But it is part of our effort to set our sights on the New Heights, to transform the way that we do things, to embrace technology, to be more efficient and more effective in providing city services."

Theres always a cost involved in that, he added, But the return on investment is what were seeking.

Read more on MLive:

Tiger Pride: Muskegon Heights has risen above challenges before

Muskegon Heights hopes downtown upgrades will attract new business

Muskegon Heights elects a new mayor

Muskegon Heights 2019 budget to fund roads, downtown upgrades
A British judge on Thursday paused Julian Assange's extradition hearing following four days of intense legal wrangling over Washington's request for the WikiLeaks founder to stand trial there on espionage charges. Judge Vanessa Baraitser, who will ultimately rule on the controversial case, ordered the legal teams for the 48-year-old Australian and the US government to reconvene for briefcase management hearings in March and April.

The full extradition hearing is then set to resume for three weeks in mid-May, when witnesses will be called and cross-examined, with an eventual ruling expected by August at the latest. The judge refused a request Thursday by Assange's lawyers to let him sit with his defence team, and not in the secure glass-walled dock area of the courtroom when the hearing resumes.

The one-time hacker has repeatedly stood up and interrupted this week's proceedings to complain about being unable to hear the arguments or confer confidentially with his lawyers. "I'm not able to guide them," Assange said on Thursday, in his latest courtroom outburst -- which Baraitser has repeatedly advised him against making.

READ| WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange to seek asylum in France amid extradition case

Arguing the current set-up could impinge on Assange's right to a fair hearing, defence lawyer Mark Summers invited the judge to "permit him confidential, discreet access to his lawyers" by letting him sit alongside them. "Someone can be in custody in this room without being in that glass cabin," he said. But Baraitser refused the application, arguing various "sensible, proportionate measures" -- such as Assange passing notes to his team and requesting regular breaks -- would ensure he could participate.

"It's quite apparent to me... that you've had no difficulty at all attracting the attention of your legal team," she said. Assange faces charges under the US Espionage Act for the 2010 release of a trove of secret files detailing aspects of US military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as a single computer hacking charge. His extradition hearing inside Woolwich Crown Court, next to the high-security Belmarsh prison where Assange is being held, began on Monday.

Making the US government case, lawyer James Lewis accused the WikiLeaks founder of risking the lives of intelligence sources by publishing the classified US government documents. He also detailed the US claims that Assange helped US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to steal the documents before recklessly releasing them.

In response, lawyers for Assange argued the charges were "political", and that his extradition would violate international law and numerous treaties. They also accused the United States of "boldly and blatantly" misstating facts about his conduct, calling some of their claims "lies, lies and more lies". A ruling against Assange could see him jailed for 175 years if convicted on all 17 US Espionage Act charges and the hacking count.

READ| US to lay out case against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange at extradition hearing

Julian Assange Case

The 48-year-old whistleblower currently imprisoned in Belmarsh is slapped with 18 charges in the United States including the Espionage Act, for conspiring to gain access into US military secrets between January and May 2010. If convicted, he will face up to 175 years in the US prison.

Wikileaks, an anti-secrecy organisation, was founded in 2006 as a platform for whistleblowers to release classified information anonymously. By 2015, Wikileaks became a portal to publish over 10 million documents, including top-secret documents. Ever since its launch in 2006, Wikileaks has published thousands of classified documents, disclosing the details from national security, war, politics to the film industry. In 2010, as per published files of WikiLeaks, Congress' Rahul Gandhi told the then US Ambassador at lunch that Hindu extremists groups post a greater threat to his country than the Muslim terrorists.

READ| Lawyer to UK Court: Julian Assange stripped naked twice, handcuffed 11 times

READ| Julian Assange struggles to say his own name, as he fights extradition

(with PTI inputs)
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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Minsk, Belarus  Fri, February 28, 2020 19:55 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad2067462ba 2 World coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus,outbreak,COVID-19,spreading,infectious-diseases,infection Free

Belarus and Azerbaijan reported Friday their first cases of the novel coronavirus, while Georgia announced its second case, saying several more people in quarantine may test positive.

Belarus's health ministry said that an infected Iranian student who arrived in the country from Azerbaijan last week was in a "satisfactory" condition.

The student and people he had been in contact with had been placed in quarantine in a hospital in the capital Minsk, it added in a statement.

The health ministry also said that there would now be health checks on anyone arriving in Belarus from Italy -- the worst affected country in Europe -- Iran and South Korea.

Travelers from China were already subject to such controls.

For its part, Azerbaijan's government said that a Russian citizen who had arrived from Iran had been confirmed to have contracted COVID-19.

"He has been placed in an isolation ward," it said in a statement, adding that the patient's condition was stable.

Georgia recorded its second coronavirus case and said the patient had recently traveled to Italy.

The infected person's "condition is satisfactory," the head of Georgia'a national center for disease control, Amiran Gamkrelidze, told a news conference.

He said 29 more people were kept in isolation in a Tbilisi hospital and there was "high probability" that some of them might test positive for the novel virus.

On Wednesday, Georgia introduced a two-week ban on Iranian nationals entering Georgia. Earlier this month, Tbilisi suspended direct air services with China.
By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: As much as Rs 690 crore has been sanctioned for execution of development works through NREGA, said Minister for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy. He was speaking at the district review committee meeting held at the collectors camp office here on Thursday.

The district in-charge minister said of the total, Rs 326 crore was sanctioned for developing CC roads, Rs 221 crore would be spent on CC drains, Rs 104 crore for construction of 272 village secretariat buildings and Rs 17 crore for construction of compound walls of 300 schools. Commenting on the house site pattas distribution scheme for homeless poor by Ugadi, Reddy said 1,042 layouts of the proposed 1,345 layouts were being developed in the government lands.

The minister added as many as 4,53,064 persons were pension beneficiaries in the district. A total of 64,000 new pensions were sanctioned and 43,408 pensions which were rejected due to various reasons have been sent for re-verification.
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Linkedin Nicolas Delaunay (Agence France-Presse) Au Cap, Seychelles  Fri, February 28, 2020 09:04 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206718cdc 2 Food Seychelles,nuts,tourism,environment,coco-de-mer Free

It is the world's largest seed, and with a shape suggestive of a woman's hips and myths of love-making powers, the coco de mer is an icon of the Seychelles.

With a 10-kilogram coconut wedged between his feet, experienced nut cutter Christophe Bristol uses a mallet and wood chisel to extract the precious kernel from the shell in a warehouse on the Indian Ocean archipelago.

Every bit is valuable.

"The kernel is sold at a very high price in China," said Bristol, hammering at the curvaceous contours of the nut, which features on the Seychelles' coat of arms.

A picture taken on November 21, 2019, shows a tree of sea coconut or "coco de mer, that grows only within the Praslin and Curieuse islands. ( AFP/Yasuyoshi CHIBA)

But on the islands, the "double coconut" is more commonly called in French "coco fesse", or the "coconut buttock".

For centuries, myths and mysteries grew up around the nut -- and it was exploited to the brink of extinction.

The impressive coconut palms grows only on two Seychelles islands, Praslin and Curieuse.

"People have a superstition; they grind it and put it in alcohol like whisky, then they drink it and it gives them strength," Bristol said. "That's the myth."

In the nut warehouse in Au Cap on Mahe, the main island of Seychelles, Bristol cuts through the outer shell of the seed.

Today, strict government rules mean that less than 2,000 nuts are harvested each year.

Read also: South Africans get the bug: Cape Town diner serves insect-only dishes

Red List

Preparing the nut takes time and skill.

"To open and empty a coco de mer takes around 20 minutes," said Bristol, explaining how the extreme hardness of the outer shell is a tough nut to crack. "It's much more difficult than a regular coconut."

A picture taken on November 22, 2019, shows a worker cuts sea coconut or "coco de mer, that grows only within the Praslin and Curieuse islands and the nutshell trade is controlled for its high value, at a factory in Mahe island, the largest island contains the capital city of Victoria, Seychelles. ( AFP/Yasuyoshi CHIBA)

To prepare it, the shell is cut in half along the groove giving it its unique shape, and then emptied of the pulpy kernel.

"Nowadays, we cut the coco de mer in two with a powerful electric saw -- but before, we did it with a handsaw, and (the shell) is so hard that it could take up to half an hour" just to open it, he said.

"It is harder than most types of wood."

The halves are then glued back together to be sold in souvenir shops, for prices ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 Seychellois rupees ($220-295, 200-265 euros), accompanied by a certificate.

The kernel can fetch up to $100 per kilo, according to the Minister of Tourism Didier Dogley.

The coco de mer has been coveted for centuries.

Originally, nuts were found drifting in the open sea, or washed up on beaches in the Indian Ocean. Having never seen it grow on land, sailors thought it came from trees rooted in the seabed -- hence its name in French, coco de mer, or sea coconuts.

It was not until the 17th century that sailors found the trees where the unique nut actually grows.

For a while demand dropped -- not least because conventional coconuts have a sweeter taste.

But the coco de mer became popular again after tourism took off following the independence of Seychelles in 1976.

So much so, that the Seychelles authorities decided in 1978 to control the trade.

But the restrictions were ignored by nut poachers, putting the coconut palm in danger.

Since 2011, it has been put on the "red list" of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Read also: Cape Town restaurant wins Guinness world milkshake record

Nut buttock brandy

The government finally succeeded in putting an end to poaching by tightening the surveillance of the areas where they grow, like the Vallee de Mai, a UNESCO world heritage site, and enforcing regulation of the trade.

"The coco de mer issue, I always compare it to what is happening with the elephants in Africa," said Tourism Minister Dogley.

A picture taken on November 22, 2019, shows packages of sea coconut or "coco de mer, that grows only within the Praslin and Curieuse islands and the nutshell trade is controlled for its high value, at a factory in Mahe island, the largest island contains the capital city of Victoria, Seychelles. ( AFP/Yasuyoshi CHIBA)

Only four companies have a license to process and export the pulp, including Island Scent, where Bristol works.

Each nut is carefully numbered and weighed before cutting.

Bristol then separately measures the weight of the extracted pulp and records it in a notebook, checked later by the authorities.

He then cuts the large white pieces into very thin slices, which will be dried, packaged, exported and ultimately sold in Asia.

For the Seychelles, which relies on importing some 90 percent of its goods, the nut is a rare resource that is unique to the islands.

Wishing to capitalize on that, the authorities prohibit the export of non-emptied seed -- which could be planted elsewhere -- and encourage the processing of the pulp.

"It's about optimizing the resource," said Dogley.

Liqueur, gourmet dishes, cosmetics -- the coco de mer is transformed in multiple ways.

The latest addition is an "island brandy" which was launched late last year and is sold for several hundred dollars per bottle.
MANILA, Philippines  The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Friday, February 28 announced that free rides offered at the Pasig River Ferry Service will be extended until the end of March.

We are happy to hear that people are enjoying the ferry ride going to their destinations and commuting by ferry has become a way of life to Metro Manila residents. That is why we are extending the free ride until March 31, MMDA Chairman Danilo Lim said in a statement.

The MMDA said the free ride, which started in December 2019, was supposed to end tomorrow, February 29. Commuters are served on a first-come-first-served basis.

The ferry service runs from Pinagbuhatan in Pasig City to Escolta in Manila, with 11 stations: Pinagbuhatan, San Joaquin and Maybunga in Pasig City; Guadalupe, Valenzuela in Makati City; Hulo in Mandaluyong City; and Lambingan, Sta. Ana, PUP, Lawton, Escolta in Manila City.

The Pasig ferry service accommodates an average of 700 to 1,000 passengers a day which, according to the MMDA, is a sign that people are now opting to use the ferry service as an alternative mode of transportation to the already congested Metro Manila road network.

In anticipation of an increase in the number of passengers, the MMDA announced that more ferry boats will be added to better serve the public.

Three additional ferry stations, namely, Quinta Market in Manila, Circuit Makati in Makati, and Kalawaan in Pasig will be opened soon to further expand the operations.

Some private groups have also expressed their intention to put up their own ferry stations to serve their immediate areas, the MMDA said.

At present, the Pasig River Ferry Station has eight boats which can accommodate a varying number of passengers.

Soon 150-seater ferries will be cleared for use as well, Michael Salalima, MMDA PRFS deputy head, said.

The ferry service first opened in 2014. It was revived in 2019 in line with President Rodrigo Dutertes order to address the traffic problem in Metro Manila.

The post Free rides at Pasig River Ferry extended until March 31  MMDA appeared first on UNTV News.
[February 28, 2020] Vivo's APEX 2020 Reveals Futuristic Vision Beyond Imagination

BEIJING, Feb. 28, 2020 /CNW/ -- vivo today unveils the third generation of its APEX concept smartphone - APEX 2020. Known for iconic innovation, APEX 2020 builds on the success of its previous generations to feature more cutting-edge technologies, while also showcases vivo's continuing pursuit of head-turning aesthetics. This flagship product displays a major breakthrough in visual effects that is based on vivo's deep consumer and smartphone industry insight. APEX 2020 is truly a revolutionary manifestation of vivo's exploration of future smartphone design. APEX 2020 has a 120 FullView Edgeless Display that removes side edges and bezels from the front view. With the In-Display Camera and vivo Wireless Super FlashCharge 60W, APEX 2020 has a Super Unibody Design with no openings. vivo also successfully embeds a gimbal-like structure into APEX 2020's main camera, which is equipped with a 5x-7.5x Continuous Optical Zoom. This feature showcases vivo's latest achievements and future plans to offer extraordinary visual effects and enhanced future photography. Harry Hong, General Manager of Product, vivo said, "APEX is never a mere 'concept' or a glimpse of 'imagination'. It's a creation that goes beyond any previous experience brought by mobile technology. Through APEX 2020, we are proud to see vivo's vision come to life as a technology company that continues to push the boundaries of mobile technology and explore what lies beyond the ordinary. It also showcases our ambition to achieve our aspirations step-by-step. vivo will continue to put APEX's innovative technologies into practice, allowing more consumers to be empowered by such technology." 120 FullView Edgeless Display, Pushing the Boundaries Further The APEX 2020 has carried on vivo's exploration and pursuit of a truly FullView Display and Super Unibody design. It is wrapped in a 6.45-inch curved display that bends at an angle of up to 120 on both sides. This helps remove side edges and bezels from the front view and results in an ultra bezel-less display. For both aesthetic and practical considerations, physical buttons are replaced by a virtual pressure-sensing button. APEX 2020 is another perfect fusion of visual effect, natural touch and human-device interaction. In-Display Camera, Visualizing the Invisible The In-Display Camera of APEX 2020 unleashes the new possibility of a non-mechanical front camera. The "invisible" front camera presents a Super Unibody design with no openings and expands the internal space. Through innovation in screen pixel layout and circuit design, APEX 2020 has successfully increased the light transmittance of the screen right above the front camera to 6 times[1] of the other part of the screen, and effectively reduces optical interference, diffraction and stray flashes through a series of algorithm optimizations to increase the photography quality. The final image quality is also enhanced through a series of algorithm optimizations. The 16MP front camera features a 4-in-1 super-pixel photosensitive chip, realizing the innovation of capturing clear images with the In-Display Camera. 5x-7.5x Continuous Optical Zoom - High Resolution + High Image Quality, Recording A Clearer World Currently, almost all high magnification zoom solutions in the industry depend on hybrid zoom. As different fixed magnifications need to be integrated with digital algorithms for output, there is a level of compromise in resolution and image quality. APEX 2020 comes with Continuous Optical Zoom, becoming the world's first smartphone equipped with high-magnification continuous zoom. It can achieve continuous optical zoom under high magnifications between 5x-7.5x and produce images in high resolution and quality rather than filling focal lengths through digital magnification. It enables users to preserve the clarity of all moments by effectively enhancing every detail. APEX 2020 is equipped with a "4-group lens combination" with two groups fixed and two groups movable, which achieves high-magnification continuous zoom and real-time focus at one time. With the support of a periscope structure, the entire module is only 6.2 mm thick, therefore, making it possible for this professional-grade lens to be incorporated into the APEX's ultra-thin body. To further enhance the image quality, vivo has incorporated a leading multi-frame algorithm so that scenery from afar can also be easily captured. Gimbal-Stabilizing Main Camera - Stable Mechanical Structure and Enhanced Night Photography With the arrival of 5G, creating smartphone video content becomes an even bigger priority. In order to fulfill users' demand to record daily life anywhere, anytime, vivo successfully embeds a gimbal-like structure into APEX 2020's main camera after a long-term technical development and multiple experiments. It achieves optical stabilization in the front-back and left-right inclined directions with enhanced performance. Lab tests demonstrate that compared to the traditional OIS system, its stabilization angle is 200%[2] extended. In addition, the image integrity is preserved to a greater extent. This feature greatly reduces the blurring caused by a shaky hand. Users can also enjoy videography with smoothness. There is no need to bring other equipment as this handset is readily available for you to capture all those wonderful moments. Stable handheld shooting can also effectively extend the exposure time so that APEX 2020 also has a stronger capacity for night photography. vivo Wireless Super FlashCharge 60W, Challenging the Boundaries The APEX 2020 features the revolutionary vivo Wireless Super FlashCharge 60W, which recharges a handset with a 2000mAh battery in only 20 minutes[3], offering a faster charging experience than conventional wired flash charging. Other than that, APEX 2020 is also equipped with innovations such as the 3rd Generation Screen SoundCasting Technology, Instant Photobomb Removal and Voice Tracking Auto-Focus. APEX 2020 brings an all-rounded user experience and endless surprises to the smartphone industry and global users. About vivo vivo is a leading global technology company committed to creating trendsetting smart mobile products and services. Through a global network of research operations and R&D centers in Dongguan, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Taipei, Tokyo and San Diego, vivo is committed in the development of cutting-edge consumer technologies including 5G, AI, mobile photography and next-generation smartphone design. vivo has also set up 5 production bases around the world across China, South Asia and Southeast Asia with annual smartphone production volume of nearly two hundred million. vivo has over three hundred million users enjoying its mobile products and services around the world. Adhering to the company's core values of focusing on customer needs and innovation, vivo implements sustainable development strategies throughout the value chain and is committed to becoming a world-class company.







[1] The data is from results of vivo lab tests in an ideal environment. [2] The data is from results of vivo lab tests in an ideal environment. [3] The data is from results of vivo lab tests in an ideal environment.

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vivos-apex-2020-reveals-futuristic-vision-beyond-imagination-301013325.html SOURCE Vivo

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Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney accused the media of working against President Trump on the coronavirus outbreak  even as he predicted some American schools would 'probably' be shut down in a future response.

'They think this will bring down the president. That's what it's all about,' Mulvaney griped at the annual CPAC conservative gabfest.

He said of the disease that has now impacted 50 countries: 'It's not a death sentence. It's not the same as the Ebola crisis.'

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney predicted some U.S. schools would 'probably' close amid the coronavirus outbreak

He continued: 'What I might do to calm the markets is turn the television off for 24 hours. This is not Ebola... It's not SARS. It's not MERS,' Mulvaney said, pointing to epidemics.'

'When you look at the severity of diseases, one of the ways you can look at it is you can look at the percentage of people who get it who die,' he explained. He noted that many people die from ordinary flu.

It looks like this disease is some place between 1 and 2 percent fatal. Is that serious, it absolutely is, there's no question about it.' He also noted it's 'much easier to get' than Ebola. 'This is something we know how to deal with.'

'We sit there and watch the markets and there's this huge panic. Why isn't there this panic every single year over flu?' he asked.

He accused the press of sensationalizing coverage, and pointed to efforts the administration took to close borders and try to stem the outbreak here. 'While real news was happening, the press was covering their hoax of the day,' he said.

His up-beat remarks about the virus came even as South Korea closed all of its schools and Italy contended with the spread of the disease, which emerged from China late last year.

'Are you going to see some schools shut down? Probably,' he predicted. 'May you see impacts on public transportation? Sure,' he said. 'But we do this. We know how to handle this,' he said.

Mulvaney was interviewed on stage by Michael Moore, who had been Trump's choice to join the Federal Reserve before his nomination fell apart.

Mulvaney spoke to Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation. Moore had been Trump's pick to join the Federal Reserve

Mulvaney said Trump did not sleep the night before his chaotic hour-long press conference. Trump returned this week from India

He also said the bureaucracy was working against Trump.

'There are men and women who work in this government every single day. You want bureaucrats who work just as hard for Donald Trump as they did for Barack Obama. That's only fair. They're taking your tax dollars.'

'They should work just as hard for Donald Trump, and that has not happened,' he said.

Moore called Trump a 'freak of nature' for his energy. 'Does the guy ever sleep? He's the most Energizer bunny guy I've ever met. I can't imagine being his chief of staff,' he said.

'The phone calls start about 6 am' and don't come after midnight, he said.

Mulvaney said he missed Trump's trip to India because he has a cold and the 'doctor did not clear for the trip because everybody gets sick on the airplane.'

He said Trump 'did not sleep on the flight home and I know that because he's emailing and texting and taking phone calls.'

'He did that press conference Wednesday night. That thing you saw for an hour  he had not slept for a day and a half, two and a half,' he told the crowd.

'When we do those kinds of trips, if I had been on the trip, we sleep in shifts so that somebody is always up. The man just never sleeps,' Moore said.

Mulvaney also predicted Trump will be impeached again if Democrats keep the House.

The president asks me: "Do you think Ill be impeached again?" You tell me whos in charge of the House. If its Nancy Pelosi, the answer [is] sure, why not,' he said.
Under the revised scheme, farmers will face maximum fees for the collection of fallen animals, set out by the Department.

Farmers are facing a doubling of charges for the collection of fallen animals, after knackeries closed their doors amid an ongoing dispute with the Department of Agriculture.

The Animal Collectors' Association, whose members closed the doors of their knackery yards this week, have said that they will have to double their prices for fallen animal collection if the Department of Agriculture does not put "an adequate scheme in place".

A spokesperson for the association said knackeries have indefinately closed their doors this week as talks with the Department of Agriculture failed to secure an agreement.

Yesterday, the Department of Agriculture issued an updated and revised scheme around the collection fees for fallen animals. However, a spokesperson for the knackeries told the Farming Independent today that this revised scheme was not being accepted by them.

"This scheme is not accepted. The Department has to move on this. The last people we want to see impacted by this is the farmer, but knackeries have been struggling since 2009.

"Prices will have to double if the Department does not put an adequate scheme in place."

The spokesperson also said that the Department's revised collection fees were not an increase across the board, but it had added one new category - for animals aged three to six months wtih a collection fee of 35.

In a statement to the Farming Independent, the Department of Agriculture said it was "regrettable that the Animal Collectors Association has acted in concert today to withhold commercial collection services from farmers, despite the provision, through a revised Fallen Animals Scheme, of substantially increased subsidies for its members."

It asked members of the Association to continue to provide this vital service to their customers, and has indicated that it remains available to the ACA to discuss the detail of the revised scheme.

The revised scheme details, issued by the Department, have been rejected by farming organisations.

ICMSA said it completely rejected the Departments proposals for increased charges and the association is calling for a meeting of all the relevant stakeholders to be convened as quickly as possible to resolve the current impasse and agree a fair and realistic schedule of charges.

IFA Animal Health Chairman Pat Farrell said it doesnt address the key issues for farmers with fallen animals.

The scheme fails to reduce the costs of disposal for farmers and its voluntary nature doesnt provide a guaranteed collection service for all farmers, he said.

Pat Farrell said the Department of Agriculture has protected the interests of the three rendering plants and licensed knackeries at the expense of farmers.
OGDEN, Utah - Notes from a newspaper interview with a Utah brothel owner nearly 70 years ago have drawn widespread interest from people who want a shot at deciphering the cryptic shorthand.

Weber State University received hundreds of offers to decipher notes from an interview with Ogden madame Rossette Duccinni Davie, The Standard-Examiner reports.

Davie and her husband ran the Rose Rooms brothel in the 1940s and 1950s, which is now a nightclub called Alleged.

Standard-Examiner reporter Bert Strand conducted the interview in 1951. His notes were recently discovered in a box of photos from the 1970s.

Strands decades-old shorthand style presented a conundrum for Sarah Langsdon, head of special collections at Weber State in Ogden: no one could read them.

The university accepted seven transcriptions and is slowly piecing together the puzzle. It will likely be impossible to translate the shorthand verbatim, but a common theme has emerged, Langsdon said.

It kind of reads like a deposition, Langsdon said. explaining that Davie basically accuses the sheriffs office of corruption.

A widely accepted theory is that Davie successfully operated her brothel by having a cozy relationship with the Ogden police and Weber County sheriffs departments, Langsdon said.

The translated notes support the allegation, with Davie claiming the sheriffs office accepted bribes and hid evidence, among other misdeeds, Langsdon said.

Langsdon used social media and other channels to solicit possible translators. The Standard-Examiner also published an article on the discovery in January and an Associated Press story followed.

Langsdons office subsequently received at least 700 inquires from people across the country willing to attempt a transcription.

Were still getting phone calls every day, Langsdon said.
[February 28, 2020] Statement Pursuant to Section 19(a) of the Investment Company Act of 1940: DEX

On February 28, 2020, Delaware Enhanced Global Dividend and Income Fund (NYSE: DEX) (the "Fund"), a closed-end fund, paid a monthly distribution on its common stock of $0.0926 per share to shareholders of record at the close of business on February 21, 2020. The following table sets forth the estimated amount of the sources of distribution for purposes of Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and the related rules adopted thereunder. The Fund estimates the following percentages, of the total distribution amount per share, attributable to (i) net investment income, (ii) net realized short-term capital gain, (iii) net realized long-term capital gain and (iv) return of capital or other capital source. These percentages are disclosed for the current distribution as well as the fiscal year-to-date cumulative distribution amount per share for the Fund.







Current Distribution from: Per Share ($) % Net Investment Income 0.0253 27.3% Net Realized Short-Term Capital Gain 0.0102 11.0% Net Realized Long-Term Capital Gain 0.0315 34.0% Return of Capital or other Capital Source (News - Alert) 0.0256 27.7% Total (per common share) 0.0926 100.00% Fiscal Year-to-Date Cumulative Distributions from: Per Share ($) % Net Investment Income 0.0886 32.1% Net Realized Short-Term Capital Gain 0.0102 3.7% Net Realized Long-Term Capital Gain 0.0443 16.0% Return of Capital or other Capital Source 0.1330 48.2% Total (per common share) 0.2761 100.00%

Shareholders should not draw any conclusions about the Fund's investment performance from the amount of this distribution or from the terms of the Fund's managed distribution policy. The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this 19(a) Notice are only estimates and are not being provided for tax reporting purposes. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the remainder of its fiscal year and may be subject to changes based on tax regulations. The Fund will send you a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes. Subject to the foregoing, the Fund estimates (as of the date hereof) that it has distributed more than its income and net realized capital gains for the fiscal year ending November 30, 2020; therefore, a portion of your distribution may be a return of capital. A return of capital may occur for example, when some or all of the money that you invested in the Fund is paid back to you. A return of capital distribution does not necessarily reflect the Fund's investment performance and should not be confused with 'yield' or 'income.' Presented below are return figures, based on the change in the Fund's Net Asset Value per share ("NAV"), compared to the annualized distribution rate for this current distribution as a percentage of the NAV on the last business day of the month prior to distribution record date. Fund Performance and Distribution Information Fiscal Year to Date (12/01/2019 through 1/31/2020) Annualized Distribution Rate as a Percentage of NAV^ 10.13% Cumulative Distribution Rate on NAV^^ 2.52% Cumulative Total Return on NAV* 1.21% Average Annual Total Return on NAV for the 5-Year Period Ending 1/31/2020** 6.29% ^ Based on the Fund's NAV as of January 31, 2020. ^^ Cumulative distribution rate is the cumulative amount of distributions paid during the Fund's fiscal year ending November 30, 2020 based on the Fund's NAV as of January 31, 2020. *Cumulative total return is based on the change in NAV including distributions paid and assuming reinvestment of these distributions for the period December 1, 2019 through January 31, 2020. **The 5-year average annual total return is based on change in NAV including distributions paid and assuming reinvestment of these distributions and is through the last business day of the month prior to the month of the current distribution record date. While the NAV performance may be indicative of the Fund's investment performance, it does not measure the value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund. The value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund is determined by the Fund's market price, which is based on the supply and demand for the Fund's shares in the open market. About DEX The Fund's primary investment objective is to seek current income, with a secondary objective of capital appreciation. The Fund invests globally in dividend-paying or income-generating securities across multiple asset classes, including but not limited to: equity securities of large, well-established companies; securities issued by real estate companies (including real estate investment trusts and real estate industry operating companies); debt securities (such as government bonds; investment grade and high risk, high yield corporate bonds; and convertible bonds); and emerging market securities. The Fund also uses enhanced income strategies by engaging in dividend capture trading; option overwriting; and realization of gains on the sale of securities, dividend growth, and currency forwards. There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objectives. Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest: (1) at most 60% of its net assets in securities of U.S. issuers; and (2) at least 40% of its net assets in securities of non-U.S. issuers, unless market conditions are not deemed favorable by the Manager, in which case, the Fund would invest at least 30% of its net assets in securities of non-U.S. issuers; and (3) the Fund may invest up to 25% of its net assets in securities issued by real estate companies (including real estate investment trusts and real estate industry operating companies). In addition, the Fund utilizes leveraging techniques in an attempt to obtain higher return for the Fund. The Fund has implemented a managed distribution policy. Under the policy, the Fund is managed with a goal of generating as much of the distribution as possible from net investment income and short-term capital gains. The balance of the distribution will then come from long-term capital gains to the extent permitted, and if necessary, a return of capital. Even though the Fund may realize current year capital gains, such gains may be offset, in whole or in part, by the Fund's capital loss carryovers from prior years. Currently under the Fund's managed distribution policy, the Fund makes monthly distributions to common shareholders at a targeted annual distribution rate of 10% of the Fund's average net asset value ("NAV") per share. The Fund will calculate the average NAV per share from the previous three full months immediately prior to the distribution based on the number of business days in those three months on which the NAV is calculated. The distribution will be calculated as 10% of the prior three month's average NAV per share, divided by 12. The Fund will generally distribute amounts necessary to satisfy the Fund's managed distribution policy and the requirements prescribed by excise tax rules and Subchapter M of the Internal Revenue Code. This distribution methodology is intended to provide shareholders with a consistent, but not guaranteed, income stream and a targeted annual distribution rate and is intended to narrow the discount between the market price and the NAV of the Fund's common shares, but there is no assurance that the policy will be successful in doing so. The methodology for determining monthly distributions under the Fund's managed distribution policy will be reviewed at least annually by the Fund's Board of Trustees, and the Fund will continue to evaluate its distribution in light of ongoing market conditions. The payment of dividend distributions in accordance with the managed distribution policy may result in a decrease in the Fund's net assets. A decrease in the Fund's net assets may cause an increase in the Fund's annual operating expenses and a decrease in the Fund's market price per share to the extent the market price correlates closely to the Fund's net asset value per share. The managed distribution policy may also negatively affect the Fund's investment activities to the extent that the Fund is required to hold larger cash positions than it typically would hold or to the extent that the Fund must liquidate securities that it would not have sold, for the purpose of paying the dividend distribution. The managed distribution policy may, under certain circumstances, cause the amounts of taxable distributions to exceed the amount minimally required to be distributed under the tax rules, such excess will be taxable as ordinary income to the extent loss carry forwards reduce the required amount of capital gains distributions in that year. Investors should consult their tax advisor regarding federal, state, and local tax considerations that may be applicable in their particular circumstances. About Macquarie Investment Management Macquarie Investment Management, a member of Macquarie Group, includes the former Delaware Investments and is a global asset manager with offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. As active managers, we prioritize autonomy and accountability at the team level in pursuit of opportunities that matter for clients. Macquarie Investment Management is supported by the resources of Macquarie Group (ASX: MQG; ADR: MQBKY), a global provider of asset management, investment, banking, financial and advisory services. Advisory services are provided by Macquarie Investment Management Business Trust, a registered investment advisor. Macquarie Group refers to Macquarie Group Limited and its subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide. For more information about Delaware Funds by Macquarie, visit delawarefunds.com or call 800 523-1918. Other than Macquarie Bank Limited (MBL), none of the entities referred to in this document are authorized deposit-taking institutions for the purposes of the Banking Act 1959 (Commonwealth of Australia). The obligations of these entities do not represent deposits or other liabilities of MBL, a subsidiary of Macquarie Group Limited and an affiliate of Macquarie Investment Management. MBL does not guarantee or otherwise provide assurance in respect of the obligations of these entities, unless noted otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005363/en/

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I read in the article misleading opinions from neighborhood leaders, such as references to "apartment buildings," which do not figure in LB794.

Duplexes and fourplexes sit firmly within the residential code, which is why they are permitted in most suburban neighborhoods. And references to "slip-ins" from the 1960s and 1970s, which came well before neighborhood design standards existed, cannot "slip into" a neighborhood today, even if LB794 gets approved.

The photo accompanying Johnsons article shows one of the wretched slip-ins, with its ugly mansard roof and regrettable architecture. Developers do better today.

The burgeoning traditional neighborhood development trend has educated builders to the moral, social and financial benefits of the authentic architecture of our historic neighborhoods. A good set of neighborhood design guidelines can keep the community safe from incompatible structures while leaving the door open to much-needed duplex and fourplex construction.
MONTREAL, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Most of VIA Rail Canada (VIA Rail) services will be progressively back in operation, including between Toronto-Montreal and Toronto-Ottawa as of Tuesday, March 3.

Furthermore, The Canadian will be operating two departures: one on Wednesday, March 4, between Toronto-Vancouver and another on Friday, March 6, between Vancouver and Toronto. Further departures will be confirmed in the coming days.

All current reservations on those segments will be protected. As VIA Rail is reaching out directly to passengers with reservations to update them on the latest developments, we would like to inform all our customers that this transition will take time and have an impact on the reservation system. We thank them for their patience and understanding.

Please find below a summary of routes in service:

Overview of service resumptions* Route Service Montreal-Toronto Partial service to resume Tuesday, March 3 Toronto-Ottawa Partial service to resume Tuesday, March 3 Toronto-London-Windsor In full service Toronto-Sarnia In full service Toronto-Niagara Falls In full service Quebec City-Montreal-Ottawa In Full service Senneterre-Jonquiere Full service to resume Wednesday, March 4 The Ocean (Montreal-Halifax) In full service Winnipeg-The Pas Full service to resume Sunday, March 1 The Canadian (Toronto-Vancouver) One departure confirmed on Wednesday, March 4 The Canadian (Vancouver-Toronto) One departure confirmed on Friday, March 6

*This information is subject to change without notice.

As of February 28, 940 trains have been cancelled because of the blockades.

More than 164 000 passengers have been affected.

We continue to work with the infrastructure owner, CN Rail, on making sure that normal service can resume on all routes and that passengers can be welcomed back on board our trains as quickly as possible.

Overview of service cancellations* Route Service Cancelled until (inclusively) : Toronto-Ottawa Cancelled Monday, March 2 Toronto-Montreal Cancelled Monday, March 2 Senneterre-Jonquiere Cancelled Tuesday, March 3 The Canadian Cancelled Tuesday, March 3 Prince Rupert-Prince George-Jasper Cancelled Friday, March 6

*This information is subject to change without notice.

All passengers are encouraged to visit our website for more information. Details on the refunding procedure are available on our website: https://www.viarail.ca/en/travel-advisory-information.

We thank our passengers for their continued patience and understanding.

About VIA Rail

As Canada's national rail passenger service, VIA Rail (viarail.ca) and all its employees are mandated to provide safe, efficient and economical passenger transportation service, in both official languages of our country. VIA Rail operates intercity, regional and transcontinental trains linking over 400 communities across Canada, and about 180 more communities through intermodal partnerships, and safely transported over 5 million passengers in 2019. The Corporation has been awarded five Safety Awards and three Environment Awards by the Railway Association of Canada since 2007. Visit the "About VIA Rail" section at https://www.viarail.ca/en/about-via-rail.

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VIA: The Blog

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Tourists wearing face masks are seen at the night market in Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam, Feb. 23, 2020. Reuters



Vietnam will suspend a visa-waiver program for South Korean visitors this week, the South Korean Embassy in the country said Friday, as the number of confirmed new coronavirus cases has topped 2,000 here.

The embassy said the Vietnamese government has informed it of a plan to temporarily suspend the program on Saturday, under which Koreans have been able to stay in the Southeast Asian country for up to 15 days without a visa.

Aside from the latest measure, Vietnam has banned the entry of visitors who have traveled to South Korea's southeastern city of Daegu and its adjacent North Gyeongsang Province, where the lion's share of infections have been reported, in the past two weeks.












The Delhi Police initiated an outreach programme on Friday as part of which its officials met imams and maulavis of various mosques in the riot-hit northeast Delhi, officials said here.

The exercise was carried by senior officials outside mosques in Kardampuri and Kabir Nagar. These areas witnessed pitched battle between two communities on Tuesday and Wednesday.

During the meeting, senior police officers were briefed about the recent riots.

The policemen posted in these areas briefed senior officials that people of these two areas, which witnessed large scale violence from Tuesday, have been generally peaceful and it was the outsiders from adjoining areas such as Seelampur and Jaffrabad who indulged in violence.

Senior police officials were asked to take stock of the situation, especially keeping in mind that it was a Friday and some miscreants may take advantage of large gatherings to engineer an unrest again, they said.

The senior officials assured that police will take every action against the miscreants and ensure safety of locals.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who was asked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to ensure early return of peace in the national capital, had visited various riot-hit areas on Wednesday and after that he had directed the police to ensure safety to everyone.

I give you my word..., was the reply of Doval on Wednesday to allay fears of people living in the area.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had also reviewed the law and order situation on Thursday night along with senior officers during which he was informed that no major incident took place on Wednesday in any affected police station of Delhis northeast district and that 514 suspects were either arrested or detained for questioning.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A New Dorp ophthalmologist is seeing red over a disparaging review a former worker allegedly posted about her on Google.

And the doctor has fired back in the form of a $1 million defamation lawsuit.

Dr. Deborah Rosenthal, the owner of Advance Vision Care, has sued Shannon Marcano over the 163-word post, which, among other things, accused the doctor of being rude, money hungry and puffing up bills through unnecessary medical appointments.

Marcano acted with malice in writing and publishing her statements, alleges Rosenthals civil complaint, recently filed in state Supreme Court, St. George. The allegations in Marcanos statements are false.  The reputations of Advanced and Rosenthal, individually, have been damaged as a result of Marcanos statements.

The review was posted on Feb. 1 under the screen name Diamond Ancrum, the complaint alleges.

Marcano began working for Advanced Vision Care just over two months earlier on Nov. 18, said the complaint.

The complaint does not say how Rosenthal tied the screen name to Marcano.

The review no longer appears to be on Google.

As a former employee I would say RUN! the complaint quotes the review as saying.  This establishment needs to be shut down???  Just throw the establishment in the garbage.

The review called Rosenthal rude to workers and very impatient.

Marcano accused the doctor of only caring about money, the lawsuit alleges.

The ophthalmologist, she wrote, schemed to make additional cash by giv(ing) patients unnecessary appointments for more co-pays, according to the complaint.

One employee was branded rude and unprofessional and a slob.

Marcano accused that worker of doing under the table business with patients behind Rosenthals back, the complaint alleges.

Another employee was excoriated for allegedly having extremely bad breath and talking too much.

The complaint contends Marcanos online claims are false and not protected opinions.

Marcano made improper, incorrect and defamatory statements (about) the company and Rosenthal, including that Rosenthal only cares about money, imply she does not care about her patients and that she requires unnecessary appointments, the complaint maintains. Both Advanced and Rosenthal care about their patients and do not order or require unnecessary appointments in order to obtain co-pays.

Besides defamation, the suit alleges Marcano breached her contact with Rosenthal and Advanced Vision Care by discussing office procedures, rules and regulation in the online post.

Marcano had signed an employee confidentiality statement which made it taboo to reveal such information, as well as the doctors business and personal information, contends the complaint.

Marcano denied the accusations when reached by phone Wednesday.

The allegations are false, and Im in contact with my counsel now, she said, declining further comment.

Steven J. Harfenist, Rosenthals lawyer, did not return a phone message seeking comment.
The day before, a woman from Tehran said: The situation is much worse than state media and officials are reporting Yesterday, we were at the Yaft Abad Hospital. There were 17 deaths in that hospital in just a few hours that I was at that hospital How can the declare the total deaths in the city to be eight?

Similar reports came in from Zanjan and Andimeshk with mentions of secret burials, not being allowed to count infections, and scare availability of hygiene products, like sanitizers and facemasks. Even an Iranian MP reported 50 deaths in Qom alone. While the University of Toronto calculated in a research paper that said statistically 18,000 people are probably infected in Iran.

Despite having the highest number of casualties outside China, the regime is trying to downplay the outbreak that it helped cause through a policy of silence and inaction, but this is proving harder and harder to do. One person on the ground said this was close to causing another mass protest.

The coronavirus was reported on Wednesday to have spread to at least 13 of Irans 31 provinces, including Qom, Tehran, Markazi, Hamedan, Alborz, Semnan, Mazandaran, Gilan, Kermanshah, Khorasan-e Razavi, Isfahan, Fars, and Hormozgan, but just hours later five more provinces were added to that list. Most cases have been reported in Qom, where the outbreak began, and Gilan.

Hashem Rafi Tabar, a member of Beheshti Universitys science committee, advised that the regime quarantine large cities and shut down public buildings, like schools, mosques, and holy shrines, to contain the outbreak.

The regime is ignoring this though and accusing those who call for these measures of spreading anxiety and fear. The head of the Shrine of Hazrat Masoumeh even claimed that people could come to the holy site to be cured of their illness.

The truth is that the regime wanted to cover this up initially in order to present stability to the world and boost the turnout at both the Revolution anniversary commemorations and the parliamentary elections. In both instances, they failed and caused more distrust from the people.

Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), urged the World Health Organization (WHO) to send in nurses and doctors to help contain the coronavirus outbreak in Iran.

Read more:

Coronavirus in Iran; Shocking Speech by Dr. Behrouz Kalidari in Isfahan
The UAE's Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development has announced the signing of a $100 million agreement with the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance in Addis Ababa.

The agreement follows the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. It aims at supporting and financing micro, small, and medium-sized projects in Ethiopia, a Wam news agency report said.

The agreement was signed by Hussain Jasim Al Nowais, Chairman of the Khalifa Fund, and Ahmed Shide, Minister of Finance in Ethiopia. The signing was attended by Admasu Nebebe, State Minister at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation of Ethiopia; Mohamed Salem Al Rashdi, Ambassador of the UAE to Ethiopia; Talal Abdulla Al Azeezi, Head of the African Union Section at the UAE Embassy to Ethiopia; alongside a variety of officials from both sides.

The Chairman of the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, Jasim Al Nowais, commented: "This agreement, which is a continuation of the MoU we signed last July, comes under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, to strengthen cooperation, deepen relations, and build strategic partnerships with different countries across the world. Under the terms of this agreement, we hope to help the Ethiopian economy to sustainably grow and benefit the welfare of its citizens.

"This agreement implements a stringent financial and technical framework that creates new employment opportunities, alongside empowering women to grow their role in the Ethiopian economic agenda. The funding shall also be invested in areas with higher indices of poverty to help in their economic development. This loan is expected to finance about 37,000 projects over the next four years and create over 200,000 job opportunities for young people," added Al Nowais.

"At least 30% of the projects which receive this funding will be led by women, whilst the rest of the funding will be equally distributed between male-led and female-led projects. This agreement aims to promote innovation, support entrepreneurship, and empower women, alongside developing Ethiopias entrepreneurial sector.

"Additionally, it seeks to create greater job opportunities for Ethiopians, and build local entrepreneurial capability, using specified targeting mechanisms to provide funding to those who need it the most."

Established 13 years ago in Abu Dhabi, the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development is a leading institution in its promotion of a culture of entrepreneurship. Khalifa Fund provides comprehensive support to SMEs in the UAE, funding over 1,700 projects nationally. The fund has expanded its model of entrepreneurial development to over 22 countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe through providing bespoke financing programmes.
On the alleged gang-rape and murder case of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Uttar Pradeshs Hathras, union minister Amit Shah backed chief minister Yogi Adityanath's decision to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT). The Home Minister said the case was mishandled at the police station level and not at the level of the government.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address a rally at the Janata Maidan here on Friday in support of the amended Citizenship Act, days after parts of Delhi witnessed widespread violence over the the contentious law. Shah will attend the rally after chairing a meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) here which will be attended by four chief ministers, including Mamata Banerjee who is a bitter critic of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the National Population Register (NPR) as well as any nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Though Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar, who will also be present in the city on Friday for the EZC meet, have backed the CAA, both have made clear that they are against NRC.

The Bihar Assembly has also passed a resolution stating that NRC is not needed in the state, making it the first NDA-ruled state to categorically say no to NRC and to seek removal of controversial clauses from the census exercise.

The Patnaik-led ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha has also sought removal of some contentious clauses from the NPR exercise.

State BJP president Samir Mohanty said the rally to be addressed by Shah was part of his party's countrywide awareness programme on CAA undertaken in January following protests by the opposition against the amended law.

Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Babul Supriyo and Giriraj Singh and BJP MP Rupa Ganguli have already addressed public meetings counting virtues of CAA in different places of Odisha including Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur and Jeypore.

Apart from organizing awareness campaigns and rallies on the amended Citizenship Act in all organisational districts of Odisha, BJP workers have congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah by sending postcard messages.

Ahead of Shah's pro-CAA rally, Mohanty on Wednesday had flagged off a fleet of campaign vehicles whose purpose is to inform people about the rally.

State BJP spokesperson Golak Mohapatra said that the Congress and some other political parties were trying to mislead people on the amended citizenship law and Friday's public meeting was aimed at making it clear that CAA is in the national interest.

However, a senior state Congress leader hit out at the BJP for organising the rally, saying that before counting the positive of CAA, Shah should first restore normalcy in Delhi where communal violence has so far claimed 34 lives.

Congress MLA Suresh Routray said at a time when the national capital was witnessing bloodshed over CAA, Shah should be in Delhi to ensure peace there instead of visiting Odisha.

"What will he (Shah) tell the people in Odisha? The Home Minister should stay in Delhi and do the needful at a time when the national capital is burning," he said.

The ruling BJD also took a swipe at the pro-CAA rally to be addressed by Shah. Party spokesperson P K Deb said such awareness exercise should have been done much before amending the citizenship law and enacting the new law.

During the EZC meeting here of Friday, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee would meet Shah for the first time after the enactment of CAA. But it is not clear whether she would have a one-on-one meeting with the home minister on the sidelines of the meet.

Banerjee, who is already in Odisha and has visited the Jagannath Temple in Puri on Wednesday said that India is known for peace and harmony.

"We want peace, not bloodshed," Banerjee said while responding to a query on the communal violence in Delhi.

Apart from attending the EZC meeting and the pro-CAA rally, Shah will also meet state BJP leaders to discuss strategies for strengthening the party in Odisha, sources said.

He is scheduled to visit the Jagannath Temple in Puri and Lord Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar on the concluding day of his Odisha visit on February 29.
Manchester United, Wolves and Rangers will discover the identity of their opponents in the last-16 of the Europa League at midday on Friday.

Inter Milan, Roma and five-time winners Sevilla are among the biggest teams left in the competition with a free-for-all draw that could even pair the British clubs together in the two-legged tie to be played next month.

Sportsmail provide you with everything you need to know for the Europa League last-16 draw including the worst and best scenarios for the British sides and the full list of who they could face.

Premier League clubs will discover their opponents on Friday in the Europa League draw

When and what time is the draw?

The last-16 draw for the Europa League takes place at 12pm GMT on Friday, February 28.

How can you follow the draw?

Sportsmail will be providing live coverage of the Europa League last-16 draw on Friday, starting from 11.30am.

UK viewers can watch the draw live on BT Sport 1 or on UEFA's website from midday.

Where is the draw taking place?

The draw takes place at UEFA's headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

Nuno Espirito Santo will be watching the draw closely to see who Wolves get in the next round

How does the draw work?

There will be no seedings or country protection meaning all teams are eligible to face each other.

The first team drawn gets the first leg of their tie at home with the second leg then played at the opposition's home ground.

Who are the Europa League last-16 teams?

Manchester United (ENG) Olympiacos (GRE) Wolves (ENG) Rangers (SCO) Copenhagen (DEN) Sevilla (ESP) Shakthar Donetsk (UKR) Istanbul Basaksehir (TUR) Wolfsburg (GER) Roma (ITA) LASK (AUT) Inter Milan (ITA) Basel (SWI) Red Bull Salzburg (AUS) OR Eintracht Frankfurt (GER) Bayer Leverkusen (GER) Getafe (ESP)

Who can Manchester United, Wolves and Rangers face?

With no seedings or country protection it's possible for the four British clubs left to clash in the round of 16.

However, there are 12 other European clubs they can also face at this stage of the tournament.

Best case scenario for British clubs

LASK would be the draw that most teams will be hoping for. The Austrian league leaders managed to overcome AZ Alkmaar in the last-32 but are probably the weakest team left and Austria doesn't pose any travel difficulties for British sides.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be hoping for a kind draw for the last-16 of the Europa League

Worst case scenario for British clubs

The British clubs won't want to face each other but the most daunting task would be Inter Milan.

Antonio Conte's side brushed aside Ludogorets in the last-16 and with Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez and Christian Eriksen in their ranks, they are the favourites to win the competition.

Shortest and longest trip for British clubs

Manchester United and Wolves' shortest journeys would be against each other at just 74 miles.

Rangers' shortest trip would be against the Red Devils at a distance of 217 miles.

The longest journey for the British clubs would be a trip to Turkey to face Istanbul Basaksehir - which would see them travel 1,864 miles.

Why are Salzburg and Frankfurt BOTH in the hat?

Red Bull Salzburg v Eintracht Frankfurt was postponed on Thursday amid a hurricane warning with 75mph winds in Austria.

The game will be played at 5pm GMT on Friday, which will confirm the 16th team into the next round. Frankfurt lead 4-1 from the first leg.

Key Dates
Communal violence in parts of the national capital during US President Donald Trump's visit to the country was "intriguing and mysterious", Puducherry Lt Governor Kiran Bedi said on Friday and hoped that the probe ordered by the government would bring out the truth.

Bedi, who was a 1975-batch IPS officer of AGMUT cadre and served in various capacities in Delhi, told PTI over phone that such large-scale violence and arson when the country was hosting an important dignitary such as Trump was "too much of a coincidence".

"The visit had a lot of potential to strength the country's economy. More economy means more wealth, jobs, industries and prosperity. The violence happened at the time when India was being lauded by the world's most powerful country. Any true lover of the country would have never done this," she said.

"One can have grouse (against the amended Citizenship Act). But the timing of the protest and the subsequent violence is very intriguing and mysterious," Bedi said.

Forty-two people have so far died in the communal clashes that had broken out in northeast Delhi five days ago after violence between anti- and pro-Citizenship (Amendment) Act groups spiralled out of control.

Frenzied mobs torched houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump and pelted stones at local residents and police personnel. Bhajanpura, Maujpur, Jafrabad, Gokalpuri, Shiv Vihar, Mustafabad, among other localities in the region were the worst-hit.

The Puducherry L-G also claimed that the communal violence in northeast Delhi undermined international media coverage of Trump's visit to the country.

According to her, another point of "intrigue" was the recent "media expose" about presence of a molotov cocktails, stones and bottles of acid on the roof of the house of a "functionary".

"The kind of evidence which is surfacing from a functionary's rooftop points to a serious conspiracy. These kind of evidence obviously links the issue with the "mystery" of violence during Trump's visit," Bedi said.

Asked whether the Delhi Police and intelligence agencies failed in anticipating the violence, the Ramon Magsaysay awardee said the probe would bring out the truth.

"Obviously such riots cannot happen unless there is a failure on someone's part. There was failure by the police. But who were responsible for it and where it failed -- all these will come out in the probe which has already been ordered," she said.

About some senior Delhi police officers who failed to visit the areas to contain the violence, Bedi said, "It is for the higher authorities to look into and take appropriate action".

She expressed happiness over 1985-batch IPS officer S N Shrivastava, who was trained by her when he was an IPS probationer in 1986-87 in North Delhi and she was DCP (North) then, has been selected for the post of Delhi police chief.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Author Chetan Bhagat has expressed disappointment over the violence which has gripped Delhi, and led to the deaths of 38 people.

Bhagat said there are other pressing issues to be taken care of - like coronavirus, the state of economy etc.

World markets collapse as Corona hits. Global demand will fall. India already suffering a weak economy will find it v difficult to recover. Jobs growth all set to suffer. Immediate attention needed. But hey, Hindu Muslim Hindu Muslim, the author said on Twitter.

World markets collapse as Corona hits.

Global demand will fall.

India already suffering a weak economy will find it v difficult to recover.

Jobs growth all set to suffer. Immediate attention needed.



But hey, Hindu Muslim Hindu Muslim.  Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) February 28, 2020

The violence in Delhi first broke out on Sunday, but escalated and turned communal on Monday when the groups supporting and against the new citizenship law clashed in Jafrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh and other areas of Northeast Delhi.

Shops and vehicles were torched, policemen and locals attacked and property damaged. The groups roamed on the streets with swords and pistols, turning the areas into a war zone.

At the centre of tis unrest is the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA passed by Parliament in December, 2019, which seeks to grant citizenship to persecuted minorities from three neighbouring countries: Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Critics and Opposition parties say that the new law seeks to divide the country on religious lines by leaving out Muslims.

But the government maintains that it is Indias duty to give citizenship to persecuted minorities, and have rejected the demands of scrapping the law. Many leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have accused the Opposition parties of making inflammatory statements on the law and stoking fears among the minorities in the country.

In the violence in pockets of Delhi, more than 500 vehicles, including two-wheelers, were burnt between Monday and Thursday morning, according to the estimates by the Delhi Fire Service (DFS).

DFS data accessed by HT shows that Tuesday was the worst day of the riots and alone witnessed 89 incidents of arson. While Wednesday saw 57 incidents of arson, 23 took place on Monday. Fourteen incidents of arson also took place between midnight and 8am on Thursday, the data shows.
Winnipeg Coun. Kevin Klein says the recent sex-crime allegations against former employer Peter Nygard are shocking, adding he has no current relationship with the fashion mogul.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Coun. Kevin Klein says the recent sex-crime allegations against former employer Peter Nygard are "shocking," adding he has no current relationship with the fashion mogul.

Klein (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood) said Thursday he worked for Nygard on two separate occasions: four months in 2012, and two weeks in 2014.

Klein said while he visited the Bahamas twice during those times, he went with his wife, and did not stay at Nygards estate  a property at the centre of a U.S.-based class-action lawsuit accusing Nygard of sex trafficking, among other crimes.

The city councillor said he was involved with "the business side, not the personal side" of Nygards life.

A photo from Nygard's corporate website shows Peter Nygard with Kevin Klein at the 2008 opening of the Kenaston store in Winnipeg. The gallery of images from the opening also include politicians Sam Katz and Rod Bruinooge. (Nygard website)

"I think that everyone deserves due process, and Im not going to be judge and jury. Im going to wait and see how its tested in courts, and well go from there," said Klein, who was elected in 2018, and is chairman of the Winnipeg Police Board.

He said his departure from Nygard's employ, on both occasions, was for "personal reasons."

"I dont think its fair to talk about former employees or employers in any way shape or form," he said.

Klein left his position as chief executive officer and publisher of the Winnipeg Sun to take a VP position with Nygard International. Klein's online resume, posted on the LinkedIn professional networking platform, makes no mention of his time working for Nygard.

While the Sun had published several articles under his leadership on the subject of the feud between Winnipeg-raised Nygard and U.S. billionaire hedge fund manager Louis Bacon, Klein said he had no input on assigning those stories.

Klein said he could not speak to whether there was any validity to claims held by Nygards spokespeople the recent accusations are part of the ongoing clash between the Bahamian property neighbours.

"I have no idea. I think again, as I said, this needs to be tested in court," Klein said. "And I want to, at this particular point in time, think about the people that are involved and, really, if its proven in court, wow."

Nygard, 78, received the key to the city from former Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz in 2008  a symbolic title Mayor Brian Bowman has said he will take back, should the allegations against Nygard be proven in court.

"It saddens me, because its part of Winnipegs history. Its a Winnipeg success story, in some ways, but as you hear the new things  I think weve seen it happen with people in power positions now a lot, far too much."  Winnipeg Coun. Kevin Klein

"I think what the mayor said is fair  if he is convicted, then sure, you should acknowledge the wrong was done, and I would support him on changing the awarding of the key to the city," Klein said.

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Klein said the allegations were especially distressing, considering Nygards influence in the city. Nygard has helmed his eponymous clothing company for 50 years, with corporate headquarters in Winnipeg, Toronto and New York.

"It saddens me, because its part of Winnipegs history," Klein said. "Its a Winnipeg success story, in some ways, but as you hear the new things  I think weve seen it happen with people in power positions now a lot, far too much."

Klein said an important takeaway was to recognize the bravery of those speaking out.

"Whenever I hear this about people, Im shocked," he said. "People are finding the strength to come forward. And I think thats important and we should acknowledge that."

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_
The Turkish military bombed targets across Syria last night and early this morning, after dozens of its soldiers died in airstrikes near the strategic town of Saraqeb in northern Syrias Idlib province.

Anonymous Western officials told the press early this morning that Turkey has requested an urgent meeting of the NATO alliance under Article 5 of the alliances founding treaty, which calls for military consultation among members when one member states security is threatened. The danger is growing that all-out war could erupt between NATO and the Syrian governments major international backers, Iran and Russia.

Turkish backed rebel fighters fire a howitzer toward Syrian governments forces positions near the village of Neirab in Idlib province, Syria, February 20, 2020 [Credit: AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed]

For weeks, Syrian government troops backed by Moscow have fought to expel Turkish-backed militias from their last stronghold they built up inside Syria during the nine-year NATO proxy war in Syria. In recent weeks, Russian-backed Syrian government troops had taken back control of dozens of towns including Saraqeb. Yesterday, however, Syrian Al Qaeda-linked militias backed by Turkish troops briefly retook Saraqeb.

Earlier yesterday, Russias Rossiya 24 television reported that Russian warplanes were under fire from Turkish troops firing antiaircraft missiles, stating: Syrian and Russian planes are stopping the rebels again and again. But the sky above Idlib is also dangerous. The rebels and Turkish specialists are actively using portable air defence systems.

As of this writing, multiple fragmentary and conflicting reports are circulating on the initial air strike yesterday evening that killed Turkish troops. The US-backed Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that 34 Turkish soldiers had been killed in a bombing between the towns of Baluon and Al-Bara. The governor of Turkeys neighboring Hatay province, Rahmi Dogan, issued a series of announcements that nine, then 22, 29 and finally, Friday morning, 33 Turkish troops had died, and 36 had been wounded in the attack.

Turkish officials speaking anonymously told the German news magazine Der Spiegel that at least 50 Turkish troops had died. However, the official speaking to Der Spiegel claimed it is unclear whether it was Syrian or Russian airplanes that launched the attacks.

Ankara took Twitter offline inside Turkey for several hours, amid signs of an explosive political crisis unfolding inside the Turkish government, including its mounting fear of domestic popular opposition to the war in Syria.

While Turkish television stations took normal programming off the air and ran back-to-back reports that Syrian regime forces have lost 1,709 soldiers and large quantities of military equipment, the Turkish cabinet held an emergency meeting. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally chaired the meeting, which was also attended by members of the opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) as well as National Intelligence Organization (MIT) chief Hakan Fidan.

During the meeting, the government announced investigations into 91 Twitter accounts for allegedly spreading criticisms of the government during the crisis.

Once Twitter was functioning again, Yeni Safak editor Ibrahim Karagul issued hysterical denunciations of opponents of Erdogans war policies on social media: "Tonight, one should carefully note down traitors, Turkey's enemies, influence agents of the [Syrian] regime, those who undermine the national solidarity ... domestic intruders on social media."

Early this morning, as the Turkish emergency cabinet meeting continued to unfold, Turkey launched artillery attacks on Idlib province and missile attacks on Latakia, Homs, and nearby areas of western Syria. It was also reported later that Israel had attacked the Syrian governments military positions in Quneitra province, from the vantage point offered by Israeli-held territory in the Golan Heights.

At the same time, Turkish officials launched a series of emergency calls to contact their US and NATO counterparts, including US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, US National Security Advisor Robert OBrien and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

A Russian delegation headed by Vladimir Putins special envoy for Syria Sergey Vershinin was in Ankara yesterday for talks, but they reportedly ended in a stalemate without any agreement.

The current danger of an all-out clash between Russia and Turkey is the product of nine years of a NATO proxy war for regime change waged since 2011 in Syria. Washington together with other NATO member states, along with their Middle East allies, have backed militias linked to Al Qaeda in a bid to overthrow the Syrian government, while Russia and Iran have supported President Bashar al-Assad. Both sides have proceeded as if, despite this explosive situation, they would never come to a direct NATO-Russia confrontation. Yet that is precisely what is now emerging.

The danger of a military clash that could escalate out of control into a confrontation between the NATO alliance and Russia, both of which are armed with nuclear weapons, is now very real. While contradictory messages came out of Washington last night, several top officials made clear they would consider all-out war is on the table as a possible response.

Told by journalists of the bombing of Turkish troops, US Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison said: Let me say this because I just learned this: Of course, everything is on the table. This is a new development. This is a big development.

US Senator Lindsey Graham similarly issued a statement yesterday calling for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Idlibthat is, for shooting down Russian and Syrian fighters over that region. The world is sitting on its hands and watching the destruction of Idlib by Assad, Iran, and the Russians, Graham declared in a statement. I am confident if the world, led by the United States, pushed back against Iran, Russia, and Assad that they would stand down, paving the way for political negotiations to end this war in Syria.

However, Turkish media also cited a tweet by Congressional staffer Alan Makovsky, who said: I hope US officials frequently stated support for our NATO ally Turkey of late isnt raising false expectations in Ankara US wont risk war with Russia to preserve Turkeys position in Syria.

As Turkish forces bombed targets across Syria, Erdogans ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) appealed to the NATO alliance for military support against the Russian-backed Syrian regime.

AKP spokesperson Omer Celik all but called for a declaration of war on Syria, telling CNN Turk: The regime has become an enemy element with all its land and air elements. The necessary answer is given. The regime elements are now enemies of the Republic of Turkey.  We will inform NATO. We call on NATO to consult. We see this as an attack by a killer regime on the international community. We expect a total reaction. Our attempts on this are continuing. The consultation process with NATO begins tomorrow morning. We expect concrete support from now on.
OAKLAND (BCN)

A convicted killer has been charged with murder for the beating death of another man at a homeless camp in Oakland on Tuesday.

Javier Fregoso Reyes, 55, was charged and arraigned on Thursday in connection with the death of Miguel Marin.

Reyes, who is being held at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin without bail, returned to court on Friday to be assigned an attorney and is scheduled to come to court again on March 13 to enter a plea.

Officers were flagged down inside the homeless camp in the 2000 block of Embarcadero at about 12:11 p.m. on Tuesday by a person who said someone there needed medical attention, Oakland police Sgt. Yun Zhou wrote in a probable cause statement.

The officers found Marin suffering from major blunt force trauma injuries and he was transported to a local hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries, Zhou said.

Marin's death is one of a number of homicides at Oakland homeless camps in recent years.

Reyes was arrested at Highland Hospital in Oakland at about 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

Zhou's probable case statement didn't mention that Reyes suffered any injuries or explain why he was at the hospital.

Zhou wrote that Reyes admitted to being in a dispute with Marin and bludgeoning Marin to death.

In addition to murder, Reyes is charged with using a deadly weapon, namely a large rock.

Prosecutors say Reyes was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in Oakland in Alameda County in 1985.

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.
Stones thrown by a Bhim Army supporter protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at Maujpur Chowk on Sunday afternoon, and his group being chased away by a rival group of pro-CAA protesters, who gathered at the spot at the call of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kapil Mishra, were the triggers that sparked Delhis worst communal riots in three decades, according to an initial assessment by the police.

The details of the sequence of events, as pieced together by Delhi Police through inputs from personnel on the ground Sunday, were shared with HT by at least two senior officers who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

According to the police assessment, which has been shared with the two Special Investigation Teams (SIT) formed by Delhi Police Thursday, tension was palpable in north-east Delhi on Saturday night, when a group protesting the CAA blocked the Jafrabad Main Road. Tempers shot up after Mishra visited the area on Sunday and demanded that the police remove the protesters within three days or his group would do it.

According to the polices assessment, supporters of the Bhim Army  a Dalit organisation led by Chandrashekhar Azad  first pelted stones on pro-CAA supporters at Maujpur Chowk at 4.42pm Sunday. Following this, about 100-125 anti-CAA campaigners including Bhim Army members were chased by the pro-CAA group.

After stone-pelting from both sides, some Bhim Army members  already identified by the Crime Branch  asked other anti-CAA supporters to gather in areas around Kardampuri and Jafrabad, according to the assessment.

One of these persons is believed to be Bhim Armys Delhi head, Himanshu Valmiki, who the police claim mobilised more people around 6pm on Sunday.

This spiralled into frequent incidents of stone-pelting and arson in the bylanes of Maujpur and Kardampuri, according to the assessment. Bhim Army brought several people including women to Jafrabad on Saturdayagainst CAA. We already have tweets and messages posted by some instigators. There were other groups which also had a role in blocking the Jafrabad road on Saturday, said one of the officials quoted above.

Vinay Ratan Singh, the Bhim Armys national president, said the allegations were baseless. Our protests against CAA in different parts of Delhi that day were peaceful and successful. Our members were not involved in any violence. Rather, we received a message that our Delhi president Himanshu Valmikis vehicle was burnt, he said. Singh did not deny that his activists were present in the Jafrabad-Maujpur stretch on Sunday, but added: Our people had left from there.

Valmiki didnt respond to HTs calls.

The police assessment said that Mishra tweeted at 1.22pm on Sunday, asking his supporters to gather at Maujpur-Jafrabad. By 3.07pm, he reached there with his supporters and started shouting slogans against anti-CAA protesters.

A message from policemen on the ground to senior officers said situation is tense. Police have not ruled out the role of Mishra in instigating the violence, and a report will be given to the high court after checking all videos, the second official said.

Mishra, who appealed for calm after full-blown riots broke out, said on Thursday that he was criticised for urging anti-CAA protesters to clear road blockades. We have been witnessing these vulgar protests for over 70 days now in which some big politicians and so-called activists are involved; they are flaming feelings against the police and the defence forces. Violence in the name of anti-CAA protests should come to an end, it has gone too far now, Mishra, who took out a peace march, said.
SpendEdge has been monitoring the global corn market and the market is poised to experience spend growth of more than USD 50 billion between 2016-2021 at a CAGR of more than 3% during the forecast period. Request Free Sample Pages

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005240/en/

Read the 89-page research report with TOC and LOE on "The Global Corn Market Procurement Intelligence Report, Pricing Outlook in Geographies that include APAC, North America, South America, and MEA, and insights into best practices to optimize procurement spend."

The extensive use of corn as feed and residual, DDGs/CGF, fuel ethanol, HFCS, sweeteners, starch, beverage/alcohol, and seeds across various industry segments will be the key growth contributor in the global corn market.

High cultivation and the high demand for yellow corn as animal feed will drive demand growth in the corn market in North America. Despite being home to some of the major corn-producing countries, APAC faces an increased pressure to import corn due to its huge population, export subsidies and tax rebates, and lack of changes in the export policy based on the changes in the country's corn production levels.

Subscribe to our procurement platform to get instant access to over 1000 market-ready procurement intelligence reports without any additional costs or commitment.

Insights into market price trends:

Seasonal volatility caused due to sudden changes in weather such as a hurricane, tsunami, flood, or drought, increases the price volatility of agricultural commodities, including corn.



As corn is a listed commodity, its price varies daily based on the index. This makes it difficult for buyers to predict future prices of agricultural commodities such as corn. Predicting price for beyond three months is extremely challenging, thus resulting in a lack of information on future corn prices.

What are the strategies to adopt to optimize procurement spend in this market?

Adoption of the spot-market strategy

In this strategy, buyers purchase corn in the predefined quality category in the cash market. The strategy allows immediate possession of commodities by buyers and direct contact with suppliers. It ensures the delivery of this commodity at a negligible lead time and minimizes inventory costs as no storage is needed if the purchase is tightly coordinated with production needs.

Adoption of the forward purchasing mechanisms

This strategy can be used by buyers to secure commodities for future production. The strategy requires buyers to project future quantity requirements. It also allows buyers to reduce price risk by hedging spot-market purchases in future markets.

Buy 1 report and get the second for 50% off. Buy 2 reports and get the third for free. Download the free sample of this report on the corn market.

Some of the key topics covered in this report are:

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Smara, Feb 27, 2020 (SPS) - The President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO, Mr. Brahim Gali, praised the principled position of the African Union on the Sahrawi just cause.

Speaking at the official celebrations of SADR proclamation, Gali praised the principled position of the African Union, calling on it to act firmly in order to put an end to the flagrant violation by the Kingdom of Morocco of the principles of the Constitutive Act of the African Union that it signed, as a prerequisite for accession to the continental organization.

The Sahrawi Republic is ready to cooperate to resolve the existing dispute with its neighbor, the Kingdom of Morocco, in line with the principles of the African Union in the peaceful settlement of disputes, not to attack African countries and respect the inherited borders after independence, Sahrawi President renews SPS

125/090/TRA




Haiti - Politic : Two electrification and waste management projects funded by Japan





As part of the Haiti-Japan cooperation and the Rural Electrification and Empowerment of Women project (ERAF) funded by Japan, the communes of Vallieres, Capotille and Mont-organise will benefit from hybrid electrification micro-systems based on solar energy that can power their urban and rural spaces.



These micro-networks will make it possible to connect around 2,500 households through a prepaid system during the first phase of the project. Once the networks are established, the number of connections will increase according to demand and management will be ensured by a Public Private Partnership (PPP) between the various stakeholders.



In addition, the project to Strengthen the Solid Waste Management System (GDS) where Ouanaminthe is one of the target communes, also funded by the Japanese Government, will strengthen and support the Ouanaminthe Town Hall in the acquisition of several equipment including compression trucks that will be used to clean up the city as well as the development of a landfill site for collected waste.



Recall that the ERAF project has recently completed a program to strengthen the organizational capacities of 30 Basic Community Organizations (CBOs) made up mainly of women from the target communes.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















On February 17, at a security review meeting attended by, among others, the citys outgoing police commissioner Amulya Patnaik and additional chief secretary (home) Satyagopal (who goes by only one name), Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal raised the possibility of the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests spreading to other parts of the city from Shaheen Bagh in the light of the visit of US President Donald Trump (on February 24 and 25) and a ruling by the Supreme Court that could ask the protesters to vacate the site (the court, on February 26, deferred the hearing to March 23).

According to documents seen by HT, Baijal verbally told those present at the meeting that there could be an attempt to embarrass the Union government during the Trump visit, and that the police should strengthen its intelligence and also have adequate force ready. Patnaik said he would do both. On paper, Baijal is responsible for overall superintendence of Delhi Police, although, for many decades now, the force has mostly reported directly to the home ministry. The Intelligence Bureau also provided inputs to the Delhi Police that there was palpable tension in the citys north-east districts.

This intelligence  some of it was generic, to be sure  came to naught on February 22, when, according to video footage seen by HT, at around 10pm, activists and protesters caught the police unawares and occupied a road near the Jafrabad Metro station. Local police could not muster enough policewomen to remove them.

By the morning of February 23, the crowd at the site swelled. Top Delhi Police, Union government, and intelligence officials who spoke to HT said that the attempt was to create an alternative site to Shaheen Bagh.

February 23 was also when BJP leader Kapil Mishra said that if the police did not clear the site at Jafrabad, he and his supporters would. Mishra put out a video of this statement, highlighting his ultimatum to the police, on his Twitter account. Soon after, pro-CAA protesters started gathering at the predominantly Gurjar village of Maujpur. Reports from local residents of the area suggest many of them were outsiders, shipped in from Uttar Pradesh on buses. There are conflicting reports, though, and some say the crowds at Maujpur started gathering on Saturday evening itself.

A stretch of road separated the two groups. The growing crowd of Muslim, anti-CAA protesters at Jafrabad, and the growing crowd of Hindu, pro-CAA protesters at Maujpur. And between the two groups was Delhi Police, which, with its 73 reserve companies, was stretched almost to breaking point because of the forthcoming visit of the US President. Consequently, the force manning what would emerge as the flashpoint in the north-east district was left with few reserve companies at its disposal. Led by special commissioners Satish Golcha and Praveer Ranjan, the local polices priority was to ensure that the two groups did not clash on February 22 and 23.

They managed that to some extent on the first day. They gave up some ground on the second. And on the third day, February 24, they were overwhelmed. It wasnt until late evening of February 25 that they would regain a semblance of control. For 36 hours between Monday morning and Tuesday evening, many neighbourhoods in the north-east burnt.

On Sunday evening, there were reports of stone-pelting and firing from Kardampuri and Brahmpuri areas. By Monday, the communal riot was on in full-swing. At the peak, around 20,000 people were involved in the violence, broken up into smaller groups that went at each other, and at the rival community on the narrow lanes and bylanes.

The police didnt have the numbers to quell the rioters. Nor did they have the numbers to handle the situation inside the neighbourhoods. To make things worse, the rioters were well armed  with guns, swords, knives, rods and pipes, sticks, stones, and petrol bombs (Molotov cocktails).

With a mob of 20,000, there was nothing that we could do as the rioters would have lynched us also. There was no question of opening fire as there were far too many rioters armed to the teeth, said a top police official on condition of anonymity.

It was clear as early as Sunday that the Delhi Police leadership had under-assessed the threat. It was also clear that the leadership was not resourced adequately. Two IPS officers, including DCP (Shahdara) Amit Sharma, sustained critical head injuries, and head constable Ratan Lal lost his life as they tried to control rioters in the lanes of north-east Delhi even as more rioters rained stones down on. Taken by surprise, Delhi Police sent out a request for companies of paramilitary forces the same day, but by then the rioting was on.

At 10.30 am on Monday, February 24, at the LGs residence, Raj Niwas, Baijal met with Patnaik and Satygopal again. According to the minutes of the meeting, instructions were issued to Patnaik to strengthen and increase the police presence in the north-east districts, with flag marches and to impose Section 144 (which prohibits assembly of people in groups of four or more), wherever required. While Patnaik briefed the LG on the situation and protest at Jafrabad, he did not raise any requirement for more forces at the meeting. HT has reviewed documents related to the meeting. The situation on the ground was becoming worse.

Delhi Police was stretched thin; and only a few companies of paramilitary force arrived to bolster its strength. The riots continued to escalate. It was also a busy day for anyone concerned with law enforcement in Delhi  Trump was arriving the following day. On the evening of February 24, the situation was reviewed by home secretary Ajay Bhalla and Intelligence Bureau director Arvind Kumar, with Patnaik in attendance. Home minister Amit Shah also cut short his visit (he was in Ahmedabad, the first leg of the US Presidents visit) and arrived in Delhi early on Monday evening.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was monitoring the situation throughout and after he landed from Gujarat on Monday late evening, he moved quickly. Decisive steps were taken on the intervening night, before President Trumps ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhawan. More forces were pumped into the area.

The riots continued on February 25, but stayed contained to north-east Delhi, allowing the US Presidents visit to proceed smoothly. On the afternoon of February 25, with more paramilitary forces in place, Delhi Police started its counter and began clearing out the main arterial roads of north-east Delhi. By then, the mob strength was also dwindling. Shah, who reviewed the situation in a meeting, and gave a carte blanche to Delhi Police when it came to the demand for additional forces. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal played a very positive role in the meeting and was willing to support any cause to help control the situation along with the LG. The Congresss Delhi leader Subhash Chopra also attended the meeting, as did BJPs Delhi chief Manoj Tiwary. Chopra wanted a case to be registered against Kapil Mishra.

With the Trump visit sharing space with Delhi riots on the front pages of newspapers, and with the visit coming to an end on Tuesday late evening (the US president flew out at 10pm), Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in consultation with Shah and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval took decisive steps to bring the situation under control. Advisories to news channels were issued, and the PM and Shah asked Doval to take charge of a seemingly weak police leadership. SN Shrivastava was appointed as special commissioner (Law and Order) on the same day.

The moves paid off, with the force led by Doval gaining control over the riot-hit areas on the same night, with only minor incidents of violence reported on February 26. The decision to bring in Doval ended up being a masterstroke: the NSAs position cuts through police and intelligence hierarchies and ensures everyone is on the same page.

While the riots have been controlled, at least 38 people have been killed and over 330 injured. Property worth tens of crores has been destroyed. Some questions remain unanswered.

Was the Jafrabad protest orchestrated to embarrass the Modi government during the visit of the US President? In the past, there have always been incidents of violence in Jammu & Kashmir to coincide with visits of US Presidents. The riot also came on the eve of the UN Human Right Council session, where Pakistan raised the issue of minorities being persecuted in India, and New Delhi responded.

Did Delhi Police Commissioner Patnaik and his team under-assess the threat? Did Patnaiks imminent retirement on February 29 (he was already on a months extension) affect his ability to lead his team?

Or was everything a result of the police not having enough feet on the ground on Saturday and Sunday?

HT has reviewed the force strength on each day, and on February 26 there was a military division strength of reserve force helping out the local police.

But the story is far from over.

The rioters have gone back home, but with 38 dead, across both communities, north-east Delhi is expected to see a wave of targeted killings over the next few months, according to police and intelligence officials.

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Sudbury, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2020) - Rockcliff Metals Corporation (CSE: RCLF) (FSE: RO0) (WKN: A2H60G) ("Rockcliff" or the "Company") is pleased to announce results from ongoing metallurgical studies on three of the Company's projects; Tower, Talbot and Rail located in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake region of Manatoba.

Highlights of the Metallurgical Testing:

Copper recoveries ranging from 91.2% - 94.4%;

Copper concentrate grade of 28.2%-31.3%;

Low zinc contamination on copper concentrates (0.3%-1%); and

Potential ability to produce Zinc concentrate of >50%Zn.

Mr. Alistair Ross, President and CEO commented, "As we continue to upgrade the level of confidence in our deposits, it is very encouraging to see the complete range of metallurgical results be so positive. Indicative copper recoveries of between 91.2% to 94.4% to a clean copper concentrate through the existing Bucko Mill facility is another key technical validation to support future development decisions on any of the three deposits. The ability to make a zinc concentrate, without the use of cyanide, fits well with our desire to optimize the value of the resource while minimizing our impact on the environment. These positive results bode well for our intention to convert the Bucko Mill, currently under lease, to a copper concentrator."

Metallurgical Update for Tower, Talbot and Rail Deposits

Results from recent benchscale metallurgical testing completed under the direction of Jake Lang at Base Metallurgical Laboratories in Kamloops, BC have demonstrated the potential to produce separate, market-quality copper and zinc concentrates. The test program generated sequential copper and zinc flotation concentrates from a relatively coarse primary grind of approximately 150 micron k 80 . Rougher concentrates were reground at 20-30 micron k 80 . The flowsheet tested does not require the use of cyanide to separate zinc from copper and the reagent scheme is applicable to all three deposits based on the samples tested. Testing was completed on overall composites indicative of each deposits anticipated feed grade. Results produced from open circuit batch tests are described in the following table showing concentrate quality and metal recoveries by deposit:



Table 1



To view an enhanced version of this Table, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3071/52944_be91dd6864074be4_001full.jpg

Testwork has demonstrated the ability to produce copper concentrates at or above 28% copper with low zinc contamination and recoveries ranging from 91 to 94.5%. Zinc upgrading to above 50% Zn was achieved for each deposit from feed grades ranging from 0.58% Zn to 3.3% Zn. In all cases, zinc recovery is expected to improve in future closed circuit locked cycle testing.

Milling Permits and Metallurgical Studies

Rockcliff has a six year lease on the Bucko Mill and tailings facilty located within trucking distance from its portfolio of Flin-Flon Snow Lake region deposits.

Metallurgical test work has been designed in two phases. The first phase was to determine characterization of the deposit mineralogy and the ability of the ore to respond to concentration by flotation, with the results described in this press release. The second phase will focus on the optimization of the concentration process through the Bucko Mill. This will enable Rockcliff to evaluate the potential of mill upgrades and the economic trade-off of capital required for this optimization. The results of the second phase of work is antipated in the second quarter of 2020.

QP

Mike Romaniuk P.Eng., VP Projects of Rockcliff, a Qualified Person in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements as set out in NI 43-101, has read and approved the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for the disclosure contained in this press release.

About Rockcliff Metals Corporation

Rockcliff is a well-funded Canadian resource development and exploration company, with a fully functional +1,000 tpd leased processing and tailings facility as well as several advance-staged, high-grade copper and zinc dominant VMS deposits in the Snow Lake area of central Manitoba. The Company is a major landholder in the Flin Flon-Snow Lake greenstone belt which is home to the largest Paleoproterozoic VMS district in the world, hosting mines and deposits containing copper, zinc, gold and silver. The Company's extensive portfolio of properties totals over 4,500 square kilometres and includes eight of the highest-grade, undeveloped VMS deposits in the belt.

For more information, please visit http://rockcliffmetals.com

Twitter: @RockcliffMetals

Linkedin: Rockcliff Metals Corp

Facebook: Rockcliff Metals Corporation

For further information, please contact:

Rockcliff Metals Corporation

Alistair Ross

President & CEO

Phone: (249) 805-9020

aross@rockcliffmetals.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements contained in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward-looking. Although Rockcliff believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not a guarantee of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements.

The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/52944
Ankara cant close the straits since this contradicts international agreements, and evidence of this is the information according to which two Russian warships crossed through the straits without any hindrances a couple of hours ago. This is what Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia Ruben Safrastyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

As far as the S-400s are concerned, it is clear that Turkey has been leading talks with the Americans over the purchase of Patriot systems for a long time, but the US wants Turkey to refuse the transaction with Moscow and then consider the sale of arms. Washington will definitely take advantage of the escalation of the situation in Idlib, he said.

Today, citizens of Istanbul held a protest with anti-Russian slogans near the Consulate of Russia in central Istanbul. This comes after the bombardment by Syrian government forces in Idlib that left 33 Turkish soldiers dead and several soldiers wounded.

In addition, the mass media spread information according to which Turkey considers the possibility of closing the Bosphorus and Dardanelle straits for warships as a response to the escalation of the situation in Idlib and may delay the deployment of the S-400s.
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Aberdeen Global Income Fund, Inc. (NYSE American: FCO) (the "Fund"), a closed-end fund, today announced that it paid on February 28, 2020, a distribution of US $0.07 per share to all shareholders of record as of February 21, 2020 (ex-dividend date February 20, 2020).

Your Fund's distribution policy is to provide investors with a stable monthly distribution out of current income, supplemented by realized capital gains and, to the extent necessary, paid-in capital.

Under U.S. tax rules applicable to the Fund, the amount and character of distributable income for each fiscal year can be finally determined only as of the end of the Fund's fiscal year. However, under Section 19 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the "1940 Act") and related Rules, the Fund may be required to indicate to shareholders the estimated source of certain distributions to shareholders.

The following table sets forth the estimated amounts of the sources of the distribution for purposes of Section 19 of the 1940 Act and the Rules adopted thereunder. The table has been computed based on generally accepted accounting principles. The table includes estimated amounts and percentages for this distribution and for the cumulative distributions paid relating to fiscal year to date (11/01/2019 - 01/31/2020), from the following sources: net investment income; net realized short-term capital gains; net realized long-term capital gains; and return of capital. The estimated composition of the distributions may vary from month to month because the estimated composition may be impacted by future income, expenses and realized gains and losses on securities and currencies.



Estimated

Amounts of

Current

Monthly

Distribution per

share ($) Estimated

Amounts of

Current Monthly

Distribution per

share (%) Estimated

Amounts of Fiscal

Year to Date

Cumulative

Distributions per

share ($) Estimated

Amounts of Fiscal

Year to Date

Cumulative

Distributions per

share (%) Net Investment

Income $0.0287 41% $0.1148 41% Net Realized Short-

Term Capital Gains* - - - - Net Realized Long-

Term Capital Gains - - - - Return of Capital $0.0413 59% $0.1652 59% Total (per common

share) $0.0700 100% $0.2800 100%

*includes currency gains

The Fund estimates that it has distributed more than its income and capital gains; therefore, a portion of your distribution may be a return of capital. A return of capital may occur for example, when some or all of the money that you invested in the Fund is paid back to you. A return of capital distribution does not necessarily reflect the Fund's investment performance and should not be confused with "yield" or "income."

Shareholders should not draw any conclusions about the Fund's investment performance from the amount of the Fund's current distributions or from the terms of the distribution policy (the "Distribution Policy").

The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this notice are only estimates and are not being provided for tax reporting purposes. The final determination of the source of all distributions in 2020 will be made after year-end. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the remainder of the fiscal year and may be subject to change based on tax regulations. The Fund will send you a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes.

The following table provides information regarding the Fund's total return performance based on net asset value (NAV) over various time periods compared to the Fund's annualized and cumulative distribution rates.

Average Annual Total Return on NAV for the 5 Year Period Ending 01/31/20201 3.97% Current Fiscal Period's Annualized Distribution Rate on NAV2 10.71% Fiscal Year to Date (11/01/2019 to 01/31/2020) Cumulative Total Return on NAV1 2.73% Cumulative Distribution Rate on NAV2 2.68%

1Return data is net of all fund expenses and fees and assumes the reinvestment of all distributions reinvested at prices obtained under the Fund's dividend reinvestment plan. 2 Based on the Fund's NAV as of January 31, 2020.

While NAV performance may be indicative of the Fund's investment performance, it does not measure the value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund. The value of a shareholder's investment in the Fund is determined by the Fund's market price, which is based on the supply and demand for the Fund's shares in the open market.

Pursuant to an exemptive order granted by the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 30, 2010, the Fund may distribute any long-term capital gains more frequently than the limits provided in Section 19(b) under the 1940 Act and Rule 19b-1 thereunder. Therefore, distributions paid by the Fund during the year may include net income, short-term capital gains, long-term capital gains and/or a return of capital. Net income dividends and short-term capital gain dividends, while generally taxable at ordinary income rates, may be eligible, to the extent of qualified dividend income earned by the Fund, to be taxed at a lower rate not to exceed the maximum rate applicable to your long-term capital gains. Distributions made in any calendar year in excess of investment company taxable income and net capital gain are treated as taxable ordinary dividends to the extent of undistributed earnings and profits, and then as a return of capital that reduces the adjusted basis in the shares held. To the extent return of capital distributions exceed the adjusted basis in the shares held, capital gain is recognized with a holding period based on the period the shares have been held at the date such amount is received. Shareholders should not draw any conclusions about the Fund's investment performance from the terms of the distribution policy. The final determination of the source of all distributions will be made after year-end. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the fiscal year and may be subject to change based on tax regulations. The Fund will send you a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year that will tell you how to report distributions for federal income tax purposes.

The payment of distributions in accordance with the Distribution Policy may result in a decrease in the Fund's net assets. A decrease in the Fund's net assets may cause an increase in the Fund's annual operating expense ratio and a decrease in the Fund's market price per share to the extent the market price correlates closely to the Fund's net asset value per share. The Distribution Policy may also negatively affect the Fund's investment activities to the extent that the Fund is required to hold larger cash positions than it typically would hold or to the extent that the Fund must liquidate securities that it would not have sold, for the purpose of paying the distribution. The Fund's Board of Directors has the right to amend, suspend or terminate the Distribution Policy at any time. The amendment, suspension or termination of the Distribution Policy may affect the Fund's market price per share. Investors should consult their tax advisor regarding federal, state and local tax considerations that may be applicable in their particular circumstances.

Circular 230 disclosure : To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the U.S. Treasury, we inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.

In the United States, Aberdeen Standard Investments is the marketing name for the following affiliated, registered investment advisers: Aberdeen Standard Investments Inc., Aberdeen Asset Managers Ltd., Aberdeen Standard Investments Australia Ltd., Aberdeen Standard Investments (Asia) Ltd., Aberdeen Capital Management, LLC, Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs Advisors LLC and Standard Life Investments (Corporate Funds) Ltd.

Closed-end funds are traded on the secondary market through one of the stock exchanges. The Fund's investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares may be worth more or less than the original cost. Shares of closed-end funds may trade above (a premium) or below (a discount) the NAV of the fund's portfolio. There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. Past performance does not guarantee future results.

If you wish to receive this information electronically, please contact [email protected]

aberdeenfco.com

SOURCE Aberdeen Global Income Fund, Inc.
The US contends that Huawei is too close to the Chinese government and that its equipment could be used as a tool for spying - a contention the company has denied. AFP/DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS

The 200-million-euro (US$218-million) facility will employ 500 people and produce equipment for the European market, Huawei chairman Liang Hua told a press conference in Paris.

The announcement comes two weeks after France said it would not bow to American pressure to exclude Huawei from supplying equipment for its 5G networks - a stance also taken by Britain.

While saying it would not discriminate against Huawei, the French government said it would nonetheless prioritise European operators, such as Nokia or Ericsson.

The US contends that Huawei is too close to the Chinese government and that its equipment could be used as a tool for spying - a contention the company has denied.

A US court last week dismissed a challenge by Huawei to a ban on the purchase of its products by US federal agencies.

5G, or fifth generation, networks offer vastly higher cellular communication speeds compared with the 4G networks currently used widely, which could unlock a variety of new applications.
I left Africa and childish things, and went to live in Paris, where Therese Raquin kept me on the straight and narrow. Read at an impressionable age, its a very important moral life lesson about guilt and consequences  without ever having to stick your finger into the pit of hell itself. At the time I was going to the American Library, and looking at the handsome boys who didnt know I existed because I was a little chubby teenager. The descriptions of Therese sitting there with Laurent, playing dominoes in their house above the shop, and that burning desire for somebody rang very true for a little plump 14-year-old on the banks of the Seine.
(JNS)Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus corruption trial will start on March 17, just two weeks after Israel holds its third election in less than a year, the countrys Justice Ministry announced on Tuesday.

The Justice Ministry said the trial will begin on March 17 at 3 p.m. The prime minister will be required to attend the Jerusalem District Court for the first session to hear the indictments against him.

On Jan. 28, Netanyahu was formally indicted by Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, where he faces charges on fraud and breach of trust in Cases 1000 and 2000; and bribery, fraud and breach of trust in Case 4000.

Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing in the charges against him.

Despite the looming trial, an Israeli Channel 12 report said Mandelblit will likely inform Israels High Court of Justice that Netanyahu will be able to form a government while standing trial. Israels national elections are scheduled for March 2.

Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz called the trial a sad development that would distract Netanyahu from performing his duties.

Netanyahu will be preoccupied with himself alone. He will not be in a position to look out for the interests of Israels citizens, he said.

At a campaign rally, Netanyahu shot back, saying: You know what will be a sad day? If a Benny Gantz government dependent on [the Joint Arab Lists] Ahmad Tibi is formed... We wont let that happen.
The BRICS Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BRICS CCI) announced the launch of the BRICS CCI Women's Wing with a focus on women empowerment initiatives and policies across geographies.

The objective of the women's wing is to create an enabling support system for women entrepreneurs and professionals across geographies. Founded in 2012, BRICS CCI is empanelled with NITI Aayog and recognized by the United Nations.

While the BRICS nations will remain at the centre of all activities, the chamber has taken in its credo to reach out to and enable young entrepreneurs from other friendly nations too and bring stakeholders associated with women entrepreneurship across key countries under one platform.

The BRICS CCI Women's wing will be led by Shabana Nasim, Governing Body Member, BRICS CCI, Shormishtha Ghosh, Director - Advisory, BRICS CCI and Ruby Sinha, Convenor, BRICS CCI Women's wing and Advisor BRICS CCI.

One-stop knowledge hub for women entrepreneurs globally, shetatwork.com will be the knowledge partner for the BRICS CCI Women's wing. An eminent advisory board comprising of eminent women professionals from across countries is also being set up.

"We are very pleased to announce the launch of our exclusive wing for enterprising women entrepreneurs and professionals looking at creating a global presence through our advisory and support services. It will be our endeavour to create a supportive eco-system to enable women to realise their full potential which in turn will help in generating employment and growing the economy," said Dr BBL Madhukar, Director-General - BRICS CCI, while announcing the launch.

The BRICS CCI women's wing will be building a credible repository of working professionals, entrepreneurs, partners across different geographies and industry verticals and promoting interactions among members by organizing regular events platforms and other forms of interactions. It will also facilitate mentoring/training programs for women professionals.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Delhi municipal worker stands next to heaps of the remains of vehicles, steel cupboards and other materials on a street vandalized in Tuesday's violence in New Delhi, India. AP Photo/Altaf Qadri

At least 32 people have been killed in the deadliest violence to engulf India's capital, New Delhi, in decades, as a heavy deployment of security forces brought an uneasy calm yesterday, a police official said.

The violence began over a disputed new citizenship law on Monday but led to clashes between Muslims and Hindus in which hundreds were injured. Many suffered gunshot wounds, while arson, looting and stone-throwing have also taken place.

"The death count is now at 32," Delhi police spokesman Anil Mittal said, adding the "entire area is peaceful now".

At the heart of the unrest is a citizenship law which makes it easier for non-Muslims from some neighbouring Muslim-dominated countries to gain Indian citizenship. Critics say the law is biased against Muslims and undermines India's secular constitution.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has denied having any bias against India's 180 million Muslims, saying the law is required to help persecuted minorities.

New Delhi has been the epicentre for protests against the new law.

As the wounded were brought to hospitals yesterday, the focus shifted on the overnight transfer of a Delhi High Court judge who was hearing a petition into the riots and had criticised government and police inaction on Wednesday.

The opposition Congress party leader Manish Tiwari said every lawyer and judge in India should strongly protest at what he called a crude attempt to intimidate the judiciary.

Information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said inflammatory speeches at the protests over the new citizenship law in the last few months was behind the violence.
The spread of the coronavirus is impacting sales of a popular beer brand.

Constellation Brands brews several variations of Corona, and according to CNN, the company said its customers understand there is no link between the virus and our business.

However, the coronavirus outbreak comes at bad time for Constellation, which recently launched a $40 million campaign for its line of Corona-branded hard seltzers. A recent tweet showed four cans of the hard seltzer on a beach with the words Coming ashore soon."

The responses were anything but positive. No one wants to hear from you right now, Corona, wrote Tanuki.

Saw an ad for 'corona hard seltzer and was briefly confused, thinking it was a new drink named after a new disease, wrote Juliet Escoria.

Introducing Corona Hard Seltzer. Four delicious flavors. One splashy entrance. pic.twitter.com/XrPPr6nWrB  Corona USA (@coronaextrausa) February 24, 2020

Constellation has confirmed to several news sources it is not ending the ad campaign.

Many media sources have reported an uptick in searches for corona beer virus on Google spiking at the end of January.

And CNN reports at least two surveys this week show the Corona is taking a hit.

In a survey of 357 adults, market research company YouGov found consumers intent to purchase Corona fell to its lowest level in two years. Meanwhile, the brands buzz score, a metric used to measure favorability, had slipped to 51, from 75 in January.

Also, 5W Public Relations conducted a study that found 38% of Americans wouldnt buy Corona under any circumstances because of the outbreak, and another 14% said they wouldnt order a Corona in public. The company polled 737 U.S. beer drinkers by phone.

While the brand has claimed that consumers understand theres no linkage between the virus and the beer company, this is a disaster for the Corona brand. After all, what brand wants to be linked to a virus which is killing people worldwide? said Ronn Torossian, Founder and CEO of 5WPR, in a statement.

Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.
Andrew Klingensmith

Fort Collins, Colo.

To the Editor:

Dear President Trump:

The emergence of the coronavirus has created an unprecedented opportunity for you to lead in a constructive way. As a New Yorker who followed your career, I was aware for decades that you abhorred the ritual of handshaking. It appears that you reluctantly took it up during your first campaign and in your role as president. This potential pandemic is an opportunity to convert the nation, and perhaps the world, to your way of thinking regarding this unsanitary ritual.

You can do so much good to help stop the spread of coronavirus by persuading people to adopt the fist bump or elbow bump, or, as some other cultures do, bowing. Your leadership on this issue can save many lives around the world.

Larry Lynn

Grand View-on-Hudson, N.Y.

To the Editor:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says to stay home when youre sick and prepare for significant disruption to our lives with the likely spread of coronavirus in the United States. Yet for nearly seven in 10 workers who earn low wages  and more than three in 10 over all  doing just that can cost you your pay, and maybe your job. These are the workers who serve our food, drive our kids school buses, care for our elderly loved ones.

It shouldnt take a pandemic to remind us that we all have a stake in a universal standard of paid sick days and paid family and medical leave.

Ellen Bravo

Milwaukee

The writer is strategic adviser for Family Values @ Work.

To the Editor:

President Trumps response to the coronavirus virus is typical of him  simply say a bunch of fluffy things. He is quoted as saying: But we are very, very ready for this, for anything and We really have done a very good job. But he never backs up these statements with details.

What has he actually done to protect us? U.S. citizens deserve that information. Perhaps Mr. Trump simply doesnt know or doesnt really care.

Brant Thomas

Cold Spring, N.Y.

To the Editor:

Re City in South Korea Tries Openness, With Word of Caution About Crisis (news article, Feb. 26):

I live in Daegu, Samsungs birthplace and the epicenter of Covid-19 in South Korea. Yes, the situation is grave; the number of cases here has topped 1,000. Since the unexpected outbreak in January, we have taken decisive pre-emptive measures while doctors and nurses do their job. We avoid one another. A controversy on whether to ban travelers from China aside, the government has responded rather systematically and decisively.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 21:07:34|Editor: huaxia

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ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Officials of the newly-recruited southern security forces have warned that "terror groups" are plotting to launch attacks against key military facilities in the Yemeni port city of Aden following the killing of a senior al-Qaida leader.

Earlier this month, the U.S. President Donald Trump announced launching a counter-terrorism operation that resulted in killing, Qasim al-Raymi, the leader of the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

In an audio speech revealed by pro-AQAP religious social media accounts, the group confirmed the death of its leader al-Raymi, and announced appointing Khalid Batarfi as a successor.

An official of Aden's security department told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that AQAP might plan to carry out armed attacks in revenge for the killing of its leader in the northern part of the war-torn Arab country.

"AQAP received a big blow after killing of its top commander and may carry out local armed attacks against key military facilities to prove its presence and strength despite losing its leader," the official said.

He said that "the terrorist group sees the newly-recruited southern security forces as a strong ally for the international community in combating terrorism in Yemen and may target our locations."

The security forces have been directed to remain vigilant and intensify presence around the main entrances of Aden and neighboring provinces to abort any imminent terror attacks, according to the official.

Another security official based in the southern province of Lahj told Xinhua that the newly-recruited troops seized a large truck loaded with quantities of ammunition and weapons.

"A truck loaded with ammunition and explosive devices was seized by the security forces while it was coming from Taiz province and heading towards Aden in an illegal way and may be used by terror elements," the source said.

Some citizens based in Aden and other neighboring southern provinces that witnessed several deadly attacks launched by AQAP and the Islamic State (IS) during the past years expressed their happiness after the killing of AQAP leader but feared revenge attacks against their cities.

Akram Mohammed, an Aden-based citizen, told Xinhua that "we heard many stories about capturing terrorist cells in Aden during the past days and that's too scary."

"It looks like there's an ongoing preparation to destabilize our city through attacking the southern security forces that countered terrorists and aborted their plans," he said.

He urged all the local citizens in southern Yemen to help the local security units in securing their neighborhoods and aborting any terrorist attacks.

Ali Alkadher, a citizen from the neighboring southern province of Abyan confirmed to Xinhua that "terrorists resumed their activities in some mountainous areas of Abyan and sporadically attacked the local southern security units."

Security units trained by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Aden largely participated in kicking the AQAP militants out from several villages in Abyan and the southeastern province of Shabwa during the past two years.

But AQAP takes advantage of the military withdrawal of the UAE forces from southern Yemen and gains a foothold again in Abyan and Shabwa provinces.

The Yemen-based al-Qaida branch, seen by the United States as the global terror network's most dangerous branch, has exploited years of deadly conflict between Yemen's government and Houthi rebels to expand its presence in the impoverished Arab country.
Do not increase class sizes  and forget about e-learning.

Those were two main messages for the Ford government from more than 7,000 public submissions during last years education consultations, according to the provinces own summaries obtained by the Star.

The reports  which the government has refused to release  were entered as evidence at an ongoing Ontario Labour Relations Board hearing into allegations by the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association that the province engaged in bad-faith bargaining by boosting class sizes during negotiations.

The report says one of the key themes identified in the consultations was that larger class sizes negatively impact student learning (and) will reduce the quality of education ... Larger class sizes will result in less individual time between teachers and students.

The province has repeatedly refused to release the results of the public and stakeholder consultations, which were held under previous education minister Lisa Thompson  consultations she touted as the largest in the provinces history and said would be used to inform education policies.

The government spent just shy of a million dollars to gain this input from parents and students and experts, said New Democrat MPP Marit Stiles, her partys education critic. Despite all of that, when they didnt get the responses they wanted ... they decided to hide them.

Asked by NDP Leader Andrea Horwath why the government claims to have the support of families for its controversial changes, Premier Doug Ford told the legislature that Im out there. I talk to parents. I dont go by some online poll ... I talk to the parents. Im hearing overwhelmingly, number one, they want these strikes to stop. They want their kids back in the classroom.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the government is always committed to getting a deal but accused the unions of focusing on salary and benefits increases. The government has passed legislation limiting public sector wage increases to one per cent a year.

All four teachers unions have been without contracts since last August, and are involved in ongoing job actions, including rotating strikes  although public elementary teachers have put theirs on hold for two weeks. The Catholic teachers union has announced it will hold a province-wide walkout on March 5.

At the labour board this week, Tom Doyle, head negotiator for the Catholic teachers union, said he had waded through thousands of submissions and found virtually no support for larger classes.

Those submissions were also obtained by the Star.

The provincial reports also say a key theme from respondents is that they (do) not support mandatory online learning. Concerns were raised about a lack of access to a computer or the internet as well as how teens are not disciplined/motivated enough to succeed in online learning.

It would be prudent to phase in mandatory e-learning, said one recommendation cited in the summaries. Start in 2020-21 with a pilot of one mandatory online course by graduation. Invite interested boards to apply to be part of the pilot then gather data.

The government initially planned to introduce four mandatory online courses for high school students this fall, but now says it wants them to earn just two to graduate. No other jurisdiction in North American has such a requirement.

Among the education groups that also took part in the two rounds of consultations  school boards and student associations among them  all supported last years secondary class size average of 22. They say changing this years average class size to almost 23 students led to turmoil in schools, including teacher job losses and thousands of lost course options for students.

None supported mandatory e-learning.

The province has provided few details about how the online courses will work, other than that e-learning classes will have an average of 35 students.

Lecce said Thursday that the government is committed to ensuring that Ontario students have an economic advantage in this country and thats why were ensuring that they have every competency required, including technological fluency, to ensure that they know how to embrace the jobs of the future online. The digital economy is growing. We want to seize that opportunity.

He also said high-speed internet will be available in every school by this September.

Polls have also shown that online learning is unpopular, and Stiles said the Ford government hasnt listened to anyone except themselves.

A smart government knows when it is time to change tack, she added, and they have given no indication they are going to do that.

Read more about:
Technavio has been monitoring the cultured meat market 2020-2024 and it is poised to grow by USD 200.21 million during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of almost 16% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005373/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Cultured Meat Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Growing prominence of cellular agriculture has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Request a free sample report

Cultured Meat Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Cultured Meat Market is segmented as below:

Product

Beef

Pork and Lamb

Poultry

Geographic Segmentation

APAC

Europe

MEA

North America

South America

To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40184

Cultured Meat Market 2020-2024: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our cultured meat market 2020-2024 report covers the following areas:

Cultured Meat Market Size

Cultured Meat Market Trends

Cultured Meat Market Industry Analysis

This study identifies increasing demand for animal proteins as one of the prime reasons driving the cultured meat market growth during the next few years.

Cultured Meat Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the cultured meat market, including some of the vendors such as Aleph Farms Ltd., Appleton Meats, Cubiq Foods, Future Meat Technologies, Integriculture Co. Ltd., JUST Inc., Memphis Meats, Mission Barnes, Mosa Meat BV and New Age Meats. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the cultured meat market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Cultured Meat Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist cultured meat market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the cultured meat market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the cultured meat market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of cultured meat market vendors

PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT

2.1 Preface

2.2 Preface

2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE

Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

Value chain analysis

Market segmentation analysis

PART 04: MARKET SIZING

Market definition

Market sizing 2019

Market outlook

Market size and forecast 2019-2024

PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY PRODUCT

Market segmentation by product

Comparison by product

Beef Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Pork and lamb Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Poultry Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by product

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024

South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Key leading countries

Market opportunity

PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

Rising concerns regarding animal welfare

Growing demand for animal proteins

Growing demand for ready-to-eat products

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Aleph Farms Ltd.

Appleton Meats

Cubiq Foods

Future Meat Technologies

Integriculture Co. Ltd.

JUST Inc.

Memphis Meats

Mission Barnes

Mosa Meat BV

New Age Meats

PART 14: APPENDIX

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

Definition of market positioning of vendors

PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005373/en/

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The 1952 Democratic convention in Chicago, the last multi-ballot nominating contestbefore this year? Photo: Ralph Morse/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images

In the complex dynamics of the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination contest, the most fascinating and confusing contingency involves a scenario where no candidate has a majority of the pledged delegates elected during the primary season. Now, pledged delegates arent legally bound to vote for the candidate to which they are pledged (in the Democratic Party, at least), but most were selected by campaigns and are presumptively loyal. Unpledged superdelegates cant vote until the second ballot under a compromise worked out with Sanders supporters after the 2016 contest. So the only way a plurality leader could win on the first ballot would be via the release of pledged delegates by a candidate who has withdrawn from the race, or by convincing just enough pledged delegates to defect on grounds that a contested convention would damage and divide the party. That seems to be what Bernie Sanders was suggesting at the recent Las Vegas candidate debate when he said the leader in pledged delegates should be granted the nomination even if she or he has no majority. The other candidates on the stage disagreed.

Sanders probably has reason to believe that he would not benefit from proceeding to a second ballot when 771 unpledged superdelegates (mostly elected officials and members of the Democratic National Committee)  16 percent of second-ballot votes  come into play. It would be an unsettling experience for everyone: The last multi-ballot convention in either major party was the 1952 Democratic event in which Adlai Stevenson was nominated on the third ballot. If, however, a more Establishment-friendly candidate (say, Joe Biden) was in the same position, a second ballot might not look quite so bad.

How likely is the contested-convention scenario at this point? Well, FiveThirtyEight now projects that theres a 50/50 chance that no candidate wins a majority of pledged delegates. Again, its possible a front-runner could be so close to a majority that other candidates or the Powers That Be would decide to take steps to put the putative nominee over the top on a first ballot. But if multiple candidates  perhaps contemplating a multi-ballot convention that winds up seeking a unity candidate  stick around, the proportional delegate award rules Democratic follow could make a muddled situation possible.

Consider one more immediate projection made by FiveThirtyEight, based on a Biden win in South Carolina by a modest margin. By the time the dust settles from Super Tuesday (March 3), its estimated that Sanders could lead with 39 percent of the 1,492 pledged delegates (38 percent of the ultimate total) awarded as of March 3, with Biden at 29 percent and the remainder scattered among Bloomberg (13 percent), Warren (10 percent), Buttigieg (6 percent) and Klobuchar (3 percent). In this scenario, Biden would have won half the Super Tuesday states. Theres no question hed stay in the race and keep racking up delegates so long as his money held up. And the odds are good that other candidates (e.g., Elizabeth Warren) might hang around, particularly if a contested convention becomes more likely and with it the possibility of a late-ballot lightning strike on behalf of some unity candidate. Another wild card is Michael Bloomberg, who certainly has the resources to keep competing in primaries and snag some delegates even if hes no threat to win the nomination.

Yes, Sanders could keep extending his lead, and the 15 percent threshold for winning delegates could make weak candidates relatively harmless to him. But the delegate totals are going to pile up quickly, possibly before he can consolidate his position: By April 7 over 70 percent of the total pledged delegates will have been won or lost. And for all we know, Sanders and Biden  or less likely, Sanders and Bloomberg  could get into a true see-saw battle where the pledged-delegate lead remains up for grabs. As late as April 28, there will be a multi-primary day with 663 delegates awarded in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Sanders lost all of those states (with the exception of Rhode Island) in 2016.

So anything could happen, and theres no real precedent for determining how close a pledged-delegate leader must get to a majority before the nomination is assured. If the outcome is unclear by the late primaries, you could definitely see all sorts of unusual tactical maneuvers come into play, including candidate coalitions, unity or anybody but efforts, endorsements by previously neutral party leaders, early veep announcements, and even dark-horse drafts. If Sanders does get close but not quite there before the convention, there will be a lot of psychological pressure brought to bear on his behalf thanks to the assumption that his supporters are more likely to represent a threat to party unity than any others if hes denied the prize theyve been pursuing for so long (are there seriously any Biden or Bust voters?).

All this uncertainty makes it hard to figure out how Democrats can avoid a contested convention so long as actual primary voters havent settled on a consensus candidate. Perhaps the prospect of the most exciting national political convention in living memory will become a rooting interest for Democratic activists as well as journalists ready to cover a wild scene in Milwaukee. More likely it will fill those ready to move on to the most consequential general election in many years with fear and loathing.
The number of Turkish soldiers killed in Syria's Idlib province has grown to 33, governor of Turkey's Hatay province Rahmi Dogan said.



"The number of killed soldiers increased to 33. There is no threat to the lives of the injured soldiers," Dogan told TRT channel.



Earlier reports said that 29 Turkish soldiers were killed and 36 more were injured.

The administration of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after an emergency session that Turkish forces are delivering airstrikes at the positions of Syrian government forces in response to shellings at Turkish soldiers in Idlib.



Turkish President's top press aide Fahrettin Altun said Turkey's military retaliated against all known positions of the regime after the air strike. He called on the international community to fulfil its responsibilities to end the violence in Idlib and the Bashar Assad regime's "crimes against humanity".
LONDON and ZURICH, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ThomasLloyd announced today that its investee company SolarArise India Projects Private Limited ("SolarArise") has issued the first part of a Notice to Proceed ("NTP") to Jakson Limited to commence the construction at its new 75 MW Solar PV Plant in Uttar Pradesh.

SolarArise has awarded the engineering, procurement and construction ("EPC") contract to Jakson. The EPC contractor will initially finalise the design and layout of the switchyard at the project site and then mobilise manpower to commence construction activities. Current activities include soil testing, topography, transmission route survey and electrical resistivity testing.

For the 75 MW project, SolarArise has executed project debt financing documents with Power Finance Corporation Limited, a Government of India Undertaking and India's largest power sector lender.

The Company has also signed the module supply contract with JA solar for the supply of mono PERC modules.

About SolarArise India Projects Private Limited

SolarArise is an Indian focused project developer which develops, owns and operates grid-connected solar PV projects in India. Other shareholders besides ThomasLloyd are the Global Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF), advised by the European Investment Bank Group, the Core Infrastructure India Fund (CIIF), managed by Kotak Mahindra Bank, and the founding team. Further information can be found at: www.solararise.com

About ThomasLloyd Group

ThomasLloyd is a global investment and advisory firm dedicated to leading the necessary process for social and environmental change, focusing exclusively on the financing, construction and operation of sustainable projects in the infrastructure, agriculture and property sectors. The range of services comprises products and services through the entire value chain of these sectors. In addition to the structuring, placement and management of impact investing solutions, they include consulting and financing of projects and companies, as well as digital financial services, particularly in investment brokerage, investment advisory and asset management. Founded in 2003, ThomasLloyd is now one of the world's leading impact investors and providers of climate financing. Headquartered in Zurich and with over 250 employees in 17 locations in North America, Europe and Asia, the company currently manages assets of over 3.5 billion Euros for more than 60,000 private and institutional investors. Further information can be found at: www.thomas-lloyd.com

For further information, contact:

ThomasLloyd Group

Press/Communication

Phone: +49(0)89-599-890-313

Fax: +49(0)89-599-890-323

public.relations@thomas-lloyd.com

www.thomas-lloyd.com
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Maharashtra police on February 26 raided a retail outlet in the Vasai area of Palghar district of the state for selling counterfeit barbed wire under the brand name 'Tata Wiron'.

Tata Steel, in a press release dated February 28, said its officials conducted the raid with the help of the state police. It added that the counterfeit product was being sold with photocopied Tata Wiron labels attached to it.

Around 26 bundles of the fake barbed wire were seized by the team. These were reportedly being procured by the retailer from manufacturers in a nearby district. The retailer attached the fake labels at his outlet and sold the goods at a considerably lower price as compared to that of the original Tata Wiron barbed wire product.

The company, in the statement, said, "Tata Steel will continue to actively pursue these efforts in monitoring and acting against any such illegal activities which are impacting its assets and the brand."

Condemning the misuse and illegal usage of its trademarks, logos and other intellectual properties, it added, "In pursuit of protecting the Companys brand reputation and goodwill, Tata Steel's brand protection team continuously monitors and acts against entities including counterfeiters which are infringing on Companys Intellectual property rights."
Now Open

28 February 2020

Accor has expanded its portfolio of hotels in Vietnam with the opening of a second ibis Styles in the country.

Overlooking the long sandy Back Beach, the ibis Styles Vung Tau is just a two-hour drive from Saigon.

The hotel's 250 guest rooms range in size from the 24 sqm Standard Room to the 46 sqm Premium Family sea view room with balcony.

In addition to a rooftop bar, the hotel also features a restaurant designed similarly to a street food concept with an open kitchen and a spacious terrace with various selections of Vietnamese food and international cuisine.

The hotel also has a rooftop pool, 24-hour gym, a kid's club, and two meeting rooms which can be combined into a ballroom for up to 200 people.

In addition to beach activities, guests of ibis Styles Vung Tau can enjoy the succulent catches of the day at the Night Seafood Market just 10 minutes away by foot. Perched atop Small Mountain and a short walk away stands the 32-meter-tall statue of Jesus Christ, from which visitors can enjoy a panoramic view across the ocean. Other sites of interest within a short drive away are the Lighthouse Tower, White Palace, and Ho May Park.
Where would you like to go?

Anne Chen-Cook places virtual-reality headsets on Claris MacConnell and Al Neubieser. For a Saharan camel-back ride or hot air ballooning in Portugal?

Ill go ballooning, says MacConnell, 93, sitting in her wheelchair in the common area of Sunny View, a resortlike senior-living facility in Cupertino.

Chen-Cook, a Sunny View life-enrichment specialist, opens the program on her iPad and sends MacConnell and Neubieser to Portugal, where they hover in the sky.

What can you see? Chen-Cook asks.

Farmland, says MacConnell.

Nothing! jokes Neubieser, 86, who has vision only in one eye and is the resident comic at Sunny View.

Chen-Cook keeps manipulating the program by Rendever, a mobile virtual reality platform that provides curated content for older adults. I cant see depth, Neubieser complains.

Chen-Cook transports the pair to a dinosaur museum in Australia and then suggests their old neighborhoods, navigating to a cross street near Neubiesers old address in Forest Park, Ill.

Thats my old street, Thomas, and thats Adams, he cries, naming the familiar streets. I remember that white house on the corner.

Welcome to technologys new wave: age-tech  the preferred term for products and experiences aimed at Americas gray tsunami. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are an estimated 73 million Baby Boomers. And the Census 2017 National Population Projections showed that by 2034, seniors 65 years and older will outnumber children under 18.

The tech world is taking note, racing to serve this aging demographic  a group that, until now, has essentially been ignored by the industry. Whether its developing products that allow seniors to age in place or live in retirement homes, assisted-living facilities or memory-care centers, this is techs next frontier. Age-tech today promises to connect seniors with their families, increase their mental stimulation, deter isolation and keep them safe and healthy.

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

The products and services run the gamut: Bay Area startups GoGoGrandparent and Onward Rides connect seniors to rides they can book without using any technology themselves, while robotic pets are used to calm anxiety in dementia patients. There are goggles that allow those with macular degeneration to see, and toilets that analyze bowl contents for signs of urinary tract infections and dehydration. Tech startups are popping up all over, eager to provide solutions  and make huge profits. (A complete IrisVision goggles kit costs $2,950.)

These products are not without their critics in the senior living industry, some of whom worry that instead of fostering engagement, tech might encourage isolation, with everyone on their own devices in their own rooms. They say tech systems require ongoing training of the elderly, who often dont retain what they learn. As with any technology that tracks and monitors personal data, there are privacy concerns. And, some warn, bits and bytes are no substitutes for real-life connections.

Tech should never replace human interface, says Candiece Milford, managing director of marketing at the nonprofit Rhoda Goldman Plaza assisted living facility in San Francisco.

But others swear by age-tech, and seniors seem to be expecting it.

With the increased penetration of smart devices into peoples homes, (people) are wanting to see these things in senior living communities, says Davis Park, executive director of the Center for Innovation and Wellbeing at Front Porch, a Southern California nonprofit that owns Sunny View and nine other senior communities in California. When theyre looking to establish themselves in a home, they expect the available technology to help support their needs.

Due in part to its location, Sunny View is heavily invested in tech, using it for everything from live streaming Sunday services from a nearby church to Wii bowling tournaments and programs like Rendevers virtual reality. And theyre paying for it: The community paid roughly $150,000 to $175,000 for all their tech systems, as well as ongoing rental fees of about $10,000 a month.

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

But according to many, its worth it. Its not just giving people unique immersive experiences, but shared experiences, says Park. If a couple wants to see the moon in Paris or a village near Tokyo, it allows people to talk about what theyre seeing and recall it. Its a great way of stimulating conversation, fostering engagement and evoking past memories. Its not about Mario Go Kart.

Sunny View also deploys a movie system called 3Scape that provides 3D-filmed content rooted in reminiscence therapy. Films are designed to spark cognitive function, lessen depression and evoke happiness. One film about a young boy who lives on a farm seems so real, the fields and farm animals seem to stop right at your feet.

Its like youre really there, muses Chia-Liang Li, a jovial man of 93 whose memories of his youth flooded back while watching the film. When I was 10, I lived on a farm. My father was a farmer.

The senior living center also has the system Its Never 2 Late (iN2L), which consists of large touch screens with big icons that seniors press to connect with the grandkids by video chat, visit the Louvre, read online newspapers from their hometowns, conduct a virtual orchestra and watch movies, all adapted to their abilities.

People want to be connected and relevant, says iN2Ls president and co-founder Jack York. These people are doctors and lawyers and welders and teachers, and they can be treated like 10-year-olds with the kind of programming some places have. We have easily accessible content partitioned to deal with wherever a person is cognitively, while making it easy and enjoyable for them.

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

At Sunny View, residents also have access to CyberCycle  an interactive recumbent exercise bike that lets riders race against other virtual bikers  and Paro, an FDA-approved robotic baby harp seal designed to stimulate brain activities of people with cognition disorders. The idea is to alleviate anxiety, depression and loneliness, says its Japanese developer, Takanori Shibata. With sensors that react to light, touch, sound, temperature and position, the white-furred creature squeaks, coos, blinks and moves, allowing it to deliver the benefits of pet therapy without the logistics of using real animals.

If someone is agitated or restless or wandering, we use Paro to lessen anxiety, says Park. It soothes and calms down and it just takes minutes. Meds take at least half an hour to kick in.

But more than anything else, what seems poised to transform the senior service industry is voice-first technology. Of Sunny Views 119 residents. about half have adopted Alexa.

Neubieser loves his Alexa. If I say, Alexa, play music, she plays music. If I say, Alexa, what time is it? shell tell me. If I say, Alexa, turn off light, shell turn it off. Shes like a good friend, he says.

Age-tech is also employed to prevent falls, a priority in senior living facilities. The National Council on Aging reports that falls are the leading cause of injuries for older Americans and result in more than 2.8 million emergency-room visits annually, including over 800,000 hospitalizations and more than 27,000 deaths.

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

Sunny View has installed smart lighting tied into Alexa. We had reports of people saying, I feel safer now. Im able to light my way to the bathroom in the middle of the night now, says Park, who calls Alexa a fall-risk mitigator.

SafelyYou, which came out of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab, is deployed in more than two dozen senior communities across California, including the Parkview in Pleasanton and the Trousdale in Burlingame.

Cameras are placed in seniors rooms and staff is alerted when a fall occurs. The team then conducts a review of the real-time video for clues as to how it happened  especially helpful when a resident cant explain firsthand why he or she fell.

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.

The system constantly records, but for privacy reasons, there is no screen that can be watched, says Sylvia Chu, executive director at the Trousdale. Everything not fall-related is deleted automatically. If it detects a fall, that piece will be recorded and a signal sent to the front desk, which must answer the call.

We have post-fall huddles discussing what happened and how it happened and (we think), this person has fallen twice on the corner of the bed, so lets change the direction and orientation of the bed, says Therese ten Brinke, director of strategic initiatives at Eskaton, which operates three care centers and a dozen residential facilities in California, including the Trousdale. And then we see those residents are no longer falling.

Marco Santos, vice president of clinical operations at Carlton Senior Living in Concord  which runs 11 senior communities in California  says the technology has reduced falls in Carlton facilities by 31%. It was the only tech available to us besides wearables, says Santos, and were not big fans of that. (Among other reasons: residents take them off.)

Some communities have also introduced smart sensors, with mixed results: The Rhoda Goldman Plaza in San Francisco tested them in its memory-care unit but dropped them after the system seemed only able to signal that someone was getting out of bed.

Eskaton partnered with startup K4Connect to integrate smart sensors into apartments using devices such as lights and thermostats. The company rolled out social tablets with the K4Connect app that residents could also use to check the menu, access community announcements and connect with family members, but they didnt do so well, says ten Brinke. There was a steep learning curve, and sometimes there were some barriers for someone living with forgetfulness and lack of dexterity.

When one resident with Parkinsons disease said he needed to control the sensors with his voice, K4 Connect integrated Alexa through its app and now residents can speak their commands.

Not all senior living homes have embraced technology with equal measure.

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

We use it very lightly here, says Milford of the Rhoda Goldman Plaza facility. Its adoption in a group of older adults whose average age is 88 is not as deep as it will be in even a few years. And when a technology is offered, it needs to be introduced thoughtfully, over time with plenty of training, she says. You cant just hand them an iPad and tell them they can order dinner or do this or that. While tech is very attractive to the adult children, most seniors will put the iPad down because you have to train them over and over.

At the Goldman facility, tech mostly consists of a weekly class on smart devices and limited use of Alexa and ElliQ, a talking social companion robot for older people that can arrange rides, remind them to take their medication and let them know when a new picture of the grandkids arrives.

Weve introduced Alexa and ElliQ on a case-by-case basis, Milford says. Some like that they can program their music to their own tastes. Others felt very uncomfortable because they felt they were being watched.

Milford says the facility is open to tech, but not to the point where it replaces staff members. Theres rampant loneliness. You have a phone, but that is not a life force. Youre losing your opportunity of having real connections with a real person and this is something tech can never replace, and there is something that is lost when it happens.

While tech may not universally boost quality of life, it can revolutionize some lives.

When Anne Davis, 88, began losing her sight to macular degeneration, she was unable to read and in despair.

Its pretty awful not to be able to see, says the former faculty member at UCSFs School of Nursing, who lives in the San Francisco Towers retirement home. Now, not only can she read, she just sent a publisher a book proposal she composed on her iPad. The magic? IrisVisions goggles, comprising a Samsung smartphone, Gear virtual-reality headset and software that compensates for what she cant see naturally.

The difference tech has made for Davis is astounding. But perhaps its greatest value is its potential to keep seniors independent for longer.

Castro Valleys Frank Rios, 77, was desperate after losing his sight from leukemia but wanted to stay at home. The goggles changed everything.

Now, says Rios, I turn to my partner and can actually see his visual expression. Thats something I hadnt seen in three years.

Mandy Behbehani is a freelance writer in the Bay Area. Email: culture@sfchronicle.com
By Donny Kwok and Pak Yiu

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong police arrested publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai, an outspoken critic of Beijing, and two other pro-democracy activists on Friday on charges of illegal assembly, drawing condemnation from international rights groups.

Lai, a self-made millionaire who has made financial contributions to Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement and has been a target of criticism for mainland Chinese media, was picked up by police at his house, Cable TV and TVB News reported.

Apple Daily, one of the publications under media company Next Digital <0282.HK> in which Lai is non-executive chairman, said he was accused of participating in an illegal march on Aug. 31. The newspaper said Lai had followed a crowd along a central route for two hours on that day, singing hymns and praying.

Veteran democracy activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum were also arrested on Friday on the same charges, Cable TV reported.

"Earlier today, we arrested three local men, aged 63 to 72, for suspected participation in a non-approved gathering," Wong Tung Kwong, senior Hong Kong police superintendent of criminal deployment, told a media briefing.

The three have been charged and will appear in court on May 5, he said. Police did not name those arrested, as per its standard practice. It also gave no further details.

Lai was seen by a Reuters reporter leaving the Kowloon City police station in a black Mercedes on Friday. He gave no comment.

"The charges will not hinder our fight for democracy, freedom and our human right to continue to gather, march and protest," Lee told reporters in front of the Cheung Sha Wan police station.

Lai and Yeung could not be reached immediately for comment.

ARRESTS CRITICIZED

The arrests come after a period of relative calm in the Asian financial hub following months of intense anti-government protests.

Hong Kong saw one of its worst clashes on Aug. 31, with police firing tear gas and water cannons at pro-democracy protesters who threw petrol bombs.

Story continues

Authorities in Hong Kong have arrested more than 7,000 people for their involvement in the protests, many on charges of rioting that can carry jail terms of up to 10 years. It is unclear how many are still in custody.

Public anger has grown over the months due to perceptions of China tightening its grip over the city. Beijing denies meddling and blames the West for fomenting unrest.

Lai was previously arrested in 2014 for refusing to leave a key pro-democracy protest site in the center of the city. Following his arrest he resigned as editor in chief of Apple Daily. He has also come under scrutiny from Hong Kong's anti-graft agency when they raided his home in 2014.

Taiwans Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement it was concerned about the arrests and called on the Hong Kong authorities to ensure freedoms like the right to protest enshrined in the city's basic law are respected.

Amnesty International said the arrests were "a shameless attempt to harass and silence those in Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement" and called for an independent inquiry into police's handling of the protests - a core demand of protesters.

Police has repeatedly said it has acted with restraint and has used minimum levels of force.

Hong Kong Democracy Council, a Washington based non- government organization, said on Friday that the arrests were "blatant acts of political suppression by the Hong Kong government and the Chinese Communist Party".

The group said in a statement it was demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Lai and the other pro-democracy activists.

The government did not have an immediate comment when contacted by Reuters.

(Reporting by Donny Kwok, Pak Yiu, Twinnie Siu and Jessie Pang; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard; Writing by Farah Master and Marius Zaharia; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 27, 2020) - Golden Opportunity Resources Corp. (CSE: GOOP) (the "Company" or "Golden Opportunity") is pleased to announce that it has signed a non-binding letter of intent (the "LOI") with Mirasol Resources Ltd. ("Mirasol") to acquire a 100% interest (the "Option") in Mirasol's 73,411 hectare Virginia silver project located in the Santa Cruz Province of Argentina (the "Project").In addition, Golden Opportunity is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement for aggregate gross proceeds of up to C$2,000,000 (the "Private Placement") through the issuance of up to 20,000,000 units of the Company (each a "Unit") at a price of C$0.10 per Unit with a half of a Warrant at a price of C$0.25 for two years.

Golden Opportunity's CEO Keith Anderson comments, "This is an exciting time in our Company's infancy stage since recently being publicly listed. This Letter of Intent with Mirasol is a step towards building an exciting new mining company with a focus on developing precious metal assets in mining friendly jurisdictions. Once this transaction is completed, Mirasol will be a significant shareholder and a strategic partner as we move forward in creating value for all of our shareholders. Mirasol will also continue to be the Operator of the Project, which will come with in-country technical and geopolitical experience of operating in the district."

"The Virginia Project is located in a well-known, safe and established mining district with neighbouring resources and mines run by some of the largest silver and gold mining companies. Though the mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby projects is not necessarily indicative of the mineralization hosted on the Virginia project, the district includes major mining companies such as McEwen Mining, Hochschild, Pan American Silver, Yamana Gold and Sandstorm Gold. Mirasol has already done a great amount of ground and drilling exploration work to identify, expand and create targets within and outside of the known mineralization. Our team is looking forward to working together on developing this Project."

Story continues







Location Map of the Virginia Silver Project in the Santa Cruz Province of Argentina

To view an enhanced version of this map, please visit:

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Virginia Silver Project Highlights

Mirasol first discovered the Project in 2009, following-up a high-priority reconnaissance target identified by its generative team. Over the next few years, Mirasol defined high-grade, intermediate sulfidation epithermal style mineralization in a series of prominent outcrops of vein-breccia that are associated with a rhyolitic volcanic flow dome field. Rock chip and saw cut channel sampling over these outcrops defined significant strike lengths of continuously mineralized vein-breccia, with many samples assaying over 1,000 g/t silver ("Ag"). From 2010 to 2012, Mirasol completed a series of drill programs at the Project, drilling a total of 23,318 m of diamond core in 223 holes, testing the mineralized structures to a maximum depth of 266m. This work was followed by a technical report entitled "Amended Technical Report, Virginia Project, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina - Initial Silver Mineral Resource Estimate" with an effective date of October 24, 2014 and a report date of February 29, 2016, defining seven outcropping bodies of high grade silver mineralization, constrained within conceptual pits, with an indicated mineral resource of 11.9 million ounces of silver at 310 g/t Ag and a further inferred 3.1 million ounces of silver at 207 g/t Ag.







Claim Map of the Virginia Silver Project in the Santa Cruz Province of Argentina

To view an enhanced version of this map, please visit:

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Later that year, Mirasol reported that preliminary prospecting of new claims identified quartz vein and vein-breccia rock float, scattered along a 2 km trend. With a strong belief in the exploration potential of the Virginia district, Mirasol further expanded its property holdings in 2017 with an extra 27,017 hectares of claims to the south of the limit of previous drilling. In May 2018, high grade silver assay results were reported from the additional prospecting of three new target areas, suggesting the potential for an unrecognized, shallow, soil covered, high grade mineralization that would expand the potential of the Project.

Golden Opportunity and Mirasol look forward to testing the exploration upside at the Project at a time of improving precious metal prices.

The Transaction

Golden Opportunity and Mirasol have agreed to negotiate a definitive agreement to option the Project (the "Definitive Agreement"), and Mirasol has granted Golden Opportunity an exclusivity period to negotiate the Definitive Agreement. Until the time that the Option is exercised in full by Golden Opportunity, Mirasol shall operate the Project, however, Golden Opportunity shall pay the costs of maintaining the Project as part of its obligation to incur certain expenditures described below.

The Definitive Agreement shall allow the Company to acquire a 100% interest in the Project through (collectively, the "Exercise Price"):

payment of US$25,000 by Golden Opportunity to Mirasol on execution of the LOI, and payment of a further US$25,000 by Golden Opportunity to Mirasol within five days after closing of the next financing completed by Golden Opportunity (collectively, the "Deposit"); subject to all regulatory approval, including the approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE"), the issuance of such number of common shares of Golden Opportunity (the "Shares") equal to 19.9% of the Shares outstanding at the time the Option is fully exercised; and completion of an aggregate of US$6,000,000 of exploration expenditures incurred in respect of the Project ("Exploration Expenditures").

The Shares are issuable as follows:

Such number of Shares equal to 9.9% of the Shares outstanding at the time that the Definitive Agreement is executed (the "Execution Date"), issued to Mirasol within five business days of the Execution Date; Such number of Shares equal to 5.0% of the Shares outstanding on the date that is 12 months after the Execution Date (the "First Anniversary Date"), issued to Mirasol within five business days of the First Anniversary Date; Such number of Shares equal to 5.0% of the Shares outstanding on the date that is 24 months after the Execution Date (the "Second Anniversary Date"), issued to Mirasol within five business days of the Second Anniversary Date; and Such number of Shares that would cause Mirasol to hold 19.9% of the Shares (inclusive of all prior issuances to Mirasol) outstanding on the date that is 36 months after the Execution Date (the "Third Anniversary Date"), issued to Mirasol within five business days of the Third Anniversary Date.

The Exploration Expenditures are payable as follows:

Exploration Expenditures of US$1,000,000 incurred on or before the First Anniversary Date, which shall be a firm commitment of Golden Opportunity (the "Firm Commitment"). If the Financing is completed and the Definitive Agreement is executed, then the Deposit shall be applied as a credit towards Golden Opportunities' obligation to fund the Firm Commitment; Exploration Expenditures of US$2,000,000 incurred on or before the Second Anniversary Date, for aggregate Exploration Expenditures of US$3,000,000; and Exploration Expenditures of US$3,000,000 incurred on or before the Third Anniversary Date, for aggregate Exploration Expenditures of US$6,000,000.

Following payment of the Exercise Price in full, Mirasol shall transfer 100% of the mineral concessions which comprise the Project to Golden Opportunity (excluding surface rights), subject to a 3% net smelter returns royalty payable on all minerals mined from the Project (the "NSR") which shall be retained by Mirasol.

Golden Opportunity shall have the option to buy back a 1% NSR for payment of the sum of US$2,000,000 to Mirasol (the "1% NSR Buyback"). Following exercise of the 1% NSR Buyback, Mirasol shall continue to hold an unencumbered (no buyback, right of first offer or right of first refusal) 2% NSR royalty payable on all minerals mined from the Project.

The closing of the Option is subject to, among other things, Golden Opportunity and Mirasol negotiating and executing the Definitive Agreement, exchange approval and Golden Opportunity completing an equity financing of not less than US$1 million within 90 days.

Private Placement

The Company also announces a Private Placement of up to 20,000,000 Units at a price of C$0.10 per Unit.

Each Unit will consist of one Share and one half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to acquire one Share at a price of C$0.25 per share for a period of 24 months following the date of issuance. The Warrants are subject to an acceleration right that allows the Company to give notice of an earlier expiry date if the Company's share price on the CSE (or such other stock exchange the Shares may be trading on) is equal to or greater than C$0.50 for a period of 10 consecutive trading days.

The Company may pay a finder's fee on all or a portion of the Private Placement in accordance with the policies of the CSE. Proceeds of the private placement will be used for work on the Company's mineral properties and general working capital. The Private Placement is subject to the acceptance of the CSE.

About Golden Opportunity Resources Corp.

Golden Opportunity is engaged in the business of mineral exploration and the acquisition of mineral property assets in mining friendly jurisdictions. Its objective is to locate and develop economic precious and base metal properties of merit.

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by R. Tim Henneberry, P.Geo. (BC) a Qualified Person under NI 43-101 and a Director of Golden Opportunity.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

Keith Anderson

Chief Executive Officer, Director

For further information, please contact:

Keith Anderson

Chief Executive Officer, Director (604) 786-7774

GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY RESOURCES CORP.

Suite 830 - 1100 Melville Street

Vancouver, British Columbia V6E 4A6

www.golden-opps.com

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the negotiation and execution of the Definitive Agreement, the timing and payment the Exercise Price, future capital expenditures, anticipated content, commencement, and cost of exploration programs in respect of the Project, anticipated exploration program results from exploration activities, resources and/or reserves on the Project, the terms and conditions of the Private Placement and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Often, but not always, forward looking information can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "will", "may", "should", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof, and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, statements as to the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, including the Company's option to acquire the Project, the proposed expenditures for exploration work thereon, the ability of the Company to obtain sufficient financing to fund its business activities and plans, delays in obtaining governmental and regulatory approvals (including of the CSE), permits or financing, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, the Company's limited operating history, currency fluctuations, title disputes or claims, environmental issues and liabilities, as well as those factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's prospectus dated August 30, 2019 and other filings of the Company with the Canadian Securities Authorities, copies of which can be found under the Company's profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements in this presentation or incorporated by reference herein, except as otherwise required by law.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/52912
Backed by Russia, Damascus launched a massive offensive to retake the last province in the hands of the rebels. The UN secretary general expresses "great concern", the fear of a "bloodbath". Erdogan threatens: refugees free to go to Europe.

Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The provisional toll from an air raid carried out yesterday by the army of Damascus in northwestern Syria, which triggered the response of Ankara militants, is at least 33 Turkish soldiers killed and 32 others injured. According to reports from Rahmi Dogan, governor of the Turkish province of Hatay, the majority of the victims are concentrated in the province of Idlib. Independent sources estimate an even higher number of deaths.

In recent weeks, the Syrian army, backed by Russia, has launched a massive offensive in the Idlib area, the last stronghold still under the control of jihadist groups and rebel militias close to Turkey. The fighting has triggered a humanitarian crisis with the flight of hundreds of thousands of people; a situation that worries the international community and Pope Francis himself, who has renewed his appeals to stop an "immense tragedy".

The Syrian government has so far refused to comment publicly on the escalation to Idlib, the last province not under their direct control. In response to the attack, the Turkish army has promoted retaliation against some Syrian targets, while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has convoked a high-level summit in Ankara with top security officials.

The escalation of violence between the two fronts worries international diplomacies and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who has expressed "great concern" for the fate of the civilian population. Since the beginning of military operations in December, almost one million people have left their homes and there is a danger of a "bloodbath" for UN leaders.

Erdogan wants the withdrawal of all Syrian forces from the area where Turkey has set up observation points; on the other hand, Damascus (and Moscow) no longer intend to respect the ceasefire lines sanctioned in 2018 and aim to reconquer the whole territory. Also yesterday, meanwhile, Turkey allegedly snatched control of Saraqeb from Syrian government forces.

Meanwhile, Erdogan returns to flag the migrants' weapon as a form of blackmail towards Europe and the West. In these hours, the Turkish government has in fact declared that it no longer intends to stop refugees trying to reach the coast of Europe, while preparing for a "large scale" offensive to repel the Syrian army. "We have decided - an senior Turkish government official behind anonymity - with immediate effect, not to stop Syrian refugees who seek to reach Europe by land or sea. All refugees, including Syrians, are free to leave for the European Union."
Ghana has announced suspension of consular services to Italy after cases of the novel coronavirus were recorded in the country.

A statement from the Embassy of Ghana in Italy and sighted by citinewsroom.com, indicated the ban is until further notice but regretted any inconvenience caused.

The Embassy of the Republic of Ghana regrets to inform that due to the outbreak of the corona outbreak of the coronavirus in Italy, consular services to the general public will be suspended with immediate effect and until further notice. The embassy regrets any inconvenience that this may cause.

Coronavirus outside china

Italy has in recent days become Europe's worst-hit country, with more than 300 cases of the novel coronavirus and 11 deaths.

The European nation has put some cities and towns on lockdown in this regard with 11 towns being in Lombardy and Veneto.

In Iran, less than 100 people have officially been infected but it is feared that the numbers are more alarming.

More than 1,000 people have been infected in South Korea with 10 deaths.

The novel coronavirus has been declared a global health emergency.

But the World Health Organization has warned that countries should prepare for a possible pandemic.

The death toll from the novel coronavirus is now more than 2,700 worldwide, with the majority being in mainland China.

There have been more than 80,000 global cases.

No evacuations

Ghana has made no moves to evacuate its nationals, especially students, from China, despite appeals.

There have been calls from the Minority in Parliament, the China chapter of National Union of Ghana Students and parents to evacuate Ghanaian students in China.

President Akufo-Addo, however, said the government will only evacuate Ghanaians students from China if the need arises.

The government has however supported students by disbursing US$500 each to them.

---citinewsroom
The Aam Aadmi Party has suspended councillor Tahir Hussain who is facing accusation over the murder of IB Officer Ankit Sharma who was killed during the Delhi riots. This came after the Delhi Police booked him in connection with the murder of Sharma, whose body was recovered from Delhis Chand Bagh.

He has been booked under section 302 IPC (Punishment for murder). Sharmas family accused Hussain of being behind the death. The councillor, however, denied the allegations as baseless and called for an impartial probe. Read more

Spirit Of Mahatma Needed More Than Ever Says UN Chief As He Appeals For Peace In Riot-Hit Delhi

Expressing concern over the recent violence in Delhi, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that Mahatma Gandhi's spirit is needed more than ever as it is essential to create conditions for true community reconciliation.

BCCL

Guterres has expressed sadness over the casualties following the protests in Delhi and called for maximum restraint and for violence to be avoided, the UN chief's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Read more

Coronavirus Threat Looming Over Economy

Having suffered its weakest expansion in over six years in the September quarter, India's economy probably fared slightly better in the December quarter, before suffering a relapse due to the impact of the coronavirus globally, analysts said.

bccl

Gross Domestic Product data due to be released on Friday will cover up to the end of last year, before the epidemic in China had sparked fears of a pandemic. Read more



Amid Tensions In Delhi, Kashmiri Pandits & Muslims To March In Srinagar To Spread Harmony

At a time when the national capital Delhi has been shaken by unprecedented communal clashes for the past few days, a group of Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmir Muslims have come together to send a message of communal harmony and brotherhood from the valley. On Friday the two groups will hold a peace march in Srinagar.

BCCL

The rally, named Saath Do, will start from Batamaloo and go through various areas of downtown Srinagar before culminating at Kashmir Press Club Polo View. Read more

Over 200 Injuries, Stabbed Multiple Times, IB Officer Ankit Sharma's Autopsy Reveals

Bone-chilling details have emerged suggesting that Intelligence Bureau (IB) official Ankit Sharma, who was murdered during the Delhi riots was brutally tortured before he was killed by the rioters.

The autopsy of Sharma suggests that he was brutally stabbed to death. Read more


Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurates the Light Combat Helicopter Final Assembly Hangar, at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Complex, in Bengaluru, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. Chairman and Managing Director of defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) R Madhavan is also seen. A PTI Photo

BENGALURU (PTI): Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has lauded the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for achieving operational clearance on seven platforms, including Light Combat Aircraft and Light Combat Helicopter, and overhauling Hawk and SU 30 MKI.



Singh was speaking on Thursday after inaugurating the new Light Combat Helicopter production hangar at the helicopter division of the city-headquartered HAL.



Noting that HAL faces stiff competition from private defence industries, Singh asked the DPSU to take this changing environment as a challenge and grab the opportunities to increase their competitiveness in the international market.



The LCH is completely ready for operational induction and Helicopter Complex is fully geared up for the production of LCH, the HAL said in a statement quoting its Chairman and Managing Director R Madhavan.



The new hangar will augment LCH production capacity to reach a peak production of 30 helicopters per year, HAL said.



The techno commercial proposal for 15 Limited Series Production helicopters has already been submitted by HAL in March 2018 and the order is awaited.



The total projected requirement is for around 160 helicopters, it said.



HAL officials apprised Singh of the progress of new design and development programme of indigenous Indian Multi Role Helicopter (IMRH).



The full scale mock-up was showcased to the Minister, the release said.



The IMRH (for IAF, Navy and Army) is proposed as a replacement to the existing medium lift helicopters such as Mi17s, Kamovs and Seakings which will phase out in the next eight to ten years and HAL is keen to complete the developmentof IMRH during this time, it said.



"Induction of indigenous IMRH will result in considerable savings of foreign exchange. Preliminary Project Report for Development has been submitted to MoD for sanction of funds by CCS," the statement said.


For people who are neither leftists nor caught in the grip of Trump Derangement Syndrome, Vice President Mike Pence is an intelligent, principled, competent man. When President Trump announced on Wednesday that he was putting Pence in charge of coordinating the federal government's response to the coronavirus, it seemed like an eminently sensible decision. For Democrats, though, Pence is the man who caused an HIV outbreak in Indiana. This is a lie.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a woman so desperate to drive Trump from the White House that she seemed unconcerned that Mike Pence would become president, summed up the Democrats' concerns by tweeting that Pence does not "believe" in science.

Mike Pence literally does not believe in science.



It is utterly irresponsible to put him in charge of US coronavirus response as the world sits on the cusp of a pandemic.



This decision could cost people their lives. Pences past decisions already have. https://t.co/NhMPOusOWm  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 27, 2020

Pence probably doesn't believe in fairies, either, but his history proves that he is receptive to the scientific process and to scientific data. So why does Ocasio-Cortez make this silly statement? The giveaway is her claim that Pence's "past decisions" have already "cost people their lives." She's referring to events in Indiana in 2015.

Here's the story the New York Times told more than a year and a half after the events occurred: beginning in November 2014, five HIV drugusers in Scott County, Indiana, tested positive for HIV. By the middle of January, eight more tested positive. The problem was shared needle use, so there was a movement to override Indiana's law forbidding distributing clean needles to junkies.

People concerned about the junkies' dangerous habits put pressure on Pence to declare an emergency and distribute the needles. Keep in mind that at this point, only 0.0002% of Indiana's population was affected.

Pence was resistant as a matter of principle because he was concerned that handing out needles encouraged drug abuse and other dangerous behaviors. This was not unreasonable. In San Francisco, for example, free needles incentivize street drug use and place city residents at high risk of infectious needle sticks.

Within a matter of weeks, however, after having spoken with medical experts and law enforcement, Pence declared a public health emergency and authorized needle exchanges. The Times reported that the entire cycle saw a total of 181 people get HIV  90 before the needle exchanges and 91 after.

According to NPR, which is one of many MSM outlets that resurrected the story, the Yale School of Public Health produced a study blaming Pence for 50% of those infections. If you look at the Yale study, though, you see that this is a cheat. The critical HIV outbreak that involved then-governor Pence began at the end of 2014. It became a concern by the end of January 2015, and Pence acted in March. The Yale study, though, says Pence was at fault for failing to authorize needle exchanges (which are illegal under Indiana law) in 20102011.

Pence, therefore, is being blamed not for his approach to a single outbreak, at which time he considered the scientific and social data and then acted accordingly. He's being blamed for a general policy position (a principled opposition to needle exchanges) that the left doesn't like. Leftists think America will be safer and healthier if it looks like San Francisco:

Still, to the leftists, Pence is the newest version of Jean Harlow's Christian Scientist mother, who prayed over Harlow as she died in agony from uremic poisoning. If you can watch the video below without gagging, you'll see that, within minutes of Nancy Pelosi saying she wouldn't do name-calling, she immediately attacked the Trump administration and said that Pence is a problem, not just because of the short-lived HIV outbreak in Indiana, but also to challenge him for being pro-life:

.@SpeakerPelosi: "I spoke with the Vice President this morning, made some of these concerns known to him. We have always had a very candid relationship and I expressed to him the concern that I had of his being in this position." #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/9s22jcUw7I  CSPAN (@cspan) February 27, 2020

These are not principled people. These are political hacks who will never let a crisis go to waste.
U.S. troops stationed in the Middle East are temporarily banned from taking leave or liberty travel to other countries as the novel coronavirus continues to spread.

Capt. Bill Urban, U.S. Central Command spokesperson, said Thursday that the ban was recently put in place to prevent further transmission of the virus. Politico was first to report the change.

"U.S. Central Command is taking multiple prudent measures to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 Coronavirus and to mitigate the operational risk such transmission would pose," Urban said in a statement to Military.com "One of those steps is to suspend leave and liberty for U.S. service members within the Central Command area of responsibility."

The news comes as the U.S. Navy has implemented its own change for vessels operating in the Pacific. A service spokesman told multiple news outlets Thursday that ships operating in the 7th Fleet area of operations are under a 14-day self quarantine if the vessels recently made port in any country within the Asia-Pacific region. The quarantine will require the ships to remain out at sea, CNN reported.

Related: The Geopolitics of the Coronavirus

According to Stars and Stripes, of the Middle East countries where American troops are stationed, 43 coronavirus cases have been reported in Kuwait, "33 in Bahrain, 13 in the United Arab Emirates, six in Iraq, and one each Afghanistan and Egypt." The latest statistics were provided by the World Health Organization.

The majority of cases in the region are in Iran; no U.S. personnel are stationed there.

The virus has spread rapidly in recent weeks, with more than 80,000 cases diagnosed and at least 2,700 deaths across more than 40 countries, according to the World Health Organization.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing Thursday that there are more than 3,474 cases in 44 countries outside of China, according to NPR. COVID-19 is believed to have originated in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province.

On Wednesday, US. Indo-Pacific Command announced that both military members and DoD civilians stationed in South Korea have been banned from nonessential travel. The ban followed news earlier this week that a U.S. soldier stationed at Camp Carroll in South Korea had tested positive for coronavirus, marking the first confirmed case of the disease in a U.S. service member.

Across other regions where U.S. troops reside, officials are bracing for an increase in cases and diagnoses.

"We're anticipating an increase in the number of cases reported in Germany," Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters said in response to questions from Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday. Twenty-one cases had been confirmed in the country as of Wednesday, according to Deutsche Welle.

Wolters said military preparations are underway in the country, potentially putting thousands of troops on lockdown or restricted movement. In Italy, officials mandated base facility closures in Vicenza, where roughly 7,000 U.S. service members are stationed.

As of Wednesday, Italy had reported a total of 650 cases, NPR said, mostly in the northern parts of the country.

Meanwhile, the U.S. had 60 confirmed cases as of Wednesday.

At a House hearing Thursday, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), sought to reassure the public on efforts to contain the spread of the disease in the U.S. while announcing new guidelines to permit more testing by local clinicians for COVID-19.

Under previous federal guidelines, persons suspected of carrying the virus could be tested if they had traveled recently from China or had contact with an individual known to be infected.

The new rules published Thursday by the CDC allow local clinicians more leeway to order tests, even when a patient has shown no symptoms.

"We revised our case definition for persons under investigation and today that has been posted, along with a new health advisory," Redfield said at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and Nonproliferation.

"When a clinician or public health individual suspects coronavirus, then we should be able to get a test for coronavirus," he said.

Redfield repeated the estimates by the CDC and the White House that the risk of a major outbreak in the U.S. is low, and appeared to contradict the warning a day earlier by a top CDC official on the potential for its spread.

"We expect we will see community spread in this country," Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a CDC briefing Wednesday. "It's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when."

Redfield did not directly dispute Messonier but suggested she could have phrased her remarks differently.

"The risk of this infection remains low" in the U.S., he said, but more cases can be expected.

"We have an aggressive containment policy," he said, "[but] we do believe we're going to continue to see new cases."

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at richard.sisk@military.com.

Read more: Top Marine Orders Confederate Paraphernalia to Be Removed from All Bases
Pastor Nigel Morgan said that he had forgiven his detractor, but said nothing about asking forgiveness for himself.

The Morgan family embraced each other outside the Appeal Court last Tuesday, after Pastor Nigel Morgan and his wife Althia Morgans convictions for causing grievous bodily harm to Cuthbert Mafia Victory were set aside.





In a day of good news for the family, the conviction of their daughter Crystal was also set aside and her sentence reduced from four years to three years, making her eligible for release by April this year.





Pastor Nigel Morgan, his wife and daughter were charged for an April 2016 incident in which their daughter poured hot water on Victory, causing him to suffer severe burns about his body, in particular his back.





The Morgans lawyer, Kay Bacchus-Baptiste, in an interview after the Court of Appeals decision, said that she hoped the public would forgive the Morgans.





"I hope that society would forgive them and allow them to continue doing the good work, especially Mr. Morgan, for what he has been doing for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Bacchus-Baptiste said.





Pastor Morgan, who appeared quite relieved but resolute upon release, said that he had forgiven those persons who expressed hatred for him and his family.





His experience in prison he described as one of teaching, preaching and counselling, and he shared that he was doing research on the justice system here.





And while he gave no further details on his research, Pastor Morgan made an appeal on behalf of inmates and others involved in the prison system.





"Parents who have rejected their youths, loved ones who have rejected one another, and these people are innocent. I have been writing a lot .there are people there who need help . You Christians go and visit your loved ones the staff round there also needs help. The Superintendent and all the officers are doing quite a big job, and thanks for those who are praying for them, stated Morgan.





His wife Althia said that the time she spent in prison was beneficial in many ways, and she promised that persons would hear about them. She said it took a test in order to give a testimony, and she went through the mess in order to be able to deliver a message.





"A lot of times people talk; talk is cheap, but when you experience something, you can say I was there, Mrs. Morgan espoused.
Hailey Bieber did not seem to want to take any risks when it comes to getting the Coronavirus.

The wife of Justin Bieber was seen wearing a medical mask when landed at JFK airport in New York City on Friday after a trip to Paris, where two people have already died from the virus. There are 41 reported cases in France.

Later, the supermodel was seen with her mask off but an iPad put to her forehead as she made her way to a building in Manhattan.

Being careful: Hailey Bieber did not seem to want to take any risks when it comes to getting the Coronavirus. The wife of Justin Bieber was seen wearing a medical mask when landed at JFK airport in New York City on Friday

Safety first: The siren also put an iPad to her head as she walked to her waiting car

At the airport the Vogue cover girl had on a long dark grey winter coat with Balenciaga printed all over it in all capital letters.

The fashion plate had her blonde hair in a ponytail and tried to cover her face with her iPad.

Apparently, she went for comfort on the flight as she had on light grey sweatpants and white sneakers.

Shew was not carrying any luggage as her handler took care of that.

Scary times: It's a wonder Hailey could see where she was going with that iPad in her face. She also held on to her cell phone. Behind her was a man with a black face mask on as he pulled a suitcase

It's a wonder Hailey could see where she was going with that iPad in her face. She also held on to her cell phone.

Behind her was a man with a black face mask on as he pulled a suitcase.

Later the catwalk princess was photographed in Manhattan as she now had her light blue mask off.

The daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin wore black sunglasses and shiny yellow gold hoop earrings.

he was also flashing her diamond engagement ring from Justin as well as another ring while having long light pink nails.

Guarded: Later, the supermodel was seen with her mask off but an iPad put to her forehead as she made her way to a building in Manhattan

Her Friday look: The Vogue cover girl had on a long dark grey winter coat with Balenciaga printed all over it in all capital letters

The star still had the iPad to her head but this time she carried a cup of coffee to go.

Bieber was seen walking between parked cars as she made her way to the sidewalk and into a brick building with large windows.

She was a busy little supermodel bee when in Paris for Fashion Week.

Flying fashion sense: Apparently, she went for comfort on the flight as she had on light grey sweatpants and white sneakers

Bieber looked incredible as she displayed her toned legs stepping out for the Yves Saint Laurent dinner party on Thursday.

The model slipped into a gun metal grey metallic mini dress with a racy hemline that showcased her bronzed legs.

She was also seen with a friend earlier as she wore a beige outfit that screamed haute couture.

Leggy look: Bieber looked incredible as she displayed her toned legs stepping out for the Yves Saint Laurent dinner party on Thursday

Dressy in France: She was also seen with a friend earlier this week as she wore a beige outfit that screamed haute couture. Her pal looked like she was taking notes on her cell phone

Hailey had on a coat over a dress and short boos as her hair was pulled back showing off her gold hoop earrings.

Her pal - who wore an impressive mustard colored coat with ripped jeans - looked like she was taking notes on her cell phone.

Days ago Hailey was also seen cuddled up on the sofa as her husband Justin - who is in Miami, Florida shooting a music video this week - played a game of chess with a male friend.
More than 3,000 council-owned bridges in Britain are unable to carry the heaviest vehicles on our roads, says a new report released today.

The estimated cost to bring all the 'substandard' bridges back up to perfect condition is 1.12 billion, according to analysis of 2018/19 data by motoring research charity the RAC Foundation.

Many of the structures are currently subject to weight restrictions, while others are under programmes of increased monitoring or even managed decline.

The Government has confirmed today that 32 local authorities will receive part of a 93million fund to improve the condition of some of England's most damaged local roads.

Bridges over troubled water: More than 3,000 council-owned bridges in Britain are unable to carry the heaviest vehicles on our roads, says a new report

Devon has the highest number of substandard bridges at 241, followed by Essex (163), Somerset (153) and Cornwall (140).

Some are substandard because they were built to earlier design standards, while others have deteriorated through age and use.

Many bridges have been affected by flooding and hit by debris carried along by rivers in recent weeks.

A total of 3,061 bridges under the responsibility of local councils are deemed substandard, though this is an improvement compared to last year.

The RAC Foundation says the figure has fallen by 4.2 per cent over the past 12 months.

Between them, local authorities say they would ideally want to bring 2,084 of them back to full carrying capacity.

10 COUNCILS WITH THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF SUBSTANDARD BRIDGES Local Authority Number of bridges Number of substandard bridges Proportion of substandard bridges Devon 2717 241 9% Essex 915 163 18% Somerset 1507 153 10% Cornwall 1009 140 14% Suffolk 1298 126 10% Northumberland 979 102 10% Lancashire 1473 76 5% Aberdeenshire 1311 66 5% Cumbria 1901 66 3% Conwy 286 61 21% Source: RAC Foundation

But budget constraints mean they anticipate that only 359 will have the necessary work carried out on them within the next five years.

The analysis is based on figures provided by 203 of Britain's 210 local highway authorities, which manage 71,505 bridges.

It was carried out in partnership with Adept, a group representing local authority bosses responsible for transport and other sectors.

Parts of Wool Bridge in Dorset collapsed into the river in January 2018 after falling into a substandard condition

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding described the conditions of road bridges as a 'canary-in-a-coal-mine indicator for the health of the highway network as a whole'.

He said: 'While our survey shows a marginal year-on-year improvement, it still reveals that, while the number of structures highway authorities expect to bring up to standard in the next five years is in the hundreds, the number they'd like to restore to manage traffic demand is in the thousands.

'The recent closure of a key bridge in Nottingham shows just how bad the traffic impact can be when a structure on a key distributor route is found wanting.'

Sat-nav manufacturer TomTom said the closure of a bridge on the A52 - which is used by tens of thousands of motorists every day - due to corrosion damage made an evening rush-hour more congested than any other city in the world.

It has been partially reopened, but is not expected to be fully operational before the end of the year.

West London's Hammersmith Bridge has been closed to motor traffic since April 2019 because of cracks in its pedestals.

Gooding added: 'As recent storms have demonstrated, our road infrastructure  including bridges  is under attack not just from the ever-growing volume of traffic but from the elements.

'Highway authorities desperately need the money and the engineering expertise to monitor and ensure our highways  our most valuable publicly-owned asset  are properly maintained and kept open for business.'

Kevin Dentith, who chairs the Adept national bridges group, said: 'Alongside the misery recent rain and flooding has brought to householders and businesses, many highway authority bridge owners will be fearful of what they find when the waters recede.

'The vast volumes of water  and the debris they carry with them  will have pummelled our road bridges, some of which are already in a fragile state.'

David Renard, the Local Government Association's transport spokesman, added: 'This study underlines the chronic need for more investment in local roads.

'The backlog of repairs on our existing highways infrastructure as a whole currently stands at over 9 billion and it would take 10 years to fix.

'Flooding events in recent weeks have shown how vital bridges are in linking together communities and enabling shoppers and local traders to go about their business. They are of critical importance to our national economy.'

Devon has the highest number of substandard bridges at 241, according to the research

New 93m Government investment to help repair some local road bridges

Roads Minister Baroness Vere announced today that 32 local authorities will receive investment for essential repair works, levelling up infrastructure, cutting congestion, improving road conditions and making journeys easier.

This includes over 4million for crucial repairs to the New Elvet Bridge in Durham along with 3.7million to help refurbish several steel bridges around Northumberland.

This comes as Government boosts UK innovators through a 900,000 investment to fund cutting-edge research projects aimed at creating a better transport system  the first of which include world-leading innovations to spot and repair potholes.

Roads Minister Baroness Vere said: 'There is nothing more frustrating than a journey delayed by poor road conditions, and this multi-million pound boost will help improve connectivity across the country.

'This investment will not only help local areas to target current pinch points on their roads, but will also harness our world-leading research and innovation capabilities to future proof the next generation of journeys.'

One of the projects to receive funding for tech projects will see the development of a new AI-powered app to detect potholes in real-time, using mobile phone sensors to measure when cyclists ride over or swerve to avoid them.

It is hoped the app will help local authorities to quickly identify when potholes are forming and take quicker action to fill them.

Another project known as Shape-Pot will create 3D pothole models to create a fully autonomous repair platform capable of automatic, uniform repairs  accelerating the transport network of the future.
The first week of the Julian Assange extradition trial has concluded, to be resumed on May 18th. If you havent been following the proceedings closely, let me sum up what you missed:

The prosecution is working to extradite Assange to the US under a US-UK extradition treaty, a treaty whose contents the prosecution now says we should ignore because they explicitly forbid political extraditions. The prosecution says it doesnt matter anyway because Assange is not a political actor, yet in 2010 the US government thats trying to extradite him labeled him a political actor in those exact words. Assanges trial is taking place in a maximum security prison for dangerous violent offenders because thats where hes being jailed for no stated reason and despite having no history of violence, which means hes kept separate from the courtroom in a sound-resistant safety enclosure where he cant hear or participate in his own trial. The magistrate judging the case says he cant be allowed out of the enclosure since hes considered dangerous, because hes been arbitrarily placed in a prison for dangerous violent offenders. The magistrate keeps telling Assange to stop speaking up during his trial and to speak through his lawyers, yet hes being actively prevented from communicating with his lawyers.

Make sense?

No?

Not even a tiny bit?

Oh. Okay. Let me explain.

Its common in British courtrooms to have something called a dock, a place where defendants sit separately from court proceedings. Not all UK courtrooms have docks, and not all docks are the secure glass cabinet type which Assange is kept in; they can also be open wooden enclosures. Because Assange is being kept without explanation in a maximum security prison normally reserved the most dangerous violent offenders and terrorism convicts, his trial is taking place in a cage that is very much the secure type (so much so that hes been complaining that he cant hear the proceedings in his own trial through the bulletproof glass), and there is an expectation that he remain there. The magistrate has ruled that this nonviolent offender shall be kept in his sound-resistant enclosure throughout the duration of his trial, bizarrely asserting that Assange poses a danger to the public.

Former UK ambassador and longtime Assange supporter Craig Murray was at court all four days of the trial, and he described the situation as follows (Edward Fitzgerald is Assanges defense attorney, Vanessa Baraitser is the magistrate):

On return, Edward Fitzgerald made a formal application for Julian to be allowed to sit beside his lawyers in the court. Julian was a gentle, intellectual man and not a terrorist. Baraitser replied that releasing Assange from the dock into the body of the court would mean he was released from custody. To achieve that would require an application for bail. Again, the prosecution counsel James Lewis intervened on the side of the defence to try to make Julians treatment less extreme. He was not, he suggested diffidently, quite sure that it was correct that it required bail for Julian to be in the body of the court, or that being in the body of the court accompanied by security officers meant that a prisoner was no longer in custody. Prisoners, even the most dangerous of terrorists, gave evidence from the witness box in the body of the court nest to the lawyers and magistrate. In the High Court prisoners frequently sat with their lawyers in extradition hearings, in extreme cases of violent criminals handcuffed to a security officer. Baraitser replied that Assange might pose a danger to the public. It was a question of health and safety.

Ah yes, yes Im sure everyone at the courtroom is very concerned that the emaciated computer nerd might at any moment go full beast mode and start throwing them all across the room. Sure thing, Vanessa.

So to recap, Assange has been placed in a prison for dangerous offenders for no reason, and hes designated too dangerous to participate in his own trial because hes in a prison for dangerous offenders. Both the defense and the prosecution agree that this is absurd, yet the supposedly impartial judge ruled against them both.

Does that make sense to you?

No?

Good. Means youre sane.

In the same report Murray also says Assange was forbidden from passing notes to his lawyers, yet when he tried to speak up during his trial to get someones attention Baraitser told him he may only speak through his lawyers. Even when they let him, Shadowproofs Kevin Gosztola also reports that the defense has complained that they cant even see when he wishes to communicate something with them, because his dock is behind them in the courtroom.

Bridges for Media Freedom reports the following:

Assange then stood up in the dock and said, The problem is Im not able to get representation. Judge Baraitser then told him to keep quiet and speak through his lawyers. He replied, Thats the problem, I cant.

Assange has also complained that even when he is both able and permitted to speak to his lawyers during the trial, hes unable to do so in private, saying, I cannot communicate with my lawyers or ask them for clarifications without the other side seeing and The other side has about 100 times more contact with their lawyers per day.

I am as much a participant in these proceedings as a spectator at Wimbledon, a frustrated Assange complained at one point.

So Assange may only speak through his lawyers, but also hes been presented with many obstacles to speaking with his lawyers. Perfectly normal stuff in a perfectly normal trial being treated in a perfectly normal way by a perfectly normal empire.

Its pretty clear by the way Baraitser is even more biased against Assange than the actual prosecutors that she made up her mind how shes going to rule long before the trial even began. This is made all the more shady by the fact that there are apparently no photographs of this public official anywhere online, and indeed no documentation of her existence outside of the court.

Ms Baraitser is not fond of photography  she appears to be the only public figure in Western Europe with no photo on the internet, wrote Murray after noting her anger at someone photographing the courtroom. Indeed the average proprietor of a rural car wash has left more evidence of their existence and life history on the internet than Vanessa Baraitser. Which is no crime on her part, but I suspect the expunging is not achieved without considerable effort. Somebody suggested to me she might be a hologram, but I think not. Holograms have more empathy.

This by itself is weird. How is someone with no public face ruling on an extradition trial of such immense historical significance? How is a public official allowed to make a decision which will affect every member of the public in one way or another, yet the public is not allowed to know anything about her or what she even looks like? That, in my opinion, is weird and creepy.

Then theres the prosecution. Theyre trying to argue that the US-UK extradition treaty which expressly forbids extradition for political offenses is void and inapplicable to this case because of another law called the Extradition Act which is written differently, despite the fact that the extradition treaty formed the basis for Assanges extradition request in the first place.

Were in a pretty strange Alice in Wonderland world where the treaty that controls and gives rise to the request, supposedly has nothing to do with the legality of it, its very strange, Fitzgerald said at one point, adding: it is generally accepted worldwide that people should not be extradited for a non-violent offense of a political nature.

The prosecution also attempted to argue that even if the exemptions in the extradition treaty did apply, it wouldnt matter because Assange is not accused of anything that could be called a political offense. They said the defense must equate what Mr Assange is alleged to have done against whether or not the only purpose was to change the government in America or induce America to change its policy, both of which we say its not.

The defense correctly countered that not only was WikiLeaks trying to affect US government behavior, but that they actually succeeded in doing so. Not only that, but the US government has itself accused Assange of being a political actor who is trying to change Americas behavior.

Hes not a journalist. Hes not a whistleblower. He is a political actor. He has a political agenda, State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said of Assange in 2010 after WikiLeaks began exposing US war crimes. He is trying to undermine the international system that enables us to cooperate and collaborate with other governments and to work in in multilateral settings and on a bilateral basis to help solve regional and international issues.

In other words, Assange is a political actor who is deliberately trying to interfere with the US government agenda of world domination.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word Kafkaesque as of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings, especially: having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality.

Kafkas work is characterized by nightmarish settings in which characters are crushed by nonsensical, blind authority, says Merriam-Webster. Thus, the word Kafkaesque is often applied to bizarre and impersonal administrative situations where the individual feels powerless to understand or control what is happening.

I generally try to avoid words that not everyone will understand in my writings, especially in my headlines, but, you know, damn. Thats the most perfect definition of this ridiculous bootlicking bureaucratic nightmare maze that you could possibly come up with.

We can expect more of this when the trial resumes in May, and, to be clear, this is the more just and equitable half of the fight. If Assange is successfully extradited to the United States as the mysterious Vanessa Baraitser seems primed to allow, he will face a rigged trial after he and his legal team were spied on by US intelligence agencies when preparing his defense. He and his legal team will be completely silenced from commentary on the trial, and hell disappear into a black hole of Special Administrative Measures where he wont be heard from again.

The time to speak up for Assange and the future of press freedoms is now. Not when hes extradited. Not after his fake trial and draconian sentencing. Now.

_________________________________

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The Delhi government has given a go-ahead to the city police to prosecute former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and two others in connection with a 2016 sedition case, sources said on Friday.

The Delhi government has given a go-ahead to the city police to prosecute former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others in connection with a four-year-old sedition case, as the ruling AAP denied the persistent BJP charge of blocking the proceedings in the matter.

AAP MLA and spokesperson Raghav Chadha said the Law Department of the Delhi government has given its opinion on this matter to the Home Department after due diligence. The sanction was granted by the Delhi government on 20 February, he said.

On 14 January, the police had filed a charge sheet against Kanhaiya and others, including former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya. The police had said they were leading a procession and had supported the seditious slogans allegedly raised on the campus during an event on 9 February, 2016.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari welcomed the development, but said the Kejriwal government perhaps gave the approval in view of the "current political situation". The BJP has been alleging the AAP government was stonewalling the proceedings in the case by not granting its approval to prosecute Kanhaiya and others.

However, Chadha said in a statement on Friday, "The Delhi government, as a matter of policy and as a matter of principle, does not and has not intervened in any of such cases. Our government has not stopped prosecution in any case, whatsoever, in the last five years." Calling it a "purely a procedural matter", he said the "judiciary and judiciary alone" should decide on the merits of each case.

"It is not for governments to decide on the merits of such cases," he added. He further said that the Delhi government has not stopped prosecution in any case, including those pertaining to its own MLAs and party leaders.

"Our MLAs fought these in the courts, in most cases our MLAs were declared innocent while some cases are still pending in court. Even when it came to elected representatives of the ruling party, that is the Aam Aadmi Party, the government of Delhi did not intervene in the process of law," the statement said.

"It is only fair for the permanent executive as well as political executive to not intervene in the process of law and let the Judiciary perform its independent function," it added.

Reacting to the development, Kanhaiya tweeted, "Fast-track court and quick action is required in the sedition case so that the country gets to know how the sedition law was misused in this entire case for political benefits."

"Thank you to Delhi government for giving permission for the sedition case," he wrote on the microblogging site while urging the Delhi Police and government officials to take this case seriously and ensure justice.

Umar Khalid also tweeted his and Anirban Bhattacharya's joint statement.

"The news of the Delhi government granting sanction to sedition case against us doesn't trouble us at all. We are confident of our innocence, have full faith in the judiciary and have ourselves been demanding the case against us to be tried in the courts.

"The ensuing trial will vindicate us and prove that the media trial at the behest of the ruling regime was false, malicious and politically motivated. We have lived under the shadow of these false charges for far too long. Finally, 'sab doodh ka doodh aur paani ka paani hoga' (everything will become clear) !" he said in a series of tweets.

"And as we will defend ourselves in the court, we will expose the lies of the ruling regime and its fake claims of being nationalist," the statement added.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Delhi Police wrote a letter to the Delhi home secretary requesting him to expeditiously give clearance to prosecute the former students.

In the letter, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, Pramod Kushwah said, "It is requested to expedite the process to accord prosecution sanction under Section 196 CrPC as required for the offence under Chapter VI of the IPC, that is, Section 124A IPC."

In the charge sheet filed in a court in January, the Delhi Police had said that Kanhaiya, Khalid and Bhattacharya led a procession and raised anti-national slogans at an event in the university campus on 9 February, 2016.

The police said there was video footage wherein Kanhaiya is "seen" leading the students who were raising "anti-national slogans" and that he had been identified by the witnesses in the videos.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on 19 February had said he will ask the department concerned to take an "expeditious decision" on the granting sanction to prosecute Kanhaiya and others in the sedition case.

With inputs from agencies
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Linkedin Andrew Hay and Hilary Russ (Reuters) Washington, United States  Fri, February 28, 2020 11:11 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206723071 2 World #USA,#coronavirus,pandemic,patients,california Free

California is monitoring more than 8,400 people who arrived on commercial flights for coronavirus symptoms from "points of concern," but the state lacks test kits and has been held back by federal testing rules, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday.

California has only 200 test kits, but has appealed for testing protocols to be expanded to include Americans who may catch the virus as it spreads through US communities, Newsom told a news briefing in Sacramento, the state capital.

Newsom said the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has assured the state that testing protocols will be advanced and access to test kits will expand "exponentially" in the coming days.

California on Wednesday reported a coronavirus case of unknown origin, making it potentially the first incident of the virus spreading within US communities.

"It is not surprising that we have seen these mini outbreaks occur around the world," said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, an epidemiology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health. "We know the virus is easily spread."

The female patient, who lives in northern California's Solano County, was not initially tested for the new coronavirus because she did not meet criteria laid out by the CDC, according to a statement by UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where she is being treated.

A man wears a face mask shopping at a market in the Chinatown section of San Francisco, California, U.S., February 25, 2020. (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)

REPATRIATED CITIZENS

Dr. Sonia Angell, California's state public health officer, said local, state and federal health investigators were contacting and isolating individuals who may have been exposed to the patient.

Solano County is the home of Travis Air Force Base, one of the US military bases in California that have acted as quarantine centers for US citizens repatriated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the current coronavirus outbreak.

"She had to be exposed from someone else with coronavirus. We know that people with infection were taken to places of isolation or quarantine in that general area," Klausner said.

UC Davis said no one on its main campus has tested positive for the virus, known as COVID-19, but "out of an abundance of caution," three campus residents are currently in isolation. One of them, who is showing symptoms of illness, has been tested for the virus, but the results are not yet in.

The CDC's protocol had called for coronavirus testing in individuals with a fever or respiratory illness who have a travel history or contact that could have led to exposure to the virus.

California officials said this protocol had to be expanded in light of the "inevitable" local spread within the United States. At least 33 people had tested positive for the virus, but five have since left the state, official said.

"The case from yesterday is giving the CDC a lot to consider on revising those protocols so more individuals will be tested," said Mark Ghaly director of California's Health and Human Services Agency, referring to the woman from Solano County.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence speaks next to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar during a tour of the "secretary's operation center" following a coronavirus task force meeting at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Washington, U.S., February 27, 2020. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

MORE KITS AND PERSONNEL

CDC Director Robert Redfield told a US congressional hearing on Thursday that more test kits were being sent to California and the agency now backs expanded testing.

"When a clinician or a public health individual suspects coronavirus, then we should be able to get a test for coronavirus, so that's the current guidance that went out today," he said.

Newsom said the CDC has pledged to send more personnel to California to track the potential spread of the virus.

With new infections reported around the world now surpassing those in mainland China, the World Health Organization's director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Thursday even rich nations should prepare.

"No country should assume it won't get cases, that would be a fatal mistake, quite literally," Tedros said, pointing to Italy, where 17 people have died in Europe's worst outbreak.
She released a video endorsement for Bernie Sanders last month.

And Emily Ratajkowski showed her admiration for the presidential candidate when she was glimpsed out in Los Angeles this Thursday.

The 28-year-old slipped into a T-shirt with a black and white picture of Bernie on it, then headed off to go shopping at The Grove.

Off she goes: Emily Ratajkowski showed her admiration for Bernie Sanders when she was glimpsed out in Los Angeles this Thursday

She showed off her sculpted supermodel legs in a pair of Daisy Dukes and wore her luxurious hair down, accentuating her screen siren features with makeup.

Emily accessorized with cat-eye sunglasses and hoop earrings, rounding off the leggy ensemble with a pair of white sneakers.

The brunette bombshell was in Jamaica over Valentine's Day with her husband, the hunky Uncut Gems producer Sebastian Bear-McClard.

They were joined by their pal Josh Ostrovsky a.k.a. The Fat Jew, who is infamous for a 2015 joke-stealing scandal, and his new influencer second wife Caitlin King.

On the go: The 28-year-old slipped into a T-shirt with a black and white picture of Bernie on it, then headed off to go shopping at The Grove

Emily recently starred in a Super Bowl block-party themed ad for Babe, Josh's canned rose brand for which she is 'Chief Of Taste.'

Emily, who while showing Vogue around her vast LA apartment in 2015 said she was for a platform to 'redistribute wealth in this country,' got married in February 2018.

She made a splash with her surprise courthouse marriage to Sebastian in New York City, wearing a $200 Zara trouser suit.

Last year, she defended her beefcake hubby after he was accused of wriggling out of paying rent on his apartment.

Mover and shaker: She showed off her sculpted supermodel legs in a pair of Daisy Dukes and wore her luxurious hair down, accentuating her screen siren features with makeup

His landlord told the New York Post that Sebastian was exploiting a starving artists' loophole to avoid ponying up a total of $120,000 in rent.

Although he was reported to be worth multi-millions, Emily denied as much on her Twitter page a couple of weeks after the New York Post article.

'He's an independent movie producer so people thinking hes rich is real nice but not based in fact. He was raised in the neighborhood he lives in now, both of his parents are artists who were priced out of their homes in downtown New York,' she claimed.

Saying she 'moved in w/ him a year ago,' she wrote: 'Im proud hes fighting the good fight against a real estate conglomerate that bought the building he lives in for 40 million and has continued to spread misinformation on its tenants in order to profit.'
A worker is seen inside the Magnitude 7 Metals LLC aluminium smelter which is reopening and taking on hundreds of local workers in New Madrid, Missouri

By Tim McLaughlin

MARSTON, Missouri (Reuters) - A bankrupt aluminum smelter that re-opened in 2018, after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on imported metals, is losing money at such a rapid clip that it could close within 60 days, the top executive at the Missouri plant said on Thursday.

Trump's trade policies protect the generic aluminum product made by Magnitude 7 Metals LLC, a 50-year-old smelter on the banks of the Mississippi in southeastern Missouri. But the tariffs often do not cover the value-added aluminum products being shipped to the Unites States by foreign competitors, undercutting the company's position.

"The rest of the world has gamed the tariffs, in our opinion," Magnitude 7 Metals chief executive Charles Reali told Reuters in an interview. "The Commerce Department tried to help, but missed the mark."

The grim outlook for Magnitude 7 has been exacerbated by the coronavirus, which is reverberating around the globe while raising fears of a global recession. On Friday, the London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminum price <CMAL3> fell to $1,676 per ton, the lowest since October 2016.

"We are in prayer" mode, Reali said. "If things don't turn around in the next 60 days, I don't know."

Magnitude 7 Metals opened to great fanfare about two years ago in a ceremony attended by then-Missouri Governor Eric Greitens. Trump's 10% tariffs on imported aluminum helped restore more than 400 jobs in New Madrid County, where nearly a quarter of the population lives in poverty. The plant shut down in 2016 when the previous owner, Noranda Aluminum, filed for bankruptcy.

But Reali describes the market for the plant's generic aluminum product, P1020, as "absolutely terrible."

"These prices are 1988 and 1989 prices, dollar for dollar. Obviously, the costs are a hell of a lot more today than they were then," Reali said.

Magnitude 7's aluminum fetches about $1,680 a ton on the metals market, down from about $2,100 a ton a year ago, Reali said. The original business plan, when former Glencore Plc <GLEN.L> trader Matt Lucke bought the plant for about $14 million out of bankruptcy, factored in a price of $2,300 to $2,400 per ton.

Story continues

"We can't sustain what we are doing at the current price," Reali said. "Our costs are much higher. We're seeing red numbers every month."

The plant employs 515 workers. In a settlement last year with the National Labor Relations Board, Magnitude 7 agreed to recognize union workers. But there's no collective bargaining agreement, and federal law prohibits the company from laying off hourly workers during contract negotiations, limiting the plant's flexibility, Reali said.

The last time the aluminum plant closed, it was a body blow to the economy and to the county's morale. Local police and ambulance budgets were cut. The county went into the red and the school district saw a 10% drop in enrollments as families left, local officials told Reuters.

"We're here today," Reali said. "Can't speak for next week. It's a day-to-day thing."

(Reporting By Tim McLaughlin. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
Photo

PolyU has mobilised all its 3D printers in its University Research Facility in 3D Printing (U3DP) and in other departments to operate 24 hours a day to produce 700 eye shields and over 800 face shields over the last 10 days. With support from the local manufacturing industry with which PolyU has strong connections, the production of face shields has been increased to 10,000 pieces per day starting from today, and will reach 30,000 pieces per day by late March. It is hoped that this steady supply of face shields will help meet the imminent needs of Hong Kongs frontline medical personnel.

During the coronavirus outbreak, solidarity is one of the essential elements to battle the disease. The partnership between PolyU, HA/QE and the industry is a good example that embodies the spirit of when one place suffers, aid come from all sides. We join hands to overcome these difficult times together, said Professor Alexander WAI Ping-kong, Vice President (Research Development), Deputy President and Provost designate, PolyU.

Dr Vivien CHUANG, HA Chief Manager (Infection, Emergency and Contingency) said, PolyU has made every effort to develop a swift solution for rapidly producing face shields and to help us line up domestic production, thus we can fill up the stockpile of face shields to meet our need during the epidemic. I would like to express our deep gratitude to PolyU and all local manufacturers for their full support and active participation to make this meaningful collaboration a successful one. Dr Chuang added.

From design, to mould-making, and finally to production took just a fortnight. This is very exceptional in terms of the short time taken in manufacturing a product, and thanks are due to the dedication and seamless support from the industry.

Since the face shield is a one-off disposable item, we chose a less expensive PLA filament material to develop the 3D printed frame and attached it with a plastic clear film. We also leveraged the studies of our School of Design in the comparison of head size between Asians and Westerners in order to design a face shield that better fits Chinese wearers. Designed by PolyU and made in Hong Kong, this is a testament to the competence and capability of the Hong Kong manufacturing industry. We can do it and we must do it. I am especially heartened by our friends in industry who have pledged their support without a second thought, said Professor HC MAN, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Director of University Research Facility in 3D Printing, PolyU.
The legislators who voted to pass Alabamas near-total abortion ban last Spring were found guilty Wednesday night of violating the constitutional rights of Alabamians.

In The People V. The Alabama Legislators, a play staged by students at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, audience members charge legislators with violating Alabamians right to privacy and liberty under the 14th Amendment as well as the precedent set by Roe V. Wade, threatening the health and well-being of Alabamians.

The play included actual statements and true stories from legislators, doctors and people who have had abortions in Alabama. It tells the story of how HB314, (Alabamas Human Life Protection Act which banned nearly all abortions except in case of the mothers health), came to fruition and the messiness left in its wake.

"The biggest attack we always get is, What, youre not going to include rape and incest? The reason we didnt include any exceptions or anything was to focus on the idea, the decision and the actual language, that, is that child in the womb a person? Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur said at the State of the State forum in May 2019. Her statement was included in the script for the character modeled after Collins in the play.

The prosecution in the play used the same arguments presented in the lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Alabama and Planned Parenthood, which halted the abortion ban from immediately going into effect.

Shreya Pokhrel, president of the student group Planned Parenthood Generation Action at UAB, which staged the production, said she was inspired to write the play after reading Dr. Angela Daviss autobiography where she recounted holding a mock trial for a victim of police brutality.

[We wanted to] return [the power] to those who have always been marginalized or always been left out of the traditional justice system and give the power back to that community to bring some accountability back because it could be very disheartening for a group of individuals to strip away their human rights, Pokhrel said.

Pokhrel hopes the play is an informative look inside the legislative process and a way to humanize the often-complicated process.

Theres always something going on related to reproductive justice that needs to be organized for or against, Pokhrel said. And so we hope people feel motivated to take action after seeing the play. Also (we hope) to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions around abortion because its such a highly stigmatized issue.

The play is free to the public with showtimes Feb. 28th at 6 p.m. and Feb. 29 at 2 p.m. at University Hall on UABs campus.
Ukraines MFA expressed deep concern about Idlib's problems and extended its condolences to the Turkish side

Open source

The North Atlantic Council is scheduled to meet on February 28, following Turkeys request to hold consultations under Article 4 of the Washington Treaty on the situation in Syria. It was reported by NATOs press service.

The North Atlantic Council, which includes the ambassadors of all 29 NATO Allies, will meet on Friday 28 February, following a request by Turkey to hold consultations under article 4 of NATOs founding Washington Treaty on the situation in Syria, the message reads.

According to the article, any Ally can request consultations whenever, in the opinion of any of them, their territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened.

Ukraines MFA expressed deep concern about Idlib's problems and condemned the regime of Bashar al-Assad and Russia for actions that lead to the deaths of military and civilian assets.

The ministry also extended its condolences to the Turkish side, which lost its military in the Syrian conflict, and supported NATO's position on the need to end the military conflict as quickly as possible.
A man found himself on a nearly empty flight in the Philippines as growing fears over the spread of coronavirus appear to be putting people off travelling.

Rory Lovelock, a concreter from Melbourne, was flying from the city of Cebu to Boracay, an island known for its huge tourist appeal, when he had his private jet-style experience.

I had the whole plane, virtually. I thought cool, he told The Age, adding that he was one of only a handful of passengers onboard.

He also took a picture showing the deserted aircraft.

Mr Lovelock put the lack of passengers  and subsequent tourist-free beaches  down to Covid-19.

The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Show all 11 1 /11 The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Visitors with suspected symptoms of the new coronavirus, inside of a car, bottom right, get virus test by members of medical team as others queue in their cars at a "drive-through" test facility at Yeungnam University Medical Center in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AP The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Workers move equipment into containers set up as a makeshift medical facility to accommodate COVID-19 patients at a hospital's grounds in Daegu, South Korea on Friday 28 February 2020 AP The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea People wait in line to buy face masks in front of a store at Dongseongro shopping district in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty Images The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Medical workers wearing protective gears comfort each other outside a hospital in Daegu, South Korea, on 28 February 2020 REUTERS The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Medical staff in protective gears arrive for a duty shift at Dongsan Hospital in Daegu South Korea on Friday 28 February 2020 AP The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea A South Korean health worker sprays disinfectant as part of preventive measures against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at a residential area near the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty Images The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea A man wears a mask and goggles as he waits in line to buy face masks from a post office near the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea South Korean medical workers wearing protective gear visit a residence of people with suspected symptoms of the COVID-19 coronavirus to take samples, near the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty Images The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea A South Korean health worker sprays disinfectant as part of preventive measures against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at a residential area near the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu on 27 February 2020 AFP via Getty Images The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea A South Korean army vehicle sprays disinfectant on a road to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 in Daegu, South Korea on Thursday 27 February 2020. AP The response to Coronavirus in Daegu South Korea Troops set up makeshift partitions and beds at the Armed Forces Hospital in Daegu South Korea 28 February 2020 EPA

I guess people are overreacting, he said. They just associate Asia with the whole thing, even though its mainly one [Chinese] province.

The respiratory virus, which has so far killed more than 2,800 people and been contracted by more than 80,000, has swiftly spread from mainland China to 58 countries or territories across every continent.

Outside of China, South Korea, Italy and Iran have the highest number of confirmed cases, alongside the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship.

However, at present, the Philippines has said it has just three confirmed cases, two of which have recovered, and one resulted in death.

According to Mr Lovelock, a flight attendant on the Boracay service asked passengers to fill in a form with their details in case someone onboard was later found to be carrying coronavirus.

The funny part was that the hostess only had one pen so we all passed it around on the plane, which would be a really good way to make sure everyone got the virus, he said.

At the airport, the immigration officer told me to remove my hat. Then she reached under her counter and pulled out a gun and pointed it at my forehead. It made me jump. Luckily, it was just to measure my body temperature.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 18:49:13|Editor: xuxin

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CANBERRA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Australia's bushfire crisis has cost the wine industry tens of millions of U.S. dollars, according to a peak body.

Australian Grape and Wine Incorporated (AWGI) estimated that burnt vineyards and smoke taint have cost the industry 40 million Australian dollars (26.3 million U.S. dollars).

However, the New South Wales (NSW) Wine Industry Association projects that the cost is closer to 100 million Australian dollars (65.8 million U.S. dollars) that state alone when accounting for the downturn in wine tourism.

Only 1 percent of Australia's vineyards were burnt in the "black summer" fires but a larger area has been affected by smoke that blanketed much of the east coast, causing some wineries to write off their entire vintage for the year.

In the Hunter Valley region of NSW, up to 90 percent of the harvest for 2020 will be scrapped.

In South Australia, where a fire in the Adelaide Hills affected 30 percent of vineyards, winemakers are making small batches to determine if their product has been tainted by smoke.

"It certainly isn't looking good for some growers who were in or close to the fireground," said Kerry Treuel, the chief executive officer of the Adelaide Hills Wine Association, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Friday.

"People don't risk it at all with grapes and they're not going to put their name on something that isn't good.

"There will be less of them, they will be hard to get, but what is made will be very good."

Australia's wine exports were worth 2.78 billion Australian dollars (1.8 billion U.S. dollars) in the 12 months to March 2019.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 02:11:16|Editor: huaxia

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TEHRAN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Iran Chang Hua said China's first batch of medical supplies aimed at fighting the coronavirus arrived in Iran on Friday.

"The first cargo has entered Iran and further assistance will be sent. Be strong Iran," Chang said in a Persian-language tweet.

A day earlier, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi announced that China would send 20,000 laboratory kits to diagnose coronavirus cases in Iran.

Chang said on Wednesday that "5,000 kits to diagnose coronavirus, which are contributed by China's embassy and Chinese companies in Iran, have been delivered to the Iranian side."

On Tuesday, the Chinese Embassy to Iran delivered 250,000 masks to Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education as a support for protecting Iranians against the outbreak of the coronavirus in the country.
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If youre waiting for natural gas prices to recover, you might be in for a considerable wait, as inventories are expected to hover well above their five year average for the remainder of the year, the EIA has forecast, painting a rather sour picture for the industry that has seen investments stifled due to the lower prices.

In fact, inventories later this year will reach levels never seen before if forecasts prove accurate.

The Nitty Gritty of Nat Gas Supply and Demand

According to the Energy Information Administration Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), working natural gas in storage in the Lower 48 will end the current heating seasonwhich ends on March 31at 1,935 billion cubic feet.

This is 12% above the previous five-year average.

Now, were about to head into what the industry refers to as the refill season. Normally, the end of the heating season is when inventories are at their lowest. Now, were heading into this stockpiling season with inventories that are high. So we will be amassing even more nat gas in inventory as heating demand falls off.

The EIA estimates that we will end the refill season, which runs until the end of October, with 4,029 billion cubic feet. This would be the largest monthly level of nat gas weve ever had in storage.

At the end of January, inventories had already reached 2.6 trillion cubic feet.

COVID-19 and the Weather

The COVID-19 outbreaklikely soon to be pandemicmight be the obvious target on which to lay blame for the increasing inventories. After all, it is responsible for demand in crude oil. Related: 5 Top Alt-Energy Stocks Storming Wall Street

But that is only a piece of the puzzle, with weather, weather, weather topping the list of critical factors that are affecting natural gas inventories.

January 2020 was the fifth warmest January on recordthats out of over 125 years of data. January 2020 saw average temperatures of 35.5 degrees F across the United States. This is 5.4 degrees more than the 20th Century average, according to the US Department of Commerces National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The problem? Its just been so warm that the need for heating has been reduced, depressing demand. And while production has not fallen with demand, inventories have bloomed. Add to that unfavorable price scenario the fact that COVID-19 is spooking the market and further denting demand, and you have a perfect storm for lower nat gas prices.

Oftentimes, these lower price points created by subdued demand in one sector courtesy of the mild weather will create additional demand from other segments. Large-volume users such as power plans or iron and steel mills have the ability to switch between nat gas and coal or even petroleumand they will choose the lowest cost ones. So as natural gas in storage climbs and prices fall, one would expect a bit of an uptick in demand from some of the other sectors.

But it has done little to mediate inventories.

While weather has been the primary driver of the lower nat gas prices, COVID-19 is worth a mention. The virus is expected to strip away 10bn m3 from Chinas 2020 gas demand alone, according to Sublime China Information. Most of this demand destruction will be seen in Q1. For China, some are expecting gas demand to return to normal by March, if things dont get worsea condition that public health officials are saying is likely to happen.

Production Wont Fall Off Enough

Natural gas production has shown no signs of slowing throughout 2019. In fact, in 2019, US natural gas production was at record levels, averaging 92.1 billion cubic feet per day. And 2020 isnt looking any better. Related: Russia: Coronavirus Impact On Oil Is Worse Than Expected

Towards the end of 2019, average production was higher than at the beginning of 2019, so while the EIA sees monthly production declining in 2020, from 95.4 Bcf/d last month to 92.5 Bcf/d in December, the average for 2020 is still expected to be 2% higher than the average of 2019.

Inventories Up, Prices Down

This weather phenomenon combined with robust production is tanking the price of natural gas. The Henry Hub spot price averaged $2.02 MMBtu. But after the first week of February, prices had fallen to $1.86 MMBtu. Even through the remainder of the heating season, when inventories typically contract, the EIA expects nat gas prices will stay below $2 MMBtu. Prices should tick up in Q2, the EIA says, with an overall average price of $2.53 MMBtu for the year.

Whether its weather or COVID-19, record inventories for nat gas are likely on their way. And with record inventories comes low pricesa fact that offers traders about as much certainty as theyre going to get in this volatile market.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Identity and access management in 2022 - what will the future look like?

As we enter into 2022, there is still a level of uncertainty in place. Its unclear what the future holds, as companies around the world still contend with the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote working has been encouraged by most organisations and the move to a hybrid working system has become business as usual, for the majority of businesses. Some have reduced their office space or done away with their locations altogether. Following best security practices With all this change in place, there are problems to deal with. According to research, 32.7% of IT admins say they are concerned about employees using unsecured networks to carry out that work. Alongside this, 74% of IT admins thought that remote work makes it harder for employees to follow best security practices. This need to manage security around remote work is no longer temporary. Instead, companies have to build permanent strategies around remote work and security. The coming year will also create a different landscape for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Here are some key predictions for next year and what to start preparing for in 2022: The reality of SMB spending around security will hit home SMBs had to undertake significant investments to adapt to remote working SMBs had to undertake significant investments to adapt to remote working, especially in comparison to their size. They had to undertake significant digital transformation projects that made it possible to deliver services remotely, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Weve seen a shift in mindset for these companies, which are now more tech-focused in their approach to problem solving. According to our research, 45% of SMBs plan to increase their spending towards IT services in 2022. Around half of all organisations think their IT budgets are adequate for their needs, while 14.5% of those surveyed believe they will need more, to cover all that needs to be done. Identity management spending to support remote work For others, the COVID-19 pandemic led to over-spending, just to get ahead of things and they will spend in 2022, looking at what they should keep and what they can reduce their spending on. Areas like identity management will stay in place, as companies struggle to support remote work and security, without this in place. However, on-premise IT spending will be reduced or cut, as those solutions are not relevant for the new work model. Services that rely on on-premise IT will be cut or replaced. The device will lead the way for security We rely on our phones to work and to communicate. In 2022, they will become central to how we manage access, to all our assets and locations, IT and physical. When employees can use company devices and their own phones for work, security is more difficult. IT teams have to ensure that theyre prepared for this, by making sure that these devices can be trusted. Wide use of digital certificates and strong MFA factors Rather than requiring a separate smart card or fingerprint reader, devices can be used for access using push authentication There are multiple ways that companies can achieve this, for example - By using digital certificates to identify company devices as trusted, an agent, or strong MFA factors, like a FIDO security key or mobile push authentication. Whichever approach you choose, this can prevent unauthorised access to IT assets and applications, and these same devices can be used for authentication into physical locations too. Rather than requiring a separate smart card or fingerprint reader, devices can be used for access using push authentication. Understanding human behaviour Alongside this, it is important to understand human behaviour. Anything that introduces an extra step for authentication can lead to employees taking workarounds. To stop this, it is important to put an employee education process in place, in order to emphasize on the importance of security. The next step is to think about adopting passwordless security, to further reduce friction and increase adoption. Lastly, as devices become the starting point for security and trust, remote device management will be needed too. More companies will need to manage devices remotely, from wiping an asset remotely if it gets lost or stolen, through to de-provisioning users easily and removing their access rights, when they leave the company. Identity will be a layer cake Zero Trust approaches to security Identity management relies on being able to trust that someone is who they say they are. Zero Trust approaches to security can support this effectively, particularly when aligned with least privilege access models. In order to turn theory into practical easy-to-deploy steps, companies need to use contextual access, as part of their identity management strategy. This involves looking at the context that employees will work in and putting together the right management approach for those circumstances. For typical employee behaviour, using two factor authentication might be enough to help them work, without security getting in the way. How enterprises manage, access and store identity data There will also be a shift in how enterprises manage, access, and store that identity data over time For areas where security is more important, additional security policies can be put over the top, to ensure that only the right people have access. A step-up in authentication can be added, based on the sensitivity of resources or risk-based adaptive authentication policies might be needed. There will also be a shift in how enterprises manage, access, and store that identity data over time, so that it aligns more closely with those use cases. Identity management critical to secure assets in 2022 There are bigger conversations taking place around digital identity for citizenship, as more services move online as well. Any moves that take place in this arena will affect how businesses think about their identity management processes too, encouraging them to look at their requirements in more detail. Overall, 2022 will be the year when identity will be critical to how companies keep their assets secure and their employees productive. With employees working remotely and businesses becoming decentralised, identity strategies will have to take the same approach. This will put the emphasis on strong identity management as the starting point for all security planning.
Celebrity personal trainer Jono Castano Acero and his influencer wife Amy hosted an early 40th birthday dinner for Rebel Wilson in Los Angeles on Friday.

The Pitch Perfect star celebrated the momentous occasion at the up-market Osteria Mozza on Melrose Avenue, ahead of her actual birthday on March 2.

Her fitness instructor, 28, posted a sweet message about his wife and friend, sharing a rare makeup-free picture of Rebel at the restaurant.

Fancy: Celebrity personal trainer Jono Castano Acero and his influencer wife Amy (all pictured) hosted an early 40th birthday dinner for Rebel Wilson in Los Angeles on Friday

'Beautiful dinner with two beautiful, inspirational women in my life,' Jono wrote.

He added: 'Celebrating an early birthday dinner with @rebelwilson and @amycastano and @poochperfect.'

Rebel also re-posted the photo to her own social media, adding 'thank you' to the married pair.

Age-defying: The Pitch Perfect star celebrated the momentous occasion at the up-market Osteria Mozza on Melrose Avenue, ahead of her actual birthday on March 2

For her night out, Rebel pulled her blonde locks up into a messy high-ponytail, cutting a casual figure in the luxury restaurant while donning a hooded jacket, graphic t-shirt and black leggings.

It came just hours after the first episode to Rebel's new series Pooch Perfect premiered in Australia.

The Channel 7 show managed to draw in 624,000 metro viewers on Thursday night.

It was beaten by Channel 10's Gogglebox, which attracted 6,100 more eyeballs, despite being heavily marketed, according to OZTam.

Workout buddies: Rebel's fitness instructor, 28, posted a sweet message about his wife and friend. 'Beautiful dinner with two beautiful, inspirational women in my life,' Jono wrote

The result was a success according to Seven's network director of programming, Angus Ross.

But many fans were shocked at Rebel's array of 'inappropriate' jokes and 'adult humour' on the family-friendly program.

With gags including 'stop scissoring', a joke about a pearl necklace and calling the dogs 'b***hes', some claimed they didn't make it past the opening few scenes.
Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani, the Member of Parliament from Qom refused to retract his comments that 50 people died from coronavirus in his city alone, even though the regimes official statements only acknowledge 12 deaths in the whole country.

After Farahani made headlines, the regime began to adjust its figures to 16 deaths and 95 known infections, but to be clear that doesnt line up with the global mortality rate, which suggests that the regime is still hiding (or perhaps misidentifying) infections in order to make the mullahs look like theyre in control. Its straight out of the mullahs playbook; hide, deny, and silence people who speak out.

That was certainly the intention behind a press conference given by Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi on Monday. This backfired though because Harirchi, who coughed, blew his nose, and wiped his brow throughout the conference, was later diagnosed with the coronavirus and had no doubt infected dozens of journalists during the conference. (He was quarantined, the journalists havent been.)

There are many reasons to doubt the regimes account, from reports on the ground to the mortality rate, but perhaps the most damning is their refusal to record a case in Mashhad, the countrys secondmost populous city, even though many travelers who brought the coronavirus from Iran to their own country, were in Mashhad. Several neighboring countries (and some not so neighboring) reported travelers from Iran bringing the virus in and have therefore shut down all flights.

With the regimes policy of secrecy, it might be hard to tell if the situation improves in Iran and the problem may get much worse. In fact, it may be the case that international pressure (i.e. sanctions and isolationism) would help compel Iranian authorities to tell the truth about the disease and actually save the lives of the people.

Maryam Rajavi, the President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran called on the UN and the World Health Organization to take urgent action.

She tweeted: I emphatically urge the UN SecretaryGeneral and the World Health Organization to prevent any delay in sending a delegation to Iran to investigate the outbreak of the Coronavirus and the number of affected patients COVID19.

I emphatically urge the UN Secretary General and the World Health Organization to prevent any delay in sending a delegation to #Iran to investigate the outbreak of the #Coronavirus and the number of affected patients #COVID19  Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 25, 2020

This is the demand of the people of #Iran and the United Nations must not give in to the obstructions of the mullahs. #COVID19  Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 25, 2020

Read More:

Iran Regime Criticized for Lack of Coronavirus Info

Head of Qom University of Medical Sciences Goes into Quarantine after Disclosing Iran Corona Statistics Censorship Order

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With Mardi Gras arriving in Sydneys streets tomorrow, we wanted to take a look at how businesses are intertwining their brand with the LGBTQI+ campaign.

Back even thirty years ago, businesses and big brands wouldnt have engaged in what would have been considered a controversial movement, but obviously now times have changed.

We can see this change clearly as Sydney is this week painted with the iconic rainbow flag at every turn.

The campaign definitely isnt exclusive only to the suburb of Darlinghurst and Oxford Street, which is known as Sydneys main gay district.

LGBTQI+ colours have cropped up in Starbucks, Woolworths, The Galeries Victoria, Kings Cross Station and more.

ANZs ATMs have been dubbed as Gay TMs in the city, featuring a very colourful and sparkly makeover.

A business that has truly capitalised on this opportunity to align brand values to the LGBTQI+ movement is ABSOLUT Vodka, with their signature bottles all adopting the rainbow design and their ads centred around the Love is Love slogan.

Last year, Sydneys Mardi Gras saw a huge 500,000 people in attendance, with 80,000 people on fair day. Similar numbers are expected tomorrow.

Within that happy chaos, small businesses can themselves capitalise on this huge event to showcase their business to an increased volume of eyeballs and passers-by, as well as using their commercial presence to support the movement itself.

We spoke to Harris Kospetas, CEO of Universal Hotels, on how Mardi Gras 2020 is affecting his business, and how he and his staff plan to get involved.

All of the hotels in the group are in the Oxford Street area, at the very core of the parade, and where many after parties take place.

How will your business be getting involved in Mardi Gras 2020?

Universal Hotels owns and operates 4 diverse venues (Kinselas, Oxford Hotel, Universal and Brighton Hotel) on Oxford Street. Our venues the Oxford Hotel, Kinselas & Universal host many events leading up to the Mardi Gras such as Slay for Pay @ Universal, Buzz Racing @ Oxford, The Week @ Universal, Sissy Ball after party @ Universal , Macondo @ Universal , Trivia with Penny D @ Kinselas, Etcetera Etcetera @ Universal and many other notable events.

Why do you feel its important to align your business with clear values such as this LGBTQI parade?

Our venues have a long standing patronage with the community and Mardi Gras parade. Kinselas, for instance, has been famous since the early 1980s as one of the most iconic multi venue establishments in Sydney. It is of utmost importance for us to support and encourage values of the LGBTQI community as these venues are all located in a historic part of Sydney. Midnight Shift, which is now Universal, was one of Sydneys first iconic gay venues and has a history spanning 30+ years. Our aim has been to highlight the fun of Oxford St and revitalise the community by highlighting its history and what makes it so special as well as welcoming all types of people to enjoy great entertainment and offerings.

Do you think commercial brands have an influential role to play in Mardi Gras?

Absolutely  brands such as ABSOLUT vodka which is a major sponsor of the parade and Universal Hotels venues over the Mardi Gras period play a huge role in engaging the community and supporting equality.

Whats the biggest benefit, and the biggest challenge of running your businesses on Oxford St, during Mardi Gras?

The biggest benefit would be seeing people having a great time and enjoying the different entertainment offerings we provide. The biggest challenge would definitely be staffing, stock and logistical requirements. We are very fortunate to have such amazing staff & licensees who really go above and beyond during the week to ensure all runs smoothly.

On a separate note, have you seen many positive consequences of having the lockout laws lifted? How has this affected your businesses?

The removal of lockout laws have definitely been a positive step forward for Sydneys nightlife and especially Oxford St. While it is a slow process and not going to happen overnight the positives that are already noticeable are seeing people have the freedom to move between venues. The streets after 1:30am are starting to look much more active and this is a sign that there could be some brighter times ahead for our nightlife.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that the Rs 2,000 are here to stay. The FM said that the banks have not been given any orders to recalibrate their ATMs or to gradually phase out the high denominations notes.

"The banks have not been given any such instructions as far as Rs 2,000 currency notes are concerned," the Finance Minister said to a question raised about certain reports saying that ATMs are being rebooted to accommodate more Rs 500 denomination notes and Rs 2,0000 notes are going to be phased out.

The FM said this while in Guwahati, where was holding a multitude of meetings with economists, industry leaders on the budget she presented on February 1.

There were reports that Rs 2,000 notes will be taken out of circulation sooner or later. Rs 2,000 notes were introduced after demonetisation was announced back in November 2016. Rs 2,000 notes became the highest denomination in the country.

Sitharaman had told the Parliament that over 43% of the unaccounted cash seized in 2019 was in the form of Rs 2,000 notes.

Close to the third anniversary of demonetisation, former finance secretary Subhash Garg had put forward a case for the demonetisation of Rs 2,000 notes, which he said could be done without much disruption to circulation of cash in the country.

Garg believed that the majority of Rs 2,000 notes were not in circulation since they were being hoarded.

Also Read: Another blow to India's auto sector! This time due to coronavirus

Also Read: Slowdown over? GDP growth rises 4.7% in December quarter
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Linkedin Riska Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020

Foreign investors sold Rp 1.05 trillion (US$75.8 million) more in Indonesian stocks than they bought on Thursday, as selling sprees hit markets across Asia and Europe, fueled by spooked investors and economic uncertainties over the spreading coronavirus outbreak.

The selling spree caused Indonesias benchmark stock index, the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI), to drop by 2.69 percent on Thursday to 5,535.69, a level unseen since March 2017, according to data from the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX).

IDX president director Inarno Djajadi attributed the rout to panicking stock market investors around the globe as the number of new COVID-19 coronavirus cases outside China for the first time exceeded the number of new cases where the outbreak began.

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The company that owns Corona beer is facing its worst quarter in 10 years following the coronavirus outbreak.

Anheuser-Busch In Bev owns some of the worlds most famous beer brands, including Budweiser, Stella Artois, Becks and Corona.

But in the last two months since coronavirus has been spreading throughout China, the company has suffered a $170m (132m) loss in of earnings in the country, at at time when they were expecting strong sales because of lunar new year.

The losses have forced it to cut its chief executives bonus and forecast one of the steepest declines in its quarterly profits.

The company believes the drop in profits is down to fewer people going out in public in China to avoid catching coronavirus. This is taking a toll on nightlife, with many bars and restaurants being forced to close down.

CEO Carlos Brito told CNBC: Our business is all about going to restaurants, to nightlife, going out with friends, its really about to go back to normal, were preparing for the surge when things return to normal.

As we look to the future, we are determined to lead growth through consumer-centricity, operational excellence and innovation.

Briton added: Our performance in 2019 was below our expectations, and we are not satisfied with these results.

Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Show all 10 1 /10 Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A man wearing a face mask crosses a road in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of the empty entrance to the UniversitA Cattolica (Catholic University) in Milan, northern Italy, on 24 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone sanitation worker sits near the closed Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on February 24, 2020. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of a deserted street in Codogno, northern Italy, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Italian police officers set a road block in Codogno, Northern Italy, on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A supermarket closed in Codogno, one the northern Italian towns placed under lockdown, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone cyclist wearing sanitary masks pedals in the center of Codogno, Northern Italy. LaPresse via AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty An empty road at the entrance of the small Italian town of Codogno on February 23, 2020. AFP via Getty

The spread of Coronavirus has now reached a decisive point, the World Health Organisation chief has said, as he urged governments to take aggressive action to prevent it.

Every country must be ready for its first case, its first cluster, the first evidence of community transmission and for dealing with sustained community transmission. And it must be preparing for all of those scenarios at the same time, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

The news comes in the same week Diageo, the worlds biggest spirits maker, warned the spread of coronavirus would knock as much as 200m off profits this year.

The total number of people infected worldwide by coronavirus has now risen above 80,000 with 2,700 recorded deaths.

So far, 16 patients in the UK have tested positive for the virus and chief medical officers have raised the risk level from low to moderate for the illness, which currently has no known cure or vaccine.
ATLANTA, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Connect, a leader in live events for meeting planners and those in the travel and tourism industry, hosted its third presidential featured speaker, Barack Obama at its most recent Connect event in Kissimmee, Fla. in late February.

The audience of more than 2,000 travel industry buyers, suppliers, as well as meeting and event professionals enjoyed an hour-long Q&A session with the former president and Connect CEO Chris Collinson. Obama shared a powerful message that he instilled in his daughters: "Be kind. Be useful."

"Connect always brings the best of the best speakers to their events. Chris Collinson's 'unplugged' interview with President Obama was no different and brought out the 'personal' side of the president that few get to see," said Roger Dow, President and CEO of U.S. Travel Association.

Obama joins an esteemed roster of previous featured speakers such as Nicole Kidman, Magic Johnson, Anderson Cooper and Robin Roberts. He is the third president to be a featured speaker at a Connect event and interviewed by Collinson. Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who has spoken twice, have also been keynote speakers. Additionally, Chelsea Clinton and former first lady Laura Bush have headlined the event that brings world-class thought leaders together with those who work in the travel and tourism industry.

"Aspirational leaders like Obama bring the inspiration and engagement that leaders in the travel industry are looking for," says CEO Chris Collinson. "It was truly one of the highlights of my career to host and interview President Barack Obama. His non-political message was a great reminder to all of us about the power of kindness."

The 44th president's appearance marked Connect's second largest annual event, outside of its Connect show that will bring more 4,500 to New Orleans, Aug. 19-21. Connect will announce its A-list keynote lineup for its New Orleans event in May 2020.

ABOUT CONNECT Connect is a leader in the meetings, events, travel and tourism industry. Specializing in destination marketing, the company produces digital programs, online and mobile solutions, meetings business and travel magazines, trade shows and consumer events, travel guides for newspapers and leisure magazines and destination information, which is distributed through broadcast and custom programs. Connect produces national shows for meeting planners in the Corporate, Expo, Sports, Diversity, Association and Faith sectors as well as other state- and region-specific meetings- and hospitality-focused events. More information about the company's brands and services is available at connectmeetings.com.

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Authorities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City remain hesitant about when to reopen schools after weeks-long closures due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic, as the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training has asked that schools of all levels welcome back students next month.

The ministry on Thursday sent a document to the administrations of all 63 provinces and cities, asking them to reopen high schools on Monday next week, which falls on March 2.

Meanwhile, kindergarteners and students of elementary and middle schools will resume study from either March 9 or March 16, depending on each locality's preference.

The 2019-20 school year must end by June 30, about one month later than previous years, regardless of which of the three dates schools are reopened.

The annual national high school examination, which serves both as a qualification for high school graduation and a requirement for university entrance, will take place from July 23 to 26.

Following the education ministrys guidance, at least 15 out of 63 Vietnamese provinces and cities have announced their back-to-school dates, as of Friday afternoon.

Most provinces and cities have followed the ministrys instructions, announcing that high school students would be back to school on Monday next week while asking students of the remaining school levels to stay home through March 8.

Meanwhile, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, sitting on the fence, have asked students parents to vote on the back-to-school date.

The municipal Department of Education and Training sent a survey form with three options, March 2, March 16, and the beginning of April, to the parents on Friday morning.

Schools were tasked with collecting their opinions and report the result to the education department before 2:00 pm on the same day.

The education department will then make the final decision using the survey result as reference.

The Hanoi Department of Education and Training on Thursday evening also requested all local schools to pool parents' opinions about whether or not to send their children back to school on March 2.

The COVID-19, which first surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has infected over 83,500 people and killed 2,858 globally as of Thursday, according to the South China Morning Post.

South Korea has confirmed 13 deaths from 2,337 positive cases so far, becoming the biggest cluster of infections outside China.

To date, Vietnam has reported 16 cases of the viral infection, including 13 Vietnamese, one Vietnamese American, and two Chinese.

All of them have fully recovered and been discharged from the hospital.

The country has recorded no new infection since February 13.

Most provinces and cities in Vietnam previously decided to let students stay home until the end of February to prevent the viral infection.

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A Southtown building on the corner of a busy intersection was stripped to its brick shell by a raging fire on Friday morning.

The company that called the building home, however, will be "back in business on Monday stronger than ever," the owner says.

The San Antonio Fire Department responded to reports of a structure fire on the 1500 block of South Flores St. shortly after 10 a.m.

When firefighters arrived, they found heavy fire and dark smoke billowing from the one-story Sweb Development building on the corner of South Flores and Cevallos streets.

The firefighters were forced into a defensive mode by the very stubborn fire, SAFD spokesperson Joe Arrington said. The triangular structure was an older, sturdily built building with heavy timber that caused plumes of smoke that could be seen from Interstate 35 nearby.

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It happened so fast, said Nic Reisen, who was evacuated from his office at Alamo Architects across the street. It was crazy. Within a 90-second period, it went from flames to total engulfment.

Arrington said there were no reports of injuries, but the building appeared to be a total loss. The roof collapsed and the brick walls looked to be in danger of suffering the same fate.

Magaly Chocano, the owner of Sweb  a web development firm  posted on Facebook that the fire was an absolute tragedy, but everyone was safe.

Chocano was on the way back to the office from a meeting elsewhere when the fire broke out. Chris Espinoza, a Sweb employee who was in the office, said the workers first noticed a burning smell. Then, fire burst through the window that led to the alley.

Employees stayed calm, grabbed their personal belongings, and rushed outside. Some of the computers that powered the company were lost to the flames, along with all of the inventory for a sportswear line Chocano had recently launched.

But, fortunately, every scrap of client data and everything else Sweb needs was stored safely in the cloud.

Espinoza said the office had become a second home for him during his time with the company. He noted that Chocano had completely remodeled the building after buying it three years ago.

"For her to see her building  her baby  literally burn down in flames is rough," he said.

Chocano acknowledged it was difficult to see a building she described as "my dream" reduced to rubble, but she's been buoyed by the support of the San Antonio community.

About 25 people reached out to offer the team a space to work until they rebuild or find another location. Sweb will kick back into gear Monday in an office offered by the Weston Urban group.

"Its just been absolutely breathtaking," Chocano said of the community response, noting that no one will lose their jobs. "The love has been absolutely overwhelming."

Arrington, and neighbors on the scene, said the fire started in the alley between the La Parrilla Azteca restaurant next door and the Sweb building. Both structures caught fire, but the wind was blowing toward Sweb.

Twenty-seven units and more than 100 firefighters responded to the two-alarm fire and soaked the flames from the street and from a ladder above.

The intersection of South Flores and Cevallos was shut down because of the fire and a dangling power line. Arrington said the busy thoroughfare would be closed until the firefighters and city utilities declared the area safe.

Arson investigators will process the scene, Arrington said, but its premature to say whether the fire was suspicious.

Venessa Rodriguez lives near the Sweb building and noticed hazy smoke cover the security camera of her home. Rodriguez said she then rushed home from work to check on her chocolate lab, who was fine when she arrived.

It was a cool building, she said of Sweb. It was historic, I believe. So its a shame that its gone. Im glad everyone is safe, though.

Chocano said the building was indeed historic: it was the site of the city's first Texaco. While she lamented the loss of such a beautiful office, the owner said the fire will prove her company's strength and resilience.

The Sweb team left the smoking husk of their office Friday afternoon and went for drinks at the The Friendly Spot, so there might be some extra emails waiting for them next week. Otherwise, it will be business as usual.

"Just because it happened doesnt mean that we are down. Quite the opposite," Chocano said. "What weve lost is a material loss  a beautiful one  but material. Were ready for business on Monday."

Mark Dunphy is a breaking news reporter and general assignment writer. Read him on our breaking news site, MySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | mark.dunphy@express-news.net | @m_b_dunphy
Wales has confirmed its first coronavirus case, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the UK to 19.

Dr Frank Atherton, Wales's chief medical officer, said: "I can confirm that one patient in Wales has tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19).

"All appropriate measures to provide care for the individual and to reduce the risk of transmission to others are being taken."

Dr Atherton added that the patient had recently returned to Wales from northern Italy, where they contracted the illness.

Public Health Wales said that doctors were attempting to trace people who had been in close contact with the patient.

Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Show all 10 1 /10 Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A man wearing a face mask crosses a road in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of the empty entrance to the UniversitA Cattolica (Catholic University) in Milan, northern Italy, on 24 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Empty streets in Daegu, South Korea, on 23 February 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone sanitation worker sits near the closed Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, on February 24, 2020. Reuters Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A view of a deserted street in Codogno, northern Italy, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty Italian police officers set a road block in Codogno, Northern Italy, on Monday, Feb. 24, 2020. AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A supermarket closed in Codogno, one the northern Italian towns placed under lockdown, on February 23, 2020. EPA Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty A lone cyclist wearing sanitary masks pedals in the center of Codogno, Northern Italy. LaPresse via AP Coronavirus: Streets around world left empty An empty road at the entrance of the small Italian town of Codogno on February 23, 2020. AFP via Getty

Dr Giri Shankar, incident director for the Covid-19 outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: "Public Health Wales is working hard to identify close contacts, and we are taking all appropriate actions to reduce any risk to the public's health."

Dr Shankar claimed that Wales and the UK as a whole were "well prepared for these types of incidents".

The health ministry confirmed that there are now 19 UK coronavirus cases, with 17 in England, one in Northern Ireland and one in Wales.

This total includes two new cases in England which were recently confirmed by the Department of Health.

Concerning these two patients, Professor Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, said: "The virus was passed on in Iran and the patients have been transferred to specialist NHS infection centres at the Royal Free Hospital."

The first confirmed case in the UK was on January 31.

On Friday, a World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman said that the outbreak is "getting bigger", with the possibility that it will reach further countries, "if not all countries".

These comments come as the first case in sub-Saharan Africa was confirmed in Nigeria on Friday.

The patient is an Italian man who flew to Nigeria from Milan on February 24, but did not show symptoms when the plane landed.

Nigerian authorities are in the process of observing passengers who were on the same plane as the patient, and are trying to identify the people he came into contact with in Lagos.

The virus, which was first identified in China in December last year, has so far killed almost 2,800 people in mainland China and about 70 people in other countries and territories.
The Bishops of New Zealand say that a proposed Abortion Legislation Bill will remove the need for any statutory tests for an abortion up to 20 weeks gestation, effectively introducing abortion on demand.

By Vatican News

New Zealands Bishops have voiced their concern about an Abortion Legislation Bill set to go through the countrys Parliament.

They say that if the Bill is passed the unborn will lose their already tenuous existing rights.

In a statement, the Bishops point out that Parliaments Abortion Legislation Select Committee  set up to hear public submissions on a bill to replace New Zealands existing abortion laws  has recommended enacting a new law based on the Law Commissions Model C, one of three alternatives the commission suggested in a 2018 report to the Government.

They fear that Model C as adopted by the select committee removes the need for any statutory tests for an abortion up to 20 weeks gestation, effectively introducing abortion on demand.

Under the existing legislation a woman can have an abortion up to 20 weeks under certain criteria, such as a danger to the physical and mental health of the woman. She has to be assessed by a health practitioner and then referred to two certifying consultants before a decision is made.

But Cynthia Piper, a lecturer at the Te Kupenga - Catholic Leadership Institute explains that under the proposed law a woman can self-refer to her GP up until twenty weeks; there is no statutory test. She goes on to say that, after 20 weeks the wording of proposed law is so vague, it really leaves it open for a woman to have an abortion virtually up until birth.

Listen to the interview

The Bishops highlight that unborn babies with a fetal disability will have even less protection than under the current law.

They are concerned that the proposed bill as reported from the committee also removes all references to fetal abnormalities, unlike the existing law which cites them as a reason for abortion up to 20 weeks, but not after.

Ms Piper points out that if the law was passed as it stands, it would mean that if there was a fetal abnormality, a woman could have an abortion up until birth. There is no protection for the unborn child in other words, she says.


On Wednesday last, Julian Assange asked that he be allowed out from behind the bulletproof glass that encloses the dock.

He was speaking at Woolwich Crown Court, in London, which is hearing an extradition request from the US to hand him over. The lawyer for the US said he would have no problem if Assange was allowed to sit in the well of the court, handcuffed to a security official.

On Monday, Assange was stripped naked twice and handcuffed 11 times. Papers handed to him in court were taken off him when he got back to prison. He is being held in Belmarsh, the high security prison, which houses some of the most dangerous criminals in the UK.

Assanges health has deteriorated over the last 10 months, since he left the Ecuadorian embassy in London and was imprisoned in Belmarsh. Two weeks ago, a letter published in the medical journal The Lancet set out what 118 physicians and psychologists believe to be the psychological torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange,

The medical professionals, from 18 countries, concluded: Should Assange die in a UK prison, as the UN special rapporteur on torture has warned, he will have effectively been tortured to death.

Much of that torture will have taken place in a prison medical ward, on doctors watch. The medical profession cannot afford to stand silently by, on the wrong side of torture and the wrong side of history, while such a travesty unfolds.

If Assange were a mafia godfather or psychopathic drugs kingpin, this kind of treatment would be questionable. Perpetrating it on a man with no record of violence or criminality is an outrage. What the 48-year-old journalist and publisher has done to elicit such contempt from the authorities is put a lot of noses out of joint by doing his job: holding power to account.

His extradition is being requested after a grand jury in the USA indicted him on 18 charges under the Espionage Act, for receiving and disclosing classified diplomatic and military documents.

This related to Assanges Wikileaks website publishing material in 2010 that had been obtained by the US army whistleblower, Chelsea Manning, and others. The documents revealed how, from helicopters, some US soldiers fired on and killed civilians in Iraq, and how detainees were tortured in US facilities in the same country.

There was also a huge tranche of documents that originated in US diplomatic missions around the world. This was published in newspapers such as The Guardian and the New York Times. The US authorities are not pursuing, through the criminal courts, any editors or reporters from the newspapers that published the material.

All of the leaked documents gave an insight into how the US conducts itself abroad, far from the land of the free and the home of the brave. Once away from the prying eyes of media, and beyond the scope of US law, old Uncle Sam was shown to be the one who routinely discarded human rights and engaged in murder and torture when it deemed it appropriate.

Assange, in publishing the material, followed a long line of media organs that have, down through the centuries, exposed the abuse of power of wealthy nations.

Wikileaks publications served to enlighten the US population, in particular, and the world, in general, about what was going on behind closed doors. One valid comparison is with the Pentagon Papers, which were released to the media by security analyst, Daniel Ellsberg, in 1970. They revealed the extent of US operations in Vietnam and Cambodia and exposed how the US administration had been lying. The Pentagon Papers are often cited as one of the key signposts that sent US opinion down the road of opposing the Vietnam War.

Those were different times. Back then, and right up until less than a decade ago, governing powers tolerated a free press as a necessary evil in the functioning of a democracy.

Today, as the politics of populist authoritarianism spreads, the powerful are moving against the fourth estate. Why wouldnt they? Social media provides a platform in which they can disseminate their message unmoderated, unanalysed, and without being fact-checked. Not only that, but the medium provides the means to attack the professional media and say that they are biased when they disseminate unfavourable information.

Holding power to account has never been as messy or difficult. Just observe US president, Donald Trump, creating, through Twitter, his own reality for his millions of followers. Or British prime minister, Boris Johnson, attempting to select which political reporters should be allowed cover his activities.

None of which is to suggest that the professional media is without fault, susceptible to group think, or, in some instances, too cosy with power to do its job properly. But without a functioning free press, democracy is sunk.

This is the milieu in which Assange is being persecuted. It helps those who want to lock him up for life that the man himself is not a sympathetic character. He has fallen out with many people who supported, or worked with, him along the way. His legal problems began in 2011, when two women in Sweden alleged he had sexually assaulted them when he was on a visit to the country. Assange claimed that it was a ruse to get him to Sweden, which has a more robust extradition treaty with the USA. So he sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

He fell out with his hosts. After he was thrown out, last April, the Swedish authorities again examined the womens claims and, notably, concluded that Assange didnt have a case to answer.

Others, such as liberals, are lukewarm about Assanges plight. Much of this is down to his role in the leaking of emails that embarrassed Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election. To that extent, ironically, it could be claimed that he helped elect Trump, whose government is now pursuing him.

Assange is not necessarily a fitting advertisement for a free press or even for liberal democracy, at a time when it is increasingly under threat. But so what? His personal characteristics are entirely incidental to what his plight represents. If he is extradited, he will, in all likelihood, spend most, or all, of the remainder of his life in a US prison. That will serve as a warning to anybody else who happens across, or roots out, classified information and publishes it in the public interest.

What is worrying is the apparent lack of interest shown by the media and by the political elements that consider themselves to be defenders of liberal democracy.

Assanges controversial past would appear to have blinded many to the danger that the campaign against him represents. Thats a good result for those who covet a new era of accountability in which a free press is an optional extra.
The patient has been isolated in a hospital in the city of Siauliai, showing slight symptoms and no fever.

Lithuania officials have reported the first confirmed case of the novel COVID-19 coronavirus on its territory.

A woman, 39, tested positive upon her return this week from a visit to Italy's Verona, according to Kommersant.

The patient has been isolated in a hospital in the city of Siauliai, showing slight symptoms and no fever.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Head of the Crisis Management Center at the Consular Services Department of Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Maksym Kovalenko has said Ukraine is not going to evacuate its citizens from Italy yet.

The comment came following a report that a Ukrainian woman was hospitalized in Italy having tested positive for the novel coronavirus. She is not in critical condition.

UNIAN memo. The Chinese authorities reported an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown origin in Wuhan late in December 2019. The causative agent of the disease was a new type of coronavirus, COVID-19.

The virus is transmitted from person to person, with the incubation period lasting at least two weeks.

On January 30, the World Health Organization declared an international emergency over the spread of the novel coronavirus from China.
In context: When trademarks become used to describe an entire category of products such as aspirin or kerosene, the word is no longer protected by trademark law. This doctrine is known as "genericide." After being denied a dismissal, Netflix is applying the doctrine in its defense against Chooseco's trademark infringement lawsuit.

Earlier this week, Netflix revealed the premiere date for its second choose-your-own-adventure-style movie. This time it is based on its Carmen Sandiego series.

Last year, the streaming giant got into hot water with its previous interactive show Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. Chooseco filed an infringement lawsuit against the company for using the phrase "choose your own adventure" in the Bandersnatch script. Chooseco claimed that that use violated its Choose Your Own Adventure trademark.

Netflix's initial defense was to ask the court to dismiss the case because it did not meet the standards set by the Lanham Act. The judge agreed that Bandersnatch was an expressive work and that the use of the phrase had relevance to the artistic work. However, Chooseco also alleged the use of the trademark could confuse consumers into thinking the film was related to the company. The judge agreed and denied dismissal.

"The physical characteristics and context of the use demonstrate that it is at least plausible Netflix used the term to attract public attention by associating the film with Chooseco's book series," wrote Vermont federal judge William Sessions in his opinion.

Now Netflix is going on the offensive. The streaming service is asking the court to cancel Chooseco's trademark because the phrase has become generic.

Under the doctrine of genericide, a trademark can become invalid if its general use becomes generic to the point that it is used to describe a whole class of products. Soft soap is an example of a brand that is no longer protected by trademark law because of this doctrine.

Netflix argues that Chooseco's series of books are not the only stories using interactive narratives, nor was it the first. Indeed, the first Choose Your Own Adventure book, The Cave of Time, was published in 1979, while the company behind Dungeons and Dragons, TSR, had been using a similar format to tell stories since 1972. Later works, including early computer text adventures like Zork, and even more recent titles like those from Telltale, used the same formula. There are even apps that can help users write stories in this style.

"The phrase 'Choose Your Own Adventure' has become generic in its current use within the United States," writes Netflix attorney Seth Berlin in his counter claim filing (above). "In contemporary parlance, any situation that requires making a series of unguided choices, or that provides an opportunity to go back and re-make a series of choices that turned out badly, is referred to as a 'Choose Your Own Adventure.'... Thus, in its current usage, the phrase 'Choose Your Own Adventure' encompasses the entire genre of interactive-narrative fiction, a genus of media of which Chooseco's book series is just one species."

The filing goes on to ask that the court rule that Netflix has not violated Chooseco's trademark, and to cancel or genericize it. It also requests restitution for costs related to the litigation.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Jeyhun Alakbarov - Trend:

The implementation of the Kars-Igdir-Aralik-Dilucu-Sadarak-Nakhchivan railway project will increase export potential of Azerbaijans Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and make it an important transit center of the region, Director of Nakhchivan Railways LLC Mahir Aliyev told Trend Feb. 28.

Aliyev said that the railway will connect Nakhchivan with China, European countries and with the Persian Gulf countries.

The project will significantly enhance the export potential of Nakhchivan, provide convenient and direct access for the Azerbaijani products to the markets of post-Soviet, European and Asian countries, the director noted.

The companys director added that in the Soviet times, rock salt, mineral water, canned food and agricultural products, as well as light industry products, were transported from Nakhchivan by rail. Although about 1,000 types of products are manufactured in the autonomous republic, there are certain problems with their entering international markets, said Aliyev.

There is a great demand for the mentioned products, as well as for stone, travertine, cement and other products manufactured in Nakhchivan, the director noted. The implementation of the Kars-Igdir-Nakhchivan railway project will contribute to significant revenues to the budget of the autonomous republic. The project will also contribute to the development of such important areas like mining, metallurgy and mechanical engineering.

Aliyev reminded that the railways in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic are in working condition.

The project also envisages improving the railways of the autonomous republic, introduction of new systems, as well as building various infrastructure facilities, the director added. This will bring the transportation of goods and passengers to a modern level. The growth of transit potential will also return the former glory to the Ordubad silkworm breeding, which it had during the Soviet times. On the other hand, the project will have a very positive effect on the development of tourism in Nakhchivan as well.
WALTERVILLE, Ore. -- A serious crash closed Highway 126 at the canal bridge in Walterville Thursday afternoon.

Oregon State Police said motorcyclist Kurt Rauch, 65, of Springfield died in the crash. They said he was eastbound on the highway when he lost control of his motorcycle while attempting to stop for traffic in front of him. Rauch then left his lane of travel, crossed into the westbound lane and collided with an oncoming truck driven by David Doerr, 50, of Bend. Doerr was not injured in the crash.

Alan Kephart lives next to the Walterville Canal Bridge and said crashes happen on the bridge frequently. He said about a year and a half ago, a woman was killed after crashing and rolling her car on the bridge.

"Whatever this is attributed to, it just seems like the bridge is a contributing factor in so many accidents here," Kephart said. "ODOT is aware of it because we have emailed them."

Highway 126 reopened at 7 p.m. in both directions, nearly four hours after the crash.

Oregon State Police was assisted by ODOT, McKenzie Fire and Rescue and Northwest Hazmat.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) on Friday told the Supreme Court on Friday that the drinking water sample drawn from 12 Janpath, home of Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, failed on the ISO parameters (specifications for drinking water) in odour, aluminium and coliform content.

The BIS report claimed all the 11 samples collected from different locations in the city failed ISO standards in more than one requirement. "The samples were drawn from different locations from piped water being supplied by city municipalities/ corporations/water board at consumers' end and sent for testing to the designated labs," said the report.

The water samples were sent for testing as per ISO standard specification for drinking water at the National Accreditation Board Laboratory (NABL).

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra and comprising Justice Deepak Gupta queried advocate Vipin Nair, representing the BIS, what methodology should be adopted to improve the quality of potable water.

"Pipes are damaged. What steps are required (to address this)... sewage seeps into the water pipeline. What if the pipes have gone old... your (Centre) supply centre officer may be corrupt," said the court.

The observation from the top court came while hearing environmental matters.

The apex court also observed that there could be an instance where the executive responsible for supervising the cleaning process of water may not be adding the right chemicals to make water potable. "There may be several sources of contamination... seepage of sewage cannot be ruled out. Moreover, the water mafia is also an issue"," it observed.

The court also made some strong remarks on the water mafia, where they stop the water supply and then sell water through private tankers. Justice Gupta cited the example of a leak in a water pipe, which existed for nearly 10 years, and the water mafia made profits from this leak.

The top court asked for a comprehensive report on water samples from the Delhi government and Central Pollution Control Board within 15 days. The top court also asked the authorities concerned to point out if they want the existing pipelines to be replaced.

"We want to know, what kind of treatment should be given (to water)," it said.
New Delhi [India], Feb 28 (ANI): Indian Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria on Friday said that the government took a "tough and bold decision to strike at the heart of terrorist training camps deep inside Pakistan" and added that "the Indian Air Force struck the target successfully".



"A year ago, the government took a tough and bold decision to strike at the heart of terrorist training camps deep inside Pakistan across the Line of Control. IAF successfully struck the chosen target. Pakistan Air Force responded 30 hours later with a large package of aircraft under Operation Swift Retort, and IAF ensured they were not able to hit targets. They were in a hurry to disengage. They were doing it for their domestic audience," the IAF chief said at the Centre for Air Power Studies here.

"We had an edge over Pakistan Air Force in terms of Beyond Visual Range Missile capability at the time of Kargil. We allowed that to slip and thereafter it took a decade and a half in our struggle to acquisition process to be able to get better capability," he added.

The IAF chief said that better capability will soon materialise with the induction of Rafale.

"It (better capability) will soon materialize with the induction of Rafale. In air engagement, especially in a deeply contested area, it is important to have a weapon's edge. Once we retain this edge, it is important that we don't allow to slip back this edge," he said.

Earlier, while speaking to ANI, the IAF chief said that the message of the Balakot airstrike was clear that there will be a robust response to a terror attack from across the border.

"The message is clear that it will no longer be a status quo, if there is an attack orchestrated from across the border there will be a response and it will be a robust one," the Air Chief told ANI.

The Chief of the Air Staff flew a sortie in MiG-21 of 51 Squadron with two Mirage-2000s and Sukhoi-30MKI from Srinagar airbase to mark the completion of one year of Balakot airstrikes.

Last year, the Indian Air Force had carried out airstrikes in Pakistan's Balakot, targetting Jaish-e-Muhammed's (JeM) terror training camps. The JeM had claimed responsibility for a deadly terror attack on February 14 in Pulwama, killing 40 CRPF personnel. (ANI)


A postal worker whose family were the subject of an attempted tiger kidnapping has sued An Post and the postmaster of the branch where she worked.

The action has been brought by Susan Byrne, who in October 2011 worked as a post office clerk at Balbriggan sub-post office, Balbriggan, Co Dublin.

The High Court heard on the October 4, 2011, three masked raiders bearing firearms tied up Ms Byrne and her husband. The following morning he was taken away by the raiders, and placed in a car with a dressing gown pulled over his head.

Ms Byrne, believing her husband's life was in danger, was ordered by the raiders to go to the post office and fill bags given to her by them with money.

The robbery failed after Ms Byrne's husband managed to escape. Arising out of the incident she has sued both An Post and the then postmaster of Balbriggan sub-post office, Mr Paul Hannon, from Swords in Co. Dublin.

As a result she claims she suffered injuries arising out of the defendant's alleged negligence.

In her personal injuries claim she claims that she was not warned of certain risks involved with her then employment, and was not provided with proper training or guidance in regards to the operation of the sub-post office.

She also alleges there was a failure to ensure staff were made aware of the risks presented by tiger kidnappings, and says she was not advised about preventative measures to eliminated the risk of such kidnappings.

The claims are denied.

Today Mr Justice Mark Sanfey ruled on a pre-trial issue, concerning the discovery of certain documents in the case.

Ms Byrne, with an address at St Andrews Park, Swords, sought certain documents from An Post which she claims she requires as part of her damages claim.

An Post opposed the application on grounds that classes of documentation contain "highly sensitive information," which if disclosed would pose a real and substantial risk to the security and safety of post offices and those working in them.

In his ruling, the judge said he was prepared to make discovery of materials sought, including documents called the Postmasters Manual, and the An Post Retail Sub-Offices Procedures Handbook of 2006.

He said that while these are confidential and sensitive documents, the court was satisfied that there no significant risk that disclosure would place staff working at post offices at risk, and those documents did not attract public interest privilege.

The judge said that certain parts of the 2006 handbook should be redacted, and said he expected the lawyers dealing with the case to limit the persons who see the discovered material to persons such as expert witnesses, the plaintiff and her legal team.

The judge said that he was not prepared to order the discovery of other materials as they were not relevant to the claim.

The judge adjourned the case to a date in March to allow the sides consider his ruling.
Trump's administration is considering using special war powers to order American factories to churn out millions of protective masks in efforts to ramp up the US response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The president plans to invoke the law, called the Defense Production Act, so that domestic manufacturing of protective masks and clothing needed to help tackle the spread of the deadly coronavirus could be expanded rapidly, two US officials told Reuters.

The use of the law, passed by Congress in 1950 at the outset of the Korean War, would mark a major escalation in the administration's response to the outbreak as the global death toll continues to soar.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar told lawmakers this week that the US needs a stockpile of about 300 million N95 face masks to combat the spread of the virus.

Trump's administration is considering using special war powers to order American factories to churn out protective masks in efforts to ramp up the US response to the coronavirus outbreak

The president plans to invoke the law, called the Defense Production Act, so that domestic manufacturing of protective masks and clothing needed to help tackle the spread of the deadly coronavirus could be expanded rapidly, two US officials told Reuters

The US currently has only around 12 million masks - a fraction of the volume needed, Azar warned.

Five million additional masks are available but are no longer certified because they may be past the expiration date.

The US also has a stockpile of 30 million 'gauze type' surgical masks, but these are deemed less effective.

To make matters worse, Azar explained that the US relies heavily on China for much of the raw materials and the 'manufacturing capacity' for face masks - the country where the deadly coronavirus stems from.

'Very little of this stuff is apparently made in the (United) States, so if we're down to domestic capability to produce, it could get tough,' the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told Reuters.

The global death toll continues to soar as the first unknown origin case was confirmed

If Trump turns to the Defense Production Act he will have the power to ramp up the manufacture of masks and other 'personal protective equipment' needed to prevent the spread of the disease, the DHS official told Reuters.

The official said that the subject was broached during an interagency call on Wednesday between officials from HHS and DHS.

The law enables the president to expand industrial production of key materials or products needed for national security or other reasons.

Trump would be able to order US companies to prioritize making protective masks, gloves and protective suits instead of the firm's usual products.

A White House official also confirmed to Reuters that the administration was exploring the use of the law to spur manufacturing of protective gear.

'Let's say 'Company A' makes a multitude of respiratory masks but they spend 80% of their assembly lines on masks that painters wear and only 20% on the N95,' the White House official said.

'We will have the ability to tell corporations, 'No, you change your production line so it is now 80% of the N95 masks and 20% of the other.''

'It allows you to basically direct things happening that need to get done,' the official added.

Companies that could be affected include 3M Corp, Honeywell International Inc and Kimberly-Clark Corp, which are some of the biggest producers of face masks in the US.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar told lawmakers this week that the US needs a stockpile of about 300 million N95 face masks to combat the spread of the virus. The US currently has only around 12 million masks - a fraction of the volume needed, Azar warned

Trump would be able to order US companies to prioritize making protective masks, gloves and protective suits instead of the firm's usual products

If Trump turns to the Defense Production Act he will have the power to ramp up the manufacture of masks and other 'personal protective equipment' needed to prevent the spread of the disease, the DHS official told Reuters

The potential move to deploy war tactics comes after the CDC issued a stark warning on Tuesday that US cities, communities and hospitals would need to ramp up preparations for the virus' spread as more cases were likely on their way.

'Now is the time for US businesses, hospitals and communities to begin preparing for the possible spread of COVID-19,' CDC officials posted on Twitter Tuesday afternoon.

Officials said more coronavirus cases are 'likely to be identified in the coming days, including more cases in the United States' and that 'person-to-person spread will likely continue to occur, including in the United States.'

The announcement of the US's first possible instance of community spread of the disease sent shockwaves across the country on Wednesday.

However, President Trump continued to tell the public that the risk to Americans is 'low'.

Azar explained that the US relies heavily on China for much of the raw materials and the 'manufacturing capacity' for face masks - the country where the deadly coronavirus stems from

President Trump continued to tell the public that the risk to Americans is 'low' at a press conference Wednesday

Trump said the US was 'very ready' to tackle the disease and said the US would spend 'whatever' it takes to beat coronavirus

Trump announced in a press conference Wednesday night that the US was 'very ready' to tackle the disease as he also handed Vice-President Mike Pence the task of leading the nation's response to the disease.

He also declared the US would spend 'whatever' it takes to beat coronavirus.

'We're very, very ready for this, for anything,' even if it's 'a breakout of larger proportions.'

'Every aspect of our society should be prepared. I think schools should get ready - just in case,' he added later.

Pence, who has no medical training, convened the first meeting of his official White House coronavirus taskforce Wednesday afternoon.

In a controversial move, just four out of the 15 people on his taskforce are doctors while economic adviser Larry Kudlow, who earlier in the week said the US was 'airtight' from the virus, and acting deputy Homeland Security secretary Ken Cuccinelli, who had tweeted a complaint that he could not find a map of coronavirus' spread, both made the cut.

The first US case of coronavirus where the origin of the disease is unknown was confirmed on Wednesday.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the person, a resident in Northern California, had not recently returned from a foreign country, and had not been in contact with another confirmed case.

It later emerged that evening that the CDC had taken four days to test the woman, despite requests from medical staff, because 'the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19'.

Vice-President Mike Pence has been handed the task of leading the nation's response to the disease

Pence, who has no medical training, convened the first meeting of his official White House coronavirus taskforce Wednesday afternoon. In a controversial move, just four out of the 15 people on his taskforce are doctors

On Thursday, the CDC revised its criteria for who should be tested for the virus and was shipping more test kits out to states including California, the agency's director told lawmakers.

'When a clinician or a public health individual suspects coronavirus, then we should be able to get a test for coronavirus so that's the current guidance that went out today,' CDC Director Robert Redfield said at a House of Representatives hearing on the government response to the fast-spreading virus.

California is now monitoring 8,400 people for potential coronavirus infection.

Democrat Senate Chuck Schumer on Thursday accused Trump of 'towering and dangerous incompetence' and said the president 'must get his act together' on the coronavirus threat.

Invoking the war powers is one of a number of options under consideration by the administration to combat the virus, the officials said, and no final decision has been made.

Trump previously invoked the law in 2017 to address technological shortfalls in a vaccine production capability and other items such as microelectronics.
People point finger of blame at police and governing party leader for worst violence in decades that has left 42 dead.

New Delhi, India  On the night of February 24, Al-Hind Hospital, located in the narrow and crowded lanes of Mustafabad in the northeast of the Indian capital, was overwhelmed by patients.

At first, we thought that few people must have been injured in clashes but soon after we realised that it was like some disaster had struck the area, said Dr MA Anwar, the hospital director.

We were losing count of the injured who were trickling in one after another, he told Al Jazeera while taking a round of injured patients at the 15-bed hospital.

The hospital has treated more than 600 people injured in the violence triggered after Hindu nationalists attacked protest sit-ins against a discriminatory new citizenship law.

Muslims are demanding a rollback of the law that they say is against Indias secular constitution. They fear they will be relegated to second-class citizens by Prime Minister Narendra Modis Hindu supremacist agenda.

Dr Anwar tending to patients [Akash Bisht/Al Jazeera]

The death toll has risen to 42 people in the worst religious violence to have hit Delhi since 1984, when more than 3,000 members of the Sikh community were killed by a Hindu mob following the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Dr Anwar says he has not slept more than five hours a day since Monday. He accused the police of inaction and blamed hate speech by ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kapil Mishra for the violence.

Mishra on Sunday warned Muslim protesters to wind down sit-ins in Jafarabad and Chandbagh areas or face the ire of his supporters. The next day, a Hindu far-right group went on a rampage, resulting in pitched street battles between the communities in parts of northeast Delhi.

Mosques, shops and houses were set on fire, forcing many people from mixed neighbourhoods to move to safer areas. Many journalists were attacked while reporting on the events.

He [Mishra] said all of this in the presence of the police. If the police had taken action against Mishra on that day itself, so many people would not have died, said Dr Anwar.

The doctor, assisted by his three brothers, worked through the night to ensure the injured were given necessary medical aid. He says the situation worsened the following night, Tuesday, as the number of injured increased.

On February 25  it was like nothing that I had witnessed before. Even our doctors and nursing staff started crying after looking at the injuries of the victims, he said, adding that most people were brought in with bullet, pellet or stab wounds.

Dr Anwar says many of the seriously injured needed to be moved to bigger hospitals but the mob had blocked the ambulances path.

Women in Chandbagh recounted how mobs set fire to property in their area, forcing them to flee [Akash Bisht/Al Jazeera]

The hospital, situated a few meters away from the epicentre of the violence in Bhajanpura area, sent out distress calls as the injured poured in.

Ambulances were finally allowed through at the directive of the Delhi High Court following a petition filed by activists.

Even in war zones, the army creates a safe zone for the passage of ambulances but here they werent even allowing those, Dr Anwar told Al Jazeera.

Most people Al Jazeera spoke to in the violence-affected areas, including Hindus, blamed Mishra, the BJP leader, for disturbing the peace in the region.

They had been holding peaceful protest at Jafrabad since December and not one person was harmed or vehicle torched, and a day after Mishra made these statements, Delhi has turned into a war zone, said Daulat Kumar, an autorickshaw driver from Gokulpuri.

Meanwhile, violence-affected areas such as Karawal Nagar, Khajuri Khas, Seelampur, Maujpur, Bhajanpura, Vijay Park, Jafrabad, Chandbagh, Mustafabad, Gokulpuri and Yamuna Vihar remain tense, with people keeping to their homes amid a heavy police presence on the streets.

A Muslim shrine destroyed by the mob [Akash Bisht/ Al Jazeera]

The smell of burned tyres, vehicles and properties lingers in the air and people come out to talk to journalists. In one such neighbourhood in Chandbagh, more than 50 Muslim women surrounded this reporter, sharing their stories and pleas for help.

With tears rolling down her cheeks, Shahana Begum narrated how the mob set fire to their two shops in Bhajanpura, a Hindu-majority area opposite Mustafabad.

We were told that our shops had been set on fire. What do we do now? We had invested everything in those shops and now we dont know how we will feed our children, Begum told Al Jazeera.

Shagufta, standing near Begum, narrated how she and three other Muslim families had to flee from Gokulpuri after the mob reached their neighbourhood.

Our Hindu neighbours saved us otherwise they would have killed us. We have come to our parents house because it is safer here, she said. Several other women told similar stories with many of them crying out of fear.

We do not sleep at night. My young siblings are so scared that they hardly speak. What have we done to deserve this? We are also Indians and were only protesting against the CAA [Citizenship Amendment Act]. We did not indulge in any violence and yet they killed so many of us, said 19-year-old Zainab Khan.

As the women told their stories, some men who had gathered said that if this is how they [government] want to treat Muslims, they should give us our own country.

Mohsin Ali, 22-year-old, ran a small business providing generators for marriage functions [Akash Bisht/Al Jazeera]

Hearing this, Zainab shouted back: This is our country and we will live and die here. We too have sacrificed for this country and want to live in peace with the Hindus. Nothing of this sort happened here ever, why is it that after BJP came to power we are witnessing these communal tensions? It is the BJP and the police that is responsible for this mayhem.

A few metres away, a Hindu woman, who did not want to be identified, was looking for her bike, which she had left behind after the violence erupted on Monday. After 20 minutes of going through piles of burned bikes, she found it.

What wrong did I do? I just teach young children of all faiths. Why did this happen? she asked, blaming Mishra for riling people up.

None of this would have happened if he didnt make that speech. They had blocked the road but were peaceful for more than 70 days. They could have challenged it in court and followed legal procedure, she told Al Jazeera.

There was a lot of anger among the locals against the police, which they said assisted the mob in targeting Muslims and their properties. [Home Minister] Amit Shahs police took sides, said Ahmed Khan of Khajuri Khas.

I was in Delhi when the 1984 riots happened. It was similar to what happened back then. If the police wanted, they could have stopped clashes on the first day but they had clear instructions from the top to let the rioting continue, Khan said.

At the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital mortuary, Mustakhim Ali is among dozens of people waiting for the body of a family member killed in the violence. He wants to perform his cousin Mohsin Alis last rites but the body has not been released yet.

Mohsin Ali, 22, was from Hapur in northern Uttar Pradesh. He ran a small business providing generators for marriage parties and had come to Delhi for business on Tuesday.

Mustakhim Ali said when they found the body of his cousin, who got married himself last December, they did not recognise him.

He had no clothes on his body and his head and face was swollen and covered in blood. It was only after his father identified him, we were sure that our brother had died, said Mustakhim Ali.

What sort of society are we living in where people are being killed because of their religion under the watch of the police. My brother worked hard day and night to establish his business. Little did he know that he would meet his end so brutally. God will never forgive those who killed him.
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: As the State unit of the BJP goes all out to ensure the mega rally to be attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah at Janata Maidan here on Friday in support of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) a grand success, the Opposition on Thursday termed it a fruitless exercise. The ruling BJD that extended unqualified support to the CAA in Parliament saw no reason in holding such a rally when the whole of India is witnessing agitation and violence over the issue. I think its too late now. Had the Union Government made people aware about CAA before implementing it, the incidents of violence could have been prevented, BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb remarked. He said people of the State are fully aware of the BJD stand on the issue.

Chief Minister Minister Naveen Patnaik has already made it clear that his party is not in favour of the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC). The Congress lambasted the BJP for the prevailing situation in the country after the controversial CAA was passed. Senior Congress leader Suresh Routray said the BJP rally is nothing but a big drama. There is no point in spending huge money to organise rallies in support of CAA when the entire country is burning. What they want to explain when the people are not convinced? Their hidden agenda has been exposed, he said.

With pressure mounting on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik from national and regional political parties and minority communities opposed to BJP for passing a resolution against CAA, NPR and NRC in Odisha Legislative Assembly, Shahs rally assumes significance.The saffron party has been mobilising people from across the State to participate in the rally. All district units have been asked to mobilise people to attend the rally and several campaign vehicles pressed into service in the State capital to send the message of Shahs visit with a request to the people to extend their solidarity with the CAA, said State BJP president Samir Mohanty.

Shah is coming to the State for the first time after becoming the Union Home Minister. He will address the BJP rally after a meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council here. He will also hold a meeting of BJP MPs, MLAs and State office-bearers at a city hotel after the public meeting. The Union Home Minister is scheduled to visit Puri on Saturday for a darshan of Lord Jagnnath. On his return, he will visit Lingaraj temple to offer puja and fly back the same day to New Delhi.
It's nighttime on a quiet corner in North Berkeley and most of the traffic that passes through on the usually-busy San Pablo Avenue has slowed to nonexistent.

Long after the nearby businesses have closed, a flurry of activity is continuing at the corner of Cedar Street and San Pablo Avenue and, really, never stops. The night crew of Acme Bakery is carrying on with its breadmaking long into the night, a 24-hour operation that continues both at this original location of the Berkeley-based company, as well as three other designated Acme baking locations in the Bay Area.

Armando Castillo and two other bakers are moving about in a constant dance around inside the Acme space, with Top 40 music keeping them moving. The bread oven is constantly baking and the oven  and carefully set bakery thermostat  keeps the space cozy at a toasty 75 degrees, the team rotating between a series of jobs. Enormous mixers mix, bakers weigh out the dough, keeping the blobby masses at the ready for its turn in the oven, pushing the bread out onto racks when the oven timer beeps turn insistent.

Castillo lifts a batard off the track of bread freshly pulled from the massive oven, proudly rapping on the bottom of the bread like a knock, a requisite thump sounding back: "That's how you know it's done," Castillo says, grinning.

(To see photos of Acme's bread being made at the original shop, scroll through the slideshow above.)

This is the bread empire that Steven Sullivan started, and after 38 years is still thriving. Acme Bread has remained a Bay Area favorite that has inspired fanaticism, from a necessary  but costly  restaurant expense to Berkeley expats longing for an Acme bread fix in Sacramento (and willing to pay someone to transport it in a desperate, grassroots sort of way).

Yet, this wasn't necessarily the way Sullivan pictured things going when he first worked as a busboy at Berkeley's Chez Panisse in the late 70s and began his obsession with bread, an obsession that would bloom on a summer trip to Europe.

It was when he travelled between France and England, spending some time assisting Jeremiah Tower and Richard Olney with the cookbook series, "The Good Cook" that he discovered the bread book that would start him on this breadmaking adventure: "English Bread and Yeast Cookery" by Elizabeth David.

"This was a real education about breadmaking and what was important and how to think about bread making, how to think about using salt in bread making, different ways that different people had approached it, using whole grains in bread, including different thoughts about fermentation and bread making," Sullivan said.

Bringing the book back home to Berkeley, Sullivan began experimenting in his college co-op kitchen, baking loaves of bread and gleaning advice from anyone and everyone  namely both a roommate's mom with baking experience, along with the staff at Chez Panisse.

Chez Panisse was purchasing bread for the restaurant from Italian bakeries in San Francisco, but the quality founder Alice Waters was looking for just wasn't there.

"[Steve] heard me complaining and he just had in his mind that, maybe, 'I can make a loaf of bread that Chez [Panisse] would like,'" Waters recalled to SFGATE. "And so he just started baking things and bringing them down and having us taste them. And we would say no to this, 'do it that way,' and all of a sudden one time he got it right and he started making baguettes for the restaurants."

And thus was the start of Sullivan's breads at the restaurant.

"That was the great thing about working at Chez Panisse in that time is that if somebody was passionate about something, everybody was  unless it was something destructive or really something that people could not relate to at all  it was an environment that really was based on trying to bring out the best in everybody," Sullivan said. "You bring out the most in everybody, whether it was a waiter that turned out to also be a poet, or a busboy that also turned out to be a baker."

---

Making bread at Chez Panisse was a marker for Sullivan's career, but the space at the restaurant soon began to feel cramped under the weight of both the bread and the restaurant's own menu. Waters recalled that Sullivan would have to run up and down the stairs between the (now) Chez Panisse Cafe space and the main restaurant making the bread.

"It was quite hilarious," Waters said of memories of Sullivan moving up and down the stairs. "And that's how it went  then we said, 'We're just getting too crazy with this. Why don't you open your own bakery and we'll buy everything you make?'"

Sullivan hadn't previously planned to open his own bakery, but as he saw it, his bread making at the restaurant was his way of contributing to the community that he wanted to be a part of, the Chez Panisse community  but now it was time to branch out.

"A lot of people think, 'I want to start a business' and 'I could be my own man' and all that kind of thing, but that really wasn't it [with Acme]," Sullivan said. "...Opening the bakery was a way to provide something that the larger food community  that I had become part of  wanted. So it was sort of just something to do, that felt worthwhile to do, in the context of who I was and where I was."

In 1983 Sullivan and his wife Suzie opened that first shop at the corner of Cedar Street and San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, with help from friends and family.

RETAIL LOCATIONS Acme Bread is available at two shops, 1601 San Pablo Ave. in Berkeley and 1 Ferry Building, Stall #15 in San Francisco, as well as various grocery stores throughout the Bay Area. See More Collapse

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For Waters, the start of Acme became part of a larger bread making movement, not just locally, but nationwide.

"I think [Steve's] breads at the beginning were really the beginning of bread baking in that style in the United States," Waters said. "All of the big bakeries that started in the Bay area came after [Acme's start]. They had tasted the levain loaves, they tasted the baguette, certainly Tartine, all of them came after Steve. So he just demonstrated that it is possible to do it right. He has a line every day out the door [at the North Berkeley location] and it's kind of crazy and wonderful. But bread is the gateway to eating organically, from my point of view."

Acme is now a thriving wholesale business with four bread-making facilities in operation, producing bread for a roster of local restaurants and stores, along with their two retail locations in Berkeley and the San Francisco Ferry Building. In just a few years, however, the original shop and bakery is scheduled to move across San Pablo Avenue to another building just half a block away in 2023.

When pressed on how much bread Acme now produces annually, Sullivan couldn't quite answer, "We don't say we've got a quota of this many loaves to sell," he said when asked, but volunteered that the business goes through about 150,000 pounds of flour a week as a glimpse into the production figures.

But that was never really the point. The point was the bread, and Sullivan and company have continued to make the best bread they could from their beginnings of four styles of bread to the now wide breadth of bread offerings available.

"We are happy to be doing something where we can make the very best of something and it can be widely available at a price that is not bizarre and exorbitant," Sullivan said. "For us, it's a great way to be in the food world, because we don't have to choose between having something be really good and having something be affordable  we can make something really good that is affordable."
It's a skill you probably learnt as a toddler, but most people still haven't mastered it: Washing your hands.

Multiple studies have shown people don't wash their hands as much as they should  and when they do, they often do it ineffectively. But many people don't see the problem, though with coronavirus spreading it is one worth fixing.

"People think that they do wash their hands properly ... they have this concept of, 'yes, I've done it correctly,'" Mindy Brashears, the US Department of Agriculture's Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety, said.

That misconception is concerning to many experts who worry that widespread bad hand-washing techniques could allow diseases like COVID-19 to spread more easily.
A quick-thinking ship captain has won the Internet after he jumped to rescue a drowning woman. According to eye-witnesses, the woman had taken a wrong step while de-boarding the ship and fell into the water.

Source/The Sun

U Myint Aye was steering his ship into Dala port on the Yangon River in Burma when passenger Khin Chan Mya, 34, fell into the water. The woman was struggling for her life and in the moment of panic, the 60-year-old captain of the ship decided to take the plunge while still in his uniform.

According to The Sun, two other locals joined him in the rescue and people present at the port helped them get to dry land. Khin Chan Mya was said to be "shocked but conscious" after the rescue, and was taken straight to the hospital.

Source/The Sun

"I saw that she was falling onto the water when the boat reached the pier," a witness was quoted as saying.

Shortly after saving her life, the hero captain was pictured holding a pint of beer - still wearing the same clothes - alongside his two drenched deck-hands. The three people who saved the woman received recognition plaques in honour for their action from the town officials.

Source/The Sun

The Sun quoted U Myint Aye as saying, At that time I did not think about any risks to my own life. I jumped just because I wanted the woman to be safe. I am old now, it is fine if I die, the young woman should be alive."

According to reports the captain, who has worked on ferries for more than 40 years and plans to retire this year, revealed that he had lost count of the number of people he has saved from drowning.
Trump praises India's Modi for working to improve religious freedom as rampant persecution rages on

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President Trump wrapped up his trip to India this week by praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday, saying that they have worked hard to improve religious freedom conditions in the country.

The presidents two-day trip comes as ongoing riots and clashes between Muslim and Hindu groups over a controversial citizenship amendment that Muslims say is unfair has led to the death of at least 13 people in Delhi in recent days.

Although Trump did not take a position on the legislation, which has been criticized by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom as a possible religious test for citizenship, he did seem to express optimism regarding the condition of religious freedom in India.

Although Trump has vowed to promote religious freedom worldwide, his administration has not spoken out as boldly on the deteriorating religious freedom conditions in India as it has with other religious freedom violations across the globe, such as those in China.

Many called on the president to bring the issue up during his meeting with Modi.

Trump told reporters during a news conference that he and Modi did talk about religious freedom for a long time. Trump stressed that he really believes religious freedom is what Modi wants.

"The prime minister was incredible on what he told me. He wants people to have religious freedom," Trump said at a news conference Tuesday. He said that, in India, they have worked very hard to have great and open religious freedom. And if you look back and you look at whats going on, relative to other places especially, they have really worked hard on religious freedom.

Since Modi and the BJP came to power in 2014, rights groups have warned that Hindu nationalists have acted with relative impunity in attacking and persecuting Christians and other minorities that they view as non-Indian.

ADF India reported last year that there have been over 1,000 reported incidents of Christian persecution in India since 2014. ADF India and its partners who facilitate a database of Christian persecution report there to have been over a dozen incidents of Christian persecution in India in February 2020 alone.

Most recently, the database reported that police personnel raided Christians' homes in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh at around 11 p.m. on Feb. 19. The Christians were reportedly warned that their names would be removed from a ration register and they wouldnt be allowed to avail government facilities.

The Sub-Divisional Magistrate threatened the Christians the very next day to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ, the database notes.

Trump was specifically asked about his stance on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which passed the Indian parliament in December.

The act amends a 1955 law by providing a path to Indian citizenship for migrants of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian religious minorities who fled persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before 2014.

However, Muslims who fled those countries were not included on the list.

Trump responded to the reporters question about the act by saying he did not want to discuss that.

I want to leave that to India, Trump said. "And hopefully, theyre going to make the right decision for the people."

Earlier in February, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to express their concerns with Modis policies in India. Their concerns were related to India revoking autonomy from the Muslim-majority region of Jammu and Kashmir and with the citizenship law.

Senators who signed the joint letter include conservatives such as South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and liberals like Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin.

Koshy George, president of the Federation of Indian Christian Organizations in North America, praised Trump for bringing up the issue of religious freedom in his talks with Modi.

Although we lack any substance from their discussions, we are encouraged to see that the President took the opportunity to include the issue of religious freedom as a priority item at these important bi-lateral discussions with Prime Minister Modi," George said in a statement shared with The Christian Post.

"We truly hope that the Modi administration would respond positively to the concerns expressed by the President that would be in the best interest of the country.

Although the best efforts were made to showcase India in a positive light during Trumps visit, FIACONA Chairman John Prabhudoss said the world is also watching the ongoing violence as a result of policies enunciated by the current BJP regime.

Political tranquility is fundamental to economic progress. And by promoting the policies that drive the country toward majoritarianism and intolerance, the Modi regime may be jeopardizing the prosperity of its ordinary citizens," Prabhudoss said in a statement.

India is ranked as the 10th-worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution on Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List.

In an op-ed published by The Christian Post, Open Doors USA CEO David Curry stressed that India wanted Trump to look the other way when it comes to religious persecution.

India, like the United States, is a vibrant democracy with constitutional protections for the religious freedom of its 1.3 billion citizens, Curry wrote. In recent years, those protections have started to look like empty promises. Worse still, Prime Minister Modis government appears determined to hide the facts on the ground.

Curry noted that India is a geopolitical ally of the U.S. that is working to counter Chinas dominance in Asia.

A new trade deal, which is reportedly on the table for the visit, might provide serious economic benefits to both countries, Curry wrote. Theres just one issue: Indias record on religious liberty shows it is not willing to comply with international laws on human rights, making any deal a risky one.

Open Doors' research reveals at least 1,500 Indian Christians faced some kind of violence or threat do to their religious beliefs between November 2018 and October 2019, while as many as 295 Christians were detained for faith-related reasons.

Tennessee missionary Bryan Nerren was detained on criminal charges in India last fall and has been denied his passport and the ability to return to the U.S. for months.

The fact is, Indias record on religious freedom is a ticking time bomb at the heart of the U.S.-India relationship, Curry stressed. Indias Muslim community and other religious minorities likely face as much, if not worse, hostility and discrimination. Religious tensions are already spilling over into violence and bloodshed.
PHOENIX, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With nearly a third of Arizona residents living in poverty and facing food insecurity, Smithfield Foods, Inc. is partnering with Bashas' Family of Stores to donate more than 40,000 pounds of protein to St. Mary's Food Bank . The tractor-trailer load of nutritious, center-of-the-plate protein is enough to feed 160,000 Arizonians in need as Smithfield continues their 2020 Helping Hungry Homes  tour.



At Smithfield Foods, we recognize protein is often a staple missing from the tables of those struggling with food insecurity and we are committed to helping our neighbors in need by providing access to this high-quality product in the communities we serve, said Jonathan Toms, associate manager of charitable initiatives for Smithfield Foods. We are proud to partner with organizations such as St. Marys Food Bank and Bashas Family of Stores to work to fight hunger right here in Arizona.

Helping Hungry Homes is Smithfields signature hunger-relief initiative focused on alleviating hunger and helping Americans become more food secure. Since the creation of the program, Smithfield has donated over 145 million servings of nutritious, high-quality protein to food banks, school nutrition programs, disaster relief efforts and community outreach programs across all 50 states.

Poverty is a serious issue in Arizona, affecting more than 2 million people who lack consistent access to adequate food, said Jerry Brown, Director of Media Relations for St. Marys Food Bank. Smithfields donation will provide necessary relief for families in our community. We are thrilled to be able to offer protein to our clients, which is essential to fueling their nutrition throughout the day.

Smithfield and Bashas presented the donation to St. Marys Food Bank during an event in Phoenix this morning. Over the course of the year, Smithfield Foods will provide dozens of additional donations to communities across the country.

Addressing food insecurity across our state is a critical need. In partnership with Smithfield, we are facing this head on and ensuring every family in Arizona has access to a healthy, well-balanced and delicious meal, said Ashley Shick, Director of Communications and Public Affairs of Bashas Family of Stores. We are especially grateful to work alongside likeminded organizations to work toward our common goal of ending hunger.

About Smithfield Foods, Inc.

Headquartered in Smithfield, Va. since 1936, Smithfield Foods, Inc. is an American food company with agricultural roots and a global reach. Our 40,000 U.S. employees are dedicated to producing Good food. Responsibly. and have made us one of the worlds leading vertically integrated protein companies. We have pioneered sustainability standards for more than two decades, including many industry firsts, such as our ambitious commitment to cut our carbon impact by 25 percent by 2025. We believe in the power of protein to end food insecurity and have donated hundreds of millions of food servings to our neighbors in need. Smithfield boasts a portfolio of high-quality iconic brands, such as Smithfield, Eckrich, and Nathans Famous, among many others. For more information, visit www.smithfieldfoods.com , and connect with us on Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn , and Instagram .

About Bashas Family of Stores

Bashas Family of Stores  the family-owned grocer that operates Food City, AJs Fine Foods, Eddies Country Store, and both Bashas and Bashas Dine supermarkets  is an Arizona-based company founded by brothers Ike and Eddie Bashas, Sr. With more than 100 grocery stores, it is one of the largest employers in the state and one of the Best Places to Work in Arizona. Since the companys inception in 1932, Bashas has given back more than $100 million to the communities it serves. For more information, visit www.bashas.com .

About St. Marys Food Bank

Celebrating its 52nd year as the worlds FIRST Food Bank, St. Marys Food Bank Alliance is a non-sectarian, nonprofit organization that alleviates hunger by efficiently gathering and distributing food to 745 partner agencies at more than 1,000 locations in Arizona that serve the hungry. Serving nine of Arizonas 15 counties, the organization is a member of Feeding America, the national network of food banks, and is committed to volunteerism, building community relationships, and improving the quality of life for Arizonans in need. In Fiscal Year 2018-19, the Food Bank distributed more than 97 million pounds of food to Arizona families and children and garnered more than 225,000 volunteer service hours. Web site: wwwStMarysFoodBank.org Phone: 602-242-FOOD.

MWWPR for Smithfield Foods Bashas Family of Stores St. Marys Food Bank Leah Weightman Ashley Shick Jerry Brown 202.415.5737 480.201.2030 602.684.0939 lweightman@mww.com ashick@bashas.com jjbrown@firstfoodbank.org

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2a6c8448-719d-43b4-8494-22bf2a430e05
A Longford priest, who helped set up a fund to help with the funeral costs of a father of seven after he was allegedly stabbed to death in a row over a parking space, has spoken of his gratitude after it broke its intended target within 24 hours.

Killashee native Fr Shay Casey helped set up the GoFundMe page to assist the family of the late Garreth Kelly following an incident at the Brownsbarn Estate in the Kingswood area of south Dublin on Tuesday.

The late Mr Kelly's father currently resides in Edgeworthstown and is a mature student at Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT), where Fr Casey serves as college chaplain.

"Garreth's father, James, went back to school in Templemicheal and did his Leaving Cert as a mature student and is in third year in AIT at the minute doing software development," he said.

To donate, log onto: Garreth Kelly fund

It's believed Mr Kelly was stabbed to the death as he tried to start his car in the Brown's Barn Wood Estate at about 7am

Christina Anderson (38), a mother-of-three, from Brown's Barn Wood, Kingswood, Dublin 22 appeared before the District Court on Wednesday.

She was remanded in custody until next Wednesday (March 4) and is to be psychiatrically and medically examined in the meantime.

Fr Casey said the circumstances surrounding the tragedy had yet to sink in.

"It's terrible for both of them. Obviously something went awry and is just terrible," he said.

The fund has almost reached the 10,000 mark, double what it had originally hoped to raise.

"It's been amazing, the response," said Fr Casey.

"There have been people from Ardagh, back in Longford, who have donated, people who wouldn't have even known Garreth."

For more, see next week's Longford Leader.
Recently the intelligence community made clear it will be a player in the 2020 presidential election. No one should be surprised.

On Feb. 13, the House Intelligence Committee held a meeting at which intel officials briefed lawmakers on foreign efforts to influence U.S. elections. By several accounts, the officials told the committee that Russia is working to re-elect President Trump.

A number of Republican committee members were deeply skeptical. What the officials said was classified, so they cannot discuss it publicly, but in conversations later, GOP lawmakers made it clear that the intel officials did not have the evidence to support their assertion.

How should reporting take place? one member said later. You would say, We believe X is true based on A, B, C and D. When that doesnt happen, its very suspect.

If youre going to make an accusation like that, you darn well better be ready to answer questions and have evidence to support it, said another member. When pressed, the member added, officials gave very vague and unsatisfying answers.

The Republicans objection was not to the idea that Russia is trying to interfere in a U.S. election. That is an accepted fact. The problem was the assessment that Russia is specifically trying to help re-elect Trump. That claim, so incendiary in the 2016 election, was unsupported by the evidence, they said.

As they left the meeting, Republicans agreed that the news would leak soon. It almost seemed to be why Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, the committee chairman and impeachment leader, had called the meeting in the first place.

No one was surprised when, a week later, The New York Times published a story headlined Lawmakers Are Warned That Russia Is Meddling to Re-elect Trump. The news quickly became another one of those bombshell reports that consume hours of talk on cable TV.

Democrats, who were also barred by law from revealing classified information, were nevertheless happy to play along. For example, not long after the story broke, Democratic Rep. Jim Himes, an Intelligence Committee member, appeared on CNN.

I cant talk about what happened in a classified setting, Himes said. But ... you dont need an intelligence briefing to think about what Vladimir Putin might want. Would he want a return to sort of conventional, much more confrontational policy with respect to Russia? Or might he want a president who will criticize everybody on the planet except Vladimir Putin?

Himess point was clear: I cant talk about it, but of course Putin is working to re-elect Trump.

The problem was, intel officials did not have the evidence to make that assertion. And almost as soon as the story broke, officials with knowledge of the meeting suggested that the headlines were wrong. On Sunday, CNN reported that Pierson had apparently overstated the Putin-wants-Trump story.

And then there were the circumstances of the briefing. The intelligence community works for the president. Yet officials chose to brief Chairman Schiffs House Intelligence Committee on this extraordinarily consequential finding before telling the president.

Whatever the motive, spilling the beans in a room with dozens of people present  intel officials brought a lot of staff with them  increased the chances of precisely the type of leak that occurred.

The whole thing hit the White House by surprise. I have not seen that analysis, national security adviser Robert OBrien told ABC Sunday, referring to the Putin-wants-Trump assessment. Ive been with the leaders of the Intelligence Committee. They dont have it. So if theres some lower-level people at [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] that came in and gave this analysis to the House  look, Id like to see it. But I havent seen it.

Later, just to make matters more difficult, there were leaks that Russia is also trying to help elect Bernie Sanders. The leak left many experts baffled  except to the extent that, with the Trump leak, it seemed to target the intelligence communitys two least-favorite candidates.

There were lots of reports that President Trump was angry after the news broke. And why shouldnt he be angry? Way back in January 2017, when Trump was president-elect and protesting that the intelligence community was out to get him, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer famously said, You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you.

The years that followed proved that to be true. And it still is.

Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), the leading independent nonprofit organization representing over 25 million Americans with rare diseases, today launched the Undiagnosed Rare Disease Registry, a new study to collect de-identified information about hard-to-solve medical cases that will enable researchers to perform analyses at a scale previously not possible.

"With the Undiagnosed Rare Disease Registry, our goal is to provide a bird's eye view of the undiagnosed landscape so we can better support patients and aid the development of improved diagnostic methods and treatments," said NORD President and CEO, Peter L. Saltonstall. "One of NORD's most impactful contributions to research has been building infrastructure that serves the needs of the entire rare disease community and this is an innovative, important step for our undiagnosed patients."

An undiagnosed disease is a medical condition without a known cause despite a lot of evaluation, according to the National Institutes of Health. One in 10 Americans lives with a rare or undiagnosed medical condition. Individuals seeking a rare disease diagnosis face a variety of known barriers including fractured medical records, limited availability of medical specialists, lack of disease-specific information and available treatments, and financial burden.

The Undiagnosed Rare Disease Registry consists of electronic surveys to collect information about the patient experience and disease progression over time. Patients, or their caregivers or guardians, can enter information from any location in the world. The data is made anonymous and stored securely in an online portal called a registry. Study data may be shared with individuals or institutions conducting research, as approved by the study's governing board that includes scientists, doctors and patient advocates. The Undiagnosed Rare Disease Registry is part of NORD's patient-powered IAMRARE natural history study platform.

Saltonstall added, "Patient-powered natural history studies can transform how patients and caregivers inform and shape medical research and translational science. We hope by studying the diagnostic odyssey in real-time we can identify obstacles and solutions with near-immediate benefits to patients."

To help drive awareness and participation, NORD will engage with members of the rare disease community including patients, physicians and researchers via the media and social networks. The launch coincides with NORD's event at the International Spy Museum for Rare Disease Day on February 29, where the patient advocacy group plans to feature stories of rare disease patients who solved their medical mysteries to uncover a rare disease diagnosis.

For more information, visit undiagnosed.iamrare.org .

About the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)

The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) is the leading independent advocacy organization representing all patients and families affected by rare diseases. NORD is committed to the identification, treatment and cure of more than 7,000 rare diseases, of which approximately 90% are still without an FDA-approved treatment or therapy. Rare diseases affect over 25 million Americans. More than half of those affected are children.

NORD began as a small group of patient advocates that formed a coalition to unify and mobilize support to pass the Orphan Drug Act of 1983. For more than 35 years, NORD has led the way in voicing the needs of the rare disease community, driving supportive policies and education, advancing medical research and providing patient and family services for those who need them most. NORD is made strong together with over 300 disease-specific member organizations and their communities and collaborates with many other organizations on specific causes of importance to the rare disease patient community. Visit rarediseases.org .

SOURCE National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD)
Idlib [Syria], Feb 29 (Sputnik/ANI): One more Turkish soldier was killed in Syrian Idlib, while two sustained injures in shelling by Syrian government forces.

"In the regime's artillery shelling at our troops, who are in Idlib to ensure a ceasefire, our brother in arms was killed and two were injured," the Turkish Defence ministry said in a statement.



The escalation in Idlib was triggered when Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group (banned in Russia) began a large-scale offensive against the Syrian government forces. The government forces responded.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Turkish troops who were not supposed to be there were caught in the shelling. There were reports of 33 deaths and more than 30 getting injured among the Turkish troops. Russia has swiftly made sure that the Syrian forces stopped the offensive so that the injured and the dead could be evacuated to Turkey. The Russian Defense Ministry has stressed that Russian Aerospace Forces' aircraft were not used in the area.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said in the past that Ankara has not managed to fulfil some of its commitments on Idlib, including the separation of terrorists from the moderate opposition.

The Russian-Turkish memorandum, which was agreed in September 2018, retains the status quo on the Turkish troops' presence in Idlib, but only under the condition that all terrorists and radical groups leave the de-escalation zone by October 15, 2018. It was agreed to take effective measures to ensure a stable ceasefire in the zone and to conduct joint Russian-Turkish patrols. (Sputnik/ANI)


The Supreme Court on Friday granted more time to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a counter affidavit on a petition filed by Karnataka BJP leader and mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy seeking permanent relaxation on his bail condition to allow him to visit Karnataka's Bellari and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Indira Banerjee listed the matter for further hearing on March 16 after the CBI sought more time to do file the counter affidavit.

Earlier, the apex court had issued a notice to the CBI and sought its response on the plea.

Last year, the Court had allowed Reddy to visit the Ballari district for a period of two weeks to meet his father-in-law, who the petitioner claimed had suffered a stroke and also allowed him to move a bail modification application seeking permanent relaxation of his bail condition.

In January 2015, the Supreme Court had granted bail to Reddy in an illegal mining case involving Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) on the condition that he will not visit any of the mining zones in Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh.

By the time he was granted bail, Reddy had already spent over three years in prison.

Reddy and his brother-in-law BV Srinivas Reddy, who was the Managing Director of OMC, were arrested by the CBI on September 5, 2011.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The city council of Ukraine's Kharkiv has voted 52-8 to rename Petro Hryhorenko Avenue after Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported on Wednesday.

The council's toponymic commission's secretary Oleksiy Khoroshkovaty said the request for name change had been received from several veteran organizations. In an online public vote the idea of renaming was supported by 11,193 people (86%).

The opponents said the renaming would be a breach of the country's decommunization law.

Kharkiv Mayor Hennadiy Kernes countered by invoking a legal clause which says that decommunization requirements do not extend to monuments and gravestones relating to the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazis.

Last November, the Kharkiv city council announced an electronic public consultation on the matter of renaming the avenue, which currently bears the name of the Soviet Army major general Petro Hryhorenko, who also co-founded the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and assigning it the name of the Soviet Marshal Zhukov.

In May 2016, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration Ihor Rainin signed an order to rename the Marshal Zhukov metro station to Sports Palace and Marshal Zhukov Avenue to Hryhorenko Avenue.

On May 8, 2019, the website of the Kharkiv city council registered an electronic petition demanding the return of the marshal's name to the avenue and the station. The request for the avenue was granted on June 19.

On September 5, Kharkiv district administrative court overturned the council's decision, citing a procedural failure.

The council appealed, but on November 8 the appeal court ruled on the illegality of returning Marshal Zhukov's name to Hryhorenko Avenue.
Stars stepped out for a good cause last night in Los Angeles, as the likes of Renee Zellweger, the Jonas Brothers and Paris Hilton attended an event hosted by the Womens Cancer Research Fund. Called An Unforgettable Evening, celebrities donned glamorous outfits and - in the Jonas Brothers case - pink suits to support the cause.

Renee Zellweger, who recently won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Judy Garland, opted for a sleek black dress with two dramatic leg slits. It also featured a top made of black lace and she wore her hair up for the event.

Getty Images

She was honoured with a Courage Award on the evening for her work championing the cause over the years.

Getty Images for WCRF

Two out of three Jonas Brothers stuck to the colour theme that evening, with Nick and Joe Jonas choosing pink hues for their outfits. Nick wore a three piece dusky pink suit, paired with a fuschia skinny scarf.

Getty Images

Joe Jonas went for a more tonal laidback look, choosing a magenta bomber jacket, a mulberry turtleneck and purple trousers. Their brother, Kevin, decided to stick with a monochrome brown look.

The reunited boyband then took to the stage at the event, performing for guests at the gala.

Getty Images for WCRF

The reigning queen of party Paris Hilton also attended in a sparkly mini dress, alongside her sister Nicky Hilton Rothschild.

They were seen embracing on the pink carpet as they laughed.

Getty Images

Model Camilla Alves McConaughey was also there, sans her Hollywood actor husband Matthew McConaughey. Wearing a burgundy sequined dress, she also pinned white flowers behind her ear.

Getty Images

Designers including Tom Ford and Monqiue Lhuillier also attended, looking suitably stylish for the occasion.

Tom Ford / AFP via Getty Images

The Womens Cancer Research Fund aims to stamp out cancer by funding cutting edge research. It has raised over $75 million over the years towards the cause and have also partnered with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
A Union County businessman was arrested Thursday by federal agents and accused in two scams, including one that targeted the Orange Public Library, authorities said.

Shenandoah Adams Sr. was charged with six counts of wire fraud and two counts of making false statements in a mortgage loan, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. He was scheduled to appear in federal court in Newark Thursday afternoon.

The charges came nearly four years after agents initially raided the library, seizing computers and documents as part of a probe into a range of possible impropriety in Oranges government. Earlier this month, the librarys executive director, Timur Davis, also pleaded guilty to making false statements related to the investigation that ensnared Adams, officials said.

Adams was a principal of VH Electrical and Plumbing Limited Liability Company, according to a federal indictment. On behalf of VH, he entered into a contract with the Orange library on March 11, 2015 to replace the facilitys HVAC/chiller unit for a price of $49,000.

That project was funded through a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant issued to the library and Orange, authorities said. Before he got the library contract, Adams allegedly sent Davis fake quotes that claimed to be from two vendors in a scheme to make it appear that VH would replace the HVAC for less than those vendors.

Once VH was hired for the job, Adams sent Davis records to falsely make it appear that he was working to order a replacement chiller, the indictment alleged. Adams received $40,000 from the library but never did the replacement work. For his part, Davis pleaded guilty to making false statements to HUD about the project.

A spokesman for the Orange mayors office released a statement Thursday in response to the charges. The city referred further questions to federal authorities.

Mayor Dwayne Warren has continually directed all employees and the City Administration to fully cooperate with federal authorities in this ongoing investigation taking place in Orange, the statement said. The mayor has directed the Administration and employees to comply with any and all requests for information made by federal authorities for the duration of this investigation.

Adams, 54, of New Providence, was also charged in a mortgage loan scam related to a property in East Orange.

As part of that scheme, Adams bought property on Hilton Street in East Orange in 2014, according to the indictment. The next year, he arranged for an unnamed close associate to obtain a $153,562 loan from a mortgage lender to buy that Hilton Street property from his company. Adams allegedly knew the associate didnt have the money to pay the balance of the $225,000 purchase price.

At the March 25, 2015 closing, Adams had his associate write a fraudulent check for the $90,280.47 balance of the purchase price to give the false impression that the associate paid the balance, the indictment charged. Adams, however, reassured the associate he wouldn't cash the check.

He also signed a settlement statement to falsely claim the associate had paid the closing when he knew the check was bogus, according to the indictment.

Adams used the proceeds from the associates loan to pay off the $100,000 mortgage for Hilton Street property and got a $26,335.30 check for his property management company, the indictment further alleged.

Despite Adams promising to fund the associates mortgage, the payments went into arrears, according to the court documents. Adams arranged for the associate to sell the property to another person for $255,000.

Adams and the associate from the first purchase convinced an out-of-state representative of the mortgage servicer to reduce the payout amount to $190,000, the indictment stated. Adams then had his associate cash a check in the amount of the reduction, $20,665.34, and give him the money.

Attorney information for Adams was not immediately available.

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Norwegian English

On behalf of Sbanken ASA, DNB Markets has on 28 February 2020 purchased 26 200 shares for use in Sbanken's share purchase programmes for employees and executive managers.



The shares have been acquired at an average price of NOK 63.8445 per share.

After this, Sbanken ASA owns a total of 143 400 own shares.

Contact details, Investor Relations:

Jesper M. Hatletveit, Head of IR, Sbanken ASA, +47 959 40 045

Henning Nordgulen, CFO, Sbanken ASA, +47 952 65 990





This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.




Four Iranian lawmakers have tested positive for the coronavirus as the rapid spread of the outbreak forced the cancellation of Friday Prayers in many mosques across the country.



Mohammad Ali Vakili, a member of the parliamentary presidium, said in a tweet on February 28 that four of 30 lawmakers in the Majlis, or parliament, tested positive for the virus.

Several other top Iranian officials have also contracted the virus, including Masoumeh Ebtekar, the vice president for women and family affairs, and Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirshi.



The announcement about the four legislators came as the official number of deaths linked to the new coronavirus jumped by eight to 34 over the past 24 hours, with 388 people testing positive -- an increase of 143 on the previous day.

However, the BBC's Persian service said a count conducted by its unnamed sources in several hospitals suggested at least 210 people have died in the country as of the night of February 27. The Health Ministry vehemently denied the report.

Iran has become the main hot spot of the virus in the Middle East, and the country's officials have been accused of hiding the true scale of the outbreak.



Authorities canceled Friday Prayers in Tehran and 22 provincial capitals in response to the looming pandemic, while the Health Ministry advised against all public events, such as weddings or funerals. Schools and universities, along with cultural gathering places such cinemas, theaters, and concert halls, have all been closed.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said his country was not currently engaged in hostilities against its archrival, and had "made offers" to Tehran on technical assistance to deal with the outbreak.



"We have made offers to the Islamic republic to help," Pompeo told U.S. lawmakers.

Risk At 'Highest Level'

Meanwhile, the UN health agency has upgraded the global risk from the coronavirus to its highest level so far, as fresh infections rose across the globe despite a drop in China, the starting point of the epidemic.

"We have now increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at global level," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters on February 28 in Geneva.

The spreading coronavirus threatened to derail the global economy as world stock markets dropped sharply again for a sixth consecutive day, winding up their worst week since the 2008 global financial crisis and erasing some $6 trillion from global market value.

COVID-19 has infected some 83,000 people in dozens of countries, causing 2,800 deaths. Most of the cases and deaths have been reported in China, where the disease emerged in December.

Countries on four continents reported their first cases of the coronavirus on February 28, including Azerbaijan, Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Mexico, and New Zealand.

Tedros pointed to the spread of the virus, which causes an illness known as COVID-19, from Italy and Iran to an additional countries six countries.

"The key to containing this virus is to break the chain of transmission," Tedros said, adding, "Our greatest enemy is not the virus itself, it's fear, rumors, and stigma and our greatest assets are facts, reason, and solidarity."



Belarus said tests conducted on an Iranian national who had arrived last week came back positive for the disease. The Health Ministry said the patient was in "satisfactory" condition and that he had been quarantined.



Azerbaijan's coronavirus crisis center said a Russian national traveling from Iran had tested positive for the disease, media reported.



Meanwhile, authorities in neighboring Georgia announced a second Georgian citizen had tested positive for the virus after returning from Italy -- another major center of infection.



Georgian health officials said the patients health condition is satisfactory.



Georgia's first reported case involved a 50-year-old man who had returned to the country from Iran via Azerbaijan, officials said.

Kyrgyzstan said it will bar citizens of China, Iran, South Korea, Japan and Italy from entering in a bid to prevent the spread of the virus.

The government said in a statement on February 28 that the temporary restrictions will come into effect on March 1.



The measure will not affect travelers with diplomatic passports, it said.

Kyrgyz officials haven't reported any cases of COVID-19 in the country.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, RFE/RL's Kyrgz Service, and dpa
Mumbai, Feb 28 : Actress Shweta Tiwari was recently seen having a good time at her brother Nidhaans wedding, which she attended with her daughter Palak and son Reyansh.

Shweta and her kids turned out colour-coordinated in vibrant hues of orange, saffron and yellow, and made quite a collective statement in ethnic style going by pictures she has posted on Instagram.

Seen in the photos is also Nidhaan's wife Yasmin. "Khushiyaaann! @palaktiwarii @yasmin8388 #nidwedsyas #nidyas," Shweta wrote as caption to the frames.

She also posted family portraits of the whole family from the wedding, where apart from Shweta, her kids, her brother and sister-in-law, one can spot her parents.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Bossard Holding AG (VTX:BOSN), which is in the trade distributors business, and is based in Switzerland, received a lot of attention from a substantial price movement on the SWX over the last few months, increasing to CHF176 at one point, and dropping to the lows of CHF134. Some share price movements can give investors a better opportunity to enter into the stock, and potentially buy at a lower price. A question to answer is whether Bossard Holding's current trading price of CHF134 reflective of the actual value of the small-cap? Or is it currently undervalued, providing us with the opportunity to buy? Lets take a look at Bossard Holdings outlook and value based on the most recent financial data to see if there are any catalysts for a price change.

View our latest analysis for Bossard Holding

What is Bossard Holding worth?

Great news for investors  Bossard Holding is still trading at a fairly cheap price. According to my valuation, the intrinsic value for the stock is CHF212.85, which is above what the market is valuing the company at the moment. This indicates a potential opportunity to buy low. Whats more interesting is that, Bossard Holdings share price is quite volatile, which gives us more chances to buy since the share price could sink lower (or rise higher) in the future. This is based on its high beta, which is a good indicator for how much the stock moves relative to the rest of the market.

Can we expect growth from Bossard Holding?

SWX:BOSN Past and Future Earnings, February 28th 2020

Investors looking for growth in their portfolio may want to consider the prospects of a company before buying its shares. Although value investors would argue that its the intrinsic value relative to the price that matter the most, a more compelling investment thesis would be high growth potential at a cheap price. Though in the case of Bossard Holding, it is expected to deliver a negative earnings growth of -7.2%, which doesnt help build up its investment thesis. It appears that risk of future uncertainty is high, at least in the near term.

Story continues

What this means for you:

Are you a shareholder? Although BOSN is currently undervalued, the adverse prospect of negative growth brings about some degree of risk. Consider whether you want to increase your portfolio exposure to BOSN, or whether diversifying into another stock may be a better move for your total risk and return.

Are you a potential investor? If youve been keeping tabs on BOSN for some time, but hesitant on making the leap, I recommend you dig deeper into the stock. Given its current undervaluation, now is a great time to make a decision. But keep in mind the risks that come with negative growth prospects in the future.

Price is just the tip of the iceberg. Dig deeper into what truly matters  the fundamentals  before you make a decision on Bossard Holding. You can find everything you need to know about Bossard Holding in the latest infographic research report. If you are no longer interested in Bossard Holding, you can use our free platform to see my list of over 50 other stocks with a high growth potential.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : US First Lady Melania Trump may have returned to her country after her maiden India visit, but she is still missing her 'unforgettable' trip.

Melania, who on Tuesday witnessed the 'Happiness Curriculum' at a Delhi government school, also responded to a Delhi school teacher's tweet.

It all started after a teacher of the school tweeted, "That's the confidence our #DelhiGovtSchool students possess now. They have started living and loving their life. Dancing in the presence of Mrs Melania Trump. @FLOTUS...Please come soon. Our students are missing you." Replying to the post, Melania wrote, "It is wonderful to see the happiness and confidence your students possess. Thank you for being an excellent example and passionate mentor to them! #BeBest." Twitterati were impressed by the US First Lady's gesture and flooded social media with their reactions.

A user wrote, "So beautiful with such a pure heart. We are blessed for you to be @FLOTUS." Another wrote, "You are the most beautiful and intelligent First Lady we have had in a while. Keep up the great work!" A post read, "Indian culture places education at the top of their priorities. Thanks for sharing these wonderful images of #BeBest." "Amen and thank you for all you do! You're a true role model to our children and our future," a user remarked.

On Tuesday, Melania had visited the Sarvodaya Senior Secondary School in Moti Bagh, where she was accorded a grand welcome by the students and the staff.
Former Married At First Sight star Martha Kalifatidis has blasted Michael Goonan for 'forgetting' he kissed Hayley Vernon.

In her boozy recap for 9Now, the 31-year-old influencer mocked Michael as he stood up at the dinner party to address the cheating allegations on Wednesday's episode.

'He acts like the big He-Man, "I'm going to give a big speech, I'm going to be so honest with everyone." Then he's like, "But I don't remember!"' she said.

Martha's recap! Former Married At First Sight star Martha Kalifatidis (pictured) has blasted Michael Goonan for 'forgetting' he kissed Hayley Vernon on Wednesday's episode

'Hun, you're not 16 getting drunk for the first time on Passion Pop in the park with your friends. You're an adult, you remember exactly what happened,' she added.

Martha then went on to criticise Michael's 'wife', law graduate Stacey Hampton, for appearing to buy his excuse.

'She can't be that stupid. She's smarter than that. You can't get a law degree and also have feelings for Michael. No!' she said.

'You're an adult!' In her boozy recap for 9Now, the 31-year-old influencer mocked Michael as he stood up at the dinner party to address the cheating allegations

Later on, she ridiculed Stacey for saying that Michael had been 'vulnerable' on the night he kissed Hayley.

'What the f**k?! She should lose her law degree, she should be unbarred, whatever it's called for that,' Martha yelled.

'Hayley told you what happened; Michael told you he's "too drunk to remember". That is cheater's rule for how you get away with everything!'

Michael's secret kiss with Hayley was exposed at Wednesday night's dinner party.

'She should lose her law degree': Martha then went on to criticise Michael's 'wife', law graduate Stacey Hampton (pictured), for appearing to buy his excuse

Throwing shade: 'She can't be that stupid. She's smarter than that. You can't get a law degree and also have feelings for Michael. No!' Martha said

Hayley apologised to Stacey for 'macking on' with Michael, but he insisted he was too drunk to remember what happened.

The pair had hooked up a week earlier in Vanessa Romito and Chris Nicholls' apartment after a boozy night out in Darling Harbour.

At the time, Stacey was in Adelaide with her children, and Hayley's 'husband', David Cannon, was down the hallway in his room.

Married At First Sight continues Sunday at 7pm on Channel Nine
NTT DATA Corporation has built a digital archive system for the ASEAN Cultural Heritage Digital Archive (ACHDA) project, being conducted by the ASEAN Secretariat to digitize the valuable historical cultural heritage of ASEAN countries. The first phase of this project has been completed, with a digital archive created of 160 cultural assets from Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia.

The cultural heritage archive will be made publicly available from February 27, 2020, for anyone in the world to view online at the ACHDA website. This system supports the images, audio recordings, and video data that are available on other NTT DATA digital archive systems, as well as an expanded capability to handle three-dimensional models of physical objects.

The second phase of the project, supposed to begin from fiscal 2020, will be to digitally archive cultural assets from Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Laos, and make them available on the archive site. Going forward, the project will be expanded to include all ten ASEAN member states in the future.

This project is being conducted with financial support from the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF), established in 2006 with the contribution from the Japanese government.

About the Digital Archive System

Previous digital archiving projects focused on capturing image, audio and video data of valuable objects such as documents. This project has allowed digitization of precious 3D objects, including shape, color, and texture data to be preserved and made available to the public. This has been achieved by expanding the capabilities of our digital archiving solution AMLAD to prevent cultural heritage assets from being lost due to disasters, accidents, and aging, and to allow long-term preservation.

The ACHDA digital archive site will be launched online on February 27, 2020, allowing anyone from around the world to freely access the cultural heritage of ASEAN nations in digital data form.

Future work is being considered by the ASEAN Secretariat, and NTT DATA plans to further contribute to ASEAN by digitizing cultural heritage assets and building a sustainable digital archive system in all 10 ASEAN countries.

Katsuichi Sonoda, Senior Vice President, NTT DATA

I am truly honored that NTT DATAs information technologies can contribute to the preservation and sharing of ASEANs precious cultural heritage through the ACHDA Project. It is my sincere hope that the value of this initiative will be widely known throughout ASEAN, and that by conveying the precious cultural assets of the present to future generations, new culture will be fostered.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200226006090/en/
Lafarge Africa Plc, a cement manufacturer, has confirmed that an Italian, who is the first case of coronavirus in Nigeria, visited its ...





Lafarge Africa Plc, a cement manufacturer, has confirmed that an Italian, who is the first case of coronavirus in Nigeria, visited its plant in Ewekoro, Ogun state.





Folashade Ambrose-Medebem, a spokesperson of the company, disclosed this in a statement on Friday.





She said all those who had direct contact with the Italian whose identity was not stated, have been identified.





The Lagos State Government has reported a first case of n-COVID19 (Coronavirus) in Nigeria. The individual concerned works for a vendor that provides services to Lafarge Africa Plc in Ogun State, the statement read.

As a business, we have immediately identified the persons who had direct contact with the concerned individual. We have equally initiated isolation, quarantine and disinfection protocol.





We thank the exemplary leadership of the federal ministry of health, Ogun and Lagos State Governments for swiftly providing response and testing facilities and we are working in full co-operation with all local authorities. Lafarge Africa is also working in close partnership with International SOS, our medical service provider, a leading global health company.





Health and Safety remains a core value at Lafarge Africa and we intend to leverage this strength at this critical time.





The index case of coronavirus in Nigeria arrived at Murtala Muhammed International Airport via a Turkish Airline flight on Monday.





According to Akin Abayomi, Lagos commissioner for health, the patient spent the night at an undisclosed hotel near the airport and on Tuesday morning, he moved down to Ewekoro in Ogun.





He reportedly carried out business within the confines of the company on Tuesday and in the early part of Wednesday. The Italian, who was said to have spent the night within Lafarge premises, started to develop symptoms of high fever and body pains in the afternoon.





He was then taken to the companys medical facility where the investigation began.





The patient is currently being isolated at the states bio-security facility in the Yaba area of Lagos.

More to follow




Public health officials say 14 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus have been diagnosed in Canada so far, with seven cases reported in Ontario and seven in British Columbia. One presumptive positive case has been reported in Quebec.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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/CDC via AP, File

Public health officials say 14 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus have been diagnosed in Canada so far, with seven cases reported in Ontario and seven in British Columbia. One presumptive positive case has been reported in Quebec.

Here is a timeline of Canadian cases.

Jan. 25, 2020: A man in his 50s who arrived in Toronto from Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the outbreak, becomes the first "presumptive" case of the new coronavirus in Canada. The man called 911 as soon as he got sick with relatively minor symptoms and was placed in isolation in Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital.

Jan. 26, 2020: The wife of the Toronto man who was Canada's first "presumptive" case of the new coronavirus becomes the second presumptive case. The woman is kept in home isolation.

Jan. 27, 2020: The National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg confirms that a man in quarantine in Sunnybrook Hospital is Canada's first documented case of the new coronavirus.

Jan 28, 2020: Health authorities confirm Canada's second case of the novel coronavirus. The woman had recently travelled to Wuhan with her husband, who was the first case confirmed in Canada.

Jan 28, 2020: Health officials in British Columbia say a man in his 40s is presumed to have the new coronavirus and is doing well as he recovers at his Vancouver home. B.C.'s health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, says the man often works in China and voluntarily isolated himself upon returning to Canada.

Jan. 28, 2020: The presumed case of the new strain of coronavirus in B.C. is confirmed by the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.

Jan. 31, 2020: Toronto man hospitalized with the novel coronavirus is well enough to go home. Sunnybrook Hospital says he'll continue to recover at home, where his wife is also in self-isolation.

Jan. 31, 2020: Ontario's third case of the new coronavirus is confirmed. The patient, a woman in her 20s, had travelled to the affected area in China. The London university student initially tested negative for the virus, but a subsequent test at the national lab in Winnipeg was positive. Health officials say her symptoms are minor.

Feb. 4, 2020: Health officials announce another presumptive confirmed case in B.C. Henry says the woman had family visiting from China's Hubei province and she is in isolation at her home.

Feb. 5, 2020: British Columbia's second case of coronavirus is confirmed by the National Microbiology Lab.

Feb. 6, 2020: Henry announces two new cases of COVID-19 in B.C., noting both people were in the same household as the woman diagnosed with the province's second case.

Feb. 12, 2020: Ontario health officials say the woman from London, Ont., no longer has the novel coronavirus in her system. It marks the first time a case of the illness has been resolved in Canada.

Feb. 14, 2020: Officials in B.C. announce the province's fifth case of COVID-19. The woman in her 30s who lives in B.C.'s Interior recently returned from Hubei province.

Feb. 19, 2020: Henry announces that the person diagnosed with B.C.'s first case of the new coronavirus has recovered. It's the first time this has happened in the province.

Feb. 20, 2020: A woman who recently returned from Iran is diagnosed with British Columbia's sixth case of COVID-19. She's the first person in the country diagnosed with the illness who did not recently visit China. Meanwhile, in Ontario, the man who had Canada's first case of the virus is cleared after testing negative for the illness twice in 24 hours.

Feb. 21, 2020: The last known case of coronavirus in Ontario is resolved.

Feb. 23, 2020: Officials in Toronto announce Ontario has a new case of coronavirus  the fourth to be diagnosed in the province. The woman arrived in Toronto from China several days earlier.

Feb. 24, 2020: Henry announces a seventh person in B.C. has been diagnosed with the new coronavirus. The man in his 40s was in close contact with the woman who has the province's sixth case of the illness.

Feb. 26, 2020: Ontario officials announce a fifth diagnosis in the province: a woman in her 60s who recently travelled to Iran.

Feb. 27, 2020: Quebec public health officials report the province's first presumptive case, a woman from the Montreal region who recently returned from Iran. Ontario officials also confirm a sixth case of COVID-19 in the province. They say the man in his 60s is the husband of Ontario's fifth patient with the virus.

Feb. 28, 2020: Ontario reports a seventh confirmed case  a man in his 50s who had travelled to Iran. The man arrived in Toronto on Tuesday, Feb. 25 and went to the emergency department of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre the next day.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2020.
The India meteorological department has stated that day temperatures are likely to be above normal by 0.5 degree Celsius, reports Sanjeeb Mukherjee.

IMAGE: A woman offers water to her granddaughter as she covers her and herself to protect from sun stroke on a hot summer day. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

This summer is likely to be hotter than usual in most parts of northwest, west, central, and south India, according to the India meteorological departments forecast released on Thursday. In the remaining meteorological subdivisions, the average temperature is expected to be near normal in the summer months (March to May).

Northwest India comprises Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab, and Haryana. Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are parts of central India, while Gujarat and Maharashtra come under west India.

Day temperatures are likely to be above normal by 0.5 degree Celsius over Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Chandigarh, western Uttar Pradesh, eastern Rajasthan, parts of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, sub-Himalayan West Bengal, the Saurashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat, Konkan and Goa, Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada, Vidharbha, north interior and coastal Karnataka, and Kerala. The rest of the country is likely to experience near-normal maximum temperatures (between -0.5 degree Celsius and 0.5 degree Celsius).

Regarding monsoons, there is good news: El Nino (a climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean with a global impact on weather patterns) is expected to be neutral in the March-May period, which precedes the rains. But a clearer picture on it is expected to come around April, when the IMD releases its official first monsoon forecast.

The water level in major reservoirs as of February 20 was 101.87 billion cubic metres -- 54 per cent more than in the corresponding period last year.

The southwest monsoon in 2019 (June to September) delivered 10 per cent above-average rainfall in the country, the highest in 25 years. In 1994, the rainfall was 110 per cent during the June-September period. Before that, more than 10 per cent above average rainfall was witnessed in 1990 (119 per cent).

The excess rainfall last year not only flooded several cities and towns, but also caused damage to standing kharif crop in states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh (its eastern part).
Minister of Defense of Bulgaria Krasimir Karakachanov has declared that the country is ready to deploy up to 1,000 servicemen and military equipment on the border with neighboring Turkey in order to prevent the illegal inflow of migrants, reports Reuters.

According to him, border police officers on Friday morning didnt let two 30-member groups of Turks enter Bulgaria after Ankara declared that it wont bother refugees from reaching Europe.

Bulgaria has declared that it wont allow the massive inflow of migrants when it is taking preventive actions on its borders in order to avoid the spread of coronavirus in the country.
India and Myanmar signed 10 agreements on Thursday with a focus on the socio-economic development of the southeast Asian nation's conflict-torn Rakhine state as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with Myanmarese President U Win Myint.

The two countries also vowed to deepen counter-terrorism cooperation.

The Myanmarese president, who arrived in India on Wednesday, received a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. He and First Lady Daw Cho Cho were welcomed by President Ram Nath Kovind and PM Modi.

The prime minister and President Myint later held talks at Hyderabad House and 10 agreements were signed between the two countries. The focus of many agreements was on development projects under India's assistance, particularly in the conflict-torn Rakhine state.

The agreements included an MoU on 'Cooperation for Prevention of Trafficking in Persons; Rescue, Recovery, Repatriation and Re-Integration of Victims of Trafficking'.

An agreement regarding Indian Grant Assistance for Implementation of Quick Impact Projects (QIP) was also signed between the two sides.

Three agreements for development projects in the conflict-torn Rakhine state were also signed during the president's visit. The Rakhine state has witnessed a lot of violence in the past and scores of Rohingyas had fled the state facing persecution.

A joint statement on the Myanmarese President's visit said India reiterated its commitment to support Myanmar's efforts for promoting peace, stability and the socio-economic development in Rakhine State through the Rakhine State Development Programme.

Myanmar appreciated India's provision of 250 pre-fabricated houses and relief materials for displaced persons in northern Rakhine in 2019.

Both sides agreed to expedite the implementation of a set of 12 projects under the second phase of the Rakhine State Development Programme and to further strengthen their development cooperation within the framework of High Impact Community Development Projects and Quick Impact Projects under the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation mechanism.

India also expressed its support for the bilateral agreements signed between Myanmar and Bangladesh for the repatriation of the displaced persons from Rakhine State and hoped that Myanmar and Bangladesh would continue to work together for voluntary, sustainable and speedy repatriation of displaced people currently in the Cox's Bazar area of Bangladesh to Myanmar in accordance with their bilateral agreements, the statement said.

Recognizing the threat posed by terrorism, the both sides agreed to cooperate in countering terrorist groups and their actions.

They condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and emphasised on the need for stronger international partnership in countering terrorism and violent extremism, including through increased sharing of information and intelligence, the statement said.

Both sides reiterated that defence and security cooperation remains one of the key pillars of Myanmar-India bilateral relations, it said.

During the interactions, the leaders discussed a wide range of bilateral, regional and international issues of common interest.

They welcomed the synergy between Myanmar's independent, active and non-aligned foreign policy and India's 'Act East' and 'Neighbourhood First' policies, and reaffirmed their commitments to further strengthen partnership, explore new avenues of cooperation in order to expand bilateral relations for the mutual benefit of the two countries and peoples.

Both sides reiterated their mutual respect for the already-demarcated portion of the boundary between the two countries and affirmed their commitments to settle pending issues through the existing bilateral mechanisms, such as the Joint Boundary Working Group Meeting, the statement said.

The Myanmarese President and his wife also paid respects to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat. President Myint and the Myanmarese delegation will also be visiting places of historical and cultural importance, including Bodh Gaya and Agra.
The task force is made up mostly of canon lawyers and is headed by the four church leaders who organized Francis February 2019 summit on abuse, including the Vaticans longtime sex crimes prosecutor Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, and leading child protection expert, the Rev. Hans Zollner. Joined by Cupich and Mumbai Cardinal Oswald Gracias, they report to the No. 2 in the Vaticans secretariat of state, an indication of the central importance the Vatican is placing on the initiative.
San Antonio police have arrested a man accused of indecent contact with a juvenile earlier this month.

Christopher Alvarez, 30, was arrested Thursday on charges of indecency with a child on the North Side.

SAPD said on Feb. 17, a 13-year-old female was at a Southwest Side Walmart with her father and older sister. While she was looking at items on a shelf, she told police Alvarez came up behind her and touched her buttocks with his exposed genitals over her clothing, according to an arrest affidavit.

FIND OUT FIRST: Get San Antonio breaking news directly to your inbox

The girl said Alvarez disguised the action by pretending to reach around the victim for a product on the shelf, the affidavit said.

Alvarez started following the girl, so she went into the women's restroom to hide for about 10 minutes and would eventually follow a group of women out of the restroom but Alvarez was waiting for her, the affidavit said.

The girl told police he then asked her why she was crying and if she wanted to "hook up," according to the affidavit.

The victim said she said no and returned to her family, but didn't tell her father about the incident until after they left the store.

Police released surveillance images of Alvarez, which led to his arrest.

Alvarez told police he spoke to the girl to find out why she was crying but denied touching her.

Taylor Pettaway is a breaking news reporter and general assignment writer. Read her on our breaking news site, MySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | taylor.pettaway@express-news.net | @TaylorPettaway
Theres a new food hall in Southeast Portland, and you might not have noticed even if you walked by.

EaterPDX first reported on the mysterious website-less hall on Southeast 10th Avenue between Morrison and Alder Streets.

The signs supposed to be here soon, Erick Russ, co-owner of Goldencat, a beer bar in the market, said Thursday, explaining the mystery facade.

He said the wide-open hall, dubbed Morrison Market, has been open for about 10 days and some of the stalls are still working on opening. Its owned by MMIO Corporation, he said, but there is currently no general manager for the space.

Morrison Market in Southeast Portland

With everything from breakfast options to a concert venue, the hall has the makings of an interesting spot to stop in almost any time of the day, in a part of town that just keeps developing.

Not long ago, this area was home to a herd of goats that lived in a field. Now, it has an Orange Theory, a Market of Choice, and dwindling street parking.

Still, Morrison Market looks like a cool addition to the neighborhood and potentially a good place to eat or get a drink before shows at neighboring Holocene.

A currently empty cocktail bar sits in the middle of the space. Above the bar are large white walls for projections.

Morrison Market in Southeast Portland

Morrison Market in Southeast Portland

Several spots were closed when we stopped by around lunchtime -- Mixteca, known for their tamales, Spice of Africa, Be Sweet, a vegan ice creamery, and Abu Omar gyros and shwarma all werent open.

But Obon Shokuto was serving up vegan Japanese food, and at Havana Station there was no line for a delicious, melty Cuban sandwich. Near the entrance, The Krazy Kokonut was also open and mixed us up a satisfying fruit smoothie.

Morrison Market in Southeast Portland

Morrison Market in Southeast Portland

Morrison Market in Southeast Portland

Russ said the hall was planning a party of sorts -- either a grand opening or a family and friends event, depending on who you ask -- for Saturday. No word yet on if the sign will be up by then.

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052, lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Union minister Ramdas Athawale on



Friday said the announcement of five per cent quota to Muslims in education in Maharashtra is NCP and Congress' attempt to put ally Shiv Sena in a fix.

Athawale said the Sena had been opposed to "such reservation" (based on religion) and reiterated that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who is also the president of that party, should walk out of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and reunite with the BJP.

The Minister of State for Social Justice, however, said his party, the RPI(A), is not opposed to Muslims getting five per cent reservation in education in Maharashtra.

Earlier in the day, NCP leader and state Minority Affairs Minister Nawab Malik announced in the Legislative Council that a law will be enacted to give five per cent quota to Muslims in education. However, Urban Development Minister and senior Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde later told reporters that no decision had been taken on the issue yet.

"The erstwhile Congress-NCP government had given Muslims five per cent reservation. But here, the Congress-NCP are trying to put the Shiv Sena in a fix on the issue as it was opposed to such kind of reservation," Athawale told reporters outside the state legislature building here.

"They try to trap Uddhav Thackeray. It is our humble request to Uddhav ji to reunite with the BJP to realise the dreams of Balasaheb Thackeray," he added.

Athawale also said that Thackeray will someday get fed up with the Congress and NCP and walk out of the government.

He congratulated Thackeray for announcing withdrawal of majority of the cases registered by the previous Devendra Fadnavis government in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima violence, Maratha quota stir and protest against Nanar refinery project.

"But we are demanding that they should withdraw all the cases," he added.

To a question, Athawale said that his party was not opposed to counting OBCs as a separate category in the census.

The Union minister, however, demanded that census of all castes and communities be carried out.

"I don't think census will promote casteism...Not only OBCs, but all caste-wise and community-wise census should be carried out," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
TIRANA, Albania - Kosovos decision to partially lift a 100% tariff on Serbian goods was hailed Friday by the European Union but not supported by the United States, which wants the tariff dropped completely.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti on Thursday said the measure would come into effect from March 15 and would only apply to imported raw materials from neighbouring Serbia.

In exchange, Kurti asked Serbia to stop efforts to get countries that have recognized Kosovo as an independent state to revoke their recognition. He also called on Serbia to lift constraints on products and services from Kosovo.

If Serbia complies, he said, Kosovo will abolish the 100% tariff for all Serbian goods two weeks later.

U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who also is special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations and recently nominated acting national intelligence director, did not support Kurtis half measure.

Our position is quite clear: the tariffs must be completely dropped. Mr. Kurti is making a serious mistake - and that was made clear to (Kosovo) President (Hashim) Thaci at the While House today, he wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

The EU welcomed Kurtis move as a first step.

This step could have a positive effect on restoring regional trade and offer an opening for the resumption of the Dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina facilitated by the European Union, a statement from the EU said.

The 100% tariff on Serbian and Bosnian goods was imposed in November 2018 to counter Serbias efforts to block Kosovo from joining international organisations.

The move led to the suspension of EU-mediated talks between Serbia and Kosovo on normalizing ties that had started in 2011.

Kosovo was formerly a part of Serbia and won independence after a 1999 NATO bombing campaign that ended a bloody Serb crackdown on an armed uprising by members of Kosovos ethnic Albanian majority. Serbia refuses to accept Kosovos 2008 declaration of independence.
Sinn Fein TD Eoin O Broin has said he found Provisional IRA members who inflicted violence during The Troubles to be among the most committed to the peace process.

During a wide-ranging interview on Independent.ie's Floating Voter podcast, Mr O Broin also discussed watching a local Sinn Fein activist being shot by a loyalist terrorist.

The Dublin Mid-West TD also said death threats were made against him by loyalist paramilitaries while he was serving on Belfast City Council.

Lucky

"I count myself as exceptionally lucky because my experience of that kind of violence was very, very limited," he said.

He said most of those involved in violence were "regular people" who took decisions that people who did not live in Belfast at that time would find "really difficult to understand".

"Those who were most committed to peace were those who were most negatively affected by it," he said.

"Those who have lost loved ones throughout the conflict, those people who inflicted viol- ence and those people who were involved at some level."

He said he was opposed to all violence, but does not believe there is "any value" in commenting on whether the terrorist activities of the Provisional IRA were justified.

"I've always taken the view that's a conversation that at this point in time I don't think has any value," he said.

"All I ask people to do is not to change how they view Sinn Fein or current members of Sinn Fein who were formerly in the IRA or formerly political prisoners based on their past.

"People are going to take their own view on all of that, but equally we have to judge people on the work they do in terms of ensuring their past can never be repeated and that's a difficult space."

Pipebomb

Mr O Broin said he worked with people on Belfast City Council whose children were murdered or their family members shot dead for being members of Sinn Fein.

"For three years of my life I had two loyalist paramilitary death threats against me," he said. He also witnessed pipe-bomb attacks.

"You would have been either at, witnessed or called to scenes of pipe bombings in your constituency," he said.

He also described calling an ambulance for a Sinn Fein activist who was shot by a loyalist terrorist in north Belfast.

"A UDA gunman from another vantage point started shooting at us and one of the guys who was out on the streets, who was putting his own life at risk trying to calm a situation down, was shot in the leg beside us and we had to call the ambulance," Mr O Broin said.
"The department used to be much more centralised and directive, and offered a lot of expertise in terms of curriculum implementation and teacher learning support," says one education executive familiar with the reform. "It was decided to put decision making into the local context, where it was genuinely believed principals would have better insight." Principals were empowered to choose the direction of their school, which many saw as only fair since their results were being scrutinised on the My School website. Now, instead of being sent a French teacher when parents preferred Chinese, the school could hire the teacher it wanted. If students had special needs, the principal could pay experts to train their staff in teaching kids with disabilities. About 50 per cent of staffing decisions were left to the school, giving the principal more power over the workforce. Former education minister Adrian Piccoli, now head of the Gonski Institute for Education. Credit:Nick Moir "Principals were saying, 'we've got NAPLAN ... if we are going to be accountable for results, we need to have greater discretion on how we are going to apply the input into our school'," says Adrian Piccoli, who was the education minister responsible for the reforms. "You can't say, 'you've got to do this the same in every school, then expect them to deliver results in very different schools'." This financial freedom did not amount to much at first; most of the school budget was soaked up by staff costs, with a little left over for teacher training programs. But when NSW signed up to the Gillard government's Gonski school funding scheme in 2014, extra money for disadvantaged students (known as Resource Allocation Model, or RAM, funding) began flowing for schools to spend as they wished.

While about 60 per cent of schools received less than $250,000 per year, just over a third were given up to $1 million, and five per cent of schools received more than $1 million. About 66 schools were given more than $1.25 million, according to an analysis of the 2016 funding. With this money, schools were able to buy whatever learning programs they chose, and not necessarily ones endorsed by the department; fund teacher training by whatever provider they fancied - and there are many businesses, of varying quality, fighting for a slice of that market; and choose whether they would spend the left over on extra teachers, fancy white boards, or a set of latest-generation iPads. But there was no way for the department to monitor exactly where that money went, whether the programs or training bought were of good quality, or whether it led to any student benefit. The department had effectively lost control of millions of dollars. "Limitations in financial and systems data meant that we were unable to determine exactly what each school's RAM equity loading allocation was spent on," a 2018 evaluation by the department's Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation found. The lack of accountability has been worrying senior executives. Principals are required to upload their school plans and discuss them with their director but beyond that, they face few questions about how their decisions will lead to better outcomes. "They didn't design [Local Schools Local Decisions] for accountability and they should have," says one senior public servant. "There was nothing to describe what [a good school] looks like, nothing to describe what needs to be done. It was not thought through. It was thought that ... that money was coming to them from Gonski and they would know where to direct it. They didn't know, they were used to having a bit of guidance."

Without knowing what schools are spending their money on, there is no way of working out whether they are they are spending it well. "We're not only giving decision-making power to schools, but we've also lost track of the data to tell us how it's spent, how decisions are made, and how it's evaluated," says Ben Jensen, chief executive of education consultancy Learning First. "We've handed over decision-making responsibilities, but we haven't said, 'this is how you need to make decisions'." Responding to questions from the Herald, Mitchell acknowledged the problem and said she would wind back the policy, focusing on ensuring investment decisions are focused on teaching and learning. "I am unhappy with the policy and it is clear that changes are necessary," she said. Education Minister Sarah Mitchell has acknowledge problems with Local Schools Local Decisions. Credit:Janie Barrett The department has introduced a few guidelines since Local Schools Local Decisions was introduced. The Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation, an evidence institute, develops advice on best practice, although schools do not have to follow it, and often don't. A report recommending synthetic phonics as a key ingredient in the teaching of reading was not only widely ignored by many schools, it was also explicitly rejected by the Primary Principals' Association and the NSW Teachers Federation. In 2014, the School Excellence Framework laid out out the characteristics of a good school to address uncertainty among principals. Schools must assess themselves against the framework every year, and have those assessments reviewed by a panel of peers every five years. One Nation MP Mark Latham, chair of NSW Parliament's education committee, doubts its effectiveness. "Schools are wilfully ignoring it in significant numbers," he says.

New targets in areas such as literacy, numeracy and wellbeing (which some believe are heavy-handed) will let the department monitor schools' results in these areas against benchmarks, triggering intervention if the targets are not met. That intervention will be tailored to suit the school's circumstances; some low-performing schools might need lesson plans, while others might need extra staff training. Latham is critical of that, too. "It's in its infancy, and ... the department can only come in by agreement," he says. One Nation MP Mark Latham, chair of NSW Parliament's education committee. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer But the front line of school accountability remains the Directors of Educational Leadership, former principals responsible for overseeing 20 schools each. They're the ones who are supposed to have tough conversations with principals about their decisions, but some wonder whether they are effective enough. "Do they have enough insight to offer that really useful support?" wonders one official. "The other problem is the work they do to support improvement has to come second to the fires they're putting out - their jobs are very operational, and are about keeping schools open and kids safe." Critics of Local Schools Local Decisions come from across the political spectrum. Latham argues it "has created an ethos and mentality in the system [among some schools] that they're more like satellite schools," he says. "It's given schools the ability to fail and keep on failing without any central correction." His fellow committee member, Greens MP David Shoebridge, opposes it too, but on the grounds that it is creating too much work for principals, who are being forced to spend less time on teaching and learning because of mounting paperwork. The NSW Teachers Federation is another opponent, arguing Local Schools Local Decisions has robbed the department of its ability to implement system-wide change. "We've lost that expertise - the curriculum experts, the drug and alcohol advisers - that was able to drive change in schools, to satisfy identified priorities," says president Angelo Gavrielatos. "In the absence of the capacity to do so, there are no levers to influence the direction of school policy."

One official involved in implementing Local Schools, Local Decisions argues the policy is being blamed for a deeper problem; that some principals are better than others, and many are struggling under their vast suite of new responsibilities, which includes fire safety plans, chasing contractors and managing budgets. "I suspect the real issue is the variability in the quality of principals," he says. "If they don't think they have enough quality leaders to put in schools, perhaps they should be putting more energy into that." Loading Latham points out that performance management of principals is rare; only seven have been put through a formal improvement process in the past five years. "The two issues [Local Schools Local Decisions] and principal quality march together. A low-quality principal with freedom ... can quickly wreck a school." But acting president of the Secondary Principals' Council Craig Petersen says principals are unhappy with Local Schools Local Decisions, too. There has been little support to help them through some of the biggest changes, such as managing budgets, and the time once available for focusing on education is now spent on compliance paperwork. Discretionary staffing means attracting teachers to disadvantaged schools has become harder, further soaking up time. The schools receiving RAM funding also argue it is still not enough to meet the complex needs of students, especially as public schools still have not been given their full funding allocation under the school resourcing standard. Many are using that money to bring in allied health workers such as speech pathologists and psychologists, because the services some students desperately need are not being provided anywhere else. Their stress has skyrocketed. "Does [the department] know what schools are spending their money on?" says Petersen. "Do they know the finer detail? Probably they don't, that's why you have principals in schools."
SANTA FE  A state commission says it will require New Mexico agencies to keep records related to Inspection of Public Record Act requests for four years, rather than one or two years.

The rule change was adopted by the New Mexico Commission of Public Records and will go into effect July 1.

State Auditor Brian Colon, chairman of the commission, praised the amendment.

New Mexicans deserve full accountability from their government, and this rule is a critical step in ensuring that the public has increased access to public records, he said in a written statement. The Commission will continue to work with public bodies across the State to increase transparency and accountability in our communities.
The have enjoyed a PDA packed trip to Paris Fashion Week and have delighted fans with a series of loved up pics.

And Brooklyn Beckham shared yet another shot of him and his model girlfriend on Friday sharing a sweet smooch.

The photographer, 20, shared the mirror selfie to his Story showing him take a break between fashion shows and pop to a clothes store with his love.

PDA: Brooklyn Beckham shared yet another shot of him and his model girlfriend Nicola Peltz on Instagram Friday sharing a sweet smooch

He could be seen planting a kiss on the 25-year-old's face in the romantic snap while she leaned into the hunk.

The Bates Motel star donned a chic all black ensemble and carried a white Dior saddle bag with her blonde tresses left loose.

Brooklyn dressed down in denim jeans and black jacket over a simple white t-shirt.

The son of David and Victoria is currently in Paris to support Nicola while she walks in various PFW shows.

Strike a pose: Earlier on Friday, Brooklyn shared two selfies of him getting pampered for the day in an under-eye-mask

Earlier on Friday, he shared two selfies of him getting pampered for the day in an under-eye-mask.

The two different artistic shots show Brooklyn show off his camera skills with a close-up of his pamper session and a distant pic where he is striking his best model pose.

Earlier in the week the pair were caught sharing a kiss in the corridor of their hotel by friends.

Pamper session: Brooklyn showed off his camera skills with a close-up of his pamper session while wearing eye masks

Nicola's breakthrough role as an actress came in the 2010 film The Last Airbender and she is also known for starring as Bradley Martin in the series Bates Motel.

The pair have been heavily documenting their blossoming romance on social media, with Brooklyn calling Nicola the 'love of my life.'

Brooklyn had been linked to a string of women over the past few months, before meeting Nicola, following his split from model Hana Cross, including Canadian actress Natalie Ganzhorn, 21, and brunette actress Phoebe Torrance, 25.

Cheeky smooch: Earlier in the week the pair were caught sharing a kiss in the corridor of their hotel by friends

Most recently it was claimed he and Lottie Moss had a 'secret fling' before he started dating his now ex-girlfriend Hana.

Earlier this month, American actress Nicola declared that she and Brooklyn will be together 'forever' as she stressed the strength of their relationship alongside a steamy photograph shared to Instagram.

On Monday, the eldest son of Victoria and David Beckham posted a black and white snap of himself and his new actress girlfriend cosied up together, which he captioned: 'Me and u xx,' with Nicola adding 'Forever' in a comment beneath.
(Newser)  Opera star Placido Domingo amended his apology to the multiple women who have accused him of sexual misconduct, adding several caveats Thursday to a statement two days earlier in which he said he took full responsibility for his actions, the AP reports. In a statement on his Facebook page, posted as several European concert halls moved to cancel his appearances, the legendary tenor said he wanted to correct the false impression generated by my apology." My apology was sincere and heartfelt, to any colleague who I have made to feel uncomfortable, or hurt in any manner, by anything I have said or done," he wrote. But I know what I have not done, and I'll deny it again. I have never behaved aggressively toward anyone, and I have never done anything to obstruct or hurt anyone's career.

story continues below

In his Tuesday statement, Domingo had said: "I respect that these women finally felt comfortable enough to speak out, and I want them to know that I am truly sorry for the hurt that I caused them. I accept full responsibility for my actions, and I have grown from this experience." Domingo's spokeswoman, Nancy Seltzer, offered no immediate comment when asked how to reconcile the dual statements. The star's initial statement came in response to the findings of an investigation by the US union representing opera performers, which found the star had behaved inappropriately over the course of two decades when he held senior management positions at Washington National Opera and Los Angeles Opera. His words set off a backlash in Spain, which became the first country in Europe to cancel on the megastar since the sexual harassment allegations surfaced last year in two stories by the AP. (More on the cancellations, including new ones that came Thursday, here.)
(Bloomberg) -- Follow Bloomberg on LINE messenger for all the business news and analysis you need.

In Malaysian politics, two figures have long played a crucial role: Mahathir Mohamad, who has ruled the country for almost a quarter century, and Anwar Ibrahim, who has perpetually waited to succeed him.

Now the two are facing off head to head as both seek to corral enough lawmakers to form a majority in the 222-seat parliament. Mahathir said Wednesday hell return to power if enough lawmakers support him, while Anwar said hes confident his camp has the numbers to form the next government.

Some three days after Mahathir resigned and threw Malaysia into turmoil, its still uncertain who will emerge victorious. The king, who plays a largely ceremonial role in Malaysias British-style system of government, has been meeting lawmakers from all sides to help him determine who has the support of the majority. Its unclear when hell make a decision.

If Anwar, 72, emerges as prime minister, it would mark yet another twist in his decades-long rivalry with the 94-year-old Mahathir. The distrust between them dates back to the 1990s, when Anwar was ousted from Mahathirs cabinet and arrested for sodomy.

Anwars Chance

Anwar had been in line to take power from Mahathir after the two joined together in the Pakatan Harapan coalition to win the 2018 election, ousting the Barisan Nasional alliance that had ruled for six decades. Yet Mahathir repeatedly delayed handing over power, prompting divisions within the ruling bloc to fester -- eventually leading to its collapse this week.

The political turmoil has cast a pall over a slowing economy that reported its worst growth rate since 2009, and hampers its ability to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus outbreak and trade wars. Malaysias ringgit reached the lowest level in more than two years.

On Wednesday, the former ruling Pakatan Harapan alliance -- minus Mahathirs party -- agreed to propose Anwar as prime minister to the king. In a statement, it said Mahathir refused to attend a meeting to revive the coalition.

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Right now all activities should stop and we should await the kings decision, which must be respected and obeyed by all parties and people in this country, Anwar told a press briefing. In another positive sign for Anwar, an alliance of regional parties on the island of Borneo crucial to tilting the balance in parliament said it would abide by any decision made by the king.

Mahathirs Pitch

But Mahathir can never be ruled out. The finance ministry announced that he would unveil a stimulus package on Thursday, implying he would still be in office.

In his first public comments since his resignation, Mahathir said he stepped down to dispel criticism that he was power hungry and would return if a majority lawmakers supported him. He said he resigned because he wouldnt accept the United Malays National Organisation, his former party that long ruled the country, forming an alliance with his Bersatu party.

If allowed, I will try to have a government that doesnt side with any party, Mahathir said. Only the countrys best interests will be prioritized.

Mahathirs advanced age might help him among members of parliament who are deciding who to support, according to James Chin, a Malaysian academic and a political analyst who heads the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania.

Its all about self-interest, he said. If you were an MP why would you want to select Anwar? He might be there for 10 years.

(Updates time period in third paragraph)

--With assistance from Philip J. Heijmans, Ranjeetha Pakiam and Yantoultra Ngui.

To contact the reporters on this story: Anisah Shukry in Kuala Lumpur at ashukry2@bloomberg.net;Hadi Azmi in Kuala Lumpur at klnews@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Yudith Ho

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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OTTAWA - The Conservative opposition says the government must compensate dairy farmers within 90 days of the new North American trade deal becoming law, saying the sector is the biggest loser in the renegotiated continental trade pact.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dairy cows are seen at a farm Friday, August 31, 2018 in Sainte-Marie-Madelaine Quebec. The Conservative opposition says the government must compensate dairy farmers within 90 days of the new North American trade deal becoming law, saying the sector is the biggest loser in the renegotiated continental trade pact. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

OTTAWA - The Conservative opposition says the government must compensate dairy farmers within 90 days of the new North American trade deal becoming law, saying the sector is the biggest loser in the renegotiated continental trade pact.

The recommendation comes in a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland from Conservative MPs, a copy of which was obtained by The Canadian Press.

Dairy was one of the most contentious sectors under discussion during the acrimonious renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement that U.S. President Donald Trump foisted on Canada and Mexico in 2017.

The sector also has major domestic political considerations in all trade negotiations, and Canada and the U.S. are no exceptions.

Trump vilified Canadian farmers for putting American farmers out of work with what he deemed to be unfair practices in Canada. Trump pledged to fight for American farmers, and whether or not he is seen to have delivered will affect his re-election chances, especially in key midwestern states such as Wisconsin.

Quebec and Ontario  Canada's two most vote-rich provinces  are the main homes of the country's dairy farmers.

The Canadian dairy industry has raised concerns about how trade deals were eroding its share of the Canadian market not only during the renegotiation of NAFTA, but in the previous trade talks that led to Canada's comprehensive pact with the European Union.

"The largest group left behind by your government during the CUSMA negotiations is Canada's dairy sector," says the letter, which cites a 3.6 per cent loss of market share in Canada due to the deal.

That and the elimination of classifications of milk protein concentrates, skim milk powder and infant formula "all combine to make the dairy sector the biggest loser of this deal," says the letter.

The Conservatives also ask the government to delay implementation of the new deal for the auto industry to January 2021 "to allow them to adjust to the new climate of the deal."

The impasse around autos was one of the biggest hurdles during the renegotiation of NAFTA because the United States insisted on new rules to increase the North American content automobiles.

The government's own economic impact assessment of the new deal, released this week, predicted that Canadian auto exports to the U.S. would decline by US$1.5 billion, the Conservative letter notes.

But the government's analysis said the deal was better for Canada overall and was better than no trade deal at all.

The Conservatives also raise concerns about the impact of the new deal on the ability of Canadian firms to bid on U.S. infrastructure projects, on digital trade, culture and forestry.

The U.S. and Mexico have formally ratified the new deal, but it is still before Canada's Parliament.

Canadian business groups have urged politicians to set aside political differences and the get the new Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement  as it is called in Canada  to passed into law as quickly as possible to end the economic uncertainty that threatens trade and investment.

The Liberals have negotiated separate deals with the NDP and Bloc Quebecois to win their approval for a quick ratification of the deal in the current minority Parliament.

The Conservatives say they support the deal too, but say it is crucial to more closely examine its winners and losers so that the pact remains strong in the future.

The letter also shoots back at past criticism by Freeland that the Conservatives are stalling the ratification of CUSMA.

"This is patently false. In fact, we have offered repeatedly to expedite our study of the legislation to ensure swift ratification, but at every stage your government has chosen to play politics," the letter says.

"Conservatives have always been clear that we will support CUSMA's swift passage."

The letter is signed by four Conservative MPs, including trade critic Randy Hoback and the Colin Carrie, the party's critic for Canada-U.S. relations.

A spokeswoman for Freeland said Friday the government is focused on ratifying the new deal quickly.

"We remain committed to fully and fairly compensating our dairy farmers and processors in the supply managed sectors," Katherine Cuplinskas said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2020.
If you are not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. Malcolm X (1925-1965), American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was assassinated.

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An outpouring of blatant and unabashed hypocrisy occurred last month when a disingenuous collection of world leaders  including a Muslim group https://bit.ly/38PNjj3 and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier  obsequiously observed Holocaust Memorial Day by vowing to oppose resurgent anti-Semitism and echoing the post-Holocaust commitment of Never Again. Steinmeier expressed sorrow for his countrys role in the murder of six million Jews during World War Two while spinelessly avoiding mention of the still ongoing decades-long ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by God chosen Israelis whose arrogant impunity knows no bounds. What Steinmeier failed to comprehend was that Germany cannot compensate for its past persecution of innocent Jews through the toleration of crimes against humanity by a Zionist Apartheid state https://bit.ly/2S7Zhhw . If the pledge of Never Again with regard to the pursuance of human rights is going to be racially, and ethnically selective, then it has to be exposed as being nothing more than a hypocritical bullshit motivational slogan.The pledge of Never Again  made by a people who have since established a global industry that is relentless in playing the victim card and ensuring that we always remember the Holocaust, are the same people who according to the If Americans Knew organisation have made Gaza uninhabitable, not because of ecological disaster or Palestinian poor stewardship of the land, but because Israel chooses to destroy it by every means  poisoning, starvation, disease, poverty, medical neglect, and invasion  while the world stands silent. https://bit.ly/2V6RGmc . And the world remains silent because to suggest that Palestinians are entitled to the same self-determination in a state of their own  that Israeli Jews vociferously demand for themselves on stolen and ethnically cleansed land  would be anti-Semitic rather than pro-Human Rights for everyone without exception.Antisemitism is a form of racism and as such must be opposed on general anti-racist principles, in solidarity with other anti-racist struggles and in concert with the principles of human rights and equality for all. Unfortunately, both the government of Israel and Zionist groups the world over are using societys legitimate concern about antisemitism to redefine it to include criticism of Israel and the Zionist ideology behind it. Their goal is to suppress  and even criminalise  criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights. Indeed, according to a recent survey, almost half of Canadian Jews believe that accusations of antisemitism are often used to silence legitimate criticism of Israeli policies. Independent Jewish Voices  https://bit.ly/2weqY0x CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE AT: https://bit.ly/2Vwgc0i
KARACHI, Pakistan - A train crashed into a bus carrying passengers at an unmanned railway crossing in southern Pakistan, killing 19 people and injuring 28 others, a local police superintendent said Saturday.

Irfan Ali Sammu said the bus driver was at fault in the late Friday accident, and had begun crossing without assessing how close the train was. The dead and injured were on both the bus and the train, he said.

The crash took place near the district of Rohri, about 470 kilometres north of Karachi.

The bus was torn into three pieces, and Sammu said rescue workers faced difficulties throughout the night recovering bodies and rescuing the injured, who were strewn along a 400-metre stretch of the track.

Women and children were among the dead and injured, and were transferred to two nearby hospitals, he said. Seven people had died in hospital, and some of the injured were in critical condition.

Sammu said the passenger train, called the Pakistan Express, was en route to Rawalpindi from Karachi, the capital of Sindh province.

A higher casualty figure of 43 injured had been given late Friday by a railway official, Tariq Kolachi. Such discrepancies on casualty figures are not uncommon in the immediate aftermath of accidents in Pakistan.

Train accidents are common in Pakistan, mainly due to insufficient enforcement of safety standards, the poorly kept railroad system and automobile driver negligence.

Last November, a fire caused by a cooking gas stove swept through a train in Pakistans eastern Punjab Province, killing 74 people. Survivors said afterward that it took nearly 20 minutes for the train to stop amid contradictory reports about the condition of the trains brakes.
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Linkedin Naomi Kresge and Stefan Nicola (Bloomberg) Berlin, Germany  Fri, February 28, 2020 19:40 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20674494c 2 World coronavirus,Europe,Wuhan-coronavirus,COVID-19,outbreak Free

Switzerland canceled large events and Germany quarantined about 1,000 people as Europe stepped up measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Public and private gatherings with more than 1,000 people wont be allowed until March 15, the Swiss government said on Friday. The move hit the Geneva Motor Show, which was set to open to the public on March 5. The cancellation of one of Europes biggest auto exhibitions comes after the wireless industry earlier this month scrapped the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and China postponed large-scale events scheduled through late March.

In addition to threatening big events, the public health scare prompted authorities in the German municipality of Heinsberg, near the Dutch border, to ask people who came into contact with a married couple with the disease to stay at home, spokesman Ulrich Hollwitz said by phone on Friday. The pair had attended a Carnival event in mid-February with about 400 people, and the isolation affects them and their family and friends.

As the number of cases rises, European leaders are struggling to project an image of business as usual. French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte drank coffee together in a bar in Naples on Thursday, calling for European cooperation and rejecting calls for suspending the Schengen Treaty that allows for border-free travel within the European Union.

Italy remains the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe. Cases in the country soared to 650 on Thursday from 400 a day earlier. The first measures to support the most affected areas may be approved by the Italian government as early as Friday, Economic Development Minister Stefano Patuanelli said. The country is considering subsidies to help pay utility bills as well as mortgage-payment suspensions.

German infections rose to nearly 60, while the first two cases in the Netherlands were confirmed. The Dutch patients, who are being kept in isolation, recently visited Italys Lombardy region. Globally, there are over 83,000 cases, including more than 700 in Europe.

A crisis task force in Germany will meet on Friday afternoon in Berlin to discuss next steps, including the possibility of canceling the ITB tourism trade fair. The organizers said on Twitter that they are coordinating with state and federal officials on how to proceed.

EasyJet Plc said its planning to cancel flights as demand slows for travel, particularly to Italy. Sales of airline tickets are decelerating globally, according to Amadeus IT Group SA, the largest operator of software used by the travel industry to book and sell flights.

While tourists have been particularly vulnerable to quarantines, there has been a sign of easing. Nine guests at a virus-hit hotel on the Spanish island of Tenerife have been allowed to leave, La Provincia newspaper reported. The government said Thursday that as many as 130 guests of about 700 at the hotel were awaiting authorization to depart because they had no contact with an Italian doctor and his wife who were found to have the virus.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel consulted with her ministers on Friday morning, with all state organizations focused on halting or slowing the spread.

Europes largest economy is looking at a range of measures to protect its key export sector and address the damage from a slowdown stemming from viruss impact on business. The benchmark DAX Index lost 3.7% at 12:02 p.m. on Friday.

The governments plans would seek to improve conditions for doing business, including reducing the tax burden on companies and boosting tax relief for digital investment, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said Thursday in Berlin, adding that Germany is in a period of growing uncertainty and couldnt rule out cuts to growth forecasts.

The fallout looks to be spreading, compounding a broader industrial slump. BASF SE warned of a possible second annual profit drop due to the impact of the coronavirus and an ongoing automotive slump.

Germany is monitoring transport links by air, sea and land and will ask international travelers to fill in landing cards stating where else theyve traveled, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Thursday.

The situation has clearly deteriorated, he said. The term beginning of an epidemic means that the number of cases will increase.
A Chinese national who admitted stealing trade secrets from a US petroleum company has been sentenced to two years in federal prison.

Hongjin Tan, 36, pleaded guilty in November to theft of a trade secret in connection to his work as a scientist at a Phillips 66 research facility in Bartlesville, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of Tulsa.

Prosecutors said Tan used a thumb drive to copy hundreds of files containing information about next generation battery technologies for use in the energy industry.

Tan was sentenced Thursday in Tulsa and also ordered to pay USD 150,000 in restitution.

In his plea deal, Tan admitted copying and downloading the information without authorisation. Prosecutors said Tan quit his job the day after downloading the information and told Phillips 66 he planned to return to China.

Assistant US Attorney Joel-Lyn McCormick said that prosecutors were unable to determine whether a third party or the Chinese government benefited from the information, the Tulsa World reported.

In court filings, Tan's attorney noted he had no prior convictions and that Tan has long-time and substantial ties to the academic community.

This is a serious offense, and Mr. Tan acknowledges that and accepts responsibility for his role in it, his attorney, Ryan Ray, wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Leaders from the U.S. Army's 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) promoted Medal of Honor recipient Master Sgt. Matthew Williams to the rank of sergeant major on Friday.

The Green Beret received the nation's highest award for valor on Oct. 30 for his heroism during an intense 2008 battle in Afghanistan's rugged Shok Valley.

"Today, we recognize a great soldier who is incredibly humble," Col. Nathan Prussian, commander of 3rd Special Forces Group, said during the ceremony at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, according to a news release from the command. "There is not a more deserving person in the force to receive a promotion of this magnitude."

Related: President Trump Awards Active-Duty Green Beret Medal of Honor for 'Incredible Heroism'

Nearly 12 years have passed since Williams distinguished himself in battle in a way that few warriors do.

Williams was originally awarded a Silver Star for his actions during the April 6, 2008, battle, but a Defense Department review decided it should be upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

His Special Forces team and a force of Afghan commandos had air assaulted into the Shok Valley on a daring mission to kill or capture a high-value target in a remote village about 10,000 feet up the side of a mountain.

The mission got off to a bad start when enemy forces opened fire on Williams and his fellow commandos soon after they arrived. One of the interpreters was killed instantly, and the mission force was soon struggling for survival -- defending a small patch of ground on the edge of a 100-foot cliff.

Two Green Beret sergeants were soon hit by enemy fire, but Williams never lost his poise under fire, according to his fellow soldiers. He calmly and bravely fought off enemy attacks while helping to lead the wounded down the steep terrain to a landing zone for helicopter rescue.

The enemy assaults were fierce and forced the Green Berets to call in roughly 70 danger close air support missions that included Army AH-64 Apache gunships, Air Force F-15 Eagles, A-10 Warthogs and even a strike from a B-1 Lancer bomber to keep from being overrun while moving the wounded to medevac helicopters.

There were other acts of heroism during that ferocious battle. Green Beret Staff Sgt. Ronald Shurer II was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2018 for the courage he displayed as the team medic on the operation.

After the promotion order was read at the ceremony, Williams' wife, Kate, pinned the new rank onto her husband's chest, according to the release.

"It's been an honor to serve at 3rd [Special Forces] Group and rise through the ranks," Williams said in the release. "I am looking forward to continuing to lead and serve the regiment and do the best I can to develop, mentor, advise, and bring up Green Berets."

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.

Read More: Green Beret to Receive Medal of Honor Displayed Never-Quit Spirit, Team Members Say
KAMPALA  MTN Uganda announced an international remittance deal with Vodacom Tanzania, a move designed to capitalise on growth in trade and money transfers being made between the neighbouring countries.

Under the agreement, customers of either operators mobile money service can transfer funds directly to each other.

Mr. Ali Monzer, the General Manager Mobile Financial Services at MTN Uganda contented that regional remittance service is an important part of the componys mobile financial services strategy to increase financial inclusion for all using mobile technologies, and reduces the cost of transferring money between countries.

The ability to transfer money easily and cheaply in the region is already revolutionising the lives of many of our customers. As with the Tigo in Tanzania, MTN Rwanda, Eco Cash Burundi and Safaricom in Kenya, the Vodacom Tanzania addition will not only enhance family connections but will also facilitate more trade and business partnerships on a regional scale, Monzer asserted.

On the other side, Mr. Epimack Mbeteni, Vodacom M-Pesa director in Tanzania said existing statistics show that in 2015 the value of trade between Tanzania and Uganda was over Tsh 178 billion and increased to over 350 Billion in 2018, adding that although the amounts of money sent between Tanzania and Uganda through formal money transfer is large but it is estimated that more than twice that amount has been sent through informal money transfers channels including bus drivers and bus attendants or using relatives and friends traveling.

In a statement, Vodacom Tanzania m-Pesa director Epimack Mbeteni estimated trade value between the countries in 2015 was TZS178 billion ($77.1 million) and surged to TZS350 billion in 2018.

He claimed informal methods to transfer money could total more than double the 2018 figure.

We have seen the difficulty our customers face when transacting between neighbouring countries and we have brought a solution through this service which is convenient, reliable and faster. There is no reason for our customers to send money through bus drivers or conductors and other insecure channels.

MTN Uganda hailed the impact of partnerships with other operators since launching its mobile money service in 2015. Previously the Ugandan operator inked international deals with operators in Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi.

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BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Ilhama Isabalayeva  Trend:

The Azerbaijanis were deported from Armenia gradually several times.

Contrary to the false statements, the last deportation of the Azerbaijanis occurred before the Sumgayit events, rather than afterwards. While pursuing a thought-out deportation policy, the Armenians attacked the houses of the Azerbaijanis in Uluhanli, the center of the Masis (Zangibasar) district near Yerevan and destroyed stone gravestones on April 24, 1983.

In the subsequent years, the Armenians carried out the preparatory plans for deportation both overtly and covertly. As a result of this policy of the Armenians, a group of Azerbaijanis was deported from Armenia before the Sumgayit events in 1988, but this information was hidden from the public.

Sixty-five-year-old Imran Namazov, deported from Armenia in September 1988, witnessed these events and in an interview with Trend spoke about the events that occurred before the Sumgayit events.

The Azerbaijanis living in Armenia were oppressed in the Soviet period. Saying that even before the Soviet power, his fathers and grandfathers lived in Armenias Amasia region, Namazov stressed that the majority of the Azerbaijanis lived in this region.

"There were 29 settlements in this region, Namazov added. In 25 of those settlements, only Azerbaijanis lived, and 30-40 families lived in the rest four Armenian villages. There were about 1,500-1800 families in one Azerbaijani village.

Both Azerbaijanis and Armenians lived together in the regional center, the witness added. But the indigenous people of Amasia were Azerbaijanis. Armenians were relocated to this region to take senior positions later. I knew many Armenians who were resettled from Azerbaijan and other countries to Armenia to hold senior positions.

Namazov said that until the last deportation, approximately 250,000 Azerbaijanis lived in Armenia, adding that many of them were people with higher education.

According to Imran Namazov, Azerbaijanis were oppressed in Armenia even before the 1988 deportation.

"There were very few schools with instruction in the Azerbaijani language in Armenia, so Azerbaijanis could not study in their native language. An Azerbaijani who did not speak Armenian could not work at any job, even if he was an academician," Namazov said.

Namazov noted that due to the oppression of Azerbaijanis living in Armenia, most of those who studied in other countries did not return to Armenia because they knew that they would not find work there and would encounter problems. Armenians began to oppress Azerbaijanis even more after 1985.

The eyewitness to the Sumgayit events added that the oppression of Azerbaijanis in Armenia was always common in Soviet times, but it became more tangible after 1985.

"Back in 1985, Academician Abel Aganbegyan raised the issue of Nagorno Karabakh and the importance of its accession to Armenia. In March 1985, after the election of Mikhail Gorbachev as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Armenians became more active in their politics," Namazov said.

In his words, they began to oppress highly educated Azerbaijanis who could raise the people, so they were forced to leave Armenia for Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine and other countries.

Imran Namazov said that the Armenians beat and insulted the Azerbaijanis in order to intimidate them even prior to the Sumgayit events and the deportation of 1988.

"In those years, Azerbaijanis couldn't leave their villages. Sumgayit Armenians hung so many young Azerbaijanis in their own apartments...," he added.

Imran Namazov noted that rallies began in the capital of Armenia, Yerevan on Feb. 19, 1988. and the slogans of the rallies were "Armenia without Turks", "Armenia belongs to the Armenians".

Namazov noted that after the Sumgayit events, it became impossible for Azerbaijanis to live in Armenia.

The Armenians informed the Central Committee [of the Communist party] that they wouldnt be able to live together with the Azerbaijanis, so Karabakh should be annexed to Armenia, said the witness. In support of this, the Armenians committed Sumgayit events on Feb. 27-28, 1988. The Armenians living in Sumgayit moved to those areas of Armenia where the Azerbaijanis lived.

Namazov recalls that because of these events, clashes broke out between the Sumgayit Armenians who considered the Azerbaijanis guilty and the Azerbaijanis living in Armenia.

After the Sumgayit events, the Soviet government brought in dozens of tanks and military personnel to the Amasia district center, which actually played the role of a catalyst, the witness added. If they saw a conflict between an Azerbaijani and an Armenian, they arrested the Azerbaijani and released the Armenian. After the Sumgayit events, all the Azerbaijanis who traveled to Leninakan (Gyumri city), - children, the elderly - were either beaten or insulted. In short, it was impossible to go there.

Namazov added that the Armenians prepared a plan to exterminate about 30,000 Azerbaijanis in the area.

Armenians planned an attack on Azerbaijanis living in Amasia in December 1988, said the witness. However, a strong earthquake that occurred on December 7, 1988, prevented the implementation of this plan. The attack was planned for December 8, for which even detachments were created that were entrusted with the task of exterminating all Azerbaijanis. By that time, about 30,000 Azerbaijanis were living in the district.

At the end of his story, Namazov noted that local Azerbaijanis had guessed about the impending attack because of the preparatory activities.

The Armenians who had close contacts with the Azerbaijanis in the district warned them about these plans. Some Armenians who were close to me said: Leave so that our conscience is clear. The members of the Dashnaktsutyun party are forcing us to shoot those Azerbaijanis whom we know and with whom we have shared the bread, and we will be forced to do so, said the witness.
A Suffolk Superior Court judge ruled in favor of three inmates at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center on Friday, allowing the incarcerated mens preliminary injunction seeking their legal paperwork returned and contact with their attorneys reinstated.

Lawyers filed a lawsuit in January alleging the inmates legal materials were taken away and access to their attorneys limited during a three-week lockdown of the maximum-security facility following an inmate-led attack on four correction officers earlier in the month.

The attorneys, Rebecca Jacobstein and Victoria Kelleher, framed the case as an issue of correction officials discretion and the U.S. Constitutions guarantee of right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment.

The court can think of no greater public interest than the protection of individuals sacred constitutional rights, Judge Beverly Cannone wrote in her ruling. Individuals constitutional right to be represented by counsel is a fundamental component of the criminal justice system and essential to individual liberty and security.

Cannone ruled the plaintiffs request for preliminary injunction is in the publics interest. She ordered the return of their legal paperwork and reinstatement of attorney contact visits within 48 hours. Inmates must be allowed sufficient time outside their cells during business hours as well to make phone calls with their lawyers.

The judge also ruled that administrative correctional officials must now notify the states Committee for Public Counsel Services whenever a lockdown is going to interfere with attorney-client communications.

The plaintiffs in the suit included Carl Larocque, Tamik Kirkland and Robert Silva-Prentice, who is one of dozens of inmates to allege being assaulted by members of a tactical team at the prison in retaliation for the Jan. 10 attack on the correction officers. The men who claim to have been assaulted say they had no involvement in the attack on the guards.

Kirkland and Silva-Prentice, who testified during last weeks hearing on the lawsuit, are serving sentences for separate murder convictions.

The complaint named as defendants Secretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety Thomas Turco, Massachusetts Department of Correction Commissioner Carol Mici and Souza-Baranowski Superintendent Stephen Kenneway.

The superintendent was questioned twice during the cases two evidentiary hearings on Feb. 9 and Feb. 19, during which he detailed numerous acts of violence at the facility and claimed that Silva-Prentice was the one who assaulted tactical members first when they entered his cell. Patricia DeJuneas, the inmates attorney in the civil case, said Kenneways claims against Silva-Prentice were false and has asked the U.S. Attorneys office to investigate.

The correction officials urged the court earlier this month to deny the plaintiffs motion for preliminary injunction. They argued the prisoners complaints were moot, as all the services the inmates alleged being denied had been returned.

The defendants also claimed that granting the injunction would cause irreparable harm to DOC.

The requested equitable relief likely will interfere with the defendants administration of SBCC, which could raise public safety concerns, Cannone wrote. However, the court concludes that the requested preliminary injunction promotes the public interest.

DOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The judges decision is just a preliminary injunction. A ruling on permanent injunction will be made in the future, according to Jacobstein.

Were really pleased that the judge recognizes and acknowledges how important the right to counsel is, Jacobstein told MassLive. The right to counsel is the right that protects all of your other rights, and it really needs to be adhered to strongly.

Victoria Kelleher, who represents the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in the civil lawsuit, also called the judges decision an affirmation of the right to counsel, especially for those whose voices are often discounted or ignored.

These were not men involved in the initial assault, and there was no justification that warranted the mass violation of human rights and, not coincidentally, the right to counsel, the attorney said in a statement.

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"The Country is protected"-The President of Georgia, Zourabichvili - GeorgianJournal
Henceforth road contractors will be made to maintain new roads that they have constructed for a period of five years instead of the current one year.



This, according to the Minister of Road and Highways, Mr Kwasi Amoako-Attah, would ensure that contractors executing the jobs would perform creditably.



Mr Amoako-Attah dropped the hint at this years annual performance review conference of the Department of Urban Roads in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital, last Tuesday.



Brainstorm



The two-day event which was on the theme: " Year of Roads - Improving Urban Accessibility, Safety and Reliability for National Development" and attended by engineers, quantity surveyors and other stakeholders in the sector was to brainstorm road construction aimed at ensuring quality work in road construction.



According to Mr Amoako-Attah, the new directive, which would come into force in a months time, conforms to the standards set by the World Bank on road construction and that would save the government extra expenditure on badly constructed roads in the country.



Value for money



Government will no more use the taxpayers money to pay for jobs poorly executed by contractors because we have to ensure value for money, Mr Amoako-Attah stated.



Unpaved roads



Mr Amoako-Attah stated that the country had 16,808 kilometres of urban roads network of which 70 per cent was good;16 per cent fair, and 14 per cent poor, while the unpaved ones had 15 per cent good, 23 per cent fair and 62 per cent poor.



He explained that although the paved network was good, there was the need for its improvement.



Touching on roads constructed between January 2017 and December 2019, the minister said 357 kilometres of asphalt overlay had been done in Accra, Tema, Koforidua, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi and Cape Coast.



Mr Amoako-Attah told the gathering that 98 kilometres of minor rehabilitation and upgrading of roads had been done for some towns including Adukrom, Tema, Oyarifa, Anaji, West Tanokrom, Walewale, Nalerigu, Ejisu, Nandom and Tamale.



Mr Amoako-Attah, who indicated that this year had been designated as the year of roads, said a lot had been done in that sector in most parts of the country.



Partial reconstruction



On partial reconstruction, the minister stated that 34 kilometres of such roads had been executed in some communities within Adjiriganor, Sekondi-Takoradi, Awukugua, Aperede and Accra while the first Traffic Management Centre (TMC) in the country, the first of its kind in the West African sub-region, was commissioned by the President in July 2019.



Regional Minister



The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Eric Kwakye Darfour, urged engineers in the country to help the minister ensure that the 2020 Year of Roads declared by the President was achieved.



He admonished them to let determination be their guiding principle to succeed in their field of work and appealed to them not to lower the standard of the engineering profession.

Source: Daily Graphic









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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Hong Kong: A Hong Kong media tycoon known for his ardent opposition to China was arrested Friday over his role in a pro-democracy protest last year, the police said, dealing another blow to the city's independent media.

Founder of Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper, Jimmy Lai, walks out from a police station after being bailed out in Hong Kong. Credit:AP

The tycoon, Jimmy Lai, a rare figure among Hong Kong's elite for his willingness to take on Beijing, owns Next Media Group, which publishes a popular pro-democracy newspaper and website called Apple Daily. His arrest comes as the city has been dealing with the twin shocks of the protest movement and now the coronavirus outbreak.

His singular status as a prominent businessman in Hong Kong who openly supports the democracy movement and anti-government protests has made him a frequent target of Beijing-backed elements.

Lai was arrested on allegations of taking part in an unauthorised assembly August 31, a police spokesman said on Friday. That day, crowds of protesters defied a police ban on their march and clashed with riot officers. Two other veteran pro-democracy activists were also arrested Friday over their roles in the protest.
Ayodhya, Feb 28 : Nripendra Mishra, the Chairman of the Ram Temple Construction Committee, will visit Ayodhya on Saturday to initiate the process for preparing a blueprint for construction of a Ram temple.

This will be his first visit to Ayodhya after being appointed as Chairman of the committee.

Prabhat Singh, a spokesperson for the Nirmohi Akhara, said: "We have been informed that Nripendra Mishra will be in Ayodhya on Saturday. He will also meet Mahant Dhirendra Das (head of the Nirmohi Akhara) and other trustees." According to official sources, Mishra will also finalise the place, where Ram Lalla will be shifted before construction of the temple begins.

This relocation will take place before the festive occasion of Navratri which begins on March 25.

Meanwhile, a three-day conclave on Ramayana will be held in Ayodhya in the first week of March.

The event will be inaugurated by head of the Ram Janambhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das.

Sources in the government said the conclave will see discussions around the life of Lord Ram and his impact on society.

Experts on Ramayana from India and abroad, and research scholars are expected to attend the event.

There will also be an exhibition on the presence of Lord Ram in art and around 200 artists are expected to display their works.

The event is being organised by Sanskar Bharti, the cultural wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Ayodhya Research Centre and Avadh University.

Prominent leaders who will participate in the event are Ram temple trust secretary and VHP leader Champat Rai, former Goa governor Mridula Sinha and writer Narendra Kohli.
The coronavirus outbreak across the globe may impact the Everest climbing season in Nepal beginning from March with many trekkers from countries like China, South Korea, Italy and Japan cancelling their expeditions due to lack of government preparedness to deal with the epidemic, according to a media report.

Only one person tested positive for the COVID-19 till now in the Himalayan country even as the death toll due to the deadly disease that emerged in early December reached 2,788 in neighbouring China and the confirmed cases touched 78,824.

Hundreds of climbers flock each year to Nepal, home to several of the world's highest mountains, to scale the Himalayan peaks during the spring season that begins around March and ends in June.

According to trek operators, many Chinese climbers have already started cancelling their expedition bookings after the COVID-19 outbreak that has speared its head in several countries, including South Korea, Iran and Italy, the Himalayan Times reported.

Pasang Sherpa, managing director at Pioneer Adventure Treks, said that seven Chinese members, who booked for the trek from his company, cancelled their plans to scale the Everest this season.

Damber Parajuli, President of Expedition Operators Association Nepal, was quoted as saying in the report that now they can hardly expect climbers from China, Iran, South Korea, Japan and a few European countries, including Italy to come for trekking this year.

Parajuli, who returned from Italy on Thursday without being screened at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, said that lack of government preparedness as well as an action plan too is going to impact the country's tourism.

Looking at the pathetic scene at the airport, I can only feel sorry about the airport authority and other agencies concerned, he added.

Rishi Bhandari, managing director at Satori Adventure, said that the Everest climbing season would face a tough challenge if the government fails to introduce an immediate action plan to contain the COVID-19 threat.

At least six Italian climbers who planned to scale Mt Everest from Tibet side have already cancelled their booking from my company, he was quoted as saying in the report.

Meanwhile, China would not be opening its Tibet route in the spring season to allow Nepali operators for Mt. Everest, Cho Oyu and Sishapangma expeditions, the report said.

The country will certainly bear severe economic losses this season and it will have long-term impact on the tourism businesses, Parajuli said.

Noting that Chinese tourists are an important source of income for Nepal, Nima Namgyal Sherpa, who operates exclusive Chinese expeditions, said his Chinese clients want to come for spring expedition to the Everest.

"But should they be allowed to share base camp with other country members without being quarantined in Nepal? he asked.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Easton Arts Academy Elementary Charter School board hired a fraud investigator Thursday to review the schools finances.

Board President Michelle Zattoni said Fraud Forensic Investigations LLC will perform a comprehensive review of the schools ledgers. The review will stretch back to when the school opened in 2017 at 30 N. Fourth St. in Easton.

The school lost its three top administrators over the course of the past year. The top finance administrator, Shawn Ferrara, left the school in June. CEO Joanna Hughes was fired in December and Operations Manager Jacque Zupko was fired in January.

Zattoni said there have been questions raised about duties the administrators performed, although she declined to cite specifics.

We have to make sure that the finances are under control before we hire new (administrators) to come in, she said Thursday. For now, principal William Wright is serving as interim CEO.

Fraud Forensic Investigations LLC of Allentown will get a $2,000 retainer. Theyll get $150 an hour for on-site work and $110 an hour for offsite work. The vote to hire the firm was 4-0. Board member Michael Lieberman was absent.

The schools solicitor was also sent packing in December and new solicitor Daniel Saidel has promised a business atmosphere where everything is transparent, moral and ethical. The changes follow a period of low morale and calls for reform from rank-and-file employees.

Also Thursday, the board unanimously approved the resignation of Title I / Student Success Coordinator Beth Peters, effective Feb. 4. She had been suspended on Feb. 2, according to the school board agenda. Shes married to Ferrara, the former chief administrative officer.

Easton Arts Academy school board member Sharon Jermany at the Feb. 27, 2020, school board meeting.Rudy Miller | For lehighvalleylive.com

School board member Sharon Jermany was named the schools liaison with law enforcement. Jermany said she wasnt appointed to act as an intermediary for any specific, pending matter.

The board also agreed to a legal settlement with former food services coordinator Kathy Keyes. She sued the school in September, claiming she was owed about $7,000 for back pay and unused sick and personal time.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed by the school. Neither Keyes nor Zattoni had any comment on the settlement.

Charter schools are funded with taxpayer dollars but are run independently of public school systems. They were created to allow educators to experiment with alternative education methods without the mandates and restrictions imposed on traditional public schools.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
Foot fetish anyone? A hospital worker in the US has been arrested after he was reportedly caught sucking on a patient's toes, but he denies the allegations.

The patient was an elderly woman who claimed to have felt her foot being touched at around 11pm on Monday night (24th February) at Gulf Coast Hospital in Fort Myers, Florida.

She thought a nurse may be checking her foot for swelling at first, but after being touched a third time and feeling wetness between her toes she looked up - and claims she saw hospital carer Frantz Beldorin on his knees next to the bed, bent over her foot.

23-year-old Frantz was arrested the next morning for battery and taken to Lee County Jail. He was released on Wednesday evening on a $1,500 USD bond ($2,400 NZD), and has told news outlets that he was fired from his job because of the incident.

He also passionately denies the allegations, claiming it was all a misunderstanding that has made him look 'creepy'. Yeah, just a little creepy mate.

"My hand's on the bed, yes it's close to her, but I'm reaching to get my phone. I dropped my phone under the bed and as I'm trying to get my phone she kicks, he said.

"She's afraid and we're in the dark. It's a dark room with a dark male at the foot of her bed. I can understand, but I'm not tryna' do that with you, for what? When the security came and got me, I was like, 'what's going on?', and they're like, 'just come with me',

"It makes me look crazy or creepy and I'm not! Like I'm not that type of dude. If I offended her in any way, I apologise. I know there's other opportunities, but there won't be if I get hit with this felony."

He claimed there were two other patients in the room and said the doors were wide open.

"I can get that from someone else, I don't have to get that from her. A day that I thought I was going to make it out of peacefully, a day that I had planned it didn't turn out the way that I expected it, he added.

Lee Health, the company Frantz worked for, said in a statement that the safety of its patients was its top priority and it was cooperating with law enforcement, adding it could not comment further while the investigation is ongoing.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  Some sloppy driving at the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge toll plaza and a gun and pot in his car will cost a New Jersey man a two-year prison sentence in New York.

State troopers pulled over Doodley Mardy, 26, of Newark, at about 4:23 a.m. on July 6, 2018, said court papers.

Mardy, who was driving a 2012 Honda Accord, had allegedly committed a number of traffic infractions.

He failed to signal, failed to maintain his lane and his brake lights were defective, court documents said.

The defendant appeared nervous when troopers approached, said court records.

He asked them to give him the traffic summonses and let him go on his way, court papers said.

Meanwhile, a computer check revealed Mardys license was suspended; he also had no insurance.

Troopers smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from the car, said court documents.

On searching it, they found a 9mm Jimenez Arms Luger in the glove box, court papers said. Next to it was a magazine loaded with 12 rounds.

Mardy was arrested and indicted on charges including criminal weapon possession, criminal firearm possession, marijuana possession and aggravated unlicensed driving.

He pleaded guilty on Thursday in state Supreme Court, St. George, to third-degree criminal weapon possession, a felony, to resolve his case.

In exchange, hell be sentenced on April 27 to two years behind bars and 18 months post-release supervision.

Court papers show Mardy was previously convicted of child endangerment in 2014.

He was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

His lawyer did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

Assistant District Attorney John Hall is prosecuting the case.
Asahi Beverages has proposed selling Australia's number two cider brand, Strongbow, and premium beer brands Stella Artois and Beck's, as it seeks approval from the competition watchdog to buy iconic brewer Carlton & United Breweries. Asahi has also offered to sell the cider labels Little Green and Bonamy's, which combined with Strongbow account for about 20 per cent of the market. Strongbow alone accounts for about 18 per cent of Australian cider sales. Asahi Beverages has told the competition watchdog it will offload the premium beer brand Beck's as it seeks approval to buy beer giant CUB. Credit:Jasper Juinen The two beer and three cider brands identified by Asahi are all currently owned by CUB, meaning that Asahi would retain Australia's number one cider brand, Somersby. Cider has long been considered a likely roadblock to Asahi's proposed $16 billion purchase of CUB, and in December the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it was concerned about the market strength of a combined Asahi/CUB.

Loading At the time, the ACCC said the proposed deal could lead to higher cider and beer prices and substantially lessen competition in those markets. The ACCC said a combined Aashi/CUB would have cider brands with about 65 to 71 per cent share of the market. And it warned that an unfettered deal "may substantially lessen competition" in Australia's "highly concentrated" beer market. ACCC chairman Rod Sims stressed on Friday that Asahi's proposed divestments did not mean the ACCC would ultimately approve the $16 billion deal. "It's a serious proposal but we still have an open mind on whether it addresses the problem. So we're seeking comment, and we'll take that comment into account as we continue to make our decision as to whether to approve or not approve the merger," he said.
Washington: Terming as "unforgettable" her visit to a Sarvodaya School in New Delhi where she attended a `Happiness Class` session, US First Lady Melania Trump thanked `extraordinary` students and faculty for a warm welcome.

"Unforgettable afternoon at the Sarvodaya School in New Delhi! It was an honor to be surrounded by extraordinary students and faculty. Thank you for the warm welcome! #Be Best," Melania tweeted on Thursday while sharing a video of the highlights of her visit to the school on Thursday.

Unforgettable afternoon at the Sarvodaya School in New Delhi! It was an honor to be surrounded by extraordinary students and faculty. Thank you for the warm welcome! #BeBest pic.twitter.com/vza9ZMMOOV  Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) February 27, 2020

The First Lady, who was accompanying husband US President Donald Trump, during his first official visit to India, attended `Happiness Classes` at the Sarvodaya Vidyalaya Senior Secondary School co-ed school in South Moti Bagh on Tuesday as a part of the Happiness Curriculum, in which students are taught various activities including meditation, street plays and basic obedience aimed at reducing anxiety and stress levels among children.

Upon arrival at the school, Melania was given a traditional welcome by students who lined the entrance holding flags of the two countries.

A young girl student handed a bouquet to the US First Lady and applied tilak on her forehead welcoming her with an `aarti thali`.

Expressing her delight, Melania thanked the school`s students for welcoming her with a traditional dance performance.

"This is my first visit to India and I cannot express how delightful it is. People here are so welcoming and so kind. I learned that `Sarvodaya` means `prosperity for all.` As I walked around, I was able to see how the concept exists amid the curriculum in the leadership of the teachers as well as the spirit of enthusiasm of the students," she said while addressing students and teachers.

She also visited one of the primary school classrooms and learned about the reading programs. The wife of the US President said that back home she works with children to promote similar ideas of well-being through the `BE BEST` initiative.

According to the White House, the mission of BE BEST is to focus on some of the major issues being faced by children today. As the name suggests, the goal of the program is to encourage children to be best in their individual paths, while also teaching them the importance of social, emotional and physical health.
You are here: China

Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, instigator of the Hong Kong riots, and several opposition figures including Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum were taken away Friday morning by Hong Kong police for investigation, Hong Kong media reported.

Lai, founder of media group Next Digital, was picked up by crime unit officers from his home at around 8 a.m. local time, and was taken to Kowloon City Police Station.

The police will prosecute Lai for intimidating a journalist, and will take statements for his participation in unlawful assemblies on Aug. 31, 2019.

Some opposition figures including Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum were also taken away by police for their roles in unlawful assemblies.

Hong Kong police said a briefing will be held on the case later Friday.
Reading a good book is the best way of boosting literacy  but magazines and comics dont help, researchers have found.

Experts investigated the reading habits of thousands of students, along with their test results and the extent to which their parents were involved in their education.

They found that kids who read 'quality' books in their spare time get higher marks in school as teenagers and are the equivalent of three months ahead in their studies.

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Reading a good book is the best way of boosting literacy  but magazines and comics dont help, researchers have found

'Reading is a fundamental skill that plays a key part in all our lives,' said lead researcher Luis Alejandro Lopez-Agudo of the University of Malaga, Spain.

'Our results provide further evidence that it's not only whether young people read or not that matters  but also what they read.'

While consuming more texts has always been associated with higher literacy skills, few studies have focused on the type of reading material that children choose.

In their study, the team surveyed more than 43,000 students in Spain to determine their reading habits over a three year period, starting when they were aged 1011.

They also spoke to parents to gauge how involved each were in their childs education, as well as what their own reading habits are like.

Researchers found that children who read books on a daily basis achieved higher literacy test results on average, equivalent to having had three additional months of secondary school education under their belts.

There were also spill-over effects on performance in other subjects, like mathematics.

However, the team found that reading newspapers, comics, magazines did not have the same benefit  and even short stories only had a marginal effect.

Literacy skills are improved through practice  and by trying to read longer and more challenging texts.

Researchers found that children who read books on a daily basis achieved higher test results on average, equivalent to having had three additional months of secondary school education under their belts. However, the team found that reading newspapers, comics, magazines or even short stories did not have the same benefit. Pictured, a child reading a comic book

'Although three months' worth of progress may sound comparatively small to some people, it equates to more than 10 per cent of the three academic secondary school years measured,' said paper author John Jerrim of University College London.

This, he explained, runs 'from when these young people are aged 11 years old to 14  which we know is a hugely developmental period.'

'In an increasingly digital world, it's important that young people are encouraged to find time to read a good book.'

The team found that girls tended to read more books, short stories and newspapers, while boys preferred comics and magazines.

Children from advantaged backgrounds were also found to read both more and more varied types of text than others.

'Less complex and less engaging forms of reading are unlikely to bring the same benefits for [children's] cognitive development, and shouldn't be counted as part of their reading time,' Professor Jerrim added.

'This is particularly important for low-achievers, where any association is likely to be strongest.'

The team hopes that their findings will help parents, teachers and policymakers distinguish between what is best for children to read.

The full findings of the study were published in the journal the Oxford Review of Education.
For the past two days, News18.com spoke to families of the people killed in the riots in north-east Delhi trying to profile and piece together details of lives. They were labourers, sole breadwinners, businessmen, civil service aspirants, autorickshaw drivers, marketing professionals, policemen, and grandmothers, among others. Here are the 30 identified riot casualties, and their stories:

1) Rahul Solanki: The 26-year-old was a civil engineer by qualification and a marketing professional. He was shot in his throat in Babu Nagar near Shiv Vihar on Monday when he stepped out to buy groceries. Solanki had asked all his colleagues in north-east Delhi to remain in their homes because of the disturbance outside.

2) Mohammad Anwar: The poultry shop owners charred body was found by acquaintances in his neighbourhood in Shiv Vihar. The 60-year-olds family had repeatedly failed to contact him since 11pm on Tuesday as his phone was unreachable.

3) Mohammad Furqan: The 30-year-old was shot in his stomach and his thighs in Kardampuri. A businessman who made wedding merchandise, Furqan is survived by his wife and two children: a three-year-old boy and a four-year-old daughter. His 64-year-old father runs a handicrafts store in the same area.

4) Ashfaq Hussain: An electrician from Mustafabad, the 22-year-old was shot five times in his chest and was also attacked with swords. He got married just two weeks ago, on Valentines Day. According to his maternal uncle Saleem, Ashfaq was trying to save women being attacked in the local mosque.

5) Vir Bhan Singh: A businessman and father of three children, the 48-year-old Karawal Nagar resident was shot in the back while returning from work.

6) Mahtab: The 22-year-old contractor was in the construction business. He was seized, stabbed and burnt after he stepped out of his house in Brijpuri to buy food from a local store. He was the sole financial support for his mother and sister.

7) Rahul Thakur: A civil services aspirant who was preparing for his third attempt, the 23-year-old was shot in front of some of his family members not far from his house in Bhajanpura. He had stepped just outside the gate of his building. Rahuls father works in the Railway Protection Force.

8) Ishtiaq Khan: The 27-year-old was shot in his stomach in Kabir Nagar, Babarpur, according to his relative Munnafar Alam. He was in the welding business.

9) Mohammad Shahban: He was shot while closing his welding shop in Mustafabad around 5pm on Tuesday. The 22-year-old had heard about the disturbance in the area and wanted to rush home. He was shot in the stomach. His maternal uncle Tahir Khan, 50, said one of Shahbans friends informed them about his murder. He was unmarried and has three brothers.

10) Suleiman: A native of Hapur, the 22-year-old worked as a blacksmith and lived alone in Loni. He was returning from Mustafabad when he was attacked with sharp weapons on his neck and with a blunt object on his head. Suleimans elder brother Yunus had come from Hapur to claim his body.

11) Mohammad Irfan: The 30-year-old was a cutting master who took up jobs at different tailoring shops. He was the solitary source of financial support for his 57-year-old mother Quresha. He was killed in Kartar Nagar near Pushta, 200 metres from his home.

12) Ratan Lal: A head constable who had joined the Police in 1998, he was posted in the officer of Assistant Commissioner of Police, Gokalpuri. The 42-year-old was killed by a bullet and was among the first casualties of the riots. He hailed from Sikar in Rajasthan

13) Mubarak Ali: Ali, 35, lived near Bhajanpura and was a painter. He was killed on his way back from work in the neighbourhood. According to his family members, he was untraceable between Monday and Thursday.

14) Alok Tiwari: A resident of Karawal Nagar, the 24-year-old worked in a cardboard factory and is survived by his wife and two children.

15) Ankit Sharma: He was a security assistant in the Intelligence Bureau and was allegedly killed by a mob in Chand Bagh. The 25-year-olds body was found in the Chand Bagh drain.

16) Sanjeet Thakur: Thakur was bludgeoned to death using stones and sticks in Chand Bagh area. The 32-year-old worked in a welding unit and was a resident of Khajuri Khas. He is survived by his wife and two children.

17) Akbari: A mob set on fire Akbaris house in Gamri extension near Khauri Khas. The fire killed the 85-year-old while most of her family members survived. Her son Mohammad Saeed Salmani said that their four-storey building was set on fire and because his mother was too old, she could not escape in time.

18) Aamir: The 30-year-old from Mustafabad was killed on Wednesday. Aamirs relatives came to the hospital on Thursday in search of the deceased. Their worst fears came true. Elder brother Sheruddin said they were unaware of Aamirs whereabouts since Wednesday.

19) Zakhir: The 26-year-old was a welder from Brijpuri and died after he was shot in his head and also assaulted on Tuesday evening.

20) Dinesh Kumar: Kumar, 35, died on Thursday evening after battling for his life in GTB Hospital. He was a driver and is survived by his wife and two children.

21) Musharraf: He was a resident of Kardampuri and a native of Badaun in Uttar Pradesh. The 25-year-olds body was found in a drain in Gokalpuri. He is survived by his wife and three children.

22) Vinod Kumar: The 50-year-old died after a mob assaulted him and left him for dead. He was a resident of Arvind Nagar, Ghonda and his survived by his wife and two sons.

23) Deepak Kumar: Kumar, 34, was a factory worker and died of gunshot wounds. He is survived by his wife.

24) Parvez Alam: A car mechanic who ran a garage in Wazirabad, the 50-year-old was a resident of Ghonda. He was shot in the stomach.

25) Mudassir Khan: The 35-year-old autorickshaw driver is survived by two children. Details of his death could not be ascertained.

26) Mohammad Yusuf: A carpenter from Old Mustafabad, Yusuf was attacked near his neighbourhood while returning home. The 52-year-old is survived by seven children.

27) Mahroof Ali: Mahroof was killed by a bullet. A resident of Bhajanpura, he owned a shop of electrical goods.

28) Shahid Alvi: The 24-year-old was an autorickshaw driver and had got married a few months ago. The Bulandshahr native was shot in his stomach. Relatives said his wife Shaziya is pregnant.

29) Amaan: The cause of the 17-year-olds death and how he was killed could not be ascertained. However, his relatives informed that he was admitted in Lok Nayak Hospital.

30) Hashim: The 17-year-old was killed in Mustafabad and his relatives identified his body on Thursday.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said the Balakot airstrikes had sent out a clear message that infrastructure across the border could not be used as safe havens for terrorists.

New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said the Balakot air strikes had sent out the clear message that infrastructure across the border could not be used as safe havens for terrorists.

Addressing a seminar on 'Air Power in No War, No Peace Scenario', Singh hailed the 40 CRPF martyrs of the Pulwama terror attack and saluted the soldiers who carried out the Balakot airstrikes.

"If we've to be prepared for the tasks assigned to us, then it's important we maintain credible deterrence at land, air and sea at all times," he said at the Centre for Air Power Studies here.

Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and Indian Air Force chief RK Bhadauria also spoke at the event. Rawat said the clear message from the Balakot strikes was that the kind of "proxy war" perpetrated on India "will not be tolerated". IAF Chief RKS Bhadauria highlighted the need for new indigenous technology in warfare and urged DRDO to develop such weapons.

"The Balakot air strikes conveyed India's clear message that infrastructure across the border won't be a safe haven for terrorists," the Defence Minister said.

"For Pakistan, employment of terrorism against India is a low-cost option. We have taught a lesson to Pakistan on this. Through Balakot, we have indicated that terrorist camps across Line of Control are no longer secure place for terrorists," Singh added.

On 26 February last year, Indian Air Force jets crossed over to Pakistan and attacked a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Balakot. The strike followed 12 days after the 14 February terror attack in Pulwama that killed 40 CRPF personnel in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir.

Singh said the security scenario had changed in the last few years and incidents of cross border terrorism are examples of the new warfare that has forced the rewriting of doctrines across the border.

"The security scenario has completely changed in the last few years. Kargil and incidents of cross border terrorism are examples of new kind of warfare. Hybrid warfare is the reality of the present day. There is no clear beginning and end in this changing scenario of conflict," he said.

Addressing the gathering, Rawat highlighted the significance of "credible deterrence" in warfare.

"If we've to be prepared for the tasks assigned to us then it's important we maintain credible deterrence at land, air and sea at all times.

"Deterrence comes from keeping every personnel trained and motivated. he credible deterrence comes from the will of the military leadership and intent of political leadership while taking the tough decision. This was amply shown after Kargil, Uri attacks and Pulwama attack," he said.

"We had an edge over Pakistan Air Force in terms of Beyond Visual Range Missile capability at the time of Kargil. We allowed that to slip and thereafter it took a decade and half in our struggle to acquisition process to be able to get better capability," the Air Force chief said in his speech.

This would soon materialise with the induction of the Rafale, he said.

"In air engagement, especially in a deeply contested area, it is important to to have a weapons edge. Once we retain this edge,it is important that we don't allow to slip back this edge," he added.

Hailing the government's decision to carry out the Balakot strikes, Bhadauria said it was a "tough and bold decision to strike at the heart of terrorist training camps deep inside Pakistan across the Line of Control".

"IAF successfully struck the target chosen. Pakistan Air Force responded 30 hours later with a large package of aircraft under Operation Swift Retort. IAF ensured they weren't able to hit targets. They were in a hurry to disengage.They were doing it for their domestic audience," he said.
The Pakistani rulers are seeing a lot of anger. The reason for his disillusionment is the approval of the defense deals after the arrival of the US President in India. Let us tell you that Pakistani leaders are making provocative statements the day. In this episode, now the Chief of the Pakistan Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan has expressed the shock that the Pakistani Air Force is ready to face any threat.

For your information, let us tell you that on 26 February last year, the Indian Air Force fighter planes had airstrikes at the training camps of Jaish-e-Mohammad in Balakot, Pakistan in which many terrorists were killed. The Indian Air Force carried out this airstrike in retaliation after the Pulwama terror attack. 40 CRPF jawans were killed in Pulwama terror attack.

Pakistan Air Force aircraft infiltrated Indian territory on February 27 after an Indian Air Force air strike. Pakistan named this intrusion Operation Swift Retort. After this infiltration, Indian planes had fired Pakistani fighter jets. Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan was speaking on this occasion.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 06:02:47|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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ATHENS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Greece proceeds to the upgrade of controls at its borders on land and at sea as part of measures to address both the migrant flows and the novel coronavirus outbreak, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday, according to Greek national news agency AMNA.

With three confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in Greece within 24 hours -- a woman and her child in Thessaloniki city in the north and another woman in Athens, Greek authorities are implementing measures to avert the spread of the virus.

"For this purpose, I have already given instructions to the shipping minister and the chief of the Coast Guard to significantly increase the number of boats and patrols around the islands of the Eastern Aegean," said the prime minister, explaining that the border controls will be increased in accordance with international law.

The government has already cancelled carnival and Clean Monday events nationwide scheduled until Monday.

In coming days, Mitsotakis will visit the islands, which have received the bulk of refugees and migrants in recent years, according to an e-mailed press announcement issued from his office. The visit comes after a "constructive" meeting with local government representatives from the islands of Samos, Lesvos and Chios on Thursday.

Protestors clashed with police forces on Wednesday on Lesvos and Chios during rallies against the government's plan to construct new camps on the islands to decongest the overcrowded existing facilities. More than 60 people were slightly injured in the clashes.

On Thursday, local government officials welcomed the government's decision to strengthen border controls and accelerate asylum procedures and returns for those not eligible, according to the press release.

The two sides agreed that the existing problematic camps should be replaced by new ones and that measures to support locals should be implemented, the press statement added.

More than one million refugees and migrants have reached Greece since 2015, mainly coming from Turkish shores. Most continued their travel to central and northern European countries until the Balkan route via Greece's northern borders was sealed.

Despite a dramatic drop in numbers, tens of thousands of people continue risking their lives to reach Greece every year, according to official data.
The LA Sheriffs Department is reportedly investigating allegations that graphic photos from the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his daughter were shared among some of its deputies.

Sources told the Los Angeles Times that first responders had discussed the topic of sharing photos of the scene in the days after the crash. One, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he had seen such a photo on another officials phone.

A sheriffs department confirmed to the paper that the matter is being looked into. It is unclear how many people are being investigated.

If the reports are correct, the penalties for anyone involved could be severe; as a police procedure professional told the Times, sharing such photos without authorisation is a cardinal sin in law enforcement.

The head of the sheriffs information bureau said that families had been contacted after the Times began investigating the allegations.

The 26 January crash, in which Bryant died along with eight others, occurred in poor conditions in Calabasas, north-west of Los Angeles. Bryants wife has since filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company that owned the helicopter.
President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday discussed implementing agreements for Syria's northern region of Idlib after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed by Syrian fire, Russia's foreign minister said Friday.

"There is always room for dialogue. Today there were phone talks between presidents Putin and Erdogan... The conversation was detailed and devoted to the necessity to do everything" to implement agreements on Idlib, Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

Russia was also ready to help improve the security of Turkish troops in Idlib, Lavrov said. He said Russia expressed its "condolences" for the deaths while adding "such tragedies" could be averted if Turkey gave accurate coordinates for the location of its troops.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
China is implementing targeted policies and taking solid actions to minimize the economic impact from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, with a dual approach of ensuring both epidemic prevention and work resumption.

A worker welds boat parts at a workshop of a boat manufacturing company in east Chinas Jiangsu Province, Feb. 21, 2020. To reduce the losses caused by the novel coronavirus epidemic, workers of the factory have been working overtime to complete overseas orders. Wang Hao/Peoples Daily Online

China and the world are closely related, so the country will fulfill its responsibility of safeguarding global public health security, and stick to its original intention of contributing to global economic growth through its own development.

At such a time it is even more important to view Chinas development in a comprehensive, dialectical and long-term perspective, and to strengthen and firm up confidence. The important speech delivered by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee at a meeting to advance the work on coordinating the prevention and control of the COVID-19 and economic and social development in Beijing has demonstrated Chinas confidence to meet its goals for social and economic development.

Economy is a dynamic and circulating system that cant withstand long-term stoppage. The Chinese people are fighting day and night to mitigate the losses caused by the epidemic. The governments have mobilized regions at different levels of risks to take differentiated prevention and control measures, smoothed the flow of labor and logistics, and lifted restriction on transportation of cargos.

The enterprises have taken innovative measures to resume production and work, such as chartering airplanes and high-speed trains to take employees back to work. In the meantime, farmers across the country are also busy ploughing and preparing for farm works.

The epidemic wont destroy the Chinese economy. International observers believe that as labor, raw materials, and export of products are guaranteed, Chinas economy will certainly go back to normal at an early date.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that she expects Chinas economy to return to normal in the second quarter of 2020. Stephen Roach, a senior fellow at Yale Universitys Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, said as the epidemic is gradually controlled, Chinas economy may bounce back in the future, adding that I'm still very optimistic on the prospects for the Chinese economy.

Workers check machines at a workshop of Ningbo Jieli Cosmetical Package company in Yuyao, east Chinas Zhejiang Province, Feb.25, 2020. Enterprises in the city have smoothly restarted production, making the most of intelligent equipment such as automated production lines and intelligent robots. Photo by Zhang Hui, Peoples Daily Online

In the era of economic globalization, countries are linked with and dependent on one another, and have emerged as a community with a shared future and common interests. Numerous facts have proved that the world will do well only when China does well.

According to a Morgan Stanley analyst, in recent days, investors have been seeking to track Chinas resumption of production, which indicates keen attention paid by the international market.

China is striving to deepen opening up and international cooperation, and strengthen communication and coordination with its economic and trade partners. The country gives priority to guaranteeing production and supply resumption of leading companies and key links in an effort to maintain stability of the global supply chain, demonstrating a sense of responsibility of a major country for global development.

The impact of the epidemic on Chinas economy is short-lived, if observed in a comprehensive, dialectical and long-term perspective. Chinas economy is resilient; the domestic demand is large; and the industrial foundation is solid, which indicates that the fundamentals sustaining sound economic growth have not changed.

China is the worlds second largest economy, largest manufacturing country, and an important hub of the global supply chain. It is also the worlds largest trader of goods, second largest destination of foreign capital inflow and second-largest recipient of foreign direct investment. Chinas per capita GDP has reached $10,000, and the number of middle-income earners in the country has exceeded 400 million. It is the worlds fastest-growing consumer market.

Recently, multiple foreign manufacturing companies have restarted production and work in China, including Tesla, BMW, Toyota, Samsung, Airbus, and Honeywell, and some foreign-funded companies have signed contracts to enter the Chinese market on the internet.

This fully shows that Chinas comprehensive competitive advantage in attracting foreign investment has not changed, and foreign investors confidence in China and their investment strategies have not changed.

Looking at opportunities through challenges, we can better see the potential and prospects of Chinas economy.

Some international observers noticed that Chinas national anti-epidemic fight has boosted the homebody economy and cloud lifestyles, and nurtured new business models such as intelligent manufacturing, unmanned delivery, online consumption, and health care industries. This has not only met the needs of the people and unleashed emerging consumption potential, but also opened up a new space for high-quality economic development.

In addition, to defeat the epidemic, China is increasing support for the research and development of reagents, medicines, and vaccines, and accelerating the development of biomedicine, medical equipment, 5G network, and industrial Internet. It is foreseeable that after the epidemic is defeated, Chinas economic development will gain stronger new momentum.

China has the ability and confidence to overcome the epidemic, and it is fully confident to turn pressure into impetus and convert crisis into opportunity to achieve economic and social development tasks. The stable development of Chinas economy will surely continue to inject confidence and momentum into global growth.
India, in a stern response to Pakistan at the UNHRC on Friday, asserted that the 'international community cannot be misled' by the country. The Indian diplomat at United Nations, Animesh Choudhury exercising the right of reply, underlined Pakistan's 'dismal' record of human rights. Speaking at the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council which is being held here in Switzerland from February 24 to March 20, he said, "International community can't be misled by Pakistani hysterical reactions at all international fora to malign India. The world knows about dismal human rights records of Pakistan and a tight control can't hide it."

In his response, Animesh Choudhury took on Pakistan over multiple issues, including illegal occupation in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir PoK, terrorism amongst other issues. He said, "End the illegal and forcible occupation and reverse demographic changes in PoK and territories under its control. Third, stop public advocacy and support for terrorists by Pakistan leadership at the highest level."

READ| Nankana Sahib attack: VHP urges UNHRC to take cognizance, slams Pakistan

"Fourth, take structural reforms to develop a semblance of democracy in Pakistan, fifth, end harassement and execution of minorities through misuse of blasphemy law. Sixth, end forced conversations and marriages of women and girls from Hindu, Christian and Sikh religions. Seventh, stop killing and targetting political dissidents and legitimate criticism in Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Eighth, prevent forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of journalists and human rights activists by its security agencies. Ninth, stop religious persecution against Shias, Ahmadiyas, Ismailia and Hazaras. Tenth, stop recruitment of children for terror activities including suicide bombing in other countries." he added.

India on J&K

Jammu and Kashmir "was, is and shall forever" remain an integral part of India, a top Indian diplomat said at the UN Human Rights Council's meeting on Wednesday, a day after Pakistan sought the international community's intervention on the Kashmir issue. He called for decisive action against states who direct, control, fund and shelter terrorists, in an obvious reference to Pakistan, which is accused by its neighbours of providing safe havens to terror groups.

His remarks came a day after Pakistan's Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari on Tuesday alleged that India continues to violate the human rights of the Kashmiri people and demanded the immediate repeal of all actions by India on August 5 last year. India abrogated the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 on August 5 and bifurcated it into two Union territories.

READ| PM Modi a 'strong' man, capable of dealing with 'terrorism', says US President Trump

READ| Venezuela wins UNHR council seat despite record of human rights abuses

(With PTI inputs)




The Youlou Arts Foundations After School Art Club Project is all about encouraging children to be inventive and creative and having fun while learning.

On Thursday, January 23rd, 2020, the Youlou Arts Foundation (YAF) launched its latest project - an After School Art Club - with students from the Sion Hill Government (Primary) School.





This project has been in the making for some time, but the YAF was determined to iron out the issues before launching.





As such, therefore, The Youlou Arts organizers were able to resolve the nagging issues such as transportation, the time and day to offer the programme, and finding an art instructor.





Resolving these issues was considered paramount to making the project a success.





At the moment, there are 15 children signed up for the After School Art Club.





The Art Club is geared for children between the age of 5 to 12. It meets once per week for roughly and hour and a half.





And the Art Club is not only about providing an opportunity for children who do not receive a visual arts education at school. It provides a space where children can have fun, while developing various skills such as language, motor, and social skills. They also learn how to make decisions and take risks.





In essence, the Project is aimed at getting the children to use their imagination  to be inventive and creative - and have fun while learning.




A senator has proposed the State Police Bill for consideration and passage by the Senate.

The bill, sponsored by former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu (PDP, Enugu), seeks to establish the federal police, state police, National Police Service Commission, National Police Council, and State Police Service Commission for the states.

The bill, after deliberation, will be sent to the constitution review committee.

It was first introduced to the eighth Senate on June 12, 2018, but did not scale through. Mr Ekweremadu was the chairman of the committee at the time.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how he and other lawmakers spent N8 billion in a failed constitution amendment.

Details of the proposed legislation seen by this newspaper, shows that the bill will allow an independent state police in which the governors would be empowered to appoint commissioners of police in their states.

According to the bill, the existing federal police will be restructured and be responsible for the maintenance of public security, preservation of public order and security of persons and property throughout the federation to the extent provided for under the constitution or by an Act of the National Assembly.

Specifics

The bill further states that the state police shall be organised and administered in accordance with such provisions as may be prescribed by a law of the house of assembly of a state subject to the framework and guidelines established by an Act of the National Assembly.

For instance, the commissioner of state police

*Shall be appointed by the governor of the state on the advice of the National Police Service Commission, subject to confirmation of such appointment by the House of Assembly of the state.

* Shall be in office for a period of five years only or until he attains a retirement age prescribed by law, whichever is earlier.

* Shall be given lawful directives with respect to the maintenance and securing of public safety and public order as he may consider necessary by the governor and the Commissioner of Police shall comply with those directives.

* Where the Commissioner of Police feels that any order given is unlawful or contradicts general policing standards or practice, he may request that the matter be referred to the State Police Service Commission for review.

* The decision of the State Police Service Commission shall be final and shall not be inquired into by any court.

The document further reveals that an Act of the National Assembly may prescribe a bi-annual certification review of the activities of the state police by the National Police Service Commission.

This, it said, is to ensure they meet up with approved national standards and guidelines of policing and their operations do not undermine national integrity, promote ethnic, tribal or sectional agenda or marginalise any segment of the society within the state.

Removal of commissioner of state police

A state police commissioner shall only be removed by the governor upon the recommendation of the National Police Service Commission praying that he be so removed on any of the following grounds:

* Misconduct in the performance of his official duties.

*Serious breach of policing standards.

* Conviction of any offence by a court of law or tribunal, including administrative tribunals set up by the police authorities for internal disciplining of police officers.

* Indictment by a judicial body or tribunal for corruption, fraud, embezzlement or other unacceptable conducts in office.

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* Bankruptcy.

* Mental Incapacity.

* Participation in political activities of any kind either within or outside the state and including sponsoring or giving aid to any political group of movement.

It is however, provided that such removal shall be subject to approval by two-thirds majority of the House of Assembly of the State.

The National Police Service Commission shall comprise:

* A Chairman to be appointed by the President subject to the confirmation of the Senate.

* Two members representing the National Human Rights Commission.

* One representative of the Public Complaints Commission.

* A representative of the Nigerian Labour Congress to be appointed by the president of the Nigerian Labour Congress.

* Six retired police officers not below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police representing each of the geo-political zones of the country to be appointed by the president subject to confirmation of the Senate.

* A representative of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to be appointed by the president of the NBA.

* A representative of the Nigerian Union of Journalists to be appointed by the president of the Union.

* The Attorney General of each of the States of the Federation.

Functions of National Police Service Commission

The functions of the commission includes

* The appointment of persons to offices (other than office of the Inspector-General of Police) in the Federal Police.

* Exercising disciplinary control over members of the Federal Police.

* Recommending to the governor of a state, the appointment of the Commissioner of Police, Deputy Commissioners of Police and Assistant Commissioners of Police of the State Police based on a list submitted to it by the State Police Service Commission of the relevant state and subject to confirmation by the House of Assembly of the State.

* Recommending to the Governor, the discipline and removal of the Commissioner of Police, Deputy Commissioners of Police and Assistant Commissioners of Police of the State Police.

* Supervising the activities of the Federal Police and State Police to the extent provided for in this constitution or by an Act of the National Assembly.

* Prescribing standards for all police forces in the country in training, criminal intelligence data bases, forensic laboratories and render assistance to State Police in areas as may be requested by such State Police.

The State Police Service Commission shall comprise:

* A Chairman to be appointed by the Governor subject to the confirmation of the State House of Assembly.

* A representative of the Federal Government to be appointed by the National Police Service Commission.

* Two members to be appointed by the National Human Rights Commission who must be indigenes of the respective state.

* One representative of the Public Complaints Commission.

* A representative of the Nigerian Labour Congress to be appointed by the chairman of the state branch.

* Three retired police officers to be appointed by the Governor one from each senatorial zone of the state subject to confirmation of the State House of Assembly.

* A representative of the Nigerian Bar Association to be appointed by the President of the Nigerian Bar Association who must be a lawyer from the respective state.

* A representative of the Nigerian Union of Journalists to be appointed by the chairman of the state branch.

Functions of the State Police Service Commission includes

* Recommending the appointment of a Commissioner of Police, Deputy Commissioner of Police and Assistant Commissioner of Police to the National Police Service Commission.

* The appointment, discipline and removal of members of the state police below the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police; and other functions and powers of the commission as may be specified either in the Constitution or a Law of the House of Assembly of a State.

* In recommending the appointment of a Commissioner of Police, the Commission shall propose three qualified candidates to the National Police Service Commission.
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

Police announced Thursday that they've arrested a suspect in connection with the robbery of a 68-year-old man's recyclables in the city's Bayview neighborhood.

According to police, officers have arrested 20-year-old Dewayne Grayson on suspicion of robbery, hate crime, elder abuse and probation violation in connection with the robbery, which happened Saturday about 5:30 p.m. at a San Francisco Housing Authority complex on Osceola Lane.

The robbery was caught on tape in a widely shared viral video.

Grayson is allegedly the person who filmed the incident and uploaded it to social media. Officers took him into custody Thursday morning in the 100 block of Kirkwood Avenue, police said.

Investigators have identified a second suspect in connection with the robbery and officers are currently looking for him, according to police.

In the video, released Sunday, suspects appear to rob an Asian man of a cart of recyclables that he had collected from the area. During the alleged robbery, several bystanders appear to film and taunt the victim, and at least one person can be heard saying, "I hate Asians."

Police described the victim as a 68-year-old man, but have not released his name. Although he complained of pain from being struck on the back of the head, he had no visible injuries, police said.

MORE NEWS: CDC transfers coronavirus patient to San Mateo County

In a second video that surfaced on social media, the victim can be seen talking to two private security officers. Police said they are in touch with the representatives of the security company that patrols the public housing in the area, according to police.

In response to the robbery, Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton, whose district includes the Bayview, held a "Community Unity and Healing Rally" on Thursday afternoon at the complex where the alleged incident occurred. Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, Assemblymember David Chiu, D-San Francisco, and members of the city's faith-based community also were there.

The case remains under investigation, police said.

Anyone with information is being asked to call police's anonymous tip line at 415-575-4444 or to text a tip to TIP411 with SFPD at the beginning of the message.

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.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA and Boeing will host a media teleconference at 11 a.m. EST Friday, March 6, to discuss the outcome of the joint independent review team investigation into the primary issues detected during the company's uncrewed Orbital Flight Test in December as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

Participants in the briefing will be:

Douglas Loverro , associate administrator of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate

associate administrator of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate Jim Chilton , senior vice president at Boeing Space and Launch

, senior vice president at Boeing Space and Launch Kathy Lueders , manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program

, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program John Mulholland , vice president and manager of Boeing's CST-100 Starliner Program

Audio of the teleconference will stream live online at:

https://www.nasa.gov/live

To participate in the teleconference, media must contact Joshua Finch at [email protected] by 10 a.m. Friday for the dial-in information.

SOURCE NASA

Related Links

http://www.nasa.gov


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The Jewish vote in presidential elections always goes to the Democrats, with only a small percentage going to the GOP. In 2016, Hillary Clinton received 71 percent of it, while Donald Trump got only 24 percent. Its a small votejust 3 percent of the total in 2016, according to exit pollsbut its important because in states like Florida, that small percentage could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

If Bernie Sanders becomes the nominee of the Democratic Party in 2020, that could tilt things toward defeat.

A recent Pew Research Poll reveals that 31 percent of American Jews support Joe Biden for the nomination, while only 11 percent support Sanders. While 13 percent of Jews approve of Trumps performance as president, 48 percent do not. Twenty-four percent of Jews say they will vote for Trump in 2020, matching his 2016 support, but just 57 percent say theyll vote for the Democratic candidate.

Dem Pro-Israel Group Goes on Air in Nevada Attacking Sanders

The Jewish vote is certainly not a monolith. Some Jews will support Trump because they agree with his Israel policy while disagreeing on domestic policies; others don't agree with Sanders but might vote for him anyway because they think it important to cast their vote for a candidate, who if he wins, would be the first Jewish president in the United States.

Nevertheless, as Frank Newport shows in Polling Matters, most American Jews support Israel and want a presidential candidate to be pro-Israel. He writes: The overwhelming majority of Jews were more sympathetic to Israel than the Palestinians in 2001-2014, and I see no signs that this relationship has changed in a meaningful way in recent years. Today, 86 percent of Jews are sympathetic to Israel, according to the results of a 2015-2019 poll sample. It declined a bit from an earlier sample, but Newport writes that it is not meaningfully different from the 93% we found in the 2001-2014 sample.

On Sunday, Sanders tweeted that he would not attend the forthcoming AIPAC conference, because the pro-Israel lobbying group provides a platform for leaders who express bigotry and oppose Palestinian rights. Immediately, he was met with a barrage of criticism from mainstream liberal Jewish groups. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, who came from the Obama administration, called Sanders tweet offensive and irresponsible. Similar remarks came from David Harris, head of the American Jewish Committee, and from Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, and from the Jewish Democratic Council of America. Their followers are likely not to vote for Sanders should he get the nomination.

Story continues

On domestic matters, American Jews, outside of the Orthodox communities, have been liberal since the days of F.D.R. and the New Deal. They have supported social reform, government measures to help the poor, and civil rights for African-Americans. Many times, Jewish groups have proudly displayed the photo of Martin Luther King. Jr. marching in Selma, Alabama in 1965. Standing in the front row with King is the prominent Rabbi, Abraham Joshua Heschel.

New York City was the exception in the 1930s and 40s, when Jewish trade unionism flourished, and a portion of working-class Jews in the city predominated in the ranks of the American Communist Party. One section of the city in the Bronx was called the Red Belt, since its voters regularly cast their ballots on the line of the American Labor Party, which was taken over by the Communists in the 1940s. But during the Cold War, New York Jews deserted the ALP and supported a new liberal line created by a prominent anti-Communist who led the hatters union, called the Liberal Party.

To try and maintain the Jewish vote, Sanders has noticeably begun to identify himself publicly as Jewish, in contrast to his presidential campaign in 2016, when he described his ethnicity as Polish. Last Tuesday, his campaign released a new video in which he proudly identifies himself as a Jew, emphasizes that many in his fathers family perished in the Holocaust, and calls attention to the growing threat of anti-Semitism in America.

Sanders also goes after Donald Trump, and a neo-Nazi group is shown on camera explaining that Trumps election emboldened them.

Sanders also wrote a short column about his Jewish identity late last year for Jewish Currents. In his article, titled How to Fight Antisemitism in America, Sanders, referring to the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, wrote that President Donald Trumps own words helped inspire the worst act of antisemitic violence in American history. Declaring I am a proud Jewish American, he said that anti-Semitism is not only a threat to Jews, it is also a threat to democratic governance itself.

He could have picked any of several mainstream Jewish publications to make his views known, but true to his socialist ideals, he chose to proclaim his Jewish identity in Jewish Currents, a small-circulation left-wing magazine that began publishing decades ago as a publication of the American Communist Party, and later, became a magazine identified with young Jewish New Leftists, and in this era as a publication speaking to the concerns of todays young Jewish radicals.

Sanders is also anxious to show that he supports Israel. He explained that I have a connection to Israel going back many years. In 1963, I lived on a kibbutz near Haifa. It was there that I saw and experienced for myself many of the progressive values upon which Israel was founded. I think it is very important for everyone, but particularly for progressives, to acknowledge the enormous achievement of establishing a democratic homeland for the Jewish people after centuries of displacement and persecution.

In other words, he is not anti-Israel, as many have argued. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof seconded that, writing in a recent column, The accusation that Sanders, who lived on an Israeli kibbutz for a time and would be the first Jewish president, is anti-Israel is absurd.

What Sanders did not explain, but which the Times of Israel did, is that the kibbutz he lived and worked in was not associated with the mainstream labor Zionist-socialist movement, but was part of a youth group affiliated with the far-left Mapam, called Hashomer Hatzair. Its members considered themselves Marxist-Leninists and Zionists, who supported the Soviet Union and its foreign policy during the Cold War years. Indeed, when Stalin died, its newspaper, On Guard, ran the headline "The Progressive World Mourns the Death of J.V. Stalin."

Being in such a kibbutz doesnt mean he couldnt have been pro-Israel, of course. Its just interesting that he glossed over that part of it, which could come up during a general election campaign.

Moreover, Sanders campaigns official surrogates, who often appear with Sanders or speak on his behalf, include the virulently anti-Israel Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who supports the BDS movement, and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. (You can find what they said that is anti-Semitic in Noah Rothmans column). To give you one example, in 2012, Omar spoke about the evil doings of Israel, and later argued that it was moneyIts all about the Benjamins, babythat explained American Jews support of Israel. As for Tlaib, she said after her election that her colleagues in the House who oppose BDS forgot what country they represent, thus repeating an old anti-Semitic trope.

Then, last Tuesday, Sanders added a third person to his list of surrogates, another openly anti-Zionist individual, an Arab-American named Amer Zahr, who describes himself as a comedian, activist, and professor. His tweets reveal his outlook.

And these:

These extreme views are hardly going to be seen as worthy by most liberal Jews, including those opposed to expansion of settlements and Benjamin Netanyahus foreign and domestic policy, including his outreach to authoritarian populist leaders in Europe.

It takes little imagination to see what the right and the Trumpists will do with this information. They will portray Sanders as a communist-leaning opponent of Israel, who appoints as surrogates individuals whose claim to fame is strong opposition to Israel.

On Tuesday, Matt Brooks, chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition, went on Fox and Friends to say that if Sanders was elected, he would be the first enemy of Israel in the White House." One needn't endorse that view to see what an issue this is going to be. Brooks also said this group would be premiering an anti-Sanders ad during Tuesday's night's debate on CBS. He didn't mention that it would only air in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Arizona.

At the Tuesday Democratic debate in Charleston, South Carolina, the candidates were asked what they would do about the Trump administration moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Would you move the U.S. embassy back to Tel Aviv?, CBS moderator Major Garrett asked Sanders. The answer is, its something we would take into consideration, Sanders answered, while calling Netanyahu a reactionary racist.

Already, some Jewish voters in Florida are suspicious about whether the Democrats really support Israel. Of course, most Democrats do, but Trumps attacks on a Sanders campaign would do a lot to disabuse them of that notion. If they decide not to vote for Sanders and leave the line blank while some vote for Trump, an election rout in Florida, and across the country, will be the result.

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KAMPALA, Uganda - She wakes every day long before dawn to chat with her three stranded daughters on the other side of the world in Chinas locked-down city of Wuhan, anxious to see they have started a new day virus-free.

If I dont get a reply it worries me, but if I get a reply from any of them I say, Thank you, Jesus, Margaret Ntale said.

Many countries evacuated citizens from Wuhan after the virus outbreak started there, but thousands of students from African countries have been left behind. Despite pleas with governments for evacuation, several African countries have said its safer to stay in place.

More than 4,000 African students have been estimated to be in Wuhan, a result of Chinas push to expand its influence on the youthful African continent.

Bringing them home, governments say, is risky in sub-Saharan Africa, which on Friday confirmed its first case of the virus, in Nigerias city of Lagos. Just two cases have been confirmed in North Africa, in Egypt and Algeria. Health systems can be weak, and quarantining dozens or hundreds of returning people is a major challenge.

That leaves African students stuck on ever-emptier campuses in Wuhan, worrying about running out of food or the money to buy it. Some governments have begun sending thousands of dollars to help them get by.

I have a few friends who are not able to get things like detergent, sanitary towels, and then also not having food, like such things like that, said one of Ntales daughters roommates, Joanna Aloyo, via a messaging app.

On Thursday, Ntale joined other parents in Ugandas capital, Kampala, to talk to local reporters about their fears. And she started to cry.

You can never know what is going to happen tomorrow. This is what scares me, Ntale said. The students are traumatized and equally terrified. It makes all of us break down.

The uncertainty about their children is psychological torture, another parent said. At least 70 Ugandan students are stranded in Wuhan.

Ugandas health minister, Jane Aceng, could not be reached immediately. But two weeks ago she said the ministry was looking at the cost to isolate, monitor and manage in the event of an outbreak among the group if repatriated.

Meanwhile she has said the government would send $60,000 in emergency funds to be distributed among students in Wuhan.

But the parents said their children had not received the money.

It is a bit upsetting that it appears no serious action has taken place, said one parent, Cecilia Oyet. I think that kind of inaction or slow action sends a message to those students out there, and even to the youth within the country. It sends a message either that we as fellow Ugandans, we dont care or that they as the youth, they dont matter, and we feel it is not okay.

The parents communicate with their children by phone and the occasional video chat. They are increasingly alarmed as the death toll from the virus has grown, though some speak of trying to remain positive.

Oyet, whose daughter is a medical student at Wuhan University of Science and Technology, recalled that about two weeks ago a student sent a message saying that people are dying here in large numbers and the bodies are being cremated. Can you imagine us dying here and you dont even see our bodies? Please do something before we become part of the statistics.

Other countries have announced plans to send students money. Botswanas government has said each of its students in Wuhan will receive an additional allowance of about $144 a month and a local company will be engaged to deliver food, water, face masks and even provide psychosocial support services.

But thats not enough, some students and parents say. After some called Ghanas government callous for not evacuating its students, President Nana Akufo-Addo last week said it had not been ruled out but it would be done in a way to avoid fear and panic among the public.

In Ethiopia, where some worried families gathered in the capital, Addis Ababa, seeking evacuations, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed this week said Chinese President Xi Jinping assured him in a phone call that China would provide special care and support to stranded students.

Chinese authorities have issued statements saying students are receiving food and other necessities. But Kenyas government raised eyebrows last week when it announced on Twitter that any communication from the government to stranded Kenyans in Wuhan must be done through the Chinese government.

Spirits among some students have been low. Until Thursday night when South Africa announced that more than 130 citizens in Wuhan would be evacuated, the small island nations of Seychelles and Mauritius were the only countries in sub-Saharan Africa to bring citizens home.

In an open letter to Nigerias president published earlier this month by the Sahara Reporters website, a Nigerian stranded in Wuhan, Ayodeji Adetunji Idowu, made an urgent plea, saying the mood here is fast turning to frustration, helplessness, and despondency because of our failure to receive diplomatic support to be evacuated.

While Nigerias ambassador sent the community a personal donation of about $2,850, it saddens us that days and weeks have gone past ... to get a favourable response from authorities, Idowu wrote.

___

AP journalists Cara Anna in Johannesburg and Francis Kokutse in Accra, Ghana, contributed.
Bengaluru, Feb 29 : Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa faces an imminent revolt if he does not make a ruling BJP legislator a minister soon in compliance with the wish of another Lingayat seer in the southern state.

"If Yediyurappa does not make BJP's Gulbarga South MLA Dattatreya Patil Revoor a minister, I will get 10 ruling party legislators resign and reduce the government to a minority, forcing the Chief Minister to resign," said Srishaila Saranga mutt seer Deshikendra Swami at a meeting in Kalaburagi on Friday.

Kalaburagi is about 575km north of Bengaluru in the southern state.

Addressing a gathering of the Lingayat community, to which Revoor belongs, the seer said though he wanted Yediyurappa to complete the remaining 3-year term in office and the BJP to return to power for another 5-year term, his continuation would become untenable if the 2-time lawmaker was not made minister in the next cabinet expansion.

"Yediyurappa will be in office for the next three years if he makes Revoor minister. If not, I will ask him (latter) also to resign, as does not need to be in politics anymore because he has a house, many acres of agricultural land and is very rich," the seer told the gathering in Kannada.

In his nomination to contest in the May 2018 assembly elections, Revoor, 37, declared in an affidavit Rs 17-crore assets, including immovable properties.

Wishing Yediyurappa to remain in office for the next three years and return as Chief Minister again for another term, the seer said if he (Yediyurappa) goes, then the Lingayat community would not get an opportunity to have its leader as Chief Minister again for at least 30 years.

Yediyurappa, 77, who hails from Shikaripura in Shivamogga district in the state's central or Malnad region, is considered the tallest Lingayat leader of the politically powerful community, which accounts for 18 per cent of the 6.5-crore state's population.

Though a dozen BJP legislators won from the erstwhile Hyderabad-Karnataka region in the May 2018 Assembly elections, only Prabhu Chauhan from the adjacent Bidar district was made minister for animal husbandry.

The Saranga mutt's seer threat comes a month after Veerashaiva Lingayat Panchamasali seer Swami Vachananda, 35, dared Yediyurappa to make 3 of the community legislators ministers ahead of the second cabinet expansion on February 6.

At a Lingayat gathering in the state's Davengere district on January 15, Vachananda told Yediyurappa to make party's Bilgi legislator Murgesh Nirani Minister, failing which the community would withdraw its support to the ruling party.

Hiryur is about 300km northwest of the southern state's capital Bengaluru.

Ticking off the young seer, a defiant Yediyurappa, however, threatened to walk out of the meeting if he was blackmailed for making Lingayat MLAs ministers.

"You cannot threaten me saying your sub-sect (Veera Shaiva) community would not support the BJP in the next assembly or Lok Saba elections, due in 2023 and 2024," retorted Yediyurappa, reasserting his status as the community's strongman in the state.

In the second cabinet expansion, only 10 newly elected legislators who defected from the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) were made ministers, leaving 6 posts vacant in the 34-member ministry.

In the first cabinet expansion on August 20, 2019, 17 party legislators were made ministers.

Nirani and others, who were present on the dais, pacified Yediyurappa to take his seat and requested the seer to avoid making political speech on such occasions.

"The chief minister threatened to resign than succumb to pressures from religious or community followers," a party official told IANS then.
The covered business method programme at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board should be extended, but only if its overall effectiveness could be somehow restored, according to counsel at financial services companies.

CBMs were established by the America Invents Act (AIA) to create an efficient way to invalidate the numerous low-quality patents issued in the late 1990s and early 2000s covering methods of doing business in the financial sector.

The post-grant proceeding was highly sought after by those in the financial services industry, and proved to be a fairly popular tool shortly after the PTABs inception. Businesses filed 89 CBMs in 2013  the PTABs first full year in operation  and then 173 in 2014 and 131 the year after.

Just over 580 CBMs have been filed between 2012 and 2019.





The CBM programme is set to expire in less than seven months. AIA legislators reasoned that it should not take longer than seven to eight years to invalidate the bad patents CBMs were intended to target and thus that the programme should not last indefinitely.





But despite the programmes initial popularity and calls from some to prolong the life of CBMs, few industry stakeholders have been keen to champion an extension of the proceeding type, even though they have had several opportunities to do so.





The US House Judiciary Courts, Intellectual Property and Internet Subcommittee held a hearing to discuss CBMs in March 2018, including their potential amendment or extension. Eleanor Yost, shareholder at law firm Carlton Fields, wrote in the Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property that testimony was a far cry from the spirited debate about the programme before the AIAs passing.





A consensus on extending CBMs past their current sunshine date has subsequently yet to be reached.





The number of CBM petitions filed over the past three years (see above graph) indicates why this ambivalence was felt in Congress. Filings took a 62% drop in 2017 from the previous year  from 91 to 34  and later suffered an even steeper 82% fall from 46 petitions in 2018 to just 8 in 2019.

The drop last year is, of course, at least partly due to the fact that the CBM programme is set to expire on September 16 2020 and few businesses will be keen to spend time and money on these post-grant proceedings so close to the deadline.

TOP CBM FILERS Data taken from the Docket Navigator database shows that overall, tech companies have been bigger users of the CBM system than traditional financial services companies. The top three most prolific users between 2012 and December 31 2019 were Apple (55 CBM petitions), Google (43) and eBay (19). Apple and Google consistently rank in the top five users of the PTAB broadly. Within the top five CBM users list, only one (PNC Bank) could be considered to be a traditional financial services institution. Within the top 20, eight could be considered as such. But fintech companies have also made good use of the CBM programme. Large firms Fiserv (revenue $17 billion) and Square ($3 billion) achieved joint 14th place alongside larger companies such as American Express and Facebook.

The road to ambivalence

Financial industry sources contend that the reason for this decline in CBM filings and related industry ambivalence to the programmes survival is that a series of court rulings together stripped away the usefulness of this post-grant proceeding.

They explain that the PTAB instituted several CBMs over the years that were filed by technology companies looking to invalidate non-business method patents on inventions with clear and unambiguous technological aspects.





In several of these matters, the PTAB found in favour of the petitioner and thereby extended the scope of CBMs beyond what had been laid out in statute.





But in one case, Unwired Planet v Google, things were different. While the PTAB had found that a CBM could be filed against patents with claims that were incidental to financial activity, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the first instance judgment and narrowed the types of patents that were eligible for CBMs.





This decision raised the bar for CBM eligibility while leaving a split among PTAB panels regarding the proper eligibility standards for the post-grant proceeding unresolved. Those that once campaigned for the CBM were subsequently left disillusioned.





CBMs were ruined for financial services companies by the tech companies, who tried use the procedure for patents that were never intended to be covered by the legislation, says the general counsel at a financial services company in New York.





Sure, it would be nice to have CBM procedures that actually worked, but the courts completely gutted the proceeding because Google and others tried to extend it too far to cover them, so theres little point in getting the existing procedure extended.





Between the planned expiration of the transitional period and the court decisions that narrowly limited its usage, I dont think anyone is still using CBMs.





Another financial industry source agrees that CBMs were much more effective in the past than they are now, and that unless a serious effort is made to undo the past few years of case law, he and his colleagues are not particularly concerned about the programmes expiration.





Lewis Popovski, partner at Patterson Belknap in New York, adds that the US Supreme Courts decision in Alice v CLS Bank also made CBMs less valuable to businesses by giving litigators another means of invalidating patents on eligibility arguments.

Some use still

Not all financial businesses are as ambivalent about the expiration of CBMs, however. The head of IP at a fintech company says the end of CBMs will constitute the loss of one of his most effective and cost-efficient weapons against low-quality patents related to financial technologies.





We have been huge beneficiaries of the CBM, he says. Unlike inter partes reviews, CBMs have the advantage of not being subject to a draconian estoppel principle, which means we can lose at the PTAB and still make an effective case in the district courts.





He adds that he would like to see the good bits of CBMs, such as the provisions that allow parties to raise patent eligibility arguments at the PTAB, ported over to a different sort of post-grant proceeding, such as the IPR.





The financial industry source agrees that such a transfer of CBM provisions could be useful if it would allow him to mount arguments on written description and patent eligibility at the PTAB at the same time.

CBMs are a far cry from what they once were, and thus few stakeholders are particularly bothered about their survival.

But if the good parts of CBM proceedings were to be moved across to something else, or the proceedings were to be restored to their heyday in some other way, their glory could yet live on.

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Milan's Piazza del Duomo is typically thronged with hundreds of tourists.

But recent photos from Italy's fashion capital show only a few people standing in the massive plaza that surrounds a Gothic cathedral dating back to the 1300s.

As concerns of an outbreak of the new coronavirus, Covid 19, heighten in Italy, the streets of Milan have emptied and images show an eerie scene. Typically bustling cafes and shops are closed, and train stations look like ghost towns.

Italy had 447 cases of the pneumonia-like virus as of late Wednesday. Twelve people have died, all of them elderly.

Only 60 miles west of Milan, the Lombardy region has been hit especially hard. Ten towns are on army-guarded lock-downs. The region has the most cases with 305 patients  four of them children. The town of Veneto saw a spike of 28 cases overnight, bringing its total to 71.

ALSO: Maps: Cases of new coronavirus multiples across the globe

Italy sought to rally international support for its virus containment efforts Wednesday as people linked to the country fell ill across Europe and as far away as Brazil, and the U.N.'s health agency urged a scaled-up response.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte's government appealed to European neighbors for cooperation, not isolation and discrimination. Italy has been struggling to contain the rapidly spreading outbreak that made it the country with more coronavirus cases outside Asia than anywhere else.

Viruses dont know borders and they dont stop at them, Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza insisted at the start of a crisis meeting with World Health Organization and European Union representatives in Rome.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Amy Graff is a digital editor. Email her news tips at agraff@sfgate.com.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 01:49:14|Editor: yan

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BEIRUT, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad said on Friday that Prime Minister Hassan Diab will visit Arab countries soon to seek support for the country's economy, the National News Agency reported.

Abdel Samad's remarks came after a meeting of the council of ministers over what should be done to ease the financial and economic crisis in Lebanon.

The minister said Diab is keen to cooperate with Arab countries for the sake of Lebanon.

"We know that the Arabs have never given up on Lebanon and they will not do it," she quoted Diab as saying during the cabinet's meeting.

"Prime Minister Diab hopes to make this visit by mid-March," she added.

Diab vowed upon his appointment to create good relations with Arab countries and not to get involved in any regional conflict in a bid to protect Lebanon.
Will the truce between the US and the Taliban in Afghanistan hold and culminate in a peace agreement?

A week-long reduction in violence entered into force Friday afternoon, Washington time, between the US and Afghanistans extremist Taliban group.

The truce is a test for Taliban leaders, whether they will be able to control their armed cells scattered all over the country that has been war-torn for decades.

Intensive and complicated talks between US and Taliban representatives have been ongoing since December 2018, announced Taliban Spokesperson Dhabih-Allah Mogahed.

The talks led in September 2019 to the agreement to pull 5,400 US soldiers and close five US military bases within 135 days. There are some 12,000-13,000 US troops and other NATO forces in Afghanistan.

If the week passes peacefully, the US and Taliban will sign a peace agreement 29 February after which they will exchange prisoners of war. There are 5,000 Taliban and 1,000 US prisoners of war, according to international media reports.

It is yet unclear whether the US agreed to withdraw all its troops or leave some forces in Afghanistan in exchange for security guarantees that Afghanistan will not become the source of attacks against the US and its interests.

The Taliban was founded in 1994 by students of religious sciences in Afghanistan following the Mujahideen War and the withdrawal of the Soviets from the country in 1989. The Taliban took over Kabul in 1996 supported by the Pashtuns, the Afghan majority.

During their rule, which lasted until the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban adopted a strict interpretation of Islam, opposing the rights of women and minorities, and using the proceeds of opium production to finance its survival in power.

The Taliban hosted the terrorist Al-Qaeda organisation and refused to hand over its leadership to the US after Washington accused Al-Qaeda elements of involvement in the events of 11 September 2001.

The Afghan group currently controls more areas than it did after its overthrow two decades ago. The BBC estimates that the militant movement is active in 70 per cent of the country.

Since the movement is primarily supported by the Pashtuns, it is active in the regions and territories in which they constitute a majority, while it lacks social support in the regions inhabited by Uzbeks, Tajiks and Shia Hazaras.

The Taliban has engaged in a continuing war against any foreign presence, be it the US or NATO members, for the past two decades. Americas longest war, as described by US President Donald Trump, resulted in the death of 3,500 troops from the international forces, including 2,300 US soldiers. A UN report issued in February 2019 estimated 32,000 Afghan civilians were killed during this war.

The Watson Institute at Brown University said 58,000 security forces, 42,000 opposition forces  including the Taliban  and more than 38,000 Afghan civilians were killed in the war. The institute added that more than 2,400 US soldiers and close to 4,000 contractors were killed, and 20,000 were injured.

A number of US observers believe Washingtons withdrawal from Afghanistan could replicate the way it pulled out from Vietnam, while others believe the Americans are running away from a war in where they couldnt achieve total victory  the words used by Trump during his visit to Afghanistan in November 2019.

However, Trump wants to bring home the American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq, which will grant him a win against his Democratic opponents in the presidential race slated for November.

Reaching a settlement with the Taliban will enhance Trumps chances of renewing his term.

The move is not as easy as portrayed by Trumps supporters. The US withdrawal from Afghanistan could facilitate the Talibans rise to the helm of power, which in turn would result in the eruption of a new civil war in the country, particularly because the ruling regime and those that benefit from it will not let go of their interests.

Complicating the matter even further are squabbles within the regime in Kabul in opposition to the results of the presidential elections in which President Ashraf Ghani won a second term.

The elections were held in September 2019 and the results were announced two months later, resulting in conflicts due to poor turnout and fragile security conditions amid Taliban attacks.

Ghani won more than 50 per cent of the vote against his opponent Abdullah Abdullah, the executive president of Afghanistan, who garnered 39 per cent.

The elections were held amid US-Taliban talks, rendering the winning president a party in the talks.

Ghanis electoral win has made it more difficult for the government that rejected from the outset the talks.

Moreover, the Talibans return to power would draw the ire of India, China and Russia. These countries cant tolerate political Islamic groups, wherever they are located.

Indo-Pakistani relations could be further strained by the link between the Afghan Taliban and Pakistani political forces supporting their counterparts in Kashmir, divided between New Delhi and Islamabad.

A Taliban takeover of the country would be an implicit defeat for the US, which removed the Taliban from power two decades ago, before it recognised the group as a negotiating party and a group that controls Afghanistan on the ground.

For the Taliban to take over may open the door for division between Afghanistans ethnic, lingual and cultural groups.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 27 February, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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ABU QUEIDER, Israel  This was no ordinary Israeli politicians campaign stop.

Some 40 Bedouin women sat on plastic chairs in an open-air living room, a muddy desert village of flimsy shacks, tin roofs, wandering chickens and pitted dirt roads providing the backdrop.

Before them, as modestly dressed as her audience, stood Iman Khatib Yasin, a social worker running for a seat in Israels Parliament on the predominantly Arab slate known as the Joint List.

Voter turnout among Arab women has always been poor, she reminded them, before describing how things could change if they made their voices heard  and if they helped her make history as Israels first hijab-wearing lawmaker.

If were a big number, she said, were a strength that cannot be ignored.

Israeli Jews generally seem dispirited about having to vote for a third straight time in a year, but for Arab voters and their candidates, Mondays three-peat election is full of hope and promise. Buoyed by a strong showing in September, leaders of the combined slate of predominantly Arab parties known as the Joint List are hoping to improve on the 13 seats they won in the 120-seat Parliament, when they helped to nearly topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power.
A young man rides a bicycle on the campus of the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, Calif., on May 17, 2018. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

USC Ordered to Tighten Policies After $215 Million Sex Abuse Settlement

The U.S. Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced on Thursday that its demanding the University of Southern California (USC) to make sweeping changes to its Title IX procedures because the school failed to protect hundreds of female students from alleged sex abuses by an on-campus physician.

The announcement comes days after the Los Angeles-based school settled a lawsuit against George Tyndall, who was accused of preying on female student-patients over his 28-year tenure at USC Engemann Student Health Center as a full-time gynecologist. Tyndall continued to maintain his innocence, despite that more than 400 woman have accused him of sex offenses since May 2018, when it was made public that the OCR had been investigating him.

As part of the $215 million settlement, USC will pay at least $2,500 to nearly 18,000 women who were Tyndalls former patients during their time at USC, according to student newspaper Daily Trojan.

As a result of what the department describes as total and complete failure to protect students, the university was also ordered to overhaul its Title IX procedures and conduct a formal review of current and former employees to determine if they responded appropriately to notice of possible sex discrimination. The OCR will also monitor how well the school complies with the changes in its Title X procedures over the next three years.

Too many at USC turned a blind eye to evidence that Dr. Tyndall was preying on students for years, the Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos said in a statement. We are grateful to every survivor who came forward to share their story with our OCR investigators. Because of your bravery, we can now work with the University to ensure this never happens to another student on USCs campus.

According to the OCR, its investigation found that the USC was aware of possible misconduct by Tyndall between 2000 and 2009. But the university failed to investigate and determine whether the student-patients who made complaints were subjected to sexual violations.

The Tyndall scandal led to the resignation of USC president C. L. Max Nikias in October 2018. Two senior student health center administrators were also fired, according to Daily Trojan. Nikiass successor, Carol Folt, assumed the office in July 2019.

What we have found at USC is shocking and reprehensible, said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kenneth L. Marcus. No student should ever have to face the disgusting behavior that USC students had to deal with. I am pleased that President Folt is now committing to major changes, and we will closely monitor the University to make sure that it complies with our agreement.
Mobile police responded to Midtown Mobile Thursday afternoon in reference of a boy being struck by a vehicle.

Police arrived the scene at Saint Stephens Road and Toulmin Avenue around 4:16 p.m. Police were shortly able to find the victim in the area. The male juvenile is 12-years-old, police says.

The 12-year-old victim had very minor injuries and a guardian was contacted to respond.
The Director of Public Health, Dr. Badu Sarkodie, has disclosed that there is no scientific proof that Alcohol has the potency to cure the new strain of coronavirus disease.



According to him, there is "still research ongoing for a vaccine and a cure for the disease, but as it stands now, there is no cure".



"So no one should be deceived that alcohol has the potency cure the convid 19 viruses," he added.



Giving assurance of the country's preparedness to handle the deadly flu-like epidemic, Dr Sarkodie stated that education and sensitization of the disease has began to make Ghanaians more aware of how they can protect themselves from getting infected.



Speaking on Okay FMs Ade Akye Abia program, he explained that they have received correspondence from Nigeria about the virus announcing its presence there.



"But with the support of the World Health organization, we are putting in place measures to ensure public safety. Education is key and that is what we are doing as a health institution....the country's major points of entry are strengthened," he said.



Hopes that the coronavirus would be contained to China have vanished as the first case in sub-Saharan Africa was announced in Nigeria and stock markets took a pounding amid fears of a global recession.



In China - the epicenter of the deadly disease - the National Health Commission reported on Friday at least 44 new coronavirus deaths, bringing to 2,788 the number of fatalities nationwide.



Coronavirus has killed more than 2,800 people and infected more than 83,000 in at least 53 countries so far.



Most patients are linked to Iran or Italy. Currently, Switzerland has banned gatherings of more than 1,000 people.

Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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New Delhi: The Tamil Nadu government on Friday (February 28) told the Centre that around 450 Indian fishermen are stranded in Iran following the coronavirus outbreak and urged the Indian government to take steps for their immediate evacuation.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami in a letter to Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar, brought to attention the plight of as many as 450-odd fishermen  including at least 300 fishermen from Tamil Nadu who are working in various fishing vessels berthed and operating in Iranian ports.

"These fishermen are reportedly stranded in Port Kish, Cheeru and other places in Iran, due to the cancellation of flights, because of the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran," the letter stated.

The fishermen have requested for their immediate evacuation from Iran, he said.

"I request your good office to direct the Embassy of India in Iran to provide the required support to the fishermen and also to make arrangements for their safe and immediate return to India," Palaniswami said.

Meanwhile, in mainland China - where the virus originated late last year - there are reports of 327 new cases, the lowest since January 23, taking its tally to more than 78,800 cases with almost 2,800 deaths.

Four more countries have reported their first case of the coronavirus, taking the number of countries and territories outside China with infections to 55, with more than 4,200 positive cases killing about 70 people, according to a Reuters report.
A health official conducts coronavirus tests on a soldier at the health center at Gyeryong in South Chungcheong Province, Feb. 21. Yonhap



One more Air Force officer based in the central city of Cheongju tested positive for the new coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the military to 26 early Friday, the defense ministry said.



Of the total, 15 are in the Army, nine in the Air Force and one each in the Navy and the Marine Corps, the ministry said, adding that 23 of them are active-duty service members.



South Korea's total infections have risen to 2,022 cases and 13 civilian deaths as of 9 a.m.



Nearly 10,000 service members are quarantined at their bases to stop the virus from spreading. Of them, around 800 have either shown symptoms or had direct contact with infected patients, while the remainder had visited Daegu or its neighboring regions after Feb. 10.



The ministry also launched a weeklong emergency working system for service members in the southeastern city of Daegu. Under the system, non-essential officers are required to work at their residences or designated facilities while core personnel stay at their bases on-call.






In September 2019, NASA started the second half of an epic game of Marco Polo ; early this month the agency declared it over for good.

On Feb. 2, NASA formally ended the Mars Cube One mission. MarCO, as it was known, consisted of two tiny cubesats that hitchhiked along with the agency's InSight lander that reached the Red Planet in November 2018. The twin MarCO satellites were the first cubesats to leave Earth orbit, and they aced their goal of reporting on InSight's perilous landing to scientists on Earth.

"WALL-E and EVE performed just as we expected them to," MarCO chief engineer Andy Klesh, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, said in a statement at the time , referring to the cubesats by their nicknames taken from the 2008 film "WALL-E." "They were an excellent test of how cubesats can serve as 'tag-alongs' on future missions, giving engineers up-to-the-minute feedback during a landing."

Related: How the tiny exoplanet-hunting ASTERIA satellite showed scientists what cubesats can do

As NASA expected, the MarCO satellites fell silent in January 2019 because of how far their orbits carried them from the sun. There was a chance that the agency would be able to reestablish communications with the plucky twins in the second half of 2019. But attempts to do so, which began in September 2019, were unsuccessful, according to a new NASA statement .

NASA will be releasing data from the twin cubesats over the next year, the agency added. That data should help future interplanetary cubesat designers to tap into MarCO's success. Among the earliest of those successors will be launching on NASA's first Artemis mission , an uncrewed flight orbiting the moon.

One such cubesat, dubbed Lunar Flashlight , is designed to contribute to lunar science by identifying ice in craters at the moon's south pole that never receive sunlight. That's the same region where the culminating Artemis mission will land astronauts in 2024, according to NASA plans.

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook .
Pompano Beach, Florida, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brownies Marine Group, Inc. (OTC:BWMG) a leading developer, manufacturer and distributor of modern recreational diving products and onboard compressed air solutions is pleased to announce that it has recently formed a relationship with its first international distributor, Metallsoker AS, for the Nemo product by BLU3. Metallsoker AS, which is headquartered in Holmestrand, Norway, will have exclusive rights to sell into Norway, and surrounding territories will be considered as the partnership grows and more sales accumulate.



We are excited to partner with Metallsoker AS as our first international sales partner. They have a fantastic reputation in the diving and metal detecting community and significant influence in their home markets. said Robert Carmichael, Chairman & CEO of Brownies Marine Group, Inc., adding, We are looking to finalize additional dealer and sales partners in the coming weeks and roll those announcements out shortly.

2020 Miami International Boat Show Generates Excitement for Nemo Product

BWMG presented their suite of products at the 2020 Miami International Boat Show which was held at the Miami Marine Stadium from February 13th  17th. Feedback from attendees to BLU3s new kiosk display was enthusiastic and there were a significant number of sales generated from the show. This was BLU3s first show with inventory on hand.

It was great to have boat show attendees stop by our new kiosk where they were able to watch videos and learn what its like to enjoy a tankless diving experience with Nemo and touch and feel the product. Everyone was impressed with the engineering of the product, in particular the portability and ease of use, and we made quite a few sales at the show. said Blake Carmichael, the Chief Executive Officer of BLU3, the division of BWMG that is responsible for the Nemo product, adding, We have now sold and shipped over 500 units of Nemo, and we cant wait for the next opportunity to interact with new fans of the product. We look forward to introducing attendants of the Palm Beach International Boat Show to the worlds smallest dive system in late March.

About Nemo by BLU3

Nemo (diveblu3.com/nemo) is a battery-powered and ultra-portable tankless dive system created for the recreational diving population under the BLU3 brand to make diving more user friendly, easier, and accessible to a new and larger group of divers. It was designed with the mass, global market in mind, ultimately creating a market much greater than SCUBA by eliminating barriers to entry. Weighing in at about 10 lb., Nemo is portable and travels as carry-on luggage on an airplane including multiple spare batteries which run the system for over 60 minutes each. Nemo has many potential applications, from exploring shallow reefs to river treasure and fossil hunting, boat hull cleaning, pool maintenance and even underwater yoga.

About Brownies Marine Group

Brownies Marine Group, Inc., is the parent company to a family of innovative brands with a unique concentration in the industrial, military and recreational diving industry. The Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, tests, manufactures, and distributes recreational hookah diving, yacht-based scuba air compressors and nitrox generation systems, and scuba and water safety products in the United States and internationally. The Company has three subsidiaries including Trebor Industries, Inc., founded in 1981 and dba as Brownies Third Lung, BLU3, Inc., and Brownies High-Pressure Services, Inc. dba LW Americas. The Company is headquartered in Pompano Beach, Florida. For more information, visit: www.BrowniesMarineGroup.com

Contact Information: (954)-462-5570 | investors@browniesmarinegroup.com

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release may contain forward looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those anticipated or expected. Actual results and the timing of certain events could differ materially from those projected in or contemplated by the forward-looking statements due to a number of factors. Stockholders and potential investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Although we believe that our plans, intentions and expectations reflected in or suggested by the forward-looking statements in this report are reasonable, we cannot assure stockholders and potential investors that these plans, intentions or expectations will be achieved. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, some of which are beyond our control and difficult to predict and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements made with respect to the development, production and marketability of our development stage NEMO product. Except to the extent required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, a change in events, conditions, circumstances or assumptions underlying such statements, or otherwise. You are urged to carefully review and consider any cautionary statements and other disclosures, including the statements made under the heading Risk Factors in the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) and our other periodic and quarterly filings with the SEC.

Source: Brownie's Marine Group, Inc.
From left: U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Hebron Mayor Hillel Horowitz and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron, part of a tour of Israel, on Feb. 17, 2020.

(JNS)-Two U.S. Republican House members visited historic and strategic sites in Judea and Samaria days after the creation of a special "deal of the century" committee to begin mapping out Israeli application of sovereignty in the disputed region.

Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), formerly head of the House Freedom Caucus, was joined by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), a member of the Judiciary Committee and head of the Republican Study Committee, and their wives toured Israel this week on a trip organized by the Yes! Israel Project, an organization that introduces political and business leaders to places often avoided by mainstream American Jewish organizations.

In July, Jordan tweeted in favor of a House resolution condemning BDS, saying "Israel is America's closest ally and great friend. But radical left members of Congress are trying to take down a resolution in support of Israel."

In January, Johnson tweeted an article about the impending publication of the Mideast peace proposal, adding the psalm to "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem."

During the trip, Johnson also expressed support for Jewish sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.

"I support the Trump [Mideast] deal that recognizes the Jewish connection to your homeland," he told JNS. "It is important for Israel to apply sovereignty to these lands as soon as possible. We have reservations about the so-called 'two-state solution' that would establish a Palestinian state."

From the Temple Mount to the Judean Hills

The congressmen began their tour on the "Heritage Trail" in Beersheva on Monday, where they learned about the biblical Abraham and the ties of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. They then traveled to Maon Farm in the southern Hebron hills, and then to the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs in Hebron.

The legislators met with Hillel Horowitz, mayor of the Jewish community of Hebron, who emphasized that Hebron should be included on any final-status maps of Israel, and that the main artery of Judea and Samaria (Route 60) not be cut off. He also asked them to encourage American tourism to biblical heritage sites in the region.

And he also used the opportunity to warn about the dangers of a Palestinian state. In fact, the Hebron visit took place just hours after a Palestinian terrorist was filmed attempting to stab an Israel Defense Forces' soldier guarding the entrance of the Tomb. In the video, the men are seen struggling in hand-to-hand combat as the terrorist makes repeated efforts to stab the officer before being subdued.

Afterwards, the congressmen were invited to a panel discussion on the implications of the Mideast peace plan at the Oz v'Gaon nature reserve in Gush Etzion. At a lookout name for Ari Fuld, a 45-year-old Israeli American who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist in September 2018, Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne'eman said that a "great aspect of this plan is that, for the first time, an American administration has crafted a plan where no Jews will be displaced, and that America recognizes that this is the Land of the Jews."

On Tuesday morning, the congressmen were given a tour on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem by former Israeli Likud Knesset member Yehuda Glick.

(Some time after the congressmen left, Glick was arrested by the Israel Police. Initial reports stated that he was charged with "walking too slowly," though police subsequently issued a statement saying he had left and then re-entered the Temple Mount "against the rules," and had failed to heed police orders, leading them to handcuff and arrest him.)

Jordan and Johnson then traveled to Samaria, where they visited Ariel University, the site of the tabernacle in Shiloh, the Barkan industrial center and the Psagot winery.

Before concluding their trip, the congressmen meet with several high-profile Israeli leaders.

"The highlight for me was being in the Judean Hills," Johnson told JNS. "There are no big monuments there, but that is what makes it special. The future King David is walking around there."
KABUL  Many Afghans view Saturdays expected signing of a U.S.-Taliban peace deal with a heavy dose of skepticism. Theyve spent decades living in a country at war  some their whole lives  and wonder if they can ever reach a state of peace.

The deal expected to be signed in Doha, Qatar, is meant to set the stage for a U.S. troop withdrawal and to usher in talks among Afghans on both sides of the conflict about their countrys future. Theres been bitter squabbling among political leaders and concern of a temporary truce being undermined, and the challenge of uniting a fractured country remains daunting.

Also on Saturday, but in the Afghan capital Kabul, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will sign a declaration recommitting the international communitys commitment to Afghanistan, said Sediq Sediqqui, spokesman for Afghanistans President Ashraf Ghani.

Afghanistans economy has been racked by 18 years of fighting, despite billions of dollars spent on nation building. Some 55% live in poverty, or less than $1 a day, up from 34% in 2012.

On a recent chilly Kabul morning, dozens of laborers waited to be picked up for a days work. Dressed in tattered, paint-splattered clothes, some carrying their own paintbrushes, they squatted on the sidewalk in the heart of the capital, where new high-rise buildings butt up against small dingy shops.

Everyone is looking for work. There are thousands and thousands like us all over the city, said Qatradullah, who like many Afghans goes by just one name. He said he favors the peace deal and hopes it will bring jobs but that government corruption has been crippling. He said the vast sums pumped into Afghanistan have gone into the pockets of our leaders.

Transparency International last year ranked Afghanistan 173rd of 180 countries it monitors.

Under the peace plan, 13,000 U.S. troops will initially draw down to 8,600. Much of the plan remains vague, except to say American troops will withdraw and that the Taliban promise not to let extremists use the country as a staging ground for attacking the U.S. or its allies.

Taliban leaders told the Associated Press that if everything goes according to plan, all U.S. soldiers would be out of Afghanistan in 14 months. Washington has not confirmed such a timeline.

Kathy Gannon is an Associated Press writer.
The rollout forms part of Virgin Medias plan to offer gigabit speeds to more than 15 million homes across its network by the end of 2021, delivering half of the UK governments broadband ambition four years early.Virgin first announced in 2019 that it was bringing gigabit speed broadband to residents in and around Southampton, Manchester and Reading. The next-generation Gig1 Fibre Broadband service  which offers an average peak-time download speed of 1.104 Gbps  is rated as offering connectivity up to 20 times faster than UK average broadband speed and the company plans to bring gigabit connectivity to around 15 million UK homes by the end of 2021. In February 2019, Virgin Media began trialling what it says is the UKs fastest home broadband with a full fibre connection offering speeds of more than 8 Gbps to homes in Cambridgeshire. The trial made use of EPON (Ethernet passive optical network) technology - a global point-to-point network standard.Virgin Media will switch on its services in early March in Birmingham and Coventry - the first cities to benefit from the service this year - as well as surrounding areas across the West Midlands.Virgin Media is delivering on its promises, putting its money where its mouth is and bringing next-generation broadband to its entire network, said Virgin Media chief operating officer Jeff Dodds.Switching on gigabit speeds for more than a million homes in the West Midlands, the UKs largest gigabit rollout to date, will be a leap forward for the region and a big step for the Governments gigabit broadband ambition. From gaming to streaming, Gig1s hyperfast speeds will mean that households can do everything they want to do online, at the same time and without delay, with millions of more homes set to benefit this year as we bring this next-generation connectivity to more cities around the UK.
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BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.28

By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:

Trends exclusive interview with Bulgarias Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova ahead of the 6th meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council

Question: Baku is hosting the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council's meeting. What will be Bulgaria's focus on this event?

Answer: I am honoured to participate in the Fifth meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council. I recognize the serious progress that has been made and the many resolved issues and challenges that have been addressed since the First Council meeting in February 2015.

At the forthcoming meeting, we will be able to take stock of what has been achieved over the last five years and that we are moving towards the successful implementation of the ambitious and large-scale project of the Southern Gas Corridor  a project of exceptional importance not only for the Republic of Bulgaria, but also for the countries of Southeast Europe and the European Union.

Bulgaria is an integral part of the development of the Southern Gas Corridor through the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria.

Our countrys focus during the Advisory Council will be at the interconnector project GreeceBulgaria. The project is essential for the diversification of gas supplies to Bulgaria and other countries in the region. The importance of IGB for Bulgaria is also determined by the need to ensure delivery of the contracted 1 billion cubic meters a year of Azerbaijan natural gas from Shah Deniz II field for Bulgaria, starting at the end of 2020, in synergy with the TAP. The building of the interconnector has started and we expect the construction company to complete the construction by the end of 2020, in synergy with the commissioning of the TAP. This will allow alternative supplies not only for our country, but also for the entire region of Southeast Europe.

Q.: This year will mark the start of gas deliveries via the Southern Gas Corridor. Bulgaria is one of the importers of this gas through the IGB. How do you see the energy map of Europe after the commissioning of the Corridor?

A.: The introduction into commercial exploitation of the interconnector Greece-Bulgaria is a key to diversifying sources and routes for the supply of natural gas not only in our country, but also throughout the whole region of Southeast Europe. In line with its main energy policy priorities, the Bulgarian Government has actively worked to positioning our country as a regional gas hub. The interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria and gas supplies via the Southern Gas Corridor are among the most important elements for the delivery of this concept. They are being implemented in synergy with other gas projects in the region, such as the LNG terminal near Alexandroupolis, Greece and others. The Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria is also strategically important for the implementation of the Vertical Gas Corridor, which connects the gas networks of Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Thus, after the completion of these projects, the possibility to transport natural gas from Azerbaijan through the interconnector Greece-Bulgaria, through the gas transmission network of Bulgartransgaz EAD, the other interconnectors to Romania, Serbia, the Republic of North Macedonia and their neighbouring countries will be ensured.

Q.: How do you assess the progress on construction of the IGB? Do you believe that IGB will be ready on time to bring 1 bcm of gas to Bulgaria? When approximately do you expect first deliveries of Azerbaijani gas to Bulgaria?

A.: The implementation of the interconnector GreeceBulgaria is moving at an accelerated pace so that it can be put into commercial operation by the end of this year, entirely in synergy with the TAP. The field along the route is currently being cleared and pipes supplied. By 24 February at the main camp near the town of Haskovo nearly 900 pipes with a total length of over 15 km are already delivered. We have the assurance of the contractors with whom I have regular meetings that the preliminary set timetable will be implemented and the interconnector will be put into commercial operation by October 2020. At that time we also expect the delivery of the first 1 bcm of natural gas for which Bulgargaz has concluded a contract with the Azerbaijan SOCAR.

Q.: How do you see the prospects for expanding the IGB to other Balkan countries such as Romania and Serbia? Which measures should be taken in this regard?

A.: As you are probably informed, at the end of 2018 the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria decided to extend the Bulgarian gas infrastructure from the Turkish-Bulgarian to the Bulgarian-Serbian border. Pursuant to this decision, Bulgartransgaz conducted the necessary procedures and then the construction of the new pipeline started and is currentlyongoing. The first 11 km of the pipeline were put into commercial operation in the autumn of last year.

It should be noted that the expansion of the Bulgarian gas transmission network from the Turkish-Bulgarian to the Bulgarian-Serbian border has 22% free capacity at the exit point to Serbia  approximately 3 billion cubic metres. This means that in the future any interested party will be able to transport gas through this infrastructure. I expect the completion of this project to change significantly the gas supplies landscape, to strengthen Bulgaria's strategic location so as to guarantee the energy security of the region.

Q.: How will the Bulgarian government, in particular the Ministry of Energy ensure the secure and successful implementation of IGB project in the construction phase?

A.: Bulgaria has played a key role in the financial structuring of IGB: the Bulgarian state had provided a sovereign guarantee of EUR 110 million, which ensured favourable financing for the project from the European Investment Bank. Furthermore, 39 million grant was allocated from the Regional Development Fund under the Innovation and Competitiveness Operational Programme of the EU funding for Bulgaria.

The successful completion of the IGB project and its timely introduction into commercial exploitation are priority tasks with a view to diversifying gas supplies. For the full mobilization of the contractors and the completion of the project within the set time schedule, regular meetings are held on my initiative at the Ministry of Energy in order to take account of the activities related to the implementation of the project. These meetings are attended by representatives of the project company ICGBAD, the line pipe supplier  Corinth Pipeworks, the constructor  JP AVAX and of the owners engineer  Consortium Tibey. We have the assurance of the suppliers that the production of pipes is carried out according to the schedule. We expect deliveries of the first production batch to be completed in March. This will ensure availability of all types and sizes of pipes needed to build the interconnector.

We are also making regular on-the-spot inspections to make sure that progress is made. The last such visit was on 20 February. All our efforts are aimed at the timely introduction of the connection in commercial exploitation.

Q.: In our last interview you said that SOCAR is studying Bulgarian gas distribution sector. Has the company already prepared feasibility study on investment opportunities in the gas distribution sector in Bulgaria? Are you holding talks in this regard?

A.: In connection with the agreement reached in 2018, SOCAR had several meetings and received detailed information from the Ministry of Energy and the EWRC on the possibilities for investments in the gas distribution sector in Bulgaria. SOCAR then instructed a large international advisory company to carry out a feasibility study on the implementation of such a project.

According to the information provided by our SOCAR partners, the study has been completed and its conclusions are positive. In this regard, we will discuss these perspectives at a bilateral meeting with Minister Shahbazov within the framework of the Advisory Council meeting. Taking into account these positive results, we believe it is feasible this year SOCAR to start initial activities in gas distribution on the territory of Bulgaria.
Jammu, Feb 28 : Former PDP legislator Qamar Hussain Choudhary on Friday decried the delay in applying the Forest Rights Act in Jammu and Kashmir, saying the tribal population and traditional forest dwellers are facing immense hardships and persecution in the absence of legal safeguards.

Addressing a meeting of leaders of tribal groups and forest dwellers at Jammu, Choudhary observed that non applicability of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006 in Jammu and Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370 is unjustifiable and without any rationale.

"The Forest Rights Act would not only protect tribal population and other forest dwellers against forced displacements, eviction but will ensure their other rights as well, which include grazing rights, access to water resources and access to forest products," the former legislator observed.

He said a wrong notion is being established about the Forest Rights Act that its applicability would result in some imaginary demographic changes in some regions of Jammu division which is totally tenuous and baseless.

"It is disheartening that a narrative is being built that tribal people are land grabbers, forest encroachers and cattle smugglers. This is a concocted notion being created by those who oppose enactment of Forest Rights Act in J&K. The Central government should fulfil its commitment with the tribal and socio-economically marginalised forest dwellers and enforce the Forest Rights Act in J&K without any further delay," he said.

Choudhary said that it is regrettable that Jammu and Kashmir tribal and forest dwellers are still awaiting legal safeguards against enforced persecution despite the fact that the Forest Rights Act has been made applicable across the country 13 years ago.

Choudhary remarked that the applicability of the Forest Rights Act not only gives forest dwellers and the tribal community legal ownership of their traditional land and community rights but also recognition to over a million people who live in mountainous areas where they depend heavily upon livestock rearing and small-scale agriculture.

"Gujjar-Bakarwals, the nomads and the pastoralists are suffering enormously. Over the years, many pastures have remained out of bounds for nomads because of armed conflict in Kashmir. And the erstwhile state forest laws would only give them grazing rights. In the past many years, many eviction drives were carried out in some areas of Jammu city. The tribal and forest dwellers crave for a sense of security against this hostile atmosphere and the best way to help them out is to enact the Forest Rights Act in J&K," he said.

He said the Forest Rights Act recognizes the services of Gujjars, Bakerwals and tribal people as instrumental in protecting forests against timber smugglers and land grabbers and respects their right to have access to forest land and forest produce except timber.
Human activities around the Odaw River and Agbogbloshie, both in Accra, are fast becoming an environmental time bomb, ticking away ferociously to explosion.



For over 12 years, the Daily Graphic has brought to the fore the hazards from the electronic waste (e-waste) that has been mounting on the banks of the Odaw, which environmentalists say poses dangerous threats to respiratory health.



Twelve years on, the situation has not improved, with scavengers now moving from Agbogbloshie and spreading their unhygienic activities in other parts of the city, including the median of the Graphic Road, especially behind the Beyeeman Cold Store.



For long hours every day, the scavengers burn the waste from their collection, which results in thick smoke drifting into the sky, a situation which, according to health experts, could create both short and long-term respiratory challenges for people who pass by that area.



Additionally, the area is fast becoming an abode for squatters, some of whom have moved out of the slums at Old Fadama to find new homes there.



It has also become a safe haven for some people, particularly the youth, who move to Accra from other regions in search of greener pastures.



As a result, the Odaw River is constantly choked, and particularly during the rainy season it overflows its banks, flooding the abode of people and surrounding offices.



The area hosts global companies such as Toyota, Japan Motors, Rana Motors and Silver Star, a number of filling stations, banks, the Graphic Communications Group Ltd and Letap Pharmaceuticals.



Other businesses likely to be affected include the Odawna garages, spare parts dealers and general merchants.



The Daily Graphic is, therefore, calling on the authorities, particularly the metropolitan and municipal assemblies under whose jurisdiction the area falls, to act immediately to defuse this environmental time bomb.

Source: Daily Graphic









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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Two years ago, an Iowa man whom Guinness World Records had named the longest-surviving heart transplant patient died 34 years after receiving his new heart.

Records like this cause friends of Richard Gullickson, of rural Center, to believe he might be one of the longest-surviving heart transplant patients alive today.

Gullickson, who turned 83 this month, received his life-saving surgery 29 years ago at the University of Minnesotas Health Transplant Care facility -- the same provider that cared for the Guinness record holder.

Up to today, still no complications. Never had no rejections, nothing, said Gullickson, who receives a health checkup every six months at Bismarcks Sanford Health. I was just down this last May and went to test all day, and all the numbers were right. So Ive been truly blessed with the way its turned out.

Heart transplant patients who receive new organs before the age of 55 and get them at hospitals that perform at least nine heart transplants annually are "significantly more likely" to survive at least 10 years after their surgeries, according to a 2012 John Hopkins University study.

Gullickson received his heart transplant at age 53. The retired farmer kept in touch with two other patients, from Chicago and Rapid City, who had their surgeries the same time he did. They lived until about 10 years after their operations.

They made their 10 years and that was it, he said.

The Miracle on Sixth Floor

Gullickson began experiencing difficulties breathing five years before his surgery. His skin was pale and he was fatigued.

I had no ambition, couldnt do much anymore, he said. Recliner to the bathroom, back to the recliner. I wouldnt have lasted much longer, actually.

Up until 1990, he regularly visited Medcenter One Health Systems, the former site of Sanford Health. He learned he had congenital heart disease -- a rare abnormality in the heart that develops before birth.

I was doctoring and then I got to a point where (the doctor) said, well, you need a transplant, Gullickson said.

At the time, the closest hospital performing heart transplants was at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He moved to an apartment in the Twin Cities with his family for the operation. He couldnt drive and had to go to the clinic every day for three months.

It was a lot harder on my wife than it was for me by far. She had to do all the running and find a place to live, and she was working, Gullickson said. My mother came and stayed and a couple friends came and stayed with me and so forth.

At the University of Minnesota, Gullickson was treated by Sara Shumway, the daughter of heart transplant pioneer Norman Shumway, who was the first doctor to perform an adult human-to-human heart transplant. The heart Gullickson received belonged to a young lad who died in a car accident, he said.

Doctors began to notice the results of his surgery were unusual after the eight-hour operation.

I could jump over the moon, Gullickson said. My dentist always gets a kick out of that because the next morning I was sitting on the edge of my bed brushing my teeth eight hours later.

Rehabilitation was a piece of cake, Gullickson said. When doctors asked him to climb three stairs, he could climb a whole story. After climbing stairs backwards, Gullickson gained the nickname, The Miracle on Sixth Floor. About a dozen interns and doctors training at the university medical school would examine him every day.

There was a line of young doctors so my therapist, she had enough of that, Gullickson said. So when theyd come, shed say, Hes got to go to therapy today.

They couldnt believe it, he said.

After a few months, doctors decided he didnt need to undergo rehabilitation. He returned to Center on Thanksgiving Day.

Living long

Today, Gullickson lives on his farm with his son and daughter -- a place hes lived his whole life except for when he served in the Army and was posted in West Germany from 1956-58.

He feels he is in good health, but the medication he takes to prevent heart rejection can be a nuisance, he said. The pills often cause his joints to become stiff and prompt the development of corns, a type of callus made of dead skin  which a doctor in Bismarck freezes off.

"I'm fortunate I've got family around me so they help me when I need help," he said.

Gullickson often plays cards with his friends at the senior citizen center, the Golden Age Club.

One of his friends, Sherry Cotton, said she researched other living heart transplant patients. She hasnt found one who has lived with a donated heart as long as Gullickson.

There was that lady who had two transplants. And he's only had the one, and then there's the other who's had it for 34 years but he is now passed, two of them are now passed. That was the longest, Cotton said.

Gullickson isn't sure if he is "the oldest guy on the block," he said. But one thing is certain: He plans to continue playing cards in the morning at the senior center and enjoy its food. And in the summer, he plans to continue bringing his tractor to shows with his son, Clark.

"I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing," he said.

Reach Andy Tsubasa Field at 701-250-8264 or andy.field@bismarcktribune.com.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 02:52:20|Editor: huaxia

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GENEVA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) outlined 10 basic personal prevention measures against COVID-19, including cleaning hands and surfaces regularly and avoiding traveling when having a fever or cough.

"Your risk depends on where you live, your age and general health. WHO can provide general guidance. You should also follow your national guidance and consult local health professionals," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a daily briefing.

The first of the 10 measures is to clean hands regularly with an alcohol-based hand rub, or wash them with soap and water. Touching the face after touching contaminated surfaces or sick people is one of the ways the virus can be transmitted. By cleaning the hands, one can reduce the risk.

Second, clean surfaces regularly with disinfectant, for example kitchen benches and work desks.

Third, educate oneself about COVID-19, but make sure the information comes from reliable sources such as local or national public health agencies, the WHO website, or local health professionals. The symptoms, for most people, start with a fever and a dry cough instead of a runny nose. Most people will have mild disease and get better without needing any special care.

Fourth, avoid traveling when having a fever or cough, and when becoming sick while on a flight, inform the crew immediately. Once home, make contact with a health professional.

Fifth, cough or sneeze into sleeves or use a tissue which should be disposed immediately into a closed rubbish bin, and then clean hands.

Sixth, those who are over 60 years old or having an underlying condition like cardiovascular disease, a respiratory condition or diabetes, the risk of developing severe disease could be higher. Take extra precautions to avoid crowded areas or places where interaction with people who are sick is possible.

Seventh, everyone who feels unwell should stay at home and call doctors or local health professionals who will ask about the symptoms, where one has been and who one has had contact with. This will help to make sure that one gets the right advice, is directed to the right health facility, and will prevent from infecting others.

Eighth, stay at home when being sick, and eat and sleep separately from family members, use different utensils and cutlery to eat.

Ninth, if shortness of breath appears, call doctors and seek care immediately.

And tenth, it's normal and understandable to feel anxious, especially when living in a country or community that has been affected. Find out what can be done in the community. Discuss how to stay safe with the workplace, school or place of worship.

"Containment starts with you. Our greatest enemy right now is not the virus itself. It's fear, rumors and stigma. And our greatest assets are facts, reason and solidarity," said Tedros.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday accused the Opposition of instigating riots and spreading rumours over new Citizenship law.

Addressing a public meeting here, Shah said: "BSP, SP, Communist, Congress and Mamata are against the CAA because they say minorities will lose their citizenship. Why do they speak so many lies?"

"CAA will not snatch the citizenship of any minority in India. CAA is a law to give citizenship, it is not meant to take anyone's citizenship away. The Opposition is spreading rumours, provoking people and instigating riots," he said.

The minister's remark came after violence rocked North-East district of Delhi claiming 42 lives so far.

Attacking Congress over Ram temple, Shah said: "Congress used to dodge the question of Ram temple in the Supreme Court. Modi ji opened gates for construction of Ram temple by setting up a trust. In some time, a Ram temple will be constructed at the place where the Lord was born."

The minister said that the Congress government allocated Rs 89,000 to Odisha in the 13th Finance commission and NDA government allocated over Rs 2 lakh crore to Odisha in 14th Finance Commission. "We will try to develop Odisha like Gujarat," he said.

Shah highlighted BJP's improved performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Odisha and said: "I came to Odisha after Lok Sabha elections. I want to thank people that they have given eight seats to BJP. Instead of 21 per cent share in the previous election, BJP got 38.4 votes in 2019. We got 91 lakh votes and Naveen babu got 1.1 crore vote. We only have to make one jump to form BJP government in Odisha."

"For the first time in such a journey, the Congress party came down from the main opposition party for the first time and our BJP worker has today become the voice of the people of Odisha, sitting in the Assembly as the Leader of the Opposition," he said.

The minister continued: "In Assembly, we are moving ahead. We have taken a lead in 14,000 booths out of 37,000. Modi government has opened gates of development in every sector in Odisha.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
February 27, 2020



POCATELLO  Senior Idaho State University Honors Program student Alec Lepisto believes in living a well-rounded life and his academic and private pursuits show he walks his talk.

Although he is double-majoring in physics and math, Lepisto has a literary side. Take for example, his writing of the tale of two women having a conversation about the person they have just killed. This 2,000-word piece of fiction titled Fugue will be published in the 2020 edition of Scribendi, a nonprofit, annual print publication by the University of New Mexico Honors College that publishes creative work from undergraduate Honors students from more than 900 institutions from across the country. Scribendi is a literary journal, not a scientific one, soliciting works of poetry, creative nonfiction, short fiction, foreign language, visual art, photography and open media.

Lepisto, who was editing the University Honors Program newsletter and was an Honors Envoy last semester, was encouraged by his Honors advisor to submit a short story to the publication. He did and Fugue received the Western Regional Honors Council (WRHC) Award for Short Fiction

The story itself is kind of a weird thing, he said. My preferred way to describe it is existentialist fiction. It explores a lot of the existential themes of freedom and choice.

Lepisto said he loves physics and math and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in physics, but he loved English classes in high school and wishes his double majoring and 18-credit load per semester left him with the time to take college literature classes.

I miss that (taking literature courses), but I still enjoy writing and I write in my free time, he said. I find it very important to have a well-rounded experience and view in life. There are people who dedicate their life into working in one specific area and have done amazing work there, but at some philosophical level I am hesitant to call that the ideal life. It is important to incorporate everything.

Speaking of philosophy, that is another area Lepisto is interested in and hes found the time and effort to add philosophy as a minor to his already heavy course load.

I love philosophy, and it has always been a lifelong hobby and interest of mine, said Lepisto, who is an ISU Presidential Scholar and a member of the ISU Philosophy Club. At its core it is just deep thinking about interesting questions. There are ideas and theories I feel myself naturally drawn to, and before studying philosophy I had my opinions about them, but I like to see arguments supporting them. Other stuff I never imagined that I would be drawn to.

Pursuing two majors has provided its challenges to Lepisto.

The majors line up well at the beginning but when youre about where I am now, you need to take a couple of 400-level classes of each per semester, Lepisto said. It can get pretty heavy. Fortunately, I am able to think about them separately. Exhaustion from one doesnt lead to exhaustion in the other.

And though he wants to be a physicist, that could play out differently than a strictly scientific calling.

I do love my science fiction, Lepisto said. Im not against becoming an Isaac Asimov, getting a Ph.D. in physics and becoming a successful author if that is the way things go.

Alec is a phenomenal example of the Renaissance-type student that we aspire to in the Honors Program at ISU, said Shannon Kobs Nawotniak, director of the University Honors Program and associate director of volcanology. He's a published author, a researcher in Dr. McNulty's lab, a delightful student, and an active member of the campus community.
Iain Dale: My knickers are for the many not the few

Iain Dale presents the evening show on LBC Radio and is a commentator for CNN.

Sajid Javids personal statement on his resignation in the Commons on Wednesday was a masterpiece of the genre.

It had just enough meat in it to interest the media and just enough light barbs for it to be seen as having a bit of a go at both the Prime Minister and Dominic Cummings. But it was done in a light-hearted rather than a bruising way, which meant that he didnt burn any boats.

My suspicion is that Boris Johnson feels rather guilty about how the whole thing was handled, and feels he owes one to the former Chancellor. I suspect that Javid will be back in the Cabinet at some point, although any other job would certainly be a comedown from that of Chancellor.

Having said that, Penny Mordaunt wasnt too proud to accept the non-cabinet job of Paymaster General. Surely it cant be too long before she returns to the front rank.

         

The news that the courts are yet again thwarting a political decision will have all sorts of ramifications. It was of course about the future of the expansion of Heathrow Airport  which Boris Johnson has always wanted to thwart.

The Appeal Court said that the Government had ignored its own laws on climate change. Hmmm. The government isnt going to take the matter to the Supreme Court  although Heathrow themselves might. This is an incredibly difficult issue  given that yesterdays decision will have sent out the message that Global Britain has been strangled at birth.

No-one in their right mind would want to start from here. Heathrow is in entirely the wrong place. If you were building a new hub airport, you certainly wouldnt build it there. Given the Prime Ministers penchant for big, visionary transport infrastructure projects, Id love to see him revive his Thames Estuary Airport project.

I doubt this will happen, though. The trouble is that Gatwick or Birmingham will now try to step into the breach. But the problem is that all the major international airlines want to be at Heathrow.

         

Some of you may remember I used to own and run a political bookshop in Westminster called Politicos. We didnt sell just books but had a nice line in political merchandise, too.

A couple of weeks ago I found some boxes of mugs which we used to sell in a barn I hadnt been in for about ten years. Id already decided to start an online shop so people could order signed copies of my new book, so I thought, why not add these mugs to the store too?

In only two weeks, Ive sold more than a hundred of them, with the slogans Margaret Thatcher  now more than ever and New Labour & proud of it and Tory Tea.

Its made me think that the political merchandising market isnt being fully catered for at the moment, so Im mulling over whether to devote some more time to developing it a bit more, and commissioning all sorts of different items of political merchandise.

At Politicos we also did a nice line in political underwear  knickers with political slogans across the front: For the many, not the few; A hand up, not a hand out, and my personal favourite, Things can only get wetter.

I did draw the line, though, when someone suggested we should commission some politically themed condoms. Anyway, if youd like to have a browse its here.

         

Lets have a word about the Duke of Sussex, formerly known as Prince. He now wants to be known as plain Harry. Why not go the whole hog, and ask to be called Hazzer?

He flew (obvs) back to the UK this week to speak at a conference in Edinburgh on tourism. He did at least have the good grace to use the train to get to the Scottish capital. I think most of us are sick and tired of him and his wife making the case for the climate emergency having flown to the venue by private jet.

But if were tired of that kind of hypocrisy, just wait until November when the COP 26 conference is being held in Glasgow. I hope someone does a count of the private jets landing at Glasgow and Prestwick Airports. Pass the sick-bag

         

Ive just heard the UKs entry for Eurovision this year. Its certainly a step up from the usual dirge that we enter. The video is somewhat niche and centres on an old man going for an ice bath in a Scandi forest.

But thats nothing on the opening line of the songs chorus: If you were a deep-sea diver, Id give you my last breath. Well, its a thought.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Feb.28

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

A joint Turkmen-Afghan business forum took place in Ashgabat, Trend reports on Feb. 28 referring to the Turkmen foreign ministry.

The event was attended by officials including representatives of several ministries and entrepreneurs of the two countries.

The forum participants discussed issues related to the commercial-economic partnership, prospects for increasing import and export between the countries, expansion of investments, simplification of trade procedures and establishment of direct business contacts.

The parties agreed to promote relations in the energy, transport and logistics sector, the communications and industry, oil gas and construction sectors.

Turkmenistan ranks among the top 10 main suppliers of goods to Afghanistan.

A Trade House of Turkmenistan has recently started functioning in the Afghan city of Mazari Sharif.

As a part of the bilateral agreements, a number of projects are under way, including those on preferential power and LNG supply of Afghanistan.

The sustainable socio-economic development of the Central Asia region can be ensured by large-scale projects including the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan (TAT) railroad and Lapis Lazuli transport corridor along Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey transport corridor.

The agreement on transit and transport cooperation Lapis Lazuli between Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Turkmenistan was signed on Nov. 15, 2017 at the ministerial meeting of the 7th Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan in Ashgabat.

The construction of the Afghan section of the pipeline was initiated in February 2018, while the construction of the Pakistani section is planned to be launched in 2020.

The Turkmengas State Concern is the leader of the TAPI Pipeline Company Ltd. international consortium. It acts as the main financier and manager of the project. The consortium also includes Afghan Gas Corporation, Pakistans Inter State Gas Systems (Private) Limited Company and Indias GAIL Company.
Burma Myanmar and India Sign Ten Deals During State Visit

Myanmar President U Win Myint (left) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Feb. 27. / Myanmar Presidents Office

Myanmar and India have signed 10 agreements, including five memorandums of understanding (MoUs), during President U Win Myints four-day state visit to India.

The leaders discussed numerous bilateral and international issues, according to a joint statement.

The president was welcomed by his Indian counterpart, Ram Nath Kovind, at the presidential palace, the Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on Thursday and by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House.

He was accompanied by the ministers for international cooperation U Kyaw Tin, religious affairs and culture Thura U Aung Ko, transport and communications U Thant Sin Maung and the chief minister of Rakhine State, U Nyi Pu, and departmental heads from the Office of the President and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The joint statement said the visit reinforced the tradition of high-level interactions, symbolizing the strong friendly relations existing between the two neighbours. The countries share a land border of more than 1,600 km as well as a maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal.

The statement read: They emphasized that regular high-level interactions have added momentum to the bilateral relations. They welcomed the synergies between Myanmars independent, active and non-aligned foreign policy and Indias Act East and Neighbourhood First policies, and reaffirmed their commitments to further strengthen partnership, explore new avenues of cooperation to expand bilateral relations for the mutual benefit of the two countries and peoples.

Deals were signed on enhancing cooperation on bilateral energy, trade, development, defense and maritime security and combating terrorism and violent extremism.

Five MoUs signed involve cooperation over petroleum products; cooperation to prevent people trafficking, cooperation on timber trafficking and conservation of tigers and other wildlife.

There was also an MoU between Indias Ministry of Communication and Myanmars Ministry of Transport and Communications and another on health research between the Indian Council of Medical Research and Myanmars Department of Medical Research, under the Ministry of Health and Sports.

The statement said: India and Myanmar agreed to cooperate in the field of petroleum products  for cooperation in refining, stockpiling, blending and retail through a government-to-government memorandum of understanding.

To boost economic cooperation and tourism, both sides agreed to work together to launch the Indian RuPay card in Myanmar and an India-Myanmar digital payment gateway for cross-border remittances.

They agreed to construct a modern check post at Tamu, a border town in Sagaing Region which faces Moreh in the Indian state of Manipur.

The visit deepened defense and maritime security cooperation, building on an agreement signed last year.

The statement said: Emphasizing the importance of building a comprehensive legal framework for addressing mutual concerns on matters related to security, the two sides agreed to continue negotiations on various pending treaties, such as the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty on Civil and Commercial Matters and the Extradition Treaty.

India reaffirmed its support for Myanmars democratic transition, peace process and moves to establish a democratic, federal union.

The Indian leadership reiterated its commitment to support Myanmars efforts to promote peace, stability and the socio-economic development in Rakhine State through the Rakhine State Development Program. India provided support for prefabricated houses and relief materials for displaced communities in northern Rakhine during 2019.

Both sides agreed to strengthen development cooperation under the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation agreement.

They welcomed the signing of the agreement on Indian Grant Assistance for Implementation of Quick Impact Projects during the state visit, said the joint statement.

India praised Myanmars cooperation in enabling the movement of project personnel and construction materials and equipment for the construction of the road in Paletwa in Chin State, which is part of the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project (known as the Kaladan project) across the Mizoram border.

Paletwa Township and adjacent northern Rakhine State have seen heavy fighting between Myanmars military and the Arakan Army (AA) since clashes began in late 2018.

Last year, the AA disrupted the movement of project materials along the Kaladan River.

The rebel army kidnapped Indian employees traveling by boat from Paletwa to Kyauktaw along with a National League for Democracy parliamentarian late last year. An Indian man died during the incident.

River transport was closed earlier this month as fighting increased between the AA and Myanmars military.

Despite the instability, both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the early completion of the Paletwa-Zorinpui road  the final leg of the Kaladan project.

The road would connect Sittwes port to northeastern India, boosting economic development and helping to tackle poverty, the statement said.

On Feb. 1 a port operator was appointed to operate the Sittwe Port and Paletwa Inland Water Transport Terminal.

Both sides said they would cooperate on boundary demarcation and complete several India-funded projects in Myanmar.

Myanmars delegation will also visit Bodh Gaya, where Buddha gained enlightenment, and the Taj Mahal.

There have been repeated high-level visits between the neighbors in recent years.

U Win Myint visited India in May last year for Modis oath-taking ceremony after his re-election victory. Also in May, Indias defense secretary Sanjay Mitra visited Myanmar.

In December 2018, Ram Nath Kovind visited Myanmar to promote Indias Indo-Pacific strategy and signed several agreements. In January 2018, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi visited India for the 25th India-Asean Commemorative Summit.

Modi also visited Naypyitaw in November 2014 and September 2017 for Asean summits.

Then Myanmar president, U Htin Kyaw, and the State Counselor met Modi during their separate visits to India in late 2016.

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By PTI

NEW DELHI: Since violence broke out in northeast Delhi, a 15-bed private hospital in the narrow lanes of Mustafabad has attended to nearly 600 injured people -- all for free.

During the height of the clashes that has claimed over 40 lives, there was a situation when the hospital ran out of first aid and medicines and had to arrange them through crowdsourcing and from AIIMS.

The Al-Hind Hospital was the one-stop for riot victims on Monday and Tuesday when ambulances were not allowed inside.

The hospital has 15 beds in total, which are kept in two rooms.

Dr MA Anwar, the owner of the hospital, said they had 400-600 injured victims, who came to them, adding two persons were also brought dead.

"We have only 15 beds in the hospital but we didn't turn anyone away. We put extra bedsheets on the floors and attended to victims, many of whom had injuries due to pellets," he told PTI.

ALSO READ: Hindu, Muslim, Sikh residents unite to fend off mobs in Northeast Delhi colony

When the hospital ran out of first-aid and medicines, Anwar approached a doctor friend at AIIMS.

"One of my friends is in AIIMS. They sent the medicines in an ambulance which crossed the highway near Chandbagh," Anwar said.

Talking about his hospital, he said it was a polyclinic till about seven to eight months ago but was converted into a hospital only recently.

ALSO READ: Kapil Sibal 'thanks' PM Narendra Modi for 'speedy response' to Delhi riots

He is giving free treatment to patients and said his doors are open to all.

"I will not be charging a single penny from the patients. We are giving them food and whatever else they need. We are arranging funds with the help of locals," he said.
Google misdirected a number of private videos that users of its Google Photos app intended to back up to Google Takeout, sending them instead to strangers archives, 9to5 Google reported Monday.

The company emailed affected users to inform them that a technical issue caused the error, which incorrectly transferred videos for several days before it was fixed.

Whoa, what? @googlephotos? pic.twitter.com/2cZsABz1xb

 Jon Oberheide (@jonoberheide) February 4, 2020

Google recommended that affected users back up their content again and delete their previous backup. They were advised to contact Google Support for further assistance.

Google Photos passed the 1 billion user mark last summer.

Although it said just 0.01 percent of users were affected, Google did not indicate whether that percentage applied to Google Photos or Google Takeout users.

Google did fix the issue quickly, acknowledged Erich Kron, security awareness advocate at KnowBe4.

However, the notification process to those impacted was less than satisfactory and left out a lot of details, leaving those possibly impacted unsure of what the exposure risks were for them, he told TechNewsWorld. When dealing with an issue that impacts privacy in the way that improperly sending files as sensitive as photos and videos is, the communication needs to be very clear and informative.

Googles notification reads like they really dont care about what happened to the users, and that could backfire badly with organizations like the European Commission, noted Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

The issue highlights the challenge with protecting and managing personal photos and videos, said Josh Bohls, founder of Inkscreen.

People use their mobile devices to scan business documents, and they use a broad range of photos, video and audio for everyday tasks that drive business processes, he told TechNewsWorld.

If you work for a law firm, healthcare provider, insurance company, or in another regulated industry and take photos or record videos as part of your job, your company should strongly consider a solution to protect and manage this content  especially if you use Google Photos, Bohls said.

Fear and Anger

The problem shouldnt happen at all, and it once again points to Google as a firm that cant be trusted with your data, Enderle told TechNewsWorld.

If the video content was sensitive and private, then you could have a violation of the GDPR or Californias CCPA, remarked Mike Jude, research director at IDC. That sort of thing could trigger fines and remedial action.

Googles failure to disclose who wrongly received videos could lead to more trouble for the company, Enderle pointed out. Users should have a right to that information, and they likely could sue Google to get it. Then, depending on whats in the video, sue them for damages.

Any indemnification clause in the user agreement might not protect Google because the issue was due to negligence, he said. I wouldnt be surprised if we saw a class action suit come out of this.

While the victims can file suit, or file a complaint under applicable privacy laws, it could backfire on them, IDCs Jude told TechNewsWorld.

In the case of provocative material, the temptation would be to pay the ransom rather than face public disclosure, he said.

By the Numbers

It is possible that thousands were impacted, Jude remarked. It wouldnt pay for Google to announce something like this unless it had a pretty wide reach.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

The issue could be quite serious for those affected, said Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate at Comparitech.

However, the scale of the problem depends on who really was affected, he told TechNewsWorld.

Google pinned that number at 0.01 percent, but do they mean 0.01 percent of Takeout users or of Photo users? Bischoff asked. The former would be a much smaller number.

Further, the leaked videos went to other users, not malicious actors, he noted, and it was not intentional on Googles part. For me, those two facts make this less of a big deal.

If Google had let an attacker hack its systems or had been hiding a nefarious practice, its privacy or security standards would be called into question, Bischoff said, but bugs happen, and I think people are more forgiving for that sort of thing.

What Google Can or Should Do

Google should do whatever it takes to secure the mis-sent videos, Enderle recommended.

It probably wont be enough, but if they wait for regulatory action, the result could be very expensive, he warned.

Ethically, Google should help them, said IDCs Jude. Would they? Probably not, unless theres some explicit guarantee that the data stored with Google is secure.

Google could offer identity theft protection for the victims, but theres not much it can do until the damage is done, Comparitechs Bischoff noted.

If it can find out exactly which videos and photos were sent incorrectly, Google should absolutely inform the owners of what was compromised, Bischoff recommended. It might step in as a mediator to protect both parties privacy in case any victims wanted to communicate with those who received their videos by mistake.

Google is a free service, more or less, that provides access in exchange for looking over your shoulder as you use the service, Jude remarked. It is not a public commons, and there really should be no expectation of privacy.

Users should opt for a paid storage service, suggested Enderle, while Jude said storing videos and photos locally might be a better option.

I saw a 2-TB SSD the other day for (US)$69, he said. Back when I was in college, I saw an article in the magazine Datamation that said the total computer storage of the planet was about 1 TB.
Russia denies responsibility on Assad regime attacks

At least 33 Turkish soldiers were martyred and more than 30 wounded in the Syrian regimes attacks.

Russias Defence Ministry said on Friday that Turkish troops hit by shelling on Feb. 27 should not have been in the Syrian area where they were and that Ankara had not informed Moscow in advance about their location, the RIA news agency reported.

"RUSSIAN PLANES HAVE NOT CARRIED OUT STRIKES AGAINST TURKEY"

The ministry said, however, that Russian war planes had not carried out strikes in the area where Turkish troops were and that Russia had done everything to ensure the Syrian army ceased fire to allow the troops to evacuate.
Celebrations are in order as a 25th birthday party for a great-great grandmother is due to take place this weekend.

Doris Cleife is actually turning 100 but the soon-to-be-centenarian has her birthday on February 29, meaning she only gets it once every four years.

Great-great grandmother Doris Cleife holds a birthday cake with candles showing the number 25. (PA Images)

Staff at her Brunel Court care home in Portsmouth  run by provider Housing 21  will throw the bash for Doris with local dignitaries, friends and residents all invited.

Manager Katrina Morgan said: We know that family means so much to Doris and they will all be celebrating with her at a private party on her actual birthday on Saturday but the residents here wanted to throw a surprise tea party as well.

Great-great grandmother Doris Cleife reads birthday cards in her flat. (PA Images)

We are delighted that we are able to share such a special moment with her and her friends here.

Doris, a retired hairdresser, took a relaxed view to hitting 100  and would be keen to celebrate her birthday with her favourite food, biscuits and pate.

I just take it as it comes, I cant do much about it, she told PA news agency.

I honestly dont know, I think to myself, I never dreamed I would get this far, I lost my mother when she was quite young and my granny died when she was 47 but here we are, and I have a sister who is 98.

I dont feel any different.

Ive waited all my life to be famous and now it happens like this.

She added: I am waiting for my letter from the Queen.

A family photo of Doris in her younger years. (PA Images)

Doris Cleife is preparing to celebrate her "25th birthday". (PA Images)

To be honest, I am feeling quite philosophical about becoming 100, but I am looking forward to spending time with my new friends and my family.

Doriss husband Sam died in 1979 and she moved into independent accommodation run by not-for-profit Housing 21 last year, having lived with her son-in-law and daughter for 40 years. She moved out after her daughter died in May.

She put her longevity down to working hard and walking, especially along the seafront.

She has two grandchildren, Rachel and David, and three great-grandchildren, Kirsty, Sammy and Isla.

Doris granddaughter Rachel Bowen said: We are so proud of nan and she is thrilled to be celebrating such a significant milestone with her friends and family.

Story continues

Last year was very hard but we want to celebrate this amazing day and an amazing woman.

She has been pulling our legs for months now saying she cant wait until her 25th birthday.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: A day after riots ended in northeast Delhi, leaving at least 35 people killed in its wake, the police set up two Special Investigation Teams (SIT) to probe the violence.

It also emerged that Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma, whose body was found in a drain Khajuri Khas area near his house on Tuesday, was stabbed over 250 times, revealing the brutality of the rioters. Police sources said the autopsy report brought out the horror of hundreds of stab wounds on the victim.

With fingers pointed at AAP councillor Tahir Hussain for Sharmas murder, the party suspended him from its primary membership after the police filed a first information report (FIR) against him based on a complaint from Sharmas family.

ALSO READ: AAP suspends councillor Tahir Hussain after cops file FIR against him in IB staffer Ankit Sharma's murder case

AAP head and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal distanced himself from Hussain, saying action must be taken against all who incited riots. Hussain, however, rejected the charges levelled against him.

By taking prompt action, Kejriwal got to claim the high moral ground, putting the BJP under pressure, as its leader Kapil Mishras alleged hate speech on Sunday last lit the fuse of the riots. Delhis calm was broken on that day after a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in the Maujpur-Babarpur Metro station area turned violent.

The attacks began shortly after Mishra allegedly warned of impending chaos if the police failed to clear the road of protesters within three days.

ALSO READ: AAP councillor Tahir Hussain booked in IB man's murder case

After being taken to task by Delhi High Court judge S Muralidhar on Wednesday for inaction over hate speech, the police informed the court on Thursday that they have taken a conscious decision not to file FIRs against anyone at this stage as it would not be conducive to restoring peace. While Justice Muralidhar gave the police just one day to take a call on filing FIRs on hate speech, the new bench led by Chief Justice D N Patel put off the matter by four weeks.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing Delhi Police, urged the judiciary not to intervene till full normalcy is restored. He informed the court that 48 FIRs have been lodged in connection with the riots. Also, 514 suspects have been detained/arrested till now. The court was hearing a PIL filed by activist Harsh Mander. It also accepted Tushar Mehtas request to implead the Centre in the PIL.
Nripendra Mishra, the chairman of the Ram Temple Construction Committee, met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday a day before his proposed visit to Ayodhya initiate the process for preparing a blueprint for construction of the temple.

Mishra's meeting with the chief minister was described as a courtesy call by a senior government official, who said the meeting lasted for nearly half an hour.

Mishra will also be visiting Ayodhya on Saturday, he added.

On February 19, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das was elected president and Champat Rai general secretary of the Trust at its first meeting in New Delhi.

The meeting, held at the residence of senior lawyer K Parasaran, had also elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi's former Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra as the head of the temple construction committee of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirth Kshetra Trust.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The following excerpt is from the Garrett French and Eric Wards book Ultimate Guide to Link Building, 2nd Edition. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes

Because my company hand-builds links at relatively large scale and always looks for ways to go bigger, we continually test our link-building processes and beliefs. For example, when you have more than 80 guest posts to place in a month, you dont have the luxury to woo each and every prospect with commenting and tweeting (a common preciprocation warm-up tactic). Following are some effective tips on the principles of bulk outreach.

1. From link builder to email marketer

Link builder, its time to think a bit differently  youre now an email marketer. Your task isnt to build links, but rather to build lists: lists of relevant prospects and their contact information.

Then you must create an offer that will get these prospects to respond to you. Next, you must lead them, often through further inbox dialogue, to take an action that will ultimately lead to a link, social distribution, and/or content that can attract more links.

Related: 19 Subject Line Formulas for Different Types of Link-Building Emails

2. Lists of prospects are everywhere

Though we still scrape search engine results pages for link prospects, weve supplemented this method by searching for and scraping lists of websites. Sometimes I even look for lists first, then brainstorm potential offers to make. Other times, I follow a hunch, such as, If I could find a list of hospitals, what could we offer them that could result in links?

3. Create offers that work at scale

In bulk outreach, the ideal offer is one thats relatively unlimited. Guest posts  if youre pitching great content  are a bit limited. They can work, but they arent ideal. Free trials of web-based software? Thats a bit less constrained. Widget installs? Ditto. Go to town! Ask experts to take a survey? Unlimited  you make one survey, then conduct outreach. Remember, you must be certain that your offer genuinely appeals to the prospect list youve built and that youll get links in the process. Here are some examples of offers that scale:

Free content (guest posting, infographics, widgets)

Free products/services (for reviews and contests)

Participation in expert surveys (they answer questions, you publish answers, they link/share)

Timely analysis and/or access to expertise (pitching a hot, topical interview with your expert)

Philanthropy and fundraising participation (ask to spread the word, ask to pitch in, too)

Help fix broken, rotted, and now-parked links

Money (not our bag, though some of our best friends are link buyers)

Related: 15 Tips to Generate Great How-to Content

4. Write powerful pitch templates

An effective offer, tailored to your target prospects, is 99 percent of a great pitch. That said, there are some key ingredients that your pitch should contain:

Make the benefits of your offer crystal clear.

Make sure the pitch highlights benefits to the publisher and their audience.

Flaunt your brand. (I like to lead with the brand in my first sentence if its recognizable and OK with client.)

Flaunt relevant success metrics. (My previous guest post got over 700 retweets! Our last fundraiser netted over $5,000! Our last group interview got linked from Time.com!)

Promote the page that contains your link. (I like offering to pay for traffic from StumbleUpon for guest posts.) And toss in a light dusting of your personality (This evolves for me over time, but it can give the more relational-type prospects. something to respond to.)

5. Simplify your prospect qualifiers

If your lists are targeted and relevant to your offers, then you have far less qualification work to do. In fact, your biggest problem should be taking the cream off the top for high-touch engagement rather than cutting out the junk.

Part of the whole bulk outreach play is developing an offer that works across a spectrum of sites. For this reason, we propose that a principle qualifier for bulk outreach is whether you can scrape the contact information. With a contact finder tool, you can see anywhere from 25 to 80 percent availability of contact info for sites depending on the vertical and how contactable the site owners want to be.

6. Simplify your campaign success metrics

Besides links earned (which isnt always that simple, anyway), email response rates (number of responses/number of emails) are strong indicators for bulk outreach campaigns. This tells you if youve pitched the benefits clearly and if your template is personable enough and can give you a sense if youre even using the right offer.

We also recommend splitting your list and/or only sending to 5 to 10 percent of your list at first to allow for tune-ups. Make sure you have someone whos good in the inbox for closing the emails that do come back  they need to be personable, chatty, and laser-focused on making those links happen. All this comes out in the responses you get. Getting more responses helps you get more links.

Related: Why Your Best Move Might Be to Promote Other Websites' Content

7. Educate yourself on Can-Spam

Can-Spam is the law that established rules for commercial email and messaging, giving recipients the right to no longer receive emails from businesses. Here are some of the basic tenets of Can-Spam:

Dont use false or misleading header information.

Dont use deceptive subject lines.

Tell recipients where youre located.

Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you.

Honor opt-out requests promptly.

Monitor what others are doing on your behalf.

Since so much of link building is email marketing, youll want to learn more than just the basics of the law and how they apply to your situation. Heres the best resource: www.business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business.

Related:

From Link Builder to Email Marketer

19 Subject Line Formulas for Different Types of Link-Building Emails

15 Tips to Generate Great How-to Content



Copyright 2020 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
With influenza continuing to hit Wisconsin hard, schools closed in Richland Center Thursday and Madison-area clergy said theyre advising congregants to rub elbows or fist bump, instead of shaking hands or hugging, when sharing the peace during worship.

The Richland School District said it closed schools and canceled parent-teacher conferences Thursday because of a flu outbreak among students and staff.

The Madison School District hasnt closed buildings or canceled activities due to flu, said Sally Zirbel-Donish, assistant director of health services.

Flu activity remains high in Wisconsin and most states, with state health officials saying nearly 20,000 residents have tested positive for flu since October, up from 17,000 during all of last years flu season.

More than 400 hospitalizations for flu were reported last week in the state, for a total of nearly 2,400 hospitalizations this flu season. Some 44 residents have died from flu, including three children.

Flu activity likely hasnt peaked yet and flu shots remain available, health officials said.

UW Hospital has had 1,905 cases of flu so far this season, up from 311 at the same point last year, spokeswoman Emily Kumlien said.

A temporary ban on visitors under age 12 in inpatient units at UW Healths American Family Childrens Hospital, which started a month ago, continues and likely wont be lifted for at least another month, Kumlien said.

At some churches, concern about the flu  and COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus that emerged late last year in China  has led to some social distancing.

The Rev. Michael Newheart of First Baptist Church in Madison asked his congregation to refrain from shaking hands, the first time hes taken that step, he said.

He recently had a cold and an older church member asked him to discourage handshaking. Both these incidents led me to ask that we bow to one another or rub elbows to greet one another, Newheart said.

At Covenant Presbyterian in Madison, the Rev. Charlie Berthoud said that every winter the church bulletin says: If you are concerned about germs, please share an elbow bump or a fist bump rather than shaking hands.

That language is usually removed by April, but this year that might stay in longer, until the COVID-19 situation is resolved, Berthoud said.

The Rev. Staci Marrese-Wheeler, of Lakeview Moravian Community Church on Madisons East Side and Glenwood Moravian Community Church on the West Side, said the congregations might start using individual cups for communion wine instead of dipping bread into a communal cup.

We have not suspended shaking hands, but have hand sanitizer available, she said.

At St. James Lutheran Church in Verona, the Rev. Kurt Billings said members were told not to shake hands if they feel uncomfortable doing so.

As a result, handshaking and hugs are down significantly, he said.

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Hus arrest is the second arrest in a month of a U.S. academic over an alleged failure to disclose ties to Chinese universities. In late January, Charles Lieber, chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, was arrested for allegedly lying about funding he received from a Chinese state-sponsored recruitment program.

This is just the latest case involving professors or researchers concealing their affiliations with China from their American employers and the U.S. government, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in the statement.

According to Hus indictment, the associate professor self-identified as a BJUT professor in research papers, certain CVs, and patent applications in China. While working as an associate professor at UTK, Hu also supervised BJUT graduate students and the operation of a laboratory at the university, while working on projects sponsored by the Chinese regime at BJUT, the document said.

Prosecutors allege Hu lied to UTK and made fraudulent omissions about his ties with BJUT. This caused the American university to falsely certify to NASA that UTK was in compliance with federal law relating to the agencys China funding restrictions, the DOJ added.

Hu faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each of the wire fraud counts, if convicted. He also faces up to five years in prison on each of the false statement counts.

UTK did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Federal authorities are increasingly zeroing in on U.S. academics and researchers over ties with China-based institutions and Chinas state-sponsored recruitment program known as the Thousand Talents Program due to concerns that it facilitates the transfer of sensitive U.S. research and intellectual property to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Since last July, the Department of Education has launched investigations into foreign funding at several U.S. universities, including Harvard and Yale, alleging that the institutes failed to disclose hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign sources of funding, as required by law.
Moscow on Friday announced new restrictions on travel to Russia from Iran and South Korea, two countries hit hardest by the outbreak of the new coronavirus.

In a statement, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced a temporary suspension of visas for Iranians travelling to Russia for education, employment, tourism and transit.

A separate decree imposed restrictions on travel to Russia from South Korea, with exceptions including members of official delegations.

Moscow on Wednesday advised Russians against travel to Italy, Iran and South Korea, amid a spike in infections.

On Friday, South Korea reported 315 new cases of the virus, bringing the total to 2,337, including at least 13 dead.

Iran said Thursday it had recorded an additional 106 cases, bringing the total in the Islamic Republic to 245, of which 26 had proven fatal.

The travel bans announced Friday follows dramatic steps taken by officials in Moscow to control the spread of the virus in Russia, such as the closure of its 4,250-kilometre (2,640-mile) shared border with China.

Two infected Chinese citizens have been treated in Russia, which has also repatriated and quarantined eight passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, of whom three have tested positive.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 04:07:37|Editor: huaxia

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ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A prisoner swap between pro-government Yemeni forces and Houthi militia took place on Thursday in the country's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, a military official told Xinhua.

According to the military source who asked to remain anonymous, "two pro-government soldiers were set free in exchange for the release of three Houthi rebels from the jail manned by the government forces in Hodeidah."

The prisoner swap occurred in Kilo16 area in the eastern part of Hodeidah under the direct supervision of a joint team representing the two warring rivals, the source said.

He added that the pro-government forces succeeded also in freeing several soldiers from the Houthi jail in Hodeidah during a similar previous prison swap.

As the main Yemeni port city along the coast of the Red Sea, Hodeidah is the key lifeline entry of most Yemen's commercial imports and humanitarian aid.

The grinding war of more than five years has pushed over 20 million people to the verge of starvation.

The Iran-allied Houthi militia control much of Hodeidah while the Saudi-backed government troops have advanced to its southeastern districts of the strategic port city.
BEERSHEBA, Israel, Feb. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Rezilion , the autonomous cloud workload protection platform, today announced the results of a comprehensive vulnerability analysis, concluding that only half of the vulnerabilities in cloud containers ever posed a threat.

Rezilion analyzed the top 20 most popular container images on DockerHub and discovered that 50% of vulnerabilities were never loaded into memory and therefore did not pose a threat, regardless of Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) scores and despite vast resources in budget and manpower spent on patching or mitigation. Please view a copy of the report here .

By triaging vulnerabilities using a continuous adaptive risk and trust assessment (CARTA) approach and then prioritizing treatment of those that are commonly targeted, companies can significantly reduce their security budgets or free up manpower to focus on other critical issues.

According to IDC , enterprises are spending 7-10% of their security budget on vulnerability management as daily operations become increasingly more dependent on cloud services. Vulnerability scanners overload and confuse security teams with mountainous results that would be impossible to patch all at once. The existing prioritization practices such as CVSS provide no notable reduction of breaches in organizations with mature vulnerability management programs. Firms with good security posture are equally breached by known vulnerabilities as those with poor security posture.

Gartner recommends in their Implement a Risk-Based Approach to Vulnerability Management report (Gartner subscription required) that "security and risk management leaders should rate vulnerabilities on the basis of risk in order to improve vulnerability management program effectiveness." Gartner also predicts that "by 2022, approximately 30% of enterprises will adopt a risk-based approach to vulnerability management" and "by 2022, organizations that use the risk-based vulnerability management method will suffer 80% fewer breaches."

"A vulnerability is only as dangerous as the threat exploiting it and in some instances during our research, we found the figure dropped to as low as 2%. By focusing on actual vs. perceived risk, we found the security industry has been unnecessarily exaggerating the number of vulnerabilities security teams must address, which has dangerous ramifications to the cloud security landscape," said Shlomi Boutnaru, CTO and co-founder, Rezilion. "A continuous adaptive risk and trust assessment-based approach reduces friction and overhead by identifying vulnerabilities running in memory and then prioritizing treatment to those vulnerabilities commonly targeted by hackers as well as any that don't have mitigations."

Gartner, "Implement a Risk-Based Approach to Vulnerability Management," Prateek Bhajanka, Craig Lawson, 21 August 2018.

About Rezilion

Rezilion is an autonomous cloud workload protection platform that makes production environments self-healing and resilient to threats. Founded by serial cybersecurity entrepreneurs Liran Tancman and Shlomi Boutnaru, Rezilion secures vast environments with minimal manpower by integrating security into existing DevOps and IT automation workflows. To learn more visit https://www.rezilion.com/

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OTTAWAFrom Mondays dramatic police action against Mohawk activists in Tyendinaga, to Fridays closed-door meetings in Smithers, B.C. between government ministers and the hereditary chiefs, there was a lot happening this week as Wetsuweten solidarity demonstrations continued across the country.

Here is a look at some of the key players involved in the push for a resolution to the dispute that has spiralled into a nationwide political crisis.

NaMoks and the Wetsuweten hereditary chiefs

You could say the seeds of the current situation were planted many years ago, when the Canadian state created reserves for Indigenous nations in British Columbia, imposed made-in-Ottawa band council governments on them, and started to treat their traditional territory  never ceded through a treaty, in the case of the Wetsuweten  like Crown land.

Generations later, the traditional leadership of the Wetsuweten people, with their five clans that span 13 house groups, have largely opposed a $6.6-billion pipeline slated to run through their territory in northern B.C., even as 20 elected band councils on reserves in the area signed agreements supporting the project.

The chiefs opposition to the pipeline exploded into a nationwide movement in support of their cause, after the RCMP arrested 28 people on a remote logging road who were blocking construction in the area. Since then, the hereditary chiefs refused to meet with provincial and federal representatives until they were satisfied with the withdrawal of the RCMP and pipeline crews from their territory. Through it all, NaMoks, the hereditary chief of the Wetsuweten Tsayu clan also known as John Ridsdale, has served as the groups main spokesperson.

Justin Trudeau, prime minister of Canada

After trying to stay out of the fray by arguing the dispute was firmly under B.C.s jurisdiction, the Trudeau government was sucked into the conflict as solidarity protests spread across the country and the Wetsuweten chiefs Mohawk allies blockaded rail lines  infrastructure that sits unquestionably in the federal sandbox  in Ontario and Quebec. The movement has also raised questions about the Liberals reconciliation agenda, with demonstrators questioning Ottawas commitment to the true nation-to-nation relationships that it claims to want.

Faced with accusations of weak leadership from the Conservatives and New Democrats in the House of Commons, Trudeau has tried to call for patience as the government worked to open direct negotiations with the Wetsuweten hereditary chiefs. Hes also urging demonstrators across the country to obey the law, as well as for police to uphold it, and stated that the blockades must come down now.

That was more than a week ago.

Carolyn Bennett, Crown-Indigenous relations minister

Trudeaus pointperson on Indigenous relations since the Liberals took power in 2015, Bennett was sidelined amidst the spreading Wetsuweten solidarity movement until the hereditary chiefs agreed to meet with her and her B.C. counterpart Scott Fraser this week.

While Bennett and Fraser are now in Smithers, B.C. for talks about the immediate crisis, the federal minister has also stressed the Trudeau governments long-term goal of helping Indigenous nations reform and strike modern treaties or self-government agreements after they were split up and oppressed for decades through the Indian Act of 1876. In a speech to the House of Commons during an emergency debate about the current crisis on Feb. 18, Bennett said over half of the bands created through that law are currently in talks with Ottawa to work on their priorities as they assert their jurisdiction to govern matters like education, fisheries and family services.

We are at a critical time in Canada. We need to deal effectively with the uncertainty. Canadians want to see Indigenous rights honoured, and they are impatient for meaningful progress, Bennett said.

Nathan Cullen, facilitator

The former NDP MP for the riding where the Wetsuweten live was appointed by the B.C. government to help mediate the dispute between the Indigenous nation.

This week, federal ministers  including Prime Minister Trudeau  credited Cullen with achieving progress in setting up a direct dialogue between government emissaries and the hereditary chiefs. Bennett said his work involved putting all of the pieces together with Coastal GasLink, the RCMP and the provincial government. The next day, the meeting was on, with Coastal GasLink agreeing to halt construction of its pipeline for two days, and the RCMP agreeing to stop patrolling a disputed area so that talks could proceed.

On Friday, Cullen told The Canadian Press he hopes Fridays meeting will move the situation forward, but that it might be too much to expect a full and final resolution.

Marc Miller, Indigenous services minister

Appointed to cabinet after last falls election, Miller is a Montreal MP who learned to speak Mohawk and has spoken of his links with people in the nations communities in Quebec. As such, he was well-placed to lead the federal governments dialogue attempts with Mohawk activists who have blockaded and set up camps along Canadian National and Canadian Pacific rail lines in Kahnawake, Que. and Tyendinaga, Ont.

On Feb. 15, Miller travelled to Tyendinaga to meet with Mohawk community members, though his efforts to negotiate a solution have so far failed. Police arrested 10 people and cleared a protest camp beside the tracks this week, while demonstrators roared back Wednesday by throwing rocks at a passing train and lighting fires next to the rail line.

He has described the long anticipated meetings between the Wetsuweten hereditary chiefs and government ministers as a victory for peaceful dialogue, as well as the beginning of the process to resolve long-standing issues.

Seth LeFort and the Tyendinaga Mohawks

The Mohawks at Tyendinaga were quick to stand with the Wetsuweten chiefs when they set up a protest camp directly beside CN tracks near Marysville, Ont.

Seth LeFort, who also goes by his Mohawk name Kanenhariyo, emerged as a leader of the activists in the community between Belleville and Kingston. He was one of the recipients of a letter from Miller offering to meet more than a week into the rail blockade, and appeared with Wetsuweten chiefs when they visited Tyendinaga on Feb. 21.

That was the same day that Trudeau changed tack, dropping his calls for patience to call for the blockades to come down. Kanenhariyo said at the time the Tyendinaga protest camp would remain until the Wetsuweten were satisfied that RCMP had withdrawn from their territory. On Monday, Ontario Provincial Police moved in and cleared the camp, arresting 10 people in the face of accusations of crimes against humanity from Mohawk activists.

Kenneth Deer and the Kahnawake Mohawks

South of Montreal, another Mohawk community has blocked Canadian Pacific tracks for more than two weeks. Kenneth Deer, secretary of the Mohawk Nation of Kahnawake, has acted as a media spokesperson for the demonstrators. He told the Star this week they wont stand down until the Wetsuweten chiefs achieve a settlement they can live with.

Meanwhile, Quebec Premier Francois Legault has called for the blockade to come down, and accused the Mohawk activists of possessing automatic weapons.

Deer was not happy about that and is calling on him to apologize.

We were really upset and we thought it was really irresponsible for him to say something like that, he said. The guys and the women and children that are out there have no guns. Its been very clear from the beginning of this whole thing that this is an unarmed peaceful protest.

Correction - March 2, 2020: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated the location of the community of Tyendinaga.

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Lana Condor has become a rising star in the last couple of years. In just a short time, the 22-year-old actress went from being relatively unknown to a Hollywood sensation that young people cannot get enough of.

Condor is mostly known for her role as Lara Jean in the film To All the Boys Ive Loved Before. However, fans might be surprised to know that she also appeared in an X-Men movie some years before. Read on below to learn more about this interesting role that Condor once took on.

How did Lana Condor become popular?

Lana Condor | Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for MTV

Condor was born on May 11, 1997, in Vietnam. She lived in an orphanage for a while before being adopted by white American parents a few months after her birth.

Condor grew up several miles outside of Seattle, Washington, and was very involved in the arts as a kid. She started out as a ballet dancer and trained with a few different schools around the country.

Later on, she began taking acting lessons and was even a theater scholar at the California State Summer School for the Arts.

In 2016, she started acting in various movies, such as X-Men: Apocalypse(2016), Patriots Day (2016), and High School Lover (2017). Then, her fame exploded in 2018 after she landed the role of Lara Jean in the Netflix movie To All the Boys Ive Loved Before.

The film became a hit with viewers around the world and was especially popular among Asian-Americans for its positive portrayal of the Asian community in the United States. Condors career also took off soon after.

What role did Lana Condor play in X-Men: Apocalypse?

Lana Condor would love to play Jubilee again  I would really like to do her justice because she didnt have it five years ago  now I think is the perfect time to give her what she deserves



(via @TheWrap | https://t.co/yNJadRdwKp) pic.twitter.com/p9O78Xl7Ab  Fandom (@getFANDOM) February 18, 2020

Condor played Jubilee in X-Men: Apocalypse. Jubilee is a mutant who can generate pyrotechnic energy blasts from her hands.

Before the movie premiered, fans were excited to see Jubilees debut, especially since it was representation for Asian-Americans in an industry where Asian characters are both lacking as well as constantly used to further offensive stereotypes. However, fans became disappointed to see that the character of Jubilee was simply a cameo, and other Asian characters did not get many dialogues either.

Condor recently decided to speak out about the experience, saying: In the moment, I was happy for any part I could get. Now, if that same experience happened, I would be pretty discouraged and upset and feel there was an injustice.

Additionally, Condor revealed that she went on a fair share of auditions for parts that required her to play up harmful Asian stereotypes.

A lot of times people assume I have an accent, and I dont, she said before sharing that she was often asked to act cute like Hello Kitty or anime characters. They wanted me to be so cutesy because thats what they think Asians are.

In fact, Condor later told The Wrap that she would be open to playing Jubilee again if the character could be better-written this time around, noting: Shes a fantastic character and now I think is the perfect time to give her what she deserves.

What future projects is Lana Condor working on?

Condor seems to be in a better place in her career now and would no longer have to play roles that are offensive to people in her community.

She recently appeared in the sequel to To All the Boys Ive Loved Before, called To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You, which premiered on Netflix near Valentines Day 2020.

Furthermore, Condor has also finished filming the third movie, To All the Boys: Always and Forever, Lara Jean. The release date for this film is still unknown, but it is currently in post-production.
The threat of legal action is hanging over some of Britain's biggest housebuilders after the competition regulator vowed to crack down on toxic leasehold homes.

A Competition and Markets Authority investigation found evidence that many families were 'misled' by firms selling leasehold homes on new estates.

This meant that buyers were paying for the right to live in their property for a set period, instead of owning it outright.

A Competition and Markets Authority investigation found evidence that many families were 'misled' by firms selling leasehold homes on new estates

Crucially, it is alleged many did not realise this was what they were signing up to. In as many as 100,000 cases the terms of leasehold contracts contained such high fees, including costly ground rents, that it was virtually impossible to sell on the homes.

The watchdog will order companies caught up in the scandal to compensate victims of any unfair business practices and sign legally binding agreements to change their policies.

Any which don't will be threatened with court action. The CMA did not name any companies but a number of building groups that have been connected to the scandal were tracking lower.

These included Taylor Wimpey (down 1.5 per cent, or 3.1p, to 202.2p), Persimmon (down 1.5 per cent, or 44p, to 2839p), Bellway (down 2.6 per cent, or 98p, to 3723p), and Barratt Developments (down 1.5 per cent, or 11.6p, to 757.2p).

Stock Watch - Benchmark Holdings A fall in demand for fish food has widened losses at AIM-listed animal health specialist firm Benchmark Holdings. Revenues fell by more than a quarter to 11.4million in the first quarter to December 31 as its advanced nutrition business slumped. It also makes medicines, such as sea lice treatments, and is breeding disease-resistant shrimp. Yesterday, the companys shares were down by 11.1 per cent, or 4.25p, to 34p.

Their losses came as London's two premier indexes once again closed in the red.

The FTSE 100 was down 3.2 per cent, or 215.79 points, to 6580.61 by the close  a fall of more than 11 per cent this week as fears spread about the impact coronavirus would have on the global economy.

This wiped almost 207billion off the value of Britain's 100 biggest firms, including 54.2billion yesterday.

The FTSE 250, which is swayed more by events at home than abroad, fell 2.3 per cent, or 452.53 points, to 19330.92, as Bank of England governor Mark Carney said the virus could weigh on UK growth within the next few months.

Aston Martin Lagonda tumbled a further 5 per cent, or 17.8p, to 338p, to another record low, as the Geneva Motor Show was cancelled because of the virus. Aston, which put out dire annual results on Thursday, was due to relaunch its Vantage car at the event.

And oil companies were pummelled as Brent crude flirted with going below the psychologically important $50 a barrel mark.

The oil price was down more than 3 per cent at $50.50 shortly after UK markets closed.

Royal Dutch Shell fell 4 per cent, or 68.8p, to 1663.6p, BP was down 4.4 per cent, or 18p, at 396.15p, and Premier Oil dipped 8.4 per cent, or 7.14p, to 77.64p.

Amid the wider market turmoil, Premier Inn owner Whitbread failed to raise traders' interest after it bought 19 hotels in Germany for an undisclosed sum.

The company, whose shares dropped 4.4 per cent, or 180p, to 3894p, is more exposed to the travel and tourism sector since it sold Costa Coffee to Coca-Cola for 3.9billion in 2018.

Elsewhere, struggling Yorkshire potash miner Sirius Minerals plunged 11.3 per cent, or 0.57p, to 4.44p as the deadline closed for investors to submit their proxy votes in a crunch ballot next week.

Shareholders are deciding whether to allow FTSE 100-listed mining group Anglo American  down 3.2 per cent, or 59p, to 1791.8p  to buy it for 5.5p a share, valuing it at 405million.

Its stock closed 20 per cent lower than Anglo's offer. It comes after several key investors, including Jupiter Asset Management and hedge fund Odey Asset Management, have joined retail investors in agitating for a higher offer.

Defence group Meggitt fell 2.5 per cent, or 13.6p, to 542p, despite clinching a 57million contract with US group Bell Textron to supply components for helicopters.
Authorities are searching for a boat owner after an unmanned fishing boat washed ashore Friday morning in Galveston Bay.

Bystanders spotted the boat around 8 a.m. south of Tiki Island, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. The bystander alerted Coast Guard watchstanders, who alerted boaters in Galveston Bay about the search and launched several vessels to search for the possibly missing angler.

MORE FROM JAY R. JORDAN: Driver charged after deadly wreck on East Freeway near Cloverleaf

A Coast Guard helicopter, as well as several boats, are assisting in the search. The boat, pictured above, has a registration number of TX3724ST.

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of the owner is urged to contact the Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston command center at 281-464-4854.

Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com
If theres any issue where government ought to tread carefully, surely its one that quite literally involves life and death: the right to whats known as medical assistance in dying, or MAID.

This has been the law of the land for just over three and a half years, and in that time some 13,000 Canadians have departed this life as a result of a lethal injection administered by a doctor or nurse practitioner.

It was a profound change in law and moral standards, and Canada did not embark on this path lightly. After a thorough debate Parliament approved a law that was sold to the public as a way of easing the pain of those in the final stage of life, of allowing them, in the well-worn phrase, a death with dignity.

Yet already the government is tinkering with the law, and there are loud calls for even more far-reaching changes that would stretch the MAID system far beyond its original conception.

A Quebec court has ruled that the government must extend the right to an assisted death to those who are suffering but are not terminally ill, whose deaths are not (in the words of the current law) reasonably foreseeable. Others want to go much further; theyre pressing to include those suffering solely from mental illness, and even to so-called mature minors  teenagers, essentially.

All those steps would take the assisted dying regime into areas that should trouble many people  including those who embrace the idea that adults with full capacity to decide their fate should be able to free themselves from unnecessary pain as their lives draw to a close.

There is, surely, a world of difference between easing the way out for a terminal cancer patient, and affirming the same right for a badly depressed teen demanding what amounts to a state-facilitated suicide. But that is indeed where some advocates would take us, all in the name of respecting the individual autonomy of every patient.

The government should think long and hard before it decides to go in these highly controversial directions.

The Trudeau governments hand was forced by a Quebec court ruling that declared the current law to be unconstitutional. A judge ruled that the requirement that a patients death be reasonably foreseeable discriminates against those suffering from painful conditions but who arent near the end of life.

The court gave Ottawa until March 11 to fix that, and this week the government announced the first part of its response.

It brought forward legislation, Bill C-7, that would remove the need for a patients death to be reasonably foreseeable, and allow patients who fear they might lose the capacity to authorize their own death at the very end to waive the requirement for a final consent.

Of these measures, waiving final consent is the least controversial. It would simply address the situation of patients like the late Audrey Parker, who ended her own life earlier than planned in 2018 because she feared a brain tumour might rob of her of the ability to give the final go-ahead for something she emphatically wanted.

Removing the need for a MAID patients death to be reasonably foreseeable, as the law now requires, is more problematic. The government says it must do this to satisfy the Quebec court, but that doesnt change the fact that it fundamentally changes the original point of the assisted dying law.

The idea, certainly as understood by the general public, was to spare those on a clear trajectory toward death unnecessary suffering in their final days. Yet the Supreme Court of Canada ruling that gave rise to the law spoke more broadly about including people with a grievous and irremediable medical condition  not that it necessarily be terminal.

Now that language is being used to stretch the MAID system to include many people who arent anywhere close to dying, including some with disabilities that they dont want to live with. Well soon see how many avail themselves of this, but theres no question it raises a host of difficult questions. Thats why this weeks legislation properly includes enhanced safeguards to guard against misuse.

Even more problematic are issues the government has kicked down the road for consultation later this year: MAID for those suffering exclusively from mental illness, and for what are known as mature minors.

MAID for those in the grip of mental illness obviously raises the question of how a person in such a condition can give truly free consent to her own death. And it begs the question of why society would rush to enshrine their right to die while failing dismally at providing adequate medical and psychological care for mental illnessess.

Likewise, extending the MAID principle to vulnerable 14- or 15-year-olds in the name of affirming the autonomy of every person, including those who have barely begun to live, must surely give pause.

The government is right that these issues are deeply complex and personal. All the more reason to proceed carefully in an area where mistakes, tragically, cannot be corrected.
Norwalk Symphony Orchestra / Contributed photo

The Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, playing side-by-side with the Norwalk Youth Symphonys Principal Orchestra, will perform The Sorcerers Apprentice, by Paul Dukas, in its Music for All Ages Concert: Melody and Magic concert on Sunday March 22.

Another highlight of the afternoon will be young piano virtuoso Avery Duer, this years winner of the eighth annual Young Artists Concerto Competition, performing the first movement of Rachmaninoffs Second Piano Concerto with full orchestra, under the baton of Jonathan Yates.
Man arrested for putting cameras in public toilets

THAILAND: An IT worker was arrested in Pathum Thani on Wednesday (Feb 26) for allegedly setting up spy cameras in womens public restrooms in a bid to sell the videos on social media.

crimetechnology

By Bangkok Post

Friday 28 February 2020, 09:52AM

A woman checks a Technology Crime Suppression Division display showing how spy cameras were set up in womens public restrooms. Photo: Pornprom Satrabhaya

Nitiwat Muikaeo, 23, was arrested at his residence in Klong Luang district after the parents of victims lodged complaints with the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) about clips of their daughters online, according to TCSD deputy commander Siriwat Dipho. Pol Col Siriwat told the media that Mr Nitiwat admitted he had recorded about 1,770 clips of several victims which were uploaded on the Russian social media network VK. He said Mr Nitiwat created at least three accounts. Two of the accounts would be used to show previews such as photos and half-length clips to attract viewers. Meanwhile, the third account would charge interested parties 350 baht to watch the full version of the clips in a private group. Mr Nitiwat was charged with violating the Computer Crime Act and faces up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to B200,000.
There was a standing-room-only crowd on hand Thursday morning for the grand opening of Immanuels Graceview Courtyard, an affordable 55+ active living environment.

Located at 1681 College Road, across College Road from the Council Bluffs campus of Iowa Western Community College, the new three-story Immanuel independent living facility features 28 one-bedroom and 28 two-bedroom apartments.

The 627-square-foot one-bedroom apartments feature full-sized appliances along with a washer and dryer. Two of the one-bedroom apartments are fully accessible.

The 807-square-foot two-bedroom apartments offer one and a half baths, full-sized appliances as well as washers and dryers. All utilities are included in the monthly fee for both one- and two-bedroom apartments.

Other amenities include a community room that is perfect for hosting celebrations. The community room provides a welcoming space for enjoying a morning cup of coffee, connecting with new neighbors or entertaining family members. There is also a beauticians space on the buildings first floor.

The facilitys wellness center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The wellness center offers a selection of free weights, a recumbent bike, treadmill and NuStep.

Graceview Courtyards studio is located on the third floor, offering perfect light in a bright space to work on hobbies, crafts and quilting projects. The studio also offers residents an onsite computer and printer.

The new independent living facility is located close to grocery stores, shopping, libraries and Iowa Western Community Colleges senior programming.

Immanuel owns and operates 14 retirement living communities in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. In 2018, the organization acquired its first community in Iowa, The Shores in Pleasant Hill, just outside of Des Moines. Graceview Courtyard is the organizations second community in Iowa.

Immanuel Pathways PACE, opened on North 16th Street in Council Bluffs in 2012, offers all-inclusive care for the elderly. The Council Bluffs facility served as the model for facilities that Immanuel opened in Des Moines as well as in Omaha.

Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh was on hand for the grand opening and declared Feb. 27, 2020, Senior Connections Day, noting that Council Bluffs, like many other cities, needs affordable, high-quality senior housing.

When Immanuel does it, they do it right, Walsh said.

Eric Gurley, Immanuel president and CEO, said Immanuel is no stranger to Council Bluffs, having opened the Immanuel Pathways PACE eight years ago, a facility that has served as a model for progressive care for Immanuel.

Although he did not mention a specific date for the start of construction, Gurley said Immanuel is planning a second building  a mirror of the Graceview Courtyard facility  on the property.

All people will grow old, Gurley said. Immanuels goal is for them to grow old with dignity, safety and wellness.

Karen Kovar, who will become the first resident of Graceview Courtyard when she moves from her Omaha apartment to the new Council Bluffs facility on Saturday, joined Immanuel officials for the official ribbon cutting.

Kovar, who retired as an administrative assistant with Omaha Police five years ago when she turned 62, said she is looking forward to moving into her one-bedroom apartment on the third floor on Saturday.

The former long-time Omaha city employee said she will enjoy being able to look out her apartments windows at the area surrounding Graceview Courtyard.

Ive lived in an apartment in Omaha for the last 10 years, and Im really excited about moving into Graceview, Kovar said.

Graceview Courtyard joins Immanuels existing Classic Courtyard offerings, providing an affordable 55+ active living environment for those who qualify through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program.
Mumbai

The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government will introduce a law to set apart 5% of admissions in educational institutions for Muslims, the states minorities development minister Nawab Mallik said on Friday.

Five percent reservation for Muslims in educational institutions can be implemented. A law to the effect will be brought as soon as possible, Malik said in the Maharashtra legislative council, in response to a question by Congress legislator Sharad Ranpise over reservation for the Muslim community introduced by the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government in 2014.

The Bombay high court had in November 2014 struck down reservations for Marathas in government jobs and educational institutions and Muslims in jobs, but allowed the state to provide a quota for Muslims in education. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena government chose not to earmark a quota for Muslims in educational institutions after it came to power in 2014.

Malik also told the House that the Shiv Sena was on the same page as its partners, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, on the issue. Shiv Sena leader and he states urban development minister Eknath Shinde later told reporters that a decision on the issue was yet to be taken. The decision on the reservation will be taken by the leaders of the three ruling parties together after due deliberation. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will take an appropriate decision in this connection at right time, he said.

The state government already has 74 % for various sections in education and 75% in government jobs. It includes 12% for the Maratha community as an Educationally and Socially Backward Class (ESBC) in education and 13% in jobs as well as a 10% quota for economically weaker section introduced by the Centre last year. If the state government sets apart 5% of seats in educational institutions, quotas will reach 79% in Maharashtra.

Constitutional experts have expressed doubts over the sustainability of the legislation when it is introduced in Maharashtra, given that similar reservations have been struck down by the courts elsewhere for various reasons in the past.

Shreehari Aney, a former advocate general of Maharashtra, cited the Champakam Dorairajan verus state of Madras case of the 1960s when reservation for Brahmins was struck down by a court.

It is not that it cannot be done. It can be done. But this is a very complicated issue. Religious reservation is quite different from backwardness reservation. So, in order to give it to a particular religion, there would be need to show in terms of Article 15 of the constitution that the religion deserves protection in matters of education, he added.

On the fact that total reservation in Maharashtra would touch 79% if the quota is enforced , Aney said, This will definitely be another basis for challenging the law in court.

Another legal expert, advocate Uday Warunjikar said: In India there are different such examples, where the state tried to introduce special reservation for persons belonging to the Muslim religion. Most of these examples have landed into legal trouble including in Andra Pradesh where 5% was introduced. but struck down by the court.

The government needs proper data to prove a certain religious community is in dire need of such a reservation. Without the data, it will be very difficult to sustain the legislation.

The BJP-led government chose not to implement the Mujslim educational quota after coming to power in 2014, taking the stand that reservation cannot be made on the basis of religion.

On Friday, former chief minister and leader of opposition in the legislative assembly Devendra Fadnavis reiterated his partys stand while opposing Maliks announcement.

Dr BR Ambedkars constitution does not approve the reservation on the basis of religion. The reservation to Muslims will affect the reservation granted to OBC {other backward class} and Maratha communities in the state, he said.

Some analysts saw Maliks announcement as a political move.

Analyst Hemant Desai said, NCP wants to reach out to Muslim voters now as Vanchit Bahujan Aghdis Prakash Ambedkar took their votes and AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslameen) is trying to expand in Maharashtra. Congresss position in terms of a support base is bad at present. NCP chief Sharad Pawar knows this. Sena, on the other hand is doing a balancing act and softening its stand on many issues.
Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has said top focus of countries should be on containing spread of coronavirus. The economist said governments could worry about economic stimulus later. "At this point I would say the best thing that governments can do is to really fight the epidemic rather than worry about stimulus measures. That comes later," said Rajan.

The economist said that there's little central banks can do and priority should be to convince companies and households that the virus is under control. He said that more government spending would also help.

"People want to have a sense that there is a limit to the spread of this virus perhaps because of containment measures or because there is hope that some kind of viral solution can be found," Rajan told Bloomberg in an interview.

Also read: IMF likely to downgrade growth forecast due to coronavirus outbreak

Raghuram Rajan's comments come amid concerns of slowdown due to the coronavirus spread. The coronavirus epidemic has pushed the world economy towards its worst performance since the financial crisis over a decade ago, said the report.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also signalled a downgrade in global growth forecast. The IMF said, "Clearly the virus is going to have an impact on growth." Bank of America Corp economists have also warned clients that they now expect global growth to be at 2.8 per cent - the slowest since 2009.

Rajan said that people have moved from extreme confidence in markets to extreme panic - all within a week. He told Bloomberg in the interview that the virus outbreak will force companies to rethink supply chains and overseas production facilities.

"Globalisation in production is going to be hit quite badly," he said.

Also read: Coronavirus cases shoot up again in China as relapse looms; fewer deaths a solace

Also read: Corona beer victim of coronavirus outbreak
The driver of the vehicle did not stop, and the trooper pursued until the vehicle crashed in the area of Sterling Boulevard and Route 28, Geller said, adding that the driver was seriously injured after being struck by at least one round. She said authorities flew him to a hospital.
The Decatur County Sheriff's Office in Oberlin, Kansas, said meth purchased locally might be contaminated with coronavirus (which is not true) and they are advising drug users to get their supplies tested for free.



It's the sheriff's attempt, likely meant as a joke, to get meth off the streets in northwest Kansas with a funny twist.
It started for me with a pretty severe sore throat. I started to feel symptomatic five days after traveling. Its different than the bronchitis that Ive gotten before. Everything had kind of settled in my lungs. And I was just coughing a ton. I had a headache and felt feverish. It felt like I had a bowling ball on my chest. Nobodys willing to see me, and nobody has the test kit and even C.D.C. is refusing to test me. I traced back, you know, my wife, she works at Amazon. They had a confirmed case. Four different planes in four different airports. So I dont know who sat next to me or who I was in contact with. Its one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. Its going to be just fine. Were going down, not up. Were going very substantially down. Not up. Anybody that needs a test, gets a test. Theyre there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful. We have a president saying anyone who wants tests can get a test. And Im thinking, That is so not true. It was just interesting, because there was this kind of gray area for a while of people who felt like they were really sick and should have been tested just as, even as a rule out. And the state of Washington just did not have the capacity to do that, because the government had not supported us at that point essentially. I got through to public health after about an hour, and they told me that I did not meet the criteria for being tested. They said, Theres no way to get tested. We dont have tests right now. Theres nothing set up in Delaware. I looked at the C.D.C. website and it said, call your doctor if you have the symptoms. So I called the doctors office and they told me to go to an urgent care facility. I called an urgent care facility and they said that theres nothing that they can do. And they dont have the tests. And they told me to go to the E.R. And I called a hospital, and they told me that they dont have the test either. I just felt like I was getting the run-around. It was clearly obvious that they just are under capacity, and theyre not able to test. I eventually just gave up because, at that point, the testing criteria was so strict. It was, you travel to China or have you been in contact with someone known diagnosed Covid. And I didnt meet any of that. As a nurse in an E.R., its pretty vital if I have an infectious disease that I know what it is because I could be spreading it to people who are really vulnerable. I actually work in a building thats a fairly public place. Theres people of every generation coming in there. Theres a private school there. Theres a senior center. Southwest Florida is full of elders. There is a lot of snowbirds coming here. Theyre all in their 70s and 80s. I cannot get myself, like I cannot convince my conscience to leave the house just thinking about that, Hey you went grocery shopping and now like five people died. So I just self quarantined myself and basically started working from home. We stocked up on food items as much as possible. I bought a 25 pound bag of rice. We bought beans. We got ready basically just to hunker down for those two weeks. At this point, Im telling people like make  if you have a decision to make, think about survival and make the decision based on survival for yourself, your family and your community. We knew this was coming. The federal government is just completely bungling this, and our lives are at stake. I feel like theyre just leaving us here to die in Seattle. The most overwhelming feeling was you are on your own. Im just really concerned for those that this is going to affect the hardest. And I think we pretty much failed at early testing, early containment. We had more time than other governments.
Tata leads with 30 brands featured; Godrej 11; Amul, Reliance, LG & have 9 each

South Korean electronics giant Samsung wins the crown in TRAs Most Desired Brands 2020, making it a fourth time victory in six editions of the report. The brand also led the list in 2018, 2015 and 2013 reports as well. Technology giant Apple takes the 2nd place up one rank from last year, having climbed steadily over the years from rank 290 in 2015 to the exalted place this year. Samsung features again at 3rd rank in the Consumer Electronics Category. Sony TV, the GEC channel is a debut entry and rises by an impressive 594 ranks to occupy the 4th position this year followed by Maruti Suzuki at 5th. The Austin-based laptop maker Dell secures 6th rank; Samsung in Televisions at 7th, Amul Milk at 8th, Honda Activa at 9th and Hyundai at 10th follow sequentially. The MDB 2020 list has 394 new brand entries which did not feature in the last edition.

N. Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research, said at the launch of the report, Desire is a longing for a brand irrespective of its need, and the success of a brand is highly dependent on the desire quotient it emanates. The brands which feature in this list have been able to exude a deep magnetic pull that impacts the consumer at a subliminal level. TRAs syndicated research is based on our proprietary Brand Desire Matrix which measures consumers expressions of desire on 36 intangible attributes of a brand. MDB 2020 lists 1000 brands across 326 Categories and 39 Super-Categories.

The F&B Category has 159 brands in the report and FMCG features 129, totaling 28.8% of the listing. Automobile features 75 brands, Consumer Electronics lists 59 and BFSI & Personal Accessories have 56 brands each. The Fashion-to-Financial Services conglomerate, Tata Group, leads with 29 brands featured, of which ten are Category leaders. Godrej Group has 11 brands listed with three Category leaders and Amul gets 9 brands included in the report of which eight top respective Categories.

Indian brands dominate the top 100 of Indias Most Desired list featuring 42 brands, followed by 15 American, 12 Japanese and 11 South Korean brands. 6 German brands also feature of which three luxury car brands dominate the list. 4 UK brands make it to top 100, and the three Chinese brands which are included in the list are from the Mobile Phone category.
Art can be a refuge. It can recall lost beauty and peace, process a journey through time and around the world, guide recovery from fear and oppression. It can touch pain without reliving it. That's true for Bundoora-based couple Aisa and Behzad Hadziahmetovic. When their home in Sanski Most  by the banks of the Sana River in north-west Bosnia and Herzegovina  was ransacked and a drunken Serbian extremist made a death threat against their infant son Mirza, the Bosnian Muslims knew they had to flee their shattered hometown during the Bosnian War of 1992-95.

Behzad and Aisa Hadziahmetovic at the Motley Bauhaus theatre in Fitzroy North Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui

Leaving with what little they could carry, Aisa strapped Mirza to her torso while Behzad grappled with what he could of their belongings. "We were just waiting for when it was our turn to be or executed or imprisoned," she says of the ethnic cleansing that left thousands of their compatriots buried in mass graves. "I have so much empathy for everyone who lost someone. My uncle was killed almost on the last day of the war."

From a Croatian refugee camp they made it to Austria, where Behzad took up painting to soothe his nerves. Having lost so much and dislocated from home, his oil and pastel renditions of centuries-old Bosnian cities were a lifeline connecting him to a more peaceful past and hope for the future of his country. "It pulled you out of your fear," Behzad says. "When you draw, you're with yourself, quiet and calm. You don't think so much about what's happening back there. It was a kind of therapy."

His beautiful architectural visions will be on display at the inaugural Refuge Festival. Held at Fitzroy North art space the Motley Bauhaus, it will host multi-disciplinary work by creatives with a lived experience of being a refugee or asylum seekers. Theatre, films and live music will be accompanied by talks and workshops, with food from the nearby Moroccan Soup Bar.
Indrani dressed in a short purple kurta and leggings, with a bandhini green-purple chunni, sindhoor glowing in her mang, was receiving a drubbing from her lawyers for the facts she had revealed before the court on Tuesday while arguing the rejoinder to her bail application.

She was insisting: "But he asked me for a motive!"

Vaihayasi Pande Daniel reports from the Sheena Bora Murder Trial.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

On any weekday the Mumbai city civil and sessions court, located at Kala Ghoda, a hop, skip and a jump from the Jehangir art gallery and Elphinstone college, south Mumbai, is pretty packed out.

Throngs of people are always milling about.

The noise and the crowd, of course, ebbs and swells, depending on the time of day and the number of prison trucks growling their way into the courtyard below, to discharge dozens and dozens of accused.

Somewhere between 11 am and half past noon the number of relatives standing around the courtyard, as the sun beats down overhead, waiting for a loved one to arrive, from judicial custody, from jails as near as Arthur Road and Byculla jail, and as far as Taloja (44 km away), is at its highest.

This gathering of a humanity is naturally a microcosm of both Mumbai and India. A cross section of classes. The economically challenged. Plenty of middle-class people unexpectedly cogs caught in the wheels of justice. And the swish too, whose lawyers pull up in fancy cars.

All strata. All religions. All colours. All sexes, including the third gender. All professions. Different nationalities too.

But given that, of the people in judicial custody in India, 65 per cent are Dalits/scheduled tribes or OBCs, and 70 per cent are illiterate or semi-literate*, most of the people standing below are plain poor. And lack of financial means, above all, denies their jailed family member bail.

These poor might be living in the big city, or have come from rural areas to meet their undertrial relatives, but like it is in the slums, they bring a warm and charming village community kind of vibe with them.

The austere portals of the court are transformed by large joint families who hang around in knots all over the place. Grandmothers. Great uncles. Mothers in law. Clusters of women in ghungat or burqa. And lots and lot of children.

There can be sadness. Tears. Despair. Loneliness.

And longing.

But mostly, surprisingly, there is often a festive air, with relatives happy to meet up with their imprisoned usually male kin, bringing them food, little homemade goodies, probably photographs, sometimes clothes and loads and loads of love.

Adding to the merriment are the toddlers and children, in their Sunday best, running around playing games with themselves or their grannies/relatives -- simple games that involve hiding behind Sintex tanks, sifting the dust from the ground or fiddling with bits of twine discarded from some legal papers.

You wonder, with your suffocating middle class sense of propriety/values, about the advisability of bringing young children, with formative minds, to court and exposing them to the fact that their father, elder brother or uncle, or whatever, is in jail and to prisoners filing in, in handcuffs. And the occasional ugly moments, like spats with police escort.

But then, given the number of poor people in judicial custody, maybe it is a simple, practical fact of life, that these communities and families, including kids, have long since learned to live with, without any sense of embarrassment or guilt or stigma -- they are poor and so they are in jail, in judicial custody which does not mean they are guilty. A realism, we cannot understand.

Plus where would they leave their children every time they undertook the long, likely arduous and maybe expensive journey, by bus, train and on foot, to this court to see a relative.

Unlike the privileged trio of accused in the Sheena Bora murder trial, most undertrials, alas, seldom get out of jail on court visits, because of the paucity of police guards. A visit must be a big occasion for their folks and why should the littlest miss out?

Indrani Mukerjea's lawyer Sudeep Ratnambardutt Pasbola and CBI Special Judge Jayendra Chandrasen Jagdale were having a chat about just that the other day, in Courtroom 51.

They first spoke about the decline of crimes like extortion and, because of technology, the noticeable surge of white-collar crimes.

The judge then went onto say that every time he meets senior commissioners of police, he implores them to use some "common sense" while allotting guards and not send so many, presumably for this set of accused (Peter Mukerjea, Indrani Mukerjea and Sanjeev Khanna). And that one per accused was enough. Rather than five each.

Judge Jagdale: "Very difficult for them to run away!"

They both laughed.

They then discussed how rarely undertrials get a chance to make a trip to court and get outside jail.

And about the utter injustices and imbalances of that situation.

Prosecution Witness 66, Dr Rajinder Singh Dangi, 63, came to the stand on Thursday, February 27, 2020.

He was not new to these Mumbai courts. Pasbola seemed to have run into him quite a few times before and it looked like Dr Singh had made several appearances in court cases in his capacity.

No matter of surprise because he was the former head of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Lodhi road, central New Delhi.

Dr Singh started off, in a pedantic manner, reeling off, for ten minutes continuously, his many degrees, credentials and length of experience to the slightly startled court "MSc, BEd, MPhil and a PhD, 30 years of experience, 42 research papers etc, etc and 3,000 cases of various nature and inspected and recorded the scene of crime in more than 1,000 cases."

Post his retirement in May 2016 from the top post at CFSL, after a run of 16 years, he apparently taught at the Shree Guru Gobind Singh tricentenary university, Gurugram, and lived in Haryana.

A tall, lanky man, dressed in blue and black, with thinning hair that was untidily plastered to his head, a prominent nose, black glasses, Dr Singh was rather short on memory (beyond his own personal qualifications) and somewhat random about his methods and procedures.

As his testimony in chief proceeded, conducted by CBI Special Public Prosecutor Manoj Chaladan, there is always a tussle over pronunciation with this North-India-Dilli-log battery of witnesses.

Neither Mumbai lawyers, nor the judge or the prosecutor -- never mind the youthful, usually-hyper-efficient court stenographer Vaibhav -- are ever able to fathom what they are saying.

Each word gets questioned. Hence the judge's dictation for the court record sort of limps along painfully. "Swoil... Swoil?! Soil!... Suit... Suit? S-o-o-t... Soot!!"

And a bit of confusion always reigns.

Judge Jagdale irritatedly to Vaibhav: "As! Not 'ass'!"

Laughter.

And turning to Dr Singh and Chaladan he asked them to slow down -- "Very difficult for the typist to grapple!"

Clearly Mumbai wins hands down when it comes to English diction.

In October 2015 the Central Bureau of Investigation had approached Dr Singh for his assistance. He was asked to join the team of All India Institute of Medical Sciences forensic doctors who were visiting the crime scene in the sticks, a mango grove at Gagode Khurd, Raigad district, Maharashtra on October 15.

This was the place where Sheena's body had been found in May 2012, although Indrani told us, roundly, on Tuesday, making headlines Wednesday, that according to the verified Call Data Records, she was very much alive at the time.

Dr Singh hopped along with this gang to take some pictures, make some measurements and collect some samples.

The long and short of it was: He collected seven sets of samples. Some were soil. Some were pieces of wood (but not sticks/branches). And Exhibit 7 was, oddly, five plastic bottles without caps.

What the relevance of these bottles never got discovered on Thursday. They were standard mineral water bottles that litter many corners of India, unfortunately.

Are plastic bottles Dr Singh's signature crime scene sample? Something about the bottles tickled Pasbola and Gunjan Mangla, Indrani's lawyer, who looked at them and grinned.

The samples were sealed in Dr Singh's presence in 2015 and they all signed off on it. And a memorandum was prepared by the CBI that Dr Singh signed too.

He was unfamiliar with the contents of the memorandum and asked for a few minutes to read it, which lead to Judge Jagdale mildly ticking him off: "(Someone) in your position is supposed to read the document before signing. Without reading a document you are not supposed to sign."

Something about the way the 'testimony in chief' was unfolding irked the judge too, who is a stickler for procedure, and he told Chaladan: "Everything is short-cut, short cut!"

Dr Singh filed a three-page report on October 28, 2015 of his findings, after his visit to the spot of the crime.

The process of examining these seven samples in court was mildly tedious. And maybe slightly amusing for their contents, that did not seem highly conclusive or important.

Yellow manila paper envelopes emerged. Each envelope -- after the seals and signatures were examined -- produced either odd bits of blackened wood or lumps of "black/dark brown" soil.

Dr Singh, sitting relaxed, on his stool in the witness box, dictated the contents, one by one, strangely, scarcely looked at them -- "Parcel Two is a sealed yellow-coloured, brown (sic) envelope containing earth material/soil of dark brown colour in loose and lumps..."

And then came the envelope full of bottles, that were slightly blackened that had been wrapped in a cloth bag -- Parcel Seven is a sealed cloth parcel containing five plastic bottles in deformed/crushed condition (the pronunciation also in a crushed condition)..."

In his report, Dr Singh had made three conclusions -- Five of the exhibits including the soil and wood pieces "revealed the presence of blackened soot deposits which have caused due to burning of fire."

One packet of soil did not. And only one of the bottles "showed signs of burning effect, which had been carved due to burning of fire."

That was Dr Singh's testimony.

What all this meant the court was not told about. One was supposed to surmise that these were soil and wood pieces found near the scene of crime which showed signs of burning. But no additional details were provided.

Like crucially how far and where these samples had been collected from and what was the significance of any of it.

Where were the wood pieces from?

Whose bottles?

And why it had been so important to call Dr Singh in as part of the remaining 30 to 40 witnesses chosen from 189.

The court broke for lunch.

Judge Jagdale, who is also the guardian/mother hen of his flock of undertrials, called a puzzled Peter to the stand: "You want to eat sandwich, fruit and sweets? Sweets!? What kind of sweets?!"

Peter's sister, Shangon Das Gupta, who had brought the meal, volunteered, "Chocolates. Little chocolates."

Judge Jagdale smiling at her and Peter: "Dangerous (in your condition). You have diabetes."

Peter: "Not diabetes. I need for my low blood sugar."

Meanwhile, Indrani dressed in a short purple kurta and leggings, with a bandhini green-purple chunni, sindhoor glowing in her mang (parting), was receiving a drubbing from her lawyers for the facts she had revealed before the court on Tuesday while arguing the rejoinder to her bail application. She was insisting: "But he asked me for a motive!"

Post-lunch Pasbola, in a relaxed, easy-going mood, smoothly and effortlessly demolished Dr Singh through his cross-examination, in about 20 questions and 20 minutes flat -- literally had him for tea. The speed at which the lawyer did it, textbook-style, was breathtaking.

Maybe having most likely dealt with Dr Singh before, he knew what to ask or maybe he knew exactly where Dr Singh's memory would fail. And it did, on cue.

Pasbola: "Dr Rajinder Singh, when did you get intimation from the police to visit the (place of crime)? Date?"

Dr Singh: "From the CBI. Can I see (his file)?"

Pasbola, magnanimously: "Of course, of course! Can use your spectacles too, if you wish."

Dr Singh: "In this file there is no such letter."

Pasbola: "Nahin hai letter? Koiee baat nahin (Never mind)."

It was all miserably downhill from there with Dr Singh's answers being a monotonous, feeble series of "I do not recollect"s, "I do not know"s and "I do not remember"s.

He could not name who in the CBI had contacted him and how many days before his visit to Raigad. He remembered only one of the AIIMS doctors who had been there that day, but not if PW 61 Dr Sudhir Gupta of the AIIMS forensic department had visited (he had not). He did not remember who had pointed out the spot to him. Or anything about the spot.

Pasbola: "Did you take any measurements? Did you take any photographs?"

Dr Singh nodded.

But he didn't have either the photographs or the measurements or remember where he recorded the measurements or the distance from where he collected the bottles. Or recall additional facts about the site, be it flora or fauna, signs or other objects around.

He was blank, like a white board or a clean slate, or a history student sitting down, by mistake, to a calculus exam paper.

Pasbola strayed fleetingly into the mysterious domain of chemistry, although he cried off knowing much, since he had studied science till only his school graduation. But he and Dr Singh companionably exchanged dialogues on the "irreversible nature" of burning as a chemical reaction.

Pasbola: "Fire itself is a phenomenon that can be manmade, accidental or natural?"

Dr Singh agreed.

Finally, Pasbola: "Looking at the articles one cannot say when they were burnt?" He asked about the bottles too (Dr Singh did not if they had been sent for chemical testing).

Dr Singh: "No. Not the exact timing of burning. Cannot say exact period."

The cross-examination came to a mercifully quick close and the heaps of "blackened" soil and mineral water bottles were given their marching orders too.

The next witness is a handwriting expert on March 7.

And then Chaladan announced, without any fanfare, in his casual, quiet style, Rahul Mukerjea, Sheena's boyfriend and Peter's younger son from his earlier marriage, would be summoned from Dehra Dun.

That should be quite change, for this courtroom, and case. After a whole season of examining plastic bottles, wood chunks, kid's morphing software, incomplete credit card records, hand-adjusted DNA graphs and too-zealous or too-accidental panchas.

After waiting months in this trial for the real tale behind this strange, unfathomable murder, that has piqued India's collective curiosity for five long years, Rahul Mukerjea is finally scheduled to arrive.

*As per a 2016-2017 National Crime Records Bureau statistics, quoted in India Today magazine.

Vaihayasi Pande Daniel covers the Sheena Bora Murder Trial for Rediff.com.

You can read her fine coverage here.
A 23-year-old man, who along



with his minor brother, had attacked traffic constable Vilas Shinde with a wooden plank, leading to his death some days later, was on Friday convicted for murder by a court here.

Additional Sessions Judge K M Jaiswal held Ahmed Qureshi guilty under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code. The quantum of punishment will be announced on Saturday.

His brother, who was 16 at the time of incident, is being tried separately as an adult, after the Juvenile Justice Board gave its nod for such a trial in November, 2016.

In August, 2016, Shinde, on patrolling duty in Bandra in the metropolis, was attacked near a petrol pump by the siblings after Quereshi was caught riding a two-wheeler without a helmet.

On being asked for licence and vehicle documents, the two hit Shinde with a wooden plank several times, kicked him in the stomach and fled from the spot.

Shinde was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died a few days later.

A modification in the Juvenile Justice Act allowed juvenile delinquents to be tried as adults for rape and murder on the condition that they would would be spared the death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
SPRINGFIELD  Certain chemicals that are commonly used as sealants on asphalt driveways, parking lots and playgrounds could soon come under state regulation over concerns about their impact on human health and the environment.

A state Senate committee advanced a bill Thursday that would require public entities, including schools and state agencies, to publicly disclose their use of coal tar-based sealants or any other sealants with high concentrations of a substance called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, or PAH, a compound that federal officials say poses risk to both human health and the environment.

According to the American Medical Association, it increases your chances of developing certain kinds of cancers by 38 times, said Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 2954. And so with this legislation, we're just educating parents of what may or may not be on their child's playground so they can make that decision for their health.

The bill requires public schools to inform the public at least 90 days before the signing of a contract to use the chemical. Those entities also must post, for a minimum of 10 years after application, signage on the schools grounds regarding the dangers the use of the chemical pose.

It also requires contractors or those applying the chemical to disclose its contents and risks to any consumers, public or private, and puts several other requirements in place, such as requiring them to provide information on alternative methods for sealing upon request.

Coal tar sealants are generally used to protect the surface of the underlying asphalt, thereby extending its useful life. But over time, it tends to break down and eventually washes away from rain water, sending it into stormwater drainage systems, then into lakes, rivers and streams.

Steven McCracken, technical director for the DuPage River Salt Creek Workgroup, an organization that helps municipalities and wastewater treatment plants in the DuPage-Cook County area comply with federal clean water regulations, said PAHs have been showing up in that area at levels that could pose risks to aquatic life.

We were actually looking for metals and we discovered concentrations of these pollutants at levels that would be impactful on aquatic life at numerous sites, he said. And when I say impactful, I mean that there's a scientific sort of threshold that you pass (and) you say you're probably going to see impacts. That's the kind of level that we were seeing them at.

Despite the health and environmental concerns, PAHs are not regulated at the federal level. As recently as last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was in the process of developing toxicity standards for PAHs, but that process was suspended in December 2018.

There also are no standards for workers in businesses that apply coal tar sealants, although Colleen Smith, who lobbies for the Illinois Environmental Council, said the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is studying what exposure levels are safe for workers.

But Fine pointed out that four states  Washington, Minnesota, Maine and Wisconsin  have banned the chemical on their own, as have a number of municipalities. In Minnesota, she said, there have been a number of lawsuits over the cost of cleaning up sites contaminated with PAH.

The bill has drawn opposition, though, from a number of industry groups. Brad Babcook, lobbyist for the Chemical Industry Council of Illinois, said he believes the health risks have been overstated.

We don't know of any health effects, he said. There was no personal injury cases on anything related to the folks manufacturing or applying this coal tar.  We just feel that the way that the bill is drafted, it will lead consumers that have to go through a lot of hoops and onerous regulations here, we'll just eventually end up banning the product altogether.

The bill also requires public school districts and the state to seek an alternative asphalt-based sealant when distributing any request for proposals. It also requires public schools and state agencies to determine whether specified benefits of alternative products outweigh the cost.

The bill also requires the Department of Public Health to adopt rules and standards to be used in assessing acceptable levels of PAH content of pavement seals by January 2021.

A person or entity who violates the act is subject to a fine between $1,000 and $10,000, but an amendment to the bill stripped a section that would have required municipalities to adopt ordinances enforcing the law.

The bill passed out of the Senate Environment and Conservation Committee on a 6-3 vote, which means it is now ready for consideration by the full Senate.

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Prosecutors in Arkansas plan to use a combination of home-security footage and jailhouse video calls to prove that a former state senator was killed by her longtime friend and employee.

During a pretrial hearing in Pocahontas, Arkansas, on Friday prosecutors told the court they are sorting through a "mountain of evidence" against Rebecca ODonnell, 49, in the case against former state Sen. Linda Collins-Smith, who is charged with killing her friend at her home last year. Collins-Smiths body was found June 4 after she disappeared in late May.

MORE: Suspect in killing of former Arkansas state senator now accused in murder-for-hire plot

ODonnell is facing the death penalty if convicted of murder charges.

Robert Dittrich, recently appointed to prosecute the high-profile case, said he is continuing to go through the vast amount of evidence with investigators, but needs more time. He did not discuss the contents of the footage.

PHOTO: In this Jan. 28, 2015, file photo, Sen. Linda Collins-Smith speaks at the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark. (Danny Johnston/AP, FILE)

ODonnells attorney, Katherine Streett, said "the volume of video is pretty great," though she did not comment on whether the footage actually shows the homicide occurring. Streett told the court she would seek to have portions of the video excluded from trial, but did not explain what she was hoping to keep out of evidence.

Collins-Smith, 57, was a well-known figure in northeastern Arkansas, both through her work in politics and as a prominent local businesswoman. ODonnell was Collins-Smiths business manager; she has pleaded not guilty and her family insists that she would never have harmed her close friend.

MORE: Prosecutor drops out of case involving murdered Arkansas state Sen. Linda Collins-Smith

The case is the source of considerable controversy since the first judges who oversaw the matter mandated a near-total information blackout through sweeping gag orders and the sealing of files. ABC News and the Arkansas Press Association sued to have those restrictions modified and the new judge on the case, John Fogleman, agreed.

Story continues

In moving the case toward an Oct. 19 trial date, Fogleman said he has questions about the earlier moves by the prior judge to require all records in the case sealed.

"I spent all afternoon yesterday reviewing what's under seal," Fogleman told the court. "There are some documents that I'm not sure why they're under seal."

PHOTO: Rebecca O'Donnell is seen at a court appearance in Arkansas, Jan. 29, 2020. (ABC News)

Earlier this week, Fogleman lifted the gag order on the state crime lab and FBI agents who have been part of the probe. He said he would be very reluctant to continue to keep records connected to the case under seal.

Outside of court, Randolph County Sheriff Kevin Bell escorted ODonnell back to jail and told her not to respond to questions from reporters.

O'Donnell has also been accused of attempting to hire inmates inside the Jackson County Jail to kill several people involved with her case, including a former judge, former prosecutor and Collins-Smith's ex-husband. Her lawyer has told ABC News that those charges are totally bogus.

The trial for charges against O'Donnell in Jackson County is set for December 2020

Prosecutors have 'mountain of evidence' against friend accused of killing Arkansas state Sen. Linda Collins-Smith originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
WATERTOWN, Mass., Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New data on US physician sentiment about the preparedness of the US healthcare system for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) showed a decline in confidence by respondents in preparedness on many levels. These findings are from new research conducted and sourced by InCrowd s proprietary Crowd of healthcare professionals (HCPs). InCrowd is the pioneer for real-time, high-quality primary market intelligence for the life science industry.



InCrowd fielded Wave 2 of its COVID-19 Tracking Report on February 26-27, 2020 in an effort to closely monitor treating physicians awareness, perceptions, preparedness, and concerns related to the virus.

Were definitely observing growing frustration from our physicians as we monitor this important issue, said Daniel S. Fitzgerald, InCrowd CEO and president. Respondent confidence around preparedness of the physicians themselves has declined since our first wave, as well as preparedness related to their facilities, and their views of the general preparedness of the country. Well continue to track this important public health emergency and share our findings.

Physicians had a variety of concerns regarding the virus and the preparedness to address it:

Wave 2 shows a decline in confidence for global governments and the World Health Organization (WHO) by respondents as compared to Wave 1. Confidence in preparedness efforts of the WHO and governments outside the US dropped from 45% in Wave 1 to 27% in Wave 2 of physicians who agreed they were taking strong precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The US government fell similarly between Waves 1 and 2from 35% to 16%, respectivelyin the percentage of those who agreed the US government was taking strong precautions to prevent the spread of the virus.

In Wave 1, 25% of respondents reported that they felt very prepared to treat a patient who had potentially contracted COVID-19. This number fell to just 14% in Wave 2.

In Wave 2, concerns by physicians over COVID-19 tripled in a month, with Wave 2 showing 29% concerned, up from 9% in Wave 1.

Thirty-seven percent of physicians reported their patients were concerned in Wave 2, with only 28% noting this in Wave 1.

When asked if the hospital(s) or facilities where they have privileges were prepared to treat patients with COVID-19, in Wave 1, 38% agreed they could, but only 29% had that confidence in Wave 2.

Forty-five percent of physicians in Wave 1 agreed that their patients were more concerned about COVID-19 than the flu, which has killed more than 10,000 Americans this season. This assessment remained fairly consistent in Wave 2, with 48% reporting the concern by their patients.

Additionally, in Wave 1, none of the respondents reported that he or she suspected or knew that any of his or her patients had COVID-19. In Wave 2, one respondent reported that she suspected or knew that one or more of her patients had COVID-19. This case was reported in California.

Findings related to protocols include test kit access, willingness to test, and recommended protocols in place at health facilities:

Only 20% of respondents reported having access to test kits in Wave 2 as compared to 31% in Wave 1. Eleven percent of Wave 2 respondents also said they dont know if they have access to a COVID-19 test kitwith only 3% stating this in Wave 1.

More physicians, 81% in Wave 2, would automatically want to test for the virus, up from 72% in Wave 1.

Three-fourths of respondents said their clinic or hospital had a recommended protocol in Wave 2, the same percentage noted in Wave 1. And though Wave 1 had 25% indicating they did not have a protocol, Wave 2 reflected 21% reporting a lack of a protocol, and 4% were not sure.

InCrowds COVID-19 data reflects the views and opinions of a cross-section of US physicians who are part of InCrowd's panel of HCPs. This research incorporated data from n=150 qualified, US physicians responding to a 5-minute MicroSurvey for Wave 1 between January 31February 4, 2020. Wave 1 participants included emergency medicine or critical care specialists (53% or n=78), pediatricians (25% or n=37), and primary care physicians (23% or n=35), each of whom is treating 20 or more unique patients for flu-like symptoms. Wave 2 was fielded between February 26-27, 2020. Wave 2 respondents included emergency medicine or critical care specialists (50% or n=76), pediatricians (25% or n=37), and primary care physicians (25% or n=37), each treating 20 or more unique patients for flu-like symptoms.

About InCrowd

InCrowd , a SARORAS company, is the life science, industry leader, and pioneer for real-time, mobile-first, Micro-research solutions, empowering global 100 life science firms with fast, efficient, high-quality primary market insights. InCrowd serves more than 500 brands and meets clients precisely where they are on the market research continuumoffering a range of do-it-yourself tools to full-service support with our healthcare industry consultants, all while leveraging InCrowds technology platform and quality and compliance controls. With access to a 1.8 million-member Crowd of healthcare professionals worldwide, reached in 20 different languages, InCrowd delivers market insights professionals high-quality, trusted data to make informed, timely business decisions.

Contacts

Meghan Oates-Zalesky

Senior Vice President of Marketing

Meghan.Oates@incrowdnow.com

617-934-1600
PORTLAND, Ore., Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DAT Solutions today announced that Arrive Logistics, one of the fastest-growing next-generation freight brokers in the country, has joined a pilot program to evaluate DATs latest truckload rate forecasting tools: DAT Market Conditions Index (MCI), a powerful indicator of truckload freight supply and demand, and new rate-prediction technology that leverages DAT RateView, the industrys most accurate and complete source of spot and contract rate information.



Our growth is predicated on providing our team with technology and data that drive efficiency and customer service, said David Spencer, Arrive Logistics Director of Business Intelligence. We are always looking to the future to understand what our partners need and are excited to be among the first to begin incorporating this data into our capacity planning and pricing models. Working with DAT helps us fulfill our commitment to providing world-class services to our partners.

The pilot program will run through the end of March. DATs Market Conditions Index and predictive rate and analytics tools will be made available to third-party logistics providers, freight brokers, truck fleets, financial analysts, and other industry stakeholders in April.

DAT Market Conditions Index is a comprehensive and dynamic indicator of future changes in rates for van, refrigerated, and flatbed freight. This measure of supply and demand incorporates actual inbound and outbound freight transactions, load-board post and search behavior, and short-term and long-term trends to generate a holistic view of past, present, and future market conditions.

DATs predictive rate and analytics tools provide freight brokers, shippers, and carriers with reliable truckload price intelligence. Generating predictions from one day to one year in the future, DATs data and algorithms account for short-term market effects, seasonal impacts, and long-term price trends, providing brokers with unmatched market perspective.

MCI and DATs new rate forecasting tools are a powerful combination for rapidly growing tech-enabled brokerages like Arrive. In this market, decisions must be made quickly, and having the best information can give brokers the edge they need to win more business and cover more freight, said Claude Pumilia, DAT Solutions CEO and President. We have a long track record of success with Arrive, and they will be an important voice in our early access programs as we move toward commercial launches in April.

About DAT Solutions

DAT Solutions operates the largest truckload freight marketplace in North America. Transportation brokers, motor carriers, news organizations, and industry analysts rely on DAT for market trends and data insights based on 183 million freight matches and a database of $68 billion in annual market transactions. As the industry standard in truckload pricing, DATs freight rate database also provides the index prices for freight futures contracts. Founded in 1978, DAT Solutions LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Roper Technologies (NYSE:ROP), a diversified technology company and constituent of the S&P 500, Fortune 1000, and Russell 1000 indices.

Contact

Eileen Hart | VP Marketing & Corporate Communications

Eileen.Hart@dat.com | 503-672-5132



www.dat.com

Facebook: DAT Solutions

Instagram: @dat_solutions

LinkedIn: DAT Solutions

Twitter: @LoadBoards

About Arrive Logistics

Co-founded in 2014 by Matt Pyatt and Eric Dunigan, Arrive Logistics is a technology-powered transportation service provider that delivers superior brokerage experiences to carriers and shippers. Since its inception, Arrive Logistics has doubled in size and revenue every year. In 2018, the company celebrated another successful year with revenue reaching $370 million and they are projected to reach over $600 million in 2019. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, with offices in Chicago and Chattanooga, Tenn., Arrive Logistics has redefined what it means to be a modern broker through dedication to both shippers and carriers, giving partners more by putting proprietary technology, unprecedented operations, and customer service at the forefront of their business. Find out more about working with Arrive Logistics here. In addition, their impressive growth and vibrant culture have lent themselves to numerous accolades, including two consecutive years as an Inc Magazine best workplace.

Contact

Evan Pundyk | Marketing Director

epundyk@arrivelogistics.com | 512-792-2081



www.arrivelogistics.com

Facebook: ArriveWithUs

Instagram: @arrivelogistics

LinkedIn: Arrive-Logistics

Twitter: @ArriveLogistics
Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Friday wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind, demanding a high-level judicial inquiry under the supervision of a Supreme Court judge into the North-East Delhi violence, which she compared to 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

In the letter Mayawati expressed concern over the riots in Delhi, saying, "The violence had caused Delhi to tremble just like it did during the anti-Sikh violence in 1984. In the recent riots, damages to life and property took place which is very serious and sad. "

"The negligence of police and administration in the incidents of riots in Delhi are known to all. A high-level judicial inquiry under the supervision of a Supreme Court judge should be done into these incidents in Delhi," Mayawati stated in the letter (roughly translated from Hindi).

She accused the BJP government of failing to fulfil its legal and constitutional duty in the episode.

The BSP supremo also called on the President to direct the Central and Delhi government to provide immediate relief to those affected in the violence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The number of flights to and from Australia has fallen by a fifth over the past six weeks as the coronavirus outbreak shatters travel demand and shapes up as the most serious threat to the global airline industry in over a decade.

Flights scheduled between Australia and China have dived 90 per cent, from 198 in the week starting January 20 to just 13 flights this week, according to figures from industry data firm OAG.

Cleaners spray disinfectant at Seoul's Incheon Airport. The coronavirus outbreak has dented travel demand in the Asia Pacific. Credit:Getty

The data, provided to The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, shows the total number of scheduled international flights in and out of Australia falling from 4328 in the last week of January to 3518 this week - a decline of 18 per cent.

However, that also reflects the end of the peak holiday travel period, with the decline closer to 10 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A wine-tech start-up's decision to exclude professional investors from its much-anticipated equity capital raise, has stunned the investment community.

Winerytale, a platform promising augmented reality (AR) from every wine, has limited its shares to individuals and companies "in and around the wine industry", leaving venture capital firms and portfolio investors seething.

Augmented Reality Wine App - Winerytale Winerytale - Augmented Reality for the wine industry

The $1.25 Million capital raise, which is small by investment standards, is a first-to-market opportunity that is widely expected to deliver big things for the wine industry, as well as for shareholders.

Winerytale demonstration video

According to founding partner, Dave Chaffey, the team has drawn the ire of the investment community, "There's a tremendous opportunity here, and we feel that it's critical for us to have the industry involved in this first round, rather than to be driven by the short-term dollar-focus of investment bankers."

"I understand that frustration, particularly for investment firms who have followed our journey for a while now," says Chaffey, "this is the pick of a large bunch, with enormous potential and yet it's been taken off the table"

The capital raise comes on the back of a string of positive company announcements, including aggressive rollouts of the technology to the Australian & US wine industries, as well as continued development of its self-translating content prototypes.

A Fast-Moving Playing Field

The business strategy, which includes offering the technology to wineries for free, is drawing strong comparisons to the early days of internet juggernaut YouTube, whose strategic approach to market saw its acquisition by Google for $1.65 Billion, in less than two years.

Despite the close out, Chaffey says that Venture Capital has a role to play further into the future "Venture Capital is better suited to the next round of fund raising, which we are hoping to undertake at the end of 2020."

"The risk is almost zero at that stage, and returns are pretty much guaranteed. But of course, the cost of the investment is likely to be a lot higher, probably 8 to 10 times the current value, which is what VC's are unhappy about."

"It hasn't been an easy stance to take," said Chaffey, "we've said no to two approaches already, both big tech players, and both within the first week of opening"

Wine Industry Shareholders Only

Chaffey is quick to point out that potential shareholders shouldn't shy away from the capital raise.

"The last thing we want to do is confuse anyone," says Chaffey, who adds, "the Winerytale equity capital raise is open to anyone or any entity in the wine industry or from the wider food and beverage industry. That's the extent of it."

"Minimum investment is $US125,000 which is within reach of a lot of people. We're quietly confident that we'll be able to close the offer in March, if not sooner  but there's a lot of conversations to have in that time."

For further information about the capital raise please visit winerytale.com/investor-offer

Download the Winerytale App | Google Play | iOS

Media enquiries: Dave Chaffey, Winerytale Founder on [email protected] | Ph: +61 1300 633 390

About the Winerytale team

Winerytale is led by Matt Hallberg, Luke Chaffey, and Dave Chaffey  recognised specialists in their respective fields of augmented reality, software development, and digital marketing strategy.

Media Centre & Resources

For more information including demonstration videos and hi-resolution images please visit

https://winerytale.com/media

Media enquiries: Dave Chaffey, Winerytale Founder on [email protected] | Ph: +61 1300 633 390

SOURCE Winerytale
Overview

In March, China has the presidency. It will have three signature events. The first is a debate on countering terrorism and extremism in Africa. Potential briefers are Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat. The second is an open debate on Upholding Multilateralism and promoting political settlement of disputes. The anticipated briefers are Guterres, General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande and the President of the International Court of Justice, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf. The third event is a debate on UN peacekeeping operations: Better capacity building, more safety and security. Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix and Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support Atul Khare are expected to brief.

Several meetings on Sudan are expected. The Council is likely to adopt a resolution establishing a follow-on presence to UNAMID by 31 March. Prior to this, the Council expects to receive a briefing on the special report of the Secretary-General and the Chairperson of the AU Commission, followed by consultations. In addition, the chair of the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Sven Jurgenson (Estonia), will provide the quarterly briefing on the committees work.

Other meetings on African issues include:

DRC, on the Secretary-Generals most recent report on MONUSCO;

Libya, on the Secretary-Generals report on UNSMIL and an update from the chair of the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee;

South Sudan, an update on UNMISS and the renewal of the missions mandate; and

Somalia, the renewal of the mandate of UNSOM.

The Council will have the monthly briefing and consultations on Yemen. It will also receive the monthly briefings on the humanitarian situation, the political process and the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

There will be a briefing on developments in Iraq and on the two latest Secretary-Generals reportson UNAMI and on the issue of missing Kuwaiti and third-country nationals and missing Kuwaiti property, including the national archives.

Other Middle East issues that will be considered include:

Golan Heights, on the UNDOF report and most recent developments;

Israel/Palestine, the regular briefing and consultations; and

Lebanon, an update on the implementation of resolution 1701, which called for a cessation of hostilities between the Shia militant group Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

The Council is also expected to adopt a resolution renewing the mandate of the Panel of Experts of the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee.

A briefing of the 1540 Committee on non-state actors and weapons of mass destruction is also anticipated during the month.

There will also be the quarterly debate on Afghanistan.
How easy will it be for the UK to exit the EU, will they remain or rejoin? (Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images)

Britain Opens EU Trade Talks With a Threat to Walk Away

LONDONBritain laid out its opening demands for upcoming trade talks with the European Union on Feb. 27, including a blunt threat to walk away from the negotiating table if theres no progress within four months.

The two sides appear headed for a rocky first round of negotiations as they try to forge a new relationship following the UKs departure from the now 27-nation bloc.

Britain and the EU both say they want to reach a free trade agreement, but have starkly divergent views on how it should be overseen and what constitutes fair competition between the two economies.

The EU says Britain must agree to follow the blocs rules in areas ranging from state aid to environmental protections, and give European boats access to UK fishing waters if the two sides are to strike a good deal.

But the UK is demanding the right to diverge from the blocs rules in order to strike new trade agreements around the world and to give the British government a freer hand to intervene in the UK economy.

In pursuit of a deal we will not trade away our sovereignty, Michael Gove, the minister in charge of Brexit preparations, told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

We will not be seeking to dynamically align with EU rules on EU terms, governed by EU laws and EU institutions.

That conflict will be one of the big hurdles in talks, which are due to begin on March 2 in Brussels. Fishing is likely to be another flashpoint. EU nationsespecially Francewant Britain to grant European boats long-term access to UK waters. Britain wants to negotiate fishing quotas annually.

Britain left the EU on Jan. 31 but remains bound by the blocs rules until a post-Brexit transition period ends on Dec. 31. A divorce agreement between the two sides allows for the transition to be extended for two more years, but British Prime Minister Boris Johnson insists he will not agree to that.

That leaves the two sides just months to seal a wide-ranging deal.

Britains negotiating guidelines insist that there is limited, but sufficient time to get an agreement. The document says a broad outline of an agreement should be done by June. It warns that if there is not sufficient progress by then, the UK could walk away and focus on domestic preparations to exit the transition period in an orderly fashion.

Johnsons conservative government says that with or without a trade deal, the UK will be leaving the blocs structuresincluding its single market for trade in goods and servicesas of Jan. 1, 2021.

Britain hopes by then to have a trade agreement with the bloc similar to the one struck between the EU and Canada. Such a deal would eliminate tariffs and quotas on trade in goods, but its less clear what it would mean for the services sector, which makes up 80 percent of Britains economy.

The UK also aspires to strike side agreements in areas including fisheries, law enforcement, and judicial cooperation. It confirmed, however, that Britain will withdraw from the European Arrest Warrant system, which allows for speedy extradition of criminal suspects. Senior UK police officers have warned that this will make their job harder.

The British government is warning businesses that no matter what happens, there will be new barriers between Britain and the EU, which currently accounts for almost half of UK trade. Even with a free trade deal, there will be new border checks and customs forms to fill out.

Allie Renison, head of Europe and Trade Policy at the Institute of Directors business group, expressed disappointment that securing market access continuity seems to be less than a fundamental priority.

She said that for most of the groups members, maintaining ease of trade with the single market is more important than being able to diverge from EU regulations.

Britains tough talk is unlikely to impress EU negotiators, who already accuse Johnson of trying to water down commitments Britain made in the divorce deal that paved the way for the countrys seamless departure on Jan. 31. That withdrawal agreement dealt with three broad issuescitizens rights after Brexit, Britains liabilities after 47 years of membership, and the need to keep people and goods flowing freely across the border between EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.

The two sides have agreed to maintain an open border by keeping Northern Ireland aligned to EU rules even if the rest of the UK diverges. But recent comments by Johnsons government seeming to downplay the significance of that agreement have set off alarm bells among EU leaders.

Behind the hard rhetoric, the two sides do have room for agreement. Britain has promised it wont undercut the EU by lowering standards on environmental protection, food hygiene, or workers rights.

Were not going to engage in some race to the bottom, Johnson said.

But Britain wont agree to let the EU be the judge of whether it is living up to those commitments. The challenge for negotiators will be to find a way to make that commitment binding that both sides can agree on.

Former British trade negotiator David Henig said both Britain and the EU appeared too optimistic in their conflicting opening gambits.

Which is fine at this stage. As long as were aware we wont, in fact, get all we want. As the EU wont, he wrote in the Daily Telegraph.

In Brussels, EU spokeswoman Dana Spinant said she wouldnt want to jump to conclusions about the outcome of talks.

However, the commission maintains its capacity to prepare for a no-deal [UK exit] even as it prepares for a positive result of those negotiations, she said.

By Jill Lawless
Authorities in the Chinese capital Beijing are investigating the case of a woman who arrived there from the virus-hit central city of Wuhan in defiance of travel restrictions, following her release from prison, Chinese media reported.

The woman, who was identified only by her surname Huang, had recently been released from Wuhan Women's Prison at the end of a 10-year jail term for corruption, according to the news website Caixin Global.

She later tested positive for the COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which has been ripping through the prison in recent weeks, it said.



Now, the authorities want to know how she was allowed to leave Wuhan when she already had flu-like symptoms that developed a day after her release on Feb. 18, defying a slew of transportation restrictions designed to keep the city in lockdown.



"The ministry of justice took over the investigation on Feb. 26 ... of a woman who arrived in Beijing infected with coronavirus after being released from Wuhan Women's Prison," the ministry said in a statement on its official website.



Beijing's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said at least 230 coronavirus cases have been confirmed at the prison so far.



Yet, prison officials called her family to come and meet her without informing them of the situation, which they only learned on the way back to Beijing.



Transportation routes out of Wuhan have been shut down since Jan. 23 to prevent the spread of infection.



In previous cases, according to Caixin, authorities have found lodging for released prison inmates who aren't from Wuhan.



Beijing-based rights activist Hu Jia said the case shows that the so-called quarantine lockdown of major cities is full of loopholes.



"The defenses preventing people from leaving Hubei, and those preventing people from coming to Beijing are basically cosmetic and full of loopholes," he said.



"This is extremely irresponsible, regardless of whether it's the doing of the CDC or the police," he said.



Hong Kong current affairs commentator Sang Pu said there are also big question marks around how the woman's family were allowed to arrive in Wuhan to collect her in the first place.



"Wasn't it supposed to be sealed off? How is it possible that she was then driven from Wuhan to Beijing with no obstacles along the way?" Sang said.



He said the incident suggested the influence of someone powerful behind the scenes.



"I don't think for a minute that the investigation team will get to the bottom of this," he said. "If this were the doing of a low-ranking minion, then maybe they could punish them and make an example of them."



"But if it's a high-ranking official, they'll never find out."



The ruling Chinese Communist Partys secretary for Hubei province, Ying Yong, has previously said that Hubei is totally cut off from the rest of China.



Beijing activist Hu Jia said the case of Huang could just be the tip of the iceberg.



"Ying Yong has promised that Hubei will carry out its epidemic prevention duties to the death," Hu said. "But who knows how many loopholes are hiding behind such boasts?"



Ying has previously been regarded as a low-key but loyal supporter of President Xi Jinping, and has served under him in the governments of Shanghai and the eastern province of Zhejiang.



As of Feb. 23, the authorities had reported more than 300 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in prisons in Hubei, most of which were in Wuhan Women's Prison.



Reported by Gao Feng for RFA's Mandarin and Cantonese Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Its no secret the Colorado Rockies have been shopping third baseman Nolan Arenado, just one year after giving him an eight-year, $260 million contract. While on the surface the New York Yankees dont seem like a fit, given their depth at third base with Gio Urshela and Miguel Andujar, you can never say never when it comes to Brian Cashman.

When it comes to Arenado, the Yankees general manager has an ace up his sleeve: slugger Giancarlo Stanton.

USA Todays Bob Nightengale reports Stanton and Arenado frequently talk to each other, which makes sense since they share the same agent, Joel Wolfe. After all, Stanton was in the same boat with the Miami Marlins, signing a massive $330 million contract only to have the club turn around and trade him three years later.

When we get contracts like that, Stanton said, per USA Today, were pretty much viewed as just a contract. Its not that Im being paid this money, so Im cool. We want to be the best and get to the top. Thats what you work so hard for. Yeah, the money is a great bonus, were set for life and all of that, but you still have goals and want to reach the top. Thats what youre playing for, to be a World Series champion.

Buy Yankees tickets: StubHub, SeatGeek

Nightengale reports Stanton has been texting advice to Arenado, telling the five-time All-Star and seven-time Gold Glove winner to block out the distractions and say true to his game. Giancarlo has been a huge help to me, Arenado says, per USA Today. I really appreciate his guidance and his input. Hes gone through a lot. And he knew exactly what I was going through."

The 28-year-old Arenado has finished in the top eight for National League MVP voting in each of the last five years, hitting at least 37 home runs and driving in at least 110 runs each season.

Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rosenstein73. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Lata Surendra discusses how a dancer can bring a performance to life, transcend the confines of the stage and the auditorium and transform the dance into a visual prayer simply through the act of reading and understanding the nuances of emotion and expression found in literature, poetry and ancient texts.

As part of National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) ongoing Mumbai Dance Season, Bharatanatyam artiste Lata Surendra delivered a talk on the importance of literature in dance. Curated by Kathak artiste Poulami Mukherjee, the talk was conducted at the Kathak Reference Library in Dadar, a space especially created to provides dancers free access to literature around performing art.

Held on 19 February, the event, Role of Library in Dance, hosted along with Surendra, two other speakers who shed light on various topics such as the importance of dance as a co-curricular activity in school and the different means for amateur artists to obtain senior fellowships, research grants and scholarships.

Surendra for her part discussed how a dancer can bring a performance to life, transcend the confines of the stage and the auditorium and transform the dance into a visual prayer simply through the act of reading and understanding the nuances of emotion and expression found in literature, poetry and ancient texts.

In a conversation with Firstpost, the dancer who trained under the stalwart Vidwan Kalaimamani TS Kadirvelu Pillai, discussed the difference between artistic ability and artistic creativity and finding the power of words in a world of hashtags.

Edited excerpts:

What prompted you to be a part of the event, Role of Library in Dance, and why according to you is it crucial for artists to also be readers?

When Poulami Mukherjee approached me to speak on the subject, I thought that it was so vital because today I find that most of the dancers, they are technically sound  the alpha and the omega of the art form that they have chosen is very much intact in serious dancers  but what they lack is a step towards mining what the teacher has taught and another step where you are contributing to the art.

See, artistic ability and artistic creativity are two different things. Artistic ability is the ability to reproduce what your mentor has communicated to you but [artistic creativity is] to transform it to a communion where words are not necessary. It is like writing an essay, you cant by heart an essay [sic].

I have always loved languages and I have always believed that its important to connect to words because I was conditioned by a father who believed that words can connect you to the world.

The traditional items, the emotions in them and the message within them are as relevant today as they were in times of yore because emotions are universal: you are as jealous today, as irate today, as happy today, you are light-hearted in joy and heavy hearted in grief. The patterns of sorrow and joy have not changed with time but if you want to add your own signature to a varnam then you must be equipped within.

If I am a guru who is equipped artistically to teach, then I teach by the limitation of the student in front of me. The item may be the same, the form may be the same but I know the mathematics of it, beyond that I also know the capacity of that child. So I will give her as much as she can digest, as much as her awareness links her to life. You cannot have little kids do traditional varnams that really need an in-depth exploring of art related to life and I think with time, if art has to contribute to life and life has to enrich the art, then the child must be exposed to the library. The parents must expose her to those companions who can take her to the worlds that she has not travelled physically.

Could we discuss the impact of social media on the expressive ability of today's youth?

The youth today, either faces teachers who have come out of some university or are not equipped to teach and the result is that very skillfully they have workshops conducted where a maestro or mentor comes down and teaches them one item. But with all due respect to the mentors who are conducting these workshops, let me also tell you that it is the beginning of the end because all youngsters are only cloning these items; and I detest them uploading their items on YouTube. Maybe it is PR for them, but if they are committed to the tomorrow, they are creating a dead end for artists who are supposed to be creative.

So the subjective element is lost to todays kids. There are Instagram hashtags which have come into this world and I should say it is not a world where artists can connect the brevity you are trying to find because you are not good with words. A time will come when you want to show your joy and your face is plastic. And you take out a smile from your pocket and say, "I am happy."

You have to cultivate words because inside you is a kinaesthesia where your speech, sound, sense of hearing  when you say water, its not just water you see, if you are a poetess, water can have multiple meanings to it  everything becomes larger in your mind by virtue of the connotations that are expanded by reading. Reading maketh a full man.

When Poulami told me we are going to do this, I thought this was the best way to reach youngsters and tell them, Dont clone. We are all exclusive boutique pieces made by someone up there and just sit and understand that inside us is a poet, and we have to awaken that and not the hashtag world.

How can dance instructors and mentors cultivate the habit of reading in their students and make it a part of the teaching methodology?

When we were in school, we had a subject: it was reading. We were given a whole set of books to read. But today that has gone from the school curriculum.

I would tell my son to write his own essays and on Open Day I would take out those papers and read his essays because that was the only way I could know his mind and it made a lot of difference. I think in schools, its time we understood that.

I think it is time we stop those digital blackboards and also use the physicality of artists and the children to read the books and read out the poems, bring an artist across and have a point brought to life. Otherwise the child will be constipated.

Could you also elaborate on the importance of reading theoretical subjects which are part of the formal examinations conducted by dance schools and institutes?

I don't care a whit about this graduation certificate. Texts of a dance are not meant to be by-hearted [sic]. You cannot mug up a cookbook and parrot out how sambar is made. This is a performing art, it is not an exam. We talk about dance as yoga or a visual prayer, so I am no one to assess whether your devotion is bigger or mine. It grows with time and ultimately it is about you improving on your performance.

If we take the art form in that perspective, we will be creating artists. Otherwise we will be creating students who think that they have a certificate which gives them the right to create the degeneration of art which is happening today.

Go to any festival, you will find all [artists] doing the same thing. And nobody is doing solos because they dont have the depth to hold an audience. You need the depth and that depth will come only if you start equipping yourself with reading, with observing, with appreciating, with assimilating what you have seen and what you have read. How many different ways you could bring out that line which a composer has written and connect it to the audience?

I remember there were classes where I would hear my guru talk and maybe he would not have taught me anything but those classes where he used to only talk, he was connecting me to the worlds he has assimilated with his reading, and I think I learnt much more there than when I danced.

At the end of the day, it is not the Padma Shri that comes with not what you know but whom you know, but if an unknown person comes to you, holds your hand, and says how much the dance has moved him then you have scored, then you have been honest as an artist. Otherwise, each time you stare at that Padma Shri you will know that you have purchased it and its an apology unto all that you professed to be.

When it comes to teaching fine arts, it is not the common syllabus. It is who can digest what. Some are very good in pure dance and some, their abhinaya or expression will grow over time. So you must know what to create. Instead of creating the traditional varnam, if you are working in a city like Mumbai and you have four children to tide over the expensive venue spaces, and you have 10 children doing arangetram and one is a Bengali and one is a Maharashtrian, you choose padams, you take Rabindrasangeet, you take a bhajan, I mean there is no linguistic barrier but you have to be well read to be able to do that. Otherwise you are constipating a system that actually needs an embracing, open sky.

What according to you are some of the texts that students of dance should familiarise themselves with?

As students of dance, I think nothing is isolated from dance. We are dancing the energised creation but it is a process that has to evolve with time.

I love NCPAs post discussions where you can enter into a dialogue with the performer and discuss a dancer's process but again, I find the audience is tongue-tied because they are not well-read. So to ask questions you need to at least be aware of the theme that is being presented. When you go abroad, they come prepared. They do their homework well and they come there ready to ask questions. That I think is very important. In one way, it is the artist elevating the standard of the audience and the audience is also very keen on being nurtured, so this kind of balance is vital.

We had critics in those days who knew their subject, who knew music, who knew art and those reviews which I have, I cherish them. I can read them and understand how I have evolved. Today it is like paid criticism, you call the press and you tell them to write and they tell you, 'Why dont you write and give us?' and then they put it up and you put it up on your social network.

Now we have to have a word, whether you have the last word or me, always hanging between us.
(Bloomberg) --

This time, Donald Trump is facing a crisis not of his own making.

The coronaviruss spread has foisted a fresh challenge upon the U.S. president eight months out from the elections.

Trump  back yesterday from an at-times rock-star-like tour of India  is seeking to close ranks within his administration about his government's plans to stop the viruss spread.

The focus follows mixed messages from Trump and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about the threat posed to public health that rattled Wall Street and sparked an uproar in Washington. One Republican senator publicly demanded some straight answers from Trumps team. Investors anxious about the viruss spread from China have driven five consecutive days of losses in U.S. markets.

Flanked by public health officials, Trump addressed the nation last night from the White House briefing room for only the second time in his presidency. The message was that while a broader outbreak in the U.S. is possible, the risk to average Americans is low.

Theres a chance it could get worse. Theres a chance it could get fairly, substantially worse, Trump said. But nothings inevitable.

While he put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the governments response, that might not be enough to shield Trump from the political risks.He faces an unpredictable crisis that could threaten the stability of the worlds largest economy and his own political future at Novembers elections, where the competence of his response may become a key issue.

Global Headlines

Alliance frictions | NATO has survived for more than 70 years as the security umbrella for Europe, despite periodic differences between its members. But increasingly the U.S. under Trump is dragging it into broader trans-Atlantic tensions over trade and Chinas Huawei which, as one analyst warns, risks European allies feeling they are being coerced on some fairly key foreign policy issues.

Italys disappointment | The Italian government took a gamble when it became the first Group of Seven nation to sign up to Chinese President Xi Jinpings Belt and Road Initiative. One year and another government later, Rome has yet to see any tangible benefits, Alan Crawford reports. Instead, economic disappointment is being compounded by tensions over the coronavirus.

Story continues

Race begins | The top candidates to become leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democratic Union kicked off their campaigns as they vie for momentum before a party convention on April 25. Long-time Merkel foe Friedrich Merz is facing off with front-runner Armin Laschet, a moderate in Merkels mold, for a chance to set the trajectory for Europes most powerful economy for years to come.

India carnage | Families wept as they collected bodies wrapped in white shrouds from a hospital mortuary in Delhi as the death toll rises from some of the worst religious riots Indias capital has seen in decades. Relatives blamed the government and police for letting the violence spin out of control, Muneeza Naqvi reports, after Hindu groups attacked mostly Muslim protesters demonstrating against the countrys new religion-based citizenship law.

Missing ingredient? | Pete Buttigieg executed his strategy almost perfectly. He won in Iowa and finished in a closer-than-expected second place in New Hampshire. But, as Tyler Pager reports, those early successes have failed to make him a front runner. Now, Buttigieg faces his most serious test as the race for the Democratic presidential nomination turns national.

A brewing fight about which country has the right to tax some of the worlds most profitable companies, including Facebook and Google, could devolve into a multi-front trade war, regardless of whether Trump wins a second term.

What to Watch

Tunisias prime minister-designate, Elyes Fakhfakh, won parliamentary support for his proposed administration, breaking four months of deadlock thats delayed much-needed economic reforms in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the U.K. on a collision course with the European Union, telling the bloc he'll walk away from the negotiating table in June if it's not clear he'll get a Canada-style free-trade agreement.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said parliament will meet on March 2 to decide who becomes the next premier, after telling reporters the king couldnt find anyone with a distinct majority.

The credibility of South Africas proposals to curb debt and save its sole investment-grade credit rating will be put to the test by powerful unions outraged by plans to pare back the government's wage bill.

Tell us how were doing or what were missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.

And finally  Saudi Arabia temporarily halted religious visits to Mecca and Medina, the Islamic worlds holiest cities, which draw millions of people each year, to help halt the coronavirus. While Saudi authorities have reported no infections so far, neighboring countries including Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates have flagged dozens of cases. In the Iranian city of Qom, the epicenter of that countrys outbreak, faithful continue to visit one of Shiite Islams holiest shrines even after officials banned religious ceremonies.

--With assistance from Karl Maier, Rosalind Mathieson and Alan Crawford.

To contact the author of this story: Kathleen Hunter in London at khunter9@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Halpin at thalpin5@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Coronavirus no-contact, no-handshake policy at Seafood Expo in Boston

by Rick Sobey

February 28,2020 | Source: Boston Herald

Organizers for the upcoming Seafood Expo North America in Boston are encouraging attendees to follow a no-contact, no-handshake policy because of coronavirus concerns.



The Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America trade event  at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in the Seaport, from March 15 to 17  will also have significantly fewer visitors from Asia because of the highly contagious disease.



Due to travel restrictions into the United States, we are expecting to see an impact from Mainland China, which annually represents 5% of the combined visitor and exhibitor attendee base and 9% of the exhibit space, a spokeswoman for the expo said in a statement. Despite the situation, we have more than 1,100 companies that are still planning on exhibiting this March.



About 80% of the expo visitors come from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.



Organizers are advising staff, exhibitors and attendees to not shake hands at the event because of coronavirus  which has infected more than 82,000 people around the world.



One of the hygiene precautions we recommend is to avoid the traditional handshake, the event spokeswoman said.



The event website states under hygiene precautions: No-contact, no-handshake policy.



The owner of Buffalo-based Arctic Fisheries, Michael Kotok, said many Asian and domestic processors decided that they wont attend this year. His company will attend and exhibit as usual.



But weve already dialed back on the show, even without coronavirus, he said. The shows utility for us has just declined considerably over the last few years.

 2020 MediaNews Group, Inc.

Theme(s): Others.
The US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced the first coronavirus-related drug shortage in the United States but declined to name the drug in question.

The regulator said a drugmaker had informed it of the shortage of one of its drugs because manufacturing of one of its main pharmaceutical ingredients was affected by the fast-moving virus outbreak.

The FDA said that there are alternatives that can be used by patients.

'We are working with the manufacturer as well as other manufacturers to mitigate the shortage. We will do everything possible to mitigate the shortage,' the regulator said in the statement.

While the FDA would not name the drug in question or the manufacturer, it did say that it had been recently added to the drug shortages list.

SCROLL FOR VIDEO

The Chinese government has ensured that factories like this one are operating at full capacity to assist drug makers designing treatments for coronavirus, but the outbreak has now triggered a first shortage of a US drug, FDA officials said Thursday (file)

The FDA said this week that it identified about 20 drugs that either source all of their main ingredients from, or are finished in, China, and had contacted their manufacturers to gauge if they would face shortages due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The US relies on China for some or all raw ingredients for 370 drugs dubbed 'essential' by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Among the drugs the US sources from Chin are 97 percent of all antibiotics, crucial medicines for treating bacterial infections.

Earlier on in the outbreak - which began in China in December 2019 - FDA regulators warned that disruption to the supply chain was all but inevitable.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee earlier this week that the US would nee to create a manufacturing capacity for masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) that doesn't yet exist in the country.

He noted the agency's concern over the supply chain but said that disruption to shipments of medical devices would be the more likely immediate issue, rather than drug shortages.

But now the shortages appear to have begun.

FDA regulators have contacted more than 180 pharmaceutical firms that manufacture key components or active ingredients for their drugs in China.

Their communications with these firms were in part reminders that drug companies are legally required to give the FDA advanced warning if they are expecting shortages or other supply issues.

Regulators additionally asked the companies to reassess their entire supply chains, suggesting these firms might be overly-reliant on China for components of their medications.

'As I have previously communicated, the FDA has been closely monitoring the supply chain with the expectation that the COVID-19 outbreak would likely impact the medical product supply chain, including potential disruptions to supply or shortages of critical medical products in the US' wrote FDA Commissioner Dr Stephen Hahn.

Coronavirus has spread to more than 50 countries around the world, killed 2,868 people and sickened nearly 84,000

'A manufacturer has alerted us to a shortage of a human drug that was recently added to the drug shortages list.

'The manufacturer just notified us that this shortage is related to a site affected by coronavirus. The shortage is due to an issue with manufacturing of an active pharmaceutical ingredient used in the drug...We are working with the manufacturer as well as other manufacturers to mitigate the shortage. We will do everything possible to mitigate the shortage.'

It comes as stocks plummet around the world and after years of expert warnings that American drug manufacturing leans too heavily on China.

President Trump appointed Vice President Mike Pence to head up the US's coronavirus response on Wednesday, and said that 'every aspect of our society should be prepared.'

'I don't think it's going to come to that...get ready just inc case. The words are just in case. We don't think we're going to be there,' the President added.
President Donald Trump urged the Afghan people to embrace a chance for a new future Friday, one day before the signing of a historic peace deal between the United States and the Taliban in Doha.

With a one-week ceasefire set as a condition for the pact holding firm, Trump said that there is now a possibility of ending the nearly two-decade war in Afghanistan.

He announced he was sending Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to witness the signing of the treaty, and that Defense Secretary Mark Esper would separately issue a joint declaration with the Kabul government.

The commitments to be made in the Taliban agreement and the joint declaration are an important step to a lasting peace that could free Afghans from the threat of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group, Trump said in a statement.

If the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home, he said.

Nevertheless, he added, Ultimately it will be up to the people of Afghanistan to work out their future.

We, therefore, urge the Afghan people to seize this opportunity for peace and a new future for their country.

- US to reduce troops -

The accord to be inked Saturday would see thousands of American troops quit Afghanistan after more than 18 years, in return for various security commitments from the Taliban and a pledge to hold talks with the government in Kabul.

In Jalalabad, people danced and released balloons and pigeons Friday to celebrate the sharp fall in violence.

Earlier in the week General Austin Scott Miller, commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and Afghanistans acting Defense Minister Asadullah Khalid strolled the streets of Kabul and took selfies with citizens in a demonstration of their confidence in the ceasefire.

More than 100,000 Afghans, Americans and others have died in the conflict, which began after Al-Qaeda, operating with the protection of the then-Taliban government, plotted the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington from Afghanistan.

The conflict has cost the US government more than $1 trillion in military and rebuilding costs since the US-led invasion of 2001.

The Doha accord comes after more than a year of talks between the Taliban and the US that faltered repeatedly as violence raged.

A week-long truce set as a condition for the peace pact held for a seventh day Friday in Afghanistan, with only minor attacks reported.

While the deals contents have not been publicly disclosed, it is expected to see the Pentagon begin pulling troops from Afghanistan, where between 12,000-13,000 are currently based.

The US has said an initial drawdown over the coming months would be to about 8,600 -- similar to the troop level President Donald Trump inherited after his 2016 election win.

When I ran for office, I promised the American people I would begin to bring our troops home, and seek to end this war, the US leader said Friday.

We are making substantial progress on that promise.

- Iran -

Further reductions depend on how well the Taliban honor pledges to start talks with the government of President Ashraf Ghani -- who until now they have dismissed as a US-backed puppet -- and seek a comprehensive intra-Afghan ceasefire and peace deal.

Afghan officials will be conspicuously absent from Saturdays signing ceremony in Doha, but a government delegation will be there to make initial contacts with the insurgents.

Earlier Friday Pompeo warned in a hearing in Congress that Iran, historically an opponent of the Taliban, could seek to undermine the agreement, though he offered no evidence of any such activities.

Weve seen just these last six days a significant reduction in violence in Afghanistan and we are watching closely to see if the Islamic Republic of Iran begins to take even more active measures that undermine our efforts at peace and reconciliation, he said.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-02-28 05:20:34

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Ben F. Windham P.C., McDonough GA Personal Injury Lawyer, was chosen by Super Lawyers as one of their top attorneys of 2020.LOCUST GROVE, GA / ACCESSWIRE / February 27, 2020 / Windham Law is proud to announce that Founding Partner, Mr. Ben Windham, has been selected to the 2020 Georgia Super Lawyers list. This year marks the second consecutive year that Mr. Windham has been named to the prestigious list. Super Lawyers, a Thompson Reuters company, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.Super Lawyers selects only 5% of practicing attorneys on an annual basis using a patented multiphase selection process that includes research, peer nominations, and peer evaluations. To choose their winning attorneys, Super Lawyers evaluates candidates' verdicts and settlements, experience, bar involvement, honors and awards, pro bono and community service, and other qualifications on an annual, state-by-state basis. Their mission is to create a credible and comprehensive list of exceptional attorneys that can be used as a resource for lawyers and consumers searching for legal counsel. The yearly list results in featuring profiles of attorneys across the nation who exhibit excellence in their practice areas. To be selected to the Super Lawyers list speaks volumes about the reputation that attorneys have cultivated among their peers, as well as their professional achievements and exemplary ethical conduct."I am honored to be named a Super Lawyer again for 2020 as it is an acknowledgment of the important work our firm does on behalf of our clients who put their trust in us to seek justice," says Windham. "This recognition is a testament to our firm's dedication to our clients and unwavering commitment to providing high-quality legal representation." About Windham Law:Our personal injury attorneys serve clients throughout McDonough and the greater Atlanta area, including Rockdale County, Locust Grove, and Greensboro, with an array of law services. We specialize in many areas of the law in order to provide honest counsel and tenacious litigation. Our approach is hands-on and personal because we believe it's the most powerful way to pursue any claim by being truly invested in delivering the outcome our client deserves. At Ben F. Windham P.C., expect a collaborative team with an entrepreneurial mindset determined to meet and exceed our client's expectations every step of the way.To learn more about Ben F. Windham P.C. Trial Attorneys, or for a free case evaluation please visit https://windhamlaw.com or call 833-236-9467.CONTACT:Name: Ben WindhamEmail: Send EmailOrganization: Ben F. Windham P.C.Address: 3838 GA-42, Locust Grove, GA 30248, United StatesPhone: +1-833-236-9467Website: https://windhamlaw.com SOURCE: Ben F. Windham P.C.
Technicians work on a second generation disinfection robot in a technological company in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, Feb. 11, 2020. Qingdao has called on technological companies to research, develop and refit disinfection robots which can replace human in disinfection operations. Some of the robots have been put into use in the isolation areas of several hospitals. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)

BEIJING, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Disinfection operation by robot, goggles made by 3D printer, 5G teleconsultation and drone... some innovative tools are deployed in many cities to fight against the coronavirus epidemic.

Technicians develop disinfection robot in a technological company in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, Feb. 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng)

A worker shows a pair of goggles made by 3D printer at the additive manufacturing research and application center of Hunan Vanguard Group Co., Ltd. in the economic development zone of Changsha City, central China's Hunan Province, Feb. 11, 2020. The company has been producing goggles for medical use with more than 50 3D printers working day and night recently. The first batch of 500 pairs of goggles it produced have been sent to Changsha and Huaihua to aid the novel coronavirus control efforts there. (Xinhua/Xue Yuge)

A worker examines the spectacle frame of a pair of goggles made by 3D printer at the additive manufacturing research and application center of Hunan Vanguard Group Co., Ltd. in the economic development zone of Changsha City, central China's Hunan Province, Feb. 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Xue Yuge)

A worker polishes the spectacle frame of a pair of goggles made by 3D printer at the additive manufacturing research and application center of Hunan Vanguard Group Co., Ltd. in the economic development zone of Changsha City, central China's Hunan Province, Feb. 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Xue Yuge)

A 3D printer prints the spectacle frame of a pair of goggles at the additive manufacturing research and application center of Hunan Vanguard Group Co., Ltd. in the economic development zone of Changsha City, central China's Hunan Province, Feb. 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Xue Yuge)

A worker inspects the operation of a 3D printer at the additive manufacturing research and application center of Hunan Vanguard Group Co., Ltd. in the economic development zone of Changsha City, central China's Hunan Province, Feb. 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Xue Yuge)

A drone carrying a QR code placard is seen near an expressway toll station in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Feb. 11, 2020. As a measure to help prevent and control novel coronavirus, an online register system for vehicles coming back to Shenzhen has been put into use since Feb. 8. To increase the efficiency, local police officers used drones to carry a QR code at the expressway exits for drivers to get registered with less contact with other people. (Photo by Lai Li/Xinhua)

A drone carrying a QR code placard is seen near an expressway toll station in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Feb. 11, 2020. (Photo by Lai Li/Xinhua)

A drone carrying a QR code placard is seen near an expressway toll station in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Feb. 11, 2020. (Photo by Lai Li/Xinhua)

A police officer operates a drone carrying a QR code placard near an expressway toll station in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province, Feb. 11, 2020.(Photo by Lai Li/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Feb. 9, 2020 shows the site of a 5G teleconsultation at Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital in Beijing, capital of China. Beijing-based Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital carried out 5G teleconsultation services Sunday with Huoshenshan Hospital, a recently built makeshift hospital in Wuhan, to battle the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak. The teleconsultation also marks the launching of the teleconsultation system between the two hospitals. Supported by the 5G network, the system enables doctors in Beijing to establish real-time communications with those in Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak in central China's Hubei Province. (Photo by Kong Lingzhan/Xinhua)

Photo taken on Feb. 9, 2020 shows the site of a 5G teleconsultation at Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital in Beijing, capital of China. (Photo by Kong Lingzhan/Xinhua)
Honorees Elijah Scott-Pyle, LRaye Means and Robert Perkins are flanked by Dorcas Meyers and Dr. Jacqueline Wilson at the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Three people were honored Thursday night at Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference, a Black History Month event at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton.

Hosted by the African American community and the JCC Beacon program, the event's honorees were Minister Robert Perkins, receiving the Community Service Award; LRaye Means, Entrepreneurship and Community Service Award; and Elijah Scott-Pyle, Youth Community Service Leader Award.

It feels great!" Perkins said of being honored. "However, not in the form of recognition, but in the form that I believe there is someone who will be there who will be inspired to do more.

Perkins has for decades been involved in a broad range of initiatives that support and improve the Staten Island community, from spending his Thanksgivings hosting dinner for people in need to his current roles as Outreach Specialist for Fatherhood Matters and Regional Director for The Edge Foundation.

He started a barbershop and clothing store business in West Brighton in 2001 that was more than a shop -- it was a food pantry, shelter and a place where he taught people how to cut and earn employment.

I have been blessed...by caring, genuine people, and it has caused me to do the same in the form of giving back to those who may face similar challenges as myself, Perkins continued.

"To whom much is given, much is required, he added.

Means, who was honored for her entrepreneurship, is the owner and chief designer for Mugshots Figment, a company that personalizes everything from invitations to sculptures, trophies, journals and engravings.

In 2015, Means launched the Melanin Positive Line, featuring what she calls wearable art, with imagery and artwork of strong black women on shirts, jackets, tote bags and more.

I feel greatly honored and appreciated in being recognized for this prestigious award, Means said. I am a background type of person and seldom accept such honors mainly because my satisfaction comes from the quality service I give my clients. Their trust in my designs is my greatest joy.

My philosophy is if you can support an effort, give it your all, Means added.

Scott-Pyle, a Curtis High School student and the president of the NAACP Youth Council on Staten Island, said he was humbled by being honored.

I dont do what I do for the recognition of it, but to be appreciated and know that I have made sacrifices that have helped make impact in my community really make me feel good. It makes it all worth it, Scott-Pyle said.

The Youth Council has also been recently honored, with the highest award possible in the New York State Youth & College Division during the 83rd New York State NAACP Conference last October.

I keep doing what I do, and use my voice and platform to continue to make a difference. Whether Im here or away at college or an adult with a family, that doesnt really change.

>> Scroll for photos from Thursday's event. <<

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(Derek Alvez/Staten Island Advance)

Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez).

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez).

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The Elite Squad danced at the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes of a dancer from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Public Administrator Edwina Martin spoke at the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Derek Alvez

NWS UNSUNG

Dr. Jacqueline Wilson was the Mistress of Ceremony at the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Dr. Jacqueline Wilson and Dorcas Meyers at the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Malik Thomas performed at the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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The Elite Squad danced at the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez).

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Setonji Agosa and LRaye Means at the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Uptown Dance Academy danced at the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Scenes from the Celebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)

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Derek Alvez

Dr. Jacqueline Wilson presents Robert Perkins with an award at theCelebrating Unsung Community Leaders Making a Difference at Dreyfus Intermediate School in Stapleton. February 27, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Derek Alvez)
The pressures of being part of the royal family have gotten a fresh look with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Having long complained about the lack of privacy, they have taken the drastic measure of stepping down from their royal duties to escape the spotlight. While Prince Harrys relative distance from the throne made such a step possible (though still controversial) for his family, Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton are expected to deal with the pressures of fame.

Middleton has been praised for her poise, confidence, and ability to act regal in the face of a crowd. Recently, she opened up about how her fame certainly made pregnancy a challenging time.

Prince William and Kate Middleton have a growing family

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have three children, and the whole family is largely popular with the British public. Their first child, Prince George, was born in 2013, two years after his parents show-stopping wedding in 2011. In 2015, Princess Charlotte joined the family. In 2018, their youngest child, a son named Prince Louis, was born.

Speculation has circulated ever since that the family plans to expand even further. Many fans have started scrutinizing Middletons photos and public appearances for signs of a baby bump. While the public has predicted a fourth pregnancy multiple times since Prince Louis birth, the whispers remain unconfirmed rumors at this point.

Kate Middleton | Paul Campbell/Getty Images)

Kate Middleton is largely regarded as an amazing mom

Middleton is famous for her ability to remain poised and calm in moments of stress. Parenting within the confines of royal protocol has certainly put those skills to the test. Whether shes heading off a toddler meltdown while perfectly managing her outfit and heels, or visiting other children at schools around the country, Middleton has proven herself to be a capable and talented mother.

These are just some of the many skills that Middleton will bring with her on the path to becoming the Queen. Prince William is widely expected to follow his father (who will be the eldest monarch ever crowned to the throne) into the position of King. When that happens, Middleton will be putting all of her charm and grace to the ultimate test; a role she seems ready to fill.

Pregnancy was a difficult time for Kate Middleton

Despite her seemingly unflappable personality, Middleton recently opened up about the challenges of being pregnant and in the spotlight. Her ability to look perfectly polished in nearly every photo of her during her pregnancies may have masked the reality. The truth is that Middleton was quite sick. In fact, she suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum, a severe form of morning sickness that can result in serious complications if not managed. She even spent a few days hospitalized as a response to the condition.

Always one to think about how her role relates to those around her, Middleton lamented the way her illness caused a struggle for everyone: It was definitely a challenge. Not just for me, but also for your loved ones around youWilliam didnt feel like he could do much to help. Its hard for everyone to see you suffering.

Of course, Middleton had the added pressure of feeling miserable while there were constantly cameras in her face, and adoring fans wanting to know every detail of her pregnancy and the births. It cant be easy to keep a happy face all the time under those circumstances, but Middleton was up for the challenge. As the future Queen continues to face renewed pregnancy rumors and maintain her role as a mother in the midst of her busy royal duties, its important to remember that famous or not, pregnancy and parenthood take a toll on everyone.
Nayara Energy, partially owned by Rosneft, is planning to stop processing Venezuelan oil at its refineries after receiving two cargoes that are scheduled for loading in March, two of the sources said.

Indian refiners Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy are planning to wind down purchases of Venezuelan oil in April fearing the future US sanctions could choke off all avenues to trade with state-run oil firm PDVSA, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Such a step by Reliance, which operates the worlds biggest refining complex, and Nayara - part owned by Russian oil major Rosneft - would severely curtail purchases by one of Venezuelas last big export destinations. India accounted for about a third of Venezuelas oil shipments in January.

The move comes as US President Donald Trump warned in New Delhi this week of an increase in sanctions in a bid to oust Venezuelas President Nicolas Maduro, whose 2018 re-election was considered a sham by most Western countries.

Washington last year imposed tough sanctions on PDVSA that cut off Venezuela from the United States, its biggest customer, and severely curbed trading with other major buyers of its oil, the nations main export. Venezuelas once-strong petroleum industry has withered amid a years-long economic crisis.

After several months with little action, the White House this month added Rosneft Trading SA, the Geneva-based unit Rosneft, to its list of sanctioned companies over accusations that it hid the country of origin of oil cargoes loaded at Venezuelan ports and later resold in Asia.

The US set a 20 May deadline for companies to wind down purchases from Rosneft.

Reliance, a long-time customer of PDVSA, has so far not placed requests for April cargoes, one of the sources said.

Nayara Energy, partially owned by Rosneft, is planning to stop processing Venezuelan oil at its refineries after receiving two cargoes that are scheduled for loading in March, two of the sources said.

It will lift no shipments of Venezuelan crude in April since RTSA (Rosneft Trading SA) was doing all that business and no one else will pick it up, one of the sources said, given shipping times.

PDVSA and Reliance did not reply to requests for comment. Nayara said it is in compliance with all relevant and applicable US sanctions.

We reaffirm our commitment to this position following the recent announcements, it said in an email to Reuters. Rosneft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fresh sanction worries

The caution over shipments comes as the United States steps up its pressure campaign action against PDVSA.

Reliance, an Indian conglomerate controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and Nayara have major operational and financial exposure in the United States.

Past sanctions have prompted firms, particularly US financial institutions, to overcomply because they are unwilling to risk approving operations linked to PDVSA.

Currently, a small group of oil firms including US major Chevron, Italys Eni and Spains Repsol are authorized by the US Treasury Department to take Venezuelan crude as payment for overdue dividends and loans.

Reliance is about to receive about 2.9 million barrels of Venezuelan crude from Chevron and Eni, loaded in January, Refinitiv Eikon vessel tracking data and PDVSA documents showed.

But using intermediaries for sourcing Venezuelan oil may only be a short-term solution as Washington mulls new sanctions.

US special envoy Elliott Abrams, who has accused oil and shipping firms of transferring Venezuelan oil at sea to disguise its real country of origin, told Reuters this week that firms previously authorised to maintain trade operations with PDVSA could not be allowed to do so anymore.

Rosneft has harshly criticised US sanctions, saying that the oil received does not generate cash for PDVSA - the main purpose of the sanctions - but is paying back loans. It has also accused the Trump administration of discriminatory treatment.

No last minute deals

Last year, Reliance and PDVSA agreed to a crude-for-fuel swap that would send 4 million barrels of Venezuelan crude to Reliance monthly in exchange for diesel cargoes, according to sources at PDVSA and India.

PDVSA in February allocated 3.9 million barrels of crude to Reliance in three cargoes bound for Sikka port, and 3.8 million barrels for Nayara through Rosneft Trading. Similar volumes are expected for March, according to PDSVAs export programs, seen by Reuters. However, no oil has been ordered for April, one source said.

At the same time, it would be difficult for Indian refiners to ramp up purchases ahead of the wind-down deadline as incremental purchases could be seen as a new contract by the United States, which is forbidden under the sanctions, one of the industry sources said.
LAKEWOOD, CO, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Energy Fuels Inc. (NYSE American: UUUU; TSX: EFR) ("Energy Fuels" or the "Company"), a leading uranium producer in the U.S., is pleased to announce that members of the Company's management team will be attending two events during the next three weeks: PDAC 2020 in Toronto (March 1  4, 2020) and the 32nd Annual ROTH Conference in Southern California (March 17, 2020). In addition, the Company is pleased to announce that it has been approached by several entities, including the U.S. government, to evaluate the potential to process certain natural ores and alternate feed materials for their Rare Earth Element ("REE") content in addition to uranium, at the Company's 100%-owned White Mesa Mill in Utah.

PDAC 2020

March 1  4, 2020, Metro Toronto Convention Centre ("MTCC"), Toronto, Canada

Energy Fuels invites you to attend the convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada ("PDAC"). PDAC describes this conference as: "The World's Premier Mineral Exploration & Mining Convention." We invite you to visit with the Company, including members of the management team, in Booth #2452 in the Investors Exchange, or to contact us directly for one-on-one meetings using the contact information at the end of this release. The Company's booth is near the main entrance to the exhibit hall.

In addition, on Monday, March 2, 2020 at 2:45 pm (Eastern), Energy Fuels' President and CEO, Mark S. Chalmers, will be giving a presentation during the PDAC Uranium Session in Room 801B of the MTCC. Mr. Chalmers will discuss Energy Fuels' uranium and vanadium businesses, along with opportunities the Company is currently pursuing in land cleanup and the recovery of rare earth elements (see below). Mr. Chalmers will also provide updates on U.S. government actions to support U.S. uranium production, including the planned creation of a U.S. uranium reserve, which is intended to support established U.S. uranium production facilities. The Company is the owner of three such established U.S. uranium facilities, including the White Mesa Mill in Utah which is the only operating conventional uranium mill in the U.S. today, the producing Nichols Ranch ISR Facility in Wyoming, and the Alta Mesa ISR Facility in Texas, which is currently on standby.

32ND ANNUAL ROTH CONFERENCE, PRESENTATION & WEBCAST

March 17, 2020, The Ritz-Carlton, Dana Point, California

Energy Fuels also invites you to join Mr. Mark Chalmers at the 32nd Annual ROTH Conference in Dana Point, California. Mr. Chalmers will be presenting on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 at 1:30 pm (Pacific) in the Blue Track  Salon 5. A video webcast of Mr. Chalmers presentation will also be available at the following link:

Energy Fuels ROTH Webcast Presentation

Mr. Chalmers will also be available for one-on-one meetings throughout that day. Please contact ROTH Capital Partners at [email protected] to request a meeting.

RARE EARTH ELEMENT OPPORTUNITY

Energy Fuels is pleased to provide the following update on opportunities the Company is pursuing in the rare earth element ("REE") sector. The Company is  first and foremost  a uranium producer. However, Energy Fuels' White Mesa Mill, which is the only conventional uranium and vanadium mill operating in the U.S. today, is a large and highly versatile facility that can be utilized in a number of applications, including potentially the processing of certain natural ores and alternate feed materials for the recovery of both uranium and rare earth elements.

In addition to uranium and vanadium, the Company's White Mesa Mill license has allowed for the production of other minerals, along with uranium, from alternate feed materials, such as tantalum, which is on the U.S. department of Interior's Critical Minerals List. Alternate feed materials are uranium-bearing materials other than natural ores, which are often tailings and residues from other metal processing operations. Many ores and alternate feed materials that contain uranium also contain recoverable quantities of REEs; therefore, we believe certain of these ores and alternate feed materials can be processed for the recovery of both uranium and REE's at the White Mesa Mill. Natural uranium and REE-bearing ores that meet certain criteria can generally be processed under the Mill's existing license and permits, whereas alternate feed materials typically require a license amendment before they can be processed.

The Company is in discussions with several entities, including the U.S. government, about the potential to recover both light and heavy REE's at the White Mesa Mill along with uranium from certain natural ores and alternate feed materials. Initial evaluation and bench-scale testing indicates that certain of these types of ores and alternate feed materials can be processed using mainly existing mill equipment, and we expect that any upgrades and process changes would be minimal in cost and time due to the existing mill flexibility and capacity. The White Mesa Mill is a large facility with a licensed and operating capacity to process 2,000 tons of ore per day. Typical production rates for uranium/REE ores and alternate feed materials would be expected to be small relative to the White Mesa Mill's capacity. Therefore, even at higher levels of uranium and vanadium production, the Company believes there is enough capacity to process such ores and alternate feed materials, in addition to typical uranium and vanadium ores.

The U.S. government is currently taking action to support the domestic production of REE's, which are considered vital to U.S. national and economic security. On July 22, 2019, U.S. President Donald J. Trump issued five (5) Presidential Determinations in accordance with the Defense Production Act (the "Act") directing the U.S. Department of Defense to "take actions to develop and purchase equipment and materials needed for creating, maintaining, protecting, and expanding production capability for [REE's]." Since the issuance of those Determinations, Energy Fuels has actively engaged with the U.S. Government, along with several other REE companies, to facilitate initial evaluation and potential pilot testing of REE recovery at the White Mesa Mill. The Company believes the White Mesa Mill could be an ideal location for producing certain REE's in the U.S. Currently, REE-bearing uranium ores are being shipped to China for processing, which presents geopolitical, national security and economic risks.

In these Presidential Declarations, the President went on to state "that the domestic production capability for separation and processing of [REE's] is essential to the national defense," and the President declared that "purchases, purchase commitments, or other action pursuant to the Act are the most cost-effective, expedient, and practical alternative method for meeting the need for this critical capability."

On REE's, Mark S. Chalmers, President and CEO of Energy Fuels stated: "Energy Fuels is very lucky to own a facility like the White Mesa Mill due to its considerable flexibility. Energy Fuels will always primarily be a uranium miner. However, when other opportunities arise to diversify and generate cash flow, we will carefully evaluate them, especially when the U.S. government is backing those efforts. The processing of natural ores and alternate feed materials for the recovery of REEs in addition to uranium is just such an opportunity for Energy Fuels. We believe Energy Fuels' White Mesa Mill could be the ideal location to process certain REE-bearing uranium ores and alternate feed materials in the U.S., thereby loosening China's stranglehold on this critical industry. We look forward to working with the U.S. government and other companies to bring REE production back home to the United States."

About Energy Fuels : Energy Fuels is a leading US-based uranium mining company, supplying U 3 O 8 to major nuclear utilities. The Company also produces vanadium from certain of its projects, as market conditions warrant. Its corporate offices are near Denver, Colorado, and all of its assets and employees are in the United States. Energy Fuels holds three of America's key uranium production centers, the White Mesa Mill in Utah, the Nichols Ranch in-situ recovery ("ISR") Project in Wyoming, and the Alta Mesa ISR Project in Texas. The White Mesa Mill is the only conventional uranium mill operating in the U.S. today, has a licensed capacity of over 8 million pounds of U 3 O 8 per year, and has the ability to produce vanadium when market conditions warrant. The Nichols Ranch ISR Project is in operation and has a licensed capacity of 2 million pounds of U 3 O 8 per year. The Alta Mesa ISR Project is currently on standby. In addition to the above production facilities, Energy Fuels also has one of the largest NI 43-101 compliant uranium resource portfolios in the U.S., and several uranium and uranium/vanadium mining projects on standby and in various stages of permitting and development. The primary trading market for Energy Fuels' common shares is the NYSE American under the trading symbol "UUUU", and the Company's common shares are also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the trading symbol "EFR." Energy Fuels' website is www.energyfuels.com .

Cautionary Notes: This news release contains certain "Forward Looking Information" and "Forward Looking Statements" within the meaning of applicable United States and Canadian securities legislation, which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to: any expectation that the Company may have the opportunity to process uranium-bearing ores and/or alternate feed materials for the recovery of REEs, at all or on commercial terms; any expectation that the Company will be able to recover REEs and/or uranium from such ores or alternate feed materials on a commercial basis; any expectation that any such natural ores may be processed within the Mill's existing licenses and permits; and any expectation that any required alternate feed license amendments would be obtained at all or on a timely basis. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans," "expects," "does not expect," "is expected," "is likely," "budgets," "scheduled," "estimates," "forecasts," "intends," "anticipates," "does not anticipate," or "believes," or variations of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may," "could," "would," "might" or "will be taken," "occur," "be achieved" or "have the potential to." All statements, other than statements of historical fact, herein are considered to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements express or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include risks associated with: any expectation that the Company may have the opportunity to process uranium-bearing ores and/or alternate feed materials for the recovery of REEs, at all or on commercial terms; any expectation that the Company will be able to recover REEs and/or uranium from such ores or alternate feed materials on a commercial basis; any expectation that any such natural ores may be processed within the Mill's existing licenses and permits; any expectation that any required alternate feed license amendments would be obtained at all or on a timely basis.; and the other factors described under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, which is available for review on EDGAR at www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml, on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and on the Company's website at www.energyfuels.com. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company disclaims, other than as required by law, any obligation to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, results, future events, circumstances, or if management's estimates or opinions should change, or otherwise. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update the information in this communication, except as otherwise required by law.

SOURCE Energy Fuels Inc.

Related Links

http://www.energyfuels.com


Earlier, when Siddaramaiah was CM, the police had concluded that the murder was because of personal rivalry over a land dispute.

BENGALURU: Trouble is brewing for Vinay Kulakarni, considered a loyalist of former chief minister Siddaramaiah with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) resuming the investigation into the murder case of BJP leader Yogesh Gowda (26).

CBI officers on Thursday interrogated the four accused Vinayaka Katagi, Mudukappa, Keerthi and Sandeepa @ Sandy, the accused persons in the murder case.

Earlier, when Siddaramaiah was CM, the police had concluded that the murder was because of personal rivalry over a land dispute. However, the BJP and parents of Yogesh Gowda cried foul and protests were organised.

Vinay Kulakarni, former minister in the Siddaramaiah cabinet is alleged to have got Yogesh Gowda, a ZP member killed for political reasons. Yogesh was hacked to death inside a gym in Saptapurabavi area in Dharwad on June 15, 2016. Though, the police arrested the accused, his family members accused Vinay Kulakarni of being involved in the murder of Yogesh Gowda.

There were demands for a CBI probe in 2016 and a petition was filed in the High Court. The court shot down the demand a few days later as his wife submitted to the court that she was not opposed to the police investigation. When the BJP came to power in the state, a party delegation met Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and demanded a CBI inquiry into the murder case. Yediyurappa obliged and handed the case over to the CBI.

Before the CBI could investigate the case, Vinay Kulakarni got a stay on the investigation in the Dharwad bench of the High Court. The CBI then appealed against this in the Supreme Court. The apex court lifted the stay paving the way for the CBI to resume the investigation.

The murder case had become a flash point between the then ruling Congress and opposition BJP. Yediyurappa had openly declared in election rallies in the Dharwad region that he would send Vinay Kulakarni to jail whereas Siddaramaiah had backed Kulakarni.
Japan's northern island of Hokkaido declared a state of emergency on Friday over the rapid spread of the new virus there.

Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki said the emergency will continue until mid-March.

Suzuki, wearing a face mask, urged all residents to stay home this weekend, which he said is a critical time to keep the situation from worsening.

"We have been to contain the virus, but the situation is turning more serious," Suzuki said. "In order to protect yourself and your loved ones, please refrain from going outside this weekend.''

Since the first patient was detected in late January, the island prefecture has seen a steady increase in the number of patients, with the pace accelerating in recent days. As of Friday, Hokkaido has 63 confirmed cases, including two deaths.

Public health and virus experts have raised concerns about the developments in Hokkaido, saying clusters of infections with unknown transmission routes have emerged. The central government sent a team of experts to investigate this week.

Suzuki said cases have spread around the island, and that six people tested positive after going to an exhibit in Kitami City in a suspected mass infection.

The spread of domestic infections occurred while the central government was busy handling the quarantine of more than 3,700 people on the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where more than 700 passengers and crew members became infected.

Amid growing criticisms of his leadership and crisis management, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has asked schools throughout Japan to close until the end of March.

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By Express News Service

In a bid to further trade and establish a strong automotive industry in South Asia, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) proposed to set up a South Asian automotive forum, with the participation of industry associations and representatives in the government from atleast five countries  Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

According to apex industry body, the proposed forum would widen and deepen the relationship between the automotive industries in all the five South Asian countries. It would also enable participants to provide better inputs in the shaping of the automotive policies including in the critical areas of homologation, scrappage, road safety and other developments in the mobility space, claims the organisation.

A large share of our automobile exports, about 16 per cent amounting to $1.8 billion per annum, goes to these South Asian countries. Hence, it is important that a forum for discussions be established to ensure sustained and mutually beneficial growth, SIAM Exports Group Chairman Rakesh Sharma, who is also executive director at Bajaj Auto said. Several domestic automobile and auto component manufacturing companies have already established factories for manufacturing and assembly in these markets, he noted.

The SIAM proposed the setting up of the forum during the recently held first meeting between the associations of the five countries. Associations that participated in the meeting included Bangladesh Automobiles Assemblers & Manufacturers Association, Automobiles Association of Nepal, Myanmar Automobile Manufacturers and Distributors Association and Ceylon Motor Traders Association (CMTA).
Oakland

Chef Nelson German at Sobre Mesa. | Photo: Rachel Hall

In this edition: a cocktail lounge focused on Afro-Latino flavors is headed to Downtown early next month, a cocktail bar and steakhouse is coming to Uptown mid-March and Pill Hill has a new cafe serving vegetarian dishes.

Here's what you should know about Oakland's food scene this week:

Opening

Downtown

Sobre Mesa (1618 Franklin St.)

A cocktail at Sobre Mesa. | Photo: Kevin Le

Hoodline veteran tipster Al M. alerts us that Sobre Mesa, a cocktail lounge focused on Afro-Latino flavors and inspired by the cultures of the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, is getting ready to open. The Chronicle reports that the lounge is set to open its doors March 5 in a space previously occupied by The Payback.

As we previously reported, Sobre Mesa is owned by chef Nelson German of AlaMar Kitchen & Bar, which is located just a few blocks away. The new bar will emphasize small-production spirits from the Afro-Latino diaspora, including rum distilled from sugarcane grown on a family-owned plantation in Alma, Louisiana; hand-crafted rum made by Cuban rum masters in the Dominican Republic; and Trakal, an up-and-coming spirit made from the indigenous fruits and botanicals of Patagonia.

Uptown

Palmetto cocktail bar & steakhouse

A volcano bowl at Kon-Tiki. | Photo: Christina N./Yelp

Eater reports that the team behind Kon-Tiki  a tiki bar and restaurant in Downtown  is working on Palmetto, a cocktail bar and steakhouse set to open its doors mid-March. Owners Christ Aivaliotis and Matt Regan are taking over the former Flora space. As we noted, Flora closed last November alongside its sister bar Fauna.

Expect classic steakhouse steaks and chops paired with a cocktail menu listing classic cocktails and tropical drinks. The space will feature pastel colors, neon lights as well as a pink marble bar and green diner chairs. Expect dinner and drinks every day of the week except on Sundays.

Open

Pill Hill

Petit Cafe (411 30th St.)

Farro bowl with arugula, roasted sweet potatoes, tomato, cucumber and tahini dressing. | Photo: Petit Cafe/Yelp

Al also informs us that Petit Cafe has moved in near the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center Summit Campus. According to their website, expect local bread and pastries from Firebrand Artisan Breads and Grand Bakery, Red Bay coffee roasted in Oakland and cuisine inspired by travels to Europe and South America.

Petit Cafe serves breakfast and lunch with a focus on seasonal vegetarian dishes. Coffee drinkers can choose between almond or oat milk and there is a 50 cent discount when you bring your own reusable cup.

Thanks to our veteran tipster Al M.! Have you noticed a new addition to (or subtraction from) Oakland's food landscape? Text a tip and a horizontal photo to (415) 200-3233, and we'll look into it.






UPDATE: The Geneva Motor Show has been canceled after the Swiss government banned large gatherings in an attempt to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Here is the latest version of events. Previous story appears below.

FRANKFURT  Carmakers are reducing staff attending Genevas car show next week as Switzerland confirmed three new cases of the coronavirus, including one in Geneva.

Toyota on Thursday said it is paring back its attendance to include business critical staff. Only senior executives and public relations staff with pan-European responsibilities will attend, while staff who represent only national markets will stay behind, it said.

Palexpo, the organizer of the international exhibition, insisted that the car show will go ahead even as the Geneva watch fair was cancelled and as Swiss authorities reported the virus had spread to Geneva.

Travel restrictions and fears over the spread of the virus have already caused postponement or cancellation of other trade fairs, including the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Frankfurts Light + Building fair and the Beijing Auto Show.

Shanghai-based AIWAYS late on Wednesday said it had been unable to ship its electric U6ion coupe from China to Switzerland, citing circumstances beyond our control related to the coronavirus.

On Wednesday it emerged that the chief executives of Ferrari and brake manufacturer Brembo had cancelled their attendance at the Swiss car show, owing to travel restrictions imposed by Italian authorities.
A North Texas man was sentenced to death late Thursday for the 2018 killings of a Dallas-area police officer and another man.

The Collin County jury deliberated for about eight hours before returning the death sentence for Brandon McCall, 28, for shooting his friend, Rene Gamez II, and Richardson police officer David Sherrard in what police described as an ambush. Defense attorneys acknowledged that McCall shot the men but said the killings were unintentional.

Jurors had deliberated for about two hours Feb. 19 before convicting McCall of capital murder. The jury had the option of sentencing McCall to life imprisonment without parole.

McCall was accused of shooting Gamez, 30, in an apartment complex in the suburb north of Dallas and then shooting Sherrard in the chest as he entered the apartment after responding to reports of gunfire. The 37-year-old officer was a married father of two daughters and later died at a hospital.

McCall barricaded himself in the apartment after the shooting and fired at random during an hours-long standoff before officers arrested him.

During the trial, jurors were shown police body camera video of the moment Sherrard was shot and a video in which McCall admitted to opening fire on officers.

The latter video shows an officer reading McCall his Miranda rights as he lies in a hospital bed after the shootings. The officer then asks McCall why he shot at police.

McCall replies: Cause I wanted to.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The death toll in Delhi's communal violence climbed to 39 on Friday, a Delhi health department official said on Friday.

There were some areas of normalcy in the riot-hit localities of northeast Delhi with shops opening.

Nearly 7,000 paramilitary forces have been deployed in the affected areas of the northeast district since Monday.



ALSO READ | Rioters stabbed IB official 250 times: Post-mortem report reveals Delhi riot horrors

Hundreds of Delhi police personnel are on the ground to maintain peace.

More than 200 people have been injured in the communal clashes that broke out on Monday.

The areas affected include Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh, Khureji Khas and Bhajanpura.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2020) - Carlin Gold Corporation (TSXV: CGD) (the "Company" or "Carlin") is pleased to announce the addition of Mr. Dong H. Shim to the board of directors of the Company at the Company's annual general meeting of shareholders, held on February 25, 2020. Mr. Shim is a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia and a Certified Public Accountant registered in the State of Illinois, United States.

Also at the Company annual general meeting, Mr. Jay Sujir stepped down from the board of directors. Mr. Sujir served as a member of the board since 2012. The Company acknowledges and thanks Mr. Sujir for his many years of service to the Company and wishes him the best of luck with his future endeavors.

About Carlin

Carlin owns 100% of three properties in northern Nevada, the Cortez Summit property, the JDS property and the Willow property, all of which represent Carlin-type gold targets.

The Company also controls, in a 50-50 joint venture with HighGold Mining Inc., over six hundred square kilometers of claims covering precious metal and base metal targets in the Selwyn Basin, Yukon.

"K. Wayne Livingstone"

K. Wayne Livingstone,

President and Chief Executive Officer

Telephone: (604) 638-1402

Website: www.carlingold.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/52953
Private taxi drivers are holding Friday a protest outside the Armenian state revenue committee building.

They require the committee to create equal conditions in the field, to review the minimum prices for taxis.

According to them, there are online taxi services in the market with a minimum transportation price of AMD 400. Thus, citizens do not use their services.

SRC employees have invited some protesters for discussion. They are now inside the committee building.
The 61-year-old grandmother convicted of stealing wood from a Coillte forest to burn at home was described by the sentencing judge as a conscientious protector with a chainsaw in one hand and a burning log in the other.

Judge Sean O Donnabhain said that a lot had been heard during the trial about the defendant saving the world. We heard about 'mother earth'.

We heard about the bees and bunnies. This lady goes out with a chainsaw in one hand and a burning log in the other.

"Where is the 'mother earth' in that? How does that save the world?

The jury found Sioned Jones guilty of the charge of stealing wood.

The judge said he would adjourn sentencing until October 30 to see how her undertaking to stop stealing Coillte wood would go in the meantime. The judge required her to give that undertaking.

She put her beliefs to the jury and they were rejected. If she does not give it over (stealing wood) she will end up in jail. I am not a platform for idle political engagement, he said.

Asked if she understood the undertaking, Ms Jones said: I am not to do that again without the permission of Coillte. I understand. I take that seriously.

The judge made it clear: You are not to cut wood, you are not to take it, you are not to burn wood from today.

Sioned Jones said: "Yes."

The judge noted from Garda Fintan Coffey that she had previous convictions related to cannabis including a two-year suspended sentence in 2012 for cultivating it  at the same site where she cut down Coillte trees  and having it for sale or supply.

Judge O Donnabhain said that in fairness to the defendant, she had given an undertaking to have no more to do with cannabis eight years ago and the information from gardai was that she had complied with the undertaking.

Sioned Jones, 61, of Maughnaclea, Kealkil, Bantry, County Cork, pleaded not guilty to charges of causing criminal damage to spruce trees belonging to Coillte and dishonestly appropriating wood. The charges specified that 250 trees were felled and 250 more were ringbarked.

Sioned Jones outside court yesterday. Pic: Provision

Judge Sean O Donnabhain said to the jury: As a result of legal discussion, the contents of which need not concern you, it is my function to find the accused not guilty on the first count. You will have to determine the second count  the theft count. I did what I did because of law. Do not speculate about it.

Brendan Kelly barrister for the prosecution said to the jury: A person is guilty of theft if he or she deprives the owner of it. You will remember Sioned Jones said to Garda Coffey she had taken Coillte wood, that she used it, she knew it was against the law.

"She accepted this in evidence. Garda Coffey said she had a substantial pile of wood she was burning. Donal Murphy (from Coillte) told you she was cutting Coillte wood and had no permission to do this.

It is overwhelming from the point of view of the DPP. It is her view she had a right to do it for environmental reasons. That is tantamount to saying that a neighbour who does not like your trees, they are not environmentally friendly, and that they have a right to cut them and take them away and burn them.

"That is in effect what she is asking. There is no basis for it.

Peter OFlynn, defence barrister, referred to the question of dishonesty in her alleged theft of wood and he said the law provided for a person having a claim of right in good faith.

Mr OFlynn said: Sioned Jones has been described as eccentric, colourful, passionate but I really dont think dishonesty is a word you could apply to Sioned Jones.

"She believed she was leaving the forest in a better condition, replacing the trees with better trees. Coillte was aware of her activities.

"She had been seen earlier doing what she was doing and there was never an attempt by Coillte to stop that. She was not doing it furtively.

"She was doing it openly. She admitted to the guards she was doing it for 30 years. She believed the law entitled her to do it.

Judge O Donnabhain said to the jury before they deliberated: She claims an ancient law of foraging. As a matter of law, there is no ancient law which allows her to do what she did. There is no entitlement for a person living in the valley to take the wood without permission of the owner.

She said she was doing it for many years and no one told her to stop. If I take something from a shop on Monday and no one stops me, am I allowed to take something again on Friday? I think not.

The 61-year-old woman from Wales described herself as a grandmother and said she had been living in West Cork for 32 years.

She said that when she arrived in Maughnaclea it was a beautiful valley where she foraged with her child for nuts, berries, firewood, turf, mushrooms and so forth. She described a richly biodiverse landscape that included orchids, bilberries, insects, birds, lizards and frogs.

She became distressed when Coillte planted what she described as a hundred acres of an American tree, Sitka Spruce, which she said grew to create a dark forest floor which killed off the biodiverse environment.

Sioned Jones testified: I was shocked, I was outraged, I was appalled. I started cutting a few spruce trees to let light into the bilberry bushes.

First I was cutting to keep biodiversity alive. As the clearing got bigger we needed broadleaf trees. I was inspired to plant trees.

"The valley in which I live was denuded. It is not just for me. I am concerned about the environment we are leaving for future generations, for the tress, for the insects, for the birds, for the flowers.

"I am a conscientious protector. I am not a criminal. I am acting to protect the ecology and for the broadleaf trees of Ireland to have a place to live, she said.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is a near-lock to win California's presidential primary next Tuesday, and two new polls show a competitive  but critical  race for second place.

A new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll and a new CNN poll were both released Friday, with both showing multiple candidates jockeying for second place behind Sanders.

It's important to keep an eye on which candidates are close to the 15 percent threshold. In California, a candidate can only receive delegates if he or she reaches a 15 percent threshold, either in individual congressional districts or statewide. Polls indicate that so far only Sanders is in a position to comfortably hit this threshold in most districts.

UC Berkeley Institute of Government Studies (3,002 respondents, margin of error: +/- 2.0 percent):

1. Bernie Sanders: 34%

2. Elizabeth Warren: 17%

3. Michael Bloomberg: 12%

4. Pete Buttigieg: 11%

5. Joe Biden: 8%

6. Amy Klobuchar: 6%

CNN (387 respondents, margin of error of +/- 3.3 percent):

1. Bernie Sanders: 35%

2. Elizabeth Warren: 14%

3. Joe Biden: 13%

4. Michael Bloomberg: 12%

5. Pete Buttigieg: 7%

6. Amy Klobuchar: 6%

"California is the big prize on Super Tuesday," Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute said last week. "Its possible that only two or three candidates reach viability in any given congressional district. That would enable Sanders to rack up half the delegates or more while only earning one-quarter of the total vote."

While Warren positions herself as the alternative to Sanders among progressive voters, Biden, Bloomberg, Klobuchar and Buttigieg are presumably splitting the share of moderate voters. Biden is currently the favorite to win South Carolina, and a victory there Saturday could help him make the argument he's the only moderate candidate with a viable path to the nomination standing.

However, if this vote remains split on Tuesday, and if Warren also cannot get over the 15 percent threshold statewide and in several congressional districts, Sanders will be in a position to win an overwhelming majority of the state's delegates, perhaps giving him an insurmountable national delegate lead.

Eric Ting is an SFGATE digital reporter. Email: eric.ting@sfgate.com | Twitter:@_ericting
Canada will stop providing security for Prince Harry and his wife Meghan in coming weeks as the couple formally renounces their royal privileges, the public safety minister announced Thursday.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Britain's Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle pose for photographers during a photocall in the grounds of Kensington Palace in London Monday Nov. 27, 2017. Public Safety Canada says the RCMP has been providing security for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex since November, but plans to stop in coming weeks. A statement from Minister Bill Blair's office says Harry and Meghan's part-time move to Canada presented "a unique and unprecedented set of circumstances." THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Matt Dunham

Canada will stop providing security for Prince Harry and his wife Meghan in coming weeks as the couple formally renounces their royal privileges, the public safety minister announced Thursday.

The RCMP has been helping the U.K.'s Metropolitan Police provide security for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex intermittently since their arrival in November, Minister Bill Blair's office said in a statement.

His office said Canada is obligated to supply such services because the Sussexes are currently considered "internationally protected persons," who are entitled special security measures under international law.

The assistance will end in coming weeks in keeping with their "change in status," the statement said.

The Sussexes announced earlier this month that they will formally step away from most royal duties on March 31, having settled into a mansion north of Victoria with their nine-month-old son Archie.

Ready, Pet, Go! Leesa Dahl looks at everything to do with our furry, fuzzy, feathered, fishy (and more!) pet friends. Arrives in your inbox each Monday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

On their website, the Sussexes say their family will continue to require protection, but further details are "classified."

Canada has been embroiled in a royal family crisis since January when Harry and Meghan announced their intentions to break away from Buckingham Palace and give up public funding in a bid to become financially independent.

But word of the part-time move to Canada was immediately met with concern that taxpayers would be footing the bill for their security costs.

A spokeswoman for the public safety minister declined to provide details about the financial arrangement.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has so far stayed mum on the matter. His office did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2020.
The Minister for Communications Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has met with Netherland's Vice Minister for International Cooperation, Md. Kitty Van de Heijden in the Hague on Monday, February 24, 2020, as the President's special envoy to discuss the candidacy of Ghana's Dr. Edward Kwakwa for the position of Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)  one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations created in 1967 to encourage creative activities and promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world.

During the bilateral talks, the two ministers also discussed how Ghana could benefit from knowledge sharing with the Netherlands to prepare Ghana's youth for the digitized world.

This visit is the first leg of a three nation tour by the minister to garner international support for Dr. Kwakwa's bid to head the world's organisation for creativity.

Dr. Kwakwa is currently the Senior Director for the Department for Traditional Knowledge and Global Challenges at WIPO, Geneva, Switzerland.

Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful led a delegation made up of Ghana's Ambassador to the Netherlands, Mrs. Sophia Horner-Smith and some officials from the Ghana Foreign Affairs Ministry.

---Daily Guide
Regulator Sebi on Friday cancelled the registration of stock broker Royal International Shares Pvt Ltd for violating broker regulations.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India noted that the broker failed to fulfil the eligibility criteria to be a member of the NSE on account of vacant position of one designated director and did not cooperate in the inspection carried out by the regulator and the NSE.

In addition, the broker failed to submit net worth certificates and audited annual accounts to the BSE for the period ended March 31, 2013 and also failed to take adequate steps to redress the grievances of investors within the stipulated time.

Sebi noted that the BSE and NSE have taken action against the broker and have also declared the broker a defaulter with effect from April 2017.

"The Noticee has violated the rules, regulations and bye-laws of the stock exchanges, failed to take adequate steps for redressal of investor grievances, and failed to abide by the code of conduct prescribed under Schedule II of the Broker Regulations...the Noticee has failed to abide by the provisions of securities laws and thereby failed to meet the conditions of the certificate of registration prescribed under the Intermediaries Regulations," Sebi said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Haryana Budget had a bonanza for every MLA this time -- a computer tablet that held the entire document for them to read. Worryingly for one MLA, the devices were made in coronavirus-hit Wuhan in China.

The distribution of tablets for the Budget was billed a first for any assembly in the country, even if Congress MLA Varun Chaudhary expressed concern that they could "spread" the coronavirus.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar presented Budget 2020-21 in the state assembly here on Friday, reading out the 68-page document in Hindi in the old-fashioned print version.

But others could read it on the tabs which were distributed to the entire 90-member House in their sealed boxes as he read out the speech.

Before Khattar began, Speaker Gian Chand Gupta said it was for the first time anywhere in the country that tabs were given to legislators to read the Budget in digital form.

In a statement later, Varun Chaudhary, the Congress MLA from Mullana reserved constituency, called it a publicity stunt.

There was no need for a publicity stunt of presenting the Budget digitally. The assembly members were presented with a tab which is manufactured in Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak which has claimed several lives in that country and spread to other parts of the world, he said.

He said the virus was first reported in December 2019 which happens to be date of manufacture of the tablets.

He added that it was beyond my understanding why Wuhan-made tabs were selected from the whole world.

Whether these tabs were checked properly for any trace of the coronavirus, that question remains, he said.

In neighbouring Punjab, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had on Wednesday said the distribution of smartphones to youth in the state was delayed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus in China.

The Congress in Punjab had promised smartphones for the youth in its election manifesto.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Erdogan, Putin voice concern over Idlib as Turkey says 33 of its troops were killed in Syrian government attacks.

Dozens of Turkish troops have been killed in Syrian government air raids, marking a dramatic escalation in the conflict between Ankara and Moscow-backed forces in northwestern Syria.

The 33 deaths followed an attack in Idlib late on Thursday and come as Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air power, are attempting to seize the last remaining territory held by Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces.

The toll is the deadliest suffered by the Turkish army since it intervened in Syria in 2016 and is raising fears of a confrontation between Turkey and Russia on the battlefield.

Here are the latest updates:

Friday, February 28

20:30 GMT  Turkish soldier killed, two wounded

One Turkish soldier was killed and two others wounded in a fresh round of artillery fire by the Russian-backed Syrian forces in northwestern Syria, according to Turkeys defence ministry.

The defence ministry also said on Twitter that 19 military equipment, including eight tanks and four armoured combat vehicles, were destroyed.

Bolgedeki cesitli kaynaklardan alnan son bilgilere gore; ates altna alnan rejim hedeflerinden 8 tank, 4 zrhl muharebe arac, 5 obus ve 2 cok namlulu roketatarn imha edildigi, 56 Rejim unsurunun da etkisiz hale getirildigi ogrenilmistir.  T.C. Milli Savunma Bakanlg (@tcsavunma) February 28, 2020

17:30 GMT  Turkish officials demand sustainable truce

Turkey officials met with a Russian delegation in Ankara on Friday and said a sustainable ceasefire in Idlib region must be established immediately.

We stressed to the Russian side the necessity of declaration of a sustainable truce, de-escalation [of the situation on the field], and withdrawal of the regime forces to the borders agreed in the Sochi deal, Turkish Foreign Minister spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement.

The meeting took place at the Russian sides request, said Aksoy.









17:00 GMT  UN Security Council to meet on Friday

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Friday.

The meeting is expected to begin at 21:00 GMT, the acting chairman of the council, Belgian ambassador Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve, told reporters.

He said the meeting has been requested by the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Estonia, and the Dominican Republic.

16:30 GMT  UK calls for a UNSC emergency meeting

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemns the killing of Turkish soldiers in Idlib and said he will be calling for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

There is no justification for such blatant disregard of international law or basic human decency, Raab said in a statement.

Building on new sanctions announced earlier this month, we will work with our international partners to tighten this screw further until these crimes stop.

16:15 GMT  France offers condolences, asserts solidarity with Turkey

France Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drien declares his solidarity with Turkey and condemns the repeated violations of human rights by the Syrian government and Russia.

I reiterated Frances call to the Syrian regime and to Russia to end the military offensive in the northwest of Syria, to fully respect their obligations under international humanitarian law and to return to the ceasefire arrangements of autumn 2018 to immediately end the hostilities, said Le Drian in a statement said following a conversation with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavasoglu.

#Turquie Communique de @JY_LeDrian : "Je me suis entretenu cet apres-midi avec @MevlutCavusoglu. Jai exprime a mon homologue les condoleances et la solidarite de la France avec la Turquie a la suite de lattaque contre les forces turques en #Syrie".  https://t.co/cjfj6Hm9En pic.twitter.com/rJCB7ekkZ0  France Diplomatie (@francediplo) February 28, 2020

Im now handing over this blog to my colleague Virginia Pietromarchi in Doha, Qatar.

15:10 GMT  Greece will not tolerate illegal entry of refugees and migrants

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, prime minister of Greece, says significant numbers of refugees and migrants are gathering at the land border between Greece and Turkey and are attempting to enter the country illegally.

In a post on Twitter, Mitsotakis is warning that Greece will not allow the illegal entry of refugees and migrants into the country. We are increasing border security, he added.

Greece does not bear any responsibility for the tragic events in Syria and will not suffer the consequences of decisions taken by others. I have informed the European Union of the situation.  Prime Minister GR (@PrimeministerGR) February 28, 2020

14:45 GMT  Refugees, migrants head to Turkey-Greece border

Local media in Turkey are posting videos and pictures of dozens of refugees and migrants in the country heading towards the border with Greece while one Athens-based newspaper is reporting that Greek border guards are using tear gas to deter some 500 people trying to enter the European country.

This comes after Turkeys foreign ministry warned that refugees and migrants in the country are moving towards Europe because of the situation in Idlib.

Yeni Safak, a Turkish newspaper, posted a video of people gathering at Turkeys Pazarkule border crossing, while Hurriyet also posted a video of people crossing the Evros river border between the two countries.

Irregular migrants heading from Turkey to European borderhttps://t.co/IKxi7oCxTN pic.twitter.com/WVpe3CmvAs  Yeni Safak English (@yenisafakEN) February 28, 2020

Kathimerini, a Greek newspaper, said border guards at Evros made deterrent use of tear gas and that this is the first time such a large group of migrants and refugees [have] attempted a crossing en masse at Evros.

A picture taken from Pazarkule shows a group of migrants waiting on no mans land between Turkey and Greece, at the Turkeys Pazarkule border crossing with Greeces Kastanies, in Turkey, February 28, 2020 [Huseyin Aldemir/ Reuters]

14:16 GMT  Turkey in crisis containment mode with Russia

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans phone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on the situation in Idlib, earlier today indicates Ankara is seeking to avoid conflict with Moscow, according to an analyst.

Any Turkish response against Russia will factor in the US and NATOs responses. Unless Turkey gets a really strong commitment from the US and NATO  such as imposing a no-fly zone arrangement over Idlib  then its response towards Russia will be physically raising the cost of the war for Russia in terms of targeting Syrian regime forces, and making a distinction between the regime and Russia, says Galip Dalay, fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

Turkey will continue to target the Syrian regime but will be very careful in terms of targeting Russia. Turkey will most likely increase its geographic scope when it comes to targeting Syrian regime forces beyond Idlib, which may expand to Aleppo and east of the Euphrates. But it will do so in a way that will not completely destroy its relations with Russia, he tells Al Jazeera.

13:30 GMT  Bulgaria to send 1,000 troops to Turkey border

Bulgaria is ready to deploy 1,000 soldiers to its border with Turkey to prevent the entry of migrants into its territory, according to the countrys defence minister Krasimir Karakachanov.

Karakachanov, in a Facebook post, says the Bulgarian army will take all necessary measures to protect its borders.

Greece is also boosting patrols on its border with Turkey.

13:00 GMT  Putin, Erdogan voice concern over Idlib

A statement from the Kremlin says the Russian and Turkish presidents, in a phone call earlier today, voiced concern about the escalation of tension in Idlib following the deaths of Turkish soldiers.

The conversation took place on Turkeys initiative, the Kremlin says in a statement, adding: Both sides reaffirmed that it was necessary to adopt additional measures in order to normalise the situation in northwestern Syria.

12:20 GMT  White Helmet rescuer describes disastrous situation in Idlib

Abdulla Hussein, a rescue worker with the Syrian White Helmets, says Syrian government air raids on Idlibs second-largest city  Maaret al-Numan  are so severe his colleagues and medical relief groups are not able to access the area.

The situation in Idlib is disastrous in every meaning of the word. The people there are running out of options. The Syrian government shelling, backed by Russian warplanes, has targeted even the main roads that the civilians are using to flee different towns and villages, he tells Al Jazeera in Reyhanli, southern Turkey.

The last two days, with the advancement of Syrian forces towards Mount Zawiya area [a highland area that includes Maaret al-Numan], civilians there have left their villages and towns. Our teams and medical relief groups cant even access the area due to the severity of the aerial bombardment there.

12:00 GMT  NATO calls on Russia, Syria to stop indiscriminate attacks

Jens Stoltenberg, NATOs secretary-general, is calling on Russia and Syria to stop the offensive in Idlib and to fully engage in UN-led efforts for a peaceful political solution to the conflict.

We call on Russia and the Syrian regime to stop the attacks, to stop the indiscriminate air attacks  we also call on Russia and Syria to fully respect the international law, Stoltenberg tells reporters in Brussels, Belgium.

This dangerous situation must be de-escalated.

#NATO has just met in solidarity with our Ally Turkey, following the death of Turkish soldiers near Idlib. We condemn the indiscriminate air strikes by the Syrian regime & Russia. This dangerous situation must be de-escalated & humanitarian access allowed: https://t.co/TxBqHO5NVF pic.twitter.com/XCatlnyB9k  Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) February 28, 2020

11:30 GMT  Erdogan, Putin discuss Idlib in telephone call

The Turkish and Russian presidents discussed the situation in Idlib in a phone call, Interfax news agency says, quoting the Russian foreign minister.

The conversation was detailed and focused on the need to fulfil the original agreements pertaining to the Idlib de-escalation area, says Sergey Lavrov, adding that the two leaders are also looking into the possibility of a meeting in the near future.





11:00 GMT  EU warns of major international conflict in Syria

Josep Borrell, the European Unions foreign policy chief, is calling for an urgent end to the escalation in northwestern Syria, warning the tensions could slide into a major open international military confrontation.

It is also causing unbearable humanitarian suffering and putting civilians in danger, he says in a Twitter post. EU calls on all sides dor rapid de-escalation and regrets all loss of life.

(1/2) #Idlib  Ongoing escalation around needs to stop urgently. There is a risk of sliding into a major open international military confrontation. It is also causing unbearable humanitarian suffering and putting civilians in danger.  Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) February 28, 2020

Hello, and welcome to Al Jazeeras live coverage of the mounting tensions between Turkey and Syria in northwestern Idlib. Im Zaheena Rasheed and Im covering the latest developments from Doha, Qatar, and my colleague Linah Alsaafin is in Reyhanli, southern Turkey.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha gestures outside of a hospital where victims of a mass shooting at the Terminal 21 shopping mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima were being treated, Feb. 9, 2020.

Thailands prime minister, who is the ex-junta chief, and five of his deputies on Friday survived the first no-confidence debate against him since he led a military coup in 2014, after a group of opposition MPs boycotted the final vote.

The parliamentarians from the opposition bloc walked out in protest, complaining they were not given enough time to question Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha and the five deputy ministers.

Lower House Speaker Chuan Leekpai announced that Prayuth had received 272 votes in support, 49 against and 2 abstentions  22 more than half of the 500-seat lower house of parliament. Because of the boycott and absences, 177 did not vote.

I feel somewhat relieved that I passed this thing, Prayuth said after the vote total was announced. I can have time to handle the tasks that await me.

The others, Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan, Wissanu Krea-ngam, Anupong Paochinda, Don Pramudwinai and Thammanat Prompao received between 269 and 277 positive votes. Five of the six men are former members of the now-disbanded National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the official name of the junta that governed Thailand from May 2014 until after elections in March 2019.

Give this government justice. We are determined to work with honesty. ... We are not an antagonist to anyone, Prayuth said. We have had conflicts for decades that have held back Thailands potential for progress.

Sompong Amornwiwat, leader of the opposition Pheu Thai Party, filed a motion approved by one-fifth of the lower house in January to allow for this weeks no confidence or censure debate. The debate, which began Monday, allowed lawmakers to question Prayuth and the other officials before taking the vote.

Prayuth was accused of failing to handle economic issues properly, of having a bias toward certain business groups and close connections to a rich family to whom he sold land at a high price.

Pheu Thai and other opposition party members walked out ahead of the vote on Friday, amid claims that questioning was cut off too early on Thursday. Two of the ministers, Prawit and Anupong, were not questioned by the lawmakers.

Prayuth appointed himself prime minister after leading that coup that overthrew the elected government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra six years ago. He was voted in as PM following last years election, after a rule change allowed 250 senators appointed by the junta to vote for the top office along with the 500 in the lower house.

Yinglucks brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, founded and leads the Pheu Thai Party. Like his sister, Thaksin was forced from the prime ministers office by a military coup in 2006.

Pro-democracy student protests

The parliamentary debate began Monday amid protests by university and high school students after the Constitutional Court last week banned opposition Future Forward Party over a campaign loan from party founder Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit.

On Friday, activist John Winyu called on those who support democracy in Thailand to wear black every Friday to symbolize their resistance to a dictatorship.

An analyst said the latest rallies likely would not lead to deadly violence that marred similar uprisings in the 1970s and 2010.

I believe the student rallies would not galvanize big-scale protests, Titipol Phakdeewanich, dean for the faculty of political science of Ubon Ratchathani University told BenarNews. The government has other mechanisms to contain demonstrations other than military forces including the ministry of education which can order a ban on campus activities.

Nontarat Phaicharoen in Bangkok contributed to this report.
SAGINAW, MI  Police are investigating a report of shots fired at a vehicle on Saginaws South Side.

Before 4 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27, Saginaw County Central Dispatch paged out an alert about Saginaw City Police investigating a shooting in the 2800 block of Washington Avenue.

A red Cadillac Escalade at a Sunoco gas station, 2805 S. Washington Ave., appeared to have several bullet holes and a window broken out. The gas station was blocked off with police caution tape and several police cars were at the scene.

Saginaw Police and Michigan State Police at the scene declined to comment about the incident or whether anyone had been struck by bullets.

Follow MLive for more updates on this developing story.

Related news:

Police investigating shooting on Saginaws East Side

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Representative image

The autopsy report of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) employee, whose body was found in a drain in north-east Delhis Chand Bagh, has revealed that he died due to multiple stab injuries. The doctors who conducted his post-mortem have confirmed that the 26-year-old was brutally stabbed.

A Hindustan Times report quoting IANS states that Ankit Sharmas body has multiple abrasions... deep cuts... by sharp edge objects.

He was cremated on February 27 in Uttar Pradeshs Muzaffarnagar, which is his native village. Sharma, who was employed with the IB, had stepped out of his Chand Bagh home on February 25  the night that saw maximum violence  to gauge the situation in his locality.

When he did not return on time, his family began searching for him. Eventually, they learnt on February 26 that his body has been found dumped inside an open drain in the vicinity.

The deceased youths brother claimed that a mob had dragged Sharma inside a building that is owned by Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain. Other locals also claimed that Hussain had incited mobs in the area. An FIR was registered against Hussain by the IB officials family later.

On the other hand, petrol bomb bottles, acid, and stones have been found on Hussains rooftop, which he claimed were left behind by a mob that had barged into his residence.

The media had started questioning Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal, seeking his response to the accusations.

To this, he had replied on February 27 that if any AAP member is found guilty of inciting violence, they should be awarded "double punishment".

Meanwhile, Hussain, who was suspended from AAP shortly after the FIR was lodged against him, is reportedly on the run.
The external fund manager backed by Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger, Li Lu, makes no bones about it when he says 'The biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital. So it seems the smart money knows that debt - which is usually involved in bankruptcies - is a very important factor, when you assess how risky a company is. We can see that China Golden Classic Group Limited (HKG:8281) does use debt in its business. But is this debt a concern to shareholders?

When Is Debt A Problem?

Debt and other liabilities become risky for a business when it cannot easily fulfill those obligations, either with free cash flow or by raising capital at an attractive price. If things get really bad, the lenders can take control of the business. While that is not too common, we often do see indebted companies permanently diluting shareholders because lenders force them to raise capital at a distressed price. Of course, plenty of companies use debt to fund growth, without any negative consequences. The first step when considering a company's debt levels is to consider its cash and debt together.

See our latest analysis for China Golden Classic Group

How Much Debt Does China Golden Classic Group Carry?

The image below, which you can click on for greater detail, shows that at June 2019 China Golden Classic Group had debt of CN60.0m, up from CN39.2m in one year. However, it does have CN68.8m in cash offsetting this, leading to net cash of CN8.84m.

SEHK:8281 Historical Debt, February 28th 2020

How Strong Is China Golden Classic Group's Balance Sheet?

We can see from the most recent balance sheet that China Golden Classic Group had liabilities of CN142.7m falling due within a year, and liabilities of CN428.0k due beyond that. Offsetting these obligations, it had cash of CN68.8m as well as receivables valued at CN35.7m due within 12 months. So its liabilities total CN38.6m more than the combination of its cash and short-term receivables.

Story continues

Given China Golden Classic Group has a market capitalization of CN205.4m, it's hard to believe these liabilities pose much threat. But there are sufficient liabilities that we would certainly recommend shareholders continue to monitor the balance sheet, going forward. While it does have liabilities worth noting, China Golden Classic Group also has more cash than debt, so we're pretty confident it can manage its debt safely.

Importantly, China Golden Classic Group's EBIT fell a jaw-dropping 57% in the last twelve months. If that decline continues then paying off debt will be harder than selling foie gras at a vegan convention. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. But it is China Golden Classic Group's earnings that will influence how the balance sheet holds up in the future. So if you're keen to discover more about its earnings, it might be worth checking out this graph of its long term earnings trend.

Finally, a business needs free cash flow to pay off debt; accounting profits just don't cut it. While China Golden Classic Group has net cash on its balance sheet, it's still worth taking a look at its ability to convert earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to free cash flow, to help us understand how quickly it is building (or eroding) that cash balance. Happily for any shareholders, China Golden Classic Group actually produced more free cash flow than EBIT over the last two years. That sort of strong cash conversion gets us as excited as the crowd when the beat drops at a Daft Punk concert.

Summing up

While China Golden Classic Group does have more liabilities than liquid assets, it also has net cash of CN8.84m. And it impressed us with free cash flow of CN29m, being 119% of its EBIT. So we are not troubled with China Golden Classic Group's debt use. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But ultimately, every company can contain risks that exist outside of the balance sheet. Consider for instance, the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We've identified 4 warning signs with China Golden Classic Group (at least 1 which doesn't sit too well with us) , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

If, after all that, you're more interested in a fast growing company with a rock-solid balance sheet, then check out our list of net cash growth stocks without delay.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
I'm stuck here in San Diego's congressional District 53, a gerrymandered zone that has the gay progressives of Hillcrest, the rabidly left-wing academics of the liberation theologylovin' University of San Diego, and the illegals of Chula Vista all spliced together, in what's hardly a community of interests. I'm in a small hospital and defense contractor zone attached to these constituencies  nothing in common with the other areas, just useful filler for ensuring that a congressional seat has enough residents to get the seat for a Democrat.

So with disgust, I watch the 53rd congressional race to vacate Rep. Susan Davis's seat, Davis being a nine- or ten-term congresswoman who's served for 19 years and retiring. Davis is a lefty Democrat, but not a loud, obnoxious one. I wouldn't vote for her but she seems nice.

Not so the people jockeying to fill her place now. They're introducing dirty tricks never before seen in lolly, palmy, less-corrupt-than-other-California-cities San Diego to win a seat they're sure now belongs to their party. But in a wave year, with still a lot of residual red in the area, they might just find themselves surprised.

In one corner is Democrat Sara Jacobs, age 31, granddaughter of the Qualcomm billionaires, who lost a race last time for Darrell Issa's then-vacated 49th District seat and then decided she wanted to try for the 53rd instead. Her nonstop ads tout the importance of handing power over to "a new generation" to solve all problems. And look how stupid she comes off in her big interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune. She's reportedly exaggerated her resume to suggest she was a deep and important adviser to President Obama and candidate Hillary Clinton when in fact she was a subcontractor not allowed to make policy. She also touts her United Nations experience  as if an overpaid sinecure like that, which can be obtained only through someone pulling strings, were something to brag about. The San Diego Union-Tribune pointed out earlier that she's never held a job for more than a few months and that, were she to hold a congressional seat, her two years in it would be the longest she ever lasted at a single job. In her current nonstop television ads, she says she'll "work with anyone" to enact gun control, for one, leaving off that Republicans don't want gun control. Translation: She'll work with Republicans if they become Democrats. Rest assured: Daddy's money goes a long way. She's somebody's pawn; if she wins, she isn't going to be about representing any of our needs here. She doesn't really know much about us.

In the other corner, there's Georgette Gomez, a Latina lesbian whose life has revolved around all the "firsts" to her name who has a lot of experience on the city council. She's been endorsed by powerful public employee unions, the local Democratic Party, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for her uber-progressive agenda. Her curious neglect of her appearance (most pols don't do that) suggests she's a union pawn, a candidate of the government employee unions. In her original statements, she too said she would work with all types of people and argued that she often did on the city council. But not too long ago, she ran some television ads rabidly attacking President Trump and vowing to impeach and impeach again. To say the least, that didn't sound like much interest in playing well with others, let alone winning any Republican filler votes.

The pair of them are now engaged in some sort of ferocious fight for the congressional seat, and Jacobs seems to have some kind of machine, best machine Daddy's money can buy, that's repeatedly been accused of dirty tricks.

First, Gomez complained that Jacobs was suggesting in her ads that she had the endorsement of the local Democratic Party. She doesn't  Gomez does.

Now she's charging Jacobs with something even weirder. According to the Times of San Diego:

The congressional campaign of San Diego Councilwoman Georgette Gomez on Thursday filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against leading 53rd District rival Sara Jacobs, a fellow Democrat. "The Jacobs' campaigns are engaged in deceptive advertising to boost Jacobs' Republican opponent, [Chris] Stoddard, in an underhanded attempt to manipulate the election and deceive San Diegans' into voting for a Republican," said the complaint. Dan Rottenstreich, Gomez campaign strategist, asked the agency to investigate alleged violations involving mailers "and take immediate action." The Jacobs campaign responded by saying the mailer touting Stoddard didn't come from them "and we don't know who sent it."

Stoddard, a former fighter pilot, is the leading Republican in the race. Although he's pro-choice, the rest of his positions are openly conservative. But he hasn't been heard from, presumably because the race is slated to go to a Democrat. No effort at all seems to have been made.

But he's not a complete loser poll-wise, he's actually kind of impressive. A February San Diego Union Tribune poll showed Jacobs in first place, with 23% of the vote, Stoddard in second with 10% of the vote  a surprisingly good count for a Republican  and Gomez in third, with 5%, sorry stuff for someone with the full blown Democratic Party endorsement.

The primary system in California is to hold a runoff with the first two finishers in the November final. If Stoddard places second and Gomez third, Democrats will have no choice but to vote for Jacobs since the other slot on the ballot in November will be Republican. If what Gomez says is true, the Jacobs campaign is banking on a certain GOP loss for the seat no matter what.

Which in a wave year for Republicans, might just be a 'careful what you wish for' scenario...

Politics, as young Sara wouldn't remember, is full of cases of pols who tempted fate by using their opponents as foils  and got the surprise of their lives. Remember when U.K. Prime Minister John Cameron tempted fate with a referendum on leaving the European Union that he announced in 2013 to "pressure" the European Union? His game of chicken using the voters led to some surprise changes since and boy was he surprised. Remember when Indonesia's President B.J. Habibie tempted fate by putting East Timor up for an independence referendum he was sure wouldn't pass in 1999? He got a surprise, too. These things have happened.

Well, there's no reason to think it might not happen here too, given that District 53 has an old Republican base and a low Democrat turnout might mean a different result than a Democrat gimmer, particularly if some disgusted Democrats cross over. Jacobs is already sending out ballot-harvesting calls for voters to vote earlier (I got one, and won't be voting early, I'll be waiting for her people to visit me), and assuming Gomez is right about the mailers, she's sent out more than one mailer, actually  below is a picture of another  she's going all in, determined to not be a two-time loser, despite her absence of qualifications.

The fly in ointment here is that Republican Stoddard, thus far, doesn't seem to recognize what's happening as his golden opportunity to really flip this. He's got 10% of the vote so far with no effort, literally twice the voters of the Democratic Party's own endorsed candidate, which suggests some very fertile soil for making gains. But his response to the charge that Jacobs is helping him with those mailer ads comes off as an unserious even with a promising 10% of the vote. He says he has no idea who mailed the anonymous ads, even though it's pretty obvious the flyers were written by Democrats - they describe a Democrat's idea of what a Republican is - which included distorting his positions. How's 'arm teachers to "prevent" (no, the word is "stop") school shooters? Instead of catching that, Stoddard's just saying he has no idea who printed the ads but he's happy for the free advertising. In a TV news interview last light, he said he only spent $50 of his own money on the campaign for facebook ads, which doesn't sound too serious at all.

What he needs to be saying is that he's not in on this, confirm or deny what's true or not true in the ad, and warning Democrats to be careful what they wish for. His weakness, in fact, is more of an ad for the Democrats than anything which amounts to a lost opportunity. He ought to be fighting to win for that 53rd congressional seat instead of signalling to the press that he's not politically smart enough to see what's going on and taking the opportunity and running with it.

Will he seize this chance at some point, and start doing the hard work of trying to win the race? One can hope, especially if he takes the second slot and the race extends to November.

The dirty-tricks story shows the rest of us the ends the Democrats are going to to get this one easy seat for themselves - which is weird stuff indeed, given how foregone it's supposed to be that a Democrat gets this seat, and even more significant, that the 53rd is a congressional seat that has been slated for elimination in the wake of 2020 Census. California in fact is expected to lose congressional seats, based on all the people fleeing the state. Much of my Republican San Diego neighborhood has already packed up and shipped out. Could there be enough left of the district to go Republican? With California run the way it is, there's reason for hope that maybe there is, and a limit has been reached. That there's a wave year for Republicans in the wake of the impeachment rubble, makes this year is as good as any for an election surprise for the Democrats, their ballot harvestors, and their dirty tricks. Careful for what you wish for, Sara.
Photo: Mark Rogers/Universal Pictures

As a lifelong horror fan and veteran of the genre, writer-director Leigh Whannell didnt quite know what to think when, in 2018, Universal Pictures president Peter Cramer asked him, What do you think about The Invisible Man? The filmmaker (best known for co-creating Saw and Insidious) had to wrap his brain around such an expansive question. It would be like if someone said, What do you think about Monopoly? I guess I like it?, Whannell says. But the idea got its hooks in me, and I remember lying awake that night thinking theres a real opportunity there to modernize this character and to make him scary again. His update of the 1933 classic opens today, and it looks like the film that might finally resurrect the most famous monster gang in movie history  something not even the combined powers of Tom Cruise and a mummy could achieve.

Based on H.G. Wellss 1897 novel, the original Invisible Man was directed by James Whale and starred Claude Rains, and revolved around a chemist who figures out how to turn himself, yes, invisible with a dangerous drug that drives him to murderous insanity. The film spawned several sequels, and the character became a key part of the Universal Monsters stable, but as Whannell points out, the original movie is also a bit of a museum piece after 90 years in rotation and a long dormant period. The best tribute you can pay to these older characters is not to be slavishly devoted to the original story but to modernize it, says Whannell, who directed the new film from his own screenplay. Thats my own take. Let me get shredded on social media for that one!

To make old Invisible an exciting addition to Universals revised Dark Universe initiative, Whannell knew he had to drag the character into the present and find a way to frame invisibility as a genuinely urgent, and unique, threat. Have people imagine the power of flight and theyll talk about visiting exotic destinations; posit the power to go invisible and they might talk about what banks theyd rob or people theyd spy on. But Whannell didnt want to drive a good guy mad with power, either. He wanted to take someone fundamentally sinister whose nature would be amplified by the ability to go unseen, so he made his villain an abusive boyfriend, Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), and his heroine, Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss), the woman trying to escape his torment.

Whannell isnt under the impression hes created a new narrative, despite his Invisible Man lining up with the current discourse as a #MeToo movie, but he did enjoy the opportunity to put an icon of Old Hollywood into a conversation that defines our current era. Here is how Whannell collaborated with his technical pros and his lead actress to create an unseen but ever-present malevolent force.

Trust in Elisabeth Moss

Much like Vulture, Whannell appreciates the power of Mosss eyes (running mascara or not), and their ability to communicate the exact intention of a script without bogging down a scene in exposition. Its what her eyes are doing that tells you the story, and thats perfect for this movie, he says, calling Moss the missing puzzle piece that finally completed the whole picture of his film. And considering her adversary in Invisible Man is usually a stretch of implicitly threatening negative space, the actresss instincts to not shout into the void until totally necessary serve the film well. She tends to play these roles where shes not allowed to say much, and some sort of patriarchal force is preventing it, whether its Mad Men or Handmaids Tale, says Whannell, who would painfully watch his star suggest significant edits to his lovingly crafted words, often replacing them with silence. She would cut whole paragraphs of dialogue from the script and just say to me, I think I can say this with a look. Why dont you just give me a chance? She was very gentle. Then I would see her do it and be like, Okay. Fine.

The result is Mosss character being gaslit into a state of paranoid madness in mostly empty frames as Adrian inflicts his most violent acts of terror, leaving the audience immersed in Cecilias trauma. We see the scars of past violence as she is subjected to more in the present. She gave me a lot of personal insight into relationships in her life. We both shared a lot with each other, and through conversation the dialogue would change, Whannell says. Im writing a movie about this experience that I have nothing to do with, and theres a certain impostor syndrome that can set in. You start to doubt yourself. She would really go through the scenes with me with a razor and just bring her insight to it. As soon as I got her stamp of approval, I could feel comfortable moving forward. In that regard, she was almost like a co-writer in her policing of every emotional beat.

Weaponize the Space

Creating that quintessential Terrible Place is foundational to almost any horror film, and while the unseen is always meant to destabilize you in a scary movie, Whannells unique challenge was making the open air itself a threat. Youre not scrutinizing the back and sides of every frame looking for the monster in waiting. You have to think you could be looking right at him at all times. I wanted people to be stressed from the first frame, and not even know quite why they were stressed. Just like, I dont like this atmosphere, says Whannell, who worked with cinematographer Stefan Duscio to make the camera a character in and of itself.

One of the best tricks in Invisible Man involves the camera slowly panning across an empty space while the action continues out of frame, just to make you wonder whats hiding in the shot  which the director admits involved the silly process of rolling the camera for what felt like an interminable amount of time on nothing but empty rooms. Whannell says he knows exactly where Adrian is at all times (his actors only did sometimes), but he isnt going to tell us where to find him. The director does, however, offer this for our speculative enjoyment: Theres only one scene in the film where the camera moves on its own and hes not there.

With the camera acting almost like a person, it becomes a kind of audience surrogate. We know Adrian is hiding somewhere in plain sight, so were always scanning the scene while the characters go about their lives. But whats in the hallway? Whats in the next room? If you buy a ticket to a movie called The Invisible Man, youre automatically going to be suspicious of any empty corridor I show you, and audiences these days are very cine-literate, explains Whannell. Theyre aware of all the tropes and conventions of horror movies, and theyre desensitized to it. So I decided that I could weaponize that knowledge against them. Whannell also did Duscio the unkindness of telling him he wanted light. Lots of it. Typically in horror, youre playing with darkness and shadows, but if your bad guy is transparent its actually more disarming to know you still cant find him in a brightly lit room.

Making a villain that exists almost totally in absence also gave the director extra room to be creative with sound. After Cecilia escapes at the start of the film, the first time we experience Adrian is when we cant see him. So Whannell, who attended a film school that emphasized the role of sound in film-craft and says sound mixing is his favorite part of the process, worked closely with supervising sound editor Will Files and had a lot of fiendish fun audibly terrorizing his potential audience. Its not like, Oh, this is my sound movie. I already go into the writing prioritizing that, Whannell told Vulture. But I knew for this movie that the very title of this film begs for great sound design, because you cant rely on your eyes, only your ears, and I had great fun with Will throwing sounds all over the theater. I wanted things behind people. I wanted things to go off the screen.

Mind the Gaze

Making the camera a character also meant being extra-conscious of the nature of the films gaze. Whannell realized that the most recent touchpoint many fans had for an Invisible Man movie was Paul Verhoevens Hollow Man from 2000, which handles a similar premise in a much more troublingly familiar way: through the voyeuristic lens of a man with bad intentions. The new Invisible Man, on the other hand, is about the long-term effects of domestic violence and the role gaslighting plays in keeping victims in the grasp of their abusers, and Whannell consulted with counselors at womens shelters in Los Angeles while working on the script.

Its a delicate job putting that material in a mass market horror film that still needs to feel entertaining, and while creeping on women while they disrobe has never been part of Whannells cinematic vernacular anyway, he knew he had to make sure the films POV (unlike Hollow Mans) never veered toward leering. I want the camera to be more interested in empty rooms than it is in spying on somebody in the shower, says Whannell. I think people maybe wait for those moments in the film, but they never come.
Iran  home to the ancient Persian civilization and with 24 UNESCO World Heritage Sites  has never ceased to attract tourists from around the world. In recent years, however, the countrys tourism industry has fallen into tatters largely due to tensions with the West, the United States in particular. Related economic sanctions and political pressures, as well as what Iranian officials describe as Iranophobia spearheaded by Western media, have combined to contribute to the decline of tourism in Iran. In spite of all this, the sector managed to stay afloat, if not thrive, in this land with endless wonders. A much-feared nightmare began to come true on Feb. 19, when Iranian officials announced the first deaths in the country from the evolving coronavirus outbreak. The timing couldn't have been worse.

The last month of the Persian calendar, which ends on March 21, is by any measure the most bustling and booming period for Iran's tourism sector because it culminates in Nowruz, the Persian New Year, a national two-week holiday. The entire country takes on a festive mood, marked by an elaborate set of rituals, family gatherings and travel.

As of Feb. 27, two weeks after the initial announcement of coronavirus deaths, the spread of the virus showed no sign of abating. Irans Health Ministry put the death toll at 26, with 245 people confirmed infected in at least 22 of the country's 31 provinces. This is not good news for Irans tourism sector, as time is not on its side in the run-up to the holidays.

We have had no demand in the past few days and that has sent us all home, said Ehsan (a pseudonym), a tour operator in the southern city of Shiraz, close to the well-known ancient site of Persepolis. This month has always been our high season. We used to work extra hours well into the night, but now, we will be nearing collapse if the current circumstances drag on.

According to official statements, some 80% of hotel reservations for the new year holidays in Shiraz have been canceled. This alarming figure has prompted the president of the citys Association of Hotel Owners to warn of imminent bankruptcy for hotels and travel agents unless the government props them up in this moment of crisis.

Other popular destinations are faring no better. The Reformist newspaper Hamshahri reported Feb. 24 that 90% of hotels in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, a major destination for Shiite pilgrims from neighboring countries, currently have no guests. Unsurprisingly, hotels in the city of Qom, where the virus began to spread, are entirely deserted, Hamshahri stated. Fears that the virus could spiral out of control have forced the closure of major monuments in several locations, including the central city of Kashan, home to the Tape Sialk archaeological site, which dates to the Neolithic era (10,000-4,500 BC).

Cash-strapped and already battling on multiple economic fronts, the Iranian government appears to be shrugging off demands for a tourist sector bailout. There has been absolutely no aid or promise of a loan or anything that could salvage us, Ehsan said. Instead, the government has issued a directive obligating travel agencies to refund all customers. Full refunds, according to Ehsan, could effectively put operators and airlines in the red. Travel is also being impacted by Iran's neighbors who have closed their borders to Iranian passengers due to concerns that the coronavirus might be exported to their soil.

There is no doubt that the arrival of the coronavirus in the run-up to Nowruz holidays will deeply impact the number of journeys, Hormatollah Rafiei, head of the Association of Iranian Travel Agents, told the media Feb. 22, admitting that the panic is keeping Iranian tourists indoors.

Maghsoud Asadi Samani, secretary of the Association of Iranian Airlines, paints an even grimmer picture. He foresees redundancies in the aviation industry and the tourism sector in general, should the situation fail to soon improve.

Some Iranian tourism experts argue that the ground for a downward turn had been laid weeks before the coronavirus outbreak. Amir Dayani, an inbound tour operator and the Iran supervisor for the Madrid-based Oriente Viajes in Isfahan, traces the roots of the crisis to the US-Iran confrontation in early January that nearly led to all-out war.

The assassination of Major-General Qasem Soleimani by American drones, followed by the retaliatory Iranian missile attacks and finally the plane crash outside Tehran had already dealt a huge blow to the flow of inbound tours to Iran, Dayani told Al-Monitor. The former journalist, who has been receiving Spanish-speaking group tours for several years, contends that such fast-paced developments imposed a halt on Irans tourism industry.

Amid regional tensions, Iranian travel agents kept their businesses afloat by promoting tours for domestic travelers. Given that the depreciation of the Iranian rial from US sanctions has lightened the pockets of the middle class, thus making domestic trips a more attractive option compared to foreign tours, this approach could have served as an effective short-term remedy if not for the coronavirus epidemic.

Ehsan remarked, Now rampantly traveling across our country, the coronavirus could be the coup de grace. The virus, Im worried, may effectively kill our already ailing tourism sector.
Turkey has laid the blame for the situation in Idleb at the feet of Turkey, claiming that it has not upheld its obligations under the Sochi agreement writes SANA.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the non-commitment of Turkish regime to its obligations under the Sochi agreement is one of main reasons for the deterioration of the situation in Idleb.

Zakharova, in statement on Thursday, expressed concern over the situation in Idleb as it has turned into a stronghold of a terrorist alliance.

Quoted by Sputnik news agency, Zakharova underlined that the failure to implement the RussianTurkish memorandum, which was signed on Sept. 17, 2018, in Sochi, was a main reason behind the deterioration of the situation in Idleb, indicating that despite of the implementation of the de-escalation zone agreement in the area, the militants continued shelling neighboring towns and Syrian Arab Armys posts.

She indicated that consultations on situation in Idleb, which started on Wednesday between Russia and Turkey, will continue today, asserting that the two sides will discuss a number of issues related to the situation in Idleb.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Ululaanbaatar, Mongolia  Fri, February 28, 2020 14:49 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20672cc5a 2 World Mongolia,president,China,visit,quarantine,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus,COVID-19 Free

Mongolia's President Battulga Khaltmaa and other government officials have submitted to a 14-day quarantine after returning home from their visit to China, the state news agency Montsame reported on Friday.

Battulga is the first head of state to visit China since the country began implementing special measure to curb the coronavirus outbreak in January.

He arrived in Beijing with Foreign Minister Tsogtbaatar Damdin and other senior government officials on Thursday, and held a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.

They were taken into quarantine as soon as they arrived in Mongolia as a precautionary measure, Montsame said.
The national capital state of India feels nothing like its usual self. A part of New Delhi is blowing up in smoke and violence. There is red on the streets, on peoples hands and perhaps even on their conscience which seems to have become muddled by bloodthirst.



Delhi is amid a simmering state of communal violence that gripped its north-eastern districts over the past week. And though life goes on for the rest of us - privileged and safe - far away from the ground realities of hundreds of distraught families on the streets, it is beginning to feel just like a calm before the storm.



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Apprehension and retaliation weigh heavily on Delhis air, as does pain and loss. Innocent lives of both Hindus and Muslims have been lost since Sunday, and as the death toll threatens to touch the half-century mark, we wonder how long will it be before each one of us see the error of our ways.



Yet, despite the looming clouds of uncertainty and gloom, we have found our silver lining and perhaps also our only hope to save humanity in these times of unrest. Religious places of worship and their governing bodies have come forward to stand in solidarity with the victims of Delhi communal violence, and offered them shelter and safety.



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Earlier this week Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh called for all possible help to the victims of Delhi violence and said, the principle of Sikhism is to take care of any victim who comes for help. The situation in Delhi is serious and so the management of all Sikh Gurudwaras in Delhi should help the victims of violence in this time of grief, irrespective of their religion.



He further added that Gurudwaras should serve langar to those who seek their help, and that the safety and welfare of women and children must be given top priority.



And now after Gurudwaras, churches have also opened their gates for people seeking shelter amid the violence. The National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) asked the Churches and Christian Organisations at ground zero to help out the people in need.



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In a statement released by NCCI, the council said, Humanity has been knocked down one more time. Our houses burnt. Our kindred killed. Our peace destroyed, and future betrayed. We have not learnt from our past. In what happened in parts of New Delhi, our national capital, we have been brought down to ashes once again. We urge our constituents everywhere to stand in solidarity with victim communities in their locales and foster an atmosphere of peace and human security across the country. We will not be overcome. We shall overcome. On Ash Wednesday, we resolve to rise from the Ashes.



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At a time when one faith is being pitted against another, to have the greatest touchstones of religion in the physical world hold its ground and open its hearts for one another is the greatest lesson on humanity and true faith that we need.



We are not saying this is enough, or that this will change everything that is wrong in our beloved city right now. But maybe, just maybe, this will teach a lesson to the high and mighty, to the hate mongers and mass murderers that we are all followers of the biggest religion in the world.

We are the believers and preachers of humanity and nobody can take that away from us.
With spring and summer coming up, some Americans are concerned about or reconsidering their travel plans as the virus continues to spread.

The coronavirus outbreak has spread from China to at least 40 countries, affecting markets and disrupting travel with more than 81,000 cases worldwide and more than 2,700 deaths. A recent increase in cases in Italy, Iran and South Korea has heightened concerns about the ability to contain the virus' spread.

"It's all I can think or talk about right now," she said.

Mutz said a recent case of bronchitis and the fact that she has an autoimmune disease had left her worried about her health and wondering whether the trip was worth the risk. She was also concerned about being in a situation where she'd potentially be quarantined and stuck in a country she didn't know.

"I literally could not stop thinking about it all night," said Mutz, 23, of New Jersey.

Summer Mutz's dream of visiting Europe was finally arriving this weekend  a trip to Rome, Vienna and Paris with a friend. But with the novel coronavirus sweeping the globe and the number of cases in Italy surging, what once seemed like a wonderful milestone was now a source of fear and anxiety.

Tourists wearing a protective respiratory mask tour outside the Colosseo monument (Colisee, Coliseum) in downtown Rome on February 28, 2020 amid fear of Covid-19 epidemic.

"We've seen a record number of calls from customers who are concerned about their future trips and wondering about their options," said Kasara Barto, public relations manager at Squaremouth, a travel insurance comparison service.

Barto said fear of traveling or viral outbreaks weren't covered as reasons for cancellation under standard travel insurance plans.

For travelers planning trips or for those who recently booked, a "cancel for any reason" policy upgrade could be a good option, Barto said. The policies allow travelers to cancel their plans for up to three days before their trips and get refunds of up to 75 percent, but the insurance must be bought within two to three weeks of making a first booking, Barto said.

They also come at a price, costing about 40 percent more than standard trip cancellation policies, she said.

Ronni Kenoian, manager of marketing at InsureMyTrip, said the company had seen a recent 60 percent increase in customers adding cancel-for-any-reason coverage. It had also seen a 40 percent increase in calls, she said.

Kenoian said people who have already booked trips but don't have insurance should call their travel agents or suppliers, especially if they were scheduled to go to an area affected by the virus.

"A lot of travel suppliers are reimbursing or shifting schedules without any fees," she said.

Beyond international travel, U.S. public health officials said this week that Americans should prepare for the coronavirus to spread in communities across the country.

"It's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness," Dr. Nancy Messonnier, head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a media briefing Tuesday.

If the U.S. were hit by a widespread outbreak similar to the crisis in China, major domestic airlines would be forced to make "drastic cuts" to all nonessential air travel, potentially bringing the entire industry to a standstill, said Robert Mann, an airline industry analyst.

"We wouldn't want people congregating in an aluminum tube, especially since air travel is considered a very effective means for disease propagation," he said.

Mann, a former executive at American Airlines and other leading carriers, said a U.S. outbreak could rattle consumer confidence in virtually all forms of travel, potentially rivaling the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in terms of anxiety and economic effect.

"I think it might be even worse than the drop in demand after 9/11," Mann said. "The drop was for a specific, tragic reason, but remember that it did not necessarily curtail rail travel or travel by road. But with this virus, you could see most forms of travel restricted. It would have a major impact on the country."

Erika Richter, the senior director of communications for the American Society of Travel Advisors, an advocacy organization, advised all travelers for now to "keep calm."

"If history is our guide, the travel market will correct itself. Americans are intrepid," she said.

She said the organization's advisers were concentrating more on working with travelers to find new destinations, reroute trips and find new times of the year to go away.

Earlier Thursday, Mutz said she was still undecided whether to get on that plane, although she did have cancel-for-any-reason insurance coverage.

"It's hard, and I have a feeling I'm going to end up going because I've been dreaming of getting to Europe for years, and now I'm torn," she said. "Coronavirus is a big, scary thing. Right now, it's fear versus dreams."

But later in the afternoon, she decided to move forward with canceling.

While she was "very sad" about the decision, she said she was also relieved. She looked forward to planning another Europe trip when things were less uncertain, she said.
(Newser)  The career of China's greatest swimmer may be kaput after he was hit Friday with an eight-year ban for destroying blood samples. Three-time Olympic champion Sun Yang, 28, was found guilty of breaking anti-doping rules when sample collectors paid a visit to his home following the 2018 Asian Games, where he won several gold medals, per the New York Times. During a trial in November, the Court of Arbitration for Sport heard how Sun's mother had instructed a security guard to take a hammer to vials of Sun's blood, per the AP. "The athlete failed to establish that he had a compelling justification to destroy his sample collection containers and forego the doping control," the CAS says. Before the World Anti-Doping Agency brought its complaint, swimming's governing body FINA had issued only a warning to Sun, who claimed collectors lacked proper paperwork.

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Rivals have long accused Sunbanned for three months by Chinese authorities after testing positive for a banned stimulant in 2014of doping. WADA, which requested a ban of two to eight years, said it is satisfied with the ruling, which leaves Sun unable to defend his 200-meter freestyle title at the Tokyo Olympics later this year. But Chinese fans are outraged, per the Times, which describes Sun as "a national hero." "This is unfair. I firmly believe in my innocence," says the 6' 7" swimmer, the first male to win Olympic gold in the sport for China. He plans to appeal to Switzerland's supreme court, but "the appeal would be limited to whether procedures were properly followed and perhaps whether the punishment was proportionate," the Times reports. Three federal appeals have already been dismissed. (Read more Court of Arbitration for Sport stories.)
BROOKFIELD, News, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brookfield Infrastructure (NYSE: BIP; TSX: BIP.UN) today announced that it has filed its 2019 annual report on Form 20-F (the Annual Report), including its audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2019, with the SEC on EDGAR as well as with the Canadian securities authorities on SEDAR. These documents are also available under the Financial Reports section of our website and a hard copy will be provided to unitholders free of charge upon request.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is a leading global infrastructure company that owns and operates high quality, long-life assets in the utilities, transport, energy and data infrastructure sectors across North and South America, Asia Pacific and Europe. We are focused on assets that generate stable cash flows and require minimal maintenance capital expenditures.

Brookfield Infrastructure is the flagship listed infrastructure company of Brookfield Asset Management, a leading global alternative asset manager with over $540 billion of assets under management. More information is available at www.brookfield.com .

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners is listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges. Further information is available at https://bip.brookfield.com and investors are encouraged to consult the website.

For more information, please contact:

Media:

Claire Holland

Vice President, Communications

Tel: (416) 369-8236

Email: claire.holland@brookfield.com Investors:

Melissa Low

Vice President, Investor Relations

Tel: (416) 956-5239

Email: melissa.low@brookfield.com




Britain's Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan hold their baby son Archie as they meet with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife (unseen) at the Tutu foundation in Cape Town on September 25, 2019

Harry and Meghan with the royals on the balcony at Buckingham Palace ( Victoria Jones/PA)

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive at a public walkabout in Rotorua, New Zealand, with their personal security team in tow

Meghan and Harry left their roles as senior roles in favour of a more private life in Canada (inset, the home they are renting in Vancouver Island)

This weeks news cycle - for those who havent been dutifully tracking the coronavirus growth across Europe - has been dominated by questions of Meghan Markle and Prince Harrys personal finances.

Namely, their security and who will pay for it.

As senior members of the British royal family who carry out duties on behalf of Harrys grandmother Queen Elizabeth, Harry has grown up his entire life with a full-time security team, and Meghan has been entitled to the same since their engagement.

When they were based in the UK, living a quiet non-working life on the grounds of Windsor Castle at Frogmore Cottage, their security was in line with other senior members of the family.

The Metropolitan Polices Royal Protection Unit employs specially trained officers to protect members of the family who are deemed to require it. For example, Prince William, Kate Middleton and their three children have extensive security; whereas Princesses Beatrice and Eugenies costs are funded by their father. (In 2011, Prince Charles cut costs of security of lower-ranking royals, namely his siblings and their families in a bid to enact his vision of a slimmed down monarchy).

Details of cost and strategy around this arrangement has been kept intentionally vague, with the reasoning that any information shared with the public could compromise the safety of the individuals with whom they are tasked to protect.

Expand Close Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive at a public walkabout in Rotorua, New Zealand, with their personal security team in tow / Facebook

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Whatsapp Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive at a public walkabout in Rotorua, New Zealand, with their personal security team in tow

Since setting up base in Canada last November, while finalising details of their departure from their formal royal roles, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, known as the Mounties, have been working in tandem with Scotland Yard to provide bodyguards for the couple.

They have been designated as internationally protected persons, which means they are entitled to state-funded protection, and this applies to personal and professional trips abroad.

On Thursday, the Canadian government confirmed that it will no longer contribute to their security costs in keeping with their change in status.

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Now that they will be embarking on as 12-month life as private citizens, they no longer qualify for taxpayer-funded protection, which directly contradicts the couples own statement last month stating that their security would remain state funded due to their status.

When the Sussexes announced their intention to leave the royal family in January, they also launched their eponymous website with detailed answers on expected questions facing them - namely, who will fund them.

The cost of keeping them safe has been a source of great debate in recent weeks as the couple have been vocal about their desire to travel around the world, spreading their message of philanthropy, and building global connections as they work towards financial independence.

Following weeks of speculation, Canadas federal government released a statement to CBC news confirming the security assistance will cease in the coming weeks.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex choosing to relocate to Canada on a part-time basis presented our government with a unique and unprecedented set of circumstances, the statement said.

The RCMP has been engaged with officials in the UK from the very beginning regarding security considerations.

Expand Close Britain's Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan hold their baby son Archie as they meet with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife (unseen) at the Tutu foundation in Cape Town on September 25, 2019 / Facebook

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They added that from April onwards, it will no longer contribute to security costs "in keeping with their change in status.

This means that the bill - touted as costing an estimated 20m annually - will likely fall on the British taxpayer and supplemented by Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeths funds. Some commentators have suggested the couple replace some of their armed protection officers with private bodyguards.

Meghan and Harry have said they will remain reliant on Charles The Duchy of Cornwall, from which they receive more than 2m annually, but aim to be earning a living free from all royal constraints soon.

The details of their independent earnings and the means through which they intend to do so are also ambiguous as they are first-of-their-kind with this type of transition period away from their current roles.

The system is built on the expectation that members born into the royal family will not leave, and as such, this is uncharted territory. Their departure coupled with the fact they intend to spend the bulk of their time living on a different continent complicates matters further.

In recent weeks, Meghan and Harry have been praised and criticised in equal measure. Many have celebrated their commitment to valuing their mental health above all else, while others believe they are trying to have their cake and eat it too.

In a statement released on their website, the Sussexes insisted they would continue to require security because of Harry's military service and Meghan's "own independent profile".

The issue has proved one of the most contentious since they announced they wanted to quit official royal life and has been loudly debated in the UK and in Canada, although they have not committed to living there full-time as they finalise details of their future  including where they intend to settle.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has faced questions about the issue as one survey indicated that more than three quarters of the country's population did not believe they should foot the couple's security bill. A further petition with more than 80,000 signatures circulated asserting that Canadian citizens do not want to pay for the couples security.

Expand Close Meghan Markle heads to afternoon yoga in Toronto, Canada, in 2017. Picture: Splash News / Facebook

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Earlier this week, Labour MP Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) said it was "deeply concerning" that UK taxpayers may have to pay for this at a time when police budgets are stretched.

During a Commons debate on police funding, he said: "I'm fully respectful of their right to choose a different path themselves, but the royal couple, Harry and Meghan, I understand there are some quite serious concerns being raised about the spiralling costs of policing and protection for them which could be apparently spiralling into tens to hundreds of millions of pounds. I think that's a very reasonable question to be asking."

Their confirmed departure date as working Duke and Duchess of Sussex is March 31, after which they are free to earn an income as they see fit. And its likely that if their 12-month trial period is a success then they will be funding their own security without any help from taxpayers of Harrys family.

With infinite earning potential, next year will be their most lucrative as their global fame is at its peak and they will no longer be confined to royal restrictions. And they can finally activate the plans theyve been hatching for months to distance themselves from the House of Windsor.
Singapore ministers including the President take a voluntary pay cut while rewarding frontline workers with bonus

In an unprecedented move Singapore ministers, including the President of Singapore Halimah Yacob have taken a voluntary pay cut while awarding bonuses to frontline workers in a solid act of solidarity with the populace.

Setting a brilliant example amid the Covid-19 crisis, all political office holders in Singapore are taking a one-month pay cut, while public health officers on the frontlines will get up to one additional month of bonus.

Deputy Prime Minister(DPM) and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced this in his wrap-up speech at the end of the Budget 2020 debate.

Members of Parliament (MPs), ministers will have their allowance cut by one month while some senior public officers will have their pay cut by half a month. President Halimah Yacob has also volunteered to join them and take a one-month pay cut, DPM Heng said.

Meanwhile many healthcare officers at the Ministry of Health, the restructured hospitals, as well as some officers at other frontline agencies who have been directly involved in battling Covid-19, will get up to one additional month of bonus for their efforts in fighting the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak in Singapore.

Volunteers manning mandatory temperature check points overnight at temples in Singapore on the ocassion of Mahashivratri. Photo: Connected to India

This is a tangibleway for the government to show their solidarity with fellow Singaporeans and appreciation of those who have been on the frontlines of the fight against coronavirus, DPM Heng said.

Public Health Preparedness (PHP) clinics will receive a one-off Covid-19 grant to support them for their active role of caring for patients with respiratory symptoms while other public officers who have contributed significantly will be recognised in appropriate ways, Heng added.

This gesture, plus the many words of encouragement and acts of consideration and kindness is our way to express to you we salute you, Heng said.

Singapore has been able to respond strongly and effectively to COVID-19 because there is strong trust between the people and the Government, and the sense that we are all in this together, said DPM Heng.

The DPM who is also the Finance Minister had announced financial measures worth S$6.4 billion (US$4.6 billion) to help the economy cope with the impact of the coronavirus outbreak just last week.

Our citizens and institutions all play a part: Enterprises and senior managements standing with unions and our workers, landlords supporting tenants, neighbours looking out for one another, political leaders working hand in hand with the public service and the people, to do everything that will help us see this problem through together, DPM Heng said.

Singapore has 96 confirmed coronavirus cases of which 66 people have recovered.
The Islamic Republic is the epicentre of the outbreak in the Middle East, with 19 victims and 139 infections. Canadian study suggests that up to 18,000 people could be infected in the country. Shrines and places of worship remain open, but adopt more precautions. Rouhani is also against closing of districts or cities, says focus should be on individuals. US sanctions are hindering the fight against the epidemic.

Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies)  Despite the spreading of the new coronavirus, which has already claimed 19 lives and infected 139 people in the country, the Islamic Republic is not planning to quarantine entire cities or regions.

During a cabinet meeting, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that health authorities will continue with the policy of quarantining individuals.

The authorities have asked people not to go to Qom, believed to be the centre of the outbreak, but shrines and places of worship remain open in a city that draws millions of Shia pilgrims each year.

For Ayatollah Mohammed Saeedi, custodian of the Hazrat Masumeh shrine, said that the latter should be open as a house for cure where people can get cured from mental and physical diseases. In fact, people should be encouraged to come, he explained, but "caution is required" and officials at the shrine should monitor hygienic issues.

The decision to keep shrines open worries countries that believe that the only way to fight the spread of the virus is through exceptional measures in cities or regions like China and, more recently, Italy.

For Dr Bruce Aylward, head of the joint WHO-Chinese mission on Covid-19, the exceptional steps taken by China had "changed the course" of the outbreak in that country.

For its part, Iran is ground zero for the outbreak spreading to other countries in Mideast, including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman and Pakistan.

According to Canadian researchers, given the number of people travelling from Iran to other countries, it might be possible that more than 18,000 people could be infected in the country. But nothing is certain.

An Iranian Health Ministry spokesman said that the virus has been detected throughout the country, but remains optimistic about the situation. Every 24 hours, at least 10 per cent of those hospitalised or [who are] suspected cases are discharged.

President Rouhani himself spoke of "promising" reports from the Health Ministry, but urged Iranians to avoid non-essential travel to affected areas.

"We have no plan to quarantine any district or any city. We only quarantine individuals. If an individual has early symptoms, that person must be quarantined.

Rouhani slammed Irans external enemies, including the United States, who accuse Tehran of supressing vital details about the outbreak in the country.

Coronavirus must not be turned into a weapon for our enemies to halt work and production in our country, he said, adding that Americans are also suffering.

What is certain, however, is the US sanctions imposed after Washington withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) are hindering Irans efforts at fighting the spread of the virus and in treating the sick, as reported in the past for other diseases.

Concerns are growing in the country about the real ability of the regime to manage the crisis in the event of an escalation, especially because of the political and trade isolation imposed by the White House and US President Donald Trump, which have already brought the local economy to its knees.

"The US sanctions regime has severely impacted the access that Iranians have to life-saving medical supplies and will most likely hamper the Islamic Republic's ability to respond to the coronavirus efficiently," said Naveed Mansoori, a co-editor of online Middle East magazine Jadaliyyas Iran Page.

This policy, he added, could hinder the Islamic Republic's ability to respond efficiently to the coronavirus emergency.
WE URGE the new president of Toyota Motors Philippines (TMP), Hiro Okamoto, to understand the struggles of terminated workers and resolve their decades-long labor disputes.

A social media post of Okamoto has gone viral. Okamoto, who is newly assigned as TMP president, was seen on social media spending his first week in the Philippines commuting on bus, MRT, jeepney, UV express and tricycle to see the daily struggles of Filipino commuters.

Aside from experiencing and understanding the plight of the Filipino commuters and the poor state of our countrys mass public transport system, we challenge Okamoto to do Genchi Genbutsu or to go and see the current situation of the 237 TMP workers who were dismissed by his company since 2001 and act upon the decades-long labor dispute with our union.

Some 233 union leaders and members of the TMPCWA were dismissed by the car manufacturing company in 2001 after then Labor secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas submitted a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) proposal to the TMP management and wrote a letter requesting for a CBA negotiation. The union then staged a strike against the illegal dismissal of its workers on March 28, 2001. Four more members of the union were dismissed by the company in August 2010.

We call on TMP president Hiro Okamoto to start his term as head of the company by doing what is right and just for the 237 workers and their families who have long-been seeking justice to the union-busting scheme and illegal massive dismissal of workers, which transpired almost two decades ago.

We challenge Okamoto to sit with us in a dialogue with the Labor Department to review our past labor dispute with the management and resolve it in the soonest possible time. The resolution of our labor issues will be a test of Okamotos genuine concern for Filipino workers and people.

The TMPCWA, KMU Metro Manila and Defend Jobs Philippines also call on Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III to take on the opportunity to call for a dialogue between the illegally dismissed workers and the new TMP management to resolve the issues and labor disputes in the company that transpired since 2001. (Ed Cubelo, KMU Metro Manila chairman and president of Toyota Motors Philippines Corp. Workers Association (TMPCWA))
She's made a name for herself modelling for top fashion houses and designers including the likes of Jean-Paul Gaultier, Givenchy, Balmain and Alexander McQueen.

And proving her modelling credentials at Paris Fashion Week, Cindy Bruna commanded the catwalk on Friday night for the Redemption Fall/Winter 2020 show.

The Victoria's Secret model, 25, looked sensational as she took to the runway in a bejewelled bandeau mini dress that made a statement with its dramatic ribbon train.

Wow: Proving her modelling credentials at Paris Fashion Week, Cindy Bruna commanded the catwalk on Friday night for the Redemption Fall/Winter 2020 show

The design perfectly framed Cindy's lean physique, while its satin train made sure to highlight her slender waist before falling elegantly behind her as she strutted past the front row.

Cindy elongated her catwalk-worthy pins with an elegant pair of strappy black heels and she ensured her outfit took centre stage by wearing her dark locks in a slicked back style.

Her pared-back beauty look was offset with a striking smoky eye, that favoured lashings of kohl-liner and dark lashes.

A second outfit saw Cindy slip into a gold sequinned dress that cinched in at the waist and came complete with a turtle-neck, statement shoulders and a sultry slit at one thigh.

Shimmer: A second outfit saw Cindy slip into a gold sequinned dress that cinched in at the waist and came complete with a turtle-neck, statement shoulders and a sultry slit at one thigh

Wearing knee-high cowboy boots, Cindy perfected her pose as she graced the catwalk for one of Friday's final presentations.

Paris Fashion Week will see Celine, Vivienne Westwood, Elie Saab, Balenciaga, Valentino, Givenchy, Stella McCartney showcase their designs over the weekend, before Chanel and Louis Vuitton wrap up the fashion event on its final day on Tuesday (3 March).

Cindy made appearances at Fashion Week in New York and Milan before jetting into Paris. She was seen watching the Balmain showcase from the FROW on her Instagram story, just hours before taking to the catwalk herself for Redemption.

Others in attendance at the showcase including models Clara Ginola, Belen Rodriguez, Didi Stone and Fancy Alexandersson.

Busty: The Victoria's Secret model, 25, looked sensational as she took to the runway in a bejewelled bandeau mini dress that made a statement with its dramatic ribbon train

Cindy, meanwhile, began modelling early on, after being discovered at 16 years old and signing with Metropolitan Management and Wilhemina Models.

In 2012 she walked exclusively for Calvin Klein and has previously appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia, as well as editorials across a number of different Vogue publications, Harper's Bazaar and ELLE UK.

She first made her Victoria's Secret fashion show debut in 2013 and appeared in every showcase until its cancellation in 2019.

The lingerie giant's parent company, L Brands, confirmed the cancellation in November last year, amid dwindling ratings and ongoing backlash over its lack of diversity.

Chic: Didi Stone and Belen Rodriqguez posed up at the fashion show

Chic: Alessandra Airo looked stylish as she posed up a storm at the show

Style: Hofit Golan wowed in a semi sheer gown as she arrived at the show

Confirmation came four months after model Shanina Shaik first leaked the news.

Shanina, who has walked in the show five times since 2011, first shed light on the decision to cancel the show months earlier in July.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, she revealed: 'Unfortunately, the Victoria's Secret show won't be happening this year.

'It's something I'm not used to because every year around this time I'm training like an Angel.'
As coronavirus sweeps across the UK, emergency plans are being drawn up that could see schools closed for at least two months.

And, with some children already being turned away in a bid to contain the virus, parents are finding themselves faced with the difficulty of knowing how best to tackle such a complex issue with their children.

British psychologists and doctors spoke to FEMAIL about the language parents should use when speaking to their sons and daughters about the virus, including how it can be described as 'silly' to children under nine.

The issue was also addressed on This Morning by TV psychologist Emma Kenny, who spoke about how statistics can be used to reassure older children about the potential dangers of the virus.

British psychologists and doctors shared their advice on the language parents should use - and avoid - when speaking to their sons and daughters about the virus. Stock image

START BY INFORMING YOURSELF

It sounds obvious, but parents need to be informed themselves about coronavirus before they even think about discussing it with their children, according to Dr Zoi Nikiforidou, a senior lecturer in early childhood studies at Liverpool Hope University.

Visit the Government's Public Health England and NHS information pages and get yourself acquainted with the official, research-based advice.

Emma Kenny agreed, saying it will also help put your mind at ease, because statistically children are very unlikely to die from the virus.

She said: 'I've informed myself so i know statistically that my children are really not at risk. They really aren't and i actually know that most of us are not at risk.'

REMEMBER: CHILDREN SEE AND HEAR EVERYTHING

Dr Martina Paglia, Clinical and Counselling Psychologist and Clinic Director at the International Psychology Clinic (www.theinternationalpsychologyclinic.com), said: 'If you are watching the news and your child is around, he has exactly the same information as you. The saying that children are like sponges absorbing the world around them is especially true of the emotional atmosphere that surrounds them.

'No matter how hard we may try to conceal illnesses and death, children are sensitive to what surrounds them and are directly influenced by the way their parents feel about something. Therefore, if you are worried about it, your child will be too. As a parent, its important you learn to overcome your own anxieties to help your child face theirs.'

If your child is aged nine and under

MAKE THEM AWARE OF THE SYMPTOMS

Dr Jane Leonard said: 'With children its best to keep things simple and ask them to let you know if they get a cough, feel hot or cold, or are not feeling hungry.'

How to explain school closures to your child? Despite pleas from Health Secretary Matt Hancock not to close schools unless someone tested positive, the number closed entirely for the rest of the week reached double figures yesterday. Among them is 19,000-a-year Dulwich Prep School in south-east London which blamed delays in NHS test results after several pupils fell ill after foreign holidays. The issue is likely to attract a child's attention and could become a talking point. Dr Paglia advised addressing the issue from a protection point of view. Dr Paglia: 'Parents can explain that being off school and off work can protect children and adults from the silly corona virus, because if people stay at home the virus will be acting less messy.' Advertisement

BE CONCRETE AND PRACTICAL

Dr Martina Paglia, Clinical and Counselling Psychologist and Clinic Director at the International Psychology Clinic, said: 'Be concrete and practical with children under nine. Explain what they need to do to avoid catching the virus, such as washing their hands often and sneezing into a tissue, and then bin it right away.

USE LANGUAGE THEY CAN UNDERSTAND

Dr Paglia said: 'Explain that the virus is very little and cannot be seen by humans but that scientists can see the virus using a microscope. Tell them that the virus is acting silly and likes people so much, thats why its so popular right now.

DON'T BE AFRAID TO TALK ABOUT DEATH

Dr Paglia said: 'Death is an essential part of our lives, its important to talk about it with children. After all, for everything in life there is always a beginning and an end.

'Try to address potential fatalities in a way your child can understand and relate too. Also make sure you explain that the virus likes adults a lot but does not like children that much, so they should not be too worried about it.'

There are currently 19 confirmed cases in the UK - all of the individuals are currently located in hospitals dotted around the UK. Six new cases have been confirmed in the past 24 hours

If your child is over 10

ESTABLISH WHAT THEY KNOW

Emma Kenny said: 'If they [your children] see any of these headlines [about the coronavirus], if they're going to have any exposure, you're going to need to have a conversation with them about it.

Language to avoid If your child is still young, try avoid using complex language ie. medical terminology and examples that he or she cannot easily relate to, suggests Dr Paglia. Advertisement

'One of the things you can do, is ask them what they know. What you don't want to do is go "right, let's just equip you with all the statistics and all the information". Take it from their level.

Dr Paglia said: 'For children 10+ ask them what they know about it and if they have any questions.

ENCOURAGE THEM TO THINK CRITICALLY

Jonny Pelter, internet safety expert and founder of UK-based SimpleCyberLife.com, the internet safety community for parents, said it is important for parents to help children question the coronovirus information being shared on social media.

He said: 'The majority of children use social media sites and so parents should encourage their kids to think critically about the information they see online on the likes of Tik Tok, Facebook and Instagram.

'Misinformation is being spread about the virus and if there's anything that they see online that upsets or confuses them, parents should encourage children to communicate openly at home about it.'

If your child is a teenager

USE STATISTICS

Emma Kenny said: 'When you have a teenager, get real with them. Be authentic. Talk to them about the statistics and be honest about hygiene. We've got this massive coronaviris thrown at us in the press but the horror stories you read aren't translating into statistics.

'I think what we need is that honest conversation to say, "as long as you take care of your hygiene, as long as you recognise, that this isn't going to effect you because under 20, there has been one death in the world [of someone that young].

'You're talking about the older aged groups that's understandable, kids are going to be worried about their grandparents, that's [another] honest conversation to be having with them.
(Alliance News) - Cambria Africa PLC on Friday said its performance deteriorated sharply in 2019 amid currency changes in Zimbabwe.

The company, which owns investments in Zimbabwe, reported revenue for 2019 of USD5.0 million, down 47% from USD9.4 million it generated a year earlier, pushing pretax profit down by 40% to USD1.8 million from USD3.0 million.

Cambria Africa said its performance was hurt by the introduction of a local currency in Zimbabwe for the first time since 2009 to replace the US dollar. The new currency opened at ZWL2.5 per US dollar, with the current interbank rate at ZWL17.5 per US dollar.

In response, the company said it has adopted a defensive approach in the second half by reducing expenses, hedging its assets and cashflow and minimising its cost of capital.

As a result, Cambria Africa reported a 28% increase in net asset value per share to 1.36 US cents in 2019 from 1.06 US cents a year prior.

AIM-listed Cambria Africa shares were trading 27% higher in London on Friday at 0.40 pence each.

"As long as Zimbabwe is unable to allow market forces to determine optimal economic allocation, foreign direct investment will elude most sectors of the economy which are not export oriented. To the extent that we have cash resources outside of Zimbabwe, and assets which have a market value, we have our defences," said Chief Executive Samir Shasha.

By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Some of Britain's most historic sites, including the location of the Battle of Hastings, are being targeted by illegal metal detectorists.

This so-called 'nighthawking' is becoming an increasing problem for conservationists trying to preserve some of the country's most precious sites.

Other affected sites include Goodrich Castle, Old Sarum and Battle Abbey.

English Heritage is now calling for members of the public to report suspicious activity to the police to catch criminals 'robbing us of our past'.

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Some of Britain's most historic sites, including the location of the Battle of Hastings (pictured), are being targeted by illegal metal detectorists

Pictured, Battle Abbey, one of several sites targeted by illegal metal detectors, also known as nighthawks, as English Heritage has called for the public to be vigilant after an increase in incidents

The battlefield used in the Battle of Hastings in 1066 is among the locations, including medieval castles and Roman forts, which have been targeted by illegal detecting.

The conservation charity said that December was the worst month for reported incidents in more than four years.

It also claims the number of metal detecting activity on historical sites has doubled in 2019 compared to 2017.

Chief executive Kate Mavor said the charity was already working with police but needed the public's help to report any suspicious activity.

'Illegal metal detecting robs us of our past,' she said.

'Once items are spirited away they can never be replaced, and the evidence of those who went before us is lost forever.

'We are working closely with Historic England and local police services to combat this form of heritage crime.

'We are now asking the wider community to act as our 'eyes and ears' and to report any suspicious activity on or near English Heritage sites to the police.'

This so-called 'nighthawking' is becoming an increasing problem for conservationists trying to preserve some of the country's most precious sites. Some affected sites include Goodrich Castle, Old Sarum (pictured) and Battle Abbey

Goodrich Castle is one of the affected sites targeted by illegal metal dectectorists. English Heritage said that December was the worst month for reported incidents in more than four years. It also claims the number of metal detecting activity on historical sites has doubled in 2019 compared to 2017

Mark Harrison, head of crime strategy at Historic England, said: 'Illegal metal detecting is not a victimless crime.

'We may never see or fully understand the objects taken or damaged because they have been removed from their original sites with no care or record as to their history or context.'

The site of the Battle of Hastings in East Sussex and Goodrich Castle in Herefordshire were amongst the sites that have been targeted by 'nighthawks'.

Old Sarum in Wiltshire, the site of Salisbury's original cathedral, has also been attacked multiple times, and Wiltshire Constabulary have appealed for witnesses.

Most of the more-than-400 sites in the care of English Heritage are unstaffed and free to enter. The charity is reviewing its security arrangements.

Metal detecting has been a hobby for many since detectors first became available on the mass market in the 1970s.

English Heritage said that in 2019 there were 12 recorded incidents of illegal metal detecting at its sites, with four sites alone targeted in December.

It said that 'the sheer scale of the attacks, with up to 75 holes found to have been dug at each site' was of particular concern.
Death row convict Pawan Kumar Gupta has filed a curative petition before the Supreme Court four days before his scheduled execution along with three others in the Delhi gang rape and murder case. Guptas curative petition pleads his death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment.

Guptas curative petition is likely to cast a fresh shadow on the death warrant signed for execution of all the four convicts including Gupta on March 3. The convicts execution has already been deferred on two previous occasions due to the pendency of legal proceedings in the case.

Also Watch | Not Vinay, AP Singh is mentally unfit: Delhi gang-rape victims mother

Pawan Gupta was the only one out of the four convicts to have not exhausted all his legal remedies, despite a seven-day deadline granted by the Delhi High Court for the purpose. Gupta hadnt filed either a curative petition or a mercy petition till Friday and his counsel had argued that he wasnt aware of the time frame set for doing so.

Guptas petition comes at a time when Centre is seeking Supreme Courts approval for hanging the Delhi gang rape convicts separately in its challenge of a Delhi High Court order that ruled against it. Centre has accused the convicts of defeating the ends of justice by adopting delaying tactics.

The four convicts were first supposed to be hanged on January 22 but the execution of the death warrant had to be stayed. The second death warrant set the date of hanging as February 1 but had to be stayed, too, in light of mercy petitions and appeals by one or the other convict.

The Delhi High Court had ruled that the death warrant of all convicts in the case should be executed together and convicts cannot be hanged separately as the Delhi prison rules do not state whether when the mercy petition of one convict is pending, the execution of the other convicts in the same case can take place.

Finally when a seven-day deadline given to the convicts by Delhi High Court to utilize legal options lapsed, a fresh death warrant was issued on February 17 to hang all the four convicts  Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Thakur at 6 am on March 3.

All the convicts were sentenced to death by a Delhi court in 2013 after they were found guilty of brutally raping and murdering a 23-year-old paramedic student on a moving bus on December 16, 2012 in Delhi.
BOSTON, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund (NYSE: PDT) (the "Fund"), a closed-end fund managed by John Hancock Investment Management LLC and subadvised by Manulife Investment Management (US) LLC, announced today sources of its monthly distribution of $0.0975 per share paid to all shareholders of record as of February 13, 2020, pursuant to the Fund's managed distribution plan. This press release is issued as required by an exemptive order granted to the Fund by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Notification of Sources of Distribution

This notice provides shareholders of the John Hancock Premium Dividend Fund (NYSE: PDT) with important information concerning the distribution declared on February 3, 2020 and payable on February 28, 2020. No action is required on your part.

Distribution Period: February 2020

Distribution Amount Per Common Share: $0.0975

The following table sets forth the estimated sources of the current distribution, payable February 28, 2020, and the cumulative distributions paid this fiscal year to date from the following sources: net investment income; net realized short term capital gains; net realized long term capital gains; and return of capital or other capital source. All amounts are expressed on a per common share basis and as a percentage of the distribution amount















For the period 2/1/2020-2/29/2020

For the fiscal year-to-date period

11/1/2019-2/29/2020 1

















Source

Current

Distribution ($)

% Breakdown

of the Current

Distribution

Total Cumulative

Distributions ($)

% Breakdown

of the Total

Cumulative

Distributions Net Investment Income

0.0873

90%

0.3069

79% Net Realized Short-















Term Capital Gains

0.0000

0%

0.0331

8% Net Realized Long-















Term Capital Gains

0.0102

10%

0.0499

13% Return of Capital or















Other Capital Source

0.0000

0%

0.0000

0% Total per common share

0.0975

100%

0.3899

100%

















Average annual total return (in relation to NAV) for the 5 years ended on January 31, 2020

9.59%





Annualized current distribution rate expressed as a percentage of NAV as of January 31, 2020

7.21%





Cumulative total return (in relation to NAV) for the fiscal year through January 31, 2020

5.12%





Cumulative fiscal year-to-date distribution rate expressed as a percentage of NAV as of January 31, 2020

2.40%

______________________ 1 The Fund's current fiscal year began on November 1, 2019, and will end on October 31, 2020.

You should not draw any conclusions about the Fund's investment performance from the amount of this distribution or from the terms of the Fund's managed distribution plan.

The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this Notice are only estimates and are not being provided for tax reporting purposes. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the remainder of its fiscal year and may be subject to changes based on tax regulations. The Fund will send you a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes.

The Fund has declared the February 2020 distribution pursuant to the Fund's managed distribution plan (the "Plan"). Under the Plan, the Fund makes fixed monthly distributions in the amount of $0.0975 per share, which will continue to be paid monthly until further notice.

If you have questions or need additional information, please contact your financial professional or call the John Hancock Investment Management Closed-End Fund Information Line at 1-800-843-0090, Monday through Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time.

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined by the United States securities laws. You should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on forward-looking statements because they are subject to uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Fund's control and could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

An investor should consider a Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing.

About John Hancock Financial and Manulife Financial

John Hancock is a division of Manulife Financial Corporation, a leading international financial services group that helps people achieve their dreams and aspirations by putting customers' needs first and providing the right advice and solutions. We operate primarily as John Hancock in the United States and as Manulife elsewhere. We provide financial advice, insurance, and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups, and institutions. Assets under management and administration by Manulife and its subsidiaries were over CAD$1.2 trillion (US$881 billion) as of September 30, 2019. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as MFC on the TSX, NYSE, and PSE, and under 945 on the SEHK. Manulife can be found at manulife.com.

One of the largest life insurers in the United States, John Hancock supports approximately 10 million Americans with a broad range of financial products, including life insurance, annuities, investments, 401(k) plans, and education savings plans. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at johnhancock.com.

SOURCE John Hancock Investment Management
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 05:43:35|Editor: huaxia

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RAMALLAH, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of Palestinians were injured during clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers that broke out on Friday in different areas in the West Bank, medics said.

Around 134 Palestinians were injured by Israeli soldiers' gunfire, rubber bullets and tear gas in the clashes, mainly near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, said the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in a press statement.

Eyewitnesses said that demonstrators threw stones at Israeli soldiers in protest to earlier Israeli settlers' assaults on south and west of Nablus.

Similar clashes broke out in the village of Kafr Qaddum, near the city of Qalqilya, where Palestinian demonstrators burned tires and threw stones at the soldiers, according to local media reports.
This story was originally published by High Country News and has been republished here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Back in 2009, nearly 3 in 4 Americans believed climate change was real. In the runup to the 2008 presidential election, Sen. John McCain, a Republican, even had climate action as part of his election platform. After Barack Obamas election, however, Republicans changed their tune on the climate, to denialism. When the message changed, the number of those surveyed who believed global warming is happening plunged, from 71 percent in 2009 to around 57 percent the following year, according to surveys by the Yale Project on Climate Change. Anthony Leiserowitz, who directs the Yale program, told the Harvard Business Review recently that the drop was driven by political elite cues, which, he said, is just a fancy way of saying that when leaders lead, followers follow.

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That means we need good leaders, leaders who consider the consequences of their actions and rhetoric. Elon Musk, the billionaire businessman, is not that leader. But a look at his rhetoric can help separate big thinking from bad thinking. Musks two biggest ideaselectric vehicles and the settlement of Marsare underpinned with fallacies as specious as those of land speculator Charles Wilber, who claimed in 1881 that the arid West could be colonized because rain follows the plow.

Like many successful entrepreneurs, Musk espouses a jingoistic brand of Americanism.

Consider Musks electric vehicles. Musk regards technology as a kind of wonder, citing science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, who said, A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. But tech isnt magic; its material. And it requires material resources. A world full of electric vehicles (which, granted, would have some environmental benefits) would also demand a massive power grid, and that would require either burning more fossil fuels, building more nuclear facilities, or plastering open spaces with solar panels, wind turbines, and hydrodams. It would also require huge amounts of rare materials, aggressively mined at great cost to landscapes, wildlife, plants, and people.

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Tesla is currently being sued, along with Apple, Dell, Google, and Microsoft, for allegedly contributing to dangerous forced child labor in the cobalt mines of Congo. Musks massive battery factory east of Reno, Nevada, meanwhile, will use as much water as a small city. A recent USA Today investigation found a high rate of injury in the so-called Gigafactory, which has also strained Renos first responders, exacerbated a housing shortage and, ironically, clogged roads with traffic. Musk has suggested high-quality mobile homes as an answer, but so far, none have been built.

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Musk, who was born in South Africa in 1971 and arrived in California in 1995, made a fortune with digital endeavors, including the development of PayPal. Like many successful entrepreneurs, he espouses a jingoistic brand of Americanism. In explaining his desire to expand into space exploration, Musk expresses a deterministic view of American greatness that is deeply problematic. The United States, he told Caltech graduates in 2012, is a nation of explorers  [and] a distillation of the spirit of human exploration. This romantic view of imperialism echoes John OSullivan, the man who coined the term Manifest Destiny and who declared in 1839: The expansive future is our arena.  We are entering on its untrodden space, with the truths of God in our minds.  We are the nation of human progress, and who will, what can, set limits to our onward march? Providence is with us, and no earthly power can. Such thinking was used to justify the genocide of North American Indigenous peoples.

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Musks romantic worldview holds another assumption: that humans would be inherently better off as a multiplanet species, rather than a single-planet one. Thus colonization of other planets will help us in case this planet fails. I think things will most likely be OK for a long time on Earth, Musk told the Caltech graduates (a dubious claim in itself). But on the small chance that Earth wont be OK, he said, we should back up the biosphere and create planetary redundancy on Mars. Thats not great thinking. Consider the stellar wisdom of astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz, at a 2015 TED Talk: For anyone to tell you that Mars will be there to back up humanity is like the captain of the Titanic telling you that the real party is happening later on the lifeboats. There is no reason to assume a cosmic destiny toward expansion, just as there is no reason to assume that American colonialism is attributable to an inherent benign spirit.

Musks elite cues are misdirections. They may not be as despairingly cynical as the GOPs climate denialism, but they are dangerous nonetheless. Those of us concerned with the climate crisis need a vision of the future that admits the trouble humanity is in and understands the myth of progress. We need a vision that does not require magic vehicles or the settlement of inhospitable planets. We need to seek out and support leaders who point us in the right directionand that direction, I suspect, is earthbound.
Local businesses continue to feel the crunch as the spread of coronavirus from China reaches Canada. Health officials confirmed this Thursday a new patient testing positive for novel coronavirus in Ontario, a man in his 60s who is now in self-isolation.

The Star went to downtown Chinatown to talk to businesses about how they are dealing with the fallout:

Tony Nguyen Pho Hung restaurant 30% Decline in clientele 30% Decline in supply needs

Address: 350 Spadina Ave.

Comments: Nguyen said he was in business during the SARS outbreak, which he described as worse than now, because it was longer. Hes concerned the spread of coronavirus might linger and affect his business further. I hope we can survive. (As is the case during) any virus (outbreak), customers will maybe realize they are wrong and they will come back, he said.

Dali Sun Dumpling House Restaurant 50% Decline in all business $30,000 Loss of profits last month

Address: 328 Spadina Ave.

Comments: Sun sees a silver lining in half the clientele still loyal to him: some of the businesses nearby have lost nearly 90 per cent of their base during this crisis.

During SARS we didnt see anybody. At least now we are seeing a few, he said. Hes hoping to stay afloat and to continue to pay his 11 employees.

Stephen Li Ten Miles BBQ 80% Decline in business in last month $40,000 Estimated loss in revenue in last month

Address: 359 Spadina Ave.

Comments: Sitting in a nearly empty restaurant at lunch time on Thursday, Li said he recalls when the place would be at least half full earlier in the year. Weve been losing so much. Everyone is afraid to come out because of this coronavirus, he said. The restaurant has had to throw away expired supplies, which adds to the huge loss. Thats meat. Very expensive, he said. I wish it was over quickly.

Shan Lin Ding Dong Pastries 30% Decline in customers since the

coronavirus outbreak

Address: 321 Spadina Ave.

Comments: Lin said winter time is always slower for business, but its been so much worse because people hear the news and they are afraid to come, she said. She said the owners are concerned that the coronavirus could drag on for too long and force their business to close down completely.

Name: Jin Ma

Business: Gold Stone Noodle Restaurant

Address: 266 Spadina Ave.

Comments: Ma said business has been a little bit quiet for the past two months, but she believes its the tax period, and the usual slow months of February, March and April but not necessarily due to the fear of coronavirus. It was slow the first few weeks when coronavirus started, but its back to normal now, she said.
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Linkedin Jay Lehr and Tom Harris (The Jakarta Post) Ottawa  Sat, February 29 2020

For thousands of years, philosophers have wrung their hands because of fears about the supposed negative impacts of population growth on life as they knew it.

In the 5th century BC, Confucius argued that population increases would reduce the quality of life.

In ancient Greece both Plato and Aristotle maintained that a growing population was not sustainable for their resources.

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Istanbul (AFP) - The leaders of Russia and Turkey held crisis talks Friday after 33 Turkish soldiers died in an air strike in Syria, as Ankara ramped up pressure on Europe by threatening to flood in migrants.

The United States and United Nations urged an end to the Russian-backed Syrian offensive against rebel holdouts, but Turkey appeared intent on easing tensions with Moscow by pinning the blame squarely on President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The flare-up raised fresh concerns for civilians caught up in the escalation of the horrific eight-year civil war, with the UN saying nearly a million people -- half of them children -- have been displaced in the bitter cold by the fighting since December.

Thirty-three Turkish troops were killed late Thursday in the air strike in the northwestern province of Idlib, in the biggest single loss of life by the Turkish military in years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by telephone and looked to scale down tensions, with the Kremlin saying the two expressed "serious concern" about the situation.

"There is always room for dialogue," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

He said the two leaders spoke of "the necessity to do everything" to implement a 2018 ceasefire that has since collapsed between the two countries in Idlib.

Erdogan may travel next week to Moscow for talks, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Before the killing of troops, Erdogan spoke of a meeting with Putin on March 5 but said it would also include the leaders of France and Germany.

- US condemnation -

US President Donald Trump condemned the attack on Turkish troops in a call with Erdogan and again urged Russia and Syria to halt the Idlib operation, the White House said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the attack "despicable and brazen" and said the US was looking at ways to support Turkey, a NATO ally that has recently drifted from the West.

Story continues

A senior US official, while acknowledging that Turkey had blamed the Assad regime for the strike, said that Russia closely planned all operations with Syria.

"Russia is responsible for this offensive -- period," the official said in Washington on condition of anonymity.

The idea of the "pathetic, keelhauled, draftee Assad military forces fighting the Turks and some of the opposition forces... is laughable," he said.

Turkey said it retaliated by hitting more than 200 regime targets in drone and artillery bombardments.

The reprisals killed 45 Syrian soldiers in Idlib, according to a monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. There was no confirmation from the Syrian government.

Rebel and Turkish fire also killed 10 fighters from Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group backed by Iran that is supporting Assad, the Observatory said, adding that Russian strikes killed seven civilians.

Adding to the tensions, Moscow said two of its warships were transiting through the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul in plain sight of the city.

- Humanitarian crisis -

At emergency talks on Friday, Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council that Moscow was "ready to de-escalate with anyone who wants to" in Idlib.

The UN has repeatedly warned that the fighting in Idlib could potentially create the most serious humanitarian crisis since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world body was planning to send a humanitarian mission there.

Diplomats said the mission to Idlib could start next week and include representatives of major UN agencies.

"The most pressing need is an immediate ceasefire before the situation gets entirely out of control," Guterres told reporters.

But Russian vetoes, often backed by China, have chronically crippled UN action.

Turkey again called on the international community to establish a no-fly zone over Idlib, where Islamist fighters backed by Ankara pose the biggest obstacle to Assad seizing back control over all of Syria.

On Thursday, jihadists and Turkish-backed rebels had re-entered Saraqeb, a key Idlib crossroads town they had lost earlier in February -- reversing one of the main gains of the government's devastating offensive.

- Gates open to migrants -

Erdogan's communications director Fahrettin Altun accused Assad on Twitter of "conducting ethnic cleansing" to drive millions out of Idlib, but said Turkey does not have the resources to accept more refugees.

Turkey has already taken in around four million Syrians and is wary of more arrivals in the face of growing popular discontent about their presence.

In a move seen as putting pressure on the West, Turkey threatened to go back on a deal with the EU and open the way for refugees to go into Europe.

"We will no longer keep the doors closed for refugees who want to go to Europe," a Turkish official told AFP.

In response, both Bulgaria and Greece said they were tightening border security as groups of migrants moved westwards across Turkey.

Greek border guards blocked hundreds of migrants from entering the country at the Kastanies border crossing in the northeast of the country as army trucks loaded with barbed wire raced past.

The EU called on Ankara to uphold its side of the 2016 migrant pact, in which the Europeans offered six billion euros in exchange for Turkey stemming the flow of migrants who had triggered a major backlash in the country.

burs-sct/kaf
Cornerstone Specialty Hospitals Bellaire will shut its doors in April, laying off 126 employees.

In a letter Monday to the Texas Workforce Commission, the company said it would close its offices at 5314 Dashwood Drive on April 25. Cornerstone Healthcare Group is based in Dallas and provides long-term acute care, behavioral health, senior care and home health services.

The long-term care location in Bellaire opened with 32 beds in 2004, just months before the Bellaire Medical Center closed.

Cornerstone Healthcare Group acquired a 65-bed acute care unit within HCA Houston Healthcare Medical Center in November, creating what it called the future of patient-focused care.

Texas Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox

As of November, the long-term care group said it operated 18 specialty hospitals nationwide.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last month, Kindred Hospital announced it would close four of its Houston area-locations.

gwendolyn.wu@chron.com

Twitter: @gwendolynawu
Presentations at the 2020 APS March Meeting will cover the effects of mammalian brain size on connectivity networks, where the cerebellum gets its folds, and how the brain responds to music

Please Note: The 2020 American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting that was to be held in Denver, Colorado from March 2 through March 6 has been canceled. The decision was made late Saturday (February 29), out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest scientific data available regarding the transmission of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). See our official release on the cancelation for more details.

DENVER, COLO., FEBRUARY 28, 2020 -- Understanding the brain has been one of science's greatest challenges. Each discovery only seems to raise countless other questions about the inner workings of this incredibly complex organ. Brain research brings together disciplines like neuroscience, medicine, biochemistry, and even physics. At the 2020 American Physical Society March Meeting in Denver, scientists will present their latest research on the physics of the brain.

Mapping the Mammalian Connectome

University of Notre Dame researcher Zoltan Toroczkai will describe his work on mapping the physical connections between different areas of the brain. In particular, he is interested in which brain networks have been evolutionarily conserved across mammalian species, including our own.

"Our goal is to understand how the brain works, and for this, we need to understand how the brain is connected," said Toroczkai, a professor of physics, computer science, and engineering. "With this connectivity data, we want to look for any regularity in how the brain is wired."

Despite huge variations in the brain sizes of mammals, he and his collaborators have discovered that the organization of the brain follows a principle called the Exponential Distance Rule. It states that the wiring probability between two cortical areas decreases exponentially the further away they get from one another.

Shaping the Little Brain

Despite its small size, the human cerebellum--Latin for "little brain"--contains more neurons than the rest of the brain. It manages our body's muscle coordination and sense of balance. Like the cerebrum, it has two hemispheres, lobes that branch into smaller lobes, and intricate surface folds that form during the early stages of growth.

Jennifer Schwarz, a physicist at Syracuse University, investigates how the cerebellum gets its convoluted shape. She will report on a new "buckling without bending" model that predicts the formation of its intricate folds, lobes, and other morphological features.

Schwarz's model consists of a rigid core of cells surrounded by a fluid-like cortical layer of dividing cells. Shape change occurs as a result of mechanical constraints on the outer cortical layer as it continues to grow. The findings have possible implications for brain folding-related diseases, and additional applications for shape development in other parts of the body like the retina.

How Music Heals the Brain

Our brains respond to music in different ways. That may explain why music therapy works for some patients and not others, suggests new research by Rice University's Melia Bonomo, a PhD candidate in applied physics.

Bonomo and her colleagues scanned the brains of healthy people while they listened to their favorite song, familiar and unfamiliar music, and speech recordings. They found individual differences in whole-brain connection patterns and co-activation of regions responsible for autobiographical memory, prospection, and processing emotion.

As a next step, she wants to investigate whether these neural activity patterns could be used to find auditory stimuli that could successfully boost music therapy outcomes.

"In the short term, we're applying the results to a clinical trial that we've just started to test the mental health benefits of participating in a six-week creative music course for patients with mild cognitive impairment," she said.

###

Architectural Principles and Predictive Modeling of the Mammalian Connectome

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 3:18 PM, Wednesday, March 4, 2020, Room: 304

CONTACT: Zoltan Toroczkai, toro@nd.edu

Hierarchical "Buckling without Bending" and Brain Shape

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 1:27 PM, Friday, March 6, 2020, Room: 304

CONTACT: Jennifer Schwarz, jschwarz@physics.syr.edu

Modularity Allows Classification of Human Brain Networks during Music and Speech Perception

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 8:48 AM, Wednesday, March 4, 2020, Room: 304

CONTACT: Melia Bonomo, meb16@rice.edu

ABOUT THE MEETING

The American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting is a major international conference and the largest physics meeting of the year. In 2020, the APS March Meeting will convene from March 2-6 at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver.

Useful Links

Meeting website: https://march.aps.org/

Scientific program: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/MAR20/APS_epitome

Press services: https://march.aps.org/services/press/

Hotel & Travel information: https://march.aps.org/travel/

Press Registration

Complimentary registration is available to journalists for the express purpose of gathering and reporting news and information from the meeting. Staff reporters, freelance writers, and students are welcome to apply. Press credentials may be obtained by completing the form on this page: https://march.aps.org/services/press/. The deadline for press registration is Friday February 28th at 3:00 p.m. EST.

Press Conferences

All press conferences will take place in Room 608. If you are unable to attend, you may register to watch and ask questions online at https://webcast.apswebcasting.com/webcast/registration/a65e0a8e-38c6-4ccd-8eea-98696d213857

Press Room

A press room for registered journalists will operate throughout the meeting in Room 610/612 and will offer complimentary coffee, breakfast, and lunch. The press room may be reserved for conducting interviews.

Hours

Monday - Thursday, 7:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Friday, 7:30 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.

Please contact the APS Press Office with any questions at media@aps.org.

ABOUT APS

The American Physical Society is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its outstanding research journals, scientific meetings, and education, outreach, advocacy, and international activities. APS represents over 55,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and throughout the world. Society offices are located in College Park, Maryland (Headquarters), Ridge, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Following the discovery of a case of the fast-spreading Coronavirus disease, otherwise known as COVID-19, in Nigeria, some universities have been placed on red alert by their managements and government authorities respectively.

Nigerians woke up to the news of the first recorded case early on Friday, following confirmation from the Lagos State Government.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that an Italian national, who came into the country on Tuesday on a business trip, had tested positive at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, and taken to the Infectious Disease Hospital (IDH) in Yaba.

But in their responses to the latest development, officials of Lagos State, Osun State, as well as vice-chancellors of some universities have told PREMIUM TIMES measures being taken to avert the spread of the case.

The vice-chancellor of Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, Olanrewaju Fagbohun, said he had just instructed appropriate officials including his deputies and the director of the health services to step up the already existing campaigns and provide sanitisers across offices and classrooms.

He, however, noted that as much as the university is committed to putting necessary preventive measures in place, it would not like to create panic among the people.

He said; In fact, I just gave instructions this morning for director health services to have a meeting with the DVCs and registrar to alert staff and students on the preventive measures. We are also buying hand sanitisers, hand washing facilities for the offices and classrooms. We want to bring it to peoples consciousness, but also do not want to create a panic.

With our respective large population of staff and students, we must not leave anything to chance. Our director of health services will also be on LASU Radio this morning and afternoon.

In a similar development, Mr Fagbohuns counterpart at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Akoka, Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, said the existing sensitisation activities are already being strengthened as a precautionary measure.

Mr Ogundipe, who was in Abuja on Friday morning, said he was already on his way back to the university and that he would be meeting the institutions health officials at both the main campus and its medical school, to enhance the efforts.

Mr Ogundipe, whose universitys teaching hospital discovered the identified case in Nigeria, said the institution would benefit from the experiences of its capable hands.

The university is currently preparing for its 2020 convocation with a briefing scheduled to hold on Monday towards unveiling the activities.

Im just on my way back to the university, and I can assure you that we will join hands with appropriate authorities including government agencies and individual organisations to protect not only our campuses but the host communities, Mr Ogundipe said.

Also, the spokesman at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Kunle Akogun, said the university is on red alert and urges everyone to be careful and follow instructions aimed at protecting them.

In Lagos State, the immediate past public relations officer of the ministry of education, Kayode Sutton, said even before he handed over to the ministrys new spokesman on Wednesday, public places across the state had been placed on red alert.

Mr Sutton said the schools, in particular, have always been the first point of call for such campaigns, and that the awareness being carried out are simply for reintroduction of safety measures put in place during the Ebola crisis.

The commissioner for health in Osun State, Rafiu Isamotu, said his ministry in partnership with others have collaborated successfully to enlighten the public on the dangers posed by both Lassa fever, coronavirus and other communicable diseases.

He said the state has reactivated its first responder strategies, and that schools are well captured in their efforts.

Mr Isamotu said; Initially when I heard the Lagos suspected case tested negative I was very happy. But this news is a sad one.

However, we cannot fold our arms. As soon as I get to the office this morning there will still be a meeting with the commissioner for education, Mr Folorunsho Bamisayemi, among others, to further consider ways to strengthen our campaign in public places including schools.
Gardai believe a gun attack at a flat in north Dublin is linked to the bitter Coolock feud which claimed five lives last year.

The property is said to be linked to a notorious local criminal, aged in his 20s.

It is understood the shots were fired at the property in Cromcastle Court, Kilmore, at about 10.30pm on Wednesday, causing a window to be smashed.

Two innocent women in their 30s and 40s were in the flat when it was targeted.

No one was injured in the incident and gardai later attended the scene to carry out a technical examination of the area.

There have been no arrests so far in the case and sources say the presumed target is refusing to co-operate with the investigation.

"He is a big target for other criminals as part of the Coolock feud and this is not the first time that the property has been targeted by his rivals," a source said last night.

The man is very closely linked to a notorious jailed criminal, in his 30s, who is facing a firearms charge and is due to be tried in the Special Criminal Court later this year.

Enemies

A major garda alert was put in place when the criminal targeted in the latest attack was released from Dublin's Wheatfield Prison last August and specialist gardai have been closely watching his activities.

However, he is also being closely watched by many of his local gangland rivals, including those who are suspected of shooting up the flat this week.

He previously received a suspended jail sentence for attacking a taxi driver and has a number of previous convictions.

Wednesday night's attack is the most serious incident in the Coolock feud for weeks after a period of calm due to the fact that many of the main protagonists are in jail.

One of the man's biggest enemies is a criminal who has twice been arrested over foiled hits linked to the Coolock feud.

Last November, in a series of online rants that went viral, this criminal, in his 30s, made serious threats against his rival.

In the sinister online posts, he claimed he was driving around looking for the younger criminal and other named individuals and said he was parked outside houses at night.

He claimed he had 1,000 in cash and was filmed waving a wad of 50 notes in return for information about his rival's whereabouts or information about the cars they are using.

He also threatens to rape a man he claims made threats to him over the phone.

In the videos he bizarrely refers to rivals as "wet the beds" as he laughs hysterically in increasingly erratic clips.

"Anyone who gives them respect should hang themselves - they wouldn't kick snow off a rope," the convicted criminal says at one stage.
(Natural News) As the stock market tanked on new and expanding reports about what appears to be a growing Wuhan coronavirus outbreak in the United States, advisers to President Donald Trump urged him on Thursday to take more drastic measures in order to better prepare the country.

With a shortage of virus test kits, masks, respirators and other protective gear, Trump is being pressured to invoke the Defense Production Act, a law passed at the outset of the Korean War in 1950 to quickly ramp up production of military equipment and to prevent domestic industries from balking.

Reuters reported Thursday:

The use of the law, passed by Congress in 1950 at the outset of the Korean War, would mark an escalation of the administrations response to the outbreak. The virus first surfaced in China and has since spread to other countries including the United States.

U.S. health officials have told Americans to begin preparing for the spread of the virus in the United States.

Under the law, President Trump has the power to rapidly expand industrial production of important materials and products for national security and other reasons. The U.S. corporations that produce the most face masks include 3M Corp and Honeywell International Inc.

Earlier this week, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar told lawmakers that the U.S. would require a stockpile of some 300 million N95 face masks  devices that protect the respiratory system  for medical workers alone. Right now, Azar said, the U.S. only has a small fraction of masks currently available for immediate deployment and use.

Officials from HHS and the Department of Homeland Security said during an interagency conference call Wednesday that it is possible for President Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act so he can order the manufacture of personal protective equipment used to prevent spread of the virus, a DHS official told Reuters.

Protective equipment would also include body suits, masks and gloves.

Democrats are pouncing on Trump

Interestingly, Azar noted during a congressional hearing this week that China, which the U.S. has been trading tariffs with, controls a lot of the raw materials as well as the manufacturing capacity to make face masks  another reason why the president needs to rebalance trade with Beijing but which is obviously a much more long-term issue. (Related: SHOCK: Leaked documents reveal Wuhan coronavirus infections up to 52 times HIGHER than official Chinese figures.)

Very little of this stuff is apparently made in the (United) States, so if were down to domestic capability to produce, it could get tough, the DHS official told Reuters.

Reuters quoted an unnamed White House official who did confirm that the president was giving invocation of the law some serious thought in order to begin mass producing protective gear.

Lets say Company A makes a multitude of respiratory masks but they spend 80% of their assembly lines on masks that painters wear and only 20% on the N95, the White House official said. We will have the ability to tell corporations, No, you change your production line so it is now 80% of the N95 masks and 20% of the other.

It allows you to basically direct things happening that need to get done, the official added.

Still, on Thursday, as he said during his nationwide address Wednesday night, President Trump maintained that the risk of the virus spreading throughout the country to infect significant numbers of people remained very low.

He did add that federal officials are, nevertheless, preparing for a worst-case scenario, which makes sense because its only prudent to do so.

That said, several Democrats are already claiming that its too late.

As The National Sentinel reported, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters Wednesday she hoped there was still time to react.

Hopefully we can make up for the loss of timeand not be using scare tactics about people coming back to our country, she said, an apparent off-handed criticism of the presidents decision earlier to put a travel restriction in place on people coming from China.

Sources include:

TheNationalSentinel.com

Reuters.com
The top five candidates for Bismarck State College president will visit campus next week and participate in community forums.

Candidates will visit campus Monday through Thursday of next week to tour campus and also hold separate forums with students and employees.

The BSC Presidential Search Committee will hold public forums featuring each candidate in the Basin Electric Auditorium inside the BSC National Energy Center of Excellence.

Forty-one people applied to succeed college president Larry Skogen, who will retire on June 30. The BSC Presidential Search Committee interviewed 12 candidates by video last week and narrowed the field to five. After the visits, the search committee will name up to three finalists who will advance to interview with the North Dakota State Board of Higher Education. The board will name BSC's next president at its March 26 meeting.

Here are more details on the five candidates:

Richard Sax

Richard Sax is provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Rio Grande & Rio Grande Community College in Rio Grande, Ohio. He also has served as the academic vice president for Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, and the University of New Mexico-Valencia Campus in Los Lunas, New Mexico.

Sax also has held two academic dean positions.

He earned a bachelor of arts degree in English from Haverford College and master of arts and doctorate degrees in English language and literature from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Sax will visit BSC on Monday. The community open forum is at 3 p.m.

Clark Harris

Clark Harris recently served as vice president of academic affairs at Laramie County Community College in Wyoming, where he now serves as special assistant to the president.

Previously, Harris was the dean of technology at Mott Community College in Flint, Mich.

Harris attended Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kan., and transferred to Kansas State University where he earned his bachelor of science degree in agricultural education and a master of science degree in adult and occupational education. He earned a doctorate in practical arts and technical education, agricultural education, at the University of Missouri.

Harris will visit BSC on Monday. The community open forum is at 4 p.m.

Douglas Jensen

Douglas Jensen is president of Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., a position he's held since 2016.

Previously, Jensen was president for the Alabama Technology Network in the Alabama Community College System.

Jensen earned a doctorate of education from Edgewood College in Madison, Wis., and a master of science and bachelor of science degrees from Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pa. He earned an associate of science degree from Community College of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh, where he later worked for more than 15 years.

Jensen will visit BSC on Tuesday. The community open forum is at 8:15 a.m.

Philip Klein

Philip Klein is dean of the School of Health and Public Safety at South Piedmont Community College in North Carolina.

He started his higher education career as an adjunct professor while also employed as a career firefighter. In 2012, he created a paramedic education program at Chattahoochee Technical College. He has also worked as a dean and an associate vice president at Gwinnett Technical College, where he focused on workforce development.

Klein earned an associate degree in liberal arts from Nassau Community College, a bachelors degree in political science from Queens College, City University of New York, a masters degree in public administration from Kaplan University and a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Georgia.

Klein will visit BSC on Tuesday and Wednesday. The community open forum is at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

P. Joan Poor

P. Joan Poor joined Slack Farms Foundation Inc. this year as executive director. The foundation has an educational mission of preserving the rural legacy of small farms in America as financially sustainable businesses.

Prior to joining the foundation, she served for eight years as provost at universities in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, and for two years as a dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Bemidji State University in Minnesota.

Poor has a bachelor of science degree in agricultural economics and a master of natural resources management degree, both from the University of Manitoba, and a doctorate in natural resource and agricultural economics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Poor will visit BSC on Wednesday. The community open forum is at 3 p.m.

Additional information about the candidates is available at bismarckstate.edu/bscpresidentcandidates.

Reach Andy Tsubasa Field at 701-250-8264 or andy.field@bismarcktribune.com.

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The body of a devoted BBC radio Cornwall listener was found thanks to a newsreader who was worried because she hadn't made her weekly call to the station.

The woman, known to the broadcasting team as 'Clara from Bude', was a huge fan of the station and would ring at exactly 8.10am every Saturday and Sunday to talk to newsreader Joanna Twist.

Clara didn't have any family apart from a stepson in Australia, so Ms Twist and other presenters would give her advice and be on hand for a friendly chat.

But Ms Twist started getting concerned when Clara stopped calling and so contacted the police, who later found the woman's body.

Tragically, the newsreader and another colleague were the only two people to go to Clara's funeral besides her stepson and his wife.

The body of a devoted BBC radio Cornwall listener was found thanks to a newsreader who was worried because she hadn't made her weekly call to the station

Weekend morning presenter Donna Birrell wrote in a blog about the heartbreaking tale: 'For the last few years, a lady who we'll call "Clara from Bude" has been a regular listener.

'In fact, she used to send the weekend team 5 occasionally to buy biscuits - I know this is not allowed but when we protested she was upset and said that she couldn't get out to bring us biscuits herself and that it gave her pleasure to do it.

'Clara also called at 8.10am every single Saturday and Sunday to have a chat with Jo our newsreader.

The woman, known to the broadcasting team as 'Clara from Bude', was a huge fan of the station and would ring at exactly 8.10am every Saturday and Sunday to talk to newsreader Joanna Twist (pictured)

Weekend morning presenter Donna Birrell (pictured) revealed the sad tale in an article on her blog

'She told her we were like her family and that the only other family she had was a step-son and his wife in Australia.

'Jo used to give her advice if she was unwell or if she had had medical letters which she couldn't quite understand and Paul, our weatherman, used to give her personal forecasts.

'And so it went on, proper chats which obviously meant the world to Clara.'

And when Ms Twist went away, she told Clara that she would speak to her on her return.

But on her first weekend back, the woman did not call and a concerned Ms Twist tried to call her but did not get a reply.

Ms Birrell added in her blog: 'Because Clara had been such a regular feature of weekend mornings, Jo was very concerned at the lack of contact and on her day off on the Monday, she tried to call her again and when there was still no reply, she called the police and gave them Clara's address.

'Unfortunately the police discovered Clara's body on the floor of her home.'

Clara's body had lain undiscovered for ten days and if Jo had not called the police, it's thought she wouldn't have been discovered for some time.

The BBC Radio Cornwall team referred to the woman only as 'Clara from Bude'. Pictured: The seaside town in north-east Cornwall

Ms Birrell said: 'Jo and another colleague, Jack, attended Clara's funeral last week - they were the only people there apart from her stepson and his wife and the funeral directors.

'As Clara's body was lowered into the ground on a blustery hillside in north Cornwall, Jack played Dusty Springfield on his mobile phone - Dusty had often been requested by Clara.'

Ms Birrell said she had shared the heart-breaking story to demonstrate how 'absolutely vital' BBC Radio Cornwall and other local radio stations are as part of the communities they serve.

She added: 'It's easy to court listening figures and celebrity but it's just as important - if not more important - to connect with people behind those closed doors.'

Stephanie Marshall, head of the BBC in the West and South West, said: 'This is a truly sad story and I'd like to send deepest condolences to the family of Clara from everyone at BBC Radio Cornwall.

'I'm glad that the station had such a big impact on Clara's life, particularly in her later years which can be isolating for many.

'Our listeners have always been and will always be the most important part of our radio stations.

'This is a great example of the importance of BBC local radio stations to the communities they serve, and the unique value they offer to listeners.'
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA / ACCESSWIRE / February 27, 2020 / (CSE:WGC; OTCQB:WGMCF) Winston Gold Corp. ("Winston" or the "Company"), announced today that it has been requested by the OTC Markets Group, Inc. ("OTC Markets") to comment on recent promotional activity concerning its common shares.

On February 24, 2020, OTC Markets informed the Company that it had become aware of promotional literature encouraging investors to purchase the Company's common shares and making certain statements regarding the potential returns on such investment, including certain promotional newsletter emails. Specifically, OTC Markets sent the Company copies of three promotional newsletters (the "Communications") sent between February 23, 2020 and February 24, 2020, which were prepared by Gold Standard Media LLC ("Gold Standard"). The Company became aware of the promotional activities on February 23, 2020. The Company has been informed that this promotional activity coincided with higher than average trading volume in the Company's common shares.

The Company engaged Gold Standard on February 19, 2020, for a one-time ninety-day digital marketing campaign, which included the Communications, for a fee of USD$50,000. While the Company's CEO had provided previously publicly disclosed information about the Company to Gold Standard, and the Company's CEO and CFO reviewed certain drafts of two of the newsletters related to the Company's business and prospects, the Company had not reviewed or seen the final drafts of these newsletters prior to publication or distribution and was not aware that certain of the promotional statements were added to the materials reviewed by the Company. Furthermore, certain of the newsletters distributed as part of the paid campaign were not reviewed by any officers or directors of the Company. The Company did not have editorial control over the content of the final product.

The Company has no opinion as to whether or not and/or the extent to which the promotional activity affected trading activity because of the many factors that affect trading activity generally, which may include promotional activities as well as the volatile nature of the industry in which the Company is involved and the prior issuance of public news releases. The Company had previously issued over the preceding several weeks press releases regarding the announcement of a private placement of units for gross proceeds of up to CAD$3,000,000, and an update on the Winston Gold Project near Helena, Montana. The Company does not know the relative influence of these announcements on the trading activity of the Company's shares compared to the promotional activities in which the Company had little involvement.

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The Company has determined that one statement in the Communications which references that the Company "will generate around USD$66.76M in 2020" is materially inaccurate and the Company was not provided the opportunity to review the final draft of such newsletter prior to publication. In addition, the Company has determined that certain statements included in these newsletters related to the Company and its business might be read as misleading and/or incomplete and readers should not place undue reliance on these newsletters. Specifically, the Company does not condone the use of sensational language to describe the Company's business prospects or the growth potential of the Company's industry. Further, the Company does not condone any comparison between the investment potential of the Company's common shares and the actual price growth of the Company's competitors or any comparison between the Company's potential market cap growth and the actual growth of its competitors. The Company encourages investors to review the business and prospects of the Company on its own merits. The Company does not condone any statements made regarding the urgency of investing in the Company's common shares or any other similar statements. Finally, the Company notes that investing in the Company's securities involves certain risks and uncertainties which investors should review prior to making any investment decision. The Company encourages all investors to undertake proper due diligence and carefully consider all investment decisions. The Company directs potential investors to rely solely on its filings and disclosures made with Canadian securities regulators, available at www.sedar.com.

Outside of the paid promotional campaign by Gold Standard, disclosure of previously publicly disclosed information about the Company to Gold Standard, and a review of certain prior drafts of two of the newsletters produced by Gold Standard by the Company's CEO and CFO, to the Company's knowledge, after inquiry of its management, neither the Company, nor any of its officers, directors, controlling shareholders (shareholders owning 10 per cent or more of the Company's securities) or any third party service providers have been involved with the creation or distribution of the promotional materials related to the Company and its securities.

To the Company's knowledge, after inquiry of its management, neither the Company, nor any of its officers, directors, controlling shareholders (shareholders owning 10 per cent or more of the Company's securities) or any third party service providers have sold or purchased the Company's securities within the past 90 days.

In addition to the engagement of Gold Standard for the marketing campaign, the Company has engaged Robert Lucas, Venturebanc Inc., Emerging Markets Consulting LLC, Revelers.IO, David Duggan and Lake Group Media Inc. for business development, financial advisory, corporate consulting, social media and public relations purposes in the last twelve months.

Since listing on the Canadian Securities Exchange on March 22, 2016, the Company has issued the following common shares and convertible instruments allowing conversion to equity securities at prices constituting a discount to the current market rate at the time of the issuance:

August 3, 2016: 1,000,000 units at $0.10 per unit with each unit consisting of one Class A common share in the capital of the Company and one Class A common share purchase warrant. Each warrant entitled the holder to purchase one additional Class A common share at a price $0.20 per Class A common share on or before August 3, 2018.

September 28, 2016: 16,999,932 Class A common shares of the Company at $0.15 per Class A common share.

November 21, 2016: 5,968,750 Class A common shares of the Company at a price of $0.40 per Class A common share.

December 23, 2019: 6,547,750 units at $0.08 per unit with each unit consisting of one common share in the capital of the Company and one common share purchase warrant. Each warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share at a price of $0.20 per common share for a period of five years from the date of issuance.

About Winston Gold Corp.

Winston Gold is a junior mining company focused on advancing high-grade, low cost mining opportunities into production. Towards that end, the Company has acquired an underexplored and under-exploited gold/silver mining opportunity, being the Winston project near Helena, Montana.

Winston Media Contact:

Murray Nye

Chief Executive Officer

murray@winstongold.com

(204) 989 2434

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects," or "does not expect," "is expected," "anticipates" or "does not anticipate," "plans," "budget," "scheduled," "forecasts," "estimates," "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could," "would," "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to the business and operations of the Company. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; and the delay or failure to receive board, shareholder or regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Except as required by law, the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward- looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.

SOURCE: Winston Gold Corp.





View source version on accesswire.com:

https://www.accesswire.com/578275/Winston-Gold-Comments-on-Promotional-Activities




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Delhi riots: Police PRO MS Randhawa reported 630 arrests in 123 FIRs, while a doctor of GTB hospital said toll has raised to 42.

The situation in North East Delhis several areas continue to be tensed, but controlled, said reports. The number of people died in the riots shoot up to 42 on Friday, confirmed a medical officer of the GTB Hospital adding that 4 more people scumbbed.

The Delhi Police too shared the fresh numbers of people arrested in relation to the violence. Talking to the media, the Delhi Police PRO, MS Randhawa said around 630 accused have been arrested so far named 123 FIRs over violence, vandalization of public and private property and other crimes.

Delhi Police official further said senior officer would continue to be on ground to maintain peace and harmony. Situation is under control, things are normal, distress calls have drastically cut, said Randhawa.

Earlier today, Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed the media for the first since Sunday,when the violence broke out. He blamed the Opposition for disturbing the situation in Delhi by provoking people and riots against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Amit Shah said Congress, Mamata Banerjee, SP and BSP have been lying and misguiding people over the CAA.

Replying to the Opposition allegations, Shah said CAA wont take away the civil rights of anyone. Why Opposition is lying and confusing people, asked Home Minister.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government has set up 9 shelter homes for the riot affected people. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced Rs 1 crore aide to Head Constable Ratan Lals family and a government job, free medical treatment to the injured and has started distributing Rs 25,000 in cash compensation to the people whose houses were set on fire.

For all the latest National News, download NewsX App
Aly Song/Reuters

HONG KONGChinas President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping has been eager to cast himself as the driving force behind the countrys efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it brings.

Yet its clear, as new epicenters have emerged in South Korea, Iran, Italy, and Japan, that China has failed to contain the disease whose existence it was reluctant to acknowledge in the first place.

Iran Cant Hide Its Coronavirus Explosion, But Its Trying Hardand Putting the World in Danger

The World Health Organization has backed up Xi, heaping praise on him that goes beyond normal diplomatic language. Earlier this month, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that Xi embodies the political commitment and political leadership required to weather this crisis. (Note that China's financial contributions to the WHO are second only to the United States.)

In the same obsequious vein, the WHO has refused to define the outbreak with the scary word pandemic. Instead, the health organizations officials say the world should be in a phase of preparedness for such a thing.

But the Chinese Communist Party has not been prepared, and its command structure is in disarray.

To project the image of centralized order, Xi spoke to 170,000 officials via teleconference on Sunday, outlining a grand plan in Chinas war to combat COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.

Repeatedly, Chinese officials have made hash out of critical steps to prevent the sickness spread, because by the time they realize people are falling ill, its often on a scale that reflects their lack of preparedness, and party cadres fear that this may lead to reprisals from their superiors. CCP administrators are trained to enforce party diktats, not to handle rapidly evolving emergencies.

Meanwhile the coronavirus has paralyzed the Chinese economy, sending shockwaves around the world. Markets are tanking. Workers in many countries are being placed on unpaid leave or even losing their jobs.

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Although Chinas top epidemiologist, Zhong Nanshan, says that the outbreak will be brought under control by the end of April, experts on the other side of the globe have offered a very different view: the virus may infect 40 to 70 percent of people around the world in the next 12 months, according to Harvard epidemiology professor Marc Lipsitch, quoted in The Atlantic. And while most people will recover or may not even exhibit symptoms, the elderly or individuals with existing health problems may face life-threatening situations.

That's particularly worrisome in China, where a sense of self-preservation within the party structure overrides preventive measures, emergency responses, and common sense.

A group of officials in Wuhanthe city that is the heart of the COVID-19 epidemicsaid that visitors trapped in the city would be able to leave last Monday, Feb. 24, only to have their notice revoked three hours later.

The Russian Models Instagramming From Chinas Coronavirus Capital

People in Wuhan, mostly confined to their homes for more than a month now, asked: Whos calling the shots? Why arent officials communicating with each other? And if the party and the government cant figure out what to do next, where does that leave everyone?

The retraction included statements like Wuhan resolutely adheres to the spirit of Chinese President Xi and the city strictly controls every exit from Wuhan and the management of personnel.

So when a woman from the locked-down city somehow made her way to Beijing on Feb. 22, only to be diagnosed with COVID-19, there was confusion in the capital. (The woman is considered to be a mild case and has been placed under isolation and observation for 14 days.)

Party cadres have been overwhelmingly concerned about managing the Chinese governments image, prioritizing propaganda over public well-being at critical junctures.

On Wednesday, Caixin, a Chinese publication that has been conducting deep investigations about the outbreaks early days in Wuhan, revealed new information about how CCP gag work played a part in the virus spread by limiting public knowledge.

Caixin reported that on Dec. 24, a virus sample taken from one of the first wave of patients was sent to a lab for genome sequencing. Results were ready three days later, but then health officials in Hubei ordered the samples destroyed on Jan. 1. Soon after, on Jan. 3, the National Health Commission centralized all tests related to the coronavirus, in turn limiting the number of confirmations that were reported each day.

Unsurprisingly, that article has been taken off line, although screenshots of the text have been uploaded to Github.

There have been more cover-ups by public officials in China.

The warden of a prison in Jining, a city in northeastern China, is responsible for the virus spreading under his jurisdiction. The wardens son traveled from Wuhan to Jining and infected him. He then carried the virus into the prison that he oversees. Soon after, at least seven guards and 207 prisoners became ill. The warden attempted to keep things quiet, so he hired 50 villagers to build an isolation ward. But news spread, and only then did he report the matter to his superiors and seek proper medical assistance for the prisoners.

Elsewhere in the country, clustered infections emerged in other prisons230 in a womens prison in Wuhan, 41 at another facility within the same province, and 34 at a penitentiary in Zhejiang province on the eastern coast.

Just two weeks ago, Chinas National Health Commission was confirming thousands of new infections each day, but these were figures that health professionals around the world and doctors in China believe to be significantly lower than reality. Now, the daily addition is down to a few hundred, with dozens added to the official death toll each morning.

The commission said that more than 3,000 doctors, nurses, and medical technicians have been infected with the virus, and at least nine have died.

Globally, the coronavirus has killed more than 2,800 people.

For now, little is known about the physical nature of the virusexactly how it spreads, how quickly, and which conditions are ideal for cross-infection. People in China are referencing the timeline for the SARS outbreak in 2002 to 2003, when infection numbers in East Asia took a nosedive as soon as the weather warmed.

But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is less certain that spring and summer climates are a mitigating factor: At this time, it is not known whether the spread of COVID-19 will decrease when weather becomes warmer. There is much more to learn about the transmissibility, severity, and other features associated with COVID-19 and investigations are ongoing.

Previously, the virus incubation period was thought to be two weeks, but new cases suggest that it may be up to a month. What is known is that the virus is highly transmissible. As it finds new hosts outside of China, were increasingly seeing cases where patients have no direct link to China or other infected individuals.

As we teeter toward a global pandemic, the coronavirus outbreak has shown us that no country in the world is prepared for a health crisis of this scale. Medical experts in the U.S. have warned that Americans should be ready to see a swell in the virus footprint in the country, where thousands already are being monitored for possible infection. Testing kits are in short supply, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said any vaccine for the coronavirus should be affordablenot free for the public.

President Donald Trumps reactions to the situation have been even more discouraging. He offered assuranceif it can be called suchthat theres a very good chance youre not going to die. He appointed science rejector Mike Pence to oversee the governments response, and is ignoring warnings from the CDC, much as the the Chinese Communist Party scorned early warnings by doctors in China.

New infection numbers may be tapering in the Peoples Republic, but there are still more than 40,000 patients in hospitals receiving treatment for COVID-19. Many more are stuck at home, toughing it out on their own. The virus is only beginning to pick up speed as it spreads around the globe. This outbreak is far from over, and were still weeks or months away from life returning to normal.

Take Hong Kong as an example, where there are only 93 confirmed infections, and where two people have died from COVID-19. Many businesses have rotating work-from-home arrangements to limit the number of people who are in offices at the same time. Schools are closed until April 20, with possible extensions. Apartments in nearly 5,900 residential buildings are undergoing two-week quarantines because of residents or visitors who have arrived from mainland China, including the building I am in as I write this.

While Xi issues decrees in Beijing, officials around China are scrambling to keep up with the disease, at times in ways that are jeopardizing public safety. Chinese state-run media have said the partys sacrifices are keeping the world safe, but the spin is convincing no one.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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After the Jammu and Kashmir government on Friday issued show-cause notices to almost 100 illegal occupants of apartments in Kashmiri migrant neighbourhoods in Jammu, a senior official said an exercise was underway to evict such people and accommodate genuine Kashmiri Pandit migrants instead in the government-built flats.

We have issued a notification after we found that 93 flats have been occupied in violation of norms. Its a beginning and we are trying to do thing as per the law. These flats are locked out since long, relief commissioner (migrants) TK Bhat said.

More than 300 applications are pending with the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (Migrants) for allotment of accommodation to registered Kashmiri migrant families, Bhat said.

During an extensive exercise undertaken by the officers of relief organization, it emerged that 93 flats in Kashmiri migrants colonies and camps at Muthi, Nagrota, Purkhoo and mini township Jagti have been found to be illegally occupied by the people who have not been allotted these flats, he added.

Consequently, show cause notices have been served to such illegal occupants, who have been asked to submit their response in writing, citing justifiable reasons as to why their allotments should not be cancelled and the flats taken over by the relief organization. The occupants have been asked to respond to the notices by March 10.

The migrants are Hindu Pandits who fled the Kashmir valley after the outbreak of separatist violence in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Only genuine Kashmiri Pandit families displaced due to terrorism from Kashmir should get these flats. There are many Pandit families who are dependent on cash relief for their sustenance and live in rented accommodation, Shadi Lal Pandita, president of the Jagti Tenement committee in Nagrota, said.

Pandita said the people who had been allotted the flats do not live in them. Some of them have moved to Delhi, Benguluru and other cities. Some of them have gone abroad. They have constructed their own houses and are living in them but at the same time there are migrants living in rented accommodations and sustaining their lives on government relief. They are the deserving cases but are suffering. Genuine cases should be given the accommodation and not those having constructed their own houses, he added.

Pandita also said that besides the 93 flats under illegal occupation, there were more than 100 other flats where people, after allotment, never moved in.

In the past seven years I didnt see anyone in those flats. None came to live in them, he added.

Pandita said migrant families that were initially allotted two-room flats comprising a room, a small lobby, a kitchen and a wash room, have also grown in size to eight to 12 members.

It would be appropriate if the government allots those illegally occupied flats and the ones that were never used, to such deserving families. These are the families having old and ailing members and some among them are battling cancer, added Pandita.

Jagti Satellite Township constructed by the United Progressive Alliance government for Kashimiri Pandit migrants has 4,226 flats

In September last year, the government ordered a reverification of the quarters allotted to Kashmiri Pandit families living in various camps at Nagrota, Muthi, Purkhoo and Jagti. The step was taken after more than 200 flats were found locked for years together in Jagti.

There were also allegations that guidelines issued by state government in 2013 for allotment of flats had been violated. The entire exercise was initiated in 2018 after inhabitants of such camps demanded a high-level probe to nail officials who had denied flats to deserving families and favoured people with political links.
Mukesh Ambani expressed optimism for the Indian economy over the next decade and said this was a golden opportunity for business leaders to collectively drive India to consistently being among the worlds top three economies.

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries was recognised as the Iconic Business Leader of the Decade at the Indian Business Leader Awards (IBLA) held in Mumbai on Friday.

Late Arun Jaitley enters the hall of fame at #CNBCTV18IBLA. An emotional moment for his wife Sangeeta Jaitley, FM Nirmala Sitharaman & RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das #LeadersOfChange pic.twitter.com/ezLxbTnLzI  CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 28, 2020

Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) won the Outstanding Business Leader of the Year in the 15th edition of the 'India Business Leader Awards' in Mumbai on Friday. TCS also bagged the iconic company of the decade award.

Former Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was posthumously given the Hall of Fame award for his contribution to the Indian economy.

The IBLA, hosted by India's Number 1 business channel CNBC-TV18, was presented to the RIL Chairman by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray at a glittering ceremony in Indias financial capital.

The CNBC-TV18 India Business Leader Awards (IBLA) is given to high-achievers, outstanding leaders and visionaries of corporate India who demonstrate exemplary achievements in their respective fields.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh and Managing Director of Mahindra and Mahindra Pawan Goenka were the distinguished guests at the award function.

Thanking the jury, Ambani said he was only accepting the award on behalf of the young leaders of the company, and mentioned the roles of his children, Akash and Isha Ambani in taking the company forward.

If you have followed Reliance over the last four decades, we started as a textile company and transformed ourselves as a petrochemical company, since then transformed ourselves as a refining and energy company. In the last decade, we have built a world-scale retail and consumer tech business, he said.

Ambani, under whom the Reliance group emerged as Indias largest company, dedicated the award to his father and company founder Dhirubhai Ambani, as well as the young leaders who, he said, have transformed the business in the last decade.

He expressed optimism for the Indian economy over the next decade and said this was a golden opportunity for business leaders to collectively drive India to consistently being among the worlds top three economies.

I am very, very optimistic, Ambani told an audience that consisted of some of the most outstanding leaders and true visionaries of corporate India, and termed the current economic slowdown as temporary pains.

Ambani said that for him, the only iconic leader was his father Dhirubhai and he had taught him that we have to dream big for Reliance and even bigger for India.

Chaired by Aditya Puri, managing director of HDFC Bank, an eminent jury selected winners from a compelling list of nominees.

List of IBLA-2020 winners Categories Winners Outstanding Business Leader of the Year Rajesh Gopinathan Outstanding Company of the Year HDFC Bank Most Promising Company of the Year Vinati Organics Young Turk of the Year Rivigo Young Turks Start-up of the Year Meesho Lifetime Achievement Deepak Parekh The Disruptors UPI State of the Year Maharashtra Brand Campaign of the Year Fevicol Iconic Company of the decade Tata Consultancy Services Iconic Business Leader of the decade Mukesh Ambani Global Indian business icon Satya Nadella Iconic Sports Leader of the decade P Gopichand Iconic Entertainment Leader of the decade Karan Johar Hall of Fame Late Arun Jaitley Special Jury Mention Nykaa.com

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was honoured with the 'Global Indian Business Icon'. He was not present on the occasion.

NPCI, the unified payments interface, won The Disruptors award for disrupting fintech and making digital payments easy and accessible for millions of Indians.

HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh was given the lifetime achievement award.

Maharashtra won the state of the year award and state industries minister Subhash Desai received the honour from Sitharaman.

(Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd which publishes Firstpost)
JACKSON, Miss., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EastGroup Properties, Inc. (NYSE: EGP) announced today that Marshall Loeb, President and CEO, will present at the Citi 2020 Global Property CEO Conference on Monday, March 2, 2020 at 7:30 a.m. EST.

EastGroup Properties, Inc., an S&P MidCap 400 company, is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust focused on the development, acquisition and operation of industrial properties in major Sunbelt markets throughout the United States with an emphasis in the states of Florida, Texas, Arizona, California and North Carolina. The Company's goal is to maximize shareholder value by being a leading provider in its markets of functional, flexible and quality business distribution space for location sensitive customers (primarily in the 15,000 to 70,000 square foot range). The Company's strategy for growth is based on ownership of premier distribution facilities generally clustered near major transportation features in supply-constrained submarkets. EastGroup's portfolio, including development projects and value-add acquisitions in lease-up and under construction, currently includes approximately 45.6 million square feet.

EastGroup Properties, Inc. press releases are available at www.eastgroup.net .

SOURCE EastGroup Properties

Related Links

http://www.eastgroup.net


A female prison officer at the Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre was attacked and dragged across the floor by two teenage inmates trying to use her swipe card to escape.

The male inmates distracted a male officer in the Intensive Supervision Unit by asking him for cornflakes before attempting to grab the female guard's lanyard at about 4pm on Friday, according to a source with knowledge of the incident.

Malmsbury Youth Justice Centre Credit:Paul Jeffers

They allegedly dragged the woman to the door with the swipe card still around her neck until the Security and Emergency Response Team ended the escape plan.

The source said the officer was shaken but physically unharmed. Ambulance Victoria confirmed she was taken to hospital for observation.
In retrospect, it was the beginning of the beginning of the end: a sunset shoot that Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey arrived to do on a Malibu beach, in the year 2000.

The storied Herb Ritts was on the other end of the lens, and it being for the first issue of Teen Vogue, and the not-yet-married duo was in the throes of young love, as Simpson, in her just-out memoir, recalls the scene: I wore J.Crew jeans and a baggy cream sweater from DKNY Jeans. Nick was in a Banana Republic sweater and Dockers khakis. Mall clothes people could see themselves in. I held the sleeves in my fists just like, well, a real girl on a date with her cute boyfriend.

Fast-forwarding to the publication  Pops New Princess, screamed the headline, with a smaller line underneath that read & Nick Too  the A Star is Born archetype would play out in even more pronounced terms three years later, when Rolling Stone would come calling. That time, they only wanted Jessica on the cover, and it was she who had to break the news to her then-husband.

Just one of the moments in Simpsons all-new book named, well, Open Book, which to my mind is not only the celebrity memoir of the year but one you can put on the shelf near other home-runs of the genre (autobiographies by Tina Turner, Lauren Bacall, Rob Lowe, Carrie Fisher, etc., come to mind). Took me a bit by surprise, if I am being honest, since Simpsons interior life turns out to be far more complex than her persona as a less-than-Mensa blond.

The book covers it ALL, and in a totally engaging way from the perspective of the onetime preachers daughter navigating fame and meaning. See: abuse, alcoholism, body dysmorphia, family, marriage, and motherhood, as well as the billion-dollar fashion mogul that Simpson has become along the way.

Another thing I learned along the way, reading the 400-page book, especially the fascinating business stuff: if you wait long enough, everything becomes Old Hollywood. Jessicas rise coincided, of course, with that of the Britneys and the Christinas  a time which isnt so long ago, but reads now like a period piece, since it was all pre-social media, and during the very nascence of reality TV. Speaking as an insatiable star-watcher, whose own foray into writing about celebrities began in that early-aughts era, I remember being only perfunctorily interested in her. Back then, I followed her because it was work. Back then, my nose pointed back toward gauzier eras of stardom (yes, I was the kid who read memoirs about Marilyn Monroe, and the Kennedys, for kicks).

But here, painting the picture that Simpson does, the arithmetic is clear: time plus storytelling has a way of creating nostalgia anew.

In umpteen ways, her status as the Amelia Earhart of reality TV (if you will) reverberates, like when she writes about the disorientation of going home to Texas for Christmas with cameras from Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica in tow, and being forced to act like everything was fine, even as her marriage was already crumbling.

Nowadays, I see so many people performing their identities on social media, but I feel like I was a guinea pig for that, Simpson writes. How was I supposed to live a real, healthy life filtered through the lens of a reality show? If my personal life was my work, and my work required me to play a certain role, who even was I anymore?

Just the sort of passage that oughta send shivers down the spines of influencers galore  or anyone, given the ways so many take a performative (and curated) approach to their lives via Instagram, etc. these days.

Among the many other intriguing glimpses behind the curtain? Simpson on the romantic detours she makes after her high-profile divorce, during which time she dipped into the celebrity dating pool  a singular process she likens to Jane Goodall studying the mating habits of Hollywoods celebrity bachelors. She continues: I would meet guys in clubs, or their people would call my people. The shared fame meant they would rent cars, or meet on private planes  all intensely glamorous and completely secret. And easy. There was a shorthand to dating while famous. If he was a star, he was not a stranger, because we already knew everything about each other. What landmines to avoid in conversation.

Meanwhile, a lengthy way into her detailing of her on-off, make-up-to-break-up romance with John Mayer, comes one of the most candid (slash scathing) things I have read from one celebrity speaking about another. He was stringing her along, while pulling all the tricks out of the Dirty John manual, even letting it slip that he was using her for material for songs. Yikes. Looking at it now, Simpson clearheadedly poses the question: Did he repeatedly stab me in the heart, or did I just keep running into the knife he aimed at me?

While Simpson is particularly brave in talking about her battle with alcoholism as a young mother, the point of the book, as a writer in Jezebel summed it up aptly recently, isnt to garner sympathy  Simpson doesnt explicitly claim to feel disenfranchised by a tabloid landscape obsessed with her appearance and ditzy-ness  Open Book merely retells a life story with multiplex detail, by a celebrity many assumed would never be so brazen  though it is a memoir, theres no redemption arc, save for her sobriety and discovery of self-acceptance  mostly because she maintains the endearing naivete that drew so many to her instead of Britney or Christina in the first place.

In the waning pages of the book, Simpson puts the surrealism of her life (so far) into sharpest focus when she describes taking her kids to Disney World. Approached by a middle-aged woman, poolside at the hotel, as her kids looked on from the water, the woman seemed frantic, and dying for a photo. Oh my god, Britney Spears, she yelled, I love you so much.
A state court Friday resurrected a sexual discrimination lawsuit against a Pennsylvania borough by two female employees who claim they were short-changed on raises after complaining that a councilman was touching them.

The decision by the Commonwealth Court panel thrusts the case against Sykesville back into Jefferson County Court to consider whether Karen Deter and Diane Gresock have provided enough evidence to take it to a jury.

Gresock, the boroughs former secretary-treasurer, and Deter, her assistant, appealed to the state court after a county judge approved Sykesvilles request to dismiss the suit last year.

Judge Anne E. Covey wrote in the Commonwealth Court decision that the women claimed they received lower raises for 2016 because they are female and that their job duties were changed in retaliation for their reporting the touching by a councilman.

The two contended the councilman was touching their arms and backs when he periodically came to the office, Covey noted. They said they complained to a councilwoman.

Deter and Gresock claimed their report resulted in their getting lesser raises than male borough workers for 2016. Subsequent unfavorable changes to their job duties also were made in reaction to their complaint about the supposed touching, the women contend. They filed suit after resigning from their borough posts.

Covey agreed with county Judge John H. Foradora that Gresock and Deter didnt provide basic evidence that the councils raise decisions amounted to sexual discrimination. The women and their male co-workers did far different jobs, including physically laboring on the streets and the sewer and water systems, the state judge noted.

She disagreed with Foradoras finding that Gresock and Deter didnt show that other council members knew about their sexual harassment report before the raises were issued and their job changes were approved.

That is still an issue to be addressed in county court, Covey found because the councilwoman who received the sexual harassment report testified that she did tell her council colleagues about it in 2015, although other council members testified they didnt know about that report until February 2016.

Although the February 2016 date was after the contested raises were issued, the supposed retaliatory job changes the women cite in their suit continued through March 2016, when they resigned, Covey noted.

She told Foradora he must now determine whether borough officials had valid, nondiscriminatory reasons for how they treated the women or if those stated reasons were merely a pretext for retaliation.
President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday rued the lesser number of women in the area of science and technology and said they comprise only 15 per cent of the workforce in research and development.

He also launched three new initiatives for gender advancement and equality in the academic, and research and development institutions of the country.

Kovind recalled how women scientists played a critical role in the Indian Space Research Organisation's Mars orbiter mission Mangalyaan and Moon Mission Chandrayaan 2.

The president said during his visit to Sriharikota for Chandrayaan-2's launch last year, he came across a woman scientist so dedicated to the project that she left her six-month-old son with her parents and joined the mission.

"Despite the presence of such highly motivated women scientists, India's R&D workforce has less than 15 per cent women, compared to the global average of 30 per cent, according to a National Task Force report," Kovind said while addressing a gathering of scientists on the occasion of National Science Day.

"Numbers are no different in science and technology teaching institutions. Only a small percentage of women who study science go on to make a successful career and contribute to this field," he said.

Kovind said in order to encourage women to take to higher studies in science, he had substantially enhanced the representation of women in central universities.

National Science Day marks the discovery of the 'Raman Effect' by physicist C V Raman on this day in 1928.

The president said it was essential to empower women for development of any country.

The Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions (GATI), an online portal for S&T resources for women and 'Vigyan Jyoti' were among the initiatives launched by the president for increasing the percentage of women in the area of science and technology.

GATI will assess the progress made by participating institutions in gender advancement based on well-defined parameters, while the online portal will provide information on government schemes, scholarships, fellowships, career counselling and details of subject area experts from various disciplines.

'Vigyan Jyoti' is aimed at creating a level playing field for the meritorious girls in high schools to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics in higher

Kovind said it is through science and technology that challenges of the environment, healthcare, energy for equitable economic growth, food and water security, and communication can be effectively addressed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Missouri Senators Bill Aims to Secure Coronavirus Medical Supply Chain

As concerns mount over the spread of the coronavirus and the availability of medical supplies, should the threat of infection increase, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is introducing legislation to help guarantee the United States medical product supply chain is functioning well.

The Medical Supply Chain Security Act comes behind reports by news outlets of a potential drug shortage due to the effect of the coronavirus on Chinese drug manufacturers.

In a press statement Thursday, Senator Hawley said, The coronavirus outbreak in China has highlighted severe and longstanding weaknesses in our medical supply chain. This is more than unfortunate; its a danger to public health.

Our health officials need to know the extent of our reliance on Chinese production so they can take all necessary action to protect Americans. This legislation will give us the information we need to better secure our supply chain and ensure that Americans have uninterrupted access to life-saving drugs and medical devices, Hawley continued.

Hawley and other lawmakers wrote to the Food and Drug Administration trying to find out if there is or will be a shortage of drugs and other medical supplies needed in the event of a wide-spread infection.

On February 23, Axios reported that the recent outbreak of novel coronavirus threatens the domestic supply of some 150 pharmaceutical drugs, including antibiotics, generics, and branded drugs. Some of these drugs do not have alternatives in the market. This follows reports of wide-spread shortages of surgical masks and other personal protective equipment.

Currently, public health officials are not able to accurately measure and assess the vulnerability of our medical supply chain.

Hawleys bill will give the FDA the authority to require that manufacturers of medical devices notify the FDA when they become aware of circumstances that may lead to the shortage of an essential medical device.

With mandatory reporting in place, the FDA will be able to better assess if there are weaknesses to the U.S.s medical supply chain.

Drug and medical device manufacturers would be obligated to provide the FDA with an annual report about their manufacturing capacity, as well.

If his legislation became law, manufacturers would have to disclose details about all locations of production, the sourcing of all component parts, the sourcing of any active pharmaceutical ingredients, and the use of any scarce raw materials.

They would also be subject to FDA requests for any supply chain information that the agency needs to ensure the manufacturing of adequate numbers of medical supplies.

This legislation will give us the information we need to better secure our supply chain and ensure that Americans have uninterrupted access to life-saving drugs and medical devices, he said.

In a January letter, Hawley wrote to the FDA, recommending that they restrict all travel from China and asked for an outline of the agencys strategy implementing these types of restrictions.

The Missouri Senator urged public health officials to take all necessary action to protect Americans.

According to the CDCs website, as of Feb. 26, there were 445 people tested for the virus, and 14 confirmed cases in the United States. Globally, 38 countries have reported cases of coronavirus infections.
A jealous husband carried out a fierce revenge attack on his wife by smashing into her BMW before throwing her down the stairs when he discovered texts from a mystery man.

Michael Wraeg-Cardew, from Bramhall, Greater Manchester, carried out the assault on wife Carly after he grabbed her phone and discovered a series of exchanges with a contact listed as Mister Mister.

In a fury he took the phone to confirm his suspicion that she was having an affair.

Mrs Wraeg-Cardew, a 35-year-old senior university lecturer in fashion realised it was missing and knew he 'wouldn't like' what he found

She pursued her husband in her BMW 5 Series, only for him to furiously reverse into her twice.

Michael Wraeg-Cardew (right) carried out the attack on wife Carly (left) after he grabbed her phone while it was charging and discovered a series of exchanges with a contact listed as Mister Mister

As she pulled up alongside his vehicle Mr Wraeg-Cardew angrily wound down his car window and shouted: 'Who is this Mister Mister?'

He then rang the mystery number on his wife's device and shouted 'I'm coming for you' before reversing twice into Mrs Wraeg-Cardew's car as she tried to drive away.

The 36-year-old father-of-one followed his wife home where he repeatedly kicked her vehicle, chased her into the house and pinned her arms to her sides.

He then dragged her down a flight of stairs before locking her out of the property.

Mrs Wraeg-Cardew, who is course leader for an International Fashion Promotion BA degree at Manchester Metropolitan University, suffered bruising during the attack and her car was written off after sustaining 7,138 worth of damage.

The court heard that the confrontation took place at around 10pm on June 25 last year as the couple's five-year marriage was crumbling. Pictured: The couple on their wedding day

Her now ex-husband has since appeared at Manchester Magistrates' Court where he admitted assaulting the senior university fashion lecturer by beating, criminal damage and using threatening behaviour.

He was sentenced to six-months jail suspended for two years.

In a victim personal statement to police Mrs Wraeg-Cardew, from Bury, said: 'The constant bickering has taken its toll and I have undergone numerous emotions over it all.

'I wanted to avoid taking action but he left me with no choice due his continued barrage of verbal and written abuse.

'I want to feel safe in my own home and move forward with my life.'

The mystery friend who had been saved in her phone as 'Mister Mister' was not identified.

The court heard that the confrontation took place at around 10pm on June 25 last year as the couple's five-year marriage was crumbling.

The senior university lecturer has since appeared at Manchester Magistrates' Court where he admitted assault by beating, criminal damage and using threatening behaviour. He was sentenced to six-months jail suspended for two years

Prosecutor Lucy Garside said: '[Mrs Wraeg-Cardew's] phone had been charging on the bed when the defendant said he was going to the shop.

'She then noticed her phone had gone and knew the defendant had taken it and she knew there were messages on her phone he wouldn't like so she followed him in her vehicle.

'She approached the defendant in her car and got out but he started to ask who is this "Mister Mister" and started to video call her friend.

'The friend answered and he said: "I'm going to come for you" during that conversation.

'The complainant then got back into her car to return home but he reversed his car into the front of her BMW a couple of times at speed causing a lot of damage.

'In fact he hit the car with such force it caused her vehicle to move backwards.

'He then followed her to the property, pulled up outside then started to kick her car multiple times causing it to dent and he also made scratch marks on the driver's side window.

Mrs Wraeg-Cardew described being verbally abused by her husband in a subsequent foul-mouthed confrontation in the middle of the street

'She was asking him to stop but he entered the property and they both ended up upstairs.

'She says he got hold of both of her arms gripping her tightly.

'The defendant then manhandled her down the stairs and she describes how at one point she grabbed hold of him as she felt she was going to fall down the stairs.

'She had a bruise on her hip which was hit on the way down and she had bruises on her arm.

'She describes when they got to the bottom she was pushed out and locked out by the defendant.'

It is thought Mr Wraeg-Cardew moved out after the argument but the following day he uploaded content to Facebook that he had lifted from her mobile phone.

Miss Garside added: 'This caused her embarrassment and she felt harassed and upset because of that... later that evening she received a call from the defendant.

'He attended her address and rang the doorbell and she unplugged it as she knew he would continue to do it.

Mrs Wraeg-Cardew (left and right(, who is course leader for an International Fashion Promotion BA degree at Manchester Metropolitan University, suffered bruising during the attack and her car was written off after sustaining 7,138 worth of damage

'She shouted at the defendant to go away or she would call the police but heard one of the sensors in the back lounge on one of the internal fire doors.

'She could hear the defendant trying to force the lock open on that door which has damage to the frame.

'She noticed there was a screw driver on the radiator which the defendant had used to try and gain access and break the handle on the door.'

Miss Garside went on to say that the next month Mrs Wraeg-Cardew was verbally abused by her husband in a subsequent foul-mouthed confrontation.

She said: 'On the July 21 the defendant was at the property and was meant to drop their daughter off but he became aggressive and started to shout in the street saying 'you're a f***ing lying sl*g' and 'you're a f***ing wh***' before reciting messages he had seen on her phone.

'He said "you're getting all this now because you're still lying".

'She told him to get back in his car.

'She says after 15 minutes she couldn't take any more abuse and went back into the house.

'When she came back out at 7pm he started shouting again and being aggressive outside of the house.

'He made threats in relation to her friend and made mention that he would be prepared to go to prison.

'This was a revenge attack which took place because he had seen messages on her phone he wasn't happy with.'

In mitigation, defence barrister Roger Taylor said: 'Unfortunately things deteriorated very much and there was a lot of unhappiness in the marriage.

'He had caught her out and it was very upsetting for him and he behaved poorly.

'People do get upset in such circumstances but he now accepts you have got to walk away if you can.

'Since then there has been no reported difficulties.

'It is always encouraging to see how parents whatever difficulties they have with each other can concentrate on the child.

'Contact has taken place since then there has been no issues.'

Mr Wraeg-Cardew was sentenced to six-months jail suspended for two years after he admitted assault by beating, criminal damage and using threatening behaviour.

He was also ordered to pay 650 prosecution costs with 115 victim surcharge. No compensation was ordered.
KABUL - Many Afghans view Saturdays expected signing of a U.S.-Taliban peace deal with a heavy dose of well-earned skepticism. Theyve spent decades living in a country at war  some their whole lives  and wonder if they can ever reach a state of peace.

The deal expected to be signed in Doha, Qatar is meant to set the stage for a U.S. troop withdrawal and to usher in talks among Afghans on both sides of the conflict about their countrys future. Theres been bitter squabbling among political leaders, concern of a temporary truce being undermined, and the challenge of uniting a fractured country remains daunting.

Also on Saturday, but in the Afghan capital Kabul, U.S. Defence Secretary Mark Esper and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will sign a declaration recommitting the international communitys commitment to Afghanistan, said Sediq Sediqqi, spokesperson for Afghanistans President Ashraf Ghani.

Arash, an Afghan police officer in the capital of Kabul, was seven years old when a U.S.-led military coalition ousted the Taliban government in 2001. The U.S. was retaliating for the Taliban harbouring Osama Bin Laden while he masterminded the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Weve had no escape from war, said Arash, who only gave his first name because he had not received permission from his superiors to speak to reporters.

He said he and his colleagues want peace, but that political leaders are only thirsty for power, not for peace. He said the Taliban are fellow Afghans and that we should have peace with them.

Afghanistans economy has been wracked by 18 years of fighting, despite billions of dollars spent on nation building. Some 55 per cent live in poverty, or less than $1 a day, up from 34 per cent in 2012.

On a recent chilly Kabul morning, dozens of labourers waited to be picked up for a days work. Dressed in tattered paint-splattered clothes, some carrying their own paintbrushes, they squatted on the sidewalk in the heart of the capital, where new high-rise buildings butt up against small dingy shops.

Everyone is looking for work. There are thousands and thousands like us all over the city, said Qatradullah, who like many Afghans goes by just one name. He said he favours the peace deal and hopes it will bring jobs, but that government corruption has been crippling. He said the vast sums pumped into Afghanistan have gone into the pockets of our leaders.

Transparency International last year ranked Afghanistan 173rd of 180 countries it monitors, scoring it 16 out of 100.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been critical of Washingtons spending in Afghanistan.

Were really serving, not as a military force, as we are a police force, Trump said earlier this week while on a visit to India. They have to police their own country."

Under the peace plan, 13,000 U.S. troops will initially draw down to 8,600, Trump said. Much of the plan remains vague, except to say American troops will withdraw and that the Taliban promise not to let extremists use the country as a staging ground for attacking the U.S. or its allies.

Taliban leaders told The Associated Press that if everything goes according to plan, all U.S. soldiers would be out of Afghanistan in 14 months. Washington has not confirmed such a timeline.

The agreement also stipulates the release of 5,000 Taliban from Afghan-run jails, but its not clear if the government will agree to that.

The Taliban and representatives from Kabul, including the government, are to sit together within 10 to 15 days of Saturdays signing. Theyll try to negotiate the framework of a post-war Afghanistan. Issues on the table include a more permanent cease-fire and the rights of women and minorities.

Negotiators will try to figure out how to re-integrate tens of thousands of Taliban insurgents and thousands more militiamen loyal to warlords in Kabul, who have grown powerful and wealthy during 18 years.

Shepherding the sides toward intra-Afghan negotiations has been one of the biggest headaches for U.S. negotiators, according to Afghans familiar with the process.

Its been complicated by President Ashraf Ghanis insistence to hold an election last September. He wanted to give himself a mandate heading into negotiations with the Taliban.

But critics say a divisive election has only fragmented the political landscape in Kabul. The countrys election commission declared Ghani the winner earlier this month, despite charges of irregularities from his opponents and from the elections complaints commission

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday pleaded for Kabul to come up with a fully representative team for talks with the Taliban.

Hamid Gailani, an Afghan negotiator in preliminary talks, said that the biggest challenge that I see is the political turmoil (in Kabul), and that needs to be resolved.

He called on the fractious leadership to think of the greater good and not to miss a rare window of opportunity. God forbid, if we lose this opportunity, then it is gone forever, he said.

In 2001, many Taliban fighters returned to their communities after their government collapsed. But the new administration in Kabul sought revenge, often using the U.S.-led coalition to exact it, demanding money from former Taliban or threatening to hand them to U.S. forces.

That drove thousands of fighters to once again take up arms and head back into the mountains, according to former Taliban members and analysts explaining their groups resurgence.

The Taliban now control or hold sway over half the country, and are at their most powerful since the U.S. invasion.

Only one militant group ever signed a peace agreement with Ghanis government. The groups leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, said many of his fighters faced harassment, intimidation and even prison when they attempted to re-integrate.

We hope this failed experience is not be repeated with the Taliban, Hekmatyar he said in an interview this week.

At an Afghan National Army post in the capital, The Associated Press spoke with two soldiers, including one who served for 14 years. They welcomed a peace deal with the Taliban. Neither wanted to give their name as they gestured to their torn uniforms and disintegrating army boots, fearing retribution from their commanding officers if they spoke too freely.

One soldier said he hadnt received his salary, and the other said he received only half a months salary.

Well be happy to have the Taliban serving with us, but if the government isnt paying us, how can they pay them? he said.

Maybe the Taliban should think twice before wanting to join the army.
ABC News

After weeks of health experts urging Americans to upgrade their masks to protect against the omicron COVID-19 variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that it was planning to update its mask guidance to "best reflect the multiple options available to people and the different levels of protection they provide." The move by the CDC would be the first significant update to its mask guidance since last July when it urged all Americans to return to wearing masks, after the delta variant proved so transmissible that research found even vaccinated people could transmit the virus. While vaccinated people are considered infectious for a shorter period of time than someone who is unvaccinated, and they are considerably less likely to end up hospitalized, the CDC urged everyone to return to masking indoors to prevent community cases from rising.
The New Jersey Lottery will serve as the new title sponsor for the annual New Jersey Festival of Ballooning.

The festival will continue to take place at the Solberg Airport in Readington Township as part of a multi-year agreement that was announced by Executive Producer of the balloon festival, Howard Freeman, and Executive Director of the New Jersey Lottery, Jim Carey, at the Lotterys Lawrence Park Complex in Trenton on Friday morning. This years festival takes place from from July 24 to 26.

Freeman said without the sponsorship of the New Jersey Lottery, which has served as a partner of the event for 20 years, the festival would not be here in the state anymore.

We are incredibly excited to continue this, Freeman said. Weve had pilots from 40 different states, five different countries last year. Weve had people come from every state, probably 50 different countries. So as a result of New Jersey Lottery, its going to stay here.

Carey called the festival an iconic New Jersey event that would serve as a great platform to celebrate the Lotterys 50th anniversary this year.

It provides the Lottery with a great venue and a great opportunity to promote our fun and exciting brand and our fun and exciting games, Carey said. "This is a great opportunity for us to remind the people of New Jersey that were out there.

An 80-foot tall anniversary cake will serve as this years signature shape hot air balloon in the festival in honor of the Lotterys 50th anniversary.

The 2020 festival was at risk of being canceled after QuickChek announced in early October that after 26 years it would no longer serve as the events title sponsor.

After over a week of negotiations, the group behind the balloon festival posted a notice on its website on Feb. 12 revealing that it secured a new title sponsor.

47 37th annual QuickChek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning on Friday, July 26, 2019

Tickets for the festival go on sale at noon on Friday. Those who subscribe to receive email alerts through the website will receive a special deal through to next week, according to Freeman.

Those who go to the festival with a non-winning scratch-off New Jersey Lottery ticket can receive a $5 discount at the festival on the night of July 24 or before noon on July 25 and 26, Freeman added.

The New Jersey Lottery is the third-oldest lottery in the United States, and one of the largest lotteries in the world, according to Lottery officials.

Last years balloon festival, billed as the largest summertime hot air balloon and music festival in North America, drew a record crowd of approximately 169,500 people, contributing roughly $52.4 million to the states economy, according to festival organizers.

Caroline Fassett can be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com.

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Democrats in the Oregon House took the first step Thursday to compel the return of Republicans who walked out to block a controversial climate change bill.

At a 4 p.m. meeting, Democrats on the House Committee on Rules voted to issue subpoenas to missing House Republicans that would require them to testify before the committee at the Capitol on March 5 regarding the reasons behind their boycott.

This is unusual, its extraordinary action, committee Chair Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, said in a briefing with reporters after the meeting. "But its because of the extraordinary lack of action of the House Republicans not to show up and fulfill their oath to this body ... This cannot become the new normal for the state of Oregon in the legislative branch.

House Republicans began their boycott of the legislative session on Tuesday, a day after their counterparts in the Senate also fled from the Capitol. Members of both caucuses are believed to be out of state, with the exception of one Republican in each chamber  Rep. Cheri Helt and Sen. Tim Knopp, both of Bend  who have continued to attend floor sessions and committee meetings. Senate Bill 1530 was days away from coming up for a Senate floor vote when Republicans in that chamber walked out, but a House floor vote was further out on the horizon.

Democrats won supermajorities in both chambers during the 2018 election but without at least two Republicans present in the House and Senate, they lack the two-thirds quorum necessary to read and vote on bills under the state Constitution.

House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, said Democrats hired a process company on Thursday to serve the Republicans with subpoenas and will leave it to the company to find the Republicans, most of whom are reportedly out of state. Kotek did not know how much hiring the company will cost.

Even if process servers locate the House Republicans, its not clear how effective the subpoenas would be. A lobbyist for Oregon Manufacturers and Commerce, a group staunchly opposed to the greenhouse gas cap-and-trade bill, issued a press release after the committee vote pointing out Oregons Constitution protects lawmakers from any civil process as long as the Legislature is in session.

Its the same provision that the Legislature points to as exempting lawmakers from public records requests during legislative sessions, since under Oregon law requesters must go to court if they want to challenge denials by elected officials.

Issuing the subpoenas allows House Democrats to show theyre taking action, but less aggressively than their counterparts in the Senate last year who asked Gov. Kate Brown to send state troopers out looking for absent Republicans. Brown granted Senate President Peter Courtneys request but the police never apprehended any Senate Republicans.

This time, Courtney and Kotek have both said they do not plan to request the troopers assistance and Brown said earlier this week she does not have authority to dispatch the police without a request from a presiding officer.

In a statement Thursday evening, House Republican Leader Christine Drazan of Canby said the subpoenas were just the latest example of the majority partys strong-arm tactics designed to end negotiations. We will not be intimidated. We remain resolved to serve the hardworking families of Oregon who have asked for the abuse of power to end and for cap and trade to be referred to the people.

When asked whether they had found some way to compel any Republicans who return to the House floor for a full vote, Kotek and Holvey said they had not thought that far through the strategy.

I will be brutally honest," Kotek said of the walkout on Thursday evening. "I am not optimistic that we will resolve this.

 Hillary Borrud | hborrud@oregonian.com | 503-294-4034 | @hborrud

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The global medical device complaint management market size is expected to reach USD 10.2 billion by 2026, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is anticipated to register a CAGR of 7.6% during the forecast period. Increasing use of software to support the entire complaint management process is propelling the growth.

The transition from paper-based to digital system for tracking complaints is boosting growth of the market. Incidents are recorded and the data automatically drives the investigation and resolution workflow. Companies experience more complete documentation along with the reduction in the turnaround time. The complaints management solution provides advanced analytics and reporting tools for augmented management oversight. The software also streamlines the submissions with standard reporting for the EU, FDA, Japan, Health Canada, and Australia.

For instance, the U.S. FDA encourages consumers, patients, and healthcare professionals to give voluntary reports of important adverse events, and/or product issues to MedWatch, FDAs Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program or by means of the mobile app known as MedWatcher. The app radically simplifies and accelerates the process of reporting by providing users with a four-step form submitted electronically to the FDA.

Regulators are gradually concentrating on handling customer complaints, product safety, and device vigilance. This is not only true in developed countries, but also in emerging economies such as India. The Indian government introduced medical devices regulation program, Materiovigilance Programme of India (MvPI) with focus on safety data collection, synchronization of international laws, regulations, and standards encourages medical device organizations to evaluate their existing procedures of product development and post-marketing surveillance.

Further key findings from the report suggest:

Product surveillance and regulatory compliance emerged as the largest segment owing to greater emphasis put on product surveillance by regulatory agencies

North America held the largest market share in 2017 owing to stern regulatory requirements and heavy monetary fines in this region. All the device manufacturers, importers, and distributors are required to comply with the complaint and record requirement

Some of the key players operating in the medical device complaint management market include IQVIA, Wipro, Tata Consulting Services, SAS, Sparta Systems, Parexel International Corporation, Biovia, AssurX, MasterControl, and Freyr.

Grand View Research has segmented the global medical device complaint management market based on service and region:

Medical Device Complaint Management Service Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2026)

Complaints Log / Intake Receive Complaints Classify the Issue Record Issue

Product Surveillance & Regulatory Compliance Reportable/Non Reportable Medical Device Vigilance/Medical Device Reporting Field Action

Returned/ Non-Returned Product Analysis Complaint Investigation Root Cause Analysis, Testing Corrective/Preventive Action

Resolve & Closure Complaint Summary Customer Letter Creation



Medical Device Complaint Management Regional Outlook (USD Million, 2014 - 2026)

North America U.S. Canada

Europe U.K. Germany

Asia Pacific Japan China

Latin America Brazil Mexico

Middle East & Africa South Africa Saudi Arabia



Access full research report on global medical device complaint management market:

www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/medical-device-complaint-management-market
Cindy Bruna was the picture of elegance in a white sheer jumpsuit on Friday, as she led the stars taking their spot on the front row for Paris Fashion Week's Balmain Show.

The French model, 25, looked sensational the one-piece with sheer detailing as she arrived at the fashion show with fellow style star Ashley Benson who wore a funky cold shoulder blazer dress.

Cindy and Ashley attended the fashion show in the French capital as the designer sported an array of rustic-inspired looks, including a paisley printed suit and camel coloured capes.

Wow: Cindy Bruna was a vision in a statement white jumpsuit on Friday as she joined Ashley Benson at the Balmain show during Paris Fashion Week on Friday

Cindy was a vision in her statement white jumpsuit which highlighted every inch of her slender figure.

The one-piece boasted sheer top with only white panels to preserve her modesty, along with dramatic flared buttoned trousers.

Cindy completed her look with matching white pointed-toe heels and hoop earrings, with her dark tresses pulled into a sleek up-do.

Gorgeous: The French model, 25, looked sensational the one-piece with sheer detailing as she arrived at the fashion show

Glamorous: Cindy was a vision in her statement white jumpsuit which highlighted every inch of her slender figure

Friendly: During the fashion show Cindy posed for a snap with rap superstar Usher, who was hell for leather in a matching black suit

Wrapped up: Cindy also covered her gorgeous white one-piece with a houndstooth coat

Daring: Cindy's amazing jumpsuit flashed plenty of flesh, with only white panelling to preserve her modesty

Fashion maven: Cindy is already known as one Victoria Secret's hottest models, though the 5ft 11in star did not walk in her seventh consecutive Fashion Show last year

Cindy is already known as one Victoria Secret's hottest models, though the 5ft 11in star did not walk in her seventh consecutive Fashion Show last year as it was cancelled due to low ratings.

Inside the fashion show, Cindy also posed with rap superstar Usher, who was hell for leather in a matching black suit.

The Scream hitmaker was among the many guests sitting front row for the fashion show, along with Ashley who sported a typically unusual look.

The Pretty Little Liars star wore a plunging black and white blazer dress with a cold shoulder effect, which she teamed with classic pointed-toe heels.

Amazing: The Balmain show displayed an incredible array of rustic-inspired looks, including plenty of oversized capes and robes

Sensational: Ashley star wore a plunging black and white blazer dress with a cold shoulder effect, which she teamed with classic pointed-toe heels

Love life: Ashley is currently in a relationship with model and actress Cara Delevingne, 27

Keeping mom! The pair who have been dating for over a year and a half did not confirm their relationship until June 2019

Cute: The Her Smell co-stars started dating while filming the punk-rock drama in 2018, and recently shared a PDA picture of themselves kissing passionately on Valentine's Day

Great entrance: Following the fashion show, Ashley was spotted heading into Paris in her statement black and white dress

Leggy: The dress perfectly displayed her toned slender pins as she stepped out following the fashion show

Glam: She carried her essentials in a matching black and gold leather satchel bag from the designer

Unusual: No stranger to commanding attention, Usher teamed an oversized black leather blazer with matching trousers

Superstar: The hitmaker proudly sat front row during the fashion show, which saw a star-studded guest list in attendance

Statement: Usher put on an edgy display in his black leather suit as he joined the stars sitting front row at the fashion show

Ashley is currently in a relationship with model and actress Cara Delevingne, 27.

The pair who have been dating for over a year and a half did not confirm their relationship until June 2019.

The Her Smell co-stars started dating while filming the punk-rock drama in 2018, and recently shared a PDA picture of themselves kissing passionately on Valentine's Day.

Unusual: The hitmaker added another edge to his look by sported a statement gold grill on his teeth

Preppy: Big Little Lies star Shailene Woodley flashed a hint of her slender pins in a red tweed skirt and matching fluffy jumper

Say cheese! The actress opted for an unusual approach when it came to documenting her outing, as she took an array of snaps with a disposable camera

Wow! Helena Christensen, 51, displayed her jaw-dropping ageless beauty in an amazing black sequinned jumpsuit as she took to the runway

Vintage: The Danish model channelled classic glamour in the one-piece, which was teamed with an eye-catching silver hairpiece that mimicked the shape of a lizard

Funky: The Balmain show proved to be an incredible showcase of looks as it channelled shades of brown in their array of new styles

Lavish: After the show, designer Olivier Rousteing took to the runway to pose with the models who had wowed on the catwalk

The Balmain show proved to be an incredible showcase of looks as it channelled shades of brown in their array of new styles.

Along with paisley prints, the catwalk was full of brown leather and oversized caps as the classic brand displayed its latest collection.

Among the models who took to the runway was Helen Christensen, who channelled Old Hollywood in a plunging black sequinned jumpsuit.

The Danish model, 51, looked incredibly glamorous in the one-piece, which was teamed with an eye-catching silver hairpiece that mimicked the shape of a lizard

Iconic: The fashion maven delivered yet another stunning collection during the Paris Fashion Week

Protected: Elsewhere one of the catwalk's guests took not chances in protecting herself from the coronavirus, as she sported an bejewelled face mask

Defending herself: She sported a black lace mask mimicking the shape of a rose, with a silver version of the Chanel logo

Here come the girls! Cindy's attendance at the fashion show came after she attended the Women to Women Auction Party the previous evening with Jourdan Dunn (right)

Covered up: This time the star opted for a white mini dress with a brown and green checked top, and a matching quilted jacket

Girls night out: (L-R) Jourdan, Ophelie Guillermand, Cindy, and Immam Hammam certainly made for a picture-perfect group

Loved it: Jourdan oozed rock chic in a fitted black leather dress covered in silver studs at the charity auction

Cindy's attendance at the fashion show came after she attended the Women to Women Auction Party the previous evening.

This time the star opted for a white mini dress with a brown and green checked top, and a matching quilted jacket.

She was joined by the British supermodel Jourdan Dunn, 29, who oozed rock chic in a fitted black leather dress covered in silver studs.

Glamour girls: The fashion favourites looked sensational in their leggy ensembles as they attended the charity bash
Bernie Sanders ripped into President Trump for leaving Washington to hold a campaign rally Friday night in Charleston, South Carolina amid the coronavirus crisis.

'He is here in South Carolina for one reason - to disrupt the Democratic primary - that's why he's here. He hopes he can get a little media attention taken away from the Democratic candidates,' Sanders said at a rally in Columbia, South Carolina. 'How petty, how pathetic is that?'

The 2020 hopeful blasted Trump saying, 'Do your job.' 'Don't worry about the Democratic primary because we're going to beat you,' the Vermont senator taunted.

Bernie Sanders tore into President Trump for the president's decision to hold a campaign rally in Charleston, South Carolina Friday night - instead of staying in Washington amid the coronavirus crisis

Bernie Sanders held his final South Carolina rally Friday afternoon in Columbia. He'll be campaigning in Virginia, a 'Super Tuesday' state when voters in South Carolina head to the polls on Saturday

Rapper Killer Mike opened for Bernie Sanders at the 2020 hopeful's rally in Columbia, South Carolina Friday afternoon. The Sanders surrogate told the 'black people of South Carolina' that 'if it rhymes with slow, don't vote for it. If the name is "Mike" don't vote for it'

Actor Danny Glover was also on hand and gave opening remarks at Bernie Sanders' Columbia, South Carolina rally

Actor Danny Glover also supported Bernie Sanders' 2016 run for president, when he ran in the Democratic primary against Hillary Clinton

Big Mike (left) and Bernie Sanders (right) arrive together at Sanders' final South Carolina campaign rally Friday afternoon in Columbia

Sanders was holding his final rally in South Carolina before moving on to other states, and on the eve of the state's Democratic primary. While the Republican primary was cancelled thanks to Trump being an incumbent, the president decided to still hold a rally with supporters in the state.

At the Columbia rally, held at Finlay Park, located a short distance from the University of South Carolina campus, the Sanders campaign trotted out a number of opening performers and speakers including the Austin-based rap duo Blackillac, actor Danny Glover - who also supported Sanders' 2016 run - and Killer Mike.

'I came for the b.s. and I don't mean the bulls***,' Killer Mike told the crowd. 'We don't have time for bulls***.'

The rapper, and Sanders campaign surrogate - who also has supported Sanders since his 2016 run - explained that a progressive party needs to make progress.

'I love what the Democratic Party has done, but I'm going to love more what the Democratic Party is about to do,' Killer Mike said, saying that 'we're going to progress that old guy right into the White House,' meaning the 78-year-old Sanders.

Killer Mike specifically tailored his message to a certain voting bloc that Sanders will need if he want to perform well in South Carolina.

'Listen to me black people in South Carolina. I'm talking to black people in South Carolina,' Killer Mike said. 'If it rhymes with slow, don't vote for it. If the name is "Mike" don't vote for it.'

The Columbia rally marked Sanders' last appearance in South Carolina, as he plans to campaign in Virginia - one of 14 'Super Tuesday' states - Saturday while Palmetto State voters head to the polls.

As results are coming in Saturday night, Sanders will be holding a rally in Virginia, Beach, Virginia.

His rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, is staying in South Carolina, as polls show he's on track to win the state.

The most recent South Carolina poll, which dropped Friday, showed Biden 9 points ahead of Sanders.

While Bernie Sanders lags behind Joe Biden in South Carolina, nationally he's beating the ex-vice president by 13 points

The Data for Progress survey showed 34 per cent of South Carolina voters choosing Biden, while 25 per cent said they supported Sanders. Tom Steyer and Pete Buttigieg were tied for third with 13 per cent each. Elizabeth Warren followed with 7 per cent support. Amy Klobuchar received 5 per cent and Tulsi Gabbard got 3 per cent, in the new poll.

Nationally, though, Sanders holds a double-digit edge.

A Fox News Channel poll that was released Friday had Sanders 13 points ahead of the Democratic pack.

Thirty-one per cent of Democratic voters nationally said they support Sanders, while 18 per cent chose Biden.

Biden was followed by former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, with 16 per cent. Bloomberg decided to skip the first four states that hold primary contests - Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. Instead he's looking toward 'Super Tuesday.'

In fourth place nationally was Buttigieg with 12 per cent support. Warren got fifth place with 10 per cent, while Klobuchar got 5 per cent, Steyer got 2 per cent and Gabbard got the support of just 1 per cent of Democratic primary voters, the Fox News survey said.
WASHINGTON  The House, taking aim at youth vaping and tobacco use, voted Friday to ban the sale of flavored cigarettes and e-cigarette liquids, even as civil rights advocates and some African-American Democrats raised concerns that the legislation unfairly targeted black people.

The bill is aimed at curbing what public health experts see as an epidemic of youth vaping by banning online sales of e-cigarettes, as well as liquid flavors like mint, mango, cotton candy and bubble gum. But it also bans flavors in regular cigarettes, including menthol, which is popular among African-Americans, giving rise to fears that a prohibition could lead to over-policing in black communities.

Those are legitimate questions to ask, Speaker Nancy Pelosi conceded after the vote. But she said the measure was necessary to stop the tobacco industry from targeting a new generation, adding that it passed because of lawmakers overriding concerns about the well-being of the children and stopping the path to addiction.

The bill goes further than a partial ban announced by President Trump last month, which would forbid the sale of most flavored e-cigarette cartridges, but exempt menthol and other tobacco flavors. Its fate is unclear in the Senate, where Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader who represents the tobacco-producing state of Kentucky, has not given any indication that he would bring it up for a vote.
An 18-year-old is behind bars after he tried to enlist a fake hitman website to have two fellow students killed late last year, according to police. The young man wanted the 16-year-old girls strangled with a belt because he had a strangulation fetish.

Colton Beall was indicted Feb. 14 on two counts of criminal solicitation to commit first-degree murder.

Todd Wildermuth, a Roswell Police Department spokesman, said Beall was arrested in Tennessee on Thursday and will be extradited to Roswell.

After Beall was interviewed by RPD and as the investigation was continuing, Beall and his parents moved away from Roswell, he said.

Wildermuth said Beall was a senior at Roswell High School when he submitted requests to the website Rent-A-Hitman: Your Point & Click Solution in December.

It turns out the implied services the website seemed to offer were not real, but investigators believe Bealls murderous requests were, he said.

Wildermuth said the website was set up in 2005 to offer computer hacking detection and prevention services, with the company founders offering to serve as computer hackers, or hitmen.

The company never really got going, but the website remained, and its owner modified it into what he called a parody hitman site, Wildermuth said.

A couple years later the owner discovered some people were taking the site seriously and requesting murders through its submittal form, he said.

Wildermuth said the investigation into Beall was launched when the owner called RPD to report the young man filled out a request, using his real name, email, phone number and address.

Beall also listed the names of his intended victims, their addresses and the means by which he wanted them killed, he said.
Did President Trump eliminate the Common Core State Standards ? No.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, speaking before a receptive audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday, praised Trump for his promise to get rid of the common core, which was a massive overreach on the part of the federal government.

Weve done that, she said, implying that the Trump administration had followed through on that promise.

But thats not true.

Three things you should know:



Many states still use the Common Core State Standards. And, following political pushback to the standards, some states that previously used the common core have replaced it with adjusted standards that are quite similar. The Obama administration didnt mandate that states use the standards, developed by governors and state chiefs. But it did require states adopt college and career-ready standards, as a condition of applying for competitive Race to the Top grants and waivers from the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. More than 40 states and the District of Columbia chose the common core to meet that requirement Neither the president nor any federal official can force a state to abandon the common core standards or to adopt them. The Every Student Succeeds Act, the federal education law that replaced NCLB before Trump took office, prohibits federal officials from linking the adoption of a particular set of standards to money or flexibility.

After years of high-profile debates over the common core, some Republican governors are still seeking political points for their opposition to the standards.

Most recently, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced new standards, called the Florida Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (or B.E.S.T.), that he said would remove all vestiges of the common core from the states classrooms. It remains unclear how much those new standards differ from the common core, but some education groups have said they are working to compare them.

Floridas State Board of Education has also approved a rule that requires publishers to submit, with their textbook bids, a No Common Core & Common Core Standards assurance. Such a pledge may be difficult to enforce as its possible textbook content may align with multiple sets of standards at once, including the common core and Floridas new benchmarks.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, also urged lawmakers to tackle standards in his January State of the State address. Lets dismantle the remnants of common core, he said.

Photo: White House counselor Kellyanne Conway looks to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as she speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2020, in Oxon Hill, Md., Thursday. -- AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

Follow us on Twitter @PoliticsK12 . And follow the Politics K-12 reporters @EvieBlad @Daarel and @AndrewUjifusa .
The construction of a new nuclear power unit is one of the long-term goals of the Armenian government, so no budget funds are allocated for these purposes, said acting head of the atomic energy department Nune Alekyan.

Her remarks came during the panel discussion on prospects for the development of the nuclear industry of Armenia.

According to her, the strategy for the development of energy in Armenia until 2040 has been developed and submitted for consideration by the government, in which the development of the nuclear industry is considered as a priority strategic direction. Speaking about the importance of this field, the acting head noted that the presence of nuclear power plants allows Armenia to reduce associated risks, as well as keep heat emissions low.

She noted that large-scale work on the modernization of nuclear power plants is currently being carried out, which is planned to be completed in 2022.

The maximum allowable extension of the operating life of nuclear power plants is considered by the government as an opportunity to develop the sphere with minimal costs. The construction of a new power unit is part of the governments goals, she said.

Yuri Sviridenko, the project manager from the Russian side for extending the life of the nuclear power plant, told reporters that the Armenian side has shown some interest in this issue.
Dont tell anyone, but last week I found myself admiring the hanging baskets outside a pub before I went into the actual pub.

I stood for a full minute Id say, taking in the colours and wondering what the name of the pretty purple flowers were. This behaviour is a classic sign of ageing along with smiling at pregnant women and enrolling in beginners art at an evening class. Never fight these things, embrace them. I relaxed just once in my youth. I was on a lilo in Corfu. It lasted about half an hour and I never forgot it. I was always partying, never knowing when it was hometime. Might sound fun, but a lot of it wasnt.

Those among you with a self-destruct button will know this. If youre the last to leave a party, its rarely because you have had the best time. Youll have just hung around till the bitter end in the hope that the elusive high you are endlessly chasing will finally kick in. You dont even know what it is, just a feeling that some kind of life-changing joy is around the corner and you should have another drink and wait for it to happen. It never does. When you wake up the next day, it will be yet another night filled with shame and regret.

Getting older has brought with it the confidence to stay in. At university, I was skipping out to the union one night and my flatmate was in her pajamas, making a cup of tea. Not coming? I asked in surprise. Nah, she said, Im reading a really good book, Im staying in to finish it.

I dont think I had ever had more envy for another human being than I did for her in that moment. Fancy being able to make the decision to stay home instead of partying. That was an inner peace, a confidence I was decades away from.

My first child at 34 didnt change things. I love being out, in crowds, dancing. It helped that my job as a stand-up comedian was at night time; I would have missed his bedtime anyway, so why not go out-out? Before you go tut tut tutting, (I read the comments occasionally, I see you naughty trolls), I was a single mum and big nights out were almost always when my son was at his fathers. Personally, a drunken night on a sweaty dance floor was not enticing when I knew a lovely lump of my flesh and blood was snoozing at home, and it was never worth marring a lovely morning with him because of a hangover.

My second child arrived on my 40th birthday and I had her on my own so going out-out pretty much stopped. It was a relief to be honest. I just wanted to be at home. But what I miss is the dancing. Why do we stop dancing when we get old? I dont want to get trashed and snog strangers anymore (with the coronavirus threat? Are you kidding?) But why must I wait for a wedding to flail my arms about and twirl around?

Human beings need to dance. Dancing is an integral part of the Iranian culture I was born into. Having a dance is a social activity. Its normal among Iranians to have friends round one sunday afternoon, stick some music on and take turns to dance in the middle of a circle while the others stand and clap or clack their fingers. My gran, aunts and cousins did this sober, to pass the time. Can you imagine? Kids! Come downstairs! Your nannas arrived and were going to have a dance before lunch is ready.

I miss dancing. At my daughters school disco recently (we parents all go to help because there is a bar) I was watching the little ones dance and I was having a laugh with some parents. There was a smoke machine and lights and pop music. I skipped to the bar to get a round in and for a split second, I was 25 again, happy and in a disco, with all my friends. Why did this ever stop?

So, last week, myself and a gang of my school gate parent friends went to an over-40s disco. 25-year-old me would have laughed at the naffness of such a thing. But what does she know? She doesnt even know what prosecco is yet.

Anyway, we had a blast. The place was chock full of Generation X, all dressed up and dancing to great music. The chat in the girls loos was different. Less about relationships and more so, what school do your kids go to?. The dance floor was much more polite and very easy to elbow your way through.

Ive found there are quite a few club nights for those of us who stop to look at hanging baskets. Im going to another one next month. As the old rhyme goes I dont know, but Ive been told, you keep on dancing you never grow old.
One of the countrys best selling authors, Sheila OFlanagan, has told An Bord Pleanala that the construction of a new school near her Dublin home will be catastrophic for her privacy.

Last month, Dublin City Council gave the go-ahead to Bonos old secondary school, Mount Temple School on Malahide Road, Clontarf, for a new three-storey school accommodating 1,000 students.

The plan involves the demolition of the existing school and the council gave the go-ahead in spite of opposition from Ms OFlanagan and other local residents.

Famously, all members of U2 attended Mount Temple School and the band formed after Larry Mullen put a notice on the school notice board in September 1976.

The contentious school development involves the relocation of the school away from its current location and beside houses on Copeland Grove.

Now, in an appeal against the Council decision to grant permission, award-winning novelist Ms OFlanagan has told the appeals board that the loss of privacy to me (and other residents) by placing the school so dramatically close to our homes is catastrophic.

The Copeland Grove Residents has also appealed the Council decision while the Dept of Education has appealed against conditions attached to the grant of permission.

Ms OFlanagan has told the appeals board: I am a writer and work from home. I need space and time for reflection as well as physically writing.

I do not want to be observed daily by students as I work. Nor do I want to observe them.

Ms OFlanagan stated that she will be one of the most affected by the siting of the building and subjected to a significant loss of privacy both to my home as a residential space and to my home office where I have worked for more than 20 years.

Ms OFlanagan whose All for You won an Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year Award, said that if permission is upheld, the school building will be significantly higher than the houses and students will be able to look down into each home.

She said: I am very concerned about my ability to continue to work if I am under constant observation by students at the school.

Pupils will be able to look directly into both my home office and living area from their classrooms as well as having an unimpeded view into my bedroom which I find totally unacceptable.

Ms OFlanagan has told the appeals board: In granting permission, the very valid concerns of the broader community have not been taken into account by Dublin City Council.

It should not be the case that the very necessary development of the school should impact so catastrophically on the residents who have always supported it.

Ms O Flanagan hit out at the Dept of Educations decision to move the school to within 100 metres of her home in spite of the school having an area of 9.5 hectares to build on.

She said that the site was chosen by the Dept in order to preserve the views of protected structures of Mount Temple House and the Clocktower.

Ms OFlanagan stated that the views from the buildings that are not used for day-to-day purposes have been placed ahead of the valid concerns of locals.

She said that this seems to be a complete failure by Dublin City Council to consider the quality of life of local residents.

A decision is due by the appeals board in June.
Boston police on Thursday arrested a 22-year-old man in Dorchester in connection with the killing of his mother, police said.

Zackery Grandy, of Dorchester, was arrested Thursday afternoon after police responded to a call in the area of 357 Columbia Road.

Upon arrival, police said, they found a woman who was subsequently pronounced dead.

Police didnt publicly release any more information regarding the victim, her injuries or the cause of death.

Grandy was taken into custody and is expected to be arraigned in Dorchester District Court on a murder charge. Police didnt release information on when the arraignment is planned.
The capitals worst riots in decades have now mercifully been contained, albeit with the dreadful loss of dozens of lives. It can hardly be coincidental that after simmering under the surface for two months, amid sporadic incidents, violence suddenly flared on the day that United States (US) President Donald Trump visited Delhi. It is another matter that the visit proved to be a big success, with significant progress in the bilateral relationship of the worlds two largest democracies.

Worryingly, even in such circumstances, conflicting, partisan narratives continue to prevail, when what is desperately needed is objectivity and restraint, but also clear red lines and firm, resolute enforcement of those. But that is easier said than done.

While it is easy to criticise Delhi Police, their predicament is worth pondering over. First, there is the fatigue factor of having had to continually be on edge during two months of protests, during which they were repeatedly attacked with stones, not to mention shot at and had acid thrown on them.

Next, whether they chased stone pelters from outside Jamia Millia Islamia into the universitys library, or refrained from going inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus when vandals went on a rampage there, they faced opprobrium. Third, in this age of heightened alertness to potential human rights accusations, their dilemma in choosing between stern proactive steps, and waiting for the general public to accept the need for a crackdown, must be a tricky path to navigate.

It is no exaggeration to say that the police were being battered physically and psychologically from all sides. In the meantime, while the Supreme Court (SC) refused to intervene in public interest litigations (PILs) against the police action at Jamia, saying the maintenance of law and order was the first priority, it was far more ambiguous on the extended agitation at Shaheen Bagh.

The SC commented that agitators did not have an inherent right to blockade roads and inconvenience the public. But it declined to pass an order, leaving it to the police to decide what to do, while reserving the option to decide later if they took the right decision. As the agitation carried on, the court even sent out mediators instead of pronouncing a judgment. Finally, with many of their ranks injured and one stoned to death, it should hardly be a surprise if the police were demoralised and indecisive.

One aspect that stood out during the past weeks was the apparent polarisation in the media. When some journalists perceived to be sympathetic to the government were manhandled by protesters at Shaheen Bagh, not all in their fraternity condemned it. But that sad situation came full circle in recent days, when some among those considered anti- establishment also faced physical assault at the hands of another set of violent protesters.

Similarly, incendiary statements from the Shaheen Bagh protesters, activists, celebrities, as well as several politicians from around the nation yielded partisan responses. This tribalism, of responding to every development through an us vs them prism is, of course, not unique to India. And although more vociferously alleged by those on the Left against their opponents, it reigns across the political spectrum. In fact, in recent decades, it has become the norm in democracies around the globe.

Which is why President Trumps India visit saw both politicians and some in the media, in both India and the US, react in noticeably partisan terms. Sadly, even Indias largest Opposition party, which had itself prioritised this relationship when in government, turned critical of the Trump visit. And for no good reason, from an Indian perspective, other than the chemistry he seems to have with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

And therein lies the crux of the issue. The more that the PM has grown in stature, the more some seem determined to oppose him at any cost, without regard to principles or consequences. Nothing else can explain their rabid opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or the CAA, the principle of which has been espoused by every major Indian leader from Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh, the last non-BJP prime minister.

It is cynical when most political opponents of Modi privately acknowledge that the CAA itself neither discriminates nor poses any threat to any Indian citizen, of any religion. Some do have objections to the possibility of a National Register of Citizens (NRC), although there is as yet no formal proposal for it. If there were to be one, they could, of course, oppose it, go to court, make it an election issue, and even agitate against it.

But the anti-CAA agitation, which has deliberately misled many Muslims into believing they would be disenfranchised, is misguided at best, and malevolent at worst. Of course, all of us have the right to dissent. But that dissent either must not include taking the law into our hands, such as vandalising public property, blocking public roads, and assaulting people, or we must concede that our opponents have just as much right to do the same. It is time thinking Indians stood on principles, and not on personalities, likes and dislikes.

Baijayant Jay Panda is vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, and a former Member of Parliament.

The views expressed are personal
Federal health employees who met coronavirus evacuees at two California military bases earlier this year did not receive proper training in safety protocols until five days after their arrival, a whistleblower said.

The New York Times obtained a portion of the whistleblower's complaint, which said the workers also did not have adequate protective gear. The whistleblower, described as being a senior leader at the Department of Health and Human Services, submitted the complaint to the Office of the Special Counsel.

The whistleblower said the workers were "improperly deployed" to March Air Reserve Base and Travis Air Force Base. They went into the quarantined areas where the evacuees were being processed and then would walk around other areas of the base. At least one worker stayed at a nearby hotel and flew back home on a commercial flight, and only a few knew that they needed to monitor their temperature three times a day.

The whistleblower said that throughout the operation, he or she fielded "panicked calls" from deployed staffers who "expressed concern with the lack of HHS communication and coordination." When senior Trump administration officials later heard their concerns, the staffers were "admonished," the whistleblower said, and had their "mental health and emotional stability questioned." The staffers believe the administration is trying to "whitewash" what happened, the whistleblower continued, and won't listen to their health and safety concerns.

Travis Air Force Base is in Solano County in Northern California. On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the first known instance of a person in the United States testing positive for coronavirus without traveling abroad or having known exposure to someone with the virus. The patient lives in Solano County, and the CDC said it is possible they came in contact with a person who caught coronavirus abroad and came to the United States infected.

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EMERYVILLE, Calif., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Berkeley Lights, Inc., a leader in cell selection, is currently engaged with universities and medical centers in the U.S., China, and Australia who are looking to create vaccines and therapeutics for the treatment of COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV2 virus or, simply, Coronavirus. Using Berkeley Lights' proprietary technology, the Beacon optofluidic platform, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and GenScript China are currently screening patient blood samples to find the necessary antibodies required to help develop a solution to the Coronavirus, while researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia are evaluating the Beacon platform as a means to expedite development of their recombinant subunit vaccine program.

The Vanderbilt Vaccine Center (VVC) is one of the lead sites within the DARPA Pandemic Prevention Platform Program (P3). Given its history of increased speed to therapy with the Zika and other viral targets, the VVC has been selected by DARPA to be a primary site in the U.S. for the development of novel antibody-based therapeutics for the prevention of SARS-CoV2 infection. The VVC recently began receiving crucial human samples from recovered patients which will be screened using Berkeley Lights' Beacon platform to enable the discovery of protective antibodies.

"The Beacon platform allows us to use B-cells in a single cell assay, enabling exploration of a much greater diversity of potentially protective antibodies, helping us more quickly identify the best antibodies," said Dr. Robert Carnahan, project lead for the Crowe Lab at VUMC.

In Australia, the University of Queensland is one of several groups selected by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) to develop a Coronavirus vaccine as a result of its recently released rapid response technology . The University is assessing the Beacon platform as it looks to find ways to accelerate early development toward clinical testing.

"The Beacon platform helps us to be manufacturing-ready more rapidly than use of traditional approaches, potentially saving months off our timeline," said Dr. Trent Munro, Director of the National Biologics Facility and Program Director for the CEPI-funded Vaccine Rapid Response pipeline at the University of Queensland. "As we are seeing, every day matters in our response to the COVID-19 outbreak and we are hopeful this approach will be enabling for future vaccine production."

Additionally, GenScript Biotech Corporation announced in early February that its researchers have successfully screened and identified antibodies for COVID-19 in less than 24 hours with the Beacon platform. This process usually takes three months using traditional hybridoma antibody screening. This is a huge breakthrough in fighting outbreaks faster and finding preventive and therapeutic treatment, specifically for Coronavirus.

About Berkeley Lights

Here at Berkeley Lights, we think cells are awesome! Cells are capable of manufacturing cures for diseases, fibers for clothing, energy in the form of biofuels, and food proteins for nutrition. So the question is, if nature is capable of manufacturing the products we need in a scalable way, why aren't we doing more of this? Well, the answer is that with the solutions available today, it is hard. It takes a long time to find the right cell for a specific job, costs lots of money, and if you have picked a suboptimal cell line, has a very low process yield. Berkeley Lights has the complete solution to find the best cells by functionally screening and recovering individual cells for antibody discovery, cell line development, T cell analysis, and synthetic biology. Our proprietary technology and Beacon and Lightning platforms accelerate the rate you can discover and develop cell-based products in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of conventional, legacy research methods. Using our tools and solutions, scientists can find the best cells, the first time they look. For more information, visit www.berkeleylights.com .

Berkeley Lights' Beacon and Lightning platforms and Culture Station Instrument are:

For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

Press Contact

[email protected]

SOURCE Berkeley Lights, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.berkeleylights.com/


The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield plunged to a fresh record low on Friday as investors dumped riskier assets and searched for safer options amid the coronavirus outbreak. The benchmark rate traded at 1.116%, marking the first time ever it traded below 1.2%. The 2-year rate slid to 0.874%, its lowest level since Nov. 2016. Yields move inversely to bond prices, which are rising as purchases surge. The 10-year yield has tumbled more than 30 basis points this week alone as the massive sell-off in stocks intensified. (A basis point is 0.01%.)

Treasurys

Concerns about the global economic impact of the coronavirus have dented investor sentiment this week. The death toll in China from the virus has topped 2,700. New Zealand and Nigeria reported their first coronavirus cases overnight. In Iran, the number of cases has grown to nearly 400. The outbreak sent investors fleeing equities in favor of Treasurys, which have traditionally been a safer alternative to stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were headed for their biggest one-week losses since the financial crisis. Yields tumbled as the Fed signaled late Friday it might be willing to support the economy if necessary. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank is monitoring the coronavirus for risks it poses. "The fundamentals of the U.S. economy remain strong," Powell said in a mid-day statement. "However, the coronavirus poses evolving risks to economic activity. The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring developments and their implications for the economic outlook. We will use our tools and act as appropriate to support the economy." The Dow tumbled another 1,000 points at its low on Friday, bringing its losses this week to nearly 4,000 points. The 30-stock benchmark plummeted nearly 1,200 points on Thursday  its biggest one-day point drop ever  closing in correction territory along with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite.
Members of the CBS Primary community joined Ireland Womens Rugby Captain Ciara Griffin at the Ashe Hotel last week to launch the schools Who want to be a thousandaire event. Photo by Joe Hanley

CBS Primary school are to host a 'Who Wants to be a Thousandaire?' quiz night to raise funds for a new astro turf play area.

The event takes place on Friday, March 20 at Ballyroe Heights Hotel. Guests are promised a thrilling night and a chance to win a thousand Euro each for eight lucky contestants who will be picked randomly from the audience.

"We are astounded with the fantastic response from all of the local companies who have come on board to support us. We'll promote them on the night and they'll remain on our directory of services for the long term. It's important for us to give back to the community that support us and be mindful to shop local," said Principal Denis Coleman

The event was launched last week by Ireland Women's Rugby captain Ciara Griffin who is a teacher in the school. Those at the launch had a sneak preview of the show and a taste of what lies in store on the big night.

Tickets for the event are available from the school now.

As they are expected to sell out well in advance, people are encouraged to purchase tickets early to avoid disappointment as they won't be available on the night.

The school is also reaching out to local businesses and past pupils who might wish to support the event. They can contact the school at cbsprimary1000aire@gmail.com or by calling 087-7634877.
Indian Coast Guard's offshore patrol vessel 'Varad' was commissioned by Union Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya here on Friday.

The 98-metre long ship has been built by Larsen and Toubro Ltd at its yard at Kattupalli near here.

The vessel fitted with state-of-the-art navigation and communication equipment was commissioned by the Minister in the presence of Coast Guard Director General K Natarajan, Chennai Port Trust Chairman P Raveendran and senior government officials at the Chennai Port Trust here.

Mandaviya also unveiled a plaque on the ship marking the commissioning ceremony.

Earlier, he was accorded a warm welcome by Coast Guard personnel at Chennai Port.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister said Coast Guard effectively establishes its presence for country's safety and that of the fishermen if there is any disaster in the sea like oil spill.

"Every year one lakh vessels pass through Indian seas. East or West on the shipping route, Coast Guard's role is to guide vessels, assist (them) during disaster," he said.

The commissioning of 'Varad' into service would enhance the Coast Guard's capability besides strengthening the country's security, he said.

It is the fifth in the series of seven offshore patrol vessels for which L&T had bagged a contract from the Defence Ministry in 2015 valued at Rs 1,432 crore.

The Minister also a shared some images of him taking part in the commissioning ceremony on his official twitter page.

"Attended the commissioning ceremony of OPV-5 Varad at Chennai Port Trust. An exponential growth of shipbuilding industry is perceived, contributing immensely towards the vision of #MakeinIndia. A momentous occasion for both Coast Guard and L&T Shipyard," he tweeted.

L&T Shipbuilding Ltd Chairman S Kannan said the ship underwent extensive trials ahead of is commissioning.

Coast Guard Director General K Natarajan said the commissioning of the vessel succeeds the previous generation of ICGS 'Varad' which was in service for 28 years.

He said 90 per cent of the funding allotted had been spent on indigenisation of the vessels.

Later talking to reporters, he said the vessel can go up to 10,000 kms non-stop and had many multi-mission capabilities.

"On March 15, the first twin engine helicopter is going to be handed over (to Coast Guard by HAL). Even that can land on this ship. That is the kind of power," he said.

He said there were 61 ships for Coast Guard under various levels of construction at public and private shipyards.

"Our target is to have 200 ships for 2025 and we are moving towards that goal. We are also moving towards 100 aircraft. We have 65 (aircraft) right now," he said.

"The stronger the Coast Guard, the borders are protected and economy of the country will develop significantly," he said.

'Varad' is a projection of the Coast Guard's will and commitment which is 'to serve and protect' the maritime interests of the country.

The vessel is equipped with 30-mm and 12.7 mm guns.

Some of the special features include Integrated Bridge System, Automated Power Management System and high power external firefighting system among others.

The vessel can carry two engine light helicopters with night flying capabilities.

The ship carries four high-speed boats including two rigid hull inflatable boats for swift boarding operations, search and rescue, law enforcement and maritime patrol.

The ship propelled by twin engines is capable of achieving maximum speed of 26 knots and endurance of 5,000 nautical miles.

The vessel is currently based at Paradip under the Commander Coast Guard Region (North East). The ship has 11 officers and 91 men.

Commandant Pintu Bag is the commanding officer of 'ICGS Varad'.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bhubaneswar, Feb 28 : Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said that the eastern region needs more focus to fast track its development as he chaired the 24th meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council here.

The meeting was attended by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as Vice Chairman and host, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Jharkhand Finance Minister Ramesh Oraon and senior officers from the Central and state governments.

Shah hoped that the meeting would be a fruitful meeting where all the issues having Centre-state and inter-state ramifications will be resolved with consensus.

He stressed that according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision, after due deliberations, decisions taken by consensus should be implemented to further strengthen the federal structure of the country.

The Home Minister also expressed his satisfaction at usefulness of Zonal Council mechanism and informed that more than 70 per cent issues have been resolved based on the recent meetings of the Zonal Councils and remaining issues are also under resolution.

While Patnaik raised the issue of increase in royalty on coal, Banerjee raised the issue of delay in payments of GST proceeds and devolution of funds.

Nitish Kumar sought formulation of a National Silt Management Policy to take care of floods in Ganga river.

The council also discussed the issues related Phulbari Dam under the agreement of 1978 signed by Bihar and West Bengal on Upper Mahananda Water Scheme, the extension of Nuapada-Gunupur-Therubali Rail Link Project in northern Odisha, determination of pension liability between Bihar and Jharkhand, use of state government land by coal companies, land transfer by CPSUs for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), and speedy investigation of cases of sexual offence/rape against women and children.

Prevention of cattle smuggling/illegal transportation of cattle to the Indo-Bangladesh border, lack of telecom and bank connectivity in Odisha, illegal cultivation and trading of hemp/cannabis in Odisha, and inadequate funding and delayed land-related issues of petroleum projects were discussed.

Out of the 48 items discussed, 40 were resolved in the meeting.
Last night on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Bad Bunny was both a musical guest and interviewee, sitting down to reveal the artwork for his upcoming album, Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana. The new record is set for release at midnight tonight, but it's what Bad Bunny did during his musical segment that has the internet buzzing.

Related | Bad Bunny Just Hits Different

"Mataron a Alexa, no a un hombre con falda" ("They killed Alexa, not a man in a skirt") is trending on social media after Bad Bunny wore a shirt bearing the phrase during his performance of "ignorantes" with Sech. It references the murder of Alexa Negron Luciano, a homeless trans woman from Puerto Rico who has been misgendered in news reports of her death. Alexa was just 27 years old when she was gunned down in the headlights of a car  a video of the incident was posted to social media  after being publicly harassed at a fast food restaurant earlier in the day.

While Governor Wanda Vazquez told the press that Alexa's murder would be investigated as a hate crime, the circumstances reflect the unfortunate reality that transgender and non-binary people living in the United States face prejudice and violence on a daily basis.

Bad Bunny's being applauded for the tribute, and there are ways you can support the cause, too. The Sylvia Rivera Law Project is a great resource to donate to, and offers legal services to trans women to insure that "all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence." Those interested in learning more can visit their website.
A woman who curtailed her career as a lawyer so she could look after her children has been awarded 400,000 in compensation from her estranged husband following the breakdown of their marriage.

Mr Justice Moor gave the ruling following a private family court trial in London where he decided that the pair, who were married for nearly a decade and had two children together, should split their assets of just under 10million.

But the judge added that the woman, who was educated at Cambridge University, should also be awarded 400,000 for curtailing her legal career for the good of the family.

Mr Justice Moor (pictured) gave the ruling following a private family court trial in London where he decided that the pair, who were married for nearly a decade and had two children together, should split their assets of just under 10million

He justified his decision after stating that there had been 'relationship-generated disadvantage' as the husband, who was also a lawyer, was still able to enjoy a 'stellar' career.

The couple, who live in London and are both solicitors in the 40s, cannot be identified in media reports of the case.

What is relationship-generated disadvantage? Compensation for relationship-generated disadvantage is financial relief paid on divorce, nullity or judicial separation. It is most often applied when one party has given up a lucrative career to care for children. The compensation recognises that the individual may have seriously damaged their own ability to earn an independent living for the greater good of the family. Even if their future needs have been generously met, it may be that they are entitled to look to the other party in the relationship for a share of their surplus income to be paid by way of compensation.

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Mr Justice Moor said: '[The woman] viewed herself as the parent who would take primary responsibility for the children.

'The husband's career took precedence.

'I accept that it is unusual to find significant relationship-generated disadvantage that may lead to a claim for compensation but I am clear that this is one such case.

'I have come to the conclusion that an appropriate sum to award for relationship-generated disadvantage, over and above her half share of the assets, is the sum of 400,000.'

Lawyer Jane Keir, who is based at law firm Kingsley Napley and represented the woman, said after the ruling: 'We are delighted to have secured a successful outcome for our client.

'As a talented lawyer, our client sacrificed a potentially lucrative career for her family and to care of the children and we are pleased that Mr Justice Moor agreed.

'Although Mr Justice Moor has made clear this decision should not open the floodgates to a raft of relationship generated disadvantage claims, the judgment affirms that in truly exceptional circumstances the principle of compensation still exists in family law, and rightly so.

'In theory, this would apply to whichever partner steps back in their career putting family ahead of ambition and earning power.'
New Delhi: After four years, Google has added five new languages to its Translate service. As the official blog notes, Google Translate now offers support for five more languages including Kinyarwanda, Odia (Oriya), Tatar, Turkmen, and Uyghur, which are reportedly spoken by more than 75 million people worldwide.

The latest addition takes the total capabilities of Google Translate to 108 languages.

Google uses machine learning technology coupled with inputs from the Google Translate Community for languages without a lot of web content.
Azerbaijan today opened fire at Koti village of Armenias Tavush Province, as head of Koti village Felix Melikyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

According to him, the gunshots were fired around noon. I cant state an exact hour, but it was around noon. The gunshots were fired at the village and the military posts and ended after an hour, he said.

According to Melikyan, nobody is injured, and no villagers property has suffered damages. I dont have any information about damages at this moment, and nobody is injured. They fire gunshots that either strike a wall or elsewhere. Its a big village, he said.
WASHINGTON - March is crunch time for Democratic presidential candidates, with a nominee likely to emerge over the next several weeks, if not sooner.

Nearly two-thirds of the partys national delegates are up for grabs in a 30-day time period starting with Saturdays South Carolina primary. The biggest prizes come on Tuesday, when 1,344 delegates will be at stake in 14 states and American Samoa.

If one candidate can emerge from Super Tuesday with a significant lead in the delegate count, it would be very difficult for anyone to catch up. If that same candidate racks up big victories the following two weeks, when 10 more states and the Northern Mariana Islands have contests, the race would be all but over.

Bernie Sanders is the clear front-runner after winning New Hampshire and Nevada, and essentially tying with Pete Buttigieg in Iowa. If any of the other candidates hope to stop him, they have to start now.

Starting with Super Tuesday, we shift from the momentum race to the delegate race, Virginia Tech political scientist Caitlin Jewitt said in an email. She said during the next month, if Sanders can rapidly amass delegates and expand his delegate lead, it is more likely that his competitors will begin to see his nomination as inevitable and withdraw from the race.

It takes 1,991 pledged delegates to win the Democratic nomination on the first ballot at the partys national convention this summer. The first three contests yielded only a handful of delegates, giving Sanders 45. Hes followed by Buttigieg with 25 delegates, Joe Biden with 15, Elizabeth Warren with eight and Amy Klobuchar with seven.

The bustling field helps Sanders, and its going to get more crowded on Tuesday, when former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg is on ballots for the first time.

Democrats award delegates proportionally, and candidates must get at least 15% of the vote, either statewide or in individual congressional districts, to win delegates. The system rewards top candidates in a crowded field and then makes it hard to catch them once the field shrinks.

Heres why: In a crowded field, several candidates will get votes but not enough to break the 15% threshold. That leaves more delegates for the top candidates. For example, in Nevada, Sanders got 47% of the vote and 67% of the delegates  a total of 24. Thats because Warren and Buttigieg won votes but not enough to get many delegates. Buttigieg ended up with three delegates, and Warren left Nevada with none.

Given Sanders strength in the national polls, the next 30 days could deliver him the nomination, said Louisiana State University political scientist Josh Darr. If other candidates dont drop out, he will have a clear plurality of delegates by April, and it will be very difficult for the party to pick someone else, even if there is a contested convention in Milwaukee.

Buttigiegs campaign is already conceding defeat on Super Tuesday, saying the map, which includes huge states such as California and Texas, favours Sanders. In a memo to supporters this week, Buttigieg campaign manager Mike Schmuhl said the campaigns goal is to keep Sanders from building an insurmountable lead.

Bernie Sanders will be the delegate leader after the March 3rd contests, but whether that makes him the prohibitive nominee is highly dependent on Petes performance, said the Buttigieg memo. If Sanders expected delegate lead is not held within 350 delegates coming out of Super Tuesday, it helps solidify his pathway to becoming the nominee.

If Buttigieg is correct, and Sanders does come out of Super Tuesday with the most delegates, Buttigiegs campaign says it hopes to catch Sanders in the contests that follow Super Tuesday. It wouldnt be easy.

If one candidate builds a big delegate lead, the same proportional system that helped the front-runner build that lead in a crowded field makes it hard to catch him or her as the field narrows. Thats because even if the front-runner loses a contest, he or she is still likely to win a significant number of delegates. This is what happened in 2008, when Barack Obama defeated Hillary Clinton in a primary battle that lasted until June.

Obama built a small delegate lead on Super Tuesday, then sealed the nomination by winning 11 straight contests over the following two weeks. After that, Clinton won some big states, including Pennsylvania and Ohio, but she barely made a dent in Obamas delegate lead.

The states following Super Tuesday, including Michigan on March 10 and Florida, Illinois and Ohio on March 17, offer an additional bonus for the winners.

In every Democratic primary, most of the delegates are awarded based on votes in individual congressional districts. In the states voting on March 10 and 17, most of the congressional districts have an odd number of delegates. That means if you win a congressional district, you are guaranteed win at least one more delegate than your opponent. By comparison, in districts with an even number of delegates, the top two finishers are much more likely to win the same number of delegates.

One delegate might seem like a small victory, but the delegates add up as the votes are tallied in hundreds of congressional districts.

That March window  particularly the part between Super Tuesday and St. Patricks Day  is probably the most crucial, said political scientist Josh Putnam, who runs the delegate-oriented website Frontloading HQ.

___

Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, Ground Game.
Brett Klein was named senior underwriter, and will be based in Hartford, CT. Klein joins Corvus from Chubb, where he was involved in the companys cyber and tech E&O. In his new role with Corvus, Klein will focus on working with accounts within Corvus Select  a program designed especially for SMEs.

Were thrilled to have Courtney and Brett on the team. They are both knowledgeable, well-respected cyber underwriters with substantial broker networks, commented Corvus head of cyber underwriting Mike Karbassi. With an expanded and talented team, we look forward to growing our book of business across the entire country.

We have found that the technology we create at Corvus does not only empower brokers and policyholders  our AI- and data-driven tools also make for a more rewarding career environment for underwriters, stated Corvus founder and CEO Philip Edmundson.

Edmundson also noted that thanks to CrowBar  Corvuss proprietary online platform, which automates the management of small accounts  underwriters can focus on larger deals while serving their brokers entire portfolios of accounts.
New Delhi/IBNS: Amid severe criticisms over their role to control the deadly violence in the national capital, the Delhi Police on Friday got its new commissioner as Indian Police Service (IPS) officer SN Shrivastava assumed the post replacing Amulya Patnaik, media reports said.

Patnaik will retire on Saturday.

Shrivastava, a 1985 batch officer of thr Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory of AGMUT cadre, has been given the additional charge as the Delhi Police chief.

This comes days after Shrivastava was made Special Commissioner (Law and Order) by the Home Ministry after bringing him from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to put an end to the violence over the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which aims to provide Indian citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi but not Muslim refugees who came to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh due to religious persecution before 2015.

The Delhi Police's role came under the scanner as 39 people have died over the violence which had kept the national capital on edge since Monday.

The violence, which continued from Monday morning to Tuesday night, has left over 200 people injured.

The clash though initially started between the supporters and protestors of the CAA, it soon turned into a battle between the two religious communities in the northeast Delhi.

Senior officials of Delhi Police on Thursday evening announced to constitute two Special Investigation Teams (SITs) to probe the deadly communal violence.

According to reports, these SITs, which have been formed under Delhi Police's Crime Branch, will be headed by DCP Joy Tirkey and DCP Rajesh Deo while the activities of the two SITs will be supervised by Delhi Crime Branch's Additional CP B.K. Singh.

"All the cases connected with the North East Delhi violence have been forwarded to these two SITs which will take over the probe immediately," a senior Delhi Police official told IBNS.

"So far, as many as 48 FIRs have been registered by police in different police stations in North East Delhi in connection with the violence and there are possibilities to lodge more FIRs as the investigation is on," the official said.

"All these FIRs have been transferred to these two Special Investigation Teams," he added.

Sources in Delhi Police said that investigators are currently gathering inputs from local sources and quizzing eyewitnesses while more than 1,000 CCTV and social media footage of the violence are under examination.

Meanwhile, multiple video clips, the authenticity of which have not been examined by IBNS independently, have gone viral on social media platforms which show a man resembling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor (now suspended by the party) Tahir Hussain leading an attack from a house's rooftop during the Delhi violence.

Though Hussain said he was innocent, a case has been filed against the councillor in connection with the alleged murder of Intelligence Bureau (IB) official Ankit Sharma during the ongoing Delhi violence.

He also faces charges related to spreading of violence and arson in parts of north east Delhi.

An FIR has been registered under section 302 IPC (Murder) at Dayalpur police station and name of AAP Councillor Md. Tahir Hussain has been mentioned in the 'Details' section of the FIR, soruces told IBNS.

The AAP has suspended Hussain from the primary membership of the party.

Hussain will remain suspended until the charges against him are cleared.



(Image Credit: Screenshot grab)
Officials wearing protective attire work to diagnose people with suspected symptoms of the new coronavirus at a hospital in Daegu, South Korea, on Feb. 26, 2020. (Kim Hyun-tae/Yonhap via AP)

Airlines Canceling Flights to South Korea, China as Coronavirus Spreads

Airlines are canceling flights to South Korea and China as the new coronavirus continues spreading in the Asian countries, as well as nations on every continent outside Antarctica.

Delta Airlines said that it was canceling all flights slated to go between Seoul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, starting on Feb. 29 until April 30, due to global health concerns related to coronavirus (COVID-19).

The new virus, which emerged in China in December 2019, has rapidly spread around the world and the number of cases in some countries, including South Korea, have skyrocketed in recent days.

Delta is also cutting the number of flights between Seoul and Atlanta, Detroit, and Seattle to five times a week, down from 28 a week.

New Delta flights were planned between Seoul and Manila, the capital of the Philippines, but the start of the new flights have been delayed from March 29 to May 1.

Hawaiian Airlines said it will suspend flights between Honolulu and Seoul starting on March 3 through April 30, citing a spike in COVID-19 cases in South Korea.

Hawaiian CEO Peter Ingram, in a statement, described the suspension as prudent given the escalation of COVID-19 in South Korea and the impact the illness has had on demand for leisure travel from that country.

A Hawaiian Airlines plane in a file photograph. (Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images)

We will continue to closely monitor the situation and extend our support for public health efforts to contain the virus. We apologize for this inconvenience and are working to support impacted guests, he added.

South Koreas Air Busan announced this week that its cutting service to cities across Asia and Oceania. Flights to cities including Taipei, Hanoi, and Guam were being suspended through different dates, but in some cases until late March. Air New Zealand said Wednesday it was suspending flights between Auckland and Seoul from March 8 until June 30.

Air Arabia, Air Seoul, Bamboo Airways, Korea Air, TWay Air, Philippine Airlines, and Singapore Airlines also announced reduced or canceled flights on various routes, including to cities in South Korea, China, and/or Iran.

These restrictions are in relation to the coronavirus situation, in the interest of public health and safety, Philippine Airlines said in a statement.

A number of airlines scrapped flights to and from China last month or earlier in February over the new virus. United Airlines said on Jan. 28 that it was suspending some flights to China due to a decline in demand amid the coronavirus outbreak.

American Airlines announced in mid-February that it was extending previously announced suspensions to and from mainland China and Hong Kong from airports in Dallas and Los Angeles because of the reduction in demand.
Despite their constant denial to all rumours of a marriage soon, a fresh report suggests Bollywood actors Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal have applied for registration of their marriage and their representative has confirmed the wedding will happen by April end.

A Mid Day report claimed to be in possession of the application for marriage registration at the Bandra Family Court.

Responding to the report, the spokesperson of the two actors told Hindustan Times, Currently, only the date for the registration has been taken. As per process, a three-month window is valid [for the wedding to take place] from the date that has been allotted. The couple is working towards an official registration in the last week of April, post which the celebrations will follow. All we can say is that its a happy occasion, and all the parties involved are elated.

Also read: Dia Mirza threatens Kapil Sharma with a slap as Thappad team comes visiting, watch video

Mid Day quoted a source as saying, The duo submitted their application on February 15, 2020. So, as per the marriage registration rules, the wedding can take place any day post March 15. Considering Ali and Richa have shoots lined up, they hope to wrap up their commitments by March 31, and dedicate April to their wedding functions. The preparations are on in full swing. Their shaadi will take place mid-April, followed by the court wedding in Mumbai.

An earlier Hindustan Times report said Richa and Ali will get married on April 15. It will be followed by a court marriage and a reception. Ali and Richas families are from Lucknow and Delhi, respectively, and they want all of them to be a part of their joyful day. The Lucknow reception will be on April 18. The reception in Mumbai will be for close friends and the date for which has not been locked yet. Ali and Richa have been checking out venues. In all likelihood, they will choose April 21 for Mumbai reception, sources told HT.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
The is the hair-raising moment a motorcycle rider almost hit an SUV and another rider on the opposite lane as it approached a narrow curve. The incident happened at a highway in La Union, Philippines on February 16 afternoon. Rider Michael Boguen said that they could have hit him if he wasn't driving slow that time. He said: "I was on my way to Baguio City when it happened. We should practice defensive driving because we never know if others do."
Looks like heartbeat or ECG wave: Twitterati mocks Trump's signature on Sabarmati Ashram diary

Twitterati has fun with memes after Ivanka Trump's photoshopped images at Taj Mahal goes viral

Twitterati fume over Hand Sanitizers being sold at Rs 999 on Flipkart

How Twitter reacted to news that PM Modi will address nation today

Twitterati angry after US journalist mocks Indian reporter at Trump presser

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Feb 28: A viral video of New York Post journalist mocking an Indian reporter during the conference where US President Donald Trump is seen addressing the media surfaced on various social media platform which has left netizens angry.

The incident happened when Trump was addressing the media at a conference on the outbreak of coronavirus at the White House, Washington DC on February 26.

In the viral clip, an Indian journalist can be seen raising a question about India-US relationships post Trump's two-day visit to the country. While the Indian reporter was questioning Trump, the New York Post reporter, who was sitting behind him, was seen making faces at him.

President Trump returns to US after 'very successful India trip

Taking to Twitter, Damon imani shared the video with the caption,''Who is that reporter in the green mocking an Indian reporter? I bet she thinks Trump is racist."

Who is that reporter in the green mocking an Indian reporter? I bet she thinks Trump is racist. pic.twitter.com/YtGv32XOUe  Damon imani (@damonimani) February 27, 2020

Within no time, the video went viral and Twitter was left furious over the behavior of the American journalist, who is now identified as, Ebony Bowden.

Several users accused her of being 'racist' and for 'mocking' the reporter's accent.

Damon Imani, who shared the video on Twitter, took to the same thread to reveal that the Indian reporter as Raghubir Goyal.

"He has been a White House reporter since President Carter and he speaks better English than most of us speak Hindi," he wrote in a tweet.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

Shoutout to Mr. Goyal.

He has been a White House reporter since President Carter & he speaks better English than most of us speak Hindi. pic.twitter.com/8hOMfBbu2j  Damon imani (@damonimani) February 27, 2020

"Racism for thee, not for me."--MSM  Far From the Madding Crowd (@SavannahDoc412) February 27, 2020

I saw that too (multicultural and multi-lingual myself). I actually believe this kind of liberal racism has exploded since I left the DNC years back. Its sad!   Jay Riley   (@WriteInRiley) February 27, 2020

I fail to see what is so amusing about the man. She did manage to make a fool of herself however.  Jamie James (@SaraBri17200732) February 27, 2020

How embarrassing for the @nypost and @ebonybowden I hope they both issue apologies to this man. #EbonyBowden   SloaneRanger  (@_SloaneRanger) February 27, 2020

How DISRESPECTFUL! My husband is from India & I NEVER have trouble understanding him or beautiful Indian People. We are accepting to all & a very multicultural family.



Indians are the most peaceful & graceful people. SHAME ON HER



TEAM INDIA ALL THE WAY!!!

YOU India   Tania Pothana (@PothanaTania) February 27, 2020

Another Twitter user also posted a high quality clip from the @WhiteHouse Live Feed :

Anyone interested in the actual question and @realDonaldTrumps response, here is a high quality clip from the @WhiteHouse Live Feed (recorded on my phone): pic.twitter.com/pfQHCF48Lv  CHERI  (@heycheri) February 27, 2020

wow, I get the vibe that she's a terrible person to everyone too. Probably the mean girl in High school  OldSchoolROTFLMAO (@covfefeshadila) February 27, 2020
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Feb.28

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Turkmen deputy prime minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Rashid Meredov is expected to visit Doha (Qatar) February 29, Trend reports Feb.28 referring to Altyn Asyr TV.

The aspects of political, commercial-economic and cultural-humanitarian cooperation development between the countries will be subject of the negotiations.

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov stated that Turkmen-Qatar relations bear traditionally friendly, progressive character. He also noted presence of huge prospects for expanding the productive long-term bilateral cooperation, clarifying the cooperation priorities in the light of modern realities.

Turkmenistan is interested in joining Qatars major financial and investment companies in implementing the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, the construction of which was launched in December 2015.

Qatari Al Qamra Holding and the Turkmen government earlier signed a memorandum of understanding on financing potential projects in Turkmenistan. In this regard, the State Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of Turkmenistan held a presentation of major investment projects implemented in the country for the delegation of Qatar, led by the head of Al Qamra Holding, Hamad Saleh Al Kamra.

The parties paid special attention to expanding the domestic market, introducing innovations and increasing the volume of exports of goods. Among the cooperation priorities - energy sector, transport and communications sector, chemical and medical industries.
Paulina Porizkova, with Ric Ocasek in 2018, says she feels betrayed he removed her from his will. (Photo: Taylor Hill/Getty Images for The Art Students League of New York)

Paulina Porizkova admits that being cut from estranged husbands Ric Ocaseks will hurt.

When it was first revealed that the Cars frontman, who died suddenly in September, removed his model wife from his will  stingingly writing he was doing so because she has abandoned me  Porizkova said she had known about it for months and insisted that he didnt really feel abandoned. However, now shes revealing that it hurt deeply.

It made the grieving process really, really tricky, Porzikova said in a preview of her interview with CBS Sunday Morning. I would love to be able to be sad and miss him. And not also feel this incredible hurt and betrayal.

While Porzikova and Ocasek, who married in 1989, separated in 2017, they still made public appearances together and never legally divorced. She told CBS that they still lived in the same home when he died.

Related: Ric Ocasek Cut Wife Paulina Porizkova From Will Month Before He Died

Porzikova was the one who found him dead as she was caring for him after an unspecified surgery. He died in his sleep from heart disease  or, more specifically, hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, per the medical examiner.

Of finding him that fateful day, she said it was the worst moment of my life.

In November, Page Six reported that Ocaseks will filing listed his assets as $5 million in copyrights, with $100,000 in tangible personal property and $15,000 in cash. Four of his six sons  including the two with Porizkova  were included in the will, but two others werent.

The will was signed on Aug. 28  weeks before his death  and in it, he noted: I have made no provision for my wife Paulina Porizkova (Paulina) as we are in the process of divorcing... Even if I should die before our divorce is final  Paulina is not entitled to any elective share  because she has abandoned me.

The executor of Ocaseks will was his business manager, Mario Testani. Porizkova said he is also her business advisor and alerted, just days after Ocasek died, that she was cut.

Story continues

In Sundays interview, Porzikova also talked about her willingness to post makeup-free images on social media.

"I actually bona fide lost a job because I did one of my, 'Look at me. This is my face without makeup' [posts], she said. And I've never used Botox or fillers.

Though she doesnt judge women who do, she admits she used to.

"I used to go, 'Oh, you know, I can't believe anybody's injecting themselves and changing the way they look, she admitted. And now I think, 'No, you know, it's really freaking hard to be a woman. And it's really freaking hard to be a woman over 50. Because we really get dismissed from the table.

She added, "We have, like, a weird zone between, you're J.Lo looking fabulous, and then Betty White. And there's kind of, like, a dead zone between the two. So, I'm trying to fill that dead zone."

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WASHINGTON  House Democrats are scrutinizing whether President Trump or his appointees have interfered at the Justice Department for political reasons, a committee chairman said Friday, requesting documents and interviews with 15 U.S. attorneys related to the cases of three Trump associates and a review of the F.B.I.s Russia inquiry.

Among those singled out for interviews in a letter from Democrats to Attorney General William P. Barr were four career prosecutors who quit in protest after senior officials intervened to reverse their recommendation and suggest a shorter sentence for Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime Trump confidant, in line with what the president had publicly demanded. The episode ignited long-smoldering fears that Mr. Trumps personal and political interests were tilting the scales of justice.

These circumstances are deeply troubling, Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the Judiciary Committee chairman, wrote in the letter to Mr. Barr. Although you serve at the presidents pleasure, you are also charged with the impartial administration of our laws. In turn, the House Judiciary Committee is charged with holding you to that responsibility.

The requests are the first major return to politically charged oversight matters by the Judiciary Committee since it helped late last year to impeach Mr. Trump. But with House leaders intent on shifting attention toward domestic policy legislation they believe will help preserve their majority in this falls election, it was not clear how far Democrats would be willing to escalate a likely fight to gain access to the evidence they were seeking.
Washington: At first glance, the two men look almost like old friends, grinning for a camera as they sit together on a couch drinking coffee.

But they make a very unlikely pair.

Anas Haqqani and Timothy Weeks meet in the airport in Doha, Qatar.

One is Timothy Weeks, the Australian academic kidnapped at gunpoint in Kabul in 2016 who then spent more than three years as a Taliban hostage. The other is Anas Haqqani, brother of the leader of the Haqqani network, an extremist group allied with the Taliban, who was held in Afghan custody for several years.

The two men's fates were inextricably linked last year when they were both released as part of a prisoner swap that freed Haqqani and two other high-level commanders in exchange for Weeks and Kevin King, an American citizen.
Ruling represents a vindication of Trump directive for current, ex-officials to defy Congress requests on impeachment.

In a victory for President Donald Trump, a US appeals court on Friday dismissed a Democratic-led congressional panels lawsuit seeking to enforce a subpoena for testimony from former White House Counsel Donald McGahn.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit endorsed the Trump administrations argument that the court had no place in settling the high-stakes dispute between the executive and legislative branches of the US government.

In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel overturned a judges November ruling that the House of Representatives Judiciary Committees April subpoena to McGahn was lawful.

The ruling represented a vindication of an administration directive for current and former officials to defy congressional requests for testimony and documents on impeachment and a broad range of other subjects.

The committee had sought testimony from McGahn, who left his post in October 2018, about Trumps efforts to impede former special counsel Robert Muellers investigation that documented Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

A seat and name card are set for former White House lawyer Don McGhan [Mandel Ngan/AFP]

The Justice Department, in arguing that federal courts should stay out of disputes between the executive and legislative branches, said Congress has other ways to address an administrations intransigence including withholding funding for the government and the ultimate power of impeachment.

McGahn defied the subpoena in May. The committee sued to enforce it in August, a month before the House launched its impeachment inquiry against the Republican president centring on his request that Ukraine investigate Democratic political rival Joe Biden and his son.

The House impeached Trump in December. The Senate acquitted him this month.
Australia would be forced to keep dangerous criminals, including drug dealers and child sex offenders, if Jacinda Ardern were to have her way.

The New Zealand prime minister had a tit-for-tat exchange with her Australian counterpart Scott Morrison on Friday.

The pair shared an awkward standoff as they rowed about the deportation of New Zealanders from Australia during a press conference in Sydney.

Ms Ardern criticised Australia's deportation laws which send Kiwi criminals back to New Zealand no matter how long they have lived overseas.

Speaking at a press conference in Sydney on Friday, Ms Ardern criticised the coalition's deportation of Kiwi criminals back to New Zealand (pictured with Scott Morrison)

Ms Ardern has insisted many of the criminals have 'almost no connection' to New Zealand.

But that would leave Australia stuck with dangerous and violent offenders, 40 per cent of whom go on to re-offend.

More than 1,000 New Zealanders have been deported from Australia since 2014 when changes were made to the Migration Act.

Drug offences, assault and child sex offences are the most common charges that result in deportation.

The law means even if an individual is an Australian permanent resident, and has lived and worked in the country for decades, they can still be deported.

In the name of national security, they can be ejected on 'bad character' grounds if they are sentenced to 12 months or more in prison.

New Zealanders are thought to be the largest group to have had their visas cancels and be held in Australian immigration detention centres.

AFL superstar Dustin Martin (pictured, left) with his father Shane (right) who was deported to New Zealand

AFL superstar Dustin Martin's drug-trafficker dad

The ex-bikie father of AFL superstar Dustin Martin was deported from Australia for a second time on February 17, after trying to re-enter the country by claiming he has Aboriginal heritage.

Shane Martin, was first sent packing in 2016 with officials citing his criminal record, which included drug trafficking and assault charges.

He returned to his home country of New Zealand, where he had remained until Sunday night when he quietly tried to slip back into Australia with a lawyer in tow.

The 52-year-old reportedly claimed he has a grandmother in Tasmania with indigenous heritage.

At the start of February, the Australian government passed a law which forbids any Aboriginal person from being deported.

The former Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang president was turned back at the border.

Border Force officials sent him back to New Zealand on the first Qantas flight.

At no stage has he provided any evidence of his indigenous heritage, officials said.

Morehu-Barlow would tell friends and colleagues he was a Polynesian prince

Poll Do you think Australia's deportation laws are too tough? Yes No Do you think Australia's deportation laws are too tough? Yes 484 votes

No 2536 votes Now share your opinion





The $16million fake prince fraudster

A fake Tahitian prince who siphoned $16million from the state government was deported on Thursday after his release from prison.

New Zealander Joel Morehu-Barlow, now 44, spent five years behind bars after he pleaded guilty in 2013 to stealing money from his employer, Queensland Health, over a four year period.

At the time, he was working as a finance officer after climbing the ranks with a fake law degree.

He was sentenced to 14 years behind bars with a non-parole period of five years.

The New Zealander was granted parole in November and released on Thursday. He was immediately deported back to his homeland, where he is expected to live with his mother in Auckland.

He had the initials HRH (His Royal Highness) on a black American Express credit card which he used at Brisbane nightclub Cloudland.

The fraudster knocked back top of the range champagne and tipped waiters $1,000, according to former staff members.

His cash-splashing habits were so outlandish that one Fortitude Valley businessman described it as an economic stimulus package for Brisbane's restaurants, pubs and retailers.

He was able to keep a lavish lifestyle by using the money he siphoned out of Queensland Health

Shaun Wynyard (pictured) had lived in Australia for 20 years

The ice-addicted wife-basher

Shaun Wynyard was deported to New Zealand in 2018, after living in Australia for 20 years.

He was jailed for beating his Australian wife under the influence of the drug ice, and was deported back to Auckland aged 44.

His spouse was assaulted so badly she ended up in hospital.

He was given a 12-month sentence, which meant he was automatically deported under section 501 of the Migration Act.

As he landed back in New Zealand, he told the ABC he was nervous.

'I'm a little bit scared about starting a new life here after 20 years,' he said.

JACINDA ARDERN'S AWKWARD COMMENTS TO SCOTT MORRISON On Friday, in an awkward press conference, the New Zealand leader blasted her Australian counterpart. She accused him of 'testing' the nations' friendships. 'You have deported more than 2,000 individuals,' she said. 'And among them will be genuine Kiwis who do need to learn the consequences of their actions. 'But among those 2,000 are individuals who are too young to become criminals on our watch, they were too young to become patched gang members, too young to be organised criminals. 'We will own our people. We ask that Australia stops exporting theirs. 'We have a simple request  send back Kiwis. Genuine Kiwis. Do not deport your people and your problems.' Advertisement

Emil Tangaroa (pictured) was deported to New Zealand in 2019, having been a member of the Bandido bikie gang

The notorious ex-Bandido bikie

Emil Tangaroa, 32, was deported last year, leaving his fiancee and three children behind.

The heavily tattooed former bikie was one of a gang of 27 who stormed a Gold Coast restaurant in the hunt for a gang rival in 2014.

A brawl broke out inside the Broadbeach venue in front of horrified customers, resulting in a number of arrests.

Furious gang members later made their way to Southport police station and demanded officers release some of their arrested mates.

At the time Tangaroa pleaded guilty to rioting and was sentenced to 150 hours community service.

Just over a year later he took part in a violent home invasion and was arrested again.

In that incident Tangaroa and an accomplice bashed a man in front of his 13-year-old son, demanding money and drug contacts.

The attack was slammed as despicable and cowardly by Cairns Supreme Court judge Jim Henry and Tangaroa was sentenced to four years in jail.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said the boil water notice will remain in effect until at least 7 a.m. Saturday.

The latest water samples need to sit for 18 hours before they can be submitted to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for analysis, he said at a press conference. If the test results show the water is free of bacteria, then the boil water notice could be lifted at that time.

Some Missouri City residents and most Houston residents are under a water boil notice, after a water main break brought parts of the city to a halt, forced the closure of schools and created havoc on an eastside freeway.

The 610 East Loop, from about Clinton Road to Interstate 45, has since reopened in both directions. The freeway, just southwest of where the city-owned pipe burst open about noon on Thursday, was flooded for hours. At least 12 vehicles were disabled.

WATER BOIL SAFETY: What to do and how to stay safe under Houston water boil

Houston's boil order was issued for most of the city around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, when the water pressure dropped below the Texas Commission on Environmental Qualitys required minimum of 20 PSI, according to a city alert.

HoustonChronicle.com: Exclusive drone footage shows aftermath of Houston water line break

Health officials warned the lack of pressure could increase the risk of bacteria. Houston Public Works spokeswoman Erin Jones said the boil order would remain active until further notice.

Friday afternoon, residents in the Missouri City neighborhood of Fonmeadow were advised to boil their water. The Southwest Harris County MUD No. 1 issued the advisory. It is in effect until further notice.

All schools in the Houston Independent School District were closed on Friday because of the water main break, a blessing for some and likely a headache for others.

Dozens of children traversed the landscaped hills of Levy Park in the Upper Kirby area, basking in the sunshine during their unexpected break from school.

Patricia Sullivan, 37, lounged with her bare feet up on a chair in front of her, reading a book and keeping an eye on her 9-year-old.

As a single mom, she had to take an unpaid day off her job to watch her daughter. But she was relieved to be out of the house and enjoying a beautiful day  especially after hearing stories from friends about clogged toilets and no running water the day before.

Its annoying and its gross, she said. It seems pretty disgusting.

Nearby, Peter Muessig said its been business as usual for him, but that his two children were enjoying their day.

We love it! his 6-year-old daughter Emerson interjected. Were not enjoying it, we love it!

Emerson tied her shoelaces, and Muessig, 36, prepared to take her to another spot in the park.

Youve never seen such happy faces when we got the news, he said. HISD couldnt have planned a better day to cancel school.

HISD District 7 Trustee Anne Sung set up shop Friday morning at Marines Empanadas, a Colombian restaurant in west Houston.

She knew that students would be excited to be off school, but she wanted to cram in instructional time for anyone who needed it before end-of-year testing. Sung put out a call online, saying she could tutor anyone at no charge in math and physics.

Just one student had shown up by 1 p.m., but they spent two hours doing algebra.

I thought today might be a day to reach out, because clearly there are students who arent in school, Sung said.

Turner will provide an update on the water main break in east Houston at 3:30 p.m. the city announced early Friday afternoon. Officials from the citys health and public works departments will join Turner for the update.

Texas Medical Center

The Texas Medical Center, which was significantly affected by the water break Thursday, was mostly back to business at usual Friday, though many of the hospitals postponed elective procedures until next week. Memorial Hermann said it brought in truckloads of bottled water and 5,000-gallon water tanks.

The institution still most affected was the Harris Health System, which closed 35 of its clinics "out of abundance of caution for caution for patient and employee safety." In a news release, system officials said that they contacted all patients and rescheduled their appointments and that they expect to resume normal clinic operations Monday. You can find the list of clinics here.

Also in the Houston area, MD Anderson Cancer Center postponed all of Friday's non-emergency patient-care activities at its campuses in the medical center, West Houston and Memorial City, and Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center rescheduled all outpatient elective procedures at its hospital in the medical center. Texas Children's closed two facilities -- its dental and orthodontic clinics.

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Astronomers seem convinced that we have found the second earth that humanity quite desperately needs. A team of astronomers from the University of Cambridge have determined that an exoplanet called K2-18b is right in the middle of a habitable zone in its star system, which means it can possibly hold water. This super earth, is 124 light-years away from the earth we reside on, and is 2.6 times the radius of Earth. This exoplanet was first spotted by NASAs Kepler space telescope in 2015 but at the time, it was difficult to determine the planets potential to host life.

Water vapour has been detected in the atmospheres of a number of exoplanets but, even if the planet is in the habitable zone, that doesn't necessarily mean there are habitable conditions on the surface. To establish the prospects for habitability, it is important to obtain a unified understanding of the interior and atmospheric conditions on the planet - in particular, whether liquid water can exist beneath the atmosphere, says Dr Nikku Madhusudhan of the Cambridge Institute of Astronomy, who led the new research. The K2-18b has a hydrogen-rich atmosphere, and is smaller than Neptune while larger than Earth.

The researchers confirmed the atmosphere to be hydrogen-rich with a significant amount of water vapour. The levels of other chemicals such as methane and ammonia were lower than expected for such an atmosphere, they say. The planet is believed to have an inner core of rock and iron. This research indicates that the layer of hydrogen around the planet is not too thick, which would have made the temperature and the pressure of the water underneath too great to support life. We wanted to know the thickness of the hydrogen envelope  how deep the hydrogen goes, said co-author Matthew Nixon, a PhD student at the Institute of Astronomy. While this is a question with multiple solutions, weve shown that you dont need much hydrogen to explain all the observations together.

This comes after 2019 research on the same K2-18b exoplanet which indicated that there was water vapour detected in the hydrogen-rich atmosphere around the super earth. However, what was not clear at the time was the thickness of the atmosphere layer and the conditions closer to the surface of the planet.
Houston health officials ordered a mandatory boil water notice for the entire city Friday after a break in a pipe that provides 50% of Houston's water on Thursday sent drivers on a flooded freeway scrambling onto the top of their cars.

Restaurants were ordered to cease operations immediately and many schools and business shut down for a second day Friday.

The boil water notice was in effect for the city's entire fresh water system.

This was a major, a major break, Mayor Sylvester Turner said at a Thursday afternoon news conference. As you can see it produced a lot of water and it is still producing a lot of water.

Turner told reporters that private contractors, attempting to repair a minor leak, were moving soil around the 96-inch water main in east Houston when it broke around noon Thursday.

The closer they got to where the leak was occurring, removing the soil, the line simply erupted, Turner said.

He said the 35-year-old pipe provided as much as 50% of the city's water.

Water spills out onto I-610 after a 96-inch water main that supplies water to 40% to 50% of Houston burst while being repaired for a gradual leak on Feb. 27, 2020 in Houston, Texas. Emergency personnel rescued three people out of their vehicles.

Firefighters rescued three people after more than a dozen cars were trapped on the city's 610 East Loop.

Fire chief Samuel Pena also said tanker trucks were deployed around the affected areas of the city because of concern that lower water pressure could disrupt normal firefighting capabilities.

All of Harris County courts were shuttered Friday along with schools in the Houston Independent School District. The University of Houston and Texas Southern University closed Thursday.

In this aerial photo, water is slowly draining from the freeway after a water main break east of the location flooded all lanes, closing the freeway in both directions, at the intersection of 610 and Clinton Drive in east Houston. Businesses and schools shut down after a main line from a plant that supplies water to about half of Houston burst open, submerging vehicles on the flooded freeway. Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020

Four early voting locations were closed until further notice, according to Harris County Clerk Diane Trautman.

When you are dealing with an aging infrastructure, you are going to have these main line breaks, Turner said. And in some cases they are major arteries and can cause a major disruption.

Contributing: Associated Press

Businesses and schools shut down Thursday after a main line from a plant that supplies water to about half of Houston burst open, submerging vehicles on the flooded freeway and prompting emergency officials to deploy tanker trucks to mitigate any fire hazards.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Houston water main break causes flooding, city under boil advisory
Life was limping back to normalcy in some parts of the riot-hit northeast Delhi, with police and paramilitary personnel maintaining strict vigil in view of Friday prayers at mosques.

Police officers said they were also making extra efforts to quell rumours, and holding regular flag marches and interactions in the neighbourhoods of affected areas as confidence-building measures.

In some areas of northeast Delhi, signs of normal life were witnessed with opening of shops. In violence-hit areas also, shops in streets and bylanes were open.

Nearly 7,000 paramilitary forces have been deployed in the affected areas of the northeast district since Monday. Besides, hundreds of Delhi police personnel are on the ground to maintain peace and prevent any untoward incident.

At least 38 were killed and over 200 injured in the communal clashes that broke out in northeast Delhi on Monday after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control The areas affected include Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh, Khureji Khas and Bhajanpura..

The Union Home Ministry had said on Thursday night that no major incident was reported from the northeast district in the past 36 hours, It had said that prohibitory orders imposed under Section 144 would be relaxed for 10 hours in view of improvement in the situation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An image of what the proposed Shannon LNG terminal would look like

An environmental group's challenge over how the 500m Shannon liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and pipeline was included in a list of EU Projects of Community Importance has implications not just for Ireland "but potentially across the EU", the State has told the High Court.

Suzanne Kingston BL, for various State defendants, said the European Commission has been informed of the proceedings, which include a challenge to the validity of Commission decisions, but so far no response has been received from it.

Mr Justice Denis McDonald, who earlier this month granted leave to Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) to bring the case, said he wants it to progress speedily.

The case centres on the decision-making process that lead to inclusion of the project in a list that entitles it to the "most rapid treatment legally possible".

The proposed development is for four liquefied natural gas tanks, jetties to receive ships of LNG and associated works near Tarbert, Co Kerry.
Around 188 Indonesian crew members evacuated from the World Dream cruise ship were transported on Friday to a quarantine zone on an uninhabited island off Java, amid concerns over the spreading COVID-19 illness.

The crew members, including 16 women, were picked up by an Indonesian naval hospital ship, according to officials.

Evacuees were transported to Sebaru island, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the capital, Jakarta, by two boats shortly after the naval hospital ship anchored near the island shortly after 09:30 GMT, where they will spend the next 14 days in quarantine.

They arrived on the island Friday afternoon and taken to the quarantine facility designated for 250 people.

It was originally built as drug rehabilitation site.

Another group of 68 Indonesian crew members evacuated from Diamond Princess cruise ship is expected to arrive on the same facility on Saturday.

They were reported in good health after being quarantined on the cruise ship for 2 weeks.

9 other crew members had tested COVID-19 and remain hospitalised in Japan

Earlier on February, the government decision to quarantine some 238 Indonesia nationals evacuated from Wuhan on the remote Natuna island sparked anger among Indonesia's islanders who staged protests fro days.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 02/27/2020



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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.

expert Dr. Viviana Coles says Brandon Reid 's honeymoon behavior set off alarm bells and she wishes his apology to wife Taylor Dunklin had been more impressive and sincere.During Wednesday night's episode of : Unfiltered, Dr. Viviana -- who matched the five couples starring on Season 10 along with Pastor Calvin Roberson and Dr. Pepper Schwartz -- sat down with Mindy Shiben and Derek Sherman to discuss what has recently aired on the show.Dr. Viviana certainly didn't keep her opinions to herself after watching Brandon "apologize" to Taylor's family and friends at their first housewarming party for his outburst in Panama.Brandon was shown half-heartedly saying sorry for having a temper, saying his focus was in the wrong place at the time because he was stressed."Alarm bells go off when you see what happened on the honeymoon, and I wish his apology had been a little bit better," Dr. Viviana shared."Because it was, like, kind of defensive and, I mean, that would've been his chance of saying, 'I understand all of your concerns. It was terrible. Please forgive me. I'm going to show you.' But it's not, it's kind of like half [an apology], you know?""It is half," Unfiltered host Jamie Otis noted.On the last day of Brandon and Taylor's honeymoon, Brandon had a meltdown while boarding a shuttle outside of their Panama hotel.Brandon was fed up with cameras following him around and believed production was playing him, and when Taylor tried to calm her husband down, he yelled and cursed at her."F-ck you, Taylor. F-ck you!... I'm gonna calm down when I'm in Washington. F-ck y'all," Brandon shouted.Mindy admitted on Unfiltered she was "not okay with Brandon's behavior on the honeymoon," from what she saw.Mindy was among the cast members on the shuttle when Brandon was flipping out."And so, I am a little skeptical of him right now," Mindy said."But it seems like Taylor is really open to forgiving him and looking past that and continuing, so that's awesome if she feels good and they both feel comfortable moving forward. Good for them."When asked for his opinion on the effects of Brandon's little tired, Derek said, "So, I think the most important thing in order to really change any situation, especially if it looks bad, is just being open to other possibilities, other outcomes.""The fact Taylor is so open to actually like [start over with Brandon], 'Let's reset and it could change,' I think, right now, they're on track to changing things.""But I guess time will only really tell," Derek added.Taylor ultimately accepted Brandon's apology and said she wanted to let things go and move forward in their relationship, but she proved that was easier said than done.In the latest episode , Taylor was shown copping an attitude with Brandon, which in turn pushed Brandon away and made him put walls up. However, the couple wasn't seeing eye-to-eye considering Taylor claimed she only had an attitude to begin with because Brandon was avoiding her and not spending time with her.After a tension-filled dinner at home in which the pair argued over Taylor's alleged negative energy and Brandon's alleged passive approach to getting to know his wife, Taylor released an Instagram Stories video that infuriated Brandon.Taylor let all of her followers know she's a single woman and having problems "finding the right man."Taylor said in the video -- which she uploaded during a night out with her girls -- she wanted to find a man who's "over 6'3", has a job, never been to jail, or you know, isn't gay.""I feel like I have the most minimal f-cking requirements to finding a man and not a soul meets them. So, I guess I'll just be single forever," Taylor said in a video.Taylor also wrote on her posting she wants a guy who is "fine as hell" and "has their sanity in check." She also added he "can be any race as long as the [eggplant emoji] right."Brandon found the post very troubling and called it "a disgusting video." Brandon lost all reassurance he was married to someone who was committed to their relationship, and so he moved out of their shared apartment and ignored all of her text messages and calls.Taylor claimed her video had nothing to do with Brandon and it wasn't a big deal, but the damage had already been done. Brandon also said he discovered Taylor had allegedly attempted to appear on multiple reality shows before.Brandon felt he had been "played" on TV and Taylor's actions were "malicious," so he said he was washing his hands of his relationship, especially since Taylor chose not to apologize.'s tenth season also stars Mindy's husband Zach Justice and Derek's wife Katie Conrad as well as Meka Jones Jessica Studer , and Austin Hurd Click here to read jaw-dropping spoilers on how Taylor and Brandon's marriage turned out.Interested in more news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Group
A computer teacher working at a Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC)-run school was held on Wednesday here for allegedly molesting 15 girl students during his sessions, police said.

The 31-year-old accused has been identified as Lochan Parulekar.

"The accused use to inappropriately touch girls of class 6, 7 and 8 during computer classes. It had been happening for two months," said Sunil Rane, police official at Turbhe Police Station.

"When a student narrated this to her class teacher, more girls came forward and narrated similar incidents. The school principal was then informed," the official added.

Parulekar has been remanded to police custody till March 2.

An investigation into the matter is underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - One startup company in Lafayette is investing over a million dollars in its new facility. Antique Candle Co. has been in the Lafayette community for six years. The founder of the company hopes she can inspire other startup businesses to grow in the Greater Lafayette community.

Brittany Whitenack was born and raised in Lafayette. She graduated from McCutcheon High School and Purdue University. She says growing her business in Lafayette has been a dream come true.

"What I think is so cool about the Lafayette Indiana area for startups that are small like us is just the community, said Whitenack. There may not be as many startup companies here now but I really see a growing trend, because Lafayette the government leaders are really supporting small startups like us."

Thats why Whitenack recently bought a new location for her company and is investing over a million dollars in the property.

"It just feels really good as a young woman business owner that owns a multi-million-dollar company to get that support," added Whitenack.

City leaders say they hope Antique Candle Co. will inspire more entrepreneurs to set up shop in Lafayette.

"I love the fact that it's a woman-owned business and she is doing well and that's an important message to empower people and empower young girls and the next generation of entrepreneurs, said Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski.

Antique Candle Company is on track to do around $5 million worth of business this year. They hope their success will start a trend for startup companies in the Lafayette area.

"It would be amazing if Antique Candle Co. kind of started a trend for small startup companies and young startup companies to grow in Lafayette Indiana, said Whitenack. There is definitely support here and there is definitely some cultivation and excitement.

The company's new location will be at 1611 Schuyler Avenue in Lafayette. They hope to start renovations in May and be moved into the new facility by August. Antique Candle Co. does all their business online to purchase candles or find out more about this business visit their website by clicking here.
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VALLEY COTTAGE, N.Y. , (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 3D cell culture market revenues surpassed US$ 778 million in 2018, as per a new FMI study. The market is estimated to grow at 7.8% y-o-y in 2019; key factors responsible for the projected market growth include,

A steady rise in global research and development expenditure

Efforts to leverage the potential of 3D cell culture to replace animal model testing

Increasing demand for biosimilar products

Extensive application of stem cell research and a growing emphasis on regenerative medicine

While 2D cell culture revolutionized the research efforts in stem cells, tissue engineering, and molecular biology, 3D cell culture has pushed the boundaries of traditional 2D cell culture technique with functional superiority. As the R&D efforts continue to rise in a bid to investigate the cause of different diseases and improve human health, 3D cell culture is set to remain a highly sought-after technique in the coming years, says FMI.

The FMI study finds that scaffold-based 3D cell culture techniques are highly preferred over scaffold-free 3D cell culture. Owing to the significant adoption of scaffold-based 3D cell culture, the study finds that this technique garnered over 81% of the global market revenues.

Scaffold-based 3D cell culture techniques deliver researchers with additional functional operations in terms of material  natural or synthetic and different mechanical properties.

The technique uses either hydrogel-based support or polymeric hard material based support. Both types of supports find equivalent penetration in terms of application, however revenues garnered from polymeric hard material based support are higher.

According to the study, revenues of polymeric hard material based support held over half the scaffold-based 3D cell culture technique revenues in 2018 and the trend is expected to continue in the future.

Application of 3D Cell Culture in Cancer Research Prominent

The FMI study estimates that 3D cell culture application in cancer research accounted for over 31% of the 3D cell culture market revenues in 2018. Cell culture is an integral part of cancer drug discovery practices. Greater strides are underway in the field to precisely characterize the diseases and develop advanced tumor cell lines using 3D cell culture techniques.

2D culture lines are considered as a standard for in vitro pre-clinical cancer treatment screening. However, more recently, the field is turning to 3D cell culture techniques to implement an ideal experimental model that mimics the human body environment to its best.

Stem cell technology is another lucrative field for 3D cell culture market. According to the FMI study, application in stem cell technology accounted for over one-fourth of the 3D cell culture market revenues in 2018. While 2D cell culture posed challenges of scalability in stem cell technology, apart from a few challenges, 3D cell culture has provided greater density and multi-fold expansion of the culture system in stem cell technology. Other fields that utilize 3D cell culture techniques are tissue regeneration, regenerative medicine, and drug discovery.

Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries - Prominent End-Users

The study reveals that the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries were accounted for over one-fifth of the global 3D cell culture market revenues in 2018. Buoyancy in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries can be profitable for the 3D cell culture market in the coming years and over 9% growth is projected in 2019 over 2019.

Academic research institutes are the second prominent end-users of 3D cell cultures wherein they accounted for over one-fourth of the global 3d cell culture revenues in 2018. Government funding in cancer research projects carried out at academic institutes and organizations has increased significantly, thereby supporting the investments in advanced technologies including 3D cell culture techniques.

Revenues in North America Continue to Surge

North America continued to spearhead the revenues of 3D cell culture market during the historical period and the status-quo is likely to continue in the future. In 2018, North America accounted for over two-fifths of the global 3D cell culture market revenues. The study estimates that regional revenues are expected to grow at 8% in 2019 over 2018.

Funding in research and development, especially in cancer research remains higher in the United States as compared to other developed countries. Europe also presents significant funding in R&D activities. The FMI study finds that over one-fourth of the 3D cell culture market revenues were accounted for the Europe region in 2018, of which a bulk of revenues come from Western European countries such as Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain.

The FMI report tracks the 3D cell culture market for the period 2018-2028. According to the report, the 3D cell culture market is projected to grow at 9.9% CAGR through 2028.

Press-Release Source  https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2019/03/28/1781231/0/en/3D-Cell-Culture-Market-Pegged-for-Robust-Expansion-at-9-9-CAGR-by-2028-End-Future-Market-Insights.html

About Future Market Insights (FMI)

Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India. FMI's latest market research reports and industry analysis help businesses navigate challenges and take critical decisions with confidence and clarity amidst breakneck competition.

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That more inclusive pitch was no accident. Sanders, who is known to sketch out his thoughts on yellow legal pads, had spent the hour leading up to his speech in a holding room thinking about his remarks, according to an aide with knowledge of his activities, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
A judge hailed the return of a wedding band found on a beach as a happy ending after Gardai initially requested a forfeiture order after failing to find the owner.

The silver band with gold trim was inscribed with the name Sara and the date 20/06/2008. It was found by a passerby at Warren Beach, Rosscarbery in West Cork on September 17, 2017 and handed into Gardai.

In January Clonakilty District Court heard that Gardai placed details of the discovery on its website and over Garda radio but no one had come forward.

In January, Judge James McNulty said he would hold back from granting a forfeiture order in the hope that someone might still come forward and claim it.

It could be someones lucky day, he said.

It turned out it was. At Clonakilty District Court yesterday Sgt Paul Kelly confirmed the ring has been returned to its rightful owner and even went so far as to thank the media, as well as the judge, for their efforts. He added that the ring had been returned before St Valentines Day, and withdrew the initial application.

Judge McNulty said it was a happy ending.

And tomorrow is the 29th of February, if anyone needs to be reminded of that, he added.

The ring has already been returned to its rightful owner, Declan Goode. Originally from Midleton in Co Cork but now living in Co Kildare, Declan has revealed via social media that he initially lost his wedding band on the June bank holiday weekend in 2016.

That morning I cycled the Beara peninsula and in the afternoon returned to my family who were swimming on the Warren beach near Ross.

I later discovered that my ring was missing and incorrectly assumed I had lost it in Beara. I remembered hearing a piece of metal on the ground as I pulled off my glove climbing out of Castletown.

With Sara he searched that stretch of road the following day, describing it as needle in a haystack job.

He said he always thought the ring would turn up although yesterday he admitted: I did and I didnt.

Last March his wife and their two daughters, Orla and Aoife, presented Declan, who works in R&D with Kerry Group, with a similar ring bearing all three names.

I could wear two now, he said. Though Id be afraid to wear two in case I lose two now.

He also thanked gardai and the person who first found the ring, who he is seeking to meet so they can be thanked in person.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 18:30:10|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Multiple universities in Beijing have issued telecommunication subsidies to students from impoverished families to ensure their online learning during a prolonged winter break as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

Peking University (PKU) said it has subsidized computers and smartphones to its 132 students who had no mobile terminals at home. The university has also invested 670,000 yuan (about 95,660 U.S. dollars) to 2,234 poor students to cover their telecommunication costs.

Beijing Institute of Technology set up an online learning assistance fund, which has granted a telecommunication subsidy of 100 yuan to 3,797 poor students each so far.

Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU) said it has issued a special subsidy of 100 yuan to its over 5,200 poor undergraduate and graduate students each so that they would not be overburdened by distant online teaching.

Besides, PKU has granted temporary assistance to 12 students whose families had been pit into difficulty due to the epidemic. BJTU also invested over 80,000 yuan to 61 students from poverty-stricken families in Hubei Province, the epidemic center, and five students who stayed on campus during the winter break.
Status Update since our February Forecast

Counter-terrorism

On 4 February, the 1373 Counter-Terrorism Committee was briefed by Yuliya Denissenko, an independent expert on preventing and countering violent extremism and the director of a Kyrgyzstan-based NGO, Asia Group Foundation, on her work on rehabilitation and reintegration in Central Asia with returning and repatriated foreign terrorist fighters and associated family members.

On 7 February, the Council was briefed by Under-Secretary-General Vladimir Voronkov, the head of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (OCT), and Michele Coninsx, the Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED), on the Secretary-Generals tenth strategic-level report on the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or Daesh). Mona Freij, a Syrian civil society activist, briefed the Council on her experience in her hometown of Raqqa, Syria, via video-teleconference from Istanbul.

Myanmar

On 4 February, Security Council members met in consultations for a briefing on Myanmar from Mohamed Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific. The meeting was requested by Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, the UK and the US, and was triggered by the Secretary-Generals 24 January letter conveying the notice of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order indicating provisional measures in the case concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar). Members also referred to the Independent Commission of Enquiry final report that had been submitted to the Myanmar government on 20 January. A number of Council members urged Myanmar to comply with the provisional measures indicated by the ICJ and to address the root causes of the conflicts in Myanmar. Members also referred to the need for Myanmar to create conditions for and facilitate a voluntary, safe, dignified and sustainable return of the Rohingya to Myanmar.

Small Arms

On 5 February, the Council was briefed on the Secretary-Generals sixth biennial report on small arms by Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. She stressed that small arms continue to facilitate a vast spectrum of actions constituting violations human rights, including the killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence. A civil society representative, Damien Spleeters, Deputy Director of Operations of Conflict Armament Research, also briefed the Council.

OSCE

On 6 February, the Security Council heard a briefing from Albanian Prime Minister and Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Edi Rama, the current Chairperson-in-Office for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He updated the Council on developments in the OSCEs area of operation, including in eastern Ukraine, Georgia and Transdniestria. He also discussed Albanias priorities as chair of the OSCE for the upcoming year, such as promotion of the freedom of expression, combating violence against women and eradicating corruption.

UNOWAS

On 11 February, the Council adopted a presidential statement on West Africa and the Sahel, which called on national stakeholders in Burkina Faso, Cote dIvoire, Ghana, Guinea, Niger, Mali and Togo to work together to facilitate the timely preparation for, and holding of, genuinely free and fair, credible, timely and peaceful elections that are scheduled during 2020.

Israel-Palestine

On 11 February, the Council held a briefing to discuss President Donald Trumps newly released Vision for Peace for Israel and Palestine. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon, and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov were among the participants. Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Defence Philippe Goffin presided over the meeting.

On 24 February, the Council received its regularly scheduled briefing from Mladenov. He shared his considerable concern over the increase in violence, in particular a series of confrontations which began on 23 February at the Gaza border between Israeli Defense Forces and alleged members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, involving the firing of rockets from Gaza. Israel responded with strikes on Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets south of Damascus. Mladenov called for an end to rocket firing. After the briefing, Council members continued the discussion in closed consultations. Following consultations, the president of the Council read press elements that had been agreed on by Council members.

Guinea-Bissau

On 11 February, in a presidential statement on West Africa and the Sahel, the Council welcomed Guinea-Bissaus holding of the presidential election at the end of 2019, and urged all national stakeholders to ensure a peaceful implementation of the election results. On 14 February, the Council held a briefing and consultations to consider the Secretary-Generals report on developments in Guinea-Bissau. Special Representative and head of the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) Rosine Sori-Coulibaly and the chair of the Peacebuilding Commissions Guinea-Bissau configuration, Ambassador Ronaldo Costa Filho (Brazil), briefed. At press time, the Council was expected to adopt a resolution on 28 February that renews the mandate of UNIOGBIS until 31 December 2020.

Children and Armed Conflict

On 12 February, the Security Council held a high-level briefing on Integrating child protection into peace processes to resolve conflict and sustain peace. The meeting was presided over by Belgians foreign minister, Philippe Goffin. Belgian King Philippe and Queen Mathilde were in attendance. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched the Practical Guidance for mediators to protect children in situations of armed conflict. In his briefing, he highlighted the grim situation for children affected by conflict and stressed that children have no role in conflict and that leaders need to do everything in their power to protect them. The other briefers were the AU Peace and Security Commissioner Smail Chergui (by video teleconference) and Jo Becker, chair of the advisory board of the NGO network Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict. The Council adopted a presidential statement that stressed the need for a broad conflict prevention strategy that addresses the causes of conflict in order to protect children. It renewed its call on member states and relevant parties to integrate child protection provisions into all peace negotiations and ceasefire and peace agreements. The Council also renewed its call for the protection and empowerment of children affected by armed conflict to be prioritised in all post-conflict recovery and reconstruction planning, programmes and strategies.

Mali

On 12 February, the Mali 2374 Sanctions Committee held informal consultations to discuss the mid-term report of the Mali Panel of Experts. Following this discussion, the committee held a meeting with regional states.

Transitional Justice

On 13 February, the Council held an open debate on transitional justice in conflict and post-conflict situations under the peacebuilding and sustaining peace agenda item. The meeting, initiated by Belgium, was presided over by the countrys foreign minister, Philippe Goffin. The briefers were Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner for Human Rights (via VTC); Francisco de Roux, President of the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence, and Non-Repetition of Colombia; and Yasmin Sooka, Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa, Trustee of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre, and Chair of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan. Belgium circulated a concept note ahead of the debate (S/2020/98).

Ukraine

On 18 February, the Council held a briefing on the situation in Ukraine. Russia requested the meeting to mark the fifth anniversary of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, also known as the Minsk II agreement, adopted on 12 February 2015, and to discuss its implementation. The Council received briefings from Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo; Heidi Grau, Special Representative in Ukraine of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Chairperson-in-Office (via VTC); and OSCE Special Monitoring Mission Chief Monitor Halit Cevik (via VTC). The briefers emphasised the need for full implementation of the Minsk agreements, including the establishment of the permanent ceasefire. Most Council members reiterated these points as well.

Haiti

On 20 February, the Council held a briefing, followed by closed consultations, on the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (S/PV.8729). Special Representative Helen La Lime and Marie Yolene Gilles, the Executive Director of the civil society group Fondasyon Je Klere, briefed via video-teleconference. La Lime highlighted the political impasse and called on Haitian leaders to rise to the occasion to find a resolution. Gilles stressed that Haiti is facing systematic and grave violations of human rights. Gilles made several recommendations to the UN, including fighting corruption and auditing the police force in order to make it more credible. All Council members called for political dialogue and accord in order to solve the impasse. The Dominican Republic reiterated that it thought the withdrawal of the peacekeeping mission in Haiti had been premature.

Central African Republic (CAR)

On 20 February, the Security Council held a briefing on the latest Secretary-Generals report on the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). Special Representative for the Central African Republic (CAR) and head of MINUSCA Mankeur Ndiaye briefed the Council. Ambassador Olof Skoog, Head of the EU Delegation to the UN; Ambassador Omar Hilale (Morocco), chair of the Peacebuilding Commissions CAR configuration; and Matias Bertino Matondo, AU Special Representative and head of the AU Office in the Central African Republic, also briefed. Consultations followed the public session.

On 27 February, members of the Security Council agreed on a press statement, welcoming the progress made in the past year to implement the Political Peace Agreement in the CAR and calling on all parties in the country to fulfil their commitments under the agreement. The statement condemned violations of the peace agreement perpetrated by armed groups and expressed concern at a recent campaign of disinformation and incitement to violence against MINUSCA. Council members further called on the CAR authorities to ensure the holding of inclusive, free and timely elections in 2020 and 2021.

Arria-Formula Meeting on Reprisals Against Women Human Rights Defenders

On 21 February, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Germany and the UK co-hosted an Arria-formula meeting entitled Reprisals against women human rights defenders and women peacebuilders who engage with the Security Council and its subsidiary bodies. Briefers were Ilze Brands Kehris, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and head of the New York office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; Madeleine Rees, the Secretary-General of the Womens International League for Peace and Freedom; and Shalini Eddens, the Director of Programs of the Urgent Action Fund for Womens Human Rights.

Somalia

On 24 February, the Council was briefed on the situation in Somalia by James Swan, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNSOM; Francisco Caetano Jose Madeira, Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia and head of AMISOM; and Dan Smith, Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Speakers stressed the numerous 2020 priorities, especially the elections, and the need for support from the international community, and urged bold action by Somali stakeholders. On 27 February, Ambassador Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve (Belgium), chair of the 751 Somalia Sanctions Committee, briefed the Council on his recent visit to the region.

Non-proliferation

On 26 February, the Council held a briefing on non-proliferation with a specific focus on supporting the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) ahead of the 2020 review conference (S/PV.8733). High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu and President of the NPT Review Conference Gustavo Zlauvinen briefed the Council. Germanys Minister of Foreign Affairs, Heiko Maas was present at the meeting. Council members issued a press statement in which they expressed support for the NPT and signalled their readiness to work together and join efforts to achieve a successful outcome at the 2020 NPT Review Conference.

Burundi

On 26 February, Council members held an informal interactive dialogue on Burundi. Assistant Secretary-General for Africa Bintou Keita briefed on the situation in Burundi ahead of elections to be held on 20 May. Burundi was invited but did not attend. Kenya and Rwanda attended the meeting.

International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals

On 28 February, the Council was expected to adopt a presidential statement on the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), updating timelines specified in S/PRST/2018/6, including that the Council complete its review of the IRMCT by 15 May 2020.
Retired Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher who was acquitted of murdering an ISIS prisoner has admitted that he believes posing for a photo with the dead body was wrong.

Gallagher was charged in 2018 with war crimes, including murder, in the stabbing death of an ISIS militant captive in his care during a deployment to Iraq.

The Special Operations Chief and his fellow SEAL members posed for a now-infamous photo with the corpse of the Iraqi prisoner. He was pictured smiling in the middle of his platoon members as he held a knife to the dead captive's throat.

Following a high-profile trial that attracted the attention of President Trump, Gallagher ended up being acquitted of all charges except for one: Posing in photos with the dead captive.

In an interview with 60 Minutes that will air on Sunday, Gallagher spoke out about that photo and how he was wrong to pose with the captive's body.

Retired Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher who was acquitted of murdering an ISIS prisoner has admitted in a 60 Minutes interview that he believes posing for a photo with the dead body was wrong

'It's wrong. I'll say it's wrong now. And I've definitely learned my lesson It's distasteful,' Gallagher said.

He had sent the photo to a friend in a text at the time that said: 'Got him with my hunting knife'.

Gallagher denied that meant he had stabbed the ISIS captive.

'It was like a joke text, dark humor,' he said. 'I was trying to make it look tough Yeah, I know how bad it looks when it gets out into the public, which it never was supposed to.'

He said that taking photos with the enemy has been done before on previous deployments, saying he believes he is the first one to go to court over it.

'I'm pretty sure I'm the first person ever to go to a general court-martial for it, for taking a picture. It's been done on previous deployments,' he said.

When asked if he felt sorry for the captive, Gallagher said: 'No, that's war. He was trying to kill us.'

The Special Operations Chief and his fellow SEAL members posed for a now-infamous photo with the corpse of the Iraqi prisoner. He was pictured smiling in the middle of his platoon members as he held a knife to the dead captive's throat

Gallagher has always maintained that the charges brought against him were made up by six members of his platoon who wanted to force him out

Gallagher has always maintained that the charges brought against him were made up by six members of his platoon who wanted to force him out.

When he addressed the jury at his trial, Gallagher told them he accepted 'full responsibility' for appearing in the photos.

'I put a black eye on the two communities I love the most, the U.S. Marine Corps and the Navy, specifically the SEAL community,' he said.

He went on to acknowledge making 'mistakes' throughout his career - 'tactical, ethical, moral,' adding, 'I'm not perfect but I've always bounced back from my mistakes. I'm ready to bounce back from this, and to serve my community.'

The offense of posing with the corpse carried a maximum sentence of four months imprisonment. He was released on time served during his pre-trial detention.

After his trial, Gallagher was demoted from chief petty officer to a 1st class petty officer.

Trump restored Gallagher's rank and has repeatedly tweeted support for him, saying his case had been 'handled very badly from the beginning'.

The President then ordered the Navy to allow Gallagher to retire as a SEAL with his full rank intact.
UPSC Recruitment 2022: One day left to apply for several vacancies at upsc.gov.in, here's direct link

Sonia Gandhi deputes 5-member team to visit riot-affected areas, submit detailed report

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Feb 28: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday deputed a five-member team to visit the riot-affected areas in northeast Delhi and submit a report to her after assessing the situation there.

The delegation comprises AICC general Secretary Mukul Wasnik, AICC in-charge Delhi Shaktisinh Gohil, Haryana PCC chief Kumari Selja, Ex-MP Tariq Anwar, and Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev.

The Congress president has deputed a delegation of party leaders to visit the riot-affected areas in the National Capital of Delhi and asked the leaders to assess the situation emanating from the mindless violence in riot-affected areas and its after effects, the party said in a statement.

Northeast Delhi violence: Death toll mounts to 42

The team has been asked to submit a "detailed report to the Congress President immediately", the statement said.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

The death toll in Delhi's communal violence rose to 39 on Friday.

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Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 14:45 [IST]
OTTAWA COUNTY, MI  The owners of a Zeeland Township business vow to rebuild after an overnight fire destroyed a building owned by Koeman Contracting and Shoreline Rocks.

Were working on getting this rebuilt, Jan Koeman said Friday, Feb. 28.

Despite the losses, she said that workers  the business employs 18  were on the job this morning.

She and her husband, Brian Koeman, turned to their faith. They have had a lot of support from the community, too, which they appreciate.

Were having a bad day ,,,praying to God for help going forward, Brian Koeman wrote on Facebook.

His wife told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press she was grateful.

Everybodys safe and sound and were back to work.

The fire burned the pole barn to the ground. The business is on Chicago Drive just west of 48th Avenue.

Jan Koeman said that a 911 dispatcher called around 1:30 a.m. to report that their year-old barn, housing three businesses, was on fire. Flames erupted from the building, she said.

Its too soon to determine losses, she said.

She said that the business also brings large rocks from the Upper Peninsula for placement along the Lake Michigan shoreline to fight erosion.

Men cleared in federal fraud case should not have been charged, attorneys say

Police rescue man before he can jump from I-94 overpass

Police identify woman killed in head-on crash
Pedro Vilaca, general manager of Siemens Healthineers in Vietnam

While it may mean different things to different people, the patient experience as used here applies to the broad, holistic journey that nearly everybody who becomes a patient undertakes from the very onset of symptoms. The patient experience is formed by everyone who comes into contact with the patient along that journey, from front desk receptionists to the nurses and doctors who provide direct care.

Even the physical and virtual environments in which patient-provider touch points occur leave an impression. Opinions are formed by every variable  from the efficiency with which appointments are scheduled and completed; to the quality of the technology employed to diagnose and treat the patient; along to the comfort and decor of the facilities where care is delivered.

The goals of improving the patient experience are extensive. Beyond producing happier and more satisfied patients, healthcare providers also hope to see patients become more trusting of the medical advice they receive and hence more inclined to follow it  which can lead to better clinical outcomes and so reduce costs throughout the healthcare system.

The challenges associated with this new focus on the patient experience are two-fold. The first is identifying the most important aspects of the patient experience, while the second is figuring out how to improve in those areas.

Fortunately, many leading healthcare organisations have already undertaken extensive efforts to improve the patient experience. Their initiatives have generated quantifiably positive results, suggesting a way forward for other organisations that wish to join them.

It can be envisioned as a four-part framework. The first part begins with engaging patients and their families in managing their health and wellness early in their care. Secondly, the diagnostic experience must be optimised using patient friendly technology.

Third, throughout the patient journey, healthcare providers should also seek to deliver outcomes that matter to their patients  including fewer side-effects and complications, shorter recovery times, and positive long-term therapy results  by personalising treatment.

Finally, providers have to seek to sustain patient loyalty by making it easy for patients to access their healthcare data and their care-givers, and by improving care continuity via automated outreach.

Over the past two decades, new customer-centred technologies have reshaped the way consumers interact with their service providers, from their favourite online shopping sites to their car insurers. Now patients expect the same sort of personalised, frictionless interactions with their healthcare providers that they get from other organisations.

When they do not get the interactions they crave, patients can quickly let the rest of the world know thanks to social media as well as a wide range of information-delivering websites. This has made it easier for the new breed of medical customer to share with other consumers his or her experiences with healthcare providers and, in turn, to be informed by the experiences of others.

In short, there has been a broad social shift away from a world populated primarily with passive patients to one where medical consumers want to be more deeply engaged in their healthcare and are more cognisant of who can accommodate their wishes.

The 2018 survey by the Vietnamese Ministry of Health showed positive improvement in patient satisfaction. The average patient satisfaction index in Vietnam reached 4.04 out of five compared to 3.98 out of five in the previous year. The survey primarily focused on health check-ups and examination services.

However, there are obstacles in improving the patient experience. For one, changing culture may be the biggest. It requires that leadership clearly buy into and promote the idea that improving the patient experience is a high priority. Even where that leads to success, sustaining culture change can be difficult.

Beyond culture, hospitals trying to improve the patient experience can be challenged by factors such as overcrowded facilities that are often, for the moment, out of their control.

One way to mitigate potential patient frustration in that situation is to deploy dedicated personnel to care for those patients, set expectations, answer questions, and provide any assistance they might be able to deliver. Striving for efficiency in all aspects of operations can also help turn around challenging experiences.

Ultimately, the key takeaway point for healthcare providers is to remember that the patient experience comprises of a myriad of details that, when addressed holistically, can improve clinical outcomes.
A car plowed into a daycare in a Philadelphia suburb while 17 preschoolers were asleep inside on Thursday, leaving four of the toddlers hospitalized, including one who suffered serious injuries, authorities said.

The crash at Children of America Educational Childcare in Upper South Hampton Township happened about 1.30 pm on Thursday.

A BMW, for reasons that have yet to be determined, came crashing through the front of the daycare, First Assistant Bucks County District Attorney Gregg Shore said at a press conference outside the horrific crash scene.

A car (pictured) crashed through the front of Children of America Educational Childcare in Upper South Hampton Township, Pennsylvania, on Thursday and continued about 40 to 50 feet inside

The rear of the car is seen in an image taken of the crash at Children of America Educational Childcare in Upper South Hampton Township, Pennsylvania

The vehicle (pictured) crashed into a room at the day care where 17 preschoolers were napping, say authorities.

The four-door vehicle plowed 40 to 50 feet into a room where children ages 3 to 4 were napping, Shore said.

Images of the crash scene show kids' play tables and tiny chairs overturned as a result of the impact, reports WPVI.

He did not detail how the injured toddlers were hurt.

The seriously injured child was transported to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, he said.

The driver, Shore said, was a woman who is 50- to 60-years-old.

She was treated and released from an area hospital, Shore said.

An exterior shot of the daycare shows damage from where a car crashed into a room where toddlers were asleep on Thursday

Authorities said four children were sent to a hospital after the vehicle crashed into Childre of America Educational Childcare in Upper Southhampton Township, Pennsylvania, on Thursday

A WPVI journalist tweeted images of a first responder helping a parent get a child get properly strapped into a car after the crash

Shore, when asked whether the driver was impaired, said investigators were looking into the possibility, as well as other factors that may have caused the woman to send the vehicle into the day care.

Police overcame a language barrier with the woman, who is from Philadelphia, and found her to be cooperative as they determine how the crash came about, Shore said.

He said she was a 'delivery driver,' who had come to the day care in a 'business capacity.'

Shore did not elaborate on what the driver was delivering.

Images of the crash scene show kids' play tables and tiny chairs overturned as a result of the impact.

The vehicle had kept going into the building and stopped when it crashed into a cubbie hole shelf.

The shelf had been used for stowing children's jackets and book bags.

Families of the children who were inside the daycare and were not hurt took to social media to express their relief.

'So happy my daughter who slept in this room is okay with no injuries,' Melissa Groninger wrote on the Upper South Hampton Police Department's Facebook page, also offering prayers for the families of the injured kids.
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Cohoes

Amid revelations that the Norlite aggregate plant incinerated toxic PFAS compounds here in 2018 and 2019, state Sen. Neil Breslin and Assemblyman John McDonald are sponsoring legislation that would ban such burning.

Earlier in the week officials from Cohoes and surrounding communities met with officials of Norlite, which produces construction aggregate but incinerates waste in its kilns that are used in the production process. The kilns are shut down for now while they undergo improvements but officials including McDonald and Cohoes Mayor William Keeler said the company says it wants to resume the incineration in coming months.

The meeting came amid news that a group of environmentalists had sued in federal court to halt the burning, which was not generally known to the public. The plant is located next to a public housing complex.

Federal emissions laws do not require the notification that PFOAs, such as PFOA and PFOS, are being burned.

Increasingly, environmental activists and scientists are voicing concerns about PFAS but most of the worry so far has focused on their impact on water supplies.

The chemicals, perfluoroalkyls and polyfluoroalkyls are associated with health problems including thyroid disorders and cancer when ingested.

Generally known as PFAS, discovery of these substances in the Hoosick Falls village water supply several years ago led to a major effort to filter and eventually replace the water system there.

PFAS have also turned up in groundwater near other communities including near Newburgh and Cairo in the northern Catskills.

In those cases they are residue of the firefighting foam that is now being phased out because of worries about PFAS.

Legislation from McDonald and Breslin, both Democrats, would specifically ban aqueous film-forming foam which is the PFAS-based substance used in the firefighting foam. The lawmakers will discuss the measure further during a press conference on Monday.

Additionally, Albany County Executive Dan McCoy on Thursday wrote to state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos, urging the agency to see what it can do. "I am strongly urging the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to initiate a review of the actions taken by Norlite under the DOD contract, and determine the available options to provide state oversight and/or intervention if necessary," wrote McCoy.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin also has called for more scrutiny, asking for a public hearing with Norlite.

I am asking for Norlite, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Health department, along with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, to make themselves available as soon as possible for a meeting in Rensselaer County, McLaughlin said in a prepared statement. Rensselaer County is on the east side of the Hudson River from the Norlite plant but prevailing winds run from west to east meaning they are downwind of potential emissions.

The DOD is the federal Department of Defense which had contracted with Norlite to dispose of PFAS-based firefighting foam that was no longer being used due to health concerns. While Norlite needs a state DEC permit to incinerate the foam, it is not illegal to do so.

rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU
Authorities at the San Juan County Sheriffs Office have identified the body that was found on a forest road in Northern Arizona as a New Mexico woman, Sasha Krause who was reported missing back in January 2020, according to a statement issued by the Sheriffs Office.

KRQE reported that a camper who was in the area off Forest Service Road, located north of Flagstaff, Arizona, found a body on Feb. 21 at around 3:47, and called the authorities. The Coconino County Sheriffs Office responded to the call and dispatched officers to the scene. Officers then transported the unidentified body to a medical examiners office in Flagstaff.

The Coconino County Sheriffs Office contacted the San Juan County Sheriffs Office on Saturday, Feb. 22, and according to KRQE, the victim that was found fit the overall description of Sasha Krause. Shane Ferrari, the San Juan Sheriff, said in the statement that officers from the San Juan Sheriffs Office were dispatched to meet with the authorities at Coconino Sheriffs Office, and the two sheriffs offices would share the investigation and evidence.

Fingerprints taken at the scene were matched with the Texas Motor Vehicle Departments Driver license records to confirm her identity. The investigation is still ongoing by the Coconino County Sheriffs Office, along with San Juan County Sheriffs Office. The Coconino County Medical Examiners Office is continuing its investigation to determine the cause of death. As the investigation is ongoing, no further details are currently available. read a statement issued by the San Juan County Sheriffs Office.

The authorities conducted an autopsy, and it confirmed Krauses identity.

Before the finding of Krauses body, an investigation was conducted to find out what happenedFerrari stated that it was not clear at the time whether Krause had voluntarily disappeared or whether it was a case of kidnapping. Ferrari said that ground, air, and canine units were dispatched to help with the investigation.

Ferrari said that the case was strange from the beginning, as Krause had gone missing from a Mennonite Church Community, according to Fox 10 Phoenix. He called the community secluded, and stated, They have a business, they live on-site, and we never respond there very often for anything, so it struck us as very odd that we had someone missing, especially because you see them out in a group and having someone gone was very strange to us.

Following her positive identification, both Sheriffs Offices are working together to find and apprehend the person or persons responsible for the crime, according to Ferrari, in the statement issued by the sheriffs office. Authorities are asking for the publics assistance regarding the incident, and anyone with information is encouraged to contact authorities.

Paul Kaufman, Krauses co-worker, said that the entire situation had been difficult for everyone working at the Lamp and Light Publishers, where the two of them worked, according to Fox 10 Phoenix. He described her as being an intelligent and pleasant person who was a hard worker.

It is a very difficult experience for us. It shouldnt have happened. It shouldnt happen to anyone. [She is] a dedicated Christian, so yeah, she leaves a big hole with us.
ABC News suspended political reporter David Wright this week after a video secretly recorded by the right-wing Project Veritas was released in which the veteran journalist criticized the networks vacuous coverage of the Trump administration and described himself as a socialist.

The recordings were made in a New Hampshire bar earlier this month when Wright and ABC News producer Andy Fies engaged in a conversation with the Veritas operative, who falsely presented himself as a documentarian and did not secure their consent to record the exchange.

ABC news reporters look on at the 2016 Democratic National Convention (Credit: Flickr.com, Walt Disney Television)

Though the aim of Project Veritas was clearly to portray ABC News as a hotbed of left-wing anti-Trumpism, the resulting video actually demonstrates the opposite, as Wright, who has worked for the network since 2000, criticized mainstream news for being driven by profits at the expense of the public interest.

In the edited video released on Project Veritass YouTube channel, Wright can first be heard criticizing his network for avoiding serious political journalism in favor of the sensationalistic coverage that drives ratings.

I feel terrible about it, he says. The truth suffers. The voters are poorly informed. And people also have the opportunity to tune into whatever they want to hear. And so, its like theres no upside in, or our bosses dont see an upside in doing the job were supposed to do, which is to speak truth to power and hold people to account.

As the recording continues, Wright discusses how, like all of the supposedly liberal media, ABC fails to offer any substantive criticism of the presidents policies, instead focusing on the bogus Russian collusion investigations and Trumps daily provocative statements.

We dont hold him to account. We also dont give him credit for the things he does do. Again, I think, some of that at least in the place that I work and the places like it, is that with Trump were interested in three things. Were interested in the outrage of the day, the investigation, and of the palace intrigue of whos backstabbing whom. Beyond that, we dont really cover the guy.

Wright is correct. His employer, like the rest of the capitalist media, has no interest in criticizing the president for his attacks on immigrants and refugees, his attempts to slash social programs like Medicaid and food stamps, or his war crimes in Afghanistan, Syria, and elsewhere. To make such criticisms, even against a president they may be opposed to, would be to risk inflaming popular outrage and ultimately endanger their own class position.

Wrights use of the term palace intrigue is especially apt. Since Trumps election in 2016, the Democratic Party has committed itself to channeling opposition to the Trump administration along exactly these lines, promoting the idea that the president is a danger to national security because he is insufficiently aggressive towards Russia. In the process, they have strengthened the position of the military and intelligence agencies, encouraged the censorship of the internet, and diffused the mass protests that erupted at the outset of the Trump administration.

Later in the video Wright discusses the impossibility of conducting serious journalism when the news media is controlled by large corporations. ABC News is a subsidiary of the billon-dollar Walt Disney Company media juggernaut.

It became a profit center, a promotion center, Wright says. Like now, you cant watch Good Morning America without there being a Disney princess or a Marvel Avenger appearing. Its all self-promotional. And promotion of the company, and also promotion of individuals within the company, as opposed to the kind of dedication to the story and a commitment to telling stories that we need to tell that are maybe hard to tell. The commercial imperative is incompatible with news."

Andy Fies, an ABC News producer also captured in the video, laid out how the networks avoid serious coverage of issues affecting working people.

So you know real people talk about practical issues, when theyre thinking about a candidate, I want to go back to the workforce, or I cant afford childcare or I need medical care for whatever. Well, those things arent TV-friendly things, Fies noted. You know, we want to focus on impeachment, we want to focus on the big shit going on. And the things that help people make up their minds are little shit.

Wright and Fies go on to have an exchange about their superficial reporting on the 2020 Presidential campaign, comparing it to covering a horse race. In the end, Wright expresses his despair at the state of affairs that his network helped create, saying, And were in this awkward moment where, and created by this awkward moment, we have this fucking president. And we cant figure out how to challenge him.

When the Veritas documentarian asked Wright if he considered himself a democratic socialist, the reporter responded, Oh, yeah, like more than that, Id consider myself a socialist. Like, I think there should be national health insurance. Im totally fine with reining in corporations. I think there are too many billionaires, and I think that theres a wealth gap thats a problem.

ABCs decision to suspend Wright for discussing his personal political views in a private conversation illegally recorded by a known right-wing provocateur is an expression of the growing fear among the ruling class that socialist ideas are starting to take hold among the masses.

On the part of the Republicans, this takes the form of President Trumps fascistic rants about combatting socialism, in nearly every public appearance he makes. The Democratic Partys response is equally McCarthyite, with most of the national party leadership attempting to frighten their supporters into believing that if they nominate Sanders, he will be easily defeated by Trump in the general election and that the socialist label will sink the chances of down-ballot Democrats for re-election, despite national polling which indicates the opposite.
(Natural News) Has a top scientist from the World Health Organization (WHO) been caught lying to the public about vaccine safety?

(Article republished from JeremyRHammond.com)

According to a Facebook Fact Check now appearing on posts containing a link to a YouTube video that claims this is so, the answer is firmly No.

But contrary to Facebooks denial, the videos central claim is true: the WHO scientist in question has in fact been shown to have blatantly lied to the public about vaccine safety.

Consequently, it is Facebook and its fact checkers who are hypocritically misleading Facebook users about vaccine safety.

Contents

On November 28, 2019, the WHO published a YouTube video with the title WHO works to ensure vaccinations are safe. The description states, When you take a child to be vaccinated you trust that s/he will get a safe and effective vaccine, given in the right way. That trust relies on the existence of effective vaccine safety systems. See how WHO works with countries to strengthen vaccine safety monitoring to prevent untoward effects of vaccination. (Bold emphasis added.)

The claims that Dr. Swaminathan makes in this video are critical context for understanding how Facebook and its supposed fact-checkers are deceiving people. In the quotes from the video that follow, Ive used bold text to emphasize key claims.

The WHO video introduces us to Dr. Soumya Swaminathan as its Chief Scientist. She introduces herself as a pediatrician by training from India. After discussing the dangers of vaccine preventable diseases, she assures us: Vaccines are very safe. If someone gets sick after vaccination, it is usually either a coincidence, an error in administering the vaccine, or very rarely, a problem with the vaccine itself. Thats why we have vaccine safety systems. Robust vaccine safety systems(as she says this, the text Robust vaccine safety systems animates into the frame to reinforce the message to the viewer)allow health workers and experts(the word Experts animates in)to react immediately to any problems that may arise. (The word Examine appears on the screen as she continues.) They can examine the problem and rigorously and scientifically look at the data(at this point, the viewer is reading the words Scientifically look at the data on the screen next to Robust vaccine safety systems)and promptly address problems.

She adds, WHO works closely with countries to make sure that vaccines can do what they do best: prevent disease without risks. (The viewer is now looking at large text reading, Prevent disease without risks, which is animated to jump out a bit momentarily at the viewerjust a little pop for added effect to make sure the words are noticed and written into the viewers memory.)

The central message is unambiguous: Robust vaccine safety systems already exist in countries everywhere that enable scientists like those working at the WHO to ensure that vaccines administered to children confer benefits without risks.[1]

What the WHO Knows about Vaccine Safety

Just five days later, on December 3, the second and final day of a WHO Global Vaccine Safety Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, Dr. Swaminathan conveyed a very different message for her assembled colleagues.

Once again, I have used bold text in the following quotations to emphasize key points from her remarks.

The focus of her statements, recorded on video and published on the WHO website, was the perceived need to develop even more vaccines and ensure high uptake among populations. But, she elaborated, there are obstacles to achieving this goal. As always, she said, there are the skeptics and the critics and people who will constantly be pointing out the risk of side effects and making associations and so on.

That is to say, people who point out constantly that vaccination entails the risk of side effects, in her view, are critics who stand in the way of the WHO achieving its policy goals.

She blamed a low uptake for the HPV vaccine in India on critics who associated the vaccine with adverse events and deaths that, according to her, were due to other causes.

Nevertheless, she emphasized, a major obstacle to achieving high uptake is public concern about vaccine safety. To overcome this problem, she suggested, there is a need for stronger pharmacovigilance, which refers to how scientists monitor population data to try to detect adverse events associated with pharmaceutical products.

In that context, she told the assembly,

I think we cannot overemphasize the fact that we really dont have very good safety monitoring systems in many countries, and this adds to the miscommunication and the misapprehensions because were not able to give clear-cut answers when people ask questions about the deaths that have occurred due to a particular vaccine, and this always gets blown up in the media. One should be able to give a very factual account of what exactly has happened and what the cause of deaths are, but in most cases, there is some obfuscation at that level, and therefore theres less and less trust in the system.

In the context of the overall policy goal of achieving high vaccine uptake, she went on to address the question of how to communicate to the public about the risks. She advised, I think the role of science within the system, the government, [is] really making it very explicit and clear, and being willing to be transparent and open about what is expected and what might not be known at the time of the introduction of the vaccine.

Putting in place the mechanisms, she went on to say, to be able to monitor and detect vaccine-associated adverse events is important because, just as many times adverse events caused by pharmaceutical products were only identified years after the drug had been licensed and marketed to the public, unexpected things could arise after vaccination, and one always has to be prepared.

Drawing near to her conclusion, she told the assembly: So I think that risk is always there, and I think the population needs to understand that and feel confident that mechanisms are being put in place to study some of those things.[2]

In sum, the central message Swaminathan had for her colleagues was that legitimate concerns about vaccine safety were an obstacle to be overcome in order to achieve the policy goal of increasing demand for these pharmaceutical products. To overcome that challenge would require addressing some of those legitimate concerns by strengthening vaccine safety monitoring systems that in many countries are presently inadequate and dont enable scientists to determine whether a vaccine-associated adverse event was likely coincidental or caused by vaccination.

Certainly, in light of her acknowledgment that the risk of vaccines causing adverse events is always there and that safety surveillance systems in many countries are inadequate, it cannot be said that Dr. Swaminathan was being transparent and open in the WHO video published five days prior on YouTube.

Merriam-Webster defines the verb lie as to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive or to create a false or misleading impression.[3] Certainly, when Swaminathan told the public in her YouTube video that existing robust safety surveillance systems ensure that childhood vaccines can be given without risks, she was lying.

But thats not the YouTube video that Facebook has flagged for misinforming its users.

On January 9, 2020, on his show The HighWire, host Del Bigtreea former producer of the CBS medical talk show The Doctors and producer of the documentary film Vaxxedhighlighted the dishonesty of Dr. Swaminathans public message in the WHO video by juxtaposing it with her remarks at the WHO summit.

Titled W.H.O CHIEF SCIENTIST CAUGHT LYING TO THE PUBLIC, the description for the HighWire video on YouTube reads, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at the W.H.O., addresses the world in a promotional video where she ensures the robust existence of effective vaccine safety systems and the overall safety of vaccines. Five days later, here is her diametrically different opinion behind closed doors at the Global Vaccine Safety Summit on Dec. 3rd, 2019.

Below that, the description notes that the source of the video is the WHO, and a link is provided to the summit webpage, along with a note specifying that the clips are taken from the Tuesday afternoon session video starting at the 0:29:15 timestamp.

The HighWire video shows Dr. Swaminathan claiming in the WHO YouTube video that robust safety monitoring systems exist that ensure that vaccines confer benefits without risk, then juxtaposes that public message with clips of her remarks at the summit.[4] (Another link is provided to a full episode of The Highwire presenting this and numerous other examples of how the public message from the WHO diverges from acknowledgments officials made at the summit about numerous legitimate safety concerns.[5])

The only misleading aspect of the HighWire video is the description that says she was speaking behind closed doors at the summit, which implies that the meeting was taking place secretly or without public knowledge.[6] As already noted, videos of the speakers at the summit were published on the WHO website (and are still available there at the time of this writing), so she was not speaking behind closed doors. While this is regrettable hyperbole, in fairness, The HighWires description on YouTube does cite the WHO website as its source, and the key point being communicated must not be overlooked, which is that the WHOs chief scientist did indeed have one message intended for mass public consumption and a contradictory message intended for her colleagues within the WHO.

There is no context from which any of the shown clips were cut that alters or in any way belies that legitimate point. The WHOs chief scientist had indeed been caught deliberately lying to the public.

How Facebook Hypocritically Misleads Users with Its Fact Check Warning

Presently, on posts containing a link to the HighWire video, Facebook is warning users that the video has been Checked by independent fact-checkers and found to contain Partly False Information.

Below the post, Facebook presents links to two Fact-Check articles, one by Natalia Sanguino of Agence France-Presse (AFP) and another by Wayne Drash of Lead Stories, the headlines of which tell Facebook users that the HighWire videos title communicates a false claim.

Read more at: JeremyRHammond.com and FactCheck.news.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Communist Party's ruling Central Committee named a new deputy party secretary for Shanghai on Friday, after the previous deputy party secretary Ying Yong was transferred to head Hubei province to lead the fight against the coronavirus epidemic.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Communist Party's ruling Central Committee named a new deputy party secretary for Shanghai on Friday, after the previous deputy party secretary Ying Yong was transferred to head Hubei province to lead the fight against the coronavirus epidemic.

Liao Guoxun, who is currently a member of the standing committee of the Party in Shanghai, will serve as deputy party secretary in the city, according to state media.

(Reporting by Huizhong Wu and Lusha Zhang)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Phoenix, Arizona, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, the states leading physician support organizations, the Arizona Osteopathic Medical Association and Arizona Medical Association, recognizing the significant impact rare diseases have on Arizona families, are asking Arizonans to learn more about these rare diseases. A focused part of this effort is their support in educating and engaging lawmakers and health care providers around the unique policy and health care access issues that impact Arizonas rare disease patients.

Challenges for rare disease patients can include rising out-of-pocket costs, uncertainty in coverage of burdensome step therapy and prior authorization requirements, disparities in access in rural areas, and especially for rare-disease patients and state health care budgets, the social, emotional, and financial costs of misdiagnosis.

The State of Black Arizona, a nonprofit dedicated to research and demographic data, is taking the lead alongside the Arizona Osteopathic Medical Association and Arizona Medical Association by hosting a free rare disease Community Conversation at the Arizona House of Representatives on Thursday March 12, 2020. The conversation is set to include discussion of rare disease data, patient and provider experiences, and the public policy issues that impact access to health care. The program will highlight rare diseases, specifically providing education on the disproportionate impact of rare diseases in African Americans, including sickle cell disease and cardiac amyloidosis.

Considering the number of Arizonans diagnosed with a rare disease, there are few who could not learn something of value by attending, One in ten people are affected by rare disease. That translates to over 700,000 Arizonans living with one of the over 7,000 known rare diseases. We are glad to be able to shine a light on rare disease issues and help drive policy discussion, said Janet Weigel, Interim Executive Director of the Arizona Osteopathic Medical Association.

Arizona State Representative Amish Shah-LD 24, a physician, is set to open the event with a legislative address in support of The State of Black Arizonas efforts to improve the quality of rare disease patients lives through awareness and advocacy.

The State of Black Arizona worked with the Office of Arizona Governor Doug Ducey on a proclamation designating March 2, 2020 as Cardiac Amyloidosis Awareness Day in Arizona. Cardiac amyloidosis is a rare and underdiagnosed disease caused by a build-up of an abnormal protein, called amyloid, in the heart. The buildup can lead to heart failure with symptoms including shortness of breath, fatigue, and swelling of the legs. One subtype of cardiac amyloidosis, hereditary ATTR-CM, predominantly impacts African Americans and people of African descent.

For more information about the event, visit www.stateofblackarizona.org and register by March 10, 2020.

About the Arizona Osteopathic Medical Association: Since 1921, the Arizona Osteopathic Medical Association has been the voice of osteopathic medicine in Arizona. With more than 2,500 members  active, retired, interns, residents, and students - AOMAs mission is to promote the osteopathic medical profession, serve its members, provide osteopathic continuing medical education, and advocate for access to high quality, cost-effective healthcare. For more information about AOMA, visit the website at www.az-osteo.org.

About the State of Black Arizona: Since 2015, the State of Black Arizona has created a platform for the synthesis of data, demographics, and research to inform the community on the status of African Americans in Arizona. The data is intended to help elected officials, community leaders and organizations with action planning and decisions related to the issues and concerns of the state. We believe as a result of this work; the data will compel both the leadership and grassroots community to make a concerted effort to provide solutions that improve the lives of all Arizonans. For more information about SBAZ, visit the website at www.stateofblackarizona.org

###
The woman left bound in a shocking Collingswood home invasion said she was relieved when police told her they caught the man who went on a crime spree last weekend, culminating in the attack on her and her boyfriend and an attempt to burn down their home with them trapped inside.

"Im just happy were alive, she told NJ Advance Media on Friday. I was feeling a bit safer that night. I didnt have any more nightmares.

The Camden County Prosecutors Office announced late Thursday the arrest of Bernard Miller, 36, a homeless man staying at a Camden shelter, in the Sunday home invasion and two other burglaries in Collingswood Saturday. He faces a dozen charges including attempted murder, aggravated arson, aggravated assault, criminal restraint, and robbery.

Authorities said that he tried to keep his face mostly covered, but surveillance footage of the distinctive yellow, red and black Ethik-brand jacket he wore helped link the crimes and ultimately identify him at the shelter, where police said they found stolen jewelry in his backpack.

While the 30-year-old woman is home from the hospital after being treated for smoke and soot inhalation, her boyfriend remains hospitalized. Authorities said he had stab wounds to his face, neck and head.

According to the woman and an affidavit of probable cause authorities filed in court, she opened the back door of her Crestmont Terrace home to a man asking for water. She initially believed he was one of the workers doing renovations at her parents house next door, authorities said. He was wearing a yellow and black zip up, she told authorities.

Boards cover the windows of a home at the end of Crestmont Terrace in Collingswood Monday, Feb. 25, 2020, a day after a man reportedly attacked a resident, tied up another and set the house on fire.Rebecca Everett | For NJ.com

The man then donned gloves and a mask and pulled out a knife, authorities said. He repeatedly stabbed her boyfriend as he tried to fight back and then tied both victims up with cords while demanding money, authorities said.

The man grabbed about $30 and a few credit cards, the woman said. Police wrote in the affidavit that he lit numerous toilet paper rolls on fire and placed them around the house in an attempt to burn it down. The woman was able to get out of her bindings and call 911 as smoke filled the house, authorities said.

Emergency responders rescued her boyfriend from the burning home, rushed the couple to Cooper University Hospital and extinguished the fire, authorities said.

A GoFundMe campaign set up by her boyfriends family is raising money for the couple, noting the home and their possessions are pretty much a total loss.

The prosecutors office said that Miller also committed two burglaries in Collingswood Saturday.

A Virginia Avenue homeowner reportedly discovered a man in the home wearing a distinctive multicolored jacket under a black sweatshirt.

Minutes later, surveillance video at a CVS on the White Horse Pike showed a man in a multicolored jacket, without the black sweatshirt, authorities said. A Ring doorbell camera captured the second burglary Saturday, on Champion Avenue.

The prosecutors office targeted homeless shelters in their search for the suspect based on items taken from previous burglaries, according to the affidavit. It noted that he took jewelry and food from the Champion Avenue home.

They found him at one shelter, where surveillance footage showed him entering the shelter in the clothes seen in the burglaries Saturday, including the zip-up jacket, according to the affidavit. Jewelry stolen from the Champion Avenue home was in his backpack, authorities wrote.

Its not clear when Miller will appear in court, or whether he has an attorney.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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The house was the ideal size for the couple. One day, Tom Tinsley turned to his wife and said there wasnt a space in the house she didnt use. Thats true, she replied, but wasnt that the point? Instead of having a living room that youre never in. This house, we really used all the spaces more efficiently than in any house we had.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : A police complaint has been filed with the Delhi Police as well as the Maharashtra Police against the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for "defaming a particular religion and spreading communal tension" by "misreporting" on the Delhi riots and the killing of IB staffer Ankit Sharma.

The complaint was filed over a news item published in the WSJ on February 26 which reported that Sharma's killers shouted 'Jai Shri Ram', quoting the IB staffer's brother Ankur Sharma, who, however, denied making such a statement to the American media outlet.

"Police complaints filed against The Wall Street Journal @WSJ with @DelhiPolice & Maharashtra Police for 'defaming particular religion & spreading communal tension' with respect to alleged misreporting on #DelhiViolence & murder of IB official Ankit Sharma," national broadcaster Prasar Bharti said in a tweet.

The WSJ report said: "Mr Sharma was returning home when a group of rioters started throwing stones and charged into the street near where his house is located, his brother said." Quoting IB staffer's brother, the report then said: "They came armed with stones, rods, knives and even swords; they shouted 'Jai Shri Ram'..." As per Prasar Bharati, Ankur Sharma told them that he "never gave such a statement to the Wall Street Journal".

In conversation with Prasar Bharati, he discredited WSJ report, saying: "I never gave such a statement to the Wall Street Journal. This is a ploy to defame my brother and my family. The Wall Street Journal is lying." Ankit Sharma's family reportedly blames Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain for the IB officer's death. The Delhi Police on Thursday registered a case of rioting and murder against Hussain. The AAP leader was subsequently suspended from the party's primary membership.

The IB employee's body was recovered from a canal in Chand Bagh area in North-East Delhi, the epicentre of the riot. The autopsy reported that he was stabbed multiple times.
Passengers board buses after arriving on an airplane carrying U.S. citizens being evacuated from Wuhan, China, at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif. Jan. 29, 2020. Read more

WASHINGTON - Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services sent more than a dozen workers to receive the first Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, without proper training for infection control or appropriate protective gear, according to a whistleblower complaint.

The workers did not show symptoms of infection and were not tested for the virus, according to lawyers for the whistleblower, who is a senior HHS official based in Washington who oversees workers at the Administration for Children and Families, a unit within HHS.

The whistleblower is seeking federal protection because she alleges she was unfairly and improperly reassigned after raising concerns about the safety of these workers to HHS officials, including those within the office of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. She was told Feb. 19 that if she does not accept the new position in 15 days, which is March 5, she would be terminated.

The whistleblower has decades of experience in the field, received two HHS department awards from Azar last year, and has received the highest performance evaluations, her lawyers said.

The complaint was filed Wednesday with the Office of the Special Counsel, an independent federal watchdog agency. The whistleblower's lawyers provided a copy of a redacted 24-page complaint to The Washington Post. A spokesman for the Office of the Special Counsel said he could not comment on complaints filed with the office.

The complaint alleges that HHS staff were "improperly deployed" and were "not properly trained or equipped to operate in a public health emergency situation." The complaint also alleges that the workers were potentially exposed to coronavirus because appropriate steps were not taken to protect them, and staff were not trained in wearing personal protective equipment, even though they had face-to-face contact with returning passengers. The workers were in contact with passengers in an airplane hangar where evacuees were received and on two other occasions: when they helped distribute keys for room assignments and hand out colored ribbons for identification purposes.

"We take all whistleblower complaints very seriously and are providing the complainant all appropriate protections under the Whistleblower Protection Act. We are evaluating the complaint and have nothing further to add at this time," HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley said.

In her complaint, the whistleblower states that "appropriate steps were not taken to quarantine, monitor, or test [the workers] during their deployment and upon their return home." The repatriated Americans were among those evacuated from Wuhan and quarantined on military bases in California and Texas because they were considered at high risk for contracting the flu-like illness.

About 14 ACF personnel were sent to March Air Force base in Riverside County, California, and another team of about 13 ACF personnel were sent to Travis Air Force in Fairfield, California, according to the complaint and the whistleblower's lawyer, Ari Wilkenfeld. Several people within HHS voiced objection to sending the ACF personnel to receive passengers, according to a person familiar with the conversations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

A second person familiar with the situation said the workers were not tested for coronavirus because none of them met the criteria for testing, which only calls for testing people who had recent travel to China or contact with a confirmed case. The workers also did not exhibit any symptoms, the person said. If they had, appropriate protocol would have been followed.

The deployments took place Jan. 28 to 31, around the time when the first planeload of evacuees arrived at March, and Feb. 2 to Feb. 7, during the time when additional flights were arriving at Travis. The planes each carried about 200 Americans who were repatriated from Wuhan.

After their deployments, the workers returned to their normal duties, some taking commercial airline flights to return to their offices around the country, the lawyers said.

"Our client was concerned that ACF staff - who were potentially exposed to the coronavirus - were allowed to leave quarantined areas and return to their communities, where they may have spread the coronavirus to others," said Lauren Naylor, one of the whistleblower's lawyers.

The whistleblower is also seeking assistance from the office of Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., a member of the House Ways and Means committee and vice chair of the House Oversight Committee, according to a Gomez spokesman.

During a hearing Thursday, Gomez asked Azar whether any employees from the Administration for Children and Families could have been sent to help with the repatriation of Americans from Wuhan, China without any training in emergency response. Azar replied that some ACF employees were involved.

Asked what sort of health and safety training the personnel received, and whether any of them were exposed to high-risk evacuees from China, Azar said, "They never should have been without P.P.E," referring to personal protective equipment.

Asked whether any protocols may have been broken, given the urgency on the ground, Azar replied that urgency was never a reason for breaking safety protocols.

"I don't believe that has taken place," Azar said, adding that health and safety protocols "should always be followed." He said that he did not personally know the names of the team, but that other department officials did. Pressed by Gomez what the department would do if untrained employees were exposed to the virus, Azar said, "I'd want to know the full facts, and we'd take appropriate remedial efforts."

The whistleblower said she received an email Jan. 25 about a potential deployment within ACF to support repatriation of the evacuated Americans, according to her lawyer. She initially supported the efforts because they had the "appearance that this was within ACF's scope," lawyer Lauren Naylor said. But later, she discovered the personnel were dispatched without her knowledge by other senior officials at HHS. It was part of the agency's "all-hands-on-deck" mission, Naylor said, but it broke agency protocol about what kinds of employees should respond to health emergencies. The whistleblower said she later found out about the deployment when she heard directly from some employees and other senior officials at HHS.

Some workers expressed concern about the lack of protective gear to the ACF team leader on the ground. That person joined ACF in September and had "no training or experience in any federal emergency management, public health emergency response, or safety or operational protocols to run the mission," the complaint states.

ACF personnel typically deal with supporting people recovering from natural disasters, such as floods and fires, and helping victims apply for temporary assistance, all of which are under the category of human services, the whistleblower's lawyers said. HHS officials broke established protocols for emergency support by sending ACF workers to a health emergency, for which they have no training, Naylor said. The Administration for Children and Families, which has about 1,300 employees, has come under attack in recent years because of its role in sheltering and taking custody of migrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border who were separated from them by the Department of Homeland Security.

The workers' concerns were not addressed, the whistleblower's lawyers said.

She was involuntarily assigned to a position in a subject matter where she has no expertise, said Wilkenfeld, her lawyer, in an interview Thursday. The agency said the reason for the reassignment was necessary to meet the needs of the department, according to a memo she received. If I did not accept involuntary reassignment, I would be terminated from federal service through adverse personnel action, according to her complaint.

The Washington Posts Amy Goldstein contributed to this report.
The BS6-compliant next-gen Honda City has been spotted during a public road test ahead of its Indian debut that will take place next month. New spy images shared on the web reveal the test-mule of the model with an emission testing device at the rear.

A few visual highlights of the new Honda City seen in the spy images here include LED headlamps, fog lights, single slat grille, clamshell bonnet, new alloy wheels, blacked out B-pillars shark fin antenna, ORVM mounted turn indicators, tail gate mounted number plate recess and sweptback tail lights. Once launched, the new-gen Honda City will rival the Maruti Suzuki Ciaz , Skoda Rapid , Volkswagen Vento and the upcoming Hyundai Verna facelift.

Honda Car India has not revealed the engine specifications of the upcoming generation Honda City although we expect the model to be offered with BS6-compliant versions of the 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine and a 1.5-litre diesel engine. The latter, which is already available in the BS6 form with the outgoing model, is expected to arrive with a dual-motor hybrid system.

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Honda City  9.33 Lakh Onwards

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 22:37:48|Editor: yan

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MOGADISHU, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The European Union on Friday announced to provide 11 million U.S. dollars to help tackle desert locust outbreak in Somalia.

The EU said the outbreak could have devastating consequences on food security in a vulnerable country like Somalia, where one million people are already severely food insecure and at least 2.8 million are at risk.

"This crisis represents a concrete threat to the food security and livelihood of millions of the Somali people, the EU Ambassador to Somalia Nicolas Berlanga Martinez said in a statement issued in Mogadishu.

Martinez said a timely and coordinated response among aid actors is critical in order to mitigate the effect of the current infestation and prevent further deterioration of the situation.

He said the EU remains committed to support the Somali government to contain the impact of this locust crisis in the Horn of Africa nation.

The EU envoy said the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has formulated a response plan, but Somalia interventions must be rapidly scaled up to support national governments of the affected countries.

"A narrow window of opportunity exists now to contain this disastrous outbreak and protect the livelihoods of millions of vulnerable people across East Africa and beyond," Martinez said.

According to the EU, the current widespread desert locust infestation is the worst to hit Somalia in decades and poses a greater threat to the country's fragile food security situation.

FAO said swarms are present and breeding in Somalia's northeast as well as in the south near the Kenyan border.
The coronavirus outbreak may hit supplies of smartphone components from China to other countries at least till the second quarter of this year, according to research from Counterpoint Research. "Our initial expectation was that the virus would be contained within two months and take three more months for things will get back to normal. We now expect Q1 PRC (People's Republic of China) sales to be down by around 25 per cent, compared to our original forecast.

This is 18 per cent lower than Q1 last year. But this can worsen if the virus is not contained. Global sales will also ...
Federal officials have cited a Georgia-based charcoal manufacturer for exposing employees to safety and health hazards at two Missouri plants.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is recommending fines of $339,702 against Royal Oak Enterprises, based in Roswell, Georgia, for exposing employees for violations at its plants in Branson and Summersville, Missouri.

OSHA cited 19 serious violations in Branson, such as electrical, housekeeping, hearing, and forklift hazards and inadequate machine guarding.

The 10 violations in Summersville include electrical and forklift hazards, accumulation of combustible material and exposing employees to silica dust.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHAs area director, or contest the findings.

Company officials did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Georgia Missouri
With Minority Affairs Minister



Nawab Malik announcing that the Maharashtra government will provide quota to Muslims in education, the BJP on Friday questioned its former ally Shiv Sena's stand on the issue.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Devendra Fadnavis also claimed that a quota for Muslims would be unconstitutional and affect OBC and Maratha reservations.

Malik, an NCP leader, told the Legislative Council that the government has proposed to provide five per cent reservation to Muslims in educational institutes and will bring in a law for this.

"There is no provision in the Constitution framed by Babasaheb Ambedkar for giving reservation on the basis of religion," Fadnavis told reporters.

Muslims can avail of 10 per cent quota for the economically weaker sections in the general category which the Union government has introduced, he said.

"Yet, this announcement was made. We want to know from the Shiv Sena on which issues it has reached a 'setting' (mutual understanding)," the former chief minister said.

"We should know on what issues Shiv Sena has made compromise and given up its ideology to form government," Fadnavis said, noting that Malik had claimed in the Council that the Sena supported the quota proposal for Muslims.

The BJP leader alleged that quota for Muslims would eat into the existing OBC reservation.

"If additional reservation is given (to Muslims), the OBCs stand to lose their quota. Maratha reservation too will be affected," he added.

Notably, senior Sena leader and Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde told reporters after Malik's announcement that no decision had been taken on the quota for Muslims yet.

The then Congress-NCP government in the state had issued an ordinance giving five per cent quota to Muslims in 2014 alongwith 16 per cent quota for the Maratha community.

The BJP-Shiv Sena government which followed enacted a law for Maratha reservation but dropped the Muslim quota.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
I was in a dilemma about how we were going to serve mint juleps at our Derby party, since winery laws here dont allow you to serve hard liquor, he explained. So I got this barrel from a premium Kentucky distillery  Im not at liberty to let you know where we get them, but Ill tell you its some of the finest Kentucky bourbon made. So we put some of our sturdiest white wine, called picpoul blanc, in the barrel and tasted it every day. And on the 11th day, it was the most magical combination of picpoul and bourbon. So we pulled it out and made mint juleps out of it. We have made that wine every year for 10 years now.
Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here.
NEW DELHI  Muslims in a northeastern neighborhood of Indias capital returned for weekly prayers at fire-bombed mosques on Friday, two days after a 72-hour clash between Hindus and Muslims that left at least 40 dead and hundreds injured.

Five days after the riots started, authorities have not said what sparked the worst communal violence in New Delhi in decades. Hospitals were still trying to identify the dead as the toll continued to rise, and residents of the areas affected by the riots were still seeking loved ones.

If they burn our mosques, we will rebuild them again and pray. Its our religious right and nobody can stop us from practicing our religion, said Mohammad Sulaiman, who was among about 180 men who prayed on the rooftop of a mosque that was set on fire in the unrest.

Tensions between Hindu hard-liners and Muslims protesting the Hindu-first policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modis government had been building for months when the violence exploded Sunday night, on the eve of U.S. President Donald Trumps first state visit to India.

Kapil Mishra, a local leader of Modis Bharatiya Janata Party who lost his Delhi state assembly seat in recent elections, demanded at a rally Sunday that police shut down a Muslim-led protest in the city or else he and his followers would do it themselves.

And it appears they did.

Hindus and Muslims attacked each other with guns and swords, metal rods and axes, leaving the streets where the rioting occurred resembling a war zone.

Al-Hind hospital, a small clinic with two doctors, was the nearest medical facility for many of the victims. When the riots broke out, it turned into a chaotic emergency ward, its doctors dealing for the first time with injuries such as gunshot wounds, crushed skulls, stabbings and torn genitals.

It was horrific, as if evil had pervaded and housed itself in the hearts of the mob, said M.A. Anwar, the doctor on duty,

Religious tensions in the area where the clashes occurred still simmered on Friday, tempered by a heavy police presence. On one riot-torn street, Hindus shouted Jai Shri Ram, or Long Live Ram, the Hindu god, as Muslims attempted to reach a mosque damaged in the riots.

Several Muslim residents told The Associated Press that most Muslim families had locked their homes and fled the area.

The passage of a citizenship law in December that fast-tracks naturalization for some religious minorities from neighboring countries but not Muslims earlier spurred massive protests across India that left 23 dead.

The protest violence is the latest in a long line of periodic communal clashes that date to the British partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, when the country was split into secular, Hindu-majority India and the Islamic state of Pakistan.

The protection of Indias religious, cultural and linguistic diversity is enshrined in its constitution. But communal tensions have occasionally flared into deadly riots, beginning with partition itself, when Hindus living in what is now Pakistan migrated to India, and Muslims in modern India to Pakistan.

Clashes claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and people of other religions.

This weeks death toll marked the worst religiously motivated violence in New Delhi since 1984, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by her Sikh bodyguards, triggering a wave of riots that resulted in the deaths of more than 3,000 Sikhs in the capital and more than 8,000 nationwide.

In 1992, tens of thousands of Hindu extremists razed a 16th-century mosque in northern India, claiming that it stood on Rams birthplace. Nearly 2,000 people were killed across the country in the riots that followed.

The religious polarization that followed saw Modis right-wing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party emerge as the single largest party in Indias Parliament.

In 2002, the western Indian state of Gujarat erupted in violence when a train filled with Hindu pilgrims was attacked by a Muslim mob. A fire erupted  it remains unclear whether it was arson  and 60 Hindus burned to death. In retaliation, more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the state.

Modi was Gujarats chief minister at the time. He was accused of tacit support for the rampage against Muslims, but a court ultimately cleared him of wrongdoing.

Violent large-scale clashes between Hindus and Muslims last took place in New Delhi in 2014, months after Modis party came to power, in a largely poor neighborhood close to where this weeks rioting occurred. That violence left three dozen people injured.

Ashutosh Varshney, a professor at Brown University who wrote a book about Indian riots, said the worst has been averted  at least for now.

If it had reached the scale of Delhi 1984 or Gujarat 2002, it would have doomed Indian politics for many years to come and brought India closer to the kind of Hindu-Muslim polarization that the current ruling party would ideally want, but is finding it hard to manufacture, Varshney said.

BJP leaders, who have sought to demonize Muslim protesters as a threat to India, may see some gain from the violence, Varshney said.

But it comes at a cost, the international perception that India under Modi has become ungovernable, he said.

Government spokesman Raveesh Kumar denied the Modi government had inflamed religious tensions and failed to protect Muslims.

These are factually inaccurate and misleading, and appear to be aimed at politicizing the issue, he said. Our law enforcement agencies are working on the ground to prevent violence and ensure restoration of confidence and normalcy.

He added that Modi had publicly appealed for peace and brotherhood.

We would urge that irresponsible comments are not made at this sensitive time, he said.

___

Associated Press writer Anirrudha Ghosal contributed to this report.
One of the biggest stories of last week was how Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (NYSE:PEI) shares plunged 31% in the week since its latest annual results, closing yesterday at US$2.59. Results look to have been somewhat negative - revenue fell 5.0% short of analyst estimates at US$345m, although statutory losses were somewhat better. The per-share loss was US$0.52, 73% smaller than analysts were expecting prior to the result. This is an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance in its report, look at what top analysts are forecasting for next year, and see if there has been any change to expectations for the business. We've gathered the most recent statutory forecasts to see whether analysts have changed their earnings models, following these results.

View our latest analysis for Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust

NYSE:PEI Past and Future Earnings, February 28th 2020

Taking into account the latest results, the most recent consensus for Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust from dual analysts is for revenues of US$368.7m in 2020, which is a credible 6.9% increase on its sales over the past 12 months. Statutory losses are expected to increase substantially, hitting US$0.46. per share. Before this earnings announcement, analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$368.7m and losses of US$0.56 per share in 2020. Although the revenue estimates have not really changed, we can see there's been a substantial gain in earnings per share expectations, suggesting that analysts have become more bullish after the latest result.

The consensus price target fell 7.3% to US$4.45 despite the forecast for smaller losses next year. It looks like the ongoing lack of profitability is starting to weigh on analyst valuations.

Zooming out to look at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can make sense of these forecasts is to see how they measure up both against past performance, and against industry growth estimates. For example, we noticed that Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust's rate of growth is expected to accelerate meaningfully, with revenues forecast to grow at 6.9%, well above its historical decline of 5.0% a year over the past five years. Compare this against analyst estimates for the wider market, which suggest that (in aggregate) market revenues are expected to grow 4.9% next year. So it looks like Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust is expected to grow faster than its competitors, at least for a while.

Story continues

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that analysts increased their loss per share estimates for next year. Happily, there were no major changes to revenue forecasts, with analysts still expecting the business to grow faster than the wider market. The consensus price target fell measurably, with analysts seemingly not reassured by the latest results, leading to a lower estimate of Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust's future valuation.

Even so, the longer term trajectory of the business is much more important for the value creation of shareholders. At least one analyst has provided forecasts out to 2024, which can be seen for free on our platform here.

You can also see whether Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust is carrying too much debt, and whether its balance sheet is healthy, for free on our platform here.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Every March, we look forward to taking the time to celebrate the power of women. From everyday women to the celebrities we admire, we're always up to get schooled on girl power. So, when it comes to Women's History Month, we have some questions, like why is it in March, and how did it even come to be in the first place? We've answered that (and more) below.



In March 1910, the Second International Conference of Women was held in Copenhagen, according to the University of Chicago.

In the United States, 17 countries were represented by nearly 100 women who advocated for their gender through various clubs, unions and socialist parties. They also formed demonstrations that pushed for voting rights, in addition to better working conditions and pay for female-dominated trades, like the textile industry.

At the gathering, it was decided the next year would mark the world's first International Woman's Day (later changed to "women's" day) and it was officially celebrated on March 8, 1911.

Then Women's Day grew from a day to a week.

Due to its popularity, over half a century later in 1975, the United Nations officially began sponsoring International Women's Day  with the UN's General Assembly declaring that the day would be held "to recognize the fact that securing peace and social progress and the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms requires the active participation, equality and development of women; and to acknowledge the contribution of women to the strengthening of international peace and security."

However, according to the National Women's History Alliance, by 1978, a California-based organization (the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women) became frustrated with the lack of information about women's history available to the public or in grade school curriculum. Branching off of the initial celebration, they initiated the creation of Women's History Week, starting March 8. It was an instant hit.

"Over one-hundred community women participated by doing special presentations in classrooms throughout the country and an annual 'Real Woman' Essay Contest drew hundreds of entries," the NWHA website states.

And a week became a whole month.

In 1979, NWHP member Molly Murphy McGregor was invited to The Women's History Institute at Sarah Lawrence College. There, after sharing the success of the celebratory week, the national leaders in attendance wanted to bring back a version of Women's History Week to their own communities. Because of the wide-ranging interest, efforts began to secure judicial support.

Success came in February 1980 after President Jimmy Carter declared in a presidential proclamation that the week of March 8 was officially National Womens' History Week; congressional support soon followed, according to the NWHP.

As a result of its country-wide recognition and continued growth in state schools, government and organizations, by 1986, 14 states had gone ahead and dubbed the third month of the year Women's History Month. A year later, it sparked congress to declare the holiday in perpetuity.

Now, let's fast-forward to 2020.

The NWHP always declares an annual theme. This year's is "Valiant Women of the Vote."

"Our 2020 theme celebrates the women who have fought for womans right to vote in the United States. In recognition of the centennial of the 19th Amendment, we will honor women from the original suffrage movement as well as 20th and 21st century women who have continued the struggle (fighting against poll taxes, literacy tests, voter roll purges and other more contemporary forms of voter suppression) to ensure voting rights for all."
The railway's catering arm IRCTC will resume services of the luxury train Golden Chariot on March 22 after a gap of a few years, officials said on Friday.

IRCTC took over the operation, management and marketing of the special train through a recent agreement with Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC), which launched the Golden Chariot train in 2008.

"The Golden Chariot is again going to hit the tracks in a new look and feel on an exciting week long itinerary. IRCTC has planned three trips of Golden Chariot on 'Pride of Karnataka' itinerary on March 22, March 29 and April 12, 2020. The six nights/seven days itinerary will commence from Yeshwantpur Railway Station in the morning and visit Bandipur National Park, Mysore, Halebidu, Chikmangalur, Hampi, Badami-Pattadakal-Aihole, Goa before returning to Bengaluru," IRCTC said.

The train has undergone a makeover befitting taste of international train travel enthusiasts, it said.

To add to the guests' comforts, the train now boasts of several new features, including newly upholstered furniture, elegant drapery, renovated rooms and bathrooms, crockery and cutlery of reputed international brands and fresh linen.

Smart TVs with a variety of Wi-Fi enabled subscriptions of streaming sites, including Netflix, Amazon and Hotstar, have been installed. CCTV cameras and fire alarm system have been added for more safety.

"Experienced chefs have created menus presenting an eclectic mix of mouth watering international as well as domestic fare. The package now comes with selected home made beverages included in the cost with a host of spirits on offer. The guests can continue to enjoy relaxing spa therapies at the on board spa which has also been provided with modern workout machines for the fitness enthusiasts.

"The luxury train tour package cost is inclusive of all on board meals, guided excursions in air-conditioned buses, monument entry fee and meals at outside venues as per the itinerary," it said.

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

A Polish model has gone completely blind in one eye and rapidly failing sight in the other after a tattoo artist made an attempt to dye her eyeballs black.

25-year-old Aleksandra Sadowska from the city of Wroclaw in the west of Poland reportedly went to the tattooist to dye her eyeballs black so that she can look like rap artist Popek, who also had his eyes dyed black.

After the bungled procedure, Aleksandra started complaining of pains in her eyes with the tattooist telling her there was no cause of alarm and then instructed her to take painkillers as it was normal.

But after losing complete sight in her right eye, doctors told the model that the damage was irreparable and that she would soon lose sight in her left eye too.

The Polish tattoo artist, Piotr A, has been arrested is now facing three years in prison for unintentionally severely disabling the woman. He has pleaded not guilty.

During the subsequent investigation, it was discovered that the tattooist had made serious mistakes in the process, including using body ink for tattooing skin, which should not come into contact with the eye.

The womans lawyers told local media: There is clear evidence that the tattoo artist did not know how to perform such a delicate procedure. And yet he decided to perform it which led to this tragedy.

Aleksandra also said: Unfortunately, for now doctors do not give me much optimism for improvement. The damage is too deep and extensive. Im afraid I will be completely blind.

She added: I will not lock myself in the basement and get depressed. I have sadness behind me, but I live on.



The court case is expected to start soon.
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors listens to comments from Marie Thearle, right, a gun control supporter, during a meeting in Phoenix on Feb. 26, 2020. (Terry Tang/AP Photo)

Arizonas Most Populous County Becomes Second Amendment Preservation County

Arizona on Feb. 27 saw its fifth county join a growing national movement in the support for gun ownership rights, declaring itself a Second Amendment Preservation County.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on Wednesday in Phoenix to declare the countythe most populous in the statea Second Amendment Preservation County, following dozens of counties nationwide.

Supervisor Steve Gallardo, a Democrat, denounced the politically charged resolution. Lets think about this. A resolution should not be divisive, he said. It should not be partisan.

The resolution defends the right of citizens to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment against gun-control policies that could be perceived as unconstitutional.

Maricopa County, which has about 4.4 million residents, followed other counties in Arizona including Apache, Mohave, La Paz, and Yavapai, which have declared themselves Second Amendment Sanctuaries. The resolution simply says the board supports the right to own guns.

Counties and cities across America have also joined the growing national movement and passed similar resolutions.

The largely symbolic resolution in the county passed with only one of two typical provisionsto protect the Second Amendment. The other stipulation that would ensure government funds are not used to infringe on gun rights was dropped, reported Fox News.

Chairman Clint Hickman countered that multiple constituents had expressed support for the sanctuary designation that was first used in 2018 in Illinois and quickly spread to California, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and other states.

Hickman told the Arizona Republic that the county made the decision to use the term Preservation County instead of Sanctuary County, saying it was a better fit.

I didnt like that term, Hickman said of the word sanctuary, adding, Words mean things.

Sanctuary city is a term more often associated with cities trying to restrict cooperation with U.S. immigration authorities. Some Second Amendment sanctuary supporters say their decision to use the term was a deliberate knock on Democrats who support immigrant sanctuary cities.

In Arizona, gun owners are already free to carry a concealed firearm without a permit. They can also bypass background checks if they buy their firearms at a gun show. However, federal background checks are required for other purchases.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Married At First Sight star Natasha Spencer has voiced her support for Poppy Jennings.

The 26-year-old hinted that the mother-of-two is considering legal action against the show, after her friend made extraordinary claims about her 'husband' Luke Eglin.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on Friday, Natasha said she hopes that Poppy goes through with it, as 'we can't silence this stuff.'

EXCLUSIVE: 'We can't silence this stuff': MAFS' Natasha Spencer (left) voiced support for Poppy Jennings (right) on Friday and hinted she's considering legal action after her friend made extraordinary claims about her 'husband' Luke Eglin

'I think she's talking and figuring out what her options are, because she does have a lot of evidence,' Natasha said.

'And I hope it's something that Poppy does go through with and she's pretty strong in doing it.'

She added: 'It's time to give heed to things, that we don't silence this stuff. It's something we need to speak about more and something that we definitely don't want to tell women that they can't talk about and silence them.'

Making headlines: Pictured is Poppy's 'husband' on the show, Luke Eglin

Natasha said that Poppy has been trolled online after her appearance on the show, but she's 'proud' of her for how well she is doing.

Last week, Poppy's friend Susie appeared on The Kyle and Jackie O Show and said there was more to her exit than what was shown to viewers.

Susie claimed Poppy was seeking legal advice following her departure from MAFS.

She claimed that a particular incident - which Daily Mail Australia cannot report for legal reasons - had caused Poppy to abruptly leave the experiment.

Claims: Last week, Poppy's friend Susie appeared on The Kyle and Jackie O Show and said there was more to her exit than what was shown to viewers

Luke reportedly acknowledged the incident took place at the time, and Poppy was speaking with lawyers to determine what she can say publicly.

Susie claimed: '[Poppy] needs to have an understanding of what she can and can't say. She has been told by producers that she can't come forward because of what has gone on, and how controversial it is to the show.

'It's all about the show, no one is really caring about how she is feeling. Something happened to her that made her feel uncomfortable, and everybody has just brushed it off like it's not important.'

According to Susie, Poppy had informed producers of an alleged incident with Luke, but they told her she could not speak about it.

Drama: Susie claimed Poppy was seeking legal advice following her departure from MAFS. She claimed that a particular incident - which Daily Mail Australia cannot report for legal reasons - had caused Poppy to abruptly leave the experiment

Susie continued: 'She definitely told producers, and they just said, "Poppy, you can't come forward with this as it's way too controversial for the show."

'They've made her out like she's left him for no reason, and she just doesn't like him and misses her kids. This is not correct at all.'

When asked how Poppy is doing now, Susie said: 'She's not well, I'll tell you that. She has not been well since she left the show.

'She tells me she can't sleep and is having night tremors [sic]. I tell her not to stress about it and that everything will be okay. She's so upset about how everything went down and that she can't be herself. It has affected her.

'If anybody actually knew her, she's the most realest person you'll ever meet.'

Incident: According to Susie, Poppy had informed producers of an alleged incident with Luke, but they told her she could not speak about it

It came after Poppy shared a viral Facebook post in which she claimed that she 'wasn't allowed to speak' about the incident.

'I was uncomfortable with all the things about this person I was matched with that didn't add up!' she wrote.

Poppy also claimed that Luke's bosses had spoken to him before his appearance on the show, warning him to be 'on his best behaviour'.

'You have seen minutes of footage here and there of a guy on his best behaviour because he was drilled by his bosses beforehand about how he had to behave!' she added.

According to Poppy, there were incidents that happened during filming that were 'too controversial' to be shown on television.

'I couldn't say what was happening behind the scenes, as it was too controversial, so let's just play her ugly crying and whinging over her kids,' she wrote.

'F**k, I'd probably hate me too! From what I heard that's all they play of me!'

'I was uncomfortable': It came after Poppy shared a viral Facebook post in which she claimed that she 'wasn't allowed to speak' about the incident

During her time on MAFS, Poppy had often complained about missing her two-year-old twin sons, who were staying in Wollongong with her mother.

She also claimed that Luke wasn't genuinely upset when she left the experiment, and was more concerned about what she would say about him.

'Why is Luke crying when I left? What really happened that he was crying over! You don't know because I wasn't allowed to say! It's too controversial!' she continued.

'I was afraid to speak up! But f**k this s**t, I'm going to tell everything!

'It's not what you see, it's what you don't see! Go and ask Luke why I was so uncomfortable? Why the f**k did I really leave?

Before Susie's interview with The Kyle and Jackie O Show, Luke had downplayed the incident in a statement to The Daily Telegraph.

The 39-year-old FIFO worker and father-of-two said: 'I am not going to make any comments because, honestly, the best way to react is not to react.

'I'm not going to make any comments': Before Susie's interview with The Kyle and Jackie O Show, Luke had downplayed the incident in a statement to The Daily Telegraph

'To be honest, Poppy is a good person and the best of luck to her. I am not going to comment on anything because it is not worth it, it really isn't.

'Honestly, she just needs to move on like I have and that is it. We are finished on the show and that is as far as it goes.'

Luke, who works offshore as a maintenance supervisor, also told the Geelong Advertiser: 'The best response is not to respond. There's nothing I want to comment on because there's no point [in] making extra accusations.'

A spokesperson for Channel Nine and producers Endemol Shine Australia said at the time: 'We have seen Poppy's post and note her distress - we have reached out to her to offer support and won't be making any further public comment, and will focus on doing our best to support both Poppy and Luke.'

For confidential help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or click here

For confidential support on suicide matters in the UK, call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here

For confidential support in Australia, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or click here
Company announcement no 2-2020

Konsolidator gets customer number 5 on the Swedish market and reaches 90 customers and DKK 5m in ARR

Konsolidator hired a Swedish country manager at the end of September 2019. Today, Konsolidator signed with customer no. 5 in the Swedish market.

Hiring a country manager and establishing local presence has enabled Konsolidator to have several more sales meetings which has increased brand awareness much quicker. The Swedish market has an estimated reach of 7,500 potential customers and is an integrated part of Konsolidators growth strategy.

With the signing of customer no. 5 in Sweden Konsolidator surpassed DKK 5 million in annual recurring revenue. Konsolidator has earlier announced an ARR between DKK 5-6m as per 31 December 2019, which were achieved in February 2020.

We have experienced a great demand for a consolidation software as ours in Sweden. Our market approach has been a little bit different than our market approach to the UK market. We have hired a country manager before starting our digital marketing. With the digital marketing and a country manager we have reached five customers in 5 months which we find very positive and quick. says CEO, Claus Finderup Grove.

About Konsolidator

Konsolidator is a cloud-based and standardized SaaS consolidation and reporting tool that automates consolidation and monthly reporting and delivers accurate and timely management information based on corporate key ratios. Konsolidator wants to make financial consolidation and reporting easier for small- and medium-sized groups. The time the groups save, and the quality data obtained when using Konsolidator's cloud-based tool means that the groups can make better decisions and thus deliver higher strategic value.

For further information: CEO Claus Finderup Grove, mobile. +45 2095 2988, e-mail: cfg@konsolidator.com

Sborg, 28 February 2020

Konsolidator A/S

Tobaksvejen 2 A

2860 Sborg

www.konsolidator.com

Certified Adviser

Ernst & Young P/S

Osvald Helmuths Vej 4

2000 Frederiksberg

www.ey.com

Attachment
Actress Olympia Valance and AFL WAG Jessie Murphy led the celebrity arrival at the Mirabel Ladies Lunch in Melbourne on Friday.

Both women stunned in pops of pink at the charity event, which raised funds for orphaned or abandoned children through the Mirabel Foundation.

Jessie, 28, donned a bold one shoulder slim-fitting midi-dress with a dramatic puff sleeve detail.

Pretty in pink! Neighbours star Olympia Valance and WAG Jessie Murphy (pictured) lea\d the celebrity arrivals at the 2020 Mirabel Ladies Lunch on Friday

The blonde bombshell pulled her hair into an elegant updo, with loosely waved strands framing her face.

The beauty blogger opted for neutral makeup tones to pair with the eye-catching frock.

She accessorised with silver dangle earrings, a translucent clutch bag and clear PVC pumps.

Stunner: Jessie, 28, donned a bold one shoulder slim-fitting midi-dress with a dramatic puff sleeve detail

Details: She accessorised with silver dangle earrings in a star shape, a translucent clutch bag and clear pumps

Meanwhile, Olympia styled a similar striking magenta hue dress which featured flattering spaghetti-straps and a subtly cinched-in waist.

The 27-year-old looked effortlessly beautiful with the classic silhouette, as her brunette hair cascaded down her shoulders.

Accessorising with a delicate necklace, the Neighbours star using minimal makeup to amplify her natural beauty.

Classic beauty: Olympia (pictured) styled a similar striking magenta hue dress which featured flattering spaghetti-straps and a subtly cinched-in waist.

Stunner: The 27-year-old looked effortlessly beautiful with the classic silhouette, as her brunette hair cascaded down her shoulders

Gorgeous: Accessorising with a delicate necklace, the Neighbours star using minimal makeup to amplify her natural beauty

They were joined by Australian entertainer Patti Newtown, who looked equally as bold in a busy Camilla blouse.

The extravagant caftan featured elaborate peacock feathers and cheetah print throughout.

The 75-year-old amplified the look with a pearl-beaded necklace and matching drop earrings.

Blonde beauty: Lauren Phillips (pictured) looked every bit the brunching beauty, styling a white collared shirt with mustard brown stripes

Stunner: She added white wide-leg trousers, accessorising with a royal blue Gucci Marmont mini bag worth $2090

She finished the look with classic black trousers, pulling in her own pop of pink with a subtle blush and metallic-toned lipstick.

Lauren Phillips looked every bit the brunching beauty, styling a white collared shirt with mustard brown stripes and white wide-leg trousers.

Hooking her Aviator sunglasses onto her shirt, the 32-year-old accessorised with a royal blue Gucci Marmont mini bag worth $2090.
It wasn't long ago that #BoycottChhappak was trending on Twitter. Why? Because Deepika Padukone visited Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to stand in solidarity with the students in their protest against the violence caused by unidentified mob.

While on one hand, celebrities are questioned over their silence on issues concerning the nation, on the other hand, when they do take a stand, they have to face the downside of it.



Yesterday, #BoycottThappad was trending on Twitter. A section of people wanted to boycott the Anubhav Sinha directorial because of Taapsee Pannu's involvement in anti-CAA protests. The actress had joined a peaceful protest at Carter Road in Mumbai to support the students of JNU, who were attacked by a masked mob in January.



Reacting to the same, Taapsee in an interview with TOI, said that it's "stupid" to boycott a film on the basis of an actor's socio-political views.

I think personal opinions of actors should not affect their profession and I dont really think it does to an extent. It takes about 1000-2000 tweets to trend a certain hashtag. Does that really affect a film? I dont think so. I might have different social and political views from a lot of people but that does not mean people will not go and watch the film. An actor is never bigger than a film. A film has hundreds of people involved in it. It is stupid to decide whether or not you will watch a movie based on an actors socio-political views, Taapsee said.



Earlier Taapsee had said in an interview, "I haven't expressed my views on CAA because I haven't studied about it. But the visuals which I saw in Jamia, I didn't feel those were pleasant. I felt really sad when I saw the videos where students were talking about their plight. I feel something big has happened or something big is going to happen.



The film is scheduled to release on Feb 28.




Lithuanian English

AB Ignitis Gamyba, company code 302648707, registered office at Elektrines st. 21, Elektrenai (hereinafter referred to as the Company). The total number of registered ordinary shares issued by the Company is 648 002 629, ISIN code  LT0000128571.

THE YEAR 2019 FOR IGNITIS GAMYBA WAS FULL OF CHALLENGES, BUT FINISHED WITH IMPROVED FINANCIAL RESULTS

Ignitis Gamyba started to adopt its updated strategy last year and results of 2019 of the electricity producer, which is a part of Ignitis Group, show the Company improved its financial indicators and efficiently managed operating expenses.

Although the draught in spring and summer took its toll in Lithuania, the main performance indicators of Ignitis Gamyba in 2019 consistently improved. Results of Ignitis Gamyba in 2019 were significantly influenced by the effective use of the Kruonis Pumped Storage Power Plant (hereinafter Kruonis PSHP) potential, positive results of the stocked fuel-oil sales and increased volume of the regulated services provided by Elektrenai Complex. That led to 20.5% higher adjusted EBITDA of the Company in 2019, which reached EUR 54.0 million (compared to EUR 44.8 million in 2018).

The year 2019 for Ignitis Gamyba was full of challenges, but tackling them, we can enjoy both better company results and greater employee engagement today. We are changing and evolving as a company that seeks efficiently operate strategic electricity generation capacities and implement new energy projects, says Rimgaudas Kalvaitis, chairman of the board and CEO at Ignitis Gamyba.

Hydrological drought and prolonged fish spawning period had a negative impact on the results of Kaunas A. Brazauskas Hydroelectric Power Plant (hereinafter Kaunas HPP) due to the following reasons: a low flow of the Nemunas inflow in 2019 it produced 0.27 TWh or 22% less electricity than in 2018. The lower production results of Kaunas HPP were compensated by the increased margin of Kruonis PSHP generation  the increased difference between daily peak and night-time electricity prices resulted in 14% higher sales of the electricity produced in Kruonis PSHP in 2019 (0.54 TWh). As in the year 2018, the production volumes in Elektrenai Complex remained limited. In total, 0.83 TWh of electricity generated in the Companys power plants was sold in the NordPool exchange in 2019, slightly less if compared to 2018 (0.88 TWh).

Implementing its essential mission, in 2019 the Company successfully provided various ancillary services that are vital to the stability and security of the regions electricity supply systems. As in previous years, in 2019 the Company ensured the secondary active power reserve, a service provided by two hydro-units of Kruonis PSHP in the scope of 400 MW. The tertiary active power reserve in the scope of 260 MW was ensured by the most effective unit of Elektrenai Complex  the combined cycle unit (hereinafter the CCU). CCU was constantly ready to produce electricity and contribute to the overall security of the energy system.

I am glad we managed to make a substantial progress implementing new projects. In 2019, preparatory works for the installation of the experimental solar power plant in Kruonis PSHP and disassembly of the chimneys in Elektrenai Complex have been actively carried out, including the initiation of the public procurement procedures necessary for further implementation of these projects. I strongly believe these large-scale innovations will soon become reality, says R. Kalvaitis.

At the beginning of October, Ignitis Gamyba started providing solar power plant installation services and implementing large solar park projects for remote customers generating solar energy. The 1 MW solar power plant offered on the platform Ignitis Saules Parkai was booked within 2 days. At the end of the year, a 3 MW solar farm development project was initiated.

At the end of the year, Ignitis Gamyba won the auction of the tertiary active power reserve, announced by the transmission system operator LITGRID (hereinafter LITGRID or the TSO), and signed a contract to provide this service. Under this agreement, the company will provide this vitally important service in 2020 ensuring power grid reliability to units 7 and 8 of Elektrenai Complex within the scope of 475 MW. Since the launch of the auctions for tertiary active power reserve, this is the first case when one supplier is selected to provide all the services. Ignitis Gamyba has also signed agreement with LITGRID for provision of secondary reserve and services ensuring isolated operation of the power system in 2020. These services will be provided by two Kruonis PSHP units and the CCU and Unit 8 respectively.

Key performance indicators of Ignitis Gamyba of 2019*:

The r evenue from contracts with customers remained stable and amounted to EUR 135.0 million. The revenue of Ignitis Gamyba increased by 5.6% and amounted to EUR 145.5 million when compared to 2018. This was mainly influenced by the stocked fuel-oil and metal scrap sales (the amount of these sales in JanuaryDecember 2019 was EUR 6.2 million, at the same period in 2018  EUR 3.3 million).

remained stable and amounted to EUR 135.0 million. The of Ignitis Gamyba increased by 5.6% and amounted to EUR 145.5 million when compared to 2018. This was mainly influenced by the stocked fuel-oil and metal scrap sales (the amount of these sales in JanuaryDecember 2019 was EUR 6.2 million, at the same period in 2018  EUR 3.3 million). In 2019, the company incurred EUR 21.0 million in operational expenses  0.4% (EUR 0.1 million) less than in 2018. The provision formed in December 2018 for the costs of dismantling works at the Elektrenai Complex was the main reason for this.

 0.4% (EUR 0.1 million) less than in 2018. The provision formed in December 2018 for the costs of dismantling works at the Elektrenai Complex was the main reason for this. The adjusted EBITDA** increased by 20.5% and amounted to EUR 54 million, compared to 2018 (EUR 44.8 million). Adjusted EBITDA growth has been driven by the higher gross profit and increased generation margin of Kruonis PSHP, positive results of stocked fuel-oil sales and higher volumes of regulated services provided in Elektrenai Complex.

increased by 20.5% and amounted to EUR 54 million, compared to 2018 (EUR 44.8 million). Adjusted EBITDA growth has been driven by the higher gross profit and increased generation margin of Kruonis PSHP, positive results of stocked fuel-oil sales and higher volumes of regulated services provided in Elektrenai Complex. The Companys net profit amounted to EUR 42.8 million  23.45% more than in the previous year (EUR 34.7 million).

amounted to EUR 42.8 million  23.45% more than in the previous year (EUR 34.7 million). During 2018, the Company invested in non-current tangible and intangible assets EUR 0.8 million, compared to EUR 5.0 million in 2018.

* Financial indicators of the Company for the year 2018 have been recalculated. Information about the changes is presented in the Company's interim financial information for the year ended 31 December 2019.

** The Companys preliminary adjusted EBITDA for 2019 and actual adjusted EBITDA for 2018 are reported after the adjustments made by the management by eliminating the impact of one-off factors, also considering the change in revenue (and, consequently, EBITDA) of the Company's regulated services. These adjustments are made aiming to disclose the results of the Companys operating activities after the elimination of the impact of non-typical, one-off factors or factors that are not directly related to the current reporting period. All adjustments made by the management are disclosed in the Companys interim and annual reports.

Tadas Markevicius, Public Relations Manager, +370 676 28911, tadas.markevicius@ignitis.lt

Attachment
WASHINGTON  Barack Obama has not set foot in South Carolina recently, but he has become a flash point among the Democratic presidential candidates as they compete for black voters in Saturdays primary there and in the bigger, diverse Super Tuesday contests next week.

In statements and a campaign ad over the past few days, former Vice President Joe Biden has accused Sen. Bernie Sanders of disloyalty against the nations first black president for considering a primary challenge against Obama in 2012. Sanders insists he didnt consider it.

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spent about $22.4 million so far on two national television ads featuring several photos of him with Obama, something Biden has sought to undercut by questioning whether the two men were close.

Other candidates have praised Obama on the airwaves and debate stages as well as in early primary and caucus states this month, a sharp turnaround from the criticism that some 2020 contenders lobbed last year at his record, especially on immigration. The new embrace is a measure of his popularity with black voters 12 years after his last contested election in South Carolina, where he beat Hillary Clinton in a rout that cemented, once and for all, his standing with black voters nationwide.

Obama hasnt tried to referee how the current candidates are using his name, image or record, and he has studiously avoided playing favorites. He does have opinions about the race, several of his allies say, but has made it clear that he sees his main role as unifying the party after a nominee is selected and helping ease tensions among warring supporters.

As Sanders campaign gained steam a few weeks ago, Obama said he would enthusiastically support any of the candidates. But he added that the task of uniting the party around Sanders could be difficult, according to an associate who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Obama has imposed no restrictions on Democratic candidates who want to hug him for political gain. Five Democratic candidates  Bloomberg, Sanders, Biden, Tom Steyer and Sen. Elizabeth Warren  have seized on the opportunity, using Obamas words or likeness in their ads. And just about everybody, surrogates and other candidates alike, has invoked him on the stump.

I think it would be political malpractice for any of the candidates not to closely associate themselves with the most popular person in the Democratic Party, said Valerie Jarrett, one of Obamas closest friends and advisers. South Carolina was one of the biggest and most important days of our campaign. People will always remember that.

Obama, who offered Bidens team basic strategic advice before he entered the race last year, speaks more often with his former vice president than with other candidates, and called to buck up Biden after his humbling loss in the Iowa caucuses, according to a person briefed on the exchange. The two also spoke Tuesday before the South Carolina debate.

In South Carolina, Biden has intensified his Joe-hearts-Barack strategy, weaponizing the presidents popularity as a battering ram to punish Sanders and Bloomberg for making Obama sweat for their support in 2012.

In a recently unearthed audio recording of a 2016 speech, Bloomberg claimed to have given Obama a backhanded endorsement. Sanders, a Vermont independent who clashed with the administration on health care and other issues, referred to Obama in a 2011 radio appearance as a disappointment, and, according to a recent article in the Atlantic, even flirted with a primary challenge before being talked out of the idea by his friend Harry Reid, the former Democratic leader of the Senate.

Sanders has repeatedly said that he views Obama as a historic icon with whom he had policy disagreements and has insisted he never planned to challenge him.

Glenn Thrush is a New York Times writer.
WASHINGTON  President Trump has stepped up his efforts to boost Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and to sow doubts among Sanders supporters about the fairness of the nomination process, an update of the disruptive strategy he believes helped him win the White House four years ago.

People close to Trump and his campaign say the tactic is as deliberate as it is simple, with a goal of creating chaos in the Democratic Party in hopes of weakening its turnout in November while aiding a potential opponent whom Trump considers fatally flawed.

With Sanders hoping to lock down a clear delegate lead after the all-important Super Tuesday contests on March 3, Trump also is playing a card that fires up his own base, taunting the iconoclastic senator from Vermont as a crazy socialist who would lead the country into economic ruin if elected.

Sometimes he combines the two messages. After Sanders won the Feb. 22 Nevada caucuses, for example, Trump congratulated Crazy Bernie in a tweet, warning Dont let them take it away from you!

On Tuesday in New Delhi, Trump claimed without evidence that Democrats had leaked intelligence to undermine Sanders campaign. Democrats dont want him, so they put out a thing that Russia is backing him, Trump said.

And in South Carolina, where registered voters can vote in either party primary, Republican activists urged Trump supporters to vote for Sanders in Saturdays Democratic primary  echoing Trumps instructions to New Hampshire independents to vote for the weakest candidate before that states primary.

The only thing better for Trump than Bernie Sanders getting screwed out of the nomination is if Bernie Sanders wins the nomination, said Michael Caputo, who worked on the 2016 campaign and remains in touch with Trumps advisers. Its a win-win situation.

Many of Trumps allies see Sanders as the most beatable Democrat in November, although there is growing debate over whether they are underestimating Sanders ability to galvanize a hidden bloc of disgruntled voters, as Trump did in 2016.

Sanders thumping win in the Nevada caucuses, where he swept every voting group except people over 65, stunned operatives in both parties. The results suggested for the first time that he could build a broad-based coalition, as he long has claimed.

Unlike in 2016, Sanders had a hand in crafting the Democrats nominating rules this year, giving him less room to argue that the process was designed to make him fail.

But if he loses the nomination, Trump wants Sanders impassioned supporters to believe he was cheated so they will either stay home on election day or vote for Trump. The two share some of the same raw populist rhetoric on trade and elites, despite fundamentally different ideologies, grievances and solutions.

The last time we had a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters, Trump told a TV station in Arizona, which holds its primary on March 17. If they take it away from him like they did the last time, I really believe youre going to have  youre gonna have a very riotous time in the Democrat Party, because they really, they did a lot of numbers on him.

Noah Bierman is a Los Angeles Times writer.
DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Silicon Carbide Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (Black & Green), By Application (Steel, Automotive, Aerospace, Military & Defense), By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global silicon carbide market size is projected to touch USD 7.18 billion by 2027, exhibiting a revenue-based CAGR of 16.1% over the forecast period according to this report. Rising demand from semiconductors is likely to remain a key driving factor as the product improves efficiency, reduces form factor, and operates at high temperatures.



The aforementioned properties of Silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors along with its advantages over silicon makes it suitable in applications such as automotive and aerospace and defense industries. High temperature resistant materials are widely used in these industries, thus, there is increasing adoption of SiC semiconductors in power electronics, which in turn is likely to drive the SiC market growth over the forecast period.



The strategic initiatives adopted by the key players in the semiconductor industry are expected to play a key role in the growth of the SiC semiconductors industry. For instance, in January 2019, Cree, Inc., signed a multiyear supply agreement of silicon carbide wafers to STMicroelectronics. These rapid developments are expected to positively influence the growth of the silicon carbide market over the forecast period.



In Asia Pacific, the rising population along with adopting urbanization is expected to propel the development of smart cities and smart houses, which in turn is anticipated to boost the demand for silicon carbide power modules in electric vehicles. China is one of the largest automobile producers in the world, accounting for 29.1% in 2018. Increasing production of automobiles is anticipated to fuel the product demand over the coming years.



Key market players Carborundum Universal Limited; Entegris, Inc.; AGSCO Corporation; Dow Chemical Co.; ESD-SIC b.v.; Saint Gobain Ceramic Materials GmbH; ESK-SIC GmbH; and Grindwell Norton Ltd. Most of the market players are focused on capacity expansions and mergers and acquisitions to meet the growing demand for silicon carbide. For instance, In November 2018, Entegris announced the expansion of the manufacturing capacity of its facility located in Kulim, Malaysia by 30%. In the expansion project, new tooling, molding machines, and numerous updates to the assembly area were installed to support the increasing silicon carbide wafer and reticle handling demand.



Further key findings from the report suggest:

Green silicon carbide segment is anticipated to progress at a CAGR of 10.1%, in terms of volume, over the forecast period owing to the increasing production of semiconductors that are further used in various electrical and electronics applications, such as transistors, solar cells, and LEDs

Steel segment accounted for a revenue share of 21.1% in 2019 owing to the increasing demand for steel from various end-use, industries, such as automotive, construction, and oil and gas. Silicon carbide is used as a deoxidizing agent, abrasive, and refractory in the steel industry

Electrical and electronics is among the fast growing segments with a CAGR of 10.8% in terms of volume from 2020 to 2027. The growth is attributed to the increasing demand for semiconductors owing to the increasing utilization of renewable sources of energy across the globe

Asia Pacific is projected to witness a CAGR of 17.9% in terms of revenue over the forecast period, owing to the growth of the manufacturing sector in countries including China , India , Japan , and South Korea

is projected to witness a CAGR of 17.9% in terms of revenue over the forecast period, owing to the growth of the manufacturing sector in countries including , , , and North America is expected to witness a CAGR of 7.6% in terms of volume over the forecast period owing to the increasing product utilization in electronics, aerospace, and defense industries

Key Topics Covered:



Chapter 1 Methodology and Scope

1.1 Research Methodology

1.2 Research Scope and Assumptions

1.3 List of Data Sources



Chapter 2 Executive Summary

2.1 Market snapshot



Chapter 3 Silicon Carbide Market Variables, Trends, & Scope

3.1 Market Segmentation

3.2 Penetration & Growth Prospect Mapping

3.3 Silicon Carbide Market - Value chain analysis

3.3.1 Raw material trends

3.3.1.1 Silica sand

3.3.2 Manufacturing trends

3.3.2.1 Acheson process

3.3.2.2 Synthesis of silicon carbide powders and whiskers from rice hulls

3.3.2.3 Chemical vapor disposition

3.3.3 Cost structure analysis

3.3.4 Sales channel analysis

3.3.4.1 Direct sales

3.3.4.2 Indirect sales

3.3.5 Profit margin analysis

3.4 Market dynamics

3.4.1 Market driver analysis

3.4.1.1 Increasing demand of refractories

3.4.1.2 Rising demand from semiconductor industry

3.4.2 Market restraint analysis

3.4.2.1 Gallium nitride as a substitute for silicon carbide in power modules

3.5 Regulatory framework

3.6 Porter's analysis

3.7 PESTEL analysis

3.8 Major deals & strategic alliances analysis

3.8.1 Divestment of silicon carbide business by Saint-Gobain



Chapter 4 Silicon Carbide: Product Estimates & Trend Analysis

4.1 Silicon carbide market: product movement analysis, 2019 & 2027

4.1.1 Black silicon carbide

4.1.1.1 Black silicon carbide market estimates and forecasts, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

4.1.2 Green silicon carbide

4.1.2.1 Green silicon carbide market estimates and forecasts, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)



Chapter 5 Silicon Carbide: End-Use Estimates & Trend Analysis

5.1 Silicon carbide market: end-use movement analysis, 2019 & 2027

5.1.1 Steel

5.1.1.1 Market estimates and forecasts in steel, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

5.1.2 Automotive

5.1.2.1 Market estimates and forecasts in automotive, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

5.1.3 Aerospace

5.1.3.1 Market estimates and forecasts in aerospace, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

5.1.4 Military & Defense

5.1.4.1 Market estimates and forecasts in military & defense, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

5.1.5 Electrical & Electronics

5.1.5.1 Market estimates and forecasts in electrical & electronics, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

5.1.6 Healthcare

5.1.6.1 Market estimates and forecasts in healthcare, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

5.1.7 Other applications

5.1.7.1 Market estimates and forecasts in other applications, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)



Chapter 6 Silicon Carbide: Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis

6.1 Silicon carbide market: regional movement analysis, 2019 & 2027

6.2 North America

6.2.1 Market estimates and forecasts, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.2.2 Market estimates and forecasts, by product, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.2.3 Market estimates and forecasts, by end-use, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.2.4 U.S.

6.2.4.1 Market estimates and forecasts, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.2.4.2 Market estimates and forecasts, by product, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.2.4.3 Market estimates and forecasts, by end-use, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.3 Europe

6.3.1 Market estimates and forecasts, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.3.2 Market estimates and forecasts, by product, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.3.3 Market estimates and forecasts, by end-use 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.3.4 Germany

6.3.4.1 Market estimates and forecasts, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.3.4.2 Market estimates and forecasts, by product, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.3.4.3 Market estimates and forecasts, by application 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.4 Asia Pacific

6.4.1 Market estimates and forecasts, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.4.2 Market estimates and forecasts, by product, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.4.3 Market estimates and forecasts, by end-use, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.4.4 China

6.4.4.1 Market estimates and forecasts, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.4.4.2 Market estimates and forecasts, by product, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.4.4.3 Market estimates and forecasts, by end-use, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.4.5 India

6.4.5.1 Market estimates and forecasts, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.4.5.2 Market estimates and forecasts, by product, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.4.5.3 Market estimates and forecasts, by end-use, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.5 Central & South America

6.5.1 Market estimates and forecasts, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.5.2 Market estimates and forecasts, by product, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.5.3 Market estimates and forecasts, by end-use, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.5.4 Brazil

6.5.4.1 Market estimates and forecasts, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.5.4.2 Market estimates and forecasts, by type, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.5.4.3 Market estimates and forecasts, by end-use, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.6 Middle East & Africa

6.6.1 Market estimates and forecasts, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.6.2 Market estimates and forecasts, by product, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)

6.6.3 Market estimates and forecasts, by application, 2016 - 2027 (kilotons) (USD Million)



Chapter 7 Competitive Landscape

7.1 List of key silicon carbide manufacturers

7.2 List of potential consumers, by application

7.3 Competitive environment



Chapter 8 Company Profiles

8.1 AGSCO Corporation

8.1.1 Company overview

8.1.2 Product benchmarking

8.1.3 Strategic initiatives

8.2 Carborundum Universal Limited.

8.3 Dow Chemical Co.

8.4 Entegris, Inc.

8.5 ESD-SiC b.v.

8.6 ESK-SIC GmbH

8.7 Gaddis Engineered Materials

8.8 Grindwell Norton Ltd.

8.9 Saint Gobain Ceramic Materials GmbH

8.10 Snam Abrasives Pvt. Ltd.



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/piowgj

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

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Research and Markets

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[February 28, 2020] $12+ Billion Flow Meters Market 2020 to 2027 - Asia-Pacific is Expected to Grow at the Fastest Rate

DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Flow Meters Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product, By Application (Water & Wastewater, Oil & Gas, Chemicals, Power Generation, Pulp & Paper, Food & Beverage), By Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global flow meter market size is estimated to reach USD 12.3 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 5.8% over the forecast period according to this report.



The penetration of IoT has helped the evolution of smart flow rate measurement solutions, leading to an increased demand for intelligent flow meters. The adoption of flow meters is expected to increase as rapid urbanization triggers the need for better water and wastewater management.



The market has been segmented on the basis of product, application, and region. Based on product, the market has been classified into Differential Pressure (DP), Pressure Displacement (PD), magnetic, ultrasonic, Coriolis, turbine, vortex, and others (variable area, multiphase, thermal, and others). The magnetic segment accounted for the largest share of the global flow meters market in 2019.



Based on application, the flow meters market has been segmented into oil and gas, power generation, water and wastewater management, chemical, pulp and paper, food and beverage, and other application sectors. The water and wastewater segment is expected to witness robust growth over the forecast period owing to rapid urbanization in various parts of the world, particularly in Asia Pacific, South America, and Africa. These regions have aggressively started to adopt efficient solutions for the treatment, control, monitoring, and regulation of water supplies and management of wastewater, thereby driving the demand for flow rate measurement solutions and instruments.



On the basis of region, the market has been segmented into North America, Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, South America, and Middle East and Africa (MEA). Europe dominated the global market in 2019 as the region is home to several manufacturers and product innovators of flow rate measurement solutions and services, including flow meters. However, APAC is expected to witness the highest growth rate over the forecast period owing to the rapid urbanization underway in APAC countries, which would subsequently trigger the need for adequate power generation and efficient water and wastewater management. The market in India is likely to witness a significant boost over the forecast period on account of the growing need for expanding fuel refining capacity in the country.



With emerging economies in Asia Pacific such as China, India, and other Southeast Asian nations witnessing rapid industrialization, regional manufacturers and providers of flow rate measurement solutions are forming collaborations and partnerships with global players to cash in on opportunities prevailing in the regional as well as global markets. Regional players are also improving their customer engagement activities and enhancing their portfolio of products and services.



Market players are constantly emphasizing on product innovation and enhancing their products and soutions. With the lucrative opportunities the oil and gas, petroleum, chemicals, and water and wastewater management sectors offer, manufacturers focus on meeting the various requirements of these sectors in particular.







Apart from the analysis of the global market for flow meters, the report analyzes the facts and key industry trends prevailing in custody transfer application, which is one of the prominent applications of flow meters in the oil and gas sector. The report also highlights how the unstable dynamics of the oil and gas sector would affect the adoption of flow meters worldwide.



Strategic profiling of the prominent industry participants across the globe highlights various aspects of these players such as company overview; financial performance; product categorization with their features, applications, and types; and strategic and recent developments, which have been covered in the research report. Moreover, the report offers an extensive list of other industry players operating in the market, value chain analysis, as well as product mapping of prominent vendors and manufacturers of flow meters. Overall, the study offers in-depth analysis, insights, and a holistic view of the entire market.





Further key findings from the report suggest: Water and wastewater is likely to dominate the application segment through the forecast period owing to the increasing initiatives taken by several governments for water and wastewater management

Businesses in Middle Eastern countries such as Iran , Iraq , and Syria are highly vulnerable to political instability. Businesses in other Middle Eastern countries such as UAE, Saudi Arabia , Oman , and Qatar focus on expanding their presence by establishing friendly relations with eminent manufacturers in Western countries

, , and are highly vulnerable to political instability. Businesses in other Middle Eastern countries such as UAE, , , and focus on expanding their presence by establishing friendly relations with eminent manufacturers in Western countries One of the key factors supporting the product demand over the forecast period is the integration of IoT in flow meters, which has led to the introduction of smart flow rate measurement solutions

Custody transfer application in the oil and gas sector is one of the key applications creating lucrative opportunities for ultrasonic and Coriolis flow meters

Asia Pacific is expected to grow at the fastest rate over the forecast period owing to substantial demand and adoption of flow meters in various application sectors, particularly in China , India , and Southeast Asian countries

is expected to grow at the fastest rate over the forecast period owing to substantial demand and adoption of flow meters in various application sectors, particularly in , , and Southeast Asian countries Flow meter market key participants are ABB (Asea Brown Boveri) Ltd., Emerson Electric Co., General Electric (GE), KROHNE Messtechnik, Hntzsch GmbH, Siemens AG, Hitachi, Ltd., and Yokogawa Electric Corporation Key Topics Covered:



1. Methodology and Scope

1.1 Market Segmentation

1.2 Report Scope and Assumptions

1.3 Research Methodology

1.4 List of Data Sources



2. Executive Summary

2.1 Summary

2.1.1 Key Industry Trends

2.1.2 Custody Transfer

2.2 Recovery of Oil & Gas Sector and Flow Meters Market Trends

2.3 History and Evolution of Flow Meters

2.4 Installation Procedures and Standardization Norms of Flow Meters in Different Application Sectors

2.4.1 Installation

2.4.2 Standards

2.5 Flow Meters Market - Industry Outlook

2.6 Flow Meters Market - Segmental Outlook



3. Market Variables, Trends & Scope

3.1 Flow Meters Market Dynamics

3.1.1 Market Driver Analysis

3.1.1.1 Growing penetration of advanced flow meters in the oil & gas sector and water & wastewater management

3.1.1.2 Growing adoption of smart and intelligent flow meters in high-end application sectors

3.1.1.3 Penetration of IoT in flow rate measurement solutions

3.1.2 Market restraint analysis

3.1.2.1 High initial investment associated with smart flow rate measurement solutions

3.1.3 Market Opportunity analysis

3.1.3.1 Increasing adoption of flow rate measurement solutions across process automation applications in Asia Pacific region

3.1.4 Market Challenge analysis

3.1.4.1 Technological advancement leading to the evolution of alternative solutions to flow meters

3.2 Penetration and Growth Prospect Mapping

3.3 Flow Meters Market - Key Company Analysis, 2019

3.4 List of Industry Player involved in Flow Meters Market

3.5 Flow Meters - Value Chain Analysis

3.6 Flow Meters Market Analysis - Porter's

3.7 Flow Meters Market Analysis - PEST



4. Product Estimates & Trend Analysis

4.1 Flow Meters Market: Product Movement Analysis

4.1.1 Differential Pressure

4.1.2 Positive Displacement

4.1.3 Magnetic

4.1.3.1 Wired Magnetic Flow Meter

4.1.3.2 Wireless Magnetic Flow Meter

4.1.4 Ultrasonic

4.1.5 Coriolis

4.1.6 Turbine

4.1.7 Vortex

4.1.8 Others



5. Application Estimates & Trend Analysis

5.1 Flow Meters Market: Application Movement Analysis

5.1.1 Water & Wastewater

5.1.2 Oil & Gas

5.1.3 Chemicals

5.1.4 Power Generation

5.1.5 Pulp & Paper

5.1.6 Food & Beverage

5.1.7 Others



6. Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis

6.1 Flow Meters Market Share By Region, 2019 & 2027

6.2 North America

6.2.1 U.S.

6.2.2 Canada

6.2.3 Mexico

6.3 Europe

6.3.1 U.K.

6.3.2 Germany

6.3.3 France

6.4 Asia Pacific

6.4.1 China

6.4.2 Japan

6.4.3 India

6.5 South America

6.5.1 Brazil

6.6 Middle East and Africa (MEA)



7. Competitive Landscape

7.1 ABB

7.1.1 Company Overview

7.1.2 Financial Performance

7.1.3 Product Benchmarking

7.1.4 Recent Developments

7.2 Emerson Electric Co.

7.3 em-tec GmbH

7.4 Endress+Hauser Management AG

7.5 General Electric

7.6 Hitachi, Ltd.

7.7 Honeywell International, Inc.

7.8 Hntzsch GmbH

7.9 KROHNE Messtechnik GmbH

7.10 Siemens

7.11 VSE Volumentechnik GmbH

7.12 Yokogawa Electric Corporation



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/15jkqd Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. Media Contact: Research and Markets

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WHITESTOWN, N.Y.  Rome liquor store owner Michael DeShane, 63, was found dead in his home Thursday afternoon, according to the Oneida County Sheriffs Office.

Authorities were dispatched to the home Michael shared with his son, Jason DeShane, around noon. The 911 website shows a report of a stabbing or gunshot at the residence at 12:11 p.m.

Keith Hunt // WKTV Keith Hunt // WKTV

Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol says the cause of death is pending an autopsy, but at this time it does not seem suspicious.

Police seized 80 guns from the home last week after a temporary Extreme Risk Protection Order was served to both Jason and Michael under New York state's 'red flag' law.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.28

By Rufiz Hafizoghlu  Trend:

A total of 18,056 tourists from Kazakhstan visited Turkey in January 2020, which shows an increase of 26.27 percent compared to the same month of 2019, Trend reports Feb.28 referring to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The share of Kazakh citizens in the total number of foreigners who visited Turkey during the reported period made up 1.01 percent.

Over the reporting period, 1.787 million tourists have visited Turkey, which is an increase of 16.11 percent compared to January 2019.

In January 2020, 1.017 million tourists visited Istanbul, and 152,976 tourists - the province of Antalya.

According to the figures of 2019, 455,724 tourists from Kazakhstan visited Turkey, which is an increase of 6.75 percent compared to the same period 2018.

The share of Kazakh citizens in the total number of foreigners who visited Turkey in January-December 2019, made up 2 percent.

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
TigerRisk Partners LLC, the Stamford, Conn.-based re/insurance broker, announced it has appointed Christopher Conway to a newly created senior role strategically positioned across both TigerRisks Reinsurance and Retro teams in Bermuda.

Conway will report to Alex Bridges, partner and head of Retrocession.

Conway joins TigerRisk from Neon Underwriting Bermuda where he was senior vice president, helping build a startup reinsurance portfolio of property cat, per risk and retrocessional business.

Conway began his reinsurance industry career at AXIS Re as a senior modeling analyst before being promoted to assistant vice president, Underwriting. He later joined Third Point Re where he was underwriter and head of Risk Analytics. After Third Point Re, Conway held senior underwriting roles at AQR Re and Ascot Underwriting Bermuda.

Conway holds a business degree (honors) from the University of Lancaster.

Source: TigerRisk Partners

Topics Reinsurance
By Hannah Lebovits

CLEVELAND (JTA)In a recent article, the Jewish Telegraphic Agencys Ben Sales and Laura E. Adkins expertly synthesize a number of viewpoints on why Orthodox Jews have increasingly found their political home in the Republican Party. Two themes are evident immediatelymany Jews believe the party to be more firmly supportive of Israel and to align with their social and religious values.

The same day, Adkins and Sales published another piece explaining a recent polling effort to understand the political opinions of Orthodox Jews as they relate to support for President Donald Trump. The results are insightful, though the survey instrument is not ideal. The survey findings indicate that there is a large gap in support, most evident along religious lines, within the Orthodox Jewish community. The polls authors note with interest that while only 32 percent of Modern Orthodox respondents voted for Trump, 66 percent of the haredi voters opted for the president.

Both articles are important and valuable contributions to our understanding of the current state of political affairs in the Orthodox community. However, I would suggest that neither gets to the crux of the issuehow did so many Orthodox Jews come to believe that the Republican Party is more fully aligned with their values?

As a social scientist, journalist and Orthodox Jew, I would suggest that the answer can be found in a combination of three post-1990 trends that have had a profound impact on the Orthodox Jewish community: globalization, the massive increase in the political power of faith-based organizations and the rapid rise of media outlets oriented toward haredi Jews.

These trends have completely reshaped the relationship between the haredi community and Israel, and increased the ability of Orthodox Jews throughout the country to share similar values and ideals via political communications.

Sales and Adkins correctly identify the 90s as the beginning of the trend toward Republican support. Following the fall of the communist bloc in Europe, the global economy grew more interconnected. Large corporate organizations gained increased influence between, rather than within, countries.

The impact of globalization on such a small and fledgling country such as Israel was huge, but one very significant element is the massive increase in tourism. Between 1991 and 2018, the number of yearly tourists in the country more than doubled, from 191,500 to 468,000. Taglit-Birthright, the premier Israel experience program for young people, was founded in 1999 and has since taken more than 600,000 participants to the country.

Countless American Jewsparticularly Orthodox onesbegan visiting Israel frequently, sending their children to yeshiva programs and settling the country. Historically, the Modern Orthodox community has included the most ardent supporters of the State of Israel, while the haredi communitythose who typically adhere to more strict religious and cultural practiceshas not fully adopted Zionism and support for the state into its doctrine.

In this new era, however, deep connections to Israel as more than an abstract ideal or a place that only few have seen began to take root. Along with the rapid increase in Israel tourism and gap year programs, the new millennium also ushered in technological advances that increased a sense of safety and a hyperconnectivity with those visiting the once foreign country. Today, Orthodox Jews from all sects feel a close and personal connection to the stateone they can communicate, in real time, to those at home.

At the same time, the power of Jewish institutions in the United States began to soar. Following the creation of the Points of Light Foundation, the nonprofit sectorand faith-based institutions, specificallygrew rapidly. President George H. W. Bush tried to promote a national culture of volunteering, and his son, President George W. Bush, followed with his effort to federally fund such organizations. The 2002 Faith Based and Community Initiative, supported by then-Sen. Joe Lieberman, gave unprecedented power and funding to faith-based organizations.

The combined effect of both campaigns has come to be regarded by nonprofit and public administration scholars as a turning point in the support of nonprofits as service providers, political actors and community developersresponsibilities and powers once conferred solely to those affiliated with political institutions.

As a result, Orthodox Jewish institutions such as the Orthodox Union and the National Council of Young Israelinitially designed to serve religious and communal needsbegan to engage in more explicit political practices. Though these efforts must be kept under a specific threshold or carry a slightly different organizational label, they have created a new kind of enmeshed Jewish institutionalism that does not separate between the political and communal. Rabbinic oversight, once pursued for strictly religious purposes, now spills over into political speechand religious leaders now maintain sovereignty over political opinions as well as matters of Jewish law.

Jewish media growth also was integral to the shift in political behaviorit is the medium by which people share viewpoints garnered through lived experience with the backing of leadership and institutions. The two largest Orthodox Jewish media outletsYated Neeman and Mishpachaboth came into existence in the late 20th century (1987 and 1984, respectively) and garnered tremendous support in the late 90s and early 2000s, eventually leading to English versions and an American Orthodox audience.

For decades, their pages have been utilized for opinion and lifestyle features. But theyve had another tremendous impact on the Orthodox Jewish communitytheir large circulations extend beyond the New York-New Jersey area. The recent historical trend of large insular Jewish communities being starkly different in perspective and ideology from their smaller, less New York-connected counterparts has all but disappeared. Ideas that might have been contained to several blocks of Brooklyn are now portrayed as national, or even global, in reach and universality. Orthodox Jews around the world have come to believe that regardless of where we live, we share a distinct set of aspatial political, social, religious and cultural beliefs and practices.

Policies are but one of a number of reasons why communities come to support certain specific candidates and parties. Many Orthodox Jews back Trump and the Republican Party because they have come to know and love a country in an intimate way, because our institutions have outsize influence and because our media outlets encourage a singular narrative.

If we are to truly understand why Orthodox Jews behave as they do, we must consider the patterns and behaviors in the same ways we understand other non-majority groups and see the larger systems in place that determine how we think, feel and act.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media or The Heritage Florida Jewish News.
Asia Bibi planning to seek asylum in France: 'I am in exile forever'

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Pakistani Christian mother Asia Bibi, who spent nearly a decade on death row over trumped-up blasphemy charges before she was released and granted asylum in Canada last year, says she plans to apply for political asylum in France.

On Tuesday, Bibi, whose real name is Aasiya Noreen, spoke with various media outlets in Paris where she talked about her experiences in Canada and her desire to move to France.

Bibi is in Paris to promote her newly released book, Enfin Libre! (Finally Free). The book was co-written by French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet. Tollet was among many who campaigned for Bibis release from prison.

My great desire is to live in France, said Bibi, who doesnt speak English or French, but was quoted in Urdu during an interview with the French radio network RTL. France is the country from where I received my new life. ... Anne-Isabelle is an angel for me.

Bibi, a farm laborer and mother of five, was accused by other Muslim laborers of insulting Islam's prophet Muhammad during an argument that ensued after they berated her  a Christian  for daring to drink from the same water source as them back in 2009. They accused her of making the water "impure" because she is a Christian. Muslims are forbidden from drinking from the same container as Christians.

As blasphemy is a crime punishable by death or life imprisonment in Muslim-majority Pakistan, Bibi maintained her innocence but was found guilty. In 2010, Bibi was sentenced to death. But after years of building international pressure, Bibi was acquitted by Pakistans Supreme Court in October 2018.

After her release, she was prevented from leaving the country as Muslims protested her acquittal and demanded a review. After her acquittal was upheld in January 2019, Bibi was allowed to leave the country last May.

While it's been nearly 10 months since she fled to Canada from Pakistan, she admitted in an interview with Agence France Press that she hasnt been able to get out of the house much because of the cold and snow.

In Canada, Bibi is living with her husband and two of her daughters in an apartment. Although threats to her life came in bulk from radicals in Pakistan, Bibi explained that she has not recently received any threats that she knows about.

Although she is safe in Canada, she said that she misses her sister, brothers, and in-laws back in Pakistan. Although Bibi faces the risk of being killed if she were to return to Pakistan, she one day hopes her home country will be safe enough for her to return. Although she loves her country, she told RTL that she fears she is in exile forever.

According to AFP, Bibi was given a one-year stay in Canada after her release from Pakistan.

"I know the European Union is working very hard on my case and they are the ones who will decide where I am going to be living," Bibi said.

But she explained that she will very likely discuss the idea of seeking asylum in France when she meets with President Emmanuel Macron on Friday.

Responding to reports of Bibis desire, The Associated Press reports that Macrons office has said that French authorities are ready to welcome Asia Bibi and her family in France if this is what they wish to do.

On Tuesday, Bibi was given an honorary citizenship award by Paris' Mayor Anne Hidalgo.

Bibi assured that she is enormously grateful to Canada for giving her family a place to take asylum for the last several months. But she told RTL that she wants to work hand-in-hand with Tollet to pressure Pakistani authorities to release others imprisoned for blasphemy.

Pakistani human rights activists Shaan Taseer told the U.S. State Departments Ministerial on Religious Freedom last July that there are as many as 200 people imprisoned in Pakistan for blasphemy with at around 40 or so on death row.

Lisa Curtis, senior director for South and Central Asia at the U.S. National Security Council, told the ministerial there are more people imprisoned for blasphemy in Pakistan than all the other countries in the world combined.

Bibis case helped raise global awareness of Pakistans blasphemy laws as the country ranks as the fifth-worst country in the world for Christian persecution on Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List.

Additionally, Pakistan was labeled by the State Department in December 2018 as a country of particular concern for engaging in egregious violations of religious freedom.

In her memoir, Bibi allegedly wrote that she  an illiterate peasant  never thought she would become a global symbol of the fight against religious extremism.

"From my small windowless cell, I often wondered why Pakistan was targeting me, Bibi was quoted as writing.

She recalled times when her neck would be encased in an iron collar that prison guards tightened with a nut.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notice to Centre and Delhi Police on a petition seeking the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into "anti national forces" behind the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The petition, filed by one Ajay Gautam, sought a direction to investigate the role of "anti national organisation known as the People's Front of India (PFI) which is funding, motivating, supporting and backing these anti-national protests." A Bench of D.N. Patel sought response and listed the matter for April 30. Protests against the CAA have been going on for over three months.

"It is not a normal protest, it is submitted that anti-national and Anti-Hindu forces are behind these protests and some vested interests/parties/countries are funding these protesters," the plea stated.

The petitioner also raised concerns with regards to the closure of various roads in Delhi's northeast area.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
MIDDLETOWN  Emergency officials have been voicing concerns about fire safety at the $87.35 million combined middle school project now underway on Wildermans Way.

State regulators approved plans for the installation of a sprinkler system, smoke detectors and other measures at the state-of-the-art Woodrow Wilson Middle School, but at least three fire officials have implored the building committee to purchase additional smoke detectors.

The new facility, expected to be complete in August 2021, will house sixth-graders from Keigwin Middle School as well as seventh- and eighth-graders at Woodrow Wilson.

The school is meeting the code requirement. That is bare minimum, South District Fire Chief Michael Howley said. Theyre saying the sprinkler system in there is more than a sufficient detection system for fires. The sprinkler is only going to go off if somethings burning, and it makes sufficient heat to melt the sprinkler head, he explained.

Once water begins to flow, the fire department is alerted, but the situation is a little more complicated when smoke is involved.

No detection will be going on prior to an actual sprinkler head going off. That fire has a few minutes to get going. You start getting panicked, you get a lot of things going on in the school. We are not even notified until the sprinkler goes off or somebody calls 911, the chief explained.

Common Council Majority Leader Gene Nocera, vice chairman of the Woodrow Wilson / Keigwin Building Committee, said the protection system is more than adequate.

In fact, Nocera, former principal at the school, said the panel went a step beyond and approved additional smoke alarms to be installed in the locker rooms, classroom quads and bathrooms at its Thursday meeting. Air ducts and air-conditioning units also will be outfitted with detectors.

The committee that evening approved a maximum of $63,000 be used for equipment to be paid for out of the projects contingency fund.

Theyre very aware of the necessity of the safety of our youth and children who are going to be in that building, Common Council Minority Leader and building committee member Phil Pessina said.

If we were rehabbing the present junior high school as it sits on the footprint today, absolutely we would have gone 100 percent to add all those smoke detectors based on the fire history that South District responded to, he added.

If wed made no changes, it would still be the best fire protection system in Middletown, and quite possibly the whole area, Nocera said. The state doesnt mess around with their review.

Howley, Fire Marshal James Mastrioanni and Deputy Chief James Trzaski spoke during the building committee public session late last year. We want it 100 percent covered, the chief explained. We still feel that way.

He commended panel members for their diligent work on the school project.

A sprinkler system is not going to do it. It is not, and should not be, the only device in this school, Howley insisted. When the building committee is gone, the engineers are gone, and the contractors are gone, we have to deal with this school for the next 25 years or longer.

Nocera said members took their recommendations and made changes to enhance the system. The state does not require smoke detectors in hallways or each individual pod.

We know we have issues in schools. Weve had fires, Howley said.

Nocera knows the former building very well and recalled a few instances involving smoke during his tenure. We knew quickly, if not immediately, where the smoke was coming from.

The school has safety protocol when an alarm goes and participates in monthly practice drills, as required by the state.

Any smoke in the building, the fire department is going to know quickly where its coming from, Nocera countered. Kids know how to exit the building, regardless of what the event is. I am completely satisfied with the systems design, but now, with the enhancements, its Triple A-plus.

Still, Howley would like to see full coverage, although he completely understands the building committee has to be mindful of not dipping too much into its reserve fund.

To do the whole school, it is a good chunk of change, and I understand the finances. I understand the limitations they have. This is going to be a high-tech school. Unfortunately, its not going to have full smoke detection, the chief said.

This is our business, and we know problems happen in schools  no doubt about it. To endure the safety of the public, and students going in and out of the facility, we wanted full detection, Howley said on behalf of himself, the fire marshal and deputy.

It went through a very rigorous state review and already passed. That in and of itself is huge, Nocera said.

Pessina said he and Nocera based their decisions on expert advice from the architect and builder.

I am 150 percent pleased with the safety, Nocera explained. It meets all state regulations. I couldnt be happier, the councilman said. I dont want the community to think we would ever shortchange the safety of the school. Thats absolutely out of the question. Thats never going to happen.

Nocera wants the public to know the issue is not about money. Its clear we have to be careful with the contingency fund. The first thing the board and school system wants is for it to be up to state-required codes. Thats why its so rigorous and expensive.

Weve said to South Fire and other officials throughout the negotiating process the upgrades have been approved by the state. We respect the fire department and thank them. We met throughout and made reasonable accommodations. They seemed pleased, Nocera said.

I am very confident the fire protection thats going to be placed at the new school is going to be top-shelf, Pessina said.

Were going to provide the best junior high school we can to the citizens expectations. Our residents have given us a charge to build this school. They expect us to do it within budget, and be fiscally mindful in the process, Pessina said.
MONTICELLO, Ind. (WLFI)  Indiana Beach season ticket holders are being encouraged to contact the Attorney General's Office if they have problems obtaining refunds.

Apex Parks abruptly closed Indiana Beach in Monticello and Fantasy Island amusement park in upstate New York two weeks ago. Indiana Beach season ticket holders report to us that they're having difficulty receiving refunds.

In New York, the State Attorney General's Office sent a letter to Apex telling the company to refund season passes for the upcoming season. It also threatens to subpoena the company if it doesn't comply.

News 18 contacted The Indiana Attorney General about any complaints regarding Indiana Beach. A spokesperson provided us with a list of what it called "publicly disclosable complaints" against Indiana Beach.

The most recent complaint was resolved in 2017. No complaints were reported since the closure earlier this month.

However, the Attorney General's Office said those who have not received a refund and/or not had access to their personal property at Indiana Beach should file a consumer complaint. You can do so at indianaconsumer.com or call 800-382-5516 to have a complaint form mailed to you.
The wife of Western Australia's first coronavirus victim has tested positive to the illness.

The woman, who has been in isolation at a Perth hospital since last Friday, was confirmed to have the condition on Friday afternoon by WA's chief health officer Andrew Robertson.

Disinfection professionals wearing protective gear spray anti-septic solution against the coronavirus (COVID-19) on February 27, 2020 in Seoul, South Korea. Credit:Getty

She is being cared for in one of the hospital's negative pressure rooms, with her condition listed as stable.

Dr Robertson said the woman was likely to have contracted the virus on a cruise ship.
Campus News

UB to host second annual Mobile Market Summit

Elyse Guidas, executive director of Farm Express, gives the keynote address at the first-ever mobile produce market summit, held last spring in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB. Photo: Douglas Levere

By DAVID J. HILL

I think that being able to learn and be supported by others who are dealing with the same challenges really helps improve the likelihood of success. 

For the second year in a row, mobile market operators from across the U.S. will visit Buffalo for a two-day summit.

The second annual Mobile Market Summit is set for March 24-25 at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB and builds off the success of last years event, the nations first-ever gathering of mobile produce market representatives. Registration is now open.

Mobile markets are becoming an increasingly popular solution to food-access challenges in many communities. I helped start a mobile market when there werent many other models to follow, and understand how challenging it can be to start what is basically a small business from scratch, says summit organizer Lucia Leone, assistant professor of community health and health behavior, School of Public Health and Health Professions.

I think that being able to learn and be supported by others who are dealing with the same challenges really helps improve the likelihood of success, Leone adds.

The summit is being organized by UB researchers in partnership with Megan Huang, fresh truck program director for About Fresh; Elyse Guidas, executive director of Discovery Triangle Development Corporation/Farm Express; and Frederic Laforge, co-founder of TheFarmersTruck.com.



Last year about 100 participants attended and the team hopes to bring even more people this year. They range from representatives of organizations that are interested in starting a mobile market, to those who already have one and want to network with their peers from across the country and learn best practices, as well as potential funders. UB researchers and students also will attend.

There are two keynote speakers this year: Sean C. Lucan, associate professor of family and social medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Devita Davison, executive director of FoodLab Detroit.

Lucans talk on the afternoon of March 24 will focus on increasing access to healthy food options through mobile markets. His talk is open to UB students, faculty and staff courtesy of funding from UBs Center for Ingestive Behavior Research.

Lucan is a practicing family physician in the Bronx. He is also an award-winning NIH-funded investigator who has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and thought pieces on food-related issues.

His research centers on how different aspects of urban food environments may influence what people eat, and what the implications are for obesity and chronic diseases, particularly in low-income and minority communities. Another focus of his work is the critical examination of clinical guidance and public health initiatives related to nutrition.

Davisons talk on March 25, which is free and open to the public thanks to funding from the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Inc., will discuss the relationship between food access and social justice.

The daughter of a preacher, Davison is a Detroit native who returned home in 2012 after living in New York for nearly 19 years. Davison has delivered TED talks decrying injustices in the food system and expounding on the beauty of a ripe strawberry in summer.

FoodLab is a community of food entrepreneurs committed to making the possibility of good food in Detroit a sustainable reality by designing, building and maintaining systems to grow a diverse ecosystem of triple-bottom-line food businesses in Detroit.

In addition to hosting the Mobile Market Summit, Leones team also runs the Veggie Van study, which is funded in part by a five-year, $3.1 million grant from the National Cancer Institute. The studys aims include identifying whether mobile markets do, in fact, change the way people eat, and providing current and prospective veggie van operators with a toolkit and technical assistance on everything from setting up a mobile market to maintaining a financially sustainable operation.

In July, researchers announced funding for nine organizations across four states that the Veggie Van project will partner with over the next few years. The team will help each organization either start or expand a mobile market. Each of the nine partners will operate their markets in up to four neighborhoods in their area for a total of 32 community sites that will be studied.

The Veggie Van study has the potential to significantly impact the mobile produce market landscape at a time when such markets are popping up around the nation.

Weve heard from a lot of people across the country who are interested in starting mobile produce markets, says Anne Lally, who joined UB in January as outreach coordinator for the Veggie Van study.

Support for the summit is being provided by several sponsor organizations, including: Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, Alexandria, Virginia; UB Center for Ingestive Behavior Research; Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus; Project Best Life, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center; and About Fresh, Boston, Massachusetts.
CONAKRY, Guinea - Guineas president has delayed Sundays legislative and constitutional referendum vote for two weeks, citing concerns from international observers.

President Alpha Conde, 81, made the announcement late Friday on state television in the wake of the withdrawal of international election observers by the African Union and regional West African economic bloc because of security concerns.

It is by national and sub-regional responsibility that we accepted a slight postponement of the date of the elections. It is neither a capitulation, nor a retreat but fidelity to what was the Guinea of yesterday and today, Conde said.

He clarified that only eligible candidates who registered would be valid for legislative elections.

Guineans were meant to vote Sunday on a controversial constitutional referendum that could extend the presidents rule for at least another decade and lead to deeper political violence and more deadly demonstrations.

Residents were also meant to vote for deputies in parliament.

The vote, however, was being boycotted by opposition parties.

We will oppose by all legal means this referendum, said Sekou Koundouno, a member of the coalition of opposition parties and civil society groups National Front for the Defence of the Constitution.

More than 36 people have died in demonstrations against the referendum since October, along with at least one gendarme. Security forces on Thursday were put on high alert to protect against unrest.

The organization of French-speaking organisations, along with the African Union and economic bloc, ECOWAS, all withdrew poll observation missions, citing security issues.

President Alpha Conde, first elected in 2010, is barred from running for a third term under the constitution, but his supporters say the referendum to the constitution would allow him to run again. The new constitution would increase presidential terms from five years to six years, and would impose a two term limit. It is unclear if previous terms served would count, but Conde has implied they would not. In February, Conde said if the new constitution is passed his party will decide if he will run.

The Guinean Constitution stipulates that the presidential mandate is of five years renewable only once, said Fode Oussou Fofana, one of the opposition spokesmen. Now that he does not want to leave power in 2020, he has submitted this March 1 referendum  but it will not work.

The opposition coalition has said that it will use all means to prevent elections this Sunday across the country.

But at a recent electoral rally, the president called for people to prevent disruptions of the vote.

Guineans who do not want to go to this referendum are free not to vote. But, they have no right to prevent those who want to vote from voting, said Conde, speaking at a meeting in Kissidougou, a city in southern Guinea last week.

Dont hit anyone. Dont insult anyone. But, if someone approaches the ballot boxes with the intention of sabotaging the vote, hit him well, he said.

Many worry about violence and Guinean authorities have already deployed nearly 2,000 police and gendarmes.

Human Rights Watch called on Guineas government to respect freedom of assembly and ensure security forces act with restraint on Sunday.

Guineas government needs to ensure that police and gendarme exercise restraint and discipline when policing opposition protests, said Corinne Dufka, West Africa director at Human Rights Watch, who also reiterated the need for investigations into past alleged abuses.

___

Petesch reported from Dakar, Senegal.
Google is celebrating the 200th birth anniversary of British illustrator and artist Sir John Tenniel. The artist is remembered for his timeless series Alices Adventure in Wonderland published in 1865.

Tenniel was born on February 28, 1820, in London. He was known for his self-learning skills and at the age of 16, Tenniel submitted his first work, an oil painting, for exhibition at the Society of British Artists.

Tenniel then became a student of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1836 and created his first illustration for Samuel Carter Hall's The Book of British Ballads in 1842.

In the year 1850, Tenniel became a political cartoonist with the historic weekly magazine Punch.

His unique approach caught the attention of writer and professor Charles Dodgson, whose pen name was Lewis Carroll. After an introduction in 1864, Tenniel agreed to illustrate Carrolls new book, Alices Adventures in Wonderland released the following year.

After his work with Caroll, Tenniel never accepted another illustration job again; instead, he returned to his political cartoon work at Punch.

For his considerable contributions to both the magazine and Alice in Wonderland, Tenniel received a knighthood in 1893.

Tenniel died at the age of 93 on February 25, 1914.
In 10 years from 1984 Victoria Police shot and killed 31 people - each was considered lawful on the grounds of self-defence, but Hallenstein wanted to know if they were avoidable. Hallenstein held a super-inquest into seven deaths and found police had developed a culture of bravery where they felt compelled to take action no matter what the risk. He found police often made the situation worse by confronting offenders, resulting in an escalation of danger. A better strategy, he found, was to cordon and contain rather than just race in. In 1994 then chief commissioner Neil Comrie ordered a new training program called Project Beacon where safety became the first priority of any police operation. Every operational police officer was trained in conflict resolution and had to complete a refresher course every six months to remain on the street. The Beacon principles stated: The success of an operation will be primarily judged by the extent to which the use of force is avoided or minimised. It worked, as the number of shootings dropped. It also meant every police officer in Victoria was trained that doing nothing may be the best option.

In the Gargasoulas inquest the question was asked why the offender wasnt rammed before he entered the CBD. The reason is simple. There was a very good chance the police who took that initiative would be charged with disciplinary or criminal offences. A leading senior constable was charged with reckless conduct endangering serious injury and dangerous and careless driving in 2012 after he rammed a fleeing vehicle driven by some knucklehead (see below). The policeman was rightly acquitted in the County Court. A series of inquests into police chase fatalities criticised pursuit policies and a succession of coroners urged a rethink on chase procedures. In 2014, coroner John Ollie found: "Having considered a range of material and evidence on this matter ... I cannot conceive of many situations where a police pursuit would be justified, as the risks are too high to members of the community." He said pursuits should only be authorised when the driver is wanted for a serious crime or when someone had been harmed or was about to be.

As a result, in 2015 police announced a new safety-first pursuit policy to reduce chases and on one level it worked, with the number of police pursuits dropping from 1700 a year to around 60. However the crooks discovered they would not be chased and so the number of drivers prepared to flee increased to 300 a month. It actually increased the risk, as speeding idiots knew if they ran a red light or drove on the wrong side of the road police would stop chasing. Instilled with bravado they took to ramming police who tried to block them, until there was one vehicle being smashed every three days. Another crucial problem for police is the number of days lost to work-related injuries. Desperate to lower WorkCover claims and increase productivity (there are around 2300 assaults on police per year), a series of rules were put in place requiring every operation to be designed to minimise the risk to police. This is entirely sensible, but the middle ranks say they drown in paperwork if a member is injured, resulting in a desire to avoid confrontation. One told me: Like it or not policing is a contact sport and people get hurt. There is layer after layer of rules and training designed to make policing safer, but the unintended consequence is to encourage police to be slow to make hard decisions. At a recent race meeting they milled about near an ugly incident, leaving it to private security to move in and eject the offenders.

There is always a disconnect between street police and bosses, with the doers thinking the shakers are out of touch. Many years ago, the troops referred to the then police HQ at William Street as Marijuana House because the harder you suck the higher you get. Just recently the pendulum has begun to swing back. The threat of terrorism and the increase in armed crooks prepared to shoot has resulted in a change of thinking. We now have an Active Shooter policy, where the first police on the scene are expected take immediate action rather than cordon the area and wait for heavily-armed specialists. Elite Special Operations Group snipers have been given more freedom to use lethal force in terror/hostage incidents. In October last year police introduced the Hostile Vehicle Policy, which spells out that doing nothing is no longer an option. Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton told us at the time: It is saying that they will be supported if they need to take action and states clearly that they must take action. Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton: wants the troops to act. Credit:Jason South We will not wait for offenders to plough into people. The instructions are that you must do something, that you must stop these attacks and that the response must be proportionate and justified. Options include ramming the vehicle or shooting the driver dead. It is a major shift.

Clearly senior police are trying to get out a message that they will support reasonable, decisive action. The question is not whether the police action was right or wrong. It is not even whether there was a better alternative. It is simply: was the action reasonable? James Gargasoulas leaving the Supreme Court in January 2019. Credit:Jason South Was it reasonable to believe Gargasoulas would drive through the city and not turn left into Bourke Street? That you could have grabbed him in a less populated area? Would it have been reasonable to confront him when he was doing burnouts in Flinders Street, knowing you may have to shoot him as he was suspected to be carrying a knife? The fact police did not stop Gargasoulas is rightly the subject of coronial scrutiny. A few years earlier in the very same court they were blasted for taking decisive action in remarkably similar circumstances. On February 2, 2005, Wayne Joannou walked into a St Albans flat and shot criminal associate Brian Bottomley, 32, in the neck in front of two witnesses. He then made them help him dismember the body in the bath, using an angle grinder and a circular saw.

Joannou made it clear he would shoot police rather than surrender and so the arrest was handed to the Special Operations Group. Just after 7pm on February 18, Joannou pulled up in a green Camry in Bank Street, South Melbourne, to smoke heroin. The SOG rammed him and when he raised his shotgun they opened fire, killing him instantly. The coroner sent the file to the Office of Public Prosecutions to examine whether charges should be laid against the four shooters (they werent). John Noonan, then head of the SOG, remains filthy that their actions were subject to criticism: We had no other options and made a split-second decision. If we had let him go and lost him in traffic he could have killed someone else. Francis Adams, left, the veteran police officer who was off duty but compelled to act during the December 2017 car attack. Sound familiar? No wonder cops make themselves small targets.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday revealed there was a secret plan to use a double to make public appearances for him, while insisting he vetoed it -- and that he is the real Putin.

Putins comments showed that a conspiracy theory widespread on the internet that the Russian strongman has been impersonated over the years or even replaced by a lookalike is not entirely without basis.

TASS state news agency showed Putin a list of popular Russian-language Internet searches including Putin double proof.

Are you real? the interviewer asked. Yes, said Putin.

He said he has never had a double but when asked if the idea had ever been discussed, he confirmed it had. I refused to have doubles, Putin said. It was during the hardest times of the fight against terrorism.

Putin as prime minister and then president oversaw the second war against separatists in Chechnya from 1999 to 2000. After Russian armed forces claimed victory, Islamist insurgent attacks became frequent in the North Caucasus while suicide bombers targeted Russias main cities. Was that in the early 2000s? asked Andrei Vandenko, who is doing a series of interviews with Putin to mark 20 years since he became president. Yes, said Putin.
The world seems to be a little less meaty these days.

Vegetarianism is nothing new. Hearty grains, vegetables and legumes have always been a staple of the cuisine, but now more and more innovative meat substitutes have been popping up.

This is good news for those observing Lent. During the 40 days leading up to Easter, Catholics are encouraged to give up meat on Ash Wednesday, and the Fridays to follow.

Last year, Dunkin' announced a new partnership with Beyond Meat. The chain is now selling Beyond Sausage Breakfast Sandwiches in Manhattan locations and plans to roll out the menu item nationally at an undisclosed point in the future.

Click through to see a few local Connecticut spots where you can chow down on plant-based "meat" as well as sushi.

Pieology Pizzeria in Stamford also launched some plant-based protein pizza toppings, including "Spicy Italian Sausage Rounds," "Beef Meatball" and "Diced Chicken"

"Although vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians will love the new pizza options, the premium toppings are a healthy choice for anyone who wants to enjoy a new style of protein," Pieology's Vice President of Marketing Chad Bailey said in a release.

"We know our customers come to us for the best and newest pizza innovations," says Bailey. "This is a great new way to eat your veggies, especially when combined with our guest favorite, gluten-free Cauliflower Crust that is also loaded with fiber and vitamins."

Plan b restaurants rolled out the much-talked about Impossible Burger in Fairfield, Milford, and Stamford back in 2017. More than 100 U.S. restaurants including Bareburger franchises, offer the juicy vegan burger created by plant-based food startup Impossible Foods.

Their meat-like burger has gained popularity among plant-based food lovers who enjoy its meaty taste and texture. It owes much of its success to a vegetarian protein called heme that gives it the appearance of a beef patty and bleeds like real meat. It's seasoned with Plan b's proprietary burger spice blend and then grilled.
On Sept. 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, forcing the world to go to war for a second time. The massive and lengthy war resulted in an estimated 75 million people deaths before it was called to an end on Sept. 2, 1945, with the surrender of the Japanese. In the years since, there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of books written and movies made about World War II. These projects cover the war from every anglethat of Allied and Axis soldiers, civilians, resistance fighters, prisoners of war, Jewish people and other persecuted peoples; the list could go on.

With the limited amount of free time most of us have today, it would be impossible to read all of these books or watch all of these movies. So Stacker has made it a little easier for you by rounding up the 50 best WWII movies of all time.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said that the eastern region needs more focus in speeding up its development as he chaired the 24th meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) in Odisha. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, as the Vice-Chairperson, hosted the meeting. Bihar's Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, West Bengal's Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Jharkhand's Finance Minister Ramesh Oraon, and senior officers from the Central and state governments were present in the meet.

Amit Shah hoped that it would be a fruitful meeting where all the issues having Centre-state and inter-state effects would be resolved.

READ | Union Home Minister Amit Shah To Chair Eastern Zonal Council Meeting In Odisha Today

Stressing on fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision, Shah stated that after contemplation, collective decisions should be implemented to further strengthen the federal structure of the country. The Home Minister also expressed his satisfaction at the usefulness of the Zonal Council mechanism and informed that more than 70 per cent of issues have been resolved based on the recent meetings of the Zonal Councils and remaining issues are also under resolution.

READ | Lunch Diplomacy: Mamata Benerjee Raises Delhi Violence Issue At EZC Meet With Amit Shah

Discussions made at the EZC meeting

While Naveen Patnaik raised the issue of an increase in royalty on coal, Mamata Banerjee addressed the issue of delay in payments of GST proceeds and devolution of funds. Nitish Kumar sought to form a National Silt Management Policy to look after floods in the Ganga river. Nitish Kumar also reiterated the demand to provide special category status for Bihar.

Several other issues discussed in the council include Phulbari Dam agreement of 1978 signed by Bihar and West Bengal on Upper Mahananda Water Scheme, the extension of Nuapada-Gunupur-Therubali Rail Link Project in northern Odisha, pension liability between Bihar and Jharkhand, use of state government land by coal companies, land transfer by CPSUs for the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), and speedy investigation into cases of sexual offence/rape against women and children.

Prevention of cattle smuggling/illegal transportation of cattle to the Indo-Bangladesh border, lack of telecom and bank connectivity in Odisha, illegal cultivation and trading of hemp/cannabis in Odisha, and inadequate funding and delayed land-related issues of petroleum projects were also discussed in the meeting.

Out of the 48 issues discussed, 40 were resolved in the EZC meeting.

READ | Mamata Banerjee Shares A Meal With Amit Shah, Patnaik In Odisha; 'no CAA Talks' Held

READ | Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Demands Special Status For Bihar
OTTAWA, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NAV CANADA is launching its third annual Explore Aviation Summer Camp to be held this August 2020.



Designed to give teens from across Canada a truly unique opportunity, this one week, all-expenses-paid camp provides exciting behind-the-scenes access to the people, the places and the technology of Canada's civil air navigation company  NAV CANADA.

Discover first hand, what it means and what it takes to be a part of an aviation industry that manages 3.3 million aircraft movements a year, such as air traffic controller, flight service specialist, electronics technologist, engineer, and more.

Explore Aviation Summer Camp is based at the NAV Centre in Cornwall, Ontario with day trips to Montreal and Ottawa.

Enrollment is open to teens from across Canada entering Grade 10, secondary 4, in September 2020. Applications will be accepted until March 8, 2020.

To apply or learn more about the camp for young men and the camp for young women, please visit our website www.navcanada.ca/summercamp .

Quotes

- Former Participants

Definitely do it. At first, I was a little unsure about it, but its been one of the best weeks of my life. I dont remember the last time I had this much fun. Its truly an amazing experience. Definitely apply!

For me the interesting part is, you get to see the layers of aviation. We would say theres the pilot, theres the person in the tower but there are so many people in between and there are so many career opportunities. I feel that I can go anywhere.

About NAV CANADA

NAV CANADA is a private, not-for-profit company, established in 1996, providing air traffic control, airport advisory services, weather briefings and aeronautical information services for more than 18 million square kilometres of Canadian domestic and international airspace.

The Company is internationally recognized for its safety record, and technology innovation. Air traffic management systems developed by NAV CANADA are used by air navigation service providers in countries worldwide.

Story continues

For further information, please contact:

Brian Boudreau

Manager, Media Relations

613-563-7303

Media Information Line: 1-888-562-8226
Pope Francis recalls the suffering of the people of Iraq assuring them of his prayers.

By Linda Bordoni

Addressing the crowds in St. Peters Square for the General Audience, Pope Francis turned his thoughts to the people of Iraq and said he is praying for the country.

In his greetings to the Arabic pilgrims, the Pope said he welcomed the faithful from Syria, Egypt, the Middle East and especially those from Iraq.

He addressed the Iraqis directly saying: I say to you, citizens of Iraq, I am very close to you. Your country is a battlefield with wars on each side.

He said he is praying for the war-torn nation and recalled his intention to visit: I pray for you and pray for peace in your country that I had planned to visit this year.

And the Pope encouraged the faithful of Iraq to devote time to meditate on the Word of God, to participate in the Sacraments, to fast and to pray in order to renew their relationship with God and with their neighbour.

"At the beginning of Lent, he said, I would like to wish for you all a time of conversion, of inner renewal and of personal and spiritual growth.
28.02.2020 LISTEN

The Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Peter Nortsu Kortoe, has hinted of plans by the committee to push for the amendment of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) Act.

This follows the Auditor-General's report citing the GETFund for breaching its mandate and illegally funding foreign scholarships.

The report noted that the current Education Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh and the current Procurement Minister and Deputy Majority Leader in Parliament, Sarah Adwoa Safo, among other legislators, benefitted from the scheme in the recent past.

Mr. Kortoe in a Citi News interview said the time was ripe for an amendment of the GETFund Act.

As a committee, we are going to ask for the amendment of the GETFund Act. This is what as a committee we have done several times for the three or four years whenever the formula was presented to the committee for approval or recommendations we said the GETFund Act needed amendment. The Fund was engaging in activities that hitherto were not part of the Act. So we either regularise their activities by amending the law or get them to do exactly what they need to do, he said.

Other calls for reform

The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch, Kofi Asare has also called for the need for radical reforms in the management of scholarships at the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).

According to GETFund's Annual Reports from 2012 to 2018, the secretariat spent over four hundred million cedis on scholarships on 3,112 beneficiaries, out of which 2,217 persons were unlawfully granted scholarships to study abroad.

This audit report is actually an opportunity to catapult the need for reforms in the policy. It is time for civil society and the media to begin to raise the issue to try and get the attention of local authority towards reforming GETFund because what we need to do is to depoliticize GETFund, but not necessarily a new law. The law is skewed because what they are doing is outside the law since they are giving the monies to party boys and girls, cronies and privileged people in the society, which is not part of the law. So we need to use this Auditor General report to demand radical reforms in the management of the Fund irrespective of the administration in power.

The focus of GETFund performance audit

The Auditor-General ultimately indicted the GETFund for breaching its mandate and illegally funding foreign scholarships.

The performance audit report said the GETFund Secretariat breached the object of the fund and administered the scholarship themselves.

The report also said, GETFund did not establish any systems, policies, and procedures to ensure the economic, efficient and effective use of public funds.

The Auditor-General concluded that the failings of the GETFund led to brilliant but needy students being deprived of scholarship in favour of politicians in some cases.

---citinewsroom
UPDATE: March 1: To help prop up demand, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and JetBlue have said that they will waive change or cancellation fees for flights booked in the next two weeks for trips through early June. It's important to note restrictions on these waivers, though. First, they only apply to bookings made now through mid-March  they do not apply to tickets purchased before that. Also, these waivers do not include "get your money back" refunds for canceled trips. Instead, you'll be issued a flight credit that must be used within one year. Remember, you'll only get a refund from an airline if it cancels your flight; you will not get one if you decide to cancel your trip.

Original post begins here...

Several international airlines in recent weeks have waived fees for changing or canceling flights to areas affected by outbreaks of coronavirus, but JetBlue has taken that policy up a notch by allowing fee-free changes for all its flights booked in the next couple of weeks  even though it doesnt fly anywhere that is currently threatened by the virus.

Its a big step in a fast-changing environment, as each day brings news of additional coronavirus cases around the world, and it could put pressure on other airlines to do the same for their domestic flights.

It could also be a sign that passenger bookings have started to nosedive for all air travel after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week publicly warned that Americans should be prepared to see the virus expand in the United States. Another sign of a gloomy outlook for the travel biz: United, which is heavily exposed in the Asian markets, pulled its full-year financial outlook today, citing concerns about COVID-19. Even MasterCard is warning investors that its business could take a hit as transborder travel (and, therefore, credit card transactions) declines sharply.

So far, we have not seen any across-the-board fare sales as airlines scramble to prop up demand during the crisis.

Specifically, JetBlue said it will suspend change and cancellation fees for new flight bookings made from Feb. 27 through March 11 for travel completed by June 1. The policy applies to all fare types, including the airlines no-frills Blue Basic  which usually doesnt permit any changes or cancellations  and for flights booked through JetBlue Vacations.

Customers who book in the next two weeks will receive a full travel credit should they need to cancel their trip, and customers who wish to change their plans can apply the full amount from their original booking to a different itinerary, although fare differences may apply, the company said.

JetBlue President Joanna Geraghty said that even though there are currently no travel restrictions to anywhere on JetBlues route map, we want to give our customers some peace of mind that we are ready to support them should the situation change.

Recent polls have indicated that substantial percentages of both business and leisure travelers are rethinking upcoming travel plans due to the unfolding coronavirus situation, especially since it is no longer confined to China. This week, the CDC urged Americans to avoid unnecessary travel to South Korea, where coronavirus cases have surged in recent days, and warned travelers to be careful about trips to northern Italy, site of another outbreak. Delta, United and American, which already had fee waivers in place for travel to China, extended those waivers this week for flights to Seoul; Delta also extended waivers for travel to northern Italy.

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Netrunner Twenty is a birthday release offering that makes what was good even better.

Developers released Netrunner 20.01 on Feb. 23 with the latest stable Debian 10.3 Buster base and the KDE Plasma desktop. This release marks the distros 20th birthday in a way.

Code-named Twenty, the 20.01 release is the 20th upgrade of the Netrunner project over its 10-year history. It is packed with the latest KDE desktop packages, new theme tweaks, and a collection of GTK and Qt/KDE programs.

Netrunners customized KDE desktop has extra applications, multimedia codecs and Flash and Java plugins. This makes Netrunner KDE a more inviting option than the Plasma desktop other distros offer.

It has a unique default look and feel that is very user-flexible in terms of personal customizations. You will not find significant changes from earlier Netrunner versions, but the Netrunner 20s approach to KDE Plasma will not disappoint.

Even if the KDE desktop is not your preferred computing environment, you will find it simple to use and very flexible to set up your way. The modifications enhance the user-friendliness of the desktop environment and preserve the freedom to tweak, which is a staple of this distro.

Netrunner Twenty has an uncluttered look out of the box with unique features neatly tucked away that provide lots of functionality.

Long Road to Get Here

The Netrunner distro comes with a bit of a troubled history. Its developer team, heavily sponsored by the Germany-based Blue Systems IT company, released a separate Rolling edition based on Manjaro/Arch Linux in 2014. It was discontinued, relaunched in 2017 and discontinued again in 2019.

Last years decision to drop the Netrunner Rolling edition was an attempt to eliminate a redundant development cycle. Netrunners popular Manjaro Linux-based offering was on a rolling update schedule. That is typical for Arch-based distros like Manjaro. However, Netrunners Debian-based distro instead relies on two major releases per year in addition to necessary security updates.

After Netrunners developers announced a collaboration with the Manjaro community in October, it made sense not to continue with Netrunner Rolling. However, the team will offer continued support for existing Rolling users through its forums, based directly on Manjaro.

Netrunner Debian, Core and ARM versions are unaffected by the loss of the Netrunner Manjaro edition. The Debian version ships with a full set of preinstalled software for everyday use. The Core edition is a slimmed down version that lets you build your own system or run it on low-spec hardware.

The Maui Diversion

For a while, Netrunner nearly morphed into a Hawaiian delight. In 2016 the Netrunner website announced that Netrunner Kubuntu was discontinued and directed visitors to its replacement distro, Maui Linux.

Maui was based on KDE Neon and featured KDEs Plasma desktop. The previous versions, up to Netrunner 17, were based on Kubuntu/Ubuntu.

In October 2016, I wrote a review of Maui Linux for LinuxInsider. Maui was an attempt to continue the Kubuntu-based heritage while adopting some of the latest technologies impacting other Linux distros in varying stages.

That effort was short-lived. The Maui Linux website is still accessible, but the last release was the Maui 17.06 edition on July 9, 2017. That timeline coincides with the resurrection of Netrunner that year.

The Maui website has no information about the current status of Maui Linux. The download link is still active. However, distro tracking website DistroWatch.com lists the Maui Linux distro as dormant.

Whats Inside

The new Netrunner release comes with Firefox-ESR and Thunderbird updated to the latest stable LTS (long term support) versions. They get regular security updates provided by Debian security.

This release switches to the Breeze Window decoration with its darker color, which increases the display contrast and makes it easier to distinguish between active and inactive windows.

I like the red colored cursor (RED-Theme). It is a handy way to quickly locate the cursor on the screen. Very retro looking.

Netrunner Twenty has a uniquely drafted wallpaper. It sets a visual marker for the milestone of 10 years of Netrunner and the 20th version release. That, of course, is based on the standard two updates per year and overlooks some of the discontinued activity.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

It comes with a nice application mix and a wide variety of tools for doing day-to-day computing tasks. For instance, applications include the LibreOffice suite, and Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program) for tweaking, editing and manipulating images. The mix is a nice exception, as other KDE distros typically are too limited to the KDE family of applications.

Krita lets you draw with your mouse or pen. Also bundled is the Inkscape vector-based scalable graphics editor and the Kdenlive video editor.

GMusicbrowser and Yarock are included to manage music data and listen to songs, along with the SMplayer for watching videos. A nice collection of games and puzzles supplement the largest Linux gaming platform Steam  and there is much more.

Desktop Overview

Netrunners main menu display is unique. The bottom panel displays the applications menu at the left end along with launcher icons for the Dolphin file manager and the default Firefox Web browser.

The right side of the bottom panel displays the system notification tray and a launcher for a special screen display configuration bar. Pressing the Windows key avoids having to click on the menu button on the bottom panel.

The middle portion of the bottom panel serves as a dock for thumbnails of running applications. Right-clicking anywhere on the desktop pops open a menu to do system-related actions such as configuring the desktop, and adding widgets and panels. So far, that is fairly standard.

Youll see whats unique about it when you launch the menu. It fills the entire screen, dividing the view into sections not bordered by columns and divider lines. Two buttons centered at the top of the screen switch between Apps & Docs and Widgets. Depending on your view choice, the content of the display changes.

Part of Netrunners uniqueness lies in how it displays the main menu.

The layout itself is unique to Netrunner. A search area sits just under the top two buttons for quickly locating and launching an application. No need to click the search window to position the cursor in order to type an entry. Just start typing. Your entry appears as you type.

Categories hug the right edge of the screen. A vertical listing down the center of the screen lets you scroll through a categorys contents. A Favorites row and buttons for shutdown options are located in the left section of the menu display.

Right-click on a menu item to add it to the Favorites row or place its launcher on the desktop. You also can pin the icon to the bottom panel.

A Better Way

Other Linux distros try similar approaches with the KDE interface, but Netrunners developers execute their design better. It can be a bit daunting to work through all the myriad options and configuration settings of the KDE desktop, but this is not the case with the KDE integration built into Netrunner.

One of the first things you should do is go to the Plasma Tweaks tool in the main menu. All user interface-related K desktop modules are located there. Overall, the menu layouts for the system settings and other areas of personalizing the look and feel are well designed and uncluttered.

One of the really nice features of KDE in any distro integration is the Activities desktops. No other Linux desktop environment has an Activities-style feature. Netrunners inclusion of screen edge and corner hotspots provides quick access to this functionality, as well as scale and expo views of Activities and Virtual Desktops.

Activity screens are similar to virtual workspaces, only with more options. While virtual workspaces is a common feature in several desktop options, only KDE adds the additional functionality that Activities desktops provide.

Each Activity workspace can have any number of additional virtual workspaces. Each Activity screen can have its own background image and widgets. These are totally separate from using virtual workspaces. So KDE offers both options.

Easy Peasy

KDE offers the best of both functional worlds when it comes to widgets or applets. You can place specialized displays and tools on the bottom panel and the desktop.

You can be very flexible with this functionality. You can designate widgets to be available on some or all Activity screens. You can place them on a default screen that makes widgets visible on all of your virtual workspaces.

It is easy to place widgets where you want them. It is a two-step process after you right-click on the desktop or the panel. Scroll through the list of available widgets in the pop-up panel. Then drag the item to where you want it.

Bottom Line

The Netrunner distro used to be a bleeding-edge choice among KDE options. With little thats new and must-have, this release takes the edge off the bleeding.

I wasnt nudged away from my preferred competing KDE distro  the new Feren OS Plasma edition.

While Netrunner 20.01 provides a fairly solid integration of classic KDE desktop performance, this release is a departure, in that it is not a step or two ahead of most other KDE-integrated Linux OSes. I

Netrunner attracts two types of typical users. One fancies a more friendly desktop environment. The second wants the freedom to tweak more extensively than other desktop environments allow.

Hardware requirements include a minimum CPU of 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 or greater and at least 1 GB of RAM with at least 10 GB hard drive space. Also, the computer should have Intel GMA 945 graphics card support with 128+ MB of video memory.

Netrunner is a unique distro with its own spin on the K Plasma desktop environment. Seasoned Linux users who like to fiddle and tweak an OS into their own platform will love how this distro integrates the KDE Plasma desktop. Newcomers can be quite content using the out-of-the-box settings.

Want to Suggest a Review?

Is there a Linux software application or distro youd like to suggest for review? Something you love or would like to get to know?

Pleaseemail your ideas to me, and Ill consider them for a future Linux Picks and Pans column.

And use the Reader Comments feature below to provide your input!
Singapore Airlines Airbus A380. (PHOTO: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

SINGAPORE  Singapore Airlines joins the growing list of Singapore companies in cutting pay for senior staff amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Chief Executive Officer Goh Choon Phong will lead the way with a 15 per cent cut from 1 March, a spokesperson from SIA said in an email reply to Yahoo Finance Singapore on Friday (28 February).

Divisional vice-presidents and vice-presidents will take a 7 per cent cut from 1 April, while senior managers and managers will take a reduction of 5 per cent from 1 May, the spokesperson said. The SIA board of directors have also taken a 15 per cent cut of their fees to show solidarity with all management and staff.

A voluntary no-pay leave scheme has also been offered to all staff up to the divisional vice-president level, the spokesperson added. Those who opt for this can be assured that the jobs will be there upon their return.

The Covid-19 outbreak has had a significant impact on air travel. Over the last few weeks, the Group has moved decisively to deal with this rapid decline on air travel by taking aggressive steps to cut capacity, as well as reduce capital expenditure and operating costs, the spokesperson said.

The national carrier had cut nearly 10 per cent of its capacity, and on 25 February announced it will freeze hiring for all ground positions.

Singapore Airlines earlier this month said it would cut capacity across its network in the three months to May, including to destinations like Frankfurt, Jakarta, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Paris, Seoul, Sydney and Tokyo.

Singapore Airlines, which is majority-owned by Temasek Holdings, join other Temasek portfolio companies including SMRT, SATS and CapitaLand, in implementing cost-cutting measures.

State investor Temasek on Tuesday said it will freeze all salaries and promotion increases, and partially cut annual bonuses for the senior management team this year. It has also asked senior management to voluntarily reduce their base salaries by up to 5 per cent.

Story continues

Related stories:

SMRT, SATS join other Singapore companies in cutting pay amid COVID-19 outbreak

President, political office holders to take 1 month pay cut: DPM Heng

COVID-19: Temasek to freeze wages, Singapore Airlines to suspend hiring

CapitaLand becomes latest company in Singapore to freeze wages
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is asking hunters to test their deer for Chronic Wasting Disease after it was discovered in Kimble County, about two hours northwest of San Antonio.

The disease was found at a deer breeding facility on Wednesday, making it the first positive detection in that area, TPWD said in a news release.

The origin of the disease is unknown as records show the deer facility has not shipped in new deer in the last five years, said Mitch Lockwood, director of the big game program for TPWD. The breeder has also had an active disease surveillance program since 2011 and hadn't had a positive detection until now.

The disease is neurological and affects the brain and nervous system of deer, elk and moose. The result is always fatal, Lockwood said.

READ ALSO: Invasive tilapia are taking over Texas waters, including two San Antonio lakes

The disease has been documented in 26 states and three Canadian provinces. In Texas, the disease was first discovered in 2012 near El Paso. The disease has since been detected in 169 white-tailed deer, red deer and mule deer in the following counties: Dallam, El Paso, Hartley, Hudspeth, Kimble, Lavaca, Medina, Uvalde and Val Verde.

Symptoms do not appear for several years and include staggering, abnormal posture, drooling, confusion and severe weight loss. The majority of the animals that test positive for the disease have "looked perfectly healthy," Lockwood said. The disease also goes by "zombie deer disease."

There is no evidence the disease can be naturally transmitted to humans, livestock or pets. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends not to consume meat from infected animals.

Although the disease has not been detected in the San Antonio area, Lockwood said "anything is possible" and advises all Texas hunters to test their deer just in case.

If you are planning to harvest deer, contact your wildlife biologist for more information. Chronic Wasting Disease zones and information can be found here.

Priscilla Aguirre is a breaking news reporter and general assignment writer. Read her on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | priscilla.aguirre@express-news.net | @CillaAguirre
The Massachusetts Department of Correction will provide medication to three inmates who suffer from opioid use disorders following a lawsuit filed by the prisoners late last year, advocates announced Friday.

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and Goodwin Proctor LLP challenged prison officials denial of buprenorphine maintenance treatment to inmates Joseph Sclafani, Michael Feinstein and Bret Cappola in December. Correction Commissioner Carol Mici and superintendents at MCI-Cedar Junction and MCI-Norfolk were named as defendants in the case.

Sclafani, Feinstein and Cappola, who have struggled with addiction for years, will all be provided their prescribed medications for the remainder of their sentences as part of the resolution, the ACLU of Massachusetts said in a statement. The group called the settlement a first-of-its-kind victory.

Medication for addiction treatment is the standard of care for opioid use disorder. The evidence is clear: MAT saves lives," Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement. "We hope that jails and prisons everywhere change their policies to ensure people in their custody suffering from opioid use disorder have access to medically prescribed treatment.

The inmates had been receiving prescribed daily doses of buprenorphine to treat their addictions before being incarcerated. They learned when entering state prison, though, that they would be withdrawn from their medication after 90 days, according to the ACLU. Buprenorphine reduces the impact of addicts withdrawals and curbs cravings.

Staff at MCI-Cedar Junction automatically reduce inmates buprenorphine daily dosages to 8 milligrams when they enter prison, even if a doctors prescription calls for a greater amount of the medication. Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued DOCs policy violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution that restrict cruel and unusual punishment.

DOC previously agreed to restore or continue addiction treatment to the prisoners in December until the next scheduled hearing in the case.

DOC policy was to automatically remove all individuals in its custody from buprenorphine maintenance treatment after 90 days, and to bar them from any further access to this medication for all but the final 90 days of their incarceration, the ACLUs statement said. Without this doctor-prescribed medication, people suffer painful withdrawal and face an increased risk of relapse, overdose, and death."

Citing reports from inmates, the ACLU of Massachusetts claimed that after the suit was filled DOC started to provide maintenance buprenorphine treatment to all prisoners who entered into the agencys custody with active prescriptions.

The only correction facilities housing men that provide buprenorphine maintenance treatment include MCI-Cedar Junction and MCI-Shirley, according to the ACLU.

DOC is currently seeking bids for the provision of MAT services at all DOC facilities," the groups statemnet said. "The current estimated contract date is July 1, 2020.

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3 1 of 3 Carol Kaliff / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Show More Show Less 3 of 3





RIDGEFIELD  A Danbury man was arrested Monday after police say they caught him with items stolen from unoccupied vehicles in town.

Officers responded to a complaint on Sarah Bishop Road around 6:40 a.m. Monday, and were told that a white male [had been] knocking on doors and acting strangely, police said.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said the Balakot air strikes had sent out the clear message that infrastructure across the border could not be used as safe havens for terrorists.

Addressing a seminar on 'Air Power in No War, No Peace Scenario', Singh hailed the 40 CRPF martyrs of the Pulwama terror attack and saluted the soldiers who carried out the Balakot air strikes.

"If we've to be prepared for the tasks assigned to us, then it's important we maintain credible deterrence at land, air and sea at all times," he said at the Centre for Air Power Studies here.

Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat and Indian Air Force chief R K Bhadauria also spoke at the event.

Rawat said the clear message from the Balakot strikes was that the kind of "proxy war" perpetrated on India "will not be tolerated". IAF Chief R K S Bhadauria highlighted the need for new indigenous technology in warfare and urged DRDO to develop such weapons.

"The Balakot air strikes conveyed India's clear message that infrastructure across the border won't be a safe haven for terrorists," the Defence minister said.

"For Pakistan, employment of terrorism against India is a low cost option. We have taught a lesson to Pakistan on this. Through Balakot, we have indicated that terrorist camps across Line of Control are no longer secure place for terrorists," Singh added.

On February 26 last year, Indian Air Force jets crossed over to Pakistan and attacked a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Balakot. The strike followed 12 days after the February 14 terror attack in Pulwama that killed 40 CRPF personnel in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir.

Singh said the security scenario had changed in the last few years and incidents of cross border terrorism are examples of the new warfare that has forced the rewriting of doctrines across the border.

"The security scenario has completely changed in the last few years. Kargil and incidents of cross border terrorism are examples of new kind of warfare. Hybrid warfare is the reality of present day. There is no clear beginning and end in this changing scenario of conflict," he said.

Addressing the gathering, Rawat highlighted the significance of "credible deterrence" in warfare.

"If we've to be prepared for the tasks assigned to us then it's important we maintain credible deterrence at land, air and sea at all times.

"Deterrence comes from keeping every personnel trained and motivated. he credible deterrence comes from the will of the military leadership and intent of political leadership while taking the tough decision. This was amply shown after Kargil, Uri attacks and Pulwama attack," he said.

"We had an edge over Pakistan Air Force in terms of Beyond Visual Range Missile capability at the time of Kargil. We allowed that to slip and thereafter it took a decade and half in our struggle to acquisition process to be able to get better capability," the Air Force chief said in his speech.

This would soon materialise with the induction of the Rafale, he said.

"In air engagement, especially in a deeply contested area, it is important to to have a weapons edge. Once we retain this edge,it is important that we don't allow to slip back this edge," he added.

Hailing the government's decision to carry out the Balakot strikes, Bhadauria said it was a "tough and bold decision to strike at the heart of terrorist training camps deep inside Pakistan across the Line of Control".

"IAF successfully struck the target chosen. Pakistan Air Force responded 30 hours later with a large package of aircraft under Operation Swift Retort. IAF ensured they weren't able to hit targets. They were in a hurry to disengage.They were doing it for their domestic audience," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
UPSC Recruitment 2022: One day left to apply for several vacancies at upsc.gov.in, here's direct link

Multiple abrasions, deep cuts by sharp objects says Ankit Sharmas autopsy report

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 28: The autopsy report of the martyred Intelligence Bureau official, Ankit Sharma says that the body had multiple abrasion, deep cuts caused by sharp objects.

He was stabbed multiple times, the report also says.

Multiple abrasion, deep cuts by sharp edge objects, the report said. This suggests that Sharma was stabbed multiple times.

The police have booked AAP leader, Tahir Hussain for murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. The case was booked following a complaint given by Ankit's father, Ravinder Sharma.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

Sharma had joined the IB in 2017. He was found dead in the Chand Bagh area, which was affected by communal riots. His body was found in a drain. His mother said that some people took him and two others and killed them.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 11:08 [IST]
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.
CALGARY - RCMP in central Alberta say a decal that appears to show a well-known teenage climate activist in a sexual act is not child pornography.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg attends a rally at the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton, Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dave Chidley

CALGARY - RCMP in central Alberta say a decal that appears to show a well-known teenage climate activist in a sexual act is not child pornography.

The decal bears the logo of X-Site Energy Services below a cartoon figure seeming to depict 17-year-old Greta Thunberg of Sweden.

The company's general manager, Doug Sparrow, has denied having anything to do with the stickers.

A concerned citizen had called the Mounties and reported the sticker as child pornography.

The general investigative section of the RCMP in Red Deer says it consulted with police experts in the sexual exploitation of children.

It concluded the decal does not include components needed to consider it child pornography nor does the decal depict "a non-consensual act that would be a direct threat to the person."

"Alberta RCMP do not believe it constitutes a criminal offence," a police statement said Friday. "As such, Alberta RCMP will not be commenting any further on this investigation."

The sticker has a black-and-white drawing of a female figure's bare back with hands pulling on her braided pigtails and the name "Greta" written below.

A torrent of online outrage was sparked when Michelle Narang of Rocky Mountain House, Alta., posted the image on social media Wednesday night. She said she cried when she saw it.

"The visual is jarring," Narang said Thursday. "It hurt. It hurt on so many levels."

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said it finds the decal completely unacceptable.

"This kind of behaviour is not representative of Canada's oil and natural gas industry, service companies who work in the industry, or the province of Alberta," Stacey Hatcher, an association vice-president said in a release Friday.

"The industry holds human rights and social integrity in high regard, and we must speak up when we see behaviour so contrary to our values."

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, Status of Women Minister Leela Aheer and politicians from all stripes have also denounced the graphic.

Thunberg has made headlines for her passionate pleas to world leaders to take tougher action on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and for inspiring large climate marches around the world.

She joined thousands in a march through downtown Edmonton in October. Oil-and-gas industry supporters showed up, but they were vastly outnumbered by the climate marchers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2020

---
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Tuesday that Americans should prepare for a significant disruption to everyday life as the spread of COVID-19 (known colloquially as the coronavirus) into the United States becomes not so much a question of if, according to one official, but rather more a question of exactly when.

Despite steady warnings from health organizations worldwide, right-wing media are clogging the airwaves with conspiracy theories and inaccurate reporting. Outlets like Fox News are broadcasting sensationalistic, poorly sourced talking points, obfuscating the realities of the outbreak and the United States' own readiness to deal with it, leaving Americans more vulnerable and less informed.

Virtually from the moment reports of a new virus emerged out of Wuhan, China, far-right extremists began circulating theories about its origin. When experts declared that the coronavirus likely spread from bats, far-right figures began circulating videos showing Asian people consuming exotic animals. Former InfoWars personality Paul Joseph Watson tweeted, Our media encourages us to eat all kinds of weird stuff because its normal in other cultures, but some cultures are better than others.

That evening, Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson also blamed the emergence of the virus on Chinese culture, erroneously claiming it was a result of people consuming animals alive.

Fringe conspiracy theories

The moment was emblematic of the cycle that right-wing media has fallen into while covering the coronavirus: Fringe conspiracy theories are making their way to more mainstream outlets and overshadowing accurate, fact-based reporting.

In early February, fringe bloggers claimed that the findings of an unpublished, unreviewed paper that found similarities between the virus and HIV indicated that the virus was man-made. Though it was repeatedly debunked, the claim is now ubiquitous in right-wing media: The Daily Wire, The Federalist, Steve Bannon and Rush Limbaugh have all uncritically pushed the conspiracy theory that the virus may have leaked from a Chinese research lab.

Story continues

On Fox News, Carlson has broadcast the narrative multiple times under the guise that some say it might be true. Carlsons claims are particularly egregious  at one point, he doubled down on the claim minutes after Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, stated that medical professionals suggest that the structure of the virus seems unlikely to have been man-made."

The Daily Caller, a right-wing website founded by Carlson, chose instead to focus on Cuccinellis statement that he couldnt absolutely rule it out.

The escaped virus conspiracy theory is no longer contained to right-wing media  it has now spread to at least one prominent lawmaker. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., was criticized this week for an appearance on Fox News in which he repeated the debunked theory, and Cotton had made the claim at least two other times on Fox.

Despite widespread condemnation by major news organizations for ignoring the best available scientific evidence, right-wing outlets rushed to defend and reframe his remarks.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.

The lack of accurate information amid this bioweapon fearmongering is gravely concerning, but possibly more alarming are the emerging right-wing media attempts to frame the spread of coronavirus  and the already visible consequences  as a plot to hurt President Donald Trump.

Limbaugh worked the lab conspiracy theory into an unhinged rant, claiming that the coronavirus is an effort to get Trump by unknown forces seeking to crash the American economy and help Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders turn the United States into a mirror image of communist China.

Even though Limbaughs story sounds like a cheap spy novel, hes not alone in pushing this sort of political narrative. Multiple outlets have attempted to blame Sanders for the drop in markets caused by the virus affects abroad.

Carlson went so far as to echo Limbaughs claim that an economic downturn would ultimately help Sanders defeat Trump.

Coronavirus politics

The politicization of the disease ultimately serves to provide cover for right-wing media to justify bigoted policies and xenophobic rhetoric. Carlson, a man with a well-documented history of expressing white nationalist sentiment, blamed globalization for the outbreak, and declared that wokeness is a cult that would let you die before they admitted that diversity is not our strength."

Others have adopted right-wing media talking points about the disease to justify Trumps policies. On Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted that the coronavirus showed his father had been proven right again about border control, American manufacturing and being a China hawk. Fox News' Melissa Francis argued that the coronavirus outbreak had vindicated Trumps trade war with China.

It is now practically inevitable that the United States will face an outbreak of the coronavirus, but half-baked information is already appearing in public statements from Trump and other officials. Trump has already made multiple false or misleading claims regarding the virus that contradict experts and his own government organizations.

No amount of spin can erase the administrations major cuts to CDC programs over the past two years, which have cast uncertainty on the organization's ability to handle a potential pandemic.

At this moment, every news outlets focus should be ensuring that the American public is receiving the best, most accurate information possible regarding the virus. Coronavirus is no less contagious if you watch Fox News rather than CNN or MSNBC. The right-wing media ecosystems efforts to muddy the waters ultimately puts their audiences  and the public at large  at greater risk. Right-wing media outlets are failing their audience by turning a global health emergency into a tinfoil hat spectacle.

Nikki McCann Ramirez is a researcher at Media Matters for America. Follow her on Twitter: @NikkiMcR

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: Conspiracy theories are spreading faster than the coronavirus


Half-Year Results & Business Update

Sydney, Feb 28, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Regeneus Ltd ( ASX:RGS ) (Regeneus or the Company), a clinical-stage regenerative medicine company, today released its Half-Year Financial Results and Appendix 4D for the period ended 31 December 2019 (H1 FY20).Operational and clinical highlights:- Implemented revised strategy to divest non-core assets and focus on commercialising lead platform technology to address the global neuropathic pain marketo Focused on commercial licence disussions with partners to manufacture and commercialise Progenza OA in Japan, US & Europeo AGC has option to become largest shareholder in RGSo Secured Japanese institutional investor support for rights issue- Positive pre-clinical results of Progenza in treating neuropathic painFinancial highlights:- Costs containment initiatives and streamlined operations reduce operating costs- Receipt of A$1.5m in R&D Tax Incentives from the Australian Tax Office- $50K grant from Australia's Department of Industry, Innovation and Science provided to study mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in pain management- Cash balance and cash equivalents as at 31 December 2019 of $818kAt the beginning of the financial year, the Company announced its revised strategic direction to address the global pain market, with a focus on commercialising its lead platform technology, Progenza for Osteoarthritis (OA) in Japan.During the six months, Regeneus focused on implementing the necessary operational and financial activities to support the new corporate strategy. This included the termination of Regeneus and AGC's exclusive manufacturing licence and joint venture agreement. This mutual decision provided the Company with the flexibility to conclude commercial licence discussions with partners who intend to manufacture and commercialise Progenza OA in Japan.As part of the termination arrangements, AGC has elected to convert US$2.5 million of their upfront and milestone payments into equity ownership in Regeneus of ordinary shares at a fixed subscription price of A$0.16 per share. This represents a 100 per cent premium to Regeneus' share price as of 19 December 2019. On issue of the shares AGC will become the largest shareholder in the Company, holding 8%.Additionally, the Company completed a $5.5 million private placement and rights issue, with a Japanese-based institutional investor taking up the initial shortfall. This investor has significant experience in the Japanese life sciences and regenerative medicine sector.Regeneus believes this particular investor's support in the raise underscores their belief in Progenza OA's commercialisation plan.As part of its revised focus, Regeneus has streamlined operations and implemented costcontainment initiatives which have reduced operating outflows by 50 per cent targeting $250k a month. This includes restructuring executive packages to align compensation with shareholder value and relocating to smaller corporate premises to realise significant savings.In the period, Regeneus received $1.5m in R&D Tax Incentives for the 2019 financial year.Monash University and Regeneus were awarded a $50k innovation grant from the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science for research into how mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be used in pain management. The study, which will be conducted in partnership with Monash University, will assist the Company in developing research for the neuropathic pain market.In terms of clinical development, in July, Regeneus announced Progenza demonstrated positive preclinical results in treating allodynia, a skin pain condition caused from nonpainful stimulation of the skin, such as a light touch. The study demonstrated a single injection of Progenza completely reversed the symptoms of allodynia. These results, while early stage, are encouraging and support the Company's growth strategy to target the pain market.Commenting on the activities in the first half of the 2020 financial year, Regeneus CEO Leo Lee said, "The last six months has been a critical period for the Company as we introduced corporate changes aligned with our revised strategy to focus on the unmet need in the global pain market.""We have already seen our cost-containment initiatives implemented and brought on a new institutional investor. We also terminated the agreement with AGC, a mutual decision which allows us to focus on concluding commercial licence discussions with partners who intend to manufacturing and commercialise Progenza OA in Japan.""We look forward to updating shareholders and the market on development on this front."To view the Half Year Report, please visit:About Regeneus Ltd

Regeneus Ltd (ASX:RGS) is a Sydney-based clinical-stage regenerative medicine company using stem cell technologies to develop a portfolio of novel cell-based therapies. The regenerative therapies seek to address unmet medical needs in human health markets, focusing on neuropathic pain, including osteoarthritis and various skin conditions, with its platform technologies Progenza(TM) and Sygenus. Visit www.regeneus.com.au for more information.
Ben Affleck as Batman

Australian director Leigh Whannell has thrown his weight behind the release of Zack Snyders cut of Justice League, insisting that hed be mortified if his intended version of a film wasnt released.

Whannell, who has previously worked on the Saw and Insidious franchises, but most recently wrote and directed The Invisible Man, recently made this admission on the Reel Blend after being quizzed about the Snyder Cut movement, as well as directors cuts in general.

Read More: 'Invisible Man' director Leigh Whannell battled studio boss over trailer spoilers

To me, I never wanna have another cut sitting somewhere that competes with the original cut, he insisted. I guess what Im saying is, whatever circumstances created that cut, whatever horrible circumstances are totally understandable. For me personally, I would always view it as a terrible thing that there was an unseen cut of the film.

MADRID, SPAIN - FEBRUARY 19: Australian director Leigh Whannell attends 'El Hombre Invisible' ('Invisible Man') photocall at Villa Magna Hotel on February 19, 2020 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Pablo Cuadra/FilmMagic)

Over the years, youll see this thing where its like, James Cameron rereleases the directors cut of Aliens. And then hell introduce it. When you watch it, he comes on the screen and he says, This is the way I always intended people to watch Aliens. And my first thought is, Thats nuts! Dont... have one definitive version of the movie. I hate this idea that we missed out on the version he wanted us to see.

Read more: Universal boss admits Dark Universe plan failed

Later on in the same interview, the discussion turned to the original version of Blade Runner, which included a voiceover that Ridley Scott detested, and this provoked Whannell to add, And thats the situation Im saying would be a nightmare, would be someone forcibly changing a film that I had made to such a degree that I felt the version out there was not the true version. That is a living nightmare that I dont want to live.

The Invisible Man is now out in UK cinemas.
Lyca Productions, the makers of Shankars upcoming Tamil magnum opus Indian 2, has appealed to actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan to see the recent unfortunate mishap on the sets of their film in the spirit of collective responsibility.

A day after Kamal Haasan called for safety audit of Indian 2 sets, Lyca Productions released a statement with a clarification on the whole incident. Replying to Kamal Haasan, the letter read: Incidents of this nature need to be dealt with in the spirit of collective responsibility and rectification. Given the involvement of an eminent artist and technician of your calibre and a veteran of Shankars stature being the captain of the ship, we were doubly confident that our own safety measures will be amplified by your on-spot judgment.

Lyca Productions letter to Kamal Haasan.

The letter added that the entire shoot was under the supervision and control of the actor-director duo. Mr Subaskaran also announced financial assistance to the tune of 2 crores to the family of the deceased and those who suffered injuries, and also undertook to take care of their treatment, the letter further read.

Also read: Shah Rukh Khan is the perfect husband as he visits wife Gauris store, gets clicked with her girl gang. Watch

With regards to safety measures on the sets, the letter stated that Executive Producer Sundarrajan and Deputy Executive Producer KI Manikandan (a) Vimal (personally recommended by Shankar himself) were in charge of the entire production of the film and ensured the safety measures in place. The production house has sought explanation from both of them, the letter read in conclusion.

Indian 2, which is being bankrolled by Lyca Productions, stars Siddharth, Kajal Aggarwal, Rakul Preet Singh, Bobby Simhaa and Priya Bhavani Shankar in key roles. The first poster of Indian 2, which marks the reunion of Shankar after two decades, was unveiled on the occasion of Pongal earlier this year. After wrapping up major shooting portion in India, the team plans to travel to Taiwan to shoot key scenes of the movie.

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Supreme Court Advocate Aalakh Alok Srivastava on Friday wrote a letter to Delhi Police Commissioner asking immediate arrest of AAP councillor Tahir Hussain, who is accused of murdering Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma.

Srivastava requested police to conduct Hussain's custodial interrogation, narco analysis, polygraph and brain mapping tests "in order to unearth the entirely deeply rooted conspiracy."

"There are speculations that the deceased IB officer Ankit Sharma was killed as a revenge for being associated with the Shri Narendra Modi Government. Also, the recovery of such large cache of ammunition from aforesaid above named Mohammed Tahir Hussain's residence, clearly indicates that a pre-planned and deep-rooted conspiracy was hatched by the Rioters to commit large scale Riot and to kill the deceased Ankit Sharma and other innocent people," read the letter.

Srivastava also wrote a letter to CBI Director seeking a suo-moto investigation by the agency into Ankit Sharma alleged murder.

"The Applicant is requesting you to kindly immediately take up suo-moto CBI Investigation in this matter under Section 2 of u/s 2 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, in order to investigate the abovementioned pre: planned and the deep-rooted conspiracy hatched by the rioters in this case," read the letter.

Sharma, whose body was recovered from North-East Delhi's Chand Bagh area on Wednesday. An FIR was registered at Dayalpur Police Station against Hussain for allegedly murdering the IB officer based on the complaint of Sharma's father Ravinder Kumar.

At least 42 people, including a police head constable, have died while around 200 people have been injured in the communal violence that rocked North-East Delhi.

Two Special Investigative Teams (SITs) have been constituted under Crime Branch, Delhi Police to probe the violence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Gaslighting in Relationships: 9 Signs Its Happening and How to Make It Stop

Is Your Partner Gaslighting You? Heres How You Can Tell

The term gaslighting has become a fairly recognized term ever since the Oxford Dictionary named it one of the most popular words of 2018, courtesy of a viral article that speculated President Donald Trump rose to power by gaslighting the nation.

The behaviors origin comes from 1938 play Gas Light, where British playwright Patrick Hamilton tells the story of Gregory, a husband who manipulates his wife into believing she can no longer trust her perceptions of reality. He does this in various ways throughout the film, but the titular scene occurs when Gregory secretly flickers the gas lights on and off in their home from the attic. When Paula comments on the flickering, Gregory tells her its not happening, causing her to doubt what she perceives to be true.

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The theme has continued to stay a prominent one in popular culture, playing a large part in the newest iteration of The Invisible Man, starring Elizabeth Moss and Oliver Jackson-Cohen.

These days, gaslighting is frequently employed to describe a specific, yet common, type of toxic relationship. AskMen spoke with experts to better understand what gaslighting is, how to spot the signs in a relationship and how to recover from it.

What Is Gaslighting?

Gaslighting in a relationship occurs when one partner uses manipulation tactics to undermine the self-perception of the other by regularly dismissing their feelings as untrue, crazy, ridiculous or unworthy. Eventually, when repeated enough, the victim accepts these false realities as the truth, which can have a long-term impact on ones emotional, psychological and even physical well-being.

Gaslighting is a common behavior among narcissists, or those with narcissistic personality disorder. According to Healthline, these people tend to believe they are more important than others, lack empathy and dont have the time (or interest) in helping others unless it benefits them. In other cases, the person who is gaslighting doesnt even know it. It could merely be a bad habit picked up from relationships they were raised around.

Warning Signs Of Gaslighting

The main goal of gaslighting is to belittle the victim to the point where there is an uneven power dynamic within the relationship. If the behavior defined above seems familiar of your partner, be on the lookout for these warning signs:

1. They never take responsibility

Couples counselor Kari Rusnak warns that if your partner cannot take responsibility for any wrongdoing, and never responds to or validates your concerns, they may be gaslighting.

2. Their conversations confuse you

Another warning sign is often feeling confused in conversation with this person, says Rusnak. If you often leave an argument unsure of how the topic changed or what happened, you may be a victim.

3. You doubt your own thoughts

According to Dr. Gail Saltz, associate professor of Psychiatry at the NY Presbyterian Hospital Weill-Cornell School of Medicine, if you regularly trust their words and diminish your own, their gaslighting tactics have started to take effect.

4. You become more quiet and timid

During confrontation, do you find yourself either apologizing or silencing yourself? Consider it a sign. The same goes for if you always think its your fault when things go wrong.

5. Youre told youre being crazy

Your partner tells you that youre crazy or have some sort of problem in a way that feels contemptuous.

6. Youve lost your sense of self

You no longer feel like the person you used to be, or often question whether youre being too sensitive when feeling hurt by your partner.

7. They project their issues onto you

Projection is a very common sign of gaslighting, notes Rusnak. When someone takes their own problems and accuses you of having that problem, they may be using it as a gaslighting tactic.

8. You suddenly lack self-esteem

Your partner should always build you up, but gaslighters will do the opposite. Gaslighting's goal is to make you seem like youre the one with the problem and if you didn't feel bad about yourself before the relationship it's a sign that you may be experiencing gaslighting, says Rusnak.

9. You feel isolated from friends and family

Youve distanced yourself from friends and family, regularly making excuses for your partners behavior.

How to Recover From Gaslighting

Repairing the damage caused by gaslighting is far from easy. Before either of you begin to recover, you have to recognize that as gaslighting is affecting the entire relationship, both people must be willing to change the dynamic.

The victim should write down what they want to discuss with their partner, reread it and focus on their reality and feelings, recommends Saltz. The emphasis for both parties should be on feelings and not right or wrong facts.

Ultimately, the partner who is gaslighting needs to recognize what their behavior is doing, accept the victims feelings and hopefully learn to stop criticizing their partner. In order for this to happen, both Saltz and Rusnak recommend couples therapy to learn effective communication and listening skills.

In Gottman Method couples therapy, the therapist will aim to seek out negative behaviors like contempt and defensiveness and work on using their antidotes of communicating your own feelings and needs, as well as accepting responsibility which would help someone who uses gaslighting in their relationship, says Rusnak.

If things dont pan out, use that time to move on, rediscovering who you are. Theres a good chance youre going to be hard on yourself (since youve been trained to), so practice self-care and be a little selfish for once. You should also block all contact from this person.

From there, learn to reconnect with yourself. Youve been living somebody elses reality for too long. If you surround yourself with people who make you feel good, eventually, their vibes will rub off on you, erasing all of your past partners lies.

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Photo: Katie Haugland/Flickr

Missed the most recent top news in San Antonio? Read on for everything you need to know. McNay Art Museum calls out San Antonio rapper for filming unauthorized music video on its grounds Read the full story on San Antonio Current. San Antonio homeless, city clash over new panhandling plan Read the full story on MySanAntonio. Woman hit by vehicle on the Northwest side, later dies from injuries Read the full story on MySanAntonio. Off-duty SAPD officer injured in suspected drunk driving crash on I-35, police say Read the full story on MySanAntonio. Man arrested after threatening to burn down San Antonio church, harassing priest Read the full story on San Antonio Current. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.

Last August, D-Real210  aka Darryl Phillips  posted a music video for the heavily auto-tuned song "Sauced Up My Drip" on YouTube, but it didn't get much traction.

As the city tries to stop panhandling with an app that lets people donate, San Antonio homeless are pushing back.

One woman is dead after she was hit by a vehicle while stepping out into traffic on the Northwest Side on Thursday morning.

An off-duty police officer was injured after being hit by a suspected drunk driver near the downtown area early Thursday morning, police say.
Italy is considered one of the most beautiful countries in Europe, and features varied culture, traditions, and a mix of modern and ancient architecture. The country can be explored in many ways including a drive across the country or through several documentaries. Additionally, various books can transport the reader to any part of the country. From history and religious books, to fiction or romance novels, there are many excellent books about Italy that cover all aspects of the country. A sample of books that take place in Italy are described below.

10. Midnight in Sicily

Sicily is a city located off the southern coast of Italy and is known for its glorious coastline and stark landscape. However, at the heart of the beautiful city is a network of violence and corruption. Peter Robb, an author who spent 14 years in Sicily, explores the history and culture of the mafias reign and its role in Italian politics. Midnight in Italy explores the impunity and dysfunction that is intertwined in the mafia world from the post-World War II era to the 1990s. At the center of this tale is a seven-time prime minister and a once-powerful Italian politician, Giulio Andreotti.

9. My Brilliant Friend

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante is a generous and intense story about two friends, Lila and Elena. The story begins in the outskirts of Naples, where the two girls were brought up. As they grow up, their paths repeatedly diverge and converge, but they remain best friends. Elena and Lila are the embodiment of a country undergoing momentous changes. Through their lives, Elena Ferrante tells the story of the transformation of a neighborhood, city, and country in such a way that the relationship between the two main characters is also transformed.

8. The Enchanted April

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim was one of the most popular books set in Italy for nearly 100 years. The charming novel is about four different women who rent a castle in Italy for a month. Mrs. Arbuthnot and Mrs. Wilkins are joined by a Caroline, a young lady whose beauty has become a burden to her, and Mrs. Fisher, who considers herself an old lady with a stick. The four women become friends and in the process share details about their lives. The themes in the story vary from marital struggles to grief.

7. Call Me By Your Name

Call Me by Your Name is a novel authored by Andre Aciman. The bulk of the story is set in Liguria and focuses on a romantic relationship between a 17-year old boy named Elio Perlman and a 24-year old man named Oliver. Elio is an American-Italian Jew and Oliver is an American-Jew. The novel narrates the summer romance between the two and the 20 years that follow. Elio, who is the narrator of the story, recalls the events of the summer of 1983 and how his parents would take in doctoral students as house guests for six weeks. He is attracted to Oliver who happens to be a guest in his house, and the two soon become romantically involved. After a brief encounter, the two fall out of touch but reunite after several years.

6. A Room With a View

A Room with a View is a novel written by E. M. Forster and set in both England and Florence. The scene in Florence stands out as it is about confronting cultural challenges in the pursuit of happiness. At the center of the story is a young English woman who has been restrained by the culture of the Edwardian era. Lucy Honeychurch visits Italy with her cousin, Miss Charlotte Bartlett. However, the two ladies complain about the room they had been allocated. In the process, Mr. Emerson offers to swap rooms, an offer that Charlotte rejects. Mr. Emersons room has a clear view of the Arno river, but he is rejected because of his unconventional behavior. The tale that follows is about romance and humorous critique of English society. The story ends with Emerson and Lucy eloping without the consent of her mother.

5. Under the Tuscan Sun

Under the Tuscan Sun was written in 1996 by Frances Mayes about restoring an abandoned Tuscan villa and the spirit of Tuscany, including its villages, markets, and vineyards. The story highlights the trials and tribulations that Frances and her husband Ed experienced while renovating the villa. The two are both university professors who were off from work during the summer and spend their holiday renovating. They encountered many problems, including lazy contractors, and their poor knowledge of the Italian language made the situation even worse. In the book, Frances also tries to imagine the previous owner of the villa, and the story ends with the couple spending their winter in the villa.

4. Beautiful Ruins

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter is set across several decades and does not take place exclusively in Italy. Jess begins his story in 1962 along a rocky Italian coastline, where a young innkeeper is daydreaming as he looks out over the waters of the Ligurian Sea. He is approached by a tall, thin lady who he later learns is an American actress. The story picks up again with an elderly Italian man who shows up in a movie studio searching for a woman he last saw in his hotel decades ago. What follows is a dazzling and intriguing story of people navigating through their rocky lives.

3. Twice Born

Twice Born is a sophisticated and haunting novel by Margaret Mazzantini. The book centers on Gemma, an Italian woman, and her 16-year old son. The two leave Rome for Sarajevo, a war-scarred city, with Gamma hoping to teach her son about the city of his birth and his father, Diego. Once in Sarajevo, Gamma cannot stop thinking of her affair with Diego and the desire to have a family, but also must contend with what is looming in the city. Twice Born brings to light both the generosity and acts of brutality that war can inspire.

2. A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms is a novel by Ernest Hemingway about an Italian ambulance driver and his love for an English nurse. The story is set against the horrors of the battlefield, as a group of demoralized army officers march in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto. Hemingway brings out the struggle between desertion and loyalty, and captures the pain that lovers caught up in the war must go through.

1. Sacred Hearts

Sacred Hearts tell the story of 16-year-old Serafina, who is forced to abandon her illicit love affair and unwillingly gets admitted to the convent of Santa Caterina in Ferrara, Italy. Serafina spends her first night at the convent in such a violent rage that Suora Zuana, a dispensary mistress, is sent to sedate her. However, a complex relationship of trust and betrayal begins between Serafina and the nun. Serafina soon becomes the nun's daughter she will never have. Sarah Dunants Sacred Hearts is a multifaceted love story that encompasses the enduring power of friendship.
Bob Baffert-trained McKinzie is among the notable shippers headlining the 2020 Saudi Cup odds. (Photo credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports)

Saturday's $20 million Saudi Cup, the richest race in horse racing, is being held for the first time in 2020. The Saudi Cup odds reveal some familiar faces for American horse racing bettors and some from overseas that arent as recognizable.

The 2020 Saudi Cup odds have Maximum Security (5-2) as the morning line favorite. Maximum Security gained infamy at the 2019 Kentucky Derby when he was disqualified and taken down as the winner.

Since the Kentucky Derby, he has gone on to capture Grade 1 races the Haskell Invitational and Cigar Mile.

Just behind Maximum Security is McKinzie with odds of 3-1. The Bob Baffert-trained McKenzie is coming off a second-place finish in the 2019 Breeders Cup Classic.

Five-year-old mare and fan favorite Midnight Bisou is also an American horse to watch with 2020 Saudi Cup odds of 8-1.

The top choice among the European-based horses in Benbatl. With odds of 7-1, Benbatl has raced just once on dirt  a last-time out win in the Al Maktoum Challenge in Dubai.

Japanese shipper Chrysoberyl is 10-1 and is undefeated in six starts. However, this will be Chrysoberyls first start outside of Japan and the 4-year-old colt faces a major step up in class.

The 2020 Saudi Cup takes place Saturday, Feb. 29 with a scheduled post time of 12:40 p.m. ET. The race will be held at King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

2020 Saudi Cup odds

Horse Jockey/Trainer Saudi Cup odds 1. Benbatl (GB) O. Murphy/ S. bin Suroor 7-1 2. Capezzano (USA) M. Barzalona/S. Bin Ghadayer 10-1 3. Chrysoberyl (JPN) C. Soumillon/H. Otonashi 10-1 4. Gold Dream (JPN) C. Lemaire/O. Hirata 30-1 5. Great Scot (GB) A. Moreno/n/a 60-1 6. Gronkowski (USA) L. Dettori/S. Bin Ghadayer 30-1 7. Maximum Security (USA) L. Saez/J. Servis 5-2 8. McKinzie (USA) J. Rosario/B. Baffert 3-1 9. Mjjack (IRE) A. Loufi/S. Al Harabi 60-1 10.Mucho Gusto (USA) I. Ortiz/ B. Baffert 6-1 11. North America (GB) R. Mullen/S. Seemar 30-1 12. Tacitus (USA) J. Lezcano/B. Mott 15-1 13. Magic Wand (IRE) R. L Moore/A. OBrien 30-1 14. Midnight Bisou (USA) M. Smith/S. Asmussen 8-1

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aton Resources Inc. (AAN: TSX-V) ("Aton" or the "Corporation") announces that further to its news release of December 17, 2019, it has drawn an additional $141,000 pursuant to its bridge loan facility (the "Facility") with Ou Moonrider ("Moonrider"). The proceeds of the Facility will be used by the Corporation to fund further work at its Abu Marawat Concession, and for general working capital purposes.



In connection with this draw, Moonrider has been issued 2,820,000 non-transferable warrants exercisable for one common share at a price of $0.05 per warrant with an expiration date of February 27, 2021. In connection with the Corporation's initial draw of $82,000 under the Facility on December 17, 2019, Moonrider has been issued 1,640,000 warrants exercisable at $0.05 per warrant expiring February 27, 2021.

About Aton Resources Inc.

Aton Resources Inc. (AAN: TSX-V) is focused on its 100% owned Abu Marawat Concession ("Abu Marawat"), located in Egypt's Arabian-Nubian Shield, approximately 200 km north of Centamin's world-class Sukari gold mine. Aton has identified numerous gold and base metal exploration targets at Abu Marawat, including the Hamama deposit in the west, the Abu Marawat deposit in the northeast, and the advanced Rodruin exploration prospect in the south of the Concession. Three historic British mines are also located on the Concession at Sir Bakis, Semna and Abu Garida. Aton has identified several distinct geological trends within Abu Marawat, which display potential for the development of a variety of styles of precious and base metal mineralisation. Abu Marawat is over 596 km2 in size and is located in an area of excellent infrastructure; a four-lane highway, a 220kV power line, and a water pipeline are in close proximity, as are the international airports at Hurghada and Luxor.

For further information regarding Aton Resources Inc., please visit us at www.atonresources.com or contact:

MARK CAMPBELL

President and Chief Executive Officer

Tel: +202-27356548

Email: mcampbell@atonresources.com

Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements contained in this release are forward-looking statements. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions; by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results in each case could differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements.



Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Its not just you: Even the government is having trouble staying on top of how fast things are changing with the new coronavirus epidemic raging through numerous countries.

Heres your daily update on whats new with the coronavirus.

Testing for the disease: Federal health officials came under fire after waiting four days to test a California woman for coronavirus despite her doctors please for a test early on. She tested positive and could be the first confirmed case not related to travel to China or contact with a person known to be sick with the coronavirus.

Whistleblower: U.S. workers helping Americans evacuated from China didnt have the protective equipment and training necessary to do the work, according to a whistleblower complaint filed with a federal investigative agency. After raising concerns within the agency responsible, the Department of Health and Human Services, the whistleblower was given the choice of being reassigned or fired, the person has alleged.

Stock market: Stock markets plunged further Friday over fears that the coronavirus epidemic could derail global trade and industry. Major companies are issuing profit warnings, saying factory shutdowns in China are disrupting supply chains. On Thursday, the Dow had its largest one-day point drop in history. Prices for U.S bonds soared as people sought the safety of government-backed investments.

PDX and TriMet: Local transportation officials are keeping an eye on the coronavirus threat, but they havent had the need to change any of their policies, as of yet. Portland International Airport isnt doing any additional screening of passengers  they all are cleared by federal customs officials, who are in close contact with federal health officials. TriMet asks that riders stay home if theyre sick, practice basic cough and sneeze etiquette, and wear a mask if they are sick and must leave the house.

Beards: No, guys, dont shave that pride and joy of yours that grows on your face. Some have interpreted a federal infographic making the social media rounds to say that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants men to shave off most styles of facial hair. This is not true.

 Fedor Zarkhin

fzarkhin@oregonian.com

desk: 503-294-7674|cell: 971-373-2905|@fedorzarkhin

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Experts sound alarm over unscientific & reckless methods of fishing in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

February 28,2020 | Source: The Times of India

A serious decline in fish catch across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh since last monsoon has got experts worried. Besides climate change, one of the major reasons of the decline is being attributed to unscientific and reckless methods of fishing.



M Vijay Gupta, fisheries scientist, told TOI, In trolling, which is widely used in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, one or more fishing lines, baited with lures are drawn through the water in small and large water bodies alike. This results in trapping a large number of unintended species. Experts said that wherever there is such kind of fishing, there is a by-catch, the incidental capture of non-target species such as sharks, marine turtles, sea birds, and in some areas, dolphins.



The National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), Hyderabad has been long running schemes to encourage fishermen to switch from conventional fishing techniques (trawl fishing) to longlining in India under the Blue Revolution programme. Under the scheme, fishermen can claim up to Rs 15 lakh to convert conventional fishing techniques to longlining fishing and avail of training from National Fisheries Development Board.



A senior executive of NFDB, said: Longlining is a commercial fishing technique using a long line with baited hooks attached at intervals. It helps in catching the intended breeds of fishes unlike other techniques where big nets and modern-day equipment trap other species as well. Trawl fishing is another inadvisable technique, which involves dragging nets across the sea floor to scoop up fish. This results in disturbing the seabed, while harming marine species, said officials.



After consulting fishermen, and with the research over the years, we have found that a number of modern fishing gears, strong and unnoticeable, are not only efficient at catching the desired fish species but also anything else coming in its path, said a principal scientist from Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI).



Experts have cautioned that a collapse in fishing sector is imminent, but avoiding trawling and impulsive techniques alike can help the case. There are proven solutions to deal with the issue. Fishing gear can be modified so that either fewer non-target species are caught, or if caught they can escape, he said.
Kolkata, Feb 28 : With panic writ large on their traumatised faces, 13 West Bengal residents returned here on Friday after being trapped in Delhi without a morsel to eat during the recent arson that broke out in North-East Delhi after clashes between pro and anti-CAA protesters turned violent.

It was virtually a close brush with death for the 13 men, who went to the national capital from Naoda in Murshidabad district to earn a living by working as daily labourers.

"We got trapped in the disturbances. We didn't get anything to eat for three days. We couldn't venture outdoor. The police finally rescued us," said a youth, still looking tense as the team returned to Howrah station by Kalka Mail.

"The situation was very bad. We couldn't contact our family. Now we feel relieved," said another youth, who, along with others, had shut himself in a house in Shahdara, before he was shifted to a safe house in Banda Chowk.

"They went through a hellish experience. For two days, they kept all lights in the house switched off, and doors heavily locked. Even after the police and AAP volunteers went to rescue them, for a long time they couldn't master the courage to open the door.

"Finally, the rescuers called up one of those trapped on his mobile. Only then they opened the door," said Pranojit Saha of Bangla Sanskriti Mancha, who was one of those who coordinated with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi to ensure that the 13 Bengal residents returned safely.

Saha said Bangla Sanskriti Mancha President Samiul Islam was in constant touch with Delhi Labour Minister Gopal Rai, who arranged for the tickets of these people.

At the Howrah station, Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel escorted the 13 men to police vehicles which took them to their home in Naoda, around 200 km from here.
It is "crucial" to find out how the first person who caught the coronavirus within the UK was exposed to it, say experts, as authorities race to piece together their movements.

News of the infection came on Friday evening and is a significant moment in the country's battle to stop the coronavirus spreading from the current 20 cases.

Previous UK cases had all been infected overseas.

It comes amid reports the government is to use a Cobra meeting on Monday to agree emergency powers to ensure COVID-19 does not get out of control.

Schools, councils and other institutions would be able to suspend some laws to cope with a pandemic. The measures could also include allowing teachers and nursery workers to have larger classes to cope with staff absences.

"Contact tracing" has started on the latest coronavirus patient, said England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty.

He said it was not clear whether the patient had contracted it "directly or indirectly" from someone who had recently returned from abroad.

The patient, who lives in Surrey, has been taken to a specialist centre at Guy's and St Thomas' in London.

Haslemere Health Centre was closed yesterday, with a statement on its website saying: "The surgery is temporarily closed today to enable a clean of the surgery as a routine precautionary measure."

The surgery has since re-opened.

Sky News' Enda Brady, who is at Guy's and St Thomas', said: "Of the 20 cases in the UK, medical experts are really fascinated by this one man because they want to find out just how he has ended up with coronavirus given that he has not been on holidays, he has not travelled abroad, he has not left the UK. He has got the virus this week, somewhere in England."

Health minister Edward Agar has refused to comment on reports that the patient has passed the virus on to their doctor.

He said that "we are still looking into the details of that case" adding: "I have not been briefed on anything beyond the detail that the chief medical officer and others have given me about this individual case."

Story continues

And he told Sky News there is no plan to put on a plane to bring home British people released from quarantine at a hotel in Tenerife.

The total number of cases in England is now 18, plus one each in Wales and Northern Ireland.

Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said the latest case marked a "new chapter" as there was "no known link to an affected area or known case".

"It will be crucial to understand where the infection came from to try to prevent more extensive spread," he said.

He warned the virus "can easily go under the radar" because its symptoms are very similar to a cold or mild flu.

A virus expert from the University of Leeds said the first person-to person transmission was "only a matter of time".

"What now becomes critically important is our ability to identify, isolate and care for infected individuals, and to trace their recent contacts," said Dr Stephen Griffin.

He said that small, localised outbreaks might increase in the UK in coming weeks - but it's vital they are contained to keep the situation manageable.

"If we experience a burgeoning epidemic as seen in South Korea it will represent a significant challenge to our already stretched NHS and public health infrastructure," Dr Griffin added.

In other coronavirus developments:

Four new cases in the UK were confirmed yesterday.

Two new patients in England were revealed to have contracted the virus in Iran and were transferred to the Royal Free Hospital in London.

The first case in Wales was also confirmed yesterday - the patient had returned from northern Italy.

Boris Johnson, who will chair a COBRA meeting on Monday has been accused of being slow to act over the outbreak, but he insisted it was Downing Street's "top priority".

The PM said people are "right to be concerned" about the spread of COVID-19, but the "best advice" to prevent wider spread is to wash your hands with hot water and soap.

Mr Argar told Sky News that it won't be the first Cobra meeting to focus on coronavirus, but previous meetings had been chaired by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

The UK Chief Medical Officers have raised the risk to the public from low to moderate but the risk to individuals is said to remain low.

Meanwhile, a British man in his 70s who was on board the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan has become the first UK fatality of the coronavirus.

The victim had been receiving treatment in hospital.

He has so far not been named.

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Six people from the ship have now died, with the British man, who was not a resident of the UK, being the first foreign passenger to lose their life.

The Foreign Office is advising against travel to China, South Korea, Iran and northern Italy, locations where the epidemic is most severe.

The World Health Organisation said the outbreak is "getting bigger" as more countries report their first cases.

It has now raised the risk level to its maximum of "very high", meaning an "immediate response" - within hours - is required as soon as a case is suspected.

However new cases in China, where the virus began, are continuing to slow.

On Saturday it reported 427 new cases and 47 deaths over the past 24 hours. Most were confined to the city of Wuhan and the surrounding province.

But South Korea - the second worst-hit country - reported its biggest daily jump so far with 594 new cases.

Officials warned of a "critical moment" in the coronavirus battle and urged citizens to stay indoors on Saturday as total cases hit 2,931.

"Please stay at home and refrain from going outside and minimise contact with other people," said vice health minister Kim Kang-lip.

World Health Organisation spokesman Christian Lindmeier also said it was looking into reports of some people getting re-infected, which would include reviewing how tests were taken.
Assad regime attacks martyr Turkish soldiers in Syria

While the initial number of the martyrs was nine, it first rose to 22 and then to 29, and finally to 33 in the following hours.

At least 33 Turkish soldiers were martyred in an airstrike by the Bashar al-Assad regime in Idlib, northwestern Syria, a Turkish official said late Thursday.

INJURED SOLDIERS TAKEN TO TEHE HOSPITALS IMMEDATELY

"There are critically wounded [people, following the attack,] and they are being treated at hospitals," Rahmi Dogan, the governor of the Turkish southern Hatay province, told Anadolu Agency.

Following the attack, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg over the phone, according to diplomatic sources, but no information on the topic of discussion was disclosed.
T he pet dog of a coronavirus patient in Hong Kong has tested positive for a mild level of Covid-19, authorities have said.

After the dog's nasal and oral samples were tested, the results came back with a "weak positive" - a low level of coronavirus.

But the Hong Kong authorities said that there is not yet evidence that the virus can be transmitted to pets.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said it would conduct further tests to confirm if the dog had been infected with the virus or if the samples were the result of environmental contamination.

"At present, the AFCD does not have evidence that pet animals can be infected ... or can be a source of infection to people," it said in a statement.

The dog will be put under quarantine for two weeks.

The World Health Organisation website said so far there has been no evidence that companion pets can be infected with the coronavirus.

Several users on Chinese social media site Weibo expressed concerns for the safety of animals if people believed they were an infection risk.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020 17:47 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20673cf8d 1 World umrah,umrah-pilgrims,Indonesia,Saudi-Arabia,UAE Free

Almost 1,700 Indonesian nationals have been stranded in a number of transit countries by Saudi Arabia's decision to temporarily ban all foreign umrah (minor haj) pilgrims from entering the country because of concerns over the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Presidential spokesman Fadjroel Rachman said on Friday that the stranded pilgrims initially bound for the Islamic kingdom were expected to fly back to Indonesia as soon as they completed arrangements for their return.

"There were 1,685 [Indonesian] pilgrims stranded in third countries during transit and they are now in the process of being flown back home by their respective airlines," Fadjroel said without providing details of the transit countries.

Read also: Saudi's sudden 'umrah' ban leaves pilgrims heartbroken

At least 83 Indonesian pilgrims were stranded at Abu Dhabi International Airport after landing at the United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital from Jakarta at 12:24 a.m. on Thursday, the same day that Saudi Arabia announced the umrah ban.

Sanitary workers wearing protective face masks continue to clean the sahn (mosque courtyard) surrounding the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine, as Muslim worshippers pray at the Grand Mosque complex in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca on February 27, 2020. (AFP/ Haitham EL-TABEI)

Indonesian Ambassador to the UAE Nur Ibrahim said the 83 pilgrims were expected to leave for Jakarta on Friday at midnight as they were unable to continue flying to Madinah in Saudi Arabia.

"The Indonesian government conveys its appreciation to all travel agents, airlines and other relevant parties who have been willing to make speedy responses to address the situation without putting more burdens on the pilgrims," Fadjroel said.

Meanwhile, 2,393 Indonesian pilgrims using 75 travel agencies, who had been scheduled to fly with eight different airlines on Feb. 27, were unable to embark on their pilgrimages, Fadjroel said.

Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi has called for airlines and travel agents to facilitate the rescheduling of flights for all pilgrims affected by the ban.

Read also: Indonesian envoy lobbies Saudi Arabia to exclude pilgrims from 'umrah' ban

As a result of the fast-spreading coronavirus, which has affected Saudi nationals in Bahrain and Kuwait, Saudi Arabia suspended umrah and visits to the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah as among several precautionary restrictions.

Hundreds of Umrah pilgrims piled up at Juanda International Airport in Sidoarjo, East Java province on February 27, 2020. (AFP/Juni KRISWANTO)

The Saudi Haj and Umrah Ministry also temporarily stopped issuing umrah visas and suspended the entry of tourist-visa holders from countries with confirmed coronavirus outbreaks, according to criteria established by the Saudi health authorities".

Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, contributed the second-highest number of umrah pilgrims last year with 443,879 arrivals, according to the Saudi Haj and Umrah Ministry.

Saudi Arabia normally welcomes nearly 7 million umrah pilgrims every year. (afr)
A Gloucester County grand jury has indicted a Vineland man on charges that he killed his wife during an argument in December, and a Cumberland County grand jury has indicted him on charges that he broke his infant childs legs weeks earlier.

John E. Jacobs, 27, is charged with murder in the death of Sahlena Blackwell-Jacobs, a 22-year-old mother of two. The womans body was found Dec. 19 in a fire-damaged Chevy Trailblazer abandoned in Monroe Township, Gloucester County.

An autopsy determined she died of blunt neck trauma.

A friend of the defendant contacted Vineland police after John Jacobs called him via FaceTime to report that hed had a fight with his wife and killed her, according to the criminal complaint in the case. Jacobs allegedly made the video call from the Trailblazer and the womans body could be seen in the backseat.

Jacobs told the friend he intended to burn the vehicle and kill himself, the complaint noted. Police arrested him Dec. 20.

Prosecutors accused Jacobs of trying to obstruct the investigation by covering the victim with clothing and setting the vehicle on fire. He also disposed of her cellphone in a body of water, they alleged.

In addition to first-degree murder, he was indicted this week on third-degree charges of arson and hindering and a fourth-degree charge of tampering with physical evidence in that case.

Sahlena Blackwell-Jacobs graduated from Williamstown High School in 2016.

A few weeks before the killing, Jacobs was charged with abusing the couples newborn daughter in Vineland.

The child was hospitalized with two fractures to her left leg and another to her right leg. Jacobs admitted causing the injuries while changing her diaper on Nov. 30, according to court papers in that case.

He was indicted in Cumberland County last week on a second-degree charge of endangering the welfare of a child.

Jacobs will return to court March 6 for a post-indictment arraignment hearing for his Gloucester County charges and March 9 for a similar hearing in Cumberland County on the child abuse charge.

He remains in Salem County Correctional Facility pending trial.

Blackwell-Jacobs gave birth to her second child in October and worked as an executive administrative assistant at the William J. Hughes Technical Center in Pomona. She was a 2016 graduate of Williamstown High School and the oldest of seven siblings, according to a family friend.

I did your hair for graduation. I was always messing with your hair...ever since we were kids. Now Ill never get to do... Posted by Aleeyah Oliphant on Friday, December 20, 2019

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A whistleblower from the Department of Health and Human Services has alleged health workers sent to evacuate Americans from Wuhan, China at the start of the coronavirus outbreak did not receive protective gear or proper training.

The whistleblower is a senior official within HHS, received two awards from health secretary Alex Azar in 2019 and has decades of experience, her lawyers told the Washington Post. She is seeking federal protection, alleging she was improperly transferred after raising concerns with superiors over the preparedness of HHS workers sent to Wuhan. According to her complaint, she was told that if she did not accept a new position she would be fired from the agency.

HHS workers were improperly deployed and were not properly trained or equipped to operate in a public health emergency situation, the complaint reads. The workers were in close contact with passengers from Wuhan on several occasions, including while handing out room keys to passengers upon arrival in the U.S. for quarantine at military bases in California and Texas. Meanwhile, Center for Disease Control teams worked alongside HHS personnel full gown, gloves and hazmat attire.

Additionally, personnel from the Administration for Children and Families were sent to two Air Force bases in California to receive quarantined passengers, without receiving proper training or protective gear. One of those bases is in Solano County, where this week the CDC confirmed a case of Wuhan coronavirus with unknown origins.

ACF personnel never should have been without [protective gear], health secretary Azar said in a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the whistleblower complaint on Thursday.

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday that 8,400 people in the state were being monitored for possible coronavirus infection. 33 people in the state have already tested positive for the illness.

More from National Review
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln recalled four students studying abroad in South Korea this week after the Centers for Disease Control issued a recommendation to avoid all nonessential travel to the Asian country.

On Monday, the CDC and U.S. Department of State elevated a travel advisory to Level 3 following an outbreak of the novel coronavirus causing the COVID-19 respiratory illness in South Korea.

While the number of new cases in China has slowed this week, other countries  including South Korea  have seen increases in how many people have tested positive for the disease.

South Korea announced 505 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, bringing its total to 1,766 people  including a U.S. soldier  who have tested positive for the virus.

Globally, over the last two months, more than 80,000 people have been infected by the disease and at least 2,700 people have died.

There are no known cases of the coronavirus in Nebraska, outside of the 15 individuals being monitored at the National Quarantine Center on the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus.

The alert earlier this week prompted UNL to follow university system policy to take steps to bring home students who are in the country. A fifth student who was preparing to leave for South Korea canceled their plans.

"The U.S. Department of State and the CDC have put a number of travel advisories or warnings in place due to the virus," UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green wrote in a campuswide email. "Based on these advisories, NU policy currently restricts faculty, staff, and student travel to mainland China and South Korea."

Earlier this year, UNL suspended all university-sponsored travel and study abroad trips to China  where the virus was initially discovered in the city of Wuhan  after the CDC issued a Level 3 warning on Jan. 6.

The NU policy Green referred to was an executive memorandum put into place by former NU President Hank Bounds in 2018 prohibiting travel to countries where Level 3 or Level 4 warnings by the CDC are in effect.

Green said UNL is also monitoring the conditions in several other locations, including: Italy, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

"We have been in contact with any UNL students currently in these countries," he said.

At a news conference in the White House on Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump said U.S. schools should take steps to respond to the coronavirus, while he also sought to downplay the risk of an outbreak on American soil.

"I think schools should be preparing," Trump said. "Get ready just in case."

Top leaders across NU met earlier Wednesday after the CDC urged educators to start discussing contingency plans should students, faculty or staff on any of its campuses in Lincoln, Omaha or Kearney test positive for the virus, spokeswoman Melissa Lee said.

According to Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, American schools should consider closing, asking students to attend online courses or splitting classes into smaller groups.

Lee said NU administrators from business and finance, academic affairs and information technology discussed what moving courses online would entail and if the university had the capacity to make that switch.

NU also talked about how it would go about canceling events, closing residence halls or accommodating international students who couldn't go back to their home countries because of travel restrictions.

No plans have been finalized at NU at this time, however.

"We want to put together a plan first and figure out how we will communicate it and how it will be used," Lee said.

The CDC recommends people avoid contact with sick people, regularly wash their hands and seek medical advice if they believe they are getting sick and start showing symptoms like fever, cough and shortness of breath.

UNL, UNO or UNMC students who believe they are experiencing symptoms related to coronavirus are encouraged to contact their respective student health centers. The UNL health center number is 402-472-5000.

Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com. On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS




Haiti - Politic : Dialogue between the PNH and the leaders of the unrecognized union





Thursday, the members of the Special Facilitation and Dialogue Commission of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30114-haiti-security-the-dg-of-the-pnh-takes-stock-of-the-situation-and-calls-for-calm.html and the union leaders (not recognized by the high command of the National Police) accompanied by their lawyers, met as planned to the first time.



The meeting was held in the presence of several observers, representing the Port-au-Prince bar and civil society organizations : Episcopal Justice and Peace Commission (CE / JILAP), Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations (POHDH), the Haitian Institute of Human Rights (IHDH) and the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights (RNDDH).



The discussions took place in a cordial and serene atmosphere where all the participants showed discipline and mutual respect, focused mainly on two points considered as a prerequisite for negotiations : the recognition of the union and the reinstatement of the 5 police officers dismissed https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30061-haiti-flash-5-police-officers-dismissed-for-indiscipline-attack-on-the-honor-of-the-pnh-and-acts-of-vandalism.html



The Office for the Protection of the Citizen playing the role of mediator in this conflict, welcomes the efforts of the two parties and renews its commitment to support the actors with a view to finding a solution to this dispute in the interest of the Nation.



Other sessions are planned shortly between all stakeholders to settle this dispute.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















The nine activists arrested in the Elgaar Parishad-Maoist links case were on Friday produced in a special court, days after the NIA took over probe into the matter.

Mumbai: The nine activists arrested in the Elgaar Parishad case were on Friday produced in a special court, days after the NIA took over probe into the matter.

This was the first time that the accused, most of them human rights activists, appeared before the special NIA court.

The 2017 case, which was being handled by the Pune Police, was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) by the Centre in January.

On 14 February, the court in Pune, which was earlier hearing the case, passed an order transferring the case to the special NIA court in Mumbai in response to a plea filed by the central agency.

The Pune court had directed that the accused be produced before the NIA court in Mumbai before or on 28 February.

The accused  Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale, Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen and Vernon Gonsalves  were shifted to Mumbai from Pune's Yerawada Central Jail on Wednesday.

As per the court order, they were produced before special NIA court judge DE Kothalikar.

During the hearing, the prosecution apprised the court of the development in the case.

The lawyer representing the NIA said a charge sheet had been filed in the Pune court and interim applications of some of the accused were pending.

Standing in the dock along with two other accused, Ferreira told the court that the Arthur Road Jail, where they are presently lodged, is not allowing them to keep their books and chargesheets citing lack of space.

The previous jail had, however, allowed it, he said. The judge said he will look into the matter and pass an appropriate order.

He then adjourned the hearing till 13 March. The judge said that henceforth the accused will be produced before court via video-conferencing.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the 'Elgaar Parishad' conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on 31 December, 2017, which police claimed, triggered violence near the Koregaon Bhima war memorial located on the city's outskirts the next day.

The Pune police claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists.

The nine jailed accused are among 11 people booked by the NIA in the case for alleged links with Maoists.
A RECENT trip to Davao gave me a new way of looking at crabs. The Philippines has a crab industry, particularly mud crabs (alimango). However, it is not a primary fishery industry.

I learned from a local hatchery that there are two methods of mud crab farming. One is in ponds or mangroves or grow-out culture. The other is in fattening ponds. The family was taught how to catch the crabs out of the growing baskets and tying them up. It was fun but I was too busy thinking of the end result of our crab adventure: A cooking demo.

Whether it is lambay (blue crab) or alimango, crabs in general have a pleasant sweetish-salty taste that blends well with whatever it is cooked with. A small amount of crab meat can spell a difference between an ordinary egg-drop soup and a superb egg-drop soup with crab meat.

I learned that March 9 is National Crab Meat Day in the United States. Not going too far away, Lala, Lanao del Norte, has an alimango festival held on March 22, and Samar, every July 25.

People can help vitalize the crab industry by eating more of the shellfish, whether it is simply boiled in salted water or cooked with spices and tomato sauce. Yes, it is an expensive fruit of the sea probably because of the way it is farmed and length of time before it can be harvested, which is five to six months. What the house cook can do is to buy flaked crab meat at the local wet market or mall. A cup or two can make a dish taste special.

When I brought up the idea of helping the crab industry through cooking, my family shared their recipes. Measurements are not mentioned in most of the recipes. They are supposed to be just guides.

Crabby Lumpia. Cook one-fourth cup lean ground pork in little oil. Cook until no longer pink. Drain the liquid. Saute minced onion and garlic. Add the ground pork, grated carrot and sliced ubod (heart of palm). Cook to wilt, then add vermicelli (earlier soaked in water to soften, then cut into three). Season with salt and pepper. Add the crab meat jut to heat through. Use this to fill lumpia wrapper. Deep-fry till golden brown.

Eggy Crab. Start this dish by sauteing minced garlic and red onion. Add around one-fourth kilo lean ground pork. Allow to cook well before adding finely shredded cabbage and julienned carrot. Season according to taste. If you like the dish to have some color, add soy sauce or oyster sauce. When vegetables are nearly done, add the crab meat. Cook to heat through, then add beaten eggs. Allow the egg to set before removing pan from fire.

Nuggets of Crabdom. Mix breadcrumbs, minced green onions, grated garlic, a handful of grated carrot (squeeze out juice), oyster sauce, egg, a dollop of mayonnaise (optional), salt and pepper to taste. Chill before forming into nuggets. Deep-fry. Serve with bottled sweet chili sauce.
Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh Police Officers' Association on Friday took strong objection to former chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu's remark on them when he said "are you rearing donkeys'' at Visakhapatnam. On Friday, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president landed in Visakhapatnam airport on his way to north Andhra tour.

However, he was stopped right at the airport by ruling YSRCP activists and supporters for his stance favouring Amaravati as the sole capital of Andhra Pradesh instead of three capitals proposed by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Though Chandrababu Naidu was granted permission by the police to undertake the tour, he could not get out of the airport as thousands of agitated YSRCP activists and supporters blocked the roads from the airport. An agitated Naidu then vented his ire on policemen.

"Are you rearing donkeys,'' Naidu shot back at the policemen on duty. "It is very unfortunate that the ex-chief minister having worked for 14 years is using such derogatory language on the police,'' said Janakula Srinivas Rao, president of Andhra Pradesh Police Officers' Association.

The police officers' association also took strong objection to Naidu who reportedly said, "I will see the fate of police''. "To protect the ex-CM, maintain law and order is our basic duty and if he is reacting in such a way then it is very unfortunate,'' Srinivas Rao added.

As the tempers ran very high after the incident, Chandrababu's son and former minister Nara Lokesh too criticised the police. "We condemn Sri Lokesh comment that he will not leave police once his party comes back to power,'' Srinivas Rao informed while demanding both from Chandrababu Naidu and his son Lokesh to withdraw derogatory comments.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court on



Friday issued notices to the state government and the State Election Commission for not holding civic body polls on time and sought an answer in two weeks.

Justices SC Sharma and Shailendra Shukla, of HC's Indore bench, issued the notices on a PIL filed by Bharat Parikh, a former corporator here.

"There are clear provisions in the Constitution that elections of urban bodies should be held before the completion of term of previous elected representatives. But the poll schedule has not been announced even after completion of term of elected representatives of 100 urban bodies including IMC (Indore Municipal Corporation)," the petitioner's lawyer, Pushyamitra Bhargava, told reporters.

This, the PIL said, was a violation of constitutional provisions.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Warren/Washington RSVP, which provides meaningful volunteer opportunities for those age 55 and older, is looking for help at Glens Falls Hospital.

RSVP and the hospital have partnered since 1990 on volunteer positions.

Currently, volunteers could serve as greeters, medical alert installers or patient representatives. They could also do clerical work in a variety of departments. For more information or to volunteer, call RSVP at 518-743-9158 or send an email to director@warrenwashingtonrsvp.org.

RSVP hopes to strengthen the well-being of both self and community through volunteer work. It provides a wide variety of volunteer posts and helps members find an assignment that matches their skills and interests. RSVP partners with nonprofit organizations.

Marketplace update

One in four New Yorkers is now getting health insurance from the NY State of Health Marketplace.

The marketplace, which is part of the Obamacare system, allows people to look at health plans, costs and coverage before selecting one. Those who do not have employer-based insurance can get a government subsidy if their income is below a certain level.

This years open enrollment ran from Nov. 1 to Feb. 7. During that time, 4.9 million people signed up, which was 150,000 more than last year. Of the 4.9 million, 3.4 million signed up for Medicaid plans. That means most people who are using the marketplace are poor; the plans are still too expensive to compete with most employer-based plans. But for those who qualify for a subsidy, the marketplace plans are much cheaper.

Only 113,796 people signed up without receiving any subsidy.

All 12 of the insurers that offered Qualified Health Plans last year offered them again for 2020. Those are the plans that are used by people with low to middle income.

For those with income just above the Medicaid limit, 15 insurers offered the Essential Plan, which is the cheapest plan outside of Medicaid.

New York kept its enrollment open for seven weeks longer than the federal marketplace and paid for advertising and navigators to help people sign up. Nearly 1.6 million people called for assistance, including nearly 20,000 calls on Feb. 7, the last day of open enrollment.

Those who have a qualifying event can still sign up. Events including losing employer-based insurance, getting married or having a child.

More surgeries at Saratoga Hospital

More patients are having surgery at Saratoga Hospital, and those surgeries are becoming more complex, according to hospital officials.

In response, the hospital created a new position: administrative director of surgical services.

A 30-year nurse at the hospital will fill that role.

Sharman Lisieski will be responsible for Saratoga Hospital surgery departments, including sterile supply, gastrointestinal services and Saratoga Surgery Center, which is located at the hospitals Wilton campus.

Lisieski has spent her entire nursing career at Saratoga Hospital. Most recently, Lisieski was director of the operating room and preoperative and post-anesthesia care units.

Its not the first new position added because of the increase in surgeries. In October, Dr. Joseph Bell was named vice president and medical director of perioperative services, which involves the care before, during and after surgery.

When I was building this team, I knew one of my first decisions would be to tap Sharman for this new role, Bell said. She is respected and admired throughout our organization for her leadership, clinical expertise and, above all, her commitment to our patients.

Bell and Lisieski will work together to improve quality of care and the total patient experience, they said in a statement.

You can reach Kathleen Moore at 742-3247 or kmoore@poststar.com. Follow her on Twitter @ByKathleenMoore or at her blog on www.poststar.com.

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New Delhi, Feb 28 : A meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council will be held in Bhubaneswar in Odisha on Friday, which will be chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Shah will later address a public rally in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at the Janata Maidan here around 4 pm. In the evening, he is scheduled to meet with senior leaders of the Odisha unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The council meeting will be held at the Lok Seva Convention Centre in Bhubaneswar, in which chief ministers of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha along with senior state officers will participate. A team of senior officers from the Home Ministry too will be present.

Apart from international issues, discussions will be held on different central developmental plans and programmes, particularly pertaining to the Railways, infrastructure related to disaster management, royalty on coal production, funds to panchayats, Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme, database of Aadhaar Cards, and telecom and Internet quality.

The issues of Goods and Services Tax collection and time-bound provision of central funds to these states will also come up for discussion.

On Saturday, Shah will visit the Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar before paying obeisance at the Jagannath Temple in Puri. As per the tradition, one should visit the Lingaraj temple before paying obeisance at the Puri temple.
Desert locusts jump up from the ground and fly away as a cameraman walks past, in Nasuulu Conservancy, northern Kenya, on 1 February 2020, As locusts by the billions descend on parts of Kenya in the worst outbreak in 70 years, small planes are flying low over affected areas to spray pesticides in what experts call the only effective control. Photo: Ben Curtis / AP Photo

By Rodney Muhumuza

25 February 2020

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP)  A small group of desert locusts has entered Congo, marking the first time the voracious insects have been seen in the Central African country since 1944, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency said Tuesday as U.N. agencies warned of a major hunger threat in East Africa from the flying pests.

Kenya, Somalia, and Uganda have been battling the swarms in the worst locust outbreak that parts of East Africa have seen in 70 years. The U.N. said swarms have also been sighted in Djibouti, Eritrea, and Tanzania and recently reached South Sudan, a country where roughly half the population already faces hunger after years of civil war.

A joint statement Tuesday from FAO director-general Qu Dongyu, U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock, and World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley called the swarms of locusts a scourge of biblical proportions and a graphic and shocking reminder of this regions vulnerability.

The FAO said mature locusts, carried in part by the wind, arrived on the western shore of Lake Albert in eastern Congo on Friday near the town of Bunia. The country has not seen locusts for 75 years, it said.

Needless to say the potential impact of locusts on a country still grappling with complex conflict, Ebola and measles outbreaks, high levels of displacement, and chronic food insecurity would be devastating, the U.N. officials said in the joint statement. [more]

East Africas huge locust outbreak now spreads to Congo
New Delhi: India Inc on Tuesday said that trade and investment relations between India and the US have received a major boost with the visit of President Donald Trump.

Industry body Assocham's Secretary General Deepak Sood said the two-way engagement of about $160 billion can be doubled within the next 4-5 years.

"With a rising economy and aspiration of 1.3 billion people, India has emerged as a key and strategic partner for the US even as the US remains the most important and promising destination for Indian exports of goods and services. President Trump aptly described India as a 'tremendous market'," Sood said.

Similarly, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry's President D.K. Aggarwal said that both the countries have significant potential to enhance trade and investment trajectory between the two economies.

Based on strong complementarities and growth prospects, the bilateral merchandise trade between India and the US is likely to cross $100 billion by FY2021, Aggarwal said.

"There is a need to outline the contours for a sustainable trade negotiation between the two countries which is broad based and encompasses wide ranging potential sectors of development," Aggarwal was quoted as saying in a statement.

In so far as the trade deal is concerned, Assocham's Sood said, "While a structured bilateral agreement, still underway, would turbocharge the economic engagement, the mutual businesses are progressing apace anyway. Energy partnership is a new and fast-growing area of bilateral cooperation while lot more is expected in exchange of technology."

On its part, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with US India Business Council (USIBC) launched a '$500 billion Roadmap', a report that provides an assessment of current trends in US-India trade and the policy reforms needed to set business ties on a faster growth trajectory.

Specifically, the report lists out 13 policy interventions to help boost trade between the two economies.

Besides, India finalised a $3 billion defence deal with the US for the purchase of military equipment, including Apache and MH-60 Romeo helicopters.

According to a Boeing statement: "We welcome India's decision to acquire six AH-64 Apache helicopters and lifecycle services support for the Indian Army.

"Through our local entity, Boeing Defence India, we are supporting the P-8I, C-17, CH-47 Chinook and AH-64 Apache with holistic lifecycle support to assist with India's defence modernisation effort and mission-readiness at competitive costs."

In addition, the two sdies signed three MoU's in health and oil sectors, amongst others.
The coronavirus is spreading fast beyond its China birthplace but sub-Saharan Africa, one of the world's most vulnerable regions, has so far been almost spared -- and experts want to know why. More than 2,700 people worldwide have died of COVID-19 and almost 80,000 infected. Most of these have been in China, but cases are now rising fast in parts of Europe and the Middle East, while the first infection in Latin America was recorded on Wednesday, in Brazil. But across all of Africa, just two cases have surfaced -- a tally that has health specialists scratching their heads, given the continent's close economic ties with China. "This is the question that everyone is asking, especially as other regions such as South America or Eastern Europe now have cases," said Amadou Alpha Sall, head of the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, the Senegalese capital. "The current figures could be the reality, it's hard to know. Maybe it's because Africa is not that connected." Thumbi Ndungau, director of a Durban-based infectious disease research centre, SANTHE, said "I donat think anybody knows" why Africa so far appeared to be unscathed. He also speculated that it could be "there isn't much travel to that particular part of China from Africa -- back and forth". Or "it could just be a coincidence," said Ndungau. - Coverup unlikely - Could it be a coverup, or cases that have gone undetected? Michel Yao, an emergency response expert at WHO Africa, based in the Congolese capital Brazzaville, said these scenarios were most unlikely. To detect and hide cases would require an "exceptionally managed" response, he said. And undetected cases would result in an outbreak that would be "surely detected, because it spreads faster," Yao said. Could Africa's predominantly hot climate ward off or even kill the virus? "There is no current evidence to indicate that climate affects transmission," said Rodney Adam, who heads the infection control task force at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi. "While it is true that for certain infections there may be genetic differences in susceptibility...there is no current evidence to that effect for COVID-19." If the continent can count itself lucky so far, experts say it is just a question of time. "We think Africa is going to be affected," said Yazdan Yazdanpanah, head of infectious diseases department at Paris's Bichat hospital. On the plus said, the apparent delay has given African countries precious weeks in which to prepare. Yao said more than half of sub-Saharan countries are now equipped with laboratories that can test for the virus -- up from just two a few weeks ago. "In the beginning we had two, South Africa and Senegal... (now) we have 29 out of 47 countries that have laboratories that can perform the tests. So this is progress," he said. "We were lucky to have a big window of opportunity," he said. Another positive is that Ebola outbreaks that have struck parts of West Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo have generated valuable skills for handling coronavirus. There is currently no vaccine or cure for the novel virus -- the response is to contain it by identifying and isolating patients and carrying out grassroots awarness campaigns "This experience may add value on ground," said Yao. - Question of time - Despite this, Africa's vulnerabilities are well known. A 2016 analysis by the Rand Corporation, a US thinktank, found that of the 25 countries in the world that are most vulnerable to infectious outbreaks, 22 are in Africa -- the others were Afghanistan, Yemen and Haiti. Africa's many conflict zones, poor health infrastructure and porous borders are among the factors that accentuate the risk, it said. Last week a Lancet study found that only Egypt, Algeria and South Africa had "the most prepared health systems in the continent" to handle the virus. In many countries, a sudden surge in numbers of seriously ill patients could overwhelm intensive care units. "Africa is at high risk," said Yao. burs-sn/ri
Ogun state Commissioner for Health, Tomi Coker, confirmed on Friday morning, that an Italian man who tested positive for Coronavirus h...





Ogun state Commissioner for Health, Tomi Coker, confirmed on Friday morning, that an Italian man who tested positive for Coronavirus had also visited Ewekoro in Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State this week.





Tomi Coker, however, urged residents and visitors not to panic.





Coker disclosed that the Italian visited a giant manufacturing company(name withheld) in Ewekoro community, adding that the facility so visited has since been quarantined in accordance with the health safety standards.





The Commissioner, who abandoned her bed rest to attend to the public health emergency, while briefing the press, said the state has epidemiologists and Infectious Disease Consultant already handling the situation with support from the Lagos State Government and Federal Government.





She said efforts are in place to get in touch with people that have had contact with the established index case.





She advised the public to wash their hands regularly, cover their mouth and nose while sneezing or coughing and report to the nearest public health centre if they notice any sign of cold, cough and respiratory difficulty.
Taylor Dunklin and Brandon Reid of Lifetimes Married at First Sight Season 10 never seemed to get their marriage off the ground. Brandons moody, introverted personality put him at odds with the Lifetime production crew, culminating in an explosive blowup. Meanwhile, Taylors love of social media turned Brandon off.

After a tumultuous honeymoon in Panama, Brandon and Taylor returned to Washington, D.C., and attempted to reconcile. But on the Feb. 26 episode, The L Word, it became clear that the couples issues with respect and trust werent getting any better. After Taylor posted an Instagram story about being single and finding the right man, Brandon was infuriated and moved out of the apartment they shared.

Married at First Sight fans took sides on social media as they sounded off on the controversial Instagram story.

Taylor Dunklin | MAFS Lifetime via Instagram

Taylor seemed to take revenge on Brandon with a snarky Instagram post

Although Brandon and Taylor moved in together after their honeymoon blowup, they didnt seem to be making any progress in their relationship on the latest episode.

Both accused the other of not putting in enough effort or taking initiative to spend quality time together. Brandon claimed Taylor had a bad attitude and gave him negative energy, while Taylor was frustrated because Brandon so often isolated himself with nothing but his Xbox.

But Taylor seemed to take things to a different level with an Instagram story in which she referred to herself as a single woman. The Married at First Sight star said she was looking for a man who was over 63, has a job, never been to jail or, you know, isnt gay. She added sarcastically, I feel like I have the most minimum f*cking requirements and not a soul meets them. So I guess Ill just be single forever and ever and ever.

In response, Brandon moved out of the couples apartment while Taylor wasnt home. I need to protect myself, he told Lifetime producers. I cant stay in this house with her. At this point, it just feels like we cant bounce back from this, and our marriage is over with.

Some Married at First Sight fans thought Brandons reaction was hypocritical

Taylors post got Twitter talking, with many viewers separating into Brandon vs. Taylor camps. Some Married at First Sight fans thought Brandon shouldnt be so angry, given the fact that he cursed his wife out on their honeymoon in front of their castmates and the production crew.

Brandon is talking about married expectations when you have acted an a** SEVERAL times, one Twitter user argued, appearing to claim he was being hypocritical by making demands of Taylor about showing respect.

Hes a whole mess and got the nerve to be mad over a post, another viewer agreed.

Others thought Taylor was in the wrong and wanted attention

However, many Married at First Sight viewers could see why Brandon felt so disrespected. Some fans wondered if Taylor had signed up for the show for the right reasons, especially after Brandon revealed she had tried to appear on other reality shows before Married at First Sight.

REALLY! Taylor has tried to be on other shows, one critic wrote. Looking for reality TV fame and not true love is what messes this show up.

Another fan thought Taylors post was beyond the pale, no matter what Brandon did on their honeymoon. I cant believe Taylor did that & now is acting like she did nothing wrong or like that wasnt about Brandon, they wrote on Twitter. Youre dead a** wrong Taylor. Brandons issues aside, you are married, not single. I would have left too!

Many viewers could see both sides of the argument

Most Married at First Sight fans ultimately seemed to think both Taylor and Brandon were in the wrong in terms of their struggling marriage. Many viewers thought Taylors behavior was immature and petty, while Brandon had a temper and was disrespectful. Overall, several critics pointed out that both of them didnt seem ready for the commitment of marriage.

Taylor take out all your extensions, get off of all social media, & truly focus on your marriage with Brandon internally & externally, one Twitter user declared. Brandon, please stop being uptight with the cameras & playing XBox. Both of you need to grow up & give it your all. Love.

Another viewer agreed, writing, While Brandons an a**hole, Taylor also has a lot of growing up to do. Teenage tendencies.
The Clement Hotel Earns Prestigious Accolade; All Ratings Showcased on ForbesTravelGuide.com



(TRAVPR.COM) CA - February 28th, 2020 - Palo Alto, CA, February 28, 2020  Forbes Travel Guide (FTG), the world-renowned and only global rating system for luxury hotels, restaurants and spas, today announced its annual Star Rating list, presenting The Clement Hotel with a new Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star hotel award. The Clement Hotel will be showcased with all of the Star Award winners on ForbesTravelGuide.com.

The all-inclusive hotel of the future has arrived with The Clement Hotel, where a personal chef and concierge come standard and everything is customized to your individual preference. Everything from room service, to a 24-hour guest pantry (grab local favorite Tin Pot Creamery ice cream from the freezer whenever the urge hits you!), to valet parking and gratuities are included with your stay.

Youll find the upscale 23-suite boutique hotel centrally located across from Stanford University with Downtown Palo Altos chic shops, tasty restaurants and soothing spas just a short walk away.

The Clement Hotel strives to be a home away from home and invites you to think of the shared spaces  a living room, dining room and kitchen  as your own. Here, everything will be taken care of for you and you wont have to lift a finger. Staff members are your welcoming hosts, greeting you by name with your preferred beverage.

This is such an honor and validation of the commitment of our ownership to be Silicon Valleys best hotel experience. The guest experience is what we take pride in, this is a wonderful acknowledgment of those efforts,  said The Clement Hotels General Manager, Sebastian Royce Stacey.

Forbes Travel Guide is recognized for creating the original concept of Five-Star service, and The Clement Hotel is the latest addition to its illustrious annual Star Rating list.

We have been committed to championing genuine Five-Star service for more than 60 years, and this years winners, as always, exemplify the very highest standards in hospitality, said Filip Boyen, CEO of Forbes Travel Guide.

It is difficult to earn a Forbes Travel Guide rating, and all our Star-Rated winners have shown how incredibly deserving they are of their accolades by demonstrating sheer dedication in their passion for service. We congratulate them all.

To view the full Star Ratings for 2020, visit ForbesTravelGuide.com.

For a detailed explanation of how Forbes Travel Guide compiles its Star Ratings, click here.

Connect with The Clement Hotel:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theclementpaloalto

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheClementHotel

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theclementpaloalto

About The Clement Hotel:

While unparalleled service is key to any great luxury hotel, The Clement Palo Alto takes its impeccable service to another level with an all-inclusive concept, including personalized concierge services, breakfast, lunch and dinner in an on-premise location of the guest's choice.

All wine, beer and cocktails, in-room mini-refrigerator (stocked with the guest's favorites), and fully-stocked Guest Pantry available around the clock, are just a few of the amenities included in this all-inclusive experience.

In fact, The Clement Palo Alto is more than all-inclusive, it is all-exclusive, catering exclusively to the guest's personal tastes and desires.

The Clement Palo Alto is ideally located across from Stanford University and next to downtown Palo Alto, with its award-winning restaurants, world-class shopping and upscale spas. It is just 45 minutes south of San Francisco and only 30 minutes north of San Jose, not only making it convenient, but easily accessible to the world-famous sights and myriad activities of both cities.

Overall, The Clement Palo Alto offers a unique, one-of-a-kind 6-star experience in the heart of Silicon Valley with unparalleled personal service, all-inclusive luxury and privacy in a warm, inviting and luxurious residential environment.

The Clement Palo Alto

711 El Camino Real

Palo Alto, California 94301

650.322.7111

www.theclementpaloalto.com

Connect with Forbes Travel Guide:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/ForbesTravelGuide

Twitter: www.twitter.com/ForbesInspector

Facebook: www.facebook.com/ForbesTravelGuide

About Forbes Travel Guide:

Forbes Travel Guide is the only global rating system for luxury hotels, restaurants and spas. Our anonymous professional inspectors evaluate based on up to 900 objective standards, with an emphasis on exceptional service, to help discerning travelers select the worlds best luxury experiences. The only way to get a Five-Star, Four-Star or Recommended rating is by earning it through our independent inspection process. For more information about Forbes Travel Guide, please visit ForbesTravelGuide.com.

Contact:

Marci Bracco Cain

Chatterbox PR

Salinas, CA 93901

(831) 747-7455

http://www.theclementpaloalto.com

###
Dr. Charles E. Friedgood, a wealthy Long Island surgeon imprisoned for murdering his ailing wife in 1975, has died in Florida more than a decade after he was declared terminally ill with cancer and released from prison. He was 99.

His death, on May 19, 2018, in West Palm Beach, was confirmed this week by his daughter Esther Zaretsky. It had not been previously reported by his family.

While he admitted that he had injected his wife, Sophie Friedgood, 48, with a painkiller, Dr. Friedgood insisted that he had not intended to kill her. She had suffered a stroke in 1959, when she was 33, and had become an invalid.

Dr. Friedgood was convicted of second-degree murder after prosecutors proved to a jury that he had deliberately given his wife an overdose at the familys 18-room home in Great Neck, N.Y., where they had reared their six children.
Custodian of the Romanian Crown Margareta told a Rare Disease Day event hosted by Elisabeta Palace that by extending her patronage to the National Alliance for Rare Diseases in Romania she wanted to help sufferers of such diseases get treatment.

"I understand very well what is happening in our country and in the world. And I wanted to extend my patronage to your association because we want to increase awareness over rare diseases and maybe we can help with the advancement of everything that means trying to find out why these things are happening," said Margareta.She pointed out that there are 300 million people worldwide affected. "So we have to do something. And that is why I have got involved. And please feel that we are together and you are not alone," said Margareta.In her turn, Chair of the National Alliance for Rare Diseases in Romania Dorica Dan said that in Romania there are over one million people affected by such diseases, most of them undiagnosed, adding that she wants to find and treat them."What we want to do together is we want to find these patients, to send them to centres of expertise that have been accredited in Romania, because we have managed to have 27 centres for rare diseases currently in operation, which is no small thing. Some of them are related to the European reference networks and so it is good to refer patients to such centres for care and treatment," said Dan.The event was attended by members of the organisation, patients with a rare disease, medical specialists.In 2017, Margareta extended her high patronage to the National Alliance for Rare Diseases in Romania.Over the past years she held evening events at Elisabeta Palace each February 29, the Day of Rare Diseases. In 2019, Princess Maria represented Margareta in Brussels, attending the Annual Gala of the European Organisation for Rare Diseases (EURORDIS).The National Alliance for Rare Diseases in Romania was established at the initiative of the Prader Willi Association in August 2007, under a project funded by CEE Trust. 32 founding members pooled their efforts to set up the organisation, which laid the foundation for a rare disease organisation and patient groups for which diagnosis is so rare that there was no organisation to protect the sick.The alliance's mission is to develop and carry out lobbying and advocacy activities to improve the quality of life for patients with rare diseases in Romania.
The Supreme Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to Congress leader and Patidar movement leader Hardik Patel in connection with a case pertaining to the violence that erupted during a Patidar stir in Gujarat in 2015.

A division bench headed by Justice Uday Umesh Lalit asked law enforcement agencies probing the matter not to arrest Patel till March 6, when the court will take up the matter for hearing.

Patel had moved the top court against the rejection of his anticipatory bail plea by the Gujarat High Court.

A rally organised by Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti, led by Patel, as part of its quota stir in Ahmedabad in 2015 had turned violent, following which, a case was registered against him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
C.H.O.I.C.E.S. Outreach Ministries holds Bible encounters through the study of Gods word on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. at 142 Maple St., Mooresville. Call 704-662-8854 if you have any questions or need directions.

Chair/mat yoga class will be held every Wednesday at St. James Lutheran Church fellowship hall, 104 Union St. S., Concord. Drop in from 1-2 p.m. Each class is $3 and is taught by Angie Buchannan, certified yoga/pilates instructor. For more information, call 704-467-3321.

Thursday

Forest Hill United Methodist Church, 251 Union St. N., Concord, has a free clothing distribution every Thursday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. All sizes. For more information, call 704-782-1109 or visit www.foresthillumc.org.

The food pantry at Shady Brook Baptist Church, 1009 Oakwood Ave., Kannapolis, will serve the Kannapolis area each Thursday from 1:30-3 p.m.

New Hope Lutheran Church, 1615 Brantley Road, Kannapolis, holds a noon Bible study covering relevant topical discussions. Study materials are not required. Bring yourself, a notepad and a desire to grow. Class lasts about 45 minutes. Call 704-932-3716 for more information.
Dallas, Texas, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Workspace as a Service (WaaS) Market 2020-2025:

The driving factors influencing the Global Workspace As A Service (Waas) Market includes growing demand of device-independent and remote access to leading business applications and corporation data and need of reducing capital expenditure of organizations. As workspaces as a service industry offers hosted on-premises solutions and infrastructure with the support of third part infrastructure, the global workspace as a service (waas) market is on the verge to witness escalation in the near future. Moreover, the solutions and services in the global workspaces as a service market is also offer every individual user the flexibility of virtual desktop, applications, or corporate data for the professional to access anytime, anywhere with the use of smartphones, e-reader or tablets.

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Workspace as a service (WaaS) is a type of desktop virtualization that corporations utilize to present their employees with access to business-related information and data from any place at any time, using the employee's device of choice.

The Workspace as a Service (WaaS) market was valued at USD 4.90 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 8.54 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 9.7% over the forecast period 2020 - 2025. With WaaS solutions, employees can log into the provider's service and be presented with a virtual workspace desktop environment that appears and functions like their exact physical office desktop. This way, WaaS solutions allow employees to be more prolific and capable of obtaining critical applications and data, notwithstanding their geographical location. Organizations are realizing the benefit of WaaS that enables them to become less constrained by geography and reducse infrastructure managing costs while maintaining their employee experience.

Companies Mentioned:

Amazon Web Services Inc.

VMware Inc.

Citrix Systems Inc.

Microsoft Corporation

Getronics NV

Unisys Corporation

NTT DATA Corporation

Colt Technology Services

Cloudalize NV

Dizzion Inc.

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Rising adoption of BYOD across various industries, ease of deployment, scalability and quick availability, and increasing demand for affordable virtual desktop virtualization are set to boost the growth of the global WaaS market.

Furthermore, due to the availability of technological devices such as laptops, tablets, smartphones, professional can easily access their business virtually with the help of devices. Bring your own devices has emerged as a worldwide technological trend allows users to connect from any remote location across all the region. The Workspace as a Service Market is anticipated to project tremendous growth in the global workspace as a service (waas) market owing to the growing presence of BYOD applications.

Key Market Trends:

Telecom and IT to hold a Major Market Share

The telecom and IT sector has witnessed a high penetration rate of BYOD and cloud computing. The sector has been an early adopter of WaaS. The IT sector considered for the study includes enterprises that are into consulting and offering IT-based products and services. Therefore, most of their manufactured assets are intangible and include a broad range of enterprises.

Since software applications allow organizations to derive revenue from digital business channels, there is a stronger need to automate and release new applications and functionalities. This need has also led to a shift to the cloud, owing to the cost benefits.

Huawei Technologies, a prominent player in the telecom industry, migrated its R&D center in India to its own cloud computing platform called Desktop Cloud. By migrating its computing and storage to cloud, the company was able to save almost 88% of the overall expenses, compared to that of the traditional desktop environment.

North America to hold a Major Market Share

With relatively high rates of BYOD in the region, the need for securing enterprise data and finding cost-efficient ways of managing IT deployment is evident in the region.

According to a Cisco study, US workers save an average of 81 minutes/ week by using their own devices. Almost half of all North American enterprises/workplaces had adopted BYOD in 2016, according to a Avaya, a prominent technology company in the United States.

Such figures indicate the implementation and satisfaction levels of BYOD across US enterprises, thus providing scope for the vendors in the market. With strong economic growth in the region, enterprise expansion across the region is expected. Therefore, the BYOD trend, in addition to enterprise growth, provides opportunities for the vendors in the market.

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Table of Content:

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Scope of the Study

1.2 Study Deliverables

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Study Deliverables

2.2 Study Assumptions

2.3 Analysis Methodology

2.4 Research Phases

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

4 MARKET DYNAMICS

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Supply Chain Analysis

4.3 Industry Attractiveness Porter's Five Forces Analysis

4.3.1 Threat of New Entrants

4.3.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers/Consumers

4.3.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.3.4 Threat of Substitute Products

4.3.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry

4.4 Introduction to Market Drivers and Restraints

4.5 Market Drivers

4.5.1 Rising Adoption of BYOD across Various Industries

4.5.2 Increasing Demand for Affordable Desktop Virtualization Solutions

4.6 Market Challenges

4.6.1 Software Integration Challenges

4.6.2 Network Performance and Bandwidth Issues

5 MARKET SEGMENTATION

5.1 By Deployment

5.1.1 Public

5.1.2 Private

5.1.3 Hybrid

5.2 By Solution and Service

5.2.1 Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

5.2.2 Application as a Service (AaaS)

5.3 By Enterprise

5.3.1 Small and Medium Enterprises

5.3.2 Large Enterprises

5.4 By End-user Vertical

5.4.1 Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)

5.4.2 Education

5.4.3 Retail

5.4.4 Government

5.4.5 Telecom and IT

5.4.6 Healthcare

5.4.7 Other End-user Verticals

5.5 Geography

5.5.1 North America

5.5.2 Europe

5.5.3 Asia-Pacific

5.5.4 Latin America

5.5.5 Middle East & Africa

6 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

6.1 Vendor Market Share

6.2 Company Profiles

7 INVESTMENT ANALYSIS

8 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS

Global Business-Process-as-a-Service Market 2020-2025:

The driving factors influencing the Global Business-Process-As-A-Service Market includes lowering Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), reduced operational costs, and faster time to market (FTM). The global Business-Process-as-a-Service market offers a hosting of integrated software, optimized processes, and resources to work. At present, the global Business-Process-as-a-Service industry is illustrating established outcomes for several other business processes and are majorly increasing adoption with the support of small and medium size enterprise. Moreover, the global Business-Process-as-a-Service market enables frequent improvements in customer experience. Moreover, the global Business-Process-as-a-Service industry also offers end user delivery services for business processes such as customer services, sales and marketing, accounting, and human resource management. These are considered as flexible business models that help optimize capital expenditure while working on operational expenses expected and proportionate to business volumes.

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Business-process-as-a-service (BPaaS) is a term defined for a specific type of web-delivered or cloud hosting solutions that benefits an enterprise by assisting with business operations. BPaaS basically means that the business process is being automated through a remote delivery model.

The leading vendors of the global Business-Process-as-a-Service market are providing major resources to recognize key opportunities areas and maintain the same flow with the increasing competition in the global Business-Process-as-a-Service market. Due to the increasing use of cloud computing the global Business-Process-as-a-Service market is expected to drive tremendous growth in the near future.

Companies Mentioned:

SAP SE

IBM Corporation

OpenText Corporation

Pegasystems Inc.

Software AG

Tibco Software Inc.

Fujitsu Ltd

Oracle Corporation

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation

Capgemini SE

The business-process-as-a-service market was valued at USD 7.24 billion in 2019, and it is expected to reach USD 24.85 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 22.91% during the forecast period (2020-  2025). The increasing integration of robotic process automation (RPA) and the Internet of Things (IoT), with BPaaS, is a trend that aids in the growth of the market.

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- Business-process-as-a-service (BPaaS) has primarily risen as a cost-effective alternative for businesses, basically to optimize their services and focus on their core competencies, while outsourcing other functions like finance and accounting, supply chain management, and other commodity services.

- The demand for business process management is increasing at a robust rate across the world, due to the emergence of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other intelligence solutions.

- BPaaS delivery model presents significantly greater utility through the vertical integration of technology infrastructure, proprietary software applications, and people for the business-process services delivery.

- Businesses can eliminate the need for multiple vendor relationships to work for the company, which reduces the switching costs across the delivery life cycle and helps in realizing the value drivers of economies of scale and scope.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28) The Philippine government is studying the possibility of imposing travel bans to three more countries affected by the coronavirus outbreak, according to an official.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said the countrys Task Force is constantly assessing the situations in Japan, Italy, and Iran amid the rapid spike in coronavirus cases there.

Ayoko pangunahan, but obviously the Task Force is looking at these two countries (Japan and Italy) as well, Nograles told CNN Philippines The Source on Friday.

[Translation: I dont want to preempt anything, but obviously the Task Force is looking at these two countries as well.]

Obviously Iran is something that we're taking a look at also. Hindi natin pwedeng balewalain ang Iran because we still have Filipinos in Iran, more than a thousand na mga kababayan natin ang naninirahan po diyan sa Iran. So tinitingnan din po namin iyan, he added.

[Translation: Obviously Iran is something that were taking a look at also. We cannot brush Iran off because we still have Filipinos in Iran, we have more than a thousand countrymen living there. So were taking a look at it too.]

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the decision for a selective or absolute travel ban is in the hands of the task force.

He said the possible directive will be based on the following criteria: reported local transmission and volume of travelers to the particular country, fragility and threat of the environment, as well as travel restrictions to and from China.

Cases soaring

There are now 655 coronavirus cases, including 17 deaths in Italy the most number recorded in a European country.

Japan so far has more than 900 confirmed cases, over 700 of them linked to the cruise ship docked in Yokohama.

Iran, on the other hand, has reported 26 coronavirus-linked deaths the most number of deaths outside of Hubei province in China, where the respiratory disease first broke out. There are also 245 confirmed cases in the Middle East nation.

The Philippines earlier imposed a travel ban for Filipino tourists heading to South Korea, the nation with the second most number of confirmed cases after China. Only permanent residents of South Korea, Filipinos leaving for study, and overseas Filipino workers returning to work will be allowed to go back to the Asian country.

Meanwhile, the selective travel ban to North Gyeongsang Province, including the city of Daegu, has been put on hold pending a signed resolution wherein clear guidelines are laid out.

READ: Duque slams Immigration call to delay South Korea travel ban
[February 28, 2020] Panasonic Integration with Drop Recipes App Creates Convenient Cooking Experience Enabled by 100+ Custom Recipes

NEWARK, N.J., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Panasonic is proud to announce additional details regarding the collaboration with Drop, the leading smart kitchen platform, to simplify the lives of home cooks using their appliances. With customized navigation tailored specifically to Panasonic's NN-GN68KS microwave with FlashXpress Broiler, Food Warmer, Plus Genius Sensor Cooking, users can access several advanced features designed to complement every cooking style. From helpful functions like resizing recipes or offering substitutions for missing ingredients, to recommending the exact length of heating time for perfect results, the integration with Drop was launched with home cooks in mind. Today, there are 50+ recipes available on the Drop Recipes app and 60 additional within a few months for other models. "Both new and existing Panasonic microwave customers will be delighted by the implications of this collaboration, which provide an opportunity to rediscover the NN-GN68KS's performance and value," said Fumi Usuki, IoT Business Development Senior Manager at Panasonic. "Today's announcement advances Panasonic's commitment to creating experiences for consumers that elevate their quality of life. Home cooks will enjoy this intelligent solution that simplifies the process of creating a first class at-home dining experience." The most recent model of the NN-GN68KS with FlashXpress Broiler, Food Warmer, Plus Genius Sensor Cooking will be onboarded to Drop's guided cooking recipe format. Coupled with Panasonic's uniquely superior heating elements, the Drop Recipes app enables meals to be prepared faster and more accurately. "It is a pleasure working with a company like Panasonic and to focus on food and thoughtful design," said Ben Harris, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Drop. "We share a vision for a unified xperience in the smart kitchen, and this collaboration will make evident what we can make happen for the consumer."



Learn more at: https://getdrop.com/appliances/panasonic/?utm_source=panasonic About Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company

Based in Newark, NJ, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company is a division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, the principal North American subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation. The company offers a wide range of consumer solutions in the U.S. including LUMIX Digital Cameras, Camcorders, Blu-ray players, Home Audio, Technics, Cordless Phones, Home Appliances, Beauty, Grooming, Wellness and Personal Care products and more. Panasonic was featured in Fortune Magazine's 2016 ranking of 50 companies that are changing the world and doing well by doing good. Specifically cited were its smart and sustainable technologies, including its contributions to smart cities and the electric vehicle revolution.

About Drop

Drop is the leading smart kitchen platform specializing in recipe and kitchen appliance technology to connect the whole cooking journey. Over 100 different appliance models from brands like Instant Brands, Bosch, Electrolux, GE Appliances, Kenwood, LG Electronics and Thermomix can now be controlled from the Drop Kitchen OS platform and the Drop Recipes app at the center of it all. With offices in San Francisco, Dublin, Ireland, and Zaragoza, Spain, a love for great food is at its core. Each recipe and appliance partner added to the platform makes for an even stronger Kitchen OS, inspiring home cooks to make food more. To learn more visit https://kitchenos.com Follow Press Updates for Panasonic Consumer Products: Internet - http://us.panasonic.com/news

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/panasonicusaconsumerpress

Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/panasonicusa_consumer_press View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/panasonic-integration-with-drop-recipes-app-creates-convenient-cooking-experience-enabled-by-100-custom-recipes-301013438.html SOURCE Panasonic Corporation of North America

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(Bloomberg) -- WeDoctor, one of Chinas biggest online health-care startups, is hiring a new chief financial officer to spearhead a Hong Kong initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.

John Cai, formerly chief executive for AIA Group Ltd.s operations in key markets including China, Malaysia and Vietnam, will join as CFO in a few weeks, the people said, requesting not to be named because the matter is private. Cai will oversee the companys listing and potentially a pre-IPO financing round, the people said. WeDoctor has reached out to investment banks and is expected to pick underwriters over the next few months, they said.

WeDoctor, backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., joins a growing contingent of tech giants hoping to revolutionize a traditional health-care industry after the novel coronavirus underscored its shortcomings. The startup, whose business spans insurance policies and medical supplies to online appointment-booking and physical clinics, is aiming for a $10 billion valuation when it eventually goes public, one of the people said, almost double its last price tag of around $5.5 billion. The startup is currently targeting an IPO in late 2020 or 2021, another person said.

A WeDoctor representative declined to comment in an emailed statement. An AIA representative didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read more: Coronavirus Shows Scale of Task to Fix Chinas Flawed Healthcare

The Covid-19 epidemic has brought inadequacies in the countrys medical care system into stark relief, exposing an over-reliance on big hospitals in major cities and flaws in how the state responds to emergencies, even with a mechanism built after the SARS outbreak in 2003. The startup said in a statement it launched an online platform dedicated to treating coronavirus cases on Jan. 23 and has helped facilitate 1.4 million consultations with doctors in the month since it began.

Longer term, startups like WeDoctor could play a pivotal role in a nationwide effort to wrench its ailing healthcare sector into the modern age. Beijing envisions a 16 trillion yuan ($2.3 trillion) healthcare industry by 2030 and, in a blueprint laid out in 2016 called Healthy China 2030, vowed to improve public health emergency preparedness and response capabilities to match those of developed countries.

Story continues

A $6 Billion China Startup Wants to Be the Amazon of Health Care

Founded by artificial intelligence maven Jerry Liao Jieyuan in 2010, WeDoctor aims to compete with both fellow startups and major corporations such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in the burgeoning field of online healthcare.

It needs capital to expand. It has yet to decide whether to include its cloud business -- where sensitive patient information and government data reside -- in the envisioned Hong Kong public offering, the people said. And its still too early to judge whether it can achieve its $10 billion valuation target, one of the people said.

Cai, who joined AIA in 2009, helped the insurer bolster its business in China before driving expansions in Vietnam and Malaysia. He will also join WeDoctors board as vice chairman, the people said. His new employer counts China Development Bank Capital, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. and AIA as backers. The company said in a statement it connects 360,000 doctors with some 210 million registered users.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lulu Yilun Chen in Hong Kong at ychen447@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at pelstrom@bloomberg.net, Edwin Chan, Jun Luo

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

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The Intelligence Bureau (IB) official whose body was pulled out of a drain in Northeast Delhis Chand Bagh, was brutally stabbed to death, the post-mortem report has revealed.

The body of Sharma has multiple abrasion... deep cuts... by sharp edge objects states the post-mortem report, according to news agency IANS. The doctors who carried out the autopsy have said that the 26-year-old was stabbed multiple times, IANS further reported.

Sharma was working with the IB as security assistant since 2017. He lived in Chand Bagh in Northeast Delhi and had gone out to see that was happening in the locality in Tuesday - the worst day of violence - and never returned. His family members searched for Sharma frantically for eight hours and finally got to know next morning that his body has been found.

ALSO WATCH | Delhi violence: Intelligence Bureau staffer, a cops son, killed; family mourns

An FIR was registered against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain by his family; Sharmas brother Ankur said a mob caught the young man and dragged him inside a building owned by Hussain. He was killed there by the mob, said his family. The locals too alleged that Hussain was responsible to inciting the mob to kill Sharma.

Double punishment means now Tahir as well as his boss should be punished severely... the accused and plotters of this case should be hanged in the stipulated time frame... Stabbing an IB officer 400 times with a knife? Religious intolerance has made you act so low, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari tweeted in Hindi on Friday, targeting the AAP.

                  ...                ..400      IB   ??        .. https://t.co/AdNFxydSot  Manoj Tiwari (@ManojTiwariMP) February 28, 2020

The AAP has suspended Hussain till the time investigation in the case is complete. The partys social media head Ankit Lal and Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan have, however, defended Hussain. While Lal said Hussain was not at home at the time of the incident, Khan alleged on Twitter that its a conspiracy by the BJP to defame AAP.

Hussains house in Chand Bagh still has a number of petrol bomb bottles, acid pouches, and stones scattered on the rooftop and inside, news agencies reported.

Hussains house has come under the scanner after a number of videos on social media showed over 100 to 150 people pelting stones, throwing petrol bombs and acid on Monday and Tuesday afternoon.

Sharma was cremated in Muaffarnagar in western Uttar Pradesh on Thursday. Thousands of people gathered to pay tribute to the officer in his native village.

No one will be spared in the Delhi violence case, irrespective of any party, Union minister Sanjeev Balyan, who attended the last rites of Ankit Sharma, said.

At least 38 people, including a Delhi Police head constable, have died, while more than 300 injured in the Delhi violence which started on Sunday and escalated on Monday.

Properties worth crores of rupees have been damaged after clashes took place between two opposing factions over the newly-amended Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
February 28, 2020 / 10:18 PM IST

At least 42 people have been killed and over 300 injured in the violence that ravaged north east Delhi in the last few days. What was earlier seen as clashes between those who supported and those who were against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), spiralled into riots.

The Delhi Police, which has been criticised for failing to curtail the violence effectively, has now transferred
The Supreme Court on Friday held the strike conducted by Uttarakhand advocates in Dehradun, Haridwar and other places, on all working Saturdays as 'illegal'.

A single-judge bench of the apex court, Justice M R Shah passed the verdict.

Justice Shah, in the verdict today, also issued notice to the Bar Council of the state of Uttarakhand and asked it to initiate contempt of court proceedings against those allegedly involved in such kinds of strikes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The two judicial officers had approached the top court in 2018 after they were compulsorily retired by the high court.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday set high standards for judicial officers saying they are expected to be of much higher integrity than officers in other streams and even a single aberration by them is not permitted.

The standard of integrity and probity expected from judicial officers is much higher than that expected from other officers, said a bench comprising Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice Deepak Gupta in their judgment upholding the compulsory retirement of two judicial officers in Jharkhand.

The court was dealing with the case of judicial officers who were compulsorily retired by Jharkhand high court in public interest, taking recourse to the Rule 74(b)(ii) of the Jharkhand Service Code, 2001.

One of the judicial officers, Arun Kumar Gupta, who was compulsorily retired had allegedly placed a hot iron on the head of a washerman for not ironing his clothes properly. The washerman later denied having been physically hurt by Mr Gupta and the judicial officer was exonerated.

In the case of the other judicial officer, Raj Nandan Rai, the top court said, As far as this officer is concerned, we find that his record on many counts is not at all good.

His reputation and integrity have been doubted more than once in the years 19961997, 1997 20 1998 and 20042005.

Justice Gupta, speaking for the bench, however, rejected the contention by the two judicial officers that in the course of their service they got various promotion and that itself washes off any adverse entry against them in the past.

Spelling out the law on compulsory retirement of judicial officers, the court said that the wash off  theory does not apply in case of judicial officers, especially with respect to adverse entries relating to integrity.

The two judicial officers had approached the top court in 2018 after they were compulsorily retired by the high court.

However, the top court by its September 6, 2018, had asked the high court to reconsider their cases in light of the entirety of the materials that was placed before it by the Registrar General of the Jharkhand high court.

The screening committee and the standing committee of the high court after re-appreciating the entire material reiterated their conclusion to compulsorily retire both of them.

Two serious allegations against Mr Gupta, the court noted included that while working as deputy director, administrative training institute, at Ranchi, 10 ladies, who were civil service probationers made allegations that he was using unwarranted and objectionable language during his lectures, citing indecent examples and using words having double meaning and thereby causing embarrassment to lady officers.

In the case relating to the placing of hot iron on the head of a washerman, the then principal district judge, to whom the washerman had reported the incident and who got the washerman treated, had told the Jharkhand high court that the victim had suffered burn injuries.

However, the top court noted, that his successor, principal district judge who conducted the preliminary inquiry did not care to examine his predecessor district judge who was personally approached by the washerman.

Referring to the incident of the hot iron, the top court said, We are of the view that the screening committee was right that the victim may have been put under some pressure to withdraw his complaint. These occurrences are of the year 2011 2012 and cannot be said to be very old.
If youre concerned that automation and artificial intelligence are going to disrupt the economy over the next decade, join the club. But while policymakers and academics agree therell be significant disruption, they differ about its impact.

On one hand, techno-pessimists like Martin Ford in Rise of the Robots argue that new forms of automation will displace most jobs without creating new ones. In other words, most of us will lose our jobs.

On the flip side of the debate are techno-optimists such as Erik Brynjolfsson and Andy McAfee. In The Second Machine Age, they contend that continued investments in education and research and development will offset the job losses and generate many new human tasks that complement AI.

While I cant predict who will turn out to be right, I do have some good news based on my own research and the work of others: Tomorrows digital jobs will likely pay better and be more satisfying than todays. And, as Brynjolfsson and McAfee noted, education holds the key to ensuring there are enough to go around.

Bigger paychecks

Researchers have been studying jobs that involve digital skills for years to try to understand their value. But what does it really mean for a job or skill to be digital?

In earlier research, all it meant was that a worker used a computer. Since nearly all workers use a PC today, we need a more refined definition of digital skills that takes into account how much a job depends on doing things like programming, crunching data in Excel spreadsheets and even using a smartphone.

In research conducted with economist Giovanni Gallipoli at the University of British Columbia, we created a new way to measure digital or information technology skills in the labor market based on how frequently theyre used in an occupation. For example, how much time does a financial adviser spend analyzing data or an event planner use a computer?

We found that workers in occupations that rank higher in IT intensity earn more than demographically similar peers in other occupations  and that this earnings gap has been growing.

Not only that, but we also found something interesting on the impact of a college degree on the lifetime earnings of different occupations. Historically, workers with a college degree have earned a lot more than peers without one. Recent research has shown that this so-called college premium has been flattening.

The main cause, according to our analysis, is that the college premium for occupations requiring fewer digital skills has been declining, while it has been rising for those we identified as digital jobs such as software developers, programmers and aerospace engineering. At least some of the flattening in the college premium is due to the increasing number of bachelors degrees that convey few skills that are valued in the marketplace.

Higher quality

Higher pay is one thing. What about job quality?

Fortunately, a recently released survey from Gallup provides some answers.

The survey, which came out in October, compares measures of job quality -- such as a sense of purpose, enjoyability and career advancement -- with income, occupations and a range of demographic characteristics. I then connected the survey results with my IT intensity data.

I found that jobs that require greater interaction with technology tended to score higher in quality, particularly in terms of measures like career advancement.

The role of education

The fact that these jobs not only pay more but also provide greater levels of employee satisfaction and engagement paints a more optimistic picture about the future of work. And that gives me hope, particularly since the digital economy is growing at a pace nearly four times faster than the broader economy.

The key is making tomorrows jobs robot-proof by designing them in a way that takes advantage of the digital skills described above. And universities must play a big role in this by identifying what a good job looks like and ensuring future generations learn the necessary skills.

But I believe higher education needs a different approach to teaching skills than the one that supported the jobs of the 20th century. Some are already innovating, such as Arizona State University, Purdue and Georgia State, by leveraging technology in new ways to accelerate the learning process for their students.

I believe this is how we not only survive the robot apocalypse but thrive as well.

This article was first posted on The Conversation.
A new collection of artifacts have been pulled from the wreckage of the HMS Erebus, an English ship that became trapped by sea ice in the Canadian Arctic in 1846, leaving its 128-person crew to die under still mysterious circumstances.

The artifacts were retrieved by a team of divers from Parks Canadas underwater archaeology team, which made 93 dives over a three-week period in August and September of 2019 .

Collectively they spent 110 hours underwater exploring the wreckage and pulling out new clues about what life on the ship was like.

A team of researchers from Parks Canada's underwater archaeology team retrieved a lieutenant's epaulet (pictured above) from the wreckage of the HMS Erebus in the Canadian Arctic, one of several new finds

Who were the final survivors of the expedition? Parks Canadas Marc-Andre Bernier told the CBC.

Did discipline break down or was it maintained until the end? Those are the sorts of stories we hope to tell with artifacts that are linked to specific individuals.

The HMS Erebus originally set sail from Greenhite, England with a companion ship, the HMS Terror, on a mission to open a Northwest Passage across the Arctic.

The ships had enough provisions for a seven year journey and made it as far as King William Island in Canada, where they became trapped in sea ice.

After a period of timeits unclear how longmembers of the ships respective crews appear to have set out on foot in search of help, which they would never find.

The HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror set sail from just outside London in 1845, hoping to chart a path to the Pacific Ocean by going over the Arctic Circle, but both ships became trapped in sea ice and their crews eventually died while wandering in the snowy wilderness searching for help

The artifacts were first discovered on a series of 93 dives that took place in August and September of 2019, and were then carefully treated and examined in a laboratory

The wreckage of the Erebus was first discovered again in 2014, and the Terror was found in 2016, offering the unexpected but exciting chance to learn more about the journey.

Through the work we did on Terror and being able to look inside the cabins, and now getting into the artifacts of individuals inside Erebus, this is the beginning  and it's only the beginning  of really getting into the story in depth, Bernier said.

The latest round of artifacts hint at some class divisions among the crew, as well as some of the simple pleasures they relied on to help pass the time and maintain some sense of normalcy.

In one cabin a diver found epaulets for a lieutenants uniform, alongside some fine ceramic dishes.

A hairbrush with human hairs was also discovered, along with a pencil set and a more formal writing quill, though no one has yet uncovered any written diaries or that might fill in more details about what happened on the voyage.

The team found a hairbrush (pictured above) with many preserve human hair strands still in the bristles, suggesting appearances were still important for at least some of the crew

The team also found a preserved silver spoon and sugar tongs (pictured above), suggesting some senior members of the crew might have still made time for tea

Other items included a bottle containing 'prepared mustard' that was meant only to be served at the captain's table, an accordion, a pencil set, and a writing quill

In the galley, they found a special bottle of prepared mustard that was intended for use only at the captains table.

They also found a silver spoon and sugar cube tongs, suggesting tea time continued to be a tradition.

The ships crew werent given much space to pack personal effects, and had to share a small chest with one other person, which doubled as benches in the mess hall to save on space.

They recovered an accordion, indicating that the ships passengers might have passed their off-hours singing together.

According to researchers, part of what makes the Erebus such a unique archaeological site is how the frigid Arctic waters have helped preserve the wreckage far better than it might have been in warmer waters.

We have always saidthat the potential to find things is great because of the cold water [preserving artifacts]. But this year, that was confirmed, said Bernier. We are finding places that have not been displaced or moved since the ship went down.

Retrieving the well-preserved wreckage, however, has come with unique challenges for the team, who face dangerously cold temperatures, strong currents, and unpredictable weather.

The cold water is hard on diving equipment, with the potential to freeze regulators, cause LCD monitors to cut off, and speed up the rate at which batteries go dead.

For Bernier and his team, the difficulties are worth the chance to learn more about the lives of the lost sailors.

We're excavating in the world of somebody that lived 170 years ago in his space, so when you go down it's quite humbling  but it's exciting, he said.

Every day, every dive is a discovery. You just don't know what to expect.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Board of Standards and Appeals denial to waive General Law 36 is seen as a victory for Staten Island against overdevelopment, but its still too soon to celebrate.

Members of the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals voted unanimously to deny the LLC that owns the property its application for a waiver to General City Law 36, which regulated whether new construction can front unmapped streets.

Jack Bolemback, president of the Committee to Save Mount Manresa, said the committee is understandably happy about the denial, however, the developers of the property, the Savo Brothers, still have the ability to appeal the decision.

This whole thing never should have happened, Bolemback told the Advance about the planned 163-home project on the grounds of Mount Manresa.

But we stuck together as a community and kept fighting it. And we had help from all the elected officials, especially [Borough President] Oddo, he said.

James Oddo told the Advance he expects the Savo Brothers to appeal the citys decision.

The Savo Brothers did not return a request for comment.

Until we started making this case five-plus years ago, General Law 36 was a rubber stamp for developers; they all had hardships and got the exemption. It wasnt until Margery Perlmutter, chair of the BSA, took the time to listen to the arguments and come to Staten Island to witness the implications for the surrounding communities who live this first-hand and apply the text and intent of the legislature, Oddo said.

Both the Committee to Save Mount Manresa and Borough Hall said theyre prepared to fight the fight should there be an appeal.

LACK OF GREEN SPACE IN HIGH DENSITY PLANNING

The planned high-density housing would bring a myriad of issues to the neighborhood -- increased traffic, less residential parking, increased garbage and potential problems with emergency vehicles accessing the narrow roads among them.

Green space, Bolemback said, is one of the most important pieces missing from the current development plans.

It was unbelievable to walk through Mount Manresa with those 400-year-old trees; it was beautiful. Now its all gone, he said, adding that the current development plans have no planned green spaces.

In an ideal situation, he said, the city would have eminent domain of the 15.5-acre property, however, the Savo Brothers previously said it has no intention of selling the property to the city.

Ultimately the committee hopes whatever is built on the massive property is on city mapped streets and includes green space -- with or without eminent domain.

Oddo said hes aware of the communities desire for green space and said he would love to see eminent domain, but wouldnt comment further about hypothetical plans for the property as the decision to appeal the outcome has not yet been made.

When a neighborhood loses something like this and sees its going to be replaced with something like that, you have to fight -- you cant give up. You cant let your neighborhood go down like that, Bolemback said.

CITY PLANNING WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH US IF THERES NO APPEAL

While the committees focus is ensuring whatever development happens on the Mount Manresa grounds is an asset, not a headache, for the neighborhood, Oddo said Mount Manresa is a smaller battle within a war about General Law 36 and the Department of City Planning.

In either case, the war rages on.

The battle and the war were both lost until Borough Hall put the case together about General Law 36. The BSA heard our arguments and said Youre right; we have misapplied the law in the past, Oddo said.

The pasts misapplication has allowed several developments to be built across the borough on private roads that are not a positive addition to the neighborhoods theyre in.

The battle, he said, isnt against specific developers but a battle about the principal of the law  when its applied properly it protects Staten Island.

If the Savo Brothers choose not to appeal the decision, what happens next falls with the Department of City Planning.

City Planning is not a friend to the people of Staten Island and has demonstrated an indifference and a disdain for the borough. They dont care about the will of people and acted as consultants for high-density development projects, Oddo said.

Oddo said Mayor Bill de Blasio is very much aware of his anger at the department, as well as his ongoing battle against private roads and overdevelopment.

City Planning will have to deal with us if theres no appeal, he added.
Employees work on the production line of high-precision sheet aluminium at a factory of Shandong Weiqiao Pioneering Group Company Limited on November 23, 2019 in Zouping, Shandong Province of China. Tang Ke | VCG via Getty Images

BEIJING  Surveys of foreign businesses released this week indicate many people in China still haven't returned to work, especially in factories, adding to revenue losses. The coronavirus, which has killed more than 2,700 people in the country, forced more than half of the world's second-largest economy to extend a shutdown for the Lunar New Year holiday by at least a week. However, in an effort to limit COVID-19's spread, authorities have discouraged people from gathering. Cities like Beijing have also imposed 14-day quarantines for those returning from other parts of the country. Travel disruptions to the flow of people and goods are a top challenge for foreign companies in China right now, Greg Gilligan, chairman of the Beijing-based American Chamber of Commerce in China, said in a phone interview Friday. "There's still a very large number of people who are still sheltered in place and cannot return to their (city) of residence."

Most of the 169 member companies that responded to the chamber's survey last week said it's too early to tell how much the delays cost, but about 10% estimated the losses are at least 500,000 yuan ($71,400) a day. Here's what businesses told three chambers of commerce in surveys conducted last week: AmCham  169 respondents If their business can't return to normal by April 30, nearly half expect China revenues for the year to decrease.

If the virus lasts through Aug. 30, nearly one-fifth of respondents expect 2020 revenues to fall more than 50%. German Chamber of Commerce in China and the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China  577 respondents Nearly half forecast a double-digit drop in revenues for the first half of 2020.

A quarter expect to see a drop of over 20%. British Chambers of Commerce in China  135 respondents Half expect China revenue for the year to drop by more than 10% as a direct result of the virus.

More than a quarter expect a decline of more than 20%.

Chinese officials say work is resuming gradually

Chinese authorities also painted a mixed picture of the return to work in official announcements this week. Official figures for major companies and essential industries such as food processing indicate a high level of return to work. But overall, many businesses are still struggling. As of Wednesday, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said its research for medium- and small-sized enterprises showed: Overall, 32.8% had resumed work, up 3.2 percentage points from Sunday. For smaller manufacturing businesses, 43.1% had returned to work, up 6.2 percentage points from Sunday. For seven unnamed provinces and regions in China, the resumption of work rate was at least 40%. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Transport disclosed the resumption of work rate for major transit construction projects was at best about 50%, and only around 25.9% for civil aviation airports. Coal power consumption nationwide, as measured by six major power generation groups, increased more slowly in the past week than the week before, to 60% from that before the Lunar New Year holiday, Morgan Stanley analysts said in a note Friday.

Divergence across China

However, the resumption of work clearly varies by region. The EU Chamber said in a call with media Thursday that for members in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province in northeastern China, things are nearly back to normal. In the municipality of Chongqing, which borders the virus's epicenter of Hubei, "companies are still dealing with huge administrative hurdles." Ultimately, foreign businesses are hopeful that Chinese authorities' increased emphasis on economic growth will help resolve these challenges soon. The central government has announced a slew of measures in the last two weeks to lower loan rates, waive or cut certain taxes and social insurance contribution plans, and generally improve financing to smaller and medium-sized enterprises.

While those are helpful, what's more important for businesses is generating revenue and having immediate cash flow, said AmCham's Gilligan. "We are still very hopeful those economic reform measures will continue," he said. He noted that in informal discussions with various ministries and agencies, it seems "the motivation is quite high given the challenges to the economy." Amid drawn out tensions between the U.S. and China over trade and business practices, a new foreign investment law took effect in January that seeks to address intellectual property protection and other longstanding complaints. This year, China is also allowing more foreign ownership in local financial institutions.

Chinese consumer market is key
Police personnel remove the vehicle after a woman crashed it into the day care, injuring four children, one seriously. Read more

A delivery driver drove into a Bucks County day-care center Thursday afternoon, injuring multiple napping children, one of whom was in critical condition, according to county officials.

Four children were taken to a hospital after the car crashed into the Children of America day-care center on the 300 block of Knowles Avenue in Upper Southampton Township about 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Township Manager Joe Golden said.

The children  one critical, and the three others suffering minor injuries  were taken to Abington Hospital, and the driver, a woman whose name police did not release, was taken to St. Mary Medical Center, he said.

Were shaken, Golden said.

A black BMW drove into the front of the center, which is in a strip mall. It traveled significantly into the building, about 30 to 40 feet, First Assistant District Attorney Gregg Shore said Thursday evening.

The vehicle crashed into a room where 17 children  all either 3 or 4 years old  were napping, Shore said. Nearly 80 children were inside at the time of the crash, and all but the injured were reunited with their families after the incident.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash. The woman behind the wheel of the BMW was a delivery driver between the ages of 50 to 60, Shore said. She has no children of her own at the day care, he said, and was there Thursday afternoon in a business capacity.

The driver was cooperative with investigators, he added, but he declined to give further detail, citing the ongoing investigation.

A person who answered the phone at the day care hung up without commenting on the crash.
BAD AXE, MI  A Port Hope mother accused of suffocating her infant son in 2017 as they slept together has accepted a plea deal.

Kristen N. Phillips, 29, on Tuesday, Feb. 25, appeared in Huron County Circuit Court and pleaded no contest to one count of second-degree child abuse, a 10-year felony. In exchange for her plea, the prosecution agreed to dismiss a 15-year charge of involuntary manslaughter.

The charges relate to the death of Phillips 7-week-old son, Waylon G. McCormick.

The prosecution further agreed that Phillips would receive a delayed sentence for one year, according to The Huron Daily Tribune. This would effectively put Phillips on probation. If she receives that delayed sentence and complies with all of its stipulations, shell then be allowed to withdraw her plea and replace it with a plea to third-degree child abuse, punishable by up to two years incarceration.

The plea came several hours after jury selection had begun, The Tribune reports.

By pleading no contest as opposed to guilty, Phillips did not orally admit to having committed a crime.

According to witnesses testimony taken during a preliminary examination held on two days in March 2019, Phillips on Oct. 28, 2017, attended a Halloween party at a bar in Lewisville, leaving her son in his fathers custody. She then went to a bonfire at about 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 29, witnesses testified.

Phillips returned home between 3 and 4 a.m. About 5:45 a.m., the infants father left to go hunting with two people. When he left, the baby was alive and sleeping in a baby swing in a bedroom as Phillips cleaned the house, according to testimony.

At some point, Phillips took Waylon out of the swing and placed him in bed with her. She went to sleep about 7:45 a.m. and slept for about three hours.

The boys father returned home about 10:45 a.m. and shortly thereafter, Phillips screamed that something was wrong with Waylon. The father told Phillips to call 911 and he attempted CPR on the baby.

An ambulance took Waylon to Harbor Beach Hospital, arriving there at 11:16 a.m. with no pulse or heartbeat. Medical professionals pronounced Waylon deceased.

Results of Michigan State Police Crime Lab analysis show Phillips had a blood alcohol level of 0.01. Cocaine, its metabolites, and Suboxone were also detected in the samples, wrote Huron County District Judge David B. Herrington in a May decision to bind Phillips to the higher court for trial.

The amount of cocaine was enough  that could have stopped the heart of a non-user, Herrington wrote.

Suboxone is prescribed to treat opiate addiction. Phillips did not have a prescription for it, Herrington wrote.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Kanu Virani performed an autopsy on Waylons remains and determined the cause of death was position/compression asphyxia and the manner accidental, Herrington wrote.

Related:

Michigan mom faces trial after infant son dies while sleeping with her

Mom charged in connection with infant sons 2017 death in Huron County
Code Talker, by Joseph Bruchac

Image Credit...

One of the most fascinating stories of World War II is the role played by Navajos, who were recruited by the Marines to use their native tongue  one of the most complex of all American Indian languages  to create a code the Japanese could not break. The protagonist of this action-packed novel, Ned Begay, tells his grandchildren about his wartime experiences as part of the top-secret Navajo code talkers  years of training and combat in locations including Guam, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The result is an eye-opening new view of the war, and of the position of Native peoples in U.S. society.

Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All, by M.T. Anderson, Jennifer Donnelly, Candace Fleming, Stephanie Hemphill, Deborah Hopkinson, Linda Sue Park and Lisa Ann Sandell

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This book might seem like a gimmick, but even if it is, its a terrific one: Seven Y.A. authors join forces to tell the thrilling, bloody tale of King Henry VIII and his six wives. Anderson, the lone male of the writers, tells Henrys side, while the womens voices  from Flemings Katharine of Aragon to Hopkinsons Kateryn Parr, Wife No. 6  paint a suspenseful picture of doomed romance and courtly intrigue. The overall effect is something greater even than its riveting parts, shedding light on the plight of women in a patriarchal society and the ways they found their voices.

Butterfly Yellow by Thanha Lai

Image Credit... no credit

This gorgeous novel from the award-winning Vietnamese-American author Lai is set in the 1970s and 1980s, a period that fascinates teenagers. Its tantalizingly close, but everything is different. In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, a girl named Hang arrives in Texas as a refugee. When she was 12 and living in Saigon, she mistakenly allowed her younger brother, Linh, to be taken away without her by Americans airlifting children to safety. Now Hang is 18 and, with the help of a wannabe cowboy, finds her brother and tries to reunite with him. But Linh is American now, renamed David, and barely remembers her. The period details  and the emotion  are done to heartbreaking perfection.

The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

Image Credit... no credit

Sepetys is an absolute master of suspenseful historical fiction that plunges you into dangerous political moments, showing the life-or-death stakes for characters who seem achingly real. The novel is set in 1957 in Francos repressive Spain, where women are silenced and Republican sympathizers are rounded up regularly. Ana, the young heroine, meets a boy from Texas who is spending a month in Spain. As their relationship deepens, she finds herself dreaming of a better, freer life, and risks her future to work with him in the underground resistance.
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Lahore, Feb 28 : The Lahore High Court has sought replies from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and police on a petition against the holding of the Aurat March 2020, which is scheduled to take place on the occasion of International Women's Day on March 8.

The petition was filed by Judicial Activism Council Chairman Azhar Siddique who claimed "there are various anti-state parties funding the march with the sole purpose of spreading anarchy in public", Dawn news reported.

The petition also termed the march "against the norms of Islam", adding that it had a "hidden agenda" to spread "vulgarity and hatred".

"During last year's Aurat March, women were holding placards that had objectionable messages," said Siddique.

On Thursday, LHC Chief Justice Mamoon Rashid Sheikh heard arguments from both sides with Advocate Hina Jilani and founder of Digital Rights Foundation, Nighat Dad, defending the holding of the march.

"We are holding the Aurat March to highlight the importance of women in our society. The march will be held on a Sunday and will not hinder any economic activity," Jilani told the court.

She pointed out that the march was also held last year and had remained peaceful.

"We understand this agenda," the petitioner responded, adding: "It is not our intention to stop the march, we want that the immoral representation of it (online) stops." After hearing the arguments, Chief Justice Sheikh said: "We need to hear what public institutions have to say on this." He then ordered the FIA and police to submit their responses on the matter, said the Dawn news report.

On March 8, 2019, women across Pakistan came together to participate in the Aurat March.

However, the backlash against the march and its organisers was swift.

The backlash began with a trickle of comments on Twitter and Facebook, then escalated as people began faking and doctoring images of posters to circulate them on social media and stir up further controversy.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Friday admitted his claims of being arrested during a visit to Nelson Mandela in prison were false, saying he was only stopped, not arrested.

Pressed on his repeated claim that he was arrested in the 1970s while a senator from Delaware on a congressional delegation trip to South Africa, Biden backed away from the claim.

When I said arrested, I meant, I was not able to move. Cops, Afrikaners would not let me go with them, made me stay where I was. I guess I wasnt arrested, I was stopped, I was not able to move where I wanted to go, the former vice president said during an interview on CNN.

Well what I meant to say was, I got off, Biden said, before adding, Look, I strongly opposed Apartheid, I was one of the leaders.

Heres the deal. I was with a black delegation, the CDC, the Congressional Black Caucus, they had me get off a plane, the Afrikaners got on in their short pants and their guns, led me off first and moved me in a direction totally different, I turned around and everybody, the entire black delegation was going another way, Biden said.

I said Im not going to go in that door that says white only, Im going with them, he continued. They said Youre not, you cant move, you cant go with them. And they kept me there until finally, I decided, it was clear I wasnt going to move. And so what they finally did, they said okay, theyre not going to make the congressional delegation go through the black door, theyre not going to make me go through the white door, they took us if memory serves me through a baggage claim area up to a restaurant, and they cleared out a restaurant.

Biden has come under scrutiny for claiming three times in two weeks on the campaign trail this month that he was arrested with former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young on the streets of Soweto. Young, who was still a congressman at the time of the visit, has said he was never arrested in South Africa.

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Bidens campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield attempted to clarify the story this week, saying Biden was separated from the Congressional Black Caucus delegation rather than arrested.

Biden on Friday added an anecdote about the anti-apartheid leader and former president of South Africa, saying that Mandela visited Bidens office and thanked him after being freed and coming to the U.S.

He sat down in my office, thanked me for all the work I did on Apartheid, Biden said.

More from National Review
Iowas CWSRF pioneered a process that could be adopted in Maryland to make interstate payments truly painless. For lack of a better term, the process could be called adoption. In Iowa, a POTW was facing a major tightening of the terms and conditions of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. The equipment upgrades necessary to remove the additional nutrients would have cost the POTW and its customers millions of dollars. Instead, the POTW identified an upstream farmer who could undertake a runoff-reduction project on his farm that would remove more nutrients at a fraction of the cost. After much negotiation, the concept worked. The state agreed to give the POTW credit for the nutrient reductions from the upstream farm project in return for the POTWs paying for the project. So, the happy ending is that the nutrients got removed from the river, and it didnt cost the farmer a penny.
Nigerias former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has called on President Muhammadu Buharis government to defeat Coronavirus with the s...





Nigerias former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has called on President Muhammadu Buharis government to defeat Coronavirus with the same zeal the nation fought Ebola outbreak in 2014.





He said the Buharis government must temporarily halt flights to and from any nation with a prevalence of this scourge.





Atiku, in a statement on Friday said now that Nigeria has had her first confirmed case of the Corona Virus infestation, via a citizen of Italy, who visited Lagos and Ogun states, the Buharis government must call upon our experience with the Wild Ebola Virus, of which we were the first nation in the world to defeat that scourge in 2014. How did Nigeria do it? We achieved it by showing unprecedented unity.





The federal government of the day worked closely with the Lagos and Rivers state governments. There was complete unity, solidarity and oneness of purpose, which created the atmosphere that defeated that deadly infestation. I strongly counsel that any tendency to blame and point fighters must be temporarily, if not permanently, suspended. If fingers must be pointed, it must be to solutions.





Nigeria needs firm and decisive actions to prevent an escalation of the scourge. Recently, we closed our borders as an act against economic sabotage. Perhaps now is the time to temporarily halt flights to and from any nation with a prevalence of this scourge. It is more important to secure human lives than to secure an economy. We also need to invest in early detection facilities at our airports.





Atiku added that above all, Nigeria must not panic, whether at government or individual levels, as the nation had defeated Ebola before, and could defeat this present predicament.





This crisis is an opportunity to show that we are first and foremost Nigerians and that we have no other country but our dear fatherland, which we must work together to keep healthy and secure, he said.












WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Students from the greater Seattle area will have an opportunity next week to talk with a NASA astronaut aboard the International Space Station. The Earth-to-space call will air live at 12:55 p.m. EDT Monday, March 2, on NASA Television and the agency's website.

Jessica Meir will answer questions from middle school students from across the Seattle region. Participants prepared for the Microsoft Education-hosted call by designing prototype protective footwear for astronauts through the Astro Socks Design Challenge.

The event will take place at The Museum of Flight, 9404 E Marginal Way South, Seattle. Media interested in covering should contact Lindsay Bayne at [email protected] or 317-446-6058, and Ted Huetter at [email protected] or 206-455-5360.

Linking students directly to astronauts aboard the space station provides unique, authentic experiences designed to enhance student learning, performance and interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Astronauts living in space on the orbiting laboratory communicate with NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston 24 hours a day through the Space Network's Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS).

For nearly 20 years, astronauts have continuously lived and work on the space station, testing technologies, performing science and developing the skills needed to explore farther from Earth. Through NASA's Artemis program, the agency will send astronauts to the Moon by 2024, with eventual human exploration of Mars. Inspiring the next generation of explorers  the Artemis Generation  ensures America will continue to lead in space exploration and discovery.

Follow America's Moon to Mars exploration at:

https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars

Follow NASA astronauts on social media at:

https://www.twitter.com/NASA_astronauts

See videos and lesson plans highlighting research on the International Space Station at:

https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation

SOURCE NASA

Related Links

http://www.nasa.gov


FISA Renewal Moving Ahead as Key Spygate Reforms Pushed Down the Road

WASHINGTONSenate and House Republicans appear to be at loggerheads about whether to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) before or after the controversial law at the heart of the Spygate scandal is reauthorized.

Amid frenzied budget negotiations, an obscure provision in the Nov. 18, 2019, measure to keep the government open also extended FISAs expiration, from the end of 2019 to March 15, 2020.

That delay has set up a simmering feud among congressional Republicans.

Attorney General William Barr lit the match Feb. 25 when he told Senate Republicans that he favors a clean FISA reauthorization that preserves key controversial surveillance provisions, including highly intrusive bulk metadata collections based on telephone records of individuals within and outside the United States.

Barr said he thinks sufficient reforms can be implemented administratively rather than going through a legislative process.

While Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) supported Barr, as did most other Senate Republicans, according to media reports, two Senate GOPersSen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Sen. Mike Lee of Utahmade clear they want reforms first, reauthorization later.

First, Paul wrote in a tweet shortly after Barr spoke:

A.G. Barr advocating for clean renewal of Patriot Act without any legislation to reform FISA is a disservice to @realDonaldTrump and should be roundly defeated. The secret FISA court should be forbidden from allowing spying on political campaigns ever againperiod!

Then, Lee wrote:

At the Senate GOP lunch today, I made a long case against a simple reauthorization of the FISA program. Some are arguing the program needs no reform and that DOJ can put in place internal quality control mechanisms. Thats not good enough.

On Feb. 26, Paul said President Donald Trump told him he also opposes a clean reauthorization, and the presidents most visible supporters among House Republicans fired off, led by Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), who wrote:

Former FBI officials in 2016-17 gravely abused the FISA process and lied to the FISA court 17 times Now, some members of Congress want to do a clean reauthorization of FISA anyway Totally unacceptable. Should NEVER happen.

Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey arrives at the Rayburn House Office Building to testify to the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 17, 2018. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Two minutes later, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote an even more blunt message for Senate Republicans:

Comeys FBI misled the FISA Court 17 times. We cant simply reauthorize the system that allowed those lies and omissions to happen. Now is our chance to fix it.

Caught in the middle are Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has declared his intention to hold hearings on FISA reforms, and 11 other Republicans on the panel.

Asked Feb. 27 by The Epoch Times where Graham stands on the issue, Taylor Reidy, the Judiciary chairmans spokesman, said, He hasnt said anything about a clean reauthorization.

There are presently no hearings on FISA reforms on the judiciary schedule between now and March 15, but that doesnt mean nothing is happening.

Graham told Fox News Maria Bartiromo on March 1 that he will hold hearings focusing on who in the FBI knew what and when regarding the governments investigation of allegations that members of Trumps campaign staff colluded with Russian interests to swing the 2016 election against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:

Bartiromo: So, just to be clear, are we going to see those testimonies in your committee within the next two weeks?

Graham: Youre going to have people interviewed by my staff and others to findget the foundation. Before I call McCabe and Comey, I want to find out exactly what happened.

In other words, the March 15 reauthorization deadline will arrive before Graham will convene hearings on FISA reforms. Graham rarely contradicts McConnell, so it appears he would vote for a clean reauthorization. He also said Feb. 27 he would seek an extension of the March 15 deadline to allow time for FISA reform hearings and compromise.

How the other Judiciary Republicans may vote remains up in the air, based on a survey Feb. 26 by The Epoch Times. Spokesmen for the 11 other GOP members of the committee either didnt respond to the request for comment, or said their bosses were undecided.

Meanwhile, on the House side, Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), another highly vocal Trump supporter, told political activists gathered near the nations capital for the Conservative Political Action Conference that hes in no mood for delaying FISA reforms.

We have got to look at ways to make this a process that cant be politicized, and weve also got to make where it can still be used, Collins told conference attendees.

Im promising you here, Ive told our conference this, and I said this out loud yesterday when I was furious that they stopped this markup: I am not going to trade off the easy extensions for not doing anything with FISA.

He was referring to a House Judiciary Committee markup of FISA reforms that was stopped earlier in the week by committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.).

We have to do something with FISA, and the House needs to do it, and the Senate needs to take it up, and we need to send it to the president so we know that this will not happen again, Collins said.

Given Trumps opposition to a clean reauthorization now, supporters of the move are most likely to try to attach it to legislation that the president normally would be unlikely to veto.

The coronavirus emergency supplemental funding measure now working its way through Congress reportedly looks like the most suitable option for such action. But House Republicans wont be pleased.

And the biggest question mark is Trump, who early on Feb. 27 retweeted Jordans demand for FISA reform now.
Geneva, Feb 26, 2020 (SPS) - The Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa, Alvin Botes, expressed on Tuesday his country's concern about the persistence of the illegal occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco, for almost four decades.

In his speech at the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the South African diplomat denounced the flagrant violation of international law which undermines the efforts of the international community to resolve the conflict in Western Sahara, affirming that "Pretoria hopes to contribute in an effective way, and gives an impulse to the Saharawi people to obtain their right to self-determination".

For Mr. Botes, the deterioration of the human rights situation in this last colony in Africa, arouses much interest from the South African government, which "once again renews its call to all international parties to ensure that the Saharawi people enjoy the rights provided for by international law in order to obtain their right to independence and peace".

He reiterated the firm support of his country, for the struggle of the Saharawi people, and the path of settlement as defined by international law and the United Nations and Security Council resolutions relating to the file.

It should be noted that South Africa is one of the most active countries of the Geneva Group to support Western Sahara, and works strongly at the level of the UN, and international organizations to defend the rights of the Saharawi people. , highlighting the reality of human rights violations and the looting of natural resources in the occupied parts of Western Sahara.

The Geneva Group includes countries with diplomatic relations with the Sahrawi Democratic Republic (SADR). SPS

125/090/TRA
President Trump is getting bad legal advice and bad political advice. Or, if hes going on his own instincts, maybe that most mystifying trait of his has yet again reared its head: He just cant stand prosperity or coast on good news. Whatever the case, this is not the right time  not that there would ever be a right time  to file a frivolous libel lawsuit against the New York Times, a suit that will put him on the defensive when he should be playing election-year offense.

This may have been the best week of the Trump presidency. Apparently poised to nominate an unabashed socialist as their 2020 standard-bearer, Democrats are panicking over the potential ramifications, including the down-ballot fallout. Meanwhile, Trumps poll numbers are up, and he just had a successful visit to India, a country of great importance.

Even amid a stock-market plunge, Trump held the best press conference of his presidency on Wednesday evening. Yes, its early and a lot could go wrong. His administration, though, appears to be managing the coronavirus outbreak well. With Democrats shamefully trying to stoke panic, the president made like the adult in the room, urging calm and bipartisanship. Of course, were talking about Washington, so calm and bipartisanship have to be graded on a curve: Trump did call House speaker Nancy Pelosi incompetent and took the obligatory shot at Senate minority leader Cryin Chuck Schumer. But these fleeting jabs were fair response to their targets demagogic sniping. Plus, Trumps point needed making: They are undermining the cooperation the country needs from its elected leaders in a potential health crisis.

So things are going Trumps way. It is hard to imagine a worse moment for the president (through his 2020 campaign) to file his libel suit, the gravamen of which is a March 2019 op-ed by the Timess former executive editor, Max Frankel.

The defamation claim is patently meritless. As a matter of law, opinion cannot be defamation, period. And Frankels essay was an opinion piece: It was expressly written as the authors opinion and published in the opinion section of the paper. Drawing on reported news and mostly undisputed facts, Frankel argued that there must have been collusion between the Trump campaign and the Putin regime during the 2016 election. The piece focused on the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, in which the top tier of the Trump campaign knowingly welcomed Natalia Veselnitskaya, a lawyer connected to the Russian regime, who had promised information that would harm Hillary Clintons campaign.

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The meeting featured Veselnitskayas plea for relief from the Magnitsky Act  legislation, stridently opposed by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, which permits the U.S. to seize the assets of regime officials and cronies. From this, Frankel deduced that there must have been a quid pro quo: Russian election assistance in exchange for a more favorable foreign policy toward Russia that would include sanctions relief.

The law does not require that an opinion be perfectly reasonable, much less correct, in order for it to be insulated from libel claims. Frankels opinion was far from outlandish. The president seems to believe that the Mueller investigations failure to find an actionable criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia means there was no collusion of any kind between the two, and that to claim otherwise is a defamatory smear. But that is simply not so.

Collusion is just concerted activity between two or more people. It is not necessarily criminal. As Ive pointed out many times, it was wrong for Trumps critics to use the weasel word collusion to suggest the existence of a criminal conspiracy for which there was no evidence. It is just as disingenuous for the Trump camp to suggest that Muellers finding of no criminal conspiracy is the equivalent of finding no unsavory collusion whatsoever. The Trump Tower meeting was plainly unsavory.

Highlighting Muellers no-crime finding, the presidents suit repeatedly stresses that there was no conspiracy between the [Trump] Campaign and the Russian government (emphasis in the original). Yet, Frankels op-ed did not claim there was a criminal conspiracy. It inferred that there was an overarching deal that was clear enough not to require detailed collusion: The Trump campaign wanted help from Russia to defeat Clinton, and the Russian regime wouldnt provide such help out of the goodness of its dark heart  Putin would expect solicitude if Trump were elected, including an easing of sanctions, in return. Frankel described this implicit deal as a quid pro quo, a term literally meaning this for that  which, like collusion, is not necessarily criminal.

The presidents suit stresses that the Trump Tower meeting did not amount to anything of substance  Veselnitskaya had nothing useful to offer, and the Trump campaign did not agree to any concessions to Russia. But again, this does not mean it was unreasonable for Frankel to form an opinion based on the apparent expectations of the two sides. Frankels opinion could be wrong, but that would not make it an intentionally or recklessly false assertion of fact, the libel standard that Trump, as a public figure, would have to satisfy.

Without a hint of irony, the Trump suit notes that the Times has reported Ms. Veselnitskayas statement that she never worked on behalf of the Russian government. So . . . is the president saying that we must accept Veselnitskayas statement as true because her word is unimpeachable and the Times reported it? There is overwhelming evidence, easily available to the president, to suggest that it was a lie  not least the Mueller Report, on which the president so heavily relies for his assertion that there was no criminal conspiracy. Mueller describes Veselnitskaya as a former Russian government prosecutor who continued to perform government-related work and maintain ties to the Russian government, and who has been indicted by the Trump Justice Department for lying about her relationship to the Russian government and thus obstructing a court case involving a Kremlin-connected business (see: Mueller Report, p. 112 & n. 676.).

Of course, the president is entitled to his opinion on this subject, just as he is entitled to opine that Speaker Pelosi is incompetent and that the Times is the fake news enemy of the people. In this great country, you have the right to draw your own conclusions from reported information, and to express your views  right or wrong.

But see, Max Frankel has the same right. Whats more, Frankel was engaged in political speech, just as the president frequently is when he unburdens himself. For the Framers, political speech was the species of expression that deserved the most robust First Amendment protection of all.

So, weve established that the suit lacks legal merit. How much damage will the president do himself by bringing it?

Inevitably, the New York state court will throw the suit out. At that point, the presidents opponents will spin the ruling as the work of a judge who surely concluded there was merit in Frankels collusion claims. How does that help the president and his campaign? It doesnt, nor does it hurt his opposition. To the contrary, besides having plenty of resources to fight the suit, the Times will be delighted at the publicity  and the opportunity to remind its readers and followers about the Trump Tower meeting  that it creates.

None of this makes sense. The president has the Mueller report. He has its ultimate conclusion that there was no criminal conspiracy. He has a good argument that the whole escapade was a politically motivated farce, spearheaded by the senescent Mueller and a cabal of partisan Democratic prosecutors, who knew they had no case yet spent two futile years trying to nail him. If the Trump Tower meeting comes up, the president can deflect it by countering that it doesnt hold a candle to reliance by the Clinton campaign and the Obama administration on a foreign spy and his Russian sources to fabricate a narrative that Trump was a traitorous national-security threat. The lawsuit does not help the president make these points; it is counterproductive.

Whats more, Trump already has more evidence than he could ever use to back up his assertions that the Times is in the tank for the Democrats. (Of course, thats just my opinion, right?) He does not need to file a lawsuit in order to make the point that Frankel, a Times fixture for years, has publicly described himself as a Democrat with a vengeance. He does not need a lawsuit to underscore that the Times and the legacy media for which it plays pied piper is incorrigibly, unabashedly anti-Trump, and will not give him a fair shake no matter what he does.

By filing this lawsuit, the president necessarily reminds the public of the Trump Tower meeting, which had long faded from the news. If hes hell-bent on sticking it to the media as revenge for its coverage of the Russia saga, does it make sense to do it by citing the most damaging evidence of collusion between his campaign and the Kremlin? Though he found no crime, Muellers portrayal of the Trump Tower meeting is unflattering, to put it mildly. The meeting undeniably shows the Trump campaign accepting the prospect of Russian help to defeat Clinton. It demonstrates extraordinarily poor judgment: By taking the meeting, Trump campaign officials made their candidate vulnerable to whatever Putin might say about it later on. (Putin, in case you hadnt noticed, lies a lot.) Moscow could easily have put out false propaganda that it was in cahoots with Trump, and that he was in on the hacking.

Lastly, the lawsuit once again places a negative spotlight on Donald Trump Jr., who arranged the meeting. Don Jr. has been tirelessly stumping for Republican candidates and causes across the country. He has become a real asset to his fathers campaign and the GOP. Why risk undermining his effectiveness as a surrogate?

Legally, politically, strategically, cathartically  I cant see a single way in which the libel suit against the Times helps the president. I guess maybe things were going too well.

More from National Review
(Natural News) It may not have any COVID-19 cases yet, but New York City, which is home to over 19 million people, is now on high alert for possible outbreaks of the new coronavirus.

This comes after the New York State Health Department confirmed that 700 people have voluntarily quarantined themselves after returning to the state from areas affected by the recent coronavirus outbreak. According to local health officials, none of the 700 had manifested any of the symptoms related to the disease.

We did have a number of people who matched that definition and they consistently went and got health care quickly, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a press conference. They were therefore isolated from everyone else. The testing happened quickly and the testing came back negative.

Despite this, NYC agencies are showing high vigilance to prevent the disease from even gaining a foothold.

No one should take this lightly, de Blasio said in an interview with Fox New York, adding that anyone who is manifesting flu-like symptoms, or had any physical contact with people who may have traveled to affected countries, must go and see a doctor immediately. (Related: Atlanta airport GM says 200 passengers showed signs of Wuhan coronavirus and were told to self-quarantine at home.)

De Blasio also added that health officials have distributed 1.5 million masks in New York and that he is seeking federal assistance for at least 300,000 more masks for the city, as well as other protective gear.

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, meanwhile, said in a separate statement that the state would set aside some $40 million to fight the virus, as well as plan for possible quarantines at homes, hospitals and even hotels.

In addition to the $40 million from the Legislature, Cuomo added that he would ask federal authorities for permission to test patient samples in a laboratory in New York, rather than wait several days for results from CDC laboratories in Atlanta, because New York is the front door internationally for many travelers.

No one should be surprised when we have positive cases, he added.

Echoing Cuomos sentiment, de Blasio also urged the CDC not just to expand testing of people arriving from high-risk areas outside of China  such as Iran, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand  but also give local health departments the ability to test for the virus on their own.

Right now, it is too narrowly focused on travelers coming out of China, de Blasio said. We think that needs to be expanded to any traveler coming from a country thats seen a major surge in cases. We think that needs to be expanded to any country that now has a travel warning attached to it by the United States government, he added.

De Blasio also mentioned that the city has made 1,200 hospital beds available for anyone suspected of being infected with the disease.

According to the CDC, there are currently 15 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the USA. In addition, the CDC has aired a statement suggesting that a pandemic is likely.

Its not a question of if. Its a question of when and how many people will be infected, CDC principal deputy director, Anne Schuchat, said.

As of press time, COVID-19 has infected 80,998 and killed 2,763 in China alone, as reported by Natural News.

How does self-quarantining work?

According to Jill Montag, a spokeswoman for the state Health Department, people who may have traveled to high-risk areas are asked to voluntarily self-isolate for 14 days after their last potential exposure as per CDC guidelines that are based on the virus incubation period.

Montag said that local health departments will monitor the individuals for signs and symptoms each day, during the quarantine period.

The signs and symptoms to look out for include fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. When the infection progresses, it can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death.

According to the CDC, while there is currently no specific treatment for COVID-19, those infected should receive supportive care to help relieve their symptoms. Serious cases would need additional care in order to support vital organ functions.

Get the latest news on the dreaded coronavirus outbreak at Outbreak.news.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

USAToday.com

ABC7NY.com

CDC.gov
Strong investment ensures Novartis can remain committed to provision of drugs. Photo: Le Toan

Last month, with investment of $6 million, the Swiss medicines group Novartis inaugurated its new legal entity in Vietnam under the name Novartis Vietnam Co., Ltd. On the occasion, the company announced the arrival of its first medicine shipment at the port of Ho Chi Minh City.

We strive to enhance Vietnams access to high-quality, innovative medicine, and will invest in strengthening local research and development capabilities, said Roeland Roelofs, country president of Novartis Vietnam.

According to Roelofs, as a committed partner of the government, Novartis has been supporting the healthcare system with various initiatives and continues to contribute to socio-economic progress.

One of the initiatives is the Glivec International Patient Assistance Program. This was a scheme to support patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia and gastrointestinal stromal tumours who have health insurance for no less than 36 months, with medicine completely free of charge. The programme has been implemented by Novartis since 2001 to support patients globally in over 80 low- and middle-income countries through the Max Foundation.

In Vietnam, the programme has been implemented since 2005, and supported 100 per cent of the cost of Glivec drug treatment for 8,000 patients in seven hospitals nationwide.

Besides this, Novartis also implemented the Vietnam Patient Assistance Program to support patients with leukaemia or intestinal tumours to receive Glivec or Tasigna completely free of charge. The costs of this programme were covered by the Health Insurance Fund and Novartis.

According to Novartis plan, the two programmes were to end last year but have been extended for an extra two months. The calculation of the Ministry of Health (MoH) shows that without the support, on average, each patient would need to pay about VND500 million ($21,750) per year. The market price for the drug is about VND1.2-1.6 million ($50-70) per day.

Although the company has made no official announcement about its next support programme, Novartis is expected to reduce the drugs price by one-third.

Another multinational that has been granted leave to import and export medicine in Vietnam is AstraZeneca.

Our company will invest VND5 billion ($220 million) in the next five years to promote clinical trials research and increase patients access to the healthcare system, Nitin Kapoor, president of AstraZeneca Vietnam, said. We will create 500 highly-qualified jobs in biomedical sciences, pharmaceuticals, and business administration, thereby providing Vietnamese talent with many opportunities for professional development and participation in the global AstraZeneca system.

The company has established 130 research units throughout the country and is committed to promoting scientific development and offering life-changing drugs.

Since 2013, AstraZeneca has invested about $37 million to support the implementation of clinical trial studies in Vietnam. The 28 ongoing studies raise hopes for more than 3,300 Vietnamese participants and patients who might profit from the results.

According to Kapoor, his company aims to reduce incidences of non-communicable diseases through building a patient-centred ecosystem which will bring about positive improvements throughout the healthcare journey.

Meanwhile, Zuellig Pharma, one of the largest healthcare service groups in Asia, has supported Vietnam by presenting more than 600 innovative eZCooler boxes to representatives of the northern provinces of Hai Duong, Bac Ninh, Son La, Yen Bai, Ha Giang, and Quang Ninh to enhance access to vaccines in these areas.

Before presenting these boxes, the company had co-operated with the National Institute for Control of Vaccines and Biologicals and Zuellig Pharma Vietnam to provide training courses to local healthcare staff. This demonstrates our groups long-term commitment to supporting the community, especially in vaccinations  a key task for the sector in Vietnam, said Marc Franck, chief executive of Zuellig Pharma Vietnam.

According to Franck, by providing the eZCooler boxes, his company is supporting Vietnams expanded programme on immunisation and helps to deliver vaccines to areas that are geographically difficult to reach while ensuring the integrity of the vaccines during transport. We are pleased to be part of the effort of making high-quality vaccines more accessible, Franck added.

Zuellig Pharma also carries out numerous corporate social responsibility activities and works to promote development of the pharmaceutical industry in Vietnam together with the MoH.
English Swedish Finnish

Company announcement, Helsinki, 28 February 2020 at 9:00 am (EET)



NEXSTIM PLC FINANCIAL STATEMENTS RELEASE 2019



Nexstim Plc (NXTMH:HEX, NXTMS:STO) ("Nexstim" or "Company"), today provides its financial statements for the full year 2019 (1 January31 December 2019) and H2 2019 (1 July-31 December 2019).

Highlights, July  December 2019

The NBT  system active commercial installed base grew to a total of 23 systems at end of December 2019, of which the US NBT  system installed base was a total of 10 systems and in Europe and rest of the world a total of 13 NBT  systems.



system active commercial installed base grew to a total of 23 systems at end of December 2019, of which the US NBT system installed base was a total of 10 systems and in Europe and rest of the world a total of 13 NBT systems. Nexstim received a medical device license from Health Canada, which allows Nexstim to start marketing and commercial distribution of the NBT  system for the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in Canada



system for the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in Canada H2 revenues amounted to EUR 2.1 million (2018: EUR 1.6 million), an increase of 33.8 percent year-on-year.



H2 NBT revenues amounted to EUR 0.9 million (2018: EUR 0.4 million), an increase of 110.4 percent year-on-year.

Post-period Highlights

On 11 February 2020, the Company announced that Martin Jamieson left his positions as the CEO of the Company and as a member of the Board of Directors of Nexstim. Nexstim's Board of Directors appointed Mikko Karvinen as interim CEO and Joonas Juokslahti as interim CFO with immediate effect.

Business Overview

Nexstim is a neuromodulation company developing and marketing pioneering navigated non-invasive brain stimulation systems for both therapeutic (NBT system) and diagnostic (NBS system) applications.



The Company developed its NBT device based on its NBS technology platform; commercialisation of the NBT system is currently Nexstims key strategic focus.



NBT

Nexstims NBT platform is based on its unique navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (nTMS) technology which allows for personalized, accurate, reproducible and non-invasive brain stimulation

In May 2018, Nexstim launched its Navigated Brain Therapy (NBT) system in the US for the treatment of MDD following FDA clearance in November 2017

MDD affects more than 300 million people worldwide with 20-40% of patients not responding to current treatment options. As a result, MDD is the key focus for Nexstims sales and marketing activities for its NBT system

The NBT system is CE marked for the treatment of depression and chronic pain

Active commercial installed base of 23 therapy treatment systems across three continents

NBS

Nexstims NBS system is the only CE-marked and FDA-cleared non-invasive solution for pre-surgical mapping of the motor cortex in brain cancer. Clinical data has been generated demonstrating the value of Nexstims unique navigation system for pre-surgical mapping with regard to patient outcomes



The NBS system allows surgeons to be better prepared and more aggressive with tumor resection, due to their confidence in the location of the motor and speech cortex because of pre-surgical mapping. The non-invasive device has demonstrated a 46% increase in progression free survival in low grade gliomas versus the current gold standard



The NBS system has been sold to approximately 170 research universities and leading hospitals across the world

CEO Mikko Karvinens review

In my first report as the new interim CEO of Nexstim, I am happy to report the important progress that Nexstim has made during the second half of 2019 and full year of executing its strategy, which is focused on driving the sales of its NBT system for the treatment of MDD.

During 2019, we have delivered and installed a total of 17 new NBT systems - 9 in the US and 8 in Europe (Austria, Finland, Germany, Italy and Sweden) - for the treatment of MDD. As a result, there are now a total of 23 NBT Systems installed for the treatment of depression and chronic neuropathic pain, globally.

We are confident that by continuing to highlight the NBT system's unique navigational capabilities, we will be able to gain further market share, by clearly differentiating it from the non-navigational TMS devices currently on the market. Its probable that the need for navigational capabilities will increase in the future technology to treat patients with severe depression, who are hospitalised and may have suicidal ideation. This could open an exciting new TMS market for Nexstim in treatment resistant depression (TRD), which is distinct from the current market.

The NBT business net sales for 2019 grew strongly by 131 percent to EUR 1.5 million, compared to EUR 0.7 million in 2018. Sales of the NBS system were lower during 2019 due to the focus of the commercial organization shifting more towards the faster growing NBT business. This led to the Companys net sales total increasing by 25 percent to EUR 3.3 million in 2019, compared to EUR 2.7 million in 2018.

In addition to the progress with our NBT system, we are continuing to see an improvement in our sales mix with a growing contribution from high margin after sales, including revenue from services, support, spare parts and consumable head trackers. As more of Nexstims revenue is generated from NBT therapy business, the portion of recurring revenue is growing. Recurring revenue (total therapy sales less NBT capital system sales) was about 66 percent of the total therapy revenue during year 2019. Nexstim targets an annual revenue of approximately EUR 100 thousand per NBT system a year in active established customer sites. During 2019 Nexstim reached an average therapy revenue per NBT system of EUR 85 thousand.

Year 2019 has been a time of investment to support our growth, particularly in our US commercial team as well as in Europe. As a result of this investment, operating cash burn amounted to EUR -6.7 million in 2019 compared to EUR -6.2 million in 2018.

In order to finance our growth strategy, we raised a total of EUR 6.6 million of new capital in share offerings in 2019. I wish to thank our investors for participating our share offers and I am delighted that we were able to attract new major anchor investors. This support reflects their confidence and strong commitment to Nexstim's future.

In the operational business we will focus on growing the active installed base of NBT Systems used for treatment of MDD with the emphasis on the large US market. It is our priority to continue to raise the market awareness of our NBT System. We are looking to achieve this by increasing the number of MDD patients treated with our NBT System which will allow us to collect more clinical data showing the benefits that our unique system is able to deliver to the large number of patients with depression. This data will be used to support our marketing efforts which we are confident will increase the adoption of our NBT system across the US. This clear therapy focused strategy means that we continue seeking a partner for our pre-surgical mapping business.

We also plan to continue to leverage our strong Key Opinion Leader network in the US and to utilize the patient registry data we are generating to publish a series of White Papers highlighting the advantages that our NBT System delivers when used to treat MDD. We believe that these efforts will allow us to generate higher therapy sales as we leverage our existing organisation in commercial sales, marketing, and clinical resources.

As of 31 December 2019, Nexstim had a cash position of EUR 4.3 million, which includes the Kreos loan.

My first more extensive reform work as the interim CEO of Nexstim will be a strategy review and update in close cooperation with the Board and management team. The main purpose of this strategy work is to update the long-term business outlook and financial objectives for NBT and NBS businesses. We will at the same time evaluate a number of different funding options and strategic alternatives for our businesses.

Key performance indicators

EUR in thousands 7-12/2019

6 months 7-12/2018

6 months 1-12/2019

12 months 1-12/2018

12 months Net sales 2,130.7 1,592.8 3,348.1 2,672.1 Personnel expenses -2,634.0 -2,413.7 -4,713.0 -3,937.5 Other operating expenses -1,679.3 -2,184.7 -3,647.5 -3.985.9 Depreciation and amortisation -319.3 -269.6 -524.6 -424.0 Operating profit (loss) -3,155.5 -3,108.2 -6,517.5 -6,315.6 Profit/ -Loss for the period -3,117.8 -3,713.8 -6,782.6 -6,154.3 Earnings per share (EUR)* -0.07 -1.14 -0.25 -1.93 Cash flows from operating activities -3,002.5 -3,069.4 -6,681.5 -6,192.5 Cash in hand and at banks 4,266.2 7,175.2 4,266.2 7,175.2 Total equity -740.1 -294.3 -740.1 -294.3 Equity ratio (%) -8.49 -0.98 -8.49 -0.98 Number of shares in the end of the period (pcs)* 62,789,630 3,253,751 62,786,630 3,253,751 Average number of shares during the period (pcs)* 42,146,358 3,251,865 27,611,274 3,187,487 Diluted number of shares in the end of the period (pcs)* 64,080,578 4,431,575 64,080,578 4,431,575 Diluted average number of shares during the period (pcs)* 54,664,246 4,701,628 36,392,323 4,577,627





*The number of shares has been adjusted to take account the effect of the reverse share split on 26 November 2018, where the number of shares was decreased 30-fold.

Future Outlook

Based on its business forecast, the Company expects NBT business revenue to grow during year 2020 and a loss for the period is expected for the financial year 2020.

Board of Directors Proposal on the Dividend

Since it was founded, the Company's operations have been unprofitable, and no dividend has been distributed. In the forthcoming years, the Company will focus on financing the growth and the development of its business and the Company will adhere to a very stringent dividend policy, tied to the Company's results and financial standing. The Company does not expect to be able to distribute dividends in the near future. In the event dividends are distributed, all Shares will be entitled to equal dividends.

At the end of the financial period of 2019, the distributable assets of the groups parent company were EUR 12,268,771.99. The Board of Directors proposes that Nexstim Plc should not pay any dividend for the financial period of 2019.

Helsinki 28 February 2020

Nexstim Plc

Board of Directors

Further information is available on the website www.nexstim.com, or by contacting:

Mikko Karvinen, CEO

+358 50 326 4101

mikko.karvinen@nexstim.com

Sisu Partners Oy (Certified Adviser)

Jussi Majamaa

+ 358 40 842 4479

jussi.majamaa@sisupartners.com

Publication of financial information during year 2020

A conference call for analysts, investors and media will take place at 15:00 Finnish time (EET) on Friday 28 February 2020. The call will be hosted by Mikko Karvinen, CEO and Joonas Juokslahti, CFO, who will present the financial and operational results followed by a Q&A session.

The dial-in numbers for the conference call are:

Finland: +358 (0) 9 2319 5437

Sweden: +46 (0) 8 50520 424

UK: +44 (0) 20 3003 2666

USA: +1 212 999 6659

Standard International: +44 (0) 20 3003 2666

The call password is Nexstim

Half-Yearly Report January-June 2020 (H1) will be published on Friday, August 14, 2020 Nexstim Annual Report 2019 (Report of the Board of Directors, the Financial Statements and Consolidated Financial Statements and the Auditor's Report) will be published on company web pages on Friday, March 6, 2020. The Annual General Meeting is tentatively scheduled to be held on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 at 10:00 am

About Nexstim Plc

Nexstim is a Finnish, globally operating medical technology company. Our mission is to enable personalized and effective therapies and diagnostics for challenging brain diseases and disorders.

Nexstim has developed a world-leading non-invasive brain stimulation technology called SmartFocus. It is a navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) technology with highly sophisticated 3D navigation providing accurate and personalized targeting of the TMS to the specific area of the brain.

SmartFocus technology is used in Nexstims proprietary Navigated Brain Therapy (NBT) system, which is FDA cleared for marketing and commercial distribution for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) in the United States. In Europe, the NBT system is CE marked for the treatment of major depression and chronic neuropathic pain.

In addition, Nexstim is commercializing its SmartFocus based Navigated Brain Stimulation (NBS) system for diagnostic applications. The NBS system is the only FDA cleared and CE marked navigated TMS system for pre-surgical mapping of the speech and motor cortices of the brain. Nexstim shares are listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland and Nasdaq First North Growth Market Sweden.

For more information please visit www.nexstim.com



Attachments
GLENDALE, Calif., Feb. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Glendale City Council adopted a resolution on Tuesday to enter into a set of long-term Power Sales Agreements (PSA's) with the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA) to purchase geothermal energy. The projects, Whitegrass No.1 Geothermal and Star Peak Geothermal, under the management of Open Mountain Energy, LLC located in Nevada, will commence on April 2020 and April 2021 respectively. The two projects combined will bring 15.5 MW of 100% renewable energy to Glendale and GWP customers, and will move Glendale significantly further towards meeting the State of California's mandates of Senate Bill (SB) 100.

The geothermal projects will equate to an estimated11% increase in Glendale Water & Power's (GWP) Renewable Portfolio Standard. The zero-carbon energy provided to our customers will reduce carbon emissions by 52,600 metric tons per year. Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian stated, "This agreement marks another successful milestone in Glendale's path towards its clean energy goals while maintaining a reliable power supply for Glendale. Instead of only generating power when the sun is shining or when the wind is blowing, a geothermal project produces energy continuously, so we can rely on it for power around the clock; a partnership and achievement we are very proud of." Geothermal energy is consistent and has high capacity factor at approximately 90%, as compared to the lower capacity factors of intermittent resources like solar and wind, which are at 25% and 34% respectively.

Glendale is definitely on a path to transition to a low carbon future and to establish Glendale as a clean energy leader. "We are reducing our use of fossil fuels and bringing environmentally sustainable, reliable, and affordable energy alternatives to our customers," stated Steve Zurn, General Manager of GWP. In December, GWP also announced that it entered into a 25-year PSA with SCPPA for a 12.5% share of renewable solar energy, battery storage, and environmental attributes from the Eland 1 Solar and Storage Center in Kern County, California.

Glendale Water & Power (GWP) is the City of Glendale's water and electric utility. GWP provides water to 34,181 customers and generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to 88,849 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Glendale, California. www.GlendaleWaterAndPower.com. Twitter @COGWaterPower Facebook /GlendaleWaterAndPower

Contact:

Atineh Haroutunian

Glendale Water & Power

(818) 548-3381

[email protected]

SOURCE Glendale Water & Power

Related Links

http://www.glendalewaterandpower.com


Batting for the entire east



zone of the country, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday demanded a special economic package for the region, saying that it lags in many sectors despite being endowed with natural and mineral resources.

Speaking at the 24th Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) meeting, chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah here, the chief Minister said the entire eastern region is underdeveloped in terms of teledensity, railway network and banking density compared to other zones, and therefore needs a special fiancial package for infrastructure development.

One of the prime objectives of the Zonal Council is to develop healthy inter-state and Centre-state relations, Patnaik said, adding there is a need for financial, infrastructural and technological integration.

"If a nationwide analysis is done for teledensity, banking, rail and road density, the east zone would be at the bottom in all these subjects that are in the Union list. There is a need to double the allotments made to this region so that they catch up to the national benchmarks," the chief minister said.

Emphasising that this zone contributes maximum to the mineral wealth of the country and ensures security for manufacturing and energy sectors, he said the fruits of this wealth should boost economic growth of the region.

Lamenting that royalty on coal has not been revised since 2012, Patnaik said there is an urgent need to review this and also the share of clean energy cess with the state governments.

"Our region has some of the largest scheduled areas of the country. I reiterate my demand for inclusion of Ho, Bhumij and Mundari languages in the Eighth Schedule of Constitution," the chief minister said.

Referring to Odisha specific issues, Patnaik said he was thankful to the Union government for supporting the state during cyclone Fani last year.

Taking the frequency of natural disasters faced by Odisha into consideration, he said, Vulnerability to natural calamity should be taken as a criteria to declare his state a "special focus state".

The chief minister also spoke about delay in releasing grants to urban local bodies and non-release of subsidy for paddy procurement causing problems to farmers.

He said the state provides 50 per cent of estimated cost and free land for important railway projects but the progress has been "very slow".

Apart from Patnaik, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar are attending the meeting. Jharkhand Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon is deputising for Chief Minister Hemant Soren.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
YouTube can censor conservative content, not bound by First Amendment: Appeals court

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A three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has unanimously ruled that YouTube can censor conservative content, as it is not compelled by the First Amendment to allow all viewpoints.

The popular conservative YouTube channel PragerU filed a lawsuit against YouTube and Google, accusing the entities of wrongfully censoring their videos.

However, in a decision released Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit panel affirmed a lower court ruling dismissing Pragers lawsuit against the video-sharing website.

Circuit Judge M. Margaret McKeown authored the panel's opinion, arguing that despite its large-scale use and viewership, YouTube remains a private forum rather than a public forum.

Despite YouTubes ubiquity and its role as a publicfacing platform, it remains a private forum, not a public forum subject to judicial scrutiny under the First Amendment, wrote McKeown.

PragerU runs headfirst into two insurmountable barriersthe First Amendment and Supreme Court precedent. Just last year, the Court held that merely hosting speech by others is not a traditional, exclusive public function and does not alone transform private entities into state actors subject to First Amendment constraints.

PragerU CEO Marissa Streit said in a statement released in response to the panel's decision that they will continue to resist having their content restricted.

As we feared, the Ninth Circuit got this one wrong, and the important issue of online censorship did not get a fair shake in court, Streit said.

Sadly, it appears as if even the Ninth Circuit is afraid of Goliath  Google. Were not done fighting for free speech and we will keep pushing forward.

A YouTube channel with over 1 million subscribers and headed by conservative radio host Dennis Prager, PragerU has alleged that YouTube and its parent company Google have been wrongfully censoring their content.

This has included YouTube either blocking or restricting the content of the PragerU channel to be seen only by "mature" audiences.

In October 2017, PragerU filed a lawsuit against Google and YouTube in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing them of ideologically-driven discrimination.

In March 2018, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh dismissed the lawsuit, arguing that Google and YouTube were private entities and thus had the right to remove videos as they saw fit.

"PragerUs videos werent excluded from Restricted Mode because of politics or ideology, as we demonstrated in our filings, a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement, as reported by The Hill at the time.

PragerUs allegations were meritless, both factually and legally, and the courts ruling vindicates important legal principles that allow us to provide different choices and settings to users."

In addition to the federal lawsuit that was rejected by the Ninth Circuit, PragerU has also filed a state lawsuit in California against YouTube and Google.

However, in November, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Brian Walsh denied a preliminary injunction request by PragerU, arguing that it did not show a reasonable probability of success."
A screen shows Chinese President Xi Jinping as Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in a ceremony inaugurating the Power of Siberia pipeline via a video link in Sochi, Russia, Dec. 2, 2019.

While China's economy struggles to recover from the coronavirus epidemic, the Russian energy sector is anxiously awaiting the results.

The consequences of the crisis are piling up for China's second-largest oil supplier with both direct and indirect effects on Russia's stagnant economy.

Russia is directly affected by the sudden slump in demand from the world's leading oil buyer. China has been Russia's largest trading partner with an estimated U.S. $110 billion (773 billion yuan) in bilateral business last year.

In 2019, China imported 77.64 million metric tons (1.56 million barrels per day) of oil from Russia. The volume accounted for 31 percent of Russia's crude exports outside the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), according to Chinese customs and Russian dispatch figures.

Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that Chinese oil executives expected that demand in February would plunge by 3.2 million barrels per day, nearly 25 percent, due to the epidemic shutdown.

The impact is likely to fall heavily on Russia even if it keeps pumping at high volumes because of the indirect effect of the 25-percent slump in world prices and the country's heavy reliance on revenues from oil and gas.

"The probability of the decline in oil export revenues is almost inevitable in the first quarter on the back of (the) spreading virus from China," said Alexei Kudrin, chairman of Russia's Accounts Chamber, on Twitter earlier this month.

On Feb. 13, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said it expected world oil demand in the first quarter would fall for the first time in over a decade.

The Paris-based IEA also cut this year's forecast for demand growth by more than 30 percent to 825,000 barrels per day (bpd), the lowest since 2011.

The decline triggered discussions within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties and cooperating producers, known as OPEC+, to consider lowering production by an additional 600,000 bpd.

But Russia has balked, fearing a further erosion of revenues and market share.

"A slowdown in the Chinese economy is fraught with a decrease in the consumption of energy resources, which is bad for prices on commodity markets and may slow down the formation of Russia's reserves," Sergey Suverov, senior analyst at BCS Premier bank, told the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

Border shutdown

Russia has largely closed its 4,200-kilometer (2,609-mile) border with China and barred Chinese tourists with the emergence of two coronavirus cases in Siberia. The move drew thinly-veiled criticism of China's closest ally from the Global Times.

The tourism ban will cost Russia U.S. $200 million (1.4 billion yuan) in the first quarter alone and "weigh on the two nations' normal economic communication," the Communist Party of China-affiliated paper said.

Russian analysts surveyed by the daily Izvestia estimated that the effects of the virus will reduce Russia's gross domestic product by 0.1 to 0.3 percentage points from already sluggish growth forecasts of 1.75 to 1.9 percent this year.

On Feb. 22, the International Monetary Fund issued a revised forecast for global economic growth, based on the assumption that recovery would take place in the second quarter of the year.

"As a result, the impact on the world economy would be relatively minor and short-lived," said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, estimating a loss of just 0.1 percentage points.

The reduction in China's growth rate this year would be larger, however, dropping to 5.6 percent from the previous estimate of 6 percent in January, Georgieva said, even assuming a speedy recovery.

The impact of China's slowdown is likely to be felt in Russia's gas industry, which has already been hurt by a relatively warm winter in Europe, high storage levels and U.S. sanctions that have stalled completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany.

The global gas glut was already well underway before the coronavirus added to the slide in Asian prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) amid reports that Chinese importers have been trying to turn away contracted cargoes.

Energy analysts warned months ago that China had slowed its program for converting heating systems from coal to gas after two years of double-digit growth for the cleaner burning fuel.

Now at the end of the winter, some LNG cargoes have nowhere to go. On Feb. 13, Reuters reported that 15 LNG tankers have been turned into "floating storage," citing data from Kpler, a commodity tracking firm.

"It's hard to imagine that all those volumes will not pressure the market," said Elena Burmistrova, director general of Gazprom Export.

A man stands outside the headquarters building of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) in China's capital Beijing, July 29, 2016. Credit: AFP Bad timing

At an investors meeting in London, Burmistrova said the Russian gas monopoly estimated that 20 million tons of LNG cargoes were "on the water," according to Reuters.

The timing for Russia could hardly be worse.

After more than a decade of planning, negotiating and building a gas route to China, Russia opened its 3,000-kilometer (1,854-mile) Power of Siberia pipeline in early December, a little over a month before the coronavirus outbreak became known.

Now, Gazprom officials are said to be bracing for a declaration of force majeure, an internationally recognized legal exemption from contract commitments in case of unforeseen events.

China National Offshore Oil Corp, (CNOOC) has already invoked force majeure to turn away contracted LNG cargoes, Bloomberg News reported. China National Petroleum Corp.

(CNPC) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) are considering similar moves, the Financial Times said.

Russia has invested some U.S. $55 billion (386 billion yuan) in the Power of Siberia project with planned deliveries of 5 billion cubic meters (bcm) to China this year, rising to 38 bcm by 2024. Those assumptions are now open to question.

On Feb. 5, a gas industry source told Interfax that Gazprom had not received a request from China to alter the delivery schedule "as of today." But there are signs that plans for further expansion in China have already been derailed.

On Feb. 13, Gazprom said it had suspended talks on building a second line to China because of the coronavirus, Reuters reported. The company has been pursuing a second pipeline plan for the past 14 years with a western route through Xinjiang and, more recently, through Mongolia.

It is unclear whether the suspension means that Russia has abandoned its ambitions. But after failing for years to persuade China to fund the Power of Siberia project, it appears even less likely to attract Chinese financing now.

As China's gas demand stalls, Gazprom appears to be depending on a "take-or-pay" provision of its contract with China. The clause calls for guaranteed payment on 85 percent of the contracted volume whether CNPC takes delivery or not, according to Interfax.

Force majeure

But even this protection could go by the boards if CNPC declares force majeure.

The developments suggest that Russia has relied too heavily both on China and petroleum revenues, said Edward Chow, senior fellow for energy and national security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"This shows that oil and gas exports to China, in order to diversify from European markets, do not solve the Russian economy's fundamental problem of over-reliance on cyclical commodities, particularly when they involve construction of expensive new infrastructure," Chow said.

"It took 10 years for Russia to negotiate the gas deal with China. No doubt both sides were hoping for favorable market conditions by the time the pipeline was completed at the end of last year," he said.

"Instead global prices are at historic lows with oversupply of gas and slowing demand even before the outbreak of the coronavirus, which will only exacerbate the situation."

So far, Russia's independent gas producer Novatek has voiced uncertainty but also longer-term confidence in China, which holds significant shares in its Arctic LNG projects.

"The coronavirus is the black swan event  unpredictable to forecast and difficult to gauge the extent and duration of this virus epidemic. Chinese demand has clearly been affected," said Novatek CFO Mark Gyetvay, Platts energy news reported on Feb. 20.

"We can say with absolute certainty that this event will pass and we reiterate that China will remain the market of choice for many years," Gyetvay said, adding that Novatek had not received any force majeure notifications from Chinese buyers "at this time."
I am not here to preach to anyone but to tell Ghanaians and their politicians, especially the parliamentarians, the gospel truth. Subsequently, I will quote them a bible verse to buttress my contention as to strongly advising them without any ifs or buts, to learn from the good ways of others to develop Ghana to the admiration of all honest, sensible and selfless Ghanaians.

In Proverbs 6:6-8, it says Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, 8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

Following from the above biblical wise saying, I shall ask, but not request, the ensemble of Ghana parliamentarians to go to Singapore, learn their ways, and do same in Ghana. As we are in the technological, thus internet, age, I shall save Ghana money by not flying all the parliamentarians to Singapore but rather bring the way-forward-intelligence of the Singaporean parliament to Ghana parliamentarians here in this publication.

I find it completely shocking, annoying and nonsensically criminal to see Ghana parliamentarians from the two divides, thus the majority from the ruling party and the minority from the opposition side, never agreeing on most policies despite such policies being formulated in good faith and for the collective benefit of Ghanaians and the nation.

For their malicious selfish agenda, which is not in the best interest of the public, they will always have absurd reasons to oppose or scupper such policies. However, in Singapore, both the majority side and the minority side of parliamentarians are strongly admonished to evaluate any policy proposition by the government and as may be put forward by the majority side and if it is good, they have to support it. Similarly, if such a proposition is opposed by the opposition side with good reasons assigned, or if the opposition side proposes something that is good, it must be accepted and implemented. This is what they have been doing hence Singapore emerging from the dungeon of extreme poverty to become an extremely prosperous nation to the envy of many a struggling nation.

Please watch the video below to ascertain for yourselves the veracity of my assertion and how ingenious, far-thinking and serious the Singaporean leaders are to building their nation for the collective benefit of their entire Singaporean citizenry. Their selfless attitude is in complete divergence from what is seen happening on daily basis in Ghana parliament.

In Ghana, the president, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who I prefer to address as the modern-day biblical David or Joseph, has good intentions for Ghana. As good intentions alone cannot bring about the world peace unless they are backed up by practical implementations, the president is seen to be doing exactly so. However, his rivals in opposition, the NDC bandwagon so to speak, have embarked on criminal activities to render ineffective his good policies and programmes.

Will the maliciously criminal behaviours of the NDC have a place in Singapore parliament or in the country, going by the content of the video and many such videos on the good governance of the nation as are available on YouTube? No!! If they did, they would be arrested and thrown into jail, period!

The Free Senior High School education was envisioned by the far-thinking Akyem kwaa Nana Addo, and has now been implemented. The policy/programme is to enhance the knowledge of many a Ghanaian citizen as possible to enable them to become competitive in the global market. It is to build the human resource base of the country to serve as, a springboard to catapult us into the sphere of prosperous economic transformation, or the platform for the prosperity of the nation to take off.

When many Ghanaians are educated, can read and write, they will easily understand that when Rockson Adofo writes one or two sentences saying corruption is ruinous to the nation and many Ghanaians, they will easily understand, do their own research to confirm or disagree with Rockson, the son of Kumawu/Asiampa. With this ease of understanding, he will no longer be verbose with his write-ups, going to the lengths to explain himself but rather be short and sweet.

The NDC National Chairman Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, a criminal who is saintly adored as an Elder at the Pentecost Church, hatches plans to kill, kidnap, and insult and cause arsons in Ghana. The Ghana laws and judicial system as toothless as they are before politicians and big-time criminals have almost left this man free to continue to open up his stinking mouth. Again, that inimical liar and loudmouth, Sammy Gyamfi, a purported lawyer who does not comprehend the seriousness of defamation of character and falsification of documents is seen or alleged to be doing same with impunity.

When the Electoral Commission (EC) is mandated to do their work without interference from whomsoever, former President John Dramani Mahama, NDC General Secretary John Asiedu Nketiah, NDC Communications member Sammy Gyamfi and many others are beating the war drum that should the EC carry out her mandate, they will burn Ghana. Should I call these people as inane, fools or what?

These people and their actions will have no place in Singapore, I bet you! They will long have been thrown into jail.

Ghanaians, please let us wise up. Dont let us allow selfishly greedy bastards to play on our intelligence. Dont sell your conscience and vote for a pittance only to bite your finger in regret at long last.

The visionless NDC folks are spreading false rumours all with intent to deceive the public to reject the NPP to vote for the NDC. Please fellow Ghanaians, dont believe them for they are like Satan that comes to rob, kill and spoil.

Again, watch the following video on how Singapore did it and continue to do it to succeed. They have set the precedent for a developing country like Ghana to copy in her anticipations for socio-economic emancipation. I hope the president will also be guided by the content of this video.

The old man, Rockson Adofo, from Kumawu/Asiampa, loves his motherland Ghana so he is always coming out with suggestions in the best interest of the nation and the people. All that it takes for his suggestions to work is to do them, share them and be positive-minded when applying them without leaving room for the dubious politicians, e.g. the NDC, to plant a seed of doubt in your mind.

Fellow Ghanaians, let us all be cooperative. Let us all see sense in the style of governance by the Singapore leadership. Let us all emulate the precedent set by the Singaporeans and finally, let us support Nana Akufo-Addo and his NPP government to achieve all their noble policies and programmes for Ghana and for Ghanaians.

I invite you all to drink from the ever overflowing fountain of wisdom of the son of Kumawu Asiampa, Rockson Adofo, the defender of the defenceless and the voice for the voiceless. Kumawuman shall be free from the suppression of the supposedly traditional overlords but who are indeed lawless and criminals!

With God on our side, dedication to duty, compassion, dynamism, positivity, honesty and being as wise as the serpent to detect the deceit by the enemies, we shall succeed.

I salute you all!

Rockson Adofo
Service Insurance Holdings, based in Austin, Texas, has made changes to its executive leadership team, completing a long-planned transition to provide executive leadership for all insurance operations. The company provides casualty products and services through its subsidiaries, Service Lloyds Insurance and Service American Indemnity.

Brad Davis has been appointed president and will continue to serve as CFO. Kelly Gray, who had been serving as interim president, will continue to serve as CEO. Jacob Clymer will succeed Steve Collier as chief operating officer.

In his expanded role, Davis will lead the executive team, formulate goals, plans and strategies, and provide oversight to all the businesses within the Gray family of companies, including the insurance operations.

In anticipation of his July 1 retirement, Collier has been named executive advisor, where he will continue to work closely with Davis and Clymer, offering his 40-plus years of extensive insurance carrier experience and expertise to support the ongoing success of the organization. He will continue to advise the company post-retirement.

These changes were effective Feb. 1, 2020.

Service Lloyds Insurance and Service American Indemnity have provided casualty insurance to Texas employers since 1982 and nationally since 2015. The two companies are pooled and operate under Service Insurance Holdings Inc., which is wholly owned by the Gray Family.

Source: Service Insurance Holdings

Topics Texas
WASHTENAW COUNTY., MI  A family lost its home Thursday when a fire broke out and couldnt be easily contained due to high winds and low temperatures freezing water supply lines, firefighters said.

Crews were called at 8:35 a.m. Feb. 27, to a home in the 8000 block of Schellenberger Road in Bridgewater Township, east of Manchester, for heavy smoke coming from the two-story residence, Manchester Township Fire Chief William Scully said.

The family was able to get out of the burning home prior to crews arriving on scene, Scully said.

Seven departments from the surrounding area were called to the scene to assist, as there was no fire hydrant available and snow-covered roadways made getting to the scene difficult, Scully said.

Wind fueled the fire and firefighters water lines began to freeze, Scully said.

Crews battled the blaze for several hours, using more than 100,000 gallons of water, but the home was declared a total loss, Scully said.

No injuries were reported, and the family is being assisted by relatives and the American Red Cross, he said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, though it is not believed to be suspicious, Scully said.

Assisting at the scene were the Chelsea Area Fire Authority, Saline Fire Department, Dexter Fire Department, Scio Township Fire Department, Clinton Fire Department, Sand Lake Fire Department, Tecumseh Fire Department, Washtenaw County HART and Huron Valley Ambulance.

More from The Ann Arbor News:

Shoes stolen off Ypsilanti mans feet

Coronavirus concerns prompt University of Michigan travel restrictions to South Korea

Ann Arbor Student Film Festival this evening at Greenhills School

Ginger Deli to open downtown Ann Arbor restaurant
Like many poisonous animals, the African monarch butterfly's orange, white and black pattern warns predators that it is toxic. Warning patterns like this are usually consistent across individuals to help predators learn to avoid them. However, a recent study, published February 27 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, shows how a population of African monarch butterflies (Danaus chrysippus) breaks this rule and has highly variable warning patterns. The study, by Simon Martin of the University of Edinburgh, UK and colleagues shows that the unlikely answer lies in the interaction with a bacterium that specifically kills male butterflies.

Previous research had shown that all female butterflies in this East African population have two unusual features: Firstly, they have a new arrangement of their chromosomes where the chromosome containing genes that control color patterns is fused to their one of their sex chromosomes (called the W chromosome). This new chromosome is called the neo-W. Secondly, they are all infected with a bacterium called Spiroplasma that kills all of their sons. What was not clear, however, was whether these two features were linked, and whether they could explain the highly variable color patterns that changed from season to season.

To answer this, the researchers analyzed the entire DNA sequence of the bacteria and the female butterflies' chromosomes. This showed that the neo-W chromosome alters color patterns and has spread rapidly through the population, aided by the male-killing bacteria. However, because the bacterium only allows female offspring, it promotes the survival of one particular color pattern gene that is always passed from mother to daughter. This left one puzzle for the scientists still to solve -- if the females all carried the same color gene, then why was the East African population so variable?

The study found that this female color gene has only a weak effect that is overridden by color genes from the father. Therefore, fathers with different patterns will produce daughters with different patterns. Seasonal fluctuations in wind patterns are thought to affect which subspecies of male immigrants end up in this region, leading to seasonal changes in female color patterns. Even though they always resemble their father, the infected hybrid daughters, unable to produce sons, represent a genetic dead-end for fathers, whose color pattern genes only survive for one generation before being wiped out.

Dr. Simon Martin said, "The relatively fast emergence and spread of a new chromosome, combined with the short life cycle of the butterfly, allows us to study how the microbe is altering the evolution of the butterfly, almost in real-time. We are continually discovering new ways in which microbes manipulate their hosts, and male-killing is just one example of this. It makes you wonder to what extent the evolution of other organisms -- even humans -- is affected by such unseen forces."
[February 28, 2020] Allolio&Konrad to Become Part of Analysys Mason

LONDON, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Analysys Mason today announced it has agreed to acquire Allolio&Konrad, a management consultancy based in Bonn, Germany, with long-term client relationships with Europe's leading telecoms operators. Allolio&Konrad has an extensive track record in the telecommunications industry, and its key services include the design, management and assurance of major business support systems (BSS) and operational support systems (OSS) transformation programmes and large-scale, multi-year IT strategy initiatives, alongside other solutions focussed on performance and operations management. Within the last decade, Allolio&Konrad, has also successfully supported business and IT transformations within the German banking and utility sectors. Allolio&Konrad has 45 permanent employees. "We are delighted to welcome colleagues from Allolio&Konrad to Analysys Mason. This represents a very significant expansion which complements the work done by our Nordic offices and our world-leading Telecom Software Research. The office in Bonn will also form the basis of further expansion of our established consulting and research offerings to existing and new German-based clients or those with an interest in the German market" says Bram Moerman, CEO at Analysys Mason. Peter McMenemy, MD of Allolio&Konrad said, "We are very excited to be joining Analysys Mason as his will significantly strengthen our offerings as our transformation and consulting capabilities will embed seamlessly with Analysys Mason's deep telecoms industry expertise. Furthermore, being able to access Analysys Mason's global research and insights will allow us to support our clients' strategic priorities and ensure the best possible outcomes for them."



"The acquisition of Allolio&Konrad builds logically on other recent acquisitions, strengthening Analysys Mason's position in the market for strategic, digital transformation, IT transformation, and performance consulting, and broadening its skills base to support the accelerating demand for 5G expertise. A presence in Germany complements the existing footprint of Analysys Mason's international offices, adding valuable skills and expertise to better serve its multinational clients," says Jens Montanana, CEO of Datatec Group, Analysys Mason's parent company. The acquisition is subject to the approval by the German Competition Authorities and is expected to be finalised in March 2020.

Analysys Mason has its head office in London, and offices in Cambridge, Dubai, Dublin, Hong Kong, Kolkata, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, New Delhi, New York, Oslo, Paris, Singapore and Stockholm. About Analysys Mason (www.analysysmason.com) Analysys Mason is a global specialist adviser in telecoms, media and technology (TMT). At the core of Analysys Mason's offer are two key services: TMT consultancy and research. Since 1985, Analysys Mason has played an influential role in key industry milestones and helping clients through major shifts in the market. We continue to be at the forefront of developments in the digital economy and are advising clients on new business strategies to address disruptive technologies. Our teams of consultants and analysts have developed skills, techniques and methodologies that deliver tangible results for clients the world over. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alloliokonrad-to-become-part-of-analysys-mason-301013537.html SOURCE Analysys Mason

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Jerusalem: A two-day hearing in the Jerusalem District Court, which featured the cross-examination of psychiatrists in the ongoing case against alleged child sex abuser Malka Leifer, has come to a close.

Malka Leifer, right, is brought to a courtroom in Jerusalem in 2018. Credit:AP

Three psychiatrists were cross-examined in total, all of whom had previously deemed Leifer fit to face extradition trial.

The closed-court hearing is one in 65 of the nearly decade-long saga to bring Leifer back to Australia to face 74 charges of rape and child abuse.

The charges stem from her time as principal at Melbourne's Ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel School.
Pipeline

28 February 2020

Hilton (NYSE: HLT) today announced that the company entered into a management agreement with Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd. scheduled to open Hilton Okinawa Miyako Island Resort in 2023. Constructed by Mitsubishi Estate and Kajima Corporation, this will be Hilton's first property on Miyako Island, located approximately 300km southwest from Okinawa's main island.

Hilton Okinawa Miyako Island Resort will join Hilton's portfolio of six hotels in Okinawa presently operating under two brands, including Hilton Hotels & Resorts and DoubleTree by Hilton.

Known for its clear blue waters and home to the popular Yonaha Maehama Beach, Miyako Island is a popular resort destination among Japanese locals. Located on the waterfront close to the photogenic Irabu Bridge that connects the islands of Miyako and Irabu, facilities offered by the new-built 329-room hotel include restaurants, fitness amenities, meeting and function spaces, as well as a banquet hall, swimming pool, spa, chapel and an executive lounge and ocean-view rooftop bar.

Over the years, Okinawa has become an increasingly popular tourist destination for those seeking a tropical beach vacation in Japan. The Miyako Shimojishima Airport Terminal was also opened in March 2019, offering both international and domestic flights, further enhancing the accessibility and popularity of Miyako Island.
A court in Ukraine has ordered an investigation into Joe Biden over claims he repeatedly pressured officials to force the dismissal of the country's prosecutor general.

Viktor Shokin, who was Ukraine's top prosecutor from 2015 to 2016, lodged the complaint with a Kiev court which in turn filed a request with Ukraine's investigative office the DBR to looking into the allegations.

The court granted this request and Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigations confirmed a probe was underway, according to The Washington Post.

Shokin accused the former vice president of pressuring officials in Kiev to fire him in 2016 while Biden was in office.

He claims Biden wanted him removed because Shokin tried to investigate Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian gas company where Biden's son, Hunter, was a highly paid board member, reportedly being paid $83,000 per month.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaking to guests during a campaign stop at Coastal Carolina University yesterday

Hunter Biden being interviewed on Nightline last year. Hunter Biden's time on the supervisory board at Ukrainian gas group Burisma, become the focal point of the impeachment allegations against Present Trump

Oleksandr Teleshetsky, Shokin's lawyer, said Biden had 'called repeatedly' for Shokin to be fired while he was working as prosecutor general.

He told the Post: 'They need to investigate this. They have no other alternative. They are required to do this by the decision of the court. If they don't, then they violate a whole string of procedural norms.'

The lawyer insisted that Shokin had no intention of interfering in American affairs or the electoral process in the United States. The complaint has 'no political character', he said.

Shokin mentioned Biden by name while making his request earlier this weekfor an investigation but case documents prepared by the State Bureau of Investigations refer only to an unnamed US citizen, Teleshetsky said.

Biden is one of the leading Democratic contenders seeking the nomination to challenge Trump in this year's presidential elections.

Both Bidens have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with the business dealings in Ukraine.

Then-General Prosecutor of Ukraine Viktor Shokin speaking during news conference in Kiev in 2015. He alleged Biden sought to get him fired

President Trump arriving for the National African American History Month reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington yesterday

President Trump has himself called for Hunter and Joe Biden to be investigated over the debunked allegations.

Last July Trump asked Ukraine's newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to launch an investigation into the Bidens over their dealings in the country.

This now infamous phone call sparked the impeachment proceedings which culminated in Trump's acquittal earlier this month.

House Democrats alleged the call amounted to a 'quid pro quo' arrangement, accusing Trump of threatening to withhold $400 million in US military aid if Ukraine did not launch an investigation into the Bidens.

Trump's unsupported assertions have always depended on the discredited accusation that the elder Biden pressed for the firing of Shokin to spare his son's company, Burisma, from scrutiny.

World Food Program USA Board Chair in 2016, Hunter Biden, introducing his father when he was vice president during a leadership award

Ousting Shokin was, in fact, the official position of the US government and its Western allies, including European Union nations and the International Monetary Fund leadership, because Shokin was believed to be incompetent or corrupt himself.

Two of Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani also branded the Biden's corrupt.

Giuliani's associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman allegedly traveled to Ukraine to dig up dirt on the Bidens.

All three were called out during impeachemnt hearings by former US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, for trying to oust her from her position in order to install someone more compatible with their agenda.

Parnas and Fruman are among a group of five charged with using straw donors to funnel illegal contributions to politicians they thought could help their political and business interests, including a pro-Trump super PAC as well as committees supporting other Republicans.
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Feb. 28

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

The Bulgarian Council of Ministers has approved draft bilateral agreements on the regulation of labor migration between the government of Bulgaria and the governments of Albania and Turkmenistan, Trend reports referring to the Russian Bulgaria newspaper.

Projects will become the basis for negotiations on issues related to the regulation of the citizens employment of these countries in Bulgaria, the report said with reference to the press service of the Government of Bulgaria.

To this date, Bulgaria has signed such agreements with Moldova and Georgia. Negotiations are underway to sign such agreements with Ukraine and Belarus.

It is planned to start negotiations on signing agreements with Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

A meeting of the Turkmen  Bulgarian Commission for Economic Cooperation took place in the Avaza National Tourism Zone in Turkmenistan (near the Caspian Sea) in August 2019.

The issues of cooperation in the field of energy, trade, agriculture, transport and communication were discussed during the meeting.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisovs visit to Ashgabat in August 2015 gave an impetus to the bilateral relations. The parties readiness for the cooperation in the field of global energy security and diversification of energy flows was stressed during the negotiations.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 21:11:35|Editor: xuxin

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JAKARTA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A number of Indonesian youths gathered in a front an office building in Cikini, Central Jakarta, on Friday afternoon, expressing solidarity with China in the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak.

Hasan Hidayat, a postgraduate student at China's Wuhan University majoring in economy, is one of the participants of the event. Hidayat returned to his home in Bogor, West Java, in mid-January.

"Hopefully, Wuhan will return to normal so all students, including me, can return to finish our studies," he told Xinhua, adding that he was still attending online classes given by his lecturers at the university.

Echoing Hidayat's statement, Muhammad Faruki, an Indonesian student majoring in international relations at Shandong University in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province, expressed confidence that the Chinese government would be able to deal with the virus.

Meanwhile, solidarity from Indonesian communities for China keeps growing. Last week, some 500 Indonesians from various organizations gathered at a charity event on the artificial Maju Island in northern Jakarta to express their support for China.

At the event, children sang pop songs and young people performed Indonesian traditional dances, including Betawi and Minahasan art dances, to show their moral support.

Members of inter-religious organizations in Indonesia also came together to pray for the victims affected by the epidemic.

"Wuhan Jiayou (Stay strong, Wuhan). Fight the virus. Together we are stronger," all participants at the rally shouted together.
When crossing the street, which way do you first turn your head to check for oncoming traffic? This decision depends on the context of where you are. A pedestrian in the United States looks to the left for cars, but one in the United Kingdom looks right.

A group of scientists at Columbia's Zuckerman Institute has been studying how animals use context when making decisions.

And now, their latest research findings have tied this ability to an unexpected brain region in mice: an area called the anterior lateral motor cortex, or ALM, previously thought to primarily guide and plan movement.

This discovery, published today in Neuron, lends new insight into the brain's remarkable ability to make decisions. Flexible decision making is a critical tool for making sense of our surroundings; it allows us to have different reactions to the same information by taking context into account.

"Context-dependent decision-making is a building block of higher cognitive function in humans," said neuroscientist Michael Shadlen, MD, PhD, the paper's co-senior author with Richard Axel, MD. "Observing this process in a motor area of the mouse brain, as we did with today's study, puts us a step closer to understanding cognitive function at the level of brain cells and circuits."

"If someone is standing uncomfortably close to me on a deserted street, I may try to run away, but if the same event occurred on a crowded subway car, I would feel no such danger," said neuroscientist and first author Zheng (Herbert) Wu, PhD. "My decision to move or not move is dependent on the context of where I am; thus giving a reason behind the choices I make."

To investigate how the brain achieves this context-dependent flexibility, the team surveyed several brain areas dedicated to processing and integrating sensory information, but found the critical area to be a part of the motor cortex called the ALM.

Previous experiments suggested that the ALM has a relatively simple job: It guides movements of a mouse's tongue and facial muscles.

Building on this understanding, the researchers designed a new experiment that required mice to make flexible decisions using their tongues and their olfactory system, which guides their sense of smell. In the experiment, a mouse first encountered a single odor.

The mouse had to remember this odor, because after a brief pause, the researchers then puffed a second odor over the nostrils of the mouse. If both odors were the same, the mouse had to lick a tube to the left to get water. If the two odors were different, it had to lick a tube to the right.

Previous work on this type of "delayed match to sample" test would lead one to expect that the mouse would use brain areas dedicated to odor perception to make the decision about which way to lick. Recordings of brain activity from these areas seemed to confirm this mechanism.

"Based on these recordings, one could imagine that these brain areas have the answer when the mouse receives the second odor," said Dr. Shadlen. "All that's left to do is pass that answer to the brain's motor system to produce the appropriate lick response to the left or right."

If this were so, then the motor area should not a play a role until the second odor is provided, and the mouse decides whether the two odors are the same or different. Dr. Wu devised a clever way to test this prediction. He switched off the animals' ALM until just before the second odor was given, turning ALM back on in time for the mice to receive the answer.

According to the standard view, the mice should have been unfazed by this manipulation, as their olfactory system remained intact. Instead they were impaired on the task." Michael Shadlen, MD, PhD, Study Co-Senior Author and Neuroscientist, The Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University

"Our results suggest that the ALM was required to solve the question of whether the two odors were a match and then to decide where to lick, prompting us to significantly rethink what the brain was doing to make these decisions," said Dr. Wu.

ALM was not known to be involved in odor perception. Dr. Wu therefore took a closer look at the brain cells in ALM. He discovered a new type of neuron in ALM very near the surface of the brain that responds to the first odor. It keeps that information handy until the second odor is received.

To explore this unexpected result, the research team turned to theoretical neuroscientist Ashok Litwin-Kumar, PhD, to investigate a variety of potential mechanisms that could account for ALM's role.

"Conventional wisdom held that the animals' olfactory brain region should handle scent processing on its own, and then feed information to the ALM, which would then guide the tongue," said Dr. Litwin-Kumar. "But the data told us a different story; the first odor acts as a contextual clue, priming the ALM to then indicate that relationship by deciding which way to lick in response to the second odor."

Today's findings, while focused on the ALM, are important for how they can inform scientists' larger understanding of brain function as a whole.

"Ultimately, we want to elucidate fundamental principles that explain simple behaviors, but that writ large provide insight into higher cognitive function in humans," said Dr. Shadlen. "An essential step toward that goal is to knit together knowledge about neurons, circuits and behavior using the languages of biology and mathematics. This collaborative project highlights the promise of this strategy."
I love those moments on radio when a presenter tells a bizarre tale from their past, believing it unique, only to have people ring up and say: Oh, sure, that happened to everyone, it was just standard at the time.

In my case, it was our school excursion to the Kenmore Psychiatric Hospital at Goulburn. It was a day trip from my school in Canberra. We were in year 9, as I remember it, which makes it 1973. We walked in, holding our packed school lunches, and were confronted by the horrors of an early-'70s asylum for the mentally ill.

It was like a scene from a badly-made horror film, with people in straitjackets, thrashing around and screaming in some mixture of delirium and agony as we were led through, dressed in our private school uniforms. It was the most disturbing thing, I imagine, any of us had ever experienced.

Visits to prisons were a warning to the young. Credit:Fairfax

I dont quite know what the point was, other than to understand how lucky we were, and how grateful we should be for the life we had. Forget the privacy of the patients. Or the way wed all have nightmares for years.
/ -- Manipal & Medical Group is a name synonymous with high quality of with campuses across the world. One such campus is the sprawling 17 acres of American University of Antigua College of Medicine (AUACOM) in the exotic Caribbean island of Antigua.

AUACOM is a simple answer to all the implausible questions on the minds of aspiring medical students who struggle through the procedure of getting admitted to medical schools and the sword of uncertainty that hangs over them. Now nurturing the dream of earning an international degree in medicine and making it come true is possible with Manipal's AUACOM.

The population in India has risen by about 3.5% per annum in the last 6 decades, which means the population of the country will hover around 1.7 billion by 2025. This means India would need about 1.7 million physicians or doctors as per the WHO directive (1 doctor per 1,000 people). That is a staggering figure considering that only about 70 thousand Indian medical aspirants get to enroll in a medical degree of which about 20% drop out. Unlike Indian medical colleges, AUACOM ensures that a new medical aspirant goes through thorough counseling which is an integral part of the enrolment process. This helps them to think clearly and gain the confidence to make an independent choice of taking up the course. Since Manipal's AUACOM emphasizes the need for well-rounded doctors, they ensure that academic performance and development of emotional intelligence are given equal weightage. The entire admission process is holistic, and it considers more than just the test scores.

Most medical institutions focus on producing more and more doctors. However, AUACOM looks at the larger perspective and ensures that it builds well-rounded medical careers that will ensure that the worldwide shortage of physicians will be taken care of with each of its students catering to more population than what WHO prescribes, both in terms of good service as well as expertise.

In the US alone, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) estimates a shortage of 91,500 physicians by 2020 and up to 130,600 by the year 2025. There was a huge shortage of 327,000 doctors in India in 2017 and the country has less than one doctor for every 1,400 people, which is way short of the WHO standards. One of the most promising institutions in today's world of medical studies and the global shortage of physicians is, Manipal's AUACOM that has become an international hub for medical

The alumni of Manipal's AUACOM stand testimonial to the difference being made by this institution in India as well as India's contribution to global healthcare. They are driven by the larger purpose of improving the global healthcare scenario. According to AUACOM President Neal Simon, it was important for him to establish a medical school that would adequately prepare qualified doctors to address the shortage of physicians. He says, "As a university, AUACOM strives to advance the field of medicine and shape physicians who come from underrepresented minorities."



AUACOM and AICASA are a part of Manipal Education Americas, LLC (MEA) and are fully owned by the Manipal Education & Medical Group. AICASA, a two-year pre-med program with a curriculum that provides a comprehensive approach to premedical training which emphasizes the development of critical thinking skills. The institution boasts of accreditations and a curriculum that prepares its students to take on the world after earning their degrees. Their highest academic standards and the global doctorate programs empower the qualified doctors to practice in any part of the world. With new agreements being signed with various hospitals and institutions AUA is certainly making a global impression.

About American University of Antigua College of Medicine



American University of Antigua (AUA) College of Medicine, a division of Manipal Global Education Services, is a fully accredited international medical school dedicated to providing an academic experience of the highest quality. Via a holistic admissions approach, AUA selects students with the potential for medical school success and provides them with the resources they need to obtain highly competitive residencies and move on to successful careers in medicine.

Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZJ0DQdrEJ0 Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/834877/MAUA_Logo.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The students of the A. Harry Moore School will return to the 88-year-old Kennedy Boulevard building in September, Jersey City Superintendent Franklin Walker said.

The school for children and young adults with multiple disabilities closed in September after the roof located above the entrance of the building collapsed. Since then, the students have been attending classes in trailer-like facilities at the Gerard J. Dynes Regional Day School on Johnston Avenue.

Walker said Thursday during the Jersey City Board of Education meeting that engineers and architects tasked with assessing the buildings structural integrity in the wake of the September roof collapse found it to be safe.

We must make some repairs and other repairs we wish to complete to make the building more relevant to todays needs, Walker said. It was an arduous task theres no question about that, unfortunately, we had a number of people that were involved in the process . we were able to finally come together and collaborate on the situation and be able to resolve the situation the best way to support our students

Walker said when the school reopens, only the first and second floors will house the A. Harry Moore program. The top three floors of the building will be sealed for further testing and repairs, Walker said, adding that the building as a whole is safe.

Nicole Gohde, a parent of an A. Harry Moore student, said kids will be happy they get to return to the building. While she is concerned the building might not be as safe as it once was, she said she knows the board and NJCU wouldnt put them back in if it wasnt safe.

We are happy we get to go home, Gohde said. We are sorry it took so long to get here.

Under a 57-year-old arrangement, NJCU provides instruction at the school, while the Jersey City BOE is responsible for the facility. Jersey City and other towns that send students to A. Harry Moore contribute to the budget.

We are pleased to learn that the building has been deemed safe for students and faculty and can be used in fall 2020," NJCU President Sue Henderson said in a statement. We look forward to our ongoing work with the Jersey City School District to ensure a quality program for the students.

Its unclear exactly how much the repairs will cost, but Walker said they will likely cost over $2 million. In October, former BOE President Sudhan Thomas told A. Harry Moore parents that a complete renovation of the building could cost upward of $25 million.

The future of the school has been in flux since early September when NJCU announced it was severing ties with the school, but walked back the decision after fierce backlash from members of the public, including parents and Mayor Steve Fulop.

Since moving to the Regional Day School facility on Johnston Avenue, the program has seen a drop in enrollment. In an email to the NJCU community, Henderson announced earlier this month the elimination of 12 to 20 staff members at the school, citing a drop in student enrollment. The school currently has 76 students and 72 staff members. The program started the year with 92 students  75 of whom were Jersey City residents.

Walker said Thursday the district has a guarantee from New Jersey City University to continue to run the program.

Fulop previously suggested the district sell the School 3 building on Bright Street, which houses the districts Renaissance program, to pay for the renovations at the A. Harry Moore building. He also blasted the school board and NJCU for their inaction in developing a plan.

Fulop said Friday the announcement is a positive step but questions the road to the decision to return to the Kennedy Boulevard building.

It does lead to the question of whether or not they could resolve this issue so easily now, why did it take one year to get here, and why did they do layoffs if this was the solution? Fulop said. We welcome more details, and the BOE should now move to make the old PS3 a fully functioning school to capacity to serve Downtown instead of busing nursery school students and kindergarteners across the city.
A Japanese woman has become the fifth Diamond Princess passenger to die from coronavirus, the country's heath ministry has said.

The woman, who was in her 70s and from Tokyo, was diagnosed on the ship on February 6 and taken to hospital the following day.

Her condition deteriorated on the 19th and she was declared dead on Friday. She also suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure, medics said.

Almost 700 people fell sick with the virus aboard the Diamond Princess after an attempt to stem an outbreak on board by confining passengers to their cabins failed.

A Japanese woman in her 70s who was quarantined on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship amid a coronavirus outbreak has died, Japan's health ministry has said

If the death is confirmed to be from coronavirus, then she will be the fifth passenger to die from the disease after an attempt to stop the spread by confining people to their cabins failed

The death was reported by Japanese media as the coronavirus-hit Hokkaido region declared a state of emergency.

Governor Naomichi Suzuki asked residents to stay at home over the weekend as the northern area struggles to contain the fast-spreading outbreak.

'I believe it is necessary to take unprecedented, drastic steps,' Suzuki told a televised meeting of local government executives.

Hokkaido region, known for ski resorts and vast forests, has seen at least 63 coronavirus cases, including two deaths, and accounts for more than a quarter of all cases in Japan, apart from those on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

The central government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has already dispatched a team of experts and officials to the region to contain the virus.

Japan is currently in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak after hundreds of people fell sick in the province of Hokkaido, which declared a state of emergency on Friday (pictured)

Passersby wearing masks are seen in front of the former Hokkaido Government Office building in Sapporo amid a coronavirus outbreak

Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki (right) declares a state of emergency during a meeting on the new COVID-19 coronavirus in Hokkaido prefecture

'I ask for help of all Hokkaido residents to protect lives and health of you and your loved ones and to ensure swift ending of the situation,' the governor said.

'To prevent further spread of the virus, please refrain from going out during the weekend,' he said.

The region's ski resorts attract many wealthy Asian tourists, including from China.

Suzuki has already asked for local schools to be closed, but he did not announce any further concrete measures to fight the outbreak.

The virus has so far infected at least 210 people across the country, including Hokkaido, and been linked to five deaths.

Abe, who on Thursday also requested nationwide closure of schools, has said efforts during the coming weeks will determine whether the outbreak can be contained, a major concern in the run-up to Tokyo Olympics in July.
School pupils are being trained to use potentially life-saving bleed control kits amid Britains knife crime epidemic.

The Midlands Air Ambulance, which is delivering the training, has seen a huge increase in knife attacks and last year attended an average of two stabbings per week.

It said it is aiming its first-aid courses at youths because they are among the most likely to be first on the scene of an attack.

The specialist kits, which are designed to treat potentially catastrophic bleed injuries, contain items such as a military-grade tourniquet, heavy duty bandages and a foil blanket.

Hundreds of the kits have already been introduced in pubs and clubs in London and Birmingham.

The Midlands Air Ambulance, which is delivering the training, has seen a huge increase in knife attacks and last year attended an average of two stabbings per week

The Midlands Air Ambulance said it is aiming first-aid courses at youths because they are among the most likely to be first on the scene of an attack

Jim Hancox, assistant air operations manager, said 60 schools have booked to have the training before the end of April.

We know the care people get in the early minutes and seconds after being injured is crucial to their chances of having a good outcome, he said.

A pupil at Worcester Sixth Form College, who had the training this week, said: Any day you can see someone collapse or get hurt and it is important we know what to do to help save their lives.

Teacher Kim Martin said the college wants the training to be offered to all pupils, adding: There is some concern that maybe youre getting this training because youre more likely or your school is unfortunately at the centre of these incidents.

'But hopefully most people will look at it and think that prevention is better than cure.

Figures showed a 7 per cent rise in offences involving knives or sharp tools in England and Wales in the year to September 2019.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 27, 2020 / Exro Technologies Inc. (CSE:XRO; OTCQB:EXROF) (the "Company" or "Exro") is pleased to announce that, further to its news releases dated February 6 and 14, 2020, it has closed the second and final tranche of its oversubscribed non-brokered private placement financing and raised $4,299,590 through the issuance of 12,284,545 common shares ("Shares") at a price of $0.35 per Share (the "Offering"). In the second tranche, 2,253,897 Shares were issued for gross proceeds of $788,864.

The Company has paid Finder's fee consisting of 7% cash and has issued compensation warrants equal to 7% of the number of Shares issued to investors introduced to the Company by the Finder (each a "Compensation Warrant"). Each Compensation Warrant is exercisable to acquire one common share for a period of 12 months from the closing at an exercise price of $0.42 per share.

The Shares will be subject to a four-month hold period from the date of issuance, pursuant to relevant prospectus or registration exemptions in accordance with applicable laws.

The net proceeds raised from the sale of this Offering will be used by the Company to fund development of the Company's current and new technology programs, the buildout of its new Calgary Innovation Centre, working capital and general corporate purposes.

The securities being offered have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any State in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

CONTACT:

Canada:

Jake Bouma

Intrynsyc Capital Corp.

604-317-3936

United States:

Vic Allgeier

TTC Group Inc.

646-841-4220

Email: info@exro.com

About Exro Technologies Inc.

Exro facilitates the transition to clean energy by providing products and services to manufacturers to increase the efficiency and reliability of power systems, including electric motors, generators and batteries. Exro's patented technology enhances energy systems by dynamically sensing and adapting variable inputs and optimally matching them to desired outputs, creating measurable performance gains and extended lifespan. The widespread applications of the technology applied to optimizing the performance of electric vehicles, UAVs, and ship drives, as well as pumps, industrial motors, and energy capture from wind and tides.

For more information visit our website at www.exro.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Sue Ozdemir, CEO

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this News Release constitute forward-looking statements. When used in this document, the words "believe", "may", "would", "could", "will" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company or its management are intended to identify forward-looking statements. More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements and information concerning the Company's intention to commercialize its product in the near term. Such statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause the Company's actual performance or achievements to vary from those described herein. Should one or more of these factors or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. The Company does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.

SOURCE: Exro Technologies Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/578302/Exro-Closes-Final-Tranche-of-43-Million-Private-Placement
COLUMBUS, Ohio  Police say teens jumped into a hearse with a body in a casket in the back and took it for a quick joyride before crashing into a utility pole.

The keys had been left in the ignition of the hearse when it was stolen, WSYX Channel 6 reports. The hearse hit another vehicle and witness says the teens were doing donuts in a school parking lot. After crashing into a pole, the teens ran off. There have been no arrests.

The owner of the funeral home tells WSYX a funeral already had been held for the individual in the casket. The body was scheduled for cremation and there was no serious damage to the casket.

A similar incident occurred in Los Angeles on Thursday. NBC News reports a man stole a hearse with a body in the back from in front of a church. The man led police on a chase before crashing on a freeway.

A suspect was arrested and the body was still in the casket in the back of the hearse after the crash, CNN reports.
IndusInd Bank promoted by the Hinduja group commenced operations in 1994

New Delhi: IndusInd Bank on Thursday said it has elevated the bank's head for consumer banking Sumant Kathpalia as the new managing director and chief executive from March 2020. Kathpalia succeeds Romesh Sobti as MD and CEO for three years. Sobti was the bank"s CEO since 2008.

"As previously advised to the exchanges, the bank's nomination and remuneration committee and the board had considered and submitted the name of a potential candidate for the role of MD and CEO, to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), seeking approval for the appointment", the private lender said in a statement on Thursday.

"The bank has received a communication from the RBI today, approving the appointment of Sumant Kathpalia, who currently heads the Bank's Consumer Banking business, as the MD and CEO for 3 years, with effect from March 24, 2020, post the retirement of Romesh Sobti, the current MD and CEO," it said.

Kathpalia, 55, who has been with the bank since 2008, is credited with building the consumer loans portfolio from scratch, as part of a strategy to diversify the loan book adopted by the bank.

Based in New Delhi at present, Kathpalia used to head the consumer loans vertical at ABN Amro Bank. He has also worked in Citi and Bank of America.

Kathpalia used to earlier head the consumer loans vertical at ABN Amro Bank. He has also worked in Citi and Bank of America.

He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a commerce graduate from Hindu College, Delhi University and a commerce graduate from Hindu College, Delhi University.

The private sector bank promoted by the Hinduja group commenced operations in 1994.

As on 31 December, 2019, Induslnd Bank had 1,851 branches/ banking outlets and 2,721 ATMs spread across 746 geographical locations of the country. The bank also has representative offices in London, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

--With PTI inputs
BANGKOK - Thailands prime minister and five of his fellow Cabinet members on Friday defeated non-confidence motions filed against them in Parliament.

All six managed to gain votes of approval from more than half the 500 members of the House of Representatives, while many opposition members boycotted the vote.

It was the first no-confidence motion Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has faced since he became Thailands leader after staging a military coup in 2014. He ruled with absolute authority until an election last year, when he was elected as prime minister in parliamentary vote under electoral rules his junta had commissioned.

Fridays vote is expected to give a slight boost to the stability of his government, which has faced criticism for failing to effectively deal with economic troubles, as well as a serious air pollution problem and the health threat from the new coronavirus that first emerged in China.

But moves to defang the Parliamentary opposition, resulting in a court dissolving a popular progressive opposition party, seem to have emboldened student critics of his rule, who have been staging spirited rallies across the country this week calling for greater democracy.

The motion of no-confidence against Prayuth was defeated when 272 lawmakers gave him a vote of approval, while 49 voted to censure him. Two lawmakers abstained.

Deputy Prime Minster Prawit Wongsuwan was the biggest government vote-getter, with 277 MPs voting in his favour, while 50 cast votes of no-confidence.

Deputy Agriculture Minister Thammanat Prompao fared worst among the six, with 269 lawmakers approving his record, while 55 backed the censure motion and another seven abstained.

The opposition had publicized documents showing Thammanat had been imprisoned for four years in Australia in the 1990s for his part in smuggling heroin into that country. The conviction had been revealed last year ahead of his appointment to Prayuths Cabinet.

Thammanat insists the affair is a misunderstanding and he did not serve the sentence in an Australian prison, despite considerable evidence to the contrary.

The boycott of Fridays vote was led by the main opposition Pheu Thai Party, which with several other small parties walked out ostensibly to protest that the censure debate had not been extended.

Other opposition members, however, accused Pheu Thai of conniving with the government side to limit the debate.

Members of what had been the Future Forward Party accused Pheu Thai of arranging to have one of its MPs run down the clock before it could present its complete case against some of the Cabinet members under scrutiny.

The Future Forward party had been the third biggest party in Parliament until it was dissolved by court order last week for violating election law by taking a large loan from its leader.

The allegation against Pheu Thai was made by Future Forwards former secretary-general, Piyabutr Saengkanokkul

Piyabutr and the partys other executive board members were banned from political office for a decade, while its other lawmakers have been allowed to keep their seats but must join another party within 60 days. Most are expected to join a new party established to replace Future Forward, but several have crossed over to the governments side.
China Aviation Daily | Feb. 28, 2020

Delta and LATAM Airlines Group ("LATAM") have reached agreement to launch frequent flyer reciprocity across the carriers' broad networks, offering customer benefits across more than 435 destinations worldwide. Additionally, the carriers continue to expand codesharing across more flights throughout the region, adding expanded connectivity for customers.

"Together with LATAM, we are building an industry leading and customer-focused partnership that connects North and South America like never before," said Delta President - International and Executive Vice President - Global Sales Steve Sear. "With frequent flyer reciprocity and new codeshare flight options, we're already beginning to deliver on this partnership for our customers, with much more to come."

Frequent flyer benefits, including reciprocal mileage earn and redemption, will be effective for Delta SkyMiles Members traveling on LATAM flights on or after April 1, 2020. Reciprocal mileage earn and redemption will be applicable for all flights in the Delta and LATAM networks. Elite reciprocal benefits, including lounge access and priority boarding, bags and seats are expected to launch later in 2020.

Carriers Continue to Expand Codesharing

Additionally, the carriers continue to expand codesharing across their networks. As a next step, the airline groups have reached agreement to launch codesharing between Delta and LATAM's affiliate in Brazil beginning in the first half of 2020, subject to governmental and regulatory approvals. The agreement will create improved opportunities for customers to connect on up to 65 routes throughout Delta's U.S. and Canada network and up to 37 LATAM routes in Brazil.

Codesharing has now launched between Delta and LATAM's affiliates in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. When fully implemented, these codesharing agreements would provide customers increased connectivity on up to 74 onward routes in the United States and up to 51 onward routes in South America. Codesharing for flights operated by LATAM's Colombia and Ecuador affiliates are visible on delta.com for flights effective now, and codesharing for Peru is effective for flights beginning March 29, 2020, pending final Peruvian government approval.

Additionally, select interline routings connecting Delta and LATAM flights are now available for booking on direct Delta channels, including delta.com.

Co-Location, Complementary Networks Expand Options and Convenience

Delta will co-locate its operations with LATAM in Sao Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport Terminal 3 on March 29, 2020, to facilitate swifter connections for customers. In New York-JFK, LATAM has already relocated its operations to Terminal 4, improving the connecting experience for customers traveling onward on Delta flights.

Delta has also announced plans to broaden its footprint in south Florida with 13 new daily nonstop flights* to Miami International Airport (MIA) from hubs and top corporate travel destinations around the U.S., including new service from Orlando, Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City and Tampa. Delta's new flight schedule will be timed to maximize connectivity with LATAM. The two airlines are already conveniently co-located at MIA, allowing swift connecting times for customers.

In September 2019, Delta and LATAM announced an agreement that would bring together the leading airlines in North and South America. In December 2019, Delta announced the completion of its previously announced tender offer to acquire a 20 percent equity stake in LATAM, an investment that continues Delta's strategy of making equity investments in key airline partners around the globe. When fully implemented, the Delta and LATAM partnership will hold the leading position in five of the top six South American markets from the U.S.

* The new flights are now available for sale and will operate beginning May 4, 2020 (MIA-MCO and MIA-TPA); May 22, 2020 (RDU-MIA); July 28, 2020 (SLC-MIA)

Contributed by Delta
A Cambodian refugee who says he was wrongly deported nearly two years ago was reunited with his family in Massachusetts on Wednesday, becoming the fourth such refugee  and first on the East Coast  to be allowed back into the country since the Trump administration stepped up deportations of Southeast Asians.

Thy Chea arrived at Bostons Logan Airport after successfully petitioning to get his green card reinstated and suing the federal government to allow him to return to the country.

The 50-year-old Lowell resident was welcomed by his family and supporters, who cheered, held signs and handed him flower bouquets as they greeted him at the baggage claim.

Chea quickly scooped up his young daughter and one-year-old son, who was born after he was deported and had never met him in person.

I am so grateful to be with my family. Its been 18 months, he said tearfully. This is my kid and its the first time Im holding him and meeting him.

Chea joins three other Cambodian Americans, all residents of California, who have returned after being deported. The most recent was Sok Loeun, who landed at San Franciscos airport this month after living in Cambodia for five years.

Wednesdays reunion in Boston also comes as Cambodian communities are bracing for their seventh round of deportation raids in the next two weeks and Laotian communities are anticipating increased deportations this year, said Kevin Lam, of the Asian American Resource Workshop, a local advocacy group.

Many Southeast Asian Americans are facing deportation now because of past criminal convictions, he said after meeting Chea and his family at the airport. We need to uplift peoples humanity and not reduce them to criminals.

Deportations of Cambodians have been happening since about 2002, when Cambodia agreed to begin repatriating refugees convicted of felony crimes in the U.S.

But they have risen sharply since Trump imposed visa sanctions on Cambodia and a handful of other nations in order to compel them to speed up the process.

The result was a roughly 280% increase, from 29 removals in the federal fiscal year 2017 to 110 in 2018, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data.

Asian American groups complain many Southeast Asians facing deportation served criminal sentences years and sometimes decades ago, when they were troubled young refugees struggling to adjust to a new country.

Southeast Asians, which include immigrants from Vietnam, represent the largest refugee community in U.S. history, according to advocates. Many fled their countries during the years of upheaval, civil war and genocide that followed the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

In Cheas case, he fled Cambodias brutal Khmer Rouge regime with his parents and five siblings when he was 10, according to court documents.

The family lived in a refugee camp in Thailand before arriving in the U.S. in 1981.

He was ordered to leave the country in 2000 after pleading guilty to assault and battery and threat to commit a crime and serving a three-month sentence.

But the deportation order was suspended in 2004, and Chea was allowed to remain in the country as long as he didnt commit further crimes and checked in regularly with federal immigration officials, according to court documents.

That changed in 2018, when Chea was detained during an immigration check-in and eventually deported.

Cheas lawyers argued that his criminal charges werent deportable offenses and that he should have been allowed to remain in the country.

The Board of Immigration Appeals agreed, reopening his immigration case and restoring his lawful permanent resident status last year.

Greater Boston Legal Services, which is representing Chea, then sued the federal government in December, saying immigration officials were still unlawfully refusing to facilitate Cheas return.

A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is named in the lawsuit in Boston federal court, declined to comment.

Its been a long fight to get Thy back, said Bethany Li, his lawyer. We really hope this is the start of a lot more people coming back to our communities.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 03:35:22|Editor: yan

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ISLAMABAD, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) -- Death toll of the collision between a train and a passenger bus in Sukkur district of Pakistan's southern Sindh province has risen to 30 late Friday night, an official said.

Commissioner of Sukkur district Shafiq Ahmed Mahesar told media that the death toll rose after 15 of the injured succumbed to their injuries during treatment at two different hospitals.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020

Dian Kurniati, a 27-year-old living in Matraman, East Jakarta, grew concerned when she an image of a flooded area on her Twitter timeline Tuesday morning. The picture, she said, showed thigh-high flooding at the Bank Indonesia traffic circle on Jl. MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta.

She was confused as to how she would be able to get to work as her office was in a flooded area. However, after reading many Twitter replies, her anxiety over the flooding gradually subsided.

Other Twitter users said that the picture was taken long before the flooding happened but that made me confused about the actual situation at the traffic circle. Later, I turned to Google to search about the condition in the area and found that the picture was somewhat a hoax, Dian told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

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WITH cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in South Korea jumping on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020, the Philippine Government imposed a ban on travel by Filipino tourists to the East Asian country.

It also barred travelers from North Gyeongsang. Some 134 of the 169 new cases were reported in Daegu, a city in that South Korean province, while another 19 cases were reported in neighboring towns.

Malacanang spokesman Salvador Panelo warned that if the situation worsens, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases might expand the travel ban.

The Philippines already banned travelers from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.

Travelers from South Korea and China registered as the top two tourist arrivals in the country, with almost two million from the former and 1.7 million from the latter in 2019.

The travel restrictions were bound to have an effect on the countrys economy, particularly in Cebu, where hotels and resorts saw a severe drop in hotel and resort occupancy.

According to the Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu, occupancy levels are expected to plunge to 50 percent from an average of 90 percent for resort properties in March. Its worse for hotels in the city, where occupancy levels are expected to nosedive to 25 percent from the 70 percent occupancy level in January.

Even those who rent out their condos, residences or properties on the online home-sharing platform Airbnb have been feeling the crunch, reporting many cancellations or lack of bookings compared to the same period last year.

The travel bans and the Covid-19 threat have had a domino effect across the provinces entire hospitality sector, prompting Cebus business community to come up with recommendations to avoid a collapse, including allowing workers to go on leave without pay, suspending provisions of agreements with labor unions and granting a reprieve on amortization, a six-month rental holiday to businesses and tax rebates and incentives.
Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh witnessed heavy deployment of forces on Friday as a caution of the aftermath of the violent anti-CAA protests in Delhi.

While speaking to ANI, Praveen Kumar, Inspector-General, UP, said, "We are providing maximum security to people". He further added that police are keeping a watch on social media for sensitive posts and also strict action also will be taken for the user. As a precaution, police forces have also been deployed at the borders of the Delhi to ensure no further violence happens.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: In a major breakthrough, the NIA arrested on Friday an operative of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) for his alleged involvement in the Pulwama terror attack last year, officials said.

Officials said that 22-year-old Shakir Bashir Magrey, a furniture shop owner and resident of Hajibal, Kakapora in Pulwama, had provided shelter and other logistical assistance to suicide-bomber Adil Ahmad Dar.

Magrey was introduced to Dar in mid 2018 by Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Umar Farooq and he became a full-time overground worker (OGW) of the JeM.

ALSO READ: Amit Shah, NIA chief YC Modi must resign - Congress on bail to Pulwama attack-accused Yusuf Chopan

During his initial interrogation, Magrey disclosed that on several occasions he collected and delivered arms, ammunition, cash and explosive materials to JeM terrorists, including those involved in the Pulwama attack, the NIA said.

Magrey further revealed that he had harboured Dar and Pakistani terrorist Mohammad Umar Farooq in his house from late 2018 till the attack in February 2019, and assisted them in the preparation of the improvised explosive device (IED).

His shop is located near Lethpora bridge, and as advised by Mohammad Umar Farooq, he started conducting reconnaissance of the movement of CRPF convoy on Jammu-Srinagar Highway in January 2019, and informed Mohammad Umar and Dar about it, officials said.

Magrey was also involved in modifying the Maruti Eeco car and fitting IED to it in early February, 2019, they said.

During investigation, the make, model and number of the car used in the attack was quickly ascertained to be a Maruti Eeco car through forensic tests of the tiny remnants of the vehicle, which were seized from the spot during extensive searches, the NIA said, adding this has been corroborated by Magrey.

ALSO READ: Yousuf Chopan was not accused in Pulwama attack case - NIA

The explosives used in the attack were determined through forensic probe to be ammonium nitrate, nitro-glycerin and RDX.

Investigation has also confirmed the identity of the suicide bomber to be Adil Ahmad Dar through DNA matching with that of his father.

The other key terrorists involved in the attack have been found to be Muddasir Ahmad Khan, JeM's Divisional Commander of South Kashmir killed in an operation by security forces on March 11, last year; Pakistani terrorists  Muhammad Umar Farooq and IED expert Kamran, both killed on March 29 last year; the owner of the car  Sajjad Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Anantnag who was killed on June 16 last year and Qari Yassir, JeM's Commander for Kashmir who was killed on January 25 this year.

The attack on the CRPF convoy, moving from Jammu towards Srinagar on February 14 last year in Pulwama, with an IED-laden vehicle by Jaish terrorist Dar had claimed lives of 40 CRPF personnel and grievously injured many others.

Magrey was produced before the NIA Special Court at Jammu on Friday and remanded to 15 days in NIA custody for his detailed interrogation.

Further probe was underway.
By Akbar Mammadov

Turkish Airlines has suspended flights to Azerbaijans Nakhchivan autonomous region bordering Iran as part of the measures to fight coronavirus, head of the companys Baku office Ilyas Seyfulla told local media.

Noting that four flights to Nakhchivan have so far been suspended by the Turkish Airlines, Ilyas Seyfulla said that along with Nakhchivan, flights to Saudi Arabia and Iran have also been cancelled due to COVID-19 risks.

However, Turkey's national flag carrier will carry flights to Baku and Ganja on the available schedule, Ilyas Seyfulla said.

The Turkish ambassador in Azerbaijan Erkan Ozoral said it was unknown when the flights to Nakhchivan will be resumed.

Since there is no way to control passengers in airlines due to the coronavirus threat, flights to Nakhchivan have been temporarily cancelled Erkan Ozoral clarified.

However, the land boundaries between Turkey and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic are not closed, transport and loads are freely moving, the ambassador said.

It should be mentioned that Azerbaijan still carries flights to Iran that has so far registered 12 coronavirus-relate deaths.

Last week, Press Service of Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) reported that the countrys low-cost airline Buta Airways is operating daily flights on the Baku-Tehran-Baku route and plans to continue flights under the current schedule.

He added that Heydar Aliyev International Airport and other airports of Azerbaijan will not impose any restrictions on flights operated by Iran Air, adding that Azerbaijan's Ministry of Health has strengthened the sanitary-quarantine control on arrivals from Iran. Additional measures will be taken in this direction.

Turkey and Pakistan have closed their borders with Iran and other neighbouring countries have placed travel bans to Iran over the virus outbreak in the country.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Ilkin Seyfaddini  Trend:

Any company that has experience in financing energy facilities and is able to provide competitive long-term prices for the sale of generated electricity can invest and work in Uzbekistan, the press service of the Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan told Trend in an interview.

"In order to improve efficiency of the fuel and energy complex of Uzbekistan, the Ministry holds several rounds of tenders each year. The first tender was held in 2019. In 2020, a tender for construction power plant with 200MW capacity, in Sherabad was launched together with the Asian Development Bank. The second stage, with two power plants (200MW each), was held in Kattakurgan and in Gallaral cities, jointly with the International Finance Corporation," press service representative added.

The ministry also noted that nowadays, the Ministry plans to sign an agreement with ACWA Power to purchase electricity within the framework of the project on construction, ownership and management of a 1500 MW plant near the existing Syrdarya TPP.

"The Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan highly appreciates cooperation with ACWA Power. The company has a strong position in the energy sector of the Middle East and is well represented at the international level. Offers from ACWA Power are distinguished by their high competitiveness," said the representative.

The representative also noted that the wind farm project (will be implemented by Masdar company) in Navoi region is preliminary estimated at $400 million.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump said Friday he will nominate Rep. John Ratcliffe to become Director of National Intelligence, just six months after the Texas congressman took his name out of the running for the job.

I am pleased to announce the nomination of @RepRatcliffe(Congressman John Ratcliffe) to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Trump wrote on Twitter while en route to South Carolina for a political rally.

Trump said the nomination process would have been completed earlier, but Ratcliffe wanted to wait until an inspector generals report was completed on how the FBI handled an investigation into whether Trumps presidential campaign coordinated with Russia.

John is an outstanding man of great talent! Trump wrote.

Trump's announcement that he had settled on Ratcliffe for the top spy job comes just two weeks after he tapped Richard Grenell to serve as acting director. That decision stirred concern because Grenell, a Trump loyalist who has been serving as U.S. ambassador to Germany, has no intelligence experience.

Trump floated the Texas Republican's name for the job last summer, but Ratcliffe withdrew his bid to become the spy chief after Democrats and some Republicans raised questions about whether he exaggerated his work as a federal prosecutor of terrorism cases. Others questioned Ratcliffe's experience and whether he could give the president unvarnished advice on Russia given his strong partisan views.

Trump told reporters at the time that he thought Ratcliffe "was being treated very unfairly."

Top spy:Donald Trump: John Ratcliffe withdrawing his name to be Director of National Intelligence

Rep. John Ratclifffe, R-Texas

Ratcliffe is likely to face the same kind of opposition he did last summer.

Moments after Trump announced Ratcliffes nomination over Twitter, congressional Democrats started voicing their opposition.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., called it deeply troubling.

Spanberger, a former CIA officer who also serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN she was very concerned due to Ratcliffes lack of intelligence experience.

Story continues

The notion that we would have someone without an intelligence background, without that respect for what it is to be driven by facts and evidence and not partisan politics, I think this is overall very detrimental, because I question what type of advice and what type of input the president will be getting from someone who's driven far more by partisan politics than the pursuit of the truth, she said.

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he doesnt see how anything has changed since the last time Ratcliffe was nominated for this role.

The last time this nomination was unsuccessfully put forward, serious bipartisan questions were raised about Rep. Ratcliffes background and qualifications, the Virginia Democrat said on Twitter. Its hard for me to see how anything new has happened to change that.

Republican allies of Ratcliffe praised his nomination.

Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., called Ratcliffe "massively talented" and tweeted that he is "a top notch pick who is serious, motivated & prepared to do an exceptional job on Day 1!"

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who served with Ratcliffe as a member of Trumps impeachment defense team, called Ratcliffe an EXCELLENT choice.

John is the best of the bestsmart, measured, and a total pro, the North Carolina Republican said.

The intelligence position has been without a permanent director since Dan Coates, a former Indiana senator who held the job since 2017, stepped down. Disagreements between Coates and Trump on Russia, North Korea and other matters often spilled into public view.

Trump tales:From the Chicago cop to the crying businessman, Trumps anecdotes often change with each telling

Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, said the nomination may, essentially, extend Grenell's appointment as acting DNI.

"Even if there's no real chance that @RepRatcliffe will be confirmed by the Senate, the formal submission of his nomination will allow @RichardGrenell to continue to serve as Acting DNI past March 11  and for another 210 days after Ratcliffe's rejection or withdrawal," Vladeck tweeted.

Ned Price, a spokesman for the National Security Council during the Obama administration, dismissed Trump's selection of Ratcliffe as not "a serious nomination."

"Trump, Ratcliffe, and Senate Rs all know hell never be confirmed," Price tweeted. "This is a transparent effort to reset the clock on Grenells appointment  and a de facto installation of him as DNI for months to come."

Contributing: Christal Hayes

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump picks Rep. John Ratcliffe as Director of National Intelligence
After being hit with a lawsuit over a Black Mirror episodes relationship to the Choose Your Own Adventure phrase, a term trademarked by book publisher Chooseco, Netflix is asking a court to revoke the companys trademark on what it says is a generic term.

The Hollywood Reporter spotted the latest evolution of the dispute this week, in which Netflix argues that the phrase has become generic over the years and that it calls to mind a genre of interactive adventures rather than Choosecos exact brand of branching books.

The phrase 'Choose Your Own Adventure' has become generic in its current use within the United States. In contemporary parlance, any situation that requires making a series of unguided choices, or that provides an opportunity to go back and re-make a series of choices that turned out badly, is referred to as a 'Choose Your Own Adventure, argues Netflixs counsel. Thus, in its current usage, the phrase 'Choose Your Own Adventure' encompasses the entire genre of interactive-narrative fiction, a genus of media of which Choosecos book series is just one species."

In a similar vein, Chooseco has gone up against indie developers in the past for using Choose Your Own Adventure as a seemingly generic term to describe their games in which players are given the ability to make choices that direct characters down diverging paths.

One recent case saw Itch.io founder Leaf Corcoran tweeting a warning to indie developers that choose your own adventure was a trademarked term, and that Chooseco has issued takedown notices to itch.io games that use it to describe their titles.

The Netflix part of the CYOA debacle kicked off last year when Chooseco took Netflix to court over the Black Mirror episode Bandersnatch, an interactive episode that allows Netflix viewers to make moment-to-moment decisions that ultimately steer the direction of the on-screen story. Chooseco opted to sue the company in January 2019 for trademark infringement, pointing out similarities to its own series structure and an in-episode reference to a Choose Your Own Adventure book alongside the claim that it had previously discussed a licensing deal with Netflix in the past.

Netflix moved to have the case dismissed earlier this year, but the request was denied. In this latest development, Netflix confirms there were talks of a potential licensing deal earlier on, but argues that those discussions werent related to Bandersnatch.

Alongside the argument that Choose Your Own Adventure has become a generic term, Netflix also suggests the structure of Bandersnatchs narrative twists and turns have a fundamental difference from Choosecos novels as viewers are tasked with directing a protagonist from the outside rather than assuming the role of the protagonist themselves.
The coronavirus outbreak in China and its spread to other countries across the globe has kept all of us alarmed and utmost precautions should be taken to combat the epidemic.

Cough, fever, runny nose, sore throat and trouble in breathing are some of the coronavirus symptoms when taken in a broader spectrum.

"It can be more severe for some persons and can lead to pneumonia or breathing difficulties," the World Organisation (WHO) said citing CNN.

"More rarely, the disease can be fatal. Older people and people with pre-existing medical conditions (such as diabetes and heart disease) appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill with the virus," WHO added.

"It is important that companies encourage sick employees to stay home," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The CDC suggested that sick employees should not return to work until their temperature has stayed below 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) for at least 24 hours, without the help of fever-reducing or other symptom-altering medicine.

It said surfaces in the workplace should be routinely cleaned up and workstations, countertops and doorknobs should be kept squeaky clean.

"Provide disposable wipes so that commonly used surfaces can be wiped down by employees before each use. Cover your face with a tissue or your upper sleeve while coughing and sneezing," the CDC said.

It advocated people to practice proper sneezing and coughing etiquette and washing hands properly at least 20 seconds.

(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) New York, United States  Fri, February 28, 2020 19:04 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206742c9e 2 Entertainment Steven-Seagal,united-states,celebrity,cryptocurrency,Fraud Free

US securities regulators announced on Thursday they had fined actor Steven Seagal and suspended him from investment promotions over charges he hawked a cryptocurrency venture without disclosing compensation.

The Under Siege actor pitched the initial coin offering, Bitcoiin2Gen, on social media, urging followers not to "miss out" on a venture hailed as the "next generation of Bitcoin," the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in an order.

But Seagal, 67, failed to disclose that he was promised $250,000 in cash and $750,000 worth of tokens in exchange for touting the investments to his 107,000 followers on Twitter followers and 6.7 million on Facebook.

The actions flouted a securities law that requires people who publicize securities to disclose compensation, the SEC said.

Read also: Sexual assault case against Steven Seagal dropped

"These investors were entitled to know about payments Seagal received or was promised to endorse this investment, so they could decide whether he may be biased," said Kristina Littman, chief of the SEC enforcement division's Cyber Unit.

The US regulator ordered Seagal to pay $314,000 in fines and disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and barred him from plugging securities for three years.

Seagal, a big supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is not the first celebrity to face sanctions from US regulators over cryptocurrency.

In November 2018, the SEC announced charges against legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather and music producer Khaled Khaled, known as DJ Khaled, over their promotion of Centra Tech, another cryptocurrency investment.
Speaking at <em>CNBC-TV 18</em>'s Business Leadership Awards 2020, Sitharaman made it clear that she was not expecting a jump in the GDP growth number either.

The "steadiness" in the economy is a good sign, said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday soon after the official data showed the December quarter GDP growth at 4.7 percent.

Speaking at CNBC-TV18's Indian Business Leader Awards (IBLA) in Mumbai soon after the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers were released, Sitharaman said she didnt want a surprising figure from the National Statistical Office (NSO).

"(I) didnt want a surprise or shocker of a number either way shocker going to 6% or coming down and to that extent Im happy. Not to say Im happy with this number, but that happy that we have steadied, she told CNBC-TV18s Shereen Bhan.

India's economic growth slowed to 4.7 percent in October-December 2019, according to official data released on Friday. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth was registered at 5.6 percent in the corresponding quarter of 2018-19, as per the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).

On the impact of coronavirus on the economy, Sitharaman said there is no need to immediately press the "panic button", but admitted that it may get challenging if the issues prolong for another two or three weeks, citing her conversations with the industry players over the last few days.

She also said the pharmaceutical and electronic industries, which depend heavily on imports from China for raw materials, have suggested airlifting of essential items and the government may consider the same. However, the logistics of the same, like aggregating the goods and getting them to a single place will have to be done by the industry itself, she said, promising help from the government through the consular staff.

Sitharaman said the government is "pushing the banks like never before" to lend as much as possible across all categories, including retail, home and agriculture segments. She, however, said that the government wants to learn from the experiences of the 2008-09 and ensure that there are no non-performing assets piled up for later years.

Sanjiv Mehta, Chairman & Managing Director, Hindustan Unilever Limited asks @nsitharaman what are the few things that can move the needle on putting more money in the hands of people in times of consumption slowdown. #CNBCTV18IBLA #LeadersOfChange @StanChartIN pic.twitter.com/JNhdK5KJnA  CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 28, 2020

Sitharaman said the government is working creating a development finance institution (DFI), as were bodies like ICICI and IDBI before they turned into full-fledged banks.

The minister said that the ministry has managed to do whatever it can for the economy within the space offered by keeping the fiscal deficit under check and also added that it is not "closing options" on the same.

--With PTI inputs
Vodafone Idea, in a letter to Department of Telecom (DoT) and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), has sought at least 7-8 times hike in mobile data tariffs and sought call charges at 6 paise per minute to be able to pay its AGR (Adjusted Gross Revenue) dues. Among other demands, the telco has suggested raising mobile internet prices from current Rs 4-5 per gigabyte to Rs 35 per GB and fixing of minimum connection charges at Rs 50 from April.

Notably, the call for tariff hike has come despite the telco increasing charges by up to 50 per cent in December. Vodafone Idea believes it can only earn revenue at the same level as 2016-17 if the government fixes floor price for calls and data charges.

Also Read: Airtel, Vodafone Idea subscriber? Should you port out

The DoT's highest decision-making body, Digital Communications Commission (DCC), is meeting today to decide if the telcos, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, should at all be given any relief. Vodafone Idea's letter also said it'll take 15 years for the company to pay pending statutory AGR dues worth Rs 53,000 crore. The company has also asked the government to provide Rs 8,000 crore worth GST (Goods and Services Tax) refund in licence fees and spectrum usage charges.

Pegging its AGR dues at Rs 23,000 crore against DoT's estimate of Rs 53,000 crore, the telco wants the DoT to reduce licence fee to 3 per cent from current 8 per cent. The company has also asked the Centre to reduce spectrum usage charges from 3-5 per cent to 1 per cent. So far, Vodafone Idea has paid only Rs 3,500 crore worth of pending dues.

Also Read: Vodafone Idea to drop brand 'Idea' from postpaid services

Industry lobby body COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India) has also written a letter to DoT asking to set-off GST credits lying with the government, reduce the licence fee and SUC, implement the floor pricing immediately, and restore the confidence of banking sector in telecom companies.

The telco, which employees over 13,000 direct employees, has also said the continuous pressure to pay the amount could render 10,000 people jobless and create chaos among its 300 million subscribers in India. Telecom companies owe Rs 1.47 lakh crore to the DoT, including Rs 92,600 crore as licence fee and Rs 55,100 crore as spectrum usage charges. Bharti Airtel owes Rs 35,600 crore, while Vodafone Idea has to pay Rs 53,000 crore. Bharti Airtel and Tata Group have also made AGR payments worth Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 2,197 crore to the DOT, respectively.

Also read: Vodafone Idea needs 15 years to pay AGR dues; wants Rs 8,000-crore GST refund

Also Read: AGR-hit telcos set for another jolt; must pay additional service tax, GST on unpaid dues
SHANGHAI  Some docks in China are clogged with arriving shipping containers or iron ore. Warehouses overflow with goods that cannot be exported for lack of trucks. And many factories are idle because components are not reaching them.

As Beijing tries to jump-start an economy hobbled by its coronavirus epidemic, one of the biggest obstacles lies in the countrys half-paralyzed logistics industry. China has some of the worlds biggest and newest seaports and airports, but using them has become a lot harder because of roadblocks, quarantines and factory closings.

Global shipping has been one of the biggest casualties. More tonnage of container ships is idled around the world now than during the global financial crisis, according to Alphaliner, a shipping data service.

Daily charter rates for tankers and bulk freighters have plummeted more than 70 percent since early January as China buys less oil, iron ore and coal, said Tim Huxley, the chief executive of Mandarin Shipping, a Hong Kong-based freighter shipping line.
Two public safety officials told the Los Angeles Times that Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies shared graphic photos from the scene of the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and eight others last month.

The Times says it's unclear how many people saw the pictures, which allegedly showed the victims' remains, and whether deputies took the photos themselves or received them from someone else. One of the officials told the Times he saw a picture on someone else's cell phone, while not working on the case. He also said that two days after the crash, first responders were discussing pictures that had been taken showing the aftermath.

The L.A. County Sheriff's Department on Thursday said "the matter is being looked into." This could be a significant breach, as sharing such photos with people who are not authorized to view them is "a cardinal sin in law enforcement," Joseph Giacalone, an instructor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told the Times.

More stories from theweek.com

Stock markets are headed for a 40 percent plunge, says economist who predicted financial crisis

A coronavirus recession would likely end Trump's presidency

Tom Steyer drops out of the 2020 race


Ireland's enduring online fashion retailer iCLOTHING has embarked on an ambitious growth strategy in recent years - investing in an array of new brands, and now in hiring TV presenter Lucy Kennedy as its newest brand ambassador.

Kennedy, at 43, has years of broadcast experience under her belt and has cultivated a loyal following of female fans with her unfiltered representation of motherhood on social media. And she's the perfect representative to expand their customer base which was previously aimed primarily at Gen Z shoppers looking for quick wardrobe fixes for Instagram.

Like Holly Willougby's wildly successful Marks & Spencer collaboration and Emma Willis' sportswear collection with Next, there is a long-standing history of pairing down-to-earth women beamed into our homes on television screens directly with customers.

Her edit represents the importance of a flexible working wardrobe with interchangeable hero pieces like the Bronagh Printed Pleated Skirt - and matching blouse - and the Katrine Long Sleeve Blazer, for both dressing up and down.

Expand Close Bronagh printed pleat skirt, 104.95, and matching blouse, 79.95, at iCLOTHING / Facebook

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But the undoubted star of this year's Spring/Summer '20 collection is a devotion to romantic prints and tea dresses, a more affordable version of the looks debuted on Erdem and Pradas runways, giving high street stalwart Zara a run for its money.
Wayland Baptist University hosted Buckner International President Albert Reyes on Wednesday. Reyes addressed the student body in chapel and was part of a luncheon panel discussion.

What do you think the world needs now? Reyes asked students.

He described his childhood in the 1960s when the nation saw the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy in short succession.

It was a tough time for our country, he said. We had never seen this before.

Reyes said society turned to an answer that was sensationalized in Burt Bacharachs song What the World Needs Now. Made popular by Aretha Franklin, the song states that love is the answer.

Here we are, years later. Im wondering if it worked, Reyes said. If what our generation was saying the world needed then, once applied, are we better off?

While love is good, Reyes believes what the world needs now is hope. That is the focus of a book he wrote, and the focus on Buckner International - the tagline of which is Hope shines here.

Reyes explained his journey that led him to the realization and writing of his book. It started when he took a sabbatical on which he wanted to write a book. He was advised to spend the sabbatical time researching his material then write the book later. As he narrowed his research focus, it became evident to him that missions were suffering from a two-team situation.

We have a team that wants to focus on your spiritual needs. Then there is another team that wants to know if you have something to drink, to eat, clothes, a job, he said. These teams dont work together and at times they throw rocks at each other.

Drawing from Luke chapter 10, Reyes explained that Jesus provided for both in the passage that is typically used for missions commissioning.

Inside the commissioning is the idea of integrated, holistic ministry, Reyes said, pointing out that the holistic approach is the focus on Buckner International. He said providing peace to individuals; healing, both physical and emotional; and justice, in whatever form that is to those who need it, is the Biblical approach to missions. Combined, those things bring hope to people. Reyes said the process of investing in the lives of people and working to meet their needs is how to truly accomplish the mission of Jesus.

I think what the world needs now is hope, he said. We tried love and love is helpful, but hope is critical.

Wayland is participating in Buckners Shoes for Orphan Souls shoe drive. If you are interested in supplying shoes for children around the world, contact Donnie Brown in Waylands office of church and denominational relations at brownd@wbu.edu or by phone at 806-291-1168.
British Airways-owner IAG said coronavirus would hit earnings this year but the rapidly evolving nature of the outbreak means it cannot say by how much.

Coronavirus, which emerged late last year in China, has sent demand for travel plunging in recent weeks as the outbreak has spread. Airlines are flying blind into a crisis of unknown severity and duration.

IAG, which also owns Iberia and Aer Lingus, usually gives an earnings forecast at this time of year but said the ongoing uncertainty of the impact and duration of coronavirus meant it could not give accurate profit guidance at this stage.

"It's a rapidly changing situation," Chief Executive Willie Walsh told reporters. "I wouldn't call it unprecedented. We have seen other challenges for the industry."

British Airways has in recent days cancelled flights to and from Italy, Singapore and South Korea, after it suspended all direct flights to China in January.

Low-cost airline easyJet also warned on Friday it had seen a "significant" softening of demand for its northern Italian bases, and would cancel flights and cut costs.

IAG said that it was cutting costs and implementing revenue initiatives to help it weather the storm, following rival airlines such as Germany's Lufthansa and Amsterdam-based KLM which have cut costs in recent days.

At IAG, flight cancellations due to falling travel demand would constrain capacity growth this year, it said, adding it expected to cut more flights on its short-haul European network in the coming days, in response to an outbreak of the virus in Italy.

For 2019, IAG reported a 5.7% drop in operating profit to 3.285 billion euros, slightly ahead of a downgraded forecast of 3.27 billion euros it gave in September when it said a pilots strike would result in a 215 million euros hit.

IAG CEO Willie Walsh is overseeing his last quarterly results announcement before he hands the reins to new boss Luis Gallego, currently the boss of IAG's Iberia airline, on March 26.
Representative Image

Rajeev Bhattacharyya

Delimitation of constituencies in Assam, which was stalled more than a decade ago following objections by the state government and civil society groups, could be completed ahead of the assembly polls next year.

In 2008, the election commission had notified that the exercise would remain postponed till such time as the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is updated to reflect the true population configuration in the state. The NRC has been completed and there are other factors that would motivate the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to change the map of the constituencies in Assam.

Delimitation is the process of determining the boundaries of territorial constituencies to represent the change in population and to provide equal representation to different segments of a population. So far, the exercise has been completed four times in India, which was accomplished after the constitution of the delimitation commission. Along with Assam, delimitation was stalled in Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Jharkhand.

In Assam, the committee appointed to suggest recommendations for implementation of Clause-6 of the Assam Accord has submitted the report. This clause stipulates safeguards to the indigenous communities in the state which had remained unimplemented so far.

Although the contents of the report are not yet known, a spate of news stories in the local media has revealed the gist of the recommendations that will include reservation of seats in elected bodies and greater rights over land to the indigenous communities, among other policies. However, there was no consensus among the members of the committee on the percentage of seats to be reserved in the elected bodies, with the recommendations varying from 67 to 100 percent.

Sources claimed that the report has broached the importance of delimitation as a measure to ensure that more seats in the assembly remain with the indigenous communities. This proposal is in sync with the views of a section of government officials and functionaries cutting across party lines and civil society groups who feel that delimitation can be a tool to check the debilitating impact of the rapid demographic change in the state.

These views of checking the political clout of Bengal-origin Muslims in Assams Brahmaputra Valley would be welcomed by an overwhelming majority of the indigenes. The rise of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) is viewed with alarm, and the recent statement by one of its legislators, Aminul Islam, that the Ahoms are not indigenous people has sparked an adverse reaction across Assam.

Delimitation is also an opportunity that the BJP is unlikely to let go off since a reduced political space for Muslims in Assam serves its political interests.

The implementation of this report is considered vital by the BJP ahead of the assembly polls next year to recover lost ground among the Assamese in the wake of the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). To a certain extent, the BJP has managed to shift the focus from Bangladeshi Hindus to Muslims and the agitation against the CAA has also lost steam in many districts.

However, occasionally BJP leaders and ministers are still being greeted with black flags and a long stretch spanning the eastern districts continue to be hostile to the party. No wonder that the home ministry had told the Clause-6 committee to amend the report since selective acceptance by the government could again trigger protests and allow the All Assam Students Union (AASU) to score over the BJP.

In all likelihood, the final outcome could make Assam somewhat similar to the system already in existence in the border states, where citizens from other states are not allowed to purchase land, acquire trade licenses or contest elections. Such a provision would necessitate an amendment to Article 371 of the Constitution, which specifies the special provisions of the North-eastern states.

How the government plans to implement the report is unclear and whether all the recommendations of the committee would be accepted. The committees recommendation of 1951 as the cut-off year for definition of Asomiya and Khilonjiya (indigenous) in Assam could fuel unrest if implemented by the government.
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Linkedin Budi Sutrisno (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, February 29, 2020 06:08 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20674b370 1 World COVID-19,Malaysia,New-Zealand,Dubai,Tehran,Bali-Airport Free

New Zealand and Malaysian authorities reported on Friday that their latest patients infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus had been to Indonesia before getting sick in their respective countries.

Malaysia confirmed its 24th coronavirus case on Friday, declaring that a 41-year-old Japanese woman working in Malaysia who had traveled to Japan in January and to Indonesia in early February had tested positive.

The ministrys directorate-general of health said in a press release on its website that the woman was one of two new cases confirmed on Friday, resulting in a total of 25 COVID-19 cases in the country to date.

The patient had fever symptoms and had received treatment on Feb. 17. She was admitted to a private hospital on Feb. 20 and confirmed positive on Feb. 27 after taking a COVID-19 detection test. She is currently being treated in an isolation ward at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital, the report stated.

However, the exact date she traveled to Indonesia and what city she went to remain unclear.

Also on Friday, New Zealand confirmed its first coronavirus case of a female citizen in her 60s who traveled from Tehran in Iran to Auckland via Bali.

Read also: New Zealand confirms first coronavirus case

Through its Twitter account, the New Zealand Health Ministry urged any passengers on Emirates flight EK450 on Feb. 26 from Dubai to Bali to Auckland to immediately contact authorities if they were concerned.

Anyone who was on the final leg of the flight, Emirates EK450 arriving Auckland on Wednesday 26 February and who is concerned should contact the COVID-19 Healthline number 0800 358 5453, the ministry said.

Work has begun to trace the patients other close contacts including those on the flight which originated in Tehran via Bali. The person arrived in Auckland on 26 Feb and traveled home in a private car. Their family became concerned about their condition and called Healthline.  Ministry of Health - Manatu Hauora (@minhealthnz) February 28, 2020

These two cases in Malaysia and New Zealand added to a previous two reports of COVID-19 cases outside Indonesia in which the patients had visited Indonesia before being declared positive in other countries.

Read also: Govt downplays reports of Chinese tourist who tested for coronavirus after Bali sojourn

Earlier, health authorities in Anhui province, China, reported that a Chinese national identified as Jin, who had visited Bali late last month, tested positive for the coronavirus disease.

The patient flew on Lion Air from Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, to Bali on Jan. 22 and stayed on the island for about a week before flying on Garuda Indonesia from Bali to Shanghai on Jan. 28.

Meanwhile, Japanese public broadcaster NHK previously reported that a Tokyo resident in his 60s tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after returning from a visit to Indonesia.

Read also: Japanese man's COVID-19 case raisers concerns about Indonesia's detection ability

The man, a staff member of a senior care facility, reportedly traveled to Indonesia for a family vacation on Feb. 15 and was hospitalized upon his return to Japan on Feb. 19 for severe breathing difficulties.

In a recent interview with The Jakarta Post, Samsuridjal Djauzi, an immunology expert at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, said that patients who tested positive for the coronavirus after visiting Indonesia did not necessarily get infected in Indonesia.

He said, however, there was a possibility they had transmitted the virus to others while in Indonesia. On the other hand, there is a possibility they would not, as well. Infection needs a certain situation. How many virus particles are there? How strong are they? How close is the contact? he said. You cannot say: Oh, they visited Indonesia and they will certainly spread the virus to other people. No, its not always the case, he said.
H-1B cap for 2021 reached: All 65,000 visas taken says US

COVID: Indian students on F-1, M-1 visas in US may be deported if all their classes are online

Visa on arrival for Japan, South Korea nationals temporarily suspended

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Feb 28: Amid coronavirus outbreak, India on Thursday temporarily suspended visa on arrival for citizens of South Korea and Japan. It has temporarily suspended Iranian carriers from flying here with immediate effect.

Bureau of Immigration, Ministry of Home Affairs said,''In view of the recent outbreak of CoronaVirus, Visa on Arrival facility has been temporarily suspended for nationals of Japan and South Korea.''

India on Thursday asked Iranian visacarriers to temporarily stop flying here. While no Indian carrier flies to Iran, two airlines from Tehran - Iran Air and Mahan Air - fly to India.

Pakistan confirms first two cases of coronavirus; colleges in Sindh, Balochistan closed

Iran Air has flights to Mumbai and Mahan Air to Delhi. Together they have five flights a week.

Meanwhile, South Korea reported 256 new coronavirus cases on Friday, taking its total -- the highest in the world outside China -- to 2,022, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

More than 90 per cent of the new cases were in Daegu -- the city at the epicentre of the outbreak in South Korea -- and the neighbouring North Gyeongsang province, it added, with no further deaths keeping the toll at 13.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 8:36 [IST]
Earlier Friday morning, over 30 homeschoolers and their parents and grandparents visited the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office West Annex to participate in the 2nd Annual HCSO Read Across America Homeschool Event.

Each year, public schools across America celebrate National Reading Day. During this time, elected officials, public servants and other community stakeholders visit local public and private schools and read to the students. Unfortunately, homeschool children, small children in Mothers Day Out programs and non-school aged children do not always have this opportunity.



During todays event, Sheriff Jim Hammond, Chief Deputy Austin Garrett and Chief of Staff Gino Bennett read various stories to the homeschoolers to celebrate the importance of literacy. The kids also enjoyed snacks provided by the Signal Mountain Walmart. The UAS Division hosted a demonstration where the kids were able to see themselves on a thermal imaging camera and then got to meet K-9 Cibo. Afterwards, they finished the event by enjoying a touch-a-truck exhibit outside.



Officials said, "While visiting the West Annex, the children toured the SWAT Bay where they got to see 'Bob,' our MRAP vehicle, as well as other SWAT vehicles and patrol units. Our friends in HCEMS and the Chattanooga Fire Department also joined in the touch-a-truck festivities and brought an ambulance and a fire truck.



"Lastly, each child received a goodie bag with safety coloring books, crayons, pencils and a book provided by the Hamilton County READ 20 program. Some were lucky enough to win a few door prizes, also provided by our local Signal Mountain Walmart as well.



"All in all, the kids had a great time and were pretty sure the parents did too.



"Reading is important and the HCSO is proud to help support educational programs and event that seek to encouraging our communitys children to learn to read."



Officials extended special thanks to the following HCSO divisions and units for their support:



Patrol Division

SWAT Division

Training Division

K-9 Unit

UAS Division

Public Relations Division

Office of Standards and Accreditation

Property and Evidence Division



Officials also extended special thanks to these sponsors and partners:



Signal Mountain Walmart

Hamilton County READ 20 Program

Hamilton County Emergency Medical Services

Chattanooga Fire Department



Throughout next week, HCSO personnel will be reading to local public schools in celebration of National Reading Day and Read Across America.
A standard blood test in San Antonio can cost as low as $56 or as much as $492.

Nearly 1 in 5 Texans does not have health insurance.

Three in 10 patients report delaying treatment because of the costs.

Two-thirds of Americans who file for bankruptcy say health care costs are to blame.

There are plenty of signs  like these  that health care in the U.S. is broken. Thats why reform is expected to be a major issue in this years presidential election.

RELATED: Health care plan details from the top 6 Democratic candidates

Every major Democratic presidential candidate is running on a platform that includes a health care overhaul as a way to improve access and drive down costs for millions of families struggling to keep up with their medical bills.

With Super Tuesday days away, candidates are trying to win over voters in 14 states, including Texas, and one U.S. territory. With 228 pledged delegates up for grabs, winning the Lone Star primary could be key to securing the Democratic nomination and running against Republican President Donald Trump in November.

More than 1.1 million residents are registered to vote in Bexar County.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders sits on the liberal end of the political spectrum. Hes running on a Medicare for All platform, which means he wants to replace the current multipayer health care system with a single government-administered plan.

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No more networks, premiums, deductibles, copays or surprise bills. The proposed coverage would include medical, hearing, dental, vision, mental health, prescription drugs and much more.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is also pushing Medicare for All, although shes offered a detailed transition plan for getting there in a few years by increasing taxes on the wealthy and asking employers to pay a bigger share to the government.

Former Mayor Julian Castro and his brother, Congressman Joaquin Castro, endorsed Warren when the former dropped out of the presidential race last month.

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently conducted a national poll that found 52 percent of respondents favored Medicare for All.

Two-thirds favor a government-run option that would compete with private health insurance plans. Most of the Democratic presidential candidates come down on more moderate positions for changing health care.

On ExpressNews.com: Standard blood tests in San Antonio 4 times the cost of same test in Rio Grande Valley

Not Warren. In a 20-page plan, she lays out how shed fast-track legislation to create a single-payer plan that would cost an estimated $20.5 trillion over the next 10 years.

She says all children and low-income adults would be enrolled immediately in the expanded Medicare plan and so would anyone 50 or older. Eventually the plan would be free for those residing in the U.S.

Yes, this sounds wonderful, but the money has got to come from somewhere, said Cristina Aldrete, president and CEO of North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

The cost of Medicare for All plans has long been a concern.

Sanders estimates his plan would cost anywhere from $17 trillion to $40 trillion over 10 years.

On ExpressNews.com: Health care costs account for 18% of U.S. economy, federal report finds

After watching the Democratic candidates debate Tuesday, Aldrete said shes still not sure which candidates health care plan would be viable. But shes sure that upending the health insurance industry would  to say the least  disrupt San Antonio businesses.

I think everybody is just kind of waiting to see what is going to happen, she said.

Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and other moderates in the race take a slower approach to universal health care, without driving private insurance companies out of business  at least for the time being.

Former Vice President Joe Biden wants to revamp the Affordable Care Act by lowering out-of-pocket costs and expanding coverage. He served under President Barack Obama during ACAs creation and rollout.

Biden would allow the public  even those who could receive insurance through their employers  to purchase plans on the governments marketplace, including the 1.5 million uninsured adults in Texas affected by the states top lawmakers refusal to expand Medicaid.

Texas Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox

Texas is one of 14 states that opted not to expand Medicaid, with many adults, including those without children, falling into a coverage gap. They have incomes above Medicaid eligibility limits but not below the poverty level, which would make them eligible for a discount on marketplace premiums for health insurance.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota wants to expand access to ACA plans and make them more affordable. But she doesnt say how much she would increase federal subsidies that help cover the cost of premiums.

In the plans from both Biden and Buttigieg, the way to increase access is to lower the income cap for tax credits. Both candidates say families shouldnt spend more than 8.5 percent of their income on health insurance.

Currently, a family can spend as much as 9.78 percent of household income on health insurance before being eligible for discounted health plan premiums under the ACA.

A family of three with an annual income of $31,000 who would have paid $1,200 a year for a silver plan through the federal marketplace would instead pay $600 a year for a higher-quality gold plan, according to Buttigiegs campaign website.

Mike Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City and a late entrant in the race, offers a Medicare-like public option that would also cap premiums at 8.5 percent of household income.

Every major candidate supports allowing Medicare to wield its power in negotiations with pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug costs.

Bloomberg proposes driving down costs by capping drug prices at 120 percent of the average cost in other advanced nations. His plan bans drug company payments to pharmacy benefit managers, which are third-party firms that negotiate the price of medications covered by insurance plans. PBMs have long taken part of the blame for rising drug costs.

Big worries

Dr. David Fleeger, the Austin-based president of the Texas Medical Association, said many doctors have concerns about shifting the cost of health care, which totals almost one-fifth of the nations overall spending on goods and services, to the government. Many providers, he said, already operate at a loss when they treat Medicaid and Medicare patients.

These government-funded programs dont fully cover the costs of care, he said. Traditionally, private insurance companies have paid higher rates, which often compensate for losses on Medicare and Medicaid.

Everyone agrees that the system is sometimes not a good system, but I think we need to be making incremental changes  and not radical changes that could potentially cause significant and irreversible problems as far as how we deal with health care in America, he said.

On ExpressNews.com: Some San Antonio doctors already reforming health care system

Policy nuances aside, Democratic presidential candidates contend Trump is mishandling health care, including his efforts to dismantle the ACA, such as backing a lawsuit in the Supreme Court to strike down the federal insurance mandate.

His opponents also take issue with Trump allowing the sale of short-term health plans that dont have to comply with ACA regulations, such as the requirement to cover preexisting conditions, and his attempt to defund reproductive care.

Trump has also worked to restrict health care access to immigrants and removed protections for LGBTQ people.

The concept of having universal health care, or that health care is a human right, is not a hard sell, said Michelle Tremillo, executive director of the Texas Organizing Project, a progressive advocacy group whose members are mostly black and Latino families.

A recent University of Texas-Austin/Texas Tribune poll found that 70 percent of Texas Democrats prefer universal health care over the current health care system.

Tremillo said TOPs members, including nearly 64,000 in San Antonio, endorsed Sanders for president mainly because of his plan to overhaul the health care system.

The system as it currently exists does not work and actually denies our communities access to health care, even if they have insurance, Tremillo said. They arent going to the doctor when they are sick.

Laura Garcia covers the health care industry in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her stories and more local coverage on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | laura.garcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @Reporter_Laura
28.02.2020 LISTEN

The West does not like the energy policy of Russia. And Putin, as its ideologist. Aggressive, annexing, Russian-style  labels like these are in spades. But the market should not really bother about political colors and shades, as profit always comes first. In theory, this is exactly how it should be. In reality, for decades we have been watching energy wars being waged, putting politics above the economy and hampering its development. Although, speaking objectively, Russia's energy resources remain the best offer to go for on the European energy market. That the economic competitiveness of any country, including European, depends on the cost of energy is clear to everyone. The question is, how relevant resource wars really are in a rapidly changing world, when humanity is moving up to a new technological level?

Supporters of the ideas of solidarity on both sides of the Atlantic may object: "Geopolitics is more important than the economy; Moscow is an aggressor" A few years ago, they would have been right, to some extent: Russia's policies have not always been akin to those of the European Union, but Donald Trump, the current andapparentlyprospective president of the United States, has also adopted the policy of protectionism, starting trade wars with both Europe and China. While the confrontation with Beijing can be defined as geopolitical, it is not clear what kind of civilizational differences could have arisen within NATO. Turkey does not count, of course.

So, the economy turns out to be more important after all. While Washington is striving to enter a new technological cycle, Europe finds itself in the thrall to the US geopolitics.

Europe itself lacks unity: Germany, France and Italy are searching for ways to mend relations with Russia, at least in the economic field (there is progress in some areas, while projects stall in others). At the same time, Poland's leadership say that liquefied gas from the United States will cost 2030 percent less than Russian gas shipped through pipelines.[1] Is that even possible, especially given Poland's geographic proximity to Russia and the availability of well-developed energy infrastructures? It is only possible, if the United States subsidizes LNG supplies. That is another example where geopolitics prevails over the economy. But isn't it a Pyrrhic victory? It depends on the will of the Old World nations. The United States is clearly not going to subsidize LNG supplies to Germany and France. Funds must flowbut in a totally different direction.

On the other hand, Moscow has never stopped pursuing an active energy policy. However, as the successor to the Soviet Union, Russia has inherited a gas transportation system oriented almost solely to Europe, one that by the early 2000s was not in line with the country's new ambitions in a new geopolitical environment.

Incessant gas wars with Ukraine repeatedly proved the simple fact that the infrastructure failed to provide the sufficient diversification level. Russia therefore opted for developing an extensive network of new gas transportation routes, such as Blue Stream, Nord Stream, Power of Siberia, and other projects. All of these built on one and the same idea that there should be no transit countries that could potentially interfere with Russian gas supplies. The idea was apparently generated by Vladimir Putin, since he became its main implementer and proponent.

This was the conclusion drawn by the authoritative American agency Bloomberg in late 2019.[2] But in line with the simplified formula, so popular with the Americans, the emphasis was placed on the idea that the Kremlin was using its energy sources to pursue its "aggressive and expansionist policy." Yet, there is a reason to believe that American media outlets use this rhetoric only in order to create a most convenient intellectual atmosphere in Europe to favor US energy companies.

Czech journalists offer a slightly more objective picture of Russian energy projects. Like the Americans, they assume that Russia uses energy cooperation as leverage to put pressure on its partners. But the Czechs can "understand" the logics of the Kremlin's energy geopolitics and its desire to safeguard its supplies against belligerently anti-Russian Poland and Ukraine.[3] Prague, which is far from being the world's Russophile capital, believes that Moscow distinguishes between NATO and the EU in its political understanding. While considering the former to be a direct threat (suffice it to mention the Alliance's officials' statements), Russia sees the latter as a strategic partner for diverse cooperation.

It should be noted that for quite a long time now, the US has been hampering, with various degrees of success, the implementation of Russian energy projects on the continent. Berlin has withstood the blow from Washington in the Baltics and hasn't given up on Nord Stream 2: even the suspension of the 93 percent complete project in late 2019 due to the US sanctions did not sway the Germans' political determination to see it through to the logical completion.[4] There is, however, an opposite example: at the end of 2014, the pressure exerted on Bulgaria yielded tangible results. Sofia suddenly abandoned the South Stream project, which was a heavy blow for the Russians at the time, since several billion euros had already been invested in the development of infrastructures in the south of Russia, necessary for the gas pipeline. In 2015, Turkey expressed interest in the energy project, prompting the transformation of South Stream into Turkish Stream.

Thus, Putin is pursuing a rather clear political goalto extend his influence to the European countries; therefore, the pipeline was bound to reach the Balkans one way or another. But, apart from politics, this is about economic diversification: while Brussels on behalf of the EU declares the intention to end its dependence on Russian gas, Moscow under the radar does basically the same thing, progressively increasing the number of its partners.

Besides, the old South Stream was very much wanted in Serbia, Italy, Hungary, and some other countries. Belgrade commenced the construction of its own part of the gas pipeline as far back as 2013. From the standpoint of geopolitics, Serbia's concerns are not unfounded: having no access to the sea, the country finds itself heavily dependent on the goodwilland the will is not always goodof their neighbors, specifically of Bulgaria. So far, the Serbs trust that Bulgaria intends to see the so-called Bulgarian, or Balkan, Stream project through[5]. Different media gave the project to extend Turkish Stream different names, but the idea remained the samethe Russian pipeline is eventually supposed to pass through the territory of Bulgaria, which provokes strong reaction both in the local media and in politicians' official statements. Come to think of it, it's such a shame because this time the terms of transit are markedly worse than those previously proposed by Moscow.

In fact, Sofia's foreign policy relies here on the worst principles of Byzantinism, inasmuch as Russia derived all the best features from the ancient empire, while the Bulgarian leadership the skills of dodging and double-dealing. This became especially obvious in January 2020, when Sofia in a single day signed agreements simultaneously with Russians and Americansboth concerning gas supplies. At the same time, Bulgaria publicly promised the United States to halve the shipments of Russian gas by the end of the current year, substituting them with fuel from the US and Azerbaijan[6]. A very complicated scheme.

By the way, southern European gas routes arouse increased interest of hydrocarbons suppliers from the South Caspian region: Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, actively supported by the United States, are also working on the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline[7]. Yet, analysts estimate that gas consumption in the European market is not going to rise in the foreseeable future as the region has started its transition to green technologies. This means that the decision to develop alternative routes is nothing but a politically motivated pressure.

While the European energy market is being redivided, one has to give credit to Vladimir Putin. What he does is only natural: despite the policy of sanctions and restrictions against Russia, pursued by the West, and the US' foul play against its market competitors, in his policy Vladimir Putin continues to aim at establishing additional gas routes from Russia to Europe. This example vividly demonstrates the extraordinary ability of the Russian leader to offer his partners the best consensus solutions and thus reap both geopolitical and economic benefits.

Certainly, the European market is a source of many billions of euros' revenue for Russia, yet implementing new energy projects, Moscow also has a long-term agenda in mind. As a matter of fact, it was Russia's president who strived, for many years, to build closer ties between Russia and Europe, with his idea of shaping a common space from Lisbon to Vladivostok being central to Russia's foreign policy before 2014.

Nevertheless it is still a part of the European civilization. We are entering a new era in which the West is no longer the world's only pole, so what we need is the consolidation in the face of rapidly developing South-East Asian countries. As far as Russia is concerned, so long as Vladimir Putin is its leader, this "window of opportunity" remains open, although not as wide open as it was before 2014. If the opponents of cooperation with Europe prevail in the Russian authorities, the only thing left to us will be to feel how wrong the policy of discrimination against Russia has been. And all the bitterness of disappointment. Yet time will be foolishly and irreversibly lost.

https://www.energetyka24.com/wozniak-gaz-z-usa-o-20-30-tanszy-od-rosyjskiego

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-12-26/putin-s-grand-gas-project-makes-sense-now

[3] https://www.armadninoviny.cz/ruske-kroky-ze-sirsi-perspektivy.html

[4] https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/ostseepipeline-mit-aller-macht-gegen-nord-stream-2-weitere-us-sanktionen-drohen/25505860.html?ticket=ST-4669843-kHem9xXb0RW1MnbyZ27r-ap6

[5] https://www.ekspres.net/biznis/turski-tok-i-bugarska-veza

[6] https://eadaily.com/ru/news/2020/01/28/k-koncu-goda-bolgariya-sokratit-zakupki-rossiyskogo-gaza-vdvoe

[7] https://www.apsny.ge/interview/1581624260.php
GRAYLING, MI  A man and woman are charged with weapons and drug crimes after an unregistered gun that was dropped in a hospital emergency room and later found at an elementary school.

The couple was arrested and charged after the 33-year-old Houghton Lake man dropped a gun at Grayling Munson Hospital on Nov. 4, UpNorthLive reports. He quickly picked it up and left the building. The gun was hidden when Grayling police officers made contact in the parking lot.

Grayling Department of Public Safety then launched an investigation, the report said. The gun, which was not registered and didnt have serial numbers, was later found at Grayling Elementary School. That lead to the mans arrest. His Roscommon County home was searched the day after his arrest, police said. More firearms were found and seized, along with illegal drugs. His 31-year-old girlfriend, also of Houghton Lake, was arrested on drug charges.

The man is charged with two counts of felon in possession of a firearm; possessing a weapon at a weapon-free school; possessing, carrying and transporting a pistol without a license, third offense habitual offender; felon in possession of ammunition; maintaining a drug house, fourth offense habitual offender; possession of less than 25 grams of cocaine, heroin or another narcotic; and possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine, second or subsequent offense, the report said. The woman is charged with possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine, second or subsequent offense; and maintaining a drug house, second or subsequent offense.

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Normalcy seems to be returning in the riot-hit northeast districts which claimed more than three-dozen lives and left over 200 injured. Muslims in a northeastern neighbourhood of the capital returned for weekly prayers at the mosques.People offer prayers on the roof of a fire-bombed mosque in New Delhi. (Image: AP)
Indonesian authorities have defended their handling of the coronavirus epidemic after Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison cast significant doubt over Indonesias claim to be free of the virus.

The country - home to about 270 million people - has tested just 136 people and all the results have been negative.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

Neighbouring countries including Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Australia all have populations that are orders of magnitude smaller than Indonesias and have conducted - at a minimum - ten times more tests.

Morrison told radio station 3AW the claim of zero infections in Indonesia was a function of their capability to test.
Amid speculations of India's role in the Afghanistan peace deal, emerging developments have claimed that India's Ambassador to Qatar Kumaran will attend the signing of the landmark deal between the US and Afghan Taliban in Doha on Saturday, official sources informed PTI on Thursday. The deal with lead the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, who invaded the country 18-years-back citing war on terror.

PTI sources notified that an invitation was extended by the Qatar government for the ceremony wherein the deal will the signed. This is the first time, since the inception of the peace deal, that India has been officially a part of the process involving the Taliban. India has been a key stakeholder in the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

READ| Pakistan backs Taliban; counters India's support for democratic Afghan

In a significant move, India had sent two former diplomats in "non-official" capacity to a conference on the Afghan peace process in Moscow in November 2018. The conference organised by Russia was attended by a high-level Taliban delegation, representatives of Afghanistan as well as from several other countries, including the US, Pakistan, and China. This came right after the US President abruptly had called it a "dead deal."

Major powers such as the US, Russia, and Iran had been reaching out to the Taliban as part of efforts to push the stalled Afghan peace process. India has been supporting a national peace and reconciliation process which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan controlled. India has also been maintaining that care should be taken to ensure that any such process does not lead to any "ungoverned spaces" where terrorists and their proxies can relocate.

Modi-Trump discuss peace deal

Donald Trump, during his two-day visit to India, notified that he had a conversation with PM Modi on the Afghan Taliban peace deal, adding that everyone was "happy" about it. "I spoke to PM Modi on it. I think India would like to see it happen. We are pretty close. Everybody is happy about it," said Trump during a press conference.

The US President on Monday said that the Taliban is tired of fighting and hopes to reach a deal. Trump also said that he would sign the peace truce if one is eventually reached in Afghanistan. The US President's comments came after a partial implication of the deal took effect on February 22 with the Taliban, US, and Afghan forces agreed for a week-long reduction in violence."

READ| Pakistan's Foreign Minister to attend signing of US-Taliban peace deal in Doha

READ| Pak PM Imran meets Qatar's Emir ahead of signing of US-Taliban peace deal

(with PTI inputs)
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Friday wrote to President Ramnath Kovind over the large-scale violence in north-east Delhi, in which more than 40 people have been killed so far, demanding a judicial probe into the riots.

Mayawati also called the deadly clashes the violence in the Capital from Sunday to Wednesday was a failure of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government.

Delhi, which is the capital of India, has once again been hit by deadly riots like the 1984 Sikh riots and there has been a massive loss of life and property, she wrote.

She said the riots and the loss of lives and property were very serious, extremely sad and worrisome. The violence, she said, had attracted the worlds attention to India and the country has become a subject of negative discussions.

It is the duty of the ruling BJP and its government to see that neither they do anything that would damage the prestige of the country nor tolerate any statement by its party members or let them indulge in any activity that would lead to anarchy and violence... Mayawati said.

But the people have seen and felt that the BJP and its government have been a failure to a large extent in living up to its constitutional responsibilities. Because of their failure, so far, over three dozen people have lost their lives, over 200 were injured, and in these times of price rise, poverty, and unemployment, a massive loss to businesses and trades have happened, she wrote.

The BSP chief said a high-level judicial probe under a Supreme Court judge must be ordered into the violent clashes in Delhi for a meaningful outcome of the investigations to wash away the blot on the national capital, like that of the anti-Sikh riots, and so that the probe doesnt end up as an eyewash.

The BSP chief also attacked Delhi Police, saying the force and the administration were negligent in tackling the riots.

She also urged the President to direct the Delhi government and Centre to provide relief and assistance to those affected by the riots in the best possible manner.

Before Mayawatis letter to the President, Congress president Sonia Gandhi led a party delegation to meet Kovind on Thursday and submitted a memorandum demanding Union home minister Amit Shahs resignation.
Diwakar Pandeshwar, BJP



Corporator from Cantonment ward, was on Friday elected new Mayor of Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC).

Vedavathi, Corporator from Kulai, was elected the Deputy Mayor.

The mayoral election was held at the MCC conference hall.

All the 60 corporators, two MLAs Vedavyasa Kamath and Bharath Y Shetty and Ivan D'Souza, MLC, cast their vote in the election, while Nalin Kumar Kateel, MP, did not turn up.

The standing committee members for various departments were also elected.

The Congress had put up candidates for both the posts.

Keshava who was fielded for the Mayor's post got 15 votes including the MLC vote.

Deputy Mayor candidate Zeenath Shamshuddin, who was supported by SDPI's two members, secured 17 votes, while both the BJP candidates got 46 votes including the votes of their two MLAs.

In the November 12 elections to the 60-member Corporation council, BJP had won 44 seats, while the Congress got only 14.

SDPI members were elected from two wards.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday asked big banks to explain how they are preparing to deal with the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, sent letters to the chief executives of five major banks: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

"I write to inquire how your bank is monitoring and managing the economic threat and potential risk to your bank related to the spread of coronavirus in China and around the world," each copy of the letter reads.

"As a globally systemic important bank, your institution and the customers it serves could be impacted," the letters say, "either directly through exposures to areas where the virus has spread or indirectly through a change in market conditions caused by disruptions in supply chains, a drop in tourism or travel, or numerous other factors that could cause a slowdown in economic growth."

The Massachusetts senator sent the letters less than a week before Super Tuesday and just one day before South Carolina's primary election. Once seen as a leader in the race to defeat President Donald Trump in 2020, Warren's campaign has struggled with fundraising in recent months and fallen behind other candidates in the polls.

But the global spread of the coronavirus has injected a new element of uncertainty into the political mix. Market fears about the impact of the virus, which has killed more than 2,800 people and infected tens of thousands more, have sent stocks in spiraling downward.

Trump's approval ratings, which ticked up in the wake of his impeachment acquittal by the GOP-led Senate earlier this month, have sunk back down, according to some polls, as his handling of the health crisis comes under scrutiny.

The White House has taken measures, such as imposing travel restrictions and quarantines, to contain the virus' potential growth in the U.S. Trump also put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the U.S. response to the coronavirus.

Warren has long been involved in efforts to regulate and increase oversight of major banks and corporations. As a member of the Senate Banking Committee, she gained fame for her harsh grilling of banking regulators in the wake of the Great Recession.
Joshua Allen, the son of celebrity chef Rachel Allen, has been jailed for 15 months for arranging to have 22,000 worth of cannabis posted to his home.

Sentencing Judge Sean O Donnabhain said that any suggestion that he would deal with Mr Allen differently to anyone else was offensive and imposed a two-and-a-half year sentence with the second half of it suspended and backdated to November 8 2019.

Defence senior counsel Siobhan Lankford told Cork Circuit Criminal Court: The operation was amateurish in the extreme. He was bringing the stuff in through the post.

She said the idea that Allen would test positive for cannabis when he first came before the court in relation to the matter showed the extent of his stupidity and he engaged poorly with his probation officer initially. She said that a remand in custody from November 8 to 29 had been salutary and that he had spent all of the time since then in residential treatment at Cuan Mhuire coming directly from there for sentencing.

He was very young. He has no previous convictions. He is a man of very limited education. He left school at 15 before his Junior Cert. I would ask you to give him a chance. I would ask you to treat him as you would any young man. Requiring this man to go back to prison, the social utility of that is very limited, Ms Lankford said.

Judge O Donnabhain said:

The idea I would treat him as different to anybody else is quite offensive. He will be treated the same as any other defendant. That is what will happen. That is what has happened until now.

Ms Lankford wants me to see it as naive. He got it sent to his home but that does not deal with the facts. He went to London with 2,000. From London he got onto a contact in America and arranged this.

The judge said that his lack of previous convictions, his co-operation with gardai, his early signed plea of guilty were all mitigating factors he could now take into consideration.

However, Judge O Donnabhain said that if he had sentenced Joshua Allen last November in light of his failure to appreciate the seriousness of his situation, the consequences for the defendant would have been grim.

He was allowed a second chance and in fairness to him he has done his bit. He has come up to the mark. Importantly, he has convinced his probation officer who was deeply unhappy with him prior to this.

Allowing for mitigating factors the judge said he had to take into consideration that "his culpability was high".

The son of celebrity chef, Rachel Allen, was then taken back into custody to serve his prison sentence.

File image of chef Rachel Allen

The charge on which Allen appeared at Cork Circuit Criminal Court is one of having cannabis worth more than 13,000 for sale or supply. Its actual street value was 22,000. The crime carries a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years unless the judge finds there are exceptional circumstances.

Detective Sergeant Michael OHalloran said previously that gardai were contacted by customs officers about a suspected parcel of drugs at the postal sorting office in Portlaoise. A controlled delivery was made at 4.30pm on August 30 2018 to Joshua Allen, 20, with an address at Ballymaloe cookery school, Shanagarry, County Cork. Joshua Allen who was 18 at the time signed for it.

He was observed sitting outside the shop, opening it and looking into it. He was then intercepted by gardai, Det. Sgt. OHalloran said.

Joshua Allen from Ballinamona, Shanagarry, County Cork, had cocaine for his own use in his wallet and later told gardai of a small amount of cannabis at his home for his own use too. He was prosecuted on two possession of drugs charges for those.

Joshua Allen told gardai this was his third or fourth time getting such a delivery of cannabis through the post. He said it was from a lady in California whom he had met in East Cork. Rather than paying her by Western Union, which he felt could be traced, he travelled to London to pay her 2,000.
Many people who practice meditation on a regular basis report a strong feeling of well-being. Now a new Italian study shows that these positive feelings can be linked to specific changes in the brain.

For the study, researchers at IMT School for Advanced Studies in Lucca, Italy examined the effects of the technique known as Transcendental Meditation (TM), which consists in the silent repetition of a meaningless sound, a mantra.

The researchers enrolled 34 healthy young volunteers and divided them in two groups. The first group practiced Transcendental Meditation 40 minutes per day in two sessions of 20 minutes each, one in the morning and the other in the evening; the second group did not change its daily routine.

At the beginning of the study, the researchers used psychometric questionnaires to measure the anxiety and stress levels of all the participants, as well as their ability to manage stressful situations.

Each participant was also subjected to a functional magnetic resonance imaging test (fMRI), in order to measure brain activity at rest and changes in the functional connectivity among different cerebral areas. After three months, at the end of the study, the same tests were repeated.

The overall findings show that levels of anxiety and stress perceived by the subjects who followed the meditation program were significantly reduced in comparison with those of the volunteers who did not practice TM.

Magnetic resonance imaging also shows that the reduction of anxiety levels is associated with specific changes in the connectivity between different cerebral areas, such as precuneus, left parietal lobe and insula, which all have an important role in the modulation of emotions and inner states, said Giulia Avvenuti, a PhD fellow at IMT School and first author of the study. In the control group, instead, none of these changes was observed.

Pietro Pietrini, IMT Schools Director and coordinator of the study said, The fact that Transcendental Meditation has measurable effects on the dialogue between brain structures involved in the modulation of affective states opens new perspectives for the understanding of brain-mind relationships.

It also extends the results of recent research suggesting that drugs therapies and psychotherapy leverage on the same biological mechanism,

Transcendental Meditation has recently gained more attention worldwide as an effective relaxation practice. The David Lynch Foundation co-financed the study along with the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca.

Founded in 2005 by the movie director David Lynch, who is himself a longtime practitioner and supporter of the social value of TM, the David Lynch Foundation promotes TM practice as an approach to reduce stress in schools (as for the Quiet Time-Meditate Lucca project at the Pertini High School) and workplaces, and to build resilience in victims of trauma.

I am very happy with the results of this study that used the latest technology to show the beautiful benefits for the human beings of TM. Now Im working to form my foundation also in Italy, with teachers who teach transcendental meditation in schools, work places and other groups, reaching as many people as possible said Lynch.

This new study, along with previous research, shows that even a few months of Transcendental Meditation practice can have positive effects on psychological well-being and that these effects are correlated with measurable changes in the brain.

The researchers published their findings in the journal Brain and Cognition.

Source: IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca
NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Beverly Sheppard, pediatric physician and pediatrics department chair for AdvantageCare Physicians (ACPNY), yesterday was awarded the 2020 Celebration of Excellence Award during the Big Apple Health News and Event's 2020 Black History Month Reception. The award recognizes the contributions of prominent African Americans in health care.

"Thank you to Big Apple Health for recognizing my work, along with so many other talented individuals," said Dr. Sheppard. "As we celebrate Black History Month, I feel honored to be among a group of recipients who are collectively driven by one essential purpose: helping others. I'm also grateful to be a part of AdvantageCare Physicians, an organization that is deeply committed to serving the African American community."

As specialty chair for pediatrics at ACPNY, Dr. Sheppard oversees pediatricians across AdvantageCare Physicians' medical offices in New York City and Long Island. Her 35 years of experience includes previous positions at the Harlem Hospital Center and the Queens-Long Island Medical Group. She currently serves as an assistant professor in pediatrics at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra Northwell, teaching second-year medical students. Dr. Sheppard is a board certified pediatrician and completed her residency from New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell. She earned her medical degree from SUNY Downstate Medical Center and completed her undergraduate studies at Princeton University.

"On behalf of the entire AdvantageCare Physicians team, I want to congratulate Dr. Sheppard on receiving this award," said Dr. Navarra Rodriguez, President and Chief Medical Officer at ACPNY and officer of EmblemHealth. "Dr. Sheppard not only provides exceptional care to her patients, but she also embodies AdvantageCare Physicians' model of caring for the whole patient, starting with a healthy foundation early in life. We are fortunate to consider her one of our own."

Big Apple Health News and Events honored eight African American health care leaders who have made incredible contributions to the advancement of health care in the U.S. at its 2020 Black History Month Awards Reception.

About AdvantageCare Physicians

AdvantageCare Physicians, one of the largest primary and specialty care practices in the New York area, provides quality, personalized care that is focused on the whole patient. With medical offices across the five boroughs and Long Island, AdvantageCare Physicians takes a team-based approach to care where physicians work with nurses, social workers, nutritionists, behavioral health specialists and other professionals. www.ACPNY.com.

About Big Apple Health News and Events

Big Apple Health engages health, senior, and social care businesses and advocates with businesses to help them discover insights about their products and services. https://bigapplehealthne.com/

SOURCE AdvantageCare Physicians

Related Links

https://www.acpny.com


Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 28 : The Kerala Non-Resident Indians' Commission on Friday passed a resolution to request the Centre and Election Commission (EC) to make appropriate amendments in the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951, to ensure voting rights to the non-resident Indians working abroad.

The Commission is a statutory body constituted for the welfare of Non-Resident Keralites working outside India.

The Centre had introduced a bill for this purpose which was passed by the Lok Sabha in 2018, but the same has since lapsed.

Therefore, the Kerala NRI Commission decided to request the Centre to consider introducing the bill in the next session of Parliament considering the interest of the NRI community at large.

The resolution was moved by commission member and NRI entrepreneur Shamsheer Vayalil, who is also a petitioner in the writ petition filed regarding this in the Supreme Court.

"The central government may consider introducing the bill in the next session of the Parliament session considering the interest of the NRI community at large," read the resolution which will now be sent to the Ministry of Law and the Election Commission (EC).

Commission chairman Justice P.D. Rajan said the right to vote for NRIs is a genuine demand.

"This is the time that we step up pressure on the agencies concerned to implement this. Voting from the workplace would be a different experience for them. It would be a decisive step," he said.

This fresh development comes at a time when a petition filed in the Supreme Court on the same topic last week came before a bench headed by Justice Deepak Gupta, which considered the case and said it will be heard in April.

"We are expecting a favourable decision from the Supreme Court. We would also approach the NRI commission in other states and request them to raise the same demand," said Vayalil.

If implemented, millions of NRIs around the world would be able to exercise their franchise in the electoral processes of the nation. According to the estimate of the Ministry of External Affairs, there are about 3.10 crore NRIs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @semayerTBC.




The UK will not participate in the proposed Unified Patent Court and unitary patent system, a spokesperson for the prime minister has confirmed.

In a statement last night, February 27, a spokesperson for 10 Downing Street said: The UK will not be seeking involvement in the UP/UPC system. Participating in a court that applies EU law and is bound by the CJEU is clearly inconsistent with our objective of becoming an independent self-governing nation.

The governments confirmation ends speculation over whether the UK could have participated in the system post-Brexit.

The governments line was previously that the UPC was not an EU institution and that the UK would play a part in the system.

In fact, just five months ago, Tim Moss, chief executive of the UKIPO, told Managing IP: We believe the UK can continue to play a full role after Brexit and intend to explore continued participation in the unitary patent system and the UPC with our European partners.

However, the governments stance has toughened since the general election on December 12 last year in which the Conservative Party won an 80-seat majority.

Uncertainty about the UKs involvement was not the only stumbling block holding the project back.

A constitutional challenge at the German Federal Constitutional Court is set to be decided in the first quarter of 2020, according to the judge in charge of the matter in an exclusive interview with Managing IP. If that ruling goes against the UPC then the entire project will be in serious doubt, if it isnt already.

Should the UPC come into being, a key question will be whether it is still an attractive proposition without the UK. A survey of in-house counsel conducted by Managing IP last year suggested it would be.

To view our recent coverage on the UPC, click on the links below:

UPC case to be decided in early 2020

UPC report creates point of legal difficulty for UK membership

UPC: businesses still on hold despite judge Huber announcement

Avoiding the cliff edge: UKIPOs Brexit preparations

UKIPO: UPC before Brexit no longer possible





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Dear Dr. Roach: Can you explain why being born between 1945 and 1965 is a risk factor for hepatitis C virus infection? I've seen this mentioned repeatedly in ads for hepatitis medications, and I've noticed that my health insurance covers one-time screenings for adults born between these dates. I'm wondering if this birth-window-related risk factor is due to past immunization practices for school children and military recruits. Was there a time when needles were reused and, perhaps, insufficiently sterilized during group immunization events, allowing transmission of the virus from one vaccination recipient to another?

-- M.R.

A: In Egypt, treatment for schistosomiasis from the 1950s to the 1980s involved needles that were repeatedly reused, leading to extremely high rates (10%) of hepatitis C, a viral disease easily spread by blood, in that country.

Needles were not reused for vaccination in the U.S. or Canada during that time, but people born during that time period are at high risk for hepatitis C; 81% of Americans with hepatitis C were born in that period. Hepatitis C virus wasn't identified until 1989, so this may be due to inability to test the blood supply during that time, or possibly due to inadequate sterilization. Finally, injection drug use -- even if only tried once -- can lead to hepatitis C. That's why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends routine testing in those born between 1945 and 1965. The Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver recommends screening for those born between 1945 and 1975.

Hepatitis C is curable now in the vast majority of people, but many people don't know they have it. People born during that time period or with other risk factors should be tested.

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The International Committee of the Fourth International calls for a globally coordinated emergency response to the spreading coronavirus pandemic. The working class must demand that governments make available the resources required to contain the spread of the disease, treat and care for those who are infected, and secure the livelihoods of the hundreds of millions of people who will be affected by the economic fallout.

Commuters wearing masks walk across a pedestrian crosswalk Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020, in Tokyo (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The danger cannot be overstated. The number of reported cases is approaching 100,000 worldwide, with nearly 3,000 deaths. The majority of those infected are in China, but the virus is spreading throughout the world. Infected individuals have been identified in 47 countries, including hundreds of cases in Italy (14 reported deaths); Iran (26 deaths); and South Korea (13 deaths).

On Thursday, both Germany and the United States reported their first cases of the virus with no obvious source of transmission, indicating that it has begun to spread to people who have not traveled to centers of the disease. The number of infected in Iran, meanwhile, is far higher than reported. The countrys deputy health minister has gone into quarantine after testing positive.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday that it would be a fatal mistake for any country to believe it will not be hit. WHO advisor Ira Longini has said that without aggressive measures to contain the virus, it could ultimately infect two-thirds of the world, which would mean hundreds of millions of deaths.

The economic damage from the virus could exceed the scale of the 2008 financial crisis. The recession sparked by the 2008 crisis led to a fall in global GDP by 0.5 percent and destroyed the jobs of tens of millions of people.

The response of ruling elites and the governments they control to the crisis combines incompetence with a criminal level of indifference. Nowhere is this more evident than in the United States.

President Trump, concerned above all about the impact of the coronavirus on the fortunes of the corporate and financial elite, has sought to downplay the danger and grossly overstate the level of preparedness. Whatever happens, he said on Wednesday, were totally prepared.

In fact, the US government is completely unprepared for a major outbreak. There is no system in place to even systematically test for the virus. The individual in California who has been identified as the first reported case of unknown origin in the US was not given a test for days after symptoms were first expressed.

There is a severe shortage of the most basic health equipment, including respirator masks needed by health care workers. The government only has about 30 million on hand, while it is estimated that 300 million may be required.

The Trump administration has appointed Vice President Mike Pence, whose inaction and reactionary religious ideology contributed to an HIV outbreak in the state of Indiana when he was governor, as the governments point person for the coronavirus response. The main purpose of this appointment is to muzzle any officials whose warnings contradict the response of the administration.

The working class must demand and fight for comprehensive and urgent emergency measures. The crisis demands:

1. A global mobilization

The response to the coronavirus cannot be coordinated on a nation by nation level. The virus does not respect borders or visa and immigration restrictions. The global networks of transportation and economic integration have turned the virus into a global problem.

The solution must be global. Scientists from all over the world must be allowed to share their research and technology, unencumbered by the national interests and geopolitical conflicts that serve only to delay the development of effective countermeasures to contain, cure and ultimately eradicate the coronavirus. All trade war measures and economic sanctions, such as those imposed on Iran, must be immediately lifted. No human being should be denied urgently needed medical treatment on account of their national or ethnic origins.

Urgent attention must be directed to the millions of people who are being housed in immigrant and refugee camps set up by the major capitalist powers in Europe and the United States. These camps will be major danger areas for the spread of the virus. All those currently in such camps must be given secure housing and access to health care.

Where quarantines must be implemented for those traveling or infected, it must be done in a way that respects democratic rights and preserves personal dignity.

2. A massive allocation of resources for health care and treatment

Hundreds of billions of dollars must be immediately allocated to ensure universal access to the highest-quality medical care for all those infected with the virus. An international team of health care experts and scientists must be assembled to coordinate care wherever there are outbreaks.

The political establishment in the United States is engaged in a debate over whether $2 billion is adequate (the position of the White House) or $8 billion is required (the position of the Democrats). Both these figures represent a drop in the bucket compared to the scale of the global crisis.

The Trump administration has spent five times more on its reactionary wall on the US-Mexico border ($11 billion) than it proposes to allocate to the coronavirus. Some $3 billion is spent every day on financing the US war machine.

The provisioning of health care and treatment cannot be regulated by the insurance, pharmaceutical and health care companies. Treatment, including any future vaccine, must be available to everyone, free of charge, on an equal basis.

The giant health care companies must be turned into public utilities, democratically controlled to meet the urgent social need presented by the coronavirus and other health emergencies.

3. Direct financial support and income compensation for all those impacted by the economic consequences

Millions of workers face reductions in hours or the loss of their jobs due to the immediate impact of the coronavirus and its broader economic consequences. They must be compensated in full for their losses.

Governments and the capitalist elites will argue that there is no money to finance such an emergency response. This is a lie! The amount spent by the capitalist governments on military expenditures runs into the trillions of dollars. The annual military budget of the United States alone is more than one trillion dollars. Moreover, the major capitalist governments, led by the US Federal Reserve, have allocated virtually unlimited sums of money to drive up the market value of equities. Within weeks of the 2008 crash, the US government doubled the national debt overnight to provide liquidity for the stock market and bail out corrupt investors.

Moreover, staggering sums of money are controlled by an infinitesimal percentage of the worlds population. The wealth of the worlds 500 richest people stands at nearly $6 trillion, following an increase of $1.2 trillion last year alone. The working class must demand that governments impose emergency taxes on the fortunes of the oligarchs to the extent required by the emergency.

In demanding that capitalist governments implement these emergency measures, the international working class does not abandon its fundamental aim: the ending of the capitalist system. Rather, the fight for emergency action will raise the consciousness of the working class, develop its understanding of the need for international class solidarity, and increase its political self-confidence.

The present crisis demonstrates again that capitalism is an outmoded economic system and barrier to human progress. The danger posed by this pandemic and the catastrophic implications of global warning prove that the capitalist system must give way to world socialism.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2020) - EMX Royalty Corporation (NYSE American: EMX) (TSXV: EMX) (the "Company" or "EMX") is pleased to announce the execution of an agreement for the sale of the Tomtebo and Trollberget polymetallic projects (the "Projects") in Sweden to District Metals Corp. (TSXV: DMX) ("District"). The agreement provides EMX with a 9.9% equity interest in District, annual advance royalty payments, 2.5% Net Smelter Returns ("NSR") royalty interests in the Projects, and other considerations.

The Tomtebo and Trollberget Projects are located in the prolific Bergslagen mining region of southern Sweden. The Projects host multiple zones of polymetallic (copper-zinc-lead-silver-gold) volcanogenic massive sulfide ("VMS") style mineralization, and are located in the vicinity of the historic Falun VMS mine and Boliden AB's active Garpenberg mine, one of the largest and most efficient underground polymetallic mines in the world (see attached Figure 1 and Table 1)1.

Tomtebo was the site of historic copper production, with mine workings extending to a depth of 200 meters. A historic mineral resource was defined at Tomtebo in the 1980's based upon the exploration work conducted at the 200 meter level, with drill core from the exploration programs available for inspection in the national core archive in Mala, Sweden. The nearby Trollberget license also has outcropping zones of polymetallic mineralization, with little historic exploration documented for the property. See www.EMXroyalty.com for further information on the Projects.

The agreement with District represents another example of the execution of EMX's royalty generation aspect of its business model, whereby the Projects were acquired by EMX during regional reconnaissance work in 2017, advanced using EMX's in-country technical expertise, and are now partnered with District. EMX will receive cash, equity in District, and royalty interests in the Projects. EMX looks forward to working closely with District to further advance the Projects.

Commercial Terms Overview. In accordance with the agreement, District will acquire 100% interests in the Projects subject to the following terms (all dollar amounts in CAD, unless otherwise noted):

Upon closing, EMX will transfer the Tomtebo and Trollberget exploration licenses to District.

Upon closing, EMX will receive $35,000 in cash and the number of common shares of DMX that represents a 9.9% equity ownership in DMX.

DMX will have the continuing obligation to issue additional shares of DMX to EMX to maintain its 9.9% interest at no additional cost to EMX until DMX has raised $3,000,000 in equity; thereafter EMX will have the right to participate in future financings on a pro-rata basis and at its own cost to maintain its 9.9% interest in DMX.

EMX will receive a 2.5% NSR royalty interest in each of the Projects. Within six years of the closing, DMX can purchase 0.5% of the royalty for $2,000,000.

EMX will receive annual advance royalty ("AAR") payments of $25,000 commencing on the third anniversary of the closing, with each AAR payment increasing by $10,000 per year until reaching $75,000.

Payments of up to $550,000, payable in cash or shares of DMX, will be made to EMX upon the achievement of certain milestones, and District will be responsible for fulfilling work commitments on the Projects.

So long as EMX owns an aggregate equity interest of at least 9.9% in DMX, EMX will have the right to nominate one seat on the Board of DMX.

Closing is subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange.

Overview of the Projects. The two Projects comprise 5,500 hectares within the prolific Bergslagen mining region in southern Sweden. In both Projects, copper-zinc-lead-silver-gold VMS and replacement style mineralization are associated with mid-Proterozoic age volcanic belts (refer to Figure 1). The Projects are situated within a 2.5 hour drive of Stockholm-Arlanda airport, and have excellent year round access and nearby rail and power lines.

Tomtebo Project. The Tomtebo Project contains multiple zones of VMS and carbonate replacement styles of mineralization and historic mine workings. In the main Tomtebo mining area, mineralization can be tracked for at least 700 meters along strike, with zones of copper-rich mineralization developed in the south, zoning northward into more massive zinc, lead and silver-rich styles of mineralization. Mineralization appears to be thickened within a fold hinge structure, and plunges to unknown depths.

Mining at Tomtebo began in the mid-seventeenth century, and continued intermittently until 1969, with historic production averaging 4.4% copper, with production for zinc, lead and precious metals undocumented2. Significant exploration work was carried out at the 200 meter level in the 1960's and 1970's by the past operator of the Tomtebo Mine, Stora AB ("Stora"), which also operated the nearby Falun Mine. This work was reportedly done to prepare Tomtebo for production after closure of the Falun Mine, according to records obtained from the Swedish Geological Survey. In the 1990's, Stora switched its focus from mining to forestry, leaving the Tomtebo Project undeveloped. In more recent years, airborne electromagnetic and other geophysical surveys were conducted over limited portions of the Project, but only two shallow holes have been drilled since Stora's work. Multiple untested anomalies and projections of trends of mineralization remain on the Project.

Trollberget Project. The Trollberget Project is located to the northeast of the Tomtebo Project, and along the same geologic trend as the Falun Mine. Outcropping VMS-style mineralization occurs in the center of the license area, with historic channel samples of 21.4% Zn, 1.8% Pb, 1.3% Cu, 131 g/t Ag, and 2.3 g/t Au over a 1.5 meter interval, and 9.9% Zn, 1.3% Pb, 0.7% Cu, 85 g/t Ag and 0.2 g/t Au over a 2 meter interval (true widths), as reported by a previous operator3. Two historic drill collars have been located by EMX in the field, but they do not appear in the national drilling database for Sweden, and their significance remains unknown. The mineralization exposed at Trollberget remains open along strike.

Sampling results and historic exploration. EMX has not performed sufficient work to verify the historic channel sample results reported for Trollberget. However, the samples were collected and reported by Tumi Resources Ltd, and from EMX's field reviews of the Trollberget property, are considered to be reliable and relevant.

Dr. Eric P. Jensen, CPG, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and employee of the Company, has reviewed, verified and approved the disclosure of the technical information contained in this news release.

About EMX. EMX is a precious and base metals royalty company. EMX's investors are provided with discovery, development, and commodity price optionality, while limiting exposure to risks inherent to operating companies. The Company's common shares are listed on the NYSE American Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol EMX. Please see www.EMXroyalty.com for more information.

For further information contact:

David M. Cole

President and Chief Executive Officer

Phone: (303) 979-6666

Dave@EMXroyalty.com

Scott Close

Director of Investor Relations

Phone: (303) 973-8585

SClose@EMXroyalty.com

Isabel Belger

Investor Relations (Europe)

Phone: +49 178 4909039

IBelger@EMXroyalty.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain "forward looking statements" that reflect the Company's current expectations and projections about its future results. These forward-looking statements may include statements regarding perceived merit of properties, exploration results and budgets, mineral reserves and resource estimates, work programs, capital expenditures, timelines, strategic plans, market prices for precious and base metal, or other statements that are not statements of fact. When used in this news release, words such as "estimate," "intend," "expect," "anticipate," "will", "believe", "potential" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which, by their very nature, are not guarantees of the Company's future operational or financial performance, and are subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause the Company's actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and factors may include, but are not limited to: unavailability of financing, failure to identify commercially viable mineral reserves, fluctuations in the market valuation for commodities, difficulties in obtaining required approvals for the development of a mineral project, increased regulatory compliance costs, expectations of project funding by joint venture partners and other factors.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this news release or as of the date otherwise specifically indicated herein. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified in this news release, and other risk factors and forward-looking statements listed in the Company's MD&A for the quarter ended September 30, 2019 (the "MD&A"), and the most recently filed Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2018, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. More information about the Company, including the MD&A, the 20-F and financial statements of the Company, is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the SEC's EDGAR website at www.sec.gov.





Figure 1. Location of Tomtebo and Trollberget Projects, southern Sweden



To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1508/52922_figure1.jpg

Table 1. Mineral Resources and Reserves at Garpenberg 20195

Classification Tonnes Au Ag Cu Zn Pb (millions) (g/t) (g/t) (%) (%) (%) Minerals Reserves Total Proven & Probable 74.8 0.31 96 0.05 3.1 1.4 Mineral Resources Total Measured & Indicated 44.3 0.35 90 0.05 2.8 1.3 Inferred 24.1 0.43 59 0.07 2.6 1.5

____________________

1 The nearby mines provide geologic context for the Projects, but this is not necessarily indicative that the Projects host similar tonnages or grades of mineralization.

2 Hallberg & Ripa (2012), Northern Bergslagen Fe, Cu-Zn-Pb, in Eilu, P. (ed.), Geologic Survey of Finland Special Paper 53, Mineral Deposits and Metallogeny of Fennoscandia, Geological Survey of Finland.

3 Tumi Resources Limited news release dated September 4, 2007.

4 Hallberg, Bergman, et al., 2012, Geological Survey of Finland, Special Paper 53, Metallogenic areas in Sweden, p. 159

5 The current Garpenberg PERC compliant mineral reserves and resources were reported by Boliden AB, a publically traded Swedish Company, in Boliden Summary Report: Resources and Reserves, 2019, available at www.boliden.com. The proven and probable mineral reserves are inclusive of measured and indicated resources, and use a cutoff value stated as 270 SEK/t.

Note: The nearby mines and cited resource and reserve information provides geologic context for the Projects, but this is not necessarily indicative that the Projects host similar tonnages or grades of mineralization.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/52922
By Trend

A joint Turkmen-Afghan business forum took place in Ashgabat, Trend reports on Feb. 28 referring to the Turkmen foreign ministry.

The event was attended by officials including representatives of several ministries and entrepreneurs of the two countries.

The forum participants discussed issues related to the commercial-economic partnership, prospects for increasing import and export between the countries, expansion of investments, simplification of trade procedures and establishment of direct business contacts.

The parties agreed to promote relations in the energy, transport and logistics sector, the communications and industry, oil gas and construction sectors.

Turkmenistan ranks among the top 10 main suppliers of goods to Afghanistan.

A Trade House of Turkmenistan has recently started functioning in the Afghan city of Mazari Sharif.

As a part of the bilateral agreements, a number of projects are under way, including those on preferential power and LNG supply of Afghanistan.

The sustainable socio-economic development of the Central Asia region can be ensured by large-scale projects including the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan (TAT) railroad and Lapis Lazuli transport corridor along Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey transport corridor.

The agreement on transit and transport cooperation Lapis Lazuli between Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Turkmenistan was signed on Nov. 15, 2017 at the ministerial meeting of the 7th Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan in Ashgabat.

The construction of the Afghan section of the pipeline was initiated in February 2018, while the construction of the Pakistani section is planned to be launched in 2020.

The Turkmengas State Concern is the leader of the TAPI Pipeline Company Ltd. international consortium. It acts as the main financier and manager of the project. The consortium also includes Afghan Gas Corporation, Pakistans Inter State Gas Systems (Private) Limited Company and Indias GAIL Company.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Ilkin Seyfaddini  Trend:

The Uzbek Interior Ministry suggested the US National Central Bureau of Interpol to strengthen activities on the organization of joint specialized training, as well as training courses on the basis of advanced U.S. think tanks, Trend reports with the reference to Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan.

The Uzbek Interior Ministry and the National Central Bureau of Interpol also discussed the possibility of creating a channel for direct information exchange, the report said.

Uzbek First Deputy Interior Minister Aziz Tashpulatov and Head of the US National Central Bureau of Interpol Wayne Salzgeber reviewed aspects of cooperation between law enforcement agencies of the two countries through the channels of this international organization at a meeting in Tashkent on February 27.

The Uzbek side noted that in recent years there have been numerous questions related to bilateral relations in combating crime, which can only be resolved through joint efforts. In this regard, it is proposed to establish a channel for direct exchange of information, the report says.

The Uzbek Interior Ministry also suggested strengthening activities to conduct joint specialized training courses on the basis of advanced US think tanks.

At the meeting, issues of bilateral cooperation in combating international terrorism, cybercrime and human trafficking were also discussed.

In 2019, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan intensified the exchange of information with Interpol and colleagues from Central Asian countries in combating terrorism.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
Chinese swimming star Yang has been slapped with an eight-year ban from the sport for doping, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on .



"The Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld the appeal filed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against the Chinese swimmer Yang and the International Swimming Federation (FINA)," CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said in a statement.



"The athlete is sanctioned with an eight-year suspension, starting," Reeb said.



The ban came after a confrontation between and WADA officials after drug investigators went to his home in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou in to conduct a spot check on the athlete.



criticized the conduct of the test at the time on the grounds that the assistant who drew his blood wasn't qualified to do so. He then smashed the sample bottles to prevent them from being used.



FINA ruled that he hadn't violated the rules, but WADA appealed that decision to the CAS, which ruled on following a 10-hour hearing in Switzerland last November.



The eight-year ban will likely put a premature end to 's competitive swimming career.



said via his account on the social media platform Sina Weibo that he was "shocked and angry" over the ruling.



"I was shocked, angry and could not understand the result of the ruling of the CAS!," he wrote.



"I clearly cooperated in accordance with the various regulations on doping control," he said. "The inspectors were unqualified, and they acknowledged this at the time."





said he has hired a lawyer to appeal to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.



"I strongly maintain my innocence," said. "I have faith that the truth will overcome lies ... [and] I will fight to the end to defend my legitimate rights and interests!"



A number of Chinese athletes declined to comment when contacted by RFA on .



Yang Weidong, who has written about large-scale doping scandals among Chinese athletes in recent years, said he agreed with the ruling, however.



"Why did they smash the blood samples?" Yang said. "The credibility of the Chinese swimming team and the Chinese Swimming Federation has been destroyed."



The Chinese Swimming Association expressed its "deep regret" at the CAS ruling, arguing, like , that the testers were "personnel without professional training and legal qualification to collect athlete samples, and the activity was illegal and invalid."



"We support Yang to continue to safeguard his legitimate rights and interests by legal means," it said.



But Yang said the use of stimulants among Chinese competitive swimmers is "an open secret."



"The eight year ban at his age is equivalent to a lifetime suspension," he said.



Destroying samples is not a good look

CAS said its panel had "unanimously determined" that had tampered with his doping control.



The lengthy ban was imposed after taking into consideration a previous doping ban, CAS said.



"The athlete failed to establish that he had a compelling justification to destroy his sample collection containers and forego the doping control when, in his opinion, the collection protocol was not in compliance with the ISTI (International Standard for Testing and Investigations)," CAS said.



"It is one thing, having provided a blood sample, to question the accreditation of the testing personnel while keeping the intact samples in the possession of the testing authorities; it is quite another thing, after lengthy exchanges and warnings as to the consequences, to act in such a way that results in destroying the sample containers, thereby eliminating any chance of testing the sample at a later stage."



The ruling didn't appear on to have affected 's fan base in China.



His Weibo post garnered thousands of replies, the majority of them supportive.



"I support you, and believe you," user @Yuan_Xiaomoer wrote, while others cited shorter bans or more lenient sanctions handed down to athletes from other countries.



Bro, we will always believe in you," wrote @zhenzhunaichajialeyeguo, with a weeping emoticon. "An upside-down verdict cannot invalidate your glorious career. Don't be sad, okay?"



Reported by Gao Feng for RFA's Mandarin and Cantonese Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Your colleagues

A generation of Puerto Rican chemists has thrived in Buffalo with Luis Colon as a mentor

UB chemistry professor Luis Colon (center) has recruited numerous students to UB from Puerto Rico. Members of his lab currently include UB PhD students Nahyr Lopez Dauphin (left) and Josmely Velez-Gonzalez (right)  both graduates of the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey. Photo: Douglas Levere

By CHARLOTTE HSU

Diversity is important because the experiences that we bring to a place start from the moment that we start growing up. They are different for everybody. And when youre thinking about something, when youre trying to solve problems, the way you think about it is really geared by what you learn.  Rafael Alicea-Maldonado, dean of math, science and career education Genesee Community College

The names on the wall of Luis Colons lab say it all. Penned mostly in black ink, written by hand, some are recent. Others are from years back. Some are in block letters. Others announce themselves in striking cursive script. Ivonne M. Ferrer Lassala, PhD. Karina Tirado Gonzalez, PhD. Jose M. Cintron, PhD. Lisandra Santiago-Capeles, PhD. Glorimar Vicente Crescioni, PhD. And on and on. These are the signatures of graduates who have earned advanced degrees through Colons lab. When students complete their masters or PhD, they add their name to the wall in a signing ceremony, a testament to what theyve achieved. In good times and bad, newer members of the lab look to the collection of signatures and imagine the day that they, too, will leave their mark. The diversity of voices represented on the wall exemplifies one of the most meaningful parts of Colons more than 25-year career at UB, where he is the A. Conger Goodyear Professor of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, and associate dean for graduate and postdoctoral education in the Graduate School. When Colon joined the university in 1993, How many people were graduating with PhDs in chemistry who were Hispanic? My first year, we didnt have any. Zero, he remembers. I decided to become active in recruiting Hispanic students. I was just concerned that the opportunities were not there, and someone had to offer them, and I did.

Signatures of masters and PhD graduates on the wall of UB chemistry professor Luis Colons lab. Photo: Douglas Levere

In the decades since, he has helped recruit dozens of students to Buffalo from his native Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States, to study or do summer research. About 20 have advanced degrees in chemistry, mostly PhDs. From Buffalo, these students have gone on to jobs in academia and industry, at firms like Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Eli Lilly and Company. Among these successful professionals: Jesus M. Velazquez, PhD, who was the first in his family to attend college. To succeed in graduate studies, yes, you need talent, you need to have a solid foundation of fundamentals, but its also a game of stamina, right? says Velazquez, who was recruited into UBs PhD program by Colon. How much can you endure? Luis recognizes that, and hes always looking for students whose unique experiences will help them succeed. Velazquez, who earned his PhD in 2012, conducted postdoctoral research at Caltech and is now an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of California, Davis. While Velazquez did not work in Colons lab at UB, Colon helped recruit Velazquez, who considers Colon to be an important mentor. There are many success stories because of Luis vision, Velazquez, says. I am one of those students, and here I am with my own lab.

A bridge between Buffalo and Puerto Rico

UB chemistry PhD student Josmely Velez-Gonzalez (left) works with a solution containing nanodiamonds. Her PhD research explores nanodiamonds as a potential material for systems that separate chemical compounds from one another. Her mentor, UB chemistry professor Luis Colon, is on the right. Photo: Douglas Levere

In the 1990s, when Colon joined the UB faculty, he was a young chemist with fresh memories of his own PhD experience. He knew the challenges, having lived them: Years of school. Long hours in the lab. The pressure of running experiments, some of which would be successful, others of which would fail. And, for students like himself who were from Puerto Rico but studying in the mainland U.S., the difficulty of being far from home, away from family and friends. With all this in mind, Colon set out to recruit and retain new students that would bring their unique experiences to UB, promoting innovation by applying their knowledge and creativity to solving important problems in chemistry. Colon began by connecting with his alma mater, the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey (UPR Cayey). He would visit to give lectures on his research in analytical chemistry and separation science, and while there, he would talk to students about the opportunities at UB. Colleagues in his department began doing the same. The efforts grew into a partnership with UPR Cayey that brought a steady stream of undergraduates to UB to do summer research in chemistry, often with funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, which has also supported Colon's research over the years. Many of the summer recruits later returned to Buffalo for graduate school. The mentoring started as soon as students arrived in Buffalo. Dr. Colon has been there for every single step, says Nahyr Lopez Dauphin, a UPR Cayey graduate who is pursuing her PhD in Colons lab, researching the applications of fibrous silica particles in separation science. When I think Im not good enough when I have doubts, Dr. Colon has been there to help. Luis is a low-key guy who is not necessarily seeking fame and recognition for himself. He does tremendous work trying to help students succeed in their field, and personally as well. And that goes for people from every background, says Rafael Alicea-Maldonado, PhD, dean of math, science and career education at Genesee Community College, and one of Colons first PhD students in the 1990s. To help students succeed in their research, Colon listens carefully to their questions and talks them through problems, building their confidence as scientists. Outside the lab, he works to build community among students so they can support each other, preventing feelings of social isolation. As he wrote in a 2017 article for an American Chemical Society (ACS) Symposium Series e-book on diversity in science, Within the culture of my own research group, there are traditions such as summer picnics, birthday gatherings, celebration of individual accomplishments (e.g., passing oral examinations) and others. These aid students [in developing] a sense of belonging and camaraderie. Often, Colon will recruit at least two students from Puerto Rico to UB at the same time. The sense of familiarity makes them feel they are not alone! he wrote in the ACS publication. With time, a community builds and students support each other, the more senior students become mentors for the new arrivals! Having people who have been there before me that know where to purchase Goya items, who know where to go salsa dancing  it feels more homey, says Ivonne M. Ferrer, who completed her PhD in Colons lab in 2013. Its almost like a home away from home. All of the Puerto Rican students from UPR Cayey, we all know each other, Lopez Dauphin says. That kinship has helped in recent years as Puerto Rico has faced extreme adversity, with Hurricane Maria devastating the island in 2017, massive protests forcing the resignation of the islands governor in 2019, and a series of large earthquakes destroying homes and causing extensive power outages in early 2020. Ferrer, now an associate analytical manager for Corteva Agriscience, says Colons lab felt like family, and that this connection extended beyond the students from Puerto Rico. Colon always made sure that we felt important and that he included everyone, Ferrer says. If youre part of Luis group, were all family.

A new generation looks to give back

UB chemistry PhD student Nahyr Lopez Dauphin works with a high-performance liquid chromatography system. Lopez Dauphins PhD research focuses on the use of fibrous silica particles as a material in systems that separate chemical compounds from one another. Photo: Douglas Levere

In 2015, Colons work as a mentor led him to the White House, where he met President Barack Obama, who named Colon as a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. He is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the ACS and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Many current and former students remember Colon as the person who reached out to give them an opportunity at pivotal moments in their careers. Years ago, Ferrer and Velazquez, who are now married, were working in industry when Colon emailed out of the blue to ask if theyd be interested in pursuing PhDs at UB. Both had previously conducted summer research in Buffalo. Luis emailed me randomly  actually, the email went to my spam, Velazquez recalls. Usually, when you go to your spam, you just delete everything, but for whatever reason that day, I see the name Luis Colon in one of my spam emails, and hes telling me, Hey Jesus, I know you worked hard during the summer, you expressed interest in grad school. Theres this program called Bridge to the Doctorate thats funding students who are interested in doing PhDs. You should consider applying. He did, and today, hes on the faculty of one of the nations top universities. His lab focuses on creating materials for artificial photosynthesis and water remediation, and his research group is diverse. Hes working to give a new generation of students the same opportunity Colon gave him. There are numerous studies demonstrating that a diverse workforce is going to provide for more impactful results to solve very challenging problems, Velazquez says. Weve made a lot of progress, but theres still a lot more to be done. Josmely Velez-Gonzalez, a current PhD candidate, was a student at UPR Cayey when she interviewed with Colon, hoping to conduct summer research at UB. Velez-Gonzalez wasnt selected for UBs program, or for other programs she applied to at the time. The next year, she met with Colon again, and he remembered her. He interviewed me again, and he was the person who gave me the opportunity, Velez-Gonzalez says. I came here in summer of 2014, and that was right before my senior year in Cayey, and I liked it here. I saw people from India; there were Chinese students; there were students from Puerto Rico. The environment here in the lab was really good. Everyone was from somewhere different. You felt very comfortable. Over the years, students like Velez-Gonzalez and Lopez Dauphin have helped to change the culture of the chemistry department. Colons colleagues now work as a team to recruit students from diverse backgrounds, weighing multiple measures of a students potential, such as their research experience and references from past mentors, in addition to grades and standardized test scores. After seeing the positive results, faculty start to realize all the uncovered potential, Colon wrote in the 2017 ACS publication. Of Velez-Gonzalez and Lopez Dauphin, who also conducted summer research at UB, Colon says, I encouraged them to apply for graduate school since I had noticed their potential in research when they were here at UB. They demonstrated hard work and commitment to the rigor of research in a graduate program. They rose to the challenge and learned the skill set necessary to be successful in graduate school. What is striking is the level of intellectual maturity the students have gained and the sense of responsibility toward research and the research team, while building confidence in themselves. They discover new opportunities and directions as they become more sophisticated in research. Their horizon has broadened. As the two work toward their degrees, they find inspiration in fellow lab members and in the successful students who came before. One day soon, they look forward to adding their names to the wall: Josmely Velez-Gonzalez, PhD. Nahyr Lopez Dauphin, PhD.

READER COMMENT
Days out from Super Tuesday, when voters in 14 states will cast ballots in the Democratic primary, a professor who predicted the past nine elections says that the United States may well be staring down its first brokered convention in nearly 70 years.

Its a prospect that has stirred considerable consternation among Democratic Party officials and voters, many of whom have said their primary concern is beating Donald Trump in November  even as an enthusiastic debate over the future of democratic politics has raged on the campaign trail.

I think the most likely outcomes are [Bernie] Sanders wins or nobody wins, and for the first time in over 50 years we actually have a convention nominating the candidate, Allan Lichtman, a political science professor at American University who has predicted elections dating back to 1984, told The Independent.

Mr Lichtman noted that his prediction model doesnt make forecasts for primaries, but that there are plenty of signs that a brokered convention could happen: And that would be very interesting, who knows what might come out of that.

A brokered convention would occur if none of the candidates in the race win more than half of the pledged delegates by the end of the primary season, a figure that amounts to 1,990 delegates in the race.

So far, after three states have voted, Mr Sanders leads the field with 45 pledged delegates, ahead of Pete Buttigieg with 25, Joe Biden with 15, Elizabeth Warren with eight and Amy Klobuchar with seven.

Those tallies will all change in the next week, after voters in South Carolina  where Mr Biden has been banking on strong support from African Americans to lend some weight to his campaign  and then voters on Super Tuesday cast their ballots.

South Carolina will award 54 pledged delegates. Super Tuesday, meanwhile, marks the largest number of delegates available on a single day with more than 1,300 delegates at stake nationwide.

A contested convention would mean that no candidate had reached that half-way threshold, and that multiple rounds of voting would take place to determine the winner. After each round of voting, a certain portion of delegates are freed up to vote for whomever they want. Campaigns at that point try to convince free delegates to come over to support their candidate.

Story continues

According to prediction models by FiveThirtyEight, 2020 is shaping up to be such a year. That website gives Mr Sanders the best chance at winning more than half of the pledged delegates by the end of the primary season  but just a 32 per cent chance of doing so. The chance that nobody receives that majority of delegates is pegged at 51 per cent, and the only other candidate with a significant chance of doing so being Mr Biden, at 15 per cent.

Mr Lichtman, for his part, isnt as worried about the damaging impacts of a brokered convention, nor the damage of a long and bitter Democratic primary that it would necessarily follow after.

Internal party fights only count when it is in the party holding the White House, Mr Lichtman, whose prediction model indicates that it is generally speaking the incumbents election to lose, said. The challenging party can fight all they want and it has no impact . Look at the bitter battle by the Republicans in 2016  it was much worse than what is happening with the Democrats this time. They were saying terrible things about each other and they still won.

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Michelle Obama petitioned to run as VP to stop Sanders, report says

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A man who made a hoax call claiming there was a bomb at a Belfast concert venue has avoided jail.

Patrick McNally, 45, was given a four-month suspended prison term for the bogus alert to police about a device outside the Ulster Hall on Bedford Street.

The 45-year-old, of Jerusalem Street in the city, pleaded guilty to communicating false information causing belief of an explosion.

Belfast Magistrates' Court heard he made the 999 phone call on January 4 this year.

During a conversation he stated: "There's a bomb outside the Ulster Hall, you may defuse it yourself d******d."

Checks confirmed the call had been made from a number registered to McNally.

No disruption was caused to the venue or the general public during the incident.

A district judge was told police were able to establish it had been a hoax within minutes.

McNally's solicitor stressed he has struggled with a mental health disorder for years.

"He lives a very solitary life," the lawyer added.

Imposing a prison sentence, the judge suspended the term due to the early admissions of guilt.

But the judge warned McNally: "If you make another hoax bomb call you will be dealt with for that matter, and also spend four months in custody for this."
The Supreme Court Friday said it was keeping open the plea for transferring to CBI the probe into the alleged murder of West Bengal BJP activist Dulal Kumar in 2018 but was of the view that all issues relating to the case be first argued before the Calcutta High Court.

The apex court however agreed to hear it at a later date.

The body of the 32-year-old was found hanging from an electric pole in Purulia district's Balarampur of West Bengal on June 2, 2018 after the Panchayat election in the state.

"We want to suggest if you have any grievance you can go to the high court. We are saying the prayers for transfer of the case to CBI is open," observed a bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant.

BJP spokesperson and senior lawyer Gaurav Bhatia, who has filed a PIL on the alleged murder, insisted that the apex court should hear the matter as family members of the deceased has reasonable apprehension that they would not get justice if the case would remain with the state police.

He submitted that the might of the state was the factor that has to be taken into account as the victim was killed allegedly by the Trinamool Congress workers.

After hearing the matter briefly, the bench adjourned it and said the case will again come up for hearing after the constitution bench concludes the hearing the Sabaramila reference.

Referring to the details of the case, Bhatia said the body of Dulal Kumar was found hanging from the electric pole and despite the family of the deceased naming six persons as accused for the killing, the state police took 20 days in lodging the FIR.

Police did not give the copy of post-mortem report of the deceased to his family member, the lawyer said, adding that the police recorded the statement of "entire 'mohalla'" but did not record versions of the family members of the victim.

The West Bengal government had earlier opposed the submission of Bhatia and said that the plea has been filed on basis of newspaper reports and the death was the result of an extra-marital affair of the deceased.

The top court on March 26, 2019 had asked the state government to furnish the report of medical board constituted by it to ascertain the cause of the death.

Bhatia had sought CBI probe into the death of three BJP workers -- Shaktipada Sarkar, Trilochan Mahato and Dulal Kumar -- in 2018.

The apex court was satisfied with the action taken by state police in the death cases of Sarkar and Mahto and had decided to close the proceedings in the PIL with regard to their death.

"In the case involving the death of Shaktipada Sardar, three of the accused named in the FIR have been charge-sheeted and they are presently in custody. In addition, other persons not named in the FIR have also been charge-sheeted...

"Having regard to the above facts and availability of alternative remedy to the family members of the deceased, we decline and would not like to continue to entertain this writ petition insofar as the death of Shaktipada Sardar and Trilochan Mahato is concerned," it had said.

It had however kept alive the plea with regard to the death Dulal Kumar.

Besides seeking CBI probe, the PIL has also sought compensation of Rs 50 lakh each to the family members of the deceased BJP workers.

The plea has also sought direction to the state to grant "adequate police protection to the family members of the victims as there is an imminent threat to their lives".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BuzzFeed News reporters have seen leaked Clearview AI documents that show the company is "working with more than 2,200 law enforcement agencies, companies, and individuals around the world," including Best Buy, Walmart, Macy's, ICE, DOJ, and the FBI, plus "a sovereign wealth fund in the United Arab Emirates."

Wow.

Clearview AI is the facial recognition startup run by a right-wing internet personality that is reported to have a database of billions of photos scraped from social media and the internet.

Just a few hours ago, Clearview reported that its entire client list has been stolen.

From reporting by Ryan Mac, Caroline Haskins, and Logan McDonald at Buzzfeed News:

The startup, Clearview AI, is facing legal threats from Facebook, Google, and Twitter, as well as calls for regulation and scrutiny in the US. But new documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News reveal that it has already shared or sold its technology to thousands of organizations around the world. In its quest to create a global biometric identification system to span both public and private sectors, Clearview has signed paid contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, and Macy's, according to the document obtained by BuzzFeed News. The company has credentialed users at the FBI, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Interpol, and hundreds of local police departments. In doing so, Clearview has taken a flood-the-zone approach to seeking out new clients, providing access not just to organizations, but to individuals within those organizations  sometimes with little or no oversight or awareness from their own management. Clearview's software, which claims to match photos of persons of interest to online images culled from millions of sites, has been used by people in more than 2,200 law enforcement departments, government agencies, and companies across 27 countries, according to the documents. This data provides the most complete picture to date of who has used the controversial technology and reveals what some observers have previously feared: Clearview AI's facial recognition has been deployed at every level of American society and is making its way around the world.

Read more:

Clearview's Facial Recognition App Has Been Used By The Justice Department, ICE, Macy's, Walmart, And The NBA

Previously at Boing Boing:

 Clearview client list "stolen"

 Twitter tells facial-recognition app maker to stop scraping photos, Clearview AI used by 600+ US law enforcement agencies

 Canada investigating facial recognition company Clearview AI over privacy, security concerns
Clive Cussler, the author and maritime adventurer who captivated millions with his best-selling tales of suspense and who, between books, led scores of expeditions to find historic shipwrecks and lost treasures in the ocean depths, died Monday at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 88.

His death was confirmed by a spokeswoman for his publisher, Penguin Random House. No specific cause was given.

Mayan jungles, undersea kingdoms, ghost ships, evil forces out to destroy the world, beautiful women, heroes modeled on himself  Cusslers vivid literary fantasies and his larger-than-life exploits swirled together for four decades, spinning off more than 85 books and locating almost as many shipwrecks.

A college dropout who once pumped gas and wrote advertising copy, Cussler resorted to a hoax to get his first book published. But his work  mostly action thrillers of the James Bond-Indiana Jones kind, plus nonfiction accounts of his marine quests and a few childrens books  made him a global celebrity.

His books sales have been staggering  more than 100 million copies, with vast numbers sold in paperback at airports. Translated into 40 or so languages, his books reached the New York Times best-seller lists more than 20 times, as he amassed a fortune estimated at $80 million.

Cussler looked like the hero of Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea. You had to imagine the battered straw hat and the tired shoulders hunched over a gunwale, but after years of roaming oceans and diving for wrecks, he had that seafarers husky build and sunburned cheeks, and his face, more sea dog than bibliophile, was flecked with gray: the grizzled beard, the mustache, the eyes, the gray-white hair.

Often compared to the thrillers churned out by Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum and Ian Fleming, the Cussler novels featured formulaic plots, one- or two-word titles (Cyclops, Dragon, Inca Gold, Poseidons Arrow) and frequently a recurring hero, Dirk Pitt, an undersea explorer who cheats death and saves the world as he foils the diabolical plots of megalomaniac villains, while satisfying his taste for exotic cars and lusty women.

Cussler was hardly a stylist. Critics called his characters wooden, his dialogue leaden and his prose cliched (the cold touch of fear, a narrow brush with death), while praising his descriptions of marine hardware, underwater struggles and salvage operations. But readers were swept along on the page-turning tides, and after his commercial breakthrough, Raise the Titanic! (1976), his books were frequently on the best-seller lists for months.

Cussler also connected with readers by turning his love for scuba diving into an oceanic lifestyle that paralleled and validated his superhero.

He first created the National Underwater and Marine Agency as a fictional government organization that employed his hero in the Dirk Pitt books. Then, in 1979, he founded an actual National Underwater and Marine Agency as a private nonprofit group committed to preserving maritime heritage through the discovery, archaeological survey and conservation of shipwreck artifacts. It underwrote his maritime ventures.

With Cussler leading expeditions and joining dives, the organization eventually located some 60 wrecks. Among them were the Cunard steamship Carpathia, first to reach survivors of the lost Titanic on April 15, 1912, then itself sunk by German torpedoes off Ireland in 1918; Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilts coastal steamer Lexington, which caught fire and went down in Long Island Sound in 1840; and Manassas, the Confederacys first Civil War ironclad, sunk in battle in the Lower Mississippi in 1862.

His first nonfiction book, The Sea Hunters (1996, with Craig Dirgo), was an account of his NUMA exploits, some of which were portrayed in television documentaries featuring Cussler as narrator. Valuable artifacts raised by his expeditions were given to museums or governments.

Cussler, who named his franchise hero after his son Dirk, acknowledged that Dirk Pitts character was his own alter ego. His later novels, many co-written by his son or others, often included himself as a character who saves the day. His son, a daughter and friends were also used as characters in his books.

Ive been doing Dirk Pitt for 30 years, Cussler told the Times in 2000. Maybe I can find another writer down the line to take him over. Its not the money; its the fans.

Id like to retire, he continued. Im toying with the idea of Pitt having a son who shows up. Hes getting a little long in the tooth. When we started out, we were both 36 years old. Now hes a little over 40, and Im pushing 70.

But 20 years later, he was still churning out books, sometimes two a year. His Journey of the Pharaohs: A Novel From the NUMA Files, written with Graham Brown, is scheduled to be published in March. The Penguin Random House spokeswoman said there are others to be published after that.

Clive Eric Cussler was born in Aurora, Ill., on July 15, 1931, the only child of Eric and Amy Hunnewell Cussler. His father was an accountant. Clive grew up in Alhambra (Los Angeles County), a poor student but an avid reader of adventure stories.

I detested school, he told Publishers Weekly in 1994. I was always the kid who was staring out the window. While the teacher was lecturing on algebra, I was on the deck of a pirate ship or in an airplane shooting down the Red Baron.

He attended Pasadena City College briefly, but left to join the Air Force when the Korean War began in 1950. He became a mechanic and flew supply missions in the Pacific but never saw combat. While stationed in Hawaii, he learned scuba diving and explored underwater wrecks. He mustered out as a sergeant.

In 1955, he married Barbara Knight. They had three children, Teri, Dirk and Dayna. His wife died in 2003. He later married Janet Horvath, who survives him, along with his children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

In California, Cussler pumped gas, wrote advertising copy and, from 1961 to 1965, co-owned Bestgen & Cussler Advertising in Newport Beach (Orange County). Later, at the DArcy agency in Hollywood, he won several awards.

From 1967 to 1969, he was advertising director of Aquatic Marine Corp. in Newport Beach. In 1970, he joined Mefford, Wolff and Weir Advertising in Denver, where he became a vice president and creative director.

He began writing fiction at home in the late 1960s, but his first two books, Pacific Vortex and The Mediterranean Caper, were repeatedly rejected. Unable even to get an agent, he staged a hoax. Using the letterhead of a fictitious writers agency, he wrote to the agent Peter Lampack, posing as an old colleague about to retire and overloaded with work. He enclosed copies of his manuscripts, citing their potential.

It worked. Where can I sign Clive Cussler? Lampack wrote back. In 1973, The Mediterranean Caper was published, followed by Iceberg (1975) and Raise the Titanic! (1976).

Despite an improbable plot and negative reviews, Raise the Titanic! sold 150,000 copies, was a Times best-seller for six months and became a 1980 film starring Richard Jordan and Jason Robards Jr.

While Dirk Pitt books appeared throughout his career, Cussler also wrote other series: The NUMA Files, featuring the hero Kurt Austin and written with Brown or Paul Kemprecos; The Fargo Adventures, about husband-and-wife treasure hunters, written with Grant Blackwood or Thomas Perry; The Oregon Files, set on a high-tech spy ship disguised as a freighter, written with Jack DuBrul or Dirgo; and The Isaac Bell Adventures, about an early 20th century detective, written with Justin Scott.

His nonfiction included Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed (1998, with Dirgo) and Built for Adventure: The Classic Automobiles of Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt (2011). Cussler, who had homes in Arvada, Colo., and Scottsdale, restored vintage cars and had about 100 in his museum in Arvada, including a 1906 Stanley Steamer, a 1913 Marmon and a 1921 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost.

Robert D. McFadden is a New York Times writer.
The Supreme Court Friday remanded to the Kerala High Court the state government's petition challenging the AAI proposal to grant the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport's management rights to the Adani group.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde heard the submissions on behalf of the Kerala government and other parties and decided to send the dispute for adjudication back to the high court.

The bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant, said the contention with regard to applicability of Article 131 (which relates to the dispute between Centre and states) would remain open for further hearing if needed.

The Kerala government had moved the high court and then the apex court against the proposal of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to grant management and operation rights of the airport to the Adani Enterprises Limited for the next 50 years.

The Kerala High Court had on December 18 last year dismissed the plea filed by the state "as not maintainable" and said that the question raised in the petition has to be decided by the Supreme Court under Article 131 of the Constitution of India.

The state alleged before the high court that attempt on the part of AAI to grant right of operation, management and development of Thiruvananthapuram airport to a private party, "who has no previous experience in managing airports", was not in public interest and was violative of the provisions of the Airport Authority of India Act, 1994 among others.

In its appeal filed in the apex court, the state has said that high court had "failed to appreciate that Article 131 of the Constitution does not contemplate any private party being arrayed as a party on one side or other".

"It is submitted that for determining as to whether a suit before the Supreme Court under Article 131 of the Constitution has to be taken recourse to, it is necessary to consider whether the state can, in the facts of the given case, independently maintain a suit against the Government of India," it has said.

The Adani group had won the bid to operate five out of six airports, including in Thiruvananthapuram, proposed for privatisation by the Centre.

The airport was established in 1932 on 258.06 acres of land owned by the princely state of Travancore, of which the state is the successor.

The land had been entered into the revenue records as government land.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Amnesty International and six other groups in Nigeria have requested the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Abuja, to take immediate actions on three anti-democratic bills before the National Assembly.

The bills are the Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill, the Independent National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speeches Bill, and the Civil Society Regulatory Commission Bill.

The groups, in a joint letter to NHRC, said they were concerned with deliberate attempts by the State to close the democratic space and prevent every person from exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights.

The groups, therefore, want the NHRC to issue an advisory to the Nigerian government  the executive and the legislature  on the inconsistencies of such legislations with constitutionally guaranteed human rights and international human rights norms to which Nigeria is a state party

They also want NHRC to publish a report on the state of human rights in Nigeria.

The groups are Centre for Information Technology and Development; Girl Child Africa; Enough is Enough; Say No Campaign Nigeria; Spaces for Change; and Yiaga Africa.

The Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill, otherwise known as Social Media Bill is not reasonably justifiable in a democratic society, the groups said in the February 26, 2020 letter to the NHRC.

Even though the Governments purpose may be legitimate and substantial, that purpose cannot be pursued by means that broadly stifle fundamental personal liberties.

We strongly believe that the Bill contravenes extant constitutional provisions that guarantee right to freedom of expression. Restrictions that undermine the ability to receive and exchange information undermine the fundamental human rights provided in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and International treaties that Nigeria has agreed to be bound by, the letter stated.

Similarly, the Civil Society Regulatory Commission Bill (NGO Bill) is inconsistent with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and other national laws.

The Bill falls significantly short of international human rights norms governing the rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly, as provided in, Section 40 of the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), Articles 21 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and Articles 10 and 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights to which Nigeria is a state party.

Section 4 of the Independent National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speeches Bill (Hate Speech Bill) also prohibits abusive, threatening and insulting behavior, which is open to very wide interpretation.

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The nebulous and vague nature of its provisions and unfettered discretion afforded government agencies pose significant danger to the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression (Section 39 of the Constitution of Nigeria), and the rule of law in general. These provisions would pose a threat to critical opinion, satire, public dialogue, and political commentary, the letter further stated.

The groups urged NHRC to stand up to its statutory responsibility to protect human rights in Nigeria.

They reminded the NHRC of the National Human Right Commission Act, 2010 (as amended) which empowers the commission to deal with all matters relating to the promotion and protection of human rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and other international and regional instruments on human rights to which Nigeria is party.

They also reminded the commission that, besides being empowered to examine any existing legislation, administrative provisions and proposed bills or bye-laws for the purpose of ascertaining whether such enactments or proposed bills or bye-laws are consistent with human rights, is expected by law to publish and submit, from time to time, to the President, National Assembly, Judiciary, State and Local Governments, reports on the state of human rights promotion and protection in Nigeria.

The groups raised concerns over attacks on NGOs lately by the Nigerian government.

A few days ago, protesters suspected to have been sponsored by the government, besieged the Amnesty Internationals office, Abuja, demanding the human rights group to leave Nigeria.




Brazil, Thailand and Ukraine among top 3 poultry exporters to EU in 2019



A European Commission report cited Brazil, Thailand and Ukraine among the top three suppliers of poultry to the European Union last year, reported Ukrainian Independent Information Agency.

According to the report, Brazil exported 313,600 tonnes of poultry to the EU, followed by Thailand with 308,600 tonnes and Ukraine at 134,260 tonnes, a 8.6% on year increase for the latter.

Ukraine also increased poultry imports by 0.3% to the EU at 178,620 tonnes, the third highest for EU exporters after the Philippines at 228,700 tonnes and Ghana at 164,720 tonnes.

The report also said the United States was the top exporter of agricultural products to the EU, followed by Brazil, Ukraine and China.

- Ukrainian Independent Information Agency




Over 10 countries ban Ukrainian poultry due to bird flu



Following the outbreak of bird flu in Vinnytsia region in January, Japan, Korea, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova, Iraq, Philippines, Morocco, Tunisia, Singapore, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other countries have implemented a ban on poultry coming from Ukraine, Myronivsky Hliboproduct (MHP) has reported.

The company said on Facebook that China also announced a ban on poultry import from Ukraine.

"Ukraine as a whole and MHP enterprises in particular act in full compliance with international norms and standards. Ukraine has introduced an active surveillance program that should show the absence of infection and restore the status of a reliable country in terms of product safety. The enterprises of MHP Group fully control the quality of products. We hope that European institutions and our partner countries will soon reconsider their decision in favor of Ukraine," the adviser to the chairman of the board of MHP on foreign economic affairs, Dmytro Los, said.

In addition, in connection with the EU decision to establish the rules of zoning and regionalisation with the aim of resuming the supply of poultry from Ukraine, MHP expects an early resolution of this issue.

"We are sure that following the European example, other countries will resume import of Ukrainian poultry in the near future," the company said.
On Tuesday, The Prince of Egypt opened at London's Dominion Theatre to sizzling fanfare and lukewarm reviews. But do reviews even matter when it comes to a show with near-universal name recognition, penned by one of the most popular living composers?

This Story of the Week will look at the significance of The Prince of Egypt, its prospects of success in London, and the possibility that it will part the Atlantic Ocean to arrive in a land flowing with criticism and cashBroadway!

Luke Brady plays Moses, and Liam Tamne plays Ramses in The Prince of Egypt.

( DWA LLC, photo by Tristram Kenton)

What is The Prince of Egypt?

It's the stage adaptation of the 1998 DreamWorks Animation film about the biblical book of Exodus. The movie features a cartoon Moses facing off with a cartoon Ramses over the captivity of Israel. The film has become a cultural touchstone for millennials and was the pretext for the most epic riff-off of the '90s, between Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

The theatrical Prince of Egypt features a score by Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz, now expanded beyond the five numbers he wrote for the film (there are 10 new songs for the stage show). Philip LaZebnik has adapted his original screenplay into the book of this new musical, which offers a closer look at internal Egyptian politics while minimizing the role of divine intervention.

The stage musical made its world premiere at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in 2017 before playing runs in Denmark and Utah. The London run began performances on February 5, 2020, having been significantly reworked since those earlier productions.

The lavish staging is by director Scott Schwartz, son of Stephen. It takes place on a tilting stage (set design by Kevin Depinet), with Jon Driscoll's giant projections extending out into the house. Forty-three actors wear 380 costumes (by Ann Hould-Ward), and most of the performers appear in the parting of the Red Sea (facilitated by illusion designer Chris Fisher). If you go to the theater for pure spectacle, this is one to put on your radar.

Luke Brady (center) appears on the set of The Prince of Egypt.

( DWA LLC, photo by Tristram Kenton)

What are the critics saying?

Of course, not everyone is won over by special effects. The critical consensus in London has been tepid, with reviewers finding fault with LaZebnik's leaden dialogue, Schwartz Sr.'s substandard new songs (not as catchy as the old ones), and Schwartz Jr.'s overwrought staging.

Veteran reviewer Mark Shenton calls The Prince of Egypt, "a biblical pageant that comes with all the weighty, earnest and portentous air of an end-of-year Nativity project, though on a considerably larger budget." According to Clive Davis of The Times, cash cannot compensate for a substandard script and score, and this is "one of those big-budget musicals that is oddly lacking in interesting music." Sniffing at the general cheese of the production, The Guardian's Arifa Akbar describes the setting as "ancient Egypt by way of Las Vegas."

Writing one of the more positive assessments of the show, Alex Wood of WhatsOnStage credits the cast with delivering the production from musical theater bondage, asserting, "It's a sheer force of will by an utterly stand-out cast that ultimately wins the day."

Sean Cheesman's choreography has been the most universally praised aspect of the production, with critics and audiences alike admiring the writhing masses of appendages he has been able to assemble onstage. And really, who doesn't want to see hunky men toiling under the Egyptian sun?

What are ticket-buyers sayingwith their money?

The entire preview period (February 5-24) was sold out, playing to over 41,000 people, according to WhatsOnStage. Since this was a preview period of a high-profile musical, some of those tickets were comps for journalists and other industry professionals. Still more were sold to superfans who snagged their seats the moment they went on sale. This is a show that has captured the attention of even infrequent theatergoers, but it isn't clear yet that the bulk of them are translating their interest into ticket purchases.

New York's Broadway League releases weekly grosses detailing the revenue and attendance at each show, but London producers are more secretive. Unless you have a source on the inside (call me if you do!), it's difficult to get that kind of data. However, a quick glance at the ticketing page for The Prince of Egypt shows plenty of open seats for March, and ample availability for the summer. This show is by no means sold out.

And although the London run has been extended by seven weeks, the announcement of that extension coincided with opening night, leading me to suspect that those seven weeks were etched in stone long ago (announcing an extension on the eve of opening is a fairly common strategy by theatrical publicists to make the show look like a hit).

Dancers perform Sean Cheesman's choreography in The Prince of Egypt on the West End.

( DWA LLC, photo by Tristram Kenton)

Is there any chance of Prince of Egypt coming to Broadway?

There's always a chance, especially when there is money to be made. But as I explained above, that is not entirely certain just yet.

You might assume that a new musical by the composer of Wicked would automatically be on the fast track to Broadway, but that is not necessarily the case: In 2014, a stage adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (which Schwartz wrote with Aladdin composer Alan Menken) opened at La Jolla and soon transferred to Paper Mill Playhouse, where it received quasi-ho-hum reviews. That production was also helmed by Scott Schwartz.

While the property has gone on to play a number of well-regarded regional runs (including one in Sacramento starring deaf actor John McGinty), talk of moving it to Broadway has ceased. A recent announcement that Menken and Schwartz are collaborating on the score of the Disney live-action Hunchback made it perfectly clear that the film will not contain any material from the stage venture.

Stateside superfans have plenty of reason to believe that they will one day see The Prince of Egypt in their own land, but those with any doubts might want to book a flight to London this summer. There's definitely an open seat waiting for you.
An Australian international model took her own life aged just 22 after a crippling battle with meth addiction.

Anja Kingsley - known to friends as Ana - enjoyed a successful career modelling across the world after being scouted aged just 16.

Originally from Melbourne, she was described by devastated friends as 'funny, wonderful and big-hearted'.

But after being dumped by an industry always looking out for the next young star, she turned to drugs after becoming involved in the trance music scene.

Anja Kingsley (pictured) died aged just 23 after battling with drug addiction, with friends saying she was 'funny, wonderful and big-hearted'

After being spotted by modelling scouts aged just 16, Ms Kinglsey (pictured) became a successful model, booking jobs across the world

Her devastated friends and family blasted the government for 'refusing to acknowledge the meth epidemic' - and offering little mental health support.

'The modelling industry basically destroyed her,' her close friend Jay Whitehall told Daily Mail Australia.

'They used her, picking her up at age 16 and making her an international model, then dumping her like a piece of garbage for fresh new teenage talent at age 21.

'By the time she was 22, she was dead.

'I will never forget her, she helped save me and changed my life forever.'

Her family said her tragic story should serve as a message to others that suicide 'is not the way out', with the talented young woman having so many people who loved her.

Anja Kingsley (pictured) took her own life in 2015, after battling with drug addiction and terrible childhood bullying

Anja (pictured) was a great support to other friends battling drug problems, trying to put them onto the straight and narrow

Mr Whitehall, who also suffered with drug addiction, was introduced to the young model by mutual friends to help him quit ice.

Despite using herself, she refused to let her friend take the dangerous drug - something he said saved his life.

Anja (pictured) had a large network of loving friends in Victoria

'When I was trying to give up meth, she was still using,' he explained.

'She refused to allow me to indulge in meth, even if I begged her.

'And for that I will never forget her. I'm very lucky because of her.'

Ms Kinglsey had also suffered from bullying throughout school, with cruel kids calling her 'tall, lanky and ugly' - even comparing her to an alien.

'Those were the very same things that made the modelling industry pick her up,' Mr Whitehall said.

'She felt she could not even go back to where she grew up with her mother to help her rehabilitate, because that's where her bullies lived.

'She didn't want to face the people who teased her all through school.'

The kindhearted model often helped friends try to turn their lives around - but wouldn't let others help her.

Those close to her are now calling for the government to take drastic action to stop the drug epidemic, which is claiming lives in country towns across Australia.

Ms Kingsley (pictured) lived near Melbourne and became involved in the local trance music scene

'It's now cheaper to buy meth than alcohol and cigarettes,' Mr Whitehall added.

'And believe me, when you take meth you don't need drink or smokes.

'The ridiculous government that we have doesn't offer any rehabilitation.

The aspiring model (pictured) enjoyed a successful career

'The Liberal government and Tony Abbott closed nearly every rehabilitation centre in Australia in their first six months.

'And they still refuse to address this meth epidemic - it kills people.'

Her body was found by a neighbour after taking her own life in the stairwell of her apartment building in February 2015.

Marking the five-year anniversary of her death, her friends are calling for increased support those suffering with drug addiction.

She had been injecting meth at the time - known as shooting up - which is the most dangerous and addictive way of taking the drug.

It creates a more intense and faster high compared to other ways to ingest the drug.

Individuals will, on average, feel the effects of the immediate rush within 30 seconds of injecting it.

'Why should it be that only the top 1 per cent of the richest people can send their kids to rehab in Thailand but average Aussie kids get nothing?' Mr Whitehall added.

Anja (pictured) was well-known in the art, photography and modelling community in Australia

Anja (pictured) is seen dressing up with friends

'Thai rehab is $30-40,000. Meanwhile, Odyssey House has a 12-month waiting list.'

A spokeswoman for Odyssey House said it has does not operate a waiting list, and that clients only ever wait for a maximum of two weeks for treatment.

She said: 'Professional, affordable help for alcohol and other drug dependence is readily available, right now, at Odyssey House NSW.

'There is usually no wait (or only a very short wait) for admission to its 12-week or long-term residential rehabilitation programs, which are government-subsidised.'

A 2016 survey found that 6.3 per cent - equivalent to 1.3 million Australians over the edge of 14 - had used meth.

This means that 1 in 70 people have used meth in the last 12 months alone, with 20 per cent of that number using the drug on a weekly or daily basis.

Rates of methamphetamine use are higher among rural and remote areas of Australia compared to regional areas and major cities.

Young people aged 1824 years old living in rural areas were also more likely to report recent ice use than those living in cities.

Despite this, sufferers are finding it increasingly difficult to find help, and are often met with long waitlists.

Those who can are instead flocking to expensive private treatment centres in Thailand.

But if an addict cannot stump up for private treatment, they face a long - and often deadly - wait.
Photo: The Canadian Press Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews

The Alberta budget remains mired in red ink, but doubles down on oil and gas and gives a boost to diversification.

Finance Minister Travis Toews is forecasting a $6.8-billion deficit this year on revenues of $50 billion.

Debt is expected to rise to almost $77 billion by the spring of 2021.

Toews says while unemployment remains stubbornly high at about seven per cent, he's optimistic that new pipeline projects and higher exports will mean more revenues for Alberta's lifeblood industry.

The province is also investing $200 million to encourage innovation and attract talent in cutting-edge industries such as artificial intelligence.

Toews says given that oil prices will always be volatile, Alberta will keep a close watch on its spending to make sure it gets back to balanced books by 2023.

Some highlights:
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2020 / Ximen Mining Corp. (TSXV:XIM)(FRA:1XMA)(OTCQB:XXMMF) (the "Company" or "Ximen") announces that that it has entered into a Property Acquisition Agreement with a private company, 49er Creek Gold Corp. ("49er Creek") for the purchase of 100% of its mineral properties located near Nelson in southern British Columbia. The properties are located close to Ximen's Kenville gold mine and cover a total 107 mineral claims covering approximately 4,276 hectares, located in the Nelson Mining District.

Satellite image showing Ximen's Nelson area holdings including acquisition from 49 Creek Gold Corp (yellow), and recently acquired properties from Emgold (orange) and Klondike Gold (purple),

and Ximen's Kenville and California mine properties (Red).

The 49er Creek property covers eight BC Minfile occurrences of which four were past producers with production as tabled below:

Mine Gold

(ounces) Silver

(ounces) Copper

(pounds) Tonnes

Mined Tonnes

Milled Gold Hill 303 252 3,435 115 Queen Victoria 246 30,544 1,482,895 45,352 4,397 Good Hope 90 80 48 Northern Light 2 59 273 31



(from BC Minfile)

The Gold Hill, Good Hope and Northern Light are vein deposits and the Queen Victoria is a copper-gold skarn deposit. From 1983 to the mid-1990's, multiple exploration programs were conducted on the property included soil geochemical sampling, rock sampling, magnetometer readings, and VLF-EM geophysical surveys. The highest assay from exploration in 1984 was 207.4 grams per tonne gold, 168.3 grams per tonne silver and 4.2 per cent copper (BC Assessment Report 13878).

Ximen believes the property holds excellent exploration potential for gold-silver veins and porphyry-related copper gold deposits.

Key points of the transaction include:

C$100,000 paid to 49 er Creek in cash;

Creek in cash; 1,400,000 common shares without par value in the capital of Ximen with the following restrictions: 700,000 of the Shares will become free trading six months and one day after the receipt of Exchange approval and the remaining 700,000 Shares will become free trading one year and one day.

The transaction is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.

Dr. Mathew Ball, P.Geo., VP Exploration for Ximen Mining Corp. and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, approved the technical information contained in this News Release.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

"Christopher R. Anderson"

Christopher R. Anderson,

President, CEO and Director

604 488-3900

Investor Relations:

Sophy Cesar,

604-488-3900,

ir@XimenMiningCorp.com

About Ximen Mining Corp.

Ximen Mining Corp. owns 100% interest in three of its precious metal projects located in southern BC. Ximen's two Gold projects The Amelia Gold Mine and The Brett Epithermal Gold Project. Ximen also owns the Treasure Mountain Silver Project adjacent to the past producing Huldra Silver Mine. Currently, the Treasure Mountain Silver Project is under a option agreement. The option partner is making annual staged cash and stocks payments as well as funding the development of the project. The company has recently acquired control of the Kenville Gold mine near Nelson British Columbia which comes with surface and underground rights, buildings and equipment.

Ximen is a publicly listed company trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol XIM, in the USA under the symbol XXMMF, and in Frankfurt, Munich, and Berlin Stock Exchanges in Germany under the symbol 1XMA and WKN with the number as A2JBKL.

This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, including statements regarding the receipt of TSX Venture Exchange approval and the exercise of the Option by Ximen. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective," "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include the possibility that the TSX Venture Exchange may not accept the proposed transaction in a timely manner, if at all. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Ximen Mining Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/578283/Ximen-Acquires-49er-Creek-Gold-Property-in-Nelson-Gold-Camp
Brewerton, N.Y.  Bear Creek enjoyed a well-regarded, but brief tenure in Brewerton before closing last summer after just nine months in business.

Now the restaurant is back with a similar menu, new location and a new owner determined to make Brewerton a dining destination in Central New York.

The restaurant opened Thursday at 5480 Bartel Road in a building that once housed a Burger King and most recently, an RV dealership. The buildings history is recognizable from the outside, but take a step inside and it bears little resemblance to its predecessors. The Adirondack motif of the original location has been carried over to the new spot, with snowshoes, a two-man saw and other rustic decor decorating the walls.

Michael Piraino inside the Brewerton Diner. Piraino owns both the Brewerton Diner and Bear Creek. (Charlie Miller | cmiller@syracuse.com)Charlie Miller

Michael Piraino, owner of the Brewerton Diner, located right down the road from the new restaurant, now owns Bear Creek. Matthew Scott, one of the original owners, manages the restaurant.

I told them, I cant let you close," Piraino said.

After starting the project in July, it took around four months before they were able to get approval from the town of Cicero to begin work on the restaurant, Piraino said.

Part of that renovation was the creation of an actual Bear Creeksort of. The bar, built by Kreff Customs, features a blue creek winding the length of the expansive, wrap-around bar, located in what was previously an office. The restaurant has a full bar, with spirits, wines and beer served, including a dozen draft lines. TVs mounted to the exposed wooden beams in the bar and dining room will be tuned to local sports.

I really want to make this the Syracuse [Orange sports] bar of the north, Piraino said.

The food will largely be the same as it was at the old location, though Piraino put his touch on some of the items, with more additions to come. The restaurant will have daily specials, including the return of Bear Creeks popular two-for-$11 burger night on Wednesdays.

Piraino also talked about special menu items on holidays, as well as a food truck rodeo outside the restaurant around the Fourth of July, when the annual fireworks display draws massive crowds to the lakeside community.

Piraino called the restaurant in its current state Phase 1. Phase 2, he said, will be the addition of outdoor seating along the back side of the restaurant. The third and final phase will be an expanded outdoor seating area that Piraino called Napa Valley style, with a fireplace, hay bales, high-top tables and a stage for live music.

Were going to make it feel like youre at a vineyard.

A Central Square native, Piraino hopes the restaurant will serve as a catalyst to strengthen the Brewerton community. The bar carries wines from Grace Tyler Estate Winery from nearby Constantia and plans to soon add beers from Freight Yard Brewing in Clay.

You always win by helping others, Piraino said. We all work together to make the community better.

Address: 5480 Bartel Road, Brewerton; (315) 668-5544; Facebook page: facebook.com/BearCreekRestaurant. Hours: Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 3 to 9 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday from 3 to 10 p.m., though Piraino said they hope to be open later on weekends.

Jacob Pucci finds the best in food, dining and culture across Central New York. Contact him by email at jpucci@syracuse.com.

Subscribers only: Join an insider text group with Jacob Pucci to get the inside scoop on the restaurants and cuisines of Central New York. SIGN UP HERE

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Linkedin Noor Huda Ismail (The Jakarta Post) Singapore  Fri, February 28, 2020

President Joko Jokowi Widodo has formally announced that he will not repatriate Indonesians affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) movement in Syria, except for children under the age of 10 years. This is a politically popular policy given the fact that feared battle-hardened IS affiliates will return to Indonesia and spread the groups radical ideology and network across the country.

Public concern is not unfounded. Some women and children who were embedded within IS had been radicalized through exposure to the groups extremist ideology. Children were systematically indoctrinated and forced to attend camps where they were taught combat skills and advanced training in the use of firearms and other weapons. Similarly, women were involved in upholding the IS strict moral code through formal organized groups such as the Al Khansaa Brigade.

Notwithstanding the governments decision on repatriation, Indonesia still needs to be prepared should Indonesian pro-IS followers find their way back on their own. Both Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kurdish authorities have stated that they are likely to release detained foreign IS followers and repatriate them back to their home countries. This raises the possibility of pro-IS Indonesians leaving Syrian camps and passing through Indonesias extensive and porous borders independently and undetected.

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Its about to get busy for the 20-year-old behind Twitter account @elliottracing99. Phone fully charged, program in hand, its almost post time.

For the next three and a half or so hours, Tony Elliott will be watching, with great interest, each of The Raceway at Western Fair Districts 10 races, beginning with the first Standardbred tilt, a trot for non-winners of $5,000 lifetime.

After a handful of retweets, Elliott posts his first tweet: The temperature is freezing, but the action on track is heating up @TheRacewayWFDLate Pick 4 wager guaranteed at $5000 beginning shortly!...Good luck!

Its a typical tweet from the Western University business student to the horse racing world, a heads-up for horseplayers looking to take their shot at cashing a winning ticket.

Theres a lot for him to cover over the 10 dashes at the London, Ont. oval, six races featuring pacers with the other four putting trotters in the spotlight.

But Elliott is ready.

I love horse racing. I could watch 500 horse races a day and not get bored. Anything to do with racing, I cant get enough of it.

Thats the way its been for as long as Elliott can remember, back to the days hed accompany his father to many of the 11 Standardbred racetracks operating in Ontario.

He comes by his affinity for the sport naturally.

His father, Glenn, once worked for harness legend Bud Fritz. His uncle, Steve, was groom of Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame pacing star Silver Reign (right), a 42-time winner who dominated the Ontario racing circuit in the late 1980s.

As Elliott recalls, he was immediately captivated by all things horse racing, eager to accompany his father and uncle on road trips, short or long, to watch some of the sports highest profile horses and horsepeople compete in marquee events.

My dad and I would go all the time, pretty much to every big race. Wed go to the track every weekend. I have a box at home thats filled up with programs  its probably a four-foot high box thats filled with all of them  from those days. That was our thing. If we knew someone who was racing, wed go and watch.

When he turned 13, Elliotts association with Standardbred racing lessened. Not by choice, but rather by necessity.

I got big into track & field, and I ended up receiving a scholarship to an NCAA school for hammer throw. When I was down there I ended up rupturing a disc in my back. So, I decided to come home because there was no use in trying to compete and being injured. That wasnt good to have at 20, so I came home to go to school at Western.

Track & fields loss has been Ontario racetracks gain.

This past summer, Elliott, who lives in downtown London, just a short walk from the Western campus, began rekindling his passion for the sport.

There was no big moment or epiphany that prompted him to reconnect with the Standardbred world.

He didnt open the box of programs, take out pictures, or have a conversation with his dad about those good old days.

Something just clicked in his mind one night.

I still followed horse racing when I did track & field, but I got away from it a little bit. And then I got hurt. But I got the bug for it again this past summer. It never really leaves you, but it came back just as strong as it was before. You feel like watching the races again, and then that interest comes back even more. Horse racing is just one of those sports coming back to it after being not as involved, I realized I missed so much. But then that connection came.

And its stronger than ever.

So much so, in fact, that Elliott has figured out what he wants to do after earning his Business degree.

Ive always thought about what I want to do for a career. When I first started university, I thought about kinesiology. I wanted to be chiropractor and then I said to myself, No, I dont want to do that. I switched to business, and then I considered law, being a lawyer. The more I thought about that, I said, No, I dont want to do that either.

And then it came to me...What is the one thing Ive loved almost my whole life? Horse racing. Since I have a business background and I love the numbers aspect of racing, I realized thats the industry I want to be part of.

Elliott is indeed a numbers man.

In between studying for exams, hell often scan racing websites, seeking out wagering data for racetracks across Canada.

The data he mines isnt for anything other than his own fascination.

I love the wagering aspect of horse racing. I look at that almost every night. I see if the wagering is up in Canada, different things like that. Ill make Excel sheets of per race averages, overall total wagers at certain tracks, and compare that to similar dates to the year before. I just love the numbers part of it.



Elliott's favourite spot to watch the races at Western Fair Elliott's favourite spot to watch the races at Western Fair

His love of horse racing prompted him to reach out to Greg Gangle, Western Fairs racing manager, this past December.

We had a great talk. I asked Greg what I could do to help the support the industry. Thats why I started going on Twitter and started promoting any way I could. It could be a pool, other information or live streaming  depending on the night, Ill do different things. Thats where I started picking up momentum and getting my name out to the industry. Its generated a lot of positive feedback, which made me even more committed to doing it. Im gaining more of a following from the racing community. (Western Fair race announcer) Sugar Doyle had me on the pre-game show at Western Fair. Ryan Clements (the man behind Off and Pacing, a multiplayer harness racing stable management game) introduced me to (award-winning writer) Melissa Keith, and she asked me to do a review article of Western Fair for the Canadian chapter of USHWA (United States Harness Writers Association).

What impresses me the most about Tony is his maturity, positive mindset and the right mentality  always focusing on the positive in the industry, says Gangle. Sometimes its easy to dwell on the negative, but thats not Tony. Its rare to see at such a young age. Tony is very mature for his young age and is a great example of the younger generation to follow. Hes very keen to learn and has a bright future within the industry. Its crucial to have younger people like Tony in the industry. They are our future leaders and we need to all work collectively to assist them with the tools and foundation to be successful in the industry. I was very fortunate to have that in my development and that is something I feel should always be passed along to the next generation.

Elliotts hoping the payoff winds up being a role in horse racing management.

That goal was further bolstered after watching recent live stream panel discussions focusing on key industry issues.

Racing management would be my dream job to be in the middle of it and help make a big difference. I want to be part of the change that is going to evolve the industry into being sustainable. I watch (Woodbine CEO) Jim Lawson in the Stronger Together chats and what he and others speak about really resonates with me. Eventually, I want to be a big player in this industry.

Until then, Elliott will continue to immerse himself in horse racing, gathering more followers along the way, and increasing his knowledge of the numbers game.

Hell also be keeping close tabs on Shark Idea, a three-year-old daughter of Western Ideal that he co-owns with his aunt, Dorien De Jong, and John Lougheed.



John Lougheed and Shark Idea John Lougheed and Shark Idea

(Trainer and owner) Blake McIntosh had her. They brought her out last year around the normal time they do for two-year-olds. She qualified a few times and then they raced her at Grand River. She was distanced by over 30 lengths, and then they stopped with her. Two-year-olds can sometimes be immature and need some more time. They put her away, and then they qualified her in (1):58.4.

We saw her on the Winbak website, on the horses for sale page. She doesnt wow you after her first two starts  she had a fourth and a fifth after the qualifier  but its all about working through stuff. We ended up picking her up. Its very exciting. John trains her part-time. Hes an electrical inspector around the area here. Hes phenomenal with the horses, very particular with them, and in making sure all the bases are covered. Ive been at the barn every day since I got back.



On their way at Western Fair On their way at Western Fair

With that, Elliott is on his way. Its another busy night ahead at Western Fair, and hes got some preparation to do.

But before he does, he offers up one final thought.

I dont know if theres anybody around my age that wants to get into racing management as their career. You dont want to be a person that complains about something, and then doesnt do anything to change it. I want to be that someone who makes a difference.

(Ontario Racing)
ICS also publicly shared its emails with the county during procurement that showed ICS had given the county two choices: one with a $3 fee for setting up a debit card and another with no setup fee. Each option appeared to be lower cost than Securus bid.

The emails showed a county procurement officer asked the firm to submit a bid with the setup fee instead of the option without the setup fee. Days later, a letter from Page to the council praised Securus rate of under 5 cents per minute that included no prepaid setup fees.

County officials initially refused to discuss why Securus had been scored as the lowest-cost bidder, saying they were bound by cone of silence legislation on procurement designed to prevent pay-to-play.

Earlier this week, the council voted to allow some records to be released to clear the air about how Securus had won. And Page ripped ICS for misleading the procurement office about its $3 setup fee. Its akin to being charged a user fee each time you withdraw money from an ATM, he said.

Page said some companies that profited before the county revamped its procurement rules were not comfortable with the new rules. They elbow, they push and they do whatever they have to do, truth be damned.
General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) launches a university dedicated to small-scale fishers

February 28,2020 | Source: FAO

The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) is launching this week a university devoted to small-scale fisheries. The SSF University will offer workshops and training courses to small-scale fishers and fish workers across the Mediterranean and Black Sea region.



Small-scale fishers represent 84 percent of the total regional fishing fleet and 60% of total onboard jobs. Yet despite the important role of SSF in the region, small-scale fishers often fail to be engaged in the decision-making processes. The governments of the region recognized the need to promote their access to financial resources, and facilitate education and training opportunities.



To respond to these challenges, the GFCM has teamed up with the World Wide Fund for Nature, the Low Impact Fishers of Europe, the European Network of Women in Fisheries and Aquaculture, Petra Patrimonia, and LOQUS, as well as relevant FAO projects and subregional and country offices, to offer a wide variety of courses on topics such as ecosystem friendly gears, fishing tourism, the legislative basis for SSF governance, starting a fisher association, etc.



Small-scale fishers are the first guardians of the sea. At the SSF University, they will exchange best practices with fishers from across the region and they will learn how they can productively engage in decision-making processes, said Abdellah Srour, Executive Secretary of the GFCM.



In 2020, fifteen courses are foreseen to take place in more than 11 countries, targeting representatives of SSF organizations, fishers and fish workers active in the sector.



The first course of the SSF University is organized in Brussels this week by the European Network of Women in Fisheries and Aquaculture (AKTEA). It focuses on how to make a difference in the legislative and policymaking processes of European institutions and includes a visit to the European Parliament Fisheries Committee and meetings with European lawmakers.



The SSF University responds to one of the key recommendations of the Regional Plan of Action for Small-Scale Fisheries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea (RPOA-SSF) adopted by 18 Mediterranean and Black Sea countries as well as the European Union in 2018,by promoting capacity development in the small-scale fisheries sector.

 FAO, 2020

Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture.
A third of Australians think the nation is too overcrowded while a majority blame unaffordable housing for killing their dreams, a survey has found.

Australia's net annual immigration rate with departures factored in stood at close to 300,000 last year - which included permanent arrivals and international students.

While it was below the record-high of 353,480 reached in the year to April 2009, it was still more than triple the 20th century average of 70,000.

The national population growth pace of 1.5 per cent is also almost double the rich-world average of 0.8 per cent.

A third of Australians think the nation is too overcrowded. The country's annual immigration rate with departures factored in stood at close to 300,000 last year - which included permanent arrivals and international students. Pictured is Sydney's Wynyard train station

With Sydney and Melbourne each home to more than 5million people, it seems overcrowding is an issue.

Almost a third, or 32.4 per cent of respondents, called for population control when asked about their wishes for Australia in the survey commissioned by Real Insurance.

The online survey of 5,000 people, by CoreData, also showed a majority to be concerned about expensive real estate, with 53.5 per cent describing affordability as the 'greatest barrier to them achieving their dreams'.

Sydney's median house price stood at $994,300 in January, CoreLogic data showed.

The Real Wishes Report, compiled late last year, showed 61 per cent of people were concerned about the effect of global uncertainty on Australia.

A similar proportion, or 60.7 per cent, wanted better employment opportunities.

The survey was taken in September, four months before Chinese authorities declared the first outbreak of coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Almost a third, or 31 per cent of respondents, believed Australia had worsened since the May election, which saw Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Coalition win a third consecutive term.

With Sydney and Melbourne each home to more than 5million people, it seems overcrowding is an issue. Almost a third of respondents called for population control when asked about their wishes for Australia in a survey commissioned by Real Insurance (results pictured)
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Calling all Silicon Valley tycoons - this could be the superyacht for you. Because it's brimming with tech.

The concept, called Stormbreaker, is aimed at 'tech-focused explorers' and comes with a 360-degree imaging system as well as state-of-the-art communications.

And the 'razor-sharp' design also features stunning interiors including a jaw-dropping glass atrium at the heart of the vessel, which will allow passengers to gaze out at 'panoramic vistas'.

The Stormbreaker superyacht concept, which has been designed by Berlin-based yacht designer Theodoros Fotiadis and is aimed at 'tech-focused explorers'

The 'razor-sharp' design features stunning interiors including a jaw-dropping glass atrium (pictured above) at the heart of the vessel, which will allow passengers to gaze out at 'panoramic vistas'

Berlin-based yacht designer Theodoros Fotiadis is behind the design, which is being championed for sale by Jim Evans, founder of brokerage firm SuperYachtsMonaco.

The design is ready to be built at either 298ft (91 metres) or 377ft (115 metres) with 'the range, luxurious space and immense technical capability to ensure owners and guests an epic adventure, whether work or play'.

According to the designer, it is also primed for optimal cruising in all climates in the most remote destinations, from the balmy Polynesian Islands to the Arctic Circle.

In terms of onboard tech, Stormbreaker will have a 'fully integrated and interactive audiovisual experience' by Icon Connect.

The panoramic 360-degree imaging system will record and broadcast live footage so 'guests will never miss a whale breach or an icefall'.

There will also be an 'interactive infotainment system for real-time environment and voyage awareness'.

The yacht, which is brimming with tech, features stunning interiors, including this explorer's lounge

The superyacht's glass elevator. The design is ready to be built at either 298ft (91 metres) or 377ft (115 metres)

Meanwhile, the communications system will provide high bandwidth, 'capable of internet connectivity, even at the polar extremes of navigation'.

The designers say: 'A level above her peers and the first of a new breed, her owner will be able to stay hyper-connected even when theyre off the grid, with the capability to meet the demands of a modern-day entrepreneur from off-shore, among other benefits.'

At the heart of the yacht is the structural glass atrium, which will 'flood the open-plan interiors with natural light'.

The layout also includes a huge tender garage to house smaller boats or a submarine, a beach club, a spa-gym complex, a cigar lounge, an observation deck, a pool, a dining lounge, a private office, an art gallery, a library and helicopter hangar.

According to the designer, the yacht is primed for optimal cruising in all climates in the most remote destinations, from the balmy Polynesian Islands to the Arctic Circle

The yacht will have a communications system that will provide high bandwidth, 'capable of internet connectivity, even at the polar extremes of navigation'

Jim said: 'Stormbreaker is the next level of go-anywhere explorer, the concept incorporates all the elements that thrill and solace-seeking clients look for - a tough exterior, attention-grabbing design, a bottomless toy chest, efficient propulsion, long-range capability and the highest level of connectivity.'

Theodoros added: 'Who is the owner of Stormbreaker? The person that when they see the storm, they want to go into it.

'The owner will go undaunted where only the bold dare, conquer the elements, explore the world, and experience the exhilaration and tranquillity of global yachting first-hand.

'This yacht is for people who enjoy going off the grid and experiencing something unique every time they are on board. A very different muse to more traditional cruising.

'There is plenty of scope to be creative with exterior styling and layout, as long as technical requirements and propulsion elements, in this case, diesel-electric, are fully integrated from the outset.'
Russia and Luxembourg have expressed mutual interest in cooperating in space, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday at a press conference following talks with his Luxembourgian counterpart, Jean Asselborn

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2020) Russia and Luxembourg have expressed mutual interest in cooperating in space, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday at a press conference following talks with his Luxembourgian counterpart, Jean Asselborn.

Jean Asselborn traveled to Russia on Thursday for a two-day working visit at Lavrov's invitation. The trip marks the top Luxembourgian diplomat's seventh trip to the country since his appointment in 2004.

"Luxembourg is one of the largest foreign investors in the Russian economy.

A number of joint projects in the field of industry are being implemented, [we have] good prospects in innovation and finance, including what is now called 'green finance.' We noted mutual interest in cooperation in space," Lavrov said.

Last January, Russia proposed that Luxembourg sign a framework agreement on the joint mineral mining in outer space.

Luxembourg and the United States are the only two countries that have already passed laws regarding space mining to establish legal and regulatory frameworks for mining operations beyond Earth.
President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday rued the lesser number of women in the area of science and technology and said they comprise only 15 per cent of the workforce in research and development.

He also launched three new initiatives for gender advancement and equality in the academic, and research and development institutions of the country.

Kovind recalled how women scientists played a critical role in the Indian Space Research Organisation's Mars orbiter mission Mangalyaan and Moon Mission Chandrayaan 2.

The president said during his visit to Sriharikota for Chandrayaan-2's launch last year, he came across a woman scientist so dedicated to the project that she left her six- month-old son with her parents and joined the mission.

"Despite the presence of such highly motivated women scientists, India's R&D workforce has less than 15 per cent women, compared to the global average of 30 per cent, according to a National Task Force report," Kovind said while addressing a gathering of scientists on the occasion of National Science Day.

"Numbers are no different in science and technology teaching institutions. Only a small percentage of women who study science go on to make a successful career and contribute to this field," he said.

Kovind said in order to encourage women to take to higher studies in science, he had substantially enhanced the representation of women in central universities.

National Science Day marks the discovery of the 'Raman Effect' -- the phenomenon of the scattering of light -- by physicist C V Raman on this day in 1928.

The president said it was essential to empower women for the development of any country.

The Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions (GATI), an online portal for S&T resources for women and 'Vigyan Jyoti' were among the initiatives launched by the president for increasing the percentage of women in the area of science and technology.

GATI will assess the progress made by participating institutions in gender advancement based on well-defined parameters, while the online portal will provide information on government schemes, scholarships, fellowships, career counselling and details of subject area experts from various disciplines.

'Vigyan Jyoti' is aimed at creating a level playing field for the meritorious girls in high schools to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics in higher

Kovind said it is through science and technology that challenges of the environment, healthcare, energy for equitable economic growth, food and water security, and communication can be effectively addressed.

Later in the day, addressing the first convocation ceremony of the Central University of Jharkhand in Ranchi, the president said achievements of women are all the more appreciable as they face more challenges and obstacles.

Kovind also advised the university's students to gain knowledge about the tribal population, visit nearby villages and make people aware of government schemes on cleanliness, literacy and child vaccination.

Referring to how the youth had joined Mahatma Gandhi in the freedom movement and social reforms, the president said he was of the firm belief that the young generation of the 21st first century would take the nation to new heights of success.

"The main objective of is to become a good human being, and, in turn, make one good doctor, a good teacher and good social leader...," Kovind said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin Apriza Pinandita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, February 29 2020

Tiffani Afifa is a K-pop fan and influencer, and even the alarming spread of the novel coronavirus in South Korea has not dissuaded her from visiting the country.

Last Saturday, one day before South Koreas government announced the highest possible alert level over the virus, Tiffani flew to Seoul with her friends for a one-week vacation.

Before I went, I was told by a lot of people about the possibility of quarantine as soon as I arrived at the airport. Turns out, it was just business as usual at the airport as well as within Seoul, Tiffani told The Jakarta Post via instant messaging.

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Update: Complete specifications of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite have surfaced with 7mm slim metal body, so we can expect the launch soon.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite rumored specifications

10.1-inch (2000 x 1200 pixel) TFT display

Octa-Core (Quad 2.3GHz + Quad 1.7GHz) Exynos 9611 10nm processor with Mali-G72 GPU

4GB RAM, 64GB / 128GB storage, expandable memory up to 400GB with microSD

Android 10 with OneUI 2.1

8MP rear camera

5MP front-facing camera

7mm thick; Weight:467g

4G LTE (Optional), WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz/5GHz), Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 5, GPS, GLONASS, USB 2.0 Type-C

7040mAh battery

Earlier: Samsung recently added 5G support to the Galaxy Tab S6 that was first announced last year. Now, renders of a possible Lite version of the Tab S6 have arrived showing a similar design to the more premium Tab S6 along with the new redesigned S Pen.

Being a Lite version, the tablet will be powered with mid-range specs. According to the leak, the Tab S6 Lite will run an Exynos 9611 chipset that has 4x ARM Cortex-A73 (running at 2300 Mhz) and 4x ARM Cortex A-53 (running at 1700 Mhz), ARM Mali G72 GPU, with 4GB of RAM and 64/128GB of storage. Information on the display is not very clear, with rumours pointing to a resolution of 12002000 giving it a pixel density of 280 DPI. The storage options will likely be dependent on the region that it is sold in.

Wireless charging for the S Pen was not mentioned, but since it features the newer design, it can be assumed that S Pen will feature it. For software, it will be running OneUI 2.1 based on Android 10 out of the box.

There is no information on when Samsung will release the tablet as there no major launch event scheduled till around August, when the Galaxy Note will be announced. However, since the renders of the device have arrived, we can assume that Samsung will announce the Tab S6 Lite soon via a press release soon.

Source 1,2, 3
Photo taken on Feb. 27, 2020 shows boxes of masks donated to Daegu by the Chinese Embassy, in Seoul, South Korea. The Chinese Embassy in South Korea on Thursday donated around 25,000 medical masks to the city of Daegu in southern South Korea in an effort to support the city which was hit by COVID-19 outbreak. Late in the evening, a truck carrying masks departed from the Chinese Embassy in Seoul for the city of Daegu, about 300 km southeast of the capital. (Chinese Embassy in South Korea/Handout via Xinhua)

SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in South Korea on Thursday donated around 25,000 medical masks to the city of Daegu in southern South Korea in an effort to support the city which was hit by COVID-19 outbreak.

Late in the evening, a truck carrying masks departed from the Chinese Embassy in Seoul for the city of Daegu, about 300 km southeast of the capital.

A banner hung on the outside of the trunk read, "Fighting, Daegu! Fighting, South Korea!" On the banner was also written a poem from the Choe Chi-won, an ancient well-known Korean scholar who once pursued study in China's Tang dynasty for many years. The poem reads, "Far distance cannot separate us, and we all live in a united world."

Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Xing Haiming said that China and South Korea share weal and woe and help each other in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.

"The Chinese people will always remember the helping hand extended by the South Korean people in times of a crisis," said the ambassador.

"Now difficulties of the South Korean people are our difficulties. The Chinese Embassy is willing to contribute its share to help the people of South Korea and the people of Daegu to combat the epidemic," he added.

South Korea confirmed 505 more cases of the COVID-19 on Thursday, raising the total number of infections to 1,766, and the death toll rose to 13. Of the total patients, 1,132 were residents in Daegu, which became the epicenter of the viral spread here as the biggest cluster of mass infections was found in the city with a 2.4 million population.
Friday, February 28th, 2020 (7:03 am) - Score 4,841

Cityfibre has provided ISPreview with an update on their on-going Copper to fibre switchover consultation, which considers the question of retiring Openreachs (BT) old copper telephone lines in favour of full fibre (FTTP) broadband, albeit from the perspective of an alternative network provider.

At present most of the focus in the planning for copper switch-off and migration has tended to centre around Openreachs national network, which is hardly surprising because they control most of the UKs legacy copper infrastructure and are expected to have the single largest Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network by around 2025 (15 million premises). Related trials are already underway (here and here), such as in Salisbury.

NOTE: Over the longer term it makes no sense to maintain older legacy copper networks alongside fibre as this would be costly and discourage FTTP investment.

However alternative network (AltNet) providers like Cityfibre (aiming to cover 8 million premises) are keen to remind the Government and Ofcom, as well as perhaps consumers too, that Openreach is not the only full fibre game in town. Indeed in some parts of the country there will be locations where Cityfibre is the only choice for FTTP, while in others it could be the case that several FTTP providers may operate in the same area (overbuild).

Suffice to say that Cityfibres consultation, which began last November (here), is centred around engaging the wider industry over this issue and ensuring that any future switch-over is pro-competitive, so processes are in place to support easy switching between networks. Ofcoms on-going work to integrate the new European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) also touches on this area (here).

Cityfibre thus aims to give ISPs of all sizes an opportunity to stipulate what provisions would be required to support all legacy services on the new network(s), what the process should be for mass migration of customers, and what steps are needed to ensure easy and hassle-free switching for consumers.

Full fibre or nothing?

As part of this consultation ISPreview has engaged with Cityfibres Director of Regulatory Affairs, Alex Blowers, to query the operators approach and some of the more challenging aspects of its consultation. For example, the Governments recent switch to adopt gigabit-capable language has opened this debate up because we now have to look at more than just full fibre networks, with Virgin Medias cable (HFC) and possibly even fixed wireless or 5G networks having a role to play too.

As for HFC upgrades, these may be good news for Virgin Medias existing customers, but as Virgin Media operates a closed network, they are not relevant to the central challenge of migrating the existing copper customers of ISPs onto a gigabit capable network, said Alex.

We suspect that Virgin may choose to disagree with the above statement, not least since theyll be bringing 1Gbps+ speeds across their entire network by late 2021 (15 million premises). Likewise their network may not remain closed for long, particularly if the predicted Liberty Networks change goes ahead and opens it up to wholesale (here and here).

Separately Cityfibre suggests there is no reason why, in the context of legal separation of BT Group and Openreach, BT itself should not set up to consume other full fibre networks, which is an interesting viewpoint. BT Group ultimately still funds Openreach and their roll-out of FTTP, thus the idea that BTs consumer ISP would hop on to harness Cityfibres platform seems flaky but not impossible (they never did that with copper LLU either).

However, despite a few unusual viewpoints, Cityfibres consultation is important and asks some of the right questions. Indeed these are questions that other altnets should also be considering. Clearly, city-wide full fibre rollouts are not yet reaching completion at scale but it wont be far off at the rate the industry is now moving.

The operators consultation is due to end on 6th March 2020, although it may yet be extended and after that a final report is expected to follow within another couple of months. In the meantime you can read our brief Q&A with Alex below, which touches on just a few of the often tricky issues that have been raised.

Q&A with Alex Blowers (Cityfibres copper switchover)



1. The consultation talks a lot about the Governments plans to achieve UK-wide full fibre coverage by 2025, but sadly this changed last year and over a month before the consultation itself was published.

The Government now talks about ensuring that every home can access gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, which they suggest includes full fibre, hybrid fibre coax and 5G / fixed wireless etc. As a result quite a few points in the consultation now give and exist in the wrong context.

Why wasnt this change included into the consultation before publication and what impact does it have on Cityfibre now that the focus is not purely on full fibre (e.g. Virgin Media, mobile operators and others all have a role)?

ANSWER: Our focus is clearly on the full fibre network that we are building. We think this is the superior, future-proofed technology to HFC and FWA (see the study we commissioned from Plum recently). We understand the Government has softened the target language to provide more flexibility in delivering an ambitious target by 2025. FWA may have a role to play in rural, but cost-effective technology solutions are currently unproven. As for HFC upgrades, these may be good news for Virgin Medias existing customers, but as Virgin Media operates a closed network, they are not relevant to the central challenge of migrating the existing copper customers of ISPs onto a gigabit capable network. As far as we are aware, no-one is suggesting that customers will migrate from copper to anything other than full fibre where it exists. We also know, because it has already been discussed at the regular DCMS CEO roundtable, that a plan for copper to fibre switchover is seen by the Government as an important part of the overall plan. So, our view is that the core challenge is unchanged  how to plan and manage the migration of existing copper customers onto full fibre networks, in line with a challenging 2025 target. The focus to date has been unduly oriented towards Openreachs own business decision-making. Self-evidently, with CF now planning to build up to 8 million FTTP connections, we are necessarily a part of this debate.

2. The consultation warns that, in areas where two full fibre networks are present, it could undermine competition because Openreach would be free to define the process as entirely a matter of switching from copper to its own full fibre, at a time of its choosing.

Absolutely its right that Ofcom should consider alternative full fibre networks in any related regulation, although there is a danger here that we end up focusing too much on the network supplier and forget about the end ISP (consumer contracts are with the ISP, not the wholesale network supplier). Long contract terms can also restrict switching away from ISPs.

Ultimately consumers take their service from an ISP and that ISP chooses what networks to use or not, which will of course govern how they respond to the migration challenge. In that sense dont Cityfibre and other alternative networks have to play their part by ensuring and helping more ISPs to support their network? It seems like this, more than anything else (except availability), may impact network choice. The choice of network cannot realistically be forced on to ISPs.

ANSWER: We dont disagree: the purpose of our consultation is to begin a conversation with both ISPs and consumer groups. As an open access network, we want as many ISPs and their consumers on our network as possible. This includes BTs downstream business as well. There is no reason why, in the context of legal separation of BT Group and Openreach, BT itself should not set up to consume other full fibre networks and indeed we have sent the consultation to them and encouraged them to respond. The consultation is specifically asking:  What products do ISPs require us to provide to replicate current service offerings on copper?

 What migration processes do you require CF to provide to switch customers to our platform? And:

 What do you need from us in terms of an ordering and provisioning process?

3. Following on from no.2 above, do you think Cityfibre could be doing more to provide support and services that might help ISPs to adopt their network, especially smaller residential players? Some ISPs tell us that it can be a prohibitively complex and costly development process to adopt a new network.

ANSWER: We are a wholesale only open access network. We want to have as many ISPs on our network as possible. We are building a platform of sufficient scale that it is worthwhile for major ISPs to set up to consume it. Our latest plan is to build a network connecting up to 8 million premises which addresses this point. Second, consuming our platform needs to be as easy as possible for operators already set up to consume Openreach. For that reason, we have developed an offering that makes the switch from Openreach to CityFibre as seamless as possible whilst also seeking to deliver substantial operational improvements over those available via Openreach. We want to be easy to use for existing ISPs and for new entrants. We want this consultation to open up a dialogue with a broad range of ISPs to make sure we are doing everything we can to accommodate their requirements.

4. Following on from no.2 again, most full fibre alternative network-based ISPs have chosen not to sign-up to some of Ofcoms voluntary codes of practice (e.g. broadband speeds, automatic compensation code etc.). Would you agree that there is an argument that says this needs to change so consumers receive the best possible protection during any switch-over, particularly if we reach the latter stage of enforced migrations further down the road?

ANSWER: As a wholesale only operator, we dont really have a view on how ISPs should manage their retail regulatory obligations.

5. At what point do you think a specific location / area should start the switchover process from copper and how long should it take (what sort of process do you envisage)? Openreach proposed a process for moving from copper to FTTP lines once 75% of premises in a related exchange are able to receive an ultrafast 100Mbps+ broadband service (target for this is 24 months after roll-out starts and copper switch-off might then occur c.3 years after / on top of that).

ANSWER: We think the focus right now should be on making voluntary migration from copper to fibre as attractive as possible. The copper to fibre transition is at a very early stage both in terms of rollout and adoption where available. Our consultation is an attempt to drive voluntary migration in scale now, rather than design a compulsory migration scheme. Analogous forced migrations from a legacy infrastructure (e.g. analogue to digital satellite) has generally only been implemented once the majority of the consumer base has already voluntarily migrated. This approach has two advantages: there is already widespread consumer acceptance of the need to change, and any practical or technical problems have generally been ironed out by the time there is a compulsory migration of the remainder. In the light of that previous experience, we are surprised that Openreach is proposing to begin a compulsory transfer process when it hits a build target, rather than a voluntary adoption target. This also increases the urgency of opening up the dialogue to consider the scenario where alternative full fibre providers have hit the same indicative rollout threshold in a given area. We expect to hit the 75% rollout target which triggers Openreachs stop sell on copper products in at least two locations within this calendar year.

6. Openreach are expected to offer both a voice-only (VoIP) and entry-level (e.g. 40Mbps) broadband product via FTTP as part of their process. Does Cityfibre intend to do something similar with their ISP partners (can you give examples / ideas?), which may be particularly important if you intend to target the same customer base as Openreach facilitate via copper (includes vulnerable consumers with voice-only needs etc.)?

ANSWER: Yes, this is one of the key issues on which we are looking for feedback. We are very conscious that within ISPs existing customer bases there will be many consumers who are currently consuming either voice only or entry-level broadband products, and we want to understand what products ISPs want in order to match their customers requirements.

7. Ofcom are currently looking to include FTTP services into their future all-IP migration rules / process, which may require alternative networks to adopt an agreed industry process (possibly Gaining Provider Led) like currently exists on Openreach based ISPs, as well as to also factor in how phone numbers are ported for VoIP etc.

Have you engaged or do you intend to engage much with the regulators / OTAs work (AIP-MTP) on this front and what recommendations do you have for that process?

ANSWER: We are participating directly in the GPL Switching process and observing the All-IP work. We think that GPL should be a standard process for all intra and inter-platform switches and welcome the plan to implement the new requirements of the EECC. Our recommendations are that a true GPL approach is adopted, rather than a hybrid, code-based approach. This will deliver the best consumer experience and a competitive level playing field.

Wed just like to thank Alex Blowers for giving us the opportunity to query some of the challenges raised by their consultation.
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New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Centre on Friday gave additional charge of Delhi Police Commissioner to senior IPS officer S.N. Shrivastava with effect from March 1 and until further orders with incumbent Amulya Patnaik retiring on Saturday.

The government's order to give Shrivastava additional charge of Delhi Police chief though raised concerns whether he would continue on the post or any other officer would be appointed to head the 84,000 strong force.

The 1985-batch officer of Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre, Srivastava, has been presently holding the charge of Special Commissioner of Delhi Police.

Shrivastava was drafted into the Delhi Police on Tuesday evening to bring the riot-hit areas of the northeast district under control.

A Home Ministry order issued on Friday mentioned that "with the approval of the competent authority, S.N. Shrivastava, IPS (AGMUT: 1985) presently posted with Delhi Police, as Special CP, is hereby given the additional charge of the post of the Commissioner of Police, Delhi with effect from March 1, 2020 and until further orders".

Shrivastava was earlier posted as Special Director General (Training) with the Central Reserve Police Force. He was ADG (western zone) looking after Jammu and Kashmir at the peak of violence in 2016-17 when Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was gunned down.

The Central Reserve Police Force, where Shrivastava was serving as the Special Director General (Training), issued his reliving order for his "premature repatriation" from the paramilitary force soon after Home Ministry's direction.

Earlier, Shrivastava headed the Delhi Police Special Cell and was instrumental in the arrest of scores of Indian Mujahideen operatives. He has served the Delhi Police in various capacities in the past.

Shrivastava, who holds a B. Tech and LLB degree, was tipped to take over as the new Delhi Police chief after he was called back to the force at a time when Delhi was facing violent protests and riot that led to the death of 38 people and left over 200 injured in a span of four days since February 23.

Patnaik's extended tenure ends on February 29. He is a 1985 batch IPS officer from Union Territories cadre, and was appointed as Delhi Police chief on January 30, 2017.

He retired from the post on January 31 but was given one month extension in view Delhi Assembly elections which concluded earlier this month.
Coronavirus: Gaza, five quarantined at border with Egypt Health ministry says no one tested positive in Palestine

(ANSAmed) - GAZA, FEBRUARY 28 - Five Palestinians have been quarantined at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza after returning from countries "at risk for coronavirus".



The Gaza health ministry said the measure is a precautionary one given that none of the five have thus far shown symptoms of the virus.



The health ministry said its list of countries of concern includes Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Iran, and Italy.



Meanwhile in Ramallah, Palestinian Health Minister May Keileh denied press reports that Gaza already had 17 cases of coronavirus.



In a statement to official Palestinian news agency Wafa, Keileh said at the current time "there are in fact no cases of coronavirus in Palestine, that is, in the West Bank or Gaza".



Reported information is therefore unfounded and she said the newspaper apologised to Palestinian authorities for not having better verified its information.(ANSAmed).




From the Disneyland dreams of a poor Mexican family in the US to the fate of Bangladeshi guest workers in Singapore, films at this week's Berlinale have launched searing criticisms of capitalism and global inequality. In "Los Lobos", a young, recently widowed Mexican nurse sets off for the US, promising her children the very pinnacle of the American dream -- a trip to Disneyland. Yet as penniless protagonist Lucia takes on work in a laundry, her two sons are left alone in the family's dingy bed-sit, dreaming up an imaginary world in order to escape the misery of daily life. "The migrants who do the hard work are the invisible ones," said lead actress Martha Reyes Arias. Mexican director Samuel Kishi Lopo shows the importance of cheap, immigrant workers for the economic production of wealthy countries. "Immigration will not be stopped by a wall," said Lopo. "We need more opportunities in our countries, a better social system." "The big question is about neoliberalism. Capitalism is like a big monster." - Broken dreams - The immigration issue is also picked up by Lei Yuan Bin in his documentary "I Dream of Singapore". The film highlights the fate of the thousands of Bangladeshi workers who head to Singapore in search of work and better judicial security in the prosperous Southeast Asian city-state. Yet reality does not live up to expectations, as many are employed by firms who shirk their responsibilities at the slightest problem, leaving immigrant dreams of a better life in tatters. Exploitation of the workforce, however, is an issue which also affects people in their home country. In his comedy "Eeb Allay Ooo!", Indian director Prateek Vats tells the story of Anjani, a young man from a New Delhi slum who earns little money and even less respect for his job hunting the monkeys which are a neighbourhood nuisance. "As per statistics, 92 percent of the labour force in India works in the informal sector of the economy," said Vats. "People are desperate due to the lack of dignified work, and are ready to do anything to keep their current jobs." "My film is the product of a world which is hard to make sense of, one where being a monkey is more liberating than being a human." Making the unseen people visible is also the aim of Nigerian twins Arie and Chuko Esiri in their first film "Eyimofe", about a factory technician who works without protective gloves. "He is a victim of the country of which he is a citizen," explained the directors, adding that their protagonist also has no chance to emigrate. "These people really have everything to lose by leaving Nigeria -- their families, their culture, their loves and even their lives, if you think about certain journeys." - 'Exploitation' - Finally, in "One of these Days", German director Bastian Guenther paints a vitriolic portrait of American society, in which economic desperation becomes a spectator sport. Based on real events, the film depicts an endurance contest in which participants attempt to win a pick-up truck by keeping their hand on it for the longest time. "When I first heard about this endurance contest it felt to me like an exploitation of the poor," said Guenther, while also warning of the risks of a drift towards populism. "What (US President Donald) Trump is doing right now using these current frustrations for his own agenda. "And what's ironic about it is that people, in their desperation, will choose to follow somebody who embodies this system of inequality more than anybody else." Bastian Guenther's "One of these days" is one of several films at the Berlinale that shed light on inequality
Mike Pence

Taking a cue from China's ministry of propaganda, president Trump has decreed that all federal comments about the coronavirus outbreak must be cleared by vice president Mike Pence.

That didn't work very well for China, which faces huge pushback from people upset that the government withheld information and silenced whistleblowers.

It isn't going to work here.

Trump's mandate, which muzzles federal scientists, apparently doesn't cover White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who told the Conservative Political Action Conference today;

The flu kills people, he said. This is not Ebola. Its not SARS, its not MERS. Its not a death sentence, its not the same as the Ebola crisis.

How do you know, Mick?

Ever the good Trump solider, Mulvaney believes the media are overplaying the threat from coronavirus because they are determined to bring down the president.

That's nonsense.

The global financial markets, including Wall Street, which is down 13 percent from last month's high, aren't in the tank because they've swallowed media hype.

Team Trump should spend more time trying to contain the coronavirus than in controlling science and the press.

Talk the talk. Now walk the walk. The Securities and Exchange Commission has ruled that shareholders of companies that signed the Business Roundtable's pledge to address the needs of all stakeholdersnot just the bottom linecan introduce resolutions at annual meetings to find out what exactly their companies are doing to live up to their CSR promises.

Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock tried to block Business Roundtable pledge-related resolutions.

The Business Roundtable released its "Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation" to promote an economy for all Americans on Aug. 19, 2019. It was signed by 181 CEOs.

A BR spokesperson credited Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock for "making substantial investments in their customers, employees and communities, consistent with the statement."

Shareholders will find out how much was spent for the well being of the environment, communities, suppliers, customers and employees during the spring round of annual meetings.

They can then gauge whether it was money wisely spent.
A member of the Central Park Five has slammed former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg for blocking a multi-million settlement after they were wrongfully convicted for raping a female jogger.

Kevin Richardson was one of five teen boys who were wrongfully jailed over the 1989 rape of a white woman in New York's Central Park.

Richardson - along with Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise - were eventually exonerated in 2002 after serving between six to 13 years in prison.

The men, who were dubbed the Central Park Five, sued the city in 2003 for $250 million over their wrongful conviction.

Kevin Richardson, who was one of five teen boys who were wrongfully jailed over the 1989 rape of a white woman in New York's Central Park, has slammed Michael Bloomberg for blocking a multi-million settlement when they were exonerated

Bloomberg refused to strike a deal with the five men during his time as New York City Mayor between 2002 to 2013.

Richardson slammed Bloomberg on Thursday as he stood outside the now-Democratic presidential nominee's New York campaign office.

'We all might vote for a different candidate, but I'm sure (any other Democrat) will be better than Michael Bloomberg,' Richardson said, according to the New York Post.

'It wasn't about the lawsuit. It was about getting our life back,' he said about the settlement Bloomberg blocked.

'At the end of the day, no amount of money could equal what we endured.'

Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise - were eventually exonerated in 2002 after serving between six to 13 years in prison

Richardson slammed Bloomberg on Thursday as the former NYC Mayor campaigns as a Democratic presidential nominee

Kevin Richardson, Antron Mccray, Raymond Santana Jr., Korey Wise and Yusef Salaam (left to right) were dubbed the Central Park Five after the were wrongfully convicted of raping the female jogger in 1989

Speaking about Bloomberg's campaign ads and promises, Richardson said: 'Don't let these ads get to you. Don't be bamboozled by this.

'We know personally who Michael Bloomberg is and I'm here to step forward and let you know it's time to vote, it's time for our voices to be heard.'

The Central Park Five's lawsuit was eventually settled for $41 million in 2014 when Bloomberg left office and Bill De Blasio was elected.

The group were only 14 to 16 years old at the time of the female jogger was brutally raped and beaten in Central Park. They confessed after lengthy police interrogations.

Each soon recanted, insisting they had admitted to the crime under coercion from police officers but they all were convicted and served prison terms of between six to 13 years.

Their convictions were overturned in 2002 after another man confessed to the crime and DNA tests confirmed his guilt.

Their story was retold in the recent four-part Netflix series, When They See Us.
From his office in Doylestown, 25 miles north of the city that elected the nation's most progressive district attorney last November, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub has a particular vantage point.

He sees what's happening in Philadelphia, where officials have worked to reduce the jail population by more than 30 percent over the past few years, and where DA Larry Krasner has ordered staff to seek sentences below the guidelines on many offenses. And he's aware of state-level efforts to reduce a prison population that's finally declining, down 6.4 percent over the last five years, after decades of exponential growth.

It's just that Weintraub doesn't see what it has to do with his job of keeping Bucks County safe.

In fact, rather than reform, he's looking to get tougher: In the last few years, he's been increasingly charging fatal DUIs as third-degree murders as opposed to the less-serious vehicular homicides, and he's slapped two dozen drug dealers with "drug delivery resulting in death" charges.

That may be one reason why, though the crime rate in Bucks County fell by 19 percent from 2006 to 2015, the number of people sentenced to state prison increased by 29 percent. When parole violators are included, the number of people sent to state prison from the county increased 97 percent over that same period.

"We're holding people more accountable for either their malicious intent or the end result of their malicious conduct, and we've been very aggressive," Weintraub said. "Nobody has come to me and said, 'You're sending too many people to state prison in Bucks County.' I think, by and large, people feel protected and safe."

A similar dynamic is playing out around the nation: As incarceration declines in urban areas, it's increasing pretty much everywhere else.

In the commonwealth, from 2000 to 2013, the number of prison admissions from big cities fell by 8 percent, while admissions rose in the suburbs (by 133 percent), in small- and mid-size metros (83 percent), and in rural areas (174 percent). That's according to an analysis from the Vera Institute released this month.

"During a period when crime rates are historically low, you would expect to see incarceration rates dropping," said Jacob Kang-Brown, one of the authors. "That is what we're seeing in some places. In others, there's a surprising trend of growth, which raises a question of whether this continued growth of mass incarceration is really making communities safer."

>>READ MORE: Can Pennsylvania's rural prison economy survive the era of decarceration?

Part of what's driving that is prosecutorial discretion  whether the approach is to take a hard line with criminals, or, on the other end of the spectrum, to divert as many of them as possible into treatment programs.

To a lesser extent, observers also cite the growing opioid crisis.

"They're burglarizing stores or homes to get money to buy heroin," said Bret Bucklen, director of research for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. "We've seen a doubling in the last seven years in the percent of court admissions who are diagnosed with an opioid problem coming to us."

Then there's the effect of Pennsylvania's largest-in-the-nation population of parolees, including 40,000 people under state supervision.

In 2016, for the first time ever, more people were admitted to state prison on parole violations than on new sentences.

"It's because we're getting more and more people out of prison that we're getting more and more parole violators back," Bucklen said.

>>READ MORE: Meek Mill's not alone. Study finds 'indefensible' overuse of probation, parole in Pennsylvania

But that alone doesn't explain the fact that you're now statistically more likely be sentenced to state prison from a small town than a big city in Pennsylvania, when the opposite was true just a decade ago.

Today, the highest rate of state prison commitments comes from Jefferson County in northwestern Pennsylvania, where, for every two people arrested in 2015, one person was sentenced to state prison. (The ratio is more than 7-1 in Philadelphia.)

Richard Long, executive director of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, said prosecutors statewide are responding to the opioid crisis with every weapon they have at their disposal.

>>READ MORE: These Pa. prosecutors are charging heroin dealers with killing their customers. Grieving families are helping

"We're trying to figure out who exactly is profiteering at the expense of the health and safety of others," he said. "Those individuals are being targeted."

But also, he said, it's natural that different values would lead to different punishments.

"You have the fifth-largest city in America, and a county next door that has a different character to it that's suburban or small-town. The resources available and some of the norms  those things enter into it as well."

For example, jaywalking may be normal in Philadelphia, he said. "It might be something where, in a small town, an officer might say, 'Hey, you can't do that here.'"

Still, many prosecutors said they weren't aware of an increasing incarceration rate, or disputed that it could be true.

In Lancaster County, where new court commitments increased 61 percent from 2005 to 2016, and parole violations to state prison increased 189 percent, according to Vera's analysis of DOC data, DA Craig Stedman wondered if those numbers were "cherry-picking."

Although the rate of major crime was down 32 percent in the county from 2006-15, "I don't feel like our crimes are down," he said. The number of cases he's filed increased 26 percent in the past decade.

But Stedman said, "It's important to us to get it right. I know I'm diverting more cases than ever before, as far as mental health court, veterans court, ARDs [Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition]. Before I took over, I could count on one hand how many non-DUI ARDs were given."

He said that just 6.3 percent of cases were diverted in 2005, compared to 22.6 percent in 2016. (That's even more than Philadelphia, which diverted 20.9 percent of cases into specialty courts or other diversion programs last year.)

Prosecutors around the state are doing the same. Even Jefferson County recently inaugurated a drug court.

There's still a belief that tough sentences are needed to deter criminals from reoffending and to set an example in the community.

As Weintraub put it, "We've at least publicly declared that not only are we not going to tolerate this lawlessness, but you will face very severe consequences here in Bucks County if you commit these types of offenses."
Shares of airline companies fell as much as 5 per cent on Friday amid concerns over coronavirus outbreak taking a toll on the travel industry.

Massive sell-off in the stock market was triggered by the rising coronavirus cases.

Shares of InterGlobe Aviation - the parent of IndiGo - plunged 4.80 per cent to Rs 1,300 on the BSE. Intra-day, the stock dropped as much as 9.99 per cent to Rs 1,229.75.

SpiceJet stock cracked 6.06 per cent to a low of Rs 82.10 during the day. It closed 4.69 per cent lower at Rs 83.30.

Defunct airline Jet Airways (India) hit its lower price band losing 4.84 per cent at Rs 24.55 during the session. It settled at Rs 24.70, down 4.26 per cent.

Last week, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said there was a potential 13 per cent full-year loss of passenger demand for carriers in the Asia-Pacific region due to COVID-19.

"Considering that growth for the region's airlines was forecast to be 4.8 per cent, the net impact will be an 8.2 per cent full-year contraction compared to 2019 demand levels," the grouping had said on the basis of an initial assessment.

According to rating agency Icra, the outlook for India's aviation industry remains negative in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, which has resulted in many international passengers cancelling their travel to South East Asian countries.

The extent of impact of the flight/ ticket cancellations on the profitability of the domestic airlines would, however, vary depending on the airlines' presence in these routes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Newburytoday spoke to the executive director of Nua Dance, as her new show rolled into the Corn Exchange

An unusual multidisciplinary performance, bringing together dance, circus and theatre artists, comes to the Corn Exchange on Tuesday (February 25): Meet Quimera, a retiree who wants to change the world... emerging from her tiny room into a fantastical landscape that inadvertently leads her to becoming a hero.

With bold contemporary dance, German wheel, acrobatics and stunning aerial circus, choreographer Neus Gil Cortes blends darkly funny performance with quirky and extreme physicality.

Nua Dances newest and most ambitious work to date is inspired by Cervantes Don Quixote and features a five-person intergenerational ensemble of circus and dance artists, led by Royal Opera House associate artist Sarah Dowling.

Nua Dance's artistic director, Neus Gil Cortes, spoke to newburytoday ahead of her company's visit to the town.

Neus, who started dancing at the age of six-years in Spain, began choreographing professionally in 2015.

That year she spent her time doing a lot of festivals for emerging choreographers and enjoyed great reviews.

This gave her the confidence to set up her own dance company, combining dance and circus.

I wanted to my work to be moving and enjoyed by people who wouldnt normally go to a dance show, she said. My shows are full of concepts and stories that provoke some thought, which is really important to me.

The stories are things that are important for me and I hope to other people too.

One of the best compliments I have had was from a scientist, who had never seen a dance show before, and she said that in the piece she saw how she felt.

Neus said she also incorporates elements of circus, after seeing a Swedish Circus company perform.

The 36-year-old, who danced professionally for ten years before switching to choreography, now has a two-month-old son and said that she hopes to begin organising shows that have been inspired by motherhood.

But for now her attention is on tomorrows performance of Quimera, at the Corn Exchange in Newbury.

For tickets or more details visit www.cornexchangenew.com

To hear from some of the stars of the show, click on the video links below.
(Bloomberg) -- Activist investor Carl Icahn said in August that he might consider buying HP Inc. himself if the printer maker didnt pursue a combination with Xerox Holdings Corp.

The billionaire investor presented the possibility to HPs then-Chief Executive Officer Dion Weisler in a phone call Aug. 12, according to a regulatory filing by HP Thursday. Icahn, who had just taken a 4.2% stake in HP at the time, argued that an HP-Xerox combination would provide about $3.5 billion in cost cuts and revenue enhancements. That figure has since been lowered to $2 billion.

He wanted a transaction to occur quickly, according to the filing.

HP said this week it believes the synergies of a combined company would be closer to $1 billion.

The filing offers new details about the back and forth between HP and Xerox since they began exploring a merger in the second half of 2019 and paints a picture of Xerox as a company in desperate need of a deal.

A representative for Icahn wasnt immediately available for comment.

The discussions started in the summer of 2018 as an exploration of a joint business venture and has since morphed into a $35 billion hostile takeover bid by Xerox for the much-larger HP. Xerox has also launched an effort to replace HPs board.

In its filing, HP recommends that its shareholders reject Xeroxs slate of nominees to its board. Also on Thursday, HP said it was temporarily expanding its board to 13 members with the addition of NXP Semiconductors NV CEO Richard Clemmer.

Xerox reiterated it has made a compelling offer and urged HP to let shareholders decide whats in their own best interest without obstructing the facts.

In the last week, HP adopted a poison pill, expanded the size of its board and misrepresented the discussions that led to our offer, none of which will create value for shareholders, Xerox said in a statement on Thursday.

Organic Growth

In the early part of the negotiations, Xerox CEO John Visentin expressed concerns that his company was out of organic growth opportunities and must either expand through an acquisition or be acquired itself, according to the document. In a September meeting with Weisler, Visentin said Xerox had tried to buy Fujifilm Holdings Corp.s interest in their joint venture but its Japanese partner refused to engage in discussions.

Story continues

Visentin said Xerox could try to acquire HP but that the extreme leverage that Xerox would need to take on to make such an acquisition and the resulting potential for a credit downgrade made it preferable for HP to acquire Xerox, according to the filing.

Visentin said he preferred for HP to use its stock to acquire Xerox but that cash would also be acceptable, the filing shows. Weisler said HP was still awaiting some requested information that would be necessary to conduct even a preliminary evaluation of a deal.

Attractive Price

Since then, Weisler has been replaced as CEO by Enrique Lores, who has also had several interactions with Icahn, Visentin and other Xerox executives, including in November when Icahn told him that a $45-a-share offer for Xerox might be an attractive price if HP were to do so, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg News.

The same month, Xerox made a $22 per share offer to acquire HP in cash and stock and has since increased the offer to $24 per share. HP maintains the offer undervalues the company, and has expressed similar concerns about the amount of debt Xerox would have take on in order to complete the deal.

This week, HP unveiled a new standalone strategy that includes $15 billion in share buybacks over the next three years. It also said it has reached out to Xerox to explore if there is a combination that creates value for HP shareholders.

Mr. Lores sent an email to Mr. Visentin proposing to arrange a meeting to explore the basis for a transaction and alternative transaction frameworks that could deliver attractive value to both HP and Xerox shareholders, and offering that Mr. Lores office would reach out to Mr. Visentins office to arrange a time to discuss, according to the filing.

(Updates to add Xeroxs statement from ninth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Nico Grant.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ed Hammond in New York at ehammond12@bloomberg.net;Scott Deveau in New York at sdeveau2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Liana Baker at lbaker75@bloomberg.net, Matthew Monks, Michael Hytha

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
As a matter of urgency, the Institute of Chartered Accountants - Ghana (ICAG) should lead the way for its members in responding to climate change.

Introduction

The finance function of leading organisations consists of accountants who are involved in the measurement and reporting of corporate events. The accounting profession has a total of over 2.5 million professionals working across industries and sectors. They are also deeply involved in strategic decision making in these organisations, a reason for their involvement in the global fight against climate change. The accounting profession through a statement signd by a total of 13 Chief Executives [1] (representing 14 leading accounting bodies) has expressed commitment towards addressing climate change. This initiative has come at the back of various research outputs produced by the different regulatory bodies. Accountants are needed to turn the knob in the boardroom in addressing climate-related issues. The joint decision to act on climate change aims to send signals to practicing accountants, bodies of professional accountants and national regulators to be committed to addressing the threat that climate change poses.

The aim of this clarion call is to increase commitment to the fight against climate change by:

(1) integrating climate change risk into organisational strategy, finance, operations, and communications;

(2) supporting sustainable decision-making; and

(3) providing sound advice and services.

This article points out some essential areas that accountants are expected to act in their roles to address climate change and its risks. It also provides some actions that the Institute of Chartered Accountants - Ghana (ICAG) as the national regulator and a member of International Federation of Accountants has to take relating to this clarion call to take action.

Accountants Can Help Organisations to Improve Climate Transparency

Accountants can enhance how transparent organisations are in measuring, recording and reporting on climate actions. As their role is, following the requisite professional requirements would ensure that values or narratives churned out by organisations on their efforts in combating climate change are trusted. Apart from the preparation aspect, the accountants (as auditors) are also involved in auditing of the climate-related aspects of the corporate report which increase trust among corporate information users. Moreover, accountants are involved in developing accounting systems and decisions on what frameworks to use could be influenced by accountants. If accountants are committed to the global clarion call, we should see an advancement of the reporting frameworks by the use of global frameworks like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standard which has climate change as an indicator.

Accountants Can Help Organisations to Develop and Implement Climate Finance Policies

The global commitment for the fight against climate change comes with financial commitments from the public sector, private sector and other alternative sources. These funds are usually meant to support climate change mitigation and/or adaptation initiatives which has to be accounted for. Moreover, the corporate finance decisions and public finance decisions taken need to factor climate risk as a key component. There are two key climate-related risks] to critically consider. The first is stranded assets which could be damaged or devalued due to change in regulations or climate-related disasters (e.g. fossil fuel reserves). The second is transition risk which could affect market demands and reputations of companies as society demands transition to a low carbon economy. Accountants in Ghana should take steps to influence their organisations to develop relevant climate finance policies to serve as a corporate guide.

Accounting Departments in Tertiary Schools Can Help in Capacity Building

Accounting education globally (especially in the professional institutions) has been going through relevant changes which are aimed at placing the accountant at the boardroom in making relevant decisions. Thus, as this is happening elsewhere, it is expected for accounting departments in tertiary institutions in Ghana to also respond by adapting the course contents to meet current issues in practice. If this requires a re-evaluation of the course contents, it should be done. Currently, there are various sustainability researchers in these departments and multidisciplinary collaborations should be promoted to inculcate climate-related training in a way that would make the students competitive.

ICAG Has to Lead Its Members

The ICAG has a leading role to play in Ghana to promote climate action among accountants which would affect organisations nationwide. One way to do so is to produce a corporate annual report in the fashion of a [2] ustainability report which touches on climate change issues. This will show the institutes commitment to climate change and would be an example to members. In addition, Continuous Professional Development (CPD) courses should address the climate issues and guide the accountants on how to inculcate issues in the accounting systems at their organisations and in decision making.

The regulators across the industries should be concerned about reporting of climate-related information in corporate reports. As of the time this article was being sent to press, only 2 organisations in Ghana have been included in the GRIs database  Access Bank Ghana (2016-2018 reports) and Puma Energy Ghana Limited (2017-2018 reports). These reports only cited the GRI standard but did not fully comply with the requirements. This could be compared with Kenya (12 companies) or South Africa (17 companies) with some reports having full compliance. Although sustainability reports are voluntary in nature, the low numbers in Ghana points to the notion that regulators have more role to play.

Conclusion

The call to action for accountants to join the fight against climate change is a notable one. Yet, the importance in some few years time would be felt only in countries where the national regulatory supervisory body has taken the action to lead the way for its members. As a matter of urgency, the ICAG should lead the way for its members in Ghana.

References

[1] A4S (2020, February) "Call to Action in Response to Climate Change" Accounting for Sustainability, https://www.accountingforsustainability.org/abn-climate-action.html (Accessed 27th February 2020).

[2] See Tho, Alexis (2019, November) "Finances role in accounting for climate change", Financial Management, https://www.fm-magazine.com/news/2019/nov/accounting-for-climate-change-201922405.html(Accessed 27th February 2020).

Author

The author is a member of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA-UK) and a finalist with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA-UK). He has presented research papers at international conferences in Europe and Africa. He does policy and practice-based research consultancy. He has completed certificate courses on climate change and financial management by Climate Disclosure Standards Board. He holds a blockchain-based certificate in Digital Currencies from University of Nicosia, Cyprus and is currently a postgraduate student at the University of Ghana Business School. His research has a transdisciplinary focus situated within the Economics of Accounting track. He has published in International Journal of Banking, Accounting and Finance, International Journal of Managerial Finance, Asian Journal of Accounting Research, Modern Economy, Journal of Economic Studies and Athens Journal of Business and Economics.
ASIA

Afghanistan

Expected Council Action

In March, the Security Council will hold its quarterly meeting on Afghanistan. A senior UN secretariat representative is expected to brief on the latest Secretary-Generals report on the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), due in March. A civil society representative may also brief the Council.

The mandate of UNAMA expires on 17 September, and the mandate of the Monitoring Team assisting the 1988 Afghanistan Sanctions Committee expires on 16 December.

Key Recent Developments

On 21 February, following an extensive period of negotiations between the US and the Taliban, the US State Department announced that an understanding had been reached on a seven-day reduction in violence across Afghanistan, beginning on 22 February. It said that after a successful implementation of this understanding, a US-Taliban peace agreement would be signed on 29 February. The envisioned agreement stipulates a timeline for the reduction of US troops in Afghanistan from about 13,000 currently to 8,600 and includes a pledge from the Taliban that terrorist groups targeting the US or its allies will not be able to operate in Afghanistan. At press time, no major violations of the reduction in violence were reported.

The State Departments announcement noted that intra-Afghan negotiations will start soon after the signing of the agreement and that these negotiations will build on this fundamental step to deliver a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire and the future political roadmap for Afghanistan. The Taliban has previously maintained that the conclusion of an agreement with the US was a precondition for it to begin negotiations with the Afghan government, whose legitimacy it does not recognise.

The contours of the envisioned peace agreement resemble that of the US-Taliban agreement announced on 2 September 2019. The signing of that agreement was cancelled on 7 September 2019 when US President Donald Trump called off the negotiations as well as a meeting with Taliban leaders and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at Camp David, citing the Talibans responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack in Kabul on 5 September that had killed an American soldier and 11 others.

On 18 February, Afghanistans Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced that Ghani had won the election that took place on 28 September 2019 with 50.64 percent of the vote. His main opponentAfghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who according to the IEC won 39.52 percent of the votecontested the results, declared himself the rightful victor, and vowed to form his own government. The IECs announcement came after five months of investigations into complaints of electoral irregularities, which were primarily related to the process of counting votes and technical issues with biometric voter verification devices.

UNAMA issued a statement which took note of the IECs announcement and stressed that any challenges to the election results need to be consistent with the countrys constitutional order. It further said that it will provide advice to encourage the electoral management bodies to address the candidates understandable desire to have clarity on decisions taken related to audits and recounts. At press time, no official complaint contesting the results of the election had been filed with the electoral complaints commission in Afghanistan. The Taliban, which opposed the election from the outset, issued a statement criticising the IECs declaration that President Ghani won the election and said that this announcement went against the ongoing peace negotiations.

At press time, several key international stakeholders, including the US, had yet to formally acknowledge Ghanis electoral victory. Other stakeholders such as Russia issued statements that expressed concern regarding the political tensions created by the contested results and noted that they could have a negative impact on the future intra-Afghan negotiations.

On 26 February, Afghanistans presidential palace announced that Ghanis inauguration ceremony is expected to take place on 9 March.

According to UNAMAs annual report on protection of civilians in armed conflict in Afghanistan, 3,403 civilians were killed and 6,989 were injured in 2019. The majority of civilian casualties in the past year62 percentare attributed to anti-government elements, with the Taliban bearing responsibility for 47 percent of civilian casualties. Pro-government forces were responsible for 28 percent of civilian casualties, with the Afghan national security forces causing 16 percent of casualties and eight percent attributed to international military forces. Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) were the leading cause of civilian casualties caused by anti-government groups, while civilian casualties caused by airstrikes reached a record-high level, accounting for almost half of civilian deaths attributed to pro-government forces.

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan continued to deteriorate in 2019 because of persistent violence and natural disasters. The 2020 humanitarian response plan for Afghanistan, which calls for $733 million, aims to assist 7.12 million people out of 9.4 million people in need.

ICC-Related Developments On 20 November 2017, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda requested authorisation from the Courts judges to initiate an investigation into alleged crimes in the context of the armed conflict in Afghanistan since 2003. Following the rejection of the prosecutors request by the Pre-Trial Chamber II on 12 April 2018, the prosecutor submitted an appeal against the decision. On 4-6 December 2019, the ICCs Appeals Chamber heard oral arguments in the appeals of victims and of the prosecutor against the decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber II. Lawyers representing the Afghanistan government also provided oral arguments, in which they opposed an ICC investigation in the country, maintaining that Afghanistan has the willingness and ability to carry out an investigation into alleged crimes through its own courts. The Appeals Chamber is expected to deliver its decision on the appeal on 5 March. Human Rights-Related Developments On 18 March, the Human Rights Council is expected to consider the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan (A/HRC/43/74) as part of its 43rd session. The report, covering 1 January to 30 November 2019, focused on the protection of civilians in armed conflict; children and armed conflict; the elimination of violence against women and the promotion of womens rights; the prevention of torture and respect for procedural safeguards; and civic space and the integration of human rights into peace and reconciliation processes. It contained several conclusions, including that the negative impact on civilians remained the same or was even greater than in 2019; the right to political participation came under serious threat by anti-government elements; violence against women and girls and harmful traditional practices remain prevalent; and despite the decrease in allegations of torture and ill-treatment of persons in the custody of the government, such practices also remain prevalent. The report also contained recommendations for the government, anti-government elements and the international community. Women, Peace and Security During his 16 December 2019 briefing, Tadamichi Yamamoto, the Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA, emphasised the importance of womens participation in all the activities of Afghan society. He further noted the parliaments passing of a 25 November resolution calling for the protection and promotion of womens rights and for the inclusion of women in the peace process. He called this action a strong expression of commitment to supporting Afghan women, particularly in promoting their participation in the peace process and in addressing the continuing pervasiveness of violence against women and girls. During the same meeting, Adela Raz, Afghanistans ambassador to the UN, stressed that the gains of the past 18 years, particularly those of women, must also be protected and expanded on further.

Key Issues and Options

The key priority for the Council is supporting political and security stability in the country to facilitate the continuance of negotiations geared towards achieving peace in Afghanistan.

Council members will be watching closely how the announcement of Ghanis victory in the presidential elections affects the delicate political climate in the country. Concerns have been raised that disagreements between Afghanistans ruling elites will weaken the governments position in the intra-Afghan negotiations envisioned in the US-Taliban deal. If consensus is achieved and the winning candidate is inaugurated, Council members might consider issuing a press statement to express their support for the electoral process in Afghanistan and its conclusion.

Council members will also be following developments regarding the US-Taliban peace agreement. If such an agreement is concluded, the Council can adopt a product to endorse the agreement and detail the possible role the UN might have in the future intra-Afghan negotiations.

Council Dynamics

Council members are generally united in their support for UNAMA and are committed to a peace process. They remain concerned about the overall security, political, and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. Several members of the Council are engaged in different talks aimed at a peace agreement, which do not always include the Afghan government. Most members routinely emphasise that a peace process in Afghanistan has to be Afghan-led.

Germany and Indonesia are the co-penholders on Afghanistan, and Ambassador Dian Triansyah Djani (Indonesia) chairs the 1988 Afghanistan Sanctions Committee. The US is the penholder on the sanctions file.

UN DOCUMENTS ON AFGHANISTAN
In a move that appears to directly contradict the Donald Trump administrations Mideast plan, the Israeli Housing Ministry announced Feb. 18 its intention to build 11,000 housing units on the grounds of the runway of the former Jerusalem airport, known as the Qalandia Airport (Atarot Airport).

The US "Peace to Prosperity" plan states: The State of Israel should allow for the development by the State of Palestine of a special tourism zone in Atarot, in a specific area to be agreed upon by the parties.

Atarot, according to the plan, should be a world class tourist zone that should support Muslim tourism to Jerusalem and its holy sites, and would include restaurants, shops, hotels, cultural centers, and other tourism facilities, along with state-of-the-art public transportation that provides easy access to and from the holy sites.

According to Khalil Tufakji, the head of the map department at Jerusalems Arab Studies Society, more than half the land intended for the Jewish settlement at the former Qalandia Airport is privately owned by Palestinians. Six-hundred of the 1,200 dunums are privately owned by Palestinians, and another 20 dunums are owned by the Islamic Waqf, Tufakji told Al-Monitor.

Tufakji further noted that the plan has been repeatedly announced in the past. Israelis "have previously made similar announcements in 2012 and 2017," he added.

Jerusalem-based lawyer Daniel Seidemann, the director of the Terrestrial Jerusalem NGO, told Al-Monitor that it is unlikely that the plan will be implemented in the near future. I am tempted to say it will not happen anytime soon because they havent started planning, and because of objective obstacles, enormous legal complication, its proximity to Ramallah and Kufr Aqab," he said. "If it happens it will be 10 years from now.

However, Seidemann said that the public statements about the plan to establish settlements reflect the utter lack of Israeli interest in the fate of Palestinians. The Trump plan in general denationalizes Palestinians of East Jerusalem," he said. "It argues that, OK, you can have your capital in Abu Dis or Kufr Aqab, and if you accept this subjugation you will get crumbs. The biggest crumb offered by Trump and company to Palestinians is the tourism zone, and with this announcement, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu wants to take away even this crumb that was thrown to Palestinians.

The Arab League, Jordans Foreign Ministry and others have denounced the Israeli settlement announcement.

Brian Reeves, the spokesman of the anti-occupation group Peace Now, told Al-Monitor that Netanyahu wants to strike another deadly blow to the prospect of a two-state solution. The planned settlement neighborhood drives a wedge in the heart of the Palestinian urban continuity between Ramallah and East Jerusalem, thus preventing the establishment of a viable Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem," he said. "Netanyahu is dragging Israel into a reality of a binational apartheid state and is putting the Zionist enterprise in jeopardy.

Seidemann, who has briefed European and other officials, said the EUs credibility hangs in the balance if the Israelis move ahead with their recent settlement announcements in Qalandia and the E1 area. If construction proceeds, one of the major victims will be the credibility of the EU," he said. "Everybody agrees with us that the question is whether they have the will to do something about this issue. Netanyahu will not be deterred by words, but by actions.

Qalandia had been an airport since 1920, and the issue provokes emotional responses. PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi tweeted Feb. 18, Qalandia Airport was that magical place from which as a child I first felt the freedom of flying. Like the rest of Palestinian lands, it is being stolen, violated & distorted to become a symbol of oppression & captivity.

Nahed Awwad, a Palestinian filmmaker, produced a documentary in 2018 titled Five Minutes From My Home. She told Al-Monitor that the research for her film brought her closer to many people who had a direct relation with the former airport. I talked to former captains, stewards, ticketing officers and even people who used to literally walk from their homes when the plane with their loved ones arrived, she said.

Awwad also wrote an essay in 2008 in the Jerusalem Quarterly of the Institute for Palestine Studies on the subject titled, In Search of the Jerusalem Airport.

It is possible that a Jewish settlement will not be built at Qalandia Airport, but the fact that Israeli officials use the idea of settling in Palestinian areas as fodder for election campaigns is yet another sign of their utter contempt for the Palestinian rights. The Israeli announcement, which contradicts the US peace plan, has not received a single comment from Washington, thus speaking volumes about Trump's collusion with Netanyahu and his right-wing government. The silence shows again that the US peace plan is nothing more than a reworded Israeli dictate for Palestinians.
The parents of a three-year-old boy, who broke his left thigh bone when he did the splits on a wet changing room floor of a gym, did not consider a 33,000 settlement offer enough compensation.

Barrister Grainne Larkin told Judge John OConnor in the Circuit Civil Court today that they felt the full value of the case was closer to 50,000.

Ms Larkin told the court that the schoolboy, who is now aged six, broke his left femur when he slipped and fell on a wet surface in changing rooms attached to the gym at The Regency Hotel, Swords Road, Whitehall, Dublin.

She said the boy had been taken by ambulance to the accident and emergency department of Temple Street Childrens Hospital where he had been placed in a splint and hip spicu cast.

Ms Larkin said the hotel had made a settlement offer of 33,000 and she was asking the court to approve it on the basis of the importance of protecting the interests of the child.

Judge OConnor heard The Regency Hotel had entered a full defence to the proceedings in which they had claimed to have a good system of cleaning and inspection in place. Ms Larkin feared that if the offer was refused and the matter went to a full trial before another judge Mason, who sued through his mother Zara Clarke, Tolka Road, Ballybough, Dublin, might not succeed.

She said Professor Damien McCormack, while noting a mild limb length discrepancy in the boy's left leg, had stated that he felt it was improving as the boy was growing older. Ms Larkin said that while his mother and father were unhappy with the offer she felt the offer was a good one and should not be put at risk.

Judge OConnor told Ms Clarke, who appeared on behalf of her son, that on the question of liability there was a possibility another judge could award perhaps 40,000 but might also award much less or hold in favour of the defendant.

He approved the offer of 33,000 together with Circuit Court Costs.
Although police have cleared a two-week protest blocking a segment of Canadian National's NYSE: CNI) rail line near Belleville, Ontario, it's still unknown when operations along Canada's rail supply chain will return to normal.

Canadian National (CN) has not yet formally said when it will resume its eastern operations, although local reports say the railway has begun to move on track that was previously blocked. CN had shut down its eastern operations nearly two weeks ago because of the blockade near Belleville.

CN didn't return a request for comment by press time.

The Ontario Provincial Police dismantled the Belleville blockade on Tuesday. But since then, isolated and relatively short-lived blockades of roadway intersections and freight and passenger rail tracks have been occurring throughout the country, according to numerous local reports.

Rail blockades reportedly also have occurred on portions of Canadian Pacifics (NYSE: CP) network, including one south of Montreal in the Mohawk territory of Kahnawake. That blockade was ongoing as of 2 p.m. ET today, according a report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

CP said it didn't have anything to add on the blockades that have been occurring.

Protesters began blocking portions of the freight rail network after Feb. 6 in support of a First Nations group's objections to a proposed pipeline location in British Columbia. A blockade in Mohawk territory near Belleville began in solidarity with efforts by the hereditary leaders of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation in British Columbia to fight the proposed route of the Coastal GasLink pipeline through their territory in British Columbia.

But the blockades brought freight to a standstill on a key portion of CN's network, causing supply chain disruptions throughout Canada. Government officials have said they have been working with provincial and First Nations leaders to find a peaceful resolution to the protests.

Because of the uncertainty of whether the protests would continue, industry groups again pressed for continued government action.

Story continues

"The widespread collateral damage of these protests is grinding our entire industry to a halt and is taking a massive toll on farmers across this country," said Canadian Federation of Agriculture President Mary Robinson at a Tuesday press conference.

Farmers in eastern Canada need propane to heat animals' barns, and the trucking sector doesn't have the capacity to fill the need normally covered by rail, Robinson said.

While CN and CP reportedly have been working together to move freight in light of the rail blockades, those efforts have been for trains heading westward and not eastward, she said.

"We understand that that movement has been just to the West and nothing to the East, and so as we look to the issue of propane for heating barns and feed to get to animals on the East Coast and in Quebec, that I don't believe has been addressed," Robinson said.

The association hasn't reached the point where it is considering asking the federal government for emergency assistance or compensation, but the rail blockades capped what has been a challenging year for Canadian farmers, she said.

"Our main focus is to ensure that we see rail reinstated and get back to business. That is certainly where we've been focusing our efforts, and once we get through this, we'll certainly be assessing the situation," Robinson said. "We've had a myriad of issues in this past year in particular I think you're all well aware of, from incredibly difficult weather to loss of access to international markets to rail disruption after rail disruption. We're certainly at a point where our nation should be concerned that our government show leadership."

Meanwhile, on Monday, several Canadian business associations confirmed that they have been meeting to exchange information on the rail blockades' effects and discuss next steps.

"Significant economic damage has been done and will continue to affect Canadian communities, businesses, workers and their families for weeks to come as supply chains recover. The business community remains committed to working with government and Indigenous communities on reconciliation which is an economic and social imperative. Indigenous peoples must have the same opportunity to benefit from economic activity as everyone else," said a joint statement signed by the CEOs of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Business Council of Canada, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.

"The damage to Canada's reputation as a reliable supply chain partner and destination for foreign investment along with the severity of economic headwinds facing our country requires a serious, structured, and ongoing discussion between government and business," the joint statement said.

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 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
(Natural News) A professor at Harvard University has come out with a shocking prediction that as many as seven in 10 people will eventually contract the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19).

Professor Marc Lipsitch says that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) will ultimately not be containable and that within the coming year, some 40 to 70 percent of people around the world will be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, hes quoted as saying by The Atlantic.

An expert in epidemiology, Lipsitch warns that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) is especially dangerous because some of the people who become infected carriers never actually manifest any symptoms.

At the same time, not everyone who contracts the disease will die from it. Instead, many will have mild disease, or may be asymptomatic, Lipsitch contends.

It all depends on how effectively governments of the world are able to contain the disease before it spreads out of control. In Italy, for instance, some people are being barred from leaving their hometowns, which could help to prevent the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) from spreading to pandemic levels.

On the other hand, the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) might just be the dreaded Disease X that experts have been warning about for years.

Whether it will be contained or not, this outbreak is rapidly becoming the first true pandemic challenge that fits the Disease X category, listed to the WHOs priority list of diseases for which we need to prepare in our current globalised society, writes Professor Marion Koopmans.

Listen below as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks about how Chinese people are preparing for the worst even as Americans do next to nothing to protect themselves:

Community spread of coronavirus is happening right now in America

After initially denying it, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now saying that there may, indeed, be community transmission of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) here in the U.S., which would only make Prof. Lipsitchs predictions more likely.

A person in California, the media is now reporting, has contracted the novel disease despite having not traveled abroad any time recently. Not only did this person not travel to China, but he or she did not travel anywhere, which means the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) is probably now spreading from person to person.

At this point, the patients exposure is unknown, the CDC said in a statement. The case was detected through the U.S. public health system and picked up by astute clinicians.

The CDC made this announcement not long after President Trump delivered his own press briefing about the global emergency, insisting that public health containment measures and travel entry restrictions have somehow been successful in limiting the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) here on U.S. soil.

Despite President Trumps insistence that there are only about 10 cases of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) here in America, and that the whole thing will probably die out by the time spring arrives, there are now 60 confirmed cases of the disease in our country, including the 45 Americans who were recently repatriated from both Wuhan and the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was carrying infected travelers.

Up until this point, public health officials have been able to trace every known case of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) in the U.S. to either recent travel abroad or direct exposure to someone who recently traveled abroad. But this latest case is the first to occur outside of these parameters.

The thing that would immediately make all of us uneasy is if this person has no direct contact with someone who comes from an affected country, laments Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University.

To access more news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), be sure to check out Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

Summit.news

NYTimes.com

NaturalNews.com
Stocks in the news today: Here is a list of top stocks that are likely to be in focus in Friday's trading session based on latest developments. Market is expected to be volatile as investors will also keep a watch on GDP data and eight core industries data, scheduled to be released today.

Pidilite Industries: The company has entered into a definitive agreement with Tenax SPA (Tenax Italy) for acquiring 70% of the share capital of Tenax India Stone Products Pvt. Ltd. (Tenax India) for cash consideration of approx Rs 80 crore.

Lemon Tree Hotels: The company announced its debut in the second international destination, Bhutan, with the launch of the first Lemon Tree Hotel in Thimphu.

Newgen Software Technologies: The company has announced that Development Commissioner of Noida Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has given approval to the Company for setting up a unit in the IT/ITES SEZ at Sector - 135, Noida in the State of Uttar Pradesh.

Canara Bank: The private lendr has today executed a Share Purchase Agreement for sale of its entire equity stake of 3.25% in Petronet MHB Ltd.

JSW Steel: The company said its promoter has released pledge on 87.05 lakh shares, representing 0.36% equity shares of the company on February 25, 2020.

Tata Chemicals: Company informed the exchanges BSE and NSE that HDFC Mutual Fund has sold 2.28% stake in the company via open market on February 26, 2020.

GTPL Hathway: Company informed that its promoter Jio Content Distribution Holdings Private Limited has proposed to sell 43 lakh shares, representing 3.83% of the total issued and paid-up equity share capital of the company via 'Offer For Sale'.

Manappuram Finance: the company board has declared interim dividend of Rs 0.55 for FY2020.

KSB Ltd: The company board has recommended a dividend of Rs 8 for CY2019.

KRBL: The company board has declared an interim dividend of Rs 2.80 per equity share.

Jubilant FoodWorks: The company board declares interim dividend of Rs 6 per equity share.
By Trend

The European Commission recognises the importance of the Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) for the regional gas market, in particular Croatia, Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, a source in the European Commission told Trend.

As a signal of its relevance for the region, the Commission has awarded IAP the status of Project of Mutual Interest (PMI), category of infrastructure projects that includes those that benefit one or more Contracting Parties(Western Balkan countries, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia) and one or more Member States but do not have a Project of common interest (PCl) status in the European Union, in line with the Regulation (EU) 347/2013, said the source.

Given its PMI status, Commissions funding under specific programmes, such as the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA), could be explored for the support of the construction of IAP in the Western Balkan countries, the source added.

Ionian Adriatic Pipeline can be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to transport gas to many countries in South-East Europe.

The pipeline with total length of 516 kilometers will stretch from Albania through Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to split in Croatia.

The capacity of the pipeline will amount to five billion cubic meters of gas per year.

TAP has already signed memorandums of understanding and cooperation with the developers of this project, in particular with companies of Plinacro (Croatia), BH-Gas (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Geoplin Plinovodi (Slovenia), as well as with the governments of Montenegro and Albania.

There has been created a TAP-IAP joint working group that gathers regularly to synchronize the timing of both pipeline projects and coordinate the technical issues of interconnection. In particular, Croatia expects to receive approximately 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year through the IAP.

Possible time of implementation of the project hasnt been announced yet.

Albania, Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro are planning to finalize the preliminary design of the IAP, which provides for the transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Southeast Europe, by September 2020.

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WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- A 27-year-old Black River woman was arrested Thursday and accused of stabbing another woman in Watertown, according to Watertown police.

Nancy L. Parker was charged with second-degree assault and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, police said.

At 5:58 a.m., officers responded to a reported assault in the 600 block of Lansing Street, according to police. They found a 37-year-old woman who had been stabbed in the stomach, police said. She was taken to Samaritan Medical Center, where she was treated for a non-life threatening injury, according to police.

Parker turned herself in to police at 3:15 p.m., police said.

She was then taken to Watertown City Court and arraigned, according to police. Parker was remanded to the Jefferson County Jail on $5,000 bail or $20,000 bond.

Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Chris Libonati anytime: 585-290-0718 | Email | Twitter

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A young Pakistani man who got subsidiary protection after coming here as an unaccompanied minor has won his appeal over being refused enlistment in the Defence Forces.

He was refused because he could not show he is entitled to reside here for the 12-year enlistment period.

The three-judge Court of Appeal said the man "is entitled to seek and enter employment in the same way as an Irish citizen would be" and cannot be discriminated against because of his status as a person entitled to subsidiary protection.

Its judgment today has implications for enlistment but Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly said, if the Minister for Defence has a "genuine" concern about people with restricted or limited rights of residence, he may opt to amend the relevant regulations.

The court will decide later what orders it should make in the case.

Now in his 20s, the man came here as an unaccompanied minor in 2012. He got subsidiary protection in 2014 and permission to remain until 2017, later extended to June 2020.

He unsuccessfully applied in August 2015 and April 2016 to join the general service of the Defence Forces.

In May 2016, he applied to the Naval Service, was enlisted in that in December 2016 and began training in early January 2017.

Some two weeks later, he left the Naval Service, having purchased his discharge as he was confident he would get a place in the general service, his preference. He could not apply to the general service while in the Naval Service.

He was selected for enlistment with the general service but was verbally told at the Curragh Camp in April 2017 he was not eligible to enlist because he required a minimum 12-year permission to remain in the State or an open-ended permission.

An email was also sent to him in May 2017 on Defence Forces-headed notepaper concerning residency requirements.

His solicitor was told in a January 2018 letter from the Department the man's "attestation" in the Naval Service was "administratively incorrect" under current legislation and he did not have a residency permission that would allow him satisfy Defence Forces induction criteria concerning residency.

The man took proceedings against the Minister and appealed to the COA after the High Court refused to overturn the refusal to enlist him.

In a unanimous COA judgment today, Ms Justice Donnelly, with whom Ms Justice Mary Faherty and Ms Justice Ann Power agreed, allowed his appeal.

The Minister has power to review the Defence Forces decision set out in the May 2017 email refusing enlistment and the January 2018 decision of the Department is amenable to judicial review, the judge found.

She rejected the Minister's arguments that section 53.1 of the Defence Forces Act 1954 and/or Defence Force regulations made under that prevent the man's enlistment.

Section 53 provides, inter alia, a person, including a minor, may be enlisted as a member of the Permanent Defence Force for a period of 12 years or for a lesser period as may from time to time be prescribed.

The Minister, the judge noted, took the view the statutory intention behind the time limitation was designed to ensure enlisted persons have an allegiance to the State which is reflected in an entitlement to reside in the State on an open-ended basis, or at least for the period of enlistment concerned.

There was "confusion and lack of clarity" by the Department of Defence as to the meaning of section 53 and the Minister has placed an interpretation on section 53 which that provision "does not bear", she said.

The reason for the confusion is that section 53 simply provides those who are enlisting must sign up for a prescribed time, she said.

Those unwilling to sign up to such a period could not be enlisted but those willing to sign up, who are otherwise not disqualified by recruiting regulations, are entitled to be enlisted.

If their entitlement to reside in the State ceases, the applicable rules concerning rights of residence will come into play and they will be liable to discharge, she said. Until that occurs, they are obliged to serve in line with their enlistment.

Although a Defence Forces regulation provides that 13 categories of persons, including homeless persons, are ineligible for enlistment, that list does not include persons who do not have permission to reside here for 12 years, she also noted.
As Syria-Turkey tension intensifies, Greek PM increases border security as no illegal entries will be tolerated.

Greece has tightened border controls, sending security forces to hold back migrants heading for the country by land and sea after Turkey warned that it would no longer prevent refugees from leaving.

Greece was the main gateway for hundreds of thousands of refugees, many fleeing fighting in Syria, who streamed out of neighbouring Turkey in 2015 and 2016 until a deal with the EU stemmed the flow.

Greece sent more police to its northern border and increased maritime patrols around its islands on Friday, after Turkey said it would let out thousands of refugees stuck in the country by the 2016 deal.

A senior Turkish official said Turkey would no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, in a response by Ankara to the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an air raid in Syria.

At one land crossing, police buses were seen denying access to dozens of people, including families with children, who had gathered in a no-mans-land between Pazarkule in Turkey and Kastanies in northeastern Greece.

They will not enter the country. They are irregular migrants, we wont let them enter, a Greek government official told Reuters News Agency.

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Earlier on Friday, more than 60 migrants, most from Afghanistan, arrived on dinghies at the island of Lesbos, a Reuters witness said. Another boat carrying about 50 people reached the island of Samos, police said.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis discussed the movement of migrants towards Greece with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

I want to be clear: No illegal entries into Greece will be tolerated. We are increasing our border security, Mitsotakis tweeted.

On Thursday, Greece had said it would tighten border controls to prevent coronavirus reaching its Aegean islands, where thousands of migrants are living in poor conditions.
People wearing face masks on the London Underground. (Kirsty O'Connor/PA Images via Getty Images)

European stocks logged their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis on Friday, as investors alarmed by the mounting coronavirus epidemic rushed to offload stocks before the weekend.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index (^STOXX) was down by more than 13% when markets closed across the continent on Friday, its steepest weekly decline since October 2008.

Londons FTSE 100 (^FTSE) fell by more than 11% this week, similarly notching its worst week since the peak of the 2008 crisis.

Germanys DAX (^GDAXI), which declined by 13%, had its worst week since 2011, as did Frances CAC 40 (^FCHI), which fell by over 8.5%.

Global stocks are now well into so-called correction territory, meaning that they have lost 10% since their recent all-time highs.

Losses continued across almost all major equities markets on Friday, as traders signalled that they expected the crisis to deepen over the weekend.

Globally, equity benchmarks were pummelled remorselessly because of coronavirus fears  fear being the operative word here, said Neil Wilson, the chief markets analyst of Markets.com.

The selling has been indiscriminate, and this signals broad panic, he said.

As of the European close, US markets are assured of their worst week since the crisis, too. Wall Street looked to be closing out the week down over 12%.

Read more: $6tn wiped off markets as fear index spikes

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday raised its risk assessment of the coronavirus impact and its potential impacts to very high, but said that it had not seen evidence that the virus was spreading freely enough for it to be a pandemic.

What we see at the moment are linked epidemics of COVID-19 in several countries but most cases can still be traced to known contacts or clusters of cases, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO.

The continued spread of the virus nonetheless raises the spectre of far-reaching economic impacts, with economists significantly downgrading their European economic growth forecasts for 2020.

Each day brings the risk of a surge in new cases in a new location. Market participants are averse to holding risk over the weekend for this reason, said Wilson.

Markets are still reacting to bad headlines, noting that the key risk over the weekend was whether there would be a surge in European cases outside of Italy, or in the US.
Medical worker Wu Zhiting takes boxes of concentrate granules from a shelf at the mobile emergency smart pharmacy for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) at a temporary hospital in Jiangxia District in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 26, 2020. (Xinhua/Shen Bohan)

BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A leading group of China's COVID-19 response on Thursday called for sending more advanced medical resources, especially life support system ECMOs, to Hubei Province, the epicenter of the epidemic.

The group, headed by Premier Li Keqiang, demanded further efforts to treat the severely ill COVID-19 patients to reduce mortality in Hubei, particularly in its capital city of Wuhan.

The meeting stressed the work to ensure the sufficient supply of daily necessities in Wuhan and Hubei, and to guarantee basic living conditions for people including non-Hubei residents who have been stranded in the province due to the suspension of transportation.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, presided over the meeting.
At least 22 Turkish servicemen were killed following an airstrike in Idlib province of Syria.

"There has been an airstrike by the regime forces against our military in Idlib. After this attack," Sputnik quoted Rahmi Dogan, the governor of Hatay province, as saying.

"We have seriously injured (servicemen), who have been received at our Cilvegozu border gate into Turkey," Dogan added.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has chaired an emergency security meeting on the situation in Idlib.

The situation has escalated in the northwestern province of Syria since early February as local militants have intensified attacks against the Syrian government forces.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The United States and the Taliban are expected to sign a peace deal in Afghanistan on Saturday. The conflict outlasted two U.S. commanders in chief.

More than 18 years since President George W. Bush ordered bombing in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the agreement will set the stage for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, some of whom were not yet born when the World Trade Center collapsed on that crisp, sunny morning that changed how Americans see the world.

Saturday's ceremony also signals the potential end of a tremendous investment of blood and treasure. The U.S. spent more than $750 billion, and on all sides the war cost tens of thousands of lives lost, permanently scarred and indelibly interrupted. Yet it's also a conflict that is frequently ignored by U.S. politicians and the American public.

In the Qatari capital of Doha, Americas top diplomat will stand with leaders of the Taliban, Afghanistan's former rulers who harbored Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network as they plotted, and then celebrated, the hijackings of four airliners that were crashed into lower Manhattan, the Pentagon and a field in western Pennsylvania, killing almost 3,000 people.

It will likely be an uncomfortable appearance for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who privately told a conference of U.S. ambassadors at the State Department this week that he was going only because President Donald Trump had insisted on his participation, according to two people present.

A statement from Trump on Friday said Pompeo will witness the signing of the agreement, leaving unclear if he will personally sign it on behalf of the United States, or if he will shake hands with Taliban representatives.

U.S. troops are to be withdrawn to 8,600 from about 13,000 in the weeks following Saturday's signing. Further drawdowns are to depend on the Taliban meeting certain counter-terrorism conditions, compliance that will be assessed by the United States. But officials say soldiers will be coming home.

Trump, as he seeks re-election this year, is looking to make good on his campaign promise to bring troops home from the Middle East. Still, he has approached the Taliban agreement cautiously, steering clear of the crowing surrounding other major foreign policy actions, such as his talks with North Korea.

Last September, on short notice, he called off what was to be a signing ceremony with the Taliban at Camp David after a series of new Taliban attacks. But he has since been supportive of the talks led by his special envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad.

In a statement released by the White House, Trump said Friday that if the Taliban and Afghan governments live up to the commitments in the agreement, "we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home,

These commitments represent an important step to a lasting peace in a new Afghanistan, free from al-Qaida, ISIS and any other terrorist group that would seek to bring us harm," Trump said.

Under the agreement, the Taliban promise not to let extremists use the country as a staging ground for attacking the U.S. or its allies. But U.S. officials are loath to trust the Taliban to fulfill their obligations.

Pompeo did not mention the Afghan agreement as he touted Trump administration foreign policy achievements in a speech to a conservative group Friday. He has expressed doubts about the prospects. Yet, he will give his imprimatur to an agreement which he also has said represents a historic opportunity for peace after years and pain and suffering.

We are now on the cusp of having an opportunity which may not succeed, but an opportunity for the first time to let the Afghan peoples voices be heard, he told reporters this week.

If the agreement is successful, Afghanistan, the graveyard of empires" that has repeatedly repelled foreign invaders from imperial Britain and Russia to the Soviet Union, will have once again successfully turned away a world power from its landlocked borders.

But prospects for Afghanistan's future are uncertain. The agreement sets the stage for peace talks involving Afghani factions, which are likely to be complicated. Under the agreement, 5,000 Taliban are to be released from Afghan-run jails, but it's not known if the Afghan government will do that. There are also questions about whether Taliban fighters loyal to various warlords will be willing to disarm.

It's not clear what will become of gains made in women's rights since the toppling of the Taliban, which had repressed women and girls under a strict brand of Sharia law. Women's rights in Afghanistan had been a top concern of both the Bush and Obama administration.

In a sign of the international community's commitment to Afghanistan, a separate ceremony will be held Saturday in the Afghan capital of Kabul, with U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, said Sediq Sediqqui, spokesman for Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani.

Already, some U.S. lawmakers and veterans of the conflict have raised red flags about any agreement with the Taliban.

Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming led 21 Republican legislators in demanding that the administration not concede anything to the Taliban that would allow them to once again harbor those who seek to harm U.S. citizens and interests. Cheney, the daughter of former President Bush's vice president, Dick Cheney, urged Pompeo and Esper in a letter to reject any commitment to a full withdrawal of American troops.

Pompeo said, Were proud of our gains, but our generals have determined that this war is unlikely to be won militarily without tremendous additional resources. All sides are tired of fighting.

On this, he is in rare agreement with Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who said this week in a Democratic presidential debate that the government has a sacred responsibility to American soldiers. That is not to use our military to solve problems that cannot be solved militarily. We are not winning in Afghanistan. We are not winning in the Middle East, she said.
Two years ago, Slovakia was a steady member of the European mainstream and a pro-Brussels leadership in stark contrast to its neighbors. Then the brazen contract killing of a reporter investigating political ties to organized crime sparked the biggest protests in decades and brought down long-serving populist Robert Fico.

Slovakia now heads into its most unpredictable election in recent memory with corruption the dominant theme, something that's one all too familiar in former communist Europe and even Malta nowadays. The question is whether Fico's party, in government for 12 of the past 14 years, will pay the price.

The vote on Saturday pits the governing Smer party against a loose alliance of opponents standing on an anti-corruption platform and the latest polls suggest a close-run contest. Also in the mix is a far-right group, some of whose members have lauded the country's fascist state from World War II, that's gunning to hold the balance of power.

The risk for Europe is that Slovakia now too will succumb to the forces of discontentment that are disrupting the continent's politics from Brexit Britain to Italy and even Germany. As leaders clash over the next budget, the last thing the European Union needs is for the countrya euro memberto follow Poland and Hungary and elect a less compliant leadership.

"The very direction of the country is at stake," said Michal Vasecka, the head of the Bratislava Policy Institute think tank. "These elections will define whether Slovakia is a European country with high standards not only in economic areas but also in broadly defined human rights."

The watershed in Slovak politics stems from the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova. The couple, both 27, were shot dead at their home about 65 kilometers (40 miles) from Bratislava in February 2018. While the killings and ensuing protests led to Fico's resignation, his Smer party stayed in power under his acolyte Peter Pellegrini.

Businessman Marian Kocner was charged with ordering the hit on Kuciak and the murder trial, which started in December, has gripped Slovak households and overshadowed the election campaign. As special anti-graft prosecutors zeroed in on Kocner, they unearthed a web of links between the mafia and politicians, including a former chief prosecutor.

The trial was adjourned until next month. Meanwhile, Kocner was sentenced on Thursday to 19 years in prison in a case linked to forged claims against a television channel.

"The murder has been misused for political purposes," Fico, 55, said this week after Smer lost ground in the polls. "If the murder didn't happen, if it wasn't misused at home and abroad, I would be standing here as the prime minister with 30% support."

That's no longer the case. While Smer is still in the lead, its popularity has shrunk by half as opponents challenge the government over corruption. A survey by pollster Focus put Smer on 17% with a group of independents called Ordinary People making gains. The far-right People's Party was third. But that was before the two-week blackout kicked in.

Should Smer fail to form a government, the question is whether anyone else can. Opponents are united against graft, yet they include everyone from the socially conservative Ordinary People to the anti-immigrant We Are Family and Progressive Slovakia, the center-left liberals dedicated to keeping the country close to Brussels.

Igor Matovic, a successful entrepreneur who built and later sold a network of regional media, has emerged as the surprise candidate for prime minister as leader of Ordinary People. He took social media by storm with videos that included a short report from Cannes, France, where he stood in front of a villa that belongs to Fico's former finance minister. He said it should be confiscated.

Yet Matovic spent years squabbling with all other opposition forces, raising doubts he can be a unifying force should Smer be beaten. With just days to go before the poll, he sought to strike a conciliatory tone.

"Nobody will dare to waste this opportunity for a change," he said in an interview. An agreement within the opposition "isn't a problem," he said.

To stay in power, Fico would need to team up with the People's Party and at least one other party. He has ruled out doing a deal with the far-right group, though has needed their votes on occasions to pass legislation in parliament.

During the campaign, the People's Party has sought to distance itself from some of its extremist elements to appeal to a wider electorate, though retains its mantra that Slovakia takes "no commands from Brussels or Washington."

The result is that anything could happen, according to Martin Slosiarik, director of Focus Agency pollster in Bratislava. "Change is the important word now," he said. "This vote is about deposing Smer."
Find all our Student Opinion questions here.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that Americans should brace for the likelihood that the coronavirus will spread to the United States. Outbreaks have already occurred in many other countries, such as China, Iran, Italy, Japan and South Korea. How concerned should we be? Should we be doing anything to prepare? What do you think?

In Most Coronavirus Cases Are Mild. Thats Good and Bad News, Vivian Wang reported:

As a dangerous new coronavirus has ravaged China and spread throughout the rest of the world, the outbreaks toll has sown fear and anxiety. Nearly 3,000 deaths. More than 81,000 cases. Six continents infected. But government officials and medical experts, in their warnings about the epidemic, have also sounded a note of reassurance: Though the virus can be deadly, the vast majority of those infected so far have only mild symptoms and make full recoveries. It is an important factor to understand, medical experts said, both to avoid an unnecessary global panic and to get a clear picture of the likelihood of transmission.

Does that background make you more anxious? Or do you find it reassuring?

In regions where an outbreak has occurred, such as in Wuhan, China, or the Lombardy region of Italy, government officials have initiated quarantines and closed schools as a way to prevent transmission. Do you think those measures will take place where you live if a local outbreak occurs? Is that something you have been thinking about?

Dana Goldstein and Julie Bosman report on what an outbreak in the United States might mean for schools. The article begins:

Schools in the United States prepare for all manner of disasters and threats, whether hurricanes, mass shooters, tornadoes, influenza or head lice. But this week, a stark new order came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Get ready for the coronavirus. Around the nation, school officials and parents were flummoxed by the sudden warning that if a coronavirus epidemic hit the United States, school buildings could be shut down for long periods of time, leaving children sequestered at home. In alerting that the coronavirus will almost certainly spread in the United States, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said she had contacted her own local school superintendent this week and asked if the district was prepared. She advised parents to do the same. And she suggested that a temporary system of internet-based teleschooling could replace traditional schools. The obstacles to teaching remotely were evident: American children have uneven access to home computers and broadband internet. Schools have limited expertise in providing instruction online on a large scale. And parents would be forced to juggle their own work responsibilities with what could amount to a vast unplanned experiment in mass home-schooling, said Kevin Carey, vice president for education policy at New America, a think tank.

The article explores some challenges schools might face in dealing with an outbreak:

Schools are hastily making their own plans, or updating those drafted during previous scares over viruses like H1N1 and Ebola. The Washington State health department held a webinar for about 250 school superintendents on Tuesday to discuss coronavirus preparations, including plans to close schools and allow students to continue to do schoolwork at home. Dennis Kosuth, a nurse for Chicago Public Schools, said his districts ability to handle an outbreak could be compromised by circumstances like families who could not afford child care costs to keep sick children at home. Nursing shortages are a concern, too, he said. Mr. Kosuth said he was responsible for nursing care at four schools. Some Chicago schools also lack rooms dedicated to health needs, Mr. Kosuth said. In one school where many students and staff members became ill with an ordinary infection last semester, Patient Zero was sitting in the main office coughing and sneezing all over the place as the sick child waited to be picked up, he said. On a more positive note, Mr. Kosuth said that evidence from China suggested that children were more resilient to the coronavirus than adults were.

The authors continue:

Many districts have already sent home letters about the coronavirus, asking parents to keep sick children away from school and to remember basic prevention measures such as hand washing, cough covering and vaccination against the flu. They have highlighted C.D.C. advice issued early this month, calling for all travelers returning from China to self-quarantine for 14 days. School officials have often tried to ratchet down panic among parents, reminding families that face masks are not broadly recommended and that the overall risk of infection is low. But few districts have publicly addressed what would happen to classes in the case of widespread infection and school closings like those that have taken place in China, Italy and Bahrain. The vast majority of districts have access to broadband internet, but they do not necessarily have expertise in how to effectively organize and teach classes online when schools are shuttered. Further complicating matters, not all families have home computers and high-speed internet. While 90 percent of households with children under 18 had broadband access in 2016, according to federal data, gaps remained along the lines of income, race and education level. Less affluent families were more likely to depend on smartphones but to lack computers or tablets, which are often needed to fully participate in online learning. While school districts may not be ready for widespread remote learning, many of the larger districts have had plans for the possibility of pandemics for years, according to Chris Dorn, a school safety consultant with the nonprofit Safe Havens International. Districts without such plans will need to work with local health agencies to come up with protocols, he said. Among the questions to tackle: Should students at risk for coronavirus who show symptoms at school be transported immediately to hospitals or should they be kept on school grounds until a parent or caretaker can pick them up?

The article concludes:

Closing schools may not be the best option, especially since children appear to be at lower risk of infection, said Amy Acton, the director of Ohios health department. Beyond contingency plans for closing, she said, schools need to consider lining up substitute teachers and planning for absences of other staff members, like cafeteria workers. And Dr. Acton said schools can also play another, more traditional, role: science and health education. Schools can be telling families what they can be doing to stay healthy, and we can teach about viruses, and what is a zoonotic disease? Why is it important to get a flu vaccine? Dr. Acton said. This is a teachable moment.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

How concerned are you about the coronavirus? Do you think the fears are overblown or are you thinking and worrying about it a lot? How prepared are you, your family, your school and your community for the possible spread of the virus to where you live?

How have you gotten your news about the coronavirus? Do you feel you have received clear and accurate information? What questions do you still have about the virus or the outbreak?

Have you discussed the virus in school? If yes, what kinds of questions and issues have been explored? Have you found these discussions helpful? Do you agree with Dr. Acton that this is a teachable moment?

What, if anything, is your school doing to prepare for a coronavirus outbreak? Do you think your schools response has been sufficient? What is your reaction to some of the school plans and protocols discussed in the article? Which do you think are realistic for your school?

In How to Prepare for the Coronavirus, Gina Kolata offers practical tips from experts like washing your hands, keeping a supply of medicines and getting a flu shot:

The best thing you can do to avoid getting infected is to follow the same general guidelines that experts recommend during flu season, because the coronavirus spreads in much the same way. Wash your hands frequently throughout the day. Avoid touching your face, and maintain a distance from anyone who is coughing or sneezing.

What is your reaction to the advice? Do you think you will change any behaviors in light of virus? Do you wash you hands regularly? Will you now?
More than 150 academics have signed a letter this week expressing their opposition to the use of facial recognition surveillance on the campuses of higher education institutions.

The letter, published Thursday on Medium, includes signatures from roughly a dozen faculty members at several schools in the commonwealth, including Boston University, Brandeis University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, University of Massachusetts Amherst and University of Massachusetts Boston.

The signatories see the technology as a danger to human rights, personal privacies and students safety, they wrote.

Facial recognition poses a unique threat to safety, civil liberties, and academic freedom on campus, the letter said. Facial recognition is invasive, enabling anyone with access to the system to watch students movements, try to analyze facial expressions, monitor who they talk to, what they do outside of class, and every move they make.

The faculty, staff and researchers who penned the letter to campus administrators did so in collaboration with a national campaign that aims to end the use of facial recognition on college campuses. The effort is being spearheaded by the advocacy organizations Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and Fight for the Future, a group founded in Worcester but based currently in Boston.

The organizations are planning to deliver an open letter to higher education administrations across the country next week and stage protests to draw awareness to the issue. The national day of action is scheduled for March 2.

Many advocates and public officials, as well as some in law enforcement, view facial recognition as problematic. Those working in the field of artificial intelligence say facial recognition technology as it exists today is inaccurate. People of color, elderly individuals and women are frequently misidentified. Opponents also argue the software violates peoples civil liberties and is used secretively by governmental agencies.

As state or federal legislation restricting the software does not exist yet, several municipalities across the country have turned to passing their own local facial recognition bans.

San Francisco was the first community in the U.S. to legislate facial recognition in 2019. Somerville followed suit in June. Brookline, Northampton, Cambridge and Springfield have all passed similar ordinances restricting the software.

Massachusetts legislators are also considering a proposed statewide moratorium on the technology and other forms of remote biometric surveillance.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts started a campaign last year to raise public awareness about the issue. The group sent a letter in September to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that expressed concern over the potential use of facial recognition surveillance in schools.

Some who are wary of the software now say it may be a useful tool for law enforcement in the future, though, once it becomes more accurate.

Facial recognition technology is already being used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to Thursdays letter. The signatories wrote that the software is not an effective way to increase security.

According to the ACLU, video surveillance does not increase security at all, the letter said. And the dangers of facial recognition cannot be avoided, whether its used in CCTV cameras explicitly for security or for seemingly innocuous purposes.

Fight for the Future said it has asked dozens of U.S. colleges and universities if they plan to use facial recognition. The results were mixed.

Some were happy to provide a statement confirming that their school is not using facial recognition and WONT USE it in the future, the group says on its website. "Others MIGHT USE [it], since they either failed to respond to our requests, or they issued a statement implying they might use this tech in the future.

Even worse, a few schools ARE USING facial recognition programs right now.

Of the Massachusetts schools it questioned, Boston College, Brandeis, BU, Hampshire College, Harvard, Tufts and MIT all said they will not use the software.

Related Content:
WHO will provide more than 225,000 treatment courses to internally displaced Syrians in Idlib and Aleppo where hostilities continue to escalate

In a two-day operation, the World Health Organization has sent seven truckloads or 55 tons of medicine and medical supplies, from Turkey into Idlib governorate and parts of Aleppo, that have since December 2019 seen the largest exodus of internally displaced Syrians in the nine year history of the Syria conflict, WHO reported Friday.

This is the bleakest situation weve been in since the war started. People dont have an idea where to go, they only know they need to get away from the bombing, says a surgeon in northwestern Aleppo governorate.

As hostilities grind on and forced displacement towards Turkeys border continue, the burden on health facilities keeps growing. Out of the 84 health facilities that have been forced to suspend operations since December last year, 31 have been able to relocate and provide services where people have sought refuge from bombardments.

As a result, more than 133,000 medical outpatient consultations will not take place, nearly 11,000 trauma patients are not catered to and 1,500 major surgeries will not be performed as they normally would in a cycle of four weeks.

Due to the massive depopulation of entire areas, the caseload on functioning health facilities in Idlib is disproportionate  with deserted health facilities on the one hand, and facilities that are stretched far beyond their capacity on the other.

"These supplies will meet a dire and growing need and enable continued services; in three months, nearly one million people have been displaced, says Richard Brennan, WHOs Regional Emergency Director for the Eastern Mediterranean.

The supplies WHO sent to Syrias northwest in UN convoys through the border crossings of Bab al Hawa and Bab al Sama on February 25 and 26, including equipment for 3,200 trauma and surgical treatments, are currently being distributed to WHOs implementing health partners in more than 150 facilities - which is approximately half of functioning health facilities in the northwest. While there has been a sharp rise in trauma cases, health workers are also treating respiratory tract infections, due to poor shelter and harsh weather conditions, as well as complications of non-chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, due to irregular access to medicines.

The burden and sacrifice of health workers in the northwestern governorates is now unimaginable, its only a matter of days until we surpass 1 million displaced people. That means health responders are working around the clock to serve patients, under an enormous strain, often putting their own lives on the line, says Brennan.

Partners of the World Health Organization that are providing health services in the area have been describing how overwhelmed health staff and facilities are. Speaking to WHO, a pediatrician in Idlib city said there was no time nor capacity to deal with issues that were not life-threatening, and then added: This is not sustainable. The majority of our hospital staff on the ground, around 70 people, evacuated to the north with their families and then chose to return to Idlib city to carry out their duty and continue taking care of patients. Peoples mental health is poor, both of those seeking assistance and of health staff alike.

A general practitioner, working 10km from Darat Izza in Aleppo governorate where two hospitals were attacked on 17 February, expressed concerns of a lack of medicine, gloves, syringes and bandages, while both primary health care centers and hospitals are trying to work with what they have. The caseload in some hospitals is now double, while resources are the same or less. The number of hospitals and health centers around us is still decreasing due to the frequent targeting of health facilities.

As of 28 February, attacks on health in Syria since the mass displacement started on 1st of December 2019, are 11 in total, causing 10 deaths and 37 injuries.

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Greece is sending one of its six Patriot Air Defense batteries to Saudi Arabia, as is the United States, which is also sending four Sentinel radar systems that can detect low flying cruise missiles and UAVs. While the Saudis already have 24 Patriot batteries, that has proved insufficient to protect it from the growing number of Iranian attacks. Greece has been using Patriot since 2003, about as long as the Saudis. Most of the Saudi batteries are used in the south, along the Yemen border. Many other nations in the region also use Patriot, including Egypt, Israel and most Arab Persian Gulf nations. Patriot batteries have been used in the Persian Gulf since 1991 and have had plenty of opportunities to demonstrate they work, especially against ballistic missiles.

Greece had earlier been asked to send a Patriot battery to Saudi Arabia but declined to do so because their eastern neighbor, Turkey, had become more threatening. But two months after Iranian UAVs and cruise missiles attacked Saudi Arabia, Greece found itself involved with another Turkish threat. The Turks were claiming control of waters off the Greek coast that are recognized as Greek and many control large natural gas deposits. Turkey, Greece and the U.S. are all NATO members but the U.S. and other NATO members all oppose Turkish threats against fellow NATO member Greece as well as the Turkish troops in Libya.

Turkey triggered this crisis by sending troops and military aid to Libya in order to get one of the two governments there, the GNA, to sign an agreement that claims all the offshore waters between Libya and Turkey, including offshore waters that international agreements recognize as Greek. Turkey is also in Libya illegally as UN embargoes prohibit this. That intervention has Turks fighting Russians, who back the rival HoR government and its LNA (Libyan National Army) that now controls most of the country and has eliminated most local Islamic terror groups. The Turks and the UN back the GNA faction, which is more Islamic, chaotic and militarily weak. Turkey now threatens to send as many troops and weapons to Libya as necessary to win. At the same time, Turkey continues to threaten war with Greece over the offshore claims. In Syria Turkish and Russian forces, which are supposed to be allies, are now fighting each other. Given this new situation the Greeks, who currently import all their petroleum, could use improved relations with Saudi Arabia, the largest exporter of oil in the world. Finding and developing offshore natural gas deposits is crucial for Greece and with Turkey blocking these efforts gaining a Persian Gulf ally, especially one that is already hostile to Turkey, is justified.

Patriot has been in service since 1984 and experienced its first sustained combat in 1990 when it was used against Iraqi ballistic missiles (SCUDs) fired at Israel and Saudi Arabia. Its success rate was mediocre at best, achieving around 40 to 70 percent. That was largely due to the modifications Iraqis made to their SCUDs to extend their range. As a result, the SCUDs had a tendency to fall apart during the terminal (speeding down towards the target) flight phase which created unintended countermeasures. Some of the larger pieces of these modified SCUDs, like additional fuel tanks, broke away and were seen by Patriot radar as the actual missile warhead section. In some cases, non-warhead portions of the SCUD came down on military or civilian personnel on the ground. Patriot has been used against UAVs but firing a $3 million dollar missile at homemade UAVs, as Israeli forces did a few times, isnt healthy for the economy so Israel developed a cheaper solution for UAVs. For manned aircraft, the Patriot took down its first one in 2014 when an Israeli Patriot shot down a Syrian Su-24. While Patriot was originally designed for use against aircraft, most of what it has shot down have been ballistic missiles, either SCUDs or more recent Iranian designs. Since 2016 Saudi Patriot batteries have downed about a hundred ballistic missiles, mostly Iranian fired from Yemen.

Since 1970 over 10,000 Patriot missiles and 1,500 launchers have been produced. After decades of service, some were updated while others were scraped. Patriot missiles can, with regular upgrades and refurbishment, remain in use for over 40 years. A growing number of Patriot missiles are doing just that but many are still fired each year for training and testing. Most Patriot batteries are equipped with both longer range GEM-T missiles for aircraft and shorter-range PAC-3 MSE ones for ballistic missiles (or, if necessary, aircraft). The PAC 2 is older, cheaper and designed to intercept manned aircraft at ranges up to 160 kilometers, while the PAC 3 is the newest and about twice as expensive (about $4 million). The Patriot system (with upgrades) will likely remain in production until 2040-2050.

Each Patriot battery is manned by about a hundred troops and contains a radar, plus four launchers. A battery can fire two types of Patriot missiles. The more expensive PAC 3 missile is smaller than the anti-aircraft version (PAC 2), thus a Patriot launcher can hold sixteen PAC 3 missiles, versus four PAC 2s. A PAC 2 missile weighs about a ton, a PAC 3 weighs about a third of that. The PAC 3 has a shorter range (about 20 kilometers (although the latest version can do 35 kilometers) versus 160 kilometers for the latest anti-aircraft version. Saudi Patriot batteries use both PAC 2 and 3 missiles but only began receiving PAC 3 missiles in 2018.

Arab Gulf states want Patriot for additional protection from Iran, which is the main threat and has been for centuries. Over the last few years, Iranian politicians have increasingly made public statements that the Saudis are unfit to be the guardians and operators of the most sacred Moslem shrines at Mecca. Iran also considers Bahrain the 14th province of Iran. That's because, well, it isn't called the "Persian" Gulf for nothing. Since all the oil money showed up after World War II the Arabs have been trying to popularize the term "Arabian Gulf," with mixed success. There have been ethnic Iranian communities in Bahrain for centuries, along with a Shia Arab majority, and Iran had a formal claim on the island until 1969, when the claim was dropped, in order to improve relations with Arab neighbors. Except for Iraq and Bahrain, all the Arab states bordering the gulf have Shia minorities.

The Saudis recently received another 200 PAC 3 missiles to replace Patriot missiles used since 2016 to defend against Iranian ballistic missiles fired from northern Yemen. Iran has backed the Shia rebels there for nearly a decade. To deal with this threat most Saudi Patriot batteries have been moved to defend against the missiles fired from Yemen. Suddenly, in September 2019, the threat appeared in the north when Iran launched an attack on Saudi oil facilities using cruise missiles and UAVs equipped with explosives. These came in low and slow and evaded Saudi air defense radars. The Iranians said the attack came from the Shia rebels in Yemen but the evidence, including fragments of the cruise missiles and UAVs, said otherwise. Saudi Arabia is trying to protect itself from more Iranian attacks using any kind of aerial weapon.

In 2019 Saudi neighbor Bahrain became the 17th nation to purchase Patriot Air Defense systems. Bahrain spent $2.5 billion to obtain two Patriot batteries and 96 missiles. The purchase price includes training, tech support and assistance in hiring qualified foreign contractors to help with maintaining and operating Patriot. There are plenty of Arabs in the Persian Gulf who do that now. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates have been using Patriot for years and many of these Patriot batteries are operated and maintained by Arabs.

The U.S. has no bases in Saudi Arabia but does have some in Kuwait, Qatar the UAE and Bahrain. The most important single base is in Bahrain. Until 2002, the Bahraini base was a place where U.S. warships could tie up for repairs or recreation for the crews. Nearly 4,000 American military personnel were stationed there. There was an airbase for navy and air force transports and warplanes. The U.S. has defensive weapons for its bases and Bahrain is buying more weapons to protect the rest of the small island nation.
The Madras High Court on Friday ruled strike by doctors was illegal but quashed charge memos and transfer orders issued to over 100 Tamil Nadu government doctors who spearheaded a stir in October last year, holding the action against them was clearly tainted with malafides.

Referring to various judgements of the Supreme Court, Justice Anand Venkatesh said a conspectus of them would exposit the unanimity in judicial opinion that strikes by doctors is, ex-facie, illegal and without any justification.

"In the absence of a legal or even a moral or equitable right to go on a strike, the logical corollary is that any form of strike is necessarily illegal and without any legal or moral justification. The harm that befalls patients on account of strikes (by doctors) is unfathomable," he said.

He passed a detailed order on a batch of petitions by 118 doctors, who are office-bearers of government doctors associations, challenging the charge memos and the transfer and posting orders issued after the state-wide strike.

The agitation was launched after failure of their repeated efforts to settle amicably their demands, including pay revision, 50 per cent service quota in post-graduate and super specialties courses and time bound promotions.

Justice Venkatesh, who went into several issues, including whether the doctors have the right to go on strike and if the impasse could have been avoided through effective steps by the government, stressed they cannot resort to such agitations at the cost of patients.

By using strikes to resolve issues doctors, like lawyers, forget the moral worth and dignity of patients and leave them in the lurch unmindful of the humanitarian consequences that ensue from their actions.

"Patients cannot be a means to an end. They cannot be mere playthings whose lives can be put on the line to achieve other ends through the medium of strikes," he said.

He noted that over 18,000 doctors went on strike and the action of the government in picking and choosing sections among them was to warn that anyone who leads such agitations will be dealt with iron hands.

The doctors had called off their six-day long strike, pressing various long-pending demands, and resumed duties on November 1, 2019 in response to appeals by the state Chief Minister and the Health Minister, the Judge said.

As a model employer, the government ought to have followed up and come out with solutions for the doctors.

Instead of resorting to such a positive step, it decided to show its might against the office-bearers, who are in the ranks of Assistant Professors and Senior Resident Doctors, the Judge said.

Tracing the genesis of the issue, he said even the high court had taken into consideration the seriousness and directed the government to come up with a final decision by February 16, 2019. This did not happen and there was no progress.

Subsequently a representation was given by the doctors' apex body drawing the government's attention and it was indicated they will go on a one-day two-hour boycott without affecting the emergency service.

Thereafter, the Health Minister convened a meeting on August 27, and some assurances were given. But, there was no movement forward, they resorted to the strike from October 25.

The Judge said the government ought to have given top priority for certain demands made by the doctors and some final solution must have been reached.

Quashing the charge memos and transfer orders, he said the doctors who spearheaded the agitation were not instigating or conspiring or inciting an unlawful act.

"They are merely the representatives of the entire body of the government doctors. They should not be assigned the role of a villain and singled out and dealt with in such a harsh manner," he said in the order.

The action was clearly tainted with malafides and if any measure had to be necessarily taken for the strike, it should have been taken against all doctors who participated in it.

Advising the government that it should not act like a king but to show motherly affection on the doctors who work for the welfare of the patients, the Judge directed the it to address their demands at the earliest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Republicans in the Oregon Legislature continued their boycott Thursday, marking the fourth day most GOP senators were absent and the third day in the House.

Senate Republicans walked out Monday morning after a controversial bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions was voted out of a budget committee, which put it on track to receive a Senate floor vote this week. Although it was unclear when Senate Bill 1530 would make its way over to the House, most House Republicans began boycotting floor sessions in their chamber on Tuesday.

With 10 days left until lawmakers must adjourn, the Oregon Legislature has passed just three bills: one to increase fees for license plates benefitting the Cultural Trust, one to allow Happy Valley to withdraw from the North Clackamas Parks & Recreation District and one to help schools provide academic accommodations to student athletes with concussions.

Even before the walkout this week, House Republicans slowed the pace of the session by insisting that bills be read in their entirety before House floor votes. This included a 53-page bipartisan bill would adopt protections of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act into Oregon law. It finally passed after a House clerk spent three days last week reading it in blocks between other bills and a Republican boycott of an evening floor session, which had been scheduled to allow additional time for all the bill reading.

Budget bills typically begin moving near the end of legislative sessions in Oregon, and Senate President Pro Tempore Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham, requested on Thursday that at least one more Republican show up for floor sessions to allow votes on those bills. Thanks to projected windfall tax revenues, lawmakers are looking at spending roughly $500 million on programs including child welfare, homelessness services, the state psychiatric hospital and forestry programs.

One Republican in each chamber, Sen. Tim Knopp and Rep. Cheri Helt, both of Bend, have continued to participate at the Capitol this week. But since Democrats need two Republicans in each chamber to reach the states constitutional two-thirds quorum requirement, they have been unable to conduct business.

We did pass 16 budget bills today in (the Joint Committee on Ways and Means) and we have 19 in a budget subcommittee," Monnes Anderson said. I know other subcommittees are meeting and passing budget bills. I sure would like to take it to the finish line.

Republicans did ask Democrats to change the normal order of business this year and pass budgets and other priority policy bills early in the session, before taking up the cap-and-trade plan. That could have allowed Republicans to walk out to block the climate bill without killing other bills, including some that benefit their constituents. Democrats declined that request.

In the House Thursday, Rules Committee Chairman Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, questioned House Speaker Tina Kotek of Portland at length about what options the Oregon Constitution and parliamentary rules give Kotek and Democrats to compel the attendance of unexcused absent Republicans.

Kotek said she can't expel them or withhold their per diem payments, but it is possible she could reduce their service and supply accounts. She also pledged to look for other mechanisms to nudge the absentees to return and encouraged Holvey to explore the topic during the Rule Committee meeting Thursday afternoon.

I appreciate that we do have other options, Im just not sure what they are at the moment, Kotek said before adjourning the House until Friday.

One move thats off the table is ending the 35-day session early, since that would require lawmakers to pass a resolution bringing the session to a close before midnight March 8 which they cannot do without a quorum. So the (Republicans) will continue to get their $151/day per diem until then, even if they dont come back, Rep. Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, wrote in a tweet Wednesday.

A handful of Democrats were absent from the Thursday floor sessions. In the Senate, Joint Committee on Ways and Means co-chairs Sen. Betsy Johnson of Scappoose and Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward of Portland were excused to work on budgets. In the House, Rep. Diego Hernandez of Portland was excused because he was running late, Rep. Mitch Greenlick of Portland was excused due to illness, Rep. Rachel Prusak of West Linn was excused for an unspecified urgent matter and Rep. Anna Williams of Hood River was excused for a work commitment.

In a statement Thursday, House Republican Leader Christine Drazan of Canby said she is "optimistic that a compromise will be found that benefits all Oregonians. Its unclear what that might be at this point. Republicans have insisted Democrats, who already made multiple concessions on the climate bill, kill cap-and-trade or refer it to voters. Democrats have refused to do so.

Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr., of Grants Pass, on Thursday blamed Democrats for the budget bill holdup. We could have gotten all the budget items and more done, but the Democrats decided to bring the most divisive legislation up first, likely knowing a boycott would be the result, Baertschiger said in a press release. "Ive told (Senate President Peter Courtney) that we will come back with enough time to pass the bills that the short session was intended for, if cap and trade dies or is referred to voters.

 Hillary Borrud | hborrud@oregonian.com | 503-294-4034 | @hborrud

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For the UN chief, gender inequality and discrimination against women and girls remains an overwhelming injustice across the globe.

New York: Women's inequality should shame everyone in the 21st century as it is "stupid" and "unacceptable", UN chief Antonio Guterres has said, as he called for removing this stain by ensuring equal participation for all.

Speaking to faculty and students on Thursday at The New School, a university in New York City, the UN chief declared himself a proud feminist and called for men everywhere to support women's rights.

"Just as slavery and colonialism were a stain on previous centuries, women's inequality should shame us all in the 21st century. Because it is not only unacceptable; it is stupid, the Secretary General said.

For the UN chief, gender inequality and discrimination against women and girls remains an overwhelming injustice across the globe.

"From the ridiculing of women as hysterical or hormonal, to the routine judgement of women based on their looks; from the myths and taboos that surround women's natural bodily functions, to mansplaining and victim-blaming misogyny is everywhere, he said.

At the heart of the issue is power, as male-dominated power structures underpin everything from national economies, to political systems, to the corporate world and beyond.

But he pointed out that patriarchy also has an impact on men and boys, trapping them in rigid gender stereotypes, declaring that a systemic change is long overdue.

It is time to stop trying to change women, and start changing the systems that prevent them from achieving their potential. Our power structures have evolved gradually over thousands of years.

One further evolution is long overdue. The 21st century must be the century of women's equality, he said. Dismantling gender inequality will transform the world, the UN chief stated, and is critical to solving intractable global challenges such as conflict and violence, and the climate crisis.

It also will help close the digital divide, lead to fairer globalization, and increase political representation.

"The opportunity of man-made problems and I choose these words deliberately is that they have human-led solutions, he said. As the UN turns 75 this year, the global body is taking greater action to support women's rights, he continued.

Last month marked the start of a Decade of Action to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals aimed at building peaceful, prosperous and inclusive societies while also safeguarding the planet.

The Decade of Action is aimed at transforming institutions and structures, broadening inclusion and driving sustainability.

"Repealing laws that discriminate against women and girls; increasing protection against violence; closing the gap in girls' education and digital technology; guaranteeing full access to sexual and reproductive health services and rights, and ending the gender pay gap are just some of the areas we are targeting," he said.

On a personal level, the Secretary-General pledged to deepen his commitment to highlighting and supporting gender equality over the remainder of his mandate.

He will take steps at the global level, such as advocating for change among governments that have discriminatory laws on their books, and within the UN, by strengthening work on the links between violence against women and international peace and security.

Gender equality is a question of power; power that has been jealously guarded by men for millennia. It is about an abuse of power that is damaging our communities, our economies, our environment, our relationships and our health," said Guterres.

"We must urgently transform and redistribute power, if we are to safeguard our future and our planet. That is why all men should support women's rights and gender equality. And that is why I am a proud feminist".
Palestinians living in Iraq have taken to Tahrir Square in Baghdad alongside Iraqi demonstrators to fight for their rights as refugees. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) decided Feb. 11 to stop paying housing allowances for nearly 30 Palestinian households in Iraq, adding to their suffering.

That decision follows one about a month ago that halted those benefits for 300 families.

To these Palestinians, their priorities right now eclipse headlines about the so-called deal of the century that has inflamed the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

Ali al-Tamimi, a legal expert and former judge, told Al-Monitor, The Palestinians in Iraq could not care less about Baghdads Jan. 29 statement that underscored its support for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as a capital and its opposition to [Washingtons peace plan] to settle the Middle East conflict.

Tamimi, who handles lawsuits for Palestinians to restore their rights before the Iraqi judiciary, said, "The Palestinians in Iraq perceive such statements as mere political slogans that they take no interest in. He added, This is because they feel that the laws in force in Iraq pose a threat to their lives."

Al-Monitor learned from a source at the Palestinian Embassy in Baghdad who asked to remain anonymous that there are contacts to urgently obtain Iraqi authorities support when it comes to [restarting] the allowances and to initiate talks to have the rights of Iraqi Palestinians restored, as was the case prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003 under Iraqi Law No. 202."

That law, which touched on the fate of 4,000 Palestinian refugees residing in Baghdad, Erbil and Mosul, stated that Palestinians were to be treated as equals to Iraqis. The Iraqi government abolished the law in 2017.

Speaking to Al-Monitor, Nabil Samara, a Palestinian activist involved in organizing Palestinian demonstrations in Tahrir Square, explained, The Palestinians primarily suffer from unemployment and poor living standards. This is not to mention they are not eligible for government employment under Iraqi law. The housing problem has always been the biggest reason for the many households to [leave Iraq].

Samara added, Since the Saddam Hussein regime was ousted in 2003, the Iraqi government has not kept the promises made to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.  On the contrary, Iraqi authorities withheld food ration cards and cut welfare salaries. Also, the wives of [late] Palestinian employees were denied their pensions.

He affirmed that prejudice continues to be a problem for Palestinians, as some Iraqis blame them for backing Saddam, who supported the Palestinians' cause and granted them certain privileges.

Samara revealed he had contacted the Palestinian Embassy in Baghdad, which told him Iraqi officials have met with the ambassador, who is working to reverse the decisions made against Palestinians. "The promises, however, have not been kept," he said, adding, "The UNHCR's decision to stop paying housing allowances is political and simultaneous with Washingtons peace plan.

Iraqi journalist Hadi Jalu Merei wrote a Feb. 9 article about the Palestinian refugees conditions in Iraq after he scouted their areas. He wrote that Iraq risks losing a minority that has been present there for decades.

Merei told Al-Monitor Palestinian families are frustrated with the embassy over the "lack of a decision that would protect Palestinians from the dangers in Iraq.

Hundreds of Palestinian families fled to Jordan in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Iraqi Embassy in Amman has refrained from renewing their travel documents or issuing such documents for infants.

The problem is seemingly a political matter rather than a humanitarian one, judging by some statements of the political elite. In April, the Israeli Foreign Ministry applauded former Iraqi parliament member Mithal al-Alusis remarks that he was not ready to sell out his people's chance for a relationship with Israel for the sake of the Palestinian cause. "Let [the Palestinians] sort this out themselves, he told Iraq's Asia TV.

Furthermore, Iraqi parliament member Alia Nassif in September called for Palestinians in the West Bank to take down the statue of Hussein that was erected in 2017 in Qalqilya.

Wissam Mesbah Shaaban, a Palestinian activist and an administrator of the Facebook page Iraqs Palestinians, told Al-Monitor, "There are dozens of Palestinians charged with terrorism in Iraqi prisons. Their statements are obtained under torture.

He added, This has prompted the Palestinians in Iraq to seek a third country in which to resettle. Some of the widows and disabled have already been resettled in the United Kingdom.

Ali al-Albayati, a member of the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, told Al-Monitor, "A great deal of injustice was done to the Palestinians in Iraq; most notable is that the apartments accommodating them in Baghdads Habibiya district were seized [during fighting after the US invasion]. That forced the UNHCR to accommodate them in the camps of Haifa, in Baladiyat, in coordination with the Ministry of Displacement and Migration. He added, The Palestinian families whose housing allowances were cut will continue to set up tents in Baghdads Tahrir Square until their demands are met.

Iraqi parliament member Falah al-Khafaji told Al-Monitor Iraq needs a clear policy toward refugees coming from various countries in light of successive regional and international crises. "Also, amendments to the legislation pertaining to residency, work permits and citizenship need to be added," he said.

Nevertheless, the responsibility for finding a solution to Palestinian refugees' problems doesn't fall only on Iraq. UN agencies and the Palestinian government must help coordinate and develop agreements that will lead to legislation to guarantee a secure future for the new Palestinian generation abroad.
A solicitor who was refused a job at a law firm because he was too old has won 13,000 compensation despite cracking a 'joke' about his Russian-speaking interviewer poisoning him with Novichok.

Raymond Levy told senior lawyer Maria Udalova-Surkova: 'I hope you are not going to poison me,' before she interviewed him for a position at Cheshire-based law firm McHale Legal Ltd, in the wake of the Salisbury Novichok poisonings in March 2018.

The firm, which at the time had 'a lot of Russian clients,' subsequently turned him down for the job and Mr Levy, then 57 and now 59, took them to an employment tribunal.

Mr Levy told senior lawyer Maria Udalova-Surkova (pictured): 'I hope you are not going to poison me' just days after the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in March 2018. But Mr Levy took them to an employment tribunal after they turned him down for a job as a solicitor even though he was the only candidate

The lawyer, who had a long career behind him working mainly for firms in London and the home counties, accused McHale of age discrimination, pointing out that he had been the only applicant for the job, but had not got it.

Instead, he received an email saying the firm had decided to look for a lawyer with between three and five years' post qualification experience.

The firm had originally advertised that they were looking for a commercial property solicitor with more than five years' experience.

The new criteria would have 'excluded' the 'vast majority' of solicitors aged 40 or over from applying for the job, employment judge Sharon Langridge found.

She found that, although Mr Levy's 'remark about poisoning may not have endeared him to Ms Udalova-Surkova,' his age was 'the principle reason' he was turned down.

She pointed to notes from an internal board meeting which stated his wage level as an older and more experienced solicitor made him 'too expensive' and went on to order the firm to pay him 13,187.83 compensation, including 4,000 for 'injury to feelings'.

The judge said that Mr Levy, who was admitted as a solicitor in 1985 at the age of 24, had attended an interview on 7 March 2018 at one of McHale's offices in the north- west, after seeing an advert for a vacancy in the Law Society Gazette.

Explaining the Novichok incident, the judge said: 'Before the interview started, Mr Levy was in the firm's reception area and accepted the offer of a drink.

Mr Levy's interview came at the time of the poisoning in Salisbury of Russian Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Pictured: Crime scene investigators walk in hazmat suits in the town

'The television in reception was showing the news and there was a report about the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury.

'As Ms Udalova-Surkova greeted Mr Levy to take him downstairs to the room where the interview was going to take place, he made a comment to the effect of, "I hope you aren't going to poison me."

'He did not make reference to her Russian nationality and was not directing the remark at her personally, but was prompted to make what he saw as a joke by the news report.

'Ms Udalova-Surkova was taken aback by the comment but said nothing in response and the interview went ahead without further reference to it.

'Mr Levy (was) interviewed, though he was then not offered the position.'

Going on to the age discrimination issue, the judge said: 'Mr Levy asserted that this was direct discrimination in that the firm rejected him because he was too old and they wanted a younger candidate.

'The firm undoubtedly did not offer Mr Levy the job he applied for and so the heart of the case revolved around the question: if there was less favourable treatment, what was the reason for it? In particular, was that reason discriminatory?

'Mr Levy's remark about poisoning may not have endeared him to Ms Udaloza-Surkova, but it did not represent an obstacle to his appointment.

'(The firm) expressed some concern about Mr Levy's remark about poisoning, as if to suggest that the comment had factored in their reasons for not making an offer (but) Mr Levy's age was the reason or principle reason for the decision not to appoint him.'

A representative of the firm had explicitly stated that 'the reason the firm did not employ him was nothing to do with his remark before the interview,' the judge said.

'The tribunal felt that the respondent firm has little understanding or awareness of discrimination legislation,' the judge said, criticising the firm's 'lack of formal training in diversity and equality issues' and 'complacency and its aggressive defence of the claim.'

The firm, which published an employee handbook and equality policy stating 'everyone is welcome,' had made 'threats to report Mr Levy to the Solicitors Regulation Authority' over his complaints.

The judge said the threats 'were revealing of an employer which is impervious to the possibility that it may have discriminated, even without appreciating it has done so.'

'Rather than keep an open mind and negotiate terms with Mr Levy the firm instead deprived him of an opportunity to obtain work at a time when he was unemployed.

'The direct discrimination claim succeeds,' the judge concluded.
AFRICA

Libya

Expected Council Action

In March, the Council is expected to receive briefings by the Special Representative and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Ghassan Salame, and the chair of the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Jurgen Schulz, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Germany.

UNSMILs mandate expires on 15 September 2020, measures related to the illicit export of petroleum from Libya expire on 30 April 2021, and the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee expires on 15 May 2021.

Key Recent Developments

Libyas capital, Tripoli, has been the scene of fighting for over ten months, starting on 4 April 2019 when General Khalifa Haftar, head of the eastern-based militia known as the Libyan National Army (LNA), launched an offensive towards Tripoli and against the internationally recognised and UN-backed Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) based there. Libya does not have professional security forces, and the GNA currently relies on armed groups for its security. Yacoub El Hillo, Deputy Special Representative and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya, said during a 17 February video teleconference for UN correspondents in New York that this protracted conflict was affecting civilians on a scale that Libya has never seen before, noting that 150,000 people have been displaced since April 2019.

The proxy dimension of the Libyan conflict keeps intensifying in breach of UN sanctions. Reportedly, Turkey and Qatar support the GNA militarily while Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates provide military support to the LNA, and different Chadian and Sudanese armed groups support both sides. According to Libyan and US officials, mercenaries of the Russian military company Wagner Group are also involved on the ground in support of the LNA.

In July 2019, Salame proposed three steps to end the conflict: a truce, a high-level conference of concerned countries, and a Libyan meeting of leading and influential personalities from all over the country.

On 8 January, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a ceasefire in Libya starting on 12 January. An attempt to have both the head of the GNA, Fayez Al-Sarraj, and Haftar sign a ceasefire agreement in Moscow on 13 January failed, with Haftar leaving Moscow without signing.

On 19 January, high-level representatives from Algeria, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, the Republic of the Congo, Russia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, the US, and high-level representatives of the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union, and the League of Arab States adopted conclusions at the Berlin Conference on Libya on six areas (baskets) related to the conflict in Libya. The conference represented the second of Salames three steps. With these conclusions, the participants committed to refraining from interference in the armed conflict or in the internal affairs of Libya and urged all international actors to do the same. They further called upon the United Nations to facilitate ceasefire negotiations between the parties, including through the immediate establishment of technical committees to monitor and verify the implementation of the ceasefire.

The Berlin Conference participants also called on the Council to impose appropriate sanctions on those who are found to be in violation of the ceasefire arrangements and on Member States to enforce these. Regarding the arms embargo, participants committed themselves to unequivocally and fully respect and implement the arms embargo established by the Council and called on all international actors to do the same. The participants further agreed to establish an International Follow-Up Committee (IFC) to coordinate efforts to implement the conclusions. Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, head of the GNA, and Haftar were both in Berlin but not formally a part of the conference. Shortly before the conference, forces allied with the LNA effectively shut down nearly all of Libyas oil fields and terminals, leading to massive revenue loss for the Libyan state. The oil fields and terminals remain blocked.

UNSMIL began to work on the six baskets before the conference. The six baskets are political; economic and financial; security; arms embargo; international humanitarian law; and international human rights law matters. Serraj and Haftar have each nominated five representatives for the 5+5 Libyan Joint Military Commission (part of the security basket). The first round of talks of the 5+5 commission started on 3 February in Geneva, with Salame conducting shuttle diplomacy between the two parties. Its second round started on 18 February. The day after, the GNA announced it was suspending its participation in the talks, following an LNA attack on Tripolis port. At press time, the talks had continued and the second round of the talks had concluded.

On 11 February, the Council adopted resolution 2509, renewing the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee until 15 May 2021. The resolution further renewed until 30 April 2021 measures related to the illicit export of petroleum from Libya. The resolution included new language related to the illicit import of petroleum to Libya. Russia abstained in the vote, saying that the negative impact of importing oil products is not that obvious for the Libyan economy.

On 12 February, the Council adopted resolution 2510, endorsing the conclusions of the Berlin conference. Russia abstained, explaining after the vote that we still do not have a clear understanding of whether all Libyan parties are ready to implement that decision, referring to the conclusions. The UK, on the other hand, emphasised that the Security Council does not act only when parties ask it to act. The whole point of having the Security Council is that it can step into a situation and make its own decisions.

On 26 February, German foreign minister Heiko Maas and Salame briefed Council members in consultations on the first meeting of the IFC.

Human Rights-Related Developments On 18 March, during its 43rd session, the Human Rights Council is expected to hold an interactive dialogue on the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Libya, including on the provision of technical assistance and capacity-building to support the efforts of the GNA to prevent violations and abuses of human rights and ensure accountability for such crimes (A/HRC/43/75).

Key Issues and Options

An ongoing issue is the military conflict, which threatens to deepen long-standing political and economic divisions between different parts of Libya, contributing to the overall instability of the country. Council members will continue following closely the progress made by Salame in his proposed three steps and in implementing the six baskets of the Berlin conference conclusions. Council members are eager to see a permanent ceasefire between the parties to enable further progress on the Berlin conference conclusions.

In the longer term, a Council visiting mission to Libya or a visit by the Libya Sanctions Committee covering the whole country could be considered.

Council Dynamics

Libya continues to be a divisive issue within the Council, as evidenced by statements made after the votes on resolutions 2509 and 2510. Council resolutions and presidential statements routinely call upon UN member states to cease support for parallel institutions in Libya, but some countries, including permanent members of the Council, fail to respect these calls.

The UK is the penholder on Libya, sharing the pen with Germany on the sanctions file. Jurgen Schulz, Germanys Deputy Permanent Representative, chairs the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON LIBYA
MANILA, Philippines - A former Philippine foreign secretary warned Friday that the presidents decision to end a key U.S. security pact will undermine the ability of American forces to help the country deal with major disasters and deter aggression in the disputed South China Sea.

Former Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario cited the deployment of more than 13,000 American military personnel, dozens of aircraft and U.S. Navy ships under the Visiting Forces Agreement when Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the central Philippines in 2013.

Other countries wanted to immediately respond but were constrained by the lack of legal arrangements for their troops to enter the Philippines, del Rosario told a Manila forum where the repercussions of President Rodrigo Dutertes decision to terminate the VFA were discussed.

Dutertes administration notified the U.S. government two weeks ago that it intends to abrogate the 1998 agreement, which allows the entry of large numbers of American forces for joint training with Filipino troops, including disaster-response manoeuvrs, and lays down the legal terms for their temporary stay. The termination will take effect after 180 days unless both sides agree to keep the agreement.

What is unfolding before us is a national tragedy which should be resisted, del Rosario said. As a democratic and republican country, we do not believe that one man alone can make this damaging choice for our people.

The move by Duterte, known for his disdain of U.S. security policies while praising China and Russia, would be a major setback for the two countries decades-long treaty alliance.

Haiyan was one of the most ferocious typhoons on record and left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened entire villages, swept ships inland and displaced more than 5 million people.

Del Rosario, who was foreign secretary when Haiyan struck, said the U.S. government delivered 2,500 tons of relief supplies and evacuated more than 21,000 people to safety.

Duterte defended his decision Wednesday, saying the Philippines can survive and address a long-running communist insurgency and threats by Muslim extremists in the largely Roman Catholic nations south without American military assistance.

Do we need America to survive as a nation? Duterte asked. Do we need ... the might and power of the military of the United States to fight our rebellion here and the terrorists down south and control drugs?

The military and police said, `Sir, we can do it, Duterte said.

Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Manuel Romualdez told the forum there are efforts to find a way to keep American special forces who provide counterterrorism training, intelligence and advice to Filipino troops in the southern Philippines.

There should be efforts to study how the VFA can be polished or improved using other similar status of forces agreements, including one the Philippines forged with Australia, Romualdez said.

From what Im told, the door is not totally shut, he said, without elaborating. But, again, the bottom line always falls on sovereignty and that is the reason why it is a very ticklish and a very sensitive issue for both our countries in discussing what we want to do moving forward.

Del Rosario said the countrys alliance with Washington appears to have deterred China from undertaking reclamation and construction in Scarborough Shoal, a disputed fishing area off the northwestern Philippines that China effectively seized after a tense standoff in 2012.

China has claimed virtually the entire South China Sea, where the U.S. military presence has been seen by some rival claimants as a crucial counterweight in a busy waterway where they fear an armed conflict could erupt.
courtesy of the Multi-County Crime Stoppers

A $1,000 cash reward has been set up to find the person responsible for an early February hit-and-run in Spring that left a 66-year-old pedestrian on the side of the road for hours before he ultimately died days later.

Multi-County Crime Stoppers, in conjunction with the Texas Department of Public Safety, is seeking information on the Feb. 4 or 5 crash on Sawdust Road near Sawmill Road that resulted in the death of Daryl Wayne Strong of Houston.
New report questions OAS results on Bolivias election that led to the overthrow of president Evo Morales.

A US research centre said it found no evidence of fraud in Bolivias presidential elections last October, which was won by incumbent President Evo Morales but had its results dismissed after the Organization of American States (OAS) accused his government of manipulating the results. Morales stepped down in the ensuing uproar.

However, a new study published by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Election Data and Science Lab  commissioned by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)  concluded it was very likely that Morales victory was legitimate.

The media has largely reported the allegations of fraud as fact However, as specialists in election integrity, we find that the statistical evidence does not support the claim of fraud in Bolivias October election, the authors wrote in an article published by The Washington Post on Thursday.

On election night, with 83 percent of the votes tallied, official results showed Morales with a seven percentage point lead over his rival Carlos Mesa.

Publication of results was abruptly halted and, when it resumed a day later, 95 percent of the votes had been counted and Morales had the 10-point lead needed to avoid a risky runoff.

Morales said the lead was thanks to votes that came in late from rural Indigenous areas but the OAS mission in Bolivia cast doubt on his explanation, saying the sudden change in voting patterns was difficult to justify.

On Thursday, in a press release about the study, CEPR said: Morales appear[ed] to have been heading towards a first-round victory prior to the interruption of the preliminary count.

The results once the count resumed [were] in line with the prior trend, there was no inexplicable change in trend in the preliminary count as the OAS had claimed, it said.

A prior report also found the rise in Moraless lead was steady, not drastic.

The OAS needs to explain why it made these statements and why anyone should trust it when it comes to elections, CEPRs co-director Mark Weisbrot said.

Morales also responded to the report, saying the research provided further evidence of the monumental theft that .. [was] made to all Bolivians.

The truth is making its way. The OAS, [Luis] Almagro, and the commission responsible for auditing the results of the October elections, owe many explanations to the Bolivian people and the entire world, he said on Twitter. Almagro is the head of the OAS.

La verdad se abre camino. La OEA, Almagro y la comision encargada de la auditoria de los resultados de las elecciones de octubre, le deben muchas explicaciones al pueblo boliviano y al mundo entero.  Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) February 27, 2020

In December, researchers from CEPR joined by 116 economists signed a letter calling on OAS to retract its misleading statements about the election, which have contributed to the political conflict.

Controversial government

Turmoil in Bolivia began when Morales won a fourth term in office  which was beyond the legal limit  in October and faced immediate resistance from opposition parties that challenged the presidential election results.

Protesters took to the streets, claiming the ballot was rigged.

After weeks of upheaval, Morales resigned under pressure from the military and moved to Mexico, where he was offered political asylum. He was then granted asylum in Argentina.

The country has since been under the stewardship of a controversial interim government led by former Senator Jeanine Anez.

Bolivians will elect their next president, vice president, and other legislators on May 3 after months of political turmoil.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020 10:30 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20671e556 1 Business Indonesia,electricity,solar-power-plant,Sumber-EnergiSukses-Makmur,palm-oil-production,PLN,Masdar,Cirata-Dam Free

Coal miner PT Sumber Energi Sukses Makmur (SESM) will build a solar power station in South Sumtarai in cooperation with local palm oil plantation company PT Golden Blossom Sumatra as part of its expansion into renewable energy.

According to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in Jakarta on Thursday, SESM will build a solar power station with a capacity of 10.5 megawatts (MW) to meet the electricity needs of the plantation company.

Speaking to reporters after the signing of the MoU, SESM president director Zulfia Mirza said the installation of the solar panels and other devices for the solar power plant would start in July.

Were clearing land for the solar farm, which covers around 12 hectares. The installation will begin in July, he said. He hoped the power plant would be able to begin commercial operation in March 2022.

Read also: Jokowi kicks off UAE visit with renewable energy deal as Indonesia seeks funding for energy ambitions

Zulfia said the company would spend between US$18 million and $20 million to build the power plant. Around 70 percent of the funds would be obtained from bank loans and the other 30 percent from the companys own funds.

The solar power plant will solely supply electricity to Golden Blossom Sumatra under a 20-year contract. The power plant will not be connected with state-owned electricity company PT PLNs electrical grid.

As part of its long-term expansion plan, SESM plans to build several solar power plants in a number of regions in the country, especially in areas not connected to PLNs electricity networks.

Our next project will be in Batam. We will install a 5 MW solar power plant to provide electricity for a shipyard, Zulfia said.

The installation of solar power plants and rooftop solar panels is on the rise as the government continues to encourage private companies and households to use solar energy to increase the use of renewable energy in the country.

Read also: More companies turn to solar energy to reduce rising electricity costs

At present, there are 30 solar power stations in the country operated by PLN and independent power producers (IPPs).

PLN unit Pembangkitan Jawa Bali (PJB) is also slated to begin the construction of the $129 million Cirata floating solar power plant in West Java next year, with support from Abu Dhabi renewables firm Masdar.

Once fully operational at 145 MW, Cirata will be Indonesias largest solar power plant, taking over the title from the existing 15 MW Likupang plant in North Sulawesi. (mpr)
1. Taapsee's Thappad Is Making People Cry, Fans & Celebs Call It An Important Heart-Wrenching Film

After watching the movie, filmmaker Hansal Mehta wrote a long note on his website and called it Anubhav Sinha's best work so far -- better than Mulk and Article 15. Thappad is an even more difficult conversation to have and hence an even more difficult film to make. It is after all about our private lives. It explores our attitudes, bares our mindsets and strips us of all those artifices we have about gender and patriarchy in our day to day lives. It nudges you, it pushes you, it argues with you, it talks to you, it compels you, it engages you. Through its exploration of the political in the personal it affects you deeply and in that is Thappads resounding triumph.



2. After Oscars Win, Bong Joon Ho To Release 304 Pages Of 'Parasite' Storyboards As Graphic Novel

Grand Central Publishing has purchased the director's official storyboards that map out the entire film in 304 pages, and they will release the book on the upcoming one-year anniversary of the Bong Joon Ho directorial.



3. Javed Akhtar Slams Shekhar Kapur, Says From Story To Characters, 'Mr India' Was His Brainchild

"Shekhar saheb the story, the situations, the scenes, the characters, the dialogue, the lyrics, even the title, none of these were yours. I gave it all to you. Yes you execute it very well but how can your claim on the film be more than mine. It wasn't your idea. It wasn't your dream," he tweeted.



4. Tamil Actress Files Complaint Against Pizza Delivery Boy, Says He Shared Her Number On Adult Groups

She alleged that the delivery boy was in an inebriated condition when he came to deliver the food. She said she tried to raise an issue with the company but nothing happened. ".@dominos_india guy delivered pizza at my place in Chennai in a intoxicated state on the 9th of feb and shared my number in adult groups and a complaint is pending since ur office is yet to speak to me . I have numerous calls and WhatsApp which he has shared .please be safe all," she wrote on Twitter along with a picture of the delivery boy.



How ironic that my latest track was a tribute to India and then this happens, he wrote in one Instagram story.


Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Masoumeh Ebtekar delivers a speech during the opening session of the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) at Le Bourget, near Paris, France, November 30, 2015.

Masoumeh Ebtekar, one of Iran's vice presidents, has coronavirus.

Ebtekar is perhaps best known outside of Iran for her role as a spokesperson for Iranian students who took dozens of hostages at the US Embassy in Tehran in the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.

Over two dozen people have died from coronavirus in Iran.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Stephane Mahe/Reuters

Masoumeh Ebtekar, Iranian vice president for women and family affairs, has been infected with coronavirus, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.

Ebtekar is the first member of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's cabinet to be infected with the novel (new) coronavirus. She was in a meeting with Rouhani and the Iranian cabinet as recently as Wednesday.

Other Irianian officials, including Iran's deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Harirchi on Monday appeared to be physically uncomfortable and unwell during a press conference.

Over two dozen people have died from coronavirus in Iran thus far since the outbreak hit there, marking the highest death toll from the virus outside of China.

The virus, which causes a respiratory disease known as COVID-19, has so far killed over 2,800 and infected over 82,000 worldwide. Though the vast majority of cases are in China, where the virus originated, it's now spread to at least 40 other countries.

Ebtekar was the English-language spokesperson known to the media as "Mary" during the Iranian hostage crisis, when Iranian students stormed and occupied the US Embassy in Tehran.

Story continues

The hostage crisis began in November 1979 during the Islamic Revolution. Initially, 66 American hostages were taken, but that number dwindled t0 52 by July 1980 as hostages were released for various reasons. The crisis lasted for 444 days, ending on January, 20, 1981.

Iran and the US have been adversaries ever since.

The US is taking steps to prepare for coronavirus after the Centers for Disease Contol and Prevention (CDC) warned that its spread in the US was inevitable. The first possible case of community spread of the virus was detected in California on Wednesday.

According to the CDC: "Community spread means spread of an illness for which the source of infection is unknown." But the CDC also said it's possible that the patient in California may have been exposed to a returned traveler who was infected.

President Donald Trump has faced bipartisan criticism over his approach to coronavirus thus far, and public health experts have raised serious concerns over the contradictory messaging from his administration on the threat posed to the US. Trump has sought to downplay the impact coronavirus will have in the US as the CDC tells Americans to expect "severe" disruptions.

Business Insider
Seoul, Feb 28 : The number of coronavirus cases in South Korea increased to 2,022 on Friday, with a total of 13 fatalities as the nation aggressively counters the fast-spreading virus with massive testing, particularly for 210,000 followers of a religious sect at the centre of the epidemic.

The 256 new cases brought the nation's total infections to 2,022, the Yonhap News Agency quoted the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) as saying.

Only two days ago, the number of infections exceeded 1,000.

More than half of newly confirmed cases were linked to a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the southeastern city of Daegu, 300 km southeast of Seoul.

Of the 256 new cases, 182 are in Daegu, and 49 are in the neighbouring North Gyeongsang Province.

Since raising the virus alert level to "red", the highest level, on Sunday, health authorities have focused on halting the spread of the virus in Daegu, the epicentre of the virus outbreak in South Korea, and North Gyeongsang.

Experts said the number of confirmed cases is expected to jump in the coming days as health authorities have begun testing more than 210,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.

The government also ordered another 1,638 Shincheonji followers to self-isolate as they have shown symptoms, Yonhap News Agency said in its report.

Since the first coronavirus case -- a Chinese woman from Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak -- on January 20, the pace of infections had not been alarming until February 18, when a 61-year-old woman who is tied to the Daegu religious sect tested positive for the virus.

Since then, the nation has seen an explosion in infections as it accelerated virus tests on potential cases.
A Kashmiri Pandit activist was detained by police on Friday, amid reports that he was planning to take out a march in the city, official sources said.

Satish Mahaldar was detained as soon as he arrived at the Srinagar airport and taken to the Kothibagh police station, they said, adding that he was later let go.

There were reports that the activist was planning to organise a peace march from the Lal Chowk to the Safa Kadal area.

Mahaldar, however, said he had not planned any rally but had come to Srinagar to attend a program on Sufism.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) listens next to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) during a press conference to announce articles of impeachment for President Donald Trump during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Dec. 10, 2019. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Nadler Demands Information From Barr Over Claims of Political Interference

The House Judiciary Committee on Friday sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) requesting documents and interviews with former and current department officials over claims of improper political interference in the way several department matters have been handled.

The committees chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), said in his letter (pdf) to Attorney General William Barr that the lawmakers are requesting the information in order to fulfill its oversight responsibility. He is specifically asking the attorney general to turn over documents related to several criminal matters, including the sentencing of Trump associate Roger Stone and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and the departments probe into the origins of the 2016 counterintelligence investigation on the Trump campaign.

He is also asking for information in other matters such as the departments handling of antitrust enforcement and the creation of a new process to vet information submitted by anyone, including President Donald Trumps lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Nadler is also requesting testimony or interviews from more than a dozen U.S. attorneys who have knowledge of those criminal and civil matters, including John H. Durham, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, who is leading the probe into the origins of the FBIs Russia investigation, and the four prosecutors who withdrew from Stones case following the departments decision to revise the sentencing recommendation that was deemed excessive.

Our democracy is founded on the notion that no one is above the law, and strict adherence to the rule of law has separated us from all other nations. Attorneys General have supported this principle on a bipartisan basis throughout our history, but that principle is now under assault, Nadler said in a statement on Friday.

The information request comes about a month before Barr is scheduled to testify before the committee lawmakers on March 31. The lawmakers requested the attorney generals testimony over their claims that Barr had engaged in a pattern of conduct in legal matters relating to the President that raises significant concerns for this Committee.

Attorney General William Barr speaks at a the National Sheriffs Association conference in Washington on Feb. 10, 2020. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

The DOJ came under extensive scrutiny in recent weeks for some of the cases listed in Nadlers letter, such as the Stone case, over concerns that the department was acting based on public statements made by the president.

In 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 DOJ, however, intervened in the case, calling the recommendation excessive and unwarranted.

The department then filed a revised sentencing memorandum that asked for a sentence of incarceration far less than 87 to 108 months imprisonment, but did not offer a specific prison recommendation.

The departments announcement to revise their sentencing recommendation came hours after Trump weighed in on Twitter about the seven to nine years recommendation. The departments spokeswoman Kerri Kupec told media outlets that the DOJ didnt consult with the White House about Stones sentencing. She added that the decision to change the sentencing request was made before the president had commented about it on Twitter. Meanwhile, Barr maintains that the decision to revise the sentencing recommendation came before Trumps Twitter post.

Four prosecutors involved withdrew from the Stone case on the same day of the DOJs announcement.

In the wake of that case, Barr issued some rare criticism to the president, saying that he thinks its time to stop the tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases. He said the public statements about the department and its staff make it impossible for the attorney general to do his job.

The attorney general added that he was not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody including whether its Congress, a newspaper editorial board, or the president.

Trump has agreed with Barrs assessment saying that his social media posts are making Barrs job harder.

I do make his job harder. I do agree with that. I think thats true, Trump said. Hes a very straight shooter. We have a great attorney general and hes working very hard. Hes working against a lot of people that dont want to see good things happen, in my opinion.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the letter.
WASHINGTON  South Carolina voters head to the polls Saturday in a key primary that could help solidify the path of Sen. Bernie Sanders to the Democratic nomination or breathe critical life into the campaign of another Democrat ahead of the all-important Super Tuesday elections.

Some New York Democrats in Congress are publicly rooting against a Sanders win. Others support the Vermont Democratic socialist. And a chunk have no desire to share their views publicly at all.

The New Yorkers split over two critical electability questions: can Sanders beat President Donald Trump and will a Sanders nomination make the re-election of House Democrats from swing-districts harder?

Some moderates have expressed fears Sanders's platform and label as a socialist will cost Democrats, sharing his ticket, their House majority and put any chance of Democrats winning the Senate, far far out of reach.

U.S. Rep. Anthony Brindisi, a Utica Democrat who unseated a Republican in 2018 in a district that backed Trump in 2016, said this week that he thought it would be difficult for Sanders to win in November. He prefers a more moderate candidate. He told Syracuse.com he doesn't think people "are looking for a president who supports abolishing private health insurance companies."

"I have made my views on Sen. Sanders pretty clear," he echoed Friday.

U.S. Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, another freshman who won a seat previously held by a Republican, refused to engage with the question of Sanders's candidacy.

Engaging in horse-jockeying around a presidential race is not something that I am here to do," he said.

Sanders's most well-known and probably most controversial policy is Medicare for All, a plan to create a single-payer national health insurance program that would cover all Americans and be funded through taxes. The policy is also backed by Democratic candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, but is opposed by the other more moderate Democrats in the race.

Sanders also supports the Green New Deal climate resolution, wants to provide free childcare and debt-free public college for all and expand Social Security benefits. In debates, moderate Democrats have attacked Sanders's views as extreme and called him a polarizing and divisive figure.

Representing the blue Albany stronghold, U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, said calling Sanders's views extreme is unfair.

I think theres issues of fundamental fairness," Tonko said. "If they are labeled as extreme, this is about economic equality. Its about making certain that theres social and economic justice. I think that has been a traditional path of this party and its needed now more than ever I believe.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who also ran on Medicare for All when she was in the presidential race, said this week she sees a path to victory for Sanders.

I do believe he can beat President Trump, Gillibrand told Politico. What Bernie has shown us until now is that he has a very broad base of very, very passionate followers. That is the first thing you need for a campaign on any level. Especially in a red or purple district.

She told the Times Union, Every potential challenger can beat President Trump. No matter who wins the nomination, Democrats will be united in our goals of winning the White House, flipping the Senate and holding the House.

The most outspoken Sanders supporter of New York Democrats is fellow Democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the Bronx, who endorsed Sanders in October and campaigns for him. Ocasio-Cortez, 30, said she backs him because he has fought for public education, affordable health care and housing since the time she was a child.

Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, said he thought Sanders views will resonate "with a lot of people, but it remains to be seen as to where he is, once the Democratic primary comes to New York.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

"I want a candidate that can win first and foremost and can get the factions of the party to coalesce around that candidate," Higgins said. "I still think we are early in the primary process."

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., expressed confidence in all the Democratic candidates, while refusing to discuss his views on individuals.

"The bottom line is very simple. We have a lot of strong nominees," he said. "We have a lot of Senate candidates running. Im not supporting one over the other. But I think every one of them will beat President Trump.

Gillibrand has said she will most likely make a presidential endorsement before the New York primary on April 28.

Tonko also said he may make an endorsement before the primary. Key for Tonko will be deciding which candidate has the best plan for combating climate change.

"As long as theyre there with the climate change issue and environmental improvements and infrastructure investments," Tonko said. There are a number of them that are strong and have put together a plan on climate.

Higgins indicated he's thinking about an endorsement, as has Brindisi. Schumer will not make one before the nominee is selected.

Sanders is the first candidate ever to win the popular vote in all of the three early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.

New York Democratic voters favor Sanders over former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg for president, according to a Siena College Research Institute poll released Monday.

Sanders won support from 25 percent of registered Democrats, Siena found, with Bloomberg in second place at 21 percent  a four-point difference that falls within the poll's margin of error. Following far behind were former Vice President Joe Biden with 13 percent; Warren at 11 percent; and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg tied at 9 percent.

Each of the six leading Democratic candidates won double-digit leads over President Donald Trump in head-to-head comparisons in New York, Siena found. Still, 62 percent of voters across the political spectrum believe Trump will be re-elected this November, including 48 percent of registered Democrats and 73 percent of independents.
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The Russian government decided to temporarily restrict the entry of Iranian citizens into the county due to an outbreak of coronavirus, according to a report on the governments website, reports TASS.

In order to ensure state security, protect public health, and prevent the spread of a new coronavirus infection (2019-nCoV) on the territory of the Russian Federation, from 00:00 on February 28, 2020, Moscow time, the Russian Federal Security Service temporarily suspends passage of citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran across the Russian state border, their entry into the territory of the Russian Federation for studying and employment, as well as for private, tourist and transit purposes, the report reads.

According to the decree, the Russian Foreign Ministry must temporarily suspend processing and issuance of visas to Iranian citizens. The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs halts registration and issuance of work permits to Iranian citizens outside of Russia, as well as invitations for studying and employment.
VANCOUVER, Washington, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CytoDyn Inc. (OTC.QB: CYDY), (CytoDyn or the Company"), a late-stage biotechnology company developing leronlimab (PRO 140), a CCR5 antagonist with the potential for multiple therapeutic indications, announced today that Nader Pourhassan, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer, and Craig Eastwood, chief financial officer, will host an investment community conference call on March 5, 2020 to provide a comprehensive update on several recent developments. The conference call will focus on the following key agenda items:



Bruce Patterson, M.D., chief executive officer and founder of IncellDx, a diagnostic partner and advisor to CytoDyn, will provide a detailed explanation of the mechanism of action for treating coronavirus with leronlimab

Filing of an IND and Phase 2 clinical trial protocol with the FDA for the treatment of coronavirus with leronlimab in the U.S.

Status of U.S. filing of the Biologics License Application (BLA) for leronlimab in combination with standard antiretroviral therapies in HIV-infected treatment-experienced patients

Status of the Companys request for Breakthrough Therapy Designation for the treatment of mTNBC with leronlimab

Expected timing of the Companys filing for a new request for Breakthrough Therapy Designation for the treatment of 22 different solid tumor cancers

Anticipated timing of potential approval by TFDA (Taiwanese FDA) of leronlimab for the treatment of cancer, HIV and coronavirus

Anticipated timing of potential approval by CFDA (Chinese FDA) of leronlimab for the treatment of cancer and coronavirus

Testimony from cancer patients regarding their experiences with leronlimab for cancer treatment

Overview of ongoing licensing opportunities with several countries for the use of leronlimab for the treatment of HIV, cancer and coronavirus

Management will dedicate approximately 45 minutes to address questions from analysts and investors.

Date: Thursday, March 5, 2020

Time: 4:00 p.m. ET / 1:00 p.m. PT

Dial-In: 877-407-2986 US / 201-378-4916 International

A live audio webcast may also be accessed via CytoDyns corporate website at www.cytodyn.com under the Investors section/IR Calendar and will be archived for 30 days. Web participants are encouraged to go to the website 15 minutes prior to the start of the call to register, download and install any necessary software. The webcast can also be accessed via the following link:

https://78449.themediaframe.com/dataconf/productusers/cydy/mediaframe/36186/indexl.html

A replay of the conference call will be available until April 5, 2020. To access the replay, interested parties may dial 877-660-6853 (US) / 201-612-7415 (international) and enter conference identification number 13695017.

CONTACTS

Investors:

Dave Gentry, CEO

RedChip Companies

Office: 1.800.RED.CHIP (733.2447)

Cell: 407.491.4498

dave@redchip.com
Union home minister Amit Shah and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, who have been bitter critics of each other, had a lunch together on Friday at Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik's residence, where they were also joined by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.

IMAGE: Union home minister Amit Shah, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar at a lunch hosted by Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday. Photograph: @Naveen_Odisha/Twitter

The lunch, during which Shah and Banerjee sat facing each other across the table, was hosted by Patnaik after the Eastern Zonal Council meeting in Bhubaneswar.

Sources said the lunch, during which traditional Odia delicacies were served, was hosted in the honour of Union home minister and the two chief ministers.

Petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan also joined them.

IMAGE: The leaders relish traditional Odia delicacies. Photograph: PTI Photo

While there was no official word on what was talked about during the meal, the picture of Shah and Mamata sharing a lunch led to talks in the political circles about a possible scale down in their attacks on each other.

Jharkhand finance minister Rameshwar Oraon, who represented the state in the meeting in the absence of chief minister Hemant Soren, did not join them.

IMAGE: Shah and Mamata share a light moment as Patnaik looks on. Photograph: PTI Photo

Banerjee said, "I joined the lunch together with respected Home Minister, respected Naveenji and respected Nitishji."

In a tweet, Patnaik said, "Such a pleasure having the company of Union Home Minister@Amit Shah ji, my colleague CMs, @MamataOfficial, @NitishKumar ji & Union Minister @dpradhanbjp ji at Naveen Niwas. Had a wonderfully interactive time over some home cooked #Odia delicacies."
HOLYOKE  The Ordinance Committee on Tuesday considered an ordinance that would create the position of city finance director.

City Councilor Joseph McGiverin, who filed the order on behalf of Mayor Alex Morse, said the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) recommended a charter change to update the citys financial departments.

Mike Bloomberg, the mayors chief of staff, said the DORs Division of Local Services in 2007 favored Holyoke hiring a finance director. He said municipalities are moving away from elected officials helming financial departments and said Holyoke is lagging behind.

Its a position that could have the most positive impact on the city so far, he said.

Voters in 2015 narrowly defeated a ballot question that would have merged the elected treasurer position with the appointed tax collector position. The treasurer-collector would have been appointed by the City Council and serve as the citys chief financial officer, much like the private sector.

Ward 3 Councilor David Bartley said he felt the proposed ordinance was an end-run around a vote to change the city charter. He called for a legal opinion before proceeding. He asked if neighboring communities had finance directors, saying he wants an apples to apples comparison.

Bloomberg said a finance director would focus on budget management and long-range planning. He added that city departments now operate in separate silos and are not required to report to one person or department.

City financial officials meet regularly with each other and the mayor, Bloomberg said. The assessor, tax collector and city auditor would maintain their autonomy under the proposal.

If the finance director is approved by the City Council, the city would post a job description to attract candidates. Bloomberg said several current city financial officers meet the qualifications.
Chinas No. 1 Central Document, the first policy statement released by the countrys central authorities each year, has called for greater efforts to increase farmers incomes through multiple channels.

Farmers at Shilibu Town, Miyun District of Beijing, pick hot-sale strawberries for online pre-order. (Photo by He Yong from Peoples Daily)

The document called for more efforts to achieve this objective as the country strives to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects this year.

The document also called for industries capable of increasing rural peoples income to be developed.

In doing so, China will continue to optimize agricultural restructuring, promote the branding of agricultural products, and increase the supply of quality green products, said Chinese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Han Changfu.

The document called for integrated industrial development in rural areas driven by an entire industry chain based on local resources and advantages.

The document also called for greater e-commerce penetration in rural areas, as e-commerce has promoted the sectors development, given rural residents job security and increased their incomes.

China needs to accelerate the construction of a digital countryside to help farmers sell agricultural products through e-commerce platforms, as marketable products are vital to agricultural development, said Ye Xingqing, head of the rural economy research department of the Development Research Center of the State Council.

Zhang Zhu, a resident of Xiawan village of Donghai county in east Chinas Jiangsu province, is optimistic about the prospects for e-commerce in rural areas. Zhang has opened several stores on different e-commerce platforms to sell succulent plants, and often uses live-streaming videos to sell the products from his greenhouse.

My annual income is over 5 million yuan, and I sell succulent plants to dozens of countries and regions including South Korea and Japan, Zhang said, adding that he plans to open more online stores.

In addition, China will increase subsidies for rural migrant workers receiving vocational skills training, and take measures to ensure that they can get their wages on time and in full.
Saturday 27 February sees 107 years since the death of Captain Tayyareci Fethi Bey, the first pilot in Turkish aviation history, who gave his name to Fethiye.

Usually, there is a commemoration service held at Sehit Fethi Bey Park to honour the first Turkish airman to die in military service.

This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the commemoration service cant take place in its usual format.

Heres a reminder of last years service to remember Captain Tayyareci Fethi Bey.

Fethi Bey

Tayyareci Fethi Bey was born in Ayazpasa in Istanbul in 1887. He graduated from Naval College in 1907 as a second lieutenant. He was then sent to Britain, where he trained as an aviator. He was promoted to captain in 1911 and was one of the first pilots in the Ottoman Air Force.

What happened to Fethi Bey?

One American newspaper at the time said that the young aviator died on 28th February 1914. It reported that he was attempting to fly from Istanbul to Alexandria, in Egypt, together with his navigator, Sadik Efendi, in a Bleriot XI/B plane called Muavenet-i Milliye when the tragedy occurred.

This article appeared in the Knoxville Journal and Tribune, Knoxville, Tennessee on March 1, 1914,

Turkish Aviators Killed,

Constantinople, Feb. 28.  Fethi Bey and Sadik Bey, young aviators of the Turkish military aviation corps, were killed today while attempting to fly from Constantinople to Alexandria, Egypt. After leaving Damascus on the way to Jerusalem the aeroplane broke down in mid-air and the two aviators fell with it from a high altitude. Fethi Bey rendered great assistance to the Ottoman army during the Balkan war, making many flights over the Bulgarina positions.

There appears to be some confusion about the day Fethi Bey died but Turkish sources agree that it was on February 27th, 1914.

Fethiye  the place of Fethi

The town was renamed from Megri to Fethiye which means The place of Fethi, to honour the first Turkish airman to die in military service.

In photos  have a look at our gallery of photos from the ceremony

Photographs by Lyn Ward and Sefik Akkurt. Video by Paul Watts.

Although the day was grey and the low clouds promised rain to come, the weather held and people turned out to enjoy the ceremony. Many were looking forward to the flypast by three Turkish Air Force jets as a mark of respect.

The day was grey and the low clouds promised rain to come.

Fethi Bey looking to the sky

Istiklal Mars  the Turkish National Anthem.

Istiklal Mars  the Turkish National Anthem.

Istiklal Mars  the Turkish National Anthem.

The flypast by three Turkish Air Force jets as a mark of respect.

The flypast by three Turkish Air Force jets as a mark of respect.

The flypast by three Turkish Air Force jets as a mark of respect.

A display by the Turkish Aeronautical Association founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1925.

A mark of respect to Fethi Bey

The Turkish Aeronautical Association put on a fantastic display with this model plane

The crowds were delighted with the acrobatics of this model plane

The crowds were delighted with the acrobatics of this model plane

Photograph by Sefik Akkurt
Hurricane Harvey may be long gone, but dangers brought on by the storm linger.

A Harris County Drinking Water Advisory map shows which areas of Houston have unsafe drinking water. According to the map, there are still a few areas dotting Houston where officials urge residents to boil water.
Margaret Ntale, whose three student daughters are stranded in Wuhan, and Cecilia Oyet, in foreground holding cellphone, whose daughter is a medical student at Wuhan University of Science and Technology, speak by video-call to their children and other Ugandan students who are stranded in Wuhan, from Ntale's house in Kampala, Uganda on Feb. 27, 2020. Parents' fears are growing for the thousands of African students who are thought to be stranded in Wuhan amid the virus outbreak, with concerns that students are running out of food and money weeks after other countries evacuated citizens. (AP Photo)

Parents of Terrified Africans Stranded in China Want Help

KAMPALA, UgandaShe wakes every day long before dawn to chat with her three stranded daughters on the other side of the world in Chinas locked-down city of Wuhan, anxious to see they have started a new day virus-free.

If I dont get a reply it worries me, but if I get a reply from any of them I say, Thank you, Jesus,' Margaret Ntale said.

Many countries evacuated citizens from Wuhan after the virus outbreak started there, but thousands of students from African countries have been left behind. Despite pleas with governments for evacuation, several African countries have said its safer to stay in place.

More than 4,000 African students have been estimated to be in Wuhan, a result of Chinas push to expand its influence on the youthful African continent.

Bringing them home, governments say, is risky in sub-Saharan Africa, which on Feb. 28 confirmed its first case of the virus, in Nigerias city of Lagos. Just two cases have been confirmed in North Africa, in Egypt and Algeria. Health systems can be weak, and quarantining dozens or hundreds of returning people is a major challenge.

That leaves African students stuck on ever-emptier campuses in Wuhan, worrying about running out of food or the money to buy it. Some governments have begun sending thousands of dollars to help them get by.

I have a few friends who are not able to get things like detergent, sanitary towels, and then also not having food, like such things like that, said one of Ntales daughters roommates, Joanna Aloyo, via a messaging app.

In this image taken from video, Margaret Ntale, whose three student daughters are stranded in Wuhan, looks at photographs of her children as she speaks to The Associated Press at her house in Kampala, Uganda on Feb. 27, 2020. (AP Photo)

On Thursday, Ntale joined other parents in Ugandas capital, Kampala, to talk to local reporters about their fears. And she started to cry.

You can never know what is going to happen tomorrow. This is what scares me, Ntale said. The students are traumatized and equally terrified. It makes all of us break down.

The uncertainty about their children is psychological torture, another parent said. At least 70 Ugandan students are stranded in Wuhan.

Ugandas health minister, Jane Aceng, could not be reached immediately. But two weeks ago she said the ministry was looking at the cost to isolate, monitor and manage in the event of an outbreak among the group if repatriated.

Meanwhile she has said the government would send $60,000 in emergency funds to be distributed among students in Wuhan.

But the parents said their children had not received the money.

It is a bit upsetting that it appears no serious action has taken place, said one parent, Cecilia Oyet. I think that kind of inaction or slow action sends a message to those students out there, and even to the youth within the country. It sends a message either that we as fellow Ugandans, we dont care or that they as the youth, they dont matter, and we feel it is not okay.

The parents communicate with their children by phone and the occasional video chat. They are increasingly alarmed as the death toll from the virus has grown, though some speak of trying to remain positive.

Oyet, whose daughter is a medical student at Wuhan University of Science and Technology, recalled that about two weeks ago a student sent a message saying that people are dying here in large numbers and the bodies are being cremated. Can you imagine us dying here and you dont even see our bodies? Please do something before we become part of the statistics.

Other countries have announced plans to send students money. Botswanas government has said each of its students in Wuhan will receive an additional allowance of about $144 a month and a local company will be engaged to deliver food, water, face masks and even provide psychosocial support services.

But thats not enough, some students and parents say. After some called Ghanas government callous for not evacuating its students, President Nana Akufo-Addo last week said it had not been ruled out but it would be done in a way to avoid fear and panic among the public.

Nurses work at an ICU ward specialized for patients infected by coronavirus in Wuhan in central Chinas Hubei Province, on Feb. 22, 2020. (Xiao Yijiu/Xinhua via AP)

In Ethiopia, where some worried families gathered in the capital, Addis Ababa, seeking evacuations, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed this week said Chinese leader Xi Jinping assured him in a phone call that China would provide special care and support to stranded students.

Chinese authorities have issued statements saying students are receiving food and other necessities. But Kenyas government raised eyebrows last week when it announced on Twitter that any communication from the government to stranded Kenyans in Wuhan must be done through the Chinese government.

Spirits among some students have been low. Until Thursday night when South Africa announced that more than 130 citizens in Wuhan would be evacuated, the small island nations of Seychelles and Mauritius were the only countries in sub-Saharan Africa to bring citizens home.

In an open letter to Nigerias president published earlier this month by the Sahara Reporters website, a Nigerian stranded in Wuhan, Ayodeji Adetunji Idowu, made an urgent plea, saying the mood here is fast turning to frustration, helplessness, and despondency because of our failure to receive diplomatic support to be evacuated.

While Nigerias ambassador sent the community a personal donation of about $2,850, it saddens us that days and weeks have gone past  to get a favorable response from authorities, Idowu wrote.

By Rodney Muhumuza
In another shocking case of bullying, two high school seniors in Indonesia reportedly force-fed 77 juniors human faeces.

According to Jakarta Post, the incident took place at a Catholic seminary school named Mother of All Nations in Indonesia. Two of the seniors took the schoolyard bullying to the most disgusting level.

dw.com/Picture For Representation

It all started when the two who are in charge of hygiene at the school, discovered a bag full of faeces in an empty locker.



They allegedly went ahead and rounded up 89 students from the seventh grade to find out who'd kept the bag of faeces.

When no one gave an answer, the enraged seniors grabbed a spoon and force-fed the human poop to 77 students. While doing so, they also threatened the kids with dire consequences in case anyone revealed what happened in class.

Twitter/Picture for representation

But one of the victims told their parents about the incident and they reported it on the schools WhatsApp group two days later, according to the news outlet.

It turned out the faeces belonged to one of the students who relieved himself in the bag because he could not make it to a bathroom in time, reports Jakarta Post.

The school must take drastic action against the perpetrator. Expel him if necessary, Martinus, a parent of one of the bullied students, told local media. I have removed my child from this school. They will have a fresh start at a new school.

Twitter

Father Deodatus Duu, a priest who is the head of the Mother of All Nations Seminary, tried to downplay the incident saying the victims had not actually eaten the feces, saying it just touched their mouths or tongues.

The commissioner of the Indonesian Children's Protection Commission expressed concern over the incident and said the two students could face legal trouble under child protection laws.




A whistle-blower at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has reportedly alleged that US health workers who helped American evacuees from China had not been provided with proper training or protective gear, which may have exposed them to the coronavirus.

The complaint alleges that more than a dozen HHS employees were sent to Travis and March Air Force bases in California without full protective gear and training on how to protect themselves and adds that those workers who did not show symptoms of infection were not tested for the disease, US media reported.

The Washington Post first reported about the complaint filed to the Office of Special Counsel, an independent watchdog agency that investigates whistle-blower complaints.

The whistle-blower, who according to the New York Times is a senior official in the HHS, is now seeking federal protection, claiming she was unfairly reassigned after raising concerns about the safety of workers.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar speaking during a news conference on the coronavirus outbreak in the White House in Washington, DC [File: Carlos Barria/Reuters]

One of the whistle-blowers lawyers, Ari Wilkenfeld, confirmed the complaint to US media on Friday.

We are hopeful that Congress and the OSC will investigate this case in a timely and comprehensive manner, Wilkenfeld told Politico. This matter concerns HHSs response to the coronavirus, and its failure to protect its employees and potentially the public. The retaliatory efforts to intimidate and silence our client must be opposed.

Late on Thursday, Democratic Senator Ed Markey called on HHS Secretary Alex Azar to resign.

Allowing HHS workers to be exposed to Wuhan evacuees without adequate protection is gross mismanagement that jeopardizes American lives. We need someone in charge who will rise to the level of responding to this threat. Sec. Azar isnt that person. Im calling for him to resign. https://t.co/nXAQEYZf2w  Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) February 27, 2020

Azar on Friday said the US plans to invoke a law called the Defense Production Act to boost production of protective equipment, including masks and gloves, to combat the coronavirus.

On Wednesday, officials confirmed that a woman in California had contracted the disease from an unknown source, raising fears of community spread of the virus in the US.

There are 62 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those cases include 47 people who were repatriated.

The coronavirus outbreak originated in China and has spread to 59 countries around the world, affected markets, grounded flights and shuttered schools.

It has infected more than 83,000 people and killed nearly 3,000  mostly in China.
A former New Jersey man was charged by federal authorities this week for taking part in a plot to threaten and intimidate activists and journalists, including hanging a swastika-filled poster on a Florida residence that read in part: "WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE DO NOT F--- WITH US.

YOU HAVE BEEN VISITED BY YOUR LOCAL NAZIS, the sign closed.

Federal authorities alleged that Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe, 20, a 2017 graduate of Egg Harbor Township High School who now lives in Spring Hill, Florida, put the sign up on the front of a residence of what he believed to be the home of a local journalist in Tampa Bay.

Parker-Dipeppe had the wrong address, authorities said, but he was still charged along with three other individuals from across the country, who are described as racially motivated violent extremists, with conspiracy for their plot to intimidate minority activists and journalists.

The four were charged in U.S District Court in Seattle.

This is not how America works, John C. Demers, the U.S. assistant Attorney General for National Security, said in a statement. "The Department of Justice will not tolerate this type of behavior.

According to the criminal complaint, the four men are members of Atomwaffen Division, a a neo-Nazi group that formed in 2016, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

The suspects conspired on an encrypted online chat group called Wire to locate journalists they wanted to intimidate, according to the complaint, with a specific plot to target journalists of color and Jewish journalists. The targets were a TV journalist who had reported on Atomwaffen and two individuals associated with the Anti-Defamation League in Seattle, a Tampa Bay journalist and a magazine journalist in Arizona, the complaint says.

Law enforcement officials conducted surveillance of Parker-Dipeppe on Jan. 25 and watched as he, and another unidentified male, hung up the Neo-Nazi poster near a bedroom window of the front of a Tampa residence. According to the complaint, the intended target was a local journalist who was born in Puerto Rico, but the two men did not have the right address.

Before they hung the posters, the group considered mailing or delivering the posters directly to the targets, the complaint says.

In their online chat group, Parker-Dipeppe said mailing them wasnt a bad idea, but voiced his support for delivering them directly, the complaint says.

I like the dangerous side more, he said, according to the complaint. Parker-Dipeppe did voice concern that his New Jersey license plates could be an issue for delivering a poster to a home with tight security, according to the complaint.

It will look suspicious especially on me and Lazs end driving with a New Jersey plated car and parking somewhere random," Parker-Dipeppe wrote, according to the complaint. However weve gotten away with it in the past too.

Parker-Dipeppe graduated in 2017 from Egg Harbor Township High School, according to a graduation list. It is unclear when he moved to Florida, but a classmate from high school told the Tampa Bay Times that Parker-Dipeppe recently began posting hate-filled messages on social media.

Parker-Dipeppes father, Henry, told The Tampa Bay Times that he didnt raise his son that way.

I dont know what happened to him, Henry Dipeppe told the newspaper. I didnt raise him that way. He wasnt raised in a house of hate. He made a stupid mistake. Hes just a kid. Hes 20-years-old.

Henry Dipeppe did not immediately return a message for comment.

A federal magistrate judge ruled to detain Parker-Dipeppe during his first appearance in court, according to The Tampa Bay Times.

The other three men charged in the conspiracy are:

Cameron Brandon Shea, 24, of Redmond, Washington

Kaleb Cole, 24, of Montgomery, Texas

Johnny Roman Garza, 20, of Queen Creek, Arizona.

Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Follow on Twitter @monavage.

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With an aim to bring a dramatic change through Digital Transformation in India, Uday Sodhi, former Business Head of SonyLiv, has partnered with 4 industry leaders  Atindriya Bose, Animesh Misra, Kanwaleen Syali, and Niraj Hedaoo  to launch a start-up joint venture, Kurate Digital Consulting.

Kurate will deliver consulting services to clients anytime, anywhere by enabling them to transform their business models, systems and processes by using the latest technology and tools. Kurate currently has offices in Mumbai and Gurgaon and plans to expand its footprint. In a release issued, the company explained that the origin of the word Kurate comes from Curate, which signifies curating strategies and execution specific to business needs.

According to a report published by P&S Intelligence, the digital transformation market is estimated to value $24.5 billion in 2018, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 74.7 per cent during 2019-2024 to reach $710 billion. With rapid advancement in digital technology, India is the second fastest digital adapter among 17 major digital economies, according to McKinsey.

Kurate will focus on growing the Indian market by assisting companies in their digital transformation journey. Companies will now be able to reach out for contemporising their business models, systems and processes and pre-empting ever changing user behaviour through the latest digital technology solutions.

Commenting on the new venture, Uday Sodhi, Founding Partner of Kurate Digital Consulting, said, Kurate Digital Consulting specialises on Digital Transformation by defining and creating digital strategies that help businesses redefine business models and processes in the Digital Era. As Consumers, Consumption and Commerce go Digital, we will help our clients with Digital Strategies to transform their companies to deliver to these new age consumers. A robust digital strategy lays out a definite plan of action for digital transformation, the success of which can be clearly measured.

Atindriya Bose, Senior Partner, Kurate Digital Consulting, added here, Over the last few months, we have observed that the rapidly changing business scenario is dependent on the dynamic nature of digital technology. We are very excited to announce that Kurate will now be one of the few players to come up with a one-stop shop approach to address the transformation journey in its entirety through its team of experts.

The Mumbai-based company also announced that companies will now be able to undertake the digital transformation journey by integrating digital technology into all areas of a business to fundamentally change how they operate and deliver value to customers. While this might not be a priority for some, it is one of the strongest drivers of change. Companies need to adapt their business models to remain in business or they would simply perish.

The Founders

The company has five founding members, who are experts in different fields across Digital Businesses like Gaming, E-commerce, Digital Video/ OTT, B2B Businesses, B2C Platforms, Consumer Marketing, Digital marketing, Brand, Communication, Media and Content.

Uday Sodhi

Uday Sodhi has been at the helm of multiple leadership positions in the Indian Digital ecosystem for the last 20 years. Sodhi was the Business Head of SonyLiv, the OTT from Sony Pictures Networks India. He also led Digital Transformation teams and led businesses at Rediff.com, HeadHonchos, Net4India. He will be focusing on e-commerce, Online Media, SAAS Services, Online Classifieds, etc.

Atindriya Bose

Atindriya Bose has leadership experience across diverse technology-led consumer industries. He was previously CEO of Trringo.com (part of Mahindra, Farm Equipment Sector), and Country Manager with Sony PlayStation. He has had earlier stints with consumer-focused businesses with Rediff.com, UDV India and Philips India.

Animesh Misra

Animesh Misra is a senior business leader who has led acquisition, corporate marketing, performance marketing, programmatic sales and revenue across Asia. He had launched the brand HOOQ, one of the largest Hollywood OTT services in India. Before HOOQ he was Head of Brand Marketing at DishTV and had managed Pepsi foods, ESPN, Microsoft and Honda in his advertising stint.

Kanwaleen Syali

Kanwaleen Syali is a Senior Business and Marketing Professional. She has extensive experience in B2C e-commerce, Digital Space  Strategy, Marketing, Media, Alliances and Production Management. She had earlier held leadership positions at Ezeego1 (a Cox & Kings venture) Rediff.com and Trade Wings.

Niraj Hedaoo

Niraj Hedaoo is a seasoned e-commerce professional with 23 years of experience. He has led businesses and teams in the Retail, Media & E-commerce and had led the e-commerce teams at Rediff.com. He has also worked in other Digital Media businesses providing Strategic and GTM support.
Chesterfield Township police are seeking help from the public in located a man suspected of robbing a bank on Gratiot Avenue Feb. 28.

The First State Bank located at 53950 Gratiot Ave., north of 24 Mile Road, was robbed shortly before noon, police said. A man of unknown race and age entered the bank wearing clothing that hid his identity.

The suspect fled the bank on foot with an unknown amount of cash.

No weapon was seen, but the suspect implied he had a gun, police reported.

Nearby LAnse Creuse Public Schools buildings were locked down for a short period of time. The lockdown was released once Chesterfield Township police officers concluded the suspect was no longer in the area.

The Chesterfield Township Police Detective Bureau is continuing the investigation.

Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to contact the Chesterfield Township Police Department at 586-949-2322.

 Katelyn Larese, MediaNews Group
As the major path during butterfly migration, Mexico, the United States, and Canada all share responsibility for the conservation of the monarch butterflies. However, with the North American migratory path at risk, a biologist warns that the monarch may become a thing of the past, according to an article by Mexico News Daily.

Monarch Butterflies (danaus plexippus) are the only butterfly species that make a massive journey of up to 3,000 miles each year. These insects which have an average lifespan of six to eight months begin their migration each fall ahead of cold weather, which will kill them if they tarry too long.

While climate change may be one of the main factors that could disrupt butterfly migration, as billions of butterflies vanished in the period between 1990 and 2015 due to heatstroke and winter storm, part of the bigger picture are the environmental malpractices human beings, particularly those who live in the route from southeastern Canada to the fir tree forests of Michoacan and Mexico state.

Victor Sanchez-Cordero, a researcher at the National Autonomous University's Institute of Biology and Mexico's lead representative on a tri-national scientific committee that studies the monarch, blames the excessive use of herbicides and changes in the land use. Reduction in the availability of nectar and pollen is also considered a factor.

"The commitment to conserve this migratory phenomenon not only focuses on Mexico; it's a shared responsibility between our country, Canada and the United States," Sanchez-Cordero said.

The researcher, along with his team developed a system to monitor the migration of the monarch, said that there Mexico is not alone in carrying the responsibility of ensuring the continuation of the phenomenon through the conservation of forests in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (RBMM), located about 100 kilometers northwest of Mexico City.

That idea "has placed great international pressure on Mexico," Sanchez-Cordero said, adding that he and his team published an article in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science that shows that the decline in the number of monarch butterflies migrating to Mexico is not due to deforestation in the RBMM.

According to the researcher, deforestation has been drastically reduced in the past 10 years yet butterfly population has continued to decline.

"The dramatic reduction in the density of monarch butterflies that arrive at overwintering sites in Mexico doesn't correlate with the loss of forest coverage, which shows that this factor is not responsible for the population reduction. ... Other hypotheses to explain the decrease must be sought," Sanchez-Cordero said.

He cited the excessive use of herbicides as one of the factors. This malpractice has killed milkweed, a plant that is a main food source for monarch butterflies and on which females lay their eggs. Sanchez-Cordero added that another factor is the reduced nectar and pollen in the United States and Canada as a result of deforestation.

According to the lead researcher, a network of conservation areas along the migration routes of monarch butterflies needs to be developed to conserve their migratory phenomenon. He added that the routes followed by the butterflies should be declared protected areas.

"A new conservation paradigm is needed. ... It's something that we [Mexico, the United States and Canada] should build together," Sanchez-Cordero said.

For the people of Mexico, these butterflies carry the souls of their ancestors, that is why maintaining a safe space for butterfly migration will not preserve ecological balance but also a piece of cultural heritage.
With the outbreak of coronavirus showing no sign of abating, many mountain climbers have already started cancelling their expedition bookings. This is a cause of concern to the tour operators who will have to bear severe economic losses during the climbing season that lasts from March to May.

Pasang Sherpa, managing director at Pioneer Adventure Treks, said that seven Chinese members from his company dropped their plans to scale the world's highest peak from Nepal side this spring season, The Himalayan Times reported.

"Now, we can hardly expect climbers from China, Iran, South Korea, Japan and a few European countries, including Italy, among others," Damber Parajuli, president of Expedition Operators Association Nepal, said here on Thursday.

In addition, lack of government preparedness, as well as an action plan, has had an adverse impact on the country's tourism sector,

Rishi Bhandari, managing director at Satori Adventure, said that the Everest climbing season would certainly face a tough challenge if the government fails to introduce an immediate action plan to contain the COVID-19 threat.

"At least six Italian climbers who planned to scale Mt Everest from Tibet side have already cancelled their booking from my company," he informed.

Sources said that China would not be opening its Tibet route in the spring season to allow Nepali operators for Mt Everest, Cho Oyu and Sishapangma expeditions.

Nepal has already witnessed a two per cent drop in tourist arrivals in the first month of the visiting season this year.

Meera Acharya, director at the Department of Tourism, said that the government will soon hold discussions with the expedition operators and other concerned agencies about chalking out an action plan for the climbing season in spring.

In the last spring, the Department had collected a total of (Nepali) Rs 495 million from expedition royalty, including Rs 442 million from Everest expeditions.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Macron calls Assad attacks humanitarian scandal

French president condemned Assad regime attacks, said the violations of the international humanitarian law and attacks against civilians were unacceptable.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday condemned the recent developments in Syrias northwestern Idlib province as a "humanitarian scandal".

"REGIME FORCES ARE NOT FIGHTING AGAINST TERRORISM"

Speaking at a joint news conference along with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte following a summit in the Italian city of Napoli, Macron said: The attacks by [Bashar al-] Assad and his supporters are not fight against terrorism but a humanitarian scandal.

He said the violations of the international humanitarian law and attacks against civilians are unacceptable.
Published on 2020/02/28 | Source

The number of countries that restrict or ban travelers from Korea reached 43 on Thursday amid the explosive spread of coronavirus here.

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According to the Foreign Ministry, 22 countries have completely banned travelers from Korea, while 21 have put restrictions in place like tougher quarantine checks or two weeks' mandatory quarantine.

Vietnam banned travelers with home addresses in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province the previous day, but on arrival Thursday that turned out to cover travelers who were merely born in Daegu and North Gyeongsang, as indicated by their resident registration numbers.

An increasing number of Chinese airports are quarantining passengers from Korea. The city government of Guangzhou took some 120 Korean passengers who arrived at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport on Asiana Airlines on Thursday morning to a nearby hotel and tested them for coronavirus.

The city government of Tianjin also notified Korean and Japanese airlines of its decision to put passengers arriving at Tianjin Binhai International Airport from Korea and Japan in quarantine in a hotel starting Friday.

According to the Korean Embassy in Beijing, 226 Korean passengers had been quarantined at airports throughout China as of Thursday noon.

More and more European countries are issuing travel warnings for Korea. The Finnish government advised against non-essential travel to Daegu and North Gyeongsang, as did the governments of Belgium and Norway, also cautioning against visiting other parts of Korea. Denmark advised extra caution.

Many flights to Korea are being cancelled or scaled back. The Russian government has announced the suspension of Russian flights to and from Korea except Aeroflot and its subsidiary Aurora from next month.

Korean Air will suspend four weekly flights between Incheon and Moscow and daily flights between Incheon and Vladivostok, and Jeju Air will also suspend flights between Incheon and Vladivostok.

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed infections here rose to 2,022 with 1,314 in Daegu, the epicenter of new infections, on Friday morning. The death toll reached 13.
Sarasota County, like many Florida counties, must deal with emergencies on the water.Sarasota's 911 Coordinator Sally Lawrence recalled a recent situation where a group on a boat called 911 because someone on board was injured. The group was ordered to take the boat to a particular island to meet responders. Through a real-time map produced by a next-generation 911 system, Lawrences team was able to see that the boat was moving toward another island, so another team of responders was sent to that island to assist the injured person when the boat arrived.The old tech would have sent us to the wrong island, Lawrence said.Such next-generation 911 tech is slowly taking hold in other local areas in Florida.Thanks to a $100,000 state grant, Manatee County recently bought the cloud-based Radius Plus package from RapidDeploy and plans to install it within a couple of months, according to IWCEs Urgent Communications . This technology allows for texting in any language between callers and operators and for video to be sent to public safety answering points. And as in the aforementioned boat emergency case in Sarasota County, personnel in Manatee County will be able to better identify the locations of callers through mapping.Most counties in Florida and the nation are on legacy (computer-aided dispatch) systems that were developed many years ago for a standard 911 call, Manatee County Public Safety Director Jacob Saur told. The progression in 911 and public safety is that there are many different ways to get a 911 call for help these days.To Saurs point about counties relying on older tech, recent data from the National 911 Program shows that only 23 percent of reporting states offer next-generation 911 to all of their residents. Many states, including Florida, reported that they offer no such services.Despite these statistics, two Florida counties, Collier and Sarasota, have indicated tothat they have implemented next-generation 911 tech to some extent.Bob Finney, communications director for the Collier County Sheriffs Office, said his county has been using a RapidDeploy CAD for disaster recovery and special events since summer 2018. Although Collier is not yet using the system for day-to-day operations, Finney cites its adaptability  a benefit of being in the cloud  as a big deal for Florida specifically. If a hurricane knocks out 911 infrastructure for a number of counties, the product allows for the creation of an ad-hoc CAD system so personnel can still respond to emergencies.Finney also praised the modern interface, which is an invaluable aspect for 911 workers who are used to other systems.The feedback weve gotten has been great, Finney said. Its because its so intuitive  I thought we were going to get a lot of groaning.Lawrence said Sarasota County implemented RapidDeploys mapping component late last year. As a 30-year veteran in the field, she has been awestruck by how much information one can see on the map, which will display various devices in the Internet of Things, whether its peoples cellphones or a smart refrigerator in a building.Lawrence added that unlike other comprehensive mapping technologies that can be difficult to retrofit with existing systems, the mapping component was easy to integrate. Additionally, her operators have been pleased with how the system extracts information from the phones of callers.Instead of the operator having to open up another Web page and punch in the number manually, it now happens effortlessly, she said. It just shows up on the Radius mapping interface.While most areas in the United States have been reluctant to change their 911 systems, these counties in Florida showcase some momentum behind cloud-based solutions.Im a big advocate for public safety in the cloud, Saur told. The public-safety sector is very cautious and secure on data  and rightfully so. Theyre slow to adopt new technology. But once you learn about the cloud and what it can do for public safety, you get more comfortable  I would suspect, in the [next] 10 years, the clouds not even going to be a conversation anymore; they [public safety agencies] will just be in it.The Texas-based RapidDeploy, whose headquarters were originally in South Africa, has gained a significant amount of business within the last year, including contracts with Kansas California and Charleston County, S.C . Other companies, like Mark43 and Carbyne , have their own cloud-based products for 911.Lawrence pointed out that Sarasota County hasnt added RapidDeploys texting feature to its system yet due to various legalities that need to be addressed first. While the opportunity to wield next-generation 911 is exciting, Lawrence would advise other local areas to make sure they check off all the legal boxes before implementing something.Theres a lot of great technology out there, but you have to make sure you use it responsibly, she said.
HARTFORD - Advocates say passage of 2019s Mental Health Parity bill represented great progress in the battle for increased mental health access and insurance coverage for those afflicted throughout Connecticut, but its not enough.

Thats what state Rep. Sean Scanlon, co-chairman of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee, stressed at a press conference Tuesday when he introduced five additional bills to address disparities in insurance coverage for mental health-related issues.

Theres no such thing as one silver solution to this issue, he told the gathering.

Mental health parity requires insurance companies to cover mental health and substance use disorder at the same level as physical ailments.

An estimated 25 percent of Connecticuts residents are said to be suffering from what could be diagnosed as mental health conditions; whether it be anxiety, depression, bi-polar disorder, or substance abuse issues, among others. In terms of the impact of addiction disorders, state Sen. Matt Lesser, the committees other co-chair who spoke at the press conference, noted that Connecticut ranks 10th in the nation in overdose deaths.

Yet according to a recent study by Milliman Inc., individuals with behavioral health conditions are far more likely than those with physical health conditions to use higher-cost, out-of-network care.

Connecticut was shown to be the worst state in the nation in terms of parity compliance, with 34 percent of mental health office visits considered to be out of network, compared to only 3 percent for medical office visits.

Some committee members believe House Bill 5256 will address the inadequacy of current health insurance policies in providing coverage for detoxification and substance abuse services. The bill aims to put doctors and experts in charge of determining the length of a patients stay at inpatient treatment facilities instead of insurance providers.

Parents Tony and Tracey Morrissey of Milford know this struggle all too personally. Their son, Brian Cody, died from an accidental overdose in August 2019, merely days after he was abruptly discharged from a treatment center where hed been staying.

He called us crying, explaining that he knew he wasnt ready to leave after just 28 days worth of treatment, yet his request was denied by the insurance provider because apparently he overstayed his welcome or ran up too high of a bill, Tony Morrissey somberly recalled. We need to make sure that insurance companies are not making decisions about our children, brothers, sisters.

Jerry Schwab, president and CEO of the nonprofit High Watch Recovery Center in Kent, echoed the frustration. As an experienced caregiver and recovered addict himself, Schwab stressed the importance of reaching 90 days of inpatient treatment as a real benchmark for overcoming the threat of relapse that afflicts so many suffering from substance abuse.

An overhaul in this decision-making process for detoxification and substance abuse services would allow providers to cover people who need to be in the hospital, need to be in a supervised setting where they can allow this chronic brain disease to cool down and take advantage of different types of treatment available, Sheila Cooperman, President of Connecticuts Psychiatric Society, emphasized.

Adoption of House Bill 5254 would require health insurance coverage for Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid uses or disorders.

With a record 1,200 opioid overdoses last year - an 18 percent increase over 2018 - Connecticut cannot wait any longer to pursue new solutions, Dita Bhargava, a former candidate for CT Treasurer who lost her son to an overdose in July of 2019, argued passionately.

It is imperative that the State of Connecticut has legislation that guarantees treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) with medication assisted treatment which can consist of methadone, buprenorphine (Suboxone) or naltrexone, Dr. Steven C. Wolf said in uploaded testimony.

Currently, there is no standard of treatment for opioid-related cases and there is a wide variance in which, if any, of the three aforementioned MAT drugs are carried by doctors or covered by insurance.

All 3 act differently and may suit one persons recovery more than anothers, Bhargava stated. The one option that we know could help save his life (naltrexone) that he was open to, we were unfortunately denied coverage for time and time again.

Bhargava described how she was instead presented with the option of paying $1,000 out-of-pocket per shot, which was simply unaffordable.

Scanlon and Lesser hope expanding insurance coverage on medication-assisted treatment programs and encompassing all FDA approved medications will make a big dent in reversing this recent, troubling, trend of opioid overdoses in Connecticut.

Those in medicat[ion]-assisted treatment programs experience dramatic improvements while both in treatment and for several years after, with decreases in narcotics use and deaths and increases in employment and marriage, Bhargava concluded.

Those opposed to the bill proposals argue that Connecticut cannot afford to increase its healthcare expenditures per enrollee, as they are already 6th highest in the country.

In testimony against HB 5254 and HB 5256, Michelle Rakebrand, assistant counsel for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA), argues the additional health mandates incorporated in these bills pose an enormous cost to all Connecticut residents.

Each year Connecticut residents pay an additional $2,085.48 in premium costs because of the 68 health benefit mandates that are codified, Rakebrand wrote.

She also said increased premiums would be particularly harmful to many of Connecticuts smaller businesses, who list healthcare costs as their top concern as they already cover an average of 76 percent of premiums on their employees behalf through cost-sharing.

Rakebrand further said 95 percent of the CBIAs 1,000-plus member companies are small businesses with 100 employees or less, leading her to conclude that the cost outweighs the benefit being realized.

She also called for a renewal of Connecticuts Health Benefit Review program, enacted in 2009, to allow the states Insurance Department to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of any proposed mandates.

The business community looks forward to working with this Committee in an effort to lower healthcare costs, while maintaining the highest quality of care, Rakebrand concluded.

House Bill 5247 aims to reconcile the difficulty faced by many young adults - who are covered by their parents health insurance policy - when they discuss intimate topics like substance abuse or mental health.

According to Healthcare Advocate Ted Doolittle, many young people are uncomfortable seeking professional help or guidance because they are afraid of how their parents - the policyholders - will react when they find out. Under HB 5247, correspondence regarding such topics with doctors or professionals for those 18 or older would be treated with confidentiality, much like colleges refusing to share grades with inquiring parents.

Doolittle said that the topic of addiction is taboo in many families, preventing discussion, and as such perpetuates the nature of the problem as a silent illness for an addicted youth.

Senate Bill 205, also proposed at the press conference, would mandate that travel insurance policies cover death by suicide as a reason for cancellation of a trip.

House Bill 5248, would establish a task force to study health insurance coverage for peer support services in this state.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Delhi government on Friday granted sanction to the Delhi Police to prosecute former JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar and others in the 2016 sedition case.

"We have recieved the sanction from the Delhi government to prosecute Kanhaiya Kumar and others in this case," a senior police officer told IANS.

The Delhi Police Special Cell on February 19 wrote to the Delhi Home Secretary requesting to "expedite" the process of grant of sanction in the JNU sedition case involving former JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar.

In a letter written by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, Pramod Singh Kushwaha to the Deputy Secretary, Home, he said, "It is therefore requested to expedite the process to accord prosecution sanction under Section 196 CrPC as required for offence under Chapter VI of the IPC i.e. Section 124A IPC." A Delhi court had asked the Delhi government to file a status report relating to the issue of pendency of sanction in the JNU sedition case to prosecute student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and others.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Purshottam Pathak has also directed Delhi Police to send a reminder to the government.

"A new government has been formed, send a reminder," the judge said.

The court has now kept the matter for hearing on April 3.

On the previous date of hearing, the Arvind Kejriwal government had informed the court that no decision had been taken yet. The reply also states that the file is pending before the Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, who is also handling the Home portfolio.

The public prosecutor has filed a reply by submitting a letter in the court.

On February 9, 2016, "anti-national" slogans were allegedly raised at the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus during a programme called to protest against the death sentence handed out to Afzal Guru, a convict in the 2002 Parliament attack.

The 1,200-page charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police Crime Branch names 10 JNU students, including Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya and seven Kashmiri students, as the main accused in the case.

The charge sheet says the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory (RFSL) retrieved the SMS sent by Umar Khalid to Kanhaiya Kumar to arrive at Sabarmati Dhaba, JNU, as their permission (to hold the protest) had been cancelled by the University administration.

The final pages of the charge sheet also confirm the presence of Kashmiri students during the protest and that they were in contact with Umar Khalid.
Ajaypal Singh Banga, 60, India-born chief executive officer (CEO) of finance giant Mastercard, speaks to HTs Padma Rao Sundarji and Rajeev Jayaswal on Indias future and why he will don the role of executive chairman in nine months.

You steered MC from a $26.5 billion credit card company to a $301 billion finance giant in 10 years. Naturally, many are surprised by the announcement you will step down as CEO on January 1, 2021. But you told an interviewer that it was time to do so. Why?

When I joined Mastercard, I had said that if the board wants me to, Ill stay for 10 years. Its been a great decade. But those numbers you quoted came about because of my very good bunch of people here. Thats my job: to build teams and work culture. Now, I am very ready for Michael Miebach. Michaels a bhala manoos, a good guy to take over as CEO. For the last two years, the board and I have looked outside and within the organisation for people who fit the characteristics of the next CEO.

Last Sunday, Michael was unanimously voted to that position. In a staged process, Ill be helping him for the next nine odd months before moving on to my new role. The decision to step down was completely and unequivocally mine. The board wanted me to stay another five years. But this, for me, is the right thing to do.

Coming to Mastercard in India, in what state is your current market share? Is it growing, shrinking or stagnant? Why?

It is growing. We are Number 1 in terms of the number of cards issued in debit, we are growing in credit and we hope to become Number 1 in that sphere as well. India is a growth market in absolute terms. I know there are a lot of doomsday predictions, but look, I am an optimist and I believe that India is going through the same ups and down that the USA, China, all others do too.

Homegrown UPI-based payment systems such as Rupay and BHIM have grown phenomenally. Have they dented the market-shares of Visa and Mastercard?

UPI-based payments systems are mostly about P2P transactions, which we have not played. We are working on developing products to run on the platform. We are not a card company. Through our technology, we can facilitate any platform that wants to make or accept payments. We bought the Vocalink software company in the UK and were going to run it in Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and elsewhere.

Whether a card or bank account, the choice should be left to the consumer. We already work in partnership with several like Paypal. Applecard is a Mastercard tie-up. We are not in the consumer business but in the business of infrastructure payment. My job is not to force consumers to pay in the one or another but to give them a choice. If I can enable infrastructure to work safer, simpler, smarter, and I am a little different from my competitors, that is good. This approach puts one in charge.

Google is also planning to capture the lucrative Indian payment market in a big way. How will you remain competitive in the changed market reality in India?

Google works with us in many countries, so do Facebook and others. We would love to work with Google in India when they get going with their plans. As of now, they havent decided anything yet. Thats where my role as Mastercard can help. They need acceptance for merchant payments. I can help them with cyber-security, safety, providing cross-border connectivity, B2B payments, etc. So theres a lot that MC can do. I am not in the front end business. When you pull out a card from your walletAmex, Visa, MCI havent issued that card, your bank has. I am in the infrastructure and technology and data business and thats where Mastercard can help.

How do you see the growth of Indias e-commerce market in the next five years? How will it help providers of payment solutions to grow concurrently?

E-commerce is slated to grow very rapidly in India, mainly because physical distribution is challenged by the length and breadth of the country. Secondly, urban consumers are happier to not spend their time on physical shopping. Just think back on the kirana store. We have always had e-commerce, even in our childhood. Now, that kirana guy will have a website and that has become e-commerce. They will interact with their customers who will make payments on a website now. Indias culture of not going to shop ourselves but preferring to have things picked up, or delivered, ie, proxy shopping has been around for half a century.

So, e-commerce is a natural extension of that and will grow rapidly. But how does that help us and the Google pays of the world? E-commerce means there is no way to pay in cash without cash on delivery (COD), thats how e-commerce started. Not very different from the kirana storewallah who kept a khata (running account) or picked up cash for each delivery. But there is a problem with CODits hard to handle, its not cheap, and cash could be stolen or misplaced. So automatically, e-commerce tends to drive digital payments. Therefore and whether for frontend businesses like banks or us, indeed for all digital players, e-commerce will help us grow our business.

On the technology front, to what extent are fin-tech companies such as Mastercard using Blockchain?

Blockchain is interesting. We are among the top three patent-holders of blockchain in the world. And we have invested a lot in understanding the technology and figuring out possible use cases. We are launching things like Proof of Provenance, for instance. Is this shrimp really organic as the seller claims? Is that medicine genuine or counterfeit? Is this shirt really made of Egyptian cotton or not? So, blockchain can be really useful. What we are yet to figure out is the stage of consumer payments or how to pay for your coffee with blockchain. But we are heading there.

Is the policy environment in India is conducive for the growth of payment solutions such as debit card, credit card, Rupay and other modes of payment? What are the areas where there is room for improvement?

Oh absolutely. Indias policy environment is very conducive to digital payment growth. India is among the most thoughtful countries in that regard and has been so for several years. Encouraging digital payments, electronic transfers, even demonetisation was aimed at encouraging transparency, while the General Sales Tax (GST) was aimed at digitisation. Look, whenever there are new moves, there are challenges.

But I am certain that in five years, the last five to ten years will prove themselves to have been an inflection point. I am very positive about this. Look even in the United States, we need to do things better. So in India, I would say the general direction is correct.

One of the key sticking points between the US and India is digital nationalism. This includes data localisation and also the push for Rupay at the cost of players like Visa and Mastercard. Whats the way out of that deadlock?

The Indian government has given us a pretty level playing field in most cases. We are growing our revenue. We are earning our growth through the quality of our product, our service etc.

India wants to have a domestically owned payment network to grow and compete with global networks. But so do France, Canada, Mexico, Australia, China and many others so Im not fussed about that. As far as data localisation is concerned, we are one of the few players who met the commitment we made to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that by October 31, 2019, our data would be localised as per their guidelines.

My issue lies elsewhere. It is that India is losing the chance to use the best global Artificial Intelligence (AI) and fraud prediction tools for its market. Lets say, theres an overseas cyberthief who figures out a way to commit some kind of banking consumer fraud. We get to see it. We use that knowledge for our algorithms so that if, tomorrow, the same thief or another similar one tries that fraud in India, we would recognise and preempt it very early.

Over the past few years, we have been able to help Indian companies fight fraud in this way. But when you localise too much, you lose the chance of making these algorithms work for you, be applied to Indian data. Which means that you are assuming the thief is local, whereas, in todays world, he could be from anywhere. Data privacy and security are very important. But cutting yourself off from global experience has repercussions. And this applies to and should be a conversation involving, the citizen too. Data should be private for a citizen, whether it is an Indian company or a global one.

What are your views on current Indian policies, regarding foreign investors?

I am no longer the chair of the USIBC but am a member of the US-India strategic partnership forum. Over the last 15-20 years, India has been attempting to open up to investment. It should continue to do so and reduce barriers. It should encourage the flow of foreign money not just as an institutional investment but also as FDI in every area from tourism to manufacturing, to construction.

In short, in all areas that India wants to grow and in which India wants to create jobs, enhance the quality of life, etc. India is doing that already. But every such journey bears road bumps. Political pressures, lobbying pulling in different directions, those are all part of life. I would say, India should stay focused on the North Star. Yes, certainly India can do it faster, can do it differently, but thats easy to say when one doesnt live there. The fact is, India is making progress.

Mastercard just cut its financial outlook for the first quarter, citing the impact of the coronavirus on cross-border travel and commerce. You now expect your growth to be 2-3 percentage points lower than initially expects. But MC is also entering China as the majority holder in a joint venture (JV). You said in a TV interview, that you expect your entry to take place in about 1-1/2 years. Is that time-frame also likely to be affected by the current situation revolving around the coronavirus?

Not really. I think China is trying to get its arm around the virus, new cases are coming down. I cant say how long it will take, we have to monitor the situation. But I am not connecting the time-frame of the implementation of our JV with the coronavirus.

You are a much-admired figure in the finance and banking sector. One of your key ideas was the so-called Decency Quotient (DC), which you introduced successfully to Mastercard operations, both external and internal. Could you please outline DQ? And any further advice you can give to upcoming CEOs?

The idea came to me a long time ago when I was young and outspoken. I thought, just like one had the IQ, intelligence quotient, and EQ or the emotional quotient for how to survive good and bad days, we should have a DQ - a decency quotient. Do you bring your heart and mind to work every day? Do you make your peers and others feel that by you being there, the company is a better place for them? Do you feel that your hand is on their back, and not on their shoulder holding them back?

Look, DQ is what you would want me to be to you. You would want me to joke with you, chat with you, have discussions, but at the end of the day, care deeply about you and give you respect, show I care for you. As for advice to upcoming CEOS? Id say this: dont over-plan your career. Have a little bit of fun along the way. Be yourself and - it will all happen. Be yourself. Lead with the heart and mind.

Can you describe your new role as executive chairman?

A. I will want to focus outside the company with clients, regulators, NGOs, the World Bank, all we interface with on behalf of the management. I also want to focus on the interaction between the board and the management.

Will it give you a little more time for the many charities and other philanthropic work you are connected with?

I hope so. Ive done my best for the past 10 years to merge our work merge with philanthropy. The latter doesnt solve problems. One needs commercially sustainable solutions. We now have this Priceless Planet Coalition. We plan to plant 100 million trees along with our partners and we shall do it.

Weve been bandying about with new words like inclusive capitalism, stakeholder capitalism, etc. Capitalism is a good thing but any system hijacked by people for their own benefit is not.
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- The search for a city manager looks to be nearing an end in Springfield.

Mayor Christine Lundberg and the city council have decided to negotiate a contract with Nancy Newton.

Nancy brings a wealth of experience and is very dedicated to public service," Lundberg said in a news release. "Shes also energized about Springfield and we want that for our community. We are excited to see how Springfield will continue to grow under her helm.

On March 2, the mayor and council will discuss the city manager contract in a public session. A final contract could be approved at the March 16 council meeting.

City officials said Newton has more than 20 years of local government management experience. She is currently an assistant county executive/chief operating officer in Sacramento County, California. She has prior experience in Clackamas County, as well.

Newton has a bachelor's degree in management and organizational leadership from George Fox University and a master's degree in public administration from Portland State University.
I just believe that we should have examined a little bit more and dissected the issues throughout the whole county health and hospital system, she said. Just making an adjustment  although I am all for transparency and communication because I think that that has been lacking a little bit  thats just scratching the surface.
If you own shares in Core Laboratories N.V. (NYSE:CLB) then it's worth thinking about how it contributes to the volatility of your portfolio, overall. In finance, Beta is a measure of volatility. Volatility is considered to be a measure of risk in modern finance theory. Investors may think of volatility as falling into two main categories. The first type is company specific volatility. Investors use diversification across uncorrelated stocks to reduce this kind of price volatility across the portfolio. The second sort is caused by the natural volatility of markets, overall. For example, certain macroeconomic events will impact (virtually) all stocks on the market.

Some stocks see their prices move in concert with the market. Others tend towards stronger, gentler or unrelated price movements. Beta is a widely used metric to measure a stock's exposure to market risk (volatility). Before we go on, it's worth noting that Warren Buffett pointed out in his 2014 letter to shareholders that 'volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' Having said that, beta can still be rather useful. The first thing to understand about beta is that the beta of the overall market is one. A stock with a beta greater than one is more sensitive to broader market movements than a stock with a beta of less than one.

See our latest analysis for Core Laboratories

What does CLB's beta value mean to investors?

Looking at the last five years, Core Laboratories has a beta of 1.75. The fact that this is well above 1 indicates that its share price movements have shown sensitivity to overall market volatility. Based on this history, investors should be aware that Core Laboratories are likely to rise strongly in times of greed, but sell off in times of fear. Beta is worth considering, but it's also important to consider whether Core Laboratories is growing earnings and revenue. You can take a look for yourself, below.

NYSE:CLB Income Statement, February 28th 2020

Does CLB's size influence the expected beta?

Story continues

With a market capitalisation of US$1.3b, Core Laboratories is a small cap stock. However, it is big enough to catch the attention of professional investors. It's not particularly surprising that it has a higher beta than the overall market. That's because it takes less money to influence the share price of a smaller company, than a bigger company.

What this means for you:

Beta only tells us that the Core Laboratories share price is sensitive to broader market movements. This could indicate that it is a high growth company, or is heavily influenced by sentiment because it is speculative. Alternatively, it could have operating leverage in its business model. Ultimately, beta is an interesting metric, but there's plenty more to learn. This article aims to educate investors about beta values, but it's well worth looking at important company-specific fundamentals such as Core Laboratoriess financial health and performance track record. I highly recommend you dive deeper by considering the following:

Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for CLBs future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for CLBs outlook. Past Track Record: Has CLB been consistently performing well irrespective of the ups and downs in the market? Go into more detail in the past performance analysis and take a look at the free visual representations of CLB's historicals for more clarity. Other Interesting Stocks: It's worth checking to see how CLB measures up against other companies on valuation. You could start with this free list of prospective options.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Damage to the publishing industry in Hong Kong is complete, say critics, after Gui sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Hong Kong, China  For seven months last year, millions of demonstrators took to the streets of Hong Kong to beat back proposed legislation that would override the independent judiciary in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory by allowing for the extradition of accused individuals for trial in mainland China.

Their fears appeared well-founded after Gui Minhai, an author, publisher and erstwhile resident, was sentenced last Monday to 10 years in prison.

He was convicted  during a closed-door hearing  for providing intelligence overseas after his extraordinary rendition to the mainland from Thailand nearly five years ago.

The verdict came as China is preoccupied with containing the coronavirus outbreak.

Beijing has been taking draconian measures against public intellectuals, taking advantage of this atmosphere of fear to deal with members of civil society when most peoples attention is focused on fighting the outbreak, Willy Lam, a longtime commentator on Chinese politics and senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, told Al Jazeera.

At a time of national emergency, when parts of China have fallen under virtual martial law, authorities think they can do whatever they want.

Diplomatic tug-of-war

Even though Gui is not the first bookseller to face prison in mainland China, over the years his case has emerged as a diplomatic tug-of-war between Beijing and Stockholm because he is a Swedish national.

In Stockholm, shock and outcry over the sentencing have led to a lot of hand-wringing over how best to keep pressing for his release.

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People feel that silent diplomacy didnt work and that in hindsight his case shouldve [been] escalated to the EU early on, said Magnus Fiskesjo, Guis acquaintance and a Swedish academic in the US who has been rallying global attention to the case from the start.

We treated this too much like a consular case, not a political case, and diminished the importance of this case, added Fiskesjo, who first met Gui in the mid-1980s when he was a diplomat posted to Beijing.

Contrary to Beijings claim that Gui renounced his foreign citizenship and thus all rights to consular access, Fiskesjo said court testimony from consulate staff in China shows Gui renewed his Swedish passport and national ID card between late 2017 and mid-2018.

While the campaign for his freedom wages on, the heavy sentence was undeniably the final nail in the coffin of a lively chapter in Hong Kongs publishing industry.

Protected under the citys constitution, Gui and many others were doing brisk business with a genre most popular among the hordes of mainland tourists: tell-all tomes on Chinas leadership, forbidden just across the border.

Juicy factoids

The titillating titles on Chinese politics churned out by Guis publishing house and his competitors not only whetted peoples appetite for juicy behind-the-scene factoids of the opaque dictatorship but also afforded China-watchers a window on political infighting and intellectual debates in Beijing.

However, the crackdown began soon after President Xi Jinping came into power in 2013.

In 2014, just as a Hong Kong-based publisher was about to put out a politically sensitive title, he was convicted of smuggling and tax evasion in mainland China and sentenced to serve 10 years behind bars.

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In October 2015, Gui retreated to the Thai resort town of Pattaya to write  under a pseudonym, for he knew his works have ruffled feathers in the highest echelons of power in his native China.

Just a few days before he was to return to Hong Kong, where his suburban flat was under renovation, he was disappeared, as were his four colleagues  only to reappear in mainland China giving confessions on state television.

One of them, store manager Lam Wing Kee, was released by the authorities after promising to give them the bookstores full author and customer list. Instead, he spoke out on the serial abductions and his own detention.

After attending the first few anti-extradition bill marches last June, Lam moved to the Taiwanese capital Taipei and is preparing to open a bookstore there next month.

Although Gui was the only one among the five who faced jail time, the damage to publishing operations in Hong Kong was complete.

The impact is devastating and the message is clear: If you cross the line, both your business and you will be ruined, said Bruce Lui, a senior lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist University. No one can afford to take that risk.

Even though Hong Kongs protesters succeeded in forcing their government to scrap the extradition bill, Guis sentencing made it clear Beijing will not brook any compromise.

With this sentencing, Beijing once again renews its support for extraditions for all those who pose a threat to national security, said Lam. This portends something even more ominous.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has urged Scott Morrison to rethink Australia's criminal deportation policy, delivering a slap down of the government, accusing it of causing unintended hardship.

Ms Ardern used a media conference in Sydney alongside her Australian counterpart to deliver a blunt message on the policy, which has seen more than 1600 people sent back to New Zealand.

In a testy moment during the presser on Friday afternoon, the New Zealand leader accused Australia of deporting its problems.

Australia is well within its rights to deport individuals who break your laws. New Zealand does the same. But we have a simple request - send back Kiwis, genuine Kiwis, she said.

Do not deport your people and your problems.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in a press conference that had a rather testy moment. Source: AAP

Australia deporting their own problems, Ardern says

She said many of the deportees "on any common sense test" identified as being Australian.

"Just a few weeks ago I met a woman who moved to Australia, not much older than one year old," she said.

"She told me she had no connection to our country, but had three children in Australia.

"She was in a crisis centre, having returned to a country she did not feel was her own."

It is rare for leaders, particularly such close allies, to use such pointed language in press conferences like this but its not the first time the New Zealand prime minister has raised the issue with frustration, describing it as absolutely corrosive to relationship between the antipodean allies.

According to the ABC, more than 1600 New Zealanders have been deported by Australia in the last five years under changes made to the Migration Act in 2014, including those who have lived and worked in Australia for decades. Many are convicted criminals that have lived their entire adult life in Australia.

As Ms Adern unloaded with Mr Morrison standing right next to her, the Australian prime minister stuck to his characteristic smirk, looking somewhat uncomfortable.

NZ PM Jacinda Ardern has stood beside Scott Morrison in Sydney + had a crack at Australia.

Says the rights of NZ migrants "are being eroded"

"Simple rights like assistance from the National Disability Insurance Scheme, even though they pay into the scheme's levy." #Auspol  Fiona Willan (@Fi_Willan) February 28, 2020

"We will own our people. We ask that Australia stops exporting theirs."



Jacinda Ardern is standing next to Morrison, going HARD on Australia deporting criminals with NZ citizenship even if they've been in Australia since they were kids.  Helen Davidson (@heldavidson) February 28, 2020

GO IN, JACINDA.  Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) February 28, 2020

Disappointed ABC isn't cutting to ScoMo for reaction shots as Jacinda puts the boot in.  Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) February 28, 2020

The NZ leader also pleaded with the Morrison government to provide more rights to New Zealanders working in Australia, such as the ability to work as a public servant or access the national disability insurance scheme.

Story continues

"Evidence shows that the vast majority are providing a net benefit to Australia. They earn more, they are more likely to be employed, and they pay more tax than their Aussie-born counterparts," she said.

"They are Australia's best migrants.

"But rather than them being given security to keep contributing and return, their rights are being eroded."

Morrison says Australias policy is clear

Scott Morrison stood by as theNew Zealand leader gave a scathing criticism of Australia deporting residents to New Zealand. Source: SBS

Mr Morrison said Australia's deportation policy was clear.

"We deport non-citizens who have committed crimes in Australia against our community," he said.

"This policy is applied not specific to one country, but to any country whose citizens are here."

The two leaders also discussed the coronavirus, greater cooperation on indigenous issues, trade and security.

- with AAP

Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com.

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  A Chinese national was shot to death, while another was injured by five other Chinese men Thursday evening at a restaurant in Makati City.

The victim who was killed on the spot was identified as 33-year-old Yin Jian Tao. His companion, 25-year old Kai Zheng was injured.

According to initial investigation, the victims entered the Jiang-Nan Hot Pot restaurant, together with the suspects. Gunfire was heard after a few minutes and the 33-year-old victim died instantly.

Three of the suspects immediately escaped, while two others were arrested by Barangay Bel-Air officials in a follow-up operation.

An amount of 345,000 was recovered from the two arrested suspects, along with three firearms. Police are still investigating the motive behind the shooting incident, and are hunting down the three suspects at large.
New PM Kisan projects to leverage investment worth Rs406 crore

The government has sanctioned 32 projects under the Unit scheme of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) of the ministry of food processing industries. These projects, spread across 17 states, will leverage investments worth Rs406 crore.

These projects will provide direct and indirect employment for approximately 15,000 persons along with employment opportunities in rural areas. The introduction of modern processing techniques for food will result in improved shelf-life of agricultural produce and ensure steady revenue to farmers.

The projects were accorded approval at a meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Approval Committee (IMAC) held under the chairpersonship of union minister of food processing industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal in New Delhi on Thursday.

Food processing has an important role to play in linking Indian farmers to consumers in the domestic and international markets. The ministry of food processing industries (MoFPI) has approved proposals for joint ventures, foreign collaborations, industrial licenses, and 100 per cent export oriented units in the food processing sector.

The objective is creation of processing and preservation capacities and modernisation and expansion of existing food processing units with a view to increasing the level of processing, value addition leading to reduction of wastage. The processing activities undertaken by the individual units covers a wide range of post-harvest processes resulting in value addition and/or enhancing shelf life with specialised facilities required for preservation of perishables.

The food sector has emerged as a high-profit, high-growth sector due to its immense potential for value addition. The food processing industry has recorded compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 8 per cent over the last five years.

The projects approved are running across quadrilaterals of the country covering over 100 agro-climatic zones. The Processed food market is expected to grow to $543 billion by 2020 from $322 billion in 2016, at a CAGR of 14.6 percent.

MoFPI is implementing PMKSY with a total outlay of Rs6,000 crore for 2016-20. The schemes being implemented include mega food parks, integrated cold chain and value addition infrastructure, Infrastructure for agro-processing clusters, creation of backward and forward linkages, creation/expansion of food processing and preservation capacities, food safety and quality assurance infrastructure, and human resources and institutions.
The Defense Production Act gives Trump the power to expand industrial production for national security concerns.

President Donald Trumps administration is considering invoking special powers through a law called the Defense Production Act to rapidly expand domestic manufacturing of protective masks and clothing to combat the coronavirus in the United States, two US officials told Reuters News Agency.

The use of the law, passed by Congress in 1950 at the outset of the Korean War, would mark an escalation of the administrations response to the outbreak. The virus first surfaced in China and has since spread to other countries, including the US.

US health officials have told Americans to begin preparing for the spread of the virus in the US.

The law grants the president the power to expand industrial production of key materials or products for national security and other reasons. The biggest producers of face masks in the US include 3M Corp, Honeywell International Inc, and Kimberly-Clark Corp.

Trump, a Republican seeking re-election on November 3, has faced criticism from Democrats over his administrations response to the outbreak.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar told legislators this week that the US needs a stockpile of about 300 million N95 face masks  respiratory protective devices  to combat the spread of the virus. The US currently has only a fraction of that number available for immediate use, Azar testified.

During an interagency call on Wednesday, officials from HHS and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) discussed the possibility of invoking the Defense Production Act for the manufacture of personal protective equipment that can be worn to prevent infection, according to a DHS official.

Such equipment can include masks, gloves and bodysuits.

Azar said at a congressional hearing on Wednesday that China controls a lot of the raw materials as well as the manufacturing capacity related to face masks.

Very little of this stuff is apparently made in the [United] States, so if were down to domestic capability to produce, it could get tough, the DHS official told Reuters.

A White House official confirmed that the administration was exploring the use of the law to spur the manufacturing of protective gear. Both the DHS official and the White House requested anonymity to discuss the issue.

Lets say Company A makes a multitude of respiratory masks, but they spend 80 percent of their assembly lines on masks that painters wear and only 20 percent on the N95, the White House official said. We will have the ability to tell corporations, No, you change your production line, so it is now 80 percent of the N95 masks and 20 percent of the other.'

It allows you to basically direct things happening that need to get done, the official added.

HHS declined to comment. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Very low

Trump said on Wednesday the coronavirus risk to the US remained very low, but that federal health officials were prepared to take action and that Vice President Mike Pence would take control of the US response.

Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, on Thursday accused Trump

of towering and dangerous incompetence and said the president must get his act together on the coronavirus threat.

Invoking the Defense Production Act is one of a number of options under consideration by the administration to combat the virus, the officials said, and no final decision has been made. Trump invoked the law in 2017 to address technological shortfalls in a vaccine production capability and other items such as microelectronics.

The law grants the president broad authority to expedite and expand the supply of resources from the US industrial base to support military, energy, space, and homeland security programs, according to a summary on the Federal Emergency Management Agency website.

Azar testified on Wednesday that the US has a stockpile of around 12 million of the N95 masks that are in line with certifications from the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). HHS also has another five million N95 masks that are no longer NIOSH certified, Azar said, perhaps because they are past the expiration date.

In addition to those masks, the US government has a stockpile of 30 million gauze-type surgical masks, which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said are less effective because they are loose-fitting.

Azar said the government needs a stockpile of approximately 300 million N95 masks.
The most important takeaway from the killing of Qassem Suleimani doesn't just have to do with Iran.

There has been no shortage of debate about the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani and its effects on U.S. foreign policy toward Iran and the broader Middle East. Not nearly enough has been said about whether it can broadly serve as a model for dealing with the problems posed by proxy forces elsewhere in the world.

By killing Suleimani, the United States indicated it would no longer tolerate Irans use of proxies to circumvent its responsibility for killing Americans and for other acts of terrorism and mass bloodshed. Washington decided to deal with the source of the terrorism, not its emissaries. The same principle should apply to the many proxy regimes established by various states, Russia most prominently, to circumvent responsibility for illegal military occupations, Svante Cornell, director of the American Foreign Policy Councils Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, and Brenda Shaffer, a visiting researcher at Georgetown University, wrote for Foreign Policy.

Countries around the world are increasingly realizing that the most convenient way to occupy foreign territories is to set up a proxy with the ceremonial trappings of a state, including governments, parliaments, and flags. Why go through all that trouble? Because the norms of the liberal international order, which outlaw changing boundaries by force, risk leading to sanctions for the perpetrator state. Creating a proxy regime generates a convenient falsehood that obfuscates reality and helps states evade such consequences.

The most systematic user of this tactic is Russia. Since the early 1990s, it has manipulated ethnic conflicts in three different states and helped set up nominally independent entities over which it exerts control. Moscow's practice began in Moldova's Transnistria region and in two breakaway territories of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Following Vladimir Putins consolidation of power in the early 2000s, the Kremlin's control of these territories became tighter. Putin appointed Russian military and security officials to ministerial positions in the governing structures of these territories, indicating their direct subordination to Russia. Following its 2008 war with Georgia, Russia established permanent military bases in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and formally recognized the independence of the two territories. This allowed Moscow to create a fictive legal basis for its military presence, based on so-called interstate agreements it signed with its proxies.

But until the 2008 war, the United States and European Union treated Russia like an arbiter in these conflicts, long after it was clear it was in fact a party to them. Twice a year, for example, Western powers approved extensions to the UN monitoring mission in the Abkhazia conflict that included overt praise for a Russian "peacekeeping" force that in fact was part of Moscow's effort to shore up Abkhazia's separation from Georgia. Even today, only rarely do Western powers refer to these lands as what they are: occupied territories.

Moscow's tactic proved so successful in undermining the statehood of Georgia and Moldova that the Kremlin decided to use the same tactic in eastern Ukraine. And it worked: Contrast the international reaction to any of these conflicts with Moscow's invasion of Crimea. Unlike these other cases, Moscow annexed Crimea outright, thereby accepting responsibility for its actions. This led to serious sanctions that remain in force to this day. But where Moscow hid behind the fiction of a "Donetsk People's Republic," which it created from thin air, it has largely escaped those consequences.

Read alsoCBS News: MH17 prosecutor says Russians "haven't been helpful at all"

The danger of the use of proxies is that its effectiveness has made it increasingly popular. When weighing options in Ukraine in 2014 and onward, Putin no doubt operated on the basis of the Russian experience in Georgia and Moldova: Setting up proxies in eastern Ukraine would achieve the goal of undermining Ukraine and blocking its move toward NATO while carrying few costs for Russia. While Putin may have underestimated the tenacity of the U.S.-led sanctions regime, his calculation was essentially correct. Thus, because the West tolerated the proxy fiction in small states like Georgia and Moldova, it now has to deal with a threat to a much larger European state. If that works, the strategy will be used elsewhere, too.

The proxy fiction by design makes conflict resolution impossible. Also, the proxies facilitate illicit activity. With no state formally acknowledging its control and therefore responsibility for activity in the proxy regimes, these regions have become centers of human trafficking, money laundering, and counterfeit goods production. They are also likely locations of sanctions violations, for Russia and for Iran.

Read alsoUkraine says no justification for ex vice-governor of Irkutsk region to "head" occupied Donbas

In the Middle East, the Trump administration understood that Iran's use of proxies was helping it undermine U.S. interests and the stability of a half-dozen states in its neighborhood. It is now working to put an end to this subterfuge. The time has now come for Washington to take steps to call the bluff in Eurasia as well and stop effectively rewarding the use of proxies that undermine conflict resolution efforts and the stability of key U.S. partners.
English Lithuanian

Energijos Skirstymo Operatorius, AB (hereinafter - ESO and the Company), code 304151376, registered office address Aguonu str. 24, Vilnius. The total number of ordinary registered shares issued by Energijos Skirstymo Operatorius, AB is 894,630,333; the ISIN code is LT0000130023.

The ESO, a company controlled by Ignitis Grupe, the largest energy group in the country, completed the refinement of its operation in 2019 and made significant progress towards the smart grid. In January 2019 the strategy of the Company until 2030 was approved: In July the 10-year investment plan of the Company was updated and publicly announced; in September the ESO customer self-service system was updated, and the Company became ready for the transition to remote customer service by the end of the year. The Company discontinued the provision of separate commercial services, concentrating its activities on the functions of the distribution network - infrastructure operator, and implemented measures for a more efficient connection of both new and existing customers to the distribution network. In the area of smart grid, investments in the smart meter installation program in Lithuania were coordinated, acquisition procedures were launched, and the first Data Hub functionality was implemented.

During 2019, the ESO earned EUR 180.5 million of adjusted profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (adjusted EBITDA) - 11.9% higher than a year ago, when the ratio was EUR 161.3 million. This change in the ratio was determined by increasing efficiency of the Company and the growing regulatory asset base.

Negative and severe phenomena of climate have resulted in a significant amount of force majeure, with a corresponding negative effect on the reliability level of the electricity distribution network. During the 12-month period in 2019, the disconnections caused by force majeure amounted to 18.06 min. SAIDI, when in 2018 it was 7.75 min in the same period. The main effect on the deterioration of the indicator was the unfavourable weather conditions during the first months of 2019. However, during 2019, the average troubleshooting duration was shortened by 10 min. - up to 1 hour 26 min. compared to the 2018 indicator - 1 hour 36 min.

In 2019, the focus of the Company was directed towards the key aspects of ESO operations such as distribution activities, smart grid and reliability thereof. Following the update of the strategy for 2030, we have undertaken a point-by-point work: we perform investments in network reliability and smart grid based on a defined plan, i.e. implementation of the program of smart meter deployment in the country, creation of the Data Hub, update of the ESO customer self-service, improvement of remote customer service, purposeful operation related to the implementation of the actions that enables us to connect production users quicker and easier. We are delighted with the transparency of ESOs operations evaluated by the Transparency International Lithuania branch and the improvement of the indicator of the connectivity to the electricity networks assessed in the World Banks Doing Business 2020 study, which has raised the assessment of the whole country in the eyes of the global business community, says Mindaugas Keizeris.

Following the extensive review of relevant industry practice and in order to be better comparable to the Companys peers on international level, the Companys accounting policies were changed. Changes in accounting policies are related to the application of IFRS 15 (International Financial Reporting Standard): (1) offsetting the revenue from public service obligations (PSO) with the corresponding costs (previously PSO revenue and costs were accounted for separately) and (2) distributing the recognition of the revenue for the connectivity of new customers over the useful service life of the infrastructure created (previously, in the natural gas segment and in the electricity segment, as of 1 October 2018, the revenue was recognized after fulfilment of the service obligation). For comparability purposes, the changes in accounting policies have been implemented retrospectively, i.e. by adjusting financial information for 2018. The changes implemented in accounting policies had no impact on the cash flows of the Company, however the revenue and net profit of 2018 decreased by EUR 140.6 million and EUR 10.4 million respectively. Detailed information about the changes implemented in the accounting policies and their effect on the separate articles in the statement of financial position and profit and loss and comprehensive income is presented in Note 3 to the Interim Financial Statements of the Company.

Key financial and operational indicators:

ESO revenue in 2019 amounted to EUR 418.9 million or by 13.4% less than in 2018 when they amounted to EUR 483.4 million. With the elimination of the impact of discontinued public supply activities from October 2018, the revenue in 2019 is by 2.3% higher than the revenue in 2018, when they would amount to EUR 409.6 million. The main source of revenue of the ESO is the transmission of electricity. In 2019, the revenue from electricity transmission amounted to 78% of the Company revenue. The revenue from gas distribution accounted for 8% of total revenue.

Expenses of purchasing electricity, natural gas, and related services over 12 months of 2019 amounted to EUR 186.1 million and were by 34.1% lower than at the corresponding time in 2018. This has been most influenced by sale of public electricity supply activities from 1 October 2018. The operating expenses of the Company increased by 9.4%, mainly due to repair and maintenance costs, the growth of which was driven by the need to offset reduced investments in the renewal and modernization of the electricity distribution network.

In 2019, the net profit of the ESO was EUR 34.3 million when during the same period in 2018 it was EUR 5.3 million. The increase in net profit was driven by lower costs for the purchase of electricity and natural gas and related services due to discontinued public electricity supply activities from 1 October 2018.

In 2019, the ESO earned EUR 180.5 million of adjusted profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (adjusted EBITDA*)  by 11.9% more than at the same period in 2018 when the indicator was EUR 161.3 million.

During 2019, the ESO investments in electricity and natural gas distribution networks amounted to EUR 181.2 million and corresponded to the planned investment volume for 2019 projected in ESO 10-year investment plan (a projected investment volume therein amounts to EUR 1.83 billion over 10 years).

The ESO invested EUR 79.1 million in the development of the electricity distribution network in 2019, by 5.5 percent less than in 2018. In order to maintain a stable level of the debt of the Company while maintaining the high demand for connection of new users, the Company invested in network renovation projects to a lesser extent than in previous periods, as planned in a 10-year investment plan approved in July 2019.

In 2019, the average duration of unplanned electricity transmission outages (SAIDI) per user was 91.8 minutes and compared to 2018 increased by 10.4 minutes (SAIDI totalled 81.4 minutes in 2018). An average number of unplanned long outages per user (SAIFI) with the impact of natural phenomena (force majeure) in 2019 reached 1.31 times, i.e. by 0.17 times more than in 2018, when the indicator was 1.14 times. Particularly unfavourable weather conditions during the first months of 2019 had a major impact on reliable electricity supply, the changes in weather affected by climate change in the following months of the year.





* The preliminary EBITDA result of the Company is presented after adjustments made by management, eliminating the difference between actual and adjusted revenue and the impact of one-off factors. The purpose of these adjustments is to disclose the results of the ordinary activities of the Company, without the atypical, one-off or the factors not directly associated with the current period of activities. All adjustments made by management are revealed in the interim and annual reports of the Company.

Representative for Public Relations Tomas Kavaliauskas, tomas.kavaliauskas@eso.lt, tel. +370 617 51616.

Attachments
Migrants, most of them asylum seekers sent back to Mexico from the U.S. under the "Remain in Mexico" program officially named Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), occupy a makeshift encampment in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, October 28, 2019.

A federal appeals court on Friday delivered two blows to the Trump administration's immigration policy, ruling against a program to force migrants seeking asylum to wait in Mexico and against a rule severely limiting the number of migrants who were eligible for asylum.

In a long-awaited decision, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a block on the policy forcing migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to wait in Mexico while their cases play out. The court also upheld a block on a rule seeking to bar asylum eligibility from migrants who cross the border between ports of entry.

More from NBC News:

In the remain in Mexico case, the court said it concluded the policy, known formally as the Migrant Protection protocols, or MPP, "was invalid in its entirety" due to inconsistencies with the law.

"The court has finally affirmed what we always knew to be the case, that the provision on which the government is relying does not apply to asylum-seekers. Full stop," Melissa Crow, senior supervising attorney at the SPLC's Immigrant Justice Project, told NBC News.

In the other case, the court said it granted a preliminary injunction against a policy that "strips asylum eligibility from every migrant who crosses into the United States between designated ports of entry."

"Once again the courts have recognized there is tremendous danger facing asylum seekers along the entire southern border, and that the administration cannot unilaterally rewrite the laws," said American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt in a statement.

In the remain in Mexico case, about 60,000 migrants have been placed under the program since it began more than a year ago on the border separating Tijuana from San Diego.

In April, a federal judge temporarily blocked the policy  but just a month later, a court of appeals granted the Trump administration's request to allow the rule to take effect as the legal challenge plays out. In October, the appeals court heard arguments in the challenge to the policy.

In the asylum case, a district judge had issued a preliminary injunction in December 2018.

The Departments of Homeland Security and Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Another unique thing ... creating keepsakes. Instead of renting or buying pillows that are in their color scheme, a couple may be having custom-made pillows with their monogram on them, which they then use as decor in their home  so it serves a dual purpose. Or if they use monogrammed napkins at the head table, then they have a set when they have formal dinners in their home.
She split from her fiance of 11 years Jesse Metcalfe last month, after he was caught getting close to two different women.

And Cara Santana looked to be settling into single life nicely when she turned up to show her support at the Women's Cancer Research Fund's event, An Unforgettable Evening, at the Beverly Wiltshire hotel in Beverly Hills on Thursday.

The American actress, 35, glowed in a stunning one shoulder yellow gown as she arrived at the event, complete with a very sexy thigh-split.

Benevolent: Cara Santana turned up to show her support at the Women's Cancer Research Fund's event, at the Beverly Wiltshire hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on Thursday

Cara paired the look with a dainty barely there heel and a drop diamante earring.

Slicking back her long brunette tresses to showcase her clear complexion the designer and actress looked full of confidence as she posed for the cameras.

Opting for a natural make up look the actress stuck to earthy-toned eye shadow and completed the look with a mauve lip.

Goddess: The 35-year-old actress glowed in a stunning one shoulder yellow gown as she arrived at the event. The gown was styled with shoes by designer Stuart Weitzman

Moving on: Last month, the Beverly Hills Chihuahua star ended her lengthy relationship with John Tucker Must Die actor Jesse Metcalfe

Working her angles: The star paired the look with a dainty barely there heel and a drop diamante earring

Reigning Best Actress winner Renee Zellweger also lit up the evening in an elegant and sexy in a sheer-topped black gown, which featured a scalloped neck and beautiful lace detailing at the bust and along the sleeves.

At the event Renee was honored with the Courage Award, in a nod to her charitable contributions and philanthropic efforts throughout her lengthy career.

Another pair of famous blondes also attended the benefit event, in support of the early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of womens cancers: the Hilton sisters, as in Paris and Nicky.

Over the shoulder: The actress showed off her toned body with the backless number

Not great: Cara Santana was 'completely blindsided' by reports that her fiance, Jesse Metcalfe, stepped out with multiple women in January (pictured in January)

Hand on hip: Cara was not letting anything hold her back as she showed up and put on the glamorous display despite her recent break up

Golden goddess: With a brown and gold eye-shadow complementing her deep hazel eyes the actress kept her hair slicked back to showcase her flawless skin

Inside the event: Cara kept it simple, opting to forgo a bag or jacket throughout the gala evening

Both of the hotel heiresses chose brightly-colored frocks for the soiree, with a newly short-haired Paris in a cream sequinned turtleneck mini dress with long sleeves, and her younger sister Nicky in a strapless floral black-and-white wrap number.

Paris added matching glittering stilettos, while Nicky opted for flesh-colored pumps.

Model (and Mrs. Matthew McConaughey) Camila Alves also opted for sequins, but of the burgundy variety on a sumptuous, flowing and very low-cut gown.

Accepting an honor: Renee Zellweger was honored at the gala with the Courage Award

Chic in black: Renee, 50, was elegant and sexy in a sheer-topped black gown while The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star Lisa Rinna, 56, rocked a tux pant suit

Suited and booted: (left to right) Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills stars Lisa Rinna, Harry Hamlin, Kyle Richards, and Mauricio Umansky look dapper putting on a formal front

Sisters: Another pair of famous blonds also attended the benefit event: the Hilton sisters, as in Paris and Nicky

Best looks: Both of the hotel heiresses chose brightly-colored frocks, with a newly short-haired Paris in a cream sequinned turtleneck mini dress with long sleeves

Sparkle: Model (and Mrs. Matthew McConaughey) Camila Alves also opted for sequins, but of the burgundy variety on a sumptuous, flowing and very low-cut gown

Flower power: Camila's plunging bust line was adorned with a barely-there sheer panel, and she affixed a lovely flower behind her ear that stood out against her lush dark curls

Camila's plunging bust line was adorned with a barely-there sheer panel, and she affixed a lovely flower behind her ear that stood out against her lush dark curls.

Representing the Real Housewives contingent at the Beverly Hills event was RHBH star Lisa Rinna, who attended with her husband Harry Hamlin.

The pair cut formal figures in black tuxedos, with Lisa skipping a top in her daringly low-cut lapelled jacket.

Brothers in pink: Nick Jonas, Kevin Jonas, and Joe Jonas of The Jonas Brothers show their support in a coordinated colour palette of silk

Founders and chairs of The Women's Cancer Research Fund: Kate Capshaw, Kelly Chapman Meyer, Jamie Tisch, Rita Wilson, Myra Biblowit, Quinn Ezralow, and Marion Laurie (left to right)

Dapper dudes: Glen Powell, 31, opts for a vibrant navy checked suit while Martin Short, 69, goes for a classic business suit

The evening focuses around tributes to survivors and the memory of those impacted by cancer with powerful honorees putting their name behind the cause

Many big name artists also give their time to perform at the event in the name of charity.

The event was hosted by actor, comedian, and producer Ken Jeong.

Love is in the air: ER vet Maria Bello and Dominique Crenn. The pair announced they were getting engaged earlier this month

So close: The two posed arm in arm on the carpet while also gazing at each other lovingly

Leggy display: Model Gigi Paris wears a silk emerald mini-dress with balloon sleeves. While philanthropist Tara Dollinger stuns in a sequined sea shell strapless dress

Diamonds and silk: Nikita Allison looks ravishing in red as she wears a knee-high split gown with very high heels

Striking: Fashion designer Rachel Zoe wears a Grecian style red dress with a gold statement collar

Sequins are forever: Mason Rudnick, Jonathan Tisch, and Lizzie Tisch (left to right)

Looking good in grey: Casey Hanley (left) and Caleb Foote (right) grace the carpet in the cool colour
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting tooth and nail for his job and his life. He's taking no prisoners; he's not stopping on red. He has given an order to crush his rival, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, to pummel his image and turn the former army chief into a lame duck, a weakling unfit to run the affairs of state.

Netanyahus Likud, awash with money and other resources, is throwing everything it can at Gantz. Nothing is out off limits, including rumors and reports, some anonymous, about the contents of Gantzs mobile phone falling into Iranian hands, vile allegations about his sexual activities and his military career. The real ace of Gantzs Blue and White, the popular former military chief Gabi Ashkenazi, has also been selected for similar treatment.

We did not believe it would work for them, but it is working and having an effect, a senior Blue and White source told Al-Monitor, speaking on the condition of anonymity. We thought that we should respond to all this muck by presenting a responsible party with a level-headed leader who refuses to be dragged down into the sewers and to stoop to the level of the Netanyahu supporters. Well, we may have been wrong.

Over the past week, the Likud has drawn even with Blue and White in the polls after lagging behind the centrist party throughout the campaign, and in recent days it has opened up a lead over its center-left opponents by one or two Knesset seats as part of the right-wing and ultra-Orthodox bloc. What worries Blue and White leaders even more is that some polls put Netanyahu within spitting distance of 58 Knesset seats and even 59 with his bloc.

He is within reach of his target, which is 61 seats, Ashkenazi told Al-Monitor. If he gets there, it will be the end of Israel as we know it. We must prevent this from happening.

The peak (so far) of the mudslinging campaign was reached Feb. 27, with elections three days away. That evening, the top-rated Channel 12 prime time newscast aired a recording in which Gantzs senior strategic adviser, Israel Bachar, is heard saying in a private conversation, He [Gantz] doesnt have the courage to attack Iran, and adding that Gantz refusal to permit a strike on Iran was a threat to the people of Israel. The recording in which Bachar, one of Gantzs closest confidantes, challenges his capabilities and fitness for the premiership landed in the political arena like a cluster bomb.

Gantz and his people hurriedly shifted to damage control mode. Ashkenazi and former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, his two predecessors as Israel Defense Forces chief of staff and currently top Blue and White Knesset members, rushed to issue statements backing and praising their party leaders stamina and courage as proven during his four decades in uniform. Other former military chiefs, including Gadi Eizenkot, were asked to do the same.

This all followed two particularly destructive days during which the web and social media were flooded with speculation and innuendo by a Netanyahu acolyte who claimed that Gantz had sent salacious sex videos and recordings to one of his lovers while commanding the 2014 war against Gaza. This abomination was also tweeted and pumped up by Netanyahus son, Yair Netanyahu, the ringerleader of the assault on Gantz. Supposedly, the contents of Gantzs cell phone fell into Iranian hands, and the man who could be Israels next prime minister is thus vulnerable to blackmail by Israels archenemy. Any link between reality and this smelly concoction is pretty weak, but that did nothing to deter Netanyahus fans from celebrating the fake news and spreading it with vigor.

Blue and White responded too slowly and too late based on the incorrect assessment that the damage to Gantz would be minor and that the low level to which the Likud campaign had sunk would have the opposite effect of hurting those spreading the libel. Gantz's party has lost between three and five Knesset seats, not only to Labor and its allied parties on the left, but also to the Likud on its right.

Though late, the response by Gantz and his friends was plentiful. A powerful video in which six former heads of the vaunted Mossad and Shin Bet  Ami Ayalon, Efraim Halevi, Shabtai Shavit, Yuval Diskin, Carmi Gilon and Tamir Pardo  declare that Netanyahus continued hold on power constitutes a clear and present danger to Israels security, clips highlighting Netanyahus involvement in the so-called submarine affair and the tens of millions of shekels that his cousin Nathan Milikowski allegedly made from the sale of German submarines and other naval craft to Israel. Other videos dubbed Netanyahu as Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkeys authoritarian leader, who is greatly reviled in Israel.

The counter effort began on Feb. 26 and is planned to continue until election day, March 2, in a desperate bid to stem the electoral hemorrhaging and to at least restore Blue and White to a tie with the Likud, which would prevent either side from forming a government. Such a dead end appeared inevitable until a few days ago, but now it is the greatest hope of the Blue and White leadership. Netanyahu, as predicted Feb. 24 in Al-Monitor, has begun to wake from the dead, showing distinct signs of life.

What will tip the scales? Turnout. In the two elections in April and September 2019, voter turnout for Netanyahu was relatively low compared with that among centrist and left-wing voters. Netanyahu has learned a lesson from that and is investing a fortune in energizing voters to come out on election day and focusing on polling stations where turnout was particularly troubling for him. To that end, the Likud deployed a digital voter-monitoring app, Elector, which has already been hacked twice, leaking the names and data of millions of Israeli voters into cyberspace.

Netanyahu is undeterred by the current scandal. Nothing stops him. He will do anything to get the 61-seat Knesset majority he needs to form a government. The campaign for Israels third round of elections in less than a year appears to be the most powerful, fateful and explosive one since the founding of the state almost 72 years ago. That no one can say whether it'll be the last one this year is the worst of it.
As well as several other exciting projects, Audrey L'Ebrellec also played the part of Laudine in "King Arthur & Merlin: Knights of Camelot" (directed by Giles Alderson), which will be released later this year.

'We Go in at Dawn', the new movie starring Audrey L'Ebrellec

Also due for release in 2020, Audrey will be appearing in the highly-anticipated Film "We Go in at Dawn". As it transpires, this was a dream role for her  due to a long-term ambition to be involved in a project that focused on the French resistance during World War 2.

The beginning of the film is set six days before D-DAY.

It centres around the rescue of lieutenant Victor Lawrence (Christos Lawton), a key figure in the British Air Force who has been captured by Nazis. John Seabourne (Kelvin Fletcher), a special forces operative, leads the mission to parachute into France, team up with the local French resistance, and rescue Victor  all before the enemy discovers his true identity!

Audrey plays the character of Ellie, a young French resistant, who is accompanied throughout by her friends Anatole (Tom Taplin) and Priest Bernard (Tim Berrington). Determined and brave, Ellie wholeheartedly battles the Nazi occupants. She is clearly a strong-minded woman who is very much ahead of her time  happy to let the men know that they cant tell her what to say or do!

About her role as Ellie

Having always been fascinated by the history of World War 2, Audrey relished the opportunity to develop the role (Ellie). In fact, as well as her own research, she also used information her family passed on about the war, as well as recalling stories she learned during her school days. Audreys character is one of just a few female roles in "We Go in at Dawn" and, as is commonly known, war film parts are generally represented by men due to the much larger number of male soldiers involved in battle.

Therefore, Ellies character is a very important reminder that women did fight during World War 2  especially in the French resistance. Indeed, women represented approximately 15% to 20% of the total number of resistance fighters in France. Sadly, this historic reality is generally unknown and underappreciated.

Upcoming projects

Audrey said she had an amazing time working on this project. All the cast and crew worked tirelessly together to create the best film they possibly could. Part of the filming took place in Suffolk, England, where, for two full weeks, they were very much at the mercy of the unpredictable British weather.

"We Go in at Dawn" is being released on DVD on March 16th and is available now to pre-order from Amazon. Sworn to secrecy, Audrey is currently working on an upcoming feature film  which she is very excited about! She is also producing her own projects and collaborating with other artists.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops 24 times, Trend reports referring to Azerbaijani Defense Ministry on Feb. 28.

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.
This was not intended to offend anybody or cause any alarm, BPD Lt. Brandon Wooley said Thursday afternoon. And I think largely its been seen like that.

Some of the responses to the Facebook post took issue with how the post jokes about drug addiction. Wooley said he reviewed feedback and that most people appeared to understand the post was meant to be humorous and appreciated it as such.

BPD occasionally uses its Facebook page for humor in an effort to humanize the department and connect with community members, Wooley said. After questions about the recent post were raised, there were discussions among BPD leadership and the criticism will be kept in mind going forward, according to Wooley.

Multiple other law enforcement organizations in other states have published the same or similar joke over the past few days on Facebook. The BPD post had been shared 1,300 times by early Thursday evening.

Social media has enabled rumors to spread like wildfire, Felton said.
Its not just you: Even the government is having trouble staying on top of how fast things are changing with the new coronavirus epidemic raging through numerous countries.

Heres your daily update on whats new with the coronavirus.

Its in Oregon: A person in Oregon is sick with the first presumptive case of the new coronavirus in the state, Oregon health officials said Friday.

Testing for the disease: Federal health officials came under fire after waiting four days to test a California woman for coronavirus despite her doctors please for a test early on. She tested positive and could be the first confirmed case not related to travel to China or contact with a person known to be sick with the coronavirus.

Whistleblower: U.S. workers helping Americans evacuated from China didnt have the protective equipment and training necessary to do the work, according to a whistleblower complaint filed with a federal investigative agency. After raising concerns within the agency responsible, the Department of Health and Human Services, the whistleblower was given the choice of being reassigned or fired, the person has alleged.

Stock market: Stock markets plunged further Friday over fears that the coronavirus epidemic could derail global trade and industry. Major companies are issuing profit warnings, saying factory shutdowns in China are disrupting supply chains. On Thursday, the Dow had its largest one-day point drop in history. Prices for U.S bonds soared as people sought the safety of government-backed investments.

New Oregon team: Gov. Kate Brown put together a special team of Oregon bureaucrats to tackle what health officials say is an inevitable outbreak of the coronavirus in the United States.

PDX and TriMet: Local transportation officials are keeping an eye on the coronavirus threat, but they havent had the need to change any of their policies, as of yet. Portland International Airport isnt doing any additional screening of passengers  they all are cleared by federal customs officials, who are in close contact with federal health officials. TriMet asks that riders stay home if theyre sick, practice basic cough and sneeze etiquette, and wear a mask if they are sick and must leave the house.

School closure: A high school in Washington closed Thursday in what health officials said was an overreaction to a staffers family member being placed under quarantine after showing coronavirus symptoms. The school was to be disinfected Thursday, the school districts superintendent told families.

Beards: No, guys, dont shave that pride and joy of yours that grows on your face. Some have interpreted a federal infographic making the social media rounds to say that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants men to shave off most styles of facial hair. This is not true.

Stock up on meds: To prepare for the spread of coronavirus in the United States, you can stock up on your favorite over-the-counter medications, doctors say. Pain relievers like acetaminophen (Tylenol), ibuprofen (Advil) and aspirin could alleviate the fever and aches that come with the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Corona beer: Nearly two in five Americans are refusing to drink Corona beer because of the coronavirus outbreak, despite having no connection besides a similar name.

Virus spreads to Mexico: Mexico now has two confirmed cases of the new coronavirus. Officials said neither patient is seriously ill; one is in isolation at a hospital, the other is isolated at a hotel. Both men had traveled to the northern Italian region where there has been an outbreak and had returned to Mexico between last Friday and Saturday.

Take precautions: With words like quarantine, outbreak and isolation being thrown around, its important to educate yourself about the virus and how it could impact you  emotionally, physically and financially. Heres what you need to know and do.

Testing is ramping up: Federal health officials said Friday theyre scrambling to get coronavirus testing up and running in every state, as President Donald Trumps chief economic adviser urged Americans not to overreact to plunging financial markets.

Now in Nigeria: Nigerian authorities on Friday confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa as the outbreak spread to a region with some of the worlds weakest health systems.

Wash. Your. Hands: Washing your hands sounds easy enough. But chances are you may not be doing it properly. Here are the CDCs recommended five steps for properly washing your hands.

Were ready: The new coronavirus is spreading rapidly around the world, and federal officials said this week the disease is bound to proliferate in the United States, as well. Oregon officials say theyre ready.

-- Fedor Zarkhin

fzarkhin@oregonian.com

desk: 503-294-7674|cell: 971-373-2905|@fedorzarkhin

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
Inner Sunset, Mission

Tartine colleagues show off their union pins. | Photo: Tartine Union/Twitter

Making sandwiches at Tartine Bakery has been a decent job, says Excelsior resident Sandra Lopez. Theres health insurance, and the working conditions are good. But shes still barely making ends meet.

Im paid $17 an hour, she says. One sandwich at Tartine costs $17.

Lopez would know: she makes more than 50 of them a day, working from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

A 44-year-old Honduran immigrant, Lopez is one of the more than 200 Tartine workers who are hoping to organize under the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Announced earlier this month, the union drive is supported by more than 70% of the 215 workers at the companys Bay Area locations, who are hoping to secure better pay, job protections and more consistent scheduling.

Tartine workers wearing their union pins. | Photo: Tartine Union/Twitter

Tartine management has declined to recognize the union, arguing in a letter that workers have been subject to "mischaracterizations and falsehoods" about its potential benefits.

In response, union leaders have filed for an official election with the National Labor Relations Board, which is likely to take place next month.

If the workers earn a simple majority of pro-union votes, the union will be enacted, and a bargaining committee of workers will be chosen to negotiate terms with owners Elisabeth Prueitt, Chad Robertson and Chris Bianco.

For Lopez, the vote is critical. After emigrating from Honduras three years ago to escape the violence plaguing the country, shes supporting her four children, who still live there, from a distance. She got the job at Tartine through her sister, who works in delivery and packaging at the Tartine Manufactory.

Story continues

Between health insurance, an immigration lawyer for her political asylum case, and the $800 rent she pays for a room in the Excelsior, Lopez is stretched thin. She believes the union is her best hope for increased wages, better health care, and perhaps, one day, being able to take a vacation.

Tartine baker Jamie Fassio pours batter onto a sheet. | Photo: Courtesy of Jamie Fassio

According to Tartine employees, the high-end bakery starts paying most workers around San Franciscos $15.59-per-hour the minimum wage, give or take a few dollars, depending on experience. That includes the bakers behind Tartines famous pastries.

Lopezs colleague Jamie Fassio, 36, is a longtime home baker who worked in sales, but always longed to be in the kitchen. In 2016, she decided to follow her dreams of becoming a pastry chef, studying full-time at the International Culinary Center before landing a job at Tartine. There, she turns out pie and tart shells, cookies, scones, quiches and soon, cakes.

Being employed by a prestigious bakery has its perks: Fassio has had the opportunity to grow her culinary skills, learn new techniques, and use top-of-the-line ingredients. But her pay  $20 an hour  just doesnt cut it, especially with a baby on the way.

Things are super tight right now, Fassio says. It would be nice to have some savings.

Tartine, which first opened at 18th and Guerrero streets in 2002, has rapidly expanded in the past few years. In 2016, it opened its Mission spinoff, Tartine Manufactory, followed by expansions to Seoul, Los Angeles, Berkeley and the Inner Sunset.

Barista John Latt was one of Tartine Manufactorys first employees, hired at $15 an hour when it opened in 2016. He says he never received a raise until he asked for one, three years into working at the company. His coworker, an immigrant from Guatemala, was hired four years ago and has never received a raise.

Barista John Latt (right) shows off bread made by his former Tartine coworker. | Photo: Courtesy of John Latt

Latt is only able to afford living in San Francisco because his rent is much lower than market rate; along with four other people, he lives in a tiny Mission District apartment (essentially a closet) thats owned by the San Francisco Community Land Trust. If he wasnt living there, Latt says, hed probably have to work a second job.

Service workers are the backbone of San Francisco and other cities, Latt says. Its becoming increasingly impossible for us to live in San Francisco.

Latt is currently on medical disability due to a heart infection, but hopes to return to Tartine once he recovers. Hes supporting the union in the hope that it will address inconsistencies in management and a lack of accountability in responding to workers grievances, along with improving pay.

We want Tartine to do well, Latt says. "We like our jobs and want to keep them as long as possible. We just want a better workplace for everyone.

John Latt was in the hospital for three weeks with a heart infection, from which he is still recovering. An ILWU union organizer visited and gave him a union pin. | Photo: Courtesy of John Latt

Since Tartine workers announced the union campaign two weeks ago, there's been an outpouring of public support. Residents and store owners have hung Tartine Union posters in their windows, and dozens of patrons have shown up wearing union pins on Tartine Union "support days." Customers have even left notes of encouragement on checks.

The Tartine workers say San Franciscans can support the union by following them on Twitter and Instagram, wearing union pins, and continuing to purchase baked goods, especially on union support days (typically Sundays and Mondays  theyre announced in advance on social media).

For all of our sakes, I hope we win, Latt says. And I hope we inspire other service workers to try to get organized.
Major distribution agreement for COVID-19 test

Regulatory News:

Novacyt (EURONEXT GROWTH: ALNOV; AIM: NCYT) ("Novacyt" or the "Company"), an international specialist in clinical diagnostics, is pleased to provide an update regarding the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) test developed by Primerdesign, its molecular diagnostics division, and announces it has signed a major distribution agreement in Asia and an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement with a US healthcare group.

As of 27 February 2020, Primerdesign has sold over 0.93m (1.1m) of CE-Mark and research use only (RUO) tests. Since launching its CE-Mark test, the Company is experiencing high levels of interest in its product. The value of quotations has grown significantly as Novacyt is currently involved in active discussions with representatives from a number of countries which have an acute need for tests as part of their national screening programmes. Due to the high level of interest in the Primerdesign COVID-19 test and rapidly evolving nature of this outbreak, the Company cannot predict with any certainty the conversion rate of these ongoing enquiries into orders.

Primerdesign has also signed its first major distribution agreement for the COVID-19 test with a global life sciences company to supply the test to two Asian territories outside mainland China. Initial sales, which are subject to local emergency use approval, are anticipated to be 2.1m (2.5m) during the first six months of the agreement. It is expected that the first sales under this agreement will take place in March 2020.

The Company also announces that it has signed an OEM agreement with a US healthcare group for the manufacture and sale of its RUO coronavirus tests.

In addition, as previously announced, the Primerdesign test is currently under review by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Approval, which would allow the test to be used for clinical diagnosis of COVID-19 in the US. The FDA and the Company are in regular contact.

Public health authorities around the world are pursuing a variety of strategies when it comes to testing for COVID-19. For example, Public Health England (PHE) has issued testing guidance to the NHS to be deployed across eight testing centres in the UK. PHE as part of its planning has also invited diagnostic manufacturers (including Primerdesign) to submit tests for a formal evaluation process, which is expected to conclude next month. It is not known at this time what conclusions or guidance the PHE will subsequently give to the NHS for COVID-19 testing.

The current COVID-19 screening procedure in France involves directing all patient samples to the Institut Pasteur in Paris. It is not known at this time whether more widespread testing will be performed and what test methods will be approved for use in these hospitals and clinics.

Other health authorities around the world have approved tests for emergency use from local manufacturers and many are also currently reviewing the Primerdesign test. The speed and processes to gain emergency approval for tests differs from country-to-country depending on their approval process and the perceived threat level of COVID-19.

The Company has put in place a number of measures to significantly increase production capacity and continues to plan for greater throughput to ensure Primerdesign can meet all current and potential demand. These measures include, if necessary, using the Company's manufacturing capacity at both its UK sites.

Graham Mullis, Chief Executive Officer of Novacyt, commented:

"I am extremely pleased with the commercial interest shown in our test to date and to be able to support the global response to monitor and contain the COVID-19 outbreak. The two contracts announced today reinforce how quickly the response to this virus is developing and shows our commitment to support these efforts anywhere in the world.

"We believe the Primerdesign test remains among the quickest and most accurate tests available for COVID-19, as well as being stable for long distance shipping without the need for specialist cold-chain shipping. It is also designed to run on multiple molecular testing platforms commonly used around the world. I am proud of the team who are working extremely hard to meet the regulatory and manufacturing challenges to make our test available to as many affected countries as possible."

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 596/2014.

- End -

About Novacyt Group

The Novacyt Group is an international diagnostics business generating an increasing portfolio of in vitro and molecular diagnostic tests. Its core strengths lie in diagnostics product development, commercialisation, contract design and manufacturing. The Company's lead business units comprise of Primerdesign and Lab21 Products, supplying an extensive range of high-quality assays and reagents worldwide. The Group directly serves microbiology, haematology and serology markets as do its global partners, which include major corporates.

For more information please refer to the website: www.novacyt.com

About COVID-19

Researchers at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and their collaborators have sequenced the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pathogen from patient samples and have found it to be genetically distinct from the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus that caused an epidemic in 2002 and 2003, as well as from the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus that was detected in 2012.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227005863/en/

Contacts:

Novacyt SA

Graham Mullis, Chief Executive Officer

Anthony Dyer, Chief Financial Officer

+44 (0)1276 600081

SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nominated Adviser and Broker)

Matthew Johnson Charlie Bouverat (Corporate Finance)

Vadim Alexandre Rob Rees (Corporate Broking)

+44 (0)20 3470 0470

FTI Consulting (International)

Victoria Foster Mitchell Mary Whittow

+44 (0)20 3727 1000

victoria.fostermitchell@fticonsulting.com mary.whittow@fticonsulting.com

FTI Consulting (France)

Arnaud de Cheffontaines

+33 (0)147 03 69 47

arnaud.decheffontaines@fticonsulting.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 04:41:29|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will attend the signing of U.S.-Taliban agreement, which is expected to occur in the Qatari capital city of Doha on Saturday.

"If the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home," Trump said in a statement released by the White House.

Trump also revealed that U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper will issue a joint declaration with the government of Afghanistan without any elaboration on details.

Washington announced last week that a deal with Taliban is expected to be inked on Feb. 29 on the condition of successful week-long reduction of violence in Afghanistan starting from Feb. 22.

Peace talks between Washington and the Taliban began in 2018 but were suspended late last year following Taliban attacks on U.S. military personnel.

The United States currently maintains 12,000-13,000 troops in Afghanistan, largely providing training missions to local forces.
Actors Tiger Shroff and Disha Patani have been sparking dating rumours since way back when they appeared in the music video Befikra. Instantly, they won the hearts of the audience with their chemistry and fiery dance moves. Post that, they co-starred in Ahmed Khan's Baaghi 2, which further fueled up the rumours. However, both Tiger and Disha maintained that they are only good friends and get snapped at lunches as friends.

Talking to Mumbai Mirror, Tiger talked about his raport with the Malang actor. He said that her nature made it easy to get along with her. "We have a lot in common and thats why we get along well. I have very few friends in the industry. Theres Danny uncles (Denzongpa) son Rinzing, who is about to be launched soon, and Ranjit sirs son Jeeva. They are my childhood friends. Disha and I met during Baaghi and since we have similar interests and can laugh over silly things, we hang out together. She is very easy-going, no tantrums. We go out for lunch every now and then and get clicked together," Tiger shared.

Tiger is gearing up for the release of his next film, Ahmed Khan's Baaghi 3 starring Shraddha Kapoor. Disha also makes a special appearance in the film. Ritesh Deshmukh and Ankita Lokhande play pivotal parts.

Tiger was also asked when his War director Siddharth Anand's Rambo remake happening. Talking about the film and what's next for his career, Tiger said, "Hopefully, by the end of the year. Im also doing the sequel to my first film, Heropanti, with my mentor Sajid sir (Nadiadwala, producer) and Baaghi 2 and 3 director Ahmed sir (Khan), and thats about it."

Follow @News18Movies for more
Melbourne, Feb 28 : Using four telescopes including the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in Pune, astronomers have discovered the biggest explosion seen in the universe since the Big Bang.

The blast, which released five times more energy than the previous record holder, came from a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy hundreds of millions of light-years away.

The other telescopes used for the discovery included NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, European Space Agency's (ESA) XMM-Newton and the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Western Australia.

"We've seen outbursts in the centres of galaxies before but this one is really, really massive," said Professor Melanie Johnston-Hollitt from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia.

"And we don't know why it's so big. But it happened very slowly - like an explosion in slow motion that took place over hundreds of millions of years," she added.

The explosion occurred in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, about 390 million light-years from Earth. It was so powerful it punched a cavity in the cluster plasma -- the super-hot gas surrounding the black hole.

The blast was similar to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, which ripped the top off the mountain, said lead author of the study Simona Giacintucci from the Naval Research Laboratory in the US.

"The difference is that you could fit 15 Milky Way galaxies in a row into the crater this eruption punched into the cluster's hot gas," she said.

The cavity in the cluster plasma had been seen previously with X-ray telescopes, Johnston-Hollitt said.

But scientists initially dismissed the idea that it could have been caused by an energetic outburst, because it would have been too big.

"People were sceptical because the size of outburst," she said. "But it really is that. The Universe is a weird place." The researchers only realised what they had discovered when they looked at the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster with radio telescopes.

"The radio data fit inside the X-rays like a hand in a glove," said co-author Maxim Markevitch, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre.

"This is the clincher that tells us an eruption of unprecedented size occurred here," Markevitch said.

Professor Johnston-Hollitt likened the finding to discovering the first dinosaur bones.

"It's a bit like archaeology," she said.

"We've been given the tools to dig deeper with low frequency radio telescopes so we should be able to find more outbursts like this now," Johnston-Hollitt said.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
YEREVAN.  There have been arrests, there will be again, of course. Eduard Martirosyan, Acting Director of the National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia, said this in a briefing with reporters today, when asked whether there will be new arrests of former or current officials in the near future.

"It's an ongoing process that always happens," he added.

Asked what happened to the cases of the arrests of former officials since the beginning of the revolution, the NSS acting chief responded: Criminal cases have been initiated against almost all of them (...). That scope is expanding with the investigation, and there will be boisterous cases."
The Qatari emir concluded his visit to Jordan Feb. 24, with Jordanian pundits describing the visit as historic. The Jordanian royal court said that King Abdullah and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held talks that "reaffirmed the deep-rooted, brotherly ties between the two countries, and keenness to bolster them across all sectors, especially economic and investment-related fields."

The talks, according to the statement, also covered regional developments, foremost of which is the Palestinian cause and the need to support the Palestinians as they seek their just and legitimate rights to establish their independent and viable state on the 4 June 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on the two-state solution, and international law and relevant UN resolutions.

This was the first visit by the Qatari emir since the two countries reinstated ambassadors in July 2019, following a two-year demotion of diplomatic ties. Amman recalled its ambassador to Doha in June 2017, when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with the Gulf state.

The Qatari emirs two-day visit to Amman underlined King Abdullahs determination to distance himself from regional blocs that weaken Arab stances, especially the Palestinian issue. It also indicates the kings resolve to follow an independent foreign policy path that prioritizes the kingdom's interests. The king had chosen not to take sides in the inter-Gulf states row and has managed to maintain good ties with both sides.

The same independent approach has characterized the kings relationship with Turkey and, to some extent, Iran. Tehran maintains full diplomatic ties with Amman, even after Jordan recalled its ambassador three years ago to appease Riyadh.

Qatar stepped in to help Jordans ailing economy in June 2018 with a $500 million aid package. The package included investments, finance of solar projects, and job opportunities for Jordanians in the Gulf state. The two countries launched a job website in August 2018 aimed at providing 10,000 job opportunities for Jordanians in Qatar.

During his latest visit, Emir Thani said an additional 10,000 job opportunities would be created for Jordanians in Qatar. He also donated $30 million to support a fund for military retirees. In a tweet on the eve of his visit, the emir said that the two countries would increase cooperation in the fields of investments, sports, energy and the exchange of expertise.

Jordan and Qatar established diplomatic relations in 1972, but ties go as far back as the 1950s, when hundreds of skilled Jordanians sought work in the Gulf state in the sectors of health, education, banking and media. Today, 56,000 Jordanians work and live in Qatar, while 3,000 Qatari students study at Jordanian universities, according to figures released by the Qatari Embassy. Moreover, Qatari investments in Jordan are estimated at $1.2 billion, while about 1,700 joint Jordanian-Qatari companies operate in the Gulf state.

The bulk of Qatari investments in Jordan in recent years focused on the renewable energy sector, the most significant project being the Shams Ma'an Solar Power Plant, with an estimated cost of $170 million. Qatari investments in the kingdoms financial market are estimated at $1 billion, mostly in the real estate, financial and tourism sectors.

Jordanian exporters have suffered as a result of the economic blockade imposed on Qatar by its Gulf neighbors. A recent Jordanian study concluded that Jordans overland exports to Qatar have retreated 75% since the imposition of the blockade. The trade balance favors Qatar, whose annual exports, mostly oil products and chemicals, are estimated at $220 million, while Jordans exports, mainly fruits, vegetables and live animals, are estimated at $130 million annually.

Jordans Ministry of Labor announced Feb. 24 that about 4,000 Jordanians have found work in Qatar since August 2018, adding that more than 15,000 job opportunities are available for Jordanians in the Gulf state. As the local economy slows, Jordan has grappled with a 19% unemployment rate.

Aside from the economic benefits  primarily for Jordan  of the full normalization of ties with Qatar, King Abdullah is looking for regional allies to confront US President Donald Trumps peace plan. For Jordan, the plan threatens Jordanian national security, as it abandons the two-state solution. For Qatar to come out and support the two-state solution from Amman is a boon for King Abdullah, as Qatar has close ties with the United States and Israel  though unofficially with the latter.

For the Qataris, the visit to Amman is an indication that the three-year economic blockade imposed by its neighbors has not affected its regional presence. Like King Abdullah, the Qatari emir is keen to underline his independence when it comes to conducting foreign policy.

So far, there are no signs that Jordans other Gulf allies, namely Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, are taking steps against Amman for hosting the emir. Jordans policy of keeping all regional paths open seems to be working.
DUBAI, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Emirates airline said it would no longer carry to Saudi Arabia passengers with Umrah pilgrimage visas or tourists from nearly two dozen countries until further notice, in compliance with a Saudi government directive to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

Holders of Saudi tourist visas travelling from China, Japan, Italy, Iran, India, Pakistan and a number of other countries will be barred from boarding Emirates flights with Saudi Arabia as the final destination, the airline said on its website.

The ban takes effect on Thursday. (Reporting by Saeed Azhar; writing by Yousef Saba Editing by Gareth Jones)
Japans Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea are temporarily closing their doors due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The two theme parks, which are operated by the Oriental Land Company, will be closed from Feb. 29 to March 15 after the Japanese government urged measures to limit the spread of the virus, according to a statement posted on the Tokyo Disney Resort website early Friday.

Guests who have already purchased admission for those dates are encouraged to exchange them for tickets that can be used until March 31, 2021, the statement said. The exchange can be made free of charge.

The closure announcement comes weeks after Shanghai Disneyland temporarily ceased operations in response to the prevention and control of the disease outbreak and in order to ensure the health and safety of our guests and cast.

Tokyo Disneyland | Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images

RELATED: Heres a Map of All the Coronavirus Cases in the U.S.

On Thursday, Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe publicly urged the countrys elementary, middle and high schools to shut down until late March, which is near the end of the school year.

The move  which hopes to squash the further spread of the novel coronavirus  will affect about 34,847 schools across the country, barring some 12.8 million students from classrooms, according to the Associated Press.

This is to prioritize the health and safety of the children and take precautions to avoid the risk of possible large-scale infections for many children and teachers who gather and spend hours together every day, said Abe, per the AP.

According to The New York Times, there have been about 186 cases of novel coronavirus reported in Japan, with a total of four deaths. A cruise ship docked in Yokohama, Japan, has also accounted for over 700 cases and four deaths.

RELATED VIDEO: Japan to Close All Schools for 1 Month in Attempt to Prevent Coronavirus Spread

Tokyo is set to host the 2020 Olympics later this summer, though the international sporting event may be called off should the number of novel coronavirus cases around the world continue to rise, a member of the International Olympic Committee said this week.

Coronavirus is a blanket term for several respiratory illnesses, ranging from the common cold to more severe viruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Symptoms typically include fever, cough, trouble breathing, headache and sore throat.

As of Feb. 27, there have been 82,132 reported cases of the coronavirus around the world, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
A senior Turkish official on Thursday said Turkey will no longer attempt to stop Syrian refugees heading to Europe.

"We have decided, effective immediately, not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land or sea," the unidentified official told Reuters. "All refugees, including Syrians, are now welcome to cross into the European Union."

There are 3.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, and in 2016, the European Union agreed to send the country billions of Euros in aid with the understanding that Turkey would prevent the migrants from going on to Europe. Now, as fighting has intensified in Syria's Idlib province and hundreds of thousands of Syrians are displaced, the burden of housing refugees is "too heavy for any single country to carry," the official told Reuters.

In Idlib, Turkish-backed rebels have been trying to keep control of territory they seized from the Syrian government, supported by Russia. On Thursday, a Syrian government airstrike in Idlib killed at least 33 Turkish soldiers, a Turkish official said. In response, Turkish air and land support units are firing on "all known" Syrian government targets, according to Fahrettin Altun, Turkey's communications director.

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The Rajasthan High Court on Friday rejected a petition challenging the acquittal of Shiva and Prakash, the co-accused in the rape case involving self-styled godman Asaram Bapu.

The petition challenging the acquittal was filed by the family members of the victim.

Two of the five accused were acquitted by a Jodhpur Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe court, which had on April 28, 2018, convicted and sentenced Asaram Bapu to life imprisonment for raping a minor girl in 2013.

The court had also convicted and sentenced the two others, Shilpi and Sharad, to 20 years each in jail in the same case.

Asaram Bapu was accused of raping a minor girl in his ashram in Manai area near Jodhpur on the night of August 15, 2013.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Flights from Guangzhou, China to Nairobi have resumed on a weekly basis until March, 25, the Chinese Embassy in Kenya has confirmed.

The embassy confirmed that China Southern Airlines has reduced its Nairobi flights to once a week in a statement to newsrooms Wednesday.

The airline has notified the Ministry of Health in advance and all the passengers have been screened and cleared. The Embassy has also sent officials to the airport for assistance, and before the arrival of the flight the Embassy reminded all Chinese companies and diaspora groups in Kenya again of the 14-day self-quarantine requirements, said the Embassy.

The Embassy wishes to assure our Kenyan brothers and sisters that our Embassy will do our utmost to work together with the Kenyan government to prevent importation of the COVID-19 into Kenya.

The Ministry further advised Kenyans against non-essential travel to countries experiencing the coronavirus outbreak.

Underwhelming and sickening

On Thursday, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo said there was no need to worry about the flights from China when she appeared before members of the Departmental Committee for Defence and Foreign Relations in Parliament.

Some of the MPs, however, faulted the CS for lacking an understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic after being put to task over the fate of 100 Kenyans in China.

She reiterated the governments position that there are no plans to bring back the 91 learners, who are in Wuhan, and nine acrobats plying their trade in the country.

Omama said Kenyan Ambassador to China Sarah Serem is in close communication with the citizens. She said the Chinese Government has also set aside 41 hotlines that the students in Wuhan can use to contact authorities should they need counselling services.

Asked on the nationalities of the 239 passengers, who arrived in Kenya on Wednesday, Omamo said: The flight that touched down in the country yesterday, was subjected to WHO requirements before it was allowed in Kenya.

All the passengers were asked to self-quarantine. It is quite difficult to respond to certain questions. Given some of the passengers were wearing face masks, I wouldnt be able to tell if they were from India, China, Elgeyo-Marakwet or Kisumu.

But Belgut MP Nelson Koech said her answers were underwhelming and sickening.

I have sat here listening painfully to the CS of Foreign Affairs giving underwhelming and sickening answers to this Committee, said Koech.

She also appeared to anger the committee after being asked whether Sarah Serem had lost hope after failing to evacuate the Kenyans.

Omama responded: Serem has a really caring nature, and I thank her. Serem loves children and students.

I am sorry that you find my answers to be underwhelming. I dont know what language to use to reveal how the Government is committed to tackle this [coronavirus] issue. Let us not lose hope, let us handle this issue [head-on], she added.
The House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture has summoned the Management of the Bank of Agriculture (BOA), Kaduna, to clear issues on the banks inability to recover the N81 billion loan disbursed to farmers under the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP).

The Committee gave the order on Friday, when it paid an oversight visit to the headquarters of the bank in Kaduna on Friday.

Chairman of the Committee, Muntari Dandutse, who led other members directed the bank management to submit all relevant documents related to the anchor borrowers programme to it for scrutiny.

Mr Dandutse said the documents should include the total amount disbursed to farmers and the number of farmers that benefited from the loans.

He said the bank should also submit its audited accounts and the amount it recovered from the farmers.

The committee, according to him, would need to have access to the banks list of beneficiaries and defaulters, and advice on measures to be taken to recover the loans.

Members of the committee had during the visit expressed concern that beneficiaries of the Anchor Borrower Programme had complained to the committee on banks alleged poor handling of the ABP funds.

The committee said it received over 30 petitions from farmers against the bank of its inability to properly manage the CBN funds released for the program.

Mr Dandutse, however, said the committee in particular and the National Assembly was determined to engage stakeholders including CBN on measures to recover outstanding loans from the N81 billion said to have been disbursed.

N81 billion can change the lives of Nigerian farmers in different value chains, so we cannot allow it go unrecovered, as this government is determined to ensure probity and transparency in all conducts.

The bank should appear before it along with all its documents of debtors, as well as those who have applied for loans and did not get, he said.

Zainab Gimba, representing Bama/Ngala/Kalabalge federal constituency of Borno State, had raised concern that farmers from the North-East were not happy with the manner the bank handled the anchor borrowers funds.

Mrs Gimba listed commercial farmers including Dili Daru Farms, Gorea Farms, Shiltam Farms and Mohammed Dogo among those who expressed concern with the way the bank handled the funds.

She said the farmers had complained to her office and the Committee that they were finding it difficult to access loans under ABP from the Agriculture bank.

Mrs Gimba said BOA had slowed the federal governments efforts towards resettling the people North-East affected by insurgency, through Agriculture.

She urged the Bank to go back to its core mandate and urgently respond to the financial need of farmers, especially those affected by the crisis in the north east region.

However, the Managing Director of the bank, Kabir Adamu, while addressing the committee disclosed that farmers in the North-East region were major beneficiaries of the loans.

Mr Adamu said it was a deliberate effort of the bank that ensured that farmers from the North East region benefited more from the ABP than any other part of the country.

It is a not true to say that the BOA has not been releasing funds to the farmers in the North-East. Many of the farmers took the loan in billions of naira under the ABP and refused to pay back.

We are currently collaborating with the National Refugees Commission to help resettle those that have been displaced through Agriculture.

Last year we made donation of rice, blankets and other materials to support those affected by the crisis in the region.

We have also signed an MoU with the North East Development Commission and agreed on key areas of mechanisation and other forms of production to see how we can support them.

On the issue of Anchor Borrower, so many people have taken loans and they have refused to pay, Mr Adamu said.

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He said the bank had suffered in silence for long from poor recovery from beneficiaries, while CBN on the other hand, had often stampeded the Bank to disburse more money to farmers.

The Committee, however, asked the bank management to appear before it on a date to be communicated to it.

(NAN)
Police at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel in Tenerife, where more than 160 Britons are quarantined (Pacific Press/Sipa USA)

A series of European countries have announced their first coronavirus cases in the past week as the illness continues to spread.

A total of 11 European states said they had become affected by it, with Greece, Denmark and Spain all confirming cases in the last seven days.

They are joined by Austria, Estonia, Switzerland, Croatia, Norway, Romania, Georgia and North Macedonia, which all announced the virus had reached their territories this week.

Six of those countries confirmed the cases involved people who had travel links to Italy, which is trying to stop the spread of the outbreak in the north of the country.

People wear antivirus masks to protect themselves from coronavirus infection in St Peter's Square, Rome (Pacific Press/Sipa USA)

European countries with coronavirus as of this morning. (PA Images)

For the first time, the number of new cases reported outside of China  the epicentre of the virus  has exceeded new cases reported by Beijing, Reuters has reported.

In the UK, two more people tested positive for coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, and have been transferred to specialist NHS facilities.

One contracted it in Italy while the other got it in Tenerife.

The latter is the parent of a child at Burbage Primary School in Buxton, Derbyshire, which shut following the positive test and is due to be deep cleaned.

Burbage Primary School in Leicestershire, which has been closed due to a "confirmed case of coronavirus amongst our parent population" (PA)

Professor Rowland Kao, chairman of veterinary epidemiology and data science at the University of Edinburgh, said the UK can expect more cases.

We already have evidence of onward transmission occurring outside of China and so these two cases  associated with situations with high levels of infections  are not surprising, he said.

This occurrence should therefore already be well within the scope of the current approach to control.

It does highlight that we should continue to expect more cases without direct association with China, and therefore, despite evidence of the epidemic tailing off in China, a need for continued vigilance with appropriate control measures for some time.

A man walks next the swimming pool of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, Tenerife (AP)

Meanwhile, 168 Britons are confined to the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife after four guests there were diagnosed with coronavirus.

In total, 20 countries announced the virus had reached their borders over the past week.

Brazil, Lebanon, Israel, Algeria, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the non-European countries with recently-confirmed cases.
Four labourers were killed and 28 others injured on Friday in a blast at a chemical factory in Haryana's Bahadurgarh town on the outskirts of Delhi, officials said.

The blast took place at the factory in MI Industrial area on Friday after which three buildings opposite to it caught fire and two others adjacent to it collapsed, Jhajjar Deputy Commissioner Jitender Dahiya told PTI over phone here.

Dahiya said those killed in the blast are all labourers and the injured, one of them seriously, have been hospitalised.

Among the injured are five children and 12 women, he said.

He said Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh for the next of kin of the deceased.

The police official said firefighters brought the blaze under control.

A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the district administration are making efforts to clear the debris of the buildings, he said.

He did not rule out the possibility of finding more bodies once the debris are cleared.

Dahiya said the cause of the blast has not been ascertained so far.

Bahadurgarh town is in Jhajjar district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As we celebrate the first anniversary of Balakot, one of the biggest challenges facing the Indian subcontinent and West Asia is of managing cross-border air strikes





by Ashok K Mehta





On the first anniversary of Balakot, which is today, challenges of managing cross-border air strikes are worth recalling. Prevention of high-stake military action  initiation or retaliation  from escalation is the challenge. Recent air, drone and missile strikes in the subcontinent and West Asia demonstrate diminishing appetite for war and conflict. Whenever a conflictual incident has occurred, the immediate aim has been to de-escalate. Uri, Doklam, Balakot and the targetted assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani demonstrated marked preference for containment and defusion rather than confrontation or escalation. A classic case of the absence of escalation control occurred during the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war where both sides played tit-for-tat.













Pakistan launched Operation Gibraltar, attacking by infiltrating Jammu & Kashmir. India retaliated at Hajipir and Kishanganga bulge in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Pakistan responded in Chhamb-Jauriyan. Pressed against the wall in Chhamb, India called in its Indian Air Force (IAF) and crossed the International Border (IB) in Sialkot and Lahore sectors, taking the war into the Punjab plains. Rawalpindi had believed its war would be confined to Jammu & Kashmir.





Now compare Indias surgical strikes in Uri and Balakot with the US drone strike against Soleimani. Language and vocabulary employed following these incidents make it clear that both the initiator and the responder aimed at de-escalation. Both the US and India have tried to alter the behaviour of Iran and Pakistan respectively, making both end their use of terrorism as instruments of State policy. In retaliation to the acts of terrorism, neither has wanted escalation after they initiated pre-emptive strikes or acted in anticipatory self-defence  a terminology used by India and the US. Although Indias air strike in Balakot was in retaliation to the Pulwama suicide attack, it was presented as pre-emptive action to ward off imminent terrorist attacks. The US drone strike on Soleimani was portrayed as revenge for earlier Iranian attacks on American interests and its allies in the Gulf region as also to prevent future attacks. As India wanted no escalation, it stated upfront that air attacks targetted the terrorist bases and that no further action was planned. The read-out was similar to pre-emptive attacks in 2016 against terrorist launch pads as reprisal for Uri. By completely denying Indian attacks, Pakistan absolved itself of any response.





But in reaction to Balakot, where the IAF struck for the first time inside Pakistan after the 1971 war and not in PoK, a Pakistani retaliation was inevitable. It came swiftly the next day when a package of F-16s crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and dropped their payload in Nowshera in a void, not on Indian military installations to obviate escalation. But Indian fighter jets scrambled, and in the dogfight, India claimed shooting down of a F-16 while Pakistan shot down a MiG 21 Bison, taking its pilot hostage. Content with retribution but intent on de-escalation, Pakistan agreed to return the pilot, though under US pressure. Pakistans announcement of the release of the pilot and Indias declaration that there would be no response to the Nowshera foray hastened the process of de-escalation .





Now compare Balakot with the US drone strike that eliminated Soleimani. Washington explained the operation as anticipatory self-defence. In order to deter wider conflict and asymmetric retaliation by Iran, the US counselled proportionate response even as Tehran put a bounty of $80 million on US President Donald Trumps head. Irans Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said: The US act of international terrorism targetting and assassinating Gen Soleimani is extremely dangerous and foolish escalation. The US bears responsibility for all the consequences of its rogue adventurism. Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, promised revenge, which came through 12 precision-guided missile strikes against two US bases in Iraq, which were programmed to cause no harm to its soldiers and assets (like Pakistan bombing in Nowshera) to minimise scope for escalation despite Trumps high-octane warnings for reprisals.





Retribution delivered, Zarif said: Action taken in self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter has been concluded. We do not seek escalation or war. Like Pakistans retaliatory strikes after Balakot caused no harm to India, Iranian missiles were sanitised to avoid escalation. Trump chose to step back and imposed only additional sanctions on Iran. For consumption of domestic audience, the Pakistan Air Force claimed causing huge damage in Nowshera.





Similarly, Iran fed its people the fake news that 80 US terrorists had been killed in revenge attacks. At the same time, it was able to demonstrate the impressive capability of its missiles, which were fired for the first time outside Iran in Iraq after the Iran-Iraq war. Neither the US nor Iran targetted each others territory. The US was deterred from escalation by the threat of stepped up asymmetric Iranian response against more than 70,000 American troops in the region scattered over US bases in 10 allied countries.





While in India-Pakistan conflicts the nuclear bomb was a factor for deterrence, in the US-Iran fight it was not. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had claimed during an election rally after Balakot that he had a couple of missiles ready for launch in case the Indian pilot was not released.





Although both the ground and air strikes launched across the LoC/IB were in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Uri and Pulwama in Jammu & Kashmir, New Delhi did not invoke Article 51 and the right to self-defence to retaliate. Instead, it utilised the principle of pre-emption to thwart imminent attacks in both cases. Arguably between pre-emptive action and anticipatory self-defence, the latter is more acceptable in international law.





While the US invoked anticipatory self-defence in eliminating Soleimani, Iran used the right to self-defence in attacking American bases. The problem arises while responding to non-State actors like India did in response to Jaish-e-Mohammed attacks in Uri and Pulwama. It specifically targetted terrorist launch pads/training bases in Pakistan, the country supporting/sponsoring terrorist groups and on whose soil they were located. The UN Charter covers only armed attacks by one State against another State under Article 51 that covers self-defence provision. In the US-Iran case, America attacked a terrorist entity in a third country, Iraq, and Iran, too, responded in Iraq.





Restraint and de-escalation have ensured that the imminent threat of war in West Asia has passed, though tensions remain. But another Pulwama or Uri will set alarm bells ringing again. On assuming charge, Army chief Gen MM Naravane warned Pakistan of pre-emptive strikes to deter cross-border terrorism. For military action, pre-emptive or in anticipatory self-defence to be salutary, it has to be executed periodically against terrorists bases like what the Israelis do: Mowing the grass in Gaza. But comparing Gaza with PoK/Pakistan will be wrong. Surgical air and ground strikes  even after the induction of Rafale  will not be the new normal as they were made out by the BJP during election rallies.





(The writer, a retired Major General, was Commander IPKF South, Sri Lanka and founder member of the Defence Planning Staff, currently the Integrated Defence Staff.)




Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the Coronavirus outbreak would emerge as a challenge for India if issues were not resolved in the coming three weeks.

The statement comes on a day when the BSE Sensex crashed 1,448 points, or 3.64 per cent, over previous close to end the session at 38,297, mainly on concerns related to Coronavirus. All 30 constituents ended in the red. "No need to press the panic button because of Coronovirus epidemic, the outbreak will be a challenge if issues do not get resolved in three weeks," Sitharaman said while speaking at the ...
Following an outcry by the oil and gas industry, officials offered clarity Thursday on a recent letter the state issued seeking payments for improper deductions taken from natural gas royalties, and they loosened the time frame for when companies must comply.

Royalty payers need to show a good faith effort to work with the state toward complying within 90 days to avoid penalties and owe minimal interest, the Board of University and School Lands determined. Some companies previously were under the impression that they had to pay back the deductions within 90 days, a task that could prove difficult for ones that have operated wells for decades and have to track down old paperwork, according to oil industry representatives.

Good faith means that you dont wait until the last day, said Secretary of State Al Jaeger, a member of the Land Board. What were trying to say is come on in. Initiate the conversation.

Gov. Doug Burgum requested that Land Board members reconsider the letter they directed the Department of Trust Lands to issue earlier this month to companies that have developed state-owned minerals. Burgum, who chairs the five-member board, said Thursday that he was concerned the letter could prompt more natural gas flaring if it makes oil and gas companies less inclined to operate in North Dakota.

We have to make sure that we do not take any actions that disincent people to make investments in our state, he said.

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said he did not feel the board needed to reconsider the letter, but he was open to clarifying some of the issues raised by the oil and gas industry.

There is the question about how far back to go, and I think that is a fair question, he said.

The North Dakota Petroleum Council, in a letter sent to the state earlier this week, asked that the officials establish May 1, 2017, as the point in time from which to recalculate deductions. That date coincides with a 2017 memo all royalty payers received from the state offering guidance for calculating royalties.

Some companies had been improperly taking out deductions to cover post-production costs, which refers to the expense of gathering and removing impurities from the gas to get it ready for sale further down the processing chain.

The petroleum council, a trade group representing the states oil and gas industry, said that requiring companies to make payments accounting for production as far back as 40 years ago from older wells is simply impractical and unattainable because companies have come and gone, many no longer exist, ownership interests have been sold over and over, wells have since been plugged and abandoned, and records simply no longer exist.

Stenehjem said he would like to know when the department first notified companies that they were improperly taking deductions.

Land Commissioner Jodi Smith said that the answer varies depending on the company. She agreed to track down that information for the board.

The royalty money paid to the state goes into trusts that benefit public education in North Dakota. The Department of Trust Lands estimates its owed tens of millions of dollars from 40 companies that improperly took deductions.

We have a duty to the school children of North Dakota, but at the same time, we dont want to stifle development in the state of North Dakota, Stenehjem said.

The effort to collect the deductions follows a North Dakota Supreme Court ruling last summer that sided with the state in a lawsuit filed by Newfield Exploration. The court ruled that calculating royalties based on an amount reduced to account for post-production costs is contrary to the leases involved in the Newfield case. The case has since returned to a lower court for further interpretation.

Stenehjem offered several suggestions for how to handle payments in the meantime. The state could hold the money in a special account until the litigation ends or it could negotiate settlements with companies, he said.

There is a value to not suing and not having uncertainty, he said. I certainly hope that this is not something that we are litigating five, six, seven years from now.

Treasurer Kelly Schmidt indicated she wants to stand by the letter the state sent out.

What about those that have been in compliance and have paid us on time and have done the responsibility that we have asked them to do? Are we going to reimburse them? she said. There are more questions than there are answers and, quite frankly, I thought we had made a decision when we sent out that letter.

Schmidt said the fallout from the confusion surrounding the letters has led to name-calling and to some very horrible, horrific communication that has come from a lot of people.

To be compared to Nazi Germany and communist Russia is a little bit over the top for me, she said.

State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler suggested the state hold a public forum to hear the comments and the perspectives and the experiences and the circumstances of those with a stake in the issue. Several other officials at the meeting shot down that idea, however, citing confidentiality concerns about discussing companies specific situations in public.

Smith said that for some royalty payers, it will be a very quick process to come into compliance. She anticipates one company will send its payment to the department within the next 10 days and another by the end of March. At least 25 royalty payers have contacted the department to inquire about the money they owe.

Smith, at Burgums request, said she would provide the Land Board with information about what royalty guidance the department has provided to companies in the past.

The Land Board did not vote on any of the royalty-related issues it discussed Thursday. The meeting was held in a larger room at the Capitol than its usual location to accommodate dozens of people who attended as audience members, including oil company representatives and state and school officials.

When the meeting ended, Ron Ness, president of the petroleum council, said the clarification on the time frame for complying helps a lot.

Im sitting with operators here in the room today and they dont have a lot more clarity, but the ability to go in and talk to (the department) and understand that the matrix is a starting point is very important, he said, referring to a flowchart the department issued alongside the letter that spells out increasing penalties and interest the longer it takes companies to comply.

Ness said he believes that the crux of the issue is how long ago the state notified each company about the improper deductions. He added that he will encourage petroleum council members to communicate that information with the department and to start working together within 90 days.

Reach Amy R. Sisk at 701-250-8252 or amy.sisk@bismarcktribune.com.

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Larger new cars are less green than older vehicles, despite motor industry claims they are backing efforts to combat global warming.

Consumer experts at Which? found the latest generation of cars emit more CO2, which is associated with climate change.

This is largely because new vehicles in almost every category tend to be heavier than their predecessors.

Ironically, one of the reasons they weigh more is because manufacturers have installed new devices to cut exhaust emissions that are harmful to human health, such as nitrogen dioxide.

The findings suggest manufacturers making conventional internal combustion engine vehicles are fuelling global warming, and the evidence will be seized on by those supporting the Governments plan to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035, or potentially sooner.

Consumer experts at Which? found the latest generation of cars emit more CO2, which is associated with climate change

The consumer group looked at the 292 car models it has tested since the start of 2017.

This shows an average increase in CO2 of 10.5g/km (7 per cent)  from 151.6g/km to 162.1g/km.

It said cars which meet the latest emission regulations  Euro 6d-temp and Euro 6d  generally produced more CO2 than vehicles certified under the previous emission regulations  Euro 6b and Euro 6c.

The small petrol cars category, which covers those the size of a Ford Fiesta or Volkswagen Polo, saw an average increase of 11.2 per cent  up from 131g/km to 145.7g.

Mid-size petrol SUVs, which covers vehicles of the size of the Nissan Qashqai, rose by 20.4 per cent  up from 157.6g/km to 189.8g.

The worst-performing group were the large petrol-hybrid cars, which are the size of the BMW 3 Series. These recorded an average increase of 31.7 per cent  up from 89.2g/km to 117.4g. All car models analysed were subjected to the same tests, in lab-controlled conditions.

Which? said its analysis was more realistic than official tests because cars are run through an additional tough motorway cycle. They are loaded with 200kg, with the air-con and radio switched on, which better reflects everyday use.

The small petrol cars category, which covers those the size of a Ford Fiesta or Volkswagen Polo, saw an average increase of 11.2 per cent  up from 131g/km to 145.7g (stock image)

On a positive note, the Which? analysis found emissions linked to harming human health  NOx (oxides of nitrogen) and CO (carbon monoxide)  have reduced dramatically. In petrol cars, the level of CO emissions has dropped by 40.6 per cent. Across all diesel vehicles, the decrease in NOx was an average of 84 per cent.

The editor of Which? magazine, Lisa Barber, said: It is shocking to see our tests uncover increasing levels of carbon dioxide emissions for the latest cars that are being built and sold to UK consumers.

Manufacturers must ensure that they are doing everything in their power to create cleaner vehicles that are fitter for our planet and its future.

But the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders rejected the findings. Chief executive Mike Hawes said: Only the official, Europe-wide WLTP test... can be relied upon by consumers to accurately compare vehicles on a like-for-like and repeatable basis.

This shows that new cars emit, on average, some 29.3 per cent less CO2 than models produced in 2000, the effect of which drivers can see at the pump.
The strain of coronavirus known as Covid-19 has killed 34 and infected 388 people in Iran, the countrys Health Ministry has confirmed.

Irans Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said the country now has 15 laboratories testing samples and warned that the number of cases is likely to increase.

The head of Irans task force to stop the virus was seen coughing, sweating and wheezing across televised interviews before acknowledging he was infected. Then days later, a visibly pale official sat away from President Hassan Rouhani and other top leaders before she too reportedly came down with the virus.

Iranians are taking extra caution to avoid getting infected (AP/Vahid Salemi)

In the capital Tehran and other cities, authorities cancelled Friday prayer services to limit crowds. Radio Tehran, which typically carries the prayer, played only traditional Iranian music and universities are to remain closed for another week.

Meanwhile, Iranian state media made a point to show the government is addressing the crisis. In the city of Mashhad, at the Imam Reza Shrine, cleaners in hazmat suits sprayed disinfectant across surfaces that the worshippers kiss and touch as workers installed hand sanitisers. Trucks from Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard sprayed down streets and pavements in the holy city of Qom, the epicentre of the countrys outbreak.

But experts, including at the World Health Organisation, worry the Islamic Republic may be under-reporting the number of cases in the country.

Iran denied for days that the virus was in the country ahead of a parliamentary election that saw the lowest voter turnout since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

By doing so, Iran is likely to have allowed the virus to spread rapidly, reaching even into the upper echelons of its power structure as it infected four MPs, top clerics and other officials.

On Thursday, word spread that one of Irans many vice presidents, Masoumeh Ebtekar, had contracted the virus. Ms Ebtekar, 59, is better known as Sister Mary, the English-speaking spokeswoman for the students who seized the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and sparked the 444-day hostage crisis.

Story continues

Masoumeh Ebtekar, a vice president in the Islamic Republic, reportedly has the virus (AP/Vahid Salemi, File)

Ms Ebtekar attended a cabinet meeting chaired by 71-year-old Mr Rouhani on Wednesday. Other top officials, mostly in their late 50s and 60s, sat just feet away from her. Mr Jahanpour said the average age of those killed by the virus and the illness it brings is over 60.

State media has not said what measures those attending the meeting with Ms Ebtekar were now taking. However, the concern about the virus spread among Irans elite has reached into Austria, where foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg tested negative for it after a recent trip to Tehran.

Iraj Harirchi, who led Irans coronavirus task force, sweated at the podium during a news conference and then later coughed all over the set of a state TV interview programme.

Soon afterwards, Mr Harirchi acknowledged testing positive for the virus.
Govt to launch 10,000 new Farmer Producer Organisations

The centre proposes to invest Rs1,500 crore on farmer cooperatives as part of its initiatives to bring about a massive shift in the way agriculture produce is marketed. This is part of the governments strategy to ensure reasonable income to farmers so as to double farmers income by 2022.

The government will soon register 10,000 new Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in order to promote cooperative farming, union minister for agriculture and farmers welfare, rural development and panchayati raj, Narendra Singh Tomar, has said.

Addressing the 91st annual general meeting of the ICAR Society in New Delhi on Thursday, the minister said budgetary provision has been made to provide each FPO a sum of Rs15 lakh for all farming related activities, ranging from sowing, harvesting to distribution and marketing.

Tomar, who is also president of the ICAR Society, said under the directions of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an ambitious nationwide scheme has been launched to vaccinate 530 million cattle and goats under mission mode. Besides, a target has been set for doubling of fisheries harvesting and export and milk production, he said.

The minister also called for wider dissemination of government schemes so that the benefits percolate down to the lowest level among the farmers. For instance, under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), he said, there were apprehensions that Insurance companies gained more than the farmers, besides reports of malpractices at lower level during inspection.

With a view to alleviating such concerns, the crop insurance scheme has been made voluntary now while also keeping the premium unchanged, ie, between one-and-a-half per cent to 2 per cent - he said. Tomar said 58 per cent of those who availed PMFBY crop cover were farmers who had availed crop loans. However, the fact is, as against the total sum of Rs13,000 crore premium collected by insurance companies, a total of Rs58,000 crore Insurance benefits have been paid to farmers, he added.

Tomar said agriculture is among the sectors accorded top priority by the prime minister. The challenge is to strengthen agriculture and rural economy, increase production and productivity, make farming a profitable venture and raise farmers and rural incomes. The prime minister has set the target of doubling farmers income by 2022, added Tomar.

Speaking on the occasion, union minister of commerce and industry and railways, Piyush Goyal called for synergy between the various R&D institutions under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Universities and academia, PSUs and Industry so that the huge investments being made by each of them yields bigger returns.

The prime minister has set a goal of making India a $5 trillion economy in five years, said Goyal, adding agricultural output and productivity will be a big factor towards achieving the goal. More R&D in agriculture, timely availability of farm credit, mechanised farming and automation will be critical to boost rural economy, he added.

Goyal also called upon agricultural scientists to work towards a stage when our agriculture breaks free of the vagaries of nature. He said the Kisan Rail has been announced in this years budget and the train with frozen containers will be a big step in transportation and marketing of agri produce.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister



Kamal Nath on Friday lashed out at the Narendra Modi government for the riots in Delhi and asked what was the urgency that compelled the Centre to introduce the Citizenship Amendment Act.

At least 38 were killed and over 200 injured in the communal clashes that broke out in northeast Delhi on Monday after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control.

The areas affected include Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh, Khureji Khas and Bhajanpura.

Speaking to reporters here after launching development works worth Rs 900 crore, Nath said, "These incidents are a matter of great sorrow and concern because the culture of our country is to connect people's hearts."



"Keep aside what is there in the CAA, I want to know whether there was a war underway or a huge number of refugees were coming into the country that the Modi government had to bring in CAA. What was the need to bring this law? What kind of disaster was there," he questioned.

He said population surveys used to take place earlier as well, but "misconceptions" were being spread which led to people thinking their citizenship was not safe.

Queried on the Bihar Assembly passing a resolution against the National Register of Citizens exercise, Nath said, "The people (JDU) running the government in Bihar with the BJP, are openly saying such things on citizenship issues. But for the BJP, they (JDU) are right, and we (Congress) are wrong.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Vanila Singh, Indian American chief medical officer at the Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, will receive the Philipp M. Lippe award Feb. 28 from the American Academy of Pain Medicine. (photo provided)
Stock Market SPY Breaks Below Fibonacci Bearish Trigger Level

Our research team wanted to share this chart with our friends and followers. This dramatic breakdown in price over the past 4+ days has resulted in a very clear bearish trigger which was confirmed by our Adaptive Fibonacci Price Modeling system. We believe this downside move will target the $251 level on the SPY over the next few weeks and months.

Some recent headline articles worth reading:

On January 29, 2020, we issued this research post about a potential WaterFall selloff

Clearly, we were well ahead of this correction and issued multiple warnings to our friends and followers. This week we locked in 9.48% on GDXJ at the open on Monday, and today we are writing to suggest that $251 on the SPY is real support (see the magenta/purple area/line on this chart) and pay attention to the real risks at play in the markets.

This would suggest that the major markets will wipe out about 25% of the valuations in the major averages (ES, NQ, and YM), before finding any real support. Obviously, there is a level near $208 that appears in RED on this chart. If $251 fails to hold as support, then we immediately start to look at that $208 level for ultimate support.

This is the time when you want skilled researchers and traders backing you up and sourcing real solid trade opportunities for you. Weve been warning about this move for many months, suggesting that 2020 was going to be an incredible year for skilled traders and warning that a large downside price rotation was likely after August 2019.

In fact, one of our researchers predicted this move back in February/March 2019. Visit www.TheTechnicalTraders.com to learn how we can help you stay ahead of these massive trends and find real opportunities in the markets.

Make sure to opt-in to our free market trend signals newsletter before closing this page so you dont miss our next special report!

Chris Vermeulen

www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

Chris Vermeulen has been involved in the markets since 1997 and is the founder of Technical Traders Ltd. He is an internationally recognized technical analyst, trader, and is the author of the book: 7 Steps to Win With Logic



Through years of research, trading and helping individual traders around the world. He learned that many traders have great trading ideas, but they lack one thing, they struggle to execute trades in a systematic way for consistent results. Chris helps educate traders with a three-hour video course that can change your trading results for the better.



His mission is to help his clients boost their trading performance while reducing market exposure and portfolio volatility.



He is a regular speaker on HoweStreet.com, and the FinancialSurvivorNetwork radio shows. Chris was also featured on the cover of AmalgaTrader Magazine, and contributes articles to several leading financial hubs like MarketOracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: Nothing in this report should be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any securities mentioned. Technical Traders Ltd., its owners and the author of this report are not registered broker-dealers or financial advisors. Before investing in any securities, you should consult with your financial advisor and a registered broker-dealer. Never make an investment based solely on what you read in an online or printed report, including this report, especially if the investment involves a small, thinly-traded company that isnt well known. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report has been paid by Cardiff Energy Corp. In addition, the author owns shares of Cardiff Energy Corp. and would also benefit from volume and price appreciation of its stock. The information provided here within should not be construed as a financial analysis but rather as an advertisement. The authors views and opinions regarding the companies featured in reports are his own views and are based on information that he has researched independently and has received, which the author assumes to be reliable. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content of this report, nor its fitness for any particular purpose. Lastly, the author does not guarantee that any of the companies mentioned in the reports will perform as expected, and any comparisons made to other companies may not be valid or come into effect.

Chris Vermeulen Archive

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We had made an appointment with Toyota South Africa together with its customers whose vehicles were stolen from them so that they come and identify the vehicles for possible repatriation to South Africa. This vehicle in question was supposed to be released to Toyota South Africa instead of Tundiya.
[February 28, 2020] Global Web Design Services Market and Web Design Software Market Segmentation by Company Profiles, Revenue, Application, Trends, SWOT Analysis, and Growth Opportunities

Dallas, Texas, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The major objective of the report is to offer a complete evaluation of the market and encompasses thoughtful market insights, historical data, facts, industry-validated market data and predictions with a proper set of assumptions and approaches. Moreover, the report on global web design service market also helps in knowing major market dynamics, market structure by analyzing and identifying the market segments and assess the global market scope. Request a sample of this report @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/4333903 Additionally, report also sheds light on competitive scenario of leading providers by their pricing structure, growth strategies, product, financial position, product portfolio, and regional analysis. The report also delivers PORTERs analysis, SWOT analysis, and PEST analysis to response questions of investors to ordering the investment and efforts into coming years in the global web hosting services industry. The global web design services market is growing at a rapid pace owing to the rising data security as well as scalability concerns. Likewise, the global market is booming and likely to increase prominence during the prediction period at a significant rate. In addition, growing era of digitization added a huge range of scope for the WWW (World Wide Web) which is hugely contributing to the overall growth of the global web design services market. Moreover, web services helps businesses to grow rapidly by branding their products on various online platforms. Likewise, increasing penetration of internet is also significant part of the growing business strategies in several businesses. Technological innovations also have made web services more efficient and robust, enabling enterprises and individuals to channelize their marketing efforts with various internet tools. Make an enquiry of this report @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/4333903 The global web design services market is basically segmented into application, type, and regional analysis. According to the application analysis, the market is segregated into private, government agency, enterprise, and others. On considering the type, the global market is classified into search engine optimization, website design, domain sales, website hosting, and others. By geography, the global web design services market is fragmented into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. The major vendors include Seller's Bay, HTML PRO, WebFX, Appnovation, Blue Corona, Sumy Designs, GoDaddy Operating Company, Fiverr International, Genetech Solutions, Eminent SEO, Glorywebs, Miromind, Sagentic Web Design, WISE Dgital Partners, Appnovation, Netbiz Group, etc.



Table of Contents 1 Report Overview

1.1 Study Scope 1.2 Key Market Segments 1.3 Players Covered: Ranking by Web Design Services Revenue 1.4 Market Analysis by Type 1.4.1 Global Web Design Services Market Size Growth Rate by Type: 2020 VS 2026 1.4.2 Website Design 1.4.3 Website Hosting 1.4.4 Search Engine Optimization 1.4.5 Domain Sales 1.4.6 Other 1.5 Market by Application 1.5.1 Global Web Design Services Market Share by Application: 2020 VS 2026 1.5.2 Enterprise 1.5.3 Government Agency 1.5.4 Private 1.6 Study Objectives 1.7 Years Considered 2 Global Growth Trends by Regions 2.1 Web Design Services Market Perspective (2015-2026) 2.2 Web Design Services Growth Trends by Regions 2.2.1 Web Design Services Market Size by Regions: 2015 VS 2020 VS 2026 2.2.2 Web Design Services Historic Market Share by Regions (2015-2020) 2.2.3 Web Design Services Forecasted Market Size by Regions (2021-2026) 2.3 Industry Trends and Growth Strategy 2.3.1 Market Top Trends 2.3.2 Market Drivers 2.3.3 Market Challenges 2.3.4 Porters Five Forces Analysis 2.3.5 Web Design Services Market Growth Strategy 2.3.6 Primary Interviews with Key Web Design Services Players (Opinion Leaders) Also View: Global Web Design Software Market The research report on global web design software market is a proficient and comprehensive analysis on the present state of the web design software market across the globe. Likewise, the report offers a basic overview of the target market including classifications and definitions. The web design software market analysis is delivered for the international markets comprising competitive landscape breakdown, development trends, and key regions expansion status. In addition, development plans & policies are broadly stated as well as business processes and cost details are also studied. The report also provides imports and exports analysis, cost, price, revenue, supply & demand Figures, and gross margins. Request a sample of this report @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/2625882 A web design software is a program or tool which helps to build websites without use of manual code editing. Likewise, through the web design software, a website can be built which can save your time by just drag-and-drop editor. Thus, there are majorly two types of web design software such as online & offline. In addition, the growing requirement for online portals for number of different businesses is one of the main factors boosting the growth of the global web design software market. A web-based portal enables the consumers to connect with each other and find related content with easy manner. The global web design software market is basically segmented into application, product type, and regional analysis. On considering the product type, the market is segregated into mobile website platform and PC website platform. In terms of application, the global web design software market is fragmented into consumer electronics, automotive & transportation, utilities & processes, aerospace & defense, Hi-tech electronics, and industrial machinery. Make an enquiry of this report @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/enquiry-before-buying/2625882 The number of different leading service providers are also mentioned in order to achieve complete information and knowledge about the companies involved in the market. Some of the major players are also profiled in the report, which comprises web design software industry. Likewise, different market analysis tools such as Porters five-technique and SWOT analysis are further adopted while studying the market extensively. Some of the top players of the market are Webflow, Adobe, Coda, H5P, Google, RapidWeaver, Microsoft, Bluefish, Pinegrow, Coffeecup, and many others. Table of Contents Chapter One: Report Overview 1.1 Study Scope 1.2 Key Market Segments 1.3 Players Covered 1.4 Market Analysis by Type 1.4.1 Global Web Design Software? Market Size Growth Rate by Type (2014-2025) 1.4.2 Type I 1.4.3 Type II 1.5 Market by Application 1.5.1 Global Web Design Software? Market Share by Application (2014-2025) 1.5.2 Enterprise 1.5.3 Personal 1.6 Study Objectives 1.7 Years Considered Chapter Two: Global Growth Trends 2.1 Web Design Software? Market Size 2.2 Web Design Software? Growth Trends by Regions 2.2.1 Web Design Software? Market Size by Regions (2014-2025) 2.2.2 Web Design Software? Market Share by Regions (2014-2019) 2.3 Industry Trends 2.3.1 Market Top Trends 2.3.2 Market Drivers 2.3.3 Market Opportunities Place a purchase order @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/contact/purchase-single-user/2625882 About Us: Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. 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The advent of the information age over two decades ago changed the world utterly. It revolutionised the way we communicate, the way we do business and it has also changed the way we deliver education.

Ireland's position as a global hub for technology companies remains stable, despite the recent downturn. We remain the second biggest exporter of IT services in the world and have attracted the likes of Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Apple and EMC with the sector accounting for about 70bn in Irish exports.

Despite the boom in this sector there is a shortage of skilled programmers in Ireland. This has resulted in technology companies recruiting skilled IT workers beyond our shores. An Irish workforce that is competent at coding will stem that inward flow of recruitment. The place to start this process must be in the classroom.

In order for the technology industry to remain a strong pillar of the Irish economy, the Irish workforce must evolve with the ever changing requirements of the sector. There are many employment opportunities for graduates to exploit. A recent Forfas report predicts that there will be a 5pc rise every year in tech sector jobs in Ireland until at least 2018, creating 44,000 new vacancies. Currently the sector employs 105,000 people. The most radical step to ensure that more graduates are competent in coding is for it to be made a Leaving Cert subject.

Coding is a universal language used by millions that transcends all nationalities which makes an immeasurable contribution to the digital age. Having coding as a Leaving Cert subject would put Ireland on a par with the education system in the UK, which will soon introduce coding as a mandatory subject across all state schools.

Over a decade ago, Israel updated its post-primary curriculum to include ICT as a subject. New Zealand recently did the same with Australia, Finland and Denmark considering doing likewise.

Two former students of mine at Castletroy College in Limerick, Patrick and John Collison, sold their first company Auctomatic to Canadian firm Live Current Media for 3.2m when they were 17 and 19, respectively.

Their success in the technology field at such a young age  Patrick began to learn programming at 11  shows the potential of having the acquired knowledge of computer coding and software development.

The popularity of CoderDojo, a non-profit group founded by then second-level student James Whelton, and Bill Liao, shows that there is an appetite for learning how to code. What James started as a school computer club is now a global movement.

There are obvious challenges to including coding as a full subject in the Leaving Cert. Firstly, it is not cheap. It will require highly skilled teachers and up-to-date equipment that must be upgraded and maintained up to industry standards.

While the rollout of this subject will not be easy, it is not a reason not to do so and its introduction should start as soon as possible.

We must make the students of 21st Century Ireland fit for purpose and able to meet the exponential growth of technological demands on our society.

Reading and writing became prevalent in the industrial age and coding is the language of the digital age. We cannot afford to let Irish students get left behind in a more globalised world.

PADRAIG FLANAGAN IS PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PRINCIPALS AND DEPUTY PRINCIPALS AND IS THE PRINCIPAL OF CASTELTROY COLLEGE IN LIMERICK.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 01:49:14|Editor: yan

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BERLIN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Volkswagen (VW) and the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) have finally reached an agreement on the negotiated 830 million-euro (912 million-U.S. dollar) compensation settlement in the dieselgate class action lawsuit, the German car maker announced on Friday.

Around 260,000 Volkswagen customers who participated in the lawsuit would receive compensation from the German car maker of between 1,350 euros and 6,257 euros, depending on the vehicle type and model year, according to the vzbv.

VW customers entitled to the compensation could claim an average of 15 percent of the original purchase price from the car maker, the consumer organization said. Volkswagen would "bear the full costs of the settlement and legal advice for consumers."

"The offer is not generous, but it is within the scope of the compensation sums achieved so far at German courts in individual settlements," said Klaus Mueller, member of the vzbv Board.

VW said it will work "intensely" to develop a platform for processing the settlement. After the end of March, customers entitled to the settlement would receive their one-time payment "easily and quickly."

"The agreement is good news for customers," said Hiltrud Werner, member of the Board of Management responsible for integrity and legal affairs at Volkswagen, adding that the negotiating parties had achieved "a fair and verifiable settlement solution."

The scandal surrounding illegally manipulated exhaust emission levels in millions of diesel cars built by VW became public in 2015.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: The crucial meeting of Digital Communications Commission (DCC) on Friday could not arrive at a decision on relief to the distressed telecom sector and more details are required for reconciliation of AGR data, sources said.

The DCC meeting lasted two hours and is expected to meet again in coming days, the sources said. The telecom department officials continue to maintain that the meeting did not focus on AGR issues but on project implementation for PPP on Bharat Net project.

It is learnt that no decision on telecom relief could be taken at the meeting. The telecom department is awaiting more details required for reconciliation of AGR data, sources added.

ALSO READ: Telecom industry seeks floor price to relieve sectoral stress

DCC, the highest decision-making body of the government on telecom, met on Friday to discuss relief measures for telecom companies hit by the Supreme Court ruling on AGR.

DCC members include secretaries of Ministries of Finance, Commerce, and Electronics and IT, as well as CEO of NITI Aayog, besides top officials of the telecom department.

In fact, just days ahead of this meeting, Vodafone Idea told the government that it would not be able to pay the Supreme Court mandated Rs 53,000 crore dues unless state support is extended to survive the crisis.
Up to 50mm of rain is expected in 12 counties over the next 48 hours.

A yellow rainfall warning is in place for all of Munster and Connacht, along with Donegal.

When Storm Jorge arrives tomorrow, the whole country will be affected by wind warnings.

Cathal Nolan, from Ireland's Weather Channel, says major disruption is expected.

"It is likely that the flooding situation in parts of the midlands in particular is likely to get worse before it starts to improve," said Mr Nolan.

"We are expecting between 20-50mm of rainfall quite widely across the country. Given that we have significant flooding in places already, that rainfall is expected to cause more headaches in terms of worsening the situation rather than improving the situation as we go into next week."

... extends from the southwest this evening. Highs of 7 to 11 degrees generally, but colder in Ulster until this evening. Fresh to strong and gusty southeasterly winds becoming southwesterly. pic.twitter.com/qDrPIhtqQL  Met Eireann (@MetEireann) February 28, 2020

The Defences Forces is on standby again today to deal with more flooding incidents.

They were deployed in three areas in Westmeath and Limerick yesterday, after the Shannon burst its banks.

Thousands of acres of farmland are underwater, while some roads in Galway, Roscommon, Sligo and Tipperary are impassable.

At least five houses in a village in Roscommon are in danger of being flooded over the coming days.

Several weeks of heavy rain have brought the level of a turlough in Rahara to a dangerous level.

It's one of several areas across the midlands, west and southwest that are trying to contend with flooding.

The chair of the State's National Emergency Coordination Group, Keith Leonard has warned that current operations to deal with floods may have to be suspended during Storm Jorge.

Local authorities and the Defence Forces have been working with affected communities for the last number of weeks he told RTE radios Morning Ireland.

During the height of the storm, it may not be possible to continue all those operations. It may be a case of suspending them for a period and resuming them at first light on Sunday morning when conditions improve.

Mr Leonard advised people to be vigilant and check in on vulnerable neighbours.

He also warned there could be widespread power cuts and advised people to charge their mobile phones ahead of time and for motorists to be careful if driving through water.

Additional reporting by Vivienne Clarke
Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/28/2020 -- The CNG and LPG Vehicles market research report is a resource, which provides current as well as upcoming technical and financial details of the industry to 2026. The report proves to be indispensable when it comes to market definition, classifications, applications and engagements. The market report also computes the market size and revenue generated from the sales. The CNG and LPG Vehicles report presents with the key statistics on the market status of global and regional manufacturers and also acts as a valuable source of leadership and direction. A proficient team works meticulously with their potential capabilities to generate this finest CNG and LPG Vehicles market research report.



CNG and LPG Vehicles Market 2020 Analysis and Precise Outlook: Revenue Analysis, Technological Adoption and Developments, Major Trends, and Market Overview



Leading Players operating in the CNG and LPG Vehicles Market are:



Key players are involved in mergers and acquisition to strengthen their market position. Owing to increasing competition frequent innovations are taking place in the market. Some of the companies operating the industry are:





- Ford Motor Company,



- Nissan,



- General Motors,



- Volkswagen,



- Groupe Renault,



- HYUNDAI MOTOR GROUP,



- suzuki motor corporation,



- Honda Motor





Global CNG and LPG Vehicles Market is witness a healthy growth rate in the forecast period to 2026 due to the rise in awareness of low emitting fuel alternatives, along with the rise in prices of other available fuel alternatives.



A complete study compiled with over 100+ pages, list of tables & figures, profiling 10+ companies. Ask for Sample @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-cng-and-lpg-vehicles-market



Be the first to knock the door showing potential that Global CNG and LPG Vehicles market is holding in it. Uncover the Gaps and Opportunities to derive most relevant insights from our research document to gain market size.



Unlock new opportunities with DBMR reports to gain insightful analyses about the CNG and LPG Vehicles market and have a comprehensive understanding. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations and also potential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growth



Market Drivers:



Rise in adoption of CNG and LPG vehicles due to the environmental degradation and global warming caused with the usage of alternatives is expected to act as a driver for the market growth



Rise in costing of crude oil impacting the prices of petrol and diesel resulting in the high price is also expected to drive the market growth



Market Restraints:



Drastic effects on the vehicle and their performance with the usage of CNG in vehicles is expected to act as a restraint to the market growth



Lack of awareness and availability of services and pumping stations of CNG and LPG in the various regions is also expected to restrain the market growth



Competitive Landscape and CNG and LPG Vehicles Market Share Analysis



CNG and LPG Vehicles market competitive landscape provides details by competitor. Details included are company overview, company financials, revenue generated, market potential, investment in research and development, new market initiatives, global presence, company strengths and weaknesses, product launch, product width and breadth, application dominance. The above data points provided are only related to the companies' focus related to CNG and LPG Vehicles market.



Market Segmentation



By Type (CNG, LPG), Vehicle Type (Commercial Vehicles, Passenger Vehicles), Geography



Regional and Country-level Analysis



To comprehend Global CNG and LPG Vehicles market dynamics in the world mainly, the worldwide CNG and LPG Vehicles market is analyzed across major global regions. DBMR also provides customized specific regional and country-level reports for the following areas.



North America: United States, Canada, and Mexico.



South & Central America: Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.



Middle East & Africa: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Egypt and South Africa.



Europe: UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, NORDIC {Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark etc}, BENELUX {Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg}, and Russia.



Asia-Pacific: India, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia.



Key Market Competitors: CNG and LPG Vehicles Industry



Few of the major competitors currently working in the CNG and LPG vehicles market are Ford Motor Company, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, General Motors, Volkswagen AG, Groupe Renault, HYUNDAI MOTOR GROUP, suzuki motor corporation, Honda Motor Co. Ltd., Navistar Inc., Nissan, Tata Sons Private Limited, AB Volvo, KION GROUP AG, AC S.A. and Landi Renzo S.p.a.



Global CNG and LPG Vehicles Market Methodology



Data Bridge Market Research presents, all the information, statistics and data included in this CNG and LPG Vehicles report is gathered from the truthful sources such as websites, newspapers, journals, white papers, mergers, and annual reports of the companies. To succeed in this competitive market place, market research report plays a very important role by offering important and consequential market insights for your business.



This involves data mining, analysis of the impact of data variables on the market, and primary (industry expert) validation. Apart from this, other data models include Vendor Positioning Grid, Market Time Line Analysis, Market Overview and Guide, Company Positioning Grid, Company Market Share Analysis, Standards of Measurement, Top to Bottom Analysis and Vendor Share Analysis. Triangulation is one method used while reviewing, synthesizing and interpreting field data. Data triangulation has been advocated as a methodological technique not only to enhance the validity of the research findings but also to achieve 'completeness' and 'confirmation' of data using multiple methods



Market Dynamics:



Set of qualitative information that includes PESTEL Analysis, PORTER Five Forces Model, Value Chain Analysis and Macro Economic factors, Regulatory Framework along with Industry Background and Overview



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It helps to know that the ICT product sections along with their future forecast.



It aids for making informed business decisions by utilizing a comprehensive analysis of market sections and from having whole insights of CNG and LPG Vehicles industry.



It poses a forward-looking prospect on distinct facets controlling and market development.



This poses a six-year CNG and LPG Vehicles forecast assessment primarily based mostly on the way the sectors are anticipated.



A unique study of CNG and LPG Vehicles with a perfect blend of right and unbiased data



Insightful analyses of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the "CNG and LPG Vehicles " and its commercial landscape



Potential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growth



Save and reduce time carrying out entry-level research by identifying the growth, size, leading players and segments in the CNG and LPG Vehicles Market



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The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the CNG and LPG Vehicles Market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies



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What Porter's Five Forces of Competitive Analysis Provides?



Competitive rivalry:- The main driver is the number and capability of competitors in the market. Many competitors, offering undifferentiated products and services, will reduce market attractiveness.



Threat of substitution:- Where close substitute products exist in a market, it increases the likelihood of customers switching to alternatives in response to price increases. This reduces both the power of suppliers and the attractiveness of the market.



Threat of new entry:- Profitable markets attract new entrants, which erodes profitability. Unless incumbents have strong and durable barriers to entry, for example, patents, economies of scale, capital requirements or government policies, then profitability will decline to a competitive rate.



Supplier power:- An assessment of how easy it is for suppliers to drive up prices. This is driven by the: number of suppliers of each essential input; uniqueness of their product or service; relative size and strength of the supplier; and cost of switching from one supplier to another.



Buyer power:- An assessment of how easy it is for buyers to drive prices down. This is driven by the: number of buyers in the market; importance of each individual buyer to the organisation; and cost to the buyer of switching from one supplier to another. If a business has just a few powerful buyers, they are often able to dictate terms.



Five forces analysis helps organizations to understand the factors affecting profitability in a specific industry, and can help to inform decisions relating to: whether to enter a specific industry; whether to increase capacity in a specific industry; and developing competitive strategies.



Key Developments in the Market:



In November 2018, MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA LIMITED subsidiary of suzuki motor corporation announced that they will launch the CNG variant of their Ertiga model in the first half of 2019. Other fuel variants of the model were launched in November 2018.



In February 2018, Zoilo Rios Group announced that they are planning to build a new CNG pumping station in Zaragoza, Spain under their own brand name "Los Ibones service station". High demand of alternative fuels and low emitting fuels is the major factor regarding the construction of this station in the region.



TABLE OF CONTENTS



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights



5 Market Overview and Industry Trends



6 CNG and LPG Vehicles Market, By Type



7 CNG and LPG Vehicles Market, By Organization Size



8 CNG and LPG Vehicles Market Analysis, By Region



9 Competitive Landscape



10 Company Profiles



New Business Strategies, Challenges & Policies are mentioned in Table of Content, Request FREE TOC @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-cng-and-lpg-vehicles-market



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From the second series of Altered Carbon to the conclusion of Snowfall, Pat Stacey has the lowdown on the best of the weekend's TV.

TONIGHT

The first season of science fiction thriller Altered Carbon (Netflix, now streaming) came in for a fair bit of criticism for its sometimes slack plotting and pacing, and also the level of violence, particularly against women, and gratuitous nudity (yes, women again).

At least one of those issues has been addressed; this second run has eight episodes, two fewer than the previous one. The beauty of a series featuring a protagonist whose consciousness can be uploaded into different bodies, or sleeves as theyre called here, means every new season is effectively a complete reset.

This time out, Anthony Mackie takes over from Joel Kinnamen as the latest incarnation of Takeshi Kitano, the former soldier-turned-investigator whose consciousness, or stack, was taken out of storage 250 years after his death in order to investigate a murder. Now, 30 years and many other skins later, theres another killer to be caught and many new characters to deal with.

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If youve seen Bruce Springsteens keynote address at South by Southwest in 2012, youll know one of the formative bands he loved as a teenager was The Animals. Hes one of the contributors to the documentary Eric Burden: Rock n Roll  Animal (BBC4, 9.30pm).

The Newcastle-born Burden himself is in fine, feisty and often unforgiving form (especially when it comes to former bandmate Alan Price) as he talks about his troubled upbringing, his friendship with Jimi Hendrix, The Animals success in America, and the mixture of bad luck and self-destructiveness that undermined it.

Intelligence (Sky 1, 9pm, 9.30pm) drew a surprisingly hostile response from some of the UK critics. I cant understand why; its great knockabout fun. In the first of tonights double-bill, idiotic NSA blow-in Jerry (David Schwimmer) leads the GCHQ for hackers, while the second episode sees clueless Joseph (Nick Mohammed, who writes it) feeling jealous of a new staff member.

Its the end of Frankie Boyles Tour of Scotand (BBC2, 10.30pm), which was too short at four episodes and would easily merit a second run. He talks to comic book legend Grant Morrison about where Scots get their unique brand of nihilism. More thought-provokingly, he muses on what the future holds for a post-Brexit Scotland.

Discovering: Jason Robards (Sky Arts, 6pm) profiles the great American actor who pulled off a unique Watergate double. He played both legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee in All the Presidents Men in 1976, and President Richard Monckton, a fictionalised version of Richard Nixon, in TVs Washington: Behind Closed Doors the following year.

Video of the Day

SATURDAY

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Seeing American stars turning up in British television series (David Schwimmer in Intelligence, Richard Gere in Motherfatherson, Rob Lowe in the bizarre Wild Bill) is no longer the novelty it used to be. Nonetheless, its still a thrill to see Sharon Gless, one half of iconic, groundbreaking detective duo Cagney & Lacey, popping up in Casualty (BBC1, 9.10pm).

Having appeared, via video call, as super-surgeon Zsa Zsa Harper-Jenkinson in last weeks episode, tonight shes present in the flesh, having flown in specially to operate on young Luka.

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If youve been following Snowfall (BBC2, 10.30pm, 11.30pm), youll be pleased to know a fourth season has been ordered and will be showing later this year. For now, we bid farewell to the drama created by the late John Singleton with a double-bill that finds Franklin (Damson Idris) really feeling the strain for the first time.

In the aftermath of the shooting, he wants everyone in the family to lie low. Nobody knows how much hes hiding or the pressure hes under, but Melanie is beginning to suspect the truth.

Hidden (BBC4, 9pm) just gets darker and darker. As the villagers gather for Geraint Elliss memorial, one of his killers is getting a kick out of being among the crowd. But another of them is on the verge of cracking under the strain of guilt and remorse. Inevitably they have to be silenced. For good.

SUNDAY

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Big changes are being teased in tonights Doctor Who (BBC1, 6.50pm), which concludes an action-packed two-part finale. The Cybermen march on, Sacha Dhawans Master is back and the truth about the Timeless Child will finally be revealed... possibly. But what does it all have to do with that bizarre late scene featuring the older version of seemingly indestructible rural garda Brendan?

Antiques Roadshow (BBC1, 8pm) makes a welcome return with intriguing treasures, including a rare Beatles guitar and a pawned diamond ring that saved a family from the poorhouse.

If youre looking for something a bit grittier than the big-hearted, sweet-natured Last Tango in Halifax (BBC1, 9pm), youre unlikely to find it in mismatched cops show McDonald & Dodds (ITV, 8pm). Spiky London DCI McDonald (Tala Gouvela) takes up a job in supposedly backward Bath, where her sidekick is the plodding DS Dodds (Jason Watkins). Sounds dire.




The Portuguese have a word for the feeling Peter Milne has when he looks at his photos of an extraordinary group of friends from the 1970s and 1980s. Saudade.

Theres a young Nick Cave in his teenage Caulfield bedroom with The Boys Next Door, yet to become The Birthday Party, James Brown records on the floor and art prints on the wall.

Boys Next Door (first photoshoot after Rowland S. Howard joined), 1979. Courtesy of the artist and M.33, Melbourne. Credit:Peter Milne

Nick doesnt know how not to pose, chuckles Milne. He can smell the camera. Its one of his great talents, and he has many.

There are his former schoolmates Rowland Howard and Gina Riley as awkward teenagers snapped in Greville Street, theyre trying to learn how to be photographed and Im trying to learn how to use a camera. We dont know what the hell were doing but we know its very, very important to get it right  oh the pressure, the joyful arrogance! The glorious nonsense!
Mulvaneys comment that the country is in dire need of more people is a complete lie. Ask commuters driving to work if the nation needs more people. More to the point on employment, despite the rosy reporting on jobs, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that millions of prime working-age people continue to be unemployed or under-employed. Nevertheless, every year more than 1 million legal immigrants get work permits, and about 750,000 guest workers receive employment-based visas. Then, there are the tens of thousands of workers who come unlawfully.

The unasked and therefore unanswered question in the Mulvaney mystery is whether President Trump encouraged his chief of staff to promote immigration. Trump has made several references to his expansive immigration vision, including his State of the Union bombshell that he wants the highest (immigration) numbers ever.

For months, the presidents son-in-law Jared Kushner has been touting an immigration bill that would, among its other anti-American worker features, increase high-skilled labor or so-called merit-based immigration  a terrible outcome for U.S. tech workers that would flood the market with cheap labor.

If Trump wins re-election, in his second term hed be unencumbered by his campaign pledge to hire American that helped put him in the White House. Depending on whether Trump decides to defend American workers or cave to demands from big business for low-cost labor, the next four years could signal an immigration apocalypse.

Joe Guzzardi is a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who has written about immigration for more than 30 years. Contact him at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org.
Taking a leaf out of the playbook of Uttar Pradesh police, the Delhi Police has decided to recover the cost of damages to public and private property during the communal riots in north-east Delhi from the protestors themselves by imposing fines or attaching their properties, two Delhi Police officers familiar with development said on condition of anonymity.

A direction has already been issued in this regard to the Crime Branchs Special Investigation Teams (SITs) and the local police to coordinate with civic authorities and Delhi government to assess the damage, one of the officers added.

The SITs have been tasked with identifying those who committed arson, looting, or otherwise damaged properties during the riots over four days and across almost all of north-east Delhi. It is suspected that several local criminals, including those with criminal records, took advantage of the situation in Jafrabad, Kardampuri, Karawal Nagar, Maujpur, Bhajanpura and other areas, and went on a rampage.

Delhi Police on Friday said they have identified at least 1000 rioters and have so far detained or arrested at least 630.

It will take time to assess the actual damage but Delhi Police believe properties worth hundreds of crores have been destroyed between Sunday and Wednesday. Police said they have also sought the help of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation and power discom BSES to access the damage, to restore utilities, and also to clear the debris and piles of torched vehicles from the riot-hit area.

The UP administration, in December 2019, sent notices to at least 400 people identified as rioters to recover the damages to properties during anti-CAA protests in the state. It cited the Supreme Courts previous recommendations and a 2011 Allahabad high court order to justify the decision.

As first reported by HT on Friday, the Delhi Fire Services has reported damage/arson to 79 houses, 52 shops, five godowns, three factories, four mosques, and two schools in the riots. It is expected that these numbers will grow.

The two SITs formed by Delhi Police to investigate the riots have been directed to register all complaints/incidents, which the local police may have missed, while a dedicated team has been tasked to examine all the videos, pictures and messages doing rounds on the social media. The police are also checking video recordings from the drones they used during the violence on Tuesday and Wednesday to identify more rioters.

On Friday, in a press conference, Delhi Police spokesperson MS Randhawa said that at least 630 men have been detained and arrested. He said a total of 148 first information reports have been registered so far, including 25 under sections of the Arms Act against illegal possession and use of firearms.
Bigg Boss 13: Fans want Bigg Boss season 13 runner up Asim Riaz to try for Hollywood as updated a picture on his Instagram. He looked a typical Hollywood actor after watching the picture her fans went mad.

Bigg Boss 13: Bigg Boss season 13 runner up Asim Riaz amazed the fans with his latest picture as he looks fabulous in the suit. Asim Riaz has earned a lot of popularity and love in the Bigg Boss latest season. He has shown all its colours which made the attention of the audience. The actor, model has mark his presence among the very famous television stars.

He has also become the second-highest tweeted contestant of the show, in no time Asim Riaz has bagged the huge fan following. The model might not have bagged the trophy but he had earned the love if the audience and have granted more than 2 million followers on Instagram. Asim Riaz and Sidharth Shukla were neck to neck competitors in the show.

But Asim Riaz was the won who got the supporters from Hollywood as well. John Cena has also tweeted for him and the team of Fast And Furious 9 team has also supported him during the show. Now after watching Asim Riazs looks fans just cant keep calm they want to watch Asim Riaz performing in Hollywood. Although Salman Khan has taken Asims accent in fun he had struggled a lot to set this benchmark.

After Bigg Boss Asim Riaz is also looking for the Bigg projects, there are high chances of him to try in Hollywood. It will be interesting to see how Asim Riaz will maintain this huge fan following. For more updates on Bigg Boss contestants stay tuned to NewsX.

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The mother and grandmother of an Alabama boy found naked and chained inside a home have been sentenced to 20 years each in prison.

Vickie Higginbotham, 58, and her daughter, Dannielle Martin, 32, were handed the maximum sentence on Thursday after pleading guilty to aggravated child abuse.

An anonymous call in September 2018 led Autauga County authorities to the home in Prattville where the victim, then aged 13, was found naked and chained to a door. He and two younger children were removed the from home.

Vickie Higginbotham, 58 (left), and her daughter Dannielle Martin, 32 (right), have been sentenced to 20 years each in prison for keeping Martin's 13-year-old son naked and chained

Autauga County sheriff's deputies acting on a tip arrived at the family's home in Prattville, Alabama (pictured), in September 2018 and rescued the child

The boy's stepfather, Joshua Martin, 26, had pleaded guilty to child abuse, a lesser charge than the women, reported Montgomery Advertiser.

He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and almost two years of supervised probation, according to the Advertiser.

Two uncles, Douglas Phillips, 38, and Matthew Phillips, 29, pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child for failing to stop or report the abuse, and were sentenced to six months each of unsupervised probation.

The case began unfolding on September 20, 2018, when sheriff's deputies acting on a tip arrived at the family's home on County Road 46 and found the boy sitting naked on a plastic bag on a stairwell, chained at the ankles.

An investigator testified during a preliminary hearing two weeks later that the boy had been chained for more than 12 hours before responding deputies rescued him.

The boy's stepfather, Joshua Martin, 26, had pleaded guilty to child abuse, a lesser charge than the women

When asked why he had been restrained, the child reportedly replied that it was a punishment for kicking his brother the previous night.

The investigation that followed has revealed that the boy had been forced to sleep in a metal-barred dog crate on and off for more two years.

When he was allowed to sleep in a bed, he was chained to the foot of the bed and sometimes his hands were restrained behind his back.

During the day, the teen was made to stay in a closet-like nook, which was just large enough to house a mattress.

When asked why her son was chained, Dannielle Martin purportedly replied, 'Because we don't believe in butt whuppins.'

Uncles, Douglas Phillips, 38 (left), and Matthew Phillips, 29 (right), pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child for failing to stop or report the abuse

Investigators said the victim also showed signs of being malnourished.

In the wake of the adults' arrests in September 2018, the 13-year-old and his two half-siblings, ages five and 12, were removed from the home and placed in the custody of the Alabama Department of Human Resources.

At her plea hearing in May 2019, Dannielle Martin told a judge: 'I made bad decisions and bad judgments. And I didnt stop some things.'
Hiran Chauhans body was dumped in woodland near his flat (Greater Manchester Police/PA)

A Tesco retail store manager from Northern Ireland who dumped the body of a chef in woodland near his flat has been jailed for six years.

Hiran Chauhan, 24, went to the home of Neil Cuckson, 32, after they chatted on dating app Grindr and discussed taking drugs, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Cuckson said they engaged in chemsex, in which both drank liquid ecstasy  GHB  and he injected Mr Chauhan and himself with crystal meth before the pair fell asleep in the early hours of of July 3.

The defendant said he woke up to find Mr Chauhan had died but rather than alert the authorities he kept the body in his flat and went to work as normal at a Tesco Express in Manchester city centre.

He bought a Suzuki Swift car on the Gumtree website for 200, after earlier purchasing a wheelbarrow and a pitchfork, and in the early hours of July 8 was caught on CCTV struggling to lift the body into the boot of the vehicle.

Cuckson dragged the body, wrapped in plastic sheeting, across the road from his flat in Eccles Old Road to nearby woodland.

What kind of individual thinks it's normal to sleep next to a body for six days, wrap him up, buy a car to hide a body, drag a body across a road and dump a body in a field?

The body of Mr Chauhan, a chef at El Capo restaurant in Manchesters Northern Quarter, was discovered by two 14-year-old schoolboys the next day, along with a woman.

She said as she waited for police to arrive she noticed a white male wearing a Tesco jacket on the other side of the road and described him as not looking shocked.

Shortly afterwards, Cuckson bought a saw before inquiries led police to his flat, in which officers noted a pungent smell.

The defendant was arrested on suspicion of murder and en route to custody he said: He overdosed thats what happened, I didnt kill him.

Michael Lavery, prosecuting, said: He told police that by the time he knew Hiran was dead he was panicking and that he was trying to cover up what had happened .

He said he formed the opinion that Hiran was quite naive when it came to drugs, not understanding the slang or street names which attach to them.

Hiran Chauhan was a chef at El Capo restaurant in Manchesters Northern Quarter (Greater Manchester Police/PA)

Mr Lavery said the post-mortem examination was hampered and limited by the severe decomposition and degeneration of Mr Chauhans body.

The prosecutor said the victims family believed he was not a regular drug user and a cousin said he was very naive and vulnerable.

Mr Chauhans sister, Gemma, read out her victim personal statement from the witness box as Cuckson, originally from Northern Ireland, stared at the floor in the dock throughout.

She said: Hiran just wanted to be loved. He used the dating sites in the hope of finding this.

Dating sites are the norm in this generation but you do not expect to meet up with someone and not return home safely.

He should have rang an ambulance. There was a chance my brother could have been saved but no, Neil Cuckson thought he was better than a medical professional and thought he could make all these decisions.

She added: What kind of individual thinks its normal to sleep next to a body for six days, wrap him up, buy a car to hide a body, drag a body across a road and dump a body in a field?

This is not normal and he deserves to suffer.

Michael James, defending Cuckson, said: He understands he can never change what he did and he can never apologise enough to the family but he does show some real remorse.

Sentencing, judge Alan Conrad QC told the defendant: The state of Mr Chauhans body is a direct result of you having concealed his death and hidden the body, which made it impossible for experts to obtain the results which they usually can in the case of a suspicious death.

Toxicology vital to this case was frustrated. This has added greatly to the grief of his family.

They will never know exactly how and in what circumstances Hiran Chauhan, whom they loved so much, actually died.

He added: You kept his body in your flat and did not alert the authorities as anybody with any decency would have done.

To save your own skin, and to thwart a police investigation, you embarked on an elaborate plan to dispose of his body.

In December, Cuckson admitted preventing a lawful and decent burial, perverting the course of justice and supplying Class A and Class C drugs.

He was facing trial next week on an outstanding count of administering a noxious substance  crystal meth  to endanger life but on Friday he pleaded guilty to the charge.
We're in a volatile political climate in the United States and are heading into what will be an interesting election. Whether its a twitter storm or fake news, theres plenty of ammunition for social media fights over political beliefs. And recent research found that general social media use has a negative effect on political knowledge, which may only fuel the fire in upcoming months.

Crystal Ferreira teaches a class on strategic political communication that addresses this topic and points to a well known example - Trumps twitter account. Think about the countless tweetstorms that Trump has fired off since the start of his political campaign, says Ferreira. They are often so outrageous that they become the leading news story. For example, Trump tweeted that four congresswomen of color, known collectively as 'The Squad', should go back to where they came from. While not agreeing with what he said, Ferreira commented if you can reserve judgment to look beyond the tweets, you can start to see Trump's strategy. The media pivots away from other big stories when Trump starts firing off tweets.

This strategy is a common one used to redirect attention from a negative or politically embarrassing news story. Ferreira points out that when this happens, it immediately gets hidden by an offensive or outrageous tweet that the president sends and then the media, and people on social media, endlessly discuss. Referring to the example of The Squad, Ferreira noted this happened after Trump vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have limited the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia to be used in the ongoing war in Yemen. She says Yemen is currently the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. Three-quarters of the population do not have food. However, that news story was barely covered because the media was so focused on the offensiveness of Trump's tweets.

Ferreira noted that Trump didn't lose any supporters over his tweets about The Squad. But she commented, He might have lost supporters if they learned about him vetoing two major bipartisan bills that would've limited the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia that are used to bomb civilians in Yemen.

Its not just the candidates that are fueling the fire online. Everyone using social media has a level of personal responsibility for their actions and reactions in the political world. "General social media political digressions are exemplified by the blind leading the blind effect. The vested interest is in ego expression and being the prevailing voice, as opposed to a public policy or course of action, which would be more intellectually-demanding. Use of political social media requires a degree of knowledge, and hopefully, sourcing to advance an argument that can withstand the challenge of a response that follows, says Stacy Harris, with Stacys Music Row Report

Participation in uninformed social media discussion about politics also impacts how voters view each other, not just candidates. Because the extremes of both parties are reflected in the media and in social media, individuals begin to identify people from the other party as worse and farther apart than they are. The media and social media confirms this false belief, said author Monica Bourgeau.

Adding to that, Bourgeau points out that individuals with extreme views are the most vocal and spend the most money to support politicians. The Russell Effect is named after Bertrand Russell who said, 'The whole problem with the world is that the fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.' 

Austin Iuliano, a social media consultant, believes its more complicated than politicians and voters. We have individuals to blame for this discord, but we also have larger entities at play - the companies behind the algorithms that are designed to keep people on a site, says Iuliano. When algorithms are working well, it will bring up content that we want to learn more about. This is fantastic when we use the internet to educate ourselves and teach ourselves new skills. But these same algorithms push us more and more into bubbles that only show us a single point of view. We have to actively seek other points of view or find communities where there is more political discussion.

Bourgeau has concerns about where were heading. Our increased tribalism causes us to block, unfriend, or hide others with opposing views. Over time, this creates an echo-chamber in our social media and the algorithms show us more things that they know we will like and less of those we don't. This increases our beliefs that people from the other side are enemies and farther from our views.

Experts agree that responsible use of social media and insight into ones own behaviors and beliefs are key to mature discussions in todays political climate. It is also about learning to not react to - or believe - everything we read on the internet.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : Taking on Xiaomi once again, Realme CEO Madhav Sheth has tweeted that despite Xiaomi claiming its next device (probably Redmi K30 Pro) would be the first phone in the world with India's satellite navigation system (NavIC), Realme X50 Pro with 5G capabilities already supports India's version of the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Sheth revealed that not only the first but the second phone in the world with NavIC support would also come from the house of Realme, set to be unveiled on March 5.

"Yes, our ultimate flagship, #realmeX50Pro features #NavIC and even our upcoming phone will feature it as well. So World's first, the World's second, coming in a row, all for India. Plan to talk more on 5th March," Sheth tweeted on Thursday.

Manu Kuamar Jain, Manu Jain, Global Vice President, Xiaomi and Managing Director, Xiaomi India, tweeted on February 25: "Glorious new chapter for tech in #India! Flag of India. Proud to announce that upcoming #Redmi phone will be 1st in the world to feature @isro's #NavIC - Nation's own satellite navigation system! Satellite".

Jain also posted a photo with Sivan.

The two top executives are engaged in a Twitter war for quite some time now.

In May last year, both took to Twitter, starting with Jain's Twitter outburst against Realme where he hit out at Realme 3 Pro that features Qualcomm Snapdragon 710, saying this is older than Snapdragon 675 used in Xiaomi's latest device Redmi Note 7 Pro.

Taking on Xiaomi after being called a 'copy-cat brand' in the Indian smartphone market, Sheth took to Twitter last month, saying "a real innovative brand and market leader won't behave like that".

In January, ISRO chief Dr K Sivan announced a collaboration with Qualcomm to provide better navigation systems using the NavIC satellite system in India.

At the Qualcomm event, Jain and Sheth confirmed they will "work closely" with the chipmaker to introduce phones with the new chips, starting with the Snapdragon 720G.

Sheth said the company would be among the first smartphone brands in the country with this next-gen chip.

"We have worked closely with Qualcomm Technologies to ensure that the Snapdragon 720G Mobile Platform enables our customers to unlock this potential and experience high-performance seamlessly at faster speeds," said Sheth.

"I am happy to share that we will be one of the first brands globally to launch a smartphone based on the new Snapdragon 720G," added Jain.
ODU, a worldwide leader in designing and manufacturing high-performance connector solutions and cable assemblies, is announcing its strategic agreement with Newark, an Avnet company and a leading global technology distributor.

Effective immediately, Newark is authorized to represent ODU-USAs entire connector solution portfolio, including ODU MINI-SNAP, ODU MEDI-SNAP and ODU MINI-MED in North America.

Newarks interconnect products and solutions, and broad selection of design tools and value-added services, offers customers the support needed to optimize every layer of connection in their systems. Available now online on the Newark portal, the ODU product portfolio is designed to bring immediate value to the engineering and design community in its efforts to find reliable and high quality connector solutions.

Offering over one million product combinations that continue to grow through custom specific designs, ODU-USAs advanced connectors are found in a variety of challenging application environments including medical, industrial, test and measurement, military and security and automotive.

ODU-USAs commitment is to provide the highest level of quality and customer satisfaction to all our customers, said Thomas Mittermeier, CEO and President of ODU-USA Inc. "By offering our connector solutions via Newark we are able to deliver a higher level of customer service, technical support and expertise to the market.

ODU-USA advanced connector solutions can be purchased from Newark at https://www.newark.com/b/odu-usa

ODU Group: Global Representation with Perfect Connections

The ODU Group is one of the worlds leading suppliers of connector systems, employing 2,300 people around the world. In addition to its company headquarters in Muhldorf am Inn (Germany), ODU also has an international distribution network and production sites in Sibiu/Romania, Shanghai/China and Tijuana/Mexico. ODU combines all relevant areas of expertise and key technologies including design and development, machine tooling and special machine construction, injection, stamping, turning, surface technology, assembly and cable assembly. The ODU Group sells its products globally through its 12 sales offices in Denmark, England, France, Italy, Sweden, the US, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Romania and Germany as well as through numerous international sales partners. ODU connectors ensure a reliable transmission of power, signals, data and media for a variety of demanding applications including medical technology, military and security, automotive, industrial electronics, and test & measurement.
Photo: Leandro Neumann Ciuffo/Flickr

Missed the most recent top news in Chicago? Read on for everything you need to know. Public schools change Columbus Day holiday to Indigenous Peoples Day Read the full story on Chicago Tribune. Search on for woman, 2 children missing since January Read the full story on ABC Chicago, WLS. 19-year-old killed, another man critically wounded in Grand Crossing shooting Read the full story on Chicago Tribune. Simeon High School employee removed, accused of engaging 'improperly' with student Read the full story on ABC Chicago, WLS. CPD drug raid on apartment where disabled woman lives finds nothing Read the full story on ABC Chicago, WLS. This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.

Those who favor the holiday name change say it's not intended to slight Italian-Americans.

Police said Casey Farley, 32, was last heard from on Jan. 3. She has two children, 5-year-old Soraya Muhammad and 2-year-old Zaima Muhammad.

The two men were walking in the 1400 block of East 69th Place on Wednesday night when a shooter opened fire, police said.

The allegation does not involve sexual misconduct, the principal said in a letter to parents.
KYODO NEWS - Feb 28, 2020 - 23:59 | All, World, Coronavirus

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed with China's foreign policy chief on Friday to continue preparations for Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visit to Japan amid speculation the trip will be postponed due to the deadly coronavirus outbreak.

In a meeting in Tokyo, Abe told Yang Jiechi that the visit is "extremely important" for bilateral relations and it was necessary to ensure it is of substance.

Xi is slated to make the trip to Japan in April, becoming the first Chinese president to make a state visit since Hu Jintao in May 2008.

The visit, which will include a meeting with Emperor Naruhito and a banquet at the Imperial Palace, has been viewed as a chance to underscore a recent improvement in bilateral relations, following enmity in the early 2010s amid a dispute over the sovereignty of islets in the East China Sea.

But Xi's government has struggled to contain the epidemic that originated in Wuhan, central China, with the number of infections on the mainland topping 78,000 and the death toll nearing 2,800.

(Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R) and China's foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi)

The country's parliament said this week it will delay its annual meeting, and a number of meetings between government officials from Japan and China to prepare for Xi's visit have also been called off, fanning speculation of postponement.

Abe and Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, also agreed to step up cooperation in tackling the coronavirus, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters after a separate meeting with Yang that Xi's visit is expected to go ahead "for now," leaving the door open to a schedule change in the future.

"A state visit by a Chinese president is a once-in-a-decade event, so it must be of adequate substance. We agreed to continue communicating to that end," he said.

Yang also met with Abe's national security adviser, Shigeru Kitamura. The career diplomat and former foreign minister previously came to Japan last June, accompanying Xi to a Group of 20 leaders' summit in Osaka. He is scheduled to leave on Saturday.

Related coverage:

Virus spread spurs global stock sell-off, raising criticism of Abe

Swimming: China star Sun Yang to miss Tokyo Olympics following 8-year ban

China's newly reported coronavirus cases continue to fall
MORE: N.J. high school mourning 2 football alums killed in separate shootings

A 21-year-old West Virginia University student from New Jersey was shot and killed Friday morning, authorities said.

Two men have been charged in the death of Eric James Smith, of Clementon, the university said in a statement. Smith was found with gunshot wounds in the hallway outside one of the College Park apartments, a university-operated complex just off campus.

Two Fairmount, West Virginia men were arrested in the parking lot of a nearby shopping center, the university said. Terrell Linear, 21, was charged with murder while Shaundarius T. Reeder was charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Smith was a sophomore majoring in interdisciplinary studies.

Its always a tragedy when a young person loses his life, West Virginia University Dean of Students Corey Farris said in a statement. "Our hearts go out to his family, those students and others who knew him. Our main priority right now is offering support to our campus community, he said.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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WASHINGTON  The Department of Homeland Security struck a conciliatory note Thursday, but it's unclear whether New York and federal officials are any closer to resolving a fight over the state's motor vehicles database and a ban blocking New Yorkers from federal Trusted Travelers program.

Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement his agency and the Cuomo administration are in discussions that "could lead to a solution for New York." Wolf said Cuomo's proposal to restore U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection access to the state Department of Motor Vehicles database "while withholding Social Security numbers looks promising."

"We are in discussions with the Governors office regarding this proposal," Wolf said. "We understand a number of New York sheriffs, county clerks, police chiefs, state lawmakers, members of Congress, and many other officials who understand why we had to take these measures are urging the Governor to work with us on a solution."

But Cuomo's office repeated Thursday it will not allow the Department of Homeland Security, or its immigration officers, to have full access to the state license database, that could be used to collect information on citizenship status. Cuomo is willing to give DHS limited access to the database to admit New York residents into travelers programs and allow border officials to conduct necessary vehicle checks.

"The Governor's positon is clear. New York will not share the DMV database with any law enforcement agency for immigration purposes but will allow access for applicants to the Trusted Traveler Program," said Dani Lever, Cuomo's communications director Thursday. "We are also exploring eliminating any Social Security numbers from the DMV database and increasing penalties so there is no possibility of misuse."

The ban arose from implementation of New York's Green Light Law, which allows undocumented immigrants to get state drivers licenses. While other states also have similar licensing policies, DHS said no other states restricts federal access to its DMV database to the same extent as New York.

President Trump, Wolf and Cuomo met at the White House two weeks ago to discuss the ban. They emerged from the meeting with no deal, but an agreement to keep talking.

U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, told the Times Union she has spoken to Trump and Wolf regarding the Green Light Law.

"We want to make sure that law enforcement in the North Country has access to the DMV (records)," she said. "This is not just a New York City issue this is an upstate border security issue and the Nexus (travelers) program in my district which is so critical."

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Federal authorities, including New York's four U.S. attorneys, have responded that information-sharing is a matter of national security and the database access is necessary for border protection and immigration enforcement.

New York's Attorney General Letitia James has sued the Trump administration over the decision to ban state residents from the travelers programs. Cuomo has repeatedly said the exclusion is political retaliation without a policy basis.

New Yorkers now cannot enroll or re-enroll in four programs run by Customs and Border Protection. Three of them  Global Entry, NEXUS and SENTRI  allow qualified people faster clearance when traveling. A fourth, the Free and Secure Trade program, permitted quick clearance for commercial goods. TSA Precheck is not affected.

Acting Deputy DHS Secretary Ken Cuccinelli has said by the end of 2020 about 175,000 New Yorkers would be kicked out of the travelers programs, with no others able to join. He also estimated 30,000 drivers in the FAST program, which come and go at four New York and Canadian ports of entry, will lose access to the automated system.

Cayla Harris contributed to this report.
US intelligence agencies are monitoring the global spread of coronavirus and the ability of governments to respond, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday, warning that there were concerns about how India would cope with a widespread outbreak.

While there are only a few known cases in India, one source said the country's available countermeasures and the potential for the virus to spread given India's dense population was a focus of serious concern.

U.S. intelligence agencies are also focusing on Iran, where the country's deputy health minister has fallen ill during a worsening outbreak. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday the United States was "deeply concerned" Tehran may have covered up details about the spread of coronavirus.

A U.S. government source said Iran's response was considered ineffective because the government only has minimal capabilities to respond to the outbreak.

Another source said U.S. agencies were also concerned about the weak ability of governments in some developing countries to respond to an outbreak.

The U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has received a briefing on the virus from the spy agencies.

"The Committee has received a briefing from the IC (intelligence community) on coronavirus, and continues to receive updates on the outbreak on a daily basis," an official of the House Intelligence Committee told Reuters.

"Addressing the threat has both national security and economic dimensions, requiring a concerted government-wide effort and the IC is playing an important role in monitoring the spread of the outbreak, and the worldwide response," the official added.

A source familiar with the activities of the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Republican Senator Richard Burr and Democratic Senator Mark Warner, said the panel was receiving daily updates.

The role of U.S. intelligence agencies in responding to the coronavirus epidemic at this point principally involves monitoring the spread of the illness around the world and assessing the responses of governments.

They are working closely with health agencies, such as the U.S. Center for Disease Control, in sharing information they collect and targeting further intelligence gathering.

One source said U.S. agencies would use a wide range of intelligence tools, ranging from undercover informants to electronic eavesdropping tools, to track the virus' impact.

Also read: Chicken sales down 50%, prices by 70% on coronavirus rumour

Also read: Coronavirus impact: Hyundai Motors shuts factory in South Korea after worker tests positive
OXON HILL, Md.  Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, on Friday blamed the media for exaggerating the seriousness of coronavirus because they think this will bring down the president; thats what this is all about.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of conservative activists, Mulvaney played down concerns about the virus that is spreading around the globe and panicking investors.

Mulvaney said the administration took extraordinary steps four or five weeks ago, to prevent the spread of the virus when it declared a rare public health emergency and barred entry by most foreign citizens who had recently visited China.

Why didnt you hear about it? Mulvaney said of travel restrictions that were widely covered in the news media. What was still going on four or five weeks ago? Impeachment, thats all the press wanted to talk about.

The news media has been covering the global spread of coronavirus for months.

More for you The worst myths and misinformation about coronavirus

But Mulvaney claimed that the news media was too preoccupied covering impeachment, he said, because they thought it would bring down the president.

The medias focus switched to the coronavirus for the same reason, he continued.

The reason youre seeing so much attention to it today is that they think this is going to be the thing that brings down the president, he added. Thats what this is all about it.

Following the presidents lead, Mulvaney also brushed off concerns over the virus. There have been 60 cases identified in the United States.

The flu kills people, he said. This is not Ebola. Its not SARS; its not MERS. Its not a death sentence; its not the same as the Ebola crisis.

Mulvaney also criticized the news media for generally not wanting to portray Trump in a positive light. But he chose a bizarre example, claiming it refuses to cover what he described as Trumps loving relationship with his 13-year-old son, Barron.

He said Trump is in frequent contact with his youngest son, calling to check in on him and let him know of his whereabouts. But, Mulvaney said, the press would never show you that because it doesnt fit that image of him. The press wants him to be this terrible monster.

Mulvaneys decision to discuss Barron Trump was curious, especially when Melania Trump, the first lady, and senior White House officials have gone to great lengths to make sure he enjoys the privacy afforded to other children of presidents growing up in the uncomfortable spotlight of the White House. The White House press corps has generally agreed to grant Barron Trump the same privacy.

Hes huge, but hes still very young, Mulvaney said of Barron, who is sometimes seen boarding Air Force One with his parents, but who often departs the plane after his father to avoid being photographed. He was 10 or something like that when the president was elected.

Mulvaney, who was interviewed onstage by Stephen Moore, whose expected nomination by the president to the Federal Reserve Board was withdrawn over concerns about his treatment of women, also asserted that Trump did not sleep on the overnight plane trip home from India or during the day before his news conference on coronavirus Wednesday night.

He said, Ive only got eight years; Im going to get as much out of it as I can, Mulvaney said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
[February 27, 2020] Experience Commerce, a Cheil Group Company, Redefines the Idea of Modern Workspaces

Agency began operations in its new office from 24th February MUMBAI, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As the agency outgrows its old office and moves to a bigger location, it translates brand belief to behavior. Designs an intelligent workspace that connects humanly with its people. A smartly conceptualized reception captures a first-time visitor and makes check-in a breeze while digital signages peppered all across connect with the employees lifting their mood. The new workspace design delivers just what their name implicitly suggests i.e. 'Brand Experience drives Business'. Replacing the common norm of a receptionist, the agency has built an inhouse bot as their first point of contact with visitors, which also enables employees to pre-order food from the office kitchen and outside. An inbuilt animated wll further forms an interactive body of work executed for clients. Living up to the brand promise, the new space not only serves as an extension of the employees' comfort, creativity and freedom, but also forms the epi-centre to deliver integrated brand and digital solutions to drive commerce.



Commenting on the shift Mr. Sandip Maiti - Founder & CEO of Experience Commerce says, "The new powerhouse is an extension of our vision of making machines human, driving innovation and delivering value. As a team, we have always intended to stay ahead of the curve and this achievement marks the contribution of everyone who has been associated with the agency as an employee, business partner and/or client embracing the same." About Experience Commerce:

A part of Cheil Group Company, Experience Commerce works with leading enterprises to engage and connect with Digital first consumers, channel and retail partners. In business for over 12 years, the agency helps designs intelligent businesses that connect humanly with the world. Using an innovative approach to connect brand assets with content and commerce platforms, their solutions enable transformation of the entire marketing ecosystem. It offers the perfect blend of creative imagination, digital media and analytical intelligence under the verticals of Brand Communication, Digital Business and Media & Marketing. For more information, please visit: https://www.experiencecommerce.com/ Media Contact : Sreshta Bhattacharya

[email protected]

+91-7030200118

Marketing Analyst

Experience Commerce Software Pvt Ltd Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1096909/Interactive_Wall.jpg

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Dr Adrian Mairs (PHA), Dr Philip Veal (PHA), Dr Michael McBride and Mariam McCarthy (HSC) provide an update on Coronavirus on February 27th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Aer Lingus has confirmed that the person from Northern Ireland infected with the coronvirus travelled on the airline to Dublin airport from Italy.

The news comes as passengers sitting close to the woman infected with Northern Ireland's first coronavirus case have been contacted by health officials.

Aer Lingus cabin crew who worked on the flight are in self isolation for 14 days.

RTE reported the aircraft involved was not used for 16 hours after it returned to Dublin and that the flight crew, maintenance and cleaning staff that were in contact with the the aircraft don't need to take any action.

Aer Lingus says the self isolation is a precautionary measure but that it is a stressful time for those involved and their families.

It said it wouldn't be releasing the flight details to protect the identities of those involved and said messages of support could be sent internally.

On Thursday evening authorities were put on high alert after the Public Health Agency (PHA) confirmed the first case had been detected in Northern Ireland.

The affected woman had flown from northern Italy, where there have been a number of deaths due to the illness, to Dublin Airport before travelling to Northern Ireland.

Health and Safety Executive (HSE) officials in the Republic worked overnight on Thursday to identify those who were on board the flight.

It has been reported the woman travelled to Dublin's Connolly Street station by bus before travelling to Northern Ireland by train.

Have you been contacted by health officials about the coronavirus in Northern Ireland? Contact us at digital.editorial@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Northern Ireland Health Minister Robin Swann said 93 tests have so far been completed here, with one presumed to be positive.

He said he was reassured that the planning of the past four to five weeks, maybe even longer, at a UK level and dealing with counterparts in the Republic of Ireland had been effective.

He added: "In response, our health service and our health systems can actually step up.

"I am reassured that the professionals we have in the health system are well-placed to cope with the eventuality that may come."

He said he had always maintained from the start that it was a matter of when, not if, there was a positive case in Northern Ireland.

"Unfortunately that proved to be right last night but in how our system reacted I was pretty assured that we have the best people to deal with this," he said.

He said tracing those who may have had contact with the patient was at an advanced stage and would soon be completed.

"I have been reassured in the Public Health Agency (PHA) today that anyone who was at high-risk and may have been in contact with the individual, last night has been contacted."

Members of the public who have travelled between Dublin and Belfast using public transport need not be concerned Dr Jillian Johnston

Dr Jillian Johnston, consultant in health protection at the PHA, said: All stages of the individuals journey were identified and those who came into closest contact have been traced and contacted with public health advice and guidance.

I would emphasise that members of the public who have travelled between Dublin and Belfast using public transport need not be concerned.

Contact tracing is an effective and efficient method carried out by the PHA to help prevent the further spread of infections such as COVID-19."

Dr Johnston said that once a patient tests positive for an infectious disease and interview is carried out with the patient to help identify those who they may have come into closest contact with.

Once contact has been made, the appropriate advice can be given to these individuals based on whether they are at high risk, low risk or there is no risk," she said.

Regular contact is kept with those in the higher risk categories and if they experience any symptoms, appropriate medical intervention will take place."

If there is any links to another country the PHA will work with counterparts to enable investigations into potential contacts and actions to be undertaken.

In a statement Translink said the PHA has completed the contact tracing process and that Translink is taking precautions to prevent the spread of the virus on its fleet.

"We already regularly undertake deep cleaning of our fleet and have cleaning regimes in place which include keeping surfaces clean and sanitising hand touch areas," the spokesman added.

"This has included additional cleaning of all Enterprise train carriages by both ourselves and Irish Rail as a further preventative measure. We have also issued guidance to all staff on the latest advice to maintain good hand hygiene practices.

PHA has advised that there is a relatively low level of risk to anyone who travels on public transport and while staff and crew in contact with the general public are not considered to be at a heightened risk of contracting COVID-19 as a result of their work, we continue to recommend that all staff and passengers adhere to the Public Health guidelines to help prevent the spread of germs.

Worldwide, 83,704 people have been infected with the virus. It has claimed 2,859 lives.

On Friday, Dr Sarah Doyle, a consultant in public medicine at the HSE in the Republic, said those in close or casual contact with the woman had been contacted.

"The people in the closest contact, within two rows, are the people we identify as close contacts and they have been contacted by phone and given appropriate advice about self isolation at home and what to do if they develop symptoms," Dr Doyle told RTE's Morning Ireland programme.

Dr Doyle also said those who may have come into contact with the woman on her journey from Dublin to Belfast have been contacted.

Last night Northern Ireland's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Michael McBride, said the woman had followed all the correct protocols.

The patient who had tested positive had contacted their GP and self-isolated in line with public health guidelines," he said.

The advice to the public remains the same: members of the public who have visited infected regions and are concerned that they may have symptoms that are consistent with coronavirus are advised to self-isolate at home, and contact their GP in the first instance.

The infected woman, who is receiving specialist treatment, is understood to have travelled with a child, who is not believed to be in hospital, but who is awaiting test results.

Several transport operators run services from Dublin Airport to Belfast.

Aircoach said there is currently no change to travel restrictions with transport companies due to coronavirus.

"All our services are operating as normal and our terms and conditions apply," a spokesperson said.

"We will continue to monitor the situation and will follow all public health instructions that are issued."

A Bus Eireann spokesperson said they are "continuing to monitor developments" around the virus.

"We are working internally to prepare contingencies in the event of cases of Covid-19 in Ireland, on our services or in our workplaces. Supplies of hand sanitising gel and wipes are being provided for all employees," they added.

"We will continue to engage with and be guided by the relevant health and other government agencies to inform decisions while the Covid-19 issue continues."
Turkey and Russia are inching toward war in Syria after an attack on Turkish positions in the war-torn nation's Idlib province killed at least 29 Turkish soldiers yesterday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a crisis meeting with his top security officials after Turkey's military suffered its biggest single-day losses in an airstrike on their forces in Syria. Turkey will hit "all regime targets" using ground and air forces in retaliation, Mr Erdogan's office said after the meeting.

Turkey repeated calls on Western allies for backing in the wake of the clashes, with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu speaking to Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg. Turkey has urged the US and EU powers to increase their support in the face of attacks on Turkish soldiers by Syrian forces operating under Russian air cover.

But Mr Erdogan's efforts to drum up aid from the North Atlantic alliance that could strengthen his position have come to naught as he tried to persuade Russia's Vladimir Putin to drop support for the regime in Damascus.

At stake is not only Turkey's national security but also millions of Syrians who are likely to seek refuge in Turkey and in Europe as they escape Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in Syria. The latest attack makes it even more difficult for Turkey to prevent Syrian migrants from seeking refuge elsewhere, a senior Erdogan ally said, signalling growing frustration with European inaction.

Tim Ash, a strategist at BlueBay Asset Management in London, described the latest attack as a "major escalation". "Turkey and Russia could be on the brink of actual war. It has been coming for a while. Where is Nato?"

Turkish soldiers were stationed at several outposts in Idlib under a 2017 agreement with Russia and Iran to monitor a combat-free zone. Bashar Al-Assad's forces have intensified attacks on rebel positions in the province in recent weeks, with some Turkish posts having been encircled.

Mr Erdogan has pledged to push Syrian forces should they fail to lift their siege on Turkish posts by the end of this month and lobbied US and European powers to bring pressure to bear on both Syria and Russia.

Yesterday's attack - the single deadliest incident suffered by Turkey, which maintain's Nato's second-largest army, in the course of its campaign in Syria - raises the stakes significantly.

Since the US withdrew its forces in October, war-torn Syria has become a big-power struggle between Russia and Turkey.

Turkey, already the biggest host of refugees with more than 3.5 million Syrians accepted, says it can't take any more if the Russian-backed attacks in Idlib unleash another wave.
Tensions soared between Turkey and Russia after an airstrike in Syria killed at least 33 Turkish soldiers, prompting Ankara to seek military support from allies even as it threatened to unleash a new refugee exodus to Europe.

Turkey won't be able to handle a new refugee flow if Idlib falls to Syrian government forces and it will have no choice but to "loosen" its policy of preventing migrants fleeing to Europe, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's communications director Fahrettin Altun said in Ankara. The European Union said it had no reports of an increase in flows of people.

Erdogan, who has been careful so far not to publicly blame Russia, held a six-hour crisis meeting with his top security officials after the biggest single-day loss of Turkish troops in decades, vowing to strike back against Syrian government forces. Russia has denied involvement in the attack, but said it wouldn't stop its Syrian allies striking against "terrorists."

Neither the U.S. nor Europe has shown any inclination to back Turkey militarily in Syria, where Erdogan is supporting the last major rebel outpost in the northwestern Idlib province against the government. NATO limited itself to expressions of solidarity after envoys met at Turkey's request Friday in Brussels.

Erdogan plans to speak to U.S. President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday about the crisis, Altun said.

European Commission spokesman Peter Stano reiterated the bloc's calls to Russia for de-escalation, without announcing any concrete steps other than maintaining contacts with the parties involved. Stano said the Commission hasn't been notified of any changes in Turkey's migration policy and hasn't received any figures from EU member states so far showing a rise.

Turkish NTV on Friday broadcast pictures of Syrian refugees apparently walking toward the border with Europe.

Greece closed the customs post at its Kastanies border crossing with Turkey to prevent migrants gathered there from entering the country, a government official said. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis earlier spoke to Merkel about measures his government is taking to tighten border security.

Germany has "very great concern" over events in Syria and condemns the attack on Turkish troops while stressing the need for a cease-fire in Idlib, Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said. The chancellor has made clear her desire for a four-way meeting with Erdogan, Macron and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and the offer remains open to Russia, he said.

The Kremlin has previously rejected a four-way summit. It said that Putin discussed the crisis by phone with Erdogan on Friday, but announced no new initiatives beyond a commitment "to examine the possibility" of a meeting.

Russia so far has been cool to Erdogan's repeated appeals for a meeting with Putin. It accuses Turkey of backing terrorists in Syria and has stepped up air operations in support of Syrian government forces seeking to retake Idlib.

The Turkish troops had been "within the ranks of terrorist" groups that came under fire from Syrian government forces, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. When it was clear there were Turkish casualties, Russia "took exhaustive measures for a complete cessation of fire" by the Syrian military, it said.

Turkish officials disputed the account, saying that Ankara had informed Moscow about the location of its forces. Turkey said it killed 309 Syrian troops in retaliatory strikes.

Turkey's benchmark Borsa Istanbul 100 Index plunged 10% at the open, its biggest intraday drop in almost seven years, before regaining ground, as the Syria tensions adding to a broader market selloff worldwide over the potential impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The yield on two-year government notes surged more than 50 basis points. The lira pared a drop of as much as 0.8%.

As the tensions rose, two Russian warships carrying Kalibr cruise missiles were sailing through the Dardanelles for a previously planned deployment off Syria, the official Tass news service reported, citing a statement from Russia's Black Sea fleet.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and top military commanders flew to an operation center on the Syrian border, signaling a major counter-offensive against Syrian forces. Turkish troops along the 911-kilometer (566-mile) Syrian border were placed on alert and there was intense air activity along the frontier, NTV television reported.

"Assad and regime forces will pay a heavy price for this heinous attack," Turkey's Vice President Fuat Oktay said Friday.

Turkish military action against the Syrian government would risk drawing "even more countries into this conflict, which would be unacceptable," said Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee in the upper house of Russia's parliament. "I hope our troops won't allow any hasty steps and Turkey won't cross the line beyond which direct military conflict could result," he said.

Erdogan had earlier threatened to push back Syrian regime forces from Idlib -- where Turkish soldiers were helping enforce a tenuous cease-fire -- if they didn't withdraw by the end of February. His government reached out to the U.S. and Europe for assistance in stopping a major Syrian offensive on the province, where 51 Turkish soldiers have been killed so far this month.

Western capitals have shown little inclination to get involved.

Erdogan has acknowledged that his request for the U.S. to deploy Patriot missiles to deter Russian warplanes isn't likely to be fulfilled. Turkey's ties with its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies have been strained over its purchase of an advanced Russian missile-defense system last year.

Turkish soldiers have been stationed at a dozen outposts in Idlib since a 2017 agreement with Russia and Iran to monitor a combat-free zone. In recent weeks, Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces have intensified attacks on rebel positions in the province, encircling some Turkish troops. Thursday's airstrike came after Turkey-backed forces recaptured the town of Saraqib, where at least one Turkish outpost is located.

"Erdogan backed himself into a corner by demanding Syrian forces withdraw," and he could resolve the situation without losing face by agreeing on new demarcation lines with Russia, said Elena Suponina, a Middle East expert based in Moscow. "It's a game of chicken. Since Erdogan started it, he should be the first one to stop," she said.

- - -

Bloomberg's Firat Kozok and Ilya Arkhipov contributed to this report.
One of the countrys best selling authors, Sheila OFlanagan has told An Bord Pleanala that the construction of a new school near her Dublin home will be catastrophic for her privacy.

Last month, Dublin City Council gave the go-ahead to Bonos old secondary school, Mount Temple School on Malahide Rd, Clontarf for a new three storey school accommodating 1,000 students.

The plan involves the demolition of the existing school and the council gave the go-ahead in spite of opposition from Ms OFlanagan and other local residents.

Famously, all members of U2 attended Mount Temple School and the band formed after Larry Mullen put a notice on the school notice board in September 1976.

The contentious school development involves the relocation of the school away from its current location and beside houses owned by home owners on Copeland Grove.

Now, in an appeal against the Council decision to grant, award winning novelist Ms OFlanagan has told the appeals board that the loss of privacy to me (and other residents) by placing the school so dramatically close to our homes is catastrophic.

The Copeland Grove Residents has also appealed the Council decision while the Dept of Education has appealed against conditions attached to the grant of permission.

Ms OFlanagan has told the appeals board I am a writer and work from home. I need space and time for reflection as well as physically writing.

The former Central Bank employee stated: I do not want to be observed daily by students as I work. Nor do I want to observe them.

Ms OFlanagan stated that she will be one of the most affected by the siting of the building and subjected to a significant loss of privacy both to my home as a residential space and to my home office where I have worked for more than 20 years.

Ms OFlanagan whose All for You won an Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year Award, stated that if permission is upheld, the school building will be significantly higher than the houses and students will be able to look down into each home.

She stated: I am very concerned about my ability to continue to work if I am under constant observation by students at the school.

She added: Pupils will be able to look directly into both my home office and living area from their classrooms as well as having an unimpeded view into my bedroom which I find totally unacceptable.

Ms OFlanagan has told the appeals board: In granting permission, the very valid concerns of the broader community have not been taken into account by Dublin City Council.

She pointed out: It should not be the case that the very necessary development of the school should impact so catastrophically on the residents who have always supported it.

Ms O Flanagan hit out at the Dept of Educations decision to move the school to within 100 metres of her home in spite of the school having an area of 9.5 hectares to build on.

Ms O Flanagan stated that the site was chosen by the Dept in order to preserve the views of protected structures of Mount Temple House and the Clocktower.

Ms O Flanagan stated that the views from the buildings that are not used for day to day purposes have been placed ahead of the valid concerns of locals.

Ms O Flanagan stated that this seems to be a complete failure by Dublin City Council to consider the quality of life of local residents.

A decision is due by the appeals board in June.




- Travelers from China are coming into Ghana without proper checks

- Dr Franklin Sarkodie of the GHS revealed travelers to and from Hubei and Wuhan City in China would be quarantined for 14 days

- But students from China are alleging they were not quarantined when they arrived in the country

- Our manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

It is alleged that travelers entering Ghana, especially from China are not being checked and quarantined like was promised by the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service.

According to a new report by Adom FM, despite the widespread of the deadly coronavirus disease, travelers from China are not going through the 14-day quarantine period like was stipulated.

Checks by Adomonline.com revealed that Ghanaians and persons from the Asian country have easy pass and access to the country, even though the Covid-19 infection continues to kill people across the world.

READ ALSO: Bawumia cant have a debate with a minnow like you - NPP tells Adongo

The investigations revealed that some students from China have entered the country and were not properly checked or checked at all.

Most of their friends have left China for Ghana and were not duly checked, many of them passed through the Kotoka International Airport with ease and were not admitted on quarantine-based procedures.

One of the students, who touched down on February 24, 2020, said he wasnt quarantined.

When queried if he went through a thorough checkup, he said: I just passed. I wasnt quarantined. I just filled some questionnaires; the Chinese are rather being separated from the rest. I think they will call us back later.

The students who interacted with Adomonline.com noted that their colleagues who have been in Ghana were not quarantined for the 14-day period to know their true state.

READ ALSO: Fact check: GETFund 'beneficiary 76' is not daughter of Ken Ofori Atta but a relative

On February 13, 2020, Head of Disease Surveillance at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Franklin Asiedu Bekoe, told the media his outfit was training staff to handle cases which may come in at the airport.

ATTENTION: Read the best news on Ghana #1 news app. Install our latest app for Android and read the best news about Ghana

Surveillance training is very important to sharpen the skills of medical staff to help others without unduly placing themselves in undue risk, he said.

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that President Nana Akufo-Addo is touring some countries in Europe. He is currently in Norway.

The President visited Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago situated between continental Norway and the North Pole.

"I will score President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo 0/100" - Market woman reveals | #Yencomgh

READ ALSO: I want to debate Bawumia face-to-face - NDC MP Adongo

Want to be featured on YEN.com.gh? Send us a message on our Facebook page or on Instagram with your stories, photos or videos

Source: YEN.com.gh
Australia will export coal for "decades" despite campaigns to shut down the industry, Labor leader Anthony Albanese will declare on Saturday in a call to cut carbon emissions rather than halt mining.

The Opposition Leader will back the case for "strong global action" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a message to regional Australia, accusing parties on both ends of the political spectrum of blocking change.

Anthony Albanese will argue climate action does not have to mean the end of coal mining jobs. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

But he will temper his call with an assurance to voters that Labor will defend regional jobs if it wins power at the next election, arguing climate action does not have to mean the end of coal mining.

"The truth is the global community is not asking Australia to stop exporting coal," he says in a draft of a speech he'll give to the Country Labor conference in the NSW town of Singleton.
Margaret Atwood kicks off the festival on opening night. Photo: Ron Adar/Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Celebrated authors Margaret Atwood, Zadie Smith, Roxane Gay, and more are gathering in New York on May 49 for the 16th PEN America World Voices Festival. This years event is subtitled These Truths, a name festival director Chip Rolley explained in a press release:

The crisis in truth in the American political sphere and a hallowed phrase from the U.S. Declaration of Independence were the jumping-off points for a festival that ultimately celebrates truth-telling on a wide range of topics and in myriad forms. We urgently need to hear the deeper truths afforded by literary fiction and by poetry, for literature to engage with contested histories and memory, and for journalists, historians and other non-fiction writers to present the world as it really is, to contest the fabrications served to us on an almost daily basis.

Ah, yes, sounds like a job for Vulture staff writer Hunter Harris, who will be hosting a conversation with Little Weirds author (and comedian) Jenny Slate. Joining her on the festival docket is New York Magazines own Rebecca Traister, in conversation with Jia Tolentino. For anyone that still needs to hear the rest of the lineup: Margaret Atwood and Roxane Gay kick off the festivities on opening night. Then, Ishmael Beah, Mahogany L. Browne, Lydia Davis, Amitav Ghosh, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Jeremy O. Harris, Yuri Herrera, Jill Lepore, Lynn Nottage, Ben Okri, Elif Shafak, Danez Smith, David Treuer, Jeanette Winterson, Jamila Woods, and more will be at dozens of events across the city. On closing night, Zadie Smith, among others, will take the stage for a musical performance with Jon Baptiste. For more programming highlights and details, visit PEN America.
As the government works on a comprehensive national policy on rare diseases, organisations involved in the sector have urged the Health Ministry to create a "special fund" and exempt the medicines and equipment required for treatment of such conditions from import duties and GST.

While there is no formal definition for a rare genetic disease, global health bodies say it is characterised by three factors -- the total number of people having the disease, its prevalence and the non-availability of treatment.

India currently has over 8,000 patients with rare diseases, including genetic disorders like Hunter syndrome, Gaucher disease and Fabry's disease.

In such diseases, there is a deficiency of one or more of the enzymes located in the cellular organelles known as Lysosomal, resulting in progressive accumulation of the deficient enzyme's substrate and causing clinical manifestation of the condition.

The organisations fighting to sensitise the government towards the seriousness of rare diseases said while the government has special treatment funds for diseases like Hemophilia and Thalassemia, with Rs 1,400 crore and Rs 700 crore earmarked, it has completely ignored the more serious ones like Hunter syndrome, Gaucher disease and Fabry's disease.

According to the health advocacy groups, the monthly treatment cost of such diseases can be anywhere between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 50 lakh.

Bodies like the Organisation for Rare Diseases in India (ORDI) and the Lysosomal Storage Disorder Support Society of India (LSDSS) claim that they have held talks with subsequent Union health ministers over almost a decade, including Harsh Vardhan, on the need to create a special fund and set up facilities to screen newborns for early diagnosis, but these have yielded no results.

"We have tried our best but disappointment is what we received. The government says that with small number of patients, it cannot give a special focus to it. Does it mean such patients should just not live?" LSDSS president Manjit Singh told PTI.

Currently, 5-12 per cent GST is imposed on the medicines required for therapy used in treatment of rare diseases. Similarly, import duties can go up to 12 per cent, making the medicines beyond the means of most patients.

While the government did not agree to create a special fund, it is mulling the idea of setting up a crowdfunding platform for treatment of rare diseases, which, the health advocacy groups feel, is like mocking on the condition of such patients.

"What crowdfunding? Is this a joke? Crowdfunding for rare diseases when health is a subject on the Concurrent List of the Constitution. Moreover, such high tax on the medicines that actually should have been given exemption from all these," Singh said.

He claimed the government did not even want to set up screening centres for newborns which could have helped in early diagnosis of rare diseases among them.

On an average, only 3-3.5 per cent of the population in India is aware about these diseases.

The number of reported cases of rare genetic diseases have increased over the years, from four to five annually to about the same number every month, according to experts closely monitoring the situation in the country.

According to ORDI, all rare diseases get diagnosed at a much later stage when treatment is not very effective.

Currently, only one in 20 Indian patients with rare genetic diseases gets diagnosed.

In 2017, the National Policy for Treatment of Rare Diseases (NPTRD) was announced by the Indian government with a corpus of Rs 100 crore to provide financial assistance to patients with rare diseases.

However, in November 2018, the Health Ministry put the policy and the corpus amount on hold, saying the focus was on communicable and non-communicable diseases.

It said negotiations were on for a "better policy". The health groups, however, termed this a farce. They claim the ministry was not accepting any recommendations from expert bodies.

Prasanna Shirol, executive director and co-founder of ORDI, said almost half of all rare disease patients in India are children, an important fact that often does not get highlighted enough.

"We urgently need national and state policies that address the unique requirements of the rare disease community and enable them to lead lives of dignity and self-worth," Shirol said.

Doctors said there was also a need for the government to negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies and subsidise the medicines used in rare diseases as they are priced extremely high.

In India, an estimated 26 million babies are born every year. Only two per cent of these babies undergo a 'Neonatal Screening' or 'Newborn Screening'.

The reason of this dismally low rate of newborn screening can be attributed to low levels of awareness among doctors and parents-to-be and their family members alike, the health advocacy groups said.

More than 98 per cent of babies born in India are exposed to the risk of Congenital Hypothyroidism, they claimed.

Congenital malformations and hereditary genetic diseases, being the third-most common cause of mortality in newborns in India, constitute a significant health burden.

Aradhna Dwivedi, a senior pediatrician (genetics) at Delhi's R&R hospital, said due to prohibitive costs, only a handful of patients can afford these treatments.

However, she hopes things change with time.

The World Rare Disease Day is observed on February 29.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After Democratic presidential front-runner and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders slammed President Trump's remark on PM Modi's 'religious tolerance', another candidate Tom Steyer on Friday, has hit out at the Prime Minister. He promised that he will work international allies to pressure India to improve its treatment of Muslims, urging everyone must slam PM Modi for 'stoking violence against Muslims'. This comment comes amid the Delhi violence which has claimed 43 lives till date.

'Failure of leadership on human rights': Sanders on Trump's response to Delhi violence

Steyer targets PM Modi on violence

Whether it is Donald Trumps travel ban or Prime Minister Modi stoking violence against Muslims, we must stand against Islamophobia in all its forms. (1/2)  Tom Steyer (@TomSteyer) February 27, 2020

"Compelling us to play role in US elections": BJP gen sec warns Bernie Sanders; Deletes

Bernie slams Trump as he hails PM's 'religious tolerance'

On Thursday, US Senator Bernie Sanders claimed that the violence in Delhi was solely directed towards a particular community. Slamming Trump for siding with Modi amid the Delhi violence, he claimed this was a failer of leadership on human rights. While the MEA dismissed these allegations as factually inaccurate and misleading, Trump who was on a 2-day visit to India had said that he had heard about violence but did not discuss it with Prime Minister Modi during their talks as it is "up to India" to deal with it. Trump also appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts to ensure religious freedom in the country.

In India, Trump rubbishes Russian meddling in 2020 elections but claims 'they want Bernie'

Steyer & South Carolina primary

Steyer's comments ahead of the South Carolina Democratic primary voting on February 29, 2020. US pollsters state that in spite of Steyer polling at just 2 percent in national surveys, he is the third-most-popular candidate in Soth Caroline, resonating particularly with black voters. Steyer- who is a billionaire, has held 50 events in South Carolina since 2018 and has spent millions in ads, promising 'reparations', as per reports. South Carolina, which is the first state where the Democratic primary will be held among a considerable population of black population is also significant as it comes prior to Super Tuesday (March 3) when Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia will all hold their presidential primaries.

MEA shuts down misinformation on Delhi violence, takes indirect jibe at Bernie Sanders
File photo

It will be recalled that just this morning, Nigeria announced its first case of coronavirus as a victim tests positve in Lagos.

This is the third confirmed case in Africa. The patient, an Italian national returned to Nigeria from Italy and has been placed in isolation.

This news has generated a lot of reactions from people and different precautions and news of prevention are being circulated to ensure everyone is safe.

There are different reactions from people on social media and below are some:
The dawn-to-dusk shutdown



called by the All Nyishi Youth Association (ANYA) passed off peacefully on Friday amid tight security, police said.

The shutdown was total as all business establishments, markets, banks and educational institutions remained closed, while attendance in government office was thin.

Private vehicles were off roads but a few state transport buses were seen plying with escorts.

A few vehicles were, however, damaged by the protesters, said Kamdam Sikhom, the sub-divisional police officer of Itanagar.

The ANYA gave the shutdown call, demanding scrapping of the Arunachal Pradesh Staff Selection Board, withdrawal of the government e-marketplace procurement system, early resolution of the boundary dispute with Assam and immediate construction of the Trans-Arunachal Highway, among others.

The bandh was largely peaceful as no untoward incidents were reported from any part of the state capital, Sikhom said, adding that the protesters were cooperative with the police and magistrates on duty.

Elaborate security arrangements were made in the entire state capital, which was divided into four zones, said JK Lego, superintendent of police (capital).

The state government had declared the shutdown "illegal".

ANYA general secretary Bengia Tada said that the shutdown was not to harass the public but for the interest of the people of the state.

"We have put forward a series of genuine grievances but none has been taken up seriously. This left us with no choice but to go ahead with the shutdown," Tada said.

Home Minister Bamang Felix had said that the ANYA had declined his invitation for a meeting.

Felix at a press conference on Monday said the state government has already met many of their demands.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
TORRINGTON  Hartford HealthCare Medical Group has opened a new primary care location at 7 Village Green Drive at the site of the former Senor Panchos Restaurant, in the plaza anchored by Stop & Shop.

Michelle Apiado, MD, will offer comprehensive health services, diagnosis and treatment of both acute and long-term health conditions. Her areas of interest include primary care, patient safety, preventative care, and integrative medicine.

They say home is where the heart is and Charlotte Hungerford Hospital and its surrounding community is where I began my career. Ive had the pleasure and privilege of providing care and witnessing the development of generations of families in Litchfield County. I feel especially honored to return as part of Hartford Healthcare and Im looking forward to providing compassionate care in my hometown, the doctor said in a statement.

Dr. Apiado received her medical degree from the Howard University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, and completed her residency and Internship at the University of Maryland Medical Systems, Department of Family Medicine, Baltimore, MD.

In addition to offering full primary care services, in the future this Litchfield location will also offer office hours by local Orthopedic and other specialty care providers. The Hartford HealthCare Medical group also has Primary Care offices in Torrington, Thomaston, Canaan, and Winsted. For information and to schedule appointments, call 860-567-0130.

Podiatrist Darren Winkler joins CHH Foot Center

TORRINGTON  The Charlotte Hungerford Hospital (CHH) Foot Center recently welcomed podiatrist Darren Winkler, DPM, who is now accepting patients at the hospital campus at 540 Litchfield St., Torrington, and a new specialty care satellite office located at 76 Watertown Road, Thomaston.

Dr. Winkler received his medical degree from New York College of Podiatric Medicine, New York, NY, and served his residency at Saint Barnabas Hospital, Bronx, NY, where he received training in Biomechanics. His areas of interest include surgery and Diabetic foot care and management. He is certified by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery.

The CHH Foot Center offers assistance to help patients maintain healthy feet and provide effective, timely diagnosis of foot related medical issues. These include Achilles Tendon, ankle instability and sprains, arthritic foot and ankle care, athletes foot, bunions, calluses, corns, hammertoes, heel spurs, and ingrown toenails. The Center also assists with crush injuries, diabetic foot wounds, flat feet, plantar fasciitis, neuromas, and overall geriatric foot care.

Dr. Winkler will be practicing with podiatrists Dennis D' Onofrio, DPM, FACFAS, and Benish Ali, DPM. The foot center is located in the hospitals Turner Coe Building, connected to the Main Tower Building at 540 Litchfield St. The center also offers additional office hours on selected days at 200 New Hartford Road, Winsted, and 76 Watertown Road, Thomaston. For more information or to make an appointment, call 860-496-6723.

Kristine Newell named 2019 Manager of the Year

LITCHFIELD  William Pitt Sothebys International Realty recently announced that Kristine Newell, manager of the firms four Litchfield County brokerages and regional manager for the Hartford County regional brokerage, has been named the companys 2019 Manager of the Year. Newell was chosen from among 16 brokerage managers for the honor, winning the award for the second consecutive year.

With 19 years of expertise in real estate, Newell has served as a brokerage manager with the firm since 2015. Under Newells leadership, the company has been a consistently dominating force in Litchfield County, holding number one market share in sold dollar volume for each of the past five years, including again in 2019, according to a statement from the company.

According to the statement, her successes include spearheading the firms expansion in 2018 into Hartford County, with the launch of a new office in Avon that now has 19 agents after less than two years of opening. From 2015-2018, she played a key role in growing the newly opened Berkshires, Mass., offices from eight agents to over 20. Newell also led the charge to relocate the Washington and Kent offices in the past few years into more visible high-trafficked locations, and she doubled the size of the Litchfield office. In 2019, the longtime top brokerage firm Best and Cavallaro joined the Salisbury Office, which is enjoying new prominent space on Main Street.

Newell has always placed a heavy emphasis on social media and innovative marketing, drawing upon her strengths in these areas to assist agents in providing the highest level of service to buyers and sellers, as well as targeting high net worth clients, firm members said. She created the companys Escape to the Hills print, online and social media marketing campaign, introducing wider awareness of the unique and robust Litchfield Hills lifestyle. She is also a regular guest speaker at Sothebys International Realty offices throughout Connecticut, California and New York, and the host of a nationwide webinar series for managers called Just Lunch.;

Newell served as president of the Litchfield County Board of Realtors in 2019. She additionally focuses on strengthening the companys ties to the local community and organized several initiatives with William Pitt Sothebys International Realty in 2019 that benefited The Litchfield Historical Society, Local Food Banks, Womens Support Services and The Litchfield Community Center. She is also on the Board of Directors for Prime Time House, a non-profit that supports adults with mental illness.

Belanger named New Leader in Banking

THOMASTON  Thomaston Savings Bank recently announced that Chad Belanger, Assistant Treasurer, Junior Treasury Analyst, was named a New Leader in Banking at BankWorld 2020. A ceremony was held at Mohegan Sun Resort and Casino to honor this years recipients.

The Connecticut Bankers Association and Connecticut Banking magazine asked bankers throughout Connecticut to nominate individuals they believe are rising stars in the banking industry. Nominees must be working at a bank in Connecticut, be 50 years of age or younger, and be making a significant contribution to their institution or community. Many nominations were received, which were vetted by an independent panel of judges.

Belanger worked for Thomaston Savings Bank from March, 2006 to August, 2007 with the banks School-to-Career program as a teller.

In 2011, he returned to Thomaston Savings Bank as a teller and quickly moved up within the organization, advancing to a senior teller and then to a head teller. In September 2012, Belanger moved to the Finance Department.

In addition to receiving his bachelors degree in accounting and theatre, he earned his masters degree in financial risk management. Additionally, he graduated from the Connecticut School of Finance and Management. He is active in his community and currently serves as a mentor with Thomaston Youth Mentoring Experience.
The death toll in Delhi's communal violence climbed to 39 on Friday, a Delhi health department official said on Friday.

There were some areas of normalcy in the riot-hit localities of northeast Delhi with shops opening.

Nearly 7,000 paramilitary forces have been deployed in the affected areas of the northeast district since Monday. Hundreds of Delhi police personnel are on the ground to maintain peace.

More than 200 people have been injured in the communal clashes that broke out on Monday. The areas affected include Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh, Khureji Khas and Bhajanpura.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
"It can't happen soon enough," Newsom said. "Testing protocols have a been frustration for many of us." The woman's case is considered the first sign that coronavirus, which has killed more than 2800 people around the world, may be spreading in a US community. The woman wasn't tested for the disease for four days, despite an immediate request to the CDC, because she didn't meet the strict criteria for the test, according UC Davis Medical Centre, where she is being treated. The CDC has not responded to that charge. But federal health officials have said clinicians always have discretion to order the test for people who do not meet the criteria. The state of California is calling the case, first reported by The Washington Post, its first instance of community transmission.

The patient brought herself to NorthBay VacaValley Hospital, a 50-bed community hospital in Vacaville, with flulike symptoms on February 15, according to a person briefed on the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Loading Staff members at the hospital asked the woman about travel and contacts under CDC guidelines, but she did not meet the criteria for someone who should be tested for the virus, since she had not recently travelled to China or had contact with someone who is a confirmed case, according to Aimee Brewer, president of NorthBay Healthcare, which owns the hospital. The hospital is "meticulously tracing" anyone who may have come into contact with the patient, and monitoring scores of dozens of staff members who may have been exposed, Brewer said in a statement. She added that any staff members who had direct contact with the woman have been tested for the virus and are tracking their health at home. So far, there have been no positive tests, she said. Asked about the risk to other patients at the hospital, Brewer noted in an interview that the woman had a private room at the hospital, and "we believe strongly that our patients are protected."

"We are going through the records and security footage to make sure we know every person who has been in contact with the patient to determine if they are a low, medium or high risk," she said. "We did that last night and are finishing it up today." California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks to members of the press at a news conference in Sacramento on Thursday. Credit:AP Staff members at NorthBay inserted a tube into the woman's lungs to help her breathe, a procedure experts say increases risk of exposure to the virus because it can aerosolise respiratory droplets, according to the person briefed on the case. When the woman's health continued to decline, Brewer said, she was transferred to UC Davis Medical Centre in Sacramento, which has more capacity and expertise with pulmonary issues. UC Davis officials said she arrived there February 19.

"Community spread" would represent a significant turn for the worse in the battle against the virus. To date, the United States has 60 known cases of the infection, with 59 among people who travelled to Asia or were close contacts of people who went there. Most, 42, picked up the virus while quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan. Loading How the woman acquired the respiratory disease COVID-19 is unknown. "It's possible this could be an instance of community spread of COVID-19, which would be the first time this has happened in the United States," the CDC said in a statement, referring to the disease caused by the coronavirus. The health agency left open the possibility "that the patient may have been exposed to a returned traveller who was infected." Two UC Davis officials sent an email to employees Wednesday that said the patient arrived at the medical centre February 19 but was not tested until Sunday because the person did not meet the criteria for testing. That includes recent travel to China or close contact with a confirmed case.

The patient arrived from another hospital in Northern California, according to the email send to UC Davis Medical Centre employees from David Lubarsky, vice chancellor of human health sciences, and Brad Simmons, interim chief executive. "When the patient arrived, the patient had already been intubated, was on a ventilator, and given droplet protection orders because of an undiagnosed and suspected viral condition," they wrote. "Since the patient arrived with a suspected viral infection, our care teams have been taking the proper infection prevention (contact droplet) precautions during the patient's stay." UC Davis asked the CDC to conduct a test for the virus because local and state labs were not doing so. "Since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, a test was not immediately administered. UC Davis Health does not control the testing process," they wrote. The CDC ordered a test Sunday, and additional precautions were taken, they wrote. The agency confirmed the positive test Wednesday. Kris Concepcion, fire chief and acting public information officer in Vacaville, said county officials had issued a directive not to transport new patients to two local hospitals - NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville and NorthBay Medical Centre in nearby Fairfield. Concepcion declined to say why those orders had been given.

Steve Huddleston, vice president of public affairs at NorthBay Healthcare, declined to comment. He said the hospital was directing all inquiries to the California Department of Public Health. The person briefed on the situation said the ban on new patients lasted through Wednesday night. Vacaville City Manager Jeremy Craig said he was told by the Solano County Public Health Department not to send patients to NorthBay VacaValley hospital Wednesday but was not given any reason. The city is anxious to know whether there is a coronavirus case in the community. "We are telling our residents to just take the normal flu precautions," he said. "We don't have any news at this point." Reached by telephone, Erin Hannigan, chairwoman of the Solano County Board of Supervisors, indicated that the CDC was handling the situation. Asked whether the local government was taking any steps in response to the reported case, she said, "It's one person, so we have to keep it in perspective" and then hung up.

The two hospitals are in Solano County, home to Travis Air Force Base, where hundreds of Americans repatriated from China and others brought home from the Diamond Princess cruise ship have been kept in quarantine. Many of them have been released. The health department said it has begun tracing people who may have come into contact with the coronavirus-infected individual. "We have been anticipating the potential for such a case in the US, and given our close familial, social and business relationships with China, it is not unexpected that the first case in the US would be in California," said Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health and state public health officer. The virus, which originated in Wuhan, China, has killed 2801 people and sickened more than 82,000 as it has spread around the globe, reaching every continent except Antarctica. The CDC on Tuesday warned Americans that community spread is almost certain to occur, and to prepare for significant disruption in their daily lives. President Donald Trump on Wednesday evening appointed Vice President Mike Pence as the new head of the task force coordinating the battle against the virus.
Even in my bleakest moments Im glad Im not Julian Assange. Seven years trapped inside the embassy opposite Harrods, with fake news in the air and police in the bushes. (Yes, I was there. I saw them). That alone would send me mad.

Follow that with 10 months solitary in what former British diplomat Craig Murray calls Britains Lubyanka, the ultra-grim high-security Belmarsh Prison. There, Assange has been subject to such harassment, arbitrariness, strip searches and abuse that both the UN Special Rapporteur and a group of more than 60 British doctors were impelled to protest his "torture" and his fellow inmates petitioned for his release from solitary. And now a bizarre hearing-cum-trial-by-public-opinion ending in possible extradition, a potential 175-year penalty and likely death in a harsh foreign jail. Why? For telling the truth.

Were familiar with people being chewed up and spat out by a government-media mobocracy. Clint Eastwoods latest film, Richard Jewell, details such a story. Accused of planting the 1996 Atlanta bomb (when in fact hed saved people), Jewell was eventually cleared, but not before his life was ruined.

Assange is charged with espionage. His life and psyche are already in tatters because such accusations, regardless of outcome, propel you into the nightmarish geopolitical stratosphere where law, politics and public opinion merge into a toxic soup.
Can't allow every person who thinks of some solution to COVID-19 to file petition: SC

Strike called by lawyers every Saturday for past 35 years declared illegal by SC

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Feb 28: The Supreme Court on Friday held as illegal the strike called by lawyers on every Saturday for the past 35 years in three district courts of Uttarakhand.

A bench headed by justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah said the strike called by lawyers on flimsy grounds is tantamount to contempt.

The court issued notices to the Bar Council of India and state Bar Council seeking their response.

The apex court had on February 21 rapped the lawyers for resorting to such a "joke" and holding strikes for "flimsy reasons", like bomb blast in a Pakistan school and earthquake in Nepal, on all working Saturdays for more than the past 35 years.

Bomb blast in Pak, earthquake in Nepal as grounds for lawyers' strikes irk Supreme Court

The issue came to the notice of the apex court while it was hearing an appeal against the verdict of the Uttarakhand High Court which had held as "illegal" the strikes or boycotts of court work on all Saturdays by lawyers in Dehradun and in several parts of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

In its September 25, 2019 verdict, the high court had referred to the 266th report of the Law Commission, which had analysed data on loss of working days on account of strikes by lawyers and had opined that it affects functioning of courts and contributes to the mounting pendency of cases.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 11:24 [IST]
It was not a challenge but it did feel somewhat like a test when Martin Schwenk, managing director and CEO at Mercedes-Benz India, agreed to meet me at The Leela near the Mumbai airport at 8 am. That meant one had to set the alarm for 6 am.

Cometh the time of our meeting and Schwenk, a lean German in his early-50s, is wide awake and bang on time, dressed in a half-sleeved Polo shirt with the AMG logo and khaki chinos. This wasnt too early for you, was it? he asks with a broad grin. Not at all, I lie. We find a quiet table at the bar of the bustling ...
The Member of Parliament for Effutu, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, on Thursday, February 27, 2020, took the wraps off his Effutu Dream project.



Speaking at the maiden Effutu Youth Conference held in Winneba, the Honourable Afenyo-Markin explained what the Effutu Dream represents.



"It is having the can do mindset and believe that with hardwork and determination, we can achieve our goals" he said.



He further stated that the Effutu Dream is the belief that everyone who is created by God has special abilities to prosper and excel in life and that with the right and enabling environment, even a beggar on the street can become a billionaire.



Not leaving people who may not be from Effutu but schooling in the Constituency out, Honourable Afenyo-Markin said;



"The dream is to make sure that persons working and schooling in Effutu have what it takes to compete favourably with their contemporaries anywhere in the world"



He further indicated that the dream is to make sure that Effutu is well positioned to welcome people from all walks of life to invest and do business in the municipality.



"The dream is to position Effutu as the best place to live, the best place to work and the best place to visit for tourism and the best place to Invest and to do business in Ghana"



The conference was under the theme "Actualizing the Effutu Dream; the role of Effutu youth"



The conference drew dignitaries from many parts of the region including the Central Regional Youth Organizer, chiefs and people from the various towns and villages in and around Effutu.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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- MTN Ghana, a telecommunications company, realized a profit of GHC1 billion for the year 2019

- The figure represents an increase from the GHC754.67 million recorded in 2018, which is a 33.56% increase

- The company also recorded a total revenue of GHC5.18 billion for 2019 which is a 22.82% increase from GHC4.2 billion in 2018

Our Manifesto: This is what YEN.com.gh believes in

Telecommunications company, MTN Ghana, recorded profit of GHC1 billion for the year 2019, YEN.com.gh has learned.

The profit level is 33.56% higher as compared to GHC754.67 million recorded for the year 2018.

The company also made a total revenue of GHC5.18 billion for the same period which is an increase from GHC4.2 billion a year earlier, representing a 22.82% increase.

READ ALSO: World Health Organization confirms first case of coronavirus in Africa

Citibusinessnews.com reports that MTN Ghana believes the 2019 details are as a result of an increase in active data users, a growth in the use of smartphones and an increase in data usage.

Service revenue, which excludes non-core activities such as the sale of SIM cards and mobile devices was GHC5.15 billion, which is an increase from GHC4.19 billion for 2018.

Information available shows that revenue generated from SIM card sales as well as sale of mobile devices increased by 35% to GHC33.7 million between 2018 and 2019.

For the same period under review, revenue from mobile money activities increased by 28% resulting from an increase in the number of active mobile money subscribers, commissions on cash-in-cash-out transactions, and growth in retail merchant payments.

An analysis of the companys financial statement also showed that it paid a total of GHC72.16 million into the National Fiscal Stabilization Levy.

The levy is charged on the profits of companies to help stabilize the governments revenue and expenditure plans.

The amount is an increase of GHC18.2 million, representing 33.75%, compared to the estimated GHC54 million MTN Ghana paid in 2018.

READ ALSO: Bob Chapek to replace Bob Iger as CEO of Disney with immediate effect

The companys shareholders, it has been disclosed, would benefit from a dividend of 6p per share.

This is made up of an interim dividend of 2p per share and a final dividend of 4p per share.

The dividend to be paid is an increase of 1p from what was paid to shareholders in the year 2018.

In other news, the Member of Parliament (MP) for New Juaben South, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah, has argued that a weak currency sometimes works well for a country.

According to him, a weak cedi is a bait to bring tourists into Ghana since a strong currency has a negative effect on the number of tourists that could visit Ghana.

To him, having a weak currency makes the country a fair place as people on vacation exchange a lot with countries with such currencies.

Per a classfmonline.com report, he cited an example to the effect that one needs a lot of cedis to get Pounds during a visit to the United Kingdom (UK).

Dr. Assibey-Yeboah went on to say that those who visited the country as part of the Year of Return project chose Ghana because the currency is weak.

In that respect, they earn a lot of money when they bring in dollars to exchange and that helps them spend a lot.

He further noted that a currency that gains strength affects tourism and is, therefore, a bad thing.

READ ALSO: Facebook reveals plans to ban posts that say coronavirus is curable

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YEREVAN.  It was another person's video two years ago, and it was fabricated, edited. Eduard Martirosyan, Acting Director of the National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia, said this in a briefing with reporters today, referring to the recent video shot by an alleged Azerbaijani in Yerevan.

"The NSS is doing everything to neutralize those threats that there are," Martirosyan said. We can post any video now, too, and an alleged Azerbaijani is speaking on the side, and comment as such. It was a fabricated video and is not true. Of course we will give our conclusion on that and will cover [it]."

A video was posted on the Internet a few days ago and showing an alleged Azerbaijani in Armenia mocking the NSS of the country.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A grand jury on Friday indicted a Missouri man on first-degree murder and other charges in the disappearance of his Chinese wife, who is presumed dead.

Joseph Elledge, who has a 1-year-old daughter with his missing wife, Mengqi Ji, had been in jail for months on two counts of child endangerment and one count of child abuse.

Boone County prosecutors sought to charge Elledge with murder on Feb. 19 but a judge didnt sign the warrant within a week, so they took the case to the grand jury. In addition to the murder charge, the grand jury replaced one of the endangerment counts with a domestic assault count. Prosecutors allege in one of the charges that he created a substantial risk to his daughter by separating her from her mother.

Prosecutors speculate that Elledge strangled his wife because he wanted to avoid a costly divorce and ensure that she didnt flee to China with their daughter. Authorities say Elledge discovered his wife missing on Oct. 9 but didnt report that she was gone until the next day, when a friend came to the house at the request of Jis mother. During that 24 hours, he allegedly drove to remote areas, spending around 45 minutes at a secluded access point to the Lamine River after dark. Cadaver dogs detected the presence of human remains there, but law enforcement was unable to find a body despite multiple searches.

In an emailed statement Friday from attorney Amy Salladay, Jis parents, Ke Ren and Xiaolin Ji, told The Columbia Tribune their daughters bizarre disappearance has been the worst thing to ever happen to their family. They are Chinese citizens currently in the U.S. on visas and will soon have to return to mainland China.

Weve hoped this might all be a nightmare, and we could wake up one day to see our granddaughter still in the loving arms of her mother, the parents said. After the murder charge was filed, our hope has gone. Now we only hope justice will prevail, we pray that Joseph Elledge still has a conscience left and will tell the truth, so we can bring our daughter home.

Elledge, who is being held with no bond, was scheduled to be arraigned Monday.

John OConnor, the lawyer who has been defending Elledge against the child abuse charges, declined to comment about the murder case.

The countys prosecuting attorney, Dan Knight, said he couldnt comment on the specifics of the case or his trial strategy.

Im pleased the grand jury returned indictments in both cases and were going to do everything we can to make sure justice is secured, he said.

Jis parents, who currently share custody of their granddaughter with Elledges mother, said they are focusing on the child while struggling with the possibility they may never take their daughter home.

We came here believing Mengqi would be found and that our stay in the United States would be brief, they said. We never would have imagined that our son-in-law could be involved. It is more painful knowing that he was. If we leave the United States without Mengqi, we will feel that we have forever abandoned our child in a foreign country.

Elledge and Ji married in 2017 and attended the University of Missouri.
A Bakersfield family law attorney has been disbarred after she failed to show for trial in State Bar Court on charges she misappropriated near
Winter term to begin online. The earliest in-person learning would possibly resume is Monday, January 31. The only exceptions will be in select courses (or course components) where in-person learning is required and these exceptions will be communicated to those students by their Faculties.

Dalhousie residences will remain closed until at least January 29.

Read more in the latest update memo from the university.


CLEVELAND, Ohio Thirteen teenagers stole more than a dozen cars and stole from at least two dozens others in a theft ring that, in most cases, saw them slip into unlocked, idling cars at gas stations and in driveways throughout the Cleveland area, Cuyahoga County prosecutors said Friday.

The teens range in age from 13 to 18 and face charges in juvenile court that include grand theft, receiving stolen property and other crimes, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael OMalley said at a Friday news conference. Four are girls and nine are boys.

The teenagers could face more charges in the ongoing investigation. OMalley said that he does not plan to seek charges against the children in adult court because their crimes for which they are accused are non-violent.

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Brett Kyker said the teens are linked to 17 car thefts, 14 incidents of theft from unlocked cars, 11 smash-and-grab-style thefts from locked cars and one police chase.

All the incidents happened between Jan. 7 and Feb. 21 in Cleveland, Parma, Parma Heights, Middleburg Heights, Lakewood and Maple Heights.

Investigators in those cities are still sifting through items police recovered from stolen cars and searches of the homes where the teens live. Kyker said investigators found stolen items in ditched cars and the teens homes.

Some of the recovered items, like credit cards and drivers licenses, were not reported stolen, leading prosecutors to believe some may not be aware the items were stolen because of how fast the group operated.

OMalley said he wanted to warn the public to make sure to lock their car doors in public and keep easily-stolen items out of view.

We want to let people know to be vigilant and that this can happen in a heartbeat, OMalley said. Never leave your car unlocked or running.

The teens would ride around, often in a car they stole, looking for a busy gas station. Theyd peek into cars at gas pumps and wait for people to leave their cars and walk into the gas station. Someone would pop out of the car, snag whatever they could, jump back in the stolen car and speed away.

The group stole purses, backpacks, text books, tablets and computers from the cars, prosecutors said. In one video released by the prosecutors office, the group stole from an unlocked SUV as a woman stood on the other side, pumping gas.

Other times, if the driver left the car running, the teens would jump into the car and speed away.

Twice the group stole cars from people who were warming up their cars in the mornings and left them unlocked and running in their driveways.

Two of the teens were arrested three times during the spree but were released from the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Detention Center because the charges were low-level felonies. That included two boys accused of stealing an SUV on Jan. 29 from an Old Brooklyn gas station. They were arrested after OnStar shut off the SUV as Cleveland police officers followed it on Interstate 90.

Two others were arrested after a Feb. 16 chase with Maple Heights police that lasted nearly an hour and spanned into Summit County.

The teens swapped out stolen cars to get around the area and switched out the license plates to throw police off. They sold or tried to sell some of the items stolen from the cars online and through different apps, Kyker said. In some cases, group members posted photos and videos online that showed they were driving in the stolen cars.

Read more from cleveland.com:

5-year-old boy started fire in Cleveland house because he was hungry, left home alone, police say

Man acted as getaway driver after attacker threw chemical in ex-girlfriends face, police say

Cleveland man used own phone to arrange robbery, then sold stolen items and gun online, records say
David Lyon, governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the November election in Bayelsa state, says the supreme court ruling on the exercise may be seen as judgement without justice.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared him winner of the election but the apex court sacked him on the grounds that his running mate presented forged document to INEC.

Douye Diri, his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rival, was sworn in as governor 24 hours later.

The APC had filed an application seeking a review the sack of Lyon but the apex court struck out the case, insisting its decision is final.

In a statement signed by him, Lyon said though the decision of the court dashed the hope of the people of the state, he has accepted it in the interest of peace and the development of the state.

He thanked the leadership of the APC and appealed to his supporters to accept the verdict and eschew all forms of violence.

I am aware of the extent to which this decision has further dashed the hope of Bayelsans as it upturned the democratic mandate of the Bayelsa electorate,  he said.

I hereby unequivocally state my decision to accept the Supreme Court verdict however distressing as it is.

I wish to appeal to my party faithful, my supporters, all Bayelsans and all lovers of peace and justice to accept this verdict and maintain the peace.

While they have a right to think that this is a case of judgment without justice, I strongly appeal against all forms of violence or any conduct that threatens the peace and development of our state.

I seize this opportunity to thank the leadership of our party, the All Progressives Congress at the National, State , local Government and ward levels for their tenacity in upholding the ideals of constitutional democracy.

I appeal to all Bayelsans not to shy away from participating in the governance of our dear state for the common good and wellbeing of its people.

In the same vain, I urge the good people of the state to continue to uphold the dreams of our founding fathers in our aspiration to lead the state irrespective of party affiliations.

He also expressed his desire to work with well-meaning individuals towards bringing the much-needed development to the state.
US secretary of state set to appear for first time before a US House committee probing Trumps justification for attack.

Washington, DC  US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to appear on Friday before a committee of Congress probing whether the Trump administration had adequate justification for the assassination of top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq earlier this year.

Pompeos appearance, which is scheduled for 8:30am (13:30GMT) and will be limited to two hours, will be the first time the top US diplomat has faced questions publicly from legislators about the Soleimani assassination. Pompeo is expected to make the case that Soleimanis killing was justified and that the Trump administrations policy of applying maximum pressure on Iran is working.

Removing [Soleimani] from the battlefield was a de-escalatory measure, Pompeo will tell the committee, according to his prepared remarks.

His death reduced the risk to our personnel overseas and made clear we are willing and able to impose costs on our adversaries if they threaten or attack us, Pompeo is also expected to say.

Representative Gerry Connolly, a Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the committee will have probing questions for Pompeo.

One always worries about unintended consequences and violence spreading throughout the region, Connolly said.

President Donald Trump and top administration officials have given shifting explanations for the January 3 drone attack that killed Soleimani and others in his convoy at the airport in Baghdad, Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi had told Iraqs parliament he was scheduled to meet with Soleimani on the morning the Iranian general was killed and that Soleimani was carrying the Iranian response to an Iraqi diplomatic initiative to foster talks between Riyadh and Tehran.

Protesters gather during a demonstration against the killing of Iranian commander General Qassem Soleimani, near the US consulate in Istanbul, Turkey [File: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP Photo]

Initially, Trump, Pompeo and others said Soleimani was an imminent threat to American interests in Iraq. But administration officials walked back from that justification, saying they did not know when or where any attacks planned by Solemani would take place.

In closed-door briefings to US legislators, Trump officials were unable to provide evidence of an imminent threat and instead described Soleimanis past activities and likely future threats, Democrats and some Republicans said.

Rebukes by Congress

Earlier this month, the Senate passed a War Powers Resolution aimed at limiting Trumps ability to wage war against Iran. Although the measure is expected to be passed in the House, it faces a likely veto by the president.

So far, the Trump administration has failed to provide Congress with access to the underlying intelligence that officials claimed showed Soleimani was a threat. Most recently, the administration offered a fuzzy rationale in a legally mandated memo to Congress, which did not cite the imminent threat mentioned in previous justifications.

I am certainly not satisfied, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.

We had a classified briefing and, of course, from the classified briefing it was clear that there was other documentation on which the intelligence community and the military relied in terms of giving their advice, Hoyer said.

Weve been trying to get access to those documents, which the administration relied on for the actions they took. The issue was whether it was evidence requiring such an action he said. Were not happy that we have not been able to get those underlying documents.

US soldiers and journalists inspect the rubble at the site of an Iranian bombing, at Ain al-Assad airbase, Anbar, Iraq [Qassim Abdul-Zahra/AP Photo]

US legislators were broadly alarmed that Trumps order to kill Soleimani brought the US and Iran to the brink of war and resulted in an Iranian missile attack on US troops at two Iraqi bases housing US troops. While no US forces were killed in the attack, more than 100 suffered traumatic brain injuries, officials said.

In Iran, the Iranian military mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing all 176 onboard.

In Iraq, the killing of Soleimani on Iraqi soil triggered public protests against the US military presence in the country and led to calls from the Iraqi Parliament for US troops to withdraw.

There hasnt been enough scrutiny on the [USs] Iran policy, in general. On every metric that they articulated when this started, it hasnt made things better. It has made things worse, said Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington, DC.

Consequence of withdrawal from Iran nuclear deal

Tensions between the US and Iran have escalated since Trump withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and implemented maximum pressure sanctions against Tehran.

All of that is not only a direct result of Trumps withdrawal from the deal, but a consequence of it, Parsi told Al Jazeera.

This decision to pursue a policy they themselves describe as economic warfare is going to lead to actual warfare, Parsi said.

The Soleimani assassination has brought into question whether the Trump administration violated international law and whether its policy of applying maximum pressure on Iran in the form of economic sanctions is working.

From a European perspective, there has been a lot of difficulty and challenges in dealing with the policy, said Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, a research fellow in Middle East security at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in London.

There has not been an endorsement from across the pond, Tabrizi told Al Jazeera.

Pompeo recently returned to the US from an overseas trip that included stops in Saudi Arabia and Oman. Speaking to reporters travelling with him in Riyadh, Pompeo justified the Soleimani strike as a deterrent against aggression by Iran.

It demonstrated resolve not only from the United States, but all of the forces that are working to push back against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Pompeo last week.

He was actively plotting to kill Americans. He had killed Americans. It was an important strategic strike that was taken. You can see that its now provided the Iranians with a deep knowledge that our notion of deterrence is real, he said.

US President Trump delivers a statement about Iran flanked by US Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Army Chief of Staff General James McConville, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army General Mark Milley, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the Grand Foyer at the White House [File: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

Contrary to the arguments by some that the pressure campaign is not meeting objectives, Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the Trump administration is not really looking for negotiations or even strategic arms control.

The maximum pressure campaign is designed to economically crush Iran and to ensure the administration remains pure in its goals not to get sucked back into a negotiation with Iranians and to avoid what the president doesnt want, which is a major confrontation with Iran, Miller told Al Jazeera.
Gandhinagar, Feb 28 : Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Friday dismissed as "baseless" the claims that over Rs 100 crore was spent on US President Donald Trump's visit to Ahmedabad on February 24.

Speaking on the last day of the three-day discussion on Governor Acharya Devvrat's address to the Assembly, Rupani said: "The allegations made by various quarters that the Gujarat government spent over Rs 100 crore for 'Namaste Trump' event are baseless." "The state government spent only Rs 8 crore, while the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation spent Rs 4.5 crore. Thus, Rs 12.5 crore was spent on Trump's visit to Ahmedabad. Other infrastructural expenditure like on roads and other works had already been sanctioned by the civic body and the Roads and Buildings Departments, prior to the US President's visit. These had nothing to do with the 'Namaste Trump' event," Rupani said.

The opposition Congress had raised the issue of alleged extravagant government spending ahead of Trump's visit during the discussion on the Governor's address on the first day of the Assembly's Budget session.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2020) - Commander Resources Ltd. (TSXV: CMD) ("Commander") has acquired by online staking two gold properties in northwestern Ontario. The First Loon Property (5,507 ha) is in the Pickle Lake Gold Belt and is located south and east of the main concentration of past producing mines that include the Pickle Crow, Central Patricia and Dona Lake mines with total reported historical production of 2,300,000 ounces (ref. 2015 Institute on Lake Superior Geology, Fieldtrip Guidebook).

Highlights

Large land position acquired in Pickle Lake Gold Belt, Ontario

Property covers 27 km trend of iron formations and major structures

Second gold property acquired in Sturgeon Lake belt covering gold in lake sediment anomalies

Utilized proprietary database acquired from Union Miniere Explorations and Mining Corporation ("UMEX")

The First Loon property is underlain by the Confederation assemblage (intercalated mafic to intermediate volcanic rocks with iron formation) and the Kaminiskag assemblage (tholeiitic basalts and thinner calc-alkaline dacitic to rhyolitic pyroclastic rocks and iron formation). Bedrock exposure in this region is very limited and detailed airborne geophysical surveys are anticipated to guide a first pass evaluation of this property. There are at least 20 historical drill holes on the property from UMEX, Placer Dome and Kerr Addison. Analytical results from this drilling are limited but may reflect historical bias whereby only rocks that fit the geological model of the day were analysed. The central axis of the property is cored by an intermediate volcanic package within mafic volcanic rocks. The intermediate volcanic rocks are inter-layered with chert, iron formation, felsic volcanic rocks and local massive pyrite and pyrrhotite lenses and minor chalcopyrite.

The Pickle Lake Gold Belt

The Pickle Lake greenstone belt is part of the Uchi Subprovince which is host to many gold deposits, including the Red Lake greenstone belt and its associated gold deposits located some 250 Km to the west. The belt comprises supracrustal rocks and internal granitoid plutons surrounded by large granitoid batholiths and is subdivided into assemblages that include the Pickle Crow assemblage, The Kaminiskag assemblage and the Confederation assemblage, each separated by fundamental structures interpreted to be major crustal scale breaks that may control the formation of major gold deposits.

Most of the historical gold discovered and mined to date is within the Pickle Lake assemblage and is dominantly hosted by iron formations in fold hinges and related shears however gold has been observed in other rock types which remain underexplored. Commander has targeted these underexplored and poorly exposed terranes in the vicinity of known deposits.

The Staunton Property (801 ha) is located at the north end of the Sturgeon Lake belt some 120 km south of Pickle Lake and covers a cluster of elevated gold values in lake sediments collected in 2003 by the Ontario Geological Survey.

Commander is holder of a proprietary database of company files documenting the exploration activities of Union Miniere Explorations and Mining Corporation ("UMEX") acquired from UMEX in 1989 and which formed the core foundational asset of the Company. UMEX explored for gold and base metals throughout the Pickle Lake and Sturgeon Lake greenstone belts and discovered and operated the Thierry Nickel Mine in Pickle Lake. An ongoing program of compilation and de-archiving of this database contributed to this land acquisition.

Robert Cameron, P. Geo. is a qualified person within the context of National Instrument 43-101 and has read and takes responsibility for the technical aspects of this release. In addition, Mr. Cameron was also the QP for the previous operator.

About Commander Resources:

Commander Resources is a Canadian focused exploration company following the Prospect Generator business model that has leveraged its success in exploration through partnerships and sale of properties, while retaining equity and royalty interests. Commander has a portfolio of base and precious metal projects across Canada and significant equity positions in Maritime Resources Corp. and Aston Bay Holdings. Commander also retains royalties from properties that have been partnered, optioned or sold. The Company has two active partnerships with Fjordland and HPX on its South Voisey's Bay Nickel project in Labrador and with Freeport McMoRan on its Burn copper/gold project in British Columbia.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Robert Cameron, P. Geo.

President and CEO



For further information, please call:

Robert Cameron, President and CEO

Toll Free: 1-800-667-7866

info@commanderresources.com

@CommanderCMD

www.commanderresources.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under the applicable laws.





Figure 1: Land Tenure



To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4050/52938_figure1.jpg

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/52938
WHEN LAURA Ryan entered the world of public relations in Limerick, it was somewhat of a baptism of fire.

Lehman Brothers had crashed, spawning the abyssal spiral that was the global financial crash, and it was not long before this calamity took its toll on Limerick.

Then came the Darkest Day, the shedding of almost 2,000 jobs at Dell, causing a chain reaction of gloom across the Mid-West region.

The end of the so-called Celtic Tiger wasnt the only hurdle that Laura had to surmount, as the city had only been recently mourning the murder of Shane Geoghegan, a symbol of the trauma inflicted on Limerick by ruthless mobsters.

So how do you promote your hometown when it becomes swallowed up in heartbreak?

For Laura, who is Limerick City and County Councils head of communications and marketing, it was about going to the drawing board and devising a way to reimagine Limerick, and not just for the locals, but for those with negative or no thoughts on the Treaty City.

Years before the launch of the much-celebrated Brand Limerick, there were a few significant tasks to tackle. For example, she said there was a huge issue whenever you Googled Limerick.

The image of the city was particularly a massive thing. Thats why we concentrated on Limerick.ie, and building up content. Good trusted content on Limerick. We didnt have a massive budget, so thats where we started, Laura says.

The website was the first major project after being appointed the regions marketing chief in 2016.

Then came the planning for Limericks first major brand as a globally, competitive city. And one of the first aspects of the three-year prep work was a reputation audit, whereby they visited other parts of Ireland to learn about their perceptions of Limerick.

Armed with that information, we realised that people didnt think about Limerick at all. Some people did and there was a lot of positive association with UL and Munster Rugby.

There were some negative associations with Limerick, while some never thought of visiting Limerick. An eye-opener, she says.

It was not long after this when the tender process for Brand Limerick was launched. And in September 2018, advertising gurus M&C Saatchi were charged with leading the creation of Limericks new marketing campaign, which took around 18 months to devise.

Then came the slick, abstract brand launched on January 30.

Its very hard to get something to say a lot with very little. Especially about a brand that is an umbrella brand, she says, adding that unlike Cork, Limerick will have the one umbrella brand that will cater for three main audiences: investment, tourism, and education/relocation.

And with a new brand to promote a growing Limerick, comes responsibility to maintain that growth. So what is the council doing for that?

The council has a new corporate plan. The new development plan is happening at the moment, and the consultation is going out for that.

And for me, its important that the brand is an attitudinal brand. I feel that the lens of the brand needs to be in everything we do. It needs to be reflected in our corporate plan. It needs to be reflected in our development plan, she explains.

But the main emphasis on the new campaign is that it should not be seen as a council initiative, rather one driven by the community.

Businesses that benefit from the tourism sector are also adapting to the brand. For example, Treaty City Brewery have rebranded with their own Edge and Embrace drinks, while a number of hotels are giving their own websites a facelift to reflect the vision.

And now that Limericks image has transformed following the European Capital of Culture bid and 2014 designation, Laura Ryan is confident that there is strong momentum for the regions biggest ever marketing campaign.
Lima, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lima, PERU, February 27th, 2020 Credicorp Ltd. is pleased to announce the director candidates for its 2020 Annual General Shareholders Meeting scheduled for Friday, March 27, 2020, at 3 p.m. (Peru time), at the main offices of Banco de Credito del Peru, located at Calle Centenario 156, Urb. Las Laderas de Melgarejo, La Molina, Lima, Peru.

Consistent with our focus on maintaining governance structures which help drive long-term stakeholder value and demonstrating leadership on corporate governance, Credicorps Board of Directors proposes three new independent director candidates for election. Collectively the three new candidates would add to Credicorps board deep professional expertise in retail and digital banking, insurance, management consulting, retail marketing, private equity and law. The Board, in unanimous agreement with the recommendations of its Nominations Committee, believes these candidates demonstrate the knowledge, integrity, and professional and personal qualifications to help drive long-term stakeholder value at Credicorp. Below are brief descriptions of the new director candidates:

Alexandre Gouvea

Mr. Gouvea recently retired as director at McKinsey&Co. He has 30 years of international experience at the firm and specializes in providing advice to financial services clients. Mr. Gouvea is an expert in retail banking and insurance (including technological transition and digital transformation). He has provided financial services in Latin America and built the Practica de Organizaciones y la Unidad de Recuperacion y Transformacion. Mr. Gouvea is currently on the Board of Lojis Renner (the largest retailer in Brazil) and of Habitat for Humanity International. Mr. Gouvea has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and has an MBA from Anderson School of Management, UCLA.

Maite Aranzabal Harreguy

Mrs. Aranzabal is a Spanish executive with an international career and relevant experience on Boards of listed companies, family companies and NGOs. At the beginning of her career, she was involved in banking and subsequently provided financial services to clients at McKinsey & Company. At Grupo Cortefiel (family owned retailer), she had a successful career leading the strategy, international growth, franchise and marketing. At Private Equity, she led the turnaround of a retail business (KA International, Eur 40 million in sales) and supported Advent International in the analysis of potential acquisitions in fashion and retail. She currently leads her own consulting company, which specializes in retail and real estate businesses, Alir Consulting and Trade, and participates as a member of the Board of Adolfo Dominquez (listed company). Mrs. Aranzabal is a graduate in Business Administration by ICADE, Spain, and holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Antonio Abruna Puyol

Mr. Abruna is an attorney-at-law with deep experience as a legal scholar and manager of academic institutions. Since 2018, Mr Abruna is Rector of Universidad de Piura, Peru, where he has had a long and successful career. He participated in the process to reorganize General Studies and in the launch of the Law School, where he has been dean and a professor. Recently, Mr. Abruna was part of the Special Commission appointed by the Peruvian government to designate the 7 members of the National Justice Council. He was the representative in Peru of the Instituto per la Cooperazione Universitaria (ICU). Mr. Abruna has a law degree from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Doctor in Law from the Universidad de Navarra, Spain.

In addition to the three new independent director candidates, Credicorps Board of Directors proposes for re-election the following five existing directors: Luis Enrique Romero Belismelis, Raimundo Morales Dasso, Patricia Lizarraga Guthertz, Fernando Fort Marie, and Dionisio Romero Paoletti. For detailed information related to the professional backgrounds and qualifications of each of the existing directors, please refer to our latest 20-F filing.

At the 2020 Annual General Shareholders Meeting, Juan Carlos Verme Giannoni, Benedicto Ciguenas Guevara, and Martin Perez Monteverde will retire from the Board. Credicorp is deeply grateful for their professional and personal contributions of time and energy to Credicorp.

For additional information related to the agenda of the Annual General Shareholders Meeting, please see our latest regulatory filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Peruvian Superintendencia del Mercado de Valores (SMV). Shareholders of record as of February 18, 2020 will receive a copy of Credicorps proxy containing important information for the Annual General Shareholders Meeting.

About Credicorp

Credicorp Ltd. (NYSE: BAP) is the leading financial services holding company in Peru with presence in Chile, Colombia and Bolivia. Credicorp has a diversified business portfolio organized into four lines of business: Universal Banking, through Banco de Credito del Peru - BCP and Banco de Credito de Bolivia; Microfinance, through Mibanco and Encumbra; Insurance & Pension Funds, through Grupo Pacifico and Prima AFP; and Investment Banking & Wealth Management, through Credicorp Capital, Wealth Management at BCP and Atlantic Security Bank.

For further information please contact the IR team:

Investorrelations@credicorpperu.com

Investor Relations

Credicorp Ltd.
Death In Paradise

Rating:

Meet The Richardsons

Rating:

So he's staying, as we always knew he would. Even when his allergies cleared up and the sunburn faded, when his plane tickets arrived and he ran out of excuses, DI Neville Parker (Ralf Little) couldn't bear to leave Saint Marie.

This series of Death In Paradise (BBC1) has managed the tricky transition from Ardal O'Hanlon's laid-back DI Mooney to the twitching, neurotic, hypochondriac DI Parker, and done it as smoothly as a luxury hotel waves goodbye to one VIP customer while another checks in.

The show's creators didn't intend to have a rolling roster of stars but, now it has worked out that way, they have discovered that this might be the factor that makes Death In Paradise as long-lived as New Tricks.

This series of Death In Paradise has managed the tricky transition from Ardal O'Hanlon's laid-back DI Mooney to Ralf Little's twitching, neurotic, hypochondriac DI Parker (above)

Heck, if they can keep replacing detectives like changing the oil in an engine every two or three years, the show might go on for ever, or at least as long as Casualty  which is practically the same thing.

Think how many flustered, middle-aged men would be perfect for the role: Greg Davies, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Martin Clunes (how great he'd be, even for one season), Hugh Dennis, Stephen Mangan, Richard Ayoade . . .

Each new incarnation is pushing the writers to new flights of murderous invention. This time, Sting's ex-wife Frances Tomelty played blind actress Olivia, who confessed to shooting her husband on the beach with a revolver.

DI Parker spotted an inconsistency with her story: she said she'd been 5 ft away from the victim when she pulled the trigger but the pathologist reckoned the shooter was 20 ft away. Ergo, Olivia couldn't be the killer: she just didn't know it, what with being blind.

Delightfully crackpot as the crime was, it did raise one question. Why do we never see the pathologist on Saint Marie? DI Parker produced a shatterproof plastic ruler to examine the bullet wound, but he didn't dissect the body.

There's a whole new series in that idea  Post-mortem In Paradise.

The biggest prize in television currently is to come up with a new idea for a comedy hit. Sitcom, sketches, reality show send-ups, anything is worth a try, as long as it's not another panel game.

Awkward fact of the night: The obesity crisis was blamed on our taste for fast food in The Truth About Takeaways (BBC1). But maybe the real problem is that millions can afford to go out often and 'just eat'. A fish supper used to be a rare treat. Advertisement

Film-maker Gary Sinyor, who had a surprise hit about 30 years ago with the indie movie Leon The Pig Farmer, demonstrates one original method with his situation comedy The Jewish Enquirer, which launches today on Amazon Prime.

I've seen a preview, and it highlights how unconventional comedy can dare to be on streaming video services. Starring Tim Downie as a reporter for a Jewish newspaper that no one reads, the show batters you with jokes so politically incorrect they leave you speechless.

This is the opposite of comedy by committee. It's impossible to imagine BBC execs allowing this gag about whether gay firefighters inspire trust: 'You're in a motorway pile-up. Who would you most want coming towards you with the cutting gear: Bruce Willis or Graham Norton?'

By contrast, Jon Richardson's new mockumentary feels as if every line has been subjected to five different laughter formulas, until all the spontaneity has been beaten out of it.

Meet The Richardsons (Dave) purports to be a portrait of Jon's married life with fellow comic Lucy Beaumont. In fact, it's a drearily laboured sitcom that tries to ape Lee Mack's Not Going Out  and fails.

There's even a bit-part for a veteran comic. Lee has Bobby Ball, Jon ropes in Bernie Clifton. Good to see that ostrich is still doing the business.
BEIRUT - Lebanon has banned entry into the country for all passengers on flights from Italy unless they are Lebanese citizens or foreign residents in the country.



The Lebanese ministry of public works issued the ordinance on Friday due to the coronavirus emergency.



It also includes three other countries - China, South Korea, and Iran - where the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 have thus far been registered.



Government news agency NNA said, however, that the ordinance doesn't formally block flights.


WASHINGTON  Democrats in Washington called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to close gun background check loopholes on Thursday, after a shooter killed five and himself at a Molson Coors brewery in Wisconsin, almost one year to the day after the House passed legislation to shore up background checks.

For every life thats lost there are dozens of family members and friends whose lives are altered, said U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., at a press conference with lawmakers and advocates Thursday. We are building a movement and it is coming to get every single Republican.

Democrats believe their press for gun reforms still has life, buoyed by a national outcry over mass shootings, particularly in schools, and a growing movement of violence prevention groups. Thats in spite of the fact that Senate Republicans have refused a vote on the background check bill and negotiations over background checks and another firearm bill have been stalled for nearly six months.

Connecticut Democrats Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Murphy, who have been leading the bipartisan gun negotiations with the White House, said this week they have discussed restarting negotiations with the administration in the past month. The senators said they got not a green light but not a red light from senior staff at the White House.

Im still hopeful on those negotiations continuing, Blumenthal said.

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A top Republican in the negotiations also supported more talks.

I dont want to give up on it because there will be another shooting and well be right back, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Tuesday.

At a press conference at the U.S. Capitol, representatives of Connecticut nonprofits Newtown Action Alliance and Sandy Hook Promise stood in solidarity with the Democrats. The press conference came less than two weeks after a fatal shooting at a Hartford nightclub that killed one and injured four people.

RELATED: Molson Coors employee shot and killed five coworkers before turning the gun on himself, police say

In August, after a pair of deadly mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, the White House appeared on the cusp of supporting efforts to expand background checks for gun sales and implement a national red flag law to temporary remove weapons from individuals who threaten their community or themselves. President Donald Trump's Attorney General William Barr circulated draft gun legislation, including background checks at gun shows, in September.

This fall, Blumenthal, Murphy, Graham and Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., held meetings at the White House to negotiate legislation. Murphy, Manchin and Toomey spearheaded background check talks, Blumenthal and Graham focused on red flag laws.

But those talks fizzled out after apparent opposition from the National Rifle Association and some Republicans. Trump reportedly feared angering his base with tighter gun laws ahead of the 2020 election.

Manchin said Wednesday he has not had recent contact with the White House on background checks.

Theres always been an interest and we thought things were going real well into three or four months ago when everything stopped, he said. Maybe theyll start up again up. I would hope.

RELATED: Connecticuts red flag is the oldest in the nation. Its confisticated thousands of guns.

McConnell has said he would move gun legislation when he receives an indication from President Donald Trump about what he would sign. He had not further comment on the matter Thursday.

Next week, Democratic senators will try to force a vote on the House-passed background check bill, they said. The effort is expected to fail because one Republican objection can stop the vote.

On Wednesday night, Trump started a press conference on the coronavirus by acknowledging the shooting in Milwaukee. He said a wicked murderer opened fire at the brewery.

Our hearts break for them and their loved ones, he said.

According to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, there have been 45 mass shootings to date in 2020. They comprise a small number of gun deaths in the country, which total over 6,000 so far this year, about half of which are suicides.

A Federal Bureau of Investigations study from 2018 found most people who conduct public mass shootings are motivated by personal grievances, target specific people and obtain their guns legally. The law enforcement study found only about 25 percent of the attackers had mental health issues.

The Molson Coors assailant was a brewery employee, the company said Wednesday.
A TOTAL of 85 overseas Filipinos have been infected with the new virus that causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), the Department of Health (DOH) announced Friday, February 28, 2020.

DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said Japan recorded the most overseas Filipinos with Covid-19, with a total of 80. Of the number, 70 have been admitted in hospitals in Japan and 10 were already discharged after testing negative for the virus.

Duque said eight of the 10 discharged Filipinos are already in the Philippines.

"They're back in the country. They need not be quarantined since they tested negative but they will be monitored by the surveillance officers," he said in a press conference Friday.

The 80 Filipinos were among those onboard the M/V Diamond Princess cruise ship that was earlier quarantined for 14 days in Japan after some of its passengers developed symptoms and eventually tested positive for the new virus.

READ: 5 repatriates from Japan show signs of Covid-19

Aside from Japan, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong reported two cases each, while Singapore has one positive case, all involving Filipinos.

The latest confirmed case involving a Filipino was reported in Hong Kong, after a 29-year-old Filipina tested positive for Covid-19. She is currently in isolation in a hospital, said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Thursday, February 27.

The first case in Hong Kong, on the other hand, is set to be released this week, provided that her test results remain negative for the disease, the DFA added.

"Covid-19 continuously affect our kababayans overseas. The Philippine government remains at their service and would devotedly extend our assistance wherever they are in the world," said Duque.

He added that according to the World Health Organization, the novel coronavirus infection has spread to 37 countries outside China, where the virus originated.

But he said the DOH is happy to know that the Philippines is among the nine countries in the world with no new cases of Covid-19 for more than two weeks.

Story continues

As of February 28, the Philippines only has three confirmed cases of Covid-19. One of the three confirmed cases -- a 44-year-old Chinese man -- died due to severe pneumonia.

The DOH also reported that as of 12 p.m. Friday, February 28, at least 30 patients have been placed under investigation for the disease, while 585 patients have already been discharged. A total of 531 patients have tested negative for the new virus.

"Hopefully that trend continues," Duque said, adding that the DOH and concerned agencies are doing everything to keep the Covid-19 at bay.

He said the country's preparation for the disease is adequate, noting that all health facilities are well-equipped and prepared to handle positive cases. (LMY/SunStar Philippines)
We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. For example, although software-as-a-service business Salesforce.com lost money for years while it grew recurring revenue, if you held shares since 2005, you'd have done very well indeed. But the harsh reality is that very many loss making companies burn through all their cash and go bankrupt.

So, the natural question for Harrys Manufacturing (CSE:HARY) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of cash burn. In this article, we define cash burn as its annual (negative) free cash flow, which is the amount of money a company spends each year to fund its growth. Let's start with an examination of the business's cash, relative to its cash burn.

Check out our latest analysis for Harrys Manufacturing

When Might Harrys Manufacturing Run Out Of Money?

You can calculate a company's cash runway by dividing the amount of cash it has by the rate at which it is spending that cash. In October 2019, Harrys Manufacturing had CA$383k in cash, and was debt-free. In the last year, its cash burn was CA$590k. Therefore, from October 2019 it had roughly 8 months of cash runway. That's quite a short cash runway, indicating the company must either reduce its annual cash burn or replenish its cash. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.

CNSX:HARY Historical Debt, February 28th 2020

How Is Harrys Manufacturing's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?

Whilst it's great to see that Harrys Manufacturing has already begun generating revenue from operations, last year it only produced CA$7.5k, so we don't think it is generating significant revenue, at this point. Therefore, for the purposes of this analysis we'll focus on how the cash burn is tracking. As it happens, the company's cash burn reduced by 40% over the last year, which suggests that management are mindful of the possibility of running out of cash. Harrys Manufacturing makes us a little nervous due to its lack of substantial operating revenue. We prefer most of the stocks on this list of stocks that analysts expect to grow.

Story continues

How Hard Would It Be For Harrys Manufacturing To Raise More Cash For Growth?

Even though it has reduced its cash burn recently, shareholders should still consider how easy it would be for Harrys Manufacturing to raise more cash in the future. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash to drive growth. By comparing a company's annual cash burn to its total market capitalisation, we can estimate roughly how many shares it would have to issue in order to run the company for another year (at the same burn rate).

Since it has a market capitalisation of CA$12m, Harrys Manufacturing's CA$590k in cash burn equates to about 5.0% of its market value. That's a low proportion, so we figure the company would be able to raise more cash to fund growth, with a little dilution, or even to simply borrow some money.

How Risky Is Harrys Manufacturing's Cash Burn Situation?

On this analysis of Harrys Manufacturing's cash burn, we think its cash burn relative to its market cap was reassuring, while its cash runway has us a bit worried. Even though we don't think it has a problem with its cash burn, the analysis we've done in this article does suggest that shareholders should give some careful thought to the potential cost of raising more money in the future. When you don't have traditional metrics like earnings per share and free cash flow to value a company, many are extra motivated to consider qualitative factors such as whether insiders are buying or selling shares. Please Note: Harrys Manufacturing insiders have been trading shares, according to our data. Click here to check whether insiders have been buying or selling.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies insiders are buying, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
A delegation of journalists representing the Press Club of India, Indian Women's Press Corps and the Press Association have met Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar calling for his intervention against mediapersons being targeted while covering violence in northeast Delhi.

The delegation met Javadekar on Thursday and submitted a memorandum, urging the government, particularly the I&B Ministry and the Home Ministry, to direct the police to uphold democratic values and sensibilities.

The delegation, in its memorandum, highlighted the alleged rough treatment of the police in the recent rioting in northeast Delhi where journalists were shot at, heckled and even attacked with batons and rods, a statement by the delegation said.

Javadekar agreed with mediapersons that it was of utmost importance that the media is permitted to do its work in a conducive atmosphere, the statement said.

The minister assured the delegation that he will take up the issue with the authorities concerned to ensure safety and security of journalists.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The airplane with 82 Armenian citizens onboard has landed at Yerevans Zvartnots airport. ARMENPRESS reports Health Minister of Armenia Arsen Torosyan informed that this is the last airplane carrying Armenians from Iran for now.

Torosyan noted that like the previous time, a healthcare specialist accompanied them and followed their health condition from Tehran. None of the passengers had fever or symptoms of acute respiratory infection. All of them will under domestic supervision, the Minister said.

Up till now 108 coronavirus tests have been done in Armenia, all of them with negative results.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan
The number of subscribers to Independent.ie has passed 5,000 since a paywall was introduced on February 11, the company has told staff.

It comes as financial results yesterday showed the takeover of Independent News and Media (INM) last year immediately boosted the profitability of new owner Mediahuis, as well as contributing five months of higher revenue.

Results published yesterday showed Mediahuis Group had combined revenue last year of 857.9m - including five months of Irish sales - that was up 39pc on 2018.

Recurring earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (r-ebitda) was 118.9m.

The Belgium-headquartered Mediahuis firm has emerged as a significant European media group through a series of acquisitions in recent years, including in Ireland.

The company reported a net recurring result - or profit after tax but before exceptionals - of 50.7m. That was up almost 10pc on 2018, but reduced to 15m once one-off costs including those in relation to buying INM were accounted for.

The 145.6m INM takeover had a relatively small impact on leverage, nudging Mediahuis' net debt from 1.7 times to 1.8 times earnings and to just over 201m in cash terms.

Mediahuis Group CEO Gert Ysebaert said investment in 2019, including in digital acceleration, will translate into higher profitability in 2020.

"This ambition combined with our belief in strong independent journalism and the power of our group to guide brands through the digital transformation, ensures that Mediahuis has all the assets necessary to develop further into a strong European media company," Mr Ysebaert said.

Mediahuis is now one of the leading media groups in each of Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland.

In Ireland, its titles include Independent.ie, the Irish Independent, 'Sunday Independent', 'Sunday World' and regional papers including the 'Kerryman', and titles including the 'Belfast Telegraph' in Northern Ireland.

In Belgium, Mediahuis owns 'De Standaard' while in the Netherlands the group publishes 'NRC Handelsblad' and 'Der Telegraaf'.

The latest results show digital subscriptions increased in both Belgium and the Netherlands last year as a result of "a strong digital strategy, in combination with the increasing willingness of consumers to pay for online journalism."

In Ireland, Independent.ie introduced a paywall this month, in line with that group strategy. The same digital subscription service will be extended to the Belfast Telegraph later in 2020.

Mediahuis announced plans last year to close the Citywest print plant in Dublin - scheduled to finish service this spring with print moving to plants in Cork and Newry.
Wells Fargo will pay a $35 million fine for improperly recommending risky investments to some of its clients, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday. Read more

Wells Fargo will pay a $35 million fine for improperly recommending risky investments to some of its clients, including senior citizens and retirees, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday.

These clients were encouraged to buy a risky version of an exchange-traded fund, known as an ETF, according to the SEC's cease-and-desist order. These "single-inverse ETFs" use complex financial engineering to deliver big profits when stocks fall.

But these types of ETFs can lead to devastating losses when held for more than a day and are traditionally recommended only for sophisticated investors.

Wells Fargo recommended that some clients hold them for "months or years" even though they had "moderate or conservative risk tolerances," according to the SEC settlement. "Some of these clients had little or no relevant investing experience."

Wells Fargo said in a statement that it will no longer sell "single-inverse ETFs" in its "full-service brokerage" but that customers could still buy them from other providers.

The $35 million penalty will be distributed to Wells Fargo investors who were harmed, the SEC said.

Wells Fargo was sanctioned by the industry's self-regulator, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, in 2009 for sales practices around these ETFs, but the conduct continued until 2019, according to the SEC. "Wells Fargo's policies and procedures relating to single-inverse ETFs . . . were not reasonably designed to prevent and detect unsuitable recommendations of these complex products," the SEC said.

This comes as Wells Fargo struggles to repair its image after admitting to consumer abuses. Last week, it reached a $3 billion settlement with the Justice Department and the SEC to settle charges that its aggressive sales goals led to widespread consumer abuses, including millions of accounts opened without customers consent.
Like many poisonous animals, the African monarch butterfly's orange, white and black pattern warns predators that it is toxic. Warning patterns like this are usually consistent across individuals to help predators learn to avoid them. However, a recent study, published February 27 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, shows how a population of African monarch butterflies (Danaus chrysippus) breaks this rule and has highly variable warning patterns. The study, by Simon Martin of the University of Edinburgh, UK and colleagues shows that the unlikely answer lies in the interaction with a bacterium that specifically kills male butterflies.

Previous research had shown that all female butterflies in this East African population have two unusual features: Firstly, they have a new arrangement of their chromosomes where the chromosome containing genes that control color patterns is fused to their one of their sex chromosomes (called the W chromosome). This new chromosome is called the neo-W. Secondly, they are all infected with a bacterium called Spiroplasma that kills all of their sons. What was not clear, however, was whether these two features were linked, and whether they could explain the highly variable color patterns that changed from season to season.

To answer this, the researchers analyzed the entire DNA sequence of the bacteria and the female butterflies' chromosomes. This showed that the neo-W chromosome alters color patterns and has spread rapidly through the population, aided by the male-killing bacteria. However, because the bacterium only allows female offspring, it promotes the survival of one particular color pattern gene that is always passed from mother to daughter. This left one puzzle for the scientists still to solve - if the females all carried the same color gene, then why was the East African population so variable?

The study found that this female color gene has only a weak effect that is overridden by color genes from the father. Therefore, fathers with different patterns will produce daughters with different patterns. Seasonal fluctuations in wind patterns are thought to affect which subspecies of male immigrants end up in this region, leading to seasonal changes in female color patterns. Even though they always resemble their father, the infected hybrid daughters, unable to produce sons, represent a genetic dead-end for fathers, whose color pattern genes only survive for one generation before being wiped out.

Dr. Simon Martin said, "The relatively fast emergence and spread of a new chromosome, combined with the short life cycle of the butterfly, allows us to study how the microbe is altering the evolution of the butterfly, almost in real-time. We are continually discovering new ways in which microbes manipulate their hosts, and male-killing is just one example of this. It makes you wonder to what extent the evolution of other organisms - even humans - is affected by such unseen forces."

###

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Biology: https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.300610

Citation: Martin SH, Singh KS, Gordon IJ, Omufwoko KS, Collins S, Warren IA, et al. (2020) Whole-chromosome hitchhiking driven by a male-killing endosymbiont. PLoS Biol 18(2): e3000610. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000610

Funding: This work was funded by European Research Council (https://erc.europa.eu) European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme grant 646625 (CB), ERC grant 339873 (CDJ), National Geographic Society (https://www.nationalgeographic.org) Research Grant WW-138R-17 (IJG), and a Royal Society (https://royalsociety.org) University Research Fellowship URF\R1\180682 (SHM). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
[February 27, 2020] Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP, a Leading Securities Fraud Law Firm, Announces Investigation of Crown Castle International Corp. (CCI) on Behalf of Investors

Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM"), a leading national shareholder rights law firm, today announced that it has commenced an investigation on behalf of Crown Castle International (News - Alert) Corp. ("Crown Castle" or the "Company") (NYSE: CCI) investors concerning the Company and its officers' possible violations of the federal securities laws. If you suffered a loss on your Crown Castle investments or would like to inquire about potentially pursuing claims to recover your loss under the federal securities laws, you can submit your contact information here or contact Charles H. Linehan, of GPM at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, via email [email protected] or visit our website at www.glancylaw.com to learn more about your rights. On February 26, 2020, Crown Cstle announced that it would restate its financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017 and for the first three quarters in the year ended December 31, 2019. According to the press release, the Company had recognized service revenues from its tower installation services in a manner that "was not acceptable under GAAP."



On this news, the Company's share price fell sharply during intraday trading on February 27, 2020. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

Whistleblower Notice: Persons with non-public information regarding Crown Castle should consider their options to aid the investigation or take advantage of the SEC (News - Alert) Whistleblower Program. Under the program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Charles H. Linehan at 310-201-9150 or 888-773-9224 or email [email protected]. About GPM Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP is a premier law firm representing investors and consumers in securities litigation and other complex class action litigation. ISS Securities Class Action Services has consistently ranked GPM in its annual SCAS Top 50 Report. In 2018, GPM was ranked a top five law firm in number of securities class action settlements, and a top six law firm for total dollar size of settlements. With four offices across the country, GPM's nearly 40 attorneys have won groundbreaking rulings and recovered billions of dollars for investors and consumers in securities, antitrust, consumer, and employment class actions. GPM's lawyers have handled cases covering a wide spectrum of corporate misconduct including cases involving financial restatements, internal control weaknesses, earnings management, fraudulent earnings guidance and forward looking statements, auditor misconduct, insider trading, violations of FDA regulations, actions resulting in FDA and DOJ investigations, and many other forms of corporate misconduct. GPM's attorneys have worked on securities cases relating to nearly all industries and sectors in the financial markets, including, energy, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, real estate and REITs, financial, insurance, information technology, health care, biotech, cryptocurrency, medical devices, and many more. GPM's past successes have been widely covered by leading news and industry publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Reuters, the Associated Press (News - Alert), Barron's, Investor's Business Daily, Forbes, and Money. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227006010/en/

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Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' on Friday slammed Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the mayhem in Delhi, saying he was nowhere to be seen whenthe national capital was rocked by violence.

An editorial in the Marathi daily said Shah had taken out a lot of time for campaigning for the just concluded Delhi assembly election, distributing pamphlets door-to-door to canvass support for BJP candidates.

The Delhi police comes under the Union Home Ministry.

But now it is surprising that he was not seen when 38 lives were lost and large-scale destruction was caused to public and private property, the party, a former ally of the BJP, said.

"If at this time, the Congress or any other party had been in power at the Centre and BJP in the opposition, the party would have demanded the home minister's resignation and taken out morchas to press for their demand.

"Now, (these things) will not happen because the BJP is in power and the opposition is weak. But still (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi has sought Shah's resignation," the editorial said.

The Sena publication questioned the delay in responding to the volatile situation in Delhi.

"When the home minister was in Ahmedabad (on February 24) welcoming (visiting US President Donald) Trump, an IB official was murdered (in Delhi).

"After three days Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for peace and NSA Ajit Doval was on the streets of Delhi talking to people. What is the use now (of these measures) after the damage has been done?" the paper asked.

The editorial said the opposition may question Shah's "absence" from Delhi when Parliament convenes next week after recess and disrupt proceedings.

"If the opposition raises the issue of Delhi riots in Parliament, will it be called anti-national?" the editorial asked.

The paper lamented that provocative speeches, blamed for the Delhi violence, have become a form of "political capital".

The developments in Delhi are a cause of concern, the editorial said.
'Known entity' When authorities boarded the Elakha it was the culmination of a lengthy investigation by federal police and international authorities. The AFP-led Operation Armour was launched in August 2014 to investigate a conspiracy between six people to import a commercial amount of cocaine by sea. An 18-week trial in the NSW District Court last year found four men guilty of the conspiracy: Thompson, 66, and three associates, removalist Kevin Michael Geraghty, 66, tiler John Majdalawi, 35, and retired electrician Glen James Willcox, 65. The men were connected through terms of imprisonment served in various NSW prisons between 1999 and 2013.

Two others, Valentino Fries and David Wren also faced a trial last year but were found not guilty. Inside the 13.3-metre yacht. Credit:NSW Police A mariner, Thompson wasted little time getting back on the water after serving 13 years for a large maritime cocaine importation in 2000. Unbeknownst to the then 59-year-old, he was considered a known entity by New Zealand Customs following his incarceration, meaning the purchase of the vessel in his name did not go unnoticed. New Zealand authorities were soon aware Thompson was planning a journey in the Pacific Ocean while in contact with Australian associates like Geraghty, also a formerly convicted smuggler with whom he had once shared a cell.

These two principals already had a significant history for importing drugs, so NZ Customs made contact and we started sharing intel across the Tasman to start putting the pieces of the puzzle together, said AFP Investigations Commander, Northern Command, Andrew Donoghoe. After intercepting a series of cryptic phone calls between them, the AFP confirmed "something was being planned. Investigators conducted more than two years of surveillance over those linked to the conspiracy, led by Geraghty and Thompson. Telephone intercepts and other covert videos, photos and devices were monitored in real-time, revealing the evolving plan to source, obtain and deliver the cocaine to Australia. The final brief of evidence tendered to the court included 5800 individual files.

On Friday the court heard the single conspiracy was made up of three separate attempts between January 2014 and February 2017, two of which failed. The cocaine seized on February 2, 2017. Credit:NSW Police The third attempt, while successful in obtaining the drugs, was frustrated at the final hurdle by the intervention of authorities. During a combined sentencing on Friday the four men sat together in the Downing Centre District Court to learn their fate. With the potential to saturate the Australian community, the quantity of the drug and the threat it posed to the community virtually overwhelmed all other factors, Judge Paul Zahra said upon sentencing Geraghty and Thompson to life, with non-parole periods of 25 and 22 years.

Majdalawi was sentenced to 27 years, with a non-parole period of 18 years, while Willcox was sentenced to 24 years, with a non-parole period of 16 years. In the first stage of the conspiracy the drugs were to be sourced from a contact of Majdalawis in Turkey. When that fell through, a second attempt was made to source the drugs from another contact of Majdalawis, colloquially described by the group as his Asian connections. John Majdalawi, right, the only one of the four men on bail, arriving at court on Friday. Credit:Kate Geraghty Again, the plan failed and Geraghty facilitated a new arrangement with a contact he had in the United States. Between the conspirators there was talk of Mexicanos, learning how to sail, and bikie gangs moving four hundred kilos of coke a week. Geraghty, who took on a managerial role, would succeed in lining up a commercial quantity of cocaine on credit, telling the conduit in an intercepted phone call that the market in Australia was "just out of control ... were talking super super money.

On the Elakha the group installed satellite communications and used encrypted Blackberries, often struggling to operate the technology. They used coordinates to plot their journey around the world applying code words like FJ1 for Fiji, "SA1" for South America. The people we assign to these investigations have to be really tenacious ... were talking 12 to 18 months before you start to establish a picture of what the criminality is," Commander Donoghoe said. Police believe the Elakha was eventually loaded with the drugs by a "mother ship" that it met in the South Pacific Ocean in January. Had their plan succeeded, Geraghty and Willcox would have used a cruising motorboat from St Georges Basin to meet the Elakha at sea and bring the cocaine back to land. They never gave up On the first attempt in August 2014 Thompson set sail from New Zealand to Tahiti and then Fiji, intending to meet a mother ship.

However, an unknown issue meant the intended collection did not occur, police said, and the Elakha was forced to return. Plans were quickly launched for their second attempt. Like the first voyage, it would largely be funded by regular cash and Western Union transfers from Majdalawi. The Elakha, which was laden with 1.4 tonnes of cocaine in 2017. Credit:NSW Police By the time Thompson set off in April 2015, he was headed for a location off the coast of Chile, first travelling through the Solomon Islands, Micronesia and Polynesia. The mission failed. Still, the group never gave up, and in April 2016 Willcox embarked on a trip to Vietnam at the request of Geraghty to secure the location details for the final attempt to obtain the drugs at sea.

They were already incredibly invested, Commander Donoghoe said. They had purchased the Elakha, fitted it out, done two voyages  so each time they had a setback, they just recommitted. They were never going to stop. On Friday Judge Zahra said, despite defence submissions made last year and through the trial, he had found Geraghty and Thompson operated together "at the top of the hierarchy". He said he did not accept earlier submissions by Geraghtys defence that his contact with the Elkaha and those upon it was in fact "virtually non-existent" towards the end of the conspiracy. During the trial last year crown prosecutor Sean Flood told the court the members of the group were effectively behaving like a transport company, putting themselves out there to be available to transport the drugs using the Elakha.
Malawi has become the latest country in southern African to relax laws against growing and selling cannabis, making it legal for use in the production of medicines and hemp fibres used in industry.



Malawis parliament passed a bill on Thursday that makes it legal to cultivate and process cannabis for those two uses, but stops short of decriminalising recreational use. Agriculture Minister Kondwani Nankhumwa tabled the bill.



A growing number of countries around the world are either legalising or relaxing laws on cannabis, also known as marijuana, as attitudes towards the drug change. They include several in southern Africa, most recently Zambia, which in December legalised production for export.



They follow Lesotho, which became the first country in the region to legalise cannabis, for medicinal purposes, in 2017, and Zimbabwe. South Africa meanwhile has decriminalised domestic personal use, and is in the process of lifting a ban on commercial cultivation of the plant.



We are very happy that finally were taking the right steps to move the countrys economy forwards, Chauncy Jere, a director of Ikaros Africa, one of the two companies conducting industrial hemp trials in Central Malawi, told Reuters.



Theres no denying that cannabis would be a lucrative industry and its demand is huge, said Jere, who is spokesman for the Hemp Association of Malawi.



Tobacco, a drug scientists say is far more addictive and ruinous to health than cannabis, has been Malawis chief foreign currency earner since independence from Britain in 1964.

Source: Reuters









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Featured Video
Tacha attends AMVCA awards

Controversial BBNaija ex-housemate, Tacha Akide has caused serious stir after attending Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCA) nominees party in Lagos wearing cleavage-baring dress last night.

The reality star who looked overdressed for the ocassion, wore a black dress with her breasts almost falling out of its enclosure.

Nigerians who noticed the unusual manner of her dressing took to social media to react.

nnadychuks wrote:

Weve not finished dealing with Boko haram and Fulani herdsmen Corona virus has joined. Now Please tell me what I should do with this news Bros? Is it stretch marks on breast Ive not seen before? sad.

GudluckIBB: Miss

All i see is strechmarks.

Emmabest2000:

Go Girl enjoy your time , its turn by turn nothing megggaaaaa

Even Ramsey Noah is among the TITANS

Haters look for any available wet transformer and simple do the needful grin.

Prec1ous:

Call her sex object and watch how her gender swoops in like vulture.

Yet, it is visible to the blind that this is an absurd way to dress.

Well, she is showing only what she has to offer.

okpalaAnambra:

grin grin grin grin grin

The breast is highly irritating with all those stretch marks on it

Click like if Tachas breast disgusts you

Hadampson:

Million of Nigerian lives is at risk cos of covid-19 and you are posting nonsense. Lets be serious for once please angry.

jerrybakermillz:

All I see there na dirty

Shes just 20+ and yet my grandmum Boobs is not as flat as hers

Her stretch mark too dirty,can someone borrow me a facemask, that boob is corona verified.

don4real18:

Giving relevance to undeserving people. Even Dr Adadevoh that died for you and I wasnt given this publicity.

Watch video:
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne will visit with the head of Ukraine International Airlines next week to demand compensation for the family members of those killed in the plane crash in Iran.

Champagne said Thursday it will be only the second time the two have spoken since the crash that took the lives of all 176 on board, CTV News reports.

"When it comes to compensating the families, there are two types of compensation, there's the statutory compensation from the airline under the Warsaw Convention and Ive made a plea to them at the time to accelerate that payment," Champagne told reporters in Ottawa on Thursday.

On January 8, Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 was shot down near Tehran by an Iranian surface-to-air missile. There were 176 people on board  nine crew members (all Ukrainians) and 167 passengers (citizens of Ukraine, Iran, Canada, Sweden, Afghanistan, Germany, and the UK).

On January 11, Iran admitted that its military had accidentally shot down the Ukrainian passenger jet. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accepted full responsibility for the downing of the Ukrainian airliner.

ish
How Books and Buckets program in Long Beach aims to keep kids away from gang violence
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In today's hyper-competitive jobs market, you're probably trying every possible strategy to attract and hire the best candidates. Here's one to consider: Ask harder interview questions.

That's according to research published Wednesday by career-review site Glassdoor, which surveyed 95,177 job candidates about their interview experiences between January 2018 and November 2019. Respondents ranked the difficulty of their interviews on a five-point scale, and with each increased level of difficulty, researchers saw a 2.6 percent increase in acceptances of job offers. The trend was particularly noticeable among young workers: When viewing data from respondents aged 25 to 34, the increase in acceptances rose to 3.1 percent.

"Research clearly shows the interview has a huge effect on how candidates see you as a company," Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor's senior economist and a co-author of the research, told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. "Skills and career development are a priority for younger workers, and interviews are an opportunity for them to see if the company they're applying for will equip them with the experience they want."

Increasing the challenge is easier said than done. Only 10.5 percent of the interviews in Glassdoor's study were classified as "difficult," and only 1.2 percent of them were labeled "very difficult." The report noted that rigorous skills tests can increase acceptance rates, while IQ tests or personality quizzes can actively lower those rates--presumably because candidates prefer to be judged by job-related expertise.

But you can do more. Last year, Kabbage co-founder and CEO Rob Frohwein told me that he asks bizarre questions like "What's the one word you'd like on your tombstone?" or "What's your favorite curse word?" to determine "if people know what they're good at and what they suck at." And back in 2016, Inc. contributing editor Jeff Haden wrote about the most challenging interview question he's ever encountered. Check it out--while it's not actually a question, it's a doozy of a test.
For both Sanders and Bloomberg, the results show some signs of diminishing support in the state; a Monmouth University poll conducted earlier this month showed them tied at the top of the field, with only 1 in 4 voters certain about their choice. Both candidates have come under intense fire in recent weeks as their opponents seek to gain traction with voters.
A recent survey of 2,000 Irish professionals carried out by staffing business Walters People Ireland found that almost half (42%) believe new smart working practices are negatively impacting their work-life balance.



The survey shows that three quarters (72%) of employers believe tech helps to improve workflow and overall staff productivity. The biggest fear from employees is the expectation to always be on. Further concerns include the struggle to learn and apply new technologies (31%) and the fear of technologies replacing jobs (22%).



Whilst half (44%) of Millennials state that employers should adopt the latest technologies, this is significantly lower for Generation X (25%) and Baby Boomers (11%).

In fact, an overwhelming 60% of Generation X and Baby Boomers admitted to fearing the introduction of new technologies, with a third (35%) stating that they are yet to get a full grasp of current technologies used in the workplace.

Furthermore, millennials widely perceive technology to be at the root of workplace conflicts. A third of Millennials (34%) reported that older workers not understanding new technology was the chief cause of conflicts in the workplace, followed by younger workers becoming frustrated at using outdated technology (33%).

Millennial professionals are also distinct from their older colleagues in their attitudes towards social media. Almost 40% of Millennials felt that employers should actively encourage workers to incorporate social media into their work, compared to less than a quarter (24%) of Generation X and just 10% of Baby Boomers.



Source: www.businessworld.ie
For the family of Mohammad Aamir and Hashim, it was a homecoming they never wished for.

IMAGE: Municipal workers clean a street at a riot affected area after clashes erupted between people demonstrating for and against a new citizenship law in New Delhi. Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters

Not heeding to the warning of their eldest brother Shairuddin, 25-year-old Aamir and 16-year-old Hashim set out from Ghaziabad on Wednesday evening to meet their family in the violence-hit Gokalpuri.

The next day, their family rushed to GTB hospital and identified the bodies that had been pulled out of a drain.

According to Akram, a family friend, "Around 8.45 pm Shairuddin received a call from Aamir that he is coming to Gokalpuri from Ghaziabad to meet him. Shairuddin warned him against coming to the riot-hit area."

Aamir worked as a driver in Ghaziabad and Hashim, a school dropout, assisted him.

"Despite being warned, Aamir insisted on visiting home, saying he knows the area well and will manage to reach home safely," Akram said.

That was the last time the family heard from the two brothers. At 10 pm, when the two bothers did not reach home, the family made calls to Aamir's mobile phone number, but it was not reachable.

"They thought the duo must have gone back since they were cautioned against coming here. But their number remained unreachable till morning and the family then went to file a missing complaint with the police at Dayalpur police station where they were asked to provide photographs," Akram said.

Upon returning to the police station with the photographs, a woman officer said she has seen their bodies at GTB Hospital. The family rushed to Hospital and identified their bodies that had been pulled out of a drain between Ganga Vihar and Gokalpuri, the family friend said.

The family is yet to get the bodies as the post-mortem would be carried out tomorrow, he said.
Expressing his affection for Hanoi, Ambassador Yerlan Baizhanov recalled that the capital cities of Hanoi and Astana of Kazakhstan, now renamed Nursultan, signed a memorandum of cooperation in 2012.

Citing that the two cities have very fast growth rates in many areas, the Ambassador said this is one of the favourable conditions for the two sides to further strengthen their cooperation on the basis of the signed agreement.

Ambassador Yerlan Baizhanov also expressed his hope that Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Duc Chung and the delegation of Hanoi would visit Nursultan soon to witness the changes of this city first-hand.

For his part, Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung agreed that the two capital cities are big centres for politics, culture, education and transport. The practical and effective development of the relationship between Hanoi and Nursultan will contribute to consolidating the time-honoured relationship between Vietnam and Kazakhstan, he added.

The Hanoi leader also proposed some contents to concretise the bilateral cooperation, including periodic high-level delegation exchange; strengthening people-to-people exchange, especially exchanges between socio-political organisations, scientists and young people; exchanging and learning experiences in education, culture, management and urban planning, especially in building smart cities; supporting and creating conditions for Vietnamese students to study in in Kazakhstan and vice versa.

The two sides also have potential in tourism, trade, and agricultural product trade, Chairman Chung said, adding that Hanoi will propose and discuss with the Ministry of Transport of Vietnam and related agencies of Kazakhstan about the possibility of opening a direct flight between the two countries.

On this occasion, Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Duc Chung wished Ambassador Yerlan Baizhanov a successful term in the country and hoped that he will act as a bridge to bring the relations between Vietnam and Kazakhstan in general and between the two capital cities in particular to new heights.


Steve Coogan has told Sky News film and TV podcast Backstage that he and Rob Brydon thought The Trip was "a stupid idea" when it was first suggested to them.

A mash-up of travel documentary and comedy drama, the sitcom sees the pair eating and drinking their way around Europe while making fun of one another and doing impressions of other stars.

After enjoying critical acclaim, it will return for its final series, set in Greece, next week.

Coogan admits he initially said no when director Michael Winterbottom suggested the idea.

He said: "Michael wanted us to do it, kept begging us to do it, Rob and I didn't want to do it.

"We thought it was a stupid idea, we thought it was self-indulgent, it was narcissistic, that it would just vanish up itself and all that kind of stuff."

But the comedian said that once they got started, he quickly saw its potential.

:: Listen to the Backstage podcast on Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , Spotify , Spreaker

"We said, 'Okay, we'll try it, we'll try it', and then after the first week in Yorkshire, the very first thing we did, I think it was at the end of the first week, we'd done a few days, and I remember I looked at Rob and said 'I think this is gonna be good'.

"I said, at least they won't be able to say it's another one of 'those shows'.

"And then, yeah, it was a wonderful surprise, we never really thought it would work."

The Trip to Greece is the fourth series of the programme, which started in 2010 with The Trip - set in the north of England.

The second series in 2014 saw Coogan and Brydon head to Italy, while the last one - which aired in 2017 - was set in Spain.

The pair play fictionalised versions of themselves, and it's not always clear where the actors end and the characters begin.

Coogan told Sky News he is emotional about it being their last outing.

He said: "I'm a little bit sad about it coming to an end because I've loved going around the world, or going around Europe at least, with Rob Brydon.

Story continues

"And yeah, it was tinged with a little sadness toward the end of it.

"They [the series] were a big part of my life for a long time and an education for me, I was very lucky to be able to do them because I saw some of the most beautiful places in the world and ate the most beautiful food and if I'd had beautiful company, that would've been even better, but nevermind, I put up with Rob Brydon and that was okay."

To listen to the interview, download the latest episode of Backstage, the TV and film podcast from Sky News.

The Trip To Greece starts on Sky One on Tuesday 3 March
BJP's Ramvir Singh Bidhuri was on Friday appointed as the Leader of Opposition, with the Delhi Legislative Assembly issuing a notification recognising the Bardarpur MLA as LoP with immediate effect.

"The Speaker has recognised Ramvir Singh Bidhuri...as Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi with immediate effect..." the notification said.

The Aam Aadmi Party won 62 seats in the polls held earlier this month for the 70-member Delhi Assembly, while the BJP had won eight. The Congress drew a blank.

Bidhuri was unanimously appointed by the BJP as the Leader of Opposition in the Seventh Delhi Legislative Assembly on February 24.

Bidhuri started his political journey as a student-activist with RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in Delhi University in the 1970s.

He was elected MLA from Badarpur on a Janta Dal ticket in the first Legislative Assembly of Delhi in 1993. He was the leader of Janta Dal legislature party, that had four MLAs, from 1993 to 1998.

He was again elected to the Delhi Assembly from Badarpur in 2003 on an NCP ticket. Bidhuri joined the BJP in 2013 and was again elected from Badarpur seat on the party ticket in the Assembly elections that year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A succession of conservative governors has also emphasized South Carolinas decidedly inhospitable climate for unions. Nikki Haley, the states former governor, used to talk about kicking organized labor with her high heels. And while that has been attractive to some big corporations based in the Upstate, not all boats have been lifted. The state ranks 43rd in median household income, and is one of the nations 10 poorest.

That helps explain why a candidate like Mr. Sanders, and his brand of democratic socialism, may do well here in the primary despite a statewide unemployment rate below 3 percent.

In Greenville, expensive condos, nice restaurants and downtown buzz are driving up prices in historically black and working-class neighborhoods like the West End, said the Rev. Patrick Tuttle of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church.

Theyre simply being kicked out, he said. Maids, Family Dollar cashiers, people who set the tables and pour the water glasses at the many new hotels and banquet facilities, many of which were built in the last five years.

Mr. Sanderss campaign recently posted a video to Twitter decrying the gentrification pressure in Greenville, which is about 63 percent white and where the average household income is nearly $83,000.

The Rev. Stacey D. Mills of Mountain View Baptist Church, which is historically African-American, was among the black activists who appeared in the video. In an interview this week, Pastor Mills said that he was not against free trade  but that he wants to see the local education system help train those who have been left out.
Anan Saigon has spent its past three years in Ho Chi Minh City drawing in urban foodies eager to find out for themselves what a US$100 banh mi really tastes like.

Though banh mi, a Vietnamese baguette stuffed with pate, cold cuts, or eggs, can be found on the food carts lining nearly every street in Ho Chi Minh City for less than a dollar, Anan Saigon and its head chef Peter Cuong Franklin are offering a pricey take on the traditional street snack.

Located in Cho Cu (Old Market), a wet market on Ton That Dam Street in downtown District 1, the restaurant ranks just 75th among 4,083 restaurants in the city on TripAdvisor, but foodies are still flocking to the place to try out its expensive treats.

A fine dining banh mi

People ask me if I put gold dust or gold bars inside the banh mi, chef Franklin told Tuoi Tre News with a smile.

But for a foodie, what chef Franklin puts inside his banh mi is not so far off.

Truffle mayonnaise, foie gras, and caviar are just a few of the pricey additions Franklin tops off the signature pork chop he uses in his banh mi.

The $100 sandwich is then topped off with a traditional garnish of sliced cucumbers, cilantro, and mint alongside a side of fried sweet potatoes and caviar.

The $100 banh mi is not the only twist on traditional Vietnamese cuisine Franklin has added to Anans menu.

Alongside the conventional sandwich, diners can try out a $100 bowl of pho, a Vietnamese beef noodle soup that typically costs less than VND100,000 ($4.30) in Saigon -- the former name of Ho Chi Minh City stll popularly used now.

When it comes to Vietnamese food, foreigners have always thought of pho and banh mi as the two iconic dishes of Vietnamese cuisine, Franklin said.

But they have always thought of them as cheap dishes, and thats the common attitude of many towards Vietnamese foods.

"I want to change that perspective.

Vietnamese-American chef Peter Cuong Franklin is seen in a photo he provided Tuoi Tre News.

Franklins goal with his high-class take on traditional dishes is to incorporate high-quality ingredients and modern cooking techniques, while maintaining the integrity, freshness, and harmony of the tastes that made them iconic in the first place.

We want to stimulate curiosity and help people realize that Vietnamese cuisine is not just about inexpensive street food but also creative cuisine and fine dining, chef Franklin insisted.

The expensive pho and banh mi are actually not on the restaurants menu and eager foodies must call ahead and order the dishes in advance.

The dishes are made to Franklins 'ambition' of elevating Vietnamese street foods into fine dining.

Customers at Japanese and Italian restaurants are willing to pay VND150,000-200,000 [$6-8] for a bowl of ramen or plate of pasta, but not everyone is happy to pay the same price for a bowl of pho? Why? Franklin asked.

Pho is more complicated to cook and requires more time and effort.

"We make our crazy $100 pho to change those perceptions."

A bowl of pho on Anan Saigons menu fetches around VND225,000-275,000 ($10-12).

A promo photo of 'Special pho' posted on Anan Saigon's Facebook page

'New Vietnamese'

Chef Peters creative new Vietnamese cuisine reflects his vision of a Vietnam that is deeply respectful of its history and traditions yet progressive and international in its outlook, Anan Saigon proclaims on its website.

He takes inspiration from the countrys vibrant food culture and uses fresh ingredients often sourced from local markets while incorporating French culinary techniques, the website continues.

Born in the Central Highlands city of Da Lat, Peter Cuong Franklin spent his childhood enveloped by the smells and flavors of his mothers noodle shop  smells and flavors he now claims as inspiration thanks to his mother being one of the best cooks in the village due to her famous Quang noodles, cha lua (Vietnamese pork sausage) and nem nuong (grilled meatloaf).

Moving to the U.S. as a teenager in 1975, Franklin had a successful career in banking before eventually deciding to follow his love and passion for food.

He enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu before going on to run two Vietnamese restaurants in Hong Kong and Anan Saigon later.

When asked why he returned to Vietnam and run a restaurant, Franklins reply was simple: Im Vietnamese."

I opened Anan Saigon about three years ago with the aspiration to create a new style of Vietnamese cuisine in my motherland, chef Franklin explained.

Some people call it fusion but I prefer to call this style of cooking New Vietnamese.

Chef Franklin lets his New Vietnamese style fly at Anan.

Anan Saigon incorporates many global influences and yet respects the deep history and traditions of Vietnam, he said.

Other dishes that have helped the restaurant gain a reputation among local and international foodies include its banh xeo taco  a dish consisting of a central Vietnamese region-style banh xeo (Vietnamese pancake) folded into the shape of a Mexican taco and filled with shrimp and pork, cha ca Ha Noi (Hanoi-style grilled fish), or beef stew.

Banh xeo tacos at Anan Saigon. One taco is filled with cha ca Ha Noi and the other consists of shrimp and pork. Photo: Gia Tien / Tuoi Tre

According to Franklin, it took six months before he was able to successfully shape banh xeo into a taco.

Also on Anans menu are the Foie grass imperial roll made from pork, black truffle, and herbs; Buffalo carpaccio made from buffalo flank, black truffle, peanuts, and quail eggs; Caviar and congee consisting of rice congee, smoked sturgeon, and Da Lat caviar; and an Escargot Da Lat pizza made from grilled rice paper topped with snail, pork, garlic, mozzarella, and rau ram (Vietnamese coriander).

His mission is to revisit Vietnamese cuisine and look at our food from a new and modern perspective, he said, adding that his inspiration is drawn from every corner of his life, like the bowl of bun oc (snail noodles) he ate in the Old Market which inspired Escargot Da Lat pizza.

My goal is to create food that is not only up-to-date, but also has a history, a story, and reference points in traditional techniques and local ingredients," he shared.

"I want to learn as much as possible from the traditional food culture and then search for new and innovative ways to modernize humble dishes to gourmet levels using quality ingredients and modern cooking techniques, all while retaining the spirit and flavor of Vietnamese cuisine."

Chef Peter Cuong Franklin and his signature banh xeo tacos. Photo: Gia Tien / Tuoi Tre

To sum it up, Franklins cooking is all about his roots.

I have lived in Hong Kong, London, New York and other cities in the world, but I was born and raised in Da Lat so I consider myself Vietnamese and Vietnam as my homeland, he said.

That is why I believe that the food that I cook and create is Vietnamese.

"Most of the ingredients we use come from this land and are prepared and served by Vietnamese people.

Vietnamese cuisine is now famous throughout the world. Our food is light, healthy and delicious. I often tell my staff that we are not just a restaurant, we are representing Vietnam. When diners come here, it can be the first or the last night they are in Vietnam, so what they will remember are the foods we serve them. How bad or good their impression of Vietnam is lies in these dishes. - Peter Cuong Franklin -

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Borisov said he was arranging a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the matter.

Bulgaria says it is tightening security along its border with Turkey to prevent an inflow of illegal migrants amid reports that Ankara may be relaxing its border controls to allow Syrian refugees to enter the European Union.

"Forces have already been deployed at the border and measures to protect the maritime border have been intensified," Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said on February 28 during a government meeting, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) said.

Read alsoTurkey says will not stop Syrian refugees reaching Europe after troops killed  Reuters

Amid an escalation of the Syrian conflict, Turkish media reported that hundreds of migrants were flocking to Turkey's borders with Greece and Bulgaria after a senior official was quoted as saying Ankara had decided "not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe."

Police, coast-guard, and border-security officials were ordered to stand down on refugees' land and sea crossings toward Europe, the unidentified Turkish official told Reuters.

Bulgarian Defense Minister Krasimir Karakachanov said Sofia was ready to deploy up to 1,000 troops and 140 pieces of military equipment to the border with Turkey to prevent illegal migrant inflows.

Border police had prevented two groups of about 30 people from entering the country from Turkey, according to his ministry.

Borisov said he was arranging a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the matter.
The leadership of the army must not be neglected or destroyed. This is what Chair of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security of the National Assembly of Armenia Andranik Kocharyan told reporters today.

The month of February was a dire month for the army. I refer to it as black February. We must work hard to make sure there are no cases of suicide in the army. The army is the guarantee of our countrys security. In its nature, the army has to have only one enemy, and that is the external enemy. The army should never be engaged in domestic affairs, he said.
Photograph of an emaciated lion in Columbia has taken the internet by storm prompting people to launch a campaign to save him. According to reports, leading efforts to rescue the lion comes from a woman who brought him up as her son in the circus he was born in.

Read: Overjoyed But In Disbelief, UK Couple Who Won 1 Million Lottery Think It's A Prank

Read: Young Man's Remains Found Inside Lion Enclosure At Lahore Zoo

In April 2019, environmental authorities reportedly confiscated Jupiter, the lion from its owner Ana Julia Torres over lack of required documentation and accusation that she was mistreating hundreds of wild animals. The 20-year-old lion was then transferred to Los Caimanes zoo in the department of Cordoba. After the zoo closed, he was taken to nearby facilities. However, soon his health started deteriorating.

Read: 26 Tigers Missing From Ranthambhore National Park: NTCA Member Diya Kumari

Torres talking to international media said that when he was taken, he weighted 250 kilograms, however now he weighs only 90kgs. She further said that he was locked up and started losing weight. He hasn't eaten for several days. It's a fact that an animal deteriorates in such conditions, she added claiming that she felt a motherly instinct that her son need help. Taking note of his conditions, the country's defence Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo reportedly announced that lion would be sent home on an air force plane.

Read: Byculla Zoo In Mumbai To Get Two New Tigers From Siddharth Zoo In Maharashtra

Starving lions in Sudan

In a similar incident, heartbreaking images of malnourished and starving lions in the Sudanese zoo which surfaced online in January had caused global concerns. Since then, the poor animals have been receiving medical aid from the donations that poured in from around the world after the images surfaced on the internet. Many lions have reportedly died in Sudan's Al-Qureshi Park in Khartoum after the wildlife staff allegedly failed to feed them regularly. The staff later blamed the country's poor economic crisis is one of the major factors for the animals' neglect.




Tuscaloosa National Airport is getting $750,000 from the U.S. Department of Transportation to seek an air carrier.

Tuscaloosa is one of 18 cities receiving funds from the Small Community Air Service Development Program. In all, the program is providing $12.2 million for local air service needs around the country.

Airport Manager Jeff Powell said the money will be used as a revenue guarantee for a potential carrier, as well as marketing support.

Its more an incentive package we can use with airlines, he said. Were talking with a variety of airlines at the moment - some are farther along than others.

Powell said he doesnt anticipate an announcement this year, as the airport is preparing for a resurfacing of its 25-year-old runway next spring.

A group has been advocating for expanded service at the airport. The 724-acre Tuscaloosa National Airport is home to 110 aircraft in 62 hangars. Its name changed from Regional to National last year. In November, Air Force One landed at the airport as President Donald Trump attended the Alabama-LSU game.
World markets are in a fever. They were scared of the virus. At the same time, investors and speculators are cynical enough not to worry about ordinary flu and the fact that a little more people can die from it

Open source

Investors are worried that countries' efforts to combat the spread of the virus can hurt the global economy. And in the worst of the scenarios lead to a recession. In the end, more recently, at the end of 2019, the thesis became common that in order for the current world economy to fall into recession, something extraordinary needs to be done: war, epidemic, natural disaster.

Investors are worried about restrictive measures, first in China and then in Europe. They are afraid that a critical mass of economic restrictions may cause a domino effect and still trigger a recession mechanism.

Moreover, the global economy has been growing for a very long time. For too long. And everyone is already tired of waiting for the crisis. And who knows, maybe we will see an example of a self-fulfilling forecast. Still, economics is about psychology.

Its too early to say what has begun and to remember a 2008 instruction manual. So far, this might be just a strong correction in heavily overheated markets. But the fact is that the markets were scared. And this limits Ukraines ability to access external financing. And this is in 2020, the year of peak payments on external debt.

Amid fear and loss of risk appetite by investors, several auctions for the placement of government bonds have been very modest. Without foreigners. They are now not up to increasing their presence in Ukraine. The domestic bonds were the main source of raising funds for Ukraine in 2019.

So far this tap has been turned off. For how long? It depends on whether we are observing a correction or a real transition to a crisis. There is no answer to this question. And it does not happen. But the fact is that domestic bonds are not an assistant for the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance. The same can be said about another market instrument - Eurobonds.

As a result, the dizziness from successes among the Ukrainian elites that now we dont need the IMF faced with a brutal reality when it is necessary to carry out the reform program in order to avoid economic collapse. Because only our friends-creditors remain - the IMF, the World Bank, and the EU for refinancing debt in such conditions.

And other official organizations that are called upon to support countries such as Ukraine. And financing from all our partners is tied to the IMF program. There will be an IMF program - there will be money from the EU and the World Bank. So Ukraine will be left alone with the prospect of default.

Thus, it is critical for a country to receive the IMF program as soon as possible. Large payments fall in March and May, and if resources for March are still sufficient, then in May it is necessary to attract external financing. Thus, the coronavirus leaves no choice for the Ukrainian authorities. They are obliged to agree with the IMF as soon as possible.

Coronavirus is bad for the health of people. But, as it turned out, it is good for the health of Ukrainian reforms. Because it leaves no choice for the authorities. They now have no greedy investors who, against the backdrop of cheap money, are ready to turn a blind eye to the pranks of the authorities and continue to buy.

Maybe, the hysteria in the markets will pass and we will not see a transition to a protracted fall and recession. But current market events should remind the Ukrainian authorities that important cooperation with the IMF is and that good weather cannot last forever.

So, we need to value the IMF program. This means that we must stop bustling and try to squeeze, while remaining friends with both the IMF and the Ukrainian oligarchs. The virus does not allow serving two masters at the same time.

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Ocean City will pay $300,000 to resolve a lawsuit filed by an ex-police officer who says she was routinely sexually harassed by male coworkers during her nine years on the force, according to a copy of the settlement agreement obtained by NJ Advance Media.

Vanessa Strunk filed the discrimination lawsuit in 2018 alleging a number of male officers harassed her between 2009 and 2018, including spreading rumors about her having an affair, displaying her underwear in the police locker room and insinuating she could not do her job well because shes a woman.

In settling the suit last month, the city did not admit to any wrongdoing. A spokesman for Ocean City did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Under the agreement, $200,000 will be paid to Strunk and $100,000 to the law firm representing her, Ionno & Higbee LLC.

The city denied the allegations in an official answer to the suit and contended Strunk welcomed and/or participated in the conduct of which he or she now complains.

The lawsuit detailed several harassing incidents over a nearly 10-year period, beginning in 2009 when Ocean City Officer Matthew Schaffer sent Strunk text messages demanding she attend a party with him and became pushy when she declined, according to the suit, which was filed in Superior Court of Cape May County.

She was again subjected to discrimination in 2013 when Officer Eugene Sharpe did not allow her to escort a prisoner in case something happened, suggesting Strunk could not perform her job based on her gender, the complaint contends.

After reporting the harassment two years later to her union representative, Strunk claimed, she was formally reprimanded by her supervisor.

And the harassment continued, Stunk alleged

In 2017, she said now-Capt. Charles Simonson removed her underwear from her locker and displayed them in the police locker room.

The city admitted in its answer to Strunks suit to an incident that same year in which Strunks supervisor gave her a mock performance review which said, Vanessa is a pain in the ass and complains about being a woman every four or five days.

The city said Strunk knew the evaluation was a joke.

Strunk left the department in 2018 following an investigation into her "possibly inappropriate recording of video from the police departments surveillance system - which she used to document concerns about another officer violating firearms safety procedures, according to her suit.

Also named in the suit are now Police Chief John Prettyman, formerly the acting chief of internal affairs, and former police chief Chad Callahan.

Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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took the delivery of its first wide-body 787-9 Dreamliner plane on Friday, making it the first Indian airline to fly this aircraft.

The plane, which has the registration number VT-TSD, will depart from the facility here at 2 pm (local time) on Friday and land in Delhi at 2 pm (local time) on Saturday, officials said here.

The new aircraft is the first of the six that has purchased from

The second Dreamliner aircraft is currently on the production line and will be delivered soon.

Vistara's Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft comes with 299 seats in a three-class cabin configuration, giving customers a choice of business, premium economy and economy cabins.

The aircraft features lie-flat business class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration that gives a direct aisle access to each business class passenger and a separate premium economy cabin that offers seats in a 2-3-2 configuration.

The aircraft has in-seat televisions in all three cabins with a high-definition (HD) display, powered by Panasonic as well as in-flight WiFi internet connectivity onboard long-haul international flights, officials stated.

It would make Vistara the first airline to offer WiFi service in India.
Central American migrants remain at a warehouse used as shelter in Mexico along US border: AFP/Getty Images

An appeals court in California has temporarily halted the Trump administrations policy forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico as the United States considers their cases.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision on the controversial programme  known as the remain in Mexico programme  marks a significant blow to one of the administrations key asylum policies, which went into effect in January of last year.

Under the programme, asylum seekers who are from Central America were forced to stay on the Mexican side of the border as they awaited their court dates. Since the programme was enacted, around 59,000 people had been enrolled in the programme, which is formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) programme, US Customs and Border Protection commissioner Mark Morgan said on Thursday.

In their legal arguments, the Trump administration said that the policy had led to a drop in arrests at the border, and therefore showed success. Immigrant advocates, meanwhile, said that the programme put vulnerable migrants into harms way in makeshift camps along the border with little if any oversight.

The three-judge court, in its decision, called the policy invalid in its entirety, and said a lower court decision that had initially enjoined its implementation was not an abuse of discretion.

The MPP has had serious adverse consequences for the individual plaintiffs, wrote Judge William Fletcher in the ruling released Friday. Plaintiffs presented evidence in the district court that they, as well as others returned to Mexico under the MPP, face targeted discrimination, lack of food and shelter, and practical obstacles to participation in court proceedings in the United States.

He continued: The hardship and danger to individuals returned to Mexico under MPP have been repeatedly confirmed by reliable news reports.

The flow of migrants being returned to Mexico had already dwindled in recent months, as more and more migrants were flown to Central America  especially Guatemala  and told to apply for asylum there.

Story continues

But that new policy has been described as a worse condition than the already restrictive Remain in Mexico policy, with Charlene DCruz, a lawyer representing Central American asylum seekers, telling the Washington Post in a recent report that, MPP is dying. And something worse is taking its place. Everything is changing.

The MPP policy was put in place in order to cut down on what the Trump administration viewed as an influx of asylum seekers coming into the United States under potentially false pretences, and led to the creation of those border camps that grew in size, with kidnappings and violence following suit.

Under previous rules for asylum seekers, migrants were allowed to enter the US, apply for asylum and then wait within the country for their day in court. Donald Trump has frequently claimed that the policy allowed migrants to disappear once inside of the country, and that migrants would then skip court dates.

MPP is one of the larger steps the Trump administration has undertaken to cut down the American asylum system, alongside another plan that required migrants to apply for asylum in at least one other country along their route of travel before being allowed to apply for shelter in the US. That policy also faces a federal court challenge.

Even with those court challenges, though, the Trump administration has managed to shrink the American asylum system, with overall border apprehensions dwindling.

Read more

The social care crisis is out of control, no thanks to Priti Patel

Migrants wait for up to eight hours for meals as tourists fine-dine

Without migrant workers, there will be no homebuilding or HS2

US judge rules against Border Patrol in migrants lawsuit
Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren will campaign in Michigan next week on Super Tuesday, one of the most important days of the primary election.

The Massachusetts senator is holding an event on March 3 in Detroit. Warren held several public appearances in Michigan last year, including rallies in Detroit and Lansing, joining striking United Auto Workers on the picket line and appearances at forums hosted by the NAACP and United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

People interested in attending the event, scheduled to begin at 7:15 p.m. at 2934 Russell St. in Detroit, can sign up here. Doors open at 5:15 p.m.

Warren has earned eight delegates as of Feb. 28, putting her in fourth place among Democrats seeking their partys nomination to take on President Donald Trump. Michigans primary election is scheduled for March 10, and thousands of voters across the state have already cast their vote through an absentee ballot.

The senator tied with New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg in a recent poll of Michigan voters by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Warren came in third place with 13% of the vote behind former Vice President Joe Biden(16%) and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. (25%).

Warren was the first candidate to hire a state director for Michigan and open a field office in the state. The campaign said it has dozens of paid staff organizing a statewide outreach program in all 14 congressional districts.

While Warren campaigns in early-voting states, U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, D-Bloomfield Township, has been the face of the campaign in the metro Detroit area. Levin represents Warren and other Democratic-leaning cities in the southern part of Macomb County, a key battleground in the general election.

In addition to McMorrow and Levin, Warren scored endorsements from state lawmakers like Sens. Rosemary Bayer, D-Beverly Hills; and Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit; and state Reps. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia; Jim Ellison, D-Royal Oak and Bill Sowerby, D-Clinton Township.

Warren also picked up the endorsement of a majority on the Ann Arbor City Council and several members of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners.

Warrens Michigan campaign scheduled voter outreach events in various cities throughout the month of February. Daily phone banks are also organized from the campaigns Detroit field office.

The campaign holds Michigan Weekends of Action with volunteer events across the state to persuade undecided voters and encourage Warren supporters to take advantage of no-reason absentee voting.

Activist Jamira Burley hosted a Black Women for Warren brunch in Detroit in early February. The campaign also held an outreach event for black artisans in the Detroit area later this month.

Warrens campaign held an LGBTQ Summit in Ferndale on Feb. 15. The event featured Pulse nightclub shooting survivor and gun violence activist Brandon Wolf, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, and Michigan activists.

Warren also has the endorsement of local officials like Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor, Macomb County Democratic Party Chair Ed Bruley and former Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer. The campaign said it has the support of nearly 50 Michigan elected officials and progressive leaders.

Warren raised $306,147 from Michigan donors in 2019, according to FEC filings.
A day ahead of signing of a landmark peace deal between the US and the Taliban, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Friday travelled to Kabul and conveyed to the top Afghan leadership India's unstinted support to a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.

He met President Ashraf Ghani and handed over to him a letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Shringla met Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Vice President-elect Amrullah Saleh, National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib and acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Haroon Chakhansuri and apprised them about India's strong commitment for all-round development of Afghanistan.

In a series of tweets, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar India stands with Afghanistan for strengthening national unity, territorial integrity, democracy, plurality and prosperity in the country and bringing an end to externally sponsored terrorism.

On Shringla's meeting with Ghani, Kumar said the Afghan president appreciated India's consistent support for democracy and constitutional order in Afghanistan.

Kumar said the foreign secretary had a meaningful exchange of views on the developments and peace efforts in Afghanistan with the leadership of the country.

"Foreign Secretary conveyed India's support to government and people of Afghanistan in their efforts to bring peace and stability through an inclusive & Afghan-led, Afghan-owned & Afghan-controlled efforts," he said.

The US and the Taliban are set to sign a peace deal at a ceremony in Doha on Saturday which will provide for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan nearly 18 years after their deployment in the country.

After Shringla's meeting with Abdullah, Kumar tweeted: "They agreed that independent, sovereign, democratic, pluralistic and inclusive Afghanistan would promote peace and prosperity in the region."



He said Shringla conveyed India's steadfast support for democracy, plurality, national cohesiveness and socio-economic development and enduring peace and stability in Afghanistan.

India has been a key stakeholder in the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

In his meeting with Mohib, the foreign secretary praised the dedication and professionalism of the Afghan security forces in safeguarding Afghanistan's territorial integrity under "very challenging circumstances", Kumar said.

India's Ambassador to Qatar P Kumaran is slated to attend the ceremony where the US and Taliban will strike the peace deal.

It will be for the first time India will officially attend an event involving the Taliban.

India has been a key stakeholder in the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

In a significant move, India had sent two former diplomats in "non-official" capacity to a conference on Afghan peace process in Moscow in November 2018.

The conference organised by Russia was attended by a high-level Taliban delegation, representatives of Afghanistan as well as from several other countries, including the US, Pakistan and China.

Major powers such as the US, Russia and Iran have been reaching out to the Taliban as part of efforts to push the stalled Afghan peace process.

India has been supporting a national peace and reconciliation process which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan controlled.

India has also been maintaining that care should be taken to ensure that any such process does not lead to any "ungoverned spaces" where terrorists and their proxies can relocate.

Ahead of peace deal, India has conveyed to the US that pressure on Pakistan to crack down on terror networks operating from its soil must be kept up though Islamabad's cooperation for peace in Afghanistan is crucial.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
13th subcircuit, Kulys Hoffman vacancy: For the Democratic primary: Judge Michael Gerber wins high praise from two bar groups. We cant endorse him, though, for a couple of reasons. He lost his 2018 election but slid into a judicial seat months later through an appointment. Were not big fans of snubbing voters. There also have been questions raised about his handling of prosecutions while at the states attorneys office. Susanne Groebner, an experienced prosecutor with high praise for her trial skills, is endorsed. Also running: former public defender Joe Gump, private practice attorney Matt Flamm and lawyer Michael Minton, who was not recommended due to concerns about his punctuality and diligence.
The architectural drawing by Bakewell & Brown shows the detail that went into the design of the two depot towers.  San Francisco Public Library/The Architect and Engineer of California magazine

The twin-domed Santa Fe Depot, which turns 100 Saturday, has witnessed rapid changes all around it -- high rises, new modes of travel, the shift from industrial to tourist uses on lower Broadway.

But waiting passengers still fidget on the original sturdy oak benches in the 55-foot-high waiting room, just as generations of riders on streetcars, buses, trains and taxis have done for since 1915.

"It's one of the largest and nicest train depots in California," said historic preservation architect David Marshall.

The depot celebrates its centennial birthday with its future secure but its role somewhat in flux.

The story of the depot is a story of San Diego -- its 19th century desire to become a rail and industrial hub and then its 20th century role as the welcome mat for Navy recruits and tourists.

The depot opened three months after Balboa Park's Panama-California Exposition welcomed the world in a two-year fair aimed at boosting growth and attracting industry to the region.

Depot cake time When: 11 a.m. Monday Where: 1050 Kettner Blvd. Who: Five Star tours What: After greetings, proclamations and cake, free public tours will be held until 2 p.m. Contact: (619) 232-5040 and fivestartours.com

The $300,000 project was designed by the notable San Francisco architectural firm of Bakewell & Brown, whose San Francisco City Hall also opened in 1915.

John Bakewell Jr., writing in the April 1915 issue of The Architect and Engineer of California, said it was designed as if "one of the Franciscan fathers would have designed it had railway stations been built in his day."

"Perhaps the most interesting feature of the station, apart from the general architectural design, is the use of color," Bakewell said. "The domes of towers are of the zigzag pattern in blue and yellow tile. This is an old Spanish design, which is also used in the San Diego exposition domes. The cross, which is the symbol of the Santa Fe system, has been worked into this design."

View the photo gallery: Santa Fe Depot Tour

The tile work is also featured throughout the interior wainscoting "giving the effect of a Turkish rug."

State parks historian Alexander Bevil, in a paper for the Journal of San Diego History, tracked the tilework back to the California China Products Co. of National City, cofounded by Charles Nordhoff, coauthor of the "Mutiny on the Bounty" novels. The same company provided the tile for the California Tower and dome in Balboa Park.

The depot opened March 7, 1915, and its Victorian predecessor, completed in 1887, was pulled down 11 days later. A Fred Harvey lunch counter opened within a few weeks and street cars stopped at the forecourt fronting Broadway and took people up Park Boulevard to the expo grounds.

Visitors to the depot can learn about its past by picking up a brochure at the Travelers Aid information desk.

Dayton Smith, who authored the flyer while volunteering at the desk, said the depot has welcomed Hollywood stars, U.S. presidents, Japanese-American San Diegans, who were forced to leave San Diego by train and relocate to internment camps during World War II, and Navy recruits like himself.

"I was a young explorer, scared to death," Smith, 87, said of his 1952 arrival from Indiana.

After tours in Korea and Japan, he ended up at the 32nd Street Naval Base, met his wife and raised two daughters, one of whom also volunteers at the information booth. He was a Southwest College math teacher and a flight instructor for 55 years.

View the Video Santa Fe Depot Centennial

"I've gone to every stop along the way up to Union Station in L.A. and it's the most beautiful station because of the architecture," he said.

The 11 arches span the 170-foot long, 52-foot-wide waiting room, quaint signs pointing visitors to "novelties" and "stair hall."

Kurt and Francisca Grunder, visiting from Switzerland, said they liked the Spanish colonial and mission revival style.

Marian Cox of Sandpoint, Idaho, seeking directions to downtown's Central Library, took a moment to take in the light-filled waiting room. She said her hometown is trying to restore its little train station.

Elizabeth Traughber of Oak Park was on a mission at the depot, taking pictures for her City College travel photo class.

"I like the architecture," she said. "I like that it's old."

Guy Raymond, the depot maintenance supervisor for the past two years, said what he most enjoys is people like Traughber visiting the city center with their cameras

"It's that shining star in the middle of it," he said.

Raymond led the UT on a back-of-the-house tour of the basement with its 100-year-old "Incinerite" incinerator and the second floor apartments and lunch room where train porters and crews spent the night. He couldn't take us up into the 90-foot-high towers -- the tops netted to keep our pigeons -- through the tunnels that weave 20 feet below ground or into what he likened to a bomb shelter beneath tables at the Silver Streak Cafe snack counter.

"It's a great place to have a Halloween party," Raymond said of the creepy, brick-lined basement.

He said one building supervisor launched a "ghost" app on his smart phone and saw the indicator spin rapidly at one apartment where homeless once camped.

Of course, the depot saw some dark times a generation ago, when the Santa Fe railroad proposed to replace it with a two 12-story office buildings in 1972. The Save Our Heritage Organisation, city's Historical Site Board and Mayor Pete Wilson swung into action to keep the depot intact. Instead of buying the depot, the city and railroad agreed in 1983 to a $500 million redevelopment plan for the surrounding property in exchange for preservation.

Since then, the railroad sheds and several tracks have been removed, the depot has been restored and Bosa Development has built several condo towers with more to come. The Irvine Company also plans an office tower but has yet to move forward.

Alfonso Hernandez, 36, who took over his father's Five Star Tours operation at the depot, organized the 100th anniversary festivities when Amtrak and Prologis failed to step forward. He remembers his father taking him there as a child.

"I would come and scream when he'd bring me there," he said, and kids still do that today. "They want to hear the echo."

The depot celebrates its centennial birthday with its future secure but its role is somewhat in flux.

"We'd like to do something that could bring in restaurants or use the courtyard more," said Friz Weiler, who oversees the property for Prologis.

The company, a real estate investment trust, is the latest steward for railroad properties formerly owned by Santa Fe Industries and Southern Pacific.

For the next six years at least, Weiler said, the station is leased to Amtrak and between now and then a new plan may be hammered out to give new life to a long cherished relic.

The 1887 Victorian-era depot comes down 11 days after the new Santa Fe Depot opens in March 1915.  NewsBank/UT San Diego

Santa Fe through time

1887: Victorian-style depot opens at the foot of Broadway.

1915: Santa Fe Depot opens and old one is razed; Liberty Bell arrives for display at Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park.

The Santa Fe Depot originally included an open-air forecourt, replaced in the 1950s by a parking lot and in the 1990s by the present-day fountain and plaza.  David Marshall postcard collection

A newspaper view of Santa Fe's 1972 proposal for a two-tower office complex that would have replaced the depot.  San Diego Union

A 2001 proposal for Santa Fe Place called for an office tower immediately west of the depot. The Irvine Company bought the site and plans a similar project.  Catellus brochure

1919: San Diego & Arizona Railway begins service

1938: Two-hour streamlined train service "San Diegan" to Los Angeles begins.

1942: Japanese-Americans board trains headed to internment camps.

1948: President Harry Truman starts whistlestop reelection tour at depot.

1951: Passenger service ended on San Diego & Arizona Eastern route.

1954: Forecourt razed to make way for parking lot.

1971: Amtrak takes over passenger service.

1972: Santa Fe proposes to demolish depot and build a two-tower office complex.

1983: City, Santa Fe agree to preserve depot and redevelop the surrounding property.

1984: Santa Fe and Southern Pacific merge; transfer sheds removed west of tracks.

1990: The railroads' spin off their real estate holdings, including the depot, to Catellus.

1992: City approves Santa Fe Plaza redevelopment plan around depot with depot's parking lot to be replaced by fountain and courtyard.

2001: Catellus announces Santa Fe Place, two office towers flanking Broadway and west of the depot. Bosa has since bought the south block and is building a condo tower and Irvine Company plans an office tower on the north block.

2004: The Grand at Santa Fe Place opens, first of two Bosa Development condo towers on railroad property.

2007: Museum of Contemporary Art opens annex in depot baggage building.

2005: Catellus merges with Prologis, which oversees industrial properties, including depot.

2015: Centennial celebrated.
Gardai are investigating an alleged sexual assault on a 15-year-old girl by a rapper in a south Dublin hotel on Valentine's Day in a shocking incident which was filmed and shared on social media.

Officers in Clondalkin garda station are conducting a major investigation into the alleged sex attack and two Dublin- based suspects have been identified but no arrests have yet been made.

Detectives are treating the schoolgirl's complaint as "very credible" and are probing whether she was attacked by two young men in a hotel room on the afternoon of February 14.

A Garda spokesman confirmed an investigation was under way.

It is suspected the 15-year-old girl had been groomed on social media since last summer by the rapper. She has been described as "impressionable and vulnerable".

It is understood she travelled voluntarily to the well-known hotel to meet the rapper but was instead met by one of his associates.

It is alleged she was taken to a room where she was sexually assaulted by both older men.

A video of the alleged attack was recorded on a mobile phone and sent to a number of people on a social media platform. Within hours of the alleged incident taking place, the video clip was sent to a young man known to the girl.
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - California health officials on Friday confirmed the second case of novel coronavirus in the United States believed to have been transmitted to a person who didnt travel internationally or come in close contact with anyone who had it.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/2/2020 (685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

President Donald Trump with Vice President Mike Pence, left, and members of the president's coronavirus task force speaks during a news conference at the Brady press briefing room of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - California health officials on Friday confirmed the second case of novel coronavirus in the United States believed to have been transmitted to a person who didnt travel internationally or come in close contact with anyone who had it.

Health officials in San Jose said the patient was an older adult woman with chronic health conditions who does not have a travel history or any known contact with a traveller or infected person. It comes a day after state officials said a woman hospitalized at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento had contracted the illness after no known contact.

This new case indicates that there is evidence of community transmission, but the extent is still not clear, said Dr. Sara Cody, health officer for Santa Clara County and director of the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department.

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks to members of the press at a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. Newsom spoke about the state's response to novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. Behind him are Director of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services Mark Ghilarducci, right, and California Department of Public Health Director and State Health Officer Dr. Sonia Angell. Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a possible first case of person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 in California in the general public.(AP Photo/Randall Benton)

Officials were able to get quick confirmation because the test was done by the Santa Clara County Public Health Laboratory with test kits received from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Officials submitted the woman's specimens for testing Thursday and received the results Thursday night.

The California Department of Public Health said Friday that the state will receive enough kits from the CDC to test up to 1,200 people, a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom complained to federal health officials that the state had already exhausted its initial 200 test kits.

State official also said the federal government decided it will not need to use the Fairview Developmental Center in Orange County to isolate passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship. That's because of the imminent end of the isolation period for those passengers and the relatively small number of persons who ended up testing positive, officials said.

The CDC had originally estimated that as many as half the passengers would test positive. But the state said the actual number has been substantially lower. A federal judge had granted officials in Costa Mesa a temporary restraining order blocking the transfers during the time when state officials said the facility had been critically needed.

Solano County Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas discusses his county's response to a resident diagnosed with coronavirus on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020, in Fairfield, Calif. The county declared a local state of emergency Thursday after a resident, who had not traveled abroad or come in close contact with international travelers, was diagnosed with the highly contagious virus. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Cody said the newly confirmed case in Santa Clara County is not linked to two previous cases in that county, nor to others in the state.

The Santa Clara County resident was treated at a local hospital and is not known to have travelled to Solano County, where public health officials have identified dozens of people  but less than 100  who had close contact with the case announced Thursday. They are quarantined in their homes. and a few who have shown symptoms are in isolation, officials said.

At UC Davis Medical Center, at least 124 registered nurses and other health care workers were sent home for self-quarantine" after the woman with the virus was admitted, National Nurses United, a nationwide union representing RNs, said Friday.

Despite University of California medical facilities being generally better prepared and equipped to treat challenging medical cases, the ... case highlights the vulnerability of the nations hospitals to this virus," the union said.

A person enters NorthBay VacaValley Hospital, where a woman diagnosed with coronavirus previously sought treatment, on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020, in Vacaville, Calif. Health officials believe she is first person in the U.S. diagnosed with the highly contagious coronavirus without traveling abroad or coming in close contact with an international traveler. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

The case of the infected women marks an escalation of the worldwide outbreak in the U.S. because it means the virus could spread beyond the reach of preventative measures like quarantines, though state health officials said that was inevitable and that the risk of widespread transmission remains low.

California public health officials on Friday said more than 9,380 people are self-monitoring after arriving on commercial flights from China through Los Angeles and San Francisco. That's up from the 8,400 that Newsom cited on Thursday, though officials said the number increases daily as more flights arrive.

Officials are not too worried, for now, about casual contact, because federal officials think the coronavirus is spread only through close contact, being within six feet of somebody for what theyre calling a prolonged period of time, said Dr. James Watt, interim state epidemiologist at the California Department of Public Health.

The virus can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia. Health officials think it spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how the flu spreads.

A security guard leaves NorthBay VacaValley Hospital, where a woman diagnosed with coronavirus previously sought treatment, on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020, in Vacaville, Calif. Public health officials are retracing the steps of the woman, believed to be the first person in the U.S. to contract the highly contagious coronavirus without traveling abroad or coming in close contact with an international traveller. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

As infectious disease experts fanned out in the Solano County city of Vacaville, some residents in the city between San Francisco and Sacramento stocked up on supplies amid fears things could get worse despite official reassurances, while others took the news in stride.

The woman in the community who has coronavirus first sought treatment at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, before her condition worsened and she was transferred to the medical centre in Sacramento.

Sacramento Countys top health official told The Sacramento Bee on Friday that he expects several medical workers to test positive themselves in the next few days. Numerous workers at both hospitals have been tested, but the tests were sent to labs approved by the CDC and generally take three to four days to complete.

Peter Beilenson, Sacramento County's health services director, said he expects even those who test positive to become only mildly ill.

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks to members of the press at a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. Newsom spoke about the state's response to novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a possible first case of person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 in California in the general public.(AP Photo/Randall Benton)

Confusion over how quickly the woman was tested for coronavirus concerned McKinsey Paz, who works at a private security firm in Vacaville. The company has already stockpiled 450 face masks and is scrambling for more since theyre hard to come by. The company's owner bought enough cleaning and disinfectant supplies to both scrub down the office and send home with employees.

But they appeared to be at the extreme for preparations.

Eugenia Kendall was wearing a face mask, but in fear of anything including the common cold. Her immune system is impaired because she is undergoing chemotherapy, and she has long been taking such precautions.

Were not paranoid. Were just trying to be practical, said her husband of 31 years, Ivan Kendall. We wipe the shopping carts if they have them, and when I get back in the car I wipe my hands  and just hope for the best.

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Experts in both communities are interviewing immediate family members and expanding their net to include more distant family members who may have been in contact, social gatherings like church that the patient may have attended and any possible time spent at work or events like a concert.

Besides the woman, all the other cases in the U.S. have been for people who travelled abroad or had close contact with others who travelled.

Earlier U.S. cases included 14 in people who returned from outbreak areas in China, or their spouses; three people who were evacuated from the central China city of Wuhan; and 42 American passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

The number of people sickened by the virus hovered Friday around 83,000, and there were more than 2,800 deaths, most of them in China.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced additional disaster assistance available to agricultural producers, including producers impacted by drought and excess moisture as well as sugar beet growers.

California officials are bracing for the potential of another drought and an early and more intense wildfire season amid a record-breaking warm and dry February.

February is shaping up to be driest on record for much of the state, with chances of light showers on the horizon on March 1 and then not again until March 10.

Through WHIP+, the U.S. Department of Agricultures stated goal is helping producers recover from losses related to 2018 and 2019 natural disasters.

USDAs Farm Service Agency will open signup on March 23 for producers to apply for eligible losses of drought (D3 or above) and excess moisture. USDA is also entering into agreements with six sugar beet processing cooperatives to distribute $285 million to grower members of those cooperatives who experienced loss.

Its true that farmers and ranchers are no strangers to the impact natural disasters have on their operations, but disaster events the past two years have been atypically widespread, relentless and unforgiving, Secretary Perdue said. In some instances, producers have suffered multiple disaster events in one year or in several years back-to-back.

In June 2019, more than $3 billion was made available through a disaster relief package passed by Congress and signed by President Trump. In December 2019, Congress passed, and President Trump signed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 that provides an additional $1.5 billion for the continuation of disaster assistance program delivery.

WHIP+ New Qualifying Disaster Events

The Appropriations bill added excessive moisture and D3 and D4 drought as qualifying losses for WHIP+ assistance.

Beginning March 23, producers who suffered either of these types of loss in 2018 and/or 2019 can apply for WHIP+ assistance at their local FSA office. For drought, a producer is eligible if any area of the county in which the loss occurred was rated D3 (Extreme Drought) or higher on the U.S. Drought Monitor during calendar years 2018 or 2019.

WHIP+ Sugar Beet Loss Assistance

As also directed in the Appropriations bill, USDA will provide $285 million through sugar beet processing cooperatives to compensate grower members for sugar beet crop losses in 2018 and 2019. Details will be finalized in agreements between USDA and participating sugar beet processing cooperatives. Sugar beet producers who are members of these cooperatives and experienced losses may contact their cooperative for more information about how this sugar beet crop assistance will be administered.

WHIP+ for Quality Loss

In addition, producers have reported widespread crop quality loss from eligible disaster events that results in price deductions or penalties when marketing the damaged crops. The Appropriations bill expands WHIP+ to include assistance for crop quality loss. FSA is gathering data and input from producers and stakeholders regarding the extent and types of quality loss nationwide.

To be eligible for WHIP+, producers must have suffered losses of certain crops, trees, bushes, or vines in counties with a Presidential Emergency Disaster Declaration or a Secretarial Disaster Designation (primary counties only) for the following named natural disaster events: hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, typhoons, volcanic activity, snowstorms, wildfires, and now excessive moisture that occurred in 2018 or 2019.

Also, losses located in a county not designated by the Secretary as a primary county may be eligible if the producer provides documentation showing that the loss was due to a qualifying natural disaster event. For drought, counties having a D3 or D4 Drought Monitor classification in any portion of the county anytime during calendar year 2018 or 2019 will also be eligible.

Because livestock losses are covered by other disaster recovery programs offered through FSA, these losses are not eligible for WHIP+.

Topics California Catastrophe Natural Disasters USA Profit Loss Wildfire Agribusiness
File Photo: Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

By Karen Lema

MANILA, Feb 28 (Reuters) - A U.S.-Philippines troop agreement recently scrapped by President Rodrigo Duterte could still be salvaged, a senior diplomat said on Friday, boosting hopes in both countries of retaining one of Asia's oldest military alliances.

Talks were taking place to find a solution, but the alliance would prevail, recognising the importance of the United States as a global power, said Jose Manuel Romualdez, Philippine ambassador to Washington.

"From what I'm told, the door is not totally shut," he told a forum.

Romualdez said both countries were looking at how they can "polish" and "improve" the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), with a Philippines troop pact with Australia and a similar agreement in the works with Japan possible templates.

The mercurial Duterte caused a stir earlier this month by serving notice of the VFA's termination, demonstrating his fury over the rescinding of a U.S. travel visa for his former police chief due to human rights concerns by some U.S. lawmakers.

The VFA, which would end in August, provides rules for the rotation of thousands of American troops in and out of the Philippines for war games and scores of annual exercises.

His opponents were outraged at what they saw as a show of petulance, and some lawmakers who typically side with Duterte urged him to reconsider a move that could weaken an under-resourced military stretched constantly by natural disasters and Maoist and Islamist rebellions.

Philippine efforts to protect the alliance underscore contrasting opinions within the Duterte administration and legislature about his foreign policy trajectory, especially over his openly hostile approach towards the United States, where relatives of millions of Filipinos live.

Absent free movement of U.S. personnel, experts say two other joint defence agreements would be meaningless and efforts to procure and operate U.S. defence hardware could become difficult.

It would also reduce Washington's options in the Pacific region, with complications over a longstanding U.S. troop presence in Japan and South Korea, and only limited engagements for the U.S. military elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Story continues

The other source of foreign policy friction in the Philippines is Duterte's fondness for China, which many Filipinos view with scepticism due to a history of perceived maritime encroachments.

Retired supreme court judge Antonio Carpio, a staunch critic of China's efforts to dominate in the South China Sea, said maintaining defence ties with the United States were vital to keeping Beijing in check.

"The only ally we can hope to deter China is the U.S," he told the forum. (Writing by Martin Petty and Karen Lema; Editing by Mark Potter)
Kenya's high court on Friday ordered the suspension of flights from China after an uproar over the government allowing travellers into the country without compulsory quarantine for the new coronavirus.

On Wednesday, Kenya allowed 239 passengers to alight from a China Southern flight from Guangzhou, with the health ministry merely advising those on board to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Outrage spread across social media, and the Daily Nation newspaper's front page on Friday read: "Virus: Why Kenya is dancing with death".

A doctor and the Law Society of Kenya subsequently filed a suit at the high court claiming the government was putting citizens' lives at risk.

The court ordered that flights be suspended for 10 days pending another hearing, and that all the passengers be rounded up and taken to a military health facility for quarantine.

"The government should move with speed to forthwith trace, account, re-examine, confine and quarantine in a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) facility or a specially guarded medical facility all the 239 passengers that they let into the country... until they are duly certified to be free from coronavirus (COVID-19)..." ruled Justice James Makau.

The Chinese embassy in Kenya wrote on Twitter that China Southern was suspending flights connecting Guangzhou, Changsha and Nairobi "due to the decreasing volume of passenger flow".

The embassy had said it was conducting checks on passengers as online anger spread over the presence of Chinese citizens wearing masks in the industrial area of Athi River just outside Nairobi.

A local MP On Twitter urged residents to "stone them and chase them away to stay in their houses if government cannot assure us of our basic healthcare".

"We call upon a rational and scientific approach towards Chinese communities, firmly object (to) any irresponsible and even racist remarks as seen from one of the MPs today," said the embassy.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has issued an executive order creating an emergency response committee on coronavirus.

Africa has largely remained unscathed by the virus so far, with only three confirmed cases -- in Egypt, Algeria and Nigeria.

However World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Saturday that if COVID-19 starts to spread on the continent, African health systems would struggle to manage large caseloads of respiratory failure, septic shock and multi-organ failure.

"These patients require intensive care using equipment such as respiratory support machines that are, as you know, in short supply in many African countries and that's a cause for concern," he said.

Kenya's main doctors' union, KMPDU, says Kenya has one doctor to 17,000 patients, while the WHO recommends one to 1,000.

In recent years desperate doctors have held long strikes over salaries and working conditions, with doctors telling harrowing tales of working without oxygen and basic drugs in public hospitals.

Private healthcare is some of the best on the continent, but it is unaffordable to much of the population.

Nairobi is a densely populated city of 4.4 million people, many of whom live in close quarters in informal settlements.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
One of the murderers of acclaimed journalist and AFP contributor Javier Valdez Cardenas was sentenced Thursday to 14 years and eight months in prison by a Mexican court.

Heriberto Picos Barraza, nicknamed "El Koala", was one of the perpetrators of the crime committed in the northwestern city of Cualiacan in May 2017, according to the prosecution.

He had served as a driver for two men, Juan Francisco Picos Barrueto and Luis Idelfonso Sanchez, who shot Valdez outside his office.

A co-founder of the weekly newspaper Riodoce, Valdez, 50, was one of the most prominent chroniclers of Mexico's deadly drug war in a state where notorious kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman once reigned.

The public prosecutor's office ordered the accused to pay 9 million pesos (around 420,000 euros, $460,000) to the journalist's family.

The sum will be covered by the Executive Commission for Victim Assistance (CEAV), a branch of the interior ministry.

The prosecution argued that the assassination was ordered by Damaso Lopez Serrano, the son of a drug trafficker, who was furious at having been criticized in an article by Riodoce.

Lopez Serrano, who allegedly paid 100,000 pesos for the killing and supplied the weapons, has always denied the claims.

Juan Francisco Picos Barrueto, having refused to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of 20 years and eight months in prison, will be tried in March as the main perpetrator.

The murder in one of the deadliest countries for members of the press sparked international condemnation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
JOSHUA Allen (19), the son of celebrity TV chef, Rachel Allen, was jailed for 15 months for having 22,000 worth of cannabis for sale or supply at the world-renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School.

The teen was handed a 15 month prison sentence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court after Judge Sean O'Donnabhain was told that Allen, who had spent three months in a residential drugs addiction treatment centre, had made a genuine effort to address his problems.

He was jailed for 15 months with the sentence backdated to November 8 when the teen served three weeks in prison on remand.

The teen was given a total two and a half year prison sentence with the final 15 months suspended.

He is the son of Rachel Allen, the grandson of Darina Allen and the great-grandson of the late Ballymaloe founder, Myrtle Allen.

He had been remanded in custody for three weeks to Cork Prison after one court appearance last November when the judge expressed dissatisfaction with his progress as outlined in a PWS report.

Judge O'Donnabhain was told that Mr Allen had initially approached the case with a level of "stupidity" - and was tested positive on one occasion during the legal process for having taken cannabis.

Defence counsel Siobhan Lankford SC said her client had now completed a 12 week treatment programme at Cuain Mhuire.

Ms Lankford said he had learned a salutary lesson and had engaged very well with the Cuain Mhuire programme.

He left Cuain Mhuire with an excellent report on his progress in addressing his addiction issues.

Further, he had also received an excellent progress report from the Probation and Welfare Service (PWS).

Judge O'Donnabhain was told the teen had spent Christmas in the treatment centre as part of the three month programme.

The judge said there was "a sad" back ground to the case with the teen having left school before his Junior Cert aged just 15 years.

He has obtained no qualifications since then.

Mr Allen, who appeared in court wearing a grey suit and white shirt, did not speak during the hearing beyond confirming he accepted a bond required for the suspended part of his sentence.

Judge O'Donnabhain noted the change in attitude of the defendant towards the case and his addiction issues.

He was also told that the teen has been fully supported by his family in addressing his addiction issues.

"He is a changed man," the judge said.

Judge O'Donnabhain also noted the defendant's early plea, his remorse, his co-operation with Gardai and his engagement with addiction support services.

However, he said it was a serious case - and pointed out that the teen had travelled to London with 2,000 to meet a contact and then arranged for the cannabis to be posted to him in Cork from the United States.

"He did it for profit," he said. "His culpability in this is significant."

The judge ruled out an entirely suspended sentence as inappropriate in the overall circumstances.

On November 8, Judge O'Donnabhain had warned that the initial PWS assessment of Mr Allen's progress had been singularly unimpressive.

This lad has not matured in the manner I would expect or require of someone coming before the court on such a serious charge. He is knitting his own jumper. I will not let him do that."

Ms Lankford SC said there had been clear evidence of immaturity with the defendant.

Judge O'Donnabhain noted there had been a significant change in the teen's attitude since then - and he accepted the defendant now realised the seriousness of the matter.

Mr Allen came before the Circuit Criminal Court on a signed plea of guilty from Midleton District Court last year.

The most serious charge he faced was possession for sale or supply of 22,000 worth of cannabis contrary to Section 15 (A) of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

The court heard that the offence came to light when postal officials became suspicious of a parcel from the US at a Laois sorting office.

It was indicated the package contained clothing - but it was suspected the package contained drugs.

Detective Sergeant Michael OHalloran said a controlled delivery was undertaken.

Joshua Allen, who was 18 at the time, signed for the parcel on August 30 2018 at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Shanagarry, Co Cork.

He was observed sitting outside the shop, opening it and looking into it. He was then intercepted by gardai, Det. Sgt. OHalloran explained.

The defendant was found to have cocaine for his own use in his wallet. He later informed gardai he had a small quantity of cannabis at his home for his own personal use.

The teen told gardai it was the third or fourth time he had received such a delivery of cannabis through the post from a woman in California who he had previously met in Cork.

She had been paid 2,000 in London for the delivery.

Ms Lankford SC previously told the court her client has no previous convictions, co-operated fully with gardai and deeply regrets his involvement in the entire matter.

She said he has addiction issues which he has been taking firm steps to address by engaging with two Cork-based addiction treatment services and attending Cuain Mhuire on a residential basis.

Since April, he had been volunteering at a homeless support services outlet.

Mr Allen, the son of Rachel Allen and her husband, Isaac, lives at Ballinamona in Shanagarry.
The AA predicts that South African fuel prices will decrease significantly in March.

These decreases are due to a reduction in global petroleum prices owing to the impact of the coronavirus, it said.

The impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak on global economic activity cannot be overstated, and petroleum prices have retreated in lockstep with the downturn across world markets, said the AA.

It added that these decreases are despite poor performance by the rand in February.

Under normal circumstances, we would be focusing on our serious concerns over the rands trajectory, with the local currency having depreciated by nearly 30 cents against the US dollar since the start of February, said the AA.

However, these declines have all been overrun by the pullback in oil.

The following fuel price changes have been predicted by the AA:

Petrol  9-19 cents per litre decrease

 9-19 cents per litre decrease Diesel  55 cents per litre decrease

 55 cents per litre decrease Illuminating paraffin  68 cents per litre decrease

Uncertain future

The AA said that the future is uncertain for fuel prices in the coming months following Tito Mbowenis budget speech.

It is difficult to predict where current events might lead us, said the AA.

The rand has not found strength against the US dollar since Finance Minister Tito Mbowenis budget speech, and the consensus of economists is increasingly that South Africa is set to lose its last remaining investment grading before long.

The AA said that South African fuel users should not take anything for granted, as the future of South Africas economic situation and the full effects of coronavirus in the coming months are both unclear.

Knock-on effects cannot be predicted and it would be unwise to budget for further fuel price drops at this stage, it said.

Increase to fuel levy

Mboweni also announced an increase to fuel levies during his Budget 2020 speech.

The minister said that fuel levies would be increased by 25 cents per litre  16 cents for the general fuel levy and 9 cents for the Road Accident Fund (RAF) levy.

These levy increases will take effect from 1 April 2020.

Despite this increase, Mboweni said the liabilities of the RAF are expected to exceed R600 billion by 2022/23.

We need to take urgent steps to reduce this risk to the fiscus and bring about a more equitable way of sharing these costs, he said.

Now read: Petrol price to increase after tax hikes
The eldest son of the so-called Idaho 'cult mom' Lori Vallow spoke out on the Dr Phil Show on Thursday, along with other concerned relatives, saying that she was fixated on the end of the world before her two youngest children vanished last fall.

Vallow, 46, was arrested in Kauai, Hawaii, last week on two felony counts of child abandonment after failing to comply with an order to produce her 17-year-old daughter Tylee Ryan and her seven-year-old adopted son Joshua 'JJ' Vallow by January 20.

On Wednesday, she appeared in court in a failed bid to get her $5million bail reduced to $10,000 pending her extradition to Idaho.

Scroll down for video

Colby Ryan (left), Lori Vallow's eldest son, appeared on the Dr Phil Show Thursday to talk about his missing siblings, saying that his mother has long been fixated on the end times. Vallow, 46, is pictured right during a court appearance in Hawaii this week.

Vallow's 17-year-old daughter, Tylee Ryan, and seven-year-old adopted son, JJ Vallow, have not been seen since September 2019

Vallow's eldest son, Colby Ryan, this week spoke to Dr Phil McGraw on his syndicated daytime talk show, saying that his mother has long been obsessed with the idea of a doomsday.

'My mom has always talked about the end of the world or the second coming,' Ryan said, adding that it now appears that Lori and her new husband, Chad Daybell, have cut ties to everyone in their lives.

'I'm mad that my entire family is a shattered vase, and it just seems that she doesn't care about anything,' he said of his mother.

Ryan, who is married with a child of his own, said he first learned of his half-siblings' disappearance a day before Thanksgiving, when two police detectives appeared at his home asking about the whereabouts of Tylee and JJ.

Colby (left) said since late summer 2019, he had communicated with Tylee via text messages

In September, Colby said he became alarmed when he began noticing changes in his sister's messages to him (text messages exchange pictured above)

Annie Cushing, the sister of Lori's late third husband, said Vallow once told her 'it would be better to put her kids in the car and go over the side of a cliff'

'Immediately, it was panic,' he recalled.' I called my mom and asked her why the detectives were looking for the kids. and she basically just said, "I got it, I'll take care of it. I love you. Don't worry about it." That was the last time I spoke with my mom.'

Ryan said he last saw his mother three months prior, on August 30, when she broke the news to him that she and the younger children were moving away, but would not say where.

Timeline of JJ and Tylee's disappearance July 11: Lori Vallow's husband, Charles Vallow, is killed by her brother, Alex Cox, in Arizona August: Lori moves children JJ and Tylee to Rexburg, Idaho September 23: The last time JJ was seen at his school in Idaho October 19: Chad Daybell's wife Tammy dies at their Idaho home October 25: A friend of Tylee receives a text from her phone November 5: Lori and Chad marry November 26: Out-of-state relatives ask Idaho police to perform a welfare check on JJ. Lori and Chad claim he is in Arizona with relatives. Police also learn Tylee has not been seen since September, either November 27: Police execute a search warrant at Lori and Chad's home, discovering the couple have fled Idaho December 11: Tammy Daybell's body is exhumed from the Utah cemetery December 12: Lori's brother, Alex Cox, believed to have died in Arizona December 21: Police issue a press release about JJ and Tylee, revealing they believe their disappearance is linked to Tammy's death December 24: Lori and Chad issue a statement through an attorney saying they love their son and daughter and look forward to addressing 'allegations once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor' December 30: Police accuse Lori and Chad of lying to investigators and say they believe the couple know where the kids are or what happened to them January 26: Lori and Chad are seen for the first time in months as police serve two search warrants in Kaua'i January 30 Lori misses court deadline to produce the children to authorities February 21: Lori is arrested in Kauai Advertisement

He continued communicating with Tylee via text message and FaceTime, but he said after August 30, 2019, he became alarmed when he began noticing changes in his sister's replies and her purported refusal to speak over the phone with him.

Ryan shared one text message exchange with Tylee from September 2019, in which he repeatedly expressed concern for her well-being and asked her to call him, but she insisted she's been 'busy' and 'tired,' and brushed him off.

Vallow's former sister-in-law, Annie Cushing, echoed some of Colby's concerns regarding Lori's purported 'fixation' on the end times.

Cushing said that during a visit in 2018, after the sudden passing of her brother, Lori's third husband Joseph Ryan, her sister-in-law was talking to her about the end of the world and remarked that sometimes she thinks 'it would be better to put her kids in the car and go over the side of a cliff.'

She said when Lori saw a 'look of horror' on her face, she reassured her that she was only kidding and that she would never hurt her children.

'The chances of Tylee and JJ being alive are extremely remote,' Cushing said. 'Nothing that shes doing is in any way indicative of a parent who just has her children safely tucked away.'

JJ's grandfather, Larry Woodcock, and his wife - the parents of Lori's fourth husband Charles Vallow who was shot dead by her own brother - also appeared on the show and addressed her current husband, Chad Daybell, telling him: 'Look in my eyes. Man up, son. It is time for you to have a talk with your wife and end this. Find those kids!'

Daybell, a 51-year-old author of doomsday books, was last spotted on Wednesday directing a furniture truck outside the Princeville, Kauai, apartment he and Vallow had been renting before her arrest.

He was seen helping workers move large furniture into the truck in photos obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com.

It's not immediately clear when Vallow will be taken to Idaho to face charges.

Daybell has not been arrested or charged with any crime.

Police say that Vallow and Daybell have repeatedly lied about the children's whereabouts and that the kids may be in danger.

Chad Daybell, Lori's fifth husband, was seen this week leaving jail in Hawaii after paying her an unexpected visit (left) and shopping at a supermarket (right)

Tammy Daybell, who died mysteriously in her sleep in Idaho on October 19, 2019, is seen with her husband Chad Daybell in her Facebook photos

Meanwhile in Idaho, Madison County prosecutors filed several subpoenas on Tuesday calling upon Lori and Chad Daybell's landlord of their Princeville condo, Kauai Beach Resort and Kennedy Elementary in Rexburg, to provide documents.

Daybell made a surprise visit to the jail where Vallow is being held, DailyMailTV's exclusive photos revealed Wednesday.

Earlier this week it was revealed Daybell and his former wife Tammy, who died under mysterious circumstances, were more than $350,000 in debt and filed for bankruptcy in 2008.

The probe into JJ and Tylee's disappearance began in November when Idaho police tried to conduct a welfare check on JJ, who is adopted and has special needs.

Vallow and Daybell claimed JJ was staying with a family friend in Arizona, which Rexburg police said was a lie.

Vallow, also known as Lori Daybell, is also accused of disobeying a court order that required her to bring her children to Idaho authorities last month.

The tangled case includes investigations into three deaths. Vallow's estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed in Phoenix last July by her brother, Alex Cox.

Cox, who claimed the shooting was in self-defense, died of unknown causes in December.

Larry Woodcock, the father of Lori's slain fourth husband, Charles Vallow, addressed Daybell directly, asking him to talk to his wife and 'end this'

Vallow moved her family to Idaho in late August. In October, Chad Daybell's wife, Tammy Daybell, died of what her obituary said was natural causes. When Daybell married Vallow roughly two weeks after Tammy's death, law enforcement became suspicious and had her remains exhumed.

Test results on Daybell's remains and toxicology results for Cox have not yet been released.

Vallow reportedly believes she is 'a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020,' according to divorce documents Charles Vallow filed before his death.

Daybell has written several apocalyptic novels based loosely on the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both he and Vallow were involved in a group that promotes preparing for the biblical end times.

Rexburg police questioned Daybell and Vallow about the missing children in late November, and when detectives returned the next day for a follow-up interview they discovered the couple had left town.

In December, Idaho authorities asked police on Kauai for help finding the couple. On Jan. 26, Kauai police served a search warrant on a vehicle and condo the couple were renting in the resort town of Princeville.
ALBANY  When Lent started on Wednesday, some local Christians gave up light bulbs instead of treats.

"The slogan is 'Reduce your carbon footprint and eat all the chocolate you want,'" said Rev. John Medwid, the pastor of Albany's First Lutheran Church where members are among an ecumenical group of local Christians on "carbon fasts" for Lent.

The decision to give up electronic indulgences is part of a growing movement in religious groups to pay more attention to environmental issues, especially in amid worries about climate change.

Some churches have sponsored carbon fasts for some time.

Last year we wondered what to do for Lent, said Jack Hagerty, a member of Schenectadys St. Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic church which started its fast in 2019 and is repeating it this year.

It is hard to say how many people are following suit, but the internet is filled with information and calendars offering suggestions about ways to use the 40-day period to cut down on energy use.

Lent represents the period Christians believe Jesus spent fasting in the desert, reflecting on God and resisting temptation by Satan. It leads up to Easter.

The Interfaith Creation Care Coalition comprises a number of religious organizations in the Capital Region that advocate for the reduction of waste, use of clean energy and other climate-friendly moves. Some members were also involved in last years push toward passage of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, a new state law that mandates reductions in greenhouses gases.

The carbon fasters put out calendars with daily activities: On Thursday participants removed at least one light bulb from their home to cut electricity use and on Friday they avoided buying disposable plastic bottles.

The timing of this years carbon fast coincides with the March 1 start of a new state law that bans single-use plastic bags, a move that was long supported by environmentalists.

Hagerty says his parish will be giving out cloth bags during Masses this weekend.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Lent is a time to focus on being intentional, said Ann Erling, a member of First Lutheran Church.

On Saturday, Erling will double check the weather stripping on her doors and windows. She'll also cancel junk mail to cut down on tree-cutting and transportation, go to church via carpool, bus, bike or foot. She's also putting low-flow faucets in the shower.

I dont see it as giving up but as intentional act. Focusing on something, Erling said.

rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU
Myrtle Beach, SC  The taxpayers of South Carolina were put on notice this week that they will be the ones footing the record $8.5 million bill for the cops who dumped dozens of rounds into a Myrtle Beach man over $100 worth of pot. The victim, Julian Betton was left paralyzed by Drug Enforcement Unit officers with Myrtle Beach police hell bent on eradicating a plant that is legal in some form in most of the country.

Burton Craige, an attorney with the Chapel Hill, N.C.-based Patterson Harkavy law firm, said Myrtle Beach officials agreed to an $8.5 million settlement, according to WMBF.

Betton sued the city and officer David Belue, alleging unlawful entry and the use of excessive force in the April 16, 2015 raid. The latest settlement comes after Betton already received $2.75 million from the Drug Enforcement Unit task force. The city of Myrtle Beach and Belue were the only remaining defendants, according to WMBF.

In total, $11.25 million was paid out to resolve cops trying to murder a man for possessing a little bit of a plant.

WMBF reports that Jonny McCoy, one of Bettons attorneys, said hes not sure if the civil settlement is enough for his client.

Ive apologized to Julian Betton so many times that hes going through this. We all have. And $11.25 million? Im sorry, is that enough? I dont know, McCoy said.

Radley Balko summed up the near-homicide of this low-level Myrtle Beach pot dealer at the hands of police.

Julian Bettons offense was to sell $100 worth of pot to a friend. For that, South Carolina police battered down his door, fired 57 shots at him and hit him nine times, leaving him paralyzed and without the use of several major body organs. The cops then lied about the circumstances of the raid to make it seem as if Betton deserved every bullet. When Betton awoke from a coma, his leg was shackled to the hospital bed. Prosecutors then charged him with several felonies  enough of them to put him in prison for the rest of his life, should he survive his injuries. For those two sales of pot totaling $100, Betton will not only be saddled with paralysis and debilitating injury, hell also have a felony record. The cops who broke down his door, filled him with bullets and then lied about what had happened will suffer no punishment at all.

What Balkos synopsis doesnt reveal, is that there were a series of cover-ups the police raid team engaged in, and what might seem like a team effort to coordinate their stories in the aftermath of the planned conflict. First, the team did not seek after, nor secure a no-knock raid warrant. Bettons high-definition security footage reveals the police officers made no such effort to knock on the door, which is required by law, even though their police reports stated they did knock and announced their presence.

Secondly, the footage also reveals the team was not dressed as SWAT team members are typically dressed, used unmarked cars, and moved so swiftly in an effort to breach the door with a battery ram, that Bettons neighbor actually thought a robbery was taking place. The confusion over the identity of the intruders, their no-knock breach of the front door, and the swiftness at which they moved, may have given Benton cause to arm himself, something for which Balko says he would have been justified.

The attempt to coordinate a cover-up appears to have continued, with each officer on the scene turning on their body cameras only after they shot the marijuana dealer 9 times. Bettons wounds were described by Balko.

He ended up losing his gallbladder and parts of his bowel, colon and rectum. The bullets also damaged his liver, small intestine and pancreas. His lung partially collapsed. His left leg was broken. One of his vertebrae was partially destroyed; two others were fractured. Hell never walk again or be able to have kids of his own. Hell also need to use a colostomy bag for the rest of his life.

No one disputes the shooting took place, but because each member of the team turned on their body cameras at the same time, no footage of the actual shooting exists, only the aftermath has been recorded. That may mean the officers later had someone delete the footage, or it may mean they simply forgot to turn on their cameras and only did so after the shooting occurred. The latter is not very likely. After all, why would each member of the team decide to turn on their cameras only after the shooting happened? The answer may also mean they were instructed to do so.

Police say Betton fired at the police raid team as they penetrated his home, which gave them just cause to engage the cannabis dealer with their deadly fire. But ballistics tests later confirmed Betton had not fired his handgun at all, a conclusion which means the police lied about him firing his sidearm.

Illustrating the ridiculous nature of the raid, Betton pleaded guilty in 2017 to possession and distribution of 100 dollars worth of marijuana. And in what could be an indictment on the official police narrative, the prosecutor dropped all gun charges against the now handicapped man. Coincidentally, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) investigated the shooting and, predictably, cleared all the officers involved in the shooting.

The city of Myrtle Beach released a statement on Thursday admitting the cops were wrong and said they have taken actions, such as quitting the drug enforcement unit, to prevent further cases like this from happening.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - AES Corp.(AES) reported that its fourth-quarter loss attributable to the company was $78 million or $0.12 per share compared to net income of $128 million or $0.19 per share in the previous year.



Adjusted earnings per share were $302 million or $0.35 per share, compared to $315 million or $0.36 per share in the prior year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.33 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.



Total revenue for the quarter was $2.43 billion down from $2.62 billion in the prior year. Analysts expected revenues of $2.86 billion.



The company said it is accelerating its decarbonization goals for the company and will aim to reduce its coal-fired generation to below 30% of total MWh by year-end 2020 and to less than 10% by 2030.



The company said that it will participate in the proposed $500 million equity raise at AES Gener, by investing $335 million.



The company has initiated 2020 guidance for adjusted earnings per share of $1.40 to $1.48, compared to 2019 adjusted earnings per share of $1.36. Analysts expect annual earnings of $1.44 per share.



The company reaffirmed its average annual growth rate target of 7% to 9% through 2022 for both adjusted earnings per share and Parent Free Cash Flow, from a 2018 base.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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There arent as many tourists, and more and more people are wearing masks, said 20-year-old Palmeri, describing the scene in Florence, the capital city of the Tuscany region in central Italy. The local supermarkets are selling out of masks and hand sanitizer, and my roommates and I have stocked up on all cleaning supplies for at least the next few weeks.  Id be lying if I said I wasnt a little concerned about the recent outbreak of the coronavirus, but I am doing everything I can to stay safe and healthy.
Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Friday directed Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) to reach out to more farmers for providing technical assistance and help achieve the government's goal of doubling farmers' income by 2022.

He also asked KVKs -- the farm science centres -- to help in empowering youth who are not keen to engage in farming and allied activities.

There are about 642 KVKs spread across the country. They act as a bridge between scientists and farmers in providing knowledge and latest techniques.

"Farmers should take advantage of KVKs because there is a need to increase the contribution of agriculture in the country's GDP," Tomar said addressing a national conference here.

KVKs at district level give direction to farmers, help them with new farm techniques and take benefit from the government policies, he said.

"It is therefore necessary for KVKs to reach out to more and more farmers to provide technical assistance . There is a need to create a road map in this regard," he added.

According to Tomar, the government's target of doubling of farmers' income by 2022 can be achieved when each farmer takes full assistance from KVKs and government programmes.

The minister also listed out various central schemes like crop insurance and electronic National Agriculture Market (eNAM) and plans to set up 10,000 farmers producers organisations (FPOs).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
SHELTON  Democrats on the Board of Education want to spend $1 million more on the schools than has been proposed for 2020-21, saying the preliminary spending plan would hurt an already woefully unfunded school district.

Their recommendation, however, would mean the district could be asking for as much as a 4.45 percent increase over this years budget.

Flat funding is what we are proposing right now, said Amanda Kilmartin, who joined fellow Democrat board members Kate Kutash, Diana Meyer and Patti Moonan in proposing several budget additions during the budget discussion at the boards meeting Feb. 26.

Flat funding leaves no room for improvement  were merely treading water and keeping everything as is, said Kilmartin. There are members who feel that this is unacceptable. A discussion is warranted about the needs of schools not just percentage points.

The Board of Education, while not yet formally voting on a budget, on Feb. 14 submitted a consensus budget request of $74,933,068, a 2.98 percent increase from the present fiscal year. The submission was needed in order to meet the charters required deadline. Last year, Mayor Mark Lauretti recommended zero funds for the district.

In all, the Democrats called for $1,068,634 on top of the consensus number, bringing their proposal to $76,001,702. If the city covers some $620,241 in capital requests, the Democrats state that the net increase would be $448,393, for a total of $75,381,461, or a 3.6 percent increase. If the city does not cover the capital costs, the Democrats proposal would be $76,001,702, a 4.45 percent hike.

Kilmartin, who presented the Democrats recommendations, said last years zero percent budget increase was actually a cut.

We have got to make it known what we really need, said Kutash.

Republicans, who control the board, have joined Democrats in stating that more study is needed to know what to add to the budget.

The four Democrats offered formal recommendations and asked that the board hold a vote next week, since the city needs final numbers as it prepares its budget. Lauretti normally presents his budget proposal to the Board of Aldermen in mid-March.

Outgoing school Superintendent Chris Clouet, sitting next to Beth Smith who starts her job as interim superintendent next week, presented three budget scenarios: increases of 2.98 percent, 2.5 percent and 2 percent  to the board in early February.

The one Clouet recommended called for a 2.98 percent increase, which would offer level services, with the hike mainly to cover contractual increases of present employees.

Finance Director Rick Belden said any reductions to the 2.98 percent increase would force staffing cuts. Belden said going to a 2.5 percent increase would reduce the budget some $300,000  or five to six teaching positions. A 2 percent increase would mean some nine teacher cuts from the present staff.

One challenge, said Belden, is the districts need to hire a fourth pre-K teacher as the district brings its program back into compliance with state mandates.

The Democrat recommendations call for $181,000 for four half-time counselors and one full-time counselor; $31,439 for a part-time music teacher; $62,877 for the pre-K teacher; $62,877 for a teacher at either Sunnyside School or Mohegan School, both of which suffer from increased class sizes; $20,000 for a computer tech; and $90,000 for curriculum writing.

On the capital side, the Democrats proposed $620,241 in spending, with $449,721 earmarked for computers for the 1-to-1 program for students in grades 5 through 12 and $71,566 for textbooks at Shelton High School.

Board member Amy Romano will be combining the Democrat proposals with some of her own and offer those figures at the next board meeting, planned for an undetermined date next week, she said.

brian.gioiele@hearstmediact.com
The mother of 'Tevy' thumbprints a document before being released from prison in Phnom Penh, Feb. 28, 2020.

A Cambodian court has released from prison the mother of a five-month old girl who died while being held with her at a correction facility in the capital Phnom Penh, a rights group said Friday, while an investigation into the incident continues.

Tevywhose name has been changed to hide her identitydied on Jan. 26 from pneumonia and severe malnutrition after sustaining a thigh bone fracture eight days earlier in Correctional Centre 2 (CC2), where her mother was sent for pre-trial detention in mid-2019 for alleged possession of U.S. $2.50 worth of methamphetamine while eight months pregnant.

On Feb. 25, after spending more than eight months in pre-trial detention, the mother was convicted of drug trafficking and handed a punishment of two years in prison, but was released by the presiding judge with a suspended jail term for the remainder of her sentence, the Cambodian Human Rights Committee (CHRC) said in a statement.

The Cambodian Human Rights Committee hopes that the woman who was released today will behave, end her involvement with drugs, and become a good citizen, the group said.

The committee will continue pay attention to the cases of women who have children living in jail with them to ensure that they are provided access to their full rights according to international standards.

While it was unclear how the infant had been injured, local rights group Licadho said in mid-February that she was treated for the thigh bone fracture at the National Childrens Hospital before being sent back to CC2, despite prison staff asking if she and her mother could stay overnight for observation.

Over the next week, Tevys mother noticed that the baby had a fever and would not stop coughing, but a follow up appointment did not result in any further treatment or a refill of the medicine she had been prescribed. By Jan. 25, Tevy was struggling to breathe and transferred to the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital, where doctors tried to clear her lungs of mucus, but she died the following morning.

Licadho noted that even though she was in the late stages of pregnancy, Tevys mother was never provided a lawyer and unaware of her right to apply for bail, saying that the girls death once again illustrates the urgent need for authorities to prioritize bail for mothers with children and urging authorities to take immediate steps to ensure that this never happens again.

Licadhos senior investigator, Am Sam Ath, told RFAs Khmer Service at the time that Tevys death raised several questions, and suggested that the hospitals she was treated at failed to cooperate with the countrys General Department of Prisons to adequately care for her.

On Friday, CHRC spokesman Chhin Malin told RFA that the Department of Prisons is investigating the incident as a result of malnutrition and disease.

Careful consideration

Am Sam Ath welcomed the decision to release Tevys mother, but said he is saddened by the death of the child.

He asked the court to undergo careful consideration of whether to proceed to trial with cases that involve pregnant women and small children. Should it be determined that such cases proceed, the court should do so quickly, while ensuring that the rights of the defendants are protected, he said.

We applaud the Cambodian Human Rights Committee for monitoring and providing assistance to women who are jailed [while pregnant or with small children], Am Sam Ath added.

According to Licadho, there are currently 103 children and 43 pregnant women incarcerated in the 18 prisons the group monitorsnumbers it said have nearly doubled since Jan. 1, 2017, when authorities declared a war on drugs in Cambodia.

CC2the only prison in Cambodia built to hold women and childrenhas an official capacity of 350 inmates, but currently holds 1,850 detainees.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, who first called in 2015 for amnesty for pregnant women and mothers incarcerated with young children, urged the Ministries of Justice and Womens Affairs to review the situation of women in pre-trial detention in February last year, citing the harsh conditions they face in prison.

Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal along with Special Commissioner of Police S.N. Srivastava visited riot-affected areas in northeastern part of the city on Friday.

"I have come here to assess the situation and interact with the residents," the Lieutenant Governor told media persons at Maujpur.

People, however, said they were not given enough time. Resentment prevailed among local residents in Maujpur, though people from rival sides came forward in an attempt to resolve differences.

This was the first visit of the Lieutenant Governor to the riot-affected areas. He will also visit Chandbagh, Shiv Vihar, Bhajanpura and Karawal Nagar where clashes had taken place.

Earlier in the day, Special Commissioner of Police S.N. Srivastava visited riot-hit areas and interacted with local residents. He also assured them that the government will provide adequate help to them.

He has been camping in northeastern parts of the city since February 24 when he was brought back to Delhi Police from Central Reserve Police Force.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) recommended Romanian citizens who are or intend to travel abroad to get information in advance about the measures taken by the authorities in the destination or the transit country, against the spreading of the COVID-19 infection.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs specifies, in a statement sent to AGERPRES, said that several states have enacted exceptional measures, such as the prohibition of access in the affected areas, the closure of border crossing points or the establishment of mandatory quarantine or isolation periods at home for those who have recently traveled to a country or region where the virus is widespread.Thus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommends Romanian citizens to consult regularly the information available on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the sections Travel Alerts (http://www.mae.ro/travel-alerts), Updated information - COVID-19 (www .mae.ro / node / 51759) that are constantly updated, depending on the evolution.Updated data on the states affected by COVID-19 infection (registered cases, number of deaths, affected areas) are available on the website of the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention: www.ecdc.europa.eu, says the same source.Romanian citizens can request consular assistance at the diplomatic mission of Romania in the state of destination, and if they face a difficult, special situation, with an urgent character, they can call the respective mission's permanent phone line. The list of Romanian diplomatic missions and consular offices abroad is available at http://www.mae.ro/romanian-missions.
EBRD and Luminor Bank to provide loan of up to 102 million for development project

Regeneration of Tallinn port area will connect historic centre with Old City Harbour

Innovative construction technology to provide for energy and resource efficiency

Estonias capital Tallinn is set to receive a major boost: a loan of up to 102 million provided by the EBRD and Luminor Bank is helping to fund a development project on the site of the former military shipyard in the citys port.

Under the loan agreement signed today in Tallinn the EBRD is providing up to 63 million and Luminor up to 39 million for an integrated retail, office and hotel project, a key component of the wider regeneration of the port district.

It will connect the historic centre of Tallinn, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with Old City Harbour. In the future, residents as well as visitors will be able to enjoy the beauty of the citys waterfront. The capital of Estonia, founded in 1219 and still characterised by its medieval, cobble-stoned old town, attracts almost 5 million visitors a year, more than 10 times its permanent population.

The development will cover approximately 150,000 square metres and will be constructed with the help of innovative technology, which will lead to greater energy and resource efficiency. The project will also be submitted for certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) scheme at a minimum Gold rating.

The project is developed by Porto Franco OU, the borrower, a limited liability company incorporated in Estonia. For the EBRD it will also serve as a vehicle for a sector-wide engagement in the city of Tallinn.

Vlaho Kojakovic, EBRD Director, Property and Tourism, said: Porto Franco is an exciting project aligned with our strategic focus on urban regeneration initiatives and sustainable real estate, two of the key pillars of the EBRDs Property and Tourism strategy. The project will be a market-leading development achieving LEED Gold certification and playing a pivotal role in the regeneration of the wider port district, which is fast becoming the main gateway to the city. In parallel with the investment we have also facilitated a sector-wide policy engagement with the City of Tallinn and private sector actors supported by the EBRDs City Regeneration and Environment (CREATE) Fund, supported by the government of Austria.

Ian Brown, EBRD Associate Director, Head of Baltics, added: We are extremely pleased to extend financing to the Porto Franco project, which will provide high quality real estate in the centre of Tallinn for the development of new businesses and the promotion of tourism. The project is a major step towards the strategic regeneration of this historic and innovative city and a good example of the EBRDs focus on green economic development in Estonia.

To date, the EBRD has invested more than 700 million in 90 projects in Estonia. The private sector share of the Banks portfolio in the country is 100 per cent.
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday addressed a press conference at the national capital and slammed Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi for asking BJP to follow it's 'Rajdharma.'

LIVE: Shri @rsprasad is addressing a press conference at BJP headquarters in New Delhi. https://t.co/V7lwMZQ5jQ  BJP (@BJP4India) February 28, 2020

Questioning the Congress party over Raj Dharma, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, " Yesterday the Congress party had visited President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan and post their meeting Sonia Ji had stated that 'BJP should follow its Rajdharma. I want to question the Congress party on Rajdharma."

Reminding the Congress party about the times when it had asked for citizenship to be provided to the persecuted minority community, the Union Law Minister said, "Congress has always asked for citizenship to be provided. Tell me Soniaji, the people from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh who are persecuted minorities, do they not deserve citizenship? Your party had an ideology about this. Both Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi spoke in favor of this. Manmohan Singh, Ashok Gehlot, and Tarun Gogoi had once written letters and spoke in parliament, demanding the government to give citizenship to persecuted minorities. What is that Rajdharma that everyone is stepping back on?"

During the press conference, Ravi Shankar Prasad also reminded Congress that issues like the National Population Register and Citizenship Act were brought in by them (Congress) and now the BJP is fulfilling them.

READ | Delhi violence: Cong leaders meet Prez, demand Amit Shah's resignation over 'abdication of duty'

RS Prasad slams Congress on hate speech

Slamming the Congress party on the hate speech of its leaders, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Congress leaders went to Shaheen Bagh, and supported 'Jinnah wali Azadi.' Why were you silent when kids were being instigated to raise slogans of violence against the PM? These comments could have been avoided at this sensitive time. This is the time to promote peace in the country."

READ | Delhi violence: Sonia Gandhi-led Congress delegation calls on President, submit a memorandum

Congress Delegation calls on President Ram Nath Kovind

Earlier on Thursday, a Congress party delegation headed by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress Party's interim President Sonia Gandhi had called on President Ram Nath Kovind and submitted a memorandum to him.

During the media address post the meeting, Sonia had reminded the BJP of its Rajdharma and had reiterated the party's demand for Home Minister Amit Shah's resignation. Sonia Gandhi said, "We call upon you (President) to ensure that life, liberty, and property of citizens are preserved. We also reiterate that you should immediately call for the removal of the Home Minister for his inability to contain violence."

READ | Delhi Violence: Nawab Malik urges to file cases against provocateurs, takes on BJP netas

READ | Pleas moved in HC seeking FIR against Sonia, Rahul, Priyanka, others for alleged hate speech
Sponsored Content on odwyerpr.com

CEO Yury Mosha, who is launching a new project called e-PR, discusses the ins-and-outs of the platform, and his insight on the future of PR:

Yury, first and foremost, what is your newest project?

Our newest project is something that we have been working on for six months now and will be live in the spring of 2020. It is called e-PR.

Yury Mosha

What exactly is e-PR?

e-PR is an online platform which includes a variety of media sites. With these publications, clients that are interested in advertising can decide on a budget, starting from a hundred dollars to the high thousands. From there on, they can choose publications that meet their requirements depending on factors such as location, budget, topic, etc. For example, if a client has $5,000 to spend and wants to be published in an Automobile publication, they will be able to choose a media outlet which matches that criteria. If they need to be published in Forbes and New York Times, then we will do that for them.There are sites which are not very expensive, for example local news sites. We are interested in the clients interests, whether that be artistic sites, health sites, womens site, etc. We are going to give them exactly what they are looking for.

When did you decide to start this project?

We decided to get into the PR business because we attempted to use a similar service for my other business, VtoroiPasport, in an attempt to have content written about us online to extend our audience and clientele. We realized that a genuinely good service for online PR did not yet exist. There was no resource that was truly helpful for clients that are interested in such PR publications. With this knowledge, we decided to build our own business which has nothing to do with my current one. As the saying goes, if you want something right, do it yourself.

What various services does your company provide?

We are media encyclopedia essentially, which plans on containing websites from all regions of the world. The best feature of our site is that we work quickly and for a low cost. The client sees the price which the media gives, since we make our income from discounts, not from adding on additional fees. Since the client only works with us, they do not need to spend time contacting various media members to try and get their content out there. You pay one fee and choose however many media outlets you would like, leaving the details to us. We will control the release and make sure it gets published. If you do not have content written, we can write it for you, as we have a large base of talented copywriters. Upon browsing various media, the client will be able to see their demographics, their Google ranking, and other various factors that are important to know. We put this all in one place, making it a very smooth and easy process. This is needed for those who are interested in furthering either their personal or corporate brand.

How will this be beneficial for news sites?

The news sites will be receiving new clients, which is something that is essential for their business.

How many news sites are you planning to have featured on the platform?

We plan on featuring all of the sites that are possible. We believe that the more, the better. I personally am aiming to have thousands and thousands of various options available for our clients. Each media platform will be within a different price range, different location, have a different audience, etc. This will all be categorized and filtered on our site so that clients can easily find what they are looking for.

What type of clients are you trying to attract and how do you plan on achieving this?

We are attempting to attract all kinds of clients who need help with furthering their brand and raising themselves on Google search. We can do this in two ways. One would be to make cold calls to businesses and offer them our services. The second way would be to create advertisements so that people become aware of our company. Social media advertising is a wonderful tool, so Instagram may be a good option for us, as well as Facebook. With social media come influencers, who we plan on collaborating with. There are many Youtubers who are talking about how to advertise your own company and manage your online presence. We plan on working with such people who will speak about our company. I strongly believe in the power of YouTube, since it was crucial in playing a role in the advertising campaigns for my other business. Once we start gaining clients, word of mouth often plays a major role as well. Currently, we are located in a We Work office and have gained many clients due to this already. Everyone who we have spoken to has only been on board for the expansion of the site. Not one person claimed that this is not something that they would need. Everyone says the same thing, which is they are happy to be our clients once we launch.

Please explain more about the companys long-term goals, meaning if you are trying to be an international platform or are you more interested in the local market?

We are very interested in the international market. The platform currently includes both English and Russian publications. The next language which we wish to include on the site is Spanish. This would include media from Argentina, Mexico, Spain, and other Spanish speaking countries. In the future, we also hope to feature sites from Germany, the Netherlands, France, Canada, China, Japan, Australia, and so on. Since we are located in New York, we have no issue finding workers who speak multiple languages and can deal with international communications.

Speaking of long-term goals, where do you hope to see the company at the end of 2020?

For our long-term goals this year, we are mainly focused on getting traffic on the website and bringing in a large number of clients. Since the site will still be fairly new by the end of the year, we hope to correct and monitor any errors or bugs which may arise. By the end of 2020, we are still testing how well our platform is working with the feedback of our clients.

How does your business differ from PR agencies that exist today?

Here I would like to bring the example of Amazon. There are stores that only exist offline and then there is Amazon. For example, you can buy socks online at Amazon, or you can buy them in the store. The difference is you can buy them online from the comfort of your couch in a much quicker and comfortable process. There is no price difference, if anything you paid less since traditional stores mark up prices due to their expenses. Same concept applies here. We are doing everything online, while other PR companies are doing everything manually. They also not only charge you for the cost of the advertisement, but they also add on additional fees for their services. We dont do that. However, we do have a number a client can call if they would like to go the traditional route and have a person handle their account. This would add on additional fees and slow down the process, but it is an option.

Do you think that the company will be more popular amongst companies, or amongst individuals?

I think that it will be popular amongst both companies and individuals. In recent years, people have strongly focused on strengthening their personal brand, as that is good for business. If a business has a well-known and reputable CEO, the business only benefits. We believe that politicians, businessmen, and even religious figures will absolutely use our platform for their personal brand.

Are you planning on expanding your company into the field of social media advertising?

Yes, absolutely. We plan on having a YouTube channel both in English and Russian, and then other languages as well. There we plan on discussing new media sites that join our platform, various recommendations for these sites, how to budget correctly, and more. We also will have an Instagram account, as well as Facebook. Social media is necessary for a company, as I mentioned before.

When can clients expect for the site to launch?

The site will launch in the spring of 2020. We are currently working hard to gather our media list and are focused on contacting all the possible websites. Our site is being done now as well, which is important for the platform to work.
(Photo : Screenshot from: Edition CNN Official Website)

A cosmic blast was seen through both space and ground-based telescopes by astronomers which have been said to be the biggest explosion on record.





Read Also: Whoa! Three Meteors Per Hour Can Be Seen Every Night Starting Today-- Anywhere You Are!

It came from 390 million light-years away

This massive explosion occurred in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster which is about 390 million light-years away from Earth. It had also released about five times more energy than the previous one, beating the old record holder.

Simona Giacintucci, a study lead author of the Naval Research Laboratory said in a statement that, in some ways, the blast that had happened is identical to how Mt. St. Helens volcano eruption in 1980 that basically tore the top off of the mountain. Five times greater than the once known as the largest and most powerful explosion, MS 0735+74.

This explosion was so powerful that it punched and caused a dent the size of 15 Milky Ways. Giacintucci and her co-workers think that the blast originated from a supermassive black hole in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster. These are among the largest structures in the universe which contains thousands of galaxies individually, dark matter and hot gas.

This was actually hinted years ago

Back in 2016, there were earlier hints suggesting some activity regarding this when Chandra was used for observing and it happened to reveal s possible cluster explosion in the future.

Norbert Werner, an astronomer along with his colleagues had, in fact, noticed there was some cavity in hot gas and did not think that it was possible because the cavity was so big that would need to require so much energy to form and people around them were skeptical as well because of the size of this outburst. Looking at the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster with radio telescopes was when they only realized what they had discovered. They used four telescopes, namely the NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA's XMM-Newton, the Murchison Widefield Array or the MWA in Western Australia and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope or GMRT in India.

Read Also: Nothing is Forever! Earth Gets a Temporary New Moon

The X-ray data and radio wavelength data that was put together by some of the ground-based telescopes, helped confirm the cavity. All of those radio emissions were created by electrons that were actually moving at the speed of light. Dr. Maxim Markevitch, from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said that the radio data that fit inside the X-rays are basically like a hand in a glove and that this is the discovery that told them an eruption with an unexpected size and range occurred there.

The scientists described the discovery as being a bit like archaeology where they were given tools to dig deeper and find out more about this and try to get as much information as they can little by little, and they are please about the results so far and are actually looking forward to more discoveries in the universe in the future.

Read Also: Artemis Program Prepares for 2024 Moon Landing Planned by NASA

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Europe now is on high alert with new cases of coronavirus and deaths mounting in Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Austria, and Greece, while United States health officials warn of a possible pandemic and the inevitability of the disease spreading in the country.

After surfacing in late December in Wuhan, China, the coronavirus has spread to at least 50 countries (as of 2/27/2020), disrupted global supply chains and triggered a sharp downturn in financial markets.

But in a Feb. 26 interview in London, Oliver Baete, CEO of the Germany-based multinational financial services company Allianz SE, told Bloomberg News that the reaction was overblown.

There is a lot of panic at the moment that is really not warranted, he said. If you think about the fundamental health impacts, they are significant but it is not like we have a real pandemic. Its like a strong flu.

Baete noted fears about a lack of medical supplies when the sick show up at hospitals. The issue is really that people do not know what to do, and we are behaving in a really disorganized way, he said.

Baetes claim that COVID-19 is like a strong flu can be viewed in two ways, however. On the one hand, there are many similarities in symptoms and the way the flu and coronavirus are is spread.

On the other hand, the flu is blamed for as many as 61,000 deaths in the United States alone each year, so the comparison hardly minimizes the potential dangers of COVID-19.

(The virus that causes COVID-19 has been identified as SARS-CoV-2 or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2).

Indeed, as coronavirus cases continue to emerge globally, scientists are urgently studying its characteristics, but it may be too soon to draw conclusions about fatality rates, transmission and who is most vulnerable to infection or complications.

There are so many huge unknowns about this outbreak, said Professor Mark Woolhouse of Edinburgh University told The Guardian this month. For example, we dont know just how infectious people are before they show symptoms. That makes it impossible to predict what is going to happen.

The trouble is, this outbreak is caused by a very different virus. And unlike flu, there are no vaccines or treatments and, crucially, no pre-existing immunity in the population.

Baete joins the ranks of those whove voiced concern about overreacting to the virus and the potential damage to the world economy. They include Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

While we are focused on the coronavirus, we dont want to see attention derailed from other very important issues for the stability and prosperity of the world economy, she said earlier this week.

Most prominently, there is U.S. President Donald Trump, who boasted in a Tweet that that the coronavirus is very much under control in the USA and blamed news media for doing everything possible to make the Coronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible.

Then on Wednesday, Trump held a news conference where, flanked by U.S. health officials, he put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the countrys coronavirus response effort  while proclaiming tremendous success so far in preventing an outbreak.

He downplayed the stock market drop, assigning responsibility in part to his Democratic political opponents, and also compared COVID-19 to the flu.

Over the last 10 years, weve lost 360,000. These are people that have died from the flu, from what we call the flu, Trump said.

COVID-19, he said, "[i]t's a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for. And we'll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner."

Health officials have published comparisons between the two diseases based on preliminary data on COVID-19.

Similarities include symptoms ranging from fever, cough, body aches, to fatigue and diarrhea. Both diseases can vary in intensity from mild to severe to fatal, can result in pneumonia and are spread through droplets in the air from coughing, talking or sneezing.

One difference is that the flu is caused by a variety of different viruses. Another is that COVID-19 may spread through whats called the airborne route  when droplets in the air infect people even if the ill person has left. Vaccinations are available for the flu and are successful in reducing the severity of illness. Vaccine is under development for COVID-19.

The latest reports show 82,549 confirmed infections worldwide with 2,810 deaths and 33,252 recoveries.
The family of 20-year-old Dilbar Singh Negi hoped against hope for two days about getting of his wellbeing, but all that was dashed when his decapitated and charred body was found in a building of a sweet shop owner in Shiv Vihar for whom he worked.

Negi had come to Delhi from his native Uttarakhand only six months ago and was working at the sweet shop in Shiv Vihar.

On the afternoon of February 24 he had gone to a building in a nearby lane, which served as a rest room for the sweet shop workers and also as a storage space, for a nap, Negi's friend and colleague Shyam Singh said.

According to Singh, as a mob gathered near the shop and started throwing stones around 3 pm. They eventually managed to sneak out of the shop to safety with the help of some locals.

But luck didn't favour Negi.

"Around 7 pm, Negi called me informing that a large group of people has reached the roof of the building where he had gone to take rest, and was hurling stones from the top. I told him to stay hid inside the two-storey building and come out only when the rioters leave," Singh said.

"Two others were stuck with Negi in the same building but they managed to run to safety around 11 pm. Negi had told me that he would leave the building around 9 pm," he said.

According to locals, the building was set on fire around 11.30 pm.

"Even till late in the night when we could not get any of Negi we called up the local police station only to be told that police can't reach the area with such intense rioting going on there," Singh said.

Negi's family members kept calling on his mobile phone and his colleagues throughout the next day but of no avail.

"On February 26, when Anil Pal, the owner of the shop went to visit his building with some police personnel, they found Negi's decapitated and charred body on the second floor," he added.

Pal said that Negi's body was found near the staircase it seems he was killed while trying to flee the building.

Negi's father is a farmer and not in the pink of health while his mother is a homemaker. He had planned to visit his family on Holi. But now, only his mortal remains would return home.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Sana Khan was seen crying, after seeing herself in the poster of Neeraj Pandey's latest web series Special Ops,

At a recent press conference for the promotion of the Neeraj Pandey directed Hotstar special series Special Ops, Sana Khan broke into tears while answering a media question as she was overwhelmed to be featured in a Neeraj Pandey project and couldnt contain herself while explaining how she felt seeing herself in the poster.

The actor broke into tears while thanking the director and in disbelief after seeing herself being featured on the poster of the Web series.

Special ops is a political thriller like Neeraj Pandeys previous works and will revolve around the long-running investigation of the 2001 Parliament attacks that shook the nation, the series features Krishna Kumar Menon in the lead as Senior Analyst and Logistic Head at Research and Analysis Wing. Special Ops will bring together the actor-director combo of Kk Menon and Neeraj Pandey after their critically successful film Baby.

Sana Khan has been going through an emotional turmoil, breaking up with her long time boyfriend Melvin Louis, who was supposedly cheating on her for over a year, and her fans suspect her emotional breakdown at the press conference might have something to do with it.

The actor made her breakup public with an interview with Bombay Times and an Instagram post where she wrote about how she was shattered upon knowing her boyfriend was cheating on her with multiple girls, one of whom happens to be her long known acquaintance, Sana wrote she believed in the relationship and the unfortunate betrayal came out of nowhere.

Also Read: Mujhse Shaadi Karoge: Bigg Boss 8 winner Gautam Gulati lashes out at Shehnaaz Gill; watch video

The video of the actors public breakdown was posted by Viral Bhayani on his Instagram handle. Sana Khan was last seen in Toilet Ek Prem Khatha and since then has been in the news more for her personal life than professional life.

The trailer for the Hotstar special series is out and features Sana for a brief moment, which has made her character in series all the more enigmatic as neither the trailer nor the press conference revealed much about her character, however, it will most likely be a substantial role judging from the actors emotional attachment to the project and Neeraj Pandeys track record of writing greatly fleshed-out female characters like Shabana in Naam Shabana and Priya Chavan in Special 26.

Special Ops is due to release on 17th March 2020, on Hotstar.

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By West Kentucky Star Staff, WKDZ Feb. 28, 2020 | 01:44 PM | WESTERN KENTUCKY





After Lyon County Judge Executive Wade White sounded the alarm on the proposed budget that he said would remove $11 million in funding from the war on Asian carp, WKDZ reports that Beshear's Deputy Communication Director Sebastian Kitchen says White's comments are false.







"The governor fully funded the Department for Fish and Wildlife in the proposed budget  they are not taking any cut. In fact, the governors proposed budget includes $14 million more to the department than the current budget."



Kitchen continued, "The governor is committed to combating Asian carp by providing nearly $2 million to fight the invasive species, with another $4 million provided by the federal government. In addition, the department is also receiving $12.5 million from one-time federal funding sources."







Kitchen also said that the department had never requested boat registration funds be used to fight Asian carp, and says this is not the first time White has spread false information about the governor.





You can find the previous story at the link below.



A representative with Governor Andy Beshear's office has responded to the report that a proposed budget would remove vital funding for the war on Asian carp.

On the Net:
RAY BROOK  An Adirondack retreat near the Hudson River, featured as a desirable destination by Outside magazine and other outlets, has been fined by the Adirondack Park Agency and instructed to cease operating.

The Warren County retreat is called The Brampton and includes a number of small cabins and trailers, a glamping tent, yoga deck and other structures, most of which were built without proper permits, records indicate.

Following an approximately three-year enforcement case and a public hearing earlier this month, owner James John McDonald and partner Jeffrey Lee were fined a civil penalty of $438,000 with 20% pending by March 6, according to a news release on Friday. The remainder may be suspended if all operations cease and all unlawful structures and signs are removed.

The fine is significantly less than what APA staff had requested to impose on the New York City men: $1.548 million for more than 1,000 days of being in violation of the Adirondack Park Agency Act and the Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers System Act.

Reached by phone Friday, Lee said Adirondack Explorers first report on the enforcement case was a horrible story and included a bunch of lies, though he declined to say what was incorrect. When asked for comment on the APAs decision, Lee told a reporter to just make it up like you always do, followed by a number of profanities.

The multiple violations on the approximately 12-acre rental property in Thurman date back to 2017, starting with four and more than doubling over the years as McDonald and Lee continued to add non-permitted structures.

During a public hearing on Feb. 13, APA Senior Attorney Jennifer Hubbard recounted 20 phone calls, three site visits, an APA office meeting, four staff letters and three proposed settlements staff made in an attempt to resolve the matter prior to a full APA board enforcement hearing.

Lee and McDonald testified, and both claimed an engineer they were working with was responsible for the lack of communication. Hubbard pointed to how settlement agreements were mailed directly to Lee and McDonald and left unanswered.

On Feb. 14, members of the APA announced they had reached a decision on the matter in executive session. Adirondack Explorer filed a freedom of information law request for the decision, which it received on Friday.

McDonald may not have realized when he purchased the property in 2016 that the single-family dwelling built sometime around 1995 was an illegal structure, built without an APA permit. But as McDonald and Lee turned the property into a tourist accommodation, hosting yoga retreats, weddings, corporate retreats and vacations, neighbors complained about the noise and drew the attention of the APA.

In addition to violating the APA Act and the Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers System Act, the property has a cesspool too close to its shallow drinking water source, in violation of state Department of Health standards.

McDonald and Lee were served the APAs decision on Feb. 21, records show, and within 15 days of service they are required to provide notice that all current reservations at The Brampton have been canceled. They are also not allowed to accept additional reservations until they apply for and receive proper permits, and are required to cease advertising.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

As of Friday afternoon, The Bramptons website was still live and appeared open for reservations.

According to the APAs decision, The Bramptons signs must be removed by April 1. A yoga deck, camper van, tent platform, outdoor staircase, two trailers and an outhouse must be removed by June 1. A single-family dwelling must be removed by July 1.

McDonald and Lee must also submit a design for a proper wastewater treatment system by April 1, and it must be installed by Sept. 1.

The $438,000 fine, according to the determination document, is the culmination of 730 days of violations starting Feb. 13, 2018. The penalty includes $200 per day for violating the APA Act and $400 for violating the Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers System Act. Of that fine, $87,600 is due March 6.

The remaining $350,400 of the total penalty is suspended pending satisfactory completion of remediation by the deadlines specified, according to the APAs decision. Should any element of the remediation not be completed by its respective deadline, the suspended $350,400 penalty shall be immediately due and payable to the State of New York.

APA staff will be checking on McDonald and Lees progress with site inspections.

This article originally appeared on AdirondackExplorer.org, a nonprofit news magazine covering the Adirondack Park.
Bareilly, Feb 28 : All mosques in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district will offer special prayers on Friday for peace in the country, especially in northeast Delhi that was ravaged by violence leading to many deaths.

Maulana Salman Hasan Khan, national vice-president of Jamaat Raza-e-Mustafa, an organisation affiliated to Dargah Aala Hazrat, has appealed to all Imams of Bareilly to conduct special prayers.

The Maulana said, "Strict action should be taken against leaders who are instigating riots with their inciting speeches. Besides, action should also be taken against those policemen who were found helping rioters, as shown in some videos uploaded on social media." He further said, "The Constitution provides for the protection to religious places and structures, but rioters damaged religious sites in Delhi in presence of police. In the prevailing atmosphere, it seems that our mosques are not safe, which is a matter of concern." The Jamaat Raza-e-Mustafa organisation has demanded compensation and jobs for the families of those who were killed in the violence. A delegation would visit the violence-hit areas in Delhi, soon.
A major review of Britains foreign policy has been triggered by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to take account of post-Brexit realities from January 1, 2021, when the government hopes to sign a free trade agreement with India, among other non-EU countries.

As the world changes we must move with it, Johnson said, while announcing the review as part of his bid to forge a Global Britain. Foreign policy experts, inside and outside the government, are to be consulted to constructively challenge traditional assumptions.

The review, billed as the largest such exercise since the Cold War, is expected to cover all aspects of the UKs place in the world, officials said. It will include the diplomatic service, besides approach to defence, security and international development.

One of the UKs largest diplomatic networks is based in India.

Johnson said: I am determined to lead a Government that delivers for our people - both at home and abroad. The UKs institutions, expertise, leadership and values are renowned around the world.

But we cannot rest on our laurels. We must do more to adapt. We will be judged by how we respond to the opportunities ahead.

The Johnson government believes that Brexit presents new opportunities to define and strengthen Britains place in the world at a time when the global landscape is changing dramatically.

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A federal appeals court ordered the Trump administration Friday to stop requiring asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while their applications are considered, a policy that has kept 60,000 migrants in often-dangerous conditions south of the border since it took effect in January 2019.

Late Friday, however, the court granted the administration an emergency stay of its ruling and allowed the policy to remain in effect while the government appeals to the Supreme Court.

In a separate ruling, the same court rejected an administration policy that would deny asylum to anyone who crossed the Mexican border illegally rather than applying at officially designated ports of entry, a limited number of sites where applicants currently face waits of many months for decisions. That ban was announced in November 2018 but has been blocked by the courts.

Both policies violate U.S. laws, including a long-standing law that expressly allows any migrant who enters the United States, whether or not at a designated port of arrival, to apply for asylum, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The court also said the administration was ignoring federal law and international treaties that prohibit sending immigrants to nations where their lives or freedom would be in danger.

Uncontested evidence in the record establishes that non-Mexicans returned to Mexico under the (policy) risk substantial harm, even death, while they await adjudications of their applications for asylum, Judge William Fletcher said in a 2-1 ruling halting the remain in Mexico requirement.

He quoted numerous Central Americans who said in sworn declarations that they had been attacked with sticks and stones, robbed at gunpoint, repeatedly stopped by police, and threatened by gang members because of their nationality and background.

Separately, the advocacy group Human Rights First says it has documented more than 1,000 public reports of torture, rape, murder and other violent attacks against asylum-seekers who were forced to wait in Mexico.

The remain in Mexico policy undermines our asylum system and flies in the face of our national values, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement supporting the ruling.

Asylum allows an immigrant to remain in the country, obtain a work permit and eventually apply for citizenship. Authorized by treaties the United States has signed, it is granted to foreigners who can show a well-founded fear of persecution in their homeland for reasons such as race, religion, political views and, under recent rulings, sexual orientation.

Blaine Bookey, legal director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at UC Hastings in San Francisco, which represented immigrant-support groups in the case, said that although the ruling cannot repair the profound pain and suffering that (the policy) has caused over this last year, we are hopeful the United States can once again stand as a safe haven for the persecuted.

But the policy could find a more sympathetic audience in the Supreme Court. In September, the court suspended another Ninth Circuit injunction and allowed the administration to enforce rules that ban virtually all Central Americans from seeking U.S. asylum unless they have already applied for refuge in Mexico or another nation they entered while heading north.

This issue is surely headed to the Supreme Court, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a Cornell University law professor and author of a widely used reference book on immigration law. He predicted the Justice Department would seek review of both Ninth Circuit rulings, though the Supreme Court refused in December 2018 to allow immediate enforcement of the ban on asylum for anyone crossing the border illegally.

In a statement Friday, the Justice Department accused the court of ignoring what it described as the constitutional authority of Congress and the administration for a (remain in Mexico) policy in effect for over a year.

The department also criticized the court for banning the policy nationwide, rather than limiting its order to the immigrants and support groups that filed suit.

But the court said both policies affected the entire U.S.-Mexico border and noted that the support groups had clients in many states outside the Ninth Circuit. The court also said federal law allows asylum-seekers to remain in the United States, either released or in detention, while their applications are pending, unless their background shows they might be dangerous  for example, spies, terrorists, alien smugglers and drug traffickers, Fletcher said.

Judge Ferdinand Fernandez dissented, saying the policy had not been shown to be illegal.

Separately, the court voted 3-0 to refuse to let the administration enforce its ban on asylum for immigrants who failed to use a designated port of entry. Judge Richard Paez said undocumented immigrants were explicitly authorized by Congress, starting in 1980, to apply for asylum regardless of where they had entered the country.

The administrations counterargument  that the law only allowed immigrants to apply for asylum and did not require the government to consider their applications  was absurd, Paez said.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
Good morning, Bay Area. Its Fri, Feb. 28, and presidential candidates are traveling to all corners of California  for math purposes. Heres what you need to know to start your day.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control expanded its criteria Thursday for who can be tested for the new coronavirus, COVID-19.

Previously, only individuals who had traveled recently to heavily affected countries, or who had known contact with a confirmed coronavirus case, could be administered the test.

That changed after a Bay Area woman who didnt fit the travel or contact requirements contracted the virus. She may be the first case of an individual in the U.S. with no known source of infection. The CDC initially delayed administering a test to the patient in Solano County, despite a request from hospital officials.

Going forward, individuals do not necessarily need to have a travel history or known contact to be tested  it is enough to have a fever and severe respiratory illness like pneumonia requiring hospitalization, without an alternative diagnosis.

In the meantime, as many as 100 health care workers who may have been exposed to the Solano County woman as she sought care are being isolated or quarantined.

Read more:

 The latest: Live updates.

 New details: What we know about the Solano County case.

 Assignment Editor: What are your biggest questions or concerns about the new coronavirus?

 Find all of our coronavirus coverage here.

Keeping stores full?

Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

On Tuesday, San Francisco voters will consider Proposition D, a tax on storefronts vacant for more than six months that supporters say will motivate landlords to find tenants. It would put San Francisco at the forefront of a nationwide retail-vacancy problem, making it the first major U.S. city to explicitly tax empty stores.

But will the tax actually work if instituted? As part of their Shuttered Stores series, reporters Shwanika Narayan and Roland Li investigate arguments for and against the measure, how many people it would affect and other city efforts to prevent empty storefronts.

More: Our in-depth look at vacant storefronts in North Beach, West Portal and the Bayview.

Looking for delegates

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

Pete Buttigieg didnt show up in Turlock (Stanislaus County) randomly on his latest presidential campaign swing through California. Campaigning in such out-of-the-way places could be his only hope of denting a Bernie Sanders sweep of Democratic delegates in Tuesdays state primary.

Reporter Joe Garofoli explains why 15% is an important number in Californias system of awarding delegates.

Californias primary is on Tuesday. Read our voter guide, take our candidate matchmaker quiz, and see which candidates your Bay Area community is giving money to here.

See all of our Campaign 2020 coverage here.

Finding community

Oriana Koren

We were loud. We were expressive. We were black. It was a relief to be ourselves.

Regular contributor George McCalman (who sketches and writes the Observed column) explains why he and a friend started the Black Brunch Club more than a decade ago, and what it means for those who gather every two months to share conversation, food, solidarity and joy.

The only real rule is that no one walks in empty-handed. My philosophy is that you are not there to receive. Youre there to give. When we are ready to eat, we stop to commune. A moment to take a breath and collect ourselves.

Read more.

Around the Bay

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.

 After Philly decision: S.F. gets closer to opening safe drug injection sites in wake of court ruling. Listen: Heather Knight explains the reasoning behind the sites on San Francisco City Insider podcast.

 New ballot measure? Get ready for a blizzard of advertising about protecting freedom by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other on-demand services. A $110 million campaign said Thursday it has gathered more than 1 million signatures in seven weeks for a ballot measure to exempt on-demand drivers and couriers from AB5, Californias new gig-work law. Meanwhile: DoorDash quietly files to go public.

 S.F. investigation: Corruption investigation yields 14 new subpoenas served as Nuru probe widens.

 We have some concerns: With $120 million and few students, Californias new online community college faces an audit.

 Asylum case: S.F. man deported to Chad may return home soon, but ICE plans to detain him again.

 Dry, dry, dry: Nearly a quarter of California is in moderate drought after a record dry start to the year. More: Reservoirs are in good shape, but a dry and warm February has eaten away at Californias snowpack, leaving it at just 46% of normal.

 D.A. changes: San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announces three major changes to how his office will (or wont) charge cases.

 S.F. Bayview attack: Suspect arrested in robbery, hate crime against elderly Asian man.

 Cactus league: As rookie A.J. Puk impresses again, this time against tough Rockies lineup. More: Sign up for the new As Plus newsletter.

 Archive find: In 1981, the S.F. Gay Mens Chorus was preparing for a national tour that would make them pioneers and jump-start a new era of pride and song. We found photos of the rehearsals.

In case you missed it

Paul Kuroda / Special to The Chronicle 2019

Lyft will raise the prices of its popular street rental e-bikes next month, using a complex system thats baffled users and prompted a revolt on social media. Prices for classic pedal bikes remain the same.

Reporter Rachel Swan explains the (very detailed) changes and why Lyft is switching up its e-bike pricing now.

Bay Briefing is written by Taylor Kate Brown and sent to readers email inboxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter here, and contact Brown at taylor.brown@sfchronicle.com.
Amid increasing coronavirus fears, expedition operators in Nepal have reportedly predicted a severe economic loss for the country during the upcoming climbing season which stretches from March to May. According to media reports, many climbers from China have already started cancelling their expedition bookings. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 has infected over 83,000 and killed nearly 2,800 people worldwide, with a majority of them in mainland China.

"Hardly expect climbers"

Pasang Sherpa, managing director of Pioneer Adventure Treks, talking to international media said that seven Chinese members from his company dropped their plans to scale the world's highest peak from Nepal side this season. Meanwhile, Damber Parajuli, president of Expedition Operators Association Nepal said that now they can hardly expect climbers from China, Iran, South Korea, Japan and a few European countries, including Italy, among others, international media reported.

Read: Sherpa Team To Attempt To Scale Everest In 5 Days In Winter

Read: Everest Base Camp Training Routine That Every Mountaineer Should Know

Rishi Bhandari, managing director at Satori Adventure reportedly said that the Everest Climbing season would certainly face a tough challenge it the government fails to introduce an immediate action plan to contain the threat. The country will definitely bear economic losses this season and will have a long term impact on tourism businesses, a Nepali daily reported. According to reports, Nepal has already witnessed a 2 per cent drop in tourist arrivals in the first month of the Visit Nepal 2020 campaign.

Read: Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli Cuts Cake Depicting Country's Map, Netizens Furious

Read: Nepal PM's B'day Celebrations Marred By Controversy Over Cutting Of Cake With Country's Map

Of 381 members, at least 60 Chinese nationals had obtained climbing permits for Mt Everest in 2019. The Nepali government levies $11,000 per person for foreign climbers for expeditions to Mt Everest during the spring season, while Nepali climbers have to pay Rs 75,000 per person. For other mountains above 8,000 metres, the government levies $1,800 on foreigners and Rs 10,000 for Nepali climbers, as per reports.

Read: Coronavirus: Mumbai Airport Starts Screening Passengers Arriving From Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam And Nepal
Photo: The Canadian Press Nirla Sharma

The husband of a New Westminster mother who disappeared this week was charged with threatening his wife in January.

CTV News reports Rishi Deo Sharma was charged late last month for uttering threats against his wife Nirla Sharma. He was released on bail, with conditions not to contact Nirla or their children.

After Nirla disappeared early Monday morning, sparking a search, Rishi was charged with breaching his bail conditions. None of the charges against Rishi has been proven in court.

The couple's daughter told CTV News she believes the charges against her father have nothing to do with her mother's disappearance, and police say they currently have no suspects in the case.

At this point, this is a missing persons investigation, New Westminster Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Jeff Scott told CTV News. We are not at a point in the investigation where we can rule out foul play. So the detectives are exploring all the different avenues."

Nirla was last seen by her family Sunday night as she went to bed, but she was gone in the morning. Her daughter said she heard their door open at 4 a.m., and thought her mother was taking their dog out for a walk. Her father woke her at 7 a.m. to tell her Nirla had not returned.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Royalty Pharma announced today that Chris Hite has agreed to join the Company as Executive Vice President and Vice Chairman.

Chris joined Citi as Global Head of Healthcare Investment Banking in 2008 and most recently served as Vice Chairman and Global Head of Healthcare. Previously, Chris was Global Head of Healthcare Investment Banking at Lehman Brothers. He has been involved in many of the most prominent healthcare M&A transactions in recent years, including advising Celgene on its sale to Bristol-Myers Squibb for $90 billion, Tesaro on its sale to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for $5.1 billion, Shire on its sale to Takeda Pharmaceuticals for $82 billion, Roche on its acquisition of Spark Therapeutics for $4.3 billion and GSK on the combination of its and Pfizer's consumer health businesses. In addition, Chris has advised clients on numerous capital raising events, including Initial Public Offerings, acquisition financings, convertible bonds, leveraged financings and bond offerings.

"We are delighted to have Chris join Royalty Pharma," said Pablo Legorreta, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Royalty Pharma. "Royalty Pharma's growth has accelerated in recent years and having someone with Chris' experience and relationships in the biopharmaceutical industry will allow us to address even larger and more complex opportunities as we embark on the next phase of our business. We are honored that Chris has chosen Royalty Pharma for the next chapter in his already highly accomplished career," Pablo Legorreta added.

"I feel extraordinarily lucky to have been at Citi for nearly 12 years," said Chris Hite. "As a result of the support of my colleagues and Citi's platform, I have had the opportunity to work on many of the most innovative transactions in the healthcare industry. I am excited to be joining an extraordinary team with a proven track record of providing creative solutions for the funding of the life sciences industry," Chris Hite added.

Chris will join Royalty Pharma in April 2020 following a transition of his responsibilities with Citi clients and transactions.

Media and Investor Inquiries:

Royalty Pharma

George Grofik

[email protected]

+1 (212) 883-0200

About Royalty Pharma

Founded in 1996, Royalty Pharma is the industry leader in acquiring pharmaceutical royalties. Royalty Pharma funds innovation in life sciences both directly and indirectly: directly when it partners with life sciences companies to co-develop and co-fund products in late-stage clinical trials, and indirectly when it acquires existing royalty interests from the original innovators (academic institutions, research hospitals, foundations and inventors). The company's portfolio includes royalty interests in over 50 approved products including AbbVie and J&J's Imbruvica, Astellas and Pfizer's Xtandi, Biogen's Tysabri, Gilead's HIV franchise, Merck's Januvia, Novartis' Promacta, and Vertex's Kalydeco, Symdeko and Trikafta. Royalty Pharma is also a leading investor in pre-approval royalties, having since 2011 invested over $5.6 billion in royalties on pre-approval products and committed over $1.2 billion to direct R&D funding in exchange for royalties. For more information, visit www.royaltypharma.com

SOURCE Royalty Pharma

Related Links

http://www.royaltypharma.com


File Photo: The 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) is the legal framework for the presence of US troops on Philippine soil and is central to the two nations' hundreds of annual military exercises. (Photo: AFP)

There is still room for negotiations to replace a key military pact with the US that the Philippines has moved to scrap, a top Manila diplomat said Friday, voicing hope for the seven-decade-old alliance.



President Rodrigo Duterte gave notice nearly three weeks ago of an end to the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), starting a six-month countdown to the deal's end.



The pact lays out the legal framework for US troops to be on Philippine soil and is central to hundreds of annual, joint military exercises, which are a major component of their deep defence ties.



"The VFA is something that obviously we have to still try to see where it can be polished or sort of like improved," Philippine ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez told a public forum.



"We are now in the process of trying to find ways and means to see how we either come out with something similar... still following the president's thinking about the sovereignty issue," he added.



Duterte ordered the VFA be terminated after accusing the United States of interference in his internationally condemned narcotics crackdown in which police have killed thousands of alleged dealers and users.



At the same time, he has repeatedly made unrealised threats to decrease or sever ties altogether with the Philippines' most important military ally and former coloniser.



Since coming to power in 2016, Duterte has set aside a once tense stand-off over China's extensive claims to the South China Sea, a strategic waterway, to court the Asian giant's trade and investment.



But at least one member of his administration has voiced concern over the impact of quitting the US deal.



Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin, an advocate of the pact, earlier told Congress the VFA was fundamental to the US alliance, which he said had provided tens of millions of dollars in support, equipment and training for the Philippine military.



Defenders have warned that ending the VFA could both degrade the Philippines' ability to defend itself and undermine Washington's moves against Beijing's rise, particularly in the South China Sea.



In 2017 US troops advised the Philippine military during a deadly five-month battle for the city of Marawi, which had been taken over by militants flying the flag of the Islamic State group.



"Obviously the (US) Special Forces that are now in Mindanao is one very important aspect of that, the VFA," Romualdez said, referring to the southern Philippine region that includes Marawi.



"One of the things that we are looking into is how we can continue to have that because of the security situation in that part of our country."



Romualdez said alternate models to the VFA are "being studied and the recommendation will be made to the president".
All 16 hikers stuck on a mountain north-west of Brisbane on Saturday morning have now been safely rescued by rope.

Paramedics were on the scene at Mount Tibrogargan in the Glass House Mountains after receiving a call for help just before 6am.

Some of the 16 climbers stuck on a mountain north-west of Brisbane wait to be rescued earlier on Saturday. Credit:Nine News

Just before 10am, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services had taken six of the hikers down the mountain and by 11am, all had been rescued.

Two people were assessed by paramedics, with only one woman in her 20s suffering a minor leg injury.
Crew members aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship are seen at its wheelhouse at the Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama port on Feb 27, 2020. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images)

First British Death From Coronavirus is Passenger From Cruise Ship

The first British national to die from the new COVID-19 virus was on the Diamond Princess cruise ship before being hospitalized in Japan, where the ship docked earlier this month.

Four British nationals had to stay in Japan after they tested positive for the new virus as the rest of the nationals on the ship, docked in Yokohama, were evacuated from Japan last week after testing negative.

One of those four died, the Japanese Ministry of Health said on Friday. Hes the sixth passenger from the ship, and the first foreigner, to perish.

The patient was not named. It wasnt clear how old he was.

Princess Cruises, which operates the Diamond Princess, said in a statement: All of us at Princess Cruises, including the crew of Diamond Princess, offer our sincere condolences to family members and friends for their loss.

The Diamond Princess cruise ship is seen at the Daikoku Pier Cruise Terminal in Yokohama port on Feb 27, 2020. (Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty Images)

UK Health Minister Jo Churchill said that a British man who was on the ship was in poor condition.

Speaking on BBC Radio, according to the Guardian, she said: The Foreign Office are supporting the family of a British man who has been very poorly and was a passenger onboard the Diamond Princess.

I havent had confirmation, but I was aware there was a gentleman who was very, very poorly, she added.

Japan has confirmed 705 infections from the Diamond Princess and 200 domestically. Fourteen others were evacuated from China to Japan.

Countries around the world sent chartered flights into Japan to evacuate citizens who were on the ship earlier this month, starting with the United States.

The last passengers left the ship in recent days, as did crew members. Many who tested positive are hospitalized in Japan.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

Azerbaijani chess player Aydin Suleymanli became the winner of the Aeroflot Open 2020 International Chess Festival, which was held in Moscow, Trend reports referring to TASS.

In accordance with the results of nine rounds, 14-year-old Suleymanli scored 6.5 points and was ahead of rivals in additional indicators. Rinat Jumabayev from Kazakhstan ranked second, while Rauf Mammadov from Azerbaijan ranked third.

The tournament has been held since 2002. The total prize pool this year amounted to 120,000 euros.

In 2019, the tournament was won by Estonian chess player Kaido Kulaots.
The sale includes a farmhouse which has been modernised in recent years

There are few Irish people of my generation who, on seeing name Kilcash, will not break into the opening lines of the 18th-century poem Caoine Cill Cais (Lament for Kilcash), which describes the destruction of the village's castle and woodlands and, by association, the last remnants of the old aristocratic order in south Tipperary.

The lament mourns the death of Viscountess Margaret Butler, whose first husband, Jacobite Brian Maginnis, joined the Wild Geese after the defeat of James II and died fighting for Austria.

She married Colonel Thomas Butler of Kilcash Castle, who, although a non-Catholic, helped her to shelter Catholic clergy on the run from the strictures of the Penal Laws.

In the light of the story and the evocative lament it seems almost mundane to talk about a farm sale, but life goes on in the shadow of Slievenamon. That life includes the selling and buying of land.

John FitzGerald of Dougan FitzGerald, Clonmel, is handling the sale of a 36.5ac residential farm at Toor, Kilcash, a grass holding close to the mountain.

The private treaty sale is guided at 7,500/ac.

Expand Close Mountain views: The 36.5ac farm is located at Kilcash, 16km from Clonmel / Facebook

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Whatsapp Mountain views: The 36.5ac farm is located at Kilcash, 16km from Clonmel

Located about 3km from Kilcash village and 16km from Clonmel, the property is in a long and narrow shape laid out in about nine fields bounded by traditional hedgerow.

The ground is elevated but level and workable with hardly any waste. There is road frontage at one end of the farm and laneway access through a shared right of way at the other end.

Farm buildings

The house is a dormer residence with a kitchen/dining area, sitting room, four bedrooms and a bathroom.

According to Mr FitzGerald the farmhouse had some work done recently and is in good condition.

The farm buildings consist of a round-roofed shed with a double-breasted lean-to at one side and a single lean-to at the other, along with cattle handling facilities. The buildings are dated but serviceable and useful.

The holding is described by Mr FitzGerald as a nice cosy little place in a beautiful setting that is reasonably priced and has great potential.
Beck said the new detective unit will focus on CTA-specific types of crimes, while traditional detective units will continue to handle the most violent crimes on the CTA, such as shootings, homicides and robberies that lead to serious injuries. Allowing the new unit to focus on less severe crimes can help it respond faster, through pulling videos, identifying suspects, detecting patterns and making arrests more quickly, he said.
A partial truce between the Taliban, US and Afghan troops held for a seventh day Friday, with only minor attacks reported on the eve of a deal to withdraw American troops.

The accord would see thousands of American troops quit Afghanistan after more than 18 years, in return for various security commitments from the Taliban and a pledge to hold talks with the government in Kabul.

Afghan officials will be conspicuously absent from Saturday's signing ceremony in Doha, but a government delegation will be there to make "initial contacts" with the insurgents.

While the ongoing truce does not amount to a full ceasefire, the number of Taliban attacks has fallen dramatically, with only isolated attacks in rural areas breaking the calm.

But in a sign of the underlying tensions, the Afghan interior ministry said a policeman was killed and three people were injured in three attacks on Friday.

A day earlier, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a bombing in Kabul which left one person dead and 10 others wounded.

The presence of the jihadists in Afghanistan has complicated negotiations between Washington and the Taliban.

While the Taliban want all American forces out, the Pentagon insists thousands must remain in Afghanistan to tackle IS and other militant groups.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Any calls for calm are being drowned out by those issuing extreme warnings and dire forecasts. And those that had been urging investors to treat the coronavirus-led stockmarket falls as an opportunity to buy (and Donald Trump is among those) are stumped because they have no answer to the burning question of - when is the right time. History shows fortunes have been made buying during a crisis but fortunes have been lost getting the timing wrong. (It is noteworthy that billionaire-entrepreneur Andrew Forrest has waded into the market and bought $250 million worth of Fortescue shares.) After the first wave of fear gripped the markets back in January, brave investors jumped in to pick up bargains believing Chinas response would be enough to lower transmission rates and the worst would be behind us by March or April.

Such optimism has proven to be premature. Loading (Only a few weeks ago CSL's chief scientific officer, Professor Andrew Cuthbertson, warned markets were getting too complacent and that it was too early to relax based on insufficient data about the virus spread and the potential for under-reporting from some countries.). While there have been some early indications that the rates of growth in infections inside China are falling, this good news has given way to fresh information that the virus has spread in a more meaningful way to other countries such as Italy, South Korea and Iran while thousands are now being tested in California. Having said that we have not yet seen any major outbreaks in the US. If this eventuates (and it may not) it's fair to assume we will experience another wave of sharemarket selling.

And as long as the news is being constantly updated with fresh scares the markets will continue to react negatively. As to whether this fear is rooted in company or economic fundamentals remains to be seen. It will clearly have an impact on world trade in the current quarter - the amount of which is yet to be determined. Those companies that are in the direct line of fire are understandably seeing their share prices punished. And businesses that rely on China for important elements of their supply chain will clearly see profits under threat as manufacturing has been disrupted. Some companies that sell products into China have already warned demand has fallen - Blackmores and Treasury Wine Estates are clear examples. And even though our large coal and iron ore companies such as BHP, Fortescue and Rio Tinto have not yet seen imports fall away, their share prices are already being slashed on fears of a slowdown in the Chinese economy.

Local stocks not included within those groups should only feel the impact that will arise from a more widespread slowdown in Australian economic activity. Few if any companies can hide but there are safer havens. Stocks such as Woolworths, Wesfarmers and Coles have not been hit as hard as discretionary retailers. Infrastructure and materials have fared better than other sectors like logistics. But there is another group of companies that are not particularly coronavirus sensitive but have seen their prices slashed - these are the companies considered overvalued. Many of these fall into the category of growth stocks that had been trading on lofty price-earnings multiples.

Technology stocks both offshore and domestically have been hit hard. Coronavirus: Investments are hard to protect. Perhaps one piece of good news is that this share price rout has probably taken the more leveraged investors out of the equation. In other words, those that had to sell may now have gone. Those with the ability to hold on for the rollercoaster ride can expect plenty more volatility before it's over.
The verdict is at its anachronistic best as it comes at a time when campuses in the country are actively involved in movements that are sure to decide its future as a democracy.

Courts are mandated to adjudicate on legal issues and not solve political ones. The moment they step into a realm that is not theirs, verdicts like the one by the Kerala high court the other day, banning political activity on campuses, result. Learning is the fundamental right of students, the court reasoned, allowing a batch of petitions by school managements. According to it, campuses are places for creating dialogues and discussions and should not become venues of protest.

The verdict is at its anachronistic best as it comes at a time when campuses in the country are actively involved in movements that are sure to decide its future as a democracy. The governments new agenda for Jammu and Kashmir has so far had a smooth run; but its plan to undermine the very fundamentals of the Constitution has been resisted mainly by student movements on various campuses nationwide. If the government looks vulnerable on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and has been forced to pull back on introducing a National Register of Citizens, the credit goes to vibrant campuses. Defiance of national governments having a destructive intent has been the hallmark of Indian campuses from the pre-Independence era; and its irrational to ask spaces with voters in them to be silent on political issues.

The ruling of the high court is thus an absolute paradox. Kerala has been shaped by leaders who took to political activity right from their student days, starting with the first chief minister, E.M.S. Namboodiripad through A.K. Antony and Oommen Chandy right up to Pinarayi Vijayan, the incumbent. Most of its past and present legislators have had their political baptism on campuses. Depriving citizens of their right to political activity and in such a state militates against both legacy and reason.
Australia has reported 22 cases of the new coronavirus, but none that were contracted or passed from person-to-person inside the country AFP/PETER PARKS

Announcing a national emergency response plan to the coronavirus, Morrison said he was considering "additional measures" for monitoring travellers arriving in the country.

Hospitals are under orders to ensure there are enough medical supplies, personal protective equipment and staff, the prime minister added.

"We're effectively operating now on the basis that there is one - a pandemic," Morrison said.

"There is every indication that the world will soon enter a pandemic phase of the coronavirus."

The World Health Organization has stopped short of calling the virus a pandemic, even as the number of new infections outside China exceed those inside the hardest-hit country.

More than 2,700 people have died in China and some 78,000 have been infected. There have been more than 50 deaths and 3,600 cases in dozens of other countries.

The extended travel ban will come as a blow to Australian universities which stand to lose US$2 billion in fees as tens of thousands of Chinese students are unable to take up places Down Under.

Students stuck in China "have been provided with a range of options", said Catriona Jackson, chief executive of Universities Australia, which represents the sector.

They include postponing start dates, delaying assessments, fee-free deferrals and accessing course content online.

Australia has reported 22 infections, but none that were contracted or passed from person-to-person inside the country.

Morrison's warning comes as he scrambles to burnish his leadership credentials after fierce criticism of his handling of the months-long bushfire crisis.

His government is also embroiled in a deepening political scandal over the funnelling of taxpayer money into areas his coalition targeted in last year's election.

One minister has already been forced to resign as a result.
A popular neighborhood next to Tunnel Park in Holland celebrates its Lake Michigan shoreline, but owners are struggling with the loss of at least 50 feet of beach since last summer - and 150 feet over five years.

Thats what drove Barbara Grissen to a community meeting on Thursday night, when she joined several hundred other residents of the West Michigan lakeshore to hear a panel of experts explore the causes and effects of record-setting water levels on the Great Lakes.

The panel, organized by Coldwell Banker Woodland Schmidt in Holland, described Great Lakes weather patterns and basin-wide concerns, focusing on how Michigan needs to brace for potential escalation of damage and risk.

But all of that was personal for many in the audience.

Grissen and neighbor Lynne Hendrix said they appreciated the information, which also included detailed forecasts on lake levels, what state and local officials are doing to monitor impact from continued shoreline erosion, and what kinds of options contractors face when called in to fortify a home - and keep it from falling into the water.

But they still cant believe what they see happening just yards from their homes.

Ive been on the lake for over 30 years, Grissen said. "People told me when I built my house that I should have moved my house 80 feet closer to the lake. They were disgusted that I was so far back.

Now Im just happy that I didnt do that.

Unclear is how much further erosion will take place along Michigans shoreline this year, after record high water in 2019 caused problems and raised concerns, while threatening to destroy houses.

Related: How houses falling into the Great Lakes impacts all of Michigan

Advice for homeowners at the session at the Holland Civic Center, called Erosion 2020," was blunt.

Its time to act, said Jerrod Sanders of Michigans Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

19 Cleanup completed on collapsed Lake Michigan cottage before big storm hits

Emergency management officials from Allegan and Ottawa counties are using aerial photos from the Michigan State Police to catalog shoreline homes that could be at risk from the waves. As of this month, 208 structures in eight counties are considered at risk, with 18 of them in the most precarious positions of 10 feet or less from falling into the lake.

From the time that the effort started in August through the most recent flyover, some areas showed about 100 feet of beach loss, said Scott Corbin of the Allegan County Sheriffs Office.

Well be able to monitor as these homes progressively get worse, Corbin said, to understand what we need to do.

Action steps are limited, said John Allis of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Were at the mercy of Mother Nature, he said, detailing how Lakes Michigan and Huron - which are considered a united body of water - are 18 inches higher than they were at this time last year. More rainfall combined with the snowmelt upstream could push them still higher. What people can control at dam systems cant influence lake levels enough to change that, he added.

Theyre so high, Allis said, that even with average conditions over the next year, thats not going to be dropping water levels that much.

While communities are dealing with municipal-owned lakeshore property, homeowners are left to care for theirs. Thats being done without insurance, Sanders said, as federal programs do not consider erosion part of flood insurance and homeowners policies in Michigan wont address it, either.

Corbin said many of the lakeside homeowners are not year-round residents, so county officials are trying to reach out to them if their home is identified as at-risk.

One uncomfortable fact, panelists said, is that it can be less expensive to demolish a house before it lands in the water than to do the construction work - like adding a seawall or moving its foundation back from the new shoreline - to protect it.

Related: Wreckage from shoreline erosion creates hazard on Michigan beaches

So many people are approaching contractors right now that theyre in short supply, said Grey Weykamp of Edgewater Resources. Someone who isnt forced to act with immediate urgency could identify what kind of work they want to do, then wait a few months to see if availability changes.

All of the contractors are very, very busy right now, he said, and materials are in high demand, too. A process that cost $100,000 five years ago could reach $200,000 today, he said.

15 Erosion threatens Holland area beach properties

Neighbors also were encouraged by Sanders to work together. That, he said, could generate both an economy of scale and also a solution that works for multiple people along the shoreline instead of finding unintended consequences of protecting one home by pushing a problem up or down the beach.

Preventing that, he added, is the purpose of EGLE issuing permits. The department is streamlining the process, though the volume of applicants so far this year is pressuring staff, which is working overtime to deal with the number of homeowners seeking solutions like new and higher seawalls.

EGLE isnt looking to aggressively enforce regulations with homeowners, Sanders added. But any work done needs to be completed to state standards without impacting other homeowners, and inexperienced shoreline contractors may not accomplish that. Work done without a permit comes with the risk that it could have to be redone later, possibly at a higher cost to a homeowner.

Amid all of the concerns about lakeshore property, values dont seem to be changing much, said John Meyer, an appraiser based in Grand Rapids. The market, however, is starting the year with an over-supply.

The real estate industry is still alive and well on the lakeshore, Meyer said. From Ludington south to the state line, there were 105 sales in the past 12 months. There are about 114 listings today, indicating a full years supply of homes on the market.

Average prices dont seem severely impacted, panelists said. Of the last years sales, nine homes had sold within the previous five years. Meyer said four sold for more during that time, while five sold for less.

According to the data, Meyer said, its hard to say theres been significant impact to property values.

In addition, municipalities so far arent reporting challenges to assessments from lakeshore owners, said Nick Bonstell of the Ottawa County Sheriffs Department emergency management division.

While lakeshore homeowners are actively engaging in the issue, the high levels also are raising questions about inland water, like lakes and rivers.

Thats the next area to watch, panelists said.

Youre going to hear a lot more about inland flooding, Sanders said. Water generated by rainfall may typically be retained by lakes and rivers, but theyre saturated.

As an example, Sanders offered the water flow of the Grand River near Grand Rapids. In the last four months, theres been 12 months-work of flow to Lake Michigan. Other areas near Holland to watch for flooding include Spring Lake, Grand Haven and the area around Lake Macatawa.

Shoreline erosion is getting a lot of attention because its catastrophic, Sanders said, but it is probably touching every part of the state.

44 Lake Michigan erosion in Southwest Michigan

More Great Lakes high water coverage from MLive:

Fixes for record high water levels expected to come with big pricetag for Michigan

We have to respond to Lake Michigan erosion, U.S. senator says

Home on edge of Lake Michigan bluff demolished to avoid collapse
When the now-shuttered San Jacinto Mall first opened in 1981 with a shiny new arcade room called "Yesterday's", former Baytown resident Barry Evans was in heaven.

Evans, now 51 and a Dayton resident, is a video game aficionado. The arcade's neon-colored, bright lights, loud sounds and enchanting games were a completely new world to Evans at the time and one he did not want to forget when the mall was demolished in 2019.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Baytown bids farewell to San Jacinto Mall

"It was one of the biggest things to ever happen to Baytown," Evans said of the mall opening. "It was a magical, fantastic, futuristic wonder-world for us kids of the 80s. There was nothing else like it."

Hooked, Evans spent the next several decades slowly collecting 80s and 90s video game memorabilia, including full-size arcade games, figurines, collectibles and display signs. Evans said he would spend his free time traveling to stores and malls across the Greater Houston area in search of video game displays and merchandise, some of which he would snag for free after store owners said they had no use for them.

SNEAK PEEK: Inside the new indoor gaming, entertainment facility headed for Houston

"It's a lot more difficult today because there are a lot more people collecting these items, but back in the 90s it was relatively easy," Evans said. "If I was to try and start from nothing today, it would be almost impossible."

Evans' massive collection of video game antiques is showcased in a museum-like arcade room at his home. Named in honor of the San Jacinto Mall's original arcade, Evans' "Yesterdays - Sonic 1992's Game Room and Museum" is jam-packed full of video and arcade merchandise, posters, illuminated signs and still-playable games. Nearly every corner of the 1,600-square-foot building located behind Evans' property is covered with memorabilia from Nintendo, SEGA and various arcade-related companies.

PREVIEW: Get our experts picks for concerts, kids stuff, fine arts, movies and more each week in our entertainment newsletter.

"As soon as you walk in, people are instantly overwhelmed with all the stuff that is displayed," Evans said. "It just sparks up all kinds of feels from everyone."

Evans, who considers himself a "king of the 90s", said he hopes to expand the building in the future to accommodate his growing collection. He said he has enough memorabilia to cover the walls of his video-game haven twice over, just not the space to do so.

The arcade building is on a special-grade air conditioning and heating system that is required to keep his precious collectibles safe, Evans said. He does not like to go into detail on the worth of some of his items but admits many of them are nearly impossible to find today and because of this, they can run in the thousands of dollars on online sale websites.

Evans said he does not plan to open his arcade to the public, but hopes to continue adding to his collection and sharing his love of video games with others online.

Take a virtual tour of the over-the-top home arcade in the photos above...

For more on Evans' arcade, visit his Youtube channel or his Facebook page.

Rebecca Hennes covers community news. Read her on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | rebecca.hennes@chron.com
Voters in the Ottawa area have given Premier Doug Fords Progressive Conservatives the French kiss-off, sending two francophone Liberals to Queens Park in provincial byelections.

As expected, the Liberals easily won Thursday in Orleans and Ottawa-Vanier, which were two of only seven seats the Grits held in the 124-member legislature after Fords Tories swept them from power in the 2018 election.

Local city councillor Stephen Blais will be the new MPP for Orleans, vowing to provide strong opposition to the Ford government and its destructive policies.

Lucille Collard, the French-language school board chair, won easily in Ottawa-Vanier.

Each received more than half the vote in their respective ridings.

Blais bested Conservative runner-up, Natalie Montgomery, a doctoral candidate whose husband, Cameron Montgomery finished second there in the 2018 campaign.

New Democrat Manon Parrot, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1979, was third while Green candidate Andrew West, a lawyer, was fourth in Orleans.

In Ottawa-Vanier, the NDPs Myriam Djilane, who works for Air Canada, was second.

Tory Patrick Mayangi, who works as a legislative assistant on Parliament Hill for Alberta Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, was third with Green candidate Benjamin Koczwarski, an environmentalist, finishing fourth.

Steven Del Duca, who is widely expected to become Liberal leader at the partys convention March 7, said Thursday night that voters in Ottawa  Vanier and Orleans sent a clear message to Doug Ford and elected two strong community champions in Stephen Blais and Lucille Collard.

Stephen and Lucille ran exceptionally strong campaigns that focused on education, health care and Doug Fords failed record in Ontario, said Del Duca.

They will hold Fords feet to the fire.

The byelections came against the backdrop of province-wide strikes by teachers angry with the Tories education policies.

But the results also suggest Fords controversial cuts to francophone services  including the elimination of an independent French-language watchdog, which caused PC MPP Amanda Simard (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell) to quit his caucus in 2018  still dog the Tories in Eastern Ontario.

Simard, who emerged as a leader in the 622,000-strong Franco-Ontarian community when she bolted the Tories in protest, joined the Liberals last month, declaring the Grits are the party of the future.

The party that had governed Ontario from 2003 until being toppled by Fords Tories two years ago now has eight seats in the legislature.

Thats four fewer than the current 12-seat threshold for official status in the house, which entitles parties to more funds for research and staff and positions on legislative committees, among other privileges.

The bar for official party status had been eight until the Tories were elected with a huge majority and raised it to a dozen.

Publicly, they maintained they did so because there are now 124 members in the chamber, up from the previous 107, but some Conservatives have privately conceded they wanted to keep the Grits in the wilderness.

The New Democrats shared that aim and enthusiastically supported the Tories increasing it to 12 even though they had lobbied the Liberals to reduce it back in 2003 when they failed to meet the threshold.

In the 2016 Ottawa-Vanier byelection  when the French-speaking Patrick Brown was PC leader  the Tories finished second to the Liberals with almost 30 per cent of the vote.

The party fared more poorly there under the unilingual Ford in the 2018 general election, finishing third behind the Liberals and New Democrats with about 21 per cent.

In Orleans in the 2018 election, the Tories finished a strong second with 35 per cent, just four points behind the Liberals.

Ford called the byelections  his first electoral test since becoming premier 20 months ago  to fill seats vacated last year by Liberal MPPs Nathalie Des Rosiers and Marie-France Lalonde.

Des Rosiers resigned to be the principal of the University of Torontos Massey College and Lalonde stepped down to run federally and is now the Liberal MP for Orleans.

Conservatives had stressed the governing party had little chance of wresting the ridings from the Liberals.

Look, I suspect that the Liberals will remain strong in that area, but our candidates have been working very, very hard, government house leader Paul Calandra emphasized Wednesday at Queens Park.

Byelections are always challenging  not only for the governing party, but for everybody because its hard a lot of times for people to be interested in a byelection, said Calandra.

Robert Benzie is the Stars Queens Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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Gujarat Cong didn't give me any work in local body polls; even opinion not sought: Hardik Patel

SC grants anticipatory bail till Mar 6 to Hardik Patel

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Feb 28: The Supreme Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail till March 6 to Congress leader Hardik Patel in the case lodged against him in connection with the violence during the Patidar stir in Gujarat in 2015.

A bench of justices U U Lalit and Vineet Saran issued notice to the Gujarat government on the plea of Patel seeking quashing of a case against him.

"The case was lodged in 2015 and the investigation is still pending in the matter. You can't sit on the case for past five years," the bench said.

Hardik Patel arrested for evading sedition case trial

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

The Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti under Patel had organised a mega rally in Ahmedabad as part of the quota stir, and an FIR was lodged for "unlawful assembly" as the police claimed the event did not have requisite permissions.

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Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 12:22 [IST]
TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kerr Mines Inc. ( TSX: KER , OTC: KERMF) (Kerr or the Company), announces the closing of its non-brokered private placement raising gross proceeds of $3.21 million (the Offering). The Offering, previously announced on February 11, 2020 and targeting proceeds of $2.5 million, was oversubscribed due to investor demand. Furthermore, Sprott Private Resource Lending LP has agreed to increase its current US$1.5 million senior secured convertible note by US$500,000 (Cdn$670,000) (the Note).



Giulio T. Bonifacio, Chief Executive Officer stated: The total proceeds from this financing inclusive of funding from Sprott Lending further endorses the Companys short term objectives by allowing the Company to commence a targeted drilling program for purposes of resource expansion while also testing the exploration upside with defined follow up targets within the 50 square kilometre land position at Copperstone. Additionally the Company will further advance detailed engineering and project optimization for purposes of the re-start of commercial production at the Companys high grade Copperstone gold project.

Private Placement

The Company completed the Offering consisting of 22,913,486 units of the Company (the Units) at a price of CDN$0.14 per Unit for total gross proceeds of CDN$3.21 million. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (a Common Share) and one Common Share purchase warrant (a Warrant).

Each Warrant entitles the holder to purchase one Common Share at a price of CDN$0.21 per Common Share until February 28, 2022 provided that if, at any time the Common Shares trade on a stock exchange at a volume weighted average trading price of CDN$0.30, or greater, per Common Share for a period of 20 consecutive trading days, the Company may accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants by giving notice to the holders thereof and in such case the Warrants will expire on the 30th day after the date on which such notice is given by the Company. All securities issued pursuant to the Offering shall be subject to a hold period of four months from the date of closing. In connection with the Offering the Company paid finders fees totalling $63,410 to certain eligible persons. Senior Officers and directors subscribed for 8,107,430 Units under the Offering.

The Offering has been conditionally approved by the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) but remains subject to final approval from the TSX. The securities issued pursuant to the Offering are subject to a four month hold period in accordance with applicable securities laws.

The issuance and sale of 8,107,430 Units under the Offering to certain Senior Officers and directors of the Company constituted related party transactions within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101- Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101). The Company is relying on the exemptions from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1) (a) of MI 61-101, as the fair market value of the participation in the Offering by each insider will not exceed 25% of the market capitalization of the Company, as determined in accordance with MI 61-101. The Company did not file a material change report in respect of the related party transaction at least 21 days before the closing of the Offering, which the Company deems reasonable in the circumstances so as to be able to avail itself of the proceeds of the Offering in an expeditious manner.

Sprott Convertible Note

The Note, including the US$500,000 increase, forms part of the Sprott project financing facility for US$25 million. The advance of the balance of the project financing facility remains subject to achieving defined project milestones. The Note bears interest at a rate of 9% per annum payable semi-annually. The maturity date of the Convertible Note will be extended to May 31, 2021. The Note is convertible into Common Shares at any time prior to maturity at a conversion price of CDN$0.16 per share. The Company can redeem the Note at any time by paying the outstanding principal amount in cash, or with the agreement of the holder, in Common Shares of the Company, together with interest payable to maturity.

In connection with the Note and extension, the Company will issue Sprott an additional 650,000 common share purchase warrants (the Sprott Warrants). Each Sprott Warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one Common Share at a price of CDN$0.15 with an expiry date of November 28, 2023. The previously issued 1,000,000 common share purchase warrants will also be extended to an expiry date of November 28, 2023. The expiry of all common share purchase Warrants issued to Sprott can be accelerated at the Companys election if the trading price of the common shares is higher than 2.5 times the exercise price for 30 consecutive trading days

The increase in the principal amount of the Note and extension of its terms, the issuance of the Sprott Warrants and the extension of the previously issued warrants remains subject to the approval of the TSX.

Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders

On February 6th, 2020 the Company held its Annual General and Special Meeting of Shareholders (the Meeting). The shareholders voted in favour of all resolutions presented in its management information circular at the Meeting. A total of 88,836,884 common shares were voted at the Meeting, representing 30.91% of the votes attached to all outstanding common shares and the voting results were as follows:

Item 1: Appointment of Auditors

Kreston GTA LLP were appointed as the auditors of the Company and the directors were authorized to fix their remuneration by a show of hands.

Item 2: Election of Directors

On a vote by ballot, each of the seven nominees set forth in the Companys 2020 Management Information Circular were elected as a director of the Company. The results of the ballot were as follows:

Nominee Votes For % For Votes Withheld % Withheld Fahad Al Tamimi 80,436,689 99.74% 207,555 0.26% Claudio Ciavarella 80,436,907 99.74% 207,337 0.26% Giulio T. Bonifacio 80,412,853 99.71% 231,391 0.29% Martin Kostuik 80,426,573 99.73% 217,362 0.27% Ayman Arekat 80,488,390 99.81% 155,854 0.19% Peter Damouni 80,447,573 99.76% 196.671 0.24% James McVicar 80,447,585 99.79% 166,659 0.21%

Item 3: Approval of Name Change

The resolution to approve an amendment to the Articles of the Company to effect a change of name was carried by a show of hands.

About Kerr Mines Inc.

Kerr Mines is an Emerging American Gold Producer advancing the re-start of production at its 100% owned, fully permitted past-producing Copperstone Mine project located in mining-friendly Arizona. The Copperstone project demonstrates significant upside exploration potential within a 50 Square Kilometre (12,260 acre) land package that includes past production of over 500,000 ounces of gold by way of an open pit operation. The Companys current focus is on maximizing Copperstones potential by defining and expanding current resources and further optimizing mines economics for purposes of the re-start of production.

For further information please visit the Kerr Mines website ( www.kerrmines.com )

For further information contact:

Giulio T. Bonifacio

Chief Executive Officer

gtbonifacio@kerrmines.com

604-318-6760

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements, including current expectations on future exploration plans and completion of the proposed Offering. These forward-looking statements entail various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in these forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations, are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks, and actual results may differ materially from those contained in such statements. These uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, the strength of the Canadian economy; the price of gold; operational, funding, and liquidity risks; reliance on third parties, the degree to which mineral resource and reserve estimates are reflective of actual mineral resources and reserves; and the degree to which factors which would make a mineral deposit commercially viable are present; the risks and hazards associated with underground operations. Risks and uncertainties about Kerr Mines business are more fully discussed in the Company's disclosure materials, including its annual information form and MD&A, filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and available at www.sedar.com and readers are urged to read these materials. Kerr Mines assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such statements unless required by law.

While management believes that the results of its project optimization efforts and proposed changes to the project design are likely to improve the overall economics of the Copperstone Project previously disclosed in the Copperstone PFS, there can be no certainty that the actual effects will be as stated. The Company has not completed a new economic study in accordance with applicable law to evaluate the effect of the proposed changes and, as such, readers should not place undue reliance on these statements as the actual results may be significantly less favourable than expected.

Neither TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release and no stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.
As worries about the new coronavirus grow in the U.S., state officials are ramping up efforts to prepare for a possible outbreak while simultaneously trying to assure the public that they are well-positioned to handle it.

Governors and legislators in several states have proposed pumping millions of dollars into programs to combat the virus that causes the COVID-19 illness. State health officials are checking on stockpiles of supplies such as face masks and respirators and arranging potential isolation sites for sick patients.

Some states received federal approval Thursday to conduct tests for the virus at their own labs, which could confirm or rule out potential cases more rapidly than waiting on results from federal labs.

Governors in several states  including the three most populated, California, Texas, and Florida  sought to ease concerns about the virus Thursday at news conferences.

We have an extremely robust, well-informed, activated force prepared for any potential outcome that we may have to deal with, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said. Texas is one of the states where coronavirus patients who traveled abroad are being treated in isolated facilities before returning to their homes.

State officials are walking a fine line between between not stirring unnecessary anxieties while still keeping the public informed.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for example, pledged to notify the public if anyone tested positive for the new virus in his state. But the states surgeon general declined to confirm if any suspected cases had been investigated. He and the governor cited state laws for withholding any statistical information.

That did not sit well with some other elected officials. Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy, who represents the Orlando area, called for more transparency.

As a top tourist destination and home to many vulnerable seniors, Florida is uniquely at risk from the threat of this illness, she said after the governors news conference.

Top health officials from many states met this week in Washington with members of President Donald Trumps administration. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned public institutions, businesses and individuals to get ready for the disease, Trump has said there is no need to panic and that the U.S. is very, very ready to handle any outbreak.

The virus causes fever and coughing and, in serious cases, shortness of breath or pneumonia. Some symptoms are similar to influenza, which the CDC says has sickened tens of millions of U.S. residents and led to thousands of deaths since last fall.

Though the number of COVID-19 cases remains low in the U.S., the spread of the virus from China through Asia and elsewhere has alarmed some state and local officials.

Now is the time for a sense of urgency, Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday while encouraging state agencies and individuals to take greater sanitary precautions, such as disinfecting public places.

A new coronavirus case announced Wednesday in California could be the first in the U.S. that has no known connection to foreign travel or another known case, a possible sign the virus is spreading in a U.S. community, health officials said. Even before then, some cities and counties in California preemptively declared local health emergencies.

Federal health officials have already burned through $105 million in emergency funding while preparing for the coronarvius. Trump has requested an additional $2.5 billion to combat the virus, while congressional Democrats have proposed nearly four times that amount. But some state officials are not waiting for Congress to act.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has said he will ask lawmakers to approve $40 million to respond to the threat, including hiring additional state health workers and buying supplies such as protective masks and gloves. In New York City alone, more than 1.5 million protective masks already have been given to health care workers and first responders, and the city is seeking more.

Several other states also are looking to set aside additional money because of the coronavirus.

Democratic Hawaii Gov. David Ige has asked lawmakers to allocate $7.2 million for the next four months for disease surveillance, lab testing, a multimedia communications campaign and basic equipment such as thermometers. In Minnesota, Republican state Sen. Jerry Relph plans to seek to add $5 million to the states emergency account for public health.

Different budget plans in the Washington state House and Senate each include $5 million to $10 million of state funding that could go to establish a dedicated call center, monitor known coronavirus cases and provide support for local health officials.

Delaware Public Health Director Karyl Rattay said its incredibly important that states receive additional federal funding to respond to the coronavirus.

Already, we are seeing our capacity maxed out, Rattay said. Staff are spending many, many hours on this, and theres still core public health work that needs to be completed. We cant just stop everything else that we do on a regular basis.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu sent a letter Wednesday to the states congressional delegation urging that additional coronavirus funding be approved quickly. Now is not a time for partisan games and grandstanding, he wrote.

Health officials in many states told The Associated Press that their preparations rely on current staff and budgets and existing public health frameworks. One key exception is that most states have so far been unable to run their own laboratory tests on potential coronavirus cases, because they have not received federal clearance to do so. States instead have had to send samples to the CDC, which has delayed the response time.

But that could change soon. Missouri received word Thursday that it has been approved to start running tests at its own medical laboratory, and similar notices should be arriving at other states, said Bill Whitmar, director of the Missouri health lab and president-elect of the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

If every state would be able to perform those tests, theyd be able to perform them much more rapidly, Whitmar said.

___

Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; Bobby Caina Calvan in Tallahassee, Florida; Mark Gillispie in Cleveland; Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Minnesota; Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington; Randall Chase in Dover, Delaware; Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Hawaii; and Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.
Tyler Perry is opening up about his nephews death on Saturday and revealing hes ordering a second autopsy on the body.

Perrys nephew, Gavin Porter, died by apparent suicide in his cell at the Union Parish Detention Center in Farmerville, Louisiana on Saturday night, according to multiple local news outlets.

Union Parish Sheriff Dusty Gates told The News-Star Porters death came after Perrys nephew was involved in a fight with several inmates on Saturday. Gates said no foul play was suspected and that Porters body was sent to Little Rock, Arkansas for an autopsy, according to the newspaper.

Perry, 50, posted a statement on his Instagram account on Thursday, writing, A few years ago my nephew committed a heinous crime  he shot his biological father and killed him just feet away from my sister over a senseless argument. The murder shook our entire family to its core.

RELATED: Tyler Perrys Nephew, 26, Dies by Apparent Suicide While in Prison

Despite his horrible act, before he went to prison I went to see him in the local jail. I assured him that we all still loved him, but it was important to all of us, including his mother, that he was punished for this horrific crime that he had committed. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, Perry wrote.

Call me naive, but it was my hope that after serving his time, really reflecting, showing much remorse, and asking God for forgiveness that he would have been able to come work for me, the Madeas Family Reunion creator continued. Where he would join all the other former inmates that work for me and turn his life around, just as they have. But that day will never come.

He wrote, Three days ago, I got the horrible news that he allegedly committed suicide in prison. I say allegedly because, unfortunately, our criminal justice system and prisons have been notorious for cover ups and/or getting it wrong. With that in mind I have hired Dr. Michael Baden to do a second autopsy, and we are expecting the results soon.

Story continues

Gavin Porter

RELATED VIDEO: Tyler Perry Opens Up About Surviving Abusive Childhood: I Dont Think I Ever Felt Safe

I want to be clear that we are not a family of conspiracy theorists, and we want to believe that there was no foul play, just as the sheriff has stated publicly, he added.

Perry concluded his post, writing, On behalf of my and my sister we thank you for all the thoughts and prayers, and we all have no further comments at this time.

Porters death is currently under investigation, Gates told The News-Star on Wednesday. Porter was arrested in October 2016 for the shooting death of his father, Gary Wayne Porter, after the two allegedly got into a fight, according to WAFB.

While Gates did not provide more detail into the death of the man, he did say Porter pled guilty in April 2017 to a charge of manslaughter, according to news station KNOE.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text STRENGTH to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 04:51:30|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Chilean counterpart, Sebastian Pinera, held a telephone conversation on Friday night to discuss the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic and how to further deepen bilateral ties.

Xi said the COVID-19 outbreak is a major public health emergency that features the fastest speed of transmission, the most extensive range of infection and the highest level of containment difficulty in the country since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

"Since the outbreak of the epidemic, I have been personally commanding the work and making arrangements. The whole country has become a nation of one mind sharing the same boat, and has taken the most comprehensive, rigorous and thorough prevention and control measures," said Xi, adding that the positive trend in preventing and controlling the epidemic is gaining momentum thanks to the hard work.

"We have full confidence, capacity and certainty to win the battle against the epidemic," he added.

In this anti-epidemic fight, he stressed, China has always adhered to the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind and an attitude of openness, transparency and responsibility, sharing information with the WHO and the international community in a timely fashion as well as actively responding to the concerns of various sides and strengthening international cooperation, so as to prevent the epidemic from spreading around the world.

The WHO and the international community have spoken highly of China's prevention and control work, he said, adding that the governments and people of many countries, including Chile, have offered China strong support in various ways, for which China is sincerely grateful.

Xi pointed out that the Chinese nation has experienced many ordeals in its history, but has never been overwhelmed, and that the impact of the epidemic on China's economy is temporary and generally manageable, and the fundamentals of China's long-term sound economic growth remain unchanged.

While making unrelenting, solid and meticulous efforts in epidemic prevention and control, China will roll out a series of policies and measures to gradually restore orderly production and life and ensure realization of this year's economic and social development goals, he added.

With China and Chile being comprehensive strategic partners, their relationship has long been taking the lead in China-Latin America relations, Xi said, recalling that Pinera's China visit last year bore rich fruit.

Noting that this year marks the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations, Xi urged the two sides to take it as an opportunity to maintain close high-level exchanges and ensure the success of celebration events.

He also called on the two sides to expand cooperation in such fields as trade, investment, technological innovation and infrastructure construction by promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

At the same time, the two sides should work together to firmly safeguard multilateralism, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and tackle such global challenges as climate change, he added.

In so doing, Xi said, the two countries can carry forward their friendship, ensure a sound development of bilateral cooperation and bring more benefits to both peoples.

Pinera, on behalf of the Chilean government and people, extended sincere sympathies to the Chinese people over the COVID-19 outbreak and offered firm support to the Chinese people for their united efforts in fighting the epidemic.

He said that under the strong command of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government, the Chinese side has taken very effective measures to deal with the epidemic, whose spread has been gradually put under control.

Noting that China is a great country that has gone through numerous hardships and difficulties, Pinera said he believes that under the strong leadership of Xi, China will surely achieve a complete victory over the epidemic at an early date.

The Chilean side stands ready to strengthen cooperation with the Chinese side to jointly tackle the challenge of infectious diseases and safeguard global public health security, he added.

Chile, he said, has always regarded its relations with China as a foreign policy priority, and is willing to take the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties as an opportunity to join hands with China to further bolster collaboration in various fields, promote Belt and Road cooperation, safeguard multilateralism, and strengthen coordination in international affairs, so as to lift Chile-China relations to a new level.
An Oregon man who sat behind bars for nearly a decade for the slaying of his high school girlfriend, says he just wants the 'truth' in his first interview since a judge ordered his release from prison.

Nicholas McGuffin, now 37, was found guilty of manslaughter in the death of 15-year-old Leah Freeman, who was killed in 2000 when he was 18.

He was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed in 2011 - but released last year after a judge ruled undisclosed evidence was found at the scene of another man's DNA, which could have lead to a different verdict.

McGuffin has maintained his innocence for nearly 20 years and hopes that someone will come forward with new details surrounding Freeman's death.

'I want people to come forward with the truth. I just want the truth. I want to know what happened,' he said in his first interview with ABC 20/20, airing Friday.

'[We] have a chance right now to clean the slate to make it right. I mean, I'm pretty sure a lot of people would want that. I know Leah would. I know her family wants that. I want the truth for them. What more can I ask for?'

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Nicholas McGuffin, now 37, was found guilty of manslaughter in the death of 15-year-old Leah Freeman in 2011

McGuffin was a high school senior when he began dating the freshman student in the small town of Coquille, Oregon.

'I asked Leah if she'd go to the prom with me,' he said. 'She had a gorgeous white dress, she had her hair done perfectly I'm glad we went and got the pictures that we did together.'

On June 28, 2000, McGuffin dropped Freeman off at her friend Cheri Mitchell's house and planned to swing by later for a double date.

Mitchell and Freeman are said to have gotten into an argument over how much time the teen was spending with her boyfriend, which prompted the 15-year-old to leave the home on foot.

McGuffin was a high school senior when he began dating the freshman student in the small town of Coquille, Oregon

Freeman was found strangled and dumped over a steep embankment a month after she went missing. The case went cold for nearly 10 years due to a lack of evidence

McGuffin came to pick Freeman up at 9pm but learned that she had left, and spent hours driving around looking for her.

'I went back to Fast Mart probably five or six times,' he said. 'There was different people there every time They didn't see Leah. I didn't see Leah.'

McGuffin says that he was stopped by police on two occasion that night as he had broken headlights. Afterwards, he and a friend - Kristen Steinhoff - drove around and went searching for Freeman.

'I dropped Kristen off.  I think it was around 2:00 [in the morning], probably. I decided to go by Leah's house one more time,' McGuffin explained. 'I saw a glare on her window, thought it was her TV.  It was 2000. It's not like she could send me a text. She couldn't call me on a cellphone. So I thought she was home, and I went home after that.'

When looking for her, McGuffin shared he stopped at a local Fast Mart (pictured) 'five or six times'

McGuffin says that he was stopped by police on two occasion that night as he had broken headlights. Afterwards, he and a friend - Kristen Steinhoff - drove around and went searching for Freeman (her and McGuffin pictured)

McGuffin and Freeman's mother - Cory Courtright - went to police and reported her missing. The same night she was reported missing, a mechanic found one of her gym shoes by a cemetery. A week later, the other shoe was found outside of town - with blood on it.

Freeman was found strangled and dumped over a steep embankment a month after she went missing. The case went cold for nearly 10 years due to a lack of evidence.

'It was like my world was over,' McGuffin said of when he learned the news.

'I broke down. That's the saddest moment that I've ever gone through.'

McGuffin claimed to have been extremely cooperative with authorities, even going in on his own free will to be interviewed by police.

'[I] tried to give them any information that I knew that may be helpful,' he said.

But as the case went cold, McGuffin said public perception of him made it 'hard to go out in public.'

'You're basically looking over your shoulder to try to figure out who's gonna come around the corner, who's gonna start yelling at you,' he said.

McGuffin was hospitalized soon after for anxiety. He also tried to commit suicide at one point.

'It was just a buildup... It's like when a tea kettle boils and it starts to make that hum, that's what it was like, you just get an overload,' he added.

McGuffin tried to move on with his life, going to culinary school and starting a career as a chef. He got married and had a daughter in 2007.

Police interviewed Steinhoff (pictured), learning that she and McGuffin had done drugs at her home. She told police that he tried to have sex with her, something McGuffin denies

'I was very excited that I was gonna be a father,' he said. 'My daughter helped me through a lot.'

The case was reopened in 2008 after the town got a new police chief. Investigators struggled going through all the evidence as some had made its way to London. Hundreds of witness testimony was also gone through, including McGuffin's

'When they reopened the investigationI just figured the truth will come out and the real person or persons would be found. And so, yeah. I mean, I didn't see any of this coming,' McGuffin stated.

Police interviewed Steinhoff during this time, learning that she and McGuffin had done drugs at her home. She told police that he tried to have sex with her, something McGuffin denies.

McGuffin was arrested in 2010. Investigators rooted their case in the fact that he was the victim's boyfriend, relying heavily on witnesses who knew Freeman and claimed they saw her and the man after he told police he dropped her off

He does admit to kissing her and doing drugs, however.

'The things Kristen and I did that night, when we were kissing, was wrong. I accept that,' McGuffin told '20/20.' 'It doesn't mean just because I did thatthat I didn't care about [Leah]. It's not an easy thing to deal with.'

McGuffin was arrested in 2010. Investigators rooted their case in the fact that he was the victim's boyfriend, relying heavily on witnesses who knew Freeman and claimed they saw her and the man after he told police he dropped her off.

He was acquitted of murder the following year after the jury failed to come to a unanimous decision, but was found guilty of manslaughter with a non-unanimous 10-2 verdict.

Steinhoff died five years after McGuffin's conviction.

McGuffin was released from prison in 2019 after Judge Patricia Sullivan determined that previously undisclosed evidence of another man's DNA at the scene could have led to a different verdict.

In building the case for the defense, Janis Puracal uncovered new evidence - male DNA found on a pair of Freeman's bloody shoes at the crime scene that did not match the defendant or any of the investigators. She took on his case in 2014.

'Finding that exculpatory DNA on the shoes, that was a huge moment for our case,' Puracal said. 'That was a game-changer for us. We were looking for DNA that would tell us who actually committed this crime. And here, there was DNA of some other man on the victim's bloodstained shoe  and never reported. That changed everything for us.'

The DNA had not been presented to the jury at the initial trial because the sample was so small that the state crime lab did not report it.

'At the time, we used interpretation guidelines that didn't necessarily discern or distinguish really low levels of DNA,' Chrystal Bell, Forensic Services Division director for the Oregon State Police. 'As a result of that, the analysts at the time chose to be very conservative and chose not to actually call out that potential male DNA because she couldn't decide what it was. So she made no conclusions or statements about that DNA because it was at a very, very low level.'

However, Malheur County Circuit Court Judge Patricia Sullivan determined that had the evidence been disclosed at the initial trial, it could have changed the entire outcome, and ultimately ruled that McGuffin's conviction should be overturned on November 29.

'However, without the DNA evidence, Trial Counsel was reduced to showing that (Nick McGuffin) could not have committed the crime and was not able to produce any evidence of an alternative theory,' wrote Judge Sullivan.

The DNA evidence is too small to find a match, however.

'[The sample] is not suitable to put into the FBI's database for forensic samples and convicted offenders,' Bell added, 'The quality of the DNA was not good enough in 2000, it was not good enough in 2010, and it is still not good enough.'

Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier decided not to seek a retrial for McGuffin because the teen's mother expressed wishes for it not to continue.

Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier decided not to seek a retrial for McGuffin because the teen's mother expressed wishes for it not to continue

'She just flat told me, 'I cannot take the strain of another trial. I can't do it,' and she asked me not to try the case again,' Frasier said. 'That was probably the biggest factor.'

Mark Dannels, the city's police chief, added: 'Nick's already served, 97 percent of his sentence. So we go back, put this all back together, retry it. You put the family back through this again. For what? To say we were right?'

MCGUFFIN MURDER CASE: TIMELINE June 2000: Leah Freeman, 15, is reported missing in Coquille, Oregon July 2000: Freeman's body is found strangled and dumped in a ditch August 2010: Nicholas McGuffin, Freeman's boyfriend at the time of her murder, is arrested July 2011: Jury finds McGuffin guilty of manslaughter and he is sentenced to 10 years in prison 2015-2016: Layers with the Forensic Justice Department take on McGuffin's case and uncover previously-undisclosed DNA evidence August 2019: McGuffin is granted a post-conviction trial November 2019: Judge finds that the DNA evidence could have changed the outcome of McGuffin's original trial if it had been disclosed to the jury Advertisement

Judge Sullivan did assert, however, that the overturn did not demonstrate innocence for McGuffin.

'There have been cases in the United States where the evidence clearly shows, beyond any doubt, that the person in jail or prison didn't do it, and that person needs to get out. That's an exoneration, in my book,' Frasier said. 'What happened here was [McGuffin] was ordered to [get] a new trial. I made the decision not to go forward for a new trial. I still stand behind the investigation of this case... There's evidence in this record to find this defendant guilty. But we have decided, for a variety of reasons, not to go forward at this time. It's not that I believe he's not guilty or innocent, it's I believe it is not appropriate to proceed.'

McGuffin's lawyer expressed disappointment that 'continue to say that Nick is guilty in this case.'

'The Department of Justice could have appealed the post-conviction court's ruling and they chose not to,' Puracal said. 'It's important to recognize where the DNA was found. The DNA was found inside Leah's shoe as well as outside Leah's shoe. And it's found in and around bloodstains on her left shoe. That's important to know.'

She and McGuffin have called for accountability from the state.

'[The] D.A., law enforcement, a crime lab...should have some accountability for what they did,' McGuffin added. 'All I'm asking is for accountability and for them to do their jobs properly.'

McGuffin was released from prison in 2019 after Judge Patricia Sullivan determined that previously undisclosed evidence of another man's DNA at the scene could have led to a different verdict

Judge Sullivan did assert, however, that the overturn did not demonstrate innocence for McGuffin in the killing of Freeman (pictured)

'There are not enough markers to put it into the database to see if we can identify somebody that way,' Frasier explained. 'If we have a suspect, we can get a DNA sample from them send it in and have them compare it. And that's what we did with the other potential suspects in the case. And they all came back as not being the donor of that DNA.'

McGuffin struggles to get back to his life, finding it difficult to find a new job. He is currently working on building a relationship with his daughter, who is now 12.

'I look at her with the strength that she has at her age, I think that helps me,' McGuffin added.

'It's not an easy feat. The stigma, even now, trying to get a job. ... I want to work. I'm passionate about my career,' McGuffin. 'I remain an innocent man. That's not going to change.'

He often thinks of Freeman and where her life would be now.

'She should be, what, 35 now?  She would have had a family,' he said.

Watch the full story on '20/20' Friday, Feb. 28, at 9pm ET on ABC.
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the Trump administrations response to the spreading coronavirus but also faced contentious questions Friday from Democrats about the basis for an airstrike that killed Irans most powerful general and whether the attack had put American security at risk.

Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee repeatedly expressed frustration that the panel was afforded only two hours to question Pompeo, who until Friday had gone months without testifying publicly on Capitol Hill. He balked last fall at complying with a subpoena tied to the House impeachment inquiry into the administrations interactions with Ukraine.

Mr. Secretary, it shouldnt have been so difficult to get you here, and your appearance here today is far too short, Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, the committees chairman, said at the outset of the hearing. He later called it an embarrassment that the hearing was so short.

Minutes later, Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, recalled Pompeos thundering while in Congress about the need for testimony from one of his Democratic predecessors, Hillary Clinton, about the 2012 attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi.

But with you, sir, we had to move heaven and earth to get you here today for just two hours, Meeks said. To me that shows disregard for the oversight responsibilities of the United States Congress.

Another Democrat, Rep. Ted Lieu of California, complained that Pompeo could only give two hours to the committee and was instead setting aside time to speak in Maryland at the Conservative Political Action Conference. President Donald Trump also announced he was dispatching Pompeo to witness the signing of an agreement with the Afghan Taliban aimed at beginning a drawdown of thousands of U.S. troops.

Pompeo, a close ally of Trump, noted that he had briefed Congress more than 70 times on Iran and sought to keep his testimony focused on that subject  the stated focus of the hearing.

He repeatedly defended the administrations January strike against Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Irans elite Quds force, saying he was 100% confident that the military commander had plans to kill more Americans and was actively plotting to do so.

His death reduced the risk to our personnel overseas, both my diplomats and our military, and made clear that we are willing and able to impose costs on our adversaries if they threaten or attack us, Pompeo said.

Republicans defended the strike, with Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois describing Soleimani as a demon and Rep. Brian Mast of Florida challenging Democrats on the committee to say that theyd have preferred that the general was alive rather than dead.

This is exhausting, Kinzinger said of the hearing, describing it as a multimedia dog and pony show. Another Republican member, Rep. Ron Wright of Texas, compared the hearing to a circus.

Democrats were skeptical of Pompeos arguments, with Rep. Andy Levin of Michigan at one point showing Pompeo a blank map and asking him to pinpoint the embassies that were under threat of imminent attack at the time of Soleimanis death.

Im never willing to disclose classified information. I assume youre not either, Pompeo responded.

Pompeo also defended the administrations response to the coronavirus, saying he was incredibly proud of the work the State Department had done in getting American civilians and diplomats out of China, where the illness first surfaced. He also said the administration had been in touch with Iran, where new cases have been reported, and was prepared to offer medical and technical help.

I am confident that this administration has taken actions that have significantly reduced risk, and will continue to do so, Pompeo said.

The COVID-19 illness caused by a new coronavirus that emerged in December in the Chinese city of Wuhan has stretched well beyond Asia. The global count of those infected as of Friday exceeds 83,000, with China still by far the hardest-hit country. Dozens of cases but no deaths have been confirmed in the United States.

Pompeos testimony comes three weeks after the conclusion of the Senate impeachment trial against Trump, who was accused of abusing his office by withholding aid from Ukraine while he was seeking an investigation into Democratic rival Joe Biden. Trump, who denied doing anything wrong, was acquitted by the Republican-led Senate.

The inquiry before House lawmakers featured the testimony of several foreign service officers, including some whod been enlisted with trying to carry out the Republican presidents wishes and expressed concerns over it.

Though Pompeo sought to distance himself from the impeachment inquiry and the circumstances surrounding it, he has also faced criticism from some who felt that he had not done enough to support State Department during the controversy.

Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was ousted last spring after a push by the presidents allies, has said she felt threatened by comments about her from Trump.

____

Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP
Coronavirus exposure

Federal health employees interacted with Americans quarantined for possible exposure to the coronavirus without proper medical training or protective gear, then scattered into the general population, according to a government whistle-blower who lawmakers say faced retaliation for reporting concerns.

The team was improperly deployed to two military bases in California to assist the processing of Americans who had been evacuated from coronavirus hot zones in China and elsewhere.

Without proper training or equipment, some of the exposed staff members moved freely around and off the bases, with at least one person staying in a nearby hotel and leaving California on a commercial flight. Many were unaware of the need to test their temperatures three times a day. (New York Times)

Featured stories

People walk past an electronic stock board Friday showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo. Asian stock markets have fallen further on virus fears after Wall Street endured its biggest one-day drop in nine years. (Eugene Hoshiko, Associated Press)

Trump says he can bring in coronavirus experts quickly. The experts say it is not that simple (Washington Post)

New virus has infected 83,000 globally, caused 2,800 deaths (Associated Press)

Asia stocks tumble on virus fears after Wall Street plunge (Associated Press)

Fear versus dreams: Coronavirus spread sparks fears for American travelers (NBC News)

National news

Trump upends controversial surveillance fight (The Hill)

Court wont let Trump pardon void guilty verdict against Arpaio (Politico)

Confederate-related paraphernalia must be removed from all Marine installations, commandant orders (CNN)

Immigration agents accused of targeting parents taking their kids to school (USA Today)

Warren introduces bill to redirect wall money to coronavirus (The Hill)

Ex-Baltimore mayor sentenced to 3 years in prison for role in childrens book deal scandal (CNN)

Voters themselves must pick: Why Barack Obama isnt endorsing Joe Biden or anyone else for president (USA Today)

Broken water line in east Houston disrupts city, forces boil order (Houston Chronicle)

A judge resigns after using the n-word in texts that she says the public was never meant to see (Washington Post)

Babysitter takes video of self with gun, accidentally shoots 10-year-old: Sheriff (ABC News)

World news

Turkish-backed Syrian rebels enter the town of Saraqeb, Syria, on Thursday. Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters retook a strategic northwestern town of Saraqeb, opposition activists say, and cut off the key highway linking the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo. (Ghaith Alsayed, Associated Press)

Syria war: 33 Turkish soldiers killed in attack in Idlib (BBC)

Boris Johnson threatens to walk away if Europe doesnt meet his demands in trade talks (Washington Post)

New Delhi riots leave 38 dead as India balks at U.S. reaction to the religious violence (CBS News)

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested on charges of illegal assembly (The Guardian)

U.S. says Chinese warship fired military laser at U.S. aircraft (CNN)

Malaysia uncertainty grows as palace rejects Mahathir plan (Reuters)

Canada to stop providing security for Harry and Meghan (The Guardian)

Reports of cannibalism among polar bears in Arctic are on the rise, scientist says (CBS News)
Launch with Erewhon Market is Anticipated for April 2020 and Establishes Tauri-Gum as a Significant Brand in the Los Angeles Marketplace

Los Angeles, California, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: TAUG) (Tauriga or the Company), a revenue generating Company that operates through the development, distribution, and licensing of proprietary products as well as the evaluation of potential acquisition opportunities and equity investments, today announced that it has received an initial purchase order (order) from Southern California based specialty grocer  Erewhon Market (Erewhon). This substantial initial order was placed for all 3 flavors of the Companys flagship product: Tauri-Gum. The Company expects that its launch with Erewhon will take place during April 2020 and that Tauri-Gum will be available at each of the 5 distinct Erewhon locations (Calabasas, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, and Venice). The Company will allocate the requisite level of marketing resources to this relationship, to help build brand awareness and customer loyalty throughout the Erewhon network.

Link to Erewhon Market Website: www.erewhonmarket.com

Vito Antoci, Vice President of Brand Development  Erewhon Market, expressed, We are excited to carry Tauri-Gum as our first hemp chewing gum and look forward to a successful long-term relationship with Tauriga Sciences Inc.

Taurigas CEO Seth M. Shaw commented, The Company has worked with great determination over the past 2+ years, to build an outstanding product of the highest quality. Erewhon Market is an extremely successful specialty grocer in the Los Angeles area and an important partner in enhancing the value and profile of the Tauri-Gum brand. Through this valuable relationship, the Company will have the opportunity to build a long-term potential base of recurring revenue while simultaneously  establishing Tauri-Gum as a significant brand in the Southern California marketplace.

ABOUT TAURIGA SCIENCES INC.

Tauriga Sciences, Inc. (TAUG) is a revenue generating Company that operates through the development, distribution, and licensing of proprietary products as well as the evaluation of potential acquisition opportunities. One such opportunity on which the Company has acted, involves the Company having entered into the cannabidiol (or CBD) infused chewing gum product business, as more fully described above and in prior press releases. This CBD infused chewing gum product has been branded under the following name: Tauri-Gum. The Company is currently in production of three distinct flavors of Tauri-Gum: MINT, BLOOD ORANGE, and POMEGRANATE. On December 6, 2019 the Company announced that it completed the initial production run (thereby expanding its existing product lines) with the introduction of a 25mg Vegan CBD Isolate Infused vegan gummy (gum drop), branded under the name: Tauri-Gummies. Further, the Company continues to identify and evaluate additional potential opportunities to generate revenue, as well as shareholder value, and leverage its resources and expertise to build a diversified and sustainable business model. Please visit our corporate website at www.tauriga.com .

The Company has also announced the development of a Cannabigerol (CBG) Isolate infused version of Tauri-Gum. The flavor that has been selected is Starfruit/Peach and each piece of gum will contain 10mg of CBG Isolate / Each blister pack will contain 80mg of CBG Isolate. The Company expects to commence production during its 4th Fiscal Quarter of 2020 (January 1, 2020  March 31, 2020).

In addition, on March 11, 2019, the Company announced the official launch of its E-Commerce site - as part of its Tauri-Gum commercialization strategy. This site can be accessed by visiting the following URL address: www.taurigum.com

The Company has established corporate offices in both New York City (USA) and Barcelona (Spain).

DISCLAIMER -- Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 which represent managements beliefs and assumptions concerning future events. These forward-looking statements are often indicated by using words such as may, will, expects, anticipates, believes, hopes, believes, or plans, and may include statements regarding corporate objectives as well as the attainment of certain corporate goals and milestones. Forward-looking statements are based on present circumstances and on managements present beliefs with respect to events that have not occurred, that may not occur, or that may occur with different consequences or timing than those now assumed or anticipated. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in forward looking statements due to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, such as are not guarantees of general economic and business conditions, the ability to successfully develop and market products, consumer and business consumption habits, the ability to consummate successful acquisition and licensing transactions, fluctuations in exchange rates, and other factors over which Tauriga has little or no control. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in the Risk Factors section of Taurigas Form 10-K and other filings made from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this release, and Tauriga assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Contact:
Yahoo Life

Ill go on an occasional date but thats only in the last two years. It took me four to even step out there," the mom of two said.
Ann Rooney

July 28, 1926 - February 26, 2020

Ann Rooney, 93, died Wednesday, February 26, 2020 at the Rockwell Community Care Center.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held 1:00 pm on Saturday, February 29, 2020 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 305 Elm Street E., Rockwell, with the Rev. John Gossman as Celebrant. Burial will follow in St. Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, Dougherty.

Visitation will be held Saturday morning at Sacred Heart Parish Center from 11:00 am until 1:00pm where the Rosary will be recited at 11:00.

The daughter of James and Agnes (Kelley) Rooney, Marcella Ann was born on the family farm outside of Dougherty, IA on July 28, 1926. She attended St. Patrick Catholic High School in Dougherty, graduating in 1943. She moved to Rockwell with her parents in 1953 and cared for them as well.

Her single life evolved foremost around her Catholic faith, her many friends, and her family. She was Godmother to nieces and nephews; Patty, Jane, Mike, and Joel. Even though her eyesight failed her and she never drove a car, she stayed active as ever. She enjoyed playing cards, and crocheting, especially prayer shawls for the sick at Sacred Heart and potholders for everyone! She also loved cheering on her beloved Minnesota Twins, cooking, and baking, especially scotcheroos and orange drop cookies.

She was always busy. If there was anything going on at Sacred Heart she was there. She appreciated her friends who always took her along for shopping outings. Trips to Mason City always ended with a stop at Wendy's for a chocolate Frosty for the drive home. Over the years she was the housekeeper for many priests at the rectory. She cleaned the bank and other businesses with her dear friend, Delores Frances. She also babysat for years and spoke often of her love for Jody (Arends) Suntken and the Sido kids.

Ann is survived by her brother, John (Maxine) Rooney, Algona; 27 nieces and nephews and so many great and great-great nieces and nephews that we've lost count; as well as her many friends.

She is preceded in death by her parents; siblings, Ambrose (Elvira) Rooney, J. Joseph (Lavon) Rooney, Mary (Robert) Bottolfson, and Marjorie (Walter) Grombka; and her beloved niece, Sue Eckenrod.

The family wishes to thank the staff at Rockwell Community Care Center for almost four years of devoted and loving care and to MercyOne North Iowa Hospice for the comfort care she received.

Hogan Bremer Moore Colonial Chapel, 126 3rd St NE, Mason City.o (641)423-2372. ColonialChapels.com.
MANILA, Philippines  The Department of Health (DOH) has ensured the public that the government is ready any time the World Health Organization (WHO) declares a coronavirus pandemic.

This is besides the fact that the WHO has reported that the Philippines is among the nine countries that did not register to have new cases of COVID-19 in the past two weeks.

The WHO, however, said the government should not be complacent in this kind of situation.

I dont think the threshold has been reached to say that a pandemic is merely happening because I dont think it should be entertained at this point. We have a decreasing PUIs, only 30 and an increasing number of negatives and hopefully, that trend continues. So far, the way it is, our preparedness readiness is adequate, DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said.

The DOH chief further said that the Inter-Agency Task Force (IAFT) is not discounting the possibility of a local or community transmission of the virus.

The health official added that the country is following an international protocol in case of any declaration of a pandemic which is classified to different levels.

This includes incident planning and the right response or action or management in the event that cases of COVID -19 increase.

Duque also said that, to date, public hospitals are still in code blue alert, assuring the public that there is enough number of medical workers who are capable to conduct prompt response to possible COVID-19 cases.

He further assured that all medical workers are ready in case code red alert is raised due to local transmission or pandemic declaration.

Duque said that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) gave the assurance that enough supply of medical masks will be delivered weekly to the public hospitals.

We have the commitment by the DTI that the manufacturing company in Bataan Export Processing Zone has committed 200,000 weekly for the DOH, Duque said.  (from the report of Aiko Miguel) /mbmf

The post DOH ensures govt readiness for coronavirus pandemic declaration from WHO appeared first on UNTV News.
Cleaners scrub and sterilise the floors of Mecca's Grand Mosque after fears of coronavirus led Saudi Arabia to suspend pilgrim visas, but worshippers appear unfazed -- confident of God's protection.

Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, on Thursday suspended entry by foreigners for the year-round "umrah" pilgrimage, an unprecedented move that has left tens of thousands in limbo.

It has also sparked uncertainty over the annual hajj pilgrimage scheduled for July.

But Nadia Bettam, a 50-year-old Algerian donning a veil to perform umrah for the first time, counted herself fortunate as she arrived in Mecca five days before Riyadh's abrupt decision.

"I have no fear. We are in the hands of God," said Bettam, 50, wearing a face mask and accompanied by her sister Fatima.

"What matters for us is worship, but we are taking precautions."

Saudi Arabia has so far reported no coronavirus cases but there are mounting concerns over a spike in infections across the Middle East.

On Friday it specifically barred citizens from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council from entering Mecca and Medina amid fears over the new coronavirus, the foreign ministry said.

The GCC states are comprised of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar.

GCC citizens can normally enter the kingdom with their national identity document, whereas citizens of other countries require a visa.

- The rest is in God's hands -

The Grand Mosque was packed with worshippers like Bettam on Friday, underscoring how faith often trumps health concerns and the challenge of disease control.

Floors of the Grand Mosque are washed four times a day and 13,500 carpets in areas designated for prayer are regularly cleaned, according to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

Grand Mosque official Jaber Wadani said the "best cleaning and sterilisation methods" were in use, with all carpets scrubbed and perfumed daily.

Story continues

AFP saw cleaning crews wearing green face masks sterilising doors with disinfectants including chlorine.

Face masks are useful in guarding against infections, said Robina Mahmoud, leading a group of 105 pilgrims from the Netherlands. Her group was also taking precautions such as regularly washing their hands.

"This will definitely protect us, but the rest is in God's hands," she said.

- 'Counting losses' -

Inside the mosque, the area surrounding the Kaaba -- a cube structure that is the focal point of Islam -- was packed with tens of thousands of worshippers, most of them wearing masks.

Muslims around the world pray in the direction of the Kaaba, which is draped in a gold-embroidered black cloth.

Three pharmacies around the Grand Mosque said they had run out of masks.

"The demand for masks in the last two days is unprecedented," a Syrian doctor told AFP.

"I have sold 200 boxes in three days, which used to be our monthly stock."

But other traders reported losses following the decision to suspend umrah visas.

"Whole groups (of pilgrims) have cancelled their (hotel) reservations," said Mahfouz, an Egyptian who works as an independent travel agent.

"I am still counting my losses."

The pilgrimage forms a crucial source of revenue for the government, which hopes to welcome 30 million religious visitors annually to the kingdom by 2030.

Alongside Thursday's pilgrimage curb, it has also temporarily suspended electronic tourist visas for people arriving from seven countries, including China, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Kazakhstan, according to the SPA.

It added that tourist visa holders will not be allowed to visit Mecca and Medina, another holy city.

Authorities insist the suspensions are temporary, but it was unclear when they will be lifted.

"We receive hundreds of thousands of pilgrims every month from different countries around the world," a Saudi official told AFP.

"If (coronavirus) arrives here and spreads, it will be a global epidemic. The safety of people is more important than performing umrah."

But many pilgrims appeared defiant.

"How can we be afraid if we are in the house of God?" said 21-year-old Turkish student Hossam Aldin.

"Even if I got the infection, it would be good to die as a martyr here."
IRKUTSK, Russia -- A person who supplied a Siberian city with bath lotion that killed dozens of people who drank it in 2016 has been convicted and sent to prison.

The Lenin district court in the city of Irkutsk on February 27 found local resident Afig Abbasov guilty of premeditated sales of a group of products dangerous for public safety, and sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in prison.

Investigators say Abbasov and his associate brought to Irkutsk 2,000 plastic bottles with fake bath lotion that contained methanol -- which can be fatal if consumed -- instead of regular alcohol, or ethanol.

Poisonings with surrogate alcohol are frequent in Russia, where people sometimes drink substances that contain alcohol that are cheaper than alcoholic beverages.

In and around Irkutsk, a regional capital 4,200 kilometers east of Moscow, 78 people died in December 2016 after drinking a scented bath lotion called Boyaryshnik, Russian for Hawthorn.

The deaths led to restrictions on the sale of surrogate alcohol across Russia and tightening of control over production and sale of drinks, perfumes, and other liquids with more than 25 percent alcohol content as well as medicines containing ethanol.

Abbasov, who for some time managed to avoid arrest, is the last person sentenced in the high-profile case.

In general, 19 men and women, including Abbasov's associate, local officials, as well as owners and employees of several shops, were arrested right after the mass deaths. Some of them received lengthy prison terms, while some were fined.
People who self-isolate over coronavirus will get sick pay, said the headlines. Health secretary Matt Hancock stepped up in the House of Commons to confirm that taking this step should be considered as sickness for employment purposes.

Its a very important message, he said. And who could argue with that?

It came as US oil giant Chevron told a couple of hundred UK staff to work from home for the foreseeable future, an eminently sensible course of action for the company to take.
BEACHWOOD, Ohio -- With the recent conviction of movie producer Harvey Weinstein for crimes against women and his sentencing upcoming on March 11, a very timely program will be coming to Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood.

The Cleveland Jewish News will present An Evening with Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey at 7 p.m. April 22 at the temple, 23737 Fairmount Blvd.

Kantor and Twohey, of The New York Times, will share the story from their bestselling book, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement. The book ended Weinsteins career and catalyzed the #MeToo movement.

Following their presentation, CJN columnist Regina Brett will moderate a question-and-answer session with the pair. A book signing of She Said and a dessert reception will follow.

Tickets are $135 for VIP, which include a meet-and-greet with Kantor and Twohey, heavy hors doeuvres, wine, beer, soft drinks, a signed copy of She Said and post-event dessert reception, or $64 for general admission, which includes a dessert reception. All seats are reserved. To purchase tickets, visit cjn.org/SheSaid.

Sponsorships for the event are available by contacting Gina Lloyd at 216-342-5196 or glloyd@cjn.org.

Youth ambassador: Congratulations to Cleveland Heights Kate Goldberg of the Laurel School (Shaker Heights) Class of 2022 who has been selected as a U.S. Youth Ambassador and will travel to Uruguay this summer.

There, Kate will represent the U.S by participating in a wide range of cross-cultural and community engagement activities.

Kate Goldberg (Photo Courtesy of Laurel School)

Kate underwent a rigorous application and interview process to get the ambassadorship. According to Laurel, Kates proven leadership both at school and within the community, as well as her outstanding language competency, secured her a spot in this prestigious group of only 120 students from across the Western Hemisphere.

Kate has an interest in global studies and plans to use this opportunity to tie into her Capstone Experience at Laurel, which cultivates purpose, relationships and leadership through one of four lenses, including Global Studies.

Three womens art: The art Exhibit Women to Women, which features the work of Kortney Lynum, Katie Hofacker and Kate Morgan, will be on display March 6-27 at the Beachwood Community Center, 25325 Fairmount Blvd. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

A free artists reception will be held from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 8. Exhibit hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays; and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays.

Learning while eating: I dont know about you, but when Im eating, I like to devote my full time and attention to my food. By that, I mean no chit-chat. We only get to eat so much, as there are only so many calories to stuff into our faces, so we have to enjoy it to the fullest. Sure, a TV can be on when Im eating, but that can easily be ignored.

Now, I understand that everyone is different and some dont need to be in communion with their dinner. So, if you are someone who likes to multi-task and learn a little, or a lot, while eating, heres good news -- Congregation Shaarey Tikvahs Entrees & Insights community meals and discussions are again being scheduled.

Yes, some of Clevelands most dynamic players in the emerging food scene will again participate in a series of community meals and discussions. Celebrating all things food and drink, the dinner series Entrees & Insights is scheduled from March 15 through June 28. Hosts will open their homes to a small group of people to enjoy a delicious meal and a chance to talk with Clevelands culinary pioneers in an intimate setting.

Here is the schedule of upcoming events:

-- March 15: Gefilte Fish and the Emerging Food Scene, with Lisa Sands of Edible Cleveland and Jeremy Umansky, semi-finalist for the 2020 James Beard Awards in the Best Chef: Great Lakes category, and owner and executive chef at Larder.

At this event, you will hear how Jewish food is becoming a part of Clevelands burgeoning food scene.

-- March 29: The History of Clevelands Best Known Brewery, with field education representative Michael Williams. Join Williams for an in-depth look at the history of Great Lakes Brewing Company.

-- April 26: Adding Middle East Spice to Clevelands Restaurant Scene, with Doug Katz, owner and executive chef of Zhug.

Chef Katz will share why adding Middle East spice to the local restaurant scene is the next big thing.

-- May 17: Food Insecurity in Cleveland, with Kristin Warzocha, president and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. Warzocha will discuss food insecurity in Cleveland and the work being done to alleviate the problem.

-- Info for May 31, June 14, and June 28 events has yet to be announced.

Congregation Shaarey Tikvah, 26811 Fairmount Blvd. in Beachwood, is an egalitarian conservative congregation whose members are passionate about Judaism.

OK, maybe I can make an exception for Entrees & Insights because, at the above events, they are at least talking about food while eating. That might work for me.

Anyway, further details about Entrees & Insights can be found at shaareytikvah.org/new/entrees-insights-2020/. All dinners are on Sundays starting at 6 p.m. in the Beachwood area. The cost is $100 per person.

Lifelong Learning: We move on now from learning while eating to Lifelong Learning, as in CWRU-Siegal Lifelong Learning, which has announced its next three lectures. Those lectures look like this:

-- The Nobel Laureates Lecture Series will take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, March 3 through April 7, at the Landmark Centre Building, 25700 Science Park Drive in Beachwood.

-- Geauga County Conversations: How To Protect Yourself: Topics In Consumer Protection, with a staff lawyer from the Federal Trade Commissions East Central Region in Cleveland, will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, at Ohman Family Living at Holly, in Newbury Township.

-- Ensuring We Never Forget: Archiving Pittsburghs Tragedy, with lecturer Eric Lidji, director of the Ruah Jewish History Program & Archives, is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 18, at the Landmark Centre Building.

The lectures are open to the community. To register and to get further information, call 216-368-2091, or visit here.

Cutting the cord: If you are interested in cutting the cord and getting rid of cable TV in favor of internet-based ways of watching your favorite shows, stop by the Lee Road Library branch, 2345 Lee Road in Cleveland Heights, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. March 14.

The Tech Talk series program will teach you about streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, connecting these services with your TV through means such as Roku, Apple TV and Fire Stick, and more. You can register for this session, beginning Feb. 29, by calling 216-932-3600.

And, you can learn the basics of PowerPoint, including creation of a slideshow, rearranging slides, and saving and printing a presentation, at PowerPoint in a Nutshell. This one-day class takes place from 7 to 8:30 p.m. March 12 at the University Heights Library, 13866 Cedar Road. A prerequisite is that you should have familiarity with the workings of a mouse and keyboard. Register by calling 216-321-4700.

Good work: Heres a pat on the back to six of our local Sun Press coverage area students who made the deans list for the fall semester at Rochester Institute of Technology. Those students are Halle Masaryk (computer engineering major), Jessa Kaups (mechanical engineering), Angela Bamfield (software engineering) and Tiree Walker (industrial design), of Shaker Heights, and Beachwoods Christopher Reilly (software engineering) and Esther Millas (mechanical engineering).

Meanwhile, at Wheaton College in Illinois, Faith Kim, of Cleveland Heights, was named to the fall deans list.

Listening to piano: Registration is now open for the series of three Prelude to Piano sessions, sponsored by the Leonard Krieger Fund of the Cleveland Foundation and set for three area venues.

The sessions are titled I Love a Piano (And You Will, Too), Listening to Music (Without Feeling Lost) and What Makes It Great (And Not Just Good)? All three of the sessions will be held at The Bop Stop, 2920 Detroit Ave. in Cleveland; the Gilmour Academy Tutor House, 34001 Cedar Road in Gates Mills; and Praxis Fiber Workshop, 15301 Waterloo Road in Cleveland.

If you attend all three sessions, youll be invited to serve on a special jury during the Cleveland International Piano Competition and give away a prize. The sessions are free, but youll need a ticket to attend. To register, visit here.

Religion and politics forum: A community forum titled Religion and Politics: 1787-2020, will be held from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. March 15 in the Fellowship Hall at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Cleveland, 21600 Shaker Blvd. in Shaker Heights.

Learn about the religious roots of the partisan divide, and how political beliefs impact religious issues, and vice-versa. The discussion will also cover whether religious beliefs will have an impact on the 2020 presidential election.

The speaker will be Joseph White, political scientist and director of Case Western Reserve University graduate studies, and director of the Center for Policy Studies.

All are welcome to the free event for coffee and conversation.

Take a chair: University School in Hunting Valley and Shaker Heights has announced six teachers as new chair holders, including four from the Sun Press coverage area. The school-named chair endowments provide the essential support that allows the school to retain outstanding and dynamic faculty by providing additional support and professional development opportunities to its chair holders. University School has 18 funded endowed chairs.

Those newly chaired teachers include Cleveland Heights James Garrett, named The Eugene H. Gray Chair in English, which was established in 1988 and is awarded to a teacher who spreads the awareness of the English languages boundless power and grace; Danny Jones, of Shaker Heights, named The Bruce Griswold Chair in Mathematics, which was established in 1987 to support great mathematics teaching and symbolize the schools commitment to outstanding teachers; Bridgette Nadzam-Kasubick, of Cleveland Heights, named The Conway Chair in Social Studies, which was established to support the teaching of social studies at University Schools Shaker Heights campus; and Cleveland Heights Rebecca Simpson, named The W. Hayden Thompson Chair for Exceptional Faculty Leadership, which was established in 2007 in memory of a longtime University School trustee.

Meet the author in Beachwood: The Beachwood Library, 25501 Shaker Blvd., invites all to meet Eliese Collette Goldbach, author of the memoir RUST: A Memoir of Steel and Grit, at 7 p.m. March 12.

Here is the librarys synopsis: "Raised by deeply Catholic -- and deeply Republican -- parents, Goldbach grew up inspired to pursue the calling of religious life. But just days after her 18th birthday, she was raped -- a trauma that crumbled her faith and led to a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Set on a path she didnt recognize as her own, Eliese eventually found herself wearing a hardhat at age 29, working for ArcelorMittal Steel in Cleveland.

Framed by her first year working inside the mill, and with the contentious 2016 election as a backdrop, RUST is at once a piercingly honest coming-of-age memoir and a timely examination of overlooked steelworkers who have devoted their lives laboring beside molten metal and heavy machinery.

Books will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of Macs Backs-Books on Coventry. Visit here for more information.

If you would like to see an item appear in Press Run, send me an email, at least 12 days prior to an event, at jeff.piorkowski@att.net.

Read more from the Sun Press.
To the editor:

Dear John Moolenaar,

I am sorry to say that we must part ways. Our relationship has been deteriorating for some time. It almost broke my heart when you did not object to separating children from their parents at the border. As a father, I thought you would understand how those policies would cause lifetime harm to children. You did not object. You did nothing.

But Mr. Moolenaar, you went too far when you approved of the assassination of an Iranian general. On your Jan. 21 website post you called it justice!

After the assassination of Soleimani, Iran shot down an aircraft. They probably thought it was ours. What about the innocent people on the plane? Is that justice? Did you forget that our retaliatory air strike caused brain injuries to about 50 U.S. troops? Is that justice?

We are not at war with Iran. Soleimani may be a very bad man, but America should not assassinate a general of their country. Would it be justice if Iran retaliated and assassinated an American general? This does not make us or others safe.

EILEEN GREW

Midland
Vast as the Lone Star state itself, the cinematic landscape of Texas is home to so many iconic film settings. From The Last Picture Show to Rushmore, now film buffs can get a glimpse of the true Texas presence on shooting locations from Waxahachie to Marfa with one cool guide.

MOVIES IN BED: Luxury movie theater experience with beds coming to Houston
By Laman Ismayilova

A room without books is like a body without a soul

Marcus Tullius Cicero

A book is like a best friend who will never walk away from you. It helps you to answer the most Important questions in your life. Reading books give us a chance to immense into the wonderful world of knowledge. They can bring joy to our lives.

Back in the times when paper did not exist, in ancient Egypt, books were written on papyrus.

The sacred book of the fire-worshipers "Avesta" was written before our era on the skin of twelve thousand cows.

As is known from history, Albanian alphabet consisting of 52 letters were prepared in the 5th century AD.

Many books were translated into the Albanian language, and small libraries were collected at schools and churches.

The library science in Azerbaijan stepped into the stage of a turning point in the 11th century.

The creation of many libraries in the country has been associated with a number of prominent persons.

Abulhasan Bahmanyar, philosopher and a student of Ibn Sina, played a major role in the development of librarianship in Azerbaijan.

Bahmanyars private library was considered one of the most beautiful libraries of that time.

This library was full of books and Bahmaniyar turned it into the center of the scholars exchange of ideas.

One of the main places in the library was occupied by the books of Bahmanyar himself.

The Book of Education translated into Arabic and Farsi brought him a great fame not only in Azerbaijan, but throughout the world.

One of the Persian duplicates copied in following years is kept in the Institute of Oriental Studies named after Biruni in Uzbekistan, while Arabic manuscript copies of the work are being protected in a number of libraries around the world in Beirut, Istanbul, Cairo, London and Vatican City.

He also established libraries in Tabriz, Gazaniya and other cities. In the city of Rashidiya named after him in the north-west of Tabriz there were two libraries, as well as a library as part of the university.

It is also difficult to overestimate the importance of the works of Nasreaddin Tusi in the matter of preserving and transmitting to future generations samples of the Azerbaijani and world books.

Tusi had arranged a library in the Maragha observatory built by order of Hulaki khan. The library stored over four hundred thousand books.

Nowadays, libraries and publishing houses in Azerbaijan are of great importance. There are also over 150 publishing houses that are engaged in printing.

The Mirza Fatali Akhundov National Library of Azerbaijan is a central state library of Azerbaijan. Its facades feature the statues of various writers and poets: Nizami Ganjavi, Mahsati, Uzeyir Hajibeyov, Shota Rustaveli, Alexander Pushkin and several others.

Founded in 1922, the library houses books, printed materials, newspapers, maps, dissertations and records. The hall has been provided with alphabetical catalogs of the books in different languages. The rare books, as well as the books about Azerbaijan covering the period until 1920 are stored in the rare book and library museum.

The country is also home to the Museum of Miniature Books. Located within the oldest part of Baku city - Icherisheher, the museum is included in the Guinness Book of Records as the museum with the largest number of miniature books.

The museum opened its doors in 2002 and owns one of the world's great collections of miniature books.

The creator of the museum, Zarifa Salakhova has made a unique contribution to the world of small books.

The main objective for the establishment of the Museum was to revive love for books among the youth.

One of the worlds first miniature books museums is home to over 6,500 books published in 71 countries.

The collection contains "Flower Alphabet", "Pictures of English History", Pushkins "Yevgeni Onegin", "La Fontaine Fables" and the 24-volume "One Thousand and One Nights" a seminal work in Arabic literature.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Its something all of us experienced. After a week-long sickness and constantly being on antibiotics, we all crave to get back to eating and drinking whatever we wish. The mood is the same for people in China.

Source/MailOnline

With the spread of the deadly Coronavirus finally slowing down, many have started to get back to work or school. However, this is as good as abruptly stopping antibiotics while being sick, it causes the virus to develop resistance to the medicine.

To stop that from happening, authorities in China are now reportedly locking people up in their homes to make sure the virus does not spread any further.

According to reports, officials are using electric door seals to monitor residents who keep trying to step out.

Source/MailOnline

A Mail Online report states that the smart device will alert local officials when any residents attempt to leave their homes during their quarantine period.

The officials say that the 24/7 monitoring system will help keep track of the activities of the residents under quarantine, as well as the swarm of migrant workers who are travelling back into the cities.

The device will give authorities real-time locations on their phones when residents activate the seals' sensor by opening their doors.

Source/MailOnline

The streets and subways of Chinas big cities remain disturbingly empty, with the holiday decorations that were put for Lunar New Year before the outbreak.

While Chinese authorities are still warning people to stay indoors, some others are trying to get people to get back on track after the month-long lockdown which drilled a hole through the countrys economy.





According to a Guardian report, officials are trying a balancing act between containing the virus and supporting a faltering economy.

As per CNBC, about a third of 1,000 Chinese companies surveyed in the last week by research firm China Beige Book remain closed, and roughly another third are operating remotely.
Kabul/IBNS: With Coronavirus spreading across several nations in the world since its outbreak in China, 15 suspect cases of the disease infected people were reported from Kabul, Baghlan, Herat, and Ghor provinces in Afghanistan, media reports said.

Afghanistans Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) spokesperson Wahidullah Mayar was quoted as saying by Khaama Press that 5 suspect cases of coronavirus are registered in Kabul.

Out of 10 cases registered in Kabul 5 of them were confirmed negative, Mayar told the news agency.

The outbreak of Coronavirus originated from Wuhan China negatively affected Afghanistans economy including exports and imports to and from China, reported the Afghanistan-based news agency.

The prices of medical masks and groceries that contain Vitamin C in the country ever since the first case of coronavirus broke in the country.
CAIRO  Egyptians finally saw the end of former President Hosni Mubarak, nine years after he was deposed in the 2011 Arab Spring. At the age of 91, Mubarak died while in a hospital Feb. 25.

The office of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi mourned Mubarak as one of the leaders and heroes of the glorious [1973] war [with Israel]. The government declared three days of mourning nationwide.

The countrys military also mourned the death of Mubarak, one of its sons and one of the leaders of the glorious  war.

In the presence of government officials, Mubarak was given a military funeral with full honors at a mosque in an eastern New Cairo neighborhood. Officials extended condolences and shook hands with Mubaraks two sons, Alaa and Gamal, and his widow, Suzanne.

A few dozen Mubarak supporters gathered at the mosque early Feb. 26, wearing black and carrying posters of the former president.

President Sisis approval of a military service for Mubarak stirred up controversy, particularly on social media, with many arguing that Mubarak doesnt deserve a military funeral, legally or politically, because he was deposed in 2011 and convicted of corruption.

It is illogical, Abdel Azim Hammad, political analyst and writer, told Al-Monitor. He said a military funeral with honors was against the constitution, which glorifies the January 25 Revolution that ousted Mubarak.

He said such a funeral shouldnt have been held, given the poor state of Egypt after nearly three decades of Mubarak's rule.

He was the extension of a system that has existed since the Free Officers declared in 1953 that the monarchy was abolished and a republic system would take its place, and he doesnt have political visibility or goals, Hammad said.

Born in May 1928, Mubarak became president in October 1981, when Islamist extremists killed late President Anwar Sadat at a military parade commemorating the 1973 war.

But lawmaker Mohamed Abu Hamed said the criticism of honoring Mubarak with a military funeral was unfair.

Mubarak deserved to have a military funeral, because of his background as a former president and one of the old leaders of the Egyptian military, he said.

Abu Hamed said Mubarak had many positives at the beginning of his rule and kept Egypt stable throughout his reign.  Also he stepped down from power peacefully in 2011 without transforming it into the fate of Syria and Libya.

Mubarak was forced to resign amid massive protests against his autocratic rule. He resigned after an 18-day uprising, transferring power to former Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawy, who led the military council after Mubarak's ouster in 2011.

Mubarak faced charges related to the killing of over 800 people in the protests. He was sentenced to life in prison along with his security chief, but he was cleared of the charges. He was then convicted of corruption and sentenced to three years.

Mohamed Zaree, a human rights activist with the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, said the funeral proves that Sisis regime is an extension of Mubaraks.

He compared the governments reaction to Mubarak's death to that of President Mohammed Morsi last June, when he collapsed in a courtroom.

They did not issue even a statement on Morsis death, he said.

In 2013, the military removed Morsi from power amid nationwide protests against his divisive rule. Sisi was elected president the following year.

Rights groups and activists say Sisis rule has been far more oppressive than Mubaraks.

We are busy with the current situation, which has become worse under Sisis rule, Zaree said. That has made people put Mubarak's legacy aside.

Three days before Mubaraks death, his sons, Alaa and Gamal, were acquitted of illicit trading during the sale of a bank four years before the 2011 uprising.

The ruling raised questions about the future political roles of the two men, in particular Gamal, who was the heir apparent to Mubarak.

Gamal was one of the reasons for the January 25 Revolution, and [he] is still reviled more widely than his father, Zaree said.

Gamal Mubarak amassed power during the last decade of Hosni Mubarak's rule. Hosni Mubarak appointed his son as a deputy secretary-general of the National Democratic Party in 2006, and included him in diplomatic missions. Gamal's policies assisted top Egyptian businessmen amid rumors of corruption.

Yet, despite the popular criticism of Mubarak, a number of countries  from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to Israel  expressed their condolences. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman conveyed his "heartfelt condolences" in a message to Sisi, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will "continue to follow" the path of his "personal friend."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 17:40:03|Editor: xuxin

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HANOI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam will suspend visa-free travel for South Korean travelers starting from Saturday amid concerns about the coronavirus spreading, the country's National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control announced at a meeting held here Friday.

Amid the complicated developments of the outbreak worldwide, Vietnam will tighten entry control measures, especially for citizens of countries where the outbreak is widespread and Vietnamese citizens returning home from epidemic-hit countries.

Accordingly, all Iranian and Italian nationals, as well as those arriving Vietnam from South Korea and those visiting South Korea within the past 14 days, will be subject to a 14-day quarantine upon their arrival.

It was suggested at the meeting that those suspected to contract the virus should be transferred right from passenger boarding stairs to quarantine facilities.

Meanwhile, localities across the country are requested to continue to closely monitor the suspected cases who are put in medical quarantine and the Ministry of Public Security needs to promptly announce localities about Vietnamese citizens returning to their home country, cooperating with families to implement screening, monitoring and quarantine measures, according to the Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister at the meeting.

Vietnam has not recorded any new infection of coronavirus after Feb. 13 and all confirmed cases in the country have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.

As of Friday, 79 people are suspected to contract coronavirus and in quarantine in the country, while other 4,939 who had close contacts with suspected cases or arrived Vietnam from the epidemic hit areas are being monitored, according to the country's health ministry.
Savage terror attacks in recent years have killed thousands of people in the United States, Western Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The increasingly brazen acts, while violent and tragic, have been limited in scope because of the terrorists dependence on conventional weaponsfirearms, vehicles, and homemade bombs. After each incident, a familiar sequence of responses ensues: politicians call for resolve; civil authorities and residents work to clean up the damaged area; medical personnel give aid to the victims; shopkeepers and merchants reopen. And almost everyone outside those directly affected moves on, hoping that terror wont call their number in the future. Getting on with life makes sense, of course, but complacency about terrorism looms as a serious problem in free societiesespecially since future terrorist threats hold the potential to shake the foundations of our society. The overwhelming evidencefrom Osama bin Ladens hard drive to incessant ISIS tweetsis that our jihadist enemies are determined to break through conventional limitations on death-dealing and do us even more grievous harm.

Of all the types of unconventional threats we face, bioterror may be the most worrisome. The danger is especially pressing for high-visibility areas such as Washington and, especially, New York. Gothams centrality as a cultural and financial center, along with its size and symbolism, makes it a more desirable target for jihadists than any other city. According to a Heritage Foundation breakdown of 74 failed terrorist plots against the United States between 9/11 and 2015, 16, or 22 percent, targeted New York, more than any other U.S. cityone reason that New York felt the need to create its own antiterror unit. (Another reason: city officials didnt trust federal law enforcement and intelligence entities to give the NYPD actionable intelligence on a timely basis.)

Biological attacks are disease outbreaks on steroids, requiring a speed and scope of response much greater than typically needed for natural infectious-disease eventsor conventional terror. Responding to bioterror in New York would present particularly significant challenges because of the citys size, population density, and transportation issues.

Bioterror is widely seen as the stuff of movies and spy novels, but history shows that its all-too possibleand that law enforcement is ill equipped to prevent or even to prosecute it. Thus far, America has seen few genuine bioterror incidents (and none that matches the dark plots in Tom Clancy novels). Yet even these rare and not terribly sophisticated attacks have made an impact.

The Chicago Tylenol poisonings of 1982, for example, used cyanide, not a biological agent, but still killed seven people, panicked a nation, resulted in 32 million bottles of Tylenol getting pulled from the shelves, and changed product-safety packaging forever. In 1984, members of the Buddhist Rajneeshee cult spread salmonella out of plastic bags at restaurants in The Dalles, Oregon, east of Portland. The cult wanted to influence local elections and hoped that poisoning non-cult members would improve their electoral prospects. The poisonings sickened about 750 people and hospitalized 45. Fortunately, none died. The 2001 anthrax mailings killed five, injured members of the media, shut down the Capitol, threw the U.S. postal service into turmoil, and sent Americans looking for Cipro prescriptions in anticipation of the next dispersal. The Tylenol villain was never identified; the anthrax culprit was also never definitively identified, despite what Kelly McKinney, former deputy commissioner at the New York City Office of Emergency Management, called one of the largest and most complex investigations in the history of law enforcement. And in the Oregon cult example, federal officials caught the perpetrators only after they admitted what they had done. As these examples make clear, it is exceedingly hard to prevent or detect bioterror, let alone catch the perpetrator.

Another fearsome aspect to bioterror is the massive damage that it can potentially cause. Dark Winter, a 2001 simulation exercise by the federal government, gamed out what would happen in a smallpox outbreak for which the nation was unprepared. The exercise used actual U.S. vaccine stockpile figures to determine its parameters; officials had enough vaccine for only 5 percent of the U.S. population, and 1 million Americans died in just 68 days. In 2009, a National Security Council assessment put potential deaths from an anthrax attack in the hundreds of thousands, and the economic cost at more than $1 trillion.

Experts worry that such scenarios have become increasingly more plausible. As the shock of terror wanes from its awful regularity, terrorists may feel the need to intensify the fear that they generate. At some point, these methods will no longer be as novel or effective in sowing fear as they have been, Columbias Stephen Morse told me, fueling terrorists temptation to overcome the technical and perceptual barriers and move to more dramatic means. Similarly, former White House biodefense aide Robert Kadlec notes: While terrorists have not used biological agents in terrorist attacks yet, the trends indicate more terrorist groups are interested in conducting such attacks.

Terrorists development of weapons is a much scarier concern than their acquiring of weapons. When we talk about terrorists acquiring a nuclear weapon, says former Navy secretary Richard Danzig, were talking about just thattheyre acquiring a weapon. With biological weapons, were talking about acquiring the ability to produce weapons. Once that ability exists, Danzig says, You really have to think about biology as potentially the subject of a campaign, where somebody keeps attacking, rather than a one-shot incident. Morse compares bioweapons knowledge to learning how to assemble improvised explosive devices (IEDs): Once a few well-connected people learn how, they can teach others.

Developing the capability is difficult but far from impossible. As former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) director Brett Giroir told the New York Times, A person at a graduate-school level has all the tools and technologies to implement a sophisticated program to create a bioweapon. New technologies are making the terrorists job easier. According to Kelly McKinney, while the technical requirements to develop and disseminate a biological agent are high . . . certain disruptive technologies are making it easier for the bad guys. We are hearing that in the not too distant future, these agents and devices could be brought together in a suburban basement.

We cannot know the true impact of a massive bioterror event, but the evidence suggests that the United States is not yet ready for one. Former senator Joseph Lieberman and former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge cochaired a recent Blue Ribbon Panel on biodefense on which I participated. The panel concluded: The United States is underprepared for biological threats. Nation states and unaffiliated terrorists (via biological terrorism) and nature itself (via emerging and reemerging infectious diseases) threaten us. While biological events may be inevitable, their level of impact on our country is not.

According to Stanfords Lawrence Wein, a successful anthrax attack in New York could cost 100,000 lives, with full decontamination taking more than 300 years. As Judith Miller wrote in City Journal nearly a decade ago, a major anthrax incident would test New York severely. (See Bioterrorisms Deadly Math, Autumn 2008.) Miller found that New Yorks distribution, transportation, and decontamination capabilities were all inadequate for bioterror. That other cities are similarly unprepared should be of little comfort, given New Yorks prominence as a target.

Thankfully, New York has made major progress over the last decade, with heightened awareness and extensive planning and training programs in placeas well as its own biological-detection capabilities. New Yorks Countermeasures Response Unit Office has built an extensive infrastructure, including points of distribution (POD) sites, trained management and staff, materials and equipment, and supporting information-management systems, McKinney says. Team members believed that they could provide antibiotics to the entire population of New York City within 72 hours, he observes, and large-scale training exercises seem to bear out this confidence.

New York recently tested its vulnerable subways as part of its preparatory efforts. In the spring of 2016, the city worked with the Department of Homeland Security to release an innocuous gas in the subwayson the Number 4, 5, and 6 linesto measure its potential effects on airflow. Bob Ingram of the New York Fire Departments Center for Terrorism and Disaster Preparedness said that the test was extremely beneficial. We can all think about how this behavior is going to be, but this test will hopefully have enough data to back it up with science.

And its not all tests: New York has seen its share of real-world disease outbreaks over the last decade, including inhalation anthrax in 2006, multiple hepatitis A exposures in 2008 and 2013, the H1N1 swine flu of 2009, Ebola in 2014, Legionnaires disease in 2015, and Zika virus in 2016. None of these approached the scale of a massive bio-attack, but each helped refine the Department of Health and Mental Hygienes capabilities. New York City has planned, trained, and exercised in a regular fashion that, quite frankly, other cities have not, says Kadlec, including being perhaps the only jurisdiction to conduct a no-notice exercise. With relentless focus and hard work, the city has made considerable strides in readiness.

Despite all of New Yorks good work, serious vulnerabilities remain. On the prevention front, for example, environmental screening for airborne pathogens is a key form of detectionbut particularly tough in New York, with its more than 240 skyscrapers, more than double that of any other U.S. city. (Chicago is the only other American city with more than 100.) Each one of those 240-plus skyscrapers is its own bioterror target, with vulnerable ventilation systems that could be used to spread a biological agent to thousands of inhabitants. Skyscrapers are more promising targets for bioterrorists than an outdoor environment; a closed-ventilation system avoids the vagaries of weather effects and ultraviolet degradation, maintaining full potency of the biological agent. Building managers are aware of the vulnerabilities, and most have security in place, but its easy to imagine a breach.

The sheer size of New York City is another hurdle. With five boroughs, 8.5 million people, and more than 300 square miles, even the citys large and relatively well-prepared force of first responders has a lot of ground to cover. And in contrast to 9/11, bioterror would likely be spread out across the city, with multiple points of convergence. Navigating New York City traffic to get to the affected areas would be daunting. Further, the subways, which are vital to maintaining a manageable traffic flow, are notoriously hard to protect. Tests of biological-agent detection in American subways such as the one conducted in spring 2016 are helpful, but they have high failure rates. And government testing often cannot detect pathogens unless they are at stratospheric levelswell beyond the level necessary to be fatal.

Another form of detection comes from doctors and other health professionals. If hospitals detect unusual symptoms, especially multiple occurrences of specific symptoms, they notify the Centers for Disease Control. New York has 62 hospitals, including at least two where translators communicate in 150 languages. Health professionals in such a large city with a sizable transient population and a constant influx of visitors may be slower to pick up on an unusual disease vector. New York, recognizing its potential vulnerability, has put into place more active monitoring to detect unusual disease patterns. The New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene uses whats known as a syndromic surveillance system to monitor unusual or alarming patterns that could emerge from emergency-room activity, first-responder calls, and over-the-counter medication sales. But the task remains formidable.

The federal agencies in charge are highly bureaucratized and not always nimble in response. McKinney worries about the sizable gap between the citys preparedness and that of state and federal officials, who, having done much less, will bring an enormous amount of chaos and confusion with them. New York will have to do more to bring about cooperation with entities that may be less focused on bioterror. The city must demand more cooperation and focus from the state and localities and work to ensure that its preparedness exercises include state and federal officials.

One intangible factor: civic culture and the character of residents. New Yorkers pride themselves on toughnesssometimes to the irritation of the rest of the countryand they have shown a willingness to soldier on through the most unusual circumstances, as they do through other hazards of daily life in the Big Apple. If the famous New Yorker resilience could help against a real pathogen, the city would have little to worry about.

Unlabeled, secret stockpile warehouses are strategically placed at 12 locations throughout the country.

Some of the issues regarding New Yorks size and complexity are compounded when it comes to responding to bioterror. The foundation of U.S. bioterror-combating strategy is based on the accumulation of countermeasures in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), which would be rapidly distributed when needed.

The SNS, containing about $7 billion worth of countermeasures, costs the U.S. about half a billion annually to develop and maintain. The materials include vaccines, responsive agents such as antivirals, and tools for first responders, such as respirators, as well as agents to respond to radiation and chemical attacks. The exact nature of the products in the SNS is classified, for good reason. If everybody knows exactly what we have, then you know exactly what you can do to us that we cant fix, says SNS director Greg Burel. And we just dont want that to happen. The SNS locations themselves look like large, nondescript warehouses. If you envision, say, a Walmart Supercenter and stick two of those side by side and take out all the drop ceiling, thats about the same kind of space that we would occupy in one of these storage locations, says Burel.

For the most part, the stockpile has what experts think it needs: for example, 300 million treatment courses for smallpox, enough for every citizen, and enough anthrax vaccine to handle a three-city incident. In fact, the U.S. hired a consulting firm, Gryphon Scientific, to evaluate whether it was stockpiling the right products; Gryphon concluded that it was. According to the firms Rocco Casagrande, one thing we can say is that across the variety of threats that we examined, the Strategic National Stockpile has the adequate amount of materials in it and by and large the right type of thing.

A stockpile is useful only if it can get materials where they need to be in a crisis. The SNS is very effective at enabling government officials to send needed countermeasures anywhere in the United States on short notice, thereby reducing the danger of a bio-strike spreading out of control. Unlabeled, secret stockpile warehouses are strategically placed at 12 locations throughout the country to ensure the efficient delivery of supplies. The goal: to be capable of getting crucial countermeasures to any location in the country within 24 hours.

Then the materials have to be distributed effectively. Currently, the primary method for dispensing SNS supplies is by the Points of Distribution (POD) system. Other possible distribution methods exist, such as using the postal service or encouraging the purchase of home med kits. New Yorks planners assume, though, that postal workers would not show up for distribution in a bioterror scenario. Even if they did, the city acknowledges that it lacks the capability to keep them safe. As for home med kits, paternalistically minded public-health officials tend to be skeptical of giving individuals autonomy over the purchase of countermeasures for their own consumption. It is thus likely that a POD would be the primary distribution method.

In the POD approach, the drugs are delivered to a central location (schools and other public spaces), and people must access them on their own. This method raises significant concerns. First, it discriminates against those who lack the means to transport themselves to the pickup spot. Second, the POD method is also a blind distribution: aiming for fairness, it does not necessarily target those who need the countermeasures the most, such as members of a particularly high-risk population. The government does draw up lists of primary recipientsincluding first responders, vulnerable populations, the military, and some key government officialsbut POD-based distribution does not lend itself easily to that kind of prioritization. The danger of insufficient supplies at a distribution center during a tense period is potentially combustible and could lead to unrest. Third, some countermeasures may require a qualified health professional to administer, which complicates the question of staffing the distribution centers.

In recent years, New York has engaged in exercises to ensure that public-health officials are ready for a possible citywide distribution of emergency countermeasures. In a surprise citywide bioterror drill in August 2014, 1,500 city employees from 13 agencies set up 30 distribution sites across the city in less than eight hours. Overall, New Yorks health department has trained more than 3,000 employees in the establishment and operation of PODs. Recognizing the transportation difficulties that would emerge, city planners have wisely assigned staffers to distribution locations near their own homes. The test persuaded the CDC to take the groundbreaking step of forward-deploying assets from the SNS into New Yorks own stockpiling warehouse in order to avoid an additional step in distribution.

New Yorks relevant experience also offers some encouragement. In 2009, for example, during the H1N1 influenza, New York administered vaccines to 195,000 schoolchildren at 1,200 New York schools, as well as 50,000 additional individuals at 29 locations across the city. Going further back, in 1947, New Yorks Department of Health vaccinated more than 6 million New Yorkers during a minor smallpox outbreak. The vaccinations took place at 179 clinics and benefited from the cooperation of key groups in the city, including doctors, labor unions, and local businesses. Of course, New Yorks population has increased by 2.5 million people since thenmore than the total population of all but two other U.S. cities: Los Angeles and Chicago.

With a population the size of New Yorks, telling inhabitants what to do and where to go wont be easy. With all the progress in new communications technologies of recent years, many still fail in times of crisis. After 9/11, for example, telephone circuits were overloaded. New York has faced such obstacles before. In 1999, the city set up a hotline for residents worried about the outbreak of West Nile virus. The network responded to more than 150,000 queries over seven weeks. In the case of bioterror, officials would need to reach out to many more individuals over a much shorter period of time.

Cross-community cooperationthat is, how well people will respond, work together, and obey authoritiesis also crucial. The 1965 New York City blackout, which affected 30 million people across the Northeast, was recalled nostalgically as a pleasant hiccup by city residents. People got along splendidly (arrest totals that day were below average), the power was restored in about 13 hours, and some later tittered that the hospitals saw a slight baby boom nine months later. Just 12 years later, though, on July 13, 1977, three separate lightning bolts struck and destroyed three power lines in Westchester County, New York, leading to a very different blackout experience, with more than 1,600 stores looted or damaged, more than 1,000 fires, and more than 3,700 people arrested. The mayhem caused over $300 million in damages. Part of the reason for the contrast was a breakdown of social norms in the intervening years. New York in 1977 was a very different place from what it had been in 1965more crime-ridden, more volatile, and struggling to overcome bankruptcy.

While New York in 2017 is dramatically safer than it was in 1977, it is still a far different city from what it was in 1965or in 1947. Bioterror response plans count on the cooperation of a pliant populace to show up at PODs or vaccination clinics. Its not at all clear that New Yorkers today could be classified as pliant. The problems we have seen recently in terms of the tensions between the police and Mayor Bill de Blasio, as well as ongoing protests from groups such as Black Lives Matter, point to a worrisome level of distrust between authorities and some of the populace.

Some authorities even seem conflicted themselves, seeing emergency situations as periods in which police forces accrete dangerous powers. Less than a year after the 2001 anthrax episode, the New York Civil Liberties Unions Robert Perry testified about the Model Emergency State Health Powers Act (MESHPA), a draft bill that would give states additional powers in the case of a public-health emergency. Perry warned that government, acting in the name of public safety, has demonstrated bad judgment, and worse, using state police powers in a discriminatory manner to suspend freedoms based upon race or national origin. He saw the bills definition of a public-health emergency as overly broad and warned that it fails to clarify sufficiently the circumstances that would justify the declaration of such an emergency. On the right, Phyllis Schlaflys Eagle Forum denounced MESHPA as a Totalitarian bill on health pending in your state! MESHPA is hardly faultless legislation; but the pushback against it from the Right and the Left illustrated how government actions in a true public-health emergency could face skepticism, lawsuits, and other actions that may impede governments ability to respond.

Where does that leave us? Looking to New Yorks considerable assetsits unmatched police and counterterror forces, its centrality to Homeland Security planning, its resources, and its peoplethere are reasons to believe that the city would prove equal to bioterror, should it happen. Yet given the existential crisis that such an attack would present, New York must remain ever vigilant to keep its residents safe.

Top Photo: New Yorks more than 240 skyscrapers are particularly vulnerable to bio-attacks through their ventilation systems. (VOLKAN FURUNCU/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES)
A Syrian government airstrike Thursday in the country's Idlib province killed at least 29 Turkish soldiers, a Turkish official said.

Rahmi Dogan, the governor of Turkey's Hatay province, said additional troops were injured, while the monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll higher, at 34. Local media reports that after the airstrike, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called an emergency meeting of his top security officials.

Syrian rebels backed by Turkey have control of some territory in Idlib, and the Syrian government, with the support of Russia, is trying to retake those areas. Turkey began sending more troops to Idlib earlier this month, in an attempt to slow down the Syrian army's advance across the province. The intense fighting has sparked Syria's latest humanitarian crisis, as hundreds of thousands of displaced people are now fleeing toward the Turkish border.

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 09:48:06|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan flowers are transported directly to China again as China Southern Airlines on Wednesday resumed flights to Nairobi after a two-week hiatus over the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

More than 1 ton of high quality plateau flowers from 10 local farms were put on board the plane of the airline on Wednesday night, said He Qinwen, a Nairobi-based Chinese entrepreneur who exports Kenyan products to China, on Thursday.

Local flower farmers have faced losses after cancellations of orders from Chinese companies due to the suspension of direct flights, said He, adding that the resumed direct flights would help local flower farmers who rely on the Chinese market.

The goods transported by the airline also include 176 pieces of Kenyan glass products, he added.

"China Southern Airlines resumed its flights to Nairobi today. All 239 passengers were screened onboard, cleared and advised to self-quarantine for the next 14 days," Kenya's Health Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

On Feb. 11, the airline suspended its flights on the Guangzhou-Changsha-Nairobi route, citing the need to combat the outbreak.
Royals without official titles lead very different lives from their counterparts. Ahead, find out what it really means to be a royal without an official title.

Being royalty without an official title means they wont have an HRH (His/Her Royal Highness) before their name or any other titles we might commonly associate with royals including prince, princess, duke, or duchess. Royal titles can get confusing because one person might have a dozen titles they are called in different locations or on varying occasions but overall, not having a title means a variety of different things for royals.

Royals sometimes decline titles

Its not exactly unheard of for royal family members to decline titles for their children. According to Town and Country. the British royal familys Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips turned down Queen Elizabeth IIs offer of titles for their children Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall (nee Phillips). When Peter and Zara grew up and started families of their own, that meant their children didnt get titles.

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex also decided against a title for their son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, following his birth in May 2019.

Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor held by his mother Meghan, Duchess of Sussex on Sept. 25, 2019, during a royal tour of South Africa | Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImage

Instead of a royal title making him a prince, the one-year-old is referred to as Master Archie.

More and more royals seem to be moving away from official titles for their children. In 2019, the King of Sweden stripped his five grandchildren of their royal titles. The kids parents, the kings own children, made public statements saying they were happy with the decision because it meant their kids were free to lead normal lives.

When royal parents have declined official titles for their children in the name of giving them the most normal life possible, what does that look like in their day-to-day lives?

Those without titles arent required to perform royal duties

While Prince George, the oldest child of William and Catherine, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, might one day gripe about having to attend one too many royal engagements, his cousin Archie wont have the same problem. Thats because those without royal titles arent required to perform royal duties e.g. attend national festivities, dignitaries funerals, and receptions among other activities.

They have more freedom

Because royals sans titles arent bound to perform royal duties, they have more freedom to do other things such as attend school, maybe work a job outside the royal family, and have more options when it comes to where they choose to live.

Royals without official titles have more privacy

In theory, royals without titles have more privacy because they arent in the spotlight as a result of not having to regularly attend high-profile functions. They can lead relatively normal lives meaning they might be able to get away with walking down the street do some grocery shopping without drawing too much attention.

Mike Tindall and Zara Tindall with their daughters Mia Tindall and Lena Tindall on. Sept. 9, 2018 | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

While royals without titles certainly have more freedom and privacy, that isnt to say those with official titles dont also have some level of the same things. Princess Beatrice of York and her younger sister Princess Eugenie of York both have jobs outside of the British royal family. While theyre public figures, theyre certainly not in the royal spotlight as often as other senior members of the British royal family.
Hot Topics Recap: Coronavirus

Following are the latest Coronavirus news releases and story ideas for reporters, bloggers and media outlets. These recaps, curated by Business Wire, provide reporters and bloggers around the globe instant access to the latest news releases, providing relevant and trending content to share with their audiences. Discover more news via Business Wire's Hot Topic recaps or create a custom news feed specific to your needs here . This service is provided at no charge to members of the media and financial communities.

BEIJING--CGTN: How China Mobilizes Whole Country to Contain Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Source: CGTN

PARIS, France & CAMBERLEY, England--Novacyt S.A.: Coronavirus Test Update Source: Novacyte S.A.

SHANGHAI--Geely Auto Receives TUV Rheinland's Vehicle Level Solid Particulates/Aerosol Filtering Protection China-mark Certificate Source: TUV Rheinland Group

OSAKA, Japan--Osaka Matsui Management Reports on Safe-Haven Assets Rally Amid External Influences Source: Osaka Matsui Management

HONG KONG--Tricor Group Releases COVID-19 Business Sentiment & Resilience Barometer Report Highlighting the Acute Financial and Operational Challenges Facing Companies in APAC Source: Tricor Group

NEW YORK--JetBlue Suspends Change and Cancel Fees for New Reservations to Give Customers Booking Confidence as Coronavirus Concerns Evolve Source: JetBlue

FOSTER CITY, Calif.--Gilead Sciences Initiates Two Phase 3 Studies of Investigational Antiviral Remdesivir for the Treatment of COVID-19 Source: Gilead Sciences, Inc.

HILDEN, Germany & GERMANTOWN, Maryland--QIAGEN announces worldwide shipments of QIAstat-Dx test kits for SARS-CoV-2 Source: QIAGEN

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--Premier Inc. Celebrates a Year of Success in Eliminating Drug Shortages Source: Premier Inc.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Velodyne Lidar Announces Sales Agreement With Idriverplus Source: Velodyne Lidar, Inc.

LOS ANGELES--Coronavirus: AHF Thanks Members of Congress who say 'No' to Exclusive Patent Rights for Vaccine Source: AIDS Healthcare Foundation

LOS ANGELES--Put Lives over Politics - WHO Must Declare Coronavirus a Pandemic Now! Source: AIDS Healthcare Foundation

MADISON, Wis.--Promega Custom Manufacturing Capabilities Aid in Rapid Development of Co-Diagnostics' New Coronavirus Test Source: Promega Corporation

DENVER--ClinOne Offers Complimentary Support to Researchers Racing to Develop the Coronavirus or COVID-19 Vaccine Source: ClinOne

NINGBO, China--University of Nottingham Ningbo China Researcher Helps Strengthen City's COVID-19 Resilience Source: University of Nottingham Ningbo China

SINGAPORE--Best's Commentary: Southeast Asian Insurers Demonstrate Corporate Social Responsibility in Response to Coronavirus Source: AM Best

TOKYO--Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd: Support for Control of Novel Coronavirus in China Source: Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd.

SALT LAKE CITY--Co-Diagnostics Completes Submission of CE Marking Registration for COVID-19 Coronavirus Test Source: Co-Diagnostics, Inc.

LOS ANGELES--Patents Must Not Block Coronavirus Treatment Source: AIDS Healthcare Foundation

BEIJING--CGTN: Opportunities and Challenges as Lessons Go Online Amid China's Coronavirus Outbreak Source: China Global Television Network

SAN DIEGO--SGI-DNA Equipping Researchers With Critical Tools to Combat Coronavirus Disease (COVID-2019) Source: SGI-DNA

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.--Spikes in High-Risk Vulnerabilities and Public Cloud-Based Attacks Dominate Threat Landscape, Imperva Researchers Find With New Cyber Threat Index Source: Imperva, Inc.

SALT LAKE CITY--Co-Diagnostics Announces New Vector Control Orders and Continued Progress Toward Regulatory Clearance for Coronavirus Test Source: Co-Diagnostics, Inc.

TAIPEI, Taiwan--Irvine Humphries Global Analysts Say the US Federal Reserve Is Dismissing Concerns About the Possible Impact of the Coronavirus on the US Economy Source: Irvine Humphries Global

ODENSE, Denmark--China Buys Danish Robots to Fight Coronavirus Source: Blue Ocean Robotics

TAIPEI, Taiwan--TrendForce Presents Comprehensive Analysis of COVID-19 Outbreak's Impact on Global High-Tech Industry Source: TrendForce

LONDON--A Q&A Session with SpendEdge's Thought Leader on the Current Pharmaceutical Industry Against the Backdrop of the Corona Virus Epidemic Source: SpendEdge

LAUSANNE, Switzerland--Leman Micro Devices: Smartphones Can Detect Symptoms of Infection and Put Health Monitoring in Everyone's Hands Source: Leman Micro Devices

LONDON--Global Investors Look to Diversify Portfolios Amid Coronavirus Chaos Source: Henley & Partners

TOKYO--Mitsubishi Electric to Support Coronavirus (COVID-19) Relief Efforts in China Source: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

NEW YORK--Oliver Wyman Sees Expansion Ahead for Aviation Industry Despite Challenges Source: Oliver Wyman

MILTON KEYNES, England--Strategy Analytics: New Record for Smart Speakers As Global Sales Reached 146.9 Million in 2019 Source: Strategy Analytics

BURLINGTON, ass.--Everbridge Launches New Coronavirus Risk Data Enhancement for Critical Event Management (CEM) Source: Everbridge, Inc.







GENEVA, Ill.--The Role of Roquette's KLEPTOSE HPCD In the Fight Against Coronavirus Source: Roquette

NEW YORK--Internet of Things Consortium Applauds Companies Pulling Out of Mobile World Congress for Putting Their Employees' Health and Safety First Source: The Internet of Things Consortium

SALT LAKE CITY--Co-Diagnostics, Inc. to Present its Rapid Response to New Coronavirus in Washington D.C. Conference Source: Co-Diagnostics, Inc.

TAIPEI, Taiwan--Advantech Actions in Response to COVID-19 Source: Advantech

HONG KONG--Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund/HSBC JUMPSTARTER 2020 Global Pitch Competition Grand Finale Announces Top Five Winners SOURCE: The Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.--Coronavirus: UNC Health Care Provides Expert Video Interviews for Media Outlet Use Source: UNC Health Care

LONDON--GSMA Statement on MWC Barcelona 2020 From John Hoffman, CEO GSMA Limited Source: GSMA

ST. PAUL, Minn.--Ergotron and Ingram Micro Partner to Donate Medical Carts to Aid in Coronavirus Outbreak Source: Ergotron

OLDWICK, N.J.--Best's Special Report: Positive Trends Continue for the U.S. Economy Source: AM Best

OXFORD, England--The Native Antigen Company Introduces Novel Coronavirus Antigens Source: The Native Antigen Company

TAIPEI, Taiwan--Taiwan Excellence Assures Health and Safety to Visitors during Global Novel Coronavirus Outbreak Source: Taiwan External Trade Development Council

LOS ANGELES--AHF Dedicates Asia Bureau Office to Heroic Wuhan Doctor Source: AIDS Healthcare Foundation

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--5G Could Boost IT Spending in 2020, But Slowing PC Sales and Coronavirus Disruption Will Inhibit Overall Growth, According to IDC Black Books Source: IDC

HONG KONG--A Coronavirus Boost for Valentine's Day Online Florist Source: Gift Flowers HK

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Moderna Announces Progress in Prophylactic Vaccines Modality with CMV Vaccine Phase 2 Study Data Now Expected in Third Quarter 2020 and Expands Investment in This Core Modality with Three New Development Candidates Source: Moderna, Inc.

SALT LAKE CITY--Co-Diagnostics, Inc. Announces Sales of New Coronavirus Test Source: Co-Diagnostics, Inc.

SHANGHAI--Flag Raising Ceremony Hosted by ATLATL For Coronavirus Warriors Source: ATLATL

BRIDGEWATER, N.J.--iconectiv Withdraws from MWC Barcelona 2020 over Coronavirus-related Concerns Source: iconectiv

OMAHA, Neb.--TD Ameritrade Investor Movement Index: IMX Begins 2020 on High Note Source: TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation

CHENGDU, China--Clover Successfully Produced 2019-nCoV Subunit Vaccine Candidate and Detected Cross-Reacting Antibodies from Sera of Multiple Infected Patients Source: Clover Biopharmaceuticals

ESPOO, Finland--Development of Novodiag Assay for Safe and Easy Molecular Testing of Novel Coronavirus and Influenza Viruses Source: Mobidiag

HEFEI, China--iFLYTEK Partners with Hancom Group to Donate Supplies to Combat Coronavirus Source: iFLYTEK

STONY BROOK N.Y.--Applied DNA Sciences Subsidiary, LineaRx, and Takis Biotech Collaborate for Development of a Linear DNA Vaccine Candidate Against Wuhan Coronavirus 2019-nCoV Source: Applied DNA Sciences Inc.

DENVER--VF Corporation Provides Update on Business Impact of Coronavirus in China Source: VF Corporation

LONG BEACH, Calif.--EB-5 Industry Leader ALC Spearheads Medical Donations and Support to Help Fight Wuhan Coronavirus Source: American Lending Center

PARIS & CAMBERLEY, England--Novacyt S.A.: Update on Novel Coronavirus Test Source: Novacyt S.A.

SINGAPORE--NCH Products to Assist in Dealing with 2019 Novel Coronavirus-Acute Respiratory Disease (2019-nCOV-ARD) Source: NCH Asia

HOBOKEN, N.J.--As Global Coronavirus Concerns Grow, Octaplas Provides Enhanced Safety Option Source: Octapharma USA

BEIJING--New Frontier Health Provides Coronavirus Readiness Update Source: New Frontier Health Corporation

WUHAN, China--CloudMinds Donates Emergency Shipment of 5G Cloud Robots to Help Combat the Coronavirus Epidemic in Wuhan and Shanghai Source: CloudMinds Technology Inc.

BEAVERTON, Ore.--NIKE, Inc. Provides Update on Impact of Coronavirus in Greater China Source: NIKE, Inc.

NEW YORK--KBRA Releases Research - Slowing U.S. Import Growth: A Harbinger of Change? Source: Kroll Bond Rating Agency

LANCASTER, Pa.--Emerald Investment Conference Tackles the Coronavirus Source: Emerald Asset Management PA, LLC

LAS VEGAS--Rapaport Press Release: Diamond Market Cautious Amid China Concerns Source: Rapaport

SALT LAKE CITY--Co-Diagnostics Inc to Discuss New Coronavirus Test During GenomeWeb Webinar on Feb 5 Source: Co-Diagnostics, Inc.

SAN DIEGO--Ligand's Technologies Support and Enable Potential Coronavirus Treatments Source: Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated

LOS ANGELES--Dimer Offers New Germ-Killing Robot to Disinfect Airplanes at Key US Airports to Protect Passengers from Coronavirus Outbreak Source: Dimer

SAN DIEGO--AntiCancer Inc. to Target Its Oral Recombinant Methioninase Against 2019-nCoV Coronavirus Source: AntiCancer Inc.

SHANGHAI--What US Influenza Data Tells Us About the 2019 Novel Coronavirus - a Brief Version of James Liang and Huang Wenzheng's Op-Ed Source: Ctrip

NEW YORK--Moody's Donates $50,000 to Coronavirus Relief Source: Moody's Foundation

NEW YORK--KBRA Releases Comment on the Coronavirus and its Effect on the Commercial Aviation Industry Source: Kroll Bond Rating Agency

EVANSVILLE, Ind.--Berry Global Increases Production to Aid in Coronavirus Protection Source: Berry Global Group, Inc.

SALT LAKE CITY--Co-Diagnostics, Inc. Announces Successful Initial Verification of Novel Coronavirus Test Source: Co-Diagnostics, Inc.

NORTON, Ohio--Fiberlock Shockwave Concentrate EPA-Registered and Tested to Kill Human Coronavirus Under the Harshest Conditions Source: Innovative Chemical Products

CUPERTINO, Calif.--Huami's Amazfit Donates $1.5 Million to Help Combat the Coronavirus Outbreak in China Source: Huami

TORONTO--How Will Coronavirus Affect Canadian Real Estate? Source: MortgageCalculator.ca

JERUSALEM--Nobel Laureate Leads MedTech Startups Addressing China's Deadly Virus at OurCrowd Global Investor Summit Source: OurCrowd

OLDWICK, N.J.--Best's Commentary: Coronavirus Outbreak Highlights Insurers' Pandemic Risks, Importance of Stress Testing Source: AM Best

BOSTON--Investor Confidence Declined in January by 3.2 Points to 76.5 Source: State Street Corporation

SAN FRANCISCO & SALT LAKE CITY--Novel Wuhan Coronavirus Detectable with IDbyDNA Explify Respiratory Test Source: IDbyDNA, Inc.

WALTHAM, Mass.--Wolters Kluwer Provides Easier Access to Latest Coronavirus Resources & Tools for Front-Line Clinicians and Medical Researchers Source: Wolters Kluwer

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--AbCellera Is Mobilizing a Response to the Novel Coronavirus Outbreak as Part of Its DARPA P3 Program Source: AbCellera

WASHINGTON--Coronavirus Preparedness Summit to Be Held in Washington, DC, June 17-19 Source: SyllabusX

ANN ARBOR, Mich.--Kraig Biocraft Laboratories announces Commercial Production Update Source: Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc.

SALT LAKE CITY--Co-Diagnostics Inc CEO Discusses Novel Coronavirus with CNBC Squawk Box Asia Source: Co-Diagnostics, Inc.

PARIS & CAMBERLEY, England--Novacyt S.A.: Launch of Novel Coronavirus Test Source: Novacyt S.A.

LOS ANGELES--AHF Urges WHO to Immediately Declare Novel Coronavirus an International Health Emergency Source: AIDS Healthcare Foundation

MEMPHIS, Tenn.--FedEx Pledges Transportation Support to Aid in Coronavirus Emergency Source: FedEx Corp.

SALT LAKE CITY--Co-Diagnostics, Inc. Designs Test for New Coronavirus Using CoPrimer Platform Source: Co-Diagnostics, Inc.

CONCORD, Calif.--Coronavirus Inactivation Reported in Recent INTERCEPT Blood System Publication in Transfusion Medicine Source: Cerus Corporation

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Moderna Announces Funding Award from CEPI to Accelerate Development of Messenger RNA (mRNA) Vaccine Against Novel Coronavirus Source: Moderna, Inc.

TORONTO--At Times of Viral Global Outbreaks Like the Coronavirus, Ontario's Overcrowded, Underfunded Hospitals Severely Disadvantaged Source: Canadian Union of Public Employees

FORT WORTH, Texas--Interest in EMist Electrostatic Technology Spikes as Coronavirus Spreads Around the Globe Source: EMist

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When hurricanes and severe storms strike the East Coast, they often batter coastlines, displace famous landmarks and even move whole populations away forever. But there are some groups of people along the South Carolina and Georgia coast, such as on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, that have not only endured centuries of storms, but some of them have never budged, even when everyone around them scatters.

"I ride it out and I ride every one out," Francis Major, a St. Helena Island resident, told AccuWeather National Reporter Dexter Henry. "I ain't never left."

Francis Major, a resident of St. Helena Island for 71 years, talks about what it has been like to stay put during major storms. (AccuWeather/ Dexter Henry)

Major has lived on St. Helena Island for 71 years as a member of the Gullah community, a group of African Americans with deep cultural roots who live along the coast in South Carolina and Georgia. When major storms, like hurricanes, come through, many members of the communities make the decision to stay put.

While they do trust and keep an eye on forecasts from meteorologists, it's the wisdom and experience from their elders in the community that they rely on. When residents decide to stay put through a storm, it's often as a group or family. Some stay to protect their land and the livestock they care for.

"The elders have that wisdom," Donellia Chives, who lives in Port Royal, South Carolina, told Henry. "They have that wisdom of holding out for those storms for so many decades and generations. So, a lot of times they have that wisdom on their side where they know."

St. Helena Island is home to a community of Gullah people, who have lived in the region for centuries. (AccuWeather/ Dexter Henry)

The Gullah people and their language are also called the Geechee. The modern-day Gullah formulated following the emancipation of slavery, when members of the community stayed isolated and united within their heritage. Along with having specific customs, a unique language and a rich history, the history of Gullah families staying is intertwined with traditional customs and distrust.

Story continues

"One of the reasons I stay is cause when you go you can't get back cause they build a wall before you can get back in," Ben Johnson told Henry.

Chives also pointed to the history of African Americans being displaced in the region and the outcome of Louisiana residents following Hurricane Katrina as reasons why some stay put.

"If we think about New Orleans, case and point, a lot of people had to leave New Orleans because of Hurricane Katrina," Chives said. "Those people did not come back or could not come back for whatever reason, lost their land. People are waiting for the Gullah-Geechee land to become available so they can come and swipe it. That's a reality."

St. Helena Island is home to a community of Gullah people, who have lived in the region for centuries. (AccuWeather/ Dexter Henry)

Ifetayo White, a St. Helena Island resident, also mentioned that the community she lives with has a strong awareness of the environment and local weather, as their connection to the environment and togetherness empowers them.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

According to White, that connection with the environment is like a sixth sense about nature that the Gullah community has.

"Always a sense of strength, a sense of unity, a sense of community," Chives said about the Gullah people. "Just that overall wisdom from those that rode the storms out before we were even here. So, if they survived, we can, too."

Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier, Spectrum, Fubo, and Verizon Fios.
A new Pininfarina SpA Battista luxury hypercar sits on display on the opening day of the 89th Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday, March 5, 2019.

BMW, Porsche and Bentley are debuting their hottest new cars online after organizers of the Geneva International Motor Show canceled the 11-day event set to start Thursday, over the coronavirus outbreak that's quickly spreading across the world.

Automakers use auto shows around the globe to unveil new products and generate attention for the company and vehicles. The Geneva show has traditionally catered to luxury and premium brands and supercars.

"This comes as a preventative measure in response to the coronavirus epidemic raging in Europe and now in Switzerland," Maurice Turrettini, chairman of the board that runs the Geneva auto show, said in a video posted on the organization's website.

BMW CEO Oliver Zipse will livestream a press conference for the global debut of a new concept vehicle called the BMW Concept i4 at 2:15 a.m. ET on Tuesday the original time of the press conference at the show, the company said in a release Friday.

"While we certainly understand this decision, we also regret that the fair cannot take place as usual," BMW said in a release.

Bentley also plans to broadcast a press conference online, however the uber-luxury automaker is still working on timing and logistics.

"Bentley welcomes the decision of the Geneva State Council to cancel this year's Geneva Motor Show," the company said in an emailed statement. "This is a decision in the interests of the health and safety of all participants and our colleagues."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 14:57:36|Editor: xuxin

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MANILA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has issued an executive order (EO) that prohibits vaping in public and enclosed places nationwide, citing serious health threats to people exposed to the products, the country's presidential office said on Friday.

Duterte on Wednesday signed the EO No. 106 banning cigarette smoking in public and enclosed areas such as schools, elevators and stairwells, fire hazards locations and medical facilities. The order was later released on Friday.

It also regulates the sale, manufacture, marketing, distribution and importation of unregistered electronic nicotine devices and other novel tobacco products.

Specifically, the EO prohibits the manufacture, distribution, marketing and sale of unregistered and adulterated Electronic Nicotine or Non-Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS/ENNDS) or e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products (HTPs), and other novel tobacco products.

Under the order, access to these cigarettes has been restricted to people over 21 years old. The use of e-cigarettes and Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs) has also been banned nationwide.

In addition, the EO prohibits the sale of these products until they are granted appropriate pre-market authorization.

Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque welcomed the signing of the EO, saying that the order was a "solid step forward to compel the industry to comply with our regulations, which are specifically aimed at protecting children from nicotine addiction."

"These regulations were benchmarked against international standards for novel tobacco product regulation which signifies that we are committed to aligning our rules with meaningful public health policies that save millions of lives yearly," Duque said.

In light of the EO signing and pursuant to Republic Act No. 11467, the Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will be realigning its policy directions to ensure industry accountability.

"They have to be enrolled in a notification scheme for traceability. Heated tobacco and similar products must undergo pre-market approval and post-market surveillance to ensure compliance with updated product safety and marketing standards. We are committed to ensuring that tobacco marketing is not aimed at children," FDA Director Eric Domingo said.

The EO came more than three months after Duterte ordered law enforcers to arrest people using a vape in public.

Duterte last year ordered law enforcement agencies to arrest people who use vape especially in enclosed places and public places, saying that he will ban e-cigarette or vapes in the whole country.
They sure don't make 'em like they used to. That's what a recent study at Duke University on combat helmets would have you believe.

Findings from the study suggested France's World War I-era "Adrian" style helmets might be more effective at mitigating the effects of shock waves from artillery rounds -- traumatic brain injury -- than the Army's current Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH).

The Army says that study was incredibly flawed.

Simply put, the Duke researchers tested the effectiveness of the helmet against shock waves five meters from the blast. Artillery enthusiasts know that the shock wave from artillery shells isn't the only thing that kills you -- and five meters (16.5 feet) is close enough to shred your pride and pretty much everything else about you.

And probably everyone else around you.

Read: Were WWI 'Tinpot' Helmets Really Better at Preventing TBI? The Army Says No

At five meters, TBI would be the last thing to worry about. So let's honor all the hard work done by the people at the Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory by retiring those old helmets.

We could even upcycle them, giving them new life for a different purpose. Here are a few suggestions.

5. Make Donuts

During the Great War, the Salvation Army deployed teams of "Doughnut Girls" to make their way to the front and prepare delicious fried treats for the boys in the trenches. Using flour, sugar, lard, baking powder, canned milk and a dash of cinnamon, they would serve them in small pans. As demand grew, the ladies had to expand their operation and started to use old helmets. At their most productive, they were able to make 9,000 a day.

This is the origin of National Doughnut Day and may be the origin to the nickname given to American troops in WWI: "Doughboys"

4. Wear It to Work

History buffs might be aware that the age of America's rising skyscrapers began shortly after WWI. No matter what research is done about military helmets, all studies agree that wearing a helmet is better than not wearing one. This is just as true on a construction site. One American inventor, Edward W. Bullard, came back from Europe and created a shellacked, canvas helmet for the workers of the world.

Workers building new post office wear WWI helmets to protect them from fatal rivets. (Leslie Jones via Digital Commonwealth)

These early helmets were a little expensive, but everyone was soon required to have one. Veterans of the Great War simply brought their old helmets to work.

3. Create Pyramid Art

You know what's better than winning the War to End All Wars? Celebrating your victory in a big way. No one knew how to celebrate a big win like New York City did back in the day. Before the all-out party-style celebrations of V-E Day and V-J Day, New Yorkers opted for a relatively understated display of martial prowess.

Giant Pyramid of Captured German Helmets from WWI Grand Central Terminal, New York, 1918. (New York Central Railroad)

It created a pyramid of captured German helmets stacked higher than Grand Central Terminal, adorned with flags and topped with a statue of Nike of Samothrace, also known as "Winged Victory."

2. Make Cookware

When Germany was defeated in World War II, the defeated Nazi Wehrmacht had a huge surplus of discarded helmets and a huge lack of cookware -- not to mention thousands of hungry people. Enterprising Germans in the West decided to upcycle those old helmets into something useful.

Make spaghetti, not unfounded claims on the Sudetenland!

1. Die

Yes, even after reading the Army's reply to Duke University, there might be some who are still die-hards for the World War I-era helmet. The good news is, that's exactly what would likely happen: a hard death. World War I helmets were never intended to stop bullets, which is a pretty big consideration for the battlefield. Any battlefield. Since, like, the 1500s. You know what can stop a bullet?

Those old helmets were intended for the fragmentation from artillery shells of the era. In contrast, the modern ACH has been shown to stop AK-47 rounds cold in actual combat situations.

Anyone who talks about the "good ol' days" of helmets -- or anything, really -- likely isn't a historian.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com.

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Hindujas promoted IndusInd Bank has had a good run under its outgoing chief Romesh Sobti for over a decade. The bank grew in size and scale since 2007-08, which was when Sobti took over the helm of the lender.

After 12 years, Sobti is handing over the reins to Sumant Kathpalia who joined around the same time as Sobti in 2008. During his decade long stint at IndusInd Bank, Kathpalia is credited for building its consumer banking business and diversifying it to industry beating performance over years.

Total retail loan book of the bank grew to Rs1,14,131 crore in FY19 from Rs 10,082 crore year-on-year. Total vehicle loans of the bank stood at Rs 58,071 crore as of December 31, 2019.

He has been a banker for about three decades, of which a decade has been spent with IndusInd Bank in building its consumer business. A safe bet for the bank as the new chief, said one of Kathpalias senior colleagues in the bank. He is also excellent in execution and strategy and has been instrumental in the bank's digitalisation drive as well, the official said.

Prior to joining IndusInd Bank, Kathpalia, a chartered accountant, has had stints with ABN Amro bank, Citibank and Bank of America. Though he has operated across segments, he is best known for his expertise in the consumer business.

IndusInd Bank is one of the strongest among new generation private sector lenders with a strong retail loan book, a significant part of which is in vehicle financing.

Under Sobti, IndusInd Bank has carried out multiple acquisitions including the recent acquisition of Bharat Financial Inclusion, which was earlier known as SK Microfinance. The deal brought along a significant small loan book.

Sobtis 12-year old stint will come to an end in March. In October last year, the bank said it has finalised a candidate for the top job and had sought Reserve Bank's approval for the same.

At his new role at IndusInd Bank, Kathpalia will face multiple challenges ahead. The main being taking the retail loan book beyond vehicle loans and grow confidence within the top management to further diversify the businesses beyond corporate and core-vehicle portfolios.

The challenge is tougher in a slowing economy.

In Q3, IndusInd Bank posted a 33 percent jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 1,309 crore. Net non-performing assets (NPAs) are at a relatively low 1.05 percent despite increasing from 0.59 percent during the same period last year.

The industry will be closely watching the transition at IndusInd Bank. Top management changes in private sector banks have never been smooth.

For instance, in Yes Bank, after the exit of Rana Kapoor and appointment of Ravneet Gill as the new CEO, there have been a number of mid and senior management level exits. This was the same in ICICI Bank after Chanda Kochhar took charge as CEO.

Kathpalia will have to take the top management and the rest of the employees into confidence in his new role.
Chennai: The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) commissioned a 98-meter offshore patrol vessel Varad at Chennai's Kattupalli port in the presence of Minister of State Shipping (Independent Charge) Mansukh Mandaviya and other dignitaries.

Varad means the one who gives blessings and refers to Lord Ganesha, it is the fifth in the series of seven vessels that was designed and built exclusively for the coast guard by Larsen and Toubro (L&T) Shipbuilding at the Kattupalli shipyard near Chennai.

The 98-meter long ship has a displacement of 2100 tons, with a top speed of 26 knots, has an endurance of 5000 nautical miles and has the ability to stay at sea for 20 days without replenishment.

The ship has been fitted with advanced navigation and communication equipment, sensors and machinery. It is also armed with a 30mm CRN-91 Naval Gun and two 12.7mm guns with Fire Control System for the ships fighting efficiency.

The ship is also designed to carry a twin-engine light helicopter, which would significantly increase its range for a wide range of operations. The vessel also carries four high-speed boats including two rigid hull inflatable boats that enable swift board and search operations, rescue, law enforcement and maritime patrol. The boats can be lowered into the water even when the ship is in motion at the high seas.

The MD and CEO of L&T shipping Retd Vice Admiral Kannan said that the ship has been delivered within 19-and-a-half months after its keel was laid in July 2018. We hold a record in India for the shortest period of OPV construction and we hope to be at par with the best standards of defence shipbuilding by ensuring that the other two OPVs in this series are delivered in 16-17 months, he said.

K Natarajan, Director General of the Indian Coast Guard said that major challenges at sea were maritime terrorism, piracy, drug and human trafficking, pollution and illegal fishing. Highlighting the role played by the Indian Coast Guard, he said, In 2019 one we have saved 400 lives at sea based on swift response to 200 maritime distress calls. Among our fleet of nearly 150 vessels, we have 25 offshore patrol vessels that serve as multi-mission platforms that can be used for rescue, interception, firefighting or even pollution response. We are currently working under 14 ministries to ensure that we have safer seas, which in turn will boost our commerce and trade.

MoS Shipping Mandaviya hailed the coast guard for increasing the strength of the nation by securing its waters along with the Navy. He highlighted the major role of protecting the Indian peninsular region through which over one lakh merchant vessels pass every year.

The coast guard is expected to receive the first twin-engine helicopter built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited by March 15. Subsequently, more such choppers would be inducted to enhance the operational capabilities of the vessels.
Amid the demands for Inner Line Permit (ILP) from Meghalaya government, Governor Tathagata Roy said that the move could impact the state's tourism sector.

"A lot of tourism facilities and homestays are going vacant. I have spoken to tour operators who said tourism has got hit. If you put restrictions on Indian citizens from entering into Meghalaya then it is not difficult to guess what the outcome will be," Roy told reporters on Thursday.

The Governor, however, said that "CAA has got nothing to do with Meghalaya population. It is for providing citizenship to people who came from certain other countries before 2014. But putting restrictions on the coming of tourists from other parts of India will have an impact."

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma has been demanding ILP for the state.

The ILP is a document that allows an Indian citizen to visit or stay in a state that is protected under the ILP system for a limited time period.

Meanwhile, the Governor added that violence in parts of Delhi had been planned to "to coincide with coming of US President Donald Trump.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Popular Ghanaian Islamic Cleric, Numerologist and Philosopher Mallam Sham-una Uztaz Jibril has revealed that he has discovered the cure to the deadly Coronavirus that has claimed and is still claiming several lives in China and other parts of the world.



He claims it is some roots and leaves found only in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan that is capable of curing infected persons with the deadly disease the World Health Organization is battling with.



Mallam Sham-una Uztaz Jibril who is credited for accurately predicting in 2015 and 2016 respectively with numbers that Trump, Akufo-Addo and Buhari will win the polls, emphasized the controversial African Ghanaian spiritual hacker detected the medicine and the solution to the current Chinese dangerous virus (coronavirus) and will be discussed with the fusion tension military America and Iran and some other political matters, in the course of the week or two.



The root and the leaf of the medicine can only be found in Madina (Saudi Arabia) and some part of Afghanistan only."



The number of coronavirus cases in Italy has jumped to 400, amid international efforts to contain the spread of the deadly outbreak.



The rise in Italy, the main focus of infection in Europe, represents a 25% surge in 24 hours.



Several European countries announced new cases traced to Italy.



Also on Wednesday, the World Health Organization said that for the first time the virus was spreading faster outside China, where it originated.



Globally, more than 80,000 people in about 40 countries have been infected with the new coronavirus, which emerged in December. The vast majority remain in China.



Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, has killed more than 2,700 people so far.



A total of 9 suspected cases of the deadly coronavirus have been recorded in Ghana according to the Ministry of Health.



As at 6th February, 2020, there has been 28,280 confirmed cases and 565 deaths globally. Here in Ghana we have recorded 9 suspected cases including the recent 2 from Korle bu Teaching Hospital. All of these cases have tested negative, the statement explained



Two foreign nationals, a Chinese and an Argentine were suspected to have shown symptoms of coronavirus and currently on isolation at the emergency room of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital but demanded of the health facility to immediately discharge them as they are being held against their will.



The victims visited the hospital on Wednesday, 5 February 2020 via an Uber after being referred to the place from a clinic are suspected to be showing respiratory symptoms which started February 03, 2020 and has since had their samples taken and sent to Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), for further analysis.



Our sources at the health facilities say the victims have become agitated at their continuous stay at the facility against their will requesting the authorities to discharge them.



Dr William Baah, the Greater Accra Divisional Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association, told the press earlier that the Chinese left the home country for Ghana sometime in September 2019 while the Argentine, who was in Shanghai, joined the Chinese in Ghana in January.



Theyve all developed some symptoms that fit the case definition [but] it doesnt mean they have the disease, he stated

What to know about pandemics amid race to make a coronavirus vaccine

Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned that the novel coronavirus will spread in U.S. communities, and a case announced on Wednesday might be the country's first instance of it.



Now, health officials say, is the time for people in the U.S. to prepare  for canceled events, closed schools and interrupted work, and for the potential of widespread illness.



No one knows what community spread could look like in the United States. It could be mild or very severe. In case of an outbreak that spreads within U.S. communities, what can you do to protect yourself and your family?



Here are 10 questions answered about how to prepare.



1. What should I buy?

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security recommends on its website that, before a pandemic strikes, you store a two-week supply of water and food, as well as over-the-counter medications you tend to take.



"Have any nonprescription drugs and other health supplies on hand, including pain relievers, stomach remedies, cough and cold medicines, fluids with electrolytes, and vitamins," according to the department.



"In general for emergency preparedness, we encourage all households to have an emergency response kit," which could be used during any public health or severe weather emergency, said Jennifer Kertanis, president-elect of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.



2. Are there places I should avoid?

The CDC has released travel warnings and alerts in relation to coronavirus disease.



As of Wednesday, the CDC recommends that travelers avoid all nonessential travel to mainland China and South Korea. Travel alerts for older people and people with chronic medical conditions to consider postponing nonessential travel have been issued for Italy, Iran and Japan.



Regarding whether there are places to avoid in your community, such as the grocery store or library, health officials recommend to simply be mindful of avoiding close contact with people who may be sick.



Also, if you are sick, keep your distance from others to protect them from getting sick too.



3. Should I keep my child home from school?

If your child is sick, it's important to keep them home from school in order to protect other students from getting sick. But if your child is not sick, monitor local school closings.



Widespread transmission of the novel coronavirus could lead to schools, child care centers and other places for mass gatherings experiencing more absenteeism and even shutting down if that precaution is needed, according to the CDC.



Closing schools or canceling gatherings in response to public health concerns are common actions that school districts have had to make before throughout history.



"Even in my own state of Maine, schools have in recent weeks and months had to close for influenza. During the H1N1 crisis many years ago, schools were also closed then," said Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and a member of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.









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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Allies of Priti Patel (pictured in London this week) have angrily denied that she has been snubbing Home Office mandarin Sir Philip Rutnam

Priti Patel's allies today angrily denied that she has been snubbing Home Office mandarin Sir Philip Rutnam - saying he failed to turn up for a meeting with the Cabinet minister yesterday.

Claims of a bitter feud have been threatening to throw the department into chaos, with Ms Patel facing a wave of hostile briefing after reports she was trying to oust Sir Philip.

In the latest allegations, The Times said Ms Patel has been avoiding one-on-one meetings with the permanent secretary for more than a week, with the situation branded 'utterly dysfunctional'.

However, a senior source told MailOnline that the claims were 'total b******s'. A meeting is said to have been in the diary for yesterday that Sir Philip was due attend, but he 'didn't show'.

The source also alleged that Sir Philip 'blocked' the Home Office from issuing a statement that would have made clear 'all meetings have taken place in the usual way'.

The civil servant made a rare public appearance at the National Police Chiefs' Council and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners summit in Westminster yesterday.

Asked about the meeting claim and any reasons for Sir Philip's alleged absence, a Home Office spokesman said: The Home Secretary and Permanent Secretary are deeply concerned about the number of false allegations appearing in the media.

They are focused on delivering on the Home Offices hugely important agenda, which includes creating an immigration system that works for the UK, putting more police on the streets and keeping the public safe from terrorism.

Sir Philip Rutnam, pictured at a police summit yesterday, is alleged to have refused to obey the order because of its timing

Ms Patel is said to have wanted to get rid of Home Office director of communications Andy Tighe, pictured above. Mr Tighe later retired from the role

The internal war threatened to escalate yesterday when reports emerged that Ms Patel told Sir Philip to get rid of a senior official on Christmas Eve, but he refused.

Claims and counter-claims in Priti Patel's Home Office war Claim: The Home Secretary bullied and belittled staff, creating an 'atmosphere of fear'. Counter-claim: Allies of Ms Patel dismissed the suggestions she was a bully. Business minister Nadhim Zahawi said Ms Patel is 'utterly professional' and a 'collegiate team player'. Claim: Ms Patel was alleged to have 'dressed down' staff in front of their colleagues, sent 'aggressive' emails in the middle of the night and asked 'why is everyone so f***ing useless' during previous ministerial roles. Counter-claim: Allies of the Home Secretary dismissed the allegations as 'malicious gossip'. Claim: Ms Patel was cut out of security briefings by MI5 and officials were not sharing as much intelligence with her as they did with her predecessors. Counter-claim: The Home Secretary was reportedly 'livid' at the suggestions. Security sources said reports they did not have a 'strong working relationship are simply untrue'. Claim: Ms Patel tried to remove permanent secretary Sir Philip Rutnam from the Home Office. Counter-claim: The Home Office has not been drawn on any of the specific claims relating to relations between Ms Patel and Sir Philip. However, the department issued a joint statement saying 'the Home Secretary and Permanent Secretary are deeply concerned about the number of false allegations appearing in the media'. Advertisement

Ms Patel is said to have instructed Sir Philip to move director of communications Andy Tighe out of the department.

But Sir Philip allegedly declined to carry out the order due to the timing of the request with Mr Tighe, a former BBC journalist, later choosing to retire from the role.

The incident, reported by the Huff Post website, was dismissed by allies of Ms Patel as 'a complete lie'.

However, the briefing underlines the apparent deterioration in the relationship between Ms Patel and Sir Philip.

Ms Patel has reportedly tried to oust Sir Philip from his position as the department's top civil servant, while the Home Secretary has faced allegations of bullying and belittling staff - accusations her allies have rejected.

Sir Philip tried to make light of the Home Office infighting as he made a rare public appearance yesterday.

He remained tight-lipped on the alleged rift with Ms Patel but did prompt laughter during his address to the National Police Chiefs' Council and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners summit in Westminster as he spoke about his increased public profile.

He said: 'You probably have already heard a great deal more about permanent secretary's in the last few days than you ever expected to.

'But be reassured, I am not got to talk about that. I am going to talk about what really matters, which is cutting crime and building a law enforcement system that is more capable, more resilient and better placed for the future.'

It came after it was revealed that two senior civil servants have been forced out of the Home Office after clashing with Ms Patel.

A top official working in police oversight transferred to the Department of Transport and a member of the Home Secretary's private office left their post in recent weeks, the Times reported.

Who is Sir Philip Rutnam, the Whitehall mandarin who Priti Patel 'wants to get rid of?' Sir Philip Rutnam is one of the most senior civil servants in Whitehall. He joined the Home Office as permanent secretary - the top civil servant role in each department - in April 2017 having previously done the same job at the Department for Transport for five years. However, his time at the Home Office has proved to be controversial because he was in post during the Windrush scandal. He faced calls in November 2018 to resign over it with Tory London mayor candidate Shaun Bailey claiming the mandarin needed to step down to 'restore confidence' in the Home Office. Amber Rudd resigned as home secretary in April 2018 because of the controversy which saw some migrants from Commonwealth countries who came to the UK from the late 1970s to 1973 being wrongly declared illegal immigrants. An official report examining what went wrong found that Ms Rudd had been let down by her officials. However, it stopped short of criticising Sir Philip. Advertisement

The clashes between Ms Patel and Sir Philip are believed to have started last September after the latter allegedly tried to stand in the way of an announcement that more police would be allowed to carry tasers. A number of disagreements are then thought to have followed.

Ms Patel and Sir Philip released a joint statement in recent days to deny reports of a split at the top of the department.

Her allies have described her as a 'demanding' boss but not a bully.

The reports of feuding prompted the head of the Civil Service to order an end to media leaks in a directive to Government staff.

Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill told all civil servants that advice they provide for ministers and 'any debates' around it should remain 'private'.

Extraordinary briefings about relations between Ms Patel and Sir Philip have dominated recent weeks in Westminster.

The Home Secretary is said to be livid over claims that she bullied staff and was cut out of security briefings by MI5  allegations that emerged after she allegedly tried to have Sir Philip removed.

The Home Office issued a joint statement from the pair on Sunday but a Whitehall source said relations between them had completely broken down, adding: Can they continue to work together? I just dont know. No 10 is going to have to sort it out because it is completely dysfunctional.

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, has given his support to Ms Patel with Downing Street stating he has 'full confidence' in his Home Secretary.

Asked to give the same endorsement to Sir Philip, the PMs official spokesman ducked the question, replying: The Prime Minister has full confidence in the civil service.

Allies of Miss Patel are urging Sir Mark to move Sir Philip to a new role in Whitehall.

Number 10 has insisted that the appointment of permanent secretaries is a matter for the Cabinet Secretary.
Zimbabwes Catholic Bishops have reiterated their appeal for food aid to the country. About 8 million people could starve if emergency assistance is not forthcoming.

Kudakwashe Matambo  Harare, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwes Archbishop Robert Christopher Ndlovu of Harare, who is also President of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC), on Thursday, addressed a press conference, at the Africa Synod House, in the countrys capital, Harare. During the press event, Archbishop Ndlovu said that the countrys Catholic Bishops had renewed their appeal for urgent food aid meant for the countrys nearly eight (8) million people who could starve due to a poor harvest. The countrys drought situation and the general economic meltdown are some of the significant factors that have led to food insecurity.

8 million Zimbabweans require food relief in 2020

Outlining the Bishops appeal to journalists, Archbishop Ndlovu confirmed the World Food Programmes report which estimated that nearly eight million people would require food aid in 2020 as the country faces severe food shortages.

The Archbishop further said the food insecurity is already affecting not only rural but urban communities, school-going children, newly born babies, mothers and refugees.

This food insecurity will affect urban and rural communities. Millions of school-going children, refugees, and the poor will suffer from the severe effects of this drought, said the Harare prelate, adding, Our health coordinators in our hospitals are telling us that (already) some of the newly born babies instantly show signs of not being healthy. Their mothers too, because they (probably) eat only once a day and as a result may not produce enough breast milk for the babies and that will affect the development and growth of that child, said the Archbishop.

The food appeal is for all Zimbabweans

The Bishops are targeting to raise over US 1 million dollars for the initial response programme, which will be administered to all people, without exception, through Caritas Zimbabwe.

Our appeal and response is on behalf of the people of every race, culture, gender and religion in Zimbabwe who are and will soon be in dire need. He continued, Our goal is to mobilise sufficient food aid for us to make a difference to the lives of the many millions who face starvation, including children, women and those living with HIV/AIDS, said Archbishop Ndlovu.

The Archbishop further revealed that through the Zimbabwe Bishops Caritas Appeal, the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe had so far received over US 200 000 dollars and distribution to needy areas was presently underway.

Church's ongoing response to Cyclon Idai emergency

Speaking at the same press conference, the Bishop of Mutare Diocese, Paul Horan, took the opportunity to brief the media about the Churchs efforts in responding to the Cyclone Idai emergency of 2019. Among some of the Dioceses major projects is the ongoing construction of houses that collapsed due to torrential rains that came with Cyclon Idai.

(jescomzim)
TAMPA  It wasnt much, but it was something.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone provided brief updates on injured sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton following the Yankees 7-1 win over the Blue Jays at George M. Steinbrenner Field on Thursday afternoon.

Judge

The problem: Right shoulder soreness.

The latest: Judge hit the batting cage Thursday. Boone said that he wasnt sure when Judge would take batting practice on the field. Earlier in the week, Boone said the team would wait until after Mondays off day to decide when Judge would play his first spring training game.

The quote: Hes doing well, Boone said.

Stanton

The problem: Grade 1 right calf strain.

The latest: Boone said there wasnt anything new regarding the status of the 30-year-old slugger. He said that he saw Stanton briefly Thursday morning.

The quote: Boone said he just asked Stanton a simple, How are you doing? That kind of thing. Hes been around working.

Additionally, the Yankees said in a statement that starting pitcher Luis Severino had Tommy John surgery and that he had a bone chip removed from his elbow. The procedures went as planned, the team said.

Buy Yankees tickets: StubHub, SeatGeek

Below are details of the Yankees promotional schedule this season:

The New York Yankees have announced the 2020 Promotional Schedule, which will include the 74th Old-Timers Day (Sun., Aug. 9) and seven collectible bobbleheads. The schedule also features a range of classic promotional items along with a number of new giveaways.

Of note, the Yankees fifth-annual Star Wars Night will take place on Fri., Aug. 21. The first 18,000 Guests in attendance will receive a Gleyber Torres Mandalorian Bobblehead. The Yankees will also host their first Top Gun Day on Sat., May 23, when the first 18,000 Guests in attendance will receive a Gerrit Cole Top Gun Bobblehead, and the second-annual Marvel Superhero Night is scheduled for Mon., July 20.

A total of seven collectible bobbleheads highlight this years promotional dates, including a Don Mattingly Bobblehead presented by Delta Air Lines on Fri., April 24; a Scooby Doo Bobblehead on Sun., May 24; a DJ LeMahieu Bobblehead presented by T-Mobile on Fri., June 5; an Aaron Judge Bobblehead presented by T-Mobile on Fri., July 10; and an Andy Pettitte Bobblehead presented by Pepsi on Thurs., Aug. 6.

The 2000 World Champions Commemorative Bat Day presented by Bank of America will take place on Sun., June 7. Military Appreciation Day will be held on Sat., July 11, with the first 18,000 Guests in attendance, ages 21 and older, receiving a Yankees Camo Baseball Cap presented by Budweiser. On Fri., May 22, the first 18,000 Guests in attendance, ages 21 and older, will receive a 2000 World Champions Commemorative Beer Stein presented by Budweiser.

Other giveaways include Mothers Day Purse Night (Sun., May 10) and Cap Night presented by Canon (Tues., July 21).

Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.
The administration of the US President announced on Wednesday that their administration can, in fact, withhold the funds that are granted by jurisdiction to cities that insist on protecting criminal, illegal immigrants from arrest and deportation.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals showed in their introduction that the principal law question introduced in the appeal that is whether the central government may refuse the grants of money to the state and local government unit it would be still eligible for such awards but the denial to comply with three immigration-related situations imposed by the Attorney General of the United States.

The central government practice found out that the Justice Department was not absolute, dictatorial and constant in imposing and ruling the states and locals that obeys the central government immigration law when distributing the Byrne grant funds. Due to the negligence of the Justice Department the president's administration refused to accept the funds provided by religious cities. The failure to meet the central government's immigration requirements due to sanctuary policies questioned the Trump's administration. The states of New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington, Massachusetts and Virginia were questioned with President Trump's decision withholding the 2017 Byrne Program Criminal Justice Assistance grants.

In 2017, General Jeff Sessions forcefully accounted for new requirements that the locals and states must have to follow and they must cooperate with federal immigration officials in order to receive funds like the Byrne grants. The case was filed in the Southern District of New York U.S District Court

This news left comments that have both negative and positive reactions from the people and here are few of those comments:

The comments of the community are mixed as the administration imposed their rule in controlling the funds of the government from the sanctuary jurisdiction. The administration has the power to withhold every fund that was supported because it is in line with congress which approved the administration's appeal.

Comments reveal how states and cities should not have any authority when it comes to undermining federal law. If they refuse to abide by the law, they will be shut down and forced to follow the policies of the administration or else they will be held accountable for their actions.

Comments showed how the citizens were devastated upon the decision of the administration as they received comments from people who are very much sceptical on Trump's accomplishments, on how the tides turned and how the government brought the 9th circuit back to reality.

Other comments also show how liberals never thought of someone who got elected and would come in and and make so many positive changes. The work was not wasted and after the successful three years so far, the job will be easier after the next four years.

The fact of the matter is, certain cities and states depend on illegal immigrants and their families to provide support for the Democratic Party. However, President Trump has made it clear several times, that his administration is here to protect legal, law abiding, tax paying Americans first. And sanctuary cities and states are the exact opposite of those policies.
Gardai in Dublin are appealing for witnesses after a number of shots were fired in Clondalkin last night.

At around 8:50pm, Gardai made their way to the Fonthill Cottages area where they found apparent bullet holes in the front windows of two separate homes.
During a session of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in New York on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the NPT, Ambassador Quy affirmed that Vietnam has joined all international efforts regarding non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, including regional and global conventions; complied with the International Atomic Energy Agencys highest safety standards; and strictly followed the UNSCs resolutions.

He said any intentional, unintentional or miscalculated use of nuclear weapons seriously threatened global peace and security.

Non-nuclear weapon states, especially those that have fulfilled their NPT obligations, still live in fear despite the treaty is five decades old.

The UNSC expressed its determination to strive to reach the targets set out in the treaty towards full nuclear non-proliferation and ensuring the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes only.

Participants also reaffirmed the common responsibility of NPT member states for the future of the treaty.

The NPT was ratified by 190 countries and has been widely welcomed worldwide.
Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

From Esquire

Welcome to Five Fits With, a series from writer and photographer Christopher Fenimore. From time to time, he'll check in with some of the style world's most interesting folks. He'll ask a few questions, and they'll respond with five of their favorite outfitsand the answers, of course. Get inspired. Get a fit off. Enjoy.



I havent known Naoki Hamano for a long time, but I photographed him outside of fashion shows and around SoHo even before we met; he's just that good at putting a look together. It makes sense: Hes also the buyer for the esteemed Blue in Green, a shop that carries an incredible range of denim-focused brands, and an eclectic-yet-streamlined roster of fashion-adjacent labels. Hamano grew up in the countryside just outside of Tokyo, and hed travel in to the city on weekends, honing his love for fashion at renowned stores like Beams, Nepenthes, and United Arrows, along with the limitless host of retail doors Tokyo has to offer. After college, he moved to Tokyo, where he would duck out on break from his cafe shifts to check out stores in Harajuku and Shibuya. He says that while the staff at these shops were generally rude, each shops strong sense of individuality and style made for worthy visits.

At this time, underground Tokyo street brands were beginning to make a stir outside of Japan. Hamano claims hes learned most of what he knows about fashion from Takahiro Miyashita, who launched Number (N)ine, and now designs the brand he most recently founded, TAKAHIROMIYASHITATheSoloist. It wasnt about a brand name, Hamano says. It was about having your own style based on your background, your experiences, what youve seen. Miyashita-san taught me fashion has no rules. Try anything if you think its cool. He remains friendly with Miyashita, and still learns from his words and style.

I spoke to Hamano about his journey from Japan to Blue In Green, what makes the shop and its brands special, and how to purchase and take care of the perfect pair of denim.

Story continues

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

Why did you start working at a denim-specific store like Blue In Green? What keeps you there?

I moved to New York to learn English. When I decided to live here longer, I looked for a fashion company to get a working visa and Blue In Green supported me as a sponsor, since Im Japanese, I already had years of experience in the fashion industry, and they carried a lot of Japanese labels. I figured I could help them. Thats how it started.

Many stores come and go in New York City, and a lot of retailers in general are currently riding workwear and Americanas revived trendiness. How does a store maintain its longevity when so many others are shutting down? What keeps Blue In Green relevant?

Blue In Green is not only about heritage style. You can also find fashion-oriented brands that appreciate craftsmanship and unique pieces when you come in the store. We have been trying to be the store that connects and mixes heritage and fashion. I think that has worked well in terms of keeping people excited, and I will be focusing on it more as a buyer in the future. Blue In Green has so much potential.

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

Do you have a personal favorite brand, or a couple of favorites? If so, what makes them favorites?

Thats an easy question. My favorite brand is definitely The Soloist. The designer, Miyashita-san, is a real artist. In most cases, he is the first designer who makes new styles, and many brands and companies follow his brand. Its very common now to see rebuilt clothing, but Miyashita-san was doing that already 20-plus years ago. I used to work for Number (N)ine in Tokyo; I learned a lot about fashion then. But even now I still learn a lot from him, through his work and conversations with him. I still remember when I put one of his jackets on for the first time when I started working at Number (N)ine. I was so impressed and felt so happy to wear it. I feel the same every time I wear his clothes. His art makes people happy. We need this kind of clothing now.

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

What is the last clothing item you purchased, and do you have your eyes set on any future pieces?

The last item I purchased was my friend Tones optical lanyard and key chain. I have so many products from him. He is very talented. Ill get some S2W8 items. They have been great the last few collectionsits getting better and better. Blue In Green will carry them for spring/summer 2020. Im very excited. I also just saw the new autumn/winter 2020 The Soloist collection in Paris, and I placed a personal order for an insulated coat. I cant wait, though it wont come in until the autumn.

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

What does it take to get a customer excited about a new product or label?

Our products have stories behind the designquality, themes, etc. Its easy for us to make customers excited.

Where are the last three places you travelled to? Were there any cant-miss spots youd recommend?

In Paris, you should check out the restaurant Paperboy and Ofr, a book store. In Tokyo, I liked the theme and presentation of Beams Japan. My favorite Yakitori place is Tokoshima. The best yakitori! And in Okayama, the Kapital store was amazing.

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

Photo credit: Christopher Fenimore

What advice do you have for someone buying denim to find their perfect fit? What are some things to look for to tell a pair of jeans are well made? And, to round things out, how do you recommend washing denim?

Of course you have to try jeans on in order to find the perfect fit, but Id say that if you feel comfortable and the jeans fit your lifestyle, they are your perfect jeans. For me, when you talk about whats well-made, its not about durability. When you touch [a good pair of jeans,] you feel the craftsmans soul in the stitching, fabric, and rivets. You cant get that from mass production jeans.

There are no rules of how to take care of jeans, but I normally machine wash my jeans with detergent and hang dry once every one to two months because I prefer my jeans to fade with less contrast. But if you want high contrast fading like vintage jeans, youd soak in the bathtub and hang dry once every three months, if you wear them every day.

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Family means everything to 34-year-old civil rights attorney Tahanie Aboushi.

Be it her nine siblings, her many nieces and nephews, her Palestinian-American parents, who immigrated to New York City from East Jerusalem before she was born  or the many New Yorkers who have had brushes with the justice system. And thats why she says shes running to become Manhattans next district attorney.

When she was just 13 years old, Aboushis mother and father were both arrested on charges related to untaxed cigarettes. While her mother was acquitted of all charges, her father was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit robbery, conspiracy to possess stolen property, theft from interstate shipment and transportation of a stolen vehicle, according to The New York Times. He was just released from prison two years ago.

In the middle of her parents case proceedings, the presiding judge asked the prosecutor what would be done with her and her siblings, Aboushi told City & State in a recent interview. The prosecutor responded by saying that that wasnt her priority.

For us, we were like, oh, so we're really up in the air, she recalled. Our family's been completely torn apart. We're absolutely destabilized. No foundation, no structure, no guidance. And there was no one that was going to help. There was no way to do anything about it.

Aboushis mother raised her and her siblings while their father served his lengthy sentence, though they frequently spoke to him on the phone and visited him in prison. Both of her parents encouraged her and her siblings to press on, get an education and to do right by their community.

Today, Aboushi works at the full service law firm that she founded in 2010  a year after getting her law degree from Syracuse University  where she specializes in criminal and civil rights law. Aboushis sister, brother and her brothers wife also work alongside her at the firm.

In January, Aboushi won a case defending FDNY firefighters who were required to be clean shaven but had difficulty complying with the regulation due to their quick-growing facial hair and susceptibility to razor burn. In 2018, she defended three Muslim women who were forced to remove their hijabs to take mug shots who were awarded a $180,000 settlement from the city. And in 2017, Aboushi went to the John F. Kennedy Airport shortly after news of President Donald Trumps Muslim travel ban broke. She headed up a legal team  that ended up sleeping in the airport for three days straight  filing habeas petitions in federal court to pull people out of detention.

Now the attorney is hoping to seize the Manhattan DAs office from Cyrus Vance Jr. on a progressive, decarceration platform  similar to a few of the other candidates in the race, such as Assemblyman Dan Quart, New York Law professor Alvin Bragg and civil rights attorney Janos Marton  that is aimed at preventing crime, eliminating pre-trial punishment and decriminalizing crimes of poverty, mental illness, sex work, and substance use disorder, according to her website.

Aboushi wants to create a council of academics, social workers, psychologists, law enforcement, prosecutors and defense attorneys to determine alternatives to prosecution. She also hopes to invest some of the offices federal asset forfeiture fund into community-based organizations that are already working to help those combating substance abuse and homelessness, which can lead to crime. In April 2019, Vance made headlines when it was reported that he spent $249,716 of the forfeiture fund on meals and work trips over the course of five years. The DA, however, said that the remaining $620 million left in the fund would continue to finance the offices Criminal Justice Investment Initiative. Vance also invested $38 million of the fund in the offices Sexual Assault Kit Backlog Elimination Program.

We need to reduce the influence of this office on our everyday lives because there are long lasting, irreversible and damaging effects that make situations worse, Aboushi said. My goal is trying to look at issues from many different sides and involve many different practices to get to the root of the issue.

Aboushi, who joined protesters calling on Vance to resign from office in January, takes issue with the way the office has been run under his supervision. She argues that Vances office excessively prosecutes people of color, coerces pleas and withholds evidence. Nobody's concerned with justice, Aboushi said. And what I want to do differently is I want to minimize the footprint (the Manhattan DAs office has) on people's lives and hold this office accountable by being collaborative and transparent, which we've never had before. And I really want to change what our idea of a prosecutor's office is and how it operates.

Danny Frost, Vances Director of Communications, told City & State in an email that these issues have been part of the DAs core mission since taking office, citing the offices efforts to reduce its criminal justice footprint, its establishment of the first Conviction Integrity Program and opening the first Alternatives to Incarceration Court.

Among her biggest criticisms of Vance has been his handling of sexual assault cases, such as Jeffrey Epsteins in 2011 and more recently that of Robert Hadden, a gynecologist at Columbia University. Nineteen women  including Andrew Yangs wife, Evelyn Yang  alleged that Hadden had sexually abused them. Vances office offered Hadden a plea deal rather than time in prison. The office also went against a state panels recommendation by giving the doctor the lowest sex offender status. The handling of Haddens case contributed to the perception that Vance tends to go easy on prominent and wealthy men. Vances office recently opened an investigation into new allegations against Hadden.

It takes a real heightened level of indifference and depravity to let things like that (sexual abuse allegations) go, Aboushi said, referring to the plea deal Vance offered to Hadden. And it was the same thing with Jeffrey Epstein. He trafficked children, the most vulnerable amongst us, and it was still up for debate whether this was really wrong or right.

Aboushis fledgling campaign has yet to get as much attention as some of her competitors. When asked if she thought voters would be receptive to such comprehensive changes, Aboushi simply replied, I think the people are ready for it.

Correction: An earlier version of this post stated that the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative would be created with the remaining federal asset forfeiture fund in 2019 and that $38 million was spent on local prosecutors across the country. It also stated that the DAs office went against a state panel's recommendations by offering Hadden a plea deal.
Abdi is a very committed, interested, and engaged student, says Martin Menke Ph.D. 96, an adjunct faculty member who teaches Modern History. Hes able to draw fascinating parallels and comparisons between the class content and his own experiences. When you have someone like Abdi, whos endured things most of us cannot imagine, the insights he has are incredibly valuable. He helps others realize the value of what we are learning and discussing.



And this is one of the joys of teaching at Woods College, adds Menke, whos been affiliated with the school for more than 20 years. You have so many students who appreciate learning through sacrifice.

Iftin heard about BC not long after he had settled in Maine and began attending a college there, through a friend who is an alumnus of the University. The more he heard, the more intrigued he wasBC seemed to be a place where I would thrive. He eventually moved to the Greater Boston area and visited the campus frequently just to walk around and get a feel for the place. Finally, he enrolled in Woods and was able to transfer his credits, putting him on target for a 2021 graduation.



For Iftin, moving to Boston and transferring to BC proved to be equally illuminating for his expanding world view, not to mention his emotional and spiritual wellbeing. He will always cherish his years in Maine, explains Iftin, who learned English as a child by watching action films, but he also was keenly self-conscious of attracting scrutiny just by walking down the street or speaking his native tongue. These are not minor concerns, he says: As a diagnosed PTSD suffererhe recounts Al-Shabaab militants pointing an AK-47 in his face, and forcing him to watch them kill civilians, all as a childfeelings of insecurity can be debilitating and lead to panic attacks.
The Russians are like the devil. Each gets blamed (or credited) with more than they are responsible for.

Intelligence officials recently went to Capitol Hill where, according to The Hill, they briefed the House Intelligence Committee about Russia interfering in the presidential race in an effort to get Trump re-elected. The initial presumption was that Russian President Vladimir Putin favors Trumps re-election. Why would he when he has someone more closely associated with his ideology than Trump? That would be the self-described Democratic Socialist, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

But wait. Following closely on this unspecific leak to (where else?) The New York Times, we now hear that Russia wants Sanders as the next president. Perhaps its out of gratitude because he and his wife honeymooned in the Soviet Union. Ah, nostalgia.

The intelligence briefing was classified, but as with charges that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, no details have emerged that prove the Russian collusion narrative. Other than disinformation campaigns on social media (and plenty of disinformation has and will continue to be generated here at home through mainstream media) we have still not heard any specifics on how Russia managed to change a single vote in 2016, or how they supposedly intend to do so this time around. Upon hearing of the intelligence briefing, Putins press secretary told Russian state-run media, This is another in a series of paranoid reports, and we regret to say that their number will grow as the election approaches. They certainly have nothing to do with the truth.

The reason Democrats are again raising the prospect of Russian interference is to undermine the credibility of this years election should Trump win again, as seems increasingly likely. Democrats have been unable to stomach, not only his 2016 election, but also his economic successes. They fear their party will lose what remaining but dwindling appeal it might still enjoy. Thats why in the debates among Democratic presidential candidates one hears of an America that isnt recognizable to most citizens. For them, America is a bad country, a place of racism, sexism, inequality and misery only they can fix, though previous Democratic presidents who have made similar diagnoses of Americas faults have done nothing to repair the damage to which they have arguably contributed. Trump appears to have stolen their issues and they have no fallback position.

As for the credibility of American intelligence, consider their record during George W. Bushs administration, beginning with weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which were never found, resulting in the deaths of many in the unnecessary war that followed.

This Russian interference claim seems like a setup and an invitation for the House to conduct even more investigations and possibly new articles of impeachment after the election, assuming Democrats maintain their House majority. A recent Gallup poll shows record high approval (49 percent) of the presidents policies. Forty-three percent of independents polled now support the president  the highest percentage during Trumps entire presidency. Well see if that translates into Republican victories in races for the Senate and House.

According to Gallup, The latest survey finds a further increase in national satisfaction, with 45 percent now satisfied, the highest since February 2005.

Democrats have always needed a boogeyman to run against. Recall The Gingrich who stole Christmas line disparaging then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich on a Time magazine cover in the 1990s. Democrats have also demagogued Republicans for not helping the poor and for being racist. That is a harder sell with the African-American unemployment rate at record lows and wages rising for virtually all groups. According to the Census Bureau, the poverty level is as low as its been in 11 years.

Russia has become the default boogeyman of the left. That is what makes Bernie Sanders the ideal candidate for Russia and the other socialist-communist states he has praised, because in his heart he is at one with them.

Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas new book Americas Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires and Superpowers and the Future of the United States (HarperCollins/Zondervan).
Tokyo, Feb 28 : Japan will send its Vice Justice Minister to Lebanon to seek the extradition of ousted Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn who fled to Beirut from Tokyo last December, it was announced on Friday.

On Saturday, Vice Justice Minister Hiroyuki Yoshiie will travel to Beirut for a four-day visit and was expected to meet with Lebanon's Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm, among other people, to discuss Ghosn's return, Efe news quoted Japan's Justice Minister Masako Mori as saying in a statement.

"We must consider various elements, including Lebanon's domestic laws and Japan's position," Mori said.

"We would like Lebanon to correctly understand Japan's criminal justice system, and strengthen cooperation in the judicial field," she added.

Ghosn, 65, was on bail in Tokyo awaiting trial expected for April 2020 over alleged financial misconduct while serving as Nissan chief.

In violation of his bail conditions, the former head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance left Japan on the night of December 29, 2019 aboard a private jet from the Kansai International Airport in Osaka.

Ghosn was seen leaving his Tokyo home on a security camera which was installed at his residence under his bail conditions.

He landed in Beirut on December 31 after a stopover in Turkey with a French passport and his Lebanese identity card, as reported by authorities in Beirut at the time.

The former Nissan chief, who has triple nationality (French, Lebanese and Brazilian), said from Beirut that he was not confident to have a fair trial and claimed to have left Japan to escape "injustice and political persecution".

Tokyo has been requesting his extradition through Interpol, but Lebanon and Japan do not have an extradition treaty, so the possibility of Ghosn being arrested is weak. However, Interpol orders could restrict his movement and activities abroad.

Japanese prosecutors have also obtained a new arrest warrant for him, on the suspicion he left the country illegally.

Ghosn is accused in Japan of financial misconduct, including underreporting his compensation from Nissan and misappropriation of the company's assets for personal gain.

He was first arrested on November 19, 2018 and then on April 25, 2019.

He was later released on bail, with restrictions on communications and movement, and a ban on leaving the country.
Super Unibody Design and Edgeless Display offer extraordinary visual experience, with innovative photography features pushing boundaries for the future of smartphones

BEIJING, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- vivo today unveils the third generation of its APEX concept smartphone - APEX 2020. Known for iconic innovation, APEX 2020 builds on the success of its previous generations to feature more cutting-edge technologies, while also showcases vivo's continuing pursuit of head-turning aesthetics. This flagship product displays a major breakthrough in visual effects that is based on vivo's deep consumer and smartphone industry insight. APEX 2020 is truly a revolutionary manifestation of vivo's exploration of future smartphone design.

APEX 2020 has a 120 FullView Edgeless Display that removes side edges and bezels from the front view. With the In-Display Camera and vivo Wireless Super FlashCharge 60W, APEX 2020 has a Super Unibody Design with no openings. vivo also successfully embeds a gimbal-like structure into APEX 2020's main camera, which is equipped with a 5x-7.5x Continuous Optical Zoom. This feature showcases vivo's latest achievements and future plans to offer extraordinary visual effects and enhanced future photography.

Harry Hong, General Manager of Product, vivo said, "APEX is never a mere 'concept' or a glimpse of 'imagination'. It's a creation that goes beyond any previous experience brought by mobile technology. Through APEX 2020, we are proud to see vivo's vision come to life as a technology company that continues to push the boundaries of mobile technology and explore what lies beyond the ordinary. It also showcases our ambition to achieve our aspirations step-by-step. vivo will continue to put APEX's innovative technologies into practice, allowing more consumers to be empowered by such technology."

120 FullView Edgeless Display, Pushing the Boundaries Further

The APEX 2020 has carried on vivo's exploration and pursuit of a truly FullView Display and Super Unibody design. It is wrapped in a 6.45-inch curved display that bends at an angle of up to 120 on both sides. This helps remove side edges and bezels from the front view and results in an ultra bezel-less display.

For both aesthetic and practical considerations, physical buttons are replaced by a virtual pressure-sensing button. APEX 2020 is another perfect fusion of visual effect, natural touch and human-device interaction.

In-Display Camera, Visualizing the Invisible

The In-Display Camera of APEX 2020 unleashes the new possibility of a non-mechanical front camera. The "invisible" front camera presents a Super Unibody design with no openings and expands the internal space.

Through innovation in screen pixel layout and circuit design, APEX 2020 has successfully increased the light transmittance of the screen right above the front camera to 6 times[1] of the other part of the screen, and effectively reduces optical interference, diffraction and stray flashes through a series of algorithm optimizations to increase the photography quality. The final image quality is also enhanced through a series of algorithm optimizations. The 16MP front camera features a 4-in-1 super-pixel photosensitive chip, realizing the innovation of capturing clear images with the In-Display Camera.

5x-7.5x Continuous Optical Zoom - High Resolution + High Image Quality, Recording A Clearer World

Currently, almost all high magnification zoom solutions in the industry depend on hybrid zoom. As different fixed magnifications need to be integrated with digital algorithms for output, there is a level of compromise in resolution and image quality. APEX 2020 comes with Continuous Optical Zoom, becoming the world's first smartphone equipped with high-magnification continuous zoom. It can achieve continuous optical zoom under high magnifications between 5x-7.5x and produce images in high resolution and quality rather than filling focal lengths through digital magnification. It enables users to preserve the clarity of all moments by effectively enhancing every detail.

APEX 2020 is equipped with a "4-group lens combination" with two groups fixed and two groups movable, which achieves high-magnification continuous zoom and real-time focus at one time. With the support of a periscope structure, the entire module is only 6.2 mm thick, therefore, making it possible for this professional-grade lens to be incorporated into the APEX's ultra-thin body. To further enhance the image quality, vivo has incorporated a leading multi-frame algorithm so that scenery from afar can also be easily captured.

Gimbal-Stabilizing Main Camera - Stable Mechanical Structure and Enhanced Night Photography

With the arrival of 5G, creating smartphone video content becomes an even bigger priority. In order to fulfill users' demand to record daily life anywhere, anytime, vivo successfully embeds a gimbal-like structure into APEX 2020's main camera after a long-term technical development and multiple experiments. It achieves optical stabilization in the front-back and left-right inclined directions with enhanced performance. Lab tests demonstrate that compared to the traditional OIS system, its stabilization angle is 200%[2] extended. In addition, the image integrity is preserved to a greater extent.

This feature greatly reduces the blurring caused by a shaky hand. Users can also enjoy videography with smoothness. There is no need to bring other equipment as this handset is readily available for you to capture all those wonderful moments. Stable handheld shooting can also effectively extend the exposure time so that APEX 2020 also has a stronger capacity for night photography.

vivo Wireless Super FlashCharge 60W, Challenging the Boundaries

The APEX 2020 features the revolutionary vivo Wireless Super FlashCharge 60W, which recharges a handset with a 2000mAh battery in only 20 minutes[3], offering a faster charging experience than conventional wired flash charging.

Other than that, APEX 2020 is also equipped with innovations such as the 3rd Generation Screen SoundCasting Technology, Instant Photobomb Removal and Voice Tracking Auto-Focus. APEX 2020 brings an all-rounded user experience and endless surprises to the smartphone industry and global users.

About vivo

vivo is a leading global technology company committed to creating trendsetting smart mobile products and services. Through a global network of research operations and R&D centers in Dongguan, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Taipei, Tokyo and San Diego, vivo is committed in the development of cutting-edge consumer technologies including 5G, AI, mobile photography and next-generation smartphone design. vivo has also set up 5 production bases around the world across China, South Asia and Southeast Asia with annual smartphone production volume of nearly two hundred million.

vivo has over three hundred million users enjoying its mobile products and services around the world. Adhering to the company's core values of focusing on customer needs and innovation, vivo implements sustainable development strategies throughout the value chain and is committed to becoming a world-class company.

[1] The data is from results of vivo lab tests in an ideal environment. [2] The data is from results of vivo lab tests in an ideal environment. [3] The data is from results of vivo lab tests in an ideal environment.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1097050/Vivo_s_APEX_2020_Reveals_Futuristic_Vision_Beyond_Imagination.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1097051/120__FullView_Edgeless_Display.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1097052/120__FullView_Edgeless_Display_bends_angle_120__sides.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1097053/In_Display_Camera.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1097054/5x_7_5x_Continuous_Optical_Zoom_produces_images_high_resolution.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1097055/Gimbal_Stabilizing_Main_Camera_5x_7_5x_Continuous_Optical_Zoom_lens.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1097056/vivo_Wireless_Super_FlashCharge_60W.jpg
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 07:45:53|Editor: xuxin

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Artists perform during the "Solidarity with Wuhan" charity concert held in Warsaw, Poland, Feb. 27, 2020. A charity concert was held here on Thursday to show solidarity with and support for Chinese people in their fight against COVID-19 epidemic. Called "Solidarity with Wuhan", the concert took place at the National Filharmonic in Warsaw and lasted for 2.5 hours. It featured performances by a mix of Polish pop and classical artists, including Polish-Ukrainian violinist Vadim Brodski, and also some Chinese artists living in Poland. (Xinhua/Zhou Nan)

WARSAW, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A charity concert was held here on Thursday to show solidarity with and support for Chinese people in their fight against COVID-19 epidemic.

Called "Solidarity with Wuhan", the concert, took place at the National Filharmonic in Warsaw and lasted for 2.5 hours. It featured performances by a mix of Polish pop and classical artists, including Polish-Ukrainian violinist Vadim Brodski, and also some Chinese artists living in Poland.

"We got the idea after we saw how measured the Chinese response was to the epidemic," said Marek Traczyk, the chairman of the Warsaw Chamber of Commerce, the organizer of the event. "Please remember that we are talking about a tremendous concentration of people, and the Chinese authorities are managing the issue without any panic and are successfully promoting the need for basic hygiene."

Traczyk added:" We live in a world where people are extremely mobile, and no single country can contain such an epidemic by itself."

Attending the event, Chinese Ambassador to Poland Liu Guangyuan said the Polish government and people have offered China strong support both in morality and action during its battle against the epidemic.

"Today's concert demonstrates again the profound friendship between the peoples of the two countries," he said.
The Tamil Nadu government on Friday told the Centre that around 450 Indian fishermen were stranded in Iran following the outbreak of coronavirus and urged the latter to take steps for their immediate evacuation.

Chief Minister K Palaniswami told Minister for External Affairs, S Jaishankar, that among the stranded were 300 fishermen from Tamil Nadu, and that all 450-odd were working in various fishing vessels berthed and operating in Iranian ports.

"These fishermen are reportedly stranded in Port Kish, Cheeru and other places in Iran, due to the cancellation of flights, because of the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran," he told Jaishankar in a letter.

The fishermen requested that they be evacuated from Iran immediately, he said.

"I request your good office to direct the Embassy of India in Iran to provide the required support to the fishermen and also to make arrangements for their safe and immediate return to India," Palaniswami said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Penn Virginia Corporation (PVAC) came out with quarterly earnings of $2.75 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.92 per share. This compares to earnings of $2.56 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of 43.23%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this company would post earnings of $1.89 per share when it actually produced earnings of $1.97, delivering a surprise of 4.23%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times.

Penn Virginia Corporation, which belongs to the Zacks Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - United States industry, posted revenues of $123.20 million for the quarter ended December 2019, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.49%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $124.86 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates two times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

Penn Virginia Corporation shares have lost about 56.9% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's decline of -3.5%.

What's Next for Penn Virginia Corporation?

While Penn Virginia Corporation has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Story continues

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Penn Virginia Corporation was unfavorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to underperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $1.78 on $121.10 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $7.40 on $492.31 million in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - United States is currently in the bottom 34% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.



Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report



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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Web Ventures, the Acquisitions and Investment arm of the InMotion Hosting family, announced today at WordCamp Miami that it has acquired weForms, an easy-to-use contact form builder plugin for WordPress, developed by the talented weDevs team.

This is the first of two acquisitions Web Ventures is announcing at WordCamp Miami, just weeks after Elegant Marketplace joined forces with InMotion.

"WordCamp Miami is such a great community, and we're thrilled to announce the addition of weForms to the Web Ventures digital portfolio here in Miami," President of Web Ventures Sunil Saxena said. "The user-friendly interface and minimalistic design of weForms works perfectly with our goal to help our customers succeed. Agencies, freelancers, and DIYers alike will benefit from this wonderfully-designed tool."

Based around a drag-and-drop interface, weForms provides unlimited forms, ample fields, form scheduling and several other features that allow for full customization of a form. Its premium features helps users grow their businesses with cool perks like Marketing Automation, small scale e-commerce and SMS notifications.

The all-in-one form builder plugin was created with global users in mind, featuring a simplistic design that is not only modern, but also super fast and extremely user-friendly.

Mike Demopoulos of Web Ventures is on-site at WordCamp Miami to answer any questions regarding this acquisition.

Contact

Mike Demopoulos

Web Ventures Lead Hand Shaker

[email protected]

(757) 416-6574

About Web Ventures

Web Ventures is the Acquisitions and Investment arm of the InMotion Hosting family. Having recently acquired W3 Total Cache and Elegant Marketplace, Web Ventures plans to continue investing in WordPress companies for the foreseeable future, with multiple additional announcements expected at WordCamp Europe in Porto, Portugal in the first half of 2020.

Related Images

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Related Links

Web Ventures Official Website

WeForms Pro Official Website

SOURCE Web Ventures, A Division of InMotion Hosting

Related Links

https://webventures.io/


President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pose during the RCEP Summit in Nonthaburi, Thailand, Nov. 4, 2019. / Korea Times file



By Kang Seung-woo



When the Korean government temporarily suspended ending the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with Japan three months ago, the decision painted a rosy outlook for the development of the soured relations between Seoul and Tokyo.



However, even though it has been more than 100 days since the GSOMIA was put on life support, Nov. 22, there are no signs to be seen of the two neighbors establishing a reconciliatory mood  despite a summit between President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, two foreign ministers' talks and other working-level meetings.



Rather, there are a myriad of pending issues including a costly trade war in connection with a row over wartime forced labor, casting a shadow over the prospect of the normalization of bilateral ties.



The biggest sticking point between the two countries is whether the legal process to liquidate Japanese firms' assets in Korea will start this year as a way to compensate Koreans who were forced to work for Japanese companies during the colonial era  an order by Korea's Supreme Court in October 2018 that was strongly protested by the Abe administration.



The timing of the court-ordered liquidation has not yet been decided, but is highly likely to be no later than the first half of this year, leading the two nations' already rocky relationship to take another sharp turn for the worse.



Despite the concerns, the government is neither considering meddling in the judicial issue nor making a "political" decision.



During her Feb. 6 press conference, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said the government was not in a position to intervene in or predict the victims' plan to liquidate Japanese firms' local assets as a way to receive compensation, but has to prepare for every possible scenario.



"If the assets are liquidated, the government's diplomatic strategy and response will have to change," she said.



Whether to reverse the decision on the military information-sharing agreement with Japan is also a hot-button issue.



On Feb. 15, Kang sat down with her Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany and urged him to take "tangible and earnest" measures to remove export curbs on Korea.



Last July, the Japanese government tightened controls on three key materials that Korean companies need to produce semiconductors and high definition screens  a move seen as economic retaliation against the Supreme Court's ruling against the Japanese firms.



In response, Korea threatened to terminate the GSOMIA, but after a flurry of last-ditch diplomatic talks, it decided to "conditionally" suspend the expiration of the bilateral military intelligence pact that is renewed every year.



However, as no visible progress has been made so far, Korea has stepped up calls for Japan to quickly reverse the measures, including its removal of Korea from its list of preferred trading partners.



"GSOMIA is still a viable option for us. It currently remains sheathed," a Cheong Wa Dae official said, Feb. 12.



"Our position remains firm that Japan should return the situation to the level before export regulations were imposed."



Kang also told the press briefing that Korea has the right to "reactivate" the termination of the GSOMIA at any time.





Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha shakes hands with her Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi during a meeting in San Francisco, Jan. 14. / Korea Times file
Turkey woke up Feb. 28 to its gloomiest day in the Syrian conflict, mourning the deaths of at least 33 soldiers in a ferocious attack the previous day that brought tensions with Moscow and Damascus to an unprecedented level.

What exactly transpired on Feb. 27? At around 5 p.m., a Turkish mechanized infantry battalion, comprised of about 400 soldiers, became the target of an airstrike on a road between al- Bara and Balyun, some 5 kilometers (3 miles) north of Kafr Nabl in southern Idlib. According to local sources contacted by Al-Monitor, two Russian Sukhoi Su-34 and two Syrian Su-22 fighter jets had launched intensive bombings of Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) targets in southern Idlib at around 11 a.m. that day. The same jets hit the Turkish convoy in coordinated action, the sources said. A first, a relatively lighter strike by the Su-22s forced the convoy to stop, after which the pounding intensified, forcing the soldiers to take shelter in several roadside buildings. What followed next was likely the dropping of KAB-1500L bombs  a variation of advanced laser-guided bunker buster bombs capable of penetrating to depths of up to 20 meters (65 feet)  by the Russian jets. Two of the buildings collapsed in the attack, leaving the Turkish soldiers under the rubble.

Moscow said Feb. 28 that Russian planes had not carried out strikes in the area, and that Russia did its best to ensure the Syrian army ceased fire to allow the evacuation of the troops. It said, however, that the Turkish soldiers should not have been in the area, where counterterror operations were underway, and Ankara had failed to relay information about their presence in advance.

Despite the denial of Russian involvement and a subsequent phone call between the Turkish and Russian presidents, the escalation appears to be a deliberate, well-calculated Russian move and Moscows attitude could hardly be taken for granted as a sign that it is willing to step back to de-escalate the crisis.

Ankaras official death toll stood at 33 on the morning of Feb. 28, with 60 other troops wounded, among them 16 with serious injuries. It was still unclear whether any soldiers could be still trapped under the rubble. According to unconfirmed information obtained by Al-Monitor, the actual death toll is somewhere between 50 and 55.

What caused Russia to react so violently and provocatively while a Russian delegation was holding talks in Ankara in a bid to ease the tensions in Idlib?

The battlefield had grown highly explosive since Feb. 20, when two Turkish tank crewmen were killed in an air raid on Turkish M60 Sabre tanks in southern Idlib. The situation escalated further on Feb. 25-26, when  amid ongoing operations by Syrian government forces, backed by Russian airpower, in southern Idlib  SNA forces, supported by the Turkish military, launched a counterattack in the Nayrab-Saraqeb area, taking control of Nayrab and marching on to Saraqeb, which lies at the junction of the strategic M4 and M5 highways, while managing to block the M5 at several points only days after the road had been reopened.

Things came to a head on the morning of Feb. 27, when according to Russian media, Russian aircraft flying over southern Idlib became the target of intensive fire from man-portable air-defense systems, known as MANPADS, from Turkish military outposts in the area. Simultaneously, MANPADS and drone attacks reportedly threatened the Khmeimim base, Russias key military facility in Syria. Russian sources, contacted by Al-Monitor, claim that more than 15 MANPADS attacks, carried out directly by Turkish troops, targeted Russian and Syrian jets conducting air raids in southern Idlib after 1 p.m. that day. Some Russian aircraft allegedly suffered damage as they maneuvered to escape the fire. As the attacks on the planes and the Khmeimim base reached an intensity deemed intolerable, the Turkish convoy was hit at 5 p.m.

After the attack, Moscow rejected Ankaras request to open the Idlib air space to Turkish helicopters to airlift the casualties. As a result, the dead and the wounded were transported by road to a hospital in Reyhanli, a Turkish border town about 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the area.

It was not before 9:30 p.m. that the Turkish public began to hear about the mayhem on social media. At 11 p.m., President Recep Tayyip Erdogan convened an emergency security meeting in Ankara. Remarkably, Ankara singled out the regime as the culprit, with no reference to Russia, in its initial reactions, vowing a powerful retaliation. This is an important sign that Ankara is unwilling to break ties with Moscow immediately, which suggests it will maintain a rhetoric blaming the regime for the attack on the convoy.

Soon after the Turkish public got wind of the bloodshed on social media, the internet slowed across the country and widely used communication means such as Twitter and WhatsApp were throttled. In other words, the authorities appeared to hamper alternative information sources, while the conventional media began to disseminate reports and footage of Turkish troops striking Syrian regime forces in a bid to enforce a perception that the Turkish martyrs were being avenged. Erdogans communication chief Fahrettin Altun tweeted a series of messages, vowing a powerful response to the murderous regime and underscoring Ankaras resolve to not withdraw its forces from Idlib.

And what could happen next in Idlib? The picture on the ground is clear: Ankara is now in a conventional war with Damascus, albeit an undeclared one, and has come to the brink of a conventional confrontation with Moscow. Ankaras blaming of the regime could be seen as an ongoing effort to keep dialogue channels with Moscow open. Yet the signals coming from Moscow are not very encouraging. A face-to-face meeting between Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin appears as the only means that could de-escalate the Turkey-Russia crisis now. According to Erdogans communication chief, the two leaders agreed to meet face to face as soon as possible during their phone call, yet the Kremlins statement was more ambiguous, saying they agreed to examine the possibility for such a meeting.

The severity of the death toll is, no doubt, a huge blow for Ankara, but Moscow itself might have failed to foresee such a bloody outcome. The attack will obviously lead to the spillover of tensions beyond Idlib. Turkey is likely to come under mounting pressure to withdraw its military presence in the Euphrates Shield pocket and the Afrin area to the west of the Euphrates and even from areas to the east of the river, which it took hold of in October.

The most critical question now is whether Ankara will be prepared to end its military presence in Syria. Such a move appears unlikely in the near future. Ankara will at least seek to bargain and extract certain concessions from Moscow for a gradual pullout of its troops.

A dramatic escalation in the clashes appears unlikely in the next several days as the actors on the ground  Ankara, Damascus, Moscow and Tehran  will probably try to decide their positions according to their respective moves and inclinations.

Despite Ankaras hopes for Western support, neither NATO nor the United States are likely to get militarily involved in the crisis immediately. Both will probably pursue a wait-and-see approach for a while to get a better picture of how the Ankara-Moscow crisis evolves.
India has temporarily suspended visa on arrival services for nationals of Japan and South Korea in view of the surge in the number of coronavirus cases in the two countries, the Indian embassy here said on Friday. The development comes a day after India evacuated 119 Indians and 5 foreigners who were on board the coronavirus-hit cruise ship, Diamond Princess, moored off the Japanese coast.

Out of the 3,711 people on board the ship, over 700 people tested positive for the disease. Elsewhere in the country, over 160 people have been found to be infected with the disease. With COVID-19 cases surpassing 2,000, South Korea has become the biggest cluster to have the infections outside China. A total of 13 people have died of the virus in the country.

According to an AFP report, more than 90 per cent of the new cases were in Daegu city, the epicentre of the outbreak in South Korea, and the neighbouring North Gyeongsang province.

"In view of the recent outbreak of COVID-19, VISA ON ARRIVAL which was available only for nationals of Japan and South Korea has been temporarily suspended," the Indian embassy tweeted. "Regular visas continue to be processed and may be applied for," it said.

Earlier, India had on February 2 suspended e-visa facility for Chinese travellers and foreigners residing in China following surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country. Further tightening the visa rules, India on February 4 cancelled the existing visas for Chinese and foreigners who had visited the country in the last two weeks.

The novel coronavirus emerged in early December and traced to a market in Hubei's capital Wuhan that sold wild animals. The death toll due to the deadly disease rose to 2,788 in China with 44 more deaths, while the confirmed cases climbed to 78,824, according to Chinese health officials on Friday.

Also read: Investors lose Rs 11 lakh crore in five sessions amid fears of Coronavirus

Also read: US intelligence agencies monitor coronavirus spread; say concerned about India
People inspect the remains of a burnt-out school premises following clashes between people supporting and opposing a contentious amendment to India's citizenship law, in New Delhi AFP/Sajjad HUSSAIN

Thousands of riot police and paramilitaries patrolled the affected northeast fringes of the Indian capital of 20 million people, preventing any major eruptions however.

The unrest is the latest bout of violence over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's citizenship law, which triggered months of demonstrations that turned deadly in December.

Sunil Kumar, director of the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital, said Thursday the hospital registered 30 deaths while the chief doctor at Lok Nayak Hospital said three people had died there.

"All of them (at the GTB) had gunshot injuries," Kumar told AFP.

Kishore Singh, medical superintendent Lok Nayak Hospital, told AFP that 10 people were still in a serious condition there.

The new fatalities - up from 27 on Wednesday - were all from the violence on Monday and Tuesday when mobs of Hindus and Muslims fought running battles.

The initial violence erupted late Sunday.

Groups armed with swords and guns set fire to thousands of properties and vehicles.

Homes, shops, two mosques, two schools, a tyre market and a fuel station were torched.

More than 200 people were also injured.

According to a list from the GTB hospital seen by AFP, the victims are a roughly even mix of Hindus and Muslims, based on their names.

Delhi police spokesman Mandeep Randhawa told AFP that there was "no major incident" overnight, while the city's chief fire officer Atul Garg said they received 19 distress calls.

"In last three days 230 calls were received by the department from the region that included major incidents of arson," Garg told AFP.

"GUN DOWN TRAITORS"

In December at least 30 people were killed, mostly in police action in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, home to a significant Muslim population, after the citizenship law was passed.

Many of India's 200 million Muslims fear the citizenship law - combined with a mooted citizens' register - will leave them stateless or even sent to detention camps.

They and critics see Modi's ruling party, which is linked to once-banned militaristic Hindu group RSS, as wanting to turn officially secular India into a Hindu nation.

His party has denied the allegations but in recent weeks BJP politicians, including in an ugly recent campaign for Delhi elections, have called the demonstrators "anti-nationals" and "jihadists".

One, Parvesh Verma, said protestors "could enter houses and rape and kill your sisters", while another, Anurag Thakur, encouraged a crowd to chant "gun down traitors".

A call on Sunday by another BJP politician, Kapil Mishra, for "Hindus" to clear a northeastern Delhi sit-in protest is being seen as the spark for the current unrest.

On Wednesday a Delhi High Court judge, Justice S. Muralidhar, sharply criticised the police and called on them to investigate BJP politicians for inciting violence.

Muralidhar was transferred to another state court in a late-night order, prompting a social media storm. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad insisted it was a "routine transfer".

On Wednesday the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, which advises Washington but does not set policy, voiced "grave concern" about the violence as President Donald Trump was visiting.

Anurima Bhargava, a commissioner appointed by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also expressed alarm at reports that Delhi police "have not intervened in violent attacks against Muslims."

Trump, asked at a news conference in the capital about the violence, said the issue was "up to India" and praised Modi's "incredible" statements on religious freedom.
First the good news; as yet, the United States has only a few isolated cases of the coronavirus, code-named COVID-19.

Now the bad news; a lack of resources is leaving health officials in the dark about whether the virus is actually spreading. Emergency room (ER) doctors say they currently lack the resources to deal with a major outbreak.

Test kits used to determine whether someone has COVID-19 or simply a cold are in short supply. California Governor Gavin Newsom told reporters at a news conference Thursday that the state only has 200 test kits on hand, a situation he called simply inadequate.

Everybody in this country is rightfully anxious about this moment, the governor said. I think they should know we are meeting this moment with the kind of urgency that is necessary and I dont want to overextend the anxiety.

Consumers in California may be on edge because one resident of the state is the first patient in the country to have contracted COVID-19 from unknown origin, meaning the patient had not traveled to China or had known contact with anyone who had been diagnosed.

Taking issue with CDC policy

Other health experts point to policy directives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for what they say is a lack of timely testing. Dr. Michael Mina of the Harvard School of Public Health says the CDC has mandated all testing be conducted centrally.

The frustrating thing, I think, for people who are trying to perform tests for their patients is we just dont have the capacity in the United States and the local laboratories that would normally be testing have been banned from being able to do that because of the declaration of a public health emergency by the CDC, he told CNBC.

Meanwhile, a professional group representing hospital ER doctors is asking Congress to approve emergency supplemental appropriations to ensure the system has the resources necessary to address an outbreak.

"More can and should be done to minimize the risk of coronavirus in the United States," said Dr. William Jaquis, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). "It is critical that we empower our nation's emergency care teams and public health experts to protect millions of people and respond quickly and effectively to this virus."

Request for additional funding

ACEP and the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) have sent a request to the House Appropriations Committee asking for an increase in funding for health emergency preparedness, noting that COVID-19 patients will likely enter the healthcare system through an ER.

"As the safety net for our communities, emergency departments across the country are filled with patients who have nowhere else to go for their health care needs, Jaquis said.

He added that ERs around the country are already dealing with what he called a challenging flu season.
I remember throwing up in shock after hearing some details of how Cornelia was treated  without the rule of law, without transparency  first in a maximum-security women's prison in Brisbane and then in South Australia's Baxter detention centre. Without a lawyer, judge, jury or advocate. Without even her name. Cornelia ended up in detention due to a mental illness. She has no recollection of her six months in the Brisbane jail and her four months in Baxter, near Port Augusta, much of that time (more than five weeks) spent in solitary confinement. Cornelia Rau at a press conference in Adelaide in 2005 (right) and before her detention. Credit:David Mariuz Revisiting all this 15 years later brings back strong emotions. As do the baffling physical conditions, including psoriasis of the scalp and eyebrows. For Cornelia, who remains the focus here, it has caused irreversible neurological damage. Some sort of damage, emotional or physical, is not unexpected when he hear the horrendous stories of those who have suffered Australia's cruel and inhumane punishment of anyone who arrives by boat. Even our refugee advocates all have some form of PTSD.

One phrase all the experts I have talked to, who specialise in law, medicine and human rights, used was this: it was necessary for all of us to "bear witness". There are atrocities being committed in our names. We are not stupid as a society. So when we elect governments, we must  by our indifference  be complicit in the bullying and ill-treatment of others, as long as we can stick our heads in the sand. Sorry. That is not good enough. It's irresponsible. While Cate Blanchett and Matchbox Productions tried for seven years to steer Stateless to air, a chorus of naysayers put obstacle after obstacle in the way.

For many politicians, the fear of a small rump of shrill reptiles in my industry initially prevented people funding Stateless via grants from a shrinking arts purse. Until the sheer passion of the team involved cut through with even the most hard-hearted of investors. Still, it was touch and go. The key motivation for writing this piece is to shield both Cornelia and my parents from undue attention. And to the person who sent a creepy, unstamped envelope with a handwritten card threatening my then eight-year-old daughter with kidnapping to our suburban letterbox: you're a coward and a bully. The debate over detention has been characterised by a shortlist of lack: Trust. Integrity. Authenticity. Truth. Decency. Civilised discourse. The simple instinct that says love is better than a gun or a barbed-wire fence. On the eve of Stateless going to air, it is important to add a word of caution. There are two clauses in the 1944 Journalist Code of Ethics which I'm quoting now to tell a particular cohort of "commentators"  including social media users and bloggers who think they're exempt from defamation law  to back off my sister.

One: never exploit a person's vulnerability or ignorance of media practice. Two: respect private grief and personal privacy. Journalists have the right to resist compulsion to intrude. Translation: don't do death knocks and don't "follow orders". Ethics count more. To a particular cohort of commentators  including social media users and bloggers  back off my sister. Melbourne-based barrister Julian Burnside put it best to me, commenting on the Palmer report into Cornelia's case and other detention issues: "[People's health and rights] are not an abstract concern.

"The Immigration Department exercises awesome power. It can (and does) detain people indefinitely without the intervention of a court. It can (and does) effectively isolate detainees from proper medical or legal help. It can (and does) deport people from Australia. "Its exercise of these powers is often misguided, wilful or capricious. Don't believe this? Watch Stateless." Following this story as objectively as possible, I have met some extraordinary people from all walks of life who form part of Australia's own underground railroad. Who believe in empathy over "lawyers, guns and money". And some of them are lawyers! But if Cate can stick her head up, so can we all. As does Julian and so many unsung heroes. It may be called soft power, but politicians and military thugs from Russia to North Korea fear it.

A collective voice is stronger than you think. Stateless starts on the ABC on March 1. CORNELIA RAU: A REFLECTIVE SUMMARY by Mick Palmer Whenever I reflect on the Cornelia Rau inquiry, conducted nearly 15 years ago, a number of issues always bubble quickly to the surface of my mind. They surface not only because of their crucial importance but because, sadly, of their ongoing relevance to public life and bureaucratic process.

If we are to adequately protect human rights and individual liberty we must ensure government policies which potentially impact on rights and freedoms are accompanied by review and accountability provisions sufficient to provide the public with confidence that the powers are being exercised fairly, justly and with integrity. Otherwise good and decent people, under pressure, will sometimes make very indecent decisions. A bad decision once made is frequently defended. But in government policy the ends must never be allowed to justify the means. If that happens, the pain will always outweigh the gain. The surest way to undermine strong government policy is to unlawfully or improperly apply it.
Keane Mulready-Woods, whose remains were found in Dublin (Garda handout/PA)

A man has been charged in relation to the murder of teenager Keane Mulready-Woods.

The 17-year-old, from Drogheda, Co Louth, was murdered and dismembered, with parts of his body dumped in two different parts of Dublin in January.

The teenagers limbs were found in a bag in Coolock, while other body parts were found in a burnt-out car in Drumcondra.

A man who was arrested last week is due to appear in Drogheda District Court on Friday morning.

Another man who was also arrested last week was released earlier this week without charge.

Gardai said a file on that man will be prepared and forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The foreign ministry of the Republic of Artsakh issued a statement on the 32nd anniversary of the Armenian massacres in Sumgait, the ministry told Armenpress.

The statement says:

32 years ago, on February 27-29, 1988, the authorities of the Azerbaijani SSR perpetrated the massacre and forced deportation of the Armenian population in the city of Sumgait, accompanied by atrocities committed with unprecedented cruelty. The three-day mass beatings, killings and violent acts were the response of the authorities of Baku to the peaceful and legitimate demands of the Armenians of Artsakh (Karabakh) to realize their inalienable right to self-determination.

There is ample evidence that the massacres of Armenians in Sumgait were thoroughly prepared and planned by the Azerbaijani authorities. Speaking at the rallies held on the eve of the massacres, high-ranking representatives of the city authorities called on the crowd to punish the Armenians and demanded "to kill and to deport them from Sumgait and from entire Azerbaijan". Almost every speech ended with the chanting of "Death to Armenians!". Amid the obvious inaction of the authorities and law enforcement bodies, as well as guided by the latters, hundreds of Azerbaijanis in Sumgait, inspired by the calls for hatred and violence against Armenians, started unimpeded attacks on the apartments of the Armenians living in Sumgait, having the lists of addresses at their disposal.

The impunity of the real organizers and perpetrators of the crimes against humanity committed in Sumgait created a fertile ground for the ethnic cleansing of Armenians throughout the Azerbaijani SSR in the subsequent years - in Kirovabad, Baku and a number of other Armenian-populated cities. Thousands of Armenians became victims of this policy, and hundreds of thousands became refugees.

Currently, the Azerbaijani authorities, unfortunately, continue their policy of inciting hatred and xenophobia against the Armenians, heroizing and glorifying the Azerbaijani officer who brutally killed an Armenian officer in Hungary in 2004. Another manifestation of such a policy became the rewarding of the Azerbaijani officer by the President of Azerbaijan for beheading a serviceman of the Artsakh Defense Army during the April war of 2016 unleashed against the Republic of Artsakh, as well as the gross violations of the norms of humanitarian law and the war crimes committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces.

We bow to the memory of the innocent victims of the Sumgait crime. The international community should condemn and give a clear and unequivocal assessment to the genocidal actions committed by the Azerbaijani authorities against the peaceful Armenian population, which will not only prevent the repetition of such atrocities in the future, but will also help to heal the situation in Azerbaijan.
TDT | Manama

The Labour Fund Tamkeen announced signing a partnership with several leading banks in Bahrain to launch a Solar Financing Scheme. The move, part of Tamkeens Tamweel Scheme, aims at empowering enterprises and enabling them to purchase solar energy panels to generate energy which in turn will help them reduce their costs. Chairman of Tamkeen Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al-Khalifa said the deal is aligned with Bahrains Economic Vision 2030 and the Kingdoms Sustainable Development Goals. The move, he said, is going to encourage enterprises to use renewable and clean energy, which will help them reduce their costs, allowing them to focus on expansion. Signing the deal, Chief Executive of Tamkeen, Dr Ebrahim Mohammed Janahi, described the move as a strategic step that will bring Bahrain closer towards achieving its Sustainable Development Goals and positioning it as a leading nation within the region. He added: It will create more opportunities in the field of renewable energy, and will also help reducing costs, allowing enterprises to shift their focus on growth. The scheme covers the costs of the solar energy panels and is compliant with the Islamic Sharia within a competitive rate since Tamkeen supports 70 per cent of the annual profit rate. The amount of funding ranges between 5,000 BHD and 500,000 BHD with a repayment period of up to 10 years, and a grace period thats subject to the terms of the bank.

5pc of renewable energy by 2025

Dr Abdulhussain bin Ali Mirza, the President of Sustainable Energy Authority said the deal will contribute to achieving the national goals adopted by the government to reach 5 per cent of renewable energy from the total energy by 2025 and 6pc of improving energy efficiency.

Green Loans

Dr Waheed AlQasim, the CEO of Bahrain Association of Banks, stated that the partnership is extremely important, especially since its aligned with the banks direction towards promoting Green Loans, which are targeted towards environmentally friendly businesses, encouraging customers to make optimal use of natural resources. Dr AlQasim said: This initiative by Tamkeen to provide these kinds of loans could also help increase the number of banks that support businesses with solar energy projects.

KFH financing schemes

Managing Director & CEO, Abdulhakeem Al Khayyat, said the agreement with Tamkeen seeks to provide new financial solutions to support SMEs. The partnership will open doors to further collaboration between KFH and Tamkeen in the foreseeable future, Al Khayyat said adding that KFH will provide a variety of financing schemes for enterprises.

Ithmaar committed

The CEO of Ithmaar Bank Ahmed Abdulraheem said: We at Ithmaar Bank are committed to supporting the economic growth of Bahrain, especially when it comes to solar energy initiatives. Abdulraheem said the bank is aware of the important role it must play to help develop solar energy.

Determined says Khaleeji Commercial Bank

Sattam Al Gosaibi, the CEO of Khaleeji Commercial Bank, said the deal will develop this industry and will help support the national economy. This project, Al Gosaibi said, will reduce the operational cost related to the amount of energy used, in addition to the value of the monthly financial obligations on financing.

Al Baraka Islamic Bank

The CEO of the Al Baraka Islamic Bank Hamad Aloqab hailed the move as in line with the banks approach of encouraging and financially supporting clean and sustainable energy in Bahrain. He said that its part of their sustainable programmes that Al Baraka is implementing reflecting the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Bahrain Islamic Bank

Hassan Jarar the CEO of Bahrain Islamic Bank said they are looking forward to this fruitful partnership which will encourage institutions and companies in the Kingdom to adopt sustainable energy to achieve the UNs Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and contribute to the growth and development of Bahrain on a wider scale.
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most senior Shiite cleric in Iraq, called Friday on the Iraqi people to cooperate in achieving a broad national effort to stop and prevent the spread of the new virus. His message came in a sermon, delivered by his representative Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai, during Friday prayers in the city of Karbala.

Iraq has taken drastic measures to stem the spread of the new virus, including closing schools and universities for ten days.

The government also banned public gatherings and ordered the closures of cinemas, cafes, clubs and other social forums for the same period.

This followed the announcement on Thursday of the first positive case in the capital Baghdad.

This brought the number of cases in Iraq to five - all of them involving travellers who had previously been in Iran.
As stated in the February report of Pew Research Center, about a third of the nation's 60 million Hispanics are immigrants and nearly 80 percent are US Citizens. The Southern Border States that are led by New Mexico (49.1% Hispanic), Texas (39.6%), California (39.3%) and Arizona (31.6%) are generally concentrated by the Hispanic Population. Growth patterns and interstate migrations were also the found reasons why the Latino community grew in the other US states.

In the year 2000 the Hispanic population had 10% in total in 10 states and as of July 2019, 13 states joined with them and this was to be estimated by the Census Bureau. 13 Spanish-speaking states in the United States of America are known to have an increase growth in population from the year 2000 to 2019.

The thirteenth state to be known is Wyoming, from the total percentage population of 6.4 percent in 2000 it now rose to 10.1 percent in 2019. The growth was due to the Latinos who came to Wyoming to find jobs and it was the economist Wenlin Liu told Wyoming Public Media in 2015.

The twelfth state is Maryland, the Latino's population more than doubled from 2000 to 2019. It was a report from January that and the Pew Research Center showed that 40% of the Hispanic population was eligible to vote.

The eleventh state is Hawaii and it was known for its Polynesian population. Together with Maryland Hawaii also had doubled its Hispanic population. Pew Research Center reports that 6 in 10 Hawaii Latinos are eligible to vote, that placed The Aloha State in rank 10 nationality percentage of the Hispanic population that were allowed to vote and cast their ballot.

The population that has more than doubled since 2000, when it was at 5.2 percent is the state of Oklahoma. Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce also reported that more than 170,000 Hispanic people live in the Oklahoma City metro area alone.

According to a 2013 University of Nebraska-Omaha study. Nebraska's Latino population was just 5.5 percent in 2000 and as of 2019 it rose to 11.2 and it is believed that by 2050 the state of Nebraska will triple the population of Hispanics.

The eighth state is the state of Kansas. In 2000, Kansas was just seven percent Hispanic, with the numbers growing since 2000 it is now at 12.1 percent. But in Kansas, Hispanics are low in electoral power because only 43.1 percent of Latinos vote.

The seventh state is the state of Massachusetts as it births to a Hispanic population of 6.8 percent of population in 2000 to 12.3 percent in 2019. Adding to the information from Boston.com Hispanic population growth in Massachusetts was evident from year 2000 to 2019.

A 2014 Pew Research Center profile study shows that the sixth state with 91 percent of the population were Latino and this was reported from the state of Idaho from 7.9 percent in 2000 to 12.7 percent in 2019.

The fifth state was Washington and according to the state's Office of Financial Management, Washington grew its population from 7.5 percent in 2000 to 12.9 percent in 2019. It was reported that only 42 percent of the state's Latinos are eligible to vote in 2020.

The fourth state is Oregon, with a population that grew by more than 50 percent since 2000, when it was at eight percent. It is now at 13.3 percent in 2019. According to Pew Research Center only 2.8 percent of the state's Hispanic population can vote, which is below the national average so far in 2020.

The third state is Utah from nine percent in 2000 to 14.2 percent in 2019. According to The Salt Lake Tribune the population grew by more than 25 percent between 2010 and 2018.

The second state is Rhode Island with a population of 8.7 percent to 2000 and to 15.9 percent 2019. The majority of the Hispanics in Rhode Island are allowed to vote.

The highest state with Latinos in its population is Connecticut, with just 9.4% Hispanic in 2000 but now found to be 16.5% in 2019. It is known that approximately 54 percent of New England state's Hispanic population is allowed to vote.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

Azerbaijani Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov received a delegation led by Romanian Deputy Minister of Economy, Energy and Business Environment Niculae Havrilet that is in Baku to attend the sixth meeting of the Advisory Council of the Southern Gas Corridor, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Energy.

The representatives of TRANSGAZ S.A. and ROMGAZ S.A. companies attended the meeting.

During the meeting, the cooperation with Romania in the field of trade in oil, oil and petrochemical products was discussed, and the opportunities created by the format of the Advisory Council in developing of cooperation in the energy sector were also stressed.

Shahbazov praised Romanias regular participation in the ministerial meetings as part of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council as indicator this country's interest in the project.

Havrilet spoke about the importance of the Southern Gas Corridor and informed that Romania is interested in participating in this project in the future.

The Romanian deputy minister shared the views on using the capabilities of the BRUA interconnector project and the Bulgaria-Romania interconnector to further expand the Southern Gas Corridor to Central Europe.

The prospects of cooperation between the two countries in the energy sector were also discussed during the meeting.
A married Chinese couple were tied up, placed inside suitcases and thrown into a river while still alive in Thailand, police have said.

The body of Wang Jun was found in a black suitcase floating in the Ping river in Kamphaeng Phet, central Thailand, on Tuesday afternoon.

Police divers are still searching for his wife Zhu Bing, 28, who is also thought to have been dumped into the river in a suitcase.

The pair had rented three villas with 13 other Chinese tourists in Pattaya, near Bangkok, after they arrived on February 12. The rest of the group have since returned to China.

The body of Wang Jun, 30, was found in this suitcase in the Ping river, Kamphaeng Phet, Thailand. Police divers are still searching for his wife Zhu Bing, 28, who is missing

Mr Jun, left, and his wife Ms Bing, right, had been renting three villas in Pattaya with 13 other Chinese tourists. The rest of the group has left the country

Police officers work to pull the suitcase out of the river. A driver and villagers have said that at least two suitcases were thrown into the river

Mr Jun's body was found curled up inside the case with his arms and legs bound by red wire.

Fisherman Suthon Thapthan, who found the body, said he thought the case was loaded with 'rotten fish'. 'It was hard to open,' he said. 'But when I opened it, there was a man curled up inside and I was frightened.'

Police Lieutenant Colonel Jittipol Polponprueksa said they were investigating the murder and preparing two arrest warrants.

'The victim arrived with his wife and she is missing. We are searching the river for her body, which we believe is also in a suitcase,' he said.

'A driver said he saw cases being thrown in the river and villagers have also given witness statements that they heard heavy objects landing in the river.

'An autopsy examination confirmed that the victim died from drowning, so he was alive when he was put in the case.'

Police pictured searching for the body of Ms Bing. An autopsy has confirmed that her husband died from drowning, Thai police have said

Officers who interviewed villagers living near the area were told that a car had pulled up on Monday this week. They later heard at least two heavy objects crash into the water, which are believed to have been thrown from a nearby bridge.

Police identified the driver and traced the couple's movements to their rented villa, where they said they found bloodstains and signs of fighting.

The driver, who has not been identified, reportedly told police that his passengers had thrown four bags into the river at three separate locations.

'I was contacted through the car company to drive for a group of Chinese tourists,' they said to police officers.

'When I arrived at the house there were four Chinese people who started loading five suitcases onto the car and I noticed two of them were heavier than the rest.

'I was told to deliver them to Tak province. However, when we were at Kamphaeng Phet I was ordered to stop and they unloaded one suitcase and threw it into the river, then they did the same thing later.'

Officers with the suitcase that Mr Jun was found inside. A driver for a group of Chinese tourists has said that three suitcases were thrown into the river

Police Lieutenant Colonel Jittipol Polponprueksa said that officers were running tests on the blood and fingerprints found in the house and also gathering the CCTV footage of the area.

They believe at least four people are involved in the alleged murder of the Chinese tourist and the disappearance of his wife, who they suspect was also murdered.

Immigration records reportedly showed that Wang Jun had a history of making frequent trips to Thailand, where he would travel by land to the Mae Sot area of Tak province near the country's border with Burma, also known as Mayanmar.

A Reuters investigation last year found that Burma has become the centre of Asia's meth production labs, which are largely controlled by Chinese drug trafficking syndicates connected to the notorious Tse Chi Lop, who has been dubbed Asia's El Chapo.
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), a leading global provider of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, announced today its shareholders approved all proposals related to the previously announced pending combination with InterXion (NYSE: INXN), a leading provider of carrier- and cloud-neutral colocation data center services in Europe.

"We were gratified by the overwhelming shareholder support for the combination, with over 90% of votes cast by both sets of shareholders in favor of the proposals necessary to consummate the combination," said Digital Realty Chief Executive Officer A. William Stein. "We look forward to completing the exchange offer and closing the transaction in short order. Together with InterXion, we will be even better positioned to enable customers to solve for the full spectrum of data center requirements across a global platform, and we are confident the combination of our two organizations will significantly enhance our ability to create long-term value for the customers, shareholders and employees of both companies."

Regulatory Approval Update

Earlier this morning, Digital Realty and InterXion received approval for the transactions contemplated by the Purchase Agreement from the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, the foreign investment regulatory authority. As a result, all regulatory approvals required under the Purchase Agreement have now been obtained, and the condition of the Exchange Offer related to receipt of required regulatory approvals has been satisfied.

Opportunity for InterXion Shareholders to Receive Digital Realty's Declared Quarterly Dividend

Earlier this week, Digital Realty's Board of Directors authorized a common stock cash dividend of $1.12 per share to common stockholders of record as of the close of business on March 17, 2020. If 80% or more of outstanding InterXion shares on a fully-diluted and as-converted basis are tendered by the expiration of the initial offering period and all other required conditions are satisfied as described below, tendering InterXion shareholders should be holders of record of Digital Realty stock as of the record date and have the opportunity to receive the first-quarter dividend.

If the initial offering period is extended for any reason, InterXion shareholders would not be expected to become holders of record of Digital Realty common stock by the close of business on March 17, 2020, and consequently would not be entitled to receive the first-quarter dividend in any closing of the offer.

Anticipated Timing for Completion of the Offer

Digital Realty expects to complete the pending exchange offer for all outstanding ordinary shares of InterXion as soon as reasonably practicable. Subject to satisfaction of the remaining required conditions, if 80% or more of the outstanding InterXion shares on a fully-diluted and as-converted basis are validly tendered and not withdrawn at the expiration of the initial offering period, Digital Realty expects to accept the validly tendered shares as early as March 9, 2020, with the post-offer reorganization transactions to be completed as soon as practicable after the expiration of any subsequent offering period.

Offer Expiration

Unless the offer is extended, the initial offering period will expire at 12:01 a.m. EDT on March 9, 2020. (In other words, one minute after midnight on Sunday night / Monday morning. Please note, the Depository Trust Company and the exchange agent are closed on Saturdays and Sundays.) InterXion shareholders are encouraged to validly tender their shares before the close of normal New York business hours on Friday, March 6, 2020. No guaranteed delivery procedures apply.

Lowering the Minimum Condition

The offer is conditioned upon receipt by Digital Intrepid Holding B.V. ("Buyer"), a subsidiary of Digital Realty Trust, Inc., of a number of InterXion shares having been validly tendered and not withdrawn that would allow Buyer to acquire at least 80% of the outstanding InterXion shares on a fully-diluted and as-converted basis at the closing of the offer.

If less than 80% but more than 66 2/3% of the outstanding InterXion shares are tendered in the initial offering period, Digital Realty or Buyer may elect to reduce the minimum condition to 66 2/3% of the outstanding InterXion shares on a fully-diluted and as-converted basis, in which case the offer shall be extended for at least five business days (and no subsequent offering period will be provided).

Digital Realty or Buyer may also reduce the minimum condition to 66 2/3% prior to the expiration of the initial offering period (in which case a subsequent offering period will be provided). Digital Realty or Buyer may reduce the minimum condition below 66 2/3% with prior written consent from InterXion, subject to compliance with applicable laws.

Treatment of Untendered Shares after the Offer

As promptly as practicable following the later of the time at which Buyer accepts the tendered InterXion shares and the expiration of any applicable subsequent offering period, the parties shall initiate the post-offer reorganization.

If less than 95% of the outstanding InterXion shares are acquired by Buyer in the offer, the post-offer reorganization will result in non-tendering holders of InterXion receiving shares of Digital Realty common stock (and/or cash in lieu of fractional shares of Digital Realty common stock) pursuant to a liquidation distribution (rather than the offer). Non-tendering holders of InterXion shares who receive shares of Digital Realty common stock (and/or cash in lieu of fractional shares of Digital Realty common stock) pursuant to the liquidation distribution generally will be subject to a 15% Dutch dividend withholding tax.

If 95% or more of the outstanding InterXion shares are acquired by Buyer in the offer, Buyer will initiate Dutch compulsory acquisition proceedings, which will enable it to acquire the remaining InterXion shares against a cash amount as determined by a competent Dutch court. Non-tendering holders of InterXion shares who receive cash pursuant to Dutch compulsory acquisition proceedings will not be subject to the 15% Dutch dividend withholding tax. However, this process may materially delay non-tendering InterXion shareholders' receipt of this cash consideration.

Please refer to the offer to purchase for more information and a full description of the summaries above.

About Digital Realty

Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) supports the data center, colocation and interconnection strategies of customers across the Americas, EMEA and APAC, ranging from cloud and information technology services, communications and social networking to financial services, manufacturing, energy, healthcare and consumer products. To learn more about Digital Realty, please visit digitalrealty.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

For Additional Information

Andrew P. Power

Chief Financial Officer

Digital Realty

(415) 738-6500

Investor Relations

John J. Stewart

(415) 738-6500

[email protected]

Media Inquiries

John Christiansen / Reze Wong / Celia de Pentheny O'Kelly

Sard Verbinnen & Co

(415) 618-8750

[email protected]

Additional Information and Where to Find It

On December 6, 2019, Digital Realty filed a Registration Statement on Form S-4 in connection with the transactions contemplated by the Purchase Agreement, dated as of October 29, 2019, as amended, among Digital Realty, InterXion Holding N.V. and Buyer, which included a proxy statement/prospectus. This communication is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any proxy, vote or approval with respect to the proposed transaction or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. The registration statement was declared effective by the SEC on January 27, 2020. Digital Realty has mailed a definitive proxy statement/prospectus to shareholders of Digital Realty and Buyer filed a Tender Offer Statement on Schedule TO with the SEC on January 29, 2020. InterXion filed a Solicitation / Recommendation Statement on Schedule 14D-9 with respect to the exchange offer on January 29, 2020. The solicitation and offer to purchase the ordinary shares of InterXion will only be made pursuant to the Schedule TO and related offer to purchase. This material is not a substitute for the proxy statement / prospectus, the Schedule TO, the Schedule 14D-9 or the Registration Statement or for any other document that Digital Realty or InterXion may file with the SEC and send to Digital Realty's stockholders or InterXion's shareholders in connection with the proposed transactions.

BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING OR INVESTMENT DECISION OR DECISION WITH RESPECT TO THE OFFER, WE URGE INVESTORS OF DIGITAL REALTY AND INTERXION TO READ THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT, PROXY STATEMENT / PROSPECTUS, SCHEDULE TO (INCLUDING AN OFFER TO PURCHASE, RELATED LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL AND OTHER OFFER DOCUMENTS) AND SCHEDULE 14D-9, AS EACH MAY BE AMENDED OR SUPPLEMENTED FROM TIME TO TIME, AND OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED BY DIGITAL REALTY AND INTERXION WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT DIGITAL REALTY, INTERXION AND THE PROPOSED TRANSACTIONS.

Investors can obtain free copies of the Registration Statement, proxy statement/prospectus, Schedule TO and Schedule 14D-9, as each may be amended from time to time, and other relevant documents filed by Digital Realty and InterXion with the SEC at http://www.sec.gov, the SEC's website, or free of charge from Digital Realty's website (http://www.digitalrealty.com) or by contacting Digital Realty's Investor Relations Department at (415) 848-9311. These documents are also available free of charge from InterXion's website (http://www.interxion.com) or by contacting InterXion's Investor Relations Department at (813) 644-9399.

Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Digital Realty cautions that statements in this communication that are forward-looking, and provide other than historical information, involve risks, contingencies and uncertainties that may impact actual results of operations of Digital Realty, InterXion and the combined company. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements about the exchange offer and completion of the proposed transactions contemplated by the purchase agreement between them. Although we believe the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Those statements are made by using various underlying assumptions and are subject to numerous risks, contingencies and uncertainties, including, among others: the ability of Digital Realty and InterXion to obtain the regulatory approvals necessary to complete the anticipated combination, on the anticipated timeline or at all; the risk that a condition to the closing of the anticipated combination may not be satisfied, on the anticipated timeline or at all or that the anticipated combination may fail to close; the outcome of any legal proceedings, regulatory proceedings or enforcement matters that may be instituted relating to the anticipated combination; the costs incurred to consummate the anticipated combination; the possibility that the expected synergies from the anticipated combination will not be realized, or will not be realized within the expected time period; difficulties related to the integration of the two companies; disruption from the anticipated combination making it more difficult to maintain relationships with customers, employees, regulators or suppliers; the diversion of management time and attention on the anticipated combination; adverse changes in the markets in which Digital Realty and InterXion operate or credit markets; and changes in the terms, scope or timing of contracts, contract cancellations, and other modifications and actions by customers and other business counterparties of Digital Realty and InterXion. If one or more of these risks materialize, or if underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expected. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. For a more complete discussion of these and other risk factors, please see (i) Digital Realty's filings with the SEC, including its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2018 and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and (ii) InterXion's filings with the SEC, including its annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2018 and its subsequent reports on Form 6-K. This communication reflects the views of Digital Realty's management as of the date hereof. Except to the extent required by applicable law, Digital Realty undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement.

SOURCE Digital Realty

Related Links

https://www.digitalrealty.com/


The vividly proven evidence emerged that some Members of Parliament who happened to be appointed as Ministers of Government during the NDC regimes under Professor Evans Mills/John Mahama and John Mahama/Paa Kwesi Arthur for years were taking double salary every month. However, according to the laws and rules in place, it is illegal to be taking double salary for the same one job done. They could either have opted for the monthly MPs salary topped up with a little allowance of about GHS800 (Eight hundred Ghana New Cedis) or a complete Ministers salary which is almost that of the MPs plus the allowance but not taking both a full MPs salary and a full Ministers salary as happened with those now accused of taking double salary.

Having knowingly but quietly illegally taken the double salary for years, they stand accused of breaching the laws of the land. They, as lawmakers, should have known better but as greedy, irresponsible, selfish and desirous of acquiring quick buck, the trait of the Ghanaian politician, especially the NDC brigade, continued to avail themselves of that illegal opportunity. Their leader was amassing wealth left, right, centre and forward. Why not them, they might have asked themselves?

Nevertheless, I find it immensely annoying that they have for unexplained, but completely absurd reasons, been left off the hook hence now tormenting President Nana Akufo-Addo and his NPP government. The evidential documents implicating them as fraudsters were available for the Special Prosecutor to successfully prosecute them to prove a point that he has come to fight official corruption. Sorrowfully, he has left them alone to probably pursue others of whom he has difficulty finding credible evidence to arraign them for criminal trial. Is there any sense in this? Not any at all!

Now, let me explain why I claim the MPs are acting like a wounded but poisonously dangerous snake. Are not these double salary MPs with Haruna Iddrisu, the Minority Leader in Parliament inclusive, now vociferously accusing the president and members of his party and government of one crime upon another? They feel their integrity is dented so they will do whatever it takes to bring the president and his government down, painting them worse than themselves, a similitude of the pot calling the kettle you are dark.

If they had been held squarely to account, would they have legs to stand on to be shouting accusatorily against the president today? No!!! Would they be pointing accusing finger at the president today while three or four of their fingers are pointing at themselves? No!!!

When you come across a very poisonously dangerous snake like the black cobra in Africa, you dont try to kill it from its tail. If you happen to attempt to kill it by the tail, chopping off a bit of the tail and it escapes, you have worsen the situation. You have endangered the lives of anyone, be they human being, a prey or predator that comes across the wounded but slithered away snake.

When a snake gets wounded but wriggles away, having come to realise that its life is in danger, it pushes all its deadly venom (poison) into its fangs (teeth). With this, anyone it happens to strike or bite, it pumps all its venom into the person or the animal. It becomes dangerously defensive, if not offensive, by doubling the power of its fangs with venom.

Is it not the same protection defensive tactic a wounded snake uses that has been adopted by the NDC double salary MPs hence shouting on top of their voices accusing the NPP government and the president of all forms of corruption and failures in order to reduce the NPP to nothing in the eyes of the Ghanaian populace?

By the way, when this issue of double salary came out, the media made it known that Haruna Iddrisu was going to see the president to beg for them not to be prosecuted. If it were true and he did go to see the president, then I will ask the president if he agreed that the charge against them must be dropped. Until I get the answer, I will not accuse the president of any error of judgment but will ask if the Special Prosecutor is aware of the committed fraud by the said MPs and if the answer is in the affirmative, what is he doing about it? Haruna Iddrisu (Hon?) was himself one of the double salary takers.

As once said in my publication, you kill a snake by first safely chopping off its head for the rest of its body to become as harmless as a lifeless rope. Therefore, you start to fight official corruption by starting from the top with people like the president, MPs and Government Ministers. Once you start with such a high ranking member in the society, it will send a strong warning signal to the numerous little persons or criminals to stay away from committing crimes.

If such a big person has been dealt with, then who am I, a small person? They will deal mercilessly with me without any compassion. By this, crime rate will reduce drastically. But if you start with the petty criminals while the big criminals are left freely to perpetrate their crimes, you can never successfully fight to rid your country of corruption. This is exactly what is going on, and we are seeing, in Ghana, hence the fight against corruption becoming a complete mockery.

Please watch the underlying video on how Singapore got rid of, but not reduced, corruption. Ghana must go that way or all our efforts to fighting corruption will be much ado about nothing. I hope our leadership will not wait for the poor Ghanaians to go down the path of the French revolution of 1789 before they seriously sit up to fight to rid Ghana of official corruption, or corruption of any sort and by whomever.

I call on the media for support to fighting corruption in Ghana. Any corrupt journalist, corrupt traditional overlord or corrupt judge will be caught in the crossfire when the poor Ghanaian masses do revolt. There will be no escape route for whosoever. (A crossfire (also known as interlocking fire) is a military term for the siting of weapons (often automatic weapons such as assault rifles or sub-machine guns) so that their arcs of fire overlap)

Finally, is the so-called Ashanti traditional overlord who claims to be more powerful than the laws in Ghana, therefore collusively imposing a person of his choice on Kumawuman as their paramount chief against the wish of Kumawuman subjects and against their conventions any different from the MPs in question? No, they are all corrupt and are abusing their rights and privileges. This is a note of warning to him.

I dedicate this publication to one Francis Ahiafor, although unknown to me, he claims to enjoy my write-ups. He can contact me on my Facebook.

Rockson Adofo

Thursday, 27 February 2020
A U.S. court has found a former Microsoft software engineer guilty of embezzling millions of dollars and turning it into bitcoin (BTC) to fund a life of luxury.

Volodymyr Kvashuk, 25, was convicted Tuesday by the U.S. District Court in Seattle of 18 separate federal felonies that defrauded Microsoft out of a total of $10 million, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.

A Ukrainian citizen based in the town of Renton, Washington, Kvashuk worked full time for Microsoft from 2016 to 2018. Involved in developing and testing the companys online retail sales platform, he used his account access to steal what is described as currency stored value including digital gift cards that he subsequently re-sold on the internet over a seven-month period.

Related: Ukraine Justice System Employee Caught Mining Crypto at Work

Kvashuk built a lavish lifestyle using the embezzled funds, purchasing a $160,000 Tesla and a lakefront home worth an estimated $1.6 million. After uncovering the scheme, Microsoft confronted Kvashuk and fired him in June 2018.

Kvashuk, who claimed at trial to be working on a special project for the company, stole amounts totaling roughly $12,000 under his own account before using test email accounts associated with fellow Microsoft employees to begin embezzling millions of dollars from the company. Changing funds into bitcoin, he would use a mixing service to obfuscate its origins before transferring the ill-gotten gains into his bank account.

In total, bitcoin proceeds of over $2.8 million were transferred into his bank account. In tax returns filed during this period, Kvashuk claimed the funds were a gift from a relative.

The trial, which lasted five days, found the engineer guilty on five counts of wire fraud, six counts of money laundering, two counts of aggravated identity theft, two counts of filing false tax returns and one count each of mail fraud, bank card fraud and using a company computer for illicit purposes.

Story continues

Related: Crypto Investors Case Against AT&T Over $24M SIM Hack Can Proceed, Judge Rules

Speaking after the trial, special agent Ryan Korner from the Internal Revenue Services criminal investigations division highlighted that Kvashuks conviction was a result of work carried out by the IRS.

Criminals who think they can avoid detection by using cryptocurrency and laundering through mixers are put on notice  you will be caught and you will be held accountable, he said.

Kvashuk faces as much as 20 years in prison when he is sentenced by the presiding judge on June 1.

Related Stories
A schizophrenic teenager who stabbed a service station attendant to death during a violent crime spree dipped his fingers in his victim's blood and scrawled 'IS' - short for Islamic State - on a wall.

Court documents have revealed the full details of the April 2017 rampage of the teenager and his accomplice, who cannot be named for legal reasons, which included the murder of Zeeshan Akbar.

The pair were 15 and 16 at the time when they stabbed the 29-year-old three times and left him to die in a pool of blood inside a Queanbeyan Caltex in southern New South Wales.

Court documents have revealed the full details of the April 2017 rampage of the teenager and his accomplice, who cannot be named for legal reasons, which included the murder of Zeeshan Akbar (pictured)

They will be sentenced in April after last year pleading guilty to murder as well as a string of other charges related to their slew of crimes on the evening of April 6 and morning of April 7.

After the Pakistani student let the pair inside the Bungendore Road service station about 11.46pm, the offender, who can only be identified as DM and was 16 at the time, stabbed him in the back.

The other teen, known as DS, jumped the counter and attempted to remove a cash register while DM continued to stab Mr Akbar at the rear of the store.

'(DM) approached Akbar who was lying on the floor, (DM) dipped his finger in Akbar's blood, walked to the glass window, and wrote the letter 'I' on it,' the statement of agreed facts said.

'He then returned to Akbar, once again dipped his finger in his blood, walked to the glass window, and wrote the letter 'S'.'

The pair made off with a cash register and cigarettes.

Crown prosecutor Mark Hobart SC told a NSW Supreme Court sentence hearing on Friday the crime was chilling and 'one of the worst I've ever seen'.

The murder was captured on CCTV and Justice Geoffrey Bellew refused to release the footage to the media because it was so disturbing.

The pair were 15 and 16 at the time when they stabbed the 29-year-old three times and left him to die in a pool of blood inside a Queanbeyan Caltex in southern New South Wales

Justice Bellew described Mr Akbar as someone who came to Australia and 'made every post a winner'.

Earlier in the night, DM told friends he had 'joined ISIS' and showed them a picture on his phone of a man standing beside a severed human head.

When he was arrested, he yelled out: 'Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, I'm going to cut your heads off'.

In his cell at Queanbeyan Police Station he scrawled 'IS' on the wall in tomato sauce.

However, the court heard DM, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was suffering auditory hallucinations, no longer adhered to the views of the extremist Islamic group.

'He seems to have been de-radicalised as quickly as he became radicalised,' DM's barrister Thomas Jones told the court.

'I don't know what to make it.'

After smoking cannabis earlier in the night, DM and DS went on a crime spree around Queanbeyan which began with attempting to rob a liquor store attendant and glassing a man they met sitting on a park bench.

After stealing the man's longneck beer bottle, DM smashed it on the side of his head.

They also attempted to rob a 41-year-old man when they went to his house and, after being invited in, they threatened him with a knife.

The morning after killing Mr Akbar, the pair hailed a passing motorist who DM stabbed in the chest before stealing his car.

The man suffered a collapsed lung and DM has pleaded guilty to intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Their crime spree ended after a police pursuit when they were caught on the Monaro Highway in the ACT.
PEACEMAKING, PEACEKEEPING AND PEACEBUILDING

Peacekeeping

Expected Council Action

As one of the signature events of its presidency, China is organising a debate on UN peacekeeping operations: Better capacity building, more safety and security. Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix and Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support Atul Khare are expected to brief. A product, such as a resolution or presidential statement, is anticipated.

Background and Key Recent Developments

A report commissioned by the UN Secretariat, Improving Security of United Nations Peacekeepers: We need to change the way we are doing business, was published in December 2017. The report responded to the rise in UN peacekeeper fatalities that had taken place since 2013 as a result of violent incidents. Prepared by a team headed by Lieutenant General (ret.) Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz, it concluded that a change of mindset and break from a certain Chapter VI Syndrome are needed to adapt to the new contexts in which the UN flag no longer offers the natural protection that leads peacekeepers to deploy without a full appreciation of security risks and the operational approach needed to address them.

The report argued that a more proactive posture would contribute to the credibility of peacekeeping operations and their ability to protect civilians and their own personnel. It also maintained that enhancing the capacity of peacekeepers with better training and equipment was an important way to improve their safety and security. (The report did not address peacekeeper casualties resulting from accidents or illness, which constitute the majority of deaths in peacekeeping missions)

On 28 March 2018, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres highlighted the urgent need for a quantum leap in collective engagement and announced the launch of Action for Peacekeeping (A4P), an initiative aimed at renewing political commitment to peacekeeping operations. To date, over 150 member states and four regional organisations have endorsed the A4Ps Declaration of Shared Commitments on UN Peacekeeping Operations. One of the eight thematic areas in the declaration is improving the safety and security of peacekeepers. In this regard, the A4P initiative commits its supporters to take all appropriate measures to bring to justice perpetrators of criminal acts against UN personnel, and notes efforts to improve continually medical, technical and logistical support in peacekeeping operations. Members signing the declaration furthermore commit to provide well-trained and well-equipped uniformed personnel while emphasising the need for increased funding to better support training.

On 7 May 2019, at the initiative of Indonesia, the Council held an open debate on Investing in peace: improving safety and performance of United Nations peacekeepers. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres; the force commander of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), Lieutenant General Elias Rodrigues Martins Filho; and the director of the Challenges Forum International Secretariat, Bjorn Holmberg, briefed. Guterres updated the Council on measures to strengthen training and capacity-building with regard to UN peacekeeping. He described casualty evacuation training and crisis management exercises in specific missions, as well as pre-deployment training on countering improvised explosive devices (IEDs). During the debate, the Council adopted a presidential statement (S/PRST2019/4) in which it recognised the added value that the (A4P) Declarationhas in relation to training and capacity building.

On 9 September 2019, the Council held a debate on peacekeeping reform at Russias initiative. During his briefing, Lacroix spoke about the efforts of UN peace operations to help facilitate the pursuit of political solutions, the importance of prioritised and sequenced mandates, and initiatives to improve the safety and security of peacekeepers. He maintained that improved and context-specific training was important for enhancing the security of peacekeepers. He also noted that peace operations had embarked on an ambitious programme of health reform to formally establish a chain of reliable and safe care from the point of injury to the hospital and that UN peace operations in Mali, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were working to improve medical and casualty evacuation policies.

The number of peacekeeping fatalities has decreased in the last two years, from 134 in 2017 to 95 in 2018 and 87 in 2019.

Key Issues and Options

An ongoing key issue is the importance of equipping and training peacekeepers in a way that enhances their performance and their safety and security. In this regard, in pursuing a potential product, the Council could:

emphasise the link between capacity building and the safety and security of peacekeepers;

highlight the importance of contributions such as helicopters, medical support, rapid reaction forces, counter-IED technology, and other resources helping to promote peacekeeper safety and security;

encourage initiatives such as the light coordination mechanism, through which member states provide pre-deployment training and equipment to troop-contributing countries; and

underscore the efforts that have been made to improve medical evacuation in high-risk environments.

Another key issue is how to address the high number of peacekeeping fatalities as a result of accidents or illness. According to the Department of Peace Operations, through 31 January 2020, 3,911 UN peacekeepers have died since 1948 as a result of accidents (1,346), illness (1,255), malicious acts (1,038), or other causes (272). Members could request the Secretariat to produce options for ways to reduce the peacekeeping fatalities resulting from accidents or illness in a potential outcome.

Council Dynamics

There is a high degree of unity within the Council concerning the need to improve the safety and security of peacekeepers and the key role of training and capacity building prior to and during their deployment. Chinas interest in this topic may reflect the fact that it is the 10th leading contributor of UN peacekeepers and the leading contributor of such personnel among permanent Council members.

Views differ in the Council and among the wider membership over how to improve peacekeeping performance. Some Council members have prioritised increased accountability for under-performance, while others, including some troop contributors, have argued for broadening the focus of these discussions, underlining that performance and security cannot be delinked from other factors related to mandate formulation.

UN DOCUMENTS ON PEACEKEEPING
She's an iconic supermodel with a sensational physique.

And, on Friday morning Doutzen Kroes took to Instagram to share a sizzling topless photo of herself crouched down, wearing nothing but thigh-high boots and a black thong before attending LOEWE's Paris Fashion Week show with Karlie Kloss, 27.

The Vogue coverstar, 35, covered her modesty with her hands and a cleverly positioned leg, which helped to keep the designer boots front and centre of the snap.

Racy! Doutzen Kroes, 35, took to Instagram on Friday to share a sizzling topless photograph of herself crouched down, wearing nothing but thigh high boots and a black thong

She captioned the saucy snap: 'On my way to the @loewe show this morning feeling fabulous in these incredible boots! @jonathan.anderson.'

The model later wrapped up, putting on a modest display in layer black with a brown trench coat as she sat on the front row at the LOEWE Paris Fashion Week show.

Doutzen's blondette tresses were styled sleek and straight, and her natural beauty was enhanced with deftly touches of make-up.

The mother-of-two took in the show while sitting alongside fellow models Carolyn Murphy, 45, and Karlie.

Modest: The Vogue coverstar later wrapped up in a brown mac as she sat alongside fellow models Carolyn Murphy, 45, and Karlie Kloss, 27, at the LOEWE Paris Fashion Week show

Glowing: Doutzen's blondette tresses were styled sleek and straight, and her natural beauty was enhanced with deftly touches of make-up

On Thursday, Doutzen brought her sartorial chic to her casual wear as she arrived at the Isabel Marant Paris Fashion Week show.

The model looked sensational in a leather jacket and matching thigh-high boots as she stepped out of a car.

She wore the jacket over a denim shirt and a white rollneck jumper, and displayed her trim legs in black leggings.

Star-studded: Doutzen posed for a group snap with Amber Valletta, 46, Carolyn, Karlie and American Pie actress Jennifer Coolidge, 58

Colourful: Stunning models sauntered down the runway in an array of colourful garments

Her caramel tresses were styled in a chic ponytail while she shielded her eyes with black shades.

The Dutch beauty accessorised with gold hoop earrings.

Doutzen began her modelling career in 2003, and is said to be one of the highest-paid models, with an estimated income of more than $5 million per year.

Casual cool: Doutzen brought her sartorial chic to her casual wear as she arrived at the Isabel Marant Paris Fashion Week show on Thursday

Leggy: The Vogue coverstar, 35, looked sensational in a leather jacket and matching thigh-high boots as she stepped out of a car

Back in 2014, she came in second on the Forbes top-earning models list, estimated to have earned $8 million in one year.

Style maven Doutzen was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 2008 to 2014, and in 2013 she made history as the first model to land four different solo international covers of Vogue's September issue in a single year.

The supermodel balances her modelling feats with raising her children Myllena Mae Gorre, five, and Phyllon Joy Gorre, nine.

Style maven: The beauty looked incredible as she stepped out and prepared to head into the show

Strut: Doutzen began her modelling career in 2003, and is said to be one of the highest-paid models, with an estimated income of more than $5 million per year

She brings up her children with husband Sunnery James, whom she married in November 2010 in Eastermar, Netherlands.

Doutzen admitted last year that she has been taking extra care of her skin because she wants to 'age beautifully'.

The blonde beauty told Vogue: 'You know, you take advantage of having anything good in your life and my skin has always been good. But obviously Im ageing and want to take care of [it] so I age beautifully.'

Looking good: Doutzen looked gorgeous as she left the show later that night
Cast members come and go and in some cases, former and current reality show cast members keep in touch. Not so for the OGs of Summer House.

Carl Radke and Lindsay Hubbard recently shared that they really dont talk to most of the former cast members and even tossed a little shade at a few as a result. Hubbard and Radke chatted with Bravos The Daily Dish podcast hosts about the current season and their awkward romance.

Carl Radke, Lindsay Hubbard, Amanda Batula, Kyle Cooke and Danielle Olivera | Randy Brooke/Getty Images)

They cleared that air about whether or not they are still close friends. They both agreed that while the romance may not have survived their friendship certainly did. Hubbard recently shared a video on her Instagram story of the crew watching the current episode of the show. She is hanging with Radke and Danielle Olivera and the trio looked cozy and happy, joking about how Hubbard was having a salad for dinner, while Radke slurped down luncheon meat.

But they really dont keep in touch with many former cast members

The conversation turned to former cast members when Radke said he was happy his friendship with Hubbard survived the summer romance. Because there are cast members from the past I certainly dont speak to anymore for various reasons, he said. Its a scary thing. You go through this thing together. And you dont want to lose anybody. You want to preserve that friendship. And that was the first thing that mattered the most.

So who dont they talk to anymore? They dont keep in touch with some of the original cast members like Lauren and Ashley Wirkus, plus Stephen McGee. Radke added Amit Neuman to the list but added he will exchange private messages with Neuman from time to time. Hubbard said she too doesnt speak to the former cast members.

I think thats a function of geographics, Radke added. Lauren and Ashley live in California, Amit is God knows where. Stephen, I dont see. But I do hang out with Jaclyn [Shuman] a fair amount. Shes still around. Cristina Gibson I know is still around. Shes friends with a lot of our friends. Meanwhile, Hubbard laughs and says she doesnt hang out with Gibson. Hubbard and Gibsons friendship ended as the two trashed each other on social media during season 1.

They also dont keep in touch with Jordan Verroi

Radke added that he also doesnt speak to Jordan Verroi. Verroi was shrouded in mystery last season, offering larger than life stories about his partying and sexual escapades. Hosts wondered if the communication cutoff was due to some people being jealous that Radke and Hubbard continued with the show and they were cut.

Thats my assumption, Radke replied. I have not spoken with them what their reasons are, I think there are a lot of things that go into a Summer House. And typically not everybody stays in the same Summer House every year so thats just a normal thing in the Hamptons.

Also, I think weve said a lot of things about each other whether its on a podcast or in [the] press or whatever it might be, Radke continues. After the fact and you still hear it like, you know, that kind of sucks. Theres some beef over some things that probably could be squashed very easily. Hubbard adds that the group hangs out with Shuman and ex-boyfriend Everett Weston quite a bit.
A P-8A Poseidon assigned to the Golden Swordsmen of Patrol Squadron (VP) 47 performs a fly-by next to the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Preble (DDG 88). (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Bryan Niegel)

Chinese Warship Lased American Surveillance Plane: US Navy

A U.S. Navy-operated P8-A Poseidon surveillance plane was lased by a Chinese military destroyer while flying over international waters in the Pacific Ocean, the military said in a statement on Friday.

The Poseidon was operating in international airspace in accordance with international rules and regulations about 400 miles west of Guam, a U.S. territory, according to the military.

It accused the Chinese regime of unsafe and unprofessional actions by using a laser on the aircraft.

These acts violate the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES), a multilateral agreement reached at the 2014 Western Pacific Naval Symposium to reduce the chance of an incident at sea, said the U.S. Navy, which added that the usage of lasers can harm personnel or equipment.

The laser, which was not visible to the naked eye, was captured by a sensor onboard the P-8A. Weapons-grade lasers could potentially cause serious harm to aircrew and mariners, as well as ship and aircraft systems, according to the Navy.

Peoples Liberation Army Navy destroyer lased a #USNavy P-8A Poseidon aircraft in an unsafe, unprofessional manner. The incident took place Feb. 17 in the airspace above international waters 380 miles west of Guam. #FreeandOpenIndoPacific Read More: https://t.co/ogOCT9f9h3 pic.twitter.com/II5NaicQAw  U.S. Navy (@USNavy) February 28, 2020

The Navy further noted that the Chinese destroyer violated an agreement between the Department of Defense and Chinas ministry of defense on how maritime encounters should be handled.

Military-grade laser beams, which are sometimes called dazzlers, send out a powerful beam of light that can travel long ranges and can illuminate aircraft cockpits, which may blind pilots. Its not clear if the pilots of the PA-8 suffered temporarily blindness.

The Pentagon has repeatedly stated in recent days that the Chinese Communist Party represents an increasingly serious threat to security in East Asia, saying that China has invested a heavy amount in its military to dominate the region.

Over time, we have watched them seize and militarize islands in the South China Sea, and rapidly modernize their armed forces, while seeking to use emerging technologies to alter the landscape of power and reshape the world in their favor, said Department of Defense Secretary Mark Esper earlier in February. And often at the expense of others.

In 2018, the United States accused Chinese forces stationed in the East African nation of Djibouti of using a laser on C-130J aircraft, injuring American pilots.

This activity poses a true threat to our airmen, a Pentagon spokesperson said at the time. Its a serious matter, so were taking it very seriously.
TORONTO, Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sulliden Mining Capital Inc. (Sulliden or the Company) (TSX: SMC) reports, in accordance with the policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange, that the nominees listed in the Management Information Circular dated January 30, 2020 for the 2020 Annual and special Meeting of Shareholders of the Company (the Meeting) were elected as directors of the Company. 46.340% of all of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company were represented at the Meeting.



Detailed results of the vote for the election of directors held at the Meeting on February 27, 2020 in Toronto, Ontario are set out below.

Election of Directors

The shareholders approved the election as directors of the persons listed below, based on the following vote.

Board of Director Nominees % Votes For % Votes Withheld Stan Bharti 98.060% 1.940% Deborah Battiston 84.564% 15.436% William Clarke 85.483% 14.517% Stephane Amireault 98.520% 1.480% William Connor Steers 98.482% 1.518%

The Company is pleased to announce the addition of Stephane Amireault and William Connor Steers to its Board of Directors effective immediately.

Stephane Amireault has over 25 years of experience in mineral exploration, and is currently Vice President Exploration for Belo Sun Mining. Prior to joining Belo Sun, Mr. Amireault was the Vice President Exploration for Sulliden Gold Corporation until its acquisition by Rio Alto Mining in 2014. Mr. Amireault holds a masters degree in Applied Sciences from Ecole Polytechnique of the University of Montreal and is a member in good standing of the Ordre des Ingenieurs du Quebec.

Mr. Steers brings to the Company over 40 years of international business development and management experience. While resident in Rio de Janeiro, he was a Director and senior manager of Docas Investimentos, a Brazilian controlled investment group involved in real estate, ship building, telecoms and more recently, oil and gas. He is a partner at IMC Consultoria Representacao Com. Int. Ltda. that among other activities, successfully introduced IMAX to Brazil. Mr. Steers is an Independent Director of Brazilian oil and gas producer Petro Rio and Toronto based Lara Exploration Ltd. Formerly, Managing Partner at Weatherhaven Brasil (private manufacturer of temporary shelters). Mr. Steers holds an Honors BA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University.

The Company also announces the resignation of Mr. Brad Humphrey and Hon. Pierre Pettigrew from its Board of Directors. The board and management of Sulliden express their gratitude to Mr. Humphrey and Mr. Pettigrew for their efforts and extensive contributions and wish them well in their future endeavours.

Shareholders at the annual meeting also approved the appointment of the Company's auditors, stock option plan and advance notice by-law amendment.

Sullidens board would like to express its gratitude to its shareholders for their continued support.

About Sulliden Mining Capital

Sulliden Mining Capital is a venture capital company focused on acquiring and advancing brownfield, development-stage and early production-stage mining projects in the Americas.

Sulliden Mining Capital Inc.



On behalf of the Board



Stan Bharti

Interim Chief Executive Officer

For more information:

Deb Battiston

Chief Financial Officer

+1 (416) 861-2267

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding the development of the Troilus Gold Project. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including risks inherent in the mining industry and risks described in the public disclosure of the Company which is available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.sulliden.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
Scott Heins / Getty Images

SOUTHBURY  The Pomperaug District Department of Health is advising residents on how to keep healthy as the coronavirus spreads globally.

There have been no cases of the new, deadly disease reported in Connecticut.
A former lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Chukwuemeka Diji, has issued a 21-day ultimatum to the ICPC demanding the status of its investigation into the corrupt practices in a department of the school.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the financial transactions of a conference meant for the department of mechanical engineering, were allegedly done without transparency.

Amongst those accused of involvement are two professors, Miracle Oyewola and Dare Ademola, who headed the department from 2011- 2012 and 2012-2016 respectively.

Backstory

In 2018, Mr Diji, who succeeded Mr Ademola, wrote the ICPC demanding an investigation into the corrupt practices in the department.

He asked the commission to compel the university to probe the organisation of the Energy, Technology and Management (ETM) conference and its account since 2012- 2016.

PREMIUM TIMES correspondent gathered then through an official of Guarantee Trust Bank that the account existed between 2012 and 2017, even after the introduction of the Treasury Single Account policy.

The TSA policy, which forbids any government parastatal from running separate bank accounts, was introduced by the Goodluck Jonathan administration but effectively implemented after President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office in 2015.

Meanwhile, Leke Oluwole, the current Head of Department, defended the embattled professors when this reporter confronted him in June 2019.

When this reporter contacted the Oyo/Ogun zonal commissioner for ICPC, Stephen Pimor, in July 2019, he promised that the agency will ensure a thorough investigation.

Victimisation

Mr Diji, whose salary was being deducted after he left office in 2017, also alleged that he was being victimised for revealing some of the shady activities.

PREMIUM TIMES on July 7 reported how the senior lecturer has been experiencing illegal deductions from his salary since September 2018.

He was later dismissed from the university.

When this newspaper sent enquiries to the Vice-Chancellor, Idowu Olayinka, for the premise for the termination, he said Mr Diji violated the university rules.

READ ALSO:

Mr Diji appealed the decision of the committee that recommended his sack and denied the allegations of lackadaisical attitude to work.

Although nothing has ensued out of the appeal, Mr Diji has vowed to pursue justice.

Ultimatum

In the letter written by Mr Dijis lawyer, Oluronke Olumi, it was stated that barely two years after the petition, ICPC had failed to update Mr Diji.

ICPC does not belong to any group being untouchable so we wonder how a petition submitted since April 2018 has not received due attention and no update has been given to the complainant till date, this presents quite a worrisome trend in our own opinion, the letter addressed to the chairman of the commission read.

He, however, requested that an update be given on the state of the petition he submitted to the office (the Ibadan Zonal Office of the ICPC) from 9th April 2018 till date within 21 days of the receipt of this letter.

That his petition of 9 April 2018 and the remainder of 11 January 2019 be revisited with the aim of seeing that justice is done and corruption is not aided and encouraged in the University of Ibadan and Nigeria as a whole

The letter was received by ICPC on February 10.

When contacted, the spokesperson of the commission, Rasheedat Okoduwa, said she is not familiar with the case but assured that ICPC is working on it.

We have received over 2000 petitions since 2019. But since Primor (zonal commissioner) has told you we are working on it, we are. You know we have a shortage of manpower and investigations take a long time, she told this paper on Thursday morning.
The Woodlands Township Board of Directors moved ahead with selecting an interim/provisional maximum initial property tax rate for possible incorporation on Wednesday night, approving the proposed rate of 28.62 cents per $100 valuation of a home after disagreement among some board members.

The proposed tax rate, which is only a theoretical amount at this point, will be used by consultants from the Novak Consulting Group, of Cincinnati, Ohio, to continue to develop financial modeling and analysis of various aspect of incorporation including law enforcement services, road maintenance and repair and other expenditures.

The proposed rate is 6.2 cents higher than the current 2020 property tax rate for The Woodlands, 22.4 cents per $100 valuation, which was approved in September 2019. Under the provisional proposed rate, a home with a value of $500,000 would see owners pay about $311 more per year in property taxes.

Consultants doing the incorporation studies for the township had presented the proposed initial maximum rate last week during a meeting on Feb. 20, however two members of the board  Chairman Gordy Bunch and Director Brian Boniface  were not present and their absence led the five directors present that night to delay a decision on the issue until at least Bunch was in attendance. Township President and General Manager said on Feb. 20 he was not sure when Boniface would return from his time away from the board.

On Wednesday, during debate over the proposed interim maximum tax rate, Bunch and fellow Director Ann Snyder debated the issue for several minutes before it was approved in a 5-1 vote with Snyder not supporting the rate.

I am not voting in favor of the proposed provisional tax rate due to several reasons. As the board is aware, I did not vote in favor of the public works plan. At this time, I do not believe that the proposed tax rate contains adequate funds to provide the level of service that we as residents expect and we as a board promised to maintain and deliver, Snyder said. There are several reasons for this. My hesitation is, in addition to the public works, to my knowledge, no community of our size has incorporated. That does not mean we cannot and does not mean we cannot be successful. The franchise fees, we still dont know what that is. In addition to that, the one other is the countyI dont know if we can assume that the county will continue to deliver the same services and our county taxes will cover that. To me, there is no guarantee now with the MOU we have with the county.

Anticipating revenue

Snyder was referring to estimates on the amount of possible franchise or access fees that The Woodlands may receive it the community does incorporate into a city. Franchise and access fees are surcharges added onto various utility bills and collected by the utility providers. Because the township is not a city, The Woodlands cannot currently collect the fees. The total amount of this revenue stream is not officially known because the data is not public, but consultants with the Novak group have estimated if the township incorporates, it would receive more than $3.9 million during the first year as a new city and then an estimated $7.8 million each year after.

In regard to the road maintenance expenditures, Snyder said the total being allocated by township board members in the preliminary anaylsis are not sufficient. According to the study from the Novak consultants, expenditures related to the public works department would supposedly not affect the tax rate. For the first year as a possible city, the consultants estimated there would be $10.2 million in start-up costs, an estimated $4.6 million in annual expenses starting in year two of being a city and $1.25 million would be needed annually for pavement management. Another $50,000 per year would be needed for bridge deck maintenance and $200,000 per year for shoulder maintenance.

If we were electing right now to put (incorporation) on the ballot, I know that is not something we are going to do today, Ive always said it is a resident decision if we do or do not (incorporate), Snyder added.

Director Bruce Rieser disputed Snyders views on the issue, telling fellow board members that the nearly two years of incorporation planning studies are the most thorough done in the history of The Woodlands. He also said the township has adequate financial reserves and incoming revenue if the township does incorporate to cover necessary costs.

I appreciate those sentiments, Ann, I really do. Honestly, there is no such thing as a no-risk plan, Rieser said. I think this is unquestionably the most comprehensive look that we have done at our finances and our models here at the township. I am fully confident of these results. we have taken steps to ensure we will have adequate reserves and adequate revenue to operate. This is no different than what weve done the last four years (of budgeting) since Ive been on the board. I will vote yes, no question.

Public works funding

Bunch claimed the public works portion of the Novak proposal has more funds is more than Montgomery County spends on infrastructure in The Woodlands.

To state a concern that were going to have a lower quality of service being self-serve with a higher budget than the county can articulate does not really make sense to me. You are obviously entitled to feel how the public works went down. The $5 million in operating maintenance is more than (the county) could show that they spent today, plus we added $1.25 million in additional aggressive maintenance that is not currently being performed, Bunch claimed. These deficiencies were identified 15 months ago and shared with the county. So holding onto a (view) that they are providing a better service than we are going to provide ourselves hasnt added up to reality. That extra money would not be necessary if they had acted on the list we sent them. The county is not going to do a better job than we are going to do for ourselves. And we actually budgeted more money than they spend.

Bunchs comments about public works spending were vigorously contested by Montgomery County Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack, who was not at the Feb. 26 meeting but had reviewed the online video of the meeting with his staff after learning of statements by Bunch he said are simply not true.

I have been told by (Bunch), who has previously endorsed me, as well as by (Rieser), Don Norrell and John Powers, that they have never had a commissioners office do as good a job as we do. They have used the word fantastic. Now that they are moving toward incorporation, they are trying to create a need that is simply not there. We do a tremendous job serving the people of The Woodlands, Noack said. If they are claiming we are not doing a good job, I would love for them to come in and visit with me about that any time. Pound for pound, we do such a good job for our precinct and The Woodlands. For example, when the township couldnt keep their medians trimmed, we came in and trimmed the medians for them because they were in a contract dispute (with Brightview).

Some additional funding from Precinct 3 for road maintenance and improvements over the past year, Noack said, include approximately $250,000 in asphalt shoulder replacement and repairs near Interfaith of The Woodlands and in areas of the Village of Panther Creek, $100,000 for subgrade repair and concrete replacements at the Lake Woodlands bridge on Woodlands Parkway, $250,000 on road striping, pavement markings and reflectors, as well as after-hours and weekend staff support during storms and bad weather. This does not include the daily staff and material resources for curb repair, ditch grading, tree trimming, mowing, debris and animal cleanup, as well as sign repair and placement, he added.

The Woodlands Parkway expansion that we just finished was over $6 million. The diamond interchange and the Lake Woodlands (Drive) widening projects that both start (in March), that is another $4 million-plus. That would be more than $10 million spent in less than one year on major road projects. We have another $4 million dedicated to the Gosling (Road) Bridge. We just contracted with an engineering firm to design the expansion of Kuykendahl (Road) from Bay Branch to Lake Woodlands (Drive) that were going to widen to four lanes; that was a half-million dollars and the project is $6-8 million. I would say we spend more than $50,000 annually on bridge maintenance. We have a series of intersection improvements that we are working on now that will be well over $1 million. And that is only Precinct 3, that doesnt include anything that Precinct 2 has done, that doesnt include anything that Precinct 4 has done. Each of the precincts (road) budgets are in the $8 million to $9 million (annually) range. I would estimate a conservative number for a road and bridge maintenance for the township, without even including Harris County, Im estimating an entire precinct (annual) budget would be needed to do that. Im estimating that would probably be about $9 million a year.

jeff.forward@chron.com
Andre Head, president of The Coltrane Group, spoke to OBU students and faculty Feb. 24. The lecture was titled, Black Wall Street and Black Towns: Economic Development in Black Communities. Dr. Daryl Green (left) and his wife Estraletta celebrate the founding of the Annette Elias-Lucy Andrews Scholarship, which honors their mothers, along with Dr. David Houghton, dean of the Dickinson College of Business.

Head Speaks with OBU Students About Black Wall Street During Feb. 24 Presentation February 27, 2020

Andre Head, president of The Coltrane Group, spoke to OBU students and faculty Feb. 24. The lecture was a special event as part of the Universitys schedule for black history month. The message was titled, Black Wall Street and Black Towns: Economic Development in Black Communities. The event took place in the Tulsa Royalties Auditorium in Bailey Business Center on OBUs campus in Shawnee.

Head discussed black history in Oklahoma and the importance of remembering history.

We all should remember and talk about history, he said. Because no matter if it is nice or ugly, we must remember it and talk about it.

Head also shared about historical black towns in Oklahoma. He shared about how there were once 150 black towns in Oklahoma, more than anywhere else in the United States. He then talked about the remaining towns in Oklahoma, which now only total 13, also still higher than the national average.

Dr. Daryl Green, Dickinson Chair of Business and associate professor of business, also discussed a new scholarship for African-American students offered by the Paul Dickinson College of Business.

The Annette Elias-Lucy Andrews Scholarship was founded in 2019 to reward young, bright African-American students who have demonstrated an exemplary commitment to excellence in business. This scholarship is sponsored by Green and his wife, Estraletta Green, in honor of their mothers, Annette Elias and Lucy Andrews. These women were strong matriarchs of their families, faithful Christians and empowered entrepreneurs.
The company performed well and exceeded the estimated synergies for 2019 with the integration process almost completed.

2019 pro forma growth of c. 4% in sales to 1,368M and over 10% in EBITDA to 244M.

Net Financial Debt lowers by 85M to 635M resulting in a 2.6x NFD/EBITDA multiple.

On track with 2022 Strategic Plan.

Fluidra closed 2019, the first full year after the merger, with growth across all main business indicators. The global leader in the pool and wellness equipment business closed 2019 with an increase in sales of 3.9% to 1,368 million euros and a growth in EBITDA of 10.3% to 244 million euros. The company registered a pro forma net profit of 62 million euros and was able to lower its net debt from 3.3x EBITDA to 2.6x, based on its strong cash generation capacity.

"Our performance in 2019 was solid," stated Eloi Planes, Executive Chairman of Fluidra. "Both cost and sales synergies are excellent. Vast majority of the integration-related work is now behind us, and we will be able to focus our energy on customers."

Over the course of 2019, cost synergies targets were revised upwards by 5 million euros to 40 million euros. During 2019 the company also unveiled its sales synergies targets reaching almost 60 million euros by 2022.

On track with 2022 Strategic Plan

The company confirms its 2022 Strategic Plan objectives. Sales guidance for 2020 is between 1,435 and 1,465 million euros, with an implied growth rate range of 5-7%, and EBITDA guidance is between 265 and 285 million euros with an implied margin range of 18-19%. With accelerating cash generation management will continue to run the company towards lower EBITDA leverage ratio while also allowing it to return to value accretive capital allocation including M&A, such as the recent Australian acquisition of Fabtronics.

Growth in all areas

Sales had a positive evolution in all geographic areas in which Fluidra operates. North America, which represents 31% of total sales, saw growth of 5.7% ending the year at 425.9 million euros. In Southern Europe, which represents 32% of total sales, sales reached 442.8 million euros which represents growth of 5.3% on a perimeter adjusted basis, with a very solid performance in France. In the rest of Europe, constant FX and perimeter adjusted sales grew more than 7%, whereas the Rest of the World saw an increase of 1.7%.

By business unit, Residential Pool stood out with a growth of 3.7%, 5.7% when adjusted for change in perimeter, with an excellent recovery of gas heaters and strong performance of above ground pools and pool covers. Commercial Pool increased 4.2% and confirmed the positive trend shown in the first nine months. Pool Water Treatment showed a strong 7% growth with good performance of both chemicals and water care equipment.

About Fluidra

Fluidra, a Spanish listed firm, is the global leader in the pool and wellness equipment business. It provides innovative products, services and Internet of Things solutions. The company operates in over 45 countries and owns a portfolio of some of the industry's most recognized and trusted brands, including Jandy, AstralPool, Polaris, Cepex, Zodiac, CTX Professional and Gre.

To learn more about Fluidra, visit www.fluidra.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005132/en/

Contacts:

Media contacts:

Sarah Estebanez, sestebanez@tinkle.es, +34 636 62 80 41

Xana Pena, xpena@tinkle.es, +34 674 73 47 82

Laura Gil, lgil@tinkle.es, +34 673 631 814
You can run, but you can't hide if you mess with the beaver. That's the lesson two suspected robbers learned after they allegedly held up a Buc-ee's location near Houston.

According to case reports, two incidents involving the pair occurred Monday at the Buc-ee's at 27106 Northwest Freeway. A terroristic threat incident was reported just after 2 a.m., and then an aggravated robbery was reported just before 8 p.m.
Two Russian warships armed with cruise missiles were on Friday transitting the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul on their way to Mediterranean waters, as tensions spiralled between Turkey and Russia following the deaths of at least 33 Turkish soldiers in Syria, the military said.

The two Russian frigates -- the Admiral Makarov and the Admiral Grigorovich -- had earlier left the port of Sevastopol on the peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and were transitting the Bosphorus and then the Dardanelles straits, a Russian military spokesman said.

"The frigates Admiral Makarov and Admiral Grigorovich -- armed with highly accurate Kalibr-NK missile systems -- are carrying out a planned transit from Sevastopol," fleet spokesman Aleksei Rulev told the RIA Novosti and Interfax agencies.

He did not specify where the ships were eventually heading, but Russian naval ships that pass through the Bosphorus normally head into the Mediterranean to back Moscow's operations in Syria.

The transit came hours after Ankara announced at least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Syria's Idlib province after a strike it blamed on Russia's ally Damascus. Russia said the troops were "where they should not have been" and had been among "terrorists".

The incident has raised new questions about the sustainability of the alliance between Turkey and Russia to bring peace to Syria. As a Black Sea littoral state, Russia is allowed to have its military ships pass through the Bosphorus under the 1936 Montreux Convention on the Straits.

Under its terms, Turkey can only block Russian naval shipping if war is declared or if it feels under an imminent threat of war. The intense traffic of Russian vessels to and from Syria -- known as the Syrian Express -- has caused immense curiosity in Istanbul where the warships pass through the heart of the city in full view of ship-spotters.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Senate passed a $123 million supplemental budget Thursday afternoon that includes funding for coronavirus testing at the state laboratory.

The mid-year spending bill allots $1.9 million for the state laboratory, which includes funding for an initial coronavirus testing program, according to Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues. The bill also sets aside $2 million for local boards of health addressing vaping and for a public awareness campaign on the matter.

Today we are taking up a supplemental budget to cover time-sensitive deficiencies and unforeseen needs, Rodrigues told lawmakers Thursday afternoon.

The majority of the spending will go toward the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, collective bargaining, public defender compensation, health and human services costs, safety net provider hospitals and a fund that was created through the Student Opportunity Act.

The House passed its own mid-year spending bill on Wednesday.

The World Health Organization recorded 1,185 new confirmed cases in its situation report Thursday, bringing the total of confirmed cases to at least 82,294 worldwide.

According to the report, Nine more countries reported cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours: Brazil, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Norway, Pakistan, Romania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that the state is monitoring more than 8,400 people following what U.S. health officials described as the first possible community transmission of the coronavirus, CNBC reported.

The possible community transmission case was found in a Solano County resident, who wasnt under quarantine before her diagnosis and was out in her community. The resident is now getting treatment in Sacramento County, CNBC reported.

The Centers for Disease Control still doesnt know exactly how the patient contracted the virus. She didnt have a relevant travel history or known exposure to another patient with the virus.

Massachusetts is not seeing community-level spread of the virus, Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel told reporters earlier this week.

The UMass Boston student who returned from China in late January is the only confirmed case in Massachusetts, and he continues to recover, Bharel said. The state is monitoring at least 231 people in self-quarantine for potential symptoms after they returned from travel in China. The state recorded another 377 people who underwent monitoring and were released without symptoms.

Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.

Related Content:
Oregons Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has decided to drop her petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court that challenged a ruling by the states high court throwing out the nearly 67-year sentences given to twins who were 15 years old when they killed an elderly couple in Salem in 1993.

Last May, the Oregon Supreme Court found that the sentences amounted to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment under the 2012 landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Miller v. Alabama, the states high court said.

The Oregon Supreme Court ruled that the sentences for twins Lydell Marcus White and Laycell Tornee White essentially were a life term without parole issued without a finding by the judge that the killings reflected the twins irreparable corruption and not their youthful immaturity.

Several months later, Rosenblum petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to put that ruling on hold as the nations high court considered a challenge by Virginia to a lower court ruling that vacated life sentences without the possibility of parole given to the D.C. sniper accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo. Malvo was 17 when he and John Allen Muhammad murdered a dozen people and seriously injured six others in a nearly two-month shooting spree in 2002 in the Washington area.

But after Virginias Gov. Ralph Northam signed legislation making all juvenile offenders eligible for parole, the state of Virginia this week withdrew its appeal in the Malvo case to the nations high court.

Since we are no longer waiting on the U.S. Supreme Court to give us guidance that might have conflicted with our state Supreme Courts ruling, it makes good sense to now defer to the unanimous ruling of Oregons highest court, Rosenblum said in a statement Thursday.

Ryan T. OConnor, the twins lawyer, applauded Rosenblums decision.

"I am pleased and thankful that the Attorney General moved to dismiss the cases,'' OConnor said. "The unanimous Oregon Supreme Court decision brings Oregon into line with brain science on juvenile development and with the majority of other states that have considered these issues. Laycell and Lydell are, I know, looking forward to a chance to put on evidence of rehabilitation.''

Oregon Justice Resource Centers executive director Bobbin Singh said Rosenblum "made the right choice.''

"Pursuing the matter could have put at risk the rights and liberties of children across the country since the Courts decision would have a national impact,'' Singh said in a statement. "The White brothers should now receive a hearing and sentence that complies with the US Constitution.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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Next week, the state expects to open two new state coronavirus testing laboratories in Springfield and Carbondale, in addition to the current state lab in Cook County. Illinois was the first state able to conduct in-state testing, allowing doctors to receive results within 24 hours. In a news briefing Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced plans to have every state and local health department able to test for coronavirus by the end of next week.
Michael McDowell (Irish Independent, February 26) mistakenly assumes the Irish Free State or Saorstat Eireann is set in stone.

He readily admits Michael Collinss original draft constitution of 1921-1922 incorporated an aspiration towards the freedom to achieve freedom, meaning that he fully intended to prolong the struggle to achieve a complete united Ireland.

Events of the Civil War led to a polarisation of political positions leading to a new Constitution by De Valera in 1937 formalising the Free State into an independent one and ultimately a republic in 1949.

But even that Constitution proclaimed the territory of Ireland to be 32 counties and only after the Good Friday Agreement referendum was that claim abandoned in favour of a majority consensus north and south to bring unity about. However, that will inevitably change within the next five years, hastened by Brexit, when a Border poll may very well usher in a United Ireland,

At that juncture, yet another constitution will inevitably be drafted, abandoning the Saorstat Eireann position of Ireland being just 26 counties in favour of the full 32, and recognising the position of the Protestant/Unionist minority within the whole.

I cannot see any divergence between this and the current aspiration towards a united Ireland espoused by Sinn Fein.

Historical events bring about seismic changes; history is a moveable feast.

Maurice OCallaghan

Stillorgan, Co Dublin

Nobody wins an election with only 25pc of the vote

ON THE basis of Matt Wades letter declaring Sinn Fein won the election (Give alternative government the chance to tackle issues, Irish Independent, February 26), then Hillary Clinton should be president of the USA.

It seems Matt thinks getting a quarter of the votes makes you the winner. More skewed thinking from supporters of the pay for nothing political parties he advocates should be in government even though they dont have a majority of TDs.

Michael Lennon

Dublin 15

United States elections are moored 250 years in past

FOR a country proud of its place in the modern world, the USA has one of the oldest and most stupid political systems anywhere. Their system was designed for a situation and time-frame long since gone, which has led to the crazy idea of starting their campaigning 15 to 18 months ahead of the four-yearly election.

It may in 1776 have been acceptable to hold primary and caucus votes many months in advance, when communications were very difficult, but we now share data instantly.

Their whole political/diplomatic system is a complete shambles and is largely build around money, totally ignoring talent. How else can they explain how they got Bush Jr and Trump? Not to mention buying ambassadorships.

As I write, I note Michael Blomberg has already spent $400m (364m) of his own money trying to become president!

David Ryan

Co Meath

Government must turn on information tap to stop virus

GIVEN that one significant transmission pathway for Covid-19 is via the hands, I find it disturbing the Government-in-limbo is not saturating TV and radio with adverts emphasising the importance of hand hygiene and how to wash your hands properly; similarly, there should be big adverts on all the billboards about this.

All of this is very worrying as my experience of hand-washing in public toilets shows a frightening amount of the (male) population follows a routine of a cursory dribble of water (no soap) over their fingertips, and many dont even do that.

If we want to make sure Covid-19 spreads as slowly as possible once it inevitably arrives, the Government needs to ram hand hygiene, through thorough washing of hands and regular use of sanitising hand-gels, right down peoples throats.

Dr Alun J Carr

UCD Belfield, Dublin

Coveney's Brit-bashing a risk to trade and the economy

SIMON COVENEYS remarks on the new round of Brexit negotiations yesterday should be a cause of considerable worry for the people of Ireland. Clearly nothing has been learned from the first round of negotiations which ended up with a UK government totally committed to leaving with or without a trade agreement.

A further round of Brit-bashing accompanied by bluster about the Border will be music to the ears of Sinn Fein. Meanwhile the prospects for Ireland, its people and economy become increasingly imperilled.

Patrick Kilcoyne

Dublin 4
PARIS  Amusement parks, sports events, religious gatherings, even school. More and more things in a growing swath of the world are now affected by the new virus. And thats messing with global financial markets as basic business, trade and tourism suffers from the disruptions.

Here are some of the latest developments:

THE DANGERS OF AMUSEMENT

While parts of China had already banned fun events, the damage to the rest of the entertainment world is spreading as fast as the virus. Disney closed its parks in Tokyo for two weeks, after doing the same in Shanghai and Hong Kong. South Korea exports entertainment worldwide but is shutting down its own shows, as K-pop superstars BTS called off an upcoming concert series in Seoul. Green Day did the same. Formula One teams are worried about being able to travel to races with the season set to start in two weeks. And the Swiss government is banning any events involving more than 1,000 people. The biggest victim: the annual Geneva International Motor Show, one of the car industrys showcase events.

IS AFRICA NEXT?

The virus has now officially reached sub-Saharan Africa, as Nigeria reported its first case. The patient is an Italian traveler who recently arrived in Lagos, Africas largest city  home to 20 million people. Isolated cases of the virus were confirmed in Egypt and Algeria in north Africa in recent days, but there is growing concern that cases around Africa are going unreported. When the World Health Organization declared this virus a global health emergency last month, it was precisely because of worry that it could hit countries with weak health systems. And thats increasingly whats happening, from Africa to Afghanistan and beyond.

AS MARKETS FALL, ARE JOBS NEXT?

Down, down, down. From Tokyo to Frankfurt and New York, markets just kept dropping and were heading toward their worst week since the financial crisis in 2008. A growing number of major companies are issuing profit warnings and say factory shutdowns in China are disrupting supply chains. Germanys DAX skidded more than 5%, Tokyo and Shanghai closed 3.7% lower and New York markets looked set for more losses Friday. With the virus confirmed in nearly 60 countries and travel and trade curtailed, companies are facing tough decisions. British Airways warned of a hit to its earnings as people put off or postpone trips. Philippine Airlines is laying off 300 ground personnel as part of an ongoing restructuring that was aggravated by travel restrictions caused by the virus. Some airlines in Europe canceled flights due to reduced demand. U.S. President Donald Trump has been in touch with CEOs amid worries it could weigh on the election campaign.

SUPERMARKET RATIONING

The panic-driven shopping that first cleared shelves in Asia last month has made it to Europe as uncertain consumers stock up. Czech online supermarket Kosik.cz is starting to limit the maximum weight and number of items per delivery. While the Czech Republic hasnt reported a single case of the virus, some individual shoppers recently bought a half ton  or more  worth of merchandise. Suppliers cant keep up with the spike in demand, which is even higher than during the Christmas shopping season. So Kosik.cz is now imposing a 50-kilogram (110-pound) limit per delivery, arguing thats plenty for a single household.

MASK MADNESS

More than anything else, shoppers want to buy masks. Good luck trying to find one. Demand has exploded  even though experts say most people dont need to cover their faces. Compounding the shortage, supplies also are down because as many as a half of all surgical masks are made in China. As false rumors ignite social networks, shoppers have emptied store shelves around Asia of toilet paper and napkins in the belief they could be used as improvised masks. Even the fashion-conscious are caught up in the mask madness. Some attendees donned them for ready-to-wear fashion shows in Paris this week. One designer sent models down the runway wearing masks matching their clothes. Doctors say washing your hands offers more sensible protection.

SHIFTING SPREAD

While it appeared to start in China and has hit Chinese people the hardest, the virus is now spreading all kinds of ways. South Koreas daily virus toll is now higher than Chinas. Iran now has more deaths than anywhere outside China. Italys numbers jumped to more than 800. From California to France and beyond, more and more cases are appearing with no obvious source. And thats also shifting the reaction. Governments are expanding travel warnings, even for allied countries. Health authorities in one Dutch province want to cancel public events at which Dutch and German residents mix because of the growing number of cases in neighboring Germany.

___

Follow AP coverage of the new virus at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak.
Here are todays top news, analysis and opinion curated for you. Know all about the latest news and other news updates from Hindustan Times.

FIRs filed in Delhi riot cases double in last twenty-four hours

The number of FIRs filed for Delhi riots more than doubled in the last 24 hours to reach the figure of 123 whereas the total number of detentions/arrests reached 630-mark on Friday evening, said Delhi Police. Read more

NIA makes first arrest in 2019 Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested an over-ground worker of the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), in the first major breakthrough in the Pulwama terror attack case in which at least 40 CRPF soldiers had been killed on February 14, 2019. Read more

Delhi govt okays prosecution of ex-JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar for sedition in 2016 case

The permission comes nine days after Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal promised to take an early decision on grant of prosecution against Kanhaiya in the 2016 Jawaharlal Nehru University sedition case. Read more

Snow in Antarctica mysteriously turns blood red. Heres what happened

Ukraines Ministry of Education and Science took to Facebook to explain why this happened. Read more

PUBG Mobile professional tells what a squad needs to win a deathmatch

Its now easy to play like a pro, specially with three more team members. As mentioned by a PUBG Pro and Entity team member Abhijeet Andhare to Hindustan Times Tech, there can be certain situations where the squads can get stuck and how to tackle them. Read more

Why its important to get to the bottom of the Delhi violence

Forget the politics, answering key questions about the riots could prevent a repeat. Read more

India vs New Zealand: Why Indian batsmen could struggle more in 2nd Test

IND vs NZ: If the conditions at Basin Reserve were hard for India, it is about to get more difficult for the visitors in the 2nd Test. Read more
Downing Centre Local and District Court placed a warning letter on its building

The signs cautioned the community to be wary of which public spaces they enter

Public notices are expected to increase around the city heading into flu season

Warnings for coronavirus have started popping up outside Sydney buildings

Warnings for coronavirus have started popping up outside medical centres, train stations and office buildings in Sydney.

The amount of public notices are expected to increase around the city heading into flu season.

The signs have cautioned the community to be wary of which public spaces they enter amid the deadly coronavirus epidemic.

Coronavirus has infected 23 people in Australia, eight of whom caught the virus aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.

Warnings for coronavirus have started popping up outside medical centres, train stations and office buildings in Sydney. Pictured: A sign outside Downing Centre Local and District Court in Sydney's CBD

Coronavirus has infected 23 people in Australia, eight of whom caught the virus aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan

Coronavirus has killed more than 2,800 people globally and can cause severe lung damage and trigger multiple organ failure

Sydney's Downing Centre Local and District Court placed a warning letter outside its building in the CBD on Thursday morning.

'Department of Communities and Justice has a duty of care to ensure the safety and wellbeing of persons in the workplace,' the sign read.

'Do not enter premises if you or someone you have been in close contact with has returned from travel from mainland China, including Hubei Province in the last 14 days.

'Please be alert to any changes in your health if you have travelled from Asia, in particular China, Japan, Thailand and South Korea.'

The notice went on to describe the symptoms of the deadly virus, and urged the public to seek medical attention if they suffer from any signs of the illness.

It comes a day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared a coronavirus pandemic is 'very much upon us'.

Mr Morrison instructed Health Minister Greg Hunt to identify 'gaps in capabilities' within Australia's state-based health services to combat the spread of the deadly illness from China.

'We believe that the risk of a pandemic is very much upon us,' he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

AUSTRALIA'S VIRUS PLAN Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said the risk of a global coronavirus pandemic impacting Australia is likely, releasing the government's Australian Health Management Plan on Thursday. The government is currently at the 'Initial action stage' which includes: * Health Minister Greg Hunt assumes powers under Biosecurity Act. * Enhanced border screening measures and communications with incoming travellers. * Medical stockpiles deployed to states and territories ready for use. * Potential outbreaks investigated. * National response coordinated with states and territories. The declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organisation or evidence of a large-scale, sustained transmission of the virus in Australia will move the government to a 'Targeted action stage', which would see: * Department of Health coordinating response from National Incident Room. * Health services surging staff numbers. * Items from the National Medical Stockpile distributed to health services. * Consideration of any border or social distancing measures. * Response could be scaled up or down based on spread of virus. If infection numbers reach a level that it can be contained by normal healthcare services, government moves to 'Standdown stage', which includes: * Replenishing medical stockpiles. * Resuming elective or non-urgent medical procedures. * Monitoring for second wave of virus. Advertisement

'We need to take the steps necessary to prepare for such a pandemic.'

Australian Border Force is drawing up plans for extra measures at airports and shipping ports to ensure travellers suspected of having the virus can be quarantined or self-quarantined quickly.

'As this spreads we are going to have to monitor the hotspots around the world for coronavirus and overlay that with travel patterns,' ABF commisioner Michael Outram told Sky News.

'It's hard to travel directly to Australia so that gives us some choke points that we can focus on.'

It comes a day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared a coronavirus pandemic is 'very much upon us'. Pictured with Minister for Health Greg Hunt (left) and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly (right)

Professor Ian Mackay, from the University of Queensland, issued a stark warning about the future of the virus, saying it is unlikely it will ever be contained and the world should prepare for the worst.

'We're likely to have the virus become what we call an endemic virus, or a virus that's just with us for life,' he told The Australian.

'At some point in the coming months or years we're all going to get infected because we've all been infected by these other endemic viruses.'

The World Health Organisation has not yet formally declared a global pandemic, but Mr Morrison said Australia was operating on the basis that there is one.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - PDL BioPharma, Inc. (PDLI) said Alan Bazaar will join the company's Board as a Class III director serving until 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. The appointment of new independent director is under a cooperation agreement with Engine Capital Management LP, which owns approximately 5.5% of the company's outstanding shares. The company has also agreed to form a Cost Committee of the Board, chaired by Bazaar, to oversee cost reduction initiatives. Bazaar is currently CEO of Hollow Brook Wealth Management and Chairman of the board of Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
A UK court on Thursday extended the remand of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, who is fighting his extradition to India in the nearly USD-2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud and money laundering case, till March 24.

Modi appeared via videolink from Wandsworth Prison in south-west London for the hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on Thursday, which coincidentally also marked his 49th birthday according to the date of birth he has confirmed to the court.

"A trial has been set in May. The purpose of today's hearing is to set the next call-over hearing, which will be on March 24," said Judge David Robinson.

Modi's extradition trial is scheduled for five days starting May 11, with the case management hearings in the matter set to begin once all the evidence has been handed in to the court for the trial.

The diamond merchant had made a last-ditch bail application in November last year with an "unprecedented" house arrest guarantee, akin to those imposed on terrorist suspects, as well as citing mental health issues from being behind bars at Wandsworth since his arrest in March 2019.

But the bail plea was turned down by Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot over continued fears of witness intimidation and failure to surrender before the court for his extradition trial this year.

The UK's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which represents the Indian government in the extradition proceedings, said the prospect of an appeal for bail in a higher court has been exhausted as the UK High Court had already turned down Mr Modi's plea earlier last year.

Modi is expected to appear for "call-over" hearings every 28 days at Westminster Magistrates' Court until the case management hearings for his extradition trial kick in.

He denies the charges of fraud and money laundering and his defence team, led by barrister Hugo Keith, has claimed that the Indian government has wrongly "blackened" Mr Modi's name as a "world-class schemer".

As part of the change in circumstances required for a fresh bail application, Mr Modi's lawyers had offered to double the bail bond security offered to the court, from the previous GBP 2 million to GBP 4 million.

They had also informed the court of attacks on their client from fellow inmates at one of England's most overcrowded prisons.

Modi has been behind bars at Wandsworth since his arrest on March 19 on an extradition warrant executed by Scotland Yard on charges brought by the Indian government.

During subsequent hearings, the UK court has been told that Mr Modi was the "principal beneficiary" of the fraudulent issuance of letters of undertaking (LoUs) as part of a conspiracy to defraud PNB and then laundering the proceeds of crime.

His extradition trial is scheduled between May 11 and 15 this year.

Also read: Nirav Modi's luxury cars, watches, rare paintings to be auctioned online

Also read: Rolls Royce car, Louis Vuitton bag, MF Husain painting among Nirav Modi's collection up for auction
The WOW (Women of Waterford) were at it again, this time gathering in the home of MARIE UNDERDOWN for their annual Holiday Pot Luck and White Elephant Exchange Party.

What a great time we had! The food, as always, was scrumptious. And the White Elephant Exchange, as always, was lots of fun. However this time, we didnt exchange ornaments, tea towels or even cookies. Although maybe more appropriate for Halloween, the trading items this year were spirits as in wine, champagne, margaritas and even some tasty orange liqueur!
Morgan County

Sheriff

ARRESTS, CITATIONS

 Robert J. McBride, 30, of Chicago was booked into the Morgan County jail at 12:55 a.m. Thursday on a charge of driving while license is revoked or suspended and on a warrant accusing him of failing to appear in court.

Jacksonville Police

ACCIDENTS

 Landon Griffin, 21, of Peoria was cited on a charge of failing to yield at an intersection after the car he was driving and one being driven by Christina Martin, 34, of Chapin collided at South Main Street and College Avenue at 7:16 p.m. Wednesday.

BURGLARIES, THEFTS

 Someone entered a storage shed in the 500 block of Capitol Way overnight Thursday and caused minor damage to a metal wall, according to a report filed at 7:51 a.m. Thursday.

Compiled by David C.L. Bauer and Darren Iozia
Lift irrigation schemes in



Maharashtra will be run on unconventional energy sources, state water resources minister Jayant Patil told the Assembly on Friday.

During a discussion in the question hour, Patil saidinfuture, procuring electricity for lift irrigation projects may prove to be expensive.

"We will have to depend on solarpower, for which land belonging to water resources department will have to be made available," he said.

At present, most of this land has been given to schools or is being used for some other purpose, he said, appealing to allmembers to help get back the land.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
SHE Software, a Chicago, IL-based global Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS) management software company, closed a $9m Series B funding round.

The round was led by Frog Capital from its new growth equity fund, with existing investors Northern Venture Capital Trust (VCTs) Funds at Mercia Fund Management Limited also participating.

The company intends to use the funds to further improve its North American market position, to increase headcount to expand its global talent pool by 60 and to develop the skillset of its existing team.

Led by Matthew Elson, CEO, SHE Software provides a cloud based, mobile-first platform for Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS) management. Founded in 1995, the firm now serves more than 250 customers across multiple sectors.

FinSMEs

28/02/2020
Study found evidence for a period of enhanced pre-industrial sea-level rise of about 2-3 millimeters per year

The study, led by the University of York, found evidence for a period of enhanced pre-industrial sea-level rise of about two to three millimetres per year in three locations: Nova Scotia, Maine and Connecticut.

The researchers say that the large rises at these three locations were natural, and partly related to the North Atlantic Oscillation - a large-scale atmospheric pressure see-saw over the North Atlantic region - and to periods of enhanced ice melt in the Arctic.

The authors of the study say cities like New York and Boston will have to take into account this natural variability in planning for future sea level rise.

The findings are based on sea level reconstructions derived from salt-marsh sediments from the Atlantic coast and from microscopic salt-marsh fossils.

Previous studies have shown that, since the 1950s, rates of sea level rise along the Atlantic coast of North America were faster than the global average - leading to this region coming to be known as a sea level rise "hotspot."

However, lead author Prof Roland Gehrels, from the University of York's Department of Environment and Geography, said this earlier rapid episode of sea level rise in the 18th Century wasn't known before.

"To find out what global warming is doing to sea levels today we need that base level from historical times.

"In the 20th Century we see rates of up to three or four millimetres per year, faster than in any century in at least the last 3000 years.

"In the 18th Century they were slightly slower, but still much quicker than you would expect for the Little Ice Age, partly because the Arctic was relatively warm during the 18th Century.

"It is pre-industrial so there are no anthropogenic forces - or human influences - at play, but in the 20th Century there may well have been.

"This means that those rapid episodes of sea level rise on the north east coast of North America in the 18th Century have a natural cause."

Scientists say salt-marshes are good "archives" of sea levels as they contain several metres of sediment which contains data going back hundreds of years.

Prof Gehrels added: "The high rates in this "hotspot" could present significant coastal risks for large population centres if they are a persistent and recurring feature.

"The likely future sea level rise in places like New York City is expected to be considerably greater than the global average by the end of the 21st century."

"Our findings suggest that enhanced rates of sea level rise along eastern North America are not only symptomatic of human activity, but might additionally arise from natural processes in the climate system."

The findings are published in Geophysical Research Letters and involved collaboration with the University of Leeds; Durham University; Bangor University; the National Oceanography Centre, Liverpool; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, USA; Old Dominion University, Virginia, USA; and the University of Siegen, Germany.

###
TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In partnership with Honduran bank BANHPROVI, Dinant has launched Phase 1 of its much-anticipated housing project in the Bajo Aguan that, when completed, will enable 100 employees to buy affordable high quality housing under President Juan Orlando Hernandezs Convivienda scheme. By providing the land free of charge, Dinant is helping employees who might be unable to raise the 5% deposit to participate in Convivienda.

Speaking at the launch, Dinants Executive President, Miguel Mauricio Facusse, commented, This important project will significantly improve the quality of life of hundreds of our employees. Owning a home is a dream come true for many hard-working Honduran families. I am delighted that Dinant is partnering with BANHPROVI and President Hernandez Convivienda initiative to contribute to the construction of an increasingly inclusive, cooperative and integrated society.

Phase 2 of the project  allocating lots of over 170 square meters  will soon be available for purchase under the Convivienda scheme, and financed by BANHPROVI, to approximately 200 Dinant employees who live and work in the Aguan region.

Dinants affordable housing project is one of many initiatives the company is undertaking in 2020 as part of its enhanced Corporate Social Responsibility program. President Hernandez Convivienda project was established to provide more Honduran families with the opportunity to buy their own homes. Dinant has signed an agreement with BANHPROVI to facilitate the provision of low-cost housing loans to employees that are joining the Convivienda program.

About Corporacion Dinant

Dinant is a family-owned consumer products manufacturer founded in Honduras in 1960. Its products are sold across Central America and the Dominican Republic. In March 2019, Dinant was recognized as a Great Place to Work in Central America and the Caribbean based on an independent employee survey on teamwork, leadership, and the absence of discrimination in the workplace. For more information, please visit: www.dinant.com.

This material is distributed by Tricuro LLC on behalf of Corporacion Dinant. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

Attachment
BOSTON, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Liberty Mutual Insurance today announced it is working with Ford to offer the potential for driving discounts to Liberty Mutual customers who drive a Ford connected vehicle, making it easier for customers to help save money on their auto insurance for their safe driving. "Liberty is committed to deep partnerships across mobility partners including many OEMs to support their customers' insurance needs of today and in the future," said Kara Shipulski, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships Group. Now, nearly all 2020 model year Ford connected vehicles can reward Liberty Mutual customers.

The new agreement is part of Liberty Mutual's broader Mobility initiative to bring new technologies to the insurance experience  now, Liberty will offer a seamless process that enables the evaluation of a customer's driving behavior through FordPass Connect eliminating the need for a plug-in device.

"At Liberty Mutual, we are always looking to provide innovative, new solutions to meet and exceed our customers' evolving insurance needs," said Nicholas Grant, Vice President and Manager, Product Technology Solutions, at Liberty Mutual Insurance. "We're excited to extend our work with Ford to leverage its leading connected car platform to bring this technology to more drivers and put our customers in the driver's seat of their own insurance experience."

Liberty Mutual's diverse telematics programs help customers save on auto insurance based on their driving habits. With connected vehicles, Liberty Mutual is able to further streamline the insurance evaluation process, making it easier for customers to help save on their auto insurance with customized pricing.

"Connected vehicles have the potential to deliver great benefits to Ford customers, including the ability to help lower their car insurance premiums," said Kari Novatney, COO FordPass. "Liberty Mutual's program is an excellent example of what connected vehicles can offer, and using data to help people save money is another way Ford is committed to improving the customer experience."

The Connected Vehicle Program creates a seamless, incentive-based insurance experience for customers powered by connected car data. It also represents an extension of Liberty Mutual's existing partnership with Ford which spans three decades and insures both personal and commercial business globally.

About Liberty Mutual Insurance

At Liberty Mutual, we believe progress happens when people feel secure. By providing protection for the unexpected and delivering it with care, we help people embrace today and confidently pursue tomorrow.

In business since 1912, and headquartered in Boston, today we are the fifth largest global property and casualty insurer based on 2018 gross written premium. We also rank 75th on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the U.S. based on 2018 revenue. As of December 31, 2019, we had $43.2 billion in annual consolidated revenue.

We employ over 45,000 people in 29 countries and economies around the world. We offer a wide range of insurance products and services, including personal automobile, homeowners, specialty lines, reinsurance, commercial multiple-peril, workers compensation, commercial automobile, general liability, surety, and commercial property.

For more information, visit www.libertymutualinsurance.com.

About Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan. The company designs, manufactures, markets and services a full line of Ford cars, trucks, SUVs, electrified vehicles and Lincoln luxury vehicles, provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company and is pursuing leadership positions in electrification, autonomous vehicles and mobility solutions. Ford employs approximately 190,000 people worldwide. For more information regarding Ford, its products and Ford Motor Credit Company, please visit www.corporate.ford.com

Media Contact:

Glenn Greenberg

617-574-5874

[email protected]

SOURCE Liberty Mutual Insurance

Related Links

http://www.libertymutualinsurance.com


A security man administers sanitiser to a visitor to a state hospital in Lagos, on February 28, 2020.

The World Health Organization on Friday reaffirmed its warning that the fast-spreading coronavirus could soon reach most, "if not all" countries around the world.

WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters the outbreak was "getting bigger" and reiterated the organization's warning that the deadly flu-like virus could spread worldwide.

His comments at a news conference in Geneva came shortly after Nigeria confirmed sub-Saharan Africa's first case and two days after Brazil reported Latin America's first COVID-19 infection.

As of Friday, more than 83,000 cases of the coronavirus had been confirmed worldwide, with infections reported in every continent except Antarctica.

The vast majority of those cases has been reported in China, where the epidemic started at the end of last year.

China's National Health Commission said Friday an additional 327 people had contracted the virus, with an additional 44 deaths nationwide. Altogether, China has reported 78,824 coronavirus cases, including 2,788 deaths.
Afghan refugees walk towards Turkey-Greece border at Ipsala district in Edirne Province in northwestern Turkey, on February 28 , 2020. - Turkey will no longer close its border gates to refugees who want to go to Europe , a senior official told AFP on February 28, shortly after the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an airstrike in northern Syria.

Hundreds of migrants in Turkey started arriving on the borders with Greece and Bulgaria on Friday after a senior Turkish official said Ankara would no longer abide by a 2016 EU deal and stop refugees from reaching Europe.

Greece and Bulgaria, both European Union member states, said they were beefing up frontier controls to prevent the migrants crossing illegally.Bulgaria said it was sending 1,000 extra troops to its border with Turkey.

Reuters TV footage showed migrants walking near the Greek border, some carrying plastic bags and small children, while Greek police and border vehicles patrolled on the other side of the fence. Similar scenes unfolded at the Bulgarian border.

On the Aegean coast, Turkish broadcasters showed two dozen people, including women and children, aboard a rubber dinghy boat. They were reportedly bound for the Greek island of Lesbos.

"We heard about (Turkey's decision) on the television," said Afghan migrant Sahin Nebizade, 16, one of a group of migrants packed into one of three taxis that were parked on a highway on the outskirts of Istanbul.

"We've been living in Istanbul. We want to go to Edirne and then on to Greece," he said before the taxis headed for the northwestern province of Edirne.

Syrians, Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis and Moroccans were among the migrants heading towards the border crossings with Greece and Bulgaria, about 200 km (125 miles) west of Istanbul, Turkey's pro-government Demiroren news agency said.

Hamid Muhammed, holding a young girl at the Greek border, told Reuters that Greek police were not letting him enter. "There are many problems here (in Turkey). We want the Turkish and European governments to open this gate," he said.
Oscar-winning Indian composer AR Rahman was one of the guests at the recent dinner in the Capital hosted in honour of US President Donald Trump, during the latter's India visit. Although the grand gala at Rashtrapati Bhavan was teeming with dignitaries including Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, the Jai ho composer took out some time for a very special 'little friend' -- a monkey!

At the dinner, Rahman went clickety-click, and a video he posted on Instagram has a monkey eating from a flower pot.

The musical genius revealed a bit of his humorous side in the caption: "Meanwhile our little friend was having dinner too!"

He had also posted an image with Army officers, besides an old shot of former President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam. "One of our heroes at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Extremely grateful for the kind invitation by the President for a special occasion!," he captioned it.

Chef Vikas Khanna was also a part of the gathering. He posted a photo featuring him engaged in a conversation with Modi and Rahman.

"The moment I entered Rashtrapati Bhavan, everyone kept asking, if I was cooking for Trump-Modi Dinner. Here I'm telling @arrahman that we have #ChefMontuSaini creating magic in the kitchen. The Chef whose #CulinaryDiplomacy is Legendary," Chef Khanna captioned it.

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A group of Chinese experts arrived in Pakistan on Monday to extend a helping hand to tackle the country's locust plague, which is threatening the South Asian nation's food security. The experts are inspecting severely hit regions and will donate equipment and offer technical support to help local governments tackle the plague.

At a news conference in Karachi on Wednesday, Chinese experts said chemical pesticides and biotic pesticides remain the best and most-effective method to stamp out the massive plague of locusts in large areas of Pakistan, adding that using ducks had proven inefficient in tackling similar situations in South Asia and East Africa.

Zhang Long, a professor at China Agriculture University and a member of the expert team, said the method of breeding ducks to eat locusts, a traditional Chinese method, can only be applied in certain circumstances in very small areas, and pesticide remains the most efficient way to curb Pakistan's locust plague.

Wang Fengle, leader of the team, said the use of ducks "is just an exploratory topic discussed by some academics" and will not be included in the Chinese government's assistance plan.

Previously, Chinese media had reported that 100,000 ducks from Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, were likely to join the fight against the ongoing swarms of locusts in Pakistan, which is facing its worst such infestation in 27 years.

Lu Lizhi, a researcher at Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said the academy was considering cooperation with two Pakistani universities  Sindh Agriculture University and Lasbela University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences  on breeding ducks to devour the insects, according to thepaper.cn.

In early February, the Pakistani government declared a national emergency in response to swarms of desert locusts destroying crops in the eastern part of the country.

In China, using ducks to eat locusts is a traditional way to fight the scourge, but today it only plays a minor role in tackling locusts.

Lu from Zhejiang said he would recommend Guoshao ducks from Shaoxing, which are larger and have an extraordinary capability for hunting, to fight off the locusts in Pakistan. They were used in the fight against locust attacks in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in 2000.

According to Lu, two PhD candidates from Pakistan are planning to travel to Xinjiang after the novel coronavirus epidemic is over and conduct research with Chinese experts.

There are various methods to deal with locust invasions, such as using pesticides. Lu said preventing and controlling locust attacks in a biological way, including breeding ducks to eat them, could help with the ecological restoration after killing these insects.

Predators and prey live in the same ecological system and rely heavily on each other, so it's necessary to take all elements in the system into consideration when making detailed plans, Lu noted.

Locust swarms have already destroyed swaths of farmland in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia in East Africa, threatening food supplies.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the invasion of locusts, which started in December, further worsens food security in East Africa, where more than 19 million people are already experiencing a high degree of food insecurity.

The UN said that a swarm of locusts can vary from one square kilometer to several hundred square kilometers, with up to 80 million adult locusts in each square kilometer of a swarm, and that desert locusts can travel about 150 kilometers in a day and can eat their own body weight in plant material, meaning a small swarm can consume as much food as 35,000 people in a day.

The UN has however warned that an imminent second hatch of the insects in East Africa could threaten the food security of 25 million people across the region.

Nibbling their way across a large part of Africa in the worst outbreak, locust swarms are now threatening South Asian countries, with India taking extra measures to ward off a new outbreak that could ravage crops. India is buying drones and specialist equipment to monitor the movement of locusts and spray insecticides.




- Sergio Ramos got his fourth Champions League red card against Man City

- The red card against the Citizens was his 26th ever in his career

- Ramos will miss the return leg clash at the Etihad stadium

Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos has set an unwanted Champions League record after receiving his fourth ever Champions League red card against Manchester City on Wednesday February 26.

Ramos was sent off after he fouled Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus in which the referee had no other choice than to bring out the red card.

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It was a bad night for the Spaniard which compounded on his wretched disciplinary history as he has now gotten four red cards so far in his career in the Champions League

The Spain international equals Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edgar Davids as the three players who have received four red cards in Champions League history.

AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic got four Champions League red card while playing for Inter Milan, Paris-Saint-Germain and Juventus.

Edgar Davids on the other hand got all his career Champions League red cards while playing for current Italian champions Juventus.

The defeat was a big blow for Zinedine Zidane who was given the mandate to return the Champions League title to the Bernabeu.

READ ALSO: Arsenal the only unbeaten side in Europe in 2020

It was a bad one also for Sergio Ramos who has won the Champions League title four times before and he is dreaming of winning it again for the fifth time.

But his dream this season may not come true as Real Madrid will have to win at the Etihad stadium against Manchester City with Ramos set to miss the encounter.

And should Real Madrid get dumped out of the Champions League, then they will have to focus on the La Liga which is close battle with Barcelona.

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Australia's key export industries are set to suffer as the coronavirus worsens.

The flu-like illness is likely to wipe $5.9billion from the economy in the first half of 2020 as China, Australia's biggest trading partner, buys less iron ore, coal and university education, modelling by Deloitte Access Economics shows.

It is also forecast a $1.8billion hit to Australian government revenue during the same time frame, as company tax payments fell.

Australia's total exports were last year worth $493billion with China making up one third of that, officials figures showed.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the 'supply chain of things that come out of China is being disrupted'.

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Australia's key export industries are set to suffer as the coronavirus worsens. The flu-like illness is likely to wipe $5.9billion from the economy in the first half of 2020 as China, Australia's biggest trading partner, buys less iron ore, coal and university education, modelling by Deloitte Access Economics shows. Pictured is a coal loader at Gladstone in Queensland

'We're not immune. The rest of the world is dealing with the same thing in terms of these economic impacts, and Australia is no different to that,' he told the Today show on Friday morning.

'We are very mindful of that and that's why we're crafting some responses to that.'

Deloitte Access Economics partner Nicki Hutley, an economist, said the coronavirus was likely to be even worse for the economy than the summer bushfires, mainly because of Australia's exposure to China.

'Certain businesses are not operating because of the coronavirus,' she told Daily Mail Australia on Friday.

'We're not getting things transferred through the docks.

'That's going to have an impact the longer that goes on.'

The coronavirus and the bushfires are also set to deny Australia a budget surplus in 2020.

'We won't be back in the black unfortunately,' Ms Hutley said.

Deloitte Access Economics partner Nicki Hutley, an economist, said the coronavirus was likely to be even worse for the economy than the summer bushfires, mainly because of Australia's exposure to China. Pictured are people in Beijing

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's budget, unveiled in April last year, promised a $7.1billion surplus for 2019-20, which if delivered would have been the first in the black since 2007.

The Treasury's Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook in December reduced that to $5billion, before the summer bushfires worsened and Chinese authorities announced the first cases of coronavirus in Wuhan.

Mr Morrison declined to criticise the World Health Organisation, which is yet to describe coronavirus as a likely pandemic.

The COVID-19 coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people worldwide since it originated in December at an animal market in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

That included 23 people in Australia.

Another eight Australians had been flown from the Diamond Princess cruise ship at Yokohama in Japan to a Howard Springs quarantine centre near Darwin, where they tested positive.
This is an opinion column.

Maybe we got this computer coding thing all wrong, those of us who dwell in the code-or-no-code world.

It took an Alabamian  one who leads one of the largest companies in the world, whose products touch us all in some way every day  to set us straight.

Robertsdale native, Auburn graduate and Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose aging father still lives (stubbornly) in the home where he helped raise his children, is leading Apple to invest a considerable chunk in Birmingham. Apple, and partners, have quietly transformed a historic downtown building into a coding incubator called Ed Farm. Cook came to town Thursday to show it to the world.

They want to convey the message that coding is not just for kids. Ed Farms initiatives include 11-week coding programs for Birmingham City school students, teachers, and adults.

Coding is nothing more than a language, Cook tells me later Thursday afternoon, not long after helping to reveal Ed Farm, located in the Forbes building of Fourth Avenue North. Just like using English, or whatever your natural language is, coding is like that.

We are sitting in a relatively quiet corner of the library at Oxmoor Valley Elementary School, where a bevy of giddy students are using tablets to record Black History Month PSAs and interviews. May I watch? Cook asks. Yes, sir, was always the response.

We think coding, he says later, is the most important second language people can learn because its global. Its the only global language that exists in the world.

I get that. I took a few years of French and many behind me took Spanish.

Now coding? Its imperative for the jobs that exist now and will exist tomorrow.

We are in an environment where you dont go to school once or twice with college, Cook says. You have to continually learn because the destruction of jobs is happening at a faster rate, and the creation of jobs is happening at a faster rate. You have to be able to move from one to the other. [Adults in the coding class] may conclude they want to be a coder; they may conclude that they dont. But the skill will still help them become employed in a different role.

Its important that people know the art of the possible and the way to do that is to learn to code, even if you have no desire to code.

Cook, though living 2,000-plus miles away in Silicon Valley, keeps tabs on his home state and on its education performance. He hopes Apples planting of Ed Farm in Birmingham can contribute to moving Alabamas children and adults forward.

People in the state deserve a great education, he says. In too many places [in Alabama] thats not happening.

Just a few hours before, Cook met Odessa Woolfolk, the 87-year-old visionary for the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, a true gem for our city who dutifully took instructions from much younger people and coded. She did the work alongside the equally challenged Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and excitable school superintendent Dr. Lisa Herring.

The apple CEO and Woolfolk shared a few words, a few smiles.

Now, later, Cook is almost speechless. Talk about a privilege to meet her, he says. Its over the top. She has a lot to offer. Shes a natural teacher, whether in a classroom or not. Shes seen so much and studied so much.

He pauses. Just amazing. It was an overwhelming meeting.

Its natural for Birminghamians to wonder if Apples work in Alabama is sustainable, even with commitments from other entities involved, including Alabama Power, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham City Schools and others.

But Tim Cook, who leads a giant corporation that has helped sustain the digital age worldwide and equally change cultures, has a reminder about Apple: "We dont do something just for the moment.

A voice for whats right and wrong in Birmingham, Alabama (and beyond), Roys column appears in The Birmingham News and AL.com, as well as in the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register. Reach him at rjohnson@al.com and follow him at twitter.com/roysj
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has put up posters in the states Aurangabad city announcing cash reward to those who can give information on illegal Pakistani and Bangladeshi infiltrators.

The Raj Thackeray-led MNS said in the posters that anyone providing information about alleged infiltrators from Pakistan and Bangladesh will receive Rs 5000. The MNS refers to Aurangabad as Sambhaji Nagar.

Thackeray, who recently shifted to Hindutva from his earlier Marathi Manoos plank, has been looking to gain ground in Aurangabad which has been the citadel of the MNSs arch-rival, the Shiv Sena.

The party chief led a rally demanding the expulsion of Bangladeshi and Pakistani infiltrators in Mumbai earlier this month. It was the first rally by Thackeray after he steered the MNS towards a hardline Hindutva and changed the party flag.

Raj Thackeray has also come out strongly in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The MNS Pune unit had also launched a campaign to weed out Bangladeshis living illegally in the city.

The MNS has been going through a rough phase since 2014 as it lost power in the Nashik Municipal Corporation and its tally in the Maharastra assembly came down to just one in both the 2014 and 2019 polls, from 13 in the 2009 polls.

After embracing the Hindutva ideology, Thackeray has reportedly started to grow close to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against which he had run a campaign in the Lok Sabha and assembly polls last year.
Each galli in Seelampur is, among other things, a border between faiths and social classes. For prospect-less young people in this part of Delhi, a cohort that grew ever-faster as the economy began to splutter, the gangster and god became the only sources of agency and self-worth. The temple or the mosque offered at least a simulacrum of social respectability.

Beneath the searing light of a Delhi sun, at the high noon of his power in May 1987, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi stood at the Boat Club to rage against Pakistan and its agents in India: We will respond with a bang," his anger rendered mildly comical by his inelegant Hindi, and that reply will put fear in the hearts of their fathers." Ten kilometres away, two men would soon brawl on the streets  and the Prime Ministers words would collide with theirs, to spark off a communal war.

This weeks savagery in Delhi is the worst Hindu-Muslim communal violence the city has seen since Partition: 38 people have been killed; 19 Muslim, 10 Hindu; seven still unidentified. For many, the grim history of hate in Delhi teaches us that the executioners are heroes, warriors for their faith.

Illuminated by the bright, shining red of blood is an India with a blind right eye  gazing terrified at the carnage all around, but unable to see that its own hands are wielding the cleaver.

***

Less than a week after Prime Minister Gandhis Boat Club speech, as Vijay Kumar Sharma and his wife rode their motorcycle down the crowded Nai Sarak in Old Delhi, a passing cyclist made a lewd remark. Sharma began brawling with the cyclist, Bal Krishan. Two other men  Muslims, it so happened  stepped in to keep them apart. The police eventually arrived, and carted all four off to the Town Hall police station.

In the meantime, however, rumours had spread that Muslims had harassed a Hindu woman, and mobs began clashing.

Later that evening, the police opened fire. Ballimaran resident Om Parkash Kashyap, watching the violence from his rooftop, was among the victims. The killing was blamed, however, on his landlord, Fazl Illahi, with whom there had been a long-running property dispute  and more violence followed.

Fifteen people were to die before the rage spent itself.

The story of how those killings happened teaches us the rioters in Seelampur were acting on a script written long before they were born. The year before Prime Minister Gandhis speech, his government had opened the gates to the Ram temple in Ayodhya, hoping to cash in on the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Islamic groups protested, leading to violence in Ahmedabad, Allahabad and Bharuch.

In Delhi, clashes between Hindutva groups and Muslim organisations had broken out in February and September, 1986; again, in March 1987, tensions flared after clerics warned Muslims that their religion was at imminent danger.

For the Congress, this played to a well-rehearsed plan. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhis mother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, her legitimacy battered by the Emergency and a moribund economy, had successfully used communal mobilisation through the early 1980s to rebuild her worn legitimacy.

Large-scale communal violence broke out, beginning at Moradabad in 1980, where 130 people were killed in a single police-led massacre  the worst such slaughter, The Hindus GK Reddy noted, since Jallianwala Bagh.

Instead of cracking down on the Uttar Pradesh Police, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi claimed the killings were engineered to undermine the stability of the government. In one speech, she went even further, asserting that the Hindu religion and traditions were under attack.

Through to 1983, there was further slaughter, in Aligarh, Allahabad, Godhra, Biharsharif, Nalanda, Hyderabad, Vadodara, Pune and Meerut  culminating in a massive pogrom in Assams Nellie. The Congress emerged as the protector of Hindus.

Long before the Bharatiya Janata Party leader Parvesh Verma claimed that Shaheen Bagh protestors would enter your houses, rape your sisters and daughters, and kill them, Hindu nationalism had embedded itself in Indian politics.

The wavelength of Congress culture and Hindu culture, Congress General Secretary CM Stephen declared in 1983, is the same." Babu Jagjivan Ram, a senior Congress politician, described Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhis 1984 election triumph as a vote for Hindu India. Muslims, he went on, had no choice but to vote for the Congress, because they have to live in this country."

***

Living together hasnt come naturally. In May 1974, Gali Milwali resident Vishwakarma became enraged as he watched  perhaps imagined  Nasim Ahmed eyeing up his sisters as they waited for the 9 pm show at the Palace Talkies. Friends stepped in to stop the argument, but the next morning, Ahmad showed up at Vishwakarma's home to demand an apology, and a brawl erupted on the street. Bombs were soon being thrown from the roofs of the Imliwali mosque, and snipers opened fire from inside homes along Bahadurgarh Road.

Eleven people  eight Hindus, two Sikh  ended up dead.

From 1975, just months after the violence, Prime Minister Indira Gandhis government began to push Muslim communities out of the walled city. Seelampur, Welcome Colony and Jaffarabad, so-called resettlement colonies, were seen by Emergency-era planners as easier to police than the fraught lanes of Turkman Gate, Ballimaran or Daryaganj.

Later came large numbers of Muslims from Western Uttar Pradesh  the backbone of Seelampurs economy, built around small-scale manufacturing.

The ghetto grows organically," the scholar Ghazala Jamil has evocatively written, packing in as many people as possible in a bid not to spill over the boundary." Each galli or lane in Seelampur is, among other things, a border between faiths and social classes.

In this petri-dish, hatred festered, as the new arrivals competed with Dalits and other marginalised groups for meagre state resources and economic opportunity. In 1992, violence exploded in Seelampur, sparked off by the demolition of the Babri Masjid; 23 people were killed.

Like in Delhis walled city, the criminal replaced the political leader as the arbiter of social conflicts, the provider of patronage and the mediator of engagement with the police and civic authorities. In times of communal conflict, local gangsters were the communitys last line of defence  just as a Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar had once been in Mumbai.

From the 1990s to the Gujarat carnage of 2002, nearby Jamia Nagar emerged as a magnet for Muslims seeking insulation from Hindu nationalist violence, too, but this ghetto was middle class, suffused with beneficiaries of education and liberalisation. In enclaves like Zakir Nagar Extension or Johari Farms, the kernels of a Muslim middle class emerged, powered by jobs in the service sector, information technology and the media.

The ghettos around Seelampur, though, evolved differently. In a thoughtful study, scholar Kartik Sivaram and others recorded that Seelampurs Muslims fared worse than their Hindu neighbours on everything from access to civic services to educational outcomes. The conservative Bab-ul-Uloom seminary, not democratic institutions, shaped the course of civic life.

For prospect-less young people in Seelampur, a cohort that grew ever-faster as the economy began to splutter, the gangster and god became the only sources of agency and self-worth. The temple or the mosque offered at least a simulacrum of social respectability.

Even times of communal peace were fraught: In 2017, the murderous pogroms against the Rohingya in Myanmar led communalised young men to block ethnic-Tibetans from Majnu-ka-Tila from trading at Jaffarabads wholesale garment market.

Protestors against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Jamia Nagar were able to build linkages with middle-class liberals across Delhi, using a shared language of constitutional values. Lacking credible political leadership or representation  and ignored by the citys major parties  Seelampurs Muslims had no instrument with which to engage the wider community around them.

To their neighbours, the citizenship protests appeared as an effort to project power into Hindu areas  as a disruption of the fragile balance of power between North East Delhis communities.

Long before the riots began, suspicions and hatred had flared into skirmishes between protestors in Jaffarabad and Hindus in areas like Karawal Nagar, fuelled by Hindu nationalist propaganda. Local criminals often used these clashes to project their power to their own audiences. In December, anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests in Seelampur exploded into violence. Local resident Muhammad Raees was arrested after he lost one of his hands while allegedly throwing a petrol bomb at the police.

Even as the areas Muslims were convinced they were perched on the edge of a battle for survival, many Hindus had come to believe they were faced with exactly the same thing.

***

Low-grade attritional violence has long characterised Delhi's Hindu-Muslim relationship. In 1924, disputes over a slaughterhouse left 15 Hindus and a Muslim dead; in 1926, more violence followed Between 1954 and 1973  a period of twenty years  there was one long stretch of peace, and then between 1957 and 1960," the scholar Gopal Krishna has noted. But otherwise, there have been small disturbances every year, except 1964 and 1966.

In the wake of the 1987 riots, an investigation by the Peoples Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) noted Old Delhi was sundered into caste and communal agglomerations whose inhabitants regarded each other with fear and suspicion.

Three out of every ten Hindus and almost two out of ten Muslims, a study of the 1974 riots found, had never even met with members of the other religious community in any social context  political, casual, or even business.

The rise of a younger, articulate generation of Muslims who voice their grievances against discrimination in educational facilities and jobs, some of whom have made good by competing with the Hindus in modern business enterprises, is often perceived as a threat," the PUDR report noted. The walled citys mercantile community, it went on, were irked by the Muslim assumption of symbols of upward mobility.

Pained by the corruption of their party and the induction of criminals, the PUDR study noted, an older generation of Congress politicians who successfully mediated these kinds of tensions vacated political life, leaving the walled city an ideal breeding ground for communal and religious fanatics, as well as the local underworld."

Forty years on, the hatred has congealed: in spite of economic progress, Delhis civic culture has failed to birth the kinds of rich consociational relationships that could engender a functional social fabric. Few Muslims, and even fewer Hindus, have any meaningful engagements that cut across communal lines. Economic partnerships are rare, miscegenation almost unknown.

Even Hindu and Muslim children at Seelampurs schools, Sivaram and his co-authors record, all but never visited each others homes.

In Seelampur, we have a metaphor for a new kind of India: one where communal divisions are, quite literally, cast in steel and concrete, and political conflict mediated by the bomb. Blinded by religious hatred, though, India is unable to see the abyss ahead.
KAMPALA  Ugandas upstream oil industry is dead. Ok, let me admit this is a bit of an exaggeration. It is more appropriate to say it is in a coma and will be very difficult to resuscitate. This conclusion is paradoxical because Uganda has spent years painstakingly building the best and most patriotic institutional and oil policy infrastructure in Africa  and one that meets best international practice. How can an A student in institutional and policy design turn into an F student in turning such advantage into a viable business? This is a story of patriotism taken to the extreme.

I had been skeptical of Ugandas oil, predicting disaster. But this was largely because of my ideological convictions. I believe natural resource windfalls tend to corrupt governments, turning obvious revenue advantages into a curse. How? Governments need money to survive. Money is an important political resource because it allows governments to perform their basic function  the maintenance of law and order. But money also allows them to deliver public goods and services to their citizens, which buys them legitimacy. Finally, governments use revenues to rent political support (reward loyalists, buy off real and potential opponents) and in non-democracies to train and equip the army and police to coerce those who resist.

When governments rely on the entrepreneurial ingenuity of their citizens to raise money, they are driven by self-interest to govern in a more enlightened fashion. They forge productive relationships with those whose wealth they seek to tax. If they tax them heavily, such enterprising citizens can withhold their productive effort, causing the economy to decline and thereby reducing the revenues collectable. This reduces the ability of the government to serve the aforementioned functions that ensure its survival. If governments cannot provide better infrastructure for transport and electricity, economic (and hence revenue) growth are stifled.

Rich mineral resources turn this incentive structure on its head. Here, a government can sit on a hole in the earth, pump large quantities of Gods (or natures) bounty  oil or diamonds  and sell it abroad for a handsome profit. It doesnt have to negotiate with citizens about public policies and political institutions necessary to increase their productivity. Such governments lack the aforementioned enlightened self-interest; economists call them rentier states.

But President Yoweri Museveni personally and his government generally consistently proved me wrong. They made a decision that Uganda would not go the way other oil-producing countries in Africa had gone i.e. handed most of the benefits from oil to international oil companies (IOCs) and their local allies. So they negotiated long and hard. Internationally, the average revenue share between IOCs and governments in new oil-producing countries is 48:52 in favor of IOCs. In mature oil-producing countries, the average is 70:30 in favor of host governments. In Uganda (please hold your breath) it is 78:22 in favor of our government.

How did this happen? Museveni personally did three critical things, which were fundamental for Ugandas oil industry. First, he created and/or backed a highly competent team of top civil servants at the ministry of energy led by its former permanent secretary, Fred Kabagambe Kalisa, working with Earnest Rubondo, Reuben Kashambuzi, etc. With donor support, they helped train Ugandan oil industry experts of high caliber. Second, Museveni insulated this team from political pressure, allowing them to do technical work without fearing political wheeler-dealers that clutter his government. Finally and as a consequence of the first two, they developed a high degree of self-confidence, incorruptibility and patriotism unusual in our bureaucracy.

But these advantages were to become a major handicap when the country began moving from exploration and discovery to production. Here, the president and his team lacked the skills of a businessperson. They feared that IOCs were out to cheat Uganda, as has happened in other poor countries of the world. This became a chain around their negotiating heads. They saw in every effort by IOCs to limit state demands an effort to cheat the country. They approached negotiations with a zero-sum attitude i.e. every concession to IOCs is a loss to Uganda and every compromise is surrender to bullying by IOCs. So negotiations had to go Ugandas way or nothing would work. This destroyed the spirit of give and take that lies at the heart of business (or any) negotiations.

Museveni personally, and his government generally missed the most critical part of the strategy, especially in war, which our president understands best. The first principle of command in war (as in business) is selection and maintenance of the aim. What is the aim of Uganda? It is to produce and sell oil. We can add many things  high revenue share, tax policy that maximizes the governments take, etc. But production is the main aim without which everything else is impossible.

Yet Uganda bogged herself in endless negotiations over taxes, as if taxation was the main aim. Our real beef is in the revenue share in PSAs, where we already did excellently, not in Capital Gains Tax, or the transferability of past costs from a holder of a license to a buyer. So we focused on pennies and forgot the pounds. In this tactical pursuit of maximizing immediate tax returns, we have undermined the realization of the main aim  oil production. We also forgot the time value of money: that the cost of delay to produce oil exceeds the benefits sought from the taxes we sought. And new technologies combined with climate concerns may make fossil fuels obsolete.

These delays have had a devastating effect on the reputation of Uganda as a destination for investment in upstream oil. There is a global standard on the average time it takes from discovery to production of oil. For offshore it is four years, onshore, it is seven years. Uganda first discovered oil in 2005: 15 years later we are 7-10 years away from production. To many international investors, the message is clear: if you invest your money in Ugandas oil industry, it will take 20 years before you produce and begin earning. Only a masochist with an insatiable desire for losing money would seek such a country as a destination for her investment.

The taste of the pudding is in the eating. Uganda had a very high oil discovery rate. The global average is 17% of oil wells drilled have extractable oil; Ugandas is 88%. Yet when we auctioned oil exploration licenses last year, no one serious showed interest  not even Tullow, CNOOC and Total who are already here. Only three unknown companies, two from Nigeria, showed up. The message from the market is loud: Ugandas oil industry is not attractive for investment. Patriotism is great. But like everything else, too much of anything is always bad. Is someone listening?

=====================================

Andrew Mwenda is a Ugandan journalist and the founder of The Independent.

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In a matter of weeks, former vice-president Joe Biden lost his status as the front runner for the Democratic nomination. That title now belongs to Sen. Bernie Sanders  and could be written in stone after Tuesday's string of primaries across the United States.

But first, Saturday's South Carolina primary will give Biden one last chance to make himself a contender again.

The next few days will be decisive in the Democratic primaries. Only 2.5 per cent of the 3,979 pledged delegates that will head to the Democratic National Convention in July have been awarded so far.

The South Carolina primary will add 54 delegates to the total, but the big prize will come on Super Tuesday, when 14 states and American Samoa vote. After the results are in, nearly 38 per cent of delegates will have been allocated.

Up to now, the three votes that have been held in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada have been more important for setting the narrative for the campaign than for their contributions to the delegate count.

Biden's poor performances in the first two states knocked him from the top of the polls. A tie in Iowa, a close win in New Hampshire and a big victory in Nevada resulted in a Sanders surge.

In polls conducted at least partly after the Nevada caucuses, Sanders is averaging 29 per cent support nationwide. That puts him well ahead of Biden, who trails with an average of 18 per cent support among Democratic primary voters.

Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, who has yet to contest a state in the race, trails in third with 16 per cent, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg at 11 per cent each.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, billionaire Tom Steyer and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard follow with between two and four per cent apiece.

Sanders' momentum appears to have continued post-Nevada. He's picked up an average of three points since polls conducted before the state's caucuses. Biden, however, appears to have halted his decline; though he has dropped significantly from where he stood in January before the first ballots were cast, he has held steady in the polls over the last week or so. Instead, Warren and Klobuchar have dropped slightly.

Story continues

But while he holds a sizeable national lead over Biden, Sanders is not yet in a dominant position. That leaves the door open to a contested convention in July if Sanders fails to secure a majority of delegates by then. What happens in South Carolina could have a bearing on that.

Biden's turn for a big win in South Carolina

With his strong support among African American voters, Biden was always counting on South Carolina to give him a boost. What he wasn't counting on was a fourth-place finish in Iowa and an embarrassing fifth-place showing in New Hampshire. That made his second-place result in Nevada look good by comparison, even though Sanders had more than twice as much support as him.

He desperately needs a win in South Carolina. The polls suggest he's likely to get one.

Surveys conducted in the last week give Biden a big lead, with 35 per cent support on average to just 19 per cent for Sanders. Trailing in third with 14 per cent support is Steyer, who has spent millions of dollars of his own money on campaign ads in the state (he did the same in Nevada, though that didn't help him crack double-digits in support).

Gerald Herbert / Associated Press

No other candidate is averaging over nine per cent support in South Carolina. As the rules of the Democratic primaries only award delegates to candidates who achieve at least 15 per cent support statewide (or in congressional districts), that might mean only Biden, Sanders and potentially Steyer could come out of South Carolina with any new pledged delegates.

Biden does seem to have turned around his campaign in the state. Polls conducted before the Nevada caucuses but after Iowa voted had put Biden and Sanders in a close race, with only four percentage points separating the two. Now, the gap is 16 points.

This is in large part due to Biden's support among African American voters, who make up about 60 per cent of the Democratic primary electorate in South Carolina. An average of three recent polls with demographic breakdowns gave Biden 43 per cent support among those voters, more than double Sanders' 19 per cent.

A big win could certainly give Biden's national poll numbers a jolt  results in the three states that have voted have had an obvious and significant impact on the polls. But only three days separate South Carolina's primary from Super Tuesday. Is that enough time for Biden to turn his campaign's negative trajectory on its head?

Sanders poised to rack up delegates on Super Tuesday

The latest polls suggest that Sanders, not Biden, is likely to do quite well next week. Among states with polling available, Sanders is leading or is in contention in eight of them, compared to just four for Biden, three for Bloomberg and one apiece for Warren and Klobuchar.

While Sanders is leading in small states like Vermont and Maine that are in his own backyard, he also has a sizeable lead in California  the biggest prize, with 415 delegates  and is ahead in Virginia and Colorado. He appears to be in a close race with Biden in Texas and with Warren in her home state of Massachusetts, while the latest numbers suggest he is in a three-cornered contest with Biden and Bloomberg in North Carolina.

Matt Rourke / Associated Press

Sanders is likely to secure delegates in every state. No other candidate can claim the same thing. Both Biden and Bloomberg might do well in the South. Klobuchar might win her home state of Minnesota and Buttigieg might be able to win delegates in a handful of states.

But without a big shift in the next few days, it will be difficult for any candidate to catch Sanders. In Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, Sanders averaged just 28 per cent of the popular vote but 45 per cent of the delegates. That is still not a majority, but if he keeps that rate of success up for the rest of the primaries, it will be difficult to deny him the nomination at the convention, even if he doesn't have a majority.

And, as primaries have often shown, voters like backing a winner. So far, that's what Sanders looks like. On Saturday, Biden finally gets his shot to be one  for now.
Weekly briefing: Supreme Court to hear faith-based adoption case, Lent, court lets YouTube censor

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We've compiled the top stories of the week. Here's what you need to know:

Supreme Court to hear case on faith-based adoption agencies and same-sex couples

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that could have huge implications on the rights of Christian and other faith-based adoption and foster care agencies to turn away LGBT couples on grounds of religious beliefs.

Catholic foster care parents sued the city of Philadelphia for no longer referring foster children to Catholic Social Services because the agency does not place children with same-sex couples.

Over the last few years, agencies have been closing their doors across the country, and all the while children are pouring into the system. We are confident that the Court will realize that the best solution is the one that has worked in Philadelphia for a century  all hands on deck for foster kids.  Lori Windham, a senior counsel at Becket

Christians mark the start of Lent

Christians kicked off Lent with Ash Wednesday as ashes and prayers were offered to drivers and believers on the go.

With Lent marking the 40-day period before Easter, some Christians have chosen to devote to daily Scripture reading or fasting.

The 40-day season of Lent is a time to reflect, repent, and pray as a way of preparing our hearts for Easter. Lent is an opportunity to get out of routine, re-center ourselves on God, and pursue the ways of Jesus.  National Community Church

YouTube can censor conservative content, court rules

YouTube can censor conservative content, as it is not compelled by the First Amendment to allow all viewpoints, a three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has unanimously ruled.

The court ruled against PragerU, noting that YouTube is a private forum. PragerU had filed a lawsuit against the video sharing platform, accusing it of ideologically-driven discrimination after some of its content  including videos on the 10 Commandments  was blocked or restricted for mature audiences.

Coronavirus will spread in US, CDC official warns

A CDC official warned that the coronavirus, which has claimed the lives of over 2,400 people worldwide, will inevitably spread in the U.S. and urged the country to prepare.

The disruption to everyday life might be severe. We are asking the American public to work with us to prepare, in the expectation that this could be bad.  Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases

So far in the U.S., there are 15 confirmed cases. Worldwide, the number of cases has risen past 80,000.

The Conservative Political Action Conference kicked off this week. Heres CPs coverage so far:

Conservative women share personal experiences in countries with socialist policies

Mike Pence welcomes pro-life Democrats to GOP

Pray for:

Christians and others being persecuted in Nigeria, where terrorists aim to ethnically cleanse northern Nigeria of its Christians

Sex trafficking victims and those exploited on Pornhub

New releases

Film:

Burden (Feb. 28 limited release)

Albums:

Behold Him by Paul Baloche (Feb. 28)

Lost in Wonder by Elle Limebear (Feb. 28)

Books:

With All Your Heart: Orienting Your Mind, Desires, and Will toward Christ by A. Craig Troxel (Feb. 4)

Live: remain alive, be alive at a specified time, have an exciting or fulfilling life by Sadie Robertson (Feb. 25)
Stan has today given us a first peek at season two of Bloom, which is coming soon.

Returning cast for the 6 part series include Jacki Weaver, Bryan Brown, Phoebe Tonkin, Genevieve Morris, John Stanton, Terry Norris and Anne Charleston.

Joining the cast are Jacqueline McKenzie (Romper Stomper), Gary Sweet (House Husbands), Bella Heathcote (Strange Angel), Toby Schmitz (Black Sails), Jackson Heywood (Home and Away) and Ed Oxenbould (Puberty Blues).

In the first season of Bloom, the residents of a small, country town, Mullan, were left reeling after an inexplicable fountain of youth appeared in the wake of a devastating flood. A mysterious plant with luminous berries offered a second chance to return to your prime, which proved miraculous for some, while others were corrupted and fought to possess it.

In season two, time has passed, and news of the miracle has spread, but this time around the plant itself has transformed and the experience and its side effects are far more severe. With the towns secret having leaked, Anne Carter (Jacqueline McKenzie)  the former CEO of a biotech company  arrives in Mullan with her young daughter and her friends teenage son, Luke (Ed Oxenbould), for a tree-change. But its only her cover story. John Melvin (Toby Schmitz), the troubled new priest is trying hard to rally faith and is desperate for a miracle from God. While beloved former actress, Gwen Reed (Jacki Weaver/Phoebe Tonkin), has cheated death once again, but at what cost? As news of a second generation plant emerges, a battle between nature, science and faith erupts.

The first-look teaser reveals the return of Gwendolyn Reed, and also features the ARIA award-winning artist Tones & I with her cover of the hit Forever Young.

Stan Original Series Bloom is created by Glen Dolman and produced by Sue Seeary. The drama was shot by Geoffrey Hall with Greg McLean (Stan Original Series Wolf Creek) and Sian Davies (Stan Original Series The Gloaming) both directing the series.

Stan Original Series Bloom is produced by Sony Pictures Televisions powerhouse production company Playmaker for Stan. Major production investment from Stan in association with Screen Australia. Financed with support from Film Victoria.
MOU will enable continued collaboration, research and knowledge sharing as support for SMR grows across Canada

CHALK RIVER, Ontario, Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), Canadas premier nuclear science and technology organization, and New Brunswick Power (NB Power) are pleased to announce that they have finalized a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) - a partnership agreement that formalizes the already strong working relationship between the two organizations. The MOU establishes plans to pursue collaboration opportunities in nuclear research, including the development of small modular reactor (SMR) technology in New Brunswick.



This agreement formally connects CNL with the growing research cluster of utilities, universities and academic research, and SMR vendors within New Brunswick, explained Mark Lesinski, CNL President and CEO. Momentum behind SMR technology continues to build all across this country, and collaborative agreements such as this enable us to share knowledge, facilities and other resources as we work together to move this technology towards deployment.

The MOU outlines a number of specific areas of interest with a focus on demonstrating and improving the technical performance, safety and efficiency of sodium-cooled fast reactors and molten salt reactor technologies, two technologies currently being proposed for siting at NB Powers Point Lepreau campus. Together, the two organizations will examine areas that are of shared interest across the SMR industry, including reactor siting and licensing, advanced fuel development and qualification, and materials performance and corrosion.

CNL offers a licensed nuclear campus and nuclear research facilities that are unique in Canada. This collaborative arrangements opens possibilities for researchers and engineers within the growing New Brunswick nuclear cluster to access CNLs specialized facilities and capabilities, particularly in support of fuel irradiation and handling of active material. In turn, CNL will benefit from knowledge sharing and academic programs in place within New Brunswick, as well as the multi-disciplinary work delivered at the Centre for Nuclear Energy Research at the University of New Brunswick. The MOU also outlines plans for the exchange of scientific and technical staff, consultancy services, and sharing of knowledge.

Story continues

NB Power and CNL have a long history of working together, adds Brett Plummer, Vice-President Nuclear and Chief Nuclear Officer with NB Power. This MOU reinforces this long standing relationship and highlights the type of collaboration needed to bring new advanced reactor technology to the market. We are excited to have CNL as part of the New Brunswicks SMR Research and Development cluster.

Both CNL and NB Power are actively working towards the deployment of SMRs. As a low-carbon energy source, SMRs are increasingly viewed as an ideal technology to help reduce the reliance on fossil fuels such as oil and gas-fired generation, and their greater efficiency and flexibility of operations enable SMRs to complement renewables on an integrated grid or even support local area heating or industrial processes.

For more information on CNL, including its work to support the deployment of small modular reactors in Canada, please visit www.cnl.ca/SMR .

About CNL

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is a world leader in nuclear science and technology offering unique capabilities and solutions across a wide range of industries. Actively involved with industry-driven research and development in nuclear, transportation, clean technology, energy, defence, security and life sciences, we provide solutions to keep these sectors competitive internationally.

With ongoing investments in new facilities and a focused mandate, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is well positioned for the future. A new performance standard reinforced with a strong safety culture underscores every activity.

For more information on the complete range of services Canadian Nuclear Laboratories please visit www.cnl.ca or contact communications@cnl.ca .

Contact:

Patrick Quinn

Director, Corporate Communications, CNL

1-866-886-2325

communications@cnl.ca
JAMAICA:--- The Ministry of Health and Wellness wishes to advise that based on the risk assessment and the World Health Organization Situation Report 37 on the COVID-19, dated February 26, 2020, additional countries will be incorporated into the travel restrictions.

This is having regard to the fact that the majority of cases in those countries have been due to in-country transmission.

The countries to be added for travel restrictions are as follows:

Italy (322 cases, 11 deaths);

South Korea/Republic of Korea (1,261 cases, 12 deaths);

Singapore (91 cases, no deaths); and

Iran (95 cases; 15 deaths).

Of note is that we are reviewing the situation in Japan, where there are 164 cases and 1 death; and will advise whether that country is to be included in the list of restricted countries.

Therefore:

a) all Jamaicans who have visited Italy, South Korea, Iran, and Singapore in the last 14 days will have landing privileges in accordance with the law but will be subject to a health assessment and quarantine;

b) persons who have visited Italy, South Korea, Iran and Singapore in the last 14 days and who do not have permanent residency or marriage exemption in Jamaica will not be granted landing privileges at any of the countrys ports of entry;

c) non-Jamaicans who have permanent residence and marriage exemptions who are landed and who had visited Italy, South Korea, Iran, and Singapore in the last 14 days will be subject to a health assessment and quarantine;

d) persons who have visited Italy, South Korea, Iran and Singapore and have been granted landing privileges and classified by the Ministry of Health and Wellness as high risk will be quarantined in Government facilities; and those who are assessed by the Ministry of Health and Wellness as low-risk will be quarantined at home under the supervision of the Parish Health Department; and

e) individuals returning from Italy, South Korea, Iran and Singapore who have been granted landing privileges and who display any symptom of COVID-19, as per the case definition published by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization, will be placed in immediate isolation at a health facility.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness will continue to assess the situation in light of the spread and will make recommendations for adjustments based on the risk assessment.

SEAPORT READINESS

There is a well-established system in place for the protection of our sea ports and it has been since the enactment of the Quarantine Act of 1951. This was in evidence on Tuesday, Feb 25 in St. Ann.

As previously reported, a cruise line with more than 4,500 passengers and more than 1,600 crew members was denied access to the port of call in Ocho Rios, St. Ann.

The vessel arrived at approximately 8:30 a.m. and, upon inspection by Port Health Officials, it was discovered that a crew member had been put in isolation on board. The crew member had a cough, fever and associated muscle pains, together with a travel history to a country of interest relating to COVID-19.

QUARANTINE & ISOLATION UPDATE

As at Feb 26, 141 persons arrived in Jamaica who had been in China 14 days prior to arrival here.

There are now 5 persons in quarantine in Government facilities.

There are now 5 persons in home quarantine.

There are now 2 persons in isolation and for whom we are awaiting test results.

We have now designated 4 number of quarantine facilities in anticipation of new arrivals.

NATONAL COORDINATING COMMITTEE

As previously announced, Cabinet had instructed that a National Coordinating Committee be put in place.

That committee, co-chaired by the Prime Minister and Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie, is comprised of a wide cross section of stakeholders, including members of industry, the public sector and civil society.

The committee will host its first meeting early next week and will examine all of the preparedness functions of the entire Government apparatus.

As we continue to refine our preparedness for COVID-19, the Ministry and our stakeholders urge the public for its continued cooperation and partnership.
U.S. President Donald Trump says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is being sent to oversee the signing of deal with the Taliban aimed at reducing number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The agreement is due to be signed in Doha on February 29.

Trump in a statement on February 28 also called on the Taliban and the Afghan government to "seize this opportunity for peace," and said that if they fulfill their commitments, "We will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home."

The Taliban has so far refused to talk directly with the Kabul government, calling it a puppet of foreign powers.

The anticipated signing of the deal would come after a week in which both U.S.-led forces and the Taliban committed to a "reduction in violence." Under the plan being signed, the United States is to reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan to 8,600 from about 13,000.

Based on reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters
London, UK -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/28/2020 -- Fortel is a well-established construction aid company based in the United Kingdom. It specializes in supplying well experienced and professional human resources for construction companies. The services provided by Fortel, cut across Road & Motorways, Rail, Retail, Defence, Commercial Power, Utilities, Hotel & Leisure, and other construction sectors.



Fortel, through her team of professional and well-skilled labours, has worked with many notable organizations and construction companies in the United Kingdom, including McLaren Construction, Balfour Beatty, Birse, Osborne, MOOG Aircraft Group and many more.



Surinder Nijjer, established Fortel in 1998, prior to which, he served as a worker for nearly twenty years in the development business sector.



Sat Nijjer is owner of Fortel and joined this family owned business in the year 2005 as an operations director. At that time, he was just completed his BA in information technology and was pursuing his career in investment banking with a United States organization names as Bear Stearns. However, in 2012 he became a Chief executive and a member from second generation of the family to lead the business. He involved in the economic department of the organization.



Fortel is committed to preserving the trust of her clients, workers, shareholders, and other third parties. The company takes pride in her reputation for delivering outstanding quality construction workforce, building good relationships and communication with her clients, and being open, honest, and transparent in her dealings.



Fortel believes that every project is an opportunity to develop a long-term relationship with her clients, by continually delivering the highest quality service, combined with highly-skilled team members with proven methodology and technology. They render excellent and satisfactory services beyond her customers' expectations.



Fortel offers a wide range of services pertaining to construction through the manual skill of our employed labours. Fortel builds the very foundation from the first brick and collaborate closely with the engineers and other workers to make the project worth investing in. Fortel also contacts with dealers who sell the construction material and can supply it as per the demand of your project.



Safety is also an essential lifeline of the company. According to the Chairman of the company, "safety is paramount to our company. We take every positive and proactive step in ensuring a safe work environment for our employees, clients, and partners. We believe that a focus on Safety contributes to overall quality. Our workers work toward producing the highest quality work, both in the field and within our offices."



Fortel manages its labourers by providing them with high-end training and experience before referring them to you. It is ensured that they uphold the values of Fortel and do not disappoint you in any regard.



Fortel also takes her workers' productivity and loyalty with significant regards. Relations within and outside of the company are based on trust and loyalty. Her dedication reflects in her commitment to saving clients' money through cost-effective solutions and value-added services at a reasonable price. Fortel is relentless in upholding her standard and not compromise in delivering quality services.



About Fortel

Fortel is a legal compliance and accredited construction Aid Company that supply construction companies with well-trained and professional workers. It is one UK's largest labour supplier agency to the construction industry, rendering high volumes and a swift response across the whole spectrum of labour, trades and professions. Her workers are passionate about quality service and client satisfaction. They provide a professional and genuine commitment to quality on every project, no matter the size, market, or delivery method.



Over the course of 20-year establishment, they've developed three distinct operating models:



People - individuals and teams to work under your supervision.

Projects - delivering specific contracts for a pre-agreed price.

Process outsourcing - ongoing support for your labour requirements.



Fortel always strives to make the customers 100% satisfied and assure that they always get what they need. Here are some of the reasons why you should be working with Fortel.



-Assured delivery

-Technology

-Productivity

-Value

-Legal compliance

-Safety



Hard work, determination and passion of an overall team of Fortel is leading it to a more successful and brighter future. This is one of its own kind companies which is always ready to serve every type and level of the project in an effective way.



For more information or enquiry, visit www.fortel.co.uk or send a direct mail to enquiries@fortel.co.uk.



Media Contact

https://fortel.co.uk/
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Can social media be saved? Can democracy be saved?

The first question may seem less compelling than the second, but to some very worried observers, they are intimately entwined.

Social networking  on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a host of other online networks  is the root of all current cultural evils, in the eyes of some critics. However, campaigns to persuade users to withdraw from it have gained little traction.

Undeniably, social networks offer positive experiences that are hard to give up. They connect people instantly. They disseminate photos of newborn babies, delicious recipes and miraculously standing brooms. They let us know when celebrities  or old acquaintances  have passed on. They help raise money for good causes. They educate. They provide a forum for discussions that are penetrating and sincere. For some, they are an antidote for loneliness.

They also vacuum up users personal data and share it with marketers to support alarmingly targeted advertising campaigns. They provide convenient tools for bullies to harass their victims. They offer a platform for hate speech and terrorist recruitment. They distort the truth. They spread and amplify fake news and other lies. They sow distrust and enmity among family members and friends. They chip at the very foundation of long-treasured institutions. Some see them as an existential threat.

As part of a comprehensive virtual discussion on the state of technology in 2020, we put two central questions to ECTs panel of industry insiders in an effort to tease apart some of these tangled issues. We asked them to identify the biggest problems with social media and to propose some potential solutions.

We also asked how concerned they were about the spread of disinformation online, particularly with respect to elections, and for their insights on how that issue should be addressed.

Our roundtable participants were Laura DiDio, principal at ITIC; Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group; Ed Moyle, partner at SecurityCurve; Denis Pombriant, managing principal at the Beagle Research Group; and Jonathan Terrasi, a tech journalist who focuses on computer security, encryption, open source, politics and current affairs.

Social Media Ills in a Nutshell

The trouble with social media platforms, according to our panelists, is that they make it so easy for people to behave badly. Also, people are too careless with their information. Its too easy for an impulsive moment to go viral.

Theres a lack of foresight when it comes to managing these vast personal data respositories. Social networks have all but destroyed privacy.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Social networking is addictive.

Platforms are biased. Standards are not applied fairly.

Theyre businesses that want to profit, above all else.

Some solutions? Break them up. Require licensing. Deploy artificial intelligence monitors. Regulate.

The Social Blob

Users are both the victims and the villains on social media, suggested Rob Enderle, who noted the tendency for people to post without thinking.

In general, many people think they can hide behind the anonymity of their keyboards and use social media as a weapon to bully other people, with little thought for the consequences of what they type, said Laura DiDio.

Many people also overshare and provide too much information about themselves and their personal life. This too, can have unintended and often tragic consequences, she added.

The social media business model is exploitative, remarked Jonathan Terrasi, in the sense that consumers only nominally consent to it, very seldom providing truly informed consent.

Privacy is the biggest issue, said Ed Moyle.

One macabre factor is that users social media accounts often outlive them, noted DiDio.

I still get notifications for birthdays, anniversaries, etc., for deceased friends and coworkers, she remarked.

The challenge of fixing social media may seem insurmountable, but there is no shortage of potential solutions on offer, ranging from creative ways to modify personal behavior to business self-regulation to accepting the need for governmental intervention.

The most obvious solution is to practice discretion, but Im not sure how realistic that is for many people, said DiDio. Ive seen some people say theyre taking a break from Facebook or Twitter or Instagram in the morning only to be back posting a few hours later! To paraphrase Karl Marx: Social media is the opiate of the people.

AI to the Rescue?

Instead of persuading people to stop using social media platforms, why not provide tools that can help them engage more wisely?

Perhaps artificial intelligence systems could be of use in this regard, Enderle suggested.

Imagine that youre firing off an angry reply to your brother-in-laws snarky political jibe and, as you type, a little thought balloon pops up and asks you if you really want to post that comment. Perhaps the AI even suggests language that makes your point in a less confrontational way.

Speaking Freely

To me, the most significant issue with social media is uniform and transparent applications of a platforms community standards,' said Terrasi.

At this point, people seem to have not just conceded that social media puts limits on online speech, but have actually welcomed certain forms of what is, at the end of the day, censorship, he pointed out.

Whether its removing Islamic State (ISIS) content at the behest of the Obama administration, or social media cracking down on disinformation in the face of vociferous pressure from their users, policing certain kinds of speech on social media is a practice that users truly want, Terrasi maintained.

However, what were finding, both historically and presently, is that social media companies do not enforce their standards uniformly, and a lot of users  activists especially  feel that they are being dealt with more harshly than other users who have committed more grave infractions, he said.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Its gotten to the point where different political factions believe that a given social media platform is secretly carrying water for their opponents, which at the very least creates a toxic atmosphere for discourse, Terrasi observed.

About 100 years ago, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote the defining standard for free speech, said Denis Pombriant.

It had something to do with issuing propaganda during wartime. Holmes said that the speech much present a clear and present danger to society for society to take action against it. Thats where we get the idea that free speech or not, you cant yell fire in a crowded theater. It makes sense, he continued.

Using that standard, there are many things happening on social media today that violate the standard set by Holmes. Rather than regulating speech per se, which is a never-ending pit to fall into, if we applied simple structures that have worked well for centuries already, we could reduce the problem to a minimum without trampling anyones rights, Pombriant suggested.

The Self-Policing Approach

One of the underlying problems with social media is the internal corruption of the platforms that is attributable to runaway greed, suggested Pombriant.

The CEOs represent a new gilded age, he remarked.

Social media has a business model problem that will be solved when they are broken up into platforms and apps, Pombriant suggested.

Further, like other professional organizations that police themselves, social media platforms should be subjected to certification and licensing for professional participation, he argued.

This works well for all kinds of occupations, from doctors and lawyers to electricians and barbers. You can cut your own hair, you can wire a socket in your own home, you can treat your own cold without professional intervention  but if you want to do any of those things for others you need a license, Pombriant noted.

Social media for personal use should not require any form of licensing, but when organizations use it to influence the public it is reasonable to require them to have demonstrated competency up to and including identifying who they are unambiguously, he said.

How many social media ills could be solved right now with just minimal transparency? Not having that transparency is the core of a clear and present danger, maintained Pombriant.

I see what youre saying, Denis, and it seems very elegant on paper, but I dont see that working in practice  at least in the realm of political speech, which produced the consternation that precipitated the present vigorous public discourse on online speech, Terrasi responded.

If corporate or governmental political actors identified themselves as such, then we could by all means require licensing on their part, he agreed.

The reality, though, is that nothing will compel these actors to do any such thing. If, for instance, a private sector entity with fringe political agendas wants to incept its narrative, they will just get people to create accounts and generate content under the pretense that they are individuals sharing their sincerely held personal beliefs, Terrasi said.

There is literally no way to police this practice, short of shaking down every user of every account and investigating the possibility that they represent some entity other than themselves, he pointed out.

Not only would these rogue political actors do this, but they have in fact done this: Russia sowed discord in the American public discourse in 2016 by fabricating fake personas of individuals with supposedly personally held beliefs, and these messages resonated with American voters enough that they were amplified, Terrasi added. I dont see a realistic way to out every account that serves the interests of a larger entity, with or without licensing requirements.

The Big Guns

Manipulation at a national scale requires intelligent regulation, according to Enderle.

That said, I fear intelligent regulation is an oxymoron, he added.

It seems to me that the only long-term viable solution is regulation, Moyle agreed.

Social media needs to make money to operate, and companies will derive revenue in whatever way theyre allowed, so the business model wont change until substantive government regulation gives them an ultimatum, Terrasi chimed in.

I believe that eventually the liabilities surrounding social media will eliminate or nationalize most of it, Enderle predicted. It is becoming one of the most useful tools to coordinate a variety of attacks and, traditionally, governments will prioritize eliminating risks like that.

Doomed by Disinformation?

In this weeks informal ECT News poll, we asked readers how concerned they were about online disinformation during the U.S. presidential election cycle. Although were still polling and the final results arent yet in, a whopping 58 percent of respondents so far said they were very concerned, and 15 percent were somewhat concerned. In contrast, 27 percent of those polled were not at all concerned.

There was no waffling among our roundtable panelists. Theyre very worried.

Disinformation is everywhere. It is a potent weapon and made all the more so because many people simply do not recognize it as such, said DiDio.

Too often the news media is guilty of promoting opinion instead of fact and in trying to be first instead of right, she pointed out. Early on in my career as a reporter, Ted Kavanau who was the news director at WNEW-TV in New York, had a sign posted as you entered the newsroom: There are two sides to every story. How many sides did you get?'

There are many forces seeding the mushrooming disinformation cloud, Enderle suggested.

The proliferation of disinformation increasingly tied to foreign governments and fringe groups is greatly concerning as is the increased use of false statements of fact from political figures and national news organizations, he said.

This appears to be tearing much of the West apart. Yet fixes could destroy free speech. These unfortunate trends could eventually destroy much of the democratic governments that exist and at the heart of the efforts are our own social networks. I fear the repercussions will be far more dire than we currently realize, Enderle added.

The problem is larger than elections IMHO, agreed Moyle.

The election problem is especially vexing because it involves foreign nations and such interference can be construed as an act of war, noted Pombriant.

We need to come together globally to agree on standards for what is OK and what is out of bounds.  It probably involves a cyberwar treaty or addendum to the Geneva Conventions, he suggested.

So Andrey Krutskikh, a senior Kremlin advisor, bragged about the Russian disinformation capability in 2016, Moyle pointed out.

They will absolutely do this again. They have to in order to achieve the objective they wanted, as a negotiation instrument with the U.S., he continued.

So get ready for that. More disinformation incoming for sure, Moyle said.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

While there is probably no way to know definitively one way or the other, elections prior to the 2016 U.S. federal election were not perceived, or forensically proven, to have been compromised by disinformation on social media  disinformation being intentional inaccuracy while misinformation is unintentional  despite the fact that social media has been a factor in campaigning for at least the previous two federal elections, Terrasi pointed out.

So the question we have to pose to ourselves is, did social media platforms actually become a more fertile ground for disinformation since 2012, or did the agent provocateurs and partisan political operatives simply get more adept in abusing social media to proliferate disinformation? he wondered.

It takes time for any actor to become versed in a new medium, and it could be that political actors are just acclimating to social media just as it took a while for them to fully leverage television, Terrasi suggested.

Political speech is one of the rare forms of First Amendment speech that is truly unlimited, so the government cant really regulate what is said. Concurrently, social media has no incentive to ban all political speech from their platforms  even if they ban paid political ads, as some platforms have to date, he added.

Bearing all of that in mind, the only viable remedy for the manipulation of information intended for the political forum is tighter regulation on political spending, which is not something the federal government has pursued very far lately. Any change on this front will have to come from a bipartisan groundswell of popular support, Terrasi maintained.

What to Do?

As grave as the problem may be, there are ways to combat the tsunami of disinformation, our panelists maintained.

The problem, and it is serious, can be solved through certification of users, breaking up the vendors, and demanding transparency, insisted Pombriant.

This is an ideal use of a behavioral AI looking for data trends and red flagging them for mitigation, or automatically mitigating with a defined escalation path to remediate any mistakes, suggested Enderle.

The best solution could be a more basic one, however. To reduce the effectiveness of disinformation campaigns, we need an increase in critical thinking skills across the board, said Moyle.

Many people arent trained well in critical thinking skills. They literally are unable to tell a biased or untrustworthy source from a reliable one, he pointed out.

Fixing this requires building up those skills  which is challenging to do. Long term, this issue will resolve itself. Young people now learn to tell the difference between news and spurious crap early as a survival skill, Moyle noted.

We likely should aggressively teach both confirmation bias and argumentative theory at a young age so our race learns to self-mitigate. We have found the problem and it truly is us, Enderle added.

The only sure defense is equipping everyone to serve as their own best advocate and critically evaluate all the information presented to them  and the motives behind its presentation. It is an arduous, unglamorous task, but it is the only one that promises a durable solution, said Terrasi.

Everyone needs to check and vet their sources of information and not simply jump to conclusions and retweet or share so-called facts before they are certain that it is factual and correct information, urged DiDio.

Think for yourself and question everything! Thats a good start, she said.

In the digital age, information and disinformation is literally no further than our fingertips. Unfortunately, many people tend to consume information with less thought then they would give to what flavor they want in their morning beverage, DiDio remarked.

We as individuals and collectively as organizations  news, vendors etc.  have to demand critical thinking and apply standards and regulations for noncompliance, she maintained.

Once disinformation hits the Internet, its very difficult to take down, DiDio observed.

So there must be consequences. Current laws have many loopholes, and we as a society must work to close those loopholes  and we must also enact new legislation that keeps pace with and adequately delivers punishment that fits the crime, she argued.

The Institutions That Sustain Us

One possible approach to stopping the madness could be to shore up the institutions that have served our society well when other crises have threatened the social fabric.

The threat posed by disinformation is certainly dire, but I think it is early to sound the death knell for liberal democracies, Terrasi said.

I think some of this pessimism owes to the admittedly difficult nature of education-based campaigns, because all it takes is a large enough segment of uneducated or easily misled voters to swing an election  another case of the chain being only as strong as the weakest link, he pointed out.

I think that this effort can be bolstered by restoring integrity and vigor in our civil institutions, Terrasi suggested.

I know that that is a somewhat unpopular opinion at the moment, but institutions have historically been arbiters of contentious but complex subjects that make their outcomes felt on society at large, he continued.

I dont think having expert bodies weighing in on complicated issues is a bad thing, Terrasi added.

What I will grant is that many institutions have been co-opted by narrow powerful interests, and that has to be addressed. I can accept if we need to clean house in some institutions, but I still think we need functioning ones to anchor public discourse in facts, he emphasized. It requires a compromise in which institutions admit their failings, and the public admits that ordinary people usually dont have better answers to the intricacies of policy making than experts do.
Coronavirus requires a similar demonstration of good public policy. Trump did a smart thing Wednesday night by inviting medical experts to share the stage at his briefing on coronavirus, including Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They issued clear, measured warnings and practical advice  what the public needs right now. (Unfortunately, according to the New York Times, Fauci has been told by the White House not to comment publicly without approval.)
The attitude is they are going to do whatever they want to do, and theres nothing those of us out here can do to stop them, Schwarzmann said. But were not giving up. Were not just going to take this lying down."
The central government is working on strengthening the steel ecosystem in Odisha whose steel production is set to cross 100 million tonnes per annum by 2030, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said.

"Today Odisha is the highest steel producing state in the country. We are working to strengthen the steel ecosystem in Odisha. By 2030, Odisha's steel production alone is set to cross 100 MTPA. Odisha is going to be the nerve centre of Mission Purvodaya in steel," Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was quoted as saying in a statement.

Kalinganagar, he said, will be the hub of the clusterisation programme involving entire eastern India.

"Moving beyond just producing primary steel, we will create an ecosystem of ancilliary, value added products, capital goods with industry participation," he added.

The minister was speaking during a workshop in Bhubaneswar, the steel ministry said.

Pradhan said that with Japan as the partner country, the government was looking forward to make Odisha, the nerve centre of Purvodaya in steel sector.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a clarion call for Mission Purvodaya, that is Eastern India driving the national growth and propelling India towards becoming a USD 5 trillion economy.

"We are organising series of workshops to deliberate on how to increase steel usage in India. We have rightly chosen Japan as our partner country who will guide us for making Indian steel ecosystem bigger both in qualitative and quantitative terms," the minister said.

"Today, $5 billion infrastructure spending is being done only in Odisha in developing railways, roads, airports, pipelines, bridges etc. We have achieved 100 per cent electrification in Odisha. Eight crore new LPG connections have been given to the poorest of the poor. We have an ambitious plan to build next generation infra and boost economic growth," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The strike followed in response to the recent attack that killed dozens of Turkish soldiers

Turkish military landed a retaliatory strike on the emplacements of Bashaar al-Assad's forces in Idlib, Syria. It came as the act of revenge for the deaths of more than 30 Turkish troops in that province. Fahrettin Altun, the Head of Department for Public Relations of Turkish President said so as quoted by Anadolu.

"The famous targets of [Assad's] regime are hit, and they will be attacked on and on, on the ground and from the air", Altun said.

He called on the parties of the Astana process to live up to commitments that the entire international society took upon itself, so as to stop the atrocities of the Syrian regime.

The U.S. demanded that Syrian government and the Russian Federation that acts as its ally stop their obnoxious operation in Idlib, Arab News reported.

"We stand by our NATO ally Turkey and continue to call for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces", a representative of the U.S. Department of the State said.

Washington considers options on how to support Turkey in this crisis in the best possible way.
By IANS

NEW DELHI: In wake of reports that Pulwama attack accused Yousuf Chopan was granted bail as the NIA failed to file a charge sheet within the prescribed period, the anti-terror agency on Thursday clarified that he was not arrested in that case.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), in a statement, said that Chopan was "never arrested in Pulwama attack case. However, he, along with six others, was arrested in a Jaish-e-Mohammed conspiracy case registered in August last year".

In that case, the anti-terror agency said that two charge sheets were filed against eight people, namely Sajad Ahmad Khan, Tanveer Ahmed Ganie, Bilal Ahmad Mir, Muzaffar Ahmad Bhat, Ishfaq Ahmad Bhat, Mehraj-ud-din Chopan, Mudassir Ahmad Khan, Karti Mufti Yaseer. These included two terrorists -- Mudassir and Yaseer, who were killed in a shoot-out with security forces.

During investigation, the NIA had arrested seven Over Ground Workers (OGWs), out of which six accused were charge sheeted in two charge sheet and Chopan was not charge sheeted due to "inadequate evidence", it said.

"As such he has been granted default bail by Special NIA court, New Delhi on February 18, 2020," the NIA said, adding that he has been sent back to Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu under Public Safety Act by the order of District Magistrate, Pulwama.

The NIA said it "follows the policy of fairest possible investigation" and also that "significant leads have emerged in Pulwama attack case and a breakthrough in the case is expected shortly".

The NIA's clarification came hours after the Congress slammed the agency for its "lacklustre" approach to the case and said it was an insult to the Pulwama martyrs.

Hitting out at the NIA, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel said: "Shocked to know that the Pulwama accused got bail because the NIA is so busy that it failed to file the charge sheet. It's an insult to the martyrs. Clearly, the government used this tragic attack for political purposes and was never serious about justice."

Forty CRPF personnel, travelling in a convoy on the Jammu-Srinagar highway, were killed on February 14 last year when a suicide bomber rammed a car loaded with explosives into their bus in Awantipora in Pulwama district. Following the attack, banned terror outfit JeM claimed responsibility and even released a video of the purported attacker.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said the Balakot airstrikes had sent out a clear message that infrastructure across the border could not be used as safe havens for terrorists. Days after the Pulwama terror attack that shook the nation, India on February 26, 2019, pounded Jaish-e-Mohammed's biggest training camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province at Balakot in Pakistan by carrying out coordinated airstrikes.

Speaking at the Centre for Air Power Studies in Delhi, the Defence Minister stated that the Balakot airstrike is the reflection of India's clear vision against terrorism and added that the use of terrorism against India is a low-cost option adopted by Pakistan about which we have taught it a lesson. He also assured every citizen of India that we are ready to face any threat to national security, and will be ready even further.

"On the first anniversary of the Balakot airstrike, I am happy to be among my armed forces colleagues. On this important occasion, I remember the sacrifices of the soldiers of my armed forces in the service of the nation, and pay my respects to them. The Balakot operation teaches us how to think strategically rather than tactically. It shows that our operational victory may be on the ground, but real war is won in the minds of enemies. The most important point I understand from the Balakot air strike is the reflection of India's clear vision against terrorism. The use of terrorism against India is a low-cost option adopted by Pakistan about which we have taught it a lesson," said Rajnath Singh.

On February 14, 2019, an explosives-laden truck rammed into a CRPF convoy in Pulwama outside Srinagar, killing 40 soldiers in one of the biggest terror attacks in recent years. Remembering the martyrs of Pulwama, he expressed gratitude to the kin of the deceased and asserted that the whole world is coming together for the fight against terrorism. We are getting the support of big countries of the world against countries like Pakistan for global peace.

"On this occasion, I want to remember the martyrs of Pulwama and express my gratitude personally to the CRPF security personnel and their families who lost their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons for the sake of this country," said the Defence Minister.

"Today, the whole world is coming together for the fight against terrorism. We are getting the support of big countries of the world against countries like Pakistan for global peace. We have recently seen the impact of collective diplomatic pressure on Pakistan," he added.

READ: 'We look back with satisfaction': Ex-IAF chief on first anniversary of Balakot Airstrike

Air Chief Lauds Govt's Decision To Strike At The Heart Of Terror Camps

Speaking at the same event, IAF Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria lauded India's 'tough and bold' decision to strike at the heart of terrorist training camps in Pakistan and added that "the Indian Air Force struck the target successfully". Chief Bhadauria also recalled how Pakistan Air Force responded 30 hours later with a large package of aircraft under Operation Swift Retort, and IAF ensured they were not able to hit targets.

Pakistan Air Force responded 30 hours later with a large package of aircraft under Operation Swift Retort, and IAF ensured they were not able to hit targets.

"A year ago, the Government took a tough and bold decision to strike at the heart of terrorist training camps deep inside Pakistan across the Line of Control. IAF successfully struck the target chosen. They were in a hurry to disengage. They were doing it for their domestic audience.

READ: IAF chief to visit MiG base in Srinagar to mark first anniversary of Balakot airstrike

Balakot Air Strikes

Days after the Pulwama terror attack that shook our nation, India on February 26, 2019, pounded Jaish-e-Mohammed's biggest training camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province at Balakot in Pakistan by carrying out coordinated airstrikes. In a pinpointed and swift airstrike that lasted less than two minutes, officials stated that the IAF targeted 350 terrorists and trainers.

READ: Balakot airstrikes featured in Indian Air Force's calendar for the year 2020

READ: 2019 Highlights Part 1: From IAF's Balakot Blitz to 'Howdy, Modi', here's a look back
PR-Inside.com: 2020-02-28 14:44:35

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HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2020 / Cub Energy Inc. ("Cub" or the "Company") (TSXV:KUB), a Ukraine-focused upstream oil and gas company, announces that KUB-Gas LLC ("Kub-Gas"), Cub's 35%-owned subsidiary which owns and operates the eastern Ukraine licences, has drilled the Makeevskoye-30 ("M-30") well to a total depth of 1,985 metres. Logging was performed on several horizons and was evaluated as having non-commercial gas shows. The well will be abandoned and Kub-Gas is reviewing its options for its next operation.About Cub Energy Inc.Cub Energy Inc. (TSX-V: KUB) is an upstream oil and gas company, with a proven track record of exploration and production cost efficiency in Ukraine. The Company's strategy is to implement western technology and capital, combined with local expertise and ownership, to increase value in its undeveloped land base, creating and further building a portfolio of producing oil and gas assets within a high pricing environment.For further information please contact us or visit our website: www.cubenergyinc.com Mikhail AfendikovChairman and Chief Executive Officer(713) 677-0439Patrick McGrathChief Financial Officer(713) 577-1948The disclosure in this press release is prepared in accordance with NI 51-101 standards.Reader AdvisoryExcept for statements of historical fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Cub believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable; however there can be no assurance those expectations will prove to be correct. We cannot guarantee future results, performance or achievements. Consequently, there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking information.Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: general economic conditions in Ukraine, the Black Sea Region and globally; political unrest and security concerns in Ukraine; industry conditions, including fluctuations in the prices of natural gas and foreign currency; governmental regulation of the natural gas industry, including environmental regulation; unanticipated operating events or performance which can reduce production or cause production to be shut in or delayed; failure to obtain industry partner and other fourth party consents and approvals, if and when required; competition for and/or inability to retain drilling rigs and other services; the availability of capital on acceptable terms; the need to obtain required approvals from regulatory authorities; stock market volatility; volatility in market prices for natural gas; liabilities inherent in natural gas operations; competition for, among other things, capital, acquisitions of reserves, undeveloped lands, skilled personnel and supplies; incorrect assessments of the value of acquisitions; geological, technical, drilling, processing and transportation problems; changes in tax laws and incentive programs relating to the natural gas industry; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of acquisitions and dispositions; and the other factors. Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive.This cautionary statement expressly qualifies the forward-looking information contained in this news release. We undertake no duty to update any of the forward-looking information to conform such information to actual results or to changes in our expectations except as otherwise required by applicable securities legislation. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information.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.SOURCE: Cub Energy Inc.
BALDWINSVILLE, N.Y. -- A threat made against a student in a text caused a lockout Friday in the Baldwinsville Central School District.

A Baldwinsville student was threatened in the text sent by a student in another school district, Baldwinsville School District Deputy Superintendent Joseph DeBarbieri said in a voice message sent to parents Friday morning. The district put a lockout in place on the districts main campus, he said.

The student suspected of threatening the Durgee Junior High School student has been taken into custody by police, the district said. The student was charged with aggravated harassment and falsely reporting an incident, according to the Onondaga County Sheriffs Office.

The lockout on the districts main campus has been lifted.

The lockout was put in place at Baker High School, Durgee Junior High School and Elden Elementary, all at 29 East Oneida St. in Baldwinsville.

We thank the quick actions of our student for bringing this matter to our attention, DeBarbieri said.

All students were safe during the precautionary lockout, DeBarbieri said.

Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.Thanks for visiting Syracuse.com. Quality local journalism has never been more important, and your subscription matters. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.

Have a tip, a story idea or a comment? You can reach me at shouse@syracuse.com | (315) 466-4160 | Twitter | Facebook
28.02.2020 LISTEN

A beneficiary of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) scholarship as named in the Auditor-General's performance audit report, Ramana Shareef, is demanding answers from the GETFund as to her inclusion in the list of beneficiaries.

In a letter written by her lawyer, Samson Lardy Anyenini, dated 25th February, 2020 and addressed to the Fund Administrator, Ramana Shareef said she applied for and was awarded the scholarship seven years ago to the University of Reading for an MSc in Communication for Innovation and Development.

The payment was however delayed, compelling her to defer the program twice, which she eventually lost out on.

She would be unable to acquire a UK visa and thus abandoned the pursuit because GETFund did not pay the fees, and Readings rules will not admit deferment a third time as she sought, the letter read.

Ramana Shareef said she is therefore curious to have been named as having had her fees and living allowance totalling 22,730.00 paid by GETFund.

She said the GETFund Administrator's responses to her queries is to inform her next line of action.

Click here to read the full letter.

Background

The Auditor-General indicted the GETFund for breaching its mandate and illegally funding foreign scholarships.

A performance audit report from the Auditor-General said the GETFund Secretariat breached the object of the fund and administered the scholarship themselves.

According to the GETFund's Annual Reports from 2012 to 2018, the secretariat spent GHS 425,698,937 on scholarships on 3,112 beneficiaries out of which 2,217 persons were unlawfully granted scholarships to study abroad.

It also said GETFund's selection process was not robust enough, describing it as unfair, dominated by one person and porous.

This allowed unqualified applicants to benefit rather than brilliant but needy Ghanaians as contemplated by Act 581, the report stated.

Some politicians were also listed as beneficiaries of GETFund scholarships.

The report noted that the current Education Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh and the current Procurement Minister and Deputy Majority Leader in Parliament, Sarah Adwoa Safo benefitted from the scheme in the past.

This was however before they became government appointees.

The Procurement Minister is listed as having studied at the Harvard Kennedy School, benefiting from US$12,800 in allowances with US$17,004 in tuition fees.

Education Minister, Dr. Opoku Prempeh is noted to have participated in a course on National and International Security at Harvard University, where he received US$12,800 for living expenses and US$11,200 as tuition fees.

---citinewsroom
Bethlehem and Allentown are home to two of just 10 county or municipal health departments in Pennsylvania, and have been on the front lines of the fight against coronavirus for about six weeks.

In Bethlehem, that has included sending staff members in protective face masks to the homes of about six or seven people who have recently traveled from China, city Health Director Kristen Wenrich said Friday. Those travelers need to be quarantined and monitored for 14 days under federal protocol, which could shift at any moment to cover visitors from additional countries, she said.

Nationwide as of early Friday afternoon, the United States had 15 confirmed cases of the coronavirus illness, known as COVID-19, in addition to 46 cases among people who have been repatriated from Wuhan, China, or from aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Wuhan in Chinas Hubei Province is where the virus began spreading in December.

There were 57 countries with confirmed cases as of 11 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday, up from 37 countries on Tuesday, the CDC says.

None of the U.S. cases are in Pennsylvania or New Jersey.

Both states, however, have been working for weeks to lay the groundwork for a coordinated response, should the virus lead to an outbreak. The Pennsylvania Department of Health has been in an incident command structure since Feb. 1, a spokesman said, and the New Jersey Department of Health has been part of a Coronavirus Task Force meeting weekly since Feb. 4.

In the event of an outbreak in Lehigh or Northampton counties, the Pennsylvania Health Department would take the lead on the response in conjunction with local health officials, spokesman Nate Wardle said Friday. That would be the case anywhere in the state, with the possible exceptions of Philadelphia and Allegheny counties that have much more robust departments and more capabilities, he said.

We would certainly be making sure that they have all the resources they need and that would probably mean that we would be leading the work, investigation, whatever you want to call it, Wardle told lehighvalleylive.com. For example, Allentown and Bethlehem are both fantastic municipal health departments who do a great job, and we are constantly in communication and collaboration with them and making sure everybody is on the same page and has the same information and is working together on this.

Along with the two Lehigh Valley cities and outside Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the other two municipal health departments are in Wilkes-Barre and York, with additional county health departments in Bucks, Chester, Erie and Montgomery, Wardle said.

The Allentown Health Bureau has investigated select people in the city because they had traveled from areas with the virus but has not had to quarantine or monitor anyone, Director Vicky Kistler said. The department is prepared to investigate and report any cases within the city, in consultation with the state Health Department, she said.

COVID-19 is caused by a virus known as SARS-CoV-2. Symptoms of fever, cough and shortness of breath appear between two and 14 days after exposure. Illnesses have ranged from mild to severe to fatal.

The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person, in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet) and through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, the CDC says. It may also be spread by touching a surface or object with the virus on it then touching their own mouth, nose or eyes.

People are thought to be most contagious when they are most symptomatic (the sickest), the CDC says. Some spread might be possible before people show symptoms; there have been reports of this occurring with this new coronavirus, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.

State and local health officials are stressing the best defense is to take common-sense steps that also apply to steering clear of the common cold or influenza.

"I think it's a matter of coronavirus being new, the unknown with it, that has caused some panic, but we're treating it as any infectious disease," said Wenrich, from Bethlehem.

Health officials urge residents to remember to wash, cover, clean and contain:

Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing. If soap and water are not readily available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. Always wash hands with soap and water if hands are visibly dirty.

Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash. Alternatively, cough or sneeze into your elbow, not your hand.

Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces such as cellphones, doorknobs, light switches and elevator buttons using a regular household cleaning spray or wipe.

Contain the spread by staying home if youre sick.

We know for some people that may be difficult ... but that is going to be one of the best ways that we can wok to prevent the spread of any type of infectious disease, Wardle, from the Pennsylvania Health Department, said of the advice to stay home from work or school.

Visit cdc.gov for travel health notices. The U.S. Department of State also offers travel advisories, including urging citizens to avoid traveling to China or Iran and to reconsider travel to other countries because of the coronavirus.

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Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Three students who live together are being monitored for potential coronavirus infection, UC Davis said Thursday.

One of the students at the university 30 miles southwest of Sacramento showed signs of COVID-19, and was removed from campus and put in isolation. The two others are the student's roommates and aren't showing any symptoms, but are also in isolation.

UC Davis confirmed that none of the three students have confirmed cases, but one is being tested and awaiting results.

The students lived together in Kearney Hall, and UC Davis said in a statement, "Daily disinfection practices are being implemented within all Student Housing and Dining Services properties."

The university is not planning to cancel any classes at this time, and is following the guidance of the Yolo County and the California Department of Public Health.

This news comes after a Solano County resident, who had no known connection to travel abroad or another known case, tested positive for the virus. With the patient's exposure unknown, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said "this could be an instance of community spread."

The Solano County patient first arrived at the NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville on Feb. 15 and spent three days there, according to the Washington Post.

After the patient's condition worsened, she was transported to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento County on Feb. 19, but it wasn't until four days later that the CDC heeded a request to test the patient for coronavirus, according to an email sent to employees Wednesday by the hospitals interim CEO Brad Simmons and David Lubarsky, CEO of UC Davis Health.

The patient arrived on a ventilator, and special protection orders were issued because of an undiagnosed and suspected viral condition, according to the email.

The hospital asked the CDC to test for the coronavirus, but testing was delayed until Sunday since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, the email said.

The CDC confirmed the test was positive on Feb. 26.

Despite the delay in testing, UC Davis Medical Center, which has treated other coronavirus patients, has been taking infection prevention precautions since the patient arrived. The email said officials believe that there was "minimal chance" others at the facility were exposed to the virus.

Nevertheless, a small number of medical center employees have been asked to stay home and monitor their temperatures, the email said.

Coronavirus has infected more than 81,000 people in three dozen countries, with the vast majority in mainland China.

The new virus is a member of the coronavirus family that can cause colds or more serious illnesses such as SARS and MERS.

The virus can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia. Health officials think it spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how the flu spreads.

Officials are advising people to take steps to avoid infection with coronavirus or other respiratory infections like a cold or the flu, including washing hands with soap and water, and avoiding close contact with people who are sick.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

Why San Francisco has declared a coronavirus state of emergency: Your questions answered

Eerie photos show empty streets in Italy amid coronavirus fears

Maps: Cases of new coronavirus multiples across the globe

Local emergency declared in San Francisco amid coronavirus concerns

Bay Area company to expand coronavirus drug trials to other companies

CDC warns men with beards amid coronavirus scare

Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.
New Delhi: The violence in North East Delhi has claimed the lives of 42 people, left hundreds injured and destroyed many properties including houses, schools, shops, etc. Even as the city is limping back to normalcy, the Delhi Police has filed at least 123 FIRs and arrested or detained as many as 630 people so far.

The fact remains that in these riots both the Hindus and Muslims have lost their lives and properties, but a large part of the western media is giving the riots a colour of conspiracy against the Muslims. The foreign media doesn't wasn't to show the truth and is trying to report it as the violence by Hindus on Muslims.

The renowned US newspaper, The New York Times, in its headline wrote, "As New Delhi counts the dead, questions swirl about the police response." They also wrote in their article, "Witnesses say, officers stood by when Hindu mobs attacked Muslims."

Another famous US newspaper, The Washington Post reported on Delhi violence and wrote, "India's hard-line Hindu nationalist watched anti-government protests centred in Muslim communities for months in anger that finally boiled over in the worst communal rioting in New Delhi in decades, leaving 38 People dead and the Indian capital shell shocked."

During the riots, a mob was killing people like animals and IB staffer Ankit Sharma fell victim to one such mob. Many foreign media agencies have been reporting Sharma's death in the wrong way.

Famous US newspaper, The Wall Street Journal wrote in their report after a telephonic interview with Ankit's brother that Ankit was killed by a mob who were chanting 'Jai Shri Ram'. But these allegations have been denied by Ankit's brother who claimed that his brother was killed after orders from former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain. The Delhi police have also filed a murder case against Hussain.

This explains that the foreign media is trying to divide India by presenting false news and reports on the Delhi violence. The reports of the Western media also prove that it wants to set its agendas under the pretext of violence in India.

The Britishers had divided India on the basis of religion around 200 hundred years ago. The Muslim and Hindu in the country were fighting with each other because of the successful conspiracy of divide and rule policy of the Britishers. To date, the Indians are suffering from the divisions that were made decades ago in the name of religion. Britishers had left India in 1947 but the foreign media sitting miles away from India is still trying to divide the country.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Small Business Administration is accepting grant applications for a new Women's Business Center in West Virginia. This expansion of SBA services is part of the agency's priority to open more doors for women entrepreneurs and increase access to resources in socially and economically disadvantaged communities.

"This new grant opportunity will empower nonprofit organizations to provide women entrepreneurs in West Virginia with greater access to the training and technical assistance services they need to grow businesses, create jobs, and promote a stronger local economy in the state," said SBA Associate Administrator for Entrepreneurial Development Allen Gutierrez. "The funding will provide needed access to resources that help women entrepreneurs power their small business dreams."

The total grant amount is $75,000 each for up to two WBCs in West Virginia, which will cover the period from April 1, 2020 through Sept. 30, 2020. Applications will be accepted on grants.gov and all applications for Funding Opportunity Announcement No. OWBO-2020-04 must be submitted online by the closing date. This grant opportunity will be open through March 23, 2020.

"After successful outreach efforts held last week, the SBA stands ready to expand the resources and services necessary for women-owned small businesses to have a greater impact in the state," said SBA West Virginia District Director Karen Friel. "Having a Women's Business Center here in West Virginia will help deliver critical training and technical assistance to women entrepreneurs whose small businesses will then generate new employment opportunities."

Eligible applicants for the grant must be private, nonprofit organizations with 501(c) tax-exempt status from the U.S. Treasury/Internal Revenue Service and must provide services in the state of West Virginia. This may include universities, foundations, chambers of commerce, or economic development institutions.

Interested applicants must register and receive a certificate from SAM.gov as part of the grant application process. Questions about the WBC funding opportunity can be directed to the SBA Office of Women's Business Ownership (OWBO) at [email protected].

About the U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.

Contacts: [email protected] (202) 401-3059, [email protected] (304) 623-7445

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Blogs & Instagram

Release Number: 20-22

SOURCE U.S. Small Business Administration

Related Links

http://www.sba.gov


The Vietnamese government will suspend visa-free travel for South Koreans starting on Saturday amid concerns about the coronavirus spreading.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam announced the decision during a meeting of the steering committee for the prevention of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Friday.

Aside from the suspension of visa-free travel for South Koreans, which will take effect from 12:00 am Saturday, Dam also stated that all people arriving from South Korea will be required to stay in a quarantine area for 14 days.

The South Korean embassy in Vietnam told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that it had received the notice about the suspension from the Vietnamese government.

According to current policies, South Korean citizens are not required to apply for a visa if their stay in Vietnam lasts for 14 days or less.

For trips longer than two weeks, South Korean passport holders need to obtain a visa to stay in Vietnam.

The COVID-19 has killed 2,859 people and infected over 83,600 globally since it first hit the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, according to the South China Morning Post.

The number of confirmed cases in South Korea  the largest cluster of infections outside of China  has exceeded 2,300 as of Friday afternoon. The country has reported 13 deaths caused by the COVID-19.

Vietnam has so far confirmed 16 cases of the viral infection, including 13 Vietnamese, one Vietnamese American, and two Chinese.

All of them have fully recovered and have been discharged from the hospital, with the last patient released on Wednesday morning.

The country has reported no new cases since February 13.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, February 29 2020

Judges in the Bale Bandung District Court in West Java have found PT Kamarga Kurnia Textile Industry (KKTI) guilty of polluting a section of the Citarum River, the longest and dirtiest river in the province.

The bench ruled in favor of the Environment and Forestry Ministry, which filed the lawsuit against the company for its lack of commitment in processing the hazardous and toxic waste (B3) produced by its factory on Jl. Cibaligo in Cimahi, West Java.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the ministry reported the panel of judges, presided over by Firza Andriyansyah, ordered KKTI to pay compensation of Rp 4.25 billion (US$301,000) for polluting the river. The amount, however, was less than the Rp 18.2 billion demanded by the ministry.

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Detroit man was banned from The Dearborn Carpet Company, 7557 Schaefer Road, Dearborn, the afternoon of Feb. 22 following repeated disturbances at the store.

The manager told police that the man in question has repeatedly entered the store, disrupting the business and causing a disturbance, and he wished to have him banned from the location.

Police found the man northeast of the business, near the intersection of Maple Street and Tireman Avenue, and explained that if he returned to the store, he could be arrested for trespassing. He said he understood, and left the area without incident. The manager was advised to call police officers should the man return.
The MP for New Juaben South and Chairman of the Finance Committee Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah has argued that to the extent that GETFUND will administer scholarships, it should not be discriminatory.



He was sharing his thoughts on Accra based Class fm on recent criticisms against some public officials and MPs who benefited from GETfund scholarships to study abroad.



Some groups of persons must not be excluded because of their social status". In as much as i believe that GETFUND should be used to build educational infrastructure and not for scholarships, there shouldn't be discrimination if the nation so chooses to spend funds in giving out scholarships, everyone can benefit he said.



Dr Assibey Yeboah contends that a similar discriminatory scheme existed when those of northern descent alone benefited from Free SHS.



This whole scholarship thing, do you know that free SHS is also a scholarship? Yes, thats scholarship; so, if you legislate that it should go to only the needy, so, you have somebody who claims they are needy, they are not paying taxes and then they should access this but I pay all manner of taxes, I shouldnt be able to access it...Now the Akufo-Addo administration has made free SHS universal and it is being enjoyed by both rich and poor he added.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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RAY BROOK  An Adirondack retreat near the Hudson River, featured as a desirable destination by Outside magazine and other outlets, has been fined by the Adirondack Park Agency and instructed to cease operating.

The Warren County retreat is called The Brampton and includes a number of small cabins and trailers, a glamping tent, yoga deck and other structures, most of which were built without proper permits, records indicate.

Following an approximately three-year enforcement case and a public hearing earlier this month, owner James John McDonald and partner Jeffrey Lee were fined a civil penalty of $438,000 with 20% pending by March 6, according to a news release on Friday. The remainder may be suspended if all operations cease and all unlawful structures and signs are removed.

The fine is significantly less than what APA staff had requested to impose on the New York City men: $1.548 million for more than 1,000 days of being in violation of the Adirondack Park Agency Act and the Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers System Act.

Reached by phone Friday, Lee said Adirondack Explorers first report on the enforcement case was a horrible story and included a bunch of lies, though he declined to say what was incorrect. When asked for comment on the APAs decision, Lee told a reporter to just make it up like you always do, followed by a number of profanities.

The multiple violations on the approximately 12-acre rental property in Thurman date back to 2017, starting with four and more than doubling over the years as McDonald and Lee continued to add non-permitted structures.

During a public hearing on Feb. 13, APA Senior Attorney Jennifer Hubbard recounted 20 phone calls, three site visits, an APA office meeting, four staff letters and three proposed settlements staff made in an attempt to resolve the matter prior to a full APA board enforcement hearing.

Lee and McDonald testified, and both claimed an engineer they were working with was responsible for the lack of communication. Hubbard pointed to how settlement agreements were mailed directly to Lee and McDonald and left unanswered.

On Feb. 14, members of the APA announced they had reached a decision on the matter in executive session. Adirondack Explorer filed a freedom of information law request for the decision, which it received on Friday.

McDonald may not have realized when he purchased the property in 2016 that the single-family dwelling built sometime around 1995 was an illegal structure, built without an APA permit. But as McDonald and Lee turned the property into a tourist accommodation, hosting yoga retreats, weddings, corporate retreats and vacations, neighbors complained about the noise and drew the attention of the APA.

In addition to violating the APA Act and the Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers System Act, the property has a cesspool too close to its shallow drinking water source, in violation of state Department of Health standards.

McDonald and Lee were served the APAs decision on Feb. 21, records show, and within 15 days of service they are required to provide notice that all current reservations at The Brampton have been canceled. They are also not allowed to accept additional reservations until they apply for and receive proper permits, and are required to cease advertising.

As of Friday afternoon, The Bramptons website was still live and appeared open for reservations.

According to the APAs decision, The Bramptons signs must be removed by April 1. A yoga deck, camper van, tent platform, outdoor staircase, two trailers and an outhouse must be removed by June 1. A single-family dwelling must be removed by July 1.

McDonald and Lee must also submit a design for a proper wastewater treatment system by April 1, and it must be installed by Sept. 1.

The $438,000 fine, according to the determination document, is the culmination of 730 days of violations starting Feb. 13, 2018. The penalty includes $200 per day for violating the APA Act and $400 for violating the Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers System Act. Of that fine, $87,600 is due March 6.

The remaining $350,400 of the total penalty is suspended pending satisfactory completion of remediation by the deadlines specified, according to the APAs decision. Should any element of the remediation not be completed by its respective deadline, the suspended $350,400 penalty shall be immediately due and payable to the State of New York.

APA staff will be checking on McDonald and Lees progress with site inspections.

This article originally appeared on AdirondackExplorer.org, a nonprofit news magazine covering the Adirondack Park.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 14:46:34|Editor: Liu

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SEOUL, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said Friday that it has issued an advance notice of possible furlough to South Korean employees amid the deadlocked cost-sharing deal on how much Seoul would pay for the stationing of the U.S. troops here.

"Due to the 2019 Special Measures Agreement (SMA) lapse and the continued absence of a subsequent agreement, USFK provided their (South) Korean National employees with a required 30-day notice of its decision to commence an administrative furlough that will begin on April 1 absent an agreed-upon SMA," the USFK said in a statement.

It was seen as an apparent U.S. pressure over South Korea to contribute more to the upkeep cost of around 28,500 U.S. troops stationed here.

Since September last year, the two countries held six rounds of negotiations on the 11th SMA, a South Korea-U.S. accord to share defense cost for the USFK, but they failed to reach an agreement amid Washington demand for a sharp increase in Seoul's contribution.

The 10th SMA, which was struck in March last year, expired at the end of 2019. Under the accord, South Korea paid 1.04 trillion won (about 860 million U.S. dollars) last year, up 8.2 percent from the previous year.

The statement said the USFK provided the furlough notice for all of its about 9,000 South Korean employees, though the U.S. Department of Defense announced that it will fund critical USFK logistics contracts and key positions which offer life, health, safety and readiness services.

It noted that without South Korea's continued commitment to share the cost of employing the USFK South Korean workforce, the USFK will soon exhaust the programmed funds available to pay their salaries and wages.

"Their loss will have an impact on readiness. Unfortunately, without an agreed-upon SMA, we must continue to prepare for a potential furlough," said Gen. Robert Abrams, USFK commander.

Since 1991, South Korea has shared the defense cost for U.S. forces here, including costs for South Korean civilians hired by the USFK, construction of military installations and logistics support.
Saskatchewan has now issued 1,764 invitations to apply for provincial nominations in 2020

Saskatchewan invites 576 Express Entry and Occupations In-Demand candidates Saskatchewan has now issued 1,764 invitations to apply for provincial nominations in 2020

Saskatchewan invites 576 Express Entry and Occupations In-Demand candidates Saskatchewan has now issued 1,764 invitations to apply for provincial nominations in 2020

Saskatchewan invites 576 Express Entry and Occupations In-Demand candidates Saskatchewan has now issued 1,764 invitations to apply for provincial nominations in 2020 CIC News Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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The Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) sent out a total of 576 invitations to apply (ITA) to candidates in the Express Entry and Occupations In-Demand categories on February 27, 2020.

In order to be selected, candidates needed to have submitted an Expression of Interest (EOI) profile with the SINP.

Through the EOI system, the SINP invites immigration candidates that have the potential to thrive in the prairie province to apply for a provincial nomination for permanent residence.

Interested candidates must create an EOI profile and demonstrate their capacity to settle into life in Saskatchewan by listing their work experience, education, language ability, age, and connections to the province.

The SINP uses these five factors to assess candidates and give them a score out of 100 on the International Skilled Worker Points Assessment Grid.

The highest-scoring candidates are then issued an ITA for a provincial nomination for Canadian permanent residence.

The minimum score required in the February 27 draws was 69 for both sub-categories.

No job offer is required in order to receive an invitation from Saskatchewan. However, candidates needed at least one year of work experience in an eligible skilled occupation related to their field of study.

Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs

Express Entry sub-category

In the latest invitation round, Saskatchewan issued 301 invitations to candidates who had profiles in the federal Express Entry pool.

Saskatchewans Express Entry sub-category is linked to the federal Express Entry system, which manages the pool of candidates for three of Canadas main economic-class immigration programs: Federal Skilled Worker Class, Federal Skilled Trades Class, and Canadian Experience Class.

If candidates in the federal Express Entry pool also filled out an EOI for Saskatchewan, and they scored 69 on the SINPs Points Assessment Grid they may have been selected on February 27.

Express Entry candidates who apply for and receive a provincial nomination from the province of Saskatchewan are awarded an additional 600 points toward their Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score at the federal level, and are effectively guaranteed an invitation to apply for Canadian permanent residence.

Occupations In-Demand sub-category

The Occupations In-Demand sub-category is open to immigration candidates who do not have a federal Express Entry profile.

There were 275 Occupations In-Demand candidates invited to apply for a provincial nomination, and like the Express Entry sub-category, candidates needed a provincial score of 69 in order to be chosen.

To see the complete list of occupations included in this draw, consult the government webpage.

Find out if you are eligible for any Canadian immigration programs

 2020 CIC News All Rights Reserved
Kehinde Babatunde Victor Oladipo will always be connected to Domantas Sabonis thanks to the trade with the two of them and superstar Paul George. For the moment, though, they are connected in a different way. They are now the two lone all-star level players on an Indiana team that is the definition of resilience in a tough fight for playoff seeding in the East.

With Oladipo out, Sabonis had his chance to take over, and so he did, registering his first career all-star appearance as one of the leagues most versatile offensive Power Forwards. But sadly for Domantas, his time is running out, as very soon Oladipo will be back to commanding the offense and orchestrating the defense as it was last season.

He just may need a little bit of time first.

In Dipo s first 8 games, calling him rusty would be a nice way to put it. Hes shot 33% from the field and 25% from three, but even so, not many players light the world on fire 12 months after having last set foot on the hardwood.

Ignoring the shot percentages, scoring and all box score numbers, the eye test has played in Oladipos favour. His pick and roll passing looks better than ever. He is still marshalling attackers around the perimeter like a jaguar toying with its prey. And, of course, he is still making the big shots when they matter most...



Sadly, an injury in Oladipos back sidelined him for the last two games, although hell be back to take on the Trail Blazers tonight. And while he may not shoot well, pay attention to the rest of his game and youll understand why he was one of the top players in the league pre-injury.
David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

Supermodel Rachel Hunter has still got it going on. She recently sold her Los Angeles home for $3.45 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. Located minutes from the Sunset Strip and Chateau Marmont, the property was on the market for $3.5 million.

The home was initially listed for $5 million in 2016. It was relisted in 2018 for $4.5 million. Last fall, the price was dropped again, to $3.5 million.
A worker cleans his goggles to spray disinfectant as a precaution against the coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. AP



South Korean health authorities said Friday they are making utmost efforts to maximize efficiency in treating novel coronavirus patients amid a spike in new confirmed cases in the country's southeastern areas.



Out of confirmed 1,017 COVID-19 patients in the southeastern city of Daegu, only 447 have been admitted to hospitals and another 570 are awaiting beds in hospitals while in self-quarantine at their homes as of early Thursday, according to city government officials.



Daegu  South Korea's fourth-largest city, with a population of 2.4 million  has emerged as a hotbed of coronavirus outbreaks in South Korea, along with neighboring North Gyeongsang Province.



Concerns over a possible shortage of hospital beds in the hardest-hit region escalated after a 75-year-old virus patient who is tied to a religious sect in Daegu died of respiratory failure earlier Thursday, bringing the nation's death toll to 13.






A woman wearing a protective face mask in Urayasu, Japan, on Friday. Gibraltar has said it stopped several Japanese tourists entering the territory (REUTERS/Issei Kato)

The UK territory of Gibraltar has started banning people entering from coronavirus-hit countries.

In a document sent to the Japanese embassy in London and seen by Yahoo News UK, Gibraltar said it may deny entry to people who have visited any of 16 dangerous countries which have been hit by coronavirus.

It said nearly all people who have been to parts of the Canary Islands have been banned.

It added several Japanese tourists have also been denied entry. It comes as the first British death from coronavirus  a man on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan  was confirmed on Friday.

A file image of the border between Spain and Gibraltar (AP/Javier Fergo)

Gibraltar, in southern Spain, is one of 14 British Overseas Territories. It is self-governing apart from foreign policy and defence, which is controlled by the UK.

Its coronavirus policy is a marked contrast to the UK, which has not enforced any entry bans.

Read more: Two new coronavirus cases confirmed in England and first in Wales brings UK total to 19

Anyone who has been to one of the 16 listed countries or regions must declare this when attempting to enter Gibraltar, the document said.

The list of at-risk areas where people must declare they have visited are China, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Macau, Iran, northern Italy (the area above the line connecting Pisa, Florence and Rimini), Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Tenerife (which is part of the Canary Islands).

Coronavirus: The confirmed cases around the world

The document said: It is stipulated that entry may be denied, and several Japanese tourists who have recently attempted to travel to Gibraltar have been denied entry by an official of the authority at a screening gate to enter Gibraltar.

According to the coronavirus emergency response regulations, the travel restriction measures are effective until 11 March, but depending on the future situation, the number of countries listed on the above dangerous countries list may increase.

Since the possibility of extending the validity period cannot be ruled out, it is recommended that those planning to travel to Gibraltar gather the latest information from the press release on the Gibraltar Authority website.

Yahoo News UK has contacted the UK Foreign Office for comment.
Clackamas County authorities are investigating the suspicious death of a Portland man whose body was found this week in Johnson Creek, and they are asking the public for help.

Kevin Haines Trego, 32, was pulled from the water about 4:30 p.m. Monday near Southeast 82nd Avenue and Luther Road, according to the Clackamas County Sheriffs Office.

The area runs along the Springwater Corridor Trail.

Detectives believe Tregos death is suspicious, the sheriffs office said.

Sgt. Marcus Mendoza, a sheriffs spokesman, declined to provide additional details about the case, citing the ongoing investigation.

Mendoza did not offer an explanation for why the sheriffs office waited four days to release information about Tregos death.

Investigators are now seeking to establish Tregos whereabouts in the days leading up to his body being found.

Anyone with information is asked to call 503-723-4949 or send a tip online.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632

Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com

Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh

Get an audio rundown of the days top headlines, now available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Were also on Amazon Alexa.
IPS officer SN Shrivastava has been appointed the new Commissioner of Delhi Police. His appointment has come after the Union Home Ministry repatriated him from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Tuesday in the wake of communal violence in the city. Shrivastava will replace Amulya Patnaik, who is due to retire on February 29. Patnaik was given an extension of one month due to Delhi Assembly election.

Shrivastava is a 1985 batch officer of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre. He had served as Special DG in Jammu and Kashmir zone of CRPF. Shrivastava has also worked in several posts in different units in Delhi Police, including Special Cell as well as led investigations against Indian Mujahideen. He holds BTech and LLB degrees.

His appointment has come at a time when Delhi Police is facing immense amount of backlash for failing to contain communal clashes in Delhi. The Delhi Police also received lot of flak during the attack on JNU students. The Delhi also received flak during the attack on Jamia Millia Islamia students.

Also read:'Tahir Hussain's boss must get double punishment': Manoj Tiwari attacks Arvind Kejriwal

Also read: Delhi High Court invokes 1984 riots, says can't let it happen again
Guards by a hole where prisoners in a gallery for members of Brazil's First Capital Command gang broke out, in Pedro Juan Caballero, Paraguay, January 22, 2020.

REUTERS/Gabriel Stargardter

In the first weeks of 2020, Latin America has seen three jailbreaks mounted by the region's most powerful criminal groups.

The escapes reveal important challenges that remain for security policy in countries across the region  namely, the centrality of functioning prisons.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

This is an excerpt from a recent edition of the Latin America Risk Report, a newsletter by James Bosworth, founder of political-risk advisor Hxagon.

The three events below that occurred in early 2020 are unrelated to each other, but demonstrate several security lessons relevant to this year in Latin America.

In Mexico City, Mexico, three members of the Sinaloa Cartel escaped a prison before they could be extradited to the United States.

In El Progreso, Honduras, heavily armed men dressed in police and military uniforms stormed a courthouse and freed a top MS-13 leader who was being escorted to a court hearing.

In Pedro Juan Caballero, Paraguay, over 75 prisoners escaped in a breakout arranged by the PCC. Some escaped through a tunnel while others walked out the front door.

1. All three escapes occurred with help on the inside.

Mexico prison jail jailbreak escape

REUTERS/Luis Cortes

In the Mexico case, several prison guards confessed to their involvement.

In Honduras, sources within the country confirm that corrupt police officers provided information and handed over the prisoner to his armed allies, though they could not confirm rumors that some of those who broke the man out were members of the security forces.

In Paraguay, at least 30 prison guards and officials were detained following the breakout.

Authorities are now trying to determine which officials assisted and which ones simply allowed it to occur due to fear given the overwhelming manpower of the organization they were facing.

2. The escapes involved dominant criminal groups with transnational goals.

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Brazil First Capital Command PCC gang

AP Photo/Jonne Roriz-AGENCIA ESTADO

While there is a narrative of criminal groups fragmenting, especially in Mexico, these events were caused by the opposite trend  a consolidation of power by large and dominant criminal organizations.

The Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico, MS-13 in Central America and First Capital Command (PCC) in Brazil are among the strongest organizations within the territories they operate and have worked to consolidate control. They use their control over prison systems as a location to recruit new criminals and unify divided criminal groups.

The PCC escape highlights that organization's expansion into Brazil's neighbors (see this excellent interview in InSight Crime about the organization). Both the Sinaloa Cartel and MS-13 have organizations and leadership that move people and illicit products relatively easily across Central America's borders.

That sort of transnational growth demonstrates that rule of law weaknesses in one country impact neighboring countries.

3. Those dominant groups control the prisons and corrupt the security forces.

Honduras gang member prison jail

REUTERS/Jorge Cabrera

This is well known but worth highlighting as it represents a critical threat to the state. The ability for the groups involved in these prison escapes to bribe and otherwise corrupt security forces represents a threat to governments' abilities to improve security.

The fact these groups can often operate out of prison with impunity and escape when they decide prison has become too uncomfortable makes a mockery of the arrests and prosecutions that occur.

4. Security in Latin America runs through prison reform.

Brazil prison inmates riot gangs

REUTERS/Nacho Doce

No politician in history has been elected on a promise of improving the conditions in prisons. There has been a multi-decade failure to reform prison systems to improve government control, reduce corruption and even provide more humane conditions for prisoners in order that they be rehabilitated.

The region needs to find a way to make spending money on reforming prisons politically palatable if it wants to retake control from the dominant groups that threaten the state. Without effective prison reform, the gains from other rule of law initiatives are put at risk.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Girl Scouts official website

GLEN CARBON  The Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois (GSofSI) announced Thursday that it intends to close all of its camps  Camp Butterfly in Farmington, Missouri; Camp Chan Ya Ta near Worden; Camp Torqua near Edwardsville; and Camp Wassatoga near Effingham, by Dec. 31.

Currently, the camps owned by GSofSI have an estimated value of $3.7 million but deliver a limited Girl Scout experience, said Loretta Graham, CEO in a press release issued Thursday. After costs of closing and sales commissions, it is estimated that GSofSI will net approximately $3.4 million in the sale of its camps.
The first major phones of the year are here, and Samsung is being its usual ambitious self. The company unleashed a trio of new flagships in its S20 series, and for the first time, it introduced a souped-up Ultra variant alongside the regular S20 and S20+. The S20 Ultra is big and beefy, though with a starting price of $1,400, it's also very expensive. It offers a long list of impressive specs and intriguing features, like a triple camera system with a 108-megapixel sensor that can zoom up to 100x. But do these features make a good phone?

Size

One of the first things you should consider is the Ultra's size. As my colleague Chris Velazco so eloquently put it, the S20 Ultra is a chonky boi. Thicc with seven C's. With a 6.9-inch screen and a very dense build, the Ultra is the largest member of the S20 family ever. After just a day of testing it, my left thumb felt sore and my arm ached. I could never last more than 10 minutes of furious scrolling through my favorite subreddits.

To be fair, the S20 Ultra is only slightly larger than the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which is four grams heavier than the Samsung phone despite its smaller 6.5-inch screen. At 222 grams, the Ultra is noticeably heavier than the OnePlus 7T Pro (206 grams). Even the Note 10+ 5G, which has a slightly smaller 6.8-inch screen, weighs a lot less at 198 grams.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra review Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra review

High-resolution, superzoom cameras

The biggest, most notable thing about the Ultra is its cameras. This is a tri-camera setup with a primary, 108-megapixel sensor and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide option that captures a 123-degree field of view. The most interesting of the lot, though, is the 48-megapixel telephoto lens folded into the chunky bump on top of this already-giant phone's behind.

Thanks to the bigger, sharper sensors, the S20 Ultra should take brighter, more colorful and clearer pictures than Samsung's previous flagships. But the company's image-processing algorithms are still pretty aggressive and soften details. Edges of buildings lack the definition you'd find on pictures taken with a Pixel 4 or an iPhone 11 Pro.

Story continues

By default, the 108-megapixel camera snaps pictures at 12 megapixels using a process Samsung calls "nona-binning". Basically, it combines nine pixels into one on the sensor level to make them much bigger. Technically, that should result in brighter shots with less noise, but whether it's due to Samsung's algorithms or something else in the processing, the images just aren't very crisp no matter what resolution you're shooting at. Ultimately, the S20 Ultra's pictures are a minor improvement, at best, over the S10's.

Galaxy S20 Ultra camera sample Galaxy S20 Ultra camera sample

The aggressive software also shows up in Live Focus and Night modes. The former adds an artificial blur to the background of your images to mimic bokeh, and Samsung's approach lags the competition. Google and even Apple are far better at recognizing outlines of people and applying bokeh that looks realistic and natural. And though I see an improvement in low-light photography and Night Mode on the S20 Ultra compared to the S10+, Google is still more effective at noise reduction and in darker conditions.

Besides the sharper sensors, the standout feature of the S20s is what Samsung calls "Space Zoom". On the S20 and S20 Plus, this lets you get up to 30 times closer to your subject. On the Ultra, you can go in up to 100x through a combination of optical zoom, digital zoom and a little AI trickery.

I've used the Ultra mostly to zoom in on buildings or faraway signs, and when you get beyond 10x, the image quality drops drastically. As with any other camera, every tiny movement is magnified when you're zoomed in that much. At 100x, it is nearly impossible to frame up a shot without a tripod and have it be still. At least Samsung includes a helpful visual guide in the top corners of the viewfinder for aiming. When you finally do line up a shot and take the picture, almost anything captured at beyond 10x is a muddy, noisy mess.

People have debated the ethics of such a feature and its potential for becoming a tool for snooping. And I have to admit, it's a bit creepy. Once, I shot up from the sidewalk into an apartment where a woman was having a conversation on the phone and looking out. Her face filled up the entire viewfinder at a mere 10x zoom and while I'm sure she didn't know I was that up close, it felt like she was staring right at me. I immediately felt uncomfortable and put the phone down.

Yes, Space Zoom is unsettling. Samsung is naive if it believes people are only going to use this feature to zoom in on tourist attractions from afar, like in the examples it gave at Unpacked. We'll have to rely on the decency of people who buy this phone to not use it for nefarious reasons, and depending on your worldview, that could be absolutely terrifying.

Moving on to a more fun addition to the camera experience -- the new Single Take mode. When you press the shutter button in this mode, the S20 captures a variety of shots and video from all the cameras. You'll have to hold the phone for a few seconds, and on-screen alerts will prompt you to move around to get different angles. When you're done, voila, the S20 spits out about 10 variations of your picture.

I like that Single Take serves up options I wouldn't have otherwise thought to take, like a monochrome version or a looping video set to a cheesy soundtrack. But it's not something I'd use all the time since it's best for moving subjects and I don't shoot those a lot. Parents of human and fur babies, for example, might find this more worthwhile.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra review

I was concerned that the Ultra's 40-megapixel front camera would take selfies sharp enough to reveal every unflattering scar and stray eyebrow hair on my face. But by default, the system captures images at about 6.5-megapixel, and you have to manually select 40MP from the viewfinder. When I enabled high-res selfies, I wasn't as put off by the increased detail as I expected -- even after disabling beauty mode, which is turned on by default. I was surprised to see every strand of my hair so starkly, and honestly I don't think most people need or want selfies this sharp. But the pictures at either resolution will still serve you well -- they're bright and clear with accurate colors.

Fair warning though, since the image size is about three times that of a 6.5-megapixel version, these will suck up storage quickly and the phone struggled to keep up when I snapped a slew of them in rapid succession. Same goes with the 108-megapixel shots on the rear sensors.

Sharp, smooth video

Another thing I didn't find that useful was 8K video recording. Like Space Zoom, this is another feature that's really there for Samsung to say, "Hey, we did this technologically impressive thing!" Thanks to the S20's Snapdragon 865 processor, it can record the super high-res footage, so long as your device has enough storage and battery. It does put a bit of strain on the processor, though. I took some 8K clips of NYC streets, and the Ultra started to get a bit warm after about a minute.

The problem with 8K video isn't so much shooting it as it is trying to find somewhere to play it back. The S20 Ultra's screen is just Quad HD+, so watching it on the phone won't give you the full impact, and edges of buildings look distorted. Samsung's solution is to make it easy for you to cast your video to one of its 8K TVs, which are about as common in the wild as a panda bear. You can also upload it to YouTube, but again, you'll have to find a super high resolution screen to watch it on to really appreciate the quality.

I did like the improved Super Steady stabilization tool, though -- my footage turned out very smooth despite me tripping while walking on an uneven sidewalk. I have yet to notice the autofocus or frame dropping issues that other reviewers have reported during my video tests, although to be fair I haven't been able to play my footage back at the full 8K resolution. Again, these screens are hard to find.

Faster screens

Although watching 8K videos on the S20 Ultra is silly, it's still a lovely canvas. The cityscapes I shot looked crisp and colorful on the Ultra's 6.9-inch screen, even in sunlight. I also enjoyed watching a couple of 4K HDR videos and endless Instagram posts about my friends' exciting lives. Plus, the Ultra's almost all-screen front made the viewing experience more immersive and inviting.

One of the highlights on the S20 series is their 120Hz displays, which allows them to refresh much faster than other phones. So far, only the Razer Phone 2, the ASUS ROG Phone 2 and the Sharp AQUOS Zero 2 hit those rates. The Pixel 4 and OnePlus 7T Pro go up to 90hz. It's a growing trend, but certainly not a widespread feature yet.

To be clear, the S20 Ultra will only refresh that that rate at 1080p. If you want a higher 1440p resolution, you're stuck with 60Hz. The main benefit of a 120Hz screen is much smoother videos or games at that frame rate, though those are still relatively scant. But another bonus is that thumbing through pages on your phone will also look more fluid. Since so much of my activity online involves scrolling -- whether it's my Instagram or Twitter feeds or a random Reddit binge -- I thought this would be a huge improvement. But as much as I appreciated the smoother display, I didn't miss it when I went back to my Pixel 3. The Pixel 4, with its 90Hz screen, was more than fast enough for me.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra review

5G in the real world today

Speaking of fast, the S20 series supports both sub-6 and millimeter wave 5G, and the latter promises serious speed improvements. Of course, I was also slightly concerned about the difficulty in maintaining a connection because they're notoriously easy to disrupt. If your hand completely covers the antenna, for example, you might lose your signal.

I was hoping that technologies like beamforming and beam-tracking would make mmWave signals more reliable, but it was embarrassingly easy to interrupt them in New York. Our review unit was running on Verizon's network, but the Ultra will support 5G on all carriers. Since Verizon only offers mmWave 5G right now with no sub-6, and those waves don't propagate as far, coverage is still quite limited. I had to hunt down nodes through an online map to go chill out within line of sight of one of them to test these supposed super fast downloads.

On a Verizon phone, the 5GUWB icon that indicates a mmWave connection only shows up when an active data download is happening on the network. So, even though I saw the icon switch between 5GUWB and LTE as I walked up and down a block in Brooklyn that had a node on the corner, it wasn't a good indicator of coverage.

When I did manage to latch on to a signal, though, the rewards were huge. I hit up to 800 Mbps download speeds, according to Speedtest, when connected to a 5G node in Manhattan. A 4K video that took me 13 minutes to download over 4G LTE came through in just 13 seconds on mmWave. Uploads, on the other hand, were only about 50 Mbps, but that's because Verizon is still using LTE for all uploads. That means posting your Instagram Stories or YouTube videos on the carrier won't be any quicker.

Battery life and performance

One of the biggest concerns about technologies like mmWave 5G or a screen with a high refresh rate is their impact on battery life. To allay our concerns, Samsung stuffed a whopping 5,000mAh cell into the Ultra. I set my screen to 120Hz and used the S20 Ultra for a ton of photo taking and Instagramming, along with the usual slew of messaging, and the battery lasted about a day and a half. On our battery test, the S20 Ultra lasted 11 and a half hours, which is surprisingly shorter than the Pixel 4 XL. It does line up with the S10+ and outlast the iPhone 11 Pro Max in general use, though.

I mostly used the S20 Ultra for messaging, Instagram and Twitter as well as taking a ton of photos and videos. The Snapdragon 865 chipset held up well in general, and the phone only stalled once when I was trying to switch camera modes while a video was still saving. To push the S20 Ultra harder, I played a round of Call Of Duty Mobile while recording the screen, and then quickly tried to edit the video. Unsurprisingly, the phone managed all that without a hiccup.

Since it is a Galaxy S flagship after all, the Ultra also offers features from older stablemates like an in-display fingerprint sensor, reverse wireless charging and Bixby Routines -- you know, in case you found that useful. You'll also get the standard set of pre-loaded apps from Samsung, Google and Microsoft, but for some reason Netflix and Facebook also come installed. That's fine, most people use these apps. But for those who don't, or if you're against Facebook on principle (like I am), bad news: You can't uninstall either. Your only option is to disable them, which removes them from your app drawer and silences notifications. Still, that's a relatively minor gripe.

Wrap-up

The S20 Ultra is a bombastic device with a feature list boasting big numbers like 108 megapixels, 100x zoom, 8K video, 120Hz screen and 5G support. These are the best specs you can get for cameras, displays and connectivity today. And for people who care only about getting the best of the best (aside from the camera anyway), the S20 Ultra is an excellent device.

But there's an even bigger number that we cannot ignore: $1,400. The S20 Ultra is more expensive than the Galaxy Z Flip, which uses new and costly folding display technology. For this price, Samsung needs to deliver something nearly perfect; the Ultra is not. Its camera issues and heft keep it from being the best in the market. For those looking to upgrade from an older device, bear in mind that Samsung cut the prices for the S10 series, which are still a big jump up from older flagships.

If you don't need the most advanced phone available, the S20 Ultra is certainly overkill. Few of us need anything this extreme -- it's hard to imagine situations where the S20 or S20+ wouldn't be enough. If you simply must have the highest specs, the Ultra will satisfy -- just remember that you don't need to spend this much for a great smartphone.
US health officials say this is the fastest science has ever moved to develop a vaccine.

Scientists in the US are racing to find a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.

Government agencies, universities and several private companies are involved in the effort.

Al Jazeeras Heidi Zhou-Castro visited a lab in the US state of Maryland, where researchers say they are making some progress.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday accused opposition parties of inciting communal riots over the CAA by spreading "misinformation" that Muslims will lose their citizenship because of the new law.

He also extolled Prime Minister Narendra Modi for addressing important issues relating to "national security and sensibilities", including abrogation of provisions of Article 370, CAA and the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute.

"Opposition parties are spreading misinformation that Muslims will lose their Indian citizenship because of the CAA. They are instigating people and fomenting riots," he told a pro-CAA BJP rally here.

"I have said this before and repeating it now that nobody, no Indian Muslim will lose their citizenship because of the CAA. This law is for granting citizenship to religious minorities that have been persecuted in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. It's not intended to take away anyone's citizenship".

Calling the Citizenship (Amendment) Act a "historic step", Shah alleged that the Congress, Communists, SP, BSP and 'Mamata didi' were spreading lies about it.

Asking people not to be misled over the opposition's attempts at creating 'bhranti' (confusion) about the new law, he said the Modi government had only fulfilled the dreams of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad and others who favoured Indian citizenship for persecuted minorities from the three countries.

"Shouldn't they get Indian citizenship? Shouldn't their human rights be protected?" Shah asked the audience which responded with a resounding "yes".

He said people should come out and ask those fomenting trouble to explain which clause of the Citizensip (Amendment) Act talked about snatching citizenship.

"Because of Article 370 Jammu and Kashmir appeared alienated from 'Bharat'. With its abrogation, Kashmir is now the crown of Mother India," he said.

The Home Minister also accused the Congress of stalling resolution of Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute in the Supreme Court for decades.

"After the BJP returned to power for a second term with 303 seats, the path was paved for building a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya that would touch the sky," he said.

Shah thanked the people of Odisha for their support to the BJP which replaced Congress as the main opposition party in the state in the assembly elections.

Talking about the rise of the BJP in the eastern state, the home minister said the party reaped a rich electoral harvest even in the Lok Sabha polls with eight of its candidates emerging victorious.

He said BJP candidates led in about 14,000 of the state's 37,000 polling booths.

The Union minister said funds allocated to Odisha under "Sonia-Manmohan" government stood at little over 79,000 crore in accordance with the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission.

Between 2014-19, when the BJP was in power, the allocation went up to a staggering 2.11 lakh crore under the 14th Finance Commission, he said.

"The Modi government opened the door to development of not only Odisha but the entire eastern region," he asserted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Reliance Jio would not have a single Chinese network part in its upcoming 5G network, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani ' title=' Mukesh Ambani '>Mukesh Ambani told US President Donald Trump during his maiden trip to India, recently.

Reliance Jio was the only network in the world that didn't use a single Chinese equipment, Ambani told Trump during his interaction with CEOs here on Tuesday, the transcript of which was released by the While House on Thursday.

Jio has South Korean company Samsung as networking partner for both 4G and 5G networks.

When Trump asked, "You're doing 4G. Are you going to do 5G too?," Ambani said, "We're going to do 5G. We're the only network in the world that doesn't have a single Chinese component."

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had said here last October the USA was worried that if its allies used Huawei's 5G telecommunication equipment, they could expose themselves to security risks.

The Trump administration has been persuading India to keep China's Huawei out of the India's 5G deployments. But the Indian government has allowed Huawei and ZTE to participate in 5G trials.

But allowing Huawei to participate in the commercial deployments of 5G will be another decision.

The US feels Chinese telecom vendors Huawei and ZTE are security threats and are involved in snooping on behalf of the Chinese government.

The US and its allies, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Taiwan have banned the two companies from participating in 5G networks, while the UK has allowed them to sell non-core items.

Indian telcos, like Airtel and Vodafone Idea, have been working with Huawei in their current networks, while ZTE works with state-run BSNL.
BENTON HARBOR, MI -- Crack cocaine and drug paraphernalia were seized by police from an apartment in Benton Harbor.

Detectives with the Southwest Enforcement Team (SWET) arrested four Benton Harbor residents on multiple drug-related charges Thursday, Feb. 27, after receiving a drug trafficking tip, according to a press release from police.

During a search of a residence at Harbor Towers Apartments, 250 E. Wall St., police seized crack cocaine and drug paraphernalia, police said.

The four suspects were not identified by police, pending their arraignment on the charges.

SWET is a multi-jurisdictional task force that has been operating in Southwest Michigan since 1981. The task force is comprised of officers from multiple police agencies throughout the region.

Also on MLive:

Drug task force seizes mushrooms, meth, cocaine, cash and marijuana

32-year-old Gaylord man accused of sexually assaulting young child
Wellington: New Zealand confirmed its first coronavirus case Friday, saying a recent arrival from Iran who travelled to Auckland via Bali had tested positive.

Health officials said the person, aged in their 60s, was being treated in Auckland City Hospital.

"They are in an improving condition in isolation, in a negative pressure room to prevent any spread of the disease," the health department said in a statement.

Officials said the person, reportedly a female New Zealand citizen, arrived in Auckland on Wednesday and family members went to the hospital after becoming concerned about the individual's condition.

The officials urged any passengers on Wednesday's final leg of the Emirates airline journey, which goes from Bali to Auckland, to contact authorities if they were concerned.

However, authorities downplayed the risk to the public saying the situation was being well managed.

Lithuania confirms first case

Lithuania confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus in a woman who returned from Italy, the government said on Friday.

The 39-year-old, who returned from Verona, has been isolated in hospital in the Baltic state's northern city of Siauliai and has mild symptoms. Her family members are being monitored.

We are putting all efforts to establish all people who contacted the infected person so that we can adopt preventive measures and (stop) the spread of the virus, Deputy Health Minister Algirdas Seselgis said in a statement.
Although there have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus in Montgomery County, schools are preparing for the possibility.

The risk locally remains very low, according to the Montgomery County Health Department. As reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, there have only been 14 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease in the United States.

ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Texas scrambles to prepare for coronavirus outbreak now moving into next phase

Information about the coronavirus and how it spreads can be found on the Montgomery County Health Department website. According to the information, coronavirus is a type of virus that causes diseases of varying severities, ranging from the common cold to more serious respiratory disease. A novel (new) coronavirus is a new strain of coronavirus that hasnt been identified before in humans.

The virus, also known as COVID-19, can be spread through coughing and sneezing, close personal contact, or touching a surface or object with the virus then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes before washing your hands.

ON HOUSTON CHRONICLE.COM: Is the vaccine to thwart the new coronavirus stored in a Houston freezer?

Although no cases of the virus have been found locally schools in the area are preparing for the possibility. Lone Star College has already pinned an alert on its website that links visitors to information about the virus and how it spreads.

LSC has also posted messaging on LSC social media channels and campus video monitor systems encouraging students, faculty and staff to stay informed, Kyle Scott, LSC vice chancellor Strategic Priorities, told the Courier in an emailed statement. Lone Star College is committed to the health and safety of students, faculty and staff. LSC continues to monitor this developing situation and is developing contingency plans to ensure classes and campus operations continue uninterrupted.

RENEW HOUSTON: Get the latest wellness news delivered to your inbox

Conroe ISD, the largest school district in Montgomery County with a student body of 65,000, is taking precautions by frequently cleaning the buses, common areas, and frequently touched surfaces, and providing more hand sanitizers.

In a flier sent to the CISD community Feb. 27, the district explained that it is operating at level one of a three-level system, Alert Status. The flier encouraged the community to follow basic precautions like frequently washing your hands, avoid touching your face, and avoiding people who are sick.

While a new type of illness can be scary, we can protect our students, teachers, and the broader community by using simple everyday actions that protect people from other types of respiratory viruses, said Superintendent Curtis Null, in the release.

MORE FROM JAMIE SWINNERTON: Impact Church of The Woodlands invests in the future with new playground, building

If a case is found in the region, CISD will move to level two, Alert and Precautions, which could mean limiting unnecessary travel, limiting guests and visitors, and limiting large gatherings of people, along with the current monitoring and communication already in place.

The John Cooper School in The Woodlands, with a student body of around 1,200, said that in addition to encouraging good hygiene and health practices with information from the nurses office, they are keeping a close eye on the situation.

The John Cooper School is continuing to monitor the status of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on a daily basis, reviewing the most up-to-date information and recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The health and safety of our students, faculty and staff is our highest priority and any change in status will be communicated promptly to our school community, said Head of School Mike Maher in an email to the Courier.

If you are not in an area where COVID-19 is spreading, or if you have not traveled from one of those areas or have not been in close contact with someone who has and is feeling unwell, your chances of getting it are currently low, according to the latest report from the World Health Organization, but getting facts to accurately determine risk and take precautions is advised.

jamie.swinnerton@chron.com
T ory mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey today pledged to increase the Metropolitan polices strength to a record 40,000 officers if he is elected.

He said he would make tackling violent crime his number-one priority and claimed he would be better than Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan at securing government funds.

Increasing the Mets numbers to 40,000 would mean that London would overtake New York and Paris in terms of officers.

Mr Bailey claimed he could increase police numbers by the end of his first term without a big rise in council tax bills.

Shaun Bailey has pledged a boost to the Met's numbers / PA Archive/PA Images

He would rely on a government go-ahead to introduce a tourist tax levy on hotel rooms for visitors to London.

He would also need Whitehall to fund about 1,500 more officers than London is likely to receive under the capitals share of the 20,000 the Prime Minister has promised nationally.

Mr Baileys intervention comes after the Met police investigated 149 killings last year, the highest figure in 11 years, and with knife crime at a new high.

A total of 15,080 knife offences were recorded in the capital during the 12 months to the end of September, though fatal stabbings fell 18 per cent to 71. Mr Bailey, who joined officers on patrol in Stoke Newington today, said: Tackling soaring crime in London is my number-one priority.

Putting record numbers of police on our streets is fundamental to my plan to regain control of crime. I have a bold plan that I pledge to get Met police numbers up to 40,000 and make London safe. The Met currently has 31,321 officers. About 2,000 more are due to be recruited this year, including a first tranche of 1,369 backed by government funds and 600 from extra City Hall funds found by Mr Khan.

The Mayor will increase average council tax bills from April by the maximum 10 allowed by the Government for policing and is increasing annual spending on crime by 300 million.

But he has come under repeated attack from mayoral rivals for failing to get a grip on violent crime.

Mr Bailey, a former youth worker and current London Assembly member, would bring in an emergency budget at City Hall to deliver an extra 104 million for policing, funding 1,590 officers.

This budget would result in hundreds of City Hall posts being axed and Transport for London staff losing the free Oyster cards that are given to their family members.

A hotel levy  a one per cent tax on the cost of a room  would generate 48 million a year, enough to fund 734 officers.

Mr Bailey would ask the Government to fund extra officers for a fourth year, rather than the three years currently agreed. He believes that artificial intelligence used by New York police could free up 63 million to fund 482 officers.

A Met constables starting salary is about 38,000 but each officer costs 65,000 once pension, tax and equipment are added.

Mr Bailey said: London needs leadership, not excuses, and as a Conservative mayor, I would be the only candidate able to reset the relationship between City Hall and government to get our city the best possible deal.

Mr Khan, who is seeking a second term in the May 7 poll, has yet to reveal his own re-election pledge on police numbers.

Independent candidate Rory Stewart has pledged to put six officers in every one of the capitals 629 wards  double the number at present  plus back-up surge teams. This would mean an extra 2,350 officers being deployed full-time on neighbourhood policing.
Superman actor Dean Cain and Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Kristy Swanson were given ovations at conservative get-together CPAC Thursday for reading out texts between the FBI lovers Lisa Page and Peter Strzok.

The two - rare conservatives in Hollywood - put on a version of their 'play' about the anti-Trump exchanges between the two for the conference, after spending 45 minutes in the Oval Office discussing it with the president.

Ann McElhinney, one of the producers, told the crowd to laughter that Trump 'loves the play.'

Cain then said: 'He said he'd be my understudy.'

Hollywood version: Dean Cain and Kristy Swanson play Peter Strzok and Lisa Page in a play which they showed part of to CPAC, the conservative get-together - where they revealed that the president wants to be Cain's understudy

I'd like to take a bow: Donald Trump spent 45 minutes in the Oval Office with Dean Cain and Kristy Swanson

Real version: Unusually for a Hollywood version of reality, the actors playing Peter Strzok and Lisa Page are significantly older than the real-life versions. Cain is 53 and Strzok is 49; Swanson is 50 while Page is 40

The two actors have crowdfunded for the play, and asked donors to fund his trip from Los Angeles to CPAC, which is held just outside Washington D.C.

Cain described the lovers as 'arrogant' and Strzok as someone who 'thinks of himself as superman - even though that he is doing is so biased against the constitution.'

Cain, 53, has recently appeared in a series of faith-based films and has a movie with Swanson in post-production called A Parent's Worst Nightmare featuring 'multiple real life events of sex trafficking.'

Swanson called the two 'arrogant, arrogant, arrogant.' Swanson, 50, most recently appeared in three episodes of CBS' SEAL Team and has had roles in a Lifetime and Hallmark movie.

The 'play' uses the format known as 'verbatim theater,' which sees real-life words read out by actors to construct a narrative.

CPAC delegates cheered and laughed when Cain and Swanson read out some of the best-known of the messages Strzok and Page exchanged during their affair.

Both of them are suing the DOJ and FBI, Page for invasion of privacy by having the messages published, and Strzok for his firing.

Both have denied that they acted against Trump as part of a conspiracy and Page has told how being tweeted about repeatedly by the president has traumatized her.

Their affair became public in July 2017, when he was removed from Robert Mueller's special counsel after the texts came to light.

They included Page saying 'he's not ever going to become president, right? Right?!'

Strzok responded: 'No. No he won't. We'll stop it.'

Another which has become a focal point for Trump and his supporters saw Strzok tell page: 'I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy's office that there's no way Trump gets electedbut I'm afraid we can't take that risk. It's like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you're 40.'

Andy was Andrew McCabe, who was deputy director of the FBI at the time, was also fired by Trump's DOJ, and is now suing. An attempt to prosecute him was ditched two hours before a judge's warning that the prosecution was like 'a banana republic' was made public.

The Oval Office meeting was part of a packed schedule of time with supporters for Trump as his vice president convened the first meeting of the coronavirusa task force, Wall Street plunged and 8,400 people were revealed to be being monitored for the virus in California.

After time with the actors, he hosted a number of his prominent black supporters in the Cabinet Room including Diamond and Silk, Turning Point USA's Candace Owens and ex-'Grey's Anatomy' actor Isaiah Washington.

It's unclear whether Trump addressed the coronavirus during his first meeting, but during his second, he told the group: 'I think it's an incredible achievement what our county's done.'

President Trump (right) complimented himself for the coronavirus response Thursday during a meeting with black supporters including Diamond and Silk (left)

President Trump met with black supporters in the late afternoon Thursday including (from left) Candace Owens, Diamond and Silk

Trump retweeted an image of himself, saying the meeting with Diamond and Silk was 'so nice'

He and first lady Melania Trump hosted 'hundreds of African American leaders' for an African American History Month reception at the White House Thursday night.

There, he had attendees go around the room and introduce themselves.

Many of them had nice things to say about Trump. But Trump had not-so-nice things to say about the 'fake news,' even going as far to call NBC News 'racist,' according to the White House pool report.

He said the press was out of line for asking about the 1,200 point Dow drop. Trump then also talked about how much bigger his rallies were than those of Elizabeth Warren, calling her 'Pocahontas' in front of the crowd.

And then he griped that Joe Biden can gaffe all the time and he can't.

'I never get credit for anything,' the president said.
El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. has suspended flights to Italy for the next two weeks -Milan, Venice, Rome and its Sun D'Or unit's flights to Naples, from tomorrow until March 14. The Israeli carrier has also suspended all flights to Bangkok from Tuesday March 3 (last flight leaves for Thailand on Sunday March 1 and leaves Thailand for Israel on Tuesday March 3), Trend reports with reference to Globes.

As expected, El Al is also postponing the launch of its new Tel Aviv - Tokyo route from March 11 until April 4. Furthermore, El Al has extended the suspension of its flights from Hong Kong and Beijing to until May 2. Passengers seeking alternative flights should contact El Al service center or the agent through whom they booked the ticket.

Earlier today, El Al notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) that it expects a fall in revenue of $50-70 million between January and April 2020 because of the coronavirus epidemic.
Utility to Pay $53 Million for Blasts That Damaged Homes, Killed 1

BOSTONA utility company will pay the largest criminal fine ever imposed for breaking a federal pipeline safety law$53 millionand plead guilty to causing a series of natural gas explosions in Massachusetts that killed one person and damaged dozens of homes, federal officials said Feb. 26.

Columbia Gas of Massachusetts has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Pipeline Safety Act and pay the fine to resolve a federal investigation into the explosions that rocked three communities in the Merrimack Valley, north of Boston, in September 2018.

Todays settlement is a sobering reminder that if you decide to put profits before public safety, you will pay the consequences, FBI agent Joseph Bonavolonta said.

The company said in an emailed statement that it takes full responsibility for the disaster.

Todays resolution with the U.S. Attorneys Office is an important part of addressing the impact, the company wrote. Our focus remains on enhancing safety, regaining the trust of our customers, and ensuring that quality service is delivered.

The companys parent, Merrillville, Indiana-based NiSource Inc., agreed to sell the company and cease any gas pipeline and distribution activities in Massachusetts. Any profit from the sale of Columbia Gas of Massachusetts will be handed over to the federal government.

Eversource announced later on Feb. 26 an agreement to buy the companys natural gas assets in Massachusetts for $1.1 billion.

We knew that one of the things those communities wanted was for Columbia Gas to simply go away, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling told reporters. The tragedy was to such an extent that it would be extremely difficult for the populations in those towns to trust this company going forward, so that was one of our priorities when we struck this deal.

The explosions and fires outraged the Massachusetts communities of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover, where thousands of homes and businesses went without gas service for weeks, and months in some cases, during the winter. Residents and public officials lashed out at the company for not adequately responding and called for officials to be held accountable.

Leonel Rondon, 18, died when a chimney collapsed on his vehicle in the driveway of a friends homehours after he had gotten his drivers license. About two dozen others were injured, and dozens of buildings were damaged or destroyed.

A series of class-action lawsuits stemming from the explosions has settled for $143 million. The settlement awaits final approval from a judge.

Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera praised the plea deal, saying it will be a great day when Columbia Gas no longer exists.

This agreement will bring some much-needed solace to those affected, he told reporters.

The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the explosions on overpressurized gas lines, saying the company failed to account for critical pressure sensors as workers replaced century-old cast-iron pipes in Lawrence. That omission caused high-pressure gas to flood the neighborhoods distribution system at excessive levels.

Lelling said federal investigators found that Columbia Gas violated minimum safety standards for starting up and shutting down gas lines through a pattern of flagrant indifference.

An internal company notice circulated in 2015 showed that the company knew that failing to properly account for control lines in construction projects could cause fires and explosions, officials said. Yet Columbia Gas cut corners to increase its bottom line, officials said.

The company didnt keep reliable records of control lines because it was too expensive, hired inexperienced and untrained workers, and didnt communicate with the city of Lawrence about construction projects, Bonavolonta said. Columbia Gas couldnt even give NTSB investigators an accurate picture of who its customers were in the immediate wake of the explosions, he said.

This disaster was caused by a whole management failure at Columbia Gas, Lelling said.

Until Columbia Gas is sold, an independent monitor will ensure that the company is following state and federal laws, he said.

The disaster prompted federal officials to call in September for every state to require that all-natural gas infrastructure projects be reviewed and approved by a licensed professional engineer. The NTSB also recommended that natural gas utilities be required to install additional safeguards on low-pressure systems like the one involved in the explosions.

Columbia Gas is scheduled to plead guilty on March 9.

By Alanna Durkin Richer
FAST Autoworld Philippines Corp. (FAPC) opened the first Fuso dealership in the VisMin region located on M.L. Quezon Ave., Barangay Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City last Feb. 20, 2020. With the inauguration of a new dealer outlet, the brand will be able to manage the medium to heavy truck requirements for Cebu businesses.

FAPC director William Chiongbian II mentioned in his speech how excited they are to roll out its latest brand and product, which is Fuso. This dealership will not only address the growing vehicle sales and service demands in the province but will also have the opportunity to sell in the rest of the Philippines.

Fuso is known for its high-quality products, and its 1.6-hectare outlet and state-of-the-art facility is competent to cater to and serve customers better as it is equipped with seven work bays to accommodate all types of services for trucks. The dealership can display up to five light to heavy-duty trucks where it also houses the latest models of trucks and buses to supply industries like logistics, hauling and construction.

With Fuso recognized as the general distributor of trucks and buses in the Philippines, the Mactan branch showcases the modern PUV versions of its Canter Trucks: the Class 2 Canter Commuter and the Class 3 Canter Express. The two units are Fusos model entries for the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program (PUVMP).

The 33-seater Class 2 PUV will be utilized for short routes within the city, while the 23-seater Class 3 PUV will be deployed for longer routes within towns and municipalities. Both Canter Trucks are powered by a Euro 4-compliant diesel engine and are outfitted with closed-circuit television cameras, aircon and seatbelts to mention a few.

The Fuso dealership in Mactan will significantly contribute to the new era of public transport and modern logistics in the city and even the entire Philippines.
TCS Group Holding PLC notification

Moscow, Russia - 27 February 2020. TCSGH has been informed that Mr. Oleg Tinkov, founder and shareholder in TCSGH, is currently attending court hearings initiated by the US Internal Revenue Service. The hearings are taking place in

London in February-April 2020. The case concerns resolution of potential tax issues. We are not able to disclose more details of the case, but Mr Oleg Tinkov is confident that it will be resolved as swiftly as possible. Mr Oleg Tinkov has not been a US citizen since 2013.



Mr Oleg Tinkov is attending these court hearings in his capacity as a private individual - this situation does not affect any of the opeRating companies in Tinkoff Group (including Tinkoff Bank, Tinkoff Insurance and Tinkoff Mobile).



The Company plans to make further announcements, as required, as and when it receives further relevant information.

For enquiries: Tinkoff Artem Lebedev

PR Department + 7 495 648-10-00 (ext. 2202) Alexandr Leonov + 7 495 648-10-00 (ext. 35738) pr@tinkoff.ru Tinkoff Larisa Chernysheva

IR Department + 7 495 648-10-00 (ext. 2312) Neri Tollardo +44 7741 078383 ir@tinkoff.ru

TCS Group Holding PLC

TCS Group Holding PLC is an innovative provider of online retail financial services. It includes Tinkoff Bank, mobile virtual network operator Tinkoff Mobile, Tinkoff Insurance, management company Tinkoff Capital, Tinkoff Software DC, a network of development hubs in major Russian cities, and Tinkoff Education. The Group is currently developing Tinkoff ecosystem, which offers financial and lifestyle services.

The Group was founded in 2006 by Russian entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov and has been listed on the London Stock Exchange and on the Moscow Exchange.

The Group's key business is Tinkoff Bank, a fully online bank that serves over 10 mn customers and forms the core of the Tinkoff ecosystem.

Tinkoff Bank is the second largest player in the Russian credit card market, with a share of 13.2%. The 9M 2019 IFRS net income of TCS Group Holding PLC amounted to RUB 25.1 bn. The ROE was 59%.

With no branches, the Group serves all its customers remotely via online channels and a cloud-based call centre. To ensure smooth delivery of the Group's products, the Group has a proprietary nationwide network of representatives.

In 2018, Global Finance named Tinkoff Bank the world's Best Consumer Digital Bank, in 2019, 2018, 2016 and 2015, the Best Consumer Digital Bank in Russia, and in 2019, the Best Consumer Digital Bank in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2017 and 2013, the Banker recognised Tinkoff Bank as the Bank of the Year in Russia. The bank's mobile app has consistently received top industry ratings and awards (in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 by Deloitte and in 2018 by Global Finance).
IndusInd Bank informed that the Reserve Bank of India (RBl) has approved the appointment of Sumant Kathpalia as the MD & CEO for 3 years, with effect from 24 March 2020.

Sumant Kathpalia currently heads the bank's consumer banking business.

On October 31, the private lender had informed that pursuant to the recommendation of the nomination and remuneration committee (NRC), the board of directors of the bank, at its meeting held on 30 October 2019 had finalized a potential candidate for the position of MD & CEO.

As mandated under the extant RBI norms, the Bank had submitted an application to the RBI, seeking approval for the appointment of the new MD & CEO of the bank.

Share of the private bank fell 2.01% to Rs 1093.15.

IndusInd Bank provides a range of banking and financial services including wholesale banking, credit monitoring, risk management, tele-banking, investment banking and commercial lending.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Niamey, Niger (PANA) - An International Conference on the Contribution of Islamic Finance to the Financing of the Agricultural Sector opened on Friday in Niamey, with the objective of synergizing all forms of financing, conventional or not, to mobilize the financial resources needed for the country's development
The U.S. Air Force has created a new single-entry program for recruits interested in special warfare careers to earlier identify candidates who may have the aptitude and skills to become a battlefield airman.

Beginning in April, selected special warfare candidates within basic military training will enter Air Education and Training Command's new Special Warfare Operator Enlistment Vectoring program, or SWOE-V, the service announced Feb. 21.

That means recruits on the path to become combat controllers, pararescue, Tactical Air Control Party (TACP), or special reconnaissance airmen will converge under the 9T500 Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC). This is a change from assigning airmen to specialties before they can make a competent decision about their career choice, AETC officials said in a release.

"This change allows candidates to make a more informed career decision, prior to being vectored, after months of education, training, development and mentorship, to see what career field might be the best fit for them," said Lt. Col. Joseph Lopez, AETC's special warfare division chief.

Related: SpecOps Recruiting Squadron Helps Air Force Combat 'Runaway Attrition'

"The program also enhances the Air Force's ability to assign airmen a permanent AFSC in an equitable way across the special warfare community after a thorough 'whole-person' evaluation has been conducted on every candidate going through the accessions and initial phase of training," he said in the release.

To prepare candidates mentally and physically within the SWOE-V pre-accession phase, officials will begin educating airmen on the stresses and rigorous training that it takes to become a special operator, overseen by the 330th Recruiting Squadron, which is headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas.

"The typical special warfare scouting, recruiting and development process for a candidate from pre-accessioning to shipping to BMT takes from four to six months," said Lt. Col. Heath Kerns, 330th commander.

The unit was stood up June 29, 2018, to seek out combat airmen needed for the next dynamic conflict. Recruiters and mentors at the 330th already prep the airmen in a step-by-step, streamlined program, Kerns told Military.com in an interview last year.

Potential candidates first must pass the 21-day Physical Abilities Stamina Test, or PAST, before they can enter the 9T500 AFSC. Like their BMT counterparts, the candidates must compete for selection, the release states. Once at BMT, like all recruits, the candidates will follow the eight-and-a-half week curriculum that focuses on leadership, collaboration, values, field training and fitness.

But while "assigned to their special warfare BMT flights, candidates conduct additional physical training and continue their education about all things special warfare-related, including components, missions and specialties and the SWOE vectoring process," Lopez said.

The additional training helps to prepare them for the Special Warfare Prep Course, the officials said. The class runs eight weeks following BMT.

The airmen's scores are assessed throughout BMT, SWOE-V and the prep course and are "heavily based on a candidate's performance," Lopez said.

The Air Force then splits the airmen into more defined courses of initial entry, which will dictate their future career field: Special Tactics and Guardian Angel, or Tactical Air Control Party.

Airmen pursuing combat controller, pararescue or special reconnaissance fields fall under Special Tactics and Guardian Angel, while TACPs align with the TACP initial entry course. Once candidates pass their initial entry courses, they move on within their respective AFSC-specific pipelines, Lopez said.

"The SWOE-V really is a big deal as it represents a momentous change for the Air Force special warfare community," he said. "By removing constraints in the recruiting and accessions process, we are expanding the talent pool while streamlining entry into the service. We also ensure equitable distribution consistent with and proportional to Air Force-established production goals."

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.

Read more: US Says Chinese Ship Fired Laser at American Aircraft
The work of Armenias sole medical center specializing in the treatment of HIV and AIDS was disrupted on Friday as 80 percent of its employees resigned in protest against the governments decision to merge it with another clinic.

The Armenian Ministry of Health, which initiated the decision earlier this year, says that the Republican Center for the Prevention of AIDS must be incorporated into a Yerevan hospital which treats other infectious diseases, including the flu and similar viruses.

Health Minister Arsen Torosian insisted earlier in February that Armenia no longer needs a specialized HIV/AIDS clinic and that it now makes more sense to have all infectious diseases treated by a single medical institution. The fight against AIDS must be integrated into the overall healthcare system, he said.

The affected HIV/AIDS medics strongly disagree, saying the dissolution of their center, which has detected up to 450 cases of HIV annually in Armenia, would break up what they describe as a well-functioning system of preventing, tracking and treating the immunodeficiency disease.

In three, four or five years from now we will have  an uncontrolled epidemic, Arshak Papoyan, who heads one of the centers divisions, claimed on Friday.

The governments decision also sparked protests by many of the HIV-positive Armenians who receive free antiretroviral drugs and counseling at the center. Earlier this week, about 150 of them signed a joint letter to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian urging him to reverse it.

The HIV/AIDS patients are particularly worried about Torosians intention to decentralize services provided by the Republican Center. That includes transferring the distribution of antiretroviral drugs from the center to regular policlinics across the country. According to Torosian, this will destigmatize HIV and AIDS and get people suffering from it out of social isolation.

HIV carriers counter that any breach of the confidentiality guaranteed by the center would only worsen discrimination encountered by them and the stigma associated with their disease. None of us will go to a policlinic or the Nork hospital [in Yerevan,] one of them told RFE/RLs Armenian service.

On Wednesday, Torosian fired the centers longtime director, Samvel Grigorian, for his refusal to help implement the controversial merger. Just hours later, Grigorians deputy, Aram Hakobian, was briefly detained by police for allegedly refusing to hand the clinics official seal to Artur Berberian, its acting director appointed by the minister.

It emerged on Friday at least 86 of the 108 people working at the center have tendered their resignations in response to the governments failure to meet their demand.

The conditions that have been created by various Ministry of Health officials make our continued work impossible, Hakobian told RFE/RLs Armenian service.

Its not about an individual, its about preserving a system, said another senior HIV/AIDS medic, Janetta Petrosian.

Berberian deplored the mass resignations of the centers staff. He warned that their inactivity could be deemed a criminal offense.
DANBURY  The Ridgefield man accused of shooting a Waterbury teen during a 2017 botched car robbery outside his home is expected back in court next Wednesday.

Mauro Tropeano, 35, is facing second-degree assault, sale of illegal drugs, illegal discharge of a firearm and interfering with an officer charges following an aborted car theft at his home the night of June 5, 2017, that left a 15-year-old from Waterbury with a bullet lodged in her back.

A seven-day continuance was granted during his hearing at state Superior Court in Danbury on Wednesday.

Tropeanos attorney, Eugene Riccio, said his clients Hulda Lane home was invaded by a gang of at least five marauders intent on continuing their crime spree in multiple towns in western Connecticut that night.

After twice entering his property and motor vehicle, the thieves commandeered Mr. Tropeanos car, which contained valuable personal property, and crashed it in his front yard, he said.

Riccio said Tropeano is a licensed gun-owner with no criminal records, who responded appropriately under the dangerous circumstances.

After stealing some of Mr. Tropeanos personal property, the thieves fled in a car they had previously stolen from another town [and] continued their criminal onslaught, which included stealing cars and property from homeowners at night in other Connecticut towns, Riccio said.

According to the affidavit for Tropeanos arrest, the teen girl who was shot told police she had driven to Ridgefield in a stolen Kia Sorento with a group of friends with the intent of stealing cars.

While the group was attempting to drive off with a Range Rover parked in the driveway of Tropeanos home, Tropeano came out and fired three shots. One of the bullets passed through the rear of the Kia and struck her in the back, the girl told police.

She was later admitted to Waterbury Hospital, where doctors were unable to remove the bullet.

In a police interview shortly after the shooting, Tropeano denied having fired a weapon during the attempted robbery, but declined to have his hands tested for gunpowder residue.

A search of Tropeanos home turned up three spent shell casings that matched the caliber of a Glock handgun, as well as seven vacuum-sealed packages of marijuana, steroids in injectable and pill form, and more than $28,000 in cash.

Police also seized two guns, including the Glock with a mounted flashlight, were also seized.

Tropeano  who owns Stanziatos Wood Fired Pizza in Danbury  later admitted firing the Glock that night, claiming self-defense.

The teen girl Tropeano shot filed a lawsuit against him a month after the incident, accusing him of negligent and intentional assault, as well as reckless and wanton misconduct.

The lawsuit, however, was dismissed in September 2018 after she failed to appear for a status conference.

Tropeano has pleaded not guilty and is next scheduled to appear at state Superior Court in Danbury on March 4.
Apple is rumored to be working on a secret weapon that will help its iPad stand up against traditional laptops  a keyboard with a built-in trackpad.

A new report from The Information reveals the tech giant is planning on release the redesigned iPad keyboard 'alongside the next version of the iPad Pro expected later this year.'

Sources close to the matter said the design of the iPad Pro Smart will be 'made of materials similar' to the current Smart Keyboards.

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Apple is rumored to be working on a secret weapon that will help its iPad stand up against traditional laptops  a keyboard with a built-in trackpad. Sources close to the matter said the design of the iPad Pro Smart will be 'made of materials similar' to the current Smart Keyboards

Previous reports had suggested that Apple was planning a new version of the Smart Keyboard, but The Information takes things a step farther with siting an anonymous source.

'Apple is planning to release an iPad keyboard accessory later this year that will include a built-in trackpad, the latest step in its effort to position the tablet device as an alternative to laptop computers, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company will likely release the accessory alongside the next version of the iPad Pro expected later this year, the person added.

And last December, the public may have received the first look at the next-generation iPads that suggest the devices will mirror the iPhone 11 Pro with the same triple rear cameras.

The images show two variations, an 11-inch and 12.9-inch, with a camera bump boasting three lenses.

Last December, the public may have received the first look at the next-generation iPads that suggest the devices will mirror the iPhone 11 Pro with the same triple rear cameras.

According to the leaks, the smaller iPad would be designed with a metal back, whereas the larger variant would have a glass back panel.

The report also suggests that Apple could release both of the iPad Pros in March 2020.

iGeeks Blog received the leaked images and video of the 'iPad Pros' from Steve H.McFly from OnLeaks, who accurately predicted the iPhone 11 Pro design in renders back in January 2018.

OnLeaks reports that the upcoming duo may have the same dimensions as the 2018 models.

However, the site only shared the dimensions for the 11-inch iPad Pro - 248 x 178.6 x 5.9 mm (7.8 mm including rear camera bump).

The renders do paint a clear picture of how the outside of each device will be designed.

The 11-inch in the video appears to have a metal back, while the 12.9-inch boasts a glass back panel (pictured) the same as the iPhone Pro 11

The report also suggests that Apple could release both of the iPad Pros in March 2020

The 11-inch in the video appears to have a metal back, while the 12.9-inch boasts a glass back panel  the same as the iPhone Pro 11.

'There is no confirmed details about the material of the back of both models,' Jignesh Padhiyar with iGeeks Blog wrote.

'Given the Apple legacy, we can claim that the brand will install A13X chip in the 2020 iPads.

'We have been tracking the releases of iPhones, and Apple always introduces new chipset in September or October, and then the same chip is installed in iPads.'

In addition to a redesigned iPad Pro duo, Apple is set to release seven new iPhones in 2020 alone  including an array of 4G and 5G iPhone 12 models and the long-awaited iPhone SE.

Details of the new models were revealed in a private note to investors by analyst Jun Zhang of international brokers Rosenblatt Securities, leaked to Apple Insider.

The note states that the iPhone SE 2 - the successor to the iPhone SE, which was released in 2016 - will launch in March 2020.

It will reportedly feature a 5.1-inch LCD display, a single rear camera and Apple's latest A13 chip.

The site only shared the dimensions for the 11-inch iPad Pro (pictured) - 248 x 178.6 x 5.9 mm (7.8 mm including rear camera bump). The renders do paint a clear picture of how the outside of each device will be designed.

It will use TouchID fingerprint recognition for authentication rather than the newer FaceID facial recognition technology, and will only support 4G, not 5G.

As a result it is likely to be the cheapest model released next year, with a previous report by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo pointing to a price tag of just $399 (299).

Meanwhile, Apple's main iPhone 12 lineup will be released later in the year - most likely in September.

This is said to include three 5G models - the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 Pro 5G, the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro Plus 5G, and the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max 5G.

There will also be three 4G models - the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 4G, the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 Pro 4G and the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro Plus 4G.
Turkey on Friday called on the international community to establish a no-fly zone over the northwestern province of Idlib to protect civilians from Syrian regime bombardments a day after the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers.

"The international community must act to protect civilians and impose a no-fly-zone," Fahrettin Altun, communications director at the Turkish presidency, said on Twitter.

Syrian regime forces backed by Russian air strikes have since December clawed back chunks of the Idlib region, forcing close to a million people to flee their homes and shelters amid bitter cold.

The United Nations said Monday that the latest fighting was coming "dangerously close" to encampments of the displaced, risking an imminent "bloodbath".

"Millions of civilians are being bombarded by air for months now.

Infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, is being targeted by the regime systematically. A genocide is happening slowly before our eyes. Those with conscious and dignity must speak up!" Altun tweeted.

"The regime has taken advantage of the international silence in the face of its crimes for years. Abandoning Idlib to its fate will mean that the regime's dreams will come true. They have been pursuing demographic and ethnic cleansing in this region.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Dane County resident sickened by the new coronavirus that has caused a global outbreak has recovered and been released from isolation, health officials said Friday.

The person has tested negative for the virus twice and is feeling well, meaning the individual can leave isolation and resume normal activities, Karri Bartlett, community health supervisor for Public Health Madison and Dane County, said in a statement.

On Feb. 5, local officials said the person returned to Dane County Regional Airport from Beijing on Jan. 30 and went directly to UW Hospitals emergency room, where the person was evaluated, tested and sent home to begin isolation.

The person was Wisconsins first case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, and the 12th case in the United States. The country has now had 15 cases, not including 47 cases of Americans sickened elsewhere, primarily on a cruise ship in Japan.
AGOURA HILLS, Calif., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH) (the "Company"), a leading provider of high-quality single-family homes for rent, announced today the cancellation of the Company's presentation and webcast at the Citi 2020 Global Property CEO Conference, previously scheduled to take place on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at 8:50 a.m. Eastern Time at the Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood, Florida. Management no longer plans to attend the conference due to an abundance of caution related to travel amidst an evolving virus landscape.

About American Homes 4 Rent

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH) is a leader in the single-family home rental industry and "American Homes 4 Rent" is fast becoming a nationally recognized brand for rental homes, known for high-quality, good value and tenant satisfaction. We are an internally managed Maryland real estate investment trust, or REIT, focused on acquiring, developing, renovating, leasing, and operating attractive, single-family homes as rental properties. As of December 31, 2019, we owned approximately 52,552 single-family properties, in selected submarkets in 22 states.

Additional information about American Homes 4 Rent is available on our website at www.americanhomes4rent.com.

Contact:

American Homes 4 Rent

Investor Relations

Phone: (855)794-2447

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE American Homes 4 Rent

Related Links

https://www.americanhomes4rent.com


Credit: Herring & HerringHere's another accomplishment Metallica can add to their impressive resume: being named after a newly discovered deep-sea crustacean.

According to Phys.org, the "worm-like" creature is called Macrostylis metallicola, and inhabits an area of the northern Pacific Ocean known as the Clarion Clipperton Zone, which is between Mexico and Hawaii.

"The powerful music of Metallica has accompanied me the majority of my life," says Dr. Torben Riehl, who, along with Dr. Bart De Smet, discovered the crustacean. "Songs such as 'Master of Puppets' and "One' are outstanding masterpieces in rock history and I am thrilled to be able to give something back to the band by naming a new species after them!"

Metallica themselves acknowledged the news in a Facebook post, writing, "We've played on all seven continents, made it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and nowwe're a crustacean!"

The metal legends add that they see a lot of commonalities between them and they're namesake species.

"The worm-like creature dwells in complete darkness, has no eyes, and is colorless. Talk about Blackened!" the band writes. "It also lives amongst metallic nodules containing cobalt, copper, manganese, nickel, and rare-earth elements. So it basically lives in a rock stadium? Now that's one metal crustacean!"

Metallica will return to rock stadiums in April when they launch a tour of South America. They'll be back in the U.S. in May to play the Epicenter and Welcome to Rockville festivals.

Earlier this week, Metallica announced that they'd be canceling their headlining sets at the Sonic Temple and Louder than Life festivals, as those dates will conflict with James Hetfield's "critical recovery events" as part of his ongoing rehabilitation from substance abuse issues.

Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
Apple could be forced to install user-removable batteries in iPhones and iPads destined for the European market if new EU rules are introduced.

The leaked draft plans have been reported on by Dutch business website Het Financieele Dagblad but have not yet been agreed by the EU or officially announced.

If introduced they would apply to any technology company that doesn't already include a removable battery in its phones, tablets or even wireless earphones.

Apple has always used non-removable batteries in its devices, requiring users to go to a specialist repair shop if they face issues with the power supply.

Het Financieele Dagblad reports that the European Commission proposals are expected to be formally announced sometime in March.

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Apple batteries are notoriously hard to remove and require specialist training and equipment. The EU wants this to become easier with companies being required to have easily removable batteries in their devices

The plans tie into the larger European Union e-waste reduction plans that aim to reduce the amount of waste generated by non-recyclable electronic devices.

It would require a significant redesign for Apple products, which currently require an expert engineer to change the battery or make any alterations inside the device.

The battery in the latest iPhone 11 Pro has been described as 'moderately difficult' to replace by Apple support website iFixit.

The site says it takes anything from 45 minutes to up to two hours to replace depending on the experience of the person making the swap.

It also requires specialist equipment including multiple types of screwdrivers and suction handles to open the case.

This isn't the first time Apple has come up against the EU's desire to create uniformity in a bid to reduce electronic waste.

The European Parliament recently discussed the possibility of making smartphone makers use a common charging port, which could force Apple to adopt the USB-C.

Apple warned that replacing it with a universal charger could cost consumers up to 1.5billion and would produce an 'unprecedented volume of electronic waste'.

The tech giant also argued the legislation, if passed, could 'stifle innovation'.

Exact details of the proposed EU battery legislation haven't been reported, but the leaked documents do suggest there will be a greater requirement to recycle.

Given Apple's resistance to changing its charging cable from lightning to USB-C to comply with standardisation, it is unlikely Apple will take this proposal well.

When the EU first proposed the idea of a standard charger a spokesperson for Apple said it would have a direct negative impact on existing customers.

'We believe regulation that forces conformity across the type of connector built into all smartphones stifles innovation rather than encouraging it, and would harm consumers in Europe and the economy as a whole,' Apple said in a statement.

Apple is already battling the European Union over plans to standardise all charging ports for mobile devices - which would require the company to ditch its lightning cable in favour of USB-C

A study by Copenhagen Economics commissioned by Apple found the total cost to consumers from a regulatory-mandated move to a common charger would be at least 1.5 billion, outweighing the 13 million in associated environmental benefits.

The European Commission, which acts as the executive for the EU, has been pushing for a common charger for more than a decade.

In 2009, a voluntary pledge was signed by the likes of Apple, Nokia and Samsung to make chargers compatible with the micro-USB standard.

While many went on to adopt micro-USB, Apple went ahead with its own Lightning port in 2012 and sold a micro-USB adaptor instead.

Some smartphone makers have now evolved to USB-C, which charges devices faster than the old micro-USB.

Apple also moved to USB-C on the iPad Pro tablet, as well as MacBook laptops.

The company have been approached for a comment on the leaked European Union proposals.
Member of Parliament for Effiduasi/Asokore constituency, Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie, in partnership with the Education Directorate in the Sekyere East District, have honoured some teachers in the constituency for their selfless efforts in improving the standard of education, especially at the basic schools level.



The teachers were eulogized for improving BECE results in the 2019 academic year, compared to previous years.



Some of the items given to the hardworking teachers include flat screen televisions, laptops, deep freezers, computers, blenders and cash prizes.



Nsiah Moses, a math teacher of Effiduase SDA JHS who was awarded over all best teacher in the district, was thankful to the lawmaker, Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie for the initiative.



Im grateful for this recognition. Every teacher should use this as a motivation to teach passionately and they will be rewarded. Next years result will be better, he said.



Speaking at the ceremony, Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie lauded the teachers for improving the standard of education in the constituency.



He promised to do more for the teacher as a sign of motivation.



Our pass rate has been low till this year. We had to intervene by recruiting pupils teachers and other support staff to enable them focus on the students for a better result and this has been achieved quite immensely. Results has improved and we will continue to assist the teachers in all ways to make education better here, he said.





Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









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After 88 years, Frank Lloyd Wrights School of Architecture at Taliesin is closing. The Governing Board of the school was not able to reach an agreement with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation to keep it open, thereby forcing them to cease all operations after the Spring 2020 semester. Established in 1932, Taliesin consists of two separate Wright retreats: Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona. Here, generations of architecture students had a chance to immerse themselves in creative experimentation, often designing and living in their own residences on the campuses.

Its a loss for Wrights legacy, for the schools 30 current students, and for the world of architecture, particularly considering how interesting Taliesin student creations tend to be. Incorporating key elements like sustainability, natural materials, and harmony with the surrounding landscape, these temporary structures  particularly those in the Sonoran Desert at Taliesin West  are anything but typical. Here are a few of the students standout structures.

Taliesin student Simon de Aguero's Wide-Open Desert Home

Taliesin student Simon de Aguero's Wide-Open Desert Home

Simon de Aguero created this unusual wide-open desert home almost entirely from found scraps and local materials, with a core structure built out of rammed earth. The core design is an abstracted tribute to the way boulders jut out of the earth in the desert, with a stretched vinyl shade hovering like clouds overhead. And since the climate in question precludes the need for full walls, windows, or doors, the design really enables a refreshing level of interaction with nature. The ability to build a fire beneath the bed platform is a particularly cool feature.

Little Shelters is a collaborative student project built with a $2,000 budget using as many on-site resources as possible. Daniel Chapman, Mark-Thomas Cordova, Jaime Inostroza, Dylan Kessler, Pablo Moncayo, Natasha Vemulkonda, and Pierre Verbruggen spent 12 weeks constructing two shared shelters and a gathering space that could be used and maintained by future students, as well.

Story continues

Student Jaime Inostroza also created the Atalaya Shelter, which is rooted in a desire to deeply understand the landscape itself. The design sprang into his mind when he first encountered the perfect site for it. He explains: It was like secret place hidden in the wash, covered by the shadows of the trees and looking out at the wash and the desert. The entrance to the site is shaped by the Alameda of Palos Verdes. This creates the aperture to the site, and at sunset the site becomes a distiller of the light. The mountains are now with purple in color. The landscape is an opera of colors.

Inside Taliesin student Jaime Inostroza's

From that observation of the site, my principle was to develop an entrance procession that would let me dwell within the horizon of the Alameda of the Palos Verdes. Because of that the name of the project is Atalaya, which means crows nest. It is the highest point from the boat where you can see the horizon across the ocean. I used the existing concrete pad like a plinth that holds this structure and continued the procession with a combination wall-stair. The shelter will be covered with fabric panels that will amplify the colors of the desert.

Taliesin West also inspired architects and designers who werent students there, including Kate Brown, who created the sculptural Etazin Chair specifically for the school. Made of steel, the circular eight-foot lounger features an inner ring that can spin to face any direction the user desires. Its on permanent installation at the school, placed among the student shelters in the desert.

You can read more about what it was like for students to live and work at Taliesin West, in their own words, at ArchDaily.
The average cost of an American wedding is more than $30,000. For many of us, thats an impossible sumand it overshadows what should be one of the happiest times in our lives. But it doesnt have to be that way. Getting married can cost as little as the price of a marriage license from city hall! So were celebrating those affordable weddings, those Under $10k Weddingsbecause a beautiful wedding should be accessible to everyone who wants one.

I met my now-husband in 2017 at a bar in Washington, DC when he offered to buy me and my friend a drink. After the first date, I knew he was someone I could spend the rest of my life with. A few months later, I knew he was the one I would spend the rest of my life with. In 2018, we started planning a wedding. We both come from cultures where the community is expected to be part of the ceremonies, whether youre close with them or not. My Ghanaian mother who has enviously sat through dozens of extravagant weddings wanted traditional Ghanaian wedding attire of authentic Kente, and lace outfits flown in from Ghana, a wedding party of dozens of cousins, and a massive venue where she could fit all her friends to watch her only daughter get married.

With all that taken into consideration, a few days browsing on Pinterest and Bella Naija Weddings had me tallying upwards of $30,000 on a wedding. But why pay all that money for what is ultimately just one weekend in a new lifetime of weekends? Oneil and I talked it over and decided we didnt want to lose out on giving our friends and family a good time, but we were going to keep our budget tight. Here are all the ways we slashed our wedding costs to around $8,000 and still provided an amazing experience for over 150 attendees.

HelloGiggles

How we afforded a wedding under $10k:

We split our wedding up across two days; we did our nuptials at a courthouse with our immediate family and closest friends and then threw a party in my fathers backyard the next day. We focused our budget on the party since the courthouse wedding cost only $1,100, including the costs of our wedding outfits.

Story continues

What our biggest expense was:

With the reception being held at my fathers house, our biggest expense was the backyard setup. We worked with a tent company who was able to help us pick out a covered tent that fit perfectly in my dads medium-sized backyard. We were able to rent a dance floor, string lights, chairs, tables, and tablecloths from the company too. They pitched the tent, set everything out, and came to pack it all up for a little less than $3,000.

Cornelia Poku

Where we cut wedding costs:

Wedding cakes gave me sticker shock! I knew they were expensive, but I still couldnt have imagined what I was being quoted. We skipped a cake altogether and opted for cupcakes from a local up-and-coming baker. We got all of our invitations from Staples, and we bought a ton of alcohol and had our cousins take turns serving as bartenders. A college student did my makeup on the wedding day. I did my own hair for the party and I practiced different hairstyles for months until I found one I liked and could do comfortably on my own.

What we splurged on:

My one splurge item was a caricature artist. I have a weird obsession with caricatures and have multiple from different stages of my life. Since I love them so much, I really wanted to gift them to the people I love. My mom and husband thought it was a frivolous expense considering what a penny-pincher I am, but the artist was at our party for four hours and did dozens of drawings for our guests. I was surprised at how many people had never had one done. It was a big hit! People liked that as a party-favor better than the actual party favors!

Cornelia Poku

How our family and friends helped:

It was all hands on deck to pull this off. My aunt and my husbands friend covered food. Both of them are professional caterers who wanted their services to be our gift. We basically paid them for the ingredients. Our cousins and friends helped us clean, decorate, run errands, transport food, and more. One of my best friends gifted us her event planning services and most of the decorations. We also had a family friend who gave us a steep discount on two days of photography.

What we regret spending on, and not spending on:

My husband still says he wishes he hadnt spent so much money on his suit. It was about $500. We know now that if we shopped more, he could have purchased a suit of comparable quality for less. Additionally, to our regret, our primary wedding favor was a wine bottle stopper. Meanwhile, the caricature art wound up being a surprise favorite wedding favor! I wish Id hired the caricature artist for longer and got rid of the wine stoppers altogetherif Id done that, we would have been able to afford him all day and so many more people couldve had their pictures drawn. I also wish wed spent a little more money on food. I asked my aunt not to overcook as is her tendency. Turns out that even with her overestimate, a few of the favorite food items ran out. I cant blame my guests though, everything was delicious!

Cornelia Poku

How we brought our culture to our wedding:

In both of our cultures, the wedding is for the community. We made sure that we planned to accommodate the many unexpected, but welcomed guests. We didnt wear authentic Kente as is typical in a Ghanaian wedding, but we wore matching Ankara print outfits for our introduction as man and wife. The food served was a combination of favorites from Ghanaian and Jamaican culture: we had curry, jerk chicken, and oxtail, alongside jollof rice, waakye, and puff puff desserts. And of course, there was music. Our DJ was amazing! He had so much knowledge of the latest Afrobeats, dancehall, soca, and hip-hop. He even threw it all the way back to highlife music. My aunties were up dancing throughout the night.

It was an amazing two days and my mom, despite all her visions of grandeur, admitted to me that shes so glad I took my own route. Apparently her friends were still telling her how lovely it was.

My advice to anyone looking to save on a wedding is to not think about anyone elses opinion. None of it will matter the next morning and certainly not throughout your marriage.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

Presenting one of the highest papal awards to Azerbaijans First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva in the Vatican is the recognition of Azerbaijani multiculturalisms victory, head of the Russia-Azerbaijan interparliamentary friendship group, Russian MP Dmitry Savelyev told Trend.

The MP noted that only the heads of state or high-ranking statesmen are awarded the Papal Order of Knighthood-Order of Pope Pius IX.

During the reception, Pope Francis, not without a reason, noted that Azerbaijan is a model of true tolerance, because the state has long been spreading the values of multiculturalism to the world, said Savelyev. The country has created all the conditions for the peaceful coexistence and comprehensive development of numerous ethnic groups, faiths and cultures, and the global Address of Tolerance-Azerbaijan project which is implemented by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, is aimed at restoring and repairing churches and religious monuments.

Savelyev added that this applies not only to Islamic shrines.

In 2007, the restoration of the Orthodox Church in Baku was carried out as part of the project, and in 2009 the Foundation financed restoration of the stained glass windows of the Strasbourg Cathedral, and in 2013, to the 1,025th anniversary of Russias baptism, a monument to Saint Vladimir was erected on the square in front of the Cathedral of St. Vladimir in Astrakhan city at the expense of the Foundation, said the MP.

Multiculturalism, based on humanism and universal values, is the historical wealth of Azerbaijan, Savelyev noted.

The fact that the Catholic Church, presenting one of the highest awards to Mehriban Aliyeva, recognized the triumph of tolerance in the Muslim-majority state, once again testifies that careful perception of the spiritual values of different cultures, mutual understanding and tolerance of people will always be the only true way to expand the areas of harmony and trust among peoples.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  The Sandiganbayan Second Division on Friday acquitted former Philippine National Police chief Alan Purisima of perjury charges in connection with alleged undeclared properties in his Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth.

The anti-graft court dismissed the eight counts of perjury against Purisima.

The former top cop was accused of failing to truthfully declare properties owned by him and his wife in his SALNs from 2006 to 2009, and 2011 to 2014.

Purisima earlier posted a 48,000 bail for his provisional liberty.

Aside from the perjury cases, Purisima is also facing other corruption cases before the Sandiganbayan over an alleged anomalous courier deal and the controversial Mamasapano encounter under the administration of then President Benigno Aquino III in 2015.
Northeast Delhi violence: Death toll mounts to 42

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Feb 28: The death toll in the northeast Delhi communal riots reached 42 on Friday, according to senior officials.

"Over 215 riot victims have been brought to our hospital and treated since February 24. However, at present only 51 patients are admitted. The condition of almost all patients are stable except one," Medical Superintendent of GTB Hospital Sunil Kumar said.

Since February 24, 25 victims have been brought dead at GTB Hospital and nine have died during treatment, he said. One person was declared brought dead by doctors, while another had died during treatment at the LNJP Hospital on Wednesday.

"One more death at LNJP Hospital was recorded on Thursday. One fatality was reported at Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital on Thursday, taking the total death toll to 38," a senior official said.

Explained: The Delhi violence and how life is limping back to normalcy

Over 50 patients have been provided treatment at the LNJP Hospital since the violence broke out on Sunday in various parts of northeast Delhi, officials at the hospital said. Post-mortem have been conducted on nearly 15 victims, officials said.

On Thursday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the families of those killed in the communal riots in Delhi, as he listed out several peace and rehabilitation measures for the city where 39 people have been killed and over 200 injured in the clashes.

Addressing a press conference here, Kejriwal also said an immediate relief of Rs 25,000 would be given to those whose houses have been burnt, while the government would also provide free books and uniforms to students who have lost them to the riot. The violence mainly hit the northeast Delhi and localities such as Jafrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Yamuna Vihar, Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh, Shiv Vihar are among the areas majorly affected. Kejriwal said the Delhi government will bear the cost of treatment of those injured in the violence and have been admitted to private hospitals. The families who lost any minor member would get Rs 5 lakh as ex gratia, while those seriously injured will get Rs 2 lakh, he said.

Those who have suffered minor injuries will get Rs 20,000, and the orphaned children will get Rs 3 lakh, he announced, adding special camps will be set up for people to get essential documents they lost in the arson. He said round-the-clock helpline numbers for riot-affected people will be set up and four night magistrates deployed to coordinate relief and rehabilitation activities.

"The Delhi Financial Corporation will also provide subsidised loans to small businessmen who have lost their livelihood in the violence. If children have lost books, Directorate of Education will provide books and notebooks free of cost to children of both government schools as well as private schools," Kejriwal said. He said that Rs 5 lakh, which includes Rs 1 lakh to tenants, will also be provided to those whose houses have been totally damaged.

Delhi Police were caught off guard by sudden mobilisation of mob of 20,000: Intel assessment

When asked about the alleged involvement of his party councillor Tahir Hussain in the riots, the AAP chief said no rioter irrespective of their party should be spared. "If those involved in the riots are found to be from the AAP, give them double the punishment," he said.

"An app will be developed by the divisional commissioner, through which citizens can lodge details of loss of property, loss of vehicles, damage to business, details of injury and death," Kejriwal said.

The revenue department will undertake intensive confidence building measures and make a quick survey of the quantum of losses suffered by individuals, families, business establishments, shops and institutions among others, he said. Peace committees will be constituted by the Delhi government at mohalla level, he said, adding the finance department has been asked to convene a meeting of heads of insurance firms and direct them to organise special camps for immediate clearance of insurance claims.

The government said cooked food and around 300 litres of milk is being provided to around 2,000 people of Shahdara (Noor-e-ilahi & Kardampuri) and North-East (Brahampuri & Mustafabad) Districts for which around 350 Civil Defence Volunteers have been pressed into service.

According to the government, it is in the process of revising the ex gratia amount which has not been updated since 2011.

The government said people can call helpline number 1077 for any assistance. People can also call on 011-22115289 (Northeast district), 011-22574468 (Yamuna Vihar), 011-22827367 (Seelampur), 011-22574469 (Karawal Nagar), 011-22111077 and 011-221100 (Shahdara). Thirty-four people have been killed and over 200 injured in the communal clashes that broke out in northeast Delhi three on Sunday after violence between anti and pro Citizenship (Amendment) Act groups spiralled out of control.

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Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 14:11 [IST]
New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Congress on Friday hit out at the Centre over bail to Pulwama accused Yusuf Chopan, saying the National Investigation Agency failed to file a charge sheet in the case in which 40 CRPF troops were killed in a suicide attack on Feb 14 last year.

Demanding resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah and the NIA chief, the Congress said: "Either the government is incompetent or you are guilty of lying".

"We demand the resignation of the Home Minister and the NIA chief. There have been demands for the resignation of the Home Minister for the Delhi riots, but now an important case has come up, that of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist," said senior spokesperson for Congress Abhishek Singhvi.

The NIA has rejected claims that Yusuf Chopan was arrested in the Pulwama case. In a statement on Thursday, the investigating agency said that Chopan was "never arrested" in the Pulwama attack case. "He, along with six others, was arrested in a Jaish-e-Mohammed conspiracy case registered in August last year," said the NIA.

Singhvi's attack on the government came for the third time in the past 24 hours. First it was raised by party treasurer Ahmed Patel and then by Pawan Khera, another party spokesperson, on Thursday.

The Congress has asked a series of direct questions. "Is the person named Yousuf Chopan a terrorist of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM)? Well the answer is 'yes'. Is the JeM responsible for the Parliament, Pulwama and many similar terrorist attacks?" Singhvi asked.

"Why was a charge sheet not filed against Chopan, the accused in Pulwama attack? Do you consider Pulwama and Parliament attacks anti-national crimes? Did the Central government submit any documents? If yes, why is there no signature on the papers submitted by the government?" Singhvi questioned.

He said the papers mentioned that the charge sheet couldn't be filed due to lack of evidence against Chopan. "How is this possible? Is this not a clean chit to JeM? What kind of madness is this?" Singhvi said.

The Congress alleged that the Prime Minister has forgotten the Pulwama martyrs. "Isn't this the worst example of treason?" Singhvi asked.
Migrants stories of survival jump to the big screen at this years Berlin Film Festival.

Filmmakers at this years Berlin Film Festival are turning the spotlight on the harsh journeys taken by migrants around the world.

Al Jazeeras Dominic Kane is in Berlin, Germany, talking to the directors of two films that deal with the disappointments many face when they reach their destinations.
Royal Netherlands Army's Belize operation

Look for the 11 Airmobile Brigade from the Royal Netherlands Army and Radiosquad to be active as V31FX (dates not mentioned).

This station will be operating and jungle training in Belize from different locations with different antennas on 20m phone using military equipment.

As soon as they are able to make DX-contacts, they will update their QRZ.com page. Main focus is to make contacts with Dutch amateur radio stations, but all contacts are welcome. Please use NATO phonetic alphabet when calling.

QSL via PI4CC.
Description

GIS - 28 February, 2020: A national Action Plan comprising preventive and control measures aimed at assisting stakeholders to intervene efficiently as regards Covid-19 has already been prepared, announced yesterday the Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Kailash Jagutpal, during a press conference held at the seat of his Ministry in Port Louis.

He indicated that this preparedness plan underlines the actions to be taken at the level of hospitals, airport and port. The plan, he said, comprises several themes relating to coordination, equipment, human resources, and supply of drugs.

Furthermore, Dr Jagutpal stated that a dedicated and qualified medical and paramedical staff as well as a rapid response team in each hospital and the different ports of entry have been trained to intervene on elements of infection prevention and how to tackle potential cases. Some 25 000 N-95 masks and body protection equipment are also available, he said.

The Health Minister added that sensitisation campaigns on Covid-19 are ongoing in the media on the basics of the disease, how it is transmitted and the preventive measures that can be taken to prevent proliferation of the virus. He reassured the population that as at date, there are is case of Covid-19 in Mauritius adding that the country is fully prepared as regards prevention and control measures. He also appealed to the population not to create confusion and spread fear.

Infected cases around the world

Speaking about the spread of the disease worldwide, Dr Jagutpal indicated that six new countries have reported new cases of Covid-19 namely Romania, North Macedonia Georgia, Greece, Norway and Pakistan. The number of cases is also increasing in Italy and new provinces have been affected such as Campania, Marche and Puglia. The virus has now spread in more than half of the Italians regions, he said.

In view of the situation, he pointed out that all passengers who have stayed within the last 14 days in the three Italian provinces affected by Covid-19, namely Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna, will not be allowed to enter Mauritius. Furthermore, since South Korea has raised alert to its maximum, with 1 595 cases as at 26 February 2020, passengers who have visited South Korea in the last 14 days will not be allowed to enter Mauritius, he added.

All passengers coming from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Japan will be transferred to quarantine if high temperature is detected upon arrival. Screening at the airport will also be reinforced, he said.
Media freedom watchdogs say they are alarmed over the reported assault of a well-known Chechen blogger in an unidentified European country where he lives in hiding.



An assailant broke into Tumso Abdurakhmanovs apartment on February 26 while he was asleep and beat him with a hammer, according to the Sweden-based human rights group Vayfond.

Abdurakhmanov, who eventually managed to overpower the attacker, was said to be hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.



Both Vayfond and the bloggers brother called the assault an assassination attempt -- the latest attack in Europe on critics of the leadership in Russia's North Caucasus region.

Alarmed by the reported attempt to assassinate Abdurakhmanov, the representative on freedom of the media for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Harlem Desir, tweeted on February 27, noting that the attack came after last months suspected murder of another Chechen blogger in France.



The 32-year-old Abdurakhmanov has lived in self-imposed exile since fleeing Chechnya in 2015 amid fears for his safety after becoming known for his criticism of the Kremlin-backed authorities in his native region. He has twice filed for asylum in Poland and has been turned down once already, despite strong support from human rights activists such as Amnesty International, which has warned he is at a very real risk of torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment if returned to Russia.



Gulnoza Said, Europe and Central Asia program coordinator at the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said the attack against Abdurakhmanov is alarming and must be thoroughly investigated.



Bringing the perpetrators of this attack to justice is crucial for ensuring the safety of Chechen dissidents living in Europe, she said.



The location of the attack has not been disclosed, but Abdurakhmanov posted a video on WhatsApp in which, after overpowering the purported attacker he interrogates him.



The alleged assailant says he is from Moscow and that he had been sent by someone named "Abdurakhman from Grozny," the Chechen capital, in order "to frighten" the blogger.

They have my mother, he adds.

Meanwhile, sources in Chechnya told RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service that on February 26 local police in the villages of Stanitsa Naurskaya and Stanitsa Shelkovskaya detained at least nine young men who had "liked" online videos posted by Abdurakhmanov.

Relatives of the allegedly detained men refused to comment. Naursky district police officials denied that they detained anyone on that day, while a spokeswoman for the Shelkovsky district police hung up the phone after an RFE/RL correspondent introduced himself.

Rights groups say Kremlin-backed Ramzan Kadyrov, who has ruled the volatile region since 2007, uses repressive measures and has created a climate of impunity for security forces in the region. They claim Kadyrov is ultimately responsible for the violence and intimidation of political opponents by Chechen authorities, including kidnappings, forced disappearances, torture, and extra-judicial killings.



Chechen authorities have threatened, intimidated, and arrested journalists for their work, according to the CPJ.



In late January, the body of Imran Aliyev, another Chechen blogger known for his criticism of Kadyrov, was found in a hotel room in the northern French city of Lille, with stab wounds, according to French media.



The CPJ said it has yet to be able to determine whether Aliyev's death was tied to his reporting.
I tested negative, but I cant be happy about it, he wrote on Friday, on a day he said he struggled to sleep. Im thinking too much about it  thinking of those who were given a different outcome, of the tension theyre experiencing, the whispers all around them.
Lewis County regulators have ruled that the proponent of a Vader-area gravel mine along the Cowlitz River must conduct an environmental impact study.

The decision is a victory for nearby landowners, who last July raised objections to the project and rezoning the land from farming to mineral resource land. Requiring an EIS will broaden the publics ability to comment.

This is in a floodplain, I have pictures to show that (the subject property) has been all under water several times during my lifetime, said Dana Freeland, who owns farmland next to the proposed mine. During the time that the rock pit is opened up, you get some of that water in there and its going to send silt and pollution onto the properties down below.

Lewis County Community Development Associate Planner Brianna Teitzel announced Tuesday that Richard Smith of Precision Paving Plus LLC must do a full Environmental Impact Statement. Previously the county had just asked for Smith to complete a state Environmental Policy Act checklist, a much less thorough level of review.

Teitzel told the Lewis County Planning Commission that the next step is the scoping process, in which the public gets to weigh in on what issues and concerns the EIS must address. A public scoping hearing will be held some time next month, he said.

Those issues (identified in the scoping process) will be a requirement to be addressed (in the EIS), John Kliem, a planning consultant for Lewis County, told citizens at the meeting. So, think carefully about what youd like to see in that EIS and keep an eye out for that meeting.

Smith first applied to rezone the area to allow the gravel mining operation in December 2017, citing a lack of mineral resources in the area. He added the access to Interstate 5 is ideal to serve the Centralia/Chehalis area.

According to Precision Paving Plus website, the company is described as a professional site grading and asphalt paving contractor serving the Greater Vancouver/Portland Area.

Lewis Countys parcel records show both parcels of land listed on the application are owned by Gene and Angela Watson, as part of a living trust. The Watsons signed as additional applicants with Smith.

Freelands worry stems from the lands susceptibility to flooding and the impact the gravel pit would have on the surrounding area during a flood and her family farm, which she and her husband Mike have farmed for the last 60-something years.

Just downstream from that is where Vader has (its) water intake, Freeland continued. They get their water from the Cowlitz River and then they treat it, so it could impact their water system, too.

The subject property is across the river from L Rock Industries, Inc., a sand and gravel supplier for Lewis County. Scott Crossfield, a resident of Toledo, says the use of the land for mineral resources has negatively affected his day-to-day life.

He adds that most of the community feels the impacts of L Rock, and additional mining would make matters worse.

Right now, the noise, its a nightmare, Crossfield said. Double it, right across the river. People have started to try and just move, because they realize, I dont know if the county is going to do anything to stop these people. 

According to Kliem, the original application submitted by Smith included enough information to be accepted, but not to form a conclusion on the projects environmental impact. We decided more information was needed through the SEPA process, Kliem said, explaning the decision to require a full EIS.

He had no estimate of how long it would take to complete the study, saying it will depend on Smith and just how what issues must be evaluated. It can take a long time.

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The prospects of India becoming a credible manufacturer of defence platforms or major weapon systems for export are remote, says Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).

IMAGE: The Indian Army's battle tank teams show their skills during a rehearsal for Defence Expo 2020 in Lucknow. Photograph: ANI Photo

At the Defence Expo held in Lucknow recently, Prime Minister Narendra Damodar Modi exhorted Indian manufacturers to double defence exports to $5 billion (Rs 37,000 crore/Rs 370 billion) over the next five years.

Around the same time, reports indicated that a major private sector company aspiring to become a producer of military platforms had gone into liquidation, forcing the government to encash all its bank guarantees.

These two developments are incongruous and require some discussion.

In 2011, the Indian Navy placed an order for five Offshore Patrol Vessels with a private sector entity, the Pipavav Defence & Offshore Engineering Company.

These vessels, the simplest of all naval platforms, were to be built at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore (Rs 25 billion) and delivered starting 2014-15.

By 2015, this company had stopped functioning and was taken over by Reliance Naval and Engineering Limited (R-Naval).

In July 2017, R-Naval actually launched two OPVs, though these were nowhere near the final stage of construction.

The company, which spelt out grandiose plans for manufacturing advanced warships and submarines, has filed for insolvency.

The ministry of defence has advance payments made for the ships amounting to Rs 980 crore (Rs 9.8 billion), but the ships are nowhere on the horizon.

The order has been cancelled and no deliveries have been made.

Yet, if any naval platforms have a chance of getting exported, the OPVs would be at the very top of that list.

This, of course, is the naval experience.

Another privately owned shipyard has also struggled to remain productive, but with little success.

Only Larsen and Toubro has made headway, first by fabricating hulls of our nuclear submarines and then by building a few conventional but simpler ships.

The picture in the other two arms of the military is no different.

The private sector is far from manufacturing even the simplest aircraft or helicopter.

In fact, even Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, the public sector unit assembling sophisticated fighters under a licensing agreement for decades, cannot produce these platforms in sufficient numbers to meet the needs of our own air force.

The question of exporting any of these then does not arise.

In two categories where the design is our own -- viz, the fighter Tejas and the Advanced Light Helicopter -- the capacity is well short of our own military needs.

To expect serious enhancement in production with existing capacity is too ambitious.

So, there are no air platforms for export.

As for the army, the one indigenous platform is the Arjun tank, but its weight and manoeuvrability are not suited for most countries; many other systems, such as BMPs and T 90 tanks, are assembled under a licence and, therefore, export is unlikely to be allowed.

In short, India does not have a military platform that can pass the test for being developed as a potential export item.

One possibility is the M77 howitzer gun being manufactured by Mahindra Defence Systems in collaboration with a US company, provided the contract allows for it and the requirements of our army are first met.

This leaves smaller items such as rifles, ammunition, grenades and light artillery for exports.

It is unlikely that these, even if substantially enhanced, can help get us to the target that has been specified.

I am assuming that missile systems like Agni, Prithvi and Aakash do not feature on the export list.

Where do we go from here is a question that merits examination.

All defence public sector undertakings have been in the business for many years and have acquired skills and knowledge even if these are not enough to meet the needs of our military, either in quality or quantity or both.

These capacities take time to be absorbed and to expect that private sector companies will not be subject to the same time constraints is to be simplistic.

Merely tying up with a foreign manufacturer will not replicate its capacities in India in quick time; in any event, why should any prospective client not prefer to buy the item from the original manufacturer itself, say, Lockheed Martin or Boeing?

In this context, the choice lies between strengthening the DPSUs, which already have capacities, howsoever unsatisfactory these might presently be, and to invest more proactively in the private sector, treating them as start-ups -- literally.

There could be a combination of both.

Existing policies require identification of a specific Indian partner who would then collaborate with the chosen foreign supplier.

Neither a DPSU nor a private sector company can adequately meet this major technological challenge.

The answer is to combine both into joint ventures, which could then collaborate with the original manufacturers.

This is easier said than done.

The operating philosophy, work culture and discipline of both are miles apart and, while the first strives to meet targets set by the user, the second has profit as its prime motivation.

Often the two might not coalesce.

Only stringent policies when strictly implemented can overcome this dilemma and it is not certain if the political will or ability to enforce both is currently there in the government.

So, prospects of India becoming a credible manufacturer of defence platforms or major weapon systems for export are remote.

Fundamental to our inadequacy is the inability to design platforms and equipment needed by the militaries.

There is some of this expertise in the navy nurtured over decades but none in the other two branches where this work is the responsibility of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, whose strengths, though, are primarily in the sphere of missile systems.

As such expertise will never be transferred by foreign suppliers, our first and foremost priority must be to focus on generating this capability; without it, we can never become self-sufficient in the field of defence hardware, much less be able to export to others.

Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd) has served as Director General, Defence Planning Staff, and has been a member of the National Security Advisory Board.
Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Friday said that there should be a thorough investigation regarding what caused riots in Delhi and strict action should be taken against those found responsible, irrespective of the party they belong to.

Speaking to ANI, when asked about allegations against AAP councilor Tahir Hussain in connection with the killing of Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma during the violence, Athawale said, "There should be a thorough investigation on this matter. Riots have taken place and some people have a hand in inciting riots. Whoever is responsible for inciting riots, strict action should be taken against them irrespective of the party they belong to."

"Whatever happened is very serious. After the CAA was implemented the protests went peacefully, until this tussle between Hindus and Muslims that has dented the unity of the country. This is not a good thing, it is a serious matter and it is condemnable," he said.

When asked about Congress leaders, including party chief Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, meeting President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday and seeking the removal of Home Minister Amit Shah over Delhi violence, Athawale said, "It is not correct to say that the government has failed. should not be done on this issue and all parties should discuss and suggest the government regarding this issue. The government and the police have tried their best. Congress party should not try to do on this issue." "This is a very sad and serious incident. The government, home ministry and Delhi police are alert so that incidents like this do not occur in future," he added.

At least 38 people, including a police head constable, have died while around 200 people have been injured in the violence that had rocked North-East Delhi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Alliance News) - Three former Barclays PLC bosses have been cleared of fraud over a GBP4 billion investment deal with Qatar at the height of the banking crisis.

Scotsman Roger Jenkins was said to be Barclays' "gatekeeper" to the wealthy Middle Eastern state, and in 2008 helped the bank with two large capital raisings to avoid a government bailout.

In June, Barclays secured GBP4.4 billion, with GBP1.9 billion invested by Qatar, followed by a second tranche in the autumn of GBP6.8 billion, of which GBP2.1 billion was from Qatar.

The UK's Serious Fraud Office alleged the lucrative terms given to Qatar, including an extra GBP322 million in fees, were hidden from the market and other investors through bogus advisory service agreements.

But multi-millionaire Jenkins, who was linked to a string of glamorous women including supermodel Elle MacPherson, was on Friday acquitted of fraud, alongside former colleagues Thomas Kalaris and Richard Boath at the Old Bailey.

The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for around five-and-a-half hours following a five-month trial.

At the time of the alleged fraud, each of the defendants held very senior positions at Barclays, jurors heard.

Jenkins was Barclays Capital's executive chair of investment banking and investment management in the Middle East & North Africa; Kalaris was Barclays' wealth management CEO and Boath was Barclays Capital head of financial institutions group for Europe, Middle East & Africa.

Prosecutor Ed Brown told jurors: "They acted dishonestly in order to preserve the future of the bank and to preserve their own positions."

The defendants denied wrongdoing, with Bill Boyce, for Boath, describing the allegation as "preposterous".

Boyce told jurors: "The SFO have to prove that Roger Jenkins and Sheikh Hamad agreed a sham contract. This despite the fact that it was obvious to both sides that a long-term strategic relationship was in both their interests."

Jenkins, of Malibu, California; Kalaris, of Thurloe Square, west London; and Boath, of Henley-on-Thames, were acquitted of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and fraud by false representation between May 1, 2008 and August 31, 2008.

Jenkins was also acquitted of two similar offences dated between September 1, 2008 and November 30, 2008.

Jurors were told that a fourth man, Christopher Lucas, had been found unfit to face trial due to illness.

The three bankers had originally been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud alongside former Barclays chief executive John Varley.

However in April last year, a judge dismissed the charges against Varley, saying the SFO did not have enough evidence against the former boss to proceed.

The SFO appealed against the decision, but it was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

The SFO is yet to disclose the cost of the investigation, which began in August 2012.

It is understood that a core team of eight people worked on the case at any one time, consisting of investigators and lawyers.

Barclays will now likely face a civil suit from Amanda Staveley's private equity firm PCP Capital Partners, which is seeking damages of up to GBP1.5 billion from the bank.

Staveley's firm is suing Barclays for allegedly deceiving it over emergency fundraisings in 2008 that were designed to avoid a UK government bailout.

The case is expected to be heard later this year after it was postponed several times to allow the criminal trial to proceed.

source: PA

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Seoul, Feb 28 : South Korea's confirmed cases of the new coronavirus approached 2,400, with an additional three deaths being reported, on Friday as the nation worked to aggressively counter the fast-spreading virus with extensive testing.

Health authorities renewed calls for citizens to keep away from others and avoid mass gatherings such as religious services over the weekend.

The 571 new cases -- the sharpest daily spike yet, outnumbering 327 new cases reported in China earlier in the day -- brought the nation's total infections to 2,337, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

Two days ago, the number of infections surpassed the 1,000 mark.

The latest fatalities occurred in Daegu, 300 kms southeast of Seoul, with the death toll here rising to 16.

Health authorities said two of the latest victims posthumously tested positive for the virus, with one being confirmed on February 23.

All were women in their 60 through 90s, and were being treated at hospitals or in self quarantine when they died. Authorities said they are trying to determine the exact cause of their deaths, reports Yonhup news agency.

South Korea confirmed its first new coronavirus case from a Chinese woman from Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, on January 20.

About 42 percent of confirmed cases here, or 840 cases, had been tied to a branch of the Shincheonji religious sect in the southeastern city of Daegu. Most other cases with unknown origins are believed to be linked to the religious sect, KCDC said.

Only 1.6 percent of the total infections, or 33 cases, are tied to people who had recently traveled overseas or come in contact with them, KCDC said.

Other major provinces and cities have also reported some infections, with Seoul's total rising to 62.

In another worrisome development, the cumulative number of virus patients in Busan -- South Korea's second-largest city with 3.5 million people -- rose to 65, with 32 patients linked to a Christian church in the Dongnae district.

The 32 patients of the Oncheon church in Busan are tied to the church's three-day retreat that ended on Feb. 17, officials said. It is still unclear how they were infected with the virus.

Since raising the virus alert level to "red," the highest level, on Sunday, health authorities have focused on halting the spread of the virus in Daegu, the epicenter of the virus outbreak here, and North Gyeongsang Province.

Experts said the number of confirmed cases is expected to jump in the coming days as health authorities have begun testing more than 210,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus at the center of the rapid spread in other provinces.

Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip said in a daily briefing that tests on 1,299 Shincheonji members who have shown symptoms of the virus in Daegu have been completed.

Official results of the tests will be released over the weekend, and the number of confirmed cases is expected to be "very high," Kim said.

The government also ordered another 1,638 Shincheonji followers to self-isolate as they have shown symptoms, Kim said.

"The most important thing to prevent COVID-19 from spreading nationwide is that people must stay indoors for the time being and minimize human-to-human contacts," Kim said. "In particular, people need to refrain from attending religious gatherings or rallies over the weekend." Across the nation, local governments and hospitals have launched an easier and faster testing method -- "drive-thru" test centers that allow a driver with symptoms to get a test inside his or her car. The whole test procedure takes about 10 minutes, and such facilities are also aimed at helping protect health workers.

With virus fears mounting, K-pop superstar band BTS cancelled its four local concerts in April. Hyundai Motor said one of its domestic plants suspended operations after an employee of the plant was diagnosed with the virus.
[February 28, 2020] "Buy Now, Build Your Future": Fintech pioneer Sezzle unveils bold new branding focused on engaging the next generation

MINNEAPOLIS and TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2020 /CNW/ -- Sezzle Inc. (ASX: SZL), the highest consumer-rated buy now, pay later solution, revealed a bold new brand identity with the release of the company's first Annual Report as a publicly-traded company, which showcased explosive growth across all key performance metrics. The launch of the new brand marks the culmination of a six-month journey in which Sezzle canvassed consumers and retail partners to better understand how Sezzle impacts the lives of its users. The new brand tagline, "The Way Forward," with campaign messaging "Buy Now, Build Your Future," is not only a nod to Sezzle's customer-friendly business model, but to the company's focus on providing all consumers access to building their financial futures in a responsible manner. "Having recently surpassed the one million active user milestone we know we can make a real difference for all consumers through our mission-driven approach," said Charlie Youakim, Sezzle co-Founder and CEO. "We want a brand that represents what we believe in: transparency, diversity, and inclusivity. We stand for all consumers and want our new brand to reflect our goal to fundamentally change how people think about payments and their financial futures." With 78% of workers living paycheck to paycheck, 40% unable to pay for a $400 unforeseen bill, and 67% of consumers under 30 years old having a subprime or non-prime credit score, Sezzle is providing access to a generation that is looking for alternative ways to pay for the things that they need and want. The business is committed to doing it in a consumer-friendly way that supports all consumers.



"Today Sezzle is putting a stake in the ground  our rebranding positions Sezzle to continue to be the most trusted payment solution for this up and coming generation of young consumers," remarked Sezzle co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer Paul Paradis. "With roughly 90 million Gen Zers across the U.S. and Canada, this next generation will soon make up 25% of the spending power in these countries and we think Sezzle will play a big role in their future." "Gen Z is different. They think, act, and spend differently and they are a cohort that is more concerned with the future than any other generation. We are building a platform for these consumers that care about trust, inclusivity, and transparency," said Sezzle's Vice President of Marketing, Chris Bixby who led the Sezzle rebranding initiative. "This rebranding is more than a logo change or updated fonts, it's really a way for us to show the world who we are and what we stand for. It's also a way for us to be fun and engaging in a way that truly connects!"

Sezzle worked with Minneapolis-based creative agency, J. Doe Studios, founded by creative director Krissa Jane Nelson , on the rebranding efforts. The brand is being rolled out across Sezzle's website, social media, digital products, and all other marketing assets. About Sezzle Inc.

Sezzle is the highest consumer-rated buy now, pay later solution, enabling over 1 million active users in the United States and Canada to take control of their spending, be more responsible, and gain access to financial freedom. With over 10,000 retail partners on its platform, Sezzle's core product allows consumers to split their purchases into four interest-free payments over six weeks, which increases their purchasing power and offers them a built-in way to budget their purchases. Approval is instant and consumers' credit scores are never negatively impacted. Sezzle was founded with the mission to financially empower the next generation through building the most transparent, inclusive, and seamless payments option for online purchases. Sezzle is publicly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange ("ASX") under the ticker SZL. As a public company, Sezzle has raised over US$ 147 million in debt and equity capital to date. For more information visit www.sezzle.com Sezzle's CDIs are issued in reliance on the exemption from registration contained in Regulation S of the US Securities Act of 1933 (Securities Act) for offers of securities which are made outside the US. Accordingly, the CDIs, have not been, and will not be, registered under the Securities Act or the laws of any state or other jurisdiction in the US. As a result of relying on the Regulation S exemption, the CDIs are 'restricted securities' under Rule 144 of the Securities Act. This means that you are unable to sell the CDIs into the US or to a US person who is not a QIB for the foreseeable future except in very limited circumstances until after the end of the restricted period, unless the re-sale of the CDIs is registered under the Securities Act or an exemption is available. To enforce the above transfer restrictions, all CDIs issued bear a FOR Financial Product designation on the ASX. This designation restricts any CDIs from being sold on ASX to US persons excluding QIBs. However, you are still able to freely transfer your CDIs on ASX to any person other than a US person who is not a QIB. In addition, hedging transactions with regard to the CDIs may only be conducted in accordance with the Securities Act. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/buy-now-build-your-future-fintech-pioneer-sezzle-unveils-bold-new-branding-focused-on-engaging-the-next-generation-301013459.html SOURCE Sezzle Inc.

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The Trump administration is ready to unleash the full impact of sanctions on Chevron Corp.s operations in Venezuela as the U.S. seeks to further squeeze the Maduro regime.

While no decision has been made, its increasingly unlikely that the U.S. will again extend to Chevron a waiver to access Venezuelas crude reserves, people familiar with the matter said.

The Treasury Department last month granted Chevron its fourth waiver since sanctions were announced in late 2018. When that expires on April 22, it probably wont be renewed, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

RELATED: American energy companies to remain in Venezuela

Such a decision would mark the unraveling of Chevrons near-century of operations in the home of the worlds largest oil reserves. Venezuela has figured prominently in company lore ever since Chevrons discovery of the giant Boscan field in the 1940s. Even after rivals like Exxon Mobil Corp. abandoned the country during the reign of the late Hugo Chavez, Chevron held on.

The Trump administration recently ramped up efforts to oust President Nicolas Maduro and rally international support behind opposition leader Juan Guaido. Earlier this month, Washington sanctioned a unit of Russias largest oil producer, Rosneft PJSC, for maintaining ties with Maduro and state-run oil company PDVSA.

A spokeswoman for the Treasury Department, which oversees sanctions implementation, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

FUEL FIX: What?! You don't receive our energy newsletter? Let's fix that....

Chevron is hopeful the waiver will be renewed so that we can continue operations in the country for the long-term, Ray Fohr, a company spokesman, said in an email. If Chevron is forced to leave Venezuela, non-U.S. companies will fill the void and oil production will continue.

Chevrons Venezuelan oil production plunged to just 35,000 barrels a day last year, a 20% drop from 2018, and only about 1% of the companys global crude output.

Proponents of Chevrons position argued that withdrawing would open the way for Russian and Chinese companies to expand their footprints and control more crude, and make any post-Maduro rebuild of the economy more difficult.

2020 Bloomberg L.P.
The schedule of Pope Francis has been modified for the second day, Friday, the Vatican Press Office said.

Vatican News

The Holy Father celebrated Mass this morning and at the end, as usual, greeted the participants, but decided to postpone today's official audiences, the Director of the Holy See Press office, Matteo Bruni, said on Friday. The meetings on the agenda at Casa Santa Marta continue regularly ", he told journalists.

The previous day, Thursday, Pope Francis had skipped a scheduled penitential service with the clergy of Rome at Saint John Lateran, letting his speech be read by the Vicar of Rome Diocese, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis.

Bruni explained to journalists that because of a slight indisposition the Pope "preferred to stay inside Santa Marta, where the pontiff lives. All other commitments will go ahead regularly, he said.

In fact, Thursday morning, the Pope celebrated Mass at Santa Marta and later met a delegation of the Global Catholic Climate Movement, an organization that collaborates with the Church for greater protection of the environment, in line with the Holy Fathers encyclical, Laudato si.
People wait in line to buy face masks from a store at the Dongseongro shopping district in Daegu, South Korea, on Feb. 27, 2020. (Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images)

US Forces Employee in South Korea Tests Positive for Novel Coronavirus, Three Others Die of Virus

Country Sees Known Cases Surpass 2,300

This article has been updated with the latest information.

A third individual with ties to the U.S. military in South Korea has been determined to be infected with the novel coronavirus disease, while the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) announced that three additional people died of the virus on Feb. 28.

The countrys total death toll is now 16.

The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) announced on Friday that a male South Korean employee at Camp Carroll tested positive for the virus. The employee had last visited the military base on Feb. 20.

Camp Carroll is located in the village of Waegwan, about 12 miles from the city of Daegu. Daegu is about 186 miles southeast of the capital Seoul.

The mans wife tested positive for the virus on Feb. 22, and he was immediately put under home quarantine. He is currently in isolation at a hospital in Daegu.

The patient has not been in contact with any other USFK or USFK affiliated personnel since going into quarantine, USFK stated.

It added: KCDC and USFK health professionals determined contact tracing was not necessary due to his quarantine measures and lack of interaction with others.

Earlier this week, USFK announced that a U.S. military dependenta 61-year-old woman who is a widow of a retired soldierwas diagnosed with coronavirus. Then on Feb. 25, a 23-year-old U.S. soldier stationed at Camp Carroll was infected with the virus.

Also on Friday, South Koreas defense ministry reported two more infection cases in its military force.

The two new cases involve a South Korean Air Force officer and an airman based in Cheongju, a city 70 miles southwest of Seoul, local outlet Yonhap News Agency reported.

With the two new cases, there are 27 infection cases in the Korean military15 in the Army, 10 in the Air Force, and one each in the Navy and the Marine Corps. Among them, 24 are active-duty service members.

Roughly 9,480 military service members are quarantined at their bases, according to the defense ministry. About 920 of them have symptoms of the virus or have come in contact with infected patients, while the rest visited Daegu or nearby areas after Feb. 10.

South Korea saw its number of known cases reach at least 2,337 on Feb. 28, after the countrys Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported 571 new cases from the previous day.

Since last Friday, South Korea has reported triple digits in new cases every day, most recently 284 reported cases on Wednesday and 505 cases on Thursday.

Of the 571 new cases, 447 are in Daegu and 64 are in the broader North Gyeongsang province. There are six new cases in Seoul and four new cases in the coastal city of Busan.

Among the 2,337 cases, 1,579 are Daegu and 409 in North Gyeongsang province.

Of all the confirmed cases in South Korea, 840 cases are connected to the localized outbreak from Shincheonji Church in Daegu, according to KCDC.

Many of those cases related to the church have been traced back to a 61-year-old female follower of the church who tested positive for the virus on Feb. 18 as the countrys 31st confirmed case.

Now, there are a total of 62 cases of coronavirus in Seoul and 65 in Busan.

Meanwhile, Korean automaker Hyundai Motor has suspended the operation of its plant in the port city of Ulsan until March 2 after one of its employees tested positive for the virus, Yonhap reported on Friday.
Turkey has raised the death toll from a Syrian government airstrike on its forces in northwestern Syria the previous night to 33 Turkish troops, the highest number of Turkish soldiers killed in a single day since Ankara first intervened in the Syrian conflict in 2016.

The deaths, which came in an attack late Thursday, mark a serious escalation in the direct conflict between Turkish and Russia-backed Syrian forces that has been waged since early February. The earlier reported death toll was 29 troops.

Ambassadors from NATO countries are holding emergency talks this Friday at the request of Turkey, who is a member of the alliance.

Turkey is a main backer of the Syrian opposition while Russia has been giving military support to the Syrian government offensive in Idlib that has displaced about 950,000 people and left hundreds of civilians dead.

Russian frigates redeployed to Syria

Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry claims the Turkish troops that came under fire in Idlib were deployed among terrorist battle formations. The Turkish troops were in the area of Behun, and according to coordinates given to Russia's Reconciliation Center in Syria, "there were no Turkish military units in the area ... and there weren't supposed to be there.

Meanwhile, two Russian frigates carrying cruise missiles have reportedly been deployed to Syria. Admiral Makarov and Admiral Grigorovich of the Black Sea Fleet are currently en route to the Syrian coast with Kalibr cruise missiles on board. Both warships previously took part in Russia's offensive in Syria.

Syria's state news agency, SANA, carried a report saying Turkey has acknowledged its forces were killed in operations of the Syrian Arab Army against a terrorist organization.

It added that Syrian troops at the time were repelling attacks by terrorist groups backed by Turkey.

U.N. secretary-general has reiterated his call for an immediate cease-fire and expressed serious concern about the risk to civilians from escalating military actions," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Without urgent action, the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour," he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a six-hour emergency security meeting in Ankara late on Thursday. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevult Cavusoglu spoke to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg by telephone.

The airstrike comes after a Russian delegation spent two days in Ankara for talks with Turkish officials on the situation in Idlib, where a Syrian government offensive has sent hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing towards the Turkish border.

The offensive has also engulfed many of the 12 military observation posts Turkey has in Idlib.

Turkey hosts some 3.6 million Syrians and under a 2016 deal with the European Union agreed to step up efforts to halt the flow of refugees to Europe.

Since then Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to open the gates in several disputes with European states.
As the coronavirus epidemic slows down global trade and grinds on economies, there may be an upside for WA according to the head of one of WA's biggest apartment developers.

Fresh after posting a $6.6 million profit from July to December 2019 Finbar managing director Darren Pateman said despite global uncertainty he predicted Perth could benefit in the long run if governments started spending big to get their economies back on track.

The Pelago apartments in Karratha.

"Its incredibly difficult to predict or adequately prepare for possible impacts because this is really uncharted territory. At this stage, were undertaking fairly standard scenario planning for the possibility of operating in softer economic conditions," he said.

"In the long term, however, we see only good things for Perth.
A young woman confronts a Boots staff worker at the till and accuses her of sleeping with her father.

The customer was filmed launching a torrent of abuse at a Boots store in south London.

In the video the woman asks the unnamed worker: 'So have you been sleeping with my dad?'

'What do you mean?', the staff worker replies as she appears startled by the confrontation.

A young woman confronts a staff worker at the Boots store in south London (left). The customer scrolls to find a picture on her phone before showing the woman (right)

The young woman asks: 'Have you had sex with my dad?'

However the staff worker shakes her head and replies 'no' as stunned shoppers wait to be served.

But the young woman, who is seen wearing a black leather jacket, shows no sign of backing down as she says: 'Are you sure? Don't lie to me.'

The customer displays the phone screen and says: 'Why did I find this in his bag?' (left). A Boots security guard steps in to diffuse the incident (right)

The customer shows the staff member a picture on her mobile phone and says: 'Why did I find this in his bag?'

Yet the staff member replies: 'You're going to come to my workplace to disturb me?'

'I don't care, I don't care! You know what I am talking about,' the young woman replies.

And the customer shows no sign of giving in and she taps the screen of the phone and says: 'This is your address isn't it? Is this your address? And it was in my dad's bag - and is this not your house?'

The staff member walks away from the counter and dials the police as the customer continues to question if the picture on her phone is the woman's house.

The customer continues: 'You want to call the feds now? When you have been sleeping with my dad and my mum f****** respected you calling you aunty?

She added: 'I am warning you now to stay away from my dad.'

The staff worker then walks away as the young woman follows her around the counter.

Stunned shoppers stand in shock as they wait to be served before a security guard steps in.

The video was shared online on February 25 and has since gathered 1.6million views.

A Boots UK spokesman told The Sun: 'We take the safety of our team very seriously and can confirm the police were called following an incident in one of our stores.'

The company said they continue to support the colleague who was left shaken by the incident.
The message coming from Chesprocott Health District regarding the coronavirus is a simple one: Dont panic.

With reports from both the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) over the past few days warning that the illness, identified as COVID-19, will spread in the U.S. as it has in certain countries overseas, Chesprocott Health Director Maura Esposito wants to make clear that the chances of contracting coronavirus remains small.

The risk at this time is very low, said Esposito. There is no reason to panic at all. Everyone just needs to use common sense (such as) wash your hands, regularly.

Yet, while Esposito and her team are preaching against fear, they are also preparing for all eventualities. The Health District is keeping constant tabs on the latest news emanating from the CDC and WHO, the two organizations taking the lead on coronavirus. They are also communicating regularly with local leaders, including Town Manager Sean Kimball and Superintendent of Schools Jeff Solan, to ensure that everyone is made aware of the situation and are ready for what may come next.

We had been in a containment phase (with the virus) until a few days ago, when the floodgates opened, explained Esposito, regarding news that an increased number of cases outside of China, where the illness was first reported, had been documented. Now, I would say we are in the mitigation stage.

Esposito echoed the sentiments shared in a recent statement by the CDC, which warned that it was not a matter of if, but when the illness begins to spread in the U.S. Just recently, a California woman was diagnosed with the coronavirus and medical officials have been unable to accurately trace where she first contracted it.

That, according to reports, is the first case in the nation of the illness spreading within the community, where no direct link to the coronavirus can be found.

Locally, Esposito explained that she and her team are focused almost exclusively on monitoring the illness and preparing for local eventualities. On Friday, Feb. 28, Chesprocott officials met with school administrators to not only discuss preventative measures regarding hygiene, but next steps that could be required.

The next stage would be school closures, she explained. (Townwide), it would be the cancellation of mass gatherings, sporting events, holding meetings (via) teleconference rather than in person. We wanted to make sure that we started these conversations now.

Esposito stressed that such preparations do not indicate that such drastic measures are likely to be required. Chesprocott is simply laying the foundation, she stated, for what triggers could force the community to take more direct action.

(For closing the schools), would that be triggered by absenteeism or would it be if we had a case (of coronavirus) detected? explained Esposito. Those are all the conversations we are having right now.

The virus is still considered novel in that much remains unknown. While officials continue to investigate how the illness is spread, Esposito explained that, according to the CDC and WHO, its believed to function much like influenza, passed from one person to the next through close contact. As far as symptoms, again the illness appears to be similar to the flu  a respiratory virus that can severely affect breathing.

The biggest issue is, we dont have a vaccine for this, said Esposito. We know that mass vaccinations, they work. We also dont have anti-viral medication, which would help to shorten the lifespan of the illness.

Currently, approximately 84,000 cases of coronavirus have been detected world wide, with a 2 to 3 percent fatality rate. Thats higher than influenza, which has a fatality rate of around 1 percent. Esposito explained that those infected with the virus are suffering as if from the full strength of influenza, with no way to combat the disease.

(The virus) hits really hard. Thats why you have so many people going to the hospital to seek help, she said. Our job (in the health icommunity) is to keep those fatalities down.

There have been no cases of coronavirus reported in Connecticut or Cheshire, and for now Esposito is asking that everyone simply take obvious common sense precautions  stay home if sick, avoid contact with those who are ill, dont touch your eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands  to stay as healthy as possible.

If the illness is detected in or near Cheshire, Chesprocott will work with all local leaders to ensure the proper steps are taken, Esposito insisted.

Public health is taking the lead on this. We are working with the schools, we are working with the daycares  we are communicating with Sean Kimball and Jeff Solan, she said. This is what public health is.

We will continue to work closely with our partners, she continued. We are ok.
Over the past month, the Stars Toronto 2030 series has been exploring what it will be like to work in the city in the next 10 years. With the population of the Toronto area set to hit 8 million by 2030, how will Toronto address the forecast shortage of skilled workers? We asked you, Star readers, to weigh in with solutions on how to close the talent gap. Heres a sampling of what you had to say. Some answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

There should be a fast-track program to get professional immigrants licensed in their profession. What a waste of skill having trained doctors driving taxis. If there were universal child care more women would be able to complete their education and/or advance in their career choice at the same rate as men. I am not sure how as a country we can be so short-sighted.

Teresa Stilling via Facebook

There is disconnect between the so-called shortage of skilled workers (read trades persons) and the path for young people to get the necessary qualifications. A reliance on word of mouth to find apprenticeship opportunities means that young prospects can spend three years searching for an apprenticeship. Our labour minister should be addressing this reality. A more efficient and user-friendly system is needed.

 John Lamb, registered user on thestar.com

Consider this: you cannot get a high school diploma without taking an arts course and a second-language course but there is no requirement to take a single technology course. Skills awareness needs to be supported with the return of technology and family studies courses beginning in Grade 5, with real, meaningful hands-on experiences, and with a minimum of two Grade 11/12 tech credits to earn a high school diploma.

 Murray Wray, registered user on thestar.com

Have housing that people who work skilled jobs, as you put it, can afford to live in. Thats why theres a shortage.

Sarah Schmidt via Facebook

We can also focus on getting skilled immigrants accredited to our standards because its out of step to be a pro-immigrant country that doesnt support their employment efforts and instead lets their skills languish.

 Sam F, registered user on thestar.com

Respect for the skilled trades must start much earlier than college or university. It must begin in at least high school, if not in elementary school.

One of the worst things the Harris Tories did was to eliminate industrial arts from the elementary curriculum, which gave students a taste of such skills and would make them more likely to choose tech courses in high school.

Over the years successive cutbacks to education funding have made some boards and schools more likely to eliminate the costlier tech classes which require machinery and materials to make them worthwhile.

If Ontario, wants to solve its talent gap, it must start with ensuring that all cuts to public education proposed by Ford/Lecce are reversed and for high school tech education to be supported rather than seen as a cost to be eliminated.

 Wendy Anes Hirschegger, registered user on thestar.com

Torontos tech sales world, when faced with the challenge of finding great sales people, decided to do something similar to the N.C. experiment.

SalesCamp, a four-week boot camp, resulted from a multi-stakeholder partnership  employers, trainers, recruiters  and this has already started to make a difference.

More power to such ideas and their speedy implementation.

 Anshul Punetha, registered user on thestar.com

Having witnessed the outrageous qualifications demanded by some employers for entry-level positions, I would have to say the so-called skills gap has been overstated. If you demand people have skills that are not really necessary for the job being offered, and then cant find people to meet that criteria, it is not a matter of skills lacking on the part of the potential employee. It is instead a gap between the unrealistic demands of the employer offering an entry-level job while expecting people with a skill level demanding a higher rate of pay applying for that job. What a surprise that they cant find people to fill the jobs offered!

 Glenn, registered user on thestar.com

Engage the largest untapped labour pool, the disabled.

 Mark Wafer/@markwafer via Twitter

Start with paying them a living wage and then more, so they can buy a house, car, take vacations and save for retirement and send their kids to college or university.

DRColeman/@DaleCol54735466 via Twitter

We could start with increasing our investment in public education by adding back the shop classes. We should also perhaps consider going back to being able to learn these trades on the job from a skilled tradesman instead of requiring an undergrad degree or a diploma before you can even apply for an apprenticeship.

Patricia McCallum via Facebook

Stop cutting health care and train nurses previous to this exodus of skilled labour. Use programs to entice businesses to hire apprentices, without smothering them in paperwork. Start valuing and promoting the trades instead of calling them down. Bargain with unions and respect collective agreements.

 Lorraine Gauthier Stromberg via Facebook

Look at the German education system  well organized with students streaming into trades, technical and university streams  and come out fully qualified. Students at all levels continue with math, English and other academic subjects to become fully rounded thinkers and doers  and post-secondary education is free!

 Veronika Jose via Facebook

How to get more people into skilled trades? Well, lets start by putting design and tech courses and family studies courses back into grades 7 and 8 and also back into high schools as they existed 25 years ago before the Mike Harris PC government eliminated them from the curriculum and stopped funding them. How can kids decide to go into the skilled trades if they have never tried them?

We used to have woodworking (with lathes, table saws, scroll saws, etc.), metal bending and welding (with brakes and torches), sewing machines (for design and construction), and kitchens (meal planning, healthy eating). Talk about real STEM opportunities and soft skills.

 Christine Costa, registered user on thestar.com

Reduce cost of raising families, reduce barriers to enter trades and skilled jobs (licensing), incentivize vocational training, reduce tuition fees for health care/medical training, and revise secondary curriculum to include relevant subjects.

 Forest Anda via Facebook

Skilled workers cannot afford the cost of living in Toronto. The commute from distant suburbs is costly and stressful  not worth it. It is evolving that only the rich and poor will be living in Toronto  neither pay much in taxes. Due to poor urban planning with a lack of bylaws and controls, Toronto has become fiscally unsustainable.

John Murray via Facebook

Skilled trades (plumbers, mechanics, carpenters, etc.) make 60 to 80 dollars an hour, but are stigmatized in our society. These jobs are called skilled for a reason. They require knowledge and experience and intelligence. I am in awe of dealing with some of these people that can create something out of nothing, or can diagnose and repair a problem and make it look easy. And these jobs wont be outsourced. I still remember an old tale. A customer complained that he paid 50 dollars for a mechanic to take 10 minutes to replace a part. He was told he wasnt paying for the 10 minutes to replace the part. He was paying for the years of knowledge to know which part to replace.

Bradley Bannerman, registered user on thestar.com

One Toronto. Two possible futures. Ten years to get it right. Toronto has never been bigger, bolder and more successful  or faced so many serious problems. To attract talent and grow sustainably, we need to address the citys transportation, affordability and infrastructure needs. If we ignore these threats, the inner city buckles. Its time to start thinking about solutions.

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Every day this February, Latoya McGriff entered her classroom as a different person.

One day, she donned a tutu and was ballerina Misty Copeland; on another, she wore a robe, signifying that she was the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. McGriff is a first grade teacher at Creekside Elementary School in Suffolk, Virginia, and in honor of Black History Month, she dressed up every day as a prominent African American historical figure, focusing on those with connections to Virginia.

"I just wanted to bring history alive for the kids," McGriff told Good Morning America. Most of the students at Creekside are black, and McGriff said it is "important for the children to see that people who look like them have made contributions, because it reassures them that they can, too. It's hard to believe in something you don't see."

Each outfit got the kids talking, and asking McGriff to share more information about the person. She especially enjoyed donning a 1950s style dress and cardigan and spending the day as Mary Jackson, the NASA mathematician and aerospace engineer who played a critical role in sending the first astronaut into space.

Jackson wasn't allowed in meetings because she was black and a woman, McGriff said, yet still, "she prevailed." The teacher hopes that by hearing about Jackson and other trailblazers, her students learn "no matter what the circumstances, they can make a difference in this world," she said. "No matter where they come from, how they look, they can make a difference."

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If democratic socialism is so bad, why is Norway so great?


Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 14:05:30|Editor: huaxia

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NANJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's new-generation space tracking ship Yuanwang-7 is sailing to the Atlantic Ocean for a satellite maritime monitoring mission.

The ship departed from a port of the China Satellite Maritime Tracking and Controlling Department in Jiangsu Province Thursday. It is the first time for Yuanwang-7 to carry out a mission in the Atlantic.

Only one ship of China's Yuanwang fleet, Yuanwang-3, so far has conducted missions in the ocean.

"This time the designated maritime area is remote and the route is new. We estimate that the vessel will sail in waves higher than 4 meters for over 10 days, a tougher journey than before," said Ni Liuguo, captain of the ship.

Before setting out, crew members were quarantined on the vessel and cabins were disinfected to prevent the novel coronavirus infection. They completed the preparation of medical supplies and examined facilities to ensure the success of the mission.

Yuanwang-7 was developed with the latest technologies in shipbuilding, space measurement and control, marine meteorology and shipping power.

Since it was put into use in 2016, Yuanwang-7 has made 13 voyages and performed 21 tasks in the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, including maritime tracking of China's second space lab Tiangong-2, the Chang'e-4 lunar probe and BeiDou satellites.

China will have more than 40 space launches this year, and the Yuanwang fleet is expected to carry out intensive maritime monitoring missions.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  The Senate will investigate the huge amounts of cash brought into the country by Chinese nationals in recent months, a lawmaker said Thursday.

Senator Richard Gordon said a number of Chinese visitors who arrived in December to February brought in a total of $180 million in cash.

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chairman said the concerned government body should also look into the issue.

"AMLC (Anti Money Laundering Council) should check. Did they go to the banking system? Did they go to the casino? And how much taxes are being paid by the casino kung ganyan kalalaki volume [if the volume is that big?]," he said.

The large amount was declared as gambling money but the senator raised some questions.

"We have to track where it's (money) going. Gambling? Fine. Can you use the money for elections. Can you use the money for other things. Bribing people etc.," he said.

Gordon said these Chinese nationals boarded an aicraft in Hong Kong for the Philippines. There is no currency control in Hong Kong, he added.

Senator Joel Villanueva said he shares Gordon's thoughts on the "inordinate" amount of cash for gambling.

"Gambling, in any form or kind, attracts criminal activities as we have seen in the previous months and years," said Villanueva.

Earlier this week, China began its crackdown on Chinese nationals working illegally for Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGO). The Bureau of International Revenue said over 27 billion worth of tax liabilities remain uncollected from the POGO sector.

Villanueva, also chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor, said POGOs only contribute 0.04 percent to the gross domestic product.

"It is clear that the supposed economic benefit to our country is negligible at best....We should stop the operations of POGOs now," he said.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation has stopped accepting applications for POGO licenses in August last year.

Senator Panfilo Lacson also commended Gordon for pointing out the influx of money from Chinese visitors. He said these Chinese nationals should have been placed under close watch or a background check for possible criminal activity.

"Problem is, everything has been prearranged and payoffs already made to concerned agencies in a well-coordinated and organized manner," he said.

Lacson was referring to the recent controversy involving the Bureau of Immigration wherein personnel would allow easy entry of Chinese nationals for a fee. A witness from the bureau said about 90 percent of the agency's employees were in on the scheme.

President Rodrigo Duterte had ordered the relief and replacement of the immigration personnel involved in the scam.
Here's a quick look at some of the arts and cultural events happening around Missoula in the coming week.

'A Doll's House, Part 2'

(Feb. 28, March 5-7)

A slice of very contemporary theater that references classic theater is continuing its run at Zootown Arts Community Center. Lucas Hnath's "A Doll's House, Part 2" is based on Henrik Ibsen's classic, in which his female protagonist, Nora, walks out on her husband and children to pursue her own life.

Don't be intimated by Ibsen's reputation: Award-winning playwright Hnath's "sequel" (the "part 2" in the tile is self-aware) is humorous as well as dramatic, and written in contemporary language and doesn't require any knowledge of the original. As sign of its accessibility, it opened on Broadway, and lead Laurie Metcalf was nominated for a Tony Award.

The director is Missoula veteran Roger Hedden. The cast comprises well-known locals from the theater scene: Salina Chatlain, Rick Martino, Teresa Waldorf and Haley Court.

The production is being staged at the ZACC Show Room, 216 W. Main St. 6:30 p.m. doors, 7 p.m. show, $20 general, $10 students (door only).

Winter BrewFest

(Saturday, Feb. 29)

Celebrate the end of the wintriest month of the year with Winter BrewFest in Caras Park, where 35 beers will be on tap.

It runs from 2-6 p.m. Admission is free. For beers, you have to pony up $20, which gets you a 7-ounce glass and five beer tokens. If you burn through those, you can buy more at $3 for 2.

River City Eats and Clove Cart Pizza will be serving up food. You can take the kids over to A Carousel for Missoula for free rides or to play at Dragon Hollow. For more information, go to missouladowntown.com/winter-brewfest/

'Spring Awakening'

(March 4-8 and 11-15)

In a show requested by University of Montana students for years, the School of Theatre and Dance is partnering with the School of Music for a production of the popular rock musical and coming-of-age story Spring Awakening.

Adapted from an 1890s play in the early 2000s by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater, the musical follows a group of small town teenagers as they grapple with hormonal urges in a repressive society. The plot explores topics of adolescence, puberty, sex, consent, academic pressures, depression and suicide to the backdrop of a contemporary rock score.

Performances will take place at UMs Masquer Theatre. General admission tickets cost $20, senior tickets cost $16, student tickets cost $12 and admission for children 12 and under costs $10. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit umt.edu/umarts/theatredance/.

Audience advisory: Recommended for mature audiences for violence and sexually explicit themes/content.

Farther ahead

MCT's 'The Spitfire Grill'

(March 5-15)

Missoula Community Theatre is shifting into spring mode with a "folksy" small-cast musical, "The Spitfire Grill."

According to the press release, "the story revolves around Percy, a young woman who has just been released from prison. She hopefully chooses the tiny town of Gilead, Wisconsin, to possibly rise above her story and her painful past. Her presence at the struggling Spitfire Grill upsets some, excites others, and takes the town on a musical journey of renewal, self-discovery, and redemption."

By MCT standards, it's a small-cast show with seven performers, three of whom have never performed with them. It's helmed by MCT artistic director Joe Martinez.

The play contains "mild adult themes and is rated PG-13," according to MCT.

Performances are March 5-15 at the MCT Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $25 regular or $20 for students, seniors, military members or kids. Go to mctinc.org, 406-728-1911 or the box office.

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Lower Nicola Indian Band Development Corp. will own, operate and maintain the 24-kilometre Kingsvale electricity transmission line that will run through its traditional territory.

The 138-kilovolt line will connect from BC Hydros distribution line and provide additional power to Trans Mountain Canadas existing and new Kingsvale pump stations that are part of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

Lower Nicola partnered with Trans Mountain and Valard Construction on the new line, which it says will create economic opportunities in the region.

This will be the first electricity transmission line to be constructed, majority owned, operated, maintained and financed by an Indigenous group in Canada, Lower Nicola Development Corp. general manager Kevin Ainsworth said in a press release. This project will provide valuable economic benefits to the Lower Nicola Indian Band.

The line is expected to be completed by August, and Lower Nicola Development Corp., along with Valard, has negotiated a 20-year contract with Trans Mountain.

We are proud to partner with LNIB and Valard on this unique project, which will provide direct and lasting economic opportunities, Trans Mountain CEO Ian Anderson said. We are committed to ensuring that Indigenous communities share in the benefits of the expansion project and the partnerships we are creating are based on trust, respect and collaboration.
Of course, there are some committee members who support Mr. Sanders. But they were a clear minority in the group we surveyed  only nine of the people we interviewed said Mr. Sanders should be the party nominee if he captures the most delegates but falls short of a majority.

One of them, Yasmine Taeb, a committee member from Virginia, argued that the party should be more concerned about a candidate like Michael Bloomberg, the former New York mayor.

Why shouldnt D.N.C. members  especially the ones of us who were elected by the grass roots  instead be concerned about a former Republican sexist billionaire who is trying to buy the election? I certainly am, Ms. Taeb said. Im not concerned, however, with the progressive candidate with the largest grass-roots support across the country to win the nomination, because thats precisely what is needed to defeat Donald Trump.

Mr. Sanders and his advisers agree that his ideas will generate huge excitement among young and working-class voters, and lead to record turnout. (Such hopes have yet to be borne out in nominating contests so far, however.)

You may be wondering why I spent so much time interviewing these party officials. Winning the nomination is based on support from voters in primaries and caucuses, right?

Not necessarily.

Those contests proportionally award pledged delegates to candidates who reach 15 percent support in a state or congressional district. Under party rules, the candidate who captures a majority of the pledged delegates becomes the nominee.

But if no one hits the magic number of 1,991 pledged delegates, the contest goes to a second ballot at the partys convention. Thats when the superdelegates could get involved. On that ballot, all 3,979 pledged delegates and 771 superdelegates would be free to vote for any candidate they chose.
Close to 11,500 people from 50 countries registeredup approx. 12% from same auction in 2019

EDMONTON, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Ritchie Bros. conducted its first Edmonton, AB auction of the year this week, selling more than 5,000 equipment items and trucks over three days for CA$59+ million (US$44+ million).

Close to 11,500 bidders from 50 countries registered to participate in the February 25  27, 2020 Edmonton auctionup approximately 12 percent from the same auction last year. Approximately 92 percent of the equipment in the auction was sold to Canadian buyers, with buyers from Alberta purchasing 49 percent, while international buyers from countries such as China, Switzerland, and Australia purchased eight percent of the equipment. Approximately 70 percent of the equipment in the auction was sold to online buyers, with 25% of online purchases made through Ritchie Bros.' mobile app.

"We once again set a new bidder record for our February sale and as a result saw strong pricing throughout the auction, particularly for the low-hour/kilometer assets in the sale," said Trent Vandenberghe, Regional Sales Manager, Ritchie Bros. "We are so proud that consignors continue to put their trust in us to deliver the results they need for their business. We are already building well for our big five-day sale in late April, with packages of heavy construction and aggregate/crushing equipment from Parkland Pipeline and Oil Berta Cats Ltd. We encourage interested sellers to contact us today, so we have as much time as possible to market their equipment to the world."

More than 650 owners sold equipment in the Edmonton auction, including Paradise Trucking Ltd., which sold 50+ items as part of a complete dispersal.

"I've bought trucks and equipment from Ritchie Bros. lots over the years, so it made sense to use them for my retirement dispersal," said Walter Bida, Owner & President, Paradise Trucking Ltd. "Their global reach is so important to achieving good returnsI had equipment sell to Saskatchewan and even Texas. I would strongly recommend Ritchie Bros. to anyone looking to sell. They provide great service and great results."

Specific sales highlights included:

A 2019 Tigercat 635G 6x6 grapple skidder that sold for CA$490,000

A 2015 Kenworth C500 T/A T/A 380-in. WB bed truck that sold for CA$410,000

A 2014 Kenworth C500 T/A tri-drive w/ Weldco WHL45TC100 boom truck that sold for CA$400,000

A 2014 Elrus 20X54JSP-ELR portable jaw crushing plant that sold for CA$380,000

A 2017 Hitachi ZX470LC-5B VG hydraulic excavator that sold for CA$315,000

AUCTION QUICK FACTS: EDMONTON, AB (February 2020)

Total gross transactional value  CA$59+ million (US$44+ million)

CA$59+ million (US$44+ million) Amount sold to online bidders  CA$42+ million (US$31+ million)

CA$42+ million (US$31+ million) Total registered bidders (in person and online)  Close to 11,500

Close to 11,500 Registered online bidders  9,750+

9,750+ Total lots sold  5,000+

5,000+ Number of sellers  650+

Ritchie Bros. currently has more than 70,000 equipment items, trucks, and other assets listed for sale through its auctions and marketplaces. For a complete list of upcoming auctions and equipment available, visit rbauction.com and ironplanet.com

About Ritchie Bros.:

Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. (NYSE and TSX: RBA) is a global asset management and disposition company, offering customers end-to-end solutions for buying and selling used heavy equipment, trucks and other assets. Operating in a number of sectors, including construction, transportation, agriculture, energy, oil and gas, mining, and forestry, the company's selling channels include:Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers, the world's largest industrial auctioneer offers live auction events with online bidding; IronPlanet, an online marketplace with featured weekly auctions and providing the exclusive IronClad Assurance equipment condition certification; Marketplace-E, a controlled marketplace offering multiple price and timing options; Mascus, a leading European online equipment listing service; and Ritchie Bros. Private Treaty, offering privately negotiated sales. The company's suite of multichannel sales solutions also includes Ritchie Bros. Asset Solutions, a complete end-to-end asset management and disposition system. Ritchie Bros. also offers sector-specific solutions including GovPlanet, TruckPlanet, and Kruse Energy Auctioneers, plus equipment financing and leasing through Ritchie Bros. Financial Services. For more information about Ritchie Bros., visit RitchieBros.com.

Photos and video for embedding in media stories are available at rbauction.com/media.

SOURCE Ritchie Bros.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered to close schools in Japan to prevent coronavirus infection of all elementary and junior high schools nationwide. Schools will close starting Monday and all throughout the student's spring break that ends on early April.

"Efforts have been made to prevent the spread of infection among children in each region, and these one or two weeks will be an extremely critical period," Abe said in a meeting with the key Cabinet ministers on the measure to control the coronavirus outbreak crisis.

Abe stated that keeping the health and safety of children is the top priority of the government. However, the health and welfare ministry said that Abe's request did not include daycare and after school activity centers for all elementary children.

With the surge of confirmed COVID-19 virus patients in Japan, there are already about 200 confirmed cases all over the country from Thursday night. This does not include the 700 coronavirus positive patients from the cruise ship, which was quarantined till Feb.19 this month.

Efforts to slow down the infection rate is in place by the government. As many as 1,600 elementary and junior high schools in Hokkaido are close for a week on the same day.

The Hokkaido education board asked local officials to close all public and private schools, with 50 positive patients identified in the prefecture that includes some students as well.

Also read: Lebanon Reports First Case of Coronavirus, Two More Unconfirmed Cases in Quarantine

Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki mentioned in a recent assembly session that all efforts will be done to prevent the virus from spreading in Hokkaido to protect lives and health of people.

One of the schools, Ochanomizu University in Tokyo confirmed that it closed other affiliated schools on Friday, for a month to early April (including spring break). Emperor Naruhito's nephew Prince Hisato goes to a junior high with that same school. One school official commented that it was an extended closure for most schools.

Another measure to prevent any possible infection that can spread to the children is to prevent parents and guardians in attending the graduation and entrance ceremonies for the junior and senior high school.

In Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido, 300 elementary and junior high schools in the area will be closing too. According to Masahide Hasegawa, Chief of Sapporo's education board explained the one-day delay in the closure of schools compared to other schools. Said delay aims to give working parents enough time to arrange their working schedules before spring break.

To prevent any transmission of the COVID-19, a survey of all affected teachers are scheduled during the break. They will also carry out sterilizing school facilities at the request of every municipality.

For more awareness of the COVID-19, there will be an orientation for all elementary and junior high students on March 5, then the closure of schools in Hokkaido will follow. High schools are not part of the closing of schools, and their entrance exams will be on March 4 as usual. These measures intend to lessen chances of coronavirus infection of schools in Japan is important with the rampant rise of the virus.

Related article: First Coronavirus Vaccine by US Biotech Firm Moderna May Be Out Soon

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Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020 18:31 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20673eaa8 1 Business Garuda-Indonesia,coronavirus,COVID-19,China,Airlines,aviation Free

National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia announced it expects its financial performance would be adversely affected by the global COVID-19 outbreak as it cancels more flights because countries around the world are struggling to limit the movement of people to contain the virus.

The airline has been forced to cut flights to and from China and reduce the number to several other destinations, such as Singapore and Hong Kong.

On Thursday, Garuda's top executive said the airline was forced to halt even more after the Saudi government imposed a temporary ban on all umrah (minor haj) by foreigners because of the spread of the pneumonia-like illness.

It is inevitable that the [COVID-19] coronavirus outbreak would affect our revenue significantly, Garuda president director Irfan Setiaputra told a press conference in Jakarta on Thursday. The Saudi travel ban has worsened the situation, he added, since the airline operated four daily flights to Mecca with wide-body aircraft.

However, we have yet to calculate the exact amount of the loss, he said.

Garuda Indonesias stocks, traded with the code GIAA on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, dropped by 5.63 percent following the statement. The stocks went further down by another 8.2 percent on Friday afternoon even as the bourse's main gauge, the Jakarta Composite Index, plunged 3.47 percent.

The airline booked US$122.8 million in profits from January to September last year as its revenues jumped by 10 percent annually to $3.54 billion. Its total liabilities were worth $3.5 billion as of September, a slight increase from the $3.4 billion in the corresponding period of 2018.

The COVID-19 outbreak, which according to Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering has infected more than 83,500 people worldwide and killed more than 2,800 as of Friday, has prompted several countries to impose travel bans or warnings in an effort to contain it.

Indonesias tourism industry is expected to be hit hard as Chinese tourists were the second largest group of foreign visitors to the country last year.

The government announced on Tuesday a stimulus package worth Rp 10.3 trillion ($742 million) to boost consumer spending and boost the tourism industry. Of that amount, about Rp 298.5 billion is to be channeled into incentives for airlines and travel agents to attract foreigners to Indonesia and another Rp 443.39 billion into discounts for domestic tourists visiting various attractions.

Hopefully, this one shall pass quickly, so we can recover fast, Irfan said.

Garuda Indonesia has stopped a total of 40 weekly flights from and to China and suspended its Denpasar-Hong Kong route, operating flights to and from Hong Kong from Jakarta. It has also reduced the frequency of flights between Jakarta and Singapore from 10 per day to only three.

To cope up with the situation, Garuda wants to open new routes to replace the temporarily closed ones, such as by linking Denpasar with Brisbane, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.

Garuda is not alone. Several international airlines, such as British Airways, American Airlines, AirAsia and Cathay Pacific, have also suspended or reduced flights because of travel bans and falling demand.

This would potentially hit Garuda's financial report this year, Binaartha Sekuritas analyst Nafan Aji said on Thursday. At times like this, government stimulus for the tourism and aviation sectors is very important to boost the industries and keep them surviving.

He expected the airline to implement strategic measures, such as cost efficiency and revenue maximization from other potential flights or new routes, to survive this situation.
Le Net and Vu Thanh Minh, lawyers at LNT & Partners

Over the past two years, the main areas that have applied public-private partnership (PPP) investment are transportation with more than 200 projects, and electricity generation at 23 projects. The main forms of investment have been in build-operate-transfer (BOT) and build-transfer (BT). Therefore, this draft law cannot help but focus on these two forms.

There are some views that investors should not be allowed to invest in the form of BT (where investors build infrastructure projects and the state pays in the form of cash or land exchange) because the total cost cannot be determined via project (risk of self-appreciation of the project) or land value (risk of undervaluation), resulting in loss of the state. Even so, the problem is to overcome the inadequacies of the BT project, not to allow BT project implementation.

Specifically, according to Ronald Coases economic theory, the best pricing for the BT project would be through bidding. The fact that most of the schemes have been implemented under the form of contractor designation is the main reason for losses in such projects. To avoid this situation, it is necessary to specify that all BT projects must be conducted through bidding.

Next is the bidding mechanism. The tender invitation document must be carried out by an independent international consultant in order to avoid the design of the documents so that only one bidder can win.

Complete project information must also be made public to avoid a situation where businesses that are assigned to pre-feasibility projects have an information advantage over other businesses. The same principles should be applied to the BOT form. Instead of deploying too many forms of investment, the Law on PPP should focus on BOT and BT also using PPP only for large projects, leaving small projects for socialisation procedures according to the governments decree on socialisation.

Regarding the influence of the Law on PPP on other laws, the PPP version states that there is a difference between this law and others on the order, procedures for investment, project implementation, and project enterprise activities. PPP, applicable laws, investment guarantees, and state capital management mechanisms applied directly to the PPP project shall comply with this law. The question is whether the effect of PPP law on others is large or not, and if there is any risk.

Minimising conflict

First, there are regulations on investment orders and procedures. This part of the Law on PPP is exactly the same as the provisions of the Law on Public Investment and is similar to the provisions of the Law on Planning. Therefore, the regulations in the draft Law on PPP will not cause a major disturbance to the process of approving current investment procedures.

The only difference is the approval process for environmental impact assessment compared to the Law on Environmental Protection. However, this difference is only reflected in the implementation step rather than the implementation content, nor does it affect the environment, so it does not disturb the application of current regulations.

As for the project implementation process, there are more regulations in the draft PPP law than the investment one. However, it still complies with the planning equivalent. Detailed regulations are mainly focused on selecting investors and negotiating project contracts. These are specific provisions and will not conflict with other provisions.

Regarding the land acquisition and land allocation/lease process, the draft PPP does not stipulate, but is based on the provisions of land and environmental laws, and therefore does not cause a major impact.

Operation of PPP enterprise is different from the activities of businesses under the Law on Enterprises, because a PPP business is a type of tool business  thinly capitalised, set out only to be the focal point and implement only one project.

Therefore, the regulations on capital contribution must be consistent with the project progress rather than complying with the 90-day rule under the Law on Enterprises. The businesses of these PPP companies should also be limited to only serve one project.

This does not conflict with the Law on Enterprises, because it provides that if there is a regulation of another specialised law, the provisions of that law will apply.

Regarding state guarantee for the project, the PPP law should note that 70-80 per cent of the capital used for project development is borrowed, and only about 20-30 per cent of the capital is funded by the investor. Therefore, when the state strictly manages its capital, it must also pay attention to the risk that the lending bank bears. PPP projects are large capital projects.

For example, an expressway construction package must be at least 50km, the distance between two toll stations. Meanwhile, the cost of constructing 1km of the expressway could be about $5-15 million. Therefore, the cost of constructing this package will be nearly $500 million, in which the loan will be about $350 million. Banks do not have to use their money to lend but must mobilise capital from the people, or from other financial institutions to lend.

Therefore, as a responsible lender, they have the right to require the project to have a stable cash flow, and always have a backup loan if there is a shortage of capital to complete the project on time. Projects that meet that standard are considered feasible or bankable projects.

Thus, the criterion of bankability is an important criterion for drafting a PPP law. Regulations that affect the bankability criteria need to be revised. Government agencies from top to bottom need to understand banking regulations and criteria to create conditions for banks and investors to meet and unanimously develop the project.

Cutting the debt burden

Bankability does not mean a government guarantee. As the Ministry of Finance feared, the signing of additional government guarantees has increased the public debt. Thus the purpose of enacting a Law on PPP to reduce public debt will not be achieved.

However, it is not possible to consider 100 per cent of the guaranteed amount to be treated as a public debt, because the government guarantee obligation is only a conditional one, and only occurs when there are some specific events, such as lack of foreign currency.

There is a need for a chapter in the PPP law to enable independent consultants to assist government agencies to calculate risks when providing guarantees, as well as the level of probability calculations that need to be guaranteed (for example, 10 per cent, or 5 per cent) to account for public debt, not 100 per cent. This would provide the state with a more open mechanism to provide some guarantees.

Among the guarantees, the three most important issues are the assurance of foreign currency conversion, assurance of minimum revenue to pay off debt, and payment guarantee in case of early termination of a contract.

As for the guarantee of foreign currency conversion, the guarantee of only 30 per cent according to the current regulations in the draft cannot be reassuring for investors. However, in the context of Vietnam's foreign exchange reserves of over $80 billion, the effect of this commitment, on the foreign exchange demand of a project (usually under $100 million for a $500 million project) is not really unacceptable.

For minimum revenue guarantees, the current provision for sharing 50 per cent of the shortfall revenue is fair, provided that it will be refunded from the excess revenue during the surplus years. However, there should be a mechanism to quickly disburse this amount of 50 per cent, not to then be included in the medium and long-term disbursement plan.

The best way is to set up a stabilisation fund and pay for the shortage of revenue. At the same time, investors who want to use the capital from this fund must make annual payment to that fund. At that time, the fund will act as an intermediary mechanism for risk-sharing of PPP investors, and cover state losses when risks occur.

Because PPP projects are public-driven, the government should not set a goal of always being profitable. The benefits of the state cannot be measured in money, such as the benefits of population expansion, economic stimulus, energy security, among others. It should be clearly specified in the annual budget, and there is a budgetary expense to set up this fund.

These funds are also experienced by other countries, called a viability gap fund. The draft law should follow the direction of fund establishment and consider this a strategy to attract investment and an exception to the current direction  that new funds should not be established.

For payment guarantees at the termination of the project, the government should have specific provisions on the rate of payment (so that the investor is partly at risk), and the project cost must be publicised immediately at the beginning. In addition, there should be provisions on the audit of project costs according to the revenue package.

If it is not possible to manage the cost according to the state budget, it should be contracted so that investors and lenders are aware to make proper arrangements. Currently, the draft Law on PPP does not provide for this and needs to be specified in decrees guiding implementation of the law.

If these comments are integrated, especially those on reducing administrative procedures providing investors with a guarantee of revenue, we believe that this law will meet investor expectations as well as reduce the public debt burden on the state.
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Hundreds of people from faith-based organizations packed an East Side church Thursday night to urge Cuyahoga County leaders to create crisis centers to serve as an alternative to jail for those with mental health or drug issues.

The 90-minute event, organized by Greater Cleveland Congregations, also was attended by County Prosecutor Michael OMalley, Common Pleas judges Brendan Sheehan and John J. Russo, and Bill Mason, County Executive Armond Budishs chief of staff.

Among other things, the group called for the county to open two centers, one on the west side of the county and one on the east side, and make public a timeline for opening the centers. They also asked that the centers:

 serve as pre-booking facilities, meaning people in crisis would be taken to a center instead of being arrested or jailed, thus avoiding involvement in the criminal justice system.

 be located at sites other than jails.

 include an area for detoxification from drugs, a stabilization unit for mental illness and links to community resources, housing and other wrap-around services.

 provide police officers with the ability to quick drop off people and return to policing as soon as possible.

 track data that would show whether the centers are effective.

Think of it a bit like an urgent care center for mental health and addiction, said Donna Weinberger, who has been a leader on Greater Cleveland Congregations efforts to establish crisis centers.

Mason told the crowd that the Budish administration has requested money from the state to help with plans to open one treatment facility, or diversion center, as well as a central-booking facility for suspects heading to jails.

The countys 2020 budget includes $2.5 million for the planned diversion center, and MetroHealths board of trustees last year committed $1 million to the cause.

OMalley, Sheehan and Russo on Thursday credited GCC leaders with working behind the scene with county officials to plan for such treatment facilities. They have been the ones to help us bring it all together, OMalley said. (MetroHealth and the Prosecutors Office joined Greater Cleveland Congregations on a trip to San Antonio in early 2019 to tour a working crisis center.)
Wild West recently sponsored a writing contest for the 6th grade English language arts program at Pieper Ranch Middle School in San Antonio, Texas. Agreeing to publish the winning entry, we asked the students the following: On the wide-open Western frontier, people and animals often depended on one another. How can we, as journalists, honor such relationships in story? Two hundred seventy students tackled the assignment, and their teachersNichole Reid, Nina Guevara and Amy Wileymercifully winnowed the field to a dozen finalists. The Westerners those Talented Twelve chose to profile ranged from such well-known Westerners as Buffalo Bill Cody, Bill Pickett, Butch Cassidy and Sitting Bull to lesser-known figures like Nat Love, Ann Bassett, Charles Schreiner, Scotty Philip, John King Fisher and Lucille Mulhall. Though one of our editors has Codys in his family tree, we strove to remain objective and managed to cut out a true champion from the herd.

Congratulations to Mayumi Torres for her winning entry, the following profile of cowboy turned rodeo legend Bill Pickett!



THE BULLDOGGER

Bill Pickett was the founder of bulldogging, better known in the rodeo world as steer wrestling. Using his special technique during this brutal event, he became a rodeo star and was known as The Bulldogger.

Introduced into competition in the 1890s, steer wrestling kicks off when a cowboy on a horse jumps onto a steer. He then has to use any technique he can to wrestle the steer to the ground. Though this can injure or kill the steer, not to mention the bulldogger, it is a main event at rodeos to this day.

Descended from American Indians and black slaves from the southwest, Texas-born Pickett was among the first black cowboys out West. He learned to ride horses at a very young age and at 10 years old dropped out of the fifth grade to become a full-time ranch hand, using the opportunity to develop his roping and riding skills. As Pickett told the story, one day he was trying to wrangle a Texas longhorn when he remembered a technique hed once seen a herding dog use on cattlebiting a steers lip or nose to immobilize it. Grabbing his steer by the horns and twisting its neck, Pickett then did as the dog did and bit into the animals upper lip. This made the steer fall on its side and Pickett the champion.

Despite suffering three broken ribs, being severely gashed and having his own horse, Spradley, gored in the hindquarters, Pickett won the bet

Picketts technique became known as bulldogging and inspired the event known today as steer wrestling. Traveling the region with his four brothers, Pickett bulldogged and performed other tricks at local fairs and rodeos across the southwest. In 1905 he joined the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West and began touring worldwide.

Three years later, during a 101 Ranch Wild West performance in Mexico City, brother Zack Miller accepted a bet from bullfighters of 5,000 pesos (roughly $7,200 in todays dollars) that Pickett couldnt stay on a prized local bull for five minutes. Despite suffering three broken ribs, being severely gashed and having his own horse, Spradley, gored in the hindquarters, Pickett won the bet, staying aboard the bull for more than six minutes before 101 Ranch cowboys came to his rescue and roped the raging animal. Pickett and Spradley had survived the encounter. But Mexican spectators were furious at the way the bulldogger had subdued the bulllocking his arms about its neck and pinching its nostrils shut with his knees, a technique they felt was dishonorable and disgraceful. Hurling insults, the enraged crowd threw garbage down into the ring at Pickett and the cowboys, threatening violence until the rurales (police) intervened.

By 1932 the 61-year-old bulldogger had retired from the performance arena and started his own 160-acre ranch. That April 2, while helping his friend and former employer Zack Miller rope horses at the 101 Ranch, Pickett died after being kicked in the head by a skittish sorrel.

Famed for his special technique and crowd-buzzing performances, Pickett earned a spot in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1989 for having invented bulldogging. And though opponents of the sport decry its violence and the resulting injuries to animals and riders alike, it is history and remains a wildly popular event at rodeos worldwide. WW
The remanded back to the on Friday the petition of the state government challenging the proposal of the Airports Authority of India to grant the Thiruvananthapuram airport's management rights to the

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde heard the submissions on behalf of Kerala government and other parties for some time, and then decided to send the dispute for adjudication to the high court.

The bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant, said the contention with regard to applicability of Article 131 (which relates to the dispute between Centre and states) would remain open for further hearing if needed.

The Kerala government had moved the high court and then the apex court against the AAI's proposal to grant management and operation rights of the airport to the Adani Enterprises Limited for the next 50 years.
Tehran Cancels Friday Prayers As Coronavirus Cases Spike: 388 Infections, 34 Deaths

02/28/20

Source: RFE/RL

Friday Prayers in Tehran have been canceled over the coronavirus outbreak, state media reported, as the authorities confirmed that infected cases in the country spiked by more than 100 -- among them Masoumeh Ebtekar, the vice president for women and family affairs.



Official Iran's statistics on coronavirus as of February 28th

Infections: 388

Deaths: 34

Recovered: 73

Ebtekar is the second member of the Iranian government known to be infected, after Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirshi, originally tasked with containing the spread of the virus, tested positive for the COVID-19 on February 25.



All of the members of Ebtekar's team will now undergo testing for the virus, state news agency IRNA reported.



Masoumeh Ebtekar

(file photo)



Meanwhile, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said on February 27 that the number of deaths linked to the coronavirus outbreak in Iran has increased by seven to 26 over the past 24 hours -- the highest death toll outside of China, where the disease emerged in December.



A total of 245 people had tested positive for the virus -- an increase of 106 on the previous day, Jahanpour told a news conference, adding that the large number of new cases came from more labs now testing for the virus.

In Geneva, UN health chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world can still stop the coronavirus from spiraling out of control if decisive action is taken immediately.



"We are at a decisive point," Tedros said, adding that "this virus has pandemic potential."



Worried Iranians wearing face masks

(see more photos by ISNA)

In Washington, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on February 27 the threat from coronavirus to the American public remains low, and the White House has begun discussions with leaders of the U.S. Congress on a supplemental spending bill to fight the disease.



More than 82,000 people in about 40 countries have been infected with the new coronavirus, mainly in China. COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, has killed more than 2,700 people globally. Late on February 27, the Netherlands reported the first confirmed case in the country, a man from the southern city of Tilburg who had recently traveled to Italy.

Iran has become the main hot spot of the virus in the Middle East, where more than 350 cases have now been reported. Many of those cases have been linked to travelers who had gone to the Islamic republic for religious visits.



Iran's national headquarters for countering coronavirus

(Source: Islamic Republic News Agency)

As governments ramped up measures to battle a looming global pandemic, Iranian authorities announced domestic travel restrictions for people with confirmed or suspected infections, and placed curbs on access to major Shi'ite pilgrimage sites.



In affected areas, school closures will be extended for three days, and universities for another week starting from February 29, Health Minister Saeed Namaki told a news conference.



State TV later reported Friday Prayers in Tehran had been called off, and semiofficial news agencies quoted officials as saying the prayers would also be canceled in other cities.



Chinese citizens were banned from entering the country, according to state news agency IRNA.



A graphic published by IRNA showed that people were diagnosed with the disease in 20 of the country's 31 provinces.



Worried Iranians wearing face masks

(see more photos by ISNA)

The most affected of those remained the central province home to the city of Qom, a popular place of religious study for Shi'a from across Iran and other countries.

Epidemiologists fear Iranian officials are underreporting the number of cases of the new virus.

In an interview with the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran on February 26, public-health expert Kamiar Alaei said Iranian authorities "don't want to admit that they're facing a major outbreak."

The Iranian health-care system has the capacity and infrastructure to counter a coronavirus outbreak, but officials have not rapidly and effectively mobilized the country's resources "due to political concerns," according to Alaei, who has worked on HIV/AIDS prevention and other infectious diseases in Iran.





Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia on February 27 suspended visas for visits to Islam's holiest sites for the umrah pilgrimage, which goes on all year round. It was not clear if the annual hajj pilgrimage, which this year begins in July, will be affected.

Pakistan shut schools in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, suspended flights to and from Iran, and began to screen hundreds of people who had recently arrived from its neighbor, officials said.

The South Asian countries reported two cases of the infection on people who had recently traveled to Iran as part of groups of pilgrims from Pakistan's Shi'ite minority.

The Iraqi government ordered the closure of schools and universities, cafes, cinemas, and other public spaces until March 7.

Travel to or from some of the worst affected countries, including China, Iran, Japan, South Korea, and Italy, were also banned.

Russia's Federal Tourism Agency recommended national tour operators suspend tours to Iran, Italy, and South Korea until the outbreaks there are brought under control.

The move came after Moscow announced it would stop issuing visas for regular and transit travel for Iranian citizens.

With reporting by Reuters, BBC, AP, AFP, and dpa
[February 27, 2020] Accenture Acquires Boutique Australian Consultancy AlphaBeta Advisors, Bolstering Analytics-led Strategy Services

Accenture (News - Alert) (NYSE: ACN) has acquired AlphaBeta Advisors, a privately held Australian consultancy that combines business strategy, data analytics and econometrics to advise leading organisations on how to respond to profound technological, economic and social change. This acquisition will enable Accenture to expand its analytics-led Strategy capabilities in market. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227006041/en/ Pictured are Bob Easton, chairman of Accenture in Australia and New Zealand (left) with Dr. Andrew Charlton, founder and director at AlphaBeta Advisors (Photo: Business Wire) As advisors to leading organisations across all major industries, such as government, technology and financial services, AlphaBeta Advisors helps clients to better understand the market forces shaping their industries now and into the future so that they can remain relevant, grow and be prosperous. AlphaBeta Advisors experts have worked on projects aimed at tackling some of Australia's biggest contemporary challenges such as: the future of work; national reform programs; and technology and innovation, among many others. "In its short history, AlphaBeta Advisors has carved out a unique and differentiated position in the local marketplace," said Bob Easton, chairman of Accenture in Australia and New Zealand. "We are strongly aligned in how we work with organisations to address some of the most pressing issues and opportunities of our time. AlphaBeta Advisors's data and analytics-led approach to strategy and consulting will boost the specialised strategic advice Accenture offers clients to help them achieve competitive agility by turning data-driven insights into real action and impact." Founded in 2015, AlphaBeta Advisors has a presence in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, and employs an experienced team of approximately 35 people with backgrounds in data analytics, economics and public policy, among others. "Following a period of rapid growth, we are ready to take our business to the next level. By joining forces and combining our data-led advisory services with Accenture's world-class strategy capabilities, we will be best positioned to guide clients on the journey from strategy through to execution," said Andrew Charlton, founder and director at AlphaBeta Advisors. In this past year, Accenture has made four other acquisitions in Australia, including SAP (News - Alert) and business intelligence specialists, Icon Integration in February 2020; specialist Government consultancy, Apis Group in December 2019; big data and analytics company Analytics8 in August 2019; and cybersecurity and technology company BCT Solutions in June 2019.



"Our locally-focussed investment is helping to create further differentiation for our services in the marketplace. We know that innovation, underpinned by expert advice and powered by digital technologies, is a winning combination for our clients," said Bob Easton. The acquisition signed and closed simultaneously. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About Accenture Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions - underpinned by the world's largest delivery network - Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With 505,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com. Accenture Strategy combines deep industry expertise, advanced analytics capabilities and human-led design methodologies that enable clients to act with speed and confidence. By identifying clear, actionable paths to accelerate competitive agility, Accenture Strategy helps leaders in the C-suite envision and execute strategies that drive growth in the face of digital transformation. For more information, follow @AccentureStrat or visit www.accenture.com/strategy. About AlphaBeta Advisors Founded in 2015, AlphaBeta Advisors saw a need for a new breed of consultant who could marry technical skills with policy insight and stakeholder management to help solve the most pressing issues facing business and government. AlphaBeta Advisors specialises in data-driven analysis that helps clients understand the forces shaping their industries, drawing on their unique suite of economic, education, employment, housing, satellite and transport data. Following a period of rapid growth, AlphaBeta Advisors now has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, and employs approximately 35 people with backgrounds in public policy, data analytics, economics and business. AlphaBeta Advisors has operations in Singapore which do not form part of this transaction; the Singaporean business is owned and managed separately and will continue to operate independently. Forward-Looking Statements Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "may," "will," "should," "likely," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "projects," "believes," "estimates," "positioned," "outlook" and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These include, without limitation, risks that: the transaction might not achieve the anticipated benefits for Accenture; Accenture's results of operations could be adversely affected by volatile, negative or uncertain economic and political conditions and the effects of these conditions on the company's clients' businesses and levels of business activity; Accenture's business depends on generating and maintaining ongoing, profitable client demand for the company's services and solutions including through the adaptation and expansion of its services and solutions in response to ongoing changes in technology and offerings, and a significant reduction in such demand or an inability to respond to the evolving technological environment could materially affect the company's results of operations; if Accenture is unable to keep its supply of skills and resources in balance with client demand around the world and attract and retain professionals with strong leadership skills, the company's business, the utilization rate of the company's professionals and the company's results of operations may be materially adversely affected; Accenture could face legal, reputational and financial risks if the company fails to protect client and/or company data from security breaches or cyberattacks; the markets in which Accenture operates are highly competitive, and Accenture might not be able to compete effectively; changes in Accenture's level of taxes, as well as audits, investigations and tax proceedings, or changes in tax laws or in their interpretation or enforcement, could have a material adverse effect on the company's effective tax rate, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition; Accenture's profitability could materially suffer if the company is unable to obtain favorable pricing for its services and solutions, if the company is unable to remain competitive, if its cost-management strategies are unsuccessful or if it experiences delivery inefficiencies; Accenture's results of operations could be materially adversely affected by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; as a result of Accenture's geographically diverse operations and its growth strategy to continue to expand in its key markets around the world, the company is more susceptible to certain risks; Accenture's business could be materially adversely affected if the company incurs legal liability; Accenture's work with government clients exposes the company to additional risks inherent in the government contracting environment; if Accenture is unable to manage the organizational challenges associated with its size, the company might be unable to achieve its business objectives; Accenture's ability to attract and retain business and employees may depend on its reputation in the marketplace; if Accenture does not successfully manage and develop its relationships with key alliance partners or fails to anticipate and establish new alliances in new technologies, the company's results of operations could be adversely affected; Accenture might not be successful at acquiring, investing in or integrating businesses, entering into joint ventures or divesting businesses; if Accenture is unable to protect or enforce its intellectual property rights or if Accenture's services or solutions infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others or the company loses its ability to utilize the intellectual property of others, its business could be adversely affected; Accenture's results of operations and share price could be adversely affected if it is unable to maintain effective internal controls; changes to accounting standards or in the estimates and assumptions Accenture makes in connection with the preparation of its consolidated financial statements could adversely affect its financial results; many of Accenture's contracts include fees subject to the attainment of targets or specific service levels, which could increase the variability of the company's revenues and impact its margins; Accenture might be unable to access additional capital on favorable terms or at all and if the company raises equity capital, it may dilute its shareholders' ownership interest in the company; Accenture may be subject to criticism and negative publicity related to its incorporation in Ireland; as well as the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed under the "Risk Factors" heading in Accenture plc's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this news release speak only as of the date they were made, and Accenture undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such statements to actual results or changes in Accenture's expectations. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227006041/en/

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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed the new co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs, a controversial post briefly held by Vice President Leni Robredo in 2019.

Dante Jimenez, who currently heads the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission, will be leading the government's war on drugs, alongside Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Director General Aaron Aquino.

Aquino in a statement said he is looking forward to working with Jimenez, noting that the anti-corruption crusader "will greatly contribute" to the fight against illegal drugs.

In November last year, Duterte appointed Robredo as anti-drug czar but fired her three weeks after.

The President said he sacked Robredo for talking to so many nations. Robredo met with representatives from the United States Embassy and the United Nations to discuss possible improvements in the drug war.

Robredo later said the government failed in its narcotics campaign with a measly score of 1 over 100, baring that authorities have seized less than one percent of shabu since 2016. Malacanang dubbed her findings as "dud," saying she had no authority to recommend changes to the anti-drug program with her short stint as ICAD co-chair.

The latest list of presidential appointees includes Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Policy Enrique Manalo, who has been named Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations. This is a post once held by now Foreign Affairs Secretary Tedoro "Teddy Boy" Locsin, Jr.

New appointments have also been made to the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine National Police.
The new research which was conducted by the researchers of RMIT University's School of Management was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.The research shows that experiencing chronic job insecurity can change your personality for the worse.Researchers after the study have found that those who remain exposed to job insecurity for over four years became less emotionally stable, less agreeable, and less conscientious.A researcher of the study, Dr Lena Wang from RMIT University's School of Management, said the study built on a growing evidence base about the negative consequences of job insecurity."Traditionally, we've thought about the short-term consequences of job insecurity - that it hurts your well-being, physical health, sense of self-esteem," said Wang."But now we are looking at how that actually changes who you are as a person over time, a long-term consequence that you may not even be aware of," Wang added.The study used nationally representative data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey in relation to answers about job security and personality for 1,046 employees over a nine-year period.It applied a well-established personality framework known as the Big Five, which categorises human personality into five broad traits: emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion and openness.The study results showed that long-term job insecurity negatively affected the first three traits, which relate to a person's tendency to reliably achieve goals, get along with others, and cope with stress.Wang said the results went against some assumptions about job insecurity."Some might believe that insecure work increases productivity because workers will work harder to keep their jobs, but our research suggests this may not be the case if job insecurity persists," said Wang."We found that those chronically exposed to job insecurity are in fact more likely to withdraw their effort and shy away from building strong, positive working relationships, which can undermine their productivity in the long run," Wang added.Previous research has shown that insecure work - including labour-hire practices, contract and casual work, and underemployment - is on the rise in Australia and globally.The HILDA data drew on responses from employees from a broad cross-section of professions and jobs, who were asked about how secure they perceived their jobs to be.The lead author of the study, professor Chia-Huei Wu belonging to Leeds University Business School, said that types of job insecurity might include short-term contracts or casual work, jobs threatened by automation, and positions that could be in line for redundancy.Wu also said that there are ways that employers can support workers who are feeling worried about their jobs."This is as much about perceived job insecurity as actual insecure contracts. Some people simply feel daunted by the changing nature of their roles or fear they'll be replaced by automation," said Wu.But while some existing jobs can be replaced by automation, new jobs will be created."So employers have the ability to reduce that perception, for example by investing in professional development, skills and training, or by giving career guidance," added Wu. (ANI)
Sadly, the American dream, President Donald Trump said in 2015, is dead.

So, what if, four years later, Trump turns out to be right? With Tuesdays Texas primaries, the 2020 election is not just about President Trump. Replacing Trump isnt enough; the American republic needs repair and re-founding. So, the real question is not, Which candidate do you like? Its this: Can the American dream  the republic  be revived?

For Texans, the stakes are huge and so are the republics stake in Texas. Now an arguably purple state, Texas can set the course for the Democratic Party on Tuesday and even decide the election in the fall. If Trump loses Texas then, Republicans would lose their path to the White House for a generation. So, for Texas Democrats, the burden is especially heavy. Their choice is not between candidates but between outcomes: Either restore the republic or lose it forever. And if they want to restore it, they need to do the most counterintuitive thing possible: Stop Bernie Sanders.

So, buckle up, yall. Were going to take a big tour of history to figure out where we are. Our stops will include ancient Rome, the French Revolution, Europe, political philosophy, 250 years of American history and, of course, Texas. Also, we will stare into the abyss. So, be prepared because the abyss will stare back.

First, if you dont believe that Texas has played an outsized role in determining the fate of America, let history be your signpost. Texas was key to opening the West through the Mexican-American War. Texas nearly helped destroy the Union in the Civil War. Texas oil powered the 20th century. Texas gave America and the world, for better and worse, the Bushes.

Yet the words of the father of Texas, Sam Houston, echo today. A nation divided against itself cannot stand, Houston, the Lone Star States most ardent unionist, said. I wish if this Union must be dissolved that its ruins may be the monument of my grave, and the graves of my family. I wish no epitaph to be written to tell that I survive the ruin of this glorious Union.

And that, precisely, is what is at stake now: the Union, the very definition of the American republic itself. Arguably, the republic has been invented and reinvented no fewer than five times, a lot like the history of the French republics, which also count five. The first American one was born with independence in 1776 and refined in 1789 with the Constitution. But it died, leading to a second, in 1865 with the collapse of slavery and the Confederacy.

The Great Depression and The New Deal created the third republic. World War II and the national security state of the Cold War forged the fifth. The expanded fifth was birthed in the 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the turn to globalization, which pledged to extend capitalism and democracy worldwide and lift standards of living here at home. But the Great Recession in 2008 laid bare the grim problems, even the collapse, of globalization.

Enter Donald Trump. Trump is not a builder. He is a destroyer of everything in his path: marriages, business deals, loan agreements, institutions, alliances, the separation of powers, the earth, laws, truth, trust and even reason itself. But give him his due. Trumpism is a real political ideology. And it doesnt seek to re-invent the republic. It seeks, instead, to destroy it and stop its slow, yet relentless, progress.

Trumpism is rooted in a single core grievance which happens to be exactly true: Americans didnt get their fair share out of the fifth republic, namely out of globalization. But Trumpsim incorrectly blames international trade with the accumulation of wealth at the very top of society.

Its not that the tide didnt rise. Its just that a small number of super yachts crowded the inlet when it did, leaving everybody else stuck in the harbor. Thats why the top 20 percent of Americans own nearly 80 percent of the countrys wealth and the top 1 percent own 29 percent, according to the Brookings Institution, some $25 trillion. Thats more than the entire middle class.

You dont have to leave Texas to see it. The biggest Texas cities, including Houston, reaped the reward of the Texas Miracle, the economic boom that began over a decade ago. Jobs doubled in the big cities. But 2 million Texans, at least, missed the boom entirely. Lots of places in Texas top the list of struggling towns when oil prices slide: Longview, Odessa-Midland and Victoria did the last time it happened in 2016. But you dont have to be in the oil patch to go bust.

Just visit, say, San Angelo as I recently did. In the heart of the verdant Concho River Valley, San Angelo was the goat and sheep capital of Texas. Now, the downtown is listless even on a Friday night. A newspaper blows down the street. Storefronts are empty, if not abandoned. The population has practically flat-lined at 100,000; Abilenes, just to the east, has too. So, places like these are Trump country in Texas. And Texas is one of just nine states where income inequality has actually worsened in 2018 during the longest economic expansion in U.S. history.

But there is a dark side to Trumpism: Simply put, its fascism. Be clear: I didnt say Trump is a fascist. I didnt say that if you voted for Trump you are. But the ideology of Trumpism is most certainly fascist  if you understand it as a philosophy, not as an insult. Fascism didnt start with 20th-century Italy and Germany. As a philosophy, it took root in Europe after the French revolution in 1789. And in the 20th century, it wasnt limited to Germany, Italy or the occupied territories. There was Spanish fascism and Portuguese fascism; both lasted until the 1970s.

Yes, George Orwell once wrote that as used, the word Fascism is almost entirely meaningless. Almost, but not quite. As James Fallows once noted in The Atlantic, the great Italian writer and philosopher, Umberto Eco, who lived under Mussolini, responded in 1995: It would be so much easier, for us, if there appeared on the world scene somebody saying, I want to reopen Auschwitz, I want the Black Shirts to parade again in the Italian squares. Life is not that simple. Instead, fascism would take a modern form, say on the Internet and television.

Check for yourself. A commonsense, laymans definition of fascism can be found in the Encyclopedia Britannica, which lists 15 or so characteristics. Trumpism, by my count, checks off about 11 of these items, either through actual policy or public sentiment. Here in America we can actually measure fascism, quantify it in public opinion and policy.

Opposition to parliaments and legislatures? Check. Forty-three percent of Republicans say presidents could operate more effectively if they didnt have to bother themselves with Congress and the courts, according to the Pew Research Center. Opposition to Marxism? Check. Conservative economics which benefit the rich? Corporatism? Check-plus. Demonization of certain groups. Check-plus-plus. And sort of like coronavirus, were not the only ones infected by it. India, Brazil, Hungary, Poland, the United Kingdom and Italy have all caught the contagion.

The American republic, as we know it, has just about stopped working. Its not just Donald Trump; hes just an opportunist who seized on the compilation of mistakes like the flooding of politics with money, the paralysis of the Senate, the intense politicization of the courts and huge expansion of the presidency under the pretense of national security. Literally, almost nothing works now. Democracy isnt under attack. Its dying.

So, what is to be done? For that we need to flip back to 509 B.C.E., when the Romans ejected the Etruscans to establish the first republic in history, when citizens elected a legislature  the Senate  which governed on their behalf. The Roman Republic, however, was a messy affair and it succumbed, too, in 44 B.C.E. when the Senate handed its power to Julius Caesar, naming him dictator for life. Realizing their mistake, the Senate stabbed him to death. But it was too late. The lower and middle classes rose up for their slain dictator. The senators caved and worsened the situation further, installing Caesars heir, Octavius  as emperor. The worlds first republic died this very month, 2064 years ago.

In this scenario, President Trump is Julius Caesar. (Though he has been aptly compared to Caligula.) And Bernie Sanders is Marcus Junius Brutus, who first stabbed Caesar. Sanders represents a swift, and sharp end to Trumpism, lopping off a right-wing authoritarian and replacing it with revolution. But if the American republic is as fragile as Ive described, it simply cant withstand revolution.

Even if he got elected, many of Sanders promises would never be approved even by an all-Democratic Congress; there are too many conservative Democrats. Sandersism would fail or he would be tempted to choose revolution over republic. Many of his promises involve using exactly what Trump has used: the executive order. Worse, what if the failure of Sanders programs to be enacted only undermined the fragile republic further, eroding confidence in institutions? Demands would rise for an emperor, not just a dictator.

The sad news is that the republic is too feeble to withstand the earthquake of revolution; it needs a caretaker and fixer or it really does die for good. Sure, revolution has a nice ring to it. Burn it down, right? And yes putting shoulder to wheel to reinvent a sixth republic is hard work. But the first job toward reviving American democracy is to choose carefully. Trump has to go. And Bernie, realistically, cant do it. Can you imagine him extending an olive branch to San Angelo? His zeal has never been matched by actual achievement. And he is an impatient revolutionary, not a meticulous political surgeon. Whether in the election or after, the fragile patient will die on the table.

Texans have the burden of making these great, big choices which befits a great, big state. Its also the price of being purple, relevant again. Good luck. Or as the Romans might have said, Optima fortuna, y'all.

Parker, author of Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America, is a contributing columnist for the Houston Chronicle.
Ayushmann Khurrana To Play A Gynecologist In His Next Opposite Alaya F? Here's What We Know
An undocumented married pregnant mother has been ordered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to self-deport to El Salvador in 45 days.

The ruling comes after ICE agents detained Veronica Carmen Lara-Marquez outside a Philadelphia elementary school after dropping off her four-year-old American-born daughter February 11.

The Salvadoran woman told the Philadelphia Inquirer that while meeting February 20 with a case coordinator from an independent agency that monitors migrants for ICE, the worker informed her that the federal immigration department had instructed her to voluntarily return to her native country by April.

The 32-year-old Lara-Marquez provided a note that indicates she must purchase a one-way ticket with no layover stops to the Central American nation and must appear at an immigration hearing March 20.

ICE also notified her that she must leave the United States by April 4.

Veronica Carmen Lara-Marquez, who is three months pregnant, has been notified by ICE that she has 45 days to voluntarily return to El Salvador. A deportation order was processed in 2012 after she missed an immigration hearing in Virginia a year after entering the United States on an asylum petition

Veronica Carmen Lara-Marquez, who was briefly detained February 11 by ICE agents outside her four-year-old American-born daughter's school in Philadelphia, showed proof that she is a citizen of El Salvador and not Honduras, as indicated by ICE in official documents

Lara-Marquez hopes her attorney, Ricky Palladino, can convince ICE to grant her an extension and review her case after immigration officials initially identified her as a native of Honduras. Despite the error, ICE said the fingerprints in the agency's database system confirmed Lara-Marquez's identity.

The only thing she could do now to stay here is get her removal proceedings reopened,' Palladino said.

The distraught mother, who is three months pregnant, questioned ICE's decision to enforce the deportation order, handed down by a judge in May 2012 after she failed to show up for a hearing.

'We do not get into trouble,' Lara-Marquez told Telemundo 62. 'There is a lot of crime, which is getting worse day by day.'

Lara-Marquez was caught off guard and thought she was going to be kidnapped when she was approached by two plainclothes agents, who addressed her by her middle name and told her to step to the side because they wanted to talk to her outside Eliza B. Kirkbride Elementary.

ICE officers eventually released her at a bus stop because of her pregnancy.

The federal immigration enforcement agency told DailyMail.com in an emailed statement Friday that Lara-Marquez will have to comply with the judge's decision.

'Humanitarian factors and potential mitigating circumstances are considered for every individual encountered by ICE,' the ICE spokesperson wrote.

'A detention decision is made on a case-by-case basis based upon the totality of the circumstances, however the decision not to place her in ICE custody does not undue the immigration judges removal order and Ms. Lara-Marquez must comply with the order of the court.'

Since then, Lara-Marquez has noticed a change in her daughter's mood.

'She is very sad because they noticed everything that was happening at the school,' he said.

The Salvadoran woman entered the United States on an asylum petition in 2011 and settled in Virginia.

She then moved to Philadelphia the following year and met the father of her two children, but failed to show up for her immigration hearings.
Turn this small-time indie project into reality by supporting the Kickstarter here , watching the trailer on YouTube here , and visiting the brand new Steam page here .
MEXICO CITY, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With an overall brand value increase of 38%, the Latin American retail sector has outperformed all other categories in the 2020 BrandZTM Top 50 Most Valuable Latin American Brands report, launched today by WPP and Kantar . The huge growth in retail compares to just 2.6% growth in value of the overall BrandZTM LatAm ranking this year.

Investment in digital transformation has been key; the most valuable retailers are driving customer engagement and business value with innovative business models, including omni-channel solutions, online and mobile platforms and digital payment systems. Mexico's Walmart-owned discount store, Bodega Aurrera (No. 6, $5.4 billion) was the best performer overall with a 44% increase in brand value and a rise of four places in the ranking. This follows aggressive expansion plans that saw new store openings to help strengthen its distribution capabilities and physical presence in the region.

Chile's Falabella (No. 7, $5.2 billion) was the other retail brand to make the top 10, thanks to the development of an integrated digital retail platform to maximise its diverse portfolio and to leverage its omni-channel strategy. Other top retail performers included Lider (No. 13, $3.2 billion), Liverpool (No. 21, $2.4 billion) and Lojas Americanas (No. 39, $1.3 billion) with 19%, 10% and 23% brand value growth respectively.

The highest ranked newcomer this year was e-commerce company MercadoLibre (No. 19, $2.5 billion), with a presence in around 20 LatAm countries, which recently introduced new digital payment methods including QR codes, virtual wallets and discounts with the Mercado Pago app. Supermarket chain Magazine Luiza (No. 24, $2.3 billion) and fast fashion retailer Renner (No. 29, $1.9 billion), both Brazilian brands, also entered the Top 50 this year.

Overall there were 11 retail brands in the Top 50, with the others being Sodimac (No. 12, $3.2 billion), Ipiranga (No. 38, $1.3 billion) and Tottus (No. 45, $1.1 billion). Their combined value was $27.1 billion, 20.2% of the total ranking compared to 15.1% in the previous report.

Financial institutions topped the ranking for the first time, with Brazilian banks, Bradesco (No. 1, $9.5 billion) and Itau (No. 2, $8.4 billion) both growing 35%. Facing threats from the rise of fintechs and neobanks, established financial institutions have also invested in technology to deliver financial services to customers. These include new digital payment methods, such as the Mexican state-owned Cobro Digital (CoDi), a new system introduced by the Bank of Mexico (Banxico) that is set to revolutionise finance in Mexico in line with the government's objective to move to a cashless economy.

With a total brand value of $134.3 billion, up from $130.8 billion in the previous year's ranking, the 2020 BrandZTM Top 50 Most Valuable Latin American Brands report features a range of industry sectors, from energy and healthcare companies to communications providers and airlines, and includes brands from across six Latin American countries  Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.

The BrandZ Top 10 Most Valuable Latin American Brands 2020

# Rank Change Brand Category Brand Value 2020 (USD million) 1 2 Bradesco Financial Institution 9,468 2 2 Itau Financial Institution 8,368 3 -2 Corona Beer 7,529 4 -2 Skol Beer 7,253 5 0 Telcel Communication Provider 5,483 6 4 Bodega Aurrera Retail 5,419 7 -1 Falabella Retail 5,186 8 -1 Brahma Beer 3,781 9 -1 Globo TV Stations 3,624 10 -1 Aguila Beer 3,522

David Roth, CEO, The Store WPP EMEA and Asia and Chairman of BrandZ, said: "While businesses face challenging conditions in several Latin American markets, those that have adopted new digital platforms and investment in innovative ways to engage with customers have delivered growth and strengthened their brand across the region. The success of Brazil's Bradesco and Itau banks demonstrates that brands can grow their value even when threatened by the emergence of challenger brands."

Gabriel Castellanos, CEO, Hispanic LatAm, Insights Division, Kantar: "As several countries in Latin America experience political and/or economic challenges, the link between brand and financial growth becomes particularly important. In the context of a global slowdown, this might sound discouraging, but brands that leverage their strengths may actually be standing in front of a "pot of gold" of potential growth  as demonstrated by the fastest growing brands in 2020."

Eduardo Tomiya, Managing Director, LatAM, Consulting Division, Kantar: "Brazil leads the ranking with two of its banks taking the two top places; Brazilian brands also grew 21% and represented 40% of the overall value. As well as banking, retail and cosmetics were the big winners, although all brands face the challenge of how to increase consumer perception of differentiation and relevance if they are to become the global brands of the future."

Oliver Pacht, Managing Director, Mexico and CAM, Consulting Division, Kantar: "Digital disruption coupled with a 70% smartphone adoption rate across the region is driving change across all categories and our latest ranking shows that those brands that empower consumers to greater convenience and choice are winning. But with the constant shift in consumer demand, brands will need to be agile in spotting the next wave of emerging consumer expectation, whilst adopting a "humanized" approach to growth that emphasises experience rather than products. Top performing brands focus on the people they serve."

Other trends in the BrandZTM Top 50 Most Valuable Latin American Brands report:

Brazil has overtaken Mexico as the leading country in the ranking for the first time in five years. Overall, Brazilian brands grew 21% to make up 40% of the ranking's value.

has overtaken as the leading country in the ranking for the first time in five years. Overall, Brazilian brands grew 21% to make up 40% of the ranking's value. Local brands continued to dominate the beer sector, despite beer consumption slowing in Latin America . Twelve are included in the ranking, including Corona (No. 3, $7.5 billion ) and Skol (No. 4, $7.2 billion ). Focus has been on maintaining local characteristics and communicating them in each market.

. Twelve are included in the ranking, including (No. 3, ) and (No. 4, ). Focus has been on maintaining local characteristics and communicating them in each market. Brazilian telecoms brands, Claro (No. 15, $3 billion ), and Embratel (No. 50, $944 million ) are owned by America Movil , the giant Latin American telecoms group, but have also managed to remain relevant to the local market, providing proven, tailored solutions and seamless customer experience to help local businesses of all sizes evolve and adapt to change.

The 2020 BrandZTM Top 50 Most Valuable Latin American Brands report and ranking are available online at http://www.millwardbrown.com/brandz/. The reports, rankings, charts, articles and more can also be accessed through the BrandZ app, which is free to download for Apple IOS and all Android devices from http://www.brandz.com/mobile or by searching for BrandZ in the iTunes or Google Play app stores.

About the BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable LatAm Brands Ranking

The valuation behind the BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable LatAm Brands was conducted by Kantar, which specialises in brand equity research and brand valuation. The methodology mirrors that used to calculate the annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands ranking, which is now in its fourteenth year. Commissioned by WPP and Kantar, the ranking combines rigorously analysed financial data from Bloomberg with the opinions of more than 100,000 LatAm consumers.

The BrandZ Top 50 is the most definitive and robust ranking of the LatAm brands available, and the brands ranked all meet these eligibility criteria:

They originate in LatAm ( Argentina , Brazil , Colombia , Chile , Mexico , Peru ).

, , , , , ). They are owned by a publicly listed company traded on a stock exchange, or its financials are published in the public domain.

The suite of BrandZ brand valuation rankings and reports includes the annual Global Top 100 as well as rankings for Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Spain, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the US, UK, Netherlands and Latin America.

About Kantar

Kantar is the world's leading evidence-based insights and consulting company. We have a complete, unique and rounded understanding of how people think, feel and act; globally and locally in over 90 markets. By combining the deep expertise of our people, our data resources and benchmarks, our innovative analytics and technology, we help our clients understand people and inspire growth.

About WPP

WPP is a creative transformation company. We build better futures for our clients through an integrated offer of communications, experience, commerce and technology. For more information, visit www.wpp.com.

SOURCE Kantar
Despite this most recent novels allusions to Hungarys trampled immigrant population, and despite references to Facebook and Twitter, the cast of Baron Wenckheims Homecoming still feels out of time, almost spectral, awash in an oddly ahistorical decline, or else a decline too remote from ground zero.

The novel is undoubtedly set in Hungary, for we learn that in the novel. And it is definitely set in the present day, as tell-tale signs abound. But one of the effects of Krasznahorkais writing is that neither his characters nor his landscapes feel wedded to the material world. They exist steadfastly in fiction. His people and his towns are not so much depictions as they are uncanny constructions, dream-like and unstable, with a questionable connection to the real.

Laszlo Krasznahorkais Baron Wenckheims Homecoming was first published in his native Hungary in 2016. Like several of his earlier novels, starting with Satantango (published in 1985, translated in 2012), and most recently War and War (1999), it can easily read as a novel concerned with apocalypse. At a time when that field is crowded by fiction with highly prescriptive themes and eagerly signposted real-world parallels, it unfashionably avoids the specificity nowadays associated with apocalypse.

The nominal Baron is rumoured to be returning from Argentina to his small Hungarian home town. This town is fastened in a deep, almost narcoleptic depression. It is both poverty-stricken and spiritually barren, and its inhabitants are either stuck in an endless torpor, or are rodent-like in their desire to prosper at any cost.

When word spreads of his comeback, hope springs that his alleged wealth will save the town. The population springs into action: a bizarre parade is organised, the local orphanage is evacuated to accommodate the Baron, and nearly everyone is drawn into the project of pleasing him. But the eccentric Baron has concerns of his own, namely a shameful gambling debt, and the lure of a haunting childhood love, now an elderly woman left adrift in the declining town.

It is Kraznahorkais most explicitly comedic novel, but it is still defiantly lacking in salvation or hope for its subjects.

Whether the Barons return proves a boon for the townsfolk is mostly beside the point because Kraznahorkais achievement here is his portrait of the dying town. Most of the book's 13 parts consist of long sentences focusing on a particular inhabitant. These sentences often run for pages, paragraph breaks denoting a shift of perspective. This may sound intimidating, but these sentences pour forth like song, full of subtle pauses, brilliant flourishes, always with a mood of gentle crescendo.

When events occur, they unfold at the threshold of dream: the Barons homecoming parade is accompanied by a poorly synchronised motorbike horn ensemble attempting Dont Cry For Me Argentina; a cavalcade of mysterious vehicles course through town causing a cataclysmic time malfunction. There is narrative, but it is subservient to effect.
In 1986, a group of British historical musicians founded an orchestra, but refrained from hiring a principal music director: they would take charge of running the ensemble themselves.

Of course, somebody has to lead the music, and three violinists take responsibility for this - taking turns with each other. And some people say that there is no room for democracy in an orchestra.



It is no coincidence that the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was such a self-aware ensemble from its very beginning: it very swiftly began to gain exceptional prestige for itself.



This is indicated by a partial list of their collaborators over the past decades: Frans Bruggen, Gustav Leonhardt, Christopher Hogwood, Charles Mackerras, Rene Jacobs, Roger Norrington, William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe, Robin Ticciati, Yannick Nezet-Seguin - just a few of their renowned partners, both active and deceased.



Although the orchestra (true to its name) officially considers the music of the second half of the 18th century to be its core repertoire, it does not necessarily treat this as an iron-clad rule.



At Mupa Budapest's Early Music Festival, for example, they will play several instrumental pieces of remarkable beauty by Bach, the master who embodies the Baroque period.



Tickets:

HUF 3,300 - 9,900



Date and time:

Friday, 28 February, 7:30 pm



Venue:

Palace Of Arts

1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell u. 1.



Photo courtesy of the organisers
An appeals court in California has temporarily halted the Trump administrations policy forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico as the United States considers their cases.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision on the controversial programme  known as the remain in Mexico programme  marks a significant blow to one of the administrations key asylum policies, which went into effect in January of last year.

Under the programme, asylum seekers who are from Central America were forced to stay on the Mexican side of the border as they awaited their court dates. Since the programme was enacted, around 59,000 people had been enrolled in the programme, which is formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) programme, US Customs and Border Protection commissioner Mark Morgan said on Thursday.

In their legal arguments, the Trump administration said that the policy had led to a drop in arrests at the border, and therefore showed success. Immigrant advocates, meanwhile, said that the programme put vulnerable migrants into harms way in makeshift camps along the border with little if any oversight.

The three-judge court, in its decision, called the policy invalid in its entirety, and said a lower court decision that had initially enjoined its implementation was not an abuse of discretion.

People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Show all 16 1 /16 People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Chicago, Illinois, February 16, 2017. Theopolis Waters/Reuters People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Washington, DC, U.S., February 16, 2017. Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. The crowd, which grew to well over a thousand participants, marched from the Austin City Hall to the Texas State Capital. Across the country hundreds of restaurants and eateries are closing for the day to protest President Trump's immigration policies and to highlight the contributions of immigrants to U.S. business and life. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants AUSTIN, TX - FEBRUARY 16: Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Chicago, Illinois, February 16, 2017. Theopolis Waters/Reuters People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Demonstrators march during the "Day Without Immigrants" protest in Chicago, Illinois, February 16, 2017. Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. The crowd, which grew to well over a thousand participants, marched from the Austin City Hall to the Texas State Capital. Across the country hundreds of restaurants and eateries are closing for the day to protest President Trump's immigration policies and to highlight the contributions of immigrants to U.S. business and life. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants Protesters march in the streets outside the Texas State Capital on 'A Day Without Immigrants' February 16, 2017 in Austin, Texas. The crowd, which grew to well over a thousand participants marched from the Austin City Hall to the Texas State Capital. Across the country hundreds of restaurants and eateries are closing for the day to protest President Trump's immigration policies and to highlight the contributions of immigrants to U.S. business and life. Drew Anthony Smith/Getty People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants High school student Kathia Suarez holds up a sign as she protests with others outside the Grayson County courthouse in downtown Sherman, Texas, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. LM Otero/AP People strike across America for A Day Without Immigrants High school senior Vicky Sosa holds a sign outside the Grayson County courthouse in downtown Sherman, Texas, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. In an action called "A Day Without Immigrants," immigrants across the country are expected to stay home from school, work and close businesses to show how critical they are to the U.S. economy and way of life. LM Otero/AP

The MPP has had serious adverse consequences for the individual plaintiffs, wrote Judge William Fletcher in the ruling released Friday. Plaintiffs presented evidence in the district court that they, as well as others returned to Mexico under the MPP, face targeted discrimination, lack of food and shelter, and practical obstacles to participation in court proceedings in the United States.

He continued: The hardship and danger to individuals returned to Mexico under MPP have been repeatedly confirmed by reliable news reports.

The flow of migrants being returned to Mexico had already dwindled in recent months, as more and more migrants were flown to Central America  especially Guatemala  and told to apply for asylum there.

But that new policy has been described as a worse condition than the already restrictive Remain in Mexico policy, with Charlene DCruz, a lawyer representing Central American asylum seekers, telling the Washington Post in a recent report that, MPP is dying. And something worse is taking its place. Everything is changing.

The MPP policy was put in place in order to cut down on what the Trump administration viewed as an influx of asylum seekers coming into the United States under potentially false pretences, and led to the creation of those border camps that grew in size, with kidnappings and violence following suit.

Under previous rules for asylum seekers, migrants were allowed to enter the US, apply for asylum and then wait within the country for their day in court. Donald Trump has frequently claimed that the policy allowed migrants to disappear once inside of the country, and that migrants would then skip court dates.

MPP is one of the larger steps the Trump administration has undertaken to cut down the American asylum system, alongside another plan that required migrants to apply for asylum in at least one other country along their route of travel before being allowed to apply for shelter in the US. That policy also faces a federal court challenge.

Even with those court challenges, though, the Trump administration has managed to shrink the American asylum system, with overall border apprehensions dwindling.
Indian equity market witnessed yet another kneejerk reaction, falling for the fifth day and is all set for the worst week in four years on growing fears that the coronavirus outbreak could turn into a pandemic and derail global growth. Sensex and Nifty hit a 5-month low with Sensex down 1,141.71 points or 2.87 percent at 38603.95, and the Nifty crashed 341.70 points or 2.94 percent at 11291.60.

"At this juncture it looks prudent on the part of traders to wait for consolidation and some signs of strength as fear factor appears to be dominating on the bourses," Mazhar Mohammad, Chief Strategist  Technical Research & Trading Advisory, Chartviewindia.in told Moneycontrol.

All sectoral indices are trading in the red with the metal index tanking almost 6 percent with the near-term outlook for the sector looking weak as Covid-19 fanning across the globe leading to weak consumption and supply chain disruption stemming from China look imminent.

However, Abhiram Eleswarapu, Head of India Equity Research at BNP Paribas in an interview to moneycontrol said, "Our Sensex target is 44,500, which suggests a 9 percent upside through December 2020. That said, valuations of both the Nifty and broader indices are close to or above historical averages and therefore we wouldnt be surprised to see bouts of volatility throughout the year."

The top losers included Tata Steel and Vedanta which tanked over 8 percent followed by Jindal Steel & Power, SAIL, MOIL, Hindalco Industries, JSW Steel and NALCO.

As the market hit a 5-month low on February 28, individual stocks too took a beating as over 350 stocks on BSE hit fresh 52-week low. The top names included Vedanta, MRPL, Sterlite Technologies, Bank of India, PNB Housing Finance, Future Lifestyle, Hindalco Industries, Graphite India, Oil India, Bosch, Exide Industries, ONGC, Godrej Consumer and Larsen & Toubro among others.

Stocks which hit lower circuit in today's trade included Adani Green, Indiabulls Real Estate, Alok Industries and Vakrangee among others.

The most active securities on NSE with respect to volumes included State Bank of India which fell over 3 percent. It was trading with volumes of 960,914 shares, compared to its five day average of 1,439,429 shares, a decrease of -33.24 percent. The other scrips included Vodafone Idea which shed 4 percent and was trading with volumes of 22,304,418 shares, compared to its five day average of 88,295,223 shares, a decrease of -74.74 percent.

Share price of YES Bank fell over 5 percent intraday on February 28. It was trading with volumes of 3,553,213 shares, compared to its five day average of 7,765,603 shares, a decrease of -54.24 percent.

Adani Gas share price hit lower circuit on BSE tumbling10 percent. The stock witnessed spurt in volume by more than 1421.62 times and was trading with volumes of 419,315,137 shares, compared to its five day average of 471,338 shares, an increase of 88,862.69 percent.

: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.
LCCC approves Mannie Jackson Center proposal GODFREY  Lewis and Clark Community College trustees on Tuesday voted to approve a licensing...

Oreo celebrates birthday with new cookie, sweepstakes For its 110th birthday, Oreo is introducing a new cookie and consumer sweepstakes with prizes...

How much can you expect to spend on a pet On Tuesday, financial services company Synchrony released its Lifetime of Care survey of 1,200...
STOCKHOLM, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ASSA ABLOY has received phase 1 conditional clearance by the EU Commission for ASSA ABLOY, as a 39% shareholder in the Swiss company agta record, to indirectly acquire the 54% shareholding in agta record from the shareholders of agta finance (the "Acquisition").

Closing of the Acquisition is expected in the second half of 2020 after all remaining closing conditions and the EU Commission requirements have been fulfilled.

"Receiving the EU Commission's approval is an important step towards completing the acquisition of agta record and we look forward to welcoming the agta record people to our Group. This is a strategic addition to the ASSA ABLOY Group and will bring important competence, products and services to the Group," says Nico Delvaux, President and CEO of ASSA ABLOY.

During the approval process in Europe ASSA ABLOY has made commitments to address the competition concerns of the EU Commission, including entering into binding agreements for the sale of certain agta record and ASSA ABLOY businesses to third parties.

The commitments include the divestiture of the agta record operations in the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary and Slovenia as well as the ASSA ABLOY automatic pedestrian door business in France and the UK. In addition, agta record's high-speed door business in France will be divested. It is important that the divested businesses get a committed and experienced owner that gives them a new home and creates opportunities for the future. These divestments represent about 20% of total initial added revenue. Despite these divestments, however, the majority of the identified synergies between ASSA ABLOY and agta record will be realized.

As previously announced, after the Acquisition ASSA ABLOY will own approximately 93% of the share capital and voting rights of agta record and will shortly thereafter launch a public tender offer for the remaining outstanding shares of agta record, listed on Euronext Paris, at a price of 70 EUR per agta record share, subject to the fairness opinion of the independent appraiser to be appointed by agta record and to the AMF's clearance decision.

Link to press release 2019-03-06

About ASSA ABLOY

The ASSA ABLOY Group is the global leader in access solutions. The Group operates worldwide with 49,000 employees and sales of SEK 94 billion. The Group has leading positions in areas such as efficient door openings, trusted identities and entrance automation. ASSA ABLOY's innovations enable safe, secure and convenient access to physical and digital places. Every day, we help billions of people experience a more open world.

For more information, please contact:

Nico Delvaux, President and CEO, tel. no: +46-8-506-485-82

Erik Pieder, CFO and Executive Vice President, tel. no: +46-8-506-485-72

Bjorn Tibell, Head of Investor Relations, tel. no: +46-70-275-67-68

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/assa-abloy/r/eu-commission-clears-assa-abloy-s-acquisition-of-agta-record--subject-to-conditions,c3048849

The following files are available for download:

https://mb.cision.com/Main/7333/3048849/1202789.pdf Press release (PDF)

SOURCE ASSA ABLOY
(Reuters) - Copper and zinc inventories in warehouses tracked by the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) jumped to their highest level in nearly three years on Friday as the coronavirus outbreak hurt demand.

Copper stockpiles rose 4.1% to 310,760 tonnes this week, while zinc inventories were up 11.8% to 160,011 tonnes, each at their highest level since the week ended April 7, 2017, ShFE weekly data released on Friday showed.

The most traded ShFE zinc contract dropped as much as 5% on Friday, while benchmark three-month zinc on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was heading towards its biggest weekly decline since September 2015, down 6.3% on a weekly basis as of 0806 GMT. <MET/L>

Aluminum inventories in warehouses tracked by ShFE advanced 7.2% to 439,087 tonnes, highest since June 14, 2019, the data showed.

Countries on three continents reported their first cases of the coronavirus on Friday as the world prepared for a pandemic of the disease, pushing global share markets heading for their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis.

Chinese authorities should take some non-ferrous metals off producers own stocks to reduce their pressure as demand for copper and aluminum remains weak, the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association said on Thursday, noting major smelters had managed to maintain normal production.

(Graphic: Shot in the arm: ShFE stocks rebound as virus hits consumption link: here)
Ukraine, Slovakia launch virtual gas reverse flow on March 1

15:40, 28.02.20 2392

So far, the Slovak GTS operator offers only a virtual gas revers capacity of 10 million cubic meters per day.
Mobilisation of mobs ready to run riot and prior stockpiling of projectiles by residents of affected areas took police by surprise as the scale of this weeks communal violence in the Capital became clearer in the initial investigation conducted thus far, officials in the know said on Friday.

Reports said 350 empty cartridges were recovered after over 500 rounds of gunfire during the three days of rioting in which 82 people received bullet injuries; the body count rose to 42 by Friday, with hundreds still being treated in hospitals for grievous injuries.

Heavy use of unlicensed countrymade pistols appeared to be a departure from convention when it comes to communal riots in the country, in which most victims have historically succumbed to blunt force trauma or been hacked or burnt to death, said one of the officials cited above.

Petrol bombs, empty bottles, stones and bricks were found on the terrace and inside Hussains house, a senior official of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) said about AAP councillor Tahir Hussain who has been booked for murder. Investigators said such stockpiling appeared to have been a tactic deployed by scores of households in affected areas as people anticipated trouble or were willing to stir it themselves.

The resultant violence caught law-enforcement authorities off-guard, pointing to a larger intelligence failure, former officials said, to gear up for a riot in which one of the victims was, tragically, an Intelligence Bureau officer.

Prakash Singh, former director general of Uttar Pradesh police, on whose recommendations the Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment on police reforms, said, It requires no intelligence to gauge the build-up in the area in the run-up to the riot. You will have to be blind not to act. Police could have carried all-night searches and detained all those from whose homes stones were found. The police are equally culpable of the deaths that have happened.

Singh, who also served as director general of Assam police, said it is difficult to believe that a force of 90,000 cannot stop a riot in north-east Delhi.

You need dont instructions from government to act or not act. Even a sub-inspector can act on such a situation. That man Shahrukh pointing a pistol at the police officer showed the absence of the fear or respect for the law.

The police have registered 148 cases and arrested or detained over 600 people in north-east Delhi, as the area stuttered towards normalcy while tension in some pockets still hung in the air.

Two special investigation teams (SITs), formed on Thursday to probe the national capitals worst communal violence in at least three decades, visited the riot-ravaged areas, hunting down people who have been linked to the rampage.

Delhi Police, counting the losses, will follow the Uttar Pradesh model and make arsonists pay for the damage caused to public and private properties, two officials familiar with the move said.

Police are probing allegations that countrymade pistols were stocked by petty criminals and handed over to alleged outsiders who ran amok during the riot that started off as clashes between those supporting and protesting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

HT could not independently verify these reports. Special commissioner of police (law and order) SN Shrivastava said: I have not come across any such numbers regarding the bullets fired, recovery of empty cartridges, or stocking of firearms by criminals.

The number of those arrested or detained is likely to increase because raids are being conducted in Delhi and adjoining states, police spokesperson Mandeep Singh Randhawa said at a press briefing.

People stepped out of homes and shops were opened on Friday. Civic workers swept the streets littered with broken glasses and stones. But tension was palpable in some areas.

A 50-year-old Muslim scrap dealer was killed in the Shiv Vihar area early on Friday, his son said, though the local police did not confirm this. Even Randhawa said there was no report of fresh violence in the area.

Some incidents of violence are being reported continuously. We have not heard of any death but residents are still in rage, Deewan Singh, a 40-year-old resident of Shiv Vihar, said.

Friday prayers at mosques in the area  the first since the riot  passed off peacefully, local peace committee members said. Earlier in the day, mosques appealed for peace and harmony.

HT visited 10 mosques; five of them were vandalised. People who used to visit the mosques that were damaged visited neighbouring areas under police and paramilitary watch. There was heavy presence of security personnel outside empty mosques as well.

Delhi Police also initiated an outreach programme, and their officials met imams and maulvis of mosques. Residents alleged that on Sunday evening  hours after the first stones were thrown  at least 10 trucks carrying men with backpacks parked on a service lane in Bhajanpura.

These people did not look like labourers. All were young men, between 20 and 30 years. Who knows what they were carrying in their backpacks? It could be stones, it could be weapons, Om Veer, a 42-year-old shopowner, said.

At his press briefing, Randhawa said of the 148 first information reports (FIRs) filed so far, 25 cases were under the Arms Act. The others were related to murder, attempt to murder, rioting, attacking security personnel, damaging public and other offences. He said AAP councillor Tahir Hussain was still at large.

A police team visited the house of a man identified as Shahrukh. On Monday, he was caught on camera approaching a policeman while pointing a pistol at him, turning to another direction in the nick of time and then firing a few rounds in the air. He and his family members have absconded.
The same genealogy tool credited for nabbing the alleged Golden State killer recently cracked a half-century old mystery out of Vallejo, at last naming the suspect accused of raping and strangling 57-year-old Naomi Sanders.

But while theres no statute of limitations for murders, the Sanders case missed its window for justice. The suspect, identified by Vallejo police on Thursday as Robert Dale Edwards, died in 1993 from a drug overdose.

In a statement, Sanderss nieces said the family was grateful to everyone who worked to solve the 1973 cold case. They added that most of those who knew Sanders directly have passed away in the 46 years since her slaying, and unfortunately they cannot be afforded the truth about what happened.

Those of us who do remember the stories of Naomis life and untimely death can now feel closure thanks to the determination and teamwork of the Vallejo Police Department and partnering law enforcement agencies, the statement said. May Naomi now rest in peace.

On Feb. 27, 1973, Sanders was discovered dead inside of her Oakwood Avenue apartment near the intersection of Springs Road.

Sanders, a divorced apartment manager, lived alone and appeared to be cooking diner at the time of her attack. A Vallejo Times-Herald report at the time stated that there was a double portion of steak half-fried on the stove, but the extra strip may have been intended for her poodle, Cindy.

A friend who spoke to Sanders that evening reportedly said Sanders mentioned she was cooking dinner but said nothing about any guests.

Detectives at the time said robbery did not appear to be a motive in the killing, as Sanderss jewelry remained in place.

An autopsy later concluded that Sanders had been sexually assaulted and strangled to death.

A 2014 lab analysis indicated semen stained the clothes Sanders was wearing at the time of her death. A DNA profile was developed and uploaded into the FBIs national database to cross-reference with other known criminal offenders. No hits were recorded then or on any of the subsequent times detectives ran the profile into the updated database.

Two years later, in 2016, detectives ran the DNA against various state-run databanks to search for people related to the suspect and hit another dead end.

The defining moment came in 2018, when detectives started researching an emerging investigative tool known as genetic genealogy. The practice came to prominence in April of that year, when detectives announced they had arrested a suspect in the decades-old Golden State killer case by tracing the suspect through his ancestors.

The process involves uploading the suspects DNA profile into an open-source genealogy website to test for distant relatives. Researchers can then build a family tree with public documents like obituaries, newspaper archives and social media posts to winnow the pool of suspects.

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.

Vallejo detectives enlisted the help of DNA consulting company Parabon NanoLabs, and by April 2019 they had narrowed the list to two leads. Investigators traveled to Louisiana to visit one of these men and ruled him out by testing his discarded DNA.

The remains of the last suspect, Edwards, had been cremated, but detectives were able to make contact with his son and collect his DNA.

The question that had gone unanswered for over 46 years was now answered, Vallejo police officials said in a statement.

Sanders may have known Edwards, who was 22 at the time of the murder. His father was Sanders former coworker.

Edwards racked up a lengthy criminal history before his death, including convictions for assault, theft, DUI, domestic violence, assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder, police said.

Megan Cassidy is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy
POTTSTOWN  The local chapter of the NAACP marked Black History Month Thursday, Feb. 27, by recognizing area African American leaders who are making history today.

Kids want to see people who look like them when they attend school, have contact with police, the medical or business community, more than one of the speakers noted.

And that began with Pottstown NAACP chapter President Johnny Corson who said he was inspired to become a community leader when he first saw former Pottstown Police Chief James Rodgers riding a horse and wearing a cowboy hat.

When youre a black kid playing in the yard and you look up and see a black man, riding a horse, with his back straight and his chest out, that does something to you, he said.

Mark Gibson

That may be true someday of a kid today who sees Mark Gibson driving a speeding Empire fire truck to the scene of a fire, and racing into a burning building.

Gibson said he was inspired to become a firefighter in fifth grade after learning a cousin had died in a fire. He started hanging out at the firehouse and soon helped form the companys first junior corps at age 12.

He volunteered with the company for 22 years and the first time a paid drivers position opened up, he decided to stick with his job at Stanley Flagg Brass, because the pay was better.

The second time a slot opened up, they turned me down. I had experience and I was qualified. The reason they turned me down was the color of my skin, he said.

He got the NAACP involved which, at the time, was headed by the late Newstell Marable, but to no avail.

But the third time a vacancy opened up, in February 1998, Gibson got the job and The Mercury interviewed me and I said in the paper Im here to stay. I could have gotten a job somewhere else, but I wanted to say and be a firefighter in my home.

His journey was not a straight one. Gibson said dropped out of high school, which he regrets to this day, and developed a drug problem that required three trips to rehab and now I am 26 years clean.

But speaking to the students from Pine Forge Academy who were in the audience, Gibson said: God gave me a second chance, but you have to take advantage of it.

He urged them to stay in school and off drugs. We get called out to a heroin overdose two or three times a day, and they dont always make it, he warned.

Ervina White

White had an emergency and could not be at the Feb. 27 celebration, but her sister read a statement outlining the many challenges faced in opening Pottstowns first African-American-owned funeral home, Beauford Funeral Services, on High Street.

Although a petition sought to prevent its opening, the business complied with zoning and was granted permission to open, despite facing many challenges from the codes department.

It is now a successful business that also sponsors community events.

Sharon Valentine-Thomas

Pottstowns first African-American mayor, Valentine-Thomas said she had many instances in which she was steered to the little table.

And although she advised against complaining too loudly, you cant let it change who you are.

Her advice is every time someone offends you, do something nice for them.

Also a former school board member, Valentine-Thomas said she knocked on 1,100 doors the first time she ran for office.

Four hundred of those doors were in the week before the election. My feet didnt know they were African-American, and I just kept thinking about Harriet Tubman, who walked 600 miles, Valentine-Thomas said.

The excitement of being elected was that it was the people who made the choice, not me.

Emanuel Wilkerson

Wilkerson, who made headlines when he was elected to the Pottstown School Board when he was still a high school student, said he has learned there are those who came before you, and those who will come after you. So you have to be the best you can be.

There are people who read history, and people who write history. Go write history so you can read about yourself, advised Wilkerson, who also works in the office of U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-4th Dist.

Since graduating and attending Temple University, where he is an officer in the NAACP chapter there, Wilkerson said he has also learned to love my blackness.

That does not mean rejecting white people he said. the NAACP was founded by white people, all of us need to get to the top of the mountaintop together.

Stacey Woodland

Woodland, who grew up in Philadelphia, said she became inspired to get involved with the YWCA by her early experience volunteering with community groups there.

Now the CEO of YWCA Tri-County Area in Pottstown, she reiterated the goals of the 112-year-old chapter  eliminating racism, empowering women.

She urged the community to get involved.

There are lots of opportunities for you there, and lots of opportunities to give back, Woodland said.

As someone who did not grow up in Pottstown, Woodland thanked Corson for introducing her around town to ease the transition in her new position.

He became my friend and supported me, she said.

As for her climb up the ladder to a leadership position, Woodland advised: its not how you start, but how you finish.

Maria Tucker

Tucker, who has been an obstetrician and gynecologist at both Pottstown Hospital and Einstein Montgomery, said she was inspired to follow in her fathers footsteps.

Tucker said her father had a practice for 30 years who was educated at the University of Pennsylvania.

With her mother being a retired educator, education was strongly stressed in her household.

They always said a good education is the one thing they cant take away from you, said Tucker.

Despite growing up in a household where education was revered, in school she was advised against applying to her first choice-college  University of Virginia.

They said you should apply to Virginia State. Theres nothing wrong with Virginia State, but I had visited Charlottesville, and thats where I wanted to go. Thankfully, I was accepted there, Tucker said.

Although she always knew she wanted to be a doctor, it wasnt until she started practicing, and helping women with their health and with the greatest miracle on this earth, childbirth, that I truly found my calling.

Ken Harrison

The CEO of U.S. Axle, a 100-year-old business in Pottstown, Harrison said he has a mechanical engineering and metallurgical background.

But that is no guarantee when you are an African American trying to be successful.

The key, he said, is relationships and building a personal network.

All your skill and education means nothing without an opportunity, said Harrison, and personal networks can make those opportunities happen.

When he was hired, another employee named Ken was also hired.

One of them was African American and had a degree and the experience, but someone in HR gave the wrong Ken information about salary, he said.

One of those Kens who had more experience and a degree was making less money than the other, Harrison said. Dont try to tell me it wont happen to you.

In addition to networking, recognize everything those who went before you have done, Harrison said.

I had a great-grandmother who was born a slave and died at 105. If it were not for someone who paved the way, you would be nobody, Harrison said.

Recognizing trailblazers and building a network, came together in the form of one person for Harrison  the late Newstell Marable.

He had already blazed a trail in business, all I had to do was buy him lunch and he gave me his time and his insights, Harrison said.

The same was true of the late Reggie Brooks, who was a pastor as well as a successful businessman.

He helped me realize the importance of keeping things spiritual, Harrison said.

Dont let fear of failure keep you from trying, Harrison advised.

If you are fearful of failing, you will look back at it many years from now and regret not trying, he said. You should be fearful of not trying. If you are not challenging yourself, dont ask someone to pull you along.

Gregory Scott

The first African American district judge in Montgomery County, Scott was elected in 2016.

It was not his only accomplishment.

At age 16 he was elected to Norristown Municipal Council.

At age 11, President Bill Clinton asked to meet with him in Philadelphia after receiving an impassioned letter from him about health care.

Scott said his mother was ill and her benefits from her new job had not yet kicked in, and doctors were telling her she should hold off on treatment until her insurance kicked in.

He was watching the news and saw a television report that spent 10 minutes on the salacious details of Ken Starrs investigation of Clinton and the impeachment that followed and only three on the health care reform being championed by Hillary Clinton.

Scott wrote not only to Clinton but called the television station that night to express his disappointment.

That resulted in a television report about him and his dinner meeting with Clinton. While that whetted his interest for politics, policy and public service  he spent time on the staff of former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak  another experience altered his course.

With his aunt dying of cancer, Scott said his cousin got unwittingly into a car driven by friends who had just committed a robbery.

The car was pulled over and his cousin put in jail on $100,000 cash bail. It was keeping his cousin from seeing his dying mother, so the family hired a lawyer.

That lawyer got a common pleas judge, on a Friday, to come into his courtroom at 7 p.m. and have a hearing, Scott recalled. And something the judge said to the DA really stayed with me: its not what you think, its what you can prove.'

His cousin was released and able to see his mother just days before she died.

That convinced me I needed to stand up, Scott said. I decided I have an obligation to those who died so I can be where I am, to stand up to people who would divide us.

Scott, who was born to two drug-addicted parents in Norristown, where he still lives, and said sees in his courtroom every day, the result of defendants raised without a father, and without a decent education.

We are incarcerating the mentally ill at alarming rights. They do not have the supports they need, but when you ask a politician, they say there is no money. But they have money enough to build new prisons, and for the military, Scott said.

Naimah Rhodes

As a senior at Pottstown High School, Rhodes was also raising two children.

When it all seemed like too much, she visited her guidance counselor  an African-American woman  with the intention of dropping out. She told me No. She would not let me drop out, and instead connected me to a teen parent program that helped people like me, so I could to finish school.

Rhodes said that experience helped cement her interest in education, but when she came back to the school there were not as many faces like mine as I would have hoped in a community like Pottstown. Kids want to see people who look like them.

That is also true of teen mothers when they go to the ob-gyn, which is why Rhodes was so pleased that Tucker was her doctor.

She never made me feel ashamed to be a teen mother, Rhodes said.

It is one of the reasons she runs a mentoring program for teen girls, called Leading Ladies, in conjunction with Terrence Shawell and his group Molding Men.

In fact, Tucker was one of the people Rhodes invited into the school to talk to her girls, not only to answer questions but also for them to see they can achieve their goals.

We need to be in all these spaces, and we need to be unapologetically black. Rhodes said.
 Flash

Russians may vote on proposed constitutional amendments in April after President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for the ballot, a senior Russian official said.

Pavel Krasheninnikov, a co-chair of the working group for drafting amendments to the Russian Constitution, made the announcement at a meeting of the group. The poll will be held on April 22.

"So we proceed with it," said Krasheninnikov, adding that legal arrangements were being made for the day of the vote to be a holiday.

The process of amending the constitution has been pushed forward since Putin suggested in a State of the Nation address last month that the charter be changed. That prompted the resignation of Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister.

Lawmakers of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, are dealing with nearly 1,000 proposed amendments. These proposals will be included in the draft of the bill, which is set to be put to a second reading in the legislature on March 10.

According to the Tass news agency, the amendments include expanding the powers of the legislature and the Constitutional Court, banning high-ranking officials from holding residence permits abroad, limiting the number of presidential terms, ensuring the supremacy of Russia's Constitution over international agreements and strengthening the state's social obligations.

Putin held a televised meeting to discuss the proposals with the 75 officials selected to sit on the drafting committee.

Most Russians are believed to think that the amendments process should get started as soon as possible.

A survey by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center showed that almost 80 percent of Russians of those polled knew about the upcoming nationwide vote on the amendments to the Constitution, and 66 percent of them were planning to take part in it.

Valery Fyodorov, head of the research center, said on Tuesday that the survey results arose from five separate polls in which eligible voters were phoned from Jan 24 to Feb 20.

In an address to the National Assembly, Putin said the amendments will focus on improving people's livelihoods.

Fyodorov said that more than 96 percent of those polled consider the amendments important in relation to a goal of improving healthcare services, as well as by recognizing that children are Russia's most important asset and must be provided with social support when needed.

Putin also said he supported the proposal to ban senior officialsincluding ministers, senators and governorsfrom having foreign assets and bank accounts abroad.

He suggested that the ban should also cover the head of state, as this was widely supported by Russians.




Welcome to this weeks edition of the Surge, in which we would rank presidential candidates according to their likelihood of surviving the coronavirus apocalypse, except the big guns at Slate expect us to provide more than a blank newsletter.





Speaking of uncontrollable pandemics, the Democratic presidential nominating process is about to go national, invading more than a dozen states on Tuesday. Before that, though, comes Saturdays South Carolina primary, where a single thing might go right for Joe Biden for the first time in decades of presidential politicking. The billionaire Democratic candidates, bless them, are still doing their best to help a socialist take over the party, while the billionaire(?) president is still learning to spell c-o-r-o-n-a-v-i-r-u-s. And then theres the guy whos winning.
PASCAGOULA, Miss. - A Mississippi judge has sentenced a former school bus driver to prison for assaulting a disabled student.

Circuit Court Judge Robert Krebs reviewed more than 20 letters of support and heard pleas for leniency before he sentenced Antioinette Jane Toni Raymond on Friday to a year behind bars on a misdemeanour charge of simple assault and three months for contributing to the delinquency, abuse or neglect of a minor, The Sun Herald reported. Krebs suspended some of the sentence, leaving Raymond with three months to serve and $1,000 in fines, the newspaper reported. She is to begin serving the sentence April 1.

A video that the childs family provided to the Sun Herald showed Raymond threatening to send the St. Martin Middle School student to jail, choke her, put soap in her mouth and even kill her if she didnt shut up and sit still.

The disabled girls grandfather, Thomas Pearce, said he had hoped to see Raymond serve more time behind bars. He told the judge what happened to his granddaughter affected everyone in his family.

He said the girls mother became so distraught after learning that Raymond and a teacher, also indicted in the case, were facing only misdemeanour charges that she began using drugs, overdosed at a casino and died.

I dont have a job and my mother doesnt have a job because I have to stay home to take care of her (the child), he said. The video speaks for itself. She (Raymond) has affected a lot of people, not only my children but the other children on the bus. They are scared to death. They thought she was going to do to the same to them.

Krebs reviewed video footage of the assault by Raymond and co-defendant, former teacher Kerri Anne Nettles. The difference between the two defendants, he said, is that once Nettles told Raymond there was a camera on the bus recording them, Nettles stopped assaulting the girl but Raymond continued.

At the same time, Krebs said, there is no evil in Ms. Raymonds heart.

Raymond said she never received any training to work with special needs children, though Nettles had.

Just before her sentencing, Raymond took responsibility for her actions though she asked for understanding and leniency.

She said she wanted to apologize to the child. Since she is not here, I have to say sorry to her family and to you. I was under a bad spot in my life at that time. It was like I was just going through the motions of living. I am not a monster. I had a bad time.

Two people spoke Friday on Raymonds behalf, including a former student who said she was good to him, and DIberville Mayor Rusty Quave, who asked for leniency. He said he had seen Raymond helping students and stopping at his store to treat the kids to ice cream or other items.

Nettle received a six-month suspended prison sentence and a fine for her role in the assault.
A photo of a group of young ballerinas that went viral earlier this month for a photoshoot they did during Black History Month has resurfaced after the group decided to do the play again. The dancers went viral earlier this month and will put on their spring show on February 1, at the Westbrook Performing Arts Center located in Beaumont.

'Empowering' photoshoot

The photos were taken by Brandie Perry of Bee Photography who uploaded them on her Facebook page. According to reports, it was just a happy coincidence that the day the family of the dancers decided to take the photos was Black History Month. As per reports the photoshoot was just simply supposed to be a bonding activity for the girls but turned out to become a symbol of empowerment for black women.

Read: Black History Month: TikTok User Posts Makeup Videos To Highlight Contribution Of Women

Read: Ballerina Performs In Baghdad As Irani National Anthem Plays In The Background

The photoshoot was, in fact, the idea of Roshunda Vallery, who is the mother of Taraji, one of the 10 girls in the photo. The idea occurred to Vallery back in December last year when she saw a photo of ballerinas and sent it across to other parents. The families could no immediately decide on a day when all of them were free and eventually decided to hold it in December. All ten girls are part of the iRule Dance Studio, south of Texas.

Read: Parasite To Be Adapted Into A Graphic Novel After Historic Best Picture Oscar Win

Read: Kashvee Gautam Creates History; Picks Up 10 Wickets In An ODI And Bags A Hat-trick Too

A group of young ballerinas from iRule dance studio in Beaumont TX has an iconic photo shoot in honor of #BlackHistoryMonth Absolutely incredible!!! pic.twitter.com/7zhzqmmXFn  Jeffery L Carter (@jcarter54) February 24, 2020

When is Black History Month?

Black History Month is an annual observance that first originated in the United States. It is also known as African-American History Month. While it originated in the US, it has reportedly received official recognition from Canada, Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom as well.

It is celebrated as a way to remember important people and the important events for the African diaspora. In the US and Canada, it is celebrated in February but in the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK it is observed in October.
Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria on Friday said that last years Balakot air strikes showed there is scope to use the air force for taking out targets in Pakistan below the threshold of conventional war, something that was previously considered unviable.

It [the Balakot operation] was a very clear demonstration that there exists a space below the conventional [war] boundary wherein IAF can be utilised for targeting and yet have escalation control, Bhadauria said at a seminar to mark the first anniversary of Indias unprecedented, peace time air strikes inside Pakistan.

The seminar titled Air Power in No War No Peace, was organised by think thank Centre for Air Power Studies. Defence minister Rajnath Singh, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, navy chief Admiral Karambir Singh and Defence Research and Development Organisation chief G Satheesh Reddy were present when Bhadauria made his comment.

Bhadauria said the use of air power was considered taboo in sub-conventional conflict until the government took the tough and bold call to strike at the very heart of terrorist training infrastructure located deep across the Line of Control (LoC).

During his speech, Rajnath Singh said Indias out-of-the-box response forced the rewriting of many doctrines across the LoC and an adversary would think a hundred times before any future misadventures.

General Rawat said it was important for the military to have credible deterrence to execute the tasks assigned to it. Credible deterrence comes from the will of the military leadership and intent of the political class while taking tough decisions. This was amply shown after Kargil, Uri and Pulwama, Rawat said.

The air chief said the use of air power in sub-conventional sphere had been talked about previously -- but never employed.

Former IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Fali Major (retd) said, If we have hard intelligence and there is reason for us to act, we should take down terrorists and terror infrastructure across the LoC from the air. Balakot has shown it can be done. As air chief, Major had proposed aerial strikes against terror pads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks but the government did not take that route.

The IAFs Mirage-2000s struck a Jaish-e-Mohammed camp in Balakot on February 26, 2019, in response to the Pulwama suicide bombing attack in Kashmir in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force men were killed twelve days earlier.

The air chief said the IAF struck its targets in Pakistans Balakot with precision and the decision to use air power in a sub-conventional scenario was a paradigm shift. It was a clear message to Pakistan that terrorist attacks on Indian soil were unacceptable and would draw a military response, he added.

The air chief said that India was also able to use different channels to de-escalate the conflict and bring things back to normal, something that was not thought to be possible after the use of air power. He lauded the political and diplomatic efforts to quickly de-escalate the situation.

He said the air force could have struck Balakot with twice the number of warplanes and launched four times the weapons but it didnt do so to ensure there was no collateral damage and India could take the moral high ground.

He said Pakistans response on February 27 to the Balakot air strikes was tailored to seek de-escalation as the neighbouring air force didnt strike any targets and its action was aimed only at the domestic Pakistani audience. The air chief said the Pakistan Air Force was in a hurry to disengage and the IAFs engagement surprised them.

The air chief said one of the main takeaways for India from the aerial engagement was that the IAF, which had the edge when it comes to beyond visual range (BVR) missiles Pakistan during the Kargil war, had allowed it to slip over the years. We had an edge over Pakistan Air Force in terms of BVR missile capability at the time of Kargil. We allowed that to slip and thereafter it took a decade and half in our struggle to acquire better capabilities, the air chief said.

He said the BVR edge would be restored with the induction of Meteor missile-armed Rafale fighter planes.

With Rafale we will recover the edge, but we cant depend only on Meteor. This capability on Rafale has to be complemented with similar capability on our other platformsThe indigenous Astra missile is required on Sukhoi-30s, MiG-29s and the light combat aircraft, he said.

Developed by the DRDO, the Astra BVR air-to-air missile has a range of more than 100 km. User trials of the missile have been completed and the IAF is expected to place orders soon. The missile is expected to be the standard long-range weapons across the air forces fighter fleet.

Bhadauria said the IAF would be very happy if it could use indigenous weapons in the next skirmish.

Rawat said the Indian armed forces should stay prepared to get launched again and again should acts of terrorism be perpetrated on Indian soil.

If the defence forces have to be prepared to execute the roles and tasks assigned to them, it is important we maintain credible deterrence at all times on land, at sea and in the air. The capabilities of the three services must run concurrently so that together they become a force to reckon with, he added.

The defence minister said the surgical strike of 2016 and Balakot air strikes were not just military strikes but a strong message to Pakistan that terror infrastructure across the border cannot be used as a safe haven to wage low-cost war against India.

Our approach to terrorism was and will remain a judicious combination of clinical military action and mature and responsible diplomatic outreach.

He said, We have recently seen the impact of collective diplomatic and financial pressure on Pakistan. Terrorists like Hafiz Saeed who were treated like VIPs and heroes, have been put behind bars. We realise that this is not enough and unless Pakistan is made accountable, it will continue with its previous policy of duplicity and deceit. All attempts are being made to work in this direction.

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(JNS)-"Happy are those who dwell in Your house."-Psalm 84

It's official. Israel has been named the 13th happiest country in the world. So says the 2019 United Nations World Happiness Report, which ranks no less than 156 countries using such factors as income, social-support networks and life expectancy. Topping the list was Finland, with the United States lagging behind Israel as the 19th happiest, and South Sudan bringing up the rear at No. 156 (arguably, the most miserable).

In search of some of the happiest moments in a contented Israel? Look no further than:

1. The Perseids meteor shower in Mitzpe Ramon.

Every August it happens: The Earth's orbit lands in the precise spot where it ploughs into the path of the ancient Swift-Tuttle comet and the debris (aka meteors or shooting stars) falls to earth. Taking the name Perseids from the originating constellation Perseus, the display is particularly vivid from the depths of the Mitzpe Ramon crater, where there is virtually no light to dilute the view, including a stunning panoramic peek at the Milky Way.

You can catch the action from the end of July through the first three weeks of August, peaking on the night of Aug. 12, when thousands of star-gazers flock to town hoping to catch sight of as many as 120 an hour. So says Ira Machefsky, who gives star shows then at a local alpaca farm near the rim of the crater. "Lying in the dark on our sleeping bags, the shooting stars were so vivid," recalls Bracha Sukenik of Ra'anana who went with a group six years ago. "The entire sky was like a field of stars that felt so close up." Visit astronomyisrael.com to find out about Machefsky's star show schedule.

2. For the birds.

In Israel, Passover has a double meaning in the month of April. As in the holiday celebrating our freedom from Egyptian slavery and also alluding to the untold thousands of birds who pass over Israel on their migratory path en route from Africa, where they spent the winter, to Europe, where they plan to build nests and lay eggs in the warmth of summer. Exhausted by the 1,000-mile trek that takes them across the Sahara, they stop over the Jewish state long enough to rest and refuel. And that makes tiny Israel a veritable magnet for birdwatchers from all over, many of them with binoculars poised to spy such rare breeds as the wryneck.

"It's an amazing bird," says Alena Kacal, who heads up the Jerusalem Bird Observatory, a pristine 1.5-acre spot of welcoming green perched between the Knesset and the Supreme Court building. This cousin of the woodpecker "does a dance with his head that looks like a snake to frighten off predators," she says, adding that the observatory provides a rare opportunity to catch sight of the wryneck, which stops for R&R "because they're usually extremely good at camouflage." Human visitors at the observatory can also watch the banding process each morning. To learn more, go to https://natureisrael.org/JBO

3. Becoming a Jew in the Jewish homeland.

It's been nearly three years since Juliane Schiffner came to Israel with her sister for what she thought was a three-week tour. "As soon as I got here, I felt this is my nation, this is my people," says Schiffner, a native of Germany who was living in Spain at the time. "My sister was happy to have a vacation here and return home, but I knew this was my home, and Judaism was my way." Now 27, Schiffner has mastered the complexities of the foreign visa system, is known as Ilana, and has already gone before the beit din (religious court) to become Jewish. It's a process she is looking forward to completing when she immerses in a mikvah (ritual bath) in a couple of weeks. "I couldn't imagine doing my conversion anywhere but Israel," she says. "It was such a feeling to go to the beit din here and know that soon I will be part of the Jewish people and part of this land." Next up for Schiffner, just as soon as the ink is dry on her conversion: applying for aliyah. She's also been writing a blog about her adventures. You can follow her Jewish journey by going to https://www.jew-ishbychoice.com/

4. Summertime celebration of Israeli dance.

In a country that now has more malls than kibbutzim, there's nothing like Israeli dancing to transport one back to the unbounded joy of Zionism's early days. Each summer, the Karmiel Dance Festival, billed as "Israel's largest dance celebration" attracts upwards of 250,000, folks who gather in this Galilee town from across Israel and across the globe to dance, enroll in workshops and master classes, see who wins the year's competitions, and take in three days and nights of performances, described as "incessant dancing." Though today's glitzy costumes and gee-whiz staging technologies were unheard of in the 1940s and '50s when Israeli dance began spreading its happy net over the infant state (and the Jewish world), the joy remains undiminished. "When I'm dancing, I feel energized, happy, beautiful," says Alex Huber, who at 69 has been at it for decades when he's not photographing other dancers.

He knows perhaps 100 dances by heart, "which are in my muscles, not my brain, but the top dancers can easily do 300." Israeli folk dancing was created as a way of celebrating holidays on kibbutzim and "bringing people together when they were spending all day in the field," explains Huber. "It's grown way beyond that now, but no matter how big it gets, it's basically a way of life here." Tickets go on sale on April 20 for this year's Karmiel Dance Festival, scheduled for June 30 to July 2. For more information, visit: htk.co.il.

5. A proud moment of Jewish survival.

In 2013, at their son Bentzi's graduation from his paratrooper-squad commander course, Danny and Gabie Sykora noticed something. His parents, Edith and Joel Sykora, who were watching the ceremony at Latrun's Armored Corps Memorial from their wheelchairs, were being given a mazel tov by all the Israel Defense Forces' brass as they walked toward the dais.

"There was my mother-in-law, who survived Auschwitz and two death marches, and my father-in-law, who'd escaped from both a train and a forced labor camp, and made it to Budapest where he got false documents from Raoul Wallenberg [the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews]. The two of them never thought they would live, never thought they'd marry or have children, and there was no way they could have imagined that someday they'd live in a Jewish country and have grandchildren serving in its army." And though both of them are now gone, it was an experience their son and daughter-in-law (who live with their family in Ra'anana) say they will never forget. "It was a moment of pride and deep gratitude," says their son. Adds his wife, "having a child in the army, you hold your breath when they go on dangerous assignments, and there's laundry and sewing and early mornings. But on that day, I just felt privileged to witness this moment in Jewish destiny after 2,000 years of exile and to know that our family is a part of it."

6. Yom Kippur on wheels.

Every Yom Kippur, Israel takes to the streets, but not in their cars, which sit quietly for 25 hours. Instead, all over the country, you'll find streets filled with bicyclists, roller-bladers and parents pushing their kids in strollers or pulling them in wagons (and some, mostly teens, take the opportunity to lay right down on the streets). "Kids ride bikes, even though so many of them own electric scooters; there seems to be an unwritten law not to use streets for electric- or gas-powered vehicles of any kind" on this holiday, says Debby Wine, who made aliyah with her husband, children and dachshund to Modi'in 13 years ago.

Their family tradition for Yom Kippur evening includes setting up lawn chairs in the street, and catching up with friends and neighbors after Kol Nidre with the kids and their friends playing board games. The holiday's waning hours have a message all their own, says Wine. "All the synagogues open their doors to the public during Ne'ila [the final evening service when the gates of prayer prepare to swing shut], and people in jeans and T-shirts often join for this service. Even if they don't know the liturgy, they close their eyes and sing along. It is a powerful and unifying experience," she adds. "Knowing that all of Am Yisrael ['the People of Israel'] come together to connect with God, each individual person in his or her own way."

7. Weddings "with a full heart."

At 19 and 22, Rachel and Yoni had no idea how they could afford a wedding-much less be able to set up an apartment. His mother had died and so had her father, and their surviving parents had more medical bills than income. But when a friend told Rachel's mother, Shira (not their real names) that the Israeli philanthropy Yad Eliezer has a wedding fund for such circumstances, the young couple's plans suddenly took a turn for the better. They joined the 15,000 low-income Israeli couples who have had weddings in the last two decades with the help of Yad Eliezer.

Although the families are responsible for a minimal per-guest fee and often some rent for the hall, the charity's fund foots most of the bill. In addition, many couples (including Rachel and Yoni) receive appliances, bedding and other household necessities. "She's my youngest, and I wanted her to have a real wedding, but had no idea how our families could do it," says Shira. "Yad Eliezer provided an absolutely gorgeous gown; everyone was so happy for them. It was a wedding any mother and father would want to give if they could, with a full heart." Just as valuable, she says, was the dignity associated with it all, the fact that "we were never made to feel like we were beggars. They made two families who have been through hard times feel like we're not alone." To learn more about the program, visit: yadeliezer.org/ and click on the Adopt-a-Wedding tab.

8. Birthright Israel does Ben-Yehuda Street.

The casual observer walking through Jerusalem's Ben-Yehuda pedestrian mall will have little trouble picking them out. They're the college-aged kids in bunches of four or six or eight with the big goofy grins on their faces talking and laughing with their friends. Friends they had never met until a week or so earlier, when they set off together on their 10-day Birthright Israel discovery of Israel and their Jewish selves. It's been 20 years, and more than 750,000 Jewish young adults later since the plane carrying the very first Birthrighters arrived in Israel in 2000. And, since the beginning, one time-honored Birthright tradition has been letting the travelers loose on this Jerusalem landmark, filled with every sort of shop, as well as countless falafel and shawarma joints. "Shabbat was a really beautiful and thoughtful day, and then to go into the city with the wonderful hubbub and have the freedom to explore with friends was perfect," says Princeton University student Naomi Hess, who traveled on Birthright last summer.

An editor for her school paper who is studying public policy so she can be an advocate for others with disabilities, Hess participated in Birthright's No Limits: In Motion program for those with mental or physical challenges. More than 3,000 participants have participated in 100 accessibility trips since Birthright's inception. "It definitely brought us closer," says Hess who adds that, "one of the best parts of the trip was to be surrounded by such an incredible group of other Jews with similar mobility issues. We were able to really connect with Israel and with each other."

9. Graduation Day: A family first.

As a child growing up in Ethiopia, Girum Abay dreamed of a different life-one in which he could use his mind and, with hard work, "do something that matters." Moving to Israel at age 18 with his grandmother, he "didn't know what life would be like here," but he resisted family pressures to go to work right after the army, insisting instead on attending university. His curriculum at the Sami Shamoon College of Engineering in Beersheva was very challenging, he says, as was the Hebrew he was learning in.

But the effort paid off. He emerged from his 2018 graduation with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering in hand, landing him a job as engineer for the city of Beersheva. "All along, I was serious about it," he emphasizes. "I knew I wanted to do something with my life; it was something I've been thinking about since I was a kid." Now 32, Abay is a married father of two. "My children were born in Israel," he says. "I hope I will give them the life here I didn't get as a kid."

10. Welcoming ceremony for new immigrants.

The Karmiel Dance Festival, billed as "Israel's largest dance celebration," attracts upwards of 250,000 visitors each summer.

Ben-Gurion International Airport: This is where it all begins for tens of thousands of newly minted Israelis every year-a record-breaking 34,000 in 2019 alone. (This brings to 255,000 the decade total of new Israelis coming in from 150 countries). Every year those arriving from North America on the Nefesh B'Nefesh charter flight are greeted by more than 1,000 of their new compatriots waving Israeli flags and belting out "Havenu Shalom Aleichem." Yaakov and Julie Rosenberg, along with their four school-aged children, were among those welcomed by this wildly enthusiastic crowd as they arrived on aliyah last summer from Bergenfield, N.J., headed for their new home in Beit Shemesh.

"In New Jersey, I would regularly stay up till 1 in the morning to watch online as the new olim arrived, looking for people I knew, and now it was us coming down those stairs," Julie recalls six months later. "That's when our 6-year-old turned to me and said, 'Look, we're home.' Our 6-year-old, she got it that we were coming home." For more on the Rosenbergs and their first half year in Israel, check them out on Instagram: PJULES29.
Rachael Finch's son Dominic, two, was the centre of attention on Friday's The Morning Show.

While the former Miss Universe, 31, and her husband Michael Miziner discussed their family life, the adorable tot stole the show during the live segment.

The youngster, who looked cute as a button in a white shirt, jeans and sneakers, continuously yelled out 'mama', and at one stage even ran off set.

Stealing the show! Rachael Finch's adorable son Dominic, two, became the centre of attention on The Morning Show on Friday

Dominic also pointed at his image on screen and rolled toy cars off the set's glass table.

'Mama! Mama!' he said repeatedly, before flashing his cheeky grin.

He then played musical chairs as he sat next to co-host Kylie Gillies, before deciding to run off set.

Rachael shared a photo from the Channel Seven studios won her Instagram account after filming, and joked about how her son loved his time in the spotlight.

Moving around: The toddler, who looked cute as a button in a white shirt, jeans and sneakers, played musical chairs as he sat next to co-host Kylie Gillies

'Dom loved his new haircut on TV this morning,' she wrote alongside several laughing face emojis.

During her interview, Rachael addressed social media criticism, in particular trolls accusing her of not feeding her six-year-old daughter Violet enough at school.

The Myer ambassador often shares videos to Instagram Stories of Violet's packed lunches, filled with a mix of complex carbohydrates, protein, fruit and vegetables.

Playful: Dominic became fascinated by his image on screen and later decided to run off set

Dealing with trolls: During her interview, Rachael, 31, addressed social media criticism, in particular trolls accusing her of not feeding her six-year-old daughter Violet enough at school

'Basically I just share what I pack for Violet's lunch every day, pretty much on my Instagram,' Rachael told the hosts.

'For me, my number one priority is to make sure my children are happy and healthy, so I give them real food, whole pieces of fruit [and] vegetables in their lunch box.

'Violet will go to school with sushi and Greek salad. For me that's wholefood.'

Back in 2017, Rachael told Stellar magazine that at age three, Violet had never tasted lollies at birthday parties, and opted for fruit, sushi or sandwiches instead.

Packed lunches: Rachael often shares videos to Instagram Stories of Violet's packed lunches, filled with a mix of complex carbohydrates, protein, fruit and vegetables

Doting mother: 'For me, my number one priority is to make sure my children are happy and healthy, so I give them real food, whole pieces of fruit [and] vegetables in their lunch box,' the Myer ambassador told the hosts. Pictured with Violet

'For the first two-and-a-half years of her life, Violet didn't know what sugar tasted like, and she still hasn't had lollies,' Rachael revealed.

'Sometimes at birthday parties, parents don't have sandwiches or sushi or fruit,' she added. 'So before she goes, I make sure she is full of healthy food.'

Rachael said she doesn't deny her daughter a treat on occasion, but prefers to limit her exposure to sugar.

'I'm with her and while I don't say no to everything... she understands it's a treat when she has a tiny slice of birthday cake.'
'Had the Gurdaspur police failed to act, I would have taken strict action against them,' Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh told the state Assembly backing the state police over questioning some Kartarpur Sahib pilgrims

Chandigarh: A day after the opposition targeted the Congress-led government over the issue of questioning of some Kartarpur Sahib pilgrims, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh backed the Punjab Police's action and said it acted on the request of the Intelligence Bureau in the interest of national security.

"Had the Gurdaspur police failed to act, I would have taken strict action against them," Singh informed the House in the ongoing budget session in .

They took action in the interest of national security, he said.

The Punjab Assembly on Thursday had witnessed uproarious scenes over the questioning of a few devotees upon their return from the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara in Pakistan by the Punjab Police, with the opposition targeting the government for allegedly "harassing" the pilgrims.

The chief minister said police acted within permissible limits of functioning in the matter. He was responding to a question over the issue by AAP legislator Kultar Singh Sandhwan.

Singh said his government will cooperate with central agencies in the larger interest of the national security as and when required.

If police force fail to act in accordance with the established security mechanism in coordination with the central agencies, action would be taken against them, he said.

The chief minister pointed out that over 51,000 pilgrims had already paid obeisance after opening of the Kartarpur corridor and this was the first such instance of devotees being questioned.

The IB had in this case raised some doubts and asked the state police for assistance in ensuring the credentials of some of the pilgrims for security reasons, he added.

In view of its sensitive border location, the state was duty bound to work closely with central agencies to ensure the country's security, he further said.

On Thursday, jails minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa had informed the House that the pilgrims were questioned after the directions came from the central agency, Intelligence Bureau, in Amritsar.
Belarusian Cement Co plans to increase exports to Poland

28 February 2020

Belarusian Cement Co (BCC) opened a representative office in Poland earlier this year in anticipation of higher exports to central Europe.

"Our company opened a representative office in Poland early this year due to increased demand for Belarusian cement in eastern and central Europe in 2019. This move has improved supply logistics. European, Polish, German and other partners have an opportunity now to conclude supply contracts directly with the company," the cement producer noted.

BCC has also concluded more than 20 preliminary agreements to supply cement to Poland from its Krichevtsementnoshifer and Krasnoselskstroymaterialy plants.

"The preliminary agreements with Polish partners, who are demanding about the cement quality, will enable us to increase exports by at least 10 per cent in 2020," said Vladimir Korchevsky, director of the Krichevtsementnoshifer plant.

Published under
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  South Korea's hottest stars are offering aid to help their country combat the spread of coronavirus or COVID-19.

Son Ye-jin, the lead actress of hit South Korean series "Crash Landing On You," has donated 100 million won (roughly P4.1 million) to help Daegu City residents cope with the outbreak. The actress hails from Daegu City  the city at the epicenter of the outbreak in South Korea, an English-language news website on Korean pop culture reports.

Her co-star Hyun Bin, who plays Captain Ri Jeong-hyeok in the popular series, offered support to those who tested positive for coronavirus. He also expressed gratitude to medical workers who are working tirelessly to eradicate and find a cure for the deadly virus.

"Parasite" director Bong Joon-ho and actor Song Kang-ho also donated 100 million won each for relief efforts in their country. This was confirmed by the Korea Disaster Relief Association on Thursday.

The donation of the Academy Award winners will also be used to stop the spread of coronavirus.

"Itaewon Class" lead Park Seo-joon, who has previously offered prayers for Filipinos during the Taal Volcano eruption, also offered the same donation to Daegu City to help local officials purchase hospital equipment to treat COVID-19 cases.

South Korea has the most confirmed coronavirus cases outside of mainland China. There are at least 2,022 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 13 deaths.
February 28, 2020

Try to grasp how the Coronavirus pandemic can accelerate - a cough and sneeze plume travels at 50-200 miles per hour and can stay airborne almost indefinitely. It's amazing that any of us is alive at all with all the versions of flu, cold and other viruses. Looking at all the ways Coronavirus is spread, such as between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet) and "a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads" the office, hallways, parking areas, food service areas, bathrooms are all likely areas where this virus or any other virus can accelerate.







My view is "just say no" to going to an office, if you can call "open space" as offices or other configurations where people work. Simply, stay home or work somewhere else. If you are a manager who is still stuck about not being open to telecommuting and/or a person who has concerns about what telecommuting will be like or how-to setup a home office, here is an indepth presentation. Meanwhile, telecommuting means working whenever-flextime and from wherever-flexplace effort completing tasks and activity as needed. Telecommuting opens the work horizon by creating an office without walls, an office that, in fact, can extend to an airplane passenger seat, satellite-coworking work center, coffee shop, mountain top or home dining room located anywhere in the world. Are you a morning or night person, telecommuting take place in "flextime," giving both workers and employers an opportunity to operate during hours that are best for them. Telecommuters have proven to produce more because they work during the hours they feel best and are most proficient, they work without interruption, and they put in longer hours. Managers must, however, choose tasks that lend themselves to remote work and appropriately handle the technical and human-resource aspects of dealing with the remote worker. When markets fluctuate and a company is uncertain of its long-range requirements, there are proven business models that telecommuting can control building space, support facilities, and costly equipment by having staff members work and/or telecommute remotely. This is particularly true during periods of business expansion. Or, when clientele are spread across the country, the organization may find it more cost effective to distribute customer support facilities among telecommuters than to develop a central office location that requires storage space, food service, parking, and other business facilities. Telecommuting helps organizations retain valued employees when operations are expanded and space constraints develop or when a change in location is required. From our research a company can increase the number of workers by up to 40% without adding any physical space, not including office technology, HVAC/power and furniture costs. There are also proven results in reducing staff turnover, relocation costs and a myriad of other office expenses from food service, vehicle transportation reimbursements and office supplies as well as untold personal stress.

Although telecommuting depends on whatever the current technology is; it is basically a social phenomenon that many people consider to be an updated version of the age-old "cottage industry" or "homework" concept. As with most technological innovation, there has been considerable lag time between the introduction of telecommuting technology and its broad acceptance in business, government, and elsewhere even today. Those innovations that will have the greatest impact on the remote work picture are just beginning to evolve. Robotics, AI, wearable tech, smart appliances, and advanced electronic communications systems are among the promising new possibilities. Telecommuting provides workers with a number of psychological benefits such as reduced stress, fatigue, worry about children coming home from school and other personal benefits. From another viewpoint, many people enjoy a sense of autonomy, perhaps the most important aspect of telecommuting, and consider it to be "a privilege, (and) an exercise in personal preference and commitment." Telecommuters also take satisfaction in helping to structure remote tasks, where given the chance, and achieve a balance between productivity aka bottom-line responsibility and their own lifestyle. Another psychological benefit of working remotely is perceiving a greater importance in one's position within the system. A number of other evolving cultural influences are expected to affect American working styles and will certainly be reflected in the telecommuting picture. For example, companies are developing a do-it-yourself, "bypass" mentality by providing their own energy, communications, and transportation systems. On an individual level, this is reflected in telecommuters becoming more entrepreneurial and bypassing agencies when they need work. Within the general population, multiple, evolving career paths are replacing any current working arrangement, and entrepreneurship or group efforts are becoming increasingly important influences. In business, the supervisory role is changing, cross communication and coordination of managers is being emphasized, as the traditional management hierarchy is shrinking, effectively decreasing promotional opportunities for managers.

Here are some key points to consider:

 Start with understanding what work needs to be done by whom, not a solution - people don't want to be confined to any workplace ever.

 Think about people long before technology  technology always changes faster than people.

 Focus on goal/solution, not just business process improvement but work to refine any process for telecommuting.

 Remember anything bad can and will happen and have a crisis plan in place which often requires unanticipated resources. Note legal contracts with home workers regarding liability may not also provide any legal protection. Opt-in telecommuters with simple guidelines is suggested but again some legal advice should be considered.

 The key to any new system is integration into the organization  while people say they want change, few are willing to change except change back from their purchase.

 When considering side effects, do not think just about one step removed, think about two or more.

 Good management can survive without technology - the reverse is not true.

 Human are social animals - people like being around people we like and abhor those we don't in other words, give people a means to find a place to work that works for them, not just what you think they need.

 Effectiveness is essential, efficiency is not. Therefore, worry about doing the right thing (being effective) before doing things right (efficiently).

I am a telecommuter and yet I travel a lot but when I need to work, I work where I need to work, when and with what technology I need. It works for me and work for you.

Bottom-line  Everyone can telecommute but telecommuting is not for everyone. Telecommuting means creating flexibility around the uniqueness of each person to give them freedom which in turn helps those friends and companies to succeed. Get the indepth presentation on how-to do it here.

Edited by Maurice Nagle
Next week, 100 students will be seeing a play at Luna Stage in West Orange, thanks to actor Sterling K. Brown.

The This Is Us star is paying for the students to see a March 4 matinee of Pass Over, a play running through March 8 at Luna Stage.

Students from Orange High School and Bloomfield High School will benefit from Browns donation.

Pass Over, a play from Antoinette Nwandu described as a mashup of Waiting for Godot and the Exodus saga, premiered at Lincoln Center Theaters Claire Tow Theater in 2018 and won the Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding play.

Spike Lee filmed the play for a 2018 Amazon movie adaptation starring Julian Parker and Jon Michael Hill.

The Luna Stage production, directed by Devin Haqq, is set on a city street and stars Robert Barnes, Kevis Hillocks and Woodrow Proctor.

It is a play very much about the current epidemic of police killing unarmed black men, but it is just as much a play about how the powerful have always sought to keep the oppressed contained, held down, NJ Advance Media critic Patrick Maley wrote in his review of the production.

Luna Stage reached out to Brown to underwrite the students visit to the show, and he obliged, Susan Hyon, director of strategic planning, tells NJ Advance Media.

Were always trying to let people and potential individual donors know about shows," she says. Luna did not disclose the amount of Browns donation. Tickets to the play are normally $40, though schools can often get special rates.

Brown 43, won an Emmy in 2016 for playing attorney Christopher Darden in the FX series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.

In 2017, he won another Emmy for playing Randall Pearson in the NBC series This Is Us." River Vales Dan Fogelman is the creator and showrunner of the hit series. Brown became the first black actor to win a Golden Globe for best actor in a TV drama in 2018 for his performance on the show.

We are delighted to have Mr. Browns support for this beautiful and timely play, Luna Stage artistic director Ari Laura Kreith said in a statement. It is this kind of involvement that makes it possible for us to bring important and relevant stories to young people right here in their own community.

Have a tip? Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.

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(CNN)  US President Donald Trump expressed optimism Thursday that the novel coronavirus would eventually be contained and eliminated in the United States, even as he acknowledged it could get worse first.

"It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear," Trump told attendees at an African American History Month reception in the White House Cabinet Room. The World Health Organization says the virus has "pandemic potential" and medical experts have warned it will spread in the US.

The President added that "from our shores, you know, it could get worse before it gets better. Could maybe go away. We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows."

Trump's comments come as the administration battles both the virus and accusations of mismanagement among officials responding to the outbreak.

Earlier on Thursday, CNN reported that Vice President Mike Pence's office would be in charge of all coronavirus messaging after several aides blamed negative coverage of the response on too many mixed messages from senior members of the administration. Later in the day, reports surfaced that a whistleblower at the Department of Health and Human Services is seeking federal protection after complaining that more than a dozen workers who had received the first Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, lacked proper training or protective gear for infection control.

Trump spoke effusively of the administration's efforts during his remarks Thursday.

"We have done an incredible job. We're going to continue," the President said, claiming that the media won't give the administration "credit" for a successful response to the virus.

Speaking about the 15 individuals diagnosed with the coronavirus on US soil, Trump said that "the 15 will soon be down to three, four."

Trump called his Wednesday appearance before the White House press corps to address the administration's response to the virus "really good" and "a calming press conference."

Trump announced during Wednesday's news conference that he was putting Pence "in charge" of the administration's coronavirus response, adding that the vice president will report directly to him. Minutes later, HHS Secretary Alexander Azar said he was "still chairman of the task force" -- muddling the message and perhaps the point of the news conference regarding who is in charge of the administration's response to the crisis.
In an interesting move, cash-strapped has invited the US to join the $60 billion China- Economic Corridor, an ambitious infrastructure project looked with suspicion by the Trump administration for being non-transparent.

Prime Minister Imran Khan's adviser on commerce Abdul Razak Dawood on Thursday said the government made the offer during a meeting with the US trade delegation led by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Wednesday, The Express Tribune reported.

Interestingly last month, senior US diplomat Alice Wells said that there is no transparency in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the firms blacklisted by the World Bank have got contracts under the project, which will increase Pakistan's debt burden.

Wells, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia made the remarks while speaking at a think tank event during her four-day visit to Pakistan.

Khan's commerce advisor Razak said: "The US has shown interest in (Pakistan's) energy, oil and gas, agriculture and food processing".

has committed to invest over USD 60 billion in Pakistan as part of the under which it planned to build a number of special economic zones.

India has objected to the as it is being laid through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The US Commerce Secretary's visit is the result of recently-held discussions between Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Donald Trump to promote bilateral trade and enhanced economic engagements, the report said.

"Pakistan-US market access is the main point. We want access to the US market," Dawood said, adding that the US official has assured of his cooperation.

Sharing details of the meeting, Dawood said the US officials have also expressed interest in promoting e-commerce.

"They have agreed that the US Development Finance Corporation would help in developing new businesses in Pakistan. The US secretary is ready to send a commerce delegation for coordination," Dawood said.

He said they discussed bilateral relations and matters of mutual interest, and agreed to enhance mutual trade to a maximum level.

A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) could be a long-term goal because of complexity involved in the process, Dawood said.

connecting China's Xinjiang with Pakistan's Gwadar port is regarded as the flagship project of the multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which is aimed at furthering China's global influence with infrastructure projects funded by Chinese investments all over the world.

The initiative also led to allegations of smaller countries reeling under mounting Chinese debt after Sri Lanka gave its strategic Hambantota port in a debt swap to in 2017 on a 99-year lease.
Waterloo, Ontario, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The University of Waterloo has launched a second venture capital fund targeted at early-stage startups involved in health technology.

The Velocity HealthTech Fund will give early-stage health startups a chance to access $50,000 in pre-seed funding to grow their business and would be awarded following a pitch competition.

The HealthTech Fund will make investments in addition to the $50,000 that pitch competition winners gain from the current Velocity Fund. The current fund was launched last year and has raised US $1.3 million and has invested $600,000 into 12 startups.

Following the launch of the Velocity Fund last year, it quickly became apparent that there is a significant appetite among individual investors in Canada to get in on early-stage startups, said Adrien Cote, executive director of Waterloos entrepreneurship program, Velocity. We launched the second fund in part to meet a market demand among investors that we know exists and to address the ongoing challenge that early-stage companies face in attracting investment.

Focusing our second fund on health tech only made sense given that 38 per cent of the companies we have in our incubator operate in this space, a trend we only see increasing over time, said Cote. Access to additional early capital allows founders to tackle unique, and often costly, aspects of building a health tech company.

The Velocity HealthTech Fund awarded its first investments on February 27 to two startups involved in health technology. Life Sciences Key Technologies received a total of $100,000 from both funds, while Caribou received $50,000 from the new health tech fund.

The Velocity HealthTech Fund was launched to accredited investors four weeks ago and has already reached $1 million US, meeting its initial fundraising goal. The funds investment will help early-stage, health tech startups accelerator and strengthen their product development, IP strategies and understanding and navigating the regulatory environment associated with the healthcare industry.

Interest in the fund has primarily been from individuals who are currently employed in the health care field.

"I invested in this fund early because I believe in the impact that startups can have in our health care system, and I am passionate about health," said Dr. Richard Weinstein, an ophthalmologist based in Kitchener, Ontario and HealthTech Fund investor. "Because my ability to holistically judge the potential of health-tech startups is limited, this kind of fund provides me with a more straightforward, vetted way to invest in the sector.

The Universitys first startup venture fund, the Velocity Fund, was launched in April 2019. The AngelList-powered venture fund gives investors a way to invest in a diversified portfolio of early-stage startups supported by Waterloos Velocity Incubator. The fund replaced a grant system used to fund awards in the incubators tri-annual Velocity Fund Finals.
The nine accused arrested in the Elgar Parishad case were produced before the special NIA court here on Friday.

The special court judge DE Kothalikar sent all the accused -- Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale, Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen and Vernon Gonsalves -- to judicial custody and posted the matter for hearing on March 13.

The special judge will hear all the pending applications, including those filed in Pune court.

The lawyer representing the NIA said a charge sheet had been filed in the Pune court and interim applications of some of the accused were pending.

On February 14, a court in Pune which was hearing the case passed an order transferring the case to the special NIA court in Mumbai in response to the central agencys plea.

The Pune court had directed that the accused should be produced before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Mumbai before or on February 28. Last month, the Centre had transferred the probe from Pune police to NIA which was criticised by Maharashtras Shiv Sena- Nationalist Congress Party-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 police claimed triggered violence near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in the district the next day.

Pune police claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists. During the probe, the police arrested these nine activists for alleged Maoist links. These activists are among 11 people booked by NIA in the case.

(With PTI inputs)
February 28 : Action director Sham Kaushal has said that he feels proud and humbled that his sons Vicky Kaushal and Sunny Kaushal are doing well in the film industry.

Sham Kaushal was interacting with the media at the special screening of Guns of Banaras along with his son Sunny Kaushal on Thursday in Mumbai.

When asked Kaushal how he feels when his sons are doing well in the film industry, he said, I cant explain it in words. I feel so proud and humbled. I feel blessed and I keep thanking God because now, I am known by their names. I think its a big thing for a father to be known by their sons names. I will be competing 30 years as an action director in this industry. For 28 years, I was known as action director but since last two years, people call me as Vicky and Sunnys papa (father). If anyone doesnt introduce me like that then I introduce myself like that (laughs).

Sham Kaushal has choreographed action sequences for Gun of Banaras , talking about it, Kaushal said, Whenever I do any work, if my director and producer are happy with me so, I feel I have done a good job. If films actors director and producer are happy with my work then, I feel very happy about it. In this film, I think actors Karann (Nathh) and Ganesh (Venkatram) have worked really hard for the film and they done a wonderful job.

Talking about Guns of Banaras, Sunny said, I have seen the trailer of the film and I am feeling very excited about it. It is looking really good so, lets see how the film turns out.

Sunny also praised his father, he said, They (action scenes) are looking really good. I am huge fan of his (Sham Kaushal) of work so, I am quite excited to see that onscreen.

When asked Sunny whether he would like to work with his father and brother in a same film, he said, Definitely I have actually worked with him (Sham Kaushal) in recently released Amazon Prime Videos series The Forgotten Army - Azaadi Ke Liye and my father choreographed action sequences for it. So, I was fortunate enough to work with him and learn under him. Whenever I will get an opportunity, I would like to work with my father.

Talking about his upcoming projects, Sunny said, Right now, I am shooting for two movies. One is called Shiddat which is being produced by Dinesh Vijans Maddock Films and another one is Hurdang.

Directed by Sekhar Suri Guns of Banaras is scheduled to release on 28 February 2020.
<i>[dramatic music]</i> SICARIO: [speaking Spanish] ALBERTO: [speaking Spanish] <i> </i> <i> </i> <i>[intense music]</i> <i> </i> [exhales] <i> </i> [speaking Spanish] <i>REPORTER: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>ALBERTO: Buenos dias.</i> <i>REPORTER: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>ALBERTO: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: Alberto Capella</i> <i>is a veteran police chief in Mexico.</i> <i>ALBERTO: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: Capella has promised to slash the homicide rate</i> <i>in his state, but its a daunting task.</i> - [speaking Spanish] - [speaking Spanish] - [speaking Spanish] - [speaking Spanish] [all speaking at once] <i>- Gracias. Gracias.</i> <i>AZAM: In Mexico, someone is killed every 15 minutes,</i> <i>and 95% of murders are never solved.</i> AZAM: So right there is the body that they burned. You can see the arm and a leg. [distant chatter] <i>[dramatic music]</i> [all speaking at once] <i> </i> You see the burn marks right on the center of the sidewalk. <i> </i> <i>AZAM: Murder has become so routine,</i> <i>so expected here,</i> <i>that people cant rely on traditional forms of justice.</i> <i>REPORTER: Last year saw a record 33,000</i> <i>homicides in Mexico</i> <i>REPORTER: Innocent men, women, and children,</i> <i>thousands of whom have been caught in the crossfire.</i> <i>AZAM: At least a quarter of a million people</i> <i>have been killed</i> <i>since the American-backed drug war began in 2006,</i> <i>and recent violence has been extreme.</i> [gunfire] <i>In October,</i> <i>the Sinaloa Cartel laid siege to the city of Culiacan</i> <i>in broad daylight.</i> <i>A month later,</i> <i>another cartel gunned down nine women and children.</i> <i>Last year saw the highest murder rate in the country.</i> <i>Ever.</i> <i>This is what happens when the power of organized crime</i> <i>goes unchecked,</i> <i>and when the cartels continue to pay off the institutions</i> <i>that are supposed to be policing them.</i> <i>REPORTER: Another execution-style murder</i> <i>in Mexico.</i> <i>REPORTER: 26 bodies were found</i> <i>REPORTER: Bodies decapitated and mutilated.</i> <i> </i> REPORTER: [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: Its that kind of corruption</i> <i>that drove Alberto Capella to become a police chief.</i> <i>REPORTER: Police forces in entire cities</i> <i>and villages have been fired.</i> <i>Some former federal police officers</i> <i>have joined up with the drug cartel.</i> <i>AZAM: He had been an anti-corruption activist</i> <i>but decided that the only way to change the system...</i> <i>REPORTER: Jesus Alberto Capella.</i> <i>AZAM: Was from within.</i> - [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: 12 years ago, when he became a police chief,</i> <i>he got more than he bargained for</i> <i>when a group of cartel men attacked his home.</i> ALBERTO: [speaking Spanish] [mimics gunfire sounds] <i>AZAM: Capella survived, more determined than ever.</i> <i>REPORTER: The remarkable story of one lawman.</i> <i>REPORTER: Scores of bullet holes.</i> <i>REPORTER: Capella vows to fight on</i> <i>knowing that hes a marked man.</i> - [speaking in Spanish] <i>AZAM: But in the years that followed,</i> <i>Capella faced criticism and controversies himself.</i> <i>[people speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: And the violence only intensified.</i> <i>He was at a breaking point.</i> <i>Something had to give.</i> [speaking Spanish] SICARIO: [speaking Spanish] - [speaking Spanish] SICARIO: [speaking Spanish] <i> </i> <i>AZAM: He moved up the ranks quickly.</i> <i>Cartel leaders were curious what he was capable of.</i> <i>SICARIO: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i> </i> <i>AZAM: He told me that when he was 18,</i> <i>he was sent away to a cartel training camp</i> <i>to train as an assassin a sicario.</i> <i>SICARIO: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: By the time he was 21,</i> <i>the sicario had worked for at least three different cartels.</i> SICARIO: [speaking Spanish] - [speaking Spanish] SICARIO: [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: But in 2017,</i> <i>another cartel man betrayed him.</i> <i>The sicario was arrested,</i> <i>and police set out to verify his stories.</i> <i>They confirmed more than 20 of his murders</i> <i>in Morelos alone.</i> <i>SICARIO: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: He was a gold mine for investigators.</i> <i>SICARIO: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: He said who he was working for,</i> <i>who he had killed,</i> <i>where they were buried.</i> <i>SICARIO: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: He even told them where they could find</i> <i>the torso of a woman</i> <i>dismembered on the banks of this river.</i> <i>SICARIO: [speaking Spanish]</i> ALBERTO: [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: This was the break Capella had been hoping for.</i> <i>The sicarios inside knowledge of the cartels</i> <i>could cripple organized crime in the state,</i> <i>but like many in Mexico,</i> <i>Capella didnt trust</i> <i>the federal witness protection program</i> <i>to handle the case,</i> <i>and he wanted to have control, so he improvised.</i> <i>SICARIO: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: It was a radical deal,</i> <i>completely off the books,</i> <i>and arguably outside the law.</i> SICARIO: [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: If you testify against the cartels,</i> <i>well keep you safe,</i> <i>hidden in a jail that your family can visit.</i> - BABY: Mira! - SICARIO: Mira, papi. <i>AZAM: And even though youve confessed</i> <i>to dozens of murders,</i> <i>when youre finished testifying...</i> [children laughing] <i>AZAM: Youll be free to go.</i> SICARIO: <i>Despacito, eh? </i>[laughs] - [speaking Spanish] <i> </i> <i>ALBERTO: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: Over the course of the next year,</i> <i>Capella turned a dozen other men into informants,</i> <i>offering them the same deal as the sicario.</i> <i>ALBERTO: [speaking Spanish]</i> [all singing in Spanish] <i>AZAM: The informants were housed</i> <i>in a small holding area connected to the jail</i> <i>where a pastor visited them every day.</i> [singing continues] <i>[inmates speaking Spanish]</i> PASTOR: [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: When the informants were needed for a trial,</i> <i>they were driven to the courthouse.</i> <i>JUDGE: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>SICARIO: [speaking Spanish]</i> PROSECUTOR: [speaking Spanish] - [speaking Spanish] <i>SICARIO: [speaking Spanish]</i> PROSECUTOR: [speaking Spanish] - [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: Prosecutors directed the sicario</i> <i>to minimize his role in the murders.</i> <i>To avoid implicating himself...</i> <i>- Gracias.</i> <i>AZAM: He lied under oath.</i> - [speaking Spanish] [gavel bangs] <i> </i> SICARIO: [speaking Spanish] <i> </i> <i>AZAM: Some witnesses had been living here for over a year.</i> <i>They were free to leave,</i> <i>but most stayed for their own safety.</i> [chatter] - [praying in Spanish] <i>AZAM: They prayed together,</i> <i>ate together,</i> <i>and built a routine,</i> <i>sometimes waiting months to testify at trial.</i> <i>MAN: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: One of them was put in charge</i> <i>of letting visitors into the jail</i> <i>and had even started a car washing business.</i> <i>MAN: [speaking Spanish]</i> MAN: [speaking Spanish] PASTOR: [speaking Spanish] [woman crying] <i>AZAM: For these men,</i> <i>the facility was an escape from all the violence</i> <i>they had committed.</i> PASTOR: [speaking Spanish] AZAM: [speaking Spanish] SICARIO: [speaking Spanish] <i> </i> JAVIER: [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: Javier Sicilia</i> <i>is a well-known writer in Mexico.</i> <i>His son was killed by a cartel in Morelos.</i> JAVIER: [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: Juan Francisco was murdered</i> <i>with six of his friends</i> <i>after complaining about a theft at a bar</i> <i>with links to organized crime.</i> JAVIER: [speaking Spanish] <i>[cheers and applause]</i> <i>JAVIER: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: Since then, Sicillia has led</i> <i>massive anti-violence protests across the country.</i> - [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: So I wondered, how would he feel</i> <i>about Capellas deal with the sicario?</i> AZAM: [speaking Spanish] JAVIER: [speaking Spanish] <i> </i> [all speaking Spanish] ALBERTO: [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: More than a year after Chief Capella created</i> <i>his makeshift witness protection program,</i> <i>the murder rate in Morelos had dropped.</i> ALBERTO: [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: And then, Morelos got a new governor.</i> <i>Capella took a new job as police chief</i> <i>1,000 miles away in the state of Quintana Roo.</i> - [giving order in Spanish] <i>AZAM: He left the program in the hands</i> <i>of his replacement.</i> AZAM: [speaking Spanish] - [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: Capella had consistently told me</i> <i>that after testifying,</i> <i>all the protected witnesses would walk.</i> <i>But maybe that was never his intention.</i> - [speaking Spanish] AZAM: [speaking Spanish] - [speaking Spanish] AZAM: [speaking Spanish] - [speaking Spanish] - Hm. Okay? - AZAM:<i> Si.</i> <i> </i> [chatter] <i>AZAM: When I returned to the jail last spring,</i> <i>things felt unsettled.</i> <i>SICARIO: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: Some of the witnesses had abandoned the program</i> <i>before finishing their testimonies.</i> <i>Some returned to a life of crime.</i> <i>SICARIO: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: The sicario remained hopeful</i> <i>he could start a new life...</i> SICARIO: [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: With his new baby and a clean record.</i> SICARIO: [speaking Spanish] <i>[tense music]</i> [chatter] <i> </i> - [sighs] [clears throat] <i>[light music]</i> <i>AZAM: Three months later,</i> <i>the program had fallen apart.</i> <i>Only the sicario and one other witness remained.</i> <i>He was driven to church a couple of times a week.</i> [all speaking Spanish] SICARIO: [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: But he always returned</i> <i>to the sanctuary of the jail.</i> <i>Still, after almost two years in hiding,</i> <i>his outlook had changed.</i> SICARIO: [speaking Spanish] <i> </i> <i>AZAM: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>SICARIO: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: Six weeks later, I got a text.</i> <i>[phone chiming]</i> <i> </i> <i>The sicario knew he would be killed in a real prison</i> <i>full of cartel members, not protected witnesses.</i> <i>Less than two years after it began,</i> <i>Capellas experiment was over. </i>- [speaking Spanish] <i>AZAM: Maybe it was crazy to think</i> <i>that a makeshift program with a dozen young men</i> <i>could change the course of violence in Morelos.</i> <i>But the informants did put 20 cartel men behind bars</i> <i>and showed that something like this</i> <i>could have an impact.</i> <i>And yet, today, citizens are still navigating</i> <i>an almost lawless society.</i> <i>REPORTER: [speaking Spanish]</i> <i>AZAM: The families of victims never find justice.</i> <i>Prison cartel members are quickly replaced,</i> <i>and the cycle of violence continues.</i> <i> </i>
Russia on Friday said that Turkish troops who came under fire by the Syrian army were among "terrorists", after at least 33 were killed in Idlib province.

On Thursday "Turkish soldiers who were in the battle formations of terrorist groups came under the fire of Syrian troops," the defence ministry said in a statement.

It said Turkish forces had not communicated their presence in the area, "where they should not have been".

"The Russian air force is not used in this zone," the ministry added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A passenger bus hit a train while trying to cross an open unmanned railway crossing in Pakistan's Sindh province, killing 18 people and injuring several others, according to media reports.

The accident happened at Rohri area in Sukkur district when the bus enroute from Karachi to Sargodha was crossing the open unmanned railway crossing and collided with the Pakistan Express train, the Express Tribune reported.

Sukkur Commissioner Shafique Ahmed Mahesar said that 18 people have been killed so far in the accident, Dawn reported.

"Already 18 people have been killed with several others seriously injured. The toll is likely to rise," the report quoted Mahesar as saying.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah took notice of the incident and directed the Sukkur commissioner to dispatch rescue teams to the area.

Another official said that around 40 to 45 people have been seriously injured and have been shifted to hospitals in Rohri and Sukkur.

"It cannot be ascertained how many of the victims were from the train or the bus," he said.

The CM also called for an emergency to be declared at all hospitals in Khairpur, and directed the authorities concerned to ensure ample medicines and blood for those injured in the incident, the report said.

Following the accident, Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also took notice of the incident and directed the provincial government to ensure the best medical facilities for those injured in the collision.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Here is a look at what polls are telling us about the six states with the most delegates on the Super Tuesday map.

California: 415 pledged delegates

The big prize. California moved its primary up to Super Tuesday for 2020, and its enormous delegate haul makes this newcomer the instant star. With its relatively liberal, heavily Latino Democratic electorate, it is well suited to Mr. Sanders. And sure enough, he holds a commanding lead in most California polls, including a CNN poll published on Friday that put him more than 20 points ahead of his closest rival.

If those numbers hold, all of his opponents will be at risk of falling short of the 15 percent threshold needed to claim any statewide delegates, though they could still win delegates in congressional districts.

Ms. Warren is in contention for second place in many polls. As long as she hits the threshold, she could pick up a sizable chunk of delegates without winning the state. Mr. Biden and Mr. Bloomberg are also within striking distance.

Texas: 228 pledged delegates

With Super Tuesday just three days after the South Carolina primary, there simply isnt much polling available to tell us how much wind that victory has put in Mr. Bidens sails.

Texas is Exhibit A for all that uncertainty. Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders had been running neck-and-neck there since January, but recent polls have shown Mr. Sanders pulling ahead. His well-funded campaign has invested heavily in the Lone Star State, seeking in particular to drive turnout among its large Latino population, which made up roughly one-third of the Texas Democratic primary vote in 2016, according to exit polls.

An NBC News/Marist College poll released Sunday showed him leading Mr. Biden by 15 points, with Mr. Bloomberg in third place.
An energy strategy that focuses on renewables, natural gas, energy efficiency and battery storage will attract private sector investment, the Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) said in a report.

Solar panels installed on rooftops in HCMC. Policy and regulatory actions are needed to move toward a more financially, socially and environmentally sustainable energy future  PHOTO: VES

The VBF Power and Energy Working Group held a press conference in Hanoi to release the second version of the Made in Vietnam Energy Plan (MVEP 2.0).

VBF co-chairwoman Virginia Foote was quoted by the local media as saying the plan was rolled out in the context that the development of renewable, clean and safe energy is an urgent issue as the country is approaching the complete exhaustion of fossil fuel resources.

Citing data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the report pointed out that more than 330 solar power projects with a total registered generation capacity of 26,000 megawatts (MW) were in various stages of approval and addition to the countrys power development plan in January 2019.

Among them, 121 projects, with a total generation capacity of 6,100 MW, had already been approved and added to national and provincial plans.

Among these, one large private investment project in the south-central coastal province of Ninh Thuan, with a cluster of three facilities and a capacity of 330 MW, was connected to the national grid in April 2019.

This plant is the largest solar power facility in Southeast Asia, with a total of more than one million panels and total investment of more than VND7 trillion, currently valued at more than US$300 million. The plant contributes to reducing nearly 304,400 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

Vietnam holds great potential for the development of clean power, such as solar power, wind power and hydropower, according to John Rockhold, head of the Power and Energy Working Group.

The countrys demand for power is increasing, and the system of transmission lines should be completed as soon as possible, he remarked.

He noted that State resources are limited, so it is vital to promote private-public partnerships and encourage the participation of the private sector in power management, distribution and pricing.

MVEP 2.0 proposed several business-oriented recommendations that would improve the reliability and aordability of Vietnams energy system.

The first recommendation is to prioritize renewable energy in the national power plan. There are alternative scenarios where renewable energy, excluding hydropower, could account for up to 30% of capacity by 2030.

These alternative scenarios require regulatory support and incentives to leverage private sector investment. Engaging the private sector, with its experience in market analysis, finance and consumers needs, would increase the effectiveness of the planning process, according to the report.

The report recommended tax leveling for the development of certified domestic offshore gas and the import of LNG as the current best-fit baseload for renewable energy.

Under the current tax regime, the development of offshore gas fields in Vietnam can either provide significant revenues for the government through taxes and royalties or, if taxes and royalties are reduced, more affordable energy for consumers, said the report.

Other recommendations included constructing a regulatory and permissive environment that attracts private sector investment for clean energy generation and energy efficiency and investing in grid infrastructure to improve stability and capacity as well as halting any new approvals for coal.

The report stressed that regulatory frameworks and incentives should be put in place to encourage investment in renewable energy, such as rooftop or floating solar energy, battery storage and offshore wind projects, with simplified approval processes, while still maintaining safe power systems. SGT

Challenges hinder development of renewable energy Renewable energy has emerged as one of the most preferred sectors for investment in Vietnam,but the development of such projects has been hampered by a number of challenges, according to a survey by Grant Thornton,
A South Carolina truck driver was sentenced to 30 years in prison Thursday for sexually assaulting an woman and holding her against her will on the side of the Ohio Turnpike in Hudson.

Anthony Ingram, 33, was convicted of kidnapping by a federal jury in Akron after a week-long trial in October.

He claims to be innocent and plans to appeal.

U.S. District Court Judge Sara Lioi sentenced Ingram Thursday to three decades behind bars, followed by five years of supervised release.

Prosecutors say Ingram, a cross-country truck driver from Travelers Rest, South Carolina, lured an Alabama woman into his rig in Michigan by promising her a ride to Indiana to retrieve her vehicle. He instead then drove in the opposite direction toward Maryland, claiming he would take her to Indiana after delivering a shipment.

Ingram, though, pulled his truck off the side of the turnpike in Hudson on Aug. 10, 2018, and sexually assaulted the woman while threatening her with a weapon, authorities said.

The woman escaped from Ingram at a truck stop in Lima and called 911 from a restaurant. Police responded to the scene and Ingram fled in his truck, prosecutors say.

GPS records showed Ingram stopped 15 miles down the road. FBI and Ohio State Highway Patrol investigators found the woman's clothing and cellphone discarded where Ingram stopped, prosecutors say.

Ingram continued driving and was later arrested in Pennsylvania.

The FBI, Ohio and Pennsylvania highway patrols and the Beaver Township Police Department investigated, with assistance from the Summit County Prosecutor's Office.

Ingram was originally charged in Summit County with rape and kidnapping, but his case was dismissed because of a speedy-trial issue. He was then indicted in federal court in May.

Federal prosecutors suggested Lioi impose a prison sentence between 30 years and life.

"A sentence in that range is deserved and appropriate," Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Daly said in his sentencing memorandum.

Larry Whitney, Ingram's attorney, suggested a lesser sentence. He noted that the weapon Ingram was accused of using to threaten the woman was a BB gun and not an actual gun.

Whitney said Ingram continues to deny wrongdoing. He said Ingram says when the woman figured out he wasn't taking her where she wanted to go, she retaliated by accusing him of rape.

"He says he didn't do what she said he did," Whitney said. "He still persists his innocence. He didn't rape this woman."

2020 the Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)

Visit the Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio) at www.ohio.com

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An airline that briefly touched down in the Lowcountry five years ago is on its return leg.

South Florida-based Silver Airways announced Wednesday it will launch nonstop service to four destinations from Charleston International starting May 21.

The carrier will offer daily flights to Orlando before continuing on to Key West, as well as routes to Tampa three days a week and Fort Lauderdale four days a week.

The Charleston-Tampa service will be offered Monday, Wednesday and Friday with return legs on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Silver Airways' flight schedule Charleston-Orlando route (daily, continues to Key West) Depart Charleston: 11:55 a.m. Arrive Orlando: 1:30 p.m. Depart Orlando: 6:20 p.m. Arrive Charleston: 7:55 p.m. Charleston-Fort Lauderdale route (4 days/week) Depart Charleston: 8:35 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday Arrive Fort Lauderdale: 10:45 p.m. Depart Fort Lauderdale: 8:45 a.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday Arrive Charleston: 10:55 a.m. Charleston-Tampa route (3 days/week) Depart Charleston: 8:35 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday Arrive Tampa: 10:20 p.m. Depart Tampa: 9:10 a.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Arrive Charleston: 10:55 a.m. Source: Silver Airways

Flights from the Lowcountry to Fort Lauderdale will be on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Return flights will be Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Introductory fares will start at $69 one way for a limited time for travel through Sept. 30. Tickets must be purchased by March 18.

Silver Airways senior vice president Pedro Motta said the airline was excited "to introduce low fares and nonstop service between South Carolinas most iconic city" and several Sunshine State destinations.

The airline served Charleston in 2015 with daily flights to Orlando and Tampa that continued on to its home base in Fort Lauderdale, but it discontinued service after nine months, citing weak bookings.

Silver's arrival five years ago came shortly before JetBlue Airways added flights to Fort Lauderdale from Charleston, cutting into its service. It will now compete with JetBlue for that market.

When the airline left in 2015, Silver said it was pausing service, and airport CEO Paul Campbell mentioned it might be back one day.

Campbell called Silvers return "a milestone" for Charleston International since it brings the number of carriers serving the Lowcountry to 10.

"Silver is a strong regional airline with an extensive network," he said. "Their new service will not only expand our options to Fort Lauderdale, they are also opening the door to new markets in Tampa, Orlando and beyond."

Silver operates from hubs in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa and offers the most routes within Florida and between the Sunshine State and the Bahamas, according to a company statement.

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The airline has been transitioning to a new aircraft model and will offer flights on a 70-seat ATR 72-600, an aircraft twice as large as the one that previously served the Lowcountry five years ago. It is specifically designed for short-haul routes but will offer the same amenities of jetliners, according to the company.

Charleston's chief tourism official called the carrier's return "a win-win" for residents of Florida and Charleston.

"It is also further evidence of our communitys economic strength and the airports positive momentum," said Helen Hill, CEO of Explore Charleston and chairwoman of Charleston County Aviation Authority.

The airline operates about 100 daily flights between gateways in Florida and The Bahamas and has a maintenance facility at Orlando International Airport. It is owned by Versa Capital Management LLC, a Philadelphia-based private equity investment firm.

In the summer of 2018, Silver completed the acquisition of Seaborne Airlines, a San Juan, Puerto Rico-based carrier serving destinations throughout Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and other countries in the Caribbean.

The company also has codeshare partnerships with several airlines.

The new service comes at a time of rapid growth at Charleston International, where a new 3,005-space parking deck is being built, work on an expanded ticket counter for more airlines could begin later this year and a third wing is set to be added over the next few years.

The airport's passenger levels continue to climb along with revenue, both up 7 percent during the final six months of 2019.

"It's nothing but blue skies and green lights," airport Finance Director Doug Boston said of the airport's strong bottom line.

The continued upward climb of passenger numbers follows a 12 percent increase in the 12 months from July 2018 to June 2019.

Charleston International is currently served by Alaska, Allegiant, American, British Airways, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest and United.

Last year, a record 4.87 million ticket holders came and went through the terminal, a growth rate of nearly 150 percent since 2 million passengers traveled through the airport in 2010.
A picture from the violence in Northeast Delhi is being used by Islamic State (IS). The terrorist organisation turned the image into a poster asking the Muslims to unite and join their cause, according to US-based SITE Intelligence Group that tracks online activities of global terror organisations.

The call has been given by an Indian subcontinent focused IS-aligned media unit, according to SITE.

In original picture was clicked by a photographer working for news agency Reuters with the caption A Muslim man is being beaten by pro-CAA supporters in Delhi.

Unsurprisingly, the viral image of a Muslim man being beaten by a Hindu mob in Delhi has now been repurposed by ISIS, in a poster justifying retaliatory violence in "Wilayat al-Hind," the Caliphates "Indian Province." pic.twitter.com/Cw5EzAvmE5  Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) February 28, 2020

It is not for the first time that Islamic State has made an effort to capitalise on the local conflicts to incite Muslims to join them. Earlier too, videos and pictures purportedly showing atrocities on Muslims in India were used by the global terror outfit to incite the community.

The Indian government has repeatedly asserted that Indian Muslims have shunned the Islamic States ideology.

The violence in Delhi started on Sunday, and escalated a day later. The groups protesting for and against the new citizenship law attacked each other with sticks, swords and even pistols. Shots were also fired on the policemen, leading to death of a Delhi Police head constable. Dozens of policemen were injured.

The protest over CAA had started on Saturday, but escalated a day later. Shops and vehicles were burnt and the protesters roamed on the streets turning the area into a war zone.

An Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader was later caught in the fire, with the family of an Intelligence Bureau (IB) official accusing him of instigating the mob in one of the worst-affected areas Chand Bagh which led to the officials death.

The leader Tahir Hussain was booked under murder charges and suspended fom the party. He has, however, denied all the allegations and said he was not inside the building at the time. He said he was in constant touch with senior police officers as well as AAP leader Sanjay Singh for help against the mob, which, he said, broke into his building and used its terrace.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: A total of 842 Indians and 248 foreigners have been evacuated from China and Japan since the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus, the MEA said on Thursday.

On Thursday, a special Air India flight brought back 119 Indians and five foreign nationals from the Diamond Princess, which has been docked at Yokohama off the Japanese coast. According to the MEA, all the people evacuated would be quarantined for a 14-day period at a medical facility in Manesar.

The foreigners included two Sri Lankans and one each from Nepal, South Africa and Peru. According to MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, three Indian crew members did not board the flight and said they would complete the period of extended quarantine put in place by Japan.
Hudson Valley business and community leaders, from left, Scott Batulis, Michael Lawler, Randy Resnick, Maureen Halahan, Marc Baez, David Kohlasch and Dennis Barry.

Close to 100 business and community leaders from Orange and Sullivan counties gathered to discuss current and future development in the region and the need to improve mobility for enhanced safety and economic stability. The Feb. 26 event, Driving Our Regions Prosperity: Mobility as a Catalyst for Economic Development at West Hills Country Club was hosted by 17-Forward-86, a coalition advocating for a third lane east and west on Route 17 to enable future designation as Interstate 86.

Were so pleased to have so many of our colleagues join us today, said Michael Lawler, director of 17-Forward-86 and partner of Checkmate Strategies. This impressive showing demonstrates the growing support for widening Route 17, to ensure our infrastructure is able to handle the added capacity from the many significant investments in our region.

Lawler moderated a diverse panel with representatives of business, economic development, health care and law enforcement who all agreed improving mobility is paramount to the safety, quality of life and economic well-being of the Hudson Valley and Sullivan Catskills.

With so many exciting developments underway in our region, we simply cannot wait any longer to make this critical upgrade to Route 17, said Maureen Halahan, president and CEO, Orange County Partnership, and co-chair of 17-Forward-86. There is tremendous support for this project and we must move forward.

Halahan pointed to Legoland, which is building a $500 million theme park off Route 17 in the Town of Goshen and is expected to open July 4. Also in Goshen, Amys Kitchen is constructing a 390,000-square-foot factory where the organic, vegetarian food maker plans to employ some 700 people. These and other projects in Orange and Sullivan counties are expected to attract millions of visitors to local roads  further necessitating the need for a third lane on Route 17.

Joining Halahan on the panel were Marc Baez, president and CEO, Sullivan County Partnership and co-chair, 17-Forward-86; Scott Batulis, president and CEO, Greater Hudson Valley Health System, Middletown; Chief Deputy Dennis Barry, Orange County Sheriffs Office; David Kohlasch, general manager, Kartrite Resort and Indoor Water Park, Monticello; and Randy Resnick, owner, Bernies Holiday Restaurant, Resnick and Penguin Energy, and Liberty Market, Sullivan County. This is a crucial point in our campaign to widen Route 17, said Baez. We cannot afford to keep kicking this project down the road. This is critical for our region ... for our future.

Batulis pointed to the rapid growth of the health system and expansion plans for Orange Regional Medical Center, noting that we need the infrastructure to support that growth. He also cited the importance of mobility on Route 17 for the 100,000 patients who visit the emergency rooms annually. Every minute counts  there is no time for delay.

Chief Barry agreed, adding that, as first responders, officers see first-hand the dangers traffic tie-ups pose. When were dealing with life-or-death situations, seconds matter. We need to ensure our first responders are able to move quickly and freely, and improving mobility along Route 17 will help in those efforts.

The threats of traffic also take a toll on visitors, who continue to flock to the Sullivan Catskills for its beauty and offerings but dread the stop-and-go trip. At our restaurants, the talk around the table tends to be traffic-related, said Resnick. This project is a long time coming. And its not just for Orange County  its for Sullivan County, too. Its about two counties working together for a common good. This is our future.

The Kartrite, which opened in April 2019, has already exceeded expectations in terms of visitors, said Kohlasch. Weve hosted 200,000 guests and this year well probably double that, Kohlasch said. This project is critical for our long-term success.

17-Forward-86 members shared details about the growing campaign to widen Route 17 and their efforts to get funding for it. The coalition is seeking $500 million from New York State and has been engaging state legislators to secure funding in the Department of Transportations upcoming capital plan to implement recommendations in a 2013 capacity study issued by NYSDOT. The 2013 study, funded with $1 million secured by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, found that congestion on Route 17 will worsen and development in the region necessitates an additional lane/added capacity. The DOTs next capital plan is expected to begin April 1, 2020 and be funded by state and federal funds.

In May 2019, the DOT issued a request for expressions of interest for an engineering firm to begin a scoping and preliminary review process and later selected the firm WSP. The work is part of a $5 million Planning and Environmental Linkage study (PEL), which includes identifying priority locations and conducting environmental assessments and preliminary engineering. Funding for the PEL study was committed as part of the states 2018-2019 budget.

About 17-Forward-86

17-Forward-86 was established in August 2018 by a dedicated group of advocates who support the widening of Route 17. The coalition comprises more than 200 members of economic development groups, construction trades, tourism groups and energy companies who share a common vision for expanding the capacity of Route 17 to strengthen the economic well-being of the Hudson Valley and Sullivan Catskills. To learn more, visit http://www.17Forward86.org.




The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) is investigating circumstances leading to the release of a top Registrar Generals Office staffer Gorden Tsuro from jail, amid complaints of an irregularity.





Tsuro, who was in 2012 jailed three years for attacking his wife with an axe, unlawfully enjoyed freedom for seven years following the dismissal of his criminal appeal until last year when The Herald unearthed the scandal.





He was in November last year arrested and locked up in prison, but a month later the prosecution consented to the reinstatement of his 2013 appeal.





The prosecution, in a space of days after reinstatement of the appeal, again consented to Tsuros release on bail.





The Special Anti-Corruption Unit (SACU) last week asked ZACC to investigate circumstances surrounding the release of Tsuro on bail, saying the prosecution might have acted improperly.





This week, ZACC chairperson Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo confirmed receipt of a complaint from SACU, saying investigations had already begun.





We have opened investigations into the matter, said the ZACC boss. Head of SACU, Mr Thabani Mpofu, last week wrote to Justice Matanda-Moyo asking her to look into how an officer in the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) consented to the reinstatement of Tsuros appeal and release on bail after the appeal had been struck off the roll because he (Tsuro) had missed deadlines to pursue his appeal.





The Herald exposed the irregularity last year after Tsuro, who was sentenced to three years in jail in 2012 for attacking his wife with an axe, had his appeal dismissed by the High Court in 2013 after he failed to pursue the matter.





After the dismissal of the appeal, he was supposed to be sent back to the magistrates court to be committed to prison to serve his sentence, but he continued enjoying his freedom for six years with some thinking he had been acquitted by the High Court.





He was only arrested and committed to prison at the end of last year.





Investigations by The Herald revealed that Tsuro briefly showed up at work upon his release this year and went into his office, much to the surprise of his colleagues who thought he was serving jail time.





Authorities at the RGs Office immediately suspended Tsuro to allow them to have an appreciation of his case after they read in The Herald that he had been committed to prison to serve his three-year-jail term.





Tsuro (49) was on June 26, 2012, convicted of seriously injuring his wife, Ms Rosemary Charlie, after striking her with an axe during a domestic dispute.





He was initially charged with attempted murder, but then Harare regional magistrate Mr William Bhila found him guilty of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.





On the same date, Tsuros lawyers, Mupindu & Mugiya, filed a notice of appeal against both conviction and sentence at the High Court, but this was not pursued.




As deadly clashes hit northeast Delhi this week, the family of a young Hindu woman living in a Muslim-majority area was forced to cancel her wedding.

Dressed in her wedding finery, her hands laced maroon with henna and her skin cleansed with turmeric, 23-year-old Savitri Prasad said she was weeping in her home as violent mobs battled outside on Tuesday, which was to have been her wedding day. But Savitri Prasad's father then organised the wedding for the following day, saying his Muslim neighbours were family and he was comforted by their presence.

"My Muslim brothers are protecting me today," Savitri Prasad told a Reuters team that visited the house on the day of the ceremony, breaking down again as her family and neighbours comforted her.

The rituals took place at Savitri Prasad's home, a small brick building in a narrow alley in the Chand Bagh district.

Steps away, the main street looked like a war zone, with cars and shops vandalised, and the area littered with rocks used in pitched battles between mobs on both sides.

At least 38 people have been killed in the fighting in Chand Bagh and nearby areas of Delhi this week, and hundreds of people have been injured in the worst violence in the capital in decades.

"We went to the terrace and just saw smoke and more smoke," Bhoday Prasad, Savitri Prasad's father, said of the scene on Monday and Tuesday.

"It is terrifying. We just want peace," Bhoday Prasad said he has lived in the area for years alongside Muslims without any trouble.

"We don't know who the people behind the violence are, but they are not my neighbours. There is no enmity between Hindus and Muslims here."

On Monday evening, the day Savitri Prasad was to have henna applied on her hands in a pre-wedding ritual, violence had already spiralled out of control.

"We could hear a lot of commotion outside, but I had the henna applied, hoping things would be better next day," she said.

Instead, they got worse. Her father told the groom and his family it was too dangerous to come to the house.

"Our heart pains for her, who would want their daughter to be sitting home crying when she is supposed to be happy?" said Sameena Begum, one of the neighbours.

Violence ebbed on Wednesday, but markets remained shut and residents stayed indoors, fearful of further clashes.

Savitri Prasad's father said he decided to organise a scaled-down ceremony.

"Hindu or Muslim, we are all humans and we are all terrified of the violence," said Savitri Prasad's cousin Pooja, as she helped the bride dress for the ceremony.

"This fight was not about religion, but it has been made so."

Muslim neighbours gathered to offer blessings as the groom arrived and the wedding rituals took place, with a Hindu priest reciting holy verses and the groom and bride taking the rounds of a small pyre set up inside the house. "We live peacefully with our Hindu brothers," said Aamir Malik, who was standing guard with several other men outside the home.

"We are everything for them. It's been like that we are here for them."

Following an exchange of garlands, Savitri Prasad, her husband and his family were escorted out of the alleys by her family and neighbours.

"Today, none of our relatives could attend my daughter's wedding," said Bhoday Prasad.

"But our Muslim neighbours are here. They are our family."
Former State Representative Fletcher N. Smith Jr., for example, said that he was offended when a staff member for Mr. Steyer came to his law office in Greenville several months ago and suggested that he become a consultant for the campaign, an overture he interpreted as an attempt to purchase his support. I cant be bought, said Mr. Smith, who also formerly served on the Greenville County Council.

And some worry that a billionaire spending so much of his money delivers a distorted message to those who might seek office.

It seems to be reinforcing the idea that only those who are wealthy should run for office, said Brady Quirk-Garvan, the former Charleston County party chair. Im trying to find people to run for County Council seats and State House seats and people will say, You know I dont have money like Steyer does.

Lawmakers who have joined Mr. Steyers payroll deny there is anything inappropriate about the arrangement, saying their expertise is valuable. And in a statement issued by his campaign, Mr. Steyer said he was insulted by implications that lawmakers were for sale. As for the campaigns decision to hire lawmakers as advisers, Jimmy Williams, a senior adviser to the campaign, said: I cant think of anybody better to hire than a sitting member of the House or Senate to advise us on what their constituents think.
28.02.2020 LISTEN

The General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers' Union of TUC (Ghana) has called on government to protect the oil and gas workers against threats of downsizing by Tullow Oil and Komos Energy.

In a statement it issued, it said: We members of General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers' Union (GTPCWU) of the Ghana Trade Union Congress (TUC) would like to call on government and our social partners in the oil and gas industry, to stand up and kick against constant threats of layoffs by the oil and gas companies operating in the country.

They further notified the government to speak up for Ghanaian workers struggling in the oil and gas industry following the threats the workers received constantly.

We are by this statement notifying government to speak up for Ghanaian workers struggling in the oil and gas industry following threats by the earlier mentioned companies as the key architects of the industry to downsize their staff rate, using their operations in Ghana to achieve this obnoxious target, the statement said.

The Workers Union also said they are observing developments over the past month as Tullow Oil Ghana Limited and Kosmos Energy Ghana, the giants in the industry.

They also called on the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum Commission who are the regulators of our oil and gas industry upstream to monitor keenly the activities of these employers threatening to lay off their workforce.

The Workers Union also called on the concerned citizens and groups to intervene in their plight which they believe will serve as a clarion call on the government to call their employers before they actualize the layoff threats in the midst of growing unemployment in the country.

They also stressed the need for the government to put in place adequate measures to facilitate dialogue between the companies and the companies and the workers in the development.

The General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) had earlier called for the implementation of the local content policy to protect workers of multinationals from layoffs.

This according to the Union will ensure their jobs are secured should there be any operational challenges.

Background

Tullow Oil in a statement it issued earlier said it had began a restructuring which will lead to potential office closures in Cape Town and Dublin.

Tullow confirms that is has begun a restructuring of its global business. The restructuring follows Tullow's announcement in December that its oil production and associated revenues in 2020 and beyond will be lower than forecast.

Tullow estimates that the measure will deliver considerable savings and the Group's workforce will reduce by approximately a third globally with potential office closures in Cape Town and Dublin among a number of measures to reduce costs and overheads.

The company is set to reduce its workforce by at least 25 percent due to Tullow Oil Plc's massive disappointments in operations Africa and South America.

---citinewsroom
There's no better place to celebrate St. Patrick's Day than Ireland if you're looking for some mighty craic. While Dublin attracts thousands of tourists ever year on March 17th, that's definitely not the only place on the Emerald Isle you should consider visiting for the holiday. While there's plenty to do no matter where you are in Ireland, it can be tricky to take advantage of everything while also navigating the crowds. Celebrating Paddy's Day the right way involves more than imbibing, and we've rounded up the tips that every tourist should know before visiting. If crowds, folk music, and Guinness appeal to you, here's some key advice for celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Ireland.

Related:

Slainte! 17 Great Cities to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day Around the World
[February 27, 2020] Studycat Donates Free Use of Its Children's Language Learning Apps Globally

HONG KONG, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Global edtech firm Studycat Limited is donating a month's free use, globally, of its award-winning Fun Series language learning apps teaching 3-8 year-olds English, Chinese, Spanish, French and German. This expands on Studycat's earlier donation of free use of its apps in the Greater China region, launched on February 4th, 2020, which received a massive response, demonstrating the urgent need for safe home learning resources for young children at this time. To sign up, those interested can visit the Apple App Store, Google Play Store or Studycat's website : https://studycat.co/in-this-together/



Access to the apps is effective immediately. In suitable cases, the company will also offer complimentary use of its product designed for educational institutions, Fun English for Schools. Mark Pemberton, co-founder of Studycat, said: "We deeply empathize with all families affected by the virus epidemic. With schools disrupted in many areas, us parents now face a practical challenge of caring for our younger children as this situation unfolds. We need easy-to-use resources, delivering productive activities for our kids to do safely at home. Our apps were designed specifically for safe home use and we are proud to help families in some small way during this concerning crisis"

"We are deeply concerned for anyone impacted by this virus outbreak. We are determined to do our part, helping to mitigate some of the burden brought on by school disruption", added Mateo Solares, co-founder of Studycat. "We are committed to helping young children at this time, allowing them to learn new things while having fun, turning their minds to something constructive." Studycat enables safe and convenient home learning of beginner-level English, Spanish, Chinese, French and German, as well as literacy and critical thinking. Its huge variety of fun online games, puzzles, songs and interactive exercises encourage creativity and collaboration. The company's website, studycat.com, also offers hundreds of creative worksheets to help fill time productively, which families will have access to on the company's website. Established in 1999, Studycat was started by experienced educators Mark Pemberton, Mateo Solares and Jason Bakkum. They began their journey as a brick-and-mortar language school before moving into game-based digital learning in 2006 and app stores in 2011. About STUDYCAT Studycat is an international leader in children's online language education, empowering young children around the world to enjoy learning a foreign language with innovative learning applications that connect homes and schools. The company's consumer solutions help children aged 3-8 learn beginner-level English, Chinese, Spanish, French and German effectively, achieving superior outcomes, using a blended approach of online and offline games and exercises. Studycat's English-language learning content is aligned with Cambridge Young Learners, a well-recognized academic curriculum and exam system. Built on the premise that young children learn most effectively through play and are motivated to study by having fun, Studycat's apps have been downloaded more than 11 million times worldwide. Connect with Studycat on Twitter @Study_cat, Facebook @ Studycat.net. and LinkedIn or visit studycat.com Press Contact: Mark Pemberton | [email protected] | +886 939626382 Logo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20200203/2709331-1LOGO SOURCE Studycat

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The landmark class action victory for Queensland flood victims will be appealed by the state government's dam operators.

Both Sunwater and Seqwater, which were found partly responsible for water damage to almost 7000 homes, have confirmed they will appeal the NSW Supreme Court finding.

Goodna residents cleaning up after the 2011 floods. Credit:Michelle Smith

The Queensland government decided last year it would not appeal the decision.

Seqwater, the operator of the Wivenhoe and Somerset dams, announced last week it would formally advise the court of its intention to appeal.
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Moscow, Russia  Fri, February 28, 2020 14:30 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20672bd99 2 World #Russia,#Turkey,soldiers,killing,Syria Free

Russia on Friday said it was sending two warships armed with cruise missiles to waters off the Syrian coast and blamed Ankara for the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in Syria's Idlib region the previous day.

The killing of the Turkish soldiers on Thursday and the wounding of 32 others, announced by the governor in Turkey's Hatay province bordering Syria, raised the Turkish military death toll in the region to 54 this month.

Turkey has sent thousands of troops and heavy military hardware into Syria and Erdogan has warned that Turkey will launch a full-scale offensive to repel Syrian forces unless they pull back from Turkish observation posts in the region.

Though trying to coordinate their efforts on Syria, Russia backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey backs rebel forces opposing Assad.

Responding to Thursday's killings, a senior Turkish official said on Friday that Ankara would no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe. Turkey blamed an air strike by Syrian government forces for the deaths.

Russia's Defence Ministry was cited by the RIA news agency on Friday however as saying that the Turkish troops had been hit by artillery fire from Syrian government forces who were trying to repel an offensive by rebel forces.

It was quoted as saying that Ankara had failed to notify Moscow of the presence of Turkish troops in the area hit by shelling despite being in regular communication with the Russian military.

The Turkish troops had been deployed directly alongside anti-government rebels, the ministry was cited as saying. But according to information provided by Turkey there were no Turkish troops in the area and Russia said that Turkish forces "shouldn't have been there."

Russian war planes did not carry out any air strikes in the area at the time of the incident and Moscow did everything it could to help once it learnt of the Turkish troop presence, the ministry was cited as saying.

That included ensuring Syrian forces stopped shelling to allow Turkey to evacuate its dead and wounded.

Separately, and as tensions between Ankara and Damascus rose, Russia's Black Sea Fleet was cited by the Interfax news agency on Friday as saying it was sending two warships equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles to waters off the Syrian coast.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 21:02:32|Editor: huaxia

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Abdul-Rahman al-Asaad (L) walks with his father, Hassan al-Asaad, back home from school in Homs city, central Syria, Feb. 17, 2020. TO GO WITH "Feature: Autistic Syrian boy wows family with amazing visual memory" (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua)

by Hummam Sheikh Ali

HOMS, Syria, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- It only takes Abdul-Rahman al-Asaad a couple of minutes to memorize the shape of a complicated building to put it later on paper in full details.

The 11-year-old has wowed his family and all those who know him by his detailed drawings of buildings and streets at such an early age.

The boy was first discovered to be special at the age of four when his father and siblings watched him writing down the English alphabet and numbers while speaking them loud without any previous knowledge.

The boy's father, Hassan al-Asaad, recounted to Xinhua that one day he was awakened to the calls of his children, urging him to come to see what Abdul-Rahman was doing.

"I was astonished when I saw him in front of a big piece of paper on which he wrote English letters and numbers and he was also reading them out loud," he recalled.

At the time, the family believed the boy must have had exceptional mental abilities that enabled him to do that.

Afterward, the father took him to doctors before he discovered that Abdul-Rahman has Asperger syndrome, a form of Autism that does not cause learning difficulties.

The father spent time on the Internet, reading about his child's condition and how to help him develop his skills.

"I found out that the Asperger type is the type of geniuses and inventors. I started thinking and visualizing that Abdul-Rahman could become like Picasso or Albert Einstein of Syria," he said.

Lacking financial support, the father took his son to experts in Autism, who would help without asking for money.

The boy continued to grow up and started drawing complicated buildings in Homs just by looking at them while he is out with parents.

Though a pen and drawing book are all he can offer his kid, al-Asaad said he is ready to go to the end of the earth to give support and help to his son.

"Abdul-Rahman has more than a talent I hope he will get help here or abroad to develop his skills," the father hoped.

Abdul-Rahman's condition wasn't understood on a larger scale, particularly at schools as several schools refused to enroll him with normal kids.

He spent years before he was accepted recently in a private school for normal kids. He is now 11-year-old but got enrolled in the 2nd grade with kids much younger than him.

But the principal and teachers acknowledged that what Abdul-Rahman has is a special talent, not a disability and he seems to enjoy his school life.

Once home, al-Asaad brings his son the drawing book and asks him to start painting and he does that every day. The father keeps all of the drawing books and shows them to all his guests and those curious about Abdul-Rahman.

The boy's first drawing was for a commercial tower in Homs city. He drew the exact details, including a broken window in one of the offices in that building.

The father took the drawings to the engineering university, where university professors were baffled by the accuracy of Abdul-Rahman drawings.

Reem Bukai, an Autism expert who has been working with Abdul-Rahman for five years, told Xinhua that the boy's condition is close to normal kids and his talent is so promising.

"I have known him for five years and when he showed up at our center, he surprised us with his abilities as he has an amazing visual memory," she said.

The expert stressed that the special talent of Abdul-Rahman needs to be academically studied in order for him to make use of the abilities he possesses.

The boy has no major behavioral or social difficulties, assured the expert, adding that however, the boy's talent could go to waste or remain undeveloped if he wasn't helped academically with people who are specialized in his case.

"If the boy succeeded to enter the engineering faculty, it would be great for him," added the expert.
Thousands of terrorists might have been airlifted out of Kabul: Trump slams Biden

Never in history has withdrawal from war been handled so badly: Trump

Apart from memes, US President Donald Trump's visit to India did no good to anyone

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

New Delhi, Feb 28: US President Donald Trump's visit to India was largely seen hailing and praising between Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, an advantage from the Namaste Trump event was upgrading the Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership between India and the US.

Meanwhile, during Trump's visit, the two top leaders witnessed $3-billion defence deal where India purchased Apache and MH-60R helicopters.

The two top leaders failed to understand that bilateral relationships achieve success only when both sides understand each other's concerns and priorities. India's first major concern was hoping for a trade deal, which can be seen as a win-win situation for both sides.

President Trump returns to US after 'very successful India trip

Also, India the issues concerned about the H1B visa and its agreements. Meanwhile, the US President no longer sees India as a developing country. This means it lets the President remove India from the list of countries benefiting by the "Generalized System of Preferences (GSP)".

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

On the clash between India and Pakistan, after the abrogation of Article 370, Trump expressed his willingness to mediate on Kashmir. But, India, on the other side, urged the President not to interfere as it is their "internal matter".

With all these, taking the nation on a toll, the US President and the Prime Minister of India, were not seen talking on such issues but were equally seen praising each other during "Namaste Trump" event that was held in Gujarat's Ahmedabad.
American intelligence agencies monitoring the global spread of coronavirus and the ability of governments to respond have flagged concerns about Indias ability to cope with a widespread outbreak, a news report said on Friday quoting officials who believe the outbreak could overwhelm the healthcare machinery.

While there are only a few known cases in India, news agency Reuters quoted an American intelligence official as saying, it is Indias available countermeasures and the potential for the virus to spread given in the countrys dense population that is a source of serious concern.

Indian health ministry officials did not offer a comment on the assessment, but some officials, while asking not to be named, said India was prepared to deal with any emergency.

Thermal screening is on at all major international airports, sea ports and at crucial land borders neighbouring countries like Nepal. People with travel history to affected countries are being closely monitored under community surveillance by the state integrated disease surveillance programme units, said a health ministry official, asking not to be named.

The network of labs has tested about 3,000 samples and only three samples have tested positive so far. Dedicated quarantine facilities have been created that are also capable of managing cases. AIIMS Delhi has an isolation facility ready and is also testing samples. Safdarjung also has a 50-bed quarantine facility on stand-by in Delhi, same level of preparation is there in other states under the centres supervision. There is nothing to panic as of now; we are being extremely vigilant, this person added.

Unlike in certain cases outside India where people re-tested positive for Covid-19 after recovering, the three positive people from India are disease-free, and have been discharged from hospital.

Risk conditions are there such as dense population etc but thats true for all infectious cases. Why jump the gun? India is unlikely to have animal-to-human transmission; for India person-to-person transmission is a concern because of travellers but that too can be managed. In the past India has managed to successfully curtail infections and minimize damage, like in case of Nipah, and even swine flu. We are preparing to the best of our resources, and theres nothing to worry as of now, said Dr Chand Wattal, chairman, clinical microbiology and immunology, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

He added that a rise in temperature could lead to drop in cases.

It looks like a temperature sensitive virus that will go away on its own once the temperature hits around 30 degrees, Dr Wattal said.

But, according to news agency Reuters that quoted an unnamed WHO expert, there is no evidence as yet to believe the virus will behave differently in different climate. Coronavirus can transmit the same in China as it transmits in Mexico and we need be ready for that, this person said, according to the agency.

Separately, a senior US health official told lawmakers in US on Friday that the coronavirus is unlikely to disappear till next year and that many more cases should be expected in the United States, according to a source who attended a briefing on Friday.
On Tuesday Alabamians will head to the polls to cast ballots in primary elections ranging from president to county-level offices.

Heres what you need to know to prepare for primary day 2020 in Alabama:

Whos on the ballot?

The most high-profile election taking place Tuesday is the Democratic primary for president. Alabama is among 14 states holding a primary on March 3 -- dubbed Super Tuesday because of the large number of delegates at stake. Nearly 34 percent of all delegates are up for grabs nationwide on March 3, including 52 pledged delegates in Alabama. The Yellowhammer State comprises just 3.8 percent of all pledged delegates to be awarded on Tuesday, which may explain why candidates have not made any recent stops ahead of the primary.

Fourteen Democratic presidential candidates are listed on Alabamas ballot, although nine of them have since dropped out of the race: Colorado Sen. Michael Bennett; former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg; New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker; former Obama Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro; Maryland Rep. John Delaney; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; California billionaire philanthropist and activist Tom Steyer; author Marianne Williamson; and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

Ballots for every Alabama County

The remaining candidates with active campaigns on the ballot are:

Republicans will also be holding a primary, although the incumbent  President Donald Trump  is not facing any serious challenges. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld is Trumps lone opposition.

The most prominent race for Alabama Republicans is Tuesdays U.S. Senate primary. Seven candidates will be on the ballot:

Senate primary rules

A candidate must secure at least 50 percent of the vote plus one vote in order to win the primary. If no candidate wins 50 percent plus one vote, the top two vote getters will face each other in a runoff election scheduled for March 30 if necessary.

U.S. House primary races to watch in Alabama

Typically, congressional races in Alabama are normally uneventful due to the way districts are drawn. But this is not a typical year due to two congressmen vacating their seats: Byrne, to run in the Senate primary; and Rep. Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, who announced her retirement in July.

Five contenders are vying for Byrnes seat, concentrated in southwest Alabama:

Seven contenders are running in the Montgomery area to succeed Roby in the House:

Congressional race rules

A candidate must secure at least 50 percent of the vote plus one vote in order to win the primary. If no candidate wins 50 percent plus one vote, the top two vote getters will face each other in a runoff election scheduled for March 30 if necessary.

Overall primary rules

Since Alabama voters do not register with political parties, voters can choose to cast ballots in either the Republican or Democratic primaries for all races. If a voter decides to participate in the Republican primary, they can only participate in any possible Republican runoff elections. The opposite is true for voters who choose to cast ballots in the Democratic primary.

Polling place hours

Alabama polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m CST. Alabama polling places located in the Eastern Time Zone may be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST.

Sample ballots

Sample ballots for your county can be accessed here.

Wheres my polling place?

Polling place information can be found here. You can search by address or voter information (last name and date of birth.)

Voter ID

Alabama requires one of several accepted forms of identification along with proper registration in order to cast a ballot.

Valid Driver's License (not expired or has been expired less than 60 days)

Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Digital Driver's License

Valid Non-driver ID (not expired or has been expired less than 60 days)

Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Digital Non-driver ID

Valid Alabama Photo Voter ID

Valid State Issued ID (Alabama or any other state)

Valid AL Department of Corrections Release- Temporary ID (Photo Required)

Valid AL Movement/Booking Sheet from Prison/Jail System (Photo Required)

Valid Pistol Permit (Photo Required)

Valid Federal Issued ID

Valid US Passport

Valid Employee ID from Federal Government, State of Alabama, County Government, Municipality, Board, Authority, or other entity of this state

Valid student or employee ID from a college or university in the State of Alabama (including postgraduate technical or professional schools)

Valid Military ID

Valid Tribal ID

Voters without a valid form of acceptable ID can vote using a provisional ballot. Voters will be able to cast a standard ballot if the individual is positively identified by two election officials as a voter on the poll list who is eligible to vote and the election officials sign a sworn affidavit so stating, according to the Alabama secretary of states office.

Alabama 2020 election coverage

For full coverage of the 2020 election, click here.
Texas officials are scrambling to remain prepared for a major outbreak of a pneumonia-like disease whose global spread one expert says is now moving into the next phase.

From the governors office to hospitals to state agencies, Texas officials are intensifying efforts to plan for scenarios that could unfold now that the coronavirus is no longer relatively contained to China and surrounding countries and the number of cases is soaring in countries in Europe and the Middle East.

I think we need to call an audible, said Peter Hotez, an infectious disease specialist at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Childrens Hospital. We need to refresh the algorithms about whos at risk and when we should suspect someone has the virus. Were not calling it an epidemic yet, but we should start operating as if it were.

Hotez said the diseases spread  the number of cases in Italy and Iran, now about 900, more than doubled in two days, for instance  has made basing screening on the individuals travel history less relevant. He also noted some recent cases have been characterized by gastrointestinal symptoms rather than respiratory symptoms.

The virus, which originated in Wuhan, China, in early January but has now spread to 48 countries, has been diagnosed in 82,000 people and caused nearly 3,000 deaths, most involving elderly people or those with underlying serious conditions. Most people experience mild symptoms and make full recoveries.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sought to reassure the public Thursday, noting that state agencies have been working on the matter for a month using historical knowledge gained from responses to other infectious disease emergencies. But he also announced a number of new preparedness steps  such as for the Texas Division of Emergency Management to begin holding biweekly meetings with state agencies starting next week and for the division to convene working groups with experts to inform response plans.

He also said the Texas Department of State Health Services is preparing state laboratories to administer tests for the virus, known as COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which has the only test for the virus, is expected to mail kits soon to local and state health agencies to conduct their own testing, after previous ones it sent out early this month proved faulty.

Abbott added that the health department has made room at the Texas Center for Infectious Disease in San Antonio to reduce pressure on local hospitals. The facility, which features 22 negative pressure rooms sealed off the from the rest of the facility, is being used to care for patients being tested for COVID-19 and those who are positive with mild symptoms or are recovering.

There are 10 patients with the coronavirus in Texas, including six confirmed by the CDC and four who tested positively in Japan but whose results have not yet been confirmed by the U.S. agency. Of the 10, two came from Wuhan on a State Department-chartered flight and eight came from the Diamond Princess cruise.

There are 15 cases in the U.S.  none in Texas  that werent imported.

But CDC officials warned this week that its a matter of when, not if the virus arrives in the U.S. in larger numbers. The officials said people should start preparing for significant disruptions to daily life.

Noting the alarm that caused in some people who rushed out to buy water or face masks, Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of the Harris County Public Health Authority, said the remarks glossed over the timeline at which the U.S. cases are likely to significantly ramp up. He said that likely wont be soon.

The containment strategy in China was effective for giving everyone more time to prepare for the virus, said Shah, noting the realistic hope was always to delay the virus spread, not stop it. Governments were able to get information out and alert people to be on guard, just as they should be for the everyday flu.

Shah said all Texas hospitals seem well prepared for the immediate stage, during which suspected COVID-19 cases are sporadic and staff are instructed to isolate patients whose travel history and symptoms suggest they may have contracted the virus. But he said not all Harris County and Texas hospitals are as well prepared for longer-term preparedness, when cases may be plentiful.

Were asking hospitals to really lean forward in surge planning, said Shah. This is the time for hospitals to really start planning what to do if they get an influx of coronavirus patients. The reality might be sooner rather than later.

Carrie Williams, spokesperson for the Texas Hospital Association, said Thursday that hospitals are well aware they are on the front lines and need to be ready for a possible COVID-19 patient to walk through the door at any moment. She said the THA Wednesday convened Texas hospitals around the state on a call with the health department about the state of the disease, infection control protocols, preparedness measures, personal protective equipment and other issues.

Its not just health care settings that are responding to the threat. Officials at six of Houstons more populous school districts  Houston, Alief, Aldine, Katy, Cypress-Fairbanks and Klein  said this week they are monitoring updates on the spread of the coronavirus and following CDC protocols.

Were telling everybody to keep doing the same thing theyve been doing to protect themselves from the flu, but I know in our district, were going to have a back up plan, said Sheleah Reed, a spokeswoman for Aldine ISD in north Houston. Well hammer out a plan just like we do with any other emergency or weather issue we meet about.

Reed said hundreds of school district communications officials at an annual public relations meeting in Austin this week ended the day brainstorming about how to track and prepare for the potential of confirmed cases in their areas.

At Houston ISD, interim Superintendent Grentia Lathan wrote a letter to parents, detailing the districts plans, which include training staff to regularly monitor educators and students who show symptoms, such as fevers, coughing, shortness of breath. Those who report feeling ill will go through assessment and monitoring, she wrote.

Texas universities previously clamped down on student and faculty travel to China, but a number of them  Texas A&M, the University of Texas-Austin, Baylor College of Medicine and Baylor University  this week extended their restrictions on college-funded travel to include South Korea. The country reported more than 250 cases last Friday, bringing its total to 2,022, the largest outbreak outside of China.

Shelby Webb and Brittany Britto contributed to this report.

todd.ackerman@chron.com

taylor.goldenstein@chron.com
Ms. Hamilton was previously acting CFO



Boston, MA, Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- Zoom Telephonics, Inc. (Zoom or the Company) (OTCQB: ZMTP), a leading producer of cable modems and other communication products, today announced that Zooms Board of Directors has appointed Jacquelyn Barry Hamilton full-time CFO following her initial role with the Company as acting CFO.

Ms. Hamilton joined the Company in January 2020 as a consultant. Prior to joining the Company, she served as Chief Financial Officer of Modo Labs, a mobile application development company, and Chief Financial Officer of Netcracker Technology, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation that delivers a software platform together with integration and managed services to telecommunications and cable companies globally. Ms. Hamilton also served as Chief Financial Officer of Intronis, a company that provides cloud-based data protection and recovery, and Chief Financial Officer, Technology Division of Monster Worldwide, a global public company providing a SaaS platform to match jobseekers with employers. Ms. Hamilton earned a BA in Finance from Simmons College and an MS in Finance from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College.

Ms. Hamilton commented: I am thrilled to be a part of a great team here at Zoom. We have a bright future ahead of us and I intend to work closely with everyone as we continue to grow our business.

Joe Wytanis, Zooms President & CEO, said, Jackie has been a pleasure to work with since joining Zoom as acting CFO. Her extensive skills and experience as a technology industry CFO have been evident from day one and Im excited to now have her as our full-time CFO.

About Zoom Telephonics

Zoom Telephonics, Inc. designs, produces, markets, and supports cable modems and other communication products. The Companys worldwide Motorola license agreement includes cable modems and gateways, local area network products including routers and MoCA Adapters, DSL modems and gateways, cellular modems and routers and sensors, and other Internet and network products. For more information about Zoom and its products, please visit www.zoom.net and www.motorolanetwork.com .

MOTOROLA and the Stylized M Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC and are used under license.

Investor Relations Contact:

Jeremy Hellman, Vice-President

The Equity Group Inc.

Phone: 212-836-9626Email: jhellman@equityny.com
Enhancing Indian Coast Guard's rescue and surveillance capabilities, its latest multi-mission offshore patrol vessel 'Varad', equipped with state-of-the-art navigation and communication equipment, was commissioned by Union Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya here on Friday.

The 98-metre long craft, that can travel upto 10,000 kms non-stop, is the fifth in the series of seven indigenously designed patrol vessels being built by the Larsen and Toubro Shipyard as part of the Centre's Make in India programme.

The vessel, which can carry two engine light helicopters with night flying capabilities, also has four high-speed boats including two rigid hull inflatable boats for swift boarding operations, search and rescue, law enforcement and patrol, the Coast Guard said.

It was commissioned by Mandaviya in the presence of Coast Guard Director General K Natarajan, Chennai Port Trust Chairman P Raveendran and senior government officials at the Chennai Port.

The Minister unveiled a plaque marking the commissioning of the ship, which underwent extensive trials since August last year when it was launched.

Speaking on the occasion, he said Coast Guard effectively establishes its presence for country's safety and that of the fishermen if there was any disaster in the sea like oil spill.

"Every year one lakh vessels pass through Indian seas. East or West on the shipping route, Coast Guard's role is to guide vessels, assist (them) during disaster," he said.

The commissioning of 'Varad' would enhance the Coast Guard's capability besides strengthening the country's security, he said.

The Minister later shared some images of him taking part in the commissioning ceremony on his official twitter page.

"Attended the commissioning ceremony of OPV-5 Varad at Chennai Port Trust. An exponential growth of shipbuilding industry is perceived, contributing immensely towards the vision of #MakeinIndia. A momentous occasion for both Coast Guard and L&T Shipyard," he tweeted.

Earlier, the Minister, on a two-day visit to Chennai and Puducherry, was accorded a warm welcome by Coast Guard personnel on his arrival at the Chennai Port.

Coast Guard Director General Natarajan, in his address, said the vessel succeeds the previous generation of ICGS 'Varad' which was in service for 28 years.

He said 90 per cent of the funding allotted to Coast Guard had been spent on indigenisation of vessels.

Later talking to reporters, he said the vessel can travel up to 10,000 kms non-stop and has many multi-mission capabilities.

"On March 15, the first twin engine helicopter is going to be handed over (to Coast Guard by HAL). Even that can land on this ship. That is the kind of power," the Coast Guard official said.

He said there were 61 Coast Guard ships under various levels of construction at public and private shipyards.

"Our target is to have 200 ships for 2025 and we are moving towards that goal. We are also moving towards 100 aircraft. We have 65 (aircraft) right now," he said.

"The stronger the Coast Guard, the borders are protected and economy of the country will develop significantly," he said.

L&T Shipbuilding Ltd Chairman S Kannan said the ship underwent extensive trials ahead of its commissioning.

The company had bagged a Rs 1,432 crore contract in 2015 from the Defence Ministry for building the seven patrol vessels at its yard in Kattupalli near here.

According to Coast Guard, 'Varad' is a projection of the maritime security agency's will and commitment which is 'to serve and protect' the maritime interests of the country.

The vessel is equipped with 30-mm and 12.7 mm guns.

Some of the special features include Integrated Bridge System, Automated Power Management System and high power external firefighting system among others.

The ship propelled by twin engines is capable of achieving maximum speed of 26 knots and endurance of 5,000 nautical miles.

The vessel, led by Commandant Pintu Bag and manned by 11 officers and 91 men, is currently based at Paradip in Odisha under the Commander Coast Guard Region (North East).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Is Bernie Sanders electable? Its a question thats been troubling many Democrats, who fear that despite his strong showings in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, the self-described democratic socialist from Vermont would lose to President Trump in November.

A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll suggests that Sanders could be a riskier nominee than his supporters are willing to admit. In a national trial heat with Trump, Sanders led 48 percent to 42 percent among registered voters. Yet when the playing field was narrowed to the 10 states that were closest in the 2016 presidential election and that will likely decide 2020  Michigan, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, Minnesota, Nevada, Maine, North Carolina and Arizona  Sanderss lead over Trump was slashed in half (48 percent to 45 percent). That 3-point gap was within the margin of error.

In contrast, former Vice President Joe Biden led Trump by 9 points nationally (50 percent to 41 percent) and by 7 points (50 percent to 43 percent) in the battleground states.

Both Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (47 percent to 45 percent) and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (46 percent to 44 percent) performed about as well as Sanders in the battleground states. The weakest performer was former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (43 percent to 43 percent).

Likewise, Sanders ran far behind Biden among swing voters, defined here as voters who switched to Democratic House or Senate candidates in the 2018 midterms after casting their ballots for Trump in 2016. Biden beat Trump by 12 points (51 percent to 39 percent) among these voters, who helped Democrats flip 41 seats and regain control of the House in 2018. Sanders beat Trump by 4 points (48 percent to 44 percent).

Sanders is still running strong among Democratic primary voters, with a 78 percent favorable rating, the same as Warren and Biden. The poll found that 27 percent of Democrats say he is their first choice for the nomination, followed by Biden at 21 percent, Warren at 18 percent, Bloomberg at 14 percent, Buttigieg at 10 percent, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar at 4 percent, California businessman Tom Steyer at 2 percent and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard at 1 percent. Within the Democratic primary electorate, Sanders led among 18-to-29-year-olds (by 22 points), 30-to-44-year-olds (by 23 points) and Latinos (by 7 points)  groups that have helped him win more votes than his rivals in the early nominating contests. Sanders also ran even with Biden among black likely primary voters (31 percent to 30 percent), suggesting that he is chipping away at one of the former vice presidents core constituencies.

Story continues

But in a year in which Democrats overwhelmingly say they want a nominee who can win in November, the poll suggests that Sanderss views might be a unique liability. At this point, 93 percent of registered voters say they are either very familiar or somewhat familiar with the Vermont senator. (These numbers are about the same as Biden and much higher than the other candidates.) Voters are also familiar with Sanderss agenda: 84 percent know he supports Medicare for All; 80 percent think he supports free public-college tuition; 73 percent think he supports much higher taxes on the top 0.1 percent; 61 percent think he supports a ban on fracking; and 57 percent think he supports decriminalizing illegal border crossings, all essentially true. And 74 percent of registered voters think Sanders is very liberal, compared to 57 percent for Warren, 31 percent for Buttigieg, 26 percent for Biden and 23 percent for Bloomberg.

Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: AP (2), Getty Images.

The poll suggests that Sanderss liberalism could hinder him in the states that will matter most in November. For instance, self-identified Democrats favor Medicare for All, 53 percent to 23 percent  but voters in battleground states oppose the policy, 31 percent to 53 percent. Similarly, battleground-state voters oppose free public-college tuition (37 percent to 50 percent) and decriminalizing illegal border crossings (28 percent to 57 percent). These are all policies that Sanders favors and Biden opposes.

Sanders supporters argue that he would win in November by turning out historic numbers of young voters, new voters and voters of color. But as a New York Times analysis recently noted, Sanders has prevailed so far in the Democratic primary by expanding his appeal among traditional Democratic voters, not by driving record turnout. Meanwhile, a new study by political scientists from Yale and the University of California, Berkeley, showed that nominating Sanders would drive many Americans who would otherwise vote for a moderate Democrat to vote for Trump  losses that Sanders could only offset by inspiring an unprecedented 11-percentage-point turnout boost among young left-leaning voters, who havent showed up at anything approaching that level this year.

None of which is to say that Sanders cant beat Trump. But at this point, data suggests he might not be the Democrats safest bet.

Read more from Yahoo News:
28.02.2020 LISTEN

The maiden edition of what will be an annual Hi-Life Music Festival will be staged on Ghana's Independence Day 6th March to create a tourist season while celebrating authentic Ghanaian music.

The concert, which is the first of its kind Dubbed, Gh Agoogo, will be staged in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashantis by Agoogo Production in collaboration with the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA).

In addition to the partnership with GTA, the organisers have secured endorsement from the government. The festival has been branded as a tourism project with the university students, youth, and the Diaspora community as the main target market.

Though the emphasis of the festival is to promote Ghanaian hi-life music and culture, organizers also intend to put on one big stage for the festival, great and legendary Ghanaian hi-life musician who will significantly contribute to opening the floodgates to tourism arts, and culture, because of the diverse, non-traditional, and international audience that they attract.

"As part of the bigger plan, which is to promote Ghanaian hi-life music and culture, we intend to put on one big stage for the festival, great and legendary Ghanaian hi-life musician who will significantly contribute to opening the floodgates to tourism arts, and culture, because of the diverse, non-traditional, and international audience that they attract," the organisers stated.

According to Gh Agoogo Production, the objectives of the festival is to rekindle the love for Ghanaian Hi-Life Music, establish an Awards Scheme for Hi-Life Music in Ghana, and also improve tourism through Music.

The music festival that will be staged on Independence day will serve as its official launch before subsequent shows will be held in other regions throughout the year. Later July 1, a big concert will be held in the United Kingdom (UK) for those living in the diaspora.

Agoogo Production has confirmed that the first show will be free to build great patronage and establish the course of the music festival.

The organizers, however, hope that with the nature of programs lined up and the improvement envisaged for subsequent years, they will leverage on massive sponsorship from corporate Ghana and well-wishers of the course to pull off such a great event.

More About HiLife Music Festival

The organisers stressed that veteran Hi-life musicians such as Nana Ampadu, Amakye Dede, Pat Thomas, Dady Lumber, Adene Best, Kaakyire Appiah, Akosua Agyapong, Dada KD, Paa Solo, Lucky Mensah, Nana Acheampong, Oheneba Kissi, Alibaba Forster, Ofori Amponsah, Rex Omar, Kwabena KWABENA, J A Adofo, Akwaboah Jnr, Besa Sermons and George Darko will be scheduled to perform at the festival.

"It will be the first time that Ghanaian Hi-Life music festival, as well as travel and tourism will be uniquely packaged and marketed locally and internationally to be such a huge success on such a platform that it will set the standard and the model for even more annual music festivals worldwide to generate billions of dollars in foreign exchange through tourism for the country.

"This maiden edition of the festival will be used to launch the first ever Gh Hi-Life Music Awards  an experience that seeks to honour our very own without any adulteration to the craft and strictly designed to push and promote Hi-Life Music in Ghana," the organisers stated.

According to the organisers, GH Agoogo will showcase a wide variety of food from many Ghanaian restaurants. Other Gh Agoogo attractions include shopping vendors, fireworks (including "The Big Bang" on opening night), family activities, live band music, Poetry and comedy, launch of the GH Hi-Life Music Awareds, and many more to come.
Twenty-two Turkish soldiers have been killed in an air strike blamed on Damascus in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, a Turkish official said early Friday.

"What a shame I have to say that the death toll has risen to 22," Rahmi Dogan, the governor of Hatay in Turkey which sits on the border with Syria, said in televised remarks. He earlier said nine soldiers were killed in the air strike.

The governor said that soldiers injured in the air strike had been brought back to Turkey for treatment but did not give a figure.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held an extraordinary meeting on the situation in Idlib after the attack, at his presidential complex in Ankara.

The security summit was attended by Defence Minister Hulusi Akar, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Chief of Staff General Yasar Guler and spy chief Hakan Fidan, NTV broadcaster said.

The Turkish presidency confirmed the meeting lasted two hours but did not say what the outcome of the talks were.

When there were unconfirmed reports of heavy casualties earlier, Anadolu and other media reported that the Turkish military had "neutralised" 1,709 regime elements.

The media also listed dozens of tanks, helicopters and armoured vehicles belonging to regime elements which were destroyed by Turkish forces, quoting anonymous Turkish security sources.

Turkey has 12 observation posts in Idlib, the last rebel-held bastion, under a 2018 deal with Russia.

But President Bashar al-Assad's regime has pressed an offensive backed by Moscow air strikes, killing hundreds and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.

Erdogan has repeatedly warned the regime to withdraw from Turkish posts before the end of February, threatening an "imminent" operation if Damascus did not heed the warning.

Cavusoglu spoke to NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on the phone, a Turkish diplomatic source said early Friday without giving further details.

The number of Turkish security personnel killed in Idlib this month is now 42.

There has been an escalation in tensions after Ankara threatened to attack Damascus, with multiple rounds of talks between Turkish and Russian officials to find a way forward. The latest negotiations were on Thursday.

Jihadists and Turkish-backed rebels re-entered Saraqeb earlier on Thursday, a key crossroads town in Idlib that they had lost earlier this month.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The driver of a train that derailed, leading to his death and that of the trains pilot, had pages of written instructions in his cab about a track diversion at what would be the scene of the crash, sources close to the investigation have confirmed.

The documents stated the XPT Sydney-Melbourne train would be diverted via a passing loop at Wallan and advised the driver to lower his speed to 15km/h.

However, train driver John Kennedy was travelling at more than 100km/h when he approached the loop where the train derailed. The accident also left 11 people injured.

It is unclear whether he or the train's pilot, Sam Meintanis, were aware of the contents of the two documents.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 15:50:45|Editor: huaxia

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TAIYUAN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A total of 17 new counties in northern China's Shanxi Province have been removed from China's list of impoverished counties, marking all of its 58 impoverished counties get rid of poverty, local authorities said Friday.

In 2019, 239,000 people were lifted out of poverty in Shanxi, according to the provincial poverty alleviation and development office.

In central China's Henan Province, another 14 counties have been removed from the list, the provincial government told a press conference Friday.

This means all 53 impoverished counties in the province have shaken off poverty, it said.

So far, more than 6.5 million rural people and 9,484 villages have bid farewell to poverty in Henan, with the poverty headcount ratio dropping to 0.41 percent in 2019 from 8.79 percent in 2013.
Kristina: How is RCS messaging different from other messaging formats?

Matt Ramerman, Sinch Engage: RCS is proving to be a significant paradigm shift for how marketers interact with their customers on a direct-to-consumer basis  not only will RCS deliver app like features and experiences for customers, it will usher in a new era of two-way or conversational commerce. This dramatic change will force direct marketers to evolve from a strategy of simply pushing content to a target audience and measuring an outcome  to delivering experiences that create a multi-dimensional dialogue with the customer, inviting them to go deeper through two-way communication to explore the offer, if they so desire. In other words, RCS will provide an open channel for consumers to directly engage with brands proactively.

We like to describe RCS as next-generation data carrier messaging. RCS brings to life the most popular communications channel in the world, SMS, turning every message into an enriching conversation.

Kristina: What are the benefits to this type of messaging?

Matt: RCS messaging benefits all parties involved. For starters, RCS will be transformative for businesses, redefining how marketers engage with their transcribers and enabling deeper interactions with customers. The universal challenge today is how to connect with customers. RCS provides brands with a much more powerful way to connect, making engagement effortless by facilitating two-way communication and the delivery of rich and interactive messaging.

RCS offers an app-like functionality thats customizable, eliminating the need to develop a costly and ineffective branded app.

Additionally, RCS enables a technical infrastructure where the enterprise can easily plug in other applications  such as an AI chatbot or connect the customer to a call center to speak with a live person. Due to the ubiquity and high engagement rates of SMS, brands that employ RCS in order to deliver personalized and relevant content to their audiences can expect a high ROI.

RCS also benefits consumers. Ushering in a new era of two-way, conversational commerce, RCS provides customers the convenience of reaching brands in the same place where they reach their friends and family  in their SMS inbox. Through deeper interaction via RCS, customers can gain trust in brands and strengthen loyalty.

Kristina: How can brands ensure theyre building a strong RCS strategy while also staying on top of more traditional ad options?

Matt: While RCS will be transformative for businesses, marketers still want to be omnichannel and omnipresent, communicating to customers across all channels. Consumers value a wide array of message types from brands, including formats they have never experienced before  and a strong marketing strategy takes into account and addresses customers unmet needs. With omnichannel messaging, it is possible to fill voids in the customer experience.

The key for implementing an ad strategy that spans RCS messaging as well as more traditional ad options is data-driven personalization. A PWC consumer intelligence report found that 65% of consumers say a positive brand experience is more influential than great advertising. To achieve this, brands must use consumer preferences and data to communicate personalized information with customers at key points in time.
One source said country's available countermeasures and potential for virus to spread given India's dense population was focus of serious concern

Washington: US intelligence agencies are monitoring the global spread of coronavirus and the ability of governments to respond, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday, warning that there were concerns about how India would cope with a widespread outbreak.

While there are only a few known cases in India, one source said the countrys available countermeasures and the potential for the virus to spread given Indias dense population was a focus of serious concern.

US intelligence agencies are also focusing on Iran, where the countrys deputy health minister has fallen ill during a worsening outbreak. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday the United States was deeply concerned Tehran may have covered up details about the spread of coronavirus.

A US government source said Irans response was considered ineffective because the government only has minimal capabilities to respond to the outbreak.

Another source said US agencies were also concerned about the weak ability of governments in some developing countries to respond to an outbreak. The US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has received a briefing on the virus from the spy agencies.

The Committee has received a briefing from the IC (intelligence community) on coronavirus, and continues to receive updates on the outbreak on a daily basis, an official of the House Intelligence Committee told Reuters.

Addressing the threat has both national security and economic dimensions, requiring a concerted government-wide effort and the IC is playing an important role in monitoring the spread of the outbreak, and the worldwide response, the official added.

A source familiar with the activities of the Senate Intelligence Committee, led by Republican Senator Richard Burr and Democratic Senator Mark Warner, said the panel was receiving daily updates.

The role of US intelligence agencies in responding to the coronavirus epidemic at this point principally involves monitoring the spread of the illness around the world and assessing the responses of governments.

They are working closely with health agencies, such as the US Center for Disease Control, in sharing information they collect and targeting further intelligence gathering.

One source said US agencies would use a wide range of intelligence tools, ranging from undercover informants to electronic eavesdropping tools, to track the virus impact.
Struggling to clear adjusted gross revenue dues of Rs 53,000 crore to comply with a Supreme Court order, the loss-making telco has sought 18 years time to clear the dues, including a three-year moratorium on payment of interest and penalty, according to official sources.

New Delhi: Vodafone Idea has sought fixing minimum tariffs for mobile data at Rs 35 per GB, which is about 7 time the current rate, and for calls at 6 paise per minute along with monthly charges from April 1, to help it pay statutory dues.

In a letter to the Department of Telecommunications, the company said it wants minimum price of data should be fixed at Rs 35 per gigabyte and minimum monthly connection charge at Rs 50 from April 1, 2020. Current mobile internet prices are in the range of Rs 4-5 per GB.

According to the source, Vodafone Idea wants minimum price of outgoing calls should be fixed at 6 paise per minute.

The demand to raise call and internet rates from Vodafone Idea comes within three months of the company raising rates by up to 50 per cent.
A half-alligator, half-fish creature which can grow up to ten feet in length has left people stunned after it washed up on a British footpath.

Caroline Brown, 51, was walking her dog along the canal in Risca, south Wales, when she spotted the carcass which had a long snout and dozens of razor-sharp teeth.

The bizarre finding is thought to be an alligator gar - an aquatic animal usually found 4,800 miles away in America - although it is not yet known how it ended up on the bank.

Caroline Brown, 51, was walking her dog along the canal in Risca, south Wales, when she spotted the carcass which had a long snout and dozens of razor-sharp teeth

The bizarre finding is thought to be an alligator gar - an aquatic animal usually found 4,800 miles away in America - although it is not yet known how it ended up on the bank

What is an alligator gar? Alligator gars can grow up to ten feet in length and up to 350 pounds in weight. They are thought to be the largest fish species in North America that spends almost all its time in freshwater. The species pose no direct threat to humans but their eggs can prove poisonous to humans if ingested due to their toxicity levels which serve as a defense mechanism against predators such as crustaceans. Gars have few natural predators and primarily eat fish, blue crabs, small turtles, waterfowl and small mammals. They are registered as 'least concern' on the endangered species list but it is illegal to keep them as pets in the UK. Advertisement

Gars can grow up to six feet in length and are often referred to as 'living fossils'.

Speaking about her discovery, Ms Brown said: 'It was a really strange looking thing and it scared me at first as I didn't know if it was alive.

'I've never seen anything like it before and even my dog Molly didn't want to approach it.

'As I got closer I realised there was a smell coming from it and I knew it was definitely dead.

'I've got no idea how anything like that would turn up in these parts.'

Dozens of other residents have also since spotted the creature with many posting pictures of it on social media.

One of those to make the discovery was a teenage boy on his way to school who immediately video-called his mother to show her the bizarre finding.

A spokesman for the RSPCA said: 'These are very concerning images.

'RSPCA Cymru would welcome any information as to the validity of these photographs which appear to show an alligator gar fish dumped on the side of the road.

Gars can grow up to six feet in length and are often referred to as 'living fossils'. They are registered as 'least concern' on the endangered species list but it is illegal to keep them as pets in the UK

'This is likely to have been a very distressing discovery for a member of the public to make and we'd urge anyone with detail which may explain the circumstances behind this animal being dumped to contact us.

'There have been restrictions on the keeping of alligator gar fish in Wales for a number of years and these would be very difficult animals to keep successfully as they can grow to be very large and their needs are the same as they would be in the wild.

'Sadly, we all too often see exotic pets abandoned when it hasn't been possible to meet their welfare needs.'
In todaysI review the off-Broadway premieres of new stage versions ofand. Heres an excerpt.

* * *

Ever since Hollywood put Bram Stokers Dracula and Mary Shelleys Frankenstein in front of the cameras in 1931, the two great novelistic monsters of the 19th century have been yoked in the public mind. Now Classic Stage Company is producing newly written adaptations of both novels that have little in common save for their modest scale but nonetheless make for a natural, nicely contrasted pairing.

Kate Hamills Dracula, like her widely performed versions of Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Vanity Fair, takes a beloved 19th-century novel and turns it into a crisply wrought play with a good-sized cast (nine actors) and a feminist slant (the title page describes it as a bit of a feminist revenge fantasy, really). Conversely, Tristan Bernays Frankenstein is a miniaturization of the 1818 novel in which the parts are divided up between two actors, Stephanie Berry and Rob Morrison.

Here as in her previous plays, Ms. Hamills explicitly feminist perspective helps to put a fresh, theatrically potent spin on the novel. Among other things, she herself plays Renfield, Draculas creepy, blood-lusty acolyte, with Jessica Francis Dukes cast as Van Helsing, the take-no-guff-from-men vampire slayer (You were expecting a withered old Dutch man?) who spends the evening hunting down the title character (Matthew Amendt). This Dracula is pointedly described in the script as a toxic predator, a timely piece of characterization and one that Mr. Amendt brings to lifeso to speakwith lip-smacking relish. (He reminded me at times of George Hamiltons wonderfully funny Dracula in the 1979 film Love at First Bite.) While the shows dead-serious premise is that all men are capable under the right circumstances of succumbing to the ever-present temptation to mistreat women, Ms. Hamill has plenty of fun proving her point

Mr. Bernays Frankenstein is a tidy piece of storytelling, very well staged by Mr. Douglas, that does a surprisingly good job in its 80-minute span of suggesting the old-fashioned essence of Ms. Shelleys novel. (I especially like the way in which both novel and play present Frankensteins monster as a genteel fellow whose glum utterances are sprinkled with such quaint usages as withal.) Would that the acting were more in keeping with the tone of the script, but Ms. Berry and Mr. Douglas both give naturalistic, unmistakably American performances, whereas Mr. Bernays approach to Frankenstein cries out for something larger than life.

* * *

Read the whole thing

A video featurette about Dracula:
Refuting reports that the



BJP government in Gujarat splurged Rs 100 crore on US President Donald Trump's visit, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Friday said a total of Rs 12.5 crore had been earmarked for the occasion.

The state government had sanctioned Rs 8 crore for the preparation for the visit while the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had allocated Rs 4.5 crore, he told the Assembly.

Opposition Congress had claimed in the House on Thursday that the government spent Rs 100 crore. Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia also tweeted on Friday that the government spent "Rs 100 Crore for US President's 3 hour visit" to Ahmedabad on February 24.

Rupani denied it. "I do not understand from where people got this figure of Rs 100 crore. I want to clarify that my government had sanctioned only Rs 8 crore. And AMC allotted Rs 4.5 crore," he said while replying to debate on the motion to thank Governor Acharya Devvrat for his address to the Assembly.

"Roads which were built near the Motera stadium were already sanctioned by the AMC. These roads are for people, because Trump has left.

"I firmly believe that visit by Trump made everyone proud, especially Gujarati diaspora in the United States," the chief minister added.

On February 24, Trump, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, took part in a 22 km-long roadshow in Ahmedabad and addressed over 1.10 lakh people at the Motera stadium.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the service branches have committed to implement 15 new rights for military families living in on-base housing, which will go into effect by May 1.

These include the right to report poor housing to the chain of command without facing retaliation; to expect working fixtures, appliances and utilities; and access to military legal assistance.

Pentagon officials signed the Military Housing Privatization Initiative Tenant Bill of Rights following a year of news highlighting dismal conditions -- including mold, pest infestation and lead contamination -- that many military families experienced in base housing managed by private companies.

"The Department of Defense, through each of its Military Departments, will work diligently and expeditiously to develop the processes and procedures needed to implement these rights and make Tenants aware of them," the Tenant Bill of Rights states. "However, many of the rights set forth by Congress pertain to legal matters that do not lend themselves to unilateral action by the Department."

DoD officials specifically pointed out three rights -- access to maintenance history, a process for dispute resolution and the ability to withhold rent until disputes are resolved -- that were not included in this list, saying they would work with the private housing companies and, as necessary, Congress to make these benefits available.

Related: Army Finalizes Incentive Plan for Companies to Fix Base Housing Problems

As previously promised, the Tenant Bill of Rights requires several different, "convenient" ways for military families to contact their landlord and maintenance staff directly, in addition to access to an electronic work order system through which they can request maintenance or repairs and track its progress.

Landlords have been accused of falsifying their records to show work was completed sooner than they were. In one case, a leak was fixed in 20 minutes, but residents said it wasnt repaired until more than a week later, a Reuters report found.

Military families should expect "prompt and professional maintenance and repair," the document states. After receiving a request, the landlord or staff will give a time frame for the maintenance or repair completion; if it's an issue that affects the housing's habitability, the landlord will pay for "prompt" relocation to other housing until the changes are completed.

Meanwhile, the Tenant Bill of Rights will provide protection from reprisal or retaliation for military families to report "inadequate housing standards" or issues with habitability to their chain of command, housing management office and landlord.

It specifically states that no tenant will be subjected to career interference, increased rent, decreased services, harassment or eviction.

Military families will get access through the service's housing management office to a military tenant advocate or a military legal assistance attorney. These experts would advise families on dispute methods, like mediation, arbitration and filing claims with the private housing management company or property manager.

Basically, tenants can get help to request to initiate a dispute, but do not have a guaranteed right to a resolution.

Other rights it lays out include:

Tenants will get the same documents, forms and processes for housing at all military installations, to the extent allowed by local and federal laws;

Tenants will receive advance notice of the landlord, installation housing staff or chain of command entering the house, except for an emergency or abandonment;

There will be no non-refundable fees or rent credits held "arbitrarily."

Until officials fully implement the Tenant Bill of Rights by May 1, they ask military families to "leverage the support available from their respective Military Departments to address and resolve relevant housing issues."

"Tenants seeking assistance should continue to engage their housing office, installation leadership, or chain of command," the document states.

-- Dorothy Mills-Gregg can be reached at dorothy.mills-gregg@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @DMillsGregg.

Read More: Top Marine Orders Confederate Paraphernalia to Be Removed from All Bases
3INA flies its cosmetics offer to the United States. The Spanish cosmetics brand is finalizing details of its arrival in the North American country, owing to an alliance with the department store giant Macys. 3INA plans to open ninety corner stores in the country by April of this year.

The Spanish company was already present in the United States through Macys online platform. However, this year the company will wager its expansion via brick & mortar.

The locations that are included in 3INAs expansion plan are countries such as Australia, Cyprus, the Philippines, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan, through the multi-brand channel.

In addition, 3INA also adopted the practice of travel retail, with a point of sale within the Paris Orly Airport, which opened in 2019. In Europe, the company has its own online sales platform, which represents 15% of total sales of the company. Spanich cosmetics company also intends to stretch its expansion in department stores in location such as Mexico and Chile.

3INA has a point of sale within the Paris Orly Airport

The company currently offers around 700 references in the categories of cosmetics, skin care, makeup accessories, and nail cosmetics, which has led it to quickly position itself in a market where its direct competitors do not exceed 300 references.

3INA, founded by Mark Eve and Pablo Rivera in 2016, is characterized by not testing its products on animals and using packaging only made with recyclable cartons and plastics. The companys production is centered in Europe and ist international operations are managed from its main offices in Madrid.
An airstrike in northwestern Syria late Thursday inflicted significant casualties on Turkish forces stationed there, killing at least 36 and raising fears of direct conflict between NATO-allied Turkey and Moscow. Turkish officials, however, were quick to emphasize that the bombing in Idlib province was carried out by Syrian government forces, as both sides attempted to tamp down tensions. Russian forces, however, have been providing extensive support for the Syrian military offensive to retake the region from opposition rebels, and the Washington Post reports, Russian jets have been largely carrying out most of the recent airstrikes themselves.

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The Syrian governments military push in Idlib has intensified over the past several months, sparking a massive influx of refugees on the Turkish border. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with backing from Russia and Iran, is attempting to retake what is the final outpost of rebel forces in the country.* Turkey, which has backed the rebels against the Assad regime throughout the nine-year conflict, has thousands of forces on the ground to try to halt the offensive.

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The Russian bombing campaign has displaced hundreds of thousands as it targeted hospitals, schools, and apartment buildings. Turkeys support of the rebels, meanwhile, has been hindered by a lack of air support. Turkey has asked the United States for Patriot missiles to help defend its troops, and called for NATO to enforce a no-fly zone to protect the nearly three million civilians in Idlib Province, the New York Times reports. But Washington and NATO members have so far refused to engage militarily in northwest Syria out of reluctance to confront Russia, Western officials said. The United States is withholding Patriot missiles until Turkey agrees to render its Russian S400 missile system inoperable.

In response to NATO reluctance, Turkey is threatening to open its borders to another wave of Syrian refugees en route to Europe, saying it is no longer able to hold refugees. Camera crews in Turkey have captured refugees very publicly piling in buses and ferries and heading for the EU border with Greece and Bulgaria. It appears to be an orchestrated campaign to bolster Turkeys threat.
EUGENE, Ore. (AP)  Oregon wasnt about to go down twice in one month against Oregon State.

Especially not with an opportunity to regain a share of first place in the Pac-12.

So with Payton Pritchard and Will Richardson providing the scoring, and an infusion of size for Oregon in this rematch, the 14th-ranked Ducks took over in the second half Thursday night on the way to a 69-54 win over the Beavers.

The victory moved Oregon (22-7) into a tie with UCLA for the conference lead at 11-5.

There is a lot of ball to be played, coach Dana Altman said. We dont have anything easy in front of us.

Oregon finishes the regular season next week with home games against California and Stanford.

Pritchard scored 15 of his 23 points in the second half and Richardson added 13 of his 15 points after halftime to spur the Ducks, who had only a four-point lead at the break but started the second half with a 22-4 run to send the Beavers (15-13, 5-11) to their fourth consecutive defeat.

They got a lot of momentum at the end of the (first) half, Oregon State coach Wayne Tinkle said. We came out in the second half and again some of our guys didnt have that urgency that we needed to have.

Tinkle lamented that his Beavers werent physical enough to match the Ducks, and certainly this was a different Oregon team inside from the previous meeting. The Ducks welcomed back 6-foot-11 Nfaly Dante after he missed the previous nine games with knee tendinitis, and also available for this game was 6-9 Francis Okoro, who didnt play at OSU while attending his fathers funeral in Nigeria. Okoro had a team-high six rebounds while Dante added two in five minutes, and his height seemed to impact OSUs inside shooting.

Coach was all about me coming in to try and play more physical, Okoro said.

Richardson and Pritchard combined for 28 of Oregons 40 points after the break. Anthony Mathis finished with 13. Those three Ducks were a combined 11 of 21 on 3-pointers.

Story continues

They hit some backbreaker 3s, give them credit for that, Tinkle said

Ethan Thompson led Oregon State with 15 points and Tres Tinkle had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Zach Reichle scored 11 and Kylor Kelly added 10.

Thompson had only two points in the second half as Oregon concentrated its defense on him.

Ethan put it on us in the first half and we made the call to start doubling him on ball screens and that helped us out in the second half, Altman said. We got the ball out of his hands a bit.

Oregon led 29-25 at halftime after both teams struggled shooting. The Ducks shot 36% in the first half despite making five of 11 3-pointers, while the Beavers were at 38%.

Mathis led the Ducks with 11 points, including three 3-pointers. He was back in the starting lineup with Chris Duarte out after undergoing a surgical procedure earlier in the day for a broken finger sustained almost a month ago.

Oregon scored the first five points of the second half for its biggest lead to that point at 34-25. The lead was 10 when the Ducks went on a 9-0 spurt, aided by three OSU turnovers in a span of four possessions, for a 45-28 advantage seven minutes into the second half.

Pritchard and Richardson hit 3-pointers on consecutive Oregon possessions as the lead reached 51-29. The Beavers never got closer than the final score.

We were playing defense with our hands down, so it made their shots a lot easier, Tres Tinkle said. We didnt take it to heart to stop it.

It was a comedy of things. We didnt have people ready for a game like this.

BIG PICTURE

Oregon State: The Beavers won the previous three meetings, including a 63-53 victory earlier this month.

Oregon: The Ducks have won all 15 of their home games this season, with a 7-0 mark in Pac-12 play.

OFTEN PLAYED

This was the 354th meeting between Oregon and Oregon State, making it the most-played series in the NCAA. Oregon State leads 190-163.

HELD OUT

Duarte, Oregons second-leading scorer (12.9 points per game) and rebounder (5.6 per game), was held out after undergoing a surgical procedure on a broken finger on his right hand. ... Oregon State junior Payton Dastrup was suspended for the game for a violation of team rules. He is averaging 2.0 points and 1.3 rebounds per game.

UP NEXT

Oregon State: Plays at home against Stanford next Thursday.

Oregon: Plays at home against California next Thursday.

___

More AP collegebasketball: https://apnews.com/tag/Collegebasketball and https://twitter.
US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Cameroonian forces of killing at least 21 civilians  including 13 children and one pregnant woman  in an attack in the countrys restive Anglophone region.

According to the human rights organization, the Cameroonian soldiers also burned five homes, pillaged scores of other properties, and beat residents.

HRW alleges that government forces along with Fulani militias stormed the village of Ngarbuh on 14 February.

HRW joined its voice to the UN to call for an independent investigation into the killings.

The gruesome killings of civilians, including children, are egregious crimes that should be effectively and independently investigated, and those responsible should be brought to justice, said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Cameroons government denies allegations that the military was behind the attack in Ngarbuh. It said just five civilians were killed following an explosion resulting from fire between separatist fighters and government soldiers.

Residents said the attack was to punish civilians suspected of harboring separatist fighters. Twelve witnesses told HRW that, after the killings, the military addressed residents in Ngarbuh 2, warning that their village would be destroyed if they continued to shelter separatists.

The UN secretary general in a February 17 statement expressed concern over the killing of civilians in Ngarbuh and urged the government of Cameroon to open an investigation and hold those responsible to account.

For the past three years, government forces have been fighting separatists in the Anglophone regions who want to create a breakaway state called Ambazonia.

The conflict has so far left at least 3,000 people dead and forced more than 700,000 people from their homes, according to UN data.
A volatile year

In 2019, shrimp exports have many fluctuations due to various reasons: increased shrimp production, reduced shrimp prices, while the number of shrimp stocks in markets is still high, the supply of shrimp from other countries have increased, that has caused shrimp prices in many import markets to be lower than before.

On the other hand, some markets, including China, have tightened quality control and traceability of imported goods, as well as the impacts caused by the US-China trade tensions, which made our country's agricultural exports in general, shrimp export in particular encounter difficulties and instabilities.

This is clearly shown in some key markets: firstly, the European Union (EU) market which accounts for 20.6% of Vietnam's total shrimp export value, but in 2019, shrimp exports to this market reached only US$ 696.2 million, down 16.9% compared to 2018. Also following the decreasing trend, shrimp exports to Japans market in 2019 reached US$ 618.6 million, down 3.3% compared to 2018.

In contrast, some markets increase Vietnam's shrimp imports in 2019. Typically, the Vietnam's second shrimp imports market is the US. For the whole year of 2019, Vietnam's shrimp exports to this market reached US $ 653.9 million, up 2.5% compared to 2018. Although the growth rate is not high, Vietnamese shrimp to the US maintain their export value with much stability compared to 2018.

It is worth mentioning that in 2019, some emerging markets have increased Vietnam's shrimp imports with very high growth rates such as Australia. This is Vietnam's seventh largest shrimp import market, accounting for 3.8% of Vietnam's total shrimp export value. From April 2019 to the end of the year, Vietnam's shrimp exports to Australia continued to increase, of which the largest increase was 56% in July, up 45% in November and recorded the highest growth in the top 10 main shrimp import markets of Vietnam. For the whole year of 2019, Vietnam's shrimp exports to Australia reached about US$ 121 million, up 12.6% over the same period in 2018.

Many potential markets

It is predicted that by 2020, the domestic and international shrimp market will have many changes with significant impacts on the growth of Vietnam's shrimp export industry. It is worth mentioning that these fluctuations are expected to produce more optimistic signals than in 2019, based on specific analysis from the key markets.

In the EU, the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), expected to come into effect in 2020, can create expectations for Vietnam's shrimp exports to this market. According to EVFTA, the import tax for most raw shrimp (fresh, frozen, chilled) to the EU market will be reduced from the basic tariff of 12% to 20% to 0%, the import tax for processed shrimp will be 0% after seven years since the agreement entered into force. Compared with other countries, Vietnam has a clear advantage with frozen black tiger shrimp and white leg shrimp exports when black tiger shrimp is reduced from the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) tariffs at 4.2% to 0% upon the EVFTA entering into force; Frozen whiteleg shrimp will gradually decline to 0% after 5 years, while Thailand is not entitled to GSP, and hasnt signed the FTA, enjoying a basic tax rate of 12%, and India without FTA enjoying the GSP at 4.2%.

The EU has a high per capita income, the more favored products are, the high-end market segment is wide enough for Vietnamese shrimp businesses to choose medium-sized aquatic distribution systems. his application.

Notably, in the US market, in August 2019, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced the final results of the 13th administrative review (POR 13) on anti-dumping tax on Vietnamese shrimp. The South entered the US with 31 businesses enjoying 0% tax, opening many good opportunities for Vietnamese shrimp exporters.

The EU has a high per capita income, the high-end market segment is wide enough for Vietnamese shrimp businesses to choose their aquatic distribution systems.

Notably, in the US market, in August 2019, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced the final results of the 13th administrative review (POR 13) on anti-dumping tax on Vietnamese shrimp to the US with a tax rate of 0%, opening many good opportunities for Vietnamese shrimp exporters.

In addition to these two major markets, it is forecasted that another major shrimp import market of Vietnam - Japan - will also increase the number of imported shrimp, because the Tokyo Olympic 2020 will boost seafood consumption. Especially the demand for shrimp is expected to increase, creating opportunities for shrimp exporting countries.

For China, currently, 75% to 80% of Vietnam's seafood exports have been officially exported to the market, which is an important factor helping the recovery and growth of shrimp exports to this market in the near future. In addition, some recent emerging markets such as Australia are expected to continue to maintain the growth rate of Vietnam's shrimp imports such as 2019, which will also contribute to boosting the shrimp processing and export industry of Vietnam.
Eva Stahl remembers combing through a directory week after week, calling providers who she hoped would treat her children for anxiety and depression.

In most cases, my many many voicemails left with providers received no response, leaving me uncertain of whether the provider could see my kids, said Stahl, the associate director of policy at Community Catalyst, a consumer health advocacy group.

For Stahl, the Massachusetts attorney generals agreements with seven health care companies to improve access to provider directories and reduce other barriers to behavioral health care services came as a sign that maybe other families wont have to wait as long as she did to find services.

Attorney General Maura Healey announced settlements resolving allegations that three health insurance companies  Harvard Pilgrim, Fallon and AllWays Health Partners  violated the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. She also announced agreements to improve behavioral health access with four other companies: Beacon Health Strategies, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Optum and Tufts Health Plan.

The agreements focused on updating and improving provider directories, as well as ensuring parity in reimbursement rates and in prior authorization requirements for behavioral health care treatment.

About 57% of adults who sought behavioral health care struggled to obtain it in 2018, according to a Massachusetts Health Reform Survey.

Those surveyed attributed the trouble securing services to inaccurate online directories, insurance companies denying coverage and providers declining to accept new patients.

Many of these directories claim providers are accepting new patients when theyre actually not. Thats a problem, and its really frustrating for patients and families in desperate need, Healey said during a news conference Thursday.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announces settlements with multiple health companies who her office accused of violating parity laws, creating barriers to behavioral health care services.

In Stahls case, her family obtained behavioral health treatment through a program at William James College that paired her child with a behavioral health specialist. It took two weeks.

She also found resources through her local Youth and Families program, which specified not only which specialists were accepting new patients but what type of treatment they offered.

These resources were immensely helpful to me, I dont want to understate that, Stahl said. However, theyre patching a problem. Theyre not solving it. This process continues to be emotionally exhausting and scary for our family, but it also led to a delay in needed care for my children.

Sen. Cindy Friedman, who has spoken out about her efforts to get mental health treatment for her family, applauded Healeys office for addressing what she called a lack of parity compliance.

Friedman also said the agreements help make the case that the Legislature should pass the Senates own parity bill, the Mental Health ABC Act, that passed earlier this month. The legislation bars insurers from requiring prior authorization for severe psychiatric inpatient care, creates pilot programs to expand and diversify the workforce and makes other changes to achieve parity between mental and physical health services.

Im hopeful that the Legislature will recognize the seriousness and urgency of the issue highlighted by the attorney general today and take appropriate action this session, she said in a statement.

In 2008, Congress passed the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, which prevents insurers from offering more stringent coverage restrictions for mental health services than they typically would for comparable medical or surgical services. A 2016 law called for enhanced compliance with coverage requirements for mental health and substance use treatment, directing the federal government to further clarify the parity laws.

Some states, including California, have issued further guidance on how insurers should comply with the parity rules.

Insurers who were accused of violating parity laws said they believed they complied with the law or argued that the current laws are too ambiguous, noting that Massachusetts lacks guidance on how to interpret parity laws.

A Division of Insurance spokesperson did not immediately have an answer when asked whether the state has ever issued guidance on parity laws.

It is imperative that the attorney general and state agencies work together to establish a uniform interpretation of the federal mental health parity law and issue state guidance so that Massachusetts consumers, employers, providers and health plans can understand their rights and responsibilities under the law free of competing interpretations," said Lora Pellegrini, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans.

MAHP represents 16 member plans, including the three that resolved allegations with the attorney general. Altogether, MAHP members cover nearly 3 million Massachusetts residents.

Harvard Pilgrim, which resolved allegations, said it doesnt believe the law supports the claims made by the attorney general.

We are happy to have this matter resolved with the attorney generals office and that Harvard Pilgrim can continue to focus on providing our members with access to high quality, affordable health care," the company said in a statement. While we respect the work that they have done, as noted in our settlement, we do not agree with the attorney generals allegations.

Got a news tip or want to contact MassLive about this story? Email newstips@masslive.com or message us on Facebook orTwitter. You can also call our news tips line at 413-776-1364.

Related Content
The scheme was set up by foreign nationals

Open source

The State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has exposed a criminal group that illegally organized a migration channel for Middle Easterners through forgery. This was reported by the SBUs press service.

It was also reported that the group had included foreigners who had been affiliated with the consular establishment and private companies in Ukraine.

During the investigation, it became known that the criminal group had been producing counterfeit documents and had been legalizing them at a foreign consulate. Afterwards, the perpetrators submitted these documents to the Ukrainian state authorities in order to obtain residence permits in Ukraine for citizens from "migration risk countries".

State Security Service SBU has exposed an illegal migration channel for Middle Easterners State Security Service SBU has exposed an illegal migration channel for Middle Easterners

A criminal case was opened under Article 358 of Criminal Code of Ukraine (Forgery of documents, stamps, seals or letterheads, and sale or use of forged documents).

As we reported earlier, according to Polish Border Guard, in 2019, 26.6 thousand illegal immigrants were recorded in Poland: more than 13 thousand of them were Ukrainian citizens.
A woman who spent some 185,000 buying face masks during the coronavirus outbreak has received an empty box sent by suspected online fraudsters.

The 27-year-old resident of China, known by her surname Gao, was hoping to purchase the sought-after goods and then sell them on for profit during the health crisis.

Police have detained five people in relation to the case and retrieved Ms Gao's money.

Scroll down for video

Ms Gao, 27, was hoping to purchase the sough-after goods before selling them on for profit. The resident of the Chinese city of Xinmi described the distressing experience to local media

After one self-proclaimed retailer claimed to have a large number of masks (left) at a cheap price, Ms Gao paid more than 1.66 million yuan (184,270) in the next four days. But to her surprise, when she received the parcel on February 9, it turned out to be an empty box (right)

Ms Gao, who lives in the central province of Henan, described the distressing experience to Henan Urban Channel.

One of the suspects is pictured being detained by police. A total of five people have been caught in Fujian in relation to the case

According to the station, Ms Gao, a resident of Xinmi city, has run a shop on social media platform WeChat for about five years and mainly sells beauty products.

After the novel coronavirus broke out, she decided to acquire face masks to sell on.

She posted a message on WeChat looking for suppliers and one self-proclaimed retailer got in touch with her, claiming to have a large number of masks at a cheap price.

Delighted by the offer, Ms Gao transferred more than 1.66 million yuan (184,270) to the 'dealer' in the next four days and began to wait for her stock.

But to her surprise, when she received the parcel on February 9, it turned out to be an empty box. She called the police immediately.

Xinmi police set up a special team to investigate the case.

According to a police statement, officers discovered that the so-called face mask supplier was run by five people who live in the provinces of Xinjiang and Fujian.

On February 11, officers drove more than 1,800 kilometres (1,118 miles) from Xinmi to Yunxiao County in Fujian to hunt down the culprits.

Officers in Xinmi, Henan, are pictured counting banknotes after retrieving Ms Gao's money

After three days of on-site investigation, Xinmi police detained four of the suspects in their headquarters and transferred them to Henan.

Those suspects were placed under quarantine as soon as they reached the provincial capital, Zhenzhou.

Meanwhile, officers stayed in close contact with the family members of the fifth suspect, Zhang, hoping to find out where the individual was.

On February 21, Zhang's relatives called the police and expressed the intention to confess on behalf of Zhang.

Officers then travelled to Fujian again to detain Zhang. They also retrieved Ms Gao's money.

All five of them were detained on suspicion of online fraud.

The case is under further investigation.

Authorities of major Chinese cities have demanded their citizens wear face masks in public places as mandatory protection to stop the virus from spreading. The picture shows a man wearing a protective face mask taking photos in Jingshan Park, Beijing, on February 25

Globally, fear of the spreading coronavirus has led to a run on sales of face masks despite medical experts' advice that most people who aren't sick don't need to wear them. The picture shows people in Hong Kong queuing outside a cosmetic store for buying masks on February 3

At least 2,858 people have died and some 83,700 have contracted the coronavirus globally

Authorities of major Chinese cities have demanded their citizens wear face masks in public places as mandatory protection to stop the virus from spreading.

Globally, fear of the spreading coronavirus has led to a run on sales of face masks despite medical experts' advice that most people who aren't sick don't need to wear them.

Many businesses are sold out, while others are limiting how many a customer can buy. Amazon is policing its site, trying to make sure sellers don't gouge panicked buyers.

The virus has claimed at least 2,858 lives and infected more than 83,700 people worldwide.

China now has a total of 78,824 cases, with the death toll reaching 2,788.
This is the moment a stubborn dog throws himself on the family's driveway forcing his owner to carry him into the house.

Footage shows owner Maci Coryell returning from a walk with her son Dylan and their two Great Pyrenees cross dogs in New Braunfels, Texas.

The video shows the pair approach their driveway after their daily evening walk.

Marci Coryell and her son Dylan return from the evening walk with their two dogs in New Braunfels, Texas

Six-month old Great Pyrenees Husky cross Bleu throws himself on the driveway as he refuses to go inside

Son Dylan sits on the driveway with the two dogs as he calls for his mother to help carry Bleu in

And while two-year-old Great Pyrenees Golden Retriever cross Annie is more than happy to wander back into the house - her furry brother has other ideas.

Marci is heard enticing six-month old Great Pyrenees Husky cross Bleu as Dylan keeps hold off the leash.

However Bleu collapses on the ground despite Dylan's efforts to tug on his leash.

Eventually Marci carries 55lbs Bleu into the house in what has become a regular addition to their walk.

Marci is forced to carry Bleu, who weighs 55lbs, into the house after the strong-willed dog refuses to budge

In a second clip Bleu does the same routine despite Marci's repeated pleas as she tugs at the leash saying 'let's go' before the stubborn dog falls to the ground.

Another clips shows Bleu fall to the ground as he approaches the end of the driveway before Dylan rolls on the concrete in fits of laughter.

Eventually Marci comes to collect the strong-willed pooch and carries him inside.

Marci said: 'Even though it happens every day, it always makes us laugh. 'We know it's coming and as we turn the corner to our house.

Six-month old Great Pyrenees Husky cross Bleu has to be carried indoors every evening after his walk

'He's been doing it for the last three months.

She added: 'We make bets as to how long it will take him to realize we are almost home and throw himself to the ground.

'Bleu will not budge unless he thinks he's getting another go around the block, in that case he will jump right up.

'If he realizes we are trying to go inside, he won't move, even if we try to drag him in. He's always wearing a body harness, so not being pulled by his neck.

'That being said, I always have to pick him up and carry him indoors.'
SACRAMENTO  Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, endorsed Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren for president on Friday.

In a video posted to social media, Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker who has adopted the gender-neutral title of first partner and established a public agenda around issues like pay equity, asked voters to make Warren the first woman president.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is the brightest person in the room and she actually cares about each and every one of you, especially our women, our children and our nations most vulnerable, Siebel Newsom said. She knows you cant live a good life in an unjust society, and she will revive the American dream for all of you who call this country home.

California is the biggest delegate prize on the presidential primary calendar and one of 14 states that will vote on Super Tuesday next week. While Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has pulled away from the rest of the field in California, according to recent polls, Warren sits in second place  just on the cusp of the 15% support she would need to earn delegates.

Please think about your wives, your mothers, your sisters and your daughters, Siebel Newsom said. Vote your conscience, not what the pundits and the billionaires are telling you to do. Because Sen. Elizabeth Warren is electable.

Warren, in a statement, praised Siebel Newsom for using her films and her office to advance womens representation.

Women must have a seat at the tables of power, whether thats in government, business or anywhere in society, she said.

Gavin Newsom was an early endorser of his longtime political ally Sen. Kamala Harris but has not backed another candidate since she dropped out of the race in December. He has declined to answer questions about who he is supporting, though he said Wednesday that the debates have been helpful as he comes to a decision.

I can only say this: My voice mails full, Newsom said.

Alexei Koseff is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @akoseff
Once you've settled on buying your first home, it's time to enter the the grueling closing process. From surveys to inheritance issues, a number of things could delay you in signing the final papers.

Eric Fontanot, president of Houston-based Patten Title Company, joins the Houston How To podcast to discuss the tricky parts of escrow and closing. It may be the last part of the homebuying process, but it's the most important part.
The left forelimb of an anole lizard (genus Anolis) has been found perfectly preserved in a piece of Miocene-period amber from the Dominican Republic.

Vertebrate inclusions in amber are very rare, the majority are insect fossils, said Jonas Barthel, a doctoral student in the Institute for Geosciences at the University of Bonn.

Barthel and colleagues found the left forelimb of the Anolis lizard in a 2-cm piece of 15-20-million-year old Dominican amber.

The claws and toes are very clearly visible in the honey-brown amber mass, almost as if the tree resin had only recently dripped onto them  yet the tiny foot is about 15 to 20 million years old, they said.

The researchers examined the specimen by micro-Raman spectroscopy, electron microprobe, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy.

The analyses revealed that the forefoot is broken in two places and that one of the fractures is surrounded by a slight swelling.

We propose the following model for our observations, the scientists said.

While climbing the tree, the lizard got into contact with a flow of resin and could not escape its sticky trap.

After some time, it attracted the attention of a predator that ripped off the lizard, leaving solely the fore limb in the resin. Later on, the resin hardened and became deposited within the surrounding soil which represents the starting point of its diagenesis.

The presence of Schlauben (a succession of flows), the splintered humerus, the edema, the peeled off parts of the skin, and lastly the numerous air bubbles strongly support this model.

The Raman spectroscopy revealed that mineral hydroxyapatite in the bone had been transformed into fluoroapatite by the penetration of fluorine.

This is surprising, because we assumed that the surrounding amber largely protects the fossil from environmental influences, Barthel said.

However, the small crack may have encouraged chemical transformation by allowing mineral-rich solutions to find their way in.

The Raman spectroscopy also showed that collagen  the bones elastic component  had largely degraded. Despite the seemingly very good state of preservation, there was actually very little left of the original tissue structure.

We have to expect that at least in amber from the Dominican Republic, macromolecules are no longer detectable, said Professor Jes Rust, also from the Institute for Geosciences at the University of Bonn.

It was not possible to detect more complex molecules such as proteins, but the final analyses are still pending.

The degradation processes in this amber deposit are therefore very advanced, and there is very little left of the original substance.

The findings were published in the journal PLoS ONE.

_____

H.J. Barthel et al. 2020. Fluoridation of a lizard bone embedded in Dominican amber suggests open-system behavior. PLoS ONE 15 (2): e0228843; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228843
By IANS

BENGALURU: Intercontinental gangster Ravi Pujari's lawyer Dilraj is being kept out of hearing distance as a mute spectator during the interrogation, said a source on Friday.

"The lawyer is a mute spectator out of hearing distance from the interrogation. He is not privy to what cops ask Pujari," told a source to IANS.

As directed by the court and requested by Pujari, Dilraj is allowed to be present near the interrogation for him to consult on legal issues, but the cops have made sure that he does not hear anything for fear of leaking information.

The court has also ordered the interrogation to be videographed which the police are carrying out.

Interestingly, the gangster is in a relaxed demeanour and cool during the multi-lingual interrogation.

"He is cool, giving frank kind of replies. Pujari is exhibiting confidence in whatever he is telling. Maybe confidently lying, police are not new to him," said the source.

ALSO READ: Cops grill Ravi Pujari on 2007 shootout case

According to source, the gangster knows how to handle police, with sufficient knowledge to reveal how much he wants to, where to stop, where to talk, when to mislead and plant unnecessary false information.

"Pujari is being interrogated in his mother tongue Kannada, Hindi and English. He is fluent in English," the source said.

However, the source denied speculation gaining currency that Pujari requested police not to send him to Mumbai fearing of being eliminated by the henchmen of dreaded underworld dons Dawood Ibrahim and Chota Rajan.

"Nothing of that sort happened. It doesn't work like that. He has been captured after 25 years, and he is not a king to choose. Wherever the law takes him, he will go there," said the source.

Rajan is serving a life sentence inside a high security cell in Delhi's Tihar jail.

Currently, the probe is focused on Tilknagar Shabnam Developers double murder shootout case. Police are discovering information, verifying it with respect to evidence and building the case.

Taking regular breaks, police are interrogating Pujari from morning till evening.

Of the over 200 cases against Pujari in the southern state, 39 are in Bengaluru, 36 at Mangaluru, 11 in Udupi on the state's west coast and one each at Mysuru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Kolar and Shivamogga in Malnad.

The other cases are in Mumbai (49) and in Gujarat (75) pertaining to extortion, kidnapping, ransom demand and murder threats.

Pujari also extorted huge amounts from popular Bollywood stars and realtors. He was also involved in an attempt to murder case, aimed at killing a prominent lawyer of Mumbai.

A four-member Karnataka police team led by Pandey brought the 52-year-old underworld don to Bengaluru from Dakar in Senegal via Paris in an Air France scheduled flight during the wee hours and kept him at an interrogation centre in the city's south-east suburb.
Description

GIS  28 February 2020: The Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security of Nepal, Mr Rameshwar Ray Yadav, paid a courtesy call, this, afternoon, on the Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, Home Affairs and External Communications Minister for Rodrigues, Outer Islands and Territorial Integrity, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, at the New Treasury Building, in Port Louis.

The Minister is currently in Mauritius in the context of a technical Joint Working Group set up following the signature of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Mauritius and Nepal on the recruitment of Nepalese labour force. The Joint Working Group had meetings these past two days to discuss the modalities of recruitment of Nepalese workers with particular emphasis on the need for ethical recruitment.

In a statement following the courtesy call, the Minister shared that discussions with the Prime Minister focused on the recruitment process of Nepalese labour, the implementation of the MoU between Mauritius and Nepal, as well as exploring avenues of cooperation in the agriculture sector and how to tap on investment prospects. The Minister also seized the opportunity to extend an invitation to Prime Minister Jugnauth to attend a conference on climate scheduled this year in Nepal.
Bollywood actor Taapsee Pannu has responded to social media trend that demanded boycotting her upcoming film, Thappad, directed by Anubhav Sinha. Thappad is about domestic violence and has been facing the wrath of pro-CAA Twitter users as both the actor and director have been vocal in their views against the citizenship act.

Taapsee told Times of India in an interview, I think personal opinions of actors should not affect their profession and I dont really think it does to an extent. It takes about 1000-2000 tweets to trend a certain hashtag. Does that really affect a film? I dont think so. I might have different social and political views from a lot of people but that does not mean people will not go and watch the film. An actor is never bigger than a film. A film has hundreds of people involved in it. It is stupid to decide whether or not you will watch a movie based on an actors socio-political views.

ALso read: Confirmed: Richa Chadha to marry Ali Fazal by April end, actors apply for marriage registration in Mumbai

In December, Taapsee was a part of a protest in Mumbai that showed solidarity with JNU students, as was Thappads director Anubhav Sinha.

Talking about her stand, Taapsee had later said, I havent expressed my views on CAA because I havent studied about it. But the visuals which I saw in Jamia, I didnt feel those were pleasant. I felt really sad when I saw the videos where students were talking about their plight. I feel something big has happened or something big is going to happen.

Anubhav has made films llike Tum Bin and Ra.One before his Rishi Kapoor-Taapsee-starrer Mulk impressed one and all and he found a new life as a filmmaker. Talking about the difference in his films, Anubhav told PTI, I have made my mistakes and learnt from those. Im not falling prey to it again. I should have a script everybody is wanting to be a part of, which is exciting. Not the fact that its easier for me to call up Ayushmann, Vicky Kaushal or Rajkummar Rao to do a film.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
I see you.

This simple statement of fact might be the most powerful and the most dangerous thing an abuse victim can say to their abuser, because abusers operate in the dark, away from prying eyes, twisting their own warped reality into the truth. Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) shouts I see you to a seemingly empty room. And although it comes at her lowest moment, the declaration is the first step on her road to redemption in Leigh Whannells inventive and utterly riveting twist on The Invisible Man.

To reinvent H.G. Wells 1897 story, which is best known as the 1933 James Whale classic horror film, Whannell has flipped the notion of invisibility. In this take, invisibility is no superpower, and no affliction, like the bandage-wrapped Claude Rains, but rather, its a threat. In his script, Whannell centers a woman, Cecilia, as the target of the invisible man, who is her abusive, vindictive tech mogul partner, Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). And she tries desperately to escape from him, running away in the middle of the night from his fortified oceanside mansion outside San Francisco, seeking shelter with friends and family.

Nervous Cecilia is afraid to leave the safe house with friends, convinced Adrian will find her, until word arrives of his suicide. Thats when things really start to get weird. Knives disappear, mysterious kitchen fires start, floorboards creak, and blankets creep in the middle of the night. Its all so mundane until it isnt. But by that point, Cecilias friends James (Aldis Hodge) and his daughter Sydney (Storm Reid) are disturbed by her erratic behavior. And her sister, Emily (Harriet Dyer), is furious about a cruel email shes received from her.

The one thing that remains steadfast is Cecilias belief that Adrian (or his ghost) is stalking her. She knows her abuser and his patterns too well. She knows that in death, as in life, he will seek to gaslight, isolate and indict her in her own breakdown. What also remains steadfast is the films own belief in Cecilia, too. From the outset, Whannell establishes unmotivated camera movements and compositions that lurk menacingly or draw attention to big empty corners in the room. We see the footprints and the puffs of breath in cold air; we see the violent force that brutally batters her. In a film where almost no one buys Cecilias outlandish claims, the directorial point of view Whannell establishes never wavers in its belief in her.

Working with a cool, gray palette allows Whannell and cinematographer Stefan Duscios camerawork to remain at the forefront of their visual storytelling, underlined by an anxiety-producing score of droning cacophony composed by Benjamin Wallfisch. The camera reveals the treachery of the environment in the most subtle of ways: focusing on an empty corner rather than her unbelievable testimony, or a unique, body-mounted shot of Cecilia collapsing, which is reminiscent of the wild cinematography that marked Whannells juicy cyberpunk actioner Upgrade.

At the center of the immaculately crafted film is Moss, who gives a virtuosic leading performance as the twitchy, terrified and tentative Cecilia. She shouts at the specter of Adrian, Why me? You could have had anything.  Youve taken it all. With devastating specificity and empathy for his heroine, Whannell has inverted the invisible man archetype into an incredibly tense and suspenseful thriller exploring the psychological horror of intimate partner abuse. It shouldnt feel radical that he lets us believe Cecilia, but in doing so, he makes The Invisible Man all the more potent a fable.

THE INVISIBLE MAN

3.5 stars

RATED: R (for some strong bloody violence, and language)

WHEN: Opens today

WHERE: AMC 12, Century 14 Downtown, Century Rio 24, Cottonwood, Icon Cinema, Winrock 16, Starlight Cinema 8 (Los Lunas), Premiere (Rio Rancho)
AUTO LAB TALK RADIO FROM NYC, Saturday February 29, 2020; WNYM Radio AM 970 7-9 AM





Auto Lab Talk Radio on New York City's WNYM Radio AM 970 Is Streamed Worldwide On TheAutoChannel.Com

Car Question or Concern? Automotive Career Opportunity, Call Toll Free 888-692-7234 To Speak With An Auto Lab Expert











Auto Lab is also about the automotive industry, its history, and its culture, presenting the ideas and advice of leading college faculty, authors, and automotive practitioners in a relaxed, conversational interactive format.

Listeners can find audio recordings of the past 20 years of archived Auto Lab shows as simulcast on The Auto Channel; The Auto Lab Index Page includes; Audio-on-Demand Archives, Community College Auto Program Database, Guests Pictures

This Weeks Show: February 29, 2020

In Studio Expert Automotive Panel

Harold Bendell, Major World

Tim Cacace- Master Mechanix

David Goldsmith-Urban Classics

Joseph Guarino- Joe Guarino's Auto Repairs

Jerry Pastore- D & J Diagnostics

Johanna Pastore-D & J Diagnostics

Michael Porcelli, Bronx Community College, City University of New York

Nicholas Prague, MTA

Interviews

Robert Erskine, Senior European Correspondent:

"CLEAN HANDS AND SUPER FAST 90 SECOND OIL AND FILTER CHANGES"

Sharon Sudol John Russell Senior Correspondents:

"2020 SUBARU LEGACY SPORT"

Russ Rader Senior Vice President Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:

"NEW TEST RESULTS FOR THE CHEVROLET TRAVERSE AND BUICK ENCLAVE"

Robert Sinclair AAA NORTHEAST

"GASOLINE PRICES HOLD ANY INTEREST?"
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- To prepare for the spread of coronavirus in the United States, you can stock up on your favorite over-the-counter medications, said the director of the Ohio Department of Health.

Pain relievers like acetaminophen (Tylenol), ibuprofen (Advil) and aspirin could alleviate the fever and aches that come with the COVID-19 coronavirus, doctors say.

Ohio Department of Health director Amy Acton also mentioned having a 14-day supply of Nyquil, or whatever cold medicine you prefer, so you dont have to run to the pharmacy when youre sick.

Whatever it is, you want to have those medicines with you, Acton said at a news conference with Gov. Mike DeWine at MetroHealth Medical Center. She also advised making sure you have enough supplies for your children, parents and/or pets. I would prepare for the worst.

The U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention believe an outbreak of the disease, which originated in Wuhan, China, is inevitable.

Were kind of in for a long haul, Acton said.

She did not recommend ordinary citizens wearing masks, in part because there will likely be a shortage for doctors and nurses.

Doctors say the majority of coronavirus cases in the U.S. will likely be mild. That could mean flu-like symptoms, with coughing, sneezing, fever and shortness of breath.

Whether ibuprofen or acetaminophen is better depends the patient, Jason Briscoe, Discount Drug Marts director for pharmacy operations, said. It depends on health history and personal preference.

It can never hurt to have a first-aid kit on hand.

Briscoe said pharmacists will be able to work with those experiencing symptoms or who are worried about the virus. Theres been a run on masks at Discount Drug Mart, but no flood of people stocking up on over-the-counter medicine.

Discount Drug Mart also has a Health Solutions facility in Avon Lake, which the company staffs to take calls and give advice on health issues. Briscoe said that option is one reason hes not worried about coronavirus overwhelming pharmacy staff.

When it comes to alleviating upper respiratory symptoms, like suppressing cough, theres not much over-the-counter medicines can do, said Dr. Keith Armitage, medical director for the UH Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine and Global Health. If you feel short of breath, call your doctor. Thats one of the indicators that the virus could have progressed into a lung infection and supplemental oxygen is necessary.

The elderly and people with pre-existing conditions will be at greater risk for severe symptoms.

Armitage reiterated that, based on what we know now, most coronavirus patients will be able to recover at home, rather than in a hospital.

I dont think people need to go buy a bunch of over-the-counter remedies for the common cold, he said. Pay attention to respective public health authorities.

More coronavirus coverage:
A former BP worker has won an appeal against a Fair Work Commission decision that found he was fairly sacked for using a 'Hitler Downfall' meme to parody the company during tense wage negotiations. The Fair Work Commission has decided to reinstate Scott Tracey who was sacked after he used a scene from the 2004 Oliver Hirschbiegel film about Adolf Hitler in a video meme during a long-running wages dispute last year. The commission rejected his unfair dismissal claim in September when it decided the video was offensive. An employee at BP was sacked after he used a scene from the 2004 film Downfall about Adolf Hitler in a video meme during a long-running wages dispute. Credit:YouTube Employment lawyer Kamal Farouque from Maurice Blackburn Lawyers said the Fair Work Commission had recognised the Hitler meme was a satire and that Mr Tracey had not likened BP management to Hitler or Nazis. "It is a great result for Scott. He is really pleased to get his job back and is looking forward to going back to work at BP refinery," Mr Farouque said.

The meme was posted on a closed Facebook site during protracted wage bargaining which started in 2017 and was taken from the German film Downfall. It was accompanied with captions and titled "Hitler Parody EA Negotiations not going the [company's] way". BP had described the video as "offensive and inappropriate", saying it had likened managers to Hitler and Nazis. In her decision, deputy president Melanie Binet said she was satisfied the video "did in fact cause offence to a number of BP employees". "I do not accept that by labelling something as a parody is a 'get out of jail free card' and necessarily means something is not offensive," she said. Loading In its decision on Friday, the full bench of the Fair Work Commission said "it is apparent that the video does not liken BP management to Hitler or Nazis in the sense of

stating or suggesting that their conduct or behaviour was in some sense comparable in their inhumanity or criminality. What it does do is to compare, for satirical purposes, the position BP had reached in the enterprise bargaining process as at September 2018 to the situation

facing Hitler and the Nazi regime in April 1945. "The position might be different if the clip used from the Downfall film depicted Hitler or Nazis engaging in inhumane and criminal acts (as many other parts of the film do); in such a case a comparison in terms of conduct or behaviour might be inferred and reasonably be regarded as offensive. But it does not."
Scientists at Trinity College Dublin have identified a rare, new cell in the immune system with "Jekyll and Hyde properties." These cells play a key protective role in immunity to infection but -- if unregulated -- also mediate tissue damage in autoimmune disorders.

The findings should help us design more effective vaccines to prevent infections such as MRSA, and may also assist help us develop of new therapies for autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis.

The research was funded by Science Foundation Ireland and led by Kingston Mills, Professor of Experimental Immunology, and Dr Sarah Edwards and Dr Caroline Sutton, Postdoctoral Fellows in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute. Their findings were published today [Thursday 27th February 2020] in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

The immune system functions to control infection, utilising various immune cells, such as T cells to respond to and control invading microbes. However, if these immune cells are not highly regulated, they can attack and damage body tissues, leading to the development of autoimmune diseases.

Molecules called T cell receptors (TCRs) allow T cells to recognise components of infectious agents with exquisite specificity. The TCRs enable T cells to respond to and eventually eliminate the infectious agent.

Professor Kingston Mills said:

"Until now scientists thought that there were two discrete populations of T cells, expressing either '' or '' TCRs. The s are the most common T cells in the body. They play a key role in remembering prior infection or immunisation and thereby help protect us against re-infection and mediate vaccine-induced protective immunity. The s are more prevalent at mucosal surfaces, such as the lung or gut, and provide an immediate first line of defence against pathogens that invade through these routes."

"We have discovered a new cell type that expresses both  and  TCRs. This rare population of chimeric or hybrid - T cells has properties of both  and  T cells. Importantly, they are normally highly activated and poised to act as first responders to control bacterial infection. However, given this high level of activation, they are effectively 'Jekyll and Hyde cells' because in certain contexts they can also precipitate autoimmune responses."

Using a model of Staphylococcus aureus infection, Professor Mills and his team found that these cells are rapidly mobilised during infection and play a key role in quickly eliminating the microbes from the body.

The induction of these hybrid - T cells may thus represent a novel approach in the design of more effective vaccines against Staph aureus and other infectious diseases, while advancing our ability to control their response may yield additional therapeutic options.

Professor Mills added: "In a model of autoimmune disease, we found that the hybrid T cells can also trigger the inflammatory cascade that mediates tissue damage in autoimmunity. Therefore, approaches for inhibiting these highly activated immune cells in susceptible individuals may open up new approaches for the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis and multiple sclerosis."
Tidhar: I loved Pontypool, the film adaptation of the novel. A language virus of course pops up earlier in Neal Stephensons Snow Crash, the book that effectively ends the cyberpunk era. But the two novels couldnt be any more different. One novel Id mention is Kim Stanley Robinsons epic The Years of Rice and Salt. It takes the Black Death in the 14th century as its start, but it imagines it has killed nearly everyone in Europe. How, then, does world history turn out different? Told over the intervening centuries, through a series of reincarnated characters, it imagines a Chinese Empire on the one hand, an Islamic world on the other, and an alliance of India and Native American nations all struggling for dominance. Its an enchanting, immersive book.
Flying in an aeroplane can be a rather intimidating experience for many people. Even frequent flyers might briefly experience terror whenever their flight goes through some turbulence. However, most flights nowadays are extremely safe, thanks to modern engineering, proper air-to-ground communication and safety laws. But even to this day, some flight routes are considered highly dangerous, as plane crashes are frequent in these locations even after all safety measures are taken into consideration. Here are ten of the most dangerous flight routes in the world:

Ten most dangerous flights' routes in the world

Also Read | Vistara to cancel 54 int'l flights next month as COVID-19 weakens demand

The Bermuda Triangle

[Image by Joel Arbaje on Unsplash]

Everyone knows about the reputation of the Bermuda Triangle. The Bermuda Triangle is a triangular area in the vicinity of the Caribbean and Southern Atlantic. This location is notorious for being the graveyard of numerous ships and flights. However, it is very likely that the reputation of the Bermuda Triangle is blown out of proportion, as fights to Miami often cross the area and come out unscathed.

Indonesia's airspace

The Bermuda Triangle is infamous due to made-up supernatural theories. However, Indonesian airspace truly is one of the most dangerous flights' routes in the world. The reason for the high mortality rate in Indonesian flights is quite simply the lack of proper safety precautions. In fact, the FAA even placed Indonesia in its list of Category 2 nations that failed to meet airline safety requirements.

African airspace

Also Read | Virgin Galactic reports high interest in its space flights

[Image by Damian Patkowski on Unsplash]

The African continent is one of the most dangerous flights' routes in the entire world. There is an average of 12.45 crashes per 1 million flights, which may not seem like much. However, that value is more than double that of the global average.

Some Africa to Europe routes

It is not just the African continent that is a dangerous flight path. Even flights leaving the continent have a higher than usual crash rate. In fact, several African nations have even been banned from travelling to EU nations.

Several post-Soviet countries

[Image by   on Unsplash]

While most people only think about Russia when talking about post-Soviet countries, there are actually several smaller nations that were born after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Commonwealth of Independent States is often considered to be one of the most unsafe locations when it comes to flying, as poor technology and bad weather lead to several accidents. Another post-Soviet state, Kazakhstan, has even been banned from flying into EU countries. Moreover, the Malaysian flight, MH-17, was tragically shot down in Ukraine during the Donbass War.

Middle East

The Middle East has an average crash rate of 5.43 per million flights, which is higher than the global average. Moreover, some Middle East nations are even barred from sending flights to Europe due to safety concerns and poor international relations. However, not all flights from the area are dangerous, as Emirates and Qatar Airways are often considered two of the best airlines in the world.

Syrian airspace

Also Read | SpiceJet to start 11 new flights in March

The reason why Syrian airspace is dangerous is quite obvious. With an ongoing brutal civil war, many western nations have banned all flights from going to the country. As of now, the Syrian airspace is considered a no-fly-zone and it will remain so until the end of the war.

Nepal

[Image by Giuseppe Mondi on Unsplash]

While Nepal is considered to be one of the safest countries in the world, their airspace, unfortunately, does not hold the same reputation. Nepal is a mountain nation and that makes landing in the country highly difficult. The climate also causes severe turbulence, which further adds to the danger of Nepal's airspace.

Latin American route

The Bermuda Triangle might be a myth created by conspiracy theorists, but the dangers of flying in Latin America are very real. Many Latin American countries have poor technology and outdated safety measures. The entire continent has a crash rate of 3.36, which is slightly higher than the global average. Other than the poor technology, the bad climate in the area also adds to the flight risk.

Long flight paths/turbulent flight paths

Longer flights usually have far more accidents than shorter ones. This is due to the fact that the longer a flight stays in the air, the chances of something going wrong are higher. The same applies to turbulent airspaces. If there is more turbulence, then the chances of a crash are much higher.

Also Read | Pakistan suspends flights to Iran after two confirmed cases of coronavirus
Scientists will present new research on antibiotic resistance, drug discovery, and the flu at the APS March Meeting in Denver

Please Note: The 2020 American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting that was to be held in Denver, Colorado from March 2 through March 6 has been canceled. The decision was made late Saturday (February 29), out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest scientific data available regarding the transmission of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). See our official release on the cancelation for more details.

DENVER, COLO., FEBRUARY 28, 2020 -- A new influenza strain appears each flu season, rendering past vaccines ineffective. Antibiotic resistant 'superbugs' quickly develop genetic resistance to existing drugs. Rapidly changing viruses and bacteria complicate vaccine and drug research. Scientists at the 2020 American Physical Society March Meeting in Denver will share their work on the emergence and evolution of modern pathogens.

Predicting Resistance

Antibiotic resistance is an increasingly serious threat to modern medicine. Resistance generally arises from evolutionary processes, when bacteria change their genetic make-up by mutation or uptake of resistance genes from other bacteria and become less susceptible to drugs. While high doses of antibiotics can clearly select for resistant bacteria, it remains unclear by which mechanisms and rates low doses can cause bacteria to become resistant. A team of researchers from the University of Cologne and University of Uppsala has now developed a new quantitative model to predict how Escherichia coli evolve mutational resistance to different levels of the antibiotic streptomycin.

"We show that growth rates of a class of resistance mutants can be predicted from the way mutations affect cell metabolism", said Fernanda Pinheiro, a physicist at the University of Cologne and shared first author of the study together with Omar Warsi, a microbiologist at Uppsala University.

Concepts and methods for predictive analysis established in this work might inform the least-resistance prone treatment protocols, drug targets, and new antibiotic candidates, finding potential applications in medicine, drug development and public health.

Toward a Universal Flu Vaccine

The influenza virus mutates so quickly that it requires a new vaccine against it every year.

However, Assaf Amitai and his colleagues, Maya Sangesland, Daniel Lingwood, and Arup Chakraborty, report on the mechanisms that may allow the immune system to respond to a broad distribution of flu strains. The approach that they have explored uses nanoparticles with specific geometries and compositions.

"We are not trying to just increase overall protection against the flu, but also to make the immune system do something it does not naturally do," said Amitai, a theoretical biophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Immune cells typically attack the head of hemagglutinin, the flu surface protein. Hemagglutinin's head mutates very frequently, while its stem does not. The researchers have studied how the use of multiple sequentially administered nanoparticle-based vaccines with specific geometries and compositions may be able to train the immune system to respond to hemagglutinin's stem instead of its head. The results provide a mechanistic understanding of the underlying immunological processes.

Streamlining Drug Discovery

Certain species of harmful bacteria, like Clostridium difficile, have already evolved resistance to most existing therapeutics, and the lengthy process of creating new drugs makes it difficult to develop timely specialized treatments. But Anushree Chatterjee and her team have created a new platform and approach for combating antibiotic resistance. The new method can accelerate the development of therapeutics, according to Chatterjee, a bioengineer at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

The researchers developed a new, interdisciplinary technique, called the Facile-Accelerated Specific Therapeutic (FAST) platform, that can produce tailored therapeutic molecules for each pathogen. Combining bioinformatics, synthetic biology and chemistry, and nanotechnology, the platform can develop medical therapies within a week from discovery to testing in the lab.

Antibiotics and the Gut

Gut bacteria perform many helpful functions, but still feel the impact of antibiotics--no matter the dose.

"Even weak doses of antibiotics can have a surprisingly strong impact on the microbiome," said Raghuveer Parthasarathy, a physicist at the University of Oregon. He and his colleagues analyzed how sublethal doses of antibiotics changed the behavior of gut bacteria in zebrafish.

The team found that weak doses alter the shape of lone bacteria and the growth of bacterial clusters in such a way that they struggle to remain in the gut. Taking sublethal doses of antibiotics can lead to the gut purging antibiotic-exposed bacteria, sending them out into the environment.

###

Predicting Antibiotic Resistance Evolution

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 5:18 PM-5:30 PM, Thursday, March 5, 2020, Room: 404

CONTACT: Fernanda Pinheiro, fernanda.pinheiro@uni-koeln.de

Influenza Virus Geometry Shapes the Immune Response against It

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 4:30 PM-4:42 PM, Wednesday, March 4, 2020, Room: 403

CONTACT: Assaf Amitai, amitaiassaf@gmail.com

FAST, Smart Therapeutics

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 3:54 PM-4:30 PM, Thursday, March 5, 2020, Room: 403

CONTACT: Anushree Chatterjee, chatterjee@colorado.edu

Biophysical Consequences of Sublethal Antibiotics on Gut Bacterial Persistence and Transmission

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 9:00 AM-9:12 AM, Tuesday, March 3, 2020, Room: 304

CONTACT: Raghuveer Parthasarathy, raghu@uoregon.edu

ABOUT THE MEETING

The American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting is a major international conference and the largest physics meeting of the year. In 2020, the APS March Meeting will convene from March 2-6 at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver.

Useful Links

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Complimentary registration is available to journalists for the express purpose of gathering and reporting news and information from the meeting. Staff reporters, freelance writers, and students are welcome to apply. Press credentials may be obtained by completing the form on this page: https://march.aps.org/services/press/. The deadline for press registration is Friday February 28th at 3:00 p.m. EST.

Press Conferences

All press conferences will take place in Room 608. If you are unable to attend, you may register to watch and ask questions online at https://webcast.apswebcasting.com/webcast/registration/a65e0a8e-38c6-4ccd-8eea-98696d213857

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A press room for registered journalists will operate throughout the meeting in Room 610/612 and will offer complimentary coffee, breakfast, and lunch. The press room may be reserved for conducting interviews.

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ABOUT APS

The American Physical Society is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its outstanding research journals, scientific meetings, and education, outreach, advocacy, and international activities. APS represents over 55,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and throughout the world. Society offices are located in College Park, Maryland (Headquarters), Ridge, New York, and Washington, D.C.
Itokawa would normally be a fairly average near-Earth asteroid - a rocky mass measuring only a few hundred metres in diameter, which orbits the sun amid countless other celestial bodies and repeatedly crosses the orbit of the Earth. But there is one fact that sets Itokawa apart: in 2005 it became a visit from Earth. The Japanese space agency JAXA sent the Hayabusa probe to Itokawa, which collected soil samples and brought them safely back to Earth - for the first time in the history of space travel. This valuable cargo arrived in 2010 and since then, the samples have been the subject of intensive research.

A team from Japan and Jena has now succeeded in coaxing a previously undiscovered secret from some of these tiny sample particles: the surface of the dust grains is covered with tiny wafer-thin crystals of iron. This observation surprised Prof. Falko Langenhorst and Dr Dennis Harries of Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. After all, over the last 10 years, research teams all over the world have exhaustively studied the structure and chemical composition of the dust particles from Itokawa, and no one had noticed the iron 'whiskers'. It was only when Japanese researcher Dr Toru Matsumoto, who is spending a year as a visiting scientist with the Analytical Mineralogy group at the Institute of Geosciences in Jena, examined the particles with a transmission electron microscope that he was able to locate the crystals using high-resolution images.

Solar wind weathers celestial bodies

This discovery is exciting not only because the tiny iron 'whiskers' - which have since been shown on other particles from the asteroid as well - had previously been missed. Of particular interest is how they were formed. "These structures are the consequence of cosmic influences on the surface of the asteroid," explains Falko Langenhorst. In addition to rocks, high-energy particles from the solar wind also strike the asteroid's surface, thus weathering it. An important constituent of the asteroid is the mineral troilite, in which iron and sulphur are bound. "As a result of space weathering, the iron is released from the troilite and deposited on the surface in the form of the needles that have now been discovered," says the mineralogist Langenhorst. The sulphur from the iron sulphide then evaporates into the surrounding vacuum in the form of gaseous sulphur compounds.

From the size and number of the ice crystals detected, the researchers can also estimate how quickly the asteroid loses sulphur. "The process is incredibly fast from a cosmic perspective," explains Toru Matsumoto. The crystals he analysed are up to two-and-a-half micrometres long, which is around one-fiftieth of the thickness of a human hair. "The tiny whiskers have already reached these sizes after around 1,000 years," adds the researcher from Kyushu University in Fukuoka. Over the long term, the analysis of the ice crystals can be used to gain a better understanding of weathering processes on other celestial bodies as well, and to determine their age.

To this end, the researchers already have specific asteroids in their sights. NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe is currently preparing to take samples from asteroid Bennu, while JAXA's Hayabusa2 is already on its way back to Earth. The Japanese probe visited the Ryugu asteroid last year and, as with Itokawa, it collected dust particles. The samples should land on Earth at the end of 2020 and the international team of Jena mineralogists and Toru Matsumoto are awaiting them with anticipation.

###

Original publication:

Matsumoto T et al. Iron whiskers on asteroid Itokawa indicate sulfide destruction by space weathering. Nature Communications (2020), DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14758-3, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14758-3

Contact:

Prof. Falko Langenhorst

Institute of Geosciences of Friedrich Schiller University, Jena

Carl-Zeiss-Promenade 10, 07745 Jena, Germany

Tel.: +49 (0)3641 / 948710 (Secr.)

E-mail: Falko.Langenhorst@uni-jena.de
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Jeyhun Alakbarov - Trend:

Despite the spread of the coronavirus in Iran, Azerbaijani citizens continue to visit this country, a member of the operational headquarters under the Azerbaijani Cabinet of Ministers Yagut Garayeva said at a briefing for media representatives in connection with the coronavirus, Trend reports Feb. 28.

There are still cases when Azerbaijani citizens visit Iran, and upon returning, they try to evade the checks, Garayeva noted. They must understand that these checks are carried out in order to ensure their safety and health. Effectiveness of the work done depends not only on us, but citizens should also help us in this matter.

Iran is one of the recent countries, affected by the rapidly-spreading coronavirus. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 380 people have been infected, 34 people have already died.

The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.

The disease in Iran has already spread to at least fifteen Iranian provinces.

Following the reports of coronavirus spread in the Islamic Republic, several countries have taken measures, including closing borders and banning flights.

The death rate from the coronavirus in Iran is higher than in other countries where the infection has spread. The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19.
India and France on Friday agreed to deepen their counterterrorism cooperation, stressing the need to deny safe havens and sources of funding to terrorists.

The two countries held the 14th Meeting of Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism here at which a interagency Indian delegation was led by Ministry of External Affairs Joint Secretary Mahaveer Singhvi, while the French delegation was led by David Bertolotti, Assistant Secretary of State for Strategic, Security and Disarmament Affairs of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

Both sides condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and stressed the need for strengthening international cooperation to combat terrorism in a comprehensive and sustained manner, a Ministry of External Affairs statement said.

"They exchanged views on current counter-terrorism challenges including countering radicalisation, combating financing of terrorism, preventing use of internet for terrorist purposes, threats posed by internationally designated terrorist entities as well as cross-border terrorism in South Asian region," it said.

Both sides stressed the need to deny safe havens and sources of financing to terrorists, the MEA said.

The two countries agreed to further strengthen counter-terrorism cooperation, as a cornerstone of their bilateral strategic partnership through regular exchange of information, joint capacity building efforts, mutual legal assistance, sharing best practices for countering terrorism and radicalisation, and cooperating in multilateral fora such as the Untied Nations and the Financial Action Task Force.

They intend to work closely together in view of the third edition of the 'No Money for Terror' international conference on fighting terrorist financing being organised by the government later this year in New Delhi, the MEA said.

It was decided that the next meeting of the Joint Working Group on counter-terrorism shall be held in France in 2021 on a mutually convenient date.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shares in Ireland's biggest private landlord plunged to their lowest level in more than a year, wiping around 80m off the market valuation of Ires Reit, after the Irish Independent reported a rent freeze is on the table in talks to form a new government.

The report yesterday said a rent freeze was on the table during government formation talks between Fianna Fail and the Green Party a day earlier.

During the General Election, Fianna Fail had insisted a rent freeze was not legally possible.

The report triggered a more than 12pc fall in Ires Reit's share price yesterday.

That was three times greater than a general fall for the rest of the Irish stock market, reeling from fears the coronavirus will hit businesses this year. Yesterday, Fianna Fail housing spokesman Darragh O'Brien confirmed the potential for a rent freeze had been discussed with the Green Party, but said Fianna Fail's own position had not changed.

Ires set up here after the crash, buying up almost 3,000 homes, mainly by snapping up entire apartment blocks in and around Dublin. It is now the largest private landlord in the State. Last week it reported net rental income of 50.5m for 2019, a 23pc increase on 2018.

Its blocks range from the super-high-end Marker apartments at Grand Canal Square in the Dublin docks, and the Elmpark development, close to St Vincent's Hospital and RTE in Dublin 4, to modern developments in Tallaght, Finglas and Inchicore.

Last year, Ires charged a 1,596 average rent per month.
David Gergen scolded Democrats and Republicans for drifting too far left and too far right and stressed the importance of the two sides coming together during a guest lecture Thursday at UW-La Crosse.

Gergen, a prominent political commentator and former presidential adviser, spoke to a crowd of several hundred students and community members in the Student Union, part of the UW-L political science departments Civility in a Partisan Era series.

Expressing both fear and hope for the future of the United States, Gergen described himself as a short-term pessimist and a long-term optimist.

When you start to lose a sense of sharing the globe or sharing the country, things start to come apart, and thats where we are now, Gergen said. But there are reasons to be hopeful. Were not smarter than a lot of other countries, but we are more resilient. We just have to stick together on this and start talking to each other in the way we used to talk to each other.

Gergen reminisced about the civility and selflessness of the World War II generation and called for the creation of a national service system, in which all young people would spend a year serving in the military or volunteering for a school, hospital, prison or nonprofit organization.

One of the best things that ever happened to me, coming out of two elite universities, was I went into the Navy and lived with kids who barely finished high school, he said. I understood their dreams, their hopes, their fears. It really democratized me and got me off my high horse. It was a privilege to do that.

Drawing from his extensive experience in Washington, Gergen sprinkled his lecture with stories about John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

Once, he said, Kennedy asked his press secretary to secure 1,000 Cuban cigars. The press secretary, puzzled by the odd request, did exactly that. The next day, Kennedy went on national television and announced a trade embargo against Cuba.

Theres someone who had a sense of humor, Gergen said. He understood how important it was.

All told, Gergen served four presidents over parts of three decades. Anyone who spends that much time in the White House will realize how precious that office is and how important it is for not just the country, but the world, he said.

Thats why the past four years under President Donald Trump have been so upsetting to him.

I think his policies are actually, in some cases, something we should look at with some seriousness, Gergen said. Its not the issues that bother me. Its the tone that bothers me. If we believe in a civil world, I hope that our kids arent like him. I hope that my grandkids arent like him.

Yet, Gergen predicted that Democrats will have a hard time defeating Trump in November.

He knocked Sen. Elizabeth Warren for being too far left and dismissed front-runner Sen. Bernie Sanders for being even further left.

Bernie wants to change the country very dramatically  he calls it a revolution  and I dont agree with him about that, Gergen said. Weve always said no to socialism. I dont think it has a place in this country.

Gergen argued that former Vice President Joe Biden is perhaps the best hope for those seeking a moderate savior, someone who can rally both Democrats and Republicans to stitch the country back together.

Id like to see Biden come in for four years and bring in the best people from both parties, he said. It shouldnt be about ambition. It should be about healing.

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Avery now advances to the Indiana Youth of the Year program in Indianapolis in March. She received a $5,000 post-high school scholarship, and Steele won a $2,500 scholarship. Each of the other eight candidates will receive a $1,000 scholarship.

Avery, an 18-year-old Merrillville High School senior, thanked her parents for being there for me and supporting me, no matter what, and having my back side.

The daughter of Anthony and Nashun Avery plans to attend IUPUI for dental lab sciences.

This is just an amazing feeling, Avery said. I wouldn't have been able to do it without the club. Its a great program and I wish everyone could be a part of it.

The son of Marcus Steele Sr. and Beverly Johnson, Steele, 17, is a junior at Calumet New Tech High School. He plans to study architecture at Ball State University.

The award, Steele said, means everything to me. He is currently mentoring three youths at the Gary club.

Jacki Stutzman, of Boone Grove, one of three judges, said she was impressed by the nominees' poise, enthusiasm and leadership. They really get involved in their clubs and communities.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders just introduced legislation that's raising alarms in Silicon Valley. But this time, it's start-up workers, not Big Tech executives, who may be concerned.

Sanders and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., introduced a new tax bill Thursday that would tax nonqualified stock options of more than $100,000 at vesting for private company employees making at least $130,000 a year. This means that instead of being taxed once they exercise their options, employees would be taxed on shares when they vest, even though they still wouldn't be liquid assets. Employees who meet the tax threshold would be taxed on assets they haven't yet accessed and possibly will never exercise.

Start-up employees are commonly offered stock options as part of their compensation packages. The idea is that the company's future value could offset the relatively small salary its able to offer at an early stage. Employees have the option to buy stock at a set price once their options vest, with the hope that the shares will be worth more at the point of purchase.

The bill overall is meant to collect more taxes from CEOs and other highly paid executives, but tech industry representatives and even Silicon Valley Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, the co-chair of Sanders' presidential campaign, worry it will impact tech workers as well.

Khanna said in a statement to CNBC that "forcing employees in small start-ups to pay tax on stock before they have even had to sell it will hurt the start-up economy."

"This will hurt the ability to distribute wealth creation more widely for all employees, including immigrants and outsiders. Ironically, it could lead to more concentration of wealth for the venture capitalists, executives and founders of companies. It may disproportionally affect the rank and file  those who work hard and have a chance to participate in the startup value creation dream," Khanna said, adding he "look[s] forward to working with Senator Van Hollen and Senator Sanders to refine this."

"What I worry about is this would put start-ups at a huge huge huge disadvantage when it comes to competing with Big Tech companies for talent," said Evan Engstrom, the executive director of tech start-up advocacy non-profit Engine.

Engine pushed back on a similar provision in a Republican tax plan in 2017 that would have also taxed vested stock options. Before that part was nixed, hundreds of tech companies, executives and venture capitalists signed a letter to then-Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, urging the bill's backers to reconsider, citing negative impacts for start-ups' ability to compete with larger firms.

But Sanders' office believes the tax proposal would be unlikely to affect the rank-and-file workers Khanna and Engstrom are concerned about at the thresholds the bill lays out, according to a representative from Sanders' Senate policy staff.

The bill still allows affected employees to defer taxes on their vested options for up to five years as is the case under the current tax code. In cases where employees may be impacted, companies would likely rearrange their compensation packages in ways that could be beneficial for employees, Sanders' office told CNBC, for example, by granting stock to employees on a certain date rather than vesting stock options that workers would still have to choose to buy.

Here's Khanna's full statement on the tax legislation:

"There are many ways to raise revenue such as a wealth tax, an employer payroll tax, ending the carried interest loophole, and repealing the Trump tax cuts that I support enthusiastically. But forcing employees in small start-ups to pay tax on stock before they have even had to sell it will hurt the start-up economy. Perhaps employees at public companies can pay this tax on vesting, but not private start-ups where there is no public market for the stock. This will hurt the ability to distribute wealth creation more widely for all employees, including immigrants and outsiders. Ironically, it could lead to more concentration of wealth for the venture capitalists, executives and founders of companies. It may disproportionally affect the rank and file  those who work hard and have a chance to participate in the startup value creation dream. This is the office manager, executive assistant, junior engineer, individual contributors in marketing, finance, and administration. We should have higher taxes on the wealthy, and have our big corporations pay more tax. But I don't think the solution is going after ordinary employees at startups. We need a more nuanced approach, and I look forward to working with Senator Van Hollen and Senator Sanders to refine this."

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ELLE LIMEBEAR RELEASES FIRST FULL-LENGTH LP TODAY, LOST IN WONDER

"What Love Looks Like" Single At Radio Now Accompanied By New Music Video; Limebear Selected As One of Pandora's Christian Artists To Watch, Touring With Roadshow 2020 This Spring And More

February 28, 2020
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 00:24:05|Editor: huaxia

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by Burak Akinci

ANKARA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The tensions escalated between Turkey and Russia in Syria after an airstrike killed 33 Turkish soldiers on Thursday, the worst loss the Turkish military has suffered since an attack by Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey in 1993, said analysts.

Ankara, however, has avoided blaming Moscow for the attack but the airstrike prompted the NATO nation to seek military support from the West.

"This is a watershed moment for the Turkish-Russian relationship and an extremely serious situation because of the scope and the manner of the attack that killed so many Turkish troops," Hasim Turker, a senior analyst at the Ankara-based think-tank Bosphorus Center for Migration Studies, told Xinhua.

Turker, a former navy staff officer, said he is positive that Russia, the main backer of Damascus, is behind the airstrike in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, the last-rebel stronghold that the Russian-backed Syrian forces have been trying to recapture since last December.

"This attack has confirmed Turkey's (returning) place among the traditional western alliance within a new Cold War," the analyst noted.

He argued that even though the latest incident is very unlikely to trigger an all-out war between Russian and Turkey, it has brought Ankara back to the western axis.

Denying involvement in the Syrian airstrike, Moscow said the Turkish troops had been "within the ranks of terrorists" targeted by the Syrian government forces.

Having clearly learned about the Turkish casualties, Russia "took exhaustive measures for a complete cessation of fire" by the Syrian military, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.

In response to Turkish officials' appeal to the U.S.-led NATO for action, the U.S. State Department said Washington was very concerned and stood by "our NATO ally Turkey."

Earlier in the day, the NATO called an extraordinary meeting in Brussels, after which NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged de-escalation in Syria and highlighted the organization's solidarity with Ankara.

For Turkey, it is trying to diffuse the explosive crisis and restore some form of stability in Idlib where Ankara has considerably beefed up its forces in recent weeks to strengthen its observation posts there.

Since the start of February, more than 50 Turkish soldiers have been killed in clashes, prompting severe retaliation against Syrian positions.

Turkey wants Syrian government forces to return to their former positions in line with a 2018 Russian-Turkish de-escalation agreement.

"In light of what has happened ... Turkey is likely to change its roadmap in Syria and be more aggressive against Syrian government forces, which will be the sole option," Murat Aslan, an analyst from the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, said in a report.

"There is always a possibility" regarding a direct confrontation between Turkish and Russian troops, Aslan warned.

However, the existing economic, trade and energy partnership between the two countries, a rapprochement that has raised eyebrows in the West, would eventually prompt a military de-escalation, he noted.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held a phone conversation on Friday over the situation in Idlib, the Turkish press reported, suggesting an appeasement.

They also decided to relaunch bilateral talks on the crisis, which had so far proved inconclusive, and try to arrange a top-level meeting soon, according to Russian Interfax.

Nevertheless, the Idlib crisis has brought about a new dimension to the humanitarian emergency unfolding at the Turkish border, where around 1 million displaced Syrian civilians, mostly women and children, are in a dire situation.

After a security meeting in Ankara following the mortal strike, Turkey suddenly decided to grant free access for Syrian refugees to enter Europe, a move aiming to put pressure on the European Union to support Turkish operation in Idlib.

Opening the border could unleash a repeat of the migration crisis of 2015-2016, when more than 1 million people had arrived by sea in Greece and crossed the Balkan until Turkey shut its border in a deal with the EU.

According to Turkish TV footage, by the early hours of Friday, hundreds of migrants, some carrying small children, were making their way to Greek and Bulgarian border posts.

In Istanbul, Turkey's economic hub, the local Syrian community has begun organizing buses to take people to the Greek and Bulgarian borders.

However, "this (Turkish) policy of blackmailing the EU will not yield results," argued Turker, saying it could prove counter-productive at a time when Turkey needs its western allies' support.
A father is accused of killing his six-year-old son by sexually assaulting him with a stick on a camping trip as a punishment for eating a piece of cake without permission.

Mauricio Alejandro Torres is alleged to have attacked his son Maurice 'Isaiah' Torres, leaving the youngster with a bacterial infection. He died of septic shock the next day.

The 50-year-old was said to be camping with the boy in Missouri on March 28, 2015 and assaulted him for eating a piece of cake without permission, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

Mauricio Alejandro Torres, 50, has been charged with capital murder and battery after his son Maurice 'Isaiah' Torres died of septic shock

Maurice 'Isaiah' Torres died in hospital a day after allegedly being sexually assaulted with a sick on a camping trip in Missouri

Maurice was taken to Bella Vista medical clinic near his home in Arkansas, but died the next day.

The boy was said to have been forced to exercise after the horrifying assault and his mother Cathy injured him further by pushing him to the ground.

She was handed a life sentence after pleading guilty to capital murder in March 2017.

Torres has been charged with capital murder and battery over the death of Maurice. He has pleaded not guilty.

He was sentenced to death in November 2016 but his conviction was overturned last April because the alleged assault with a stick happened in Missouri and not Arkansas.

Capital murder offences that carry the death penalty must have taken place in the state where the prosecution is being brought, according to state law.

Torres now faces a retrial at Benton County Circuit Court in Arkansas on Thursday after his original convictions were overturned on this technicality.

He faces life imprisonment or death if convicted of the murder charge and from five to 20 years in jail if he is convicted of battery.

Maurice's father has been charged with capital murder and battery over his death in 2015

Torres was sentenced to death in November 2016 but his conviction was overturned last April because the alleged assault with a stick happened in Missouri and not Arkansas. He now faces a retrial

His original trial heard testimony from a medical examiner who stated that Isaiah's death was caused by a bacterial infection from being violated with the stick, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports.

Prosecutors used allegations of other instances of child abuse committed by Torres in Arkansas as grounds for the retrial on the murder charge.

At the opening of the trial on Thursday, the prosecution set out the horrific details of the case.

Benton County Prosecutor Nathan Smith told jurors: 'This is a story of abuse, torture, and murder of six-year-old Isaiah.

'He suffered chronic child abuse syndrome. The pictures you will see are ugly, grotesque.'

Smith alleged Isaiah had been abused for two years before his death and in March 2015, when he was 'inflicted a death blow', he added.

During the first trial it emerged Arkansas' Department of Human Services investigated allegations of child abuse against Torres and his wife twice, a year before the death of their son.
In January 2020 researchers from the University of California and Smithsonian Institution, collaborated with the Nature Foundation St. Maarten to collect data about native reptile and amphibian species on St. Maarten. The scientists Michael L. Yuan and Jeffery H. Frederick are trying to understand critical differences between similar species and how their particular evolutionary paths deviated from neighboring populations could prove crucial in the protection of these species moving forward.

PHILIPSBURG:--- The islands of the Lesser Antilles, including St. Maarten serve as biodiversity hotspots within the Caribbean, known to host a great number of endemic species. This research is not only critical for understanding the history of these species but in designing effective conservation strategies for the future. As climate change continues to threaten global biodiversity, learning to properly protect endemic species will become increasingly important.

Each island in the Lesser Antilles has been uniquely colonized by various species of Anolis lizards. Sint Maarten, in particular, is home to two species of Anolis lizards, A. gingivinus and A. pogus, Anguilla and Bearded anole respectively. With its diverse habitat range, paired with the fact that the Anolis populations of the island are known to have a wide variety of colors and patterns which may be adaptive to their environment, St. Maarten provides the perfect research site to understand the link between genetic, cellular, and phenotypic characteristics with the environment explained researcher Michael L. Yuan from the University of California, Berkeley.

The researchers took a closer look at how Anolis, a genus of lizards, are evolving to match conditions within their specific habitats, specifically dry scrublands versus more temperate climates. The researchers also focused on how the geographical history of the Leeward islands impacted the genetic evolution of local reptile and amphibian populations. To compare the evolutionary history of the Lesser Antilles, three different groups were selected: Eleutherodactylus johnstonei (Antilles whistling frog), Thecadactylus geckos (turnip-tailed geckos), and two species of Sphaerodactylus geckos (least geckos). Each of these is widely distributed throughout the islands yet exhibit distinct historical lineages which should provide an interesting base for comparison.

In addition, invasive species were sampled, the Cuban tree frog (Osteopilus septentrionalis) and the house gecko (Hemidactylus mabouia), to study their impacts on native populations as they are known to introduce diseases. Samples collected will provide insight into how these diseases impacted the evolution and spread of reptiles and amphibians throughout these islands.

Previously, the researchers completed a similar study on the island of Montserrat concerning A. lividus (Plymouth anole), as well as the islands of Sint Eustatius, Saint Kitts, and Nevis inhabited by A. bimaculatus (Panther anole) and A. schwartzi (Schwartzs anole). Here they were able to show a clear relationship between physical characteristics of the lizard and the habitat and climate

Understanding the differences between endemic populations could prove instrumental in designing conservation plans to protect these species in the future. For example, understanding the genetic structure of island populations can identify genetically unique lineages that may be of conservation interest. Finally, through understanding their evolutionary history and adaptation to local environments, researchers can predict how further changes in the environment may impact these populations.
By Moira Warburton

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada will no longer provide security for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Canadian government said on Thursday, once the couple are no longer working members of the British royal family in the coming weeks.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have been assisting London's Metropolitan Police with security for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex "intermittently" since November, when the couple began a six-week holiday in Canada, according to a statement from the federal Office of the Minister of Public Safety.

But once Harry and Meghan are no longer considered senior members of the British royal family, they will no longer receive the publicly-funded security that is estimated to cost into the millions of dollars.

The couple stunned the royal family in early January with a surprise announcement that they would be stepping down from their roles as senior royals, in order to gain freedom from the intense media scrutiny that has followed them for several years.

They announced their intention to spend more time in Canada, which could put part of the responsibility of their security onto the Canadian government.

"As the Duke and Duchess are currently recognized as Internationally Protected Persons, Canada has an obligation to provide security assistance on an as-needed basis," the government statement said.

"The assistance will cease in the coming weeks, in keeping with their change in status."

(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Toronto; Editing by Alistair Bell)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 19:42:21|Editor: xuxin

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VILNIUS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania has confirmed its first case of COVID-19, the country's health ministry announced Friday morning.

The patient, a Lithuanian woman who flew into Lithuania's city of Kaunas from Italy's northern city of Verona, is currently in isolation in the Republic Siauliai Hospital, which has the required infrastructure to treat coronavirus patients, the ministry said.

"The patient is reported to have mild symptoms; currently she has no fever and is being treated. The woman has been monitored since her return to Lithuania just as other travelers returning from the affected areas," it said.

According to the ministry, three of the patient's family members are also being closely monitored in the hospital, though none have tested positive for COVID-19.

Local authorities are also contacting those who have been in close proximity to the woman and assessing their health, it said, adding no symptoms have been reported yet.

"The mechanism will be activated now. People who were traveling together and spending time with the patient are now included in the high risk category and will be monitored," Lithuania's Health Minister Aurelijus Veryga was quoted as saying by local news agency Elta.
(Kitco News) - Idaho exploration company Midas Gold (TSX:MAX) announced yesterday Paulson will purchase convertible notes on a private placement basis for gross proceeds of $25 million. BMO Capital Markets and Sprott Capital Partners LP are helping the company raise an extra $10 million. Midas is trying to develop its Stibnite project in Idaho. "Midas Gold appreciates the continued support of its investors, particularly Paulson & Co., said Stephen Quin, President & CEO. While our permitting process has been extended a number of times, driving costs higher, these investments recognize the significant economic and environmental opportunity presented by the Stibnite Gold Project, where redevelopment of a heavily impacted brownfields mine site will provide more than 500 long-term, well-paid jobs in rural Idaho. By Kitco News For Kitco News Follow @kitconewsnow www.kitco.com

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
About 1 million people in the United States have ulcerative colitis, a serious disease of the colon that has no cure and whose cause is obscure. Now, a study by Stanford University School of Medicine investigators has tied the condition to a missing microbe.

The microbe makes metabolites that help keep the gut healthy.

This study helps us to better understand the disease, said Aida Habtezion, MD, associate professor of gastroenterology and hepatology. We hope it also leads to our being able to treat it with a naturally produced metabolite thats already present in high amounts in a healthy gut.

When the researchers compared two groups of patients  one group with ulcerative colitis, the other group with a rare noninflammatory condition  who had undergone an identical corrective surgical procedure, they discovered that a particular family of bacteria was depleted in patients with ulcerative colitis. These patients also were deficient in a set of anti-inflammatory substances that the bacteria make, the scientists report.

A paper describing the research findings was published online Feb. 25 in Cell Host & Microbe. Habtezion is the senior author. Lead authorship is shared by Sidhartha Sinha, MD, assistant professor of gastroenterology and hepatology, and postdoctoral scholar Yeneneh Haileselassie, PhD.

The discoveries raise the prospect that supplementing ulcerative colitis patients with those missing metabolites  or perhaps someday restoring the gut-dwelling bacteria that produce them  could effectively treat intestinal inflammation in these patients and perhaps those with a related condition called Crohns disease, Habtezion said.

A clinical trial to determine whether those metabolites, called secondary bile acids, are effective in treating the disease is now underway at Stanford. Sinha is the trials principal investigator, and Habtezion is the co-principal investigator.

Surgery often required

Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory condition in which the immune system attacks tissue in the rectum or colon. Patients can suffer from heavy bleeding, diarrhea, weight loss and, if the colon becomes sufficiently perforated, life-threatening sepsis.

There is no known cure. While immunosuppressant drugs can keep ulcerative colitis at bay, they put patients at increased risk for cancer and infection. Moreover, not all patients respond, and even when an immunosuppressant drug works initially, its effectiveness can fade with time. About one in five ulcerative colitis patients progress to the point where they require total colectomy, the surgical removal of the colon and rectum, followed by the repositioning of the lower end of the small intestine to form a J-shaped pouch that serves as a rectum.

These pouch patients can lead quite normal lives. However, as many as half will develop pouchitis, a return of the inflammation and symptoms they experienced in their initial condition.

The new study began with a clinical observation. Patients with a rare genetic condition called familial adenomatous polyposis, or FAP, are at extremely high risk for colon cancer, Habtezion said. To prevent this, they undergo the exact same surgical procedure patients with refractory ulcerative colitis do. Yet FAP pouch patients rarely if ever experience the inflammatory attacks on their remaining lower digestive tract that ulcerative-colitis patients with a pouch do, she said.

The Stanford scientists decided to find out why. Their first clue lay in a large difference in levels of a group of substances called secondary bile acids in the intestines of seven FAP patients compared with 17 patients with ulcerative colitis who had undergone the pouch surgery. The investigators measured these metabolite levels by examining the participants stool samples.

Primary bile acids are produced in the liver, stored in the gallbladder and released into the digestive tract to help emulsify fats. The vast majority of secreted primary bile acids are taken up in the intestine, where resident bacteria perform a series of enzymatic operations to convert them to secondary bile acids.
[February 28, 2020] University of Cincinnati Center for Business Analytics Announces 2020 Dates for Analytics Summit

The University of Cincinnati Center for Business Analytics will hold its annual Analytics Summit April 6-8, 2020, at the Sharonville Convention Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Summit will include two Analytics Training Days on April 6 and 7, as well as a Conference Day on April 8. The theme running through this year's Summit will be "Real-World Applications of Data Science and Business Analytics." The Training Days on April 6 and 7 feature four two-day technical sessions; "Advanced Microsoft (News - Alert) Power BI," "Fundamentals of Machine Learning," "Deep Learning with R" and "Tableau Masterclass." The single-day session on April 7 is titled, "Analytics for Executives." The conference on April 8 will include two keynote speakers, an executive panel discussion and five applied analytics track sessions in operations and supply chain analytics, finance and risk, marketing, analytics management and leadership, and advanced analytcs. Each track session will include three informative presentations.



Complete details and registration information can be found on the Analytics Summit 2020 event registration site. About the University of Cincinnati's Center for Business Analytics

The UC Center for Business Analytics helps companies and organizations define their analytics strategies and build their capabilities through leadership development, analytics training for practitioners, and promoting best analytics practices to solve problems faced by businesses, government and non-profit organizations. About the Lindner College of Business At the Carl H. Lindner College of Business, we are committed to developing the next generation of business leaders. By nurturing business problem solvers for more than 110 years, we've served as catalysts for innovation and cutting-edge research. Through experiential learning and personalized career development, our students graduate with a competitive advantage in the workforce, ready to tackle global challenges. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005378/en/

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Hollywood actor James Franco has hit back at 'false and inflammatory' allegations he sexually harassed and mistreated young actresses at his film school, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Two women who were enrolled in Franco's Studio 4 film academy sued the movie star claiming he and his partners dangled film and TV roles in exchange for their appearance in explicit sex scenes or sexually-charged auditions.

They filed a class action lawsuit in October last year also claiming 'Franco's targets' were also tricked out of pay by the actor's comedy and improv school.

'Employment opportunities for women supposedly increased when they agreed to overt sexual acts, nudity and performing in sex scenes - often in an orgy type setting,' read the original 33-page complaint.

James Franco is hitting back at two former students who accused him of sexual misconduct at his Studio 4 acting school

Sarah Tither-Kaplan (left) and Toni Gaal (right) allege the actor engaged in 'inappropriate and sexually charged behavior toward female students'

The former students, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, were among several actresses who came forward to publicly call Franco out for alleged sexually inappropriate and exploitative behavior, first after his appearance at the 2018 Golden Globes and later in a Los Angeles Times expose.

But in a legal demurrer - a written response to a complaint pleading for its dismissal on points of law - filed Friday and obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, Franco slams the 'salacious allegations' and accuses the 'attention-hungry' women of trying to 'smear' his name by jumping on the bandwagon of the #MeToo and Times Up movements.

'While the salacious allegations in the Complaint have made great tabloid fodder, they are also false and inflammatory, legally baseless and brought improperly in the form of a class action largely to gain as much publicity as possible,' attorneys representing Franco and his partners wrote.

Franco's attorney continued: 'This lawsuit is a travesty of justice and the culmination of a meritless campaign that has unfairly tarnished a decent man's hard earned reputation.'

Franco, 41, takes particular aim at accuser Tither-Kaplan, who is a former student of Franco's acting school dating back to 2014.

Tither-Kaplan was among those who publicly denounced Franco's alleged behavior on Twitter after his Golden Globes win in January 2018.

She tweeted: 'Hey James Franco, nice #timesup pin at the #GoldenGlobes, remember a few weeks ago when you told me the full nudity you had me do in two of your movies for $100/day wasn't exploitative because I signed a contract to do it? Times up on that!'

In response to her allegations which she later laid out in the class action suit, Franco's lawyers say: 'Ms. Tither-Kaplan had always expressed gratitude for having been given the opportunity to work in Emmy-nominated productions with Franco, one of her teachers.

'Time after time she had posted unsolicited tweets and texts extolling Franco's virtues, how much she admired him, and how much she got out of her time at Studio 4.'

In a legal demurrer - a written response to a complaint pleading for its dismissal on points of law - filed Friday and obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, Franco slams the 'salacious allegations' and accuses the 'attention-hungry' women of trying to 'smear' his name

The documents list several of the social media posts and texts which gush about Franco and Studio 4.

In one Tither-Kaplan said: 'James is a gem. I'm lucky to be part of this big ol weird fam.'

In another she wrote: 'It's a dream to work with these beautiful weirdos.'

Franco allegedly removed plastic genital guards from the performers in order to 'simulate oral sex on them' while a scene of an 'orgy' was performed

And in a third the actress references nude scenes, writing: 'Thanks for censoring my nip jamesy. Looooveeee these maniacs.'

In other posts Tither-Kaplan says she had an 'amazing experience' working with Studio 4 and offered to help in any way she could in future, even if it meant running errands and making the coffee.

But, the legal docs state: 'Now, over half a decade later and having failed to achieve any significant professional success, she claimed to have been mistreated.

'Her unsubstantiated, false, and woefully belated allegations were, unfortunately if predictably, bought hook, line and sinker by the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets  and so began Franco's odyssey as a falsely accused man.'

The class action suit accused Franco of creating 'an environment of harassment and sexual exploitation' at Studio 4, which was shuttered in 2017.

The Disaster Artist actor allegedly took advantage of his role as instructor by persuading female students to disrobe and/or engage in sexually-charged stage scenes with the suggestion they would get cast in one of his projects.

The suit says Franco 'routinely pressured to engage in simulated sex acts that went far beyond the standards in the industry.'

It also claims Franco and his partners, Vince Jolivette and Jay Davis, through the academy and their various production companies opted to 'sexualize their power and fame'.

They are alleged to have recruited women along with 'various other 'scouts' tasked with the job of seeking out young, naive women between the ages of 17 [and] 24 because these women would not know how the film industry functioned,' the suit claims.

The school's two-year program promised to teach students the Meisner method, 'as practiced by Franco while giving them the ability to audition and be hired as talent for RabbitBandini Productions,' the suit claims, making a reference to one of the actor's production firms, all the while 'sexually exploiting and humiliating female students and actors.'

The alleged incidents are said to have taken place in 2014, the same year the school opened in Los Angeles and New York.

Tither-Kaplan's tweet pictured above was among several made after Franco's appearance at the Golden Globes, alleging sexual improprieties and exploitation

Paley said: '& that other time you told my friend to come to your hotel when she was 17? After you had already been caught doing that to a different 17 year old?'

Tither-Kaplan enrolled in the LA school in February of that year and Gaal in April.

But in the demurrer Franco debunks many of the women's claims.

The paperwork says Tither-Kaplan 'knowingly engaged' in nude scenes under terms of a contract she signed and no one pressured her to perform in the films.

'The casting director and others involved with those films have confirmed that all actresses, including Tither-Kaplan, were aware of the nudity scenes ahead of time, that they were constantly checking to make sure the actresses felt comfortable, that they signed nudity waivers, and that no one  including Tither-Kaplan  ever complained.'

The filing also addressed Tither-Kaplan's most shocking claim that she witnessed Franco removing the vaginal guards of four other actresses.

The documents state: 'Tither-Kaplan admitted that she was not one of the actresses using a vaginal guard... all of the actresses involved confirmed that their vaginal guards were not removed, that the shooting of the film was professional, and that they did not feel mistreated, uncomfortable or taken advantage of; and... the cameramen involved in shooting the scene have confirmed that the guards were never removed.'

The suit added that Gaal has 'personal grievances' which have no place in a class action lawsuit.

In the suit Gaal claims that she was denied entry to a special 'sex scenes master class' for expressing her concern over the class.

'She was told by a male employee to 'grow thicker skin' and stop being so sensitive,' the suit claims.

The demurrer states that Gaal is 'upset' that an audition was 'filmed' and appears to have competing grievances against Franco to those of Tither-Kaplan, however.

'Gaal is suing because she was not selected for a 'Master' acting class back in 2014, while Tither-Kaplan is upset that she was,' the filing says.

The demurrer intends to have the lawsuit thrown out based on the facts and points out that several of the most damning claims were brought three years after the applicable two-year statute of limitations had expired.

The acting school, Playhouse West Studio 4, opened in 2014 and abruptly closed in 2017

Franco owned the school with partner Vince Jolivette, above 2015, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit

The filing states the women go to great lengths to smear Franco and his partners in the lawsuit, describing them as overtly and unabashedly 'sexually hostile, predatory and exploitive'.

But questioning the women's claims that they didn't realize the true nature of what was happening until years later, the document states: 'It would be impossible for a reasonable person, faced with such treatment, to fail to understand that Defendants actions were wrong and actionable.'

Franco's lawyers say that the women have used the #MeToo and Times Up movement to 'wrongly ensnare an innocent person'.

It demurrer states: 'Boiled down, this Complaint falsely alleges that Studio 4 was an enterprise created to allow Franco and others to exploit women sexually by having them audition nude (false), promising them acting opportunities only if they appeared nude (false), and used student films in which they appeared nude for his own personal enjoyment (false). '

After Franco's appearance at the 2018 Golden Globes, where he walked away with a win for best actor in a musical or comedy for his role in 'The Disaster Artist, and wore a 'Time's Up,' pin, actress Violet Paley, tweeted: 'Cute #TIMESUP pin James Franco. Remember the time you pushed my head down in a car towards your exposed penis & that other time you told my friend to come to your hotel when she was 17? After you had already been caught doing that to a different 17 year old?'

Paley later clarified her tweet by writing: 'Just to be clear I wasn't 17, I was an adult.'

The age of consent in both New York and California is 17.

Tither-Kaplan also tweeted claims at the time and was among five actresses who came forward in a Los Angeles Times expose about the alleged sexual improprieties and exploitation at the school

'If I have done something wrong I will fix it. I have to,' said Franco in response to the public outcry.
(TNS)- Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday activated the State Emergency Operations Center in reaction to the worldwide spread of the coronavirus as the state prepared "for the worst."The governor announced the move at a press conference at the state Emergency Operations Center in Dimondale."I want to be clear," Whitmer said. "There have been no confirmed cases in Michigan, and the current risk in the U.S. is still low."Thats a good thing, but based on what weve seen in other countries. we should expect to see more cases of coronavirus in the United States," she added. "And thats why for the safety of our families and communities we are activating the SEOC and harnessing resources from across state government to be ready, to be prepared and to help inform the population."We will hope for the best, but we will prepare for the worst. Just in the event that we need to be active, we will be ready."Five suspected individuals were tested in Michigan, and the results were negative, according to state health officials.There were 82,294 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 2,804 deaths across the globe at 10 a.m. Friday, according to the World Health Organization.China accounts for more than 95% of cases worldwide at 78,630 with 2,747 deaths, WHO's website said. Forty-six countries account for the other 3,664 cases and 57 deaths.Activation of the State Emergency Operations Center in among a multitude of efforts across state government to prepare for a potential spread of the disease. The center is staffed by emergency managers from every state department, who gathered there Friday morning to coordinate Michigan's response."The governors decision to activate the State Emergency Operations Center, SEOC, ensures a coordinated response from state agencies to address the potential spread of coronavirus as it impacts our state," said Captain Emmitt McGowan, commander of emergency management with the Homeland Security Division of the Michigan State Police.State health officials also launched Friday a state webpage at www.michigan.gov/coronavirus to provide information and updates on COVID-19.The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services next week plans to start a radio and social media campaign next to educate people on hygiene practices that can reduce the spread of the disease, such as frequent hand washing and bumping elbows instead of shaking hands."The main goal of these efforts is to help slow the spread of the virus," Whitmer said Friday. "We dont anticipate this will cease the spread, but we can slow it, and we can protect especially our most compromised Michiganders."I urge all Michiganders to take these recommendations very seriously and to share this information with their friends, family and co-workers."The state Department of Health and Human Services activated the state's Community Health Emergency Coordination Center on Feb. 3 to coordinate with local health departments and medical providers, said Michigan Chief Medical Executive Joneigh Khaldun."Weve been supporting our local health departments and home monitoring of people with recent travel to China, so that if they do develop any symptoms we find out quickly and connect them to the appropriate medical resources," Khaldun said.Michigan has asked 357 people since Jan. 31 to quarantine themselves for 14 days after recent travel to China that may have exposed them to coronavirus, state health officials said Thursday. The number monitored changes daily as some people complete their 14 days while others begin their period of self-quarantAll of the people were travelers who showed no signs of infection when entering the United States, according to the state health department. Some are no longer self-quarantined after completing 14 days of isolation with no symptoms.State health officials said Thursday that Michigan now can test for COVID-19 at the state laboratory in Lansing with a turnaround time of four hours per test. All coronavirus testing was previously handled by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, after testing kits sent to all state health departments in February were deemed defective by the CDC.Federal health officials said they fixed the problem with the kits by revising the protocols for how they're used. Michigan now has the ability to test up to 150 people using kits the state received from the CDC on Feb. 8.The CDC said it also loosened the protocols for who can be tested for coronavirus. Until now, only travelers to the epicenter of the epidemic in China, and those known to have been exposed to someone confirmed to be infected, were being tested.The expanded testing protocol followed news from California late Wednesday of the first case of coronavirus acquired through "community spread"  an expected but alarming new phase in the worldwide epidemic. The patient had not traveled to China or been exposed to a confirmed case of the disease.Michigan has no current plans to send testing kits to hospitals, Sutfin said."The CDC is sending out more kits, and we will be able to get additional. I am not aware of a shortage," she added.kbouffard@detroitnews.comcmauger@detroitnews.comPrevention tips for coronavirusWash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds several times a day.Avoid touching your eyes, mouth or any part of your face.Stay home from work or school if you get sick.Cover your coughs and sneezes.Instead of shaking hands, bump fists or elbows.Source: Michigan Department of Health and Human Services2020 The Detroit NewsVisit The Detroit News at www.detnews.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A pedestrian crosses the street at the intersection outside of the Constitution Health Plaza at 1930 S. Broad St. in South Philadelphia on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. The building will be the site of the first supervised injection site in the country. Read more

City councilmembers scrambled Thursday to mobilize opposition against plans for the countrys first supervised injection site, causing a political dilemma for Mayor Jim Kenney, one of the initiatives most prominent supporters, and helping to unravel the scheduled opening of a facility in South Philadelphia next week.

Councilmember David Oh filed proposed legislation that would make it all but impossible to open additional injection sites in the city.

Council President Darrell L. Clarke said he was involved in discussions about litigation to stop the nonprofit operator, Safehouse, from opening its facility in South Philadelphia next week, a step that became unnecessary Thursday evening when the owner of the building where the site was to open pulled out of the plan. And several lawmakers gave impassioned speeches opposing the plan, as well as the administrations handling of it.

Theres likely a majority of councilmembers who either are not happy with the process or dont necessarily support the whole premise of safe injection sites, Clarke said after Councils first meeting since the plan was announced. I dont fundamentally understand how you get to a point where you have a person stop using drugs by enabling them to use drugs in a quote-unquote safe manner.

There is likely more than a simple majority of Councils 17 members who fit that description. No members came forward to defend the plan or the mayor on Thursday.

Some councilmembers and other Philadelphia politicians have said they are open to using supervised injection sites as a strategy in the fight against the citys opioid crisis. But anger with Safehouse and the administrations handling of the rollout of the first site has unified an often-divided Council in opposition to the mayor.

The proposed location, which is near two preschools, leaked hours after a federal judge greenlighted the use of injection sites in Philadelphia, without warning to councilmembers or input from community groups.

Whether you support these supervised injection sites or you dont, you have to be upset at the process, Councilmember Mark Squilla said. What happened this week was just outright wrong.

Kenney spokesperson Mike Dunn said misinformation drove opposition to the plan to open the site in the Constitution Health Plaza on Broad Street near Passyunk Avenue.

The mayor and staff certainly have heard the concerns voiced today by Council members, and weve encouraged Safehouse to engage in additional community outreach, Dunn said in a statement. That said, it is important that the concerns of constituents not be exacerbated by false information.

Overdose prevention sites, as the administration refers to them, have been successful in other countries, Dunn said. In Philadelphia, a site could save from 24 to 76 lives per year, he said, while providing a venue so that public health professionals can connect individuals to drug treatment and other vital support services.

Dunn also pushed back on a rumor, repeated by councilmembers Thursday, that plans for 20 supervised injection sites across the city were in the works.

That is categorically false, he said. The number of sites needed would depend on the capacity of each site, and that has not been determined. What we do know is that this is very much a citywide problem, and the need to provide support services to those struggling with addiction is great. In short, the mayor would support as many as it takes to keep people from dying.

Kenney on Wednesday said the only additional planned injection site that he was aware of is for a facility in Kensington, which is at the heart of Philadelphias opioid crisis.

Councilmembers werent buying the mayors message on Thursday.

When you are a homeowner, and what is going in there will have an impact not just on your quality of life but on the value of what could be your only asset, you have a right to speak, and you have a right to have a role, said Majority Leader Cherelle L. Parker, who for the first time Thursday said that she opposes any injection sites in the city.

Ohs bill, which was written hastily and will likely be substantially amended if it advances, would require approval from Council and 90% of residents, businesses, and institutions within a one-mile radius of a planned injection site before a facility could be opened  effectively banning them.

Without offering details, Clarke said he has been involved in talks about suing to prevent the Safehouse facility from opening and to find a way to prevent future sites.

There is a lot of movement and discussion around any potential legal action that could be taken to delay the opening of the facility, Clarke said. We will see over the next couple of days. Mondays coming. Clock is ticking. And even if it does open, there will probably continue to be action taken to eliminate this site, and actually eliminate the premise of having safe injection sites in the city of Philadelphia.
LEAWOOD, Kan., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- World-class dining, an architect-designed campus, and state-of-the-art fitness equipment are a few reasons why retirees who could live anywhere choose the Boutique Retirement Club (BRC) at Ironhorse. The independent living community in Leawood, KS hasn't missed a detail in their effort to deliver the highest quality service, space and amenities. They even have a custom mobile app designed to deliver resident members 24/7 access to community information.

"We wanted to achieve a better and more convenient experience than even a high-end hotel. Everything our resident members need to enjoy the best of life is right here and we wanted them to be able to access all those offerings anytime. We decided an app would deliver the ultimate convenience and were ready to build our own," said Bridget Snodgrass, Vice President of Senior Operations at Overland Property Group, who jointly owns The BRC at Ironhorse with partners Midwest Health. "Then we found Touchtown."

Touchtown specializes in communication software for senior living. With their custom Community Apps product, FOI didn't have to reinvent the wheel. The team customized the app for their modern aesthetic, and regularly update it with useful content on their amenities and events. Residents simply download the app, login, and are instantly connected.

BRC integrated their app with Alexa so residents can ask the voice assistant for community information without raising a finger. Information can also be accessed from digital signs throughout the community and on an in-suite TV Channel.

"Other communities we looked at had nothing like the Tech Support offered at Ironhorse. Having that help makes it easier to learn and be more comfortable with all the technology in the community," said Resident-Member Sharon Darby.

The BRC at Ironhorse has set a bar for boutique retirement and their progressive use of technology poises them for many more years of serving residents, even as the wants and needs of the older adults in their community change.

For more information, visit www.fairwaysofironhorse.com/senior-living/ks/leawood/touchtown-community-app .

ABOUT OVERLAND PROPERTY GROUP

Overland Property Group (OPG) has developed over $400 million in multi-family and senior living communities since 2002. The company has multiple projects active in various stages of pre-development, closing, construction and lease-up across the Midwest, from affordable to ultra-luxury properties. For more information, visit www.ovpgroup.com .

ABOUT TOUCHTOWN

Touchtown's suite of simple-to-use technology tools improve communication and increase engagement in senior living communities. Custom solutions are designed to effectively address the needs, acuities and preferences of residents, staff, families and prospects. Learn more at www.touchtown.com .

CONTACT

Morgan McCoy

Content Specialist, Touchtown

412-508-4367

[email protected]

SOURCE Touchtown

Related Links

http://Touchtown.com


The meeting is to be held on Wednesday, March 4.

Speaker of Ukraine's parliament Dmytro Razumkov is calling a special plenary meeting at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's request.

"As is foreseen in a February 28, 2020, resolution of the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the meeting is to be held as requested by the President of Ukraine to convene an extraordinary plenary meeting of the Verkhovna Rada of the ninth convocation and in accordance with Part 8 of Article 19 of the Rules of Procedure of the Verkhovna Rada," an announcement on the parliament's website says.

Read alsoParliament speaker Razumkov: Farmland bill not yet on agenda of plenary session

The plenary meeting will begin at 16:00 Kyiv time on March 4.

The parliament's office was instructed to ensure preparations for the plenary meeting on March 4 and to inform lawmakers on the agenda.

As was reported, the period from March 2 to March 6 is a plenary week in parliament. On Wednesday, March 4, lawmakers should work only in the morning until 14:00 Kyiv time, and then they were expected to work in the parliament's committees.

The President's Office said that the special meeting would consider a number of bills and hear a report on law enforcement agencies' performance.

Zelensky sent a letter to Razumkov demanding that lawmakers gather for an extraordinary parliamentary meeting. "The head of state has asked to include the consideration of several draft laws regarding the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the agenda of the meeting," the presidential office said.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.  A New Jersey man who, police said, slashed a victims carotid artery last summer in Mariners Harbor will spend the next few years in a New York state prison.

James Mickens was sentenced Thursday, under a plea agreement, to 42 months behind bars.

The stabbing occurred around 11:20 a.m. last July 26, in front of a building on South Avenue near Arlington Place, said a criminal complaint.

Mickens cut the victims neck with a chefs knife, hitting his carotid artery, the complaint said.

The victim suffered a 4-inch gash and bled substantially, but survived, the complaint said.

Mickens, who lives in Passaic, was busted on Sept. 17, about two months after the near-deadly episode.

He was charged with assault and criminal weapon possession.

Earlier this month, Mickens pleaded guilty in state Supreme Court, St. George, to a lesser count of attempted first-degree assault to satisfy all charges against him.

Besides prison time, he was sentenced to 42 months post-release supervision.

His lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the case.

Assistant District Attorney Arda Ozdinc prosecuted the case.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 23:48:00|Editor: yan

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VIENTIANE, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Lao officials have vowed to continue to fully support China's fight against COVID-19 and learn from China's experiences in preventing the spread of epidemic.

Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong met with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party politburo member and Vientiane mayor Sinlavong Khoutphaythoune, and Deputy Minister of Public Security Kongthong Phongvichit, and talked with Lao Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith by telephone from Wednesday to Friday, thanking the Lao side for hosting the Special ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting on Coronavirus Disease and the fifth Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in Vientiane on Feb. 20.

During the talks in Vientiane, both also exchanged views on the cooperation over COVID-19 epidemic prevention.

The Lao officials said the Lao side feels heartfully grateful of the trust and support from China to host the two meetings, which, under the bilateral efforts from the Lao and Chinese sides and the proactive collaboration from the ASEAN members, have achieved the expected results and accomplish a complete success, strengthened the unity and cooperation between ASEAN and China, and increased Laos' international and regional status.

The Lao side will review its experiences and work with China to advance the future bilateral and multilateral exchanges and cooperation, the Lao officials told the Chinese envoy.

Ambassador Jiang said the Lao side has fully prepared and successfully held the two foreign ministers' meetings, sending a positive message that China and ASEAN countries will join hands to respond to the epidemic, protect the people's health, and promote exchanges and cooperation.

"We highly appreciate and sincerely thank the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs for coordinating the preparations and organizing affairs of the two conferences, the Lao capital of Vientiane for providing logistical support, and the Ministry of Public Security for careful arrangements in terms of security to ensure the safety and success of the conferences," said the Chinese envoy.

As the current situation of the COVID-19 epidemic is still developing, China is willing to share the experience of prevention and control with the Lao side and provide necessary assistance, he said.
A five-member Congress delegation, led by Congress leader Mukul Wasnik, paid a visit to the victims of North-East Delhi violence admitted to the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital on Friday and will soon submit a report to party interim President Sonia Gandhi.

"Sonia Gandhi has constituted a team of 5 Congress leaders who will interact with the people affected by the violence in the capital. This team has started to visit the affected areas, hospitals, meeting the victims and will make a peace appeal to them," Wasnik told reporters.

The delegation comprises party General Secretary Mukul Wasnik, Delhi in-charge Shaktisinh Gohil, Haryana unit chief Kumari Selja, former MP Tariq Anwar and All India Mahila Congress President Sushmita Dev.

The committee is soon expected to submit a detailed report to the Congress chief after completing their visits to affected areas.

The Congress delegation will also visit violence-affected areas of North-East Delhi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Social media platforms across Turkey winked out after an airstrike in Syria killing dozens of Turkish soldiers. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and YouTube were all reported down.

Twitter was the first to go, with national provider Turk Telekom shutting off access around 11:30pm local time on Thursday. This was followed by all other social networks, clustered by provider, according to multiple services monitoring internet outages across the globe, RT reported.



Accounts of major media outlets remained active however, as they flashed updates about the alleged Syrian airstrike and the Turkish response.
Controlled chaos in Afghanistan undermines stability in Pakistan and creates the case for stronger Indo-Afghan strategic ties.

If a peace deal is signed this week, what comes next? No amount of spin can gloss over the fact that the Americans will, for all practical purposes, be signing instruments of surrender on Feb 29. (Photo: AP)

In just a few days, one of two things may happen. On Feb 29, the US may sign a historic peace deal with the Afghan Taliban, or maintain there has been no significant reduction in violence in which case all bets are off. If the Taliban hold up their end of the bargain, the deal will pave the way for intra-Afghan negotiations and provide a justificatory umbrella for the US to withdraw a quarter of its roughly 12,000 troops this summer.

But like most exit-agreements, the devil is in the detail, or in this case, the lack of it. For Pakistanis who have lived and died in the perennial shadow of a mismanaged war effort next door, there are still a host of unknowns to contend with. Most Pakistanis are either too pragmatic, or too disillusioned by years of operational shortcomings on the Afghan battlefield, to expect a sincere apology for being scapegoated, first for not doing enough to exterminate the Taliban/Haqqani leadership, and then, not doing enough to engage them.

Yet between Sirajuddin Haqqanis public sanitisation by the New York Times, Americas attention deficit and Kabuls capacity deficit, it is incontestable that negotiations would not have reached this evolved stage without Pakistans cooperation and diplomatic efforts to curate some semblance of regional stability.

If a peace deal is signed this week, what comes next? No amount of spin can gloss over the fact that the Americans will, for all practical purposes, be signing instruments of surrender on Feb 29. For the Taliban in the room, many of whom who have staked their legacies on getting the US to exit, a US-Taliban truce will be a resounding victory. Buoyed by having defeated not one but two superpowers, the Taliban will approach the second phase of negotiations from a position of conviction.

Maintaining the peace is going to be doubly difficult without an agreed upon definition of violence and a broader Chinese, American, Russian, Iranian and Pakistani convergence on regional endgoals. Monitoring compliance without neutral observers in an environment as complex as Afghanistan will be difficult; the ground is littered with spoilers, including those outside the country who would rather not see the Taliban mainstreamed. India, which has seen its influence in the Afghan endgame diminish, stands to benefit from continued low-intensity conflict, and wants to delay the political mainstreaming of the Taliban. Controlled chaos in Afghanistan undermines stability in Pakistan and creates the case for stronger Indo-Afghan strategic ties.

In its rush to reach a deal in light of a tough election calendar ahead, Republicans in the US could fudge long-term strategic intent, giving rise to several complications. For instance, it cannot both be a party to the conflict and a guarantor should things unravel. Americas insistence that it reserves the right to help defend Afghan forces in the interim is tricky; should Afghan forces come under fire, the US stands to lose credibility if it does nothing, and its goodwill with the Taliban should it intervene. And if counterterrorism indeed remains Americas top missive in the region, whether it can achieve its objectives without troops or resorting to gunboat diplomacy is unclear. Equally unclear is the question of demobilisation and reintegration of Taliban fighters into the Afghan security forces. Mid-level commanders will expect patronage in the division of power, and likely the entire security apparatus will need to be reconstituted. Forging an ethnically inclusive institution will be necessary if it is to be deployed across the country.

Finally, the US still thinks Islamabad has incentives to retain Taliban infrastructure on its side of the border. Frankly, this is a cognitive schema that for now means the US wont fully afford Pakistan the trust it deserves as a regional partner and well-intentioned stabiliser. This is unhelpful given the political crisis unfolding in Kabul in the wake of a contested election.

Today, there seems to be little appetite in the US to smooth over Kabuls political cracks. Should intra-Afghan talks go ahead, there is no guarantee that President Ghani will concede a political exit; that non-Pakhtun factions will accept any dilution of their influence; that the political and social rights of women will indeed be upheld; and that Afghans themselves will agree to any constitutional changes, a Taliban demand that the US, in its rush to exit, has legitimised.

Negotiations among all Afghan factions are supposed to begin within 10 days of the plan being signed. But the real challenge going forward lies in mapping a viable peace that wont be buffeted by exogenous shocks. Keeping that process on track will require the US to continue to invest for the next phase of negotiations.

By arrangement with Dawn
A "mini-moon" the size of a family car has started orbiting the Earth, astronomers have announced.

The object, which measures up to 11ft in diameter, was spotted earlier this month by a Nasa-funded observation station in Arizona.

It is likely to have been orbiting the planet for about three years and circles it in an uneven oval shaped pattern once every 47 days. Named 2020 CD3, it is just the second known asteroid to have been pulled into orbit and scientists predict it will not become a permanent fixture.

The first was the 2006 RH120 which circled the globe between September 2006 and June 2007 before heading into outer space.

Kacper Wierxchos, a researcher at the Catalina Sky Survey, made the discovery with his colleague Theodore Pruyne. "It's a big deal," he tweeted. ( Daily Telegraph London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]
Britons are now twice as likely to die from drugs than a road accident, a police chief revealed yesterday.

The shocking fact lays bare the scale of the drug menace gripping the country.

It was revealed by top police officer Andy Cooke. He also told how drug dealers are peddling woke coke, attracting middle-class users with the claim that drugs are ethically-sourced and no-one had been harmed in the production of this cocaine.

The figures emerged on the day a major report warned of the unprecedented number of children and teenagers being drawn into the drug trade through county lines gangs.

Dame Carol Blacks review for the Home Office said a resurgence in crack cocaine use led to a rise in killings while the growth of county lines gangs has increased levels of violence. A stock photo is used above for illustrative purposes only [stock photo]

Dame Carol Blacks drugs review revealed that deaths due to misuse of substances were the highest on record, with a total of 4,104 in the UK in 2018, with 2,917 recorded in England and Wales and 1,187 in Scotland.

Yesterday Chief Constable Cooke, who leads the National Police Chiefs Council on crime operations, said the rising death toll was more than double the 1,784 killed on Britains roads in the same year.

He called for police forces to come down hard on all types of drug offences, including possession of cannabis.

Deaths involving cocaine doubled between 2015 and 2018 and the number of deaths overall from misuse of drugs rose by 16 per cent between 2017 and 2018.

Its shocking, but sadly not surprising, that you are now twice as likely to die a drugs-related death than from a road accident, he said.

Its why everyone must focus more on dealing with addiction, alongside the police work to target the dealers.

Deaths involving cocaine doubled between 2015 and 2018 and the number of deaths overall from misuse of drugs rose by 16 per cent between 2017 and 2018. A stock photo is used above for illustrative purposes only [File photo]

It is a hidden shift, because no real attention has been paid to the number of drug deaths ... until county lines became an issue.

County lines drug gangs are named for the phone lines used to arrange deals outside major cities.

Mr Cooke added: People have realised it is not just an issue for Manchester, Merseyside or Birmingham, it is an issue for every town and city.

The Merseyside Chief Constable spoke at the National Police Chiefs Council and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners summit as he condemned middle-class users for fuelling a trade which is costing society around 19billion a year.

Dealers with business cards who deliver in just 27 minutes Hard drugs are as easy to obtain as a takeaway pizza because organised crime is flooding Britains streets with abundant supplies, a Government analyst warns. Substances such as cocaine and ecstasy can be delivered to the door in minutes by dealers  in some cases more quickly than a 12-inch pepperoni. Many dealers even carry business cards. An official Home Office study revealed violent county lines gangs have usurped local dealers in virtually every part of the country and are intimately linked with a dramatic increase in violence. Report author Dame Carol Black, former president of the Royal College of Physicians, told a Home Office drugs conference in Glasgow: You can buy whichever drug you want almost anywhere. Its almost  for some drugs  as easy as getting your pizza. A BBC investigation found it took just 27 minutes to get hold of an order of cocaine from a dealer in Leeds, who had his own business cards. A reporter texted a dealer at 7.35pm, received a reply 20 minutes later, and seven minutes after that handed over 60 cash for two small bags of drugs. Dame Carols review said organised crime is driving use of hard drugs and other illegal substances in rural areas. County lines gangs use dedicated phone lines to sell drugs  mainly heroin and crack cocaine  out of major cities and into shire counties, market towns and coastal resorts. Dame Carol said: The county lines model now stretches all over the country and has largely displaced local dealers. Increasingly, local children are being recruited to work for the gangs rather than youths shipped in from urban areas, she added. It is a very violent business model, both for victims and between groups, she said. Potential future saturation of county lines markets raises the threat of violence still further. Advertisement

He said: I heard the most ridiculous thing recently that some drug dealers were claiming they had ethically sourced cocaine. There is nothing ethical about the production of cocaine.

Both nationally and internationally, people die as a result of it. We see people shot and stabbed all the time, we see turf wars in relation to drugs. We need to continue to target those individuals involved in violent criminality on the back of the drug trade more strongly than ever.

He added: People think that they have to go and buy vegan food or organic food, but they are quite happy to go and buy cocaine on the streets. It is just hypocritical and it is targeted at the middle-class drug user who should know better.

Mr Cooke said forces should treat cannabis offending as seriously as other drugs.

We get more people shot and stabbed on the streets of Merseyside as a result of cannabis wars than other issues.

Dame Carol Blacks review for the Home Office said a resurgence in crack cocaine use led to a rise in killings while the growth of county lines gangs has increased levels of violence.

The proportion of killings in London which are drug-related stands at 56 per cent, the report revealed, while in the north of England it is 42 per cent.

In the south, Midlands and Wales it is 37 per cent.
Photo: Vulture

The true-crime podcast universe is ever expanding. Were here to make it a bit smaller and a bit more manageable. There are a lot of great shows, and each has a lot of great episodes, so we want to highlight the noteworthy and the exceptional. Each week, our crack team of podcast enthusiasts and specialists will pick their favorites.

The Nobody Zone, A Hidden Truth

The premise set forth by writer and narrator Tim Hinman in this podcasts opening moments is almost too outlandish to believe: For 30 years, an Irishman terrorizes the London Underground, pushing unsuspecting strangers onto the tracks just as a train comes barreling into the station. He goes undetected for decades, yet ultimately confesses to these 13 or so murders  but is never prosecuted. Inconceivable, right? Well, that too outlandish to believe part ends up becoming the central conflict of The Nobody Zone, this new podcast from RTE and Third Ear. Is this supposed serial killer, Kieran Patrick Kelly, a 20th-century Jack the Ripper? Or are his alleged crimes (and the massive cover-up that ostensibly ensued) simply the imaginings of a troubled former cop? I, for one, am resisting the urge to Google and allowing this disquieting story to unravel in due time. Amy Wilkinson

Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions, Robert Davis

Photo: Hand-out/Lava for Good Podcasts

Lawyers Laura Nirider and Steven Drizin take over the mic for the tenth season of the podcast Wrongful Conviction, to delve into the case files of false confessions. If the hosts names sound familiar, its likely because they appeared in the 2015 Netflix documentary Making a Murder, representing Brendan Dassey in his pursuit to get his conviction for the murder of Teresa Halbach overturned. This podcast doesnt focus on Dasseys ordeal specifically, but instead highlights a different case each week in which someone confessed to a crime they didnt commit. The lawyers first case, that of Robert Davis, is a heartbreaking one. (Though, I suppose every wrongful conviction case told here will end up being a heartbreaking one) As a senior in high school, Davis is implicated as an accomplice in a heinous double murder. Through questionable interrogation tactics, he ends up confessing and taking an Alford plea (in which the plaintiff does not admit culpability), sending him to prison for 23 years, even though he had nothing to do with the crime. His lawyer never gives up on him, though, and there is a somewhat happy ending to be had here. Unfortunately, our country has a long way to go when it comes to criminal-justice reform, and Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions is just one more tragic  yet necessary  reminder. Amy Wilkinson

The Fall Line, Part 1: Cedartown Jane Doe

The newest season of The Fall Line continues doing what the podcast does best  examining and elevating the cases of the missing and murdered in the southeastern U.S. that have been neglected by the mainstream media. In this first episode in a two-part series on the case of Cedartown Jane Doe, co-host Laura Norton dissects the circumstances surrounding the September 16, 2003, fire resulting in the death of a teenage girl who has yet to be identified. She delves into the accelerating meth problem in the area, directly associated with the rise in violent crime, along with the birth of ICE (yep, that ICE), impacting the Latinx population of Polk County, including Cedartown. While two of the three people in the burning house at 506 7th street were identified, the young girl remains one of the missing missing  we still dont know her name, and her disappearance has never been reported. Delivered with Nortons usual urgency and elegance, this episode provides a vital understanding of the context of Cedartown Jane Does death. Chanel Dubofsky

Verified, Maria and Kate

Couchsurfing.com seems like a trustworthy way to find cheap places to crash while seeing the world, but a slew of positive reviews doesnt mean much IRL. In Verified, journalist Natasha Del Toro shines a spotlight on a beyond-disturbing series of sexual assaults committed by a police officer in Italy who offered his place up to young women traveling abroad. The first episode starts with Maria, who traveled with her friends from Portugal on holiday to Italy. They were hoping to stay in Venice but couldnt find any available hosts; instead, they posted a note looking for a place to stay, and Leonardo contacted them. While it wasnt ideal, it seemed workable; after all, Leonardo was a police officer. However, Leonardo drugged Maria during dinner before he and a friend dragged the young women out to party in Padua. She was in and out of consciousness for hours, and by the time it was over, they just wanted to get home. They were confused and horrified, with Maria especially left wondering exactly what happened to her while she was barely coherent. She began reaching out to other people who had left reviews for Leonardo, and what she found was enraging.

The second episode features Kate, who encountered Leonardo during a quick trip to Italy while she was on her semester abroad in England. The details differed slightly, but the end result was the same: Leonardo drugged and sexually assaulted Kate. When she got back to the U.K., she filed a complaint about her assault in Italy that seemingly got lost in the shuffle. (The Guardians story about the sentencing of Dino Maglio features what I assume is Kates story, under the pseudonym Anna, here, along with information about the other women he assaulted.)

Maglio was convicted in 2015 of raping a 16-year-old Australian woman, and while he was still under investigation for three other assaults at the time, I cant find any news about him since then. Im looking forward to finding out how these women found justice and stopped a predator  hopefully for much longer than the six and a half years he was originally sentenced to. Jenni Miller
CEO says logistics groups recent move to consolidate its two Asian regions was in order to have enough bandwidth and capacity to deal with an acquisition, to prepare an acquisition and eventually to integrate it

Kuehne + Nagel is eyeing a transformative acquisition in Asia having earlier this year announced plans to accelerate its development in the region.

At a conference call with analysts which followed the presentation of the Switzerland-headquartered global freight forwarding and logistics group, CEO Detlef Trefzger, said: We have consolidated two Asian regions in order to have enough bandwidth and capacity to deal with an acquisition, to prepare an acquisition and eventually to integrate it.

He stressed that he was talking about an acquisition in Asia, adding: This will not happen within the next two or three months. That will take time. And I think the rest of what needs to be prepared, we can gear up very quickly.

Our systems are scalable. In air freight, we have already implemented and rolled out the latest generation of our operating system called AirLOG. And in sea freight, this starts now, second semester this year. So, we will be able to make use of our tools and operating systems as well as our CRMs, our customer-facing systems as well.

Trefzger said K+N had been present in China and Asia for almost 60 years.

We have employees and colleagues that are with us in Asia, in Hong Kong, in Singapore, in Japan for 25, 40 years. So that is a very strong base, he noted. But we would like to do more business with Asian customers and do this business not only in Asia but globally with those customers. The future challengers, those Asian companies that will become major players (shippers) globally eventually are what we are looking at (as potential clients).

Yes, we are a traditional European-based international transport and logistics group leading in many areas, but we would like to have a bit more of an Asian flavour and want to transform further based on such an acquisition.

He declined to give details about the potential size of acquisition, because I don't want to create any speculation, noting that an acquisition in Asia will take longer than some other parts of the world to set up. But we are in very good talks at the moment and I think we will get more and more momentum with this topic.

Pushed on the size of the acquisition, Trefzger replied: Our appetite in Asia is huge. We are extremely hungry, adding that the company had enough fire power to make something transformative happen.

In January this year, K+N unveiled a new Asia Pacific region, headquartered in Singapore, in order to target an even stronger role in logistics all over Asia. It previously operated two regional head offices, one in Singapore and the other in Shanghai. The group employs about 10,000 staff in the region.

K+N currently operates from 265 locations in the Asia-Pacific region spanning Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, New Zealand, Pakistan, The Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

The company posted a turnover in the Asia-Pacific region of around CHF 2,701 million in 2019, down slightly on the previous year. K+Ns global turnover in 2019 was CHF 25.3 billion. Asia-Pacific contributed CHF 885 million to the companys gross profit of CHF 7.98 billion last year.
Immigrants who hope to challenge their deportation orders could be charged nearly $1,000 to go to court under a proposed new regulation unveiled on Thursday, a nearly tenfold increase that immigration lawyers warn could make deportation appeals much more difficult to pursue.

The new fee schedule is the latest in a series of moves by the Trump administration to speed up deportations and discourage the arrival of immigrants. Under the same proposal, the administration wants to require asylum seekers to pay a $50 fee to have their cases heard in court; historically, the asylum process has been available to people fleeing persecution regardless of their ability to pay.

In proposing the new fees, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, an arm of the Justice Department, said asking immigrants to pay a greater share of costs would help make sure that court resources were available and would also assure that U.S. taxpayers do not bear a disproportionate burden in funding the immigration system.

The proposed fees are now open to public comment for a 30-day period. The fees were last increased in 1986, the agency said, and applicants would continue to be able to apply for waivers if they are unable to pay.
Chandigarh, Feb 28 : At least three workers were killed and more than 20 injured in a boiler explosion in a chemical factory in Haryana'a Ballabhgarh on Friday, police said.

Many were trapped when the boiler burst and a huge ball of fire rose, making the rescue operations difficult.

The blast victims, suffering extensive burns, in the accident were admitted to nearby hospitals.

The blast damaged and put on fire nearby three industrial units also.

The cause of the blast is yet to be ascertained, the police said.
William Allan is a Texas native and father of two grown children who attended Rice University and is now living with an incurable polycystic disease. He has published his latest book Lost in Multispace: a mind-bending fantasy that keeps the pages turning until the stunning conclusion.

The author shares, This is the story of a mans impossible journey back home. His name is Odis, or Ottis, or some variation of Odysseus, as a nod to another impossible journey, although the similarity ends with his name. It is also the story of humans impossible journey to leave the nest, with infinite choices leading to disaster and infinite more leading to stagnation. If one man can find his way home to teach the one way off the planet Earth, humanity may survive the galactic collision with Andromeda.

As an author, I see that the current climate is publishers clamoring for LGBTQ characters. It is tempting to pander to that demand. Instead I chose as my main characters relationship one based on domination and submission. Having the privilege of knowing some extraordinarily loving couples in the D/S community, I observe they are still often treated as politically incorrect in a world supposedly now open to diversity. My main character needed an extraordinary relationship to continue to face impossible odds against getting back home, which for him was wherever his other half was. If you are unfamiliar with the D/S community, you may get a look at a relationship where, like real-world D/S relationships, the sexually submissive half is often the dominant decision maker.

The protagonist comes from a world far more medically advanced than our own, where disease is a historical artifact, pregnancy a choice, and even genetic defects have simple cures. In such a world, there is no biological backlash from the sex act, so most of the world has left monogamy behind. Our protagonists choose monogamy in a world that now considers it quaint, but their torrid relationship leaves them forever satisfied.

Published by Page Publishing, William Allans engrossing book is a must-red for mature fans of futuristic fantasy fiction.

Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase Lost in Multispace at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create - not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues to focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, along with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal, on Friday visited Kota to offer his condolences to the family members of 24 people who were killed in a bus accident in Bundi district.

A mini-bus carrying a wedding party had hurtled off a bridge on Kota-Dausa highway in Bundi on Wednesday morning, resulting in death of 24 people and injuries to five others.

Gehlot said the incident shook the entire state and the government was standing by the grieving families.

Dhariwal announced that the compensation amount for the kin of the deceased has been increased from earlier Rs 2 lakh to 5 lakh.

The government has also announced to provide free education and hostel facilities up to college level to the children of the deceased, benefits of food security and social security (pension scheme). It also said a grant on the marriage of girls and the benefit of the Palanhar scholarship scheme will be accorded to the children of the victims.

Dhariwal said the Kota divisional commissioner has been asked to conduct an inquiry into the accident and submit a report within seven days.

Later, the chief minister told reporters that necessary action will be taken after the report is received.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
OTTAWA - Renowned Canadian epidemiologist Dr. Bruce Aylward led a team of researchers into China earlier this month to study the novel coronavirus on behalf of the World Health Organization. Here's what you need to know about their newly released discoveries:

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bruce Aylward, Team Lead WHO-China joint mission on COVID-19, speaks to the media about the COVID-19 after returning from China, during a press conference, at the World Health Organization, WHO, headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP

OTTAWA - Renowned Canadian epidemiologist Dr. Bruce Aylward led a team of researchers into China earlier this month to study the novel coronavirus on behalf of the World Health Organization. Here's what you need to know about their newly released discoveries:

What are the symptoms?

The novel coronavirus can cause a respiratory illness, called COVID-19, that can present very differently from person to person. Some show no symptoms at all, while others have developed severe pneumonia and even died. So far the disease has killed 2,800 people worldwide. The most common symptoms are fever and a dry cough. Less commonly, people with the disease showed signs of shortness of breath (less than 20 per cent of cases) or a sore throat (less than 14 per cent). Only five per cent of cases showed symptoms of nausea. Nasal congestion was even less common.

How will it affect your kids?

There are still many unanswered questions about how the virus affects children, including whether they are less susceptible or if they present with different or milder symptoms. Researchers did learn the attack rate in China appeared lower in people 18 and younger, representing only 2.4 per cent of the total number of cases. They also noted no one they interviewed could recall a situation when an adult was infected by a child. Usually, cases of the virus in children were discovered by testing the close contacts of infected adults. Only a very small percentage of people younger than 19 who contracted the disease developed a severe or critical case.

Who is most at risk?

Because there's no known pre-existing immunity to the virus in humans, everyone is assumed to be susceptible. Most people who are infected will only get a mild or moderate case, which may or may not include a pneumonia, but in China about six per cent of cases were considered critical. The people at highest risk for severe disease and death are those over 60, and people with underlying health conditions like hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and cancer. Health-care workers have also been impacted by the virus, especially in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began. Most cases happened early on, before there was much experience with the disease.

How is it transmitted?

In China, transmission is largely happening in families. Community transmission has been very limited. The researchers found the virus is transmitted mainly through droplets from coughing or sneezing, though more study is needed about the potential for airborne transmission outside of hospitals. The virus has also been found in fecal matter. That's not been driving transmission in China, the researchers said, but it's role and significance for COVID-19 remains to be determined. During the 2003 SARS outbreak, the WHO says officials found the virus spread to residents of a Hong Kong apartment building called through faulty plumbing.

What is the incubation period?

People generally develop symptoms within five to six says of being infected, but researchers said it can range from one to 14 days. That is why the government has quarantined people returning from places with high concentrations of the virus for two weeks. Asymptomatic cases have been reported, but most went on to develop the disease after they were tested. Among patients who died, it took from two to eight weeks from the time their symptoms emerged.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2020.
Your Honour, we are old, some of us are dead and most of our companions are sick. Please do not let this trial go on too long and may the accused deign to appear in this court. The suspects are known, we know where they live. There is no reason for hearing after hearing, with only the victims attending the trial! pleaded Hmida Maamar before the Tunis Transitional Justice Chamber before it rose on 24 February at the end of a long session devoted to the so-called Perspectivists case.

Hmida Maamar, in his seventies, a former political prisoner of the radical left born in the 1960s, is on the brink of despair. He did not testify that day, giving way to two other activists of his Perspectives group, Mohamed Maali and Tahar Chagrouch, who were imprisoned with him in the inhuman conditions of Bourguibas worst jails from 1975 to 1980. The two survivors continued the story told by four of the groups other victims, starting on December 16 before the same presiding judge, Ridha Yacoub.

Fifty years on, the Perspectivists have come to testify.  Olfa Belhassine

An intellectual elite, with womens participation

At the end of the 1960s, a wind of freedom blew over a student population full of Marxist and Maoist ideals then in vogue in the world. In Tunisia, the wind of freedom first blew behind the Perspectives movement. It was founded in Paris in reaction to the hijacking of a ballot which gave students of the extreme left victory in elections of the General Union of Tunisian Students (UGET), which had previously been held by the single party of former president Bourguiba. This attempt to neutralize one of the last political bastions remaining partially autonomous caused the emergence of the radical left. Perspectives would dominate Tunisian universities in the 1960s and 1970s and would be strengthened by the disproportionate repression that fell on its leaders and activists, both men and women, who suffered violence, torture and unfair trials in 1968, 1972, 1974 and 1975.

Our left-wing organization was patriotic, its values were political pluralism, freedom of expression and social justice

It is that context and its repercussions on the young Tunisian elite that the victims recounted during the two hearings of December 16, 2019 and February 24, 2020. The Perspectivists testimony began with its activists. Women actively participated alongside men in this movement of dissent, and they paid for it with serious abuses. Zeineb Ben Said, a brilliant student, left for Paris at 17 to pursue her studies in philosophy at the Sorbonne. With the cream of young Tunisian intellectuals supporting the revolutionary ideas of the time, she participated in the foundation of the Perspectives group. In 1974, she returned to Tunisia aged 22 and began, in parallel with her political activities, to teach at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Kairouan. We were young people eager for freedom, autonomy from the regime, opposed to imperialism and the autocratic drift of Bourguibas party. Our left-wing organization was patriotic, its values were political pluralism, freedom of expression and social justice, she told the court.

Their only God was Bourguiba

The stories are similar and the memories have the same source: the Tunisian French university of the 60s and 70s, open to the world and to the ideas of the time. There one could meet and discuss with philosophers and teachers of international renown, such as Derrida, Deleuze and Foucault. It was in such an environment that Raoudha Gharbi was nourished by politics. At the age of 22, the young woman, one of the best in her class, obtained her degree in educational sciences at the April 9 Faculty in Tunis. At the same time, she was part of a support group for Perspectivist prisoners jailed following trials in 1968 and 1972. No sooner had she started teaching than she was arrested and taken to the Directorate of Territorial Security (DST) in November 1974, where she was subjected to a brutal interrogation.

Bourguiba, mad with rage, promised to devote his whole life to eliminating one by one these germs of leftists

The group secretly published leaflets and a magazine called Perspectives. In one of his speeches, Bourguiba, mad with rage, promised to devote his whole life to eliminating one by one these germs of leftists. Redoubling their violence, especially on men, the torturers took turns on all the members of the group. Their names were cited several times during the two hearings: Abd Elaziz Tabka, Abd Elkader Tabka, Massoud El Hajji, Hassan Abid, Mohamed Ennaceur, Abd Essalam Dargouth (alias Skapa), Mongi Amara, Mohsen Ben Abdessalam. Bourguiba was their only God. One of them even threatened to execute me on the spot, putting a gun to my head, Mohamed Maali recalled at the hearing. He repeated that no one would call him to account.

We were treated like a plague

It seems Zeineb Ben Said has not laid those years of repression to rest. Arrested on 20 November 1974, transferred to the DST, considered one of the leaders of the movement, she was beaten by DST agents, beaten and tortured between one interrogation and another. Half-naked, she was subjected for hours to the roast chicken torture position. She was brought before the State Security Court, a special court set up in 1968, and sentenced to several months in prison. In February 1975, she was released. But her ordeal did not stop there. Her husband, also a Perspectivist, and she were both banned from the civil service.

Like her comrade Zeineb Ben Said, Raoudha Gharbi stressed the excessive and disproportionate nature of the repression exerted on this pacifist and modernist youth movement devoid of explosive belts or suitcases of foreign currency brought from abroad, and with no real desire to take power. It was a movement that adhered to Bourguibas emancipatory choices while advocating a more liberal climate. With a baby on our hands, we lived on the margins of society until 1980. No private high school wanted to hire me, no newspaper wanted to give me even a small job, except for Democracy, where I agreed with the director to sign only with my initials. We were treated like a plague, says Zeineb Charni, a militant Perspectivist and professor of philosophy.

Books and leaflets

All the police were able to confiscate from searching our houses were books, leaflets and an old typewriter, says Gharbi. For expressing ideas and values, she and her husband Tahar Chagrouch lived in a fragile situation for 30 years, because under the Tunisian dictatorship if you were accused of being a left-wing opponent you were marked for life.

All of this was just for words, words written and words spoken

Bourguibas threat to annihilate activists from the university ranks was applied mainly against men. Fiercely tortured by State security agents (including roast chicken, water torture, beatings, sticks forced into the anus, death threats and insults), the 102 victims of the July 1975 trial (just like the 202 activists tried in August 1974) were brought before a special court set up by the government to eliminate its enemies. Tahar Chagrouch, historian and sociologist, was sentenced to seven years in prison. In an unfair trial, he was accused of plotting against the State, spreading false news and defaming the head of state. All of this was just for words, words written and words spoken, he insisted.

Rats for companions

In his testimony Mohamed Maali, Tahar Chagrouchs fellow activist and prisoner, related in detail the extreme prison conditions that the whole group suffered. At the April 9 prison in Tunis, we were thrown handcuffed into a cell block and mixed with the most recalcitrant common law prisoners and those sentenced to death, he recalls. They were then transferred to the Borj Erroumi prison in the north of the country, where they were left for months in caves dug into the mountain rock, with only rats as big as cats as their companions. Stripped and chained like animals, they suffered from the humidity, cold and foul smells of these places where the Protectorate once isolated nationalist leaders like  Bourguiba. By this degrading treatment, the Head of State wanted to push the prisoners  whose cause was now relayed, Tahar Chagrouch asserted, in newspapers like Le Monde and Le Figaro in France and The New York Times  to ask for a pardon. The majority refused and continued, from their place of detention, the struggle for more rights, dignity and recognition of their status as political prisoners.

Thanks to our successive hunger strikes, we obtained better prison conditions as well as the right to access books, newspapers and even television, says Tahar Chagrouch. Released in 1980, the young man flew to Paris to continue his studies. Like his wife Raoudha Gharbi and many of his ex-co-detainees, he joined the ranks of the Tunisian League for Human Rights, where the Perspectivists, traumatized, exhausted by internal struggles and scattered, met to fight against torture, for the right to a fair trial and the humanization of Tunisian prisons.
The Diocese of Buffalo, New York, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing child abuse lawsuits that resulted in financial uncertainty.

New York State passed legislation in January 2019 that modified the statute of limitations on child abuse claims, allowing for a one-year window for victims to take civil action.

Since the yearlong window opened in August, approximately 250 lawsuits have been filed against the diocese under the legislation, known as the Child Victims Act (CVA). The diocese anticipates that more than 400 individuals may assert abuse claims before the window closes, according to court papers.

The Diocese is a not-for-profit religious corporation with limited resources, including limited insurance coverage which may be applicable to claims of persons seeking remedies under the Child Victims Act, said Reverend Peter J. Karalus in a bankruptcy declaration. It cannot allow any single plaintiff to recover a disproportionate share of the limited funds available from the Diocese simply because the plaintiffs case goes to trial first.

Dioceses across the U.S. have used bankruptcy to divvy up claims among victims while protecting as much of their assets as possible. This month, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg in Pennsylvania also filed for bankruptcy. New York State has eight Catholic dioceses, including the one in Buffalo.

The Buffalo diocese listed liabilities of as much as $100 million and assets of no more than $50 million in its bankruptcy petition.

M&T Bank is the dioceses largest unsecured claimant, with $1.6 million loaned. The remainder of the largest unsecured claims, which each amount to $100,000, are tied to individual claims under the CVA. Individual names have either been redacted or are listed only with initials.

The case is The Diocese of Buffalo, N.Y., 20-10322, bankruptcy court for the Western District of New York (Buffalo).

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
Michael Gove was charged with updating the House on the Governments Brexit strategy yesterday. Of course he was.

For years the Govester has been the Governments man for big occasions. The closer, the death bowler entrusted with the crucial last overs. Need to rally the troops? Send for Gove!

Under the previous lot this was no enviable task. Brisker trade has been done selling buckets of sand in the Sahara than flogging Theresa Mays hopeless Brexit strategy.

Now, at last, with a government prepared to go mano a mano with Brussels, the Cabinet minister was able to rev his engines. He twisted, he twirled, his peony-tinted cheeks glowed with enthusiasm. If I didnt know any better, Id say he rather enjoyed himself.

Michael Gove (pictured) was charged with updating the House on the Governments Brexit strategy yesterday. Of course he was. For years the Govester has been the Governments man for big occasions, writes Henry Deedes

Mr Gove said the UKs trade proposal was straightforward. We want the same deal South Korea and Canada already have in place.

The EUs smoothy-chops negotiator Michel Barnier may moan that the UK is in closer proximity to the EU but, as Gove pointed out, geography need not undermine democracy. If the EU wants to dig its heels in, we should prepare to ditch negotiations in June.

Behind Gove, arch Eurosceptic skeletores, Owen Paterson (Con, North Shropshire) and Peter Bone (Con, Wellingborough) purred in agreement. Words such as sovereignty and autonomy lingered pleasingly under their nostrils like a fine Havana.

It was revealing that not a single Shadow Cabinet minister bothered to show up to respond to the statement.

If there were ever a time for Sir Keir Starmers forensic skills, this was surely it. But presumably hed already headed north for last nights Labour leadership debate.

Instead, the Opposition sent out a fellow called Paul Blomfield. No? Me neither, Im afraid. Works with Sir Keir on the Brexit brief, apparently. He spoke of the need to keep the closest possible relationship with our most important trading partner, which is Remainer speak for lets not leave at all.

The EUs smoothy-chops negotiator Michel Barnier (pictured) may moan that the UK is in closer proximity to the EU but, as Gove pointed out, geography need not undermine democracy

Behind Blomfield, the Labour benches were largely silent bar the odd grumble or the tap, tap, tap of fingers on phone keypads. Up in the public gallery, arch-Europhile Lord Mandelsons ex-bag carrier Lord Liddle peered down glumly.

How muted the chamber felt compared to all of last years Brexit debates. No shouty Soubry, no whining Swinson. No Dominic Grieve, either, tossing legal pipe bombs down on to the front bench.

Were Speaker Bercow still in situ, he would have allowed members to grill Gove for hours. Here, Speaker Hoyle gave them just 45 minutes.

Even Hilary Benn (Lab, Leeds Central), one of Labours busiest anti-Brexit voices, was relatively subdued. He didnt think a deal in ten months was achievable. Surprise, surprise.

Rupa Huq (Lab, Ealing Central and Acton) squawked about whether any waste-of-time Whitehall impact assessments had been done lately. Yawn, yawn.

Not once did Goves temperature ever rise above normal during these exchanges. Each query was treated with the deference of an unctuous courtier. My honourable friend makes an excellent point, he would say, or my honourable friend is bang on. This only irritated his opponents further.

Now, at last, with a government prepared to go mano a mano with Brussels, Gove was able to rev his engines. He twisted, he twirled, his peony-tinted cheeks glowed with enthusiasm. If I didnt know any better, Id say he rather enjoyed himself (Boris Johnson is pictured)

No more so than the Scots Nats, whose mutual loathing of Gove always makes for good sport. Pete Wishart (SNP, Perth & North Perthshire) described the statement as bunkham, baloney and codswallop.

What had the makings of an impassioned speech was ruined when Wishart described the UK as a clown shoe which stood no chance against the efficient, effective EU.

Efficient? Effective? The Government bench collapsed in hysterics.

Theyre laughing, Wishart complained to the Speaker. Its the way you tell em, snorted Iain Duncan Smith (Con, Chingford and Woodford Green).

Gove became embroiled in a particularly feisty exchange with Steven Bonnar (SNP, Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill), who objected to his party being referred to as the Scottish Nationalists.

Its Nationals! Bonnar wailed. The reason they dont like it is they dinnae like it up em! Gove responded with gusto.

Quite. Judging by the wobbly remarks coming out of Brussels this past week, Monsieur Barnier doesnt like it much either.
After three days during which Delhi was convulsed by horrific communal violence, instigated by local leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), police and government authorities claimed Thursday that order had been restored to Indias national capital.

By all accounts, Delhi and especially the citys northeastground-zero for the citys worst communal violence in decades remain on tenterhooks.

Relatives and neighbors wail near the body of Mohammad Mudasir, 31, who was killed in communal violence in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020 (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Yesterday, thousands of police and paramilitaries were deployed, and Delhis streets and the citys northeast remained under curfew and other restrictions under Section 144 of the countrys criminal code.

With the violence subsiding, traumatized Delhi residents began to take stock of the damage to their homes, shops, neighbourhoods, and lives. Whether the Muslims who fled in terror from dwellings in integrated areas will be able to return to their homesnow, or everis entirely unclear.

Yesterday, as more bodies were found and several persons who had previously been hospitalized succumbed to their injuries, the official death toll rose by 10 to 38. The seriously injured number in the hundreds.

This weeks events constitute far and away the worst outbreak of communal violence in Delhi since 1984, when Congress Party leaders instigated an anti-Sikh pogrom, following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Evidence, including from CCTV footage, photographs and cell-phone videos, has begun to emerge that depicts not only vicious communalist attacks on Muslims and the torching of Muslim-owned homes and businesses, but also the connivance of the Delhi police in Hindu supremacist violence. There are numerous eyewitness accounts of police officers allowing Hindu thugs to attack Muslims unimpeded and even joining in their attacks.

Although the Delhi National Capital Territory (NCT) is governed by a rival party, the Delhi police are under the control of the national BJP government, not the NCT administration, and directly answerable to Home Minister Amit Shah, the chief henchman of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Shah, like Modi, is a notorious Hindu supremacist.

The BJP is furiously trying to shift the blame for the Delhi rampage onto its political rivals. This includes claims that the opposition parties agitated Muslims and encouraged violent antigovernment protests over the past two months, with their denunciations of the recently adopted and patently anti-Muslim, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

But nothing can cover up the political responsibility of Modi and his BJP government for the explosion of Hindu communalist violence in Indias capital.

In response to a sharp downturn in Indias economy and the growth of social opposition, above al,l from the working class, the BJP government has accelerated implementation of its Hindu supremacist agenda over the past year.

By ramming through measures that repudiate in all but name Indias claim to be a secular state and assert Hindu primacy, Modi, the BJP and their ideological mentors in the fascistic RSS aim to embolden their Hindu chauvinist supporters, and disorient and split the working class.

Since last December, Delhi has been at the centre of the wave of anti-CAA protests that has engulfed the country, uniting workers, students and professionals across ethnic, religious and caste lines.

Unnerved by the scope and intensity of the opposition to the CAA, Modi and his BJP have lashed out with state violence and communalist incitement. During the campaign for this months Delhi assembly election, BJP leaders boasted about the bloody suppression of anti-CAA protests by the BJP state government in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, in which some 20 people died. They also publicly advocated violence against anti-CAA protesters, leading their supporters in chants of shoot them down.

By all accounts the immediate trigger for the communal violence was the ultimatum issued last Sunday by a local BJP leader Kipal Mishra. After mobilizing his followers to occupy a street in northeast Delhi, he announced that if the Delhi police did not clear the streets of anti-CAA protesters within three days, he and his supporters would do it.

Clashes between Mishras followers and Muslims soon followed, and on Monday, as visiting US President Donald Trump was singing Modis praises, northeast Delhi was engulfed in communal violence.

Indias prime minister was conspicuously silent on the violence until Wednesday, when he issued a series of vapid tweets, appealing to his brothers and sisters to maintain peace and brotherhood.

At a press conference Tuesday shortly before leaving India, Trump, eager to expand Washingtons anti-China strategic partnership with India, went out of his way to praise Modi and his government for upholding religious freedom.

Indias judiciary has a long and infamous record of aiding and abetting the Hindu right.

But on Wednesday, a Delhi High Court judge felt obliged to admonish the police for not taking any legal action against three BJP leadersthe aforementioned Kapil Mishra; Anurag Thakur, Modis Minister of State for Finance; and West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma who had delivered anti-Muslim hate speeches, creating the political climate for this weeks events, if not directly inciting the violence.

In this city, we cannot allow another 1984 riot, said Justice Muralidhar, referring to the anti-Sikh pogrom which claimed more than 2,700 victims.

After noting that the police had not even filed First Information Reports (FIR), that is, opened a criminal investigation against the BJP leaders, Justice Muralidhar said, These speeches are leading to more speeches. When you dont register an FIR, a wrong message goes out. People arent deterred from repeating it. Is it not a cause for alarm? Acting on behalf of the BJP government, Solicitor General Tusha Metha sloughed off the courts criticisms, saying it would reply when the situation is conducive.

Within hours of this exchange, the Ministry of Law and Justice in a transparent act of retribution transferred Justice S. Muralidhar from the Delhi High Court to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
It started out as a joke: Army veteran Jason Galvin told his wife that he could probably rescue a bald eagle trapped in a tree with a couple of shots from his .22-caliber rifle.

The young bird had already been up there for two days, so what did he have to lose?

His wife didn't laugh; she thought he should give it a try.

Galvin first noticed the eaglet caught in twine hanging from a pine tree branch while on his way to get bait for a fishing trip on East Rush Lake, Minnesota, just days before July 4, 2016.

"Right then, I thought, 'Man, that just doesn't look good,'" he told KARE 11, the local NBC affiliate. "We really need to make some calls."

The Eaglet was stuck by a piece of twine for two days, too high to reach. (Jackie Gervais Galvin)

Since it was stuck 75 feet above the ground, no one in the area had the means to help the bird. The local police and fire departments couldn't do it. Even the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) came up short.

Galvin didn't just start shooting at the bald eagle, however. Killing or wounding the national bird -- even one that might be left for dead -- is against federal law. The father of four and eight-year Army veteran didn't want to get in trouble.

So when Galvin's wife suggested he really give it a shot, so to speak, he called up the MDNR. He told conservation officers he could free the bird by shooting off the branch it was stuck on -- and he could do it without hitting the eagle.

"He told me he was a veteran in the service and he wouldn't do it if he couldn't do it safely," conservation officer Phil Mohs told KARE 11. "I sat there with the binos and was like, 'Wow, he's an excellent shot.' Every single one of his shots hit the branch until it broke."

Each gray streak is where one of Galvin's bullets passed through the branch (KARE11 TV)

The two-time Afghanistan veteran used his Ruger 10/22 autoloading rifle with an advanced scope to take out the twine and branch that had held the bird hostage for so long. But it didn't happen right away. Galvin fired 150 shots to cut through the thick branch. The whole effort took 90 minutes.

When the eagle was finally freed, it fell 75 feet down into the soft underbrush around the tree, where Mohs recovered it to take to the University of Minnesota Raptor Center.

"There were a lot of tears," Galvin told KARE 11. "It was a breathtaking, beautiful moment."

Locals named the eagle "Freedom" and had hoped it would be released into the wild after its recovery at the raptor center in St. Paul, Minnesota, where it was treated for depression and dehydration, as well as a swollen foot and injured hip.

But after two days of dangling from the tree, the eagle would not have been able to hunt effectively in the wild. The raptor center instead adopted Freedom as an educational ambassador.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com.

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Two Thai women convicted of smuggling methamphetamine into Bali have escaped a possible death sentence on the Indonesian holiday island after a court sentenced them to 16 years in jail. The district court in Bali's capital Denpasar said Kasarin Khamkhao and Sanicha Maneetes -- a janitor and an operator of a motorcycle rental shop in Thailand -- had shown remorse for their crimes and deserved leniency. The verdict Wednesday comes four months after the pair were arrested by suspicious airport officials who found nearly a kilogram of methamphetamine hidden under their clothes after arriving on a flight from Bangkok. Muslim-majority Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drug laws, including the death penalty for traffickers. At the time of their October arrest, police said the Thai women could face a firing squad if found guilty. Prosecutors, who had demanded a 19-year jail term, said Wednesday they may appeal against the lighter-than-requested sentences. The two Thais must also pay 1.0 billion rupiah ($72,000) each in fines or have three more months tacked on to their sentence, the court said. Indonesia has slowed the pace of its executions in recent years despite broad public support for the penalty. A French drug trafficker briefly on death row saw his sentence reduced to 19 years on appeal. While death sentences are often reduced to long jail terms, Indonesia has executed foreign nationals in the past, including two Australian masterminds of the Bali Nine heroin gang who were shot in 2015.
The best restaurants in Longford were honoured at the Leinster Regional Final of the Irish Restaurant Awards in the Knightsbrook Hotel.

All of the Longford winners now compete for the Regional and All Ireland Titles, which will be announced at the Irish Restaurant Awards. These will be held in the Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road, Dublin on Monday, May 18.

Best Restaurant  sponsored by Tindal Wine Merchants

VM Restaurant at Viewmount House

Best Chef  sponsored by BWG Foodservice

Marcio Laan of Viewmount House

Best Newcomer  sponsored by Monin

Wilder & Gold

Best Restaurant Manager  sponsored by AIB Merchant Services

Beryl Kearney of Viewmount House



Best Hotel and Guesthouse Restaurant  sponsored by Frylite

Courtyard Restaurant at Cooney's Hotel



Best Customer Service  sponsored by Dolmen Insurance Brokers

Nine Arches Restaurant



Best Gastro Pub - sponsored by Elavon

The Rustic Inn



Best Cafe - sponsored by Illy

Torc Cafe and Foodhall



Pub of the Year - sponsored by Jameson Ginger and Lime

John V Donoghoe's



Best Wine Experience - sponsored by Gilbeys with Bibendum

Vocella's



Best World Cuisine  sponsored by Stafford Lynch - San Pellegrino

Spice India Longford



Best Free From  sponsored by Peroni Libera

Moments Cafe & Restaurant



Best Kids Size Me

Jac-O-Bites Cafe



Best Local Food Hero  sponsored by The Irish Times

Fiona Egan of Cloughan Farm and Cookery School



Best Emerging Irish Cuisine  sponsored by Manor Farm

Tus Nua Restaurant



Best Casual Dining - sponsored by Just Eat

Moments Cafe and Restaurant

Over 700 restaurant owners and staff celebrated their hard work and achievements at the Awards, which saw many well-known restaurateurs of Leinster turn out to see if they had won one of the prestigious awards.

Chief Executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland Adrian Cummins said; Now in their 12th year, the Irish Restaurant Awards continue to showcase the incredible food that is on offer in the cafes, pubs and restaurants of Ireland, as well as recognising the teams behind these establishments and the hard work and dedication that they put in. With well over 100,000 nominations received from the public this year, the standard for the judging process was higher than ever.

"Ireland may be a small country, but it boasts everything from fine dining to high quality gastropubs, from the comfort of traditional Irish food to exploring the world though exotic world cuisine, the Irish restaurant industry has much to offer. We have an appreciation for what we eat and where our food comes from, as well as the dedication of those working in the food industry."
Four Ukrainian citizens who returned from Italy have tested negative for the novel coronavirus Covid-19, the Public Health Center of the Ukrainian Health Ministry has reported on Facebook.

"On suspicion of the novel coronavirus infection, a Ukrainian citizen who returned from Italy and people accompanying her had their samples analyzed at a laboratory for the presence of the pathogen. Negative results were obtained. Two people from Dolyniany, Chernivtsi region, also had negative results," the report reads.

At the same time, the Public Health Center called for tolerance.

"Due to the fact that a new virus has been registered in the People's Republic of China, citizens of this country and other people are often harassed solely on the basis of their appearance. The Public Health Center of Ukraine calls on representatives of the public sector, business and population of Ukraine not to form a false stereotypical view," the report said.

A total of 83,399 laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases were reported worldwide as of February 28, 2020, and 2,858 of them were lethal. Some 36,659 people have beaten the infection.

In particular, 774 Covid-19 cases have been registered so far in 19 countries in Europe.

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Photo: AA
Kolkata: The Ministry of Home Affairs has sent a notice to a student of Bangladesh studying in Visva Bharati University of West Bengal. Bangladeshi student Afsara is accused that she has been involved in anti-India activities. After this, now they will have to leave India by 29 February. The notice is issued by the Foreign Regional Registration Office of Kolkata, which comes under the Union Home Ministry.

Vishwa Bharati University is a central university and Afsara Anika Meem, a resident of Bangladesh, is a graduate student here and is doing a designing course. Afsara is accused of writing posts against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on Facebook. Along with the Facebook post, Afsara also participated in the protest against CAA. This notice was issued to Afsara on February 14, but now February 29 is near, in such a situation that the matter is once again in the church.

According to Student Federation members, in December, Afsara wrote a post against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on Facebook. Which went viral and was also criticized a lot. Bangladesh Deputy High Commission present in Kolkata said that they have not yet received any notice of this matter.

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The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has said the Italian detected to have coronavirus in Lagos is in stable condition.

The unnamed Italian is the first to be detected with coronavirus in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Lagos government announced the detection early Friday. The suspect arrived Lagos, Nigeria on Tuesday.

Read the transcript of Mr Sanwo-Olus speech on the virus and the Italian below.

The COVID-19 patient is an Ogun State-based expatriate who flew into Lagos from Milan in Italy via Istanbul, Turkey last Monday evening.

He remains in stable condition at the bio-security facility in Yaba, Lagos Mainland, where he is being isolated.

The patient, although, tested positive to COVID-19 virus is yet to show any respiratory symptoms at this time. He complained of fever and body pain, which prompted his transfer from Ogun State to Lagos for advanced medical investigation.

People who had physical contact with the patient before the virus was diagnosed, are being traced, while others are currently being examined for possible symptoms.

There should be no cause for panic among Nigerians over the reported COVID-19 incident because measures has been set in motion by the State and Federal governments to contain the spread of the virus across the country.

READ ALSO:

Lagos has 2 bio-security facilities and is more than capable to contain the virus. Health workers and emergency officials are on the field to track all persons that had physical contacts and interaction with the patient.

Lagos state is in constant touch with the Federal Ministry of Health to harmonise response to the incident. The patient is stable and every health intervention required is currently being given to him.

The patient was transferred to Lagos after the incident was reported in Ogun State, because Lagos is the only state in the Southwest that has testing centres.

The patient started to show signs of illness on Wednesday afternoon, after which he was presented at the Ogun State-based firms hospital where investigation began.

Investigation began at the hospital and the medical personnel at the companys hospital kept the patient in isolation overnight and contacted the bio-security facility in Lagos for assistance. The patient was brought to our high-containment facility in Yaba on Thursday morning.

Immediately the patient arrived, he was put in proper isolation and the appropriate tests were conducted on him. Within hours, the test showed signs of positivity.

The state remains prepared to contain any potential spread of the virus and aggressive public awareness campaign is going on to sensitise residents on hygiene and activities that can prevent the spread of virus.
People walk inside the Yaba Mainland hospital compound where the first patient with the COVID-19 virus is being treated in Lagos, Nigeria on Feb. 28, 2020. Nigeria's health authorities have reported the country's first case of a new coronavirus in Lagos, the first confirmed appearance of the disease in sub-Saharan Africa. (Sunday Alamba/AP Photo)

Coronavirus Spreads to Sub-Saharan Africa as Nigeria Confirms First Case

The new coronavirus spread to Nigeria on Friday, as officials confirmed the first patient with COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa.

International officials have repeatedly warned that the virus could wreak havoc on weaker health systems and have focused efforts on trying to bolster such systems, particularly in African countries.

The first patient is an Italian who traveled to Lagos from Milan, the Nigerian Ministry of Health said. The virus has exploded in northern Italy this week, one of three countries outside China where the number of cases continues to increase rapidly.

The patient works in Nigeria, the ministry said. The man is clinically stable, has no serious symptoms, and is being cared for at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.

Nigerian health officials said at a press conference theyve been working on preparing for the virus since the outbreak in China was first reported.

Weve been preparing for a possible COVID-19 case for a while. We can all agree that we cant build walls against viruses, Chikwe Ihekweazu, director-general of Nigerias Center for Disease Control, added during a radio interview.

People walk inside the Yaba Mainland hospital compound where the first Nigerian victims of the COVID-19 virus were being treated in Lagos, Nigeria, on Feb. 28, 2020. Nigerias health authorities have reported the countrys first case of a new coronavirus in Lagos, the first confirmed appearance of the disease in sub-Saharan Africa. (Sunday Alamba/AP photo)

The case showed no symptoms at the point of entry. However, our laboratory systems were able to confirm the disease upon presentation, he added.

Officials are working on identifying everyone who came into contact with the patient, a process known as contact tracing. The new virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, can be spread through the air, close contact, and contaminated surfaces.

A federal judge later in the day suspended all flights coming to Kenya from China because of the virus. The judge also ordered the immediate tracing and quarantine of the 239 passengers who were aboard a China Southern flight that landed on Feb. 26, The Star reported.

The ruling came after the Law Society of Kenya filed a case trying to reverse a decision by the country that allowed additional non-essential flights from China to land in Kenya.

The World International Health Organization (WHO) said Nigeria was one of 13 countries identified by experts as high priority. WHO experts were already on the ground in the country.

A Port Health Service staff member stands next to a thermal scanner as passengers arrive at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria, on Jan. 27, 2019. (Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images)

With the first case of COVID19 in sub-Saharan Africa confirmed in Nigeria, the virus is no longer a threat but a reality in the Region, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHOs regional director for Africa, said in a statement.

Now is not the time for fear, but solidarity, cooperation & collective commitment from all.

International experts have repeatedly warned of what the virus could do in a country with a weaker health system.

Imagine this disease establishing itself in a weaker health system.

This disease may appear relatively mild in the context of a sophisticated health system, Mike Ryan, director of WHOs emergencies program, told reporters in Geneva earlier this month.

That may not be the case if this disease reaches a health system that is not as capable as that of China.

Nurses work at an ICU ward specialized for patients infected by the coronavirus in Wuhan in central Chinas Hubei Province on Feb. 22, 2020. (Xiao Yijiu/Xinhua via AP)

Kenyan officials this week said they have only 11 isolation beds ready to be used for virus patients.

China has officially reported tens of thousands of cases and thousands of deaths. The ruling Chinese Communist Party is believed to be underreporting the true numbers related to the epidemic.

The WHO sent lab tests and provided other support for nations across Africa.

New cases have been appearing in countries around the world. Brazil confirmed on Wednesday that a patient tested positive, the first confirmed case in South America. Georgia, Greece, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, and Romania also reported cases for the first time on Wednesday or Thursday. New Zealand and Wales, along with Nigeria, reported new cases on Friday.

No country should assume it wont get cases. That could be a fatal mistake, quite literally, WHO director-general said at a press conference on Thursday.

This virus does not respect borders. It does not distinguish between races or ethnicities. It has no regard for a countrys GDP or level of development. The point is not only to prevent cases arriving on your shores. The point is what you do when you have cases.

The new virus emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and quickly circulated to other regions of China. Other countries soon began reporting cases. Dozens have confirmed at least one case and some have reported hundreds or thousands, including South Korea, Italy, and Iran.

People wearing masks to prevent the coronavirus (COVID-19) buy face masks at a department store in Seoul, South Korea on Feb. 28, 2020. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Coronaviruses circulate in animals and can, in rare cases, jump to humans, in a process known as a spillover. The jump can occur due to a mutation in the virus or increased contact between animals and humans.

The origin of COVID-19 still isnt known. Other factors, such as the exact way the disease is transmitted, are still being studied. The incubation period, or the period of time from when a person is infected to when symptoms develop, is believed to be between one and 14 days.

When people are sick and believe they may have the virus, health officials say they should self-isolate at home and call their healthcare provider. Depending on the circumstances, they may be asked to go to the hospital and be placed in quarantine there.

The best ways to avoid the virus include frequently washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, not touching ones face with unwashed hands, and avoiding sick people.

There are no vaccines for the virus and no proven treatments for the disease.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Huseyn Safarov - Trend:

Azerbaijan, just like Russia, is at the intersection of two Eurasian corridors, stemming from two rapidly developing economic centers, namely China and India, to the EU market, a researcher at the Center for Post-Soviet Studies of Russias Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University) Olga Podberezkina told Trend.

Podberezkina noted that the construction of transport corridors will give Azerbaijan and Russia not only the opportunity to meet the needs of emerging markets in hydrocarbons, but also the opportunity to offer transport and logistics services for the freight transit.

Transit routes mainly go by sea and the main beneficiaries are European and US companies, she added. Development of transport infrastructure and logistics services will help change this. In particular, if we talk about the International North-South Transport Corridor, many bilateral and multilateral projects are being implemented within its framework. In 2020, the reconstruction of the Sumgayit-Yalama railway section will begin between Russia and Azerbaijan as part of a project to organize high-speed passenger traffic between Russias Dagestan and Baku.

The long-awaited construction of the Astara-Rasht-Qazvin railway, designed to connect the existing railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia (a tripartite agreement was signed in 2005), will become a significant shift in the development of the International North-South Transport Corridor, said Podberezkina. To date, the 205-kilometer long section between the Iranian cities of Qazvin and Rasht has been completed. As a result, Qazvin is connected by rail with Tehran, as well as with the Iranian ports of Bandar Abbas in the Persian Gulf and Amirabad in the Caspian Sea.

International sanctions against Iran are an unfavorable factor, the expert noted.

To compensate for the negative impact of international sanctions against Iran, Azerbaijan proposed to finance the construction of the Rasht-Astara branch for 500 million euros, and this is certainly a positive thing, Podberezkina added. Also, a decrease in the cost of railway supplies through Azerbaijan will be a positive aspect - so tariff reductions may affect the transportation of containerized cargo, grain, cotton, sulfur, urea and metals. Russian producers are interested in delivering up to 50,000 tons of grain annually to Iran through Astara. As is known, on Oct. 27, 2019, the Interim Agreement came into force, leading to the formation of a free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Iran, under which the EAEU countries will reduce import duties on 502 goods. Negotiations are underway to conclude an agreement on a free trade zone with India - these are all the countries participating in the project.

The researcher noted that the International North-South Transport Corridor compared to the route through the Suez Canal reduces transportation time by 10 days and provides an additional incentive to economies.

On average, containerized cargo from Russia to Iran (from St. Petersburg to Bandar Abbas) goes 25-28 days with two transshipments (via the ports of Rotterdam/Hamburg in the North Sea and to the Port of La Spezia in the Mediterranean Sea), and transit time through the ports of the Caspian Sea from Pervouralsk city to Bandar-e Anzali is 20-25 days at a comparable cost, Podberezkina said.

In conclusion, the expert noted that the cargo flow through the International North-South Transport Corridor will contribute to the growth of Russian-Indian trade, the positive influence of which on Azerbaijans economy is obvious.
Eva-Katalin/iStock(NEW YORK) -- With wedding season right around the corner and brides getting their big day dress selections in order, many are worried if the coronavirus may hold up their gowns.



The outbreak has created a global health emergency that has also begun to take a toll on many businesses, and retail industries are not exempt.



Eighty percent of the world's wedding dresses are produced in Suzhou, China, according to BBC travel, and the wedding industry has been especially hit hard with factories being temporarily closed, which in turn means fabrics such as silk, chiffon and satin are not readily available.



However, there are companies finding ways to make sure that brides, as well as bridesmaids, still receive their dresses in time for their wedding.



Direct-to-consumer bridal and special-occasion dress company Azazie, which serves one in every 10 U.S. brides, reports that production times have been slightly delayed to nine weeks as opposed to the company's standard six weeks. The company works with between 40 and 50 factories in China; those factories were closed for the Chinese New Year and re-opened four weeks later, as opposed to the two that were planned. Some employees were able to work at home, on items that require hand-work and beading, for instance. Although not all the factories in China were closed, some of the work that requires heavy machinery was outsourced to Cambodia and Vietnam.



Azazie also says that there has been an influx of traffic to its website as customers have been looking to fulfill last-minute dress needs since its merchandise is made-to-order and can be produced more quickly than traditional brick-and-mortar stores.



Other major retailers such as David's Bridal claim that the coronavirus has not affected the flow of supply chain for their customer orders.



The bridal and special-occasion brand explained in a press release that its proprietary supply chain and broad selection of in-store and distribution center inventory has kept the company in a unique position to guarantee customer orders.



David's Bridal carries over 300,000 bridal gowns and a broad assortment of bridesmaid's dresses which are available for customers to shop and take home immediately.



There have also been plans to continue air-freighting gowns as needed to ensure that orders arrive in time for big events.



"We know how stressful a delayed order can be to a bride, so I'm here to unequivocally say that every customer will have the dress of her dreams in time, before her event date," David's Bridal CEO Jim Marcum affirmed in a statement.



The company has also confirmed that all of its factories -- approximately half are located in China -- are open for business as usual.



Co-owner and CEO of Kleinfeld Bridal Ronnie Rothstein also tells "Good Morning America" that the upscale bridal boutique known for its large selection has not been worried about the impacts of coronavirus on the flow of its delivery service.



The popular bridal store, also known for its television presence on "Say Yes to the Dress" purchases dresses from 71 designers, and only seven of those designers have their dresses made in China.



"Those seven are some of the most prominent manufacturers in the worldwide bridal industry," says Rothstein. "They have confirmed that they will be shipping all dresses from China on a timely basis."



Rothstein also advises that a few of the designers from China have opted to hold off on taking rush orders for brides who are getting married within 90 days as that's usually the amount of time a manufacturer in China needs for production.



"We have been monitoring delivery dates since 1941, and we have never missed a wedding," Rothstein adds. "We trust what our manufacturers are telling us."



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
A philanthropist who quit the board of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum to protest the termination of its director said on Thursday that she was also rescinding her $5 million bequest to the Upper East Side institution.

Judy Francis Zankel, who resigned as secretary of the board after Caroline Baumann was forced out by the Smithsonian, sent an email to Lonnie G. Bunch III, the top official, notifying him that she was cutting the Cooper Hewitt out of her will.

I find your treatment of Caroline Baumann to be unconscionable and disgraceful, Ms. Zankel said in her email to Mr. Bunch, in which she copied the rest of the Cooper Hewitt board. She called the investigation that led to Ms. Baumanns ouster biased and said that she had also changed her mind about leaving the museum her collection of decorative objects.

Although I love the museum and its work, I can no longer support an institution that functions this way, she wrote.
Risk of COVID-19 very much upon us, PM Scott Morrison sayd

Sydney: Australia's prime minister said the country considered the new coronavirus to be a pandemic Thursday, going a step beyond the WHO as he extended a travel ban on visitors from China.

Announcing a national emergency response plan to the contagion, Scott Morrison said he was considering additional measures for monitoring travellers arriving in the country.

We're effectively operating now on the basis that there is one -- a pandemic, Morrison said.

We believe the risk of a global pandemic is very much upon us.The World Health Organization has stopped short of calling the virus a pandemic, even as the number of new infections outside China exceed those inside the hardest-hit country.

More than 2,700 people have died in China and some 78,000 have been infected. There have been more than 50 deaths and 3,600 cases in dozens of other countries.

The extended travel ban will come as a blow to Australian universities which stand to lose $2 billion in fees as tens of thousands of Chinese students are unable to take up places Down Under.

Students stuck in China have been provided with a range of options, said Catriona Jackson, chief executive of Universities Australia, which represents the sector.

They include postponing start dates, delaying assessments, fee-free deferrals and accessing course content online.

Australia has reported 22 infections, but none that were contracted or passed from person-to-person inside the country.

Morrison's warning comes as he scrambles to burnish his leadership credentials after fierce criticism of his handling of the months-long bushfire crisis.

His government is also embroiled in a deepening political scandal over the funnelling of taxpayer money into areas his coalition targeted in last year's election.

One minister has already been forced to resign as a result.
Nguyen Quoc Tri, director general of the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, talks about the dangers of forest fires during the dry season.

A forest fire drill in Tinh Bien District, An Giang Province on Monday led by deputy agriculture minister Ha Cong Tuan.



How big a threat do forest fires pose in Vietnam at the moment?

South and central provinces are on their highest alert at level five. The main cause of this is the early drought in the Central and Southern regions.

As a result, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has issued instructions urging all provinces to take measures to prevent and fight fires. According to the Weather Bureau, this year the dry season (from December-April) has arrived earlier than in previous years.

To deal with the situation, the General Department of Forestry has urged all local Forest Protection Sub-Departments to closely follow forest fires on the departments website.

How has high-tech been applied to prevent and fight forest fires?

Weve been focusing on an early warning system. Technology has helped us quite a lot, particularly in the early detection of smoke from satellite images. In some localities, people have even erected fire watchtowers installed with fire alarms.

What are the main causes leading to forest fires? Who is in charge of forest fire prevention?

Open fires are the main cause of most forest fires. Other causes include simple carelessness.

Forest owners should take responsibility for protecting their forests from fires, followed by the local administration. Under the Vietnamese Law on Forests, owners are companies, enterprises or forest management units that have the responsibility of managing their allotted areas.

How do you evaluate forest fire prevention in Vietnam?

The General Department of Forests has organised many missions nationwide to inspect fire prevention efforts. The provinces of An Giang, Ca Mau and others have initiated detailed plans on how to stop forest fires and conduct regular training courses on tackling blazes. Meanwhile, local authorities have also launched communication campaigns to raise public awareness of fire prevention.

How much has been invested in firefighting equipment?

Cities and provinces nationwide allocate a budget each year for firefighting equipment.

Under Vietnamese law, local authorities and forest owners have to strictly follow fire alerts issued by the Forest Protection Department.

Provincial Forest Protection Departments should advise local people and visitors not to use naked flames in or around forests, particularly in the dry season. Meanwhile, functional agencies should develop training courses for the general public and foresters on how to stop or respond to an emergency.VNS

Hot weather brings high risk of forest fire in An Giang Province Forests in the southern province of An Giang are at high risk of fires due to the dry season and prolonged hot weather, local forest rangers have warned.
They say that this could encourage other, small-time leaders to make provocative statements to raise their profile.

NEW DELHI: A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party gave a clean chit to party leader Kapil Mishra, accused of inciting violence in Delhi, questions are being raised on whether he had acted on his own or was following orders.

Moderates in the party raised their eyebrows when Shyam Jaju, national vice-president and Delhi in-charge, said categorically that Mr Mishra had done no wrong and his speech was not provocative.

Sources revealed that Mr Jajus remark has sent a signal to leaders like Gautam Gambhir, BJPs first-time MP from East Delhi, that criticism of polarising figures like Mr Mishra will not be entertained.

When asked to respond to inflammatory speeches made by Mr Mishra, Mr Gambhir had said, No matter who the person is, whether he is Kapil Mishra or anyone else, representing any party, if he has given any provocative speech, then strict action should be taken against that person. Ram Vilas

Paswans LJP, a BJP ally, has also demanded that action be taken against leaders who indulged in hate speech. Former AAP legislator Mr Mishra, who had unsuccessfully contested the recent Assembly polls on a BJP ticket from Model Town, led a gathering in support of the CAA at Maujpur Chowk in the Jafarabad area on Sunday, after which violence erupted between pro and anti-CAA groups.

It is learnt that party leadership neither approved of Mr Mishras speech nor the pro-CAA protest he had led on Sunday.

Earlier, the party leadership believed that Mr Mishra should have avoided making inflammatory speeches that had attracted unnecessary attention. But now the party leadership has decided to defend him. Mr Jajus clean chit to his party leader clearly shows that the BJP was firmly behind Mr Mishra, a party leader said.

Moderates in the Delhi BJP, not too happy with Mr Jaju defending Mr Mishra, are questioning why, when everyone in the party was silent over the contentious matter, Mr Jaju had to openly back Mr Mishra.

They say that this could encourage other, small-time leaders to make provocative statements to raise their profile.

A moderate BJP leaders jokingly said that Mr Mishra, who gets more retweets and likes on social media than he gets votes, should be reigned in.

But Mr Jajus comments on the issue have clearly sent a strong message to East Delhi MP Mr Gambhir that he must think twice before commenting on such matters. Mr Gambhir could have avoided naming Mr Mishras name while giving reaction to the media. Mr Jajus comment is a clear signal to him (Mr Gambhir) that he should not give reactions and avoid naming his party colleagues, a saffron leader told this newspaper.

BJP ally and Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan, meanwhile, demanded an impartial probe into the violence in the national capital and said stringent action should be taken against the guilty, irrespective of their caste and religion. I strongly condemn the violence seen in Delhi over the last few days. It happened when a foreign guest (US President Donald Trump) was in the country. An impartial probe should be conducted, and stringent action be taken against the guilty irrespective of their caste and

religion, Mr Paswan tweeted.

Mr Paswan said that the visit of National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval to riot-hit areas to interact with locals and review the security measures underlines the Union governments seriousness in the matter.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 22:23:46|Editor: xuxin

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COPENHAGEN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- In the wake of Denmark's first case of COVID-19 on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry reiterated Denmark's support for China in a press release on Friday.

"Since the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) in China became known, the Danish government, companies and people from all walks of life have taken action to support China in controlling the virus," said the statement.

According to the press release, the Danish government has offered support valued at over 400,000 U.S. dollars.

In addition, the combined material donations of many Danish Blue chip companies such as Novo Nordisk, Lego, Maersk and Danfoss have been valued at several million U.S. dollars.

The press release also acknowledged the personal messages of support from Danish artists and athletes such as badminton player and former World Champion Viktor Axelsen who recently recorded a support video in Mandarin for the Chinese people.

"Denmark stands with China to fight the spread of coronavirus. This is an international health crisis," said Rasmus Prehn, Minister of Development Cooperation in the press release.

In addition to supporting the fight against COVID-19 in China, Denmark has also donated 1.2 million U.S. dollars to the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies, which offers a rapid response to quell disease outbreaks and humanitarian crises with health consequences.

"It is important that Denmark takes a co-responsibility in the global response to health crises. The current situation with COVID-19 shows the importance of quick response from WHO, "said Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke in the press release.

Meanwhile, Soren Brostrom, the director of National Board of Health, in a press conference Friday said Danish authorities believe that the coronavirus has the potential to become even more dangerous to public health than it is today.
Scientists at the APS 2020 March Meeting in Denver will share how studying animal motion has improved their understanding of animal behaviors.

Please Note: The 2020 American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting that was to be held in Denver, Colorado from March 2 through March 6 has been canceled. The decision was made late Saturday (February 29), out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest scientific data available regarding the transmission of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). See our official release on the cancelation for more details.

DENVER, COLO., FEBRUARY 28, 2020 -- Using physics to study different types of animal motion, such as burrowing worms or flying flocks, can reveal how animals behave in different settings. By using principles and technology from fields like fluid mechanics, scientists can track and measure animals in motion. At the 2020 American Physical Society March Meeting in Denver, researchers will present the various ways they quantify animal movement--and subsequently, better understand the animal world.

Social Behaviors in Flocks

Flocks seem to move as one unified organism, with each bird knowing its place and anticipating the group's future movements. Although indistinguishable to the human eye, birds actually modify their flying behaviors based on the type of flock they are flying in.

"You can take the same bird with the same social structure in the same part of the world, and put them into two different contexts. They behave collectively in both cases, but the way they do so is not at all the same," said Nicholas Ouellette, an environmental engineer at Stanford University.

He and his colleagues captured videos of jackdaws, a common species related to crows, flying in two types of flocks: transit flocks were when the birds all flew home to nest at night, while mobbing flocks were when the birds swarmed a predator.

The results indicate jackdaws in transit model their flight pattern after a set number of their neighbors--no matter how close or far those neighbors might be. However, mobbing jackdaws orient themselves by maintaining a set metric distance from surrounding birds. The birds' interactions change based on flock type, suggesting the motives for some types of collective behavior influence animal behavior on an individual level.

Multiple Animals, One Neural Network

It can be difficult to identify and quantify animal behavior in the wild. A neural network developed by Talmo Pereira and his colleagues helps scientists track multiple animals in social settings and monitor their movement.

"The reason why we like to think of behavior in terms of motion is because most of what the brain does is control the body so that it can interact with the world," said Pereira, part of a team in the Center for the Physics of Biological Function and the Neuroscience Institute at Princeton University. The imaging technique uses principles similar to those behind motion capture suits in Hollywood. But unlike actors, animals don't have to wear specialized harnesses. Recently, the team modified their previous tracking method so it can distinguish each animal in a group even during close interactions.

Having a richer representation of animals' movement adds to the quantitative understanding of behavior, according to Pereira.

A Photoelastic Stress Test for Worm Behavior

Deriving quantitative data from behavior requires flexible problem solving. Kelly Dorgan has been studying how marine worms burrow through muddy sediment and the forces they exert.

To replicate sea sediment's physical properties, Dorgan, an ecologist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, turned to an unusual substitute. Jell-O has a similar fracture behavior, as sediment. This means that forces exerted by worms burrowing in muds can be directly calculated from forces measured in Jell-O

"Because I could measure forces, I came up with the first realistic measure of the energetic cost of burrowing," said Dorgan. The results showed that despite the strength they use to burrow, worms actually expend very little energy in terms of increased metabolic rate because they move so slowly.

###

Behavioral Plasticity in Jackdaw Flocks

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 3:42 PM-3:54 PM, Monday, March 2, 2020, Room: 301

CONTACT: Nicholas Ouellette, nto@stanford.edu

Multi-Animal Pose Tracking Using Deep Neural Networks

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 9:24 AM-9:36 AM, Monday, March 2, 2020, Room: 303

CONTACT: Talmo Pereira, talmo@princeton.edu

Worms in Jell-O: Using Photoelastic Stress Analysis to Measure Burrowing Forces

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 8:36 AM-9:12 AM, Thursday, March 5, 2020, Room: 502

CONTACT: Kelly Dorgan, kdorgan@disl.org

ABOUT THE MEETING

The American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting is a major international conference and the largest physics meeting of the year. In 2020, the APS March Meeting will convene from March 2-6 at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver.

Useful Links

Meeting website: https://march.aps.org/

Scientific program: http://meetings.aps.org/Meet ing/MAR20/APS_epitome

Press services: https://march.aps.org/services/press/

Hotel & Travel information: https://march.aps.org/travel/

Press Registration

Complimentary registration is available to journalists for the express purpose of gathering and reporting news and information from the meeting. Staff reporters, freelance writers, and students are welcome to apply. Press credentials may be obtained by completing the form on this page: https://march.aps.org/services/press/. The deadline for press registration is Friday February 28th at 3:00 p.m. EST.

Press Conferences

All press conferences will take place in Room 608. If you are unable to attend, you may register to watch and ask questions online at https://webcast.apswebcasting.com/webcast/registration/a65e0a8e-38c6-4ccd-8eea-98696d213857

Press Room

A press room for registered journalists will operate throughout the meeting in Room 610/612 and will offer complimentary coffee, breakfast, and lunch. The press room may be reserved for conducting interviews.

Hours

Monday - Thursday, 7:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Friday, 7:30 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.

Please contact the APS Press Office with any questions at media@aps.org.

ABOUT APS

The American Physical Society is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its outstanding research journals, scientific meetings, and education, outreach, advocacy, and international activities. APS represents over 55,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and throughout the world. Society offices are located in College Park, Maryland (Headquarters), Ridge, New York, and Washington, D.C.
New Delhi: The Apex Court on Friday (February 28) refused to entertain a plea seeking compensation and registration of FIR against Telangana Police personnel over the encounter in which four accused in the gangrape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinarian were killed.

A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde asked the counsel, appearing for the families of the four accused in the matter, to approach the three-member inquiry commission set up to investigate the killing and provide the evidence before it. "We are not inclined to entertain this petition at this statue. The petitioner is at liberty to tender evidence before the commission set up by this court. After the commission gives the report petitioner will be at liberty to claim compensation before the High Court," the bench said while allowing the family of the accused to withdraw the plea.

During the hearing, the Supreme Court asked the petitioner to wait until the findings of the commission are out.

Jollu Lakshmi, mother of accused Jollu Naveen, Jollu Rajaya father of accused Jollu Siva, Chinthakuntla Kurmanna, father of accused Chinthakuntla Chennakesavulu and Pinjari Hussain, father of accused Ahmed, had approached the Apex court seeking quashing of FIR registered by the police against the four deceased in which the police claimed the accused attempted to murder some police personnel.

The family members of the deceased accused have also sought adequate compensation and damages of Rs 50 lakh per family over the alleged extra-judicial killing and custodial death of their children.

The four men, who were accused of gangraping and killing a veterinarian in Telangana's Shamshabad on November 27 before they allegedly burnt her body, were shot dead by Hyderabad Police in December 2019.
A man who swung his fist at a Ballymahon sergeant who was trying to retrieve a bag of white powder from his person has been ordered to pay 500 by March 3.

Darren Murray, 46 Coolevin Park, Athlone, appeared before Judge Seamus Hughes at Longford District Court on Tuesday, February 18 last.

Sgt Paddy McGirl, on behalf of the State, explained that on June 13, 2019 at Main Street Ballymahon, Sgt David Bunn of Ballymahon Garda Station observed a male taking a clear plastic bag of white powder out of his pocket and proceeding to snort the powder.

When Sgt Bunn tried to search him, the accused attempted to swallow the bag, Sgt McGirl explained.

Sgt Bunn attempted to retrieve the bag and the accused swung his fist at him but missed. Sgt Bunn had to use pepper spray so that he could arrest him.

The bag of powder was analysed and found to contain cocaine to the value of 50, said Sgt McGirl.

He swung his fist at the Sergeant. That is very serious. If you think you can walk in here and walk out again with no punishment youre mistaken. Id advise you to get a solicitor, said Judge Hughes.

When Mr Murray returned with John Quinn as his solicitor, Mr Quinn explained that his client was prepared to offer 500 in compensation.

Mr Quinn, if you were taking cocaine or I was taking cocaine, we wouldn't be able to come up with 500, said Judge Hughes.

You look like a man who cocaine has gotten the better of, Mr Murray. I'll accept your offer of 500 but the time I give you to pay it will be short because this is a punishment.

Judge Hughes then ordered the accused to pay 500 by Tuesday, March 3.
The hands on the iconic Doomsday Clock moved to just 100 secondsto midnight last month. That is the closest they have come to the final hour since its creation in 1947.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Scienceand Security Board, in consultation with the Bulletins Board ofSponsors, made the unprecedented decision to express the time remaining in seconds rather than minutes when the time was adjusted from 2 minutes to 100 seconds to midnight.

The time displayed on the clock has moved closer to midnight in three of the last fouryears. The last time it moved was in 2018, with a forward jump of 30 seconds. It moved to 2 1/2 minutes to midnight in 2017 from its prior setting of 3 minutes tomidnight. There was no adjustment last year, but withthe arrival of 2020 the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists noted new threats.

In addition to the two simultaneous existential dangers ofnuclear war and climate change, the world now faces the threatmultiplier of cyber-enabled information warfare.

The decision to movethe hands forward by 20 seconds was made in part because world leadershave allowed the international political infrastructure forcontaining this potential cyberthreat to erode.

It is 100 seconds to midnight, warned Rachel Bronson, president andCEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. We are now expressing howclose the world is to catastrophe in seconds  not hours, or evenminutes. It is the closest to Doomsday we have ever been in thehistory of the Doomsday Clock. We now face a true emergency  anabsolutely unacceptable state of world affairs that has eliminated anymargin for error or further delay.

December 2020 will mark the 75th anniversary of the first edition ofthe Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It originally was a six-page,black-and-white bulletin, which evolved into a magazine. It wascreated in response to fears that the atomic bomb, which had been usedagainst Japan in August of 1945 to end the Second World War, would beonly the first of many dangerous presents from the Pandoras Box ofmodern science.

Origins of the Clock and Nuclear Armageddon

The Doomsday Clock, which has been maintained since 1947, isessentially a metaphor for threats to humanity from uncheckedscientific and technical advances. The clocks original setting in1947 was 7 minutes to midnight, and over the years it was setbackward and forward a total of 24 times.

It typically is assessed in January of each year.

The largest-ever number of minutes to midnight was 17 in 1991, when theUnited States and Soviet Union signed the first Strategic Arms ReductionTreaty (START I), followed by the Soviet Union dissolving on Dec. 26 of that year. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain,along with the reunification of Germany a year earlier, already had added 4 minutes to the clock.

In 1995, global military spending, as well as concerns aboutpost-Soviet nuclear proliferation, moved the clock 3 minutes closerto midnight  14 minutes in total. That number was reduced to 9minutes to midnight three years later, following Indias and Pakistanstesting of nuclear weapons.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Two more minutes were cut in 2002 due toconcerns over a nuclear terrorist attack and the fears that vastamounts of weapon-grade nuclear materials were largely unsecured orotherwise unaccounted for worldwide.

2010 saw the last time a minute was added. That followed a newSTART agreement, as well as the 2009 United Nations Climate ChangeConference, which called for the developing and industrialized nationsto agree to take responsibility for carbon emissions.

New Fears

Most perceptions about the Doomsday Clocks time to midnight are thatit always has been based on the threat posed by nuclear weapons andthe potential for an atomic war. However, other factors have beenconsidered by the Bulletin of the AtomicScientists, including energy, weapons, diplomacy and climatescience. In recent years they also have considered terrorist threats and climate change.

Bioterrorism and artificial intelligence also could be seenas potential sources of threats that could inch humanity closer todoomsday.

Cyberwarfare is a new factor  specifically cyber-enabledinformation warfare. It could include everything fromstate-sponsored propaganda to deepfakes to the spread ofmisinformation online. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists warnedthat cyber-based disinformation could cause corruption of theinformation ecosphere on which democracy and public decision makingdepend.

Moreover, many governments are utilizing cyber-enabled disinformationcampaigns as a way to sow distrust among rival powers. It has beencalled out as threat to the common good.

In the wrong hands, technology absolutely creates a threat tohumankind that is on the same scale as current weapons technology,warned Bill Santos, president of Scottsdale, Arizona-base Cerberus Sentinel.

Improperly used or maliciously deployed, technology can cripplecritical infrastructure, upset financial systems, and disable many ofthe systems we depend on for our survival and happiness, he told TechNewsWorld.

Reducing the Threat Vectors

New arms treaties and greater cooperation among nations have allowedthe doomsday clock to be set back  gaining precious seconds, or insome cases even minutes. However, the new threats are so great thatthere may be no easy way of addressing them and regaining timebefore the hands strike the proverbial midnight.

The risk of cyberwarfare is on par with nuclear risk and climatechange  and it may even pose a greater risk than both, explainedMarc Gaffan, CEO of Israel-based cybersecurity firm Hysolate.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A decade ago, cyberthreats had somewhat manageable impacts  datatheft that would rock the stability of the organization, or monetaryloss that would affect performance and a companys stock price for acouple years, he told TechNewsWorld.

Today cyberattacks can result in serious business disruption that isfar beyond either data theft or monetary losses. A cyberattack couldpose a threat to all aspects of infrastructure, from power grids tocommunication networks.

Nation-state attacks like this stem back to 2010 with Stuxnet, noted Gaffan.

The Stuxnet attack, which likely was conducted as a jointAmerican-Israeli effort, successfully crippled Irans nuclear program. Iranian hackers were believed to be responsible for a 2018 cyberattack against a Saudi petrochemical facility.

There was no loss of life in either attack, but each increasedregional tensions. Moreover, such attacks could result in physicalequipment failures that would lead to human casualties.

Its far too easy for malicious attackers to cause physical damage said Gaffan, and the impact is far too great for this to not be a significant factor driving us closer to midnight.

Even more worrisome is the fact that much of our modern infrastructureisnt as secure as it could be.

The unfortunate truth also is that the power grid and other nationaloperations that literally keep the lights on are not built with themost sound security in place to prevent an attack from causing acatastrophic blackout or causing fatal medical device failures, said Gaffan.

Turn Back Time

It might be difficult to put time back on the Doomsday Clock,but its not impossible. Here is where cybersecurity as a defensive toolcould be crucial. The world could be safer if more governments, companies andindividuals all paid greater attention to cybersecurity.

Education and awareness can help move the hands back, said Gaffan.

Ultimately, we as a society need to start thinking of securityfirst  and not as an afterthought  in everything we do, he urged.

To that end, security needs to be built into the core architecture ofeverything  from the software and applications that are being builttoday to the improvement of legacy systems and infrastructures thatare currently in place.

However, due to advancements in technology, the risk of cyberwarfare will always be with us, warned Gaffan.

The best we can do is mitigate the risk by staying one step ahead ofattackers in building devices and an infrastructure that aresecure-by-design, he argued.

The defense against this threat goes beyond thetechnology itself, suggested Cerberus Sentinels Santos.

We need to create a comprehensive culture of security at thegovernment, corporate and individual level that is aware of thisthreat and understands the steps each can take to address it, he said.

This could begin with education to better understand the unique set ofrisks a completely connected civilization faces.

It is followed with an understanding of what can be done, at everylevel, to address or reduce these risks, said Santos. We need tothink of security holistically, understanding that it is anexistential risk that affects aspects of our interconnected lives. Weare far too dependent on technology to address our security needs.True cybersecurity is a culture.
Vaccinated? Now get 10% discount on Indigo air ticket: How to avail it?

IndiGo panel reduces Kamra ban period to 3 months; comedian says not regretful

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Feb 28: Stand up comedian Kunal Kamra on Thursday said he was neither sorry nor regretful of his actions, hours after IndiGo's internal panel decided to reduce the flying ban to three months.

The reduction in ban period was informed by Indigo to the Delhi High Court on Thursday. "... I have no comment to offer on IndiGo banning me for 3 months instead of the 6 months now," Kamra said in a Facebook post on Thursday.

In a statement, IndiGo said the airline's internal committee after hearing both parties passed an order. Pursuant to the order, Kamra has been suspended from flying for a period of three months. "IndiGo will comply with the order of the iternal committee," it added.

IndiGo pilot suspended for 3 months for threatening passenger in wheelchair

"I trust the IndiGo pilot's e mail & social media has helped explain why I did what I did. All I'd like to say is that I am neither sorry nor regretful of my actions," Kamra said in the post.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

IndiGo had last month suspended Kamra from flying with the private airline for six months, after he allegedly heckled journalist Arnab Goswami aboard one of its planes. Kamra thereafter approached the Delhi High Court against his suspension.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 9:16 [IST]
Appeal for more funds to help Africa stop locust swarms

Appeal for more funds to help Africa stop locust swarms

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says a food crisis could be looming in East Africa if more resources are not forthcoming, and has appealed to donors for an additional $62m (48m).

Director general Qu Dongyu says the next few weeks will be critical.

Control operations against locusts are under way in 13 countries, from India in the east, all the way across to Mauritania in West Africa.

The main threats are in East Africa and Yemen, as well the Gulf states, Iran, Pakistan and India.

Most recently, locusts have been seen in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and swarms have arrived in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar, and along the coast of Iran.

The FAO has told us that in three of the worst affected countries, Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, they estimate that at least 100,000 hectares in each country need to be sprayed with insecticide.

By the end of January, they were substantially short of this target in the worst affected countries in East Africa.

Equipment and personnel for controlling the locusts are key resources that are currently in short supply.

Vehicles, planes, personal safety equipment, radios, GPS units and camping equipment are badly needed.

Aerial and ground spraying combined with constant tracking of the swarms - which are constantly on the move - are viewed as the most effective strategies.

Stephen Njoka, head of the Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa, the regional body co-ordinating the fight against the locusts, told us: "We have a challenge in the number of aircraft available - there are not enough. Pesticides are also in short supply."

He says currently Ethiopia is using five aircraft, and Kenya, six for spraying, and four for surveying.

The Kenyan government says it needs 20 planes to tackle the crisis.

It also needs a continuous supply of the pesticide Fenitrothion for spraying.

Peter Munya, of the Kenyan Agriculture Ministry, says they are having to source pesticides from Japan.
Reuters

By Mathieu Rosemain

PARIS (Reuters) - Huawei will build its first European manufacturing plant in France, the chairman said on Thursday, as the Chinese telecom giant seeks to ease worldwide concerns stoked by U.S. charges that Beijing could use its equipment for spying.

Liang Hua said Huawei [HWT.UL], the world's biggest producer of telecoms equipment, would invest 200 million euros ($217 million) in the first phase of setting up the mobile base station plant. He said it would create 500 jobs.

Huawei, which denies its equipment poses a security risk, is at the centre of a storm pitting the United States against China over 5G, the next generation mobile technology. Europe has become a major battleground.

"This site will supply the entire European market, not just France's," Liang told a news conference. "Our group's activities are worldwide and for this we need a global industrial footprint."

5G technology is expected to deliver a huge leap in the speed and capacity of communications and an exponential spike in connections between the billions of devices, from smart fridges to driverless cars, that are expected to run on 5G networks.

It was not immediately clear whether Huawei's decision had the blessing of French President Emmanuel Macron, who has courted foreign investors but also led warnings about Chinese encroachment into the European Union's economy.

Liang said Huawei had outlined the group's plan's to the French government. "This is not a charm offensive," he said.

Macron's office declined to comment.

GRAPHIC: What is 5G and what are its security risks?: https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-5G/0100B08J0JE/index.html

EARLY STAGES

The United States has repeatedly warned European allies against allowing the Chinese firm into the continent's 5G infrastructure. But European capitals are divided over how to deal with Huawei.

France has yet to start rolling out its 5G networks but the top French mobile operator, state-controlled Orange , has already chosen Huawei's European rivals, Nokia and Ericsson .

Smaller operators Bouygues Telecom and Altice Europe's SFR , whose existing networks rely heavily on Huawei, are urging Paris to clarify its position on Huawei.

France says it will not discriminate against any vendor but requires all suppliers to be screened so they can secure a green light from the cybersecurity agency, which is examining Huawei equipment. Sources close to the French telecoms industry say they fear Huawei will be barred in practice even if no formal ban is announced.

Neighbouring Germany is also struggling to reach consensus on the way forward. Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling conservatives back tougher rules on foreign vendors but have stopped short of an outright ban on Huawei.

Britain has defied the United States by allowing "high-risk vendors" such as Huawei into non-sensitive parts of its 5G network but not what it describes as "core" components. Washington has pressed London to reconsider.

The mobile base stations that will be manufactured in France are not considered core to 5G network infrastructure.

Huawei accuses the United States of seeking to frustrate its growth because no U.S. company can offer the same range of technology at a competitive price.

The French plant will be Huawei's second manufacturing facility outside China. It has a plant making smart phones in India but only has assembly plants elsewhere. The plant in France will generate 1 billion euros a year in sales.

(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Richard Lough and Edmund Blair)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Representative Cedric Richmond, Democrat of Louisiana, a Biden backer and a recent chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that Mr. Obama was still very, very significant for African-American voters, and that other candidates were misrepresenting history as they try to win over black Democrats.

Mr. Richmond added that it was hypocrisy for Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Sanders to run ads saying they were BFFs with Mr. Obama after refusing to help out Obama when he needed them.

A Biden adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss campaign strategy, said the campaigns view was that the attacks on Mr. Sanders over Mr. Obama were less likely to have an impact than the campaigns criticism of Mr. Bloomberg, who is not on the ballot in South Carolina. Mr. Sanders, the person said, has locked in many of his supporters, but Mr. Bloomberg, a former Republican who could siphon off moderate support in Super Tuesday states, is more vulnerable to charges of disloyalty.

Mr. Sanders, for his part, has repeatedly said that he views Mr. Obama as a historic icon with whom he had policy disagreements, and has insisted he never planned to challenge him.

But aides who worked for Mr. Obamas re-election campaign said they believed the threat was real and had fueled fears that such a challenge could sap much-needed support from the partys progressive wing. He should be held accountable, Patrick Dillon, a senior adviser to Mr. Obamas 2012 campaign aide, said of Mr. Sanders. It was clear he was up to something.

Mr. Sanders and Mr. Obama, while not close, are on amiable terms, and the senator has called the former president in recent weeks to update him on his campaign, and to keep their lines of communication open, according to aides to both men.

Mr. Obama, in turn, has expressed admiration for Mr. Sanderss tenacity and small-donor fund-raising operation and his political acumen, but he has also acknowledged the magnitude of the challenge of getting other Democrats to fall into line quickly behind Mr. Sanders if he wins, a person in his orbit said.
Local lawmakers introduced legislation to save the Last Green Valley Heritage Corridor and the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area.

Without the reauthorization, these areas would lose important federal support through the National Park Service, legislators said.

The protection of the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area is critical to the Fifth Districts environment, history, and economy, said U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th. This nationally recognized historic region supports artists, historians, and conservationists and enriches local economies by supporting tourism and partnering with local organizations.

Hayes and U.S. Representatives Joe Courtney, D-2nd, and Richard Neal, D-Mass, are all cosponsors of H.R. 1049, the National Heritage Area Act of 2019, which would reauthorize all 45 National Heritage Areas nationwide for 20 years. U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn, drafted and introduced the legislation in the Senate and is joined by Senators Richard Blumenthal , D-Conn, Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, and Ed Markey, D-Mass.

The Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area includes 29 towns, stretching 964 square miles from Kent through the northwest corner into southwestern Massachusetts along the Housatonic River watershed. It celebrates the heritage of the Berkshires and Northwestern Litchfield Hills.

It was named a national heritage area in 2006 to preserve natural and historical resources, and to improve the economy in the area. There are over 50 sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places within the heritage area.

A recent economic impact study has shown that the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area annually generates $169.9 million in economic impact, supports 1,944 jobs, and generates $15 million in tax revenue, said Dan Bolognani, executive director of the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area.

The Last Green Valley spans 1,100 square miles and encompasses 26 towns in eastern Connecticut. It was first designated as a National Heritage Corridor by Congress in 1994 because of the regions unique natural, cultural, historic and scenic resources. The area is still 77 percent forest and farm.

The Last Green Valley is an incredible asset to eastern Connecticut and to all of our region, Courtney said. Heritage areas create jobs, establish destinations that people want to visit and vacation to, and are a smart investment in both the economy and the natural environment.

He said support from the federal government is what provides the areas with the foundation needed to preserve and protect natural spaces.

But the work just starts there,  Courtney said. From that federal support, these National Heritage Areas leverage countless dollars and volunteer hours to promote the environment and identity of our region. Connecticut and Massachusetts know that investments in our open spaces provide an enormous value for taxpayers, and well keep fighting to ensure that national heritage areas like the Last Green Valley and Upper Housatonic Heritage Area receive our support.
A dog breeding friend of Princess Anne who was allegedly gunned down by her estranged husband sought solace in the arms of a farmer in Ireland when her marriage collapsed, MailOnline can reveal.

Debbie Zurick, 56, was found with gunshot wounds at her marital home on the Somerset estate where Boris Johnson grew up after her husband John discovered she had a new boyfriend.

Mr Zurick, 67, then turned the shotgun on himself, according to friends, and died in hospital yesterday.

In the months before her death, Mrs Zurick had left her husband and started a new life in the picturesque village of Ballytrent, Rosslare, where she was comforted by wealthy landowner Jamie Ryan.

Debbie Zurick - a dog breeding friend of Princess Anne who was allegedly gunned down by her estranged husband, John - sought solace in the arms of Jamie Ryan (pictured), a farmer in Ireland, when her marriage collapsed, MailOnline can reveal

She was found with gunshot wounds at her marital home on the Somerset estate where Boris Johnson grew up after her husband John discovered she had a new boyfriend

In the months before her death, Mrs Zurick (right) had left her husband and started a new life in the picturesque village of Ballytrent, Rosslare, where she was comforted by Mr Ryan (left), a wealthy landowner

Mr Ryan, a keen fisherman in his mid-sixties, is the great grandson of baronet Sir James Power, who was an Irish Liberal politician and governor of the Bank of Ireland and who died in 1877

Debbie Zurick was particularly fond of Mr Ryan's two donkeys (seen above with her) which roam around the fields of Ballytrent and posted pictures of her hugging them on her Facebook page

Mrs Zurick had been staying at Mr Ryan's 18th century mansion (pictured), which has stunning views of the sea, as she contemplated the end of her 30-year marriage

Mrs Zurick had been staying at Mr Ryan's 18th century mansion, which has stunning views of the sea, as she contemplated the end of her 30-year marriage.

She became a familiar face in the area, walking her dogs and embedding herself in local life as she walked around the three acres surrounding the mansion.

Friends of the couple said Mrs Zurick had become 'exasperated' with her husband and moved to a friend's house in Ireland 'to get away from it all'.

They say she was happy in the rural surroundings of Ballytrent and was seen by locals shopping at the local SuperValu store for groceries and visiting a local hairdressing salon.

She was particularly fond of Mr Ryan's two donkeys which roam around the fields of Ballytrent and posted pictures of her hugging them on her Facebook page.

Debbie Zurick (above, with her husband John) was found with gunshot wounds at her marital home

It certainly wasn't unusual to see either of the Zuricks with an uncocked rifle slung across an arm

A friend told MailOnline: 'Debbie and John split up a few months ago and she went to live in Ireland to get away from it all.

'Jamie was an old friend of both Debbie and John and she enjoyed spending time in Ireland. She was exasperated with their relationship. She needed some time away to clear her head and decide her next move.

'Debbie returned to the cottage because of the dogs and John had just found out about the new man in her life.'

One neighbour said: 'Debbie wanted a separation. Things came to a head over the last couple of weeks. I've been told that she's dead and that is such awful news - particularly as she seemed to be recovering well from cancer treatment.'

Pictured: Debbie and John Zurick with their dogs. Police have opened a murder probe

Mr Zurick had hoped for a reconciliation and was deeply upset when he discovered his wife had a new boyfriend.

Mrs Zurick, who is said to have been treated for cancer, is believed to have been shot when she returned to the cottage on Saturday with a female friend to collect some possessions and take care of the dog breeding business.

Mr Ryan, a keen fisherman in his mid-sixties, is the great grandson of baronet Sir James Power, who was an Irish Liberal politician and governor of the Bank of Ireland and who died in 1877.

He saw his own marriage to local head teacher Mary Stratton Ryan collapse several years ago.

He and Mrs Ryan were close friends with the Zuricks and they had stayed at the Ryan home in 2011.

The Zuricks bought the property, where the Prime Minister spent some of his childhood, from Stanley for 440,000 in 2013

A family friend said of Mr Ryan, who was unavailable for comment: 'Jamie is very well liked around here.

'I know that after his marriage broke down, Jamie went to live in Galway for a period before coming back. Jamie's ex-wife Mary is a picture restorer and a head teacher.

'But they are very private people, so nobody really knows what happened between him and his wife.'

Mr and Mrs Zurick bred and trained clumber spaniels and lived in their cottage where they were neighbours of Stanley Johnson, father of PM Boris.

The Zuricks bought the property, where the Prime Minister spent some of his childhood, from Stanley for 440,000 in 2013.

Stanley owns the neighbouring 14th century farmhouse on the Nethercote estate with his wife Jennifer. A third house on the estate is owned by the Prime Minister's sister Rachel.

There are also a number of barns, which have been converted into properties, whose owners include Boris and his brother Leo.

Princess Anne, 69, expressed her sadness after learning that Debbie Zurick, who worked for her, had been shot dead. (Pictured second right with the Queen's daugthter is John Zurick, who allegedly shot his wife)

A photograph on Mr Zurick's Facebook page from March 2016 appears to show Mr Johnson outside the cottage in Winsford, near Minehead, with one of the couple's dogs, also called Boris.

Stanley this week told the Daily Mail: 'Both I and my whole family are shocked, stunned and saddened by this tragic incident.

'We very much regret the passing of Mrs Zurick. She was a neighbour and she was much loved.

'She was honorary secretary of the Working Clumber Spaniel Society and was much loved for the work she did, in the society and in Exmoor and beyond.'

The Zuricks were regulars at game shoots and were key figures in the Working Clumber Spaniel Society, of which Princess Anne is president.

On the society's website, Mr Zurick describes how he trained Anne's dog Sparkle but received a rebuke from the princess when the hound failed to bring back a pheasant.

Mr and Mrs Zurick had no children. Mr Zurick's son from his first marriage died in 1995, aged 17.

Police have begun a murder investigation and are continuing to search the property but are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.

Detective Superintendent Julie Mackay said: 'This is a very serious incident in which a woman has lost her life. Due to prior police contact with those involved, a mandatory referral has been made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

'It would be inappropriate for us to go into further details while the referral is being considered.'
KAMPALA  Under new measures, anyone using plastic bags in Uganda can be slapped with a fine, and those caught manufacturing the items can get jail time.

Environmentalists are celebrating the move

State Minister for Environment Beatrice Anywar told PML Daily that authorities had resolved to implement a ban on plastic bags and that travellers should take an immediate note.

It follows similar steps by others in the region, including Kenya and Rwanda, to phase out non-biodegradable plastics.

The ban applies to the production, importation, sale and use of all single-use plastic bags.

The government has also warned tourists to surrender any plastic bags before entering the country, which is home to popular attractions such as Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Murchison Falls National Park among others.

Visitors or tourists to Uganda are advised to avoid carrying plastic carrier bags or packing plastic carrier bags or items in plastic carrier bags in the suitcase or hand luggage before embarking on visit to Uganda, the minister said.

She said that her ministry is closely working with Entebbe International Airport to ensure that the ban on plastics is enforced.

Special desk will be designed at all entry points for surrender of plastic carrier bags that visitors may be bringing into our country

The minister warned manufacturers against frustrating and that this is not something we are going to negotiate about any further.

We made this effort as a country to ban the Polyethene bags in Uganda. Today, we are reloaded, effective from today as you listen to me,

Kaveera is banned.

We have talked this over and over and it is not something that we need to negotiate about any further.

You are aware that in the East African region, it is only Uganda which has become a dumping ground for polyethene. Rwanda, no go area, Kenya and Tanzania, no go area, today, Uganda, we must take a stand that we are not going to remain a dumping ground for Kaveera.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) welcomed the ban, calling plastic a silent killer of our natural environment.

This is because it takes more than 100 years for a single plastic bag to decay, WWF Uganda director David Duli said. We are happy that join the rest of countries in the region.

Mr. Duli called on the general public to join efforts to beat plastic pollution in their communities to protect the environment, which is increasingly being endangered by plastic items.

Mr. Duli called for a change of practice as his organization spearheads a massive campaign dubbed plastic-free conferences and workshops, a development he says will not only reduce plastic consumption but will also influence the way manufacturers package their products.

The impacts of plastic waste are both direct and indirect and they include climatic change as the major impact on the environment, the biomass and fossil fuels that cause air pollution have also caused the earths atmosphere warming resulting from the release of greenhouse gasses, health impacts, and damage of the wetland ecosystem.

Related
UN Secretary-General Guterres warns risk of escalation "grows by the hour" and calls for an immediate ceasefire.

At least 33 Turkish soldiers have been killed in an air raid by Syrian government forces in the northwestern Idlib province, the governor in the southeastern province of Hatay said early on Friday, raising an earlier death toll, while also threatening an escalation of conflict and another refugee crisis.

The deaths are the largest number of fatalities suffered by Turkey in a single day since it began sending thousands of troops into Idlib in recent weeks, amid a Russia-backed Syrian government offensive to seize the war-torn country's last opposition-held stronghold, which is home to more than three million people, according to Al Jazeera.

The ferocious bombing campaign and ground assault have displaced nearly one million people since December, more than half of whom are children.

In response, Turkey warned it is attacking "all known targets of the Syrian regime".

Read alsoSyrian Army officially takes control of Greater Aleppo, Russia deploying "little green men"  media

In a statement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed "grave concern" of an escalation of violence and called for an immediate ceasefire.

The U.S. State Department also weighed in, saying it is "very concerned" about the reported attack, adding "we are standing by our NATO ally Turkey."

"We stand by our NATO ally Turkey and continue to call for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces," a State Department representative said.

Through his spokesman, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also issued a statement condemning the "indiscriminate" airstrikes by the Syrian regime and Russian forces.

Syria's Bashar al-Assad and regime elements will pay a heavy price for their attack on Turkish troops in northwestern Idlib, Turkey's vice president said Friday, according to Anadolu news agency.

Assad regime elements "will pay a heavy price for this treacherous attack," Oktay said in a written statement.

Ankara has vowed to retaliate against the "illegitimate" Syrian regime in the wake of the attack.
A POPULAR former nightclub in the city centre is to get a new lease of life  as a bible school.

The Dromkeen-based Shiloh Trust is seeking planning permission to convert Baker Place nightclub beside Taits Clock into a bible school.

The trust, a registered charity, hopes that the building will be back open for the first time in almost a decade.

Baker Place nightclub closed in March 2011, after more than a decade trading, due to declining economic conditions, with the building lying largely idle since then.

It was known as being a real indie spot, giving big breaks to a lot of indie groups, and other bands outside the mainstream.

In its latter days, it hosted rock bands in the bar, an underground dance club in the basement, and hip-hop and house DJs in the Wicked Chicken Bar.

Social Democrats councillor Elisa ODonovan has expressed concern over the development, saying there is a need for the proposed evening strategy to be released and delivered on as soon as possible.

When you see things like this happening in the city, and there being no evening or night-time spaces opening up, you get concerned. For example, yesterday I had a meeting with someone at 6pm, and the only place I could think to go outside of Starbucks was The Commercial. Places like Baker Place have gone, she said.

Cllr ODonovan noted its not the first religious-type facility to open in the city, highlighting the fact the Abundant Life Christian Church had bought and converted the old Smyths toy store building at Henry Street.

And, the former St Philomenas Montesorri School in the South Circular Road is also now home to the Elevate Christian Church.

It feels like the only things these old buildings are being used for is for stuff like this. Id just like to see other things going into these buildings, she added.

Elsewhere, the old chapel in the John Henry Newman building on the Mary Immaculate College campus at the South Circular Road is also to be changed.

A planning notice proposes a change of use of the chapel from a place of worship to educational use and physical alterations, including refurbishment of its interior and a new kitchenette.

Rather than the chapel in the main college building, which will remain in use, this chapel has not been in regular use for a while.

In place of the chapel in the John Henry Newman building, which fronts OConnell Avenue, there will be a major science, technology, engineering, art and maths outreach space.

Codenamed the Craft Maker space, the facility will cost the college in the region of 800,000.

Mary Immaculate College has been given 350,000 from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) towards this project and is seeking partnerships with industry stakeholders and philanthropic organisations in order to fund the rest.

A college spokesperson says its hoped the space will be open to the public by autumn this year.

Dr Maeve Liston is spearheading this particular project.
LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Opponents of a third runway at London's Heathrow are set to hear on Thursday whether their legal appeal against the government's decision to expand Europe's biggest airport has been successful.

Britain has spent almost half a century trying to decide whether or where to build a new runway in the densely populated southeast of England. If finally opened, it will be the first full-length runway built in the London area for 70 years.

Last May, a High Court judge said he did not accept the arguments made by environmentalists and did not believe the government's transport minister had acted unlawfully when he approved the expansion of Europe's busiest airport.

Environmental groups, local authorities and the Mayor of London are appealing against that decision, arguing expansion is incompatible with Britain's climate change and environmental commitments.

In addition, development consortium Heathrow Hub is appealing on the grounds that the government should instead consider its proposals for an extended runway rather than a new one.

The Court of Appeal is due to deliver its verdict on Thursday. Any party can then seek permission to appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court, the highest court in Britain.

In 2018, lawmakers voted 415 to 119 in favour of building the new runway, but current Prime Minister Boris Johnson has historically been opposed to expansion.

During last year's election campaign, he said he would have to find some way of honouring an old promise to lie down in front of bulldozers at Heathrow to halt the expansion plans.

"Parliament has voted in principle to support a third runway at Heathrow but it is a private sector project," a spokesman for Johnson said.

"In order to proceed, Heathrow must demonstrate that it can meet its air-quality and noise obligations, that the project can be financed and built, and that the business case is realistic."

Last December, the airport said the expansion plan would be delayed by more than a year after Britain's aviation regulator said it could not increase its spending on early construction costs to keep it on track. The third runway is now due for completion between early 2028 and late 2029.

The airport is jointly owned by Spain's Ferrovial, the Qatar Investment Authority, China Investment Corporation and other investment companies. (Reporting by Alistair Smout and Elizabeth Piper; editing by Stephen Addison)
Shewchuk said he is especially worried that Sanders or Bloomberg will get the nomination, even though he does not think either of them really represents the Democratic Party. Solomon, who grew up in New Jersey, said she is offended by Bloombergs emphasis on stop-and-frisk policing as New York mayor and his unwillingness to fully apologize for it. She thinks Sanders would be an ineffective leader.
Several conservative pundits and commentators have focused their coronavirus narratives on "evidence of bias designed to harm President Trump," the Washington Post reports.

Why it matters: Attacks from conservative media commentators could "undermine sources of reliable information at a time when such information is vital." Trump is known to listen to such pundits, and has already tweeted that the news media and Democrats are "doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible."

What they're saying:

Rush Limbaugh stated the virus is being used as a bioweapon by the Chinese government, only to then downplay the outbreak, saying it is the common cold, folks. He added on Monday that the media coverage of the virus is "an effort to get Trump," per the Post.

stated the virus is being used as a bioweapon by the Chinese government, only to then downplay the outbreak, saying it is the common cold, folks. He added on Monday that the media coverage of the virus is "an effort to get Trump," per the Post. Limbaugh also tried to discredit Nancy Messonnier, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, partly because her brother, Rod Rosenstein, is the former deputy attorney general who oversaw special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, the Post notes.

also tried to discredit Nancy Messonnier, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, partly because her brother, Rod Rosenstein, is the former deputy attorney general who oversaw special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, the Post notes.

Messonnier said during a media briefing on Tuesday that an outbreak of coronavirus in the U.S. was inevitable.

Laura Ingraham said on-air, "I think they want to use this  I mean, in China, they don't want to deal with Trump anymore, with the tariffs. I think for them, the best thing would be if this hurt Trump in his reelection, correct?"

said on-air, "I think they want to use this  I mean, in China, they don't want to deal with Trump anymore, with the tariffs. I think for them, the best thing would be if this hurt Trump in his reelection, correct?" Sean Hannity argued Democrats are "sadly politicizing and weaponizing an infectious disease as their next effort to bludgeon President Trump."

argued Democrats are "sadly politicizing and weaponizing an infectious disease as their next effort to bludgeon President Trump." Tucker Carlson said, "Countless publications wagged their fingers in the face of readers and told them it was irrational  probably immoral, in fact  to worry more about the coronavirus than the annual flu. Identity politics trumped public health and not for the first time. 'Wokeness' is a cult. They'd let you die before they admitted that diversity is not our strength."

Fox News has declined to comment.

Go deeper...Coronavirus updates: WHO raises global threat level to "very high"
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) sits outside its headquarters in Vienna

By Alex Lawler and Dmitry Zhdannikov

LONDON (Reuters) - Several key OPEC members are leaning towards a bigger than previously expected oil output cut, four sources with knowledge of the talks said, as oil prices fell to $50 per barrel on fears the coronavirus outbreak will hit oil demand badly.

Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in OPEC, and some other members are considering agreeing an output cut of 1 million barrels per day (bpd) for the second quarter of 2020, more than an initially proposed cut of 600,000 bpd, the sources said.

The Financial Times newspaper was first to report the deeper cut idea.

The virus has caused almost 2,800 deaths in China and has spread to dozens of other countries.

Oil has slid by almost 25% this year on lower demand and slower expected economic growth, alarming OPEC members.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia, a grouping known as OPEC+, have already been curbing oil output by 1.7 million bpd under a deal that runs to the end of March.

They are scheduled to meet on March 5-6 in Vienna to decide further policy.

In an initial response to counter the impact of the virus on the oil market, an OPEC+ committee this month recommended the group deepen its output cuts by 600,000 bpd, a figure now seen as not enough by some in the group.

One source familiar with the talks said the kingdom now supported an oil output cut of 1 million bpd. Two other OPEC sources said the need for additional action was clearer than when the OPEC+ committee recommendation was made.

"The situation has deteriorated," said an industry source who has discussed the issue with some producers. "There is a lot of concern."

Saudi Arabia is already making unilateral curbs of more 500,000 bpd in crude supplies to China for March, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. State oil company Saudi Aramco declined to comment.

The OPEC+ panel that recommended the 600,000 bpd cut, called the Joint Technical Committee, is scheduled to convene again on March 3, two sources said, to revise the recommendation in the light of more recent oil market data.

While Saudi Arabia supports a further output cut, Russia has yet to announce its final position on the matter. Moscow has a history of only agreeing to OPEC+ actions at the last minute, after initial reluctance.

Story continues

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday that Russia was "very satisfied" with its cooperation with Saudi Arabia and wanted to continue this within OPEC and non-OPEC frameworks, as well as bilaterally.

A source in a Russian oil company said it made sense to deepen the cuts.

(Additional reporting by Rania el Gamal, Ahmad Ghaddar and Olesya Astakhova; writing by Alex Lawler; Editing by Jason Neely and Edmund Blair)
A crackdown is coming on Australians who illegally import nicotine vaping products online, in a move set to reignite debate over whether e-cigarettes are helpful for smokers who need help to quit.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age can reveal federal health minister Greg Hunt has directed the Therapeutic Goods Administration to work with the Department of Home Affairs to consider a new approach to policing and regulating e-cigarettes.

The Morrison government is about to launch a major crackdown on vaping. Credit:iStockphoto

Despite laws prohibiting the importation of nicotine vape liquids - except under a little-used scheme that requires a prescription - there has until now been little obstacle to buying it online, with thousands of vapers - including those aged under 18 - importing it without obstruction.

A spokesman for Mr Hunt said the government had "a strict commitment to opposing vaping or any liberalisation on laws" and the supply or sale of liquid nicotine "is not legal in any state or territory".
Elizabeth Warren said Thursday that Michael Bloomberg was the riskiest choice for Democratic voters among the candidates still running for the presidential nomination.

On a national conference call with voters, Warren was asked by a voter from Dallas why she continued her attacks on Bloomberg during Tuesdays Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina.

I think Bloomberg poses a tremendous risk to the Democratic Party right now, and the reason for that is, as of a couple of weeks ago, he had spent $400 million to put his name out there, Warren said. He skipped all of the early states and kind of the early part of what democracy is about  go out, talk to people, take questions  and he was able to just put out a picture of Bloomberg that has been totally shaped by consultants, kind of his own vision of himself and what he wanted to present with no one to challenge him. And look how that raised him in the polls. I mean, lets face it, he basically bought a place on the debate stage.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks at a campaign event in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Warren has made Bloomberg her primary target in the two Democratic debates for which he has qualified. She cited his history of making sexist remarks, his insistence on closing complaints by women employees with sealed nondisclosure agreements and his policing policies during his tenure as mayor of New York.

The fact that Michael Bloomberg has not released his tax returns, does that sound like any other billionaires you know? Warren jibed. Bloomberg said he would release the returns in a few weeks i.e., after Super Tuesday  explaining that the forms are thousands of pages and it just takes us a long time. I cant go to TurboTax.

Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren debate in Las Vegas. (AP Foto/John Locher)

The fact that he has a terrible history with women and a lot of nondisclosure agreements so that we just dont even know whats lying out there and will come out ... during the general election, Warren continued. A terrible history of racist policies  stop and frisk, talking about redlining. This is a man who has talked about supporting Republicans, repeatedly helped anti-choice Republicans get elected, including the Republican that I challenged back in 2012 when I first got into politics.

Story continues

Bloomberg seems to hold a similarly dim view of Warren. At a private event in 2016, he quipped about the need to defend the banks from the likes of the Massachusetts senator, saying the progressive movement she embodies was just as scary as far-right nationalist parties in Europe or right-wing Republicans.

The left is arising. The progressive movement is just as scary, Bloomberg said. Elizabeth Warren on one side. And whoever you want to pick on the Republicans on the right side.

Bloombergs rise in the polls, fueled by hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising in Super Tuesday states, seemed to stall after Warren first took him on at a debate in Las Vegas, when he came across as stiff and supercilious. Her own candidacy has also failed to gain traction in the crowded field. But Bloomberg appears to be her least favorite candidate, even in a field that still includes the erratic Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

I think he is literally, of all the Democrats that are standing on the stage in the last two debates, I think he is literally the riskiest one for Democrats to nominate, Warren said on the call. And I very much hope that he will put his money into helping Democrats get elected instead of Republicans, but that he will not insist on having his own ego tied up in this and continuing to run for president.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
Crash and burn driver collides with policeman, hospitalised

PHUKET: Negligent driving caused a calamitous crash earlier this morning (Feb 28) resulting in a car colliding with a power pole that set off a fire at a wood factory.

accidentsSafetytransport

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Friday 28 February 2020, 12:13PM

The damaged Honda that was driven by Sgt Thinnaphop Phetchu of Tha Chatchai Police. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The driver responsible for the collision and subsequent fire, Watcharaphorn Kaiphum, receives medical treatment for his burns at the site of the crash. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The wreckage of the car driven by Watcharaphorn Kaiphum that was responsible for the incident. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

A firefighter works on extinguishing the burning car driven by Watcharaphorn Kaiphum that was responsible for the incident. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

A firefighter from Thepkrasattri Municipalitys Fire Department battles to contain the blaze engulfing the power pole, cables and wood factory. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The incident occurred just after midnight on the southbound section of Thepkrasattri Rd, in Thepkrasattri, Capt Kraisorn Boonprasob of the Thalang Police confirmed to The Phuket News.

Mr Watcharaphon Kaiphum, 30, originally from Nakhon Sri Thammarat, had attempted to undertake using the left-hand lane but subsequently clipped another car which resulted in him losing control and hitting the power pole.

His vehicle burst into flames upon impact and the fire quickly spread to a pile of wood that was laying outside the wood factory. The flames very quickly engulfed the power pole and cables and parts of the wood factory itself.

Police, together with Kusoldharm rescue workers, attended the scene and were immediately joined by firefighters from Thepkrasattri Municipalitys Fire Department.

They spent around 20 minutes battling the fire and were ultimately successful in containing the blaze. The car that caused the incident, however, was completely decimated by fire.

Police confirmed Watcharaphons car as a Phuket registered Toyota Vios sedan and the vehicle he clipped during the illegal over-taking maneouvre as a white Suratthani registered Honda Civic sedan, driven by Sgt Thinnaphop Phetchu of the Tha Chatchai Police.

Watcharaphon recounted to police that he was driving fast in the right lane when a pickup truck in front of him signaled his intention to turn right.

Watcharaphon took the decision to undertake but on doing so misjudged, clipped Sgt Thinnaphops car and lost control, resulting in the collision with the power pole.

This version of events was verified by Sgt Thinnaphop who explained that while he was driving in the left lane, Watcharaphons car suddenly changed lane and sped in front of him only to hit the right side of his car, and spin-off into the power pole.

It was the driver of the pickup truck, Mr Anan Prappanja, who pulled Watcharaphon from his burning vehicle after the impact. The latter had endured burns on his arms and back and was rushed to Thalang Hospital to receive immediate treatment.

Capt Kraisorn told The Phuket News that police had already asked medical staff at the hospital to conduct an alcohol test on Watcharaphon, although they had yet to receive any test reports.

In regards to what exact charges will be made, we have to first question Watcharaphon more, once he has been discharged from hospital, he said.

But at this stage I can confirm that he will be certainly be charged with reckless driving, Capt Kraisorn concluded.
As we celebrate the first anniversary of Balakot, one of the biggest challenges facing the Indian subcontinent and West Asia is of managing cross-border air strikes





by Ashok K Mehta





On the first anniversary of Balakot, which is today, challenges of managing cross-border air strikes are worth recalling. Prevention of high-stake military action  initiation or retaliation  from escalation is the challenge. Recent air, drone and missile strikes in the subcontinent and West Asia demonstrate diminishing appetite for war and conflict. Whenever a conflictual incident has occurred, the immediate aim has been to de-escalate. Uri, Doklam, Balakot and the targetted assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani demonstrated marked preference for containment and defusion rather than confrontation or escalation. A classic case of the absence of escalation control occurred during the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war where both sides played tit-for-tat.













Pakistan launched Operation Gibraltar, attacking by infiltrating Jammu & Kashmir. India retaliated at Hajipir and Kishanganga bulge in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Pakistan responded in Chhamb-Jauriyan. Pressed against the wall in Chhamb, India called in its Indian Air Force (IAF) and crossed the International Border (IB) in Sialkot and Lahore sectors, taking the war into the Punjab plains. Rawalpindi had believed its war would be confined to Jammu & Kashmir.





Now compare Indias surgical strikes in Uri and Balakot with the US drone strike against Soleimani. Language and vocabulary employed following these incidents make it clear that both the initiator and the responder aimed at de-escalation. Both the US and India have tried to alter the behaviour of Iran and Pakistan respectively, making both end their use of terrorism as instruments of State policy. In retaliation to the acts of terrorism, neither has wanted escalation after they initiated pre-emptive strikes or acted in anticipatory self-defence  a terminology used by India and the US. Although Indias air strike in Balakot was in retaliation to the Pulwama suicide attack, it was presented as pre-emptive action to ward off imminent terrorist attacks. The US drone strike on Soleimani was portrayed as revenge for earlier Iranian attacks on American interests and its allies in the Gulf region as also to prevent future attacks. As India wanted no escalation, it stated upfront that air attacks targetted the terrorist bases and that no further action was planned. The read-out was similar to pre-emptive attacks in 2016 against terrorist launch pads as reprisal for Uri. By completely denying Indian attacks, Pakistan absolved itself of any response.





But in reaction to Balakot, where the IAF struck for the first time inside Pakistan after the 1971 war and not in PoK, a Pakistani retaliation was inevitable. It came swiftly the next day when a package of F-16s crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and dropped their payload in Nowshera in a void, not on Indian military installations to obviate escalation. But Indian fighter jets scrambled, and in the dogfight, India claimed shooting down of a F-16 while Pakistan shot down a MiG 21 Bison, taking its pilot hostage. Content with retribution but intent on de-escalation, Pakistan agreed to return the pilot, though under US pressure. Pakistans announcement of the release of the pilot and Indias declaration that there would be no response to the Nowshera foray hastened the process of de-escalation .





Now compare Balakot with the US drone strike that eliminated Soleimani. Washington explained the operation as anticipatory self-defence. In order to deter wider conflict and asymmetric retaliation by Iran, the US counselled proportionate response even as Tehran put a bounty of $80 million on US President Donald Trumps head. Irans Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said: The US act of international terrorism targetting and assassinating Gen Soleimani is extremely dangerous and foolish escalation. The US bears responsibility for all the consequences of its rogue adventurism. Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, promised revenge, which came through 12 precision-guided missile strikes against two US bases in Iraq, which were programmed to cause no harm to its soldiers and assets (like Pakistan bombing in Nowshera) to minimise scope for escalation despite Trumps high-octane warnings for reprisals.





Retribution delivered, Zarif said: Action taken in self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter has been concluded. We do not seek escalation or war. Like Pakistans retaliatory strikes after Balakot caused no harm to India, Iranian missiles were sanitised to avoid escalation. Trump chose to step back and imposed only additional sanctions on Iran. For consumption of domestic audience, the Pakistan Air Force claimed causing huge damage in Nowshera.





Similarly, Iran fed its people the fake news that 80 US terrorists had been killed in revenge attacks. At the same time, it was able to demonstrate the impressive capability of its missiles, which were fired for the first time outside Iran in Iraq after the Iran-Iraq war. Neither the US nor Iran targetted each others territory. The US was deterred from escalation by the threat of stepped up asymmetric Iranian response against more than 70,000 American troops in the region scattered over US bases in 10 allied countries.





While in India-Pakistan conflicts the nuclear bomb was a factor for deterrence, in the US-Iran fight it was not. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had claimed during an election rally after Balakot that he had a couple of missiles ready for launch in case the Indian pilot was not released.





Although both the ground and air strikes launched across the LoC/IB were in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Uri and Pulwama in Jammu & Kashmir, New Delhi did not invoke Article 51 and the right to self-defence to retaliate. Instead, it utilised the principle of pre-emption to thwart imminent attacks in both cases. Arguably between pre-emptive action and anticipatory self-defence, the latter is more acceptable in international law.





While the US invoked anticipatory self-defence in eliminating Soleimani, Iran used the right to self-defence in attacking American bases. The problem arises while responding to non-State actors like India did in response to Jaish-e-Mohammed attacks in Uri and Pulwama. It specifically targetted terrorist launch pads/training bases in Pakistan, the country supporting/sponsoring terrorist groups and on whose soil they were located. The UN Charter covers only armed attacks by one State against another State under Article 51 that covers self-defence provision. In the US-Iran case, America attacked a terrorist entity in a third country, Iraq, and Iran, too, responded in Iraq.





Restraint and de-escalation have ensured that the imminent threat of war in West Asia has passed, though tensions remain. But another Pulwama or Uri will set alarm bells ringing again. On assuming charge, Army chief Gen MM Naravane warned Pakistan of pre-emptive strikes to deter cross-border terrorism. For military action, pre-emptive or in anticipatory self-defence to be salutary, it has to be executed periodically against terrorists bases like what the Israelis do: Mowing the grass in Gaza. But comparing Gaza with PoK/Pakistan will be wrong. Surgical air and ground strikes  even after the induction of Rafale  will not be the new normal as they were made out by the BJP during election rallies.





(The writer, a retired Major General, was Commander IPKF South, Sri Lanka and founder member of the Defence Planning Staff, currently the Integrated Defence Staff.)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Boeing acknowledged Friday it failed to conduct full and adequate software tests before the botched space debut of its astronaut capsule late last year.

A software error left the Starliner capsule in the wrong orbit in December and precluded a docking with the International Space Station. Another software flaw could have ended up destroying the capsule, if not fixed right before reentry.

A Boeing vice-president, John Mulholland, said both mistakes would have been caught if complete, end-to-end testing had been conducted in advance and actual flight equipment used instead of substitutes.

We know that we need to improve, he said.

The company is still uncertain when its next test flight might occur and whether astronauts might be aboard. NASA  which will have the final say  will announce the outcome of the ongoing investigation review next Friday. The first flight test had no crew.

SpaceX, meanwhile, aims to launch its Dragon crew capsule with NASA astronauts this spring.

Mulholland, who serves as the Starliner program manager, said the company is still reviewing the Starliners 1 million lines of code to make certain no other problems exist.

Because Boeing tested the Starliners software in segments rather than in one continuous stream to simulate the flight to and from the space station, the company failed to catch an error that knocked the capsules internal timer off by 11 hours shortly after liftoff. An unrelated communication problem prevented flight controllers from quickly sending commands in a bid to salvage the docking portion of the mission.

Then, just hours before the capsules early return to New Mexico, a second software error was detected by ground controllers. This mistake stemmed from the use of substitute equipment during preflight testing rather than actual flight hardware.

Mulholland stressed that the situation had nothing to do with saving money.

Were going to go make it right and were going to have a fantastic spacecraft going forward, he said.

The December mission was supposed to be the companys last major hurdle before launching the first Starliner crew  two NASA astronauts and a Boeing astronaut. NASA astronauts have not launched from home soil since the space shuttle program ended in 2011.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
SAN JOSE (BCN)

A man who died in a fiery crash on Highway 101 in San Jose last month remains unidentified and the Santa Clara County medical examiner's office on Thursday asked for the public's help in finding out his identity.

The crash was reported at 11:28 p.m. on Jan. 16 on northbound Highway 101 at the connector ramps to Interstates 680 and 280, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The medical examiner's office said the man was driving a Dodge Charger and lost control while trying to exit the highway, then struck a pole, causing the vehicle to burst into flames.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene, and the CHP determined that the license plate was tied to a stolen rental car from San Francisco International Airport.

The flames left the man's facial features indiscernible, but he has a tattoo on his left foot that authorities hope can help lead to his identification. The tattoo is of a red lily flower with two smaller blue flowers and the word "Life" is written in script about it.

The medical examiner's office released other descriptions of the man, saying he was about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 150 pounds, and was likely black or Latino.

Anyone with information about the man's identity is asked to call the medical examiner's office at 408-793-1900, ext. 3.

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.
(Newser)  As Prince Harryor just "Harry," as he now prefers to be calledis undergoing his "transition" from senior royal to a "privately funded [member] of the Royal Family," he's squeezing in some final duties. What made it onto his itinerary Friday: a jam with Jon Bon Jovi. ABC News reports Harry and the Bon Jovi frontman met up in London at Abbey Road Studios, where Bon Jovi was re-recording his song "Unbroken" with the Invictus Games Choir in support of the charity that Harry founded in 2014. The Invictus Games is a competition not unlike the Paralympics in which wounded service members compete.

story continues below

The new version of "Unbroken"which Buckingham Palace says was created "to shine a spotlight on veterans living with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and honor their service"will be released in March. During the Harry-Bon Jovi get-together, they also re-created the famous Beatles' Abbey Road cover with members of the choir; ABC has a pic. In honor of the day, the Queen's Guard at Buckingham Palace got into the action, too, per Town & Country: During the traditional changing of the guard ceremony, the band "played a special medley of @bonjovi music," including a rousing version of "Livin' on a Prayer," which the palace posted on Instagram. (Read more Prince Harry stories.)
Artist Thota Vaikuntam from Telangana had craftsmen working under him to create the clay models to his desired precision.

Creating sculptures of paintings on canvas without losing their signature styles requires a distinct talent. The ongoing exhibition at Kalakriti Art Gallery, titled Bronzed  From Paint to Patina, has on display bronze works that are part of a project inspired by the four eminent artists  Ram Kumar, Krishen Khanna, Jogen Chowdhury and Thota Vaikuntam  whose imagery has set ablaze the hearts of art lovers for decades.

The three-dimensional bronze not only brings to life and extends itself to a more physical form, but also adds a fresh perspective to the artists work. To create the bronzes, an artist had to collaborate with skilled artisans to recreate the figures from every angle, not only of what shows in the painting but also the invisible dimensions in the figure or object painted. While surely a challenge, it provided artists with an exciting opportunity to look at their paintings afresh, making them constantly visiting aspects they had not attended to previously.

So too, this particular project allowed the artists to extend themselves beyond the constraints of their most distinguished works and, through a stroke of re-imagining, see their iconic figures come to life in these twenty-six bronze sculptures.

Abstractionism on point

The late artist Ram Kumars figurative works in 1950s were the highlight at the exhibition, in which his works brought forward how human forms, too, can be a part of abstract art. Taking inspiration from the artist who was born in Shimla, the Vagabond series, almost six decades since its origin, adds another value to the bronze sculpture. This project was in collaboration with Bronze Age London, a leading sculpture casting foundry in the UK, resulting in the production of the premium quality bronzes.

An artistic challenge

The visual cross-hatching effect being an integral part of artist Jogen Chowdhurys artwork, recreating it on metal, as a bronze sculpture, was a challenge. The Shantiniketan-based artist tells us that he took printed images from every angle of the clay model so he could draw over and make corrections wherever required.

Creating a masterpiece

Artist Thota Vaikuntam from Telangana had craftsmen working under him to create the clay models to his desired precision. Vaikuntam has been known among his patrons for his paintings capturing simple rural lifestyle of villagers in Telangana, mainly the women doing household chores. For this project, too, his sculptures captured women and Lord Ganesh in the rustic form.

Structured compositions

The works of artist Krishen Khanna, who grew up in Lahore, range from carefully constructed compositions to gestural, spontaneous works. His works in the Bandwallas series captures the exuberant energy of the band of musicians. Capturing the same energy, the sculpture adds on layers to the already intriguing work. For Krishen, it was plainly enjoyable to see his bandwallas come to life in bronze with the assistance of his drawings and subsequent patina suggestions.
By Trend

The Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan has confirmed the first case of coronavirus infection in the country, Trend reports with reference to the Operational Headquarters.

According to the Headquarters, the infected is a Russian citizen.

The Russian citizen showed the primary signs of a coronavirus when crossing the state border with Iran in the direction of Azerbaijan. Then the Russian citizen was placed in a special box of the hospital. The results of the tests were positive. Currently, the patient's health is stable.

The hospital has all the necessary equipment and professional medical staff to provide the patient with appropriate therapy, as well as to prevent the spread of infection.

Moreover, appropriate measures are being taken to suppress the spread of the virus and its undesirable consequences. Work is underway to identify the persons with whom the patient had close contact, and to identify the source of infection of the patient, as well as the ways of the infections spread.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Vantagepoint traders had the insight to side-step the sudden selloff in equity prices as stock valuations tumbled by more than $2.5 trillion during the final week of February, wiping out many traders' years of hard-earned capital.

See How Vantagepoint Predicted This Selloff

VantagePoint Software's AI identifies global markets' hidden influencing factors and does advanced forms of linear and non-linear pattern recognition using patented intermarket analysis. The technology then employs a second patented process to generate predictive technical indicators capable of forecasting market changes up to 3 days in advance. Most other trading tools and technical indicators have failed to evolve and continue to only focus on past-price data causing immense lag. VantagePoint allows traders to see trends in advance by incorporating forecasted price action, generated by the AI, giving them the chance to protect their capital ahead of bearish markets and the chance to profit more in bullish ones.

"Over forty years ago my father, Louis Mendelsohn, founded this company to help independent traders be competitive in the financial markets," says Lane Mendelsohn, President of Vantagepoint AI. "He knew a computer was capable of analyzing data better and faster than any human could. Today our software's artificial intelligence can forecast the market better than any human using big data and statistical probabilities."

In a world where news is disseminated instantly worldwide, and its effects are often dramatic, artificial intelligence offers unemotional, data-driven decision-making resources. Traders can have the insight to optimally time their trades for profits or to mitigate losses  depending on the forecasted market direction.

One Vantagepoint AI user wrote into the company after the meltdown and exclaimed:

"VP so totally signaled - quite a few days ago - this current drop in the markets. And showed a solid 'down' cross after the close last Friday (I follow the ES and MES futures). Signaled drops in several international ETFs also. GoodOnYa VP & Team!"

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About Vantagepoint AI, LLC. Vantagepoint AI, creators of Vantagepoint Software, is a leader in trading software research and software development forecasting Stocks, Options, Futures, Forex, and ETFs with proven accuracy of up to 87.4%. Vantagepoint's patented Neural Network processes predict changes in market trend direction up to three days in advance, enabling traders to get in and out of trades at optimal times with confidence. Vantagepoint actively gives back to the Tampa Bay community donating more than $680,000 to local charities, Shriners Hospitals for Children and the Children's Cancer Center.

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SOURCE Vantagepoint AI, LLC

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday warned Iran not to scuttle an upcoming agreement with the Taliban, accusing the US adversary of seeking to be a "spoiler."

Pompeo confirmed that a one-week partial truce was holding with the Taliban, who are scheduled to sign the landmark accord with the United States in Qatar on Saturday.

"There is a history of Iran engaging in activity inside of Afghanistan to act as a spoiler," Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"We've seen just these last six days a significant reduction in violence in Afghanistan and we are watching closely to see if the Islamic Republic of Iran begins to take even more active measure that undermine our efforts at peace and reconciliation," he said.

He warned that Iran could increase risks for US troops, whose numbers are expected to be sharply scaled down under the Doha agreement.

Iran's Shiite clerical regime has been historically opposed to the Taliban, which practices an austere brand of Sunni Islam, and quietly backed the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime.

Iran was part of a coalition that backed the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance and in 1998 amassed troops near the Afghan border after a Taliban assault on Iran's consulate in Herat.

But Iran has increasingly been involved in proxy conflicts with the United States elsewhere, notably in Iraq.

Iran has been mostly cautious in its recent comments on Afghanistan.

But Foreign Minister Javad Zarif last year criticized the US talks with the Taliban, saying they only boosted the extremists and alienated the internationally backed government.
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Duesseldorf, Germany,  Fri, February 28, 2020 05:55 685 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20671213f 2 World #Germany,#coronavirus,pandemic,patients,China Free

Four western German states reported a total of 20 new cases of the coronavirus on Thursday, a day after the federal health minister said the country is at the start of an epidemic.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, the health ministry said 14 more people tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday in the Heinsberg area, where a couple were the first confirmed cases in the state.

The new cases took the total in the Heinsberg area to 20. Of the latest cases, all those concerned were isolated at home and did not require hospital treatment, the state's health ministry said.

Further south, Baden-Wuerttemberg reported four new cases, taking its total to eight.

In Bavaria, the state health ministry said a man had contracted the virus who had come into contact in Germany with an Italian. The Italian tested positive on his return to Italy.

The state of Rhineland-Palatinate also said on Thursday a man there, in Kaiserslautern, had tested positive for the virus.

"The male patient is doing well so far. He's in isolation," Rhineland-Palatinate's state government tweeted.

On Wednesday, the federal government's health minister, Jens Spahn, said Germany was at the beginning of a coronavirus epidemic after new cases emerged which could no longer be traced to the virus's original source in China.
When the coronavirus outbreak began in China, government officials there initially sought to deny that there was any public health issue. One doctor in Wuhan, the Chinese city hardest hit, noticed early warning signs of a potential epidemic, but was confronted by police and pressured to keep quiet. Eventually, after aggressive quarantine efforts by the government, the number of new cases in China peaked, but doubts remain as to how reliable Chinas official figures are.

Now, as COVID-19, the new coronavirus that first appeared in Wuhan, spreads to other countries  including South Korea, Iran and Italy  public health officials in New York are bracing for the worst. Even though there have been no cases documented locally yet, public health officials have been open about the threat for weeks. And unlike in China, New York Citys health department has been transparent about the still small number of people who have been tested and the results of those tests.

But will it make a difference?

Its not a matter of if, but when, well see cases of coronavirus in our city, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Jan. 24. We are prepared and we need you to take precautions as well.

While much remains unknown about the disease, whose flu-like symptoms range from resembling the common cold to life-threatening conditions, it appears to be more contagious than the related respiratory syndromes SARS and MERS. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, infection with COVID-19 occurs through the air, in close contact of about six feet. Respiratory droplets are produced when an infected patient coughs or sneezes. These can land in the mouths or noses or are possibly inhaled into the lungs of people nearby.

Fast transmission is a particular concern in a population-dense city like New York, where infection seems more or less inevitable. The important thing for New Yorkers to know is that in the city currently, their risk is low, and our city preparedness is high, said New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot on a Feb. 6 interview on NY1s Inside City Hall show. We are monitoring the situation daily to determine if our plans to protect New Yorkers need to be adjusted accordingly.

This would not be the first time the city battles an infectious disease. During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the New York City health department implemented extensive screening procedures and training. After the death of Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas, health officials in New York City set up isolation rooms in public and private hospitals. Bellevue Hospital Center was turned into the go-to facility with separate rooms with sliding glass doors, private bathrooms and a lab only for testing the blood of Ebola patients. Medical and maintenance personnel wore head-to-toe protective gear and underwent extensive drills to deter further contamination. Exercises included the proper removal of clothing, disposing of infected equipment, cleaning facilities and treating mock patients.

Hospital preparedness was put to the test when Dr. Craig Spencer tested positive for Ebola after returning from Doctors Without Borders in Guinea, marking the first case of Ebola in New York City. Spencer was immediately brought into isolation at Bellevue. The three people he came in contact with were quarantined, and the bowling alley he visited was closed and cleaned by health workers. The virus was ultimately contained, and Spencer was declared Ebola-free after less than a month.

"It's not a matter of if, but when, we'll see cases of coronavirus in our city." - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio

Spencers case is a good indication that it can be done, Dr. Stephen Morse, professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, told City & State. If you are careful and mindful of the fact that (infection) could happen, you make sure to look for those cases, whether its Ebola or the 2019 coronavirus. Its a matter of having the right procedures and infrastructure in place and people who know how to act.

According to Syra Madad, the senior director for the systemwide special-pathogens program for NYC Health + Hospitals, the citys health facilities are practicing basic infection control to detect COVID-19 amongst New Yorkers. The first thing staff in the ER asks is  Do you have fever, cough or rash? Madad told City & State. If they do, patients are given a mask and escorted to isolation rooms right away to minimize the interaction with other patients.

With the support of federal funding, Bellevue Hospital Center hosts in-service training to familiarize health workers with COVID-19. Medical personnel are taught how to identify cases and isolate them and undergo readiness and table-top protocols to ensure the system responds and functions properly should this outbreak worsen. We drill all of our hospitals on what we call mystery patients that may come in with respiratory illnesses to make sure that they are all at the same level of readiness, a spokesperson for the New York City health department said.

On Wednesday, de Blasio asked the federal government to allow the citys health department to test patients for the virus, arguing that it would allow the city to respond more quickly to a health emergency. Currently, the city has to rely on the CDC for testing.

If there is a surge of cases, NYC Health + Hospitals plans to address the situation from a four-S standpoint: staffing, supplies, space and system. This helps health officials ensure there are enough isolation rooms, masks and medical workers to accommodate infected patients.

While funding for the national Ebola preparedness program is set to expire early this year, individual medical systems can decide whether to continue funding the program. According to Madad, the NYC Health + Hospitals program will continue, but she voiced concern for health care programs around the nation.

The unfortunate part is that funding was only for five years, and it actually expires in a matter of months  in 2020, Madad told New York magazine recently. So this entire infrastructure that weve built across the nation is going to get dismantled in a couple of months, which is mind-boggling knowing were in a potential pandemic situation and were letting our guard down.

For now, travel restrictions issued by the Trump administration allow health officials to buy time and prepare for the worst. As of Feb. 2, foreign nationals who traveled to China within the past 14 days are no longer allowed to enter the United States. This does not apply to U.S. citizens who have recently been to mainland China. They are allowed to enter but may be subject to health screening and possibly 14 days of federal or self-imposed quarantine. CDC staffers evaluate travelers for fever, cough or heavy breathing, and if they show symptoms, they will be brought to a medical facility. Travelers who do not show signs of illness are allowed to complete their travel itinerary but are instructed to self-monitor their health for two weeks by staying home and avoiding contact with others.

Should cases of COVID-19 be identified in the city, officials will likely expand airport screening beyond federal guidelines and CDC requirements. During the Ebola outbreak, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and then-Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey issued a quarantine policy, ordering 21-day mandatory quarantine for all health care workers returning from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and traveling through John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty International airports.

In the meantime, the citys health officials are doing their best to promote transparency. Cuomo recently allocated $40 million to the state Health Department to hire more staff and resources to combat the disease if and when it arrives. And while China failed to notify its citizens soon enough, as The New York Times reported, here in New York both city and state health departments are updating their websites daily. We are putting out a steady stream of press releases, website updates of suspected cases, a spokesperson for the New York City health department said. We are in constant communication with electeds, local health care providers and community partners to update them on the latest information.
Hong Kong, Feb 28 : Three pro-democracy figures, including a newspaper founder, were arrested and charged in Hong Kong on Friday over a banned protest held in August 2019 amid anti-government demonstrations that gripped the city.

At about 7.30 a.m., police arrested Apple Daily founder and media mogul Jimmy Lai for illegal assembly and intimidating a reporter using foul language during anti-government protests in the city, Efe news reported citing local media reports.

The Apple Daily is known to support the pro-democracy movement, and therefore the protests, and for its opposition to the pro-Beijing government.

Two former pro-democracy politicians, Yeung Sum and Lee Cheuk-yan, were also arrested on Friday morning, according to state news outlet RTHK.

Yeung is the chairman of the Hong Kong Labor Party and general secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions.

At a press briefing, Acting Senior Superintendent of Police Wong Tung-Kwong, said the police arrested three Hong Kong men aged between 63 and 72 on Friday morning in connection with a case of illegal assembly during the unauthorized rally on August 31, 2019.

The 72-year-old was also allegedly involved in a case of intimidation on June 4, 2017.

All three have been charged and will appear in a court on May 5, Wong added.

The August 31 demonstration, which marked the 13th consecutive weekend of protests in the city, took place with the participation of tens of thousands of people despite being banned by police.

Although the objective was to protest at the headquarters of the Liaison Office - an organization that represents the Beijing government in Hong Kong - many gathered at the police headquarters, who used blue-dye water canon for the first time since the start of the mass demonstrations at the beginning of June 2019.

The march was called by the Civil Human Rights Front, an organization that was behind the biggest and most peaceful demonstrations of the movement, but the authorities denied permission to hold it, claiming that in other protests there had been episodes of violence.

August 31 also marked the fifth anniversary of the decision of the Chinese authorities not to allow universal suffrage to elect the head of the Hong Kong government, which was the main reason for the so-called 2014 Umbrella Revolution.

The massive anti-government protests in Hong Kong are largely taking a break due to the COVID-19 epidemic, but there are still some pockets with low participation.

Supporters of the pro-democracy movement have warned that when the health crisis ends they could return to the streets to demonstrate again.
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan capital, Tripoli, was the target of intensive bombing that hit different parts of the city, wounding a woman, causing property damage and causing the suspension of air navigation at Maitigua airport and the evacuation of patients from an adjoining hospital
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Linkedin Riska Rahman (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020 12:01 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206725a8c 1 Business stocks,stock-market,JCI,IDX,coronavirus,COVID-19 Free

Indonesias benchmark stock index plunged deeper on Friday, trading down more than 4 percent during the morning session and prompting the bourse operator to call for an emergency press briefing. The latest sell-off has been mainly blamed on the coronavirus spreading rapidly outside of China.

The Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) was down 4.4 percent at 5,290 at 10:55 a.m., a level unseen since December 2016. The morning session closed at 5,311.96 points at 11:30 a.m., down 4.04 percent from Thursday's close. The market is set to reopen 2 p.m.

The decline adds to a 2.69 percent plunge on Thursday, when foreign investors posted Rp 1.05 trillion (US$75.1 million) in net sells of domestic stocks, and falls in line with a global market rout over fresh fears that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is spreading rapidly outside of China.

Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) president director Inarno Djajadi said that, if the drop in the JCI reached 5 percent, the bourse would suspend trading for a few hours but reopen within the same day.

Weve prepared a crisis protocol [for the event that] it falls 5 percent, Inarno told The Jakarta Post on Thursday. Well monitor the situation closely.

If the stock index fell by 10 percent, stock trading would be suspended for the whole day, he added. The IDX has announced a press briefing for later today.

Global share markets headed for the worst week since the darkest days of the financial crisis in 2008 as investors braced for the coronavirus to morph into a pandemic and derail world economic growth, Reuters reported.

Read also: Global shares head for worst week since 2008 financial crisis

The MSCI all country world index fell 3.3 percent on Thursday to bring its losses so far this week to 8.9 percent, on course for its biggest weekly decline since a 9.8 percent plunge in November 2008. The US Down Jones slumped 4.4 percent on Thursdays close. Japan lost 2.5 percent, Australia dropped 3 percent and South Korea slipped 1.4 percent.

On Friday, all of the bourses nine sectoral indices were in the red during the session before lunch break. The decline was led by miscellaneous industry, which plummeted by 5.65 percent. Diversified conglomerate PT Astra International, a blue chip stock, plunged 6.72 percent. Cement producer companies stocks such as PT Indocement Tunggal Prakasa and state-owned PT Semen Indonesia, as well as diversified petrochemical giant PT Barito Pacific declined by around 7 percent.

The agriculture sector index followed the decline, down by 5.3 percent, as agribusiness company PT Salim Ivomas Pratama plummeted 12.3 percent.

Despite the rout, foreign investors seemed to have used the opportunity to buy back Indonesian stocks as the IDX recorded a total of Rp 61.59 billion in net foreign buys as of 11:30 a.m.

Panin Sekuritas equity analyst William Hartanto told The Jakarta Post on Friday that the JCI had entered a market crash phase in a technical manner.

The uptrend that had been created since 2009 broke when the index fell below the 5,940 level, he said by text message.

Read also: Stocks near 3-year low as foreign investors post huge sell-off amid virus fears

He attributed the crash to the COVID-19 outbreak all over the world as investors are panicking over concerns that the virus could cause the global economy to continue to slow.

According to the World Health Organization, there were 459 new cases and 44 deaths in 37 countries as of Wednesday. China reported 412 new confirmed cases.

The coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people and killed nearly 2,800, the majority in China. Cities in the worlds second-largest economy are in lockdown, with factories temporarily halting production and travel warnings for China issued by countries around the world.

Aside from the virus, William also attributed the JCIs rout to the investment mismanagement case implicating state-owned insurers PT Asuransi Jiwasraya and Asuransi Sosial Angkatan Bersenjata Republik Indonesia (Asabri), which prompted the Attorney Generals Office to freeze 800 securities accounts.

The case caused transactions in the market to quiet down since the case unravelled, he said

William continued that he expected the market to continue to decline until the COVID-19 outbreak could be contained. He projected that the JCI would dip to around 5,060 to 5,250 by the end of the first quarter of this year.

He suggested that market players adapt their strategies to book profits. The crash is not the end of the stock market, he said. (est)
With the Central Statistics Office (CSO) set to release the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) numbers for the third quarter today, initial forecasts seem to suggest gloomy days may finally be over and Indian economy could show signs of recovery after six quarters of continuous fall in the GDP. Many financial institutions and rating agencies say the GDP numbers will see a rebound. The reasons are an uptick in rural demand, spending in government schemes and private consumption. Due to some improvement in many high-frequency indicators in the October-December quarter, it seems the deceleration in the economy has stopped and also bottomed out.

Notably, the GDP growth slowed in Q2 to a six-year low of 4.5 per cent due to subdued expansion in agriculture, manufacturing, and government expenditure. The Indian economy grew at 5 per cent in Q1 of FY20, falling from 5.8 per cent in Q4 of FY19. The economic growth had plunged 2.2 per cent in FY19 alone -- from 8 per cent in Q1 FY19 to 5.8 per cent in Q4 that year.

Also read: Will it be another frightful Friday? Finance Minister will keep fingers crossed

For Q3, estimates suggest the Indian economy fared slightly better in the quarter ending December before suffering a relapse after the global impact of coronavirus started showing. While some are conservative in their approach, others predict little improvement in the quarter.

State Bank of India says India's GDP growth will remain flat at over six-year low of 4.5 per cent in Q3 of FY20. DBS Bank pegs the December quarter growth at 4.4 per cent. YES Bank also says the growth will remain flat at 4.5 per cent.

Also read: Q3 GDP likely to be 4.5%, FM should not be surprised: Chidambaram

But the Central bank has estimated the GDP to rise to 4.9 per cent from 4.5 per cent in the previous quarter. HDBC Bank says the GDP in the third quarter will likely grow at 4.8 per cent. IDFC First Bank believes there'll be a slight improvement in the GDP growth at 4.6 per cent. CRISIL, however, forecasts Q3 GDP breaching the 5 per cent-mark. CRISIL's forecast of the real GDP growth in fiscal 2021 is also at 6 per cent. ICRA and FICCI also pegged the growth accelerating to 4.7 per cent. The median forecast of a Reuters poll of economists also put annual economic growth at 4.7 per cent in the December quarter. A Bloomberg poll suggests the country's GDP growth rising to 4.7 per cent. Economists at Barclays Plc also believe the economy doing better in the quarter at 5 per cent.

"With mild traction in the leading indicators, GDP growth for Q3FY20 is likely to remain subdued but might show minor acceleration from 4.5% YoY to 4.6% - 4.7 per cent," said Sparsh Chhabra, Economist, at Centrum.

Though some signs of recovery are visible, economists believe the Indian economy will remain under strain due to coronavirus outbreak in China, which has crippled the global supply chain. This will have a major impact on several Indian industries, including electronics, consumer durable, automobile, pharma, apparel, among others. India imports from China stood at $56 billion in 2019.

Also read: Q3 GDP growth to be announced Friday; SBI report warns of coronavirus impact
A family of eight, who have been on a waiting list for a home for 12 years, have hit out at an "inconsistency" in housing policies after they were told they are unsuitable for a three-bedroom house.

In a week in which a leading university revealed it is doubling up on single bedrooms to meet an "unprecedented demand in the middle of a housing crisis", a Co Wexford family have told of their struggle to find accommodation.

The Sinnott family have rented 12 different homes in 16 years and have had to send their children to six different schools.

Lyndsey and James Sinnott, who previously appeared on RTE show 'Ireland's Fittest Family' with two of their six children, have said they are happy for their children to share a bedroom.

Their six children are aged three, 10, 12, 15, 17 and 18, with their second-eldest hoping to go to college in September.

One of the universities in his sights is the University of Limerick, which announced it would be allowing only second- and third-year students to apply for shared accommodation on campus.

Pictures circulating online of two beds crammed into a small bedroom generated outrage among UL students, who described the accommodation as "like a prison cell".

The Sinnott family, who are desperate to find a home, would be happy for their children to share a bedroom, but said the council won't allow it on a "human rights basis".

"My eldest son is currently living with his girlfriend and my second-eldest is going to college, maybe in Carlow or Limerick, but the council's argument is they can't put any more than five people in a three-bed, but what I don't understand is they are putting families of four or five in a hotel room and then there are strangers packed into bedrooms all across the country," said Lyndsey Sinnott.

The family are at the top of Wexford County Council's waiting list for a four-bedroom house and recently thought they had finally secured a home, only to learn the house may have to be converted into a three-bed.

The house is in an area where James and Lyndsey both grew up and they had their hearts set on moving in.

However, a partition inside the house was deemed a fire hazard and the property will now have only three bedrooms.

It is the council's policy that a family of two adults with four or more children may apply only for a house with four or more bedrooms.

"One of my children suffers from autism and will not sleep on his own so he has to share a room. Two sets of bunk-beds would cover the boys," Ms Sinnott said.

"The council have asked us to bear with them as they hope to have something in the relatively near future, but I've been hoping for 16 years."

Ms Sinnott, who works in a local takeaway, said her mother had even offered to have two of her children move in if it helped them to find a home.

When asked about families who may be living in overcrowded conditions, a spokesperson for Wexford County Council said: "If a family with fewer than four children rent a house from Wexford County Council with less than four bedrooms and subsequently have more children, the council will consider a transfer application from that family.

"In order to protect the privacy of our clients and to observe GDPR requirements, Wexford County Council will not publicly comment on the circumstances of a specific housing applicant family."

The Irish Independent revealed last week how 15 tenants living in a four-bedroom house in an affluent area in south Dublin have been given a month to move out.

Up to three strangers were sharing a room.

Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council inspected the property but is not taking any enforcement action.
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Talk about a very black pot calling the kettle black. But thats exactly what happened when pro-abortion senator Elizabeth Warren challenged Mike Bloomberg on the issue of abortion. In the end, the issue was not the life of the child at all or the sanctity of the womb. Instead, the issue was, You dont have the right to tell me to kill my baby. Thats my choice alone. This is as pathetic as it is absurd.

In the most recent Democratic presidential debate, Warren again claimed that she was fired for being pregnant in 1971 as a special education teacher. She then said to Bloomberg, At least I didnt have a boss who said to me, Kill it, the way that Mayor Bloomberg is alleged to have said to one of his pregnant employees.

Bloomberg, for his part denied the allegation, saying, I never said that, and for the record, if she was a teacher in New York City, she would never have had that problem. We treated our teachers the right way, and the unions will tell you exactly that.

As for Warren, her strategy was to draw attention to the larger issue of Bloombergs alleged treatment of women, adding, People want a chance to hear from the women who have worked for Mayor Bloomberg.

This, of course, is a valid issue. How did Bloomberg treat his female employees? What about the non-disclosure agreements? And was he really so crass as to tell a pregnant employee to kill her baby, calling the baby it?

The problem is that Elizabeth Warren is the last person to raise a protest about abortion.

She is a passionate supporter of a womans right to kill it. That she challenged Mayor Bloomberg in such a manner is hypocritical, to say the least.

It would have been more honest had she said, You dont get to tell me to kill it. Thats my choice.

Remember. This is the same Elizabeth Warren who pledged to wear the Planned Parenthood scarf at her inauguration if elected president. (For the record, that scarf should be blood red.)

Too bad she wasnt wearing that scarf during the debate. The irony would have been thick.

This is the same Elizabeth Warren who issued a militant, pro-abortion statement last May, calling for the safeguarding of Roe v. Wade.

Speaking of Republican, pro-life efforts, she said (in italics), This is a dark moment. People are scared and angry. And they are right to be. But this isnt a moment to back down  its time to fight back.

A pro-Warren headline on Vox put it like this: Elizabeth Warren just announced her abortion platform. Its aggressive. It has little chance in Congress. But Warren is one of the few Democratic candidates with a clear reproductive rights plan.

Yet this was the woman taking issue with the alleged kill it comment?

The word fight occurs 7 times in the Warren statement. Yes, she is committed to fight for the womens right to kill it, as long as its her choice.

The babys life doesnt matter. Reproductive rights are the only issue. (At the risk of being redundant, how on earth did killing a baby in the womb become known as reproductive rights? What on earth does terminating a pregnancy have to do with reproduction?)

This is the same Elizabeth Warren who, this very week, skipped the Senates votes on two important bills, one on banning infanticide and the other on stopping late-term abortions.

Thats right. She didnt even bother to show up and vote. (In doing so, she was joined by two other Democratic presidential candidates and senators, Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar. They were the only three Democrats who missed the votes.)

As noted on LifeNews, That the Democrat presidential candidates didnt show up to vote is no surprise considering they voted for infanticide and late-term abortions the last time the Senate voted. While they all voted to support infanticide, President Trump spoke out against infanticide in two tweets saying that its nothing short of executing babies to let them die after failed abortions.

This is the same Elizabeth Warren who wrote in 2018, On the 45th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, I think about what has changed since abortions became legal. Our health care system has pretty much dealt with the safety issue: thanks to Roe vs. Wade, abortion is now safer than getting your tonsils out. A lot of women are alive today because of Roe.

Senator Warren, are you saying that abortion is now safer for the baby being ripped apart or sucked out? And are you comparing, in any way, the removal of tonsils to the terminating of a beating heart?

If Mike Bloomberg really said, Kill it to a female employee, that would certainly be outrageous for many reasons.

But it is equally outrageous that Elizabeth Warren wants to fight so passionately for the right to kill it  even late in a pregnancy, and even if it survives abortion.

Lets call a spade a spade.
San Francisco authorities have arrested a man suspected of robbing and committing a hate crime against an elderly Asian man over the weekend in a case that drew outrage from community members and politicians.

Dwayne Grayson, 20, was arrested on suspicion of robbery, elder abuse, probation violation for an earlier robbery and committing a hate crime, Police Chief Bill Scott said Thursday at a press conference in the Bayview neighborhood, where the attack occurred. Grayson was taken into custody in front of his home Thursday morning on the 100 block of Kirkwood Street in the Bayview.

Police said Grayson videoed the incident and posted it on social media, and they are seeking a second suspect, also a man, and expect to make an arrest soon.

A video depicting the attack went viral. It shows a man swinging what looks like a metal pole at an elderly Asian man, while a crowd gathered near Osceola Lane and La Salle Avenue mocks him. Police said the victim was robbed of recyclables he had collected.

I hate Asians, a person yelled.

Two security guards who, in a second video, appear to instruct the victim to leave the area after he was robbed, were placed on administrative leave by Critical Intervention Patrol.

The victim was an elderly man doing what he can to support his family, being bullied and hurt in his own neighborhood, Joyce Lam of the Chinese Progressive Association said at Thursdays gathering.

The event was attended by Scott, Mayor London Breed, state Sen. Scott Wiener, state Assemblyman David Chiu, several members of the Board of Supervisors, and dozens of members of the community, both Asian and African American.

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.

I am tired of coming back to this place over and over because of violence, Breed said, urging blacks and Asians to come together to resolve differences. Were better than that.

The way we stop senseless violence is by bringing communities together, said Supervisor Shamann Walton, who represents the neighborhood as part of District 10. He said there had been a fatal shooting nearby on Friday that remains unsolved.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
Reports over the past years from the site Buzzfeed and American Affairs discussed how some business owners in America hire for jobs that are for low paying immigrant workers only. They post advertisements and require the agricultural and non-agricultural chances for guest workers, but are far from the job site.

They ask for Spanish speaking people even though the place is not located in a Hispanic area. They set strict requirements that Americans must meet, but they don't hire American workers.

These kinds of operations received multiple complaints from Legal Aid, legal briefs also filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and at least one representative case of federal imprisonment.

How does it affect Americans?

As Democrats and liberals continue to push for policies such as open borders and more lax immigration laws, they are in fact hindering many Americans that would otherwise have jobs if not for low-wage, immigrant workers.

In 2012, Derrick Green, a father of six was a victim of these practices. Green was hired by farming company, Hamilton Growers, only to be fired after only three weeks of picking squash.

His Hispanic counterparts were not. In that pattern, it was found that similar cases have been filed against Hamilton Growers.

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the previous cases happened back in 2010 and 2011 when Hamilton Growers fired its American workers and retained only their immigrant workers.

Inordinate Cases in Immigration Harms Black Americans

Farm employers claim that they need low-wage immigrants to keep the cost of their businesses low, and thus their products affordable.

It is believed that the practices of these employers dramatically, and negatively, affects American workers especially the poorer ones that would otherwise be employed on these farms.

Research in 2016 by the National Academy of Sciences supports the idea and states that specific American workers have shown to be more vulnerable compared to immigrants when discussing job security.

The National Academy of Sciences also added a report that confirmed that nine of the filed cases affected Americans with low levels of education.

America will always have racial political issues and that in itsself greatly affects black workers, but to think that allowing illegal and undocumented immigrants to hold jobs is damning to say the least.

In fact, cases from 2010 associated with J&R Baker Farms saw two dozen black Americans file a lawsuit against their employer.

Hamilton growers also fired most of their black workers. A supervisor in Hamilton Growers reportedly cussed in front of his employees saying that black Americans must go to their office, pick up the check and leave the [expletive] company.

Most blacks are definitely affected with this kind of situation and it's because the majority of blacks are compared and closely identified as Americans with a sub-standard quality of education. Patrick Ruffini, a republican pollster, also conveyed that when it comes to working class minorities, 70 percent don't have a college degree. And the best way for Republicans to adapt to how America is expanding nowadays is that employers must give the entire working class a chance, not just the low-wage ones.

Immigration as the First Step

Decades of mismanagements has made Americans invest too much thought into race rather than character, resulting in racial discrimination. People must wisely choose their own battles and the people must know who to vote for and who to vote out.

Objections to low wage immigrant workers will further illuminte how conservatives want the future to be. This may be used as well to garner the black vote as conservative politicians and voters choose to place legal, law abiding American citizens first, regardless of color or origin.

The Border and Race Is an Issue As Well As Skin Color

Democrats do not seem to know just how many blacks oppose low-wage immigration. Liberals want to open all the borders, and that leaves blacks with only one clear option, vote them out.

Leftists assume that black people only care about issues such as police brutality, wars, and reparations. More blacks are concerned with being deprived of work opportunities. But the low pay immigration dramatically affects the lives of blacks and this is a big issue in their economic stand. People must make a connection.

Fighting for Black Americans' Jobs

Racial discrimination will always be recognized as a world-wide problem for all civilizations, which is caused by ingnorant, closed-minded, and sometimes fearful people. As Black Americans fight for their rights to achieve their economic status they believed that fighting racism and discrimination will also be a part of their struggle in this battle.

The point in here is not to argue but to prioritize black Americans as well and not just fight for jobs but to help them fight against discrimination.
Researchers will highlight the successes and challenges of quantum computing in the NISQ era at the APS 2020 March Meeting in Denver

Please Note: The 2020 American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting that was to be held in Denver, Colorado from March 2 through March 6 has been canceled. The decision was made late Saturday (February 29), out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest scientific data available regarding the transmission of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). See our official release on the cancelation for more details.

DENVER, COLO., FEBRUARY 28, 2020 -- Google made headlines in late 2019 with an experiment that demonstrated quantum supremacy for the first time. Their quantum computer, the Sycamore Processor, took a mere 200 seconds to perform a computation that would have taken a traditional computer 10,000 years. Members of the research team--Pedram Roushan, Zijun Chen, and Kevin Satzinger--will discuss this groundbreaking feat at the 2020 American Physical Society March Meeting in Denver.

Roushan will report the results of this experiment, discuss its computational complexity, and show how the team could verify the results of their quantum computation. Looking to the future, He will also demonstrate the programmability of the Sycamore Processor and how various algorithms can be implemented on it.

When the Google research team performed their experiment, they measured the outputs of the Sycamore Processor's 53 superconducting qubits simultaneously. This is one of the largest simultaneous measurements of a superconducting quantum computer ever done. Google researcher Zijun Chen will present the new strategies used by the research team to get precise results from their unprecedentedly large experiment and reduce measurement errors. Such strategies could be crucial to operating larger quantum computers..

"As far as I know, no one's ever done anything quite like this," Chen said.

Kevin Satzinger, also a Google researcher, will discuss the engineering advances of the Sycamore Processor device which allowed it to accomplish its record-breaking feat. He will also demonstrate the benchmarking methods used to evaluate its performance--which, themselves, were impossible methods to implement on a classical computer and therefore demonstrated quantum supremacy. Lastly, Satzinger will present the digital error model used by the researchers, which was verified by the experiment. This digital error model represents a step forward toward solving the problem of quantum error correction, which is the major obstacle to scaling up quantum computers.

Quantum computing scientists refer to the current period of time as the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era. Quantum computers of over 50 qubits have been created, entering an intermediate scale where we might expect to see evidence of quantum supremacy: a quantum computer solving a problem that a classical computer might take millennia to process. However, measurements of these quantum computers will be noisy because 50-100 qubits is not enough to implement a self-correcting algorithm that would eliminate or reduce noise.

Two presenters in the session will be discussing their research on quantum error correction in the NISQ era, when quantum computers don't have enough qubits to implement self-correction. Ramis Movassagh of IBM Research tackled a theoretically complex problem: how do you quantify the difficulty of a problem posed to a quantum computer, when that difficulty needs to include the inherent noise? Previous work suggested that the task of Random Circuit Sampling (RCS) has a certain level of difficulty for a quantum computer as the number of qubits becomes arbitrarily large. This task was run on Googles Sycamore Processor for 53 qubits. However, the previous mathematical work left no room for noise and errors, which might decrease the problems difficulty. Movassagh, however, proved that RCS is still a difficult task when including some specific additive errors, thereby significantly advancing toward a proof of the quantum supremacy conjecture. This work could provide a new way of considering problem difficulty in an era of noisy quantum computers.

Gian Giacomo Guerreschi from Intel Corporation and collaborators from Carnegie Mellon University have tested a noise-robust algorithm that is a hybrid of quantum and classical computing: the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA). "Its back-and-forth between quantum and classical computing should get rid of systematic errors," says Guerreschi. Because it's a mix of two computing types, he prefers to call it a protocol rather than an algorithm, and says they are developing a way to tailor QAOA to different kinds of problems.

Sebastian Deffner, of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, will present a new theory of quantum thermodynamics at the quantum supremacy session. Since the 1960s, scientists have had a good understanding of how much energy computers require to process a given amount of information. This understanding is missing for quantum computers.

"Let's say you take a selfie and you uploaded it to Snapchat," he said. "You can calculate exactly how much energy has been drawn from the battery of your phone. For quantum computers, we don't have that yet."

Theoretically, quantum computers may be exponentially better than classical computers at solving certain problems; but that might mean they require exponentially more power to do so. But work and energy operate differently on the quantum scale, where states can be in superposition and positions can have set uncertainties. "We cannot rely on old concepts anymore, but we need something new," Deffner said.

###

Quantum Supremacy: Computational Complexity and Applications

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 10:12 AM, Thursday, March 5, 2020, Room: Four Seasons 4

CONTACT: Pedram Roushan, pedramr@google.com

Simultaneous Measurement of 53 Superconducting Transmons on the Sycamore Processor

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 8:00 AM, Thursday, March 5, 2020, Room: 104

CONTACT: Zijun Chen, chenjimmy@google.com

Quantum Supremacy: Benchmarking the Sycamore Processor

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 11:15 AM, Tuesday, March 3, 2020, Room: Four Seasons 4

CONTACT: Kevin Satzinger, kjsatz@gmail.com

Cayley Path and Quantum Computational Supremacy: A Proof of Average-Case #P-Hardness of Random Circuit Sampling with Quantified Robustness

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 2:03 PM, Wednesday, March 4, 2020, Room: 201

CONTACT: Ramis Movassagh, IBM Research, ramis.mov@gmail.com

Projecting NISQ-Era Quantum Advantage with QAOA

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 2:30 PM, Wednesday, March 4, 2020, Room: 104

CONTACT: Gian Giacomo Guerreschi, gian.giacomo.guerreschi@intel.com

What is Quantum Thermodynamics?

TIME/DATE/PLACE: 3:06 PM, Monday, March 2, 2020, Room: 106

CONTACT: Sebastian Deffner, deffner@umbc.edu

ABOUT THE MEETING

The American Physical Society (APS) March Meeting is a major international conference and the largest physics meeting of the year. In 2020, the APS March Meeting will convene from March 2-6 at the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver.

Useful Links

Meeting website: https://march.aps.org/

Scientific program: http://meetings.aps.org/Meet ing/MAR20/APS_epitome

Press services: https://march.aps.org/services/press/

Hotel & Travel information: https://march.aps.org/travel/

Press Registration

Complimentary registration is available to journalists for the express purpose of gathering and reporting news and information from the meeting. Staff reporters, freelance writers, and students are welcome to apply. Press credentials may be obtained by completing the form on this page: https://march.aps.org/services/press/. The deadline for press registration is Friday February 28th at 3:00 p.m. EST.

Press Conferences

All press conferences will take place in Room 608. If you are unable to attend, you may register to watch and ask questions online at https://webcast.apswebcasting.com/webcast/registration/a65e0a8e-38c6-4ccd-8eea-98696d213857

Press Room

A press room for registered journalists will operate throughout the meeting in Room 610/612 and will offer complimentary coffee, breakfast, and lunch. The press room may be reserved for conducting interviews.

Hours

Monday - Thursday, 7:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Friday, 7:30 a.m. - 2:45 p.m.

Please contact the APS Press Office with any questions at media@aps.org.

ABOUT APS

The American Physical Society is a nonprofit membership organization working to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics through its outstanding research journals, scientific meetings, and education, outreach, advocacy, and international activities. APS represents over 55,000 members, including physicists in academia, national laboratories, and industry in the United States and throughout the world. Society offices are located in College Park, Maryland (Headquarters), Ridge, New York, and Washington, D.C.
The Brooklyn Historical Society and the Brooklyn Public Library will combine, the two institutions announced. The latter will serve as the parent of the former, taking on stewardship of BHS's landmark Pierrepont Street building in Brooklyn Heights as well as all of its holdings and programming, while BHS will bring its conservation and preservation expertise to bear on the BPL's own holdings. The institutions are currently seeking funding from New York to support the merger.

As a result of the move, BHS's offerings will be open to all 650,000 BPL cardholders throughout its 59 branches. In addition, BPLs Brooklyn collection will be combined with the archives of the BHS in its Pierrepont Street buildingwhich comes replete with environmentally controlled exhibition presentation and storage facilitieswhich the institutions say will result in "the premiere collection of the history of Brooklyn." Moving the Brooklyn collection, BPL said, will free up space at its central library for new public programming, which has yet to be announced. The new combined research collection will be available for scholars, researchers, students, and the public free of charge.

Brooklyn Historical Society and Brooklyn Public Library are both education institutions dedicated to helping individuals build a sense of self, a sense of place, and a sense of community. Together our institutions hold important collections of material, manuscripts, and artifacts, vital to our shared history that we are committed to making accessible to everyone, Brooklyn Public Library president and CEO Linda E. Johnson said in a statement. Im thrilled this partnership will provide a new level of care and interpretation of our own collections, and that we will greatly expand access to this combined archive through our far reaching networks and library branches.

Brooklyn Historical Society president Deborah Schwartz added: By combining with Brooklyn Public Library, the Brooklyn Historical Society immediately extends our reach to every neighborhood in the borough, creating myriad opportunities to educate people of all ages about Brooklyns important history and its relevance to each of them. This partnership also provides BHS with financial stability, professional resources, and through our combined programming, an enhancement and expansion of everything we do. This includes the ongoing building of our collections in ways that foster inclusion and reflect the diversity of the borough.
(JNS)Theres a new anti-Semitic student group at Harvard, ironically named the Harvard Jewish Coalition for Peace. Their inaugural event last week, titled The Jewish case for BDS, taught undergraduate students how to single out and punish Israelis on and off-campus.

The group was formed following debates over humans rights during Israeli Apartheid Week, an effort to push anti-Semitism on students organized by the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee.

According to a statement posted on the groups Facebook page, it believes combating anti-Semitism requires [the] serious work of building solidarity with other communities and fighting the root causes of anti-Semitic hatred. If solidarity is so important to this group, why was their first order of business dividing the Jewish community at Harvard by separating themselves from Harvard Hillel, the universitys umbrella Jewish student group?

Harvard Hillel rightfully slammed Israeli Apartheid Week last spring and, to no ones surprise, expressed its disappointment with the new Coalition for Peace. Within only a few days of existing, the Harvard Jewish Coalition for Peace has been accused of aligning themselves with groups that have historically sought out the oppression of Jews. One student, Caleb Esrig, told the Harvard Crimson, BDS is not about human rights or social justice. It is not about ending the occupation. Its not about Israeli human rights abuses. It is about ending the Jewish state.

Not only is this group bigoted, its counterproductive, for many reasons.

For one, BDS is not an anti-Zionist movement. The BDS National Committee is led by the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine. You cant form a group with the goal of promoting BDS, a movement with terrorist ties, and simultaneously claim to oppose anti-Semitism. And nothing quite screams coalition for peace like an organization committed to the destruction of Israel through economic warfare targeting Jewish people and businesses.

Promoting BDS policies, which are inherently rooted in anti-Semitism, is far from peaceful and incredibly unproductive in the pursuit of unity. The global rise of anti-Semitism is happening in part because of groups like this, and extends far beyond the outside groups they try to place blame on. We cannot stand by and allow this group to spread these repugnant policies on campus.

Harvard has a responsibility to enforce a zero-tolerance policy with regards to discrimination on campus. How can one of the nations top universities continue to support an organization that is using its platform to segregate its Jewish student population and the greater Jewish community off-campus? University administration should reject Harvard Jewish Coalition for Peaces efforts to spread anti-Jewish propaganda and make it clear that promoting groups with terrorist ties on campus will not be tolerated.

Ryan Fournier is the founder and co-chair of Students for Trump.
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Automotive Refinish Coatings Market - Overview

The constant upgradation in technologies has led to better quality of automotive refinish coatings. Market reports connected with the chemicals and materials industry have been made available by Market Research Future which generates reports on other business verticals that outlines the current market scenarios. The market is poised to achieve revenues totaling USD 10.2 billion while achieving a 5.6% CAGR in the forecast period. The market is further motivated by the rising disposable income levels globally and will create an enhanced impetus for growth in the coming years.

The automotive car body workshops are becoming increasingly popular around the world, due to increased consumer emphasis on the general look of their vehicles, this trend is expected to reflect positively on the progress of the automotive refinish coatings market. Rising rates of accidents globally due to lack of compliance of traffic regulations has also increased the scope for the progress of the market. The market is also substantially influenced by the escalating sales of passengers cars which are the primary end users of automotive refinish coatings. The market is also significantly boosted by the development of UV-cured and water-borne technologies. The multiplying number of rental car owners and the elevating demand for used car markets is projected to improve the progress of the automotive refinish coating market.

Segmental Analysis

The segmentation of the Automotive Refinish Market Growth is based on product type, technology, resin, vehicle type, and region.

On the basis of product type, the market consists of clearcoat, primer, activator, basecoat, filler, and putty. The technology-based segmentation of the market consists of water-borne coatings, UV-cured coatings, solvent-borne coatings, and powder coatings. The segmentation of the market on the basis of resin comprises of Polyurethane, Alkyd, Acrylic, and Epoxy. Based on vehicle type, the automotive refinish coating comprises of cars, commercial vehicles, and two-wheelers. The regions that are counted in the market are Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, North America, and Africa.

Detailed Regional Analysis

The regional analysis of the automotive refinish coatings market covers regions such as Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. The Asia Pacific region is growing due to the rapid industrialization in the region during recent years. Nations such as South Korea, India, China, Japan, and Malaysia are the main contributors to the evolution of this regional market. The market progress is influenced by factors such as rising urbanization, altering lifestyles, growing buying power of the population, and an increasing level of consumer awareness for the maintenance and protection of vehicles. The North American region is progressing due to the contribution of U.S because of the rising demand for passenger cars in the nation. The European region is expanding due to the contribution of countries like Germany, The U.K., Italy, France, and Belgium and also due to the presence of the largest automotive manufacturers in the region. The regional markets in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America are expected to add noticeably to the progress of the automotive coatings market globally owing to the steadying political and economic conditions and growing industrialization.

Competitive Analysis

The development of the market is considerably boosted by the expansion of the automobile sector globally. The manufacturers in the automotive refinish coatings market are increasing the market share by improving the product offering and introducing new products in the market. BASF SE (Germany), KAPCI Coatings (Egypt), Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (Japan), PPG Industries, Inc. (US), Nippon Paint (Japan), The Valspar Corporation. (US), Akzo Nobel NV (The Netherlands), KCC Corporation (South Korea), 3M (US), The Lubrizol Corporation (US), Covestro AG (Germany), The Sherwin-Williams Company (US), Kansai Paint Co. , Ltd (Japan), Esdee Paints Limited (India), Axalta Coating Systems, LLC (US), and Berger Paints India Limited (India) are the notable players functioning in the market.





Access Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/automotive-refinish-coatings-market-6670
Medical profession is one of the most reputed and noble professions in India which has never-ending charm in the society.

In India every year more than 15 lakh students appear in NEET to fulfill their ambition of being an MBBS doctor. Unfortunately, only a few of them get a chance to pursue MBBS in govt colleges, thanks to the increased competition, limited availability of MBBS seats in govt colleges and sky-high fees of private Indian colleges.

In the era of globalisation, opportunities are not confined to borders but in India due to lack of awareness many meritorious students fail to live their dream of being a doctor.

With the vision to provide students the best possible global opportunities and to fill the gap of skilled doctors in India, Geeta Jain founded Mediconation. She herself travelled along with her research and analysis team to around 20 countries and their respective medical universities to gather genuine information about the countries and universities.

In recent times, many consultants had provided misleading information to the students. To save students from such unethical activities, Geeta Jain has established a separate research and analysis team to conduct surveys and collect authentic information about the medical universities, countries, culture, food style, safety standards etc.

What Geeta Jain and her team suggest to students is completely based on their surveys and personal experiences, unlike other consultants.

"With 13 years of experience and expertise in this field, my team and I have counselled around 4500 students and guided more than 2000 students to pursue MBBS in various foreign medical universities. I personally travelled along with my research and analysis team to provide all the authentic, reliable and personally assessed information about the medical universities, countries and their respective medical system," said Geeta Jain, Founder of Mediconation.

"At Mediconation our aim is to connect Indian medical aspirants to the best foreign medical universities that provide quality medical with sound clinical exposure at an affordable fee. Our team work hard to make this entire process more reliable and transparent for students," she added.

Geeta Jain has been honoured with Atal Samman Award and Siksha Bharti Award for her great contribution in making quality medical education affordable and accessible for Indian students.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
HOUSTON, Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (PARR) (Par Pacific) today announced that members of its senior management team will attend the following investor conferences in March 2020.

Bank of America Securities 2020 Refining Conference, March 11, 2020 in New York, NY

Scotia Howard Weil 48th Annual Energy Conference, March 25-26, 2020 in New Orleans, LA

About Par Pacific

Par Pacific Holdings, Inc. (PARR), headquartered in Houston, Texas, owns and operates market-leading energy and infrastructure businesses. Par Pacifics strategy is to acquire and develop energy and infrastructure businesses in logistically complex markets. Par Pacific owns and operates one of the largest energy networks in Hawaii with 148,000 bpd of combined refining capacity, a logistics system supplying the major islands of the state and 91 retail locations. In the Pacific Northwest and the Rockies, Par Pacific owns and operates 60,000 bpd of combined refining capacity, related multimodal logistics systems and 33 retail locations. Par Pacific also owns 46% of Laramie Energy, LLC, a natural gas production company with operations and assets concentrated in Western Colorado.
French Quarter:--- Classroom walls at Omer Arrondell Primary School in French Quarter have gotten a lot more exciting. The Les Fruits de Mer association donated copies of 24 panels from Amuseum Naturalis to the school. The educational panels cover a variety of local nature and heritage topics and will rotate through the different classes.

Our associations mission is to share all the things that make St. Martin special, explained Les Fruits de Mer President Jenn Yerkes. A lot of that is missing from school lesson plans, so this was a great opportunity to literally get this information into the classroom in a fun and colorful way.

The panels were made as part of Les Fruits de Mers project Quartier+Musee. The project goal is to extend the connection between Amuseum Naturalis and French Quarter by featuring French Quarter topics at the Amuseum and sharing Amuseum content with the town. The project is funded by CGET and the Collectivite of Saint-Martin under the Politique de la Ville program.

The teachers were excited to receive the bilingual English-French panels. Each panel tells a unique story about St. Martin and is illustrated with vivid photos. Topics include the animals that live only on St. Martin, the bear-sized rodent that once lived here, the origins of bush medicine plants and techniques and the native tree with the hardest wood in the world.

Les Fruits de Mer hopes to find the funds to print panels for as many schools as possible. The association is also happy to share the panel designs with any school or organization interested in printing their own copies. Amuseum Naturalis offers free school and youth group visits as well. Contact Les Fruits de Mer at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to find out more.

Amuseum Naturalis is open from 9am to noon Tuesday to Saturday, and admission is free to all. It is located at The Old House, on the hill above Galion Beach in French Quarter. More information and a map are available at http://amuseumnaturalis.com.
Burundi opened on Friday a Consulate General in the city of Laayoune, becoming the sixth diplomatic representation in the capital of Moroccan Sahara in less than three months, after Comoros Islands, Sao Tome & Principe, Gabon, Central Africa Republic, and Cote dIvoire.

The new diplomatic mission was inaugurated by Burundis foreign minister Ezechiel Nibigrira and his Moroccan peer Nasser Bourita in the presence of several African delegations, including those representing the countries, which already opened consulates in Laayoune.

During the inauguration ceremony, Nasser Bourita announced that Djibouti will open this Friday a consular representation in Dakhla, which is also hosting consular representations of Gambia and Guinea-Conakry.

These countries will be joined shortly by Burkina Faso, which announced lately its decision to open its own consulate general in Dakhla, to ensure better protection of its interests and its nationals in the region of Dakhla-Oued Eddahab, southern Morocco.

The opening of these consular representations in the southern provinces of the Kingdom is a clear recognition that the Sahara is Moroccan and deals a hard blow not only to the Polisario but also to Algeria, which continues to hatch plots against Moroccos territorial integrity.

Actually, Bourita denounced during the inauguration of the Burundian consulate the hostile reaction of Algeria, which expresses its anger every time an African country opens a consulate in Southern Morocco, even recalled its ambassador to Abidjan for consultation after Cote dIvoire opened a Consulate in Laayoune.
[February 27, 2020] Roy Dekel, CEO of SetSchedule, Returns to Critical Mass Radio for Second Appearance

Roy Dekel, CEO of SetSchedule, to appear for a second time on Critical Mass Radio Show. Roy discusses the SetSchedule business model, the reasons he believes real estate is such a hard business to succeed in and why he ultimately opted out of the VC model. Critical Mass Radio Show is the brainchild of the host, Richard Franzi, who has been interviewing thought leaders and CEOs for over 10 years. "I think that the real estate industry is a very, very big, confused industry," says Roy when asked why he chose the real estate industry. "I think it's the biggest confused industry on the planet. SetSchedule crashed into the industry based on the problem, and based on the need, and based on the solution that we came up with. Ultimately, I know we picked this industry because of the complexity, the size and the fact that it's so ripe for adaptation by the end user, by the real estate professional." StSchedule was founded in 2014 by Roy and Udi Dorner to provide technology solutions to real estate professionals. Combining the first-of-its-kind patented real estate marketplace where real estate agents can acquire leads on demand from multiple vendors and an easy to use suite of SaaS (News - Alert) solutions, SetSchedule strives to meet the evolving needs of real estate professionals. By leveraging AI-powered predictive data, trend insights, and automated marketing software tools and machine learning, SetSchedule delivers better business efficiency to agents, teams, brokers, franchises and industry verticals. SetSchedule is the technology innovator revolutionizing real estate businesses and data services.



Recently, SetSchedule rolled out SetAds, a marketing platform allowing industry verticals to broadcast directly to SetSchedule's nationwide network of real estate agents. Tailor-made ads allow businesses to control how their brand is seen while customized landing pages provide detailed analytics to discover and interpret meaningful patterns in consumer data. Real estate partners are then able to use this data to boost brand awareness and build customer loyalty. Critical Mass Radio Show is live every Tuesday from 4 - 5 pm PST, with a video and podcast version made available the following day. Learn more about SetSchedule at setschedule.com and learn more about SetAds at setschedule.com/setads.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227006056/en/

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Rep. Lizzie Fletcher during a panel discussion on health care in western Houston on Feb. 19, 2020. Jacob Pramuk | CNBC

HOUSTON  As Democratic presidential hopefuls gathered in Nevada last week to slug it out over socialism, wealthy donors and sexual harassment, Rep. Lizzie Fletcher wanted to talk about drug prices. The first-term Democratic congresswoman, who flipped a seat here held for decades by Republicans including President George H.W. Bush, led a Feb. 19 panel on how to slash pharmaceutical costs. She repeatedly highlighted H.R. 3, the bill passed by the new Democratic House majority designed to cut prices by allowing the U.S. government to directly negotiate with drugmakers. Fletcher fielded constituent questions about affording pricey medicine that's more effective than alternatives  but not covered by insurance. Attendees asked about the availability of cheaper generic drugs. One constituent extolled the achievements of pharmaceutical companies, prompting another to shoot back, "Are you a lobbyist?" The Houston area, and a changing Texas more broadly, sit at the center of Democrats' effort to keep or tighten their grip on House control in November. As voters in the party's presidential primary decide whether they want a far-reaching overhaul of the economic and political system or more gradual change, the party's House candidates in battleground districts have mostly tried to block out the national noise as they attempt to dig farther into GOP territory.

'Health care, health care, health care'

During the panel, Fletcher said she opposes a single-payer "Medicare for All" system, which Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. Bernie Sanders champions, and favors "incremental" rather than "revolutionary change" on health care. Even as Sanders and other progressives gain traction here and around the country, the Democrats in Texas' key House races are sticking to the strategy that helped the party regain the chamber in 2018. "When we are thinking about how best to represent our districts, it starts with listening and then working to actually solve the problems. And that's what you're seeing the House do right now," Fletcher told CNBC last week when asked about how the primary outcome or a Sanders nomination could affect her strategy in November. "Health care, health care, health care" is what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly told her caucus to run on as members seek reelection this year. In Texas, primaries in the next week's Super Tuesday will start to set the field in swing races that will help to determine which party controls the House next year. Some Republicans running to represent those districts are trying to use Sanders' early triumphs in the presidential primary against Democrats like Fletcher, who have tried to craft independent brands. The strategy will likely spread if the Vermont senator continues to gain steam in upcoming primaries, including Saturday's South Carolina vote. Two of Sanders' Democratic rivals, Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, have also argued the self-professed democratic socialist will hurt candidates down the ballot. Sanders has argued the energy behind his platform, which includes universal health care, blanket student debt forgiveness and free child care for all, will mobilize younger and more infrequent voters to put him over the top.

This year, Democrats will defend two highly sought-after House seats in Texas that they picked up in 2018: Fletcher's 7th District and the Dallas-area 32nd District held by Rep. Colin Allred, who has supported Biden. The party will target at least six other GOP-held districts in the Lone Star State. Republican retirements made several races more competitive. Three of the battleground seats stretch either into or near Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city. Its suburbs, like parts of Fletcher's district that have grown more diverse, younger and better educated, embody traditionally Republican pockets of the country where Democrats made gains in 2018 and hope to further cut into GOP power this year. "This district has changed dramatically demographically. ... This no longer your Anglo, country club constituency," Renee Cross, senior director of the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston, said of the 7th District. Next door sits the 22nd District. The seat, vacant and hotly contested this year following GOP Rep. Pete Olson's retirement, includes major parts of Fort Bend County, the most diverse county in Texas.

Sri Kulkarni, a Democrat who lost to Olson by about 5 percentage points in 2018, will take another crack at the open seat this year. In what the former State Department official and son of an immigrant described as a rapidly changing district, his campaign has reached out to voters in 15 languages from Hindi to Vietnamese and Igbo. Kulkarni ran on health care in 2018 and describes it as voters' top priority again this year. "The issues are still the same. Health care is still the number one issue, bringing down the cost of health care, bringing down  negotiating prescription drug prices, making sure everyone has access and mental health access, by the way," he told CNBC, while highlighting gun safety, climate change and the region's flooding as other priorities.

The GOP push

Republicans have channeled renewed energy into reclaiming or holding the Houston-area seats. Six GOP candidates are trying to challenge Fletcher in November. In the 22nd District, more than a dozen Republican hopefuls aim to succeed Olson. If no candidate gets a majority in the primaries, runoffs will take place in May. Tuesday's primary in the 22nd offers a referendum of sorts on the future of the Republican Party in the increasingly diverse area. Leading candidates include Pierce Bush, grandson of George H.W. Bush whose family name has lost luster in Trump's GOP, and Kathaleen Wall, a Republican donor who has used her own money to fund a message of loyalty to the president. While Democratic campaigns have clobbered Republicans in House swing-district fundraising, one of the leading candidates in the 7th has been a bright spot for the GOP. Wesley Hunt, an Army veteran backed by President Donald Trump, took in an impressive haul of nearly $550,000 from individuals from Jan. 1 to Feb. 12 (though Fletcher ended the period with more than twice as much as he had in the bank).

Republican congressional candidate Wesley Hunt walking between knocking doors in the Tanglewood neighborhood in western Houston on Feb. 19, 2020. Jacob Pramuk | CNBC

The other leading Republican in Tuesday's primary is Cindy Siegel, the former mayor of the affluent Houston suburb of Bellaire. In interviews with CNBC, Hunt and Siegel aligned on most key issues. They both want to repeal and replace Obamacare, back selling insurance across state lines and increasing price transparency to cut health costs. The Republicans support Trump's border wall and lower taxes. They have looked for different ways to set themselves apart in the primary. Hunt has emphasized his military service, saying, "I'm somebody that's risked my life for this country, to defend it, already." His campaign has dipped into its coffers to run ads promoting his time in the military and his family history: His latest ad highlights how his African American family went from "slavery to West Point in five generations." Siegel has touted her experience as a local official and a certified public accountant. "There's no one else in the race that has my Republican credentials," she said. Saying she votes in Republican primaries, she said "not all the opponents have done that in the primary." The issue came up last week when Hunt knocked doors of homes on the tree-lined streets of western Houston's Tanglewood neighborhood. Two voters had heard from a friend concerned that Hunt did not vote in some past GOP primary elections. Hunt told them he did not vote because he was serving overseas. Asked about his plan for the district, he said he would defend the energy industry "tooth and nail." After an extended back-and-forth, the voters ultimately said they would support him in the primary.

The Green New Deal and the energy industry
Vietnam banned travelers with home addresses in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province the previous day, but on arrival Thursday that turned out to cover travelers who were merely born in Daegu and North Gyeongsang, as indicated by their resident registration numbers.

According to the Foreign Ministry, 22 countries have completely banned travelers from Korea, while 21 have put restrictions in place like tougher quarantine checks or two weeks' mandatory quarantine.

The number of countries that restrict or ban travelers from Korea reached 43 on Thursday amid the explosive spread of coronavirus here.

An increasing number of Chinese airports are quarantining passengers from Korea. The city government of Guangzhou took some 120 Korean passengers who arrived at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport on Asiana Airlines on Thursday morning to a nearby hotel and tested them for coronavirus.

The city government of Tianjin also notified Korean and Japanese airlines of its decision to put passengers arriving at Tianjin Binhai International Airport from Korea and Japan in quarantine in a hotel starting Friday.

According to the Korean Embassy in Beijing, 226 Korean passengers had been quarantined at airports throughout China as of Thursday noon.

More and more European countries are issuing travel warnings for Korea. The Finnish government advised against non-essential travel to Daegu and North Gyeongsang, as did the governments of Belgium and Norway, also cautioning against visiting other parts of Korea. Denmark advised extra caution.

Many flights to Korea are being canceled or scaled back. The Russian government has announced the suspension of Russian flights to and from Korea except Aeroflot and its subsidiary Aurora from next month.

Korean Air will suspend four weekly flights between Incheon and Moscow and daily flights between Incheon and Vladivostok, and Jeju Air will also suspend flights between Incheon and Vladivostok.

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed infections here rose to 2,022 with 1,314 in Daegu, the hotbed of new infections, on Friday morning. The death toll reached 13.


A Japanese vice minister for justice is heading to Lebanon for talks on the case of former Nissan Motor Co. executive Carlos Ghosn, who fled for his home country late last year while out on bail awaiting trial.

Justice Minister Masako Mori said Friday that she was dispatching the official to Beirut to explain the Japanese criminal justice system and improve cooperation.

Regarding Lebanon, where Ghosn escaped to, we believe that it is important that a proper understanding of the Japanese criminal justice system is understood and to prevent international crime by strengthening cooperation in the legal and judicial fields," Mori said.

Japan and Lebanon do not have an extradition treaty and it is thought unlikely that Lebanon would agree to send Ghosn back to Japan to face trial.

Mori acknowledged that there were various environments and laws that underpin different positions on the issue in each country.

Ghosn was arrested in late 2018 and is facing charges of under-reporting income and breach of trust. He says he is innocent. He led Nissan for nearly 20 years.

Having spent months in detention and struggled to gain his release on bail under stringent conditions, Ghosn said he fled in the belief he could not get a fair trial in Japan.

Deputy justice minister, Hiroyuki Yoshiie, was to leave Japan for Lebanon on Saturday. He is expected to meet with the Lebanese justice minister on Monday.
Israel approved nearly 1,800 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank Thursday, the countryas right-wing defence minister announced, four days ahead of a general election. The ministry said a planning committee "approved the construction of 1,800 housing units, according to the proposal of the Minister of Defence Naftali Bennett", in a statement that quoted figures adding up to slightly below this amount. "We don't wait, we act. We will not give an inch of the land of Israel to the Arabs, but for that, we must build there," the statement quoted Bennett as saying. Anti-settlement NGO Peace Now said a total of 1,739 homes were earmarked, 92 percent of which were deep inside the West Bank. It said 1,036 were approved through a first major stage, while 703 went through a final major hurdle. Separately a new industrial park was approved for construction near Qalqilya in the West Bank, Peace Now said. The announcement was praised by the Yesha council which represents settlers throughout the West Bank. "This decision strengthens the Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria and we are delighted," the council's head David Elhayani said in a statement, using the biblical name for the West Bank. It was the second major settlement statement in recent days, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday announced 3,500 new homes in the E1 corridor, a highly sensitive part of the West Bank. The international community has warned repeatedly that Jewish settlement construction in the E1 corridor, which passes from Jerusalem to Jericho, would slice the West Bank in two and compromise the contiguity of a future Palestinian state. Israel is due to hold a general election on March 2 in which Bennett's far-right Yemina coalition and Netanyahu's rightwing Likud vie for the support of Israel's more than 600,000 settlers. "In the battle over the settler right-wing vote, Bennett and Netanyahu are dragging Israel to invest in thousands of harmful and unnecessary settlement units," Peace Now said in a statement. Israel seized the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the Six-Day War of 1967 in moves never recognised by the international community. Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories are considered illegal by the United Nations and most foreign governments. Monday's election will be Israel's third in a year after deadlocked polls in April and September 2019 saw neither Netanyahu nor his centrist rival Benny Gantz able to form a governing coalition. Opinion polls ahead of Monday's election showed the two parties near neck-and-neck yet again. Netanyahu, 70, will stand trial next month after being indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Jeffrey Epstein died in his prison cell on 10 August: AP

A federal judge has denied a motion that could have allowed the release of more than 1,000 documents related to the investigation of crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and others.

The motion, filed by the Miami Herald and investigative journalist Julie K. Brown, asked the judge to reconsider a previous decision to keep the files secret.

However, the judge, Loretta Preska, ruled that as established in other cases, reconsideration should not be granted where someone seeks solely to relitigate an issue already decided.

In response to the ruling, Ms Brown tweeted that Its pretty scary when a judge acknowledges that people can hide behind our criminal justice system. How does this happen.

However, she added, the fight isnt over.

The sealed documents date from a 2015 lawsuit brought against Epsteins associate Ghislaine Maxwell by Virginia Giuffre, who has alleged she was procured for Epstein by Ms Maxwell at 16, raped by Epstein, and trafficked to be abused by his high-profile friends  among them Prince Andrew. The lawsuit was settled in 2017; Prince Andrew denies any wrongdoing.

The documents from the case are believed to contain the names of various Epstein associates who allegedly travelled to his properties, including on his private 727 jet nicknamed the Lolita Express.

Starting in 2018, Ms Brown and the Herald published a three-part investigation into Epsteins crimes, Perversion of Justice, a highly detailed account of an alleged sex ring run by Epstein and Ms Maxwell.

In the series, they detailed how the now-dead financier had escaped prosecution for sexual crimes and allegedly continued to offend and evade justice. They continued to pursue the story, and pressure on Epstein and those who had allegedly helped protect him culminated in his arrest in July 2019.

Epstein killed himself two weeks later while in jail. Ghislaine Maxwell has kept a low profile, and reportedly both maintains her innocence and plans to ignore a lawsuit against her.
United Airlines flight attendants in San Francisco International Airport.

Getty/NurPhoto/Yichuan Cao

US airlines are cutting services to Asian cities outside of China as coronavirus spreads across national boundaries.

Delta Air Lines and Hawaiian Airlines were the first to suspend routes and reduce frequencies to Seoul, South Korea.

United Airlines announced Friday it would suspend certain routes to Tokyo while reducing frequencies and downgrading planes on other routes to Asian cities.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As the novel coronavirus continues to show little regard for international borders, US airlines are beginning to greatly scale back their services abroad.

While all US carriers have pulled back from China including the mainland and Hong Kong, airlines are now beginning to cut services on routes that don't touch Chinese territory, including routes to Europe.

Delta Air Lines started the trend when it suspended service between Minneapolis and Seoul while reducing frequencies from its other Asian gateways in the US. Hawaiian Airlines came soon after, suspending its Honolulu-Seoul route until the end of April.

With low demand greatly affecting international travel, air routes to non-affected countries are slowly starting to be impacted with service suspensions, reduced frequencies, or downgraded aircraft.

Here's the list of airlines minimizing their global footprint in the wake of the expanded coronavirus outbreak in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Delta Air Lines

Delta Air Lines Boeing 767

Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Getty

Delta Air Lines was the first US airline to suspend an international route to Asia outside of China when it announced service would be suspended between Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Seoul until the end of April on Wednesday. The move came as South Korea saw a rapid increase in the number of coronavirus cases being reported and many foreign carriers began suspending service to the country.

Delta still operates flights to Seoul from its other US gateways including Atlanta, Seattle, and Detroit, but will do so five times weekly until April 30. The airline also had planned to launch service between Manila, Philippines, and Seoul at the end of March but is pushing that until May.

Story continues

With concerns about the virus spreading throughout northern Italy, Delta also suspended its New York-Milan route until May, according to a news release issued by the airline. The airline's year-round service to Rome from New York has also been reduced to five times weekly until the end of April, with the airline suspending the Atlanta-Rome route during that time period as well.

Seasonal services to Venice from New York and to Rome from Detroit have also been pushed back until May, the airline announced.

Delta also announced on Monday it would be waiving change fees to all destinations for existing tickets booked before March 9 for travel up to April 30. The move is in addition to waiving change fees for future bookings.

Hawaiian Airlines

Hawaiian Airlines

FG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images/Getty

Hawaiian Airlines became the second US-flagged airline to suspend service to Asia following the spread of coronavirus outside of China. The airline is temporarily suspending its Honolulu-Seoul route from March 2 until the end of April.

The Honolulu-Seoul route is one of the most popular links between Hawaii and Asia, with numerous carriers competing for customers. Hawaiian Airlines is the only US airline to offer service on it, competing against Korea's top carriers among others.

United Airlines

United Airlines

ASSOCIATED PRESS

United Airlines became the third US carrier to suspend routes outside of Chinese territory on Friday when it announced that numerous routes to Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan would be suspended or see reduced service, according to a media release sent to Business Insider.

The airline is suspending service from both Los Angeles and Houston to Tokyo's Narita Airport from March 8 until April 24 and Chicago and Tokyo's Narita Airport from March 8 until March 27. Service to Tokyo's Haneda Airport, which is expected to see new routes from scores of foreign airlines at the end of March, is unaffected.

Other routes to Asia will see reduced service or aircraft downgrades until the end of August including Newark-Tokyo, Honolulu-Tokyo, San Francisco-Kansai, San Francisco-Singapore, San Francisco-Seoul, and San Francisco-Taipei.

United later announced it will be reducing its domestic flying schedule by 10% in addition to reducing its international schedule by 20%. The carrier is the first major US legacy carrier to cut domestic services due to the spread of coronavirus.

American Airlines

American Airlines

AP

American Airlines became the first US airline to suspend service on a route between the US and Europe on Saturday when it announced that flights to Milan would be canceled until April 25, according to an airline news release. American serves Milan, Italy's economic and fashion hub, from New York and Miami, and has issued a travel waiver for numerous Italian cities as far south as Naples, Italy.

The airline later joined its competitors in reducing flights to Asia as American announced it would be suspending service to Seoul, South Korea from its Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas hub from March 4 to April 25. Seoul-Dallas is American Airlines' only route to South Korea and Korean Air will now be the only airline to serve the route in American's absence.

JetBlue Airways

JetBlue Airways Airbus A321

Seth Wenig/AP

JetBlue Airways will be reducing capacity across its network by 5% to account for reduced demand following the spread of coronavirus, the airline confirmed to Business Insider in an email. The 20-year-old airline's operations are mainly centered on the East Coast where reports of the virus have been low but slowly increasing.

The airline did not release additional information as of Thursday regarding which routes will be affected.

Sun Country Air

Sun Country Boeing 737

Eric Miller/Reuters

Sun Country Air will be trimming its spring flying schedule in response to the reduced demand caused by the spread of coronavirus, the airline confirmed to Business Insider in an email. Routes across the airline's network will see reductions while three routes from Portland, Oregon to Honolulu, San Francisco, and Las Vegas will be suspended.

The reduction comes at a time when Sun Country is positioning itself to expand beyond its Minneapolis hub to become a major player in the ultra-low-cost industry dominated by Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Delhi Police have issued an appeal requesting people to give their statements and share video footage in connection with the violence in northeast Delhi, which has claimed more than 35 lives.

Thirty-eight people have died in the violence and hundreds are still in hospital in the violence after clashes broke out between supporters and anti-citizenship amendment act (CAA) protesters broke out in northeast Delhi earlier this week.

Whereas incidents of clashes have taken place in the North East district, Delhi since 23.02.2020. All those who are witnesses to the incidents, especially media persons, or have any information about the incidents or have captured any activity on their mobile phones or camera, are hereby requested to come forward and give their statements, footage and picture in their possession at DCP office, North East district, Seelampur, Delhi, during office hours, on any working day within seven days, the force said in the appeal.

The appeal signed by additional commissioner of police (crime) BK said witnesses can also contact on phone numbers8750871221 and 8750871227 to share information.

It said the identity of the witnesses will be kept secret.

Delhi Police have also appealed to citizens to cooperate in maintaining peace and harmony in the city earlier in the week.

At least 79 houses, 52 shops, five godowns, four mosques, three factories and two schools were set ablaze between Monday and Wednesday morning during the riots in north-east Delhi.

A rough estimate by the Delhi Fire Service (DFS), which attended 218 calls related to arson during the riots from Monday to 8am on Thursday, suggests that more than 500 vehicles, including two-wheelers, were burnt between Monday and Thursday morning.

DFS data accessed by HT shows that Tuesday was the worst day of the riots and alone witnessed 89 incidents of arson. While Wednesday saw 57 incidents of arson, 23 took place on Monday.

Fourteen incidents of arson also took place between midnight and 8am on Thursday, the data shows.

Most of these buildings and vehicles were burnt using petrol and kerosene by the raging groups moving around with no fixed plan, but armed with torches and petrol bombs.
Voters go to polls in Guinea on Sunday in a referendum on a new constitution that would enable President Alpha Conde to stay in power for a third term. Guineans have taken to the streets since October to demonstrate against the changes to term limits in rallies marred by violence with the killing of almost 40 protesters and one gendarme.

Conakry resembled a ghost town on Thursday with continuing protests by the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC) ahead of polls on 1 March. Voters are expected to cast their ballot on both the changes to the constitution and choose candidates in a parliamentary poll.

Civil society and opposition parties are against a potential third term by President Conde and most shops and restaurants in the capital city are closed. I've closed my shop to mark my protest against plans to change the constitution, Ousmane Barry, a shopkeeper in Hamdallaye neighbourhood, told RFI.

Traffic on the The Prince road through the capital was flowing freely on Thursday, in contrast to the usual congestion of cars and motorcycles. The FNDC did not give a precise location for protests, suggesting a more general move calling on people to go out in their neighbourhoods.

The draft constitution also aims to set in stone gender equality, and end the practice of female circumcision and under-age marriage. However, critics are worried that the real reason for the changes are to reset term limits giving 81-year-old Conde the opportunity to stand for re-election later this year.

The main opposition parties have boycotted Sunday's polls and there has not been much campaigning in Conakry this week, except for billboards in favour of changing the constitution to achieve equality or greater inclusion of the youth. Few public rallies took place, but there were clashes between young people and the security forces in the Conakry suburb of Wanindara on Thursday.

Fears of violence

Human rights groups are concerned that the action by armed forces in response to protests risks throwing the country into a cycle of violence.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organisations call on the government to billet the armed forces in their barracks to prevent any violence against demonstrators and stop the repression of opponents, FIDH said in a statement.

FIDH said the armed forces had been put on alert ahead of the polls with commanders requested to organise daytime and nighttime patrols. A sign of escalation that could threaten peace and unity in the county, the FIDH added, saying at least 37 people had been killed since October durings protests.

Abdoul Gadiry Diallo, president of the Guinean Organisation for the Protection of Human Rights and the Citizen (OGDH), said the situation is critical. He is worried about a repeat of the massacres carried out by soldiers on 28 September 2009 when at least 150 people were killed and dozens of women raped by members of the presidential guard.

Ecowas distances itself from polls

Regional West African bloc Ecowas on Thursday announced that it would not be carrying out a high-level visit by heads of state ahead of the polls. The visit led by Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou as well as the presidents of Nigeria, Ghana and Burkina Faso had to unfortunately be delayed owing to the commitments of Guinea's Conde.

There are certain factors suggesting that the situation on the ground is not free of all risks, according to an Ecowas communique.
FLINT, Mich., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- One Flint-area school is beating the odds. A recent recognition highlights this and the commitment of school staff in developing students into great citizens by investing in their character development.

Linden Charter Academy was announced as an Emerging State School of Character by Character.org, who bases their selections off 11 Principles of Character which include providing students with opportunities for moral action and taking a comprehensive, intentional, and proactive approach to developing character.

A standout for Linden is that it has been a beacon of hope in the community, with staff who take pride in their efforts to help students focus on the aspiration of becoming first-generation college graduates.

The recognition means everything to Linden Principal Deonna Washington. "It's so important that Flint is represented in a positive light, and with the various trials our students face, they still come in every day with an amazing spirit and attitude."

"Staff lives and breathes the 'Linden Way', which reflects our commitment to infusing Moral Focus virtues, including respect, gratitude, courage, and more, into all aspects of a child's educational experience," Washington added.

The college-bound mindset is instilled the minute students walk up to school, as they read words of encouragement that remind them of the importance of their education, "Your College Journey Begins Here."

Students coming to school every day eager to learn is what makes Washington most proud. "Our kids believe that their college journey begins here at Linden. It shows in their academics, everyday language towards one another, and how they treat peers and staff members."

Developing students doesn't stop when students walk out the door. Linden's goal is to not only build great students, but great citizens.

"At NHA, we are passionate about developing the whole student, heart and character included," said Thea Reigler, NHA chief people officer. "This recognition attests to the success Linden has had in focusing on instilling character development into our students' everyday lives."

The heartbeat of Linden is staff that strives toward what's in the best interest of students.

Washington shared, "I know when students walk out the door, they received the best education possible at Linden Charter Academy."

About Linden Charter Academy:

Linden Charter Academy, managed by National Heritage Academies, is a free public charter school serving students in the Flint area.

SOURCE National Heritage Academies

Related Links

www.heritageacademies.com


 Flash

U.S. public health officials are reporting the first case of COVID-19 in a person who hasn't travelled to any affected regions and has no known contact with anyone who has the virus.

The patient is a resident of Solano County California, north of San Francisco.

That's the same county as Travis Air Force base, one of the U.S. quarantine centers.

In a White House press conference on Wednesday, President Trump said, "We are very very ready for this for anything whether it's going to be a breakout of larger proportion or whether or not we're at that very low level."

He also announced Vice President Mike Pence would lead the federal response to the crisis.

Public health officials warn the virus will likely spread in the U.S.

"This virus doesn't respect borders. It does not distinguish between races or ethnicities. It has no regard for a country's GDP or level of development. The point is not only to prevent cases arriving on your shores. The point is what you do when you have cases," said the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,Trump defended travel restrictions that essentially bar entry to foreign nationals who have recently been in China.

The WHO does not recommend closing borders and China has objected to the move.

Trump also said because the outbreak seems to be easing in China it may be possible to lift those travel restrictions soon but added he may put in place similar measures for people who have travelled to other countries experiencing outbreaks.




Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 22:23:46|Editor: ZD

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Cameroon Constitutional Council announces the results of the legislative election in Yaounde, Cameroon on Feb. 28, 2020. The ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) has won the Feb. 9 legislative election by an absolute majority, according to official results published on Friday by Cameroon Constitutional Council. (Photo by Jean Pierre Kepseu/Xinhua)

YAOUNDE, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) has won the Feb. 9 legislative election by an absolute majority, according to official results published on Friday by Cameroon Constitutional Council.

The results were not complete, and involves 167 of the total 180 seats of Cameroon National Assembly. Due to irregularities, 11 constituencies have to rerun the polling to elect the last 13 seats.

According to the results, CPDM won 139 seats, and was followed by its ally National Union for Democracy and Progress (NUDP), which won seven seats.

Main opposition party Social Democratic Front (SDF) that is deeply rooted in crisis-hit Anglophone regions occupied the third position with five out of the 167 declared seats, while it had 18 seats in the ongoing legislation. Another important opposition, Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM), boycotted the election citing insecurity in Anglophone regions.

The turnout was 43.79 percent representing 3,021,947 out of 6,900,928 registered voters.

The 11 constituency that will rerun the election are all in the English-speaking part of Cameroon, where armed separatists had vowed to disrupt the election.

Separatist forces have been clashing with government troops since 2017 to create a new nation they call "Ambazonia" in the Anglophone regions, representing about 20 percent of Cameroon population.
But in order to know what kind of mobility people need, specifically the Filipino people, they need to know what the daily commute is like for the public. To get a first-hand experience of how public transport works in the country, TMP's new president, Atsuhiro Okamoto , decided to experience the wonders of commuting in the country. No, he didn't create a group to do so and make a report on findings. He himself decided to brave Metro Manila's public transport system.

Toyota has been since been transitioning itself from simply being an automobile manufacturer to a mobility company over the past few years. As such, Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) has also adopted this ideology and brand philosophy too. In fact, last year, the automaker announced they will be reorganizing its business model from car ownership to car usership.

Specifically, he took the bus, a round trip of the MRT, queued for the UV Express and even took a tricycle ride to Tondo in Manila. When was the last time you saw a company president or a government official taking public transport or riding a trike to Tondo for that matter?

From his experience of commuting in Manila, Okamoto noted that public transport here is unlike that of other countries such as Japan or Singapore. In particular, he says that the mass transport system is not enough to accommodate the huge number of daily commuters.

After experiencing the difficulties Filipino commuters experience daily, he has since challenged Toyota to take part in solving this issue. This way, the quality of life for most Filipinos will be improved. Okamoto has not specified how he and the company will do so or when the change will arrive. We will, however, likely see it during his term here as TMP president.
The Supreme Court on Friday said that it will hear a petition seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the killing of BJP workers in West Bengal allegedly by TMC workers, after the Sabarimala case.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde said, "We will hear it after Sabarimala."

BJP leader and advocate Gaurav Bhatia had filed the plea seeking a CBI probe into the killing of BJP workers in West Bengal, where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government is in power.

The top court had on January 27 granted issued a notice to the West Bengal government and sought its response on the petition within a period of four weeks.

BJP worker Dulal Kumar was found hanging from a power transmission tower in Purulia district of West Bengal in June 2018, which came merely days after Trilochan Mahato, another BJP worker was found hanging from a tree in the same district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
200 ERS vacancies after Kansas City move In interviews, current and former ERS employees describe a harsh work environment, especially after the loss of researchers with institutional knowledge. Several asked not to be identified because they still work for the government and fear reprisal.

A peek at consequences of relocation and alleged turmoil within the organization . . . In fairness, living expenses in KCMO are much better than the Beltway and by far there are worse fates than moving to this town. Take a look:
Engineers from Far Eastern Federal University Military training center (FEFU, Vladivostok, Russia) together with colleagues from RUDN University have developed concrete mixture with nano additives for monolithic construction up to ten stories high. The concrete casting is possible within a very humid climate and negative temperature down to minus 5-degree centigrade. Given that, the constructed buildings will not require major renewal for 50 years. The related article is published in Construction and Building Materials.

Casting concrete under low-temperature conditions is a serious challenge for the construction industry. If the water in the concrete freeze, the fluidity of the concrete go wrong which will violate its curing and promote in-slab lumps forming. Casting at temperatures below plus five degrees already requires special technology. Breach of one leads to reduced characteristics of monolithic structures that run down prematurely.

Engineers of the FEFU Military training center (MTC), together with colleagues from RUDN University, suggested introducing into the concrete mix special additives (super plasticizers) whose properties are improved via nanotechnology. The development helps to maintain the strength and durability of concrete structures erected during the cold season, not to make the construction process more expensive.

"The characteristics of the new nano mixture meet the needs of civil engineering and generally exceed regulatory requirements. The mixture is suitable for casting of civil structures up to 10 stories high under humidity conditions. That makes it relevant for construction in humid continental, monsoon and moderately cold climate. The mixture is curing quickly, the outcoming concrete slab has a dense structure with no lumping and with a pore size smaller than in conventional concrete. Thus, moisture, which destroys ordinary concrete, not capable of penetrating the new one. The properties of concrete slab remain unchanged for 50 years". Explained one of the research authors Roman Fediuk, Lt. Col., professor at the FEFU MTC, the winner of the XIII All-Russian contest "Engineer of the Year 2018".

The scientist went on that the new concrete mixture, like previous developments, contains less cement replaced with ash from energy production and screenings of crushing sand that makes concrete environmentally friendly. Within that, the technological properties of the new mixture are the same as of the mixtures containing high-grade cement, which makes the development more cost-effective.

Engineers found out the proportions of the modified additives empirically; after that, mathematical models refined the calculations. The mixture with such a verified composition resists the frost and has no increased fluidity causing at low temperatures in-slab lumping of concrete (segregation) and a decrease in the strength of the cast structure. Moreover, engineers used up to 40 percent less water in the mixture, and increased the strength and density of concrete slab. High density and gel pore size get achieved not only because of nano-additives but also due to the technology of additional grinding of concrete particles. A grinder was also developed at FEFU.

The new mixture already underwent a test-drive. As field research, engineers built the five-story parking lot. The concrete stone was curing for 28 days under natural conditions with temperature differences from plus five to minus six degrees, the result came in accordance with the stated standards.

As additives, scientists used components already well known in the construction industry, the properties of which they improved with nanoparticles. Thus, they have strengthened naphthalene formaldehyde resin by the properties of silicon dioxide, and the resulted concrete turned out to be stronger maintaining operational characteristics longer. Saponified wood resin and sodium nitrate also are the components of the mixture.

A scientific school for the development of intelligent composites for special and civil engineering run at the FEFU MTC. The main idea of the school is to design artificial materials similar to the natural ones. For example, concrete should have the strength of natural stone. This theory is developing by modern science, Geonics (Geomimetics) established by professor Valery Lesovik of V.G. Shukhov Belgorod State Technological University, a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences. Engineers from Moscow, Kazan, and the Russian Far East are working on the development of the method. The new concrete design is in accordance with the principles of geomimetis, the ultimate goal of which is to design new materials for a comfortable human environment.

At the next stage of research, scientists plan to develop a concrete mixture for casting under negative temperatures down to minus fifteen degrees centigrade.

###

The scientific article has been published under financial support from the "RUDN University 5-100 Program".
The Financial Services & Pension Ombudsman yesterday published a digest on 25 decisions relating to mortgage trackers taken in 2019.

The report indicates that in total, the office of the Ombudsman has received over 1,800 complaints related to tracker mortgages, of which 650 were dealt with by end 2019 (the Digest is a sample of 25 of them), with a further 1,152 cases outstanding.

The Central Bank notes that to date, 40,100 customers of the banks were caught up in its tracker examination. AIB announced on February 4th that it was taking an additional 300m provision for a cohort of 5,900 customers in relation to a decision by the Ombudsman in midlate January, so the issue of trackers and the Ombudsman is topical.

The Irish Independent reports this morning that Bank of Scotland (Ireland) has acknowledged that it will reinstate a few hundred customers to tracker rates after a recent Ombudsman ruling. The decisions in the Ombudsmans Digest relate to 2019, so any implications for the banks would had to have been taken in the FY19 results  BOI, Ulster Bank, KBC and PTSB have already reported results with AIB next week  with very little incremental provisions.

According to Goodbody Stockbrokers, "We note that 1,152 cases remain outstanding, so there is potential for future negative newsflow on unfavourable outcomes for the banks as the rest of the year unfolds. But it feels this is likely to be on an individual case basis, with the banks noting they dont have any large similar groups or cohorts of customers at risk unlike the large group that AIB had previously identified in its 300m provision (5,900 customers). We estimate the 5 mains banks have taken provisions in total to date of 1.63bn (redress, costs and fines)."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
A California family excited for the arrival of their new puppy were crushed when the father found it lifeless inside a crate after it flew Delta Airlines.

TMZ reports that Cory Mcjimson purchased a 12-week-old Yorkshire Terrier puppy named Sebastian for almost $3,000 from a breeder in Ohio.

Sebastian was supposed to be a gift for Mcjimson's five-year-old daughter.

The breeder reportedly scheduled for Sebastian to fly with Delta Airlines this week from Ohio to the Los Angeles International Airport with one stop in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Mcjimson family bought Sebastian the Yorkshire Terrier, a 12-week-old puppy, from a breeder in Ohio

Mcjimson believes that little Sebastian was kept inside a crate within the pressurized cargo hold during both flights.

He said his family, including his wife and two children, traveled together to pick up Sebastian from the airport around 6.30pm, but he found a heartbreaking shock when he approached the crate.

Inside, Mcjimson found the small dog not breathing or moving.

He quickly alerted Delta Airlines of the grievance while telling his children that Sebastian was simply sick because he didn't want to upset the pair.

Delta Airlines reportedly rushed the dog to a nearby medical center where staff performed CPR on Sebastian to no avail. The dog was pronounced dead around 9pm.

Mcjimson said that Delta Airlines handled the necropsy and cremation of Sebastian.

The company told TMZ: 'We extend our deepest condolences to Sebastians family and are conducting a thorough review of the situation to understand what happened.'

It's unclear how Sebastian died during the Delta Airlines flight from Ohio to the Los Angeles International Airport in California, but an investigation is underway

It's unclear if the Mcjimson family will receive a refund or compensation from the dog breeder. An investigation into Sebastian's death is underway.

This is not the first time dogs and other animals have died while traveling via plane.

In March 2018, a French bulldog named Kokito died on a United Airlines flight after it suffocated in the overheard bin.

This dog was said to have been yelping in the overhead bin just up until it ran out of air and died

Alejandro the Pomeranian (pictured) died on a Delta Airlines flight in 2019 after he transferred flights

Reports say flight staff ordered that Kokito, who belonged to 11-year-old Sophia Ceballos, be kept in the overhead for the remainder of the trip.

Kokito could be heard yelping until he eventually lost oxygen and died.

Later that year, Alejandro the Pomeranian died on a Delta Airlines flight after he was transferred to a connecting flight.

Alejandro's owners suspected a cover up of their dog's death had taken place after they discovered a bloody blanket in the dog's belongings and the carrier had been washed.

In 2019, two dogs died on KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flights from alleged heat stokes.

The Department of Transportation reported that between 2012 and 2016, 26 pets died on commercial flights annually, Huff Post reports.

In 2016, there were 22 injuries and 26 deaths among pet passengers.

According to Inga Fricke, director of pet retention programs at The Human Society of the United States, putting pets in cargo should be avoided whenever it's possible.

'Once that animal is out of your control, there are so many risks it can be exposed to that its just not worth it,' she said.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 06:28:39|Editor: huaxia

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GENEVA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The first round of Libyan political talks closed here Friday with only part of the delegates participating in the three-day discussion, a UN source said.

Ghassan Salame, special representative of the UN secretary-general and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya, told a press briefing here that they had three days of "fruitful discussion", and the UN will call for a next round of talks after convincing those who did not show up this time.

The first round of Libyan political talks was scheduled on Feb. 26 at the United Nations' Palais des Nations in Geneva. According to the UN envoy, the UN was surprised at the day the meeting was supposed to start that some people had to leave because they were asked to.

"However, those who stayed decided that the occasion was too rare and precious and therefore that the political track should start with those who stayed in Geneva," Salame said.
A day after the opposition targeted the Congress-led government over the issue of questioning of some Kartarpur Sahib pilgrims, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh backed the Punjab Police's action and said it acted on the request of the Intelligence Bureau in the interest of national security.

"Had the Gurdaspur police failed to act, I would have taken strict action against them," Singh informed the House in the ongoing budget session here.

They took action in the interest of national security, he said.

The Punjab Assembly on Thursday had witnessed uproarious scenes over the questioning of a few devotees upon their return from the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara in Pakistan by the Punjab Police, with the opposition targeting the government for allegedly "harassing" the pilgrims.

The chief minister said police acted within permissible limits of functioning in the matter.

He was responding to a question over the issue by AAP legislator Kultar Singh Sandhwan.

Singh said his government will cooperate with central agencies in the larger interest of the national security as and when required.

If police force fail to act in accordance with the established security mechanism in coordination with the central agencies, action would be taken against them, he said.

The chief minister pointed out that over 51,000 pilgrims had already paid obeisance after opening of the Kartarpur corridor and this was the first such instance of devotees being questioned.

The IB had in this case raised some doubts and asked the state police for assistance in ensuring the credentials of some of the pilgrims for security reasons, he added.

In view of its sensitive border location, the state was duty bound to work closely with central agencies to ensure the country's security, he further said.

On Thursday, jails minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa had informed the House that the pilgrims were questioned after the directions came from the central agency, Intelligence Bureau, in Amritsar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The World Bank has announced that it will reestablish formal relations with Somalia after 30 years, recognising what it described as a strong record of fiscal, political, social and economic reforms.

Somalia will be able to access loans and grants through the Washington-based lenders International Development Association.

Normalising relations between Somalia and the World Bank also enables the country to secure debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) and Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) programmes, according to a World Bank statement.

Somalias government had an estimated 5.3 billion US dollars in debt at the end of 2018, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Rebuilding

This historic day is important for Somalias re-engagement with the bank and for Somalia to have access to International Development Association grants for its development, said Abdirahman Beileh, Somalias finance minister.

Ties between the World Bank and Somalia were suspended in 1991 when war broke out. Some support resumed in 2003 for HIV/AIDS and livestock programmes with other organisations.

The IMF in December approved a financing plan that will enable it to cover its share of debt relief to Somalia using cash grants and its own internal resources.
Burma Myanmar Authorities Close Thai Border, Thousands Unable to Work at Textile Factories

Local residents from Three Pagodas Pass, Karen State, cross the border into Thailand in December 2019. / Lawi Weng / The Irrawaddy

Thousands of Myanmar textile workers on the Thai-Myanmar border in Three Pagodas Pass, Karen State have been unable to go to work at factories in Thailand due to a dispute between the countries border authorities.

For the workers, they do not have monthly salaries, so how can they survive? asked U Tin Myo Oo, a National League for Democracy regional lawmaker who represents Kyainseikgyi Township, where Three Pagodas Pass is located.

[Myanmar authorities] do not allow workers to cross the border at the moment. From the Myanmar side, they do not allow people to cross the border, as I heard, he said.

The Irrawaddy could not reach the Myanmar Border Committee in Three Pagodas Pass for comment.

Local sources from the town told The Irrawaddy that the dispute began on Tuesday after a meeting between Thai border authorities and a Karen Border Guard Force (BGF).

Thai authorities have objected to the fact that the Karen BGF allows some trade to pass through the border gates under their control, including reportedly at night. The border has been closed to trade since 2007 but border authorities from both sides allow locals to walk across to go to work for the day. Local traders are also allowed to cross, some driving their cars to transport food.

The BGF has recently opened a couple additional border points and the Thai border authorities have voiced concerns about trafficking of illegal drugs, especially amphetamines, into Thailand.

The BGF has also built a Christian church on land that the Thai authorities say they belongs to Thailand.

We heard that the BGF built a church where the Thais say the building encroaches on their land, said Nai Banya Aung Moe, a resident in the town and a former lawmaker for an ethnic Mon party.

When the dispute began on Tuesday, the Thai border authorities closed their side of the border but reopened it later that day. The Myanmar border authorities didnt close their side of the border until Wednesday, according to residents.

Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, spokesperson for the Myanmar army, told The Irrawaddy that he could not say exactly what was happening on the border, but that the current tensions there have nothing to do with the Myanmar army or the Thai army.

At least 5,000 Myanmar migrant workers live in the town at Three Pagodas Pass, crossing over to work at factories on the Thai side in the morning and walking back in the evening.

There are also over 100 children from Myanmar crossing the border daily to study at schools on the Thai side.

On Friday, the students parents got permission from the Myanmar border authorities for the students to cross the border.

They open the border for the students this morning but they did not allow other residents to cross, said Nai Banya Aung Moe.

Some migrant workers are preparing to protest against the actions of the Myanmar border authorities.

Without workers, textile factories on the Thai side have been unable to run.

Some local residents said the Myanmar border authorities are blocking workers from crossing as a tactic to pressure the Thai government into intervening to solve the border dispute issues.

The end of border trade?

Local residents say that a long-term border shutdown will impact the livelihoods of those in Three Pagodas Pass more than those on the Thai side, as most of the Thais are food sellers and can turn elsewhere to find buyers.

A weekly Friday market on the Thai side of the border saw very few customers this week, as the market primarily serves people from Three Pagodas Pass, including textile workers, who were unable to cross.

Thai food vendors were forced to return with unsold food or sell it at cheaper pricewhere a kilogram of oranges normally sells for 40 baht (US$1.25), vendors were selling for 20 baht.

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YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. No precipitation is expected in Armenia in the daytime of February 28, overnight February 29 and on March 2-4, the ministry of emergency situations told Armenpress.

In the evening of February 29, on March 1 precipitation is expected in most of the regions in the form of snow and rain.

Air temperature will increase by 3-5 degrees in the night of February 29.
Karl Stefanovic and his wife, Jasmine Yarbrough, are eagerly awaiting the birth of their first child together.

And on Friday, the 45-year-old Today show host confirmed that Jasmine, 35, will welcome a baby girl in May.

He revealed the due date to 9Honey, adding: 'We are really excited... Our whole family can't wait to meet our little princess.'

'We are really excited': Karl Stefanovic confirmed his pregnant wife Jasmine Yarbrough's due date on Friday. Pictured together in 2018

'Jasmine looks so beautiful and is handling pregnancy in such an incredible way,' he said.

While it had been previously reported that Jasmine's due date was May, the couple waited until this week to confirm the news.

Jasmine has kept her pregnancy journey relatively private so far, posting no bump pictures to her personal Instagram account.

'Our whole family can't wait to meet our little princess': The 45-year-old Today show host revealed that Jasmine, 35, will give birth to a baby girl in May

But last month, she did share a video to Tik Tok in which she flaunted her tummy alongside her friend Tamara Ingham and stepdaughter, Ava Stefanovic.

Photos taken of Jasmine at the beach in December confirmed rumours she was expecting her first child with Karl.

Karl later announced the news on Instagram by writing: 'After a great deal of speculation... the rumours are true.'

Mama's got moves! While Jasmine (left) has kept her pregnancy journey relatively private, she did offer a rare glimpse of her baby bump in a Tik Tok video last month. Pictured with her friend Tamara Ingham (centre) and stepdaughter, Ava Stefanovic (right)

Karl and Jasmine began dating in late 2016, just months after he had separated from his first wife, Cassandra Thorburn.

The former couple, who were married for 21 years, share three children: Jackson, 20, River, 12, and Ava, 14.

In December, Karl and Jasmine celebrated their one-year anniversary after tying the knot at Mexico's five-star One&Only Palmilla resort in late 2018.
NEW DELHI: Shahrukh, a 33-year-old young man who had opened fire at police personnel during violence which broke out in Delhis Jaffrabad after clashes between the Citizenship Amendment Act supporters and protesters recently, has gone missing.

According to reports, a manhunt has been launched to trace the guman by the Delhi Police. Sharukh was spotted wearing a red T-shirt and firing at the cops during violence in Jaffrabad and the police later claimed to have arrested him.

He was seen confronting an unarmed Delhi Police officer, forcing him to back off and then moving back shooting at some people on the other side of the road. Shahrukh is said to be a resident of Shahdara.

At least 39 people have lost their lives and more than 200 hundred injured ever since clashes broke out between pro and anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters that took place at various places in North-East District of Delhi.

Shahdara Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Amit Sharma was among those injured during clashes between two groups in Delhi's Gokulpuri. He later underwent surgery.

Meanwhile, normalcy appears to be returning as no big incident of violence has been reported in past 24 hours in violence-hit areas of the national capital.

The Delhi Police has made a fresh appeal to people not to believe in any rumours or spread fake videos, messages or anything that could further deteriorate the situation.

Delhi Police late on Thursday issued an appeal urging people and media persons to come forward and give their statements and share pictures and video footage in connection with the violence in North East Delhi.

"Whereas incidents of clashes have taken place in the northeast district, Delhi since February 23. All those who are witnesses to the incidents or have captured any activity on their mobile phones or camera are hereby requested to come forward and give their statements, footage and pictures in their possession at DCP office, northeast district, Seelampur, Delhi, during office hours, on any working day within seven days," B K Singh, Additional CP Crime Branch, said.

Police have issued two mobile numbers - 8750871221 and 8750871227 - for witnesses to contact and share information regarding riots in Delhi. Delhi Police have promised to keep the identity of witnesses secret.

Delhi Police have also constituted two Special Investigation Teams (SIT) under the Crime Branch, Delhi Police to investigate the recent violence in northeast Delhi.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting on Thursday evening to review the law and order situation in Delhi after clashes in parts of the national capital over the citizenship law.

The meeting was attended by senior police and government officials, including the Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik and Special Commissioner (Law and Order) SN Srivastava.
As the country marks the National Science Day on Friday, many leading Indian women scientists have stressed on the need for the right kind of support, equality, and gender-fair policies in the field of research.

National Science Day is celebrated on February 28 each year commemorating Indian physicist C V Ramans discovery in 1928 of the Raman effect -- the scattering of photons or light particles by matter.

Raman received a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.

Of the 607 Nobel medals awarded so far in scientific disciplines globally, just 20 have gone to women.

Noting that a career in science is a demanding and tough option, Rupamanjari Ghosh, Vice-Chancellor, Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida said there are additional barriers -- often unintentional and unconscious ones -- which are put up along the career path of women in science.

When such a career demands long hours, there are issues of lack of security and basic amenities that affect women more adversely than men in this society. We need to pay active attention to these preventable problems, Ghosh, a Professor of Physics, told PTI.

G Geetha, Professor and Head, Division of Research and Development at Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Punjab, emphasised on closing the gender gap, and moving towards women-led projects in science.

She noted that out of the 560 awardees of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, only 18 recipients have been women.

The prize is one of the highest multidisciplinary science awards in India.

According to Geetha, women represent only about a fifth of senior authors in all published research.

A study, published in the journal PLOS One in 2018, assessed 293,557 research articles from 54 journals, and found that 29.8 per cent of all research authors, and 33.1 per cent of the first, 31.8 per cent of the co-, and 18.1 per cent of the last authors were women. Another study by the UKs Intellectual Property Office (IPO) noted that women inventors account for just under 13 per cent of patent applications globally.

For society to evolve with equality, Geetha feels the state and union governments should provide women grants for startups, core research, travel, and prototype development.

Universities should preferentially encourage women entrepreneurs and women startups. A survey has to be conducted on participation of women as chairpersons or committee member in policy making, Geetha added.

Professor Manjula Reddy, Chief Scientist, Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad believes that science in India is progressing at a rapid pace since the last decade, thanks to the focus and initiatives on education and research.

Setting up new educational and research institutions across India has contributed to this cause, she said.

However, Reddy, who won the Infosys Prize 2019, thinks India is lagging behind in basic sciences as compared to developed countries, and needs to make serious efforts to fill the gap.

This can be achieved with structured funding, more focus on education and research activities.

Basic research is a developmental activity; it may not have immediate tangible benefit, but has long-term sustainability and is the bedrock for future technological advances, she explained.

Gagandeep Kang, Professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal Sciences at the Christian Medical College in Tamil Nadu believes that there is a lot of work to be done to build an understanding of the process and outputs of science -- a spirit of inquiry, and a deep trust in science and scientists.

As scientists, some are doing reasonably well in many fields, but there are many areas where both quality people and skills are limited or lacking, said Kang, who was awarded the prestigious Infosys Prize in Life Sciences in 2016.

Kang feels India does not have sufficient researchers working across various disciplines.

That means we are unable to grow up to global standards, and there are few areas that I am aware of where an Indian group is among the world leaders, she added.
Washington, D.C., Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan nonprofit civil rights organization, has filed a supplemental motion asking the Court to reopen its case against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

The motion seeks to block ongoing efforts to rely upon an unlawful guidance document to mandate the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking technology on livestock. This latest filing asks Nancy D. Freudenthal, U.S. District Judge for the District of Wyoming, to revisit the court order she recently issued in R-CALF et al. v. USDA et al., which dismissed the lawsuit upon her concluding that the agencies had fully withdrawn their previous efforts to require livestock producers to use RFID eartags.

In her February 13th order, Judge Freudenthal found that the case was now moot because the USDA and APHIS had responded to NCLAs lawsuit by withdrawing the unlawful guidance Factsheet and removing it from the agency website. Her order made it clear that she believed USDAs Factsheet and underlying policy have been fully and completely withdrawn, and she also emphasized that [the agencies have] unambiguously stated that the requirements of the 2019 Factsheet will not be implemented[.]

Nevertheless, NCLA recently found an informational page nearly identical to the Factsheet published in the February 2020 edition of Nebraska Cattleman magazine announcing that RFID eartags will become mandatory, albeit through a phased approach. The informational page is on USDA/APHIS letterhead, and it states that it is funded by those agencies pursuant to a cooperative agreement with the Nebraska Department of Agriculture.

This announcement confirms that NCLA was rightly concerned that USDA/APHIS had failed to issue and publish an effective retraction of the 2019 Factsheet and that there remains substantial confusion and uncertainty in the industry. NCLAs latest motion asks the judge to reopen the case for the purpose of issuing a declaratory judgment and ordering the agencies to make a more robust effort at notifying states and others that the RFID mandate has been withdrawn.

NCLA filed a motion with the court last week to allow R-CALF and the ranchers affected by the agencies unlawful actions to proceed with discovery and to block USDA and APHIS from using any work product, reports, and materials generated by one or more advisory committee(s) that they had convened in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act. NCLA argued that such a move was necessary to ensure that any future efforts to adopt the RFID requirement are not tainted by such materials.

For a full case summary visit: https://nclalegal.org/r-calf-usa-v-united-states-department-of-agriculture/

NCLA released the following statements:

We must remain vigilant in monitoring the USDA and APHIS to ensure that neither they nor state agencies are able to avoid complying with the law if they seek to move forward with imposing RFID requirements on our livestock producers. Had these agencies made an effort to effectively inform the public and their state partners that they had withdrawn the Factsheet and the RFID mandate, we could have avoided this situation.

 Harriet Hageman, Senior Litigation Counsel, NCLA

The old adage actions speak louder than words rings true here. The agencies successfully mooted this case by unambiguously stating that the 2019 Factsheets mandates will not be implemented. But new evidence shows that they have failed to follow through on that promise. The agencies should be held to the same standard to which courts hold ordinary Americans. USDA/APHIS should say what they mean, mean what they say, and follow through with actions that put their words into effect.

 Kara Rollins, Litigation Counsel, NCLA

ABOUT NCLA

NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights organization founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLAs public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans fundamental rights.
A drugs gang which flooded the East Midlands and Liverpool with class A drugs has been jailed for more than 100 years.

The group of 22 people sold and moved illegal drugs across the East Midlands and even as far as Liverpool.

Members of the gang sold class A drugs such as cocaine, as well as class B drugs including cannabis and cannabis plants.

Kevin Duncalf (left), 35, from Liverpool, was jailed for 16 years after being found guilty of conspiracy to supply class A drugs. Ashley Boyd (right), 34, from Leicestershire, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs, and conspiracy to produce cannabis

Clint Jones (left), 42, from Thurmaston, Leicester, was jailed for nine years and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs. Emerson George (right), 38, also from Leicester, was sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs

Kevin Duncalf, a drug dealer from Liverpool who lived a lavish lifestyle while on the run from police, supplied the drugs to the criminal organisation, which was spread across several counties.

The 35-year-old had been wanted by police for unrelated matters, and when he was arrested recordings on his phone showed him staying in hotels and counting large amounts of money on a cash counting machine.

Duncalf was found guilty of conspiracy to supply class A drugs and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

His sentence will commence after he has served two years of a four year sentence for a previous conviction. That conviction related to conspiracy to supply class A drugs (MDMA) and class B drugs (cannabis).

Harlom Everett (left), 24, from Boston, Lincolnshire, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs and was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison. Jordan Vaughan (right), 24, also from Lincolnshire, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs and was jailed for six years

Dipak Modvadia (left), 37, from Leicester, was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison for two counts of conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs. Dawid Flondro (right) was jailed for six years and seven months for possession with intent to supply class A and B drugs and conspiracy to supply Class A drugs

Aaron Curtis (left), 29, from Syston, was sentenced to two years and three months in prison for onspiracy to supply Class B drugs and cultivation of Class B drugs. Xuan Pham (right), 35, from Leicester, was sentenced to three years in prison for conspiracy to produce class B drugs

During the investigation into Duncalf, officers discovered two men in Leicester - Ashley Boyd, 34, and Clint Jones, 42 - were the brains behind a vast criminal network which was supplying drugs in and around the East Midlands.

Boyd pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs, and conspiracy to produce cannabis. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Jones pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Police executed 50 warrants around the country as the net closed in on the group of more than 20 people, leading to officers finding over 57,000 in cash at Jones' home in the process.

They also discovered cocaine, cannabis, cannabis plants and designer items such as custom made watches.

Scott Wydra (left), 38, from Leicestershire, was jailed for six years for conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs. Richard O'Donovan (right), 37, from Syston, was sentenced to six years in prison for conspiracy to supply class A drugs

Jacob Chetwynd (left), 28, from Leicester, was sentenced to five years and four months in prison for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. Leigh McCulloch (right), 34, from Nottingham, was jailed for five years and three months conspiracy to supply Class A drugs

Pardeep Dehal (left), 30, from Leicester, was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison. Lee Wright (middle), 32, from Leicester was jailed for three years and four months and Kassim Sarang (right), 28, was sentenced to five years and four months in prison

East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU) Detective Inspector, Lee Hunt, said members of the gang would spend more than 100 years behind bars.

He said: 'Between them these individuals will now serve more than 100 years behind bars. The conviction and subsequent sentences show how seriously we and the courts take these crimes.

'These criminals were part of an organised network who operated not just in Leicestershire but Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Liverpool. During the enforcement we executed more than 50 warrants across those counties and cities.

'This was a significant operation for us but our work doesn't end here. We know there is always someone waiting to the fill the gap left by others and we will continue in our efforts to stop the misuse of drugs and carry out further operations of the nature to disrupt the criminal activity.'
27.02.2020 LISTEN

The Greater Accra Zongo Caucus Coordinator for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), hon. Ismaila Ali Horoya, has called on the party's supporters to work hard to deliver victory for the NDC in the December 2020 general elections.

Hon . Horoya said " it is time for all and sundry to join the train for the party's victory as all signs shows that the wind of change favors the umbrella party.

Mr. Ismaila Ali Horoya made the remarks during the ocassion of the inauguration of the Zongo Caucus Working Committee for the Ablekuma North Constituency of the NDC at Darkuman Official Town, in the Greater Accra Region.

The NDC Regional Zongo Caucus Coordinator, urged the committee members to work hard and win massive votes for John Mahama and the NDC in general.

He was optimistic the good people of Ablekuma North and Ghana at large would give the nod to the NDC to govern based on their track record.

The Zongo Caucus, hon. Horoya pointed out is fully ready to help the party to return to power. We shall roll out comprehensive programs to educate electorates on the good policies the NDC has for Ghanaians.

On his part, the Ablekuma North Constituency Zongo Caucus Coordinator, Mr. Abdul Wahab Jawando said the party needs unity to ensure victory is achieved come December 2020 polls.

" Unity within the party is paramount in delivering all the Zongos within the constituency for the party".

He mentioned that the three Zongos in the constituency namely Darkuman ,Kwashieman and Awoshie Zongos will surely be delivered with the current competent and action oriented working committee members.

Mr. Jawando urged his colleague committee members to contribute their quota by coming on board to work assiduously for the NDC to win the December 7, general elections.

In his inaugural address, Ambassador Alhaji Said Sinare urged the newly selected committee members to work extra hard to win the Ablekuma North seat for the party.

Alhaji Sinare who is a Vice Chairman of the NDC ,also charged the various committees not to rest on their oars but work hard to ensure massive victory in both the presidential and, parliamentary elections.

He said, " we cannot afford to be lazy as you have to go out there and convince the people with the message the NDC has. If we are not to able to work hard, we will not win the 2020 elections".

The committee members were Mr. Abdul Wahab Abubakar Jawando (Zongo Caucus Coordinator), Deputy Coordinator, Musah Kalamu, Samuel Addo Secretary, Hajia Adiza Ibrahim as Magajia, Adiza Mohammed, Deputy Magajia, Communication Officer, Seidu Mumuni and Ali Ibrahim as Organiser.

Among the dignitaries that graced the swearing in ceremony included, hon. Winifred Ashley, Ablekuma North NDC Parliamentary Candidate for the December 2020 elections, Mr. .Vanderpuije, the Ablekuma South MP for the NDC,Mr. Augustine Rasito, Ablekuma North NDC Constituency Chairman, hon. Mustapha, former MASLOC Deputy CEO.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Full investigations into complaints filed against NYPD officers were over twice-as-likely to be substantiated when body-worn camera footage was available to the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), a report released on Thursday found.

The CCRB said 31% of cases in which there was body-worn camera footage were substantiated by the CCRB, compared to 13% when there was no body-worn camera or other type of video footage between May 2017 and June 2019, according to the 118-page report.

Additionally, the board was able to reach a clear determination of fact in 76% of all cases, compared to 39% when no video was available, also exonerating officers in 30% of investigations, compared to 20% without available body-worn camera footage.

The caveat, however, is that as more videos are requested  due to more officers being outfitted with body-worn cameras  a higher percentage of complaints contain at least one redacted video from the NYPD, rising from 52% during the first quarter of 2019 to 63% during the second quarter. The CCRB said on multiple occasions the organization was not provided an explanation for the redactions.

The CCRB report also showed that the organization has received footage in about only half of the instances in which it was requested since the inception of the NYPDs body-worn camera footage program.

The NYPD said it redacts certain footage as proscribed by state law, resulting in the department providing the CCRB with redacted footage. The CCRB can obtain a waiver from sealed arrest complainants to obtain relevant un-redacted footage.

This reports findings firmly establish that video footage is integral to determining whether an officer behaved professionally or engaged in misconduct, the CCRB report read.

NYPD spokeswoman Sergeant Mary Frances ODonnell said roughly 130,000 new body-worn camera videos are created each week, adding, These cameras shed light on our officers everyday encounters with New Yorkers and help to cultivate trust with the New Yorkers they are sworn to serve.

The department also conducts robust auditing of body-camera video  from the command level up through the bureau and oversight level  to address policy compliance, quality of the video and the quality of the police service, ODonnell said. "Follow-up action can include everything from instruction to formal discipline.

On Staten Island, the 120th Precinct had the highest number of CCRB complaints against NYPD officers, totaling 118 from 2017 to the second quarter of 2019. The 122nd Precinct had 64 complaints in the aforementioned span, followed by the 121st Precinct with 58 complaints and the 123rd Precinct with 50 complaints.

The CCRB is also concerned that officers are tipping one another off when body-worn cameras are active.

The CCRB review found officers used verbal and non-verbal cues to indicate when the cameras were turned on  which officers are supposed to do when conducting specific police activity.

According to the report, officers were frequently heard using phrases such as, "I went Hollywood, Green, Im/Were live, and Im hot, apparently designed to indicate to other officers that their cameras were recording.

Officers also used non-verbal cues like tapping motions and shoulder brushing to indicate their cameras were turned on or off, the report said.

In one alleged instance detailed in the CCRB report, seven officers arrived to a NYCHA complex and allegedly frisked a group of individuals suspected of gambling. Shortly after arriving, but before the allege frisk, a female officers partner instructs her to Turn it off, turn it off, turn it off!, in regard to the body-worn camera.

The female officer complied immediately, according to the report. During the CCRB interview, the officers said she did not have any recollection of the incident, and the investigation was unable to determine whether the officers had reasonable suspicious to stop and frisk the individuals.

In another alleged instance, body-worn camera footage captured two officers speaking to a black male inside of a gas station. While the CCRB detail of the report does not explain the circumstances surrounding the dispute, the report said one officer said, "Youre an idiot, you f---ing moron. I let you go, you stupid m-----------. What do you think, Im f---ing retarded?

A voice on the footage informs the two officers that they are not off, referencing the body-worn camera, and the officer immediately then turns off his camera. The civilian alleged that the officers then used physical force against him. However, the alleged force was not captured, since the camera did not resume recording until after the incident.

While the NYPDs patrol guide does not prohibit officers from intentionally interfering with the ability of a body-worn camera to accurately record footage, the CCRB said the aforementioned actions undermine the purpose of the body-worn camera program, which is meant to "provide a contemporaneous, objective record of stops and frisks, allowing for the review of officer conduct.

The CCRB recommended the NYPD amend its patrol guide to prohibit officers from intentionally interfering with the capturing of body-worn camera footage, including efforts to signal other officers when a camera is active.

The NYPD said the reports suggestion that providing signals or camera activation alerts undermines the body-worn camera program is a mischaracterization, citing the departments patrol guide, which informs officers to notify members of the public as soon as reasonably practical that a body-worn camera is recording.

The department said providing notice of the body-worn camera recording can have potential de-escalation effects, and serves as a reminder to other officers of body-worn camera policy requirements as they engage in police activity.

The NYPD said the changing of the patrol guide is contrary to the goal of the body-worn camera program and officers training, and also unnecessary since the guide already mandates recording certain events, adding that non-compliance is already prohibited.

The CCRB report also found that the departments patrol guide is not specific enough in its language regarding when officers should turn on their body-worn cameras.

For policing activities requiring activation, investigators felt that Patrol Guide language stating: begin recording prior to or immediately upon arrival at the incident location, left too much room for discretion, the report said.

When NYPD body-worn cameras  which are created by Axon  are first put on, they enter a buffering period. The buffer period causes a 30-second to one minute sound buffer before audio is recorded.

In one CCRB complaint, the report said officers conducting a home visit at an apartment activated their cameras when they arrived to the apartment door, causing the first 30 seconds of a verbal interaction to commence without audio recording.

During that time, the officers spoke to civilians at the door and entered the apartment. By the time audio is activated, the officers are already inside, the report said.

Two civilians later filed a complaint the officers allegedly entered the apartment without permission. Without the initial audio, the investigation could not determine if the officers entered without consent.

The NYPD said encounters in a persons home are reviewed by the department, adding that entering a home as a result of a call does not necessarily trigger the requirement to turn on the body-worn camera. Instead, the nature of the assignment triggers whether or not an officer is required to turn on the camera.

In Nov. of 2019, the NYPD and the CCRB signed a memorandum of understanding to streamline the sharing of body-worn camera footage, including setting up a facility where CCRB investigators can search and review body-worn camera footage directly.

Upon determining that footage is relevant to an allegation of police misconduct, the CCRB investigator may request a copy of the footage from the NYPDs Legal Bureau," the report said.

Implementing an initiative as robust as this is a complex and evolving process, and last November, the NYPD and CCRB executed an agreement that fostered our shared goals of transparency and accountability and streamlined the sharing of video, an NYPD spokeswoman said.

It is our hope that this new system will streamline CCRBs access to BWC footage, which is pivotal to our work, said Frederick Davie, the chairman of the CCRB.
A man wears a face mask onboard a public bus in the Chinatown section of San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 25, 2020. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

2 More Cases of New Coronavirus Confirmed in US

Two new cases of the new COVID-19 virus have been confirmed in the United States, officials said Friday.

There are now 62 cases in the country.

Both of the new patients were on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan before being evacuated to the United States, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on a phone call.

Forty-two others who were among the groups flown from Japan have confirmed cases of COVID-19, which is caused by the new coronavirus.

Three people evacuated from Wuhan, Chinathe epicenter of the virustested positive for COVID-19.

A man returns to his house with food delivered by volunteers at a residential area in Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Hubei Province, China on Feb. 28, 2020. (Stringer/Reuters)

The 15 other cases are among people who werent evacuated from China or Japan. Most of those traveled to China before returning to America. Two others came into close contact with spouses who traveled to China.

Officials arent sure where the 15th patient, who is hospitalized in California, became infected.

That case might be the first case from community spread, officials have said.

The number of infected earlier this week in the United States was 60.

Some 285 from the Diamond Princess ship are still under quarantine in the United States.




The Pope appeared unwell yesterday (Picture: Reuters/AP)

Pope Francis has missed a planned Mass with clergy in Rome due to an unspecified illness.

The Vatican said the pontiff, 83, had a slight indisposition and would proceed with the rest of his planned work today but preferred to stay near Santa Marta, the Vatican hotel where he lives.

There was no word from the Vatican about the nature of his illness, but the pope was seen coughing and blowing his nose during the Ash Wednesday Mass.

Yesterday, he told well-wishers: I wish, again, to express my closeness to those who are ill with coronavirus and to health-care workers who are caring for them.

It comes amid an outbreak of the strain of coronavirus  also known as Covid-19  in Italy that has infected more than 400 people, almost all of them in the north.

Rome had three cases, but all three were cured. Francis had been scheduled to go to the St John Lateran basilica to meet with Rome clergy and celebrate a penitential Mass at the start of Lent.

The Argentine pope has generally enjoyed good health.

He lost part of one lung as a young man because of a respiratory illness, and suffers from sciatica, which makes walking difficult.

Francis has had a busy schedule lately, including his public general audience on Wednesday and the Ash Wednesday service later in the day in a Roman basilica. Some Lent Ash Wednesday services were cancelled or limited in areas of northern Italy hit by the spread of coronavirus.

Twelve people have died of the disease in Italy, in the worst contagion from the coronavirus so far recorded in Europe.

A number of people wore masks in St. Peters Square at yesterdays audience but only one person was seen wearing one at the popes Ash Wednesday service.

-AP
India has temporarily suspended visa on arrival services for nationals of Japan and South Korea in view of the surge in the number of coronavirus cases in the two countries, the Indian embassy here said on Friday.

The development comes a day after India evacuated 119 Indians and 5 foreigners who were on board the coronavirus-hit cruise ship, Diamond Princess, moored off the Japanese coast.

Out of the 3,711 people on board the ship, over 700 people tested positive for the disease. Elsewhere in the country, over 160 people have been found to be infected with the disease.

With COVID-19 cases surpassing 2,000, South Korea has become the biggest cluster to have the infections outside China. A total of 13 people have died of the virus in the country.

According to an AFP report, more than 90 per cent of the new cases were in Daegu city, the epicentre of the outbreak in South Korea, and the neighbouring North Gyeongsang province.

"In view of the recent outbreak of COVID-19, VISA ON ARRIVAL which was available only for nationals of Japan and South Korea has been temporarily suspended," the Indian embassy tweeted.

"Regular visas continue to be processed and may be applied for," it said.

Earlier, India had on February 2 suspended e-visa facility for Chinese travellers and foreigners residing in China following surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

Further tightening the visa rules, India on February 4 cancelled the existing visas for Chinese and foreigners who had visited the country in the last two weeks.

The novel coronavirus emerged in early December and traced to a market in Hubei's capital Wuhan that sold wild animals.

The death toll due to the deadly disease rose to 2,788 in China with 44 more deaths, while the confirmed cases climbed to 78,824, according to Chinese health officials on Friday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
HAMILTON, Bermuda, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- At its regular meeting held on February 27, 2020, the Board of Directors of White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. declared a $1.00 per share annual dividend, payable in cash on March 25, 2020, to holders of record of Common Shares as of the close of business on March 16, 2020.

About White Mountains

White Mountains is a Bermuda-domiciled financial services holding company traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the Bermuda Stock Exchange under the symbol WTM. Additional financial information and other items of interest are available at the Company's web site located at www.whitemountains.com .

CONTACT: Todd Pozefsky

(203) 458-5807

SOURCE White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd.

Related Links

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By PTI

NEW DELHI: The death toll in the Delhi's communal violence has gone up to 42 now with four more fatalities being recorded at the city's GTB Hospital on Friday, officials said.

The number stood at 38 till Thursday. The Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital has recorded 38 deaths, the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash hospital three, and the Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital has reported one. Nearly 7,000 paramilitary personnel have been deployed in the affected areas of the northeast district since Monday to assist hundreds of Delhi police men and women to maintain peace.

More than 250 people have been injured in the communal clashes. The areas mainly affected include Jafrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh, Khureji Khas and Bhajanpura.
A man and his wife rest in their house at the Qushou Village of Saybag Township in Moyu County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Nov. 21, 2019. (Xinhua/Sadat)

Facts show that there is not a one-size-fits-all model for human rights protection, and that modernization is no Westernization, said the envoy.

GENEVA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The accusations by Britain and other countries on China's Xinjiang policies are untruthful and interfere with China's internal affairs and judicial sovereignty, a Chinese envoy said here Wednesday at the ongoing 43rd session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council.

The accusers have defied facts, being either unaware of or unwilling to admit the truth about the human rights situation in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said Liu Hua, special representative for human rights of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Even worse, some have employed human rights as a policy tool to smear and discredit China, Liu said, criticizing them for practicing double standards in regard to the counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures China has lawfully taken in Xinjiang.

On May 22, 2014, five terrorists in two vehicles broke through roadside fences, plowed into the crowd, and set off explosive devices at a market in Gongyuanbei Street of Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, claiming 39 lives and injuring 94 people. (Xinhua)

These countries and forces claimed that China's measures are excessive and violate human rights whereas similar practices adopted in their own countries are viewed as part of the rule of law, she said.

They rejected China's invitation to visit Xinjiang, and when over 70 countries explicitly supported China's Xinjiang policies via joint letters or statements, deeming them as positive anti-terrorism and de-radicalization practices and effective measures to protect the basic human rights of all ethnic groups, they said those countries were under China's pressure and only the hearsay they have repeated was true, she noted.

On May 22, 2014, five terrorists in two vehicles broke through roadside fences, plowed into the crowd, and set off explosive devices at a market in Gongyuanbei Street of Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, claiming 39 lives and injuring 94 people.(Xinhua)

The Chinese envoy said that since the 1990s, the "three forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism at home and abroad have carried out thousands of violent terrorist attacks in Xinjiang, causing huge human and property losses and trampling on the human rights of local residents.

The Chinese government has adopted a series of counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures in Xinjiang in accordance with the law, she said, citing the establishment of vocational education and training centers as an example.

Liu said the measures have received support from people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang for having greatly improved the local security situation and effectively protected their basic human rights.

No violent terrorist attack has occurred in Xinjiang in the past three years. Last year, Xinjiang received over 200 million tourists and its per capita gross domestic product recorded a 6.2-percent growth, she said, adding the region is expected to eliminate extreme poverty this year.

A farmer sorts chili peppers in Bohu County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Oct. 13, 2019. (Xinhua/Ding Lei)

Liu said China welcomes the visit of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Madam Michelle Bachelet to visit China, including to Xinjiang, this year, adding the Chinese side is having close contact with Bachelet's office to arrange the visit.

The Chinese envoy said facts show that there is not a one-size-fits-all model for human rights protection, and that modernization is no Westernization.

Human rights protection must adhere to a development path that fits a country's own conditions, she said, adding China's practice "is in line with the spirit of the UN Charter and relevant human rights treaties."
ORLANDO, Fla.,  Bringing Turkey back into Lockheed Martin's F-35 program, following the nation's messy multibillion-dollar deal with Russia, would be a colossal task for the Pentagon's top weapons supplier.

"I think, politics aside, if we reintroduce Turkey into the program it would essentially be a restart," Greg Ulmer, vice president and general manager of the F-35 program, told CNBC at the Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida.

"There would probably be some elements that are really simple and elements that are pretty difficult. I think you'd have to essentially treat it as a new start bringing them back into the program," he added.

Last year, Turkey accepted delivery of the Russian-made S-400, a mobile surface-to-air missile system, that is said to pose a risk to the NATO alliance as well as Lockheed Martin's F-35 stealth fighter jet. On the heels of the delivery, the United States cut Turkey's participation in the F-35 program, America's most expensive weapons system.

"Unfortunately, Turkey's decision to purchase Russian S-400 air defense systems renders its continued involvement with the F-35 impossible. The F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence-collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities," the White House said in a statement at the time.

The move resulted in the forfeiture of Turkey's F-35 jets and removal from the weapons program, the crown jewel in the Lockheed Martin's portfolio.
Credit:

In 1932 two young women were found in inner-city Sydney parks: both naked and brutally bashed to death. Police noted the similarities, but as they were prostitutes investigations were far from thorough. It wasnt until a third murder that became front page news  Bessie OConnor, an aspiring Olympic swimmer also working in escort services  that police pulled out all stops. Tanya Bretherton, who specialises in recreating true crime, takes the reader into Sydneys mean streets, profiling the victims, the suspects and the investigating police (as well as the role of the motor car in facilitating sex murders), and the result might be called procedural non-fiction. A man confessed to one murder and was jailed for 25 years, but many more eerily similar murders that looked like serial killings followed. Forensic, vivid and atmospheric.

PICK OF THE WEEK

To the Lake

Kapka Kassabova

Granta, $34.99

Credit:

The eponymous lake is Lake Ohrid in what is now the Republic of North Macedonia. For poet and novelist Kapka Kassabova  who grew up in Sofia and now lives in the Scottish highlands  the lake and the region have always haunted her because her grandmother lived there as did generations of her family. In crisp, poetic language she describes her pilgrimage back, charting her journey, the people she meets while also creating a resonant sense of place. In one small town she meets a mother and son, caretakers of a Dervish monastery who converted to Sufism. In another she speaks with the keeper of the Black Madonna  a renaissance icon that heals illness and infertility  who believes in miracles. The result is a kaleidoscopic mirroring of the area through time past and present, with tales of war and peace woven in.
MINNEAPOLIS

Feb. 27, 2020

Toronto, Canada

April 25 to May 1, 2020

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Chicago

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Northwestern University

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/PRNewswire/ -- Having health issues such as smoking, high cholesterol or a high body mass index (BMI) in your 20s may make you more likely to have problems with thinking and memory skills and even the brain's ability to properly regulate its blood flow, according to a preliminary study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 72nd Annual Meeting in"These results indicate that people need to pay close attention to their health even in their early 20s," said study author Farzaneh A. Sorond, M.D., Ph.D., ofFeinberg School of Medicine inand a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "We've known that vascular risk factors such as high blood pressure and high blood glucose levels are linked to cerebrovascular damage and problems with thinking skills in older people, but this study shows that these factors may be linked decades earlier and injury may start much earlier."The study involved 189 people with an average age of 24 who were followed for 30 years as part of a larger study. Of the group, 45% were black and 55% were white. The people were tested eight times over the course of the study. Each time, their cardiovascular health was assessed based on five factors: smoking, BMI, blood pressure, total cholesterol and fasting blood glucose level.At their 30-year visit, the people's thinking and memory skills were tested, along with their brain's ability to regulate its blood flow.The researchers found that people with better cardiovascular health at the beginning of the study were more likely to have higher scores on the tests of thinking and memory skills 30 years later than those with worse cardiovascular health. For example, on a test of attention skills where scores ranged from seven to 103, each point higher on the cardiovascular health score was associated with a 2.2 points higher score in attention skills.The results were the same after researchers adjusted for other factors that could affect thinking and memory skills, such as level of education.The people with better cardiovascular health at the beginning of the study and seven years into the study were more likely to have better cerebral autoregulation, or the body's ability to maintain stable blood flow in the brain. This means that during changes in blood pressure, the brain is able to maintain adequate blood flow."More focus on a life course research approach is needed to help us better understand how these vascular risk factors affect brain health as we age," Sorond said.She noted that the study does not prove that better cardiovascular health results in better thinking and memory skills or better ability of the brain to regulate blood flow; it only shows an association.A limitation of the study was that researchers did not have cerebral autoregulation measures at each visit to better understand the relationship over time between cardiovascular health and brain blood flow regulation as they relate to midlife cognition.The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the, theand the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute.Learn more about brain health at BrainandLife.org, home of the American Academy of Neurology's free patient and caregiver magazine focused on the intersection of neurologic disease and brain health. Followon Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.The American Academy of Neurology is the world's largest association of neurologists and neuroscience professionals, with over 36,000 members. The AAN is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, concussion, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit AAN.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/heart-health-problems-in-your-20s-may-affect-brain-health-decades-later-301012419.html



SOURCE American Academy of Neurology




A Delhi court was Friday told that there were "clinching evidence" against former CBI special director Rakesh Asthana in a bribery case in which he was recently given a clean chit.

Special CBI judge Sanjeev Aggarwal was told by Ajay Kumar Bassi, the former investigating officer in the case, that the current IO, Satish Dagar, was trying to "save" Asthana and other public servants.

The court had on February 12 expressed displeasure over the Central Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the case and it had asked why the accused with bigger roles were roaming free while the probe agency had arrested its own deputy superintendent of police.

Asthana and DSP Devender Kumar, who was arrested in 2018 and later got bail, were named in column 12 of the charge sheet in the case since there was not enough evidence to make them accused.

The CBI had registered the case against Asthana on the basis of a complaint from Hyderabad-based businessman Satish Sana, facing probe in a 2017 case involving meat exporter Moin Qureshi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Worker in protective suit takes body temperature measurement of a woman inside the Shanghai Stock Exchange building, as the country is hit by a novel coronavirus outbreak, at the Pudong financial district in Shanghai

(Reuters) - The rapid spread of the coronavirus increased fears of a pandemic on Friday, with eight countries reporting their first cases and the World Health Organization (WHO) raising its global spread and impact risk alert to "very high".

- Four more people have died in Italy from coronavirus, the civil protection agency said on Friday, bringing the total to 21, while the number of those testing positive for the illness jumped to 889 from 650 the day before.

- In Europe, Germany warned of an impending epidemic and Greece, a gateway for refugees from the Middle East, announced tighter border controls. Germany has nearly 60 cases, France about 57 and Spain 32, according to a Reuters count.

- A man who had been aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship has become the first British national to die from the coronavirus.

- Iran announced on Friday the closure of all schools for three days from Saturday as its death toll rose to 34 with 388 people infected.

- South Korea reported its largest daily increase yet as the total number of infections rose by 594 to 2,931 on Saturday. The death toll stood at 17, up four from a day earlier.

- The South Korean government urged citizens on Saturday to stay indoors as it warned of a "critical moment" in its battle on the coronavirus.

- Mainland China - where the virus originated late last year - reported four new cases on Saturday, the lowest since authorities started compiling such data in January.

- Two new cases of infections of unknown origins were confirmed in the United States, in California and Oregon.

- The U.S. State Department said Americans should reconsider travel to Italy due to the coronavirus outbreak there.

- The coronavirus outbreak is "getting bigger", the World Health Organization said on Friday after Nigeria confirmed sub-Saharan Africa's first case.

- Lithuania, Belarus, Azerbaijan and New Zealand reported their first cases on Friday. Romania confirmed two more cases following its first on Wednesday and Israel reported its second infection.

Story continues

- Three cases in Mexico bring Latin America's cases to four after Brazil reported its first case two days ago, with others suspected.

- Factory activity in China contracted at the fastest pace ever in February, highlighting the damage from the coronavirus outbreak on the world's second-largest economy.

- Japan's government plans to create a fund to help companies pay subsidies to workers who need to take days off to look after their children while schools are closed, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday.

- The virus has caused nearly 80,000 infections and 2,835 deaths, according official Chinese figures. It has spread to another 46 countries, where about 3,700 cases and 57 deaths have been reported, according to the World Health Organization.

- Recovered patients who were discharged from hospital but later tested positive again have been found not to be infectious, an official at China's National Health Commission said on Friday.

- At a rally in South Carolina on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump defended his administrations response to the outbreak and accused Democrats of politicizing the disease, saying: This is their new hoax.

- Russia on Friday temporarily barred Iranians from entering the country and said it would also restrict the entry of South Koreans from March 1 as a precaution.

- Vietnam plans to suspend visa-free travel for South Koreans starting on Saturday.

- Switzerland joined countries banning big events, forcing cancellations of next week's Geneva international car show and all of the weekend's football matches in the Swiss league.

- Tokyo Disneyland and Osaka-based theme park Universal Studios Japan will be closed from Saturday to March 15, while Tokyo Olympics organizers will make a call next week on how they plan to hold the ceremonial torch relay.

- United Airlines Holdings Inc said it was sharply cutting flights to Japan and South Korea due to slumping demand.

- Coronavirus panic sent world share markets skidding again on Friday, compounding their worst crash since the 2008 global financial crisis and pushing the week's wipeout in value terms to $5 trillion.

(Compiled by Stephen Coates)
French Ambassador to India Emmanuel Lenain will be on a two-day visit to Uttarakhand from Friday to discuss his country's ongoing and future collaborative projects in the state.

According to a statement by the French embassy, Lenain will call on Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat to discuss ongoing and future collaborative French projects.

He will then join the chief minister in the launch of 'Child-friendly and Commuter-centric Dehradun' plan, the statement said.

"This smart city sustainable mobility plan has been selected under CITIIS (City Investments To Innovate Integrate and Sustain), a programme that receives funding and technical expertise from the French Development Agency (AFD) and the European Union (EU)," it said.

Lenain will also meet Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi, who will deliver the keynote address for the event.

The trip will also be an opportunity for Lenain to meet Acharya Balkrishna, CEO of Patanjali, during his visit to Haridwar on Friday, before proceeding to Rishikesh, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Tube staff are set to vote on strike action. (PA)

Thousands of workers are set to vote on strike action on Londons underground network, threatening to bring the Tube to a standstill in a row over pay.

Commuters, visitors and residents could face significant disruption if members of the powerful National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) support a walkout.

The RMT said it would hold an urgent ballot of 10,000 workers across the Underground, but did not confirm the timeline for the vote or any potential walkout. Workers will also be consulted on industrial action short of a strike.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said the union would not accept the current pay offer by Transport for London (TfL), chaired by London mayor Sadiq Khan, after more than a year of negotiations.

TfL said it had offered above-inflation pay rises, but Cash said RMT reps were angry and frustrated that negotiations had stalled and a cap on pay hikes had not been lifted.

Read more: UK government could walk away from Brexit talks in June

London is a wealthy business centre and those staff who work round the clock to keep the city moving deserve their fair share, said Cash.

He urged the mayor to intervene, and said the RMT was still willing to talk. Staff were working amid overcrowding, creaking infrastructure and surging levels of violence, he added.

Union reps had been taking soundings in workplaces and recommended a ballot at the earliest opportunity, according to an RMT press release on Friday.

Members of the train drivers union Aslef are also being balloted for strikes over the pay talks.

Aslef official Finn Brennan said the union had been reluctantly forced to ballot as management would not offer a guaranteed minimum pay rise as part of a multi-year deal or resolve other issues.

That is why we were, reluctantly, forced to ballot our members. We want management to get back around the table to negotiate a settlement with us without further delay, he said.

Read more: Coronavirus hits air travel as IAG and easyJet warn on impact

Story continues

It comes after Bakerloo line passengers faced disruption last weekend from another walkout by RMT drivers in a row over timetable changes.

Wider disruption could cause a headache for millions of Londoners and visitors. Up to five million journeys are made on the Tube every day, with more than 543 trains running at once on the network at peak times.

A Transport for London spokesperson said: We have offered a four-year pay deal which guarantees above-inflation rises. It reflects and rewards the hard work our staff do on the network every day while remaining affordable in a difficult financial climate.

We remain available to meet to discuss the outstanding issues and seek to avoid damaging strike action.

Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK
Fire investigators pause while searching the debris at a home which exploded following a gas line failure in Lawrence, Mass., on Sept. 21, 2018. (Charles Krupa/AP Photo/File)

Gas Company Fined Record $53 Million Over Explosions and Death in Massachusetts

Columbia Gas of Massachusetts must pay the highest criminal fine$53 millionever imposed on any utility in the United States for breaking the Pipeline Safety Act. The company pleaded guilty to damaging several houses and killing one person as a result of natural gas explosions in Massachusetts, according to officials on Feb. 26.

The gas explosion affected three communities in the Merrimack Valley, north of Boston, in September 2018, and the company accepted to pay the fine to settle a federal investigation into the incident.

The FBI Agent Joseph Bonavolonta said the incident is a serious reminder that violation of public safety has a high cost and public safety should be set as the top priority rather than profit.

The utility company said in a statement to the Associated Press that it undertakes complete responsibility for the blasts which caused harm to the communities.

The company also said that the resolution with the U.S. Attorneys Office was significant in terms of addressing the effect of the disaster. In addition, the utility emphasized the prioritization of safety enhancement, obtaining the trust of customers, and ensuring the delivery of quality service.

The companys parent, Merrillville, Indiana-based NiSource Inc., agreed to bring an end to any gas distribution or pipeline in Massachusetts and sell the company. Consequently, all profits of the sale of the company will be sent to the federal government of Massachusetts.

The communities did not want the Columbia Gas company to operate anymore in this area and the disaster was so huge that it made it hard for residents of the nearby towns to trust the company to keep moving forward, Attorney Andrew Lelling told reporters. He added that the conclusion of the resolution primarily achieved that goal.

Doug Sheff (R), an attorney for the family of Leonel Rondon, pictured (L) speaks during a news conference, in Boston, on Oct. 25, 2018. (Steven Senne/AP Photo/File)

Outrage seized the communities of Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover in the face of the explosions when thousands of homes and businesses had to deal with the lack of gas services in the coldest season for weeks or even in some cases for months. Public authorities and the people of the communities attacked the company for its inadequate response and asked the officials to take full responsibility.

The blasts damaged and destroyed dozens of homes and hurt around two dozen people. An-18-year-old resident, Leonel Rondon, died when a chimney fell down on his vehicle just hours after he had obtained his drivers license.

A series of class action lawsuits have been filed, claiming an amount of $143 million. The resolution awaits final approval from a court.

Overpressurized gas lines are said to be the determining causes of the explosions, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The NTSB said when the company replaced old cast-iron pipes in Lawrence, it did not account for important pressure sensors which caused the overpressurized gas to overflow the neighborhoods distribution system at uncontrolled levels.

The Columbia Gas company broke the minimum safety standards both for starting up and stopping the operation of gas lines through a pattern of flagrant indifference, Lelling said, based on the findings of federal investigators.

The company apparently was aware that its neglect to account properly for control lines in construction projects could lead to a tragedy, as an internal circulated notice revealed in 2015, but still acted irresponsibly in order to increase net income, sabotaging public safety, authorities said.

Bonavolonta also added that Columbia Gas recruited workers who were not well-trained and experienced. The company also did not keep reliable records of control lines simply because it was too costly and didnt inform the authorities of the city of Lawrence about construction projects. The company was unable to provide NTSB investigators with a full list of its customers shortly after the explosion erupted.

This disaster was caused by a whole management failure at Columbia Gas, Lelling said.

The company will be monitored by an independent agency until it is sold, to make sure that it is not violating state and federal laws, according to Lelling.

As a result of this tragedy, federal authorities called in September for every state to ensure that all natural gas projects are examined and licensed by a professional engineer.

Natural gas companies were also recommended by NTSB to be required to install additional protections on low-pressure systems like the one involved in the explosions.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on February 28, 2020

2020/02/28

Invited by the governments of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, will visit Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan from February 29 to March 4.

During this visit, Director Yang will have meetings and talks with presidents, foreign ministers and other senior officials of the three countries. His visit will further boost China's relations and cooperation with Central Asian countries.

Before we begin the Q&A session, I'd like to share some figures with you. According to the NHC update this morning, February 27 saw 3,622 patients cured and discharged from hospital in China's mainland, bringing the total number of cured cases to 36,117 as of 24:00, February 27.

Q: As the COVID-19 epidemic is spreading in the ROK, Japan and other countries, Beijing and Shandong have tightened health regulation of personnel entering the city. Beijing decided that those who come from or have been to severely affected regions overseas are required to receive a 14-day quarantine. Does it signal that China has upgraded its restrictions on foreigners entering the country?

A: As the fight has come to a crucial stage at home, all in China are strictly on guard against rebounding of COVID-19 cases. In response to the spread of the epidemic outside China, the Beijing municipality strengthens health management of personnel entering the city. Those who come from or have been to severely affected regions overseas are required to receive a 14-day medical observation at home or in designated places. Meanwhile, foreign nationals in Beijing also need to obey community health management in a bid to guard against the epidemic.

I want to stress that the prevention and control regulations adopted by Beijing and other localities apply to all those who come from or have been to severely affected regions overseas, Chinese and foreign nationals alike. WHO experts point out that the strategies and tactics China has taken, quarantine included, prove correct and successful, yielding remarkable effects in slowing the epidemic spread and preventing human-to-human transmission.

These unusual measures at this unusual time have gained understanding and support from the Chinese people, and we believe relevant countries will understand and cooperate, too. China stands ready to take collaborated control and prevention measures with relevant countries to better protect the safety and health of Chinese and foreign nationals.

Q: On February 27, spokesperson of the Iranian Foreign Ministry announced that they will receive a shipment of novel coronavirus diagnostic test kits and other supplies from the Chinese government and the Red Cross on February 28. He also praised the Chinese government and people for their help. Can you confirm the assistance and tell us if China is planning to offer more help to Iran?

A: The Iranian government has given China sincere support and assistance after the epidemic broke out. We thank them and will remember that for always. Virus knows no borders, but the worst of times reveals the best in people. Though the situation in China is still very severe and we are in the midst of a hard battle against the epidemic, we are ready to do whatever we can to support and help Iran based on its needs. The first consignment of coronavirus test kits has been delivered to Iran and we will give positive consideration to other needs that Iran may have.

Q: The ROK is now dealing with a very severe situation as more COVID-19 cases emerge in the country. It is now all over the internet that planes flying from the ROK to China have been packed with passengers. Can you confirm it and make some comments?

A: We sought information from the competent authorities. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, some airliners have cut down their flights, which led to the fact that some flights from the ROK to China were fully packed. As we understand, most of these passengers were Chinese nationals traveling from the ROK.

China and the ROK, as friendly neighbors, are both at a crucial stage of fighting the epidemic with no efforts spared. China stands ready to share information and experience with the ROK, step up cooperation to tide over the difficulty together, and provide assistance to the best of our capability.

Q: In a statement on Thursday, the United States Navy said that a Chinese Navy destroyer targeted a U.S. P-8 patrol aircraft with a weapons-grade laser while it was flying over waters about 380 miles west of Guam. It said such lasers could cause serious harm to aircrew and aircraft systems, which is against the relevant international code. China's actions were "unsafe" and "unprofessional", and the US will lodge representations with the Chinese side through diplomatic channels. Do you have any comments on that?

A: I'm not aware of that. I'll leave it to the military.

Q: China has nominated a candidate for the next Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). According to US media, American officials recently have been criticizing China of intellectual property theft, underlining that the world shouldn't give control of WIPO to China. What's your comment? Any progress in China's IP protection endeavors?

A: China has been stepping up efforts in science and technology innovation and intellectual property protection. It has become a major country in intellectual property and an important innovator in the world. I would like to share with you some figures so that you can get a sense of China's remarkable achievements in science and technology innovation and intellectual property creation.

In recent years, China's capacity for innovation has been enhanced, with the quality and quantity of science and technology both improved. China's investment in innovation is one of the world's largest and grows faster than most countries. R&D expenditure has increased from 300.31 billion yuan in 2006 to 1.96779 trillion yuan in 2018, with an average annual growth rate of 17%, jumping from the sixth to the second place globally. China has more R&D personnel than any other country in the world. According to the 2019 edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) report released by WIPO and other organizations, China has risen from the 35th place in 2013 to the 14th in 2019, making it the top-ranking country among middle-income economies and one of the fastest growing countries worldwide.

China ranks the world's first in patent application filings for the ninth consecutive year. Its annual patent application filings and in-force patents have both topped a million, a major breakthrough that makes China the world's first with over one million patent application filings annually and the third to have more than one million in-force invention patents after the United States and Japan. In 2019, China filed 61,000 patent applications through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), registering a year-on-year growth of 10.4%. China has become the second biggest filer of international patent applications via the PCT thanks to its fast progress. The WIPO annual report points out that China has become a main driver for world IP development. Around the globe, more and more people view and comment on China's IP progress in an objective manner. The WTO Trade Policy Review: China 2018 fully affirms China's IP protection, saying that China has used various policies and measures to improve its IP protection in recent years.

I gave you a lot of numbers and facts, and facts speak louder than words. They cannot be altered by groundless accusations and malicious slanders.

Q: Yesterday you gave us some details on China's participation in the JCPOA Joint Commission meeting in Vienna. We noted that the EU issued a chair's statement after the meeting expressing solidarity with China and Iran and all the other affected countries and special appreciation for China's contribution in the face of a global public health challenge. What is your comment?

A: I briefed you yesterday on the Political Director Level Meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission held in Vienna. This meeting was convened when the international community is fighting together against the COVID-19 epidemic. All parties at the meeting spoke highly of China's decisive and forceful measures and recognized China's contributions in stemming the spread of the virus.

Virus respects no borders. China is grateful for the valuable support from all parties at the meeting, including from the EU. China is also closely following the development of the epidemic in Europe and Iran. We are ready to work with all sides to jointly tackle the current global public health challenge.

The international community needs to work as a whole when it comes to challenges, whether it's in the public health area like the COVID-19 or a security issue such as non-proliferation.

Q: The US authorities yesterday charged a professor working at a US university in the Tennessee State. The US said he was hiding his link to a Chinese institution while taking funding from NASA. Did you see this report and do you have any comment?

A: I'm not aware of that.

By the way, as I recall, you asked about the nationality of the infected person who traveled to China from Iran. After seeking information from the competent authorities, I can tell you that person is a Chinese national.

Q: I just want to ask about some Chinese nationals in Singapore. There was a couple who are to be charged under Singapore's Infectious Diseases Act today. Can you confirm if this was the first such case? What's China's comment on this?

A: We noted relevant reports. As far as I know, this case is under investigation. In response to the epidemic, China's diplomatic missions in relevant countries issued notices asking Chinese nationals overseas to observe local laws, regulations and measures on epidemic prevention and control, and cooperate with local authorities. The Chinese embassy in Singapore has asked the Singaporean side to deal with the case in a just manner in accordance with law, and timely inform the Chinese side of the latest developments.
The first week of the extradition hearing in USA v Julian Assange ended yesterday at Belmarsh Magistrates Court with Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejecting a submission from Assanges lawyers that he be allowed to sit with them in court.

Baraitser ruled Assange must remain in a bullet-proof glass-encased dock when the hearing resumes in May for the evidence phase of the hearing. Assange is fighting multiple indictments under the Espionage Act for exposing US war crimes, amid fears the Trump administration may seek the death penalty.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange [Credit: AP Photo/Matt Dunham]

In their overnight submission to Baraitser following a defiant protest by Assange in court the previous day, his lawyers outlined several ways in which their clients right to a fair trial was being violated.

These included: i) the physical layout of the court and the distance it places between Mr Assange and his legal team, ii) the high occupancy level of the court meaning that defence lawyers are unable to meet freely to receive instructions or impart advice, iii) the courts poor acoustics and amplification, especially behind glass and proximity to audible protests, iv) the security procedures in place in the dock at Woolwich Crown Court which do not permit the passing of notes and which inhibit confidential instruction taking, v) the limited access to legal visits outside of court sitting times during the court day and vi) Mr Assanges precarious psychiatric vulnerability, ongoing medication and the consequent elevated emotional strain of these proceedings of which the court is aware.

Baraitser responded with undisguised malice, rejecting each of these concerns and telling Assange and his legal team, Youve had no difficulty at all.

Speaking to the submission, Mark Summers QC outlined the opinion of leading legal authorities, including the European Court of Human Rights, which had ruled that similar glass docks in Russia had violated defendants fundamental due process rights.

Such docks, isolating defendants from the body of the court, were of relatively recent origin in England. Introduced in the 1970s, they became established in their current form as a separate glass-enclosed room only in the early 2000s. In many other jurisdictions, including the United States, defendants, including those accused of violent crimes, sit with their lawyers in the courta crucial part of the presumption of innocence.

Baraitser had claimed the previous day that she had no jurisdiction to allow Assange to sit with his legal team. Summers cited several precedents to the contrary, making clear that a district judge in the magistrates court has an inherent common law power to control the conduct of proceedings before it.

Baraitser had also objected that she would need to conduct a risk assessment in relation to Assange being allowed into the main body of the court. In their submission to Baraitser, Assanges lawyers explained that this court is neither invited nor required to carry out any risk assessment of Mr Assanges presence in the well of the court.

Summers told Baraitser, In terrorism cases in which counsel in this case have been involved, category AA prisoners have given evidence in the well of this very courtroom for weeks. Assange is a category B low-risk prisoner.

Baraitser had also claimed that the chain of custody would be breached if Assange were allowed in the well of the court, even asking Assanges defence whether a bail request was being made. Summers dispelled this deliberate obfuscation, citing precedents which made clear that custody applied to any place in the court building in which the defendant was under the control of prison staff: Once in custody there is no more magic to the court dock than there is to say, the Belmarsh-Woolwich tunnel or a court transport vehicle.

The submission made by Assanges legal team left no room for ambiguity: Assanges due process rights are being violated and his right to a fair trial denied. But Baraitser was determined to deny Summers every point. Despite conceding that she had jurisdiction to rule on court procedure, she flatly refused to allow Assange to sit with his lawyers. Rattling off a pre-prepared response to the defence submission, she concluded by declaring, Im not aware of any particular aspect of your condition that requires you to leave the dock and sit next to your legal team.

This was a flat-out lie. Only three days prior, Assanges lawyers had quoted in court the medical opinions of Professor Kopelman and Dr Sondra Crosby who submitted that Assange had severe depression, was in a fragile state and was at risk of death if extradited. Baraitser had told the court just the previous day that Assange was medicated and was having trouble concentrating.

Earlier yesterday, arguments continued over the definition of political offences and the bar on extradition for political offences stipulated in the Anglo-US Extradition Treaty.

The defence has argued that espionage is widely regarded as a pure political offence, automatically barring any extradition on these charges.

Prosecuting barrister James Lewis QC claimed in response that there is no bright line test for what constitutes a pure political offence under English law. In deciding whether an offence is political, he said, One always has to look at the purpose of the crime.

The test that must be applied is whether the conduct had the object of overthrowing or changing the government or inducing it to change its policy. According to the prosecution, what Assange is accused of does not come within a million miles of that definition.

Lewis claimed the question of whether the conduct alleged in the indictment of Assange constitutes a political offence is irrelevant. Restating the prosecutions opening argument, he said that since the Extradition Act (2003) had removed the political offences exception contained in the superseded 1989 Extradition Act and the 1870 Extradition Act before it, Assange cannot claim its protection.

Directly addressing the absurdity of this legal position, defence lawyer Edward Fitzgerald QC said, Just stepping back for a moment, were in a pretty strange Alice in Wonderland world its a very bizarre argumentthat a treaty which controls and gives rise to the request has got nothing to do with the lawfulness of the request or its pursuit.

Contrary to the prosecutions claims that the 2003 Act is the final word on the matter, Fitzgerald demonstrated how it had repeatedly been shown to be far from comprehensive parliament can never envisage all the circumstances that will arise.

There is a remedy available through the rulings of the courts, said Fitzgerald, it doesnt come from the words of the Act its read in as a principle of public international law.

Speaking on the definition of a political offence, Fitzgerald drove home the fact that, even on the prosecutions own terms, the allegations against Assange are expressly political.

Baraitser challenged Fitzgerald, asking why Assanges alleged actions were seeking to induce a change in government policy and were not instead about exposing government information. Fitzgerald answered, The two are intimately connected The Rules of Engagement were published to show that war crimes were being committed that breached their own Rules of Engagement.

This was, he said, the very definition of seeking to induce a government to change its policy What other purpose could there be? Fitzgerald noted, WikiLeaks didnt just seek to induce a change, it did affect a change. It was one of the key reasons why policy was changed and why there was a withdrawal [from Iraq].

The extradition hearing will resume on May 18. A brief administrative hearing will take place at Westminster Magistrates Court on 25th March, 10am, and a case management hearing has been scheduled at Woolwich Crown Court on 7th April, 10am.

Kristinn Hrafnsson

Speaking after the hearing, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristin Hrafnsson addressed the media: It ended with a great disappointment and an outrage when the judge decided, despite overwhelming arguments on behalf of Julian, that he would not be able to step out of the glass cage and sit with his lawyers when the hearings recommence in May. I say its an outrage because his lawyers presented rulings from the European Court of Human Rights, in Strasbourg, where it was ruled that in similar circumstances it was totally against the principles of fair trial to keep an individual in a glass cage.

It is an outrage that after a presentation from his lawyers of almost an hour, for this nonviolent intellectual to sit with his lawyers in the court room, the judge read out a pre-written ruling.

So once more after these four days, we get a strong indication that this is not a fair trial. Julian will not get any fairness out of this court and I am absolutely outraged. Weve heard examples that everywhere all around the world it is a common practice, out of dignity and fairness, that a defendant sits with his lawyer.

Even in America accused murderers sit beside their lawyers in a court room without shackles. In this instance, were talking about a publisher and a journalist fighting extradition who is put in a glass cage. Its impossible for him to have a fair trial in this condition and [with] the obvious bias of the judge in this case.

The week has now come to an end on this bleak note and it does not give us any hope that there is any fairness to be found in this court.

Jennifer Robinson

Jennifer Robinson, a leading member of Assanges legal team, told the media, As youve heard this afternoon, Mr Assange is having significant difficulties in participating with these proceedings. Hes unable to pass notes in a confidential and secure way to his legal team, hes unable to seek clarification from his legal team and give instruction during the course of the proceedings, and the judge has refused his ability to leave the dock to be able to participate properly. This obviously raises serious concerns about his fair trial rights and his ability to properly participate and defend himself.

This week has been really important in laying down the defence case. Finally, youre hearing how the US indictment has misrepresented the facts in order to be able to justify his extradition to the US. And this of course in a case which is unprecedented: the first ever time the extradition act has been used against a publisher. Hes being sought for extradition for having published evidence of war crimes, human rights abuse, corruption the world over.

We heard this week that WikiLeaks published this material after Chelsea Manning gave it because it was, as she said in her own trial in the US, because of her own conscience, because of the war crimes shed seen in the material she exposed.

This case is setting a terrible precedent for press freedoms. Were very concerned about the process given what weve heard today. And its important that we follow these developments leading into May.
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The government has named the seven members of a new Digital Council that it says will advise it on how to ensure new and emerging technologies and uses of data improve New Zealanders lives.

Minister for government digital services, Kris Faafoi, said it would also help identify gaps in accessing and using technology, how it could benefit societies and the economy, assist New Zealands role in the Pacific, and help overcome distance from major trading markets.

In a joint statement Faafoi and statistics minister James Shaw said the council would draw on its members expertise, gather views from communities across New Zealand and learn from national and international experts to develop advice and provide recommendations for government consideration.

The council replaces the Digital Economy and Digital Inclusion Ministerial Advisory Group (DEDIMAG), which concluded its work programme at the end of last year. The Government said DEDIMAG had been set up to explore a narrower, more government and industry focused range of issues than the remit of the new body.

Todays development is the latest in the long running saga of the governments attempts to obtain high level technological advice.

The process started in the early days of the current government, in December 2017 when the then minister of broadcasting, communications and digital media and government digital services, Clare Curran announced plans to form the group.

She named the first eight members in March 2018 saying they would help the government with its stalled plans to appoint a chief technology officer.

She had also announced in November 2017 plans to appoint a government CTO with the hope to have the appointee in place by February 2018 but the government was unable find a suitable candidate.

The process dragged on and Curran was forced to resign in August 2018 over an undocumented meeting with a candidate for the role, whose recruitment was being managed by her department.

In December 2018 the Government announced, quietly, that it had abandoned its problem-plagued plan to create the CTO role in favour of another advisory group.

The National Party's broadcasting, communications and digital media spokesperson Melissa Lee said at the time that the Government had wasted a year on the exercise, a year that should have been spent developing an innovative digital policy and said industry groups would be wondering what had happened to existing working groups like DEDIMAG.

The government has named the members of the new body, but has not given their affiliations.

Mitchell Pham (Chair), and chair of NZTech

Roger Dennis

Marianne Elliott

Kendall Flutey

Colin Gavaghan

Rachel Kelly  AI Forum executive member

Nikora Ngaropo

The announcement has been welcomed by NZTech and the AI Forum. NZTech CEO Graeme Muller said: With good expert advice, the New Zealand government should be better placed to leverage technology for the benefit of all citizens and businesses.

AI Forum executive director Emma Naji said: The government has to tackle some big topics across the New Zealand tech ecosystem, and I am sure the Digital Council will help enormously.
While the Donald Trump administration echoed Indian government's call for calm, the US Democrats amplified India's opposition over the Delhi communal violence.

In a statement, the US state department said, "Our hearts go out to the families of the deceased and injured in New Delhi. We echo Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for calm and normalcy and urge all parties to maintain peace, refrain from violence, and respect the right of peaceful assembly."

On the other hand, the US Presidential candidate and Democrat senator Bernie Sanders claimed that the violence in Delhi was targeted specifically at a particular community.

"Over 200 million Muslims call India home. Widespread anti-Muslim mob violence has killed at least 27 and injured many more. Trump responds by saying, 'That's up to India'," Sanders tweeted, adding, "This is a failure of leadership on human rights."

The Democrat senator from Vermont was referring to US President Donald Trump's response to a question related to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) during a news conference shortly before he concluded a two-day visit in India.

Trump had said that he "heard about" the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), but that it is "up to India", indicating that the US was not going to interfere in India's internal affairs. Incidentally, rioting erupted between pro and anti-CAA protesters in Delhi while Trump was on his maiden state visit to India.

Sanders is the second Democratic presidential nominee after Senator Elizabeth Warren to speak against the violence over the CAA in Delhi. The 78-year-old senator, who is one of the staunchest critics of Trump and hopes to run against him in the presidential elections later this year, also criticised Trump for his defence deal with India.

"Instead of selling $3 billion in weapons to enrich Raytheon, Boeing and Lockheed, the United States should be partnering with India to fight climate change," he tweeted.

Incidentally, this is not the first time that Democrats have aligned themselves with the opposition in India. The US opposition has been taking the same stand as the Indian opposition over most of the Modi government's decisions.

Last year, Democrats slammed the Indian government over the reorganisation of Jammu & Kashmir and the nullification of Article 370. Sanders was the first US presidential candidate to publicly rebuke India for its decision. He criticised India while speaking on the platform of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

Most of Sanders' anti-India remarks, his critics say, come from his campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, a Pakistani-American. Sanders' scathing commentary against India often makes news headlines in Pakistan.
Libya: tribes' council refuses meeting in Tunis President Saied had proposed to host gathering

(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, FEBRUARY 28 - The Libyan cities and tribes supreme council has refused an offer by Tunisian Kais Saied to host in Tunis a new meeting for talks to try to find a peaceful solution to the Libyan crisis, according to local website, Tunisie numerique. The site said that the proposal was jointly made by the Tunisian president and the emir of Qatar Tamim bin al-Thani, in Tunisia at the beginning of this week.



The council of Libyan tribes explained in a video its refusal, saying that the meeting would benefit the ''Muslim Brotherhood and its allied terrorist groups'', refusing any mediation attempt. (ANSAmed)
Somrita Ghosh By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Haar jagah dekh liya  hospital, police station, clinics  lekin, wo nahi mila abhi tak (I visited every possible place to find him but havent found him yet), said Shahrukh, whose brother Mohsin Ali has been missing since February 24. Dressed in a white kurta, Shahrukh was sitting at a corner outside GTB Hospitals mortuary to check if his brother was among the dead.

I have been frantically looking for him. Other family members are also trying. But so far we havent succeeded. We have no idea if he is dead or alive, Shahrukh said with helplessness writ large on his face.

A Noida resident, Mohsin had gone to Karawal Nagar on February 24. Shahrukh said Mohsin runs a generator business at Karawal Nagar.



ALSO READ | Beyond religious lines: Resident say humanity first at a time of communal frenzy in Delhi



We found his charred Alto outside the Prachin Mandir at Karawal Nagar, Shahrukh said. The last time I spoke to him was on Monday morning. In the evening we heard about riots and called him. But his number was not reachable.

When TNIE met Shahrukh, he had already seen the bodies kept at the GTB Hospital mortuary but none resembled his brother. He had been to other hospitals, too, looking for his brother but to no avail. Since the riot broke out on Sunday, there have been many cases of missing persons.



A Class 8 student who had gone to her school, 4.5 km away from her Sonia Vihar home, on Monday morning, remains untraceable.



Another man, a resident of Vijay Park in Maujpur, said his entire family is missing. Outside the GTB Hospital mortuary, it was a long wait for families to get the bodies of their relatives killed in the riots released. Saira Begum, accompanied by her sister-in-law Yasmeen, has been visiting GTB for the past two days to take back the body of Sairas brother Mehtab, a resident of Brijpuri.

Section 144 to be relaxed



Officials on Thursday said prohibitory orders under Section 144 will be relaxed for 10 hours on Friday. The decision was taken in a review meeting called by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and attended by Union Home Secretary AK Bhalla, Commissioner of Police Amulya Patnaik, Delhi Polices Special CP (Law & Order) SN Srivastava. The MHA, to whom Delhi police reports, added that more arrests would be made.







So far, 48 FIRs, pertaining to clashes, loss of lives/property, etc., have already been registered and further FIRs would be registered in due course, it said. The Home Ministry added that the East Delhi Municipal Corporation initiated steps to clean the streets.
Farming 2.0

Idealistic young farmers face the challenge of making a living from the land.

by Trilby MacDonald

From the February, 2020 issue

Much of Washtenaw County is zoned for agriculture, and the county's rural charms are jealously protected by community groups and conservation boards that limit new developments and buy up development rights to ensure that wide-open spaces will continue to dominate the landscape. While there is no shortage of farmland close to Ann Arbor, farmers themselves are something of an endangered species locally. When agriculture is done right, it's a beautiful thing, nourishing land, body, and spirit. Yet all the value our local farms provide doesn't necessarily generate enough income for those who run them to survive. And even when they are profitable, the long hours, physical strain, and psychological stress of working with a host of variables that are out of a farmer's control can cause burnout. With so much to master, farm businesses are considered by the USDA to be in their beginning phase for a full decade. About ten years ago in Ann Arbor, a surge in demand for local food and new sources of support for farm enterprises caused a spike in the number of young farmers eager to have their own places. My then-husband and I were among them. Some of us have since reached the end of our road. But others are banding together to form a groundbreaking new enterprise that might be the key to their enduring success. And in an unusual twist, one farmer is leaving the security of a job with the city to focus on farming full-time.



---



Tomm Becker and I started Sunseed Farm in 2009 on rented land on Joy Rd. Tomm had several years of farming experience and took charge of the operation, and I raised kids and played a supporting role with marketing and a small flower program.



We had no money or experience running a business, but we had boundless energy and idealism, the kind of spirit that pervaded the local food scene at the time. Walking into Selma Cafe, a weekly fundraising

...continued below...

breakfast, a farmer felt like a celebrity. Ann Arbor was fertile ground for new farms, with affluent, educated, food-savvy consumers. Hungry for gorgeous food, many even shouldered some of the risks of farming through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), paying cash up front for a share of the crop at harvest.The burgeoning local food movement was focused on helping more farms get their start. Graduates of MSU's Student Organic Farm fanned out across Michigan and the country, but accessing the capital to acquire land and equipment to start their operations was a huge barrier to entry. Jeff McCabe and others started the Tillian Farm Development Center in 2011 on a forty-four-acre plot of conserved farmland on Pontiac Tr. with a rustic old barn and grassy fields bisected by a dusty two-track. Tillian offered ground, equipment, hoop houses, and guidance to help new farms take root.Alex Cacciari and Mark Nowak were in Tillian's first cohort. After two seasons in the incubator they struck out on their own, renting a thirty-acre homestead on Warren, a narrow dirt road a few miles north of downtown. Guinea hens and chickens forage freely, occasionally getting into noisy scuffs with Nina, the bossy farm dog.Banks regard farms as risky investments, but the couple were able to get financing in 2016. Two years later, they put their land into a conservation easement and have gradually built hoop houses, a barn, and a pretty little greenhouse.The land had been fallow for years and was pretty weedy but fertile. With a lot of TLC, Cacciari and Nowak have been able to grow a cornucopia of vegetables and flowers, that they sell through farmers' markets, grocery stores, the Michigan Flower Growers' Cooperative, restaurants, and a CSA.New breeds like an ultra-sweet single-serving butternut squash keep buyers intrigued. Flower sales, including new arrivals like fragrant heirloom roses and peonies in a range of show-stopping colors, have shot up. Next season they will begin growing herbs for Arbor Teas."Every spring I have a resurgence of optimism," Cacciari says. "A small-scale diversified farm is mutable. We can always try something new. When you're willing to be diverse, you have your insurance policy built in."Some variables are more challenging to accommodate than others, however. "Competition is real," Cacciari admits. "This is the sad truth. As progressive as everyone is, it is still a limited market."---Nate and Jill Lada were also in Tillian's first cohort. After two seasons in the incubator program, their Green Things Farm business bought a coveted sixty-acre plot of abandoned farmland on Nixon Rd. with financing from Nate's parents. Certified organic since 2016, they sell vegetables through a CSA, farmers' markets, and restaurants; grow a profusion of beautiful flowers; raise Red Devon and British White cattle, and hold festive dinner and music events all summer long.Having that much land close to town was a huge advantage for a farming couple in their twenties. Or so it seemed. "Ten years in, I realize that I should have looked at the land first," Nate laments. "It's like we adopted an abused child." Despite efforts to diversify, they discovered it's not possible to grow the amount of organic food necessary to support a family on land so degraded. Rehabilitating their soil to make it more productive is still a long way off, and there are many other facets of a farm business that also have to be managed.By the end of the 2019 season, Jill was done. "I felt like I wasn't meeting my own expectations," she says. She started to look for other work.Eric Kampe, owner of Ann Arbor Seed Company, knows that story well. "The reality is that my spouse has an off-farm job which floats us," he concedes. "No other business is like this--a car mechanic would never work for years until his business is profitable."After eight years of running all aspects of his business himself, Kampe is through being a sole proprietor."I have challenges as a grower--weather, crops, poor soil, pests," he says. "But that's only half the battle." Learning how to manage production, marketing, and business management when you never know what nature will throw at you takes a long time, and his has run out."Solo farming just doesn't make sense," admits Hannah Rose Weber, owner and sole full-time employee of the Land Loom since 2014. After five years in business at Tillian, she has her systems dialed in, with perfect rows, a bounty of gleaming produce, and delighted customers. But she, too, has reached a breaking point."Older-generation farmers were not good land stewards, but they had systems and resource sharing that allowed them to have a livelihood," she says. Younger farmers, particularly of diversified small farms, don't typically inherit land or infrastructure and lack the granges, food hubs, and family labor that older generations rely on to get their product to market. "I am seeing the need to move towards collaboration," she says. So she's joining Kampe, the Ladas, and longtime Green Things employee Michelle Brosius to launch a bold new enterprise called the Green Things Farm Collective."We realized that together we could be something greater than we are as individuals," Jill says. "Such a weight has been lifted from my shoulders!"The partners will unite their popular businesses under one brand, with each farmer focusing on a certain set of responsibilities. Weber, who writes beautifully and loves interacting with the public, will handle marketing. "To separate yourself from the organic products people can buy at the supermarket, you have to sell your story," she says.The collective plans to increase production and adopt an online ordering platform called "Barn 2 Door." They will begin implementing "no-till" farming and will roll out a full schedule of summer celebrations in 2020."Most farmers end up tying up all of their assets into the farm, because they are making such a low wage all their lives," says Nate Lada. When it's time to retire, there are few good options--sell the farm to developers or allow their heirs to take over. But without liquid assets farmers are stuck, and their heirs have to support them.The genius of Green Things Farm Collective is flexibility. "What we are creating is a model that has a clear transition into business ownership and also has clearly defined ways to leave ownership," Nate explains. "In the short term, Jill and I maintain ownership of the land and the infrastructure but have a perpetual lease to the collective to farm here. In the medium to long term, if this is a successful model, we would sell the land to the collective, and Jill and I would have assets to retire. Built into this is a valuation process so that if anyone wants to leave they can be bought out." Their multimember LLC is the only one they know of that joins together preexisting farm businesses.The collective can look to White Lotus Farms for inspiration. Located on W. Liberty a few miles from downtown Ann Arbor, White Lotus began as a small organic vegetable farm founded by Lama Traktung Rinpoche (Stuart Kirkpatrick) as a way to support his Buddhist community. One of their members, Trinle Tsomo, is a baker, and the beautiful loaves he turned out of their little oven were an instant sensation. As the bread business grew, they bought a few goats and added a creamery. Then Trinle's wife, Jessica, started a line of Ayurvedic body products.Business has bloomed since the pivot from vegetables to value-added products. All are marketed under the White Lotus brand, and profits are shared.Stephanie Willette and her husband, Taik Fountaine, own a diversified vegetable, flower, and animal farm in Grass Lake called Two Tracks Acres. As the couple approach the ten-year mark in their operation, Willette is taking a bold step: she's leaving her job as manager of the Ann Arbor Farmers Market to farm full-time."Having an off-farm job was key to this process," she explains. "It allowed us to pay off debt and buy land while we built up our markets and figured out what worked." But between the farm and her city job, she felt "torn in two directions." The couple also have a toddler, further dividing her time and attention. While other farmers are taking off-farm work in the winter, Willette is looking forward to focusing her efforts on her business and her family.By 2017, Sunseed's CSA had 100-plus shares, fifteen acres in cultivation, tons of equipment, an eight-person crew, and seven hoops. But we were on the ropes. Sunseed was overly reliant on CSA sales, and we paid higher salaries than we could rightly afford. Our farm wasn't powered by grandparents invisibly balancing the books with free childcare. And you can charge only so much for vegetables."People don't want to pay [well] for the things that they need, like vegetables, because they consider it to be a right," says Weber. "They pay for the things that they want. That's why flowers are lucrative."I cofounded the Michigan Flower Growers' Cooperative in 2016 with Alex Cacciari and Amanda Maurmann. I had hoped to move more of Sunseed's production in that direction, but ended up parting ways with Tomm and the farm instead. The farm closed the following year, as did several other small farms that started around the same time.While there are more ways to buy local food than ever before, farmers are coming up against the limits of the local food market. There are new farmers' markets but none of them is packed, selling CSA shares is a constant hustle, and moving product to restaurants at prices and volumes that are realistic is a challenge. With mass-produced organic food increasingly cheap and widely available at supermarkets, many health-conscious shoppers are happy to look no further.If small is beautiful, then small farmers may have to be content with reaching a limited market, and there may never be more than a handful that make it. But if the goal is to have a sizable portion of our food grown on local farms, then those farms will have to scale up--and markets will have to open up.---[Originally published in February, 2020.]
Curious just how far your dollar goes in Houston?

We've rounded up the latest places for rent via rental sites Zumper and Apartment Guide to get a sense of what to expect when it comes to finding affordable apartments in Houston if you've got a budget of up to $1,100/month.

Read on for the listings. (Note: Prices and availability are subject to change.)

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1659 Dart St. (Washington Avenue Coalition / Memorial Park)

Listed at $1,001/month, this one-bedroom, one-bathroom condo is located at 1659 Dart St.

The unit has a dishwasher, hardwood flooring and in-unit laundry. When it comes to building amenities, expect an elevator and a swimming pool. For those with furry friends in tow, this property is pet-friendly. Future tenants needn't worry about a leasing fee.

According to Walk Score's assessment, the surrounding area is very walkable, is very bikeable and offers many nearby public transportation options.

(Take a look at the complete listing here.)

3737 Watonga Blvd. (Central Northwest)

Next, there's this one-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bathroom residence situated at 3737 Watonga Blvd. It's listed for $1,005/month for its 848 square feet.

The building has outdoor space and a swimming pool. In the residence, you'll see a fireplace. Pet owners, inquire elsewhere: This spot doesn't allow cats or dogs.

According to Walk Score's assessment, the surrounding area is moderately walkable, is relatively bikeable and has some transit options.

(See the complete listing here.)

5430 Birdwood Road (Meyerland Area)

Check out this two-bedroom, one-bathroom spot at 5430 Birdwood Road that's going for $1,006/month.

The building offers wheelchair accessibility and on-site laundry. Pet owners, rejoice: This rental is both dog-friendly and cat-friendly.

According to Walk Score's assessment, the surrounding area is very walkable, has some bike infrastructure and has a few nearby public transportation options.

(See the full listing here.)

6601 Dunlap St. (Sharpstown)

Then, check out this 1,260-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment that's located at 6601 Dunlap St. It's listed for $1,008/month.

The building features on-site laundry and secured entry. The apartment also has a dishwasher and carpeted floors. For those with furry friends in tow, this property is pet-friendly. The listing specifies a $300 pet fee.

Per Walk Score ratings, the surrounding area is somewhat walkable, is bikeable and has a few nearby public transportation options.

(See the complete listing here.)

10221 Centrepark Drive (Spring Branch North)

Finally, located at 10221 Centrepark Drive, here's a 708-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bathroom abode that's also listed for $1,008/month.

The unit offers hardwood flooring and a walk-in closet. Amenities offered in the building include a swimming pool and a gym. Good news for animal lovers: This rental is both dog-friendly and cat-friendly. There isn't a leasing fee associated with this rental.

Per Walk Score ratings, the area around this address isn't very walkable, is fairly bikeable and has some transit options.

(See the complete listing here.)

This story was created automatically using local real estate data from Zumper and Apartment Guide, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Additionally, if youre in the real estate business learn how to do local real estate advertising in your ZIP codes.

Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
The art of Greg Wilhelmi will be on display at the Bismarck Art & Galleries Association in March.

Wilhelmis paintings reflect a variety of lifes explorations and travels, encompassing studies of Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean and his favorite subject, the American West.

Exhibition dates are March 3 through March 28. Member Artist Ken Yetter will have photographs of his travels in India, Ireland, Alaska and North Dakota on display in the Member Artist Gallery at the same time.

A reception for the artists will be held March 6 from 5-7 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 1-3 p.m. Contact Bismarck Art & Galleries Association for more information at 701-223-5986.

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US invited to invest in CPEC, says Pakistan

International

oi-PTI

Islamabad, Feb 28: In an interesting move, cash-strapped Pakistan has invited the US to join the USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, an ambitious infrastructure project looked with suspicion by the Trump administration for being non-transparent.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's adviser on commerce Abdul Razak Dawood on Thursday said the government made the offer during a meeting with the US trade delegation led by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Wednesday, The Express Tribune reported.

Interestingly last month, senior US diplomat Alice Wells said that there is no transparency in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the firms blacklisted by the World Bank have got contracts under the project, which will increase Pakistan's debt burden.

Pak to engage China on big CPEC projects during PM Imran Khan's visit: minister

Wells, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia made the remarks while speaking at a think tank event during her four-day visit to Pakistan.

Khan's commerce advisor Razak said: "The US has shown interest in (Pakistan's) energy, oil and gas, agriculture and food processing". China has committed to invest over USD 60 billion in Pakistan as part of the CPEC under which it planned to build a number of special economic zones.

India has objected to the CPEC as it is being laid through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The US Commerce Secretary's visit is the result of recently-held discussions between Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Donald Trump to promote bilateral trade and enhanced economic engagements, the report said.

"Pakistan-US market access is the main point. We want access to the US market," Dawood said, adding that the US official has assured of his cooperation.

Sharing details of the meeting, Dawood said the US officials have also expressed interest in promoting e-commerce. "They have agreed that the US International Development Finance Corporation would help in developing new businesses in Pakistan.

The US secretary is ready to send a commerce delegation for coordination," Dawood said. He said they discussed bilateral relations and matters of mutual interest, and agreed to enhance mutual trade to a maximum level. A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) could be a long-term goal because of complexity involved in the process, Dawood said.

No military dimension in CPEC says Pakistan

CPEC connecting China's Xinjiang with Pakistan's Gwadar port is regarded as the flagship project of the multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which is aimed at furthering China's global influence with infrastructure projects funded by Chinese investments all over the world.

The initiative also led to allegations of smaller countries reeling under mounting Chinese debt after Sri Lanka gave its strategic Hambantota port in a debt swap to China in 2017 on a 99-year lease.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 15:33 [IST]
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday hit out at the Centre and said that the unemployment rate is the biggest problem in India and there is no place for talented youth in the country.

"Unemployment is the biggest problem in the country today. There was never such a high unemployment rate in the last 45 years. Those who want to divert attention from these problems are the biggest enemies of the country. Every youth needs employment. There is no place for talented youth," Priyanka Gandhi wrote on Twitter (roughly translated from Hindi).

On Thursday, the Congress leader had reacted to the transfer of Delhi High Court Justice S Muralidhar to the Punjab and Haryana High Court saying that it is sad and shameful that the Centre is attempting to muzzle justice.

"The midnight transfer of Justice Muralidhar isn't shocking given the current dispensation, but it is certainly sad and shameful," Gandhi tweeted.

She also said, "Millions of Indians have faith in a resilient and upright judiciary, the government's attempts to muzzle justice and break their faith are deplorable.

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

Feb 28 (Reuters) - American consumers awoke this week to the coronavirus threat and are beginning to display a symptom of the illness seen in Asia and Europe - hoarding.

Nothing in the United States yet resembles what Italy witnessed in recent days - where supermarket shelves were stripped bare and videos posted on social media showed consumers coming to blows over bags of pasta.

But there is unquestionably a growing sense of urgency for people to stock up on staples and to prepare for lengthy home quarantines.

"I'm buying some flu therapy and pain killers - If I wait until next week there may be nothing left," said Dean McKnight, a engineer in Austin, Texas, as he motioned to shelves at the HEB supermarket that were empty of several over-the-counter medications, primarily flu treatment for children.

McKnight worked in Hong Kong and China during the SARS outbreak and knows first-hand the stresses that snowballing fears of a pandemic can cause, but said he is not panicked.

"We got an extra month's worth of inhalers for my wife, but we're not stocking up on medications or food as if we expect to need to secure several months of supplies right now."

The coronavirus spread further globally on Friday. The latest World Health Organization figures indicate more than 82,000 people have been infected, with over 2,700 deaths in China and 57 deaths in 46 other countries.

Panic purchasing has been seen of masks and other personal protective gear. But there is also a looming threat to retail across the board, analysts said.

Several major retailers - including Walmart and Target - stand to see supply chains badly hit by the coronavirus and that could result in some empty store shelves starting in April, Ed Kelly, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, wrote in a research note this month.

"We believe the time to start worrying about the supply chain risk of 2019-nCoV is here," wrote Kelly. "It's worth noting that big box players like Target and Walmart could be the first to experience out of stock issues."

Story continues

That is because those stores operate on a just-in-time inventory model, Kelly wrote, and are highly dependent on China, where supply chains have been badly disrupted.

'HARD TO KEEP UP'

Stockpiling in states like Hawaii and Minnesota was spurred by messages from state health departments urging residents to buy supplies of non-perishable foods, prescription medications and sanitary supplies.

The advice contradicted the message from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

CDC Director Robert Redfield on Thursday told a U.S. congressional hearing that there was no need for healthy Americans to stock up on any supplies.

"We should have one unified message," said Robyn Gershon, a clinical professor of epidemiology at New York University. "When there's an absence of a good, strong and reassuring official voice, people will get more upset and start doing this magical thinking."

On Friday in Honolulu, Hawaii, retired telecommunications worker Duane Tanouye, 62, waited in line outside a Costco with more than 200 other people.

"Nobody's really panicking, but there's a lot more people than normal," Tanouye said by phone.

Stores in Hawaii had begun limiting how much consumers could buy of some products, such as toilet paper, he said.

Pandemic shopping lists have been going around online, with virologist Ian Mackay suggesting people not forget treats like soft drinks and chocolate alongside the grains and pasta.

"But don't panic buy and don't hoard!" Mackay, an associate professor at the University of Queensland in Australia, said in his blog post, "So you think you're about to be in a pandemic?"

Minnesota's health department said buying supplies now would make it easier to stay at home if family members got sick, or if people wanted to avoid sick people in their community.

Hawaii told families to prepare as they did for hurricanes, with a 14-day supply of food, water and other necessities.

At Cid's Food Market, a natural food store in Taos, New Mexico, an area known for its off-the-grid communities, locals were filling shopping carts with sacks of rice, beans and oats.

"It's been hard to keep up this week, I'd say demand has at least doubled," said Steve Sutherland, bulk manager at Cid's. "People tend to stock up here anytime there is a problem."

Jason Robnett, a chef and jewelry designer from Taos, snagged the last 20-pound bag of pinto beans on the bulk department shelf as he was stocking up on items.

"People need to stop reacting, just stay still," he said. "If everybody just sits still until the readiness comes up to the right level, that's better than running willy-nilly in every direction."

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Austin, Texas, and Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; editing by Grant McCool)
Tourists visit the War Remnants Museum in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City in February 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Tam Linh.

The Covid-19 outbreak has cost HCMC at least VND920.5 billion ($40 million) in tourism revenues with prospective visitors cancelling travel plans.

Almost 88,000 Vietnamese and international tourists have scrapped their plans to visit the city since the novel coronavirus outbreak, according a survey of 22 major tourism companies in the city by the HCMC Department of Tourism.

Foreign tourist arrivals in the first two months fell 62 percent year-on-year to almost 335,800, Bui Ta Hoang Vu, director of the department, told reporters.

Hotels, restaurants and convention centers are all reporting plummeting revenues; some have had to let their staff go.

The staff strength at Novotel Saigon Centre in District 3 has dropped 25 percent, and at the Tan Son Nhat Saigon Hotel, 20 percent.

24 three to five star hotels are set to see their revenues drop a whopping 62.5 percent in the next two months over the same period last year, the department said.

Many tour companies have canceled trips to South Korea, Japan and Italy between March and August as the novel coronavirus outbreak spreads.

The epidemic could strip Vietnam of tourism revenues of between $7-15 billion this year, according to the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board.

Tourism officials have assured the public at large that Vietnam is now safe to travel,with the country not recording any new Covid-19 infections in the last two weeks and all 16 patients detected with the virus so far have been discharged.
My 9-year-old and I traveled to Mexico City last week for a brief visit. On our first day, during a two-hour walking tour of our center-city neighborhood, I was pleased to hear her say, If my school was here, and my friends were here, Id like to live here.

She made the comment right after asking the price of things.

Our 30-minute Uber ride from the Mexico City airport cost just $7. The plane tickets cost just $250 each on a Mexican discount airline.

She realized the food we were buying  in Mexicos most expensive city  was about half the price of food in San Antonio, one of the United States least expensive cities.

I enjoyed watching her wrap her math brain around exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and the Mexican peso. Im pretty sure she liked Mexico in part because she likes a bargain. Thats my girl!

Throughout the rest of our brief trip, I thought about other financial and economic comparisons with Mexico.

Mexico is the 15th largest economy in the world and the 11th largest when measured by purchasing power parity. This second measure takes into account the domestic cost of living and is considered a better measurement of poverty in a country.

That 11th ranking in purchasing power parity puts Mexico, perhaps surprisingly, ahead of Italy, Spain and Canada.

More from Taylor: Research finds surprising winners and losers in Harveys wake

My visit gave me insight into Mexicos health care system. Like the United States, Mexico has a chaotic mix of public and private health care. Unlike the United States, Mexico offers some form of basic universal coverage.

I traveled to Mexico to visit my host mom from 27 years ago, in the house where I first lived in Mexico City during college. I visited because her breast cancer  in remission from seven years ago  returned in December. She had an emergency procedure to drain her lungs in January.

I learned from her son that she had the option of paying at a private hospital, with what they perceived as top-notch surgeons, or going to a public hospital to undergo the procedure for free.

Her son had recently received a lump sum severance from Ford Motor Co., where he had worked in marketing. He decided to use that money to pay for the lung drainage procedure at the private hospital.

She now gets regular chemotherapy treatments, which would cost around $1,000 each, for free at the public hospital. This is essential because she has no private insurance.

Admittedly, she and her son dont love the scene at the public hospital, which they describe as chaotic, and the facility is an hours drive away. On the other hand, free chemotherapy treatments.

Ever since I met her 28 years ago, my host mom has walked on crutches  she survived polio as a child. She cant work. Shes privately uninsurable due to the polio, as well as her previous bout with breast cancer.

But with free chemotherapy, shes able to fight the cancer again, and her family is not going bankrupt.

I know basic, universal health care coverage remains extremely controversial in the United States. I did not visit any of the free public hospitals in Mexico, but I trust my host familys report that the scene isnt great. In the face of death and bankruptcy, however, I am grateful that Mexico offers free cancer care to all of its citizens. My host mom deserves a chance to fight cancer and live longer.

More from Taylor: When gauging a citys economic health, give credit to FICO

Mexicos income is unevenly distributed, with the top 10 percent of the population earning 33 percent of the nations total income. Yet in the United States, the top 10 percent earns 39 percent of annual income, making us more unequal than Mexico these days.

While Mexico has wealth inequality typical of Latin American countries, the United States is an inequality outlier when compared to its common peer group of wealthy countries such as Canada, Australia and European countries.

While Mexicos economy has grown at a slightly slower rate than the United States during the 27 years since I last lived there, the changes in wealth in Mexico are significant. This is most obvious in Mexico City.

I remember as a college student fantasizing about retiring to Mexico and living simply on a modest amount of money. The cost of living can be very attractive in Mexico, especially in rural areas. I think my daughter began to appreciate that as well, even though we only visited the expensive parts of its biggest city.

I lived in Mexico long enough (back in the 1990s) to not be naive about its struggles  with poverty, violence, corruption and the absence of the rule of law in so many areas.

Yes, were richer in the United States, outright and on average, than Mexico. But increasingly, were a harsher society.

I kept humming to myself during our trip my version of Paul Simons Graceland lyrics.

My traveling companion is 9 years old/ She is the child of my first marriage/ I have reason to believe/ we both will be received, in Me-xi-co.

Michael Taylor is a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News and author of The Financial Rules for New College Graduates.

michael@michaelthesmartmoney.com | twitter.com/michael_taylor
The owners of a Derry care home have threatened a local councillor with legal action over recent comments he made.

Owen Mor nursing home has been been in the news in recent months after the facility was criticised by a health watchdog for the quality of care provided to some of its residents.

Owen Mor was closed to new admissions after an inspection in May 2019.

The home was then deemed to have met Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) standards in November.

Derry City and Strabane District Council has written several times to the owners of the Owen Mor home asking them to appear before a meeting of the council to discuss concerns raised.

However, the homes management team has declined to take up the invitation.

As a result, local councillors have been critical of the managements attitude towards them.

It emerged at the councils monthly meeting this evening that a legal representative for the Owen Mor home has written to People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin.

Cllr Harkin told the meeting that the letter claimed recent comments he had made had resulted in reputational damage to Owen Mor.

Cllr Harkin said the letter threatened legal action would be taken against him if he did not retract the comments and apologise for them.

However, Cllr Harkin told the meeting in the Guildhall that he would not be apologising for his comments.

There is a duty on us to stand up and say we will not be silenced, he said.

Cllr Harkins party colleague, Eamonn McCann, said a public meeting in support of him would be held in Derrys Playhouse Theatre on March 11 at 7pm.

Cllr Harkin received support at this evenings meeting from representatives of other political parties on the council.

SDLP councillor Brian Tierney said he believed that what Cllr Harkin had said was no worse than comments made by other councillors.

This is a disgraceful way to treat the democratic process, that Owen Mor are now trying to silence councillors, he said.

Sinn Fein councillor Sandra Duffy highlighted that councillors did not have parliamentary privilege and had to be legally sound in terms of what they said.

However, Cllr Duffy said people had come to councillors with their concerns about Owen Mor.

As elected representatives we have a duty to represent the people who come to us, she said.
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World Health Organization officials are holding a press conference Friday to update the public on the coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than 83,700 and killed at least 2,859 across the world so far.

Named COVID-19, the virus has shuttered commerce across much of China and is hitting company earnings, global stock markets and manufacturing across the world. WHO officials declared the virus a global health emergency last month, while urging the public against over-reacting to the virus.

In recent weeks, the virus has spread substantially beyond China and is now circulating in over 44 countries across the world, WHO's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday. Epidemics have emerged in Iran, Italy and South Korea, where the number of cases are rapidly rising every day.

"We're at a decisive point," Tedros told reporters on Thursday. "The epidemics in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Italy and the Republic of Korea demonstrate what this virus is capable of."

Mexico's Health Ministry confirmed the country's first cases of the virus on Friday, marking the second and third confirmed case in South America after Brazil, which confirmed its first case Thursday. The virus is now present in five continents. Every country should prepare for the arrival of the virus, Tedros warned.

"Every country must be ready for its first case," Tedros said Thursday. "No country should assume it won't get cases. That could be a fatal mistake. This virus does not respect borders."

Read CNBC's live updates to see the latest news on the COVID-19 outbreak.
Here's three farms in Carlow, Longford and Limerick for sale.

Ardristan, Tullow, Co Carlow 1m

This 45ac residential tillage and grass holding is described as a lovely compact farm with a good house, good land and a range of farm facilities. Located 4km from Tullow and 4km from the Carlow/Wexford road, the property includes a substantial, modern five-bedroom house and a separate one-bed building with potential as an annex or granny flat.

The two-storey residence is reached by a 400m avenue and extends to 4,520 sq ft, with bay windows on both floors. The yard includes an A-roofed shed, a four-column haybarn with a five-column, double-breasted lean-to at one side, and a four-column double-breasted lean-to on the other. The land extending to 45ac is the best of tillage and grass ground.

Clonkeen, Lisnagry, Limerick 400,000

This 32.5ac residential farm with a two-storey modern house is just 10 minutes drive from the University of Limerick, from Plassey Technological Park, the M7 and from Annacotty Business Park. The village of Murroe is also just minutes away. The house extending to 3,000 sq ft includes a spacious hallway with a sitting room and living room at either side. The ground floor also includes a kitchen/living room, a bedroom, bathroom, a utility and a guest WC, while upstairs are seven ensuite bedrooms.

The land is laid out in easily-managed divisions and is well watered and fenced. Farming facilities include an A-roofed shed with two bays and a feeding passage.

Derryloughbannow, Lanesborough, Longford 280,000

This smallholding consisting of a house and 26ac is made up of 16ac of good-quality ground and about 10ac of marginal land. Located 3km from Lanesborough, the three-bed, stone-faced bungalow set on landscaped gardens is in walk-in condition. The accommodation includes a kitchen, sitting room, front porch, an ensuite master bedroom, two further bedrooms and a bathroom. Services include mains water, security alarm, security CCTV and a garage. Farming facilities include a three-bay dry bed cattle shed currently used as a work shop, plus cattle-handling facilities.
Bigg Boss 13: One of the most loved bahu, Rashami Desai is giving some major fashion goals with her regal outfit. The diva is a vision in white cotton dress as she wore it with aplomb, the highlight of her look was her multicoloured Sillitoe's, as it complimented the whole look.

Bigg Boss 13: After Bigg Boss 13, Rashami Desai has had been spotted partying and chilling out with her friends, no doubt her exceptional fashion and regal outfits are catching everyones gaze, as she looks stunning in every attire she dons. The actress was recently clicked in Mumbai, where she wore a white dress with aplomb. To complete her look she wore multicolour danglers and let her hair loose. The highlight of her look was her multicoloured Sillitoes, as it complimented the whole look.

Talking about her and Arhaan Khans relationship, the whole nation knows what had happened in the Bigg Boss 13 house, after coming out from the house, the diva stepped forward to clear the rumours, and said, that Arhaan used her emotionally and she didnt had clue that he is married and have a kid too. Rashamis rakhi brother Mrunal Jain in conversation revealed that Desai and Khan are now not in good terms with each other.

On the professional front, Rashami has inked her acting mettle in the industry with the serials like Dil Se Dil Tak, Adhuri Kahaani Hamari, Uttaran, and Ishq Ka Rang Safed. For the current year, she looks for a great script which can challenge her. However, recently she appeared in the much-hyped show, Mujhse Shaadi Karoge, where Shehnaaz Gilla and Paras Chhabra is searching for their prospective better half.

Also Read: Bigg Boss 13: Mahira Sharma reacts on getting blamed for Paras Chhabra-Akanksha Puris breakup, says wrong to blame her for their separation

Check Rashami Desais photos:

Also Read: Mujhse Shaadi Karoge: Balraj Syal, Jasleen Matharu are no more friends! Syal calls her chipkali

Also Read: Mujhse Shaadi Karoge: Bigg Boss 8 winner Gautam Gulati lashes out at Shehnaaz Gill; watch video

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France on Thursday summoned Mali's ambassador after dismissing as "false" and "unacceptable" his claims of rowdy behaviour by French soldiers helping the West African nation combat an Islamic insurgency. Toumani Djime Diallo was summoned to the foreign ministry, where "we expressed our indignation at his baseless and shocking remarks on behalf of an allied country in the fight against terrorism," the ministry told AFP. France has 5,100 soldiers in Operation Barkhane, a mission to roll back jihadism in Mali as well as Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Chad in the Sahel region of Africa. But its presence has been criticised by some in the region, who balk at the prominent military role played by a former colonial power. On Wednesday, Diallo complained to the French Senate of "problems" caused by what he said were French Foreign Legion soldiers deployed on Malian soil. He pointed to "excesses" in the capital Bamako. "At times you see them in the red-light districts of Bamako, their bodies completely covered in tattoos, behaving in a way that does not correspond to the [French] army we know," Diallo said. "It makes people afraid, it makes tongues wag." Making such allegations while French troops are risking their lives to protect citizens was "indecent," Defence Minister Florence Parly's office said in a statement sent to AFP. "Rather than channelling and spreading false accusations, we expect the ambassador of Mali to devote all his energy to implementing the Pau summit and achieving success for everyone," the statement added tartly, referring to a meeting between France and its Sahel allies last month. The Malian presidency has yet to respond to France's objections. - 'Down with France' - There were "hardly any" French soldiers stationed in Bamako, said the statement, adding the charges were "unacceptable and indecent when France has resolutely committed itself to fighting terrorist groups that threaten the people of the Sahel." France's deployment is by far the largest foreign contribution to the fight against extremists aligned with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. Last month, hundreds of people gathered in Bamako to protest the presence of French soldiers, holding aloft placards reading "Down with France, Barkhane must leave" and "France is a brake on our development." Such criticism has riled French officials, especially after 13 soldiers were killed in a helicopter collision in Mali while pursuing jihadist fighters -- the deadliest toll for the French military in nearly four decades. Last month in Pau in southwest France, French President Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of five Sahel countries pledged to jointly bolster efforts against jihadists fighting the increasingly deadly insurgency. Macron has denounced "foreign powers" for stirring up anti-French sentiment amid reports that Russian paramilitary fighters were increasingly active in the Sahel. And he has complained of a lack of "clear political condemnation of anti-French feelings" on the ground, saying he was loath to send soldiers to countries where their presence was not "clearly wanted." Despite the French presence and a 13,000-member UN peacekeeping force in Mali dubbed MINUSMA, the conflict that erupted in the north of that country in 2012 has since spread to its neighbours, especially Burkina Faso and Niger. Thousands of civilians and hundreds of soldiers have been killed and more than a million people have been displaced. France has lost 41 soldiers. burs-dla/mlr/pma
British experts will collaborate with their Indian counterparts to work out the most effective way of helping farmers to increase economic well being through sustainable solutions for the loss of food.

Led by experts from the newly-formed Centre for Sustainable Cooling at the University of Birmingham, the UK team is exploring ways of making the most of improved crop post-harvest management and clean, sustainable chilled distribution systems.

They are visiting Delhi, Haryana and Hyderabad this week.

Food loss is a major challenge with up to 40 per cent of some produce grown lost between farm and market. Focusing on how food can be saved in the supply chain is as important as food produced, said Toby Peters, Professor of Cold Economy at the University of Birmingham.

We are bringing together UK and Indian partners to create template projects showcasing sustainable technology and expertise that could help farmers in India maximise their income by reducing waste, maintaining product quality and connecting to more distant markets. The challenge is to achieve this sustainably using renewable energy solutions, he said.

In partnership with the British High Commission in India and the agri-tech sector team at the UK's Department for International Trade, British experts are also developing a plan for a UK-India collaboration for a first-of-a-kind Centre of Excellence in Haryana to support the roll-out of sustainable post-harvest management and cooling at scale in India.

The UK team, which also includes academics from Cranfield University, London South Bank University, University of Greenwich and NIAB East Malling Research as well as industry experts, will use the information gathered in India this week to form the basis of an industry workshop on April 2 at the University of Birmingham, to consider opportunities for industry engagement in this fast-growing market opportunity.

"Access to cooling is not a luxury. It is about fresh food, safe medicines and protection from heat for populations in a warming world. It is vital for economic productivity as it allows workers, farmers and students to function effectively in comfortable environments, said Professor Peters.

If we are to deliver access to cooling for all who need it, we will potentially see four times as many appliances deployed using five times as much energy as today. How we meet this challenge and provide cooling for all will have important ramifications not only for our climate, but also for our broader aspirations for a sustainable future, he added.

Around half of India's employment depends on agriculture and the university quoted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stated his vision of doubling farmers' income to highlight the importance of agri-logistics in achieving such a farm income strategy.

Indian state governments plan to set up a series of Integrated Pack Houses, aggregating and linking clusters of smallholder farmers to markets by refrigerated transport links that use energy efficient and sustainable technologies reducing food loss and decreasing the amount of wasted produce, the university notes.

The government of India is keen to develop projects, including joint collaborative research that can demonstrate innovative, sustainable technologies for Pack House Management and cold-chain solutions.

The Haryana government, for example, is planning to create more than 350 Pack Houses in the state whilst the Indian government is targeting 22,000 new agri-processing and logistics hubs.

The University of Birmingham said that its new Centre for Sustainable Cooling (CSC) will work closely with governments, international development agencies, NGOs and industry to deliver access to sustainable cooling for all, including India.

The CSC aims to transform clean cold research into affordable technology by working with global partners to create in-market proving grounds that allow emerging technology to be tested and attract investments.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
John Warner in Inside Higher Ed:

In 1965, James Baldwin debated William F. Buckley at the Cambridge Union Society, Cambridge University. The topic of the debate was, The American Dream is at the expense of the American negro.



Baldwin delivers his remarks slowly, somehow seeming both passionate and cool, like jazz. He is mesmerizing, as shown by the camera cutaways to the audience that sits rapt. It almost seems unfair, a distortion, to excerpt Baldwins remarks because as a work of rhetoric, it surpasses even the best of Martin Luther King or JFK. In the opening, he acknowledges the trap of segregation for the segregationists, that what he is discussing is a fundamental inequality born of an unjust system in which individuals are only actors:

The white South African or Mississippi sharecropper or Alabama sheriff has at bottom a system of reality which compels them really to believe when they face the Negro that this woman, this man, this child must be insane to attack the system to which he owes his entire identity.

He then makes deft use of the 2nd person in order to draw a circle around the experience of being black in 1960s America:

In the case of the American Negro, from the moment you are born every stick and stone, every face, is white. Since you have not yet seen a mirror, you suppose you are, too. It comes as a great shock around the age of 5, 6, or 7 to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance, along with everybody else, has not pledged allegiance to you. It comes as a great shock to see Gary Cooper killing off the Indians, and although you are rooting for Gary Cooper, that the Indians are you.

A small ripple of laughter coursed through the Cambridge fellows at that moment. A laugh not of amusement, but recognition. Baldwin shifts to the first person, reminding the audience that the man in front of them is indeed part of this you:

From a very literal point of view, the harbors and the ports and the railroads of the countrythe economy, especially in the Southcould not conceivably be what they are if it had not been (and this is still so) for cheap labor. I am speaking very seriously, and this is not an overstatement: I picked cotton, I carried it to the market, I built the railroads under someone elses whip for nothing. For nothing. The Southern oligarchy which has still today so very much power in Washington, and therefore some power in the world, was created by my labor and my sweat and the violation of my women and the murder of my children. This in the land of the free, the home of the brave.

Baldwin hammers the I in his delivery in the first part. The final lines of this passage are delivered in some combination of sorrow and disbelief. Baldwin then returns to his theme that black America is not the only group being destroyed by this system:

Sheriff Clark in Selma, Ala., cannot be dismissed as a total monster; I am sure he loves his wife and children and likes to get drunk. One has to assume that he is a man like me. But he does not know what drives him to use the club, to menace with the gun and to use the cattle prod. Something awful must have happened to a human being to be able to put a cattle prod against a womans breasts. What happens to the woman is ghastly. What happens to the man who does it is in some ways much, much worse. Their moral lives have been destroyed by the plague called color.

Baldwin finishes with this:

It is a terrible thing for an entire people to surrender to the notion that one-ninth of its population is beneath them. Until the moment comes when we, the Americans, are able to accept the fact that my ancestors are both black and white, that on that continent we are trying to forge a new identity, that we need each other, that I am not a ward of America, I am not an object of missionary charity, I am one of the people who built the countryuntil this moment comes there is scarcely any hope for the American dream. If the people are denied participation in it, by their very presence they will wreck it. And if that happens it is a very grave moment for the West.

Baldwin received a standing ovation from the very white, very British audience. The announcer says in the video that hes never seen such a reaction at these events before.

More here. (Note: Throughout February, at least one post will honor The Black History Month. This years theme is African Americans and the Vote. Readers are encouraged to send in their suggestions)
"From April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010, CDC estimated there were 60.8 million cases (range: 43.3-89.3 million), 274,304 hospitalizations (range: 195,086-402,719), and 12,469 deaths (range: 8868-18,306) in the United States due to the (H1N1)pdm09 virus."

Kansas City Coronavirus Prep

Some Kansas City schools, businesses prepare for coronavirus pandemic KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -- Airports around the country are screening passengers for symptoms of the coronavirus. Kansas City International Airport has no screenings or any increased health precautions. SCHOOLS PREPARE EMERGENCY PLANS Japan announced Thursday it will close all schools until March to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Midwest Threat Monitoring

Missouri, Kansas leaders prepare for possible Midwest coronavirus outbreak KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Leaders in Missouri and Kansas are preparing for a possible COVID-19 outbreak. The disease, also known as coronavirus, has spread to the United States . The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it believes coronavirus will eventually reach pandemic status . On Thursday, Kansas Sen.

Cleaning Teachable Moments

A look at how local schools are disinfecting amid coronavirus concerns FAIRWAY, KS (KCTV) -- Parents may be wondering how their child's school is preparing for the possibility of coronavirus' spread, so KCTV5's Leslie Aguilar has been checking with school districts on both sides of the state line to see. Right now, the Shawnee Mission School District is testing out a decontamination product in one of their elementary/junior high schools.

Outbreak Life Lessons

Kansas City-area school districts planning for possible coronavirus outbreak KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Though no cases of coronavirus have been reported in either Kansas or Missouri, school districts in the Kansas City metro say they are taking proactive steps to plan for a potential outbreak. In a message to parents, the Shawnee Mission School District said it has a "comprehensive plan in place" to respond to coronavirus disease 2019, also known as COVID-19.

Update On Latest U.S. "Community Spread" Concern

Latest American infected with novel coronavirus could be 1st case of community spread on US soil The CDC is investigating the source of the infection. The latest patient being treated for the novel coronavirus in the United States is being investigated by health officials as possibly the first case of community spread on American soil. The U.S.

Local Asian Discrimination

Some Asian business owners report decline amid Coronavirus paranoia, others hope it doesn't hit them KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Outbreaks like the coronavirus can cause a lot of worry and even paranoia, whether among people with health concerns or those who shape global economic markets. Here in the Kansas City area, Asian-owned businesses hope the outbreak, which originated in the Hubei Provice of China, doesn't negatively affect their business.

Blame Game Heats Up

Varney: Dems 'drumming up panic' about coronavirus, driving down markets Fox Business Network host Stuart Varney argued on Thursday that the Democrats' pushback against President Trump for his messaging on the coronavirus outbreak is fueling panic and driving down the stock market.

Prez Trump Quotes

The 31 wildest lines from Donald Trump's self-congratulatory coronavirus press conference While many Americans were sitting down to dinner on Wednesday night, President Donald Trump stepped into the White House briefing room to give the country an update on the novel coronavirus and its spread across the globe.

Sickness Chatter

Trump's Biggest Supporters Think The Coronavirus Is A Deep State Plot The World Health Organization is still declining to call the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, but the number of infections and deaths continue to climb as the disease spreads. Public health authorities are split about whether containing or mitigating the virus is the best option - but both depend on whether President Donald Trump and his most conspiracy-addled followers can be convinced to go along with it.

About The Spread So Far

Why the Silent Spread of Coronavirus Might Actually Be a Good Sign Did Ivanka Photoshop This Instagram of Her at the Taj Mahal? So, Should You Panic About Coronavirus Now? Let's Revisit Coronavirus Czar Mike Pence's History on Public Health Initiatives Court Says You Don't Have a First Amendment Right to Make Money Off YouTube On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control announced a suspected case of COVID19 in a patient who met none of the screening criteria for the disease.

Fear Over Facts???

Coronavirus and its global sweep stokes fear over facts. Experts say it's unlikely to produce 'apocalyptic scenario' SAN FRANCISCO - Coronavirus is in the global spotlight, but a secondary character in this unfolding drama threatens to upstage the grim protagonist: fear. Chalk that up to what it means to be human. Animals have a fight-or-flight response to real and present danger.

Expert Health Info

As coronavirus spreads, many questions and some answers - Harvard Health Blog The rapid spread of COVID-19 has sparked alarm worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a global health emergency, and many countries are grappling with a rise in confirmed cases. In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is advising people to be prepared for disruptions to daily life that will be necessary if the virus spreads within communities.

In the not too distant future, it's inevitable that a case of novel coronavirus will turn up in Kansas City.The virus is making its way across the globe and will soon find it's way to the Heartland. As scary as this sickness might seem, theis far more important.Because this #TBT, what we notice and what we want to share is that media seems to have forgotten about the last pandemic Kansas City endured wasn't some old school influenza butIn the past few days just about everyone has, remarkably, become an epidemiologist and the talk of mortality and communicability rates has been telling . . . Most showing little regard for humankind.A not-so-fun fact that might be disputed but offers an alternative perspective: A virus does not discriminate, it has no politics or agenda. A virus is opportunistic and works with the singular goal of advancing its own life at the cost of everything else. People are far more complex than any virus and the intricacy of human reactions, emotions and responses amid danger can be both inspiring and terrifying.As Kansas City and the world confront the latest sickness in an endless cycle there's hope that information, reason, understanding and maybe even compassion will guide our thoughts, words and deeds even amid an American cultural climate where insignificant political differences are regarded as reason enough to engage in a bitter blood feuds.Accordingly, here's info about the local headlines as the coronavirus makes its way to Kansas City:You decide . . .
5 1 of 5 Texas Department of Public Safety Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Texas Department of Public Safety Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Texas Department of Public Safety Show More Show Less 5 of 5









The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) recently unveiled the new design for driver's licenses and licenses to carry with enhanced security features.

Made out of polycarbonate material, the new forms of identification are tamper-resistant and harder to reproduce, according to a DPS release. Laser engraving has also been added to provide an extra layer of protection against alterations and forgeries.
At least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed as violence escalates in Syrias Idlib province after an air strike blamed on Damascus, with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg condemning indiscriminate attacks by the Assad regime and Russia.

Dozens more soldiers were injured and taken to Turkey for treatment, Rahmi Dogan, governor of Turkish Hatay  bordering Syria  said Friday.

The heavy losses in northwestern Idlib come after weeks of growing tensions between rebel supporter Ankara and Damascus ally Moscow.

Stoltenberg urged all parties to de-escalate this dangerous situation and avoid further worsening of the horrendous humanitarian situation in the region, his spokesman said Friday.

In a phone call with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, the NATO secretary general condemned the continued indiscriminate air strikes by the Syrian regime and its backer Russia in Idlib province, according to the spokesman.

Turkey has urged the Syrian regime to withdraw from Turkish observation posts in Idlib, while Moscow has accused Ankara of aiding terrorists in Syria.

Under a 2018 deal with Russia meant to bring calm to Idlib, Turkey has 12 observation posts in the region  but several have come under fire from Syrian President Bashar al-Assads forces.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hastily convened an emergency meeting in Ankara after the Idlib attack.

Erdogans top press aide, Fahrettin Altun, said Turkeys military retaliated against all known positions of the regime after the air strike.

In a statement, Altun called on the international community to fulfil its responsibilities to end the violence in Idlib and the regimes crimes against humanity.

The latest attack means 53 Turkish security personnel have been killed in the province this month.

There was a flurry of diplomatic activity as Turkeys presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin spoke with US national security advisor, Robert OBrien, state news agency Anadolu reported without giving detail.

 More civilians killed 

Jihadists and Turkish-backed rebels on Thursday re-entered Saraqeb, a key Idlib crossroads town they had lost earlier in February, reversing one of the main gains of the governments devastating offensive.

The counteroffensive could, however, be short-lived as Russian-backed Syrian troops continued to chip away at other parts of the rebel bastion, capturing 20 localities.

Seven civilians, including three children, were killed in regime and Russian bombardment of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding to more than 400 such deaths since December.

The UN Security Council, where Moscow has systematically vetoed truce initiatives, met again Thursday amid growing concern Idlib is witnessing the nine-year-old wars worst humanitarian emergency.

State news agency SANA acknowledged there were fierce clashes between the army and terrorist groups on the Saraqeb front.

An AFP correspondent accompanied the rebels into Saraqeb, where he found a ghost town of bombed out buildings.

The counterattack temporarily reverses one of the key gains of the government since its offensive against the countrys last rebel enclave in December.

 Refugee fears 

The cash-strapped government had been keen to fully secure the M5, a highway that connects Syrias four main cities and passes through Saraqeb.

The Syrian Observatory said the air strikes were carried out by Assad government ally Russia, heavily criticised by the West for the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign.

State media accused the terrorists of launching car bombings and other suicide attacks against government forces attempting to retake the town.

It said the army had inflicted heavy losses on the attackers, despite the military support it said they had received from Turkey.

Some 950,0000 civilians have fled the government offensive, raising fears in Ankara of a new influx of refugees.

Turkey already hosts the worlds largest number of Syrian refugees  around 3.6 million people  placing an increasingly unpopular burden on public services.

The countrys ruling party spokesman Omer Celik told CNN Turk broadcaster Friday Ankara was not in a position to hold refugees any longer and called on the European Union to do more.

More than half a million of those displaced since December are children, tens of thousands of whom are sleeping rough in northern Syrias harsh winter.

 UN powerlessness 

The Turkish president vowed Wednesday Ankara would not take the smallest step back in the standoff with Damascus and Moscow over Idlib.

Erdogan warned the Syrian government to stop its attacks as soon as possible and to pull back by the end of the month.

The UN has repeatedly warned the fighting in Idlib could potentially create the most serious humanitarian crisis since the civil wars start in 2011.

Nine out of 15 members of the Security Council on Wednesday urged Secretary General Antonio Guterres to step up his involvement in efforts to restore peace in Idlib.

Russian vetoes, often backed by China, have chronically crippled UN action in Syria.

burs-raz/aph/rbu

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ALBANY Convicted double-murderer Edward Ted Mero testified Thursday that his former defense attorney, Cheryl Coleman, never told him she was clandestinely employing the prosecutor handling his case for legal work on the side.

The testimony of the 32-year-old Mero  which directly contradicts Colemans sworn account came at the conclusion of a hearing being held to determine if Colemans secret employment of Albany County prosecutor Steven Sharp tainted Meros trial in December 2017.

A jury convicted Mero, a former Albany city water employee, of the murders of Megan Cunningham and Shelby Countermine, both 23. The trial took place within the four-year period in which Coleman paid Sharp to work on four appellate cases.

State Supreme Court Court Justice Peter Lynch, who presided over the trial, also was not aware of the Coleman-Sharp business relationship, which ultimately led to Sharps departure from the job where he earned $112,164 as the bureau chief of District Attorney David Soares general felony unit.

Did Cheryl Coleman ever tell you that Steven Sharp, while working as a prosecutor for the Albany County district attorneys office, ... had performed appellate work for her? Mero's lawyer Trey Smith asked him

No, replied Mero, a hulking man wearing a yellow jumpsuit.

Smith then asked Mero if Coleman ever told him that Sharp has performed any other kind of legal work for her while employed by Soares office.

No, Mero testified.

The judge restricted the prosecutions questioning of Mero to the Coleman-Sharp business relationship. It was the first time Mero, who did not take the stand at his trial, has testified.

Assistant District Attorney Collin DArcy asked Mero: Mr. Mero, you were sentenced to 50 years to life, correct?

Lynch cut off the question. Prosecutors asked no more questions of Mero.

On Feb. 21, Coleman testified that she told Mero about Sharps work for her during a meeting in the Albany County jail. She said it prompted Mero to smile. She said she reassured Mero its not like anyones going to throw anything at trial.

Earlier Thursday, Sharp testified that no office policy prohibited him from working on the side for Coleman.

If there was a rule in place, I would not have done it, Sharp said.

Sharp and Chief Assistant District Attorney David Rossi prosecuted Mero, who was defended at trial by Coleman. Mero is now being represented by Smith and Matthew Hug.

Smith questioned Sharp in an exchange that became combative at times.

Sharp testified that he was disappointed in himself and felt bad about what happened  not because he acted unethically but because the situation led to Meros effort to vacate his conviction.

If you had not done nothing ethically wrong ... not violated any policy of the office that you were aware of, then why would you feel badly at all? Smith pressed Sharp.

Sharp said he feels bad for several reasons. He noted that the father of Countermine was in the courtroom. He told Smith the mans daughter was murdered by your client and is upset that his conduct became an issue being used to exploit the circumstances here.

It still bothers me to this day as I sit here looking at that man, Sharp said. He said he also feels bad  not that I did anything unethical  because former colleagues in Soares' office have had to testify at the hearing.

Sharp testified there was nothing in place indicating to him that outside work was not permitted. He said when he started working for Soares, one prosecutor had his own private law practice.

No one said anything to me about anything involving outside work, whatsoever, in the DAs office, Sharp testified.

During testimony last week, Soares insisted his office had an unwritten policy that barred such work. He said that while he had never directly communicated to staffers that they were not allowed to do outside criminal defense work, he might have mentioned it at staff meetings and that the subject would have come up when he requested more prosecutors from the county legislature during budget talks.

Smith asked Sharp why, if he believed the business arrangement with Coleman was not prohibited, did he not tell anyone in the office about it.

Sharp told Smith he does not like to broadcast details of his personal life.

I also knew that David wouldnt like it. Because he doesnt like Cheryl, Sharp said.

It echoed Colemans testimony on Wednesday when she said she and Sharp were concerned that Sharp could lose his job if Soares learned Sharp was doing work for her because Soares was not a fan of Coleman, a frequent critic of the district attorney.

When Rossi took the witness stand later Thursday, the judge asked him if he ever told Sharp before June 2018 that because of a policy or rule, he could not perform outside criminal defense work on collateral legal matters outside Albany County.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

I dont ever remember saying those words to Steve Sharp, Rossi replied.

He said it was typical for employees to ask for permission in such circumstances, saying, Ive had people ask me for permission to work at a bakery.

Sharp explained that his arrangement began in 2014 following a joke: Coleman was complaining about having to do appellate work. He sarcastically said that he could write briefs for her if they did not involve Albany County cases.

A few months later, Sharp said, Coleman approached him about working on the first of what would be four briefs in appellate cases for Coleman. None of the cases originated in Albany County.

Coleman testified Wednesday she believed she paid Sharp around $20,000 for the work, which was done between 2014 and 2018. The cases included the drug sale appeal of Michael A. Nicholas in Washington County, the murder case of Ganesh R. Ramsaran in Chenango County, the burglary case of Peter Mesko in Tompkins County and the manslaughter case of boater Alexander West, who was convicted of killing 8-year-old Charlotte McCue on Lake George in 2016.

Sharps work for Coleman was first raised by Hug in 2018. He was appealing the conviction of Jordan Prusinski, a defendant who was convicted in a trial where Sharp was the prosecutor and Coleman was his attorney.

Sharp echoed Coleman's testimony from a day earlier when he recounted that in 2018 Hug asked them to approach acting Supreme Court Justice Roger McDonough to request that he vacate Prusinskis attempted murder conviction. When Sharp said no, he recounted that Hug told him he was really sorry about it.

Smith grilled Sharp about a phone call Sharp made that day to an associate of Coleman. He asked Sharp why he did not reach out to Coleman directly.

If I called her, youd think that was more nefarious. The fact that I didnt call her, youre making that sound sinister, Sharp said. I have no idea why I didnt call her.

These are just questions, sir, Smith replied.

Sharp left his job with the district attorney's office in August 2018 after being suspended by Soares in the wake of Times Union coverage of the secret work. Sharp testified that he believed Soares indicated he would give him a reference for future employment if he resigned.

Within a day of Sharps resignation, Albany County Public Defender Stephen Herrick, a retired judge who was familiar with Sharp, added Sharp to his staff.

Members of Meros family appeared to be at the hearing, across the aisle from Countermines father. Prusinskis family has also attended the hearing.

Jurors determined that Mero murdered Countermine and Cunningham.

On Dec. 3, 2014, Countermine went missing after she met Mero for a $500, five-hour "date" at the home of Mero's parents in Albany. Her remains were found more than five months later in woods in Coeymans where Mero had worked for the water department. Countermines face showed signs of blunt force trauma.

Cunningham, Mero's roommate at 12 Arcadia Ave. in Albany, died in what was initially ruled an accidental fire on Jan. 27, 2013. Police re-investigated Cunninghams death after Countermine's body was found and discovered evidence inconsistent with an accidental fire.

Lynch said he will issue a written ruling on the effort by Meros attorneys on March 6. If Lynch finds that Mero was deprived a fair trial he can set aside the murder convictions and schedule a new trial.
To the annoyance of some shareholders, Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:RCL) shares are down a considerable 37% in the last month. That drop has capped off a tough year for shareholders, with the share price down 35% in that time.

All else being equal, a share price drop should make a stock more attractive to potential investors. In the long term, share prices tend to follow earnings per share, but in the short term prices bounce around in response to short term factors (which are not always obvious). The implication here is that long term investors have an opportunity when expectations of a company are too low. Perhaps the simplest way to get a read on investors' expectations of a business is to look at its Price to Earnings Ratio (PE Ratio). Investors have optimistic expectations of companies with higher P/E ratios, compared to companies with lower P/E ratios.

See our latest analysis for Royal Caribbean Cruises

How Does Royal Caribbean Cruises's P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?

Royal Caribbean Cruises's P/E of 8.58 indicates relatively low sentiment towards the stock. If you look at the image below, you can see Royal Caribbean Cruises has a lower P/E than the average (21.1) in the hospitality industry classification.

NYSE:RCL Price Estimation Relative to Market, February 28th 2020

This suggests that market participants think Royal Caribbean Cruises will underperform other companies in its industry. Many investors like to buy stocks when the market is pessimistic about their prospects. You should delve deeper. I like to check if company insiders have been buying or selling.

How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios

Earnings growth rates have a big influence on P/E ratios. If earnings are growing quickly, then the 'E' in the equation will increase faster than it would otherwise. And in that case, the P/E ratio itself will drop rather quickly. Then, a lower P/E should attract more buyers, pushing the share price up.

Royal Caribbean Cruises increased earnings per share by 4.3% last year. And its annual EPS growth rate over 5 years is 21%.

Story continues

Remember: P/E Ratios Don't Consider The Balance Sheet

It's important to note that the P/E ratio considers the market capitalization, not the enterprise value. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. In theory, a company can lower its future P/E ratio by using cash or debt to invest in growth.

Such expenditure might be good or bad, in the long term, but the point here is that the balance sheet is not reflected by this ratio.

So What Does Royal Caribbean Cruises's Balance Sheet Tell Us?

Royal Caribbean Cruises's net debt is 67% of its market cap. This is a reasonably significant level of debt -- all else being equal you'd expect a much lower P/E than if it had net cash.

The Verdict On Royal Caribbean Cruises's P/E Ratio

Royal Caribbean Cruises has a P/E of 8.6. That's below the average in the US market, which is 16.9. While the recent EPS growth is a positive, the significant amount of debt on the balance sheet may be contributing to pessimistic market expectations. Given Royal Caribbean Cruises's P/E ratio has declined from 13.6 to 8.6 in the last month, we know for sure that the market is more worried about the business today, than it was back then. For those who prefer to invest with the flow of momentum, that might be a bad sign, but for deep value investors this stock might justify some research.

When the market is wrong about a stock, it gives savvy investors an opportunity. If it is underestimating a company, investors can make money by buying and holding the shares until the market corrects itself. So this free visualization of the analyst consensus on future earnings could help you make the right decision about whether to buy, sell, or hold.

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking at a few good candidates. So take a peek at this free list of companies with modest (or no) debt, trading on a P/E below 20.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
Boy Scout writes letter to the editor

To the editor:

My name is Sam Monticello. I am writing about Scouting and how it has been beneficial to me. Scouts is a fun and educational experience for all youth. You learn valuable life skills and make lots of friends. I am currently a Star Scout and am working for my Life Scout rank then after that, my Eagle Rank. I have a lot of friends in my troop and all of them are working hard to achieve their rank advancements.

My troop is great! We do Merit Badges, Rank Advancements, and we play games. My troop (768) does weekend camp outs every month. We've been to places like the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, the Cole Canoe Base, the U.S.S. Silversides Submarine Museum in Muskegon and lots of other places. We also do volunteer work. We do service hours like park cars for the Antique Festival at the Midland County Fair Grounds and other activities that are held there. We have also helped at a Mardi Gras party in the Legacy Center just a few days ago. In the summer time, we go to a summer camp called Camp D-Bar-A. There, they offer water sports, shooting, metal work, arts and crafts, climbing, and tons of other activities.

These are just some of the awesome stuff that goes on in Scouts. If I were you, I would join Scouts ASAP. Thank you for reading this, and I hope you enjoyed it.

SAMUEL MONTICELLO

Midland

Reader pens 'Dear John' letter to lawmaker

To the editor:

Dear John Moolenaar,

I am sorry to say that we must part ways. Our relationship has been deteriorating for some time. It almost broke my heart when you did not object to separating children from their parents at the border. As a father, I thought you would understand how those policies would cause lifetime harm to children. You did not object. You did nothing.

But Mr. Moolenaar, you went too far when you approved of the assassination of an Iranian general. On your Jan. 21 website post you called it justice!

After the assassination of Soleimani, Iran shot down an aircraft. They probably thought it was ours. What about the innocent people on the plane? Is that justice? Did you forget that our retaliatory air strike caused brain injuries to about 50 U.S. troops? Is that justice?

We are not at war with Iran. Soleimani may be a very bad man, but America should not assassinate a general of their country. Would it be justice if Iran retaliated and assassinated an American general? This does not make us or others safe.

EILEEN GREW

Midland

Reader questions

proposed cuts

To the editor:

After reading about the proposed Trump budget for 2020 at budget.senate.gov, I've learned that the Trump budget would pay for his huge tax breaks for the top 1% wealthiest citizens by cutting $1.5 trillion from Medicaid, $845 billion from Medicare and $25 billion from Social Security.

What does Rep. Moolenaar have to say to average Michiganders, many of whom are working for stagnant wages or are depending on these benefits they have earned to sustain them?

KATHLEEN CURELL

Midland
Medical staff fighting the COVID-19 coronavirus encourage each other at Dongsan Hospital in Daegu, Friday. Yonhap



By Jun Ji-hye



The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection here reached 2,337, Friday, 39 days after the government reported the country's first case Jan. 20. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and Daegu City Government reported 571 new cases and three more deaths from the highly-contagious virus, bringing the death toll to 16 as of 10 p.m.



The spike in infections came just two days after the number surpassed 1,000.



Among the 571 new patients, 511 are residents of Daegu and the adjacent North Gyeongsang Province, areas hit hardest by the new coronavirus outbreak.






WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Legal Innovators announced partnerships with several top law schools, including five of US News and World Report's top 25 law schools: New York University School of Law, University of Virginia School of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Vanderbilt University Law School, and Boston University School of Law.

Three regionally strong law schools were also added: University of Connecticut School of Law, University of Houston School of Law, and New York Law School. Legal Innovators is now partnered with 11 schools including the three that bolstered the company's launch in 2019: Georgetown University Law Center, the George Washington University Law School, and Howard University School of Law.

"These relationships are part of our growth and recruitment strategy to meet the demand for skilled junior lawyers in D.C., New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and beyond," Legal Innovators CEO and Co-Founder Bryan Parker said. "Strong relationships with law schools help us recruit the best talent, including those from diverse backgrounds."

The Legal Innovators model creates a win-win-win for law schools, junior legal professionals, and employers.

"After reading about Legal Innovators in The American Lawyer and speaking with Susan Fine at George Washington University, we reached out to their CEO, Bryan Parker and determined that the company could be a good fit for our students. Legal Innovators offers a new approach to entry into Big Law, as well as an extensive training and mentoring program. In addition, the company shares our commitment to diversity and inclusion," said Elizabeth Workman, Assistant Dean, Office of Career Services, Vanderbilt School of Law. "We are excited to work with them."

Once law school graduates are hired by Legal Innovators, they receive ongoing training and mentorship from leaders in the law, as well as placements with top employers.

The company's model eliminates much of the cost associated with the hiring and development of junior legal talent, which typically results in push back from clients.

The company welcomes inquiries from law schools, firms, and corporations, as well as students and recent graduates who are interested in joining its 2020 class this fall.

About Legal Innovators

Legal Innovators transforms how law firms and corporate legal departments approach the recruitment, hiring, pricing, diversity, and inclusion of today's junior legal talent. To learn more contact Chief Marketing Officer Heidi Erdmann at [email protected] or 617-320-6676.

SOURCE Legal Innovators

Related Links

https://www.legal-innovators.com/


Protesters rallied in the streets of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on February 27, the day the nation marks its independence from Haiti.

The protests began in the Dominican Republic after leaders suspended municipal elections on February 16 following the discovery that voting machines had been malfunctioning, according to reports from The New York Times.

This video shows a crowd gathered in the capital of Santo Domingos Plaza de la Bandera and waving national flags. Credit: @Fabioinq via Storyful
WASHINGTON  A bookkeeping change at the Education Department will kick hundreds of rural school districts out of a federal program that for nearly two decades has funneled funding to some of the most geographically isolated and cash-strapped schools in the United States.

More than 800 schools stand to lose thousands of dollars from the Rural and Low-Income School Program because the department has abruptly changed how districts are to report how many of their students live in poverty. The change, quietly announced in letters to state education leaders, comes after the Education Department said a review of the program revealed that districts had erroneously received funding because they had not met eligibility requirements outlined in the federal education law since 2002.

The department said it was simply following the law, which requires that in order to get funding, districts must use data from the Census Bureaus Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates to determine whether 20 percent of their areas school-age children live below the poverty line.

For about 17 years though, the department has allowed schools to use the percentage of students who qualify for federally subsidized free and reduced-price meals, a common proxy for school poverty rates, because census data can miss residents in rural areas.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd. (TSX: CGG; HKEx: 2099) (China Gold International Resources or the Company) is providing a voluntary business update in relation to the Companys production and operations and the Novel Coronavirus (the COVID-19).



The Companys Jiama mine has been operating with little to no impact on its production or operations thus far. The Jiama mine regularly monitors the health of its employees and its supply chains and is prepared to respond to any potential disruption issues, should any arise.

The employees of CSH Mine have returned to the mine site following the scheduled Chinese New Year celebration closure. CSH Mine normally experiences lower recovery rates during the first quarter of every year impacted by the harsh winter conditions and as such, performance in the first quarter of the year is usually lower as compared with other quarters in the year. The Company expects the recovery rate to normalize during the balance of 2020. The CSH mine has had little to no impact on its production or operations compared to previous years due to the COVID-19 thus far.

The Company is reminding all individuals to take care of their health and to adhere to safety procedures while conducting business operations.

The Companys chief executive officer, Liangyou Jiang, said, Although there currently are no employees infected at the Companys two mines, we will be ready to respond to the possible impact COVID-19 may have on any aspects of our business and will closely monitor the health condition of our employees."

About China Gold International Resources

China Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd. is based in Vancouver, BC, Canada and operates both profitable and growing mines, the CSH Gold Mine in Inner Mongolia, and the Jiama Copper-Polymetallic Mine in Tibet Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China. The Companys objective is to continue to build shareholder value by growing production at its current mining operations, expanding its resource base, and aggressively acquiring and developing new projects internationally. The Company is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: CGG) and the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (HKEx: 2099).

For further information on the Company, please refer to its SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com or: Telephone: 604-609-0598, Email: info@chinagoldintl.com,Website: www.chinagoldintl.com.

Cautionary Note About Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information regarding China Gold International Resources contained herein may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements may include estimates, plans, expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections, guidance or other statements that are not statements of fact. Although China Gold International Resources believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. China Gold International Resources cautions that actual performance will be affected by a number of factors, most of which are beyond its control, and that future events and results may vary substantially from what China Gold International Resources currently foresees. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration results, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. The forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The information contained herein is stated as of the current date and subject to change after that date.
She recently wrapped filming the 11th and final season of her award-winning show, Modern Family.

And Sofia Vergara made sure to stay focused on business as she headed to meetings in Beverly Hills, California, on Friday morning.

The 47-year-old actress looked chic in distressed denim paired with heels after it was revealed that she'll take her talents to NBC as a new judge of America's Got Talent.

Beaming: Sofia Vergara made sure to stay focused on business as she headed to meetings in Beverly Hills, California, on Friday morning

Sofia mixed business with pleasure wearing a tight black tank top with a beige blazer draped over her arm

She added a casual touch in a pair of light-wash denim slacks hemmed above her ankles with tattered elements across her knees.

The longtime Pepsi spokeswoman added inches to her statuesque frame with a pair of nude platforms.

Hard at work: The 47-year-old actress looked chic in distressed denim paired with heels after it was revealed that she'll take her talents to NBC as a new judge of America's Got Talent

Her long, caramel-colored hair was parted down the middle and worn straight across her back.

She carried a matching beige tote and accessorized with a watch and a thick beaded necklace.

Fresh from her long-running role on the hit ABC family comedy, Sofia's already heading back to work as a new judge on AGT.

She'll join former judge, Heidi Klum, on the panel after Klum took a hiatus from the show, only to return for AGT: Champions.

Stylish: She added a casual touch in a pair of light-wash denim slacks hemmed above her ankles with tattered elements across her knees

In a statement, Colombian-born Vergara said: 'Im so happy to join my new family on AGT. This is a new and exciting next chapter for me and Im extremely proud to be the first Latin judge on the show.'

Klum and Vergara will replace Gabrielle Union and Julianne Hough who were fired after just one season the competition show.

Union joined as a judge for its 14th season and recently spoke out about her experiences with racist comments and being 'too black' for AGT audiences.

She also complained that judge-producer Cowell continuously smoked on the indoor set, Variety reported in November.

An investigation into the accusations was set to be complete in January although no findings have been released yet.
Indian refiners Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy are planning to wind down purchases of Venezuelan oil in April fearing future U.S. sanctions could choke off all avenues to trade with state-run oil firm PDVSA, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Such a step by Reliance, which operates the world's biggest refining complex, and Nayara - part-owned by Russian oil major Rosneft - would severely curtail purchases by one of Venezuela's last big export destinations. India accounted for about a third of Venezuela's oil shipments in January.

The move comes as U.S. President Donald Trump warned in New Delhi this week of an increase in sanctions in a bid to oust Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, whose 2018 re-election was considered a sham by most Western countries.

Washington last year imposed tough sanctions on PDVSA that cut off Venezuela from the United States, its biggest customer, and severely curbed trading with other major buyers of its oil, the nation's main export. Venezuela's once-strong petroleum industry has withered amid a years-long economic crisis.

After several months with little action, the White House this month added Rosneft Trading SA, the Geneva-based unit Rosneft, to its list of sanctioned companies over accusations that it hid the country of origin of oil cargoes loaded at Venezuelan ports and later resold in Asia.

The U.S. set a May 20 deadline for companies to wind down purchases from Rosneft.

Reliance, a long-time customer of PDVSA, has so far not placed requests for April cargoes, one of the sources said.

Nayara Energy, partially owned by Rosneft, is planning to stop processing Venezuelan oil at its refineries after receiving two cargoes that are scheduled for loading in March, two of the sources said.

It will lift no shipments of Venezuelan crude in April "since RTSA (Rosneft Trading SA) was doing all that business and no one else will pick it up," one of the sources said, given shipping times.

PDVSA and Reliance did not reply to requests for comment. Nayara said it is in compliance with all relevant and applicable U.S. sanctions. "We reaffirm our commitment to this position following the recent announcements", it said in an email to Reuters. Rosneft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

FRESH SANCTION WORRIES

The caution over shipments comes as the United States steps up its pressure campaign action against PDVSA.

Reliance, an Indian conglomerate controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and Nayara have major operational and financial exposure in the United States.

Past sanctions have prompted firms, particularly U.S. financial institutions, to overcomply because they are unwilling to risk approving operations linked to PDVSA.

Currently, a small group of oil firms including U.S. major Chevron, Italy's Eni and Spain's Repsol are authorized by the U.S. Treasury Department to take Venezuelan crude as payment for overdue dividends and loans.

Reliance is about to receive about 2.9 million barrels of Venezuelan crude from Chevron and Eni, loaded in January, Refinitiv Eikon vessel tracking data and PDVSA documents showed.

But using intermediaries for sourcing Venezuelan oil may only be a short-term solution as Washington mulls new sanctions.

U.S. special envoy Elliott Abrams, who has accused oil and shipping firms of transferring Venezuelan oil at sea to disguise its real country of origin, told Reuters this week that firms previously authorized to maintain trade operations with PDVSA could not be allowed to do so anymore.

Rosneft has harshly criticized U.S. sanctions, saying that the oil received does not generate cash for PDVSA - the main purpose of the sanctions - but is paying back loans. It has also accused the Trump administration of discriminatory treatment.

NO LAST MINUTE DEALS

Last year, Reliance and PDVSA agreed to a crude-for-fuel swap that would send 4 million barrels of Venezuelan crude to Reliance monthly in exchange for diesel cargoes, according to sources at PDVSA and India.

PDVSA in February allocated 3.9 million barrels of crude to Reliance in three cargoes bound for Sikka port, and 3.8 million barrels for Nayara through Rosneft Trading. Similar volumes are expected for March, according to PDSVA's export programs, seen by Reuters. However, no oil has been ordered for April, one source said.

At the same time, it would be difficult for Indian refiners to ramp up purchases ahead of the wind-down deadline as incremental purchases could be seen as a new contract by the United States, which is forbidden under the sanctions, one of the industry sources said.

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Always known for thinking outside the box, Reds right-hander Trevor Bauer has another unconventional idea: Wherever he signs as a free agent after this season, he wants to pitch every fourth day instead of every fifth, Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.

It only seems crazy because no one is doing it right now, Bauer said of his plan. But Im very convicted in the fact that, one, I can do it. Two, I would be better doing it. And three, it would be a benefit to my team.

Along with that request, Bauer wants to play for a contender that respects him and values technology, Nightengale relays. That all seems reasonable enough, but whether anyone would sign him with the intention of starting him every fourth day is an open question. Regardless, its not the first time Bauer has expressed a willingness to pitch on short rest.

Back when he was a member of the Indians during the 2017 ALDS, Bauer made a start on three days rest, saying beforehand, I consider this normal rest for me. He added, If I could draw it up personally, this is how Id pitch every time.

Bauer then went out and yielded four earned runs in 1 2/3 innings in a loss to the Yankees, though it wouldnt be fair to pass judgment based on a one-game sample size.

Aside from offering his opinions on how much rest he prefers, Bauer has raised eyebrows in the past by expressing a desire to eschew long-term contracts and sign one-year deals for the rest of his career. While discussing that subject with Nightengale, the 29-year-old seemed less sure of how hell proceed.

I mean, I dont know how Im going to react once free agency gets here, Bauer stated. I said what I said, but you can never know how its going to go until you actually get there.

Bauer also noted that hes not motivated by money at this point, having made a lot of it during his career. He earned just under $30MM in salaries from 2011-19, according to Baseball Reference, and will make another $17.5MM this season in his last year of arbitration control.

Bauer may be in for another big salary in 2021, but its fair to say that will depend in part on how he pitches this year. While he had a rough go of it with the Reds after they acquired him from the Indians last July, his combined production between the two teams was still decent. The hard-throwing Bauer wound up with a 4.48 ERA/4.34 FIP and 10.69 K/9 and 3.46 BB/9 in a career-best 213 innings (his fifth straight season with 175 or more frames), but those numbers pale in comparison to his all-world output from 2018.
Andrew Jon Thomasberg (pictured) was sentenced to one year in prison for federal weapons violations

A former neo-Nazi leader in Virginia was sentenced Friday to a year in prison and three years probation for weapons violations charges after he renounced his ties to the white supremacy group.

Andrew Jon Thomasberg, 21, of McLean, was convicted as part of a November 2019 plea bargain where he admitted to possessing weapons while abusing psychedelic drugs like marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms and opium.

Thomsberg also said he bought a semiautomatic rifle for another person who was a drug user in October 2017.

Thomasberg lied in order to illegally purchase a firearm, the Department of Justice said in a press release.

He pleaded guilty to 'making a material false statement in relation to the purchase of a firearm and to possessing firearms while being an unlawful user of or addicted to controlled substances.'

Thomasberg discussed his drug use and firearm possessions in texts that were obtained by prosecutors.

Yo im gonna start tripping again. Psychedelic Nazis, he wrote in one text.

In another, he wrote: Theres nothing more Aryan than entheogenic drug use. Drug addiction is untermensch.

Untermensch is an offensive Nazi term thats used to people they consider to be racially inferior.

During Fridays sentencing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Thomasberg apologized for his actions and told a judge that he renounced his racist ideology.

He said: This has been a very humbling experience. My life will not resume the same way.

Thomasberg was a member of the neo-Nazi Vanguard America, a group that believes America should be a strictly white nation, and then became a leader and recruiter for Atomwaffen Division.

Atomwaffen Divison is a neo-Nazi group that hopes to incite race wars and has been linked to several killings.

The Washington Post reports Thomasberg also attended the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, referred to mass murderers like Dylann Roof as saints and says that he began shouting racial slurs at black people in hopes of a confrontation.

Thomasberg is said to have attended the 2017 Unite the Right rally (pictured), referred to mass murdered like Dylann Roff as 'saints' and purposefully used racial slurs

During interviews with agents, he continued to praise Roof by saying his mass shooting at a predominately black church took balls'.

When asked about racist terms directed at African Americans, Thomasberg said: A leopard cant change its stripes, or its spots. Science is science.

Prosecutors initially sought an 18-month sentence for Thomasberg and that his neo-Nazi affiliation, while not illegal, should be considered because it shows his willingness to engage in violence.

While the defendant has a constitutional right to his own viewpoints and associations, these associations, when viewed in light of the defendants criminal conduct, are alarming, prosecutor Anthony Mariano wrote.

Gretchen Taylor, Thomasberg's lawyer, suggested he be released with time served since his September 2019 arrest.

Thomasberg (left and right) said in court Friday that he renounced his past racist ideology and that his conviction was a 'humbling experience'

He was chosen to be prosecuted because of his ideology and beliefs, said Taylor, who also argued that Thomasberg was susceptible to radicalization due to feeling like an outsider.

Thomasberg reportedly suffers from Lyme disease and PTSD caused by several friends committing suicide.

Taylor also argued that the full 18 months would be excessive because the man Thomasberg purchased the weapon for, Brian Baynes, only received probation.

She attributes his actions to his youth, saying: He is exhibiting grandiosity among his friends.

Prosecutors said Thomasberg was a member and recruiter for the white supremacist group, Atomwaffer, which began on an online forum in 2016

However, Mariano cited an assault charge Thomasberg picked up at 14-year-old  when he fired a gun at a car during a botched drug deal as proof of violent tendencies.

Judge Judge Liam O'Grady called Thomasberg a potentially frightening person to our community but hopes the young man can truly renounce his harmful ideology.

If you study our history, youll realize that for 200 years we have been a collection of people coming from all over the world, and thats what makes us the greatest country in the world. Open your eyes, OGrady said.

When Thomasberg first appeared in court, his mother accused the FBI of unfairly targeting a rich, white kid.

He is one of more than a dozen people with ties to Atomwaffen who have faced federal charges since the groups beginnings in 2016.

Recently, a Atomwaffer leader in Montgomery, Texas, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with a series of phony bomb threats made in Virginia.

John C. Denton, 26, also used forms of intimidation across the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

John C. Denton (pictured) was arrested Wednesday and is a leader of the Atomwaffer Division in Montgomery, Texas

The Department of Justice said he participated in some of 100 calls over two years, including to 'a Cabinet official living in Northern Virginia on January 27, 2019, Old Dominion University on November 29, 2018, and Alfred Street Baptist Church on November 3, 2018'.

Alfred Street is a predominantly African American church in Alexandria.

Court records do not identify the Cabinet official, but public records show that then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was a victim of a swatting incident at her home in Alexandria in January 2019.

Swatting is a harassment tactic that involves deceiving dispatchers into believing that a person or persons are in imminent danger of death or bodily harm and causing the dispatchers to send police and emergency services to an unwitting third party's address.

Court records do not identify the Cabinet official, but public records show that then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was a victim of a swatting incident at her home in Alexandria (pictured) in January 2019

Denton is the second person charged in Alexandria in relation to the swatting calls in Virginia.

Earlier this year, former Old Dominion University student John William Kirby Kelley was charged in the swatting scheme.

The affidavit unsealed Wednesday indicates Denton became concerned that Kelley had too easily drawn law-enforcement attention when he called in a swatting call to his own school in Norfolk.

According to an affidavit, Denton specifically chose two targets in the swatting scheme: the New York offices of ProPublica, an online investigative news outlet, and a ProPublica journalist. The affidavit states Denton was angry at ProPublica and the journalist for exposing his role as an Atomwaffen leader.

John William Kirby Kelley (left) and Kaleb J. Cole (right) are two men with accused of having ties to neo-Nazis

Samuel Woodward was charged with fatally stabbing 19-year-old college sophomore Blaze Bernstein, who was gay and Jewish. Prosecutors have said Woodward's cellphone contained troves of anti-gay, anti-Semitic and hate group materials.

ProPublica reported that Woodward, who went to high school with Bernstein, was an Atomwaffen member who participated in combat training with other group members.

White Supremacy and Antomwaffen Division Neo-Nazi ideology is one of the main sects inside the white supremacy movement in the United States and in other countries around the globe. They revere Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany and sometimes try to adopt some Nazi principles to their own times and geographic locations, though many neo-Nazis primarily adopt the trappings, symbology and mythology of the Third Reich,' the Anti-Defamation League wrote. According to ADL, white supremacy has four key tenets, including: whites should have dominance over people of other backgrounds, especially where they may co- exist

whites should live by themselves in a whites-only society

white people have their own "culture" that is superior to other cultures

white people are genetically superior to other people From this harmful ideology comes the Atomwaffen Divison, which was created in 2016 by a now-defunct white supremacist discussion forum online. Atomwaffen is German for 'atomic weapons'. Apart from being influenced by Nazi rhetoric, several members shared vile remarks on affiliated Antomwaffer websites. Those topics included praising American neo- Nazi James Mason, the Charles Manson murders, homophobic slurs, racist rhetoric, sexual assault and calls for a race war. Sources: Anti-Defamation League and Southern Law Poverty Center Advertisement

Denton admitted to an undercover FBI agent that he participated in the swatting calls to ProPublica and the ProPublica journalist, and used a voice changer when he made calls, according to the affidavit.

In the swatting call targeting the ProPublica journalist, a conspirator pretending to be the reporter called police in Richmond, California, and told 911 that he had killed his wife and would shoot any officers who came to the home. Police who responded to the home placed the reporter and his wife in separate police cruisers while the couple's young son was in the home before the hoax was sorted out.

Denton also allegedly stated to the undercover cop that it would be good if he was 'raided' for the swatting because it would be viewed as a top tier crime, and he felt that his arrest could benefit Atomwaffen Division.

In Seattle, prosecutors announced charges against a group of alleged Atomwaffen members for cyber-stalking and mailing threatening communications in a campaign against journalists with Swastika-laden posters telling them 'You have been visited by your local Nazis.'

The Seattle case charges four alleged Atomwaffen Division members, including Kaleb J. Cole, for their roles in a plot they dubbed Operation Erste Saule.

Authorities say in court papers that journalists and an employee of the Anti-Defamation league received posters in the mail with warnings 'Your Actions have Consequences' and 'We are Watching.'

The affidavit describes Denton as a founding member of Atomwaffen Division who used the names 'Rape' and 'Tormentor' in online conversations while holding a day job as a mortuary worker.

The group has been linked to multiple killings. Authorities say the group is seeking to incite a race war.

Denton faced an initial appearance Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Houston.

Atomwaffer members (pictured) are influenced by Nazi ideology and draw inspiration from figures like Charles Manson

Denton is charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, interstate threats to injure. If convicted, he and faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Denton is one of several alleged Atomwaffen Division members to face federal charges in recent months.

Devon Arthurs, who was charged with killing two of his roommates in the apartment, told police they were Atomwaffen members and that he killed them to thwart a terrorist attack by the group. A fourth roommate, Atomwaffen co-founder Brandon Russell, was sentenced in January 2018 to five years in prison for stockpiling explosive material in the apartment.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 20:07:24|Editor: xuxin

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LOS ANGELES, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Solano County in the U.S. state of California declared a public health emergency on Thursday over the first possible community spread case of COVID-19 in the United States.

"Solano County Public Health officials received confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that a Solano County resident has tested positive for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and has possibly acquired the disease through community transmission," the county said in a statement.

"The patient had not been exposed to the virus through travel or through any contact with any infected individual and the patient's exposure is unknown at this time," it said.

"We are taking this situation seriously and are taking steps necessary to protect the health and safety of Solano County residents," it said, adding the risk to the public in the county remains low but as the outbreak continues to spread globally, there could be more reported cases in the future.

It said the county's Public Health Service has activated its Department Operations Center to bolster its response efforts in identifying, screening and following up with individuals potentially exposed to the virus, while collaborating with local, state and federal agencies to implement containment efforts and providing notifications to the public and community agencies as the situation evolves.

The proclamation came a day after a local woman, who lives in a 100,000-population community named Vacaville located between the cities of San Francisco and Sacramento, tested positive for COVID-19.

According to local officials, the woman admitted herself to a hospital in Vacaville and was taken to the U.S. Davis Medical Center in Sacramento three days later as her condition worsened. The community hospital did not test her immediately as she did not meet the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19.

Less than 100 people who had close contact with the woman, including her family and co-workers, have already been under quarantine, officials said.

At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Solano County Health Officer Bela Matyas said local authorities are changing their approach to the virus from containment to control.

"At this point here in Solano County, we're transitioning from trying to contain the disease to more of a mitigation approach. We recognize that if we do have community spread, that it becomes necessary to consider more aggressive protection of our critical resources," Matyas said.

The official denied any connection between the woman's infection and the evacuation of U.S. passengers from Japan's virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship to the Travis Air Force Base in Solano County, 16 km south of Vacaville.

"There is no logic to draw this conclusion," Matyas said, asking local residents to keep calm as no other case has been found in the county.

"We understand the concern from our community because of the unknowns regarding this new virus. We are working with our local, state and federal partners to prepare for situations that may arise," the health officer said.

"We want to remind individuals that this virus does not discriminate, and people should not be excluded from activities based on their race or country of origin," Matyas said.

Solano County is the third county in California to have declared a state of emergency over COVID-19. The previous two, San Francisco and Orange, declared a local emergency on Tuesday.
Airstrike hits Turkish forces in Syria

Syrian fighters load an artillery near Idlib, Syria February 27, 2020. REUTERS

Carlotta Gall, The New York Times: The Turkish army suffered mass casualties in an airstrike in northwest Syria late Thursday, an attack that could dramatically change the course of the Syrian war as fears grow of a direct conflict between Russia and Turkey, a NATO member.





At least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed and more than 30 wounded, said Rahmi Dogan, the Turkish governor of the southern province of Hatay, where the Turkish casualties were arriving.

Turkish officials said the strike had been carried out by Syrian government forces, but Russian jets have been conducting most of the airstrikes in the area in recent weeks. Turkish protesters in Istanbul converged on the Russian Consulate there early Friday, chanting Murderer Russia! Murderer Putin!

Turkish officials have avoided blaming the Russian government for aggression against their forces in Syria, hoping to avoid a direct confrontation with Russias much stronger military and to keep a line open for talks with President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

Russian officials could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan convened an emergency meeting Thursday evening in Ankara, Turkish media reported. Turkish forces began retaliating Thursday against Syrian government forces in northeastern Idlib province.

Turkey has long supported opposition forces in Syrias nine-year civil war against the government of President Bashar Assad. Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, has largely defeated the uprising, but at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and the creation of millions of refugees.

The Syrian government, backed by Russian warplanes, is fighting in Idlib to retake the countrys last rebel-held province. In the past three months, the fighting there has driven nearly 1 million people from their homes, creating a humanitarian crisis on Turkeys border.

In recent days, tensions between the two sides have been rising, increasing fears of a hot war breaking out between Turkey and Russia, which controls the airspace in northwestern Syria.

Erdogan has called for Syrian government and Russia forces to cease their offensive in Idlib and to pull back from Turkish positions, which have been encircled and cut off by Syrian government forces.

Turkey has deployed thousands of troops into the province to stem the Syrian government advance but has been severely hampered by the lack of air support. Russia has been conducting a blistering air campaign across the province, bombing hospitals, schools and residential buildings, killing at least 300 people in three months.

Turkey has asked the United States for Patriot missiles to help defend its troops, and called for NATO to enforce a no-fly zone to protect the nearly 3 million civilians in Idlib province.

But Washington and NATO members have so far refused to engage militarily in northwest Syria out of reluctance to confront Russia, Western officials said. The United States is withholding the supply of Patriot missiles until Turkey agrees to make the Russian missile S400 system it purchased inoperable.

The United States has about 500 troops in northeastern and southern Syria, whose main mission is to prevent the Islamic State from returning there and to guard Syrian oil fields.

Turkey is a NATO member, prompting fears in the West that an attack on Turkey could require allies in Europe and North America to respond, dramatically escalating an already complex war in Syria.

The attack against Turkey is an attack against NATO, Omer Celik, the spokesman for Erdogans Justice and Development Party, said on the CNN Turk news channel. NATO should have been with Turkey, not starting today but from before these events. We are expecting concrete actions on the safe zone and no-fly zone.

There was no immediate comment from the White House, but President Donald Trump has made it clear that he would like to keep out of the conflict, and has previously ordered US troops to leave.

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Mark T Esper told members of the House Armed Services Committee that the United States was not looking to reassert its presence in Syria.

``There has not been that discussion about re-engaging in the civil war,`` he said. We think the best path forward is through the UN process that is underway.``

Several American officials, however, reacted to the airstrike on Thursday with alarm.

``The prospects of a direct military confrontation between Turkey & Russia in Syria are very high & increasing by the hour,`` Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, said in a tweet. Erdogan, he said, is on the right side here. Putin & Assad are responsible for this horrific humanitarian catastrophe.

Kay Bailey Hutchison, the American ambassador to NATO, told reporters in Washington on Thursday that ``everything is on the table.``

``This is a big development,`` Hutchison said, and our alliance is with Turkey, it is not with Russia. She added, We want Turkey to understand that we are the ones that theyve been allied with.

Before the airstrike on Thursday, Turkey had lost 13 soldiers in Syria in recent weeks. The main opposition party has questioned the wisdom of Turkeys involvement without air support, or US or NATO backing.

The attack on Thursday occurred on Turkish troops between the towns of Al Bara and Balyoun, south of the city of Idlib. Turkish troops have been positioned in 12 Turkish observations posts set up over a year ago as part of a de-escalation agreement with Russia.

A Turkish military convoy traveling to resupply troops on Thursday came under aerial attack first, and then a building where the troops were based was struck, Abu Yahya, a senior official of the Turkish-backed Syrian fighting force in Idlib province, said in an interview.

The Turkish-backed Syrian fighters have made significant gains in battles against Syrian government forces farther east recently. They captured the town of Saraqib on the main M5 highway through the province on Wednesday and were engaged in fierce battles farther south on Thursday.

The Turkish army called on its Syrian proxies to raise their readiness for operations, a Syrian media group reported.

Emotions were running high in Reyhanli, on the Turkish side of the Syrian border, where the casualties were brought. People gathered to donate blood and a crowd chanted God is Great outside the main hospital.

The escalation came as Western members of the UN Security Council in New York implored Russia and Syria to decree a humanitarian cease-fire in the Idlib region.

``There is more this council can and must do to stop the suffering,`` Foreign Minister Heiko Maas of Germany and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo of Belgium told the council in a joint statement on Thursday morning.

Ursula Mueller, the assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told council members that the deprivations facing civilians in northwest Syria were ``not humanly tolerable.`` Henrietta Fore, the executive director of UNICEF, who is to visit Syria this weekend, said ``we desperately need a cessation of hostilities in northwest Syria.``

But the Russians, who have vetoed 14 Security Council resolutions on Syria since the insurgency began in 2011, rejected the entreaty.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russias ambassador to the global body, said the only long-term solution in Idlib and the rest of Syria was a final and irreversible expulsion from the country of all terrorists.

Idlib`s 3 million people include about 1.5 million opponents of the Syrian government, who have fled to Idlib from other parts of Syria, as well as a mix of jihadi and rebel groups. The Syrian government and Russia refer to members of the civilian opposition and the rebel and jihadi groups as terrorists.

Russian state news services did not report on the strike by late Thursday, but they cited military officials blaming Turkey for supporting militants who are targeting Russian positions.

``The Turkish side continued to support illegal armed formations with artillery fire and reconnaissance and attack drones,`` Interfax cited a rear admiral, Oleg Zhuravlev, as saying. Zhuravlev said the Russian air force shot down a Turkish drone.

Rossiya 24, a state news channel, reported that Turkey was targeting Syrian army troops with artillery and Russian helicopters with anti-aircraft fire in response to the strike that killed Turkish soldiers. The report cited only unspecified ``information`` it had received, not an official source.

c.2020 The New York Times Company
The police on Friday identified the cause of death of 35 victims of the communal violence in northeast Delhi -- 22 died due to fatal injuries from stone pelting or physical assault and 13 due to gunshot injuries.

IMAGE: Security personnel patrol a street following clashes over new citizenship law at Mustafabad in northeast Delhi. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI Photo

The police have managed to identified only 26 of the victims.

"As per the report available..., 35 persons have succumbed to injuries inflicted on them during riots (till Tuesday)..., 13 persons have died due to gunshot injuries and 22 persons have died due to severe injuries...," according to a police report.

The Delhi Police spokesperson separately said 38 people -- most of them in their 20s and 30s -- have died during the violence.

Hospital authorities have, however, put the toll at 42.

Those who died of physical assault or stone pelting are: Alok Tiwari (32 - died due to physical assault), Mohseen (25-physical assault), Salman (24 - stone pelting), Intelligence Bureau staffer Ankit Sharma (26 -physical assault), Asfaq Hussain (physical assault), Dilbar Singh Negi (21 - physical assault), Mahroof Ali (32 - physical assault), Mehtab (22 - physical assault), Zakir (24 - physical assault) and Deepak Kumar (34 - stabbing).

Those who died due to gunshot injury are Amaan (18), Dinesh (35), Head constable Ratan Lal (42), Istayak (24), Mohammad Mubarak Hussain (28), Mohammad Mudassar (30), Pravesh (48), Rahul Solanki (26), Shahid, Vir Bhan (50), Mohammad Furkan (30), Shad Mohammad (35).

The police have not identified the cause of death of Rahul Thakur, Faizan, Nitin, and Vinod.
The Delhi government on February 28 gave the go-ahead to prosecute former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and two others in the sedition case, more than three years after the row had erupted, news agency PTI has reported.

Last year, the Delhi Police had told a court that authorities were yet to give requisite sanctions to prosecute Kumar and others in the 2016 sedition case.

On January 14 last year, police had filed a charge sheet in the court against Kumar and others, saying he was leading a procession and supported seditious slogans raised on the JNU campus during an event on February 9, 2016.

Kumar had unsuccessfully contested on a Communist Party of India (CPI) ticket during last year's Lok Sabha polls from Begusarai Parliamentary constituency.
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Linkedin Marchio Irfan Gorbiano (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020 19:23 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206743fae 1 National Indonesia-new-capital,McKinsey,Nikken-Sekkei,AECOM,East-Kalimantan,SoftBank-Group-Corp,Masayoshi-Son,Tony-Blair,Jokowi-second-term Free

The Indonesian government is involving three international consulting firms in developing the masterplan of the countrys new capital city, which is to be located in East Kalimantan.

Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said on Friday that American engineering company AECOM, consulting firm McKinsey & Company and Japanese architectural and engineering firm Nikken Sekkei would design the city, which is to feature the latest technology and be environmentally friendly at the same time.

Sepaku Village, Penajam Paser Utara Regency, East Kalimantan, will be the location of the nation's capital. (JP/Gede Dharma )

McKinsey has been hired to assist the National Development Planning Agency, while Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, which has pledged to invest in the project, will work with Nikken Sekkei.

[The consulting firms] have experience designing large cities, said Luhut during the sidelines of a meeting on the megaproject that was also attended by former British prime minister Tony Blair and SoftBank founder and chief executive officer Masayoshi Son.

Read also: Jokowi's grand vision for new capital

The Indonesian government attracted global attention when it announced in August that it would move its capital from the flood-prone and sinking Jakarta on Java Island to a 256,000-hectare forested area straddling the regencies of North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara in East Kalimantan on Borneo, an island that it shares with Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.

The government has estimated that the new capital would cost Rp 466 trillion (US$34.06 billion) and has declared it would finance one-fifth of that through the state budget.

Jokowi said that public money would fully fund the construction of the 5,600-ha downtown area of the new capital, where the new presidential palace and other government buildings would sit.

The government previously appointed Blair, Son and UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed al Nahyan to the steering committee for the project.

It was earlier revealed that the UAE government was prepared to invest $22.8 billion in Indonesia through a sovereign wealth fund, together with SoftBank and the United States International Development Finance Corporation.
Continued Growth in Recurring Revenue, and Positive Operating Cash highlight quarter

CUPERTINO, CA, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - (TSXV:BWLK,OTCQB: BWLKF)  Boardwalktech Software Corp. ("Boardwalktech" or the "Company"), a leading digital ledger platform and enterprise software solutions company, is pleased to report its financial results for the three and nine-month period ended December 31, 2019. All figures are reported in U.S. dollars ($), unless otherwise indicated. Boardwalktech's financial statements are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS").

"In addition to a growing annual recurring revenue base that now totals $3.7 million, up 25% versus last year, we continue to implement cost savings as we shift resources towards more sales execution and further revenue expansion," said Andrew T. Duncan, Chief Executive Officer. "We remained committed to our goal of achieving profitability this Spring through the combination of accelerating our pipeline and cost savings, as we have seen significant progress in achieving this milestone this quarter by recognizing positive operating cash flow for the second consecutive quarter."

Mr. Duncan continued, "Since our last earnings release, we have seen a 35% increase in our pipeline, to over $7.1 million, as new and existing enterprise clients look to the Boardwalktech Digital Ledger Platform to migrate more enterprise applications and workflows to the cloud and a true digital environment. With our newly announced Network-of-Words technology (NOW), Boardwalktech is extending its industry leadership by enabling companies to handle, organize, and manage both structured and unstructured data and documents versus the current manual methods of email attachments, text searching PDF files, and manual queries. As a result of generating 3-5x ROI for our typical customer engagements, we anticipate continuing growth in bookings and billings as the value and strong ROI of the Boardwalktech platform is adopted by some of the largest global enterprises."

Financial Highlights:

Revenues for Q3-FY20 was $1.2 million versus $1.2 million of revenue in Q2-FY20, as revenue from recurring licenses increased 15% from Q3-FY19.





versus of revenue in Q2-FY20, as revenue from recurring licenses increased 15% from Q3-FY19. Annualized Recurring Revenue for Q3-FY20 was $3.7 million , up 25% over $3.1 million in Q2-FY20. Compared to Q3-FY19, billings for recurring licenses was up 32% year-to-date versus the nine-month period last year.





, up 25% over in Q2-FY20. Compared to Q3-FY19, billings for recurring licenses was up 32% year-to-date versus the nine-month period last year. Gross margin in Q3-FY20 was 86.2%, a 0.2%-point decrease from Q2-FY20 level of 86.4%, reflecting the impact of personnel re-allocated to support the ramp-up of new customer contracts.





Cash from Operating Activities was a positive $0.1 million , marking the second consecutive quarter of positive operating cash inflows.





, marking the second consecutive quarter of positive operating cash inflows. Adjusted EBITDA loss of $(0.6) million in Q3-FY20, a 12% improvement from a loss of $(0.7) million in Q3-FY19, flat with Q2-FY20. Year-to-date, the Company has lowered total operating expenses by $0.9 million versus the comparable period last year, with continued EBITDA improvements from current and future actions (started since December 2019 ) that should net annual operating savings of at least $1 million .





in Q3-FY20, a 12% improvement from a loss of in Q3-FY19, flat with Q2-FY20. Year-to-date, the Company has lowered total operating expenses by versus the comparable period last year, with continued EBITDA improvements from current and future actions (started since ) that should net annual operating savings of at least . Non-IFRS net loss for Q3-FY20 (as defined in the Non-IFRS Financial Measures section) totaled $(0.8) million , or $(0.06) per basic and diluted share, a 9% improvement versus a $(0.9) million loss in Q3-FY19, or $(0.09) per basic and diluted share and versus $(0.8) million non-IFRS loss, or $(0.07) per share in Q2-FY20.





, or per basic and diluted share, a 9% improvement versus a loss in Q3-FY19, or per basic and diluted share and versus non-IFRS loss, or per share in Q2-FY20. Reported loss for Q3-FY20 was $(1.4) million , or loss of $(0.11) per basic and diluted share, representing a 20% improvement versus a $(1.7) million loss, or $(0.17) per share, in Q3-FY19; and a $(1.3) million loss, or $(0.11) per share, in Q2-FY20.

Subsequent to the quarter:

On February 28, 2020 , completed a $500,000 debt-to-equity conversion with existing lender and investor, SQN Venture Income Fund, LP.





, completed a debt-to-equity conversion with existing lender and investor, SQN Venture Income Fund, LP. On January 13, 2020 introduced a suite of product enhancements, BW. Supply Chain Ecosystem and Network of Words (NOW) technology at National Retail Federation Show, based on newly developed technology that converges structured and unstructured data such as SQL, bill of materials, documents, videos, and images to enable multiple functional and vertically-focused customer applications, and is currently being evaluated by prospective customers

Other Operational Highlights:

On November 13, 2019 , Boardwalk began trading on OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol 'BWLKF'





, Boardwalk began trading on OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol 'BWLKF' On December 4, 2019 , a large customer in the food service sector went live with their first application BW. Sales and Operations Planning.





, a large customer in the food service sector went live with their first application BW. Sales and Operations Planning. In November, signed global contract with a $35B company who manufacturers confectionery items, pet food, and other food products for deployment of the Boardwalk Digital Ledger Platform

About Boardwalktech Software Corp.

Boardwalktech has developed a patented Digital Ledger Technology Platform that is in use today by 26 of the Fortune 500 running over 100 live mission critical applications world-wide. This enterprise platform allows for multi-party collaboration, provenance, verification and immutable transactions on a trusted, shared, and secured private permissioned blockchain cloud service. The Boardwalktech platform allows rapid blockchain application development on any device or user interface, supporting both on/off-chain "smart contract" business logic and full integration with enterprise systems of record.

Boardwalktech is headquartered in Cupertino, California with offices in India and operations in North America. For more information on Boardwalktech, visit our website at www.boardwalktech.com.

Forward-Looking Information and Statements

This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and may also contain statements that may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking information and statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Company's beliefs regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company's control. Generally, such forward-looking information or statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "will continue", "will occur" or "will be achieved".

By identifying such information and statements in this manner, the Company is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements.

An investment in securities of the Company is speculative and subject to several risks including, without limitation, the risks discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's filing statement dated May 30, 2018. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.

In connection with the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release, the Company has made certain assumptions. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information and/or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward- looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE BoardwalkTech
The leader of the P.E.I. Green Party says his party will provide more "vigorous opposition" when the legislature resumes in April, and has already begun feeling its way toward a more confrontational approach to politics to counter criticism the party has been "very cozy" with government.

Peter Bevan-Baker said it's been "challenging" over the past 10 months for his party to find a balance between honouring its commitments to work collaboratively with other parties, while at the same time holding government to account as the first Green official opposition in the country.

Collaboration is absolutely not over, and I'm not averse to hugging almost anybody.  Peter Bevan-Baker

"Somehow people have gotten the impression that we're very cozy with the governing party and that we're not holding them to account, but actually that has never been the case," said Bevan-Baker.

Regardless, he said the party has to "re-emphasize" the accountability part of its portfolio, and plans to do so "through some perhaps more vigorous opposition," although he said that doesn't mean the Greens are "going to lose our sense of civility."

'Ask hard questions'

Philippe Lagasse, chair of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa and an expert on the Westminster parliamentary system, said being an effective opposition doesn't require a party to be "uncivil, but someone must be there to ask hard questions and raise concerns that might have been overlooked."

Legislative Assembly of P.E.I.

"Having an opposition that opposes is generally considered vital for holding the government to account," Lagasse said, adding that "a true opposition is [also] important to give voters a choice at election time."

One move by the Greens so far which he found "especially odd and counterproductive" is when the party's social development critic Hannah Bell was quoted in a government news release in December announcing an increase in social assistance benefits.

Story continues

"Having an opposition member endorse government undermines their party's ability to effectively scrutinize the policy," Lagasse said via email. "That isn't to say that each opposition member has to be against the government on all policies, but actively supporting the government, is odd."

Bevan-Baker said there was a lengthy discussion within caucus on whether the Greens should be involved in that announcement. Ultimately the decision was made to go ahead because increasing social assistance rates was something the party, and Bell in particular, had pushed hard for  efforts which, Bevan-Baker said, led to government going ahead with the increase.

Not 'politically naive anymore'

Bevan-Baker said he wouldn't characterize the move as a mistake, but also isn't sure if it's something the party would do again.

Legislative Assembly of P.E.I.

"We're learning. We're relatively new to this, and I don't want to harp on about our naivete because I don't think we're politically naive anymore," Bevan-Baker said. "But I do think that we're learning some things about what it means to operate within the confines of a legislature."

He said in another case, the Greens asked government to include funding for rural health-care hubs in its capital budget, which it did.

But no one in government mentioned the idea had come from the Greens until the $5-million line item had become a significant point of debate in the legislature, under repeated questioning from the third-party Liberals.

"We haven't always played smart politics here, and I think it was quite clear that our closeness to government was giving them all of the political credit and we were taking all of the political risk," said Bevan-Baker.

A recent blog post in which Bevan-Baker criticized Transportation Minister Steven Myers overspending in his department and for the minister's comments on social media is one example of the Greens trying on a more accusatory tone with government.

Myers dismissed the criticism in a tweet saying the approach by the Greens was the same approach he took while in opposition.

Premier Dennis King, who like Bevan-Baker promised in last year's election to do politics differently and who has made much of the collaboration between parties during the first two sittings of the current legislative assembly, said he hopes that spirit of collaboration won't be lost.

'Haven't seen the personal attacks'

King said he thinks both opposition parties have done a "very good job" holding his minority government to account, and observers shouldn't mistake civility during debate as a lack of resolve from opposition members to seek that accountability.

"I think maybe because we haven't seen the personal attacks and the fighting and the blood-letting on the floor of the legislature that people think that somehow we're getting some kind of free pass, and I would argue that we're not," King said.

"We are the envy of the rest of Canada in how we've conducted ourselves here  in very difficult political times across the globe. And I would hate to think that we would move away from that, but the opposition parties have a job to do."

Bevan-Baker said the collaboration isn't going to end, and neither will the political hugs, which have been photographed and widely shared in the news and on social media.

"Collaboration is absolutely not over, and I'm not averse to hugging almost anybody. But I think we will  at least in a political sense, distance ourselves a little bit more from government."

More P.E.I. news
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Linkedin Anis H. Bajrektarevic (The Jakarta Post) Vienna  Fri, February 28, 2020 15:21 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206731c09 3 Opinion Europe,history,World-War-II,nazi,Fascism,Racism Free

He who does not wish to speak of capitalism should remain forever silent about Nazism, Max Horkheimer famously said. It was a clear and often repeated line of this chief architect from the Frankfurt School of Philosophy  one of the most influential centers of thought in the 20th century. This school of thought was tolerant and rather forgiving toward Western societies. Most importantly, the Frankfurters were for sure physically closest to one to the post-World War II ideological and geopolitical default lines.

Even the Heideggerian runa-away, Herbert Marcuse agreed. His repressive tolerance was probably the best indication of the possible self-entrapment of the western society, if someone in future ever attempts a dangerous and ahistorical equitation between Nazism and anything else, least with Communism.

Regrettably enough, that future of de-evolution started pouring in by 1990s: It was this very same notion which Umberto Eco will name ur-fascism in 1995, sensing cold winds from the eastern flank of the European Union and highly cynical silence of tacit approval from central Europe.

No one governs innocently, is a legendary diagnosis of Simone de Beauvoir about a true (Machiavellian) nature of political conduct. However, Nazi culprit; the calmly programmed concentrations camps, ruthless invasions and unprecedented scale of all-Europe suffering does not fall under this category. And will never be. This colossal evil needs its own name, its own category and our clear immortal reference to it.

Hence, the one who is not ready to talk about the imperialism of (primarily) Atlantic-Central Europe, colonialism, as well as about racism which usually justified the first two, should not talk about the "true" European values. Or, for that matter, teach any lesson Europes East and Southeast.

Bottom line, we should speak up about France in Algeria and Indochina, Italy in Libya and Eritrea, Dutch in Indonesia, Spain in Latin America (and home with Franco), Germany in Namibia and repeatedly all over Europe, Britain at so many places and at so many times, etc.

More than that, the only organized and permanent resistance in Europe, occupied by Nazis, before and during the WW II was made by the communists. This irrefutable fact many to the EUs East today perceive as inconvenient truth, which  by anti/intellectual acrobatics and central EU complicit silence  should be hidden under the carpet.

That anti-fascist struggle does not include the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia only  two countries taking up by far the heaviest burden of pan-European resistance and liberation  but other patriotic movements as well; French, Greek, Italian and Spanish communists, too.

Of course, the only two countries that solely freed themselves from Nazism without any external help were the two Eastern European, and at the same time two predominantly Slavic countries, Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

So, the equation of communism with Nazism deeply insults all victims, but more over it negates very antifascist fundaments of modern Europe, while being at the same time deeply anti-Slavic. Clearly, negations of Nazi horrors  and any equitation is a beginning of such ahistorical and racist negation  committed in camps and elsewhere in occupied Europe, is not only anti-Semitic. It is first and most of all anti-Slavic!

Sadly enough, most of the Atlantist literature and movies on WW II are biased and misleading on the role of the Red Army, and are disrespectful towards the enormous suffering of the Soviet and Yugoslav peoples at that time.

Some of the constantly implied fallacies is that the United States and United Kingdom equally shared the burden of WW II with the Soviets.

Even the then-British ambassador in Moscow, Stafford Cripps, accused his government of fatalistic defeatism, lack of bravery and of shirking any fight. As it happens, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin himself shouted at Winston Churchill when the British prime minister went to Moscow to meet him in August 1942: Were losing 10,000 soldiers a day [1 per 8 seconds!!] Are you going to let us do all the fighting?

Relative to the 1939 size of state territory and incumbent population within, the top WW II fatalities were suffered by Poland 18 percent), the Soviet Union 15 percent, Yugoslavia 12 percent, III Reich/Germany+Austria 10 percent. As comparison, the Atlantic rim suffered as follows: France 1.3 percent, UK 0.9 percent, the US 0.3 percent. In casualties it is 36 million to the East (mostly civilians), versus only 1.2 of the Atlantic Europe including the US soldiers.

Indeed, Russian and Yugoslav front  as only two fronts of permanently organized military resistance on the continent  faced nearly 90 percent of the total German forces deployed in Europe. Promising to open the second, western front ever since 1941, the Anglo-American army eventually managed its landing on Sicily but only as late as September 1943.

By that time, Yugoslavia's leader Josip B. Titos Partisans already managed most of their critical offensives, while Russians won over in the biggest and bloodiest battles of WW II.

All of them were fought on the very Soviet soil; that of Moscow, of Stalingrad, of Leningrad and of Kursk  with the latter representing the biggest battle ever recorded in history of mankind.

Also indigenously, Italian anti-fascists significantly knocked down the Duces rule in Italy.

Conversely, the Anglo-American blitzkrieg up the Italian boot turned into a blamage. German forces quickly replaced capitulating Italys Fascists phalanges, and easily repelled the Allies.

The Western combined army will reach Rome only in June 1944. Eventually, by the time of the Normandy invasion in summer 1944, the fate of Nazism in Europe was already decided by Eastern and Russophone Europe.

Trying to answer why the so-called Anglo-American antifascist intervention in Greece and Italy was so slow, anemic and late, many scholars argue that it was never meant to fight Nazis, but to disturb the strong indigenous leftist antifascist forces and to divert them to the desired ideological orientation and Atlantist geopolitical course.

Finally, The name of the Rose? Well, it is Red.

Sorry, but this is how it is. Eco just recorded echo.

_________

Professor in international law and global political studies. His seventh book From WWI to www. 1918-2018 was published by the New Yorks Addleton Academic Publishers.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
Few people on Earth are so exploited as children trafficked into the sex trade. And now they are being exploited again, by President Donald Trump.

My administration is putting unprecedented pressure on traffickers at home and abroad, Trump declared at a White House meeting on trafficking. My administration is fighting these monsters, persecuting and prosecuting them, and locking them away for a very, very long time. Weve had a tremendous track record  the best track record in a long time.

Ive been reporting about human trafficking all over the world since the 1990s, so part of me is thrilled that a president is highlighting this issue. Ivanka Trump has made it a signature issue, and she organized the White House event. The president used the occasion to announce a new White House position to oversee anti-trafficking efforts, and all this high-level attention could be very helpful.

Yet its increasingly clear that this is less about protecting children and more about exalting Trump, whose administration is actually prosecuting fewer traffickers and making it harder for some trafficking survivors to get help. As a result, major anti-trafficking organizations boycotted the White House session.

Over the last three years, we have watched with horror as the administration has dismantled protections for trafficking survivors, said Martina Vandenberg, the president of the Human Trafficking Legal Center in Washington, who stayed away.

Using human trafficking for pernicious political purposes is new, she added. It is a Trump administration invention.

The Human Trafficking Legal Center reports only 146 federal trafficking indictments in 2019, down from 204 in the last year of the Obama administration.

A whistleblower complaint alleges the administration diverted anti-trafficking money from well-respected nonprofits to less-effective organizations like Hookers for Jesus.

Foreign women and children who have been trafficked into Americas sex trade are eligible for a special visa, the T visa, under a program with bipartisan support, but the administration in 2019 approved only 500 T visas, down from 748 in 2016, and wait times are now three or four times longer. The administration now threatens to deport trafficking survivors who are denied T visas, so applications have fallen.

The administration also has made no attempt to address underlying causes of trafficking, such as child poverty. Americas foster care system, for example, is dysfunctional and amounts to a pipeline for traffickers. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine last year offered an important road map to cut American child poverty by half, a step that would reduce trafficking, but the administration has ignored it.

We are losing the war on trafficking, mostly because we have made this all about prosecutions, Vandenberg said. We are doing almost no prevention.

Rachel Lloyd, who was trafficked into the sex trade as a teenager, now runs an excellent program in New York City called the Girls Educational and Mentoring Service, or GEMS, which helps girls who have been trafficked. Lloyd said that when she realized that the administration was only engaged in a PR effort, she turned down a position on an administration advisory panel and also declined a $10,000 donation from Ivanka Trump for GEMS.

Why would we give them cover and validation? asked Lloyd, whose memoir, Girls Like Us, is one of the best books on trafficking.

Human trafficking is one of the pre-eminent moral challenges of our time. The International Labor Organization estimates that worldwide, some 10 million children exist in forms of modern slavery. In Cambodia, I once saw terrified young girls being sold for their virginity; in Pakistan, I saw a brothel owner determined to kill a girl who had escaped.

Trumps exploitation of trafficking victims for his own purposes is particularly sad because this is a rare issue where Democrats and Republicans have worked productively together: Evangelical Christians and liberal feminists both have done heroic work for 20 years. Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, has done outstanding work on this issue, as has Gloria Steinem.

Its useful for a president to speak up about trafficking, to keep the issue on the agenda. But Trump sensationalizes in lurid terms: Women are tied up, theyre bound, duct tape put around their faces, he has said. Its usually more complicated than that, and survivors are irritated that Trump cites trafficking as a reason to build his border wall.

This is an issue that doesnt need overdramatizing, said Lloyd, who was nearly killed by her pimp.

Shaquana Blount, who was trafficked at age 14 in New York and is now 30, put it this way: The presidents sensationalization of sex trafficking is a spit in the face to myself and many survivors, as his narrative does not fit ours. It is his own.

Twitter.com/NickKristof
SP member Sanjay Garg asked energy minister Shrikant Sharma about the power consumption, production and purchase in the state

Lucknow: Alleging that the state government was not working in the interest of power consumers, Samajwadi Party and BSP members on Friday staged a walkout from the Uttar Pradesh assembly during Question Hour.

As soon as the House met, SP member Sanjay Garg asked energy minister Shrikant Sharma about the power consumption, production and purchase in the state. Replying to the member, Sharma said power demand changes in accordance with the weather.

"Between April to October, the demand is between 17,500 MW to 22,000 MW and between November to March it remains between 10,000 MW to 16,000 MW. Presently, average power consumption in the state is 15,800 MW," the minister said.

He pointed out that in financial year 2019 to 2020 till January, a total of 1,05,264 million units of power were purchased from various sources. SP members, though, said the government has failed to increase power production.

Alleging that the government was not serious about the issue, leader of opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary of SP felt unsatisfied with the reply and staged a walkout with fellow members.

Lalji Verma, leader of BSP in the House, said the state government should pass on the benefit to consumers when it claimed to be purchasing power at cheap prices. He also staged a walkout on the issue with the BSP members.

Responding to the opposition, the minister said 18 hours power supply is fixed for rural areas, 20 hours for tehsils and 24 hours at district headquarters.

In reply to another question by Congress member Ajay Kumar Lallu, Sharma said the losses borne by various distribution companies of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited has reached Rs 82,214.40 crore from Rs 77.47 crore in 2000 to 2001.

He said a number of measures have been initiated by the department to bring down the losses of the power corporation.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has deployed its Rapid Response Teams to support the Lagos State Government, as Nigeria records its first case of the Coronavirus (COVID19). The patient, an Italian national returned to Nigeria from Italy and has been placed in isolation.

Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director General of NCDC, assured Nigerians, that with appropriate information, treatment and precautions, Nigeria will beat COVID19 like Ebola.

The NCDC, he said, has also escalated the multi-sectoral coronavirus preparedness group to an Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), at Level II to lead response activities.

Ihekweazu said that health facilities must remain on high alert.

He assured Nigerians of their safety against COVID19.

The NCDC will continue to keep Nigerians informed. It is important for them to be focused on facts and not fear.

Nigerians should protect themselves by staying calm, drink lots of water.

He said Nigerians should frequently wash their hands, avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth, practice respiratory hygiene and if anyone have fever, cough and difficulty breathing, they should seek medical care early.
For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here.

Spreading nearly as fast as the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China are misconceptions, bogus cures and deliberate misinformation about the disease.

As of Thursday, deaths from the virus were approaching the 3,000 mark. Some 82,500 cases have been confirmed.

No cure or vaccine exists for COVID-19, but that hasn't stopped people and bots from pushing phony treatments and questionable health advice online.

We have collected some of the more ludicrous of the claims flagged by the World Health Organization and other health observers in the above gallery. In addition, we included a few precautions that legitimate medical professionals recommend.

The presumed source of the new coronavirus is an animal market in Wuhan, China. Some scientists believe it originated with bats but may have jumped to another animal before infecting humans.

ALSO: What you need to know about coronavirus in the Bay Area

"The risk to the American people remains very low," President Trump said Wednesday before announcing Vice President Mike Pence will lead the government effort in fighting the disease. A day earlier he said "were very close to a vaccine," but the White House said was referring to Ebola  not the new coronavirus.

---

Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Declaring it was not a close call, a federal judge on Thursday struck down a law Toledo residents passed last year that would give them sweeping powers to protect Lake Erie, saying the law was too vague and gave the city too much power.

Senior U.S. District Judge Jack Zouharys ruling, while not unexpected by proponents of the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, was still a blow to groups that sought to protect the lake from harmful invasive species. Toledoans passed the law during a special election in February 2019, in the wake of a three-day period in August 2014 when residents couldnt drink their water because of a harmful algal bloom.

The judge noted the citys crisis period at the outset of his eight-page opinion. Still, he made clear that good intentions were not enough to save the law, which was designed to give Toledoans and its residents power that stretched far beyond the city limits.

Frustrated by the status quo, LEBOR supporters knocked on doors, engaged their fellow citizens, and used the democratic process to pursue a well-intentioned goal: the protection of Lake Erie, Zouhary wrote. As written, however, LEBOR fails to achieve that goal.

This is not a close call. LEBOR is unconstitutionally vague and exceeds the power of municipal government in Ohio.

The law, passed as an amendment to the citys municipal charter, allowed the city and its residents to sue businesses and governments on the lakes behalf to fight against pollution. The law also invalidated conflicting state laws and regulations and takes precedence over federal permits and licenses.

The law is part of what is called the Rights of Nature movement, and environmentalists seek to give nature the same rights as corporations.

It never went into effect, though, as farming business in neighboring Wood County, who spread fertilizer on fields in the watershed, immediately sued. The judge, upon the agreements of both sides, blocked the law from going into effect while the case was litigated. The state of Ohio later joined in to fight the law, while lawyers for the city sought to defend it.

A lawyer for Drewes Farm Partnership, the farming business that sued over the law, said in a statement that the company was happy with the judges ruling.

Toledo decided to aggressively defend its Charter amendment instead of doing the right thing by recognizing immediately that its amendment was clearly unconstitutional, attorney Thomas Fusonie said.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost also said that Zouharys ruling was the correct one.

"Lets save Lake Erie  but do it legally, Yost said in a news release Friday.

Advocates for the law decried the ruling and said it was evidence of the government and judges siding with businesses over the will of the people.

Part of the 1%s strategy is to shut down our legal options, Markie Miller of Toledoans for Safe Water, which backed the law, said in a release. As long as there is a Lake to protect, we wont be going anywhere.

For all the power the law gave the city and its residents, the judge wrote that its language does not clearly spell out key issues, such as what constitutes an infringement on the lakes rights, how a judge would decide what was a violation or even what constitutes a clean and healthy environment.

Its also unclear whether certain activities  such as catching fish, dredging a river, driving a gas-fueled vehicle or planting corn  would run afoul of the law, Zouhary wrote.

Thats not the only problem, the judge wrote, calling the attempt to invalidate conflicting Ohio laws a textbook example of what municipal government cannot do.

Lake Erie is not a pond in Toledo, he wrote. It is one of the five Great Lakes and one of the largest lakes on Earth, bordering dozens of cities, four states, and two countries.

Zouhary said Toledoans could probably draft a law that would pass legal muster, and cited a law passed by Madison, Wisconsin in 2004 that restricted the use of fertilizers containing phosphorous within the city limits.

The ordinance survived a lawsuit like this one, Zouhary wrote of the Madison law. In contrast, LEBOR was not so carefully drafted.

Its authors ignored basic legal principles and constitutional limitations, and its invalidation should come as no surprise.

Read more:

Toledos Lake Erie Bill of Rights is stuck in court -- but inspiring environmentalists nationwide

Lake Erie cant participate in lawsuit over Toledos clean-water law, federal judge says

Toledoans approve first Lake Erie Bill of Rights. Farmer sues over laws constitutionality

Toledos water crisis was a decade in the making from farms and sewage plants, experts say
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BAGHDAD  Following his latest failed effort to form a Cabinet this week, Iraq's Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi, who was nominated as a compromise candidate for solving the political deadlock between the protesters, the state and varied political parties, is losing support from all sides.

Sunni and Kurdish blocs boycotted a parliamentary session Feb. 28, leading to its cancellation. The blocs complained that Allawi had not consulted them about selecting his Cabinet.

The next session is expected to be held Feb. 29 or March 1, but this is not yet confirmed. Still, there is no sign of agreement between the political parties over Allawi's Cabinet.

Allawi's failure to form a government came as no surprise. He had previously complained that different political parties were pressuring him and not allowing him to choose nonsectarian, independent Cabinet ministers.

Allawi tweeted: I heard that there is a plan to prevent the Cabinet from receiving confidence from the parliament in order to continue corruption and thefts, because the ministries will be headed by independent and impartial ministers. They are paying money to the members of the parliament to fulfill their scheme.

Allawi is facing contradictory demands from conflicting parties, which makes his task in forming a compromise government impossible. He published his government program Feb. 25, including his agendas and policies such as planning for an early election and undertaking reforms. The plan includes selecting independent ministers who are not affiliated with or nominated by the political parties. However, it seems unlikely that the political parties will accept Allawi's Cabinet selection method, as it eliminates their political influence.

The fact is, Allawi is not affiliated with any political party that would support him making deals with other parties. He is under immense pressure, wedged between conflicting demands from rival parties that are impossible to deliver.

The conflicting parties are the protesters, Sunni blocs, Kurdish blocs and the United States, which wants to maintain a power balance between the aforementioned parties.

Protesters were the source of all the political changes that led to the Allawi nomination, and they are now calling for a nonsectarian, nonpartisan Cabinet. The two main Shiite blocs that nominated Allawi, the Popular Mobilization Units' Fatah Alliance and Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadrs Sairoon Alliance, agreed to give Allawi the freedom to independently form his Cabinet. However, Kurds and Arab Sunnis want their own share of Cabinet members.

After the Kurdish delegation met with Allawi to discuss his Cabinet and program last week, Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani headed a meeting in Erbil Feb. 24, in which he concluded that the steps taken by Mr. Allawi so far have not earned the trust of many Iraqi parties and communities. Therefore, we ask that his work plan and agenda be revised in a way that the future government will address and meet the demands of all Iraqi communities.

On the Sunni side, the Iraqi Forces Alliance, which is affiliated with parliamentary speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi, announced it would not vote in favor of Allawi's Cabinet. The alliance questioned the Cabinet's independence. Mahasin Hamdoun, a representative of the Iraqi Forces Alliance, said Allawi was nominated by certain political parties  referring to the Fatah and Sairoon alliances  and that Allawi's Cabinet represents their agendas and ignores the concerns of Sunnis and other Iraqi parties.

Muqtada al-Sadr accused Kurds and Sunnis of prioritizing their interests over the nation's, urging them to set aside their partisan politics and allow Allawi to form his government.

I dont say [Allawi] shouldnt induct a Kurd or a Sunni [into his Cabinet], since as components they are part of the mosaic of Iraq  but not partisan ones, Sadr said told al-Sharqiya news Feb. 24.

Sadr previously threatened to pull his support from Allawi if his Cabinet was not independent.

While Sadr and protesters seem to both want a Cabinet independent from political parties, protesters have recently chanted slogans against Sadr, describing him as the killer after the Sadrist "Blue Hats" killed and beat protesters last week. This shows the complexity of the political scene, which is one of the main challenges before Allawi.

Hamdoun accused the Sairoon and Fatah alliances of covertly dominating Allawi's Cabinet while demanding Sunnis and Kurds not ask for their share of power in the Cabinet. He means that Fatah and Sairoon are actually putting their men in the Allawi Cabinet while asking others to not do the same.

Meanwhile, the main US concern is to maintain a power balance between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. In a phone call with Allawi Feb. 23, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Allawi to strike a deal with Kurds and Arab Sunnis before moving forward to parliament for a vote on his Cabinet.

Pompeo also "stressed Iraqs obligation to protect US and coalition diplomats, forces and facilities, according to the State Department. This is while the Fatah Alliance had obliged Allawi to set a deadline to end the presence of US troops in Iraq. Iraq's parliament  in the absence of Kurdish and Sunni members  voted Jan. 5 to oust all US forces from Iraq following the US strike on Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Soon after, US President Donald Trump threatened sanctions on Iraq if US troops were forced out. He asked the Iraqi government to promise to keep American troops in Iraq.

Holding early elections is a controversial component of Allawi's program. Some parties, such as Fatah, insist on setting a specific election date, yet the Kurds and Sunnis are not interested in that.

Finally, although the Fatah and Sairoon alliances might be able to gather enough votes for Allawi  as they did in voting for the expulsion of US troops  it will place the country on the dangerous step of further division, pushing Kurds and Sunnis to take serious action toward separation. The United States would most likely not reject such actions this time as it rejected the 2017 Kurdistan referendum.

Political turmoil continues as protesters reject the prime minister designate and political parties remain unable to overcome their differences. The United States and Iran, meanwhile, prepare to outmaneuver each other in Iraq. The question remains as to whether Allawi can overcome these challenges to form his government and appease his supporters.
By Trend

Azerbaijan, just like Russia, is at the intersection of two Eurasian corridors, stemming from two rapidly developing economic centers, namely China and India, to the EU market, a researcher at the Center for Post-Soviet Studies of Russias Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University) Olga Podberezkina told Trend.

Podberezkina noted that the construction of transport corridors will give Azerbaijan and Russia not only the opportunity to meet the needs of emerging markets in hydrocarbons, but also the opportunity to offer transport and logistics services for the freight transit.

Transit routes mainly go by sea and the main beneficiaries are European and US companies, she added. Development of transport infrastructure and logistics services will help change this. In particular, if we talk about the International North-South Transport Corridor, many bilateral and multilateral projects are being implemented within its framework. In 2020, the reconstruction of the Sumgayit-Yalama railway section will begin between Russia and Azerbaijan as part of a project to organize high-speed passenger traffic between Russias Dagestan and Baku.

The long-awaited construction of the Astara-Rasht-Qazvin railway, designed to connect the existing railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia (a tripartite agreement was signed in 2005), will become a significant shift in the development of the International North-South Transport Corridor, said Podberezkina. To date, the 205-kilometer long section between the Iranian cities of Qazvin and Rasht has been completed. As a result, Qazvin is connected by rail with Tehran, as well as with the Iranian ports of Bandar Abbas in the Persian Gulf and Amirabad in the Caspian Sea.

International sanctions against Iran are an unfavorable factor, the expert noted.

To compensate for the negative impact of international sanctions against Iran, Azerbaijan proposed to finance the construction of the Rasht-Astara branch for 500 million euros, and this is certainly a positive thing, Podberezkina added. Also, a decrease in the cost of railway supplies through Azerbaijan will be a positive aspect - so tariff reductions may affect the transportation of containerized cargo, grain, cotton, sulfur, urea and metals. Russian producers are interested in delivering up to 50,000 tons of grain annually to Iran through Astara. As is known, on Oct. 27, 2019, the Interim Agreement came into force, leading to the formation of a free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Iran, under which the EAEU countries will reduce import duties on 502 goods. Negotiations are underway to conclude an agreement on a free trade zone with India - these are all the countries participating in the project.

The researcher noted that the International North-South Transport Corridor compared to the route through the Suez Canal reduces transportation time by 10 days and provides an additional incentive to economies.

On average, containerized cargo from Russia to Iran (from St. Petersburg to Bandar Abbas) goes 25-28 days with two transshipments (via the ports of Rotterdam/Hamburg in the North Sea and to the Port of La Spezia in the Mediterranean Sea), and transit time through the ports of the Caspian Sea from Pervouralsk city to Bandar-e Anzali is 20-25 days at a comparable cost, Podberezkina said.

In conclusion, the expert noted that the cargo flow through the International North-South Transport Corridor will contribute to the growth of Russian-Indian trade, the positive influence of which on Azerbaijans economy is obvious.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
SHELTON  School and city officials have formed an ad hoc health emergency committee to craft a response to an outbreak of coronovirus in the area.

Federal officials have called on communities to create a contingency plan if the COVID-19 virus becomes epidemic in the U.S. As of Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was tracking 14 cases of the illness in the United States, not including nearly 40 more people known to have contracted the virus overseas who have since returned stateside under quarantine.
Chinese President Xi Jinping holds talks with Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping Thursday held talks with Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Xi said the Chinese government and people are making all-out efforts to fight the novel coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19), during which the Mongolian government and people have offered precious support.

Hailing Battulga as the first foreign head of state to visit China since the outbreak, Xi said the special visit by Battulga to express consolations and support to China fully embodies the high attention he pays to the China-Mongolia ties and the profound friendship between the two peoples.

This vividly shows that China and Mongolia, as neighboring countries, can rely on each other in difficult times, said Xi.

Xi expressed his welcome as Battulga paid the visit only one day after Mongolia's traditional Tsagaan Sar holiday, and sent festive greetings to the Mongolian people.

Xi said that since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government have attached great importance to the epidemic, activated a national response mechanism and taken the most comprehensive, thorough and rigorous measures.

A leading group of the CPC Central Committee on the prevention and control of the COVID-19 was established immediately and a central government guiding team was sent to Hubei province, said Xi.

After arduous work, the positive trend in the prevention and control work is now expanding, Xi said, adding that the country has full confidence, capability to win this battle against the epidemic.

China has coordinated the prevention and control work with the economic and social development, and tried its best to minimize the impact of the epidemic, he said.

According to Xi, China has adopted a targeted approach in different regions to advance resumption of work and production based on local health risks, ensure timely agriculture work in spring and guarantee people's basic livelihood.

Noting that China's economy is resilient with broad domestic demand and a strong industrial basis, Xi said China will strive to meet this year's economic and social development targets.

Xi said that guided by the vision of a community with a shared future for humanity, China is making every effort not only to protect the life and health of its own people but also to contribute to global public health security.

With an open, transparent and responsible attitude, the Chinese government has actively stepped up international cooperation on fighting the outbreak, said Xi, adding that China's efforts have been highly affirmed and recognized by the World Health Organization and the international community.

China will continue to work with countries including Mongolia to fight the epidemic and safeguard regional and global public health security, he said.

Noting that China and Mongolia are friendly neighbors linked by waters and mountains, Xi said China has attached high importance to the bilateral relations and always taken Mongolia as an important direction of China's neighborhood diplomacy.

China is committed to cementing political mutual trust with Mongolia and enhancing Belt and Road cooperation to benefit both peoples, he said.

Battulga expressed consolations to the Chinese people over the outbreak and spoke highly of China's rapid establishment of a joint prevention and control mechanism and national people-oriented efforts to fight the epidemic.

Stressing that Mongolia and China are comprehensive strategic partners, Battulga said the Mongolian people completely relate to what the Chinese people are going through and would like to stand closely together with the Chinese people in the difficult times.

Mongolia launched fund-raising activities to support China's fight against the epidemic, and received active responses from all walks of life, he said, adding that Mongolia will send additional 30,000 sheep apart from the previous donations.

Battulga said he believes that the Chinese people will definitely win the battle against the epidemic at an early date and overcome the difficulties to realize the set goals of social and economic development under the strong leadership of President Xi.

Mongolia commends China's pursuit of neighborhood diplomacy featuring amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, and stands ready to work with China to deepen mutual trust and support, enhance cooperation to promote greater development of bilateral relations, said Battulga.
For those who believe we do not need such policies, I remind them that we have already seen these weapons capacity for carnage in Virginia Beach. These weapons are readily available. Just this month, I found 29 pages of assault-style weapons for sale near my home in Arlington County on an online gun marketplace. I could have bought these weapons that same day via a private sale, meaning I, as the buyer, would not be subject to a background check or other safeguard. This is completely legal. It shouldnt be.
Kabul, Feb 28 : A six-member Afghan government team has left for Qatar where they will meet Taliban members after the militant groups signs the long-awaited peace deal with the US on Saturday in Doha, sources said.

In a statement on Thursday, the Presidential Palace called the team "a group to establish initial contacts" with the Taliban and they were meeting with the militant group at their request and also of the US, reports TOLO News This meeting will be the first between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

Part of the US-Taliban agreement was the release of 5,000 prisoners, about which the Washington government wanted a meeting between the militant and representatives of the Afghan government, the sources said on Thursday.

The Afghan government had reservations about sending the team to meet with the Taliban only about prisoners, but it was unclear whether the Taliban would be willing to discuss other issues as well with the team, TOLO News quoted the sources as further saying.

The US-Taliban deal is expected to be signed in Doha on Saturday which comes after the 18-month gruelling talks resulting in the imminent agreement under which foreign troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan.

In return, the Taliban have agreed not to allow the Afghan soil to be used against any other country.

Also on Saturday, the governments of Afghanistan and the US are expected to issue a joint declaration to emphasize the American commitments for Kabul.

US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg are expected to be in Kabul for the announcement of the declaration.
University student explains home isolation with sandbox

By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2020-02-28 17:17

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia, people have had to stay at home for prevention and control of the virus. Using his professional knowledge, a graduate student at Shanghai Normal University explained why we need to stay at home through sandbox deduction.

With the instruction of his supervisor Zhu Min, the young man named Lv Minglei is good at analyzing problems with models. A major of financial modeling, after seeing a lot of maths models about the novel coronavirus, he came up with the idea to combine epidemiology with financial theories.

From the perspective of maths models, he has demonstrated the general principles of epidemic transmission and the significance of staying at home during the outbreak.

He uses the SIR model, a classic model used in epidemiology, which can, to some degree, reflect the epidemic trend and development. The model presumes that the population is a constant value. S represents the susceptible population; I is the infected population; and R is the cured population who are immune to the virus after recovery.





Deducting under five different scenarios, it is concluded that in the early phase of the COVID-19 epidemic, the difficulty lies in identifying the infected cases. If the cases can be detected as early as possible and the hidden cases can be fully treated in hospital, the source of infection can be cleared away; at the same time, if we take quarantine measures to cut off the transmission, the prevention and control will achieve positive results.

Home isolation is within our ability and it is necessary. I also hope that our medical resources can stand the test and breakthroughs in COVID-19s clinical research will come out early, said Lv Minglei.
On a recent episode of 60 Minutes, as Anderson Cooper narrates, a video is shown of Bernie Sanders suggesting, in the 1980s, that the Cuban people didn't help to overthrow Fidel Castro because the Castro regime had "educated their kids, gave them health care, totally transformed the society." While it might have been politically prudent to walk that contention back, Bernie doubled down. "We're very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba," Sanders said, "but you know, it's unfair to simply say that everything is bad. When Fidel Castro came into office, you know what he did? He had a massive literacy program. Is that a bad thing?"

That's not a bad thing in Bernie Sanders's estimation. He thinks of "massive literacy programs" much the same as he once described government breadlines: "that's a good thing."

In Tuesday night's debate in South Carolina, he tripled down, telling the audience that, like Barack Obama, he thinks "Cuba made progress on education." This statement was met with loud boos. "Really? Literacy programs are bad?" Sanders asked.

Fabiola Santiago of the Miami Herald was there in Castro's re-education camps. Her mother was fired from her teaching job for "her refusal to teach Communist dogma to her students." Her father, a "merchant of flour goods," had his business confiscated by the communist regime to pay for that "literacy program," and rather than operate it as "an employee of the state," he was "sent to work in the agricultural fields as punishment."

Sure, people were persecuted and jailed for political dissent, had their property stolen, were paralyzed in fear of government reprisal, and were executed by the thousands to maintain that heightened level of fear. But hey, that Castro fellow started a "massive literacy program," says Bernie.

The New York Times reports that Lourdes Diaz, a Cuban-American and president of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus in Broward County, was "totally disgusted and insulted" by Bernie's comments. "Maybe this will open people's eyes to how super, super liberal and radical Bernie is. I'm not going to defend him anymore. I'm over it."

But is Bernie really a "radical" among progressives for praising murderous communists? Though it somehow has flown under the radar for a lot of Democrats, Bernie Sanders, with his soft criticism and obvious admiration for some features of communism, is just what the Left really looks like without its ultra-thin mask of political moderation.

After all, the same New York Times that quoted Ms. Diaz praised an even more murderous, freedom-strangling communist regime in 2017. The editors gave ample space for Kristen R. Ghodsee's similarly tepid criticism and lavish praise for communism, in an article salaciously titled "Why Women Had Better Sex under Socialism."

Ghodsee's article leads with a picture of a Soviet working woman "on a collective farm near Moscow in 1955." She's clean, smiling happily, and prettily dressed for her grueling day of work in the fields, which means it's all but certainly a Soviet propaganda photo that the New York Times felt obliged to again employ for the photo's originally intended purpose. "When Americans think of Communism in Eastern Europe," Ghodsee writes, "they think of travel restrictions, bleak landscapes of gray concrete, miserable men and women languishing in long lines to shop in empty markets, and security services snooping on the private lives of citizens."

Much of that is true, Ghodsee must admit. But a study of East and West German women conducted after the fall of the Soviet Union, she says, found that "Eastern women had twice as many orgasms as Western women." They may have had to "line up for toilet paper," but their quality of life in the bedroom (which is more important than things like freedom of movement, personal privacy, access to food, or personal hygiene, we are to presume) was far greater than their Western counterparts, according to the one cherry-picked study and a few anecdotes she cites.

Better sex is just one of the ways that East was better than West, she says. Women there enjoyed "major investments in their education" and "full incorporation into the labor force." These women, you see, had the good fortune to live in a nation where "[a]fter the Bolshevik takeover, Vladimir Lenin and Aleksandra Kollontai enabled a sexual revolution in the early years of the Soviet Union." This is in contrast to all those women in the West, who had the misfortune of living there by choice and, rather than being forced into labor, chose to stay at home and enjoy "all the labor-saving devices produced by the roaring capitalist economy."

It is but a sidebar for Ghodsee, I suppose, that the Bolshevik takeover she cites led to the single greatest political scourge against human life and liberty that our world has ever known, leaving over a hundred million corpses in its wake over the last century. Her takeaway from all of the history seems to be that Western women may think it would be a crummy life to not have washing machines to launder their clothing, or to be forced to work long hours in manual labor professions like farming, or have to wait for hours in line for government-issued toilet paper, but think of all the great sex those women could have had under communism!

Think about this for a moment. The New York Times is the most prominent periodical of the Left, and its writers, like Bernie, are plumbing the depths of the darkest and deadliest ideology in the history of humankind to find the good in it. Meanwhile, they are struggling mightily to tarnish the American ideas of free markets and limited government by arguing, via their "1619 Project," that Americans' ancient participation in the slave trade diminishes the copious blessings and human freedom that these ideas have fostered.

This is the kind of "news" that the New York Times sees fit to print these days, unfortunately. It's tough to argue that these pro-communist and anti-American maunderings that have appeared on the pages of the Times for years are any less crazy or radical than Crazy Bernie.

Openly praising Castro on a presidential debate stage hits pretty close to home for many Florida voters, just as I suppose Ghodsee's comments praising communism for fostering a swinging sex life on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain must have been similarly received by women who lived there. Unfortunately for Democrats, millions more Americans heard Bernie whitewashing communism as the likely Democratic presidential nominee than read the New York Times.

Not only has Bernie Sanders made it impossible for Democrats to win in Florida if he is their nominee, but he also continues to expose the Left for what it truly is. While that's a very bad thing for progressives who hoped that the Democratic Party could hide the radicalism of its sharp leftward turn in recent years, it's a very good thing for any Americans who can still recognize that communism is evil to its core and that there are marked similarities between it and the "democratic socialism" now being presented as its less dangerous cousin.

Image: AFGE via Flickr.
: The Kerala Non-



Resident Indians (NRI) Commission on Friday demanded the right to vote from their workplace and passed a unanimous resolution seeking amendment to the Representation of the People Act in this regard.

The commission is a statutory body constituted under the Non-Resident Indian (Keralites) Commissions Act, 2016, for the welfare of non-resident Keralites working outside India.

The resolution, moved by commission member and NRI entrepreneur Shamsheer Vayalil, demanded the amendment to the Representation of the People Act without any further delay "enabling millions of NRIs to exercise their voting rights from their workplace" outside the country.

The resolution said the commission resolves to request the Central government and Election Commission of India to make appropriate amendment to the Representation of People Act, 1951, to ensure voting rights for the non-resident Indians working abroad.

The Centre had introduced a bill for this purpose and was passed by the Lok Sabha in 2018, but the same has since lapsed.

The NRI commission requested that the central government may consider introducing the bill in the next session of Parliament.

"The Central government may consider introducing the bill in the next session of the Parliament session considering the interest of the NRI community at large, the resolution read.

The approved resolution would be sent to the Ministry of Law, Election Commission of India and the Central government, the commission said.

According to the estimate of the Ministry of External Affairs, there are about 3.10 crore NRIs living in different countries across the world.

Meanwhile, an unofficial data of the Election Commission shows a small fraction of the NRIs was now casting their votes.

Commission chairman Justice PD Rajan said, "This is the time for us to step up pressure on the agencies concerned to implement this. Voting from the workplace would be a different experience for them. It would be a decisive step."



Vayalil is also the petitioner in the writ filed in the matter in the Supreme Court.

"We would also approach the NRI commission in other states and request them to raise the same demand. All of the agencies must come together for this. NRIs have been longing for this decision," Vayalil said.

The Lok Sabha had passed a bill enabling NRI proxy voting rights in August 2018.

This was done after an expert committee of the Election Commission forwarded the legal framework to the law ministry to amend the electoral laws.

However, the bill lapsed following the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha.

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

Lebanon (1701)

Expected Council Action

In March, the Council expects to receive the Secretary-Generals report on the implementation of resolution 1701, which called for a cessation of hostilities between the Shia militant group Hezbollah and Israel in 2006. Briefings are expected from Jan Kubis, Special Coordinator for Lebanon, and possibly from a representative of the Department of Peace Operations.

The mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) expires on 31 August.

Key Recent Developments

Lebanon is experiencing one of the worst economic and political crises in its recent history. Economic growth has been stagnant for years, resulting in widespread unemployment and a mounting public debt crisis. For almost five months, Lebanon has been engulfed in countrywide anti-government protests, which on 29 October 2019 brought down the government of Prime Minister Saad Hariri. United in their demands for a new technocratic government and better living conditions, the protesters were made up of all ethnic and religious groups across the social and economic spectrum.

The Lebanese political leadership system is based on sectarian quotas, whereby the post of prime minister must be occupied by a Sunni Muslim, the presidency by a Maronite Christian, and the speaker of the parliament by a Shia Muslim. In December 2019, after consultations with parliamentary political blocs, Lebanese President Michel Aoun designated Hassan Diab as the prime minister, in charge of forming a new government. A career academic, Diab has not been affiliated with any political party in Lebanon and has described himself as a technocrat. Diab received little support from Sunni political blocs in the parliament while obtaining strong backing from Christian and Shia groups, including Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, the countrywide protests have continued, and turned more violent for several days beginning on 18 January when security forces clashed with protesters in Beirut. According to media reports, more than 400 people were injured. On 21 January, Diab formed a new government consisting of a cabinet of 20 ministers. The Future Movement, led by former prime minister Hariri, and some other parties refused to participate in the new government. Diab, who has labelled the new government as technocratic, has vowed to address the protesters demands. Critics have argued that the new cabinet is heavily influenced by Hezbollah-allied parties and lacks true political independence. The public demonstrations have continued, with protesters showing dissatisfaction with the new government.

In an 11 February vote of confidence, the parliament backed the government and its reform agenda. Protesters tried to prevent the vote and to block the lawmakers access to the parliament. Security forces used tear gas and water cannon to disband the protesters, resulting in over 300 persons injured. On 12 February, the International Support Group for Lebanon (ISG) issued a statement calling on the new government to undertake necessary reforms and address the needs of the Lebanese people. ISG is composed of the UN, the governments of China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the UK and the US, as well as the EU and the Arab League.

With the country on the brink of economic collapse amid massive public debt, rising unemployment, and slow growth, addressing Lebanons economic situation will be one of the main priorities of the new government. Lebanon has been under pressure from the International Monetary Fund to implement reforms, which are also a condition for its access to the more than $11 billion pledged at the 2018 Paris donor conference, which focused on infrastructure investments and economic development.

Key Issues and Options

The Council is facing a number of interrelated issues on Lebanon. The ongoing political instability coupled with the deep economic crisis has the potential to undermine the already fragile security situation in the country. The growing concern for the Council is how to address the political instability and prevent further deterioration of security.

In UNIFILs area of operations, the situation has remained relatively calm despite a very volatile regional security environment. The Councils primary concern is the lack of implementation of resolution 1701, including a permanent ceasefire and disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon.

One of the central issues for the Council is the significant amount of weaponry held by Hezbollah and other non-state actors. This inhibits the governments ability to exercise full authority over its territory, poses a threat to Lebanons sovereignty and stability, and contravenes its obligations under resolutions 1559 and 1701. A related issue is Hezbollahs involvement in the Syrian civil war and the movement of arms from Syria to Hezbollah.

In addition to the challenges mentioned above, Lebanon currently hosts over a million Syrian refugees. In this regard, the Council could consider requesting a briefing by UNHCR on how member states can help enhance services for refugees.

Council Dynamics

There is a strong consensus among Council members in their support for Lebanons sovereignty, territorial integrity and security. In this context, the Council has also stressed the critical role of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in addressing security challenges in the country.

Council members hold different views on the security dynamic in the region and the role of the mission. Over the past several years, these differences have been especially evident during negotiations on UNIFILs mandate renewals. The US has taken the view that the mission should play a more active role in confronting the threats the US considers most serious in this contextthose posed by Iran, Hezbollah, and the proliferation of weapons in southern Lebanon. The US has argued that the missions role should be reconsidered, given that UNIFIL is unable to fulfil part of its mandate because it lacks access to parts of its area of operations. The US entered the latest mandate renewal negotiations advocating a significant reduction of the troop ceiling and a comprehensive strategic review of the mission. These proposals encountered strong opposition from most Council members.

Other membersincluding France and Russiahave emphasised that no changes should be made to the missions mandate. These members are cautious about changing the mandate because of the potential impact on the fragile calm that has been maintained in southern Lebanon for over a decade.

The US has also raised concerns about the growing influence of Hezbollah in the Lebanese political structures. This issue has become more prominent in light of ongoing tensions between the US and Iran.

France is the penholder on Lebanon.

UN DOCUMENTS ON LEBANON
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an immediate ceasefire in Syria's Idlib, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, according to the UN website.



According to him, the Secretary-General is following with grave concern the escalation in northwest Syria and reports that dozens of Turkish soldiers have been killed by an airstrike.

"The Secretary-General reiterates his call for an immediate ceasefire and expresses particular concern about the risk to civilians from escalating military actions," he added.



Guterres believes that without urgent action, the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour.

The Turkish army is retaliated with artillery fire at Syrian government targets in Syria after an airstrike killed at least 33 Turkish soldiers in the Idlib province
Over 600 Indian fishermen in Iran seek evacuation over coronavirus scare

Over 600 Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are in Iran and want to return home following coronavirus outbreak in the country, activists and family members said.



"My husband (Joseph Lean Anthony) had called me this morning and said the employer has asked him and others to leave. However, there are no flights from their place and they are not able to come back. We are very much worried," Ani told IANS over phone from Kanyakumari district.



"My husband said there about 600 fishermen from Tamil Nadu who are not able to come back to India," Ani added.



"The flights are cancelled. We are all worried... They don't have the masks," Viji, wife of Beltes who is also in Iran, told IANS over phone in a choked voice.



Fishermen association, Neithal Ezhuchi Peravai's President John Leonard told IANS that there are about 600 Indian fishermen there wanting to come back.



"The flights out of their place are cancelled and they are not able to return at the earliest," hed said.



As per a voice message sent by Robinson from Kariapattinam in Kanyakumari district to Leonard, all the flights have been cancelled from their place.



"We don't know how to reach India and also the Indian Embassy in Iran. We have to come back to India," Robinson said in the message.



Leonard also shared a Whatsapp message from a person, which read: "We are living in Cheeru. In Cheeru, people are affected by Coronavirus. We need help from Indian embassy. Maximum people are from Tamil Nadu and Gujarat."



The person also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami for help and requested the Indian Embassy in Iran help them.

Theme(s): Others.
Medina will report to The Hanover professional lines president Gregory W. Leffard.

She has more than 20 years of industry experience, having joined The Hanover in 2014. A company release has credited Medina and her team for delivering double-digit growth for accountants professional liability and miscellaneous professionals liability books of business in the last three years.

Prior to joining The Hanover, Medina served as assistant vice-president at The Hartford. She began her insurance career with Travelers.

We are excited to promote Sarah to lead our professional liability business, where she has been instrumental in helping drive innovation and expanding our market presence, said The Hanover Specialty president Bryan J. Salvatore. This appointment is the latest in a series of investments and enhancements we have made to our specialty business over the last year.

Salvatore remarked that the professional lines industry continues to grow, and that The Hanover is now better positioned than ever to aid agents in this line of business.
The Duke of Sussex and rock star Jon Bon Jovi followed in the footsteps of The Beatles as they recreated the Fab Fours Abbey Road album cover.

Harry stepped on to the famous zebra crossing with the American musician and two members of the Invictus Games Choir.

They have been recording a charity single with the rocker at nearby Abbey Road Studios.

In an Instagram video post, the duke and the musician teased fans by gearing up to sing in a recording booth during the visit  with the footage stopping just before they burst into song.

Despite his brother the Duke of Cambridge joining Bon Jovi and Taylor Swift on stage in 2013 to sing Livin On A Prayer at a charity event, Harry was not tempted to test his vocal cords in public.

After watching the choir perform the charity single Unbroken, a clearly relieved royal said: Im just glad I dont have to sing.

Bon Jovi paid tribute to the duke  experiencing a turbulent period since announcing he will be stepping down from royal duties  for finding the time to tour the studios.

He said: In light of everything thats going on right now, Im happy that he can take the time to be here for the choir and make it happen.

Harry and wife Meghans plans to begin their new life in Canada were dealt a blow when the countrys Government announced on Thursday it would not provide protection for the couple and baby son Archie.

Asked what he thought about Harrys situation, Bon Jovi replied: I dont know what its like to walk in his shoes, and as an American, Im further removed, but I have immense respect for the family, for his brother, himself, his wife, his father, grandmother  we have immense respect for them in America.

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He added: When you see something like Meghan and Harry have gone through, we turn the channel off and things are over with  you dont know what its like to walk in anyone elses shoes.

Every year, the Abbey Road crossing  which has Grade II listed status  draws thousands of music fans who, just like the duke, recreate the picture of the Fab Four by Ian Macmillan.

Were so excited for today! The @invictusgchoir and @jonbonjovi were rehearsing & recording all day yday at @abbeyroad studios to re-record Unbroken. Later today, our Patron will join to hear their stories & thank Jon for his support for the #InvictusGames Foundation! pic.twitter.com/VkS2AWBfZk  Invictus Games Foundation (@WeAreInvictus) February 28, 2020

First to cross was wheelchair user and former serviceman Andy Mudd, followed by the Bon Jovi, ex-servicewoman Susan Warner, who was seriously injured during an Afghanistan deployment in 2009, and finally Harry.

With dozens of press and public watching, the foursome posed as rain fell and traffic was halted by police.

Harry returned to the UK from Canada this week to begin a series of royal engagements, which are likely to be his last before he steps down from official duties on March 31.

The charity single is in aid of the Invictus Games Foundation, which oversees the development of the Invictus Games, the international multi-sport event for injured or sick military personnel founded by the duke.

The song, Unbroken, was written by Bon Jovi to shine a spotlight on veterans living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and honour their service.

The musician has a close affinity with the military as his parents met while serving in the US Marine Corps.

The Duke of Sussex with Jon Bon Jovi during their visit to Abbey Road Studios (Hannah McKay/PA)

After the spoof recording session was posted on Harrys official Instagram account, he was shown into Abbey Roads famous studio 2 recording booth, where the Beatles created a string of iconic albums.

Speaking about the Fab Four, Bon Jovi said to Harry: Its not the original (mixing) board but this is the room, and what youre seeing on camera downstairs is where they did it  this is the famous room, this is the place.

The charity single was originally released by Bon Jovis band last year and was re-recorded on Thursday at Abbey Road with the choir, with the final mixing expected to be completed on Friday.

Harry quizzed the American rocker about how things had gone and Bon Jovi replied: Im so excited about everything, we tweaked a couple of lyrics to make them more British-centric  the original lyric being Camp Lejeune, which is where the US Marines will train, we changed little things like that.

But once they got over the awe of being here, then they became a rock band.

Asked by the duke if he had heard the stories of the choir, made up of injured and wounded military personnel and veterans, the singer replied: Its touching, their desire to serve and what they get out of singing, it keeps their camaraderie.

Harry and the singer walked down from the booth to the large recording hall after watching the singers  originally formed by choir master Gareth Malone  perform the single due to be released in mid-March.

After hugging them or shaking hands, the duke told the group: Singing individually is one thing, singing in the bath or in front of the mirror  who doesnt. When you sing together, its a different experience for you guys.

Harry also inquired about the benefits of performing together, asking How many of you would say youre stronger? and got a chorus of approval.

The Duke of Sussex meets members of the Invictus Games Choir during his visit Abbey Road Studios (Hannah McKay/PA)

Bon Jovi told the story of how the project got off the ground  a letter written to Harry last autumn outlining the idea.

The duke joked: He wrote and I felt like writing back and just saying, Good luck! But between you guys, you have made it happen.

He was told the choir members were a family, and veteran Andy Mudd, 63, from York, an original member of the group, added: We are Unbroken. We are not all broken or damaged.

The duke agreed, saying: Thats a dangerous narrative that has spun out over the years.
The Trump Administration is unlikely to grant U.S. supermajor Chevron another waiver to operate in Venezuela as the United States is increasing pressure on Nicolas Maduros regime, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, quoting people familiar with the issue.

Chevron, the last remaining U.S. oil firm with operations in Venezuela, last month obtained a waiver extension by the U.S. Administration to continue operations in the Latin American country for another three months until April 22.

However, the U.S. has stepped up sanctions pressure on Venezuelas oil industry since January, and Chevrons waiver probably will not be extended beyond April, Bloombergs sources said.

At the beginning of February, the U.S. warned companies doing business with Venezuela, including Rosneft and even Chevron, to tread cautiously towards their activities in Venezuela, because more sanctions on Maduros regime would be coming.

Two weeks later, the United States slapped sanctions on a Geneva-based trading unit of Russian oil giant Rosneft, saying that the company Rosneft Trading has been helping Maduros regime to evade sanctions and to continue selling oil to keep the regime alive.

Now the U.S. Administration is looking to further increase the pressure on Venezuelas oil industry and exports.

The President has made a decision to push harder on the Venezuelan oil sector and were going to do it. And what were telling people involved in this sector is that they should get out of it, Elliott Abrams, U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela, told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

The Trump Administration is considering whether to extend the waiver to Chevron in light of the increased sanctions pressure on Venezuela, Abrams told Reuters, but declined to comment on specifics.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that officials at the Trump Administration are back discussing a plan to oust Maduro by potentially persuading people in his ruling party to turn against him and agree to a power-sharing agreement with the Venezuelan opposition.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
A Nigerian blogger has been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly publishing a fake post on Twitter against the commission.

The EFCC in a statement on Thursday said Dikeocha Chukwuebuka, with the Twitter handle @TheRealDayne, misled people to believe that a photo of a crowded open cell he published on the social media site was a detention cell of the EFCC in Port Harcourt, Rivers state.

The photo was fake, the EFCC said.

The head of the EFCC in Port Harcourt, Usman Imam, told journalists in Port Harcourt that the blogger, Mr Chukwuebuka was picked up around 4 p.m. on Wednesday in a bank premises in the city.

Mr Imam said Mr Chukwuebukas tweet was the most embarrassing moment for the Commission, given that the fake news represented the very opposite of what the EFCC stands for, as far as care of detainees is concerned.

He said the commission would investigate the matter and ensure that justice is done.

The EFCC statement said the blogger admitted he published the photo in error and apologised to the commission and its followers on Twitter.

Mr Chukwuebuka on February 10 posted a photo of some bared-bodied young men crammed into a place that looks like a detention facility.

As Spotted Today @OfficialEFCC zonal office in PH, whats your take on this? he commented on the photo which he tagged the Rivers governor, Nyesom Wike, and five other persons.

The photo, which had more than 2,000 retweets, went viral on the social media site with most commenters attacking the EFCC for it, despite the commission coming out to say the photo was fake.

READ ALSO:

Two days after he published the photo, Mr Chukwuebuka published another tweet recanting it.

Please, after further investigation, I have realized that my tweet was not that of efcc, but of police command and I apologize to @officialEFCC and the general public, but I urge the government to look into the picture so as to investigate the issue, he had said on the social media site.

He had promised to visit the EFCC office in Port Harcourt to physically tender an apology to the commission.

The EFCC spokesperson in Abuja, Tony Orilade, told PREMIUM TIMES Friday afternoon that Mr Chukwuebuka was still being detained by the commission. He was yet to be charged to court.
Last year, Etsy (ETSY) went against the overall trend. Following three years of spectacular growth, Etsy stock exited 2019 down by nearly 5%. With the coronavirus playing havoc on markets all over the world right now, it appears Etsy is playing the contrarian again; Back to its old ways, posting exceptional earnings results and beating the market. As of writing, Esty stock is up by 13%, following an exuberant reaction to yesterdays 4Q results.

So, why is everyone so impressed? Etsys Revenue in Q4 was up by 35% to $269.9 million, beating the estimates $264.9 million. Earnings of $0.25 per share left the analysts' call for $0.16 in the dust. Additionally, Etsy ended the quarter with 46.4 million active buyers, indicating 17.5% year-over-year growth, while also boasting 2.70 million active sellers, an increase of 27.6%. Looking ahead, there was further good news; Etsy estimates FY20 revenue to come in between $1.04 billion to $1.06 billion vs. the Streets call for $1.02 billion.

As the fifth most visited e-commerce website in the US, in contrast to many other fast-growing companies, Etsy is actually turning a profit. Most of the worries last year concentrated on whether the company can sustain the growth, as gross profit margins narrowed and EPS fell in line with expectations, instead of routinely trouncing them, while the previous quarters results exhibited the companys first revenue miss in eight quarters. Last year, though, Etsy laid down the groundwork for further growth with a focus on a better seller experience, improving marketing and a heavy investment in technology. As the latest results can attest to, the strategy is working.

Oppenheimers Jason Helfstein thinks so, too. The 5-star analyst is among the many impressed with the latest results. In fact, following a closer inspection of the print, Helfstein upgraded his rating on Etsy from Perform to Outperform, with a price target of $64. This conveys his belief that Etsy can add a further 10% to the share price over the next year. (To watch Helfsteins track record, click here)

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Helfstein noted, Etsy smartly pivoted its seller leadgen strategy to an outcome-based model, resetting Etsy Ads to Promoted Listing, to the delight of sellers, which should push take-rates >20% over time and closer to SHOP/AMZN for SMB sellers. In addition, 4Q local sales tax headwinds were lower than expected, driving organic GMV +20% y/y vs. 22% in 3Q. Meanwhile, change to lead-gen (Etsy Ads & OffSite Ads) removes '20E margin pressure. While buyer growth slowed in 4Q on marketing toward existing users, management expects new marketing to drive FY20 buyer growth. Raising our 20/21E revenue 1%/3% and EBITDA 4%/8%, respectively. Our price target assumes 4.9x 21E revenue, aided by cash generated from positive working capital.

All in all, the Street remains bullish on Etsys prospects. 8 Buys, 1 Hold and 1 sell published by the analysts over the last three months coalesce into a Moderate Buy consensus rating. The average price target comes in at $61.73 and implies possible gains in the shape of 8%. (See Etsy stock analysis on TipRanks)
In a major breakthrough in the 2019 Pulwama terrorist attack case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested an Over-Ground Worker (OGW) of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) from Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir. Magrey was produced before the NIA Special Court at Jammu on Friday and has been remanded to 15 days of NIA custody for his detailed interrogation.

A furniture shop owner, Shakir Bashir Magrey had provided shelter and other logistical assistance to suicide-bomber, Adil Ahmad Dar. He was introduced to Adil Ahmad Dar in mid-2018 by a Pakistani terrorist, Mohammad Umar Farooq and he became a full-time OGW of JeM.

On February 14, 2019, 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were martyred after a convoy of vehicles carrying security personnel on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber at Lethpora in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district. A JeM terrorist rammed his vehicle carrying explosives into the convoy in the afternoon.

During Magrey's initial interrogation, he disclosed that on several occasions, he collected and delivered arms, ammunition, cash and explosive material to the JeM terrorists including those involved in Pulwama attack. He further revealed that he had harboured Dar and Pakistani terrorist Farooq in his house from late 2018 till the attack in February 2019, and assisted them in the preparation of the IED.

His shop is located near Lethpora bridge, and as advised by Farooq, he started conducting reconnaissance of the movement of CRPF convoy on Jammu-Srinagar Highway in January 2019 and informed Farooq and Dar about it. Further, he was also involved in modifying the Maruti Eeco car and fitting the IED in it in early February 2019.

During the investigation, the make, model and number of the car used in the attack was quickly ascertained by NIA to be a Maruti Eeco car through forensic examination of the tiny remnants of the car, which were seized from the spot during extended searches and has been corroborated by accused Magrey.

The explosives used in the attack were determined to be Ammonium Nitrate, Nitro-Glycerin and RDX through forensic investigation. The investigation has also confirmed the identity of the suicide bomber to be Dar through DNA matching with that of his father.

Other key terrorists involved in the attack have been found to be Muddasir Ahmad Khan, (JeMs Divisional Commander of South Kashmir killed in an operation by security forces on March 11, 2019) Pakistani terrorists--Muhammad Umar Farooq and IED expert Kamran, (both killed on March 29, 2019) the owner of the car namely Sajjad Ahmad Bhat resident of Anantnag (killed on June 16, 2019) and Qari Yassir, JeMs Commander for Kashmir (killed on January 25, 2020).
The BJP in Telangana on Thursday took strong exception to a TRS MLA's reported comments that those living in the city for long would not be sent back even if they had come from Pakistan.

Hyderabad: The BJP in Telangana on Thursday took strong exception to a TRS MLA's reported comments that those living in the city for long would not be sent back even if they had come from Pakistan. The saffron party said it has lodged a complaint with police in this connection.

The MLA from Serilingampalli, Arekapudi Gandhi, however, clarified that he had sought to reassure those who have been living here for long and "not those who came recently" to India (from other countries) or those who are against the country.

Gandhi said his statement made at a meeting, were taken out of context and some have created an issue "intentionally."

The saffron party also objected to the MLA's comments that his party would offer protection to Muslims whether they had come from Pakistan or other states in the country and living in the state since long.

In the video clip aired by TV channels, Gandhi is purportedly seen saying that "Chandrasekhar Rao ji (Telangana chief minister) had openly said. If necessary, will organise a public meeting, not only the meeting but pass a resolution in the assembly against CAA and send it to the Centre.

All of you know.. if you don't have an address, you came from Pakistan, Rajasthan, Maharashtra or Karnataka, somebody sending you (back) would not happen as long as we are alive."

He alleged in his speech that BJP activists, who visited some localities in the city, were behaving like "agents" of CAA, claiming that the amended citizenship law was good and wont affect people.

It is the Corporator, MLA and ministers who can take up people's work and not the BJP men, he said. Gandhi, who was addressing a group of Muslims, also said they need not fear and that he and his colleagues would come with the police force to help them.

Condemning the MLA's statement, BJP spokesperson NV Subhash said in a statement that it was "unfortunate" that an elected representative had made such remarks.

It is a matter of shame on part of the TRS MLA, "who provoked Muslims by asking them to chase away BJP workers or any others who visit their houses to collect data," Subhash claimed. "How can an elected MLA speak against the Constitution and the CAA?" he asked.

The Telangana people would teach a lesson to TRS for its appeasement policy towards Muslims, he claimed. The BJP lodged a complaint against Gandhi for his "provocative speech," the BJP spokesperson said.

When contacted, Gandhi said he was addressing a group of Muslims who came to meet him.

The Muslim residents felt that an ongoing state government survey on literacy was one related to the CAA and they had apprehensions about it, he said. The group was told by him that the survey was related to literacy and it was not the government's intention to send them back, he told PTI.
S hares plummeted for the fifth straight session today as the owners of British Airways and easyJet issued grave warnings about the coronavirus impact on their businesses.

Traders were reminded of the worst days of the financial crisis as the FTSE 100 collapsed nearly 250 points in the opening seconds of trade as billions were wiped off the paper value of Britains biggest companies.

BAs owner, IAG, was the biggest faller after it admitted the effects on travel were changing so fast it could give no guidance on how much profit it might make this year.

Outgoing chief executive Willie Walsh said its Asian and European routes were suffering demand weakness as tourists scrapped holidays and business trips and conferences were cancelled.

Flights to mainland China have been suspended since January and plans to reduce services to Hong Kong and South Korea were in train but, said Walsh: It is Italy that has changed everything. When the virus spread there, it immediately impacted demand into and out of Italy.

We have to bear in mind if that is an indication of what will happen in other parts of Europe, and until we can see that, it would be wrong for us to give any guidance to the market.

While some long-haul planes are being put on other routes around the world, short haul is not yet being rerouted, leaving planes parked on the ground. Overall capacity is down 1% for the year across the IAG network, which includes Iberia and Aer Lingus and budget carriers Vueling and Level.

EasyJet said bookings had plummeted since infections spread to Italy and announced immediate pay and hiring freezes across the network, offering unpaid leave to keep staff costs down as demand slumps.

The airline is understood to be cutting more than 10% of Italian flights, with the company saying it will offer refunds or other flights for those having their flights cancelled. It said demand was also falling for flights to other destinations in Europe.

Shares in both firms continued their slide, with easyJet down 3% to 1077p and IAG falling 8% to 477p, bringing their total falls this week to 20% and 18%.

Both companies stressed they had strong balance sheets to cope with the crisis.

IAG today reported operating profit for last year at 3.29 billion (2.79 billion), down 200 million, hit by the 170 million cost of the strikes at BA and disruption at Heathrow.



Walsh is just months away from leaving the company, to be replaced by Iberias current chief executive Luis Gallego, who takes over in March.

In what was his last appearance in front of the City after nearly 15 years at the top of BA, then IAG, Walsh said: People here have been through the financial crisis, 9/11, SARS, foot and mouth, volcanic ash. We have a shared experience of what to do.

The epidemic was meaning there was no slowdown in his workload before retirement: I am still working. If Im honest, I would like be with the airline through this period because there will be some tough times but it is time for me to move on and for someone else to get the blame for all the silly things that go on.
The El Paso Sheriff's Office called off a planned search for an 11-year-old Colorado boy planned for Friday as the hunt entered its fifth week.

Gannon Stauch was last seen between 3.15pm and 4pm on January 27 as he allegedly headed to a friend's house in Colorado Springs.

The boy was originally categorized as a runaway, before his case was upgraded to that of a missing/endangered person.

No explanation was given for the cancellation of Friday's search and a spokesperson from the sheriff's office did not immediately return a request for comment.

The search for Gannon is not classed as a criminal investigation.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Gannon (left and right) was last seen at his home in Colorado Springs on January 27. His stepmom said she saw him leave to go to a friend's house between 3.15pm and 4pm

Friday's search was set to take place 30 miles northwest of his home but was postponed

Keith Lonnquist and Reggie Franklin (left to right), with El Paso County Search & Rescue, launch a drone to search an area for missing, endangered child, Gannon Stauch

The Metro Crime Lab were called in to aid the search but it is not a criminal case

Law enforcement and volunteers search snowy areas for 11-year-old missing Colorado Springs boy Gannon Stauch. He was last seen on January 27 as the search enters its fifth week

On Thursday, the sheriff's office announced that on Friday a search effort for Gannon would be underway in the area of Highway 83 and Highway 105.

The area is about 30 miles northwest to Lorcan Ranch where the boy lived and lies to the east of the town of Monument.

No information was given on what the search was looking for.

Three hours later, the search was called off again.

'As we have explained throughout this investigation, this is a very fluid investigation & it can change at any minute of the day,' the sheriff's office tweeted.

'The scheduled search has been postponed. We will keep you in the loop as it happens & as we can release it. Our Tips to date are 801.'

As of February 21, the ground search for Gannon had been halted while the investigation continued. The slogan on many of the posters for the missing boy is 'Leave no stone unturned'.

When the ongoing search was called off, the sheriff's office stated that they would resume the physical search as soon as they had further information.

'Although search efforts in southern Douglas County have been suspended, this investigation is not slowing down,' the statement read.

'As previously stated, investigative leads direct search efforts and we have teams available and ready to deploy should the need arise.'

A prayer wall is filled with handwritten prayers by those attending a vigil in the Lorson Ranch neighborhood for missing 11-year-old Gannon Stauch who is thought to be endangered

J.R. Betts, with El Paso County Search & Rescue, goes through a pile of rubbish near Drennan Rd. in the Lorson Ranch area near Gannon Stauch's home in Colorado Springs

Gannon was reported missing on January 27 by his stepmother, Letecia Stauch, who is married to his father, Albert Stauch.

Initially classed as a runaway, he was updated to a missing person case on January 30.

Surveillance video from a neighbor's home captured Letecia leaving the home with Gannon in her pickup truck at around 10.13am on January 27.

However, when she returned at 2.19pm, Gannon is nowhere to be seen

Footage from 2.19pm to the time Gannon was reportedly last seen is not available, but the sheriff's office said earlier that officers had no surveillance video showing the boy leaving the property.

Roderrick Drayton, the neighbor whose camera picked up the footage, told ABC News that Gannon's father broke down in tears after he saw the video.

Drayton said when he showed the clip to Albert Stauch, he burst into tears and accused Letecia of 'lying' about Gannon walking to a friend's house.

'[Albert Stauch] just broke down crying and said: "She lied, she lied about the time. He didn't go to a friend's house''.'

Surveillance footage shared by a neighbor allegedly shows Gannon entering a car with his stepmother that morning but not returning with her that afternoon (pictured)

Authorities say Gannon needs his medication but have not specified what it is needed for

Gannon's mother, Landen Hiott, claims her son would never run away from his family

TIMELINE OF GANNON STAUCH CASE: Jan. 27: Gannon Stauch is reported as a runaway; last seen by stepmother Letecia Stauch between 3.15 pm-4 pm Jan. 30: Case is upgraded to a missing and endangered childs case due to his age, need for medication, winter weather and the length of time hes been missing Jan. 31: Letecia Stauch gives interview to KKTV saying deputies had threatened to shoot her and put her 17-year-old daughter in handcuffs Feb. 4: Neighbor Roderrick Drayton shares surveillance video showing what appears to be Letecia returning home at 2.19pm without Gannon in her pickup truck; claims boy's father broke down in tears when he saw the video Feb. 5: District Attorney Dan May visits Stauchs home; Stauch family make YouTube statement to bring Gannon home Feb. 7: Searchers use submersible remotely operated vehicle with sonar to scour a pond near Stauch family's home Feb. 8: Candlelight prayer vigil is held at Lorson Ranch Feb. 11: Letecia Stauch releases statement to Fox 31 claiming Gannon was in her truck on Jan. 27 and that later left with a 'friend' Feb. 21: Ground search for Gannon is halted by investigation continues Feb 28: Planned search for Gannon is called off without explanation Advertisement

After news of the video broke, Letecia gave an interview to KKTV, insisting that she played no part in her stepson's disappearance.

'I took care of Gannon for the last two years in our home because his mother didn't want to do it,' she said.

'I would never ever, ever hurt this child...these people have these conspiracy theories...I'm like: "Why are you saying Gannon is dead?" He is not dead. We are going to find Gannon'.

In a statement to KDVR, Letecia insisted that her stepson was, in fact, in her vehicle when they returned home from a shopping trip that afternoon, but he got out from the side of the truck that was not facing their neighbor's camera.

In an interview with ABC News, Gannon's mother, Landen Hiott, pleaded with the public for help in returning her son home.

'I don't want to wait another day,' she said. 'He is mommy's little man. If he is not with me, he is hurting'.

Hiott added she is certain that her son would not run away.

Hiott lives in South Carolina and said that as soon as she heard the news of her son's disappearance, she flew into Colorado.

'This is the longest time that I have not heard his voice, and the only thing I could do is just keep playing videos back and forth of: "Mommy, I love you,"' Hiott told ABC News.

'When I heard that he ran away, I knew that was the first sign,' she said.

'Like, that is not my boy100 percent without a shadow of a doubt, my boy would not run away.'

Gannon's mother, Landen Hiott (pictured) said she wants to keep sharing Gannon's story in an interview with ABC and described him a jokester who loved to make everyone happy

Hiott said she wants to keep sharing Gannon's story and described him a jokester who loved to make everyone happy.

'I don't know how to go forward without him,' she told ABC News.

'He's my hero. He gives me life, he gives me energy. If a bad day is going bad, I just hear his voice and it makes it better.'

Gannon was last seen wearing a blue jacket, black jeans and sneakers. He has brown eyes, brown hair, weight 90 pounds and stands around four-foot-nine.

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office also said the boy needs medication but did not specify what for.

If you have any information as it relates to Gannon's case, please call the Sheriff's Office Tip Line at 719-520-6666 or email Tips@elpasoco.com.
Jacinda Ardern and Scott Morrison had an awkward standoff as the New Zealand Prime Minister argued only genuine Kiwis should be sent back home under tough deportation laws.

Speaking at a press conference in Sydney on Friday, Ms Ardern criticised the Coalition's deportation laws which send Kiwi criminals back to New Zealand no matter how long they have lived in Australia.

Ms Ardern has always argued that people who have lived in a country for 10 years or more shouldn't be deported after committing a crime.

The New Zealand prime minister acknowledged the Australian Government is well within its rights to deport people who break our laws, but had 'one simple request' for Mr Morrison.

'Send back genuine Kiwis, do not deport your people and your problems,' she told Mr Morrison and reporters during the tense conference.

Speaking at a press conference in Sydney on Friday, Ms Ardern criticized the Coalition's deportation laws which send Kiwi criminals back to New Zealand no matter how long they have lived in Australia for

Ms Ardern, who has always argued people who have lived in a country for 10 years or more shouldn't be deported after committing a crime, looked tense during the media conference

'You have deported more than 2,000 individuals, and among them will be genuine Kiwis who do need to learn the consequences of their actions.

'But among those 2,000 are individuals who are too young to become criminals on our watch, they were too young to become patched gang members, too young to be organised criminals.

'We will own our people. We ask that Australia stops exporting theirs.

'I want to conclude by just reaffirming something I have said often. We will continue to maintain rights for Australians in New Zealand.

Mr Morrison shot the Kiwi PM an awkward glance, before responding: 'We deport non-citizens who have committed crimes in Australia.'

'If you've committed a crime and you're not a citizen of Australia then you have no right to stay.'

'We deport non-citizens who have committed crimes in Australia against our community.

'We have a simple request. Send back genuine Kiwis, do not deport your people and your problems,' Jacinda Ardern told Mr Morrison and reporters during the tense conference on Friday

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison posed for photos during a meeting at Admiralty House on Friday before their awkward press conference standoff

'This policy is applied not specific to one country, but to any country whose citizens are here. You commit a crime here, if convicted, once you have done your time, we send you home.

'And we would have no objection to any country  anywhere  who would apply the same rule in terms of Australian citizens who commit crimes in other places.

Poll Do you think Australia's deportation laws are too tough? Yes No Do you think Australia's deportation laws are too tough? Yes 484 votes

No 2536 votes Now share your opinion





'We would think that was totally understandable and we wouldn't take any offence.'

Mr Morrison said anyone else who 'doesn't hold the title of citizen of Australia doesn't enjoy the rights, entitlements and obligations' of getting to stay here.

'Under my Government's policies you will not be allowed to remain in Australia,' he said.

New Zealanders who moved to Australia as toddlers, only to grow up and commit crimes, have been regularly dumped back over the ditch sparking anger from across the Tasman.

Australia has deported more than 4000 people, including 1500 New Zealanders, since the laws were introduced in 2014.

Ms Ardern hit back, arguing Kiwis who have spent years living in Australia don't have a life or any foundations to return to when deported back to New Zealand.

'The prime minister used a key word in his reference just now  he said that after they have served their time he sends them 'home',' she said.

'The example I used demonstrates that we have countless who have no home in New Zealand, they have no network, they have grown up in Australia. That is their home. And that is where they should stay.

Despite the New Zealand prime minister's best efforts, Mr Morrison held firm in his stance on the policy.

The tense media conference came hours after Ms Ardern (left) met with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian (right) at the New South Wales Parliament House in Sydney

'Kiwis become citizens. Indians become citizens. Chinese nationals become citizens,' he said.

'And when you become a citizen, well, you have joined the club and if you violate our laws at that point, then that is on our watch and Australia has to take care of those situations.

'But if you're a non-citizen, our very clear view  and our government is well-known for our clear views when it comes to issues of immigration and border security  if you have committed a crime and you're not a citizen of Australia, then you have no right to stay.'

AUSTRALIA'S TOUGH DEPORTATION LAWS Under Section 501 of the Migration Act, a foreigner in Australia can have their visa cancelled on character grounds if they have been jailed for 12 months or longer. Then there is Section 116 of the same law which gives the Immigration Minister the power to have someone deported if they are regarded as a threat to public safety. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton previously had this power but that responsibility now lies with Immigration Minister David Coleman. Earlier this month, the High Court ruled in a four-to-three majority verdict that indigenous Australians could not be deported. New Zealand-born Brendan Thoms, 31, who had lived in Australia since 1994, successfully challenged his deportation for a series of violent crimes committed in Queensland. He is a descendant of the Gunggari people through his maternal grandmother. Advertisement

Ms Ardern then took the opportunity to criticise Kiwis' rights in Australia.

'Not every Kiwi migrant will be perfect, but evidence shows that the vast majority are providing a net benefit to Australia,' she said.

'They earn more, they are more likely to get employed and they pay more tax than their Aussie-born counterparts.

'They are Australia's best migrants  But rather than them being given security for them to keep contributing but in return, their rights are being eroded,' she said.

'Simple rights like assistance from the National Disability Insurance Scheme, even though they pay into the scheme's levy.'
Industry body COAI has sent out a distress signal to the government seeking easier terms for payment of statutory dues by telcos, including extension of loans at lower rates to cover AGR liabilities, as also fast implementation of floor prices, to rescue the troubled sector.

With the telecom industry plunging into a deep, unprecedented crisis, the association has raised an alarm over banks' unwillingness to take any risk with regard to the sector, and asserted the "need to give a clear message to banks that government is there to support the sector".

"Banks are currently unwilling to take any risk with respect to the telecom sector and are constantly asking telecom service providers to reduce their exposures by refusing to issue new bank guarantees or even to renew bank guarantees," COAI director general, Rajan Mathews said in a letter to telecom secretary Anshu Prakash.

Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) has also said that the requirement of financial bank guarantees for securing licence fee payments should be done away with.

Also read: Vodafone Idea needs 15 years to pay AGR dues; wants Rs 8,000-crore GST refund

In case telecom department is of the view that financial bank guarantees are needed, the same should be reduced to one quarter of licence fee, as per the industry body.

COAI also sought an immediate cut in licence fee levy to three per cent from 8 per cent and reduction in spectrum usage charges.

Citing India's low average revenue per user compared to markets like China, Brazil and Russia, it further said data prices in India are a fraction of those in markets like the US, China, Germany, France and others.

"Therefore, floor pricing is imperative to ensure the sector is sustainable and in a position to bear the deferred spectrum and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, while continuing to invest in world class networks," COAI said.

COAI's letter, dated February 26, came even as Vodafone Idea has reportedly made it clear to the government that it won't be able to pay court-mandated AGR dues in entirety, unless a bailout is extended immediately.

Also read: AGR stricken Hughes Network denies reports of exiting India

In all, 15 telecom entities owe the government Rs 1.47 lakh crore in unpaid statutory dues - Rs 92,642 crore in unpaid licence fee and another Rs 55,054 crore in outstanding spectrum usage charges.

Of the estimated dues that include interest and penalty for late payments, Airtel and Vodafone Idea account for about 60 per cent.

These dues arose after the Supreme Court, in October last year, upheld the government's position on including revenue from non-core businesses in calculating the annual AGR of telecom companies, a share of which is paid as licence and spectrum fee to the exchequer.

The Supreme Court, earlier this month, rejected a plea by mobile carriers such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea for extension in the payment schedule and asked companies to deposit their past dues for spectrum and licences.

Also read: Bharti Airtel can survive Rs 35,586 crore AGR blow, says Moody's
Cllr Robert Ward represents Selsdon and Addington Village Ward on Croydon Council.

Theres a dreary monotony to the response after each tragic loss of another young life to knife crime. Politicians and talking heads express sympathy, brush quickly past solutions (a nod to public health approach and Glasgow), assert it is NOT about the police (you cant arrest your way to a solution), then run out of time, to-ing and fro-ing on the number of things it is supposedly not about.

Dig beneath the public health approach and theres little more than treat violence like a disease. Solutions offered are pleas for more of the services that impact young people, cue blaming austerity if its an opposition politician. The truth is theres no simple solution. Root causes are complex and of long standing.

The good news is the public health approach is well suited to such a situation. First applied in the United States, brought to Glasgow, and extended to the whole of Scotland in 2006, it is a four-step process: define and measure the problem; identify risk and protective factors; formulate and test interventions; scale up what works and stop doing what doesnt.

According to the WHO World report on violence and health:

Reliable data on violence are important, not only for planning and monitoring purposes, but also for advocacy. Without information, there is little pressure on anyone to acknowledge or respond to the problem.

Relevant data is typically maintained by different agencies, so hard to access coherently. The Youth Violence Commission warned the term public health model is being used without a proper understanding of what is required to effect lasting change. Without good data you are fooling yourself.

This is a longstanding problem. Although success is claimed in Glasgow, the confidence that this was a result of the work of the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) is, according to a recent UK government document, questionable. The initial flagship programme of the VRU, implemented in 2008, was Glasgows Community Initiative to Reduce Violence. Violent crime fell but it also fell in London. The programme was discontinued in 2011. According to Doctor William Graham, a police commander in Glasgow at the time, having a more structured evaluation and data collection plan from the start could not only have helped with implementation, but also strengthened the case for further funding.

After 2012-13, violent crime rose in London, but continued to fall in Strathclyde. However, from the same report:

Although the decreasing trends in violent crime and hospital admissions due to assault throughout Scotland are compelling, it is not possible to link these reductions directly with any of the work of Scotlands VRU.

There is a pattern of failure to gather and analyse data to judge effectiveness.

This isnt the only weakness. In Glasgow the VRU was set up by the police. In the early years, there was a focus on custodial sentences, DNA processes, and finger-printing all knife carriers. This moved on to a review of remand guidelines and changing sentencing recommendations on knife crime. Enforcement created the space to give preventative approaches a chance.

In contrast, in London, the Mayor has set up a VRU and in Croydon we now have a Violence Reduction Network. Both are led by former Labour councillors; indeed, the Croydon network is currently little more than that. Their adherence to the public health approach is weak. The Mayors VRU made a perfunctory effort at step one of the approach, but projects aiming to address the issues, whilst well meaning, show little attempt at quantitative evidence gathering to enable a judgement of their effectiveness.

Worse still, flexibility and objectivity are important because the threat changes constantly. What worked yesterday, may not work today. Drug distribution has evolved from crack houses to street delivery. Control of the streets, irrelevant beforehand, became important, leading to opposing gangs fighting over turf. Street distribution needs deliverers, sucking in younger and younger children. Recently, stabbing victims have become less likely to report an incident, or even attend hospital, because they know this will identify them.

If we are not informed by systematic use of current evidence  and choose projects without success measures, we will spend money ineffectively. We are left with traditional multi-agency working, delivering a scattergun of projects, selected on old information, the best sales pitch, and political favouritism.

Thats the public health approach in name only. Its a more expensive way of doing what we already were doing. It is a betrayal of our young people and a waste of taxpayers money. It is another reason, if one were needed, to remove Mayor Khan in May. Some others might wish to sharpen up their act too.
Technavio has been monitoring the geomarketing software market and it is poised to grow by USD 12.41 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 26% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005300/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Geomarketing Software Market 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Growing need to improve business efficiencies has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Request a free sample report

Geomarketing Software Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Geomarketing Software Market is segmented as below:

Deployment

Cloud-based

On-premises

Location

Outdoor

Indoor

Geographic Segmentation

APAC

Europe

MEA

North America

South America

To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40187

Geomarketing Software Market 2020-2024: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our geomarketing software market report covers the following areas:

Geomarketing Software Market Size

Geomarketing Software Market Trends

Geomarketing Software Market Industry Analysis

This study identifies use of AI in geomarketing software for digital advertising as one of the prime reasons driving the geomarketing software market growth during the next few years.

Geomarketing Software Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the geomarketing software market, including some of the vendors such as Adobe Inc., Alphabet Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc., International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., Qualcomm Inc., Salesforce.com Inc. and Software AG. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the geomarketing software market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Geomarketing Software Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist geomarketing software market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the geomarketing software market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the geomarketing software market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of geomarketing software market vendors

PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT

2.1 Preface

2.2 Preface

2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE

Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

Value chain analysis

Market segmentation analysis

PART 04: MARKET SIZING

Market definition

Market sizing 2019

Market outlook

Market size and forecast 2019-2024

PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY DEPLOYMENT

Market segmentation by deployment

Comparison by deployment

Cloud-based Market size and forecast 2019-2024

On-premises Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by deployment

PART 07: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY LOCATION

Market segmentation by location

Comparison by location

Outdoor Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Indoor Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by location

PART 08: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 09: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024

South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Key leading countries

Market opportunity

PART 10: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 11: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 12: MARKET TRENDS

Advent of big data and location-based analytics

Evolution of programmatic advertisement buying

Use of AI in geomarketing software for digital advertising

PART 13: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 14: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Adobe Inc.

Alphabet Inc.

Cisco Systems, Inc.

Environmental Systems Research Institute Inc.

International Business Machines Corp.

Microsoft Corp.

Oracle Corp.

Qualcomm Inc.

Salesforce.com Inc.

Software AG

PART 15: APPENDIX

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

Definition of market positioning of vendors

PART 16: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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The global hematology diagnostics market size is expected to reach USD 9.39 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is anticipated to register a CAGR of 5.85% over the forecast period. Increasing prevalence of blood disorders coupled with adoption of automated testing processes are projected to propel the market growth.

Automation of hematology diagnostics process have led to reduced turnaround time thereby accelerating the overall treatment regimen. Furthermore, automation has also led to reduced administrative errors and overall costs of diagnostic tests. Thus, it is expected to boost growth of the hematology testing market in the forthcoming years.

Dominance of hematology analyzers can be attributed to the presence of fully-automated analyzers which are objective, have high-throughput, and are cost-effective. Furthermore, these hematology analyzers can also detect atypical results and can improve measurable parameters such as red cell distribution width, platelet distribution, Reticulocyte (RET) counts, and nucleated red cells counts.

The advent of Point-Of-Care (PoC) hematology testing devices has led to improved diagnostic and patient outcomes. These devices are user-friendly and are available for use outside the hospital settings. This is anticipated to increase the acceptability and accessibility of hematology testing which, in turn, is anticipated to propel market growth.

Product recall and intense market competition leading to price wars are anticipated to hinder market growth. In 2018, Becton Dickinson (BD) and Company recalled Vacutainer EDTA Blood Collection Tubes owing to chemical interference with certain tests. This recall was classified as Class I recall, the most serious type of recall, by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), thereby indicating that the use of these devices may cause serious injuries or death. Such product recalls can negatively affect the market growth.

Further key findings from the report suggest:

Consumables emerged as the largest segment owing to increasing testing and diagnosis of blood disorders

Diagnostic labs segment is projected to expand at a lucrative CAGR over the forecast period owing to high prevalence of blood disorders

North America held the dominant market share in 2017 owing to favorable reimbursement scenario and presence of sophisticated technological facilities

Asia Pacific is projected to witness swift growth during the forecast period owing to the rising healthcare expenditure coupled with focus on quality healthcare infrastructure

Few of the key players in hematology testing market include Beckman Coulter, Inc.;Abbott Laboratories; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.; Siemens Healthineers; Mindray Medical International Limited; and Sysmex Corporation.

Request a Sample Copy of the Global Hematology Diagnostics Market Research Report @

www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/hematology-diagnostics-market/request/rs1

Grand View Research has segmented the global hematology diagnostics market based on product, end-use, test type, and region:

Hematology Diagnostics Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Instrument Analyzers Flow cytometers others

Consumables Reagents Stains others



Hematology Diagnostics End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Hospitals

Diagnostic labs

Others

Hematology Diagnostics Test type Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

Blood count

Platelet function

Hemoglobin

Hematocrit

Hematology Diagnostics Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2014 - 2025)

North America U.S. Canada

Europe U.K. Germany

Asia Pacific Japan China

Latin America Brazil Mexico

Middle East & Africa South Africa Saudi Arabia



Access full research report on global hematology diagnostics market:

www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/hematology-diagnostics-market
Youth Congress workers held a protest here on Friday against the violence in Delhi and demanded Home Minister Amit Shah's resignation.

The protestors were seen holding placards and raising slogans against BJP leaders and the violence in North-East Delhi, which has now claimed 42 lives.

They also demanded the arrest of BJP leader Kapil Mishra for making provocative statements.

Meanwhile, two Special Investigation Teams (SITs) have been constituted under the Crime Branch, Delhi Police to investigate the violence.

Violence had erupted in several areas of North-East Delhi on Sunday after two groups supporting and opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) indulged in stone-pelting at each other.

Subsequently, security has been beefed up at various locations in the district including Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, and Gokulpuri. Although the situation has normalised in the affected areas, security personnel are still present.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 39 were killed and over 200 injured in communal clashes that broke out in northeast Delhi on Monday after clashes between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control. The areas worst affected in the violence include Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh, Khureji Khas and Bhajanpura. According to the official data of the fire department, at least 79 houses, 52 shops, 3 factories, 500 vehicles and 2 schools besides places of worship were burned down during the clashes. After the chaos ended, the victims were left to pick the pieces. While the loss of property can be made up, the loss of life will forever hurt the families that suffered. But life goes on and the only thing to do now is move on.


Former prime minister Kevin Rudd repeatedly pressed ex-Labor leader Bill Shorten to launch a royal commission into News Corp Australia in the lead up to last year's federal election.

Mr Rudd, who later that year publicly called for a royal commission into the ownership and operation of the media, was particularly angered by an election campaign front page story in the Daily Telegraph which accused Mr Shorten of lying about the life story of his dead mother Ann.

"Gidday," Mr Rudd wrote to Mr Shorten on May 8 according to an account in Samantha Maiden's new book Party Animals to be released this week. "Dont let the News Corp f---ers get you down. They massively overreached today."
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 05:28:33|Editor: yan

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LONDON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- One more case of COVID-19 was confirmed in England Friday evening, bringing the total number in the UK to 20, according to the latest figures released on Friday by UK's health authorities.

There were a total of four new cases detected in the country on Friday, of which three were found in England and one reported in Wales.

Among the cases in England, one patient contracted the virus in the UK, but it is not yet clear whether the virus was contracted directly or indirectly from an individual who had recently returned from abroad, Chief Medical Officer for England Professor Chris Whitty said in a statement.

This is being investigated and contact tracing has begun. Meanwhile the other two patients were infected in Iran, according to Professor Whitty.

As for the confirmed case in Wales, the Public Health Wales said that the patient had travelled back to Wales from northern Italy, where the virus was contracted.

As of Feb. 28, a total of 8,986 people have been tested in the UK for novel coronavirus, of which 8,966 were confirmed negative and 20 positive, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.
Warrick was arrested in November in South Carolina after authorities said they linked his DNA to the slaying of Christine Mirzayan, a 28-year-old woman who on Aug. 1, 1998, was abducted and dragged into the woods off Canal Road in Georgetown. Police said Mirzayan was sexually assaulted and repeatedly struck in her face and the head with a 73-pound rock.
28.02.2020 LISTEN

New Patriotic Party delegates in the Ejisu constituency have affirmed their unflinching support for Lawyer John Kumah to be their Parliamentary candidate in the upcoming general elections.

According to them, Lawyer John Ampontua Kumah who is the Chief Executive Officer of National Entrepreneurship and Innovative Program (NEIP) has won the hearts and minds of both young and old folks in the constituency and marketing him for more votes would not be any headache at all.

The delegates noted that his constant touch of empathy to the various communities within the constituency has endeared him to the numerous voters not only within the NPP but across the political divide.

Michael Nsowah Agyemang of Kokobra Okyerekrom electoral area speaking to Modern Ghana Online noted that their constituency has benefited a lot from his position, a feat not many constituencies can boast about their appointees in government.

Reading from a long list of what he described as Community Support Projects, Mr. Nsowah Agyemang who is the Assemblymember for Kokobra and a delegate mentioned the various supports Lawyer Kumah has given to communities in the constituency.

He has constructed a 30 Seater Ultra Modern toilet facility at Ejisu Akyeremade. It is the first of its kind here because it has Biodigester, a Laundry, 10 bathrooms and Urinals.

He said Lawyer Kumah assisted the people of Asaman with 100 bags of cement, Jachie with 150 bags of cement, Achiase with

100 bags of cement towards Chairman Bonsus funeral grounds project and Akyawkrom with 100 bags of cement and 3 trips of sand.

In education, he has supported several schools by donating monies and items to enhance teaching and learning.

These schools include Ejisu Presby Primary school, Apromase Primary school, Onwe Senior High School and Ejisu Zongo Islamic School.

Everybody in the constituency have witnessed his humane qualities for which myself and the over 700 delegates have vowed to vote for him to be our parliamentary candidate come this years general elections.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- THEMAC Resources Group Limited (TSX VENTURE:MAC) (THEMAC or the Company) announced today an update of project economics and permitting for the Copper Flat Mine Project in Sierra County, New Mexico, USA. A technical report titled Copper Flat Project, Form NI 43-101F1 Technical Report Project Feasibility Study Update meeting the CIM definitions for a feasibility study to support this announcement is being prepared by M3 Engineering & Technology Corporation in Tucson, Arizona. The Technical Report will be issued within 45 days of the date of this news release. When complete, the Report will be available on SEDAR ( www.sedar.com ) and on the Company's website ( www.themacresourcesgroup.com ).



All amounts and quantities presented in this report are stated in United States Dollars and US standard units unless labeled otherwise.

Copper Flat is a former producing mine located in Sierra County, New Mexico, approximately 150 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and 20 miles southwest of the town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The project land package comprises 5,077 acres, with the majority of the mineral reserves located on patented mining claims that are wholly owned by THEMAC through its 100% ownership of New Mexico Copper Corporation (NMCC).

HIGHLIGHTS

Recent updates of Project capital and operating costs produced the following financial return estimates:

NPV@0%

(US$000) NPV@8%

(US$000) IRR

(%) Payback

(Years) Base Case $554,000 $240,000 21.1 3.3 Upside Price Case $721,000 $344,000 25.9 2.8

Base Case: Copper $3.25/lb, Moly $10.50/lb, Gold $1,300/oz; Silver $16.00/oz

Upside Sensitivity: Copper $3.60/lb, Moly $10.50/lb, Gold $1,300/oz; Silver $16.00/oz

At the federal level, the US Bureau of Land Management completed a seven-year environmental review of the proposed mine and has issued environmental clearance to proceed with the Company proposed operation. Additionally, the US Army Corps of Engineers has authorized the Copper Flat Mine to operate under the Nationwide Permit 44 for mining activities.





Multiple state permits have been received. Approval by the New Mexico Mines and Minerals Division of the Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department of a Company financial guarantee for reclamation and closure of the site after mining is required to obtain the Mining Permit; when that step is accomplished, the Copper Flat Mine will be a fully permitted facility.





The Company has filed an appeal of the State of New Mexico Third District Court ruling that invalidated a large percentage of 7,500 acre-feet of inchoate water rights. That appeal has been assigned to the New Mexico Court of Appeals and awaits a court date to hear oral arguments. Meanwhile, a 2019 lease agreement has secured more than half of the water supply required to operate the project.

We are pleased that Copper Flat remains a viable project. Since the last economic study, the team has made excellent progress on obtaining the necessary permits to operate the mine. Now that the updated feasibility is complete, we will be focusing on funding to enable us to develop the mine, said Andrew Maloney, CEO.

FINANCIAL SUMMARY

The economic update includes financial analysis on two metal price scenarios: 1) The base case using a long-term copper price of $3.25/lb; and 2) a price upside case using a long-term copper price of $3.60/lb. All other metal prices are held constant between the two scenarios.

The financial return table below is after tax, unlevered and with no escalation in commodity prices.

FINANCIAL RETURNS

NPV@0%

(US$000) NPV@8%

(US$000) IRR

(%) Payback

(Years) Base Case $554,000 $241,600 21.1 3.3 Upside Price Case $721,000 $343,800 25.9 2.8

Base Case: Copper $3.25/lb, Moly $10.50/lb, Gold $1,300/oz; Silver $16.00/oz

Upside Sensitivity: Copper $3.60/lb, Moly $10.50/lb, Gold $1,300/oz; Silver $16.00/oz

CAPITAL COSTS

The total initial capital cost for construction, mine pre-development, commissioning and owners cost is estimated to be $373.9 million. Sustaining capital will total $40.9 million over the life of the operation.

The project is a brownfield redevelopment project in a stable region with excellent access to existing infrastructure. The project will realize savings through the reuse of significant infrastructure that remains from the original Quintana Mine, which provides an estimated $55.0 million in value to the Project.

INITIAL AND SUSTAINING CAPITAL

Initial Capital Amount

($1000) Mine $10,400 Plant $328,500 Owner Cost $35,000 Total $373,900





Sustaining Capital Amount

($1000) Mine $10,200 Plant $27,700 G&A $3,000 Total $40,900

OPERATING COSTS

Average cash operating costs, net of by-product revenue, and using the base case pricing scenario, are estimated at US$1.14 per pound of copper recovered into concentrate before smelter deductions during the first five years of production and US$1.35 per pound of copper recovered into concentrate before smelter deductions over the full life-of-mine. On an equivalent copper basis, cash operating costs average $1.73 per equivalent pound of copper recovered into concentrate before smelter deductions over the life-of-mine.

On a cost per ton basis, cash operating costs are estimated at $12.14 per ton processed, excluding by-product credits. Cash operating costs include mining, processing, site general and administration, treatment and refining, concentrate transportation, and royalties.

LIFE-OF-MINE CASH OPERATING COST

Operating Cost $/Ton of Ore $/lb of Cu Mining Cost $2.75 $0.50 Process Cost $5.01 $0.90 General Administration Cost $0.53 $0.10 Treatment & Refining Charges $3.24 $0.58 Royalties $0.61 $0.11 Total Cash Operating Cost $12.14 $2.19 By-Product Revenue ($0.84) Total Cash Operating Cost Net of By Product Revenue $1.35

PERMITTING

The proposed operation has been evaluated by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) through completion of a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliant Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Initial scoping for the EIS was conducted with public input in February 2012. The BLM released the Draft EIS (DEIS) on the Copper Flat Copper Mine Project in November 2015, hosted two public meetings shortly thereafter and allowed 120 days to receive public feedback on the DEIS. On April 19, 2019, the BLM announced completion of the Final EIS (FEIS) for the Copper Flat Mine and the document was released to the public.

The EIS was prepared by the Las Cruces District Office of the BLM in consultation with several Cooperating Agencies that included: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS); the New Mexico Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department, the New Mexico Environment Department, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, and the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer. The EIS also considered public comments received during the scoping effort as well as comments received on the Draft EIS. Consultation with USFWS resulted in a Biological Assessment and the USFWS Biological Opinion, an important component of the NEPA process was signed in February 2019.

The Copper Flat Mine EIS was an extensive review that took seven years to complete. The FEIS identifies potential impacts on the physical, biological and social environment from all phases of the proposed project, including construction, mine operation and closure. The document identifies long-term, cumulative effects from this project and other activities in the region, while considering a reasonable range of alternatives that meet the Agencys legal mandates.

In a separate action, the BLM on August 22, 2019, issued a positive decision on the Copper Flat Mine FEIS. With this decision, the BLM formally approved the Alternative 2 Plan evaluated in the EIS. The BLM decision approves open pit mining and 30,000 tons per day mineral processing by sulfide flotation, which matches plans used for the Companys state permit applications. With the EIS, the BLM determined that implementation of the approved alternative along with Company commitments to environmental monitoring and protection measures will not cause unnecessary or undue degradation of public lands and the Agency has determined the decision is consistent with other applicable legal requirements. In announcing the decision, the BLM recognized that the Copper Flat Mine will enhance economic development by creating jobs and enabling community growth. The full Copper Flat FEIS and associated Record of Decision (ROD) are available for viewing at: https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/eplanning/planAndProjectSite.do?methodName=dispatchToPatternPagetPageId=112703

In a separate Federal process, the Company has evaluated the Copper Flat site for jurisdictional waters of the US (WOTUS), which may include ephemeral drainages. Section 404 of the US Clean Water Act regulates the discharge of dredged or fill material into WOTUS. The program is administered by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE) and a permit issued under authority of the US Clean Water Act is required before dredged or fill material may be placed or discharged into WOTUS. The Copper Flat facilities have been designed to avoid, to the most practicable extent, WOTUS, such that potential impacts are less than 0.02 acres (less than 0.008 hectares) for the entire project site, thus qualifying the project for approval under the USACOEs Nation-wide Permit 44 for mining activities. The Company prepared a Pre-Construction Notification (PCN) with supporting documents for a nation-wide permit, which was submitted to USACOE in October. In addition to project designs, the USACOE also considers impacts to threatened and endangered species and to historic properties before making a decision. In a letter dated February 6, 2020, USACOE notified NMCC that its plans for the Copper Flat Mine are authorized by Nationwide Permit 44 for Mining Activities, which meets the US Clean Water Act requirements for a permit.

The Company has also achieved significant progress on state permits for the Copper Flat Mine.

The NMED Air Quality New Source Review Permit 0365-M3 was issued to New Mexico Copper Corporation for the Copper Flat Mine in June 2013 and the permit remains in effect.

The NMED Groundwater Discharge Permit DP-1840 was issued to New Mexico Copper Corporation for the Copper Flat Mine in December 2018 and the permit remains in effect. The decision to issue Permit DP-1840 was appealed by project opponents; arguments were heard by the State Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) in August 2019, followed by a unanimous decision from the WQCC to uphold the permit. The WQCC decision has been appealed to the NM Court of Appeals and the appeal schedule is pending.

The Copper Flat Mine is being permitted as a new mine under Part 6 of the New Mexico Mining Regulations, which are administered by MMD. The NMCC permit application package (PAP) includes construction, operation, reclamation and closure plans and other content specified by state regulation. In a letter dated July 13, 2018, the MMD notified NMCC that the Copper Flat PAP is approvable in accordance with 19.10.6.605.E NMAC and a public hearing on the PAP was held in October 2018. In a letter dated December 21, 2018, MMD provided the Company with a status letter that identified the following actions needed to complete the mine permit:

Completion of the Hearing Officers report on the October hearing. This report was completed and submitted to MMD in December 2018, and subsequently posted on the MMD website for public review.



Completion of a financial assurance plan with approval and acceptance by MMD, NMED and the BLM (FA Agencies).



MMDs receipt of the NMED Secretarys Determination stating that the permit applicant has demonstrated that the activities to be permitted will be expected to achieve compliance with all applicable air, water quality and other environmental standards if carried out as described in the permit application. The NMED indicated when they issued the Discharge Permit that the NMEDs Secretary Determination will be considered after the Financial Assurance Plan is approved by all participating agencies.



MMDs receipt of BLMs approval of the proposed mining operation. BLM has indicated that approval of the proposed mining operation will be considered after the Financial Assurance plan is approved by participating agencies.

Financial assurance for reclamation and closure of the Copper Flat Mine requires approval by MMD, NMED and BLM. The Company prepared and submitted to the Agencies a proposed reclamation and closure cost estimate for the life-of-mine plan and has revised the calculations to fully address Agency comments. In correspondence dated August 21, 2019, MMD, with concurrence from NMED and BLM, informed the Company that the proposed calculation was accepted. Completion of financial assurance now requires completion of the FA funding schedule and submittal of FA in a form meeting applicable regulatory requirements.

Water Supply

The Company has determined that it will require approximately 6,100 acre-feet (AF) of water for planned operations. Water resources are carefully managed and controlled in the Western United States; in New Mexico, the appropriation of water rights is managed by the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer (NMOSE or OSE).

In 2010, the Company entered into an option and purchase agreement to acquire approximately 7,500 AF of vested and inchoate water rights for the mine. In 2015, the Company filed for court adjudication of the acquired water rights. On December 28, 2017, the State of New Mexico Third District Court ruled that the inchoate water rights controlled by the Company were invalid and extinguished as the result of non-use and the failure to pursue a continuous plan of development by prior owners of the water rights; leaving the Company with approximately 861 acre feet of vested water rights. This amount falls short of the quantity needed to operate the Copper Flat Mine as planned. The Company filed an appeal of this decision on March 27, 2018. At the same time, parties opposing the Companys water rights filed cross appeals protesting the Court recognized water rights. The appeals have been assigned to the New Mexico Court of Appeals General Calendar; however, a date to hear oral arguments in this appeal has not been established by the Court.

Ensuring pumping groundwater will not impair other water users is necessary in New Mexico and the Company has taken steps to avoid the potential impairment of other groundwater users. To offset groundwater pumping effects that are projected to reach the river, the Company has acquired a lease from the Jicarilla Nation to release 3,000 AF of water per annum into the Rio Grande and is further reviewing additional options for further water offsets. The Jicarilla lease was authorized and approved by the United States Department of Interior and the United States Bureau of Reclamation in February 2016.

In April 2019, the Company entered into an agreement to lease 2,400 AF of existing water rights for use at the Copper Flat Mine. The leased water is in the same basin as the mine and is currently permitted for multiple purposes, including commercial and industrial use. An application to OSE to change the point of diversion and place of use was completed and filed with OSE in August 2019. The application was accepted by OSE in December 2019, and public notice of the application was completed in January 2020. This agreement brings the current water supply available for the Copper Flat Mine to 3,261 AF, including 861 AF of adjudicated water rights acquired through the 2010 Option and Purchase Agreement, more than half of the 6,100 AF total required by the planned operation.

The Company continues to identify other potential sources of water for the Copper Flat Mine and is pursuing options to secure the full amount of water needed for the operation.

MINERAL RESERVES AND RESOURCE

Copper Flats mineral resources and reserves are unchanged from the November 2013 report. Proven and probable reserves at Copper Flat total 113.1 million tons; measured and indicated mineral resources, inclusive of mineral reserves, total 305 million tons. Copper Flat reserves contain 675 million pounds of copper, 20 million pounds of molybdenum, 340 thousand ounces of gold and 6.8 million ounces of silver and has an average copper equivalent grade of 0.39%. Copper equivalent factors used account for metal price, metallurgical recovery and smelter payable factors.

Mineral Reserves1,2,3

Cut-Off Grade

(NSR/t) Tons

(000s) Cu Eq (%) Copper (%) Moly (%) Gold (opt) Silver (opt) Proven $6.11 78,857 0.32 0.010 0.003 0.07 Probable $6.11 34,227 0.25 0.007 0.003 0.04 Total $6.11 113,084 0.39 0.30 0.009 0.003 0.06

Mineral Resources1,2

Cut-Off Grade

(NSR/t) Tons

(000s) Copper

(%) Moly

(%) Gold

(opt) Silver

(opt) Measured $6.11 126,655 0.28 0.009 0.003 0.06 Indicated $6.11 178,571 0.19 0.005 0.002 0.04 Total $6.11 305,226 0.23 0.007 0.002 0.05

(1) Effective October 7, 2013

(2) Reserves and resources based on $3.00/lb Copper, $8.00/lb Moly, $1,350/oz Gold: $20.00/oz Silver

(3) Mine design based on $2.50/lb cone

The Copper Flat reserves and resources are developed from a computerized block model that utilizes a drill hole database containing 233 drill holes and 181,326 feet of drilling that continued through to the end of 2012. In addition to the drilling program, the company re-assayed more than 6,000 historical pulps to obtain gold and silver data.

MINING AND PROCESSING

Copper Flat is a porphyry copper-gold deposit that is near surface and amenable to open pit mining methods. The pit operations are planned to use standard mining equipment, including: 45,000 lb., single pass rotary blast hole drills, 19-cu-yd front-end loaders, and 100 ton off-highway haul trucks. The mine plan includes a mine support fleet comprised of track and rubber-tired dozers, motor graders, and 10,000-gallon water trucks. Material mined totals 158 million tons of ore and waste over the life-of-mine at an average stripping ratio of 0.40 tons of waste per ton of ore. The mining rate peaks at 17.5 million tons of total material per year.

The construction program benefits from the use of existing infrastructure and the timeframe expected to construct and commission the project is estimated to require 18 months. Following construction, the project schedule includes 11.1 years of mining and ore processing.

Ore will be processed through a standard crushing, grinding and sulfide flotation concentrator to produce a copper-gold-silver concentrate and a molybdenum concentrate. The Copper Flat concentrator is scheduled to process 10.8 million tons per year for the first five years of production and 9.9 million tons per year for the remainder of the mine life when harder ores are encountered at depth in the deposit. Copper recovery to concentrate is projected to average 70 million pounds per year during the first five years of operation and 57 million pounds per year when averaged over the full life-of-mine.

The Copper Flat ore lends itself to common crushing and grinding practice and standard flotation reagents and the mill is designed to have a simple gyratory crusher and SAG/ball mill grinding circuit followed by a conventional floatation circuit to produce separate copper and molybdenum concentrates. Metallurgical testing shows the Copper Flat ore contains coarse gold that is recoverable through physical separation and gravity separation equipment, this equipment is included in the process flow sheet to improve gold recovery. As a result of metallurgical test work, the expected life-of-mine process recoveries are projected to be: 93% copper; 78% molybdenum; 74% gold; and 83% silver.

The mine will produce approximately 100,000 tons of copper concentrate and 1,300 tons of molybdenum concentrates per year for the life-of-mine. The copper concentrate is expected to assay 27% to 30% copper based on lab tests and actual plant performance achieved by Quintana Minerals in the past operation. The molybdenum concentrate is expected to assay 50% to 60% molybdenum oxide. ICP analysis of the copper concentrate determined that the concentrate is expected to contain very low concentrations of potential smelter penalty elements

PRODUCTION METRICS

Mine Life (Years) 11.1 Strip Ratio (Waste Tons : Ore Tons) 0.4:1 LOM annual processing rate (Ktons) 10,200 Copper equivalent LOM annual production (Klbs) 71,700 Copper equivalent LOM production (Klbs) 796,000 Copper LOM annual production (Klbs) 56,600 Copper LOM production (Klbs) 628,000 Gold LOM annual production (Ktrozs) 20 Gold LOM production (Ktrozs) 227 Copper equivalent LOM average grade 0.38%

Note: Copper equivalent grade and production based on base case metal prices and plant recoveries

TECHNICAL REPORT

A technical report on the update will be filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and will also be available on the Company's website at www.themacresourcesgroup.com within 45 days of the date of this news release. The Company will release an announcement regarding report availability when the report is posted.

Technical information in this news release has been read and approved by Richard Zimmerman, R.G. (M3 Engineering), John Marek, P.E. (Independent Mining Associates), Dave Kidd, P.E. (Golder Associates), and Jeff Smith, P.E. (THEMAC Resources) all of whom are Qualified Persons under Canadian NI 43-101.

ABOUT M3 ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION

The Feasibility Study Technical Report update is being compiled by M3 Engineering & Technology Corporation (M3) of Tucson, Arizona. M3 provides full-service industrial design and EPCM services and is recognized as an industry leader in Feasibility Studies and associated NI 43-101 technical reports.

ABOUT INDEPENDENT MINING CONSULTANTS

Mineral resources, reserves, mine planning, and cost estimating were prepared by IMC of Tucson, Arizona. Since 1983 Independent Mining Consultants, Inc. (IMC) has been recognized worldwide for its expertise in Open Pit Mine Design and Mine Planning as well as Ore Reserve Estimation and Mineral Economics. IMC has worked for large international mining conglomerates, medium sized mines, multiple commodity producers, and exploration firms.

ABOUT GOLDER ASSOCIATES

Engineering, design, and cost estimating of the Copper Flat tailings storage facility were prepared by Golder Associates of Tucson, Arizona. Design of the Copper Flat Mine reclamation plan was prepared by Golder Associates of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Employee owned since being founded in 1960, Golder Associates Inc. provides engineering and environmental consulting services to mining, energy and natural resource industries. Golder has conducted similar studies and engineering evaluations in the southwestern US and internationally.

ABOUT THEMAC RESOURCES GROUP LIMITED

THEMAC is a copper development company with a strong management team and as of May 18, 2011, a 100% ownership interest in the Copper Flat copper-molybdenum-gold-silver project in New Mexico, USA. We are continuing to advance the closed copper mine, Copper Flat, in Sierra County, New Mexico, toward production with innovation and a sustainable approach to mining development and production, local economic opportunities, and the best reclamation practices for our unique environment. The Company is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (ticker: MAC) and has issued share capital of 79,400,122 common shares (fully diluted share capital 93,064,866).

For more information please visit www.themacresourcesgroup.com or review the Company's filings on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain information contained or incorporated by reference in this press release, including any information as to THEMACs future financial or operating performance, the likelihood and timing of commercial production, construction of plant, and obtaining required permits, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, expanding mineral reserves and mineral resources, the realization of mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, capital costs, costs of production, metal or mineral recoveries, mine life and production rates, capital expenditures and success of mining operations, expected IRR and NPV constitute forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. The words believe, expect, anticipate, contemplate, target, plan, intends, continue, budget, estimate, may, will, schedule and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by THEMAC, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Such assumptions include the specific assumptions set out in this press release and in the Report, that future capital and operating costs will be in line with THEMACS assumptions, that mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates prove accurate, permits required to commence production will be obtained on a timely basis, copper, molybdenum, gold and silver prices will remain consistent with THEMACs expectations, that there are no changes in THEMACs development plans as new information is received, that THEMAC will be able to access financing, equipment and sufficient labor to carry out its planned business. Known and unknown factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward- looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: fluctuations in the currency markets; fluctuations in the spot and forward price of copper, molybdenum, gold, and silver; volatility in the price of fuel and electricity; changes in national and local government legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments in Canada and the USA; business opportunities that may be pursued by THEMAC; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities; employee relations; litigation; the speculative nature of exploration and development, including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses and permits; uncertainty surrounding the availability of water rights required for mining operations which, if not secured, could result in changes to the proposed plan for development of Copper Flat; contests over title to properties, particularly title to undeveloped properties; failure of processing and mining equipment to perform as expected; labor disputes; supply problems; uncertainty of production and cost estimates; the interpretation of drill results; the assumptions upon which the estimation of mineral resources and reserves prove inaccurate, which could lead to a restatement of reserves and resources;; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; possible variations in ore reserves, grade of mineralization or recovery rates may differ from what is indicated and the difference may be material; legal and regulatory proceedings and community actions; accidents, title matters; regulatory restrictions; permitting and licensing; volatility of the market price of Common Shares; insurance; competition; and hedging activities. In addition, there are risks and hazards associated with the business of exploration, development and mining, including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected formations, pressures, cave - ins, flooding and the risk of inadequate insurance, or inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks. Many of these uncertainties and contingencies can affect actual results and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, THEMAC. Readers are cautioned that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. THEMAC disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by applicable laws.

Operating cost per pound of copper, Life-of-mine sustaining capital, IRR and similar terms are alternative performance measures. These performance measures are included because these statistics are key performance measures that management may use to monitor performance. Management may use these statistics in future to assess how THEMAC is performing to plan and to assess the overall effectiveness and efficiency of mining operations. These performance measures do not have a meaning within International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") and, therefore, amounts presented may not be comparable to similar data presented by other mining companies. These performance measures should not be considered in isolation as a substitute for measures of performance in accordance with IFRS.

For further information contact:

THEMAC Resources Group Limited

Andrew Maloney

Chief Executive Officer

Phone: +1 505.382.5770

www.themacresourcesgroup.com
South Dakota's law requiring 60% plus one vote on capital outlay bonds protects taxpayers, even more so for a special election that had only a 23% voter turnout.

In South Dakota, there is no legal way for a school district to raise money for buildings other than through a property tax. There is no different way for the district to build schools.

The Yes Committee should not view the vote as a loss. View it as an opportunity to continue to educate the community on the need for the bond and the critical importance of getting out in support of progress.

#metoo is for victims of sexual assault and rape. If you weren't a victim of those crimes, you shouldn't insert yourself into that narrative and ride on the coattails of women who survived the unspeakable.

School board, we know you'll be back in June but next time don't bring your "shoot for the moon" proposal and don't leave out teachers.

Thank you RC firefighters who diagnosed why my home smoke alarms were blaring. Your courtesy, kindness and going above the call of duty is a credit to your department.

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NEW DELHI: Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal will visit the violence-hit areas in northeast Delhi where clashes between the between citizenship law supporters and protesters had so far claimed 42 lives and left over 200 injured. News agency quoted a release from the Delhi L-Gs office to confirm the development.

Meanwhile, life was limping back to normalcy in some parts of the riot-hit northeast Delhi, with police and paramilitary personnel maintaining strict vigil in view of Friday prayers at mosques. Police officers said they were also making extra efforts to quell rumours, and holding regular flag marches and interactions in the neighbourhoods of affected areas as confidence-building measures.

In some areas of northeast Delhi, signs of normal life were witnessed with the opening of shops. In violence-hit areas also, shops in streets and bylanes were open. Nearly 7,000 paramilitary forces have been deployed in the affected areas of the northeast district since Monday. Besides, hundreds of Delhi Police personnel are on the ground to maintain peace and prevent any untoward incident.

At least 42 were killed and over 200 injured in the communal clashes that broke out in northeast Delhi on Monday after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control. The areas affected include Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Chand Bagh, Khureji Khas and Bhajanpura.

The Union Home Ministry had said on Thursday night that no major incident was reported from the northeast district in the past 36 hours. It had said that prohibitory orders imposed under Section 144 would be relaxed for 10 hours in view of improvement in the situation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and top leaders have appealed for peace in the aftermath of the violence.
An American writer and novelist who was evacuated from the coronavirus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship says being quarantined inside a military base near San Antonio makes her feel dehumanized, like pariahs, scum, outcasts.

Gay Courter, a best-selling author, and her husband, Phil, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, were on board a US government-arranged flight from Tokyo that landed in Joint Base San Antonio - Lackland in Texas on February 17.

They are currently being held in a two-week quarantine after an initial two-week quarantine aboard the cruise ship that was docked in Japan.

The Courters, who live in Crystal River, Florida, were among more than 300 Americans who were evacuated from the ship, which was locked down by Japanese authorities after hundreds were confirmed to have been infected with coronavirus.

Fourteen Americans on board the ship also tested positive. Of those, seven were flown to Lackland, though at the time of the flights, they did not exhibit symptoms, according to government officials.

Gay Courter (right) and her husband, Phil (left), are seen above during their two-week quarantine aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was docked at Yokohama, Japan earlier this month

The couple are now being quarantined for an additional two weeks at Joint Base San Antonio in Lackland, Texas (above)

The Courters were among scores of Americans evacuated from the Diamond Princess ship. They were flown back to the States on board a cargo ship (above) which arrived in Lackland on February 17

Gay Courter writes in The Atlantic that despite rising concerns over news reports of novel coronavirus in China, she and her husband booked a flight for mid-December for Tokyo.

I watched as the numbers in Wuhan began to rise and as the Chinese government imposed draconian measures to keep residents within the citys borders - but without a frisson of concern, I finished packing city gear for metros, walking, rain, and moderate winter temperatures, plus layers for cold and snow for our winter excursion after the cruise, she writes.

After spending a week in the Japanese capital, the couple boarded the luxury cruise liner Diamond Princess in the port city of Yokohama.

They were anticipating spending the lunar new year in Hong Kong before making stops in Vietnam, Taiwan, and other Japanese ports.

By the time they arrived in Hong Kong on January 25, there were growing signs of unrest caused by both the spread of the virus as well as political tensions in the semi-autonomous area.

The unrest prompted Hong Kong to cancel all new-year festivities.

Undeterred, the Courters kept calm and carried on with their vacation.

Still, we went into town for a dim sum lunch, tram ride to Victoria Peak, market shopping spree, and Peking-duck feast, she writes.

Buses carrying U.S. passengers who were aboard the quarantined cruise ship the Diamond Princess, seen in background, leaves Yokohama port, near Tokyo, early Monday, February 17. The cruise ship was carrying nearly 3,500 passengers and crew members

It was the vacation of a lifetime.

On their last night on the cruise, the ships captain announced that a passenger who did not return to the vessel as it docked in Hong Kong tested positive for coronavirus.

The Japanese authorities announced they would not allow anyone off the cruise until the passengers filled out a questionnaire.

During the two-week quarantine, Courter writes that she kept sane by making sure she had salt handy for the three meals a day she was served on the boat.

The Courters were holed up in a small suite with a balcony - a relatively luxurious setting compared to the small, windowless rooms that others were staying in during the quarantine.

Gay Courter writes of the 'dehumanizing' experience of being in quarantine on a military base

After their quarantine, Courter describes the 23 hours on buses and the bare-bones cargo plane that they flew on during the extraction process by the State Department.

'When we were "processed" in an airplane hangar last week, we were handed paperwork that read: "Under Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act based on the scientific evidence collected concerning the outbreak of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), the disease meets the definition of 'severe acute respiratory syndromes' as specified under Executive Order 13295, as amended by Executive Orders 13375 and 13674."

'The paperwork ordered us into quarantine - the first in the US in 60 years - with violation penalties of a criminal fine and up to one year in jail.'

Courter describes how the on-base staff keeps the quarantined Americans at arms length.

'Everyone on the other side of the fence is dressed in uniform,' she writes.

'If they have to cross over to interact with us, they must be in full protection regalia and we must be wearing masks.

'They stand as far back as possible, taking our temperatures with an outstretched arm.

'We feel dehumanized, like pariahs, scum, outcasts.

'I use this heightened language because this is a heightened situation.'

Those quarantined are confined to their rooms, though this is proving to be a challenge for Courter.

Gay Courter is a best-selling author and her husband, Phil, is an award-winning documentary filmmaker

'Technically, we are not allowed out of our rooms,' she writes.

'After seeing some other cruisers in their N95 masks walking outside, we asked how we could win the same privilege.

'"We do not recommend you leave your room for your own safety," the yellow-suited guard with no name tag said, "but we cant stop you".'

Courter ignored the recommendation and stood outside gulping fresh air through the masks fiber, watching soldiers in Army drab and Air Force blue drilling and chanting.

'I wake to the bugle playing reveille at 5:30am and hear taps at what must be a soldiers bedtime,' she writes.

'At precisely 5:30pm, theres another bugle alert called "retreat."

'We open the door and see members of our support team on the better side of the fence...

'They brought us home for one reason only: Because we were Americans in harms way.

'Someday - hopefully - we will be on the same side of the fence.'
(Photo : Screenshot from: Pear Video ) [Watch] Coronavirus Update: Chinese Citizens Now Lock Themselves; Use Smart Device to Send Alert to Those'll Escape

Chinese citizens that are under self-isolation due to suspicion of Coronavirus are now strictly prohibited from going outside of their homes as a way to prevent the spread of the COVID-19. Citizens now put smart devices like electric door seals on their doors to alarm the local officials once a quarantined person goes out of their houses. Is this necessary?

Alarm system now installed on Chinese houses to prevent people from going out

China is the epicenter of the viral disease Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19. The country has now recorded more than 2,000 deaths due to the widespread virus-- making them the highest country that has the most confirmed cases of Coronavirus.

Unfortunately, this rate seemed to be continuously rising over time. This now forces Chinese citizens to make a huge action to stay inside their houses, especially those people that are under self-isolation as ruled by the Chinese government.

Reported via Daily Mail UK, Chinese people are now starting to go back to their normal lives by attending school and going back to their workplaces. This made the Chinese government worry about those people under Coronavirus self-isolation wherein they might go out of their homes and interact with people.

Local officials and some communities from the country have now joined in one to stop this from happening. They have installed smart devices like electric door seals on the houses of the suspected COVID-19 carriers for local officials to know once they tried to go out of their quarantine.

The device will alarm and send alert to the local authorities once it detects an attempt to open the door. These electric door seals came with a 24/7 monitoring system as a way of more stringent quarantine protocols for those suspected Coronavirus victims.

In the video, residents from Ningbo, Zhejiang Province of Eastern China followed the health protocol and installed their own door seals on their houses. Aside from this region, residential areas in other cities, including Xingyang, Huizhou, and Zhengzhou, have also followed the same action.

Health offices now 'understaffed' in China

An officer was interviewed on the video that said that the electric door seals will help the local authorities on monitoring every potential Coronavirus victims since they are now all understaffed due to the disease.

" [This will] massively improve our proficiency because we are very understaffed," said a local official on Pear Video.

Local authorities are required by law to regularly check the suspected Coronavirus carriers while they are being quarantined. According to the report, they will receive live alerts and real-time locations on their phones whenever a person attempts to escape the quarantine room designed for the potential victims.

Globally, a total number of over 80,000 people are confirmed to have the viral disease, and less than 3,000 citizens already died with COVID-19.









 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
One of the hot-button issues in this presidential campaign is fracking. All of the Democratic candidates for president support either limiting or outright banning the process. Rather than a knee-jerk tribal response, this is an issue that deserves serious consideration as it pits the uncompromising laws of physics against the conventional wisdom of politics.

As a drilling technique that allows extraction of natural gas and oil locked up in shale rocks that would otherwise be inaccessible, fracking has allowed the U.S. to become one of the worlds dominant energy producers.

While many people are making money from fracking today, it comes with a high environmental costs that must be eventually paid  by us now and later by future generations. But the sooner we transition to clean energy, the lower the bill will be when it arrives.

Fracking causes many problems, such as earthquakes and air pollution. But the most serious environmental impact of fracking is climate change. Fracking often vents methane (natural gas) directly to the atmosphere, where its a powerful greenhouse gas  20 times as powerful at heating the planet as carbon dioxide. Because of this, it is an important contributor to climate change: methane released from all human activities contribute about 25 percent as much warming as carbon dioxide.

While we have yet to feel the full impact of rising levels of pollution, climate change is costing us a lot of money. Damages from Hurricane Harvey, for example, cost at least $125 billion.

Not all of this came from climate change, but climate change made the storm worse by increasing the rainfall by about 15 percent. So conservatively at least 15 percent of those damages can be attributed to climate change  corresponding to at least $600 per resident of Texas.

And this is just one storm. Now factor in the extra expense from Harris County having to invest in flood infrastructure ($2.5 billion), or the expense from having to build our houses up off the ground to account for more severe future floods, and you see that were already paying a steep cost.

And this is just one impact (more severe rainfall) in one place (Houston). Add in the expenses from hotter temperatures  running your air conditioner more, outdoor workers suffering from more heat injuries, agricultural decline, livestock deaths, etc  and then multiply this by millions of locations, and you can see how unchecked climate change will be an existential economic threat.

Addressing climate change cannot be done as long as we are reliant on fossil fuels. The science on this has been crystal clear for decades, so it is well past time we start planning for how to phase out fossil fuels over the next few decades.

Based on this, the Democratic candidates all agree that some limits on fracking make sense. The debate among them is on what schedule and with what policy to carry out the policy. Among the Democratic frontrunners, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg have backed a total ban on new fracking. Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar support continuing fracking on a limited basis.

There are lots of potential ways to go about this, each with its own sets of benefits and drawbacks. A carbon tax is favored by many across the political spectrum, and indeed will likely be a component of any comprehensive climate plan. But if enacted alone, without other policies to buffer the associated rise in energy costs, it can mean those with the fewest resources end up paying the largest share of their income.

Other policies can make a more just transition by providing assistance for not only those hurt most by climate change, but also those in the fossil fuel sector who will need to find new sources of employment.

Those who are employed by the industry are just as beholden to our fossil-fuel-driven economic system as those suffering its consequences, and policies to address climate change should treat both groups fairly.

When the debate over fracking and fossil fuels gets serious, special interests and other alarmists will scream bloody murder. They will try to scare you by overstating the costs, trying to convince you that we cannot transition to a climate-safe future. Dont listen to them.

Their concerns are not based in reality.

The reality is that innovation has been rapidly driving down the price of renewables  at this point, they are competitive with fossil fuel energy in many locations. So were almost there, and it seems certain that the cleverness of American business can get us the rest of the way to the point where the transition is seamless. To believe the alarmists is to not believe in the ability of the market to innovate to a stable climate. This is something we can absolutely do.

Whichever approach to solving the problem you prefer, make no mistake: the science of climate change does not compromise. Lofty campaign promises, constant TV commercials and carefully crafted catchphrases may sway political opinions, but they cant change physics.

Dessler is a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University who studies the science and politics of climate change. Follow him on Twitter at @andrewdessler.
A student is suing her former professor claiming he groped her in front of her classmates after asking her to take part in a demonstration.

Jaclyn Vitale was studying massage therapy at the New York College of Health Professions' Syosset campus in 2016 when she says she was assaulted by professor Mark Gresser.

She claims Gresser told her lay on the table like a s***' in his myology class. He then groped her, Vitale alleges.

In a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday, Vitale says she had agreed to take part in a demonstration about the 'hip-hiking' muscle, found in the lower-back.

Her classmates then 'palpated the muscle in question' which was 'common' practice in the course, The New York Post reports.

But it was during this role play that Gresser is said to have groped her anus and genitals.

Jaclyn Vitale was studying massage therapy at the New York College of Health Professions' Syosset campus, pictured, when she says she was assaulted by professor Mark Gresser

In a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday Vitale says she had agreed to take part in a demonstration about the 'hip-hiking' muscle, found in the lower-back, pictured

'Wow, he got a little handsie', a fellow student is said to have remarked to Vitale of Gresser.

Vitale, who now lives in Florida and is seeking unspecified damages, says her grades suffered as a result of the alleged incident.

She did not immediately report the incident 'because she was scared of what may result by reporting', the lawsuit says.

When she told dean Serge Nerli, Vitale says he 'apologized to plaintiff for what had happened to her and promised to look into the matter'.

But the lawsuit says the 'stalking' continued and resulted in Vitale leaving the course in February 2018 to save herself from 'continued torment and harassment'.

Gresser allegedly made 'off-hand remarks and inappropriate comments'.

The college said it has not seen a copy of the suit and did not comment.

Gresser has not responded to the claims.
A meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council, comprising of states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal, is being held here on Friday.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is chairing the meeting in which West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar are present.

According to the Home Ministry, the meeting will deliberate on nearly four dozen issues which inter alia include inter-state water issues, power transmission lines, royalty on and operationalisation of coals mines, land and forest clearances of rail projects, investigation of heinous offences, cattle smuggling across country's borders, lack of telecom and banking infrastructure in remote areas, petroleum projects, and sharing pattern on centrally collected revenues.

The last meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council was held in Kolkata on October 1, 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Linkedin Jonathan Levin and Ezra Fieser (Bloomberg) Miami/Bogota  Fri, February 28, 2020 11:34 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206724a91 2 World cruise-ship,Carribean,port,virus,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus,COVID-19,outbreak Free

The Dominican Republic turned away a cruise ship with about 1,500 people on board Thursday, the latest such episode as coronavirus concerns spread to tourist meccas in the Caribbean.

Local officials there refused to let passengers leave the Braemar Thursday after learning that some aboard the ship, operated by Bonheur ASAs Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, were under observation for flu, cough and respiratory problems.

The company said no guests or crew had shown symptoms consistent with coronavirus, and that the move was an overreaction.

We believe that this was as a result of a small number of influenza-like cases on board, the company said.

Meanwhile, passengers aboard the MSC Meraviglia were awaiting test results in Cozumel, Mexico, after their ship was barred from docking in Jamaica and Grand Cayman.

The episodes underscore the heightened concern of public officials over coronavirus following confirmed cases on a ship in Asia. Previously, vessels had been turned away or quarantined in Asia and Europe, but the new incidents strike closer to home for US and Latin American authorities and threaten the US industrys core market of the Caribbean.

The largest US-based operators -- Carnival Corp., Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. -- have lost about $31 billion in market value in about six weeks. Shares of Carnival, the industry giant, closed at their lowest in more than six years on Thursday. MSC Cruises, which operates the Meraviglia, is closely held, and Fred. Olsen is part of a larger company.

A performer demonstrates on a iFly Holdings LLC body flying tunnel on The Spectrum of the Seas cruise ship, operated by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s cruise line brand Royal Caribbean International (RCI), as the ship sits berthed at the Marina Bay Cruise Center in Singapore, on Tuesday, May 21, 2019. For the better part of a decade, wealthy Chinese tourists have been on a feeding frenzy for luxury brands, casinos and cruise lines. As a result, China became the worlds biggest spender in international tourism in 2012, according to data from the World Tourism Organization, a United Nations agency. ( Bloomberg/Bryan van der Beek)

Risks come home

From the outset, cruise companies began to dial back their exposure in Asia, where the industry had a small but growing presence. But the spread to Europe -- and the risk to the Americas -- poses a greater risk to the companies, especially during what is typically peak booking season.

In Cozumel, health officials were awaiting test results for a crew member and a passenger aboard the Meraviglia. The ship sailed for Cozumel after it was turned away in Jamaica and Grand Cayman.

MSC Cruises said the ship would remain in Cozumel until results come in and was optimistic guests would be able to disembark on Friday for tourist activities.

For a time Wednesday it was unclear whether the government would allow the ship to moor.

MSC Cruises said it received formal and final authorization to dock. But overnight, state Governor Carlos Joaquin Gonzalez of Quintana Roo, where Cozumel is located, contradicted the company, saying no authorization would be given until after a health review.

A Royal Caribbean cruise ship sits docked at Cape Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne, New Jersey, U.S., on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020. ( Bloomberg/Christopher Occhicone)

Welcome home

In Miami, where the MSC Cruise originated, Port Director Juan Kuryla said at a press conference Thursday that the ship was welcome back based on current information.

Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador also weighed in Thursday, reiterating that the ship could dock but saying an inspection was called for.

Were permitting it to dock, and there may be a disembarking of those on the ship, Lopez Obrador said at his morning press conference in Mexico City. We gave instructions for an inspection to be done and that they be allowed to arrive and stay. We cant act with discrimination.
While speaking at a rally in Bhubaneswar, Union Home Minister Amit Shah attacked the Opposition for spreading 'fake news' and instigating riots over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). "All these left parties, Congress, Mamata Didi are against the CAA, saying that the citizenship of Muslims would be taken away. They are spreading fake news. The CAA is to give citizenship not to take it away," said Home Minister Amit Shah.

Read: Amit Shah, NIA chief must resign: Cong on bail to Chopan

Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Bhubaneswar: Why is opposition lying about Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)? I here again repeat that citizenship of any Muslim or minority will not be taken away through CAA, because it is an Act to give citizenship not to take it away. pic.twitter.com/DmoDnFfj14  ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2020

Read: Shiv Sena raises questions over HM Amit Shah's 'inaction' in Delhi violence

'Congress supported the idea in the past'

Amit Shah also stated that it was the same Congress party that was supporting the idea of giving citizenship to minorities from across the border back in the 1950s. "After partition its been 70 years, crores of people are homeless. Minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan they came here to escape persecution. What about their Human Rights?"

Read: LIVE Updates: Shops begin to open in N-E Delhi; death toll goes above 40

"Every Congress leader in 50's said that will give citizenship to Hindus and Sikhs. they just made promises and did not fulfill it. We fulfilled these promises," said Amit Shah.

The CAA seeks to provide citizenship to the minority communities namely Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Read: US President Trump leaves CAA 'for Indians to decide on'; backs Modi on religious freedoms
The Gujarat government has



requested the Centre to evacuate 340 Indian fishermen, mostly from the state, who are stranded at a port in Iran after the authorities there have shut the nearby airports and barred people's movement due to the coronavirus scare.

Gujarat minister Raman Patkar has e-mailed a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday, urging him to bring back the fishermen.

Patkar, who represents Umargam seat of Valsad district, said these fishermen are stuck at Bandar-e-Chiru of Hormozgan Province in Iran and could not return to India as Iranian authorities have sealed the airports and not allowing people to go out of the country.

In the e-mail, Patkar, who is Minister of State for Forest and Tribal Affairs, said he learnt about the ordeal after some fishermen belonging to his constituency called him.

"Due to coronavirus infection scare, around 340 fishermen, mostly from Gujarat, are stuck at Bandar-e-Chiru of Iran as they are not allowed to go out of the country. They have made a request for necessary arrangements for their return. My humble request to do needful for the same," his letter reads.

Talking to PTI, Patkar said that many of the stranded fishermen are from Umargam and other surrounding villages of Valsad.

"While most of these 340 men are from Gujarat, some of them are from other states, like Tamil Nadu. After getting a call from a stranded fisherman, I have written to S Jaishankar to make necessary arrangements to bring them back, as these fishermen are not allowed to go out of the country and airports are also sealed off," the BJP leader said.

Ganesh Tandel, one of the stranded fishermen, said that he and his colleagues worked in Iran on contract and reached that country via Dubai.

"We first reached Dubai on a flight from Mumbai and then Iranian authorities arranged our visa from Dubai to Bandar-e-Chiru, where we are supposed to do fishing for the Iranian contractors," Tandel told PTI over phone.

"But due to the coronavirus scare, Iranian authorities are not letting us go and they have shut the airports. All the flights from Iran are cancelled. We are struck here and need help," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-27 23:21:05|Editor: huaxia

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Chairman of Sudan's Sovereign Council Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan (L) shakes hands with visiting German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier during their meeting in Khartoum, Sudan, on Feb. 27, 2020. Sudan and Germany on Thursday voiced willingness to enhance bilateral ties. (Xinhua/Mohamed Khidir)

KHARTOUM, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Sudan and Germany on Thursday voiced willingness to enhance bilateral ties.

Chairman of Sudan's Sovereign Council Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan held talks at the Presidential Palace with visiting German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Speaking to reporters after the talks, Al-Burhan hailed the support offered by Germany and the European Union to help Sudan overcome current challenges.

He said that Steinmeier's visit to Sudan pours in the interests of the cooperation between the two countries, saying that the two sides reviewed many issues of mutual concern.

He added they talked about future cooperation and Germany's expected support, namely with regard to removing Sudan from the U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism.

The two sides also discussed how Germany can support Sudan to achieve peace and address the great economic challenge facing the country, added Al-Burhan.

Steinmeier, for his part, reiterated his country's readiness to support the efforts of removing Sudan from the U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism and enhance bilateral relations.

He further commended Sudan's experience in the field of democratic transformation.

Steinmeier arrived in Khartoum on Thursday, leading a high-level delegation on a two-day visit.
"Do not drag judges into controversy," Supreme Court judge Justice Arun Mishra said on Friday while hearing of a matter related to sealing of a play school near Khan Market in posh Lutyens Delhi.

The remark, though made in a lighter vein, assumes significance in the wake of recent controversy over his praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an International Judicial Conference here.

"Don't drag judges into controversy. I can say some good words for you (senior advocate A M Singhvi) also but then other people may have problems," said Justice Mishra, who was heading the bench along with Justice Deepak Gupta.

Singhvi, appearing on behalf of the management of the sealed play school, said that it was located opposite the Khan Market and no serious violations of norms warranted its sealing.

Justice Mishra said, "Do you also live around Khan Market. Several elite people reside around Khan Market."



Singhvi replied, "I have left Lutyen's Delhi around 30 years back. Now a days Khan Market may have become an abusive word but it is a nice place. Lot of good coffee shops are there."



"Since India is a free country. I would like to be called a Khan Market elite. I have even seen several judges shopping in Khan Market." he said on a lighter note.

To this, Justice Mishra said that judges should not be dragged into controversy and some nice words for somebody should be taken in right spirit.

The bench, however, dismissed the case of the play school seeking direction for setting aside the sealing order.

Singhvi had argued that the school functions for nearly three years and kids from nearby areas study there.

"There is no permanent construction. It is an open space. Lot of kids of working couples residing in Lutyens Delhi come to this school," the senior lawyer said.

The bench while dismissing the plea said, "Sorry, we are not with you".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 16:57:54|Editor: xuxin

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WELLINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in New Zealand as a patient was tested to have the virus, Prime minister Jacinda Ardern said on Friday. This makes New Zealand the 48th country to have a confirmed case of the COVID-19.

The woman, aged in her 60s, arrived in New Zealand on Wednesday from Iran, via Bali, and was in an Auckland hospital, Ardern told the media in Sydney during her visit there.

"The person arrived in Auckland on Feb. 26 and travelled home in a private car," said a Ministry of Health spokesman.

The spokesman said their family became concerned about their condition and called Healthline. The patient had been coughing and had difficulty breathing.

"They were advised to seek medical attention and attended Auckland City Hospital emergency department that same day. All were wearing masks on arrival. As a result of the individual's symptoms and travel history they were admitted and tested," he said.

"They are in an improving condition in isolation, in a negative pressure room to prevent any spread of the disease," the spokesman said.

Public health officials have started tracing people sitting close to the person on Emirates flight EK450 from Tehran, Iran. They will have to self-isolate for 14 days.

The New Zealand government has announced a suite of new actions as it steps up its response to the rapidly changing global spread of the COVID-19.

This includes placing temporary restrictions on travel from Iran, a decision not to allow any exemptions for overseas students from China to enter the country and bolstering the health presence at international airports.
WINNIPEGThe Manitoba government is pushing ahead with a court challenge to the federal carbon tax, although Premier Brian Pallister says hed still prefer to strike a deal with Ottawa and drop the case.

The Progressive Conservative government filed written arguments in Federal Court on Friday to back its demand that the federal tax be struck down. No date has been set for the hearing.

Having had direct discussions several times with the prime minister and through our senior officials ... we would hope (the federal government) would embrace the opportunity to work with us here in Manitoba, Pallister said.

Should they not, wed be forced to continue our legal challenge.

Manitoba originally planned a $25-per-tonne carbon tax in 2017, but the federal government said that wasnt high enough and imposed its own levy on Manitoba and three other provinces. The tax is to rise to $50 per tonne by 2022.

Saskatchewan has also challenged the tax and its case is to be heard next month in the Supreme Court. Manitoba is an intervener in that hearing, but Pallister said Manitoba is also pursuing its own case because its arguments are slightly different.

Like Saskatchewan, Manitoba plans to argue that the federal government lacks the constitutional authority to impose a carbon tax on provinces that refuse to set their own. But it also plans to argue that Ottawa must let Manitoba charge a lower tax rate because of the billions of dollars the province has invested in clean hydroelectric power.

This year alone, just the interest on our hydro investments in Manitoba is over $800 million, Pallister said.

Thats all on the backs of Manitoba families.

Manitoba also plans to argue that the federal government must give Manitoba leeway because it has allowed other provinces to exempt some items  such as heating fuel in Newfoundland and Labrador  from the carbon tax.

Lower court rulings on the constitutional question to date have been split. Courts in Saskatchewan and Ontario have ruled the federal government has the right to impose the tax. But the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled this week that the federal tax erodes provincial jurisdiction.

Pallister said Friday that federal and Manitoba officials continue discussions. He said Manitoba has indicated to Ottawa a potential compromise on the carbon price, but refused to reveal it publicly.

A spokeswoman for federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Ottawa had not yet received any new offer.

We have not yet received a new pollution pricing proposal from the Manitoba government, Moira Kelly, Wilkinsons press secretary, wrote in an email.

We put a price on pollution because it is an effective and affordable way to lower pollution while leaving more money in the pockets of Canadians. Weve always said that provinces have the flexibility to design their own pricing systems, provided those systems meet the federal benchmark.

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For Mgr Pizzaballa, measures are needed to counter the rapid spread of the virus, like emptying fonts and receiving the Communion by hand. The Chaldean Church is vetting the possibility of suspending services. In Lebanon, the situation is still normal.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews)  From Iraq to the Holy Land, the Churches in the Middle East are taking action against the new coronavirus emergency by setting certain guidelines for the faithful to minimise the danger of infection.

In the most affected areas, Church leaders have not ruled out suspending Lent services  as a precaution  waiting to see how the outbreak develops more broadly.

In a message to bishops, priests, nuns and believers, Mgr Pierbattista Pizzaballa, apostolic administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, has provided some precautionary guidelines for the Mass.

"The threat of the new coronavirus (Covid-19), writes the prelate, requires measures to counter its rapid spread to many areas and countries around the world.

Thousands of pilgrims from different parts of the world come to the Holy Land to visit the holy sites. Given our unique situation and after hearing from the Authorities, the following preliminary guidelines are issued in the Diocese of Jerusalem during the celebration of Masses:

First of all, receiving Communion must be by hand only, avoiding the use of the chalice (except for people with celiac disease) to reduce the risk of infection.

Another preventive suggestion is to empty the holy water fonts, especially in the holy sites and sanctuaries.

During this time of Lent, we ask for our Lords mercy, as we pray for all who are distressed by this infirmity and eternal rest for those who have died.

In the rest of the Middle East, the alert level is high to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, especially in Iran, the second most affected country in the world with 26 deaths and 270 cases. Local authorities have adopted a policy to quarantine individuals, not cities or regions.

Cases of infection have been reported in Kuwait, Lebanon, Iraq, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, whilst Saudi Arabia has suspended entry for pilgrims.

The Chaldean Church has issued some practical recommendations for parishes and communities to contain the outbreak.

The Patriarchate has ordered its priests to follow certain preventive steps. As in the Holy Land, the first one concerns the cleaning and emptying of holy water fonts, since they could facilitate contagion.

Another one is about the Communion, which should be given "by hands and not in the mouth". It is also advisable to "avoid holding hands or exchanging kisses of greeting" during the services.

As it waits for developments, the Iraqi Church is vetting possibly more drastic and restrictive measures, like cancelling Masses and other activities should the outbreak spread further.

At the same time, the Church is calling for prayers to the Lord to protect our country and the whole world.

In Lebanon, services are being held as usual; no cancellations or changes are expected, Caritas Lebanon president Fr Paul Karam told AsiaNews.

We have taken certain precautions, especially in dispensaries, he said, but for the rest "we are relying on God's help".
AIG hired a former Lloyds executive to lead its International General Insurance unit. Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance made two executive appointments in Spain. Marsh promoted an executive to become its next Head of Aviation for Marsh JLT Specialty.

***

American International Group, Inc. named Jon Hancock as chief executive officer of its International General Insurance unit.

In this role, Hancock will lead the International operations of AIGs General Insurance business. He will report to Peter Zaffino, President & Global Chief Operating Officer, AIG, and Chief Executive Officer, General Insurance, and serve on the General Insurance Executive Leadership Team. Hancock will join the company this spring.

Since 2016, Hancock served as Director of Performance Management at Lloyds, where his portfolio included responsibility for overseeing performance and risk management globally across the Lloyds market.

Before Lloyds, Hancock spent 26 years at RSA in roles of increasing responsibility, including serving as Managing Director, UK Commercial, which encompassed RSAs European Specialty businesses, and Global Broker Relationship Director. Previously, he served as RSAs Chief Executive Officer, Asia and Middle East, and held chief underwriter and risk roles in both developed and emerging markets.

***

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance made two executive appointments in Spain.

The company named Alejandro Lovera as Head of Executive and Professional Lines and Silvia Sanchez as Head of Operations for the country.

Lovera has spent nearly 15 years in the commercial insurance industry, most of it specializing in financial lines. Before joining BHSI, he was Financial Lines Manager, Iberia & Portugal at Chubb European Group in Spain. Sanchez comes to BHSI with 15 years of experience in operations, legal and compliance in the commercial insurance industry, most recently as Operations Director for RSA in Spain. Silvia holds a law degree from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid.

Alejandro and Silvia are based in Madrid.

***

Marsh appointed Garrett Hanrahan as Global Head of Aviation for Marsh JLT Specialty.

Effective April 15, Hanrahan will succeed Simon Harker, who is retiring after 44 years in the industry. Based in Dallas, Hanrahan will report to Lucy Clarke, President, Marsh JLT Specialty.

Hanrahan will oversee Marsh JLT Specialtys Global Aviation Practice, which advises many of the worlds major airlines, manufacturers, airports, and other leading industry players on their insurance and risk management programs. The Global Aviation Practice brings together more than 300 specialists in over 20 offices worldwide.

Hanrahan joined Marsh, a global insurance broker and risk adviser, in 2013 and has extensive experience in the global aviation industry. He worked within the sector for over 25 years, most recently as U.S. Head of Aviation for Marsh JLT Specialty.

Sources: AIG, BHSI, Marsh
It was the most disturbing moment in the frenzied stabbing murder of lone service station attendant Zeeshan Akbar that the teenage killer's own barrister would not even repeat in court.

As the Pakistani student, 29, lay dying on the floor of the Queanbeyan Caltex late on April 6, 2017, one of the boys he had opened the store for moments before dipped his finger in his victim's blood twice to scrawl the letters "IS" [Islamic State] on the window.

Zeeshan Akbar, 29, was murdered at a Queanbeyan service station by two teenage boys.

Later in police custody the 16-year-old killer used tomato sauce to repeat the terrorist organisation's initials on a cell wall.

"Quite frankly I don't know what to make of it," Thomas Jones, the teen's barrister, told NSW Supreme Court judge Geoffrey Bellew, who quizzed the significance of the slogan on Friday.
Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc - Result of AGM

Legal Entity Identifier 213800NN4ZKX2LG1GQ40

FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC (the "Company")

Results of the Annual General Meeting

At the Annual General Meeting of Finsbury Growth & Income Trust PLC held on Friday, 28 February 2020, all resolutions were duly passed. Details of the proxy votes received can be found on the Company's website www.finsburygt.com

A copy of the full text of the special resolutions passed at the Annual General Meeting has been lodged with the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for viewing at http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM.

The special business resolutions will additionally be filed with Companies House.

The special business resolutions passed were as follows:
Two of the most important voices in the food system today are those of young farmers and consumers

Corteva Agriscience today announced the results of a global study of Gen Z/millennial farmers and consumers. This first-of-its-kind research, commissioned by Corteva Agriscience, examined views on the future of food and farming by next-gen farmers and consumers in the United States, Brazil, China, France and Russia. Notably, the study reveals surveyed participants in different global markets are highly aligned in their concern about the future of food and farming.

The study, conducted by Kantar, one of the worlds leading data, insight and consultancy companies, also revealed that next-gen farmers and consumers want to have more influence over decisions about how food is grown, sold and consumed; and share a deep desire to be involved in securing the financial and environmental sustainability of farms. Key insights from the research are profiled in an accompanying white paper that includes data from each of the countries involved in the study.

Two of the most important voices in the food system today are those of young farmers and consumers, said James C. Collins, Jr., Chief Executive Officer of Corteva Agriscience. They see that the future and ability to thrive are interconnected. Now is the time to empower both farmers and consumers to face the challenges of the future with mutual understanding, appreciation and a willingness to work together to ensure long-term security to both farming and food.

Key Study Findings include:

Protecting the Future of Food



89% of surveyed consumers and 73% of surveyed farmers are concerned the world will not have enough food for its nutritional needs by 2040.

90% or more of next-gen farmers and consumers agree everyone needs to compromise to secure the future of food

More than 80% of young farmers and consumers are willing to take personal responsibility for helping address the challenges of food and farming.

Securing the Future of the Farm



80% of surveyed consumers and 81% of surveyed farmers agree that it will be difficult for farmers to make a living in the future.

90% agree that farmers will have to adopt innovative new technologies and methods to address the food and farming issues we face.

Ensuring the Voices of Consumers and Farmers are Heard



93% of both next-gen consumers and farmers feel they need a bigger voice when it comes to securing the future of food and farming.

Next-gen consumers (94%) and farmers (80%) have opinions about what food should be produced and they also believe that big players in the food chain  including food wholesalers, food input suppliers and food manufacturing companies  have more influence than they do over how food is grown, sold and consumed.

Confronting Climate Volatility



95% of farmers and 97% of consumers believe the climate is changing, and they also believe that it will have a negative impact on the global food supply in the next 20 years with the exception of young farmers and consumers in the U.S., where less than half feel this way.

Over 90% of both next-gen farmers and consumers want to live in a world where no one must choose between the environment and having enough to eat, and both groups want to join forces to find ways in which both farming and consumption can change to have a lower impact on climate.

Farmers and consumers often are portrayed as two different parties at opposite ends of the global food system. The findings in this study reveal a different picture of young farmers and consumers wanting to meet in the middle and define ways to solve some of biggest issues in the future of farming and food, said Dana Bolden, Senior Vice President of External Affairs and Sustainability for Corteva Agriscience. Finding common ground is essential and we are committed to exploring ways where Corteva can help cultivate the kinds of conversations between the next generation of farmers and consumers that are needed to bring about timely solutions.

For the purposes of this study, next-generation farmers were defined as 16 to 38-year-old decision-makers on farms, and next-generation consumers were defined as 16 to 38-year-old non-farmers. The survey was conducted among a minimum of 100 farmers and 500 consumers per country for a total of more than 3,000 survey respondents.

Further information on this study and its findings can be found here.

About Corteva Agriscience

Corteva Agriscience is a publicly traded, global pure-play agriculture company that provides farmers around the world with the most complete portfolio in the industry - including a balanced and diverse mix of seed, crop protection and digital solutions focused on maximizing productivity to enhance yield and profitability. With some of the most recognized brands in agriculture and an industry-leading product and technology pipeline well positioned to drive growth, the company is committed to working with stakeholders throughout the food system as it fulfills its promise to enrich the lives of those who produce and those who consume, ensuring progress for generations to come. Corteva Agriscience became an independent public company on June 1, 2019 and was previously the Agriculture Division of DowDuPont. More information can be found at http://www.corteva.com.

Follow Corteva Agriscience on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

About Kantar

The study was conducted using the field and data analytic services of Kantar. Kantar is one of the worlds leading data, insight and consultancy companies. Working together across the whole spectrum of research and consulting disciplines, its specialist brands, employing 30,000 people, provide inspirational insights and business strategies for clients in 100 countries. Kantar is part of WPP and its services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies.

# # #

2/28/2020

   Trademarks of Dow AgroSciences, DuPont or Pioneer, and their affiliated companies or their respective owners.
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Update: The official death toll of the Syrian airstrike on a Turkish convoy in Greater Idlib has risen to 33 soldiers.

February 27, 2020 " Information Clearing House " - 22 Turkish service members were killed in a Syrian airstrike on the Greater Idlib region, Valisi Dogan, governor of the southern Turkish province of Hatay, announced late on February 27.

Dogan said that many other service members were injured in the Syrian airstrikes, claiming that some are in a critical condition.

Syrian opposition sources said that the deadly airstrike targeted a convoy of Turkish forces near the towns of al-Bara and Baluon. Activists released videos claiming to show Turkish soldiers taking shelters during the airstrike as well as the aftermath of the attack. These videos have not been verified yet.

Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter

Some Turkish and Syrian sources contradicted the official Turkish announcement, claiming that the death toll from the airstrike was 37, with some even putting the number of casualties over 50. These sources went on to claim that the deadly airstrike was carried out by the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS).

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan headed a national security meeting after the attack, while Defense Minister Hulusi Akar called his U.S. counterpart to discuss the matter.

With the death of 22 new soldiers, the number of Turkish casualties killed in Greater Idlib has risen to 41. Earlier today, three casualties were acknowledged by President Erdogan.

Syrian militants and several helicopters of the Turkish Air Force (TAF) are reportedly carrying out a search operation in the site of the airstrike now. The total number of casualties will very likely rise in the upcoming few hours.

" Source "
Around two million students in Hanoi will stay away from school until March 8 as per the latest decision from city authorities on coronavirus concerns.

The further extension of the Lunar New Year (Tet) break is being taken as the Covid-19 epidemic has spread to 57 countries and territories and claimed 2,867 lives.

"With the current situation of the epidemic, the city is at very high risk of infection. Therefore, we decided to keep students at all levels absent from school," Hanoi Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung said Friday.

Over the past two days, the city has received more than 2,700 people returning from South Korea, where the number of coronavirus infection cases has surged to 2,337.

Currently, Hanoi has over 22,000 South Korean, 9,000 Japanese and over 2,000 Chinese visitors, official data shows.

For international schools, based on a proposal from the embassies of foreign countries, classes can resume on March 2 if the schools can ensure safety for students and parents are assured.

City authorities have consulted epidemiologists about infection among students, noting that the world has no outbreak in any school. All schools in Hanoi have been cleaned up, disinfected five times and prepared thermometers, hand sanitizers for use when students return to school, Chung said.

In addition to Hanoi, 59 other cities and provinces across the country have announced plans to close their preschools, elementary and secondary schools for one or two more weeks. Meanwhile, high school students in the localities will resume classes on March 2.

Ho Chi Minh City has yet to announce a final decision on its schools' reopening.

Earlier, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and some other cities and provinces had allowed their students to stay away from classes in February.

As of Friday morning, Vietnam has 79 suspected coronavirus infections. The country's last Covid-19 patient out of 16 confirmed infections was discharged Wednesday. Vietnam has recorded no new cases since February 13.
Australia's prudential and corporate regulators are checking the contingency plans of banks and other financial institutions to prepare for a potential coronavirus pandemic which could severely disrupt economic and financial systems.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday there was every sign the world was about to be gripped by a pandemic of coronavirus, and Canberra triggered emergency measures to restrain the spread of the disease.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) said it had contacted the banks, pension funds and insurers that it oversees to make sure they had adequate plans in place.

Australia's banks have been asked for their contingency plans in a coronavirus epidemic. Credit:Ryan Stuart

"APRA is also liaising with entities to gain a deeper understanding of current or potential future impacts on their businesses related to coronavirus, as we continue to monitor developments," the regulator said in a statement.
(@FahadShabbir)

MINSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2020) The first case of the coronavirus disease has been registered in Belarus, the infected person is an Iranian student who has recently returned from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku by plane, the Belarusian Health Ministry said on Friday.

"On February 27, tests, which were conducted in the Republican Research and Practical Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, showed that an Iranian student is infected with coronavirus 2019-nCoV," the Health Ministry said in a statement.
New Delhi: While no big incident of violence has been reported in past 24 hours and normalcy seems to be returning in violence-hit areas of the national capital, the Delhi Police has made a fresh appeal to people not to believe in any rumours or spread fake videos, messages or anything that could further deteriorate the situation.

Delhi Police late on Thursday issued an appeal urging people and media persons to come forward and give their statements and share pictures and video footage in connection with the violence in North East Delhi.

"Whereas incidents of clashes have taken place in the northeast district, Delhi since February 23. All those who are witnesses to the incidents or have captured any activity on their mobile phones or camera are hereby requested to come forward and give their statements, footage and pictures in their possession at DCP office, northeast district, Seelampur, Delhi, during office hours, on any working day within seven days," B K Singh, Additional CP Crime Branch, said.

Police have issued two mobile numbers - 8750871221 and 8750871227 - for witnesses to contact and share information regarding riots in Delhi. Delhi Police have promised to keep the identity of witnesses secret.

Delhi Police have also constituted two Special Investigation Teams (SIT) under the Crime Branch, Delhi Police to investigate the recent violence in northeast Delhi.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting on Thursday evening to review the law and order situation in Delhi after clashes in parts of the national capital over the citizenship law claimed the lives of at least 38 people, including a police Head Constable and Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer Ankit Sharma, and left over 200 people injured.

The meeting was attended by senior police and government officials, including the Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik and Special Commissioner (Law and Order) SN Srivastava.

In other developments, Delhi`s ruling AAP on Thursday suspended its Municipal Councillor Tahir Hussain, who has been accused of involvement in the northeast Delhi violence and also been booked in the murder case of an Intelligence Bureau staffer.

"Tahir Hussain has been suspended from the Aam Aadmi Party for the duration of the probe against him in connection with the Delhi violence," the Aam Aadmi Party said in a tweet.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, when asked about charges of involvement in violence and arson in northeast Delhi against the AAP councillor, had said, "Any person found guilty should be given strict punishment. If any Aam Aadmi Party member is found guilty, he or she should be given double the punishment."

The Delhi Police had registered a murder case against Hussain in the killing of IB staffer Ankit Sharma, on the basis of a complaint given by Sharma`s father.
The Speaker of Parliament has no power or authority to gag the media, according to the Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr.



Rt. Hon Prof Mike Aaron Ocquaye, reportedly issued a stern warning to members of the Parliamentary Press Corps at Wednesday's sitting.



This follows a complaint from the Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu to the effect that journalists abandoned proceedings of the House to give audience to the MP for Ellembelle Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah who had concerns about the Energy sector aspect of the President's 2020 State of the Nation Address.



Speaking on the floor of the House, Rt Hon Mike Oquaye indicated that he will not hesitate to declare journalists as strangers in parliament by revoking their accreditation if due coverage is not given to proceedings in the House.



"It is forbidden if they have any doubt to abandon the permission given them to cover proceeding in this honorable House and go outside the chamber itself and do some other work....... and I want to let the media know if that which was reported to have happened should happen anymore I will......on the fact that you are here as a guest......any, such act will make you unwelcomed guest...," he warned.



His comments, meanwhile, has not gone down well with section of the public, particularly media practitioners, who consider threat as a attempt to muzzle the press.



Kwesi Pratt Jnr, who was contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show Kokrokoo Friday, said the Speaker cannot prevent the media from coming to Parliament because they are representing Ghanaians.



You cannot determine what is the news value for the journalistmeanwhile, these journalists attend proceedings more than the MPs. Journalists are more punctual than MPsThe Speaker has no right to stop the media from coming to parliament because they are working for the people of Ghana. The Speaker cannot use such authority or power to stop the media from attending proceedings, he fumed.













Source: Rebecca Addo Tetteh/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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Investors are increasingly worried about an economic slowdown weighing on oil demand as the virus spreads beyond its epicentre in China to more than 40 other countries.

London: Oil prices slumped to their lowest in more than a year on Friday and were set for their steepest weekly fall in four years as the global spread of the coronavirus stokes demand fears.

Investors are increasingly worried about an economic slowdown weighing on oil demand as the virus spreads beyond its epicentre in China to more than 40 other countries.

The most active Brent crude contract for May was down $1.74, or 3.3 percent, at $49.99 a barrel, its lowest since July 2017. The front-month contract, which fell to a session low of $50.05 and is headed for its biggest weekly fall since January 2016, expires later on Friday.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell $1.89, or about 4 percent, to $45.20. US crude has fallen about 15 percent this week, representing the sharpest weekly decline since December 2008.

While oil prices are expected to remain volatile in the near term, we expect Brent crude oil to recover to $64 a barrel (in the second half of 2020) as the economic recovery, slowing US oil production growth and additional Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) production cuts tighten the oil market, UBS analysts said in a note.

Oil was not the only market to slump. Coronavirus panic also sent global stock markets tumbling, compounding their worst week since the 2008 global financial crisis with losses amounting to $5 trillion.

Mainland China reported 327 new coronavirus cases, the lowest since 23 January, taking its total to more than 78,800 cases with almost 2,800 deaths. But as the outbreak eases in China it is surging elsewhere.

Four more countries reported their first cases, taking the number of affected countries and territories outside China to 55, with more than 4,200 cases and about 70 deaths.

Benchmark Brent crudes slump of about 13 percent this week is likely to focus minds when the OPEC and allies including Russia, collectively known as OPEC+, meets next week to discuss output.

Brent crude under $50 a barrel will be a nightmare scenario for OPEC and may well provoke a ... response of some kind from the core grouping, said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at brokerage OANDA.

Oil markets have their eyes peeled for deeper supply cuts from the producer group.

An OPEC+ committee this month recommended the group deepen its output cuts by an additional 600,000 barrels per day (bpd), but the coronavirus has spread more widely since then.

OPEC+, which is currently reducing output by roughly 1.7 million bpd to support prices, is due to meet in Vienna over 5-6 March.

Saudi Arabia, which said it would continue to engage with Russia on oil policy, is reducing crude supplies to China in March by at least 500,000 bpd owing to slower refinery demand.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Tamilla Mammadova  Trend:

Close Georgian-Azerbaijani relations contribute to the development of joint projects, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Natia Turnava said, Trend reports citing the press service of the ministry.

Turnava made the remark following her meeting with the Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan Mikayil Jabbarov in Baku on Feb.28, 2020.

Natia Turnava is in Azerbaijan for a two-day working visit. As a part of her visit, Turnava will take part in the session of the 6th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council in Baku.

As reported, the minister will also meet with the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov.

"We discussed joint logistics projects with the Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan," Turnava added.

According to the minister, very close business and friendly relations have been established between the two countries and the ministries of economy, which contribute to the development of joint projects and accelerated completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project.

The parties also discussed promising projects in the Black Sea, in which Azerbaijani private companies and state structures can participate increasing the competitiveness of the common corridor.

We also considered a new initiative, providing for the construction of a high-voltage line along the bottom of the Black Sea, which will connect Georgia with the EU energy market," Turnava said.

"The project will certainly be of more significant commercial interest if Azerbaijan, which is our reliable partner, will take part in it. Azerbaijan is actively involved in the process of supplying us with electricity during periods when the Georgian energy market is in short supply," she added.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Mila61979356
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 19:11:16|Editor: huaxia

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MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Turkish soldiers who came under Syrian troops' fire in Syria's Idlib Province on Thursday were in terrorist groups' combat formations, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement Friday.

The statement said that the formations of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group on Thursday attempted to conduct a large-scale offensive on the positions of the Syrian government forces in the Idlib de-escalation zone.

To eliminate threats to Turkish observation posts and units in the Idlib de-escalation zone from retaliatory fire by Syrian government forces, the Russian Center for the Reconciliation of the Warring Parties has maintained constant contact with the Turkish Idlib Coordination Center, the statement added.

Representatives of the Russian center have constantly requested and got from their Turkish colleagues the coordinates of the location of all units of the Turkish armed forces located near terrorist combat zones, it said.

According to the coordinates provided by the Turkish colleagues, there should not be any units of the Turkish armed forces in the area of Behun, where the terrorists launched the offensive, the statement said.

It said the Russian side took "comprehensive measures" to ensure a complete ceasefire by the Syrian forces and safe evacuation of the dead and wounded Turkish troops to Turkey immediately after receiving information about the victims among the Turkish militants.
: As part of its efforts to rev



up the higher system, the Andhra Pradesh government has asked all universities in the state to soon go online and make all services available at the touch of a button.

All universities have also been asked to complete end-to-end computerisation of all systems and services to improve accessibility and efficiency.

E-office will be another initiative where, apart from all staff files, paperwork will be eliminated for a seamless integration of services.

The universities will then be networked online to offer integrated services to students.

Private universities are already at the forefront, offering all their services to students online.

"Our state has been a pioneer in e-governance and other IT-enabled services but strangely the universities are found to be lagging way behind.

"Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has taken a critical view of this and directed that the institutes of higher learning rev up their efforts in this direction," a top official of the Higher Department told PTI.

The AP Centre for Financial Services and Systems (CFSS) will be the nodal agency that will help the universities achieve this task.

The Higher Department and the Finance Department held talks on this and decided to engage the CFSS for taking up end-to-end computerisation of records in all state universities.

"Simultaneously, the universities will go online and students can access the services, right from the admission process, in a hassle-free manner. All this is long overdue," the official pointed out.

A biometric attendance system will also be introduced in the universities for the staff as well as students for better monitoring.

"In fact, the Chief Minister wanted all this done a few months ago but many universities did not have Vice- Chancellors in place.

"Specific instructions have been issued afresh to complete the whole process in a month so that by the beginning of the next academic year the universities will have truly entered the digital era," the official added.

Meanwhile, the Higher Education Department has issued a circular to all universities asking them to focus more on research in various fields.

"This is one area where universities in the state are clearly found to be lacking. There are several schemes offered by Central institutions for funding research activity but the state universities have virtually ignored them," the official said.

By laying thrust on research, the universities could improve outcomes not only in terms of innovations but also the teaching and learning processes, the Chief Minister told a high-level review meeting recently.

Also, the universities have been asked to establish a network for possible collaborative research, going by their strengths in a particular field.

As a first step, Vice-Chancellors and heads of departments of all universities in the state have been brought on to a common platform to share ideas for research activity.

"This will be a larger good not just for the universities but the state as well," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two former Massachusetts State Police troopers as part of a plea deal received two years probation for taking free guns from a prospective vendor and weapons from the state police armory.

Former Lt. Paul W. Wosny of Norfolk and former Trooper Michael G. Wilmot of Sturbridge must also pay fines of $7,500 after agreeing there was sufficient evidence to find them guilty, Telegram and Gazette reports.

The two were sentenced in Western Worcester District Court in East Brookfield. Wosny was sentenced in January and Wilmots case was finalized on Feb. 19, according to the newspaper.

In August 2013, the owner of Troy Industries in West Springfield gave two Trooper Carbine rifles to Wilmot for free  one for him and one for Lt. Paul M. Wosny -- according to the office of Attorney General Maura Healey,

The company manufactures guns and accessories.

Healey said the guns were customized with both troopers state police identification numbers. During that time, Troy Industries was trying to become a state police vendor.

Both troopers worked in the Massachusetts State Police Armory in New Braintree, which is responsible for the purchase of firearms and ammunition for state police.

According to authorities, in February 2015, Wosny decided, without the knowledge or approval of his supervisors, to do an exchange of state police weapons with Jurek Bros.  a firearms dealer and state police vendor in Greenfield  for store credit towards the purchase of new weapons.

Wilmot allegedly collected roughly 200 weapons, including rifles, shotguns and handguns, at the armory.

All of the weapons were deemed obsolete, unserviceable or non-issuable.

Wosny was transferred out of the armory in September 2015. In October 2015, Wilmot allegedly took four Colt upper receivers, more than 100 high capacity plastic magazines and approximately 23 Troy upper receivers from the armory.

The following month, in November 2015, Wilmot and Wosny met at the state police armory, where Wosny took three of the Troy upper receivers and Wilmot retained two Colt uppers, over 100 high capacity plastic magazines and 13-15 Troy uppers, authorities said.
United Nations, Feb 29 : The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised coronavirus threat to the "highest level" in a "wakeup" call to governments amid reports that the disease has spread to 48 countries.

WHO Executive Director of health emergencies, Mike Ryan, said on Friday, "We are on the highest level of alert or highest level of risk assessment in terms of spread and in terms of impact".

Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, he said that it was a "reality check" and a wakeup call to all governments to get ready to face the threat.

He said, "This virus may be on its way and you need to be ready. You have a duty to your citizens, you have a duty to the world to be ready".

At the UN, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres added a note of caution, "This not a time for panic - it is time to be prepared - fully prepared".

"We know containment is possible, but the window of opportunity is narrowing", he said and called on "all governments to step up and do everything possible to contain the disease - and to do so without stigmatisation, respecting human rights".

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Geneva that the disease should be approached with urgency, but without panic.

"Our greatest enemy right now is not the virus itself. It's fear, rumours and stigma", he said.

He said that WHO had not declared a Coronavirus pandemic because there was no evidence " as yet that the virus is spreading freely in communities".

There has, however, been one case in the United States of a person who had no known contact with anyone suffering from the disease and had not travelled to countries hit by it coming down with coronavirus.

Tedros said that as of Friday morning the disease had spread beyond China to 48 countries, afflicting 4,351 people and causing 67 deaths.

The outbreaks in four European countries and Nigeria have been traced to Italy, he said.

While coronavirus could become a pandemic, Tedros said that "with the right measures, it can be contained".

Ryan said that for it to become a pandemic every person the planet will have to be exposed to it and that is not backed by data now.

He said that China has shown that it can be prevented if actions are taken quickly.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in)
Their spirit of giving did not stop there. Smart Financial Credit Union and its staff also made the holidays a little brighter for four local families. The credit union participated in the Adopt-A-Family Program with Houston Children's Charity that benefits less fortunate families in the Greater Houston area. Smart employees purchased new toys, furniture, clothing and other needed items for their adopted families. Employees delivered these gifts to the grateful families just in time for the Christmas holiday.

Participation in the Giving Tree and Adopt-A-Family and program were part of Smart Financial's "Heart of Smart" initiative designed to give back to the communities where they do business and the employees that help make the Credit Union a success. "Here at Smart Financial, our employees truly are family," said Larry Seidl, CEO of Smart Financial. "I am honored to be a part of such a generous and giving group of individuals. Our staff truly are the Heart of Smart."

For more information about Smart Financial Credit Union, or its "Heart of Smart" initiative, please reach out to the media contact listed, visit www.smartcu.org/community/media or connect with Smart Financial on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

About Smart Financial Credit Union

Smart Financial Credit Union has been dedicated to providing superior service since 1934. With 14 locations in Greater Houston, Smart Financial is a state-chartered credit union that is owned and operated by its members. Smart Financial provides a full range of financial services to more than 71,000 members. For more information, visit www.smartcu.org or engage with Smart Financial Credit Union on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Media Contact:

Corbin Wilson

Smart Financial Credit Union

o: 713.407.1913| [email protected]

SOURCE Smart Financial Credit Union

Related Links

http://www.smartcu.org


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU government experts have agreed that blocking cross-border movement within the bloc of people with coronavirus symptoms would be counter-productive and that quarantine was the preferred option, EU officials said on Thursday.

European states which are members of the open-border Schengen area have stepped up planning over measures to contain the coronavirus after the epidemic flared in the continent last week from hotspots in northern Italy, following its first emergence in China in December.

So far, EU and Schengen states have no intention to introduce border checks to tackle the epidemic, a spokeswoman for the EU Commission told reporters.

At a meeting on Wednesday, EU experts agreed instead that sending people potentially infected with the virus back at borders would help spread the disease, an EU official said, adding that this position would be reviewed weekly.

"Refusal of entry is not considered an appropriate preventive or remedial measure as the virus would spread further," the official said, reporting the results of the meeting. Potential patients could keep moving around in their own countries without being properly treated.

The official added that quarantine measures for those with symptoms were considered much more effective. At EU external borders, experts advised instead to have "systematic" checks for those arriving, the official said.

Decisions on imposing temporary border checks are made by national authorities and cannot be vetoed by the EU Commission, the EU executive arm.

But states are obliged to notify new measures to Brussels.

The open-border European area risked imploding during the 2015 migration crisis as many states imposed border checks, crippling the free movement of people.

Six states still have border checks in place at certain borders until May to prevent terrorist risks and irregular migrant movements. They are Germany, France, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

Story continues

These temporary border checks will expire in May.

States could impose new checks on health grounds if they wished so, the official said, in what would an unprecedented move, as border controls have at present never been introduced because of epidemics.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio, editing by Marine Strauss and Nick Macfie)
Result of bilateral social dialogue on the legal status of civil servants

Willemstad:--- During the meeting of the Central Organized Consultation in Civil Service Matters (CGOA), which was held last Thursday, February, 27, the Government of Curacao, represented by the Minister of Governmental Affairs, Planning and Public Service (BPD) Mr. Armin Konket and the chairmen of the five government unions represented in the CGOA (ABVO, NAPB, SAP, STrAF and SITEK), signed the so-called 'Bramendi Agreement'.

The 'Bramendi Agreement' is the result of negotiations that took place on October, 29, 2019, during which parties agreed on a priority list of issues to be addressed in the CGOA platform over a period of six months. They also jointly agreed on a procedure for the further elaboration of these issues.

The CGOA is the appropriate consultation platform established by law, in which the government, represented by the Minister of BPD and the above mentioned five trade unions, united in the Central Commission of Trade Unions (CCvV), hold consultations on all matters of general interest regarding the legal status of civil servants, including the general rules under which personnel policy will be conducted.

More information on the agreement can be found on the website www.cgoacuracao.cw.


Dear Annie: Reading your column on grieving, I was reminded of a quote I read regarding a parents grief upon losing a child. Perhaps this would be helpful.

"A wife who loses a husband is called a widow. A husband who loses a wife is called a widower. A child who loses their parents is called an orphan. There is no word for a parent who loses a child. That's how awful the loss is."

This is to remind those who admonish, Get over it, already. They are not at all helpful! -- A Grieving Reader in NY

Dear Grieving Reader in NY: Thank you for sharing this beautiful quote. May it bring some comfort to others who have lost a child.

Dear Annie: I was touched by the wisdom in your response to Bitter. Confession is good for the soul. My first impression was that the woman is so self-absorbed that she is dangerous to her familys ongoing dynamics. But your answer recognized and acknowledged her personal hurt and addressed it gracefully so a positive redirection could be introduced.

I am writing this to applaud the wisdom demonstrated in your thoughtful and thought-provoking column and very kind response to her. It was a blessing to read it. -- Happy Reader

Dear Happy Reader: Thank you for your incredibly kind words. I am printing your letter to highlight the importance of trying to give people the benefit of the doubt -- and offering love and acceptance instead of judgment.

Dear Annie: Recently, you responded to a question regarding whether to go to a rescue organization or a breeder for a husky puppy. Your response included a reference to Petfinder. Another good resource for rescued animals is the Rescue Me Pet Foundation. They have a wide variety of animal types and of breeds of each animal type. If one organization cant help, perhaps the other can. I applaud you for encouraging the adoption of rescued pets. -- Rex Rescuer

Dear Rescuer: Thank you for your suggestions.

Dear Annie: The end of 1998 was horrible for me. I lost my father in November to cancer, and in December, I lost my 50-year-old husband to heart issues.

What has gotten me through all these years has been to think positively and to surround myself with everything positive: my favorite music, my favorite colors in clothing, my most positive friends and, especially, my family.

I have also gone back to church and am very involved in many different projects. -- Tips to Cope

Dear Tips to Cope: Thank you for sharing what has supported you through your grief.

Dear Annie: Your response to Useless in CT was spot on. Many years ago, my 16-year-old daughter asked that I not intervene with a high school teacher so that she could handle the situation herself. She was, and is, the type of person who could communicate rationally without becoming rattled. I find this approach difficult, so I prefer the written word.

If the granddaughter is easily intimidated by bullies, she might consider writing a clearly worded letter to her grandmother. With help from her mother, the letter could outline her feelings and offer an explanation as to why she will be no longer be a participant in the gift exchange. This would enable her to put forth her side without risking verbal interruptions and excuses that may be offered by the grandmother. It may even help grandma see the result of her behavior and work to repair their relationship. -- Southern Girl

Dear Southern Girl: Thank you for offering another option for sharing our thoughts and emotions -- the written word. Writing letters can be a beautiful and liberating way to express our emotions. Sometimes, we dont even need to send the letters to experience the catharsis.

(Ask Me Anything: A Year of Advice From Dear Annie is out now! Annie Lanes debut book - featuring favorite columns on love, friendship, family and etiquette - is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com).
Jordan Lampus, of Erie, Pennsylvania, was found in Seattles Seward Park after calling 911, claiming she had been assaulted in the park (Cheyenne Police)

Missing College Student Found in Park Thousands of Miles Away: Police

A Pennsylvania woman who vanished last week was reportedly found on Thursday morning walking in a park across the country in Washington state.

Jordan Lampus, of Erie, Pennsylvania, was found in Seattles Seward Park after calling 911, claiming she had been assaulted in the park, according to KOMO News.

Lampus was found by officers without her glasses, but police found no evidence that an assault had taken place, officials said. As reported by KIRO7, police are unsure how she got there, and theyre not sure when she arrived.

Seattle is located about 2,500 miles away from Erie, Pennsylvania.

The 22-year-old Gannon University student was slated to go to Beaver Falls last week but failed to show up. According to KOMO, police said her family went to her apartment, finding that the back door was ajar and her possessions were missing, including her phone.

Lampuss family then determined that she had not registered for classes during the semester and stopped going to her job. Her bills were also piling up, they said.

Days later, on Sunday, her van was found on the side of the road in Cheyenne, Wyoming, thousands of miles away from her home. But there was no sign of her. And before that, media outlets reported that her phone was pinged somewhere in Nebraska.

Please just call us, just text us, just something to let us know where you are, said her mother, Tina, reported KIRO.

Mark Jamieson of the Seattle Police Department, in elaborating, told KOMO that Lampus called them at 3 a.m. about an assault. Officers searched the area but couldnt find any evidence of a suspect before they then took her to the hospital for an evaluation.

Her family told news outlets that Lampus suffers from migraines and had a concussion, and is without her medication.
We often see insiders buying up shares in companies that perform well over the long term. On the other hand, we'd be remiss not to mention that insider sales have been known to precede tough periods for a business. So before you buy or sell WH Ireland Group plc (LON:WHI), you may well want to know whether insiders have been buying or selling.

What Is Insider Buying?

Most investors know that it is quite permissible for company leaders, such as directors of the board, to buy and sell stock in the company. However, most countries require that the company discloses such transactions to the market.

We don't think shareholders should simply follow insider transactions. But equally, we would consider it foolish to ignore insider transactions altogether. For example, a Columbia University study found that 'insiders are more likely to engage in open market purchases of their own companys stock when the firm is about to reveal new agreements with customers and suppliers'.

View our latest analysis for WH Ireland Group

WH Ireland Group Insider Transactions Over The Last Year

In the last twelve months, the biggest single purchase by an insider was when Non-Executive Chair Philip Shelley bought UK205k worth of shares at a price of UK0.50 per share. So it's clear an insider wanted to buy, at around the current price, which is UK0.57. While their view may have changed since the purchase was made, this does at least suggest they have had confidence in the company's future. We do always like to see insider buying, but it is worth noting if those purchases were made at well below today's share price, as the discount to value may have narrowed with the rising price. The good news for WH Ireland Group share holders is that insiders were buying at near the current price.

While WH Ireland Group insiders bought shares last year, they didn't sell. Their average price was about UK0.43. It is certainly positive to see that insiders have invested their own money in the company. But we must note that the investments were made at well below today's share price. You can see the insider transactions (by individuals) over the last year depicted in the chart below. If you click on the chart, you can see all the individual transactions, including the share price, individual, and the date!

Story continues

AIM:WHI Recent Insider Trading, February 28th 2020

There are plenty of other companies that have insiders buying up shares. You probably do not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.

Does WH Ireland Group Boast High Insider Ownership?

Another way to test the alignment between the leaders of a company and other shareholders is to look at how many shares they own. Usually, the higher the insider ownership, the more likely it is that insiders will be incentivised to build the company for the long term. Insiders own 7.0% of WH Ireland Group shares, worth about UK1.9m, according to our data. Overall, this level of ownership isn't that impressive, but it's certainly better than nothing!

So What Does This Data Suggest About WH Ireland Group Insiders?

There haven't been any insider transactions in the last three months -- that doesn't mean much. On a brighter note, the transactions over the last year are encouraging. We'd like to see bigger individual holdings. However, we don't see anything to make us think WH Ireland Group insiders are doubting the company. To put this in context, take a look at how a company has performed in the past. You can access this detailed graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

But note: WH Ireland Group may not be the best stock to buy. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies with high ROE and low debt.

For the purposes of this article, insiders are those individuals who report their transactions to the relevant regulatory body. We currently account for open market transactions and private dispositions, but not derivative transactions.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.



We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
As you can imagine, Queen Elizabeth II has a pretty impressive jewelry collection she has amassed over the years but one piece that isnt discussed much it the engagement ring Prince Philip gave to her more than seven decades ago.

Heres more on that ring, the sacrifice one of Philips family members made for it, and whether or not Her Majesty still wears it today.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip | Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Where Philip got the queens ring and does she wear it

Philip and then-Princess Elizabeth announced their engagement to the world on July 10, 1947, and that is the day the ring the prince gave his love made its public debut. The beautiful diamond didnt come without sacrifice and generosity though from Philips mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg.

The current Duke of Edinburgh was born Prince Philip of Greece and Demark but shortly after his birth, his family was exiled from the country. The family fled to France but his childhood and teenage years were less than ideal. Princess Alice had a nervous breakdown and was sent to a psychiatric facility while his father, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, who he rarely saw, took up residence in Monaco.

In 1946, Princess Alice knew that her son wanted to propose to his girlfriend. Since they were not financially stable, she decided to give him the tiara she wore on her wedding day so he could dismantle it and use the diamonds to create a ring for Elizabeth.

Queen Elizabeth II engagement ring | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Philip appreciated his mothers gesture and worked with jewelers Philip Antrobus Ltd. to design the piece. The three-carat ring has a large round diamond in the middle and side stones set in platinum.

The couple tied the knot on Nov. 20, 1947. Her majesty still wears the ring her husband proposed to her with every day along with her wedding band.

Where other royal ladies engagement rings came from

We all know that Princess Dianas iconic engagement ring is worn by Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge today but not too many people are aware of where the Princess of Wales got that ring.

Princess Dianas engagement ring | Arthur Edwards  WPA Pool/Getty Images

Its been reported that Prince Charles allowed Diana to choose the ring herself. She found the stunning 12-carat sapphire sparkler, which is set in 18-carat white gold with 14 solitaire diamonds, in a Garrard catalog.

This was unheard of since engagement rings for the royals are usually custom-made. Therefore, the princes family was very unhappy that the future king gave his bride a stock item from a catalog. According to Vogue, it did not sit well with them because they didnt want commoners having the same access to jewels fit for royals.

As for the ring Prince Harry gave Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, well, he designed it himself and also incorporated something from his mothers legacy in there. The piece is a three-stone diamond ring. The center gem comes from Botswana, a country close to the couples hearts, and the two smaller stones are from Dianas personal collection.

Read more: Could Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip Be Living Under the Same Roof Again Soon?
Expert Advice with John Lindeman



Canberras housing market currently has the third highest median house price in Australia and it rose by two per cent over the last three months. Unlike Melbourne and Sydneys recent roller coaster housing markets however, Canberras rate of price growth has been far more regular, with a consistent rise in median house price of around six percent per year over the last decade.

But, did you know that back in 2009 Canberra enjoyed the highest median house prices in Australia? This occurred during the fallout from the Global Financial Crisis, at a time when economic recession seemed imminent and many of our capital city housing markets went into decline.

The reason why Canberra is immune to economic downturns that hit housing markets in our other capital cities is because many of the citys 30,000 businesses benefit directly from federal government procurement decisions and programs, which often increase during economic downturns.

This also applies to government administration, which produces nearly one third of the Australian Capital Territorys economic output and accounts for over 40% of its workforce, so whenever the number of public servants in Canberra increases, housing demand grows as well.

Unfortunately, much of the accepted wisdom about the dynamics of Canberras property market is totally incorrect, and this makes its performance appear confusing and unpredictable. Many experts, for example, insist that Canberras housing market booms under Labor governments, because their big spending programs require more public servants.

The data tells a different story, as the graph shows. Public service numbers in Canberra did not rise when the last Labor government was in power, (shown in red) and house prices actually fell from 2010 to 2013, during Labors last years in power.

Yet we can observe a strong correlation between public service numbers and house prices in Canberra, if we ignore the smokescreens of accepted wisdom and look at the facts. These facts are that public service numbers are not dependent on which political party is in power but on two other criteria:

 The length of time that a government has been in power

 Whether their programs are administered from Canberra or via the States

For example, Canberras public service numbers rose dramatically during the last years of the Howard Coalition government with the introduction of WorkChoices. The Coalition government also entered into and then increased our military and peace keeping commitments in the Middle East, Pacific and East Timor. All of this called for a record number of public servants to be located in Canberra.

In 2007 the incoming Rudd Labor government dismantled WorkChoices, reduced our overseas engagements and embarked on a $42 billion Nation Building plan including the NBN rollout, new school halls, home insulation and transport infrastructure, which were administered by the State governments. State based public servant numbers rose, while the numbers in Canberra actually fell slightly.

Towards the end of the Rudd/Gillard government, public service numbers in Canberra started to rise again and more recently, after some initial cutbacks under the current Coalition government, the numbers of Canberra based public servants has steadily climbed once again. Why does this sequence of cuts and increases occur?

The reason is that each new government initially reduces public service numbers as they wind back or terminate programs developed by the previous government. However, the longer governments are in power, the more programs, schemes and initiatives they roll out, causing an increase in the numbers of public servants needed to administer them.

This occurs no matter which party holds government. What is important is the length of time a government has been in power and whether they administer any new programs centrally in Canberra or through the States. The graph shows you the number of public servants based in Canberra during the Coalition years (blue) and Labor years (red).





The graph indicates that the total is now at a record high and also that it is rising, so lets look at how such increases in Canberra based public servants affects its housing market. Because most of the new public servants are on short term contracts, they may only initially intend to reside in the national capital for a few years, so they rent rather than buy.

This means that the current increase in new residents is generating more rental demand, especially for low maintenance, well-appointed units. The recent completion of the Canberra Metro from Gungahlin to the city centre is now concentrating both the demand for and development of new high-density apartment blocks in suburbs along the light rail route as shown on the map.

While some of these new residents will leave at the end of their contracts, many others will stay and make Canberra their permanent home. They eventually move out of their unit rentals and become first home buyers in new outer suburbs.

This results in a time lag of around four years before the housing demand created by new public servants in Canberra transforms into home buyer demand, so any increase in Canberra based public service numbers therefore has two effects -

 An immediate rise in rental demand for inner urban units

 A delayed rise in buyer demand for outer suburban houses.

The four-year delay from arrival to purchase has such a strong correlation that it can easily be seen on this graph, which shows the total number of public servants located in Canberra each year compared to median house prices four years later.

Canberra is currently experiencing the second highest population growth rate of all our capital cities at 2.2% per annum, with many of the new arrivals working directly in the public service or employed in government programs and projects.

This high population growth rate is continually pushing up inner suburban unit rent demand, and by illustrating the delayed effect that increases in Canberra based public service numbers have on house prices, the graph also provides us with a useful house price prediction.

Canberra has the potential to experience strong and continued house price growth over the next few years, so if Australia does go into recession, Canberra may once again have the highest median house price of all our capital cities.

Sources:

CoreLogic published house price data

Residential Property Price Indexes, Eight Capital Cities, ABS 6416.0

Australian Public Service Commission Annual Reports

.................................................



John Lindeman is widely respected as one of Australia's leading property market analysts, authors and commentators.

Visit Lindeman Reports for more information.

He has well over fifteen years experience researching the nature and dynamics of the housing market at major data analysts.

Johns monthly column on housing market research featured in Australian Property Investor Magazine for over five years. He is a regular contributor to Your Investment Property Magazine and other property investment publications and e-newsletters such as Kevin Turners Real Estate Talk, Michael Yardneys Property Update and Alan Kohlers Eureka Report.

John also authored the landmark books for property investors, Mastering the Australian Housing Market, and Unlocking the Property Market, both published by Wileys.



To read more articles by John Lindeman, click here



Disclaimer: while due care is taken, the viewpoints expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Your Investment Property.
ScaleX SocialFlow "Successful outbound requires a perfect mix of quality and quantity. With the launch of SocialFlow, we're further enhancing the quality that our clients have come to expect. This is truly the first-ever AI for Social Selling engine on the market today!" Chad Burmeister, CEO, ScaleX.ai

ScaleX.ai is pleased to announce the newest addition to its revenue-focused suite of AI for Sales offerings. Harnessing the power of personal connections, SocialFlow does three things better than anyone else; 1. help companies monetize the professional relationships employees have cultivated over their careers, 2. get warm introductions to high-dollar prospects that can materially impact quota attainment, and 3. do so at scale, across entire organizations.

Often referred to as a warm introduction engine, SocialFlow helps companies change the way they generate qualified leads. Instead of wasting time trying to get prospects on the phone, SocialFlow fast-tracks access, enabling reps to spend their time having meaningful conversations. No longer will reps send dozens of emails or leave dozens of voicemails. With SocialFlow, it is not uncommon for prospects to take meetings on the very first outreach. Its no wonder warm introductions are called the most valuable currency in business.

According to Chad Burmeister, CEO of ScaleX, "Successful outbound requires a perfect mix of quality and quantity. With the launch of SocialFlow, we're further enhancing the quality that our clients have come to expect. This is truly the first-ever AI for Social Selling engine on the market today!"

Learn more about ScaleX.ai here: https://www.scalex.ai/solutions.

About ScaleX.ai - ScaleX.ai delivers personalization at scale, powered by artificial intelligence (TM). Whether you are looking to bring 10X more productivity to your internal sales team, or partner with a company that consistently delivers 25 or more meetings per month per BDR, ScaleX has a solution. To learn more about ScaleX.ai, watch the YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-DiV2ceDM4


I have talked about many products on WtR, from smartphones to laptops and more than a few people have communicated with me and or Svetochka to tell us that they also purchased and are using many of the devices that I have suggested. Today I will talk about a device that literally blows away Samsung and iPhone 100%

I am not a big fan of Google in any form and I am not a fan of iPhone at all. So yes what I will be talking about is a phone that has nothing to do with anything that many western countries find acceptable. The Huawei Mate 30.comes in Mate 30 Lite, Mate 30 Pro and just as mine is, Mate 30

Forget me listing specs. The internet is full of sites with the specs. Just Google it

First off:

Svetochka and I went to the famous Cellphone computer market in downtown Moscow. I had very little hope of finding a phone that met my needs. Svetochka has a Huawei P30 Pro and for her it is the finest phone she has ever had. It just fits her hands good and is superb quality, exceeding anything else on the market. Huawei makes literally the best quality phone that you can buy these days. The issue with her phone is that it does not feel good and correct in my hands

Sveta wore out a Samsung Galaxy Zoom phone and that phone did not fit my hands correct either. Sveta has tiny delicate hands and well, I have these huge bear paws for hands.thus what works for her is not going to work for me. I knew what I wanted when we went to the market the other day, yet I also knew that finding what I wanted was not probably going to happen. Out of hundreds of shops, we found one shop that had one phone, actually two, but one had a scratch on the camera. It was a Huawei P20 Pro and it fit the bill for me, yet buying a scratched camera was not going to happen

We kept looking and found that it was best to look elsewhere, yet I was drawn back one last time to the only store that had something worth it to buy. I looked the Huawei mate 30 over very carefully. It was a Chinese version and it did have Google Apps installed. I knew that the store had installed them and I also knew that resetting the phone would put it back to all original

So we made a deal finally after eating at the pancake place as I call it and decided to buy the phone

I found it interesting that out of literally millions and millions of phones, the type I was looking for was almost non-existent. There was every thing else but what I desired. Any and all iPhones where available, Samsung had display after display, Chinese phones of all types, except high level Huaweis. Lots of middle level and low level Huaweis, but not the flagship versions

The reason I am telling you all this is because, since Huawei is being illegally treated unfairly by the USA and sanctions stuff. Going anti-Google is the way to go. We have to wean ourselves from actions that illegally bend us to accept things that are not as good as what we should have available to us in a free market. America is not a free market anymore

Second thing: Do you and or I need Google?

I have studied what the reaction is to no Google on an android phone. You would think from the western press and people in the west that not having Google is like waking up and finding that your family has moved out in the night and never let you know where they went

I can tell you that you can live without Google. Google is not your family and Google is not your friend also

Google made it easy to use. I used Google Fit, Gmail and many other Google apps myself and looked at all this no-Google issue as a challenge. Then I found it was not a challenge at all. I found that Huawei has a wonderful App Store. I found F-Droid that is full of non Google needing apps to be perfect for what was missing on the Huawei Store and most of all; I found that battery life tripled by removing all Google. I found One Drive by Microsoft and replaced my Google Drive  damn if it does not work better than GDrive

I replaced Google Fit with GEOTracker

That image is a screenshot of my walk to Globus. This was a test run this morning and it was to see if GEOTracker will replace Google Fit and yes it does. This app uses Yandex maps instead of Google maps and for me in Russia that is better by far

Huawei Mail replaces Gmail and so on and so on. I am finding no learning curve is necessary. These apps are straight forward and very light on resources. That is something Google is not

My phone now is a GPS animal. It uses everything available to track me. Not just GPS, but everything

GPS (L1 + L5 dual band) / AGPS / Glonass / BeiDou / Galileo (E1 + E5a dual band) / QZSS (L1 + L5 dual band)

The accuracy is not meters, but centimeters now.I step a few feet to the side and it knows that I did it and this app tracks that. Thus why there is so many wiggles on my walk. I like to stop and look at things as I walk. It is amazing

I could go on and on, but getting rid of Google could be the start of your life for many people. It is sad really to see comments and hear comments from Russians about no Google on a phone. People are seriously brainwashed into believing that life without Google is akin to death

Enough about that

Last but not least:

The camera is the best camera I have ever carried in my pocket. Svetas Huawei P30 Pro might have a slightly better camera, but as I said earlier, it just does not work right in my hands. Yet in her hands it is perfect. The mate 30 just fits my hands correctly and therefore, I am able to get really good images when I want to. It has a pro mode that is way beyond my abilities, yet the auto mode makes me happy. I just point and shoot and 99% of the time what I get is wonderful

The night images are the Cats Meow

The big issue is this:

When we are limited to only certain products then we are not living in a free society. To be told that Huawei is bad and iPhone is good, is not freedom. The choice is mine to make, not the governments, any government. When you have all products to chose from and you make a decision based on your needs, then those products need to be available if they are on the world market. If the demand is there? Then you should be able to find that product in a free market society

Using the ballyhoo about security against Chinese companies, is nothing but trying to hurt the competition whom has proven to have better products and better prices

When you live in a country that curtails what is available? For any reason! What is that called? (Authoritarian and or Totalitarian type government?)

By Huawei being banned in America and or whatever country you reside in doing the same, you are missing out on one of the finest cellphone companies in the world.bar none!

WtR

PS: Want Specs?

https://consumer.huawei.com/en/phones/mate30/

https://www.gsmarena.com/huawei_mate_30-9886.php

PSS: It is waterproof.IP58 = 5 means: Protected from limited dust ingress.  8 means: Protected from long term immersion up to a specified pressure.
Greens lord mayoral candidate Kath Angus is ready to "shake things up" in City Hall, vowing to push for Brisbane residents to have more power.

Her party's election campaign launch on Friday focused on improving public transport and giving residents more say over development and local planning decisions.

The Greens lord mayoral candidate, Kath Angus, wants to give Brisbane residents a stronger voice. Credit:Facebook

Ms Angus, who is an early childhood educator, midwife and community volunteer, will go up against LNP lord mayor Adrian Schrinner and Labor's Pat Condren in the March 2020 election.

"People don't seem to be happy with the major parties," she said, adding that support for the Greens was growing.
She already stunned on the runway in a racy latex bra.

But Kaia Gerber didn't seem impressed to be attending yet another celebrity party, as she arrived for the Saint Laurent bash at Paris Fashion Week on Thursday.

The model, 18, looked incredible in the thigh-skimming dress with a plunging front as she arrived for the post-fashion show bash with stars including Hailey Bieber.

Gorgeous: Kaia Gerber, 18, didn't seem impressed to be attending yet another celebrity party, as she arrived for the Saint Laurent bash at Paris Fashion Week on Thursday

Kaia proudly displayed her slender pins in the plunging black mini dress covered with an array of sequins, as she arrived at the star-studded party.

The fashion star teamed the look with matching pointed-toe heels and a simple clutch bag as she headed into the fashionable dinner party.

Rather than flash a beaming smile, Kaia's expression was surprisingly sombre as she headed into the fashion party.

Beautiful: The model looked incredible in the thigh-skimming dress with a plunging front as she arrived for the post-fashion show bash

Sensational: Kaia teamed her look with black pointed-toe heels and matching clutch bag as she arrived for the fashion party in her stunning dress

You feeling OK? Rather than flash a beaming smile, Kaia's expression was surprisingly sombre as she headed into the fashion party

Just hours earlier, Kaia set pulses racing in a jaw-dropping black latex bra and matching PVC trousers as she stormed the catwalk for the Saint Laurent show.

The model has been storming the runway in the French capital with models including Bella and Gigi Hadid.

Joining Kaia at the Saint Laurent party was Hailey Bieber, who put on a leggy display in a metallic mini dress.

The model, 23,slipped into a gun metal grey dress with a racy hemline that showcased her bronzed legs.

Sexy: Earlier this week, Kaia set pulses racing in a jaw-dropping black latex bra and matching PVC trousers as she stormed the catwalk for the Saint Laurent show

A vision: Kaia displayed her incredible physique in the plunging black dress which displayed every inch of her slender pins

Fashion maven: Kaia has been a fixture on the runways this season, which comes to close on Tuesday with the end of Paris Fashion Week

Superstar: Kaia rose to prominence in the modelling industry after following in the footsteps of her mum Cindy Crawford

The multi-layered dress featuring shimmering silver threads and cinched in at the star's slender waist.

Hailey boosted her height with a pair of black stiletto heels and accessorised with gold hoop earrings.

Her blonde bob was styled sleek and straight while her pretty features were enhanced with fluttery lashes and rouge lipstick.

Rock chic: Joining Kaia at the Saint Laurent party was Hailey Bieber, who put on a leggy display in a metallic mini dress

Flawless: The model slipped into a gun metal grey dress with a racy hemline that showcased her bronzed legs

Dressed up: The multi-layered dress featuring shimmering silver threads and cinched in at the star's slender waist

Oscar winning actor Rami Malek, 38, cut a dapper figure in his simple all-black ensemble as he made a solo arrival at the party.

The Bohemian Rhapsody star was without his girlfriend Lucy Boynton for the evening, as he donned a simple black suit and checked shirt.

Rami won the Academy Award for Best Actor last year after earning critical acclaim for her performance as Freddie Mercury in the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.

Suave: Oscar winning actor Rami Malek cut a dapper figure in his simple all-black ensemble as he made a solo arrival at the party
On March 2, Israeli voters will head to the polls for an unprecedented third election in less than a year. It comes after Israels parliament, the Knesset, failed to agree on a governing coalition after two previous elections last April and September.

With candidates and campaign slogans largely unchanged, ideological sticking points entrenched, and voting patterns expected to remain consistent, there is no guarantee a third election will break the deadlock. Even before voting commences, the possibility of a fourth looms large.

In Israel, its been met with a collective shrug. Coronavirus Fears Are the Most Exciting Thing About Israels Boring Third Election, ran a Feb. 26 headline in the countrys Haaretz newspaper.

Still, the quagmire has serious implications. There are major issues to deal with: war and peace, the economy, setting the budget, says Yossi Mekelberg, an Israeli politics expert at Regents University in London. When you have a Knesset that is not functioning since December 2018, the first time elections were called, there is a democratic deficit.

It is playing out against the backdrop of the Trump Administrations so-called Middle East Peace Plan, which was unveiled on Jan 28. The Palestinian leadership, along with much of the international community has dismissed the blueprint as a sop to Israels annexationist right.

The countrys latest leadership contest also comes only two weeks ahead of the date Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus corruption trial is expected to begin. Heres what else to know:

Why is Israel having another election?

Because the winners of the two previous polls failed to garner enough parliamentary support to form a government.

In two successive elections, both Netanyahu, who leads the right-wing Likud party, and his principal opponent Benny Gantz, who heads the centrist Blue and White party, fell well short of the 61 seats required for an outright majority in Israels 120 seat Knesset.

Story continues

In Israels parliamentary system, forming a government almost always depends on election winners forging coalitions with smaller parties. Traditionally those parties have coalesced around either a religious right-wing bloc or a centrist and center-left bloc.

Netanyahus attempt to form a government after April elections fell apart over divisions with ultra-nationalist party leader Avigdor Lieberman, Netanyahus former defense minister. In September, Gantz was handed the mandate after Netanyahu again failed to form a government.

The Blue and White party leader resolved to cobble together a government of national unity but that prospect also crumbled: Gantz refused to sit with Netanyahu, citing the prime ministers corruption cases, while Likud refused to jettison its long-time leader. Parliament dissolved, setting the stage for round three.

Benny Gantz, leader of Blue and White party, during an election campaign event in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv on February 25, 2020. | Artur WidakNurPhoto/Getty Images

Who are the main candidates?

The same as last time. Netanyahu last year surpassed David Ben Gurion to become Israels longest-serving prime minister, but a historic fifth term has so far eluded the 70-year-old, who Israelis of all political stripes refer to as Bibi.

His chief opponent, Gantz, is a tall but soft-spoken former Israel Defence Force (IDF) chief of staff. Gantzs military chops make him a viable inheritor of Netanyahus Mr. Security image. He has promised to heal rifts in Israeli society and railed against the vitriol and incitement that have characterized Netanyahus tenure.

Nominally centrist, Gantzs Blue and White party incorporates hawkish right-wingers among more moderate elements. Three of its four most senior figures are former IDF generals. Like Netanyahu, Gantz attended the White House unveiling of the Middle East peace plan, met with President Trump, and gave the blueprint his qualified endorsement.

Thats a problem for Israelis on the left, says Regents Mekelberg. Gantz doesnt capture the imagination of anyone. Not in terms of leadership, and not in terms of proposing an alternative policy he tells TIME. Voters look at him and ask themselves, whats the fuss?

Whos likely to win?

Neither candidate, conclusively. In April, Likud and Blue and White each took 35 seats. In September, Gantz shaded Netanyahu, with Blue and White winning 33 seats to Likuds 32. Until recently, opinion polls showed Gantz maintaining a marginal lead. But the latest surveys show Blue and Whites numbers dipping below Likuds, with more of the public also saying they perceive Netanyahu as the best candidate for Prime Minister.

What are the biggest issues?

Last year, former U.S. ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro told TIME that Israels leadership contest pit indispensable Netanyahu, in his self-declared role as the states protector, against Bibi fatigue. The fatigue may have grown, but the March 2 election remains yet another referendum on Netanyahus leadership.

Otherwise Trumps Middle East blueprint is expected to be high on voters minds. Gantzs qualified endorsement of the proposal was unsurprising, given its domestic popularity. But there are crucial differences in how the two candidates are expected to implement it.

Netanyahu is itching to make good on his promise to extend Israels sovereignty in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, after the plan laid out a proposal for Israel to lay claim to about 30% of the occupied West Bank.

Gantz has said that he would only annex the portions of the conceptual map the White House plan slates for Israel with the approval of the international community and in coordination with regional actors. Given the responses the deal has elicited, that approval appears a long way off.

Gantz would be more likely to treat the plan as a mechanism through which to attempt to gain Palestinian Authority and Jordanian buy-in, says Michael Koplow, policy director at the U.S.-based Israel Policy Forum, which supports a two-state solution to the conflict. Whereas Netanyahu has not displayed such concerns and views it more as a mechanism for immediate annexation.

Israels Supreme Court has ruled that a transitional parliament cannot introduce major initiatives, make significant changes to laws, or pass a new budget until a new government is formed. Theoretically at least, that should take annexation off the table in the event of a continued deadlock.

An additional, unexpected, issue is Coronavirus-related panic. On Feb 26, Israels election committee warned people to be wary of fake news connected to the outbreak amid fears it might affect voter turnout. Israel has set up isolated booths to enable those in quarantinecurrently more than 1,500to cast a vote. On Feb. 27 an Israeli man who recently returned from Italy became the first in the country to be diagnosed outside of quarantine conditions.

How could the allegations against Benjamin Netanyahu affect the election?

Corruption allegations have plagued Netanyahu as far back as 2018. But his legal woes have grown since Israelis last headed to the polls. In November, Israels Attorney General indicted the prime minister on three corruption charges. His legal trial is set to commence on March 17.

These largely anticipated developments are unlikely to change the calculus of Israelis at polling booths, pollsters say, but they may impact coalition negotiations. If Netanyahu is not able to flip enough seats to give his right-wing bloc a narrow majority, attempting to prolong the deadlock would appear to be his next best strategy.

Remaining transitional prime minister would give Netanyahu critical leverage should he decide to strike a plea bargain. It also gives him a bully pulpit and potential leverage during any appeals process, says Israel Policy Forums Koplow. It even preserves the possibility of passing Knesset legislation down the road that bars criminal proceedings for sitting prime ministers.

How could the election results impact Israels relations with the U.S.?

Netanyahu and Trump have together made Israel an increasingly partisan issue in the United States, straining the complex and sometimes fraught relationship between Israelis and American Jews. Many American Jews lean Democrat, with progressives particularly disturbed by Israels continued occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

For American Jews, a Netanyahu victory would reconfirm their belief that Israel has simply become a society whose values theyre not comfortable with, says Daniel Gordis, author of Divided We Stand: the Rift Between American Jews and Israel. Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders recently described Israels largest lobbying organization AIPAC, as a platform to express bigotrya barely veiled dig at Netanyahu. Trump, meanwhile, has controversially claimed that American Jews who vote Democrat show great disloyalty.

But Gordis says a Gantz victory would unlikely to heal the rift scored by Netanyahu and Trump. There will be a momentary sense that Israel has been liberated from the grip of Bibi, he tells TIME. But what theyre going to discover very quickly is that the policies are not going to change.
Italy urged tourists spooked by the new coronavirus Thursday not to stay away, but efforts to reassure the world it was managing the outbreak were overshadowed by a sharp rise in case numbers. Hotel bookings have slumped and nearly a dozen cities in the north are in lockdown as the number of infections reached 650 and deaths hit 17 -- by far the highest in Europe -- according to the latest figures from the civil protection agency. As alarm grows, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio condemned "false reports circulating abroad" about panic in the country, saying they were doing "more damage" than the virus itself. "If schools are open, if our children are going to school, tourists and business people can come," Di Maio said. "Out of over 7,000 towns in Italy, just over a dozen are affected by this epidemic." The latest toll was a sharp increase from the previous official tally showing 528 infections and 14 deaths. That was up from 400 cases and 12 fatalities on Wednesday. Explaining the steep rise, civil protection chief Angelo Borrelli said Wednesday's figures had not included all the data from the northern Lombardy region, the most badly hit part of the country. - Hotels hit - Twelve regions have reported at least one case of the virus, including Sicily at the country's southern tip. Hotel bookings in the northern city of Milan have plummeted to 20 percent, compared with nearly 90 percent normally at this time of year. In Rome -- far from the virus hotspots -- more than 50 percent of bookings have been cancelled until the end of March, hotel association Federalberghi said. The government has stopped all movement in and out of 11 towns in two regions in the north -- Lombardy and Veneto -- in a bid to stop the contagion spreading. Italy had more cases than other European countries because it was performing mass tests -- more than 11,000 so far -- which caught positive cases that did not, however, result in illness, Di Maio said. Italy was "reliable and transparent", he insisted, adding it was being unfairly penalised by holidaymakers cancelling trips over fears they might catch the virus. Some experts, however, say the country is doing too many tests and may be over-reporting the number of infections to the World Health Organization. All of those who have died so far in Italy were either elderly or had pre-existing medical conditions. Wide-ranging measures to halt the spread of the virus have affected tens of millions of people in the north, with schools closed and cultural and sporting events cancelled. Walter Ricciardi, a WHO member who advises the Italian ministry of health, said it would be clear from next week whether such measures meant Italy had stemmed the spread of the virus. "I am optimistic. Spring and milder temperatures can help," he said.
A cruise ship carrying more than 4,500 passengers in the Caribbean became the latest to be turned away from ports, amid fears of the coronavirus -this time in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, the New York Post reported on Wednesday.





The MSC Meraviglia arrived in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, from Miami on Tuesday morning, but local authorities said no one could disembark after a crew member was said to be ill.





The Filipino worker, who had traveled to Miami from Manila, "developed symptoms of common flu and tested positive to type A influenza while on board, MSC Cruises, the ships owner and operator, told The Post.





But Jamaican authorities were concerned that the man might have the coronavirus, the company said, adding that the worker has been diagnosed "with common seasonal flu and is recovering.





"Out of precaution, he was isolated from other crew members and guests from the moment that he showed symptoms and will remain so until he is fully recovered, the company said.





The Jamaican Ministry of Health and Wellness said in a statement that the ship was denied access to the port after "it was discovered that a crew member was placed in isolation on board.





"The crew member had a cough, fever and associated muscle pains with a travel history to a country of interest relating to the COVID-19, it added, using the official name of the illness.





The Meraviglia then departed for Georgetown in the Cayman Islands. It had been expected to arrive early Wednesday, but Caymanian health authorities said Tuesday night that it could not dock, according to the cruise line.





The Meraviglia was en route to Cozumel, Mexico, on Wednesday morning, the company told The Post.




Andrew Harnik, STF / Associated Press

If there was ever a time when the American people needed to be able to trust our political leadership in Washington, this is it. The coronavirus is steadily spreading all over the world, and the stock market has been in a weeklong freefall with no end in sight. Many of these factors are beyond anyones control, but citizens would like to believe that our leaders are doing everything possible to confront these challenges, logically and thoughtfully.

Unfortunately, only the most diehard supporters of President Trump can feel that way now. First he virtually ignored this growing crisis by saying almost nothing about it in January and February as it grew more alarming each day. Then when he finally spoke this week, he ignored his own experts who said the virus is indeed spreading into the United States and will get worse before it gets better. He breezily dismissed the mounting fears with the same kind of glowing, upbeat rhetoric he has used so often:
A delegation of journalists, represented by the Press Club of India, Indian Womens Press Corps and the Press Association, on Thursday, called on the Union minister for information and broadcasting Prakash Javadekar and sought his cooperation and intervention in containing the growing atrocities on mediapersons while discharging their duties, particularly as witnessed during the ongoing riots in Delhi.

The delegation, in its memorandum, urged the Centre, particularly the I&B ministry and the home ministry to direct the police everywhere, especially in the National Capital Region (NCR), to uphold democratic values and sensibilities.

Javadekar agreed with the plea and said that it was of utmost importance that the media was permitted to do its work in an atmosphere conducive to accurate and in-depth reporting no matter how challenging the circumstances.

He assured that he will take up the issue with the authorities concerned for safety of journalists and facilitate conducive and panic-free environment that would allow mediapersons to discharge their professional duties, a statement released by the mediapersons said.
Dublin, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Artificial Intelligence in Agriculture Market - Growth, Trends and Forecasts (2020 - 2025)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The global artificial intelligence in agriculture market is witnessing a CAGR of 26.2% during the forecast period (2019-2024).



Maximize crop yield using machine learning technique is driving the market. Species selection is a tedious process of searching for specific genes that determine the effectiveness of water and nutrients use, adaptation to climate change, disease resistance, as well as nutrients content or a better taste. Machine learning, in particular, deep learning algorithms, take decades of field data to analyze crops performance in various climates and based on this data one can build a probability model that would predict which genes will most likely contribute a beneficial trait to a plant.



Increase in the adoption of cattle face recognition technology is driving the market. Through the application of advanced metrics, including cattle facial recognition programs and image classification incorporated with body condition score and feeding patterns, dairy farms are now being able to individually monitor all behavioral aspects in a group of cattle.



However, lack of standardization is restraining the market growth as lack of standards in data collection, and lack of data sharing is high, and machine learning and artificial intelligence and advanced algorithm design have moved so fast, but the collection of well-tagged, meaningful agricultural data is way behind.



Key Market Trends



Labor Shortage and Increasing Costs of Labor to Drive the Artificial Intelligence Market



Across the world, a huge decline of the workforce is observed due to many reasons, like the lack of skilled labor, aging of farmers, and young farmers finding farming an unattractive profession, thus encouraging trends for automated farming operations. According to the International Labor Organization(ILO), agricultural labors in the percentage of the workforce declined from 81% to 48.2% in developing countries. Also, developed countries are not an exception in such a huge decline. Asia-Pacific, where agriculture occupies a major part of the economy, has a huge decline in workforce, which was nearly about 9% from 2015 to 2017. In Japan, the number of people working in farms witnessed a steep fall to 1.7 million in the year 2015, a 15% decline from the previous year.



The European agriculture sector has also faced such a huge decline in the workforce, which is nearly accounting to 12.8% for the corresponding period. The trend of decline in the agricultural workforce is encouraging government and private organizations to focus on automation operations by adopting artificial intelligence technologies in the agriculture sector. Owing to the above factors, the market for artificial intelligence in the agricultural sector is likely to boom in the years to come.



China's Technological Innovations to Accelerate the Agriculture Sector



The technological innovations pertaining to the Chinese market, are also accelerating the growth and transforming the global artificial intelligence market in the agriculture sector. For instance, McFly's Intelligent agricultural monitoring drone, GAGO's large scale application of AI technology in crop production and livestock farming, and UniStrong's "Huinong" Beidou navigation agricultural automatic driving system are few recent innovations prevailing in the Chinese Ai sector.



Additionally, few technological giants have also begun to make deployment in the agricultural sector. For instance in the year 2018, JD.com's "Jing Dong Farm" has made its debut, similarly in June 2018, Alibaba's Et agricultural brain has been launched. Thus, increasing innovation in the Chinese AI sector is likely to further boost the adoption of AI in the agriculture in the coming future.



Competitive Landscape



The AI market in agriculture is fragmented, as a number of players supplying the same product on lower-cost make market competition stiff. Also, technological advancements by players and the high presence of local and regional players pose a major threat in a price-sensitive market. Key players are Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp. (NITI Aayog), Agribotix LLC, etc.



May 2019 - XAG, a Chinese firm, presented its innovative solutions of combining drones with AI and IoT technology to achieve precision agriculture and induce transformational changes to the food system in 3rd AI for Good Global Summit, in Geneva. XAG is driving AI-powered intelligent devices such as drones and sensors to establish digital farming infrastructure in rural areas and enable precision agriculture which, for example, accurately targets pesticides, seeds, fertilizers, and water to wherever it is needed.



Key Topics Covered



1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Study Deliverables

1.2 Study Assumptions

1.3 Scope of the Study



2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY



3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY



4 MARKET DYNAMICS

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Introduction to Market Drivers and Restraints

4.3 Market Drivers

4.4 Market Restraints

4.5 Industry Attractiveness - Porter's Five Force Analysis

4.5.1 Threat of New Entrants

4.5.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers/Consumers

4.5.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers

4.5.4 Threat of Substitute Products

4.5.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry



5 MARKET SEGMENTATION

5.1 Application

5.1.1 Weather Tracking

5.1.2 Precision Farming

5.1.3 Drone Analytics

5.2 Deployment

5.2.1 Cloud

5.2.2 On-Premise

5.2.3 Hybrid

5.3 Geography

5.3.1 North America

5.3.1.1 US

5.3.1.2 Canada

5.3.1.3 Mexico

5.3.1.4 Rest of North America

5.3.2 Europe

5.3.2.1 Germany

5.3.2.2 UK

5.3.2.3 Italy

5.3.2.4 Spain

5.3.2.5 Rest of Europe

5.3.3 Asia Pacific

5.3.3.1 China

5.3.3.2 Japan

5.3.3.3 India

5.3.3.4 Australia

5.3.3.5 Rest of Asia-Pacific

5.3.4 South America

5.3.4.1 Brazil

5.3.4.2 Argentina

5.3.4.3 Rest of South America

5.3.5 Rest of the World



6 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

6.1 Vendor Market Share

6.2 Most Adopted Strategies

6.3 Company Profiles

6.3.1 Microsoft Corporation

6.3.2 IBM Corporation

6.3.3 Granular Inc.

6.3.4 aWhere Inc.

6.3.5 Prospera Technologies Ltd.

6.3.6 Gamaya S.A.

6.3.7 ec2ce

6.3.8 PrecisionHawk Inc.

6.3.9 Cainthus Corp.

6.3.10 Tule Technologies Inc.



7 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/pfi0hb

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.
Fairfax, Virginia, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. Army is revamping its approach to networking, and its scientists are working on a multitude of complementary technologies and capabilities that will empower future Army networks. According to an article in the March issue of SIGNAL Magazine, researchers at the Combat Capabilities Development Commands (CCDCs) Army Research Laboratory (ARL) are pursuing the state of the art while keeping an eye on capabilities emerging from the commercial sector.

The commands laboratory established a cross-functional team in networks and command, control, communications and intelligence to help field new capabilities to the warfighter quickly and effectively. This effort encompasses requirements that are based not only on the threat but also on acquisition approaches.

Brian Rivera, chief of the CCDC ARL Network Science Division, says the Armys network modernization effort springs from a widespread recognition that the services current network is insufficient to meet the challenges erupting around the globe. The Army is transitioning into a force designed for conflict with a near-peer adversary, and its network must be expeditionary, mobile and hardened to work in an active electronic warfare environment, he states.

Any work upgrading networks must be evolutionary, and the ARLs efforts in this arena are no exception, Rivera allows. The goal is to roll out capability sets more frequently rather than wait to assemble the ideal network.

The ARLs research tends to be for the longer term2030 or 2035, although the lab is aiming to transition capabilities earlier if possible. By then, soldiers should have hybrid networks that are predictive and proactive, and warfighters would be able to manage their connectivity with more control.

Because of these advances, the Army will be able to introduce more autonomous systems, Rivera predicts. The service will need fewer soldiers to provide hands-on network management, and network automation will allow robots to operate much faster than the human decision cycle.

While the Army is marching forward with these technologies, it also is revisiting established capabilities it used in the past. Another SIGNAL Magazine March article, titled Army Reintegrating Electronic Warfare Into Force, describes how the service will take several steps this year toward reintroducing cutting-edge electronic warfare (EW) systems to counter near-peer competitors.

In late 2018, Col. Kevin E. Finch, USA, project manager for EW and cyber, and the Rapid Capabilities Office quickly fielded prototypical EW technologies to Army forces in Europe. This year, the team plans to head back to Europe to upgrade those capabilities.

As you give soldiers capability, they get very vocal on what they want. So, we took the feedback they gave us on the first round, and were going back in the second quarter of this year to field phase two capabilities to European units, Col. Finch reports. In the third quarter of the current fiscal year, the team will begin fielding equipment to other units under another operational needs statement.

In addition, next month, the project manager could award the first round of other transaction authority contracts for prototypes of the Terrestrial Layer SystemLarge, which the colonel describes as the first integrated ground signals intelligence, EW and cyber platform that will be in the Brigade Combat Team formation.

Were actually looking at proposals right now as we speak. If the schedule holds true, based on funding availability, were looking at first units equipped in the first quarter of 2022, he says. Thats always subject to Congress providing funds. Thats the one thing we really cant affect from our foxhole, but its hard to bend metal without money.

The Armys ongoing effort to modernize its networks and integrate new technology into its operations will be among the topics discussed at the 2020 AFCEA Army Signal Conference, which takes place March 24-27 in Springfield, Virginia. Data: The Ammunition of the Future Fight is the theme of the event in which service leaders, including Lt. Gen. Stephen G. Fogarty, USA, commanding general, U.S. Army Cyber Command, will explore cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, networks and cloud computing as they relate to data.

###

AFCEA International, established in 1946, is a non-profit membership association serving the military, government, industry and academia. Join online.
Manama :

The Ministry of Health has registered 6 new cases of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) carried by Bahraini citizens arriving at Bahrain International Airport via Sharjah, confirming a total of 23 registered cases in the Kingdom so far.

The Ministry highlighted that the health and safety of Bahrains citizens and residents continues to be the Kingdoms top priority, noting it is coordinating with relevant authorities to ensure precautionary measures related to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus are implemented.

The Ministry further highlighted its commitment to inform the public on all COVID-19 related developments, reiterating the importance of only receiving information from official, verified sources.

The Ministry stressed that all passengers arriving from affected countries are being tested in a well-equipped and isolated area within the Bahrain International Airport.

The Ministry noted that the 6 infected patients will be immediately transferred to the Ebrahim Khalil Kanoo Community Medical Center in Al Salmaniya, for quarantine and treatment, adding that the infected patients were Bahraini nationals (four men and two women), arriving from Iran via Sharjah. The Ministry further noted that all individuals in contact with the infected patients have also been quarantined as a precautionary measure.

The Ministry outlined that the infected Individuals had arrived in the Kingdom before the Civil Aviation Authoritys decision to suspend flights from Dubai International Airport and Sharjah International Airport for 48 hours.

The Ministry highlighted that a comprehensive medical protocol is being followed to combat COVID-19, which is in line with established international guidelines as set out by the Gulf Health Council (GHC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Ministry calls upon all citizens and residents who are experiencing symptoms of COVID19 to isolate themselves, call 444 and follow the instructions given by the medical team, and avoid close contact with others.
Already under pressure to revive production and consumption, policymakers now have coronavirus working against them.

Mumbai, India  Indias economy continues to decelerate, presenting challenges to policymakers tasked with reviving growth as the coronavirus outbreak disrupts global supply chains and saps business and investor confidence around the world.

Figures released on Friday by the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed Indias economy grew an anaemic 4.7 percent on an annualised basis in the final three months of 2019  marking a slowdown from the same period a year earlier, as well as from the previous quarters revised growth rate of 5.1 percent.

Hopes for a stronger pick up in activity had been fed by the emergence of potential green shoots late last year including increased optimism among auto-dealers, a bellwether of economic health, and a bumper winter crop.

But that was before the spread of coronavirus starting in January. As global recession risks mount with the widening outbreak, and the fallout of COVID-19 becomes clearer, forecasters are revising growth estimates downwards.

Global growth and trade are weakening and there are certain manufacturing supply chains through which disruptions in Chinese production impact India, Priyanka Kishore, head of India and South-East Asia at Oxford Economics, told Al Jazeera. We could see slower recovery going forward than people are expecting.

The NSO has pegged 2019-20 growth at 5 percent, representing no change from last months estimates. Growth in India peaked in 2016 at 8.2 percent, the rate at which Indias own finance ministry said it must grow to achieve its goal of becoming a five-trillion-dollar economy in five years.

Now, there are fears that stagflation  a term coined to reflect the twin pressures of a stagnant economy and rising consumer prices  is squeezing household incomes in a traditionally consumption-led economy.

Indias government has tried to stem the slowdown with a host of measures, including tax cuts and cash injections for the banking and automobile sectors. However, Februarys budget session left many wanting, as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman failed to announce the spending increases, which analysts said would help spur growth.

I saw nothing in the budget to indicate support for a demand-led slowdown, Rayaprolu Nagaraj, economist at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, told Al Jazeera. It was a missed opportunity to take decisive action.

Are recent stimulus measures working?

Last year, New Delhi enacted an unprecedented $10bn recapitalisation plan for the countrys ailing banking sector. This has brought some relief to a sector struggling with a backlog of non-performing loans and the surprise collapse in October of the major non-bank lender IL&FS.

Combined with lending rate cuts at the central bank this has appeared to improve financial conditions if not heal the sector altogether, said Kishore. Liquidity is now in a relatively more comfortable position.

Analysts said a bigger problem though is creating a demand for credit among Indian corporates who are working through piles of bad debt and have no appetite for new investment.

Credit growth shrunk to 7 percent in December 2019, from 12.8 percent a year earlier, according to latest estimates from the Reserve Bank of India. Add to this a fear factor among businessmen who worry about speaking up against government decisions and it is not clear we will not be seeing any change soon, said Nagaraj.

Right now, you have corporates sitting and waiting amongst a lot of policy uncertainty, he added.

A $20bn corporate tax cut in late 2019, followed by changes to the personal income tax regime in Februarys budget may have also missed the mark.

Given the current low-risk and low-appetite environment, few are confident the cuts will translate into capital formation. Companies are likely to bank the savings or simply announce higher profits, said Nagaraj, adding that, similarly, individuals are unlikely to translate any tax savings into buying more goods.

At 22 percent, Indias corporate tax rate is now one of the lowest in Asia. Policymakers hope this will make Indian businesses more competitive and revive animal spirits. But while such reforms are welcome said analysts, they will take time to bite.

Tax realisation is a good policy overall but it does not address the cyclical slowdown, said Kishore, adding that the policy tool would be more impactful from a structural perspective.

New Delhi increasing tariffs on certain goods like auto-parts, chemicals and electric vehicles, has also raised fears of a return to protectionism and the effect this could have on trade channels.

Though the aim is to protect Indian industries from the onslaught of dumping by China, the move will end up hurting export-orientated companies in the long run, cancelling out gains said Sengupta.

Tackle the low hanging fruit

With unemployment flagging at 7.2 percent and the RBIs consumer confidence survey showing sentiment at a six-year low, analysts said the government ultimately needs to put money back in peoples pockets to boost consumption.

Fear of job losses among the low- and middle-income groups mean they are reluctant to spend, said Jayshree Sengupta, senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundations economy and growth programme, adding that distress in the agricultural sector which employs close to half the country, is further stifling rural demand.

Many analysts, therefore, baulked at the finance ministrys $1.3bn (94.1 billion rupees) cut to a key rural employment scheme that guaranteed at least 100 days of work in a year.

Perhaps the government doesnt think much of the programme or has its own political reasons, suggested Nagaraj, but the net effect is that an opportunity to put money in the hands of people who will spend it immediately, the rural poor, has been removed.

While New Delhis hands are somewhat tied by an increasing revenue shortfall, raising expenditure on low-hanging fruit, such as improving infrastructure, is the need of the hour said Kishore. Investments in roads, internet connectivity and a reliable power supply would have a multiplier effect of drawing in private enterprise, as well as creating jobs.

Helping private business to spur export-led growth is where other emerging economies, like Bangladesh, are faring better. According to World Bank data, per capita income in Indias neighbour is at $1,698  close to overtaking Indias ($2,009) after successive decades of low value-added manufacturing growth and higher than average annual growth for the region.

Many developing economies made long-term finance available to business, which is key, said Nagaraj, whereas we did away with development banks in the early nineties in the name of reforms. Analysts said this has helped other economies adapt quicker and capitalise on the recent US-China trade tensions, while India largely missed out.

Picking up the pace on structural reforms would also help attract more private investment.

Analysts have said Indias business environment is still largely undesirable in the face of complex labour laws and lengthy land acquisition procedures. Kishore also pointed to the way e-commerce platforms now have to navigate a controversial data protection bill, as well as the frosty reception given to Amazon head, Jeff Bezos upon his India visit last month. Were telling the world we want investment but were not sending consistent signals, she said.

An industrial policy to boost manufacturing is also sorely lacking. Manufacturing is the typical route to industrialisation for developing economies, but so far, India has struggled to convert its mostly farming workforce into a blue-collar one. At one point, it was believed India could leapfrog manufacturing into a service-based economy but thats proven to be untrue, said Nagaraj who believes this is still the optimal route to growth.

Theres a bank of low-skilled labour in our small towns  we need to grab this opportunity with both hands.
About 6:50 p.m., a male walked up to a 33-year-old woman in front of her house in the 4100 block of West 24th Place and pulled out a gun, according to Chicago police.
Aer Lingus-owner IAG said on Friday that coronavirus would hit its earnings this year but it wasn't sure by how much, becoming the latest airline to warn about the impact of the rapidly evolving outbreak.

Coronavirus, which emerged late last year in China, has sent demand for travel plunging in recent weeks as the outbreak has spread around the world. Airlines are flying blind into a crisis of unknown severity and duration.

IAG, which also owns Iberia and British Airways, usually gives an earnings forecast at this time of year but said the uncertainty of the impact and duration of coronavirus meant it could not give accurate profit guidance at this stage.

"It's a rapidly changing situation," Chief Executive Willie Walsh told reporters on Friday. "I wouldn't call it unprecedented. We have seen other challenges for the industry."

British Airways has in recent days canceled flights to and from Italy, Singapore and South Korea, after it suspended all direct flights to China in January. IAG said further cancellations would follow in the coming days.

British budget airline easyJet also warned on Friday that it had seen "significant" softening of demand for travel to Italy and other European markets and would cancel flights and cut costs. Finland's Finnair also warned of a significant fall in profit.

The rapid spread of coronavirus has sent shockwaves through the global economy, hammering corporate supply chains, curbing travel, canceling conferences and sporting events, and wiping tens of billions of pounds off financial markets.

Share prices were on track for their worst week since the global financial crisis in 2008 and IAG's is down 25% since the middle of January. On Friday it fell a further 8% to 474 pence.

The outbreak in Italy over the last week has brought new disruption to short-haul European travel but Walsh said IAG, with its strong balance sheet, was well-placed to withstand it.

"I'm very confident that we'll navigate our way through these challenges," said Walsh, overseeing his last quarterly results announcement before new boss Luis Gallego takes over on March 26.

Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska backed Walsh's thinking: "We are also confident that a downturn would reveal the strength of the IAG model."

IAG said it was cutting costs and implementing revenue initiatives, which included looking at all discretionary spending, to help it weather the storm. That's in line with moves by Germany's Lufthansa and Amsterdam-based KLM which have both cut costs in recent days.

IAG said flight cancellations due to falling demand would hit its 2020 capacity growth though Walsh said it could start adding capacity if other airlines fail and that the group was in a strong position to benefit from any recovery.

The company also said its acquisition of Air Europa remained on track for completion later this year and was not affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

For 2019, IAG reported a 5.7% drop in operating profit to 3.285 billion euros, slightly ahead of a downgraded forecast of 3.27 billion euros it gave in September when it said a pilots strike would result in a 215 million euros hit. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld,ie
Pakistani Christians attacked over church construction, 1 left partially paralyzed

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A Pakistani Christian man is partially paralyzed after a mob of Muslim men shot two Christians and attacked another with an ax for constructing a church in a village in Punjab province.

The Union of Catholic Asia News reports that 25-year-old Azeem Gulzar is now paralyzed from the right shoulder down after he was shot in the head on Feb. 2 in Punjabs Sahiwal district.

Gulzars cousin was also shot while his uncle was attacked with an ax, according to Gulzars younger brother, Waseem. All three men were taken to a hospital but have since been released.

Gulzar, a tailor, had donated a 550-square-foot plot to be used as the site of a new church for the towns 150 Christians. However, plans for the church drew the ire of area Muslims as the plot shares a wall with a property owned by a Muslim school teacher.

The attack came after months of disagreements between Gulzars family and the owner of the neighboring plot, Muhammad Liaqat. The attack also followed the Christian communitys winning of consent from a district coordinator for the churchs construction.

However, a Muslim villager has claimed that community members were successful in getting a court to issue an injunction against the church's construction.

Gulzars family built a wall and door on the construction site on Feb. 2. But later that night, about 15 Muslims descended on the property to tear down the wall. When Gulzar and his family tried to stop the destruction, they were attacked.

It was Sunday. We spent the whole day building the wall and finished at 7 p.m., Waseem told UCANews.com. We only wanted to secure our property against any forceful occupation. Three hours later, we heard a crowd chanting on our doorstep. As we tried to explain our stance, someone resorted to aerial firing. My brothers were the next targets.

According to the U.K.-based Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement, both the Muslim and Christian communities in the area have accused each other of launching the attack and two different police reports have been filed related to the altercation.

One Muslim villager told UCANews that some in the Christian community had threatened to kill us if they were stopped from constructing the church.

The Muslim villager, Muhammad Aslam, claimed that the shooting of the two men was done by their partners in order to file a false police case against the Muslims trying to stop the church's construction.



Waseem told UCANews that although his brother was released from the hospital on Monday, he is unable to communicate.

One of my cousins is recovering from the wound of a bullet that slightly hit his skull, Waseem said. My uncle was also injured with an ax. We are not rich enough to pursue lengthy court cases. Our property is the only hope we had.

Pakistan ranks as the fifth worst country in the world when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USAs 2020 World Watch List.

Open Doors, which operates in over 60 countries, reports that there are dozens of attacks that occur each year against churches and cemeteries in Pakistan.

In November, 30 men raided St. Dominic Catholic Church in the Arifwala subdistrict of Punjab province. The churchs boundary wall and gate were destroyed and attackers took down the cross from a wall.

In 2018, the U.S. State Department designated Pakistan for the first time as a country of particular concern for tolerating and engaging in egregious violations of religious freedom.

Considering that blasphemy (insulting Islam or the Islamic prophet Muhammad) is a crime punishable by death or imprisonment, the law is often abused by Muslims to settle disputes with religious minorities. Horrific mob crimes have taken the lives of Christians accused of blasphemy, including the lynching of two Christians by a mob in 2014.

Many Christians and other religious minorities  such as peaceful Ammadiya Muslims  have fled persecution in Pakistan and are now living as refugees in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia.
An 18-year-old nursing student was killed and four others injured during a shooting inside a Chicago food mart after the suspects missed their intended targets, authorities said.

Jaya Beemon, a nursing student at Malcolm X College, was identified as the deceased victim after she was shot in the neck on Tuesday.

The violence began just after 5pm when two men and a woman approached Ali's Minimart in the Avalon neighborhood with guns drawn.

The three suspects walked into the store, looked inside and then suddenly opened fire.

The Chicago Police Department are looking for two men and a woman who opened fire into a convenience store on Tuesday

'After firing almost 20 rounds into the store, the three suspects entered a vehicle and fled,' CPD Interim Superintendent Charlie Beck told ABC 7.

Footage shows the suspects walking towards Ali's Minimart off the street before entering the door and firing off several rounds.

They flee the scene in a four-door white sedan with damage to the rear passenger fender, dual exhaust, tinted windows, black rims and without a front license plate, authorities said.

One suspect was wearing a dark jacket with brown fur around the collar, one was wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt and one was wearing a dark jacket with light colored jeans.

Authorities said the suspects missed their intended target, who they believe left the store earlier and was not injured

They escaped the scene in a four-door white sedan with damage to the rear passenger fender, dual exhaust, tinted windows and black rims

It's unclear what prompted the shooting, but authorities say they missed their intended target.

They claim to know who the target was and are currently searching for him. Police believe the target left before the suspects arrived and was not injured in the gun fire.

Jaya was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.

Jaya Beemon (pictured), a young nursing student at Malcolm X College, was shot dead on Tuesday inside Ali's Minimart

Nyisha Beemon, Jaya's 35-year-old mother, remembered her daughter fondly and calls the continual shooting 'overkill'.

Beemon said: 'My daughter was loving, funny, dancing silly, she was a teenager. If you fire 20 rounds, that's overkill. Who do you hate that much, so bad that my daughter had to get shot?'

Also injured in the shooting was a 19-year-old man with a wound to the leg; a 17-year-old girl that was shot in the arm, leg and ankle; an 18-year-old woman shot in the back; and a 63-year-old man shot in the leg.

Family members of Jaya say she was in the convenience store picking up a snack with her date.

Jaya's and her date, the 19-year-old man shot and a fellow nursing classmate, had taken a bus to the convenience store after spending time at the Shedd Aquarium.

He was taken to the Northwestern Memorial Hospital and stabilized.

'[Jaya] went with a friend to the Shedd Aquarium came back around his house,' said Tiana Beemon, the girl's aunt.

'Local store just to grab some snacks and some vicious monsters decided to take her life. Monsters.'

Fmily said Jaya (left and right) was inside Ali's Minimart picking up snacks with a date after the two went to Shedd's Aquarium

In a time of grieving, the family said they have been dealing with police trouble after authorities removed a distraught Beemon from the hospital, jailed her and charged her with misdemeanors just after Jaya's death.

Tiana, 37, told the Chicago Tribune that when Beemon arrived at the hospital and saw her dead daughter in the emergency room, she collapsed to the floor while screaming.

She said that Chicago police officers forcibly dragged Beemon out of the room after hospital staff complained about the mother's behavior. She was reportedly held for several hours.

All the while, Beemon was still unsure what had killed her daughter and what transpired at Ali's Market.

Nyisha Beemon (pictured), a registered nurse, was reportedly removed of a Chicago hospital by police officers after seeing her daughter

Pictured: Jaya Beemon (left) and Nyisha Beemon (right) together before the incident

'There was no empathy. There was no sympathy. They treated us horribly,' Tiana said.

Beemon was charged with battery and resisting arrest. Officers said she pushed and kicked an officer as they tried to clear the emergency room.

'We were treated like common criminals,' said Tiana, who along with Beemon are registered nurses.

As the family continues to process the tragic death, they find it hard to rely on the Chicago Police Department for help.

'It was unimaginable to lose my niece how we have, and now we have to trust a police department who doesnt even respect us,' Tiana said.

She wants officers 'to take that same strength and tenacity that you used to be disrespectful and condescending and...find justice for Jaya. Find those savage killers who decided to take my nieces life'.

Jaya was the oldest of four children and had dreams of moving to California. In 2016, she was reported missing, but was later found safe.

According to the Chicago Tribune, 310 people have been shot in 2020 as of February 25. That is 61 more than in 2019.
During a Jan. 14 Democratic debate, Bernie Sanders said he deferred to Elizabeth Warren before entering the 2016 presidential race. He said he decided to run only after Warren made it clear that she would stay out.

Sanders recollection is questionable. After all, he made four trips to Iowa in 2014, with the first visit in April that year. Iowa is a lovely state, but nobody makes four trips there in a year just to take in the sights.

That same April, while Sanders mulled his presidential options, he told an interviewer that his decision wouldnt be impacted by what Warren or Hillary Clinton did.

Nothing to do with Elizabeth, nothing to do with Hillary, he said.

Nonetheless, lets take Sanders at his most recent word and accept the premise that he would have backed away if Warren, then in her first term as a Massachusetts senator, had stepped forward in 2015 to battle Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

In that alternate reality, Warren either would have been elected president in 2016 or set herself up to be the dominant Democratic candidate in this years race.

Its not an insult to Sanders to point out that the main reason he finds himself in the Democratic drivers seat right now  other than sexism masquerading as electability pragmatism  is because five years ago Warren enabled Sanders, by default, to establish himself as the vessel for the brewing anger among progressive Democrats and Occupy Wall Street activists who thought the party establishment had sold itself out to corporate interests.

Five years ago, Sanders was an obscure independent senator from Vermont. Warren, by that point, had already established herself as a political rock star, the voice of disaffected progressives across the country.

Ive never seen anybody accumulate so much power in such a short time, except Barack Obama becoming president, Mary Anne Marsh, a Boston-based Democratic strategist, said at the time.

In 2014, Warren crossed Obama, the leader of her own party, on a presidential pick for a key Treasury Department post. Obama had selected Wall Street banker Antonio Weiss, a choice that Warren found objectionable. Obama ultimately pulled Weiss nomination.

In early 2015, MoveOn.org organized a movement to draft Warren for president.

Warren resisted the draft movement, concluding that the timing and circumstances werent right for her in 2016. Clinton was an obvious beneficiary of that decision. But Sanders was a bigger beneficiary.

All the unrequited passion for Warren has transferred to Sanders, with stunning suddenness and seamlessness, David Shribman, then the executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, wrote in June 2015. Earlier that month, the Ready for Warren activist group endorsed Sanders for president.

On ExpressNews.com: Debate could offer preview of Warren-Castro ticket

When Warren came to San Antonio on Thursday  for a rapturously received town hall at Sunset Station, along with former Mayor Julian Castro  it should have been as the overwhelming favorite to win the Democratic nomination; not as the candidate who finished third, fourth and fourth in the first three contests and is struggling to survive the 14-state Super Tuesday obstacle course March 3.

By any objective metric, Warren is the strongest candidate in the Democratic field.

Her command of policy is unrivaled. Like Sanders, she promises big structural change, but her plans come with a lot more detail.

She is the most nimble debater and the most precise speaker. While an unconventional politician, and one who never ran for office until she was 62, she has a kind of professorial folksiness on the stump and a rare ability/willingness to engage with her followers. (Who else would spend four hours taking post-rally selfies with supporters, as Warren did last September in New Yorks Washington Square Park?)

She also makes the most persuasive case for a progressive agenda (Medicare for All, free college tuition, a Green New Deal). But Sanders made it first, at least on the presidential campaign stage. And his backers wont forget that.

In a way, its reminiscent of the 1968 presidential race. New York liberal activist Allard Lowenstein tried recruiting Bobby Kennedy to challenge Lyndon Johnson for the Democratic nomination, to provide the party with an anti-war candidate.

Kennedy declined and Lowenstein eventually turned to Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy.

McCarthy weakened Johnson in the New Hampshire primary, prompting Kennedy to get in the race. Many anti-war activists, however, resisted Kennedys candidacy. They saw McCarthy as the one who had put himself on the line when challenging Johnson looked like a hopeless endeavor.

Warren has been reluctant to criticize Sanders during this campaign. She tends to distinguish herself from him by saying she has demonstrated an ability to get things done.

Recalling her work a decade ago to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Warren said, I dug in. I fought the big banks, I built the coalitions and I won.

Its a valid point. But Sanders supporters refuse to forget that when it came to the 2016 election, he was the one who dug in and fought.

Gilbert Garcia is a columnist covering the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470
But politicians rarely take stands that work against their electoral interests. Most of the lawmakers whose votes most closely track the party line hail from districts that vote more heavily for one party than the other, according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index (PVI), which measures a districts partisan performance compared with the national average. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has taken lumps during the presidential primary contest for building a record friendly to gun owners in a predominantly white and moderate state where voters once strongly opposed anti-gun legislation. (Now white moderates in Vermont want action on guns, and Sanders is happy to deliver; he called his previous choices bad in the last debate.) If Ocasio-Cortez represented New Yorks 17th District, where the Cook PVI score is +7 for Democrats, rather than New Yorks 14th, where the party has a score of +29, she would probably have to adjust her approach, too.
Washington DC: Astronomers have spotted a record-breaking explosion created by a black hole some 390 million light-years away in the universe. According to CNN.com, this record-breaking, gargantuan explosion came from a black hole in a distant galaxy cluster hundreds of millions of light-years away, the astronomers said.

"In some ways, this blast is similar to how the eruption of Mt St Helens in 1980 ripped off the top of the mountain," Simona Giacintucci, a lead author of the study and director of research at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, said. "A key difference is that you could fit fifteen Milky Way galaxies in a row into the crater this eruption punched into the cluster`s hot gas, she added.

Astronomers made this discovery using X-ray data from NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA`s XMM-Newton, and radio data from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in Australia and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India.

According to the study, the energy that created the explosion was five times greater than MS 0735+74, once known as the largest and most powerful explosion. The unrivalled outburst was detected in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster, which is about 390 million light-years from Earth, according to the study.

Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity, containing thousands of individual galaxies, dark matter, and hot gas. In the centre of the Ophiuchus cluster, there is a large galaxy that contains a supermassive black hole. Researchers think that the source of the gigantic eruption is this black hole.

Although black holes are famous for pulling material toward them, they often expel prodigious amounts of material and energy. This happens when matter falling toward the black hole is redirected into jets or beams, that blast outward into space and slam into any surrounding material.

First hints of the giant explosion in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster was revealed by the observations made by the Chandra observatory in 2016 by Norbert Werner and colleagues. The new study, which was published on Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal, reveals the explosion and confirms the cavity initially detected in 2016.
President Donald Trump with members of the president's coronavirus task force speaks during a news conference: AP

Prominent Trump supporters have claimed coronavirus is being used to undermine the president, after it was revealed that a health official who commented on the outbreak is the sister of former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.

Dr Nancy Messonnier, a senior official at the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), said on Tuesday it was likely that an outbreak would occur in the US and warned the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad.

We expect we will see community spread in this country, Dr Messonnier, the director of the CDCs National Centre for Immunisation and Respiratory Diseases, said.

It's not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country anymore but a question of when this will happen.

After it was noted that Dr Messonnier is the sister of Mr Rosenstein, who oversaw the Mueller investigation into the presidents alleged ties to Russia, some supporters of Mr Trump have seized on the supposed conspiracy to damage the president.

Rush Limbaugh, a right-wing radio host who was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, drew attention to the family connection, telling his listeners to take the information and do what you want with it.

It may mean nothing. Might  who knows? Mr Limbaugh told listeners.

Its just in that town, Im telling you, everything is incestuous. Most of that town is establishment oriented or rooted, which means they despise Trump.

The radio host has previously falsely claimed coronavirus is simply the common cold and suggested the outbreak is being weaponised against Mr Trump.

Other right-wing media figures accused Dr Messonnier of undermining the president more directly.

Rod Rosenstein, as we all know, definitely worked to undermine the Trump administration, which is oddly exactly what his sister is doing by undermining the more logical and calm message the presidents team has issued on the virus, an article on the website of conservative commentator Wayne Dupree said.

Story continues

The article went on to suggest the response to coronavirus was yet another instance of DC swamp creatures using any opportunity to undermine President Trump.

Joe Hoft, a writer for far-right website The Gateway Pundit, described Dr Messonnier and Mr Rosenstein as a sick family and horrible people as he suggested the coronavirus warning was designed to overshadow Mr Trumps trip to India this week.

Although the president himself has not commented publicly on Dr Messonnier, he has complained about criticism of his administrations response to the outbreak.

No matter how well we do  the Democrats talking point is that we are doing badly, Mr Trump complained on Twitter.

If the virus disappeared tomorrow, they would say we did a really poor, and even incompetent, job. Not fair, but it is what it is.

The president has repeatedly attempted to downplay fears about the virus, which has been blamed for a recent stock market slide, and insisted the risk to the US is very low.

In reference to Dr Messonniers warning, a senior Trump administration official told CNBC on Thursday that the health expert never should have said that.

However, some conservatives have defended the official over the warning.

I've heard people jumping on Nancy Messonnier because she told us the truth: that it's not a matter of if but when, Tom Cole, a Republican representative for Oklahoma, told reporters.

Isn't that what you want to hear instead of some pie in the sky?

Read more

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German drugs and pesticides company Bayer was at pains on Thursday to quell expectations it was nearing an out-of-court settlement laying to rest claims its glyphosate-based cause cancer.

Bayer said after publishing its earnings outlook for 2020 it was in no rush to reach terms with plaintiffs lawyers and was less inclined to set aside funds for any deal following recent U.S. decisions in its favor.

Shares in Bayer have shed a quarter of their value since mid-2018 when the company lost the first U.S. lawsuit claiming that glyphosate-based Roundup  acquired via Bayers $63 billion takeover of Monsanto that year  causes cancer.

If we were to submit to the imperative of a deadline we would very likely not achieve the best outcome for our company and our shareholders, Chief Executive Werner Baumann told a news conference when asked if a settlement before Bayers annual investor meeting on April 28 was on the cards.

While media reports have recently raised the prospect of a settlement, Bayer Chief Financial Officer Wolfgang Nickl said recent endorsements underscored its decision not to make financial provisions for a deal beyond legal fees.

In December, the U.S. Justice Department said in a so-called amicus brief that a federal appeals court should reverse a lower court verdict finding Bayer liable in a Californian Roundup case. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also reaffirmed this year that glyphosate was safe.

A significant likelihood and a measurability (of future payouts) has to be given and we, and also our auditors, have concluded this is not the case, Nickl said. The amicus brief and the EPA decision played a role here.

Bayer also said on Thursday it was targeting growth in adjusted core profit of 7% to 9.6% this year, driven by sales of agriculture products and pharmaceuticals. That disappointed some who had been hoping for a more ambitious goal and Bayers shares underperformed the broader German market on Thursday.

Outlook Disappoints

Bayer has denied claims Roundup  or its active ingredient glyphosate  cause cancer, saying decades of independent studies have shown it is safe for human use.

Major regulators, including those overseeing European and U.S pesticide markets, have deemed it safe but the World Health Organizations International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded in 2015 that glyphosate probably causes cancer.

Although Bayer would not be drawn on Thursday on the size of any likely settlement, Nickl said it had plenty of flexibility to fund any deal from future cash flow, 9.3 billion euros in gross proceeds from asset sales and, if necessary, bridge loans.

Nickl also said that based on average analyst predictions of a settlement worth about $10 billion, Bayer would not have to write down the value of the $63 billion Monsanto acquisition.

Bayer said the increase in the number of plaintiffs blaming its glyphosate-based weedkillers for their cancer had slowed somewhat, reaching 48,600 as of Feb. 6. The total more than doubled within three months to reach 42,700 by October 2019.

Shares in Bayer were 3.9% lower at 67.15 euros by 1420 GMT, underperforming the broader German market which was down 3.3% along with other bourses on continued concerns about the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.

Analysts at brokerage Bryan, Garnier & Co said Bayers outlook was not as upbeat as some market participants had hoped, even more so because it had not yet taken into account any impact from coronavirus.

Bayer said it was targeting earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) adjusted for special items and currency swings of 12.3 billion to 12.6 billion euros, up from 11.5 billion euros ($12.5 billion) in 2019.

Analysts had been expecting a target of 12.6 billion euros, based on a consensus posted on the companys website, or about 12.5 billion according to Refinitiv data.

The companys fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA rose 26.4% to 2.48 billion euros, as expected by analysts.
KALISPELL  Glacier National Park officials are searching for a shuttle service operator in northwest Montana after ending a decade-long partnership with the Flathead County in December.

The county provided free shuttle service to visitors since 2007, the Flathead Beacon reported.

Free rides along the Going-to-the-Sun Road are expected to resume this summer, park officials said.

"Flathead County has partnered in good faith with Glacier National Park to provide a valuable service that helps the Park manage visitor flow and helps visitors enjoy their experience in the Park, but the system as it stands is broken and county taxpayers have paid a high cost for little benefit to our communities," County Commissioner Randy Brodehl said.

More than 138,000 people used the free shuttles in 2012, but that number increased to 255,000 by 2019.

Glacier National Park put out a contract bid earlier this month to operate the buses. Park spokeswoman Gina Kerzman said she hopes interested companies could expand the service.

The new operator would need to provide two managers, four dispatchers and 35 drivers, Kerzman said. Glacier National Park owns 36 buses with 14 to 29 seats in each.

"I don't think visitors will notice a difference in the level of service with a new operator," she said.

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After almost four years of hyper-hysteria over all things Trump from the left-wing media, President Trump's approval rating has gone to an all-time high. The American people are not stupid.

Since Trump's election, the left-wing media have relentlessly accused the president of being a "threat to our democracy."

But what is threatening to our republic is the Obama conglomerate. The hysterical liberal media have unintentionally revealed to those of us paying attention that something much worse than Watergate is unfolding as news of Democrat bids to get Trump keep coming.

Is it any wonder, as we sit at the precipice of truth, that the swamp rats, the darlings of the media, have their knickers in a knot?

It is highly probable that the Obama administration orchestrated widespread misuse of our intelligence and law enforcement. Every time the left-wing media darlings  e.g., James Clapper, John Brennan, James Comey, Adam Schiff, and Andrew McCabe  open their mouths, they expose the corruption emanating from the swamp. It smells like inspissated bile. These corrupt, imperious people have unintentionally revealed that there were and are bad things going on within the Obama conglomerate.

To save themselves from the dustbin of irrelevance, left-wing journalists, both on-air and in print, must abandon their addiction to outrage. A good journalist's job is to be objective and ferret out the truth, no matter where it takes them. It seems insane to the rest of us when the media cover every move from our president hysterically and negatively while avoiding the real story.

It is a long shot, but is it possible that the bitter media might wrap their heads around the fact that their historic rage has prevented them from seeing the truth? Only then could they embark on an honest examination of the misfeasance and probable malfeasance committed by the Obama administration. Unfortunately, it is highly likely that they will be able to handle the truth that their demi-god, Obama, is the reigning "Lord of the Swamp." Obama gave billions of cash to the Iranians, lied about Ferguson to ignite race strife, used the IRS as a weapon to spy on Republicans, sold gobs of uranium to Russia, egregiously covered up what happened in Benghazi, and spied on Americans. There is more to be exposed if a few brave journalists will do their job.

Image credit: Tom/Flickr citing art of Bernie Wrightson, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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MIDDLETOWN  State Rep. Quentin Phipps, D-Middletown, will conduct a public hearing of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus March 14 from noon to 2 p.m. at the Community Health Center, 675 Main St., Middletown.

The caucus is a group of 32 leaders representing diverse populations across the state, according to a press release. In an effort to learn more about the particular needs within our communities, a series of public hearings are planned around the state.
Barmer Superintendent of Police Sharad Chowdhary and a circle officer were removed and put under APO (awaiting posting orders) status over the custodial death of a 25-year-old man, the Rajasthan Assembly was told on Friday.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal informed the House during the Zero Hour that no case was registered against scrap dealer Jeetu Khateek, who was detained by the police on Wednesday evening over suspicions that he was involved in a theft.

Khateek's family has alleged he was taken into illegal custody and beaten to death.

Dhariwal said the SHO was suspended and other personnel were removed from the police station and a judicial inquiry was ordered. He added that the ADG, Civil Rights, and the IG of Jodhpur have reached Barmer.

An inquiry was also being conducted by an Additional SP, CID-CB.

Giving a statement in the Assembly, Dhariwal said the police picked up Khateek, acting on information that some stolen pipes were unloaded at his shop.

He was kept at the police station on Wednesday night and taken to the district hospital the next day after he complained of chest pain. "He was taken to the hospital at around 2 pm on Thursday and doctors declared him dead that time only," Dhariwal said.

The minister said the state government put the Barmer SP under APO status and the police headquarters removed the Barmer circle officer.

"The action against them was taken because the victim was kept at the police station without any FIR. A case under sections 302 (murder) of the IPC and sections of the SC/ST Act was also registered and appropriate action will be taken," he said.

Dhariwal also informed the House that an autopsy could not be conducted as the family members were staging a protest and demanding a compensation, a government job to one family member and strict action against the accused policemen.

The opposition BJP demanded a compensation of Rs 1 crore to the family. Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria said the government should announce a package so that the victim's family can survive.

Other BJP MLAs also spoke on the matter but speaker C P Joshi did not allow them, leading to an uproar in the House. They legislators stormed the Well and protested for a few minutes before returning to their seats.

The speaker asked the minister whether the government had plans to introduce a law or a proposal to give a package on humanitarian grounds to the families of custodial death victims.

In his reply, the minister said the government gave compensation and took other measure based on the circumstances of a case.

This was followed by heated arguments between the leader of opposition and the parliamentary affairs minister. The speaker intervened and closed the debate.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On screen, he's known for playing the Incredible Hulk in films including Avengers: Endgame and Thor: Ragnarok, but Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo's latest role sees him breaking down barriers of a different kind.

The actor (52) plays corporate environmental defence lawyer Robert Bilott, who in real life made headlines when he took on an American chemical giant.

Bilott waged war against DuPont, which was accused of allegedly contaminating a water supply which affected the livestock and residents of a community in West Virginia.

For Ruffalo, it was a story that sparked his interest after reading an article about it in a well-known American publication.

He explains: "I read it and thought, 'This is incredible', the fact that I'm reading about this in the New York Times Magazine and not on the cover of every single major publication in the world is outrageous. This story is very cinematic and should be told in film."

There was another important element for Ruffalo, the sense of responsibility he felt in using his platform as a filmmaker and actor.

"We can entertain people but I also think if it's done well and it's done right, you can reach people with really important social, political, cultural messages - warnings," he says.

"Anecdotal storytelling that can have a profound impact on decision-making, legislation, attitudes. It's really important."

For the real-life Bilott (54), despite having been victorious in his initial battle, there was still a sense of urgency attached to getting the story told.

He says: "We're talking about chemicals now that are all over the entire world - this is not just West Virginia, it's not just the United States, these chemicals are in drinking water everywhere.

"And they're being found in human blood everywhere, including in the UK and throughout Europe. So it's something that we're really hoping through the film, that people are finally going to be becoming aware of massive worldwide contamination that's been going on for decades. That unfortunately most of us are just now learning about."

The film's director, Todd Haynes, reflects on Ruffalo's transformation into Bilott's character.

"I think at this point in Mark's career, he wants to bring his prestige, his impact as an actor, his talent, his passion to projects that have meaning to him and his life and his beliefs," he says.

"But there was a pivoting point where he moved from being a producer to really being an actor on this movie and really committing himself to getting inside - and in my mind, utterly transforming into somebody we've never really seen him play before, as Rob Bilott."

As well as the acting impact, Haynes - known for films such as Carol, Far From Heaven and 2007's Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There - hopes the film will resonate in other ways too.

The American director says: "Well, of course, the relevance of the story, the fact that we are in an incredibly consequential election year right now, and that it came out in the autumn before our election, was driving the entire film into existence. I think we all felt there was tremendous purpose.

"But you need to really feel for the people and the story at hand, and you need to really put yourself in the shoes of Rob a lot and remember the people that he's fighting for.

"That was the challenge from a dramatic standpoint - all of these issues are so important, but it's the power of a narrative experience that puts you inside their experience."

In early February, Haynes, Ruffalo and Bilott attended an event in Brussels, where the film was screened in the European Parliament to key figures.

Bilott says it was "critically important" to get the film shown to decision-makers.

"The people that are being exposed for years have been the ones that have had to really get their own water cleaned up, trying to get themselves protected, and it really shouldn't be up to them," he says.

"The folks that are setting the laws and setting the regulations that are supposed to be protecting us hopefully now are finally beginning to understand the seriousness of this problem.

"And those are the people that we're hoping now will take action to help protect everyone that's being exposed - which is everyone."

Ruffalo is equally as passionate when talking about the event.

He says: "We did a panel at the EU Parliament after 700 people had seen the movie and it becomes really easy for people to have an earnest discussion when they have that kind of frame.

"The press has been great, states in the United States are moving forward on legislation; we met with a bunch of MPs in London that are also working on regulating on this.

"There's a willingness to do it, they need the help of the public's outrage to help and movies like this you can use to organise people and get policy makers to do the right thing.

"Outrage is very important and making people uncomfortable right now is very important."

Apart from Ruffalo, the all-star cast also boasts impressive names such as Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Pullman and The Good Place's William Jackson Harper.

Hathaway, who plays Bilott's wife Sarah, reveals her first knowledge of the story came with receiving the script.

"And my reaction unfolded slowly. At first, I was really fascinated by it, then angered, then I felt a huge range of emotions as I realised that it was ongoing," she says.

"I think in David and Goliath stories, we are expecting to see Goliath fallen at the end, and that's not exactly the case here. I kept waiting for that ecstatic release moment at the end and then I realised that this is not that story.

"This is harder. This story is more reflective of reality and something that involves all of us. So, at the end of it I felt more awake - I wanted to be a part of it. If it's going to be about all of us, I wanted to be there."

Dark Waters is out now. See review opposite
PR-Inside.com: 2020-02-28 20:03:02

Long-term Acxiom Leader Chad Engelgau Assumes Role from Dennis Self

New York, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) announced today that long-term Acxiom leader Chad Engelgau is being named Chief Executive Officer of the data, technology and marketing services company, which IPG acquired in late 2018. Dennis Self, who has served most recently as CEO, will stay on as an advisor for a period of transition to ensure continuity, before departing for a new venture. Acxiom will continue to report into Arun Kumar, the Chief Data and Technology Officer of IPG.

For the past year, Mr. Engelgau has served as the Global Chief Data Strategist at Kinesso, the data intelligence unit that is part of IPG. For the prior thirteen years, Mr. Engelgau held a range of key leadership roles at Acxiom, ultimately overseeing data and identity product development as well as marketing and strategy for the company. Before joining Acxiom, Mr. Engelgau spent nine years at Dell Inc., rising from product engineering manager to corporate strategist for the Texas-based technology company.

The role of technology and data science is expanding and Acxioms offerings are central to how we help clients manage data in ways that make marketing more valuable for consumers and brands, commented Philippe Krakowsky, COO of IPG. Over the past year, Chad and Dennis have been at the forefront of the successful integration of Acxiom into our organization, which has led to our data and tech solutions having a seat at the table with both existing and new clients across the IPG portfolio. Dennis and his entire management team also deserve credit for continuing to deliver value for their clients and solid results from their core business. We thank Dennis for his leadership and wish him the best going forward.

Chad has been one of the most progressive thinkers at Acxiom for well over a decade, having helped accelerate their digital transformation and positioning Acxiom as a leader in ethical and responsible data management, added Mr. Kumar. He is well-known and respected throughout Acxiom, having held key roles across product, engineering and marketing. He has also been successful over the past year at helping IPGs agencies tap into our data expertise to improve the value of client solutions. We are excited that Chad is taking on this leadership role.

It has been a privilege to be a part of the Acxiom leadership team and Im proud of the company we have built, said Mr. Self. Having completed the successful integration of Acxiom into the IPG network, now is an opportune moment to turn over the reins to Chad. In addition, the worlds of technology and data are highly dynamic and Im looking forward to a new challenge.

By combining data science with all aspects of media and advertising, we have an opportunity to meaningfully improve how people experience marketing. Acxiom and IPG sit at the center of this transformative moment, with the tools and expertise to help clients maximize customer value. As a strategist and engineering geek, I love opportunities for data and tech-enabled change, and am thrilled at the opportunity to lead this great company, which I have loved for the thirteen plus years of working here, added Mr. Engelgau.

# # #

About Interpublic

Interpublic is values-based, data-fueled, and creatively-driven. Major global brands include Acxiom, Craft, FCB (Foote, Cone & Belding), FutureBrand, Golin, Huge, Initiative, Jack Morton, Kinesso, MAGNA, McCann, Mediahub, Momentum, MRM, MullenLowe Group, Octagon, R/GA, UM and Weber Shandwick. Other leading brands include Avrett Free Ginsberg, Campbell Ewald, Carmichael Lynch, Deutsch, Hill Holliday, ID Media and The Martin Agency. For more information, please visit www.interpublic.com .

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Fred Samoun and his team at Paramount Business Brokers uses his many years of experience and a network of contacts to make buying and selling businesses in Melbourne easier and faster than ever beforeMELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2020 / Finding a business to buy in Melbourne is a task that many aren't cut out for, and for a good reason, it isn't straight forward. Many investors risk and lose money because they aren't able to acquire the right business. That's where Paramount Business Brokers continues to help individuals, investors, and corporations who are looking to acquire an existing and proven business.Fred Samoun has been in business since the 90s, during which he has built, owned and operated many successful businesses. Being so successful at acquiring and running businesses led to him progress to the next level, i.e., becoming a business broker. Not only does a broker help investors find and acquire the right business, but they provide advice on which businesses are worth buying. After all, not all SMEs are profitable, and not all businesses are necessarily going under. Then there is the question of making sure that the price paid is equitable..More details are available at https://www.paramountbb.com.au/buying-a-business/ "Buying a business, whether it is a restaurant, motel, wholesaler, or a spa, etc. isn't easy. You need to understand the business and do your due diligence. Many investors get caught up with bargaining and trying to lower the price without focusing on if the business is right for them. That's where we come in. We list some of the best SMEs in Melbourne that any investor can acquire and run. Some are profitable others are extremely profitable. The reasons for selling also vary." Said the spokesperson for Paramount Business BrokersHe went on to say, "Our goal is to make buying an SME as easy as possible. Sure, there are some things we can't do, but we give buyers and sellers everything they need to know before making a decision. That's why we have become the broker of choice in the area over the last fifteen years." Paramount Business Brokers lists their business opportunities on their website, and the number of those listings grows steadily across every day. The company has said that only vetted businesses are listed, and those interested can get in touch with them to discuss the purchase or sale of any type of business throughout Melbourne, and Victoria.For contact and location information visit Paramount Business BrokersContact Info:Name: Fred SamounEmail: Send EmailOrganization: Paramount Business BrokersAddress: 1324/401 Docklands Dr, Docklands VIC 3008, AustraliaPhone: (03) 9021 9888Website: https://www.paramountbb.com.au/ SOURCE: Paramount Business Brokers
Fairway Market appears poised to reduce its presence in New Jersey, one month after the New York-based grocery store chain filed for bankruptcy.

The Fairway Market in Woodland Park is closing around April 1, Mayor Keith Kazmark told NJ Advance Media.

It is the only grocery store in Woodland Park, Kazmark said.

Woodland Park, formerly West Paterson, covers nearly 3 square miles and is home to 12,000.

Fairway Market, which has a second store in Paramus, did not respond to a request for comment.

The 83-year-old company announced Jan. 23 that it had filed for bankruptcy in order to complete a sale in which up to five Fairway Market stores in New York and its distribution center would be sold for $70 million to Village Super Market.

As part of the announcement, Fairway Market noted that it was continuing to negotiate for the sale of its remaining locations.

Kazmark said that Fairway Market debuted in Woodland Park in 2012 at the same location that housed a Pathmark for decades.

Shop Rite in Little Falls is the nearest option, Kazmark said, adding that he is optimistic a replacement grocery store will land in Woodland Park.

The Fairway Market store is in a shopping plaza that includes a Game Stop, Dunkin - formerly known as Dunkin Donuts - a Dollar Store and GNC.

Fairway Market started in the 1930s as a fruit and grocery stand on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It later expanded to Brooklyn, Queens, Connecticut and New Jersey.

Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney described President Trump Friday as a 'really caring father' and blasted the press for not writing more about how good a dad he is to 13-year-old Barron.

The White House has repeatedly scolded reporters for writing stories about the teenage Trump son, who Mulvaney described as 'a giant.'

'The press would never show you that because it doesn't fit that image of him, the press wants him to be a terrible monster,' Mulvaney said onstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference. 'But he feels the way about his children like everybody else does.'

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney accused reporters of ignoring President Trump being a 'really caring father' to 13-year-old Barron Trump

Mick Mulvaney talked about how when he first traveled with President Trump (right), the president called his youngest son Barron (left) three or four times during the trip

Mulvaney was being interviewed by Stephen Moore who asked him to describe something he had learned about the president in his three years working in the administration.

Mulvaney reminded the audience that his first job was head of the Office of Management and Budget.

'And I don't know the president that well,' he added. 'And you might watch late night television, or see clips of it on TV and so forth, "Saturday Night Live," about his relationship with his family. And I don't know anything about his relationship with his family.'

Mulvaney recalled the trip being to New Orleans.

'I bet he called his son three times, four times on the trip. Including to have a "dad's coming home on the helicopter if you want come see us land [conversation],"' Mulvaney said.

The acting chief of staff then added that, 'people always forget that Barron's only - I think he's 13-years-old.'

'We don't think about him because the kid's a giant - he's like 6-foot-4, 6-foot-5 - I'm not making that up by the way, the kid is absolutely - he's huge - but he's still very young,' Mulvaney continued.

'And was 10 or something like that when the president was elected,' Mulvaney added.

'And the president is just a really caring father,' Mulvaney said. 'You don't see that.'

At CPAC, the annual gathering of conservatives outside of Washington, D.C., Mulvaney was on an anti-media tear.

He also suggested that the press was making hay over the coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent stock market plunge 'to bring down the president.'

Mulvaney said that when the administration was first preparing for coronavirus to come to the United States four or five weeks ago it wasn't being covered because American journalists were devoting their time to covering Trump's impeachment.

'While real news was happening, the press was covering their hoax of the day,' Mulvaney said. 'What I might do do calm the markets is tell people to turn of their TV for 24 hours,' he added.
Update:

The employee aboard Carnival Cruise Lines Fascination, tested negative for coronavirus, according to the company.

In a statement to AL.com, Carnival said passengers on board the ship were cleared to disembark in Barbados after a precautionary COVID-19 tests on a crew member came back negative. The news was delivered to crew and passengers by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley on Thursday evening.

The ship will remain in Barbados until Friday evening when it will depart for San Juan, part of its planned itinerary.

Carnival Fascination arrived in Barbados a day early after it canceled the call scheduled for St. Lucia when officials there were not equipped to address a crew medical issue.

The Fascination will depart from San Juan for its next cruise as scheduled on March 1.

Earlier:

A 48-year-old employee on board a Carnival Cruise Line ship off Barbados will be tested for coronavirus once the ship docks, the company said in a statement.

The cruise ship Fascination, was denied call at St. Lucia over coronavirus concerns, Cruisehive reported. Officials on the island were unable to conduct onboard tests for COVID-19, the illness caused by coronavirus, so the ship didnt dock.

In a statement to Cruisehive, Carnival said the call to the island was cancelled due to a medical situation with a crew member that St. Lucia medical authorities were not prepared to deal with.

Consequently, the ship is docking in Barbados, its next scheduled port of call. In an abundance of caution, Barbados officials are going to test the crew member for COVID-19. The individual is not a suspected COVID-19 case based on the criteria set by world health experts including CDC and World Health Organization criteria.

The tests will be conducted on board once the ship arrives at the pier. All passengers will remain on board until the results are returned and, depending on the results, will be allowed to disembark and spend the day in Barbados.

Carnival Fascination left San Juan, Puerto Rick on Feb. 23 for a 7-day cruise. It is set to arrive back in San Juan on March 1 for its next sailing.

The Fascination is set to replace the Mobile, Alabama-based Fantasy in January 2022.
The trip, in late November, was run by Upstream Alliance, an environmental education nonprofit in Annapolis. The two dozen paddlers included scientists, educators, photojournalists, board members, donors and a few people (including me) who had done volunteer work for the organization. One of the things Upstream Alliance does is promote public access to waterways, and one of the purposes of the trip was to see how much of that there was on this section of the 300-mile-long Sea Islands chain.
British Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG) has warned that earnings have been hit by weaker demand as a result of coronavirus.

The airline group said it has seen lower demand on Asian and European routes as well as weaker business travel across its network due to the cancellation of industry events and corporate travel restrictions.

Willie Walsh, chief executive of the firm which also owns Aer Lingus, told reporters he believed the impact of coronavirus on the airline industry would be significant enough for some failing airlines to be pushed over the edge.

We are well able to adjust to this situation because our business is in great shape. Its the failing airlines who will be most affected by this so without question, there will be more consolidation as a result, he said.

IAG chief executive Willie Walsh (Niall Carson/PA)

The firm said that uncertainty around the coronavirus outbreak means it is currently unable to provide accurate profit guidance for 2020.

IAG suspended flights to mainland China in January as a result of the outbreak. Earlier this month British Airways also reduced its Hong Kong service and will reduce the regularity of its service to Seoul in coming weeks.

It added that capacity on Italian routes has been significantly impacted by the outbreak too, but the company redeployed aircraft to routes with stronger demand such as India, South Africa and the US.

The update came as IAG reported that operating profits for 2019 fell by 33.6% to 2.6 billion.

It also comes a day after plans to build a third runway at Heathrow were thrown into doubt after a court ruling over the moves impact on climate.

Mr Walsh said he was not surprised by the ruling, but is looking to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to intervene.

Meanwhile, passenger revenues increased by 5% to 22.4 billion on the back of a 4% increase in capacity.

Mr Walsh added: These are good results in a year affected by disruption and higher fuel prices.

We demonstrated our robust and flexible model once again through additional cost control and by reducing capacity growth to reflect market conditions.

Weve increased investment in new aircraft, customer products and operational resilience and this has seen our airlines improve their customer performance scores this year.
A man with intellectual disabilities was found with bugs crawling on him, and his caregiver sister and another man have been arrested on several drug charges and for neglect of a dependent.

The arrests were the culmination of a monthslong investigation that stemmed from a tip that a Rochester home was the site of illegal drug activity, according to Indiana State Police.

Police on Wednesday arrested 35-year-old Adina Jezreel Keckler. They also served a search warrant at the home in the 700 block of Cherry Tree Lane and reportedly found about 8 ounces of methamphetamine, 11 guns  including an AR-15 that was reported stolen out of Cass County, Indiana  and about $951.

It was during the search that police also reportedly found Keckler's younger adult brother, who has intellectual disabilities and who relies on Keckler for care.

"He was found to be in an unclean state and allegedly had bugs crawling on his person," a release from ISP says.

He was taken to the hospital and eventually released into the care of another family member.

Keckler was charged with dealing meth, possession of meth, possession of stolen property, neglect of a dependent and possession of drug paraphernalia.

ISP did not clarify the connection between the two homes, but troopers also executed a search warrant at a home in the 2800 block of East Main Street in Macy, near the border of Fulton and Miami counties. There they reportedly found two guns with damaged serial numbers, meth, marijuana, drug paraphernalia and the frame of a motorcycle that was reported stolen from Howard County, Indiana.

Scotty Evers, 35, who lives at the Main Street home, was arrested on charges of possession of stolen property, neglect of a dependent, possession of marijuana, possession of meth, possession of paraphernalia and two counts of possession of a handgun with an obliterated serial number.
The Supreme Court Friday granted interim protection from arrest to Congress leader Hardik Patel in a case related to violence during the Patidar quota stir in 2015, as it rapped the Gujarat Police, saying it cannot sit over a case for five years.

The top court asked the Gujarat Police as to why it did not summon or issue notice to Patel for questioning in the case lodged against him in 2015.

"The FIR was lodged against him (Patel) in 2015. You have to tell us as to what steps have been taken. You have not even issued notice to him for questioning. You have done nothing and for five long years the investigation is still going on," a bench of Justices U U Lalit and Vineet Saran told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is appearing for the Gujarat Police.

Hearing Patel's plea, the top court sought response from the Gujarat Police by March 6 and said he should not be arrested till then.

Mehta said that notices for questioning were issued but Patel was not found.

"In 2015, over 2-3 lakh people had gathered and Patel had given speeches against the government. Several police stations were burnt and public properties were damaged in the violence which ensued thereafter," he said.

The bench then asked as to how many people were arrested in the case till now.

Mehta said so far only two people were arrested and sought time to file reply to the petition.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Patel, said all sections imposed against his client were bailable except section 332 of the IPC (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty).

"Since 2015, not a single notice was issued by the police in the cases in which I was booked. Allegation is that I made speeches against the government," he said.

Singhvi added that the Gujarat High Court and the trial court had dismissed Patel's petition in this case on the ground that "I had violated bail conditions in other related cases".

"Investigation is still pending in the matter and I was not even named in the FIR lodged in 2015," he added.

The bench then listed the matter for final disposal on March 6.

The Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti under Patel had organised a mega rally in Ahmedabad as part of the stir, demanding quota for the community in government jobs.

An FIR was lodged for "unlawful assembly" as the police claimed they organiser did not have requisite permissions.

The Gujarat High Court had on February 17 rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Patel after considering the government's objection on grounds of his criminal antecedents.

Opposing his plea, the government had told the high court that there were more than 10 criminal cases against Patel, and that he had gone underground fearing arrest.

The police had also contended that the "unlawful" gathering had led to violence, in which over a dozen youths were killed and property was damaged.

In his anticipatory bail plea before the high court, Patel had claimed he was being "victimised by the ruling party of the state" which has slapped "several false, frivolous and concocted cases against him".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
COLUMBUS, Ohio - U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, speaking on a panel at the 2020 Conservative Political Action Conference, said that not only will President Donald Trump win reelection, but Republicans have a chance of winning back the majority in the U.S. House.

Cleveland.com reporter Andrew Tobias discussed Jordans comments with Spectrum News 1s Curtis Jackson in a new segment about politics and previewing cleveland.coms Friday edition of Capitol Letter, our weekday newsletter on Ohio government news and politics.

They also talked about Democrats who have mentioned U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown as a possible unifying presidential candidate in a possible contested convention, and the future of the company formerly known as FirstEnergy Solutions.

You can watch the segment above. And you can subscribe to Capitol Letter here.

Other stories out of Columbus:

Ohio legislature term limits proposal is closer to signature gathering with new clearance

Eighth person in Ohio tested for COVID-19 coronavirus

Ohio bill would ban transgender females from girls and womens high school, college sports teams

Ohio health officials have asked 175 travelers to self-quarantine to stop spread of potential COVID-19 coronavirus

Ohio announces $1 million to help county childrens service agencies amid opioid epidemic
Hunter Biden's bid to delay his deposition in his child support case has been flat out rejected by a judge, who ordered him to be in Arkansas in two weeks, according to new court papers filed on Wednesday.

Biden was hit with a paternity suit last May by Lunden Roberts, 28, who claimed he was the father of their 18-month-old child, after the two met at a strip club that she worked at in Washington D.C.

Last month, the Independence County court ruled Biden was indeed the father, but a permanent child support arrangement still needs to be set so a deposition was scheduled for March 5, as well as a pretrial hearing for March 13.

The 50-year-old requested on Tuesday that his deposition to be pushed back, with his legal team claiming he wouldn't be available until after April 1, as it emerged Biden has taken up painting as a hobby to stay 'sane'.

That did not sit well with Judge Holly Meyer, who ripped into Biden during a conference call with his lawyers on Wednesday, saying: 'Unless his hair is on fire, he needs to be in Arkansas and he needs to be in a deposition.'

Hunter Biden's bid to delay his deposition in his child support case has been flat out rejected by a judge, who ordered him to be in Arkansas next month, according to papers filed on Wednesday. Biden was hit with a paternity suit last May by Lunden Roberts, 28, (right) who claimed he was the father of their 18-month-old child

His request did not sit well with Judge Holly Meyer (pictured), who ripped into Biden during a conference call with his lawyers on Wednesday, saying 'Unless his hair is on fire, he needs to be in Arkansas and he needs to be in a deposition'

She also scoffed at Biden's limited availability, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. She asked: 'My question to you is, why could your client not be available until after April 1?

'All the information I have is that he's unemployed.'

A piece that ran in The New York Times on Friday, reveals Biden has taken up painting as a hobby, telling the paper it's 'literally keeping me sane', adding: 'For years I wouldnt call myself an artist. Now I feel comfortable saying it.'

He said he viewed painting as a form of therapy, admitting he had been addicted to crack cocaine for four years.

He added: 'I want to protect this [art studio space]. The one thing I have left is my art. Its the one thing they cant take away from me or conflate with anything else.'

Roberts' legal team now wants to know if Biden is making money from his art.

Judge Meyer allowed for the deposition to be pushed back by a few days, stating he needed to turn up in Arkansas on either March 11 or March 12.

Biden has been laying low in Los Angeles with his new wife Melissa Cohen, who is expecting their first child together, DailyMail.com first revealed last year.

Biden has been laying low in Los Angeles with his new wife Melissa Cohen (pictured together on December 28, who is expecting their first child together, DailyMail.com first revealed last year. A piece that ran in The New York Times on Friday, reveals Biden took up painting as a hobby, telling the paper that painting was 'literally keeping me sane'

The businessman had been prepping in case he was called to testify in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial over his ties to an Ukrainian energy company.

His father, former vice president Joe Biden, is in the running to become the Democratic party's presidential candidate for the 2020 election.

Last month, Biden and Roberts finally came to an agreement for temporary child support.

Biden agreed to pay an undisclosed amount each month for their child, which started on February 1.

As part of the agreement, Biden has to retroactively pay support from November 2018, meaning he'll have to cough up 14 months worth of support by March 1.

He will also have to pay Roberts' legal fees and costs, according to court documents.

The child, whose gender is being kept secret, was born in August 2018.

Judge Meyer allowed for the deposition to be pushed back by a few days, stating he needed to turn up in Arkansas on either March 11 or March 12

Roberts had been demanding her former lover to turn over the past five years of his financial records to establish how much he should pay in support.

The agreed upon amount has been redacted from the court filing, but the court noted that because it 'lacks sufficient information to determine child support based off the defendant's income... it reserves judgement on temporary child support and final child support until after adequate discovery is completed and relevant evidence is available for a child support determination.'

It adds: 'The Court specifically reserves the right to retroactively amend or modify child support without the need for the filing of a proper motion by either party to modify support.

'If the evidence indicates that the defendant should have paid more in support than the amount set forth in this Order, the Court may order that he pay an additional amount after reviving credit for what he has paid.'
(Natural News) Drug factories are potentially the next collateral damage of the COVID-19 outbreak.

This is after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Thursday that a manufacturer alerted the agency about a disruption in its supply of a certain human drug.

FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn said the shortage is due to an issue with the production of an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) used in the drug. According to Hahn, the still-unnamed manufacturer has confirmed that the shortage was traced to a site hit by the coronavirus.

Hahn, in a statement published on the FDA website, said the agency is now working with the manufacturer  as well as several others  in a bid to mitigate the shortage.

The FDA previously announced that it has kept in touch with over 180 manufacturers of pharmaceutical products, reminding the companies to evaluate their entire supply chain, with particular emphasis on the supply of their products APIs.

In addition, the agency said this week that it has identified about 20 drugs that either source all of their main ingredients from, or are finished in China, and that it has contacted their manufacturers to gauge if they would face shortages in light of the COVID-19 outbreak.

As noted by a CBS report, antibiotics such as amoxicillin, doxycycline, penicillin and other key drugs are at risk of running low since 90 percent of their core components are sourced from China. (Related: Desperate scientists inject monkeys with coronavirus to create vaccine.)

Is Big Pharma beholden to China?

This looming shortage is the exact scenario feared by writer Rosemary Gibson, who highlighted Americas dependence on China for medicine in her book China Rx.

Gibson, who has long advocated for the rebuilding of domestic drug production capabilities in order to safeguard the U.S. from a disruptive event like the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, is also a senior adviser to the Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute based in the USA.

We have a couple of perfect storms that are colliding. Large parts of China are locked down. People are not going to work. They are not making essential medicines and even if they were made, transportation routes are blocked, Gibson said in an interview with CBS MoneyWatch.

According to Gibson, one of her fears is that China could begin nationalizing and hoarding medicines that would otherwise be exported to the U.S. and other countries.

Whatever supply of essential medicines China has is needed to care for Chinese people that are suffering. It means we in the US are not going to have as much as we thought we would. Its very scary, Gibson said in her interview.

Presently, the U.S. relies heavily on China when it comes to drugs and the ingredients needed for their production. In fact, according to the FDA, China, as of 2018, ranked second among the countries that exported drugs to the U.S.

In addition to medicines and their APIs, China also produces and exports numerous FDA-approved medical supply components such as insulin pumps, MRI machines, catheters and dental implants.

Chinas hold on the global pharmaceutical industry is so deeply entrenched that according to Jayasree Iyer, executive director at the Access to Medicine Foundation, a non-profit organization that analyzes the worlds largest pharmaceutical companies, it would be very difficult for a foreign buyer like the U.S. to replace Chinese API supplies in the event of a substantial supply chain disruption, such as the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak which, as of press time, has already infected 83,368 and killed 2,858 people worldwide.

Sources include:

ABCNews.go.com

FDA.gov

CBSNews.com

AlJazeera.com
When Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex released a statement clarifying the details of their exit, including their agreement to give up using the Sussex Royal brand, many wondered if Queen Elizabeth was punishing them in some way. It turns out that its really her following the law of the land.

Queen Elizabeth II, Meghan Markle, and Prince Harry | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Prince Harry and Meghans statement laid out specifics

On Feb. 21, the Sussexes released a statement that provided clear details about their exit and had many fans and critics focusing on how they would no longer use the Sussex Royal brand.

While The Duke and Duchess are focused on plans to establish a new non-profit organisation, given the specific UK government rules surrounding use of the word Royal, it has been therefore agreed that their non-profit organisation will not utilise the name Sussex Royal or any other iteration of Royal,' the statement on their website read.

The statement continued: For the above reason, the trademark applications that had been filed as protective measures and that reflected the same standard trademarking requests as done for The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have been removed,

The statement noted: While there is not any jurisdiction by The Monarchy or Cabinet Office over the use of the word Royal overseas, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not intend to use Sussex Royal or any iteration of the word Royal in any territory (either within the UK or otherwise) when the transition occurs Spring 2020.

Queen Elizabeth is enforcing the law

The queens decision to rule against the couples use of Sussex Royal, it turns out, wasnt a spiteful move, according to one expert, since she was enforcing a royal precedent.

Royal photographer Arthur Edwards explained to The Sun how the queens decision is the law.

You know, when the queen says you cant do something, you cant do it. Shes not saying it because shes being spiteful to Harry, who she absolutely adores, but its because its the law  its part of the Companies Act, you cant do that, Edwards explained. And you certainly cant use a royal title for commercial gain. They cant have tea towels and cups with their brand on it, its not on.

He continued, Prince Edward, when he married Sophie, he had a film production company and Sophie had a PR company. They both had to pack that up because it was conflicting with their royal duties and then they joined the royal firm. People have tried it but it doesnt work and the Queen doesnt want you to do that.

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, by contrast, arent working royals and have regular jobs, Edwards shared, explaining, Prince Andrews girls, Eugenie and Beatrice, they work in the private sector. Thats not for commercial gain, thats to earn an income because theyre not part of the Sovereign Grant.

Prince Harry and Meghan will leave their royal duties behind and no longer receive public funding on March 31.

The decision is not about the queen

TV commentator Andrew Pierce further broke down the specifics of the law that the queen is honoring, sharing during an ITV Good Morning Britain appearance how she is following the law of the land.

He believes that Harry and Meghans statement gets something wrong. Harry is incorrect to say this is just about the queen and who owns the word royal, Pierce explained, adding, It was all set in something called the Paris Convention in 1883. Countries all around the world signed up to what words can be not borrowed, not used, not exploited.

And that was followed by an Act of Parliament in 1977 and 1994, he continued. The queen was merely following the law of the land.
Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Kapil Sibal on Friday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his "delayed" appeal to the citizens to maintain peace in the wake of communal violence in northeast Delhi.

"Speedy response! Thank you Modiji for making an appeal to our brothers and sisters after 69 hours of silence. In the meantime: 38 dead, still counting, over 200 injured, thousands scarred, properties destroyed. As for our CM, he prayed! And your minister blames Congress," Sibal tweeted.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Wednesday appealed to the people of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood at all times and added that calm and normalcy should be restored at the earliest.

"Had an extensive review on the situation prevailing in various parts of Delhi. Police and other agencies are working on the ground to ensure peace and normalcy," the Prime Minister had tweeted.

"Peace and harmony are central to our ethos. I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood at all times. It is important that there is calm and normalcy is restored at the earliest," he added.

The violence had started on Sunday evening after groups of people opposing and supporting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) came face to face in northeast Delhi's Maujpur and started pelting stones at each other. The violence fanned out to nearby areas on Monday morning and continued unabated for three days.

At least 38 people have died and around 200 people sustained serious injuries in the violence. Property worth crore of rupees has also been damaged.

Two Special Investigation Teams (SIT) of the Crime Branch of Delhi Police have been formed to investigate the violence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A trademark filing from a Charleston boat tour operator couldn't stay afloat after a competitor argued the request wasn't fair to other businesses in the industry.

Longtime tour operator Charleston Harbor Tours wanted to make its name a registered trademark.

The company, which has been taking visitors and locals out on the water since 2003, gives daily tours of the harbor on its Carolina Belle vessel and hosts "blues and BBQ" cruises, weddings and other special events on the recently purchased Charleston Princess.

With a registered trademark, the company would have exclusive rights to use "Charleston Harbor Tours" in its promotional materials.

Its goal was to "further protect" the brand name and "reduce any possible customer confusion with other businesses," the company said in a written statement.

But a competitor argued that its own business would be hurt if the trademark request was approved.

In a notice of opposition, SpiritLine Cruises said that the phrase "Charleston Harbor tours" is used by "many boat transport and tour companies" to describe the services they offer.

The company believed that, if the trademark was granted, that use would be prohibited by Charleston Harbor Tours, according to the notice.

The South Carolina family that owns SpiritLine, including state Sen. Chip Campsen, has been ferrying Charleston tourists since 1961.

Under the firm Fort Sumter Tours, they have an exclusive agreement with the National Park Service to transport visitors to Fort Sumter, and the SpiritLine brand offers dinner cruises and other excursions like Charleston Harbor Tours does.

The direct competitors brought their arguments to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, an administrative body with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Notices were filed about four years ago, and the board's decision was handed down this month.

Kimberly M. Maynard, a New York attorney who specializes in trademark law, said the case piqued her interest because, while the "vast majority" of decisions don't set a precedent, the appeals board marked this one as such.

The ruling was two-fold. First, the board found that the tour company's name is "highly geographically descriptive," meaning the mark includes a "generally known" name for a place that communicates where the business provides its services.

In this case, that place is Charleston Harbor, which the board determined in its review is "a location that is well known, particularly for the applicants actual and potential customers."

Then, the board went on to decide whether the name has "acquired distinctiveness."

If it did, that would indicate that when customers hear the name "Charleston Harbor Tours" they associate it first with that particular company and its brand rather than the concept of taking a tour of Charleston Harbor.

In the world of trademarks, acquired distinctiveness makes a registered trademark OK even if the name is descriptive.

It's not uncommon for a descriptive mark to pass muster if it's been used for more than five years, Maynard said. Charleston Harbor Tours well exceeded that.

But the board still found it didn't meet the threshold for distinctiveness, particularly because other tour operators have continued to use the phrase in their own marketing and on their websites.

SpiritLine testified that it uses "Charleston Harbor tours" or a similar combination in "virtually all of its advertising."

The firm also submitted archived screenshots of previously published webpages, to demonstrate how other local boat tour operators have used that wording.

Three other local tour companies  AquaSafaris, Geechee Girl LLC and Sandlapper Tours  backed up the claims and the accuracy of the screenshots.

In its decision, the trademark board quoted a past precedent-setting case: "Our society is better served if ... highly descriptive or generic terms remain available for use among competitors."

Noting "millions" the company has invested in advertising to promote its name and brand, Charleston Harbor Tours said this week that, while it didn't succeed in securing the registered trademark, its brand "remains well known in and around the Lowcountry."

"In addition, since we filed the trademark application more than four years ago, our business has grown and evolved  with a much broader offering of both land and water tours in the Charleston area and other geographic regions," the company said in its statement.

SpiritLine declined to comment.
The four minute performance art video of Xandra Ibarra was censored by a city attorney in San Antonio according to a published article in BeLatina.

Art is a form of an allegory that expresses different things. It is used to send a strong message most intricately and metaphorically. However, there are still many who oppose and censore some arts because of how it is portrayed.

Ever since the great Philosopher Plato discoursed about imitative art there have been many different art museums that highly devoted to the moral and ethical debate of art curating. For the artists, they questioned what is the purpose of art if it is censored.

Gediminas Urbonas said in a statement during an interview with Peter Sizikes that art teaches a person how to disrupt to create a new public space. Moreover, Urbonas is the co-editor of "Public Space: Lost and Found?" and the current director of the MIT Program in Art, Culture, and Technology.

Urbonas also said: "The point of art is not scaling up answers, but to tackle painful questions, to provoke and mobilize humanity to find the answers themselves, or to create a space of possibility where the truth can be found."

As mentioned earlier, art is used to convey and send a strong message. This could be about political tensions, realities in life, problems in society, and many more. An abstract of the problem around us that led a person to critically think about what is the main message of the produced piece of art.

However, for the City Attorney in San Antonio, Andy Segovia, along with the City's Department of Art and Culture, this belief is not entirely true. Both decided to censor the video art performance of Xandra Ibarra that lasted for four minutes.

Xandra Ibarra, who is also known as La Chika Boom, is a well-known queer Latina performer. Her art video titled "Spectacle II: La Tortillera" was censored in San Antonio, Texas. It was later on removed from Xican X: New Visions just hours before the art exhibition started on Feb. 13 at Centro de Artes in San Antonio.

In her four-minute video, La Chika Boom dances in a typical Mexican housewife garb to Eddie Dimas who is known as "El Mosquito" before she removed her panties to reveal a bottle of Tapatio that is strapped to her pelvis. This was described as very obscene and was sadi as one of the reasons why the art video needs to be censored and removed.

In an interview with the Latina artist, she said: "If I can't cum on my tacos, neither can you. What I mean to say is that this is not about me, the state wants to silence urgent political movements and cultural issues that deal with race, sex, sexuality, incarceration, immigration, and war. We need to answer back even when it's something as tame as the censorship of me cumming on tacos."

Xandra Ibarra is only a Latina artist but is also a current professor at California College of Arts. She is originally from the El Paso-Juarez, one of the border cities between America and Mexico. Ibarra explained that her four-minute video was an attempt to inhabit her sexed spichood and to hyperbolize her supposed differences in discovering different forms of pleasures of queers. She added: "The censorship assumes that race, sex, and sexuality are not part of critically and radically thinking about aesthetics."

In a statement released by the head of San Antonio Department of Arts and Culture, Debbie Racca-Sittre, regarding the removal of Ibarra's art video she said that they consulted the city attorney before they removed the art video and she also said that the city has the responsibility to make art accessible to general public regardless of their residency and age.
Somrita Ghosh and Sana Shakil By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Darr kyu nahi lagega mahaul kharab aur darawna thaa (of course we were scared, the situation was volatile and scary). But the locals (Muslims) ensured that no one could hurt us, said Vimlesh, a resident of Mustafabad who is in her 50s.



When the violence escalated, our Muslim neighbours gathered in front of homes where Hindus live. The mob wanted to come inside and kill us. Our neighbours faced the mobs wrath, cooled them down and sent them back, said Bharti, Vimleshs neighbour.



Areas such as Brijpuri, Mustafabad and Shiv Vihar have witnessed spiralling communal violence since Tuesday. While Brijpuri and Shiv Vihar are Hindu-dominated areas, Mustafabad has a Muslim majority, with a handful of Hindus residents living there.

ALSO READ: USCIRF condemns Delhi riots, calls for swift action from Modi government

Despite the mobs hatred and anger, our Muslim neighbourhoods stood firm and refused to budge. They guarded us throughout the night. We felt safe and are lucky to have such neighbours, said Dasharath, who has been living in Mustafabad since the 1960s.



The residents said there was an uneasy calm on Monday but things took a violent turn from Tuesday evening.

I was born here and my family lives here despite living in a Muslim area, not for a day have we felt unsafe. I knew we could trust our Muslim neighbours, Harikant Sharma said. Locals also protected temples in the locality from all harm.







The moment riots broke out; we knew the mob would come looking for Hindu houses. The first thing that came to our mind was ensuring their safety. I am ready to take a bullet from my community but no harm should come on any Hindu family, Adim, a resident of Mustafabad for decades, said.



Religious battles only benefit politicians. The poor are the worst affected. What is the point of killing each other? said Nisar Ahmed.



A madrassa teacher Shamshuddin is the only Muslim living in gali number 3 of Khajuri Khas. When the riots broke out he was naturally sacred. Shamshuddins neighbour Ashwani ensured that no one could touch his house. In the next colony, 25 Muslim houses were burnt on Tuesday.
Coronavirus spread to Belarus from Iran, to Lithuania, the Netherlands from Italy

Open source

The first cases of coronavirus infection registered in Belarus, Lithuania and the Netherlands as the Health Ministries of Belarus, Lithuania and the Dutch National Institute for Public Health reported.

We report that on February 27, the tests held in the Republic scientific and practical center of epidemiology and microbiology showed that one student from Iran has coronavirus 2019-nCov, the Belarusian Health Ministry said.

The ministry explained that due to the deterioration of the epidemic situation in South Korea, Iran and Italy, they decided to hold examination and laboratory diagnostic of all citizens who come to Belarus from these countries since February 20.

In the Netherlands, a citizen of Tilburg is diagnosed with Covid-19. He returned from Lombardy, Italy recently. Currently, a person stays in the quarantine.

In Lithuania, the first case of infection with the new coronavirus is confirmed. A patient infected in Verona, Italy.

Earlier, the Ministry of Health of Poland denied mass media information about the hospitalization of a patient infected with coronavirus who arrived from Thailand.

As we reported, the first case of infection with coronavirus spotted in Estonia. An infected person is a citizen of Iran who returned to Estonia.
Negotiations for a sweeping new trade agreement between Britain and the European Union are beginning in an atmosphere of deepening acrimony, with each side accusing the other of bad faith, posturing and moving the goal posts

London: When the European Parliament bade farewell to Britain last month, its members broke out into a wistful chorus of Auld Lang Syne. But when British negotiators travel to Brussels on Monday to kick off the next phase of Brexit, these old acquaintances are likely to give them the cold shoulder.

Negotiations for a sweeping new trade agreement between Britain and the European Union are beginning in an atmosphere of deepening acrimony, with each side accusing the other of bad faith, posturing and moving the goal posts.

Prime Minister Boris Johnsons government released its objectives for the trade agreement on Thursday  a 30-page document that served mainly to underscore how far apart the two sides are, as they begin a fiendishly complicated negotiation that must produce a deal by the end of the year.

The whole objective of doing what were doing is so the UK can do things differently and better, Johnson told the BBC, explaining why Britain has rejected a EU demand that it adhere to European standards on labour, environmental protection and state aid.

The prime ministers top advisors added to the pressure by warning that if they did not have the outlines of a deal by June, they would walk away from the talks and pivot to preparing for a no-deal Brexit. Such a scenario, economists warn, would be hugely disruptive and damaging.

With the government having threatened a no-deal exit for months before signing a withdrawal agreement with Brussels, few people take this latest threat seriously. But it captures the combative tone that Johnsons government is taking as it embarks on one of the most unusual exercises in the annals of trade negotiations.

Unlike in a typical trade negotiation, Brussels and London are not trying to pull down tariffs, eliminate quotas or remove other barriers. They are instead working out which barriers will need to be reinstated between two partners that once enjoyed open markets and friction-free trade.

The British negotiating blueprint calls for talks based on friendly cooperation between sovereign equals, with both parties respecting one anothers legal autonomy and right to manage their own resources as they see fit.

It says nothing about cooperating on security or defence  areas where Britain feels it can rely on existing arrangements, which should not be put under the umbrella of a future relationship with the European Union.

The document rejects a key element of the EUs position: That Britain must align itself with European standards on an array of issues, and that the European Court of Justice will decide whether it has done so.

Johnson has insisted that Britain will diverge from the EU wherever it wants to, and that European courts should have nothing to say about it. At every turn, British officials talk about Brexit as a way for the country to reclaim its sovereignty from the bureaucrats in Brussels.

This government has been adamant that it wants to do things differently, said Mujtaba Rahman, a managing director at the political risk consultancy, Eurasia Group. The two sides are so far apart, and there is so little time to make a deal that the odds of a bad outcome are rising.

Britain is seeking a trade agreement modeled on that of Canada  one that grants favourable market access but demands less regulatory alignment with the European Union. European officials argue that Britains proximity to the continent makes such an arrangement untenable, since its regulations could disadvantage European firms far more than Canadian rules do.

The UK says that it wants Canada, the EUs chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said this week. But the problem with that is that the UK is not Canada.

There could be a rancorous breakdown over all this in June, Rahman said, since it was unlikely that they will have accomplished much by then. He still believes the two sides will hammer out some kind of deal by the end of year, but he puts the odds of success at only a little over 50 percent.

Part of the problem is sheer complexity. There will be 10 parallel tracks of negotiations involving a team of 100 on the British side alone. The first round will run from Monday to Thursday of next week in Brussels, with the teams reconvening in London on 18 March. At that rate, there will be time for only half a dozen rounds before Britain takes stock of the progress.

Moreover, some of the early sticking points  like the EUs access to British fishing grounds  are going to be the most contentious. There is also growing tension over whether Johnson is quietly reneging on the status of Northern Ireland in the withdrawal agreement.

British officials say there will be no need for checks of goods flowing from Britain to Northern Ireland since Northern Ireland remains part of the British customs territory. But under the terms of the agreement with Brussels, the North will also adhere to EU regulations. This hybrid status, experts say, makes it impossible for there to be no border checks.

Adding to the fears of a bitter negotiation, Johnson reshuffled his Cabinet to stack it with hard-line Brexiteers. He replaced the Northern Ireland secretary, Julian Smith, who almost quit last year when Johnson threatened a no-deal Brexit, with Brandon Lewis, who is viewed as more compliant.

Sajid Javid, the chancellor of the Exchequer who voted to stay in the European Union in 2016, was forced out in a power struggle with No 10 Downing Street. Analysts say that his successor, Rishi Sunak, is likely to put up less resistance to a confrontation with Brussels.

Some analysts chalk up the fighting words to an opening gambit. Britain and the EU, they say, both have a strong incentive to come to terms. During the withdrawal talks with Brussels, Johnson showed an ability to pivot seamlessly from confrontation to compromise.

Yet other experts note that Johnsons ultimate motives remain something of a mystery. He has yet to speak in detail about what kind of Brexit he wants. Some note that the disruption of failing to make a deal, while indisputably bad, would not be magnitudes worse than the bare-bones deal that Johnson says, for now, that he is seeking.

Im not certain whether, if you ranked the preferences in No 10, said Anand Menon, a professor of European Studies at Kings College London, referring to the prime ministers offices, that getting a deal with the EU would be their No 1 priority.

Mark Landler c.2020 The New York Times Company
Technology is great, we all want it, Taylor said Thursday. But it doesnt always work, and it doesnt stop the train when someone is on the tracks.

Taylor recalled one instance when he was working as an engineer. His train was coming out of a tunnel while a welder  just out of sight around the corner  sat working on the tracks. Taylor couldnt see that person, but the conductor did and stopped the train, giving the welder just enough time to avoid getting hit.

He was lucky enough to get out of the way in time, Taylor said. But if not for the conductor, that guy would have been dead.
MUSCATINE  At last years Grant Elementary School Career Day, onlookers would have found plenty of different costumes and careers in the classrooms and hallways.

For Aiden Daufeldt and 13 other students, there was only one person they had wanted to be when they grew up: Their teacher, Mr. Antonio Bowtie Valenzuela.

When he came in that day, he just had the biggest smile on his face," his mother, Edna Pena Valenzuela said. "He said Mom, kids want to be me when they grow up.

For many Grant Elementary students, Valenzuela, 30, was one of the best. He died Sunday, Feb. 23, at his home.

Born in Silvis to parents Ruben Valenzuela Jr. and Edna Pena Valenzuela, Valenzuela spent his high school years in Muscatine. A close-knit and supportive family, his mother encouraged him and his siblings, Ruben and Mia Pena, to dream big.

I had always instilled in my kids that if they wanted a better life, they would have to go to college, Edna said.

He wanted to go to Iowa State, but one visit to the University of Iowa campus turned him around.

He became a Hawkeye fan for life," she said.
Six days after the District Attorneys Office announced it had identified Angel Gurule as a suspect in a brutal rape on Christmas Eve 2015, the Albuquerque Police Department re-opened its investigation into an earlier statutory rape allegation in which he was named as a suspect.

In September 2015, family members of a 14-year-old girl reported to police that they had caught 19-year-old Gurule  who the girl said she met at a Sagebrush Church youth group  at their house six days earlier and the girl said the two had sex. The family members gave the officers the girls bed sheets with stains on them, according to an incident report. But the sheets were apparently not tested at that time.

Its unclear if Gurule was ever interviewed.

No DNA sample from the case was entered into the Combined DNA Index System.

Gilbert Gallegos, an APD spokesman, said he could not locate any records of an investigation, which occurred under the previous mayoral administration.

The detective mentioned in the 2015 report is no longer with the Department, Gallegos wrote in an email.

Gurules attorney, Raymond Maestas, said his client was a victim of child abuse and is a loving son and devoted husband, who has people that love and support him no matter what.

My team and I, too, will stand with him through all of this, Maestas added.

Gurule was arrested Jan. 15, 2020, after a team with the District Attorneys Office used forensic genetic genealogy to identify him as a suspect in a rape in which a woman reported she was brutally attacked by a stranger while jogging in the Bosque on Christmas Eve 2015.

It is believed to be the first time this technique has been used in New Mexico. Special agents uploaded a genetic file created from the DNA in that rape kit and the profile identified a second cousin twice removed living in California. From there, agents built out a family tree that led them to Gurule.

That case is pending.

On Jan. 22, a detective with APDs sex crimes unit was assigned the earlier statutory rape case. On Jan. 30, the detective requested the sheets that had been collected in 2015 be tested for DNA, according to the incident report.

The case was forwarded to the DAs Office.

We received a portion of the file on Friday and are working with case investigators, said Michael Patrick, a DAs Office spokesman. It is too soon to comment further until prosecutors have had time to review all of the available evidence and make a charging decision.
The Samsung Galaxy A11 specifications have just been revealed. 91mobiles has shared its specs prior to the phones launch.

Truth be said, we still do not know when exactly will the phone drop, but itll happen soon. The Galaxy A10 arrived back in February last year, so it makes sense for the A11 to arrive by the end of this month, or in March.

The Galaxy A10 was actually the best-selling Android smartphone of 2019, if a recent report is to be believed. Samsungs Galaxy A lineup of devices is usually its most best-selling lineup, despite the fact high-end phones get more publicity, and are better known.

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The Galaxy A11 specifications have been revealed, a budget phone is coming

The Galaxy A11 will, if leaked info is to be believed, feature three cameras on the back. Those cameras will be vertically-aligned, and the camera module will be placed in the top-left corner.

Now, as far as the Galaxy A11 specifications, 91mobiles revealed quite a few of them. The phone will feature a 6.2-inch HD+ (1520 x 720) IPS LCD display.

The phone will be fueled by the Samsung Exynos 7 Octa processor. The device will also be equipped with 3GB of RAM, and a 5,000mAh battery. Youll recharge that battery via the phones Type-C USB port.

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The phone will include three cameras on the back

On the back of the Galaxy A11, youll be able to find 13, 5, and 2-megapixel cameras. A single 8-megapixel camera will be placed on the front side of the phone.

Chances are that the phone will sport 32GB of internal storage. Were still not sure if that storage will be expandable, but it was on the Galaxy A10.

So, the Galaxy A11 will be more powerful than its predecessor. It will include more cameras, though, and those camera sensors will be more powerful as well.

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Android 10 will almost certainly come pre-installed on the Galaxy A11. On top of it, youll be able to find Samsungs custom UI.

Along with the Galaxy A11, Samsung will probably announce several other devices. The Galaxy A21 and A31 may become official, maybe even the Galaxy A51. The company trademarked a lot of names for the Galaxy A series, so its anyones guess.

If Samsung does unveil more than one phone, chances are that the other Galaxy A devices will be more powerful than the Galaxy A11, but well see.
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Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020 15:53 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206733962 1 Business IMEI-number,mobile-phones,cellular-phone,Communications-and-Information-Ministry,industry-ministry,finance-ministry,Trade-Ministry,illegal-cellphone,black-market Free

The government will start blocking unregistered cell phones starting April 18 as it imposes the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) policy to curb the circulation of illegal phones.

Blocked phones will not be able to connect to mobile networks.

The government is committed to implementing the IMEI controlling with a white list scheme or preventive measures so people can determine the legality of certain devices before buying them, said Communications and Information Ministry director general for resources and postal and informatics devices, Ismail, in Jakarta on Friday.

On that basis, people who want to buy new cell phones starting April 18 should check the legality of the devices on the Industry Ministrys website. Those who have ordered devices from overseas that arrive in the country after April 18 should register their devices IMEI via an app that will be prepared by the government.

However, cell phones that are activated and used prior to the date will not be blocked, Ismail said.

Dont worry. They [existing phone users] dont need to register anything, he stressed.

Read also: Government to test illegal cellphone restrictions based on IMEI

The government issued in October last year a regulation that allows a national IMEI system to identify illegal cell phones and requires operators to block them from networks. The phones are commonly sold on domestic and overseas black market.

The Communications and Information Ministry is working with the Trade Ministry, the Industry Ministry, the Finance Ministry as well as network operators to implement the regulation.

An IMEI number is unique to each device for identification purposes.

Cellular network operators will be able to block a certain phone by matching the IMEI of the device connected to its network and the governments database. If the identity is not registered, operators can block it from their network.
Greater Noida: Dibrugarh-bound Rajdhani Express had a bomb scare on Thursday evening after a man tweeted that there were five bombs planted on the train.

The train was stopped at Dadri railway station for over three hours before it was allowed to continue its journey, officials said.

The train leaves New Delhi railway station at 4.10pm and arrives at Dibrugarh, in Assam, at 7am the next day.

The officials said the tweet was made by a Gwalior-based man at 4.12pm who claimed that there are five bombs in the train 12424 going from New Delhi to Kanpur Central. He had also tagged both Indian Railways and Union railway minister Piyush Goyal in the tweet.

Later, the man recanted his statement at 7.16pm and claimed that he had tweeted under stress as his brothers train had been delayed by four hours.

The authorities didnt take any chance and the train was stopped at Dadri railway station for over three hours during which time teams from the bomb squad and anti-terrorism squad inspected the whole train.

As soon as the information came, the teams with sniffer dogs were alerted. The train remained at Dadri railway station while it was checked thoroughly. However, nothing questionable or explosive in nature was found on it. It was allowed to depart only after all security measures were taken, deputy commissioner of police, zone 3, Rajesh Kumar Singh said.

The train departed from Dadri around 8pm during which time additional police force was deployed in the area, officials said.

A spokesperson for Northern Railway said, The information was found to be false but no risks were taken and the train continued towards its destination after a thorough inspection.

Police also said the person who tweeted has been put on surveillance.

We will take necessary criminal action against him as soon as we receive a formal complaint from the railway officials, the DCP said.
Exclusive Taiwanese release from The Glenlivet

The Glenlivet is recognising the flourishing Taiwanese whisky market with a new release.

The 14 Years Old Sherry Cask expression pays homage to the region and its travellers, and will be a permanent global travel retail exclusive for Taiwan. It follows the success of the Scottish distiller's 13 Years Old Sherry Cask in 2018.

The Glenlivet says the 14 Years Old edition - matured in olorosso sherry casks - is fruity and floral with a nose of blackcurrants and sultanas, a rich palate of milk chocolate, toffee and hazelnuts and a long, warming finish.

To mark the launch, travellers will be invited to try the expression in a series of events at Taiwan Taoyuan Airport's Pillar Bar, in the departure hall in terminal two. The Glenlivet also enlisted Taiwanese whisky expert Steven Lin to star in a video introducing the whisky, which is avaialble to view on YouTube and Facebook.

Laura Lang, global marketing manager, malts for The Glenlivet, said: "Taiwan is a lead market in the world of single malt and Taiwanese consumers are discerning and advanced in their knowledge, so honouring this with an innovative and premium selection is very important to us."

Steven Lin added: "We are honoured that The Glenlivet has chosen to create this exclusive homage to the Taiwanese market. The whisky community is growing exponentially and the appetite for single malt Scotch whiskies in our country has never been greater."

The Glenlivet 14 Years Old Sherry Cask is available at Everrich and Tasa Meng Duty Free Stores in Taiwan.

28 February 2020 - Bethany Whymark
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 02/28/2020



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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.

star Mindy Shiben admits it felt like Zach Justice had already checked out of their marriage and decided to get divorced at the time they were supposed to move in together.During Wednesday night's episode of : Unfiltered, a Season 10 clip was shown of Mindy telling her fellow Season 10 brides at a picnic how Zach had chosen not to move in with her in the neutral Washington, D.C. apartment the show had provided for them.Mindy, however, insisted she was still trying to work on the marriage and would continue putting forth effort."Mindy, can you see things from Zach's perspective at all when it comes to moving in?" Unfiltered host Jamie Otis asked."I'm trying to, but this is just one thing that I don't get," Mindy replied. "Like, [Zach] has not been clear on why he made the decision to not move in."Mindy apparently couldn't make sense of Zach's reasoning for living apart and not following the rules of the extreme experiment designed to help two strangers fall in love after marriage."I don't understand, like, did he make a decision already [to divorce] and he's just like, 'I have no interest in seeing if this marriage can work?' That's what it feels like to me right now," Mindy admitted."But I'm just -- It's a very frustrating place to be in right now."Jamie then asked Mindy's co-star Derek Sherman to reveal his thoughts on Zach saying moving in with Mindy "wouldn't be healthy.""Do you think that just sounds like an excuse to you?" Jamie asked."To be honest, yeah," Derek confessed."It may be a little unhealthy, but things need to get a little worse before they get better -- you need to throw yourselves in the pit together if you're gonna get out of it together."Although Mindy said Zach never told her why he decided not to move in together, Zach claimed on last week's episode of Unfiltered that Mindy had killed any attraction he might have been forming towards her when she allegedly flipped out on him one night during their Panama honeymoon.Zach recalled a moment when he and Mindy returned to their hotel room after dinner during their honeymoon.At this point in the experiment, Zach had voiced he wasn't attracted to Mindy multiple times and so they had a very awkward and uncomfortable dynamic."We get back from dinner and she like just flipped a switch and was very nasty about her tone with me," Zach said."For me, I was like, 'That's how you react to the situation -- is that?!' So that was a huge turnoff for me, and my walls definitely went up off of that."Zach added, "And, you know, attraction goes [away] with it, especially when you don't have it initially... She was committed to moving in, she was committed to the relationship. [But] she just said a lot of the wrong things and of course my perception is, like, 'This is a mess.'"Zach also alleged Mindy had told him off camera she wanted a divorce and to see other people during the last night of their honeymoon, adding that she also allegedly brought up the idea of not living together once they returned to Washington, D.C.Zach told the cameras on he didn't want to move in with Mindy just to "put on a show," but Mindy had said on the February 12 episode of Unfiltered there was "no indication" Zach was taking their marriage seriously Despite the couple's obvious issues, Zach was shown making more of an effort in his relationship with Mindy over the course of 's last couple of episodes.Not only did Zach spend time with Mindy and her friends on two separate occasions, but he also invited himself over Mindy's place to play some card games with her. The pair shared a couple of laughs doing face masks together as well.Zach was apparently following his sister's guidance to make the most of the full MAFS experience and give Mindy a fair chance.'s tenth season, which currently airs on Wednesday nights at 8PM ET/PT on Lifetime, also stars Katie Conrad Jessica Studer and Austin Hurd Interested in more news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Group
Cebu (CNN Philippines, February 28)  Cebu province will now require passengers coming from North Gyeonsang in South Korea to undergo 14-day quarantine.

Cebu Governor Gwen Garcia issued Executive Order 5-C amid the coronavirus disease outbreak in that South Korean province where city of Daegu is located.

The order also covers the 26 Korean nationals who already arrived in Cebu prior to the declaration of a travel ban.

Department of Health regional director Jaime Bernadas said that 7 out of the 26 Koreans are no longer in the hotels they listed on their health declaration cards filled up on arrival at the airport.

In fact, 2 of the 7 missing Koreans did not check in at the hotel they listed on their health declaration cards.

The 19 other Koreans are now being subjected to the 14-day quarantine based on the protocols of the executive order dated February 28.

During a press briefing, Bernadas said the Koreans have the option to undergo the quarantine or go back to South Korea. As of now, the Koreans are restricted inside their hotel rooms.

South Korea is the country with the second most number of cases after China. It has recorded 1,766 infections and 13 deaths as of Thursday.

The Philipines on Wednesday announced an entry ban on travelers from North Gyeongsang but officials later clarified it will take effect 48 hours after a resolution by Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases is signed. The Bureau of Immigration said it has started enforcing the ban on Friday.

Garcia said she issued the order on the mandatory quarantine in view of the "confusion" on the part of the national government agencies whether a travel ban is already in effect or not.

CNN Philippines stringer Dale Israel contributed to this report
A private schoolboy is in a serious condition in hospital after a teenage McDonald's employee run him over when he fell asleep at the wheel.

Ben Marks, 16, underwent his first bout of surgery overnight after a ute driven by a P-plater crushed him while he was waiting for the school bus in Parkinson, in Brisbane's south, just before 7am on Thursday.

The driver of the ute was 'just a young kid' himself according to bystanders, and was distressed about the entire ordeal.

Lee Hayes, the 41-year-old owner of the home which was also damaged in the crash, told The Courier Mail the driver was 'just a kid... on his way home from working night shift at Maccas.'

Ben Marks (pictured) was hit by the ute as the driver veered off the road and into a nearby house

The boy was still in his work uniform and admitted to falling asleep at the wheel.

The 16-year-old who was injured in the crash is a grade 11 student at the $8,000 per year St Laurence's College in South Brisbane.

A statement from the school revealed other students were nearby at the time of the crash.

He and two friends were waiting at the bus stop in Parkinson when the white ute mounted the kerb and ploughed into Marks from behind.

The ute then crashed through the fence of Mr Hayes home, stopping just short of crashing through his bedroom window, where he was still sleeping.

The ute crashed through the fence of a family home, falling just short of crashing through the bedroom

Mr Hayes and some of Marks' school friends rushed to help him before emergency services arrived.

'We are proud of the efforts of the students who immediately assisted the injured student,' the statement read.

'The school community is praying for his recovery.'

Marks remains in a serious but stable condition at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.

He was hit so hard by the ute that his shoe flew and landed on the roof of the house, according to Mr Hayes.

The forensic crash unit are investigating.
STAMFORD  City resident Melissa Thompson paid particular interest to the trial of fallen movie mogul and former Westport resident Harvey Weinstein. When a jury this week found him guilty of first-degree criminal sexual assault and third-degree rape, she felt what she described as a tremendous weight rise from her shoulders.

It feels like the clouds have lifted, the single mother of one child said in an interview following the decision.
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President Vladimir Putin suggested that Russia and Ukraine should unite, seeming to ignore the six-year war and gloss over Kremlin actions that make even the notion of substantial cooperation seem highly improbable for the foreseeable future. Days later, Putin's former point man on Ukraine unleashed a provocative diatribe in which he claimed that country does not exist. He also suggested Putin should be permitted to serve two more terms.

Here are some of the key developments in Russia over the past week and some of the takeaways going forward.

What War?

At some point in the not-so-distant past, the idea might have seemed unremarkable: Russia and Ukraine should join forces or even unite, because "any integration" of the two countries would "increase our competitive edge" and create a "global rival for both Europe and the world."

But when Russian President Vladimir Putin used Episode 2 in a series of slickly packaged interviews with state news agency TASS to call for such cozy ties -- repeating his assertion that Russians and Ukrainians are "one people" -- there was a thunderous herd of elephants in the room: Six years of bitter enmity, prompted in large part by Moscow's seizure of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and its ample support for separatists in a war that has killed more than 13,000 people in the eastern Ukrainian region known as the Donbas since April 2014.

Putin barely mentioned the war -- pretending, for example, that he did not know what the interviewer was referring to when he asked whether there was a chance that he could come to an agreement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

"About what?" he quipped, going on eventually to say that, yes, there is a chance for peace, but to blame Zelenskiy and Kyiv for the lack progress in that direction since the two leaders met for the first time, in Paris in December, to discuss efforts to end the conflict.

He made no mention of Crimea at all, in an interview segment formally titled Putin On Ukraine.

Instead of the past six years, or even the nearly 30 years since Ukraine -- and Russia -- gained independence with the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, Putin focused repeatedly on centuries long ago, as far back as the 11th and beyond.

While asserting that Russians and Ukrainians were "one and the same," he hit on several notions certain to anger many of the latter and few of the former -- including that very one as well as others, such as that Ukrainians were people who lived "all around" Russia's edges.

While he suggested that Ukrainians' own self-identity and sense of independence from Russia should be respected, he also suggested that those very qualities were largely the work of outsiders seeking to separate Russians and Ukrainians in order to "divide and conquer."

Way Back When

Among the culprits, according to Putin's history lesson: Poland around the 16th century, the Austro-Hungarian spy agency ahead of World War I, and the European Union today, which he suggested is less interested in Ukraine as a nation than in deliveries of timber from the forests of the Carpathians.

It's not hard to understand why Putin would avoid mention of Crimea and give the war in eastern Ukraine short shrift.

Crimea is presumably left out in order to make the point that in Putin's eyes, it is not Ukraine, and that its status will not be at stake in any possible agreement with Kyiv, the West, or both to ease tensions over eastern Ukraine.

Treating the war in the Donbas almost as if were hardly even a part of the long history of relations between Russia and Ukraine, meanwhile, fits into the Kremlin's assertion that it is not really involved in what Moscow calls an internal Ukrainian conflict.

That claim, of course, is widely rejected in the West -- in part due to a large and growing body of evidence showing that Russia has sent troops, arms, and support of all kinds to the separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The International Criminal Court has ruled that the war is "an international armed conflict" between Russia and Ukraine.

And on March 9, three Russians and a Ukrainian will go on trial on murder charges in The Hague -- in absentia, almost certainly -- for their alleged roles in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which was shot down over Ukraine in July 2014, near the start of the war, killing all 298 people aboard. Dutch-led investigators say it was shot down by a missile battery brought in from Russia.

But if few believe Russia's claims about Crimea and eastern Ukraine, and if the chances for reconciliation with Ukraine -- let alone integration, unification, union, or association, as the words he used can be translated -- are slim to none for now, what is the point of Putin's remarks? Why say things that are more likely to inflame tensions then to ease them?

'Nothing To See Here'

Some observers said his remarks had little real meaning.

"He has been saying this for years now. It's just his worldview, not a policy goal anymore, it used to be in 2012-2014," Moscow-based foreign-policy analyst Vladimir Frolov wrote on Facebook. "Gone now. Nothing to see here."

Others, though, thought there was something to see: a threat.

"Putin is staking his future -- under whatever leadership title he adopts -- on the 'integration' of Ukraine into Russia," Twitter user GorseFires Collectif said in a post.

Another post on the same account said that Putin's interview segment "spells, at least, a continuation of Russia's 'hybrid' war against Ukraine. And Putin's fixation on 'integration' of Ukraine into Russia would seem to presage more trouble -- more war -- coming down the track."

"An open threat to a free and independent Ukraine," is how foreign-policy analyst Ulrich Speck described it.

If you're looking for reassurance that such concerns are overblown, here's some advice: Don't read the transcript of the first public remarks made by Vladislav Surkov, the longtime Putin aide who was his point man on Ukraine until his dismissal, since the decree on his dismissal was published on February 18.

Forced Brotherhood

In an interview dripping with disdain real or feigned -- hard to tell with someone whose every word seems calculated but the sum of the equation unclear -- Surkov pronounced that "there is no Ukraine," only "Ukrainian-ness," which he described as "a specific disorder of the mind."

Ukraine might exist in the future, he allowed, but "what its borders will be, and even, maybe, how many Ukraines there will be, these are open questions. And one way or another, Russia will have to participate in resolving these issues."

And he suggested that Russia should use "forceful coercion" to corral Ukraine into "brotherly relations" with Moscow.

"With Surkov as Putin's main advisor on #Ukraine, little wonder that Kremlin policy over past 6 years has done more than anything else to forge Ukrainian national identity, push Ukraine away from #Russia and toward West, and broaden Ukrainian public support for joining NATO," tweeted Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who is a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Of course, Surkov is out of the Kremlin now, and some see his departure as a sign that Russia's policy, or its approach, is changing. Others don't, or are waiting for concrete signs of such a change.

Surkov's departure makes another comment from his interview more difficult to assign to a specific place in the constellation of hints, evidence, claims, and propaganda about Putin's plans for 2024, when he is barred from running for a third straight term by the constitution. Putin is in the midst of changing the constitution in ways that that are widely seen as an effort to give him as many options as possible to continue to hold as much power as he wants post-2024.

How Many More Times?

One of the most specific alterations he has suggested is to remove the word "consecutive" from the clause on term limits, meaning that no president could serve more than two terms total, period.

So that would make Putin's fourth and current term his last, right?

Probably -- but possibly not. Because if substantial changes in the constitution cause the clock to be reset on Putin's presidential terms, he would be handed a clean slate and the opportunity to run for another six-year term in 2024 -- and again in 2030.

Others have raised this possibility, and Surkov  the man behind many of Putin's domestic political moves in his first two terms, in 2000-2008 -- brought it out again. He said that if the powers of the president were adjusted, then "legal logic dictates" that any terms started before the change should not count.

Following Surkov's interview, lawmakers involved in shepherding the constitutional changes though parliament made comments that suggested that the changes would not mean Putin could start from scratch and run again in 2024 -- but did not quite rule it out.

Of course, Putin or his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, could make a clear statement that would end discussion of the issue. But they have not done so, suggesting that Putin may want to keep it as an option -- or just keep people guessing.
Of all the discussions Ive had about the Impossible/Beyond burger craze, I never thought religion would get involved.

But its 2020 and here we are. Lent officially started Wednesday and the Archdiocese of Chicago has floated the idea that imitation meat may be technically allowed as part of the holidays fasting, but goes against the spirit of the tradition.

By going without that we are reminded of others. We experience hunger ourselves. So its a bit deeper than whether its just a meat product, Todd Williamson of the Archdiocese of Chicago told The Chicago Tribune.

Look, Im not saying its Impossible to agree. But its most certainly Beyond Silly.

Full disclosure, I have never given up meat for Lent. One, Im not religious. And two, Im a food writer. But I respect anyone that does it or finds meaning in it, because it seems like a difficult task for anyone who isnt typically a vegetarian, even if it is just on Fridays. Though Lent did once inspire me to sample every fast food fish sandwich in New Jersey, but thats literally another story.

Impossible Burgers are soy and potato-based, while Beyond Burgers are pea protein-based. The church has no problem with eating soy, potatoes and peas during Lent, but if you try to make them taste like a burger its suddenly an issue?

As an open-minded carnivore, I appreciate them as a meat alternative and find them admirable as a more sustainable protein source than beef. I also think anyone that thinks theyre healthier than meat should check the nutrition facts label  theyre highly processed and high in sodium. But theyre definitely not meat.

The vegetarian and vegan culinary scene has advanced so much that being sustained by veggies isnt hard. Remember how you hated Brussel sprouts growing up? Turns out if you cook them properly, theyre damn delicious. What a time to be alive.

If abstaining from even fake burgers makes you feel closer to God, more power to you. But the idea that church officials have addressed such thing  and that it made national news  further proves how ridiculous our society can be sometimes.

Okay, rant over, back to my Filet-O-Fish.

Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @J_Schneider. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Employers may not rely on employees past salaries to pay women less than men, a federal appeals court said Thursday, reinstating a ruling that the Supreme Court had set aside because its author died before the decision was issued.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was intended to eradicate the practice of paying women less simply because they are women, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Allowing employers to escape liability by relying on employees prior pay would defeat the purpose of the act and perpetuate the very discrimination (it) aims to eliminate.

The 11-judge panel ruled unanimously that Fresno County school officials had violated the law by relying entirely on a female math consultants past salary to pay her at least $13,000 less than a male colleague. But the courts more sweeping conclusion  that employers cannot rely on past pay levels, as opposed to experience or job skills, to justify a womans lower salary  drew only a 6-5 majority.

Dissenters from that view, in separate opinions by Judges Margaret McKeown and Consuelo Callahan, said employers should be allowed to consider prior pay along with other factors, like education, training and past performance, in setting salaries. They noted that several other appeals courts had reached a similar conclusion, creating a conflict that the Supreme Court may have to resolve.

But the majority, led by Judge Morgan Christen, said paying a woman less simply because she had been paid less at a previous job would help to maintain the disparity that was the target of the 1963 law. At the time, women were paid only about 60% as much as men for the same work, Christen said, and a 2017 federal report found that their average salary was still only 82% as much as mens pay.

The data show that women still earn less than men in almost every industry and occupation in the country, said attorney Jessica Stender of Equal Rights Advocates in San Francisco, which argued in support of the woman in the case. If you allow employers to base pay offers on prior pay, that perpetuates the discrimination.

In a statement, the Fresno County school superintendents office, defendant in the case, said it remained confident that its past pay-setting policy was gender-neutral, objective and effective in attracting qualified applicants. Citing different conclusions by other appeals courts, the office said it looks forward to final resolution of this controversy, apparently suggesting a renewed appeal to the Supreme Court.

The county schools hired Aileen Rizo as a math consultant in 2009 and paid her $62,733, based on her pay during 13 years as an Arizona schoolteacher. She sued after learning in 2012 that a man in the same job was being paid at least $13,000 more because of his previous earnings. Rizo left for another job in 2016.

Her suit was based on the Equal Pay Act, which allows pay discrepancies between men and women only if they are based on seniority, a merit system, quantity or quality of production, or any other factor other than sex.

Christen said a woman seeking a new job might properly use her previous salary as a negotiating tool, but that an employers reliance on a past pay discrepancy cannot be a factor other than sex. McKeown and Callahan disagreed, as long as the pay discrepancy was not the sole factor, and said the majority ruling could actually hurt women in pay negotiations.

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The Supreme Court had reviewed Rizos case once before, after the Ninth Circuit issued an identical ruling with a similar 6-5 split in April 2018. The appeals court said its judges had cast their votes and completed their opinions before the death of the lead author, Judge Stephen Reinhardt.

But the ruling was published 11 days after Reinhardts death, and the high court said in February 2019 that his vote no longer counted, observing that federal judges are appointed for life, not for eternity. Without a clear majority, the ruling was set aside and sent back to the appeals court for reconsideration.

In the meantime, California passed new laws barring employers from asking about past salaries, unless workers volunteer the information, and prohibiting the use of pay history to justify lower compensation based on gender, race or ethnicity.

Fresno County schools changed their policy to comply with the new laws. But the laws did not apply to cases from earlier years, or to the other eight Western states in the Ninth Circuit.

Reinhardts replacement in the case, selected at random, was Judge Carlos Bea, a conservative who joined Callahans opinion Thursday. But another judge, Paul Watford, who had expressed reservations about Reinhardts absolute ban on considering prior pay in the 2018 ruling, changed course Thursday and joined Christens opinion, preserving the 6-5 majority.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2020 > On Harmony of Religions

Religion has emerged as a major source of conflict across the globe. Ideological strife has now given place to the clash of civilisations and it is felt that in the foreseeable future, religion will be a major source of conflict within and among nations. The possibilities of conflict are greater in countries such as India where different cultures and religions do meet. How-ever, such clashes can be prevented if appropriate strategies are formulated and implemented at an early stage so as to ensure religious harmony.

The United Nations designates the first week of February every year as the World Interfaith Harmony Week. All religions lead to the same God and differences among them are not essential. Indeed, the goal of every religion is the same. The spirit of the founders of the different religions was the same though rituals differ. All religions proclaim similar principles. Mahatma Gandhi, who devoted a large part of his life to the study of religion and to discussion with religious leaders of all faiths, affirmed that every scripture should be treated equally, that there is no justification for the claim of supremacy of any one religion and that we are all children of the same God. He said: What is needed is a living friendly contact among the followers of the religions of the world and not a clash among them in the fruitless attempt on the part of each community to show the supremacy of its faith over the rest. Swami Vivekananda asserted that all religions preach ethics, virtues and good character. Yet, all major religions instead of uniting people often divide due to lack of understanding of the purpose of religion by their followers.

India has the largest number of religions and religious people in the world. In our country, we have millions of Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. There are also Parsees and Jews. We have eight religions in India, the maximum number of religions and religious people anywhere in the world. Communal harmony is essential for peace and stability in India.

Article 51A of the Constitution of India affirms that it is the fundamental duty of every citizen to promote harmony amongst the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities. Respect for religious diversity and interfaith dialogue are an essential and an urgent need.

Some years ago, I decided to study the issues that affect inter-religious peace and harmony in India. In this connection, I visited several of our States and held meetings with leaders and organisations of different religions. I spent the month of September 2004 in the villages of Orissa, in the districts of Kandhamal and Mayurbanj, where Graham Staines and his two sons were killed some years earlier. The purpose of my visit was to study and understand the open confrontation that has existed for long in that State between Christian and Hindu missionaries for conversion and re-conversion (ghar vapsi) respectively. I informed Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik of what I had observed in those areas and he promised to take necessary action. Mainline Christian theologians see both the Sangh Parivars Hindutva ideology and Christian campaigns for evangelisation of India as having a fundamentalist attitude and an aggressive methodology to achieve their respective goals.

Proselytism is opposed on several grounds; it attacks other religious beliefs and practices and asserts that its own religion is the only way to salvation. It is often supported by financial resources and marketing techniques that make local religious activities seem second rate and shabby.

The Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC) articulates its theological vision thus: Asia is the womb of the great world religions. All great scriptural religions were born on Asian soil. The Church has to be in constant dialogue with the religions of Asia and to embark on this with great seriousness... There may be more truth about God and life than it is made known to us through the Jesus of history and the Church. As such Christians who take Christs injunction seriously must search for this truth in the various religions of the world. (FABC Resource Manual for Catholics in Asia, pp. 189, 288)

On the question of proselytism the FABC says: a phenomenon which continues to awaken the most resentment among the peoples of Asia is that of proselytism and conversion. In the minds of Asians, the Churchs primary objective seems to be to convert as many people as she can so as to increase her little flock. Church expansion is also seen as a Western extension. The increase in the number of Church movements engaged in aggressive and militant evangelisation (understood in the very narrow sense of the word) is certainly a cause for concern for our brothers and sisters of other faiths. Perhaps, it might be good to be reminded of the golden rule which nearly all religions speak of: do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself. (Resource Manual. p. 286).

The traditional way of teaching religion puts emphasis on theology and rituals ignoring the social dimension, namely, the need for interaction and tolerance among the followers of different religions. Religious leaders and theologians from across the country should come together to review the different religions from the perspective of pluralism and social justice.

The following steps ought to be taken to ensure peace and harmony in India:

Organised drives for conversion and reconversion should stop. They violate the Constitution of India. The government should promote an agreement among the religious heads of all the major faiths in the country to stop proselytism. Given the positive mindset of theologians belonging to the different religions prevailing in India, this is very much possible.

Combat all forms of expression which incite sectarian hatred and take action against dissemination of such material in the media.

Adequate training and awareness programmes about religion and religious harmony for young leaders at all levels and government officials, particularly the police and other law enforcement agencies, judges, teachers and social workers

Introduce inter-religious education in schools as part of the curriculum so as to promote communal harmony.

Assure all victims of religious intolerance adequate support and speedy administrative and judicial remedies.

Provide effective access to all citizens, including religious minorities, to the decision-making process in society.

Counter social exclusion and marginalisation in particular by providing adequate access to all citizens to education, health and employment

Pay specific attention to development of vulnerable groups such as tribals and other weaker sections, and those who suffer discrimination on different grounds.

The author is a former Union Minister currently based in Raia, Salcete, Goa.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 00:29:06|Editor: yan

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MADRID, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Spain is still in the "first stage" of containing the outbreak of COVID-19 , Fernando Simon, director of the Coordination Center for Health Alerts at the Spanish Ministry of Health, told the press here on Friday.

Simon addressed journalists after the ministry published data confirming 32 cases of the coronavirus in Spain, of which 30 are still active.

Simon explained that the "first stage" scenario means there is no uncontrolled transmission of COVID-19, nor are there massive numbers of cases imported from other countries.

Despite the increase in the number of cases from two at the start of the week to 32 on Friday, Simon insisted that "nothing indicates we have to increase the level of precaution."

"We are not considering any new recommendations," he said, adding that the Health Ministry was "closely following the outbreak and considering the options in case things change.

"If we need to change things in two days, we will do so, or in two days or in two weeks, but if there is no need to change, then we won't make changes," he explained.

Eight of the 32 COVID-19 patients are in the Valencian Community, six in the Canary Islands, six in the southern region of Andalusia, five in Madrid, three in the Catalan region, two in the central region of Castilla-Leon and one each in Aragon and the Balearic Islands.

Nearly all patients had traveled to Spain after spending some time in northern Italy in recent days, although two of the patients in Madrid and one in Andalusia had not traveled and health authorities are working to discover how they were infected.

Simon also said that most of the patients are in good condition, but a 77-year-old man with other health issues is currently in intensive care in the town of Torrejon de Ardoz just outside Madrid.
Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler became a grandfather for the fifth time on Friday when his youngest daughter Chelsea welcomed her first child, son Vincent Frank, with her husband Jon Foster.

The 71-year-old rocker's latest addition arrived 13 days after his February 8 due date.

The 30-year-old new mother and her beloved 35-year-old Kaneholler bandmate both shared snaps of their newborn infant, captioned: 'Welcome to the world!'

Congrats! Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler (2-R) became a grandfather for the fifth time on Friday when his youngest daughter Chelsea (3-L) welcomed her first child, son Vincent Frank, with her husband Jon Foster (2-L, pictured December 23)

'2/21/20': The 71-year-old rocker's latest addition arrived 13 days after his February 8 due date

While Steven has been a distant father-of-four touring with his four-time Grammy-winning band, he clearly loves bonding with his daughter Liv's daughter Lula, 3; and son Sailor, 5; (with fiance Dave Gardner).

Tyler is equally playful with Liv's eldest son Milo (with ex-husband Royston Langdon) and his daughter Mia's two-year-old son Axton Joseph (with babydaddy Dan Halen).

Doting aunt Mia shared a snap of her cradling little Vincent, whom she called 'perfecto.'

'Congrats and happy reborn day @chelsannat & @jonfoster I can already see what amazing parents you are and will be. I love you and am so grateful our Wolf pack has grown a new pup,' the 41-year-old photographer-artist gushed.

The 30-year-old new mother and her beloved 35-year-old Kaneholler bandmate both shared snaps of their newborn infant, captioned: 'Welcome to the world!'

Checking the chimney in 2018: While Steven has been a distant father-of-four touring with his four-time Grammy-winning band, he clearly loves bonding with his daughter Liv's daughter Lula, 3; and son Sailor, 5; (with fiance Dave Gardner)

Milo's 15th birthday bash in December: Tyler is equally playful with Liv's eldest son Milo (with ex-husband Royston Langdon) and his daughter Mia's two-year-old son Axton Joseph (with babydaddy Dan Halen)

'Our Wolf pack has grown a new pup!' Doting aunt Mia shared a snap of her cradling little Vincent, whom she called 'perfecto'

Where's Taj? Noticeably missing from the blessed birth festivities was the Manhattan-born musician's 29-year-old son Taj from his second marriage to Teresa Barrick, whom he divorced in 2006 (pictured September 19)

Noticeably missing from the blessed birth festivities was the Manhattan-born musician's 29-year-old son Taj from his second marriage to Teresa Barrick, whom he divorced in 2006.

Perhaps the next proud parents will be Steven and his personal assistant-turned-girlfriend Aimee Ann Preston, who is 40 years younger than him.

Tyler's Boston band Aerosmith will play the seventh leg of their 46-date Deuces are Wild residency from May 20-June 4 at the Park Theater inside Park MGM Las Vegas.

Live-in love: Perhaps the next proud parents will be Steven and his personal assistant-turned-girlfriend Aimee Ann Preston (R), who is 40 years younger than him (pictured January 26)
Estonian English

AS Nordecon and the Estonian Road Administration entered into three contracts for reconstruction of different road sections in total amount of close to 7.7 million euros.

On national road no. 51 or the Viljandi  Poltsamaa road the 7.3 kilometre section between Voisiku  Kuningamae will be reconstructed. The cost of the works is 2.6 million euros plus value added tax and the works will be completed within seven months.

On basic road no. 69 or the Voru  Kuigatsi  Torva road the 8.1 kilometre section between Kuigatsi intersection and Soontaga plus two bridges will be reconstructed. The cost of the works is 3.14 million euros plus value added tax and the works will also be completed within seven months.

On national road no. 2 or the Tallinn  Tartu  Voru  Luhamaa road the 4.1 kilometre section between Vaida  Aruvalla on kilometres 20.898  25.00 thread I will be reconstructed. The cost of the works is 1.945 million euros plus value added tax and the works will be completed within 180 days.

Nordecon (www.nordecon.com) is a group of construction companies whose core business is construction project management and general contracting in the buildings and infrastructures segment. Geographically the Group operates in Estonia, Ukraine, Finland and Sweden. The parent of the Group is Nordecon AS, a company registered and located in Tallinn, Estonia. The consolidated unaudited revenue of the Group in 2019 was 234 million euros. Currently Nordecon Group employs close to 690 people. Since 18 May 2006 the company's shares have been quoted in the main list of the NASDAQ Tallinn Stock Exchange.

Andri Hobemagi

Nordecon AS

Head of Investor Relations

Tel: +372 6272 022

E-mail: andri.hobemagi@nordecon.com

www.nordecon.com
Near the end of a recent forum for the three Democrats looking to unseat U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a seemingly innocuous moment hinted at some friction between candidates Elisa Cardnell and Sima Ladjevardian.

At the end of the day, youve seen that all three of us are united here behind one goal: defeating Dan Crenshaw in November, Cardnell said in her closing remarks. And no matter who the nominee is, we have DCCC backing. ... Whoever wins this primary will have the resources and the support to take on Dan Crenshaw.

Cardnells reference to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee  House Democrats campaign arm, which added the district to its battlefield map in January  drew a smirk and head shake from Ladjevardian. The reaction suggested that Ladjevardian, who declined comment on the matter, may be skeptical that the DCCC would deploy resources to Texas 2nd Congressional District if Cardnell wins the nomination.

The DCCC has not indicated that its involvement is tied to a particular candidate, though the group announced that it was targeting Crenshaw and several other Republicans a day after Ladjevardian said she had raised more than $400,000 in the first three weeks of her campaign.

Democrats will need all the help they can get in this Houston-area district, where Crenshaw won by more than 7 percentage points in 2018 but Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz beat Democrat Beto ORourke by just one point. The three candidates  Cardnell, Ladjevardian and former Department of Homeland Security employee Travis Olsen  align ideologically, rejecting policies such as Medicare for All while preaching the importance of winning moderate voters.

Where they differ is on style and their distinct backgrounds, which they are using to fashion their electability arguments.

Its going to take a veteran who can reach across the aisle and bring back independent voters, Cardnell, a Navy veteran, said at the forum. This district, Beto lost by 3,000 votes. But (Republican Gov. Greg) Abbott won by 13 percent. That means we have swing voters in this district and we have to be able to talk to them.

Ladjevardians supporters say her fundraising ability, ties to ORourke as his former campaign adviser, and background as an Iranian immigrant and cancer survivor make her the most formidable threat to Crenshaw. She also has garnered the most support from local elected officials, including U.S. Reps. Sylvia Garcia and Sheila Jackson Lee, Mayor Sylvester Turner, eight members of the Legislature and the districts 2018 Democratic nominee, Todd Litton.

ORourke endorsed Ladjevardian hours after she entered the race on the Dec. 9 filing deadline, instantly changing the dynamic of what had been a sleepy contest between Cardnell and Olsen. She raised $200,000 in 48 hours after filing and now has hauled in more than $700,000. Cardnell has raised more than $350,000 since launching her campaign last February, while Olsen has taken in about $36,000.

Everyday Americans

To Cardnell and Olsen, Ladjevardians financial edge is far from insurmountable.

Olsen, a native of the district and a Spring Branch ISD alumnus, is running on his experience as an immigration lawyer, diplomat and DHS officer. He quit his role as a front-line civilian for the agency over the Trump administrations practice of separating migrant families at the border, then began his campaign in November.

Olsen called President Donald Trumps immigration policies wrong and appalling and said his variety of roles at the agency have prepared him to serve in Congress.

For years, Ive worked alongside members of Congress, ambassadors, department agency heads, Olsen said. Im uniquely positioned to step in and do the work of Congress, and to contribute to the issues that we are facing.

Cardnell served five years of active duty in the Navy, including a deployment to the Persian Gulf, and six years in the reserves. She said her experience would counter the appeal of Crenshaws own military background as a Navy SEAL.

Noting that her opponents are both lawyers, Cardnell also argued that her post-Navy career as a physics and math teacher would help her connect with voters.

We need an influx of everyday Americans into politics, because otherwise we have the same corporate donors, the same big money people that are already making policy, Cardnell said.

Ladjevardians supporters say her story of surviving breast cancer and her background in political activism will help her assemble the support needed to beat Crenshaw.

As a breast cancer survivor, attorney and mother, Sima has the real-life experiences to bring the people of Houston real leadership in Congress, said Haley Hager, Ladjevardians campaign manager. Shes the one that is going to be building the coalitions needed to bring folks together after these divisive years of Trump.

Transparency

The DCCC issue is not the only point of contention to arise between Cardnell and Ladjevardian. Earlier this week, Cardnell released a statement drawing attention to Ladjevardians failure to submit her personal financial disclosure form. A Cardnell spokesperson, citing a Feb. 2 deadline, said the issue highlights her disregard for transparent and open government.

Hager defended Ladjevardians late disclosure.

Sima isnt taking any corporate PAC money and is the only candidate in this race endorsed by End Citizens United, a champion for getting big money out of politics and restoring our democracy, Hager said in a statement. The campaign is inside the 30-day grace period, and it will be released shortly.

Some Cardnell supporters also have criticized Ladjevardian for referring to herself as the Democrat running against Crenshaw in social media posts, including a tweet that was circulated nearly 15,000 times.

Daunting opponent

The district covers parts of north and east Harris County, taking in Spring, Klein, Humble and Atascocita, along with Montrose, Rice University and other liberal Houston neighborhoods. It has seen growing numbers of diverse and college-educated voters, a trend that Democrats say puts the seat in play this year.

They face a daunting opponent in Crenshaw, who is sitting on a $2.65 million war chest and does not face a primary challenger. He quickly rose to political prominence after Pete Davidson of Saturday Night Live mocked his eyepatch, which he wears over the right eye he lost from the blast of an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.

Democrats say Crenshaws unique brand, built on his willingness to break with Trump on certain tweets and topics, belies the hard-right stances they say he has adopted in Congress.

In a statement, DCCC spokesman Avery Jaffe suggested that Crenshaw is vulnerable because he is caving to big pharma lobbyists and flat-out breaking his promise to lower prescription drug costs.

The comment referred to Crenshaws vote against a House bill last year authorizing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Crenshaw said the legislation would have stifled innovation by effectively imposing price controls  which conservatives oppose  through harsh penalties on companies that do not negotiate.

jasper.scherer@chron.com
A truck driver who stopped a pair of bungling robbers in their tracks then dished out some life advice while he sat on one of them, has left Today host Karl Stefanovic in stitches.

New Zealand man Turawaho Hemopo, known as 'T' to his friends, appeared on the program on Friday morning to share the hilarious tale.

He told how he foiled the crime as he was delivering some magazines to a Coles supermarket at Yarrabilba on Brisbane's southern outskirts on February 27.

T said he was driving his truck to the Coles just like any 'normal day' when he noticed a lady waving him down from the medical centre next door.

'I was just like... 'hello?' I didn't know what she was waving at, to be honest,' T said.

A truck driver who stopped a pair of would-be robbers in their tracks before offering them life advice has left Today host Karl Stefanovic (above, with co-host Allison Langdon) in stitches

Turawaho Hemopo, known as 'T' to his friends, retold the hilarious tale of how he foiled the pair of would-be robbers

He said she kept on waving so he jumped out of his truck and the woman told him two men were robbing the pharmacy next door.

Mr T said he asked, 'Right now?' in his distinctive kiwi accent and the woman said, 'Yeah, right now.'

He told her to wait there and he would 'check it out, hey'.

He said he walked over and stood in front of the pharmacy doors, catching sight of the burglars.

'Mate, what are youse up to?' he asked, prompting them to turn around and start walking towards him.

Unsure if they had weapons, T took a step back and the first robber ran past him.

'I was like... bro... you got away! The second fella looked at me and I thought you're not going anywhere, fella,' he recalled.

Enthralled host Karl Stefanovic asked what happened next, to which T replied that he tackled the second offender to the ground.

He then sat on top of the thief who struggled at first but quickly gave up and told T he was 15-years-old.

Having a teenage son himself, he said his fatherly instinct kicked in and he decided to dish out some words of wisdom.

'I just started giving him life advice, I guess. I was like... mate, I have a 15-year-old son... why are you hanging out with these drop kicks? They are not good for you. Like you got your whole life ahead of you, bud.'

He said the kid offered him a $200 bribe to let him go but he just pointed to his truck and told him that he already had a job.

The interview then wrapped up with the hero truckie inviting a highly amused Karl over for a barbecue.

Police also thanked T for his role in apprehending the thieves and acting to help so quickly.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a letter of condolences to President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

I was deeply saddened to hear the news that the Turkish soldiers were martyred, the head of state said in his message.

On the occasion of this incident, on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my deep condolences to you, the families and the loved ones of those who were killed and the brotherly people of Turkey, President Ilham Aliyev said.
Thane : , Feb 28 (IANS) In a huge embarrassment to the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, it's former MLA from Mira Road Narendra Mehta was booked on charges of alleged rape levelled by a BJP woman municipal corporator, officials said here on Friday.

A close aide of Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Mehta has been booked for offences of sexual assault by the Navghar Police on Friday after the complaint by his party female colleague and a civic lawmaker.

Known for his lavish lifestyle and influence, Mehta was considered a prominent figure of Mira-Bhayender towns of Thane, a BJP stronghold, around 10km to the northwest of Mumbai.

Besides IPC provisions, he has also been slapped with charges under Attrocities Act following the victim's complaint.

There was huge speculation in political circles after Mehta suddenly quit all party posts a couple of days ago, followed by certain videos which went viral on social media networks.
(JNS)Foreigners who recently traveled to countries in Asia where the coronavirus has spread will be barred from entering Israel, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri announced on Monday.

Deri said that guidelines by Israels Ministry of Health and general concerns about the possibility of an outbreak in Israel was behind the move, according to a report by i24 New.

The new restriction will come into force in the coming days and be for foreigners who have traveled within the last two weeks to Thailand, Macau, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Israel has already banned foreigners who recently visited China from entering the country.

Until now, no cases of coronavirusofficially now named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2have been reported in Israel, the report said.

Separately, Japanese authorities decided to allow uninfected Israelis quarantined on the cruise ship Diamond Princess due to the illness to return to Israel on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. According to Japanese officials, there are a total of 542 confirmed cases of the infection on the cruise ship.

A new study by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the elderly and sick are at the most at risk for infection, the BBC reported on Tuesday. Medical staff are also at high risk, but more than 80 percent of the cases have been mild, the data found.
I cringe, just as Im sure you do, when someone comments in conversation or on a social media post, that the Resurrection and miracles are nothing more than fairy tales, which cant stand up to scientific scrutiny.

These types of comments make us feel awkward, dare I say embarrassed, or even unsure at times. In an age where militant Atheists have declared war on Christians and their beliefs, self-doubt is not uncommon, among us. Since none of us wants to appear foolish, the obvious choice is to remain silent.

So, is it time? Should we continue to proclaim the Resurrection as fact, or is it time to move aside, under the force of the self-proclaimed, irrefutable evidence of science?

No way!

Science Analyses Empirical Data, Not Historical Events

As wonderful as the benefits of science have been to the modern world, nonetheless we need to remember science is limited to the physical world, in the moment.

The scientific method cannot prove something happened or didnt happen in the past. For instance, there is no way the scientific method can prove or disprove that Captain Cook discovered Australia in 1770. Historical events just dont lend themselves to repeatable laboratory experiments.

So, when scientists discount the Resurrection as a fairy tale, theyre being completely disingenuous, dare I say prevaricating? They need to refute the Resurrection because it requires a supernatural god, and that would demolish their fantasy world. Oh well, like they say Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

How can we know something happened in the Past?

This is the realm of expertise in which Historians and Literary Critics dwell. They apply with rigor a set of measures by which to judge the veracity of a recorded event in the past.

So, lets see how this method can be applied to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Firstly, Make Sure You Grease the Slope

Greasing the slope is a term used in marketing and sales. It means lets remove all barriers to purchase, in order to make the purchase as easy as possible, for the customer.

Well, I think youd agree. Since were starting a new religion; Christianity, within the extremely hostile and competitive religious market of the C1st Roman Empire, then we need to make it as easy as possible to gain new converts.

However, instead of making it easy to become a Christian, the barrier to entry was set very high. Making the Resurrection a mandatory doctrine in order to become a Christian seems really crazy. Yet, Paul empathetically insists that 

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10.9

The ruling and intellectual classes were steeped in Platonism and similar philosophies where the ultimate goal of life was entering into the Worlds Soul and so become one with the godhead. To enjoy an eternal and immaterial existence after death was esteemed the highest state one could attain. Having your body resurrected to live again was not just banal, it was odious.

The working class didnt envisage a Resurrection either. It was simply unheard off. Why would you want to be raised to life, to repeat the same life of inequality, exploitation and oppression all over again? Death is a guaranteed escape plan from your current misery.

It Was No Easier Then, Than Now to Believe in the Resurrection.

We flatter ourselves if we feel that those of the C1st were benighted and ignorant, while we are of an enlightened generation. On the contrary, those the in C1st share our contemporary scepticism. For instance, when the Athenians heard Paul mention the Resurrection, while delivering the Gospel at the Aeropagus They scoffed and left (Acts 17).

We know from the literature at the time that those in antiquity found the Christian Resurrection ridiculous and a cause for derision. And yet the Resurrections stands defiantly, and at the centre of every Gospel presentation we have recorded in the New Testament.

So, why is that? Why not simply remove it, and develop a moral code around Jesus teaching or propose that belief in a spiritual Resurrection is another means of entering into the worlds soul, in order to enjoy an immortal-spiritual existence with the true God after you die? This type of message would be readily accepted then, as it would today.

The answer is obvious, the Resurrection was a catharsis for Jesus followers. Finally, they got it, the Resurrection of Jesus broke through the obscure prophetic promises which they had longed to see fulfilled. The wonder of it so overwhelmed and empowered them that they could not deny the miracle which they had seen. It was an incontrovertible event that couldnt be removed from Gods plan of salvation for humanity, without them lying or whole message falling apart.

With the unshakable conviction that the Resurrection had taken place, Jesus followers boldly proclaimed the Resurrection to a sceptical world, and so should we.

Next time well look at some other measures against, which to test the veracity of the Resurrection accounts.
A long line of concerned Iranians gather at a pharmacy in Rasht, Iran as fear over the coronavirus mounts on Friday (February 28). "They're lining up for medicine, masks, whatever they can get. We all are just worried," someone at the scene told Newsflare. Iran cancelled the Friday prayers attended by thousands in Tehran and 22 other cities for the first time in decades to limit the spread of coronavirus disease, which has hit Iran harder than any nation outside of China. Officials have reported 388 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 34 related deaths, a death rate far higher than reported in other nations, including China. Virus spreading from Iran has impacted dozens of cases in nearby countries, including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman and Pakistan. Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi and at least four members of parliament have also been infected, while the prominent cleric Hadi Khosroshahi died from the disease on Thursday.
AirPower Center in Delhi on Friday, Indian Air Force Chief RKS Bhadoria told that a year ago, the government had taken a big and strong decision to go beyond the LoC and attack the stronghold of terrorists in Pakistan and the Indian Air Force also succeeded in it. Although Pakistan also responded to this, that too with a delay of 30 hours to show the people of their country.

CM Yogi attacks SP, class on the plight of schools

He further said, 'Indian Air Force has successfully achieved the set target. Pakistan was late in answering this. About 30 hours later, the Pakistani Air Force responded to this with a large package of aircraft under Operation 'Swift Retort' but they failed. He did this only to show the people of his country.

MLA Amanatullah Khan came out in support of AAP leader Tahir Hussain

The Pulwama attack was avenged from Pakistan on the night of 26 February. Under this, the Air Force attacked in Balakot, Pakistan. On 14 February 2019, the CRPF convoy was attacked in Pulwama and 40 soldiers of India were martyred. Under this, the Indian Air Force carried out an airstrike in Balakot, Pakistan on the intervening night of 26 February and the training center of Jaish-e-Mohammed, the organization being run there, was destroyed.

New twist in Sunanda Pushkar case, HC seeks reply from Delhi government
Kim Brent / The Enterprise

Artwork by high school seniors in Chambers, Hardin, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Newton, Orange, and Tyler counties is being showcased for the Annual Protege Competition and Exhibition at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas.

The exhibition opened last week and will be on view through March 28 in AMSETs Conn Take pART gallery. After leaving AMSET, the artworks will be displayed at area schools.
Jeffrey Epstein's federal jail is under lockdown currently over fears a prisoner has smuggled in a gun, according to the Associated Press.

Authorities are currently trying to determine if someone was capable of smuggling a gun into one of the most secure jails in the country, which is located in New York City.

The facility is on "modified operations due to an ongoing investigation," the federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement.

The federal prison is notable for where financier Epstein committed suicide after getting arrested on charges of sex trafficking minors in Florida and New York.

Officials have not officially determined if a weapon was brought into the Metropolitan Correctional Centre but have placed the jail on lockdown as the facility is investigated, AP reports.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

All guest visits have been cancelled as the facility is on its "modified operations". This allows for officials to restrict the movements of inmates and cancel planned activities while they search the facility.

The facility houses more than 700 inmates and was previously referred to as the "Guantanamo of New York" by the Los Angeles Times for its security measures.

All inmates and guests are searched upon entering the facility. Mail is also screened before it is delivered to anyone, so a gun appearing in the jail would be a severe security breach.

The facility keeps its prisoners relatively isolated by housing them in one of 10 self-contained housing units.

Notable inmates currently in the jail include lawyer Michael Avenatti, who is known for representing Stormy Daniels. He was convicted for attempting to extort Nike and is currently awaiting sentencing in the jail.

Jeffrey Epstein's former jail went into lockdown over concerns a gun was smuggled into the facility (Getty Images)

The federal prison also previously housed Cesar Sayoc, who was convicted of mailing multiple mail bombs to Democrats and CNN, and Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, known as "El Chapo", when the Mexican drug lord was awaiting sentencing.

Epstein died in his jail cell on 10 August after being taken off suicide watch. The medical examiner ruled his death a suicide, but Epstein's lawyers say otherwise.

An investigation is ongoing into Epstein's death by the Justice Department.
Rashida Winslow, a plaintiff in the suit, said she came to the charity in 2014, serving as clinical director of its locations in the District and in Oxon Hill. She said the nonprofits leadership ran Family Matters as if it was a Fortune 500 company and sold its headquarters on 16th Street NW to rent an expensive Chinatown office.
Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Peter Boamah Otukonor has accused President Akufo-Addo of being behind EC's desperation to compile a new voter's register ahead of the 2020 elections.

He said President Akufo-Addo has been mounting pressure on the Electoral Commission Chair, Jean Mensa to compile a new voters register with the intention of rigging the 2020 general elections.

We call on Akufo-Addo and his NPP to focus on delivering the over several promises they made to Ghanaians and not collude with the EC to rig the 2020 elections which Ghanaians will not accept this, Peter Boamah Otukonor told Accra-based Kingdom FM 107.7.

He continued, Indeed, the compilation of a new voters register for the upcoming general elections was a promise Jean Mensa made to the President before her position was granted her; therefore she needs to fulfill her promise . . . or she faces the consequences it comes with.

Otukonor wondered why the EC would not wait for the 2020 census to be done in the second quarter of this year before making a decision as to whether or not a new electoral roll is needed since, in the partys view, the census would provide credible data with which the EC can make a sound decision.

This should as well be a wake-up call to Jean Mensa to decide on doing that which is right for the peace of the nation and respect proper stakeholder meetings, which will make her office credible, he stressed.
Security forces patrol in a riot affected area following clashes between people demonstrating for and against a new citizenship law in New Delhi

By Devjyot Ghoshal, Zeba Siddiqui and Aftab Ahmed

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Hindu area of Bhajanpura and Muslim quarter of Chand Bagh face each other across a wide thoroughfare running through the northeastern part of India's capital, New Delhi.

After days of deadly riots between members of the two communities, neighbourhoods that lived happily together for years are now divided by far more than a road.

Mutual fear and suspicion have replaced generally cordial relations, a change that could make it harder to defuse tensions between India's Hindu majority and its sizeable Muslim minority that have worsened during months of street protests.

Some residents are trying to understand how a peaceful part of the Indian capital became a battleground virtually overnight.

By mid-week the main road was strewn with broken glass, bricks and the charred remains of destroyed cars.

At least 32 people died in the clashes, hundreds were wounded and buildings were torched in the worst sectarian violence in Delhi in decades. An uneasy calm had settled over the area by Thursday.

"I have lived here for 35 years," said Santosh Garg, a Hindu who described a narrow escape on Monday when a mob of Muslim men set her house alight.

"I have never had a problem, never had a complaint," the 52-year-old told Reuters, referring to her mostly Muslim neighbours across the way. "I still can't understand what happened."

Garg said she lowered her two grandchildren from a balcony and into the arms of police officers to get them away from the blaze. She herself jumped on to an adjoining terrace.

In the Muslim quarter a few hundred metres away, Rubina Bano said she was at an anti-government demonstration when police fired tear gas to break up the protest and a Hindu crowd started throwing stones.

Bano, who is three months pregnant, said she was beaten by police and needed 20 stitches in her head.

Delhi police did not respond to requests for comment for this story. On Tuesday evening, the force issued a statement saying it was doing its utmost to control the violence and urged people to maintain the peace.

Story continues

'WE MUST DEFEND OURSELVES'

Like hundreds of thousands of Muslims across the country, Bano had spent weeks protesting against a new citizenship law that gives non-Muslims from three neighbouring countries a fast-track to Indian citizenship.

Many Indians say the law is discriminatory and against the spirit of the country's secular constitution. The country's Muslims also fear that a proposed national citizens register could render many of them stateless.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, which critics say has pursued a stringent pro-Hindu agenda since being re-elected last year, says the new law is necessary to help persecuted minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

It also denies any bias against India's Muslim population of more than 180 million people.

When protests began in December, clashes were mostly between anti-government demonstrators and police. At least 25 people died that month, mainly in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

This week in Delhi, the violence was largely between Hindus and Muslims, raising fears that large-scale communal bloodshed that has erupted sporadically since India's independence could return.

In northeastern Delhi, the risk is clear. Tempers are running high even as riots subside.

Near a badly burnt fuel station in Bhajanpura, a group of Hindu men fumed at the damage suffered by their community.

"If this is what the minority can do, wait till you see what the majority can do when it picks up arms," Ajay Choudhary, a yoga instructor, loudly declared to applause and cheers, as he pointed to burned buildings.

India is 80 percent Hindu, with Muslims making up 14 percent of the 1.3 billion population.

"We had to do something to defend ourselves. They were lusting for blood," said Ashish, a 21-year-old Hindu student who only gave his first name.

LACK OF TRUST

Faith in the ability of politicians and police to contain the unrest is wearing thin among local residents.

"This is all the work of politicians who don't want the communities to stay together," said Bano, injuries visible on her head, arms and legs.

During recent local elections in Delhi, some members of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) described the protesters, most of them Muslims, as "traitors".

Junior finance minister Anurag Thakur encouraged a crowd to chant "shoot the traitors" during a rally.

Amit Shah, India's home minister and Modi's right-hand man, criticised the remarks in an interview several weeks after his BJP party was routed in the New Delhi polls.

"These statements shouldn't have been made. The party has distanced itself from such comments," Shah said in an interview earlier in February.

On Thursday, another BJP leader, India's Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar, said it was opposition parties that had fanned the violence during months of protests against the citizenship law.

"This is not about the violence that's gone on for two days. For two months, people have been provoked," he said.

Some local residents pointed the finger at the police for failing to do enough to protect them from attack. The Delhi force is controlled by Shah's Home Ministry.

Kalam Ahmed Khan, a Muslim in Chand Bagh, said police should have done more to prevent the clashes this week.

"All this has happened under the police's nose," he said.

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Mike Collett-White)
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 04:04:25|Editor: yan

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will attend the signing of U.S.-Taliban agreement, which is expected to occur in the Qatari capital city of Doha on Saturday.
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Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, February 28, 2020 09:32 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20671a160 1 Editorial tourism,tourism-industry,coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus-in-Indonesia Free

The government decided on Tuesday to set aside more than Rp 10 trillion (US$745 million) in contingency funds for fiscal stimulus to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, even at the risk of increasing the budget deficit to as high as 2.5 percent of gross domestic product from 1.7 percent, as targeted in the 2020 Budget Law. This is in addition to an earlier policy of front-loading the 2020 budget in the first half.

More than half of the contingency budget would be allocated for tourism and its related businesses such as airlines, hotels and restaurants in 10 major destination areas, while the rest would be spent on interest rebates for public housing and bigger sums of basic staple aid for 15.2 million beneficiaries.

The decision to pour so much taxpayer money into tourism is necessary as this sector has been the hardest hit by the epidemic, which was first detected in China, the second-largest source of Indonesias foreign tourists, contributing more than 2 million of the 16.1 million tourist arrivals last year.

Analysts estimate tourist arrivals could fall by as much as 10 percent this year if the outbreak lasts more than five months. Revenue losses for the 10 regional economies would be quite significant because, according to the Tourism Ministry, spending by foreign tourists averaged $1,700 per visit. Therefore, a significant portion of the financial support has also been allocated for domestic tourists for the next three to four months, notably through airfare discounts of up to 50 percent and exemptions of hotel and restaurant taxes.

Naturally, foreign tourists and domestic travelers would need extra patience given the health screening at all ports of entry. Indonesia, however, would retain the trust of aspiring visitors who delay plans to travel here, only if it remains transparent about developments regarding the epidemic. Though confirmed infections have not been found in this country, we are constantly reminded to not be complacent, given our vast territory and population.

Attempts to conceal relevant information would further turn off would-be travelers. This would include expectations of a clear government response to alleged concerns in the diplomatic community about Indonesias handling of the new coronavirus, as the Sydney Morning Herald reported Wednesday.

The tourist sector, with its extensive multiplier impact, does play a significant role in the economies of the 10 major destination areas in North Sulawesi, Java, Sumatra, Nusa Tenggara and Riau Islands. Tourism hardly needs imported input, thereby boosting foreign demand for local goods and services.

Indeed as a nature- and culture-based industry, tourism should be among the most suitable businesses to develop given it is labor intensive, from hotels, transportation and handicrafts to cultural shows.

But we still must work harder to improve services to tourists, notably high spenders from the United States, Europe, the Middle East and China. Good hospitality can overcome deficits in infrastructure but not the other way around. Most travelers are willing to tolerate minor infrastructure deficiencies but expect excellent service in return. Under the shadow of the virus outbreak, this includes assurance that we care about everyones well-being.
One of Irans vice presidents, Massoumeh Ebtekar, has tested positive to the coronavirus disease.

Ms Ebtekar oversees womens affairs. She is currently one of the latest top officials to be infected in Iran as the spread of the new coronavirus disease appeared to accelerate in the country.

Ms Ebtekar, a former spokeswoman for students who took 52 Americans hostage at the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, is being treated at home and members of her team have been tested, state news agency, IRNA, reported.

Also, a video posted by Fars news agency said the head of parliaments national security and foreign affairs committee, Mojtaba Zolnour, has also contracted the virus, and was in self-quarantine.

The cleric is a deputy for the Shiite holy city of Qom in central Iran where the countrys first cases were detected.

Outbreak

Earlier, the deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, who is also the head of the governments coronavirus task force, had tested positive to the disease.

Iran is fast becoming a hot-spot for the disease outbreak in the Middle East as the coronavirus epidemic has claimed 26 lives, the health ministry announced.

The ministry spokesman, Kianoush Jahanpour, told a news conference that the tally of infections had risen to 245 with 106 more cases confirmed  the highest number for a single day since Iran announced its first infections on February 19.

The country currently has the highest death toll from the virus outside China, which is the epicentre for the disease.

Precautionary measure

Although Iran has refused to adopt the quarantine measures to curb the spread of the disease in the country, the Iranian authorities on Wednesday announced restrictions on domestic travel for people with confirmed or suspected infections.

The restrictions might be coming a bit late as many neighbouring countries have been reporting cases from travellers from Iran.

Irans neighbours have closed their borders. The UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Estonia in northern Europe all recorded new cases of the virus in people travelling from Iran.

The Iranian government has placed new regulations on access to major Shiite pilgrimage sites, including the Imam Reza shrine in second city Mashhad and the Fatima Masumeh shrine in Qom.

Visitors to the shrines will be allowed to visit on condition they are provided with hand-washing liquids, proper (health) information, masks, Health Minister Saeed Namaki said.

They must not gather together in groups but just pray and leave, he said.

The authorities have also announced the cancellation of the main Friday weekly prayers in Tehran, Qom and Mashhad as well as in the capitals of 22 of Irans 31 provinces and other infected areas.

Also, school closures have been extended in affected areas and universities are to remain closed for another week starting from Saturday.

All of these decisions are temporary and if the situation changes, we might intensify or ease them, Mr Namaki said.

International concern

Although Iranian authorities claim they are in control of the outbreak, international health experts have expressed concern about its handling of the outbreak.

As of 6 a.m. Geneva time this morning, China has reported a total of 78,630 cases of COVID-19 to WHO, including 2747 deaths.

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Meanwhile, outside China, there are now 3474 cases in 44 countries, and 54 deaths.
Lindsey Graham Confident a Sanders Nomination Will Result in a Republican House

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is confident that Republicans would win back the House of Representatives if Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) becomes the 2020 Democratic nominee.

Let me tell you, a Sanders candidacy is great news for President Trump, Graham, speaking from South Carolina, told Fox News Thursday night. It is great news for Republicans in the House and in the Senate.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 76 percent of Democrats polled said they would vote in a socialist for president.

Former Vice President Joe Biden said he thinks he would be better as the 2020 nominee because he can help down-ballot Democrats to win. The next president has to be able to win back the Democratic Senate, said Biden at South Carolina Town Hall on Thursday, adding, Its a criticism of whether or not you think youre going to be able to help elect a Democratic senator here, against Lindsey Graham.

Graham said that the results of the primary elections definitely indicate Sanders will get the nominee but Bidens nomination would have helped down-ballot candidates get elected. I think he would probably help the down ballot Democrats more than most people running.

We have a Democrat representing the first congressional district in South Carolina, Joe Cunningham. Bernie Sanders is his worst nightmare, continued Graham.

Cunningham told The Post and Courier earlier this month that his constituents dont want socialism. We want to know how you are going to get things done and how you are going to pay for them. Bernies proposals to raise taxes on almost everyone is not something the Lowcountry wants and not something Id ever support.

First-term Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota also weighed in on a Sanders nomination, telling CNNs Manu Raju, There are probably 25-30 seats that absolutely would be impacted directly by having a self-avowed socialist at the top of the ticket. And I say that  you know  hes not a Democrat, you know, and thats something that I wish was better understood.

Looks like Bernies going to win the nomination unless something dramatically changes, Graham continued, but, if youre a down-ballot Democrat in the Midwest, in the South, Bernie Sanders is your worst nightmare. I think we take the House back with Bernie for sure.

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said at the Democratic debate on Feb. 25, We got a House to worry about. We got a Senate to worry about. If you want to keep the House in Democratic hands, you might want to check with the people who actually turned the House blue40 Democrats who are not running on your platform. They are running away from your platform as fast as they possibly can.

There are now 23 Republican members of Congress in the House who have announced they will be leaving at the end of their term.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that she will support Sanders if he wins the Democratic presidential nomination.

A Monmouth poll that came out Thursday showed Sanders at 31 percent, with Biden trailing at 18 percent. According to the new data, Sanders is the Democratic front runner, leading his Democratic opponents in online attention.

This is Bernies race to lose right now, said Graham.
KAMPALA  Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) is in the process of drawing up a new Strategic Plan for the years 2020-2025. This replaces the outgoing 2016-2021 strategic plan.

The UIA Board of Directors asked us to come up with a draft which we shall share with them very soon and later it will be sent to a consultant to finalize, said the UIA acting Director-General Lawrence Byensi.

He said this today while briefing the visiting World Bank team on the Authoritys current developments and programmes.

He briefed them about the new Investment Code Act (amended 2019) that gives more powers to the Authority.

These include authorizing the UIA to operate and manage the One Stop Centre, establish, develop and managing Industrial Parks.

The Code also authorized UIA to partner with government ministries, departments, and agencies performing functions relating to registration, licensing and approval of establishing an investment in Uganda.

These include the Uganda Registration Services Bureau, Uganda Revenue Authority, NEMA, UNBS, Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration, Directorate of Land Registration. Others are KCCA, NIRA, Uganda Free Zones Authority, NSSF, and other ministries, departments and agencies specified by the Minister by notice in the Gazette.

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Arunachal Pradesh Governor Brig (Retd) Dr B D Mishra on Friday said police personnel should not be posted in their home police stations as a matter of routine.

During a meeting with Home Minister Bamang Felix at Raj Bhawan here, Mishra said police personnel should be properly trained, empowered and motivated to ensure a safe and peaceful state, a Raj Bhawan statement said.

"Posting of police personnel within their home police stations should a rare situation and not a matter of routine or rotation," the governor said, without elaborating.

Mishra and Felix also discussed law and order, police force restructuring, inter-state and other security-related matters.

He also advised the home minister to take immediate measures to strengthen the police intelligence network.

Earlier, Felix briefed the governor on the prevailing law and order situation in the state.

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

High temperatures in Antarctica earlier this month have induced ice caps to melt to an unparalleled degree. Glaciers release pressure on the continent as they melt, allowing the ground itself to rise up. With that, a never-before-visible island emerged off the coast of Antarctica recently, which is caused by record high temperatures revealed its rocky shore to passing scientists.

A group of polar researchers from the Thwaites Offshore Research (THOR) mission first noticed the unchartered island as their ship passed through Pine Island Bay in Antarctica. According to Nature News' report, the researchers spotted the place after finishing an expedition aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer research vessel while passing thru the bay. The island has been named Sif after the Norse goddess of fertility and family, who was also the wife of the warrior god Thor, with the aid of the THOR glacier research team.

ALSO READ: Antarctica Already Polluted With Plastic And Hazardous Chemicals

Climate change probably is in charge of the new revelation

Although researchers don't know yet how long the 634,400 square feet island has been freed from its cold hiding area, climate change is probably in charge of the revelation.

The Pine Island Glacier is one of the fastest-retreating glaciers in Antarctica because it is losing ice faster than the glacier is increasing outward. The glacier purged an iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C. earlier this month.

Because ships rarely travel as far south as the Palmer did earlier this month, the crew is probably the primary to discover the island. Julia Wellner, University of Houston marine geologist and one of the lead investigators of the expedition, first shared the discovery on Twitter on February 11.

@glacieroffshore @GAViglione #nbp2002 @BAS_News @UHEAS pic.twitter.com/dtWtdI95tL After being the first visitors, we can now confirm that Sif Island is made of granite and that it is covered by remnant ice shelf, and a few seals. Photos by CD Hillenbrand (BAS) and Laura Taylor (UH). @glacierthwaites  Julia Smith Wellner (@houston_wellner) February 23, 2020

The Palmer team took samples from the island, which is made from granite. The specimen would provide insight into the way the continent is shifting. Cartographers for the British Antarctic Survey estimates the island is set 1,240ft across through 520ft wide, which is about the same length as Windsor Castle in England. Still, preliminary results from the crew won't be available until late March when the team returns to port.

ALSO READ: Close To A Fourth Of Ice In West Antarctica At Risk Of Collapse

The island remains a mystery

"This one island could maintain lots of clues," University of Virginia in Charlottesville glacial geologist Lauren Simkins told Nature News.

When Sif was noticed in the southern seas, most of northern Antarctica experienced a duration of more heat. NASA launched satellite photographs showing dramatic melting at the north tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The pics, taken nine days apart, display Eagle Island's northern shore turned bare, and ponds of ice soften forming inside the middle of the island.

National Science Foundation's head of Antarctic sciences Alexandra Isern tells NPR's Bill Chappell that those snapshots had been taken on as far north in Antarctica. If any area is going to have the ones melt ponds, Isern said the phenomenon is clearly going to be in one place.

ALSO READ: This Is How The Ice Sheets Of Antarctica Formed Very Rapidly About 34 Million Years Ago

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Travel restrictions are being introduced for Iran from today as part of the government's action to protect New Zealand from coronavirus.

The Government has announced a suite of new actions as it steps up its response to the rapidly changing global spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

This includes placing temporary restrictions on travel from Iran as a precaution, a decision not to allow any exemptions for overseas students from China to enter the country and bolstering the health presence at international airports.

The Governments priority continues to be the health and safety of New Zealanders, says Health Minister Dr David Clark.

Our pandemic plan is in place and our focus remains on keeping COVID-19 out of New Zealand. These enhanced travel restrictions and an increased border presence add to our existing actions to limit the risk of it entering the country.

The situation in Iran is obviously concerning. There is ongoing spread of the disease there, and a large degree of uncertainty about the scale of the outbreak and the ability to contain it."

Based on the medical and scientific advice, Ministers have put in place further temporary travel restrictions covering incoming travellers from Iran.

This means people will not be able to travel from Iran to New Zealand and anyone who has been in Iran in the last 14 days will need to self-isolate.

This is a sensible precaution. Many airlines have already cancelled flights from Iran.

New Zealand citizens and permanent residents will still be allowed to return home, but will be told to self-isolate for 14 days.

These restrictions will come into force immediately, and will initially apply until midnight Tuesday 3 March. They will be reviewed every 48 hours, which is the same approach being taken to the China travel restrictions that have been in place since February 3."

Border restrictions are a key part of protecting New Zealanders. Immigration New Zealand is ready to implement the entry restriction on travellers from Iran to keep New Zealanders safe, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said.

People should check with their travel agents about flight options if their travel plans are disrupted."

The Government has also decided not to allow any exemptions to let overseas students from China into New Zealand at this time. Universities requested this but our priority is protecting New Zealanders, says David.

The situation with COVID-19 is rapidly evolving. We are seeing concerning trends internationally, with more and more countries reporting confirmed cases.

Now is not the time to step back from our approach. We must put the health and safety of New Zealanders first.

The advice from officials, including health was not to proceed with an exemption.

Allowing thousands of students into the country from China, and guaranteeing they were safely in self-isolation, would have been incredibly difficult to implement and was not a risk the Government was prepared to take on New Zealanders behalf, says David.

Acting Education Minister Tracey Martin says it was not an easy decision but it is the right one at this stage.

The Government is conscious of the impact extended travel restrictions will have on universities and affected students but weve opted for a safety-first approach.

Public health must be the top priority and that includes being able to ensure we could provide healthcare support for thousands of additional students in the event of them arriving from China.

The Government will continue to provide practical support to education providers as they adjust the way they deliver programmes to students. This includes being more flexible about entry dates for offshore Chinese student visas, says Tracey..

We need to maintain our focus on keeping COVID-19 out of New Zealand, while at the same time continuing to prepare for the likely arrival of individual cases, says David.

Health officials are constantly reviewing our response to COVID-19.

Weve had health staff at our major airports since late January, meeting all flights from China and being available to meet passengers from other flights if they display symptoms of concern.

There are now more than 40 countries with cases of COVID-19, so it makes sense to strengthen our health presence at airports.

Starting tomorrow, health staff will scale up to meet all direct international flights landing at New Zealand airports from Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand.

Our border response is further ramping up to have health staff available for all international flights into New Zealand.

They will be available to provide advice and check passengers  particularly anyone that is unwell or displaying symptoms of concern.

The international situation with COVID-19 continues to evolve at pace. New Zealand is well placed and well prepared to respond.

We will continue to take a precautionary approach, based on the best available scientific and medical advice."
THEMATIC ISSUES

Counter-terrorism

Expected Council Action

In March, China, the Councils president, is planning a debate on countering terrorism and extremism in Africa under the agenda item of peace and security in Africa to discuss the need for comprehensive multidimensional approaches in combating terrorism and violent extremism in Africa. Possible briefers may be Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat (the latter most likely via video teleconference). Interested African member states are likely to participate in the debate.

Background and Key Recent Developments

In February, the Council was briefed by Under-Secretary-General Vladimir Voronkov, the head of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (OCT) and Michele Coninsx, the Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) on the Secretary-Generals tenth strategic-level report on the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or Daesh). Voronkov noted that in his previous briefing he reported a noticeable increase in ISIL- and Al-Qaida-linked recruitment in West Africa. He said the situation had deteriorated further and that this trend was of greater concern today as the Islamic States West Africa Province in the Lake Chad basin reinforces its links to the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. During the same briefing, Coninsx observed that CTEDs recent assessment visits to Africa had noted the lack of mechanisms to address radicalization within correctional facilities, ineffective training of officials to manage violent extremist detainees and the absence of rehabilitation and reintegration programmes for prisoners upon release.

The Council was also updated on unprecedented terrorist violence across West Africa and the Sahel by UN Special Representative and head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) Mohamed Ibn Chambas during his January briefing on peace consolidation in West Africa. In presenting the Secretary-Generals latest report on UNOWAS, Chambas emphasised that since July 2019, the region has experienced a surge in terrorist attacks against military and civilian targets. Significantly, the geographic focus of terrorist attacks shifted from Mali to Burkina Faso and also threatened coastal states in West Africa, according to Chambas. Casualties from terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have risen five-fold since 2016, with more than 4,000 deaths reported in 2019 compared with an estimated 770 deaths in 2016. Chambas stressed that terrorism, organised crime and intercommunal violence are often intertwined, particularly in areas where there is weak state presence, and extremists provide safety and protection to populations in exchange for loyalty.

Key Issues and Options

The regional counter-terrorism Joint Force of the Group of Five for the Sahel (FC-G5S, made up of units from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger)which has carried out some successful operationsfaces persistent challenges in securing financial and material resources, which prevents it from becoming fully operational. Similarly, the regions states are also confronted by the need to allocate part of their national budgets to counter-terrorism, which would divert funds from social services and development efforts.

An issue is how to address violent extremism and terrorism in Africa in a more holistic manner. Besides West Africa, there are concerns about terrorist activity in other parts of Africa including Somalia and Libya. A continent-wide approach to the phenomenon could be discussed during the debate.

The Council has also recognised the terrorist threat posed by radicalised prisoners and the need to address that threat. Resolution 2482 (2019) on the nexus between terrorism and organised crime states that prisons can be settings where both radicalisation and rehabilitation can occur. The Council may want to encourage member states to develop specific strategies to address and counter terrorist narratives within the prison system, as well as to organise periodic meetings on how to assess and manage the risk posed by radicalised prisoners and support them following their release to avoid recidivism.

Council Dynamics

Council members share concerns about the spread of terrorism and organised crime in Africa, including previously unaffected regions, and its impact on civilians. However, since most members in principle do not consider UN political missions and good office engagements to be appropriate for conducting counter-terrorism activities, they may be interested in exploring what the regional and sub-regional organisations, as well as African member states participating in the debate, may suggest in this context.

UN DOCUMENTS ON COUNTER-TERRORISM
Cashfree has announced partnerships with HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank and IndusInd Bank to strengthen Payouts, its bulk disbursal platform. Payouts, an API based banking solution, is a simple and automated way to send money in bulk to any companys bank account in India, instantly in real-time, 24x7 and even during bank holidays. Businesses can send money to other bank accounts, cards, Amazon Pay, Paytm and UPI IDs.

Akash Sinha, Co-Founder and CEO of Cashfree said, Through our strategic partnerships with Indian leading banks, we continue to strengthen our platform and enable businesses to manage and automate bulk payments. By fortifying our network of banks, Cashfrees disbursals in the form of refunds, vendor payments and more will become faster and easier than ever.

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The BJP on Friday accused the Congress of backtracking on its 'rajdharma' as it said opposition leaders, including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, had sought citizenship for persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries but the Congress is now inciting people against the CAA.

BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hit back at the Congress a day after its delegation led by party president Sonia Gandhi urged President Ram Nath Kovind to seek Home Minister Amit Shah's resignation for "abdication of duty" during the communal violence in northeast Delhi.

The opposition party also asked Kovind to push the Modi government to follow its 'rajdharma'.

Prasad alleged that the communal violence was an outcome of "instigation" and provocative remarks made by opposition leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP office here, Prasad said Shah was very proactive from the very first day of the violence to stop it.

Asked about the controversial remarks made by BJP leaders like Kapil Mishra and Pravesh Verma, he said the party doesn't approve of their statements.

Hitting out at Sonia Gandhi, he said, "Sonia Gandhi ji, please don't preach us 'rajdharma'. Your record is full of its violation and twists and turns for plain and simple vote bank "



"The Congress should look at its face in the mirror of 'rajdharma'," Prasad said.

The BJP leader stated that former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had speeded up citizenship for refugees from Uganda and Sri Lanka respectively.

Prasad noted that Manmohan Singh as the Leader of the Congress in Rajya Sabha had asked the then deputy prime minister L K Advani to grant citizenship to persecuted minority refugees from neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The then Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, who is currently at the helm in the state as well, had also sought it, the law minister said.

"Sonia ji tell us what kind of 'rajdharma' is this that everyone has backtracked? What we have done, your government could not do in 10 years... If the Congress does something, it is good. But if we do the same thing, they provoke the people. What type of 'rajdharma' is this?" Prasad asked.

Accusing the Congress of "pure politicking" of the sensitive issue of the Delhi violence, he said it was time for all to talk of collectively of the restoration of peace, amity and harmony.

For the Congress, Prasad claimed, family interest comes first followed by party interest and only then it sometimes think of national interest.

Referring to Sonia Gandhi's "fight to the finish" remark at a rally at the Ramlila Maidan here last year, Prasad asked whether such remarks do not constitute provocation and alleged that the Congress chief remained silent when youngsters were encouraged at Shaheen Bagh to become violent against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Attacking Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, he said she also made provocative statements as the opposition party is frustrated by its defeat.

Prasad alleged that the Congress could stoop to any level for "vote-bank" and added that it should act responsibly for maintaining peace and harmony in the country.

Asked about concerns expressed by BJP allies, including the Shiromani Akali Dal, over the violence in Delhi, Prasad said if they have any doubt, it will be addressed.

Without naming anyone, the BJP leader also took a swipe at a section of journalists over their apparently objectionable tweets on the violence in the national capital and said these will be debated later.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The surgical strike of 2016 and Balakot airstrikes of 2019 were not just military strikes but a strong message to the adversary that terror infrastructure across the border cannot be used as safe haven to wage low-cost war against India, stated Union Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday.

Addressing a seminar titled Air Power in No War No Peace Scenario, organised by Centre for Air Power Studies on the first anniversary of Balakot airstrikes, in the national capital.

Recalling sacrifices of Armed Forces in the service of the country and paying tributes to the martyrs of Pulwama attack, he said the nation will never forget their sacrifices. He said that Indias out-of-the-box response reflected in the Balakot airstrikes forced the rewriting of many doctrines across the LoC and the adversary has to think 100 times for any future misadventures. He added that the responses displayed Indias defence capability and affirmed its right to defend itself against terrorism.

The Defence Minister described Balakot airstrikes as a singular event of military precision and impact, saying that it teaches the leadership to think strategic rather than tactical. Our approach to terrorism was and will remain a judicious combination of clinical military action and mature and responsible diplomatic outreach, he said.

He assured the nation that the government will respond appropriately to any threat to Indias national security in the future as well. He said, the government has initiated major structural changes to tackle any future threats and it will take some time for the entire set up to be fully operational. He urged all stakeholders to contribute in making these changes effective and efficient.

Singh highlighted that the world stands shoulder to shoulder with India in fighting the terrorism. Stressing the importance of collective diplomatic and financial pressure to thwart cross-border terrorism, he said, We have recently seen the impact of collective diplomatic and financial pressure on Pakistan. Terrorists like Hafiz Saeed who were treated like VIPs and heroes, have been put behind bars. We realise that this is not enough and unless Pakistan is made accountable, it will continue with its previous policy of duplicity and deceit. All attempts are being made to work in this direction.
No confirmation of coronavirus infection has followed so far.

On February 27, a Ukrainian woman was hospitalized in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, immediately after arriving at Boryspil International Airport from Italy.

Ukrainian border guards during a temperature check recorded that the woman had fever before transferring her to one of Kyiv's medical institutions as part of enhanced control measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection into Ukraine.

Press secretary of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Andriy Demchenko, told UNIAN that about 160,000 people crossing into Ukraine have been subjected to temperature screening since the launch of enhanced border control measures.

Read alsoUkraine not going to evacuate its citizens from Italy yet  MFA

As UNIAN reported earlier, the Chinese authorities reported an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown origin in Wuhan late in December 2019.

The causative agent of the disease was a new type of coronavirus, COVID-19. The virus is transmitted from person to person, with the incubation period lasting at least two weeks.

On January 30, the World Health Organization declared an international emergency over the spread of the novel coronavirus from China.
Hamma Hayatu, who used to be a supporter of President Muhammadu Buhari, has praised former President Goodluck Jonathan for building Alma...

Hamma Hayatu, who used to be a supporter of President Muhammadu Buhari, has praised former President Goodluck Jonathan for building Almajiri schools and universities in the north.





Hayatu had dismissed the projects as false in the past when he was a supporter of Buhari.





In a tweet on Monday, Adetutu Balogun, a Twitter user, shared screenshots of Hayatus posts on the Almajiri schools in 2015 when he alleged the project was non-existent.





Before 2015 election, Arewa Twitter spread lies that GEJ didnt build 100+ Almajari schools. After Buhari disappointed them many changed their lyrics & joined @OfficialPDPNig They knew about the schools before the election but they lied! Many on this street have no conscience, Adetutu tweeted.









After Buhari disappointed them many changed their lyrics & joined



They knew about the schools before the election but they lied! Many on this street have no conscience. Before 2015 election, Arewa Twitter spread lies that GEJ didnt build 100+ Almajari schools.After Buhari disappointed them many changed their lyrics & joined @OfficialPDPNig They knew about the schools before the election but they lied! Many on this street have no conscience. pic.twitter.com/nOfbFKNZqD February 24, 2020



On March 10, 2015, Hayatu wrote: I just watch a documentary on Liberty TV which shows that the much publicised Almajiri schools are just white wash and a fraud.





In April 2015, he also took to his Twitter handle to allege that there was only one Almajiri school in the whole of Kaduna state.





In the whole of Kaduna state the only visible Almajiri school built by the GEJ govt is located along Zaria-Kano road, he tweeted.





But in November 2018, Hayatu made a u-turn, commending the former president for building the schools.





GEJ built 9 federal universities in northern Nigeria, GEJ built 150 almajiri schools in northern Nigeria, GEJ built the Abuja-Kaduna rail line. We are very grateful at @GEJonathan to what you have done to our people, he wrote.





Goodluck Jonathan built several Almajiri schools across northern Nigeria,where they will be educated,fed and clothe by government and the teachers paid salaries. Out of political bitterness this laudable project was abandoned and schools are fallowing now.



Buhari is a menace  Hamma (@HAHayatu) February 23, 2020

Hypocrisy is not in my blood, this is me https://t.co/TWQqB97DpS February 24, 2020

There have been concerns about the state of Almajiris in northern Nigeria.





On Tuesday, Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of Kano, placed a ban on street begging in the state.





On February 23, he faulted the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for abandoning the schools, describing the president as a menace.Muhammad Sanusi, emir of Kano, also said fathers who send out their children to beg for alms should be arrested.
Pedestrians walk as some of them wear masks in downtown Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. AP



The South Korean Embassy in Iran has called for hundreds of its citizens there to prepare for possible contingencies, warning that the coronavirus outbreaks in the Islamic republic could escalate into a "serious situation."



In an emergency notice posted on its website Thursday, the embassy urged about 200 South Korean citizens in Iran to ensure they always carry their passports, cash, mobile phones and other "essential" items.



The number of Iran's COVID-19 cases has reportedly risen to at least 245 with 26 deaths, the highest fatalities outside of China, raising concerns about the safety of Koreans in the country under biting sanctions that have triggered a shortage of medicine and medical equipment.



"Although COVID-19 has been rapidly spreading in Iran, the detailed movement routes of infected people have yet to be made public. Thus the risks of person-to-person transmission are big, and there is an expectation that this could develop into a serious situation," the embassy said.



"Our government has been doing its best to protect overseas citizens and plans to explain the specific course of actions should a serious situation take place in the future," it said.



Among the 254 cases of the novel coronavirus is Iranian Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar. The spread of the virus has caused foreign governments to consider evacuating their citizens aboard chartered flights.



At the center of public concerns is that Iran may have difficulty treating its patients due to a lack of medicine. Despite the risks of coming under anti-Tehran sanctions, Seoul has been exploring ways to export humanitarian products to Iran. (Yonhap)


Buckingham Palace was treated to a Bon Jovi medley during the Changing of the Guard ceremony today to celebrate the American rocker's Invictus Games single.

The Band of the Scots Guard played Bon Jovi hits including Livin' On A Prayer and It's My Life as part of the ceremony at the Palace today at 11am.

Crowds gathered at the Buckingham Palace Gates in the rain to watch the band perform the rock-inspired performance.

It comes after Prince Harry was seen with frontman Jon Bon Jovi recording a new charity single at Abbey Road Studios in London for the Invictus Games Foundation.

The Band of the Scots Guard played Bon Jovi hits including Livin' On A Prayer during the Changing of the Guard ceremony today

Royal Family Instagram posted the medley on Instagram (left). Crowds gathers in the rain to watch the special ceremony (right)

Footage was uploaded to the Royal Family Instagram page captioned: 'Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace!

'During each ceremony The Queens Guard hands over responsibility for protecting Buckingham Palace and St Jamess Palace to the New Guard.

'Today the band played a special medley of Bon Jovi music to celebrate his collaboration with @weareinvictusgames.'

The Band of the Scots Guard playing Bon Jovi hit Livin' On A Prayer. The Changing of the Guard was given a rock makeover to celebrate Bon Jovi's Invictus Games single

Prince Harry and Jon Bon Jovi pose for a picture with choir members during a visit at Abbey Road Studios in London

A video of the two wearing headphones, with Bon Jovi strumming a guitar before beginning to sing was posted on the official Instagram page of Harry and his American wife Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex

A teaser video shared by the Sussex Royal Instagram page showed Harry at the mic with Bon Jovi as they recorded the single Unbroken for the Prince's Invictus Games Foundation, but cut out before he started singing.

Harry later joined the Livin' On A Prayer star and members of the Invictus Games Choir to pose for a photo on Abbey Road's famous zebra crossing, which appeared on the front of the Beatles' 1969 album.

The single is in aid of the Invictus Games Foundation which oversees the development of the Invictus Games, the international multi-sport event for injured or sick military personnel founded by Harry.

Footage was uploaded to the Royal Family Instagram page captioned: 'Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace!'

Prince Harry and Jon Bon Jovi recreate the Beatles' iconic Abbey Road zebra crossing photo after recording a duet together today. The Duke was in George Harrison's position while Bon Jovi was Ringo Starr

Unbroken was created by Jon Bon Jovi to shine a spotlight on veterans living with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and honour their service.

The musician has a close affinity with the military as both his parents served in the US Marine Corps.
Raed al-Fares, who ran Fresh Radio and was assassinated in Idleb, has been posthumously awarded the Courage in Journalism Award reports Al-Modon.

The deceased Syrian journalist Raed al-Fares has won the Courage in Journalism Award given out by the Legatum Institute in the British capital London, just one day after the fall of Kafranbel to the Syrian regime, a town which had major symbolic value for the Syrian revolution.

The organization said on its Twitter account on Wednesday that Fares had won the award for the bravery that he showed while working as a journalist in Syria, out of 55 nominees who were killed or lost their lives between October 2018 and October 2019, including the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed by a Saudi security team in his countrys consulate in Istanbul. His body has not been found yet.

The award was received by Faress oldest son, Mahmoud, who told the audience his fathers story. The BBC global affairs correspondent, Mike Thomson, also delivered a speech about Fares in which he spoke about knowing him during his time covering the war in Syria and about his most prominent accomplishments.

Fares was assassinated on Oct. 23, 2018 with his activist friend Hammoud Jneid by unknown attackers widely thought to be affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the jihadist group, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights. He had been the director of the local opposition Fresh Radio station, which not only criticized the Syrian regime but also the extremists groups such as Tahrir al-Sham, which tried to close the radio station multiple times on the pretext that there were women working there.

Fares, born in 1972, was director of the Union of Revolutionary Bureaus in Syria, but he was known mostly as a media figure responsible for the famous Kafranbel banners from 2011. Fares was known for a creative and peaceful style of responding to the lies of the Syrian regime media, specifically the semi-official Al-Dunya channel. He became a regular figure at weekly protests against the Assad regime and to this day remains a symbol of the peaceful revolution whom the regime and its allies have always tried to demonize.

Before he was killed, Fares was subject to an assassination attempt in 2014, which he survived after undergoing sensitive surgery on his chest. The attempt coincided with threats by Jabhat al-Nusra, which raided Radio Fresh repeatedly in the first years of the revolution. Nusrathe old name for Tahrir al-Shamarrested Fares twice, the first time in 2014 with the photographer Hamoud Jneid at a checkpoint in Maarat Numan, and then with the activist Hadi al-Abdullah in 2016 from the radio stations headquarters in Kafranbel.

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
Gold prices inched higher on Friday as worries intensified that the rapidly spreading coronavirus could turn into a pandemic and derail global economic growth.

FUNDAMENTALS

- Spot gold gained 0.2% to $1,645.79 per ounce by 0055 GMT, and was up about 0.1% for the week.

- U.S. gold futures rose 0.1% to $1,644.20.

- Global share prices headed for the worst week since the world financial crisis in 2008 as investors braced for the virus to become a pandemic and rapidly spread around the world.

- The Japanese yen rose to its highest in more than three weeks against the U.S. dollar, while benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields held close to record lows touched in the previous session.

- Mainland China had 327 new confirmed cases of infections on Thursday, the National Health Commission said on Friday, down from 433 cases a day earlier.

- Iran said on Thursday its death toll rose to 26, by far the highest number outside China, and the total number of infected people stood at 245, including several senior officials.

- Moody's Analytics said a pandemic would result in global and U.S. recessions during the first half of this year, while rate cuts by the Federal Reserve might fall short of stabilising markets.

- The Fed may need to move aggressively to cut borrowing costs to cushion the economy from the effects of the virus, CME Group's FedWatch indicated.

- Four European Central Bank policymakers played down the prospect of immediate action to counter the economic impact of the virus, saying it was too early to gauge the long-term implications of the disease.

- Palladium slipped 0.1% to $2,840.73 an ounce, but was on track to post its fourth straight weekly gain.

- Platinum was down 0.2% to $897, and was headed for its worst week since November 2015.

- Silver rose 0.6% to $17.81 per ounce, but was on track to post a weekly decline.
For nearly a decade, Nicholas McGuffin sat behind bars in an Oregon prison, insisting he had nothing to do with his girlfriend Leah Freemans 2000 disappearance and slaying.

From the very start, the Oregon man, now 37, maintained his innocence, telling local authorities in 2008 he would never have killed the 15-year-old girl. However, police and jurors did not believe him, and in 2011, McGuffin was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years.

McGuffin  who was 18 at the time of Freemans death  wouldnt be cleared of the killing and freed until late 2019, when his conviction was overturned with the help of the Forensic Justice Project, an Oregon-based non-profit focused on combating the misapplication of forensic science.

For the first time since regaining his freedom, McGuffin opens up in an interview set to air during the upcoming 20/20, airing on ABC from 9 to 11 p.m. ET. (An exclusive clip is shown above.)

In the clip, McGuffins mother, Kathy McGuffin, recalls being at work on Dec. 17, 2019 when her son, who was scheduled for release the following August, asked her if she could pick him up that night.

It was about 2:30, Kathy starts. Nick calls me and he says, I am getting released tonight. Can you be here at 7? and I said, Sure.'

It was unbelievable that it had finally happened, she continues. When we drove up to the prison, theres Nick with all his wonderful people from the Forensic Justice Project. I think that was the first time I had cried in a long time. I had tears in my eyes. It was wonderful seeing him, knowing he was free.

Nicholas McGuffin | Brayfield/The World via AP

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Prior to McGuffins release, a judge had reversed his conviction after the revelation that the Oregon State Police crime lab failed to disclose that another mans DNA has been found on Leahs shoes.

Story continues

Malheur County Circuit Senior Judge Patricia Sullivan ruled that vital evidence could have led to an acquittal in the case.

Prosecutors maintain they tried the right person for Leahs murder. They couldve appealed the overturned sentence or tried McGuffin again for the killing, but opted against it, feeling they wouldnt be able to get another conviction, reports The Oregonian.

Freeman vanished back on June 28, 2000, after leaving a friends house in Coquille. One of her shoes was found by a nearby cemetery that same night. Her body was recovered five weeks later down a steep embankment. Determining a cause of death was impossible because the body was in an advanced state of decomposition.

In the clip above, McGuffin speaks about the moment before he stepped back into the free world.

It was overwhelming to be waiting to be released, knowing that was the last time I was every going to have to be in a place like that, he explains.

The 20/20 episode on McGuffins case will feature interviews with McGuffins friends, his trial attorney, and the investigators and prosecutors who helped put him away.

Again, 20/20 airs this Friday, February 28, from 9 to 11 p.m. ET on ABC.


LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Rolls Royce Holdings plc. (RYCEF.PK, RR.L, RYCEY.PK) reported that its loss before taxation for the year ended 31 December 2019 narrowed to 891 million pounds from 2.95 billion pounds in the prior year.



Loss attributable to ordinary shareholders also narrowed to 1.32 billion pounds or 69.07 pence per share from 2.40 billion pound or 129.15 pence per share in the prior year.



Group underlying operating profit improved by 25% to 808 million pounds as a result of improved gross profit, lower C&A costs and higher profit from joint ventures offsetting an increased R&D charge.



Revenue for the year was 16.59 billion pounds, up from 15.73 billion pounds in the prior year, primarily driven by growth in Civil Aerospace, offsetting a 76% decline in non-core revenue.



For 2020, the company expects stable to low-single-digit sales growth in Civil Aerospace and operating margins 50-100bps higher year-over-year, despite 100 million pounds -150 million pounds reduction in the level of R&D capitalisation.



The outbreak of COVID-19 represents a macro risk and is likely to have an impact on air traffic growth in the near term; however long term growth trends remain intact.



Core operating profit growth is expected to be around 15%, with at least 1 billion pounds of free cash flow in 2020, as we drive towards its ambition to exceed 1 pound per share of free cash flow - or at least 1.9 billion pounds - in the mid-term.



Warren East, Chief Executive said, 'We made further progress on the Trent 1000; cash costs are in line with guidance. We remain on target to reduce aircraft on ground to single digits by the end of Q2 2020.'



Rolls-Royce also said it has appointed Dame Angela Strank as a Non-Executive Director. She will join the Board with effect from 1 May 2020 and will become a member of the Nominations & Governance Committee, the Safety, Ethics & Sustainability Committee and the Science & Technology Committee.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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LONDON, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Analysys Mason today announced it has agreed to acquire Allolio&Konrad, a management consultancy based in Bonn, Germany, with long-term client relationships with Europe's leading telecoms operators. Allolio&Konrad has an extensive track record in the telecommunications industry, and its key services include the design, management and assurance of major business support systems (BSS) and operational support systems (OSS) transformation programmes and large-scale, multi-year IT strategy initiatives, alongside other solutions focussed on performance and operations management. Within the last decade, Allolio&Konrad, has also successfully supported business and IT transformations within the German banking and utility sectors. Allolio&Konrad has 45 permanent employees.

"We are delighted to welcome colleagues from Allolio&Konrad to Analysys Mason. This represents a very significant expansion which complements the work done by our Nordic offices and our world-leading Telecom Software Research. The office in Bonn will also form the basis of further expansion of our established consulting and research offerings to existing and new German-based clients or those with an interest in the German market" says Bram Moerman, CEO at Analysys Mason.

Peter McMenemy, MD of Allolio&Konrad said, "We are very excited to be joining Analysys Mason as this will significantly strengthen our offerings as our transformation and consulting capabilities will embed seamlessly with Analysys Mason's deep telecoms industry expertise. Furthermore, being able to access Analysys Mason's global research and insights will allow us to support our clients' strategic priorities and ensure the best possible outcomes for them."

"The acquisition of Allolio&Konrad builds logically on other recent acquisitions, strengthening Analysys Mason's position in the market for strategic, digital transformation, IT transformation, and performance consulting, and broadening its skills base to support the accelerating demand for 5G expertise. A presence in Germany complements the existing footprint of Analysys Mason's international offices, adding valuable skills and expertise to better serve its multinational clients," says Jens Montanana, CEO of Datatec Group, Analysys Mason's parent company.

The acquisition is subject to the approval by the German Competition Authorities and is expected to be finalised in March 2020.

Analysys Mason has its head office in London, and offices in Cambridge, Dubai, Dublin, Hong Kong, Kolkata, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, New Delhi, New York, Oslo, Paris, Singapore and Stockholm.

About Analysys Mason (www.analysysmason.com)

Analysys Mason is a global specialist adviser in telecoms, media and technology (TMT).

At the core of Analysys Mason's offer are two key services: TMT consultancy and research.

Since 1985, Analysys Mason has played an influential role in key industry milestones and helping clients through major shifts in the market.

We continue to be at the forefront of developments in the digital economy and are advising clients on new business strategies to address disruptive technologies.

Our teams of consultants and analysts have developed skills, techniques and methodologies that deliver tangible results for clients the world over.
LONDON - Three former Barclays bankers have been cleared of fraud over a 4 billion-pound ($5.2 billion) investment deal with Qatar at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008.

The three men  Roger Jenkins, Thomas Kalaris and Richard Boath  were acquitted Friday after a five-month trial at Londons Old Bailey.

The case was brought by Britains Serious Fraud Office, which had accused the three men of hiding the true nature of the fundraising plan with Qatar from authorities and other shareholders.

At the height of the financial crisis, many banks around the world, most famously Lehman Brothers went bust. Others, including British banks Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, were bailed out by the government. Barclays was struggling too, but managed to avoid a government bailout through two capital fundraisings, totalling 11.2 billion pounds. Without the Qatari money, there are questions as to whether the bank would have needed a bailout.

The Serious Fraud Office alleged the lucrative terms given to Qatar, including an extra 322 million pounds in fees, were hidden from the market and other investors through bogus advisory service agreements.

Jenkins, 64, was said to be Barclays gatekeeper of its relationship with the oil-rich Gulf state. Kalaris, also said 64, was chief executive of Barclays wealth management division while Boath, 61, was a high-ranking member of Barclays Capital. All three are British citizens though Kalaris is an American-British dual national.

A fourth man, Christopher Lucas, had been found unfit to face trial due to illness.

The acquittal of the three men is the latest setback for the Serious Fraud Office. It follows the acquittal of John Varley, Barclays chief executive in 2008, in a previous trial last year after a judge ruled that the agency hadnt come up with enough evidence.

The SFO defended bringing the case against the three men.

Our prosecution decisions are always based on the evidence that is available, and we are determined to bring perpetrators of serious financial crime to justice, a spokesperson said in a statement.

Wherever our evidential and public interests tests are met, we will always endeavour to bring this before a court.
Canadas top court was not asked to judge the case on its merits. Its job was to consider whether the case should proceed to trial at all, and whether breaches of customary international law, ordinarily applied to sovereign states, could be actionable as torts against companies.
Microsoft is fighting back Friday after a nasty week.

Friday afternoon, shares were slightly positive, trading above $158, but were still down 11% since Monday as fears spiked over the severity of the coronavirus outbreak.

In the past seven trading sessions, Microsoft shed $232 billion in market cap.

Todd Gordon, managing director of Ascent Wealth Partners, says it's nearing the time to jump back into the stock.

"I like Microsoft in terms of pulling back here, adding some exposure," Gordon said Thursday on CNBC's "Trading Nation."

Gordon warns that it could get down to the 200-day moving average and possibly overshoot it before bouncing back.

"It's gravitating around the $145 mark, so if we're going to leg in, we want to do so carefully with that in mind," said Gordon. From $145 to $150, "that's your buy zone in Microsoft."

The upper end of the buy zone would take it down to levels not seen since mid-December.

"It's a stock that's working. It has beat earnings six of the last seven reports. I think a lot of people are underinvested, and I think this is an opportunity for those who've missed as the market has been quiet for two years," he said. "To get into the pullback I'd say stick with what's working."

Microsoft isn't the only mega-cap stock leading losses over the past week. Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook and Visa have lost a collective $1 trillion in market cap in seven trading sessions.

John Petrides, portfolio manager at Tocqueville Asset Management, warns that investors could have more exposure to these names than they believe.

"When you have the top five companies in the S&P 500 [Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook] making up 18% of the index  and you have the highest concentration of sector and stock exposure since the dot-com bubble, I would say people have more exposure to this [tech] sector and to these names than  they probably even realize," Petrides said during the same segment.

As of Friday, Alphabet, Apple and Facebook are negative for the year and Microsoft and Amazon are holding on to slight gains.

Disclosure: Ascent Wealth Partners holds Microsoft.

Disclaimer
A Co Cavan man who stabbed a 'Good Samaritan' 28 times and battered her to death with kitchen pans has been jailed for ten years.

Handing down the indeterminate tariff for "retribution and deterrence'', judge Mr Justice Colton told Joseph Dolan that he was imposing the sentence as he believed he posed a danger to the public in the future for the "brutal, violent and unjustifiable killing'' of Pauline Kilkenny.

The senior judge said that when Dolan eventually becomes eligible for parole, the Parole Commissioners should consider all medical and psychiatric reports compiled on the defendant before he is released.

"Given the contents of the medical evidence I have received any consideration of your release will require the most intense scrutiny,'' said Mr Justice Colton.

Dungannon Crown Court, sitting in Belfast, was previously told that the body of "vulnerable'' Pauline Kilkenny lay undiscovered for almost a week after Joseph Dolan repeatedly stabbed her to the neck, face, back and chest.

Dolan (29), formerly of Cavan Town, had originally been charged with the murder of Ms Kilkenny, whose body was found in November 2018 at her isolated three-bedroom bungalow on the Cornacully Road in Belcoo, Co Fermanagh.

Expand Close Joseph Dolan pleaded guilty to manslaughter Photopress Belfast / Facebook

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But that charge was withdrawn following medical reports which assessed that he was suffering from a personality disorder at the time. Dolan later pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of the 59-year-old by way of diminished responsibility.

Dolan also admitted stealing Ms Kilkenny's car and perverting the course of justice by falsely implicating his former girlfriend in the horrific killing.

Senior prosecution counsel Ciaran Murphy QC said that Ms Kilkenny had been living in Belcoo for a number of years after returning from London and worked at Lilly's Centra in Enniskillen. On November 7, 2018, she decided to take a few days off and was due to start back a few days later.

But when Ms Kilkenny did not show up for work a colleague alerted family members and two of Ms Kilkenny's sisters went to her isolated bungalow on November 13, 2018.

Ms Kilkenny was found lying under a window, face down in a pool of blood, with blood coming from the back of her head and skull.

Police attended and as her body was cold to touch, police believed she had been dead for some time.

The PSNI were on the look out for Ms Kilkenny's Fiat Punto car and, when it was spotted later that afternoon, an officer drew his firearm and stopped the vehicle, arresting Dolan for Ms Kilkenny's killing.

Dolan's ex-girlfriend told police that on November 7, 2018, he came to her home and she noticed he had cash in 10 and 20 pound notes along with a Santander bank card in the name of 'P Kilkenny'.

A post-mortem examination revealed Ms Kilkenny sustained 28 stab wounds to the neck, face, back, chest and right arm, along with four blunt force trauma injuries to the head, inflicted when Dolan had battered her with kitchen pans.

The senior prosecutor said it was a "vicious, unprovoked attack on an innocent, vulnerable victim" and that she had been stabbed "when she was either dead or close to death''.

Dolan had 36 previous convictions, 34 in the Republic of Ireland, including violent disorder. In 2013, he was sentenced to three years for robbery and for beating a Drogheda pensioner and stabbing a taxi driver.

Defence counsel Jim Gallaher QC said that when he was admitted to Maghaberry prison, Dolan told the jail's mental health team that Ms Kilkenny had been "like a mother to him".

Mr Justice Colton said on Friday that Ms Kilkenny had been "subjected to a blunt force assault, leading to scalp lacerations and a skull fracture. She was stabbed 28 times which resulted in significant injuries to her neck which had caused copious haemorrhaging at the scene.''

The judge referred to numerous victim impact statements he had read from friends and members of Ms Kilkenny's "devastated'' family.

"Those detailed and carefully crafted statements eloquently convey the devastation that Pauline's death has caused,'' said Mr Justice Colton.

"What emerges from the statement is a family member who was greatly loved and who had a special place in the hearts and minds of her many relatives.

"She made a positive impact on all of those who have taken the trouble to prepare their victim impact statements. It was clear she was a kind person.

"Indeed, it was this very kindness that led to your involvement with Ms Kilkenny. She took you in at a time when you were desolate and homeless. She looked after you, provided a home for you and provided much needed stability in your life.

"It is one of the greatest tragedies of her death that it was her kindness and desire to help people that brought her into contact with you.''

One niece wrote that Ms Kilkenny was "the epitome of light... she would brighten up faces, rooms and lives. Nothing will take away the pain of this loss. I tell my stories to the sky now when I visit her grave.''

Determining that Dolan posed a significant risk of serious harm in the future, Mr Justice Colton referred to a joint statement from two consultant psychiatrists who stated that unless Dolan's personality disorder was "treated or effectively managed, he will remain dangerous".

The judge said the killing of Ms Kilkenny was a "shocking offence'' and Dolan had not "demonstrated any real remorse for your actions''.

He added: "Indeed, a chilling feature of this case is your apparent emotional indifference to the plight of your victim or her family during the course of police, probation and medical interviews.''

Following the sentencing hearing on Friday, Ciaran McQuillan, head of the PPS Serious Crime Unit, said: Firstly I want to pay tribute to Pauline Kilkennys family, including her sisters who have shown remarkable dignity since her death in November 2018 and throughout the trial process.

Pauline was a good Samaritan who had given Joseph Dolan a home. Her kindness makes the brutal attack he subjected her to all the more shocking.

The PPS Serious Crime Unit worked closely with police and our team of counsel to prepare a robust prosecution case, which resulted in Dolan pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Pauline is sorely missed by her family, friends and the wider community. We appreciate that even though Dolan has been convicted and sentenced, the loss they feel will endure and our thoughts are with them.
Toronto: Canada said on Thursday it won't provide security for Prince Harry and his wife Meghan when they step back from royal duties.

Mary-Liz Power, a spokeswoman for Canada's public safety minister, said the assistance would cease in the coming weeks "in keeping with their change in status".

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Credit:AP

Harry and Meghan have said they will walk away from most royal duties starting on March 31, give up public funding and try to become financially independent. They plan to live part-time in Canada.

Power said that as Duke and Duchess of Sussex, they have been considered "internationally protected persons" who warranted security measures under international treaty. Britain's Metropolitan Police also had requested the Royal Canadian Police to provide assistance, which it has been doing since November.
Rudy Giuliani is having phone trouble again  and this time, it's sad.



The former New York mayor forgot to hang up on a New York Daily News reporter Wednesday and, thinking he was off the line, started complaining about former New York Gov. George Pataki and said he only has "five friends left."

Giuliani  who has become infamous for butt-dialing journalists  made the confession to someone named "Tony" after this reporter reached out about Pataki's forthcoming book, which alleges Giuliani privately asked the former governor to call off the city's 2001 mayoral election so he could remain in office in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

"There were people who wanted me to do it," Giuliani told The News, still aware he was on the phone. "I thought about it for two days, but I never asked him to do it. I never made the decision to do it."

Then, Giuliani said he had to hang up because he was about to board a flight. "I'm heading to L.A., I'm heading to L.A.," he said.

But Giuliani never hung up.

"He's trying to sell a book," Giuliani told Tony while this reporter stayed on the line. "Even if we would have had that conversation, it would have been privileged between a mayor and a governor. ... He's an honorable guy. I can't believe he would do that. I just keep getting disappointed. I got about five friends left."

Giuliani, who became political poison in some of his old Big Apple circles after taking on the job as President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, accused Pataki of making him "sound like a power-hungry politician."

"I'm so shocked," Giuliani said.

Eventually, Giuliani hung up after stating that the conversation Pataki recalls in his book "didn't take place."

Pataki, who never ended up canceling the 2001 election, "stands by" his allegation, said spokesman David Catalfamo.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

About 15 minutes after the first conversation, Giuliani called again, seemingly unaware he had already spoken to this reporter.

"The governor is wrong," Giuliani said. "I'm very disappointed that George would write something like that."

Giuliani also charged Pataki was likely making up the 2001 chat because his book is boring.

"I know book publishing, and this is exactly what they do: They have you sensationalize, especially if your book isn't good," he said.

The former mayor added, "No one has honor anymore.

___

(c)2020 New York Daily News

Visit New York Daily News at www.nydailynews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 27, 2020 | 10:50 AM | PADUCAH

A McCracken County District Court Judge granted former McCracken County High School Principal Michael Ceglinski's request to expunge all records of criminal charges against him stemming from his handling of a 2019 sexual abuse case at the school.Prosecutors charged Ceglinski with failure to report child dependent neglect/abuse and criminal misconduct, after an investigation led to the arrest of 18-year-old Princekumar Joshi on charges of using an electronic device to record or possess illegal sexual images of a minor. Charges were filed against Ceglinski after investigators said they discovered he had not reported the abuse to law enforcement.The charges against Ceglinski were eventually dropped by McCracken County Attorney Sam Clymer. Joshi later entered an Alford plea to a sexual misconduct charge and pleaded guilty to evidence tampering. He was sentenced to two years in prison.A judge granted Ceglinski's expungement order on Jan. 16, which means all public records of his original charges will be removed.Ceglinski now serves as assistant superintendent of McCracken County Schools. He has since been named in a lawsuit filed against the school district by lawyers representing the former student who reported the sexual assault.

On the Net:
British man in Japan becomes first to die from coronavirus

Number of UK cases is now 19

Victim is sixth fatality from Diamond Princess cruise ship

Major events could face cancellations for next two months

China has now reported 80,000 cases and almost 3,000 deaths

Outside China, nearly 60 countries now have virus, with more than 80 deaths.

A British man who was on board the stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship has died from coronavirus.

He is the first British national to die from the virus, also known as Covid-19.

The Japanese Ministry of Health said the man was the sixth person from ship, which has been quarantined off the countrys coast amid the outbreak, to have died.

When asked if the Government should have repatriated people from the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess sooner, Boris Johnson said it had been following the best medical advice.

The Diamond Princess cruise ship at Daikoku Pier in Yokohama. (Photo by Stanislav Kogiku / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)

He said: We very much regret the loss of life of the individual concerned but we think that the best thing to do is not to move people around too much in the current situation.

Not to repatriate unless you can be absolutely sure there is not going to be a spread or contagion to this country, so thats the principle we are adopting.

A UK Foreign Office spokesman said: We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Japan and are in contact with local authorities.

Our sympathies and thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was following medical advice concerning Brits on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship. (PA)

A total of 19 cases have been confirmed in the UK.

Health authorities ordered a 14-day quarantine for everyone on board the Diamond Princess, which had an original population of 3,711 passengers, on February 5.

Passengers who had tested negative were allowed to disembark at the end of the two weeks.

A family member of David and Sally Abel, who had been on board the ship and were both diagnosed with coronavirus, confirmed the couple were doing well and fighting fit, adding: They are getting stronger every day.

Countries with confirmed cases of coronavirus. (PA Graphics)

The male victim is thought to be one of four Britons told to stay in Japan after testing positive for the virus.

Story continues

So far, China has reported nearly 80,000 cases and almost 3,000 deaths, while the virus has reached nearly 60 countries with more than 80 deaths.

PM under fire

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has been criticised for waiting until next week to chair his first meeting of the Governments Cobra contingencies committee on the coronavirus outbreak.

Downing Street said officials from the Department of Health, Public Health England and other relevant departments were meeting on a daily basis to discuss the crisis, while Health Secretary Matt Hancock had been chairing a weekly Cobra meeting.

New cases of coronavirus per day. (PA Graphics)

A PM spokesman also disclosed that Mr Johnson had spent half of the night shift on Thursday visiting Kettering Hospital where senior clinicians had talked him through their preparations.

But Labour again accused Mr Johnson of acting as a part-time prime minister, saying he should be taking action immediately to take control of the situation.

Virus will spread

Englands chief medical officer has warned it is just a matter of time until coronavirus spreads in the UK.

Experts have warned of school closures and cancelled sporting events as the disease spreads across the globe.

Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer, said on Thursday that there could be a social cost if the virus intensifies, including school closures for more than two months.

He told the Nuffield Trust summit: One of the things thats really clear with this virus, much more so than flu, is that anything we do were going to have to do for quite a long period of time, probably more than two months.

Major public events in the upcoming social calendar include Glastonbury, where 135,000 tickets have sold, and Royal Ascot, which attracts 300,000 visitors in mid-June, but there is no suggestion either will be affected.

Saudia Arabia, which contains Mecca, has closed its borders to foreign pilgrims ahead of Ramadan, while organisers of the MCM Comic Con London event said they are monitoring the spread of the virus ahead of the convention in May.

Euro 2020 is also set to bring together football fans across Europe in the summer.
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NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of NMC Health Plc (NMC or the Company) (OTCMKTS: NMHLY). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.



The investigation concerns whether NMC and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On December 17, 2019, Muddy Waters Capital issued a report alleging serious doubts about the companys financial statements, including its asset values, cash balance, reported profits, and reported debt levels. On this news, NMCs American Depositary Share (ADS) price fell $11.68 per share, or 33.68%, to close at $23.00 per share on December 17, 2019.

Then, on February 24, 2020, it was announced that NMCs founder and former Chief Executive Officer and Joint Chairman of the Board, B.R. Shetty, had pledged 7 million shares of NMC stock to Goldman Sachs as security for debt and that Shetty held a significantly smaller interest in NMC than previously stated. On this news, NMCs ADS price fell $0.66 per share, or 5.75%, to close at $10.81 per share on February 24, 2020.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.
A man wears a protective mask against the spread of coronavirus as he arrives at the Mexico City International Airport in a Jan. 29, 2020, file photograph. (Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images)

Mexico Confirms 2 Cases of New Coronavirus

Two patients tested positive for the new COVID-19 virus in Mexico, authorities announced at a press conference in Mexico City on Friday.

One of the patients is in Mexicos capital and the other is in the northern state of Sinaloa, Mexicos assistant health secretary, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, said. Authorities are testing the second patient again but treating the case as confirmed.

Neither patient is seriously ill, officials said.

At least five family contacts of the first patient have been placed in isolation. He said one of the men had contact with someone who had traveled to the northern Italian region where there has been an outbreak.

Italy has reported a rapid increase in confirmed cases this week, especially in the northern Lombardy region.

Some 24 cases have been exported from Italy to 14 countries, World Health Organization director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva on Friday. Nearly 100 cases have been exported from Iran to 11 countries.

Tourists wearing a protective respiratory mask tour outside the Coliseum in Rome, Italy on Feb. 28, 2020. (Andreas Solaro/AFP via Getty Images)

At the press conference in Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador appeared to downplay the seriousness of the COVID-19 virus, saying it isnt even equivalent to flu.

Symptoms of the new virus are similar to influenza, but international health experts noted in a report published Feb. 28 that the new virus is highly contagious and can spread quickly.

It is not SARS and it is not influenza, the experts added in the joint World Health Organization-Chinese report. The new virus is unique among human coronaviruses in its combination of high transmissibility, substantial fatal outcomes in some high-risk groups, and ability to cause huge societal and economic disruption, they emphasized.

The new cases in Mexico were the first confirmed between the United States and Brazil, which confirmed its first case earlier this week.

That patient returned from Italy, Brazilian authorities said. Nigeria reported its first case on Friday, an Italian man who works in the country and recently visited his home country, officials said. Other countries have reported new cases this week linked to Iran, Italy, and China.

The virus first emerged in China in late 2019 and spread quickly across the country. New cases appeared in other countries early this year. New Zealand officials said Friday that they had the first confirmed case, marking the 48th nation where the virus had spread. That patient traveled to Iran, they said.

Mexicos announcement came later, making the country at least the 49th with one or more patients who tested positive for COVID-19.

Experts say people can best avoid getting infected with the new virus by frequently washing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, maintaining a distance of at least six feet from other people, and not touching ones nose, eyes, and mouth with unwashed hands. People who start displaying symptoms should stay at home and contact their health provider or health authorities.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION;Centers For Disease Control And / New York Times

DAVIS, Yolo County  A student at UC Davis who lives in a campus dorm is being tested for coronavirus, and two roommates are in isolation, the university chancellor said Thursday.

The three students all were staying at Kearney Hall, a campus dormitory. The student who is being tested is at home, showing mild symptoms of the virus, said university spokeswoman Melissa Lutz Blouin. She described the person suffering from a runny nose and a bit of a cough, and noted that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention investigates anyone with such symptoms who has been exposed to someone with the virus.

Officials have quarantined the other two students, who show no sign of illness, in emergency apartments on campus. They have not been tested. The homes are self-contained, each equipped with a kitchen and bathroom, Blouin said.

As a precaution, the schools housing and dining facilities are using daily disinfection practices, Chancellor Gary May and universtiy Health Vice Chancellor David Lubarsky said in their announcement.

In a Thursday night Associated Students meeting at UC Davis Memorial Union, May sat among the audience and answered questions from students regarding the universitys response and preparation for the potential spread of the coronavirus on campus.

May said university officials have convened with emergency management experts including infectious disease and public health officials from UC Davis, the city and the county  to determine how best to make decisions that could impact the university.

One big milestone is when this (person under investigation) students test results come back, so, if they come back positive, then we have a lot of decisions to make. If they come back negative, then thats wonderful and we can probably go back to normal, May said.

Depending on the spread of the coronavirus, universty officials would not hesitate to close operations of the university, May said. He pointed students to the universitys handling of unhealthy air quality conditions that prompted the universitys closure for more than a week during the Camp Fire as a model the university could follow if a closure is required because of the coronavirus.

I feel very confident that if we had to either suspend classes or suspend operations beyond classes, we know how to do that, May said.

JB Martinez, a 22-year-old political science major serving on Associated Students of UC Davis, said while he believes university officials are responding in the best interest of student safety, he said transparency is key.

Most people are knowing about this through social media and apps like Wildfire, rather than through our own leaders on campus, Martinez said.

Wildfire is a mobile application he said is frequently by students to anonymously share alerts and school-related news, Martinez said.

Alexander Jackson, 20, a freshman chemistry major. said he is largely concerned about the uncertainty that comes with responding to the coronavirus on campus. He and Martinez said university officials should host a townhall meeting, publish safety tips for students on the school website, and advise teachers to discuss the coronavirus in each of their classses.

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.

Were talking about every hour mattering, and were getting new news reports and new information every hour, so for UC Davis to not take stronger preemptive stance on this, I think thats worrisome, Jackson said.

With final exams just weeks away, Jackson said he also has concerns about students who may ignore upper respiratory illness symptoms and go to class anyway out of fear of not performing well academically. He said university officials should encourage students to stay home if they are sick and develop plans for supporting those students to ensure that their grade dont suffer because of it.

Were in a college, at a very competitive university, and there is usually kind of an unsaid rule that unless you are really, really sick, you dont miss lecture, Jackson said.

UC Davis has not identified any of the students. A case of coronavirus  COVID-19  was confirmed in Solano County Wednesday. The woman, who was treated for three days at a Vacaville hospital and then transferred to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, had not recently traveled to a country where the virus is spreading or been in contact with someone who had it.

Her case marked the first time officials could not determine the source of the infection, prompting fears that coronavirus is spreading in the community.

Rachel Swan and Lauren Hernandez are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com and Lauren.Hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan @LaurenPorFavor
Reducing retirement age of government employees from 60 years to 58, free education for all students up to class 12th and debt waiver for landless farmers were some of the major announcements made by Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal in his budget.

Badal on Friday presented a Rs 1,54,805 crore budget for financial year 2020-21 in the state Assembly here.

Deciding against levying any fresh taxes, Badal also announced to waive Change of Land Use (CLU) charges for two years for the new industries coming up outside the municipal limits and slash 'mandi' fee on vegetables from four per cent to one per cent.

In his fourth budget of the current dispensation, the minister also announced to earmark Rs 100 crore for giving 10 lakh free smartphones to the youth, which was one of the main poll promises of the Congress-led regime.

However, the delivery of smartphones has been halted due to the coronavirus outbreak in China, Badal said in his budget speech. "We expect the delivery of smartphones to start from April 2020 onwards," he said.

Asserting that the state's finances were back on track, Badal said the state has achieved a situation where there is no funding gap in 2020-21 because of the government's sustained efforts of bringing in fiscal prudence.

Announcing his government's major decision, Badal said the retirement age of government employees has been reduced from 60 years to 58 years.

With this, we will be able to provide employment to three to four times the number of people who retire. We will also be able to get more talented pool of young people to serve Punjab, Badal said while addressing media later.

He said the number of employees who are going to be affected with this move was yet to be worked out and that the decision will be implemented in two phases.

Those who have turned 59 will retire on March 31 this year and those who are 58 will retire from September 30, said Badal.

Badal said at present, 3.50 lakh government employees are working in the state departments and the attrition rate is 5 to 6 per cent.

When asked about its financial implications, Badal said he was expecting that the financial outgo on account of reducing retirement age would be Rs 3,500 crore.

Allocating Rs 12,488 crore for promotion of schools and higher education, Badal announced to grant free education in government schools to all students up to class 12th. Currently, free education is provided to all students up to 8thstandard and for girls up to class 12th.

Free transportation facility for primary schools students will also be provided and for this Rs 10 crore has been allocated, he said.

Badal also announced to earmark Rs 4,000 crore in the budget for the 6thPay Commission which is expected to submit recommendations in the near future.

He further announced payment of 6 per cent Dearness Allowance arrears to employees next month which would involve financial outgo of Rs 1,000 crore. The government employees have been seeking release of their pending DA.

The finance minister also announced to allocate Rs 2,000 crore including Rs 520 crore especially for waiving loans of landless farm workers under its flagship programme of crop loan waiver scheme.

The government has already waived crop loans of all small and marginal farmers (up to 5 acres) who have loans of up to Rs 2 lakh.

Later, Badal also said the compensation to families of farmers who committed suicide would be ensured within 60 days.

Theallocation for free power subsidy for farmers has been kept at Rs 8,275 crore for 2020-21, he said.

In another important announcement, the minister also said under the new assessment policy of the excise and taxation department, the number of pending and old VAT assessment cases would come down from 1.24 lakh to about 30,000.

In the budget, Badal proposed revenue receipts of Rs 88,004 crore and revenue expenditure of Rs 95,716 crore for 2020-21.

He further said the revenue deficit for 2020-21 will be Rs 7,712 crore (1.20 per cent of GSDP) and the fiscal deficit will be Rs 18,828 crore (2.92 per cent of GSDP).

He also projected outstanding debt of Rs 2,48,236 crore for 2020-21 as against 2019-20 revised estimates of Rs 2,28,906 crore.

Badal also proposed capital expenditure of Rs 10,280 crore.

The finance minister also said the state would get higher share from the central taxes as has been proposed by the 15thFinance Commission.

Badal said the state government proposes to set up two agriculture colleges at Gurdaspur and Balachaur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Mumbai, Feb 28 : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday termed the 4.7 per cent GDP growth of Q3 as "steadiness" in the economy and a good sign, soon after the official figures for the December quarter were released.

She also made it clear that she was not expecting a jump in the number, nor a decline.

The Finance Minister was speaking at an award function of a private TV channel.

The GDP growth was at 5.6 per cent in the same period of the last fiscal and the current Q3 figure of 4.7 per cent is a seven year low GDP growth rate.

On the impact of coronavirus on the economy, Sitharaman sought to allay any fears saying there is no need to immediately press the "panic button", but things could get challenging if the issues prolong for another two or three weeks, citing feedback from the pharmaceutical and electronic industries, which depend heavily on imports of raw material from China.

The industry has suggested airlifting of essential items and the government may consider the same, the minister said.

While the logistics for airlifting like aggregating the goods have to be done by the industry itself, she assured help from the government through the consular staff.

Sitharaman said the government is "pushing the banks like never before" to lend in all categories, including retail, home and agriculture segments.

She also said that the government is working on creating a development finance institution. akin to ICICI and IDBI before they turned into full-fledged banks.
Lightning wins eight press awards

The Hendersonville Lightning received awards for its coverage of news, politics, government and the nonprofit community during the annual Winter Institute of the North Carolina Press Association on Thursday.

The local newspaper founded in 2012 by publisher Bill Moss won nine awards in all, including one for editorial writing on growth management, planning and the Highland Lake Road controversy.

"Your community is lucky to have such a newspaper to keep on top of the issues that affect its residents most," the judge for the editorial category said. "Bravo!"

The awards were:

Business Writing, 1st Place, Bill Moss. Businesses along tracks say, yes, in my backyard.

City, County Government Reporting, 1st Place, Bill Moss. A Tall Tale. "A great article on residents fighting for local standards."

Election/Political Reporting, 1st Place, Bill Moss. McGrady takes on redistricting and liquor laws against the odds. "The reporter's rapport with the subject shines through in this piece. A good look at telling political stories with a human-interest touch."

News Enterprise Reporting, 1st Place, Bill Moss. The Serpentine Solution. "Excellent article. I enjoyed every word."

General Excellence for Websites, 2nd place. Lightning Staff.

Editorials, 2nd Place, Bill Moss. Tap Root Proposal. Planning Broken. Road won't be the same. "Excellent analysis of the growth issue and the lack of adequate planning to accommodate it. The writer is obviously well-connected with the community, its transportation needs, and housing issues. Excellent arguments, clear and concise writing. Your community is lucky to have such a newspaper to keep on top of the issues that affect its residents most. Bravo!"

Special Section, 2nd Place, Jan Chapin and Lightning staff. Season of Giving. "Fabulous layout. I like how this wasn't just about gifts and Christmas, but about actually giving back and helping/volunteering."

Election/Political Reporting, 3rd Place, Bill Moss. Gay pride proclamation draws dissent from council members.

"We like the awards and we enjoy recognition from our peers," Moss said, "but most of all we love it when judges recognize our commitment to the community in the way we report the news. What we liked, too, is that we won recognition for the kind of reporting that we consider the Lightning brand  government, politics, investigative and enterprise reporting and cogently expressed editorials."
A federal judge says she is considering whether to hold a company reportedly controlled by Kremlin-linked Russian financier Yevgeny Prigozhin in contempt for ignoring court orders.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich on February 27 gave lawyers for the firm Concord Management and Consulting until the end of February 28 to explain why their client should not face a civil penalty for missing a deadline to produce documents.

Washington last year imposed sanctions on several entities and people associated with the Internet Research Agency (IRA) and Prigozhin, its financier, in connection with Russian interference in U.S. elections.

The IRA, a St. Petersburg-based organization known as the Russian "troll farm," was mentioned repeatedly by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In February 2018, the Justice Department indicted the IRA and Concord Management and Consulting and Concord Catering as well as Prigozhin himself and 15 other Russian individuals for alleged fraud "for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016."

Concord was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States for its role in election meddling aimed at sowing discord in the United States, helping Republican candidate Donald Trump, and harming his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Prigozhin has been nicknamed "Putin's chef" by Russian media because of the elaborate banquets he has organized for President Vladimir Putin.

He also controls the Vagner private security firm, which has sent Russian mercenaries to fight in Ukraine, Syria, and several African countries.

Prosecutors have asked the judge to hold Concord Management and Consulting LLC in contempt for defying subpoenas for information related to the case, such as corporate registration records, company internet IP addresses, and files relating to its officers.

The judge ordered company representatives to appear in court on March 2 for a contempt hearing.

Concord has several times unsuccessfully attempted to have the charges dismissed.

Concords trial is scheduled to begin with a jury selection hearing on April 1.

After months of investigation, Mueller documented election interference by Russia but said he did not find sufficient evidence to demonstrate a criminal conspiracy between Trump's campaign and Moscow.

The Concord case is one of the last remaining cases related to Muellers probe.

With reporting by Reuters and Politico
XML to NJ efile. Fast and Easy Our roots are in state-mandated reporting and e-filing. As early as 2004 we were filing healthcare data while working with the Massachusetts Connector." Says Kim Phillips, President and CEO We approach state filing not as an add on to ACA, but as a fully resourced core service.

BenefitScape, a leader in ACA compliance reporting and e-filing solutions, is an authorized e-filer to the state of New Jersey in connection with new legislation called the New Jersey Health Insurance Market Preservation Act (NJHIMPA).

This legislation requires that every New Jersey resident must either obtain health insurance, have a valid exemption, or pay a penalty called the Shared Responsibility Payment (SRP).

Any employer, who provides healthcare, minimum essential coverage (MEC), to a New Jersey resident, is required by this legislation to file electronically (no paper filings are permitted) a verification of this healthcare coverage to the statae of New Jersey. This requirement applies to both in-state and out-of-state businesses and is in addition to an employers federal reporting responsibilities established by the Affordable Care Acts Employer Mandate.

As an authorized e-filer to the NJ DORES system, BenefitScape can e-file the required information for an employer to help them fulfill their responsibility to provide healthcare verification to New Jersey.

Employers have until March 31, 2020, to comply with the NJHIMPA for Tax Year 2019. Employers can file via the same system they use to file their employees W-2s or they can seek the assistance of an authorized e-filer.

As one of the early developers working in 2004 with the Massachusetts Connector, our roots were planted in state-mandated reporting and e-filing. Says Kim Phillips, President and CEO We dont approach state filing as an added on service but with the recognition that accuracy and reliability are essential, to prevent any unnecessary fines and penalties.

Filing requirements follow the Federal ACA model

In general, employers need to submit the same 1095-B and1095-C Forms used by the IRS to verify an employers compliance with federal ACA requirements. While New Jersey will accept the entire federal filing, best practice will be to only send those Forms and information relating to New Jersey residents, other information should be excluded.

How BenefitScape performs this e-filing

BenefitScape is an authorized e-filer to both the federal IRS AIR system and to New Jersey. We are expert at handling the federal XML file format and can take the filing that was done to the federal government and repurpose it for New Jersey filing. Its that simple. Have only paper Form 1095..we will convert to XML. Here is a link that explains our process in greater detail.

BenefitScape has been filing healthcare mandate related information since 2005 in Massachusetts. We are experts at handling these filings in a secure reliable manner. We serve hundreds of clients on the federal level and have been preparing for the state-mandated filings that are now required in Massachusetts, New Jersey, District of Columbia and others .Learn More About State Mandates

About BenefitScape

BenefitScape Is the Leading US Employee Benefits Company to Focus Exclusively on Employer Compliance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and derivative filings in connection with state-level legislation. This Singular Focus and Our Dedicated ACATech Platform Enable Us to Free Employers, with Cost-Saving Efficiency, from All the Pain, Penalty Risks, and Resource Burdens of ACA Compliance.

From Performing an ACA Compliance Assessment, to Tracking and Calculating Eligibility, through IRS Coding and Employee Communications to the Final IRS E-Filing, We Work Seamlessly with Any Client Setup, All Data Formats, and at Any Stage or throughout the Compliance Process. And, We Dont Stop When Reporting Is Complete. We Assist in Necessary Corrections, Any IRS 226J Responses, and Establishing Go Forward Risk Mitigation Plans.

BenefitScape aspires to the highest level of transparency, partnership, community service and is women owned and operated.
Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that state agencies are taking proactive steps to monitor the spread of coronavirus, readying emergency response plans and preparing for any possibility.

The agencies are not starting from scratch, Abbott said. Instead, they are using historical knowledge gained from responses to other infectious disease emergencies, including H1N1.

So far, there are 10 known cases of coronavirus in Texas, including six confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and another four who were tested in Japan but whose results have not yet been confirmed by the agency.

For subscribers: 6 hospitalized for coronavirus after three more cruise ship passengers at Lackland test positive

Of the positive patients, two came to Texas from a flight from Wuhan and eight came from the Diamond Princess cruise, said Rear Admiral Nancy Knight, a division director at the CDC.

Abbott said Thursday that he spoke with federal and state officials including Vice President Mike Pence, who President Donald Trump put in charge of the administration's coronavirus response.

"The vice president made it sound like they were very committed to assisting the states in any way possible," Abbott said. "So we'll have to wait and see how much funding Congress provides."

Ninety coronavirus evacuees who were taken to Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland to be quarantined earlier this month from Wuhan were released last week.

Abbott said the Texas Department of State Health Services is preparing state laboratories to administer tests for coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, he said, and since Jan. 24, its also been leading daily and weekly calls with hundreds of local government and school officials across the state.

Texas Take: Get political headlines from across the state sent directly to your inbox

The agency has also made room at the Texas Center for Infectious Disease in San Antonio to reduce pressure on local hospitals, including 22 negative pressure rooms sealed off from the rest of the facility, Abbott said. The facility is being used to care for patients who are being tested for COVID-19 or are positive and have minor symptoms and those who are recovering.

Travelers returning from China are checking in daily with their local health departments to report their temperature and any other symptoms, Abbott said.

Abbott said DSHS and the Texas Department of Emergency Management will convene biweekly meetings with various state agencies on the states coronavirus response starting March 3.

The emergency management department is also working on an academic advisory group to keep state university systems aware of the response. The department, along with Texas A&M University, will convene work groups with experts that will inform state agencies response plans.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 03:40:23|Editor: yan

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BISHKEK, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) -- Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Mukhammedkalyi Abylgaziev has signed a decision banning the use of civilian aircraft whose age is more than 25 years from the date of production, the press service of the government reported Friday.

The report said that the document was adopted to develop civil aviation and increase the availability of goods and services to the population of Kyrgyzstan's regions.

According to the document, the ban will not apply to cargo planes no older than 50 years, and passenger planes previously included in the state registry, which are no older than 40 years.

In addition, according to the document, civilian planes that have not performed flights for the past two years will be banned from flying due to a lack of airworthiness.
Alabamas Republican Senate primary campaign collided Thursday with the growing concern about the coronavirus with former Sen. Jeff Sessions drawing a comparison between the spread of the political ideology of socialism to the spread of the respiratory illness that has killed almost 3,000 people worldwide.

No deaths have been reported in the United States and only one case so far is believed to have originated in the U.S.

Sessions, speaking to reporters at a campaign stop in Huntsville, made the case for his experience in Washington as a reason voters should support him in the Super Tuesday GOP primary next week.

"You work with the team and try to help your Republican colleagues be successful," Sessions said. "There are two different teams and my team, the Republican team, has generally been far better at the issues facing America than the Democratic team and the socialist team, in my opinion.

"I see socialism much like the coronavirus, it's spreading all over the country. It has the same danger to the American economic system and freedom as that other virus has to our bodies and our health."

Related: AL.com 2020 primaries coverage

Financial markets on Wall Street plummeted Thursday as fears grow of the virus affecting the worldwide economy amid speculation that a pandemic could be the result.

Sessions comments came less than three hours after elected leaders and health officials in Huntsville held a press conference in an effort to ease concerns about the coronavirus.

The growth of socialism in Washington has been a buzzword of concern for Republicans as a further move to the left and away from the ideals of the GOP. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, has described himself as a socialist.

In the final days of the campaign, Sessions has emphasized his experience of having served 20 years in the Senate before resigning in 2017 to become U.S. attorney general as part of President Donald Trump's cabinet.

"I can hit the ground running protecting interests in this state, particularly in this region," Sessions said, referring to Huntsville's extensive connections to the federal government.

He has also been critical of some Republicans in the Senate Sessions sees as having not been strong enough in their support of Trump's policies.

I dont think the congress and the Republican Senate is nearly passionate enough in helping President Trump on trade and they havent been nearly passionate enough to help him fix the border, Sessions said. When I get up there, they are going to hear from me. They heard from me before but they are going to hear from me more vigorously this time.

Sessions, the first senator to endorse Trump, recalled his days on the campaign trail and saw a country eager for a new approach to doing business in Washington.

"People are slow to change," Sessions said of those less-than-staunch Trump supporters among Republican senators. "But the world has changed. I was out there watching President Trump's speeches. I was watching the reactions often of thousands of people at these rallies in every corner of the country. They're tired of business as usual."

Sessions lunched at Blue Plate Diner on South Memorial Parkway, taking part in a Huntsville power lunch with Madison County Commission Chair Dale Strong, District Attorney Rob Broussard, Sheriff Kevin Turner and Circuit Judge Alan Mann.

Such an assembly of county leaders led Elbert Peters, an icon in Alabama Republican Party who was also at the lunch, to wonder aloud, Whos running the county?
On his last day, several members of the Delhi Bar Association expressed their gratitude to him saying, You are an inspiration.

New Delhi: Less than 24 hours after the Delhi high court bench headed by Justice S. Muralidhar made significant observations and raised sharp questions regarding Delhi Polices handling of the riots in Delhi, Union law and justice ministry handed him his transfer orders on Wednesday night.

In exercise of the power conferred by Clause (1) of Article 222 of the Constitution of India, the President, after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, is pleased to transfer Shri Justice S. Muralidhar, judge of the Delhi high court, as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana high court and to direct him to assume charge of his office in the Punjab and Haryana high court, the ministry said in a late-night notification. Justice Muralidhar was handed his transfer order at 11 pm on Wednesday.

Judges are usually given two weeks time, or 14 days, to take change at the new place, however Justice Muralidhar is expected to take charge on March 6, eight days

Though Justice S. Muralidhars transfer was recommended by the Supreme Court collegium about two weeks back, the timing of the orders came under strong criticism from Opposition parties, civil society, common people and the Bar Association.

During the hearing on urgent petitions with regard to Delhi riots on Tuesday night, Justice Muralidhar had rapped Delhi Police for its role and asked it to register FIRs against certain BJP leaders for their hate speeches and to ensure the safe passage of the injured from the small Al Hind hospital to GTB.

We should never allow another 1984... especially under the watch of the court and under your (Delhi Police) watch We have to be very, very alert, the bench of Justice Murlidhar and Anup Bhambhani observed during a midnight hearing on night at his residence.

The case is now listed before the Chief Justice of Delhi high court, Justice Dhirubhai Naranbhai Patel, and on Thursday he gave Delhi Police four weeks time to file a counter-affidavit in response to a plea seeking registration of FIRs against four politicians BJP leaders Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Verma and Abhay Verma  for making incendiary statements that allegedly incited mob attacks and riots in North East Delhi. The matter will now be heard on April 13.

While questioning the timing of the transfer of Justice Muralidhar, Senior Counsel and Supreme Court Bar Association president Dushyant Dave said, The transfer is part of routine process but the manner and haste in which it is done is absolutely malafide and punitive.

Justice Murlidhar, who delivered his one last order on Thursday, said in Court no 38 of the Delhi high court: That was my last judicial act as a judge of this Court.

On his last day, several members of the Delhi Bar Association expressed their gratitude to him saying, You are an inspiration.

But simultaneously, a political row broke out on Thursday over the transfer and the Congress, while questioning the timing of the transfer, alleged that the Modi dispensation was waging a battle of revenge against the judiciary.

Remembering the brave Judge Loya, who wasnt transferred, tweeted Rahul Gandhi.

Justice Loya, who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case of Gujarat, had allegedly died of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014, when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleagues daughter. Some reports had claimed foul play in his death.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the Centres attempts to muzzle justice and break peoples faith in an upright judiciary are deplorable.

The midnight transfer of Justice Muralidhar isnt shocking given the current dispensation, but it is certainly sad and shameful. Millions of Indians have faith in a resilient and upright judiciary, the governments attempts to muzzle justice and break their faith are deplorable, Priyanka Gandhi tweeted.

Calling the transfer a classic hit-and-run injustice by the BJP government, senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said the saffron partys politics of revenge has been exposed. It seems those doing justice in country will now not be spared. Delhi HC judge S. Muralidhar transferred by the government to save BJP leaders in Delhi violence case, he said at a press conference.

Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad dismissed the allegations saying Justice Muralidhar was transferred on the recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium and accused the Congress of politicising a routine transfer. He added that a well-settled process was followed in the judges transfer.

Transfer of Honble Justice Muralidhar was done pursuant to the recommendation dated February 12 of the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India, the minister said. By politicising a routine transfer, Congress has yet again displayed its scant regard for the judiciary, Mr Prasad said in a series of tweets. He added that a judges consent is taken before transferring him or her.

Referring to a tweet by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the death of Judge Loya, the Union minister said the Loya issue had been settled by the Supreme Court. Those raising questions do not respect the judgment of the apex court pronounced after elaborate arguments. Does Rahul Gandhi consider himself above even the Supreme Court, he asked.

Mr Prasad said the government respects the independence of the judiciary. The record of the Congress in compromising independence of judiciary, superseding judges even of Supreme Court during Emergency is well known. They rejoice only when the judgment is of their liking otherwise raise questions on the institutions itself, he said.

Apart from Justice Muralidhar, one judge each from the Bombay and the Karnataka high courts were also transferred to other high courts, the law ministry said. Justice Ranjit Vasantrao More of the Bombay High Court was transferred to the Meghalaya High Court while Justice Ravi Vijay Kumar Malimath of the Karnataka High Court was transferred to the Uttarakhand High Court, according to separate notifications issued on Wednesday.
Democratic front runner Bernie Sanders on Thursday weighed in on the redevelopment of the Suffolk Downs racetrack on the border of Boston and Revere, where activists have been pushing back against the plans for its lack of affordable housing.

The development calls for the creation of 10,000 apartments and condos as well as office space for 25,000 workers.

Sanders tweeted that he stands with the residents of East Boston and against gentrifying luxury developments for the few.

We need affordable housing for all instead of more gentrifying luxury developments for the few. I stand with the longtime residents of East Boston fighting displacement from the communities they have spent generations building. https://t.co/OGpZAD755O  Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 27, 2020

We need affordable housing for all instead of more gentrifying luxury developments for the few, Sanders tweeted Thursday evening. I stand with the longtime residents of East Boston fighting displacement from the communities they have spent generations building.

The tweet prompted a wave of responses, including from Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo and Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards, who represents East Boston. Arrigo simply tweeted OK Boomer.

Edwards replied by tweeting out her comments on the development, submitted last May to the Boston Planning and Redevelopment Authority. She expressed concerns that, among other things, East Boston residents had been left out of the planning process prior to 2019.

Good evening this is the district city councilor from East Boston. Don't worry @BernieSanders I have a PLAN FOR THAT!#bospoli#mapoli https://t.co/DhrSQkhqsF  Lydia Edwards (@LydiaMEdwards) February 27, 2020

OK Boomer https://t.co/cernjpfWJe  Mayor Brian Arrigo (@MayorArrigo) February 28, 2020

Thomas N. OBrien, founding partner and managing director of the Boston-based HYM Investment Group, which owns the site is proposing the development, said in a statement that the firm agrees that Boston needs more affordable housing.

Thats why our plans for Suffolk Downs will create the largest amount of affordable housing ever created by a single project in Massachusetts," OBrien said. "The project includes 10,000 new housing units, with 20% affordable overall, while creating 14,000 union jobs. And by redeveloping a shuttered horse racing track, we are adding to the communities of East Boston and Revere without displacing a single resident.

Earlier this month, Boston-based Lawyers for Civil Rights filed a complaint to federal housing authorities, alleging that the city of Boston hadnt been doing enough to include non-English speakers in the review process for the development, according to the Boston Business Journal.
Two medical staff walk near a "Quarantine Zone" sign at Cu Chi Field Hospital for novel coronavirus suspected patients in HCMC. Photo by VnExpress/Nhu Quynh.

Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Can Tho have placed more than 2,300 people in 14-day quarantine to contain the novel coronavirus.

As of Friday, 1,762 people coming from countries and territories with reported cases of Covid-19 were quarantined at different facilities across Hanoi. The majority, or 752, are isolated at Hanoi Military High Command in Son Tay Town.

Over 500 people are in quarantine at two other zones established by the military on Friday morning. 77 have been taken in by the Hanoi Police Hospital's quarantine rooms, according to Hanois Department of Health.

Apart from the quarantined individuals, the city is also monitoring 305 people coming from outbreak areas, 50 among them arriving from South Korea. One person suspected to have contracted the virus is currently under strict observation.

In Ho Chi Minh, Vietnams largest city, 220 people are quarantined at Cu Chi Field Hospital in the outlying district of Cu Chi, while 13 others are held at other medical facilities across the city.

Nearly 3,000 people under house quarantine have completed the 14-day period. As of Friday, 54 remain in home quarantine.

44 people who came in contact with previously confirmed cases were also put under quarantine but have not shown any symptoms after the monitoring period. 46 people suspected to have contracted the virus later tested negative. The city currently has no suspected infections.

The central city of Da Nang reported 24 suspected cases are being quarantined in hospitals. A separate quarantine zone is closely monitoring 266 people.

Can Tho City in the Mekong Delta has quarantined 28 people from South Korea since Tuesday, including three South Korean nationals.

As of Friday morning, Vietnam only has 79 suspected cases left, and nearly 5,000 people who were near and/or arrived directly from coronavirus-hit areas are being monitored, according to Vietnam Center for Public Health Emergency Response.

Vietnam has suspended entry from all coronavirus epicenters since Tuesday, to include cities in South Korea, Japan, Italy, and Iran. Those coming from areas that have reported infection cases are subject to mandatory 14-day quarantine upon entering Vietnam.

The country's last Covid-19 patient out of 16 confirmed infections was discharged Wednesday. Vietnam has recorded no new infections in the last two weeks.

The global death toll from the Covid-19 epidemic has reached 2,858, mostly in China, followed by Iran at 26, Italy at 17 and South Korea at 13.
New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday (February 28) will chair the 24th Eastern Zonal Council Meeting (EZC) in Odisha. Chief Ministers of Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand respectively, Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, and Hemant Soren, will also participate in the meeting that will be chaired by Shah and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik will be the vice-chairman and host of the meet, according to officials.

"Union Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the 24th Eastern Zonal Council Meeting (EZC) in Odisha. Date: 28 February 2020, Time: 10:30 AM, Venue: Lok Sewa Bhawan, Bhubaneswar," the Home Ministry of India tweeted.

According to the Home Ministery, the upcoming meeting will deliberate on nearly four dozen issues which inter alia include inter-state water issues, power transmission lines, royalty on and operationalisation of coals mines, land and forest clearances of rail projects, investigation of heinous offences, cattle smuggling across country`s borders, lack of telecom and banking infrastructure in remote areas, petroleum projects, sharing pattern on centrally collected revenues etc.

The last meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council was last held in Kolkata on October 1, 2018.

Meanwhile, on his two-day visit to Odisha beginning today, Shah is scheduled to address a rally in Bhubaneshwar and meet state leaders to discuss a strategy to strengthen the BJP in the region.

According to information, the Home Minister will also address a rally today at Baramunda Field on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a law that has been causing protests across several parts of the country ever since its passage by Parliament in December last year.

The senior BJP leader is also scheduled to meet state party unit President Samir Mohanty along with Members of Parliament, MLAs, and candidates who were fielded by the party in earlier polls in Odisha to discuss ways to strengthen the party at the grassroots level.

On February 29, Shah is scheduled to offer prayers at the Jagannath Temple and Lingaraja Temple and will return to the national capital on the same day.
Explained: Is it time to have a better governance in Delhi Police?

India

oi-Ajay Joseph Raj P

New Delhi, Feb 28: While scores of people have witnessed to see people from different political parties and government administrations being directly or indirectly holding responsibility for the lawlessness witnessed in the national capital for over a week now, it is time to question Delhi Police's role in the ongoing protest.

It can be seen that the residents blaming the Union Home Ministry as it manages the Delhi Police. Leaders from the Opposition party, demanded Union Home Minister Amit Shah's resignation as he failed the curb the violence and did not interact with the pro and anti CAA protesters who hit the streets of Delhi from February 23 to 26.

National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval was immediately put in charge of the situation minutes after the Congress demanded Shah's resignation. Until then, matters were being handled by the Delhi Police.

Explained: Why cops should not wear uniforms similar to the Army

#UPDATE National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, after visiting sensitive areas of #NorthEastDelhi, has reached Home Ministry to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah. https://t.co/Mq05qXcIld  ANI (@ANI) February 26, 2020

On Wednesday morning, the NSA officer, who directly reports to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was seen taking a walk on the streets of violence-hit areas in Delhi, assuring the residents that the law and order would be restored in the national capital.

Several media reports, videos and witnessses revealed that the police officials were allegedly unwilling or unable to prevent the mobs, and in many cases that was associated with the violence.

Amit Shah's response to call in Indian Army

The Home Minister, on Tuesday called for an all-party meeting with respect to the Delhi violence and decided that there was no need to deploy the Army in the national capital. Was the Home Ministry's blind faith on the police officers or did the BJP assume that it was their "internal problem" and decided to deal with it all by themselves? Only Amit Shah has the answers.

Explained: The link between Indian citizenship and the voter identification card

It can also be pointed out that despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi, NSA officer Ajit Doval and Home Minister Amit Shah assured the residents to bring law and order back in place, the death toll in the national capital stands at 34, and might even shoot up in cases that emerge fron succumbing to injuries.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 9:40 [IST]
Malaysian king rejected the interim Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamads plan to convene parliament for electing the new leader of the House. Royal official Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin, in a statement, said that the king will continue to strive to find a solution in accordance with the constitution, in the interests of the people and country.

The decision came after widespread criticism of Mahathirs plan to convene a session on March 2 to elect the new Prime Minister. Though the 94-year-old leader did not deny the possibility of snap elections, he wanted the parliament to decide on the new leader. Speaking at a news conference on February 27, Mahathir said that the nation will go for snap elections if the Lower House fails to elect a person with a majority.

Political realignment

Following his resignation from Prime Ministerial post on February 24, Mahathir returned as interim Prime Minister of Malaysia the next day. Though Mahathir had submitted his resignation to the King on Monday, he is supposed to remain at the helm by entering a wider coalition and replacing the current ruling pact.

According to media reports, if parliament is convened to elect the leader, Mahathir could retain the power with the support of a majority of lawmakers that includes opposition parties Umno and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS). The political realignment could see a new government without the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) which was part of the current coalition government.

Read: Malaysias Interim PM Mahathir Mohamad Says Parliament Will Decide On New Leader

PKR has expelled Minister of Economic Affairs Mohamed Azmin Ali and Minister of Housing & Local Government Zuraida Kamaruddin for acting against the party. PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, in a Facebook Live on February 23, had expressed shock on the political developments calling it a betrayal of the promises made during government formation.

Read: Malaysia: Mahathir Mohamad Returns As Interim PM Amid Political Turmoil

The political realignment could see a new government without the PKR which was part of the current coalition government. Resignation of Mohamad was widely expected after a series of meetings were held on February 23 to plan the formation of a new federal government. Mahathir disbanded the cabinet and the future of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, formed by Mahathir and Ibrahim is almost over.

Read: Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad Resigns Amid Reports Of New Coalition

Read: Malaysia Faces Political Tremor Amid Bid To Form New Govt

(With inputs from agencies)
Kelvin N. Redmon, 28, was arrested and charged with possession of heroin, possession of methamphetamine, tampering with evidence, child neglect without harm and possession of drug paraphernalia. Also arrested was Summer R. Taylor, 22, is charged with child neglect without harm, possession of drug paraphernalia and violation of state probation.

The Holmes County Sheriffs Office executed a search warrant Wednesday at 2529 Stewart Circle. Deputies made entry to the home and Redmon retreated to rear bathroom where he unsuccessfully attempted to flush a substance which later tested positive as heroin. A search of the home resulted in the discovery of methamphetamine, new and used syringes, a spoon containing methamphetamine residue, and counterfeit money that represented more than $800 of U.S. currency. Also located was a printer and large sheets of paper, both used to manufacture the counterfeit bills.
An Idaho woman has been arrested over the death of her husband who she claimed drowned in a boating accident on a lake two years ago.

Search crews recovered the body of Larry Isenberg, 68, in March 2018, a month after he fell into Lake Coeur dAlene.

Mother-of-six Laurcene 'Lori' Isenberg, 66, was booked into the Kootenai County Jail on a charge of first-degree murder, accused of planning to kill her husband by intentionally creating the situation in which he was submerged in the lake and died, court documents say.

Laurcene 'Lori' Isenberg, 66, was booked into the Kootenai County Jail Monday (left) on a charge of first-degree murder. She is accused of poisoning her husband, Larry Isenberg (right), 68, and causing him to drown in an Idaho lake in February 2018

Isenbergs charges also cite poison, lying in wait or torture as potential factors in the killing. Larry Isenbergs body contained lethal levels of Benadryl, according to the Spokane County Medical Examiners Office.

The autopsy found he had an astonishing 7,100 nanograms of the allergy drug in his system, while 100 nanograms to 1,000 nanograms is considered normal.

A week after her husband died, Isenberg wrote a letter to friends and family detailing the events, which was obtained by The Spokesman-Review.

Despite's Larry's recent bout with the flu, the couple took the boat out February 13 to see the sunrise, the motor stalled, Isenberg wrote, and her husband fell overboard while leaning over the motor.

Isenberg wrote that she tried to reach Larry but tripped over a space heater, hitting her head.

Lori claimed Larry fell overboard as the two were boating on Lake Coeur dAlene in Idaho

Isenberg said after 'frantically' looking for Larry, she eventually found his phone and called for help. She told a detective she waited two hours because she didnt want to leave the area where her husband fell into the water.

Her account of Larry's health diverged from that of his friends, who told police Isenberg texted them that morning of February 13 to say he felt better.

A friend also said on February 13, Larry sent him a 'thumbs-up' emoji despite never having used an emoji in his life. Lori, however, was known to use the emoji regularly.

Lori pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud in January 2019 and was sentenced to five years in federal prison for embezzling from her employer

Isenberg was later charged with embezzling half-a-million dollars from her former employer, the North Idaho Housing Coalition.

She pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud in January 2019 and was sentenced to five years in federal prison for embezzling from the organization.

Four of Lori Isenbergs daughters have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for taking money from their mother that was embezzled.

Investigators also discovered handwritten changes had been made to Larry Isenbergs will to give 80 per cent of the retired forester's estate to his wifes six daughters and 20 percent to his own two children.

Isenberg has continually been under investigation for her husbands death, including a January 31 grand jury indictment that eventually led to the murder charges filed this week.

In an interview with KHQ after Lori's arrest, Larry's adult son, Dean Isenberg, speculated that his stepmother was trying to keep his father from finding out about her financial crimes.

'As far as we all knew, they had a great marriage,' the younger Isenberg said. 'It was something you could model your own relationship off of. It seemed like everything was perfect. Dad was happy. No one knew what was going on behind the scenes.'

Lori Isenberg was brought to Kootenai County in Idaho from the SeaTac federal detention center in Seattle Monday, according to court documents. Her bond was set at $2million. She is due back in court next Tuesday.
Health institutions in regions across China deemed to be of low epidemic risks shall provide healthcare services in full, according to a circular issued by the National Health Commission.

The circular demands local authorities adopt differentiated measures, based on local conditions in the battle against the novel coronavirus outbreak, to guide health institutions to resume normal services to meet people's healthcare needs.

Health institutions in low-risk regions should be guided to rationally allocate medical resources and ensure the smooth operation of various departments, including outpatient and emergency services, hospitalization, surgery, examination and testing.

In medium-risk regions, hospitals, on the basis of doing a good job in epidemic prevention and control, should gradually shift their focus to ensuring daily healthcare services, according to the circular.

Health institutions in high-risk regions are asked to step up services for key patients and meet people's basic and necessary healthcare needs while focusing on epidemic prevention and control.

In high-risk regions, the circular says, effective measures should be taken to meet healthcare needs of patients with major diseases that require long-term treatment, such as chemoradiotherapy and hemodialysis, as well as of vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, children and the elderly.

At the same time, efforts should also be made to ensure that patients with acute and serious injuries receive timely treatment there, according to the circular.
Karachi: At least 30 people were killed and several others seriously injured when a passenger bus hit a train in Pakistan's Sindh province on Friday, according to a media report.

The accident happened at Rohri area in Sukkur district when the bus was trying to cross an open unmanned railway crossing and hit the train, the Express Tribune reported.

"At least eight bodies have been shifted to the nearest hospital as the rescue is still underway," the report quoted a senior police official as saying.
Sergio Ermotti, CEO of Swiss banking giant UBS. (Michael Buholzer/AFP via Getty Images)

The chief executive of Swiss bank UBS (UBSG.SW) saw his pay package fall by 11% last year, but still took home millions of Swiss francs.

UBS said in its annual report, published on Friday, that CEO Sergio Ermotti was paid SwFr 12.5m (10m, $12.5m) in 2019. That figure includes both salary and bonuses and compared with a total take-home of SwFr 14.1m in 2018.

Ermottis basic salary and pension contributions were steady at SwFr 2.8m but bonus awards fell by 14% to SwFr 9.7m.

UBSs remuneration committee largely praised Ermotti but noted the bank did not fully deliver on growth and return targets, in particular in the Global Wealth Management and Investment Bank divisions.

UBSs income fell 3% in 2019 to $28.9bn and operating profit fell 7% to $5.5bn.

Ermottis pay was also hobbled by an ongoing French tax case. UBS was fined 4.5bn in February 2019 after a French court found the bank guilty of helping clients evade tax. UBS is appealing the ruling, with a court date set for June this year.

UBSs remuneration committee said it considered the impact of the French cross-border matter on the firm and the resulting share price development when deciding Ermottis pay award. SwFr 1.5m of his package is also dependent on the appeal and could end up being clawed back if UBS do eventually have to pay the fine.

The banks annual report showed that bankers across UBS face lower payouts this year. The total bonus pool shrank by 14% to $2.7bn, which the remuneration committee said reflected our disciplined approach in managing compensation over business cycles and alignment to shareholder interests.

Eromtti is set to step down as chief executive of UBS in November 2020 after 9-years in charge. He will be replaced by ING chief executive Ralph Hamers.
The cost incurred by the Government of Sri Lanka to maintain this corrupt system is huge. It is worth comparing the meagre sum of Rs. 20 that the Government spends per day on a destitute child in an orphanage with the money spent on motor vehicles for ministers and MPs which is over Rs. 50 million.





by Victor Ivan





The whole system of the country which has been crumbling is now on the verge of near collapse. The political regime, bureaucracy, intellectuals and the society in general did not have a sufficiently developed political imagination to understand the need to rectify the mistakes and errors that occurred from time to time, due to various reasons. The outcome of this situation was that they had become compounded and solidified, turning the whole system into a rotten and stinking mess.













Now the whole system of Sri Lanka is in a state of complete deterioration, and even then, it is strange that no one has been able to realise the need for correcting it through structural reforms. The only thing that can happen in a situation like this is the collapse of the entire system, before our very eyes.





The political system can be compared to a complex machine. Even a normal machine needs to be serviced on a regular basis and repaired when defects occur. Similarly, the political system also requires servicing and repairing. If these two basic requirements are not met adequately, it is likely that the machine may fall into disrepair before its time so that it can no longer be used.





The political system





Generally, in modern times, the lifespan of a political system is counted not by decades but by centuries. Britain has the oldest political system in the world. It is 1,427 years old. Switzerland has the next oldest political system; it is about 727 years old. It is not a representative democratic system that we find in the UK or the United States. It is a mixture of both representative democracy and direct democracy. The US Constitution is 233 years old.





Sri Lanka has adopted three constitutions during the past 72 years since Independence. The second Republican Constitution, which is 42 years old now, can be said to have become an utter mess that can no longer be used for successful State administration.





Generally, as indicated above, the lifespan of a constitutional system is counted by centuries. But, a constitution which has been adopted improperly and not maintained well with necessary services and repairs being effected when the need arises can collapse in a few decades instead of lasting for centuries.





Now, Sri Lanka is faced with a similar confusion. When a machine is completely dilapidated and collapsed, a similar machine or even a better one can be purchased from the market. But it is impossible to purchase a readymade system from the market when the political system of the country is collapsed. It should necessarily be built by the people of that country. It is not simple or easy, but a difficult and complicated task.





The stray journey





Lack of advanced thinking has had an adverse impact on the socio-political situation and the economy of Sri Lanka. There was no abolition of feudalism and the land tenure and the feudal service system associated with it even after gaining independence. There was no abolition of the caste system either. Also, there was no attempt to build the modern nation to ensure co-existence between different ethnic groups and religions. In this background, the political system can be said to have evolved without having a solid foundation.





Even though Sri Lanka gained independence without shedding a single drop of blood, 10 years after independence the country was plunged into ethnic conflict; 20 years later, it turned into a violent struggle that persisted for 30 long years making the country a land of incessant bloodshed on large scale. The divisive factors of race, caste and religion, in one way or another caused the violent youth uprisings in the Tamil north and the Sinhalese south.





The prolonged uncivilised environment prevailed in the country had a devastating impact on socio-political and economic system. It caused the whole system to be crippled, weakened and corrupt. In this process, both parties, the rebels and the security forces unleashed maximum cruelty on the society. A large number of people were killed, and all those who were able to survive physically, were killed spiritually to a greater of lesser degree.





In that horrific social environment, State rule had become a way of plundering public wealth. Eventually, this situation resulted in rendering the entire State and its institutional system ineffective and corrupt. Notwithstanding the Government being able to defeat, though belatedly, the two uprisings of the Sinhala youth in the south and Tamil youths in the north, both uprisings had however caused serious damage to the State, making it weak and degenerated.





After ending the internal civil war, it had become an essential condition to introduce structural changes and recreate the entire system which had become distorted and degenerated, in order to ensure the survival of the entire system. But neither the Rajapaksa Government, which won the internal war, nor the Yahapalana regime, which came to power later, was able to realise this need.





It can be said that the entire system had reached a level of collapse in the face of usual predatory policy followed by both regimes ignoring the essential reforms. The country is now on the brink of a catastrophic destruction.





Vehicle mania





Most of my time has been spent exploring and writing about the degeneration of the entire system, including the State of Sri Lanka. I believe that some of my experiences in this respect may be useful to understand this issue better.





The system of offering super grade motor vehicles for MPs, which they can use to earn a substantial income, at the cost of public funds can be considered a significant factor having symbolic importance, among many other factors, that has led to bankrupting the country. It was late President J.R. Jayewardene who initiated this shady system. It can be considered a corrupt and ugly system not operative in any other country where a democratic system of governance is being practiced.





The hidden purpose of offering a supra grade motor vehicle to MPs once every five years was to keep them happy by providing them with an opportunity to generate a large income by selling it at the end of five years. Later, this corrupt system was extended to senior Government officials as well. In addition to offering duty-free vehicle licenses once in five years, they were allowed to take home a vehicle worth Rs. 30 to 40 million for a comparatively negligible price of about Rs. 1 million when they retire from the public service.





Gradually, the type of vehicles and the number of vehicles used by high-ranking politicians increased dramatically. The price of a vehicle used by Presidents, Prime Ministers and Ministers increased to over and above Rs. 100 million and the number of vehicles in their reserve of vehicles also went up.





A system that allowed Ministers to maintain a private staff consisting of six officers and 28 employees in addition to their official staff was set up. This can be considered one of the most expensive and corrupt systems not to be found in any other democratic country in the world. The six staff members of the Ministers personal staff were also offered duty free vehicle licences once every five years in addition to their official vehicles. Often, the six officers of the ministers personal staff consisted of his family members or close relatives. Thus, the number of duty-free vehicle permits issued to a family of a minister increased to seven.





The cost incurred by the Government of Sri Lanka to maintain this corrupt system is huge. It is worth comparing the meagre sum of Rs. 20 that the Government spends per day on a destitute child in an orphanage with the money spent on motor vehicles for ministers and MPs which is over Rs. 50 million.





Sirimavo Bandaranaike





No one elected to the Parliament, whether educated or not, good or bad, has objected to this corrupt system of giving MPs duty free vehicles, a system not to be found in any other democratic country in the world. Generally, what happened is the adaptation of MPs to this corrupt and ugly system when they get elected to Parliament.





Once I inquired about this at a discussion held on several issues including the issue of vehicles when Sirimavo Bandaranaike was the Leader of the Opposition (in 1991). Bandaranaike, J.R.P. Suriyapperuma, Party Secretary, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Anuruddha Ratwatte and Dr. Neville Fernando were also present at this discussion.





If you allege that President Jayewardene is pursuing a policy of bribing parliamentarians to win their support, why didnt the SLFP oppose the corrupt system of granting duty-free permits to MPs, a system not in operation in any other democratic country in the world? I asked Bandaranaike. She didnt have a clear answer to that.





Dr. Neville Fernando had ordered biryani for lunch for the participants followed by the discussion held at Rosemead home of Bandaranaike. Normally, the quantity of food that I eat at lunch is little. Having finished eating before the others, I went to the pantry to wash my fingers. Dr. Neville Fernando also came there. He smiled and remarked that it was only today I realised that Victor Ivan will get killed not by an UNPer but by a SLFPer. He also stated that the SLFP leaders who had been out of office for 16 years are greedier than the UNP leaders.





Wijamu Lokubandara





During a discussion I had with Wijamu Lokubandara, the Minister of Cultural Affairs at the time, he taught me a wonderful lesson on how they run the system.





As members of the Government, we eat well. We get enough to eat like gluttons. We let the Opposition also eat well, though not to the extent that we do. Apart from that, a selected clique of Opposition is allowed to eat more than the others in the Opposition. Then he concluded his remarks, saying, Therefore, my dear friend, it will not be easy to change this Government.





All the other governments that came to power after that implemented a similar policy as explained by Wijamu Lokubandara with certain changes.





There was a big monied man visible or invisible behind every political leader who had the potential to become the head of State. It is this rich person who used to defray all expenses incurred when the leader travels both locally and overseas. The leader had a strong connection with the rich person who backs him. It is possible to say that the rich man could make a decisive influence on all important decisions made by the leader. Similarly there are rich men behind those who have the potential to become cabinet ministers.





Black money





Black money plays an important role not only in maintaining political parties but also in running election campaigns. I heard about a strange incident that had taken place when President Jayewardene decided not to contest for a third term due to strong objections that came from Prime Minister Premadasa, and giving the opportunity to the latter to contest the election.





President Jayewardene had summoned Ranjan Wijeratne to his residence and instructed him to hand over all the money kept under lock and key in a huge closet to presidential candidate Premadasa. Later, following the assassination of President Premadasa, it was revealed that there was a huge sum of money amounting to millions of rupees at Sucharitha, the home of President Premadasa. The money kept in a huge closet of President Jayewardene and the money stored at Sucharitha can be treated as black money and not as money earned legally.





I had the rare opportunity of witnessing how Chandrika Kumaratunga received financial aid at the 1994 Parliamentary Election. One day, summoned by Chandrika Kumaratunga, I went to the official residence of the Leader of the Opposition. That was a day reserved for the receipt of financial support in excess of Rs. 1 million from donors. I was asked to stay in a room until the financial aid program was over. It gave me an opportunity to get a glimpse of that carnival like incident in which the donors handed over the parcels of money to Chandrika Kumaratunga.





Anuruddha Ratwatte was the one who handled the money queue on the ground floor. Chandrika was upstairs. The time allotted to each donor did not exceed more than two to three minutes. The donors approached Chandrika on a queue, carrying parcels of money, one after the other. Apparently the donors could not see me, but I could see them from where I was seated in the room.





After the donor queue was over, Anuruddha came upstairs and I too came out of the room. There were over 40 parcels of money, each containing Rs. 1 million or more stacked on chairs. There was no documentation or issuance of receipts when donations were received. I simply asked Chandrika what she would give back to the donors who had given her the money. My questioning angered her. How can we do the election without money? She retorted in a tone that showed her anger. But soon she was back to normal.





This can be considered only the collection in one single day allocated for receipt of financial support. It is one way of raising funds for elections by political parties. There are other methods as well. But there is no room here for me to go into details. Suffice it to to say that this system is corrupt and contrary to the law.





Assets and Liabilities Law





In my opinion, the Assets and Liabilities Law is the most powerful tool available in Sri Lanka to combat corruption. It is more powerful than the Bribery and Corruption Commission. It can be considered a law which has a most progressive and practical vision capable of trapping those who have acquired assets by undue means; but the Sri Lankan version of this law is designed with two glaring loopholes that enable the wrongdoers to circumvent the law.





Initially, the access to the declarations of assets and liabilities remained closed to the public. I may be the first person to have gained access to them. The Secretary of Parliament asked me to bring a Court order when I contacted him over the phone in 1991 and asked for the copies of the declaration of assets and liabilities by the MPs. This was the situation prevailing everywhere at that time.The 1994 election manifesto of the Podu Peramuna (United Front) included the policy it intended to implement in relation to the Assets and Liabilities Law. I was instrumental in having it inserted in the election manifesto. But Chandrikas Government did not keep that promise.





Following K. B. Ratnayake being appointed the Speaker of the Parliament, in a letter detailing the Assets and Liabilities Law, I requested him to provide me with certified copies of the declaration of assets and liabilities of the MPs. The Speaker, thanking me for pointing out the law, advised me to obtain the certified copies of the declarations of assets and liabilities after paying the copying charge; he had further stated that he had informed the Secretary of Parliament in this respect. Accordingly, I got the copies I needed. It was the first time the gates of Parliament were opened on this subject.





Thereafter, during the 1999 Presidential Election, I wrote a similar letter to Dayananda Dissanayake, the Commissioner of Elections, explaining the law pertains to the declaration of Assets and Liabilities, with a cheque for Rs. 5,000, requesting certified copies of the declaration of assets and liabilities submitted by Chandrika and Ranil with their nominations.





The Commissioner of Elections sent me the certified copies of the two declarations along with the balance money. It was because of a feud created by me that a tradition of obtaining assets and liabilities from presidential candidates when handing over nomination was established.





According to the Assets and Liabilities Law, when a request is made for a copy of a declaration of any person, the authority concerned should provide it without raising any question. In this backdrop, I was shocked when I heard that Transparency International had to seek permission of Courts to obtain a copy of the declaration of assets and liabilities of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.





I have been able to open the door to obtain declarations of assets and liabilities and have made a great attempt to reform the law to close the two loopholes. However, I must say that no government that came to power up to the Yahapalana regime took the initiative to close these two loopholes. Apparantly, every government must have realised rightly that it is tantamount to committing suicide. In my opinion, closing these two loopholes alone will enable to trap anyone who has amassed wealth by undue means.
Attorney General William Barr, left, and President Donald Trump turn to leave after speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House, in Washington. Read more

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee asked Attorney General William Barr on Friday to allow the four career prosecutors who quit the criminal case against President Trump's friend Roger Stone to testify before lawmakers as part of a wide-ranging inquiry into possible White House interference at the Justice Department.

In a letter to Barr, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., wrote that recent events at the Justice Department - including leadership's unusual intervention to reduce career prosecutors' sentencing recommendation for Stone - had been "deeply troubling," and requested Barr turn over communications between the White House and the Justice Department on several politically sensitive cases.

Nadler also asked that Barr make available for testimony or interviews 15 different current and former officials involved in the matters, including the four career prosecutors who until recently handled the Stone case and all the U.S. Attorneys across the country that the Justice Department has recently tapped for special assignments of interest to Trump.

Barr himself is scheduled to testify before the Judiciary Committee on March 31, and Nadler asked for a response to his letter by March 13.

The Justice Department is generally resistant to providing Congress with White House communications, which could be protected by executive privilege, or with information about ongoing investigations - making it unlikely that Nadler will get much, if any, of what he is seeking. The chairman's request for testimony from low-level line prosecutors, who are not politically appointed, also is unusual and could be met with resistance even within his own party.

Nadler conceded in his letter that the Trump administration's position has been that "the Department typically does not provide information regarding ongoing matters," but he cited recent precedents that show the Justice Department has not always taken that tack.

For example, he wrote, when the Judiciary Committee examined the FBI's investigation of then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, as well as the FBI's 2016 opening of an investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, "the Justice Department made available nearly one million pages of documents, including classified materials, memos describing interactions with President Trump, and electronic communications authorizing investigations into Russian election interference."

Nadler noted that the department also made available 15 current and former Justice Department and FBI employees for interviews, including career officials, for those legislative inquiries.

Barr has faced intense criticism since he personally intervened in the Stone case this month - after Trump tweeted about the matter - to reduce the seven-to-nine year sentencing recommendation that career prosecutors had made to a judge. The move prompted the four prosecutors - Jonathan Kravis, Aaron S.J. Zelinsky, Adam C. Jed and Michael J. Marando - to quit the case, with Kravis leaving government entirely. More than 2,000 former Justice Department officials soon called on Barr to resign in an open letter.

Stone, who had been convicted of lying to Congress as it sought to investigate possible coordination between Trump's campaign and Russia, was ultimately sentenced to three years and four months in prison.

Barr has said he made the decision to intervene before Trump's tweet, and in an ABC News interview, he openly rebuked the president for speaking publicly about Justice Department criminal cases. Barr told ABC News that Trump's comments made it "impossible for me to do my job."

The net effect has been harmful to morale in the department. Many career officials already had viewed Barr - and his predecessor, Attorney General Jeff Sessions - warily for appointing outside U.S. Attorneys to carry out tasks that would seemingly be of political benefit to President Trump.

For example, Barr assigned U.S. Attorney John Durham in Connecticut to investigate how the FBI initiated its 2016 probe into Trump's campaign, and tapped U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady in Pittsburgh to take information from Trump's personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, about what Giuliani sees as wrongdoing by former vice president Joe Biden and his family in Ukraine. In the wake of the Stone sentencing, it was revealed that Barr had also tapped Jeff Jensen, the U.S. attorney in St. Louis, to review and "assist" prosecutors handling the case again Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Nadlers letter called for all of those U.S. Attorneys - and several others involved in similar matters - to be made available to testify.
A 22-year-old man's scrotum and penis were ripped apart, and his anal region suffered severe injuries during police firing in Delhi's Mustafabad on Tuesday, doctors who treated him at Al Hind Hospital said

A 22-year-old man's scrotum and penis were ripped apart, and his anal region suffered severe injuries during police firing in Delhi's Mustafabad on Tuesday, doctors who treated him at Al Hind Hospital said. The man, Mohammad Imran, a welder, was to wed in May, his brother Ibrahim said. Imran's condition is stable and he is recuperating at LNJP Hospital, to which facility he was shifted the next morning.

"We are unsafe not just outside of the streets, but also inside our houses. I had come out of the house at around 5 pm to see what was all the commotion about. I was just trying to see what was happening when something struck my private parts and I started bleeding. I went home to check what had happened. That's when I realised my entire sack had had burst. I was bleeding profusely. It was a very deep wound, and it was paining like hell. I felt like I had died," Imran said.

He has four brothers and three sisters, and is one of the breadwinners of the family. He will not be able to work in the coming months due to the injury. "Kaam toh baad mein, pehle jaan bach jaaye uski (work comes later; first, his life should be saved)," his brother Ibrahim said. Besides the injury to his anal region, he has also suffered pellet injuries to his back, lathi marks, and smaller injuries to the head.

According to Shamshuddin, his father, who is a carpenter, he and his son were standing inside one of the lanes of Mustafabad, when the police starting shooting and releasing tear gas to quell the crowd. "It happened within seconds. He was just standing there when he shouted and fell down. His trousers had turned red. We rushed him to the house and realised that it was a big wound."

He also said that when he went to Urban Hospital, they refused to admit his son. He said, "They told me to go home. I told them that he had received many stitches, but they refused to admit him and asked me to leave immediately. Then we took him to LNJP Hospital." Imran is still admitted there.

Imran's mother, according to Ibrahim, is too much in shock to be able to talk. "She has been crying since the past two days. She hasn't eaten, she is just sitting in her room, crying and praying," he said. Ibrahim added that his mother's state was also due to the fact that Imran's wedding was to take place in the upcoming months.

"We had even decided on the month of May for his wedding. But now it will be very difficult. The wedding might not even happen. What if he doesn't recover? What if he can't have kids now?" Imran's father asked. Then he broke down. He said, "Main haath jod raha tha doctors ke saamne, mere bete ko theek kar dein (I was pleading with the doctors with folded hands to save my son). Earlier, he used to earn money and take care of us, but now we will have to fend for him and also take care of him."

The doctors, who treated him at Al Hind Hospital in the Old Mustafabad area, MA Anwar and Meraj, told this correspondent that they had immediately stitched the disfigured parts together to stop the bleeding. Afterwards, he was sent to another hospital in an ambulance.

"The wound looked as though his legs had been torn apart. He was bleeding profusely. We stitched those parts up to stop the bleeding. The injury is grievous in nature," said Anwar, adding, "It was as though some sharp object had been used to laterally cut his private parts from between." Doctors worked on Imran for over two hours.

He was brought to Al Hind Hospital on 25 February in the evening, which was the first day of major violence in Delhi. The ambulance came the next morning at 2 am to take him for further treatment.

Al Hind was not meant to be a hospital. It does not have the emergency medical facilities required to tend to serious patients. It was a small clinic run by Anwar and two other doctors and had to be converted into a hospital because of the high number of patients coming in and the rising number of casualties.

Anwar said that he had put over 25 stitches in Imran's disfigured anus region. From his anus to the scrotum, there is a 15-centimetre-long wound, according to his latest medical reports. "Only we know how we managed to put those stitches. We, as doctors, have seen people die, but treating this man was even more painful," Anwar added.

There have been several critical cases received at Al Hind Hospital, mostly people from the Mustafabad region. Within two days of the violence, there had been over 500 patients at Al-Hind, most of whom according to the chief doctor of the hospital had suffered severe bullet or pellet injuries. "Out of all the cases we have received, this was the worst. We have even received a case in which acid had been thrown at a three-month pregnant lady. A total of three cases of acid attacks have also been recorded," the doctor said.

According to the doctors at LNJP Hospital, something made a very deep wound in his anal region, but it is yet to be determined what the object was.

Even though Imran is now stable, he has suffered deep psychological scarring due to the incident. He said, "Only I know what I have been through. I will never get over this."

The Delhi Police on Thursday released details of 37 people killed in the recent riots in the northeastern part of the city, a day after the violence subsided. Among those who lost their lives is one police official, while the other 36 are civilians.

The majority of the victims (21) died of gunshot wounds, four each of "stabbing injuries" and "assault", three due to "assault with burns" while the cause of death was not known for four people.

Note: We made several attempts to reach the Station House Officer, Mustafabad, but to no avail. This piece will be updated with a police statement if an official responds.
PR-Inside.com: 2020-02-28 22:50:49

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FAYETTEVILLE, AR / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2020 / Hannover House, Inc. (OTCPINK:HHSE) has announced that it will be holding it's annual meeting of shareholder on Saturday, March 7, 2020 at 11:00-am Central Time. A previously planned date for Saturday, Feb. 29, has been delayed due to formatting and uploading issues with the company's new registration status with the Securities and Exchange Commission Edgar Database. A formatting and compliance supplier attempted to upload a Form 8 information statement for Hannover House, Inc. on Wednesday, and was informed by the S.E.C. that new credentials for Hannover House would first need to be issued, which is now underway. The company's plan has been to file the Form 8 Information Statement, followed by the Form 10 Registration Statement."The primary issues of interest to our shareholders are the Form 10 Registration and the new information contained in this disclosure statement and filing about new company ventures," said Eric Parkinson, C.E.O. of Hannover House. "In respect of our shareholder's time, we did not feel that holding the meeting tomorrow, before the filing issues with the S.E.C. have been resolved, would be productive. Our original shareholder's meeting date of March 7 has therefore been reinstated," he concluded.The shareholder's meeting will be live-streamed via an internet link on the company's website, www.HannoverHouse.com . It will be open and accessible to the public, and not limited to shareholders of record.Hannover House, Inc. was established in 1993 and has been operating continuously for 27 years. The company has evolved with the changing media delivery platforms, from VHS and DVD to the newly emerging consumer preference for digital streaming. Hannover House is currently involved with the production of several high profile feature films as well as with the development and launch of a multi-studio, one-stop digital streaming channel branded under the "MyFlix" website, OTT channel and APP.CONTACT:Eric Parkinsoneric@ hannoverhouse.com SOURCE: Hannover House, Inc.
He thwarted a bank robbery, put out a fire and rescued someone from a collapsing building, all in a day's work.

Gaige Pike is a 10-year-old Florida boy who has been a fighter since the day he was born.

After his birth, Gaige was diagnosed with neoplasms, abnormal tissue growths that often signal cancer. Then last year, he had open heart surgery.

But Gaige is so much more than his medical diagnosis. Not only does he love science and robots, but he loves helping people.

When he told Make-A-Wish that he wanted to be a robot superhero, RoboGaige was born.

Make-A-Wish Central and Northern Florida teamed up with the Orange County Sheriff's Office for what amounted to an unforgettable day Thursday for so many.

This is the Orange County Sheriff's Office SWAT team, with RoboGaige. Come out of the bank with your hands up. Do it now!"

An explosion distracted a would-be robber at Orlando Federal Credit Union, which allowed RoboGaige to move in and arrest the bad guy.

These are the lasers I used to catch the bad guy," RoboGaige told reporters after the arrest was made.

Not satisfied with thwarting a robbery, there was a fire to put out as well. After that, a fire victim to save and a trip on the tower truck for good measure.

"He's just over the moon, because all of this we kept a secret until today," SAID Gaiges mom Amanda Pike. "Before he couldn't participate in being a kid, he couldn't run around and play and do anything like this at all."

Hundreds worked to coordinate it all, the Orange County Sheriff's Office and fire services provided the resources and let Make-A-Wish could do what it does best.

All the organizers asked the community to turn out and make this superhero wish, extra-special. They all came and cheered and and many carried signs.

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings came out to thank the hero of the day.

Congratulations to you and thank you for catching a bad guy today," the mayor told RoboGaige.

It doesn't get any better than this, so we're very proud of RoboGaige and this young man and what he really means to all of us, Demings said.

RoboGaiges final rescue of the day was from a simulated building collapse.

I really just wanted to save people," Gaige said.

Those who turned out lined the way for Gaige as his work was finished. It was one last thanks for choosing "saving others" as a once in a lifetime wish.

He's one of the most generous and kind souls that I have ever met in my life; he is my hero. For everything that he's gone through and overcome, I cannot be more proud to call him my son," Amanda Pike said.

I'm feeling great and a little tired too," RoboGaige said when it was all done.
WASHINGTON  Top US diplomat on Iran Brian Hook, speaking at a breakfast meeting convened by Al-Monitor Feb. 28, said the US government is looking at how it might assist the Iranian people during the coronavirus outbreak but it was the Iranian regime that bore primary responsibility for how it managed the crisis.

We are looking at what we can do, Hook, the special representative for Iran and senior policy adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said in response to the question of whether the United States would issue a general license to facilitate Irans procurement of respirators and disinfectant equipment to fight the virus, which Iranian authorities report has killed 34 nationals and infected almost 400. The BBC reported today that it has learned from Iranian hospital sources that the Iranian death toll from coronavirus is 210 so far, compared to the official Iranian government death toll of 34.

We look for ways to help where we can, Hook told the Al-Monitor Middle East Mornings event. But people have to understand, the regime has first responsibility to its own people.

Hook said the US administration has a lot of confidence in a new Swiss channel to facilitate humanitarian trade with Iran.

We set up the Swiss channel and already processed a transaction, Hook said. By contrast, a financing vehicle backed by the European Union to try to facilitate permitted transactions with Iran, INSTEX, has yet to process a single transaction.

Hook said it would be diplomatic malpractice for a UN arms embargo on Iran to be allowed to expire in October. But he suggested the United States may be looking for other ways to extend it rather than triggering UN snapback sanctions itself.

It would be diplomatic malpractice to let this arms embargo expire, Hook said. But while triggering UN snapback sanctions is something which is available to us, Hook suggested the United States is more focused on the significant impact its unilateral actions have had in bringing economic pressure to bear on Iran.

We are out of the deal, [and] our energies have been focused on the measures we can do unilaterally, he said. We are trying to do what we can with the UN Security Council.  We need to renew [the arms embargo] in October.

Hook said President Donald Trump is still willing to meet with Iran but has said he will not pay for a meeting  an apparent reference to possible US sanctions relief during talks on reducing tensions previously proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron and others.

The president said he is not going to pay for a meeting, Hook told Al-Monitors Andrew Parasiliti. That has been our position.

The president is open to a meeting, Hook continued. But he is not going to pay for a meeting. We are not in any hurry. We are very comfortable with the strategy success we have had.

So much of this is up to the regime, Hook said.
Facebook has provided another reason for its decision not to fact-check political ads that appear on its platform.

In an interview with NBC News' Byers' Market podcast, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg claims that the platform simply isn't capable of fact-checking the ads even if they wanted to.

'If you look at political ads and fact-checking political ads,' she said during the interview.

'That's really not something anyone is capable of doing. And we don't think we can make ourselves the arbiter of the truth.'

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (pictured) said in an interview with NBC Byers' Market that the company can't fact-check political ads

The claim marks a shift in the narrative from Facebook which previously took a stance against fact-checking political ads by citing ideals about censorship.

In September the platform gave false claims that appear in paid political ads an exemption from its misinformation policies saying that 'newsworthiness' took precedent.

Zuckerberg has also defended the company's policy both in a speech at Georgetown University and again in congressional hearings last year.

'We strongly object to this policy as it stands. It doesnt protect voices, but instead allows politicians to weaponize our platform by targeting people who believe that content posted by political figures is trustworthy.'

'Our policy is we do not fact check politicians speech, and the reason for that is that we believe that in a democracy it is important that people can see for themselves what politicians are saying,' Zuckerberg said in the hearings.

Facebook has said it will refrain from removing claims in political ads, even those that are found to be false, if they 'believe the public interest in seeing it outweighs the risk of harm.'

Facebook has com under scrutiny from employees and regulators for its role in fact-checking ads over the past year (stock)

Concurrently, the decision not to fact-check political ads has also riled its own employees at times.

In a letter written and signed by hundreds of workers at the company, employees criticized Facebook and Zuckerberg for the company's refusal to correct misleading information that appears in paid political advertisements.

'Misinformation affects us all. Our current policies on fact-checking people in political office, or those running for office, are a threat to what FB stands for,' wrote the employees.

The platform is also engaged in a holsitic effort to combat other misinformation on its platform using a mix of human moderators and artificial intelligence designed to identify and flag propaganda before it spreads.

Facebook has gone to great lengths to assure law makers, regulators, and its own users that these methods will help to prevent campaigns documented before and during the 2016 presidential election.

As documented by the US Intelligence community, Russian operatives were allowed to spread content meant to undermine the campaign of then Democratic nominee, Hilary Clinton and support now president Donald Trump.
The Trump administration has been working to reduce its reliance on MPP in recent months by fast-tracking deportation hearings and sending about 700 migrants from Central America by airplane to Guatemala as part of an agreement that allows them to seek asylum there instead. The number of people waiting in Mexican border cities for U.S. immigration court dates has dwindled, in part because would-be migrants in Central America said they were not making the trek to the U.S. border in the first place, given how unlikely it would be that they would gain entry.
The launch of the new brand marks the culmination of a six-month journey in which Sezzle canvassed consumers and retail partners to better understand how Sezzle impacts the lives of its users. The new brand tagline, "The Way Forward," with campaign messaging "Buy Now, Build Your Future," is not only a nod to Sezzle's customer-friendly business model, but to the company's focus on providing all consumers access to building their financial futures in a responsible manner.

"Having recently surpassed the one million active user milestone we know we can make a real difference for all consumers through our mission-driven approach," said Charlie Youakim, Sezzle co-Founder and CEO. "We want a brand that represents what we believe in: transparency, diversity, and inclusivity. We stand for all consumers and want our new brand to reflect our goal to fundamentally change how people think about payments and their financial futures."

With 78% of workers living paycheck to paycheck, 40% unable to pay for a $400 unforeseen bill, and 67% of consumers under 30 years old having a subprime or non-prime credit score, Sezzle is providing access to a generation that is looking for alternative ways to pay for the things that they need and want. The business is committed to doing it in a consumer-friendly way that supports all consumers.

"Today Sezzle is putting a stake in the ground  our rebranding positions Sezzle to continue to be the most trusted payment solution for this up and coming generation of young consumers," remarked Sezzle co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer Paul Paradis. "With roughly 90 million Gen Zers across the U.S. and Canada, this next generation will soon make up 25% of the spending power in these countries and we think Sezzle will play a big role in their future."

"Gen Z is different. They think, act, and spend differently and they are a cohort that is more concerned with the future than any other generation. We are building a platform for these consumers that care about trust, inclusivity, and transparency," said Sezzle's Vice President of Marketing, Chris Bixby who led the Sezzle rebranding initiative. "This rebranding is more than a logo change or updated fonts, it's really a way for us to show the world who we are and what we stand for. It's also a way for us to be fun and engaging in a way that truly connects!"

Sezzle worked with Minneapolis-based creative agency, J. Doe Studios, founded by creative director Krissa Jane Nelson , on the rebranding efforts. The brand is being rolled out across Sezzle's website, social media, digital products, and all other marketing assets.

About Sezzle Inc.

Sezzle is the highest consumer-rated buy now, pay later solution, enabling over 1 million active users in the United States and Canada to take control of their spending, be more responsible, and gain access to financial freedom. With over 10,000 retail partners on its platform, Sezzle's core product allows consumers to split their purchases into four interest-free payments over six weeks, which increases their purchasing power and offers them a built-in way to budget their purchases. Approval is instant and consumers' credit scores are never negatively impacted.

Sezzle was founded with the mission to financially empower the next generation through building the most transparent, inclusive, and seamless payments option for online purchases. Sezzle is publicly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange ("ASX") under the ticker SZL. As a public company, Sezzle has raised over US$ 147 million in debt and equity capital to date.

For more information visit www.sezzle.com

Sezzle's CDIs are issued in reliance on the exemption from registration contained in Regulation S of the US Securities Act of 1933 (Securities Act) for offers of securities which are made outside the US. Accordingly, the CDIs, have not been, and will not be, registered under the Securities Act or the laws of any state or other jurisdiction in the US. As a result of relying on the Regulation S exemption, the CDIs are 'restricted securities' under Rule 144 of the Securities Act. This means that you are unable to sell the CDIs into the US or to a US person who is not a QIB for the foreseeable future except in very limited circumstances until after the end of the restricted period, unless the re-sale of the CDIs is registered under the Securities Act or an exemption is available. To enforce the above transfer restrictions, all CDIs issued bear a FOR Financial Product designation on the ASX. This designation restricts any CDIs from being sold on ASX to US persons excluding QIBs. However, you are still able to freely transfer your CDIs on ASX to any person other than a US person who is not a QIB. In addition, hedging transactions with regard to the CDIs may only be conducted in accordance with the Securities Act.

SOURCE Sezzle Inc.

Related Links

https://sezzle.com


Burma Myanmar Military Says Soldiers Killed, Wounded in Attack by RCSS

Restoration Council of Shan State troops on parade at the Shan State National Day celebration in Loi Tai Leng, Shan State on Feb. 7. 2014 / Kyaw Kha / The Irrawaddy

The Myanmar army, or Tatmadaw, suffered an undisclosed number of casualtiesincluding an officerduring clashes with troops from the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army near Loi Twan Hill in Mong Kai Township, Shan State on Thursday, according to a military spokesman.

Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told The Irrawaddy on Friday that the military troops were attacked as they patrolled in Mong Kai Township, which is some 16 kilometers west of Kyesi Township.

He said the casualties included fatalities and injuries, but didnt say how many there were or whether the officer was killed or wounded. He denied that Tatmadaw troops had attacked the RCSS soldiers.

The RCSS, which is a signatory to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), said in a statement on Friday that some 400 troops from four Tatmadaw battalions (Nos. 525, 520, 575 and 574) attacked their camp on Loi Twan Hill starting at 7:50 a.m. Thursday.

Lieutenant Colonel Ohm Khur, a new spokesman for the RCSS, said the clashes continued until 5 p.m. on Thursday, and alleged that the military used artillery.

He added that the military deployed an additional four battalions with some 500 troops to the area on Friday, while a Tatmadaw battalion based in Mong Kai continued shelling their camp on Friday.

The area is located between the Northeastern Command and Central Eastern Command, the military spokesman said.

Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun said, It is not true that the Tatmadaw troops attacked them. He claimed the RCSS troops crossed out of their territory and shot at the government soldiers first.

The military said the area is not listed as RCSS-controlled territory under the bilateral agreement signed between the government and the RCSS in 2012, contradicting the RCSSs account.

Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun also said the local military affairs officer informed the RCSS liaison officer in Kholan on Feb. 22 that the military would be conducting security operations in the area to deal with illegal drug operations.

The RCSS spokesman denied the Tatmadaws accusation and said RCSS troops were not crossing out of their territory. We conduct movements in the area and we were attacked while our troops were taking a rest in the hills, he said.

The RCSSs liaison office in Kholan is negotiating with officers from the Central Eastern Command but no details of the talks were available, said Lt-Col Ohm Khur.

The RCSS statement reads: The Tatmadaw troops intentional attack on RCSS troops casts doubt on the Tatmadaws position towards the decisions of the JICM [Joint Implementing Coordination Meeting] on Jan. 8, while the RCSS is trying to achieve peace together with the government, the Tatmadaw and other ethnic armed organizations. The group added it would review the decisions it made at the RCSSs recent annual meeting (which concluded on Feb. 24) to try to participate in the upcoming Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee and the Joint Ceasefire Monitoring Committee meetings in the second week of March.

Since March 2019, the RCSS has played the leading role on the Peace Process Steering Teama political negotiation body of 10 ethnic armed groups that have signed the NCAand has been instrumental in getting the formal peace process on track.

In January, RCSS chairman General Yawd Serk met with Myanmar army chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyitaw. The meeting was hailed as a positive step toward building mutual trust.

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In Pacified Eastern Myanmar, the Military Is Free to Pursue Its Agenda

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James Bond is known for his love of fast cars, his most iconic being the Aston Martin.

But it appears Daniel Craig wasn't allowed to drive the Aston Martin DB5 the whole time he shot his final film as 007, No Time To Die.

The actor, 51, told Top Gear Magazine on Thursday that he couldn't drive and act at the same time as it was seen to be too dangerous, so his stunt driver Mark Higgins would take his place while filming high speed chase scenes.

For his safety: Daniel Craig revealed on Thursday that he wasn't allowed to drive James Bond's iconic Aston Martin DB5 during high-speed chase scenes over safety fears

Of why this was the case, Daniel explained: 'You know we fake it, don't you? We're not allowed to do that any more, although I do go driving.

'I was allowed to donut the DB5 in Matera, which was great.'

Higgins spoke with Esquire about getting behind the wheel for Daniel's final Bond film, and revealed that everything 'done is for real.'

'I think a lot of these films are going away from CGI and trying to make it as real as possible,' Higgins explained. 'The environment we were driving in was very, very restricted and very, very tight. So it's a difficult place to work in.'

Too dangerous: Daniel explained that he wasn't allowed to drive and act at the same time, saying: 'You know we fake it, don't you? We're not allowed to do that any more'

Behind the wheel: Mark Higgins, Daniel's stunt driver for his final outing as Bond spoke with Esquire about driving for the film, as he revealed that everything 'done is for real'

He went on to add that while Daniel 'enjoys driving when he can', he was also happy to take a step back and let the professionals do the work.

'Hes a fantastic actor so thankfully he lets me do the driving and I let him do the acting so weve got a bit of a deal,' Higgins joked.

Despite the precautions, Daniel's time on set wasn't without pain as he suffered a nasty ankle injury while filming a separate chase sequence in Jamaica, the spiritual home of Bond creator Ian Fleming.

Praise: 'Hes a fantastic actor so thankfully he lets me do the driving and I let him do the acting so weve got a bit of a deal,' Higgins said (Daniel pictured in Skyfall)

One to watch: No Time To Die is set to be released in the UK on April 2, and the USA on April 10

The actor underwent an operation followed by two weeks of rehabilitation in May, causing major delays to the long awaited production.

The official Twitter account for Bond 25 released a statement concerning his injuries at the time, writing: 'Daniel Craig will be undergoing minor ankle surgery resulting from an injury sustained during filming in Jamaica.

'Production will continue whilst Craig is rehabilitating for two weeks post-surgery. The film remains on track for the same release date in April 2020'.

No Time To Die is set to be released in the UK on April 2, and the USA on April 10.
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All 168 British tourists at the Tenerife coronavirus hotel remain locked down in quarantine while at least 28 guests have been pictured undergoing medical tests and checking out of the virus-stricken resort.

A stream of guests, of the 130 cleared by Spanish authorities to leave the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel yesterday, left over the course of the day in minibuses after their fourth day in quarantine.

An elderly couple could be seen leaving in an ambulance but the authorities said there have been no new cases since the virus was detected in four Italian tourists earlier this week.

The rest of the group will be allowed to leave in the coming hours, according to a statement from the hotel.

It was not clear where the groups - each made up of less than a dozen people - were being taken or whether those in the ambulance had any symptoms of the virus. One bus driver told TVE television he was taking his group to the airport.

A source told MailOnline they were unaware of any Britons among them.

Two airlines said today they would be unable to fly the British tourists home unless cleared by the relevant health authorities, despite Spanish officials approving 50 Britons to leave yesterday. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office were unable to confirm whether there was a plan in place for the exiting tourists.

The four-star resort was placed on lockdown four days ago after four cases of the coronavirus were detected. Over 700 holidaymakers are still in isolation at the hotel.

Health personnel wearing protection clothing check the temperature of a guest at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife today

Medical professionals and representatives from TUI assist families after they were released from lockdown at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel in La Caleta, Tenerife today

Health personnel check the temperatures of a guest leaving the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, Tenerife today

Tourists leave by foot from the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel this afternoon, after the resort was placed on lockdown when four cases of the coronavirus were detected there, in Adeje, on the Spanish island of Tenerife

Tourists leave by foot from the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel this afternoon, after the resort was placed on lockdown when four cases of the coronavirus were detected there, in Adeje, on the Spanish island of Tenerife

VIRUS 'COULD KILL 500,000 BRITONS IN WORST-CASE SCENARIO' Half a million Britons could be killed by coronavirus in a 'reasonable worst-case' scenario, according to a government memo. The official paper claimed four out of five people in the UK could become infected by the virus. The document from the government's National Security Communications Team also warns: 'The current planning assumption is that 2-3 per cent of symptomatic cases will result in a fatality.' Sources suggest that would cost 500,000 lives, according to The Sun, which saw the report. A government spokesman said they did not expect this to happen but every eventuality had to be planned for. Britons could be told to isolate themselves at home if a family member falls sick during a coronavirus pandemic. Schools may also be shut, transport networks suspended and football matches and other public gatherings postponed, according to possibilities being considered by Department of Health officials. Their coronavirus pandemic plan will be rolled out if the number of British cases escalates suddenly. They are weighing up the effect of each action to contain the disease against the impact on society and the economy. For example, closing schools would force millions of parents to stay at home, including essential health workers such as doctors, nurses and pharmacists. Other measures could include advising members of the public to keep a safe distance from each other and avoid kissing or hugging. Advertisement

Half a dozen guests including a baby in a pram exited the hotel in the south of Tenerife, and underwent temperature scans at the back of the hotel before boarding a 15-seater minibus, the video shot by a hotel guest showed.

The holidaymakers wore face masks and appeared to sign documents before boarding a passengers' van loaded with suitcases.

TUI and Jet2 airlines, two of the main holiday providers to the resort, both said they aren't flying the quarantined Britons home from unless they are cleared of the disease by British authorities.

Tui told MailOnline they would only charter flights for British tourists at the hotel if they were cleared by Public Health England or the FCO, but that 'none' of the 50 leaving are their customers.

Jet2 are still to confirm how many customers they have in the group but said they would need to be cleared by a 'recognised authority', or have passed the incubation period, before they would give them the greenlight to travel.

The FCO said that while they are discussing options with Spanish authorities and airlines, they were unable to confirm a plan for the British nationals at this time.

Spanish health officials have been carrying out testing on the guests and cleared 130, including 50 Britons, to leave the hotel yesterday.

One source told MailOnline there's no difference between Spanish and British standard tests for the respiratory illness.

Spain now needs to liaise with the governments of the remaining hundreds of guests, to establish monitoring protocols before they are allowed to return home, local health authorities confirmed on Friday.

'That is a more complicated process than it seems, because it involves several ministerial departments of their countries of origin', Fernando Simon, director of Spain's Centre of Coordination of Health Emergencies said.

A small group of guests who showed symptoms or who came into close contact with the infected Italians must complete the isolation period in their rooms, even though they have tested negative for the virus, Simon said.

They will be allowed to leave on March 10, local authorities added.

Health personnel wearing protective clothing assist guests as they leave the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife, today

Tourists leave by foot from the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel this afternoon, after the resort was placed on lockdown when four cases of the coronavirus were detected there, in Adeje, on the Spanish island of Tenerife today

Medical staff prepare to check guests leaving the H10 Costa Adeje Palace today

Tourists are pictured processing documentation before leaving the hotel in South Tenerife, which is on lockdown after four Italians were struck with the novel coronavirus four days ago

Medical staff and members of the regional government speak outside the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel, which was placed on lockdown after four cases of the coronavirus were detected there, but others showed no symptom of illness, in Adeje, on the Spanish island of Tenerife, Spain today

Tourists wearing face masks huddle outside the H10 Costa Adeje Palace, which has been quarantined by Spanish authorities, after the coronavirus struck the resort four days ago

Tourists pass through a police checkpoint as they leave by foot the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel, which was placed on lockdown after four cases of the coronavirus were detected there, but others showed no symptom of illness, in Adeje, on the Spanish island of Tenerife, Spain today

Reporters at the scene saw several families and couples being screened for their temperatures this morning by what appeared to be medical personnel wearing protective outfits.

Inside the hotel, guests without symptoms were allowed to circulate freely, using the restaurants and swimming pools, as long as they wore protective masks, washed hands regularly and checked their temperature twice a day, according to instructions from the health authority.

Some guests complained that basic safety measures such as wearing masks and washing hands regularly were being ignored.

Spain's total number of coronavirus cases rose to 33 on Friday. The bulk of them were linked to Italy, the site of Europe's worst outbreak.

A van prepares to transport tourists from the H10 Costa Adeje Palace on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands

One of the cases involved a sports reporter from Valencia who had recently travelled to Milan, and the Valencia football club announced on Friday the suspension of all non-sports indoor events such as news conferences 'that present risk to players, coaching staff and club staff'.

The coronavirus can spread via droplets in the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes or breathes out, and these can also contaminate surfaces such as door handles and railings.

HOW THE NHS IS RAMPING UP CORONAVIRUS TESTING Health officials have announced they will start to test at least 600 extra people every week for the coronavirus in the UK, through local hospitals and GP surgeries. Some 11 hospitals and around 100 doctors' practices  the locations of which are unknown  have been enrolled into a scheme to automatically test patients with severe chest infections such as flu. The surveillance programme is intended to ramp up preparations for people infected with the fast-spreading virus to bring it onto UK soil. Until now, only people who had started to feel ill after returning from East Asia had been tested. Now, broader testing will be done to try to stay a step ahead of the virus. The hospitals and GPs are expected to be dotted around the country to give a representative sample of the population. So if, for example, cases are diagnosed in Yorkshire, authorities will know they need to increase efforts to contain it there and stop it spreading to other areas. Advertisement

Spain's total number of coronavirus cases rose to 26 on Friday, with the bulk of them linked to Italy, hit by Europe's worst outbreak.

The cleared vacationers, from 11 different countries including Spain, had arrived at the hotel on Monday, after four people who tested positive for the COVID-19 disease had already been hospitalized.

Nobody else at the premises, whether guests or hotel employees, has been found infected, authorities said. The remaining 600 holidaymakers at the hotel, from a total of 25 countries, are to stay in quarantine for 14 days.

Spain has experienced a significant uptick in the number of infections this week, from the two initial cases earlier this month who had been already released from hospital to 25 as of Friday morning.

Although most cases have been connected to the new coronavirus cluster in northern Italy, authorities are investigating what was the source of contagion for three of the newest patients, including a 77-year-old in serious condition, who had not traveled abroad.

Yesterday, dozens of British tourists were cleared to leave the hotel that was on lockdown over the coronavirus - but 118 have been told they have to stay in quarantine.

Health personnel wearing protection clothing assist guests as they leave the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife today

Health personnel wearing protection clothing assist guests as they leave the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife today

Health personnel wearing protection clothing look on as guests prepare to leave the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife today

Health personnel wearing protective clothing check the condition of guests, including young children, at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife today

Health personnel wearing protection clothing look on as guests prepare to leave the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife, today

Health personnel wearing protection clothing assist guests as they leave the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife, Spain today

The guests at Tenerife's H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel have spent four days in isolation after the coronavirus was detected there in four Italian tourists.

Sources said that 50 of the 168 Britons currently held on the site are free to leave the hotel. But it is not clear at this stage if the newly released Brits will choose to leave the island, or if they will be allowed to return to the UK.

It is not known if the people pictured leaving today were British.

The move appears to have caught the Foreign Office off-guard, who just hours earlier insisted there were no plans to bring trapped tourists back to the UK.

wo police officers wearing medical face masks walk past the gate to the H10 Costa Adeje Hotel in Adeje, Tenerife today

A tourist wearing a face mask cycles on an exercise bike next to the pool at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace yesterday where 168 Britons are beginning a two-week lockdown

Guests staying at the H10 Costa Adeje Hotel look on from a balcony in Adeje, Tenerife today

Those who can leave are understood to have arrived on Monday, after the guests who were diagnosed had already left.

Overall, 130 guests from 11 countries have been told they can leave by Spanish authorities.

A statement from the Foreign Office said: 'We are urgently seeking clarification from the Canary Island authorities following their announcement that 130 tourists of different nationalities will be granted permission to leave the Costa Adeje Palace Hotel.

'We continue to offer support to all British nationals at the hotel.'

Downing Street defended the response to the situation at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'The Foreign Office has been in contact with more than 100 British nationals who are staying in the hotel.

Tourists next to the outdoor pool yesterday at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace where most guests have been allowed out of their rooms

A man walks next to the swimming pool of the Tenerife hotel, which was placed in quarantine by Spanish authorities after four Italian guests tested positive for the virus

'They are providing them with support, they are also in regular contact with local authorities and tour companies to share information.

'The quarantine is being managed by the Spanish authorities. We understand that those guests who have been assessed by medical staff and who are not showing symptoms are free to move around within the hotel.'

Pressed on whether there would be an evacuation flight for Britons, the spokesman said: 'We base all our decisions on medical and scientific advice and everything is kept under review.'

Professor Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said the agency had sent a 'health protection specialist' to Spain to work with local authorities.

A tourist in quarantine inside the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary island of Tenerife

The specialist will work to 'better understand the public health measures that have been put in place in the hotel', she said.

'This includes understanding spread of the virus within the hotel and how the Spanish authorities are monitoring the situation.'

The guests are locked in a four-star hotel and have been allowed to leave their rooms, lounge by the pool and eat in the hotel restaurant.

Spanish officials ordered the two-week quarantine after four Italian guests who stayed at the hotel last week tested positive for coronavirus.

Julio Perez, a spokesman for the Canary Islands regional government, said today that talks with foreign officials had been taking place in Tenerife and Madrid.

Lara Pennington (pictured), 45, from Manchester, said today that guests at the Tenerife hotel are flouting quarantine rules and risking spreading the virus

Regional health minister Teresa Cruz told a press conference that there had been a 'good reaction from the respective embassies to repatriate their citizens'.

'Today the health ministry has a meeting about the same subject, seeking the implication of the different embassies so they can get their citizens home if they feel it is appropriate,' she said.

Perez added: 'This morning our government authorities have had meeting with different consuls and in Madrid there's been talks with ambassadors.

'If we can assure a transfer in such a way that we know that when they reach their home countries, their respective health authorities and epidemiology services can carry on conducting active monitoring, they could go if this is organised.

'At the moment it's safe for the 140-odd tourists who checked in after the people staying at the hotel who have tested positive.'

However, British officials do not appear to have shared the enthusiasm described by their Spanish counterparts.

The Foreign Office says it has spoken to dozens of the British tourists by phone and text, but there are no plans to arrange a repatriation flight.

Officials are keeping the situation under review.

The FCO previously chartered such a flight for British nationals who were trapped on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan.

However, that was only after the Japanese quarantine had been widely declared a failure with hundreds of people infected during the two-week lockdown.

A woman and her child look out of the window of their hotel room today at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife which is in quarantine over coronavirus fears

Whitehall was also forced into action in the Japanese case after the United States government unilaterally pulled out more than 300 U.S. nationals.

Before that, countries scrambled to get their citizens home from Wuhan after the start of the outbreak in China.

The Foreign Office chartered two flights to bring British nationals home which landed at RAF Brize Norton.

Earlier a 'frightened' British mother trapped at the hotel said she feared the hotel lockdown would turn into another Diamond Princess disaster.

Lara Pennington, who is on holiday with her two young sons and elderly in-laws, said claimed that some guests were failing to follow measures to stop the virus spreading.

'The Spanish government were advising that if we wanted to we could leave our rooms as long as we were wearing masks and washing hands,' she told ITV's Good Morning Britain today.

'It's clearly apparent there are large numbers who are not following that process.

'Containment strategy is clearly not working, it was never going to work. It should be an enforced quarantine,' said the 45-year-old tourist from Manchester.
NEW YORK  The coronavirus outbreak began to look more like a worldwide economic crisis Friday as anxiety about the infection emptied shops and amusement parks, canceled events, cut trade and travel and dragged already slumping financial markets even lower.

More employers told their workers to stay home, and officials locked down neighborhoods and closed schools. The wide-ranging efforts to halt the spread of the illness threatened jobs, paychecks and profits.

This is a case where in economic terms the cure is almost worse than the disease, said Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. When you quarantine cities  you lose economic activity that youre not going to get back.

The list of countries touched by the illness climbed to nearly 60 as Mexico, Belarus, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Iceland and the Netherlands reported their first cases. More than 83,000 people worldwide have contracted the illness, with deaths topping 2,800.

China, where the outbreak began in December, has seen a slowdown in new infections and on Saturday morning reported 427 new cases over the past 24 hours along with 47 additional deaths. The city at the epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan, accounted for the bulk of both.

New cases in mainland China have held steady at under 500 for past four days, with almost all of them in Wuhan and its surrounding Hubei province.

With the number of discharged patients now greatly exceeding those of new arrivals, Wuhan now has more than 5,000 spare beds in 16 temporary treatment centers, Ma Xiaowei, director of the National Health Commission, told a news conference in Wuhan on Friday.

South Korea, the second hardest hit country, on Saturday morning reported 594 new cases, the highest daily jump since confirming its first patient in late January. Emerging clusters in Italy and in Iran, which has had 34 deaths and 388 cases, have led to infections of people in other countries. France and Germany were also seeing increases, with dozens of infections.

The head of the World Health Organization on Friday announced that the risk of the virus spreading worldwide was very high, citing the continued increase in the number of cases and the number of affected countries.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged all governments to do everything possible to contain the disease.

We know containment is possible, but the window of opportunity is narrowing, the U.N. chief told reporters in New York.

The economic ripples have already reached around the globe.

Stock markets around the world plunged again Friday. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones index took yet another hit, closing down nearly 360 points. The index has dropped more than 14% from a recent high, making this the markets worst week since 2008, during the global financial crisis.

The effects were just as evident in the hush that settled in over places where throngs of people ordinarily work and play and buy and sell.

Theres almost no one coming here, said Kim Yun-ok, who sells doughnuts and seaweed rolls at Seouls Gwangjang Market, where crowds were thin. I am just hoping that the outbreak will come under control soon.

In Asia, Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios Japan announced they would close, and events that were expected to attract tens of thousands of people were called off, including a concert series by the K-pop group BTS. The state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea shut down its headquarters in Seoul after a worker tested positive for the virus, telling 800 others to work from home. Japanese officials prepared to shutter all schools until early April.

In Italy  which has reported 888 cases, the most of any country outside of Asia  hotel bookings are falling, and Premier Giuseppe Conte raised the specter of recession. Shopkeepers like Flavio Gastaldi, who has sold souvenirs in Venice for three decades, wondered if they could survive the blow.

We will return the keys to the landlords soon, he said.

The Swiss government banned events with more than 1,000 people, while at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, basins of holy water were emptied for fear of spreading germs.

In a report published Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine, Chinese health officials said the death rate from the illness known as COVID-19 was 1.4%, based on 1,099 patients at more than 500 hospitals throughout China.

Assuming there are many more cases with no or very mild symptoms, the rate may be considerably less than 1%, U.S. health officials wrote in an editorial in the journal. That would make the virus more like a severe seasonal flu than a disease similar to its genetic cousins SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome, or MERS, Middle East respiratory syndrome.

Given the ease of spread, however, the virus could gain footholds around the world and many could die.

Its not cholera or the black plague, said Simone Venturini, the city councilor for economic development in Venice, Italy, where tourism already hurt by historic flooding last year has sunk with news of virus cases. The damage that worries us even more is the damage to the economy.

Europes economy is already teetering on the edge of recession. A measure of business sentiment in Germany fell sharply last week, suggesting that some companies could postpone investment and expansion plans. China is a huge export market for German manufacturers.

In the U.S., online retail giant Amazon said Friday that it has asked all of its 800,000 employees to postpone any non-essential travel, both within the country and internationally.

The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said that the U.S. economy remains strong and that policymakers would use our tools to support it if necessary.

Larry Kudlow, the top economic advisor to President Donald Trump, told reporters that the selloff in financial markets may be an overreaction to an epidemic with uncertain long-term effects.

We dont see any evidence of major supply chain disruptions. Im not trying to say nothings happening. I think there will be impacts, but to be honest with you, at the moment, I dont see much, Kudlow said.

The pain was already taking hold in places like Bangkok, where merchants at the Platinum Fashion Mall staged a flash mob, shouting Reduce the rent! and holding signs that said Tourists dont come, shops suffer.

Tourist arrivals in Thailand are down 50% compared with a year ago, according Capital Economics, a consulting firm.

Kanya Yontararak, a clothing store owner, said her sales have sunk as low as 1,000 baht ($32) some days, making it a struggle to pay back a loan for her lease. The situation is more severe than the floods and political crises her store has braved in the past.

Coronavirus is the worst situation they have ever seen, she said of her fellow merchants.

Economists have forecast global growth will slip to 2.4% this year, the slowest since the Great Recession in 2009, and down from earlier expectations closer to 3%. For the United States, estimates are falling to as low as 1.7% growth this year, down from 2.3% in 2019.

But if COVID-19 becomes a global pandemic, economists expect the impact could be much worse, with the U.S. and other global economies falling into recession.

If we start to see more cases in the United States, if we start to see people not traveling domestically, if we start to see people stay home from work and from stores, then I think the hit is going to get substantially worse, said Gus Faucher, an economist at PNC Financial.

After the WHO raised its alert level, the agencys Emergencies Program Director Michael Ryan called the situation a reality check for every government on the planet.

Wake up, get ready, he said. This virus may be on its way.

___

Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann in Washington, Joseph Pisani and Edith M. Lederer in New York, Carla K. Johnson in Seattle, Matt Sedensky and Preeyapa Khunsong in Bangkok, Hyung-jin Kim and Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, Foster Klug and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Renata Brito and Giada Zampano in Venice, Italy, Frances DEmilio in Rome, Angela Charlton in Paris and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.
The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak stood at 2788 in China with 44 new deaths reported until early Friday, authorities said, adding that the total number of infected persons was nearly 79000.

Among the deaths, 41 were in the worst-hit central Chinese Hubei province, two in Beijing and one in the remote Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), the national health commission (NHC) said Friday morning.

Continuing the trend of the covid-19 outbreak slowing down across the country, the Chinese mainland reported nine new confirmed cases on Thursday outside Hubei.

Globally, the epidemic has killed more than 2,800 people and infected about 83,000.

The chief of WHO has said that the world is at a decisive point to tackle the coronavirus outbreak as new cases outside China has outnumbered that inside the country.

We are at a decisive point, said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

For the past two days, the number of new cases reported in the rest of the world has exceeded the number of new cases in China, he said.

In China, the NHC said 2,308 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

A total of 36,117 people had been discharged from hospitals after recovery.

The condition of nearly 8000 people continues to be severe, officials added.

More than 65000 others, mostly family and contacts of the infected, are still under medical observation.

Meanwhile, in the first case of its kind, the pet dog of an infected patient in Hong Kong tested weak positive for the virus, the Hong Kong authorities said, adding that further tests are needed to confirm an infection.

While the dog does not have any relevant symptoms, its nasal and oral cavity samples were tested weak positive to the virus, a spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government said on Friday.

Zhong Nanshan, a renowned respiratory disease expert who is heading Chinas covid-19 containment efforts has said that the countrys epidemic situation will likely be under control by the end of April.

Speaking at a press conference Thursday, Zhong said his team had added two influencing factors  Chinas intervention methods and the elimination of peak travel after the Chinese New Year to their forecast model to determine possible outcome scenarios to the epidemic.

Chinese authorities, meanwhile, have launched a probe after a former prisoner at a disease-hit prison in the locked-down city of Wuhan in Hubei travelled to Beijing, where she tested positive for covid-19.

The patient, an elderly woman surnamed Huang, arrived in Beijing last week following her release from the Wuhan Womens Prison where several cases of the infection have been reported.

The authorities are investigating how Huang managed to get out of Wuhan despite showing symptoms of the disease and was able navigate the transportation restrictions in place to contain the spread of the disease.

Beijing has so far reported more seven deaths and over 400 cases in ongoing outbreak.
Copenhagen striker Michael Santos has been charged for alleged assault on a policeman after pushing an officer over during wild celebrations in Thursday night's Europa League victory over Celtic.

Santos, who had opened the scoring at Parkhead, was captured by TV cameras flooring a policeman after running over to celebrate Pep Biel's late goal.

A large group of officers were stationed in front of the travelling supporters and the altercation appeared to happen as police attempted to subdue Copenhagen's celebrations.

Did anyone else spot the Copenhagen player pushing the police officer? pic.twitter.com/0vH5uL0OP2  Geeb  (@Geeb1872) February 27, 2020

Copenhagen star Michael Santos has been charged for alleged assault on a police officer

Policeman circled was sent flying by Santos after trying to subdue Copenhagen's celebrations

Police got involved after Copenhagen stars ran towards their fans to celebrate Pep Biel's goal

The officer circled was decked by Santos as he sprinted over to join in the celebrations

Police Scotland confirmed on Friday that Santos and a member of the Copenhagen staff were both charged in connection with an alleged assault.

A spokeswoman for the force said: 'Two men aged 26 and 42 were charged in connection with an alleged assault at Celtic Park last night. They have been reported to the Procurator Fiscal.'

The charges mar what had been a famous victory for Copenhagen to put them into the last-16 of the Europa League.

The Danish side's players were visibly angered by the police's decision to interrupt their celebrations after Biel scored in the 84th minute to put the visitors' 2-1 ahead.

Police were seen ushering Santos (R) and his team-mate away from their fans after Biel's goal

Officers attempt to restrain the Copenhagen players as they try to celebrate with their fans

Santos had helped Copenhagen go through by scoring the opening goal at Parkhead

Biel appeared to be grabbed and swung around by a policeman and exchanged words with him before Santos ran over and sent an officer tumbling.

Santos walked away wagging his finger at the officers after the incident.

Odsonne Edouard had levelled the score for Celtic with a cheeky Paneka penalty just minutes before Biel restored the visitors' lead.

Dame N'Doye added a third two minutes from time to seal Copenhagen's spot in the last 16 of the Europa League after a 4-2 victory on aggregate.

Meanwhile, police also confirmed that eight fans in total were arrested on Thursday night - six home supporters and two away fans - for minor disorders.

Dame N'Doye (R) celebrates after adding a third to seal Copenhagen's spot in the last-16
A trader works before the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Aug. 14, 2019. (Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images)

Virus-Driven Supply Chain Anxiety Mounts as Wall Street Plunge Continues

'Records are being broken across asset classes' as investors seek safety, analyst says

As key Wall Street indexes extended their losing streak on Feb. 27, experts pointed to a growing concern among investors that the effects of broken global supply chains due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) may be greater than previously thought.

COVID-19 brought the production and transportation of many goods to a near standstill from which they have not yet recovered, and at a time when pandemic concerns are still rising, said Allen Sukholitsky, chief macro strategist at Xallarap Advisory.

He told The Epoch Times in an email that concerns over broken supply chains are one reason investors are fleeing risky assets.

Quarantines. Closed borders and ports. Suspended flights and freight, he said, adding that equities are reacting to the implied impact of almost 80,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Records are being broken across asset classes, he said.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note, viewed as a haven bet in times of crisis, hit a record-low yield of around 1.24 percent Feb. 27, while the 30-year Treasury bond set a new all-time low last week. Bond yields move in the opposite direction to prices, with falling yields a sign of capital fleeing to a safe harbor.

Chart showing the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note, between Feb. 2527, 2020. (Courtesy of TradingView)

Supply Chain Impact Significantly Larger

The impact on supply chains is significantly larger than most analysts expected, economist Daniel Lacalle told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

Lacalle said estimates indicate the supply chain disruption could shave at least 0.7 percent of GDP off global growth, citing PricewaterhouseCoopers research that he said employed the same kind of methodology that was used to estimate the impact of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).

A key risk for businesses is exposure to supply chains that are dependent on imports from China, where parts of provinces that count for some 89 percent of the countrys exports remain in lockdown.

Because of its genesis in China, coronavirus is both a demand and a supply shock to the global economy, Brian Nick, chief investment strategist at Nuveen, said in a note on Feb. 25. Outside of China, however, evidence based on Februarys survey data suggests that demand remains solid, and supply issues are the key risk.

A Devastating Indictment

One such risk is U.S. dependence on drug imports from China.

A U.S. economy heavily reliant on vital medicines and their ingredients from an increasingly hostile and secretive China is a devastating indictment of pre-Trump national security and public health policy, said trade expert Alan Tonelson, in an emailed statement.

But the purely economic effects shouldnt be overlooked either, as globalist leaders also encouraged the buildup of China as a huge global manufacturing hub, and thereby exposed Americans to the risk of shortages and other supply chain risks in a wide variety of critical products.

Broader concerns about excessive internationalization of supply chains was an issue raised in testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the presidents fiscal 2021 budget request. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said there are risks to reliance on imports not just for medical products but really across all of the economy.

I was alarmed to learn recently that almost 90 percent of the active ingredients used in pharmaceutical manufacturing originate in China, said Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas.) What should we be doing in the United States to ensure the safety of the American drug supply?

Azar said aggressive steps had been taken to ensure an uninterrupted supply of key pharmaceuticals amid the virus outbreak, but said other medical supplies might be affected.

We have to be very alert to this, and we have to be candid that there could be disruptions in supplies, Azar said. We already experienced that, of course, with medical shortages, generic shortages, due to sole source producers, manufacturing defects, inspection problems, and so on.

Small Business Disruption

So far, big corporations have dominated the virus-related business disruption headlines, with an outpouring of coverage around Apples recent earnings downgrade announcement, and its subsequent stock dip and broader risk asset selloff. But small U.S. businesses have also been hit.

Wil Knibloe, a partner at Crowe LLP, a risk consultancy, told The Epoch Times in a statement that hes directly aware of multiple small businesses that have been affected by late product deliveries, extended lead times, and future supply chain stability uncertainty in general.

Knibloe identified several businessesincluding a furniture maker and tech products manufacturerthat face problems due to lost sales because of lack of available finished goods products, expedited shipping costs of late components, and/or finished goods to plants and markets, as well as the cost of backup sources.

Smaller businesses are often more vulnerable to broken supply chains than their bigger counterparts, said Brandon Renfro, assistant professor of finance at East Texas Baptist University.

Small businesses, particularly retail, will likely see an issue in regards to keeping inventory, Renfro said in an emailed statement. If factories in China are shut down, that means the local retailers who carry products manufactured in China cant restock. For a very small business, the issue is even worse because what large corporations call quarterly profits, small businesses call food and utilities money. They just often arent as capable of weathering a squeeze.

One consequence of the disruption is that it may force businesses to recalibrate their supply chains.

Now, U.S. firms may more seriously consider onshoring manufacturing capacity in order to limit further disruption from global supply unpredictability, Jimmy Hinton, senior managing director at Transwestern, said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.

But for any mitigation efforts to succeed, according to Mike Varney, a partner at Crowe LLP, businesses must first gain a clear understanding of the various nodes in their supply chains.

Visibility throughout the supply chain is critical, Varney told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement, adding that a quick fix could be to find alternative sources, spurred by a disruptive event such as COVID-19.

But he advised forward-thinking businesses to develop detailed mitigation strategies for different segments of their supply chains well in advance of any crisis.

These strategies can include alternative sourcing solutions, alternative production sites, or safety stock, he said.
FLSmidth has appointed the Finnish digitalization specialist Mikko Tepponen as new Chief Digital Officer.



Coming to FLSmidth from Wartsila, Mikko Tepponen brings extensive knowledge in digital transformation of industrial companies. His experiences include the digital framework around topics such as product development, internal efficiencies, customer behaviour, data architecture and a digital culture. These will also be focus areas for him in FLSmidth.

FLSmidth CEO Thomas Schulz looks forward to further strengthening the digital offerings of FLSmidth:

"Mikko's joining FLSmidth at this time is well-timed with the launch of our MissionZero agenda. Calling on his years of experience in automation and digital in heavy industry, he brings the right experience mix to embed digitalization and innovation into our processes; from R&D to go-to-market, working alongside our product development teams in both industries," Thomas Schulz comments.

Mikko Tepponen is looking forward to joining FLSmidth and relocating to Copenhagen:

"Digitalization is no longer an option, it's a must for all industries, including Cement and Mining, enabling innovation and new business models for increased productivity and sustainability. I am excited to step into the role of Chief Digital Officer, and continuing FLSmidth's digital transformation. I look forward to working together with our customers and employees to unlock the value of digital," states Mikko.

Mikko Tepponen will start working for FLSmidth June 1 2020.

Contacts

Media Relations

Rasmus Windfeld, +45 40 44 60 60, rwin@flsmidth.com

Investor Relations

Nicolai Mauritzen, +45 30 93 18 51, nicm@flsmidth.com

FLSmidth delivers sustainable productivity to the global mining and cement industries. We deliver market-leading engineering, equipment and service solutions to our customers enabling them to improve performance, drive down costs and reduce environmental impact. With MissionZero, our 2030 ambition is to enable zero emission and zero waste

Attachment
This is the heart-stopping moment a British father has to dig his 11-year-old son out of five feet of snow after he got separated from them while ski-ing in France.

Father Gillon Campbell said he had 'never been so scared' as when he had to grab a shovel to rescue his son, Fox, who had been ski-ing off-piste in Chamonix, the Alps.

Heartbreaking footage captures the moment the little boy mumbles 'thank you' through frozen tears as his head emerges from the snow 30 minutes after he was buried.

Father Gillon Campbell said he had 'never been so scared' as when he had to dig for his son in Chamonix, the French Alps. He is pictured above holding his boy, who has a blue helmet

The father and his eldest son, pictured, were skiing between two pistes when the accident occurred

Fox skied into this hole while off-piste. He was buried under five feet of snow in an avalanche

The family was ski-ing in Chamonix, the French Alps, in December last year

'I just dug like everything in the world mattered to me,' Gillon said. 'That was a really, really scary moment. I mean, I've never been so scared.'

'And I dug and I found his head one and a half metres under the snow. And I cleared his head and he talked to me.'

Video taken by a camera on Fox's helmet shows the moment he was buried by an avalanche. He had gone off-piste to ski between two different pistes while his father waited for his younger brother to catch up, before following.

The boy jumps to avoid a hole in the snow, but falls in. Snow immediately falls on top of him. The camera then captures the sounds of him struggling and shouting for his father while encased in the snow.

Fox, who is a member of the Freeriders Mountain Ski Club, was equipped with a backpack, shovel, probe and his transceiver.

Pictured above is the moment father Gillon dug through five feet of snow to rescue his son

Gillon, wearing a light blue coat, pictured with rescue teams as they work to dig his son out (left) and a rescue team member standing in the five-foot deep hole (right) Fox was stuck in

Father Gillon pictured on the video as he explains the mission to rescue his son from the snow

Gillon said he was 'surprised' not to find his eldest son waiting for him at the other piste when he got there. 'But I thought he had met my wife,' he said, 'so we skied to the lift.

'I thought my son was in front with her, but he wasn't. So we went up the lift, but he still wasn't there. And so I decided that I should just ski back the way I came and figure out where he was.

'I skied back down into the gully and I was going along and something was different. The snow was different, it was crumblier on the ground.

'And my transceiver, I turned it to search, and it beeped at me. And it told me someone was in the snow really close by.'

When he uncovered his son's head and blue helmet, Gillon shouted for help and was quickly joined by a couple, who heard him from the edge of the piste.

Within a few minutes the alarm had been raised and rescuers arrived to dig Fox out of the snow.

His son Fox pictured after being rescued (wearing blue helmet). His body was 'very cold' when he was dug from the snow, but he was unharmed

The moment the transceiver told Gillon that his son was buried underneath the snow

A piste pictured in Chamonix. The family had been heading from one piste to another

'I won't forget the moment I got to hold him,' said Gillon. 'He was so cold but he was alive right, and he was, fine.'

A French mountain rescuer said: 'He was buried under the snow for about 30 minutes, the chance of survival after this time is usually small as the risk of suffocation is high, but he survived unscathed.

'This accident happened near the piste, but it is still off-piste. It is important to know that only the open and marked pistes are secured and patrolled by the pisteurs.

'We put up signs to warn of danger, and we trigger avalanches to secure the open ski slopes. We do not trigger avalanches to secure off-piste.'

He also warned: 'If you leave a slope that is marked and defined, you are off-piste. It can be two metres or 50 metres, it is still off-piste, and the rules are not the same.'

The moment Fox was buried by an avalanche (pictured). The camera on his helmet captured the sound of him screaming for his father after he was buried

The video was shared on social media by rescue group La Chamoniarde

A caption attached to the video, which was posted on social media yesterday, warned skiers to 'beware of a false sense of security' when ski-ing close to the piste.

'Fox was very lucky. Transciever, probe and shovel are essential but do not prevent an avalanche. To ski off-piste, you need to know more than just how to ski!,' it read.

'You must be aware of the dangers, that way you know how to avoid them.'

The boy suffered no injuries in the accident which happened on Saturday December 28 last year.

La Chamoniarde has released the footage to warn people about the dangers of ski-ing off the maintained pistes.
Facebook announced on Thursday that it is canceling F8, its biggest annual event, due to concerns over the coronavirus.

"We've made the difficult decision to cancel the in-person component of F8 this year, in order to prioritize the health and safety of our developer partners, employees and everyone who helps put F8 on," the company wrote on the F8 website.

In a blog post, Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, who heads Facebook's platform partnerships, said it was a "tough call to make." Instead of holding one large event for developers, the company said it plans to hold "locally hosted events, videos and live-streamed content."

At F8, Facebook typically shares its future vision for the company and teases new features and products. Past announcements have included Facebook Dating, testing hiding likes on Instagram and a redesign of Facebook's logo, mobile app and website.

This year's event was originally scheduled to take place in early May.

Earlier this month, Facebook canceled a large advertising conference in San Francisco, also due to concerns over the virus.

Fears over the coronavirus outbreak ballooned this week after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it expects cases in the US to increase. The virus has now infected over 82,000 people around the world, with the most cases in China.

The ongoing spread of the coronavirus has caused other companies to close offices and stores in China. Mobile World Congress, one of the tech industry's biggest annual events, was called off earlier this month because of the outbreak.

Multiple tech companies, including Apple and Microsoft, have also warned that their sales could take a hit as coronavirus impacts their manufacturing operations in China.

Not all tech events are getting canceled, however. South by Southwest, an annual tech, media and music festival in Austin, is still set to take place next month.

"The SXSW 2020 event is proceeding as planned," a spokesperson for the event told CNN Business. "Safety is a top priority for SXSW, and we work closely with local, state, and federal agencies year-round to plan for a safe event."
Technavio has been monitoring the chestnuts market and it is poised to grow by USD 1.65 billion during 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of 3% during the forecast period. The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005292/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Global Chestnuts Market 2020-2024 (Photo: Business Wire)

Health benefits of chestnuts has been instrumental in driving the growth of the market. Request a free sample report

Chestnuts Market 2020-2024: Segmentation

Chestnuts Market is segmented as below:

Type

Asiatic Chestnut Species

European Chestnut Species

American Chestnut Species

Geographic Segmentation

APAC

Europe

MEA

North America

South America

To learn more about the global trends impacting the future of market research, download a free sample: https://www.technavio.com/talk-to-us?report=IRTNTR40199

Chestnuts Market 2020-2024: Scope

Technavio presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources. Our chestnuts market report covers the following areas:

Chestnuts Market Size

Chestnuts Market Trends

Chestnuts Market Industry Analysis

This study identifies increased use of chestnuts in confectionery as one of the prime reasons driving the chestnuts market growth during the next few years.

Chestnuts Market 2020-2024: Vendor Analysis

We provide a detailed analysis of around 25 vendors operating in the chestnuts market, including some of the vendors such as Berjaya Corp. Berhad, Chengde Shenli Food Co. Ltd., Chestnut Growers Inc., E. A. Potamianou Inc., Planet Green Holdings Corp., Qinhuangdao Yanshan Chestnut Co. Ltd., SAMRIOGLU Group of Companies, Shandong Maria Food Co. Ltd., Shandong Zhifeng Foodstuffs Co. Ltd. and V. Besana Spa. Backed with competitive intelligence and benchmarking, our research reports on the chestnuts market are designed to provide entry support, customer profile and M&As as well as go-to-market strategy support.

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Chestnuts Market 2020-2024: Key Highlights

CAGR of the market during the forecast period 2020-2024

Detailed information on factors that will assist chestnuts market growth during the next five years

Estimation of the chestnuts market size and its contribution to the parent market

Predictions on upcoming trends and changes in consumer behavior

The growth of the chestnuts market

Analysis of the market's competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors

Comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of chestnuts market vendors

PART 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PART 02: SCOPE OF THE REPORT

2.1 Preface

2.2 Preface

2.3 Currency conversion rates for US$

PART 03: MARKET LANDSCAPE

Market ecosystem

Market characteristics

Value chain analysis

Market segmentation analysis

PART 04: MARKET SIZING

Market definition

Market sizing 2019

Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market outlook

PART 05: FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS

Bargaining power of buyers

Bargaining power of suppliers

Threat of new entrants

Threat of substitutes

Threat of rivalry

Market condition

PART 06: MARKET SEGMENTATION BY TYPE

Market segmentation by type

Comparison by type

Asiatic chestnut species Market size and forecast 2019-2024

European chestnut species Market size and forecast 2019-2024

American chestnut species Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Market opportunity by type

PART 07: CUSTOMER LANDSCAPE

PART 08: GEOGRAPHIC LANDSCAPE

Geographic segmentation

Geographic comparison

APAC Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Europe Market size and forecast 2019-2024

MEA Market size and forecast 2019-2024

North America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

South America Market size and forecast 2019-2024

Key leading countries

Market opportunity

PART 09: DECISION FRAMEWORK

PART 10: DRIVERS AND CHALLENGES

Market drivers

Market challenges

PART 11: MARKET TRENDS

Influence of digital media on chestnut consumption

Increased use of chestnuts in confectionery

Emphasis on R&D for growth of chestnut trees

PART 12: VENDOR LANDSCAPE

Overview

Landscape disruption

Competitive scenario

PART 13: VENDOR ANALYSIS

Vendors covered

Vendor classification

Market positioning of vendors

Berjaya Corp. Berhad

Chengde Shenli Food Co. Ltd.

Chestnut Growers Inc.

E. A. Potamianou, Inc.

Planet Green Holdings Corp.

Qinhuangdao Yanshan Chestnut Co. Ltd.

SAMRIOGLU Group of Companies

Shandong Maria Food Co. Ltd.

Shandong Zhifeng Foodstuffs Co. Ltd.

V. Besana Spa

PART 14: APPENDIX

Research methodology

List of abbreviations

Definition of market positioning of vendors

PART 15: EXPLORE TECHNAVIO

About Us

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005292/en/

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Jesse Maida

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Website: www.technavio.com/
One of the oldest swords in the world that was mislabelled in a museum on the Saint Lazarus Island, Venice, is around 5,000 years old, according to a new study.

The ultra-rare sword, which doesnt resemble most ancient weapons in the world, was made around the year 3000BC and came from eastern Turkey.

However, the sword was contained in a cabinet as part of a medieval collection.

It was only when a local PhD student and expert in ancient weaponry noticed the sword that it was removed for further analysis to pinpoint its date.

The sword could have been a ceremonial object or an offensive weapon that was used in combat.

Another hypothesis is that it was part of a burial and was casually retrieved by townsfolk before ending up in a museum.

The 5,000-year-old sword has no visible inscriptions, embellishments or distinctive features

The sword was being kept inside the Mekhitarist Monastery on the Saint Lazarus Island in the Venetian Lagoon

Vittoria DallArmellina at Universita Ca' Foscari in Venice saw the sword in a small cabinet surrounded by medieval items at the Mekhitarist Monastery on the Saint Lazarus Island in the Venetian Lagoon.

Mekhitarist Monastery, which is the headquarters of the Armenian Catholic Mekhitarist Congregation, includes museums, a church, residential quarters, a library, museums, picture gallery, printing plant and research facilities.

The weapon caught the eye of DallArmellina, whose masters degree and PhD included a study on the origin and evolution of swords in the Ancient Near East.

She thought the weapon she had spotted didnt look like a medieval artefact, but a much older sword, similar to those she had already encountered in her studies.

It looked similar to those found in the Royal Palace of Arslantepe in modern-day eastern Turkey, which would put its date to 5,000 years ago and make it one of the oldest swords in the world.

PhD student Vittoria DallArmellina with Father Serafino Jamourlian, a friar who contributed to the study

But contrary to some Arslantepe specimens, the sword is not decorated, and has no visible inscriptions, embellishments or distinctive features.

Strong resemblance to the twin swords of Arslantepe, as well as information about its metallic composition, allowed experts to determine that the sword dates back to around the end of 4th and the beginning of the 3rd century BC.

Arslantepe swords are considered the oldest type of sword in the world.

The Saint Lazarus Island sword turned out to be made of arsenical bronze, an alloy frequently used before the widespread diffusion of bronze.

Analysis of the sword, which is made of Arsenical bronze, an alloy frequently used before the widespread diffusion of bronze

Arsenical bronze uses copper and arsenic, as opposed to copper and tin or other constituent metals to make bronze.

This type of sword was found in a relatively small region in Eastern Anatolia, between the high course of the Euphrat and the Southern shore of the Black Sea.

Further analysis of trace elements could further pinpoint the exact source of the metal.

Due to less than optimal conditions, it has not been possible to detect any traces of usage.

But its believed the sword travelled from Trebizond in Turkey to Venice in the second half of the 19th century.

Portrait of Father Ghevont Alishan published in Alishan's 1901 book 'Hayabadoom' - which means 'Armenian history'. Ghevond Alishan, a famous poet, writer, Mekhitarist monk, and zealous archeology scholar, died in Venice in 1901 and was gifted the sword before his death

This is due to an envelope containing a worn-out slip of paper that came with the sword.

The note on the paper, written in Armenian, talks about a donation to Father Ghevond Alishan, a famous poet and writer who died in Venice in 1901.

Ghevond Alishan, who was a friend of English art critic John Ruskin, was born in Constantinople  now Istanbul  and travelled to Venice before his death.

Further studies are being done on the weapon, the history of which is still 'shrouded with mystery'.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on Monday a petition seeking transfer of the rape case filed against former BJP MP Swami Chinmayananda from Uttar Pradesh to a Delhi court.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the law student who levelled allegation of rape against Chinmayananda, mentioned the matter before a bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde for transfer of the case to Delhi for a fair trial.

"We will see on Monday," the bench said while asking the victim to apply for police protection after Gonsalves claimed that family members of the victim were being attacked.

In February, Allahabad High Court had transferred from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow the trial in the sexual abuse case against Chinmyanand.

The victim, had last week, also approached the apex court challenging Allahabad High Court order of granting bail to Chinmyanand.

The Allahabad High Court had on February 3 granted bail to Chinmayanand, a former Union minister of state, in the alleged rape case filed by a woman who studied law in a college run by Chinmayanand in UP's Shahjahanpur.

In December 2019, the 23-year-old law student, who has accused Chinmayanand of rape, was released from a district jail in connection with an extortion case after she was granted bail by Allahabad High Court.

The woman was arrested on September 25 in connection with an extortion case filed on the basis of Chinmayanand's complaint alleging that she, along with three of her friends, had demanded Rs 5 crore from him.

Chinmayanand had alleged that they threatened to make public some purported videos of him getting a massage from the law student. On the other hand, the woman had alleged that she was repeatedly raped and blackmailed by Chinmayanand for over a year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
While she wouldnt guarantee a victory in her home state after Tuesday nights debate  just days before opponents lined up endorsements, planned canvassing events and a pair of festival-rallies  Sen. Elizabeth Warren isnt about to cede home field advantage in Massachusetts.

With 91 pledged delegates up for grabs in the commonwealth, the Warren team is shrugging off polls  including one that showed her neck-and-neck with Sen. Bernie Sanders here  and third and fourth place finishes in the first few voting states.

The local strategy mirrors the national one, with the campaign touting a strong Nevada debate performance that sparked a fundraising boost and emphasizing Warrens potential strength as a foe to President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, a grassroots army and more than 150 elected officials and organizations are fighting to help Warren nab as many remaining delegates possible in the run up to the Democratic convention in July.

We say no to the pollercoaster, said Jossie Valentin, the campaigns Massachusetts state director in a recent interview. The campaign is built for the long haul since the beginning, with staff in 31 states and over 1,000 people on the ground.

On Super Tuesday, voters in Massachusetts and 13 states, the District of Columbia and other territories will head to the polls, where 1,357 delegates  about a third of the 3,979 contested nationwide  will be divided proportionally among candidates who earn at least 15% support. A candidate would need 1,991 to win the nomination on the first ballot at the Democratic convention.

As Sanders  the Democratic socialist whos topped the last two voting contests to gain frontrunner status  swoops into the Bay State this weekend for rallies in Springfield and Boston, Warrens team is reminding voters and experts that its essentially had boots on the ground here since 2012, when the progressive Harvard professor beat incumbent Republican Sen. Scott Brown.

That organization has expanded to include thousands of first-time volunteers, small donors, and students, as well as veterans of her historic 2012 victory and re-election campaign, Valentin said.

When asked if shed win Massachusetts on Tuesday, Warren told CBS News that she was out here making my case to everybody all across the nation, and Im so deeply grateful to the people in my home state who helped me beat an incumbent Republican back in 2012.

In the 2016 Massachusetts primary, Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton, but by less than 2 percentage points, 50.1% to 48.7%.

Scott Ferson, a Democratic strategist who founded public relations firm Liberty Square Group, said Sanders strong showings in 2016 and the 2020 contests, combined with other candidates making a push for Massachusetts, are all problematic for Warren.

First, she could lose ... which I dont think, long-term, hurts her brand or standing in Massachusetts ... but I dont know how convincing you can be if you cant win your own state, Ferson said.

Second, she could win, but with only a slight margin over Sanders, meaning she wont pick up a clear advantage when it comes to delegates. It could be seen as "a missed opportunity if she doesnt do a clean sweep, " Ferson said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who Ferson said is likely to win South Carolina, could potentially get a big enough boost that it puts a further dent in Warrens Massachusetts delegate total.

At the Massachusetts State House on Wednesday, the Biden campaign, which has a Massachusetts headquarters in Quincy, touted more than 90 elected officials and labor groups that have backed him across the state. The International Association of Fire Fighters, National Association of Government Employees, U.S. Ironworkers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Amalgamated Transit Union have announced support for Biden.

Like Warren in the last two debates, Valentin squared her sights not on Sanders or Biden but on former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who was born in Medford and is making a play for Massachusetts, touting endorsements and mobilizing an organization as his national poll numbers have risen.

While billionaires try to buy the election, we are continuing to build a grassroots movement, Valentin said.

The Bloomberg campaign has placed more than 60 staff members in Massachusetts since January. The campaign has announced support from dozens of prominent state and local officials, opened half a dozen Massachusetts offices and run several canvassing events the last few weekends. The campaigns emails to supporters have asked for help volunteering as we work to make Donald Trump a one-term president.

Over the last few years, Bloomberg has also donated to nonprofits and both Democratic and Republican politicians in the commonwealth.

Mike Bloomberg has put Massachusetts in play for the March 3 primary by building the most sophisticated and expansive direct voter engagement operation of any candidate, state director Jordan Overstreet said in a statement.

Ferson said Warrens recent attacks on Bloomberg may have hurt Bloomberg more than they helped Warren secure any more votes. He said debates can help move the needle, but compared the last couple Democratic matches to the Quentin Tarantino movie, Inglourious Basterds."

That scene where they all shoot each other in the bar, he said.

Warrens Massachusetts team, with field offices in Cambridge and Northampton, includes more than 4,500 active volunteers who have led phone banks, text banks and traveled across the state and to New Hampshire. Many have gathered in volunteers homes to make phone calls and launch canvass events, with many planned this weekend in the run-up to Super Tuesday.

We have organized hundreds of events since last spring, Valentin added. Just in the last six weeks, the campaign made "255,000 calls to Massachusetts voters and knocked on more than 57,000 doors. This last weekend, we held more than 100 grassroots events across the state.

Ferson said Warren effectively got a pass after coming in fourth place in New Hampshire.

People thought if she lost New Hampshire that would be problematic," he said. "But she has a very, very strong ground game. Roger Lau has put together a very strong ground game.

Lau, Warrens campaign manager, said recently that the campaign had added "media across the Super Tuesday states and beyond and we expect to be one of at most three candidates with a delegate path to the nomination after Super Tuesday.

Lau argues that former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, despite their strong showings, have either limited resources or no clear delegate path to victory.

Both Bloomberg and Sanders have effectively unlimited resources to compete (for very different reasons), but each also has a significant ceiling on their eventual support both in the primary and in the general, Lau said.

What could it mean for Warren if she misses her shot in 2020?

Ferson noted that a Sanders or Biden victory would likely lead to a one-term presidency, since both are in their late 70s. So for Warren, 70, this campaign is also a fight for 2024.

Shes in that standard of being a thought leader in the party on issues that are important, he said. Nobody takes on Wall Street better than she does. If weve got a term-limited president by age or constitution, shes a national leader.

Related Coverage:
(TNS)  Even as a resident in Tennessee's wealthiest county, Gov. Bill Lee's cattle farm in Williamson county still lacks access to high-speed broadband connections, similar to most of the rural parts of Tennessee.Lee, who allocated $20 million in his first year as governor to broadband expansion in rural areas, is proposing to boost such state support to $25 million next year to help address the digital divide between areas with broadband service and those left behind."Maria, maybe this will be the year we finally get broadband on the farm," Lee quipped to his wife and first lady, Maria Lee, during his State of the State address when he proposed the additional funding for rural broadband.Since Tennessee created the Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Grant program in 2017, the state has allocated $45 million to support broadband deployment in unserved areas of Tennessee. The program provides grants of up to $2 million to Internet Service Providers to pay up to half the cost for fiber line extensions or other technologies to bring faster internet connections in areas without broadband service.Crystal Ivey, broadband director for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, concedes that the state money, though significant and able to leverage matching money from telecom providers, still isn't enough to extend high-speed internet service to every home and business in the state."It's not nearly enough to meet the need, which we know is billions of dollars," Ivey said. "In the first three years of the grant, we had $190 million of grant requests for $45 million of funding so clearly we are showing there is a demand for this kind of funding and the providers in these communities are seeking this kind of assistance in getting service out to this underserved areas."Even though the state program isn't able to meet all of the needs in Tennessee, a new study of government assistance programs across America highlights Tennessee's program among nine states that have developed effective broadband initiatives to advance high-speed internet services."These states are doing things well with programs that other states can learn from," said Kathryn de Wit, manager of the broadband research initiative at The Pew Charitable Trusts, which released a 48-page analysis of state programs Wednesday. "What's clear from our research is that states taking on this issue with funding matters. It's a national problem that is felt at the local level and it requires every level of government cooperating and collaborating together in order to close the digital divide."Nationwide, the Federal Communications Commission estimates at least 21 million households and businesses lack access to broadband services. The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations estimated in a 2017 report that connecting the up to 160,000 unserved homes in areas of Tennessee ineligible for funding through the FCC's Connect America Fund would cost $125 million to $799 million."More and more policy makers are seeing why broadband really matters," de Witt said. "This isn't something seen as a "nice to have" anymore or just about Netflix and cat videos, as important as those may be for some. What we increasingly hear from policy makers is the concern over what their communities are missing out on by not having high-speed reliable broadband with economic development, workforce development, healthcare, education and opportunities for people to age in place."Ivey said the state will soon announce its third year of funding recipients in its broadband grant program and Lee is pushing for a 25% jump in funding in fiscal 2020-21.In the first two rounds of its grant-matching program, Tennessee was able to invest $25 million and leverage $30 million from the private sector, but it received more than $128 million in grant requests. Ivey said the state program is designed to work closely with other broadband support programs from the federal USDA, Appalachian Regional Commission and Federal Communications Commission along with telephone, cable and rural telephone cooperatives that currently provide broadband service."They are the ones with their boosts on the ground pulling the infrastructure," Ivey said.Tennessee is not only trying to expand access to broadband but also the number of users. Libraries in rural areas are getting a share of the grant money for digital literacy and instruction and some libraries have added hot spots."I think increasing the digital literacy of an area directly impacts the investment that we are making in that infrastructure," Ivey said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Samir Ali  Trend:

The military ties between Azerbaijan and Turkey are intensively developing, Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry Vagif Dargahli told Trend on Feb. 28.

Dargahli stressed that a signing ceremony of important documents covering many spheres was held on February 25 following the 8th meeting of the Azerbaijan-Turkey High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council with the participation of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The protocol on provision of financial support and the agreement on military financial cooperation between the government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the government of the Republic of Turkey will make an important contribution to the development of military relations between the two fraternal countries.

Dargahli reminded that the documents were signed by Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov and Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.

"In accordance with these documents, Azerbaijani officers and cadets will be able to study in Turkish military schools, the spokesman added. Modern weapons and military equipment, which will increase the combat effectiveness of the Azerbaijani army, will be supplied from Turkey to Azerbaijan."

The spokesman stressed that the Turkish Armed Forces are contributing to the development of cooperation between Azerbaijan and NATO.

The first military contract between Azerbaijan and Turkey was concluded in 1992. The numerous agreements on cooperation in the military, military-technical, military-medical, military-educational spheres and others were signed in this sphere in subsequent years.

The military relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey are based on a number of legal acts regarding the training of the Azerbaijani servicemen in Turkey, conducting of joint military exercises, cooperation in the technical and scientific fields and the regular holding of the meeting of the Azerbaijan-Turkey High Level Military Dialogue.

The specialized courses in Turkey have been held for 9,000 Azerbaijani servicemen up till now.

Some 100 Azerbaijani servicemen are sent from Azerbaijan to Turkey every year for free medical treatment upon the agreement on cooperation and education in the military medical field signed between Azerbaijan and Turkey on December 19, 2018.

One of the important factors contributing to the development of military ties between the two countries is the holding of joint military exercises, which are aimed not only at strengthening the Azerbaijani army but also ensuring peace and security in the region.
The former president of NSW RSL has been found guilty of two dishonesty offences after he used his RSL credit card to pay for thousands of dollars of personal expenses for his family.

Donald Rowe, 71, was charged last year with two counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception after he used the card to pay for four phone services used by his family and a three-night Sydney hotel stay for his daughter over the Anzac Day long weekend.

Former NSW RSL president Don Rowe arrives at court on Friday. Credit:Kate Geraghty

The Optus phone services cost $9069.07 between September 2012 and November 2014 while the stay at the Hyde Park Inn was $363 in April 2010.

Last year Mr Rowe's barrister argued the RSL's policy allowed for "incidental expenses". She said her client had been charged with dishonest and deceptive conduct but the prosecution could not point out any deception or false statements made by him.
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Fri, February 28, 2020 17:01 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20673981e 2 Entertainment France,film,magazine,Cahiers-du-Cinema Free

The entire journalistic staff of the Cahiers du cinema -- the film magazine that launched the French New Wave -- have resigned from the influential title.

The monthly which once employed legends like Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut before they went on to change cinema history, was sold earlier this month to a group of film producers and tech tycoons.

But its 15 staff writers and editors said the new owners posed a danger to the magazine's cherished independence.

"The new shareholders include eight producers who create a conflict of interest for a critical publication," the journalists said in a statement.

Read also: French New Wave icon Anna Karina dies at 79: agent

"Whatever articles are published, there would be a suspicion of interference," they added.

They are also unhappy that the new owners want to turn the often earnest review into a more relaxed and "fashionable" read.

"Les Cahiers has always been engaged, taking clear positions," the statement added.

The magazine's new management has yet to respond to the mass resignation.
Investor wealth tumbled by more than Rs 5 lakh crore on Friday as equity markets crashed tracking global equity selloff amid rising uncertainty over the economic impact of coronavirus outbreak

New Delhi: Investor wealth tumbled by more than Rs 5 lakh crore on Friday as equity markets crashed tracking global equity selloff amid rising uncertainty over the economic impact of coronavirus outbreak.

In six trading sessions to Friday the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies saw a massive decline of Rs 11,76,985.88 crore.

Equity markets fell for the sixth consecutive session, with the 30-share BSE index plummeting 1,448.37 points, or 3.64 percent, lower at 38,297.29.

The carnage in the equity market wiped out investor wealth worth Rs 5,46,287.76 crore, taking the total m-cap to Rs 1,46,93,797.43 crore on the BSE.

The m-cap of BSE-listed companies stood at Rs 1,52,40,024.08 crore at the end of trading on Thursday.

Traders said investor sentiments also remained fragile amid incessant foreign fund outflows. On a net basis, foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 3,127.36 crore on Thursday, data available with stock exchanges showed.

Foreign investors have sold equities worth Rs 9,389 crore so far this week, provisional data on the stock exchanges showed.

On the BSE, 2,010 scrips declined, while 457 advanced and 153 remained unchanged.
Marissa's and Andrew's bat and bar mitzvah announcements in the March 31, 2006 issue of the Heritage.

When the bar mitzvah announcements of Andrew and Eric Lopez, twin sons of Ed and Linda Lopez of Winter Park, were published in the March 31, 2006, issue of the Heritage, Linda kept the paper with plans to frame the announcements. The newspaper sat on top of her dresser bureau for years, turning yellow with age.

Time went on. Their son Andrew attended UCF, majoring in music and education. In January 2014, he attended a Florida Music Education Association development conference in Tampa and met Marissa Kotzin, daughter of Kurt and Paula Kotzin of Orlando.

Marissa was attending FSU, also studying music and education. They started dating and learned they grew up near each other-Andrew's family was members of Congregation of Reform Judaism and Marissa's family lived in the Dr. Phillip's area and attended Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation.

Eventually, it became evident that they were getting serious and as they planned to attend a Birthright trip together, the couple's parents met.

In the Jewish vocabulary there is a word for predestined or fated. That word is bashert. It is often used when two people are "made for each other." This seems to be the case for Andrew and Marissa.

About two years ago, Linda said, her husband suggested she get rid of that yellowing newspaper on her dresser that she was "going to frame one day." She picked it up while cleaning and looked at it.

Marissa and Andrew

Along with their sons' announcements were two others. Linda looked at Marissa's picture and then noticed her full name. "I never knew her middle name!" she said as she stared in shock at the bat mitzvah announcement of Marissa Morgan Kotzin-the girl Andrew planned to marry-right above her son Andrew's announcement.

"I guess you'd say I was freaking out," she said as she realized that Andrew and Marissa were called to the Torah as bar/bat mitzvahs on the same day at probably the same time.

Linda immediately called Andrew and sent a photo of the announcement.

And now, 14 years since the b'nai mitzvah, their parents announced in September 2019 the engagement of Marissa Morgan Kotzin to Andrew Barnet Lopez.

The couple live in South Florida where Andrew is a middle-school band director and Marissa is a high-school band director and music educator working in administration for the county.

A December 2020 wedding is planned.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi and many senior leaders extended greetings to all the "science lovers" on the occasion of National Science Day on Friday.

On this day, Sir CV Raman had announced the discovery of the "Raman Effect" for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930.

The theme for the National Science Day 2020 is "Women in Science", which aims to celebrate the contribution of women in the field of science.

Senior leaders, including PM Modi as well as social media users tweeted on the occasion.

Taking to his Twitter handle PM Narendra Modi wrote, "National Science Day is an occasion to salute the talent and tenacity of our scientists. Their innovative zeal and pioneering research has helped India and the world. May Indian science continue to thrive and may our young minds develop even greater curiosity towards science".

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted, "Tributes to Nobel Laureate Dr CV Raman on #NationalScienceDay and salute to all great Indian scientists who brought laurels to our country and worked to make our lives better." Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote , "On #NationalScienceDay, my tribute to Nobel Laureate Sir CV Raman who will always be remembered for his contribution to science & his discovery of the Raman Effect. I also extend my greetings to all Indian scientists who through their innovation have contributed to nation- building." "Our nation has been rich in knowledge since ancient times. Now we are reaching new heights in science and technology. Greetings to all on #NationalScienceDay !" tweeted former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

NCP Minister Nawab Malik wrote, "Delighted to inaugurate "The High Tech Xpress For Young Adolescents" organized by Salaam Bombay Foundation on the occasion of National Science Day. Congratulations to foundation for taking such an initiative & Astudents for their innovative contribution." A user wrote, "On this day in 1928 CV #Raman made a path-breaking discovery. For which he got #Nobel Prize in #Physics in 1930. He became the first non-white to win a Nobel in Science. He proved Raman effect with simple tools, today extensively used. Day is known as #NationalScienceDay. Wishes." Another wrote, "Contributions of #WomeninScience for the greater good of humanity are immense & immeasurable. Greetings to all the women scientists on the #NationalScienceDay, celebrated on this theme, and tribute to #BharatRatna Sir #CVRaman for his glorious scientific legacy of #RamanEffect!" A post read, "Remembering the great Indian physicist, Bharat Ratna Sir C V Raman and his contributions on #NationalScienceDay today."
By SA Commercial Prop News

THE matter involving developers of The Leonardo, the R3 billion Sandton skyscraper - who booted out construction firm Aveng, takes a new twist as Aveng now seeks an adjudicator.



THE matter involving developers of The Leonardo, the R3 billion Sandton skyscraper - who booted out construction firm Aveng, takes a new twist as Aveng now seeks an adjudicator.

The Leonardo is mixed-use development and Africa's tallest building. The 234-metre skyscraper, developed by the Legacy Group and Nedbank, was designed to house 254 apartments, a three-floor penthouse and five floors of office space, as well as shops and restaurants.

Last month, the listed construction and engineering group Aveng confirmed it had received a notice from Seventy Five on Maude, part of Bart Dorresteins Legacy Group, purporting to terminate the Leonardo construction contract. The Legacy Group has also made a call on the R87.4 million construction guarantee procured by Aveng as part of the contract.



On the sidelines of the infrastructure and resources group's results presentation for the six months ended in December, CEO Sean Flanagan said Aveng had not done any work at The Leonardo site since December 6.



"We are very confident that that job was practically complete at the point of termination. We have a number of significant contract disputes with the developer and we have to follow the contract.



"Those provisions of the contract survive the termination. We have two matters that are before the adjudicator at the moment," he said.



He said the adjudication was not aimed at restoring the contract, but rather at determining whether the developer was right and who owed whom what. The group has not disclosed the extent of losses it will incur as a result of the termination.

The Legacy Group has remained silent about the saga and attempts to obtain comment from the group were unsuccessful. Calls to Legacy Group Chairman Bart Dorresteins cellphone were not answered or responded to.

Aveng last year took a decision to sell non-core assets when it became clear that the sector downturn wasn't reversing any time soon. It decided to focus in its mining business in SA.

To date, the group has disposed more than R1 billion of these businesses, including geotechnical contractor, Ground Engineering, road rehabilitation and infrastructure unit, Rand Roads, as well as its building and civil engineering businesses. The company had planned 12 disposals and has signed 10 deals so far.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2020 > India should be Wary of US Pro-activism on Lankas Tamil Problem

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena (C) summoned US envoy Alaina Teplitz to convey strong objections on the travel restrictions on Army Commander and Acting Chief of Defence Staff, Colombo, February 16, 2020.

What cannot be lost sight of is that the public designation of the Sri Lankan army Chief and Acting Chief of Defense Staff Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva for war crimes by the US State Department on February 14 actually happened the day after the UN Security Council held a debate in New York where, inter alia, the reconciliation process in Sri Lanka was in focus.

The debate itself was initiated by Belgium, which is currently holding the Presidency of the Security Council, and was patently a Western initiative. Sri Lanka was in focus alongside South Africa, Sudan, Colombia, Myanmar, Syria, etc. amongst others, as regards their transitional justice process in conflict situations.

The Security Council debate was, in fact, chaired by the Belgian Foreign Minister, marking the high importance attached to the initiative. Equally, the debate took place in a pre-arranged setting. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, President, Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and non-repetition of Colombia, Father Francisco de Roux, and the Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa, Trustee of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre and Chair of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, Ms Yasmin Sooka, provided briefings at the commencement of the debate.

More than 60 speakers shared national experiences with truth commissions and other reconciliation instruments. Unsurprisingly, Russia expressed disquiet over interference in the internal affairs of any weakened state, stressing that The United Nations should not dictate, but should instead encourage and complement national initiatives.

China took a similar stand, saying transitional justice should be taken forward in the arena of peace-building, respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states and refraining from intervening with a states internal affairs. Both Russia and China suggested that helping states should include enhancing capacity-building and no model should be imposed from outside.

Significantly, India, which took part in the debate, regretted that involving external actors in the internal or quasi-internal conflicts of states has become more frequent, involving levels of coercion, and too often, the international community adopts a technocratic, one-size-fits-all approach that can be damaging, with transitional justice becoming steeped in Western liberalism and frequently appearing distant or remote to those who actually need it most.

India pointed out that there is also a perception that transitional justice mechanisms have been providing a form of ideological obfuscation that is intended to divert attention away from those who benefited, and sometimes still benefit, from and in the system. For instance, historical injustices inherent to colonialism are rarely the focus on transitional justice.

India forewarned that if transitional justice is conceived merely as a Band-Aid that can be applied to past harms during some unspecified and limited period of transition, it is unlikely there will be a transformational capacity. It stressed that reconciliation is an arduous process, and transitional justice mechanisms must contribute effectively to the will of local actors to shape their own destiny.

Without doubt, India took an exceptionally forceful stance that blasted the Western agenda to develop transitional justice as yet another tool to interfere in the internal affairs of developing countries. Colombo would have taken note.

Of course, Sri Lanka did not figure for specific reference/criticism in the Security Council debate. However, for Washington, it created sufficient enough synergy for the act that followed the next daythe public designation of Gen. Silva. In effect, the Sri Lankan Tamil file has been transferred from Geneva to New York/Washington.

Colombo apparently expected this to happen, considering its swift rejoinder to the US move (here and here). Meanwhile, the statement by the Sri Lankan ambassador to the UN, Mrs Kshenuka Senewiratne, exuded confidence that Colombo is confident that the American plan to bully the Rajapaksa Government wont fly.

The ambassador stressed that it is the sovereign prerogative of the Sri Lankan state to to pursue truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence keeping in mind the various historical, cultural and religious sensitivities. The ambassador firmly put on record that as a sovereign state, Sri Lanka will continue to establish its own priorities... to chart our own path to reconciliation in order for it to be sustainable and is committed to find innovative and pragmatic solutions driven by the domestic context to protect the countrys national interest guided by the provisions of the Constitution, and the will of the citizens expressed through democratic means.

The bottom line is that aside some capacity building and technical assistance in mutually agreed areasand that too, in keeping with domestic priorities and policiesColombo will handle the transitional justice its own way.

The US move against Gen. Silva is an act of sophistry. For, in the chain of command during the last phase of the LTTE war, everything began and ended with the then Defence Secretary (and todays President) Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Evidently, the public designation Gen. Silva, a close confidante of Gotabaya, carries a message for Sri Lankan leadership.

The public designation as such means nothingthe Army Chief or his family members cannot travel to the US. Big deal. But then, like in India, Sri Lankan elites too are besotted by the Green Card and the Westernists in Colombo are already scaremongering.

Clearly, Washington has all but given up hope following the stormy visit by Alice Wells, US Acting Assistant Secretary and Lisa Curtis, top NSC hand for the region to Colombo last month where they read the riot act to the Sri Lankan leaders to fall in line with the Indo-Pacific strategy against China by signing the pending status of forces agreement allowing American troops to use Sri Lanka as a hub for operations in the Indian Ocean.

The support from China and Russia helps Colombo to push back at American bullying. But the fact remains that the US is weaponising sanctions in the South Asian region to beef up the Indo-Pacific strategy. There are serious implications.

The animated chats in the social networking sites shows that Washingtons grandstanding against Sinhala elites panders to Tamil sub-nationalism. And this is happening at a time when the Tamil leadership is no longer quite in the Indian orbit as was the case historically.

The TNA leadership worked as American agents in the regime change project to overthrow the then pro-China President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2015. India did its bit too to forge such an alliance, although Americans have a rich history of finessing templates such as sub-nationalism, jihadism, etc. as geopolitical tools.

Delhi should be wary. All this is playing out when Dravida politics is in great flux in Tamil Nadu. Alas, there isnt much awareness among our political elite about the US-TNA nexus. Delhis approach to harmonise with the Indo-Pacific strategy to pressure China is fraught with medium-term risks in the Sri Lankan contextalthough many Indians foolishly fancy that they are natural allies of the US.

India should be wary of the US pro-activism on Lankas Tamil problem.

Ambassador M.K. Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for over 29 years, with postings including Indias ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-1998) and to Turkey (1998-2001).
President Trump floated that it was possible the U.S. could ban travel from Italy and other countries that have seen higher rates of coronavirus cases.

'Well, we're looking at that right now and we're looking at a couple of countries - a few countries that have a little bit disproportionately high number,' Trump replied when asked, specifically, about Italy. 'And we're going to make that decision very soon.'

Trump talked of tightening travel restrictions at the same time he attacked the media and the Democrats over their reactions to the coronavirus outbreak, suggesting the hype and the criticism were too much.

'I think they're doing everything they can to instill fear in people and I think it's ridiculous and I think they're very disreputable,' Trump answered on the South Lawn Friday when asked if he thought the coronavirus situation was a 'hoax.'

Trump said yes and referenced CNN's coverage, calling it a 'disreputable network.'

President Trump continued to attack the media and the Democrats as he left the White House late Friday afternoon, suggesting the media over-hyped the coronavirus threat, while saying the Democrats only criticized his response due to politics

'I think they're doing everything they can to instill fear in people and I think it's ridiculous and I think they're very disreputable,' Trump told reporters Friday on the South Lawn as he left Washington, D.C. to attend a campaign rally in Charleston, South Carolina

The president then said while some Democrats were reacting appropriately 'some of them are trying to tain political favor by saying a lot about this,' he said.

An hour earlier, the leading Democratic candidate nationally, Bernie Sanders, called Trump 'petty' and 'pathetic' for traveling to Charleston, South Carolina Friday night for a political rally amid the coronavirus crisis.

'He is here in South Carolina for one reason - to disrupt the Democratic primary - that's why he's here. He hopes he can get a little media attention taken away from the Democratic candidates,' said Sanders, who was campaigning in Columbia.

'Do your job,' Sanders yelled Trump's way.

Democrats will hold their presidential primary in South Carolina Saturday.

The GOP presidential primary was cancelled due to Trump's incumbent status.

Still, Trump decided to trek to the state Friday night, talking to reporters directly before he left.

'The fact is, I made one decision that was a very important decision, and that was to close our country to a certain area of the world that was relatively heavily infected, and because of that we're talking about 15 who seem to be all getting better, one is questionable,' the president said, touting his response to the coronavirus threat. 'Had that decision not be made it could be a much different story.'

He said that some people are properly giving him credit for the response.

'But the only ones that aren't, they don't mean it - it's political. It's politics,' Trump said.
The demand by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria(MACBAN) to participate in the operations of the South West regional security network, Amotekun, has been turned down by the Houses of Assembly of the respective states.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the houses of assembly of the states had concluded work on the bill after the public hearings without making any input to give MACBAN a place.

At the moment, Ekiti State has passed the bill, even though a meeting of speakers of the respective houses held in Ibadan on Thursday to harmonise the positions of the respective states.

The necessity of the harmonisation arose from the different public hearings held across the states to get inputs from the different stakeholders and citizens of the state.

During one of the public hearings organised by the Oyo State House of Assembly, MACBAN expressed its support for the establishment of the security outfit, but proposed that it should have its members participate in the Amotekun corps.

A former chairman of the association in Oyo State, Yaqub Bello, who spoke on behalf of MACBAN at the public hearing by the Oyo State House of Assembly, had expressed the support of the association to the Amotekun initiative, noting that only haters of truth would oppose the initiative.

Some of us have been in Oyo State for over 40 years, cohabiting with the natives, married Yoruba women and have children, Mr Bello.

So, our request is to include Miyetti Allah as members of Operation Amotekun to enhance the job of the outfit, since we know the terrain of where we rear our cattle.

Having Fulani among the outfit will make it easier for Amotekun men to distinguish between genuine herdsmen and the criminals while on patrol.

A Fulani man can also serve as an interpreter while interrogating any suspected herdsman, Mr Bello said. He admitted that the major objective of the initiative was to curb criminal activities in the society and not to witch hunt any particular body or ethnic group.

He described his members as law abiding, adding that none of them had been involved in any form of criminality.

He said, instead, his members had been carrying out their legitimate businesses, which is cattle rearing.

The chairman of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Olayanju Qozeem, told PREMIUM TIMES that the request was not even considered in the final analysis.

No, capital no, was his response to PREMIUM TIMES inquiries whether the House had given consideration to the request by MACBAN.

Also the chairman of the House Committee on Information, Ekiti State House of Assembly, Yemisi Ayokunle, said the house found no place for the request.

We are not thinking in that line at all, he said. There is a bill and it did not include Miyetti Allah or whoever.

Mr Oyokunle noted that Amotekun was meant for the south west citizens and would remain so following content of the bill passed by the house.

Wherever the Miyetti Allah is coming from, its tribe is not included there, so we are not thinking in this line at all, the lawmaker said.

We have done all it takes, we have passed it into law and there is no Miyetti Allah in our bill which has been passed into law.

It is now for the governor to sign it into law. We have not heard and we are not interested in listening to that or reacting to that. It is not our business at all. Anybody is entitled to say anything.

There is freedom of speech, probably that is what they are exercising but that is not included in the bill.

He argued that what the bill specifies was that whoever would be a member of Amotekun would be a native of that area where he is going to work as an Amotekun person.

He must be a native of that place who knows the nooks and crannies of that area, Mr Ayokunle said.

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The Osun State House of Assembly said MACBAN did not make such submission to it and so had no reason to deliberate on it.

The press secretary to the Speaker of the House, Kunle Alabi, told PREMIUM TIMES that the bill however, was silent on including non-indigenes, but there could be a case where a person who had lived in a community for a very long time, could be trusted with such responsibilities, even if he is not an indigene of the south west region.

However, a former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, in a recent tweet, condemned the proposal by Miyetti Allahs leadership for the inclusion of its members in Amotekun.

In a recent post on his twitter page, @realFFK, he said such inclusion would amount to recruiting demonds into an army of angels.

Recruiting Miyetti Allah into Amotekun is like recruiting hyenas into an army of lions, said Mr Fani-Kayode. Its like recruiting vultures into an army of eagles. Its like recruiting sharks into an army of dolphins.

Its like recruiting Nazis into the Israeli Defence Force. Its like recruiting the Ku Klux Klan into the ranks of the Black Panthers. Its like recruiting Hutus into an Army of Tutsis. Its like recruiting the white Boers into Nelson Mandelas ANC.

The bill is yet to be passed by five of the six houses of assembly, but could be passed next week following a conclusion of harmonisation done by the speakers in Ibadan on Thursday.

A meeting of Attorneys General of the states is expected to hold before a final passage is done and the signing of the documents by the state governors.
Belle Hassan led the who's who of Love Island stars from yesteryear on Thursday night, as they attended the In The Style x Jacqueline Jossa launch in London.

The 2019 contestant slipped her curves into a very busty red mini-dress for the occasion, adding a red fur to the look and sparkling nude heels.

Sporting a deeply bronzed tan and a thick slick of make-up, the reality personality led the likes of Georgia Steel and Francesca Allen into the fashion party.

Eye-popping: Belle Hassan led the who's who of axed Love Island stars on Thursday night, as they attended the In The Style x Jacqueline Jossa launch in London

Georgia wore a cute floral two-piece, featuring a short skirt and a showing off her lithe waist.

She added black strapped heels to the look, matched this with a crocodile skin purse, and wore her chestnut locks tumbling around her bare shoulders.

Francesca wore a polka-dot blouse, tied at the front, showing off her waist.

She wore stone slacks tied with a black belt, converse shoes and a bright pop of rouge to her plump pout.

Ex files: Belle led the likes of [L-R] Georgia Steel and Francesca Allen into the event

All dolled up: The 2019 contestant slipped her curves into a very busty red mini-dress for the occasion, adding a red fur to the look and sparkling nude heels, sporting a deeply bronzed tan and a thick slick of make-up

Strike a pose: Francesca wore a polka-dot blouse, tied at the front, showing off her waist

Arrival: She wore stone slacks tied with a black belt, converse shoes and a bright pop of rouge to her plump pout

Grin and bear it: Georgia posed with another Love Islander from yesteryear, Hayley Hughes

Georgia posed with another Love Islander from her year, Hayley Hughes.

Hayley was sure to show off her abs in the barely-there ensemble she chose to wear to the party.

Arabella Chi and Wes Nelson, who are dating, made an appearance; while Harley Brash and Samira Mighty popped along.

Samira showed off her figure in a denim number and metallic heels.

Flower power: Georgia wore a cute floral two-piece, featuring a short skirt and a showing off her lithe waist. She added black strapped heels to the look, matched this with a crocodile skin purse, and wore her chestnut locks tumbling around her bare shoulders

Waist-ing away: Hayley was sure to show off her abs in the barely-there ensemble

Coupled up: [L-R] Arabella Chi and Wes Nelson, who are dating, made an appearance; while Harley Brash and Samira Mighty popped along

Return of the mac: Arabella looked racy in a stone rain mac

Swirly: She also added strappy, elaborate heels to the look

Arabella looked racy in a stone rain mac. She also added strappy, elaborate heels to the look.

Kady McDermott showed up in a white ensemble. She put on a leggy display as she headed inside.

Joanna Chimondies stepped out for the occassion in a floral number, while early 2019 evictee Joe Garrett trotted into the event after her.

Blast from the past: Kady McDermott showed up in a white ensemble

Out and a pout: She put on a leggy display as she headed inside

Roses are red: Joanna Chimondies stepped out for the occassion in a floral number

Class of 2019: Joanna and Harley posed for snaps on the red carpet

Remember him? Early 2019 evictee Joe Garrett trotted into the event
Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren both want to ban fracking outright. Warren has promised to ban it everywhere via executive order on her first day in office.

Texans and voters elsewhere should reject those positions. Warren and Sanders more moderate opponents all have offered more reasonable and ultimately wiser approaches.

All the Democratic candidates recognize  as do we  that the fracking revolution has brought enormous economic benefits to Houston and to the world. Fracking helped bring to Texas abundant and cheap energy and a booming economy. It has also heightened the environmental perils our planet faces. Balancing those facts is among the most important tasks facing the president and Congress in 2020 as the climate doomsday clock continues to count down.

But banning the extraction technique would be a huge mistake. At least 80,000 good jobs in Texas are tied directly to oil and gas drilling. A just plan for transitioning those workers into other careers is necessary to avoid massive disruption.

The smarter, more sustainable policy on fracking is to make it cleaner, safer and  eventually  obsolete.

Cleaner

Fracking has enabled the production of natural gas in quantities once thought impossible. Natural gas is now the single-largest source of energy for Texas electricity grid, and its rise has meant a steep decline in the share of electricity produced by coal. Thats a good environmental story  and precisely why Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who opposes a fracking ban, calls natural gas a transitional fuel.

Shes right. For now, production of natural gas can continue to curb Americas dependence on coal, which comes with far greater carbon pollution.

But the coal comparison has masked significant environmental dangers tied to natural gas. Governments at local, state and federal levels must insist that producers do more to deal with flaring and the problem of methane released as a byproduct of fracking  something even some large firms such as BP have called for.

Safer

The next president should also make fracking safer for the people who live near wells and drink water that comes from nearby sources. Regulators  both in Austin and Washington  must tighten rules to make sure neither fracking nor its associated processes increase risks of earthquakes or of contamination of water supplies.

One place to start could be pressure to change a 2005 federal law that makes it illegal for the EPA to require firms to disclose what chemicals it mixes with water as part of the fracking process. Instead, a patchwork of state regulations sets the rules. Any candidate who wants to defeat a fracking ban should instead urge Congress to require such disclosures be made in every state.

More Information Reminder Early voting ends today. Make sure you're informed. For a complete list of editorial board recommendations visit houstonchronicle.com/opinion/endorsements/. Click and print a one-page PDF you can take into the booth. You can't take your cell phone. See More Collapse

Obsolete

In the Nevada debate earlier this week, Joe Biden called climate change an existential threat. Hes absolutely right. Earth really is running out of time for creating a way to power our homes, our businesses, our cities with fuel that wont contribute to environmental disaster.

Whats needed are powerful incentives for companies  many right here in Houston  to lead the switch to renewable and other, safer fuels. Those companies, with the right set of government sticks and carrots, can establish Houston as the world capital of green energy, just as it is currently the capital of oil and gas. Much of that work is already underway, but at a pace that is far too slow to match the urgency of the crisis.

Sanders is dead wrong about an outright ban. But hes just as right about the stakes if we dont do anything.

This is a moral question, he said during a previous debate. We have to make sure that the planet we leave our children and grandchildren is healthy and inhabitable. That is more important than the profits of the oil and gas industry.
For the family of Mohammad Aamir and Hashim, it was a homecoming it never wished for.

Not heeding to the warning of their brother Nasir, 25-year-old Aamir and 16-year-old Hashim, set out on Wednesday evening from their grandmother's house in Sundar Nagri to return home in Old Mustafabad, amid raging violence in northeast Delhi.

The next day, their family rushed to the GTB Hospital and identified the bodies that had been pulled out of a drain in Gokalpuri.

"Amir had called around 8.30 pm and said they would be home in just five minutes. Hashim was with him on a bike. But, they did not return. Later, when we called his phone, it was not reachable," 20-year-old Nasir said.

The family started searching for them as Ganga Vihar in Gokalpuri was the last place Amir had called them from.

"We could not find them. We reached Gokalpuri police station where a woman police officer told us that their bodies were fished out from a drain and sent to the GTB Hospital," Nasir said.

Their grieving mother Asghari blamed politicians for the violence in northeast Delhi in which at least 42 people have died and over 250 have been injured.

"Everyone knows who is responsible for their killing. They are the same politicians who have been spreading hatred against us. We just want peace. I do not want anyone to lose their children as I have," she said.

Aamir, who is survived by his four-year-old and six-month-old daughters, worked as a driver and Hashim, a school dropout, assisted him.

Locals gathered at the brothers' home in a narrow bylane of the 25 Foota Road in Old Mustafabad.

"Media blames us. The politicians who are responsible for spewing venom and giving hate speeches are untouched as the judge who ordered for registration of cases against them was transferred overnight," said a neighbour of the family, referring to the transfer of Delhi High Court Judge S Muralidhar to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The family is yet to get the bodies as the post mortem would be carried out tomorrow, Nasir said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Juvenile and DJ Jazzy Jeff to Perform at Tom Steyer Rally in South Carolina Torry Threadcraft Torry Threadcraft is a writer who covers music, sports, and

The rally takes place at local HBCU Allen University.

The Democratic primaries are heating up, and candidates are pulling out all the stops. On Friday night, Tom Steyer will host a rally with a couple of big names. DJ Jazzy Jeff and Juvenile, as well as Yolanda Adams, will perform at Allen Universitys John Hurst Adams Gymnasium. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Steyer has spent millions of dollars on campaign advertisements in South Carolina. The venue and choice of guests for this upcoming rally is evidence of Steyers attempts to secure the Black vote. At this weeks debate in Charleston, Steyer declared his willingness to grant reparations to descendants of slavery in America.

According to the most recent American Community Survey, nearly 27 percent of South Carolinas population identifies as African-American. According to the Free Times Post and Courier, 60 percent of South Carolinas Democratic electorate is Black.

While Steyer isnt the favorite by any metric, his rise in the Palmetto State could shake up the margins at the top of the race.

A recent Change Research poll has projected Steyer to come in third in the upcoming primary with 20 percent of voters. Joe Biden, who held a 31-point projected advantage (46 percent) over Sanders in May 2019, is now tied with him at 23 percent in the same poll.

The South Carolina Democratic primary begins Saturday, February 29.

H/T: Free Times Post and Courier
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28) President Rodrigo Duterte enjoys the full support of his Cabinet in his decision to scrap the Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States, Malacanang said Friday.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo shrugged off Senator Panfilo Ping Lacsons claim that some members of the Cabinet have reservations about Dutertes move to junk the two-decade-old military deal.

"All members of the Cabinet support (Duterte's) foreign policy," Panelo said in a message to reporters.

Secretary to the Cabinet Karlo Nograles shared the sentiment, saying the body will continue to back the chief executive's directives and decisions.

"'Pag sinabi ni Pangulo, nagdesisyon na siya na ganiyan, i-terminate ang VFA, lahat po kami, miyembro ng gabinete ay susuportahan si Pangulong Duterte, Nograles said in an interview with CNN Philippines' The Source.

[Translation: When the President decides on these kinds of matter, like terminating the VFA, all of us members of the Cabinet will support him.]

Lacson, in a media briefing Thursday, refused to drop names, but said he has talked to several Cabinet members who are against the abrogation.

Nograles said the pronouncement may only be just speculation.

He didn't want to name them also so mahirap naman iyan. Para namang you're putting a question mark in all of the heads of all of the Cabinet members, he added.

[Translation: He didnt want to name them also so thats difficult. Its like you're putting a question mark in all of the heads of all of the Cabinet members.]

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. Among the provisions of the 1998 deal include lax visa and passport policies for US troops, and the right of the US government to retain jurisdiction over their military personnel, among others.

EXPLAINER: The Visiting Forces Agreement

Duterte earlier this month pushed through with the termination of the military pact, despite the Senates and other government officials bid for its thorough review. The chief executive first threatened to junk the VFA in response to the US' cancellation of Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa's US visa.

The upper chamber, however, is not giving up just yet on the deal, with some senators planning to question the VFAs termination before the Supreme Court.

The VFA will be effectively scrapped on August 9180 days from the US' receipt of the notice. Following the termination, Malacanang has stressed the Philippines will not shift military alliances to other nations, saying it is about time for the country to stand on its own.

READ: Panelo clarifies: PH can be colony of any country, not just China, if it can't defend itself

CNN Philippines Alyssa Rola, Eimor Santos, and Triciah Terada contributed to this report.
GENEVA - The U.N. envoy for Libya on Friday denounced the near breakdown of a fragile truce between the countrys warring sides, citing a serious violation over the last 24 hours  attacks on the capital including an early morning shelling of Tripolis airport.

Ghassan Salame, hosting diplomatic talks in Geneva, also exposed a rift within delegations representing Libyas internationally recognized government in Tripoli and the eastern-based government allied with ex-general Khalifa Hifter.

Salame has been mediating three-tiered talks on economic, political and military tracks since an agreement to launch them last month, hoping to end violence and troubles in Libya since the fall of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

The country, in the past 24 hours, has witnessed a very serious violation of the truce, Salame told reporters after political talks at United Nations offices. In fact, it could have been almost the breakdown of that truce.

Salame said many areas of the capital were shelled. It is clear that neither one of the three tracks can move positively, when the cannon is doing what it is doing right now.

In April, Hifters forces, which control much of the east, launched an offensive to wrest control of the capital from the U.N.-backed government. The march on Tripoli resulted in a military stalemate and hundreds of civilian casualties.

Earlier on Friday, a senior health official in the Tripoli-based government told The Associated Press that Hifters forces had shelled the capital with at least 40 rockets since dawn.

Some rockets hit Mitiga airport, sparking a fire that forced authorities to close the citys only functioning airport, said Amin al-Hashemi, the Health Ministry spokesman. He said the shelling brought down several houses that had been evacuated earlier.

The shelling of the capital comes against the backdrop of strained U.N.-mediated political talks in Geneva that kicked off earlier this week. Salame said he was planning to continue talks next month, nevertheless.

He said Khaled al-Meshri, speaker of the High State Council, the Tripoli-based parliament, first called for a delay in political talks that started this week, then a boycott of them.

The speaker of the house of the High State Council has asked for a (delay) of the talks, but everybody was here, and I thought his request came too late for that, he said.

The council speaker also added new conditions on the talks, Salame said, decrying the procrastination of the cynics.

Salame complained that six of the 13-member delegation representing the east-based parliament, known as the House of Representatives, withdrew from the talks.

Those who left were from both sides, he said.

Power in Libya is divided between two rival governments, one each in the east and west of the country, and a patchwork of armed groups that support either administration.

Hifters army, the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces, has the backing of countries like Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, France and Russia, while the government in Tripoli has the support of Turkey and Italy.

___

Associated Press writer Noha ElHennawy in Cairo contributed to this report.
Dear Answer Man, my wife works in the school system and we were talking Sunday about the various school closings. I remarked that I remembered as a kid that the governor closed all Minnesota schools when the temperatures and weather was this bad. Does the governor still have this power and are there any stipulations or guidelines?  Derrick Heard

Derrick: The governor has the authority to declare a state of emergency for public health and safety, whether for a flu outbreak or bad weather, and he can close public and private schools and prohibit public gatherings with that power. The "stipulations and guidelines" would be precedent, and there aren't a lot of those. The governor rarely closes schools for weather reasons, though.

Gov. Arne Carlson ordered all Minnesota schools closed in January 1994 and February 1996 because of record low temperatures, according to one weather data source, and Im looking for other recent examples of gubernatorial orders.

In the case of a health emergency, such as a flu pandemic, it would fall to the local police and sheriff departments to enforce the governor's order prohibiting public gatherings; it's a misdemeanor to violate the order.

The statute was updated as recently as 1996 and gives the governor fairly broad powers. Day care centers would be treated the same as schools, in case of a health emergency.
Dr Reddy's Laboratories on Friday said the US health regulator has issued a Form 483 with one observation after inspecting one of its formulation plants in Hyderabad.

Earlier in the day, the drug major had said that the US health regulator has issued a Form 483 with two observations after inspecting the facility.

"We wish to inform you that the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) investigator has subsequently issued a revised Form 483 with one observation only, in place of two observations intimated earlier," Dr Reddy's Laboratories said in a regulatory filing.

The company will address the said observation comprehensively within the stipulated timeline, it added.

As per the USFDA, Form 483 is issued to firm management at the conclusion of an inspection when investigators have observed any conditions that in their judgment may constitute violations of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act and related Acts.

Dr Reddy's shares ended 4.66 per cent up at Rs 2,925.80 apiece on the BSE on Friday.
Gadchiroli : , Feb 28 (IANS) In a major victory for security forces, a dreaded Maoist commander carrying a Rs 9.50 lakhs reward, surrendered along with his AK-47 Army assault rifle and 35 live rounds before the Gadchiroli police on Friday, an official said.

He has been identified as Vilas alias Dasru K. Kolha, with 149 serious cases registered against him, and serving as North Gadchiroli 'Commander'.

Figuring on the most wanted list of the state police, he had managed to evade arrest for over two decades.

Kolha, 44, decided to give up rebellion after 24 years in the wilderness and gave himself up before Superintendent of Police Shailesh Balkawade, said an official spokesperson.
MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2020 / Kisses from Italy Inc. (OTCQB:KITL) restaurant group and franchisor recently attended the Global Franchise show in Mumbai India, an event hosted by ExpanGlobal, a leading international market entry and expansion company headquartered in India. Michele Di Turi the President, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Kisses from Italy, who attended the Global Franchise Show, stated that "Being at an event like this, that brings so many people together, is an important way to expand your brand exposure. There is nothing like making a face-to-face connection with potential business partners and franchisees." The event was held at the Sahara Star Hotel, a beautiful 5-star property near Mumbai's domestic airport. Di Turi added that "the ExpanGlobal team were very gracious hosts and we look forward to returning to India and working with ExpanGlobal in strengthening and promoting our brand in the national territory of India."

Kisses from Italy recently announced a partnership with ExpanGlobal. The companies have joined forces in order to drive growth for Kisses from Italy's overseas expansion, beginning with India.

From left to right: Mrinal Srivastava (Founder and President of Global Expansion for ExpanGlobal); Michele Di Turi (President, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Kisses from Italy); Raghav Khattar (Founder and President of Marketing and Investor Relations)

Michele Di Turi (President, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Kisses from Italy) pictured in the center, discussing the Kisses from Italy franchise brand and system with potential franchisees in Mumbai India.

About KISSES FROM ITALY Inc.

KISSES FROM ITALY is a U.S. based restaurant chain focused on fast-casual dining with traditional Italian Panini, homemade lasagna, salads, panzerotti di Bari, Italian coffee, dessert and breakfast offerings. The company currently operates four corporate owned stores. It successfully commenced operations in May 2015 with the opening of its flagship location in Ft. Lauderdale at 3146 NE 9th St. This was followed by three additional sites across the greater Ft. Lauderdale/Pompano Beach area. The Company recently opened its inaugural European location in Ceglie del Campo, Bari, Italy in October of 2019. In September of 2019, Kisses from Italy Inc. was given the approval by FINRA to trade its common stock and was approved for up-listing by the OTC Markets Group to the OTCQB in mid-October 2019 under the ticker symbol KITL.

For more information, please visit www.kissesfromitaly.com

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release may contain forward looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those anticipated or expected, including statements related to the amount and timing of expected revenues and any payment of dividends on our common and preferred stock, statements related to our financial performance, expected income, distributions, and future growth for upcoming quarterly and annual periods. These risks and uncertainties are further defined in filings and reports by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Actual results and the timing of certain events could differ materially from those projected in or contemplated by the forward-looking statements due to a number of factors detailed from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Among other matters, Kisses from Italy Inc. may not be able to sustain growth or achieve profitability based upon many factors including, but not limited to, general stock market conditions. Reference is hereby made to cautionary statements set forth in the company's most recent SEC filings. We have incurred and will continue to incur significant expenses in our expansion of our existing and new service lines, noting there is no assurance that we will generate enough revenues to offset those costs in both the near and long term. Additional service offerings may expose us to additional legal and regulatory costs and unknown exposure(s) based upon the various geopolitical locations where we will be providing services, the impact of which cannot be predicted at this time.

Contact Information:

Kisses from Italy Inc.

305-423-7129

info@kissesfromitaly.com

SOURCE: Kisses from Italy Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/578340/Kisses-from-Italy-attends-ExpanGlobals-Global-Franchise-Show-in-Mumbai-India
The following candidates have declared cancidacy to the Board of Directors of Icelandair Group at the Annual General Meeting on 6 March 2020.

Gumundur Hafsteinsson; ID no. 290875-3319 John F. Thomas; ID no. n/a Nina Jonsson; ID no. 100567-3189 Svafa Gronfeldt; ID no. 290365-3769 Ulfar Steindorsson; ID no. 030756-2829

Gumundur Hafsteinsson

Gumundur Hafsteinsson recently stepped down as the Head of Product for Google Assistant at Google, a position he held from 2014 to 2019. He joined Google in 2014 subsequent to the merger of Google and Emu, a chat based virtual assistant start-up he founded in 2012. Prior to the founding of Emu, he was VP Product at Siri, and stayed on after the acquisition by Apple through the launch of Siri on iPhone 4S. Prior to Siri/Apple, Gumundur was a Senior Product Manager at Google, where he managed the initial launches of Google Maps for mobile and Google Voice Search. Gumundur holds an MBA degree from MIT and a B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Iceland. Gumundur joined Icelandair Groups Board of Directors in March 2018.

John F. Thomas

John F. Thomas is is a Senior Advisor to the management consultancy McKinsey & Co., the aviation infrastructure firm Nieuport Aviation Infrastructure Partners GP and the tourism technology firm Plusgrade in addition to sitting on boards in the aviation and aerospace industries. Moreover, he is currently owner and CEO of Waltzing Matilda Aviation LLC, a jet charter operation based in Boston. In 2016-2017, Mr. Thomas was Group Executive at Virgin Australia Airlines where he led a financial turnaround as CEO of a AU$ 4.0bn (appr. USD 2.8bn) full service carrier with over 6,000 employees, and Managing Director/Senior Partner at L.E.K. Consulting where he created and led the Global Aviation Practice for 16 years. Mr. Thomas holds an MBA degree from Macquarie University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Commerce degreed from the University of New South Wales.

Nina Jonsson

Nina Jonsson is currently a Senior Advisor at aviation consultancy Plane View Partners and a board member at aviation technology firm FLYHT. Between 2015 and 2017, she held the role of Senior Vice President Group Fleet at Air France-KLM Group where she was responsible for group-wide fleet strategy, aircraft sourcing, leasing and sales. Previously, Ms. Jonsson held a number of other executive positions within the aviation industry including Fleet Management Officer at the Bristow Group (2012-15), Director Fleet Planning at United Airlines (2006-2011) and Director Fleet Management at US Airways (2002-2005). Ms. Jonsson holds an MBA degree from Rensselaer Polytechic Institute and a B.Sc. degree in Air Transport Management from the University of New Haven.

Svafa Gronfeldt

Svafa Gronfeldt is a founding member of MITs innovation accelerator DesignX, and a co-founder of the MET fund, a Cambridge based seed investment fund. Svafa is a member of the Board of Directors at Ossur since 2008 and Origo since 2019. Previous positions include Chief Organizational Development Officer at Alvogen, President of Reykjavik University and Deputy to the CEO of Actavis Group. Svafa holds a PhD in Industrial Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Svafa joined Icelandair Groups Board of Directors in March 2019.

Ulfar Steindorsson

Ulfar Steindorsson is the CEO of Toyota in Iceland. Previously, he was the CEO of marine biotech firm Primex ehf. from 2002 to 2004, and the CEO of the New Business Ventures Fund in Iceland from 1999 to 2002. Ulfar has held various board positions in the Icelandic business environment in the past years. Ulfar holds a Cand. Oecon degree from the University of Iceland and an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University. He joined Icelandair Groups Board of Directors on September 15th 2010.

It is the conclusion of the Board of Directors and the Nomination Committee of Icelandair Group that all the candidates are independent of the Company, its management and significant shareholders. According to the Companys Articles of Association the Annual General Meeting elects five members for the Board of Directors. As five have declared candidacy, these candidates will be elected to the Board of Directors without ballot at the meeting.



Candidates to the Nomination Committee

The following candidates have declared cancidacy to the Nomination Committee of Icelandair Group at the Annual General Meeting on 6 March 2020.

Helga Arnadottir; id.no.120371-3479

Hjorleifur Palsson; id.no 281163-4269

According to the Companys Articles of Association the Annual General Meeting elects two members for the Nomination Committee. As two have declared candidacy, these candidates will be elected to the Board of Directors without ballot at the meeting.

The Annual General Meeting will be conducted in English.

Further information:

Ari Gujonsson

General Counsel

ari@icelandairgroup.is
Representative Image

India's Ambassador to Qatar will attend the signing of the landmark peace deal between the US and the Afghan Taliban in Doha on February 29, official sources said.

The deal would allow for the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. The US has lost over 2,400 soldiers in Afghanistan since late 2001.

Sources said India has been invited by the Qatar government for the ceremony where the deal will be signed and Indian ambassador P Kumaran will attend it.

It will be for the first time India will officially attend an event involving the Taliban.

India has been a key stakeholder in the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

In a significant move, India had sent two former diplomats in "non-official" capacity to a conference on Afghan peace process in Moscow in November 2018.

The conference organised by Russia was attended by a high-level Taliban delegation, representatives of Afghanistan as well as from several other countries, including the US, Pakistan and China.

Major powers such as the US, Russia and Iran have been reaching out to the Taliban as part of efforts to push the stalled Afghan peace process.

India has been supporting a national peace and reconciliation process which is Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan controlled.

India has also been maintaining that care should be taken to ensure that any such process does not lead to any "ungoverned spaces" where terrorists and their proxies can relocate.
A section of teachers and some students at Visva Bharati University have assured legal help to the Bangladeshi student, who was asked to leave the country for engaging in "anti-government activities".

Afsara Anika Meem, an undergraduate student at the central university, was served a 'Leave India Notice' by the Foreigners' Regional Registration Office, Kolkata -- under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

A Calcutta High Court lawyer told PTI on Friday that Meem's friends have approached him for taking up her case.

"I had a conversation with Meem on Thursday, after some of her friends called me up and handed over the phone to her. But, nothing has been finalised yet. It is her decision," he said.

A teacher at the central university and a leader of the Students' Federation of India (SFI) said two "leading" lawyers of the high court have agreed to take up the case of the student, who has been subjected to "gross injustice".

Meem could not be contacted for comments.

The Bangladeshi student had told PTI on Thursday in a WhatsApp message that "I am not in a state to talk about this now".

The 'Leave India Notice' issued to Meem on February 14 had asked the woman to leave India within 15 days from the date of its receipt, but did not specify the nature of the "anti-India activities".

Meem had allegedly shared some posts on Facebook related to anti-CAA protests inside the campus in December, and has been trolled on social media since then, an SFI member had earlier said.

"... She is found to have engaged in anti-government activities. And such activity being a breach of her visa, has thus, committed visa violation.

"... The foreigner shall not remain in India, shall depart from India within 15 days of receipt of this order," the notice said.

The SFI also alleged that the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had lodged a complaint against the undergraduate student pursuing Bachelor of Design course.

The ABVP, however, has dismissed the charges.

"We have always maintained that foreign nationals studying in India should not interfere into the affairs of this country... But, we have never singled out Meem," Shyamasree Karmakar of the ABVP said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The United States on Thursday demanded that the Syrian regime and its ally Russia end their "despicable" operation in Idlib province and vowed to support Ankara after 29 Turkish soldiers were killed.

"We stand by our NATO ally Turkey and continue to call for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces," a State Department spokesperson said.

"We are looking at options on how we can best support Turkey in this crisis."



The State Department said that US officials were seeking information from their counterparts in Turkey, where an official in a border province said that 29 soldiers were killed in the air strike in Idlib.

Reacting earlier to preliminary reports of the deaths, Kay Bailey Hutchison, the US ambassador to NATO, said the incident amounted to a "huge change".

US relations with Turkey deteriorated sharply last year over Ankara's military intervention in Syria as well as its purchase of Russia's S-400 missile defence system in defiance of warnings from allies in NATO, an alliance created to counter Moscow.

"I hope that President Erdogan will see that we are the ally of their past and their future and they need to drop the S-400," Hutchison told reporters in Washington.

"They see what Russia is, they see what they're doing now, and if they are attacking Turkish troops, then that should outweigh everything else that is happening between Turkey and Russia," she said.

The US says the S-400 system will hurt NATO by allowing Russia to improve its tracking of Western aircraft.

Turkey insists it will set up the S-400 in areas not frequented by US jets and it has not yet put the system into operation, giving Washington hope that Ankara may still change its mind.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Coffee Design is proudly sponsored by Savor Brands , your boost in coffeedence through maximizing designs in packaging, sustainability and tech.

Thread Coffee Roasters, roasting in Baltimore, Maryland since 2012, launched a fresh design this month with gorgeous illustrations and bright silver and pink colors on a matte black bag. Thread commissioned artist Caleb Luke Lin along with Baltimore-based and women-owned design house Gilah Press + Design for the packaging. We reached out to Thread to find out more.

Tell us more about Thread Coffee Roasters!

Thread Coffee Roasters is a women and queer-owned coffee roasting company based in Baltimore, MD. We are an employee-owned company and use a transparent model of trade, buying coffee from farmers that we want to be in solidarity with. At Thread Coffee, we provide the opportunity for employees and farmers to become shareholders. We strive to provide living-wage jobs to women and queer workers in Baltimore City with an end goal of co-ownership and equal stake in the business.

Thread Coffee was founded by Casey McKeel in 2012 when it joined the Red Emmas Family of Projects, which acted as a business incubator for the company. From the start, it was formed as a worker-cooperative, where every worker has the opportunity to become an owner and has equal access to decision making processes through a horizontal and democratic model. In 2017, Thread Coffee expanded out of the incubation process and moved into its own roastery/cafe space in the newly founded mixed-use makerspace called Open Works.

Thread Coffee currently employees eight full time and part-time workers and has three worker-owners.

Casey McKeel founded Thread Coffee Roasters at the age of 25 in 2012, roasting on a homemade set up in her backyard. She has overseen every stage of the project from the first years of incubation in Red Emmas, to the expansion into Open Works, to the spin-off into an independent C Corporation in July 2018. From traveling to origin to source the beans to facilitating roasting workshops with farmers, Casey has fostered Threads long-standing relationships with farmer cooperatives. With over 15 years of experience in the coffee industry, Casey also holds a Masters Degree in Accounting. Outside of work, Casey is also an accomplished photographer and dedicated activist; she recently organized a powerful exhibition of diverse artists at the Peale Center entitled, No Walls, No Bans, No Borders.

Nani Ferreira Mathews has extensive experience in sales and account management in New Yorks highly competitive specialty coffee market. As a salesperson for industry leaders such as Joe Coffee and Unique Coffee Roasters, she developed a keen sense of effective marketing strategies, and worked to ensure enduring wholesale relationships. While honing her skills as a barista since 2012, she has taken on many roles within specialty coffee including trainer, lead educator, and production roaster. She moved to Baltimore in 2017 after accepting the position as Coffee Director for Foodshed restaurant group. During this time she helped open A Rakes Progress, The Cup, and managed Bird in Hand, a locally-sourced farm to table cafe. Nanis leadership cemented Bird in Hands reputation as a coffee destination in the city: she revitalized the coffee program with specialty drink development and extensive barista training. Returning to her roots in the production and wholesale side of the industry, she joined Thread in July 2018 as a salesperson and roaster. A published author and recording artist, Nani brings her creativity and graphic design skills to the project.

Holly Kent-Payne spent several years as an adjunct professor teaching English Composition and Literature to non-traditional students before beginning her specialty coffee career as a barista at Bow Truss Coffee Roasters in Chicago. Moving to Baltimore in 2017, she established herself as a lead Barista at Bird in Hand cafe, training new employees and ensuring the maintenance of specialty coffee standards. She joined Thread Coffee Roasters in March 2018 to gain production experience, and is now the head roaster. Holding an MFA in Fiction, she brings her writing and illustrating skills to bear in Threads promotional materials.

Yall had a few folx work on the design of the packageplease tell us about them!

Designers include Caleb Luke Lin (a brilliant and accomplished illustrator) and local Baltimore and women-owned design house Gilah Press + Design. Caleb created the hand-drawn elements on the sides of the package. We asked Caleb to capture Thread Coffees commitment to womens empowerment from seed to cup. He used photos we took on our farm visits for inspiration. The roaster illustration was meant to evoke the ethos of #shestheroaster campaign. Though not the original intent, the illustration looks an awful lot like our head roaster Holly Kent-Payne.

The bag design was brought to life by Gilah Press and Designs head designer, Nathalie Cone and owner Kat Feuerstein. We challenged them to create something new and eye-catching and to both utilize blank space and allow the bag material (aluminum in color), to shine through. They were able to deliver beyond what we had imagined by showcasing a vivid lacing of pink and silver lines in the bag front that draws the eye from a distance. Its pattern in playfully hidden on the bottom of the bag along with the word enjoy in our logos recognizable script.

In our original creative brief with Gilah Press and Design, we asked them to utilize design elements that capture our commitment to transparent trade, worker-ownership, and the City of Baltimore. They captured this with our own official badge found on the back next to the Made in Baltimore logo. The simple illustration of hands, leaves, and coffee cherries encapsulated with the phrases Transparently Traded and Cooperatively Roasted are all unique elements to the Thread Coffees brand and model.

The Made in Baltimore logo is used in conjunction with a Baltimore city program with the same name. The Made in Baltimore program is a branding program that supports locally made products and aims to spur reinvestment in Baltimore City through uplifting local producers and makers. Their network has given Thread Coffee access to anchor institutions and large grocery procurement and buyers through their abundant and creative networking events.

Tell us about the name of the espresso blend!

We try to have fun when naming our blends and also find ways to draw attention to our commitment to horizontalism and worker solidarity. May 68, our espresso blend of Peru and Rwanda, is named after the student and worker-led protest in France in May of 1968. This two month period in Frances history of civil unrest led to social and cultural change and unified the people in struggle. Thread Coffee unites with many social movements around the world. This is our nod to an oldie but goodie.

Where is your coffee available?

Thread Coffee can be found in local grocers in Baltimore and D.C, including Moms Organic Market and Whole Foods (this spring). Our nitro cold brew cans are available in the mid-Atlantic and northeast from NYC to Richmond, VA.

For our national customers outside of our region, we are always open online at www.threadcoffee.com and have a successful and affordable monthly Roasters Choice club.

Whats next for Thread Coffee Roasters?

We are very excited to announce, for the first time, that we are giving a panel/lecture at this years 2020 Coffee Expo in Portland, called Re-Defining Sustainability: Quality of Life vs. Quality of Coffee. In an effort to help mitigate risks to smallholder farmers, we are launching a shareholder program with some of our producer partners. We are headed to SCA this year to share these plans, among others in our re-defining sustainability vision. Our panel is Sunday, April 26, 2020, from 8:30 am-9:30 am. Find the whole rundown here!

Thank you!

Zachary Carlsen is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Zachary Carlsen on Sprudge.
(Natural News) The California county where a now-critically ill woman exposed dozens of hospital staffers to the coronavirus is also home to Travis Air Force Base, where infected Diamond Princess patients have been housed in a quarantine unit.

The woman was not tested for 11 days because the CDC continues to withhold testing kits from the entire country. California Gov. Newsom declared in a news conference today that California has just a few hundred testing kits that he called, simply inadequate, reports the SF Chronicle.

The independent media  Natural News, Zero Hedge, InfoWars and Peak Prosperity  has been hammering this point for well over a week, asking why near-zero testing of people is being conducted in America. The totally discredited mainstream media, which has downplayed this entire pandemic from day one, claims its a conspiracy theory to cite the CDCs own numbers that show only 445 people have been tested in the entire country:

State-by-state testing numbers are now published on Pandemic.news, revealing that nearly all states have tested exactly zero people.

Although this point should be abundantly self-evident, if you dont test anyone for the virus, you wont find any evidence of infections.

The CDC continues to repeat they have no evidence of community outbreaks in America  a goal thats easy to achieve when you arent testing anyone.

Travis Air Force Base tried to export infected patients to Costa Mesa, near Los Angeles

Last week, Travis Air Force base attempted to secretly export up to 50 infected patients to the Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa, utterly without any approval of Costa Mesa city leaders. The Fairview center was built to house neurologically impaired adults and has no biocontainment facilities whatsoever. The center has a history of mysterious deaths, violent assaults on patients and even patient rapes. Over 43% of the patients there are given hypnotic drugs, according to public records.

When city officials became aware of the Air Force plan to relocate infected patients there, they balked and filed a federal lawsuit, demanding a judge grant a temporary restraining order to halt the action:

Heres what the lawsuit document says:

Statement of Facts:

Defendants intend to relocate from 35-50 patients already diagnosed with the Coronavirus from a secure location on Travis Air Force Base, where they are isolated from population centers, to Costa Mesa, a densely population city within a county of over 3 million. (Dempsey Decl. ??2, 6-7). And they plan to do so without first determining the suitability of the facility where the individuals will be housed. The Defendants plan was announced at the eleventh hour, with no efforts to include local government leaders or local public health officials. (Id.). Indeed, State officials demanded to know why local emergency personnel notified City leaders at all of the plan to introduce people with a deadly and highly communicable disease into the community.

As we point out in this previous story, the reason Travis Air Force Base needed to export infected patients is because the Air Force base has been overrun with infected patients.

Theyve run out of biocontainment beds, in other words, because California is experiencing a sustained, rapidly multiplying coronavirus outbreak that the CDC knows all about but chooses to hide from the public.

In fact, DHS, the FDA, the CDC and the NIH are all well aware that Americas cities are about to be hit with thousands of coronavirus infections. Its already beyond containment in the United States, and the public has been lied to from day one.

Only the independent media has been reporting the truth about this virus, and Big Tech is making sure all indy media sources are banned in order to control the narrative.

Stay informed by reading Pandemic.news. The day of reckoning is rapidly approaching.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)  Just two days after it canceled upcoming university-sponsored travel to countries at a risk of the coronavirus, Purdue is extending its ban into the summer.

A Purdue spokesperson says the university has now canceled summer study abroad travel to countries listed as a Level 2 or 3 risk. Currently, that includes China, South Korea, Iran, Italy and Japan.

Purdue says it will take additional steps if any countries are added to the list.

In the meantime, Purdue is urging people to pay close attention to the CDC risk levels if they're traveling abroad.They're also recommending travelers to seek an assessment with a health care provider upon return if they go to an at-risk country.

Earlier this month, Purdue brought six students home studying abroad from Shanghai, China out of precaution. Purdue said there are no students currently being monitored for the coronavirus. About 135 students call Wuhan, China, the origin of the virus, home.

You can check out countries that the CDC has listed at Level 2 risk or higher here.
The boss of Belfast Harbour has said it aims to work with other organisations in order to realise its ambitions for the site.

Chief executive Joe O'Neill was speaking at the BelFastForward conference in Belfast yesterday. The event, led by Belfast Chamber of Commerce, featured key developers involved in regeneration.

Mr O'Neill said the harbour supports 46,000 jobs at the moment but it wants to add 7,000 new posts through projects including new offices and tourism initiatives.

Mr O'Neill said the harbour is working with consultants Aecom on plans for a new public park as part of its ambitions, which also include an aquarium.

And it has signed a memorandum of understanding with other organisations including the Port of Rotterdam in Holland.

Belfast Chamber also called for new powers to help the city reach its potential. Its president Rajesh Rana said Belfast does not have the powers and controls a city of its size and importance should have if it is to compete successfully with other cities.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Monument Mining Limited (TSX-V: MMY and FSE: D7Q1) (Monument or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has commenced a 38 hole, 4,580 metre drilling program at its 100% owned Burnakura and Gabanintha gold projects in Western Australia. The objective of the program is to test certain exploration targets identified through geological interpretation of last years data collection, prior years drilling results and structural geological studies.



The main focus of the drill program is to test down plunge extensions of existing high grade mineralization at Alliance, New Alliance and NOA deposits at Monuments Burnakura project, including the North of NOA7/8 (NOA 9) regional target, and at Yagahong at Monuments Gabanintha project. The holes have been significantly stepped out from existing drilling with the aim of making a major discovery that could be mined underground. Jun Cowans 3D structural study completed in 2019, described in the news release dated September 30, 2019, was used to help refine these drill targets. This drill program is a follow-up to the drill program carried out in 2018 that intersected 1.3m at 26.8g/t at Alliance in a hole that was drilled 170m down dip from existing mineralization (news release dated August 7, 2018).

In addition, the program will include 920m of air core (AC) drilling to test the NOA 9 target. The NOA 9 target is an under-explored area. The drilling is aimed to collect geological evidence as to whether it has continuity of mineralization to the NOA cluster of deposits and whether further exploration is worthwhile in order to assess the potential for repetition of NOA. NOA has gold resources defined in Updated Mineral Resource, Burnakura Project, Western Australia, Australia NI 43-101 Technical Report prepared by SRK Consulting in July 2018. It historically produced over 149kOz of gold. NOA 9 have never been explored, therefore the potential mineralization of NOA 9 described above is conceptual in nature and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource.

Details of the drill program are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Drill Program Details

Drill Area Holes Meters Burnakura Down Plunge Extension RC 12 3,080 Gabanintha Down Plunge Extension RC 3 580 Burnakura NOA 9 Regional Target AC 23 920 Total 38 4,580

The drilling will take about 20 days to complete later March while samples would be sent to ALS lab and assay; results are expected to be received by the end of April, 2020, which will be announced accordingly.

The drilling contract has been awarded to Kennedy Drilling, who will use a Schramm T685W Rotadrill to complete approximately 3,660m of reverse circulation (RC) drilling and 920m of AC drilling. All samples will be assayed for gold and selected samples for multi-element analysis at ALS Geochemistry, Malaga, Western Australia.

Burnakura Down Plunge Extension

A total of 12 holes for 3,080m have been planned to test down plunge extension of high grade mineralisation at Alliance (1,005m), New Alliance (850m) and NOA (1,225m) (Figure 1). The Alliance mineralisation has a strong lithology control and exhibits pronounced high grade continuity, and is a promising underground target. The deepest hole of the whole program is planned for 350m final depth, targeting down plunge of the NOA 2 mineralisation, which has been previously mined by underground methods.

Figure 1 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/276cc711-f1b2-45a2-93a5-4d12f60a7902

Gabanintha Down Plunge Extension

A total of 3 holes for 580m have been planned to test down plunge of the north-west plunging high grade Yagahong mineralisation (figure 2).

Figure 2 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/eddd748b-951d-4ff6-9d2d-a67cf843e5dd

Burnakura NOA 9 Regional Target

The AC drilling will comprise approximately 23 holes for 920m and has been designed to test the NOA 9 regional target (figure 3). Three east-west lines spaced at 250m and 350m with 40m spaced holes are planned to be drilled. The holes are planned to dip to the west. The NOA 9 target was identified by Dr. Warwick Crowe (see November 8, 2018 news release) as a potential NNW trending splay off the Burnakura shear zone with a similar structural association of the NOA trend of deposits.

Figure 3 is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d038149a-56f2-40c7-bc6e-ae1a1e6804b8

The scientific and technical information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Roger Stangler, MEng, FAusIMM, MAIG, a Qualified Person as defined by NI43-101, retained by Golder Associates Pty Ltd.

About Monument

Monument Mining Limited (TSX-V: MMY, FSE:D7Q1) is an established Canadian gold producer that owns and operates the Selinsing Gold Mine in Malaysia. Its experienced management team is committed to growth and is advancing several exploration and development projects including the Mengapur Copper and Iron Project, in Pahang State of Malaysia, and the Murchison Gold Projects comprising Burnakura, Gabanintha and Tuckanarra in the Murchison area of Western Australia. The Company employs approximately 198 people in both regions and is committed to the highest standards of environmental management, social responsibility, and health and safety for its employees and neighboring communities.

Cathy Zhai, President and CEO

Monument Mining Limited

Suite 1580 -1100 Melville Street

Vancouver, BC V6E 4A6

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION visit the company web site at www.monumentmining.com or contact:

Richard Cushing, MMY Vancouver T: +1-604-638-1661 x102 rcushing@monumentmining.com Wolfgang Seybold, Axino Media GmbH T: +49 711-82 09 7211 wolfgang.seybold@axino.com

"Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release."



Forward-Looking Statement

This news release includes statements containing forward-looking information about Monument, its business and future plans (forward-looking statements). Forward-looking statements are statements that involve expectations, plans, objectives or future events that are not historical facts and include the Companys plans with respect to its mineral projects and the timing and results of proposed programs and events referred to in this news release. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". The forward-looking statements in this news release are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks and certain other factors include, without limitation: risks related to general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; uncertainties regarding the results of current exploration activities; uncertainties in the progress and timing of development activities; foreign operations risks; other risks inherent in the mining industry and other risks described in the management discussion and analysis of the Company and the technical reports on the Companys projects, all of which are available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Material factors and assumptions used to develop forward-looking statements in this news release include: expectations regarding the estimated cash cost per ounce of gold production and the estimated cash flows which may be generated from the operations, general economic factors and other factors that may be beyond the control of Monument; assumptions and expectations regarding the results of exploration on the Companys projects; assumptions regarding the future price of gold of other minerals; the timing and amount of estimated future production; the expected timing and results of development and exploration activities; costs of future activities; capital and operating expenditures; success of exploration activities; mining or processing issues; exchange rates; and all of the factors and assumptions described in the management discussion and analysis of the Company and the technical reports on the Companys projects, all of which are available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 04:26:28|Editor: huaxia

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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to journalists during a press encounter at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 28, 2020. The latest attacks in opposition-held northwest Syria marks "one of the most alarming moments" in the nearly nine-year-old conflict, Guterres said on Friday. (Xinhua/Wang Jiangang)

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The latest attacks in opposition-held northwest Syria marks "one of the most alarming moments" in the nearly 9-year-old conflict, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday.

"The most pressing need is an immediate ceasefire before the situation gets entirely out of control," he said. "In all my contacts with those involved, I have had one simple message: step back from the edge of further escalation."

The UN chief's plea follows reports that at least 11 Syrian soldiers were killed on Friday by strikes from Turkish drones in the northwestern province of Idlib.

"I also reiterate my appeal for civilian protection," he told reporters at a brief news conference outside Security Council chambers.

"Fighting has brought nothing but ruin and misery," Guterres said. "There is no military solution. The only path is a UN-facilitated political process."

Asked if the world organization should dispatch UN personnel to get a clear picture of what is happening, he said. "There is preparation for a humanitarian mission exactly with that purpose."

The secretary-general said nearly 1 million people have fled their homes in the past three months as airstrikes continue to hit schools and medical facilities.

"Even camps and other sites where displaced families have sought shelter have been struck by shelling," he said. "The noose keeps tightening, as the frontlines are moving into more densely populated areas."

The civilian population under threat in Syria's northwest has been put by the United Nations at 3 million.
With the CDC announcing that a coronavirus outbreak in the United States is likely to occur and that we may have to modify our behaviors to be more isolated from each other, its no surprise that many Americans are on edge and the stock markets heavily spooked. Thats why all eyes were on Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar during a Congressional hearing this week when he inexplicably said that he could not promise a vaccine for the coronavirus would be affordable. He even went on to say that we cant control the price because we need the private sector to invest.

While he soon walked back his comment after receiving blistering criticism, Secretary Azar unwittingly revealed a long standing socio-economic injustice in the way drugs and vaccines are made in America. It becomes all the more glaring as we sit on the verge of a possible coronavirus pandemic.

American taxpayers fund the research and development of many drugs and vaccines, and even risk their own bodies to participate in clinical trials that determine both the safety and efficacy of these drugs. But in a preposterous twist, we must then pay exorbitant prices to pharmaceutical companies just to use the very drugs we helped develop. This is in effect socialism followed by highway robbery for Big Pharma, which Azar knows all too well since he infamously more than tripled the price of insulin when he was the Vice President of Eli Lilly. This was in spite of the fact that the doctors who discovered insulin, Frederick Banting and Charles Best, sold their patent for $1 for the public good to help those suffering from diabetes.

Protecting the rich at the expense of the poor does nothing to fight a contagious disease that attacks the weakest and most vulnerable links in society to bring down the whole chain. But even beyond the economic inequality of American healthcare, this brings to the fore an even deeper issue when it comes to our countrys drug and vaccine development pipeline. Republicans have been waging an ideological war against science in the name of religion for many years that has been hampering our efforts to combat new and emerging infectious diseases. Nothing illustrates this case more than the Republican war on medical research involving fetal tissue.

Throughout history, fetal tissue has been indispensable for developing lifesaving vaccines. Jonas Salk in the 1950s used human fetal kidney cells to incubate the polio virus and develop the polio vaccine, saving countless children from iron lungs. Vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox all come human fetal cell lines. Even our understanding of how HIV causes AIDS comes from studying mice with transplanted human fetal bone marrow, liver, thymus, and lymph nodes to simulate the human immune system.

Unfortunately, Republicans have gone to war against fetal tissue research and womens reproductive freedoms to such an extent that our ability to conduct lifesaving medical research has been severely crippled. I found this out the hard way when two armed US Marshals banged on the door of my studio apartment in Nashville to serve me a Congressional subpoena from then-Congresswoman, now-Senator Marsha Blackburn. Having been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute research fellow at both Stanford and Duke Medical School, I had done research involving fetal kidneys to cure a deadly disease in babies called bilateral renal agenesis. Thats a disease where babies are born without any functional kidneys, and I wanted to find a way to save their lives. But because of it, my entire life was thrown into turmoil and upheaval, ultimately destroying my reputation and any chance of me finishing my surgical residency at Vanderbilt.

 Trump says that coronavirus is 'just like flu' but it's a 'little bit different'

Unfortunately, I was not the only medical researcher targeted by Marsha Blackburn. Dozens of other physicians, graduate students, professors, and ordinary American citizens were subjected to a witch hunt that ultimately ruined careers and squandered some of Americas best and most promising minds. Whereas President Trump makes headlines for firing the National Security Councils pandemic response team and proposing cuts to the CDC that never materialized, it was Senator Blackburn and her House Select Panel on Infant Lives that truly caused lasting harm to our nations preparedness for a pandemic.

Weve known about the dangers of coronaviruses since the SARS epidemic in 2002. Yet more than 18 years later we still dont have a human vaccine for SARS that would have been useful as a blueprint to develop a vaccine for Covid-19. Much of this may be because of the ideological and religious war against fetal tissue hampering progress. In fact, even my own research model could have been helpful for studying the coronavirus, since the human fetal kidney has a high concentration of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors that the coronavirus is known to target to gain entry into our cells.

After experiencing the Republican war on science on the front lines, I learned that discrimination, innuendo, fear, and suspicion are as much part and parcel of the American way of life as are the lofty ideals of freedom and justice. Thats why there is another aspect of the coronavirus epidemic that truly frightens me to my core.

As an Asian American physician, I am painfully aware that the coronavirus not only represents a severe public health challenge but also threatens the basic human rights and civil liberties of minorities like me. Social media has already been abuzz with racist memes of Chinese people eating bat soup or rats. Its not a far leap for Asian Americans to be labeled as infesters like cockroaches. And if there is another Marsha Blackburn around the corner who uses fear and suspicion as ways to achieve power, the worst among us may turn racism and discrimination into violence.
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An Australian-Vietnamese couple has chosen to forego retirement in lieu of earning money to pump into charity projects for impoverished children in Vietnam.

Roy Erle Hornsby, 70, his Vietnamese wife Phan Thi Thu Lan, and their philanthropic efforts are becoming a hot topic of conversation in Hoi An, a popular tourist hub in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Nam, where Lan operates a nail salon and Hornsby runs a web design business.

The couples nail salon turns out dozens of mani-pedis each day in an alley off Nguyen Duy Hieu Street in UNESCO-recognized Hoi An Ancient Town, but it is not Lans nail work which has earned her and Hornsby praise in the community.

Just a few kilometers away, in Trung Chau Hamlet, Cam Kim Commune along the Thu Bon River, the couple has built a nursery to care for the children of poor workers.

From outsiders to changemakers

Lan, 49, first met Hornsby, an Australian veteran, while he was working as a programmer at a large university in Ho Chi Minh City in 2003. Seven years later, in 2010, the couple tied the knot and returned to Australia.

While the pair enjoyed their life Down Under, Hornsby could not forget the pastoral landscape and peaceful tranquility of Hoi An and, in 2014, he and his wife decided to return to the central Vietnamese city to settle down for good.

One day, while the couple was having their house built, one of the construction workers from Trung Chau Hamlet explained to Lan that she was considering giving up the job in order to care for her child.

In their attempt to understand the hardship their worker was going through, Hornsby and Lan visited Trung Chau.

I didnt realize there was such a poor rural neighborhood in Hoi An. Most of [the people in Trung Chau] are low-income workers who cant afford to send their kids to nurseries, Lan shared.

That realization spurred Hornsby and Lan to set up a meeting with the then-chair of the Cam Kim Commune Peoples Committee, who confirmed that the absence of state kindergartens and private nurseries in the hamlet meant toddlers were typically left in the care of unregistered and untrained babysitters.

Though they had not even finished construction on their house, the couple asked the commune leader if they could take on a second project  building a brand new nursery for Trung Chau. Of course, they were met with an enthusiastic Yes!

The couple was then taken to a dilapidated, weed-covered building with a rusty roof and collapsing walls and were told it had once been a two-classroom school. It was all theirs, the chairman said.

Truc Xanh Nursery School, nestled in a poor neighborhood in Hoi An City, Quang Nam Province in central Vietnam, was built thanks to Roy Erle Hornsby and Phan Thi Thu Lans financial support. Photo: B.D. / Tuoi Tre

We shuddered at the thought of revamping the decrepit school but were set on turning it into an amazing space for the kids, Lan said, adding that the couple funded the project through VND200 million (US$8,583) of their own savings and calling on donations to cover the remaining costs.

Their call for support was answered by financial aid from friends and physical help from a group of students based in Da Nang City, approximately 30 kilometers from Hoi An, who volunteered to clear the site.

It took nearly a year, but by the time the renovation was completed Trung Chau had a beautiful nursery adorned with murals and paintings, brand new furniture, a new dining room, and restrooms.

Lan and Hornsby settled on naming the nursery 'Truc Xanh,' or 'Green Bamboo.'

Lan and her husband are a fixture here. They meticulously weed, build toys and grow clean veggies for the kids. We are really thankful to them, one of the school managers said.

But even with construction complete and vegetables growing, the duo still feel they have a long way to go.

We want to do everything possible for the kids so they have a good time and their parents dont have a single worry when they go to work, Lan said.

The couple now funds the school with the entirety of their earnings from Lans nail salon while they live off savings from Hornsbys time working in Ho Chi Minh City.

Next on their agenda, Lan and Hornsby say, is an even more ambitious project: building a vocational school to provide tuition-free training for orphans and autistic children.

We wish to spend what is left of our lives to earn as much as possible and call for donations so that we can construct another school for disadvantaged kids to receive training in what they are strong, so they can earn their own livelihoods later, Hornsby said.

In the meantime, Lan does her best to make that dream a reality by offering free training to orphans at her nail salon.

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Democratic hopeful Michael Bloomberg has been accused of lying over the extent of the highly controversial surveillance of Muslims after 9/11, that police were forced to stop following an historical settlement.

In the aftermath of the al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, authorities launched a widespread surveillance programme that targeted Muslims in New York City and New Jersey.

It was halted ollowing several lawsuits, and an historic legal settlement in which the nations largest police force agreed not to conduct surveillance operations based on religion or ethnicity.

In an interview with PBS, Mr Bloomberg, 78, a billionaire businessman contesting for the Democratic presidential nomination and who served three terms as mayor of New York from 2002 to 2013, he defended his actions.

Asked about the allegedly illegal operation, the extent of which was revealed in a a series of investigative articles published by the Associated Press in 2011, Mr Bloomberg, said: We sent some officers into some mosques to listen to the sermon that the imam gave. The courts ruled it was exactly within the law and thats the kind of thing we should be doing.

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

He added: All of the people came from the same place and all that came were from a place they happened to be one religion. And if theyd been another religion, we wouldve done the same thing.

It does not, incidentally, mean that all Muslims are terrorists or all terrorists are Muslim. But, the people that flew those airplanes came from the Middle East and some of the imams were urging more of the same.

Activists have denounced the comments of the former mayor, who was recently obliged to apologise for another controversial policing policy  so-called stop and frisk  that he promoted.

 AOC discusses Mike Bloomberg running for president in 2020

The idea that the NYPD surveilled Muslims in just a few mosques with court approval is a fantasy, said Farhana Khera, executive director of the group Muslim Advocates.

In reality, the NYPD filmed, tracked and monitored Muslims in mosques, restaurants, schools and more with cameras and undercover officersall without their knowledge, in New York and New Jersey.

She added: A federal appeals court, in a unanimous decision, harshly rebuked this programme in a landmark ruling, likening it to the treatment of Jewish-Americans during the red scare, African-Americans during the civil rights movement, and Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Following the series of articles by the AP, activists filed what has come to be known as as Hassan v City of New York, that accused the police department of unconstitutional behaviour. In 2018, the city agreed to stop the programme, pay $75,000 in damages and $1m in legal fees. It also agreed to meet with members of the Muslim community to discuss issues.

The former mayors remarks come just a day before the South Carolina primary, where his name is not on the ballot, and Super Tuesday, when people in more than a dozen states will cast their votes.

Nobody from Mr Bloombergs campaign immediately responded to enquiries.
Watertown

Areas of upstate New York braced Thursday for high winds and up to 4 feet of snow that already had closed schools and led to calls for drivers to stay off roads.

Gusty winds and blowing snow reduced visibility in western and northern New York, with law enforcement fielding reports of vehicles off roads. Police and emergency officials in some areas east of Lake Ontario issued travel advisories because of snow-covered roads and blowing snow.

Winds as high as 55 mph were expected in some areas.

Forecasters said the Tug Hill Plateau east of Lake Ontario could see 3 to 4 feet of snow by Saturday. Dozens of school districts closed ahead of the storm as the National Weather Service issued a long list of winter storm watches and warnings.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Rare blizzard warnings were in effect in 11 upstate counties. The warnings were issued for northern Oneida, Jefferson, Lewis, Oswego, Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, southern Erie, Wyoming, Hamilton and northern Herkimer counties.

In Buffalo, crews planned to continue filming scenes in and around City Hall for "Nightmare Alley," a Guillermo del Toro-directed movie starring Bradley Cooper.
Netflix is unveiling some major movie releases in March 2020. (Credit: Ghibli/Paramount/Warner Bros)

Its another busy month for Netflix in the UK, with the next wave of Studio Ghibli releases arriving to kick off the month in style. What follows is a selection of modern classic horror movies and a handful of awards season contenders from the last few years.

Read more: Most exciting movie releases of 2020

Theres also the return of the knotty Netflix Original crime series Ozark, which sees Jason Bateman back as financial planner Marty Byrde, and a new season for the popular animation The Boss Baby: Back in Business.

1 March

'Princess Mononoke'. (Credit: Ghibli)

Film

Arrietty (2010)

Crocodile Dundee (1986)

How to Be a Latin Lover (2017)

Made in Dagenham (1968)

My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999)

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

Oasis: Supersonic (2016)

Princess Mononoke (1997)

Shes Out of My League (2010)

Spirited Away (2001)

The Cat Returns (2002)

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013)

Read more: 10 best Studio Ghibli films

3 March

Film

Freshman Year (2019)

4 March

Documentary 'Apollo 11' tells the story of the 1969 moon landing. (Credit: Universal)

Film

Apollo 11 (2019)

5 March

TV

Castlevania S3

6 March

Film

Blockers (2018)

Spenser Confidential (2020)

TV

White Gold S3

11 March

Film

Straight Outta Compton (2015)

13 March

Film

A Quiet Place (2018)

Lost Girls (2020)

TV

Kingdom S2

16 March

Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise in 'It: Chapter One'. (Credit: Warner Bros)

Film

It: Chapter One (2017)

TV

The Boss Baby: Back in Business S3

17 March

Film

The Post (2017)

TV

Shaun the Sheep S6

19 March

Film

Altered Carbon: Resleeved (2020)

20 March

Film

Ultras (2020)

TV

The Letter for the King S1

Tiger King S1

23 March

TV

Freud S1

25 March

Film

A Life of Speed: The Juan Manuel Fangio Story (2020)

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (2020)

The Occupant (2020)

26 March

TV

The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez S1

27 March

Film

Uncorked (2020

TV

Ozark S3

28 March

'Brooklyn Nine-Nine'. (Credit: NBC)

TV

Brooklyn Nine-Nine S6

30 March

Film

I, Tonya (2017)

31 March

TV
The coronavirus disease, officially known as COVID-19, is real. And its a real threat.

In China, where the disease originated in Hubei province, nearly 80,000 cases and more than 2,700 deaths have been confirmed. There are major outbreaks in South Korea, Japan, Iran and Italy. As of Thursday, the U.S. had 60 confirmed cases  all but one travel-related  and no reported deaths.

The outbreak also poses a serious economic threat and has roiled the stock market  with the Dow falling more than 3,000 points this week as virus fears show no signs of easing. Supply chains will be disrupted and markets closed. Travel is questionable.

So this is a time when clear thinking is needed on the part of our leaders at all levels  and by the public. We need to contain the outbreak to the extent possible and prepare for what is likely the inevitable  albeit hopefully limited  spread of the virus. What we dont need is political posturing and panic.

Our aggressive containment strategy here in the United States has been working and is responsible for the low levels of cases we have so far, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said during a White House news conference Wednesday.

The president outlined national efforts, including a request for $2.5 billion to fight the spread of the virus, and announced that Vice President Mike Pence would head the administration effort working with Health Secretary Alex Azar.

In additional to geopolitical discussions, there was some common-sense advice at the press conference people should take to heart. This virus is highly contagious and spreads through sneezing, coughing and touching. So wash your hands. If youre sick, stay home. There is no need for hoarding, but make sure you are stocked up with your medications, canned goods and non-perishables, etc., enough to stay home for a couple of weeks.

In short, treat this like you would the flu  even if at this point it has a higher mortality rate. (It is more contagious than the SARS virus in 2003, but less deadly.)

Locally, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller is convening people from various city departments and regional government agencies on Friday to discuss coronavirus preparedness. There are no reported coronavirus cases in New Mexico, but we want to take precautions to protect our residents. Were bringing together key city officials along with our partners at the Department of Health and other agencies to make sure we have clear protocols in place. Fair enough.

But since the mayor chose to close that briefing to the public and press, its incumbent on city leaders to quickly and coherently explain what those preparedness protocols are. Its also essential to get local medical providers, urgent cares and hospitals in the loop  after all, they are on the front lines of any health issue, know the best ways to address and contain infectious diseases and have coronavirus protocols in place.

President Trump moved in late January to declare a public health emergency that involved quarantines and major travel restrictions that effectively kept most non-U.S. citizens who had recently visited China from entering the United States. Denounced by China, criticized by others and described as unprecedented, the controversial decision appears to have played a significant role in limiting the spread.

We still have a low risk to the American public, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, but we want to keep it at a low risk.

Finally, health officials remind us that perspective is important. CDC models estimate that through Feb. 15, there have been 41 million flu illnesses, 19 million flu-related medical visits, 500,000 flu-related hospitalizations and up to 41,000 flu deaths in the United States in the current flu season that began Oct. 1.

Americans are understandably worried about coronavirus, and they have a right to know what preparations and protocols are in place. But to keep that low-risk status, they cant forget prevention starts with them.

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.
SAN DIEGO, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With just four days until Election Day, a coalition of labor groups, elected officials, housing advocates, public safety officials and business leaders from across the region convened today at the County of San Diego Waterfront Park to call on San Diegans to vote Yes on Measure B.

"Voting Yes on B provides a community of affordably-priced homes for families earning at or below 120 percent of the County's Area Median Income," said Ricardo Flores, Executive Director of LISC San Diego. "I ask that voters choose Yes on B because it is the better choice to help solve our housing crisis."

Voting Yes on Measure B will provide 2,135 homes in San Diego County. 60 percent will be guaranteed affordably-priced through a legally binding covenant. Starting in the mid-$300,000 range, these critically-needed homes will help provide feasible housing options for working families.

"When employees are forced out to Riverside County and beyond to find affordable housing options, our businesses suffer," said Jason Pagiou, President and CEO of the Asian Business Association. "Voting Yes on B provides homes within our County that are attainable for our region's workforce and located near 283,000 North County jobs."

Under the County General Plan, the privately-owned land that is the subject of Measure B is zoned for 2 million square feet of commercial and retail and 99 mansions. Instead of that current zoning, voting Yes on B allows for 2,135 homes for working families, 1,209 acres of open space and 19 miles of trails.

"We need well-planned communities in San Diego County with housing that is attainable to working families," said Councilmember John McCann of the City of Chula Vista. "As one of the nearly 40 current and former elected officials who have endorsed Yes on B, I know that it is the Better Choice for San Diego."

Support for Yes on B has stretched across the entire County including bipartisan elected officials and the San Diego Union Tribune, among others.

Ad paid for by Yes on B for a Better Choice: A coalition of first responders, fire safety experts, housing advocates, elected officials, business leaders and taxpayers. Committee major funding from Newland Sierra, LLC

SOURCE Yes on B
In 2013, Jessica Meir received a life-changing phone call from NASA while working in Boston. On Thursday, Meir paid tribute to the city from space.

Meir tweeted two photos taken from the International Space Station of the city.

In 2013, I received the call that launched my career as a @NASA astronaut while working @MGHMedicine & @harvardmed. #Boston is also home to my oldest sister, who serves as an exemplary role model, and even peeled grapes for me to eat as a baby! Happy birthday Rakel! #TheJourney pic.twitter.com/vYITHo3DOB  Jessica Meir (@Astro_Jessica) February 27, 2020

In 2013, I received the call that launched my career as a @NASA astronaut while working at @MGHMedicine & @harvardmed," the tweet said. #Boston is also home to my oldest sister, who serves as an exemplary role model, and even peeled grapes for me to eat as a baby! Happy birthday Rakel! #TheJourney

Along with with fellow astronaut Christina Koch, Meir went on the first all-women spacewalk in October. Shell be returning to Earth in the spring.

This is not the first time weve been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Massachusetts from space. Jeff Williams also tweeted a photo in 2016.

A hazy east coast pass opened up when we got to Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts. Good morning New England! pic.twitter.com/p72mrnhzEJ  Jeff Williams (@Astro_Jeff) June 27, 2016

Related Content:
There has been a rapid increase in cases of infection with the coronavirus outside India's neighbouring country China. According to foreign media, the number of infected people has increased to 1,595 after 334 new cases of virus infection in South Korea. However, according to Iran's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the death toll is stable at 12. On the other hand, 22 people have died due to virus infection in Iran while 141 cases have been registered.

For your information, let us tell you that in the meantime, US and South Korean forces have postponed their joint military exercise. On behalf of the Combined Forces Command, it has been said that Seoul has issued a very serious level alert regarding the corona virus, after which this decision has been taken. The official statement said that the military exercises of the armies of both countries are postponed until the next notice is issued.

Let us tell you that the Coronavirus has now spread from 20 states to 31 states in Iran. Here after crew members of the Coronavirus affected ship, Diamond Princess, in Japan, crew members have also started leaving it. The statement issued by the government said that the ship will now be sent to another place. An official of the Japanese Ministry of Health said that on Thursday, 240 crew members started leaving the cruise. Here, all the school colleges in Sindh and Baluchistan province have been closed after two people who returned to Karachi from Iran to Pakistan have been infected with Korana virus. The government of Balochistan had announced the closure of all educational institutions in the province till 15 March. In this way, there has been a stir in the administration after the Corona virus cases in Pakistan. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia has banned travel to Mecca and Kaaba, the holiest sites of Islam, in view of the threat of the Coronavirus.

Also Read:

Coronavirus effected shooting world cup starting form March

T20 World Cup: India gave difficult target to New Zealand, Shefali played stormy innings

UN Secretary-General is unhappy with Delhi violence, appeals to people to maintain peace

Trump reaches America, says, 'India is great, my journey was huge success'
A cruise ship turned away from Jamaica and the Cayman Islands after a crew member tested positive for flu has docked in Mexico and passengers will be allowed to disembark as long as "health standards" are met, the country's president said Thursday. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters that the Meraviglia, which has been anchored off Cozumel island in the Caribbean since Wednesday, "is being allowed to dock" and those aboard may be allowed off. "We cannot act inhumanely. Imagine the desperation," he said, referring to the 6,000 people aboard. The operator, MSC Cruises, lashed out at authorities for refusing to allow it to dock at its previous destinations for "acting out of fears" over the new coronavirus. A crew member was being treated for seasonal flu. Carlos Joaquin, governor of Quintana Roo state which includes Cozumel, said the passengers and crew would be examined by doctors "who will verify the health issues on board." "If there is a risk to health there will be no authorization for disembarkation," he added. Quintana Roo Health Secretary Alejandra Aguirre said two people -- a 27-year-old Filipino crew member and a 13-year-old French girl -- had shown signs of a respiratory infection that was unrelated to the new coronavirus which countries around the world are battling to contain. "There are no coronavirus cases aboard the cruise ship," she said, adding that tests were being conducted to find out the nature of the respiratory infection. A final diagnosis was expected at 10:00 pm (0400 GMT) after which the port's captain will have the final say on whether or not the passengers can disembark, Aguirre said. - Rejected by Jamaica, Caymans - A handful of people wearing masks took part in a protest at the dock on Wednesday, one man shouting: "We don't want the virus in Cozumel." Coronavirus has hit more than 45 countries and killed more than 2,700 people of the 81,000 infected, the vast majority in China. The first case of coronavirus recorded in Latin America was confirmed in Brazil on Wednesday. Mexico's health ministry said it was analyzing a possible case in Mexico City. The Cayman Islands and Jamaica had refused to allow the ship to dock over the coronavirus fears. The cruise firm said it was "extremely disappointed" that Jamaican authorities delayed a decision to give the ship clearance despite having been provided with medical records. It said Grand Cayman authorities had also turned the Meraviglia away "without even reviewing the ship's medical records." "In both instances, the ship was effectively turned away simply based on fears," MSC said. "No other cases of type A influenza have been reported on board MSC Meraviglia. Moreover, no cases of COVID-19 virus have been reported on board MSC Meraviglia or any other ship in MSC Cruises' fleet," added the company, referring to the new coronavirus. The situation recalled the US cruise ship Westerdam, which was at sea for two weeks after it was rejected by five countries over fears its passengers could be carrying the new coronavirus. It was finally allowed to dock in Cambodia. Passengers remain onboard the MSC Meraviglia cruise ship in Cozumel, Mexico, awaiting a decision on whether they can disembark The MSC Meraviglia cruise ship (L) is seen in Cozumel, Mexico, after both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands refused to allow it to dock over fears of the new coronavirus
New Delhi, Feb 28 : The supply disruption caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak has severely hampered the forging and auto component manufacturing industry in India, according to the Association of Indian Forging Industry (AIFI).

A statement from the industry body said that the disruption caused by the coronavirus has hit the automotive industry and eventually also affected the automotive component and forging industries.

S. Muralishankar, President, AIFI said: "The coronavirus is expected to have an impact on the Indian automotive industry and hence also on the automobile component and forging industries, who had already reduced their production rate due to the market conditions and on account of the impending change over to BS-VI emission norms from BS-IV from the 1st of April 2020." He said that the problem is further aggravated by the Chinese government's suspension of shipments by sea until further notice and allowing air-only shipments that are not suitable for auto components and forging industries. Therefore the Indian original equipment manufacturers (OEM) are unable to plan production beyond the inventory currently available to them.

According to AIFI, international customers have asked for shipments to be delayed till further advice, as their supply lines too are facing the adverse impacts of the disruption caused due to the shutting down of manufacturing facilities temporarily in China.

The Indian government has also issued a notification mandating the decontamination of containers at the port prior to release to the Indian customs. However, the guidelines and procedures to be followed for decontamination have not been notified, therefore, it is not possible for the Indian importers to clear consignments that have already reached Indian shores on time, the industry body said.

China is a major supplier of automotive components and accounts for 27 per cent of India's automotive component imports.

Citing reports the AIFI statement said that the impact on commercial vehicle, passenger vehicle and the two-wheeler segments will be more profound. Currently, the OEMs have reduced their production plan for February and March due to the non-receipt of components, it added.
The political impasse in Malaysia is nowhere closer to being resolved as Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah on Friday decided not to call for a special parliamentary session next week to choose a prime minister.

Declaring that the King did not have the confidence that any member of parliament had majority support to form a new government, the palace, in a statement, cited by South China Morning Post, said, "The palace will continue to engage with leaders of political parties for their lawmakers to voice their preferred candidate for prime minister."

Malaysia is witnessing a political turmoil after Mahathir Mohamad stepped down as the prime minister on Monday.

His move shattered the fragile Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition with Mahathir's on-off rival Anwar Ibrahim that secured a surprise election victory nearly two years ago over the corruption-tainted Barisan Nasional government that had ruled since the country's independence.

Bersatu, Mahathir's Malaysian United Indigenous Party has further extended support to party president Muhyiddin Yassin to be the country's eighth prime minister.

Mahathir was subsequently appointed as caretaker premier by the King, who proceeded to interview members of Malaysia's 222-strong Parliament to assess who had the support of the majority.

On Thursday, Mahathir said that a special session of Parliament would be called on Monday and if lawmakers were not able to decide, snap polls would be called.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Notice of ABB's Annual General Meeting on March 26, 2020

ABB today published the invitation to its Annual General Meeting (AGM), which will be held on Thursday, March 26, 2020. The invitation can be found on ABB's investor relations website at www.abb.com/agm.

ABB (ABBN: SIXSwiss Ex) is a technology leader that is driving the digital transformation of industries. With a history of innovation spanning more than 130 years, ABB has four, customer-focused, globally leading businesses: Electrification, Industrial Automation, Motion, and Robotics & Discrete Automation, supported by the ABB Ability digital platform. ABB's Power Grids business will be divested to Hitachi (News - Alert) in 2020. ABB operates in more than 100 countries with about 144,000 employees. www.abb.com







View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227006109/en/
Jacob Coyne told a Criminal Court jury on Thursday he barely knew murder victim Jalen Little and did not shoot him.

The jury in the courtroom of Judge Tom Greenholtz will resume deliberations on Friday morning in the case in which Coyne is charged with first-degree murder and especially aggravated robbery. The March 2017 incident occurred at the Little residence on Oak Tree Drive.

Coyne told the jury that he was only briefly acquainted with the teen who was later gunned down, saying he had met him through Zach Chadwick. He said he had gone to Chadwicks residence, where Eddie Valenzuela and a few others were. Chadwick had left to buy marijuana and was absent when Coyne arrived.

When Chadwick came back, Coyne said he was screaming about something stolen and said he wanted to get it back. Coyne told attorney John McDougal that he was just hoping to get a ride back to East Lake and went along. During the drive, he said none of the passengers spoke about shooting Jalen Little.

When we pulled up, I had to use the restroom, said Coyne when asked why he exited the vehicle. He said he heard arguing between Chadwick and Little, and possibly a physical altercation.

Prior to (Jalen Little being shot), it looked like Jalen couldve shot Zach because Jalen was mad, said Coyne, who said he immediately tried to get away when he heard the shots. I took off and ran back to Eduardos car. I was screaming to call an ambulance, and then Zach said 'Go, go, go!' 



Prosecutors Cameron Williams and Andrew Coyle questioned why Coyne never called the police or told any family members about the incident. The defendant told his defense attorney he was in shock.

When attorney McDougal asked him whether or not he shot Jalen Little that night, Coyne had a simple response. No.

After being driven off, Coyne said he went to stay with his relative near Decatur, Tn. He said he did not know he was wanted by the TBI until a few days later. He mentioned that his uncle had advised him to talk to a lawyer before speaking to police or law enforcement.

Investigator Tim Pickard said Coynes mother had been very cooperative and had attempted to call him several times. After Det. Pickard and another investigator were unable to find Coyne at one of several locations, Coyne was placed on the TBIs most wanted list.

They eventually found him near Decatur. They said Coyne did not try to resist, as he immediately surrendered when encountered. After that, Coyne was taken to jail, where he has remained to this day.

Eddie Valenzuela happened to be the driver, and he was present for most of what occurred. He said he had been playing video games at Zach Chadwicks house with a few friends when Chadwick decided to go out to buy marijuana withJalen Little. He said, I dont know what exactly where they were going, just that they were going to smoke weed.

When Chadwick came back an hour later, he was described as furious. Little had allegedly stolen money from him. After Chadwick and his friends used an app to find out where Little was, they hopped into Valenzuelas car and drove to meet him.

There was no discussion about violence, said Valenzuela, who told the court he did not know about the gun. I expected a scuffle or a fight, but not what happened that night.

When Valenzuela arrived, he parked the car and started scrolling on his phone. Then he was startled by the sound of gunshots and muzzle flashes. Valenzuela said he saw flashes coming from the person in front of the car where Jacob was standing. He said he was freaking out at that point and sped away when Coyne and Chadwick got back into the car.

I asked him (Coyne) why he shot him, said Valenzuela, and he said, I thought he was pulling one on me, so I popped a cap in his (expletive) (expletive).

He said he dropped each of the passengers home, and then drove straight to his house. After briefly speaking to a loved one, Valenzuela called the police. During the recorded call, he could be heard saying, The shooters name is Jacob. All I know is that he got out of the car to get the money, and then he opened fire,. I didnt know they had a gun. I am full-fledged freaking the (expletive) out.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wellington Drive Technologies (Wellington) has today released its fully audited financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2019. Wellington is a leading provider of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and energy efficient motors for the retail food & beverage industry.

Continued growth in Wellington Connect IoT hardware and data products and continued growth of the ECR2 motor resulted in 2019 being the highest revenue and the best profit performance in the company's history. The company achieved revenue of $61.7m, up 5% from $58.8m in 2018. EBITDA was a surplus of $4.22m, up from $2.46m in 2018. The company achieved a maiden net profit of $0.45m, up from a loss of $0.71m in 2018.

Metric (NZD) 2019 2018 Change Revenue $61.7m $58.8m +5.0% Wellington Connect IoT revenue $24.0m $18.2m +31.6% ECR Motor revenue $35.9m $38.4m -6.7% ECR2 motor $22.5m $17.8m +26.3% ECR legacy motors $13.4m $20.6m -35.2% Gross profit $16.6m $14.3m +16.7% Gross margin % 27.0% 24.3% +2.7% EBITDA $4.22m $2.46m +71.2% EBIT $1.51m $0.45m +233.6% Profit (loss) for the year $0.45m ($0.71m) +$1.16m Operating cash flows $2.99m $1.85m +61.5%

Greg Allen, CEO commented, "2019 was a great year for Wellington with revenue growth, margin expansion and the company's first ever net profit. ECR2 motor revenues continued to grow and further growth in the IoT business demonstrated how our products are well received by our customers. We were pleased to receive the support of our shareholders in 2019, with $5.8m of new investment in the company. The company is part of a food & beverage industry technology trend, where coolers and other point of sale equipment are being connected to the Cloud to improve equipment performance and enable retail experiences to be monitored and managed. We expect to be at the forefront of products needed to connect equipment to the Cloud and provide the software tools to help our customers grow product sales."

Main highlights:

* Maiden net profit: The company recorded a first ever net profit for the year of $0.45m, a $1.16m improvement on the prior year. EBITDA improved to $4.22m, compared to $2.46m in 2018. This performance was at the upper end of EBITDA guidance. The profit result includes a $467,000 gain arising from a change in fair value of the contingent consideration payable for the acquisition of iProximity. It also includes a $290,000 impairment of previously capitalised cost for the development of a new motor product for East West Manufacturing.

* Revenue: Revenue was $61.7m, compared to $58.8m in 2018, a 5% increase. The composition of Wellington's revenue has changed over the last four years as the focus has moved towards IoT products and the ECR2 motor. The company has become less dependent on its legacy motors.Strong revenue growth from Connect SCS and ECR2 has been somewhat masked by the decline in legacy motor sales.

* Product sales growth: Connect SCS product sales grew by 31.6% to $24.0m. ECR2 motor sales grew by 26.3% to $22.5m. Sales growth was driven by increased demand from existing customers and the addition of new customers in the Americas.

* Gross margin improvement: Gross margin for 2019 was 27.0% compared to 24.3% in 2018. Gross profit dollars improved by $2.3m reflecting increasing sales of higher margin IoT products and data services and lower hardware costs.

* Operating costs: Operating costs were $12.4m, or 20% of revenue, compared to $11.9m, also 20% of revenue in 2018. Revenue per employee decreased slightly from $744,000 to $709,000 due to additional sales, customer programme management and development staff and a modest increase in revenue.

* Growth Funding: The company completed a 1:5 rights issue, raising $5.2m to pay back high interest debt and support new product introductions. The issue was well supported by shareholders and was oversubscribed. This new funding alongside the exercise of staff stock options contributed to a net cash position of $2.0m, compared to a net debt position of $3.0m in 2018 (net cash is defined as cash balances net of bank and other loans).

* Investment: The company invested $3.2m in new product development compared to $2.1m in 2018.This investment related to the new ECR2+ motor and Connect IoT and data services products due for launch in 2020. The increase in investment reflects the lower than expected 2018 investment due to the industry wide component supply issues and the hiring of additional development staff.

* New Products and Innovation: In 2020 the company expects to launch new motor and connected hardware products and a range of new customer mobile apps and data services; its first major product launches since 2016. New products include its new ECR2+ motor for supermarket display WT 9345 3 cases, the Connect Monitor for retrofit applications, a new version of Connect SCS refrigeration controller and the Connect Q-Tag proximity marketing solution.

2020 outlook

Wellington's initial forecasts for 2020 show the potential for revenue growth of around 15% and EBITDA of around $4.5m.

The company is monitoring supply chain delays as a result of the Coronavirus situation. While these delays are not expected to materially impact the full year outlook, the company does anticipate lower than forecast first quarter revenue with some revenue catch up during the second quarter. Consistent with the 2020 trading update issued on the 13th February, supply chain forecasts indicate a potential risk to revenue of approximately US$3.6m (around NZ$6m) from February to April. The company does not expect all of this delayed supply will be perishable. Scenarios show that if it was perishable, the full loss of this revenue would take 2020 forecast sales to around NZD$65m, higher than 2019 but below guided revenue growth of around 15%.

In addition to the impacts of the Coronavirus, the forecasts are dependent on several new product and new customer introductions planned during 2020, a NZD/USD exchange rate of 0.65c and broader global trade and macroeconomic conditions. For the new product launches, there are risks around ensuring completion of product development on schedule, dependencies on spend decisions that the Board may make around outsourcing of IoT product development to accelerate revenue, and the timing of customer onboarding and product adoption meeting Wellington's expectations.

The Board and management team would like to thank staff, shareholders, customers and suppliers for their support. We look forward to a successful 2020 and continued growth for the company over the next several years.

About Wellington Drive Technologies:

Wellington is a leading provider of IoT solutions, cloud-based fleet management platforms, energy-efficient electronic motors and connected refrigeration control solutions. It serves some of the world's leading food and beverage brands and refrigerator manufacturers, and offers proximity-based marketing for Smart Cities to the Australian market. Wellington's services and products improve its customers product sales, decrease costs and reduce energy consumption. Headquartered in Auckland with a global reach, Wellington is listed on the New Zealand stock exchange under the ticker symbol NZ:WDT.

For further information visit www.wdtl.com

(R) is a registered Trade Mark of Wellington Drive Technologies
By West Kentucky Star Staff Feb. 28, 2020 | 01:34 PM | WESTERN KENTUCKY

Congressman James Comer spoke recently about the need for additional federal funding for various area waterway projects, including fighting the spread of Asian carp.Comer recently appeared before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in favor of an increased federal investment in Kentuckys waterways infrastructure, including upgrades on levees, locks and dams.Speaking before the before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Comer explained the need for additional resources to combat the invasive Asian carp."Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake in my congressional district are home to some of the top outdoor recreation sites in all of Kentucky. Boating, camping, fishing, and other activities have an estimated $1.2 billion economic impact on the region. However, Asian carp is threatening our tourism economy," Comer said. These invasive fish are known to jump out of the water at the sound of approaching boats, striking boaters and skiers. They also eat the food sources of native fish species. The explosion of carp is driving boaters and fishermen away from our region. While progress has been made, we must still continue to work to eradicate Asian Carp and prioritize resources to fight this invasive species."Comer also expressed support for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, which is utilized by riverports such as the Hickman-Fulton County Riverport Authority, and upgrades on levees, locks and dams.Comer said the Purchase Region serves as a major hub of Americas inland waterways system, creating jobs and providing a safe and efficient way to transport commodities across America.Click the link below to see Congressman Comer's speech.

On the Net:
- Uganda MP Peter Sematimba decided to sit for exams after criticism from his competitors on his level of education

- Against expectations of many, the pastor turned politician's performance in CRE depicted little knowledge in the word of God

- He scored a D in CRE, a B in Art and another D in Literature with subsidiary passes in both General Paper and Computer Studies

A renowned preacher in Uganda has become a laughing stock and a disappointment to Christ's ministry after performing poorly in a Christian Religious Education (CRE) exam.

According to results released by Uganda's National Examinations Board (UNEB) on Thursday, February 27, Pastor Peter Sematimba who is also MP for Busiro South constituency only managed to score 13 points in CRE.

READ ALSO: Hearse carrying body of deceased woman stolen from church

Pastor Peter Sematimba scored D in his CRE exam. Photo: Nile Post

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: US embassy warns of an imminent terror attack on major hotel in Nairobi

The Uganda's Nile Post reported the lawmaker's results in CRE, Art and Literature were D, B, and D respectively with subsidiary passes in both General Paper and Computer Studies.

The lawmaker performed dismally in an area he was expected to "show the way" given it was his area of expertise if the words in Joshua 1: 8 are anything to go by.

"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success," Joshua 1: 8 reads.

Peter Sematimba during a past event in his school. Photo: Nile Post

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Wafanyikazi wa Sonko Rescue Team wahisi joto la gavana kukosekana afisini

Sematimbas education was a subject of contention after his rival, DPs Steven Kigozi, claimed that he lacked requisite academic papers as a lawmaker.

Kigozi argued that the MP had a certificate issued by the East African Examination council which cannot be equated to an A- Level certificate which is required for a legislator.

The contention which at some point got the MP in trouble when a court annulled his election forced him to sit for UACE exams in 2019.

The lawmaker has since gone silent and could not be reached on phone when contacted by the media house.

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
Chef Carlos Gaytan, the first Mexican chef to earn the coveted Michelin star, offers three new dining experiences in Chicago.

The decorated chef is looking to open a 12-seater restaurant, Tales of Carlos Gaytan, in Chicago in the fall.

Gaytan arrived in Chicago in early 1991. He started out working as a pantry cook at Sheraton North Shore Hotel where he stayed until he was promoted to line cook.

Gaytan won several awards for his ability to carve ice, fruits, and vegetables. He also earned a position as Chef Garde Manger at the Union League Club of Chicago in 1996.

In 2004, he worked with French Chef Dominique Tougne at Bistrot Margot where he was the Chef de Cuisine. His work there saw him participating in events such as the Confrerie de la Chaide de Rotisseurs, the Moet and Chandon Brunch, and the Annual Flora Springs Dinner Auction in Napa Valley.

After opening Mexique in May 2008, the chef received much recognition including one of Chicago magazine's top new restaurants of 2009, the best restaurant of 2010, and a Michelin Star in 2013.

Carlos Gaytan also placed third in the New Orleans season of Top Chef.

The prominent chef was known for his restaurant Mexique which offered pioneering flavors from a fusion of Mexican and French cuisine before it closed its doors in 2018 after a ten-year run.

Mexique previously held a Michelin star in the years 2013 and 2014. Gaytan said his decision to shut down his famed restaurant was because he felt "it was time to try something new."

"Mexique has always been very special for me. It put me on the map," he said. "It was difficult to close. It hurt. But it's something I'll always be grateful for and will forever carry Mexique in my heart."

Gaytan went back to Mexico to focus on his new restaurant at the Hotel Xcaret, vowing he will come back to Chicago.

In a cryptic Instagram post in May 2019, he announced his return with Tzuco which opened last year on September 16 in the Gold Coast neighborhood. Tzuco boasted 120 seats and a menu of French-Mexican fusion.

In November 2019, he opened his second venture, Panago, which is a grab and go bakery sharing the same space with his two new River North restaurants. The bakery will host an array of bread, sweets, soups, and breakfast items that complement Tzuco, his small plate restaurant, and Tales of Carlos Gaytan, his fine-dining spot.

The Michelin-starred chef is poised to open his most personal restaurant, Tales of Carlos Gaytan, in early March.

The fine-dining restaurant will be open three days a week and will serve an 11-course tasting menu.

"This one is very small, so it's going to be detailed and execution is going to be more precise than everything else," Gaytan said. "It will be very intimate."

Tales of Carlos Gaytan will feature flavors that "have a story behind it."

Gaytan bought the space in River North and began mentoring Mexican chefs as he prepared his restaurant project.

The opening menu at Tales will have "flavors related to home," and will aim to "transport diners through time and place."

Tales of Carlos Gaytan, Panago, and Tzuco are located on 720 N. State Street, Chicago.
The coronavirus may or may not trigger a global recession and slow the U.S. economy, but one thing is certain: We are already feeling the impact in Texas.

The worlds main stock indexes have dropped 8 percent from recent highs. Investors are worried that as the virus spreads to more countries and more governments impose quarantines, global economic growth will slow and hurt corporations.

In Texas, though, we are already experiencing slower economic growth due to lower oil and natural gas prices. At the beginning of the year, the price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude hit $64.45. On Friday, WTI settled below $45 a barrel.

Demand for crude dropped when China shut down much of its economy to stop the spread of COVID-19, a fast-spreading and unusually deadly coronavirus. When factories do not operate, planes do not fly, and workers do not commute in the worlds second-largest economy, the globe becomes awash in oil.

Tomlinsons Take: Collapse in oil prices a glimpse of the industrys future

Investment bank Goldman Sachs said it no longer expects oil demand to grow by 1.2 million barrels in 2020 and has revised its forecast growth to only 600,000 barrels. If the economic slowdown persists, that number could drop lower.

Oil companies producing in the Permian Basin do not make money at $55, let alone $44.76 a barrel. Many of these companies barely survived $60 oil by relying on high-interest loans and hope that Saudi Arabia, Russia and other foreign powers would eventually cut production and drive up prices.

Hope is not a plan, as they say, and investors are bailing out of the oil patch. Most notably, they are selling the high-yield, high-risk bonds that many Texas operators rely on for financing, sending the cost of borrowed money skyrocketing, according to the Financial Times.

Low oil prices and high costs of capital force executives to slash spending. Olivier Le Peuch, CEO of the worlds largest oil field services firm Schlumberger, told the Reuters news agency that he expects a dramatic reduction in new shale oil drilling.

Fewer rigs and slower growth means fewer Texas jobs. The industry employs the most people during the planning and drilling of wells. Once they are flowing, they require comparatively little labor.

Almost all of Texas economic outperformance is attributable to the oil and gas industry; a bust will put us on par with the national economy at best. If COVID-19 takes hold in the United States and slows the national economy, it will have an outsize impact on Texas.

The federal government is trying to encourage people, businesses and institutions to prepare for the arrival of COVID-19 while also discouraging panic. Because if Americans freak out, a recession is certain.

President Donald Trump went on television Wednesday to contradict Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials who warned that the virus will inevitably spread in the United States.

I dont think its inevitable, Trump said. Were ready for it. Were really prepared.

Trump and others like to point out that more than 34,000 Americans died last season from influenza as a way to put COVID-19s impact in perspective. But there is a reason why China shut down its economy: The coronavirus could kill twice as many if it became commonplace. The U.S. government would not spend billions and risk the economy if there were not a significant threat.

Tomlinsons Take: Trump tariffs slowing global economy, strangling shale oil revolution

Mitigating the spread of the virus is simple. At the City of the Future conference in San Antonio, participants stopped shaking hands and opted instead for fist bumps. Experts urge us to wash our hands regularly, cover our mouth when we cough or sneeze, and for goodness sake, stay home if you fall ill.

Protecting the economy is more difficult. U.S. strength is almost completely reliant on consumer confidence and spending. Manufacturing has slowed, and corporate earnings have shrunk over the past year. If Americans suddenly anticipate trouble ahead, they will stop spending and end economic growth.

Economists at IHS Markit, a data analysis and consulting firm, estimate COVID-19 has already shaved 0.1 percent off global economic growth for 2020. But if China does not contain the outbreak, and other nations are forced to impose quarantines, the effect will be far greater.

If the U.S. government ordered any significant group of Americans to stay home and to avoid crowded places, such as airplanes, trains or offices, then the national economy would stall, and oil demand would go bust.

COVID-19 is revealing how interconnected and interdependent our world has become. Just as our shared physical vulnerability allows the virus to spread despite artificial borders, our shared economy means we cannot isolate the financial consequences. We are truly all in this together.

Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and policy.

twitter.com/cltomlinson

chris.tomlinson@chron.com
A woman in London who allegedly assaulted an emergency services worker has become the first person in the UK to be arrested using facial recognition technology.

She was arrested by Westminster Police in the capital yesterday after she failed to attend court over the alleged assault.

Westminster Police tweeted: 'Officers arrested a 35yo woman at approx 17:30hrs for failing to appear at court in connection with a serious assault on an emergency service worker.

'The arrest was made by officers who reviewed an alert from Live Facial Recognition technology identifying her as wanted by police.'

Scotland Yard deployed the controversial live facial recognition technology at Oxford Circus on February 20, but the first arrest was made yesterday

Westminster Police announced the arrest of the woman, 35, for the alleged assault of an emergency services worker

The 35-year-old is the first to be arrested by officers using the new system, after the Metropolitan Police was accused of wasting taxpayer cash last week when the devices failed to find a single match despite scanning 4,600 shoppers in an east London mall.

The Scotland Yard cameras record the faces of passers-by and send an alert to an officer's phone if they look like suspects on a wanted list.

However, the plan has proven controversial with human rights groups saying the cameras could lead to 'false positives'.

This could, they say, lead to innocent members of the public being stopped, searched and even arrested.

The van-mounted cameras were seen in Oxford Circus last week, the busy area popular with tourists in London

Met uses Japanese facial recognition technology - and insists only 1 in 1,000 innocent people are 'pinged' The Metropolitan Police uses facial recognition technology called NeoFace, developed by Japanese IT firm NEC, which matches faces up to a so-called watch list of offenders wanted by the police and courts for existing offences. Cameras scan faces in its view measuring the structure of each face, creating a digital version that is searched up against the watch list. If a match is detected, an officer on the scene is alerted, who will be able to see the camera image and the watch list image, before deciding whether to stop the individual. Not everybody on police watch lists is wanted for the purposes of arrest - they can include missing people and other persons of interest. Advertisement

The first time the cameras were put to use, at Stratford Centre on February 11, no alerts were sent out, despite the fact the devices were switched on for five and a half hours and given a list of 5,816 suspects likely to be in the area at that time

Last week, the cameras were also used on Oxford Street, though, again, no arrests were made.

The van-mounted cameras were spotted in the busy area popular with tourists, one month after Scotland Yard said they would be deployed across the capital.

Police had said the cameras will be deployed on an 'intelligence-led' basis in areas where detectives believe knife offenders and wanted criminals may be hiding.

Positioned on top of a police van or on tripods in designated locations such as train stations, two fixed cameras will scan crowds.

They work by comparing the faces of people in public places against a list of suspects wanted for serious violence, gun and knife crime and child sexual exploitation.

A bespoke 'watch list' drawn up 24 hours before each operation will include thousands of fugitives, local criminals and also vulnerable adults and children who have gone missing in the area.

Officers will get an alert on their phone within seconds to say a person identified in the area is a subject of interest.

In a bid to assuage privacy concerns, images of innocent members of the public will be automatically pixelated and discarded at the end of the day.

Scotland Yard announced the go-ahead for the technology after High Court judges rejected a challenge to facial recognition from a member of the public in South Wales last year.
The District needs to overhaul its crash data collection systems and coordinate its police-generated crash and hospital-generated trauma reports. It also needs to bring the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Service Department into the picture so we know where accidents occur. With this combined information, we would have an accurate understanding of how and where bicyclists and pedestrians are injured and what is needed to improve safety in the District and at a minimum maintain what we have.
Chinese-owned businesses are a common sight along the Costa del Sol and most have been feeling the direct and indirect effects of the coronavirus outbreak in recent weeks.

A spokesperson for the local Chinese business community has explained what fear about the virus has meant for these Costa firms, which are mostly restaurants, bazaar-style shops and wholesalers of Far-Eastern imports.

Leticia Chen told SUR that initially many local people stopped going to Chinese firms, but now customers understand there is little real risk in visiting them. "The high street businesses are recovering little by little as income dropped 30 to 35 per cent."

However, the around 250 wholesalers who import Chinese goods, mostly based on the Guadalhorce industrial park close to the airport, are still being affected, Chen claims. These are starting to run out of stock as the ships aren't leaving China. "On the industrial estate there is very little movement. Imports have halted due to the scarcity of goods. There are some business owners who have chosen to take a holiday."

In the Wok Asia buffet on Malaga's Paseo Maritimo, they are trying to make the best of it. The owner, Guoguang Zheng, said, "The first few weeks we saw a drop off in customers, but now it's hardly any fewer," adding that there is no risk to potential customers at all in Chinese restaurants.

Meanwhile, other businesses in the Malaga area that buy and sell goods and services to or from China are being hit. Data shows 348 million euros in goods was imported from China to the area last year and 185 local companies sold a record 134 million euros.

Pork exporters at risk

The biggest exporters at risk are those selling processed meat products, principally pork. These make up 75 per cent of local exports. Two big meat firms, Famadesa and Faccsa-Prolongo, make an estimated 20 per cent of their sales to China.

"We're exporting a lot less than we were and we've had a lot of problems with the shipping containers," admitted the owner of Famadesa, Federico Beltran. The double hit of the usual shutdown in China for New Year and then coronavirus has exasperated the problem, he added.

Alternative markets

"Containers are starting to leave but they've been completely on hold for 20 days," said Beltran. He explained that, like other Spanish producers, he has started to freeze meat and look at alternative markets. "We hope the situation gets back to normal soon; if not we'll be talking about serious problems."

Faccsa-Prolongo said that its containers weren't being delayed any longer but the shipping lines had put up their prices.

A spokesperson for Dcoop, the local olive oil industry giant, said that the cooperative was "worried" about the long-term economic impact of the health scare, although, for the moment, the only real action taken was the scaling back of its presence at international trade fairs.

The highest-profile fallout this week on importers from China was the reported imminent temporary layoffs at Fujitsu Ten in Malaga.

Other firms that import from China have been commenting on their experience. Jorge Rosaro, boss of locally based electrical goods chain, MGI, said that the its saviour had been the stock it already held. "That gives us room for manoeuvre for several months," he explained.

At Roman y Martos, a large firm supplying hotels and restaurants, some frozen fish from China is "being delayed" but the company said it was hopeful the situation would improve "in a month or two".
A large tract of land in Upper Mount Bethel Township that currently represents 2% of the townships forest and farmland could soon be the site of an industrial park.

On Thursday, representatives from River Pointe Logistics Park presented conceptual plans of what could be in store for a large tract of land bordered by River Road and Marshfield Drive.

The development group purchased the 725 acres for $17,050,000 in September, according to Northampton County property records.

More than 150 people listened to developer Lou Pektor and associates describe what the scope and economic impact of the project could be.

The conceptual plan presented would build up to 13 buildings totaling 5 million square feet on the property.

The developers general counsel Marc Kaplin said the site is 1.5 miles from Interstate 80, which would be accessed from River Road, then across the Portland/Columbia bridge into New Jersey.

It doesnt pass a single residence, Kaplin said.

Pektor said the group would rather build manufacturing facilities than warehouses. Manufacturing jobs bring higher paying jobs and would generate double the tax revenue for the township, he said.

The group is planning to pay $20 million for road and bridge improvements and $20 million into infrastructure like water and sewers for the site, Pektor said.

Warehouses would not need that level of infrastructure, Pektor said. Recouping the invested money will require the group to build and sell to manufacturers, he said

We cant afford to just put warehouses on this property, Pektor said.

Jake Terkanian, a marketing data consultant, said the group is looking to sell to businesses in the food and beverage, manufacturing, retail, automotive, distribution, and e-commerce industries.

Route 22 and Interstate 78 are the economic engine for Pennsylvania and Mid-Atlantic states, according to Terkanian. As that corridor gets built out, the trend will be to move closer to I-80, which makes the project site an attractive option for manufacturers, he said.

Real estate consultant Paul Scheuren said the tax revenues from the industrial park, once fully built out, could generate $1.1 million to $2.2 million annually for the township.

That would be a 30-60% increase from current tax revenues, Scheuren said.

People who made comments and asked questions after the presentation did not seem impressed with the concept.

Resident Joe Kazarda said trucks will not all drive straight to I-80 but will travel on already congested local roads.

You guys dont live here, Kazarda said. Youre going to put up this monstrosity and were going to have to deal with it."

Resident Bob Gerwig said the presentation only highlighted the positives of development but did not address negative impacts of traffic, pollution and increased demands on the school district from workers families that would move into the area.

Members of the community have indicated they want the township to remain rural and not be overdeveloped, according to resident Richard Wilford-Hunt.

Surveys have shown this is not what the community wants, Wilford-Hunt said.

Kaplin said that the development is allowed regardless of residents opinions. The developers will comply with all state and local laws.

What we are proposing is zoned for this site, Kaplin said.

Members of the Martins-Jacoby Watershed Association asked to be included as development plans progress. Kaplin said the group will be willing to meet with the association.

John Best is a freelance contributor to lehighvalleylive.com. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
LOS ANGELES  More than 400 Purdue University Global graduates took part in two commencement ceremonies on Thursday (Feb. 27) at the Skirball Cultural Center.

Degrees were awarded from the schools of Business, Education, Health Sciences, Information Technology, Nursing, Social and Behavioral Sciences and Concord Law School.

More than 100 of the graduates are California residents, while five live outside of the United States (Bermuda, Canada, Germany, Uganda and Zimbabwe). More than 75 graduates signed up to take part in the ceremonies virtually from all across the country.

Purdue Global Chancellor Betty Vandenbosch recognized the graduates for their academic achievements and celebrated their successes.

During your time at Purdue Global, you have strengthened your ability to learn, Vandenbosch said. Dont let that strong and hard-working learning muscle atrophy. Whether in a formal setting or on your own, keep learning for the rest of your life.

Vandenbosch noted that Purdue Global students are primarily adult learners and pointed to some of the ways that make them distinctive. Some 31% of the student body is affiliated with the military, including active duty, veterans and their family members. She also said that over 51% of Purdue Global students are the first in their family to pursue a higher education degree and that more than 65% have a child or other dependent.

Dolan Williams, a graduate of Purdue Globals Concord Law School and a member of the Purdue Alumni Association Board of Directors, provided the keynote address.

Based in Indianapolis, Purdue Global expands Purdue Universitys land-grant mission by providing access to higher education for millions of working adults, highly personalized to their needs and flexibly scheduled to fit their lives via online courses. Nearly 10,000 Purdue Global students are expected to earn degrees this year.

About Purdue University Global

Purdue University Global is the extreme personalization online university, providing students the competitive edge to advance in their chosen careers. It offers a hyper-tailored path for students to earn an associate, bachelors, masters or doctoral degree, based on their work experience, desired pace, military service, previous college credits and other considerations  no matter where they are in their life journey. Purdue Global serves more than 31,000 students (as of January 2020), most of whom earn their degree online. It also operates several regional locations nationwide. Purdue Global is a nonprofit, public university accredited by The Higher Learning Commission. It is affiliated with Purdue Universitys flagship institution, a highly ranked public research university located in West Lafayette, Indiana. Purdue University also operates two regional campuses in Fort Wayne and Northwest, Indiana, as well as serving close to 6,000 science, engineering and technology students at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus. For more information, please visit PurdueGlobal.edu.

Media Contact: Tom Schott, 765-494-9318, tschott@purdue.edu

Source: Betty Vandenbosch, bvandenbosch@purdueglobal.edu

Related Releases:

Purdue University Global commencement to include first-of-its-kind virtual reality component

Concord Law School graduate to speak at Purdue Global commencement ceremonies
UPDATE: Carjacking suspect IDd, stole 2 vehicles before Pburg gas station crash, cops say

A person who carjacked a minivan and fled from police Friday morning crashed into a Phillipsburg gas station near Main Street, authorities said.

The incident began as a carjacking in Washington Township, Morris County, and ended in Phillipsburg, Warren County Public Safety Director Frank Wheatley said.

Local dispatchers were notified of a police pursuit about 11:26 a.m. Friday, with a fleeing minivan traveling on Route 57.

A few minutes later, the van crashed into the deli and mini mart at the Valero gas station at the corner of South Main and Center streets in Phillipsburg.

A woman who carjacked a minivan Feb. 28, 2020, fled from police and then crashed into a gas station market in Phillipsburg, authorities said.Tony Rhodin | For lehighvalleylive.com

Antim Guring was in the booth at the gas station when the minivan came down Center Street toward South Main Street.

The 26-year-old Guring said the van was traveling between 45 and 50 mph, and was being pursued by a police car, when it turned sharply and slammed into the mini mart.

The female driver got out of the van and got on the ground, where she was quickly taken into custody by police, he said. The van crashed into the door to the convenience store, bending the door frame and damaging the building.

Tom Fehley, 64, was in his home nearby when he heard a siren and then a hard thump. He came outside and police cars were over the place.

Phillipsburg police Capt. Travis Zechman was at the crash scene and declined to comment. He said a news release would be released later.

A woman who carjacked a minivan Feb. 28, 2020, fled from police and then crashed into a gas station market in Phillipsburg, authorities said.Tony Rhodin | For lehighvalleylive.com

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
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TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Continuing Education Students Association of Ryerson (CESAR) and the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) will hold a press conference to announce their intervention in the legal action concerning Ryerson Universitys most recent attack on students union autonomy.



Autonomy is central to a students unions ability to effectively represent their membership. Ryerson University has attempted to violate the autonomy and independence of students unions through a draconian move to unilaterally terminate the Ryerson Students Union Operating Agreement, said Sofia Descalzi, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students.

This isnt the first time that Canadas students have faced this kind of ill-conceived attack. The Federation is intervening to make sure that all students unions can continue to operate freely and be accountable to members, not beholden to university administrators, continued Descalzi.

Representatives from the Continuing Education Students Association of Ryerson and the Canadian Federation of Students will be present.

WHAT: Press conference to announce intervention in Ryerson Students Union and Ryerson University legal action

WHEN: Monday, March 2, @ 11AM

WHERE: Oakham Lounge, Student Centre (55 Gould St., Toronto ON)

WHO: Nicole Brayiannis, President of the Continuing Education Students Association of Ryerson (CESAR), and Sofia Descalzi, Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS)

The Continuing Education Students Association of Ryerson represents over 16,000 part-time and continuing education students at Ryerson University.

The Canadian Federation of Students unites over 500,000 college and university students and more than 60 students' unions throughout the country including all students at Ryerson University.
In the wake of rampant violence in the national capital, a total of 113 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and Delhi Police have been deployed across the violence-hit areas. According to the Union Home Ministry Amit Shah, the security personnel were deployed to maintain law and order in the national capital.

According to the Home Ministry, a total of 73 companies of the CAPF were deployed on Monday in addition to 40 companies of the Delhi Police. Further, as per reports, each company of the CAPF and the Delhi Police consists of around 105 to 115 security personnel. The Ministry's clarification came after certain questions were reportedly raised on the shortage of police deployment in the violence-hit areas.

Top Cop assures police deployment to AAP MLAs

Earlier on Monday night, AAP leaders had staged a 'dharna' outside Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal's residence at Raj Niwas while waiting to meet him to discuss the deteriorating law and order situation in the national capital. After waiting for over two hours outside his residence, AAP MLAs met with a top police official.

Special Commissioner of Police Rajesh Khurana, who visited the LG's residence, assured the MLAs of providing sufficient police deployment in the violence-hit areas of north-east Delhi. AAP leader Gopal Rai, after SP Khurana's assurance, took to Twitter and stated that they obeying the police and returning home, however, if another incident is reported they will again return to meet the LG.

Read: Delhi violence incidents are nothing short of a blot on our country: Union Min Ram Paswan

Violence in North-East Delhi

Violence broke out in several areas in north-east Delhi, forcing the application of Section 144 as well as other strict curbs. Additional security forces have been called in amid the rampant stone-pelting, destruction of public and private property, arson and assorted wanton destruction.

Delhi Police head constable Ratan Lal lost his life and one DCP was left injured during clashes in Gokulpuri. On Wednesday, an Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer was found dead in Delhi's Chand Bagh area amid the heavy stone-pelting in the area. According to latest reports, the death toll for the violence has increased to 34.

Read: Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal holds review meeting over law and order situation

Meanwhile, on Thursday, Congress delegation met with President Ram Nath Kovind, slamming the transfer of Delhi HC Justice S Muralidhar to Punjab amid the Delhi violence hearing and called for the removal of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The police have filed 48 FIRs and have arrested 105 to date. Meanwhile, the Delhi HC has given Centre till April 13 to file a counter-affidavit on the plea seeking FIR against leaders who gave hate speech which allegedly incited the Delhi violence.

Read: AAP suspends Councillor Tahir Hussain for suspected role in Delhi violence

Read: Delhi violence: AAP's Amanatullah Khan backs Tahir Hussain, accuses BJP of implicating him
She's never shied away from a sexy selfie.

And Brielle Biermann put on quite the sultry display in a series of snapshots from her birthday vacation to the Bahamas.

All eyes were on the 23-year-old daughter of reality star Kim Zolciak as she provocatively posed in a dress sheer enough to show off her full backside.

Bahama mama: Brielle Biermann looked sultry in photos from her trip to the Bahamas

Brielle looked like a bronzed goddess in the three-photo Instagram post, appearing several shades deeper than usual.

The newly brunette beauty tossed her tresses back while leaning against a wall wearing a fringy black dress with a backless cut.

Turning her head over her shoulder, Biermann's well-highlighted cheekbones gleamed.

Sheer wonder: All eyes were on the 23-year-old daughter of reality star Kim Zolciak as she provocatively posed in a dress sheer enough to show off her full backside

Beach glamour: The newly brunette beauty tossed her tresses back while leaning against a wall wearing a fringy black dress with a backless cut

A wide shot of the scene put Brielle's derriere in the spotlight as she donned a fishnet skirt that revealed cheeky booty shorts beneath.

'Bahama Breeze,' she captioned the shots.

The Georgia girl looked like she was having the time of her life while celebrating her 23rd in the island nation, sharing more than a few great outfit posts.

On her actual birthday, the young influencer shared a sunset video one the beach wearing blue and white halter dress with a tiered ruffled skirt.

Birthday babe: The Georgia girl looked like she was having the time of her life while celebrating her 23rd in the island nation, sharing more than a few great outfit posts

'Pisces celebrating her birthday by the water,' she penned on Instagram. 'thank you for all the birthday wishes! Feeling so loved & blessed.'

'Pisces celebrating her birthday by the water,' she penned in the caption. 'thank you for all the birthday wishes! Feeling so loved & blessed.'

Perhaps it is growing a year older that prompted Brielle to want to get out of her Real Housewife of Atlanta star mom's shadow.

'Im just trying to differentiate myself a little bit,' Brielle recently told People of her recent makeover.

Big change: Recently, the reality star went from her classic bleached blonde tresses to a rich brunette shade in an effort to look less like her famous mom

'Its always been like, "Oh, little Kim." That's who I am. I look just like my mom. Always have. I mean she's gorgeous, but somebodys got to start looking a little different at some point.'

'The dark hair gives me a different identity. Im trying to detach myself from [being] Kims daughter and be my own person.'

The Bravo star - who is a natural brunette - has been going gradually darker and unveiled her deep dark brown tresses on Friday to the delight of her followers.

Brielle has made some other changes as well and recently revealed she had dissolved her lip fillers after years of injections in an effort to look younger.

'Its always been like, "Oh, little Kim." That's who I am. I look just like my mom. Always have. I mean she's gorgeous, but somebodys got to start looking a little different at some point.'

'The dark hair gives me a different identity. Im trying to detach myself from [being] Kims daughter and be my own person.' (Brielle and Kim could be twins in this shot from 2019)

But last week she got them plumped up again when she decided her lips were looking uneven.'

'Still NOWHERE NEAR how they were before...less is more,' insisted the reality star.

'Dissolved my lips yesterday... gonna look like 18 year old Brielle again soon,' she wrote with a facepalming emoji when she revealed she was taking the plunge with a new look last month.

'2020 new year new me,' she wrote. 'Black n blue for a few days.'
An experiment to put two orphaned tiger cubs back in the wild by the forest department in Madhya Pradesh for the past two years has failed after which they were shifted to a zoological park in the capital city of Bhopal, officials said.

According to the forest department officials, the tiger cubs were abandoned by their mother in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve when they were one and a half months old in 2017. They were found by the reserve management near a prey.

The mother didnt return for two days while the management kept a watch on them. The cubs were found to be weak and prone to be killed by other wild animals, they said.

The reserve management protected them and started a rewilding experiment to develop instinct in them to kill in the wild, before taking a decision on releasing them in the jungles, officials said.

These cubs were put in an enclosure to protect them from wild animals where they were provided milk through artificial means to help them survive.

This was followed by meat and chicken. Sambar and chital were provided as baits but they were not found efficient in hunting and killing the baits, the officials said.

The tigers were brought to Van Vihar National Park in Bhopal, more than 450 kilometres from Bandhavgarh National Park, by a team of Van Vihar officials headed by Dr Atul Gupta.

A decision was taken by senior officers to shift the tiger and the tigress to Van Vihar as they were found not capable of hunting in a natural way and they were not found fit to be rehabilitated in a natural environment, Dr Gupta said.

One of the tigers had to be tranquillised before being shifted.

There were signs of fatigue in the tiger who was not tranquillised. We are keeping a watch on them, he added.

The then director of Bandhavgarh National Park Mridul Pathak said he did not know why the experiment failed.

We made our best efforts till I was there to rehabilitate them in their natural environment, Pathak said.

Former conservator of forest, Jagdish Chandra, warned it should be a lesson for the forest department officials in their wildlife management. There should be a comprehensive study of the entire project to find out what went wrong so that such instances dont recur, he said.

I am yet to study the entire project. However, I dont see any other reason for the experiment failing and the tigers not being able to learn the hunting behaviour than too much spoon-feeding to them, Chandra said.

Hunting and killing are a natural instinct of wild animals like tigers. If they are growing and not ailing then its difficult to understand what hampered the process of their developing their natural instinct if it was not too much human imprinting on them, he said.

However, additional principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife) JS Chauhan said the department followed procedures to give the cubs their natural environment.

They were kept in opaque enclosures to minimise human imprint on them. Baits were placed for them to kill but they were unable to do so. Hence, we thought it would not be a wise decision to release such captive wild animals in jungles, Chauhan said.

There have been as many as nine experiments on rewilding out of which eight were successful. Hence, the department has enough expertise in the field, he said.

India recorded a 33% increase in tiger numbers in the span of four years between 2014 and 2018, according to the All India Tiger Estimation Results released last year. The new estimation for 2018 indicates there are 2967 tigers in India compared to 2226 indicated in the 2014 estimation.

Madhya Pradesh has the highest number with 526 tigers, followed by 524 in Karnataka and 442 in Uttarakhand. Karnataka had the highest number in 2014 with 406 tigers compared to 308 in Madhya Pradesh.

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Instead of blocking hackers, a new cybersecurity defense approach developed by University of Texas at Dallas computer scientists actually welcomes them.

The method, called DEEP-Dig (DEcEPtion DIGging), ushers intruders into a decoy site so the computer can learn from hackers tactics. The information is then used to train the computer to recognize and stop future attacks.

UT Dallas researchers presented a paper on their work, Improving Intrusion Detectors by Crook-Sourcing, at the annual Computer Security Applications Conference in December in Puerto Rico. They presented another paper, Automating Cyberdeception Evaluation with Deep Learning, in January at the Hawaii International Conference of System Sciences.

DEEP-Dig advances a rapidly growing cybersecurity field known as deception technology, which involves setting traps for hackers. Researchers hope that the approach can be especially useful for defense organizations.

There are criminals trying to attack our networks all the time, and normally we view that as a negative thing, said Dr. Kevin Hamlen, Eugene McDermott Professor of computer science. Instead of blocking them, maybe what we could be doing is viewing these attackers as a source of free labor. Theyre providing us data about what malicious attacks look like. Its a free source of highly prized data.

The approach aims to solve a major challenge to using artificial intelligence for cybersecurity: a shortage of data needed to train computers to detect intruders. The lack of data is due to privacy concerns. Better data will mean better ability to detect attacks, said Gbadebo Ayoade MS14, PhD19, who presented the findings at the recent conferences.

Were using the data from hackers to train the machine to identify an attack, said Ayoade, now a data scientist at Procter & Gamble Co. Were using deception to get better data.

Hackers typically begin with their simplest tricks and then use increasingly sophisticated tactics, Hamlen said. But most cyberdefense programs try to disrupt intruders before anyone can monitor the intruders techniques. DEEP-Dig will give researchers a window into hackers methods as they enter a decoy site stocked with disinformation. The decoy site looks legitimate to intruders, said Dr. Latifur Khan, professor of computer science at UT Dallas.

Attackers will feel theyre successful, Khan said.

Governmental agencies, businesses, nonprofits and individuals face a constant threat from cyberattacks, which cost the U.S. economy more than $57 billion in 2016, according to a report to the White House from the Council of Economic Advisers.

As hackers tactics change, DEEP-Dig could help cybersecurity defense systems keep up with their new tricks.

Its an endless game, Khan said.

While DEEP-Dig aims to outsmart hackers, is it possible that hackers could have the last laugh if they realize they have entered a decoy site and try to deceive the program?

Maybe, Hamlen said. But that possibility does not worry him.

So far, weve found this doesnt work. When an attacker tries to play along, the defense system just learns how hackers try to hide their tracks, Hamlen said. Its an all-win situation  for us, that is.

Other researchers involved in the work included Frederico Araujo PhD16, research scientist at IBMs Thomas J. Watson Research Center; Khaled Al-Naami PhD17; Yang Gao, a UT Dallas computer science graduate student; and Dr. Ahmad Mustafa of Jordan University of Science and Technology.

The research was supported in part by the Office of Naval Research, the National Security Agency, the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Source: University of Texas at Dallas
The result was exchanges that were light on substance but heavy on conflict. Democrats questioned the Trump administrations Iran policy, which they noted has resulted in more attacks on American interests and an expansion of Irans nuclear program. On the latter point, Pompeo conceded Iran has enriched to a higher level than they did when we took office.
Irate western suburbs homeowners are contemplating suing Brimbank Council, which, along with the Environment Protection Authority, failed to tell about 70 households that there was a "high risk" of exposure to gasses emitted from land beneath their homes until last week. The "high risk" finding was made in 2013, but the local council and the environmental watchdog did not warn residents of the risks until last week. Further testing last year downgraded the risk to "low". A large section of St Albans land adjacent to the Western Ring Road was used as a tip between 1967 and 1978. Ms Hodgers recently subdivided the land of her parents' Denton Avenue family home and built two townhouses, taking on a 30-year mortgage with her husband Arron Reid. The couple, who have three young children, said there had been a high number of serious and unusual health issues among residents in the street.

Both of Ms Hodgers' parents died of cancer while living in the street. According to Ms Hodgers and her husband, a neighbour experienced breathing problems once they moved to the area, while a dog breeder produced a litter of deformed puppies. The couple's 11-year-old son, Kai, had a cancer scare when a large lump appeared near his lymph node, requiring months of testing, while Kai's brother Kobe had an unexplained seizure. "They're all weird things and you can't help but question it all," said Ms Hodgers. A block on Denton Ave where a house was demolished and never rebuilt. Credit:Justin McManus The couple  who fear for their financial security given the likely hit to property prices following council's disclosure  said council officials told them the risk of exposure decreased over time.

"But Michelle has been here for 35 years," Mr Reid said. "How bad was it then?" Loading In interviews on ABC radio on Friday, council and EPA officials could not explain their failure to immediately disclose the 2013 "high risk" result to all residents. Some residents had been informed of the test results when officials entered homes after 2013 to monitor gas levels, they said. But residents who spoke to The Age said they had not been warned of the risks until last week. Kelvin Walsh, director of city development at Brimbank Council, admitted the system of disclosure to prospective property buyers was "not ideal".

"Everyone is responsible in this case," he said. "So the Department of Planning, the Environment Protection Authority and us as council need to take action to ensure that everyone is fully informed going forward." Loading Mr Walsh and Stephen Lansdell, EPA's western region manager, said the matter had been discussed with residents in the two years before the 2013 test result. Council officials visited residents late last week, providing families with information packs detailing the chemicals on their property. However, homeowners said they could not understand the language and scientific details in the documents, and remain confused about their options. Some have not read their information packs and the council has not responded to a community request for a town hall meeting.

Groups of neighbours have been meeting to discuss their legal options. Over the past decade, officials have entered homes and used needle-like gas testing devices to test toilets, cupboards and soil for toxicity and methane levels. A groundwater monitoring well behind properties in St Albans. Credit:Justin McManus And in 2016 and 2017, metal "bore" poles to test the soil were inserted at the former tip site, just behind the back fences of properties. A large hill was built to cover the main section of the former tip between properties and the Western Ring Road. Some residents thought the hill was to reduce noise pollution, but William Cartledge, 77, said council told him it was for kids to use as a play area.
Dalhousies Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) has released its draft plan for the 2020-21 operating budget  a plan that aims to ensure financial responsibility while also advancing Dals core mission and priorities.



With revenues and expenditures balanced at $469.9M, the plan  which is tentative pending further input from the university community  makes new investments in priority areas identified in the BACs consultations with students, faculty and staff. These include student assistance, facilities renewal, classroom technology and the pool of funding available for strategic initiatives.



It also includes measures to address the core budget challenge Dalhousie faces each year: that costs increase at a faster rate than government funding does, leaving tuition (which makes up the bulk of the remainder of the operating budget) as the primary tool available to Dal to balance the budget and fund its priorities. Read the full budget plan and tuition recommendations: dal.ca/budget



Our success as a university requires investment in our people, our services and supports, our Faculties and facilities, and all aspects of our academic mission, says Provost Teri Balser, who chairs the BAC. Thats what the operating budget aims to do.

Moving Dals academic mission forward

The Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) is a group chaired by the Provost, with members of senior leadership, faculty, staff and students. The BAC leads Dals transparent and consultative budget planning process, preparing high-level recommendations for how funding should be allocated across the university. Its then up to leadership in each Faculty or service/support unit  deans, directors and AVPs  to determine how best to allocate those resources to deliver on their plans and ensure Dals strategic goals are achieved.



Most of the operating budget  over 72%  is spent on salaries, benefits and pension payments (total compensation) to faculty and staff. That leaves 28% or so of the budget (roughly $132M) to cover a wide range of other university priorities: general expenses for Faculties and service/support units, scholarships and bursaries, utility costs, facilities maintenance and classroom upgrades, IT requirements and more. And most of these costs increase each year. Read also: Behind the budget: Revenues and expenses (Feb 21)



The BAC draft plan estimates that, including compensation, Faculty and service/support unit costs will go up by 3.9% in 2020-21. In contrast, Dals government grant, which makes up just under half of the operating budget, only increases 1% each year, as outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Nova Scotias universities and the provincial government.



Because resources are limited, we need to be focused, smart, and strategic in where we invest, writes the BAC in its report. The budget must balance, but we also need to ensure that Dalhousie continues to thrive  that were supporting our students, our faculty and our staff to move our academic mission forward.



Some of the ways the budget plan proposes to do that include:

Limiting the budget gap in Faculties and service/support units: Faculty and other service/support unit operating budgets also increase annually, and funding allocated does not fully cover increased expenditures (driven largely by compensation for faculty/staff). As recently as four years ago, Faculties and service/support units were being asked to find upwards of 2-3.5% in cost savings each year to close the gap between rising costs and available resources. The BAC has made minimizing this gap a priority. This year, the gap is only 0.5%  meaning more resources stay with Deans and other academic leaders to address Faculties needs. (In total, 63.2% of Dals operating expenditures are spent in Dals Faculties, including Graduate Studies and Continuing Education.)



Student assistance: Dalhousie spends more than $70M each year on student assistance. A large chunk of that ($49M) comes from the operating budget, and this years plan increases that amount by $455,000, with a focus on international students and designated groups.



Facilities and IT infrastructure: Dals 162 buildings and utility distribution facilities have more than $500M in whats called deferred maintenance  required maintenance thats currently or past due. To keep advancing this important work on Dals classroom, research and working spaces, the budget plan increases facilities renewal spending by $4M ($3M of which can only be used if enrolment targets are met). This will be in addition to the one-time allocation of funding from the provincial government this year. The budget plan also increases classroom audiovisual technology spending by $500,000 and adds $600,000 in IT network capacity and infrastructure requirements.



Strategic funding: Each year Dal puts resources aside to address emerging areas of importance  particularly key this year, given a new strategic plan is in development. Priorities for investment cited in the BAC report include equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives; student support; online and digital delivery of programs; and rejuvenating Dals website. The budget plan allocates $9M overall in strategic investments and initiatives ($3M of which will only be provided if enrolment targets are met).

Making tuition more predictable

Addressing rising costs and investing in university priorities requires resources. With costs increasing at a faster rate than government funding, that leaves tuition  which funds 43% of the operating budget  as the only significant means available to balance the operating budget. Under Dals current funding model, it is clear the university will need to continue increasing general tuition annually to ensure a balanced budget that enables Dalhousie's success.



Thats why the Budget Advisory Committee is recommending a 3% general increase to tuition in 2020-21, and also in the subsequent two years. This is in line with recent budgets: general tuition has gone up by 3% each year since 2011-12. While the BAC has not traditionally made multi-year recommendations for general tuition fees, its doing so this year for a number of reasons, though largely because of the certainty provided by the current provincial MOU and also to help make things clearer for students.



Weve heard feedback from students that they want to be better able to plan for paying their fees, and for increases to be more predictable, says Provost Balser. Committing to these increases now sets clearer expectations going forward, allowing students to prepare for and plan their expected expenses during the course of their degree. More on tuition and the draft budget plan: dal.ca/budget



The budget plan also continues the four-year, phased-in increases to international tuition that were approved by the Board of Governors last April. The additional increases of $1,473 annually (on top of general fee increases) for students beginning their programs in Sept. 2019 and later are meant to bring Dals international fees closer to its comparator universities across Canada. Even with these increases, Dals international fees remain well below average.



Those increases came with a commitment to review and invest in international students on campus. Following last years decision, a Rapid Task Force recommended new investments in international services and supports, now underway or in progress. These include: a program manager for international student support; a Mandarin-speaking international student advisor; an additional writing centre advisor; and further new supports for writing, advising, and intercultural competence.



The university will also continue to monitor the impacts of these fee changes, though this year Dals international enrolment did grow by 501 students a 12% increase.


Cathy Zuraw / Cathy Zuraw

MILFORD  Roughly nine months after Milford Hospital was absorbed by Bridgeport Hospital, there will be a community forum to discuss the partnership and what it means.

The forum will take place at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the Milford Hospital campus, 300 Seaside Ave. Leaders from Bridgeport Hospital and Yale New Haven Health (of which Bridgeport Hospital is a part) will present information regarding key investments and accomplishments that have been made on the Milford Campus of Bridgeport Hospital since June 2019, according to a news release.
DUBLIN, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Irish consumer sentiment remained subdued in February as concerns over household finances largely canceled out optimism around the economy in general, a survey showed on Thursday.

Ireland has remained the European Union's fastest growing economy during three years of Brexit talks, but according to the survey's authors, many consumers are not seeing an improvement to their financial circumstances from the buoyant economy.

The KBC Bank consumer sentiment index was 85.2 in February, little changed from January's 85.5.

In October, when it seemed that the European Union and Britain could fail to reach agreement on the terms of Britain's withdrawal from the trading bloc, the index fell to a seven-year low of 69.5 with neighbouring Ireland particularly exposed.

The index hit a 17-year high of 110.4 in January 2018 before consumers really began to be spooked by the possibility of a disruptive Brexit - a version of which is still possible at the end year if a favourable trade deal cannot be reached.

"Brexit concerns likely explained a significant element of the subdued tone of Irish consumer sentiment readings in recent years," said Austin Hughes, chief economist at KBC Ireland.

"However, those worries don't fully explain the pronounced lack of any 'feelgood factor' among Irish consumers, an absence that might appear at odds with the sustained strength seen in key Irish economic indicators such as last week's buoyant jobs data for the final quarter of 2019."

"It simply seems that progress at the level of the individual household from the conditions experienced through the 'austerity years' has fallen short of improvement heralded in much economic commentary," Hughes added, referencing Ireland's financial crisis of a decade ago. (Reporting by Graham Fahy, editing by Padraic Halpin and Chizu Nomiyama)
VATICAN - Catholic church head Pope Francis canceled a planned Mass in Rome after being last seen coughing and having runny nose, as the dreaded coronavirus continue to spread across Italy, Thursday.

With his illness, the 82-year-old pontiff was forced to miss a penitential mass marking the start of lent that was planned to be celebrated at the St. John Lateran Basilica with the Roman clergy.

According to the Vatican, the State's sovereign was just feeling slightly indisposed and and would continue with the rest of the days planned work. He, however, failed to appear on the rest of the activities scheduled for that day.

Based on reports, the pope was instead seen staying the Vatican hotel where he lives, Santa Marta. It was observed that security has been heightened outside the residence and that medical personnel in protective gowns have been going in and out of the hotel.

Vatican officials, however, refuse to comment on what the Pope is sick from and has not specified the ailments nature, but when he was last seen during the Ash Wednesday Mass, it was noted that the pope has been coughing and blowing his nose.

It can be recalled that during the same mass he was last seen on, the pope expressed solidarity to those who are suffering from the novel coronavirus around the world.

Read also: First Coronavirus Vaccine by US Biotech Firm Moderna May Be Out Soon

Based on his medical history, the Argentine pope has already lost part of his lung when he was young due to a respiratory illness and also has difficulty in walking due to sciatica. He, however, has been enjoying generally good health lately.

With Pope's current condition, people fear that he might have contacted COVID-19, which has already invaded Italy with more than 400 cases and 12 deaths. This, however, remains as speculation since there were only three reported cases in Rome so far and all of them have recovered.

However, the virus' spread in Italy has been limited to its northern provinces, and away from the Vatican. The Milan Cathedral and La Scala Opera house have been closed due to fears of the virus and the Venice carnival was stopped as well.

Pope Francis has not also specifically met with any coronavirus patient but has shaken hands with the front row audience, during his mass. He was also seen kissing a baby during his spin through St. Peter's Square in his popemobile.

The pontiff's condition has also worried devout Catholics in the city who have started night vigils and offered their prayers to the sick sovereign.

Italy has been the hot spot of the virus in Europe. According to CNN, there are now 11 countries in the continent that has confirmed cases and most of these can be traced back to Italy. The country has the most number of cases outside of Asia.

Meanwhile, the disease continues to spread like wildfire as the cases rise to more than 82,000 and have spread across all continents except Antarctica. There have been growing fears that it may become a worldwide pandemic.

The virus has already killed more than 2,800 worldwide since it first broke out in Wuhan China.

Related article: North Korea Reportedly Executes Man with Coronavirus to Hide Positive Cases

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We have all been warned against opening any links contained inside emails from an unrecognised source. While precautionary measures from the users end are always advised, Gmail might just help us out with this by making sure that such fishy emails never reach our inbox.

A new security feature by Gmail based on deep learning algorithm will do just that. Though we will never see the feature at work as it operates in the back-end, it seems to be the best security wall that Gmail has come up with for protecting its users against such targeted attacks.

The deep learning algorithms will be used to scan through an email for any such malicious attachments. Google has already been using the safety feature since late 2019 and to date, has increased the daily detection of fishy scripts in Office documents through it by as much as 10%.

(Representative Image: Shutterstock)

Google explains the working in detail, stating Our technology is especially helpful at detecting adversarial, bursty attacks. In these cases, our new scanner has improved our detection rate by 150%. Under the hood, our new scanner uses a distinct TensorFlow deep-learning model trained with TFX (TensorFlow Extended) and a custom document analyzer for each file type. The document analyzers are responsible for parsing the document, identifying common attack patterns, extracting macros, deobfuscating content, and performing feature extraction.



This is not the first scanning blockade put up by Gmail for emails. The new scanner, however, will work in tandem with the existing ones. An email would then be passed on to the intended recipient only if it passes through all these tests in place.

A point to note here is that the new scanner will only work for Microsoft Office files, as these comprise the largest portion of the malicious files used in targeted attacks. For other malicious file attachments, users will still have to take a call on whether to open and use them or not.
A father watched in horror as a child in school uniform chromed for three hours, while his adult carer sat unfazed and glued to her phone.

The concerned dad captured photos of the 15-year-old chroming just one metre away from his carer in Townsville, Queensland at 5pm to 8.30pm on Tuesday.

The potentially deadly activity in Crestbrook Park in Mount Louisa was only stopped when the student's carer called an ambulance. The 15-year-old was assessed but not taken to hospital.

The onlooker who captured the shocking scene, who does not want to be named, could not believe his eyes.

'I was gobsmacked,' the resident told the Townsville Bulletin.

A Townsville dad watched in horror as a boy in school uniform chromed for three hours in Crestbrook Park in Mount Louisa (pictured)

Chroming broadly refers to the inhalation of volatile substances, carrying the risk of permanent brain damage. Juveniles take advantage of the cheap and easily accessible aerosols.

In the three-hour period, the resident said the supervisor sat at a picnic table scrolling through her phone, as the boy chromed using a large aerosol can, with his back to her.

Chroming broadly refers to the inhalation of volatile substances, carrying the risk of permanent brain damage.

The resident had often seen discarded aerosol cans in the park, but said this was the first time he had ever seen such a shocking scene.

Child Protection and Investigation Unit officer-in-charge Detective Senior Sergeant Dave Miles said chroming was happening regularly around the city, with police encountering a daily interaction with someone effected by the substance.

He said juveniles take advantage of the cheap and easily accessible aerosols, but it is is often hard for police to detect whether they are affected.

'The problem we have is there is no definite indicators, it's not like alcohol where the effects can be long lasting,' Sen-Sgt Miles said.

Chroming is not illegal under Queensland Police law. No penalty could be enforced on the woman, despite a history of chroming deaths.

Daily Mail have contacted Child Safety Minister Di Farmer and the Department of Education for comment.
An airstrike by Syrian government forces killed 29 Turkish soldiers in northeast Syria, a Turkish official said Friday, marking the largest death toll for Turkey in a single day since it first intervened in Syria in 2016.

Beirut: An airstrike by Syrian government forces killed 29 Turkish soldiers in northeast Syria, a Turkish official said Friday, marking the largest death toll for Turkey in a single day since it first intervened in Syria in 2016.

The deaths were a serious escalation in the direct conflict between Turkish and Russia-backed Syrian forces that has been waged since early February.

Rahmi Dogan, the governor of Turkey's Hatay province bordering Syria's Idlib region, said 29 troops were killed and others were seriously wounded in the attack late Thursday. He said 39 injured were being treated in Turkish hospitals.

Three Turkish soldiers killed earlier Thursday in Idlib. At least 50 have now been killed in Idlib since the start of February.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was holding an emergency security meeting in Ankara, state-run Anadolu news agency reported. Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevult Cavusoglu spoke to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg by telephone.

Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, who plays a senior role in foreign affairs, also spoke to US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien.

The airstrike came after a Russian delegation spent two days in Ankara for talks with Turkish officials on the situation in Idlib, where a Syrian government offensive has sent hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing towards the Turkish border.

The offensive has also engulfed many of the 12 military observation posts Turkey has in Idlib.

Fahrettin Altun, Erdogan's communications director, said all known Syrian government targets were under attack by Turkish air and land forces in response to the deaths.

Turkish television news channels aired black-and-white footage of airstrikes on Syrian targets.

Omer Celik, the spokesman for Erdogan's ruling party, said NATO should stand by Turkey's side. Ankara recently called for US Patriot missiles to be deployed to defend its forces in Syria.

In a message seemingly aimed at Europe, he added: Our refugee policy is the same but there's a situation there, we're no longer able to hold refugees.

Turkey hosts some 3.6 million Syrians and under a 2016 deal with the European Union agreed to step up efforts to halt the flow of refugees to Europe. Since then Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to open the gates in several disputes with European states.

Angry crowds gathered outside the Russian consulate in Istanbul, Anadolu said. Standing in front of a line of riot police and a water cannon, they chanted Murderer Russia, murderer Putin.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 34 Turkish soldiers were killed in airstrikes on Idlib on Thursday. It said the attacks occurred in an area between the villages of al-Bara and Baliun near the Jabal al-Zawiya region in the southern Idlib countryside. The Britain-based Observatory monitors the Syria war through a network of activists on the ground.

The airstrike came after Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters retook a strategic northwestern town from government forces on Thursday, opposition activists said, cutting a key highway just days after the government reopened it for the first time since 2012.

Despite losing the town of Saraqeb, Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces made major gains to the south. Assad now controls almost the entire southern part of Idlib province after capturing more than 20 villages Thursday, state media and opposition activists said. It's part of a weekslong campaign backed by Russian airpower into Syria's last rebel stronghold.

Violence in Idlib province also left three more Turkish soldiers dead, according to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, raising the number of Turkish troops killed in Syria this month to 21. Thousands of Turkish soldiers are deployed inside rebel-controlled areas of Idlib province, which is dominated by al-Qaida-linked militants.

Turkeys UN Ambassador Feridun Sinirlioglu told the Security Council on Thursday that Turkey was committed to upholding a fragile cease-fire agreement that Turkey and Russia reached on Idlib in 2018.

The Syrian government troops' deliberate attacks on our forces has been a turning point. We are now determined more than ever to preserve Idlib's de-escalation status."

Syria's Defense Ministry said insurgents were using Turkey-supplied portable surface-to-air missiles to attack Syrian and Russian aircraft. It did not elaborate. Earlier this month, Turkish-backed opposition fighters shot down two helicopter gunships belonging to the Syrian military.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said opposition fighters seized the town of Saraqeb after intense bombardment by Turkish troops. Turkey and Russia support opposite sides in Syria's brutal civil war, with Ankara backing the opposition and Moscow backing Assad.

Saraqeb's loss is a big setback for Assad. It sits on the strategic M5 highway linking the northern city of Aleppo with the capital, Damascus. Syrian troops recaptured the last rebel-controlled section of the M5 earlier this month. Officials had hailed the reopening of the motorway as a major victory in the nine-year conflict.

The Syrian government's military campaign to recapture Idlib province has triggered a humanitarian catastrophe and the war's largest single wave of displacement. According to the United Nations, almost 950,000 civilians have been displaced since early December, and more than 300 have been killed. Most have fled farther north to safer areas near the Turkish border, overwhelming camps already crowded with refugees in cold winter weather.

From inside Saraqeb, activist Taher al-Omar said the town is now under opposition control. He posted a video with a fighter saying the government forces ran away like rats.

The Observatory said more than 60 fighters were killed on both sides since Wednesday, adding that government forces launched a counteroffensive later Thursday under the cover of Russian airstrikes to try to retake the town.

Syrian state media reported intense clashes near Saraqeb, saying insurgents sent suicide car bombs and that Turkish forces bombarded the area. It said a small group of insurgents reached the highway to score a propaganda stunt, adding that Syrian troops are dealing with them.

State TV later Thursday confirmed that insurgents have cut the highway, adding that fighting is ongoing in the area.

The Observatory also reported on the more than 20 villages captured Thursday by the government. It added that Syrian troops have now besieged another Turkish observation post in an area known as Sheer Maghar.

The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said government forces advancing from northern parts of Hama province met Thursday with forces moving from southern Idlib, bringing wide areas under Syrian army control.

If government forces now turn north, they can eventually reach another major highway known as the M4 that links Syria's coastal region with the country's west. Assad has vowed to retake all of Syria.

Assad's forces have captured dozens of villages over the past few days, including major rebel strongholds.

However, Erdogan said Thursday that, The situation in Idlib has turned in our favour." Speaking at the opening of a political academy in the capital, Ankara, he said the Syrian government had sustained huge losses.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 05:58:37|Editor: yan

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PARIS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The number of people testing positive for the novel coronavirus in France increased by 19 in one day to 57 on Friday, Health Minister Olivier Veran announced at a daily press meeting.

"A new stage in the epidemic has been reached," the minister said. "That's to say that the virus is circulating on our territory and that we must curb this spread."

Veran said those infected had either interacted with already known patients or been traveled recently to zones of risk. Among the new cases, 12 isolated cases are under investigation.

"Many clusters have been detected, and whose contagion chains are identified and contamination can be explained," the minister added.

He also reiterated the need to respect "simple gestures, but more essential than ever" to contain the virus outbreak, notably as washing hands, sneezing into one's elbow and avoiding handshakes.

In the northern department of l'Oise, the most-affected region with 18 infections, schools would prolong winter break by three days, the minister said, stressing that children returning from a risk area should not go to school.

Nearly 2,000 students who had recently visited zones of risk, have been requested to undergo a 14-day quarantine before being allowed to move on, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said early Friday.

The French government has already recommended nationals to defer unnecessary trips to Lombardy and Veneto, the hotspot regions that have confirmed majority of the infection cases in Italy. All school trips to Italy have been suspended until further notice.

French President Emmanuel Macron would chair an exceptional cabinet meeting and defense council on Saturday "to anticipate" and to "adapt" to the coronavirus outbreak which is taking a toll on the economic activity of the country.

Also on Friday, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters that he upheld his earlier forecast of a negative impact of 0.1 point to the French economy from the coronavirus outbreak.

"This figure may be higher depending on the evolution of the disease. I will have a clear idea about the impact of the epidemic on growth following the feedback that companies will give next week," he said.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:

Armenians want the deportation of Azerbaijanis to be presented as an event that occurred after the Sumgayit 1988 events, but in reality the deportation began long before the events of 1988, said Ph.D. in history, Azerbaijani associate professor Asad Gurbanli told Trend Feb. 28.

Starting from the second half of January 1988, refugees began to come to Azerbaijan from various territories in Armenia where Azerbaijanis lived, Gurbanli noted.

The Armenian press hid it, and intentionally made it public after the Sumgayit events, presenting it as a reason for the departure of Azerbaijanis from Armenia, added Gurbanli.

The historian noted that from January until the end of February, when the pogroms in Sumgayit (Feb. 29, 1988-March 1, 1988) began, more than 4,000 Azerbaijanis had been already expelled from Armenia.

These Azerbaijanis were forcibly expelled from Armenia, said Gurbanli. Their cars were shelled by Armenians, and the villages where the Azerbaijanis lived were attacked.

Gurbanli added that discrimination of Azerbaijanis in Armenia at the state level has been carried out since 1925.

This policy intensified in the 1960s, said the Azerbaijani historian. The Armenian people were marking the anniversary of the genocide invented by themselves. But, since 1960, the Armenian state took over this mission. Thus, even more oppression of Azerbaijanis began. It was in those years that the Armenian youth began to oppose the Azerbaijanis, and grew up in a spirit of hatred towards them. The biggest event in this regard took place in 1983 in the Masis district adjacent to Yerevan. During a wedding, Armenian youth attacked people, their homes and desecrated the graves of Azerbaijanis.

Gurbanli noted that the number of Azerbaijanis who left Armenia during the 1988 deportation was controversial, as some sources say the number of deported Azerbaijanis was 189,000.

"This figure doesn't include Azerbaijani students who left Armenia to study in other countries, soldiers, prisoners, etc. According to my information, about 250,000 Azerbaijanis were deported from Armenia.

Gurbanli said that the Armenians express unreasonable opinions that their rights were allegedly violated in Nagorno-Karabakh, that they were oppressed by the Azerbaijanis on the ethnic principle.

During the negotiations on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Armenians try to raise this issue, the historian added. In this case, in the negotiation process it is necessary to also raise the issue of protecting Azerbaijani refugees expelled from Armenia.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Apergy Corporation (Apergy) (NYSE: APY), announced today that Sivasankaran "Soma" Somasundaram, President and Chief Executive Officer, will attend and meet with investors at the 25th Annual Credit Suisse Energy Summit in Vail, Colorado on March 2nd and 3rd, 2020.



Soma Somasundaram is scheduled to present on Tuesday, March 3, 2020 at 10:05 a.m. Eastern Time (8:05 a.m. Mountain Time). A live webcast and replay of the presentation will be available on our website at https://investors.apergy.com/news-reports/calendar. The accompanying slides from the presentation will be posted in the Investors section of our website for approximately 30 days.

About Apergy

Apergy is a leading provider of highly engineered equipment and technologies that help companies drill for and produce oil and gas safely and efficiently around the world. Apergy's products provide efficient functioning throughout the lifecycle of a well - from drilling to completion to production. Apergys Production & Automation Technologies offerings consist of artificial lift equipment and solutions, including rod pumping systems, electric submersible pump systems, progressive cavity pumps and drive systems and plunger lifts, as well as a full automation and digital offering consisting of equipment and software for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions for downhole monitoring, wellsite productivity enhancement, and asset integrity management. Apergys Drilling Technologies offering provides market leading polycrystalline diamond cutters and bearings that result in cost effective and efficient drilling. To learn more about Apergy, visit our website at http://www.apergy.com.

Investor Contact:

David Skipper  david.skipper@apergy.com  713-230-8031

Media Contact:

John Breed  john.breed@apergy.com  281-403-5751
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Switzerland rose to nine on Thursday, as the canton of Basel-City put a number of children into a two-week quarantine after one of their caregivers tested positive for the virus.

A young woman who returned to work at a daycare facility after traveling to Milan has tested positive for the new coronavirus, authorities in Basel-City said late on Thursday.

The young woman who resides in the canton of Basel-City is doing well given the circumstances, the regions health department said in a statement. As a carer for children and young children working at a daycare in Riehen, she came into contact with many children. The health department is now making extensive checks in the patients professional and personal environment accordingly.

The daycare facilities in the town of Riehen normally care for around 100 children, the authorities said, but due to ongoing holidays, only a portion of the children had been present in the facility and in close contact with the affected woman.

Another man who had been traveling with the woman also tested positive for the virus on Thursday, the authorities said, adding he resided in a different region, while outside of Basel, regional and national authorities on Thursday confirmed first cases in five further cantons.

In Vaud, a 49-year-old male cross-border worker residing in France was put into isolation following detection, while his wife was highly suspected of infection, local authorities said, adding they were working closely with their French counterparts.

In Zurich, a woman around age 30 tested positive for the virus, while in Aargau, a 26-year-old man was being treated in isolated care, both having traveled to northern Italy around one week before, local authorities said in separate statements.

The Swiss health authority earlier on Thursday said one person in Geneva and a couple in the southeastern Alpine canton of Grisons had tested positive for the virus, following a first case confirmed near the border to Italy on Tuesday.

These patients were all in isolated care in hospital and in good health condition, the Federal Office of Public Health said.

By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi
These are the only trade deal talks in history framed to end with a poorer commercial relationship between the two parties.

So, no real surprise that the walk-out threat has been issued by the UK three days before the negotiations with the EU formally open next Monday. The UK vision for a new relationship unveiled yesterday went backwards from the political guidelines for these negotiations which were agreed by both sides last October alongside the formal Withdrawal Agreement.

The key points of interest to Ireland are not encouraging at this stage. But Brussels diplomats pointed out there are always "rhetorical flourishes" at this point in the process - and "hardline stances" can later be blurred by "linguistic fudges".

The key points of Irish interest look like this. The UK has confirmed that time is, as expected, extremely scarce. London will not seek to extend the current transition standstill period beyond its expiry on December 31.

The document also states that a progress stocktake due at an EU leaders' summit on June 20 and 21 will be crucial. If not enough progress is made, the UK will pull back from talks and focus on preparations for a no-deal Brexit.

The EU has said that time will be put to best use. It has sidestepped this "walk-out threat" by saying it was always envisaged that the June EU leaders' summit in Brussels would be a progress assessment. From Ireland's point of view, that "cliff edge" is back in sight.

On Northern Ireland, the UK has said it would respect the element attached to the Withdrawal Agreement which would allow the North to stay in line with the EU - avoiding a hard Border.

But the strong suggestion that there will be no systematic checks on goods going from the mainland UK to the North remains.

The EU continues to insist that a system of checks must be put in place to ensure the single market - which still includes the Republic of Ireland - is protected. Goods marked 'Made in UK' must be verified.

Again, the UK stresses it will reserve the right to fix its own standards on products, labour law, environment and state aid. That was the whole point of Brexit, the minister responsible, Michael Gove, again insisted yesterday.

The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has repeatedly insisted that the price of giving the UK free access to EU markets, without quotas or tariffs, is a so-called "level playing field" on these standards. A fierce battle looms here - the UK argues that Canada got a free trade deal without these conditions and rejects the EU argument that the proximity of Britain and Europe makes all the difference.

Access to UK fishing waters after Brexit kicks in is another big issue for Ireland, one worth one-third of the overall industry income. Fish is about 1pc of UK economic activity - but it is huge politically and a totem pole when it comes to Brexit and "taking back control of our waters".

The UK political sensitivity of fishing waters was again in evidence yesterday. Mr Gove said control over the UK's fishing waters was "something which we cannot barter away".

But Ireland is not alone in its concerns on the fishing water access issue. Seven other countries - France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark and Finland - are also concerned. So a big battle lies ahead on that one also.

The EU insists that fishing water access must be linked to the overall new relationship with the UK and has cited British financial market access to Europe as a potential link.

The UK wants standalone fishery deals with the EU, just as Norway and Iceland have negotiated.

EU sources last night signalled that a "short, perilous and uncertain road lies ahead". But another Brussels veteran described these opening bids as "peacocking".

In London, the emphasis was on UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivering on his general election pledge to "get Brexit done".

On EU-UK relations over crime and extradition, the British document says it is "not seeking to participate in the European arrest warrant". This system allows the UK and other member states to pursue criminals who have crossed member state borders to flee justice.

Instead the UK wants "fast-track extradition arrangements". This is in line with what was signalled by Mr Johnson last year when he argued that this new approach would give the police powers to arrest suspects speedily. It has led to claims that the UK could be become "a haven for criminals".


Half Year Results Announcement

Sydney, Feb 27, 2020 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Genex Power Limited ( ASX:GNX ) is pleased to provide the following update on the Company's financial performance for the first half of the 2020 financial year (1H FY2020), a period in which the Company continued to progress offtake arrangements for the 250MW Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project (K2-Hydro) and reached financial close for the 50MW Jemalong Solar Project (JSP).1H FY20 Highlights:- 50MW Kidston Solar Project (KS1) generated 56,380MWh (1H FY19: 71,264MWh) - a 21% decrease which was largely caused by a one-off plant outage;- During the period the Company announced the completion of a capital raising of $21.5m before costs comprising a placement of $16.2m and a Share Purchase Plan of $5.3m to fund the development of the JSP;- The Company refinanced its existing debt facility for KS1 which comprised a combined funding package for KS1 and JSP of $192m including a senior loan facility. The 100MWAC Portfolio Financing includes the largest Certified Green Loan by an Australian renewable energy group;- The Company announced the financial close of JSP (refer ASX Announcement of 18 December 2019). Design and procurement activities are well advanced and construction activities are underway, with operational commencement and first revenues targeted for late Q4 CY2020;- The Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) approved the extension of their funding offer of up to $610m through a long term concessional NAIF debt facility to 30 June 2020 (refer ASX Announcement 13 November 2019); and- Electric Power Development Co Ltd trading as J-POWER (J-POWER) signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU replaced the original MOU signed on 6 June 2019. The MOU, under the same terms and conditions as the previous MOU, has been extended to 31 December 2020 (refer ASX Announcement 22 November 2019).Commenting on the 1H FY2020 financial results, Genex CEO, James Harding stated:"The past 6 months have continued to see the Company progress and deliver on a number of major milestones in our strategy to become a diverse renewable energy and storage company. The financial close and commencement of construction at the Jemalong Solar Project represents the next step in the Company's growth.The Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project remains an outstanding opportunity for large scale energy storage. We continue to be actively engaged with key stakeholders, including EnergyAustralia (offtake) and both Federal and State Governments, that recognise the long term renewable energy benefits of the K2-Hydro project for Queensland.The Company's refinance of the Kidston Solar One project with a $192m project funding package was a significant achievement in the half. The 100MW portfolio financing incorporated the largest Certified Green Loan by an Australian renewable energy group, highlighting the quality of the underlying projects as well as the Company's clean energy credentials."Outlook:Genex is in a strong position to deliver on our growth ambitions. Our projects are positioned to deliver clean, renewable power that will help Australia meet its renewable energy targets. The increasing impact of intermittent power on energy prices highlights the need for large scale storage options such as K2-Hydro. Over the coming quarter, the Company will continue to focus on the development of its projects. Key outlook areas are:- KS1: focus on steady state operation and improve overall plant performance;- K2-Hydro: remains our main focus as we work to finalise offtake arrangements and progress the project towards financial close; and- JSP: continue the Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) activities at site.This announcement should be read in conjunction with the Company's Appendix 4D and Financial Statements for the half year period ended 31 December 2019.To view the half year report, please visit:About Genex Power Ltd

Genex Power Limited (ASX:GNX) is focused on developing a portfolio of renewable energy generation and storage projects across Australia. The Company's flagship Kidston Clean Energy Hub, located in north Queensland, will integrate large-scale solar generation with pumped storage hydro. The Kidston Clean Energy Hub is comprised of the operating 50MW stage 1 Solar Project (KS1) and the 250MW Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project (K2-Hydro) with potential for further multi-stage wind and solar projects. The 50MW Jemalong Solar Project (JSP) is located in NSW and provides geographical diversification to the Genex Power Limited portfolio. JSP was energised in early December 2020 and commissioning is now underway. Genex is further developing its energy storage portfolio via the early stage development of a 50MW/75MWh standalone battery energy storage system at Bouldercombe in Queensland. With over 400MW of renewable energy and storage projects in development, Genex is well placed as Australia's leading renewable energy and storage company.
Our investigation showed that the student involved made an offhand comment about having created a noose to others in the class, Buckley said in the letter. While the intent may not have been to do so, the creation of a device that resembles a clear symbol of hate and bigotry is not something that can be tolerated in our school or our school system.
Kodak Alaris is partnering with Imaging Business Machines (ibml) to deliver the next generation of ultra-high-volume scanners to the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) market.

With the recent launch of ibml FUSiON Scanners, and as ibmls lead distribution partner in the region, Kodak Alaris is uniquely positioned to serve a market demanding smart solutions that deliver business process automation at higher speeds than ever before, said a statement.

Gerry Kelliher, EMEA Managing Director, Kodak Alaris said: Our partnership with ibml goes back nearly a decade and a half. The companys world class solutions perfectly complement Kodak Alaris portfolio, allowing us to provide ultra-high-speed intelligent capture solutions to our customers. Our team has had great success delivering ibml solutions, where we are able to offer a range of maintenance options and professional services as part of an implementation. We are excited about the launch of the ibml Fusion series scanners, which will be a game-changer that speeds up digital transformation for enterprises in the region.

The new ibml FUSiON Series ignites the fusion of disparate capture processes into one streamlined solution, using in-line intelligence at blazing fast throughput speeds up to 730 A4 pages per minute and 938 checks per minute. As the worlds fastest, intelligent, scalable document capture platform, ibml FUSiON accelerates customers mission-critical applications by extracting information from documents to digital processes, thus enabling digital transformation.

In a survey by the Association for Intelligent Information Management (AIIM), 62 per cent of organisations said they, are committed to digital transformation. Paper documents remain a large source of business input for organisations. Ever-increasing data volumes demand exponentially faster processing and ways to eliminate tedious and unnecessary pre-scan and post-scan labour, which eats 76 per cent of total capture costs and majorly drains operational efficiency 1 . ibmls FUSiON brings previously uncontrolled information under control.

For nearly three decades, the worlds largest organisations in the most data-rich environments such as banking, government and BPOs have trusted ibml to overcome their core information management challenges, said ibml President and CEO Martin Birch. Using industry-leading intelligence and accelerated speeds, we extract actionable data, capture insights and expedite critical decision-making for our customers located in over 48 countries. With the ibml FUSiON, shifting to one infrastructure for all capture needs allows organisations to radically reduce real estate, labour and maintenance costs while pushing productivity forward. ibml FUSiON is poised to truly transform those industries with the most demanding document capture needs of today and tomorrow, empowering their digital transformation, while reducing costs.

ibml FUSiON Series sets new benchmarks for high-volume intelligent capture. Every part of the capture process is done smarter  from feeding to exception handling to automated sorting.

With all this added intellect, employees are free to focus on other important tasks. The product has the fastest throughput in its class. It is 67 per cent faster than its predecessor and allows customers to do mission-critical jobs in tight timelines and handle greater volume, driving better productivity and lowering costs. It features optimised usability and improved service accessibility with a sleek, ergonomic body design thats engineered to last decades. Intuitive controls deliver a better operator experiencereducing training and increasing overall productivity.

ibml FUSiON was developed with our customers, based on a deep understanding of their pain points with different devices they use for high-volume document capture, said ibml Vice President of Engineering Pete Rudak. We then applied the right technology and innovation to solve those problems, and the result is ibml FUSiON, a comprehensive solution that combines a sleek modern design with the fastest speed, the highest image quality and the intelligence everyone expects from ibml. -- Tradearabia News Service
Ruffalo plays Rob Bilott, an attorney with a burgeoning career advising chemical companies how to skirt environmental regulations, who finds himself switching sides when a farmer in his grandmother's home town enlists him to fight DuPont. What starts as "a small matter for a family friend" gradually becomes a lifelong mission to hold the company to account for poisoning the West Virginia soil and the people who live on it. Mark Ruffalo plays Rob Bilott, an attorney who switches sides to fight DuPont in Dark Waters. Credit:Universal Pictures DuPont has accused Dark Waters of "grossly misrepresent[ing] things that happened years ago, including our history, our values, our science". A website set up by the Ohio Manufacturers' Association, truthaboutdarkwaters.com, takes the culture war approach: "The Hollywood activists behind this film attempt to deceive the public, threaten our jobs and destroy our way of life  all while lining their own pockets." In its statement to the Washington Post, DuPont did not say which of the events depicted in the movie was "wholly imagined". Spoiler alert  the company really did find that PFOA increased liver size in rats in 1961, the same year the Teflon "Happy Pan" hit the market. It really did get employees to smoke Teflon-laced cigarettes the following year, and found that it made them sick. DuPont dumped thousands of tonnes of sludge containing PFOA in unlined pits at the Parkersburg plant and pumped polluted wastewater into the Ohio River. In 1984 it found alarmingly high levels of the chemical in the water supply of communities downriver, but did not tell the Environmental Protection Agency. By the '90s the company's scientists knew that PFOA caused cancerous testicular, pancreatic and liver tumours in lab animals. DuPont kept on making it.

Bilott learned all of this and much more in 110,000 pages of company documents obtained through disclosure. Thanks to his dogged persistence, DuPont has since paid a $US10.5 million ($16 million) fine to the environment protection agency and settled a class action lawsuit worth $US374 million related to PFOA pollution. It continues to deny wrongdoing. Before director Todd Haynes began shooting Dark Waters, he travelled to Parkersburg to check out the DuPont plant (he was chased away by security barking "Homeland Security") and meet the plaintiffs in Bilott's first lawsuits against the company, farmer Wilbur Tennant and local residents Joe and Darlene Kiger. Haynes and Mario Correa reworked the script to focus on the personal cost to Bilott: the pay cuts, lost clients, marital tension, strained friendships and debilitating stress (Russell Crowe's character in The Insider would empathise). "What I focused on was how to interpret this story in a way that audiences who are not activists can enter it and feel what it was like for Rob," the director says. He chose to shoot the scenes at Taft Law Firm in the office where the meetings actually took place, albeit because the triangular conference rooms with running glass-framed windows appealed to him aesthetically, rather than out of a commitment to veracity. He was initially reluctant to have Bilott on set but says he became "this resource, this touchstone I could ask him questions about the smallest detail of things we were shooting." In the 1980s, DuPont found that women working on its Teflon line were giving birth to children with facial deformities at a higher rate than the general population. One such baby, Bucky Bailey, plays himself as an adult in the film  and is visibly the kid in the photograph, despite spending half his childhood in surgery. The Kigers, and Wilbur Tennant's brother Jim, who sold his land to DuPont and got sick after they began dumping PFOA there, also have walk-on parts.

Mark Ruffalo holds a photograph of a child born with deformities in Dark Waters. Credit:Universal Pictures At the London press day for Dark Waters, journalists are offered a flyer explicitly framing the movie as activism: "See the film and sign the petition Forever chemicals are a generational catastrophe," and so on. Bilott is there, to talk about the dangers of PFAS, the need for regulation and his ongoing legal battles with Big Chemical  not typical subjects at a Hollywood junket. Haynes has mixed feelings about this framing  "I'm really not an activist  I'm a filmmaker," he tells me  but Ruffalo is all in. "I hope that millions of people see it and get educated, so that they have a choice about what they're bringing into their lives and whether they want to be poisoned or not," he says. "And I hope for some legislation, so these chemicals get regulated." A 2007 data analysis by the Centres for Disease Control in the US found that 99.7 per cent of Americans have PFOA in their bloodstream. Scientists have discovered the chemical in seals, polar bears, swordfish, tigers, walruses, turtles and the albatrosses of Midway Atoll, nearly 6500 kilometres from the nearest landmass, in the Pacific Ocean. I hope that millions of people see it and get educated, so that they have a choice about ... whether they want to be poisoned or not.

For many years, these chemicals were widely used in Australia in firefighting foams, particularly at airports, defence bases and ports. In 2018, Fairfax Media identified 90 sites being investigated for elevated PFAS levels. Loading Reporters discovered cancer clusters near Fiskville firefighting centre in Victoria and Williamtown air base in New South Wales. Work on Melbourne's $6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel project is in limbo following the discovery of contaminated soil. The Victorian EPA has warned people not to swim in Arundel Creek, Deep Creek and Maribyrnong River, near Melbourne Airport, but the official line from the Department of Health remains that there is "limited to no evidence of human disease or other clinically significant harm resulting from PFAS exposure". A study at Australian National University into the health impacts is due to report later this year. A class action lawsuit on behalf of 40,000 residents of Katherine (NT), Willamtown (NSW) and Oakey (QLD) reaches federal court this April. Shine Lawyers flew Erin Brockovich herself over from the US to publicise it. "They give warnings: don't eat the fish, eat limited fish, don't drink the water  but on the other hand, you're telling people it's safe," she told ABC News. "It's an extraordinarily confusing message."

Two decades after Julia Roberts won a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Brockovich, there is still no national drinking water standard for hexavalent chromium in the US. Even a hugely successful movie cannot hope to overturn decades of regulatory capture. But as states set their own standards and manufacturers such as H&M turn away from PFAS chemicals, Ruffalo sees reason for hope. "You can't, as a filmmaker, say 'I'm going to change the world by making a film about this. The culture calls it forward," he says. "This film happens to be landing in the world when we are thinking about these environmental issues. I don't think you can do it alone  the culture's got to be ready to have the conversation." I ask what his activism has cost him. "Oh, dude. I get death threats. I get hate mail. But it's only enriched my life in every other way," he tells me. "Look at Joaquin Phoenix. Joaquin Phoenix makes The Joker, right? And then he tells the world that we have to do something about climate change and have to be more inclusive. All those disaffected young men that love The Joker  they look up to him and relate to him. And he's telling them 'this is another way to be'. We can go out and sell watches. Why not use that same platform to inform people in other, remarkable ways?" The day before we met, Ruffalo and Bilott talked to legislators at the European Parliament about the prospect of a ban on PFAS chemicals. Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany have announced a plan to phase out their use by 2030. Bilott has filed a class action suit on behalf of every US resident with detectable levels of PFAS chemicals in their blood. Rather than damages, it seeks to force the manufacturers to pay for a vast epidemiological study, to definitively ascertain how harmful the chemicals are to humans and the environment. The final line of Dark Waters is a caption on screen: "Rob Bilott is still fighting." You can bet that DuPont is still fighting. Ruffalo is fighting, too.
File photo: A member of the Thai Airways crew disinfects the cabin of an aircraft of the national carrier during a procedure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport, Thailand, January 28, 2020.

Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters

Airlines are turning to hospital-grade disinfectants to clean planes that may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus.

Qantas and Korean Air, which evacuated people from the virus' epicenter, used disinfectants designed to kill bugs like herpes, MERS, HIV, avian flu, and salmonella, according to Bloomberg.

United Airlines cleans planes after international flights with a disinfectant it began using during the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread around the world, airlines are turning to tools more common in hospitals than on jetliners to prevent spreading the virus.

According to a Bloomberg report, airlines that have been involved with evacuating passengers from outbreak hotspots have particularly come to rely on heavy-duty disinfectants, the type which hospitals use to kill microbes like herpes and "superbugs" like MRSA on surfaces.

Australian carrier Qantas, for example, has used a product called Viraclean to disinfect Boeing 747 jets that evacuated Australians from Wuhan, China and Tokyo, Japan. Viraclean kills a range of microbes, including bacteria and viruses, and is potent enough that cleaners are told to wear gloves and eye protection.

The cleanings took 36 hours, according to Bloomberg, with disinfectant sprayed throughout the cabin twice, surfaces wiped down, and air filters replaced.

Korean Air, which also evacuated people from Wuhan, used a version of a disinfectant called D-125, which is used in healthcare and farming industries to kill bacteria and viruses including salmonella, avian flu, and HIV. Certain surfaces, including seat covers and curtains separating cabins, were discarded and replaced.

Although typical airplane cleanings don't always involve full disinfecting  especially in-between passenger flights  that could change as airlines seek to assuage customer fears and as more viral hotspots appear, leading to a higher chance of carrying infected passengers.

Story continues

United Airlines told Business Insider that its procedures including wiping down all hard surfaces that passengers may have come into contact with after each international flight. The airline said it began adding a disinfectant to the cleaning solution following the 2014 Ebola outbreak, and continues to use it. United did not immediately provide details on the type of disinfectant.

Delta has also said that it's using a "high-grade, EPA-registered disinfectant" on all cabin surfaces after international flights, as well as taking several other disinfection steps on US-bound flights from Asia.

Airlines have been feeling the brunt of coronavirus fears, with global airline stocks plummeting this week as investors brace for a potential severe and prolonged impact. Airlines have cancelled flights and suspended routes to the most heavily affected areas, and offered greater flexibility to passengers ticketed to certain regions.

Read the original article on Business Insider
DANBURY  Police evacuated more than 200 people from the state Superior Courthouse Thursday morning after a police officer called in a suspicious white powder.

Multiple state and local police locked down the entrance to the building at 146 White St., and the citys hazardous material unit was called to the scene to test the substance.

It turned out to be Tylenol.

The very small amount of powder was positively identified as a acetaminophen, the active ingredient in the painkiller Tylenol, said James Gagliardo, a spokesman for the city fire department shortly before noon.

He said the substance may have been a crushed pill, and was not a threat to anyone in the area of the incident.

State Police were sent to White Street after the initial call around 10:19 a.m. The citys hazardous materials team arrived at 10:35 a.m., as people were leaving the courthouse.

State police said a woman entering a metal detector at the entrance to the court building reached into her bag and placed something in her pocket.

When the woman was confronted by the marshals, a white powdery substance had come out of an envelope and that was now on the ground of the main entrance, state police said.

The woman was not able to explain what the object was, and the building was evacuated and city fire department called in, police said.

Police could be seen searching a woman in handcuffs, who was later released. No charges were filed, police said.

According to dispatch reports, a police officer reported a white powder substance found in the lobby.

Mayor Mark Boughton said the substance was tested by the hazardous materials team, and he was briefed by Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour.

Multiple state and local police were on scene, as well as judicial marshals.

A HART bus was called to the scene to give those who had evacuated a warm place to wait. Another crowd of about 100 people were sent to the student center at the Western Connecticut State University campus to get out of the cold, university police told dispatchers.

Authorities set up across the street from the courthouse. The health department arrived by 11:05, and an EMS team was also called in.

Police began clearing the scene shortly before noon.
The Syrian army has limited movement on the M-5 highway, which connects Damascus and Aleppo, due to attacks by pro-Turkish militants, a military source on the ground told Sputnik on Thursday

DAMASCUS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th February, 2020) The Syrian army has limited movement on the M-5 highway, which connects Damascus and Aleppo, due to attacks by pro-Turkish militants, a military source on the ground told Sputnik on Thursday.

"The movement is limited to ensure civilians' safety," the source said, adding that the restrictions were imposed in the area around Idlib's city of Saraqib.

The highway was officially opened to civilian vehicles last week only. The strategically important highway, connecting Syria's major cities, was unblocked for the first time in seven years, after the Syrian army managed to clear a vast portion of the Aleppo province from terrorists.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-29 02:15:17|Editor: huaxia

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A kid wearing mask is seen at a mosque in Lebanon's northern city Tripoli, on Feb. 28, 2020. Lebanon announced on Friday that the fourth case of COVID-19 infection was confirmed in the country, LBCI local TV channel reported. (Photo by Khalid/Xinhua)

BEIRUT, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon announced on Friday that the fourth case of COVID-19 infection was confirmed in the country, LBCI local TV channel reported.

Lebanon also had 25 additional suspected cases of the virus infection on Friday, according to Rafic Hariri University Hospital, the largest Lebanese public hospital.

The hospital noted that 16 people were transferred to isolation units after clinical examination while the rest were sent home for self-isolation.

The Lebanese education minister is expected to issue a decision in the next 48 hours to shut down schools for a week over the coronavirus outbreak.
As I approached the casket, Pettigrew remembers of that day in September 1955, I remember looking at him. I remember the preacher was preaching and the choir was singing and I remember how gross his face looked. It was swollen. It was like a monster movie. I stood there a little bit and stared at him in hopes that I could recognize something. And I couldnt. I remember crying and walking away. And I remember thinking: It could have been me.
This week's Democratic debate was predictably nasty. But the brouhaha did indirectly narrow the race to a final three candidates: Sanders, Biden and Bloomberg.

This was the last debate before the Super Tuesday primaries.

Fifteen states or territories will vote that day, awarding about a third of all pledged delegates.

If a candidate hasn't broken through after that with at least one win and a significant number of delegates, he or she won't have a serious chance to be the nominee without a deal at a brokered convention.

Polling before the debate showed only Senator Bernie Sanders, former vice-president Joe Biden and former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg were doing well enough in enough states to meet that test.

Mr Sanders leads or is tied for first in every state except Arkansas, Oklahoma and Senator Amy Klobuchar's home state of Minnesota.

Mr Biden is second in five states and will surely do well in two unpolled states, Alabama and Tennessee, which are home to large black populations.

Mr Bloomberg leads or is tied for the lead in three states and is close in four others to the 15pc mark candidates need to get delegates.

No other candidate comes close to meeting that breadth and depth of support.

This means the other candidates needed to land some knockout blows or otherwise stand out from the field to propel themselves into the campaign's next stage. None succeeded.

Senator Elizabeth Warren came closest by reprising her passionate attacks on Mr Bloomberg's record as mayor and as chief executive of his eponymous company.

If Democrats are looking for a progressive who is a strong champion of feminist values, she made a good case that she is that person.

But it is not clear there are a lot of votes there, and polls show she may not even win her home state next week. She will likely garner some delegates here and there but no big wins.

Former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg tried a different tack, contrasting himself with Mr Sanders as the choice for moderate Democrats who want to beat President Donald Trump.

He was pretty effective in making that case, but his problem is that Mr Biden owns that lane. Mr Buttigieg needs Mr Biden to fall for him to rise, but Mr Biden's strength - and Mr Buttigieg's weakness - among black voters keeps the former vice-president afloat.

Mr Buttigieg was nowhere near first place in any state going into Tuesday night. He was also nowhere near the magic 15pc mark in California or Texas, the two states awarding the most delegates on Super Tuesday.

And he's not going to surge based on Tuesday night's performance alone.

Ms Klobuchar is another candidate who needed a home run but hit a single.

She's even further behind than Mr Buttigieg everywhere except Minnesota and is even more obviously running as the Biden alternative.

She again came off as knowledgeable, studious and serious but remains curiously passionless in most of her exchanges.

Her New Hampshire debate moment, which produced the "Klobucharge" which propelled her to third place in that state, was fuelled by rare moments in which she dropped the careful facade and let her genuine feelings show. If this were high school, she would clearly be voted "most likely to succeed" but not elected class president. Case closed.

Tom Steyer remains the oddity in this race, a strangely awkward white businessman who, nonetheless, has connected with a segment of the black community.

He did well in black precincts in last Saturday's Nevada caucuses and is polling well among blacks in South Carolina ahead of Saturday's primary. He still remains well behind Mr Biden in that demographic and is far behind fellow progressives Mr Sanders and Ms Warren for support in the party's left wing.

He'll likely finish third this weekend, get clobbered on Super Tuesday, and leave the race for good with only a few delegates to show despite spending more than $200m (182m).

A week is a long time in politics, and perhaps something will happen to shake up the narrative.

But it looks like, for all of the past year's hullabaloo, the contest will come down to three septuagenarians who started the race with name, identification or money. Let the real games begin. ( Washington Post)
Last month, a first of its kind analysis of the popular Units of Study literacy curriculum found the materials deeply concerning and lacking the scientifically proven techniques needed to support all students in becoming successful readers.

Why should you care about this? Units of Study  designed by Columbia Teachers College professor Lucy Calkins  is the elementary literacy curriculum of Greenwich Public Schools. It is how our district teaches students how to read.

Reading issues are not new for the district. Reading scores have been stagnant for quite some time and fell again last year. Whats more, a staggering 67 percent of elementary referrals to special education last year were for reading issues. This new report strongly suggests the districts curriculum itself could be largely to blame for town schools failure to support struggling readers.

The report provides damning evidence that Calkins Units of Study fails to provide students enough explicit instruction in vocabulary, knowledge acquisition, and phonics. The impact is most severe, reads the report, for children who do not come to school already possessing what they need to know to make sense of written and academic English  these students are not likely to get what they need from Units of Study to read, write, speak, and listen at grade level.

The report is published by Student Achievement Partners, a nonprofit organization of leading literacy scholars. Its seven lead authors are renowned professors in their field, with expertise spanning the various components of literacy education. Their review of Units of Study is the first of many reviews of popular literacy curricula.

The group started with Lucy Calkins Units of Study because it is both one of the most popular and influential reading programs. Used in about 16 percent of schools nationwide, the program is widely prevalent both here in Connecticut and in New York  thanks likely to the seal of support from Columbia (indeed New York City teachers widely refer to the program simply as TC  for Teachers College).

Yet despite its origins as a university-produced product, the philosophy behind the curriculum has long clashed with existing research on how students learn to read. Calkins approach is based on the workshop method  a belief that elementary literacy instruction should take a nurturing, constructivist stance. In the workshop, students are free to explore books of their own choosing as a means of nurturing a nascent love of reading.

Much of the popularity of the workshop approach stems from the fact that it sounds great. Why not expose students to lots of books and let them develop their own joy or reading? There is no question that this approach works for a good number of students, a fact Calkins critics freely acknowledge.

However, the concern is that the approach also leaves a lot of students behind. The fact is reading is not a natural act students will learn on their own if given the right resources. Most need to be explicitly taught  first in phonics and later in content that supports comprehension. Units of Study is short on both.

A main concern of the report authors  and others who have looked at Calkins curriculum  is the lack of exposure to grade level texts. Particularly in the early grades, teacher lessons do not provide students with appropriate grade level models of complex texts to support their growth as readers. Then, during the workshop part of the lesson, students are free to explore any book of their choosing, such that many never encounter texts on grade level. As a result, low-level readers are likely to remain behind.

Yet the most glaring concern is the curriculums reliance on the three cueing system for reading. Calkins program directs teachers to support students when they come to an unknown word as if the student were a detective. Good readers, they are told, use three clues to figure the word out  meaning, syntax, and visual cues (MSV). Students should look at the rest of the words in the sentence to try to figure out what the word is, consider the first letter of the word and guess, or look at the pictures around the word.

As any teacher who has used Units of Study will tell you, the curriculum devotes a tremendous amount of effort to MSV. Yet, as the report authors make clear, MSV is in direct opposition to an enormous body of settled research. When students are challenged to investigate and hypothesize what an unknown word is, the cognitive dissonance created actually interferes with both comprehending the fuller text and remembering the word.

Instead, teachers should encourage students to match the letter symbols that make up the word to the sound blends they represent. In other words, the tried but true sound it out approach. Cognitive science has shown that when students take the time to match the letters to sounds, the word is more likely to be retained later  a process called orthographic mapping.

Even before this report, Calkins curriculum was under fire by researchers and literacy advocates across the nation  thanks in no small part to the resurgence of attention to the science of reading in three very popular podcast documentaries by Emily Handford. The third, released last August, deals specifically with the discrepancies between Units of Study and established science on how students read best.

While many Connecticut districts trod on unaware of this debate, others across the country are taking action. The Oakland California Board of Education recently voted to replace Units of Study, after a heavy parent push forced its hand. There, nearly 1,500 parents signed a petition put forth by the Oakland NAACP to replace Units of Study.

New York City  home of Columbia  rejected Calkins curriculum several years ago, declining to renew its status as a core curriculum option. Indeed, after seeing the plateauing reading scores over a near decade of use in New York City, previous Chancellor Joel Klein called implementing the curriculum his biggest regret.

It is well past time Greenwich, and other districts in Connecticut that use the curriculum, review their association with it. Until teachers are given the appropriate, research-based tools to support their work and instruction, too many Connecticut students will remain at risk of continuing to fall behind.

MJ Mercanti-Anthony, Ed.D, is an adjunct professor at Drexel University and school administrator for the New York City Department of Education. He lives in Riverside.
It's a busy week for model Amber Valletta.

The 46-year-old stunner was snapped Wednesday leaving her hotel in Paris, France after taking to the runway Thursday for's Isabel Marant show during Fashion Week in the City of Lights.

Valletta wore a black sequined Saint Laurent jacket with a black top, matching sequined shorts, and pantyhose with black heels with gold tips.

Out and about: Amber Valletta, 46, was snapped Wednesday leaving her hotel in Paris, France in a sexy black ensemble

The catwalk veteran had her wavy blonde locks parted as she stepped out on the evening.

The Phoenix, Arizona-born beauty on Thursday then walked as part of Marant's Womenswear Fall/Winter 2020/2021 showcase.

She took to the runway in a dark grey, baggy suit with a grey turtleneck, light grey boots and an aluminum bag.

Valletta earlier this month agreed to work for British Vogue as an editor specializing in coverage on sustainability, and how fashion is adapting to the needs of the environment.

Gorgeous: Valletta wore a black sequined Saint Laurent jacket with a black top, matching sequined shorts, and pantyhose with black heels with gold tips

Coif: The catwalk veteran had her wavy blonde locks parted as she stepped out on the evening

Moving forward: Valletta earlier this month agreed to work for British Vogue as an editor specializing in coverage on sustainability

'British Vogue is disrupting the entire fashion industry and it's never been a more exciting time to join [editor in chief Edward Enninful] and the team as contributing sustainability editor to support the positive conversations happening across the industry right now,' she told WWD earlier this month.

'Amber will help to shape and change conversations around the most pressing issue of our time, sustainability,' Enninful said.

The model and environmentalist's 'expertise around key environmental issues mixed with her love of fashion makes her the perfect voice to drive these conversations forward,' he added.

Eye-catching: The model took to the runway Thursday for's Isabel Marant show during Fashion Week in the City of Lights

Looking forward: The Phoenix, Arizona-born beauty was walking as part of Marant's Womenswear Fall/Winter 2020/2021 showcase

Confident: The stunning environmentalist radiated natural beauty at the luxe showcase
Indonesias Health minster, Terawan Agus Putranto recently announced that the 134 test samples taken from coronavirus suspects have turned out to be negative. Till now, Indonesia has zero reported cases of the deadly virus. According to international media, the deadly virus infected over 82,000 and has killed at least 2,800 people globally with a vast majority in mainland China.

"Blessing from the almighty"

While speaking to the international media reporters, he said that if the country still does not have any confirmed case of the virus, then it was definitely a 'blessing from the almighty'. Putranto further said that the tests on two patients who died this week after suffering symptoms associated with the virus had been negative.

Read: Coronavirus Outbreak: Crew Members Begin Vacating Quarantined Japan Cruise Ship

Read: Indonesian Official Who Made Bizzare Claim Of 'pool Pregnancy' Could Face Charges

On Feb. 23, a Singaporean man died after reportedly suffering from fever and shortness of breath in the city of Batam, but the head of the local health agency said this was due to another unspecified disease. In a precautionary measure, Indonesia has barred entry to visitors who have been in China for 14 days and stopped all the flights from the infected nation.

Read: Bukayo Saka Writes His Name In Arsenal's History With 10 Assists; Equals Fabregas' Record

Read: Coronavirus Outbreak: Pakistan Shuts Schools, Suspends Flight Operations With Iran

First case in Sub Saharan Africa

Nigeria on February 28 announced the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa. "The case is an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and returned from Milan, Italy to Lagos, Nigeria on the 25th of February 2020," Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said in a statement posted on Twitter. "The patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos," he added.

Prior to the case in Nigeria, just two cases had surfaced across all of Africa, in Egypt and in Algeria, a tally that had puzzled health specialists, given the continent's close economic ties with China. The World Health Organization warned earlier this week that African health systems were ill-equipped to respond to the deadly coronavirus outbreak should cases start to proliferate on the continent.
Hyundai Motor suspended production at one of its factories in South Korea's southeastern city of Ulsan after a worker tested positive for coronavirus, a union source said on Friday.

A spokesman for the company's workers union also said that a worker had tested positive, but he did not have more details.

Shares of the automaker dropped more than 5% after the news, while the wider market was down 2.6%.

A Hyundai spokesman said the company was checking the report.

Hyundai produces sport utility vehicles such as Palisade and Genesis GV80 at the line that has reportedly been suspended.

COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions View more How does a vaccine work? A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine. How many types of vaccines are there? There are broadly four types of vaccine  one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine. What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind? Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time. View more Show

South Korea reported 256 new coronavirus cases on Friday, bringing the total number of infected to 2,022.
Our community has risen up with donations, and many businesses and organizations are continuing their support by coming together to walk with us at our VetNet Walk in Their Shoes fundraising event. Jerri Rosen, Working Wardrobes Founder and CEO

Working Wardrobes, a 30-year Orange County nonprofit dedicated to helping people get back on their feet and back in the workforce, is holding its first veteran event since the devastating fire destroyed their headquarters on February 2, 2020. The 3rd annual VetNet Walk in Their Shoes event will take place at Lakeview Park, near Irvine Lake in Silverado, on Saturday, March 28th, 2020. It will feature a 5K walk, fun run, and finish line festival.

The fire destroyed our building, taking millions of dollars in equipment and donated professional clothing that helped men, women and our military heroes get back on their feet, says Jerri Rosen, Working Wardrobes Founder and CEO. But our community has risen up with donations, and many businesses and organizations are continuing their support by coming together to walk with us at our VetNet Walk in Their Shoes fundraising event.

The event begins promptly at 8 am.

Companies and organizations interested in participating in the event can designate a team captain, name and register here: http://workingwardrobes.org/walk/.

The fundraising goal of the event is $100,000! There are still opportunities to sponsor a team or sponsor a mile marker. For those interested in sponsorship, please contact Marissa Chery, Working Wardrobes Event Manager, at MarissaC@workingwardobes.org.

Working Wardrobes is honored to have Pacific Premier Bank as the course sponsor and Boeing as the start/finish sponsor. Mile Marker Sponsors include TD Law, Experian, and Cox Communications.

We are honored to have so many corporations sponsoring the event and excited to bring their teams out to walk with us, says Rosen. A fire cannot stop our mission to serve those in need, and our programs continue to run with the help of this incredible community.

The cause of the fire that destroyed the Working Wardrobes building in the early morning hours of Sunday, February 2 is still under investigation. The organization has been given temporary space inside Goodwill Fitness Center, operations were back up and running within days of the tragedy. Rosen is currently searching for property that will be the non-profits new home.

Our motto is the Power of a Paycheck, and in the wake of this fire, we have certainly experienced the power of our community to support us as we rebuild for the next 30 years, says Rosen. We are so humbled by the love we have experienced, and over the next few months, we will be celebrating the amazing stories of many rebuilding heroes.

MORE ABOUT WORKING WARDROBES:

Working Wardrobes is Orange Countys foremost career development nonprofit, championing on behalf of at-risk men, women, young adults, and veterans to help them achieve the dignity of work. Founded in 1990 by CEO/Founder Jerri Rosen, Working Wardrobes has been serving the Southern California region for over 30 years, providing job training, career placement, and wardrobe services to more than 105,000 clients to overcome barriers to employment and achieve the Power of a Paycheck. For more information please visit, http://www.workingwardrobes.org.

Please direct media inquiries to Devon Poer, Marketing and Public Relations Manager at devonp@workingwardrobes.org or (949) 558-4145.


ALLENTOWN, Pa.  The Allentown School District agreed to a four-year contract extension with Building 21 during its Thursday night school board meeting.

The deal, which starts July 1, included eight separate modifications from the previous pact. Three of the modifications center around enrollment, an area ASD wants improved. The first requires the student dropout rate to be reduced. The second involves increasing the graduation rate. The final change requires improving student attendance.

ASD moves closer to renewing contract with Building 21 The Allentown School District moved closer to renewing its contract with Building 21 during Thursday night's board of directors education committee-of-the-whole meeting.

Another more nebulous task is "stimulating the general motivation" of ASD students. ASD and Building 21 will incorporate "a change in fundamental teaching strategy." Building 21 will also have to create a seamless transition from high school to a high-skilled labor or higher education. To help with that, the school will provide students with business community role models.

Building 21 will also be required to "provide an attractive program unique to our district as we transform our city," according to district documents. The school will also need to continue to be an asset to ASD, by creating "competition with charter schools, which are enticing our students away from our district."

In other news, directors approved the hiring of Naaman Schlegel to serve as the principal at the new elementary school. Superintendent Thomas Parker said that although the district has yet to name the school, they were pleased to have hired Schlegel to lead it. Schlegel is currently principal at Cleveland Elementary School.

The board also approved a contract with consultant George Longridge for interim business services. He will be paid $93.75 per hour.
One region in China's Heilongjiang Province apparently notified residents to immediately report any Korean or Japanese nationals who entered China secretly. They will immediately be sent to quarantine facilities. One apartment in Jiangsu Province where a Korean lives has been sealed off to ensure that he does not leave the home until the mandatory 14-day quarantine passes. This is the same treatment Chinese authorities imposed on residents of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic. More than 100 Koreans have been forcefully quarantined at airports in China over the last two days. Officials in Sichuan Province faced a barrage of criticism from the Chinese public after when they allowed Koreans to enter after only taking their temperature. More Koreans are expected to face such persecution abroad.

The Foreign Ministry here did summon the Chinese ambassador to lodge a protest, but he blamed the regional governments and denied that the central government had anything to do with it -- a likely story in a dictatorship like China where the Communist Party micromanages everything. The same claim was offered during China's unofficial boycott of Korean products and services over the THAAD spat. The central government simply blamed regional authorities for launching scurrilous health-and-safety checks that eventually forced Lottes entire operations there to shut down.

The moment he arrived, this same new Chinese ambassador pressured the government not to block visitors from his country. Cue a chorus of voices in Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling party sucking up to Beijing, calling China a "friend in need" and urging Koreans not to shun Chinese visitors. The justice minister, who is in charge of immigration, boasted that the Chinese government expressed "special gratitude." Perhaps Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling party were hoping for a back rub and a hug, but that is surely naive when China's national interest is concerned. Is the Chinese government urging its people to help Korea like a "friend in need?" Countries have no friends, only more or less useful acquaintances

One state news outlet in China said Thursday that "quarantine is more important than diplomacy." It added that the Chinese people would not forgive a resurgence of infections caused by letting Korean and other foreign visitors come freely. China is not alone in taking such steps. But for this government even currying a little sorry favor with Beijing still seems to be more important than the safety and wellbeing of the public. Korea and Japan are the only countries in the world where higher priority is being placed on diplomacy than public safety. The Korean government did it so that Chinese President Xi Jinping would visit and give it a boost, and Japan wants to keep the Summer Olympics from being canceled. But at what cost?


Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2020) - Director of Corporate Development at Cardinal Resources, Alec Rowlands, speaks about a new discovery of over 5 million ounces in Northern Ghana.





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Gossiping between small groups of people 300,000 years ago helped Stone Age hunter-gatherers develop culture and accelerated human evolution, scientists claim.

A study of modern-day hunter-gatherers in the Philippines found conversing with friends in various groups was key to developing cultural and technological ideas.

Trackers worn by 53 adults of the Agta people in seven groups revealed almost daily trips to nearby tribes  dubbed the equivalent of hunter-gatherer social media.

It was these trips and conversations that scientists believe would have allowed ideas, medicines and rituals to spread in the Stone Age.

Scroll down for video

Pictured, an Agta hunter-gatherer processing plants into medicine in the Philippines. The ancient hunter-gatherers helped accelerate cultural and technological revolutions more than 300,000 years ago

Agta hunter-gatherers living in the Philippines process plants into medicine. A study of modern-day hunter-gatherers in the Philippines found conversing with friends in various groups was key to developing cultural and technological ideas

Researchers in the UK and Switzerland found the social structure of the Agta people to be built around small family units.

According to the scientists, the findings suggest friendships between individuals and small communities was key to the development of new cultures.

Dr Mark Dyble, of University College London's anthropology department and co-author of the paper, said: 'Humans have a unique capacity to create and accumulate culture.

'From a simple pencil to the International Space Station, human culture is a product of multiple minds over many generations, and cannot be recreated from scratch by one single individual.

'This capacity for cumulative culture is central to humanity's success, and evolved in our past hunter-gatherer ancestors.

'Our work shows that the kind of social organisation that is typical of contemporary hunter-gatherers serves to promote cultural evolution.

'If this kind of social structure was typical of hunter-gatherers in the past, it could go a long way to explaining why the human capacity for culture evolved.'

The researchers used radio sensor technology to record social interactions between the Agta people for a month.

They observed the visits and migrations between different communities and used this data to create a map of their social networks.

People most frequently interacted with members of their own camp, but the study also revealed inter-camp visits almost on a daily basis.

'It is fair to say that "visits between camps" is the social media of current hunter-gatherers,' says first author Andrea Migliano, professor of anthropology at the University of Zurich.

'When we need a new solution for a problem, we go online and use multiple sources to obtain information from a variety of people.

'Hunter-gatherers use their social network in exactly the same way.'

The researchers used radio sensor technology to record social interactions between the Agta people for a month. They observed the visits and migrations between different communities and used this data to create a map of their social networks. Pictured, a budding social network similar to the ones seen and created by the researchers

People most frequently interacted with members of their own camp, but the study also revealed inter-camp visits almost on a daily basis (pictured, artist's impression of the social interactions between different tribes)

Researchers tested how long it would take and how many social interactions it would take for the combined knowledge to lead to a breakthrough in medicine using computer simulations

Researchers in the UK and Switzerland found the social structure of the Agta people to be built around small family units. According to the scientists, the findings suggest friendships between individuals and small communities was key to the development of new cultures

Researchers mapped the social interactions and then inputted the information into a computer system to simulate the networking.

The academics tested how long it would take and how many social interactions it would take for the combined knowledge to lead to a medical breakthrough.

They found that, for woodland-dwelling hunter-gatherers, the highest quality medicine was achieved after 177 theoretical social interactions.

For coastal communities it took longer, requiring 516 rounds of mingling.

Professor Migliano repeated the simulation using a different social structure in which each new innovation was immediately shared with all members of the network.

This took significantly longer, with the desired drug taking 509 and 698 rounds in forest and coastal groups, respectively.

The researchers say this indicates the more loosely interconnected hunter-gatherer structure allowed for faster cultural evolution.

Dr Lucio Vinicius from UCL and the University of Zurich says: 'The link we found between cultural evolution and the fluid sociality of hunter-gatherers indicates that as hunter-gatherers expanded within and then out of Africa, this social structure of small and interconnected bands may have facilitated the sequence of cultural and technological revolutions that characterises our species.'

The findings are published in the journal Science Advances.
A U.S. Navy coastal patrol aircraft P-8A Poseidon was exposed to a laser from the Chinese destroyer No. 161. The incident occurred in the international zone of the water area about 600 km west of the Guam island, Voice of America reported referring to the command of the US Pacific Fleet.

The statement noted that the P-8A was in international airspace in accordance with all rules and regulations. While the actions of the Chinese destroyer were unsafe and unprofessional. The Chinese side also violated the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea - a multilateral agreement concluded in 2014 to reduce the number of incidents between different states. The Code mentions the use of lasers, which can cause damage to crew or equipment.

The crew of the Chinese destroyer also violated the Memorandum of Understanding concluded by the US and China.

The use of a laser was detected by a sensor on board an American aircraft. Armed forces lasers can potentially cause serious harm to aircraft crews and sailors, as well as ship and aircraft systems.

The P-8A was heading for Kaden's US Air Force base on Okinawa Island in Japan. The aircraft squadron carries out routine operations, naval patrols and reconnaissance missions in the US Seventh Fleet operations area.

As the United States Pacific Fleet noted, the US Navy planes regularly fly over the Philippine Sea, and have been doing this for many years, and the US vessels and aircraft will continue to operate where international law allows it.
Delhi Police Special Commissioner (Law and Order), SN Srivastava on Friday said that the police is trying to bring every culprit to justice in the cases related to violence in the north-east Delhi.

Asked about municipal councillor Tahir Hussain, Srivastava said, "I will not talk of one particular case, but our effort is to give lawful punishment to anyone who is a culprit or participated in these riots. So the lawful process is underway."

"We are trying to bring every culprit to justice and we are working on it. It was a very gruesome murder of a young officer. We are giving equal weightage to all other cases especially the heinous ones," he said.

"In the last 60 hours, no incident has taken place. We have made arrangements as there are Friday prayers today. Through the extensive outreach programme done by us and the interaction with the people, we get to know that everybody wants peace. We are moving fast towards normalcy. In the Aman Committee meetings everybody has said that they will work for maintaining peace," the Special Commissioner said.

"We have registered more than 100 cases of riots and murders. We have made two SITs under crime branch and investigation is done by district police officers," he further informed.

Srivastava was on Wednesday given the additional charge of Commissioner of Delhi Police. He will assume the charge on March 1, when incumbent Amulya Patnaik retires.

At least 38 people, including a police head constable, have died while around 200 people have been injured in the communal violence that rocked northeast Delhi for four days.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Coal producer Arch Coal, Inc. (ARCH) announced Friday that John Eaves will retire as chief executive officer, after serving at the position since 2012, at the corporation's annual meeting on April 30, 2020, and will assume the position of executive board chair. He joined the corporation in 1987 and has been a member of Arch's board of directors since 2006. Paul Lang, Arch's president and chief operating officer since 2015, will succeed Eaves as chief executive officer and is joining the board. Lang is responsible for the corporation's mining portfolio and its marketing and logistics functions. Lang joined Arch in 1984 and served as Arch's executive vice president and chief operating officer prior to his current role. James Chapman, who has served as Arch's board chair since the company completed its restructuring process in October 2016, will also transition to lead independent director at annual meeting. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN) has completed its acquisition of Mudano, a strategic data consultancy to U.K. financial services firms.

The acquisition enhances Accenture's analytics, data and artificial intelligence (AI) transformation capabilities. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Mudano's team of industry-focused data professionals will join Accenture Applied Intelligence. Mudano was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in London, with a presence in Edinburgh, Scotland.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions underpinned by the world's largest delivery network Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With 505,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

Applied Intelligence is Accenture's approach to scaling AI for our clients. We embed AI-powered data, analytics and automation capabilities into business workflows to accelerate time to value. Our expertise in defining end-to-end strategy, combined with deep data infrastructure capabilities, cognitive services and industrialized accelerators help smooth clients' path to AI adoption, extending human capabilities and supporting clients in scaling AI responsibly. Recognized as a leader by industry analysts, we collaborate with a powerful global alliance, innovation and delivery network to help clients deploy and scale AI within any market and industry. Follow @AccentureAI and visit www.accenture.com/appliedintelligence.

About Mudano

Mudano is a data and machine learning business focused exclusively on the financial services sector. Headquartered in London, Mudano provides data solutions and consulting services to help financial services firms transition to an AI-powered future. Its unique combination of data expertise, AI research, industry knowledge and market access keeps Mudano at the forefront of that movement.

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "may," "will," "should," "likely," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "projects," "believes," "estimates," "positioned," "outlook" and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These include, without limitation, risks that: the transaction might not achieve the anticipated benefits for Accenture; Accenture's results of operations could be adversely affected by volatile, negative or uncertain economic and political conditions and the effects of these conditions on the company's clients' businesses and levels of business activity; Accenture's business depends on generating and maintaining ongoing, profitable client demand for the company's services and solutions including through the adaptation and expansion of its services and solutions in response to ongoing changes in technology and offerings, and a significant reduction in such demand or an inability to respond to the evolving technological environment could materially affect the company's results of operations; if Accenture is unable to keep its supply of skills and resources in balance with client demand around the world and attract and retain professionals with strong leadership skills, the company's business, the utilization rate of the company's professionals and the company's results of operations may be materially adversely affected; Accenture could face legal, reputational and financial risks if the company fails to protect client and/or company data from security breaches or cyberattacks; the markets in which Accenture operates are highly competitive, and Accenture might not be able to compete effectively; changes in Accenture's level of taxes, as well as audits, investigations and tax proceedings, or changes in tax laws or in their interpretation or enforcement, could have a material adverse effect on the company's effective tax rate, results of operations, cash flows and financial condition; Accenture's profitability could materially suffer if the company is unable to obtain favorable pricing for its services and solutions, if the company is unable to remain competitive, if its cost-management strategies are unsuccessful or if it experiences delivery inefficiencies; Accenture's results of operations could be materially adversely affected by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; as a result of Accenture's geographically diverse operations and its growth strategy to continue to expand in its key markets around the world, the company is more susceptible to certain risks; Accenture's business could be materially adversely affected if the company incurs legal liability; Accenture's work with government clients exposes the company to additional risks inherent in the government contracting environment; if Accenture is unable to manage the organizational challenges associated with its size, the company might be unable to achieve its business objectives; Accenture's ability to attract and retain business and employees may depend on its reputation in the marketplace; if Accenture does not successfully manage and develop its relationships with key alliance partners or fails to anticipate and establish new alliances in new technologies, the company's results of operations could be adversely affected; Accenture might not be successful at acquiring, investing in or integrating businesses, entering into joint ventures or divesting businesses; if Accenture is unable to protect or enforce its intellectual property rights or if Accenture's services or solutions infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others or the company loses its ability to utilize the intellectual property of others, its business could be adversely affected; Accenture's results of operations and share price could be adversely affected if it is unable to maintain effective internal controls; changes to accounting standards or in the estimates and assumptions Accenture makes in connection with the preparation of its consolidated financial statements could adversely affect its financial results; many of Accenture's contracts include fees subject to the attainment of targets or specific service levels, which could increase the variability of the company's revenues and impact its margins; Accenture might be unable to access additional capital on favorable terms or at all and if the company raises equity capital, it may dilute its shareholders' ownership interest in the company; Accenture may be subject to criticism and negative publicity related to its incorporation in Ireland; as well as the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed under the "Risk Factors" heading in Accenture plc's most recent annual report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this news release speak only as of the date they were made, and Accenture undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such statements to actual results or changes in Accenture's expectations.

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Accenture

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kathryn.rosati@accenture.com
Brace yourselves. We could be in for several months of disquiet as the coronavirus now known as COVID-19 spreads well beyond China.

China accounts for roughly 20% of worldwide growth, so the global economy will feel a bite, too, S&P said, thanks to sharply reduced tourism revenues, lower exports of consumer and capital goods, lower commodity prices, and industrial supply-chain disruptions. In the U.S., economic fundamentals remain sound and the Federal Reserve stands ready to take action, says Capital Group U.S. economist Jared Franz. The virus should not derail his forecast of 2% U.S. growth in 2020, he says.

Luxury brands are suffering. In 2019, Chinese shoppers at home and abroad accounted for 33% of the luxury-goods industry, according to Burberry. The British luxury brand warned in February that the virus is causing a material negative effect on luxury demand, and it temporarily closed 24 of its 64 stores in mainland China. Sales in China account for a large portion of revenue at Tiffany and Nike, too, according to Morgan Stanley.

Supply chains are disrupted. Many parts for smartphones and cars are made in China. Qualcomm, a leading smartphone chip maker, warned that the outbreak was causing significant uncertainty around smartphone demand and the supplies needed to produce them. Apple warned its March quarter sales would be lower than expected because of a slower return to normal production of its smartphones at Chinas factories.

Other companies at risk of supply-chain setbacks include Best Buy, Floor & Decor Holdings, Gap and General Motors, reports Morgan Stanley. Travel curbs hurt, too. Dozens of airlines have reduced their flights to China through March or April, including American, Delta, Lufthansa, Swiss Airlines and United. At the height of SARS, airline passenger volumes were down 35%, according to the International Air Transport Association.

The good news: Once the pace of contagion slows, the economy should rebound. SARS was short-lived, and analysts expect the same for the current coronavirus. S&P Global expects Chinas economy to expand by 6.4% in 2021, and so should hard-hit stocks.

As concerns lessen, look for a number of stocks hit hard by the coronavirus to recover, says Morgan Stanley. For example, through mid February, Las Vegas Sands (symbol LVS), which owns and operates three casinos in Macau, had slipped 8% from its January peak. In early February, Macau officials closed all casinos for half a month in an effort to contain the virus. Stock in Booking Holdings (BKNG), formerly Priceline.com, dropped 5% from its high in early January. The online travel firm has invested heavily in Chinese travel firms, including Trip.com, considered the Expedia of China. Starbucks (SBUX) has some 4,100 locations in China, its largest market outside of the U.S. In late January, it closed 2,000 stores temporarily. Shares are down 4%.
A tweet sent out on Friday by a passenger alleging the presence of five bombs on the Delhi-Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express led the Indian Railways to halt the train midway at Dadri station to conduct a search. The tweet, however, turned out to be a hoax. Railway Protection Force DG Arun Kumar confirmed that the train was searched and nothing was found.

Railways deployed the local Government Railway Police (GRP) and a local police bomb squad at Dadri after receiving the complaint on Twitter.

I want to inform that there are 5 bombs in a Train Rajdhani(12424) going from New Delhi to Kanpur Central. Please take some action on this quickly, the tweet sent by Sanjeev Singh Gurjar at 4 PM on Friday said.

Following the search, the ministry of railways said it would take strict action as per rules against the false alarm.

The person later apologised on Twitter claiming that he had tweeted under mental stress adding that his brothers train had been delayed by four hours due to which he got very angry.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : Actor Katrina Kaif, a fitness icon and inspiration to many at 36, says she gives a lot of importance to fitness and even creates her own workout plan.

"I give a lot of importance to fitness and workout seven days a week for at least 1-3 hours. I like to challenge myself which is why I create my own workout plan, its a mix of squats, push ups, lunges.

"I also do Pilates and Yoga. Lots of cardio, weight training as well as functional training. I also indulge in a lot of trendy workout which includes TRX, Bosu Ball, Kettlebells or Powerplates," Kaif told IANSlife.

These days, the top actor is being seen in a new brand commercial for Slice in a decade-old partnership that she says is "legacy" for her. With much emphasis on fitness, how does she regulate her food intake? "As a rule, I always avoid three foods which are gluten, refined sugars and dairy products. I have four glasses of warm water in the morning, eat boiled vegetables and fruits every two? hours.

"Cereals, Oatmeal for breakfast, grilled fish, legumes, green salads for lunch. Bread with peanut butter for evening snack and soup, fish, salads for dinner. I like to keep myself hydrated all the time," she said.

On the work front, Katrina will be seen in Rohit Shetty?-directed "Sooryavanshi" releasing this March.

(Siddhi Jain can be contacted at siddhi.j@ians.in)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
The man, as yet unidentified, had been on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

A British tourist who had been on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship has died from coronavirus.

The Japanese Ministry of Health said the man was the sixth person  and the first non-Japanese citizen  from the ship to have died.

The tourist, the first Briton to have died from coronavirus, was one of four British passengers from the ship who remained in Japan for treatment after dozens were airlifted back to the UK last week.

A total of 705 passengers and crew out of 3,711 on board the Diamond Princess have been diagnosed with coronavirus.

In the UK, 19 people have been diagnosed with the illness.

Health Minister Jo Churchill has said she was aware a British man who had been on board the ship was very poorly.





She told BBC Radio 4s World At One programme: The Foreign Office are supporting the family of a British man who has been very poorly and was a passenger on board the Diamond Princess.

I havent had confirmation  but I was aware there was a gentleman who was very, very poorly, and Im sure like me your thoughts and sympathies go out to his family at this time.

A spokeswoman for Princess Cruises, which operates the Diamond Princess ship, which has been quarantined off Japans coast since February 3, said: All of us at Princess Cruises, including the crew of Diamond Princess, offer our sincere condolences to family members and friends for their loss.

Our dedicated care team are on hand to provide support.

On Friday, Wales reported its first patient with the virus and two more sufferers were identified in England.

The patient in Wales had recently travelled back from Italy, the worst-affected country in Europe.

Those identified in England had recently travelled back from Iran, the Department for Health said. The virus has spread rapidly across Iran  with 34 dead amid 388 cases confirmed.

So far, China has reported nearly 80,000 cases and almost 3,000 deaths, while the virus has reached nearly 60 countries.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The NYPD has linked a fourth bank robbery to a Staten Island pattern and released a new photo of a man sought for questioning in connection with those heists.

The most recent incident occurred Thursday, when a man entered a TD Bank at 1818 Victory Blvd. in Castleton Corners at around 1:40 p.m., passed a note demanding money and fled the scene with $100, according to a written statement from the NYPDs Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

Police initially described the robber as a white male in his 50s, standing about 5 feet, 8 inches. In that incident, he wore a medical mask, police said.

The NYPD released a new surveillance image of the man sought, taken from TD Bank.

Detectives have linked the incident to three previous bank robberies on Staten Island, the NYPD statement said.

The first robbery in the pattern occurred on Jan. 29 at approximately 11:30 a.m. when an unknown man entered a Northfield Bank branch, located at 1481 Forest Ave. in Port Richmond, and handed a bank teller a note demanding money, according to police.

In that incident, the man walked away with approximately $2,000, police said.

Three days later, on Feb. 1, a man entered a Richmond County Savings Bank in Sunnyside, and handed a note demanding money, according to police.

The man received over $7,000, police said.

In the third incident, on Feb. 10, a man entered a Chase Bank located at 666 Forest Ave. in West Brighton at approximately 1:35 p.m., and handed a bank teller a note demanding money, according to police.

The teller complied and the individual fled the scene with approximately $7,500, according to the NYPD statement.

Police had previously released photos of the man sought, taken from the Chase Bank incident.

The NYPD released this photo of a man sought for questioning in connection with a robbery pattern, taken from cameras at Chase Bank in West Brighton.

Overall, the man received approximately $16,600, police said.

2ND HEIST IN 24 HOURS

The Castleton Corners bank robbery Thursday was the second one at a TD Bank branch in less than 24 hours.

On Wednesday, Feb. 26, a man made off with $500 when he walked into the TD Bank branch at 1600 Forest Ave. in Port Richmond Center and passed a demand note, the NYPD said in a statement.

Police released a surveillance image of a man sought for questioning in that case.

He was initially described as a white male between the ages of 30 and 40.

Overall, Staten Island has seen a total of nine bank robberies since Jan. 21. Six of them still remain unsolved.

INSIDE THE WAVE

On Jan. 21 just before 2 p.m., a man with his face covered went through the drive-thru at Santander Bank, located at 1850 Victory Blvd. in Castleton Corners, and sent a note through the pneumatic tubing system demanding money, police said.

The man allegedly wrote in the note that he had previously placed a bomb at the ATM located inside the building and that if he drives off with no bills, he will set it off in 15 seconds, according to police.

The man did not receive any money and fled the scene driving a red Ford truck. Police released images of the vehicle later that week.

No arrests have been made in connection to this incident.

BANK ROBBERY IN GRASMERE

Only four days after the first attempted robbery, on Jan. 25, a man wearing a camouflage jacket entered a Santander Bank located at 1320 Hylan Blvd. in Grasmere, approached a teller and passed a note demanding cash, police said.

The man was able to walk away with $600 and fled the bank, according to police.

On Feb. 3, police arrested Ivo Bogdamovic, 49, of 1st Place, Brooklyn, in connection to the heist and charged him with robbery.

BIZARRE INCIDENT AT 2 BANKS, INSTAGRAM VIDEO

On Jan. 30 a man entered a Northfield Bank at 519 Forest Ave. in West Brighton at around 1:30 p.m., announced it was a robbery and left without any money, police said.

After only eight minutes, the same man entered the Victory State Bank located at 755 Forest Ave. and, after a brief conversation with a female employee screamed it was a robbery, according to police.

I just want yall to know its a mother f-----g robbery, he shouts in a selfie-style video he allegedly posted on social media. Everybody put your hands on the floor. Get your hands on the f-----g ground right now.

Nobody reacts to the man, who walks out of the bank, the video shows and police confirmed.

Police arrested Augustin Nadreau, 25, of the 100 block of Treadwell Avenue, in connection to both incidents.

REPORT TO POLICE

Anyone with information about any of the above incidents is asked to call the NYPDs Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-8477 (TIPS). For Spanish, dial 1-888-577-4782 (PISTA). The public also can submit tips on the Crime Stoppers website, or by texting tips to 274637 (CRIMES), then entering TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential.
The global spread of the new coronavirus has prompted the US government to push back against Beijings isolation of Taiwan, a state department official said on Thursday.

This Covid-19 outbreak only further underlines the unacceptability of Taiwan being excluded from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Health Assembly because the Peoples Republic of China blocks every attempt to do so, said Jonathan Fritz, deputy assistant secretary at the US State Departments Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

We continue to push back very, very hard against that with as many of our like-minded partners as possible, and I think our argument is only bolstered now by the outbreak, Fritz said, speaking in a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the US response to the contagions spread.

And I would point out that, you know, this push by the [US government] is fully consistent with our US one-China policy and, of course, with the Taiwan Relations Act, he said.

Taiwan has 31 cases of Covid-19 and one recorded death from the illness caused by the virus, which is also known as Sars-CoV-2.

On Wednesday, Taiwans Central Epidemic Command Centre banned all of the self-governed islands doctors and nurses from visiting countries declared to be unfit destinations because of the outbreak, to ensure there would be adequate manpower to tackle the disease at home. The ban is meant to stay in place until the end of June.

Washington has supported calls for Taiwan to be granted observer status at the World Health Organisations annual gathering, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in May, at the start of the WHOs annual assembly, which Beijing has prevented Taiwan from attending.

Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan under its one-China policy, which the US acknowledged in 1972.

For years, Beijing allowed Taiwan to send observers to the annual conference, but has blocked its representatives in recent years amid tensions between the mainlands government and the islands administration of President Tsai Ing-wen, whose party has a more fractious relationship with Beijing than the opposition.

Story continues

In Thursdays hearing, Fritz asserted that Beijings insistence on isolating Taiwan in the WHO framework hinders efforts to halt the Covid-19 spread.

To the extent that they are unable to get timely information from the WHO that impacts public health on Taiwan, he said.

On the other hand, Taiwan has a lot of expertise  and they have their own epidemiological track record now dealing with Covid-19, and to the extent that that is not being shared in a complete and timely fashion with other WTO members, clearly, that doesnt do anything for the public health of the rest of the international community, Fritz added.

Tsai won a second term last month with a comfortable victory over Han Kuo-yu in an election that had been cast as a referendum on the islands approach to Beijing. Tsai, from the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, captured more than 8 million votes, trumping her major challenger, Han, from the mainland-friendly Kuomintang, by close to 3 million votes.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on February 3 that Taiwans participation in the activities of international organisations such as the WHO must be arranged through cross-strait consultations under the one-China principle. He said Taiwan had timely access to information on global public health emergencies released by the WHO.

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realme, the No. 1 quality and fastest-growing smartphone brand in India, has today announced Salman Khan as its brand ambassador, endorsing its upcoming realme 6 and realme 6 Pro. realmes partnership with the celebrated star and actor, who has set a trailblazing path with his distinctive style, dare and panache, highlights the unique promise of the brands Power Meets Style product philosophy.

Commenting on the partnership, Madhav Sheth, Vice President of realme and CEO of realme India, said: What makes Salman Khan the best choice for us it that he enjoys a massive appeal across various regions and demographic profiles of India. That brings immense value to us as one of the unique selling propositions of our brand lies in making cutting edge technology, fun, stylish, quality-driven products within everyone's reach and across all price segments. Having Salman Khan on board with a mammoth fan following will help us reach and tap into that target audience of ours.

The collaboration marks a new milestone as this is the first time the star-actor has worked with a smartphone brand. A true trendsetter, Salman has created a distinct imprint among generations with his iconic Being Human spirit, ability to stay real and face challenges head-on. With Salman coming on-board as realme 6 series brand ambassador, the synergy further complements the brands Stay Real attitude, inspiring thousands of millennials across India to be themselves.

Enthused with the partnership, Salman Khan, actor and producer, commented, I am happy to be the face of the worlds fastest-growing smartphone brand realme. In a short span of time, the brand has established a proven track record and expertise, with unparalleled products and quality. Further, its ethos of Dare to Leap is something that I strongly resonate with. The realme 6 series is stylish and edgy and I am sure it will find favour with consumers.

realme is the fastest growing brand in India and has recorded a massive seven-fold growth. Its appeal amongst the youth has grown overwhelmingly and established its leadership position in the country. The value of realme products lies in making cutting-edge technology fun, stylish, quality-driven, and within everyones reach, ensuring a premium user experience across all price segments. The new realme 6 series, set to be launched on March 5, will again disrupt the mid-range price segment with more flagship features such as 64MP 6 Pro cameras and super smooth Pro displays.

realmes Dare to Leap approach of constant innovation, product differentiation, and user orientation has helped the young brand set multiple industry benchmarks and firmly establish itself as a domain leader in the fastest time. As per Counterpoint reports, realme was the worlds fastest-growing smartphone brand in 2019 with 453% growth on an annual basis, ranked no. 4 in India and no.7 globally.

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My wife Mary and I are having a wonderful time at CPAC, Feb 2629, reconnecting with patriots and Tea Partiers we have not seen in years. We are promoting the release of the Trump Train 2020 song music video. We ask each of you to host watch parties when the music video goes live on YouTube. Here is the commercial promoting the music video release on Tuesday, March 3 at 11:55 A.M.

First of all, I was struck by the huge number of young conservatives in attendance. I met two people who really excited me.

Ben LaCross is author of Tucker for President, written to teach conservative values to middle school students and educate them about how elections work. Those who read my articles know I have ranted for years about how we have allowed progressives to dominate public education. This is why we have a generation of Bernie Bros who believe they are entitled to what others have sacrificed and worked for. Ben LaCross's book is an awesome way to begin taking back our kids. Please show Ben some love: like Tucker for President on Facebook.

Here is a short video Mary shot of me interviewing Ben.

The second person who excited me was Kim Klacik, a young black conservative Republican woman running for Congress in Baltimore, the rat-infested district of the late Democrat Elijah Cummings. I'm from Baltimore. It is always exciting to meet fellow blacks who are not brain-dead zombies for the Democratic Party. Mary shot a short video of Kim explaining to me what prompted her to run and why she is not a Democrat. Here is the link.

Seeing so many young people at CPAC is really encouraging, folks. Fake news media would have us believe that all Millennials support killing babies even after they are born and support Bernie Sanders confiscating everyone's earnings for redistribution. Trump was correct in saying young people are the heart of the pro-life movement.

Young people are fired up to take back America. We have surrendered too many great traditions and institutions to progressives.

Years ago, I wrote an article advising the Boy Scouts not to allow openly homosexual scout masters. Isn't that like allowing a fox into the chicken coop? I was chairman of a conservative PAC. Progressives and LGBT enforcers immediately pounced, branding me and anyone associated with me a homophobe and a hater. A congressional candidate was attacked for allowing me and my PAC to work on his campaign.

I do not care about what progressives say or think of me. They've been calling me an Uncle Tom, self-hating, and a stupid n----- for decades. However, I did struggle with guilt over candidates being harmed by association.

Mary and I concluded that it would be best for me to resign from my chairmanship to continue fighting the good fight independently, spreading truth as the Lord leads. Then all of the attacks will be targeted at me only. God's Word says, "No weapon formed against me shall prosper."

The Boy Scouts of America has filed for bankruptcy due to an overwhelming number of sexual assault (pedophilia) lawsuits. Upon hearing the sad news, I flashed back years ago to a Facebook post by an angry mom. She vowed to remove her son from the "hate group" if they did not admit openly homosexual scout masters.

LGBT activists said we were hateful and paranoid for thinking they would change the 100-year-old historic institution founded on Christian principles. Yet upon entering the BSA, homosexuals' first act was to demand that "morally straight" be deleted from the Scout Oath. Then activists demanded that "boy" be removed from the title and that they admit girls.

Since its founding in 1910, around 110 million Americans participated in BSA programs. The BSA mission was to "prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law." Now the BSA will probably close its doors. Another great American institution will have bitten the dust due to surrendering to LGBT enforcers' bullying and incrementalism.

We are not in a battle in which Democrats and Republicans simply have different views regarding how best to serve America. We are in a battle of good versus evil  a battle for the heart and soul of America.

As a Christian, black conservative, and Republican, my activism is my ministry.

Mary and I are boots on the ground at CPAC and lovin' it!

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American

Help Lloyd Spread the Truth

https://www.trumptrainusa2020.com

http://LloydMarcus.com

Image: GPA Photo Archive via Flickr.
When Pip Kiernan's father Ian organised a community rubbish-collecting day called Clean Up Sydney Harbour 31 years ago, he was worried that nobody would come.

"He set out to clean up Sydney Harbour in 1989, and he was ringing some mates the night before to make sure enough people turned up!" she told the Herald.

"He really struck a chord with Australians": Pip Kiernan is carrying on the legacy of Clean Up Australia from her late father, Ian. Credit:Nick Moir

He need not have worried. Forty thousand people turned up, and a year later the event became national. Now, Clean Up Australia is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

"He really struck a chord with Australians," Ms Kiernan said.
BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Since the COVID-19 outbreak, two notable media reports concerning the United States have gone viral in China.

One is that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed up to 100 million U.S. dollars in emergency funding to help China combat the epidemic. In a letter to Bill Gates, Chinese President Xi Jinping said he deeply appreciates the act.

The other is U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross' much criticized remarks that the disease in China could help quicken the pace at which jobs and manufacturing return to the United States.

The sharp contrast between the two suggests that some U.S. politicians' xenophobic sentiments against China are not shared by the good-willed majority of the American people, who are working for a closer China-U.S. relationship amid the epidemic.

Earlier this week, some 70 Americans who teach Chinese children online English courses donated thousands of masks to China through their employer VIPKid, a Chinese online education platform.

One of the teachers, Juliet Hooks from Pennsylvania, bought 1,800 masks and wrapped them up in boxes decorated with Chinese characters translating to "Be strong, China). Another, Kelsey Covington from Virginia, chose to wear a T-shirt with a world map on which China was marked with a big red heart.

Hundreds of adoptive families across the United States have joined in the Chinese-launched Masks for Orphans fundraising project, donating over 20,000 masks to 50 orphanages in China.

From a warehouse in the U.S. state of California, 1.8 million masks and 80,000 disposable medical gowns were shipped to China thanks to U.S. humanitarian aid organization MedShare, with support from U.S. enterprises like Coca-Cola and UPS.

Statistics show that as of Feb. 2, 188 foreign companies have donated 1.096 billion yuan (about 157 million U.S. dollars) to China, of which U.S. companies have donated the most.

Ian Lipkin, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University who worked together with Chinese scientists during the SARS outbreak in 2003, has teamed up with his Chinese counterparts once again.

As the American people are offering their assistance against the epidemic, those aforementioned U.S. politicians should stop engaging in anti-China rhetoric, listen to the voice of the majority, and take the COVID-19 outbreak as a chance to promote deeper China-U.S. cooperation in coping with unconventional challenges for the benefit of all.

On the one hand, they need to understand that no one can stand alone against a global public health emergency in today's highly interconnected world, and that cooperation, not confrontation, is the only solution to beating a deadly virus that knows no borders.

Differences and collaboration can go hand in hand. Just as Vice Chair of Indonesia's Center for Strategic and International Studies Jusuf Wanandi said, "amid competition, there is always room to help each other, particularly in an epidemic of this scale."

On the other, they must realize that as the world's top two economies, China and the United States need to shoulder the responsibilities of major countries in the face of an unconventional global challenge.

"This is a time for global solidarity -- political solidarity, technical solidarity and financial solidarity," emphasized Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization.

As the fight against COVID-19 is entering a crucial stage, the two countries should work together to set a good example of global solidarity, making concerted efforts to safeguard international health and security, and join hands to build a community with a shared future for mankind.
The Bihar government said on Friday that there is no need for 90 per cent reservations for locals in government jobs and educational institutions.

Replying to a calling attention motion in the Assembly, minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said 50 per cent seats are reserved for people belonging to the SC, ST, OBC, EBC and women of Backward Classes, while 10 per cent seats are reserved for general category candidates from economically backward section.

Thus, 60 per cent seats are reserved for the locals as per the provisions of the Bihar Reservation Act, 1992 that was amended in 2003, the minister said, adding that the rest is open for all candidates, and people from Bihar and all other states can compete for those.

"There is no requirement for extending reservation up to 90 per cent for the local people," he said.

Interjecting the minister's reply, Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav cited examples of several states, including neighboring Jharkhand which has formulated a domicile policy to extend the reservation for its people to 100 per cent.

Stating that 50 per cent people from Bihar migrate to other states for employment opportunities, Tejashwi demanded a domicile policy be implemented as it would help the state in preventing migration.

Yadav, the minister in-charge, said that "if we stop others, then other states too will follow the same... You (Tejashwi) give me in writing as to which state is giving how much reservation, the government will consider".

Talking to reporters outside the House, Tejashwi Yadav said if the RJD is voted to power it will implement the domicile policy.

During the Question Hour, Health Minister Mangal Pandey announced that the process of appointment of 6,462 doctors will be completed by March in different hospitals of the state.

He said that it is the biggest-ever recruitment of doctors in the state after Independence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) legislators, led by Bikram Singh Majithia, were detained after they protested outside Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badals residence here on Friday.

The protesters accompanied family members of farmers who committed suicide due to farm debts.

Majithia is the younger brother of Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

The protesters blocked the entrance of Manpreets residence to prevent him from reaching the state assembly, where he was scheduled to present 2020-21 Budget.

After a brief scuffle with the police, the protesters were detained.

Aam Aadmi Party members also protested against the Congress government outside the assembly here over its alleged failure to fulfil its poll promise of providing jobs to youngsters. The party MLAs also demanded a rollback in the hike of electricity rates.

SAD MLAs and other party leaders were taken to the police station in Sector 3, Chandigarh, while Bikram Singh Majithia was detained at the Sector 17 police station.
NORRISTOWN  While no cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in Pennsylvania, Montgomery County officials are working to put necessary protocols in place, according to commissioners Chairwoman Val Arkoosh.

We want to be ready for any changes that we might have to put into place should COVID-19 become widespread here in Montgomery County, Arkoosh said in a phone interview Friday.

Coronavirus Disease 2019, or COVID-19, was first detected in Wuhan City, China. It has since spread with cases reported in more than 50 countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Several department heads from various agencies including the Montgomery County Office of Public Health and Department of Public Safety met Friday afternoon to discuss the matter, Arkoosh said. A representative from the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania was also welcomed to participate.

She added the countys office of public health has existing policies in place to monitor and deal with infectious disease outbreaks such as influenza and measles.

In the event someone falls ill, Arkoosh said the department can procure test samples, and based on the results, make recommendations with the goal of reducing spread of that disease or containing that disease.

The Montgomery County Department of Public Safety issued guidelines on Feb. 25 for its EMS personnel with regards to COVID-19.

The situation is fluid and changing every minute, county officials said in a statement.

The CDC and Pennsylvania Department of Health are opening command centers, according to Arkoosh, and the states hospital association is working with local hospitals to keep communication consistent.

Arkoosh, who is also a physician, said there are several procedures for hospital employees and emergency medical services providers to follow when dealing with infectious diseases including sterilizing their hands before and after contact with every single patent.

She added hospitals are equipped with personal protective gear for employees if they encounter a patient with an infectious disease.

In addition, medical facilities are taking inventory to make sure that everyone has enough supplies of items including masks and gloves, Arkoosh said.

Its really just making sure that everyone is prepared. Hopefully we wont need this preparation, but I do believe that given how this has been spreading, we absolutely must be prepared, she said.

People going to places where the disease is prevalent, or coming into contact with someone whos traveled there could be susceptible to contracting the disease.

If neither of those things are true, its extremely unlikely that someone has COVID-19, she said. Its much more likely that they just have the flu. Influenza is pretty active right now in Pennsylvania, so that is the most likely diagnosis.

According to CDC, the symptoms for Coronavirus Disease 2019 include fever, cough and shortness of breath.

Arkoosh encouraged anyone with those symptoms to call their doctor, who will prompt them to take the appropriate next steps of coming in for an evaluation or going to a medical facility.

In general, she emphasized the importance of residents practicing good health habits by washing their hands, coughing into their elbows and staying home if theyre sick.

Arkoosh stressed she doesnt want the public to be alarmed.

Right now the risk is very, very low, Arkoosh said. I think we are prepared, and if people just stay calm, and are careful in their personal habits, hopefully we wont have a problem here.
On Wednesday Robin Bartholet finally made good on her promise to the late Conroe baker and cater Chester B. Kelley.

Prior to his death, around 2000, Kelley and his caretaker Ralph Bradford came into Bartholets furniture store (Southwestern Furniture) with several photo albums with him.

He put them on the sales counter in front of me and asked if I would help him organize the pictures, as they were in total disarray, she said.

She agreed to help him, but he was eager to get started then and there. She told him it would have to wait for another time as there were customers in the store and she had to attend to the customers first.

He was very disappointed by the fact that we could not start at once, Bartholet said. I felt bad about turning him down, but I had no choice. In the retail world, customers come first.

Kelley passed away in 2004 and his family donated his photo collection to the Heritage Museum.

On Wednesday, after working since 2014 to organize, identify and catalog his 1,500 photos, Bartholet along with Emery Heuermann and Merry Wise who also worked on the project, were able to present a complete Volume 1 of the project to the Heritage Museum of Montgomery County on Wednesday.

The three volunteers make up the Museums Special Projects Committee and they presented the museum with three albums that make up Volume 1, a combined booklet with indexes attached, a booklet with more information about Chester B. Kelley and Ollie Mae Kelley and a $500 donation to the Heritage Museum from Emery and Elizabeth Heuermann in memory of Chester and Ollie Mae Kelley.

Of special note, Kelleys niece, Karen Kelley, from Willis, was on hand Wednesday for the presentation. He is also survived by his daughters, Patsy Kelley and Geraldine Beyer and five grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren.

Kelley was born in Jennings, Louisiana on June 2, 1918 to Thomas and Eva Kelley.

He served in the Army during World War II in the European Theater of Operations.

His niece, Karen, said he was a cook for his Army unit. And she thinks he probably documented the war in photos the same way he documented Conroe events.

He got his start as a baker in Alexandria, Louisiana.

That devotion eventually helped him work his way up to assistant superintendent at Cotton Bros. Bakery in Alexandria.

Eventually, Kelley made his way to Houston in search of work and landed at Pollys Cafe in Conroe in the early 1960s.

When the chance came for Kelley to own his own cafe, he jumped at it.

After a few years, when the cafe closed, Kelley opened a bakery and catering service out of his home.

Being the only caterer in town in early 1970s, Kelley made a name for himself providing service for every and any event in Montgomery County. He catered for all of the banking events, Chamber of Commerce functions, community events and more.

In a 2000 Courier article, Kelley said of all the different types of events he catered, weddings were his favorite.

Its estimated that he made cakes for at least 500 weddings all over the county.

Kelley took pictures of people at the events he catered, capturing the variety of faces that made up Montgomery County.

His photo collection includes snapshots of businessmen, city council members, lawyers, doctors, politicians and anyone else Kelley happened to see on a particular day. There are even some photos of Houston TV personalities when they visited Conroe.

Heuermann estimates the photos range in time from about 1966 to 2002.

These pictures represent an era of Conroe from 1966 to 2002, that has now disappeared as well, he said. This leaves a pictorial history for our descendants 50 or more years from now. Well be gone, but this work will still be here and representative of this era of Conroe history.

Karen Kelley said Chester Kelley was her favorite uncle.

He always had a camera in his hand (at family gatherings), Karen Kelley said. And he always made a big spread of food.

Once the family moved to Conroe from Louisiana, she recalls many happy trips to visit her aunt and uncle in Conroe.

When she turned 18, she and her friend took a bus trip from Louisiana to spend a week in Conroe. On her trip home, she held a birthday cake in a box made by her uncle, all the way.

He was a Mason for 54 years and a member of the First Baptist Church. He had a stroke in his later years and he took up painting as therapy, according to his niece.

Bartholet began working on the Chester B. Kelley photo project after her retirement.

She asked then Heritage Museum Executive Director Sally Copley what she could do to help.

Copley led her into the vault and gestured to several boxes on a shelf labeled Chester Kelleys Photos.

Chester finally got his wish, Bartholet said. I hope hes forgiven me (for not being able to get to it sooner.)

She started trying to identify the people in the photos in 2015 or 2016, then fellow history enthusiasts Emery Heuermann and Merry Wise joined in the project.

The albums will be registered with the Library of Congress.

This will be in the public domain for a long time after were gone, Heuermann said.

Karen Kelley called the project a great tribute to her uncle.

Its a great tribute to him that you respected the things that hes done from a community stand point to take the time to do this, Karen Kelley said.

Wise said theyve had so much fun and so many laughs putting these albums together.

Along the way, theyve also hosted several photo days where long-time Conroe residents came to the museum to try and help identify people in the photos.

Wise said the three enjoyed working together so much that theyll continue their work at the Museum on other special projects.

The albums are available for viewing at the museum upon appointment. For more information about the project, call the Heritage Museum at 936-539-6873, visit heritagemuseum.us or visit the museum at 1506 I-45 North inside Candy Cane Park.

shernandez@hcnonline.com
Each week, we comb through dozens of court affidavits from arrests made in the Alamo City. Here's a look at some of the oddballs.

Bad getaway driver: One 31-year-old man learned the importance of making sure your getaway driver is in on the plan after he was arrested on theft charges for allegedly stealing from H-E-B. When Oscar Reyes went to a North Side H-E-B on Nov. 17, he stood in line to pay the cashier for a small item he had selected from the store. When the cashier opened the register to give Reyes his change, he reached over and took $680 worth of cash, stamps and checks from the drawer before running out of the store, an arrest affidavit said. Reyes got into the passenger seat of a vehicle that fled the location. Minutes later, the police were notified by a witness  the driver of the vehicle. He said he had no idea Reyes was going to steal from the store and he worked with the police to identify Reyes.
AFRICA

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Expected Council Action

In March, the Security Council will hold a briefing and consultations on the Secretary-Generals most recent report on the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).

The MONUSCO mandate expires on 20 December. The 1533 Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) sanctions regime expires on 1 July.

Key Recent Developments

On 19 December 2019, the Security Council adopted resolution 2502 renewing MONUSCOs mandate for one year. The resolution went through several rounds of negotiations before it was adopted unanimously. It maintains the dual strategic priorities of the mission: protection of civilians and supporting the stabilisation and strengthening of DRC state institutions. The resolution also requests the Secretary-General to work with the DRC government to create an exit strategy for the mission, to be proposed to the Council no later than 20 October. Resolution 2502 decreased the troop ceiling from 16,215 military personnel to 14,000 military personnel and increased police personnel from 391 to 591. It maintained the numbers of military observers and staff officers. It also included a line stipulating the increase of an additional 360 personnel of formed police units provided they are deployed in replacement of military personnel. Because of members divergent views on the continued efficacy of the Force Intervention Brigade (FIB), language was added to further stress the FIBs alignment with MONUSCOs overall mandate, underlin[ing] that the entire MONUSCO force, including the Intervention Brigade, must prioritise the implementation of its protection of civilians mandate. The FIBs future will be a recurring issue in any mandate renewal.

An informal interactive dialogue, requested by the US, was held on 14 January. Its stated goal was bringing together various stakeholders to discuss how to support the DRC government in its efforts to stabilise the eastern region. Security Council members, Special Representative and head of MONUSCO Leila Zerrougui, UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region Huang Xia, and member states from the region also participated. President Felix Tshisekedi has been active in trying to increase cooperation and transparency between the DRC and its neighbours. Tshisekedi led several visits and attended regional conferences with neighbouring countries and has apparently stressed the need to build bridges, not walls with the DRCs neighbours. Within the first six months of his term, Tshisekedi travelled to Angola, Burundi, Kenya, Namibia, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. Among the ideas discussed was a unified strategy for these countries to address the issue of armed combatants in the DRC. The details remain uncertain and could range from information-sharing to coordinated military operations.

Eastern DRC remains volatile, especially since the Forces armees de la republique democratique du Congo (FARDC) in October 2019 launched a new offensive against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed group that originated in Uganda. In November and December 2019, Council members held two meetings in consultations to discuss the increase in violence, including public backlash against MONUSCO that involved destruction of MONUSCO property. The FARDC operations have continued into 2020, and the recent instability has contributed to a worsening of the humanitarian situation in an already fragile region.

Council members met on 20 January under any other business to discuss the independent assessment report, prepared by Lieutenant General Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz, on the protection of civilians and neutralisation of armed groups in Beni and Mabasa Territories. Cruz travelled to eastern DRC in December 2019 in response to criticisms of MONUSCOs fulfilment of its protection of civilians mandate. The report, released on 16 January, made several recommendations for how the UN could improve its role in the protection of civilians in those two territories. Prime among them was the call for more proactive, effective, and mobile actions by MONUSCO which, the assessment suggests, would require more operational intelligence and a stronger relationship with the FARDC. In general, Council members were receptive to Cruzs assessment. The UN Department of Peace Operations will use the assessments recommendations to develop an action plan for implementation in the coming weeks.

In addition, Ebola remains a worrying issue in this area. By February, the Ebola outbreak had surpassed 3,300 confirmed cases and more than 2,250 deaths in the DRC since August 2018, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO released a statement on 12 February that, while noting an overall encouraging trend in case incidence and geographic spread, confirms that it will continue to designate Ebola as a public health emergency of international concern. According to the statement, WHO was worried that if the designation was withdrawn there might be adverse consequences for the response efforts through diminishing focus. Additionally, an ongoing measles epidemic has killed over 6,000 people since the beginning of 2019.

Human Rights-Related Developments

On 10 January, the UN Joint Human Rights Office in the DRC released a report describing killings, rapes and other forms of violence that may amount to crimes against humanity chiefly committed by the militant Lendu armed group targeting the Hema community in the far north-eastern province of Ituri over the preceding two years. The violence resulted in at least 701 deaths, and mass displacements. On 29 January, High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet released a statement following her five-day visit to the DRC, including to Ituri, saying the abuses inflicted on the Hema have been horrific and that displacement on that scale would be front-page news in many other parts of the world. The High Commissioner also met with Tshisekedi and other officials during her visit. During its 43rd session, the Human Rights Council is expected to hold an enhanced interactive dialogue on the DRC on 17 March, during which it will consider oral updates by the High Commissioner and the team of international experts on the situation in Kasai.

Sanctions-Related Developments

On 2 December 2019 the 1533 DRC Sanctions Committee met to consider the midterm report of the Group of Experts on the DRC, with Ambassador Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi (Kuwait) in the chair for the final time. Additionally, he spoke on 17 December during the annual briefing by outgoing chairs of subsidiary bodies of the Security Council. In his summary of the work of the committee, he highlighted his visit as chair to the DRC in May 2019. He also noted that the committee had briefings from the UN Mine Action Service, the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, and the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Since 1 January, Ambassador Abdou Abarry (Niger) has chaired the committee. The first meeting under his leadership was held on 21 February.

Key Issues and Options

With MONUSCOs mandate renewed until December, the Council will continue to monitor the situation on the ground, especially the ongoing violence and the Ebola outbreak. The Council is expected to assess the role and future of MONUSCO ahead of the next renewal of the missions mandate in December. Before then, several reports are expected that will further inform Council members decisions on the way forward.

Ahead of any additional mandate changes in December, Council members could choose to conduct a visiting mission to the DRC in order to have conversations with local stakeholders about the future of MONUSCO. This could also help the DRC and the Secretary-General in their elaboration of the requested withdrawal benchmarks before 20 October.

Council Dynamics

Despite differences on the best way to proceed with the future of MONUSCO, in the end Council members were able to come together and pass resolution 2502 unanimously. In general, Council members have maintained an optimistic view of the DRCs political situation, with most of their concern focused on violence in the east and Ebola.

The March meeting will be the first opportunity for the five new elected members of the CouncilEstonia, Niger, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Viet Namto express their opinions publicly as Council members on the situation in the DRC.

The penholder on the DRC is France. Ambassador Abdou Abarry (Niger) chairs the 1533 DRC Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE DRC
A former poster girl for the Met's firearms unit has been cleared of leaking confidential information after claiming she was exposing 'corruption and prejudice' against ethnic minority officers.

Carol Rita Howard, 41, worked on a short-term contract as an investigator for the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) which she later took to an employment tribunal.

She sent 101 emails from her work account to her personal account which included sensitive information from various investigations while employed by the police watchdog organisation, Croydon Crown Court heard.

But Howard has today been cleared of leaking the confidential data after insisting that this was to assist her 'whistleblower' case against the IPCC.

Carol Rita Howard, 41, (pictured) has been cleared of leaking confidential information after claiming she was exposing 'corruption and prejudice' against ethnic minority officers

Howard, of Coulsdon, London, served in the Metropolitan Police between 2001 and 2014 and her gun-toting image was even used on security posters at the 2012 London Olympics.

But after she left the force in 2014 she successfully won a 37,000 pay-out from her former employer after it was ruled she was 'bullied, harassed and victimised' as one of only two black officers in the 700-strong Diplomatic Protection Group.

She was then hired by the IPCC in October 2016 where she was employed for approximately five months.

But Howard later brought 33 allegations against the IPCC over claims the organisation discriminated against Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff.

She lost the 144,000 case after her claims were ruled to be groundless when the tribunal heard she frequently complained of victimisation whenever she was unhappy at work.

The IPCC then reported Howard to the Information Commissioners Office about the leaked confidential information.

It prosecuted the case and interviewed her under caution in September 2018.

She did not deny accessing the information and sending it to her solicitor, which included a probe of a serving police officer accused of sexual offences.

Howard, of Coulsdon, London, (pictured) served in the Metropolitan Police between 2001 and 2014 and her gun-toting image was even used on security posters at the 2012 London Olympics

Prosecutor Eva Niculiu spoke to the jury and said: 'She admitted forwarding the emails to herself and sending them to her solicitor.

'Her reasons for sending them out was to get legal advice for her "whistle-blowing" employment tribunal claims of corruption and prejudice at the IPCC against BAME staff.

'Her employment ended on the basis of suspected security breaches.

'In the days up to April 6, 2017, 101 emails had been sent from the defendant's IPCC email address to her personal hotmail address and all of these contained personal data.

'She also retained a copy of her "blue book", which was used to report on her work at the IPCC during investigations.

'When she was questioned she said: "I clicked on the emails. I didn't go through every document."

Ms Niculiu added: 'She had daily access to personal information.

'The IPCC is a public body overseeing complaints made against the police in England and Wales.

'On her first day at work at the IPCC the defendant signed a security procedure form, agreeing not to disclose information.'

The jury took around thirty minutes to unanimously acquit her of one count of unlawfully obtaining personal information including victims, witnesses and service users.

They also found her not guilty of a second count of unlawfully disclosing the same personal information to her solicitor.
The bills, approved with bipartisan support, focus on the employer side of the equation, Bloomingdale said. There will be more proposals to double the income level for claiming the day care tax credit, which now is limited to families with incomes of no more than $45,000 a year, and addressing the reimbursement rate for people receiving day care assistance.

One area of broad agreement that would have been addressed in James amendment was the cliff effect, which occurs when a family begins to earn above the limits set by the state and becomes ineligible for day care assistance.

There are moms who need and want to work who often are penalized if they get a raise or make some additional income and lose a benefit that doesnt make up for the cost of child care, James said. We want to encourage them to move up in their working world and receive that benefit of putting in the hard work to earn a raise, but not lose in one fell swoop their child care assistance.

Reynolds called on lawmakers to address the child care cliff so we are not punishing parents as they continue on a path to self-sufficiency. She recommended a tiered copay system that doesnt punish those who work hard enough to earn a raise.
LARAMIE, Wyo., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cherry Creek Mortgage Company announced that it has expanded its presence in Wyoming with a new branch office in Laramie. The company opened its first two offices in Wyoming in 2019 and continues to offer more opportunities to home buyers with the new Laramie location. Today's grand opening brings together the Cherry Creek Mortgage (CCMC) team, as well as community partners, to celebrate the new branch location.

CCMC is proud to offer a wide variety of home loan programs to provide Laramie home buyers and home owners with mortgage options tailored to their unique needs. The Laramie branch joins offices in Casper and Cheyenne and expands the company's ability to support home buyers and partners across the state.

"We are excited to have Jake Anfinson joining us to help more Wyoming families reach their home ownership goals," said Stuart Tyrie, Cherry Creek Mortgage's Regional Manager. "Jake and his team look forward to providing Laramie clients and partners with customized expertise and a large portfolio of loan options."

Throughout its 33-year history, CCMC has helped tens of thousands of buyers finance a home. The company is built on a foundation of personalized advice and respect for the transaction, and the CCMC team is dedicated to helping home buyers find the right loan for their situation.

More information about the Laramie branch can be found here.

About Cherry Creek Mortgage Company

Cherry Creek Mortgage Company Co., Inc. NMLS #3001 has a 33-year tradition of serving the needs of home buyers across the country. With a reputation built on a passion for responsible lending and dedication to personal relationships, Cherry Creek Mortgage has helped thousands of customers realize their goal of home ownership. Cherry Creek Mortgage's specialized internal processes and proprietary technology deliver a digital mortgage experience with a personal touch. The company is headquartered in Colorado and is licensed in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Learn more at cherrycreekmortgage.com .

Media Contact:

Megan Duggan

[email protected]

SOURCE Cherry Creek Mortgage Company

Related Links

https://www.cherrycreekmortgage.com


The 76 Indian nationals evacuated from Wuhan included three Indian embassy officials who were in the city for coordination.

New Delhi: India on Thursday evacuated 76 of its nationals along with 36 foreigners from the Coronavirus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan and another 119 Indian nationals along with five foreigners  who were earlier quarantined on the ship Diamond Princess  from the Japanese capital, Tokyo.

The 76 Indian nationals evacuated from Wuhan included three Indian embassy officials who were in the city for coordination. The 119 Indian nationals evacuated from Tokyo comprised 113 crew members and six passengers.

The foreign nationals brought to India from Wuhan in the third evacuation flight included 23 nationals from Bangladesh, six from China, two each from Myanmar and Maldives and one each from South Africa, USA and Madagascar. The foreign nationals evacuated from Tokyo included two Sri Lankans, one Nepalese, one South African and one Peruvian.

The MEA said that three other Indian crew members on the Diamond Princess cruise ship didnt board the special flight and conveyed their wish to continue their stay on-board the cruise ship to complete the period of extended

quarantine put in place by the government of Japan. Out of the total 138 Indian nationals originally on-board the Diamond Princess, 16 Indian crew members had tested positive for Coronavirus and are receiving treatment in Japan.

In a statement on the evacuation flight from Wuhan, the MEA said, On its return from Wuhan the IAF Flight also brought back 76 Indian nationals (including 3 Indian embassy officials who were on ground in Wuhan to coordinate the evacuation) and 36 foreign nationals including from some of our neighbouring countries who had sought assistance in travelling to India... A total of three flights have been organised including the one today. Two earlier flights were on 31 January and 1 February. In all 723 Indian nationals and 43 Foreign nationals have been evacuated from Wuhan, China in these three flights.

In a separate statement on the evacuation flight from Tokyo, the MEA said, A special Air India flight arrived in New Delhi from Tokyo, on 27 February 2020, bringing back 119 Indian nationals (113 crew members and 6 passengers) who were on-board the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked off at Yokohama in Japan... the special flight also evacuated five foreign nationals ...All the evacuees will undergo a 14-day quarantine at the facility set up by the Indian Army in Manesar, Haryana.

The Diamond Merchant cruise ship was put under quarantine by Japan on February 5 for 14 days as one of the passengers who had disembarked from the ship had tested positive for COVID-19. The quarantine period was extended as the crew members were performing their regular duties during the initial quarantine period of 14 days.
Bigelow, while traveling back and forth to her farm from University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, with the help of her son attempted to grow three acres of hemp last year. Her harvest was a total loss and had to be destroyed.
The number of UK study visas granted to Indian students saw a jump of 93 per cent as over 37,500 Indian students received permission to pursue academics in the country in 2019. This is 93 per cent more compared to 2018 when 19, 497 visas were granted. Indians are the second most common nationality to be granted the study visas after Chinese. According to the UK Immigration Statistics data, Indians have received 57,199 skilled work visas in 2019, a 3 per cent increase compared to 2018.

The data comes after the UK announced the introduction of post-study work of two years for international students via Graduate Immigration Route. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in December 2019 that this two-year post study work permit will be applicable for students who graduate from the summer of 2021 or fresh admissions.

This will allow the international students to stay in the UK to work or look for jobs after they are done with their studies. After finding a suitable job, graduates will be able to switch to the skilled workers visa.

Apart from an increase in student visas granted to Indian nationals, there was also an increase in the total number of tier-2 or skilled work visas granted to Indian nationals from 55,479 in 2018 to 57,199 in 2019. Approximately 45 per cent of the tier-2 visas granted were intra-company transfer visas. The number of visitor visas granted to Indian nationals notably went up 37,516 to 515,026 in 2019.

Also read: Brexit: UK Home Secretary Priti Patel announces points-based visa system
Hyderabad: Hyderabad police have registered a criminal case against micro-blogging platform Twitter, Facebook-owned WhatsApp and Chinese short-video making app TikTok on charges of facilitating the spread of hatred and anti-national content on their platforms in the country.

The Cyber Crime Police Station registered the case following the direction from a city court on a petition filed by a local journalist.

This is believed to be the first case against the leading social media platforms for facilitating spread of hatred and anti-national content in the country.

The case against the social media platforms was registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony, conspiracy to wage or attempt to wage war, or abetting waging of war against Indian government, obscene acts and songs in public, statements conducing to public mischief and criminal conspiracy.

Silveri Srishailam, who had filed the petition in a Nampally court seeking action against the three social media apps, claimed that more than 1,200 groups were created after the protests against CAA, NRC and NPR began in the country, which were spreading anti-national content.

He even claimed that some Pakistanis were members in these groups.

He made Twitter Communications India Limited and its India MD Manish Maheswari, WhatsApp Inc and its India head Abhijit Bose, and Tik Tok and its head Nikhil Gandhi the respondents in the case.

When asked, a WhatsApp spokesperson shared an earlier statement that the company cared deeply about the safety of its users in India.

"WhatsApp has made significant product changes and worked with partners across civil society, engaged with relevant government authorities and other technology platforms to help address the harmful consequences of misinformation," the spokesperson said.

Inside sources told IANS that Twitter has not received any information on any such development so far.

TikTok said it is looking into the matter.

While WhatsApp has 400 million users in India, TikTok has crossed 200 million users. According to Statista, Twitter had nearly 35 million active users in India in 2019.

Though the FIR was registered on February 18, the issue came to light on Thursday. A police officer said that notices would be issued to the respondents seeking their comments.

The petitioner also sought ban on 42 apps, which he claimed were working against India.
on Friday said the "steadiness" in the economy is a good sign, soon after the official data showed the December quarter at 4.7 per cent.

Speaking at CNBC TV 18's business leadership awards event, Sitharaman made it clear that she was not expecting a jump in the number either.

India's economic growth slowed to 4.7 per cent in October-December 2019, according to official data released on Friday.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth was registered at 5.6 per cent in the corresponding quarter of 2018-19, as per the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).

On the impact of coronavirus on the economy, she said there is no need to immediately press the "panic button", but admitted that it may get challenging if the issues prolong for another two or three weeks, citing her conversations with the industry players over the last few days.

She also said the pharmaceutical and electronic industries, which depend heavily on imports from China for raw materials, have suggested airlifting of essential items and the government may consider the same.

However, the logistics of the same, like aggregating the goods and getting them to a single place will have to be done by the industry itself, she said, promising help from the government through the consular staff.

Sitharaman said the government is "pushing the banks like never before" to lend as much as possible across all categories, including retail, home and agriculture segments.

She, however, said that the government wants to learn from the experiences of the 2008-09 and ensure that there are no non-performing assets piled up for later years.

Sitharaman said the government is working creating a development finance institution (DFI), as were bodies like ICICI and IDBI before they turned into full-fledged banks.

The minister said that the ministry has managed to do whatever it can for the economy within the space offered by keeping the fiscal deficit under check and also added that it is not "closing options" on the same.
The husband of a British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran said he fears for his wife after she developed a 'cold' amid reports coronavirus had spread into the prison.

Richard Ratcliffe said conditions in the Evin prison in Tehran where Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is held have been 'worsening' over the past few months.

Lack of medicine, disinfectant, bleach and antiseptic in prison shops has forced prisoners to depend on washing liquid to stay clean, while the guards enjoy a supply of essentials, he said.

The 41-year-old Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who already suffers from unexplained collapses to irregular heartbeats, has a cold, a 'severe' sore throat and wakes up shivering.

Sources suggest that she already has the disease but warn authorities are likely to supress this information and may deny her tests to prove whether she has it.

Another inmate is believed to have died from the virus and at least four others are said to have it.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who suffers from unexplained collapses to irregular heartbeats, has a cold, a 'severe' sore throat and wakes up shivering

Writing for the i newspaper, Mr Ratcliffe said: 'On Monday we heard reports of cases, on Tuesday of a ward evacuated as a quarantine area.

'By Wednesday there were rumours of prisoners losing their life, as there had been in other prisons across the country.

'By Thursday, the judiciary was announcing plans to send eligible prisoners home temporarily.

'From far away it is hard to assess the risk calmly in Nazanin's case  knowing we are not being told the truth is not the same as knowing what the truth is. But this week the panic grew.'

Mr Ratcliffe fears his wife may be at risk of contracting Covid-19, which has already claimed 22 lives in the country

His comments come after Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said that, while the Iranian authorities have denied any outbreak of coronavirus at the prison, he would 'not always take as authoritative' such remarks.

Mr Radcliffe described Iran's initial response to the virus as a 'bravado' and 'a refusal to acknowledge the extent of the problem.'

He also intensified his calls on the British Government to secure his wife's release, saying: 'Nazanin could have been released years ago, if promises had been kept. Just how far does this need to go.'

Richard Ratcliffe and the couples daughter Gabriella. Ratcliffe has intensified his calls on the British Government to secure his wife's release

Nazanin was arrested at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport while travelling to show her young daughter, Gabriella, to her parents in April 2016.

She was sentenced to five years in prison over allegations, which she denies, of plotting to overthrow the Tehran government.

She was later afforded diplomatic protection by the UK Government, which argues that she is innocent and that her treatment by Iran failed to meet obligations under international law.
Hotel Business News and Analytics

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Tourism in Europe Keeps Growing Despite Global Risks

In 2019, Europe kept its position of the most visited region in the world, increasing the number of international tourist arrivals by 4%. This is a healthy increase compared to 2018 as it is mentioned in the latest issue of the quarterly report by the European Travel Commission (ETC). The previous years results are somewhat lower than the regions performance in 2018, but this is definitely a good result in the face of global risks and economic uncertainty.



Certain European destinations performed exceptionally well and reached double-digit increases in 2019. For example, hotels in Podgorica and other cities in Montenegro enjoyed a great year and ended it with an increase in arrivals on 21%. Improved infrastructure and better connectivity were among the main reasons for success. In Turkey, Istanbul hotels, as well as resort destinations, performed well too, helping the country to post an increase of 14%. Various advertising campaigns, promotions, and investments into tourism helped Turkey to reach such a great result. Lithuania is the third European country with a double-digit increase (+10%) in the number of international tourists.



Such countries as the Netherlands, Portugal, and Serbia reached higher than average results. In Serbia, relaxed visa regulations and improved business relations helped the country to attract more foreign guests and end the year with a positive result of +7%. Portugal posted the same growth in the number of international tourist arrivals. The country won as the most Accessible Tourist Destination 2019, and this is not just an award. Portugal takes real steps into making it affordable for a big number of tourists from different parts of the world.



Naturally, some European destinations ended the year with negative results. For example, the number of arrivals in Iceland decreased by 14% in 2019. With the closure of WOW Air, Icelandic low-cost carrier, and a strong Krona, it became more expensive to travel to Iceland. In Romania, a lack of infrastructure and promotion caused a decline of 4%.



Travelers from the US remain the biggest long-haul source market for Europe. Record low unemployment rates and growing salaries are positive factors that encourage tourists from the States to travel more. Turkey, Cyprus, and Montenegro had the highest increase in the number of US guests in 2019 (+30%, +27%, and +26% respectively). China, another crucially important source market, showed strong results in 2019. Unfortunately, Chinese arrivals are likely to be lower in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. ETC forecasts the decrease to be between 7% and 25%.

28.02.2020Stay in touch with the latest news of a worldwide hotel industry. All up-to-date analytics, reports , and news about hotel business trends on OrangeSmile.com.
This recognition was first bestowed on Siesta Beach in 2015, and again in 2017. VSC is thrilled to see TripAdvisor contributors select the destination again for 2020. Siesta Beach was named the #1 Beach in America by Dr. Stephen Leatherman, a.k.a. "Dr. Beach" in 2017 and 2011 as well.

"It is a great honor to receive the Top Beach in the United States ranking by TripAdvisor Travelers again this year," said Virginia Haley, VSC President. "With soft, quartz-crystal sand, beautiful blue-green waters, a great selection of accommodations, restaurants and activities, Siesta Beach is truly a gem in our community. VSC is proud to market the destination and have such an asset to promote on the world stage. It is because of these travelers that we get to tout this designation!"

Part of VSC's strategy to raise awareness of Siesta Key Beach is to sponsor the Siesta Key destination page on TripAdvisor. This tactic increases consideration of the island and beach within the platform and reaches those researching a trip to Siesta Key Beach. The TripAdvisor Destination Page encompasses an overview on things to do, places to stay, where to eat, and top nearby attractions. VSC also sponsors the Sarasota destination page on TripAdvisor.

The Trip Advisor page is the perfect combination of authentic content for those who are in the planning stages of their next visit to the area. Visitors who are looking to learn more about Siesta Key will find everything they will need for their day on the beach, including other key points of interest, trip planning tools and much more. Between the two Trip Advisor pages, there are over 90,000 images associated with Siesta Key Beach and Sarasota County. The mix of user-submitted photography and content from VSC creates a great experience for those looking to plan their visit.

To see the full report, visit www.TripAdvisor.com/TravelersChoice-Beaches.

About Visit Sarasota County

Visit Sarasota County leads and supports the tourism industry in Sarasota County by providing the highest quality, and most innovative, marketing programs and promotions to ensure the continued growth of tourism and travel from visitors around the world. It is the mission of VSC is to make Sarasota County the must experience destination on Florida's Gulf Coast. To learn more, visit www.visitsarasota.com.

Photos available: https://www.cleanpix.com/cleanpix/portal/W1YRG-ZeG-74Q

SOURCE Visit Sarasota County

Related Links

http://www.visitsarasota.com


Expansive aerial view of a pit mining project in Alberta's Oilsands near Fort McMurray.

Husky Energys (HSE.TO) chief executive officer says major energy projects are unlikely to move forward in Canada unless Ottawa does more to reduce political uncertainty and lengthy, expensive approval processes.

Speaking on a conference call following the release of the Calgary-based integrated oil producers latest financial results, Robert Peabody commented on the increasingly challenging environment for new energy infrastructure in Canada.

Governments should make every effort to ensure that companies in any industry dont invest significant dollars in a project, and in project applications, only to be derailed by policy or political uncertainty at the very last moment, he said on Thursday. That certainly is a situation that has to be rectified if people want projects to move ahead.

His remarks come in the wake of Teck Resources (TECK-B.TO)(TECK) decision last Sunday to pull the plug on plans for a $20 billion oilsands mine in northern Alberta. The company said the full potential of Canadas energy sector will not be realized until the government reconciles conflicting natural resource development and carbon reduction priorities.

Teck began the regulatory process for the planned Frontier mine in March 2008. Last July, the Alberta Energy Regulator and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency recommended approval of the project. The federal government was expected to issue its decision by the end of the month.

All you have to do to frustrate large project investment is make the regulatory process longer than sort of five years, Peabody said. What killed Teck, ultimately, was a regulatory process that just went on and on and on.

While Teck had not deemed the project viable given current commodity prices and the lack of take-away capacity in Canadas oil patch, the project became a political flashpoint, pitting Ottawas commitment to reduce carbon emissions against the need to support Albertas long-suffering resource economy.

Story continues

Teck warned last week that it would face a $1.13 billion impairment charge if the plan did not go ahead.

The abandoned Frontier mine plan is the latest casualty in a long line of energy projects impacted by regulatory hurdles and environmental opposition, including the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion sold to the government by Kinder Morgan (KMI), and TC Energy Corps (TRP.TO)(TRP) Keystone XL pipeline.

The latest pressure point has been TCs Energy Coastal GasLink pipeline in Northern British Columbia. The project aims to transport natural gas 670 kilometres from near Dawson Creek to a facility near Kitimat, where LNG Canada will prepare the gas for export to global markets.

While the project has the approval of all 20 elected Indigenous band councils governing the route, the Wetsuweten hereditary chiefs have not consented. They insist their authority trumps governance structures created under Canadas controversial Indian Act.

Nationwide protests in support of the hereditary chiefs have erupted in recent weeks. Demonstrators have blocked trains on key rail arteries, resulting in a range of setbacks for businesses across the country, including temporary layoffs.

A new poll by the Angus Reid Institute found 78 per cent of Canadians feel the countrys reputation as a prime destination for investment has taken a hit as a result.

Goldy Hyder, chief executive officer at the Business Council of Canada, said the disconnect between the Wetsuweten hereditary chiefs and their elected counterparts adds another layer of complexity to the already challenging process of building energy projects in Canada.

He said the federal government keeps moving the goalposts on project approvals, and his members in the energy sector are getting fed up.

What else do you want from us? Thats what I hear, Hyder told Yahoo Finance Canada.

His advice for the government: Don't politicize regulatory processes. Build the regulations strong enough that you are comfortable that you are getting the policy outcomes that you want.

Jeff Lagerquist is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jefflagerquist.

Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.
It is being argued that lack of a trade deal between India and the US during Donald Trumps just-concluded visit indicates both countries gained nothing from it, and that it was merely an expensive ego boosting exercise for Trump and Narendra Modi. The argument is specious. It misses the point of bilateral engagements by a mile.

It is being argued that lack of a trade deal between India and the US during Donald Trumps just-concluded visit indicates both countries gained nothing from it and that it was merely an expensive ego boosting exercise for Trump and Narendra Modi. The argument is specious. It misses the point of bilateral engagements by a mile.

The first problem with such an argument lies in its assumption that optics are of no value in bilateral engagements. This overlooks the role of populism and public diplomacy in foreign policy, as has previously been argued. High-level bilateral engagements are not bereft of optics, and the very fact that Trump flew in from halfway around the globe for a standalone visit to India leaving his campaign trail in an election year ought to highlight the importance the US attaches to this strategic partnership.

That there wasnt a trade deal on the cards (Trump was clear on it), reinforces, even more, the significance of the visit. Given his so-called transactional attitude towards bilateral ties, Trump could have cited a lack of progress on trade and opted out of the tour. But he didnt.

As Harsh V Pant, professor of international relations, Kings College London, wrote in Livemint, It tells you more about the state of India-US ties than any deal would have.

The second issue with such an argument is that it focuses too much on trade for a very myopic view of the relationship. Trade is just one of the aspects of bilateral ties that prime minister Modi has aptly called people-driven, people-centric and the most important partnership of the 21st Century.

To make trade negotiations the touchstone of a relationship  that impacts various geopolitical corners of a rapidly changing post-Cold War order and works as a democratic bulwark against the rise of authoritarianism around the world  is a blinkered and self-limiting exercise.

On the contrary, it can be argued that Trumps maiden visit to India has resulted in substantive deliverables, though a comprehensive trade deal has remained elusive.

Deliverable 1: Firewalling strategic cooperation from trade skirmishes

The biggest non-tangible deliverable has come by way of firewalling the strategic partnership from the fallout of trade-related skirmishes.

Commentators both in India and abroad had been apprehensive that by focusing too much on trade, Trump was undermining the India-US partnership and larger strategic logic was being sacrificed at the altar of niggling trade demands.

Trumps visit has allayed such fears. The US president did point to Indias high tariffs and vowed to ink a comprehensive, big deal later in the year, but he appeared overall to be tolerant of Indias compulsions. He played down the differences over trade and highlighted the importance of larger strategic cooperation, a mood that was reflected in the joint statement.

If we parse and compare the text of 2017 joint statement (when Modi visited Washington) and the statement released on Tuesday, the toning down of the rhetoric on trade is evident.

The 2017 document talks of resolving and pursuing commercial engagement in a manner that advances the principles of free and fair trade. To this end, India and the United States plan to undertake a comprehensive review of trade relations with the goal of expediting regulatory processes; ensuring that technology and innovation are appropriately fostered, valued, and protected; and increasing market access in areas such as agriculture, information technology, and manufactured goods and services. US apprehension with Indias lack of market access and worry over the protection of intellectual rights is clear.

The 2020 statement is more restrained: Prime Minister Modi and President Trump recognized the increasing importance of the trade and investment dimension of the India-United States relationship, and the need for long-term trade stability that will benefit both the American and Indian economies. They agreed to promptly conclude the ongoing negotiations, which they hope can become phase one of a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement that reflects the true ambition and full potential of the bilateral commercial relations, advancing prosperity, investment, and job creation in both countries."

It is evident that while the urgency remains on signing a deal, both nations have a better convergence on a vexing topic.

More importantly, it is now clear that trade friction wont be allowed to spill into other domains and harm the close strategic partnership. The significance of this deliverable cannot be overstated given widespread fears that a transaction Trump may evaluate a multifaceted partnership solely through the prism of trade and undermine decades of investment from both sides.

Trump showed that he understands the importance of continuity in bilateral ties, a staggering departure from his usual posture if we consider the way he has treated Americas treaty allies and affected trans-Atlantic partnerships.

Deliverable 2: Comprehensive strategic global partnership

During the joint briefing with Trump, Modi had referred to the elevation of a strategic partnership to the level of comprehensive strategic global partnership. That this isnt a talk shop or a rhetorical exercise becomes clear if we look closely at the joint statement. The phrase highlights a closer dovetailing of strategic and security interests and deepening of defence and security cooperation, especially through greater maritime and space domain awareness and information sharing; joint cooperation; exchange of military liaison personnel; advanced training and expanded exercises between all services and special forces; closer collaboration on co-development and co-production of advanced defence components, equipment and platforms; and partnership between their defence industries.

Comparing it with the statement of 2017, we find a greater emphasis on defence and security cooperation as expressed through the numerous and complex military exercises involving all three services and upgradation of quadrilateral, trilateral and bilateral dialogues. This paves the way for the third deliverable.

Deliverable 3: India is more confident about quad and China

One of the biggest charges against India was that its commitment on quadrilateral security dialogue (or simply quad) was half-hearted, with an eye on not rubbing China the wrong way. India has been called the weakest link in the four-nation mechanism of democracies in Indo-Pacific to counter Chinas revanchist policies and maritime expansionism. There have been suggestions that Indias understanding of the concept is flawed.

There were certainly no references to the quad in the 2017 joint statement. We find quad being formalised in the 2020 document, where both leaders have decided to strengthen consultation through the India-US-Japan trilateral summits; the 2+2 Ministerial meeting mechanism of the Foreign and Defence Ministers of India and the United States; and the India-US-Australia-Japan Quadrilateral consultations, among others. Prime Minister Modi and President Trump looked forward to enhanced maritime domain awareness sharing among the United States, India, and other partners.

Standing beside Modi during the joint briefing on Tuesday, Trump said, The prime minister and I are revitalizing the Quad Initiative with the US, India, Australia, and Japan. Since I took office, we have held the first Quad ministerial meeting  I guess you would call it a meeting, but it seems like so much more than that  and expanded cooperation on counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and maritime security to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific.

That mention and the subsequent formalising of the initiative in joint statement indicates India is no longer feeling coy about being part of the initiative and is perhaps less worried about bruising Chinas heightened sensitivities over this issue. Now lets combine this with the reference in a joint statement to the meaningful Code of Conduct in the South China Sea where India and the US solemnly urged the parties (read China) not to prejudice the legitimate rights and interests of all nations according to international law.

Notably, China is negotiating with some ASEAN nations in developing a code of conduct in the South China Sea. It ostensibly is a cooperative exercise aimed at reducing tension in the fraught region of contesting claims, but critics have pointed out that under the garb of a cooperative mechanism, China plans to further three of its basic demands.

They are, according to a report in Nikkei Asian Review, It should not be covered by the UNCLOS treaty; joint military exercises with countries outside the region must have the prior consent of all parties to the agreement, and no resource development should be conducted with countries outside the region.

In other words, China wants to curtail the influence of the US, India or European powers in the region. In referring to Quad, South China Sea code of conduct and in asking the parties not to violate international law, India is clearly taking a more aggressive posture vis-a-vis China, and the US is firmly behind its strategic partner.

This opens interesting possibilities in the region when we consider that not only are the strategic partners taking a clear position against China, they are moving towards offering the smaller nations in Indo-Pacific more infrastructure options to counter Beijings Belt and Road Initiative.

The first is through the concept of the Blue Dot Network, a multi-stakeholder initiative that will bring governments, the private sector, and civil society together to promote high-quality trusted standards for global infrastructure development.

Also worth noting is the announcement that US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) will open a permanent presence in India this year and delineate $600 million towards renewable energy projects in India, and also in third countries through USAID and Indias Development Partnership Administration for sustainable, transparent, quality infrastructure development in the region.

This is a long game and should get more attention than the Apache and Romeo deals that were anyway on the cards. On the downside, there were hardly any progress on nuclear reactor deal, or US position on Pakistan though Islamabads relative importance as a disruptor in US-India ties has becomes significantly less.

Overall, Trumps visit has resulted in strategic and security deliverables and insured the strategic partnership from trade wrinkles. This sets the stage for a much deeper engagement in coming years if and when the trade deal is worked out.
STAUNTON  Jill Kohlhaas, of White City, received a Heroism Award on Feb. 19 during the 2020 Rural Telecom Industry Meeting and Expo in Phoenix, Arizona.

Kohlhaas, senior dispatcher and plant records clerk at Madison Communications, was honored by the Rural Broadband Association for her quick thinking and compassion to save an elderly woman from distress.

In May 2019, Kohlhaas was returning to the office from her lunch hour when she saw a box turtle in distress near White City. She parked her vehicle safely on the side of the rural road so the risk of the turtle being hit would be averted and moved it to the other side of the road.

As she was returning to her vehicle, Kohlhaas heard a scream come from a tall, grassy area close to where she had placed the turtle. She discovered a 72-year-old woman lying on the ground alongside the roadway, bleeding from a head wound and unable to regain her balance.

Kohlhaas helped the woman down a long driveway and back inside her home where she discovered the woman was home alone. Kohlhaas secured a relatives contact information and waited at the home until they could arrive. The injured woman was taken to the hospital and did not suffer any broken bones or life threatening injuries.

Kohlhaas continued to check in on the woman over the next few weeks.

Simply put, Jill is one of the kindest individuals that you will eve meet in your lifetime, Kim Harber, Senior Vice President at Madison Communications, and Mary J. Schwartz Westerhold, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer at Madison Communications, wrote in their nomination for Kohlhaas. Jills efforts to save the life a turtle turned into saving the pain and suffering of a 72-year-old woman in distress.

Kohlhaas has been with Madison Communications for 17 years. She and her husband, Ray, have three daughters and seven grandchildren.

For more about Madison Communications, visit gomadison.com or call 800-422-4848.
It wasnt a storm that brought parts of Houston to a halt Thursday, but a city-owned pipe that busted open, crippling water pressure for thousands.

The ensuing rush of water onto East Loop stranded about a dozen motorists, with some taking refuge on the roofs of their cars. Firefighters rescued three people and moved 12 vehicles away from the rising water.

The break also forced a boil order, closures of schools, medical and social services, and restaurants out of fear for public health. The immediate aftermath was a familiar sight but under blue skies.

It was a little bit chaotic in the beginning but we always pull together, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said of the massive emergency response.

Ken Ellis/Staff

By 8 p.m., water stopped flowing through the broken segment of the pipe and receded from the surrounding area, said Houston Public Works spokeswoman Erin Jones. Drinking water was re-routed to other pipes in the system, and pressure was expected to gradually increase through the night, she said. Repair work likely will start early Friday morning, Jones said.

Late Thursday, Harris County advised utility districts and county water providers to test their water to ensure the safety of the water supply.

The boil order was issued for most of Houston around 6:30 p.m., more than six hours after a hulking 96-inch pipe erupted near Clinton Drive and East Loop 610, when the water pressure dropped below the Texas Commission on Environmental Qualitys required minimum of 20 PSI, according to a city alert. Health officials warned the lack of pressure could increase the risk of bacteria. Jones said the boil order would remain active until further notice.

The pipe responsible for the boil order was installed 35 years ago. It broke open just before noon when a city contractor began digging to repair a gradual leak on the water line near Clinton Drive and East Loop 610, officials said, causing water to bubble onto the neighboring highway.

Jones said the pipe stems from the East Water Purification Plant, roughly three miles east of the break. The water line carried about 50 percent of the drinking water in Houston, officials said.

MAJOR CLOSINGS: Houston restaurants, schools closing after water main bursts in Houston

Mayer Sylvester Turner pointed to aging infrastructure as the primary catalyst for the chaos.

This is an example of the need for infrastructure improvements, not just in this city but cities across the board, he said during a press conference. When you re dealing with an aging infrastructure, youre going to have these main line breaks. And in some cases, they are major arteries and can cause major disruption.

Shortly after the break, east and central Houston residents and businesses began complaining of dropping water pressure. For some, the lack of water meant that toilets could not flush.

As the problem festered, Houston ISD decided to close their schools Friday because of the widespread water service disruption, with water issues being reported as far west as Lamar High School in River Oaks. Officials at the University of Houston and Texas Southern University officials had already closed their campuses for Thursday.

Southbound lanes of the East Loop reopened late Thursday after Texas Department of Transportation workers cleaned debris. Northbound lanes were expected to open by the morning rush hour, TxDOT said via Twitter.

To our knowledge, nothing in our system failed, TxDOT spokeswoman Raquelle Lewis said. It was just inundated.

Houston Public Works officials identified the contractor involved with the broken pipe as Harper Brothers Construction. A woman who answered the phone for the Houston-based company put a reporter on hold for 10 minutes before disconnecting the line. Additional calls were rejected and the firms website was later inaccessible.

Hospitals impacted and closures reported

Lack of water was a growing problem at Houstons medical hub.

Houston Methodist Hospital experienced low water pressure, while Texas Childrens Hospital officials reported having had extensive water issues at their Texas Medical Center facilities. Some pediatric facilities were closed.

We do not have running water at all our locations. It was changing really rapidly, childrens hospital spokeswoman Natalia Angulo-Hinkson said, later adding that water pressure was stable.

Memorial Hermann spokesman Drew Munhausen said some of their hospitals in the Texas Medical Center, including Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, Childrens Memorial Hermann Hospital and TIRR Memorial Hermann, were experiencing water issues and others were fine. A Houston Chronicle reporter found toilets in a fourth floor bathroom at the Memorial Hermann Heart and Vascular Institute unflushed and a sink with little to no water pressure.

At one point, officials declared an internal disaster at some hospitals in the medical center, including Memorial Hermann, Baylor St. Lukes Medical Center, MD Anderson Cancer Center and Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, according to Dr. David Persse, Houston's local health authority and medical director of the city's EMS program.

That declaration is usually made when hospitals lose electricity or water in the building, he said. Other common causes include fires and bomb scares.

A sign in a first-floor bathroom at St. Lukes warned that patients should not be served water, ice, coffee or ingestible liquids that are not bottled.

Any activities that allow for the ingestion of tap water should be avoided and bottled water should be used instead, the sign continued, citing the brushing of teeth as an example.

The Harris Health System announced that eight of their outpatient facilities would be closed on Friday.

The burst pipe also took an economic toll on dozens of Houston restaurants as many lost water pressure and were forced to close. Jason Cho, owner of the Museum District eatery Dak & Bop, said his Binz Street location was without water.

He was more concerned for his employees, who were unable to work and sent home.

This could be one of a few shifts a week that theyre counting on to support their lives, their families, Cho said. This is just as impactful and devastating as Harvey, or any other natural disaster weve been through. Its hard enough to be a successful restaurant when everything goes right.

At Rosies Cannonball on Westheimer, a backup water supply kicked in, but supervisors erred on the side of caution and stopped serving lunch, employee Peru Flores said.

Beyond restaurants, the water pressure at the Harris County Jail was coming to a worrisome crawl and authorities were exploring the use of portable toilets for inmates.

To conserve water pressure, we have suspended showering and laundry services, officials said. Meals will be served on disposable trays to reduce the need for dish washing. Court dockets at the Harris County Civil, Criminal, Family and Juvenile District Courts were also canceled for Friday.

ONLY ON HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Mayor Turner taps Bay Area planner to become Houston's first chief transportation planner

I got scared

America Vega lives in the Pleasantville neighborhood within feet of the water main break. As water crept closer to her front door, she could not leave to pick up her three young daughters from their elementary school in Galena Park.

Her sister picked them up and delivered them to the backyard, where Vega hoisted them over the fence while standing atop an overturned trash can.

Inside their home, water barely trickled out of their faucets. The deluge crimped her plans for the day.

I have to cook and I have to wash dishes and all of that, said Vega, a stay-at-home mom.

Another resident, Jose Guillen, was at work when his wife sent photos of water inching toward their home. She called 911 for a rescue, he said, but the water eventually stopped flowing.

I got scared,  he said. Because the first thing that comes to your mind is your kids and your wife.

nicole.hensley@chron.com

julian.gill@chron.com

Jay R. Jordan, Matt Dempsey, Sarah Smith, Dug Begley and Todd Ackerman contributed.

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Novacyt was one of the rare risers in a bloodbath week for the UK stock market, thanks to the success of its coronavirus diagnostic test which it handily launched a few weeks ago.

The stock has been rising steadily for the past month or so, but shot up 33 per cent to 140.14p in the last week.

It looks like the phones at Novacyt have been ringing off the hook with a major distribution agreement signed in Asia and an original equipment manufacturer deal in the US.

As of 27 February, Novacyt said it had made 930,000 by distributing tests for research use only

The group told investors on Friday that initial sales from the Asian distribution deal, which are subject to local emergency use approval, are anticipated to be 2.1million during the first six months, with the first money flowing in March.

Meanwhile, the diagnostics kit - managed by Novacyt's Primedesign unit - has been fast-tracked for approval by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in the country's clinics.

As of 27 February, the biotech firm said it had made 930,000 by distributing tests for research use only. Novacyt has boosted production capacity and continues to adjust to the increasing demand.

The week, otherwise, was a disastrous one for the wider market, with the FTSE AIM All Share index plunging 13 per cent to 848, while the blue-chip FTSE 100 index dropped well below the 7,000 mark, plunging 11 per cent to 6,584 as worries over the impact of coronavirus on the global economy battered markets.

Jet2 owner Dart joined a collective collapse in airline stocks, crashing 36 per cent lower to 1,175p as the spread of coronavirus cases caused travel freezes in Europe.

Non-essential business trips have been cancelled, with analysts estimating the global airline industry will take a $560billion hit, while tourism in the continent is paralysed by a high number of cases in Italy.

But other fallers could not blame it on the virus, although the depressed markets made their performance worse.

Affordable housing company Ashley House plummeted 52 per cent to 1p as it candidly admitted it will go bust unless it pays its creditors, which will be difficult to do if its current nine non-contracted projects do not go ahead.

Elsewhere, remote meetings company LoopUp dropped 40 per cent to 48p after it said its US business has been hit by macro uncertainty in the law, corporate finance and private equity sectors.

Pesticide producer Plant Health Care tanked 26 per cent to 8p as it started the week by issuing shares at 8p a pop, well below last Friday's closing price of 14.25p.

A few directors bought 1million shares after the big sell-off, which raised $4.6million to help Plant Health compensate for lower-than-expected revenue in 2019.

Advanced materials group Haydale Graphene Industries slumped 25 per cent to 1p as it posted first-half sales that were below expectations due to issues in the US aerospace and petrochemical sectors.

Similarly, engineer Avingtrans tumbled 16 per cent to 270p as interim profits halved to 300,000 despite a 15 per cent increase in revenue to 54.8million.

The lower profit figure was attributed to a 900,000 loss in the firm's Energy steel and Booth businesses, both of which it acquired in June last year.

Jet2 owner Dart joined a collective collapse in airline stocks, crashing 36 per cent lower to 1,175p as the spread of coronavirus cases caused travel freezes in Europe

On the resources front, Base Resources lost 12 per cent to 11p as its interim production came in lower than in 2018, due to operations being moved to a nearby mine after depleting the orebody in its Central Dune project in Kenya.

Only a couple of companies managed to defy the precipitous market trend.

Symphony Environmental rocketed 74 per cent to 13p as it received approval for its d2p antimicrobial food packaging from the US Food and Drug Administration and said it expected immediate commercial interest.

And Eddie Stobart Logistics jumped 30 per cent to 9p in just two days as the logistics firm returned to AIM after a six-month suspension, although it reported a swing to an interim loss for the six months to 30 June following big impairment charges.

Trading in the trucking firm's shares had been halted after the group discovered a 2million black hole in its accounts, sparking a review of its revenue policy, with firm only saved from liquidation in December by a cash injection from a major shareholder.
The parents of a two-year-old boy with cancer are facing deportation to Mexico under the Trump administration after their grant of deferred action was denied.

Damaris Alameda Ramos and her husband Fabian Flores Aguirre applied for the grant, which allows migrant families to temporarily live and work in the country while they seek treatment for serious illnesses, so that they could continue to bring their son Fabian Flores Alameda to St Christophers Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, where he is receiving care.

The two year old, who, along with his sister, was born in the United States, was diagnosed with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) in April.

The disease, which causes masses of tissue to develop in the skull or on the arms and legs that can lead to fractures of the bones, requires the toddler to undergo chemotherapy. With the proper care, 80 per cent of those diagnosed with the disease can survive.

However, the family told The Philadelphia Inquirer that they were denied the grant on 11 November by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) - despite Ramos caring for her son full-time.

Now, Fabians parents, who grew up in the town of Chiautzingo before entering the United States without permission, fear they will be deported to Mexico - where they believe Fabian wont be able to receive the proper treatment.

Living in Mexico will be a death sentence for my child, Ramos said. Aguirre reiterated the fear over his sons future, telling the outlet: I know my son would die if we were forced to return to Mexico.

Their fear stems from the lack of accessible medical care in their home country, with their hometown consisting of just one doctor at a small clinic.

According to the familys immigration lawyer, Audrey Allen, she believes the reason for the denial is completely political, because all five of the applications she has submitted in the state have been denied, whereas the two she submitted in New Jersey have been approved.

Story continues

The familys denial comes after the Trump administration ended the deferment program in August before reinstating it a month later after public backlash.

While the program was restored, there are concerns that all deferment requests to the office are simply denied.

In a statement to the outlet, a spokesperson for Philadelphias USCIS said the agency gets about 1,000 requests a year, and that most of those requests are denied. The Independent has contacted the states USCIS department.

As of now, neither Ramos nor Aguirre has received a Notice to Appear, which would indicate the start of deportation proceedings.

But, without the protection afforded by the grant, the family fears what will happen in the future.
Expansion: Huawei chairman Liang Hua announced the plans for the new plant. Photo: JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images

Huawei will build its first European manufacturing plant in France, the chairman said yesterday, as the Chinese telecoms giant seeks to ease worldwide concerns stoked by US charges that Beijing could use its equipment for spying.

Liang Hua said Huawei, the world's biggest producer of telecoms equipment, would invest 200m in the first phase of setting up the mobile base station plant. He said it would create 500 jobs.

Huawei, which denies its equipment poses a security risk, is at the centre of a storm pitting the US against China over 5G, the next-generation mobile technology.

"This site will supply the entire European market, not just France's," Mr Liang told a news conference. "Our group's activities are worldwide and for this we need a global industrial footprint."

5G technology is expected to deliver a huge leap in the speed and capacity of communications, and an exponential spike in connections between the billions of devices, from smart fridges to driverless cars, that are expected to run on its networks.

It was not immediately clear whether Huawei's decision had the blessing of French president Emmanuel Macron, who has courted foreign investors but also led warnings about Chinese encroachment into the European Union's economy.

Mr Liang said Huawei had outlined the plans to the French government.

"This is not a charm offensive," he said. There was no immediate reaction from Mr Macron's office.

The United States has repeatedly warned European allies against allowing the Chinese firm into the continent's 5G infrastructure. But European capitals are divided over how to deal with Huawei.

France has yet to start rolling out its 5G networks but the top French mobile operator, state-controlled Orange, has already chosen Huawei's European rivals, Nokia and Ericsson.

France says it will not discriminate against any vendor but requires all suppliers to be screened so they can secure a green light from the cybersecurity agency, which is examining Huawei equipment.

Sources close to the French telecoms industry say they fear Huawei will be barred in practice even if no formal ban is announced.

The French plant will be Huawei's second manufacturing facility outside China.

It has a plant making smartphones in India but only has assembly plants elsewhere.

The plant in France will generate 1bn a year in sales.

Reuters
CROWN POINT  Two men and two juveniles were charged with robbing a cellphone store of one cellphone, abandoning an attempt to rob a second store when a customer "high kicked" them and leading police on a chase that ended when they crashed in Calumet City and ran into the Little Calumet River.

Daquan J. Steele, 19, of Chicago, and Darius N. Fields, 18, of Glenwood, worked with two other juvenile suspects Sunday to rob the Metro PCS store at 124 Sibley St. and the Sprint store at 1810 165th Street in Hammond, court records allege.

Two juveniles also were charged in connection with the alleged crimes, Hammond police Lt. Steven Kellogg said. Their identities were not released because of their age.

In both cases, several people entered the stores wearing masks and attempted to take cellphones from display cases, records say.

Steele was able to take one iPhone XR during the robbery at the Sprint store about 1:40 p.m. Sunday, Lake Criminal Court records allege.

An employee at the Sprint store ran out a door and attempted to hold it shut to trap the suspects inside, but Fields walked up behind her and told her to open the door, documents state.
Residents of Nigeria's economic hub Lagos scrambled for hygiene products Friday, after the chaotic megacity of 20 million announced the first confirmed case of new coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa. Health Minister Osagie Ehanire said in a statement overnight that the infected person was an Italian citizen who flew in from Milan, at the heart of Europe's largest outbreak, earlier this week. "The patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms," Ehanire said, adding that he was being treated at a hospital for infectious diseases in Lagos. The low number of cases so far across Africa, which has close economic ties with China, the epicentre of the deadly outbreak, has puzzled health specialists. Prior to the case in Nigeria, there had been just two cases on the continent -- in Egypt and Algeria. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country with some 190 million people, is viewed as highly vulnerable to viral spread given its weak health system and high population density. Worried inhabitants of Lagos, a city hit by the West African Ebola epidemic in 2014, were already flocking to pharmacies Friday morning in search of hand sanitiser and masks. "We are sold out for now, people came massively this morning," a worker at a pharmacy on Lagos Island told AFP. "Masks are scarce in town, we tried to order some and we couldn't get them so people should use a handkerchief instead." One customer refused to shake hands as he said he was struggling to buy hygiene products. "I've been trying to find hand sanitiser everywhere, they don't have it anymore in the supermarket, they don't have it at the pharmacy, I'm upset," John said, giving only his first name. "This epidemic is so scary, we should be very careful." - 'Biggest concern' - The delay in the first confirmed case in sub-Saharan Africa appears to have given the region a chance to get better prepared -- with more than half of the countries establishing laboratories to diagnose the virus. But the World Health Organization (WHO) has still called for the continent "to come together to be more aggressive in attacking" the issue and said the "biggest concern" is outbreaks in countries with fragile health systems. Kenya's high court on Friday ordered the suspension of flights from China after an uproar over the government allowing travellers into the country without compulsory quarantine for the new coronavirus. The region of West Africa already has the bitter experience of dealing with the devastating Ebola outbreak that killed some 11,000 people from 2013 to 2016. The disease's arrival in Lagos in 2014 set off alarm bells across the globe and unleashed a wave of panic among residents. In the end Lagos escaped relatively lightly and only seven people died from a total of 19 infected, with the WHO praising the fast response. Nigerian officials moved quickly Friday to reassure the population that the country was prepared to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. "We have continued to beef our own security. The level of preparedness continues to improve of Nigeria every day," the health minister, Ehanire, told a press conference in the capital Abuja. Health officials said the infected person flew to Lagos via Istanbul on Turkish Airlines on Monday and spent a night in a hotel before heading to the company offices of French-Swiss firm Lafarge outside the city. "We have immediately identified all personnel that have had remote or direct contact with the individual concerned and initiated an isolate, quarantine and disinfect protocol," the company said in a statement. The authorities say they have set up quarantine centres in Lagos and Abuja and there are four laboratories in the country with the capacity to diagnose the virus. - 'Lessons from Ebola' - The director general of the West African Health Organisation Stanley Okolo insisted this month that the region had "learnt from the lessons of Ebola". He said members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc agreed recently to come up with a "regional cost plan" and estimated that up to $50 million was required. "The devastation of an epidemic affects everybody," he said. Situated in a tropical region close to the equator, Nigeria has had to face the threat of multiple contagious diseases. An outbreak of Lassa fever, which is spread mainly through rat faeces and urine, has killed over 100 people across the country since the start of the year. Experts say the oil-rich economic powerhouse is better prepared to deal with any disease epidemics than some of its poorer neighbours in the region. But the government is criticised for not spending enough on health and crumbling infrastructure, corruption and the departure of doctors to better paying jobs abroad have eaten away at the sector. Controls have been set in place at Lagos airport Hand hygiene: A visitor uses sanitisation gel before being allowed into a state hospital in Lagos Nigeria won high marks for swiftly rolling back an outbreak of Ebola in Lagos in 2014
Then came a computer with a screen reader, but at first I didnt even know how to turn it on. I touched the keyboard, and it meant nothing. It felt like a bunch of useless bumps. After failing to use the first computer, my host father did more research and provided me with more machines  a talking computer, an iPad, Braille display and several talking devices, as well as a Braille keyboard. Now I could use the internet for my classes.
Cheyenne Hurt (left) and Kayla Garforth (right), are a married couple charged with killing Rephael Brandon Swan in 2017 after meeting him on the dark web. Read more

The murder and mutilation of Rephael Brandon Swan was as brutal as it was baffling.

Swan, 29, was found in the bedroom of his Overbrook Park basement apartment, his hands bound by a belt, his stomach, neck, chest, and right thigh punctured by 67 stab wounds. A sock was in his mouth, and his body had been set ablaze in bed.

Two years passed before Philadelphia police had enough evidence to charge two West Chester women in the September 2017 slaying. Now Cheyenne Hurt and Kayla Garforth, who are married, are accusing each other of being the killer.

Im not surprised in a case like this that one person will try to point the finger at the other person, and the other person would point the finger back at the other person, said Hurts attorney, Michael McDermott. Theyre both in a tight spot right now.

Garforth is cooperating with the District Attorneys Office, said her attorney, David Nenner. She hopes the murder charge against her will be dropped in exchange for her testimony against Hurt, who Nenner said killed Swan in a fit of rage while the two were having sex as Garforth watched. She has a pretrial conference scheduled for March 18.

Defendants charged in the same crime in Philadelphia are usually tried together. But the cases of Hurt and Garforth are assigned to two judges, court records show. Hurts trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 21; no trial date has been set for Garforth.

Assistant District Attorney Courtney Malloy, who is prosecuting the case, did not return calls seeking comment.

Legally married to Hurt since 2015, Garforth, according to court testimony, later met Swan on the dark web, the internet layer that isnt visible to search engines and is only accessible by special software that allows users and website operators to remain anonymous.

Lawful commerce and communication is conducted on the so-called deep web, cyber experts say. But a small part is where illicit drugs and stolen IDs are trafficked; sex-hookup and child-pornography sites flourish; hit men are hired; and money is laundered, say law enforcement officials and cyber experts.

I can tell you that no good, typically, comes from the dark web. The technology behind the dark web was created by the U.S. Navy to give the government anonymity and invisibility on the internet., said Mark Lanterman, chief technology officer for Computer Forensic Services in Minneapolis, who is not involved in the case.

Just like every other tool, some people use it for good, some people use it for bad, and unfortunately, the dark web as a tool tends to be used for bad things, added Lanterman, a former Springfield Township, Montgomery County, police officer and a former member of the U.S. Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force.

Court documents show that after Garforth, now 28, and Hurt, now 25, met Swan, the threes relationship included sex and drugs.

Although two years passed before Hurt and Garforth were charged in the murder, they were suspects within two months of the slaying, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Hurts arrest.

On Nov. 30, 2017, a friend of the women told detectives that the couple met Swan on social media and later killed him and burned his body. Two months earlier, the witness said, Hurt had sent a text message saying, I fed up, and a day or so later wrote that someone had been killed, according to the affidavit.

Hurt told the witness shed gone to Swans home for sex, tied his hands with belts, they used drugs, something went bad sexually, and she stabbed him repeatedly, the affidavit said.

The witness  whose name and gender were not included in the affidavit  said Hurt asked for help in cleaning up the crime scene. When the witness declined, according to the document, Hurt said that Garforth was going to set the place  on fire.

When the witness saw the couple a few days later, Garforths right hand and knuckles were purple and bruised and she had blisters on her right arm that looked as if she had been burned, Homicide Detective Francis Graf wrote in the affidavit.

And on Facebook, the affidavit said, Hurt left evidence: The day after the slaying, on Sept. 7, 2017, she wrote: Stab a f boy in his  motherfing face.

A year later, on Sept. 7, 2018, the affidavit said, Hurt and a friend had a Facebook chat in which Hurt wrote: I just realized today is the day I killed that guy.  Well, yesterday.

Nenner maintains that Hurt committed the murder while Garforth was present but that Garforth did not take part in the slaying.

Cheyenne just lost it, Nenner said. My client was begging her to stop, but she wouldnt.

The two women returned to the scene a few days later and started a fire in the basement apartment to destroy evidence, the lawyer said.

Lanterman, who has testified in more than 2,000 cases, called the case bizarre but wasnt sure if the alleged behavior is related to the dark web.

I would argue that the use of the dark web perhaps shows premeditation, he said, "because theyre already trying to maintain anonymity and privacy.
Industrial enterprises in China are resuming normal production, pointing to the success of swift measures to control the new coronavirus epidemic

After the outbreak of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Chinese government and people have made great efforts to fight the epidemic and made huge sacrifices, which were widely praised by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the international community.

China has made substantial progress in the fight against the disease, with the number of newly diagnosed cases in mainland China outside Hubei province falling to five on 25 February from the peak of 390 on 3 February. For China, dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak is not only a battle against an epidemic, but also a struggle of economic defence.

With its remarkable performance in the prevention and control of the epidemic, China is now endeavouring to resume its economic and social activities in an orderly manner. As an important participant in economic globalisation, and the world's second largest economy, China has long been an indispensable part of the global industrial chain.

Chinas resumption of production and construction has provided strong support for the steady development of the world economy and boosted confidence and given impetus to high-level economic and trade operations between China and Egypt.

Industrial enterprises in China are sounding the "back to work" horn. By 12pm on 20 February, over 97.08 percent of China s top 500 manufacturing companies had resumed production, and the rate of back-to-work enterprises in Zhejiang province, dominated by SMEs, is over 90 percent.

Railways, civil aviation, ports and water transport across the country are all operating normally. Foreign enterprises in China have also joined in the recovery of production on the premise of effective disease prevention and control.

Priority has been given to accelerating the supply of medical resources in order to meet the demand of epidemic control and enterprises restarting work. China has taken measures of maintaining supply while resuming and expanding production. Production capacity of medical materials has been increased continuously.

As of 22 February, the daily production of face masks in China had reached 54.77 million masks, with capacity expected to reach 180 million per day by the end of February. Daily production of medical protective suits has risen from less than 10,000 pieces on 28 January to more than 330,000 pieces.

Overall, China has a large economy that is resilient and resistant to pressure. The impact of the new coronavirus epidemic is short-term and generally manageable. The fundamentals of the Chinese economy remain sound in the long run.

Both the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have issued statements in support of China's responses and measures to prevent and control the epidemic, and are "full of confidence" in China's economic resilience. With the emerging effectiveness of epidemic prevention and control measures, China has the confidence, ability and prerequisites to minimise the economic impact of the outbreak via effective hedging of policies and measures.

Small fluctuations in bilateral trade are caused by the dual factors of epidemic and seasonal adjustment. China's exports data in the first quarter are usually the lowest in the whole year due to the lunar New Year holiday. This year, affected by the epidemic, foreign trade enterprises postponed the resumption of work, and the delivery of orders would be adjusted.

WHO stated that there is no reason to take unnecessary measures to interfere with international travel and trade, and WHO does not recommend restricting trade and personnel movements. The introduction of relevant measures must be scientifically based. Regarding the rumours spreading on the internet about not accepting Chinese goods or packages, WHO experts point out that that would be totally unnecessary.

Resumption of production will accelerate China-Egypt trade cooperation back to its normal track. China's foreign trade enterprises have taken the initiative to prevent epidemics and resume production under the strong support and assistance of the government. Therefore, we have every reason to believe that bilateral trade between China and Egypt will soon return to a normal level.

And as always, China welcomes Egyptian goods into its domestic market. China will host the third China International Import Expo (CIIE) in 2020 and welcomes more Egyptian businessmen to participate in this global event.

Chinese companies are still interested in the Egyptian market and will continue to expand investment after the epidemic. China's investment in Egypt has exceeded $7 billion. From January to November 2019, direct investment from Chinese companies in Egypt increased by $88.89 million, according to the official statistics of MOFCOM, China.

The new investment goes to home appliance manufacturing, motorcycle production, the agricultural economy and other fields. The investment plans established by Chinese companies will not undergo major adjustments, and there will be no large-scale shutdowns or withdrawals. Investment projects in Egypt can basically maintain normal production operations.

New investment projects, which are still in the stage of feasibility study and marketing, have been put on hold and will continue to be promoted after the outbreak is over. We will work together with the Egyptian government to provide a convenient and efficient business environment for both Chinese and Egyptian companies.

TEDA Zone epidemic prevention measures are applauded for their effectiveness. The China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone (referred to as TEDA Zone), an industrial park with the best comprehensive environment, the highest investment density and the highest output per unit in Egypt, is the zone with the highest concentration of Chinese enterprises in Egypt.

Right after the outbreak, TEDA took strict anti-epidemic measures in the park to guarantee a safe environment for business operation while protecting the health of local employees, as unanimously recognised by the Egyptian government and health experts. On 2 February, a joint investigation team from the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone, the Ministry of Health and Suez governorate inspected TEDA Zone and concluded that the industrial park is completely safe.

Chinese enterprises are implementing construction projects while taking effective epidemic control measures. The construction sites of major projects in Egypt undertaken by Chinese companies, such as the 10 Ramadan City light rail project, and the CBD of the new capital, have attracted much attention as thousands of Chinese and Egyptian workers are working together.

During the outbreak, the project sites are under closed-door construction with regular disinfection measures and daily monitoring of body temperatures. Chinese enterprises are trying their best to maximise the protection of the health of Chinese and Egyptian workers and to minimise the impact of the outbreak on the construction period. At present, all projects are under normal progress and there is no risk related to the outbreak.

Egyptian and Chinese companies have taken proactive prevention and control measures to ensure smooth cooperation. Chinese enterprises in Egypt are highly conscious and meticulous in their work, and have taken appropriate measures to carry out normal business in Egypt, proving their successful experience in the prevention and control of the epidemic, and giving great confidence to our joint efforts to combat the epidemic and deepen cooperation.

We will never forget the understanding and valuable support for China from President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, the Egyptian government and all sectors of society in Egypt in various forms at the most difficult moment of China's fight against the epidemic.

We are ready to work with Egypt in preventing and controlling the outbreak, minimising the impact of the outbreak on bilateral economic and trade cooperation, to speed up the implementation of Chinese investments and projects in Egypt, to promote the resumption of normal personnel exchanges and economic and trade exchanges.

We will jointly usher in even greater China-Egypt economic and trade cooperation after the end of the outbreak.

*The writer is minister counsellor for economic and commercial affairs at the Chinese Embassy in Cairo.

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Steven Seagal, the star of action movies including Above the Law and Out for Justice, has agreed to pay $314,000 to resolve charges of unlawfully touting a cryptocurrency offering, the U.S. securities regulator said on Thursday.

Seagal, 67, agreed to give up $157,000 in ill-gotten gains and to pay another $157,000 as a penalty for failing to disclose payments he received for promoting an investment in an initial coin offering from Bitcoiin2Gen (B2G), the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement.

The SEC has moved to clamp down on such promotions. The agency said in 2017 that social media endorsements from celebrities to encourage people to buy stocks and other investments may be unlawful if they do not disclose details about compensation received.

Seagal, who did not admit to any wrongdoing, failed to disclose that he was promised $1 million in cash and B2G tokens in exchange for those endorsements, the SEC said.

Seagal, a Hollywood actor and martial arts expert who now lives in Russia, became a believer in and brand ambassador for the coins, B2G said in a statement in February 2018. From about February to March 2018, Seagal promoted B2G to his Facebook and Twitter followers with statements including Dont miss out.

These investors were entitled to know about payments Seagal received or was promised to endorse this investment, so they could decide whether he may be biased, said Kristina Littman, chief of the SEC Enforcement Divisions cyber unit.

As part of the deal, the actor has agreed not to promote any securities for three years.

Seagal is a U.S. national living in Moscow, the SEC said.

In August 2018, the Russia Foreign Ministry said it had named Seagal its special representative for Russian-U.S. humanitarian ties, a role it said was meant to deepen cultural, art and youth ties between the two countries.

President Vladimir Putin presented a Russian passport to Seagal in 2016, saying then that he hoped it would serve as a symbol of how fractious ties between Moscow and Washington were starting to improve.
[February 28, 2020] Global Agile Development Software Market and Project Management Software Market 2020 Growth Trend, Requirements, Services and Solution, Top Players, Demand & Industry Forecast to 2026

Dallas, Texas, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Agile Development Software Market This report focuses on the Global Agile Development Software Market status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Agile Development Software development in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Central & South America. With the growing penetration of applications, technology, and devices, the services behind them have rising significance which resulting into the huge growth in services offered by the IT industries. This, coupled with the need to offer more value is expected to boost the growth of the global agile development software market over the forecast period. It focuses on the delivery of significant software as well as adapts to shift in demands even later phases of the software development. In addition, businesses in IT industry need to follow strict deadlines with better quality, hence the growing number of enterprises are shifting towards implementing the agile mode of software development. This is due to the agile aids in anticipating the budgets with the timely manner, consumers are growingly demanding IT service providers to embrace agile methods. The key players covered in this study Sauce Labs

Atlassian

Microsoft

Pivotal Tracker

Broadcom

IBM

Stackify

Kintone

SpiraPlan

CollabNet

ProductPlan Request a PDF Sample Copy of Agile Development Software industry report @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/4227865 This approach also enables seamless integration of several IT businesses, which is expected to contribute to the growth of the global agile development software market into coming years. On the other hand, organizations often face several challenges in transforming from conventional methods of software development to agile software development. In addition, IT service providers may overcome some difficulties in embracing the agile method owing to the lack of better understanding of the software operations and processes involved in the agile-based software development. It is resulted into the increased cost of software development and the project schedule may get affected. Market segment by Type, the product can be split into

Cloud Based

On-Premise

Market segment by Application, split into

Large Enterprises

SMEs



Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers

North America

Europe

China

Japan

Southeast Asia

India

Central & South America



The study objectives of this report are:

To analyze global Agile Development Software status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players.

To present the Agile Development Software development in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Central & South America.

To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their development plan and strategies.

To define, describe and forecast the market by type, market and key regions. Place a Direct Purchase Order @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/contact/purchase-single-user/4227865 Major Poits from Table of Content:



Chapter One: Report Overview

Chapter Two: Global Growth Trends by Regions

Chapter Three: Competition Landscape by Key Players

Chapter Four: Breakdown Data by Type (2015-2026)

Chapter Five: Agile Development Software Breakdown Data by Application (2015-2026)

Chapter Six: North America

Chapter Seven: Europe

Chapter Eight: China

Chapter Nine: Japan

Chapter Ten: Southeast Asia

Chapter Eleven: India

Chapter Twelve: Central & South America

Chapter Thirteen: Key Players Profiles

Chapter Fourteen: Analyst's Viewpoints/Conclusions

Chapter Fifteen: Appendix Another Report: Global Agile Project Management Software Market Analysis 2020

This report focuses on the Global Agile Project Management Software Market status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Agile Project Management Software development in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Central & South America. Agile project management software is nothing but an iterative approach which manages the software development projects with focusing on constant releases and integrating consumer response on each iteration. Nowadays, organizations increase in complexity as well as size, an extensive solution is required to coordinate and manage the complete organizations portfolio for the number of different projects. Hence, agile project management software help the management to shuffle between workload, resources, plans, and budgets, and it carefully observes the overall project progress and report with delivery success. The software also used for several purposes in the organizational project such as planning, scheduling, change, and resource allocation. Request a sample of this report @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/request-sample/4227866 The key players covered in this study Micro Focus

Monday

Wrike

Zoho

Kitovu

MeisterTask

Harmony Business Systems

Project Insight

Smartsheet

Ravetree

Workfront

Workamajig

BVDash

Taskworld The solution has now grew into a strategic function of current business owing to the growing technological advancements and increasing range of digital transformation across various industries. The agile project management software is witnessing the existence of innovative and technological accelerators which has given increase to innovative business models, fulfilling consume requirements, engaging with consumers, and operationalizing business methods. By type, the market is classified into cloud based and on premise. By application analysis, the market is segregated into small and medium enterprises and large enterprises. By geographical viewpoint, this industry is categorized into Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, South America, and the Middle East and Africa. Market segment by Type, the product can be split into

Cloud Based

On-Premise

Market segment by Application, split into

Large Enterprises

SMEs



Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers

North America

Europe

China

Japan

Southeast Asia

India

Central & South America



The study objectives of this report are:

To analyze global Agile Project Management Software status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players.

To present the Agile Project Management Software development in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Central & South America.

To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their development plan and strategies.

To define, describe and forecast the market by type, market and key regions. Get the Discount on this report @ https://www.orbisresearch.com/contacts/discount/4227866 Some Points from Table of Content:

Chapter One: Report Overview

1.1 Study Scope

1.2 Key Market Segments

1.3 Players Covered: Ranking by Agile Project Management Software Revenue

1.4 Market Analysis by Type

1.4.1 Global Agile Project Management Software Market Size Growth Rate by Type: 2020 VS 2026

1.4.2 Cloud Based

1.4.3 On-Premise

1.5 Market by Application

1.5.1 Global Agile Project Management Software Market Share by Application: 2020 VS 2026

1.5.2 Large Enterprises

1.5.3 SMEs

1.6 Study Objectives

1.7 Years Considered





Chapter Two: Global Growth Trends by Regions

2.1 Agile Project Management Software Market Perspective (2015-2026)

2.2 Agile Project Management Software Growth Trends by Regions

2.2.1 Agile Project Management Software Market Size by Regions: 2015 VS 2020 VS 2026

2.2.2 Agile Project Management Software Historic Market Share by Regions (2015-2020)

2.2.3 Agile Project Management Software Forecasted Market Size by Regions (2021-2026)

2.3 Industry Trends and Growth Strategy

2.3.1 Market Top Trends

2.3.2 Market Drivers

2.3.3 Market Challenges

2.3.4 Porters Five Forces Analysis

2.3.5 Agile Project Management Software Market Growth Strategy

2.3.6 Primary Interviews with Key Agile Project Management Software Players (Opinion Leaders)



Chapter Three: Competition Landscape by Key Players

3.1 Global Top Agile Project Management Software Players by Market Size

3.1.1 Global Top Agile Project Management Software Players by Revenue (2015-2020)

3.1.2 Global Agile Project Management Software Revenue Market Share by Players (2015-2020)

3.1.3 Global Agile Project Management Software Market Share by Company Type (Tier 1, Tier Chapter Two: and Tier 3)

3.2 Global Agile Project Management Software Market Concentration Ratio

3.2.1 Global Agile Project Management Software Market Concentration Ratio (CRChapter Five: and HHI)

3.2.2 Global Top Chapter Ten: and Top 5 Companies by Agile Project Management Software Revenue in 2019

3.3 Agile Project Management Software Key Players Head office and Area Served

3.4 Key Players Agile Project Management Software Product Solution and Service

3.5 Date of Enter into Agile Project Management Software Market

3.6 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion Plans



Chapter Four: Breakdown Data by Type (2015-2026)

4.1 Global Agile Project Management Software Historic Market Size by Type (2015-2020)

4.2 Global Agile Project Management Software Forecasted Market Size by Type (2021-2026)

Continued.... About Us:

Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a single point aid for all your market research requirements. We have vast database of reports from the leading publishers and authors across the globe. We specialize in delivering customized reports as per the requirements of our clients. We have complete information about our publishers and hence are sure about the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization. This helps our clients to map their needs and we produce the perfect required market research study for our clients. Contact Us: Hector Costello Senior Manager  Client Engagements 4144N Central Expressway, Suite 600, Dallas, Texas - 75204, U.S.A. Phone No.: +1 (972)-362-8199 ; +91 895 659 5155

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Dozens of Turkish soldiers have been killed in an airstrike in Syrias Idlib province, in a dramatic escalation in the battle for control of the countrys last opposition stronghold.

Turkish officials said at least 33 of its military personnel were killed in the attack on Thursday night, and more than 30 others injured. Military sources among moderate and jihadist rebel factions fighting in the north-western province bordering Turkey said the deaths followed a precision strike on a two-storey building in the village of Balioun.

A Turkish convoy, part of reinforcements sent to the area to aid rebel groups earlier this month, was subjected to heavy shelling on Thursday morning. The soldiers had taken cover in Balioun, basing themselves in the local council building.

Rahmi Dogan, the local governor of the south-eastern Turkish province of Hatay on the border with Idlib, said ambulances streamed from a Syrian border crossing to a hospital in the nearby town of Reyhanli on Thursday night.

Turkish officials have blamed the Syrian regime for the attack, but several sources in Idlib and unverified footage of the nighttime strike suggested it had been carried out by the Russian air force, which has helped Damascus conduct a ferocious three-month-old offensive on Idlib.

Russias defence ministry denied on Friday that its planes had carried out the strike but said Turkish troops should not have been in the Idlib area and had given no warning of their presence to the Syrian government.

In a further escalation, Russia said it was sending two frigates armed with cruise missiles to the Mediterranean Sea off the Syrian coast, the Interfax news agency reported on Friday.

After the attack in Idlib, the United Nations called for urgent action in north-west Syria, warning that the risk of greater escalation grows by the hour.

Nearly a million civilians have been displaced in Idlib near the Turkish border since December as Syrian government forces push to retake territory from rebels and jihadist groups, marking the worst humanitarian crisis of the countrys nine-year war.

Story continues

Although Ankara and Moscow share important trade, energy and defence links, the relationship has already been sorely tested by the recent violence in Syria, where they back opposing sides.

Turkey responded with airstrikes on all known Syrian government targets, said the countrys communications director, Fahrettin Altun, early on Friday. Altun said authorities had decided to respond in kind to the attack.

We urge the international community to fulfil its responsibilities to stop the regimes crimes against humanity, he said. We cannot stand by and watch as past events in Rwanda, and Bosnia and Herzegovina are repeated today in Idlib.

Turkeys activities on the ground in Syria would continue, he added.

The US state department expressed concern over the attack on its Nato ally. Nato said it was calling a meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the request of Turkey to discuss the Syria situation.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, chaired an emergency security meeting overnight, at the same time Turkish officials briefed reporters that Ankara had decided it would no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land and sea  a move calibrated to win EU and Nato support for its operation in Idlib.

Turkish police, coastguard and border security officials have already been ordered to stand down, Turkish officials added.

Related: 'We have nothing left': displaced Syrians wait out war in Idlib

Around 170,000 people are camped out in desperate conditions on Idlibs border with Turkey in winter weather as they flee the swift advance of Bashar al-Assads army and allied militias backed by Russian airpower.

Turkey is unwilling to take in any more Syrians on top of the 3.6 million refugees it already hosts. In an effort to secure its southern border, Ankara took the unprecedented step of sending thousands of troops and convoys of equipment to Idlib in the past three weeks, leading to direct clashes with regime forces for the first time.

While Idlib province and the surrounding countryside are technically protected by a de-escalation deal brokered in 2018, the agreement broke down last year after control of most of the area was wrested from more moderate rebel groups by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly al-Qaidas Syrian affiliate.

Despite warnings from the UN and aid agencies that fighting in Idlib would put 3 million civilians at risk, Damascus launched an attritional and then full-scale campaign on the province, arguing that HTS was not covered by the de-escalation deal.

Turkey has helped rebels to retake one town but had already lost 17 military personnel in the campaign before a strike on Thursday morning killed three, and the evening strike killed at least 22, marking the biggest single day of losses for the countrys forces.

Turkish attempts to broker a ceasefire, and growing international calls for a halt to the violence, have so far been met with indifference from the Kremlin. Erdogan has vowed Ankara will not take the smallest step back in the standoff with Damascus and Moscow over Idlib, giving the regime until the end of the month to pull back.

The US senator Lindsey Graham called on Thursday for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Idlib and called on Donald Trump to help stop the violence against civilians there.

The world is sitting on its hands and watching the destruction of Idlib by Assad, Iran, and the Russians, Graham, a Republican and an ally of the US president, said in a statement.

Related: Syrian rebels retake key town in Idlib from Assad forces

I am confident if the world, led by the US, pushed back against Iran, Russia, and Assad that they would stand down, paving the way for political negotiations to end this war in Syria.

Kay Bailey Hutchison, the US ambassador to Nato, said Thursdays events should show Turkey who is their reliable partner and who isnt and prompt it to drop its purchase of a major Russian missile defence system, which Washington says threatens the western alliance.
Former finance minister P Chidambaram slammed the Modi government over GDP numbers for Q3 of the financial year, which will be released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today. Chidambaram cited the latest SBI report that pegged the October-December GDP at 4.5 per cent. Chidambaram said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had maintained that she would not speculate on the GDP numbers. "She is right, but she can certainly calculate the GDP number," he tweeted.

He added: "SBI has done it. So have others. GDP for the third quarter is expected to be 4.5%. What will the GDP number be according to the calculation of the government?" He said if the Q3 GDP number turned out to be about 4.5 per cent, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman "should not be surprised". "The whole country is resigned to another depressing number," he said.

FM said she will not speculate on the GDP number. She is right, but she can certainly calculate the GDP number.



SBI has done it. So have others. GDP for the third quarter is expected to be 4.5%. What will the GDP number be according to the calculation of the government? P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) February 27, 2020

A State Bank of India report recently said the GDP growth would remain flat at over six-year low of 4.5 per cent in Q3 of FY20. It, however, revised its FY20 growth estimate to 4.7 per cent from the earlier estimate of 4.6 per cent. DBS Bank also pegged the December quarter growth at 4.4 per cent and GVA at 4.3 per cent on the back of restocking demand, coupled with stabilising corporate earnings. Other forecasts by major banks and rating agencies for the third quarter include 4.5 per cent by YES Bank; 4.5 per cent by Kotak Bank; 4.8 per cent by HDFC bank; 4.6 per cent by IDFC First Bank; 4.5 per cent by CARE Ratings; and 5.1 per cent by CRISIL.

Chidambaram during a recent interview with India Today had rated Modi government's Budget 2020 as "zero", while adding the compelling need of the hour was to arrest the six-quarter decline and revive growth. "Current year nominal growth was estimated at 12 per cent, and we ended up with 8.5 (per cent). For the next year, if you are projecting nominal growth at 10 per cent, that's not a revival. And if nominal is going to be 10 per cent, how do you (the Centre) say that the growth will be 6-6.5 per cent?" he said. The Congress leader also said that historically, it had been seen that the difference between nominal growth and real growth was between 4 or 5 per cent.

Edited by Manoj Sharma

Also read: Will it be another frightful Friday? Finance Minister will keep fingers crossed
International Airlines Group, whose brands include Aer Lingus and Iberia, has blamed higher fuel prices for causing profits to dive by a third last year.

It has also warned that its revenues are being 'adversely affected' by the Covid-19 outbreak, which has already caused them to cancel hundreds of flights.

The British Airways owner says travel on its Asian and European routes is suffering from a weakness in demand, while the cancellation of industry events and corporate travel restriction has hurt business travel.

IAG is the parent company of British Airways (BA) as well as Aer Lingus and Iberia

Their announcement comes the day after BA culled dozens of flights to Italy, Singapore, South Korea. Italy is the most affected of the three countries, with 56 BA flights from London airports to Italian cities such as Venice and Turin scrapped.

IAG's chief executive Willie Walsh told reporters he believed the impact of coronavirus on the airline industry would be significant enough for some failing airlines to be 'pushed over the edge.'

'We are well able to adjust to this situation because our business is in great shape. It's the failing airlines who will be most affected by this...so without question, there will be more consolidation as a result,' he said.

EasyJet likewise declared this morning that some flights will be cancelled because of the coronavirus. Both the budget airline and IAG have seen their share prices nosedive by over 14 per cent this morning.

Adam Vettese, an analyst at multi-asset investment platform eToro, says: 'The past week has been a nightmare for airlines with the coronavirus wiping billions off their share prices and causing havoc to flight schedules.'

He also said the Court of Appeal ruling that Heathrow Airport's plan for a third runway is illegal has made this week worse for IAG than for EasyJet as the UK's busiest airport is also British Airways's main hub airport.

EasyJet declared this morning that some flights will be cancelled because of the coronavirus

IAG still posted strong financial results though, with total revenue rising by 5.1 per cent to 25.5billion in 2019 and operating profits of 2.6billion, despite falling by a third due to increasing fuel, employee and engineering costs.

Petrol and oil expenses jumped by 14 per cent to over 6billion while engineering expenses rose 12.7 per cent as a result of greater component costs at Aer Lingus and increased flying hours.

Walsh, who is retiring from the company next month, said the results 'demonstrated our robust and flexible model once again through additional cost control and by reducing capacity growth to reflect market conditions.'

The company suspended flights to mainland China in January as a result of the outbreak. Earlier this month British Airways also reduced its Hong Kong service and will reduce the regularity of its service to Seoul in the coming weeks.

IAG CEO Willie Walsh, says he believes the impact of coronavirus on the airline industry will be significant enough for some failing airlines to be 'pushed over the edge'

It added that capacity on Italian routes has been significantly impacted by the outbreak too, but the company redeployed aircraft to routes with stronger demand such as India, South Africa and the US.

Uncertainty around the Covid-19 epidemic though means it is currently unable to provide accurate profit guidance for 2020.

Brewin Dolphin investment manager, Richard Flood, said IAG's figures were 'solid' last year even though they 'have been completely overshadowed' by the disruption around the coronavirus.

'Importantly, IAG is financially very strong with 7billion in the bank to see it through what will undoubtedly be a tough patch for the airline group,' he adds.

Qatar Airways Group recently spent 465million growing its stake in the business from 21.4 per cent to 25.1 per cent as part of the state-owned group's move to create an international group of airlines.
Directly across the street is the longstanding Greek seafood restaurant Taverna Kyclades, whose superstar reputation has earned it lines down the block. Those wearying of the wait might want to consider a slight shift in palate. Egypt and Greece are separated by a little less than a thousand miles; here, its a matter of about 200 feet, with Ditmars Boulevard a stand-in for the Mediterranean Sea.

Note that it can get crowded on this side, too. As at other neighborhood seafood spots, you start at the counter, where you select your seafood and method of preparation. Only then are you alloted a number and ushered to a table. Sometimes theres a pileup as diners dither over the jewelry-case array of silvery orata and branzino, wild red snapper with blushing tails and striped bass on mounds of ice, alongside smaller mullets and sardines, trays of plump shellfish and octopus tentacles draped as if poised to escape.

All come from the fish market in Hunts Point, the Bronx, and are treated by Mr. Abuker, the chef, with a wisdom that, Mr. Mansy said, is the inheritance of anyone who grows up in Alexandria. (Mr. Abukers name tells half the story: His uncles on his mothers side are fishermen from Abu Qir, a tiny town on Alexandrias northeastern edge that draws pilgrims solely for its seafood restaurants, which range from temples that seat hundreds to tables on the beach.)
E-commerce and fintechs accounted for four-fifths of the total number of big calls for capital in 2019. The biggest deal was worth $300 million.

The number of Vietnams startups has been growing rapidly despite the stagnation of the global economy. The gap between Vietnam and the two leading countries in entrepreneurship in region  Indonesia and Singapore  has narrowed.





In the first 10 months of 2019, Vietnams startups attracted $750 million worth of investment capital through 29 deals, according to the figure released by Minister of Science and Technology Chu Ngoc Anh at Techfest 2019.



1/ Sendo, the e-commerce platform established in March 2012 successfully called fir $61 million worth of capital. There were two new investors in the Series C Round of Funding - EV Growth from Indonesia and Kasikornbank from Thailand.

E-commerce and fintechs accounted for four-fifths of the total number of big calls for capital in 2019. The biggest deal was worth $300 million.

The deal also witnessed the presence of veteran investors, including SBI Group, BEENOS, SoftBank Ventures Asia, Daiwa PI Partners and Digital Garage. These investors poured $51 million worth of capital into Sendo in Series B round of funding in 2018.



Sendo will use the capital to expand business and make deeper investment in AI and machine learning.



2/ In March 2019, Tiki successfully called for $75 million worth of capital in a round led by Northstar Group, an investment fund with assets of $2 billion.



As of early August, 2019, Vietnamese investors had 51.33 percent, while Chinese investors held 21.47 percent. The remaining, 27.2 percent, belongs to investors of other nationalities.



3/ In October, Scommerce, the logistics service provider, the holding company of Giao Hang Nhanh (GHN) or AhaMove, confirmed that it received capital from Temasek, the Singaporean state investment fund.



Scommerce declined to give the exact amount of capital, but said this was its biggest capital call so far. DealStreetAsia said the investment value was $100 million.



At present, GHN and AhaMove are the partners of the largest e-commerce platforms in Vietnam  Shopee, Sendo, Lazada and Tiki.



4/ In early 2019, MoMo, a e-wallet, successfully called capital from Warburg Pincus. Prior to that, it received the investment worth $28 million from Goldman Sachs ($3 million) and Standard Chartered Private Equity ($25 million).



In Vietnam, Warburg Pincus had four investment deals, including ones in Vincom Retail, Lodgis, Techcombank and BW Industrial Development JSC before the investment in MoMo. The fund has no investment deal worth less than $100 million.



5/ The biggest investment deal in 2019 was the one made by Vnlife, the holding company of VNPay. Local newspapers reported that VNPay received $300 million from SoftBank and GIC.



Vnlifes president Tran Tri Manh in July confirmed that the deal wrapped up but did not provide further information.



DealStreetAsia reported Vision Fund of SoftBank might have committed the investment of $200 million, while GIC $100 million.

Mai Lan

Shopee is top-ranked e-commerce platform in Buzz Rankings Shopee, a leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, has come out on top as the most positively discussed e-commerce platform in Vietnam.
WASHINGTON - Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., the 2016 vice presidential nominee, is endorsing former vice president Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination, hoping to give him a boost before Saturday's South Carolina primary and Virginia's primary on Super Tuesday.

"It is sad to have a President who no one holds up as a role model for America's kids. By contrast, Joe Biden has exemplary heart, character, and experience," Kaine, a two-term senator, said in a statement provided to The Washington Post.

Kaine likened Biden to the 33rd president of the United States, Harry Truman, whom Kaine has described as his political hero - next to his father-in-law, former Virginia governor Linwood Holton - because of Truman's compassion for everyday people.

"He reminds me of Harry S. Truman, an outwardly ordinary man whose work ethic, faith in the goodness of everyday Americans, and love of country made him a great President," Kaine said in the statement. "I am proud to vote for Joe Biden."

The endorsement comes at a critical time for Biden, who has struggled in early nominating contests and considers South Carolina, where he is leading in polls, a crucial firewall. A Wason Center poll of likely Democratic voters in Virginia released Friday found Biden with a modest lead in that state as well, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg in second and third place, respectively.

Kaine is also close to presidential hopeful Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., with whom he has teamed up on legislation. But she has struggled to find momentum since her third place win in the New Hampshire primary. Klobuchar, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg and financier Tom Steyer were all in single digits in the Wason Center poll.

"Democrats have many good public servants and admirable people running for President," Kaine said in the statement.

In 2007, Kaine was governor of Virginia. He became the first sitting governor outside Barack Obama's home state of Illinois to endorse Obama's first campaign for president; he and was on Obama's final list of possible running mates, but Obama picked Biden.

"Barack Obama wisely chose Joe as his partner in the White House," Kaine said Friday. "And for eight years, Vice President Biden worked hand-in-hand with President Obama to rescue the American economy from catastrophe, expand health care to millions of people, revive creative diplomacy to keep Americans safe, tackle global challenges like climate change, and appoint high-quality people across the executive and judicial branches of our government. As a Senator, I saw first-hand Joe's role in these accomplishments."

In Virginia, Democratic Reps. A. Donald McEachin and Elaine Luria have also endorsed Biden.

Kaine, 62, was a civil rights lawyer in his adopted hometown of Richmond before entering politics. He was elected to the Senate in 2012, and serves on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees.

He has an approval rating of 55% among Virginians, a February 2019 Quinnipiac University poll found.

Kaine has decried the polarization in national politics today, and says he would like to fashion his Senate service after retired senator John Warner, a Republican who spent 30 years in office representing the state of Virginia.

"America is afflicted by a President who delights in division, cruelty, lies, chaos, and self-congratulation," Kaine said Friday. "We are better than that, and Americans deserve better in the Oval Office."

- - -

The Washington Post's Scott Clement contributed to this report.
OTTAWA - Ukraine's ambassador to Canada says his government will help Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne secure compensation from Ukraine International Airlines for the families of all those killed on Flight 752, including 55 Canadians.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Foreign Affairs Minister Fran?ois-Philippe Champagne responds to a question during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA - Ukraine's ambassador to Canada says his government will help Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne secure compensation from Ukraine International Airlines for the families of all those killed on Flight 752, including 55 Canadians.

Champagne is in Kyiv March 3 for the start of a two-day visit that will include a meeting with the head of the airline, where he will try to speed up delivery of the compensation it must pay under international aviation law to the victims' families.

Envoy Andriy Shevchenko said his government sees no obstacles to the airline meeting its international legal obligations to compensate families.

"This carrier is committed to all the international rules and applications that apply to such situations," the ambassador said in an interview Friday.

"If there is anything the government (of Ukraine) can do on this, it will be, of course, done."

Champagne and his Ukrainian counterpart, Vadym Prystaiko, will be joined via teleconference by the foreign ministers of Sweden, Britain and Germany for a separate meeting about pursuing compensation from Iran.

Those countries all lost people in last month's shootdown of the passenger jet by the Iranian military.

The Ukrainian airline will also be seeking compensation from Iran for the families of its own victims who died in the crash, Shevchenko said.

"The carrier has found itself in a very difficult position," he said.

"They have obligations they have to fulfil but also they expect compensation from Iran. Of course, they have lost people of their own. But when it comes to international obligations, there has been a very clear signal from the airline they are committed to that."

The conference call that Champagne and Prystaiko will host from Kyiv is part of the ongoing efforts to project solidarity to Iran as the five countries pursue compensation.

Champagne said earlier this week that Iran's admission that it shot down the jet has financial consequences.

Shevchenko said it is now more important than ever that the five countries project unity to Iran.

"We understand that Iran might want to have separate tracks of conversations with the countries involved," he said.

"We understand that we are dealing with many families and they will be looking for their own legal path. But it's in the interest of all of us that we make sure we speak with one voice and we co-ordinate well on the issue of compensation."

While in Ukraine, Champagne will also visit the 200 Canadian Forces personnel deployed there on a training mission that is due to end in March 2022.

The troops are part of Canada's efforts to bolster Ukraine against Russian aggression following the Kremlin's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014 and its backing of Russian separatist militias in the eastern party of the country that has claimed thousands of lives.

Shevchenko said Ukraine wants to see Canada extend its military presence in his country.

"There are so many things we can do after 2022, so we have to think strategically how we can build on that trust and co-operation we already have."

That's the same message Champagne will be receiving in Latvia when he begins his three-country swing through eastern Europe on Monday.

In Latvia, Champagne will visit the 600 Canadian troops who have been leading a NATO battlegroup in that country since 2017. The mission is to continue until 2023.

Karlis Eihenbaums, Latvia's ambassador to Canada, said his country would like to see that mission extended because the problems with Russia, including its ongoing disinformation campaigns, show no signs of abating.

The battlegroup, which includes soldiers from several other countries, is one of four such forces in the Baltics and Poland that were established to respond to Russia's moves against Ukraine's border.

Champagne wraps his trip with a visit to Poland on March 6.

"My visits to Latvia, Ukraine and Poland will be important opportunities to discuss the close ties between Canada and these three countries and our shared priority of promoting security and prosperity in the region in the face of rising threats," Champagne said in a statement Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2020.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version used an outdated figure for the number of Canadians killed and said that Germany lost citizens in the crash. Three German residents who died were Afghan citizens.
M athew Carver, the man behind Camden Markets Cheese Bar and Pick & Cheese in Seven Dials Market, is headed to the water for his next project.

In April, Carver will open the Cheese Barge, a two-floor restaurant floating nearby Paddington Central. The custom-built boat, which is currently under construction in Somerset, is said to be inspired by the nautically themed Electa Bookshop in Venice.

Below deck, a 40-cover restaurant will be overseen by executive chef Ross Keeling and head chef Reagan Ellenbroek, who are promising honest British dishes using small producer cheese.

These will include Devils on Horseback, where medjool dates are stuffed with stilton and wrapped in bacon, fried cheddar curds, the curds then curried and tossed in chilli honey. Theres also the Maida Vale, which sees a treacle soda bread base covered with washed cheese rind, smoked mackerel and a green sauce.

Upstairs, the open air deck is being positioned as a casual spot for a glass of wine with a few nibbles.

Head cheesemonger, Sam Wilkin, will oversee a weekly list of British cheeses and pairings for the new spot, including the likes of Spenwood with quince and almond fruit cheese, as well as Winslade with chilli dukkah.

Hailing from Jersey, I spent my childhood years messing around in boats, Carver said. So, when the opportunity of opening The Cheese Barge came along, we couldnt say no.

He added: The fact that it was British-made by real craftsmen appealed to our continued efforts to support British industry.

"Weve always set out to create fun restaurant experiences, and what could be more fun than eating the best of British cheese on the Grand Union Canal.
Alexander C. Kafka in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

Youve been cheated of your birthright: a complete education.

So Scott Newstok warned the Class of 2020 in a convocation speech four years ago. Newstok, who teaches literature at Rhodes College, where he also directs the Pearce Shakespeare Endowment, urged students to strive for a level of precision, inventiveness, and empathy worthy to be called Shakespearean.

That speech led to an essay and now to a book, How to Think Like Shakespeare: Lessons From a Renaissance Education, which Princeton University Press will publish in April. In it, Newstok considers what the Bards copious intellect and imagination might tell us about the potential and failures of our educational system. In doing so, he cites a wide array of thinkers  not just Shakespeare but ancient Greek philosophers, Mary Shelley, Hannah Arendt, Maya Angelou, Bob Dylan, and scores of others. That serves as a written meta-performance that illustrates Newstoks point: Discovering how others think is the best way to learn how to think for ourselves.

Newstok explained to The Chronicle why he approached the book in that way, how writing it influenced his teaching, and how educational reforms leave every child behind.

More here.
Delhi saw its worst riots in decades and the pictures of the aftermath will haunt us forever. The clashes that started between pro-CAA and anti-CAA protestors led to the widespread destruction of both public and private properties.

BCCL

The most heartbreaking scenes are that of burnt down schools in the riot-torn areas of Delhi. According to PTI, Arun Modern Senior Secondary School, which is over 32 years old, looks no less than a cemetery. School authorities claim the damages to be worth over Rs 70 lakh.

Instagram

"While I am yet to recover from what has happened at the school, my biggest relief is that children were not in the premises when this happened. I do not even want to imagine what would have happened if that was the case," school principal Jyoti Rani told PTI.

"Our security guard was there on Tuesday evening when a mob entered the premises. Scared by the happenings, he rushed outside to save his life. Only two days later, we could gather the courage to go to the school and all I could see was vandalised desks, burnt books in library and a mess everywhere. It looks no less than a cemetery now," she added.

Shaheen, parent of a Class VII student of a riot-hit school said, "Why did the rioters have to burn down a school which educates students? They are burning everything else and could have spared schools. What about the children who are awaiting their final exams? Their year-long effort will go waste."



Books lie scattered at the Rajdhani Public School which was vandalized in Tuesday's violence at Shiv Vihar in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020 #DelhiRiots pic.twitter.com/klwwhrMrce  Lazy Bugger (@saiyafs) February 27, 2020

According to TOI, at the Victoria Senior Secondary School, which is also a CBSE exam centre, rioters gathered outside while class XII exams was going on and they mercilessly pelted stones and vandalised school property.

BCCL

The aftermath of the riots is set to have a lasting negative impact on students who have no place to return for weeks, owing to the amount of destruction caused by the marauding mobs.

BCCL

At Rajdhani Public School in Shiv Vihar, few student bags, crayons, half-burnt models that were part of a recently held exhibition and cut-outs from the Republic Day celebrations last month are among the remains while the entire library has been burnt down.

BCCL

Security guard Pawan Susheel said, "Kindergarten students at times leave their bags in schools. No student has been hurt. This (the violence) did not happen in school hours. I came today only."

Similar heart-wrenching scenes can be witnessed in DPR School in the same area. Nobody was present on the premises. The main gate of the school has been damaged making it easy for anybody to enter inside. Schools have been closed in northeast Delhi and east Delhi for three consecutive days, while the CBSE has postponed board exams in the area.

Twitter/Aljazeera

The violence started as a face-off between those protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act and those supporting it. The amended law makes non-Muslim undocumented migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan eligible for Indian citizenship.

Son of Muddasir Khan , the Martyr of Delhi Genocide 2020 with tears in his eyes .

Congratulations BJP supporters . This is exactly what you wanted . #Delhigenocide pic.twitter.com/72UJWVP2mb   (  ) (@TamannaPankaj) February 27, 2020

On the evening of February 25, Brijpuri-Mustafabad and Chandbagh, down the Wazirabad highway, became a hotspot for the communal riots.



ALL INPUTS PTI
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2020 > Please, Sir, I Want Some More: Freeloader tells Kejriwal

by L.K. Sharma

Dear Shri Arvind Kejriwal,

This habitual freeloader was thrilled by your letter that came before the historic Delhi elections. Apologies for this delayed response. My open letter earlier would have been misused by the Modi Party that was determined to defeat you. I wanted you to win so that I can enjoy the promised free pilgrimages. One does not live by free water and electricity alone but needs spiritual salvation too.

Now that the most vicious-ever war has been lost and won and there is no danger of the Election Commission or the Prime Minister citing your letter in a poll-related complaint against you, I can publicly express my gratitude to you.

In a soot-laden grey and grim morning, the postman knocked and surprised me with your beautiful personalised letter printed on off-white handmade heavy paper with the national logo, your name and your address embossed in gold. Unlike a government office, you used a decent A-4 sized cover so that the letter is not folded and reaches me in its pristine condition.

I was thrilled by the very idea of the government financing my escape to beautiful temple towns from the gas chamber that is Delhi. Your spiritual regeneration project lessened the morning gloom caused by the citys severe air pollution. The offer of free pilgrimage to all those above 60 years of age cheered up the humans, like me, as well as Gods and Goddesses to be visited by numerous more pilgrims. In order to benefit from this government scheme, many non-believers will turn into devotees of one Hindu God or the other. By one stroke of pen, you have launched the biggest mass conversion scheme.

You give a wide choice of 12 holy places, highlighting Indias diversity. The state will take care of travel, boarding and lodging expenses. Your next poll manifesto should promise to offer cash for donating in the temple and buying garlands and prasad for the idol.

You have undermined your rival BJP by fighting it on its own ground. Imagine the sarkari pilgrims travelling to Ayodhya in trains painted with the face of Arvind Kejriwal, listening to you over a hi-tech sound system.Your bhajans will be a bigger hit than Man ki Baat.

I shared the news with my friend Irfan who wondered whether his Muslim name will come in the way if he applies for the pilgrimage. I pointed out that the government does not mind Hindus opting for a pilgrimage to a Gurudwara in Amritsar. My Muslim friend wants to visit Ayodhya to pray at the remains of the Babri mosque.

Your solemn promise not to let me undergo any discomfort during the pilgrimage is so reassuring. Recognising the infirmities of the elderly people, your government will meet the expenses for one young attendant accompanying me. Your letter gives intimations of mortality but then as my senior moments multiply, I would soon forget your grave warning.

You say my advanced age qualifies me for your generous offer. On that basis, I enjoyed free local public transport in Great Britain but that ungodly government never ever thought of offering a complimentary trip to the Somnath Temple.You are a pioneering politician.

You seem to believe that politics without religion will be unethical. As a former IITian, you confirm through your letter that in India religion and S&T are two sides of the same coin. That is why some politicians present mythology as science and scientific facts as myths. A very popular temple to Saturday God is seen just outside the gate of the IIT Delhi.

As a trained engineer, you go beyond faith and give a rationale for this freebie. No justification was needed. No BJP Ministers will dare to take the electoral risk of opposing a scheme designed to serve the Divine. A Sadhvi in their ranks has made them aware of the power of curse. Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu, during his interactive session with Shri Shri Ravi Shankar, highlighted the importance of spirituality for leading a peaceful and purposeful life. The President and the Prime Minister subscribe to the same view and thus there is a national consensus on this issue.

You show a strong streak of patriotism by saying that a nation that respects and serves old people makes fast progress. Your statement that you will earn the blessings of the elderly people shows how deeply rooted you are in Indian culture. You are a true Hindu beta, like Shravan Kumar who took his parents on a pilgrimage, carrying them on his shoulder. The oldies blessed you and prayed for your longevity as the Chief Minister.

Their dutiful young sons voted for you since you lifted a great burden off their shoulders. They all read about Shravan Kumar in their childhood. Doing 7/24 jobs, they are unable to accompany the parents even in airconditioned trains.They are guilt-stricken because they are deeply religious. You see young men wearing I LOVE NEW YORK T-shirts mobbing temples every Saturday.

Arvind Bhai, you can do more. Please expand your free pilgrimage scheme and foil the Modi Governments attempt to sabotage it. Announce its expansion and pre-empt the Opposition who will promise to double the number of holy destinations. Factor in the coming announcement of the Pradhan Mantri Mandir Digital Parikrama Seva.

Make the scheme more inclusive. Do not leave out the temples of West Bengal. Include Tankara in Gujarat, the birthplace of Swami Dayanand Saraswati, in order to irritate your opponents who ignore him because he sought to reform Hinduism.

Please, globalise the scheme since Hinduism has a global presence. Take us to the Pashupati-nath Temple of Nepal, glorious Hindu temples of Cambodia, Swaminarayan Temple of London, and the hall in Chicago from where Swami Vivekananda sounded the bigule of Hinduism that was heard all over the world.

We want to visit every country where they have their own Ramayan. Your recognition of multiple Ramayans will be a befitting reply to your opponents who got an essay by Ramanujan deleted from the Delhi Universitys history syllabus. Lord Rams birthplace has aroused mass interest and we want to see the spot where he won a war with the help of your Lord Hanuman.

The government can raise extra resources to extend the scheme to Hollywood Hindus, as V. S. Naipaul called them.The NRIs are more ardent Hindus and will gladly pay for the pilgrimage and fill your coffers with dollar bills.

Apart from internationalising this scheme, please give it a local dimension also. Delhi itself has a large number of temples. Provide free transport in vans equipped to carry wheel chairs. The vans publicising the name of the local MLA sshould take the senior citizens to the Durga Puja pandals. Visits to the river front for Chat Puja will break your opponents non-Punjabi vote-bank.

Let me alert you. You will face an unprece-dented demand for visiting Ayodhya which will require huge resources. The poor benefi-ciaries of Delhi would willingly surrender some of the freebies for a holy cause. In this land of sadhus and mahants, faith matters and it matters even more after a recent Supreme Court judgment.

As the brain-child of an IITian, this scheme musthave a technology component. You know information is power. So, empower the elderly people through an Arvind App. They can view the temples on the screen and choose where to go if they get the netbooks free. The wi-fi-enabled netbooks should provide for electronic havan by priests belonging to both Arya Samaj and Sanatan dharma. The tablet displaying a GIF image of sacrificial fire (no smoke emitted for the sake of environment) will have a debit card slot for offering dakshina to the priest. The Delhi Government gifts a card with your photo charged with a token amount to initiate the elderly people who will later start getting it recharged. A telecom company will gladly sponsor this scheme on the punya-sharing basis.

You got my home address from some agency and that gives me another idea on how to finance your scheme. Data is new gold. These pilgrims will yield data about the Hindu sub-groups such as Shaiva and Shakta, devotees of Lord Ram and those of Lord Krishna.The number of visitors to Pushkar will indicate that Brahma, the creator, is less popular than Shiva, the destroyer. This data will be of immense use to your party. Commercial companies will pay huge sums for tailoring their advertisements to suit the customers faith.

The free pilgrimage scheme has created a win-win situation for the temple priests and for you. Now no one will dare to call you anti-Hindu. If any party calls you that, you can depend on thousands of Hindus like me coming out hobbling or on wheel chairs and raising slogans in your favour. Just imagine the impact of those moving images on the voters! The preparations for the next elections begin now!

Some crib that your party had claimed to be exceptional but then joined the political mainstream. A political party is not an NGO. Your critics should know that you are up against political operators who face criminal charges and yet display their religiosity before the TV cameras. You were compelled to modify your politics. This idle chatter about New Politics could not have taken you anywhere.

You stole your opponents clothes and showed that one cannot be too principled in order to counter an unprincipled man. Every successful politician stoops to conquer. When your opponents asked the voters not to recognise you by your new stolen clothes, you recited Hanuman Chalisa and convinced the voters of your Hindu identity. I am glad a TV anchor challenged you to recite Hanuman Chalisa.

You must thank your political Guru who taught you that religion pays in politics. This was not a lesson that your learnt in the IIT. Please ignore your secular critics who disapprove of your belief that only poison kills poison. When the nation is on the sickbed, it needs a pragmatic person like you, not gentle theoreticians debating the malady. You realised it was no time to make a token gesture to prove your secularism. You had to rob the BJP Supremo of his monopoly over Hinduism and nationalism. Let them call you Chota Modi. Tony Blair did not mind being called Margret Thatcher in Trousers.

You had to stop a juggernaut. Your defeat would have been cited as an endorsement of the Hindu Rashtra project. Imagine how the juggernaut would have rolled crushing whatever came in its way. Perhaps Lord Hanuman realised that and, as you said, he blessed you. He interceded on your behalf and prayed to Lord Sri Ram to look away from his devotees in Delhi just on the polling day.

You won a battle but the war promises to go on. Tactics can take you only that far. Then you need a strategy. You can undermine your opponents on a long-term basis only if you mount an ideological challenge. Do not conjure up a post-ideology world. Ideology matters. Many Delhi people voted for you because they dread the ideology based on hatred, perennial low-level violence and aggressive rhetoric an ideology designed to kill the idea of India.

A large section of Hindus remains committed to our civilisational values. We have not fallen prey to the massive disinformation campaign. We dont want the India of Gandhi and Nehru to be turned into a dystopia.

We, the voters, are impressed by your project management. But do not see yourself only as a tyre company CEO. New Politics cannot be just about improving school education. You are equipped to fix the sewer system, irregular power supply and air quality but please understand that mental pollution is more hazardous than physical pollution. If you care for the well-being of the citizens of Delhi, it is time you started lifting the cloud of mental pollution. A poisoned polity needs attention. Remember in 2014, we all fell for the promise of Rs 15 lakhs in every bank account because we alllove freebies. So, we like free water and electricity, but we also want peace and social harmony in our own economic interests.

Since you have given so much, may I have some more?

You were made by an IIT, a premier Nehruvian institute. You owe it to the IITs to start countering the vicious propaganda against Nehru. During the poll campaign, you assiduously avoided the trap laid for you by the Modi Party to project you as friend of Muslims. So, you refrained from referring to the larger problems bedevilling this nation. Discretion was justified during the poll campaign. You had to display the soft side of Hindutva and not show your empathy for non-Hindus. Now there is no risk in coming out in your true secular colours. Don a skull cap for a day and visit Shaheen Bagh one evening. They would love to hear you reciting Hanuman Chalisa. You will find many among the Shaheen Bagh protestors who know Hanuman Chalisa.

Surely as an ordinary citizen of India, and more so as the Chief Minister of Delhi, you feel concerned about religious polarisation, demo-cracy, freedom of expression, and the Consti-tution of India. Please present a copy of the Preamble of the Constitution to the Prime Minister at the next photo-op. Perhaps you will not because you are no longer an activist, having matured as a mainstream politician.

Be brave. Talk about the Lok Pal even if that issue has lost its utility after you used it so effectively. Revive your demand for making Delhi a State. Irritate the hate-mongers and bigots as only you can. Take the message of social harmony to the people. You could not free India from corruption but you can detoxify mass consciousness a little because the Delhi people trust you.We saw two models of Kejriwal and await the emergence of the third one.

The choice is yours, Arvind Bhai, if you wish to be even more pragmatic and see profit in surrendering to the Prime Minister for a future joint political enterprise. You have made conciliatory noises and given up your earlier demands. Your noble gestures towards the Prime Minister come at a time when even Modis allies are distancing themselves from him.When you crusaded against Old Politics, you discredited the politicians who keep all options open. Of course, you know that we admire political craftiness. You may invite the charge of cowardice but your U-Turn will surprise none in this land of Aaya Rams and Gaya Rams!

Thanking you. A Senior Citizen

The author is a senior journalist and writer who worked in India and abroad (notably Britain) in several major newspapers. Now retired, he is a freelancer.
Bond Raised, New Details Emerge in Case of Babysitter Accused of Killing 20-Month-Old

A babysitter accused of killing a 20-month-old Texas girl in December 2018 allegedly made self-incriminating statements about the girls death before authorities raised her bond to $3 million.

Shayla Boniello, 30, admitted to police in Rockdale, Texas, that she attacked toddler Patricia Ann Rader out of frustration, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by KCEN earlier this week.

Emergency crews responded to the girls home on Dec. 3, 2018, after they had received reports of an unresponsive child. The girl was pronounced dead at the scene.

The police affidavit revealed that she slapped, shook, and squeezed the girl. Court documents showed that the suspect confessed that the girl was squeezed for about three minutes, KCEN reported.

The Facebook page Justice for Annie, set up by the family, noted that the bond was set. Anything can still happen. Thank you for all the prayers and support, a post read.

Boniello was also charged with endangering a child because she was smoking marijuana while the girl was inside the home. Police said they found marijuana and smoking pipes near where the girl was found, according to a police affidavit.

Rader had lived with her grandfather, who was her primary caretaker, at the residence, officials told The Eagle at the time of Boniellos arrest.

Boniello and the grandmother had met earlier in the year over a website, and Boniello moved to Rockdale several months ago to live with the grandfather. She was babysitting the 20-month-old child.

Authorities said the grandfather, who has not been identified, was work at the time when the girl died, according to the publication.

A trial date is still pending, and the Facebook page indicated that more bond hearings may be set.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved an extra US$2 million in aid to help Vietnam and other developing countries in the AsiaPacific region to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

Tourists wear face masks due to the coronavirus outbreak

The funding, which also aims to improve resilience to this and other communicable diseases, will be available for all ADB developing member countries that are updating and executing pandemic response plans.

These plans include buying emergency supplies and equipment; assessing the health system and any economic impact to improve future resilience; and coordinating more efficiently regionally to prevent, detect and respond to animal and human disease outbreaks.

The work will be conducted in close collaboration with the World Health Organization.

The severity of the Covid-19 outbreak is escalating, and past disease outbreaks have had significant effects on social and economic development, said ADB Vice-President for Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development Bambang Susantono.

ADBs funding will help countries catalyze efforts to mitigate further damage to the health of families and economies and position them to better respond to the current and future outbreaks.

Earlier in February, ADB provided US$2 million in funds to strengthen the immediate response capacity of Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Over the longer term, this can be scaled up to focus on supporting pandemic preparedness and building resilience.

ADB noted that past epidemics have shown that effects can rapidly extend to all aspects of a countrys economy, triggering fiscal shocks with long-term negative consequences that threaten stability and economic growth.

Countries and businesses that rely on tourism are particularly vulnerable. Trade and supply chains also suffer, according to the bank based in the Philippines. SGT

Thanh Thom

ADB's fund helps combat the spread of the novel coronavirus The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $2 million in new funding to support efforts to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus (nCoV).
When the year 2020 set in, Amit Shah had emerged as the shining star of Indian politics. He wielded maximum authority after Narendra Modi. Many perceived him as the future prime minister of India.

Two months later, although Shah can still brandish all his powers, his authority has evaporated. Shah now appears clean bowled as an administrator. After the rioting and violence in parts of Delhi and the Central governments failure to intervene in time to save lives, Shahs ability to effectively function as the home minister is being questioned.

His fall has been sudden. Remember, Narendra Modi still exhibits maximum political authority among all politicians and Shah is known as his chosen one. Shah implemented Jan Sanghs old agenda in Kashmir without evoking a backlash from mainland India or the valley, he was emerging as the hero of Hindu nationalists. But today it is being asked whether his party or anyone else will repose faith in him to handle critical situations.

Also read: Delhi Violence Live: Whoever responsible should be punished, says CM

It is not relevant whether the rioting in Delhi was due to some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders provocation, or a Bhim Army-Popular Front of India (PFI) conspiracy, or both. Nor is it necessary to ask whether Hindus started it or Muslims and whether it was Kapil Mishra of BJP or Tahir Hussain of AAP who is to be blamed for the mayhem. Provocations and conspiracies have been a part of this nations life from the beginning, and it will be so in the future too. The question is whether those in charge are farsighted enough to anticipate the situation and display the ability to control it. Shah has scored zero out of a hundred in this test.

What was brewing in Delhi over the past few weeks and months was well known. A large part of it was Shahs own making. He conjoined CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and NRC (National Register of Citizens), and spoke about it as though it was a great political weapon. But in reality the whole exercise was centered on identifying and expelling Bangladeshi Muslim illegal immigrants without harassing Hindu refugees. There continue to be question marks around whether it will be possible to do this and then whether there would be a taker for those expelled.

Also read: Delhi morgue shows carnage after CAA riots during US President Donald Trumps India trip

However, Shah never spoke of it as a plain administrative exercise. He played with it to polarise the Hindus in his favour. So, given the track record of the BJP in Gujarat, the Muslims felt terrorised. Not about the CAA so much, but about its perceived (thanks to Shah) conjoined twin NRC. Its not pertinent therefore to ask whether fundamentalist groups or reactionary elements misled the common Muslims. If the ground is ready, miscreants everywhere take advantage of it. It was Shah who prepared the ground.

Modi himself appeared to overrule Shah on the question of implementing NRC after CAA, but by then it was too late. Many Muslims had occupied roads in parts of Delhi including Shaheen Bagh, and the protests got wide publicity. Now, as Delhi police is under the union home minister, Shah had two options: Either to clear the roads by force, or to talk to the protesters. He overlooked both the options, and used the situation to milk it for political benefits in the Delhi Assembly election.

Had he won that election, he would have become very dear to Hindu nationalists. But his Gujarat-style campaign failed, and it was proved that he was both politically inept to judge a situation and to adopt a suitable strategy. Earlier he had similarly failed in Jharkhand, but that is another story. In Delhi, his strategy only made the situation more volatile than it already was.

When the clashes started, the Delhi police played the role of a rescue team instead of a force to quell violence. It allowed the situation to worsen from Sunday afternoon (Feb 23) to Tuesday afternoon (Feb 25). These forty-eight hours crushed Amit Shahs dream of shaping himself as the iron man of New India.

Shah appears to have paid the price. From Tuesday evening, Ajit Doval (the National Security Adviser, a bureaucrat) took charge, and contained the violence. He moved around Delhi, visited both Hindu and Muslim mohallas, promising safety to all and urging them to forget the colossal failure of the state with the words jo ho gaya so ho gaya . Shah the politician, meanwhile, was confined to his office! It has dented Shahs administrative authority as a minister severely.

While Delhi was burning, Shahs political authority was challenged by his own party member Sushil Modi in Bihar. On Tuesday (Feb 25), the Bihar assembly passed a unanimous resolution against implementing the NRC. BJP legislators, led by Sushil Modi, the deputy chief minister, agreed to be a party to it. In simple terms, Sushil Modi dumped Amit Shah to please Nitish Kumar, the chief minister and JD(U) supremo.

Till the end of last year, we witnessed the meteoric rise of Amit Shah. Now, what we are witnessing is akin to a meteor shower. Amit Shah has no one to blame but himself. Each Indian state is different. Delhi, Bihar or Bengal is not Gujarat. Neither is Karnataka, Tamil Nadu or Telangana. The same political trick cannot be used in all states. The North, the East, the North-East, the South, and the West, all have different characteristics, different viewpoints on socio-cultural issues, and even different ways of life. If Shah has to redeem himself, he will have to acquaint himself with such divergence, and respect it. Otherwise, not only will he flop time and again, but the Indian people will have to pay a heavy price for his inability to learn.

(Diptendra Raychaudhuri is a Kolkata-based journalist and author of books including, A Naxal Story. He is a deputy editor at the Bengali daily, Aajkal)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the authors own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.
In the last week, the focus on Senator Bernie Sanderss past views on Communist Cuba has intensified. Sanderss continued refusal to disavow his past rationalizations of the Castro regimes rule has outraged the Cuban-American community and fueled criticism that his brand of Democratic socialism recalls the pro-Soviet Western Left of his formative Cold War years.

Yet for all of the justified anger at Sanderss stance on Cuba, the debate about U.S. policy toward the former Soviet satellite state is rooted more in the past than in our present foreign-policy challenges. An even more accurate indicator of the way Sanders would shift U.S. policy as president came when he publicly spurned the idea of speaking at the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). By denouncing AIPAC for what he described as bigotry and denial of Palestinian rights, Sanders signaled that he was committed to undermining the pro-Israel lobby whose main goal is to maintain bipartisan support for the Jewish state.

Sanderss stand is both hypocritical and inaccurate, since AIPAC, which functions as an umbrella group of American pro-Israel organizations, remains publicly committed to a two-state solution to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict and is just as likely to hear from liberal speakers at its conferences as from conservatives. In the past, Sanders has had no compunction about speaking at conferences held by the left-wing J Street group, where some speakers have espoused an anti-Zionism that denies Jewish rights. Nor has he stayed away from extremist groups: Last year, he spoke at the Islamic Society of North America, whose leaders have advocated the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews and homosexuals.

Sanderss repudiation of a group whose conferences always boast leading Democrats and Republicans among their speakers and attendees illustrates his willingness to antagonize supporters of Israel. And that, in turn, is a worrisome indicator of what a Sanders administrations Middle East policy would look like, and of the kinds of people who would shape it.

Story continues

Though he has, for the first time in his decades-long political career, begun talking about his pride in being Jewish, Sanders seems to be deploying his heritage primarily as a shield against criticisms of his hostility toward Israel and his campaigns embrace of leading anti-Semites. Representatives Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) and former Womens March leader Linda Sarsour are just the most notable Sanders-campaign surrogates to have spread anti-Semitic calumnies about supporters of Israel and touted the BDS movement, whose rhetoric resounds with the traditional tropes of Jew-hatred.

Sanders proclaims himself a champion of even-handed policies toward Israel and the Palestinians. But his effort to damn AIPAC as a hate group is aimed not so much at changing the conversation about the Middle East as at effectively silencing pro-Israel voices in both parties. And that suggests a Sanders presidency would be disastrous for Israel and the wide Middle East.

The key to understanding Sanderss views on foreign policy is that he has always opposed the projection of U.S. power and influence while supporting revolutionary groups that pose as defenders of the victims of U.S. imperialism. Prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, that meant sympathy for any foreign regime that opposed American efforts to contain the Soviet Union. Now, it means an end to U.S. efforts to contain Islamist radicals and Iran.

Instead of actively opposing Islamist terror groups such as Hamas, Sanders has called for an end to the international blockade of Hamas-governed Gaza, and for diverting military aid from Israel to that enclave. He is also the most likely of the 2020 Democratic contenders to go further than reinstating Obamas nuclear deal with Iran, actively seeking to appease Tehran even though Trumps sanctions have at least made the regimes efforts to achieve regional hegemony via its terrorist proxies more difficult.

Because the consequences of such a shift on the security of our Arab allies and Israel would be catastrophic, Sanderss AIPAC comments are not merely a squabble about the extent of the pro-Israel lobbys influence in the U.S. They are an indicator of the grave stakes of the Democratic primaries and, if he wins the partys nomination, the general election. He must not be allowed to take the White House.

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Leigh Fondakowski: When we arrived in Denver, the play was not yet finished. It had only two acts then.  Moments were shifting, and the order of scenes kept changing all through previews.  The actors would be running offstage doing their costume quick-changes and looking at the poster boards to know which scene came next.  American Theatre
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Carisma Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative immunotherapies, today announced that the company will present at two conferences in March, 2020.

Festival of Biologics USA , March 2-4, 2020 : Steve Kelly , Chief Executive Officer, will present at the World Immunotherapy Congress on Monday, March 2, 2020 , at 3:00 p.m. PST . The congress will be held at the Loews Resort Coronado in San Diego, CA.

, : , Chief Executive Officer, will present at the World Immunotherapy Congress on , at . The congress will be held at the Loews Resort Coronado in Cowen and Company 40th Annual Healthcare Conference, March 2-4, 2020 : Tom Wilton , Chief Business Officer, will present on Tuesday, March 3, 2020 , at 5:00 p.m. EST . The conference will be held at the Marriott Copley Place in Boston, MA.

: , Chief Business Officer, will present on , at . The conference will be held at the Marriott Copley Place in Immuno-Oncology Summit Europe, March 9-12, 2020 : Michael Klichinsky , PhD, Co-Founder and VP, Discovery Research, will deliver a presentation entitled "CAR Macrophage Immunotherapy: A New Frontier for Innate Immunity" on Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 1:55 p.m. GMT . The summit will be held at the Hilton London Canary Wharf in London, UK .

About Carisma Therapeutics Inc.

Carisma Therapeutics Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing a differentiated and proprietary cell therapy platform focused on engineered macrophages, cells that play a crucial role in both the innate and adaptive immune response. The first applications of the platform, developed in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania, are autologous chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-macrophages for the treatment of solid tumors. Carisma Therapeutics is headquartered in Philadelphia, PA.

For more information, please visit www.carismatx.com.

Media Contact:

Christina Khoury-Folkens

612-806-0757

[email protected]

SOURCE Carisma Therapeutics Inc.

Related Links

http://www.carismatx.com


Hello there,

No matter how you are consuming news, we mean TV, internet or newspapers, over the past few days, you would have found it full of very unpleasant stories. The death toll has risen to 42. We are talking about the Delhi riots.

Both Hindus and Muslims have died in the clashes, so dont go by the one-sided videos being posted on social media with an intention to incite you. Dont get incited. Stay calm. Stay vigilant. That is if you are in Delhi.

Even if you are not in Delhi, do not get incited.

Talking of videos, did you see the video of a New York Post (NYP) journalist mocking and making faces at an Indian journalist? If you havent, you totally should before we get talking about it.

Who is that reporter in the green mocking an Indian reporter? I bet she thinks Trump is racist. pic.twitter.com/YtGv32XOUe  Damon imani (@damonimani) February 27, 2020

The NYP journalist in green has been identified as Ebony Bowden. The Indian journalist, who is being mocked at, is Raghubir Goyal. The video is from February 26 and was shot during a press conference US President Donald Trump was holding on coronavirus at the White House in Washington, DC. The video shows Goyal saying he was sure Trumps medical team would keep America safe. From what? From coronavirus.

At this point, Bowden is seen starting to get uncomfortable. We arent sure if she was just trying some facial exercise or making faces at Goyal. But the White House wouldnt be the ideal place for facial exercises, we believe. So, it is more likely she was making faces at Goyal.

Now, we do not know if it was Goyals accent that made Bowden uncomfortable or Goyals trust in Trumps medical team in keeping America safe. Whatever it was, it made Bowden so uncomfortable that she seemingly asks the lady seated next to her, What is he saying? The lady seated on Bowdens left nods dismissively and then Bowden does some more facial exercises before starting to laugh, even as Goyal talks to Trump. No, she wasnt laughing out loud. You know the silent, noiseless laughter? Thats what Bowden was doing. Laughter, we keep saying, is good. But laughing at someone is bad. Bowden doesnt look to be the age where she needs to be taught such basics, but then there is no age to learn. We believe Bowden can learn as well. So, heres a lesson for Bowden. Do not laugh at people. Laugh with them, if you feel like. And if you want to know why Bowdens behaviour is so problematic, read this.

Now, Americans  many  not all, find Indian mannerisms funny and unrefined. Have you seen the movie The Party (1968)? Hollywood has called it a comedy. And by Bowdens standards, it is a comedy. The movie is about a bungling actor from India, Hrundi V Bakshi. Bakshis role is played by Peter Sellers. So, Bakshi is in the US with aspirations to become an actor and accidentally gets invited to a Hollywood dinner party. Unfamiliar with Western ways, Bakshi goes on making 'mistakes'. Watch the trailer to know how deeply racist the movie is:

Now, the thing is that before we accuse the Westerners of being racist and classist and some other ist, lets not forget we also laugh at others for their accents. In India, we, ironically, laugh at people who get English words wrong when English is not even our mother tongue. But it is easy to see faults in others than to look within. So, we are looking outside at Bowden. But while we are looking at Bowden, and maybe some of us are also looking within, lets just look at the word accent. Yes, accent is our Word Of The Day.

The Oxford dictionary defines accent as a way of pronouncing the words of a language that shows which country, area or social class a person comes from; how well somebody pronounces a particular language. This is what the word has come to mean. You see, some words acquire meaning over time. Anyway, we will discuss that some other day. Today, lets just talk about accent.

An accent is actually a stress or emphasis on a particular part of something, usually a word. That is why the word accentuate means to make (something) more noticeable or prominent.

Accent comes from the Latin accentus, which means the intonation of singing. In some foreign languages, the mark above a letter is an accent that signals how to pronounce it. In music, an emphasised note is accented. Now, if you were to go back to the Oxford definition of the word, it basically is in the limited sense of regional accents.

But we began by telling you about the Delhi riots and since we got talking about the Goyal-Bowden video, we did not give you the details. So, today while no fresh cases of violence were reported, the political bickering has not stopped. The politicians have been making appeals to stay calm, but their appeals are for others; not their own selves. Like we have a problem with Bowdens racism, not our own.

So, all parties are accusing all parties of making hate speeches. And BJPs Delhi Chief Manoj Tiwari has asked for an independent body that will define hate speech. You know the Indian Constitution put restrictions on the freedom of expression to ensure that people dont make hate speeches by using freedom of expression as an excuse.

When the Constitution of India came into effect on January 26, 1950, the right to freedom of speech and expression was absolute. The restrictions were imposed after the First Amendment to the Constitution in 1951.

Between 1950 and 1951, the Bihar government imposed restrictions on a pamphlet saying it incited violence, but the Patna High Court quashed the order. A judge, who was presiding over the case, said, If a person were to go on inciting murder or other cognisable offences either through the press or by word of mouth, he would be free to do so with impunity because he could claim freedom of speech and expression. You can read about the case here.

There were many such cases that came up and then Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and BR Ambedkar agreed that curbs on freedom of speech were a must. So, the amendment introduced restrictions on freedom of speech and expression in the interests of the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and BR Ambedkar agreed that curbs on freedom of speech were a must. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

While the Indian Parliament put curbs on freedom of speech in 1951, the Punjab Assembly today brought down the retirement age from 60 to 58. Every time the debate over retirement age for service class people starts, fingers are pointed at politicians, who have no retirement age. Even a person on the other side of 100 can contest elections. She can win too. Now, we cant do anything about it because laws concerning lawmakers are made by lawmakers themselves.

But have you ever wondered how the retirement age was decided? In 1998, the age for retirement in India used to be 58. That year, it was raised to 60. Of course, retirement age differs across professions and states. Retirement age is dependent on the availability of labour in the market.

The Economic Survey of India 2018-19 suggested raising the retirement age further up from 60. The survey suggested that there could be a reversal in population growth in the future. So, the number of youth would eventually begin to decline, according to the survey. But states sometimes lower the retirement age to fight the immediate problem of unemployment. If the old dont retire, how will the young find vacancies?

Also, many government departments have a surplus of staff. With work getting increasingly digitised, fewer people are needed to do the same jobs now. Experts say human beings have been increasing their longevity by three months per year over the last 150 years. So, if people live longer, should the retirement age not go up? Most of us would say yes even though we struggle to drag ourselves to office every day. Just kidding.

Talking of old age and longevity, did you know a person died of coronavirus in North Korea? You might say what is so unique about it when so many people are dying of coronavirus in China. Actually, the person in North Korea was apparently shot dead because he was tested positive for the virus. He wasnt killed by people in panic, but by the North Korean regime  so says an anonymous social commentator. We have no way to verify anything from North Korea because, well, North Korea. In North Korea, it is common for the regime to execute people it doesnt like. The ruler of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, killed his own uncle Jang Song-thaek after getting suspicious that Jang was plotting a coup with the support of China. Kim appears more dangerous than COVID-19, we say. A cure can be found for COVID-19 but not for Kim.

While Korea is going after people with coronavirus, the US government is going after bison, also called wild buffalo, which are migrating out of Yellowstone National Park. The bison are moving towards Montana, where hunters will capture them and take them to slaughterhouses to reduce their size by up to 900. These hunters are sponsored by the US government.

Millions of wild buffalo once roamed the American West. Scientists believe they came to North America from Asia.

The history of the bison is interlinked with the native Americans in the American West. Indian tribes settled in these same grasslands centuries later because of the bison. The bison supplied everything from food to clothing, and so it also came to be worshipped. But by 1800, white traders were hunting the bison for its hide, the raw skin with the animals fur still on it.

Later, US government officials began to kill bison to defeat the native Americans who resisted the takeover of their land.

In May 2016, bison was declared Americas national mammal. Wondering what had changed? Due to relentless killing, the population of bison dwindled. A combination of hunting and the US Army almost drove the bison to extinction in the 19th century. But protection measures introduced saw their numbers rise beyond what some parts can handle and hence the killing.

Human beings can kill animals. Animals can also kill human beings but they kill only for food or when scared for life. Humans can kills animals for food, fear and also fun. Now, you may say, it is cruel and all, but when human beings need space to live, they think they are doing it only as a need.

Remember, nilgai was killed in India on government orders because it was destroying crops. We have no value judgement to offer in the matter. We hope everyone gets enough space to live and grow, animals too.

On that note, and since we are assuming you are in weekend mode already, heres a song for you:

Have a great weekend. We will be back on Monday.

Also read: Why does the Indian accent scare you?
There are wonderful conditions for the new authorities of Armenia to show that Armenia is ready to give a legal evaluation of the criminal acts that Azerbaijan committed in 1988 and continued to commit until the Four-Day Artsakh War in April 2016, as well as the military crimes that were committed during that period. This is what President of the Against Legal Arbitrariness NGO, first Ombudswoman of Armenia Larisa Alaverdyan told reporters today.

If the authorities work consistently, they can also solve the problem with the social status of those who were affected and the legal successors of the victims. In addition, this issue is linked to Armenias responsibility before the whole world since genocide is a crime against humanity, she stated.

Alaverdyan praised the fact that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia finally stated the term genocidal acts of Azerbaijan in its recent statement, but added that the Armenian parliament must adopt a document qualifying the massacres as genocide perpetrated by Azerbaijan once and for all and that this will make it possible to grant a special status to those affected by the crime and the legal successors of the victims.

The first Ombudswoman noted that several international officials and organizations were the first to use the term genocide to describe the massacres of Armenians in Azerbaijan, and the facts about the crimes of Azerbaijan are enough to lead an active struggle against Azerbaijans misinformation and to file a claim with an international court.

From February 26 to 29, 1988, Armenians were massacred in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait. Based on official statistics, 27 Armenians were killed and hundreds were injured. In a couple of days, 18,000 Armenians left the city. Two years later, from January 13 to 19, 1990, Armenians were massacred in Baku. The massacres left 100 dead, and more than 200,000 Armenians were exiled.
U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich claim U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is using misleading tactics and campaigns against immigrant communities in the state.

The two Democrats sent a letter to Acting ICE Director Matthew Albence on Thursday voicing their concerns.

We have received troubling reports from New Mexican residents that ICE officers are gaining access into homes under false pretenses by using fear and lies, the senators wrote. We have also heard disturbing accounts of ICE officers demanding that residents open their doors and/or allow ICE to search their home based on ICEs administrative, not judicial warrants.

A spokesman from Heinrichs office said the reports were primarily from local immigrant advocacy groups, including El Centro de Igualdad y Derechos, which held a rally at its office Thursday denouncing the tactics it claimed ICE was using.

The senators said ICE officers are identifying themselves as police and wearing deceptive uniforms to appear as local police when they knock on doors, a behavior they said discourages migrants from calling for help when they are victims of a crime.

When federal immigration officials misidentify as police, the relationship between the immigrant community and local law enforcement agencies is damaged, the senators wrote.

Heinrich and Udall said they received reports that ICE is expanding enforcement activities in Albuquerque, targeting immigrant workers and families at home, at work, and after dropping their children off at school, a practice they said ran contrary to established department policy on enforcement at or near certain community locations.

This is causing residents to no longer feel safe in their own neighborhoods, they said.

They encouraged Albence to have ICE officials meet with local residents and their offices to discuss a path forward.

Instead of targeting families, ICE should prioritize its enforcement efforts on actual risks to public safety and national security. We believe a productive discussion between ICE, the New Mexico delegation, and key stakeholders is critical in gaining transparency and restoring trust back into our communities, the senators wrote.

Efforts to reach local ICE officials were unsuccessful. But in a previous inquiry by the Journal, Albence said in jurisdictions where ICE is not allowed to assume custody of illegal immigrants from jails, our officers are forced to make at-large arrests of criminal aliens who have been released into communities.
A Sydney mum-of-two was comforted by her husband and mother as she died in hospital after being smashed by a car while sitting at a cafe.

Events manager Liz Albornoz, 39, was enjoying a coffee with other mothers from Epping North Public School at Cafe Si:Zac in Sydney's north when an out-of-control Holden Commodore ploughed into them at 10:15am on Friday.

Keith Lockrey, 89, was behind the wheel of the car when he allegedly tried to park in a nearby disabled spot but instead plunged down an embankment and 'pinned' Ms Albornoz against the wall.

Ms Albornoz was knocked unconscious and treated at the scene before being taken to Royal North Shore Hospital, where her husband and mother held her hand in her last moments before she was announced dead at 1:20pm.

She was a mother of two young daughters and worked as an events manager for non-for-profit organisation Social Ventures Australia (SVA).

Events manager Liz Albornoz, 39, was enjoying a coffee with other mothers from Epping North Public School at Cafe Si:Zac in Sydney's north when an out-of-control Holden Commodore ploughed into them at 10:15am on Friday. She is pictured with her husband and daughters

Keith Lockrey, 89, was behind the wheel of the car when he allegedly tried to park in a nearby disabled spot but instead plunged down an embankment and 'pinned' Ms Albornoz against the wall

Ms Albornoz wanted to 'build a fairer Australia' by volunteering at charities such as Helping Hands, as well as Sydney Catholic Schools, according to her SVA profile

Ms Albornoz wanted to 'build a fairer Australia' by volunteering at charities such as Helping Hands, as well as Sydney Catholic Schools, according to her SVA profile.

I have always been passionate about helping others and looking for opportunities to volunteer,' Ms Albornoz wrote on her profile.

'At SVA I am able to bring together my interests and skills and work with people who share the same values. We all care about building a fairer Australia.

The mother-of-two was highly educated and received her Master's Degree in Public Relations and Advertising from UNSW after studying corporate law in Spain and Venezuela.

Butcher Ryan Nicholls of Uppercuts Butchery said Ms Albornoz and her family were regulars at the local butchery.

'They were a good two, yeah, lovely couple. They'd come in here. It's very tragic for such a young family,' he said.

'It's just one of those tragic accidents, what happened.'

Meanwhile, IGA cashier Istiaque Hussain said Ms Albornoz had visited the supermarket with her two children the night before she died.

'Everyone knows everyone here. The saddest thing is they couldn't save her in the end and she had two beautiful daughters,' Mr Hussain said.

Ms Albornoz's husband (pictured) and her mother held her hands to comfort her in her last moments before she was announced dead at 1:20pm on Friday

Ms Albornoz wanted to 'build a fairer Australia' by volunteering at charities such as Helping Hands, as well as Sydney Catholic Schools, according to her SVA profile

Butcher Ryan Nicholls of Uppercuts Butchery said Ms Albornoz and her husband were a 'lovely couple' who tragically lost their lives

Mothers at Epping North Public were visibly upset by the loss of one of their own.

'Two girls have just lost their mother,' one parent said.

A friend of the deceased mother, Monica Galouzis, told Nine News she had seen the group earlier sitting outside.

'They were sitting at a different table earlier. They must have moved around for the sun,' she said.

'Most mums from North Epping Public come at least once a week, and we catch up after school drop offs.

'It's really heartbreaking.'

Dozens of flowers and other tributes were laid by mourners outside the cafe where Ms Albornoz died.

Floral tributes are seen outside the cafe where Ms Albornoz was killed when a car ploughed into the front of the cafe, in North Epping

The local Epping North community is in mourning after the loss of Ms Albornoz

Nine people were injured after the elderly motorist's car ploughed into the mothers' group, with several suffering broken bones.

The driver Keith Lockey was uninjured but visibly shaken by the incident, according to witnesses.

Baker Sath Thep, from nearby Marcos Hot Bread store, and local newsagent Peter Yaang said Keith Lockrey was well-known in the North Epping community.

'He's an old man and everyone knows him around here. He's a nice man too,' Mr Yaang told Daily Mail Australia.

Mr Nicholls said the driver was a regular at the shopping complex.

'He's a beautiful old man and he's been through a tough time. Last year, his wife was put in a local nursing home and he always visited her before she passed away a couple months ago,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'He still comes in every week. Everyone knows Keith as a gentlemen, a good bloke you know.

Mr Lockey did not have alcohol in his system when breath tested by NSW Police and was taken to a station to undergo more mandatory testing.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2020 > Reading AAPs Victory

by Arup Kumar Sen

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had a landslide victory in the Delhi Assembly elections held on February 8, 2020, winning 62 of 70 seats. The BJP improved its seat-tally marginally from three in 2015 to eight and its vote-share went up from 32.2 per cent in 2015 to 38.49 per cent. The AAPs vote-share came down marginally from 54.3 per cent to 53.6 per cent. The Congress drew a blank with its vote-share reduced from 9.7 per cent in 2015 to 4.4 per cent. (The Economic Times, February 12, 2020)

The above statistical figures show that the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections basically represented a contest between the AAP and the BJP. The AAP comfortably won seats in many Muslim-settled constituencies including Okhla, Ballimaran, Babarpur, Chandni Chowk, Seemapuri and Matia Mahal. In the Okhla seat, within which lies Shaheen Bagh, Amanatullah Khan of the AAP won, bagging more than 66 per cent of the votes.

The hate campaign of the BJP, however, was not entirely futile. The handful of seats the BJP gained over the last Assembly elections were in East Delhi and Northeast Delhi, home to several anti-CAA sit-ins, mostly by Muslim women. (The Telegraph, February 12, 2020)

Amit Shah, the Central Home Minister, set the tone for the BJPs poll campaign in Delhi. He said on January 25, 2020: Press the button of the lotus (the BJP symbol) so hard that the current makes the Shaheen Bagh protesters run away on the very evening of 8 February. He was followed by ParveshVerma, the BJPs West Delhi MP and son of former Chief Minister, Sahib Singh Verma, who warned the Delhi voters (January 28) : Lakhs of people gather there (Shaheen Bagh) and this fire can anytime reach households of Delhi. He further warned: These people will enter your house, will abduct your sisters and mothers, rape them, kill them, thats why today is the moment. Yogi Adityanath joined the poll campaign on February 2, when he addressed two rallies in the national Capital. He warned that those who dont understand words, will surely understand the language of the bullet. (See theprint.in)

In the context of politics of hate propagated by the BJP, the landslide victory of the AAP in the Delhi Assembly elections is expected to provide a breathing space to the citizens of Delhi. However, the language of politics of the AAP carries multiple meanings. In the wake of the massive victory of the party, the AAP leader, Arvind Kejriwal, said: The people of Delhi have given birth to a new kind of politics in the country, what is called kaam ki rajneeti (the politics of work)...Only this politics can take the country into the 21st century. This is not just a victory for Delhi, my friends, this is the victory of our Mother India, this is a victory for the whole country. Today is Tuesday, Hanumanjis day. Hanumanji has been kind to Delhi today. Thanks to Hanumanji too. (The Telegraph, February 12, 2020)

It may be mentioned in this connection that Arvind Kejriwal visited the popular Hanuman Temple near Connaught Place on the day before the Delhi elections and offered his prayers. He also recited Hanuman Chalisa on a TV channel. Kejriwal visited the Temple again with his family members and party leaders on the day of counting votes, as his party headed for a landslide victory in the Delhi elections.

It is transparent that Arvind Kejriwal is trying to combine his politics of good governance with the politics of soft Hinduism. He is speaking simultaneously in the language of secular governance and language of popular Hindu religious cults. Moreover, he is distancing himself from the contentious political issues of contemporary India.

Let us see how the Kejriwal-led AAP navigates the rough water of Indian politics in the coming days.
Defense attorney Neil Levine characterized the killing as an unplanned attack that happened when Granados learned his former wife was involved with someone else. In his testimony Tuesday, Granados said things got fuzzy and that he remembered carrying Bustos body to the bathtub and turning on the water in an attempt to revive her.
Shanghai (Gasgoo)- FAW-Toyota prepared to construct a new plant with annual capacity of 200,000 NEV in Tianjin, a local media outlet reported on Feb. 27, for the second time expanding NEV capacity since 2018.

(Photo source: FAW-Toyota)



Located at Binhai New District in Tian, the yet-to-be-built plant is said to cover an area of around 1.97 million square meters and involve a total investment of RMB8.495 billion, according to the aforementioned media outlet, citing a file from local authority. Besides, Tianjin government expects to make evident headway in this project by 2020.



The new plant is in all likelihood built to manufacture the BEV model jointly developed by Toyota and BYD, a source close to the matter said on condition of anonymity. However, the fact shall be in compliance with the official announcement, said BYD, in response to the rumor.

In August 2018, the Sino-Japanese joint venture was approved by local government to expand the NEV capacity for its Taida plant by 120,000 units per year, including 110,000 PHEVs and 10,000 BEVs.

Moreover, GAC Toyota, the Japanese automaker's another joint venture in China, would beef up production by 400,000 NEVs a year, added with RMB15 billion worth of capital from both parent companies, a local media reported in last December.

Toyota, which is renowned for its hybrid technology, is trying to move faster in BEV field. In China, it has forged partnership with leading NEV manufacturer BYD pursuant to both parties agreed to establish a joint company to research and develop BEVs. The 50/50 joint venture, which will work on designing and developing BEVs (including platform) and its related parts, is anticipated to be established in China this year.

Prior to the agreement on joint venture, both parties had struck a deal in last July to co-develop all-electric sedans and low-floor SUVs as well as the onboard batteries for these vehicles with the aim of launching them in the China under the Toyota brand in the first half of the 2020s.
INDIAN RIVER SHORES, Fla.  They don't call it the Treasure Coast for nothing.

Jonah Martinez, 43, a treasure hunter from Port St. Lucie, was scanning the sand with his metal detector at Turtle Trail Beach Access on Feb. 21 when his device picked up a signal.

Buried beneath him was more than three centuries of history:

Martinez pulled 22 Spanish silver coins from the surf, each dating back to a shipwreck 305 years ago, he said.

Treasure hunter Jonah Martinez, 43, of Port St. Lucie, found 22 Spanish coins from a 1715 shipwreck at Turtle Trail Beach Access on Feb. 21.

Twelve Spanish galleons laden with treasures from the New World were bound for Spain on July 31, 1715, but 11 were lost during a hurricane off the coast of Florida. Most of the treasure lies beneath the ocean.

"Not everyone knows why it's called the Treasure Coast," Martinez said. "This is why."

In Florida: Woman learns her beach find is a land mine after similar discovery the day before

Martinez, who has hunted treasure along Florida's coastlines for 24 years, estimated the total haul to be worth about $7,000. One coin alone could be worth upward of $2,000.

Though this isn't his biggest or most successful find (Martinez once found $6.5 million worth of gold coins), the thrill is still there, he said.

"I know how to read the beach, and I'm always trying to increase my odds of finding something," Martinez said.

According to Florida law, recovery permits are required for individuals who want to explore or recover artifacts on state-owned lands underwater, but not on a public beach.

Martinez said he has no intent to sell or polish the coins.

Two days of explosive discoveries: Sebastian woman learns beach find is WWII-era land mine

Martinez said he will put them in a safe spot next to some of his other historic finds.

"It's a passion," Martinez said. "It's the thrill of the hunt that I love."

Follow Max Chesnes on Twitter: @MaxChesnes

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast: Spanish coins from 1715 shipwreck unearthed on Florida beach
Several provinces and territories have taken steps to curb the use of vaping products among youth. Here is a list of the measures they've put in place:

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Several provinces and territories have taken steps to curb the use of vaping products among youth. Here is a list of the measures they've put in place:

BRITISH COLUMBIA

The B.C. government introduced a 10-point plan in November 2019 that includes cutting nicotine content in vapour pods, restricting flavours aimed at young people, increasing taxes and supporting youth-led anti-vaping campaigns. The plan also includes requiring health warnings on packaging and prevents advertising in areas where youth spend time, including bus shelters and community parks. The government said the new regulations will take effect in the spring of 2020. The province has set a 20 per cent tax on vaping products.

ALBERTA

The province announced a 20 per cent tax on vaping products in February in a bid to curb the practice among youth. It has not announced any other legislation to address vaping, however, some of its municipalities have bylaws that restrict e-cigarette use in public places. The provinces health minister, Tyler Shandro, has also asked for a review of tobacco and smoking legislation, with a focus on regulating vaping, as soon as this fall. The government says the review will help it develop strategies to protect Albertans from the harms of vaping, tobacco and tobacco-like products, and assess the effectiveness of current legislation.

SASKATCHEWAN

The Saskatchewan government has passed amendments to its Tobacco Control Act to bring regulation of vaping in line with existing tobacco legislation. The new rules will restrict the sale of vaping products to people 18 and older and prohibit the promotion of such products in businesses frequented by young people, such as arcades, theatres and amusement parks. The use of vape products will also be restricted in and around public buildings, including schools and school grounds.

MANITOBA

The Manitoba governments Non-Smokers Health Protection and Vapour Products Act prohibits vaping by people under the age of 18. It also bans vaping in indoor public places like schools, libraries, hospitals, malls, restaurants and indoor workplaces. The provinces ban on the advertising and promotion of tobacco products covers e-cigarettes as well.

ONTARIO

Ontario has announced plans to restrict the sale of flavoured vapes and high nicotine e-cigarettes to specialty stores. On Jan. 1, it banned the promotion of vaping products in convenience stores and gas stations.

QUEBEC

The sale and supply of vape products to anyone under the age of 18 is illegal, and photo ID is required to buy such products. Their use of vaping products is prohibited wherever tobacco smoking is banned. Electronic cigarette advertising  except ads in newspapers or magazines that have an adult readership of not less than 85%  is prohibited, as is the display of e-cigarettes in stores accessible to people under age 18. However, adding flavours to the liquids used in e-cigarettes remains legal, whereas it is not for tobacco products.

NEW BRUNSWICK

New Brunswick bans the sale of e-cigarettes and e-juices to people under age 19, and no one under that age is allowed to enter a vape shop unless accompanied by an adult. Outdoor advertising by vape shops is prohibited and promotional material inside the shops cannot be viewed from the outside. Restrictions on promotional materials that apply to tobacco in other retail shops also apply to e-cigarettes. The sale of flavoured tobacco, including menthol, is also banned in New Brunswick.

NOVA SCOTIA

Health Minister Randy Delorey has announced the province will ban sales of flavoured e-cigarettes and juices as of April 1, 2020. Nova Scotia banned the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under 19 in 2015. Vaping is also prohibited in any venue where tobacco smoking is banned, and vape shops are not allowed to display e-cigarette ads outside their businesses.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

The P.E.I. legislature passed a bill in November raising the legal age to buy tobacco and e-cigarettes from 19 to 21  the highest age limit in the country. The legislation also bans certain flavours of e-cigarettes. E-cigarette sales are already banned wherever tobacco sales are prohibited. Vape shops are not allowed to display e-cigarette devices in a way that makes them visible from outside the premises. Vaping or product sampling in retail outlets is prohibited, as it is in a public place or workplace. Any advertising that is misleading regarding the characteristics, health effects and health hazards of vaping products is also illegal.

NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

The province bans the sale of vaping products to people under age 19. Sales of such products are also prohibited wherever tobacco sales are banned, and promotional materials for vaping products cannot be visible inside or outside the shop where theyre sold. Vape shops are allowed to operate in the province providing they only sell vapour products.

YUKON

Yukon does not currently have any laws dealing with vaping. However, a bill was introduced in its legislature in October that would, if passed, set the minimum age for buying vape products at 19 and prohibit the display or advertising of such products.

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

The Smoking Control and Reduction Act was passed in August 2019. The rule changes would regulate the sale, display and advertising of vape products and the substances used in e-cigarettes. It would prohibit the use of these products by people under the age of 19 and ban the sale of food items that are designed to resemble vape (and tobacco) products. The sale of vape products at locations such as schools, hospitals, pools and recreational facilities would also be banned.

NUNAVUT

Current regulations only dictate where people can vape, but the territorys chief medical officer of health has said amendments to the territorys Tobacco Control Act to put stricter restrictions on vaping will likely be implemented sometime this year2. Dr. Michael Patterson said the new rules would likely mirror tobacco regulations, which ban flavoured tobacco and flashy packaging aimed at enticing young people.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2020.
Reports have circulated of individuals calling door-to-door in Longford, pretending to be from the club and seeking 'donations'.

Representatives of Longford gymnastics club, which is due to open its brand new premises in Longford town in the coming weeks, have issued a warning to the Longford public that people are seeking donations while pretending to be from the club.

They have warned that individuals are calling door-to-door in Longford asking for donations as part of a bogus fundraiser. Representatives of Longford gymnastics club took to social media to warn people against giving them money.

Also read: Longford gymnastics club launch new classes ahead of new premises opening

Anyone who has fallen victim to their efforts or who may have any information on said individuals is asked to contact local gardai.

Please know that we are not currently fundraising for our club, but have been made aware that individuals are calling to doors in Longford recently asking for donations to our club.

If this happens to you or your friends/family please get in touch with the guards. We are deeply upset if anyone has indeed passed money to these gangsters.
Novelist Jonathan Lethem, actor-director Kasi Lemmons, Oscar-nominated actor Rosie Perez and director James Ivory -- half of the iconic filmmaking team behind such modern classics as Howards End  are among the recently announced guests booked for the New York State Writers Institutes inaugural Albany Film Festival.

Scheduled for Saturday, March 28, the festivals programming will feature screenings, a film-shorts competition and an awards ceremony as well as a wide array of actors, directors and writers appearing in panels and conversations.

Among the other participants slated for the all-day event: Their Eyes Were Watching God director Darnell Martin; Charles Brandt, author of the book that became the basis for Martin Scorseses The Irishman; and Pulitzer Prize-winning Ironweed novelist and NYSWI founder William Kennedy. Local filmmaker and historian Don Rittner will screen his autobiographical feature.

All of the regular festival programming will be free and open to the public. A limited number of VIP festival passes, which include priority seating at festival events and admission to a private reception with filmmakers and other participants, are available for $75.

For a VIP pass or more information, see albanyfilmfestival.org or call 518-442-5620.

The full guest list so far is below; more will be announced.

Kasi Lemmons, director of Eves Bayou and actor in The Silence of the Lambs.

James Ivory, co-founder of Merchant Ivory Productions and director of The Remains of the Day.

Charles Brandt, author of I Heard You Paint Houses.

Jake Bernstein, author of Secrecy World, basis for The Laundromat.

William Kennedy, screenwriter for The Cotton Club.

Douglas A. Blackmon, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Slavery by Another Name.

Samuel Pollard, film editor of Spike Lee films including Jungle Fever and director of Counting the Ballots.

Jonathan Lethem, author of the newly adapted Motherless Brooklyn.

Rosie Perez, actor in Fearless and Spike Lees Do the Right Thing.

Darnell Martin, director of I Like It Like That.

Lizzie Gottlieb, documentary filmmaker of Romeo Romeo.

Michael Mayer, Tony Award winning theater director and director of film version of The Seagull.

Don Rittner, director and producer of the autobiographical feature Karen or Bust, to screen at the festival.

Stephen Soucy, filmmaker of the documentary Merchant Ivory.

Stephan Talty, co-author of the book adapted as the film Captain Phillips as well as The Black Hand, being made into Leonardo DiCaprio film.
Shenzhen: The southern Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen is moving to outlaw the consumption of dogs and cats as the country clamps down on the wildlife trade that scientists suspect led to the coronavirus outbreak.

The proposed regulations from the city government list nine meats that are permitted for consumption, including pork, chicken, beef and rabbit, as well as fish and seafood.

"Banning the consumption of wild animals is a common practice in developed countries and is a universal requirement of modern civilization," the notice said.

Scientists suspect that the new virus passed to humans from animals. Some of the earliest infections were found in people who had exposure to a wildlife market in Hubei`s provincial capital Wuhan, where bats, snakes, civets and other animals were sold.

The document recognised dogs and cats` status as pets and would ban their consumption. Snakes, turtles and frogs were excluded from the approved list, despite being popular dishes in China`s south.

A ban on eating dog and cat meat in Shenzhen would be "extremely welcome," said Peter Li, China policy expert for Humane Society International, an animal welfare group.

"Although the trade in Shenzhen is fairly small compared with the rest of [Guangdong] province, Shenzhen is still a huge city and is larger than Wuhan, so this would be very significant and could even have a domino effect with other cities following."

The other permitted meats are lamb, donkey, ducks, geese and pigeon. The proposal noted there are more than 2,000 species of protected wildlife in China.

Shenzhen`s proposal follows a decision by the central government on Monday for an immediate ban in the trade and consumption of wild animals, after an initial suspension in January.

The State Forestry and Grassland Administration is also moving to expand the scope of protected wildlife, and will revoke licences for wildlife breeding organisations found to be breeding for consumption, Xinhua reported on Thursday.

Those caught eating protected animals would be fined up to 20,000 yuan ($2,850) and up to 2,000 yuan for non-protected animals, according to the draft. Shops serving protected meat face fines of up to 50,000 yuan.

The public will have until Thursday to respond to the draft, according to the document.

In Yulin, a city in the neighbouring province of Guangxi famous for its dog meat festival, most dog slaughter operations have closed in the past two months because of restrictions on moving dogs across provincial borders, Li said.
ANTIOCH (BCN)

Police in Antioch on Thursday arrested a student at Antioch High School in connection with possession of a firearm magazine on school grounds.

On Thursday at 10:18 a.m., Antioch High School staff notified the Antioch Police Department three individuals on campus were possibly armed with weapons.

School staff placed the school on lockdown, and police responded to help try and locate the individuals.

Ultimately, the information provided by another student could not be substantiated, and the lockdown was lifted once the school was determined to be safe.

While the officers were on campus, an unloaded pistol magazine was located in the possession of a student.

The student was detained and arrested on suspicion of possessing a firearm magazine on school grounds.

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.
Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray offers prayers at the Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple at Prabhadevi in Mumbai on Feb 9, 2020. The MNS chief started his mega-morcha demanding that Pakistan-Bangladesh infiltrators m Image Source: IANS News

Mumbai, Feb 28 : The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has taken strong objection to the 220-year-old Siddhivinayak temple's plans to contribute Rs 5 crore to the state government's 'Shiv Bhojan' scheme for the poor.

Flaying the move, MNS spokesperson Sandip Deshpande alleged that with this step, the Shree Siddhivinayak Ganapati Temple Trust (SSGTT) "is indulging in politics to satisfy the whims of some persons".

"We all know that the SSGTT is doing very good work in the social spheres. The donations it gets are out of the immense faith of the devotees who throng here. But, it cannot be given away to any government schemes in such a fashion," said Deshpande.

He said there are other major temple trusts like Saibaba Temple in Shirdi (Ahmednagar) or the Gajanan Maharaj Temple in Shegaon (Buldhana) which ploughs back donations in the form of 'prasad meals' to thousands of their devotees daily.

"If the SSGTT is truly serious about helping the poor, it should prepare its own meals and serve to the poor devotees going there instead of making contributions to a government scheme," Deshpande said sharply.

When contacted, SSGTT Chairman and film actor Aadesh Bandekar said it was a unanimous decision of the trustees announced on Tuesday (Feb. 25) which will now go to the state government for approval.

"This is the temple's contribution to a very good scheme implemented by the Maharashtra government intended for the welfare of the poor in the state," Bandekar told IANS without directly touching on MNS reservations.

Last Tuesday, the 220-year-old SSGTT announced plans to contribute the amount of Rs 5-crore to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's pet scheme of Rs 10 'Shiva Bhojan' thali that was launched on January 26.

The scheme has proved to be extremely popular among the poor people with daily sales of more than 15,000 plates around 140 distribution centres in the state in the pilot project.

Bandekar said the SSGTT utilizes the donation funds to help thousands of needy people upto Rs 25,000 and spent over Rs 38 crore on this so far, besides other social, educational and community activities undertaken round the year.

The Siddhivinayak Temple ranks as one of the most revered in Mumbai among both commoners and celebs who throng there on various festivals, auspicious or family occasions.
Pakistan on Friday temporarily opened a key border crossing with Iran to let in the Pakistani pilgrims stranded on the other side after it had shut it to counter coronavirus spread, an official said.

Pakistan on February 23 had temporarily closed the Taftan border point in Chaghi district of Balochistan province with Iran to counter the threat of coronavirus spread.

The deadly coronavirus has killed 34 people amid 388 confirmed cases in Iran.

Assistant Commissioner of Taftan, Najibullah Qambrani, said that the Taftan border point was temporarily opened to allow for one-way traffic into Pakistan.

As hundreds of Pakistanis were left stranded on the other sides, authorities were under pressure to let them in.

"Around 250-300 Pakistanis stuck in Iran are being allowed to return, he said.

The decision to allow them to come back was promoted by their increasing difficulties, including expiry of visas for several people.

However, as per the decision of the government, all passengers were being screened and would be quarantined for some period to make sure that none of them is suffering from coronavirus.

Officials said that about 5,000 Pakistani pilgrims were currently in Iran.

Pakistan has confirmed two cases of coronavirus and both recently came back from Iran.

Advisor on health Zafar Mirza said that both of them were in stable condition and improving.

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





A joint Turkmen-Afghan business forum took place in Ashgabat, Trend reports on Feb. 28 referring to the Turkmen foreign ministry.

The event was attended by officials including representatives of several ministries and entrepreneurs of the two countries.

The forum participants discussed issues related to the commercial-economic partnership, prospects for increasing import and export between the countries, expansion of investments, simplification of trade procedures and establishment of direct business contacts.

The parties agreed to promote relations in the energy, transport and logistics sector, the communications and industry, oil gas and construction sectors.

Turkmenistan ranks among the top 10 main suppliers of goods to Afghanistan.

A Trade House of Turkmenistan has recently started functioning in the Afghan city of Mazari Sharif.

As a part of the bilateral agreements, a number of projects are under way, including those on preferential power and LNG supply of Afghanistan.

The sustainable socio-economic development of the Central Asia region can be ensured by large-scale projects including the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan (TAT) railroad and Lapis Lazuli transport corridor along Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey transport corridor.

The agreement on transit and transport cooperation Lapis Lazuli between Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and Turkmenistan was signed on Nov. 15, 2017 at the ministerial meeting of the 7th Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan in Ashgabat.

The construction of the Afghan section of the pipeline was initiated in February 2018, while the construction of the Pakistani section is planned to be launched in 2020.

The Turkmengas State Concern is the leader of the TAPI Pipeline Company Ltd. international consortium. It acts as the main financier and manager of the project. The consortium also includes Afghan Gas Corporation, Pakistans Inter State Gas Systems (Private) Limited Company and Indias GAIL Company.
A thief in California got more than he bargained for after he stole an SUV outside a church with a dead body inside.

The vehicle was parked Wednesday evening outside a Greek Orthodox church in Pasadena, east of Los Angeles, and was left running as the driver dropped off one body, Los Angeles County Sheriffs deputy Grace Medrano told AFP.

She said another body was in the black Lincoln Navigator when it was stolen.

In a message on Twitter, the sheriffs department appealed to the suspect to at least return the corpse.

Out of all the bad decisions you have made, at least make one good one & bring back the deceased person & casket inside the Navigator, the message said.

The suspect was finally arrested on Thursday morning after a driver reported seeing the vehicle.

A police pursuit ended with the suspect crashing the SUV into another vehicle on a freeway.

The body was still inside the vehicle, authorities said.
Renovation

28 February 2020

The Biltmore Mayfair, Europe's first hotel under Hilton's LXR Hotels & Resorts brand, is delighted to announce the launch of its eight indulgent signature suites. Each suite has been designed to provide the discerning guest with an enviable choice of arrangements from a 'townhouse' feel in the One-bedroom Duplex Suite, which offers an extensive private terrace with views over London's rooftops, to the plush and elegant Chairman Suite and hero Presidential Suite.

In celebration of the signature suites launch, the hotel has announced a collaboration with luxury designer, Roland Mouret. The eponymous brand is renowned for its iconic, beautifully-fitted dresses, known by a single name. Exclusively for The Biltmore, the highly acclaimed 'Myrtha' dress will be available in an exquisite limited-edition shade of dusty charcoal in all signature suites for guests to purchase. The double wool crepe dress, dubbed 'The Biltmore Dress', offers a cut-out neckline and cape-shoulder detailing to create a sophisticated yet alluring shape. Through their private butler, guests can request a complimentary fitting of the iconic dress with Roland Mouret's dedicated tailor in the comfort of their suite.

Personalised embroidered pillowcases and monogrammed bathrobes are part of the experience, complemented by quintessentially British amenities by Penhaligon's. KCA International have also amped up the traditional minibar, designing bespoke statement quilted, leather-encased two-metre-high 'Maxi-bar' cabinets holding full-size bottles of champagne and premium wines and spirits, together with a selection of complimentary snacks and non-alcoholic beverages.

The hotel's youngest residents will feel equally at home in the signature suites with their own bathrobes, kids' bathroom amenities and access to a complimentary non-alcoholic minibar throughout their stay.

Art throughout the suites has been carefully curated, with each statement piece chosen to express the hotel's overarching theme of 'bringing the outside in', celebrating its enviable location on iconic Grosvenor Square. In the Presidential Suite, a light piece by Serip comprises uneven forms, referencing nature's powerful elements. A wall sculpture inspired by the growth process depicts branches intertwined with one another and highlights the interaction between natural growth and human influence. Soft furnishings have been selected for their quality and comfort, including hand tufted silk and wool rugs.

The Biltmore Mayfair is also home to an expansive, state-of-the-art gym, and innovative culinary concepts including the all-day dining restaurant, The Betterment, The Pine Bar, The Tea Lounge and The Terrace  each overseen by Jason Atherton and Head Chef Paul Walsh.

With iconic landmarks and neighbourhoods on its doorstep, including numerous designer boutiques of Mount Street and Carlos Place, and exclusive retailers on Bond Street, the hotel is a decadent retreat to experience the best that London has to offer.

Nightly rates in one of the signature suites at The Biltmore Mayfair start from 2,600 room-only, inclusive of VAT. The Biltmore Dress by Roland Mouret is available to purchase for 1,450.
AFRICA

Somalia

Expected Council Action

In March, the Security Council is due to renew the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), which expires on 31 March. The authorisation of the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) expires on 31 May and the Security Councils Somalia sanctions regime expires on 15 November.

Key Recent Developments

Somalias lower house of parliament passing an electoral law on 28 December 2019 is one of the first steps in organising elections for late 2020 or early 2021. These long-awaited elections are seen as a critical turning point for the future of Somalia. Somalias international partnerswhich include AMISOM, Australia, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, the EU, Finland, Germany, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, Norway, Sudan, Sweden, Turkey, the UK, the UN and the USreleased a communique on 28 January reaffirming their commitment to supporting preparations for federal elections and urging parliament to take action on the electoral law. On 2 February, the upper house of Somalias parliament approved the law. On 21 February, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo signed the electoral bill into law.

The Council was last briefed on Somalia on 24 February. James Swan, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNSOM; Francisco Caetano Jose Madeira, Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia and head of AMISOM; and Dan Smith, Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, briefed. Briefers and Council members mentioned that 2020 is a pivotal year for Somalia. While noting positive actions, some of them highlighted the lack of dialogue among the many stakeholders. Swan urged bold action so that progress can be made on Somalias 2020 priorities, something echoed by many Council members. These priorities range from development goals, such as continued work toward debt relief, to political ones, such as holding elections and finalising the federal constitution. Madeira urged international support for Somalias electoral and security efforts. Smith focused on the negative impact of climate change on peace operations in Somalia.

As the Secretary-Generals 13 February report on UNSOM stated, the security situation in Somalia remains fragile. The report concludes by recommending the renewal of UNSOMs mandate for 12 months.

On the margins of the 33rd African Union Summit, Farmajo and Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi held a meeting on 11 February in the Ethiopian Prime Ministers office. It was their first meeting, as the last reconciliation talks between the Somali government and Somaliland took place in 2015, before either of them took office. Previous attempts to arrange a face-to-face meeting between representatives from both sides were unsuccessful due to cancellations and questions of political will. There are hopes that this meeting signals positive developments to come.

Somalias humanitarian situation remains troubling. In December 2019, approximately 2.3 million people in communities most affected by acute food and nutrition insecurity in Somalia were receiving assistance, according to the World Food Programme. Somalia is also experiencing its worst locust infestation in 25 years. The locusts have also caused problems in other countries throughout the Horn of Africa. Over the past four months, Somalia has seen hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland and plants destroyed, bringing worries that this will also have a devastating impact on future harvests; in early February, the government declared a national emergency.

Sanctions-Related Developments

The 751 Somalia Sanctions regime was renewed on 15 November 2019. Ambassador Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve (Belgium), chair of the sanctions committee, visited Somalia at the end of January. Accompanying Belgium were representatives from committee members China, Estonia, France, Germany, Russia, and United Kingdom. Trip participants were able to meet with Somalias president, prime minister, and foreign minister for what were described as fruitful discussions. Somali representatives shared their views on how to improve the relationship with the Panel of Experts. This is critical as 2019 was characterised by a tense relationship between Somalia and the UN, with the Panel of Experts in particular. During its last mandate period, the Panel of Experts was unable to gain permission to make a formal visit to Somalia.

Key Issues and Options

In planning for UNSOMs mandate renewal, there are several items for Council members to consider. First of all, last years mandate renewal emphasised the need for Somalia to address the slow progress in the implementation of its political prioritiessuch as the constitutional review process, preparations for elections in 2020-2021, and further defining the relationship between the federal government and the statesas well as the transition plan and the national security architecture. Given the lack of progress, member states are likely to consider how best to encourage action when renewing the mandate.

Additionally, Council members will be looking at how well UNSOM has continued to provide strategic support and advice to the Federal Government of Somalia and AMISOM on peacebuilding and state-building in the areas of governance, security sector reform and rule of law, development of a federal system, constitutional review, and coordination of international donor support. Resolution 2461 also called on Somalia and South West State to address allegations of human rights violations and abuses prior to the South West State elections. Council members will want to see if that call was answered and whether the continued violations and abuses of human rights in Somaliawhich resolution 2461 condemnedhave abated.

While negotiating UNSOMs renewal, members are likely to begin considering how to renew AMISOMs mandate in May. That may be a more difficult negotiation process due to divergent views among troop-contributing countries, Council member states, and Somalia about the size and strength of AMISOM in the future.

Council and Wider Dynamics

In general, Council members hold similar positions on Somalia. However, mandate renewals can be difficult because of divisions about the best way to encourage change and progress in Somalia. For example, Council members differ on the pace of troop withdrawal. The three African members of the Council in 2019 supported the AU position that an AMISOM drawdown was premature and that Somalia was not ready to take on greater security responsibilities. Their position was supported by China and Russia. Meanwhile, France, the UK and the US supported reductions by the end of 2019. Resolution 2472 set out a compromise whereby it decided to reduce uniformed AMISOM personnel by 1000 to a maximum level of 19,626, by 28 February 2020.

During negotiations a year ago, Council members agreed to maintain the core mandate for UNSOM, and indications are that they are likely to do so again. Points of contention included an operative clause on the adverse effects of climate change, adding to climate and security language that was in the preambular part of the 2018 UNSOM mandate renewal. The new language in last years renewal called on Somalia to consider the adverse implications of climate change, other ecological changes, and natural disasters, among other factors, by undertaking such actions as risk assessments and risk management strategies relating to these factors. It also requested that the Secretary-General provide information about such assessments in his reporting. While climate and security language has increasingly been incorporated into Council outcomes over the past two years, the role of the Council regarding this issue remains politically sensitive to some members. It is unclear in what form these references will survive another round of mandate negotiations.

Resolution 2461 called for periodic threat assessments, of which one took place during the mandates 12 months. Some members were expecting multiple assessments to take place during the mandate, and so may criticise that there was only one. There may also be differences between member states on how to refer to electoral preparations. Some may highlight the lack of progress as a point of concern while others will likely consider it an internal problem that is not within the realm of the Security Council to address.

The UK is the penholder on Somalia. Ambassador Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve (Belgium) chairs the 751 Somalia Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SOMALIA
Mike Pence appeared on Fox News Thursday where he defended his role as Donald Trump's coronavirus czar amid renewed scrutiny of his handling of an HIV outbreak in southern Indiana when he was governor.

The president announced Wednesday that the vice president will lead the US' response to the outbreak, drawing immediate attacks from Democrats who scrutinized his record dealing with the spread of AIDS in his home state.

Pence has no medical background of any kind. He studied history at Hanover College and went on to learn a law degree. He also reluctantly agreed to authorize a needle exchange program in Scott County in March 2015 after the epidemic centered there saw the number of people infected with HIV skyrocket.

But he took credit for the needle exchange during an interview Thursday with Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity, telling him: 'One of the reasons the president asked me to do this is precisely because of two different incidents in the state of Indiana. In 2014, Indiana was where the very first MRSA case emerged in the country.

'In 2015, we did have in a small town in Indiana a rise in incidents of HIV AIDS. It was all directly coming from people sharing needles and intravenous drug use.

'I don't believe in needle exchanges as a way to combat drug abuse, but in this case we came to the conclusion that we had a public health emergency, and so I took executive action to make a limited needle exchange available.'

Mike Pence appeared on Fox News Thursday where he continued to downplay the spread of coronavirus and praised Donald Trump's 'unprecedented steps' in containing the outbreak

Vice President Mike Pence, center, accompanied by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, center left, and National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, center right, and others, speaks during a coronavirus task force meeting at the Department of Health and Human Services

Greg Millett, director of public policy at amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, said Indiana's HIV outbreak would have been 'entirely preventable' if Pence had acted earlier in response to data that was available to Indiana public health officials and clearly showed an outbreak was imminent.

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington urged Trump on Thursday to reconsider the choice of Pence, citing his 'lack of public health experience and record of putting ideology over science' and his 'leadership failure during the Indiana HIV outbreak.'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters she spoke to Pence on Thursday morning and 'expressed to him the concern that I had of his being in this position.' Pelosi said that while she wants to work with the White House, she told Pence she was wary of his leadership after his track record in Indiana.

Pence also continued to downplay the spread of coronavirus Thursday and praised Trump's 'unprecedented steps' in containing the deadly outbreak.

Speaking on Fox News Pence praised the president's response to the crisis, adding that 'the risk of the spread remains low' while urging the Democrats to 'push politics aside'. He told the host: 'You know, the president's message is clear. We're ready. Ready for anything. This is not the time for politics.'

He added: 'The reality is that because of the actions of President Trump took last month, literally ending travel, closing our borders to people coming in from China, establishing a quarantine process, setting up a task force.

'If the president hadn't taken those unprecedented steps, we'd be in a different place today. It was criticized by some at the time. But as I said, our health experts told me again yesterday we would be in a very different place today if President Trump hadn't taken the decisive action that we had.'

The vice president told host Sean Hannity 'the risk of the spread remains low'

A government chartered Boeing 747-400F cargo plane is seen departing Travis Air Force Base after unloading some Americans evacuated from Wuhan, the epicenter of China coronavirus outbreak, in Fairfield, California, United States on February 5

In California, 8,400 people are now being monitored for signs of the virus, while in Florida the governor refused to say if anyone was being tested.

The US' first unknown origin case was announced in California Wednesday and the total number affected in America hit 60 on Thursday.

But speaking in a pre recorded interview aired Thursday evening Pence said the 'unprecedented steps' Trump took to contain the virus had stopped its spread, reasoning the president 'has no higher priority of the health and safety of the American people'.

Pence told Hannity: 'Today, you know, we haven't had a new case for the last two weeks until the word that reached the public in the last 24 hours. We've had 15 cases in this country.

'People are beating treated and doing well. One is still in the hospital. The other 45 cases are all American citizens that we brought back home, went through a quarantining process, monitoring them.

'So I take my hat off to the president's leadership as well as secretary Azar, the team at CDC, homeland security.'

He added: 'The risk of the spread of the coronavirus in the United States of America remains low. That's considering to all of our experts and a direct result of the unprecedented action that President Trump took last month when he closed our border to Chinese individuals coming in to the country and established a quarantining effort.

Pence argued that politics should be put to one side, adding: 'I think we have an opportunity to do exactly what the American people want us to do. That is keep the politics out of this, follow the facts, follow the science and work the problem.'

Donald Trump announced Wednesday that the vice president will lead the US' response to the outbreak, drawing immediate attacks from Democrats who scrutinized his record dealing with the spread of AIDS in his home state

The vice president moved Thursday to project calm in the role of chief coordinator of the government's response to the coronavirus, chairing the first meeting of the White House's taskforce on the virus - which has just four doctors, one of whom was absent.

The taskforce held its first meeting at the Department of Health and Human Services, hours after it emerged that the Trump administration had ordered its own health experts not to speak in public without permission from Pence's staff.

Pence only held the meeting after he addressed the CPAC conservative conference and just before Wall Street closed with the worst stock mark sell-off since 2008.

He said Thursday: 'The president made it clear yesterday, we're all in this together. I spoke to speaker Pelosi. I spoke to senator Schumer. The president said reach out to them. Put the politics aside.

'Get the resources that we need to respond to this to make sure the CDC, all of our agencies have the support that they need, the states have the support should this matter become more serious.

'The American people can be confident that we're going to bring at the president's direction the full resources of the federal government to bear to protect the people of this country.'
Union minister Smriti Irani came out in support of thousands of employees in the retail sector, saying one should take pride in doing such jobs.

"There should be no sense of shame in wanting to be a retail employee. When I began my job at McDonald's, my job was jhaadu-pochha (cleaning) and my ambition, when I joined, was to stand at the cashier's position... a retail employee," she said during TRRAIN Retail Awards 2020, given to recognise exceptional customer service in the retail industry.

"I think there should be a sense of pride that you are given the position behind the till or a position to express how much a consumer can be attached to an establishment because there is a sense of great personality, great aptitude, and that is how you get to be a retail employee," the minister said.

Talking about her humble beginnings, the minister for women and child development and textiles said she started as a loader in her father's company but soon left as people thought it was easy for her.

"I switched and my decision was to work in a company which is not known or owned by anybody that I grew up with. So, before I began in McDonald's, I had a few adventures in railways, airports and bus addas," she said.

She further said education is not the only thing that counts, and ideas and imagination matter more.

Trust for Retailers & Retail Associates of India (TRRAIN) was set up by Shoppers Stop Non-Executive Chairman B S Nagesh.
English Estonian

Selected Financial Indicators

Summarized selected financial indicators of the Group for 12 months of 2019 compared to 12 months of 2018 and 31.12.2019 compared to 31.12.2018 were as follows:

in thousands of EUR 12m 2019 12m 2018 Change Revenue 56 943 62 213 -8.5% EBITDA 17 004 19 310 -11.9% Net profit for the period 11 149 11 525 -3.3% Net profit attributable equity holders of the Parent company 10 663 10 796 -1.2% Earnings per share (EUR) 0,30 0,30 0.0% Operating cash flow for the period 15 086 11 240 34.2% in thousands of EUR 31.12.2019 31.12.2018 Change Total assets 46 309 45 504 1.8% Total current assets 27 123 34 904 -22.3% Total equity attributable to equity holders of the Parent company 26 324 27 462 -4.1% Cash and cash equivalents 5 152 13 603 -62.1% Margin analysis, % 12m 2019 12m 2018 Change Gross profit 52,1 55,6 -6.3% EBITDA 29,9 31,0 -3.5% Net profit 19,6 18,5 5.9% Net profit attributable to equity holders of the Parent company 18,7 17,4 7.5% Financial ratios, % 31.12.2019 31.12.2018 Change ROA 22,2 22,9 -3.1% ROE 38,9 34,7 12.1% Price to earnings ratio (P/E) 7,3 7,7 -5.2% Current ratio 2,7 2,4 12.5% Quick ratio 0,8 1,2 -33.3%

Financial performance

The Group`s sales amounted to 56 943 thousand EUR during 12 months of 2019, representing a 8.5% decrease as compared to the same period of previous year. Overall, wholesales decreased by 13.2%, measured in EUR.

The Groups gross profit during 12 months of 2019 amounted to 29 651 thousand EUR and decrease by 14.4% compared to previous year. The gross margin during 12 months of 2019 decreased to 52.1%, from 55.6% in the respective period of previous year. The cost of sold goods decreased by 1.1%.

Consolidated operating profit for 12 months of 2019 amounted to 12 712 thousand EUR, compared to 17 736 thousand EUR in 12 months of 2018, decrease 28.3%. The consolidated operating profit margin was 22.3% for 12 months of 2019 (28.5% in 12 months of 2018). Consolidated EBITDA for 12 months of 2019 decreased by 11.9% and amounted to 17 004 thousand EUR, which is 29.9% in margin terms (19 310 thousand EUR and 31.0% for 12 months of 2018).

Reported consolidated net profit attributable to equity holders of the Parent company for 12 months of 2019 amounted to 10 663 thousand EUR, compared to net profit of 10 796 thousand EUR in 12 months of 2018, net profit margin attributable to equity holders of the Parent company for 12 months of 2019 was 18.7% against 17.4% in 12 months of 2018.

Financial position

As of 31 December 2019 consolidated assets amounted to 46 309 thousand EUR representing increase by 1.8% as compared to the position as of 31 December 2018.

Trade and other receivables decreased by 1 038 thousand EUR as compared to 31 December 2018 and amounted to 2 610 thousand EUR as of 31 December 2019. Inventory balance increased by 1 714 thousand EUR and amounted to 19 359 thousand EUR as of 31 December 2019.

Equity attributable to equity holders of the Parent company decreased by 1 138 thousand EUR and amounted to 26 324 thousand EUR as of 31 December 2019. Current liabilities decreased by 4 675 thousand EUR during 12 months of 2019.

Investments

During 12 months of 2019 the Groups investments into property, plant and equipment totalled 1 216 thousand EUR, in previous year same period 497 thousand EUR. Investments were made mainly into opening and renovating own stores, as well into equipment and facilities to maintain effective production for future periods.

Personnel

As of 31 December 2019, the Group employed 1 888 employees, including 503 people in retail operations. The rest were employed in production, wholesale, administration and support operations. In 31.12.2018 there were 2 073 employees, including 500 people in retail operations.

Total salaries and related taxes during 12 months of 2019 amounted to 13 195 thousand EUR (12 500 thousand EUR in 12 months of 2018). The remuneration of key management of the Group, including the key executives of all subsidiaries, totalled 870 thousand EUR.

Decisions made by governing bodies after Q4 2019

On May 03, 2019 Silvano Fashion Group held its regular Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. The Meeting adopted the following decisions.

The Meeting approved the 2018 Annual Report.

The Meeting decided to distribute dividends in the amount 0.20 EUR per share (record date 16.05.2019).

To pay to the entitled shareholders of AS Silvano Fashion Group as dividends EUR 0.20 per share as follows:

- to pay dividends EUR 0.10 per share by 20 May 2019 latest, (payment completed on 20.05.2019);

to pay dividends EUR 0.10 per share by 10 October 2019 latest, (payment completed on 29.08.2019);

The Meeting decided to recall Mr. Ants Susi from the Supervisory Board of SFG. The authorities of Mr. Ants Susi as the member of the Supervisory Board of SFG shall be deemed to have expired as of May 3, 2019.

The Meeting decided to elect Triin Nellis as the new member of the Supervisory Board of SFG, whose term of office shall start on May 3, 2019 and expire on June 30, 2021.

The meeting decided to amend the remuneration policy of the supervisory board members, approved by the shareholders meeting on June 30, 2012 as follows:

- to assign monthly gross remuneration of 5,000 euros for the chairman of the supervisory board;

- to assign monthly gross remuneration of 2,000 euros for the supervisory board;

The meeting decided to amend section 2.2. of the Articles of Association and reinstate it in the following wording: All shares of the Company are registered shares. The nominal value of a registered share is 0,20 (twenty) cents. A share grants 1 (one) vote at the General Meeting. ;

The meeting decided:

- The share capital of SFG shall be increased by 3,600,000 EUR from 3,600,000 EUR to 7 200 000 EUR by the increase of the nominal value of existing shares by 0,10 EUR per share, i.e. from 0.10 EUR to 0.20 EUR;

- The share capital of SFG shall be increased via a bonus issue on the account of the share premium. The bonus issue shall be carried out on the basis of the 2018 annual report, that has been approved by the shareholders together with the decision on the distribution of profit. The bonus issue shall be carried out on the account of the share premium in the amount of 3,600,000 EUR. After the bonus issue, the new size of the share capital shall be 7,200,000 EUR that is divided into 36,000,000 shares with the nominal value of 0,20 EUR each share;

- The list of shareholders who shall be entitled to participate in the bonus issue shall be fixed as at 17 May 2019 as at the end of the working day of the settlement system. The exdate is 16 May 2019; as of this date a person who acquired shares is not entitled to participate in the bonus issue. The increase of the nominal value of the shares shall take place immediately after the registration of the share capital increase with the Commercial Register. As of 15 May 2019, Tartu County Court registered the increase of the share capital to 7 200 thousand EUR according to the resolution of the Annual General Meeting (May 03, 2019).

On June 19,2019 Silvano Fashion Group held its Extraordinary Meeting of Shareholders . The Meeting adopted the following decisions:

- To amend section 2.2. of the Articles of Association and reinstate it in the following wording: All shares of the Company are registered shares. The nominal value of a registered share is 0.10 (ten) cents. One share gives 1 (one) vote at the General Meeting .

- The share capital of SFG shall be reduced by a reduction of the nominal value of the shares by EUR 0.10 per share;

- To reduce the share capital, make a payment to the shareholders in the amount of EUR 0.10 per share. No payments will be made to the Company for its own shares. The disbursement shall be made to the hareholders not earlier than three months after entry of the reduction of share capital in the commercial register, provided that the claims submitted by the creditors in due time are secured or satisfied;

- The share capital shall be reduced in connection with the adjustment of the Company's capital structure and finally the Company's share capital shall be consistent with the Company's strategic objectives. The amount of the reduced share capital is in accordance with the requirements arising from law and the Articles of Association of the Company. Following the decision, the new share capital will amount to EUR 3,600,000, divided into 36,000,000 shares with a nominal value of EUR 0.10 per share;

- The list of shareholders entitled to the payment of share capital shall be fixed on 04.07.2019. at the end of the working day. Ex-date of the rights attached to the shares is 03.07.2019; as of that date, the acquirer is not entitled to receive any reduction in share capital. As of 23 September 2019, Tartu County Court registered the decrease of the share capital to 3 600 thousand EUR according to the resolution of the General Meeting (June 19, 2019). Payment completed on 27.09.2019.

Consolidated Statement of Financial Position

in thousands of EUR Note 31.12.2019 31.12.2018 ASSETS Current assets Cash and cash equivalents 5 152 13 603 Current loans granted 2 8 Trade and other receivables 2 2 610 3 648 Inventories 3 19 359 17 645 Total current assets 27 123 34 904 Non-current assets Long-term receivables 334 292 Investments in associates 82 64 Available-for-sale investments 321 305 Deferred tax asset 905 1 433 Intangible assets 423 261 Investment property 869 851 Property, plant and equipment 4 16 252 7 394 Total non-current assets 19 186 10 600 TOTAL ASSETS 46 309 45 504 LIABILITIES AND EQUITY Current liabilities Short-term finance lease obligations 2 362 0 Trade and other payables 5 6 899 14 163 Tax liabilities 889 662 Total current liabilities 10 150 14 825 Non-current liabilities Deferred tax liability 14 7 Long-term finance lease obligations 6 333 0 Long-term provisions 61 61 Total non-current liabilities 6 408 68 Total liabilities 16 558 14 893 Equity Share capital 6 3 600 3 600 Share premium 4 967 8 567 Statutory reserve capital 1 306 1 306 Revaluation reserve 355 355 Unrealised exchange rate differences -15 697 -14 696 Retained earnings 31 793 28 330 Total equity attributable to equity holders of the Parent company 26 324 27 462 Non-controlling interest 3 427 3 149 Total equity 29 751 30 611 TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES 46 309 45 504

Consolidated Income Statement

in thousands of EUR Note 4Q 2019 4Q 2018 12m 2019 12m 2018 Revenue 8 12 132 12 378 56 943 62 213 Cost of goods sold -5 138 -6 227 -27 292 -27 594 Gross Profit 6 994 6 151 29 651 34 619 Distribution expenses -2 958 -3 007 -11 714 -11 963 Administrative expenses -1 181 -1 101 -4 582 -4 279 Other operating income 81 84 300 281 Other operating expenses -314 -317 -943 -922 Operating profit 2 622 1 810 12 712 17 736 Currency exchange income/(expense) 144 -922 3 057 -2 842 Other finance income/(expenses) -223 6 -590 61 Net financial income -79 -916 2 467 -2 781 Profit (loss) from associates using equity method 5 2 8 20 Profit before tax 2 548 896 15 187 14 975 Income tax expense -1 163 -138 -4 038 -3 450 Profit for the period 1 385 758 11 149 11 525 Attributable to : Equity holders of the Parent company 1 371 938 10 663 10 796 Non-controlling interest 14 -180 486 729 Earnings per share from profit attributable to equity holders of the Parent company, both basic and diluted (EUR) 7 0,04 0,03 0,30 0,30

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

in thousands of EUR Note 4Q 2019 4Q 2018 12m 2019 12m 2018 Profit for the period 1 385 758 11 149 11 525 Exchange rate differences attributable to foreign operations -1 035 707 -699 715 Attributable to : Equity holders of the Parent company -1 035 739 -1 001 892 Non-controlling interest 0 -32 302 -177 Total comprehensive income for the period 350 1 465 10 450 12 240 Attributable to : Equity holders of the Parent company 336 1 677 9 662 11 688 Non-controlling interest 14 -212 788 552

Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows

in thousands of EUR 12m 2019 12m 2018 Cash flow from operating activities Profit for the period 11 149 11 525 Adjustments for: Depreciation and amortization of non-current assets 4 292 1 574 Share of profit of equity accounted investees -8 -20 (Gains)/ losses on the sale of PPE and IA 50 16 Net finance income / costs -2 467 240 Provision for impairment losses on trade receivables 45 5 Provision for inventories 263 0 Provision for long-term benefits 0 9 Provision for deferred tax asset 678 0 Income tax expense 4 038 3 450 Change in inventories -1 714 115 Change in trade and other receivables 944 -871 Change in trade and other payables 114 -1 260 Income tax paid -2 298 -3 543 Net cash from operating activities 15 086 11 240 Cash flow from investing activities Interest received 12 31 Dividends received 0 3 Proceeds from disposal of property, plant and equipment 84 18 Proceeds from repayments of loans granted 6 0 Acquisition of property, plant and equipment -1 216 -497 Acquisition of intangible assets -219 -156 Acquisition of shares of a subsidiary 0 -8 Net cash used in/from investing activities -1 333 -609 Cash flow from financing activities Repayment of finance lease -2 988 0 Interest paid of finance lease -636 0 Dividends paid -7 710 -18 373 Reduction of share capital -10 800 0 Net cash used in/ from financing activities -22 134 -18 373 Increase in cash and cash equivalents -8 381 -7 742 Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of period 13 603 21 230 Effect of exchange rate fluctuations on cash held -70 115 Cash and cash equivalents at the end of period 5 152 13 603

Jarek Sargava

AS Silvano Fashion Group

Member of the Board

Phone: +372 6845 000

Email: info@silvanofashon.com

Attachment
(TNS)  Facebook is developing virtual reality systems in Pittsburgh, Pa., that it hopes will someday permit people located in separate parts of the world to communicate virtually as if they are sitting together in the same room.Lets say people in China, the United Sates, Europe, South America and Australia want to meet. They could jump on planes and fly around the globe to meet in person. They could hop on a conference call or video chat.Or, with Facebooks technology, they could don light-weight, wireless headsets and communicate digitally as avatars. All of their features, expressions and body language would be seen by the viewer in 3D the same as if they were together in the same space, said Yaser Sheikh, director of research at Facebook Reality Labs Pittsburgh.This ability to share that space together, thats kind of a key thing thats missing in any telecommunication system right now, and thats really the promise that we have here, Sheikh said. You must have had friends and family that leave, and you and I know that once someone leaves a place that relationship, it stagnates, and over time it just sort of decays, right? I think the real promise of this is that it will give people the power to choose whom they have relationships with no matter where they are in the world.The technology is the only project Facebook is working on at its newest office in Pittsburghs Strip District. The company Thursday will host a ceremonial opening of the office at Smallman and 15th streets.The four-story building was finished last year but had to be retrofitted for Facebooks labs and rooms where the avatars are made, said Chuck Hoover, general manager of Facebook Reality Labs Pittsburgh. The ground-floor avatar rooms resemble a black box theater. They will house a large sphere filled with hundreds of small cameras to record a persons voice and movements.Facebook brought in excavators and trucks and used jackhammers to remove the buildings original concrete floors. The walls are triple thick. The new floors consist of a 3-foot-thick layer of concrete, a layer of heavy springs laid out in a grid and a second, 6-inch-thick layer of concrete on top of the springs.We need to keep external sound and vibration down to a minimum, Hoover said. We really need everything in here to be really hyper accurate. We need every pixel to be perfectly locked in space.Employees work in open-space floor plans on upper floors. Theres only one office for IT personnel.Yaser doesnt have an office. I dont have an office, Hoover said. I think the ony person at Facebook who has an office is (company founder Mark Zuckerberg), because they made him. He didnt want it.Hoover said Zuckerberg has never been to Pittsburgh, but would likely visit in the future to have his avatar made.Ive been talking to him about when that may happen, Hoover said. I think the main point will be is when we can make his avatar.Facebook came to Pittsburgh in 2015 and has offices in Oakland and on Carnegie Mellon Universitys campus. The Strip District and Oakland facilities focus exclusively on virtual reality research. CMU provides space for an artificial intelligence laboratory.The company employees more than 100 people in Pittsburgh, and Sheikh said the company intends to expand as research progresses.Sheikh said the companys VR research is aimed at developing communications systems that can eliminate the need for travel and possibly even offices. Employees can work remotely and communicate with colleagues through VR, he said. Schools can use it to teach students in remote locations. Doctors can utilize the technology for telemedicine.Sheikh said discussions are ongoing about what Facebook might actually do with the technology if it proves successful, and he could not provide a timeline for when it might become commercially available.At the beginning of this project, I said there are 10 miracles that we would need before this thing becomes real, he said. I think were about five miracles away. Any one of them could take very long or take vary short, but the thing thats exciting, and one of the reasons that weve seen investment in this lab, is we have actually solved some of those miracles.Hoover said the goal is to make the system indistinguishable from real life. The company uses volunteers from the Pittsburgh region and employees as models for the avatars.Employees, including research scientists, hardware and software engineers, hardware technicians, technical program managers and technical and 3D character artists, work in cubicles on upper floors. The space is open and includes areas where employees can get away from their desks to talk and share ideas.A cafe provides free lunch and breakfast. A room featuring a pingpong table and other games lets employees relax from their focused, stressful jobs. The building has an IT vending machine stocked with free equipment such as batteries and computer cables from an IT vending machine.Artwork created by local artists and posters made by employees adorn walls.Sheikh said Pittsburgh provided a perfect setting for the work.Theres a can-do attitude among everyone here, he said, adding he thinks it comes from the citys steel industry heritage. Anyone you talk to on the street, theres this kind of, Lets just get it done. I think thats part of the magic of the city.
India and the US are set to sign the first phase of a mega trade deal soon under a model followed by the Donald Trump administration in finalising a similar deal with China.

Official sources said India and the US have almost completed negotiations for first phase of the ambitious deal and it will be formalised soon.

The US and China inked an initial trade deal last month, ending an 18-month-long dispute. The two countries are now working on a final trade deal.

Sources said India and the US have also decided to launch talks on a totalisation agreement which relieves Indians from double taxation.

Any Indian working in the US has to contribute to social security from his salary, but the money is not released if the employee returns to India without completing a period of 10 years of service.

"The issue was raised during delegation-level meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Trump. We hope to begin negotiations on the totalisation pact soon," said a source.

The sources said a major focus of the talks was on trade related issues.

After his talks with Trump, PM Modi on Tuesday said both the sides agreed to start negotiations for a "big trade deal" and hoped that it will yield good results in mutual interest.

President Trump, in turn, said, "Our teams have made tremendous progress on a comprehensive trade agreement and I am optimistic we can reach a deal that will be of great importance to both countries."

"Since I took office, US exports to India are up nearly 60 per cent and exports of high-quality American energy have grown by 500 per cent," the US President said.

Modi said India and the US are committed to openness and fair and balanced trade in the economic sector.

Also Read: President Trump lavishes praise on Modi, finds India 'incredible'

Also Read: Trump woos India Inc to invest more in US
Gujarat govt to bring Bill to stop misuse of boats captured by Pakistan

February 28,2020 | Source: Outlook India

The Gujarat government will bring a Bill during the ongoing Budget session of the Assembly that seeks to stop the misuse of fishing boats captured by Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) near the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) off Gujarat coast. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani made this announcement in the House on Wednesday. Referring to the Gujarat-registered fishing boat ''MV Kuber'', which was hijacked by Pakistani terrorists who carried out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008, Rupani said a law is required to stop such misuse of fishing boats once it was captured by Pakistan.



The chief minister said this while taking part in a discussion on a recent incident wherein 63 fishermen on board 11 boats from Gujarat were captured by the PMSA between February 13 and 18 off Gujarat coast. The issue was raised by senior Congress MLA, Punja Vansh, as a matter of "urgent public importance" under rule 116 of the Gujarat Assembly on the first day of the Budget session here on Wednesday. Vansh said although fishermen are eventually handed over to the Indian authorities by Pakistan, their boats are never returned.



"It is the Central government and the Ministry of External Affairs which deal with Pakistan on this matter. The Gujarat government regularly makes representation to the Centre about the issue of boats," Rupani said. He objected to the use of word ''abduction by Pakistan'', as he told Vansh that fishermen from Gujarat are captured by the Pak agency mid-sea only after they cross the IMBL and go to the other side.



The chief minister added that the PMSA does not enter the Indian side and abduct fishermen. "We are bringing a bill to stop the misuse of such boats. The state government is vigilant and want to make sure that boats in the custody of Pakistan are not misused, just like Kuber was misused," Rupani said. Responding to Vansh, state Fisheries Minister Jawahar Chavda said as against the 1,625 fishermen captured by Pakistan in the last five years, the Gujarat government was able to bring back 1,750 fishermen with the help of Centre, as some of the fishermen were captured before 2014-15. He added that the state government pays a compensation of Rs 4 lakh each to the kin of fishermen, who die in a jail in the neighbouring country. Chavda added that till the fisherman does not return to India, his family gets Rs 300 daily allowance from the government.
IF you played or viewed mas in downtown Port of Spain yesterday, Iwer George and Kees Dieffenthallers Stage Gone Bad is probably burned into your memory.

The song was played so many times, it is hard to imagine any other tune copping the 2020 Road March title.
Officials say lessons from that time shape the urgent response to the coronavirus threat: The first patient diagnosed with Ebola in Nigeria, who arrived in the country from Liberia, went quickly from the airport in Lagos to a hospital, which helped limit his contact with the community.
Justice minister Naomi Long has said it is not her responsibility to assess terrorist threats.

Mrs Long was speaking during a meeting of the justice committee at Stormont yesterday, two weeks after PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne was quizzed on the matter by the same MLAs.

On that occasion Mr Byrne directed questions about an assessment of the IRA to the Secretary of State and the Northern Ireland Office.

He told members: "The status of the Provisional IRA is not for me to comment on."

DUP committee member Paul Frew said the same question was previously put in the Assembly chamber to Mrs Long, who told MLAs it was not a matter for her to comment on.

When asked yesterday whether she still stood by that view, she replied that she could not "give a running commentary on the Chief Constable's answers".

Mrs Long added: "It is not my job to assess whether organisations are active or inactive.

"It is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Office to make that assessment."

She told Mr Frew she would be meeting with new Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis "to establish if he intends to make any fresh assessment" about the status of the IRA.

Former Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers published the last assessment of paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland in 2015.

Mrs Long earlier told the committee that more work needed to be done within communities to "stop young people from getting involved with paramilitarism".

She plans to introduce new legislation aimed at cracking down on criminal finances and unexplained wealth.

"I want to ensure that criminals don't enjoy the benefits of their ill-gotten gains," she said.

The minister also welcomed the "heartening start" to the PSNI's recruitment campaign, which has seen the number of Catholics applying to join rise by more than 200.

The force is aiming to attract more Catholic officers, as well as more women and people from ethnic backgrounds.

In just over three weeks the force received 6,961 applications, an increase of over 700 from a 2018 recruitment campaign. An additional 223 applications were from Catholics.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said she received dissident republican threats after Sinn Fein showed support for the PSNI recruitment campaign earlier this month.

Both Sinn Fein and the SDLP have called for the reintroduction of the 50/50 recruitment policy which ran for 10 years until 2011.

But unionists have expressed concern and Mrs Long told the justice committee she was "not a fan" of what she called a "very blunt tool (with) unintended consequences in terms of confidence in other parts of the community, which is unhelpful".

She added: "It's not a conversation I would want to have. What I would like is a pool of applicants who would ensure we have a reflective police service without having to artificially manufacture that."

Mrs Long was also quizzed about the timing of a new domestic violence Bill in Northern Ireland, which she said should be introduced in April.

The Justice Minister hopes a Bill to deal with stalking can be put before the Assembly in the autumn. The law will make the crime a specific offence and allow for the introduction of stalking protection orders.

Asked about the funding required to achieve some of her aims, Mrs Long acknowledged she was operating in a "challenging environment".
AFP

A new report shows that right-wing extremists were responsible for 330 murders in the United States in the past decade, or 76 percent of all domestic extremist-related murders in that time.

The annual Murder and Extremism report published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) shows that out of the 42 extremist-related murders in the US in 2019, 38 were committed by individuals subscribing to various far-right ideologies, including white supremacy.

ADL ranked 2019 as the sixth-deadliest year on record for extremist-related violence since 1970.

A total of 17 separate incidents were counted last year. The deadliest, by far, was the August white supremacist shooting spree at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, which left 22 people dead and at least 24 more wounded.

That attack was the third deadliest act of violence by a domestic extremist in more than 50 years. Only the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people, and the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, which killed 49 people, were deadlier.

Including the El Paso attack, white supremacists were behind 81 per cent of the domestic extremist-related murders in 2019. Right-wing extremists were responsible for 90 per cent of such murders in 2019.

Over the last decade, right-wing extremists have been responsible for more than 75 per cent of extremist-related murders in this country, said ADL CEO Jonathan A Greenblatt. This should no longer come as a shock to anyone. Lawmakers, law enforcement and the public need to recognise the grave and dangerous threat posed by violent white supremacy. We cannot begin to defeat this deadly form of hatred if we fail to even recognise it.

The past five years (2015-2019) include four of the deadliest years on record for extremist murders. Last year, the number of extremist-related fatalities in the US declined slightly from the previous year, dropping from 53 fatalities in 2018 to 43 in 2019. However, last years total was still higher than 2017, when 41 deaths were recorded.

Story continues

For the eighth year in a row, firearms were the weapon of choice for domestic extremists. Guns were involved in 86 per cent of last years fatalities. In the past 10 years, 315 of the 435 people (72 per cent) killed in the US by extremists were shot to death. The increase in extremist-related shooting sprees in recent years is of particular concern.

2019 also represented the first year since 2012 that ADL recorded no domestic killings linked to domestic Islamist extremism. However, the US did experience what appears to be its first lethal foreign terror attack on American soil since 9/11  when, in December, a Saudi Arabian aviation student thought to be motivated by Islamist extremism killed three people at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida.

Read more

Dylann Roof: White supremacist gave up on death row hunger strike

Stephen Miller is white supremacist, says white supremacist journalist

Man who torments parents of children killed in Sandy Hook is arrested

Right-wingers spread false claims of voter fraud ahead of Iowa caucus

Comedian put on no-fly list for heckling right-wing anchor on flight

Wendell Pierce: Right-wing nationalism is infectious
Union Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said eastern India will play a pivotal role in driving growth and achieving Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a USD 5 trillion economy.

Pradhan also said with Japan as the partner country, Odisha will emerge as the nerve centre of 'Purvodaya' in the steel sector.

'Purvodaya' is aimed at driving accelerated development of eastern India through establishment of integrated steel hub, a government release had earlier said.

"We are organising series of workshops to deliberate on how to increase steel usage in India. We have rightly chosen Japan as our partner country who will guide us for making Indian steel ecosystem bigger both in qualitative and quantitative terms," the minister said.

Pradhan was speaking here at a workshop on 'Enabling Procedures for Increase of Steel Usage for the Growth of Economy'.

He said India and Japan will write a new chapter in growth of steel sector in Odisha.

"Today, Odisha is the highest steel-producing state in the country. We are working to strengthen the steel ecosystem in Odisha. By 2030, Odisha's steel production alone is set to cross 100 MTPA. It is going to be the nerve centre of Mission Purvodaya in steel," Pradhan said.

The workshop was organised by the Ministry of Steel in partnership with Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Government of Japan and Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).

The Union minister also said Kalinganagar in Jajpur district will be the hub of the clusterisation programme involving entire eastern India.

"Moving beyond just producing primary steel, we will create an ecosystem of ancilliary, value-added products, capital goods with industry participation," he said.

Japananese Ambassador to India Satoshi Suzuki said the country is moving towards becoming a USD 5 trillion economy, and it is the "right time to share our experience" with India.

"Japanese companies are increasingly collaborating with Indian companies... Demand for steel in India is set to grow," he said.

"Our iron ore exports from India, particularly Odisha, helped Japan in becoming a leading economic power," the ambassador added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A cruise ship has been turned away from the Dominican Republic after eight passengers - including Britons and Americans - fell sick on board.

The Dominican health authority said cruise liner MS Braemar was turned away after the captain reported four Filipinos, two Britons and two Americans had symptoms including fever, cough, or breathing difficulties.

Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, which owns the Braemar, insisted that none of the passengers' symptoms were consistent with coronavirus and that all of those who had fallen sick are now feeling well.

Nevertheless, Dominican authorities denied permission for any of the 1,128 passengers and 384 crew to disembark.

Cruise ship MS Braemar (file), carrying 1,500 people, is being held off the coast of the Dominican Republic after eight people reported having flu-like symptoms

Four Filipinos, two Americans and two Britons reported coughing, sneezing and respiratory distress - but the ship's owners insisted it was not due to coronavirus (file)

It comes just days after another cruise ship - the MSC Meraviglia - was blocked from docking in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands after someone fell sick on board, despite testing negative for coronavirus.

The cruise industry has been hit hard by coronavirus - starting when the MS Westerdam was turned away from five ports in Asia earlier this month over coronavirus fears, despite having no cases on board at the time.

The Diamond Princess also got held off the coast of Yokohama in Japan after a confirmed case on board, as medics tried to halt the outbreak by confining people to their cabins.

Ultimately their efforts failed and led to almost 700 people falling sick and six people, including one Briton, dying.

A spokesman for Fred Olsen said the ship has now left port at La Romana and is in talks with other islands about where passengers can disembark.

Online tracking data shows the vessel's current destination as Philipsburg in Sint Maarten.

'We are in discussions with the relevant authorities on nearby Caribbean islands, as well as a number of airlines, to enable our guests to disembark and secure onward travel for them to return home, and are awaiting advice on the next steps,' a statement on the company's website said.

'All guests who were due to join Braemar on the next cruise have been provided with hotel accommodation in the Dominican Republic, and a team from Fred. Olsens UK Head Office has been sent to the island to assist these guests while we secure a new departure date for their cruise.

It comes after the MSC Meraviglia was turned away from two ports in the Jamaica and the Cayman Islands after a crew member fell sick

The Meraviglia was eventually allowed to dock in Cozumel, Mexico (pictured), on Friday after the crew member and another passenger tested negative for coronavirus

'We are keeping all guests, both on board and ashore, fully informed at all times.

'We believe that the refusal for us to commence debarkation operations in the Port of La Romana was the result of a very small number of influenza-like cases on board.

'Our medical team has confirmed that they are all feeling better.

'No guests or crew are, or have been, displaying symptoms that are considered to be consistent with those of coronavirus.'

The cruise line's website shows the ship was due to dock in the Dominican Republic to drop off a load of passengers after a 14-day voyage.

It would then pick up another load and set off on a new cruise on Thursday night.

The MSC Meraviglia did eventually dock at Mexico's Caribbean island of Cozumel on Thursday and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said passengers would be allowed to disembark,

Mr Lopez Obrador said Mexico had to act with 'humanity' after the ship was refused entry at ports in Grand Cayman and Jamaica.

The cruise line had expressed frustration with the rejections, which came after it reported one crew member from the Philippines was sick with common seasonal flu. It said no passengers had shown evidence of the covid-19 virus.

'The ship is being allowed to dock and the passengers, those who are aboard the cruise ship can disembark,' Mr Lopez Obrador said, adding that health inspections will be carried out.

It also comes after a coronavirus outbreak on board the Diamond Princess ship (pictured) sickened almost 700 amid a failed attempt to confine people to their cabins

Six people - including a British man - have died after catching coronavirus on board the vessel, before being evacuated (file image)

'We cannot act with discrimination,' he said. 'Imagine if a ship arrived and it wasn't even allowed to dock, and they were told, 'Keep going on your way, see where you can dock.' That is inhuman.'

He added: 'We cannot close our ports, nor can we close our airports.'

'Imagine the desperation and everything it implies, almost 5,000 people on a ship and they cannot get off,' he said. 'Why such backward attitudes?'

The case of the Meraviglia illustrated the crisis of nerves over the virus. Mexico has no confirmed cases and MSC Cruises said the crew member had only common seasonal flu, had been placed in isolation and had 'nearly recovered'.

Local media showed a small knot of Cozumel residents near the cruise ship dock demanding that passengers not be allowed to disembark, citing fears about potential contagion or effects on the tourism-dependent economy.

Just minutes after Mr Lopez Obrador spoke on Thursday, the governor of the Quintana Roo state, where Cozumel is located, confirmed the ship had docked, but said 'no authorisation has been given' yet for passengers to disembark.

Governor Carlos Joaquin wrote that health inspections would have to be carried out first.
I visited Alamo Plaza everyday last week during business hours, and two things stood out.

More out-of-towners than you might think vacation in San Antonio in February, and only a tiny fraction of them wore surgical masks. By that, I mean I saw one visitor with a mask.

In other words, as the coronavirus threat broke out globally and fear ruled the stock markets, it appeared to be a normal February in the heart of San Antonios tourist district.

I checked with Visit SA, the public-private group that markets the city to convention organizers and vacationers, to see if my impression rang true. The answer was yes, with a qualifier.

Anecdotally, we have not heard of a drop-off in visitation to this point, spokesman Richard Oliver said. Worth noting: About 70 percent of San Antonios 39 million visitors per year comes from elsewhere in Texas.

And despite the citys close association with the highly-infectious virus, with evacuees from China and the Diamond Princess cruise ship holed up at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, nobodys called off a planned convention.

We did have one exhibitor at a convention to be held here next month elect for its members not to travel, Oliver said, but the convention itself is going on as scheduled.

But thats how fear operates  it lurks around, largely unnoticed, and then pounces. At that point, fear is so thoroughly in control that we realize we were afraid all along.

In this case, were afraid that we or loved ones will catch the virus and die. This particular fear is freighted with side anxieties about whether federal, state and local governments are prepared for a pandemic.

Were also afraid this nasty flu variant will get into the economys bloodstream and make us less well-off, or poorer. This fear is less biting than the existential one, but its there nonetheless.

Last week, these fears were in mid-pounce.

The question hanging over everything was: Will authorities manage to contain the virus, or will it run wild?

Thats the trillion-dollar question, said David Macpherson, chairman of Trinity Universitys economics department.

During a meeting Tuesday on campus, he watched on his smartphone as the stock market sank, panic bleeding some of the retirement savings of millions of Americans. The Dow dropped 879 points that day.

But its hard to get an economist worked up. When I mentioned how badly my 401(k) was doing, Macpherson sympathized but was careful to add that were better off staying in the stock market over the long haul.

Side note: Do yourself a favor  dont check your 401(k) for a while.

Macpherson also noted that the San Antonio area is blessed with a strong immune system. That is, our economy is mixed and sturdy. Its able to withstand shocks, such as recessions and natural and man-made disasters, better than many others. Its foundation is the military, health care and tourism  not exactly dynamic or exciting, but resilient.

Which isnt to say invulnerable, as Macpherson pointed out.

Manufacturers inevitably will be hurt by snarled supply chains  by parts that they need but cant get out of China  and by tightening export markets.

And the hospitality industry, the citys third largest, is susceptible to the potential havoc of travel bans, jumbled flight schedules and people canceling vacation or convention plans.

The extent of the economic damage will depend on how far the virus spreads.

For now, its all about the fear of how far itll spread.

Macpherson has experienced some of that dread firsthand.

His son, Andrew, is a Dallas-based cloud-computing engineer at Kubota Tractor Corp. Hes married to Nan Lan, a Chinese native whos a third-year law student at Southern Methodist University.

In January, the couple traveled to her hometown of Guangzhou to visit her parents and celebrate the Chinese New Year. The trip ended with them stuck at Hong Kongs airport, waiting for one of the last planes out of China before the government shut down international travel.

We were so glad that they got out, Macpherson said. Her parents had said it was time for them to go  and theyre physicians.

After finally getting back to their apartment, Andrew and Nan were confined to it, quarantined for 14 days.

It was like house arrest, Macpherson said.

The more stories like that we hear, the more firmly fear will be in control.

And if thats how it plays out in the weeks ahead, expect an eerily quiet Fiesta in late April  and maybe a deserted Alamo Plaza sooner than that.

greg.jefferson@express-news.net
CLEVELAND, Ohio  Ohio is likely to see cases of COVID-19 coronavirus, and the state is up to the task, Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton said Thursday.

Our state stands ready, Acton said at a news conference with Gov. Mike DeWine at MetroHealth Medical Center. This is something we really are prepared for.

Currently there are no cases of coronavirus in Ohio, results for seven people tested for coronavirus have come back negative. The state health department has been working alongside local and federal partners in the six weeks since news of coronavirus emerged, preparing for whatever might come next, DeWine said.

DeWine urged businesses, nursing homes, schools and hospitals to examine their plan to prevent the spread of disease and consider additional measures.

Now is the time to review what youre doing, he said. Now is the time for a sense of urgency.

The state has created a new website for everyone to stay up to date on new developments: coronavirus.ohio.gov. The site shows the number of people who are being tested or monitored for coronavirus across the state.

Heres what the state said about coronavirus and what an outbreak here might look like.

What Ohio is doing

While new infectious diseases are predictably unpredictable, in how and where they spread, Acton said health authorities know how to handle them when cases pop up.

While we might not know exactly where it might spread first, or where the one case in Ohio might occur, we really know what to do about it when it happens, Acton said.

The state has asked 212 people who traveled to the United State who may be at risk for coronavirus to voluntarily self-quarantine, which Acton characterized as staying home and watching Netflix. Theyre monitored daily by local health officials.

To combat the threat of coronavirus, the state will post information about hand washing in all state rest areas. Health officials believe hand washing is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of the disease.

State jails and prisons will increase disinfecting practices to keep inmates, staff and their families safe. The state will up the number of hand sanitizer stations in common areas and hallways of state-owned buildings. These common areas will also be cleaned more frequently. The state Department of Aging is working to ensure vulnerable older adults have a good supply of food and medicine.

Hes asking aging advocates to check on nursing homes to ensure theyre doing everything they can to prevent disease.

What you can do

To prevent the spread of disease, DeWine advised Ohioans to wash their hands. Health experts believe soap and water is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of disease. He also told Ohioans to avoid close contact with people who are sick and stay home if you are feeling unwell.

Related: What survivalists say youll need in case of a coronavirus outbreak

He asked Ohio employers and schools to be flexible when workers and students are sick and encourage them to stay home.

If you want to feel more prepared for a potential outbreak, there are a few things you can do, Acton said. Theyre the same times of measures you might take ahead of flu season, or a big winter storm.

I grew up in Northeast Ohio and I kept in my car my blanket and my flashlight, she said. What would your kit look like for coronavirus?

Stock up the types of over-the-counter drugs you usually grab when you come down with a cold or the flu, like Nyquil or aspirin. Make sure you have a 14-day supply of your regular medications, and some food for you and your pets. If you have children, they might get sick, too, so think about what they might need. Think about if your parents or your grandparents might need.

If images of people wearing masks abroad has you on edge, its important to note that while surgical masks do a good job at keeping your germs in, they dont do a very good job at keeping other viruses out.

Another kind of mask, a N-95 respirators, does filter out about 95 percent of viruses. These are essential for healthcare providers, patients and people with a high risk of exposure. Theyre also most likely to be in short supply. So dont add N-95s to your Amazon cart -- they need to be available for health care workers and other vulnerable populations.

What you should consider about traveling

DeWine asked all Ohioans to consider their international travel plans, and to consult CDC recommendations on travel before leaving the country. Travel advisories continue to change as new information about the virus emerges, so its important to stay up to date, DeWine said.

DeWine asked Ohio college and universities to suspend college-related travel to countries the CDC has flagged as unsafe due to the spread of the disease, including South Korea and China. He also asked Ohio colleges and universities to help students studying abroad if an outbreak emerges mid-semester.

What a coronavirus case would look like in Ohio

Most of the people who have coronavirus in the United States being monitored from home, Acton said. Theyre not sick enough to be in a hospital, but do feel pretty miserable.

But eventually it will pass, Acton said.

The disease appears to be similar to the flu in that many people recover, but some people do have more serious symptoms.

If there is a coronavirus case in the state, health officials with take detailed notes on that persons movements: Questions like, what was your seat number on an airplane? What you eat and drink? Who have you come in contact with or spent time with?

They then touch base with everyone you may have been around.

If there was a case at a movie theater, for example, the health officials would put out that information.

The important thing about all of this is, we will learn more hour by hour, Acton said.

Read more:

China coronavirus patients can take a turn for the worse two weeks into the illness, experts say

Eighth person in Ohio tested for COVID-19 coronavirus

CDC says Americans could see severe disruptions with coronavirus, now that disease spread is when not if
Tens of thousands of children are descending on Bristol to join Greta Thunberg at a major climate emergency protest, as police warned participants not to underestimate the scale of the event.

The teenage activist plans to join forces with Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate, with authorities saying they cannot accurately predict how large the demonstration will be.

Avon and Somerset Police said they understood people were travelling from abroad to attend.

Safety measures usually put in place by the youth climate group may not be sufficient, especially for young children and disabled people, as the event has grown so large, police said.

Organisers told The Independent around 30,000 could gather to hear climate activist Ms Thunberg speak.

Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures Show all 12 1 /12 Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures In the protest that started a movement, Greta skips school to sit outside of the Swedish parliament in Stockholm in order to raise awareness of climate change on 28 August 2018 Getty Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures Greta speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos on 25 January AFP/Getty Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures Greta stages a protest at the World Economic Forum in Davos on 25 January Reuters Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures Greta speaks at the House of Commons in London on 23 April PA Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures Greta addresses to the occupation at Marble Arch in London on 21 April AFP/Getty Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures Greta meets the pope on a visit to Rome Reuters Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures Greta speaks at the senate in Rome on 18 April Reuters Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures Greta addresses a debate of the EU Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 16 April AFP/Getty Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures Greta receives the Special Climate Protection Award at the German Film and Television awards in Berlin on 30 March AFP/Getty Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures Greta attends a children's climate protest in Berlin on 29 March AFP/Getty Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures Greta addresses a children's climate protest on 1 March in Hamburg Getty Greta Thunberg inspires climate activists everywhere: In pictures Greta attends a meeting for the Civil Society For rEUnaissance at the EU Charlemagne Building in Brussels on 21 February AFP/Getty

Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate called upon school children and students across the country to go on strike and travel to Bristol to draw attention to the climate crisis.

Join us at college green 11am to stand beside this icon, the campaign group said said.

In a joint statement by Bristol City Council and Avon and Somerset Police, the public were warned that big crowds could lead to trips, slips, falls and crushing, as well as people becoming separated from their friends and families during the potentially huge demonstration.

Please do not underestimate the scale of this protest, it said.

We are working to ensure Bristol is open as usual, but would urge people to allow extra time for travel and consider whether their journey is necessary.

A huge mural of Ms Thunberg appeared in Bristol last year, depicting the 17-year-old partially submerged by icy water.

The environmentalist triggered school strikes across the globe after protesting outside the Swedish parliament to demand more action against climate change on her own.
Washington

Vice President Mike Pence sought to project calm Thursday in his new role as chief coordinator of the government's response to the coronavirus as the Trump administration rushed to contain mounting public concerns and some of the worst stock market declines in more than a decade.

Pence convened his first meeting of President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force one day after the president made him the government's point-person for the epidemic. He also tapped a seasoned medical professional to be his chief adviser.

Earlier Thursday, Pence told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland that "we will continue to bring the full resources of the federal government to bear to protect the American people." Pence said Trump and the administration would work with leaders in both political parties and at the state and local levels.

Trump said Pence would not be a "czar," but he wanted "everybody to report to Mike" and that Pence would report to him. Trump said the scope of the threat had extended beyond the purview of HHS to other Cabinet departments.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Pence sought Thursday to instill confidence in a jittery public and shaken financial markets by naming Debbie Birx, a medical doctor and the administration's global AIDS coordinator, to serve as his chief adviser on the virus. He also added Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, to the task force out of recognition that the situation was quickly becoming an economic threat, too.

Pence said he'd had conversations Wednesday night and Thursday with House and Senate leaders of both parties to discuss funding for the virus response. The administration has requested an additional $2.5 billion, while Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York countered with an $8.5 billion proposal.
On the run after being booked for shooting at his wife, suspended Punjab deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Atul Soni cannot keep away from social media.

While the Mohali police are still struggling to trace him, Soni uploaded a video of his on Instagram captioned I love my body on Thursday, garnering a lot of admiration.

We have written to Facebook and Instagram, through email to provide IP addresses of Sonis accounts but are yet to hear back, said Mohali senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kuldeep Singh Chahal.

Soni, who was posted with 82 battalion of Punjab Armed Police in Chandigarh, was booked for opening fire at his wife, Sunita Soni, on January 19 after an argument at their house in Sector 68, Mohali. He was placed under suspension and also faces a departmental inquiry.

A Mohali court has already issued warrants against Soni after the Punjab and Haryana high court had refused to grant him anticipatory bail stating that his custodial interrogation was required in view of recovery of illegal weapon from his house, as its source was yet to be unearthed.

Delay in LOC

Police issued a look out circular (LOC) for Soni almost 36 days after he was booked. Though the cops say that was due to delay in getting passport details.

Police have been unable to trace Soni even when his Punjabi movie, Jagga Jagravan Joga, released on February 14, was being promoted through his social media handles. Soni is portraying a negative role in the movie.

On January 18, Soni had shoved his wife at a lounge bar in Sector 26, Chandigarh, following which they had returned home in separate vehicles, but again got into an argument after which Soni, in a fit of rage, allegedly shot at her with a pistol.

Sunita had given a complaint to the police alleging that she was being regularly tortured physically, emotionally and mentally by Soni. Though later she retracted from the allegations.

A case was registered on her complaint under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 498A (husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty) of the Indian Penal Code besides the Arms Act at the Phase 8 police station in Mohali.

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The next morning, having arrived in Israel the evening before, my son and I began our trip to Jordan. Our route to Aqaba would take us south through downtown Tel Aviv on freeways that made me feel we were in Los Angeles during morning rush hour traffic.

We then continued south to pick up Highway 40 that would take us into Beer Sheva where we stopped for lunch. From Beer Sheva we headed east on Highway 25, past Dimona, the site of Israels nuclear facility. At the Arava Crossing we turned south onto Highway 90 to Eilat. Highway 90 runs along the border with Jordan, through an area of the Negev known as the Arava.

As evening approached and the sun was descending in the West, our anxiety about crossing the border into Jordan began to rise. I had previously arranged with an Israeli tour company to arrange our tour to the ruins of Petra and for two nights in Aqaba. We were to meet a tour company representative at the border crossing to assist us on the Israeli side of the border, and were told we would have an escort pick us up on the Jordanian side to take us to our hotel in Aqaba.

We arrived at the border crossing around 5:30 p.m. It was dusk. We parked the car in the parking lot, grabbed our overnight bags and had to walk several hundred yards to the Israeli border processing facility. As we approached the facility, there was no one from the tour company there to greet us. We called the tour office, but it was already closed. About a half-hour later our Israeli contact arrived, but told us he had to pick up his wife from work; and would we mind riding with him to do so. Since it was a rhetorical question we had Ein Brayra (no choice) and we acquiesced. This after all was Israel!

Finally, we returned to the border crossing and our Israeli exit was without incident. The Israeli Border officers were very friendly. My son who had made Aliyah, was required to leave Israel with his Israeli passport in order to return to Israel. He was advised however, to enter and exit Jordan with his American passport in order to leave Jordan without any potential incidents. This suggestion did not alleviate our mounting anxiety.

We then were directed into a no mans land of about 150 yards where Jordans border patrol would process us into Jordan.

Watching the Israeli flags grow smaller as we looked back and the Jordanian flags looming ever larger before us, we realized we were no longer under Israeli protection; we began to questioned the wisdom of our decision to spend the two nights in Aqaba rather then in Eilat.

The Jordanian border patrol greeted us with stone faces and an all business attitude. We presented our U.S. passports and they inspected our overnight bags. They did not speak English or Hebrew. After the inspection my son was told to pass and I was to remain in the room.

In my overnight bag they found a pair of binoculars which apparently raised suspicions about the purpose of my visit. I was escorted to a different room, separated from my son and my passport. For a moment, I wasnt sure which separation created greater stress.

I sat there alone for about 10 minutes, which felt like hours. Finally, a higher-ranking English speaking officer entered the room and extensively questioned me about my intentions and my binoculars. Where did I get these binoculars? How powerful were they, etc.? I finally convinced him I was just a tourist with reservations at a hotel in Aqaba; and was taking a guided tour of Petra the next day with a Jordanian tour company.

After ordering me not to remove the binoculars from my bag during my entire stay in Jordan. I was reunited with my passport and my son; and we were allowed to pass into Jordan to meet our Jordanian tour representative who would escort us to our hotel. Unfortunately, he was nowhere in sight and we had no way to communicate with him.

(To be continued ...)

If you wish to comment or respond you can reach me at melpearlman322@gmail.com. Please do so in a rational, thoughtful, respectful and civil manner.

Mel Pearlman holds B.S. & M.S. degrees in physics as well as a J.D. degree and initially came to Florida in 1966 to work on the Gemini and Apollo space programs. He has practiced law in Central Florida since 1972. He has served as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando; was a charter board member, first vice president and pro-bono legal counsel of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Central Florida, as well as holding many other community leadership positions.
Containers being handled at Quy Nhon Port in Binh Dinh Province. Photo by VnExpress/Anh Duy.

Vietnamese shipping firms are reporting falling revenues after the coronavirus outbreak brought trade-related activities to a standstill in China.

Pham Hong Manh, manager of Hai Phong shipping firm T.S. Container Lines, said his company has reduced shipping from China since January 19.

It used to ply up to 13 times a month to Chinese ports, but the figure was down to eight last month and to seven this month, he said.

Ships are docking at other ports outside China, which accounts for 40 percent of international shipping in Vietnam, but this pushes up costs, he said.

"Our shipments have fallen by 30 percent year-on-year due to the outbreak. We estimate our losses at millions of dollars."

Vietnams biggest shipping firm, Vinalines, is also struggling as shipping activities in China and some other countries have dwindled. Many of its ship are lying idle in ports.

The company, formally known as the Vietnam National Shipping Lines, estimated shipments in the first six months could fall by 15 percent year-on-year.

Its revenues could fall by VND992 billion ($42.7 million) and profits by VND224 billion ($9.6 million) in the period, it estimated further.

The epidemic outbreak has meant there are fewer personnel to operate ports in China, resulting in less traffic to all countries, including Vietnam.

Quy Nhon Port in central Vietnam now operates only 20 days a month instead of 30, with shipments falling by 15 percent. Last month it handled 100,000 tonnes less than targeted.

Vietnamese ports handled 655 million tonnes of cargo last year, up 14 percent from 2018, according to the Vietnam Maritime Administration.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI  Experience Grand Rapids has received the Governors Award for Innovative Tourism Collaboration in recognition of its efforts to help launch the Academy of Hospitality & Tourism at Grand Rapids Public Schools.

In addition to Experience Grand Rapids and GRPS, the academys partners include Grand Valley State University and AHC+Hospitality.

This recognition of the NAF Hospitality & Tourism academy is extremely exciting for our organization and, hopefully, encouraging to our peers that are looking to impact their workforce, said EXGR President and CEO, Doug Small. When GVSU approached us about the NAF Hospitality & Tourism academy, we were eager to be involved. Workforce development isnt just important to our community but the entire industry.

Experience Grand Rapids is Kent Countys convention and visitors marketing agency.

In a news release announcing the award, Experience Grand Rapids said the academy was designed to meet the demand for workers in the hospitality and tourism industry.

The organization said there has been substantial growth over the past decade in the number of restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions in West Michigan. With that growth there is a rising demand to fill the talent pipeline for hospitality and tourism related jobs.

The academy was announced in fall 2018 and was launched this school year. Its the first of six career academies planned for Ottawa Hills High School.

Experience Grand Rapids received the award during the Pure Michigan Governors Conference on Tourism, which was held in Grand Rapids earlier this month.

More on MLive:

Plans revived for hotel in Ada

Clinic offered for those seeking expungement of criminal records in Grand Rapids suburb

Grand Valley State University cancels study abroad trips due to coronavirus
A glamorous conwoman who led a lavish lifestyle of holidays and shopping by ripping off victims through online property rental fraud is behind bars after returning to the UK.

Leah Farley, 31, spent two years dodging the authorities in Turkey after she failed to turn up to court for sentencing.

She was finally arrested when she handed herself into police at Birmingham airport when she flew back from Turkey on Thursday night.

Farley was today jailed for three years and eight months at Wolverhampton Crown Court. The whereabouts of the money she swindled is still under investigation.

Leah Farley (pictured), 31, was the ringleader of a gang who carried out online property rental fraud. She was finally arrested on Thursday night after handing herself into police

Farley was the ringleader of a gang who carried out multiple scams involving rental properties and sales of electronic goods online.

The thousands she made by swindling her victims went on nights out, clothes and lavish foreign holidays.

Farley - who was jailed for 44 months in her absence in 2017 - was due to appear at Wolverhampton Crown Court today.

She was first arrested in September 2015 and eventually pleaded guilty to her crimes in January 2017 after a lengthy investigation.

This led to the arrests of two accomplices Martie Verdie, 29, and Emran Meah, 25.

Verdie, from Smethwick, was jailed for four years while Meah was fined 3,000 and given 240 hours of unpaid work.

Farley recruited the pair to help her set up fake sales profiles on property rental websites, where she advertised properties for rent.

She also manipulated friends, family and even a man with learning difficulties into having money paid into their bank accounts, telling them it was assisting her in receiving benefits for her children.

All three were charged in November 2016 with conspiring to commit fraud by false representation between October 2013 and October 2015.

Farley skipped the country in November 2017 days before she was due to be sentenced for her part in the online scams.

She was jailed in her absence at Birmingham Crown Court and ordered to repay the full amount of her ill-gotten gains.

Farley, above, was first arrested in September 2015 and eventually pleaded guilty to her crimes in January 2017 after a lengthy investigation, before fleeing the UK

The court heard mobile phone buyers and house hunters were collectively duped out of 17,500.

Farley and her accomplices created fake Facebook accounts where they claimed to be selling iPhones and other mobiles at knockdown prices.

Dozens of people fell for their lies that the phones could be bought at bargain prices as they had contacts who snapped them up cheaply at police auctions.

Their first victim handed over 450 on October 4, 2013 followed by 33 others - some of who parted with more than 1,000 - who were tricked over the next 18 months.

Farley, of Northfield, West Midlands, supplemented her fraudulent income by also purporting to be a landlord offering properties to rent online.

The sophisticated fraudster stole a passport from a Birmingham apartment in 2012 which she used to set up a website selling non-existent goods and property.

In 2015 she conned four people into handing over deposits of around 1,000 to secure flats advertised on the website Open Rent.

However, none of the rentals existed and some of the house hunters only realised they'd been scammed as they prepared to move in.

And while they were left desperately trying to find emergency accommodation, Farley used their cash to book a week-long holiday to Salou in Spain.

Police arrested Farley on October 30, 2015 and she admitted her crimes but fled the UK to Turkey where she has family before she was sentenced.

Extradition proceedings were started but she returned to the UK on her own accord and handed herself into police when she landed at Birmingham Airport.

Detective Constable Richard Potts, of West Midlands Police Economic Crime Unit, said: 'This was a fairly basic scam in that she was taking money for products she simply didn't own - but she created a wealth of bogus online profiles to give the impression she was a genuine online seller.

'She harvested personal information from a woman who suffered a burglary several years ago in which her passport was stolen.

'Farley came into possession of that passport and effectively stole her identity.

'Farley callously persuaded family members and friends to take payments for her into their own bank accounts so they were unwittingly helping her launder crime proceeds.

'And she was still claiming state benefits like child support on top of the thousands she was cunning out of victims.'

Potts revealed that all of the house hunters handed over big deposits without seeing the properties they were interested in renting.

He added: 'It's really important before parting with large sums of money that people do their due diligence.

'Some victims gave Farley 1,000 on the back of photos posted online and a 'pleasant' phone conversation.

'Fraudsters are good at what they do; one of Farley's tricks was to tell customers there was another tenant waiting to move in and the only way to secure the agreement was to make full payment immediately into a specified bank account.

'It sounds obvious but never pay money to a person you've not met and whose identity is not verified.

'Use trusted websites and their suggested payment methods. Go and visit the premise you are interested in and get to know the estate agents.'
It's ironic when someone preaches certain values and then goes on to act in the exact opposite way. "I am not racist BUT..." is a common statement which basically reveals just how racist you are.

The reason we are talking about this is because recently at a press conference held at the White House, a New York Post journalist was reportedly blatantly seen making fun of an Indian reporter.

Twitter

The video was shared by Twitter user @damonimani and ever since then, the social networking website is flooded with furious tweets. Have a look at the video!

Who is that reporter in the green mocking an Indian reporter? I bet she thinks Trump is racist. pic.twitter.com/YtGv32XOUe  Damon imani (@damonimani) February 27, 2020

The journalist who's managed to piss Indians and non-Indians alike is reportedly Ebony Bowden and is of Australian origin. She was captured on video making mocking faces at Mr Raghubir Goyal who has been a reporter for the White House for many years.

Damon who tweeted the video went on to explain things further. Read the thread below:

Not a drop of self awareness. I hope this reaches out to her.  Damon imani (@damonimani) February 27, 2020

Hey @ebonybowden. You're pretty. Be more self aware next time.  Damon imani (@damonimani) February 27, 2020

- She could be laughing at what he is saying (since its not related to the subject of the conference)

- She could be laughing at his accent.

I dont know, you dont neither, because we cant read her mind.



The only thing we can say is that it doesnt look professional.  Damon imani (@damonimani) February 27, 2020

Twitter

The irony that lies here is that Miss Bowden is the author of an article that stresses on how 'casual racism' is prevalent across the globe.

She has written an article on casual racism. Her own words.https://t.co/2Po0sXnZcl  Damon imani (@damonimani) February 27, 2020

What Ebony (whut?) didn't realise was that Mr Raghubir Goyal has been in the White House since Carter's time.

Shoutout to Mr. Goyal.

He has been a White House reporter since President Carter & he speaks better English than most of us speak Hindi. pic.twitter.com/8hOMfBbu2j  Damon imani (@damonimani) February 27, 2020





In the video, you can evidently see her lack of professionalism, if not racism.

Twitter

Her insulting behaviour has left the internet extremely furious and no, it is not just the Indians that have taken offence. People from the West are aggressively tweeting and demanding an apology from Bowden and the New York Post.

How embarrassing for the @nypost and @ebonybowden I hope they both issue apologies to this man. #EbonyBowden   SloaneRanger  (@_SloaneRanger) February 27, 2020

Wow, I had no idea that being a racist bigot was a prerequisite for working at the @nypost Shameful!!!#EbonyBowden  Kirbanator  (@kirbanator63) February 28, 2020

@ebonybowden writes a piece lecturing people about racism then behaves like this. Im sick of liberal hypocrites. Walk your talk. #EbonyBowden https://t.co/xfWI5b0cwy   SloaneRanger  (@_SloaneRanger) February 27, 2020

@ebonybowden

Just in case you haven't realized the world is watching you. You win tool of the week! #shameful #EbonyBowden https://t.co/Lqdl9DxnXS  Rus Robins (@kaytonholsteins) February 27, 2020

@nypost you and/or @ebonybowden need to issue an apology! Also, it might be an idea to train your WH reporter #EbonyBowden to be respectful of other nations and cultures, Mr. Goyal has been a White House reporter before she was born! https://t.co/lDTtq611ZM  Mark  (@MarkAir77) February 27, 2020

We should make Mr. Goyal famous. Not her.  Tommy T. 103 (@TomTemple8) February 27, 2020

Well said. Most unprofessional and its a window into her biased indoctrination privileged mindset. Definitely not someone to trust. #ebonybowden  Michael  Bryan (@Xano1776) February 27, 2020

Shaming someone on the basis of how they speak, where they come from, what they look like and several other 'reasons' is completely unacceptable. Miss Bowden needs to publicly apologise to her professional senior, Mr Raghubir Goyal.
Northrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/27/2020 -- According to the new market research report "Surface Inspection Market by Component (Camera, Frame Grabber, Processor, Software), Surface Type (2D and 3D), System (Computer System and Camera System), Deployment Type (Traditional, Robotic Cell), Vertical, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2025", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Surface Inspection Market is expected to grow from USD 3.7 billion in 2020 to USD 5.3 billion by 2025; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.4% during the forecast period.



The performance of surface inspection systems depends on features of its components such as cameras, image processors, and software. Technological Improvements in cameras, robust software and more powerful image processors are driving the market as industrial applications are also increasing in complexity. With these advancements, the surface inspection systems are capable of handling applications in various industries such as semiconductor, automobile, electrical & electronics, glass & metal, food, medical & pharmaceutical and plastic. Increasing wages in various countries such as the UK, China, Spain, South Korea, and Israel, is also driving the market. This is because the companies are moving towards automation to reduce costs.



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https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=192440286



Automotive Industry held the largest share in the surface inspection market in 2019.



The automotive industry requires surface inspection of complex parts such as cylinder bores and crankcases, and reflective painted parts, which are difficult to inspect with the human eye. Surface inspection systems are also required for areas inaccessible to humans and for applications that cause health hazards. Also, there are large variations in components of an automobile such as types of nuts and bolts and engine parts for various models. This makes difficult to train humans and avoid human errors. Therefore, surface inspection systems are popular in the automotive industry.



Software is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.



Development in hardware is expected to reach saturation earlier, after which any innovation will have to be provided by the software. It is software that is responsible for making complex 3D technology feasible and allowing the use of multiple cameras for an application. The frame rate and resolution of a camera allowed also depend on the capability of the software. The software plays most important role in a robot cell. The flexibility and accuracy of the robots depend on the software.



Browse in-depth TOC on "Surface Inspection Market"



113  Tables

59  Figures

219  Pages



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APAC expected to grow at highest CAGR during the forecast period



APAC, being a major market, consists of a diverse range of economies with varying levels of development and the presence of various manufacturers. APAC is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period due to the high industrialization in China, Japan, and South Korea. According to the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA), China is the world leader in the automotive industry. The 'Made in China 2025' policy states the country's intention to be 70% self-reliant in the semiconductor sector by 2025. Japan and South Korea are leaders in robotics, and robot-based surface inspection systems are expected to see significant growth in these countries. Also, the companies in Japan have a fast-changing product portfolio making robot-based 3D systems suitable. India is one of the rapidly growing economies among the emerging markets in Asia. Many companies are shifting base to APAC due to low labor costs in the region.



Major companies in the surface inspection market include ISRA Vision (Germany), Ametek (US), Omron (Japan), Teledyne Technologies (US), Panasonic (Japan), Keyence (Japan), Datalogic (Italy), Matrox (Canada), IMS Messsysteme (Germany) and Vitronic (Germany).



Related Reports :



Machine Vision Market by Deployment (General & Robotic cell), Component (Hardware and Software), Product (PC-based and Smart camera-based), Application, End-user Industry & Region - Forecast till 2025



Computer Vision Market by Component (Hardware (Camera, Frame Grabber, Optics, Processor) and Software (Deep Learning and Traditional Software)), Product (PC Based and Smart Camera Based), Application, Vertical - Global Forecasts to 2023



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Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.



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President Donald J. Trump's administration announced that there will be a department that will focus on cancelling any US Citizenship that was aquired through fraud. This means that all foreigners who commited crimes outside the US won't be able to get a citizenship, and could possibly lose their current status.

The purpose of the new section will function as support of the Department of Justice's Office of Immigration Litigation. This will be the end of the ones who denaturalized and obtained their citizenship "procured by concealment of a material fact or by deliberate misrepresentation." Through an illegal process where the government is now lending great focus.

The new administration was formed to stop the occurring terrorist attacks, suicide bombings and crimes that are made by radical foreigners that want to attack and cause harm in America. The ones who are also targeted in this administration are the ones who neglected to annotate history of terrorist or criminal activities or bonding on their "N-400" naturalization.

The "N-400" is a government form that is used by green card holders who are ready to apply for US citizenship after meeting certain eligibility requirements. This form must be fully complied with in order to have a successful process.

It is a process that includes collecting fingerprints, photograph, and digital signature to confirm the identity and perform background and security checks to avoid problems regarding the registering and encoding in the database and to also trace the background of a certain person.

A part of the N-400 asks direct questions about existing affiliations and activities. This includes questions witha far range of possibilities that involve detesting of American interest such as Nazi, communist, and totalitarian loyalties, to involvement in torture, murder, and weapons trade. People who were granted from swindling or in part on the N-400 will face judgement.

Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt said "When a terrorist or sex offender becomes a U.S. citizen under false acts, it is an affront to our system - and it is especially offensive to those who fall victim to these criminals," she also added that "The new Denaturalization Section will further the Department's efforts to pursue those who unlawfully obtained citizenship status and ensure that they are held accountable for their fraudulent conduct." This is to trace anyone who enters America and makes unlawful, illicit and criminal acts that will cost the lives of the people. This is also to protect the people who are residing in the country against foreigners who aim to cause great destruction.

The demand of the formation of the team primarily came from a marked increase in cases that were caused by fraud of the investigations by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Obama-era "Operation Janus," which lead to expose hundreds of thousands of immigration cases in which the paper fingerprint were not formally registered or entered in the central database of the United States.

The cases that would now be falling under the section's range include an Egyptian al-Qaeda recruiter, an Osama Bin Laden collaborator, a Bosnian soldier convicted of war crimes, and a serial sexual abuser. The team will be focusing on people who both committed such crimes before they came to the US and when they lied during their immigration process.
IWCriticsPick

Editors note: This review was originally published at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival. Kino Lorber releases the film in theaters and via virtual cinemas on Friday, May 14.

There Is No Evil spends 30 minutes establishing its premise, and another two hours taking it in surprising new directions. Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulofs unfolds across four stories about military men tasked with executions as they grapple with their options, contend with the fallout, and witness the impact it has on the people closest to them.

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Rasoulof, who has been barred from leaving his country since 2017, has made an absorbing ride defined by the paradoxes of its people. Nobody in There Is No Evil has it easy: Theres no simple moral code when every possible option leads to a point of no return.

The four stories that comprise There Is No Evil involve a range of diverse men and women enmeshed in various hardships impacted by the executions their jobs demand of them. Some of them do it, some of them refuse, but theyre all trapped by the same troublesome quandary. Its a movie that asks, What would you do? by way of implication, then lets a series of hypotheticals take that journey.

From a dreary opening passage, There Is No Evil mutates into a riveting thriller, takes a sharp turn into romance, and winds up with a family drama that brings all the individual components together for a poignant open-ended finale. Along the way, Rasoulof deploys an inspired tonal uncertainty, as each chapter involves a new angle on the emotional stakes at hand. The scope of the storytelling combines Pulp Fiction energy with the structural playfulness of Rasoulofs fellow Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi, but radiates with a narrative urgency all its own.

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Iran executed somewhere in the vicinity of 225 people last year (by comparison, there were 22 in the U.S.) and while that may sound like a relatively small number for a country of roughly 84 million people, There Is No Evil doesnt fixate on the nature of the judicial process. Instead, Rasoulof magnifies the psychological impact of this ritual, and the way its institutionalization creates a ripple effect across society for so many generations. In press notes, Rasoulof says he came up with the idea for the project after spotting his own interrogator at the bank, and There Is No Evil uses that cue to construct an innovative collection of fragments that transcend their specific national setting and could apply to all life under autocratic rule.

Rasoulof has tackled this sort of risky subject matter several times before, in the bleak thrillers Manuscripts Dont Burn and Man of Integrity, which both revolved around men persecuted by bureaucratic forces at every turn. This time, however, hes expanded that focus to a wider canvas that keeps evolving as it moves along, with bite-sized observations about personal and professional responsibility that intensify as the stakes increase each time out. Rasoulof trades the somber, disquieting approach that usually defines his filmmaking for fresh genre tropes that energize the proceedings and increase the level of excitement as each new chapter heading (There Is No Evil, She Said, You Can Do It, Birthday, and Kiss Me) comes along.

Still, There Is No Evil begins with a familiar slow-burn premise, exploring the life of fortysomething Heshmat (Ehsan Mirhosseini), a genial family man who goes through familiar rituals  arguing with his wife about a visit to the bank, buying groceries with his adolescent daughter, caring for his ailing mother-in-law  before he heads to work in the dead of night. That sequence, an enigmatic after-hours ritual riddled with ominous mystery, culminates with a twist that sets in motion the conundrums to come.

However, the next installment has a totally different experience in store. Pouya (Kaveh Ahangar), a young military man whos next in line for the obligatory execution duty, bickers with his bunkmates about whether or not he can go through with the ordeal. Pressed to man it up, he makes a last-ditch attempt to pawn off the responsibility before marching into the line of fire. But thats when the story arrives at an exciting new twist that will jolt viewers who think they have the movies thematic trajectory figured out. Rasolouf is one step ahead of them. Laws are laws, one of Pouyas peers tells him, but life doesnt make such clear distinctions. As the scenario transforms into a gleeful lovers-on-the-lam saga, it casts a new level of ambiguity into the proceedings  the impression that every possible escape leads to more potential dangers.

From that quasi-escapist tangent, There Is No Evil morphs into a fascinating romantic drama, with Java (Mohammad Valizadegan) sneaking away from his military service to visit his girlfriend Nana (Mahtab Servati) in the countryside. He finds her and her family mourning the death of a man whom Java met under unexpected circumstances, and hes trapped by the prospects of revealing his misdeeds to the woman he loves. The chapter eventually becomes a powerful centerpiece for Rasoulof as he explores the tensions between citizens committed to their loved ones and trapped by the options at their disposal.

There Is No Evil closes with its most sentimental entry, but one devoid of surprise, and it manages to relate back to each passage leading up to it. This time, the troubled protagonist is both Bahram (Mohammad Seddighimehr), a middle-aged man who lives in the remote countryside, and his niece Darya (Baran Rasoulof, the directors daughter) who pays him a visit from abroad. As the pair undergo a weekend of fox hunting in the sprawling golden meadows surrounding Bahrams house, Darya grows suspicious of her uncles past, building to a showdown that permanently changes their relationship. The final revelation borders on melodramatic, but speaks to the underlying moral conundrum that has been percolating through each preceding chapter.

At times There Is No Evil stumbles on the didactic nature of its construction, and the occasional heavy-handed observation from Rasoloufs screenplay, which seems to have tossed a bunch of t-shirt slogans into the exposition to draw out the running time (Politics knows no mercy, to take one cringe-worthy example). However, the movie maintains such an enthralling rhythm, with an organic visual approach that keeps changing throughout, that it never loses touch with an underlying sense of purpose.

Cinematographer Ashkan Ashkani builds the story around tender closeups and complex long takes, but the landscape of cities and countryside play a role as well, drawing out the bigger picture in play. But theres an intimacy to Rasoulofs storytelling that often hinges on beguiling poetic moments that transcend his characters linguistic boundaries: a stone-faced expression by one man as he watches a stoplight turn from red to green and back again, unable to press ahead, and a single hand, shaking from some uncertain blend of fear and disgust, placing a ring on the finger of a woman unsure how to respond. In quiet exchanges like these, the movie reaches a higher cinematic plane than any of the ethical arguments surrounding them.

All along, There Is No Evil chips away at a single overarching conundrum: Follow orders or flee? Fight the power or bend to its will? Rasoulof offers no precise answers, but excels at asking questions from several compelling angles in the service of a single inquisitive epic. The movie provokes the wonder and terror of what it means to live in a world where every resolution brings new questions, and the prospects that a happy ending might carry the greatest risk of all.

Grade: A-

There Is No Evil premiered at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival.

As new movies open in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic, IndieWire will continue to review them whenever possible. We encourage readers to follow the safety precautions provided by CDC and health authorities. Additionally, our coverage will provide alternative viewing options whenever they are available.

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BJP National President JP Nadda while addressing a rally in Himachal Pradesh's Solan spoke about the Citizenship Amendment Act, reiterating that political leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Dr. Manmohan Singh, all said in the past that they would bring persecuted minorities from Pakistan & Bangladesh however they couldn't do it but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done it.

READ | Delhi Violence: AAP's Amanatullah Khan Backs Tahir Hussain, Accuses BJP Of Implicating Him

The BJP president who is on a two-day visit to his home state of Himachal Pradesh also said that CAA has nothing to do with citizenship of Indians and the law is only about granting citizenship to persecuted minority Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.

Nadda, while addressing the rally, said that the population of minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan has reduced drastically, further claiming that many people have forcefully converted. He also accused other parties of misleading the nation and fearmongering.

READ | BJP Says Mizoram's MNF Can Quit North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA)

Nadda also lauded the Prime Minister and called him a "world leader" citing the praise PM Modi got from US President Donald Trump during his recent visit to India. Speaking highly of the prime minister, Nadda said that President Trump in his 28-minute speech in Ahmedabad's Motera stadium praised India and PM Modi for nearly 20 minutes.

READ | Amazing That BJP Talks Of Gandhi, Godse In Same Breath: Gehlot In State Assembly

Besides, CAA and Trump's visit, Nadda also touched upon a few other points such as the dynastic politics of other political parties versus the BJP's democratic policy. Accusing other political parties of parivarvaad, he said, No one can stop the BJP from growing further as it is the only party which is based on ideology. This is the only party that keeps on introspecting.

We know who will be next president of the Congress, NCP, SP, BSP, Telugu Desam and YSR Congress. But the BJP is the only party where nobody knows who will be the next chief, he said, adding that nobody from his family was in politics yet he has become the national president of BJP.

READ | BJPs Kapil Mishra Has Temerity To Hold Delhi 'Peace Rally'; Loud Silence When Confronted
Summerville, SC (29483)

Today

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 33F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 33F. Winds light and variable.
With the new coronavirus, President Donald Trump has finally faced a crisis thats not of his own making, and his responsedismissive, defensive, prevaricating, all politicized to the point of caricaturebodes ill for some other type of crisis that might embroil him, and us, before his term is up.

Earlier this month, Trump waved away reports of the virus as a blip that will miraculously vanish with warmer weather. This week, back home from his trip to India, watching the news of death tolls consume the morning talk shows, he tweeted:

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Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Coronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. Likewise their Do Nothing Democrat comrades. USA in great shape!

Trump had been touting the soaring stock market as a selling point in his reelection campaign; by that logic, he feared, a crashing market could spell his defeat. Presidential Medal of Freedom winner Rush Limbaugh piled on, calling the scare a deep state plot, noting that Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, is the sister of Rod Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general who played a prominent role in the investigation into Trumps Russia connections. (Limbaugh also informed his listeners that the coronavirus is the common cold, folks.)

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Trump has forbidden any health officials, including the CDC scientists monitoring the pandemic, from making any public statements.

Not even Trump took that carpet ride. Instead, he started to do what other presidents have done in these circumstances: He heard a briefing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Afterward, he tweeted, We have the best experts anywhere in the world and they are on top of it 24/7. But then he held a news conference and returned to form, dropping his deference to experts, a pose hed rarely taken, especially when their judgments run counter to his interests.

Asked about Messonniers claim that the spread of the virus was inevitable, Trump said, Well, I dont think its inevitable. Then he muddied the waters, saying about the prospect of a larger U.S. outbreak, It probably will, it possibly will, it could be at a very small level or it could be at a larger level. Then: Whatever happens, were totally prepared. We have the best people in the world.  We have the best prepared people, the best people in the world.

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In fact, Messonnier and other CDC officials had said were woefully underprepared. As for having the best people, the official supposedly in charge of emergency measures, Chad Wolf, acting secretary of homeland security, testified on Tuesday that the mortality rate for the coronavirus is about 2 percent, similar to that of ordinary flu. In fact, the rate for ordinary flu is less than 0.1 percentmeaning that even if the 2 percent figure were accurate (WHO estimates that outside of Wuhan, China, the mortality rate is 0.7 percent), people who contract the coronavirus would be more than 20 times more likely to die.*

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This is one reason, among many, why having so many acting Cabinet secretariesappointees who are unvetted and unresponsive to anyone but the president, for whom they are forever auditioningis not a good idea.

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Since Wolfs testimony, Trump has put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of a task force to combat coronavirus, telling aides that Pence has nothing else to do. Pence is the opposite of qualified for such a post: When he was governor of Indiana, he facilitated an HIV epidemic by vetoing a needle-sharing program among drug addicts, saying it would only encourage drug use.

Not only that, but the members of this task force include Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House economic adviser Larry Kudlowwhich reinforces suspicions that Trumps main concern is the news of the virus and its effect on the stock market, not the virus itself and its effect on human life. In a tweet on Monday, after claiming that the virus is very much under control in the USA, Trump added, Stock market starting to look very good to me! (After a six-day slide, the S&P 500 is 12 percent below the peak that it had reached on Feb. 19, the fastest slide since the 2008 financial crisis.)

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Making matters worse, Trump has forbidden any health officials, including the CDC scientists monitoring the pandemic, from making any public statements. Instead, they are to report exclusively to the Pence panel, which will be the governments sole spokesman on the subject.

Were beginning to look a lot like China.

All this would be startling, except that it matches Trumps pattern in dealing with other federal departments on which past presidents have relied when facing crises of various sortsand his pattern is, as much as possible, to avoid dealing with them at all: to deprecate, depreciate, or dismiss people who have expertise.

After grousing over a flurry of senior officials who sometimes challenged his opinion or gave him unwelcome news, Trump now has the most groveling national-security team in memory. The diplomatic corps, demoralized by budget cuts and systematic disuse, has hollowed out. Civilian specialists in the Pentagon have departed in droves. The acting director of national intelligence is a hack who accomplished the remarkable feat of alienating our most prominent allies while serving as Trumps ambassador to Germany, and his deputy directora former aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, Trumps staunchest loyalist on Capitol Hillhas been ordered to clean house at the CIA and other intelligence agencies, turning them into Trumpian fiefdoms and cleansing their reports of dissent.

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Steve Bannon, Trumps former chief strategist and still his ideological guidepost, once said his goal was the destruction of the administrative state. Trump took that to mean destroying all centers of power and influence except for the Oval Office and the annexes loyal to it. Thats what he is in the process of doing. His Cabinet, his staff, and the Republicans in Congress are giving him free rein. But theyre slitting their own throats in the process, for in a crisis, especially this crisis, no one is immune from the ravages of incompetent authoritarianism.

Correction, Feb. 28, 2020: Due to an editing error, this piece originally misstated that the mortality rate for ordinary flu was less than 0.01 percent. According to the CDC, it is less than 0.1 percent. It also misstated that that would mean the coronavirus death rate of 2 percent, as identified by DHS acting Secretary Chad Wolf, would be 200 times greater than the death rate for flu. It would be 20 times greater.
The United States will sign an agreement with the as part of its efforts to bring lasting peace in war-torn Afghanistan, President announced on Friday.

"Soon, at my direction, Secretary of State will witness the signing of an agreement with representatives of the Taliban, while Secretary of Defense Mark Esper will issue a joint declaration with the government of Afghanistan," Trump said in a statement.

"If the and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home," he added.

The commitments represented an important step to a lasting peace in a new Afghanistan, free from al-Qaeda, ISIS and any other terror group "that would seek to bring us harm", Trump said, adding that ultimately, it would be up to the people of Afghanistan to work out their future.

"We, therefore, urge the Afghan people to seize this opportunity for peace and a new future for their country," the president said.

Nearly 19 years ago, American service members went to Afghanistan to root out the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks, he noted.

"In that time, we have made great progress in Afghanistan, but at great cost to our brave service members, to the American taxpayers, and to the people of Afghanistan. When I ran for office, I promised the American people I would begin to bring our troops home and seek to end this war. We are making substantial progress on that promise," Trump said.

He thanked the hundreds of thousands of American warriors who had proudly served in Afghanistan.

"We have killed or captured many ISIS and al-Qaeda terrorists. We honour your service and the sacrifices you and your families have made for the American people. These agreements are a result of the strenuous efforts of those who fought so hard in Afghanistan for the United States of America," the president said.
By Stephen Kalin and Alaa Swilam

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Thursday closed its borders to foreign "umrah" pilgrims and to tourists from at least 25 countries where the new coronavirus has been found.

Muslims are currently applying for visas for the minor umrah pilgrimage, which can take place at any time of the year and brought 7.5 million people to the birthplace of Islam in the course of 2019, according to official figures.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar have not reported any cases of the new coronavirus, which has infected about 80,000 people worldwide and killed more than 2,800, mostly in China - but the other four Gulf Arab states have.

Kuwait and Bahrain raised their totals to 43 and 33 cases respectively, all in people who had visited Iran. Oman has diagnosed four cases and the United Arab Emirates, an air transit hub, raised its number of cases to 19 on Thursday.

Pilgrimage is big business for Saudi Arabia, which has Islam's two holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, and is the backbone of plans to expand visitor numbers under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's ambitious economic reform agenda.

Visits by pilgrims accelerate during the holy fasting month of Ramadan, beginning this year in late April. And in late July, some 2 million pilgrims are expected for the week-long haj, the world's largest annual gathering of Muslims, which has a separate visa regime.

In Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, organisers said the suspension could affect 150,000-200,000 Indonesian pilgrims over the next month. Neighbouring Malaysia advised citizens to postpone visits to Saudi Arabia.

"Protecting the pilgrims... and the sacred sites from the arrival of this disease is very important," Health Ministry spokesman Mohammed Abdelali told reporters. "Saudi Arabia feels a sense of responsibility, therefore we took these temporary decisions, which will constantly be reviewed."

RESTRICTIONS ACROSS THE GULF

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Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates also halted the use of Gulf Cooperation Council cards for transit between the six member states, instead mandating passports, which can reveal more about previous travel.

But it was unclear which countries' travellers would be affected by the Saudi ban, and whether they would be blocked on the basis of nationality or point of departure.

Saudi government spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment, and confusion grew throughout the day.

The UAE-based airlines Emirates and flydubai cited Saudi directives in saying they would no longer carry passengers with tourist visas from China, Japan, Italy, Iran, India, Pakistan and a number of other countries.

At Dubai airport, a Canadian citizen transiting from Iraq was barred from an Emirates flight despite none of those countries being listed on the airline's website.

In Beirut, passengers without Saudi residency were prevented from flying to the kingdom.

Bahrain said it had halted flights to Iraq and Lebanon, and online images showed cleaners in protective overalls spraying disinfectant in empty halls in Manama airport.

Saudi Arabia's benchmark stock index fell 1.1%, weighed down by tourism-related firms Jabal Omar Development, Seera Group, and Al Hokair Group.

Across the Gulf, Iran has the highest number of deaths from the virus outside China, reporting 26 deaths and 245 infections.

Several of Iran's neighbours have closed their borders to travel from Iran.

The UAE suspended passenger ferry services with Iran until further notice, the state news agency WAM said. It also obliged all arriving commercial ships to provide a statement on the health of their crews 72 hours before arrival.

The government also told parents to inform schools if children or close relatives had travelled in the past four weeks to one of several Asian countries, Italy or Iran.

The UAE said it had identified six new coronavirus cases - four Iranians, one Chinese and one Bahraini, state news agency WAM said.

(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Ahmed Hagagy in Kuwait, Nafisa Eltahir, Saeed Azhar, Maha El Dahan, and Maher Chmaytelli in Dubai, Alexander Cornwell in Doha, Marwa Rashad in Riyadh, Tom Perry in Beirut, Edward Davies in Jakarta, and Rozanna Latiff in Kuwala Lampur; Writing by Stephen Kalin and Yousef Saba; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
The number of new coronavirus cases around the world is quickly multiplying, with outbreaks in South Korea, Italy and Iran causing concern.

You can see the spread of the pneumonia-like virus in the maps above from Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering. The maps are regularly updated with data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

About 81,000 people in 37 countries have been sickened by the pneumonia-like virus and 3,000 have died, according to world health officials, who are simultaneously cautioning against the risks of unnecessary fears or stigma.

China, the source and epicenter of the virus, has seen the most infections, with 78,604 infections and 2,715 deaths. But WHO said the number of new cases reported outside China on Tuesday exceeded the number of new cases in China for the first time.

Chinese officials reported 411 new cases on Tuesday while the number in the rest of the world was 427.

ALSO: Local emergency declared in San Francisco amid coronavirus concerns

In Europe, 10 countries have reported infections and Germany, France and Spain are among the places with a growing caseload. France announced its second death and Greece became the newest country to see a case of the virus. Italy's infection toll is increasing rapidly, going from three cases on Feb. 21 to 374 on Wednesday. The outbreak is centered in northern Italy's Lombardy region.

South Korea announced 284 new cases, largely in Daegu, bringing its total to 1,261. In the Middle East, where cases increased in Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq, blame was directed toward Iran. South Korea is battling a mass outbreak centered in the 2.5 million-person city of Daegu. With Brazil confirming the arrival of Latin America's first case, the virus now has a toehold on every continent but Antarctica.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.
As many as 70 companies of paramilitary forces - each comprising 100 soldiers - have been deployed in Northeast Delhi to control the situation after the violence in which 38 people have died, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in a statement released late on Thursday night.

The MHA, which supervises and controls the Delhi Police, also said that as many as 514 suspects have been detained for questioning and the number will increase as the investigation proceeds.

The statement also said that Home Minister Amit Shah reviewed the situation in a meeting on Thursday evening which was attended by Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla and Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik, but made no mention about National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval.

Doval had visited the riot-hit areas twice in the last 48 hours and interacted with the people to take stock of the situation.

The home ministry statement further said that only 12 police stations out of the 203 in Delhi - about 4.2 per cent of the geographical area - have been affected by the violence. No major incident has been reported in the last 36 hours in any of the affected police stations, the statement further added.

It also said that the Home Minister had made an appeal that the citizens should not believe rumours and fall prey to evil designs of miscreants and groups interested in precipitating communal tensions. The ministry also said that the Delhi Police have started confidence-building measure in the form of peace committees, which comprise members of all sections of the society. These committes are meeting the people in the affected areas to maintain calm.

The statement also said that steps are being taken to clean the streets and repair the damage to public properties in riot-affected areas and movement of traffic along highways and connecting roads is returning to normal.

The violence broke out on Sunday and worsened on Monday when groups for and against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act clashed in Jafrabad, Maujpur and other areas of Northeast Delhi. The members of both groups were armed with swords and pistols; the shops and vehicles in the area were torched by the protesters.

A rough estimate by the Delhi Fire Service (DFS), which attended 218 calls related to arson during the riots from Monday to 8 am on Thursday, suggests that more than 500 vehicles, including two-wheelers, were burnt during this period.

DFS data accessed by HT shows that Tuesday was the worst day of the riots and alone witnessed 89 incidents of arson. While Wednesday saw 57 incidents of arson, 23 took place on Monday. Fourteen incidents of arson also took place between midnight and 8 am on Thursday, the data shows.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has directed Delhi University Vice Chancellor Yogesh Tyagi to cancel the interview to appoint a principal for Swami Shraddhanand College, citing violation of norms.

The interview has been scheduled for March 1 and the list of candidates already made public by the university.

In a letter to Tyagi, the deputy chief minister said, "It is to inform that the appointment has to be made in accordance to norms. It is requested that the interview should not be conducted in absence of a properly conducted governing body."



"Hence, the interview fixed for selection of principal on March 1 must be cancelled immediately," Sisodia said in the letter.

There was no response from Tyagi and Delhi Univerdity authorities on the issue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Supreme Court on Friday held as illegal the strike called by lawyers on every Saturday for the past 35 years in three district courts of Uttarakhand. A bench headed by justices Arun Mishra and M R Shah said the strike called by lawyers on flimsy grounds is tantamount to contempt.

The court issued notices to the Bar Council of India and state Bar Council seeking their response.

The apex court had on February 21 rapped the lawyers for resorting to such a "joke" and holding strikes for "flimsy reasons", like bomb blast in a Pakistan school and earthquake in Nepal, on all working Saturdays for more than the past 35 years.

READ | PHE Workers Extend Ongoing Strike By 72 Hours Across Jammu

The issue came to the notice of the apex court while it was hearing an appeal against the verdict of the Uttarakhand High Court which had held as "illegal" the strikes or boycotts of court work on all Saturdays by lawyers in Dehradun and in several parts of Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar.

In its September 25, 2019 verdict, the high court had referred to the 266th report of the Law Commission, which had analysed data on loss of working days on account of strikes by lawyers and had opined that it affects functioning of courts and contributes to the mounting pendency of cases.

READ | Lawyers' Body Expresses Concern Over Law And Order Situation In Delhi

READ | Lawyer's Bodies Differ Over Justice Arun Mishra's Praise For PM
Two Democratic congresswomen from Florida who called out Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders earlier this week over his comments praising aspects of late Cuban Communist leader Fidel Castro declined to participate Thursday in a vote to formally condemn the 2020 frontrunners remarks.

Representatives Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Donna Shalala, both representing districts at the southern tip of Florida with large Cuban-American populations, were absent for a House vote to bring to the floor an amendment disapproving of Sanderss comments praising Castros health care system and literacy program.

The House voted 224 to 189 to reject a procedural motion to immediately consider the measure, effectively tanking the resolution. Both congresswomen were marked as not voting.

Im hoping that in the future, Senator Sanders will take time to speak to some of my constituents before he decides to sing the praises of a murderous tyrant like Fidel Castro, Shalala, who previously served as secretary of Health and Human Services, wrote in a Sunday tweet.

I find Senator Bernie Sanderss comments on Castros Cuba absolutely unacceptable, Mucarsel-Powell agreed in her own tweet.

The Castro regime murdered and jailed dissidents, and caused unspeakable harm to too many South Florida families, the Miami congresswoman added. To this day, it remains an authoritarian regime that oppresses its people, subverts the free press, and stifles a free society.

However, on Thursday, Mucarsel-Powell accused Republicans of politicizing the vote to condemn Sanders, saying GOP members attempted to use an underhanded maneuver to derail an important public health bill to protect our children from a vaping epidemic.

It is shameful that they attempted to create a false choice between standing with the Cuban community and a generation of children whose health is at risk, she continued.

In a video clip from the 1980s, Sanders claims that part of the reason the Cuban people did not help the U.S. overthrow Castros regime was because the authoritarian leader provided them with health care and education.

Story continues

Were very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba, but, you know, its unfair to simply say everything is bad, the Vermont senator said Sunday on CBS when confronted with the decades-old comments. He went on to praise Castros massive literacy program, saying, Is that a bad thing even though Fidel Castro did it?

Later during Tuesday nights Democratic primary debate, Sanders doubled down on his remarks, even invoking similar comments by former president Barack Obama.

What Barack Obama said was they made great progress on education and health care, Sanders said from the debate stage.

Thursdays resolution would have rebuked Sanders for his comments disregarding the history of systemic human rights abuses, forced indoctrination, and authoritarian actions of the literacy and education policies of the communist Castro dictatorship in Cuba.

The resolution was led by Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican and a nephew by marriage of Castro who has heavily criticized the communist regime.

More from National Review
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday lashed out at Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi and her party leaders on Friday, asking them not to preach "raj dharma" to the central government.

"Manmohan Singh had demanded citizenship rights for people displaced due to religion. Ashok Gehlot had written letters to Shivraj Patil and even Advaniji, both the then home ministers, that citizenship should be given to minorities from other countries. Then what kind of raj dharma is this that you changed your stance," Prasad said at a press conference here.

"The CAA was formed using constitutional ways and following the rules laid down by it. The CAA was passed in both the houses after a lot of deliberations, the whole country saw it. You had also supported it in the past and then you gave the statement 'is paar ya us paar' at your rally in Ramleela Maidan. Why did you provoke people (against the CAA)," he said.

The senior BJP leader further attacked the Congress over its stance on the Population Register (NPR) exercise too. "Congress brought a notification for NPR on March 15, 2010. Chidambaram was the Home Minister, Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi was the UPA chairperson then. You started this exercise and it was good for the country that a register should be made of the facilities available to people. I have the records of the Lok Sabha proceedings of that time," he said.

"When you do something it is fine, but you provoke people when we try to do the same thing. What kind of raj dharma is this Soniaji?" Prasad asked.

Earlier on Thursday, Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh along with other party leaders had met President Ram Nath Kovind in Delhi and sought the removal of Home Minister Amit Shah over Delhi violence, alleging that he "abdicated his duty" and "allowed the situation to escalate through inaction".

The party leaders urged the President to use his powers to ask the central government to protect "raj dharma" so that people were assured of peace, tranquillity and justice.

Further, Prasad upon being asked about the Party's stand on statements made by its leaders Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma and Kapil Mishra said, "We have made our position very clear, we do not approve these statements.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Punjab Budget presentation in the state Assembly by Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal was briefly delayed on Friday as he could not reach in time following a protest by SAD legislators outside his residence here.

As a result, Speaker Rana K P Singh adjourned the House for 20 minutes.

The Akalis led by senior leader Bikram Singh Majithia held a protest outside the official residence of Badal over the issue of farmers' suicide. Some families of victim farmers were also part of the protest.

During the Question Hour, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brahm Mohindra informed the Assembly that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLAs allegedly gheraoed the residence of Badal.

He expressed fear that the Budget could not be presented if the situation continued.

Mohindra sought to bring a privilege motion against the SAD MLAs for preventing Badal from coming to the Assembly.

"It is an unconstitutional situation," he said, adding, "It is a budget for Punjab and meant for people of the state".

To this, the Speaker said he will take up the matter with the Union Territory administrator.

At 10:58 am when Badal could not make it to the Assembly, the Speaker adjourned the House for 20 minutes.

Badal was scheduled to present the budget for 2020-21 in the Assembly on Friday at 11 am.

However, Badal reached the assembly after the House was adjourned.

The Chandigarh police forcibly removed the protesters from outside the house of Badal and protesters were later detained at a police station.

After the proceedings of the House resumed at 11:18 am, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister moved a privilege motion against SAD legislators for the breach of privilege.

Their (Akalis) action led to adjournment of the House, Mohindra said.

The motion was unanimously passed by the House and it was sent to the Privileges Committee.

Later, Badal presented his budget. SAD members were not present in the House at that time.

Meanwhile, five-time chief minister and SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal, who visited the police station where Akalis were taken into preventive custody, expressed shock over the forcible removal of protesters by the police, saying, "It amounts to murder of democracy".

"Such an incident has never happened in the history of the state," he added.

Parkash Badal said all that the farm suicide victims' families wanted was a personal meeting with the finance minister. They wanted to request him to include the Congress government's commitment to give a job to one member from each victim family and a compensation of Rs 10 lakh in the state budget, he added.

"The finance minister could have come out and taken their representation. Instead of doing so, he let loose the police force on them," he said.

He also condemned the Chandigarh police, alleging that they misbehaved with victims' families and MLAs accompanying them.

The former CM also castigated the Congress government for moving a privilege motion againstSADlegislators.

Majithia allegedthat the Akali legislators were detained deliberately for the entire duration of the budget session as well as till the finance minister's press conference was not over.

"This is for the first time in the history of Punjab that opposition legislators have been prevented from participating in the budget session in such a manner. This is indeed a black day in the history of the Vidhan Sabha," said Majithia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Member of Parliament for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak want President Akufo-Addo isolated and quarantined for the mandatory 14 days after he returns to Ghana from his working visit to Europe.

He argued that this is important due to the President's recent visit to Norway, where there is a reported case of COVID-19, popularly known as the novel coronavirus.

He further called for measures to be put in place to run the necessary checks on MPs who are currently on assignment to countries with reported cases.

Could my honourable friends confirm whether upon arrival in the country from his European tour, his excellency the President will be quarantined? Mr. Speaker, I say so because the President of Mongolia has been quarantined for the 14-day mandatory period and Mr. Speaker, his excellency the President has visited Norway which has recorded a case of Coronavirus. It will be very helpful to get information as to when his excellency will be quarantined when he arrives in the country.

Nigeria confirms first case of Coronavirus

His suggestion comes after Nigeria confirmed a novel coronavirus case in Lagos state.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in a statement said: the patient is clinically stable and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba.

Since its detection in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, the novel coronavirus has claimed more than 2,700 lives and has infected over 80,000 people across almost 50 countries.

Nigeria was among 13 priority countries in Africa identified as being at high risk of getting the virus because of their established links or frequent travel to and from China.

The others are Ghana, Algeria, Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

Before the recent cases, African countries were found to be at moderate to high risk of importation of the virus and considered to have a relatively low capacity to manage the health emergency.

Currently, 40 countries in Africa are able to test for the virus.

In recent times, Italy has become Europe's worst-hit country, with more than 600 cases of the novel coronavirus and 17 deaths.

---citinewsroom
A top government official has revealed she destroyed her records of a late-night meeting about a $100 million sport funding program just as a damning audit sparked claims of a "rort" of taxpayer funds.

The admission triggered a new political storm over the "sports rorts" affair on Friday, with Labor writing to the Australian Public Service Commission over the "serious" destruction by retiring Health Department secretary Glenys Beauchamp.

Glenys Beauchamp destroyed her personal notebooks prior to her retiring as the Health Department secretary on Friday. Credit:Vince Caligiuri

Four weeks after former sports minister Bridget McKenzie resigned over the affair, Labor intensified its demand for documents to explain how grants were decided on the eve of last year's federal election.

Former Sport Australia chief Kate Palmer told a Senate inquiry on Friday she had been "surprised" to see a colour-coded spreadsheet used within Senator McKenzie's ministerial office to help decide grants against the original recommendations from the independent sports agency.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: This is not the first time that the city police opened fire at Slum Bharath. He has a history of being chased by police several times and Bharath had targeted police officials, businessmen and his rival gangs. February 2019: Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths shot Bharath in the leg when he allegedly attacked a constable who tried to nab him. Bharath was released from jail in December 2018, but was back to his criminal ways. He continued to take supari (contract killings), and had even made it known that he planned to kill a local politician.

March 2019: Rowdy Slum Bharath who was in judicial custody after the arrest by CCB police had revealed that some of his associates had taken a contract to finish a Sandalwood actor. Based on his information, a special team swung into action and nabbed Nitesh (29), Nithyanand (32), both residents of Sheshadripuram, Madhusudan (34) of Vijayanagar and Pruthviraj (28), of PG Halli while they were hatching the robbery plot.

September 2019: Kamakshipalya police had opened fire at two associates of Slum Bharath who were on the run after killing a 34-year-old tanker driver, Mahesh Kumar, over an old rivalry. Both accused Praveen alias Hitachi (24) and Abhi alias Handrahalli, (26), are history sheeters and Kumar was hacked to death by a gang. A team headed by Inspector Goutham surrounded the accused and the prime accused Slum Bharath had planned the murder of Kumar. Kumar and his brother Prasanna were involved in a double murder case reported in Tavarekere in 2014.

January 2020: A filmi chase ended in nought after Slum Bharath gave the cops the slip when a special team raided a house in Banashankari where Bharath (30) and associates were partying. Rajgopalnagar police station inspector Dinesh Patil BS, and hired private vehicles to nab Bharath in Banashankari. The police had found about six people, including Bharath and three women, celebrating. A police constable Shivaswamy nabbed Bharath, but he was threatened with a machete. He escaped in a car and two bikes while the police managed to nab Mohan who aided their escape. Out on bail, Bharath committed another murder.
LIMERICKS littlest Garda, Noah Quish, will be the guest of honour at Aras an Uachtarain this Saturday, as he pays a visit to Michael D Higgins.

Noah will be one of a number of children who travel up to Dublin with Rare Ireland, a charity organisation for children with rare conditions and their families.

Going with Noah will be his mother Una, father John Joe and his sister Leah.

It will be a great day out. It is part of Rare Ireland, there was a few picked to meet the president, and Noah was one of them. Everyone thinks I'm joking because I kept it quiet for ages. I knew the tickets were in the post, but I said I wont believe until I see it, said Una.

I watched him on Tommy Tiernan and he has a great sense of humour. I wasn't expecting that. I think it is really nice for us anyway to host kind of a party for the kids. It's because it is rare disease day on February 29, she added.

To get Una accustomed to Irelands head of state, Una has got a teddy of Michael D Higgins for Noah, with the teddy being christened Miggle D Giggles.

Noah will just go with the flow. When he sees the dogs, I'm sure he will love it. I bought him a little Teddy. A Miggle D Giggles one, to get him used to seeing the president. Im hoping Leah wont call him Miggles above.

Noah, who was born with a hole in his heart and has since been diagnosed with severe scoliosis, captured the hearts of Limerick when he was pictured in garda uniform at the Little Heart Warriors Day Out in May of last year.

The brave two-year-old, whose parents Una and John Joe are from Ballylanders, was welcomed to Henry Street by Chief Superintendent Gerry Roche and Supt Derek Smart.

It all began at the weekend when the charity  Little Hearts Warriors  had a get together in Shay Kinsellas Dreamland.

Noah - who is battling serious illness and has had numerous life-saving surgeries - loves An Garda Siochana.

Previously, Una has described Noah as a miracle.

He was diagnosed with a heart condition, severe obstructive laryngomalacia which is a blockage of the airway so it closed when he tried to breathe, severe sleep apnoea, rare chromosome deletion and now has scoliosis, said Una.

Noah had open heart surgery at four months old. Two weeks later airway surgery was performed and Noah will require more surgery in the future.

He is still tube fed and on continuous positive airway pressure at night as there is a chance he wouldnt wake up, said Una.

He has a Jack and Jill nurse minding him once a week and had numerous nurses at home keeping an eye on him. He will have a full-body cast put on in a few weeks for his scoliosis and will have to have a peg inserted in a few months for feeding as he cant eat, said Una.
Terrell Linear, left, and Shaundarius T. Reeder, right, are arraigned Friday in Monongalia County Magistrate Court. Both are charged with first-degree murder after the death of a WVU student at the College Park apartment complex. Read more

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.  Two people were arrested in a shooting at a student housing apartment complex near West Virginia University that left a student from Camden County dead Friday morning.

Multiple agencies responded to the report of shots fired at the College Park complex around 4 a.m. and police gave the all clear about an hour later, University Police Chief W.P. Chedester said in a statement.

The suspects were arrested without incident at a nearby Walmart shortly after the shooting, according to Chief Craig Corkrean of the Granville Police Department, and taken into custody by campus police.

Terrell Linear, 21, and Shaundarius T. Reeder, 20, were both charged with first-degree murder, university police said. Both are from Fairmont and neither is a student.

The victim was identified as Eric James Smith, 21, a sophomore majoring in multidisciplinary studies from Clementon, N.J., the university said in a statement. Smith was a former resident of the apartment complex.

Chedester said the motive is unknown, but he called the shooting an isolated incident.

Its always a tragedy when a young person loses his life, Dean of Students Corey Farris said. "Our hearts go out to his family, those students and others who knew him. Our main priority right now is offering support to our campus community, he said.

Counselors were onsite at College Park to provide support for residents, the university said. The apartment complex is a public-private partnership managed by WVU.

West Virginia University is in Morgantown, in northeastern West Virginia near the Pennsylvania border. It has more than 26,000 students enrolled at the campus, according to the universitys website.
A doctor takes blood sample for Covid-19 test at the National Hospital of Tropical Diseases in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy.

Test results revealed a South Korean man died in Bac Ninh Province Tuesday of non-coronavirus complications.

Jung Jin Yong, 44, who entered Vietnam on January 28, stayed at a hotel in the northern province, employed by STN VINA Company.

On February 7, he visited the provincial general hospital and was diagnosed with and treated for type 2 diabetes.

Around 4 p.m. Tuesday, the man returned to hospital after suffering a backache and requested medicine. Doctors claimed he didn't show symptoms of fever or breathing complications.

He was later found motionless at a crossroad, around 100 meters from the hospital, provincial police confirmed.

Back at the hospital, the patient entered a state of apnea and cardiac arrest.

Test results from the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology showed that he did not carry the Covid-19 virus.

Police in Bac Ninh are cooperating with the South Korean Embassy in Vietnam to investigate the cause of death.

Earlier, Facebook posts mistakenly ascribed Yong's death to the coronavirus epidemic after the South Korean government declared a red alert, its highest level of alarm.

South Korea made international headlines as the worst-hit country after China, with nearly 1,600 infections and 13 deaths, many in the southeastern city of Daegu and nearby North Gyeongsang Province.

Vietnam has suspended entry from all areas affected by the coronavirus outbreak under a prime ministerial directive issued Tuesday. The new policy came after the epidemic saw complicated developments in South Korea, Japan, Italy, and Iran.

Visitors from infected countries must complete a health declaration and enter quarantine for 14 days, the directive said.

On Wednesday, the last of 16 coronavirus patients in Vietnam was discharged. The country has recorded no new infections over the past two weeks.

The global death toll has reached 2,807, mostly in China.
An entrance of the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) head office on Yeouido, Seoul, is closed, Friday. The office was shut down after an employee was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19. More than 800 employees were told by the company to work from home, with the office expected to be opened again next week. Yonhap
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. All countermeasures aimed at preventing the COVID-2019 virus from entering Armenia are effective, Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan told reporters.

The restrictions relating to communication with Iran are working. All measures taken so far have been effective. The actions taken and the current situation in Armenia prove that all measures that have been taken are effective, he said.

So far Armenia hasnt recorded any novel coronavirus (COVID-2019) case.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
Stanley Winslow Sears agreed to repair damaged homes in North Carolina after Hurricane Florence devastated the coast in 2018, according to local law enforcement.

Instead, he took their money and disappeared.

Sears, 46, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretense on Feb. 26, the Carteret County Sheriffs Office said in a news release Friday. A superior court judge suspended his prison sentence in exchange for paying back his victims.

If Sears fails to make a monthly payment, he will serve two weekends in jail as a penalty, and the payment is still due and the probation will still continue, the release states. In addition, (the judge) ordered Sears to provide a copy of the criminal judgments to any prospective customer before making any agreements to do construction, repair, or remodeling work.

Stanley Winslow Sears, 46, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of obtaining property by false pretense on Feb. 26.

Florence struck the North Carolina coast in mid-September 2018, downing treas and causing widespread power outages throughout the eastern portion of the state, according to the National Weather Service.

Its record-breaking storm surge between 9 and 13 feet accompanied by up to 30 inches of rain in some places facilitated catastrophic flooding, the weather service said.

Florences damage cost the state $22 billion, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Residents were eager to rebuild after the storm. But natural disasters often draw scammers looking to profit off good intentions, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.

Sears, of Pinetops, North Carolina, was among them.

According to the Carteret County Sheriffs Office, Sears first victims met him at a job site  which made (them) feel comfortable enough to enter into an agreement, the release states.

He asked for half the money up front to cover the cost of materials, and the family gave him a check for $5,330 believing work would begin in two days, the sheriffs office said.

He made excuse after excuse as to why he could not begin work and never showed up to start the job, the release states. Additionally, no materials were ever delivered to the job site.

Story continues

Sears scammed a second family within days of the first, promising to repair their roof if they paid him $3,125 for materials, the sheriffs office said. He reportedly assured them work would begin once the materials arrived and his current job was finished.

But he never showed, according to the release.

Senior Resident Superior Court Judge John Nobles sentenced Sears to between one and three years in prison, but suspended the prison time in exchange for continued restitution payments.

He put $4,500 toward that restitution when he pleaded guilty, the sheriffs office said.

According to the release, Sears will be on supervised probation for five years and must make a minimum monthly payment of $300 to avoid jail.
New Delhi, Feb 28 : It was a regular Tuesday morning for Nijma when she packed lunch for Munish, 22, her youngest son as he was leaving for work. Since then she has not heard from him. Nijma is now visiting every hospital in search of Munish who is missing since February 24.

"We live at Samaypur Badli. Munish worked as a daily labourer at Mustafabad. He left home as usual on Tuesday but did not return," Nijma told IANS on Friday.

As she sat outside the mortuary of GTB hospital fearing that her son might be among those who died in the northeast Delhi violence, her tears would not stop.

"I have gone to all hospitals, including LNJP, AIIMS, Safdarjung and now, I am here at GTB... searching for him as he is missing since Tuesday. I am afraid that he might have been killed in the riots," she told IANS, crying incessantly.

At least 41 people died and more than 200 were injured in the clashes that broke out in northeast Delhi when anti and pro-CAA protests turned violent since Sunday.

Many family members are searching for their loved ones who are missing.

According to GTB hospital, of the 28 bodies there only 16 have been identified so far.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
File image

India has conveyed to the US that pressure on Pakistan to crack down on terror networks operating from its soil must be kept up though Islamabad's cooperation to reach a peace deal with Taliban in Afghanistan is crucial.

Government sources said the threat of cross-border terrorism and the proposed peace deal between the US and the Taliban figured prominently during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's talks with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

The Indian side conveyed to the US that the draw-down of the US troops shouldn't precipitate in acts of terror and the US should keep in mind that the gains of the past 19 years in terms of the Constitution, rights of women and minorities must not be lost.

After long-held negotiations, the US and Taliban are set to sign a peace deal on Saturday allowing for the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

The US is of the view that Pakistan's cooperation was important for ending the decades-long war in Afghanistan and bring peace and stability to it.

"We understand that the US needs Pakistan's support in Afghanistan. At the same time, India thinks the US need to continue to put pressure on Pakistan on terror," a source said.

According to the sources, India clearly conveyed to the US that pressure on Pakistan to effectively contain terror groups must continue.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy leading efforts to forge a deal with the Taliban, spent about a year meeting various stakeholders in Doha in a series of talks to end America's war in Afghanistan.

A joint statement issued after Modi-Trump talks said the two leaders asked Pakistan to ensure that no territory under its control is used to launch terror attacks and strongly condemned cross-border terrorism in all its forms.

Sources said the prime minister also shared with Trump the development roadmap envisaged by India for Jammu and Kashmir, listing ensuring economic prosperity for the region as priority area.
No ones been adjudicated guilty of anything here, the judge said, adding he would have to make his decision based on the law and would give strong weight to the opinions of the Perkins doctors. They are experts at dealing with this. They have no desire, to my knowledge, to keep people institutionalized or incompetent. And for me as a layperson  Im just a judge. Im here, Ive got a robe on, but Im not a doctor. And the evidence that has been presented to me by the state doctors is very compelling.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The citys Health Department said on Thursday that one person in New York City is being investigated for the novel coronavirus  known as COVID-19.

The person, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, reported symptoms and recent travel to Italy.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is testing the individual. Testing to determine whether an illness is a confirmed case of coronavirus will take a minimum of 36 to 48 hours and depends on CDC testing capacity. Authorities have cautioned that cases under investigation should not be presumed as likely to be confirmed.

We are currently investigating one person in New York City for #COVID19, the illness caused by novel #coronavirus. The person reported symptoms and recent travel to Italy. This person will be tested by @CDCgov and we will update results soon. The latest: https://t.co/AKpJIDztv1 pic.twitter.com/7JzEngSkqp  nycHealthy (@nycHealthy) February 27, 2020

The Health Departments announcement comes one day after Mayor Bill de Blasio urged New Yorkers to focus and continue to take preventative measures to mitigate possible spread of the virus, and two days after CDC officials said community spread of the virus is expected in the United States, warning that disruption to everyday life may be severe."

No one should take the coronavirus situation lightly, de Blasio said during Wednesdays press conference. Our focus right now is addressing this crisis and ending it.

De Blasio said the previous seven case samples taken from New York City have all come back negative, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday that the samples of 26 of 27 New Yorkers tested for the virus came back negative, with one result still pending.

However, the global coronavirus has been rapidly evolving and expanding," according to Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Messonnier said community spread, which indicates that cases of the coronavirus are appearing without a known source of exposure, has been seen within multiple countries, including Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, in addition to mainland China  where the virus has killed more than 2,500 people.

Its not so much of a question of if this will happen [in the United States] anymore, but rather more of a question of exactly when this will happen," she said.

There have been more than 81,000 confirmed cases globally, according to the World Health Organization. The CDC said the number of cases in the United States has jumped to 59, which includes three people repatriated from China and 42 cases from the Diamond Princess Cruise ship.

The CDC said proactive measures, like staying home when youre sick or regularly cleaning surfaces, should be implemented on an individual level.

The symptoms of the virus  cough, fever and shortness of breath  mimic those of other respiratory conditions, including colds and the flu, according to the CDC, and they can range from being barely visible to causing severe respiratory distress and even death.

To avoid potential infection, the CDC stresses these everyday preventive actions to help prevent the spread of all respiratory diseases:
A doctor's report included in a 2015 lawsuit when Ferrill filed for compensation following a car accident sheds more light on his past. He lost a daughter in 2009 after she was born premature, drank three beers a week and didn't use tobacco, the report said. He had suffered chronic lower back pain since his 20s but told doctors he didn't suffer from headaches or any cognitive problems. He tore his rotator cuff on the job at the brewery in 2015 but refused to get surgery because he couldn't take time off work.
Look at this audience, and its no representation from African-Americans. One percent? 2 percent? Mr. Brown said. Her message is strong, and those who hear her like her, but she just hasnt reached people on the ground.

Ms. Warren has vocal support from some of the most prominent racial justice activists, online influencers and scholars  people with enormous digital followings, and visibility in the media. She won that support through a conscious political courtship, listening to black activists and releasing several policy plans to reflect how she valued their input.

It has paid off with endorsements and presidential forums, and fueled a perception of Ms. Warren as the candidate of diverse coalitions. She scored highest among the 2020 candidates on the Center for Urban and Racial Equitys Racial Justice Scorecard, lit up a crowd of women of color at She the Peoples presidential forum last year, and announced the support of a collection of activists and organizers called Black Womxn For in November.

We are really focused on who is going to advance the best policies that will transform the lives of black people across the country, said Alicia Garza, the activist and founder of the Black to the Future Action Fund, a political group that recently endorsed Ms. Warren, a Massachusetts senator.

However, there remains a significant disconnect between that perception and the reality of securing black and Latino votes. And that disconnect is becoming harder to hide, as Ms. Warren lost decisively among Latino voters in Nevada and her prospects among black voters in South Carolina look equally grim. Recent polling averages project she will finish fourth or fifth in the state, behind more widely known or well-funded candidates like former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and the businessman Tom Steyer.
She has always felt at home at the club.

And Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi proved it at Centerfolds Gentlemen's Club in a sneak peek for the latest season premiere of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation.

Snooki, 32, clambered up onto the stage and squealed in delight as she apparently drunkenly pole danced and twerked on trash cans.

At home a the club: Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi kicked her heels up at Centerfolds Gentlemen's Club in a sneak peek for the latest season premiere of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation

She was joined at the Neptune, New Jersey strip club by her cast-mates Deena Cortese, DJ Pauly D, Vinny Guadagnino and Angelina Pivarnick.

'I enjoy strip clubs, I love a good stripper. So Pauly, gimme some singles!' said Snooki during a confessional, and her antics at the club proved she was telling the truth.

She enthusiastically threw cash at the performers and slapped one of them playfully on the derriere before deciding to take a crack at the pole herself.

Snooki made her way onto the stage and found herself lying down on her side, kicking one leg up into the air.

Having a ball: Snooki, 32, clambered up onto the stage and squealed in delight as she apparently drunkenly pole danced and twerked on trash cans

Making it happen: The reality TV icon was clearly having the time of her life

Chic: She accessorized her clubwear with butterfly shades she kept on even indoors

She then pulled herself up onto her feet and grabbed hold of the pole, dancing energetically and taking a stab at a twerk.

Meanwhile, Deena wandered around the club politely saying: 'Excuse me,' to get a stripper's attention and pass her some cash. 'I think you're so pretty,' she told one.

Vinny quipped in a confessional: 'Most people make it rain, slap a**es, but Deena's so proper and like, such like a mom, she's just like handing strippers money.'

Their cast-mates Ronnie Ortiz-Magro and Jenni 'JWoww' Farley were away in a car and were clearly not interested in witnessing Snooki's shenanigans.

She was joined at the Neptune, New Jersey strip club by her cast-mates (from left) Angelina Pivarnick, DJ Pauly D, Deena Cortese and Vinny Guadagnino

Generous: She enthusiastically threw cash at the performers and slapped one of them playfully on the derriere before deciding to take a crack at the pole herself

'Oh, my God, I'm so afraid to know what they're doing right now,' JWoww told Ronnie, and then they both took Nicole's name.

The new season of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation premieres this Thursday evening amid Ronnie's ongoing legal drama.

He was arrested for domestic violence last October after a drug-fueled altercation with his ex Jen Harley in front of their one-year-old daughter Ariana Sky.

Ronnie allegedly 'slapped and punched Jen' before chasing her around their AirBnB with a knife while he was carrying Ariana, according to a TMZ report at the time.

What a time: She then pulled herself up onto her feet and grabbed hold of the pole, dancing energetically and taking a stab at a twerk

Elsewhere: Their cast-mates Ronnie Ortiz-Magro and Jenni 'JWoww' Farley were away in a car and were clearly not interested in witnessing Snooki's shenanigans

His sources insisted Jen was under the influence of alcohol that night and had in TMZ's words 'dangled Ariana over a fence,' leaving Ronnie frightened for his child.

The gossip site reported that police 'broke down the door' to the rental because they were worried the little girl was in danger.

At a hearing this month, Deputy City Attorney Heidi Matz asked the judge to prevent Ronnie from contacting Jen, Us Weekly reports.

Ronnie's lawyer Leonard B. Levine promised that 'there will be no contact' going forward between his client and Jen, who has a restraining order against her ex.

'So Pauly, gimme some singles!': 'I enjoy strip clubs, I love a good stripper' said Snooki during a confessional, and her antics at the club proved she was telling the truth

Meanwhile: Deena wandered around the club politely saying: 'Excuse me,' to get a stripper's attention and pass her some cash. 'I think you're so pretty,' she told one

Hunk: Vinny quipped in a confessional: 'Most people make it rain, slap a**es, but Deena's so proper and like, such like a mom, she's just like handing strippers money.'

Ronnie was granted a protective order against Jen after she allegedly assaulted him earlier this month. The order was to expire this Tuesday.

Jen reportedly found another woman's makeup in Ronnie's home, accused him of infidelity and allegedly attempted to stab his eye with an eyeliner pencil.

Lisa Bloom, who is one of Jen's attorneys, has since denied that Jen 'received any restraining order against her.'

Rollicking: Snooki had gotten fully into the spirit of the occasion
Turkey has said on February 28 that it will no longer close its borders for the refugees who wish to go to Europe. Shortly after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in an airstrike at northern Syria, a senior official told an international news agency that the government will not try to stop the refugees who wish to flee to Europe while seeking refuge. The official reportedly spoke on the condition of anonymity when nearly 300 migrants including Syrians have already arrived in Edirne province on the border with Greece.

According to an international news agency, another group of migrants had arrived on the coast of Ayvacik in Canakkale, western Turkey in a bid to go to the Greek island of Lesbos by boats. The latest killing of Turkish soldiers in the northern Syrian province, Idlib, led to an emergency meeting chaired by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has occasionally placed the blamed of such military offensives on Damascus.

Read - Turkey Says 2 Turkish Soldiers Killed In Libya

3.6 million refugees in Turkey

Turkey is currently home to at least 3.6 million Syrian refugees and fears that more people might be arriving in the country, as per reports. According to international reports, Erdogan's top press aide had accused the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of conducting ethnic cleansing in order to drive millions of Syrians out of Idlib. He also wrote that Turkey does not have the capacity and resources to host more refugees which are already close to nearly four million.

Read - Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey Close Borders With Iran Over Coronavirus Fear

Erdogan's top press aide also claimed that those people will now try to leave for Turkey or Europe. Meanwhile, Greece along with its other partners in the European Union already fear another influx of migrants from Syria after nearly more than one million managed to reach in 2015. This was before EU-Turkey signed an accord in order to control the numbers of refugees. Last year, Erdogan had also threatened that he would send millions of Syrian refugees to Europe. That was in response to the criticism by the European countries of his military offensive into northern Syria.

Read - Turkey Closes Iran Border As Virus Precaution

Read - Seven Dead In Turkey As 5.7 Earthquake Strikes Western Iran

(With agency inputs)
By Trend

The platform for introducing Islamic banking in Azerbaijan is ready, said Orkhan Mammadov, chairman of the board of Azerbaijans Agency for the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

Mammadov made the remark at a press conference by Azerbaijans Ziraat Bank dedicated to Azerbaijani-Turkish cooperation in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Trend reports from the event Feb. 27.

Mammadov noted that in this direction, the Azerbaijani government has set certain tasks for the development of Islamic banking, and all of them have been completed.

We expect that the new parliament, having fully started work, will pay attention to this and by the end of this year all work in this direction will be completed, said the agency chairman.

Mammadov expressed confidence that Islamic banking will be a very useful tool for alternative sources of income for the national economy.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The daughter of the alleged head of Mexicos Jalisco New Generation drug cartel was arrested unexpectedly at a federal court in Washington after she arrived on Wednesday to attend a bond hearing for her brother, another top cartel figure, people familiar with the matter said.

The apprehension of Jessica Johana Oseguera Cervantes came as she was apparently unaware of a 13 February indictment and subsequent warrant for her arrest before being taken into custody by security officers, said the people, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the two cases.

The indictment, unsealed on Thursday, charges her with five counts of violating a US ban on transacting with designated drug trafficking entities and individuals. She pleaded not guilty at a hearing before US Magistrate Judge Michael Harvey after her brothers hearing on Wednesday afternoon.

Her capture came less than a week after authorities announced the extradition of her brother Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez  known as El Menchito  which US and Mexican officials had been waiting for months since his arrest by Mexicos army in 2015 on drug-trafficking charges.

The siblings are alleged to have been involved in the operations of their father, one of the most important figures on the US list of alleged traffickers, Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, according to court documents. Known as El Mencho, the elder Oseguera Cervantes leads one of Mexicos most powerful drug organisations, according to US authorities, and his pursuit is being led by the same prosecutors who netted the conviction last year of Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin El Chapo Guzman Loera.

Mexican drug cartel tunnels into California Show all 3 1 /3 Mexican drug cartel tunnels into California Mexican drug cartel tunnels into California 505143.bin Reuters Mexican drug cartel tunnels into California 505144.bin AFP/Getty Images Mexican drug cartel tunnels into California 505145.bin Reuters

US-based attorneys for El Menchos two children did not respond to requests for comment.

Representatives for the Drug Enforcement Administration and US Marshals Service referred questions to the US Justice Department, which declined immediate comment early on Thursday afternoon.

Oseguera Gonzalez, 30, pleaded not guilty last week to charges of distributing cocaine and methamphetamine and using a firearm to facilitate drug trafficking. At a hearing on Wednesday magistrate judge Harvey ordered him to remain detained.

He has insisted he is not guilty, and is not even the son of the alleged trafficker.

Recommended Mexican cartels are recruiting American children to smuggle drugs

In these past five years, Ive demonstrated my innocence, having been absolved in every single case against me, he said in a letter published in December by the news magazine Proceso.

Oseguera Cervantes, faces a bond hearing on Monday. Her arrest warrant was issued 16 February for money laundering, family attorney Victor Beltran Garcia told the Mexican daily El Universal, which first reported the arrest.

He said she had been found not guilty of a similar charge by a court in Guadalajara, Mexico, the paper reported.

The judge ruled that the woman has her businesses, she pays taxes and there was no evidence that she was involved in operations with money obtained illegally, and much less from organised crime, Beltran Garcia told the paper. He said the matter was resolved last year.

He said the US and Mexican governments make up lies about the woman.

It is unclear how much value her arrest may hold for US law enforcement authorities, but her seizure highlights an escalating pressure campaign by the US Justice Department in narco-trafficking cases.

El Menchitos handover last week was part of a surge of extraditions that have occurred since a visit in early December to Mexico by US Attorney General William Barr, who expressed concern over the response to soaring violence by the government of Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

El Menchito is perhaps the best-known of about 40 other alleged organised-crime figures sent to the United States since Mr Barrs 5 December trip, officials say. But close watchers of cartels say American authorities have long been eager to bring to the United States alleged former Los Zetas cartel leaders Miguel Angel Trevino Morales and Oscar Omar Trevino Morales, otherwise known as Z-40 and Z-42.

Both were captured in recent years and jailed in Mexico but remain under indictment in the United States, which offered $5 million (4.88m) in reward for each capture.

While the Zetas achieved notoriety through their brazen use of brutality and violence, it has been since been decimated and fractured, with rivals such as El Mencho seeking to take its place, US officials said.

US authorities in October 2018 announced 15 indictments, large State Department rewards and sanctions on leaders of the group, which they ranked among the worlds five most dangerous transnational criminal organisations, responsible for trafficking many tons of cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl-laced heroin into the country.

El Mencho and El Menchitos indictments were unsealed at the time, when the Drug Enforcement Administration estimated that their cartel had influence in three-quarters of Mexican states and illicit businesses in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

The US Treasury Department has targeted cartel leaders, family members, operatives and businesses seeking to disrupt their finances, alleging their funds are overwhelmingly generated from drug sales in the United States.
A Ukrainian woman who had previously been identified with the COVID-19 coronavirus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship off the coast of Japan has been discharged from the hospital, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.

"On February 27, 2020, one Ukrainian female citizen was discharged from the hospital and transferred to a hotel. The Ukrainian Embassy in Japan provides our compatriot with the necessary assistance," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's press service told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.

As reported, four citizens of Ukraine - members of the crew of the Diamond Princess - fell ill with a new coronavirus and were hospitalized. The Foreign Ministry confirmed that the remaining three citizens of Ukraine continue their treatment in medical institutions, the date of their discharge is still unknown.
What just happened? Samsungs new Galaxy S20 phones went on sale in its home region of South Korea yesterday, and things have got off to a slow start. But the sluggish sales have little to do with the handsets themselves: its yet another effect of the coronavirus.

According to the South Korea Herald, sales of the Galaxy S20 phones were down 50 percent compared to their predecessors a year earlier. While the latest devices sold around 70,800 units in Korea on Thursday, the Galaxy S10 line, which launched in March 2019, sold 140,000 units during their first 24 hours. The Galaxy Note 10 phones did even better, moving 220,000 units when they launched in August.

But while reviews for the Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G have been mixed, partly over its $1,400 starting price, the slow sales are mostly due to the coronavirus. South Korea has the highest number of confirmed cases outside of Chinaover 2,000which means fewer people are visiting retail stores because of infection fears. Samsung has also canceled some Galaxy S20 promotional events, so the phones havent been advertised as aggressively as usual.

Another problem is the lack of discounts and lower than expected subsidies available in South Korea. Even the standard Galaxy S20 starts at $1,000, with $1,200 for the S20+ and $1,400 for the Ultra, which means many consumers are looking for some good deals before buying one.

While Samsung will be disappointed with the figures, virtually every company is experiencing economic fallout from the coronavirus. Sales should improve once the outbreak gets under controlwhenever that may be.
The West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo), says it has successfully completed the cleaning and inspection of its 20-inch offshore pipeline from Badagry in Nigeria to Takoradi.

A release issued by the company in Accra on Thursday said the Internal inspection of the 569 km offshore pipeline was completed on Sunday, February 23, 2020, almost one month ahead of the scheduled completion date of March 20, 2020.

The company also revealed that it gathered a significant amount of data during the inspection and will be analyzed over the next couple of months to further provide critical insights and assurance of the overall integrity of the pipeline to support WAPCo's continuous optimal operations.

Following the successful cleaning and inspection of the offshore pipeline, WAPCo is resuming the transportation of gas to its customers in Benin, Togo and Ghana. In Ghana, WAPCo is currently transporting natural gas to its Takoradi Regulating and Metering Station only, the statement added.

The unavailability of gas from the West Africa Gas Pipeline has been blamed for the irregular power supply that has plagued the country in the past few weeks.

It is, however, unclear how this announcement by WAPCo will improve the power situation.

The temporary shut down left a number of gas-powered power plants without fuel unable to contribute to the national grid.

According to the WAPco statement, however, gas transportation to its Tema Regulating and Metering Station will commence after the completion of ongoing expansion works under the Takoradi to Tema Interconnection Project (TTIP) expected to be operational in March 2020.

With the completion of the pipeline cleaning and inspection exercise, WAPCo is better positioned to offer reliable and improved service to its customers in Ghana, Togo and Benin in their effort to provide greater access to affordable and reliable power for economic growth, the statement concluded.

Intermittent power cuts will stabilize soon  Deputy Energy Minister

A Deputy Energy Minister, William Owuraku-Aidoo, says the erratic power supply being experienced in some parts of the country should stabilize soon.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Owuraku-Aidoo, said the state is looking at just a matter of days to bring this whole problem to an end.

He explained that challenges with an ongoing pigging exercise is what is creating the problems that we are encountering right now.

---citinewsroom
Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/28/2020 -- Electro Diesel Locomotive report studies the market status, market share, growth rate, future trends, market drivers, opportunities and challenges, risks and entry barriers, sales channels, and distributors with Porter's Five Forces analysis. This global market research report encompasses the drivers and restraints for the market which are derived from the well-established SWOT analysis. It also puts a light on the recent developments, product launches, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions that have been adopted by several key players and brands. Systemic gathering of company profiles that are driving the market is also performed in this report. The Electro Diesel Locomotive market report is a synopsis of the market facts, stats and figures for the forecast period of 2020-2026.



Electro Diesel Locomotive Market 2020 Analysis and Precise Outlook: Revenue Analysis, Technological Adoption and Developments, Major Trends, and Market Overview



Leading Players operating in the Electro Diesel Locomotive Market are:



Key players are involved in mergers and acquisition to strengthen their market position. Owing to increasing competition frequent innovations are taking place in the market. Some of the companies operating the industry are:





- CRRC,



- Bombardier,



- Alstom,



- Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.,



- Siemens,



- HYUNDAI CORPORATION



- Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Solutions Corporation,



- Hitachi,



- CAF





Electro diesel locomotive market will expected to grow at a growth at a rate of 4.5% for the forecast period of 2020 to 2027. Electro diesel locomotive market report analyses the growth, which is currently growing due to increasing demand of energy efficient transport.



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A team of experienced and consummate market research professionals persistently track key industries to spot key developments, unmet needs and possible growth opportunities. A numerous markets, marketing strategies, trends, future products and rising opportunities have been considered while studying market for preparing this Electro Diesel Locomotive report. This market research report serves the clients by providing data and information on their business scenario with which they can stay ahead of the competition in today's rapidly changing business environment.



What are the major market growth drivers?



Increasing demand of public transport to reduce traffic congestion, rising preferences of comfort and safety, reduction of operational cost are some of the factors that will accelerate the growth of the electro diesel locomotive market during the forecast period of 2020-2027. On the other hand, provision of big data application and increasing industrial and mining activities will further create new opportunities for the growth of electro diesel locomotive market in the above mentioned forecast period.



Competitive Landscape and Electro Diesel Locomotive Market Share Analysis



Electro Diesel Locomotive market competitive landscape provides details by competitor. Details included are company overview, company financials, revenue generated, market potential, investment in research and development, new market initiatives, global presence, company strengths and weaknesses, product launch, product width and breadth, application dominance. The above data points provided are only related to the companies' focus related to Electro Diesel Locomotive market.



Market Segmentation



Global Electro Diesel Locomotive Market, By Operating Speed (Below 100 km/h, 100-200 km/h, Above 200 km/h), Lines (Main Line, Shunting), Application (Passenger, Freight), Technology (Conventional Locomotive, Turbocharged Locomotive), Country



Regional and Country-level Analysis



To comprehend Global Electro Diesel Locomotive market dynamics in the world mainly, the worldwide Electro Diesel Locomotive market is analyzed across major global regions. DBMR also provides customized specific regional and country-level reports for the following areas.



North America: United States, Canada, and Mexico.



South & Central America: Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.



Middle East & Africa: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey, Egypt and South Africa.



Europe: UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, NORDIC {Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark etc}, BENELUX {Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg}, and Russia.



Asia-Pacific: India, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia.



Key Market Competitors: Electro Diesel Locomotive Industry



The major players covered in the electro diesel locomotive market report are CRRC, Bombardier, Alstom, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., Siemens, HYUNDAI CORPORATION., Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Solutions Corporation, Hitachi, Ltd., CAF, Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, S.A., Cummins India, BNSF Railway Company., Ballard Power Systems Inc., Chart Industries, Hydrogenics, ABB, SKODA TRANSPORTATION, Stadler Rail AG, Vivarail Ltd., among other domestic and global players. Market share data is available for global, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America separately. DBMR analysts understand competitive strengths and provide competitive analysis for each competitor separately.



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Global Electro Diesel Locomotive Market Methodology



Data Bridge Market Research presents, all the information, statistics and data included in this Electro Diesel Locomotive report is gathered from the truthful sources such as websites, newspapers, journals, white papers, mergers, and annual reports of the companies. To succeed in this competitive market place, market research report plays a very important role by offering important and consequential market insights for your business.



This involves data mining, analysis of the impact of data variables on the market, and primary (industry expert) validation. Apart from this, other data models include Vendor Positioning Grid, Market Time Line Analysis, Market Overview and Guide, Company Positioning Grid, Company Market Share Analysis, Standards of Measurement, Top to Bottom Analysis and Vendor Share Analysis. Triangulation is one method used while reviewing, synthesizing and interpreting field data. Data triangulation has been advocated as a methodological technique not only to enhance the validity of the research findings but also to achieve 'completeness' and 'confirmation' of data using multiple methods



Market Dynamics:



Set of qualitative information that includes PESTEL Analysis, PORTER Five Forces Model, Value Chain Analysis and Macro Economic factors, Regulatory Framework along with Industry Background and Overview



What Porter's Five Forces of Competitive Analysis Provides?



Competitive rivalry:- The main driver is the number and capability of competitors in the market. Many competitors, offering undifferentiated products and services, will reduce market attractiveness.



Threat of substitution:- Where close substitute products exist in a market, it increases the likelihood of customers switching to alternatives in response to price increases. This reduces both the power of suppliers and the attractiveness of the market.



Threat of new entry:- Profitable markets attract new entrants, which erodes profitability. Unless incumbents have strong and durable barriers to entry, for example, patents, economies of scale, capital requirements or government policies, then profitability will decline to a competitive rate.



Supplier power:- An assessment of how easy it is for suppliers to drive up prices. This is driven by the: number of suppliers of each essential input; uniqueness of their product or service; relative size and strength of the supplier; and cost of switching from one supplier to another.



Buyer power:- An assessment of how easy it is for buyers to drive prices down. This is driven by the: number of buyers in the market; importance of each individual buyer to the organisation; and cost to the buyer of switching from one supplier to another. If a business has just a few powerful buyers, they are often able to dictate terms.



Five forces analysis helps organizations to understand the factors affecting profitability in a specific industry, and can help to inform decisions relating to: whether to enter a specific industry; whether to increase capacity in a specific industry; and developing competitive strategies.



The country section of the report also provides individual market impacting factors and changes in regulation in the market domestically that impacts the current and future trends of the market. Data points such as consumption volumes, production sites and volumes, import export analysis, price trend analysis, cost of raw materials, down-stream and upstream value chain analysis are some of the major pointers used to forecast the market scenario for individual countries. Also, presence and availability of global brands and their challenges faced due to large or scarce competition from local and domestic brands, impact of domestic tariffs and trade routes are considered while providing forecast analysis of the country data.



TABLE OF CONTENTS



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights



5 Market Overview and Industry Trends



6 Electro Diesel Locomotive Market, By Type



7 Electro Diesel Locomotive Market, By Organization Size



8 Electro Diesel Locomotive Market Analysis, By Region



9 Competitive Landscape



10 Company Profiles



New Business Strategies, Challenges & Policies are mentioned in Table of Content, Request FREE TOC @ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-electro-diesel-locomotive-market



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Lucknow, Feb 28 : President Mayawati on Friday wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind on the violence in northeast Delhi, in which more than 40 people have been killed so far, demanding a judicial probe into the riots.

She stated that the violence in the national capital that began on Sunday and continued for four days was a failure of the Bhartiya Janata Party-led government.

"Delhi, which is the capital of India, has once again been hit by deadly riots like the 1984 Sikh riots and there has been a massive loss of life and property," she wrote in the letter.

The riots and the loss of lives and property were "very serious, extremely sad and worrisome", she said.

The violence, she said, had attracted the world's attention to India and the country has become a subject of negative discussions.

"It is the duty of the ruling BJP and its government to see that they do not do anything that would damage the prestige of the country nor tolerate any statement by its party members or let them indulge in any activity that would lead to anarchy and violence," Mayawati said.

She pointed out that "People have seen and felt that the BJP and its government have been a failure to a large extent in living up to its constitutional responsibilities. Over three dozen people have lost their lives, over 200 were injured, and in these times of price rise, poverty, and unemployment, a massive loss to businesses and trade has happened." The BSP chief said a high-level judicial probe under a Supreme Court judge must be ordered into the violent clashes in Delhi for a meaningful outcome of the investigations to "wash away the blot" on the national capital, like that of the anti-Sikh riots.

Mayawati also slammed the Delhi Police, saying the force and the administration were negligent in tackling the riots.

She also urged the President to direct the Delhi government and Centre to provide relief and assistance to those affected by the riots in the best possible manner.
Aside from some mispronunciations that sparked memes, President Donald Trumps visit to India this week went mostly as scripted. The entire trip was high on opticsa spectacle of bromance between him and Prime Minister Narendra Modibut delivered little of substance apart from some modest deals on defense, energy, and telecommunications.

However, this was quickly displaced from the headlines by another happening in Delhi while the US president was still in Indias capital.

On February 23, the first day of Trumps visit to the subcontinent, clashes broke out in Delhi after Kapil Mishra, a leader from Modis ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), gave an ultimatum to the megacitys police, in the presence of a senior police officer, to clear anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters from the Jaffrabad area of the capital within three days.

The CAA is a controversial act recently passed by the Modi government that links citizenship to religion in India and actively discriminates against Muslims. When combined with the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) and an updated National Population Register (NPR), it will likely have an adverse impact on many citizens of India but mainly Muslims, who are the nations largest minority. Many could be deprived of citizenship. Social activists and commentators have called on the government to withdraw the legislation.

Hundreds of protests have erupted across the country, with some crowds reaching the hundreds of thousands. The Shaheen Bagh neighborhood in New Delhi is a symbolic epicenter of sorts of these protests, where mainly Muslim women have been leading demonstrations for three months. Jaffrabad, where Mishra gave the ultimatum to the Delhi police, was also a protest site.

Soon after the ultimatum, clashes broke out in Jaffrabad and spread to other areas of northeast Delhi. By the second day, according to commentators, it had transformed from a clash to full-scale anti-Muslim violence that so far has claimed 38 lives, mainly Muslims. It has also resulted in much destruction of property, both public and private, making it the worst violence against a community in Delhi since 1984 when Sikhs were targeted.

Hundreds were injured as the centrally administered Delhi police proved ineffective in controlling the violence for the first three days. Many videos circulating on social media appear to show the police, along with various right-wing radicals, complicit in targeting Muslims. It was only after the Delhi High Court intervened and questioned the governments lack of action that the situation seemed to improve. (The judge who passed the orders questioning the government was transferred within two days.)

By the second day of Trumps visit, when he arrived in Delhi, more than 13 people had already lost their lives. However, when the American president was briefing the media on his visit and was asked about the sectarian violence in Delhi and religious freedom in general, he surprisingly praised Modi. He said that the Indian prime minister was incredible on religious freedom and that Modi wants the people to have religious freedom and very strongly. Trump did not comment on the clashes in Delhi; he said hed heard about it but hadn't discussed it with Modi, and said that it was up to India.

Prior to his visit, even though a US official indicated that Trump would be discussing religious freedom with Modi, expectations were rather low. Most, however, did not expect Trump to praise Modi on religious freedomone of the shakiest parts of the prime ministers political record. After all, it was the United States that denied Modi, then the chief minister of Gujarat, a diplomatic A-2 visa and also had revoked his B-1/B-2 visa on the grounds of severe violations of religious freedom. Modi remains the only person ever banned from travel to the US under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).

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And Modis record on religious freedom since becoming the leader of India has not been something to be proud of. His silence when minorities in India have been targeted and lynched by right-wing mobs has been telling. The worst sufferers of the wrath of extreme Hindu nationalists have been Indias Muslimsthe targets of cow vigilantes and much hate speechbut Christians have not been far behind. The fundamental freedoms promised by the constitution of India to religious minorities are being constantly eroded, and persecution is a daily reality for many Christians in India.

Radicals affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) movement and its family of organizationsincluding Modis BJPhave been making concerted efforts to attack Christians both physically and socially. Groups such as Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which believe in the ideology of Hindutva as promoted by the RSS, have disrupted worship services in churches, beat up pastors and other Christians, engaged in vandalism and destruction of property, and have pressured many Christians to recant their faith and forcibly convert to Hinduism.

The lack of police action, and in too many cases the cooperation of the police with the radicals, has resulted in a culture of impunity, emboldening the oppressors to attack without fear of any consequence. This has resulted in a sense of insecurity felt by many Indian Christians. It does not help that responsible leaders of Modis party, including state and union ministers, routinely engage in hate speech against Christians and other minorities. This only bolsters the radicals, who view this as open encouragement to target minorities.

According to the Religious Liberty Commission of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), which has been documenting incidents of persecution against Christians since 1998, incidents targeting Indian Christians have risen steeply since 2014, when Modi came to power. The commission recorded 147 verified cases of persecution in 2014; 252 cases in 2016; 351 in 2017; and 325 in 2018. The EFI commission will soon release the data for 2019.

Meanwhile, 8 out of 29 states in India have passed anti-conversion laws, which are meant to act as a deterrent against religious conversions carried out by force, fraud, or other inducements. The church in India condemns such conversions, for any valid conversion must be an act of free will. However, as plenty of human rights organizations have confirmed, these laws have been misused to create a hostile and violent environment for religious minorities, especially Christians. Extremist groups and the police alike have targeted Christians with the convenient allegation of conversion by force, fraud, or allurement. Documented and verified incidents show that Christians and pastors have been frequently arrested or detained on the pretext of investigation. Ministers of the current government, as well as leaders of the BJP, have voiced their support for the introduction of an anti-conversion law on a national scale.

One of the biggest curtailments of religious freedom in India is the denial of affirmative action to Christian and Muslim Dalits. A Constitutional Order of 1950 continues to discriminate against and disempower Dalits belonging to these minority faiths. While Dalit Hindus enjoy benefits such as reserved slots in jobs, education, and political representation, to help them rise up and join the mainstream of Indian society, the same privilege has not been accorded to Dalits from Christian and Muslim backgrounds. This goes against the spirit of the Indian Constitution, which upholds equality and justice. Dalit Christians have been fighting a long drawn-out legal battle to receive the same rights.

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Some activists and Christian leaders in the United States had expected Trump to use his distinctive position to speak to Modi about the urgency of ensuring security for religious minorities in India and to take measures to ensure accountability of the perpetrators. But his silence, and in fact endorsement, of Modis commitment to religious freedom has let them down.

In the relationship between two countries, religious freedom tends to get lost in the dialogue and becomes subservient to foreign policy rather than guiding it, while economic and other strategic interests take the forefront. But on this trip, even the economic interests appeared to take a backseat to vanity, much less religious freedom. An opportunity has been squandered. We must remember that friends do hold each other accountableespecially when the friend is a country that is a multiethnic, multireligious, and multilingual society of more than a billion people that shares the democratic values and ideals of the United States.

Vijayesh Lal is the general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, based in Delhi.

Speaking Out is Christianity Today's guest opinion column and (unlike an editorial) does not necessarily represent the opinion of the magazine.
Malaysia's king struck down Friday a power play by 94-year-old Mahathir Mohamad aimed at seizing momentum in a political crisis, capping a week of turmoil that has left the country effectively leaderless. He rejected Mahathir's plan to convene parliament to vote on the country's next prime minister, after it was widely criticised as against the constitution. Old foes Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim are locked in a power struggle sparked by the elderly leader's resignation and their ruling coalition's collapse, following a failed bid to push out leader-in-waiting Anwar. The men had reconciled and led their coalition to victory in 2018 against a corrupt government, but this week's drama has revived a rivalry that has long shaped the Southeast Asian nation's politics. Mahathir, currently interim leader, earlier announced the parliament session would take place Monday and the monarch, who appoints the premier, agreed with the decision. But after a meeting of the country's Islamic sultans, the king, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, said the sitting would not take place, according to a palace statement. The monarch has met all the country's MPs this week to work out who they back for premier, but no candidate has emerged with enough support. A candidate must have support of at least 112 MPs. "The king will continue to strive to find a solution in accordance with the constitution, in the interests of the people and country," said the statement from royal official Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin. Palace officials will now hold talks with the leaders of different parties and ask them to put forward candidates, extending the turmoil and heightening the chances of a snap poll. The announcement dealt a major blow to the strategy of Mahathir, who has long had a difficult relationship with the country's royals as he sought to curb their powers during a first stint as premier from 1981 to 2003. The party of Mahathir -- at 94 the world's oldest leader -- said it was nominating Muhyiddin Yassin. It signalled Mahathir was giving up on returning as premier himself but wanted an ally in the role. The former ruling coalition meanwhile said it was nominating Anwar, 72. The men's stormy relationship dates back to the 1990s when Mahathir sacked Anwar as his deputy, and he was jailed on dubious sodomy charges.
The month-long Budget session of the Jharkhand Assembly began here on Friday, with a vacant seat of the Leader of the Opposition.

BJP MLAs trooped into the well demanding Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahato announce BJP's Legislature Party leader Babulal Marandi as the Leader of Opposition.

The Opposition members resumed their seats on the request of the Speaker later.

"The decision is on hold," said a senior official with the assembly secretariat who was asked when the Speaker would decide on the LoP.

Marandi was seen sitting in the front row, which was allotted to him during a special session between January 6 and January 8 soon after the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance won a thumping majority in the assembly polls in November-December.

BJP MLAs on February 24 unanimously elected Marandi as their Legislature Party Leader after he merged his Jharkhand Vikas Party (Prajatantrik-JVM-P) with the saffron party a week ago in the presence of former BJP president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

A BJP legislature party delegation had also given a letter to the office of the Speaker in favour of Marandi on February 17, when he had merged his party.

The Speaker, however, called the name of senior BJP MLA C P Singh to speak on the obituary reference.

BJP's number has swelled to 26 in the Jharkhand Assembly with Marandi's arrival. The ruling JMM-Congress-RJD has a combined strength of 47 in the 81-member House.

Another senior BJP MLA Neelkanth Singh Munda took exception when the Speaker called Pradip Yadav, one of the three MLAs who had won on JVM-P symbol, to make the obituary reference.

The Speaker also gave time to other MLAs of different parties to speak on the obituary reference.

Taking up the obituary reference, the House expressed condolences on the demise of former Bihar minister Abdul Gafoor, former MP Aswini Kumar, Trinamool Congress leader Tapas Paul and other leaders and litterateurs who died recently.

Chief Minister Hemant Soren also expressed grief at the deaths in the violence in Delhi.

AJSU party MLA Sudesh Mahto expressed sorrow at the killings of seven villagers in West Singhbhum district by supporters of Pathalgarhi movement, besides condoling deaths of other leaders.

Later, the Speaker adjourned the House till Monday.

Earlier, the Chief Minister, speaker and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Alamgir Alam inaugurated the new government's first budget session at the new Assembly building.

After the chief minister vacated the Dumka seat, one of the two seats he had won, the present House has 81 MLAs, including a nominated MLA from the Anglo-Indian community.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With a rousing introductory speech that included a quote from Hamlet, Sandra J. Doran pledged to carry on the mission of Bay Path University - and expand upon it.

Introduced as just the sixth president in Bay Paths 123-year history, Doran praised her predecessor, Carol Leary, who is retiring on June 30 after 25 years at the Longmeadow campus. Doran described Bay Path as a cultural force and said her purpose was to build a (university) community where everyone can soar.

"You have led Bay Path through multiple transformations,'' Doran said to Leary. We will stand on your shoulders are leap from today into tomorrow.

Quoting Hamlet, Doran said, if it be not now, yet it will come - the readiness is all. She said Bay Path is ready for a future of opportunity for its women undergraduates, and for both men and women in the graduate programs, as well as online avenues.

Doran has been the president of Salem Academy and College in Winston-Salem, NC. She said her grandmother had attended Barnard College, an all-womens institution in New York City, and her mother had returned to school as an adult, during which time we would all sit around the dining table at night, doing our homework.

Dorans daughter attended an all-womens high school, so "I know the power of womens education,'' she said.

Doran was the unanimous trustees choice at the end of a 10-month national search. She spent most of Thursday visiting classes and meeting with faculty and students, which she said exposed her to an inspiring set of stories and messages.

Leary was moved by Dorans interactions with students.

"Just the warmth she exuded, the deep questions she asked ... tells me we will be in good hands. I know she is everything we are hoping for,'' Leary said.

Doran said Bay Paths mission would be to continue encouraging innovation and inclusiveness, and grooming students for leadership roles. She enters the presidency at a time smaller private colleges in America, and notably in New England, face challenges unique to their histories, and which threaten the survival of some.

Institutions that accept only women as undergraduates also find themselves in unique positions. Bay Path officials remain positive and confident about their own universitys future.

"The culture we have created is what I am most proud of. We dont emphasize the negative. We emphasize the positive,'' Leary said in reflecting on her 25-year tenure.

Doran echoed those sentiments. "Our future is limited only by our imagination,'' she said.

Sandy Doran is a charismatic leader who cares deeply about womens education and is passionate about access to education and student success, said Jonathan Besse, chair of the Bay Path Board of Trustees. She has an impressive and broad background in a variety of complex organizations, all of which flourished greatly under her leadership.

"We didnt ask (candidates) to tell us their vision of Bay Path. That didnt seem fair. We were very careful to "judge) who could develop a vision,'' immediate past trustees chair Patricia Pierce said.

Besse and Pierce co-chaired the presidential search committee. Dorans background contains a law degree from Syracuse University, after which she entered higher education with various responsibilities at Lesley University in Cambridge.

She has a varied background in entrepreneurship, graduate school education and education policy. Her skills include fundraising acumen as well as innovative educational vision.

Doran will be one of three new presidents at local universities in 2020. Westfield State University and Western New England University are undertaking searches to replace retiring leaders Ramon Torrecilha and Anthony Caprio, respectively.

Bay Path reached university status in 2014. Leary also began a number of programs for adult women and graduate students, and the American Womens College, the first all-women, all-online baccalaureate program in the country.

Construction of the Philip H. Ryan Health Science Center in East Longmeadow and satellite buildings in Springfield, Sturbridge and Concord also took place during her term.
Greg Pickell, a graduate of the US Military Academy and a retired veteran living in Fairfax, Virginia, with his family, has completed his new book Marching on Tuzla: an enthralling tale of two soldiers who each prove their allegiance to their fatherland and the rise of love within them for two extraordinary women.

Author Pickell proves that there are two sides to every reality that is worth noting and pondering upon: Marching on Tuzla is the story of two professional military officers forced into conflict in the turbulent geopolitics of the Balkans in the 1990s. Initially unaware of each other, the two men find professional satisfaction and career success as they grapple with their demons. Darius Grant, a West Point graduate disillusioned by the armys detachment from the realities of modern combat, resolves to right at least some of the wrongs he sees affecting the safety of his men. Alekse Savic, a Bosnian Serb nationalist and gifted military leader and planner, commits himself to the preservation of his homeland in Serb-controlled Northern Bosnia. International politics and strategy bring them into conflict, as each attempt to attain his goals. Along the way, they find love in the arms of Megan Rostov and Zhanna Anisimov, women as accomplished and driven as themselves. The climatic events at the conclusion of this story find the two men in direct confrontation in the hills of Central Bosnia, with victory hanging in the balance.

Readers who wish to experience this work can purchase Marching on Tuzla at bookstores everywhere or online at the Apple iTunes store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional full-service publishing house that handles all of the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create, not bogged down with complicated business issues like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and the like. Its roster of authors can leave behind these tedious, complex, and time-consuming issues, and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
Shortly after NCP leader and his



cabinet colleague Nawab Malik stated that the Maharashtra government will provide five per cent quota to Muslims, senior minister Eknath Shinde said no such decision had been taken.

Leaders of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) -- which comprises Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress -- will take a call on the issue after discussions, Shinde, Urban Development Minister and a senior Sena leader, said.

Earlier, Malik, who is the Minority Affairs Minister, had announced in the Legislative Council that the government had proposed to provide five per cent reservation to Muslims in educational institutes.

But Shinde told reporters outside the legislature complex that he was not aware of the announcement.

"Leaders of the MVA will together take a call on policy decisionsabout giving reservation to any community. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will take appropriate decisions at the appropriate time. No decision has been takenyet," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In January 2020, GIC/AHK Vietnam, in collaboration with reputable German professional associations in the healthcare sector, conducted a market development programme survey on the Vietnamese healthcare sector in 2020, with the participation of German companies from the fields of medical technology, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology in order to identify the interests and needs of German firms, their intentions, and their expectations as well while researching and approaching the healthcare market in Vietnam.

German companies see great opportunities in Vietnam'from the EVFTA

The survey showed that Vietnam is an attractive investment destination for German companies in the healthcare sector, especially when the EVFTA comes into effect in July 2020. German multinational companies and German SMEs confirmed their interest in doing business in Asia (86 per cent) and in setting up business in Vietnam (66 per cent).

Currently, Germany is the most important trade partner in the EU and one of the Top 2 import countries of medical equipment for Vietnam, with the total import value of $153 million in 2018.

One of the most effective strategies to approach the Vietnamese markets are establishing branches and entering into co-operation with local partners. 54 per cent of German firms found challenges in finding necessary market information, information on registration process, local regulations, or import duties for their products. Linguistic and cultural differences should affect their investment intentions in Vietnam (43 per cent). while 37 per cent of respondents had difficulties in finding an appropriate local partner and workforce in Vietnam.

From August 2019, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has officially appointed a contact person in GIC/AHK Vietnam to support and connect German small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the healthcare industry.

The contact person in GIC/AHK Vietnam supports German SMEs in the healthcare industry in terms of market entry process, strengthening connectivity, and business development in Vietnam.

Approaching a new market requires careful preparation and clear plans from businesses and the contact person could prove vital in providing information about economic policies, legal regulations and frameworks in the healthcare industry in Vietnam, as well as market prospects, including demand, opportunities, and challenges in this industry for German SMEs.
The UN Security Council is to hold emergency talks Friday on the escalation of fighting in Syria, diplomats said, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in a Syrian air raid.

The meeting is expected to begin at 2100 GMT, the acting chairman of the council, Belgian ambassador Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve, told reporters.

He said it was requested by the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Belgium, Estonia, and the Dominican Republic -- some of which have stated publicly that they support Turkey.

After the attack by the Russian-backed regime in the battleground Idlib province late Thursday, Turkish reprisals killed 20 Syrian soldiers there and in neighbouring Aleppo, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

On Wednesday nine members of the Security Council asked Secretary General Antonio Guterres to do more to press for a ceasefire in Idlib.

Germany even asked him to travel there but he declined, saying it might be counterproductive and alienate Russia, diplomats said.

Since late 2019 Russia has been supporting a Syrian drive to take control of Idlib, the last stronghold of rebels fighting the Damascus government.

Since the war in Syria began in 2011, the council has often struggled to come up with meaningful action to stop it.

Russia has used its veto power 14 times to kill resolutions aimed at halting military offensives or to limit humanitarian operations that did not have the approval of the Syrian government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics centre in Boves

By Jeffrey Dastin

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has barred more than 1 million products from sale in recent weeks that had inaccurately claimed to cure or defend against the coronavirus, the company told Reuters on Thursday.

Amazon also removed tens of thousands of deals from merchants that it said attempted to price-gouge customers. The world's largest online retailer has faced scrutiny over the health-related offers on its platform, and earlier this week Italy launched a probe into surging prices around the internet for sanitizing gels and hygiene masks while it battled the biggest outbreak in Europe.

The coronavirus has caused at least 2,797 deaths globally. New reported infections around the world now exceed those from mainland China, where the flu-like disease arose two months ago out of an illegal wildlife market. Governments from Australia to Iran have closed schools, scrapped events and stockpiled medical supplies to contain the virus's spread.

One offer comparison site showed recent examples of higher-than-usual prices for masks on Amazon made by U.S. industrial conglomerate 3M Co.

A merchant Thursday offered a 10-pack of N95 masks for $128, a Reuters reporter saw when clicking through the buying options on Amazon. That was up from a recent seller average price of $41.24, according to the tracking website camelcamelcamel.com. The item was no longer available in a check later in the day.

A two-pack respirator was offered new at $24.99 earlier this week by a third-party seller, up from a recent average of $6.65 when sold by Amazon, the price-following site showed.

"There is no place for price gouging on Amazon," a spokeswoman said in a statement, citing the company's policy that product information must be accurate and that Amazon can take down offers that hurt customer trust, including when pricing "is significantly higher than recent prices offered on or off Amazon."

It declined to specify the exact threshold at which an item is considered unfairly priced.

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The company said it has monitored for price spikes and false claims through a mix of automated and manual review of listings.

(This story refiles to delete extraneous words in second paragraph)

(Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in San Francisco; Editing by Peter Henderson and Cynthia Osterman)
By Chris Prentice

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Steven Seagal, the star of action movies including "Above the Law" and "Out for Justice," has agreed to pay $314,000 to resolve charges of "unlawfully touting" a cryptocurrency offering, the U.S. securities regulator said on Thursday.

Seagal, 67, agreed to give up $157,000 in ill-gotten gains and to pay another $157,000 as a penalty for failing to disclose payments he received for promoting an investment in an initial coin offering from Bitcoiin2Gen (B2G), the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement.

The SEC has moved to clamp down on such promotions. The agency said in 2017 that social media endorsements from celebrities to encourage people to buy stocks and other investments may be unlawful if they do not disclose details about compensation received.

Seagal, who did not admit to any wrongdoing, failed to disclose that he was promised $1 million in cash and B2G tokens in exchange for those endorsements, the SEC said.

Representatives for Seagal did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

Seagal, a Hollywood actor and martial arts expert who now lives in Russia, became a "believer" in and "brand ambassador" for the coins, B2G said in a statement in February 2018. From about February to March 2018, Seagal promoted B2G to his Facebook and Twitter followers with statements including "Don't miss out."

"These investors were entitled to know about payments Seagal received or was promised to endorse this investment, so they could decide whether he may be biased," said Kristina Littman, chief of the SEC Enforcement Divisions cyber unit.

As part of the deal, the actor has agreed not to promote any securities for three years.

Seagal is a U.S. national living in Moscow, the SEC said.

In August 2018, the Russia Foreign Ministry said it had named Seagal its special representative for Russian-U.S. humanitarian ties, a role it said was meant to deepen cultural, art and youth ties between the two countries.

President Vladimir Putin presented a Russian passport to Seagal in 2016, saying then that he hoped it would serve as a symbol of how fractious ties between Moscow and Washington were starting to improve.

(Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Jonathan Oatis)
The United States space agency recently marked the loss of a very important person to Americas early space efforts.

NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson died earlier this month at the age of 101. She was an African American woman who is credited with breaking race barriers by working in NASAs early space program.

Our NASA family is sad to learn the news that Katherine Johnson passed away this morning at 101 years old, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine wrote on Twitter. She was an American hero and her pioneering legacy will never be forgotten, he added.

Johnson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from former President Barack Obama in 2015. At the time, then-NASA Administrator Charles Bolden praised Johnson. He said, Shes one of the greatest minds ever to grace our agency or our country.

A 2016 book called Hidden Figures was based on her life and experiences. It was turned into a Hollywood movie the same year. The film received three Academy Award nominations from the film industry. Johnson attended the Academy Awards ceremony the following year with actors from the film.

What did Johnson do?

Johnson and her colleagues were known as human computers during the early years of NASAs efforts to start the space program. They used pencils, slide rules and mechanical calculating machines to calculate the paths of rockets and orbiters in the atmosphere and in space. Johnson worked on the first mission to put an American in space in 1961. She also confirmed the computer calculations made by IBM computers for orbits of the Earth in 1962.



Johnson told The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in 2012, Our office computed all the [rocket] trajectories.

But Johnson and her African American coworkers were little known by the public until the appearance of the book and movie. One reason is because NASA segregated the group at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. In other words, government officials kept the women separate because of the color of their skin.

Although she worked in a group separated from white workers, Johnson said that she was too busy to be concerned with racism. Margot Lee Shetterly wrote in her book Hidden Figures that Johnson didnt close her eyes to the racism that existed. She instead willed it out of existence inasmuch as her daily life was concerned.

Johnson grew up in West Virginia at a time when education for African Americans was limited. Her mother and father moved 120 miles to live in a town that had a high school for African American children.

Her skill in mathematics got her into West Virginia State College at the age of 15. She also was one of the first black students to enter the graduate school at West Virginia University in 1938.



Later, Johnson went to work for an agency that would become the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, where she worked with other African American women.

She continued with NASA long after the early space flights, working on the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. She retired in 1986.

She said she was most proud of calculating the paths for the lunar lander and the orbiting command spacecraft for the first trip to the moon, Apollo 11.

Johnson described her abilities to reporters this way: You tell me when and where you want it to come down, and I will tell you where and when and how to launch it, she said.

Im Mario Ritter Jr.

Bill Trott reported this story for Reuters. Mario Ritter Jr. adapted it for VOA Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor.

_________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

pioneering adj. to be among the first to do something usually at great risk

legacy n. something of value that is passed down from someone who has died

segregated adj. separated because of some difference such as race or religion

calculate v. to mathematically arrive at the answer to a problem

trajectory n. the path that a moving object, like a rocket, takes through the air or space that is governed by the principles of physics

inasmuch conj. introduces a statement that explains something
The recent standalone visit to India by US President Donald Trump was a result of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "vibrant leadership", BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda claimed on Friday.

Speaking at a public meeting at Jhandutta in Himachal Pradesh's Bilaspur district, Nadda also claimed that Trump had praised Modi and India for 20 minutes during his 28-minute-long speech at Gujarat's Motera Stadium.

It was probably the first time that a US president travelled 8,000 kms to India on the request of an Indian PM without stopping over in any other country on the way, the BJP chief said.

"This speaks of India's commanding position in the world and it has become possible due to the vibrant and strong leadership of Modi," said Nadda.

During his 28-minute speech at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad, Trump spent 20 minutes praising Modi and India, he claimed.

Nadda also credited Modi for the growth of the country's economy.

India has become the world's fifth-largest economy and will emerge at the top in the next few years, the BJP chief said.

The country is on its way to becoming a 5 trillion dollar economy under Modi, he added.

Nadda's remarks came on a day when official data showed that India's GDP growth slipped to a nearly 7-year low of 4.7 per cent in October-December 2019.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth was registered at 5.6 per cent in the corresponding quarter of 2018-19, as per the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).

Nadda arrived in Himachal Pradesh on a two-day visit on Thursday. This is his maiden visit to the state since he took over the BJP's reins from Union Home Minister Amit Shah last month.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur and state BJP chief Rajeev Bindal also attended the event.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Turkey has sent thousands of troops into Syria and Erdogan has warned that Turkey would launch a full-scale offensive to repel Syrian forces

Ankara/Istanbul: Turkey will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, a senior Turkish official said, as Ankara responded on Friday to the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an air strike by Syrian government forces in Syrias northwestern Idlib region.

President Tayyip Erdogan chaired an emergency meeting on the attack in Ankara overnight, while defence minister Hulusi Akar and Turkish force commanders directed operations in Syria at the Turkish border, state-owned Anadolu News Agency said.

Turkey has sent thousands of troops and heavy military hardware into Syria and Erdogan has warned that Turkey would launch a full-scale offensive to repel Syrian forces unless they pulled back from Turkish observation posts in the region.

The killing of 33 Turkish soldiers and wounding of 32, announced by the governor in Turkeys Hatay province bordering Syria, raised the Turkish military death toll in the region to 54 this month.

Turkeys communications director, Fahrettin Altun, said that in retaliation, all known Syrian government targets were being fired on by Turkish air and land support units. Details of the retaliation were not immediately clear.

Some one million civilians have been displaced near the Turkish border since December as Russia-backed Syrian government forces seized territory from Turkey-backed Syrian rebels, marking the worst humanitarian crisis in the nine-year war.

In anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Idlib, Turkish police, coastguard and border security officials have been ordered to stand down on refugees land and sea crossings, the Turkish official told Reuters.

We have decided, effectively immediately, not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land or sea, said the official, who requested anonymity. All refugees, including Syrians, are now welcome to cross into the European Union.

Despicable offensive

The threat to open the way for refugees to Europe would, if executed, reverse a pledge Turkey made to the European Union in 2016 and could quickly draw Western powers into the standoff over Idlib and stalled negotiations between Ankara and Moscow. The burden of hosting refugees is too heavy for any single country to carry, the official said.

Turkey hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees and has repeated it cannot handle more. Under the 2016 deal, the European Union has provided billions of euros in aid in return for Ankara agreeing to stem the influx of migrants into Europe.

Hatay governor Rahmi Dogan said none of the Turkish troops wounded in Thursdays air strike were in critical condition. The US State Department said the United States was very concerned about the reported attack on Turkish soldiers.

We stand by our NATO ally Turkey and continue to call for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia, and Iranian-backed forces, a State Department representative said in a statement.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres voiced grave concern about the escalation in northwest Syria and reports that Turkish soldiers had been killed, and repeated his call for an immediate ceasefire, a spokesman said.

Erdogan and US president Donald Trump may hold a phone call to discuss Idlib after the attack on Turkish soldiers, two Turkish officials told Reuters.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assads forces, supported by relentless Russian air strikes, have pushed hard in recent months to retake the last large rebel-held region in northwest Syria. The war in Syria has displaced millions and killed hundreds of thousands.
(Natural News) Its all fun and games until someone gets sent to the ER.

This is precisely the sentiment aired by several parents and school administrators in the wake of a new  and dangerous  viral social media trend called the Skull Breaker Challenge.

A popular trend that originated in the video-sharing and social networking platform TikTok, the Skull Breaker Challenge involves three participants, all standing next to each other before jumping straight up. While the middle person is in the air, the two other individuals then kick inward in an attempt to knock the middle person off balance.

As expected, injuries resulting from the extremely risky challenge have been reported  and the numbers are now on the rise.

According to a report by Health, at least two children in the United States have been hospitalized as a result of the viral social media trend.

Valerie Hodson, the mother of one of the two children, shared her sons ordeal in a harrowing social media post.

According to Hodson, her son was asked to participate in a jumping contest by two of his friends. However, when he jumped up, the two boys kicked him so hard his legs flew out in front of him.

The boy then landed flat on his back, and after struggling to get up, lost consciousness and fell forward, landing on his face.

Hodson, in the same post, revealed that her son ended up with a head injury, as well as stitches in his face and cuts inside his mouth.

She added that her son had no idea about what was going to happen, and that he trusted the two other boys because he knew them.

In a chilling part of her post, Hodson recounted how the two boys who kicked her son were snickering and laughing as his stiff, unconscious body lay on the asphalt.

Just a couple of days later, another concerned mother, Terri Wimmer Smith, posted on her Facebook page, warning parents about the dangers of the challenge and asked for prayers for her son Parker who also fell after being unknowingly tiktok pranked by his schoolmates. Smith, in her Facebook post, said Parker had two broken bones in his wrist, which later required surgery in order to install pins in his arm.

Teach your kids that this crap is dangerous, Smith said.

Another incident that sparked concern from parents and other individuals involved high school students from Daytona Beach, Florida. As with the other TikTok videos mentioned, the students in the videos stood side by side before jumping together. However, as soon as the student in the middle leapt, the other students immediately stuck out their legs, causing the middle student to crash on the ground.

According to a statement made by the Daytona Beach Police Department to News Journal Online, that two students are now facing misdemeanor charges of battery and cyberbullying stemming from the prank.

This challenge is just the latest in a string of dangerous viral trends that have become popular with children and adolescents in recent years. Previous entries include the Tide Pod challenge, car surfing, cinnamon challenge and the salt and ice challenge.

TikTok, for its part, has since issued a statement, first published on Yahoo! Lifestyle.

According to the Beijing-based video-sharing and social networking platform, the safety and well-being of their users remain a top priority, and that they do not allow content that encourages, promotes, or glorifies dangerous challenges that might lead to injury. (Related: The social media generation is more prone to depression, self-harm.)

TikTok added that they remove videos that show any inappropriate behaviors or activities that violate their guidelines.

To help keep our platform safe, we have introduced a slate of safety features geared towards enhancing our users experience, including tools for reporting inappropriate content and for managing privacy settings, TikTok stated.

Why are kids and teens fond of dangerous online challenges?

If viral social media pranks are dangerous by nature, why do children and teens do them? The answer, according to psychologist Sabrina Sykes, may lie in their head.

Sykes, a psychologist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, noted in a blog post that during adolescence, the brains reward system develops before the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is responsible for planning, decision-making and managing impulses.

This, according to Sykes, means that teens are highly motivated to engage in socially rewarding behavior and gravitate toward thrill-seeking, without focusing on potential risks or consequences.

This is compounded further by the fact that social media rewards bold behavior, giving users instant gratification in the form of instant popularity, which is usually measured through the number of ones likes and followers. According to Sykes, this causes adolescents to focus more on the immediate rewards of participating instead of the possible risks or long-term consequences arising from such social media challenges and trends.

One effective way to address this is for parents to simply talk things through with their children.

Be sure to listen with a calm demeanor and without judgment, asking them why someone may choose to take part, and if its worth it, Sykes said.

Parents should familiarize themselves with social media platforms and engage their teen in conversations about online challenges, Sykes said in her blog, noting that this will help teens build the skill of risk evaluation and give parents a better understanding of their childs thought processes and judgment.

Remember that while teens continue to grow and navigate social relationships, through these conversations parents can foster the development of thoughtful and rational thinking skills, while also maintaining connection, she added.

Visit CampusInsanity.com for more news and stories on dangerous campus trends.

Sources include:

Health.com

FoxNews.com

News-JournalOnline.com

WexnerMedical.osu.edu
Evan Vucci/Associated Press

WASHINGTON  House Democrats are scrutinizing whether President Trump has improperly interfered at the Justice Department for political reasons, a prominent committee chairman said Friday, requesting documents and interviews with more than a dozen U.S. attorneys related to the cases of three Trump associates and a review of the FBIs Russia inquiry.

The requests are the first major return to politically charged oversight matters by the House Judiciary Committee since it helped impeach Trump late last year. But with House leaders intent on shifting attention toward domestic policy legislation they believe will help preserve their majority in this falls election, it was not clear how far Democrats would be willing to escalate a likely fight.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 02:34:29|Editor: huaxia

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Staff members work at a novel coronavirus detection lab in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 22, 2020.(Xinhua/Cheng Min)

It's "amazing" that within a comparatively short period, China has effectively prevented the epidemic from further massive spreading in the country, says Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club.

by Xinhua writers Yu Jiaxin, Jin Jing

LONDON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- China has demonstrated remarkable coordination and selflessness in its fight against the novel coronavirus as a nation, while showing incredible sensitivity to the needs of the people, Stephen Perry, chairman of Britain's 48 Group Club has said.

File photo shows chairman of the 48 Group Club Stephen Perry addressing the 2nd China-UK Economic and Trade Forum in London, Britain, June 26, 2019.(Xinhua/Ray Tang)

Perry, whose father "icebreaker" Jack Perry helped establish one of the first modern-day trade links between China and the outside world during the Cold War, is a recipient of China Reform Friendship Medal in 2018 for his outstanding contribution to improving China-Britain ties.

It's "amazing" that within a comparatively short period, China has effectively prevented the epidemic from further massive spreading in the country, Perry told Xinhua in an interview.

Combo photo shows an aerial view of the Huoshenshan (Fire God Mountain) Hospital during the past 10 days from Jan. 24 to Feb. 2, 2020 in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province.(Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)

Perry attributed the positive trend in China to the leadership of Communist Party of China (CPC) and a system which features extensive planning and effective allocation of resources in a time of crisis.

"This system is one that people don't have in the West," he said.

"I'm quite sure that China's detailed planning for dealing with outbreaks like this is extensive, well beyond anything that's available anywhere else in the world," said Perry.

"It has all been organized with incredible sensitivity to the needs of the people," he said.

A staff member works in a laboratory in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 13, 2020.(Xinhua/Cheng Min)

Perry was impressed by the huge number of Chinese medical staffs volunteering to Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, while demonstrating immense braveness and the spirit of sacrifice.

"It is a wonderful story of selflessness and coordination throughout China," he added.

Perry highly praised the transparency China has shown since the outbreak while sharing timely information with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the whole world, noting that other countries hit by the virus wouldn't have been able to move fast without the help and experience from China.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (L) attends a daily briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 20, 2020.(Xinhua/Chen Junxia)

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said the "serious measures at the epicenter, at the source" taken by China not only protected Chinese people, but also prevented the spread of the virus to other countries.

"Because of this strategy, if it weren't for China's efforts, the number of cases outside China would have been very much higher," he said earlier this month at a WHO Executive Board meeting in Geneva.

In Perry's opinion, resuming production in China while managing the epidemic prevention and control is not easy, but nevertheless a right decision considering the stability and economic growth of the country.

He said effective control of the epidemic requires coordination from all countries and the world should work together to produce vaccines and put an end to the epidemic as soon as possible.

Staff members work at the assemble plant of FAW-Volkswagen Automobile in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Feb. 19, 2020. FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Co., Ltd. resumed production at its four production bases across China as of Monday amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. (Xinhua/Liu Kun)

"It (the virus) will come right back and bite us if we don't deal with it right," he said.
Ryanair has dropped two carbon offset projects funded by passengers after claims they do little or nothing to reduce total emissions.

The budget airline has dumped one tree-planting scheme before a single sapling was planted and pulled funding from a whale-watching project.

Critics said the schemes were woefully inadequate at cancelling out the massive amount of greenhouse gas the airline produces each year.

Ryanair has said it will instead invest in certified carbon offsetting projects which offer a verification stamp allowing companies to claim their carbon is being offset.

Ryanair has dropped carbon offset projects funded by passengers after claims they do little or nothing to reduce the budget airline's total emissions (CEO Michael O'Leary pictured)

One of Ryanair's pledges was to re-forest 7.5hectares of woodland in Ireland (pictured) but it was then claimed that this would offset less than 0.01 per cent of 2019 emissions

But the move has devastated the small organisations, which were expecting major funding from the 2.1million Ryanair has gathered in passenger donations.

Airlines are scrambling to meet strict global guidelines requiring them to drastically reduce their carbon footprint.

Ryanair, which carries 142million passengers a year, is Europes ninth-worst polluter and emitted 9.9megatonnes of CO2 in 2018, according to the European Commission. The airline insists it is the greenest, cleanest major airline on the continent.

Bosses last year launched a PR campaign to boost the airlines green credentials by announcing four carbon offset partnerships and began asking passengers to donate 1 when booking online.

But one pledge to re-forest 7.5hectares of woodland in Ireland was dumped following claims it would offset less than 0.01 per cent of Ryanairs 2019 emissions.

A dolphin and whale counting scheme in the Atlantic has also been dropped, with charity bosses admitting it does not contribute significantly to CO2 reduction.

The Native Woodland Trust said it had sent Ryanair an invoice of 13,000 for wasted work on the project which had intended to plant 20,000 oak trees on a patch of neglected land in Co Roscommon, Ireland (pictured)

Ryanairs decision to end the two contracts, worth 172,000, comes after an investigation cast doubt on the effectiveness of the schemes at offsetting Ryanairs emissions (file picture)

The other projects, a reforestation scheme to plant 75,000 trees on the Algarve in Portugal and a project to provide fuel-efficient cooking stoves to families in Uganda, are still underway.

Gilles Dufrasne at the Carbon Market Watch think-tank said: Many of the offsetting commitments by big polluters are nothing but greenwashing.

Q&A: WHAT'S CARBON OFFSETTING AND HOW DOES IT WORK? What is carbon offsetting? Planes produce CO2 by burning aviation fuel. Offsetting is when this greenhouse gas is cancelled out by individuals, companies or organisations that donate money to projects claiming to cut the amount of CO2 going into the air, such as tree-planting or giving low-emission stoves to poor regions. The concept was developed in the 1970s and 80s and first introduced in the US in 1990 to combat air pollution and acid rain. Trees suck CO2 out of the air while the stoves cut the amount that would otherwise be released. Those who offset claim to have a smaller carbon footprint and some have net-zero emissions. Airlines are among the biggest polluters because one ton of aviation fuel emits 3.15 tons of CO2. How does it work? Carbon credits can be bought from verified schemes. Last year the average cost was 18 per tonne of CO2. Some meet standards set by expert groups but many, such as Ryanairs Irish forest scheme are entirely self-regulated. The carbon trading market is worth hundreds of billions and is now booming as politicians scramble to meet ambitious emissions targets. Why is it criticised? Critics say it is a Wild West industry without transparency or regulation and no universal standards. No one agrees how emissions should be measured because a passenger flights carbon footprint can vary wildly depending on cruising altitude weight and weather. One US study by Tufts University, Maine, worked out that emissions from flights between Boston and Frankfurt varied between 1.43 and 4.14 tons. Critics also point out that many offsetting schemes would probably have gone ahead anyway, so there is no additional benefit. And as celebrities such as actress Emma Watson deflect criticism of the air miles they clock up by saying they offset their travel, the system has been compared to Roman Catholic indulgences  a way for the rich to pay for absolution from sins, rather than changing their behaviour. Do airlines offset? Yes, but an international scheme called Corsia set up by the UN-run International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) does not launch until next January. It will require airlines to offset any growth in emissions beyond 2020 levels. The ICAO is finalising a list of 14 approved offset providers to invest in. For now, UK airlines are donating to a variety of projects that claim to offset CO2 emissions. The Government is currently considering whether to force airlines to add carbon offsetting charges to each journey. What do airlines say to critics? Aviation bosses admit offsetting is not perfect, but say that there is little else they can do for the moment. Zero-emission electric planes are decades away, and there is not yet enough funding to research and create a greener alternative to aviation fuel. They see offsetting as a temporary fix until technology allows more significant improvements and claim its better than nothing  even if not every scheme delivers all of its promised benefits. Advertisement

This latest development further confirms that Ryanair has been advertising false green credentials, which is symptomatic of the entire aviation industry.

Last night, the Native Woodland Trust (NWT) said it had sent Ryanair an invoice of 13,000 for wasted work on the project.

As part of its 12-month contract with the NWT, Ryanair agreed to help plant 20,000 oak trees on a patch of neglected land in Co Roscommon, Ireland.

In a video on Ryanairs YouTube account the trusts chairman, Jim Lawlor, said: Wed like to say a big thanks to Ryanair and to all of their customers who have chosen to offset their carbon when booking their tickets.

But the NWT said it now faces a bill of more than 21,000 to finish the mammoth project.

General manager Linda Lawlor told the Mail: We have made all sorts of promises to the local community which we still have to deliver, but now we dont have Ryanairs money.

Dr Simon Berrow, chief executive officer of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group  the other project Ryanair has ditched  said the airline had donated 85,000 since September 2018. He told the Mail: Its a pity. We appreciate its not an obvious fit  whale research and carbon offsetting.

Ryanairs decision to end the two contracts, worth 172,000, comes after a BBC Panorama investigation cast doubt on the effectiveness of the schemes at offsetting Ryanairs emissions.

Professor Simon Lewis of UCL said the airline would have to plant trees covering 12 per cent of the UK to offset its carbon footprint, and that for each of the next 20 years the tree project would offset less than 0.01 per cent of Ryanairs 2019 emissions.

He told Panorama the schemes are woefully inadequate.

Its a drop in the ocean. Its a green gimmick rather than a serious attempt to slow down climate change, he said.

Environment groups have criticised offsetting schemes as a green smokescreen for the devastating impact of commercial aviation. Critics say they lack regulation, leading to claims airlines are disguising the scale of their evironmental impact.

Greenpeace chief scientist Dr Doug Parr said: Ryanair is one of Europes worst carbon polluters, and signing up to a bunch of offsetting schemes is not going to change that.

'Its bad enough that many airlines are using offsetting as a licence to pollute, but they often encourage their customers to join in the greenwash, too.

Theres little evidence that offsetting schemes generally work.

Ryanair chief executive Michael OLeary said it was absolutely wrong that the airlines schemes were inadequate and that the 1 donation was not meant to fully neutralise passengers flights.

Ryanair said in a statement it had contributed 85,000 to each of the dropped projects and had fulfilled all its commitments.

It added that passengers offset donations would now go to bigger projects such as the Algarve forest and Ugandan cookstoves.

It insisted that its 543million environmental tax bill this year vastly exceeds the carbon cost of its flights, adding: Independent studies confirm that our CO2 emissions are up to 50 per cent lower than those of competitor major airlines.
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - An assailant was killed during the night of Thursday to Friday, in an attack on the gendarmerie station of Niangoloko, in the Cascades region on the border with Cote d'Ivoire, PANA learned from official sources
The Maharashtra Navnirman



Sena has opened a counter in Aurangabad in Maharashtra for people to give information about 'infiltrators' and those whose tip-offs prove correct would be given a reward of Rs 5,000, a functionary of the Raj Thackeray-led party said on Friday.

The MNS has started one counter in Akashwani area, manned by party workers, and five more are in the pipeline, MNS Aurangabad unit president Sumit Khambekar said.

"People can give information on infiltrators staying here and we will forward it to the police. If the police verification finds the information to be correct, we will give the person who gave us the tip-off a reward of Rs 5,000," said Khambekar.

When contacted, Aurangabad police commissioner Chiranjeev Prasad refused to comment saying the (of MNS setting up 'infiltrator information' counter) was being verified.

The MNS' move comes after Thackeray, in a rally in Mumbai on February 9, signalled a turn towards hardline Hindutva by claiming his party would work towards evicting illegal Pakistani and Bangladeshi migrants staying in Maharashtra.

In his speech, Thackeray appealed to the Central government to give a "free hand to the police for 48 hours to evict infiltrators from Mumbai, as it is useless to ask the state government".

"The issue of infiltrators is as important as that of drinking water, education and health. Pakistani and Bangladeshi infiltrators should be thrown out of the country, and there shouldn't be any compromise on the issue," he had told the gathering.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Sonu Sood on Friday revealed that he has joined the cast of south superstar Chiranjeevi's next Telugu film.

The project marks Chiranjeevi's 152nd film and is helmed by Koratala Siva.

"It makes me very proud to be associated with the project and sharing the screen space with Chiranjeevi Sir. The south Indian film industry has been very embracing of me and I hope with this film I am able to give them back the same amount of love through my work," Sonu said in a statement.

In the film, the Bollywood actor will be playing one of the prime characters.

Sonu will also be seen in Tamil film "Thamilarasan", an action drama directed by Babu Yogeswaran, while in Bollywood, his next release will be Akshay Kumar-led period drama "Prithviraj".

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

The three are due to appear before judges on May 5. All accused of participating in the illegal march on August 31, which ended with police violence in Prince Edward station. The new policy of Xia Baolong, a friend of Xi Jinping, against the democratic movement.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - Three personalities of the democratic movement - Jimmy Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum, were arrested this morning by the police for participating in an illegal march on August 31, during the anti-extradition and anti-government demonstrations that continued in Hong Kong since last June.

Jimmy Lai (photo 1), a Catholic, is the publisher and founder of the Apple Daily newspaper, known for his critical positions towards the Chinese communist dictatorship. Lee Cheuk-yan (photo 2) is a trade unionist and former parliamentarian, activist for democracy in Hong Kong and China, among the most important vigils organizers in memory of the Tiananmen massacre that takes place every year in the territory. Yeung Sum (photo 3) is an academic, member of the Democratic Party, also a former parliamentarian.

All three were taken from their homes this morning and taken to the police station. In the early afternoon they were released on bail. The three are accused of participating in a march on August 31, which the police had denied permission for.

The march, within the anti-extradition demonstrations, had been requested by the Civil Front for Human Rights, which in recent months has organized rallies with over two million people. After the police refusal of the permit, the Front canceled the event, but many activists launched the idea of meeting in the streets of the center of the island, for "tourism" or for "shopping and dinner", challenging the ban . Others have organized religious "processions", since for religious gatherings there is no need for permission from the police.

The demonstration with hundreds of thousands of participants ran peacefully until the evening, when clashes between police and radical demonstrators began, and ended with the bloody police violence in Prince Edward's subway station against young protesters and passengers.

According to members of the Labor and Democratic Party, to which Lee and Yeung belong, the arrests of these personalities, symbol of the struggle for democracy, are an attempt to cripple the democratic movement.

Other observers point out that the police move reveals China's new and harsher policy towards Hong Kong demonstrations. A few weeks ago, Xi Jinping appointed his trusted Xia Baolong (photo 4), former party secretary in Zhejiang, to head the Hong Kong-China relations office.

During his tenure, in the name of urban needs, Xia launched a three-year campaign to destroy the crosses and demolish the churches. Between the end of 2013 and April 2016, around 1,500 churches, mostly Protestant, were removed and affected.

Jimmy Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan and Yeung Sum will stand before the judge together on May 5th. Lai is also accused of railing against an Oriental Daily reporter during a demonstration in memory of the Tiananmen massacres in June 2017. The Oriental Daily is considered a pro-Beijing newspaper.
In this April 30, 2019 file photo, an employee walks past a Samsung Electronics logo at its office in Seoul. AP-Yonhap



By Kim Yoo-chul



Samsung is aiming to achieve a positive impact on society while strengthening its education-focused corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.



The European Commission has previously defined CSR as "the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society."



Samsung's de-facto leader and vice chairman Lee Jae-yong has emphasized the corporation's CSR strategy as an important competitive asset, and one that should be taken seriously by the firm.



According to Samsung officials, this translates as having the policies and procedures in place to integrate social and consumer concerns with the company's operations and core strategies  formed in close collaboration with both stakeholders and society.



Samsung Electronics, the group's core business unit on all aspects, recently announced "Go Together for the Future! Enabling People!" as its revamped CSR vision. Under the new initiative, Samsung Electronics is expanding programs seeking shared growth with its local suppliers, as well as the provision of improved education for young adults.



Its "Dream Class" and "Smart School" programs offer low-income families across the country opportunities for education and other benefits. Aside from financial contributions, Samsung also focuses on sharing some of its intellectual properties and supporting the community for a positive impact.



In order to help young adults gain a competitive edge, Samsung has been providing free software-learning programs since 2018 with the goal of supporting the qualification of 10,000, young software engineers. Samsung leader Lee recently visited the company-assisted software educational center in Gwangju, southwest of Seoul, and said Samsung Electronics will continue to expand programs relevant to the growth of young engineers.



"Samsung Dream Class," which has been operational since 2012, has so far provided 80,000 middle school students and 22,000 undergraduates with improved understanding of the world of software.



In 2018, Samsung partnered with the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) ministry and the venture ministry to help some 2,500 local SMEs improve their manufacturing efficiency. At the time of the deal, Samsung said it would invest up to 110 billion won in the project over the next five years.



Its "C-Lab Outside" program, a result of Samsung's initiatives to expand a startup-centric ecosystem, has also seen increased financial and administrative support with over 300 non-Samsung startups receiving assistance through the program.


An estimated 20.2 million people are facing severe acute food insecurity across East Africa as swarms of desert locusts ravage crops in an already vulnerable region. The European Union on Thursday contributed 11 million euros ($12.1 million) to aid the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in its efforts to contain the upsurge, which has now expanded from East Africa into the Persian Gulf. The outbreak is the worst seen in Ethiopia and Somalia for 25 years and the worst infestation in Kenya for over 70 years. Djibouti and Eritrea have also been affected with swarms reported in South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania. Strong winds this week have brought swarms to both sides of the Persian Gulf and into Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and southwest Iran. Without concerted efforts to control the outbreak, the UN estimates that conducive breeding conditions could see the locusts multiply by 400 times this year.

Locusts swarm acros a highway at Lerata village, near Archers Post in Samburu county, approximately 300 kilomters (186 miles) north of Kenyan capital, Nairobi on January 22, 2020. (Photo by TONY KARUMBA / AFP) (Photo by TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images) Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images

The FAO has appealed for $138 million in urgent funding to assist the countries that have been impacted, but has so far amassed only $52 million. FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu has said the locusts threaten to provoke a humanitarian crisis in East Africa and told the international community that "there is no time to waste." Desert locusts can travel up to 150 kilometers (95 miles) a day, and a one-square-kilometer swarm can devour as much food as 35,000 people in a single day, according to the UN. With the main farming season looming in a region which relies on agriculture for roughly one-third of its gross domestic product (GDP) and more than 65% of its employment, time is running out to protect livelihoods. The region has faced consecutive shocks in recent years, including poor rainfall, flooding, macroeconomic crises and armed conflict, rendering it uniquely vulnerable.

Global response

The Ethiopian government is scrambling to control the locusts going into the Belg, a short rainy season which runs from February to May. The UN funding is intended to strengthen East African governments' control and surveillance operations by supplying equipment and support to teams on the ground, along with supporting the field evaluation of bio-pesticides. Alongside the FAO, the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture is scaling up aerial and ground operations in the key crop-producing regions of Oromia and SNNP (Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples). "We are at a critical stage at which we need to save the next and subsequent harvests and safeguard the livelihood of the population," Ethiopia's FAO Representative Fatouma Seid in a recent statement. Thus far, the FAO operation in Ethiopia has received $6.5 million from a range of international sources, including the UN Central Emergency Response Fund, the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, Saudi Arabia and Belgium. Negotiations are ongoing with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and agencies in Sweden and Germany, among others, for an additional $10 million. Of the $138 million total requested by the FAO, $50.5 million has been earmarked for Ethiopia, according to the FAO. USAID recently announced that it will be providing $8 million in humanitarian assistance to support regional operations to control locusts in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.

Digital solutions

Along with conventional solutions and reporting requirements placed on affected countries, the FAO has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to fast-track the development of a new mobile app. The MoU will enable Penn State professor of entomology and biology David Hughes and his team at PlantVillage, an agricultural research and development unit at the university, to create a mobile app which locates and tracks the insects in order to assist in early warning and targeted spraying efforts. After the last locust upsurge in 20032005, the FAO developed a tool to enable national locust officers in frontline countries from West Africa to India to record observations in the field and transmit the data to their National Locust Center in real-time via satellite.

A local resident tries to swot away a swarm of desert locusts in Mathiakani, Kitui County, Kenya, on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020. The number of locusts in East Africa could expand 500 times by June, the UN's Food & Agriculture Organization said last month. Patrick Meinhardt | Bloomberg | Getty Images
New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notices on a plea filed by a fringe Hindu organisation for registration of an FIR against three AIMIM leaders on charge of delivering hate speeches.

A Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel sought replies from the respondents and listed the matter for April 13 hearing.

The petitioner, Hindu Sena, pleaded for directions to the Delhi Police to register an FIR against All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi, and party MLAs Waris Pathan from Mumbai and Akbaruddin Owaisi, adding that their speeches had surcharged communal atmosphere in Delhi.

Violence had erupted between pro- and anti-CAA groups in northeast Delhi's Jaffrabad, Maujpur and Gokulpuri areas since Sunday. At least 38 persons were killed and over 200 injured in the violence.

The petitioner also sought to be impleaded as a respondent in a plea filed by social activist Harsh Mander who had prayed for the registration of an FIR against three BJP leaders -- Anurag Thakur, Kapil Mishra and Parvesh Verma.

"Mander's petition is an attempt to aggravate the situation by seeking criminal action against BJP leaders with the sole intention to defame the Hindus as if the community members are the cause of Delhi riot," the Hindu Sena said in its application.

The bench also heard an application filed by advocate Sanjiv Kumar for a National Investigation Agency probe into the Delhi violence and registration of a case against Mander, actress Swara Bhaskar, AAP leader Amanatullah Khan and Radio Jockey Sayema.

The court has issues notices in this case as well and listed the matter for April 13.
Imagine if the federal government decided to completely rebuild our road network. Brand new highways linking cities and regional centres, and more efficient side roads running through every neighbourhood in the land.

The project would cost billions, but experts insisted that it was essential because the old roads needed radical updating if they were to see us into the future.

Then, after the work had already started, a new government was elected, insisting that it would build the roads more cheaply. There was outcry from many experts, but an election is an election, and so the old roads were ripped up, and new ones built according to the new plan, at a cost that still proves to be astronomical.

Once the new road network is in place, everyone realises that its actually worse than what we had before. Travel times are longer in some places. The new roads are less reliable, so cars are crashing more. Old folks are afraid to drive. Some of the new roads dont even reach the towns theyre meant to access, and if you want the problem fixed, you pay for it yourself.

I cant imagine any government surviving such a debacle. But this is what has happened with the NBN, an infrastructure project that may well be as vital to the nation as our road network, yet has proved to be a mishandled disaster, and a criminal waste of public resources.
The house of a BSF jawan, Mohammad Anees, in the Khajuri Khas area of northeast Delhi was among several others burned down by mobs in the riots that gripped the district for three days starting on 23 February.

The home of a BSF jawan was among several burned by mobs in northeast Delhi's Khajuri Khas amid the riots that gripped the district for three days from 23 February, News18 reported.

The family of Mohammad Anees hoped the nameplate on the doorway, which has the BSF insignia and identifies Anees as a member of the paramilitary force, would deter the mob. But to no avail. As per the News18 report, the mob first pelted the house with stones and shouted: "Idhar aa Pakistani, tujhe naagarikta dete hai" (Pakistani, we will give you citizenship) before tossing a gas cylinder into the home.

As per the report News18 report, Anees spent three years in Jammu and Kashmir guarding the border after joining the BSF in 2013. Anees' family has lost all their savings, including Rs 3 lakh in cash and gold jewellery, as per the report.

First-person accounts emerge

Victims of the rampage in the Al-Hind hospital also recounted first-person accounts.

"We jumped from the first floor with dupattas wrapped around our bodies to save ourselves," says a 45-year-old woman at northeast Delhi's Al-Hind Hospital, recalling how she and her two daughters were forced to flee their home after a mob barged in and molested them, PTI reported.

"I was at home when a mob barged in. I and my two daughters were molested and our clothes torn by the mob," the quadragenarian, who runs an NGO in Karawal Nagar, said with tears in her eyes.

She said the mob chased them but stopped and eventually disappeared after they sought refuge in the house of Ayub Ahmed, a grocery shop owner known to them. "When we reached Ahmed's house, he gave us food and other necessary things and later brought us to the Al-Hind Hospital. I can identify the miscreants as they were from our lane," she added.

Ahmed said the women have been left traumatised by the incident.

The woman is one of the many who have been brought to the Al-Hind Hospital over the past few days after being attacked by armed mobs in violence-hit northeast Delhi. Each has a horrific tale to tell.

Salman Khan (20), a resident of Karawal Nagar, said he was near his house on Tuesday night when a mob poured a chemical on his back that caused his skin to burn. "Some unidentified people caught me near my house and poured an acid-like liquid on my back. I have no idea what the substance was. It was very hot and my skin started burning as soon as they poured it on me," he said.

He said he was brought to the hospital by police around 11 pm.

Akil Saifi (30), who works with a private company, said he was thrashed by some people in Gokulpuri, which was among the areas worst-hit by the violence. "When I was returning home from office on Tuesday around 8.30 pm, some unidentified people stopped my motorcycle and started beating me as they saw skull cap on the head of my friend who was riding pillion. His name is Bilal and he is handicapped," he said. "The fingers of my left hand were fractured and Bilal sustained minor injuries," he added.

At least 42 people were killed and over 200 injured in the communal clashes that broke out in northeast Delhi after violence between supporters of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and those opposing it spiralled out of control on Sunday.

Mehraj, a doctor at the Al-Hind Hospital, said injured who were in serious condition were referred to government hospitals. "We referred four to five people to government hospitals as their condition was very bad. Two people died in our hospital and we are treating others," he was quoted by PTI as saying.
The Liquefied Petroleum Gas



penetration in Karnataka is 'absolutely 100 per cent' due to the Prime Minister Ujjwala Yojana, Indian Oil Corporation Karnataka Executive Director D L Pramodh said here on Friday.

In 2014, LPG penetration in the State was only 68 per cent, but after the PMUY, massive number of gas connections were given in the last five years, he said, adding, "It is absolutely 100 per cent today."



"There are 1.6 crore LPG connections out of which around 31.5 lakh -- or around 20 per cent -- come under the PMUY.

The 100 per cent LPG penetration in the state will help women in rural areas to make their kitchens smokeless.

Against the national average of 2.88 cylinders per family per PMUY annually, the figure is Karnataka 3.4 cylinders in Karnataka," Pramodh told reporters.

On the initiative of blending ethanol with petrol, he said it's 8.6 per cent in Karnataka, the highest comparedto other states, where it's five per cent to 5.5 per cent.

The state aims to increase it to 10 per cent.

By March 31, the IOC would commission the Rs 10 crore Vapour Recovery System at the Devanagonthi terminal on the city outskirts which would ensure that vapour does not go out in the air when tankers are being filled with fuel.

"This is an important measure taken tominimise pollution", he said.

Pramodh also said the IOC has started mobile fuel dispensers, delivering fuels at the doorsteps.

Regarding the IOC's preparedness for Electric Vehicle charging stations, Pramodh said the Ministry of Power has given the company a target to set up 500 charging stations across India in the first phase.

The IOC has already signed MoUs with NTPC, Power Grid Corporation Limited, Hyundai Motors, Tech Mahindra and Tata Power in this regard.

In Karnataka, 58 sites have been identified for setting up charging and battery swapping stations.

"Total electric vehicle charging facilities planned by IOC in Karnataka by March 31 is 34, out of which 26 will be EVcharging sites and eight battery swapping stations," Pramodh said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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PLATTSBURGH, N.Y., Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading North American transit bus manufacturer Nova Bus starts the year with the win of a New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) contract.

The awarded contract for Nova Bus is for 165 - 40 ft hybrid buses (with BAE propulsion system) with options for 126 hybrid buses and 209 diesel buses for a potential total amount of up to 500 buses. Nova Buss superior delivery schedule and greater New York State Content for the hybrid buses are qualities recognized by the Nova Buss customers, and certainly contributed to the decision of the MTA. The first pilots will be delivered in May 2020 and the rest of the deliveries will begin in December 2020 and to be completed in 2021.

After the launch of our new electric bus LFSe+ last fall, this is a great way to start the year. This new, long-range 100% electric bus integrates the proven traction motor and power electronics from BAE Systems, a major economic player in New York. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Governor Cuomo for his support to the transit industry in the state of New York over the past several years, declared Martin Larose, Vice-President and General Manager of Nova Bus. We are more than happy to once again have the confidence of the MTA for its buses. We are proud of our economic contribution to New York, and we believe its, in addition to our proven reliability, why we won this contract.

I am proud to highlight the success of Nova Bus and its outreach in the State of New York and globally, said Nadine Girault, Minister of International Relations and La Francophonie. This major contract with the New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the largest transportation network in North America, bears witness to this. Nova Bus is a leader in sustainable public transit and its success in the United States contributes to maintaining quality jobs at its Saint-Eustache head office and Saint-Francois-du-Lac plant. The Quebec Government Office in New York has actively collaborated with Nova Bus in recent years, contributing to its success in the United States. This order confirms Quebec's position as a partner of choice in the continent's decarbonization efforts.

This wonderful news is a great way to kick off the New Year for Nova Bus and the hardworking employees in Plattsburgh, said Senator Betty Little. Any time I am in New York City, I always think of the tremendous role our region fulfills for downstate mass transit. The scale of this new order certainly reflects the confidence that NYCT has in the excellent product that is made here in our backyard by the professional and dedicated men and women working at Nova Bus. I couldn't be prouder or happier!

The MTA has once again chosen to trust the North Country by awarding Nova Bus a contract for up to 500 buses, said Assemblyman Billy Jones (D-Plattsburgh). As downstate seeks to bring more environmentally friendly transportation options to their residents, they are looking to the North Country to help fulfill this need. This is a major victory for our area as our Transportation Manufacturing cluster seeks innovative solutions to fulfill the needs of the transportation industry and I am confident that this will bring added prosperity to our region.

This is terrific news that gives a strong start to the new year for Nova Bus and for our transportation equipment cluster, states Garry Douglas, President of the North Country Chamber of Commerce. All the more so as it comes on the heels of the recent major bus order for Prevost. Nova Bus has clearly earned a major place in the U.S. bus market since starting operations here just ten years ago, with a record of quality that has earned the support and confidence of key customers such as the MTA. Every official we bring to the plant leaves impressed and supportive, and with Nova Bus's readiness to produce electric buses here in the future as the national market evolves, we can expect a long-term partnership. Our thanks to Nova Bus and, of course, to the MTA, but also to Governor Andrew Cuomo, Senator Betty Little and Assemblyman Billy Jones for their steadfast support for transit investments in New York and for our region's transportation equipment cluster. Onward and upward!

About Nova Bus

Nova Bus is a leading provider of sustainable transportation solutions in North America. Its portfolio includes electric buses, hybrid electric buses, high-capacity vehicles and integrated intelligent transport systems. As part of its Electro Mobility strategy, Nova Bus is moving forward with the electrification of key vehicle components to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Nova Bus is part of the Volvo Group. For more information regarding Nova Bus products and services, please visit www.novabus.com

For more information

Please contact Emmanuelle Toussaint at 581-994-1951 or by email at emmanuelle.toussaint@volvo.com .

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ac24d8bb-cb2b-4e28-a07b-bb0df023cf65
Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus epidemic, investment promotion activities of localities and enterprises have been delayed, possibly impacting Vietnams efforts to attract foreign funding.

Promotional events overseas have had to be curtailed, affecting the countrys efforts to attract foreign direct investment

As of now, the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, epidemic has affected almost all sectors in the economy, from import-export turnover to tourism, industry, services, and agriculture. Especially, foreign investment activities, including inbound and outbound investment promotion programmes, have been cancelled altogether because of the outbreak.

According to Nguyen Dinh Nam, founder and CEO of investment consultancy IPA Vietnam, this year, the group had planned to organise four investment promotion programmes overseas  in mainland China this quarter, South Korea in the next quarter, Hong Kong in the third quarter, and Japan in the fourth.

Besides that, IPA Vietnam was to organise business matching programmes for more than 20 business teams from the aforementioned markets to Vietnam. However, due to the disease outbreak, the company had to scrap all four promotion events for enterprises looking for investment opportunities and sponsor investment capital for potential projects in Vietnam.

Regarding cities and provinces, Danang Department of Foreign Affairs have had to delay business trips to serve investment promotion activities in South Korea, India, and Italy which were expected to be organised from next week until the end of the month.

Furthermore, Danang Peoples Committee was set to arrange a spring seminar in March to help financiers look for investment opportunities.

Instead, the leader of the city has assigned the Investment Promotion Agency to follow the happenings of the COVID-19 epidemic and collect the forecasts from the loal Department of Health to build both official and backup plans.

The northeastern province of Quang Ninh has suffered after the number of enterprises registering to work with the local authorities in the first two months of the year fell by one-third on-year.

Along with the decrease in business matching, the province had to cancel two investment promotion events with Japanese enterprises in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. However, the province is always willing to welcome enterprises into the province to survey the area or look for opportunities, said Nguyen Duc Tiep, deputy head of the Investment Promotion Division under Quang Ninh Peoples Committee.

Promotional financing programmes in the first quarter will have to be adjusted. With that, a number of cities and provinces have considered changing the target market from China to other countries that have yet to suffer massive impacts from the health crisis. Notably, the northern province of Vinh Phuc and the central province of Quang Binh have the vision to target implementation of investment promotion events in countries across Europe and southern Africa, as well as in Australia.

However, according to Nam of IPA Vietnam, changing the target markets is only a temporary scheme in order to limit the impact of the epidemic, because mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea are and will remain the traditional markets of Vietnam.

At IPA Vietnam, we have no changes in terms of the target markets. Instead, we will adjust plans and dates suitable with the goings on, as well as the capacity to control the epidemic in certain countries, Nam said.

Responding to the impact on foreign investment attraction, Do Nhat Hoang, director of the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said that the COVID-19 will cause certain difficulties to Vietnams foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction, especially in agriculture, industry, construction, and commerce. The delay on operational activities in collaboration with the increase on unsold goods will make new investors hesitant to issue the final decisions, while existing enterprises will delay their plans to expand their operations in Vietnam, Hoang said.

According to statistics published by the FIA, last year, foreign investment capital from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan made up a large ratio in foreign capital inflow in Vietnam. Notably in the whole year, Hong Kong was the second-largest foreign investor in Vietnam with $7.87 billion, with Taiwan and China also ranking high. Thus, it is expected that the breakout of the epidemic in China will push capital volume from these markets down, at least in the first quarter of 2020 and possibly into the second quarter.

The delay in investment promotion activities will contribute to reducing FDI inflows because such activities are to play a crucial role in increasing that investment.

However, according to Tiep from Quang Ninh Peoples Committee, the delay will not impact FDI inflows much, and when the epidemic is controlled, these activities will be implemented in a stable fashion as usual.

In addition, investment promotion and business matching are strong steps for investors to look for opportunities. It takes investors a massive amount of time and hard work before they can make the final decision, Tiep said.

Thus, the priority is how to limit the impact on the capital inflow, while simultaneously catching up with postponed promotional events once the epidemic is controlled.

In general, according to Nam of IPA Vietnam, in order to effectively implement these activities, localities in each region need to discuss information and co-ordinate with each other closely to avoid duplicate events at the same time.

Agencies and localities need to contact diplomatic representative offices, international organisations, and business associations in Vietnam to work together to build programmes at the appropriate time, because disease control in each country is different, Nam explained.

If agencies and localities do not have understanding of this, they will face difficulties in implementing plans, as the result will lower effectiveness of operations as well as waste both financial resources and human resources. VIR

Kim Oanh

Fine-tuned policies needed to unleash foreign investment in Vietnams M&A market A survey by Corporate Investment and Mergers & Acquisitions Center also showed that one of the obstacles to M&A deals in Vietnam is the time consuming approval process.
Djibouti and Burundi are the latest in a series of African countries that opened consular services in the Sahara in support of Moroccos sovereignty over its south.

With the opening Friday of Djiboutis consulate in Dakhla and Burundis representation in Laayoune, the two African states were on the footsteps of the Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, Central African Republic, and Cote dIvoire, which have consulate representations in Laayyoune, in addition to Gambia and Guinea which chose to open their consulate in Dakhla.

As Morocco accumulates diplomatic gains on the Sahara issue with the increase in African states opening consulates in the Sahara, the Algerian diplomacy protested as it sees itself left by the train of African states that come to terms to view the conflict as a relic of the cold-war and as an issue perpetuated by Algerian money to unsettle Morocco.

Speaking on the occasion of the inauguration of Djiboutis consulate, Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita deplored that the sovereign decisions of African sisterly states have irked Algeria, which has often claimed neutrality in the Sahara conflict although its support for separatism shows an unrelenting hostility to Morocco.

Algeria went as far as recalling its ambassador from Cote DIvoire after the latter opened a diplomatic representation in Laayoune.

If this is what to expect from the neighboring country whenever there is a new announcement (of a diplomatic representation), then Algiers has to be prepared to recall a large number of ambassadors as many countries are preparing to open diplomatic representations in the southern provinces, the Minister said.

Unable to pull its head out of the sand, the Algerian-backed separatist front, Polisario, insulted through its official news outlet the sovereign African states that have recently opened consulates in Moroccos Saharan towns as microscopic.

The Polisario with headquarters in Algerias south-west where it declared a self-proclaimed republic is in fact only reflecting its own microscopic size as Africas sovereign states increasingly back away from being associated with an Algerian hegemony plan to support separatism in the Sahara and Sahel regions.

Such irresponsible statements not only infringe the sovereign rights of states to open their consulates wherever they want but also show the scale of despair within the Polisario and Algerias cold war-minded leadership and their myopia to a changing Africa where support for Moroccos territorial integrity is the norm.

Support for Moroccos territorial integrity is a course that is set to continue as the AU remedied its past biases towards Morocco and as more countries in the African Union see the Polisarios membership as an aberration in contradiction with international law because the Polisario is not a state and lacks state attributes. These include two-thirds of AU countries including African heavy-weights such as Nigeria and Ethiopia.

Now, Morocco is expanding its influence in the continent through active engagement along a solidarity based African policy yielding projects that address Africas pressing issues of economic and human development.
Drugs, alcohol and a lack of discipline from parents have been blamed for a perceived increase in crime. File image posed by model

Drugs, alcohol and a lack of discipline from parents have been blamed for a perceived increase in crime.

The Northern Ireland Safe Community Survey, published by the Department of Justice, spoke to 3,429 people aged 16 and over.

It found that in 2018/19, the three biggest causes of crime were believed to be drugs (82%), alcohol (60%) and a lack of discipline from parents (45%).

Three-fifths (60%) thought crime increased over the past two years, compared to 79% who said the same thing in 2003/04.

Most respondents believed things weren't as bad on their own doorstep, with 29% thinking there was an increase in crime in their local area compared to the regional figure of 60%.

Despite this, 10% still felt that anti-social behaviour was high in their local area.

The most commonly identified problems were people dealing drugs (31%) and leaving rubbish or litter lying around (28%).

Three-quarters (74%) felt the fear of crime had a minimal impact on their life, the same as the previous year.

One in five (22%) said it had a moderate effect, while 5% said their quality of life is greatly affected by their "fear of crime".

Official crime figures for 2019, released by the PSNI, show there was in fact a rise in almost 8,000 offences during 2019, continuing from an increase in 2018/19.

All but one of Northern Ireland's 11 policing districts reported a higher level of crime. The overall pattern, however, is one of decline over the last 16 years.

The increase in recorded offences for 2019 included violence against the person, criminal damage, drugs and burglary while sexual offences decreased.

The PSNI statistics add that in 2019, 107,351 recorded offences were reported, up by 7,963 (7.7%) compared to 2018.

Violence against the person accounted for 5,126 offences (up by 14.3%), mainly due to a change in how harassment offences are recorded.

There were 1,058 recorded drug offences, up by 15.3%, with most relating to possession as well as 1,064 offences for criminal damage, up by 6.1%.

Sexual offences were down by 3.7% with 132 offences, while rape offences decreased by 8.2% with 88 offences.
A report from several federal agencies has recommended the four dams on the lower Snake River stay in place but that the amount of water spilled over those dams be increased to help endangered salmon.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement, which spans thousands of pages, is the sixth attempt by the federal government to operate the 14 dams that comprise the Columbia River Hydropower System in compliance with the Endangered Species Act. The five previous attempts have been rejected after legal challenges from environmental groups, the state of Oregon and local tribes.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bonneville Power Administration and the Bureau of Reclamation analyzed several alternatives, ranging from taking no action to breaching all four. While removing the dams would provide the best avenue to salmon recovery, according to the report, the option selected by the agency, referred to as the preferred alternative, calls for leaving them in place and increasing the amount of water released at select times of year to help with fish migration.

The Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose and Lower Granite dams, all in eastern Washington, provide about five percent of the regions electricity, along with irrigation for agriculture, flood management and navigation for barges from the mouth of the Columbia River near Astoria more than 450 miles inland to Lewiston, Idaho. But they also represent significant impediments to fish migration, one of several factors that have caused declines in salmon stocks in the Pacific Northwest. Southern Resident orcas, which live in the waters off the Pacific Northwest and feed on salmon, have also seen steep declines.

Since the last of the dams was constructed in the 1970s, billions have been spent on salmon recovery  establishing hatcheries, constructing fish ladders and implementing other habitat restorations initiatives.

Environmentalists and salmon advocates have long pushed for removal of the dams, pointing to studies that show a free-flowing Snake River is the best way to help the imperiled salmon runs. Electric utility groups have argued the opposing position, noting that hydropower represents a renewable energy source that should not be scrapped as regional governments look for ways to curb their carbon emissions.

An analysis of dam removal in the report found that it would be the most beneficial alternative to salmon and other native fish species, but it also said the loss of power generation, without significant investment in other power sources like wind and solar, could result in more frequent power shortages and higher rates for consumers.

The release of the environmental assessment Friday drew quick criticism from those who favor breaching the dams.

Instead of taking the one step identified by scientists as absolutely crucial for salmon recovery, these agencies failed our region yet again, Meg Townsend, an endangered species attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. The science shows that pulling out the four lower Snake River dams is the only way to save Columbia river salmon and the Southern Resident orcas that depend on them.

Ted Case, executive director of the Oregon Rural Electrical Cooperative Association, which represents 18 small power providers that serve half a million Oregonians with hydroelectricity harvested from the dams, welcomed the plan.

Oregons electric cooperatives are pleased the (environmental assessment) recognizes the lower Snake River Dams are a critical part of the Northwests clean energy future, he said. The (plan) also concludes that breaching the dams would have adverse effects on power costs, particularly in rural counties, while putting the reliability of our electrical grid at risk.

Earlier this month, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown endorsed the eventual removal of the dams in a letter to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, which spurred a sharp rebuke from rural electric cooperatives, as well as lawmakers in Washington and Oregon.

After the letter went out, Browns office tempered her stance, saying we see value in analyzing a future without the dams in the long term, but focusing any definitive next steps on working together to identify a viable path forward to that future with interim steps such as flexible spill agreements.

David Moryc, senior director of river protection with the group American Rivers, has worked on the Snake River issues for two decades. He said he thought the plan released Friday, like the ones that were struck down in court before it, was likely to face legal challenges.

Were asking narrow questions so were getting narrow answers. What we need is a broader discussion around all of the communities that depend on the Columbia and Snake rivers, he said. What we need is political leadership.

The plan is now open for public comments for a 45-day period, after which, a final version is due by September.

-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048

@sfkale

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.
noun: showy tropical tree or shrub native to Madagascar; widely planted in tropical regions for its immense racemes of scarlet and orange flowers; sometimes placed in genus Poinciana

_________

The word flamboyant has appeared in 209 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Jan. 29 in Kobe Bryants Many Moves to the Net by Guy Trebay:

As a young player, Kobe was predominantly donning more casual wear, active pieces, baggy sweatsuits and Michael Jordan Bulls jerseys, said Jamaal Richards, whose Instagram account MoreThanStats is a mother lode of images documenting the transformation of athletes into fashion leaders. As he grew as a player, a superstar and celebrity, he turned more toward sartorial elegance and sleek bespoke suiting. It was a natural progression for him since he always had that professional mind-state, that mamba mentality.

Off court as well as on, Mr. Bryant was precise rather than flamboyant, cerebral, reading the public situations in which he increasingly found himself  from magazine photo shoots to red carpets  for their utility to him over the long term.
Married At First Sight star Hayley Vernon has slammed Brendan Fevola after the radio host admitted he forged a letter signed by Michael Goonan, which stated the controversial groom had cheated on his TV wife Stacey Hampton with multiple women.

The note - which was leaked on the MAFS Funny Instagram account and obtained by Daily Mail Australia - read, 'Hayley, you're not the only one I kissed! Plenty more secrets' and was signed off with the initial 'M'.

Appearing on Brendan's FOX FM radio show, bodybuilder Hayley, 32, was furious after Brendan fessed up that it was all a prank.

Scandal! Married At First Sight star Hayley Vernon has slammed Brendan Fevola after the radio host admitted he forged a letter signed by Michael Goonan, which stated the controversial groom had cheated on his TV wife Stacey Hampton with multiple women

To make matters worse, Hayley had a bitter fight with Michael's 'wife' Stacey over the note.

'Fev, I'm going to absolutely kill you, you little s**t!' Hayley said with a laugh.

'We're in this full blown war because of you!'

Brendan explained that he had asked Michael to write the letter after the company director appeared on his radio show earlier in the week, but when the MAFS star turned him down he took things into his own hands.

Cheeky! Appearing on Brendan's FOX FM radio show, bodybuilder Hayley, 32, was furious after Brendan fessed up that it was all a prank

The former AFL player admitted that he didn't think his prank would go that far.

'I said, "why don't we write a note from him... and we'll give it to Hayley and it'll be a joke",' Brendan said.

'We didn't know she'd send it to everyone on Instagram!'

Brendan said he instigated the whole thing, but it was his radio show producer Leon who actually penned it.

Hayley said she wanted Brendan to confess to Stacey and post his message to her on his Instagram page.

Juicy! The note - which was leaked on the MAFS Funny Instagram account and obtained by Daily Mail Australia - read, 'Hayley, you're not the only one I kissed! Plenty more secrets' and was signed off with the initial 'M'

Hayley was first given the note by someone at Fox FM after stopping by the Melbourne radio station for an interview on Thursday morning.

Stacey accused Hayley of forging the letter, where Michael supposedly 'confessed' their affair.

The 26-year-old law graduate claimed that Michael, who runs his family's commercial ice business in Adelaide, couldn't possibly have written the letter because he has dyslexia.

She knew it! Stacey accused Hayley of forging the letter, where Michael supposedly 'confessed' their affair

Not him: The 26-year-old law graduate claimed that Michael (pictured), who runs his family's commercial ice business in Adelaide, couldn't possibly have written the letter because he has dyslexia

She also alleged the handwriting in the letter wasn't Michael's, and labelled the supposed forgery 'weirdly desperate'.

'This is fake, sorry. I know his writing,' Stacey commented below a post about the letter on the MAFS Funny Instagram account.

'That's not fair at all, Hayley. You can't forge someone's confession... he is dyslexic. I don't even think much of him right now, but this is weirdly desperate and low.'

Hayley strongly denied forging the letter, replying: 'How desperate, Stacey, saying I forged [Michael's] confession letter... you are a terrible supposed lawyer. I thought you didn't argue with fact?

'You best shut up and get your facts right before you point the finger again.'
Boeing engineers examine the Starliner spacecraft that flew on the Orbital Flight Test mission in December 2019. (Image credit: Boeing)

After Boeing's CST-100 Starliner failed to reach the International Space Station in an uncrewed test flight in December, NASA has raised some serious questions about the company's ability to safely launch astronauts into space.

A joint NASA-Boeing independent review team identified two major software glitches that arose during the Orbital Flight Test (OFT) mission: an incorrect timer that prevented Starliner from reaching the correct orbit to dock with the space station, and a valve-mapping error with the spacecraft's thrusters that could have caused an in-space collision.

On Wednesday (Feb. 26), the Orlando Sentinel reported that members of NASA's safety advisory panel were surprised to learn that Boeing "did not perform a full, end-to-end integrated test of Starliner in a Systems Integration Lab" with its Atlas V rocket, and that doing such a test "could potentially have caught the issues Boeing later experienced in the mission."

Related: Boeing's 1st Starliner flight test in photos

John Mulholland, vice president and program manager of Boeing's Starliner program, sought to set the record straight about this alleged lack of testing in a teleconference with reporters on Friday (Feb. 28).

"I don't think that report was characterized exactly right," Mulholland said. "We did an extensive amount of testing integrated with the launch vehicle both in the lab in Denver and also in the lab of Houston." But rather than running a test of the entire mission, Boeing broke the flight test into "chunks" that were tested separately, he explained.

Boeing engineers thought that it would be "more logical to break the mission phases into chunks and do a lot of testing in those smaller chunks," he said. "When you do a single run from launch to docking, that's a 25-plus hour single run on the computer." If the team had decided to run this simulated test from the launch all the way to the spacecraft's docking, which happens two or three days after liftoff, "the length of that run would be incredibly long," he said, so the team "decided that they would rather run multiple tests of different chunks of the mission."

Mulholland added that Boeing deemed these fragmented qualification tests to be "adequate and comprehensive" at the time, and that Boeing's staff was not "taking any shortcuts" by opting not to run the full, end-to-end test. "It was not a matter at all of the team consciously shortcutting or not doing what they believed was appropriate," Mulholland added.

However, he acknowledged that such a test could have been helpful in identifying critical software defects that were missed. "From a hindsight standpoint, I think it's very easy to see what we should have done, because we uncovered an error," Mulholland said. "At the time, that sensitivity wasn't wasn't recognized."

Having learned from its past mistakes, Boeing now plans to implement the longer, more complete tests before Starliner flies again.

"The one improvement that we're going to make going forward is to make sure that before each flight, we will run the launch-to-docking phase of the mission, and then we'll run the docking-to-landing phase of the mission completely."

NASA, which commissioned Boeing (and SpaceX) to build spacecraft that will launch astronauts from American soil for the first time in nearly a decade, has expressed concerns over the company's development and testing procedures for Starliner, particularly when it comes to software issues. The agency has not yet publicly said whether it will require Boeing to repeat the uncrewed OFT mission before the first crewed Starliner mission, which has been scheduled to launch to the International Space Station in mid-2020.

The independent review team has completed its investigation of Starliner's hardware and mission data and has found no new problems with the spacecraft. However, they're still working to audit more than 1 million lines of code to look for any other possible software defects. Mulholland said it would be at least a few more weeks before that audit is complete.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
The Shiv Sena-led government will



make Maharashtra free of single-use plastic items by May 1, Minister Aaditya Thackeray told the legislative council on Friday.

In 2018, the Maharashtra government had imposed a ban on manufacturing, use, sale, distribution and storage of plastic materials such as one-time-use bags, spoons and plates, among others.

"Single-use disposable plastic items such as carry bags, straws, cups and plates are already banned in the state. However, these items are still found in markets," Thackeray said, responding to a question by Ramhari Rupnavar (Congress).

I have asked officials of my department to make Maharashtra free of single-use plastic items by May 1," he added.

Plastic bottles of soft drinks are exempt from the ban as of now, he said.

The government has also fixed Rs 15 per kilogram rate under buy-back policy of plastic items from conservancy workers, the minister said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle feature in nine of the ten most popular posts across both the SussexRoyal and KensingtonRoyal Instagram accounts, it has emerged.

The Duke, 35, and Duchess of Sussex, 38, who run the SussexRoyal feed, are prominent in the most-liked photographs, not just their own account, but also Prince William and Kate Middleton's platform, KensingtonRoyal.

There was one exception, reported the New York Times, and that was an adorable image of Prince George, 6, and Princess Charlotte, 4, in their school uniforms.

The children of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge featured on KensingtonRoyal ahead of Charlotte's first day at school in September 2019.

Here Femail reveals the ten most-liked pictures from both accounts.

1. The Queen meets Archie

SussexRoyal: 2,903,082 likes

The Queen and Prince Philip meet Meghan and Harry's son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, alongside the duchess' mother Doria Ragland

Data provided by CrowdTangle, a social media analytics tool owned by Facebook, showed the most liked image to be a snap of the Queen and Prince Philip meeting Meghan and Harry's son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

It was posted on the SussexRoyal account on May 8, 2019, shortly after his birth, and features both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex alongside Meghan's mother Doria Ragland. The family photo was liked a staggering 2,903,082 likes..

2. Archie's birth announcement

SussexRoyal: 2,903,082 likes

The announcement of Archie's birth with a post with the phrase 'It's A Boy'. It received 2,903,082 likes

In second place was the announcement of Archie's birth - when a post with the phrase 'It's A Boy' was shared on SussexRoyal. It received more than 2.9 million likes.

The post read: 'We are pleased to announce that Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their firstborn child in the early morning on May 6th, 2019. Their Royal Highnesses son weighs 7lbs. 3oz.'

3. Sussexes first public outing

Sussex Royal: 2,865,770 likes

The Sussexes first public outing as a family in May, 2019. Meghan donned a white dress for the occasion while Harry carried his son towards members of the press

Third went to the Sussexes first public outing as a family in May, 2019, with photographs from the event in Windsor fetching more than 2.8 million likes.

Meghan donned a white dress for the occasion while Harry carried his son towards members of the press.

The couple chose to introduce Archie to the world with a photoshoot at Windsor Castle a few days after he was born, rather than doing the immediate hospital steps photoshoot opted for by Kate Middleton.

4. Archie's christening

Sussex Royal: 2,734,082 likes

A wider-family picture from Archie's christening in July 2019, shared by Meghan and Harry and getting 2,734,082 likes

In fourth place was a wider-family picture from Archie's christening in July 2019, shared by Meghan and Harry, which racked up more than 2.7 million likes.

It featured the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, Meghan's mother Doria Ragland, Prince William and Kate, and Prince Harry and Meghan.

Poignantly, Prince Harry also invited his late mother's sisters Lady Jane Fellowes and Lady Sarah McCorquodale to be in the family group photo.

5. Prince Harry's first Father's Day

Sussex Royal: 2,416,988

The Duke of Sussex, 35, holds a young Archie's hand to celebrate Father's Day in June 2019

With more than 2.4 million likes, a cute snap of the Duke of Sussex holding a young Archie's hand to celebrate Father's Day boasted fifth place.

The caption read: 'Happy Fathers Day! And wishing a very special first Fathers Day to The Duke of Sussex!'

It was one of the earliest glimpses of Archie before he was widely photographed in South Africa on his first official royal engagement meeting Archbishop Desmond Tutu with his parents.

6. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge celebrate the Sussexes wedding

KensingtonRoyal: 2,392,696 likes

A photograph of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from their wedding day in May 2018. It was posted by the KensingtonRoyal account

The first picture from the KensingtonRoyal account featured at sixth place - but still featured the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

It was a photo from their wedding day in May 2018, and was posted before the creation of Harry and Meghan's separate Instagram account, when the two still shared a platform with William and Kate.

A whopping 2,392,696 people liked the image, which saw Meghan in her wedding dress lying against a suited Harry on the steps of Windsor Castle.

7. Meghan's first Mother's Day

Sussex Royal: 2,175,307 likes

Archie once again grabbed the spotlight in the seventh most popular image - gaining 2,175,307 likes. The photo showed the little one's feet being held by Meghan to celebrate Mother's Day in May 2019

Archie once again grabbed the spotlight in the seventh most popular image - gaining 2,175,307 likes.

The photo showed the little one's feet being held by Meghan to celebrate Mother's Day in May 2019.

It was captioned: 'Paying tribute to all mothers today - past, present, mothers-to-be, and those lost but forever remembered. We honour and celebrate each and every one of you.'

8. Princess Charlotte's first day of school

KensingtonRoyal: 2,130,163 likes

An adorable image of Prince George, 6, and Princess Charlotte, 4. The Duke, 37, and Duchess of Cambridge's, 38, two eldest children feature on KensingtonRoyal in their school uniforms ahead of Charlotte's first day at school in September 2019

In the eighth spot, KensingtonRoyal made its way into the top ten posts again, with an adorable snap of Prince George and Princess Charlotte in their school uniforms.

It was liked 2,130,163 times and marked the little girl's first day at Thomas's Battersea school in southwest London, alongside her big brother.

The caption read: 'The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to share a photograph of Prince George and Princess Charlotte at Kensington Palace this morning.

'The photo was taken shortly before Their Royal Highnesses left for Thomas's Battersea.'

9. Megxit

SussexRoyal: 1,868,851 likes

This photo was posted alongside the announcement of Meghan and Harry's decision to step back from their royal duties

And while most of the top ten liked posts featured positive moments and happy occasions, the ninth illustrated the announcement of Meghan and Harry's decision to step back from their royal duties.

Posted on January 8, it shared the royal couple's intention to become 'financially independent'.

Part of the statement read: 'We intend to step back as "senior" members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent'

10. Meghan and Harry's wedding day

KensingtonRoyal: 1,987,437 likes

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's Instagram account claimed the tenth spot with a sweet photograph from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's wedding day in May 2018

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's Instagram account claimed the tenth spot with a sweet photograph from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's wedding day in May 2018.

It showed the royal family - including the Queen, Prince Philip, the heir to the throne Prince Charles, his wife Camilla, Prince William and Kate and their children - alongside the newlyweds. The image received 1,987,437 likes.

On January 21, 2020, the SussexRoyal account surpassed KensingtonRoyals follower lead - two weeks after the Sussexes announced their intention to step back from royal duties.

But on February 17, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge regained its follower lead and both accounts now have 11.2million.
New Delhi [India], Feb 27 (ANI): The Indian government has evacuated a total of 195 Indians and 41 foreign nationals from the coronavirus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan and quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.



Till date, a total of 842 Indians and 48 foreign nationals have been evacuated from China and Japan. The figure includes 640 Indians and seven Maldivians evacuated from Wuhan in two special operations earlier.

As many as 119 of the 138 Indian nationals onboard cruise ship Diamond Princess -- quarantined off the coast of Japan since February 5 -- have been evacuated.

In addition, 5 foreign nationals -- two Sri Lankans, one Nepali, and one each from Peru and South Africa -- were also evacuated, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

Three Indian crew members chose to not board the special flight, while 16 could not be evacuated as they have been tested positive for the coronavirus.

All evacuees will undergo a 14-day quarantine at the facilities set up by the Indian Army in Manesar.

As many as 76 Indian nationals and 36 foreign nationals -- including 23 from Bangladesh, six from China, two from Myanmar and Maldives, and one each from South Africa, the United States, and Madagascar -- were evacuated from Wuhan.

Coronavirus first originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has since then spread to several countries across the world. (ANI)
By Laman Ismayilova

Landscape paintings by eminent artists Sattar Bahlulzade and Fyodor Vasilyev have been discussed in Baku.

The event took place at the Russian Information and Cultural Center in Baku in the framework of project "Conversations on Art, Trend Life reported.

Both artists are prominent representatives of this art genre. Their works are filled with patriotic spirit and love for their native lands.

The lesson was conducted by Mehriban Kadasheva, a teacher at school No. 27 in Baku. Her students prepared for the lesson their reports on the work of Fyodor Vasilyev and Sattar Bahlulzade. Some of them painted reproductions of their favorite paintings.

The lesson was attended by representatives of the Children's Department of the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum. The event aroused great interest among art lovers.

With his stunning art pieces, Sattar Bahlulzade is regarded as a founder of contemporary Azerbaijani landscape painting. The artist skillfully expressed his feelings through art.

The artist's legacy includes countless works that have been exhibited all over the world, including personal exhibitions in the U.S., Britain, Turkey and Russia. Many of his works include specific areas of Azerbaijan, for example, a series of landscapes dedicated to Guba area (in the north-east of Azerbaijan): "The Shore of Gudiyalchai", "A Road to Gyz-Benevsha", "The Valley of Gudiyalchai", and "The Green Carpet".

The first personal exhibition of Bahlulzade was held in 1966 in Prague. It was the first personal exhibition of a soviet Azerbaijani artist in Europe.

In 1940, Bahlulzade worked on his final project "Revolt of Babek", dealing with a great hero of the 7th-century struggling against the Arabic invasion.He also created around 30 sketch diaries that contain his reflections on life and art.

Fyodor Vasilyev was a Russian landscape painter who introduced the lyrical landscape style in Russian art.

Vasilyevs early works, such as After a Thunderstorm (1868), Near a Watering Place (1868) are influenced by the Barbizon school.

Vasilyevs painting Thaw (1871) made him famous immediately. The tzar family's ordered a copy, and the Society for Promotion of Artists awarded him first prize. In 1870, he became a member of Peredvizhniki movement (one of the original twenty members).

His most famous paintings included "Volga Lagoons", "After a Rain. Country Road ", "Illumination in St. Petersburg ", "After the Storm " and others.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION;Centers For Disease Control And / New York Times

For more coverage, visit our complete coronavirus section here.

Solano County declared a state of emergency Thursday, a day after a resident tested positive for coronavirus with no known connection to travel abroad or another known case.

Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano County's public health officer, said in a press conference Thursday night that the risk to the community remains low and that the declaration allows the county to investigate the situation and motivate resources.

"We are taking this situation seriously and are taking steps necessary to protect the health and safety of Solano County residents," Matyas said. It is important to recognize that we have moved from containment to mitigation. We are investigating potential exposures, and ensuring that proper evaluation and care are provided if they become sick.

Matyas confirmed that the female patient is the first coronavirus patient with unknown exposure and said she that is "a person who genuinely acquired the virus in the community."

Officials at the conference said the woman exposed as many as 100 health workers to the virus. "We're evaluating everyone who had contact, and their risk for exposure is being assessed," Matyas said. "Some are in isolation and some are in quarantine. Hospitals are working aggressively to identify those individuals."

The patient's family is in isolation, and state and federal officials are aggressively trying to locate everyone who came in contact with the Northern California woman.

The patient first arrived at the NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville on Feb. 15 and spent three days there. Matyas said she wasn't tested for COVID-19 because her condition wasn't severe and there weren't any known risk factors for the virus.

After the patient's condition worsened, she was transported to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento County on Feb. 19, but it wasn't until four days later that the CDC heeded a request to test the patient for coronavirus, according to an email sent to employees Wednesday by the hospitals interim CEO Brad Simmons and David Lubarsky, CEO of UC Davis Health.

The patient arrived on a ventilator, and special protection orders were issued because of an undiagnosed and suspected viral condition, according to the email.

The hospital asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to test for the coronavirus, but testing was delayed until Sunday since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, the email said.

The CDC confirmed the test was positive on Feb. 26.

Despite the delay in testing, UC Davis Medical Center, which has treated other coronavirus patients, has been taking infection prevention precautions since the patient arrived. The email said officials believe that there was "minimal chance" others at the facility were exposed to the virus.

Nevertheless, a small number of medical center employees have been asked to stay home and monitor their temperatures, the email said.

While the woman lives in Solano County, home to Travis Air Force Base, where dozens of people infected in China or on cruise ships have been treated, Maytas said the patient has no connection to the base or anyone who worked there.

Coronavirus has infected more than 81,000 people in three dozen countries, with the vast majority in mainland China.

The new virus is a member of the coronavirus family that can cause colds or more serious illnesses such as SARS and MERS.

The virus can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia. Health officials think it spreads mainly from droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how the flu spreads.

Officials are advising people to take steps to avoid infection with coronavirus or other respiratory infections like a cold or the flu, including washing hands with soap and water, and avoiding close contact with people who are sick.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE:

Why San Francisco has declared a coronavirus state of emergency: Your questions answered

Eerie photos show empty streets in Italy amid coronavirus fears

Maps: Cases of new coronavirus multiples across the globe

Local emergency declared in San Francisco amid coronavirus concerns

Bay Area company to expand coronavirus drug trials to other companies

CDC warns men with beards amid coronavirus scare

Amy Graff is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her: agraff@sfgate.com.
It is more fitting to seek the truth of the matter rather than have imaginary conceptions. Political crises come when false words are spoken.

At the raucous debate of Democratic presidential rivals in Charleston, South Carolina on February 25, 2020, the candidates, under unwelcome pressure, sometimes misplaced the truth and expressed fake news with tortuous logic. Bernie Sanders, the obvious target of the debate, was said to be the preferred choice of Russian President Vladimir Putin as the opponent of President Donald Trump. In addition, Bernie was also linked indirectly to the Charleston church massacre in 2015.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg informed Sanders that Russia was supporting his campaign for the Democratic nomination as part of Putins attempt to influence the 2020 election. Bloomberg apparently knew that Putin wanted Trump to be president of the U.S. and that was why Russia was helping Sanders become the nominee, so he would lose to Trump. To add to the confusion, there is related unsubstantiated information. On February 20, 2020, Shelby Pierson, Homeland Security official for intelligence, is supposed to have told the House Intelligence Committee, headed by Adam Schiff, the indefatigable believer in Russia-Trump collusion, that Russia was resuming its policy of influencing U.S. elections. Schiff concluded by repeating his long-held belief that Russia was opting for Trump in 2020.

Fake news, the repacking of information to fit ones opinions, has a long history. In ancient Rome, Octavian, in his struggle to become and remain Roman Emperor Augustus in 27 B.C. engaged in misinformation about the will and testament of his rival Mark Antony. At one time Christians were declared to be engaged in cannibalism and incest. Starting in 1475 in Trent, Italy, when a two-year old Christian boy was said to have been found in the basement of a Jewish home, the entire Jewish community was arrested and 15 burned at the stake, Jews have had to face fake news of blood libels, anti-Jewish propaganda, and accusations of the use of Christian blood for religious rites.

Fake news has also had a long history in the U.S. before and after independence. Ben Franklin on March 22, 1782 published a false account of atrocities, especially scalping, by Indians who worked with King George III against the American rebels. George Washington, in a letter on June 26, 1796 to Alexander Hamilton, expressed his  disinclination to be no longer buffeted in the public prints by a set of infamous scribblers. A disgraceful example of distortion was Walter Duranty, New York Times correspondent in the Soviet Union, 1922-1936, in his effort to make the Soviet Union attractive, perpetrated sensational fake news, including covering up the Stalinist collectivization campaign that claimed millions of lives, mostly in Ukraine. Perhaps most amusing was the surprising success of fake news on the CBS network broadcast of The War of the Worlds in October 1938, when Orson Welles presented a faux invasion by Martians taking place in New Jersey, the broadcast causing panic among part of the audience.

The master of fake news was Joseph Goebbels, Nazi minister of propaganda, a virulent anti-Semite who implemented what Adolf Hitler had called the big lie, a lie so great and infamous that no one could have the impudence to deny it.

It is disturbing that in discussions about the 2020 U.S. presidential election many Americans believe that fake news, a more dramatic form of misinformation or disinformation, is a bigger threat than terrorism, illegal immigration, violent crime, or racism, and is causing significant harm. Indeed, a recent MIT study concludes that fake news is more likely to go viral than other news, because the fake news is more novel and evokes more emotion than valid news.

Though it is uncertain that fake news changed many peoples mind in the 2016 U.S. election, and it is probable at the time that most political news exposure came from mainstream media outposts, the problem has become apparent. In April 2018 Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, declared that his organization did not do enough to prevent these tools from being used for harm as well as good, that goes for fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech.

The issue now is whether and to what extent fake news is influencing the 2020 election. Social media firms have deleted thousands of inauthentic accounts that seek to be influential, but this has not stopped all penetration. Though hundreds of fake accounts have originated from other countries, it is clear that Russia has established many fake accounts on social media to undermine U.S. elections and cause chaos. Since 2015 Russia has used a St. Petersburg-based web brigade, Internet Research Agency, a firm of 400 employees, to this end. Putin had already established the Russian World Foundation in 2007, ostensibly to promote the Russian language as Russias national heritage, but in essence it is a body to project Russian soft power. Putin has the Russian Orthodox Church as a strong ally and used religion for political purposes. Putin has said it is a Russian duty to stand together against contemporary challenges and threats using their spiritual legacy over invaluable traditions of unity to go forward and continue our thousand year history.

The fake news and disinformation emanating from the Kremlin continues. This is ironic because in March 2019, Putin signed a bill for punishment of individuals and on-line media for spreading fake new and information that disrespects the state. This involves material considered insulting to Russian officials, which can then block websites publishing the information. Irresponsible publications may face fines of up to $23,000 and jail for information that presents disrespect for society, government, state symbols, the constitution, and government institutions.

In spite of fake news, it is unlikely that Russia or Putin himself is supporting a particular U.S. candidate, but very likely it is attempting to sow discord in the U.S. system, and trying to persuade supporters of Bernie Sanders to think the system is rigged.

Irrespective of Putins real motives and interests, attention must be paid by sensible authorities in the U.S. about the prevalence of fake news and irresponsible use of them. This includes U.S. journalism. in August 2019 Lawrence ODonnell, MSNBC host, announced that Trump was a Russian operative and that Russian oligarchs were signing loans for Trump. This was an actual statement, not a description of a bad Hollywood Cold War script. ODonnell later apologized, explaining that his story came from a source close to the Deutsche Bank who had told him that Trumps loans were co-signed by Russian billionaires close to Putin. But in what seems more paranoia than genuine analysis, he still persisted in his essential argument, declaring that Putin was working hard to reelect his favorite president of the U.S., and that Putin was Trumps real running mate.

American politicians and the media have been too prone to imitate Oscar Wilde, As for believing, things, I can believe anything provided it is quite incredible. Now they must understand the importance of being earnest about fake news.
Colombo, Feb 28 : Sajith Premadasa, a former Sri Lankan presidential hopeful, has decided to contest the island nation's general elections slated to take place this year, according to informed sources.

The development comes almost four months after he was defeated in the November 16, 2019 presidential election by the current President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The election was seen as a two-way contest between Rajapaksa and Premadasa.

Premadasa, the deputy leader of the ruling United National Party (UNP), will lead the campaign of his newly-formed Samagi Jana Balawegaya alliance and will contest from Colombo for the first time, , the sources told the Daily Mirror newspaper on Thursday.

He will seek the UNP's advice in nominating a suitable candidate to contest from his electorate, the Hambantota district.

"He is a national leader, so he cannot lead his party's campaign from Hambantota. He will contest from the Colombo district," said an aide close to Premadasa, who is also heading the party.

Meanwhile, UNP leader and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has announced that he was also going to contest the elections from the Colombo district, a senior party told the Daily Mirror earlier this week.

Sajith Premadasa, the son of former President Ranasinghe Premadasa who was assassinated in May 1993 by the LTTE, garnered 42.91 per cent of the ballots in the November election, while Rajapaksa secured a majority of 51.21 per cent.
Transport 1) Heathrow ruling throws dozens of projects into doubt

Dozens of airport, road and energy projects have been thrown into doubt after judges delivered a crushing blow to plans for a third runway at Heathrow over its impact on the environment. The Court of Appeal ruled yesterday that the governments policy on expanding the airport was unlawful because ministers had failed to take proper account of how it affected Britains climate commitments. A refusal to properly consider the UN Paris agreement, which limits rises in global temperatures, when approving the third runway was legally fatal, the judges said. The government said it would accept the ruling, striking a severe blow to plans for the runway.  The Times

Proposal back in holding pattern  FT

Runway plan in ruins as ministers accept court decision  The Times

Shapps signals shift of focus to expanding regional airports  Daily Telegraph

>Yesterday:

Transport 2) Ministers go silent on HS2s link to Leeds

Britains HS2 high speed rail line linking London to the north of England is likely to reach Manchester before Leeds, a government minister has signalled, raising doubts over whether the planned eastern leg to Yorkshire will be built. Andrew Stephenson, HS2 minister, said on Thursday that the government will be bringing forward legislation for the high-speed line into Manchester as soon as practical. He made no mention of the branch to Leeds. It followed an announcement last week by the Department for Transport that work would begin on legislation for the western leg to Manchester but not the eastern leg to Leeds.  FT

>Yesterday: Garvan Walshes column: The cost of Johnsons Brexit will be paid by his new Red Wall voters

Transport 3) Fraser Nelson: Uncompetitive and obsolete Heathrow is the wrong option for global Britain

The idea of massive airport hubs is being challenged by new, smaller, more fuel-efficient aircraft like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. These now run flights from Glasgow to Orlando  emancipating Scots from the need to change at Heathrow. This is transforming air travel, and smaller airports. Five years ago, there were 16,500 direct air routes between cities  now its more than 23,000. When given the choice, travellers like to avoid being herded into Heathrow-style hubs and jumbo jets. The days of flying cattlesheds like the Boeing 747 (or the Airbus A380) may soon be over. Aside from anything else, Heathrow has yet to demonstrate that it can be trusted with two runways, let alone three. For years it has crammed itself full to bursting point, with a quarter of its flights delayed in take-off or landing.  Daily Telegraph

Why no Heathrow third runway is a disaster for all of Britain  Adam Marshall, The Sun

Editorial:

Johnson will be celebrating, but he now has two big headaches  The Times

Court of Appeal ruling brings into focus the UKs net-zero pledge  FT

Increase our airport capacity or watch jobs disappear across the Channel  The Sun

>Yesterday: Robert Goodwill in Comment: Lets Get Heathrow Done. Johnson must appeal if the Government loses today on expansion in the courts.

Government says it could walk away from EU negotiations by June

Britain will begin preparations to leave the EU without a trade deal in just four months if Brussels has not agreed to its key demands by then. The UKs mandate for trade negotiations with the EU, published on Thursday morning, makes clear that if the broad outline of a deal is not agreed by June, the Government will switch its attention to exiting the transition period without one at the end of the year. That would mean businesses being told they had six months to prepare for disruption at the borders, with customs checks, tariffs and quotas all likely to be imposed as Britain began trading with the EU under World Trade Organisation rules The document says the Government will not extend the transition period beyond December 31 in any circumstances, leaving a limited but sufficient time for the UK and EU to reach agreement.  Daily Telegraph

Johnson rejects EU demands to submit to independent oversight of Britains laws  The Times

Britain will pull out of European Arrest Warrant and Europol  The Sun

Border red tape will mean 50,000 new form-fillers after Brexit  FT

Legal expert warns against leaving UK under jurisdiction of EU courts  Daily Express

Comment:

Free of EU rules, we could be a high-tech hub  Iain Martin, The Times

>Yesterday: Video: WATCH: We will not link access to our waters to access to EU markets. Goves statement on the negotiations.

Coronavirus: Ministers trying to calm panic

Ministers are trying to calm panic and said that the isolated cases seen in Britain can be contained. They are working on contingency plans under which hospitals would cancel non-urgent surgery to treat large numbers of patients with pneumonia and other illnesses caused by the virus. In an acute pandemic, critical care services may be at risk of being overwhelmed, according to a 2011 flu plan that is still the basis for present preparations. It gives little indication of how patients will be prioritised, other than saying it should be done in an open and transparent way. There are often no absolute right answers, it says Mr Hancock said: We want to minimise the social and economic disruption subject to keeping people safe. And of course, thats always going to be a balance. And were going to be led by the scientific advice into what works.  The Times

UK facing economic downgrade due to outbreak  Daily Telegraph

Top UK health official warns on potential social cost of tackling coronavirus  FT

Schools could be closed for eight weeks  Daily Mail

Government failing on outbreak, say GPs  The Guardian

Masks sell out, but do they work?  Daily Mail

Comment:

There is nothing irrational about the panic  Jeremy Warner, Daily Telegraph

>Today: ToryDiary: As the coronavirus spreads, Hancock is endangered by twin perils  complacency and panic

Lobbyist hired to recruit spads

Downing Street has been accused of a conflict of interest after appointing a lobbying firm to help recruit a new generation of special advisers. The government wants to find candidates with a background in advising business leaders and companies. Hanbury Strategy, a strategic advisory firm, will run the first phase of the recruitment process, which will involve interviewing applicants by telephone, online and in person. The interview panel will include Isaac Levido, who led the Conservative Partys recent general election campaign. The company will make recommendations to Lee Cain, the prime ministers director of communications, who will make the final decision on appointments.  The Times

Downing Street launches new search for talent  FT

Comment:

Whilst Cummings fiddles, the civil service burns  Jane Dudman, The Guardian

>Yesterday: ToryDiary: Brexity Hezza and Lawsony Javid

Patel gives top civil servant the silent treatment

Priti Patel has refused to hold meetings with her most senior civil servant, amid a continuing toxic atmosphere at the top of the Home Office. The Times understands that relations between Ms Patel and Sir Philip Rutnam, her permanent secretary, have all but broken down after she blamed him for allegations of bullying in the department becoming public. The two are understood not to have held a single one-to-one meeting for more than a week, with one source describing the top of the organisation as being utterly dysfunctional. Senior Tory sources retaliated to the leak by suggesting that Ms Patel had asked Downing Street to remove Sir Philip before Christmas because they did not think he was up to the job.  The Times

Home Secretary tried to have Home Office official sacked on Christmas Eve  The Guardian

Williamson want strictest schools to export discipline

New supernanny-style teachers will be sent into schools to crack down on unruly kids. Ministers are urging Britains best and strictest schools to volunteer to help dish out discipline in the countrys rowdiest classrooms. Gavin Williamson is pumping 10million into creating behaviour hubs to bring naughty pupils into line. Teachers brought in to help their struggling colleagues will consider bringing in strict new behaviour codes and mobile phone bans. The Education Secretary said kids only stand a chance of getting the best grades possible if there is order in the classroom He also backed heads who choose to ban mobiles from the classroom.  The Sun

Everyone benefits when children are taught to be polite, respectful, and disciplined  Gavin Williamson, Daily Telegraph

Eustice criticised for not visiting flood victims

The environment secretary has been criticised for not meeting residents of Ironbridge who were evacuated from their homes beside the River Severn after flood defences were overwhelmed. George Eustice spent 45 minutes in Ironbridge but was whisked in and out of a fenced-off compound and did not visit a hotel a few minutes walk away, where evacuees were being looked after. Eustice defended Boris Johnson for not visiting flood-stricken areas along the Severn and said he was in close contact with the prime minister and keeping him updated regularly. Roy and Mary Guest, who had to leave their home on the Wharfage in Ironbridge, said they were disappointed Eustice had not visited them.  The Guardian

Johnson visits homelessness shelter instead  Daily Mail

Comment:

Why has Johnson disappeared from view? Hes betting you dont care  Katy Balls, The Guardian

>Yesterday: ToryDiary: A welcome fall in rough sleeping  but more accommodation is not enough for further progress

Government rejects calls to rethink strategy over illegal drug use

The UK government has brushed aside calls to rethink its approach to combating illegal drug use, putting its faith in more effective law enforcement despite an official report finding crackdowns have little impact on supply and can fuel drug-related violence. A review commissioned by the Home Office and published on Thursday during a drugs policy summit in Glasgow said the illicit drugs market in England and Wales was worth about 9.4bn a year, with the total cost to society exceeding 19bn. The available evidence is complex but suggests that enforcement crackdowns have little impact on the overall drug supply, wrote review author Carol Black.  FT

Narcotics are so widely available they are as easy to buy as pizzas  Daily Telegraph

Drug use hits record levels with three million Brits using illegal substances  The Sun

>Today: Robert Ward in Local Government: Robust data is needed to defeat knife crime

Nokes criticises Johnsons ill-judged comments

A leading Tory backbencher has accused Boris Johnson of making really ill-judged comments in the past and told him to think very carefully about the impact his words have on women and ethnic minorities. Caroline Nokes, the chairman of the Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee, has also warned Britain has become less tolerant with a massive rise in hate crimes. Ms Nokes, who was sacked as immigration minister by Mr Johnson when he became Prime Minister in July 2019, expressed concern at controversial comments he has made. Mr Johnson drew sharp criticism for comparing women who wear burkas to letterboxes and bank robbers in a newspaper column after he quit as foreign secretary.  Daily Mail

Warning over funding black hole at the Ministry of Defence

The UK armed forces risk losing day-to-day operational capabilities such as air surveillance and their only medical ship due to a black hole in the defence ministrys equipment budget of up to 13bn, parliaments spending watchdog has warned. The National Audit Office said the Ministry of Defence had presented an unaffordable equipment plan for the third year running, and accused the department of being over-optimistic about its ability to make savings in order to conceal the scale of its financial problems The suggestion that the MoD is mismanaging its budget is particularly damaging given that prime minister Boris Johnson has just launched a review into UK defence and security strategy, which will include a focus on military procurement.  FT

British military could be left depleted after 13bn shortfall  The Guardian

MoD bosses blow 6million to put off paying 3billion spy plane bill  The Sun

>Today: Daniel Bruce in Comment: Why the new Dfid and Foreign Office team must lead the way in tackling aid corruption

>Yesterday: Henry Hills Red, White, and Blue column: MPs prepare to pile pressure on Lewis over Ulster veterans

Nandy blasts Starmer for Labours disastrous Brexit policy

Lisa Nandy tonight blasted Sir Keir Starmer and labelled his Brexit policy a disaster as she tried to salvage her Labour leadership campaign. Sir Keir and Ms Nandy engaged in fiery clashes as they and fellow challenger Rebecca Long-Bailey took part in the third TV debate of the race to replace Jeremy Corbyn. Ms Nandy wasted no time in attacking Sir Keir as she said the Brexit position he had steered the party towards of remaining neutral was a disaster at the ballot box. She claimed voters on both sides of the divide felt profoundly disrespected by the policy and that had played a major part in Labours brutal general election defeat. Meanwhile, all three of the challengers engaged in fractious exchanges over the partys response to its anti-Semitism crisis.  Daily Mail

Lord Sainsbury gave biggest political donation in history to Lib Dems

Lord Sainsbury gave the UKs biggest ever political donation to the Liberal Democrats in the run up to last years election, only for the party to lose a seat and its leader. Despite announcing just three years ago that he would no longer back party political causes, the former Sainsburys chairman donated 8million to the party in the last three months of 2019. The sum was considerably higher than the previous record of 5million donated by Sir Paul Getty to the Conservative Party ahead of the 2001 election. It helped the Lib Dems surpass Labour into second place on the donations register, securing more than 13.6 million compared with the latters 10.7 million, the bulk of which came from trade unions.  Daily Telegraph

Tory donors gave 37 million in run-up to the general election  The Times

and three are expected to receive peerages  Daily Mail

News in Brief:
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.28

By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:

The volume of trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan amounted to $145.9 million in 2019, which is 48.7 percent more than in 2018, Trend reports with reference to Kazakhstans Statistics Committee.

Turkmenistans share in total volume of Kazakhstans trade turnover amounted to 0.2 percent in 2019.

Thus, some $116.2 million of the sum accounted for export of Kazakh goods to Turkmenistan. The export volume increased by 34 percent and accounted for 0.2 percent of the total Kazakh export value.

In turn, a significant increase of import of Turkmen goods to Kazakhstan has been observed. Thus, import volume in 2019 amounted to $29.8 million which is 2.6 times more than in 2018. Share of import from Turkmenistan amounted to 0.1 percent in the total volume.

Overall, Kazakhstans trade turnover with all countries exceeded $96 billion, which is 1.3 percent more than in 2018.

Some $57.7 billion of the sum accounted for export (decrease by 5.4 percent), whereas import amounted to $38.4 billion (increase by 13.9 percent).

Plant products, metal goods, natural calcium phosphate, timber and its products, rolled metal products, as well as flour, confectionary and flour products are major export items of Kazakhstan.

In its turn, Turkmenistan exports to Kazakhstan gas, oil and petroleum products, motor vehicles, fresh and refrigerated tomatoes, engines and power plants.

---

Follow the author on twitter: @nargiz_sadikh
Many of the changes Mr. Sanders seeks are benefits or rights already enjoyed by much of the rest of the developed world: universal health care, free higher education at state-supported schools, a living wage and paid family leave. I am not a Sanders supporter (yet), but I dont think wed be in the grip of radicalism if a Sanders administration sought to catch us up with the social welfare programs of many of our allies. Likewise, the Green New Deal supported by Mr. Sanders hardly calls for a state takeover of industry. Like its namesake, it calls for employing the unemployed in paving the way to a better future, in this case the carbon-neutral one that scientists say is the only way to avoid climate catastrophe. The Clintons decided that centrism was winning politics. Mr. Sanders is mostly reasserting the left in ways that wouldnt be that jarring to FDR.
OROVILLE, Calif. - Butte County has been preparing since January, communicating with the three hospitals and discussing the CDC's guidance.

Public health officials say just because there are no cases here doesn't mean there's not any risk.

The Butte County Association of Governments found about 3,500 people travel to the Sacramento area every day. They told Action News Now that number doesn't cause much concern in regards to coronavirus exposure.

Butte County Public Health Officer Andy Miller says people who travel to those areas don't need to wear masks, just practice good hygiene.

"Stay home when your sick to not get other people ill washing your hands, cough into a tissue," Miller said.

RELATED: This map tracks the coronavirus in real time

Miller says if you have coronavirus symptoms and seek medical care, make sure you let your doctor or clinic know before you arrive so they can take the appropriate safety measures.

The county has also been sending out information for hospitals and clinics on how to prepare for the coronavirus here.

Miller talked with all three hospitals about the CDC's guidance.

Miller says all the hospitals have procedures in place to deal with infectious disease but protective equipment is huge for preventing the spread of the virus. He also said people don't need to be wearing masks at this time.

"I understand people's desire to protect themselves but at this point, we are trying to save N-95 masks and personal protective equipment for people really at risk and those are the people taking care of cases and people working in the hospital," Miller said.

Miller says there's a difference between isolation and quarantine.

Isolation is for someone who is sick and quarantine is when someone has been exposed or potentially exposed, but is not symptomatic.

For both isolation and quarantine, the easiest location would keep those people in their own homes.

For a large group of infected people, they would designate a cohort in a hospital for the easiest caretaking.
Arrivals at the international airport in Auckland, New Zealand, on Jan. 29, 2020. (Dave Rowland/Getty Images)

New Zealands First Coronavirus Patient a National Who Traveled to Iran

New Zealand authorities said the countrys first confirmed case of the new coronavirus is a citizen who traveled to Iran recently before returning home.

The patient tested positive after twice testing negative for the new COVID-19 disease, which is caused by the virus, officials said. After arriving back in New Zealand, the patient traveled home in a private car and called health authorities after developing symptoms.

The virus has symptoms similar to those for the flu, including fever, headache, and respiratory issues.

The patient is a man or woman in their 60s who recently returned from Iran, the New Zealand Ministry of Health said in a statement earlier Friday. Theyre being treated in Auckland City Hospital in a negative pressure room to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The persons household contacts are in isolation as a precaution. The patients family members will be offered testing for the virus, New Zealand Director-General Dr. Ashley Bloomfield told reporters.

Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, director-general of New Zealands Ministry of Health, speaks at a press conference in Auckland, New Zealand on Feb. 5, 2020. (Michael Ng/Getty Images)

Authorities are working on identifying who the patient came into contact with, including on the flight they took home, which originated in Tehran and stopped in Bali, Indonesia.

Anyone who was on the final leg of the flight, Emirates EK450 arriving Auckland on Feb. 26, and is concerned was told to contact Healthline.

The person was wearing a mask on both flights, Bloomfield said at the press conference, lowering the chances that they infected other people.

The patient is in a condition thats improving, Clark said. That fact is one sign that New Zealand wont experience an outbreak of the virus, he added.

It is likely that from time to time we may get further cases, but it is very unlikely that well get a sustained community outbreak if people take the necessary precautions, Clark said.

Iranian women wear protective masks to prevent contracting coronavirus, as they walk in the street in Tehran, Iran on Feb. 25, 2020. (Nazanin Tabatabaee/West Asia News Agency via Reuters)

Community spread of the virus has appeared in multiple countries in recent days, including Italy, South Korea, and Iran. Other countries have confirmed new cases after the patients traveled to areas with outbreaks, bringing the infection back with them.

Because of the newly confirmed case, New Zealand is bolstering measures at airports, including giving everyone who is arriving from outside the country information about what to do if they are unwell or if they become unwell, Bloomfield said at the press conference.

The Ministry of Healths export advisory group also revised the case definition by adding Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand as countries or territories of a higher level of interest when diagnosing patients.

Anyone who has visited those countries in the previous 14 days who develops symptoms of fever, cough, or shortness of breath should contact the authorities.

Some 24 cases have been exported from Italy to 14 countries, World Health Organization director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva on Friday. Nearly 100 cases have been exported from Iran to 11 countries, he said.

The virus emerged in China late last year and has spread to dozens of countries over the past few months. The origins of the virus arent known. Coronaviruses typically circulate in animals but can, in rare cases, jump to humans before passing from person-to-person.

There is no known vaccine and no proven existing treatments. Some patients have recovered.

Avoiding infection can include frequently washing hands, especially before eating, and avoiding sick people.
AFRICA

Sudan (Darfur)

Expected Council Action

In March, the Security Council is expected to make a decision regarding the drawdown and exit of the UN/AU Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID). The Council is likely to adopt a resolution establishing a follow-on presence to UNAMID by 31 March, in accordance with resolution 2495. Prior to this, the Council expects to receive a briefing on the special report of the Secretary-General and the Chairperson of the AU Commission, also mandated by resolution 2495, followed by consultations. The chair of the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Sven Jurgenson (Estonia), will provide the quarterly briefing on the committees work.

The mandate of UNAMID expires on 31 October 2020.

Key Recent Developments

On 31 October 2019, the Security Council adopted resolution 2495, extending the mandate of UNAMID until 31 October, as requested by Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in a 22 October 2019 letter to the Secretary-General. The resolution, which decided that UNAMID will maintain its troop and police ceilings until 31 March, said that after 31 March, the Council will decide on courses of action regarding the responsible drawdown and exit of UNAMID and adopt a new resolution at the same time, establishing a follow-on presence to UNAMID. The resolution also requested the Secretary-General and the Chairperson of the AU Commission to provide the Security Council with a special report by 31 January, including an assessment of the situation on the ground, an update on the peace process, information on the status of UNAMID team sites previously handed over to the government, recommendations on the appropriate course of action regarding the drawdown of UNAMID, and options for a follow-on presence to UNAMID. On 31 December 2019, the Secretary-General sent a letter to the Council asking for a one-month extension for the submission of the special report, to 28 February, to allow for further consultations at a high level with the AU and the Sudanese authorities.

On 27 January, Prime Minister Hamdok sent a letter to the Secretary-General requesting the UN to seek a Security Council mandate to establish, as soon as possible, a Chapter VI peace support operation in the form of a special political mission with a strong peacebuilding component[covering] the entire territory of Sudan. The letter stressed the urgent need for capacities for good offices and mediation support. It also outlined six areas in relation to the mandate of such a special political mission.

The overall security situation in Darfur remains largely unchanged but precarious because of the destabilising activities of several actors that exacerbate insecurity, threaten civilians, and risk inter-communal violence, including through acts that may be of a criminal nature. On 8 January, Council members met under any other business to discuss the situation in Darfur. Assistant Secretary-General for Africa Bintou Keita briefed members on incidents related to intercommunal violence in West Darfur that resulted in the death of several dozen civilians and on the looting of UNAMIDs former headquarters in South Darfur. Following the meeting, the president of the Council, Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy (Viet Nam), delivered elements to the press condemning these two incidents.

Sanctions-Related Developments

On 14 January, the Council received the final report of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee. The report, covering March to December 2019, found that although there have not been any large-scale outbreaks of violence, the security situation in Darfur has been characterised by an increase in localised security incidents, including intercommunal skirmishes; militia attacks on civilians; tensions in major camps for internally displaced persons; clashes in the Jebel Marra area between security forces, allied militias and the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdul Wahid; and several attacks on UNAMID and humanitarian agencies. Various human rights violations and abuses continued unabated, the report said. During the reporting period, the government of Sudan continued routinely to violate the arms embargo by transferring weapons to Darfur while a lack of cooperation between the government of Sudan and other governments in the region made monitoring and implementation of the travel ban and asset freeze challenging, according to the report. On 11 February, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 2508, extending the mandate of the Panel of Experts until 12 March 2021.

Women, Peace and Security

The Panel of Experts final report on Sudan describes incidents of violence against women, girls and boys in locations near camps for internally displaced persons. The report says that the patterns of those incidents indicate that rape is increasingly used in the fight between nomads and farmers over access to land in several areas in Darfur. Survivors of such violence identified the perpetrators as herders and members of security forces. Even when perpetrators were identified, however, no arrests were made in the majority of cases, the report said.

Key Issues and Options

A key issue for the Council is to assess the situation in Darfur and the impact of the broader political situation in the country. Another issue is assessing the potential effect of troop reductions on the security and human rights situations. A related issue is assessing options for a follow-on presence to UNAMID.

One option would be for these assessments to be informed by the findings and recommendations of the special report requested in resolution 2495 (not yet available at press time) and by the letter from Hamdok requesting the establishment of a special political mission.

Council Dynamics

The issue of the scope and pace of UNAMIDs drawdown, reconfiguration, and eventual exit has been contentious among Council members in the past (see our Whats In Blue stories in 2017, 2018 and June 2019). In comparison, negotiations on resolution 2495 in October 2019, which extended UNAMIDs mandate for one year, were relatively smooth, notably because of the 22 October 2019 letter from Hamdok requesting such an extension. Council members are expected again to take into account the views presented by Hamdok in his 27 January letter, including the request for a special political mission.

Following the adoption of resolution 2495 on 31 October 2019, Germany said that a transition has to be informed by the conditions on the ground, which we should consider carefully before making our next decision on the drawdown of UNAMID. On the other hand, the US said it fully expects this to be the final extension of UNAMID and supports a follow-on UN mission with a countrywide mandate to continue assistance to the new Sudanese government.

Following the adoption of resolution 2508 on 11 February, China asserted that the current situation in Darfur remains largely stable, and the region is in a critical period of transition from peacekeeping to peacebuilding and that the Security Council and the international community shouldrespect the leadership of the Sudan on the question of Darfur, strengthen communication and coordination with the government of the Sudan and carefully listen to its views and suggestions. Russia said that the situation in Darfur is steadily normalizing and noted the generally positive dynamics in the military and political situation.

The UK and Germany are co-penholders on Sudan. Estonia chairs the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON DARFUR
(Newser)  World markets plunged Friday as the director-general of the World Health Organization warned that the coronavirus epidemic "could get out of control." Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the epidemic, which has now hit 53 countries, has "pandemic potential" and is at a "decisive point globally," where countries will have to move aggressively to contain it, the Guardian reports. "This is not a time for fear," he said. "This is a time for taking action to prevent infection and save lives now." In other developments:

First case in sub-Saharan Africa. New countries reporting coronavirus infections include Lithuania, Belarus, and New Zealand, but health officials are especially worried by a case in Nigeria, the first confirmed infection in sub-Saharan Africa. Authorities fear the epidemic could spread widely and overwhelm health systems across the continent, the New York Times reports. The patient in Nigeria is an Italian citizen who traveled to Lagos from Milan on Tuesday.

story continues below

Markets nosedive . Stock markets around the world, including those in Hong Kong, Australia, and Japan, followed the Dow Jones downward Friday in the worst week for global markets since the 2008 financial crisis, the BBC reports. On Thursday, the Dow Jones Index recorded the biggest one-day points drop in its history, plunging nearly 1,200 points. An estimated $5 trillion has been wiped off market values this week.

. Stock markets around the world, including those in Hong Kong, Australia, and Japan, followed the Dow Jones downward Friday in the worst week for global markets since the 2008 financial crisis, the BBC reports. On Thursday, the Dow Jones Index recorded the biggest one-day points drop in its history, plunging nearly 1,200 points. An estimated $5 trillion has been wiped off market values this week. Switzerland bans large gatherings . In Switzerland, which has confirmed 15 cases of COVID-19, authorities have banned gatherings of more than 1,000 people, the AP reports. Authorities say people organizing smaller events must carry out risk assessments. The annual Geneva International Motor Show, which was set to start on March 5, has been cancelled.

. In Switzerland, which has confirmed 15 cases of COVID-19, authorities have banned gatherings of more than 1,000 people, the AP reports. Authorities say people organizing smaller events must carry out risk assessments. The annual Geneva International Motor Show, which was set to start on March 5, has been cancelled. State of emergency in Japan . Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, has declared a state of emergency after a surge in infections. Residents have been advised to remain in their homes this weekend.

. Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, has declared a state of emergency after a surge in infections. Residents have been advised to remain in their homes this weekend. US schools brace for closure . In the US, schools are preparing for the possibility of a weeks-long closure by updating emergency plans and preparing online lessons, CBS reports. President Trump has suggested schools start planning "just in case."

. In the US, schools are preparing for the possibility of a weeks-long closure by updating emergency plans and preparing online lessons, CBS reports. President Trump has suggested schools start planning "just in case." Most new infections are now outside China. Reuters reports that while China still accounts for the vast majority of coronavirus infections, the rate of new infections is slowing down there while accelerating in the rest of the world. Some three-quarters of new infections are now outside China. The 327 new cases China reported Friday is the lowest since Jan. 23. The AP reports that some 83,000 people worldwide have been infected, including more than 2,300 in South Korea.

(Read more coronavirus stories.)
A new poll conducted by MassINC Polling Group shows Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) trailing Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) by eight points in her home state, and falling 15 points from the same poll conducted in October.

The poll, released ahead of super Tuesday  when Massachusetts will cast its Democratic primary votes  shows Sanders up 12 points in the same time frame, giving him a commanding lead with 25 percent. Warren is in second with 17 percent, and former South Bend, Ind. mayor Pete Buttigieg sits in third with 14 percent, in a virtual tie with former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg at 13 percent. Former Vice President Joe Biden rounds out the top five at 9 percent.

Thats a pretty good size lead, Steve Koczela, president of the MassINC Polling Group, which conducted the WBUR poll, said of Sanderss performance.

The same poll conducted in October showed Warren in a commanding lead with 33 percent of the vote, while Sanders sat third with 13 percent. But the two progressive senators have trended in opposite directions in recent months, with Sanders performing well in early primaries. The momentum seems to have shrunk the undecided vote with Fridays poll showing only 4 percent remain undecided, compared to 15 percent in October.

The Friday WBUR poll shows that Warrens supporters are the most likely to support another candidate in the general if she does not win the nomination, while Sanderss supporters are the least likely to back a different candidate.

What that means for the party is that if Sanders is not the nominee, the task of bringing Sanders supporters along to whoever the nominee is will be significant, Koczela said.

More from National Review
Japan's coronavirus-hit Hokkaido region on Friday asked residents to stay at home over the weekend as the northern area struggles to contain a fast-spreading outbreak.

Governor Naomichi Suzuki declared a state-of-emergency through March 19.

"I believe it is necessary to take unprecedented, drastic steps," Suzuki told a televised meeting of local government executives.

Hokkaido region, known for ski resorts and vast forests, has seen at least 63 coronavirus cases, including two deaths, and accounts for more than a quarter of all cases in Japan, apart from those on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

The central government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has already dispatched a team of experts and officials to the region to contain the virus.

"I ask for help of all Hokkaido residents to protect lives and health of you and your loved ones and to ensure swift ending of the situation," the governor said.

"To prevent further spread of the virus, please refrain from going out during the weekend," he said.

The region's ski resorts attract many wealthy Asian tourists, including from China.

Suzuki has already asked for local schools to be closed, but he did not announce any further concrete measures to fight the outbreak.

The virus has so far infected at least 210 people across the country, including Hokkaido, and been linked to five deaths.

Abe, who on Thursday also requested nationwide closure of schools, has said efforts during the coming weeks will determine whether the outbreak can be contained, a major concern in the run-up to Tokyo Olympics in July.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Delhi, Feb 28 : Supreme Court's Justice Arun Mishra on Friday indirectly commented on the criticism unleashed against him from various quarters, including bar associations, for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the International Judicial Conference here last week.

During a hearing of a sealing matter pertaining to a play school near Khan Market in Lutyens' Delhi, Justice Mishra told senior advocate A.M. Singhvi: "I can use some good words for you also but then other people will start blaming me." Justice Mishra made this remark in a lighter vein, but it assumes significance against the backdrop of controversy over his praise of the PM at a recent event.

Singhvi, representing the management of the sealed play school, contended it was located opposite Khan Market and there were no serious violations of norms, which could lead to its sealing. Justice Mishra replied: "Several elite people live around this place. Do you also live around there?" Singhvi replied that he had left Lutyens' Delhi around 30 years back, and maybe it has become an abusive word, but Khan Market is a nice place. "Lot of good coffee shops are there. I would like to be called Khan Market elite," replied Singhvi in a lighter vein and added that he had seen judges shopping in the market.

Justice Mishra replied that there is no need to drag judges into controversy, and comments on somebody should be taken in right spirit.

The bench dismissed the plea of the play school seeking to set aside the sealing orders. "Sorry, we are not with you," it said.

Meanwhile, hearing pollution matters, Justice Mishra pulled up the Centre for delay in installing smog towers in the city. The Centre's counsel told the bench that it will take 35 days to level the surface to install smog towers. "Are you joking?.... we will not tolerate delay," said Justice Mishra and directed the counsel to file a progress report before March 6.

The top court also directed authorities to work together on developing a comprehensive framework to segregate municipal solid waste.
Being a woman in a male-dominated industry has been a struggle for Angelica Garcia, a self-made Latina businesswoman who grew her transportation company from scratch. Now shes confident she has what it takes to represent her rapidly changing community in the Texas Legislature.

Shes not alone. Following the 2018 year of the woman that saw Democrats elect scores of women to Congress and state legislatures across the country, Garcia is one of 37 Republican women vying to serve in the Texas Legislature.

I really do think the party needs more diversity and exclusivity, Garcia told the Houston Chronicle editorial board. Its not the cookie-cutter white male. And I just feel that people want to see something different. From knocking on doors and seeing and talking to people, theyre excited about a new face.

Texas Republicans have seen twice as many women running for Congress since 2018, and a strong field of female candidates at the state level is welcome news for a party that has grown increasingly male-dominated and white. Of 83 Republicans in the Texas House, just six are women and one, Houston Rep. Angie Chen Button, is a woman of color.

For subscribers: Twice as many Texas Republican women running for Congress in 2020

The Republican Party of Texas has long talked about attracting more diverse candidates. Now that its happening, the party plans to showcase those candidates with a video testimonial about why they are Republicans, according to a strategy memo that was leaked to the press in November.

Party Chairman James Dickey has said last year was the biggest ever push to attract and equip potential candidates for 2020. More than half of the partys recruiters urging women to step up into leadership roles are women themselves. But the goal, party officials have insisted, was always to find the best candidates regardless of their gender or race.

One thing that were finding this election cycle is a greater interest by female candidates running as Republicans and a greater interest by minority candidates running as Republicans, Gov. Greg Abbott said after a rally in Baytown this week. The Republican Party really is growing from within from all these different people who share conservative values, share the values about freedom, about a strong economy, about individual liberty as opposed to one-size-fit-all government mandates.

At stake this year is more than gender parity. Republicans are trying to block Democrats from flipping the nine Texas House seats they need to seize control of the chamber. The timing couldnt be more consequential: state lawmakers will redraw district lines for congressional and legislative districts next year, shaping which party is likely to win those seats for the next decade.

Seed money for future

With a commanding Republican majority in the Legislature, Abbott spent 2018 trying to defeat Republicans he criticized as not being conservative enough. This year, hes using his $33 million campaign war chest to support 22 of the 97 state legislative candidates who are women, Hispanic, Asian American, Indian American or black.

That includes spending more than $23,000 supporting Jacey Jetton, a former party chairman in Fort Bend County who is of Korean descent; paying for more than $11,000 worth of digital ads for Manish Seth in east Fort Bend Countys District 27; expensing $17,000 in ads for conservative activist Lacey Hull in a west Harris County swing district; spending more than $19,000 supporting landscaping company owner Kronda Thimesch in House District 65 in North Texas.

For subscribers: GOP primary for House seat in west Houston divides conservative grass roots

Garcia is running in one of the most competitive districts in the state, a rapidly changing area of middle-class families stretching from Katy to Cypress, where 40 percent of people speak a second language at home. Democrat Gina Calanni flipped the district in 2018, unseating a longtime Republican by 113 votes.

Garcia wants everyone to know she has the governors endorsement: Its on her campaign T-shirts, handouts and yard signs. Abbotts campaign has spent at least $26,000 helping her election bid, namely by airing digital ads on the political newcomers behalf. The Associated Republicans of Texas Campaign fund, supporting moderate GOP candidates, has spent nearly $100,000 supporting her campaign since January.

If elected, Garcia says, she would spend her time in office focused on the economy and lowering taxes while reinforcing family-first values in state government.

Motivated to win District 132 back after his 2018 loss, Mike Schofield is running against Garcia for the Republican nomination. After serving for four years in the Legislature, he says he has the expertise to be effective on issues such as taxes and flood control. As one of the most conservative Republicans lawmakers in Harris County, he argues he lost the last election because he was trying to help candidates in other races and neglected to focus on his own.

Schofield said his message is resonating with voters and has nothing to do with his gender or race.

I have knocked on 3,200 doors in this race myself, in addition to what other folks have knocked on my behalf, he told the Houston Chronicle editorial board in January. I have talked to the voters at their door and what theyre concerned about is their property taxes, theyre concerned about the border, theyre concerned about Texas maintaining its traditional values. Not one of them has said, Geez, I wish you were some other race or some other gender.

Whether Garcia succeeds in the primary is immaterial, said Rebecca Deen, a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. Win or lose, Garcia provides Latinos and people of color who have conservative cultural values  such as opposing abortion and championing the traditional definition of marriage  with a candidate they can relate to, she said.

Given the attention and support for Garcia, she could have the momentum to run for office again if she loses. Abbotts investment in her is seed money, if you will for her political future, Deen said.

Know the candidates: Houston Chronicle 2020 primary election voter guide; San Antonio Express-News 2020 primary election voter guide

Its because Ms. Garcia is such an appealing candidate, and shes exactly the kind of demographic the Republicans have longed to get, she said.

Republicans say they do not engage in identity politics but confirmed that 55  about one-third  of their candidates for the Texas House are women or people of color. Democrats say they dont have a final count of how many of their candidates belong to an ethnic minority.

Where Republicans reject identity politics, Democrats celebrate it. Women make up some of their strongest candidates in the U.S. Senate primary and are some of the most aggressive fundraisers in running for Congress, party spokesman Abhi Rahman said. In the Legislature, the party says more than half of its candidates are women.

We want candidates to reflect the electorate, he said. The candidates that we have are diverse. They are people who have traditionally been locked out by the Republican establishment.  Our candidates represent the now and the future of Texas. Republicans represent the past.

It still boils down to who is willing to connect

Jetton, one of the candidates for District 26, wasnt supposed to be Abbotts choice, but the governor has spent more than $23,000 supporting him.

Abbott originally backed Rep. Rick Miller, a Republican representing Sugar Land and Richmond in District 26 in Fort Bend County, one of the most diverse counties in the nation. Abbott yanked his endorsement when Miller was quoted as saying he thought Jetton and another candidate, Leonard Chan, were running against him because they were Asian. A third candidate, Matt Morgan, is white.

Miller later apologized and withdrew from the race. Abbott later endorsed Jetton, a seventh-generation Texan. Jetton said it doesnt matter what ethnicity someone is if he or she can connect with voters.

It still boils down to who is willing to go into the different communities and who is willing to connect with them, Jetton said. It doesnt matter what kind of ethnic background you have, you have the ability to connect with people. You have the ability to connect in conversations.

Election Day is Tuesday.

Jasper Scherer contributed to this report.

andrea.zelinski@chron.com
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 19:25:18|Editor: xuxin

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BANGKOK, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul confirmed on Friday that medicines for COVID-19 have arrived in Thailand from China.

"The Chinese government has donated some medicines for COVID-19 for patients in Thailand," said Anutin. "However, we have also ordered COVID-19 medicines from China as well. Those that have just arrived from China, will suffice to treat patients in Thailand."

However, Anutin said the medicines will suffice only on condition that the number of patients in Thailand don't increase.

"Therefore, I am pleading everybody in Thailand to cooperate and follow the guidelines from the Health Ministry."

Anutin also said he believes that COVID-19 which is spreading worldwide will be controlled and contained soon.

On Friday, the Thai Ministry of Public Health reported one new COVID-19 case, bringing the total cases in the country to 41.

The new confirmed patient is a Thai tour guide, who has recently returned from South Korea.

The man is now receiving treatment at the Bamrasnaradura Infectious Disease Institute.

Thai officials are tracing two persons who had come to close contact with him and others in the tour group.

Meanwhile, one more Chinese patient has fully recovered and has been released from hospital.

Currently, 13 patients remain hospitalized, according to the Health Ministry.
In a fresh litigation, Nalini Sriharan, life convict in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, has moved the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu government to release her without waiting for the approval of state governor.

In her petition, which is likely to be taken up for hearing on Monday, she also pleaded the court to declare as unconstitutional the 'failure' of the governor to release her as recommended by the state cabinet.

The petitioner submitted the state cabinet passed a resolution on September 9, 2018 requesting the governor to release of all seven convicts, including her.

She contended that as per the Supreme Court order in Maru Ram case, the cabinet advice will be binding on the governor and hence the 'failure' to act on the recommendation would amount to contempt.

The fresh plea comes days after the high court reserved orders on a petition by Nalini seeking to declare her detention as illegal.

The Centre had then taken the stand that the convicts cannot be set free without its consent.

Besides Nalini, her husband Murugan, A G Perarivalan, Santhan, Jayakumar, Ravichandran and Robert Pyas are serving life imprisonment for their role in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991 by an LTTE suicide bomber at nearby Sriperumbudur.

They were initially sentenced to death, but later it was commuted to life imprisonment.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
PledgeCents, a Houston startup that developed a crowdfunding website for educators, completed two accelerator programs that help young companies refine their product, raise money and grow. Sensytec, a Houston startup that uses technology to monitor cement and concrete structures, has participated in three accelerators. LAMIK Beautys ecommerce site counts four programs, and medical device company Noleus Technologies has completed five accelerator programs.

Which raises the question: Would their time have been better spent finding customers?

Accelerators, the short, intensive programs that helped propel companies such as Airbnb and Dropbox to fame and fortune, are proliferating in Houston and across the country and providing more opportunities for startups to find the advice, money and connections that might lead to success. As a result, startups are finding it easier to enroll in multiple programs, sparking a debate in the innovation sector of whether moving from one accelerator to another merely delays the hard work of building a business and testing the market for new products and services.

Youre doing startup theater the longer you stay in accelerator programs, said Marc Nathan, who advises startups for the Austin law firm Egan Nelson. At some point startups have to grow up or die.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Can Houston avoid mistakes of the past as it tries to build its tech scene?

Others agree. Y Combinator, considered the original accelerator, has said its data  which it has not released  show companies that go through multiple programs end up worse than firms that only complete Y Combinator. Tom Luby, director of the Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute, which runs a health care accelerator, said a company that goes through more than one program raises red flags as to whether that company is learning from each program.

Are you really getting value at each one of those accelerators, Luby said, or has it just become getting into the next accelerator feels like progress?

But many startups that have participated in more than one accelerator say the programs have helped them advance their businesses.

Dr. Swarna Balasubramaniam, the founder of Noleus Technologies, said she learned something different and built on different strengths in each of five accelerator programs in which she and her company participated since 2018. Her company has raised $880,000 and is conducting pre-clinical trials for its device designed to decrease swelling that occurs during abdominal surgery.

People say, Oh thats crazy. Why be in so many accelerators? said Balasubramaniam. But I think for a first-time entrepreneur the more advice you can get the better.

About Accelerators

Accelerator programs began in 2005 with the creation of Y Combinator, which launched in the Boston area and relocated to Silicon Valley. Techstars hosted its first program two years later in Boulder, Colo.

These programs ignited a craze, with the number of U.S.-based accelerators increasing an average of 50 percent each year between 2008 and 2014, growing from 16 programs in 2008 to 170 programs in 2014, according to a 2016 Brookings Institution analysis by Ian Hathaway, a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program.

Accelerators, named for their ability to accelerate a startups growth, are offered in a variety of formats. Some take equity in the companies they assist while others are funded through civic and corporate partnerships or by charging a fee to the startups. But all proper accelerator programs are designed to last a specific period of time, typically three to four months, and include mentorship and educational sessions. They end with a graduation, often a pitch or demo day where entrepreneurs present their businesses to investors.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Tech accelerators graduate first Houston classes

The impact of accelerators remains open to debate, according to research co-authored by Yael Hochberg, Rice Universitys Ralph S. OConnor Professor in Entrepreneurship. Some researchers have found accelerators help startups grow, attract venture capital and add a spark to the innovation ecosystem. Other researchers, however, found the effects on a young companys performance are muted or even negative.

Either way, Houston has seen an influx in accelerator and pre-accelerator programs, which are designed for earlier-stage companies, often with the goal of getting them into accelerator programs. These include Founder Institute and Plug and Play from Silicon Valley, MassChallenge from Boston and gener8tors gBETA program from Wisconsin. The Ion Smart Cities Accelerator is a homegrown program focused on internet of things technologies that can be used by the citys government. The Texas Medical Centers TMCx is focused on health care.

Hochberg said startups can learn different things from different programs. Some, such as gBETA and Founder Institute, focus on very early-stage companies and have heavy educational components that help founders create a business plan or understand market size. Others, such as the Ion Smart Cities Accelerator and TMCx, have narrower, industry-specific missions that focus on connecting startups with potential customers.

But founders should be cautious about entering additional programs if those programs dont offer different insights, such as targeting specific industries or geographic areas, or if the startup hasnt undergone a major change in products or personnel, said Aziz Gilani, managing director at Houston venture capital firm Mercury Fund.

If you have the same team executing with the same product and going after the same market, Gilani said, and trying over and over again with the same approach, I dont know if going through multiple accelerators will help that entrepreneur.

At Y Combinator, whose former president Sam Altman discouraged the practice, it continues to not be a great signal when a startup has already gone through an accelerator program, said Dalton Caldwell, director of admissions. We expect that they are already accelerated.

Program overhaul

Luby, director of the TMC Innovation Institute, said the saturation of health care accelerators has prompted an overhaul of the six-year-old TMCx. Its now more focused on leveraging the worlds largest medical center and its corporate partners  Johnson & Johnson, AT&T and ABB Robotics and Discrete Automation  to get startups clinical trials, pilot programs and early customers.

To make sure startups are ready for these medical and corporate partners, TMCx is now hosting a two-week bootcamp to select finalists. These startups are evaluated during the bootcamps educational sessions, proposal reviews and customer engagement pitches. TMCx is also adding two months to the program, boosting it to six months and offering a more personalized curriculum.

Were very focused on making sure our accelerator has a clear, clean value proposition, Luby said.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Tom Luby, director of the TMC Innovation Institute, reflects on six months at the helm

Accelerators need to set specific goals for themselves and the startups they assist, said Jon Roberts, managing director of the Austin consulting firm TIP Strategies. Roberts added that these programs also should be measured by how the accelerated companies spend money from investors, how many jobs they create and how many companies stay in the accelerators city to contribute to the regions economic growth.

What could also contribute to Houstons economy is if accelerators attract entrepreneurs to the city and showcase its low cost of living and large base of potential customers, especially for business-to-business entities, said Harvin Moore, president of Houston Exponential, a nonprofit that works to accelerate Houstons tech industries.

Taking charge

The Ion Smart Cities Accelerator views multiple programs as a positive, a sign that the company is mature enough to test its technology in pilot programs with the city, a key component of the accelerator, said Gaby Rowe, executive director of the Ion, a startup hub being developed by Rice University. Sensytec, which is commercializing technology to monitor cement and concrete structures, is among the Ion Smart Cities Accelerators first group of startups.

Some entrepreneurs, particularly people of color, may need more than one accelerator to gain momentum, said Kim Roxie, whos shifting her vegan makeup line LAMIK Beauty from a one-store location to an ecommerce startup. She said attending the DivInc accelerator for diverse founders got her into three additional accelerator programs, including two that gave her investments in exchange for future equity.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Women take the lead in building Houstons tech ecosystem

Its money Roxie, the only black woman in each accelerator she attended, might not have received without these programs. Between 2009 and 2017, startups led by black women received .0006 percent of venture capital and angel fundraising, according to a study by Digitalundivided, an organization encouraging women of color to become entrepreneurs.

Me getting into a lot of these accelerators has not been the easiest thing to do, Roxie said. It could hint at a bigger issue. That is the issue of everybody getting access.

But at some point, startups must take responsibility for their own destiny, several founders said. They must research the programs, limit the amount of equity they give up and make the most of their experiences.

Like everything else, you can get good at getting into accelerators, said Paul Kwiatkowski, the co-founder of GroupRaise, a platform that helps organize restaurant fundraisers and has gone through three accelerators. The question is, is that the same as getting good at your business? And the answer is definitely no.

andrea.leinfelder@chron.com

Twitter.com/a_leinfelder
By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government will raise a host of issues, including revision of coal royalty and internet connectivity in rural areas for financial inclusion, at the Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) meeting to be held here on Friday. The State will also take up inter-state issues like unified transmission tariff for power transmission, irrigation projects, operationalisation of coals mines, land and forest clearance of rail projects and timely release of Central grants, official sources said.

The meeting to be held at the newly constructed convention centre in Lok Seva Bhawan will be chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Odisha being the host State, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is the vice-chairman of the council. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha and Minister of State for Home Dibya Shankar Mishra will attend the meeting along with Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy and other senior officers.

Chief Ministers of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal will also attend the 24th meeting of the EZC. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already reached here on Wednesday. Secretaries, Additional Secretaries and other senior officers of the Central Government will attend the meeting.Last meeting of the council was held in Kolkata on October 1, 2018. Altogether, the EZC will deliberate upon nearly four dozen issues which inter-alia include investigation of heinous offenses, cattle smuggling across countrys borders, lack of telecom and banking infrastructure in remote areas, petroleum projects and sharing pattern on centrally collected revenues.

With such senior level participation of political leadership and officers, a large number of issues are likely to get resolved by consensus in the meeting, the sources said. The zonal councils discuss broad range of issues, which include boundary related disputes, security, infrastructure-related matters like road, transport, industries, water, power and matters pertaining to forests and environment, housing, education, food security, tourism and transport.
5 Slave ship Clotilda found in Alabama

The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a resolution calling the discovery of the Clotilda  the last known slave ship that was found off Mobile -- a monumental find of local, national, and international importance and educational value.

Alabamas two U.S. Senators  Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Richard Shelby  introduced the resolution to recognize the achievement of the discovery of the Clotilda, honor the residents of Africatown and express hope that the find may serve as an inflection point for meaningful conversation about both past and present injustices.

The ship was found in April 2018 near Twelve-Mile Island in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, with confirmation that the vessel was indeed the Clotilda in May 2019. Then-AL.com reporter Ben Raines was credited with helping find the slave ship.

The Clotilda, captained by shipbuilder William Foster, sailed into Mobile Bay with 110 African men, women, and children and young adults between the ages of 5 and 23 on board, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama. The ship illegally transported 110 people from Benin in Africa to Mobile from February to July 1860.

After their secret arrivalin 1820 the introduction of Africans was declared an act of piracy punishable by deathabout 25 young people were sold upriver to slave brokers, but the majority remained in Mobile. Thirty-two became the property of Timothy Meaher, who had financed the expedition, and his brother James enslaved eight others, including Cudjo Lewis; twenty were sent to Burns Meahers plantation in Clarke County; between five and eight went to William Foster as payment for the trip; and others were bought by plantation owner Thomas Buford. The young Africans were employed as deckhands, field hands, and domestics, the entry continues.

The Africans spent the next five years as slaves during the American civil war, freed only after the South had lost the conflict. Unable to return home to Africa, about 30 of them used money earned working in fields, homes and vessels to purchase land from the Meaher family and settle in a community still known to this day as Africatown.

By passing this resolution, the United States Senate has recognized the monumental significance of the Clotilda and the resilience of its descendants, Jones said in a joint statement with Shelby. It is my sincere hope that we can use this an as an opportunity to further educate our society and to have meaningful conversations about racial injustice and how to continue moving our state forward.

I am pleased that we are taking the proper steps to memorialize the recent discovery of the Clotilda in the Mobile River, Shelby said. This remarkable site  which has been preserved by local residents, historians, and scientists  represents and honors the heritage and many unique traditions of the historic Africatown community. Further, the efforts to maintain and protect the Clotilda will provide important educational value and opportunities for years to come.
Millville police are asking for the publics help in locating a woman wanted in an attempted homicide case.

Deszarae M. Hannah, 29, of Millville, allegedly ran into a woman with her car at Oakview Apartments on April 23, 2019.

The victim, a 24-year-old Vineland woman, suffered a crushed pelvis and lost a portion of her left leg, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.

Hannahs Toyota Avalon struck the victim, who was standing in the apartment complex parking lot, around 11:30 p.m. and then continued forward, hitting a parked car and pinning the victim between both vehicles, police noted in the report.

She then drove off and abandoned the Toyota at another location, according to police. She allegedly removed the license plates and front bumper from the car and locked all interior compartments.

Hannah was never arrested in the case.

Earlier that evening, she was involved in an altercation with another woman at the apartment complex and allegedly struck that victim over the head with a bottle, according to a separate complaint.

She was charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, assault by auto, obstruction, hindering, tampering with evidence and weapons offenses, and indicted on 12 counts in September.

The case is receiving new attention now because Hannah was recently spotted in the area, police said.

Anyone who knows her whereabouts is asked to contact police at 856-825-7010 or send a message via Facebook.

Detective Ralph Satero is handling the investigation.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Chrystia Freeland speaks with the media about the USMCA trade agreement in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, on Jan. 27, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

Tories Call on Government to Compensate Dairy Farmers Left Behind in New NAFTA

OTTAWA  The Conservative opposition says the government must compensate dairy farmers within 90 days of the new North American trade deal becoming law, saying the sector is the biggest loser in the renegotiated continental trade pact.

The recommendation comes in a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland from Conservative MPs, a copy of which was obtained by The Canadian Press.

Dairy was one of the most contentious sectors under discussion during the acrimonious renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement that U.S. President Donald Trump foisted on Canada and Mexico in 2017.

The sector also has major domestic political considerations in all trade negotiations, and Canada and the U.S. are no exceptions.

Trump vilified Canadian farmers for putting American farmers out of work with what he deemed to be unfair practices in Canada. Trump pledged to fight for American farmers, and whether or not he is seen to have delivered will affect his reelection chances, especially in key midwestern states such as Wisconsin.

Quebec and Ontario  Canadas two most voterich provinces  are the main homes of the countrys dairy farmers.

The Canadian dairy industry has raised concerns about how trade deals were eroding its share of the Canadian market not only during the renegotiation of NAFTA, but in the previous trade talks that led to Canadas comprehensive pact with the European Union.

The largest group left behind by your government during the CUSMA negotiations is Canadas dairy sector, says the letter, which cites a 3.6 per cent loss of market share in Canada due to the deal.

That and the elimination of classifications of milk protein concentrates, skim milk powder and infant formula all combine to make the dairy sector the biggest loser of this deal, says the letter.

The Conservatives also ask the government to delay implementation of the new deal for the auto industry to January 2021 to allow them to adjust to the new climate of the deal.

The impasse around autos was one of the biggest hurdles during the renegotiation of NAFTA because the United States insisted on new rules to increase the North American content automobiles.

The governments own economic impact assessment of the new deal, released this week, predicted that Canadian auto exports to the U.S. would decline by US$1.5 billion, the Conservative letter notes.

But the governments analysis said the deal was better for Canada overall and was better than no trade deal at all.

The Conservatives also raise concerns about the impact of the new deal on the ability of Canadian firms to bid on U.S. infrastructure projects, on digital trade, culture and forestry.

The U.S. and Mexico have formally ratified the new deal, but it is still before Canadas parliament .

Canadian business groups have urged politicians to set aside political differences and the get the new CanadaUnited StatesMexico Agreement  as it is called in Canada  to passed into law as quickly as possible to end the economic uncertainty that threatens trade and investment.

The Liberals have negotiated separate deals with the NDP and Bloc Quebecois to win their approval for a quick ratification of the deal in the current minority Parliament.

The Conservatives say they support the deal too, but say it is crucial to more closely examine its winners and losers so that the pact remains strong in the future.

The letter also shoots back at past criticism by Freeland that the Conservatives are stalling the ratification of CUSMA.

This is patently false. In fact, we have offered repeatedly to expedite our study of the legislation to ensure swift ratification, but at every stage your government has chosen to play politics, the letter says.

Conservatives have always been clear that we will support CUSMAs swift passage.

The letter is signed by four Conservative MPs, including trade critic Randy Hoback and the Colin Carrie, the partys critic for CanadaU.S. relations.
MCKINNEY, TexasA Texas man was convicted Wednesday of capital murder for 2018 killings of a Dallas-area police officer and another man.

Brandon McCall, 28, faces death or life in prison without parole when he is sentenced for shooting his friend, Rene Gamez II, and Richardson police officer David Sherrard in what police described as an ambush. Defense attorneys acknowledged that McCall shot the men but said the killings were unintentional.

A Collin County jury returned the guilty verdict after about two hours deliberations and will begin hearing testimony Monday in the punishment phase of McCalls trial.

McCall was accused of shooting Gamez, 30, in an apartment complex in the suburb north of Dallas and then shooting Sherrard in the chest as he entered the apartment after responding to reports of gunfire. The 37-year-old officer was a married father of two daughters and later died at a hospital.

McCall barricaded himself in the apartment after the shooting and fired at random during an hourslong standoff before officers arrested him.

During the trial, jurors were shown police body camera video of the moment Sherrard was shot and a video in which McCall admitted to opening fire on officers.

The latter video shows an officer reading McCall his Miranda rights as he lies in a hospital bed after the shootings. The officer then asks McCall why he shot at police.

McCallreplies: Cause I wanted to.
Some 8000 kilometres from Hubei province  where this coronavirus outbreak began  once-thriving Asian food districts in Sydney and Melbourne have been turned into ghost towns.

Outside a small eatery in Sydney's Eastwood, a suburb with a large Chinese community, a chalkboard tries to reassure and lure in customers with words written Chinese characters: "The restaurant has been sanitised!"

Clifford Qwah inside his flagship Chinatown seafood restaurant Secret Kitchen. Credit:Justin McManus

Business is down 70 per cent since late January when the first case of the novel virus was reported in Australia, according to Lily Zhou, 39, who owns the Shanghai-style restaurant with her husband. If things continue as they are now, Zhou said she can only stay in business "at most three months".

Australia's travel ban on Chinese visitors and students, and a misdirected fear about gathering in public places, is having an outsized impact across the restaurant industry. Many Chinese Australians are still stranded in China after the Lunar New Year holidays, or staying behind closed doors in self-quarantine.
Democratic presidential hopeful Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders participates in the tenth Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season co-hosted by CBS News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute at the Gaillard Center in Charleston, South Carolina, on February 25, 2020. Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

A bill introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that would raise taxes on executive retirement plans could hit an unintended target: employees at start-ups. The presidential candidate, along with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., proposed the CEO and Worker Pension Act on Thursday. While the bill likely won't go too far amid a divided Congress, it offers a clue into Sanders' thinking as he campaigns for office. The legislation takes aim at so-called nonqualified deferred compensation plans, which allow executives to sock away a portion of their pay  above and beyond what they would otherwise save in a 401(k) plan  and defer taxes for years until the money is distributed. The Sanders bill would curb this deferral, levying taxes on executives' savings earlier. Further, equity-based compensation would also be subject to this new treatment, accelerating taxes on nonqualified stock options paid to high-earning employees. Restricted stock units, which employers also use to grant shares to workers, would also be subject to the bill.

"We are ending a two-tiered system that gives special tax breaks to billions of dollars in corporate executives' savings while letting workers' pensions disappear," Sanders said. The treatment of stock-based compensation would hit employees at startups right in the pocketbook, accountants and financial advisors said. New companies may not have the cash on hand to afford huge salaries, so they attract and retain talent by granting workers a stake in what could be the next Google. "This recent proposal would do more harm than good for many employees, especially those in the Silicon Valley ecosystem where nonqualified stock options are extremely popular," said Samuel Deane, founder of Deane Financial Partners in New York. "Taxing stock options at vesting won't hurt high-net worth executives as much as it would hurt middle-class employees who may not be able to afford the tax bill," he said.

Know your choices

Philip Krim, co-founder and CEO of mattress company, Casper, rings a ceremonial bell to celebrate the companies IPO on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., February 6, 2020. Lucas Jackson | Reuters

Stock options allow workers to buy a specified amount of stock at a stated price  known as the strike price  after a vesting period at some point in the future. When you exercise the option, you buy the stock at the strike price. Currently, nonqualified stock options are subject to ordinary income tax rates  which are as high as 37%  at exercise. The tax applies to the bargain element, which is the difference between the strike price and the sale price. If your shares appreciate and you sell them, you pay a capital gains tax, too.

Under the Sanders bill, workers with compensation of at least $130,000 who are getting nonqualified stock options would face taxes once they are able to exercise  regardless of whether they choose to do so. This means the employees could be on the hook for taxes and have no cash to pay the bill. "If you earn a couple million a year, you're likely to have the cash and flexibility to pay the taxes," said Dan Herron, CPA and principal of Elemental Wealth Advisors in San Luis Obispo, California. "If you have highly-valued options, you make $150,000 a year and you live in San Francisco? You're going to get screwed," he said.

Risks at small companies

Morsa Images

Currently, under certain circumstances, employees at private companies who receive stock options or restricted stock units may defer income taxes for up to five years when they exercise those options. This treatment isn't affected by the new bill. In that case, workers with illiquid stocks can still hold off on taxes. However, employees at small private companies face the problem of finding a market to sell their shares. There aren't many eligible buyers for those holdings. "In the private market, there isn't any liquid demand for these securities," said Deane. Not all startups grow into Google of course. Last year had its share of unicorns that failed to take off when they debuted on the public market. "We always hear about the Apples and Googles, but what about the companies whose prices went down?" asked Michael Goodman, CPA and president of Wealthstream Advisors in New York.

Changing compensation

Carlina Teteris
A convicted rapist would not face harsher penalties if he withdraws his guilty plea and gets a new trial because the case hinged on a previous conviction that was tainted by the Amherst lab scandal, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled Friday.

Luis Claudio learned in 2018 that he was a Farak defendant" and that one of his prior drug convictions was vacated because it was in the same lab where Sonja Farak stole and tampered with drug samples to fuel her substance use disorder,. Authorities said thousands of people were convicted of drug crimes based on unreliable evidence.

With that conviction vacated, Claudio started to re-evaluate his plea deal in a case where he faced aggravated statutory rape charges and enhanced penalties because his prior convictions made him a habitual offender. He took the deal in 2015 and pleaded guilty to lesser charges, avoiding the habitual offender penalties.

Instead of withdrawing his guilty plea, Claudio asked the court to confirm that he wouldnt face harsher penalties under a new trial if he withdrew his guilty plea as a result of prior convictions that were tainted by the drug lab scandal.

The SJC ruled that any potential sentence for a retrial where a defendants Farak conviction served as a predicate offense for enhanced penalties  like in Claudios case  cannot be harsher than the sentence originally imposed on the defendant. The SJC said its conclusion was part of a continuing effort to remedy misconduct by Farak.

We recognized that [Sandra] Dookhans misconduct "cast a shadow over the entire criminal justice system. In comparison, the government misconduct committed by Farak and members of the Attorney Generals office cast a shadow even longer and darker, the court wrote.

The SJC remanded the case to the Superior Court to continue proceedings.

This is the high courts latest ruling about how criminal cases in Massachusetts are affected by the evidence tampering State Laboratory Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Farak, a chemist at the lab, stole methamphetamine and tampered drug samples over eight years to fuel her substance use disorder.

Roughly 40,000 people had drug charges dismissed due to stolen drug samples by Farak and mishandled test results by former Hinton drug lab chemist Annie Dookhan. A report filed with the SJC in September states that more than 24,000 convictions in 16,449 cases tainted by Farak had been dismissed in court.

Farak pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the lab in 2014. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Claudio had two previous drug offenses on his record when he was indicted in 2013 on two counts of aggravated statutory rape. He was also indicted as a habitual offender, due to the two drug offenses serving as predicate convictions.

In the plea deal he took in 2015, Claudio pleaded guilty to statutory rape and indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 years of age, according to court documents.

After he learned he was a Farak defendant, Claudio sought to withdraw his guilty plea, but he also wanted to make sure he wouldnt be subject to harsher penalties than what he faced before his prior conviction was vacated. Each aggravated rape charge carried a sentence of 10 years in prison, which could be imposed consecutively, according to court documents.

The SJC determined that the question was similar to one raised regarding Dookhan defendants, but that the scope of wrongdoing in the Farak cases were broader. Farak manipulated evidence and reports to conceal her theft, while members of the state attorney generals office failed to investigate the lab chemist and later withheld information, according to court documents.

The SJC determined that the Farak defendants, like certain Dookhan defendants, shouldnt have to bear the burden of the governments misconduct.

The court wrote, "There is no principled reason why a Farak defendant who has been collaterally affected by more egregious government misconduct should have to choose between accepting an outcome based on a conviction that no longer exists and exposing himself or herself to a harsher punishment than initially was imposed.

Related Content:
The scene of the accident on October 18th 2017 (Photo by Kevin Scott / Belfast Telegraph)

A north Belfast woman who caused "catastrophic and lifelong injuries" to a schoolboy who she knocked down in her Audi TTS was jailed today.

Megan Anderson admitted causing the teenager grievous bodily injury by dangerous driving in Glengormley in October 2017.

He was 14 at the time of the collision and sustained multiples injuries including fractures and a traumatic brain injury.

Belfast Crown Court heard he will require 24-hour care for the rest of his life due to a "very significant neurological deficit."

Anderson (25), from Robina Street in Belfast, was handed an 18-month sentence which will be divided equally between nine months in custody and nine on licence. She was also banned from driving for two years.

Before passing sentence, Judge Patricia Smyth heard that Anderson had been sitting at traffic lights on the Antrim Road at the junction of the Ballyclare Road. She was the first in the queue of traffic when the lights turned green, and after accelerating, she hit the teenager as he crossed the road.

In the aftermath of the collision - which occurred at around 4.40pm on October 18, 2017 - a road expert determined she was driving at speeds of up to 59 mph in a 30 mph zone. Witnesses also reported that her car was 'revving loudly and accelerating heavily' before she drove from the lights 'very quickly.'

Prosecuting barrister David Russell said the teenager's mother spoke to her son just moments before the collision, when he told her he was going to the shop. She then heard the emergency services on the Antrim Road and ran to the scene.

Mr Russell said the teenager sustained "catastrophic and lifelong injuries."

Regarding the offence Anderson pleaded guilty to, Mr Russell said she was "driving at a greatly excessive speed in a built-up area", that she "accelerated from the traffic lights at speed", and that she "didn't appear to brake prior to the collision."

He added: "The driving was dangerous because of the surrounding circumstances, the busy area, her speed and the extent of the speed."

The prosecutor said Anderson had no previous convictions or motoring offences, and co-operated fully with the investigation.

Defence barrister Eilis McDermott QC said her client accepted the collision was caused by her speed.

Ms McDermott said: "She is riven with remorse. At the forefront of her mind is not her fate but the catastrophic consequences of her actions for this young man, his mother and the wider family.

"That's the case not just today but every day and indeed every night since this has occurred."

Anderson's barrister said the incident has had a significant impact on her mental health, and she has since been diagnosed with depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

There are no words to describe the catastrophe that occurred on that day. Judge Smyth

Pointing out that prior to the incident her client had been driving for five years and had a clean driving licence, Ms McDermott said Anderson "wishes she had died in the accident" instead of causing the injuries to the teenager that she did.

She concluded by saying there was "no doubt" Anderson felt "deep and enduring remorse".

During today's sentencing, Judge Smyth said: "There are no words to describe the catastrophe that occurred on that day."

Describing the injured teenager as a young man who had a full future ahead of him, the Judge said that due to his injuries it was "unlikely that he will ever be able to carry out even the basic tasks for himself" and will remain reliant on carers.

Noting that the incident has "deeply affected" every member of the teenager's family, Judge Smyth said he "has an awareness ... he can see, he can hear and he can communicate his likes and dislikes in his own way on picture cards."

She added the "physical, emotional and financial repercussions" on the teenager's family "simply cannot be overstated."

Anyone who drives dangerously, even for a matter of seconds, and causes serious injury or death as a consequence, will go to prison Judge Smyth

Turning to Anderson, Judge Smyth said she also noted the impact the incident has had on both her and her family.

The Judge told Anderson "you are a young woman of good character who never intended to hurt anyone" but said her driving fell below the standard of any careful and competent driver.

Telling the north Belfast woman the only aggravating factor was excessive speed, Judge Smyth said she accepted her remorse was genuine.

Judge Smyth concluded by saying that whilst no sentence imposed could undo the damage, a custodial sentence was necessary to act as a deterrent.

Handing Anderson an 18-month sentence, Judge Smyth said: "Anyone who drives dangerously, even for a matter of seconds, and causes serious injury or death as a consequence, will go to prison - regardless or their previous good character or mitigation."

Investigating Officer, Sergeant Whiteside, said after the sentence was passed: "Two young lives have been irrevocably changed, along with those of their families and friends.

" The impact is also felt by the individuals who witnessed this awful collision, as well as the first responders at the scene.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the public who rendered immediate, life-saving first aid to Cameron and the ambulance crews who managed to stabilise him sufficiently for him to be moved to hospital for further vital treatment.

"This incident serves as a stark reminder to all of us of the potential consequences of dangerous and careless driving, or driving excess speed, and the terrible consequences that can wrought on the lives of those affected."
PETALUMA, Calif., Feb. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sonoma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SNOA), a specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to identifying, developing and commercializing unique, differentiated therapies to millions of patients living with chronic skin and wound conditions, is pleased to announce that it successfully closed on an asset purchase agreement for certain wound care, disinfection and animal health care products in the Middle East, Australia and Europe for $1.1 million with MicroSafe Group.



Sonomas long-term partnership with MicroSafe in the Middle East has led to the successful growth of sales of Microcyn Technology products in the region. Sonomas unique and versatile Microcyn Technology has, for example, been widely used for wound cleansing and irrigation, as well as a disinfectant for surfaces, such as in Mecca during the Hajj season, to reduce the risk of transmission of infectious diseases. Pursuant to the new agreement, MicroSafe will continue to have the exclusive right to distribute a wide range of wound care and animal health care products in the Middle East and acquire the exclusive right to distribute disinfectant products in Europe and Australia. Sonoma will provide MicroSafe with products for up to ten years at negotiated transfer prices.

We are delighted to continue our partnership with Sonoma and expand our reach across new regions, said Mrs. Safa Qadumi, CEO of MicroSafe Group.

We are pleased to take our partnership with MicroSafe to the next level, said Amy Trombly, CEO of Sonoma. She continued, Our patented Microcyn Technology has improved the lives of millions of patients worldwide and we are excited to work with strong international partners such as MicroSafe to develop and distribute our products.

About Sonoma Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Sonoma Pharmaceuticals is a specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to identifying, developing and commercializing unique, differentiated therapies to millions of patients living with chronic skin conditions. Sonoma offers early-intervention relief with virtually no side-effects or contraindications. The company believes its products, which are sold throughout the United States and internationally, have improved patient outcomes for more than six million patients by treating and reducing certain skin diseases including acne, atopic dermatitis, scarring, infections, itch, pain and harmful inflammatory responses. Sonomas vision is to be a catalyst for improved care and increased access for all patients. The company's headquarters are in Petaluma, California, with manufacturing operations in the United States and Latin America. European marketing and sales are headquartered in Roermond, Netherlands. More information can be found at www.sonomapharma.com.

Story continues

About MicroSafe Group

The MicroSafe Group has operations in several countries with its head office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With several regional offices in the Middle East as well as Australia, MicroSafe Group is able to provide innovative solutions to a wide range of industries and healthcare providers. The MicroSafe Group promotes only those products it believes will truly revolutionize healthcare  products that will enrich the lives of patients and healthcare professionals all over the world. More information can be found at www.microsafe.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Except for historical information herein, matters set forth in this press release are forward-looking within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about the commercial and technology progress and future financial performance of Sonoma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its subsidiaries. These forward-looking statements are identified by the use of words such as continue, and expand, among others. Forward-looking statements in this press release are subject to certain risks and uncertainties inherent in the companys business that could cause actual results to vary, including such risks that regulatory clinical and guideline developments may change, scientific data may not be sufficient to meet regulatory standards or receipt of required regulatory clearances or approvals, clinical results may not be replicated in actual patient settings, protection offered by the companys patents and patent applications may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented by its competitors, the available market for the companys products will not be as large as expected, the companys products will not be able to penetrate one or more targeted markets, revenues will not be sufficient to meet the companys cash needs, fund further development and clinical studies, as well as uncertainties relative to varying product formulations and a multitude of diverse regulatory and marketing requirements in different countries and municipalities, and other risks detailed from time to time in the companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Sonoma Pharmaceuticals and Microcyn are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sonoma Pharmaceuticals, Inc. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.

Media and Investor Contact:



Sonoma Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

ir@sonomapharmaceuticals.com
Q. I bought a house in 2001. I rented it out until retirement and then renovated it to use as my primary residence. I moved out of New Jersey in 2005. The house was destroyed in Sandy, then razed and I sold the lot at a loss in January 2020. I was charged a tax on the sales price. Do I still have to pay the non-resident transfer tax, especially given loss was due to natural disaster?

 Seller

A. There are several taxes to consider when you sell a home, or in your case, land.

When a non-resident of New Jersey sells real estate located in New Jersey, a New Jersey withholding income tax is collected at the time of sale based upon the sale price of the real estate.

This payment is necessary in order to have the deed recorded, said David Ritter, chair of the tax practice at Brach Eichler in Roseland.

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Many people refer to this income tax as a `non-resident transfer tax or as a `New Jersey exit tax but it is neither, Ritter said. It is the normal New Jersey income tax applied to a non-resident who has sold New Jersey real estate.

The tax collection is not the end of the story.

The non-resident is then required to file a non-resident income tax return reporting New Jersey source income, Ritter said. The sale of real estate located in New Jersey is New Jersey source income.

If this sale was the only income earned in New Jersey this would be the only income reported, Ritter said.

He said when reporting the sale, the net income to be taxed is calculated by subtracting the cost basis of the real estate from the sales price. If the cost basis was greater than the sale price then there is no net income subject to income tax, he said.

In that instance the non-resident income tax return would report zero taxable income and zero tax, Ritter said. The payment made at the closing of the sale would be a pre-payment of the tax and would be claimed the similar to wage withholding. Since the payment would exceed the tax due the payment would be refunded.

To calculate your cost basis, based on what you described, it would be the original purchase price reduced by depreciation deductions during the rental period and then reduced by any insurance collected due to the destruction, plus any cost to demolish the structure. There may be other factors that affect the tax basis and an accountant should review the facts to make a final determination, Ritter said.

On the realty transfer fee, Ritter said when real estate is sold, there is a realty transfer fee payable. By custom, the seller generally pays this fee although that can be changed by negotiation and contract.

This transfer fee is payable whether the seller is a resident or a non-resident, and whether the seller is a resident or a non-resident makes no difference in the amount of the fee. The fee must be paid at the time of recording the deed to transfer the property, Ritter said. In certain situations there can be an additional fee which is customarily paid by the buyer. If this fee is applicable, it also must be paid at the time of recording the deed.

Email your questions to Ask@NJMoneyHelp.com.

Karin Price Mueller writes the Bamboozled column for NJ Advance Media and is the founder of NJMoneyHelp.com. Follow NJMoneyHelp on Twitter @NJMoneyHelp. Find NJMoneyHelp on Facebook. Sign up for NJMoneyHelp.coms weekly e-newsletter.
By Will Malcolm





South Korea's economic advancement from an agrarian economy ranked below Bolivia to becoming the 12th-largest economy in the world has not necessarily translated into overall stock market performance, and its companies tend to be undervalued versus their peers  a phenomenon known as the "Korea discount."



One of the ongoing reasons for the discount is the poor corporate governance track record of chaebol, South Korea's family-controlled conglomerates, whose overarching financial power and influence on governments has severely limited minority shareholder rights, strangled competition and frequently led to mismanagement.



President Moon Jae-in rose to power in 2017 on the promise of cleaning up corruption, after his predecessor Park Geun-hye was impeached and sentenced to 25 years in jail for bribery and power abuse. However, more than two years on, material reforms to curb the power of chaebol are notably sparse and the gap between Korea's price-to-book ratio compared to other Asia emerging market stocks has widened.



Chaebol will struggle to compete in this more challenging global environment by continuing under the old regimes. From a macro perspective, there are headwinds to economic growth.



First, the U.S.-China trade war punished South Korean stocks disproportionately. Second, tensions between Seoul and Tokyo are putting more pressure on the economy. Third, the competition for capital in emerging markets is rising. China's efforts to attract foreign investment, for example, could further reduce South Korea's appeal if the necessary corporate reforms don't materialize.



Pressure is also building from within, with chaebol increasingly a source of public unrest. The simmering culminated anger led to the massive candlelit protests in 2016-17. Investor activism is escalating in Korea, now registering the second highest share of activism campaigns in Asia behind Japan.



The ability to reform and improve corporate governance has been held back by domestic political dynamics. Chaebol such as Samsung, for example, have become too big to fail  accounting for as much as 20 percent of the country's GDP.



At a time when the country is battling the persistent problem of unemployment due to a recent minimum wage hike and increasing numbers of elderly people needing to stay in employment, any efforts to curb chaebol power could have unintended consequences for the labor market.



Nevertheless, the government deserves some credit for improvements to corporate governance practice. It introduced a voluntary stewardship code subsequently supported by the state-run National Pension Service (NPS). The NPS owns a material stake in over 80 companies in the KOSPI and it has to be hoped that such a large institutional investor could influence corporate behavior for the better.



The new stewardship code has also had an impact in other ways. For instance, all 200 companies listed on the KOSPI submitted corporate governance reports in 2018. Companies are unwinding their cross-shareholding structures and dividend payout ratios are increasing.



Despite these improvements, investor access to company boards to discuss environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues remains a challenge. Among many major chaebol, the next generation of company leaders is coming through the ranks. With a change in leadership, investors may have more opportunities to engage.



There is also concern that far too many proposals are either stuck or moving very slowly through the National Assembly process. The Moon administration is also proposing policy changes that have the potential to undermine its efforts to reduce cross-shareholding among chaebol, such as a dual-class share system intended for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) but could also allow chaebol like Samsung to do the same.



Companies often require a catalyst for change, and their behavior and understanding of corporate governance are improving dramatically. For example, they are engaging more with shareholders and understand international investors' expectations.



They also recognize that improved corporate governance adds value. If shares go up, the families with effective control over these companies become wealthier. This should be a reasonable argument to precipitate change.



There is the added advantage of having these shifts in corporate attitudes coincide with regulation and shareholder pressure. The government certainly has a lot of power to implement reforms, but it cannot do it alone  it needs institutional shareholders to play their part.



This won't happen overnight. There is a degree of cynicism in the market that often culminates in shareholders dumping Korean stocks in reaction to disappointing governance events, rather than using them as reasons to engage. Without a stake in the stock, shareholders lose their ability to influence. That said, instances of foreign voting and engagement are increasing, though not always with all minority shareholders on the same side.



The narrowing of the discount in South Korean stocks  if it manifests  will be a slow burn. In effect, companies need to change their spots, either willingly or being dragged through it by way of engagement or regulations.



Rather than systematically overweighing the index, investors may be better off targeting companies making the right improvements in their corporate governance structures  Hyundai and Samsung are moving in the right direction.



There are also positive changes stemming from the engagement efforts of institutional investors. This, combined with more momentum behind the reform efforts from a regulatory and legislative perspective, means there is an argument for some South Korean stocks to have a higher rating.





Will Malcolm is portfolio manager for emerging market equities at Aviva Investors.


Re A Victorian fixer-upper with a Cold War twist, Feb. 24

I have no idea if, or when, any officials of the City of Toronto ever actually occupied Auroras Diefenbunker, but let me tell you that if they had, and a nuclear weapon had struck Toronto, their chances of survival would have been very poor to nil.

In the mid 80s, I, along with several other military officers, were tasked to revive the underground bunker at CFB Borden, so as to accommodate members and limited staff of the provincial government in the event of a catastrophic (nuclear) event ever affecting the GTA and (to) act as a command centre for an extended period of time.

Over several months, we worked diligently, wrote comprehensive operating procedures and a host of other documents, put them all in place, then invited the premier and cabinet of the day to practice a drill whereby they would evacuate Queens Park and occupy what was designated as The Regional Emergency Government Headquarters. A similar project took place at the Halifax NS REGHQ.

Guess what?

The Ontario government rejected the invitation.

No reason was given.
Leaders of all religions prayed for peace at the end of the Ash Wednesday Mass. A strong and spontaneous appeal for peace and solidarity between people. The toll of religious violence has risen to 38 dead. Lent, a time of "penitential love, sacrifices and mutual help". The anti Modi Chief Minister will pay the costs for the injured and victims.

New Delhi (AsiaNews) - "Let's love each other, especially in this time of Lent," to overcome religious violence resulting from protests over the new citizenship law appeals Msgr. Anil JT Couto, Archbishop of Delhi.

Today the toll of the clashes that have engulfed the north-east of the capital has risen to 38 dead. The demonstrations, underlines the bishop to AsiaNews, risk ruining "this sacred period that precedes the resurrection of Christ, which is instead the time in which we demonstrate that we help each other, the time in which we make sacrifices and reflect on eternal life".

On February 26, Ash Wednesday, Msgr. Couto took part in an interreligious prayer for peace together with spiritual leaders of various religions. He said that at the end of the mass in the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart "we met in a completely spontaneous way outside the church, where other people had already gathered, and we all prayed together". With him were: the swami Parmanand; Paramjit Singh Chandok, president of the Gurudwara Bangla Sahib (Sikh); Acharya Lokesh Muni, Jain guru; Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, chief imam of the All India Imam Organization.

Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Jain representatives renewed the appeal "for peace and non-violence" and to "follow the path of mutual love". The prelate notes: We do not know who caused the violence. It has resulted in many injuries and deaths, including a police inspector. " Then he stresses: "Peace must prevail, as well as unity and harmony. We must emphasize the brotherhood that exists between us. Religion must not divide society, but must unite us with one another. "

Following the four-day clashes, the police arrested 130 people, detained another 400 and filed complaints against 48. Yesterday, the first citizen Arvind Kejriwal announced that the Delhi government will pay the medical costs of all the injured, including those hospitalized in private health facilities and will offer compensation to both relatives of the victims and those who have lost shops and other properties in the assaults on the neighborhoods in the north-east of the city, where the violence took place.

India, highlights Msgr. Couto, "is the nation of unity in diversity. We must learn to love and respect each other, as the values of our Constitution also affirm . For this reason, he adds, "at the end of the meeting we decided that all the Sikh churches and Gurdwara of the capital will remain open to provide assistance to the victims of the revolt, regardless of belief and any other factor."

In addition, on the hottest days of the violence, the Delhi gurdwara, a few meters from the cathedral, provided ambulances, first aid material and free meals and the Church also provided help. This, explains the archbishop, "is the way we want to show that we will never stop showing our unity and solidarity to all people".

Lent, concludes the bishop, "is the time when we have the opportunity to do penance and sacrifice, reach out and console the suffering and show compassion to all people, regardless of individual belief. It is the time to witness penitential love. That's why we have to help each other in every possible way. " (A.C.F.)
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, speaks with US Air Force Lieutenant General John Thompson, commander Space and Missile Systems Center commander at Space Pitch Day in San Francisco, California. US Air Force

ORLANDO, Fla.,  Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk predicted Friday that the future of war would be carried out by autonomous drones and not by legacy aircraft. "The fighter jet era has passed," Musk said during a fireside chat with U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. John Thompson at the Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida. "Drone warfare is where the future will be. It's not that I want the future to be  it's just, this is what the future will be," he added.

Musk also said that Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet, which is the Pentagon's most expensive weapons system, should have a competitor. "The Joint Strike Fighter, there should be a competitor ... that's a controversial subject but I don't think it's good to have one provider," Musk said. He later elaborated on Twitter that the F-35 competitor should be a drone. "The competitor should be a drone fighter plane that's remote-controlled by a human, but with its maneuvers augmented by autonomy. The F-35 would have no chance against it," he wrote.

Throughout his discussion with Thompson, Musk warned that the United States was at risk of falling behind other nations if it did not prioritize innovation. "This is not something that was a risk in times past but is a risk now," Musk said. "I have zero doubt that if the United States doesn't seek innovation in space it will be second in space."

A U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter approaches at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. U.S. Air Force photo by Samuel King Jr.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos testifies during a Senate Committee discussing proposed budget estimates and justification for FY2020 for the Education Department in Washington on March 28, 2019. (Zach Gibson/Getty Images)

Education Department Creates Task Force to Help Parents, Schools Respond to Coronavirus

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced Thursday that her department is assembling a task force to respond to the potential impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) on American schools.

DeVos made the announcement during a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on President Donald Trumps proposed education budget for fiscal year 2021. When asked by Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) if there is any coordination between the Department of Education and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that would allow parents and schools to obtain the resources and information they need, DeVos responded that a task force has been set up.

It was revealed during the hearing that the task force would be led by Mick Zais, the deputy secretary of education.

Ive convened a task force within the Department and have asked my Deputy Secretary Mick Zais to head that task force to ensure we have our continuance policies and every plan in place for work in and through the Department, DeVos said.

We continue to work with the other agencies across government to ensure that we are prepared to respond and react and do as we should, she told the lawmakers.

In the wake of more COVID-19 cases in the United States, the CDC is urging parents to begin preparing for what might happen if COVID-19 worsens. K-12 schools across the country are being advised to develop plans for dismissals and closures, as well as moving their courses online.

You should think about what you would do for childcare if schools or day cares close, said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, during a Feb. 26 telebriefing. I had a conversation with my family over breakfast this morning and I told my children that while I didnt think that they were at risk right now, we as a family need to be preparing for significant disruption of our lives.

You should ask your childrens school about their plans for school dismissals or school closures, she said. Ask if there are plans for teleschool.

Earlier this week, the president said he agreed that American schools should be ready for a worse scenario.

Every aspect of our society should be prepared, said Trump at a White House press conference. I think schools should be preparing and get ready, just in case. The words are just in case. We dont think were going to be there. We dont think were going to be anywhere close.
AUSTIN -- Bernie Sanders may have drawn a maelstrom of criticism from Florida Hispanics following his comments on Fidel Castro. But he remains an attractive choice for Texas Latinos.

The Vermont senator leads all Democratic primary challengers among Latino voters in Texas, according to a poll released Friday by Univision Noticias and the University of Houstons Center for Mexican American Studies. Sanders garnered 31% of Latino support in Texas, followed by media mogul Mike Bloomberg with 23% and former Vice President Joe Biden with 19%, according to the poll.

Sanders also did best in head-to-head scenarios against President Donald Trump, beating out the president 65% to 25% among Texas Latinos, besting other candidates by at least 8 percentage points. Texas Latino voters also disapprove of the current president, 62% to 38%, the poll said.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., right, with his wife Jane, speaks during a campaign event in San Antonio, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Texans head to the polls on Tuesday as part of Super Tuesday primary elections, when the states 228 delegates will be up for grabs for Democrats. Latino are expected to play a significant role in that and in the presidential election in the fall.

More: Why is Super Tuesday so important? What's a delegate? And what happens at a brokered convention?

Another telling result from the poll: 80% of respondents said they would almost certain and probably vote in the presidential election this fall.

Thats extremely high and highlights a lot of enthusiasm for the primary next week, said Jeronimo Cortina, associate director at the Center for Mexican American Studies who helped lead the survey.

Sanders also leads among all voters in Texas

Univision/UH also released a survey of overall Texan voters. Similarly, in that poll, Sanders drew the most support at 26%, followed by Bloomberg and Biden, who tied at 20%, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren with 11%. Pollsters interviewed 1,004 Texas registered voters overall, including 504 Latinos. Margin of error was +/- 3.1 percentage points for overall voters, and +/- 4.4 percentage points for the Latino group.

Story continues

For Novembers general election, a record 32 million Latinos across the USA are projected to be eligible to vote, eclipsing the number of black eligible voters for the first time, according to the Pew Research Center.

In Texas, there are 5.6 million Latino eligible voters, second only to California's 7.9 million, and Latinos make up nearly one-third of eligible voters in both states, among the highest shares in the nation, according to the center.

Sanders appeared to bruise his chances with some Latino groups when, in an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, he criticized the authoritarian nature of the Castro regime but praised the communist islands literacy program overseen by Castro. Latinos in South Florida  mostly Cubans  railed against the comments, calling them insensitive. Florida is also home to scores of Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, who fled similar socialist regimes in their countries.

But Latinos in Texas, predominately of Mexican origin, dont have the same connections to those parts of Latin America and were far less moved by Sanders' comments, Cortina said. The differences between Floridas and Texass Latino populations underscore the diverse and complicated nature of Hispanic voters across the country, who support different issues and dont always agree on candidates, he said.

You cannot say, the Latino electorate, per se. That doesnt exist, Cortina said. Its a mosaic rather than a homogeneous voting bloc.

What's behind Sanders' support?

The Univision/UH survey also ranked lowering health care costs, improving wages and creating more jobs as the top three issues for Texas Latino voters. Of those polled, 60% of respondents said they would vote for the Democratic nominee in the general election, even if their preferred candidate doesnt get the nod.

Andy Canales, Houston-based chairman of Latino Texas PAC, which focuses on electing more Latinos and Latinas to public office across Texas, said Sanders is doing so well in Texas because hes focused on one of the top issues among Latinos here: affordable healthcare. Nearly 18% of Texans dont have health insurance, the highest uninsured rate in the nation, according to U.S. Census Bureau report.

Sanders' consistent narrative of bringing affordable health care to every American and arguing that the system is set up to benefit companies rather than people strikes a chord with Latino voters, including his Salvadorian parents, who are naturalized citizens and eligible to vote, Canales said.

People like my parents are nodding their heads when they listen to him, he said. He's been articulating these premises for a long time.

Democratic presidential candidates have been paying increased attention to Texas this year, more so than in years past, and have reached out specifically to Texas Latinos. Bloomberg launched TV ads in Spanish as part of his multi-million-dollar media blitz in the state, and Warrens campaign organized events in places like Laredo and Brownsville to mine often-overlooked voters in the Rio Grande Valley.

Sanders, too, celebrated his win in last week's Nevada caucuses with a weekend tour through Texas, holding a rally in Austin, visiting a rodeo in Dallas and speaking at a dance hall in San Antonio.

Angelica Razo, state director of Mi Familia Vota Texas, a nonpartisan civic engagement group, said she has felt the buzz of the upcoming Democratic primary and general election among Latino voters in Texas. Turnout will depend on whether candidates strike the right message or do enough to make themselves known among Hispanics.

"Candidates shouldnt be dismissive of the Latino vote in Texas," Razo said. "Theres a lot of political power we hold here in Texas."

Follow Jervis on Twitter: @MrRJervis.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Super Tuesday: Bernie Sanders leads among Texas Latinos in new poll
By Bay City News

Santa Clara County has its third confirmed case of coronavirus, officials said Friday.

The county's Public Health Department will hold a news conference regarding the new case of COVID-19, otherwise known as the novel coronavirus, at 4 p.m. Friday at 2220 Moorpark Ave. in San Jose.

No information about the new case of infection was immediately available.

Dr. Sara Cody, the county's director of public health, along with Dr. Jeff Smith, the county executive, will attend the press conference, along with other local, state and federal public health officials, including representatives from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the State of California Public Health Department and more.

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.
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"With technology constantly evolving and streamlining processes, the healthcare industry is shifting under the pressure to make provider access instant and intuitive, said Kevin Montgomery, CTO of Relatient.

Relatient, a leader in patient-centered engagement software, announces CTO, Kevin Montgomery, as a speaker alongside Oklahoma Heart Hospitals Lead Software Architect, Jonathan Minson, at HIMSS20. Montgomery and Minson will present on the shift in the healthcare industry regarding patient engagement, and how Relatient and Oklahoma Heart Hospital partnered to drastically improve patient-provider communication and outcomes.

With technology constantly evolving and streamlining processes, the healthcare industry is shifting under the pressure to make provider access instant and intuitive, said Kevin Montgomery, CTO of Relatient. At HIMSS, Jonathan Minson and I will speak on best practices for driving patient engagement, improving transparency, and opening a digital front door for patients. Oklahoma Heart Hospital has its own story to offer in this regard, including how they save almost one million dollars annually as a result of their patient engagement initiative.

As other industries have opened their digital front doors, patients now expect providers to be easily accessible to schedule an appointment, receive lab results or make payments; and its up to healthcare systems to respond to these expectations.

Montgomery and Minson will address the gap between what patients anticipate from their providers and the current state of ambulatory healthcare, industry dynamics that either damage or benefit patient engagement, Oklahoma Heart Hospitals success in strategy for driving patient engagement, as well as other learning objectives.

Oklahoma Heart Hospital was a pioneer in digital technology when we first opened our doors 20 years ago, said Jonathan Minson, Lead Software Architect of Oklahoma Heart Hospital. Weve long been aware of the increasing expectations of patients and the demand this places on healthcare systems. Im excited to discuss how Oklahoma Heart Hospital has met this challenge by improving the patient experience while still creating greater operational efficiency.

Montgomery and Minson will present at HIMSS20, located at the Orange County Convention Center, room W303A on Thursday, March 12 at 1 p.m.

Relatient is a SaaS-based patient-centered engagement company that utilizes a modern and mobile-first approach to improve patient and provider communication. The company was recently named the 2020 KLAS Category Leader in patient outreach.

About Relatient

Relatient, Inc., the 2020 KLAS Category Leader in patient outreach, is a SaaS-based patient-centered engagement company that utilizes a modern and mobile-first approach to improve patient and provider communication. On behalf of U.S. medical practices and health systems, Relatient engaged patients with more than 132 million messages in 2019. Relatients platform integrates with over 85 practice management systems and electronic health databases to drive operational efficiency, appointments and reviews, reduce no-shows, speed patient payments, and improve patient satisfaction, all while supporting health and care quality initiatives. For more information, visit http://www.relatient.net.

About The Oklahoma Heart Hospital

The Oklahoma Heart Hospital (OHH) is a physician-owned hospital dedicated to providing excellence in quality and healthcare. Designed by cardiologists, OHH empowers cardiovascular specialists to bring world-class medical expertise and compassion to the care of every patient. OHH is the first of its kind in Oklahoma, the first all-digital hospital in the United States and has repeatedly been ranked first in the nation for patient satisfaction scores. OHH has two primary locations in the OKC metro  the North and South hospital campuses  as well as a network of more than 70 cardiovascular specialists at more than 60 clinic and hospital locations across the state. OHH remains at the cutting edge of advancements in heart health as one of the largest cardiovascular research sites in the nation. For more information about OHH, visit http://www.okheart.com.
Senior ICT Support Assistant, Vienna, Austria

Organization: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)

Country: Austria

City: Vienna, Austria

Office: OSCE Vienna

Closing date: Tuesday, 10 March 2020

Issued by: OSCE Secretariat

Vacancy number: VNSECG01519

Vacancy type: Local Contracted

Field of expertise: Information Technology and Information Management

Grade: G6

Number of posts: 1

Duty station: Vienna

Date of issue: 24 February 2020

Deadline for application: 10 March 2020 - 23: 59 Central European Time (CET/CEST)

Date of entry on duty: 1 July 2020

Background

The OSCE has a comprehensive approach to security that encompasses politico-military, economic and environmental, and human aspects. It therefore addresses a wide range of security-related concerns, including arms control, confidence- and security-building measures, human rights, combating human trafficking, national minorities, democratization, policing strategies, counter-terrorism and economic and environmental activities. All 57 participating States enjoy equal status, and decisions are taken by consensus on a politically, but not legally binding basis.

The OSCE Secretariat in Vienna assists the Chairmanship in its activities, and provides operational and administrative support to the field operations, and, as appropriate, to other institutions.

The Department of Management and Finance (DMF) is responsible for managing the material and financial resources of the Organization. The objective of DMF is to provide efficient and effective management of non-staff resources in support of OSCE programmatic activities. It provides policy guidance on the management of OSCE financial and material resources and develops and maintains OSCE Financial Regulations and Rules and Financial Administrative Instructions. DMF consists of Budget and Finance Services, Mission Support Section, Information and Communication Technology Section and the Information Security and Co-ordination Unit.

Information and Communications Technology Services (ICTS) ensures efficient, available, and cost-effective management, operation and utilisation of Information Technology (IT) in support of the core business of the OSCE. This comprises activities associated with co-ordination, operation, management, development and implementation of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) supported projects and infrastructure.

The OSCE Action Plan for the Promotion of Gender Equality is committed to further improving gender balance among staff in all areas and levels within the OSCE. Currently female staff in the above-mentioned field of expertise is underrepresented, and are therefore encouraged to apply for this opportunity.

Tasks and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Chief Service and Support and the overall guidance of the Deputy Director ICT, as Senior ICT Support Assistant, you will be a member of the ICT Service and Support Team. You will provide IT service desk support to OSCE staff, delegations and participating States members and will support in sustaining the use of office automation and multimedia equipment.

More specifically, you will be tasked with the following:

Focusing on IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes, providing Service Desk services; identifying, assessing and solving and/or escalating software and hardware related problems to second and/or third level; and managing and operating the ITIL based Service Desk tool; Providing classroom and virtual training on selected IT services; preparing ongoing instruction materials and performing in-house demo sessions; Creating and managing Active Directory objects; managing, group policies, producing scripts and templates to automate routine tasks, reporting on non-compliance events and performing regular security audits; Contributing to the endpoint architecture strategy, implementing the patch management policy and evaluating security updates for environment compatibility; establishing client standards and designing robust and scalable client solutions; Managing client hardware and software in accordance with the OSCE ICT Standards; diagnosing problems and monitoring non-standard usage; Performing technical evaluations and vendor assessments to ensure cost-effective and efficient operations; ensuring vendor performance is in accordance to the contractual obligations; conducting to annual vendor evaluation; Performing other job-related duties as assigned.

For more detailed information on the structure and work of the OSCE Secretariat, please see //www.osce.org/secretariat>https: //www.osce.org/secretariat

Necessary Qualifications

Secondary education or technical school combined with formal professional training in IT; MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) certification in MCDST (Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician), MCSA (Microsoft Certified Solution Associate) or Microsoft Office Specialist is a strong asset;

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) Foundation certification is necessary;

Minimum of six years of work experience in Help Desk/ICT duties;

Direct experience with and advanced knowledge of Windows 7/10 system administration and maintenance, including deep knowledge of the registry, file system, processes, services, and security;

Minimum of five years of work experience in application packaging technologies (MSI, Admin Studio, App-V);

Established experience in Active Directory and Group Policy administration; experience in scripting/automation using PowerShell, VBS, etc.

Good experience in ITIL processes, familiarity with continuous improvement approach with a view to maximize efficiencies;

Knowledge or familiarity with mobility services and mobile device management and troubleshooting;

Excellent written and oral communication skills in English; knowledge of other OSCE languages would be an asset;

Interpersonal skills and ability to interact and work with staff at all levels;

Excellent work ethic; must be able and willing to be a productive, reliable, and collaborative team member;

Commitment to internal client and customer service principles; ability to project professionalism over the phone and in person;

Excellent time management skills, with the ability to prioritize and multi-task, and work under shifting deadlines in a fast-paced environment;

Tags active directory democratization financial regulations financial resources gender perspective help desk human rights information and communications technology information security information technology library office automation oral communication time management

Demonstrated gender awareness and sensitivity, as well as the ability to integrate a gender perspective into tasks and activities;

Experience of working in a multilateral/multicultural environment; ability to establish and maintain effective work relations with different cultural and national backgrounds.

Required competencies

Core values

Commitment: Actively contributes to achieving organizational goals

Diversity: Respects others and values their diverse perspectives and contributions

Integrity: Acts in a manner consistent with the Organizations core values and organizational principles

Accountability: Takes responsibility for own action and delegated work

Core competencies

Communication: Actively works to achieve clear and transparent communication with colleagues and with stakeholders of the Organization

Collaboration: Works effectively with others on common goals and fosters a positive, trust-based working environment

Planning: Works towards the achievement of goals in a structured and measured manner

Analysis and decision-making: Analyses available information, draws well-founded conclusions and takes appropriate decisions

Initiative-taking: Proposes and initiates new ideas, activities and projects

Flexibility: Responds positively and effectively to changing circumstances

Managerial competencies (for positions with managerial responsibilities)

Leadership: Provides a clear sense of direction, builds trust and creates an enabling environment

Strategic thinking: Identifies goals that advance the organizational agenda and develops plans for achieving them

Managing performance: Helps to maximize team performance by providing active feedback and skill development opportunities

Remuneration Package

Monthly remuneration, subject to social security deduction, is EUR 4,487 (12 times a year). OSCE salaries are exempt from taxation in Austria. Social benefits will include possibility of participation in the Cigna medical insurance scheme and the OSCE Provident Fund.

Please note that appointments are normally made at step 1 of the applicable OSCE salary scale.

How To Apply

If you wish to apply for this position, please use the OSCEs online application link found under //jobs.osce.org/vacancies>https: //jobs.osce.org/vacancies.

The OSCE retains the discretion to re-advertise/re-post the vacancy, to cancel the recruitment, to offer an appointment at a lower grade or to offer an appointment with a modified job description or for a different duration.

Only those applicants who are selected to participate in the subsequent stages of recruitment will be contacted.

Please note that vacancies in the OSCE are open for competition only amongst nationals of participating States, please see //www.osce.org/states>http: //www.osce.org/states.

The OSCE is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all religious, ethnic and social backgrounds to apply to become a part of the Organization.

Please note that for this position the OSCE does not reimburse expenses such as travel in connection with interviews, tests, visas and relocation.

Please be aware that the OSCE does not request payment at any stage of the application and review process.
BEIJING, Feb. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The impact of coronavirus has sent shock waves across global markets with Chinese private businesses struggling to stay afloat. In February 2020, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business' (CKGSB) Business Conditions Index (BCI) has fallen to a shocking all-time low of 37.3 from 56.2 just the month before. The BCI is widely followed as a key indicator of Chinese executives' sentiment on China's macroeconomic environment.

This month's data shows that sales and profit forecasts have plummeted. Companies lack business, or have not yet resumed work and therefore have no revenue. There is a reliance on warehoused goods as companies cannot produce new goods. Labor and overall costs have fallen which could lead to deflation. This month's investment and recruitment indices, which have stayed relatively high for a long time, fell to around 43 this month. Companies are no longer considering expansion as they have in the past. Instead, they are expecting contraction, which usually leads to economic downtown.

Since December 2019, an outbreak of a novel coronavirus has stopped China in its tracks. This month's BCI survey includes an additional four questions about the outbreak. 45% of companies surveyed have been unable to resume work. The return of employees is directly related to the epidemic as well as preventative measures put in place by the government. Most importantly, most companies believe they will not be able to get back up to speed by the end of February. 61% of companies believe their production capacity will not recover more than 60% by the end of the month.

Professor Li states, "We were psychologically prepared for poor results to this month's CKGSB BCI, but the actual figures are worse than we had imagined. This month's BCI reached a historic low, reflecting the extreme pressure faced by Chinese companies. To save the economy, there is an urgent need to improve China's business climate."

About CKGSB's Business Conditions Index

In June 2011, the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business Case Center and the Center for Economic Research initiated a project to gauge the business sentiment of executives about the macro-economic environment in China  called an index of business conditions. The CKGSB Business Conditions Index is a set of forward-looking, diffusion indices. The survey asks roughly 300+ senior executives of companies whether their main products are for consumers or non-consumers, and then asks how they think product prices will change in the next six months.

Link: https://english.ckgsb.edu.cn/worldwide/the-ckgsb-business-conditions-index/

SOURCE Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB)
PETER Nygard often said he was proud of his roots in Finland. But some members of Winnipegs Finnish community were not so proud of Nygard.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PETER Nygard often said he was proud of his roots in Finland. But some members of Winnipegs Finnish community were not so proud of Nygard.

A Finnish-Canadian woman from the Winnipeg area  whose family visited Nygards Falcon Lake cottage when she was a child  told the Free Press recent sexual assault allegations against Nygard come as no surprise to Finnish people in Winnipeg. Another Finnish-Canadian woman, who worked for him, said the same.

The first woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said her father worked "very closely" with Nygard at his company for more than 20 years and he set a strict rule for her not to go near Nygard as a young child.

"He is a very bad man with women and you need to stay away from him, promise me that," she remembers her father saying.

The woman said she and Nygards families spent "quite a bit" of time together and she remembers playing with his kids at his cottage. Nygard has fathered seven children with four women.

"Ive known for decades that this has been going on," she said about the allegations.

Nygard has repeatedly told how he emigrated from Finland with his parents when he was 11 years old, settling at first in Deloraine. The Winnipeg-based fashion mogul now faces allegations of sexual assault, human trafficking and rape, some brought forward by women alleged to be underage at the time of the offences and some dating back to the 1980s. In 1980, Nygard was charged with rape in Winnipeg but the charge was later stayed when the 18-year-old woman refused to testify.

Nygard, through his lawyer, has vigorously denied all accusations of sexual assault.

"I think its been a well-known thing and I personally know some family friends have been threatened by him when they speak out against him," the first woman said. "So people have been afraid."

She said she knows several women who came to Winnipeg from Finland to work for Nygard. "Nobody ever lasted too long," she added.

The second woman, who also asked for anonymity, told the Free Press she came from Finland to work for Nygard in 1980 and worked at the company for 18 months.

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She said he advertised a "once in a lifetime opportunity" in a Finnish newspaper, but when she started her job as a pattern maker, she was not paid the money she was promised and had to work 16-hour days without being paid overtime. "I wasnt used to somebody using me like a slave," she said.

Nygard has been accused of abusive labour practices over the years and in 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered him to back-pay one of his employees more than $10,000 of unpaid overtime.

The woman also said she remembers Nygard making "stupid" jokes and that she heard stories of him acting inappropriately.

"He was kind of a womanizer," she said. "He liked to use women."

She said many Finnish women are happy the recent allegations have come out.

city.desk@freepress.mb.ca
An orderly handover from Mahathir to Anwar was promised within two years. Anwar's prize was so close he could almost touch it. But the date began to slip, distrust grew and the coalition found that governing was harder than it looked. Which brings us back to this week and the spectacular implosion of the Alliance of Hope, amid claim and counter-claim of betrayal, over-weaning ambition and power grabs. Anwar Ibrahim speaks during a press conference at the headquarters of the Alliance of Hope after meeting the king in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Wednesday. Credit:AP The breakdown and collapse of this government has been months in the making. And it's almost impossible to believe that after the last two decades, the two men are now on opposing sides once again. Their supporters have never quite trusted each other - despite the confident public face put on by both men - and suspicion had grown that Mahathir favoured the younger Azmin Ali, economic affairs minister and Anwar's own deputy in their half of the coalition - to take over.

Yvonne Tew, an expert on Malaysian constitutional law and politics and a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, likens the contest between Mahathir and Anwar to two TV series: it's "somewhere in between Game of Thrones and The Crown". She pauses for a moment, then adds it can also be compared to a Greek drama, in that "it could end in redemption or tragedy". "While Australians may have seen contests like this over the last decade, situations like we have now - where it is not clear who commands a clear majority and what to do about that - place Malaysia in uncharted territory on the federal government level," she says. "It's hugely unclear what is going to happen. ... We are in a situation where the options are, first, Anwar manages to command a majority of parliament; second, that someone else has a majority ..., or if no one manages to command an absolute majority parliament could be dissolved."

It was Sunday night when the government collapsed. Azmin's sub-faction of 11 MPs met with the opposition UMNO party, the Islamist PAS, members of Mahathir's Bersatu party (though not the prime minister)and other minor parties. The plan was to re-install Mahathir as prime minister leading a new unity government, but Mahathir wasn't having it. One of the reasons he returned from retirement was to take down UMNO, which has been beset by allegations of corruption relating to the 1MDB scandal. From there, matters quickly spiralled out of control. Mahathir quit, but was quickly appointed interim prime minister by the Malaysian King. The coalition and the opposition parties all declared they wanted Mahathir to be their prime minister. It was like the Liberal and Labor parties fighting over an un-retired John Howard or Bob Hawke. The King spent Tuesday and Wednesday interviewing all 222 MPs over whom they supported.

As the hours ticked by under the hot sun outside the palace, the King brought an enormous delivery of McDonald's meals out to the assembled press pack, asking for time and patience as he did his job. It was a moment of levity in a political showdown the likes of which Malaysia - accustomed to huge political protests but not constitutional crises - has not seen. Malaysia's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, centre, hands out food parcels to journalists camped outside the palace following the resignation of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. Credit:AP At the time of writing, Anwar had the highest number of backers, 92 votes, still short of the 112 required for a majority in the lower house. Both the opposition and the coalition had dropped their calls to be led by Mahathir. That reversal took about 24 hours - and it wasn't even close to the most dramatic reversal of the week. The uncertainty grew on Friday after the speaker of parliament said he had rejected a request from Mahathir for a special session next week to choose a new prime minister. Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof said he had received a letter from Mahathir requesting a special session on Monday, but it would not happen without an order from the king, Reuters reported. Malaysia's nine monarchs, led by the king, began a meeting on Friday to determine how the next government will be formed. The palace did not say when the decision would be announced, or if they would confirm Monday for the vote or outline another procedure.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age has spoken to MPs, staffers and politics watchers from across the spectrum of parties and it seems like no one really knows what will happen next. The situation is somewhere between a bonfire of the political vanities and a circus. The opposition, which has about 60 MPs, wants an election. They would fancy their chances of winning. Mahathir, who has perhaps 65 MPs, wants a government of national unity. Anwar, after so long, wants to be prime minister. Loading

No one can say with certainty how this will end. And the instability is hurting the local stock market, damaging confidence in the country and throwing up questions about the very compact upon which Malaysia was founded. Amrita Malhi, a Malaysian politics expert from the Australian National University, says the contest is fundamentally about a contest between multi-racial and Malay-majority politics. The former UMNO government, for decades, pursued policies that favoured the Muslim Malay-majority. But the Alliance of Hope was elected to represent not just Muslim Malays but also the approximately 30 per cent of people who are (mostly) either ethnically Chinese or from the sub-continent - who Malays argue have an outsized say in the economy, despite decades of pro-Malay discrimination policies. "There is a constituency that would be pleased that minorities are put back in their place," Malhi says, alluding to the outcome if the alliance and Anwar are swept aside and some version of the former government is returned. "For people who invested hope in the former, their hopes would be dashed."

Anwar and his coalition are unlikely to want an election. The two-year-old coalition government still has a broad program of reforms to implement - and voters would mark it down for the events of the last week. Anwar supporters - loyally chanting outside party HQ on Wednesday as they have done for more than 20 years - may be about to see their man once more denied the chance to lead the country. But nothing is certain. As one veteran observer in Kuala Lumpur said of the two men: "their mutual animosity could bring about their mutually assured destruction". Loading Conversely, while Mahathir and Anwar might come to oppose each other, there are incentives for both to scrambling together some kind of agreement before Monday. As unlikely as it might seem, this would allow Mahathir to fulfil his wish to chair a second APEC meeting in Kuala Lumpur in November and go out on his own terms.
It just keeps getting worse for Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Mark Tranquilli.

After his racial comments calling a juror in a criminal drug case Aunt Jemima came out in January, he was re-assigned and many of his other cases as both a judge and prosecutor came under scrutiny.

Now, court transcripts of those cases show Tranquillis racial insensitivity didnt stop with comparisons to the stereotyped pancake syrup symbol.

As KDKA in Pittsburgh reports, Tranquilli also made the following controversial and racially tinged comments during court cases or conferences:

Transcripts of other cases obtained by KDKA include this exchange from a sentencing of an unmarried African American mother of two from different fathers on drug charges:

Tranquilli: So, are you familiar with the phrase, If you lay down with dogs, you wake up with fleas? Have you ever heard that before in your life?

Defendant: I have.

Tranquilli: So now you have laid down twice with dogs, but you have woken up with two lovely children, probably two lovely children Im betting you probably were not planning on. And for the cost of three shiny quarters in any bathroom in any rest stop in Pennsylvania, you probably could have gone in a different direction.

Defense Attorney William Difenderfer blasted the judges comments in an interview with KDKA, saying:

Telling a woman for three shiny quarters, you could have gone in a different direction  read between the lines  had you used protection youd be much better off without those two children. Really? As a judge, youre saying that?

In another case, Tranquilli tells a young black man convicted of possessing a stolen gun that same thing and he advises him no to procreate, according to KDKA, citing court transcripts:

Tranquilli: Do you have any children?

Defendant: No, sir.

Tranquilli: Well, youre a young man. I think probably we should keep it that wayI am not saying that because I am not a family man. I have three kids of my own. My parents got married when they were 20 because they had to because my mother got in trouble. They got married and it didnt last long. You know, so keep your eye on the ball.

Clearly, the judge has done much more than stick his foot in his mouth here. Defense attorney Difenderfer tells KDKA he has shown his bias.

Isnt that wonderful? Thats just who I want to be in front of as a defendant, Difenderfer said.

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The first group of Manned Orbiting Laboratory astronauts poses in front of a model of the Titan III-M launch vehicle. Al Crews is at center.

A half-century ago, on a warm July evening, Albert Crews was sitting in front of a television set in his California home, sharing a communal experience with millions of others around the globe: watching Neil Armstrong take humanity's first steps on the moon.

As Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin explored the lunar surface, Crews was left to ponder: What if?

He had twice been selected as an astronaut, twice been extensively trained to pilot spacecraft into orbit, and twice had his space projects canceled, the second one terminated just weeks before the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing .

Related: Manned Orbiting Laboratory: Inside a US military space station

Col. Albert H. "Al" Crews Jr., circa 1960. Crews was a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, a graduate of the Air Force Experimental Test Pilot School, an X-20 Dyna-Soar pilot/astronaut, and a Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) astronaut. (Image credit: Image courtesy of Al Hallonquist.)

Albert Hanlin "Al" Crews Jr. was born in 1929 in El Dorado, Arkansas. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering at the University of Southwestern Louisiana and, following graduation in 1950, joined the U.S. Air Force. Trained as a pilot, Crews was assigned to a fighter squadron, based in Tripoli, Libya, for about 2  years.

Crews enrolled in graduate school to study aeronautical engineering. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik . NASA selected the seven original Mercury astronauts . Al Crews knew what he wanted to do next.

"When NASA picked the seven (Mercury) astronauts, that impressed me. I decided then that I wanted to be an astronaut," Crews said.

At that time, the only path to outer space ran through the birthplace of "The Right Stuff," California's Edwards Air Force Base. Crews applied, and was accepted, into the highly competitive Air Force Experimental Test Pilot School, graduating in 1960.

"The Air Force nearly always picked people out of Fighter Test at Edwards for the space program or anything special like that," Crews recalled.

"Usually the top two or three in the (test pilot) class would stay at Edwards," he added. When we went to work at Test Ops, whoever had been there the longest got the first choice of an assignment."

An artist's concept of the X-20 Dyna-Soar spacecraft launching atop a Titan III booster. Dyna-Soar would be launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, reenter the atmosphere, and glide to a landing on the dry lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Original plans called for the first crewed flight to take place in August 1965. (Image credit: Boeing, All Rights Reserved, Used with Permission.)

That assignment turned out to be the Air Force's embryonic space plane, named "Dyna-Soar," which was somewhat of a cross between a twin-tailed, delta-winged fighter jet and NASA's future space shuttle.

Conceived in the late 1950s, Dyna-Soar was to be cutting-edge technology, constructed of super alloys with a graphite and zirconia composite nose cap.

Related: Space Planes: Evolution of the winged spaceship (Infographic)

Designed by Boeing, Dyna-Soar would be launched into a suborbital trajectory by a Titan I (and later, Titan II) intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The 35.5-foot-long (10.8 meters) spaceplane, with its sharply swept delta wings, would perform a variety of military and reconnaissance missions, reenter the atmosphere, then glide back to Earth under the control of its pilot-astronaut.

While "Dyna-Soar" is a seemingly unusual name for a spacecraft, in fact, it was highly descriptive of the vehicle's mode of flight: "dynamically soaring" through the Earth's atmosphere using the energy generated from its reentry and the maneuverability offered by its aerodynamic design.

"The choice of flight paths available to the Dyna-Soar pilot will be almost infinite,'' said George Stoner, Boeing's Dyna-Soar program manager, in September 1960. "By combining the high speed and extreme altitude of his craft with his ability to maneuver, he will be able to pick any airfield between Point Barrow, Alaska, and San Diego, California, with equal ease."

However, in late 1961, under the direction of Robert McNamara, President John F. Kennedy's new secretary of defense, Dyna-Soar's mission was changed. The Dyna-Soar space plane, now designated the X-20, would be launched into Earth orbit.

An artist's concept of the Dyna-Soar cockpit in space. U.S. Air Force and NASA pilot/astronauts were chosen to fly the winged spacecraft on a variety of military and reconnaissance missions. (Image credit: Boeing, All Rights Reserved, Used with Permission.)

At a time when the United States' spaceflight capabilities consisted of launching NASA's Mercury capsules into a ballistic suborbital arc and parachuting into the ocean, Dyna-Soar's planned capabilities were to be far more advanced.

The Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Curtis LeMay, said on Oct. 26. 1961, "Since space systems are extremely expensive, one of the first tasks of a manned space vehicle would be to repair equipment operating in our unmanned satellites."

Dyna-Soar's newly defined mission would now require the use of the powerful Titan III space booster, still under development, to reach orbit. As envisioned, the first crewed flight was to take place in August 1965. Dyna-Soar would be launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, reenter the atmosphere, and glide to a landing on the dry lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

"This military test system (X-20) has the capability for manned, maneuverable, hypersonic reentry from orbital altitudes and velocities with a normal landing at conventional airfields," Undersecretary of the Air Force Joseph Chanyk boasted at the time.

In September 1962, Crews was selected as Neil Armstrong's replacement on the X-20 Dyna-Soar program, joining five other test pilots secretly selected two years earlier.

Image 1 of 27 Artist's concept of the Gemini-B spacecraft atop the Manned Orbiting Laboratory being launched into orbit on a Titan III-M launch vehicle. (Image credit: U.S. Air Force) Image 2 of 27 Col. Albert H. "Al" Crews Jr., circa 1960. Crews was a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, a graduate of the Air Force Experimental Test Pilot School, an X-20 Dyna-Soar pilot/astronaut, and a Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) astronaut. (Image credit: Image courtesy of Al Hallonquist.) Image 3 of 27 An artist's concept of the X-20 Dyna-Soar spacecraft launching atop a Titan III booster. Dyna-Soar would be launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida, reenter the atmosphere, and glide to a landing on the dry lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Original plans called for the first crewed flight to take place in August 1965. (Image credit: Boeing, All Rights Reserved, Used with Permission.) Image 4 of 27 Artist's concept of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory/Titan III-M launch facility, known as Space Launch Complex 6 (SLC-6 or "Slick Six"), Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Construction work continued into 1970 to complete the launch facility, even after the MOL program was canceled in mid-1969. The facility was "mothballed" for a decade and then reconstructed as the never-used West Coast space shuttle launch facility. Plans to fly the space shuttle from Vandenberg were abandoned after the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster. (Image credit: U.S. Air Force) Image 5 of 27 An artist's illustration of the Dyna-Soar spacecraft separating from the upper stage of its Titan booster into Earth orbit. The 35.5-foot-long space plane, with its sharply swept delta wings, would be launched into orbit under the control of its pilot/astronaut. (Image credit: U.S. Department of Defense) Image 6 of 27 An artist's concept of the Dyna-Soar cockpit in space. U.S. Air Force and NASA pilot/astronauts were chosen to fly the winged spacecraft on a variety of military and reconnaissance missions. (Image credit: Boeing, All Rights Reserved, Used with Permission.) Image 7 of 27 The six X-20 Dyna-Soar pilot-astronauts in Las Vegas in 1962. Al Crews is the last in line, farthest from the camera. Until the release of this photograph, the identities of the U.S. Air Force and NASA pilot/astronauts had been kept classified due to the military nature of their mission. (Image credit: Boeing, All Rights Reserved, Used with Permission.) Image 8 of 27 Mock-up of the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar space plane. U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara canceled the program on Dec. 10, 1963, because he believed Dyna-Soar had no viable military mission and was too expensive for a research vehicle. A partially completed X-20 prototype, the X-20 mock-up and the initial tooling setup for a 10-space plane production line were all scrapped. (Image credit: Boeing, All Rights Reserved, Used with Permission.) Image 9 of 27 An early artist's concept of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL). Two astronauts would fly into orbit in a modified Gemini spacecraft, then enter a laboratory module for monthlong missions in Earth orbit. (Image credit: U.S. AIr Force) Image 10 of 27 The first group of Manned Orbiting Laboratory astronauts poses in front of a model of the Titan III-M launch vehicle. Al Crews is at center. (Image credit: U.S. Air Force) Image 11 of 27 A U.S. Air Force Titan III-C rocket lifts off from (then) Cape Kennedy's Launch Complex 40, in a test of the Gemini-B configuration for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program on Nov. 3, 1966. Known officially as the Gemini-B/MOL Heat Shield Qualification Test, it was the only mission ever flown in the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. (Image credit: NASA) Image 12 of 27 Former MOL astronaut Robert Crippen poses with the re-flown Gemini 2 spacecraft used in the November 1966 Gemini-B Heat Shield Qualification Test, on display at the Air Force Space and Missile Museum in Cape Canaveral. Note the 26-inch diameter crew transfer hatch cut into the Gemini's heat shield. Crippen eventually flew as a NASA astronaut, piloting the first space shuttle mission (STS-1) in 1981, and commanding three more shuttle missions. He later served as director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center. (Image credit: NASA) Image 13 of 27 Former MOL astronaut Robert Crippen poses with a Manned Orbiting Laboratory spacesuit discovered in a closet in the Air Force Space and Missile Museum in Cape Canaveral in 2005. The spacesuit, designed for MOL astronaut Richard Lawyer, was used in the Gemini-B crew transfer hatch tests in 1966 and remained stored in obscurity for almost 40 years. (Image credit: NASA) Image 14 of 27 MOL astronaut underwater training. General Electric, one of MOLs prime contractors, constructed underwater replicas of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory to enable astronauts and technicians to assess the spacecrafts design in simulated zero-gravity conditions. (Image credit: National Reconnaissance Office) Image 15 of 27 A Gemini-B "pathfinder" engineering mock-up, circa 1968, constructed with both flightworthy components and simulated parts, intended for ground evaluation instead of flight. (Image credit: McDonnell Douglas, courtesy of Dr. Dwayne Day) Image 16 of 27 Gemini-B instrument panel. This photo appears to be taken in the pathfinder engineering mockup, constructed with both flight-worthy components and simulated parts. (Image credit: National Reconnaissance Office) Image 17 of 27 A Gemini-B cockpit on display at the National Museum of the Air Force, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. This is the Gemini-B "pathfinder" engineering mock-up and the only surviving example of Manned Orbiting Laboratory hardware. (Image credit: NMUSAF) Image 18 of 27 A mock-up of the exterior of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory. (Image credit: National Reconnaissance Office) Image 19 of 27 A mock-up of the interior of the MOL laboratory module. The 1,000-cubic-foot pressurized laboratory would provide a "shirtsleeve" working environment for the two-man crew to carry out experiments and observations during a 30-day mission. (Image credit: National Reconnaissance Office) Image 20 of 27 Entering the mockup of the MOL laboratory module. The laboratory would serve as a manned orbiting reconnaissance platform for the top-secret National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). (Image credit: National Reconnaissance Office ) Image 21 of 27 An astronaut workstation in the MOL laboratory module mock-up. The MOL astronauts would peer through a spotting scope at potential targets on the ground while directing a powerful telescope/camera to take high-resolution photographs. (Image credit: National Reconnaissance Office) Image 22 of 27 Fabricating MOL laboratory flight components. (Image credit: National Reconnaissance Office) Image 23 of 27 MOL laboratory segments under construction at the McDonnell Douglas facility in Huntington Beach, California. (Image credit: National Reconnaissance Office) Image 24 of 27 Fabricating a MOL exterior segment. (Image credit: National Reconnaissance Office) Image 25 of 27 Inspecting a MOL laboratory segment. (Image credit: National Reconnaissance Office) Image 26 of 27 Five of the surviving Manned Orbiting Laboratory astronauts gather at the National Reconnaissance Office in June 2019 for a special event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the programs cancellation and recognizing their unique contributions. From left, retired Navy Capt. Robert "Bob" Crippen, retired Air Force Col. Albert "Al" Crews Jr., retired Air Force Col. Lachlan "Mac" Macleay, retired Air Force Col. Karol "Bo" Bobko and retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James "Jim" Abrahamson. Crippen and Bobko later commanded space shuttle missions as NASA astronauts while Abrahamson became director of President Ronald Reagans Strategic Defense Initiative (also known as "Star Wars"). (Image credit: National Reconnaissance Office) Image 27 of 27 Four of the surviving MOL astronauts gather in Chantilly, Virginia, following a National Reconnaissance Office special event commemorating their contributions, June 2019. Front row (l-r), Col. Lachlan "Mac" Macleay, Col. Karol "Bo" Bobko (NASA space shuttle pilot/commander), Col. Albert "Al" Crews. Back row (l-r), aerospace historian Al Hallonquist, Lt. Gen. James Abrahamson (director of the Strategic Defense Initiative from 1984-89). (Image credit: Image courtesy of Al Hallonquist.)

In a recent interview with Space.com, Crews spoke about his decision to join Dyna-Soar.

"The X-20 had four Air Force test pilots on the program; when they were looking at new pilots, they first went to [future Gemini and Apollo astronaut] Jim McDivitt," Crews said. "He decided that he'd rather go to NASA, so then they offered it to me. At that time, I thought it [Dyna-Soar] was a much better deal than going to NASA."

Unlike his Dyna-Soar colleagues, Crews' selection was announced to the news media, and his fellow astronaut candidates were also introduced for the first time.

"It was about the same time that I was selected, they decided to announce the program freely. Parts of the program had been classified, but they decided to open it up and made the announcement," Crews said.

"The Commandant of the Air Force and the Air Force Chief of Staff were at an Air Force Association meeting in Las Vegas. They had a mock-up there of the X-20, and there was a photo session with the crew members, five Air Force and one NASA."

Crews and his fellow test-pilot-astronauts flew simulated X-20 landing profiles using high-performance F-104 fighter aircraft, developing the pioneering techniques required to safely glide a space plane back to Earth.

The six X-20 Dyna-Soar pilot-astronauts in Las Vegas in 1962. Al Crews is the last in line, farthest from the camera. Until the release of this photograph, the identities of the U.S. Air Force and NASA pilot/astronauts had been kept classified due to the military nature of their mission. (Image credit: Boeing, All Rights Reserved, Used with Permission.)

"What we learned flying the F-104 was, if you flew faster, you could flare the vehicle; then, if you screwed up, you could re-flare," Crews recounted. "You'd change the aiming point back about a mile short of where you actually wanted to touch down. Then, you'd fly level for about five or 10 seconds before touching down. It made it a lot easier to make a good landing."

Unfortunately for Al Crews and the rest of the Dyna-Soar team, however, Defense Secretary McNamara was no longer convinced of the need for a piloted military space plane.

Related: Military Space - Spacecraft, Weapons and Tech

Dyna-Soar had been under close scrutiny within the Defense Department for its lack of a viable military mission and very narrow project objectives. The government had spent $410 million on a still-unflown research and development vehicle to study reentry from orbit, dynamic soaring and powerless landing. NASA's new Gemini spacecraft , then under development, provided much more capability (and value) as an operational space vehicle, McNamara concluded.

So, on Dec. 10, 1963, less than a month after President Kennedy's assassination, McNamara canceled the X-20 Dyna-Soar program.

"It was decided to terminate the Dyna-Soar X-20 program because the current requirement is for a program aimed directly at the basic question of man's utility in space, rather than a program limited to finding means to control the return of man from space," McNamara said at the time. "The Dyna-Soar program was designed to do the latter."

The Air Force hierarchy was not pleased with McNamara's decision to cancel Dyna-Soar, believing that a military human spaceflight program was a necessity, not a luxury. So Air Force officials proposed an alternative, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL).

Related: Manned Orbiting Laboratory: A military space station (Infographic)

An early artist's concept of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL). Two astronauts would fly into orbit in a modified Gemini spacecraft, then enter a laboratory module for monthlong missions in Earth orbit. (Image credit: U.S. AIr Force)

"Although the X-20 reached the mockup stage and $410 million was spent on its development, the program was canceled by the government. Congress directed that X-20 funding be diverted to the Manned Orbiting Laboratory," representatives of aerospace giant Boeing, the prime contractor for the X-20, recapped in a later press release. "The partially completed X-20 prototype and the mockup were scrapped, as well as initial tooling set up for a production line for 10 space planes."

Overnight, Crews was no longer an astronaut. For the first time.

Crews believed that the X-20 was less than three years away from its first flight when the program was canceled, and he points the blame directly at McNamara.

"They [Boeing] had it all designed, and had built some of the parts, but not very many. Everything was on hold because of McNamara mostly; he was holding back for whatever reason he could," Crews said.

"One of the things he did  even though it was to be a research vehicle, McNamara decided that it should carry a payload. So he conned President Kennedy into approving a thousand-pound [450 kilograms] payload for Dyna-Soar, which then ruled out using the Titan II as a booster. This meant that it had to wait for the Titan III [to be developed]. Then, they were able to cancel it before the Titan III ever flew."

At the same news conference canceling Dyna-Soar, McNamara announced the commencement of the MOL program, which was described as "an orbiting pressurized cylinder approximately the size of a small house trailer, [which] will increase the Defense Department effort to determine military usefulness of man in space."

The Manned Orbiting Laboratory would be launched into a polar orbit from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base atop a powerful variant of the Air Force's Titan III space launch vehicle, the Titan III-M ("M" for "Manned").

The first group of Manned Orbiting Laboratory astronauts poses in front of a model of the Titan III-M launch vehicle. Al Crews is at center. (Image credit: U.S. Air Force)

A pair of MOL astronauts would fly a modified Gemini spacecraft, the Gemini-B, quite similar to the spacecraft used by NASA for its two-man program but with a key difference: the Air Force version would have a hatch cut into its heat shield to enable the astronauts to enter the orbiting laboratory segment. Once inside, the 1,000-cubic-foot (28.3 cubic meters) pressurized laboratory would provide a "shirt-sleeve" working environment for the two-man crew to carry out experiments and observations during a 30-day mission.

Related: Manned Orbiting Laboratory Declassified: Inside a US Military Space Station (Photos)

Al Crews' luck was about to change again. The Air Force needed astronauts for the MOL program, and his name was at the top of the selection list.

"Four of the X-20 Air Force pilots were considered too old for MOL," Crews recalled. "Pete Knight (future X-15 pilot-astronaut) and I both said that we were available."

"They initially had everybody they were considering go down to Brooks AFB [to the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine] for an examination. Pete had some kind of an eye problem, astigmatism, but they left me on. Everybody else they had lined up were a little bit younger than me."

"They had earmarked eight people and then kept us all waiting, from December 1963 to November 1965, before they decided to announce the flight crews," Crews said. "I had been almost the youngest guy on the Dyna-Soar program, so when we went on MOL, I was the oldest guy."

By August 1965, Air Force officials had agreed upon most of the details of the MOL program. Defense Secretary McNamara provided President Lyndon Johnson with an outline of the program, along with the cost  $1.5 billion for six MOL missions (one uncrewed, five crewed). The first crewed flight was targeted to take place in late 1967 or early 1968.

Johnson spoke enthusiastically about MOL, declaring, "This program will bring us new knowledge about what man is able to do in space. It will enable us to relate that ability to the defense of America. It will develop technology and equipment which will help advance manned and unmanned space flights."

A U.S. Air Force Titan III-C rocket lifts off from (then) Cape Kennedy's Launch Complex 40, in a test of the Gemini-B configuration for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program on Nov. 3, 1966. Known officially as the Gemini-B/MOL Heat Shield Qualification Test, it was the only mission ever flown in the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. (Image credit: NASA)

In November 1965, the Air Force announced the selection of Crews and seven others as its first class of Manned Orbiting Laboratory astronauts. After the announcement, a senior Air Force officer reportedly told the eight men, "This is the first and last press conference you will ever attend."

Very little information was released publicly about each of the MOL astronauts; from that introductory press conference forward, their public exposure was limited and controlled. Crews and his colleagues were forbidden from giving interviews. All were "required at all times to maintain a high standard for moral, ethical and military conduct."

Even as the president and Air Force were issuing glowing proclamations about how MOL would "make it possible to perform new and rewarding experiments," they never disclosed the program's true mission: to serve as a manned orbiting reconnaissance platform for the top-secret National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

After monthlong orbital missions, MOL astronauts would return to Earth in their Gemini-B spacecraft carrying "a substantial portion of the mission photographic product on-board." In the event of an off-target emergency landing, the astronauts "would be instructed to exercise U.S. sovereignty over all equipment and to refrain from providing information on the program or reconnaissance information collected to anyone during either incarceration or interrogation."

Incredibly, the eight MOL astronauts were never told about what they were actually signing up for: missions so secret than no MOL astronaut would be allowed to fly in combat for at least three years after departing the program.

Former MOL astronaut Robert Crippen poses with a Manned Orbiting Laboratory spacesuit discovered in a closet in the Air Force Space and Missile Museum in Cape Canaveral in 2005. The spacesuit, designed for MOL astronaut Richard Lawyer, was used in the Gemini-B crew transfer hatch tests in 1966 and remained stored in obscurity for almost 40 years. (Image credit: NASA)

Crews, in a recent oral history interview with the NRO, recalled the secrecy and lack of transparency in the MOL astronaut selection process.

"It was a very classified program, Crews said. "We weren't briefed on the program until after we were selected. Then we were told that we could leave if we didn't like what we were doing."

"I never knew anything about reconnaissance until we were selected, because they couldn't talk about it unless you had the proper clearance, and none of us had that clearance until after we were selected  We had been selected and were then at least a month into the program before we were ever briefed on the reconnaissance mission."

Related: Gallery: Declassified US Spy Satellite Photos & Designs

As military officers, the MOL astronauts all readily accepted their covert assignment. Soon, they started helping develop the spacecraft systems, hardware, software and orbital reconnaissance techniques, as well as learning about the complexities of living and working in space for long durations.

Douglas (soon to be McDonnell Douglas) and General Electric constructed expansive MOL assembly and test facilities to produce mock-ups, prototypes and the eventual fabrication of the Gemini-B spacecraft and orbiting laboratory modules. Eastman Kodak built an underground facility in Rochester, New York, to perform a straight-line visibility test to assess the laboratory's clandestine 6-foot (1.8 m) telescope mirror; an above-ground structure, rising high into the sky, would have been much too obvious to disguise in an effort to conceal it from the prying eyes of foreign intelligence agencies.

A Gemini-B "pathfinder" engineering mock-up, circa 1968, constructed with both flightworthy components and simulated parts, intended for ground evaluation instead of flight. (Image credit: McDonnell Douglas, courtesy of Dr. Dwayne Day)

"General Electric had built an underwater facility in the Virgin Islands with a structure the size of the [MOL] laboratory, and they were demonstrating how to move equipment around in zero-G ," recalled Crews. "All of us went down and used it. We all got checked out in underwater operations."

Crews was concerned that more money was seemingly being spent on facilities than building MOL flight hardware.

"There was no way I could ever know exactly how much anything cost, but I do know that as soon as Douglas was named as one of the contractors, they had all these people hired to work on it, and they built new buildings for all of them," said Crews. "I knew that General Electric built at least five buildings in Pennsylvania, plus the big underwater facility in the Virgin Islands  All of those kind of things had to cost a lot of money."

In November 1966, the MOL program accomplished a critical milestone. A Titan III launch vehicle lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral, which was then called Cape Kennedy, carrying a modified Gemini spacecraft. The Air Force obtained a previously flown Gemini capsule from NASA, cut a hatch into its protective heat shield, launched it to an altitude of about 190 miles (306 kilometers), and then commanded it to reenter the atmosphere. The spacecraft survived reentry, the heat shield worked as planned, the hatch remained intact and the flight was deemed a success. Ultimately, this was the only mission ever flown in the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program.

Engineers continued to refine the design of the laboratory module and the Gemini-B spacecraft. Highly skilled technicians and aerospace production workers toiled to fabricate, assemble, install, test and inspect the many parts that would make up the Manned Orbiting Laboratory. At McDonnell Douglas' massive MOL Assembly & Integration Building in Huntington Beach, California, large segments of the laboratory module were taking shape.

A Gemini-B cockpit on display at the National Museum of the Air Force, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. This is the Gemini-B "pathfinder" engineering mock-up and the only surviving example of Manned Orbiting Laboratory hardware. (Image credit: NMUSAF)

Crews and the other MOL astronauts were fitted for their blue spacesuits and tested them in the heat- shield tunnel assembly that would connect the Gemini-B and orbital laboratory segments.

"We used some of the NASA Geminis for fit-checks and for guessing  like when they were getting prepared to make the hole in the heat shield to transfer back to the lab, we used the NASA Geminis for measurements," Crews recalled.

"We were all measured [for spacesuits] and had suits built . We picked [MOL astronaut] Dick Lawyer to test the tunnel in the heat shield transfer; they did most of the testing in a zero-G airplane. Dick was our fattest guy; we figured if he could do it, we all could do it!" Crews said with a laugh. "So, they built his spacesuit first and then stored them at the Cape when they finished the test."

Decades later, in 2005, Lawyer's MOL spacesuit would be discovered in a closet in the Air Force Space Museum in Cape Canaveral.

MOL's ambitious mission requirements were becoming increasingly complicated and expensive. NASA's Apollo program was reaching its highest levels of funding necessary to achieve the national goal of a moon landing before 1970. The Vietnam War was rapidly escalating. Something had to give financially  and that something was MOL.

Related: Lunar Legacy: 45 Apollo Moon Mission Photos

Hardware and software development soon began to lag, training was postponed and projected launch schedules slipped. An optimistic first-launch date of early 1968 soon became 1970, then 1971, then 1972.

A mock-up of the exterior of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory. (Image credit: National Reconnaissance Office)

Even more ominous for the MOL astronauts, rapid advances in unmanned reconnaissance satellite technology were rendering their primary mission  human spies in space  obsolete.

Al Crews began to see the handwriting on the wall.

"Around 1967, I was invited to go to the meetings where the 'wheels' [senior officials] would get a briefing on the last unmanned system picture taking [photo reconnaissance satellite]," Crews said. "One of the satellites had flown over Los Angeles and took pictures of our parking lot."

Crews was stunned at the clarity of the images and the level of detail he could discern on the automobiles.

"I figured right then that we didn't have a program."

"It took two more years for MOL to end," Crews said. "But there was a large increase in unmanned reconnaissance] capability from the time we were selected until then."

"I think that the problems with the [budget] squeeze, no money to spend, Vietnam War, supporting NASA  the Air Force was just happy to have a program and not worry about the training that should be done. It soon became obvious that all we were was a backup in case the unmanned reconnaissance system didn't work."

An astronaut workstation in the MOL laboratory module mock-up. The MOL astronauts would peer through a spotting scope at potential targets on the ground while directing a powerful telescope/camera to take high-resolution photographs. (Image credit: National Reconnaissance Office)

By mid-1969, MOL's original price tag of $1.5 billion had ballooned to $3.2 billion (about $22.4 billion in 2020 dollars). The first flight was still three years away. The new Nixon administration wanted to cut spending, and the NRO had two very big, very expensive programs under development  MOL and the unmanned HEXAGON wide-area search reconnaissance satellite.

The Bureau of the Budget gloomily summarized, "Since 1965-1966 when the decision was made to pursue the MOL for its intelligence value, the relative benefit and the cost of the MOL have changed very significantly."

The decision was made to cancel the Manned Orbiting Laboratory.

On June 9, 1969, Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard issued the memo that drove the final nail into MOL's coffin.

"The Air Force is hereby directed to terminate the MOL Program except for those camera system elements useful for incorporation into an unmanned satellite system optimized to use the TITAN III D. Directions to MOL contractors should be issued on Tuesday morning, June 10, at which time we will also notify the Congress and make a public statement that MOL is cancelled."

Overnight, Crews was no longer an astronaut. For the second time.

MOL laboratory segments under construction at the McDonnell Douglas facility in Huntington Beach, California. (Image credit: National Reconnaissance Office)

"The only reason we even had the MOL program was that a lot of people in the Air Force were very upset that the X-20 Dyna-Soar was canceled," Crews explained. "That was a very bad thing to have happened. Dyna-Soar was definitely forward progress."

"The Manned Orbiting Laboratory was just a stop-gap. People who wanted an Air Force program jumped at it, just to have something going; otherwise, they wouldn't have had anything. They knew that the only way they would ever use it [MOL] was if the unmanned systems did not progress as well as they needed it to  to do the job that we could do."

At the time of its cancellation, MOL directly employed 19,000 individuals, with an additional 65,000 contractors supporting the program. More than $1.3 billion had been invested (about $9.1 billion in 2020 dollars), yet save for a Gemini-B "pathfinder" engineering mock-up and several large mirrors, not a single piece of MOL flight hardware was ever completed. All of the intricately fabricated laboratory segments were apparently scrapped.

Shortly after MOL's cancellation, NASA accepted the younger MOL astronauts, those under 35 years old, as part of its astronaut corps. Crews was 40.

Four of the surviving MOL astronauts gather in Chantilly, Virginia, following a National Reconnaissance Office special event commemorating their contributions, June 2019. Front row (l-r), Col. Lachlan "Mac" Macleay, Col. Karol "Bo" Bobko (NASA space shuttle pilot/commander), Col. Albert "Al" Crews. Back row (l-r), aerospace historian Al Hallonquist, Lt. Gen. James Abrahamson (director of the Strategic Defense Initiative from 1984-89). (Image credit: Image courtesy of Al Hallonquist.)

Crews remained in the Air Force for the time being, assigned to NASA's Aircraft Operations, eventually retiring with the rank of colonel in 1973. He helped evaluate the competing designs for the future space shuttle program while continuing to fly for NASA, as a civilian, until his retirement in 2000.

"NASA didn't have a space shuttle at that time [1969], nor any idea that they would get a shuttle. I had gotten so mad at the Air Force, I was offered to go back to Edwards but decided to go to NASA," recalled Crews. "I had a good working career at NASA. I enjoyed it very much."

Still, thinking back to that night when Armstrong walked on the moon, Crews watched more keenly than most, wondering about the intangible what-might-have-been.

"I came very close to applying to NASA for the second (astronaut) selection in 1962. That was when [Armstrong's] Dyna-Soar seat opened up, and I decided to take that instead," Crews explained. "However, if I had gone to NASA, I would have obviously been in the running for that Apollo flight."

Roger Guillemette has been a Space.com correspondent since 2001, covering human spaceflight and military/intelligence space programs. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook .

Special thanks to Dr. Dwayne Day, Dr. John Charles, Al Hallonquist, Boeing Images and Karen Gilbert of the National Reconnaissance Office for their assistance. Very special thanks to Col. Al Crews for his lifetime of service and for sharing his recollections.
Rolls-Royce reports $1.1 bn operating loss, hit by Trent 1000 problems

Aerospace and engineering major Rolls-Royce has reported an operating loss of 852 million pounds ($1.11 billion) for 2019, pulled down by problems associated with is Trent 1000 engine.

Rolls-Royce said cost overruns associated with tackling durability problems with the Trent 1000 engine was a big drag on record engine deliveries and after-market performance.

Underlying core operating profit rose 25 per cent to 810 million pounds, while core free cash flow came in at 911 million pounds, led by higher profit and reflecting 173 million pounds worth of Trent 1000 insurance receipts, the British company said.

The company expects core operating profit to grow by about 15 per cent this year, with at least 1 billion pounds of free cash flow.

While the spread of coronavirus was likely to hit air traffic growth in the near term, Rolls-Royce said, that would not impact long-term growth trends and would not have material impact on the companys performance.

The company has been working to resolve durability issues with its Trent 1000 engine, which powers Boeings 787 Dreamliner, with the blades in the TEN variant proving particularly problematic.

Airline customers have had to ground the aircraft for Rolls-Royce to carry out repairs.

There is, however, no denying the fact that the durability issues with the Trent 1000 weighed heavily on 2019, in terms of the financial cost of returning the fleet to the levels of service our customers expect and dealing with the unacceptable disruption we have caused them. As a result of the Trent 1000 and as announced in November, we are recognising a net exceptional charge of 1,361m within our financials, contributing to a reported loss of (852)m, chief executive Warren East said.

Rolls-Royce, however, said it has arrived at a fix for all but one of the issues identified and is well advanced on certification and rolling them out into the fleet. The company said it has carried out a detailed technical reevaluation of the progress on the final fix - a new high pressure turbine blade for the Trent 1000 TEN.

Rolls-Royce said it has made good progress on the design of this blade, and continue to expect certification of this component in the first half of 2021.

Based upon that work and test activity, Rolls-Royce plans to reset its financial and operational expectations for the engine in November, based on a revised estimate of final blade durability. This, it said, would provide certainty for customers and greater clarity for investors.

It said in November it would take a 1.4 billion-pound exceptional charge connected with the issue.

Chief executive Warren East said Rolls-Royce had made further progress on Trent 1000, with cash costs in line with guidance.

He said the company remained on target to reduce the number of aircraft on the ground to single digits by the end of the second quarter.
Ranchi, Feb 28 : The Jharkhand assembly on Friday witnessed noisy scenes by BJP legislators who protested against the Speaker's decision not to accord the leader of Opposition status to Babulal Marandi.

Marandi joined BJP on February 17 and he was elected as the legislature party leader. The BJP is the second largest party with 26 legislators in the 82-member Assembly. The party was expecting that Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto will accord Marandi the leader of Opposition status.

The Speaker has put the decision on hold as the two MLAs of JVM-P, a party formerly headed by Marandi, joined Congress and claimed merger of the party with Congress. Marandi had expelled two of its legislators and later passed a resolution on merging the JVM-P with the BJP.

The budget session of the Assembly began on Friday. On the first day, Babulal Marandi was made to sit alongside AJSU supremo Sudesh Kumar Mahto over which the BJP MLAs created an uproar.

Amid slogan-shouting by opposition legislators, Speaker Ravindranath Mahto read his inaugural speech and adjourned the House till Monday 11 a.m. after paying tributes to the people who had passed away between the two sessions.

When the House reassembled at 11 am, the BJP legislators came into the well of the House demanding that Babulal Marandi be accorded the status of leader of opposition. BJP legislator Biranchi Narayan claimed that if Marandi does not get the chair of leader of opposition, then they would not allow the House to function.

Later the House paid tributes to those who died in Delhi violence and over the killing of seven tribals at Chaibasa.
T he FTSE 100 is the falling knife nobody has wanted to catch this week.

But for fear of sounding like Donald Trump, I still contend that every plunge is a buying opportunity. Falls have gone too far, and too fast, to represent the real long-term value of these companies.

So, easyJet and IAG will suffer a drop in bookings for a few months, but are these well-run, blue-chip businesses really worth a fifth less than a week ago?

Is easyJet so broken by coronavirus that its equity should be valued at less than the value of its fleet?

Surely not.

Both these businesses, despite the flu, have fortress balance sheets and low operating costs which will see them weather the storm and bounce back.

It may take a year or more, but it has to be worth a gamble that they will recover.

IAG is in the stronger position thanks to the global network outgoing chief Willie Walsh has created over the past decade. When demand for BA flights to Asia collapses, IAG can still make money in Latin America from Iberia.

The same financial strength and flexibility cant be said for many in the industry.

You wouldnt want to be an investor in Norwegian, which looks vulnerable despite its fortuitous January rights issue.

Nor, for that matter, would you want to be backing Flybe, whose business model doesnt work in the best of times, let alone when its international transfer traffic vanishes. Except that, as a British taxpayer, you probably will, thanks to a likely government bail-out. Who knows how much that misadventure will end up costing us?

But if you pick your stocks carefully and dont bet the farm, even airlines could prove a decent long-term investment in these worrying times.
Jenelle Evans has welcomed a new dog into her life.

On Wednesday, Evans, 28, introduced her Twitter followers to her puppy golden doodle, just nine months after her estranged husband David Eason shot and killed her French Bulldog Nugget.

Meet Rosey, Evans wrote on Twitter, directing everyone to her blog. Since everyones asking heres our new pet.

In her blog post, Evans shared that she was moved to get a new fur baby after leaving her home in North Carolina to move to Nashville, Tennessee.

PEOPLE previously reported in October that Evans and Eason had split after tying the knot in September 2017. Despite the breakup, the former couple were spotted together earlier this month in Tennessee. However, as for whether or not the former pair have rekindled things, Evans told E!, Nope, not right now.

Evans explained in her blog that upon her arrival in Nashville, she wanted to make her kids feel as comfortable as possible.

I thought the best way to do this was to buy a dog, Evans shared. Yes, I know what youre thinking, Jenelle is crazy! Sometimes I have the best ideas, and sometimes I dont. This idea turned out to be a good one.

After doing research on Craigslist, Evans decided on a golden doodle.

This breed is perfect for kids! Golden doodles are known to be super friendly with everyone, extremely playful, and therapy dogs, which help with anxiety, Evans wrote.

Jenelle Evans | Jenelle Evans/Twitter

After learning tons of information about these dogs, I replied to the Craigslist post about meeting up to see the puppies. I packed the kids up in the car and headed out 45 minutes into the country of Tennessee, Evans shared. We met the Craigslist lady at a public store. When I looked in her back seat was filled with 6-8 golden doodle puppies! I was melting onto the parking lot. The kids ended up choosing a female and she was a dark red color. We ended up naming her Rosey!

Evans explained that when she got back home with Rosey, her kids couldnt get enough of the little pooch.

Story continues

RELATED: Jenelle Evans Husband David Eason Confirms He Killed Her Dog: I Loved That Dog

She seemed to be shy at first but warmed up very quickly. Fast forward until now, Rosey is 6 months old and a really hyper puppy. She is full of energy and it matches the kids personalities perfect.

Evans concluded her post, explaining while though the new addition to her family came during a tough time, Im happy I did!

Evans previously added two Anatolian Shepherds named Buddy and Junior to her home just three months after the death of Nugget.

However, it is not immediately clear if Evans still sees the dogs as she got them while still with Eason when she lived in Riegelwood, North Carolina.

RELATED: Jenelle Evans Loses Custody of Her 3 Children After David Eason Allegedly Killed Her Dog: Reports

Evans made headlines again in February of this year after sources told TMZ that she was splitting time in Nashville and North Carolina to take care of her and Easons pet goat.

As seen in Easons recent TikTok video, a baby goat was in the North Carolina home.

A rep for Evans did not respond to PEOPLEs request for comment regarding her reported ownership of the goat.

As for her relationship status with Eason, Evans told E! that they are just co-parenting.

Jenelle Evans and David Eason | Jenelle Evans / Instagram

No one knows anything and Im sick of everyone trying to guess my life. I have no privacy no matter what I do, she told E!

No, he lives at the North Carolina house that we own together, she said about the two living together again. I still have my apartment.
MILTON  Feeling dismissed and deceived by the town, homeowners demanded on Wednesday night that the Town Board not adjourn its meeting until their questions about the controversial short-term rental law were answered.

Homeowners, one of whom charges $1,200 a night to vacationing visitors, said they will sue the town if it does not repeal a law passed in December that requires them to have a permit to rent their homes on digital platforms like Airbnb and VRBO. They also asked for an immediate stay on the law, which requires a code enforcement officer to inspect their properties and, if not complied with, can result in fines up to $1,000.

The town of Milton will be facing a lawsuit from nearly three dozen residents, said Kymberly Amodio in a statement she read to the board. The lawsuit will  argue (among other things) that the town of Miltons adoption of (the law) violates the peoples right regarding procedural and substantive due process, equal protection and unlawful search and seizure.

She also said the lawsuit will argue that the law is arbitrary and capricious.

Previously: Homeowner says Milton law limits use of Airbnb, hurts short-term rentals

Residents said there are many problems with the law. They contend they are being singled out compared to year-round landlords who dont maintain their properties. They also argued the law oversteps town authority; could open the town to lawsuits as it requires the town to put its safety stamp of approval on the properties it inspects; and is unnecessary as noise, parking and trash are already monitored under town law. They also questioned enforcement and wanted the board to name those who complained about short-term rentals.

The back and forth with the board was heated with many people talking at the same time, forcing Supervisor Benny Zlotnick to repeatedly bang his gavel.

In addition to the law itself, many said they were angry because former Supervisor Scott Ostrander promised the short-term rental landlords that the law would not move forward in 2019. They also said he promised them he would notify residents if there was any movement toward passage.

However, they claimed that just days before his term end, Dec. 18, 2019, the law was added to the agenda at a few before the Town Board meeting and none of them were notified. Ostrander was among those who voted yes on the law, which passed in a split vote with Zlotnick and Councilwoman Barbara Kerr voting no.

I dont care if this law is about lemonade, said Carrie Jackson. The way it was passed was wrong. Even if this law was not about rental problems, it should not have been passed in that way. Everyone knows that.

Darren Herbst said he was one of those who received the Ostrander promise.

We all got confirmation nothing will be done and we will definitely notify you, Herbst said. Four hours before the meeting, it gets on the agenda and is voted on. In four hours. Really?

Angry residents also wanted to know how the law got its start. Kerr said she initiated it in 2018 after receiving a few complaints from people about noise and garbage. She brought the matter to Ostrander who appointed Councilman John Frolish to head a committee to look into it.

I had no idea who was renting and who wasnt renting, Kerr said at the meeting. I went to the supervisor at the time, told him this is whats happening.  I handed all the information over to him. I thought I followed the proper procedure.

Frolish told the crowd "we are not looking to put you people out of business." He said the law, which also requires property owners to provide the town with their contact information so they can be reached case of an emergency or complaint, was created to protect residents and it's a matter of public safety.

The problems with the law go beyond its content or when it was passed. Kerr said there is an internal concern that it was passed improperly because the copy of the law that was handed out to the Town Board members on Dec. 18 does not match the law posted on the town website. For example, the one that was passed included a $250 application fee. However, the version of the law on the town's website, posted the day after the Times Union published a story about the law, does not mention the fee, causing confusion with residents who received a copy of the law from Kerr.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

At the Dec. 18 meeting, Frolish said the law had three revisions  including the elimination of the inspection fee, because he said the building department does not currently charge for such work. He said he also modified the mentions of noise, fire and fire pits that he said can be addressed in current town ordinances. These changes were made after a Sept. 25 public hearing and several meetings with town residents.

Because of those changes, Kerr believes the law should have been reintroduced and subjected to another public hearing.

This troubles me," she said. "It was a huge procedural error. It has to be looked at how it was done and why. Even if it was minor changes, a certain amount of time is needed to review the law.

The state Department of State, the warehouse for municipal law, would not comment on the legality of the way it was passed.

No state agency is vested with authority to finally determine whether proper procedures have been followed by towns (counties, cities, or villages) in the adoption of local laws, a statement from the agency read. A party who questions whether a local law was indeed validly adopted would be free to file an appropriate action with a court of competent jurisdiction, such as in the Supreme Court of the respective county.

Town Attorney James Craig, who wrote the law and its resolution, said he town is on solid legal ground and that the changes were minor and therefore not subject to another public hearing.

Zlotnick once again repeated on Wednesday night that he is reluctant to repeal the law. However, he did appoint Kerr to chair a committee with two people who dont like the law and two people who do in order to come to a compromise. Those in attendance then wanted to know if the committee's formation means the town would pass an immediate stay or if they must be in compliance now.

Zlotnick told the angry crowd that the law is on the books and he would encourage" them to follow the law.

Scott Jackson said forming a new committee is just "kicking the can down the road."

"All you are going to get is lawsuits," he said. "They are coming."
EAGLE POINT, Ore.  A soldier from Central Point who died in Afghanistan earlier this month will be given a funeral with military honors next week, according to the Veterans Affairs (VA) Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center.

21-year-old Specialist Branden Tyme Kimball died at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan in a non-combat related incident on Wednesday, February 12.

Kimball joined the Army in August of 2016 and was on his first deployment.

According to the VA, a funeral with full military honors will be held for Spc. Kimball at 3 p.m. on Monday, March 2 at the Eagle Point National Cemetery.

"Patriot Guard will escort the hearse, family, and funeral procession to Eagle Point National Cemetery and Old Guard will provide a flag line," the VA said.

Flags will also be displayed at the VA building and the City of Eagle Point.
Stormbreaker Brewing of North Portland on Saturday will host its sixth annual Brewstillery Festival, featuring pairings of local breweries beers with distilleries spirits.

The festival, one of the last events of Oregon Craft Beer Month, offers 19 pairings from 18 breweries and 18 distilleries, including Stormbreakers collaboration with StoneBarn Brandyworks of Portland. The three-year project distilled Stormbreakers Good  Not Great imperial rye red ale into a whiskey that will be paired with a barrel-aged version of Good  Not Great.

The festival will be from noon to 8 p.m. at the Mississippi district brewery, 832 N. Beech St., and will feature live music.

Admission is $25 for 10 taster tickets and a souvenir beer tasting glass. VIP is $45 and includes 15 tickets, beer tasting glass, whiskey tasting glass, and a one-hour early entry to meet the makers. VIP is limited to 125 people. A portion of proceeds goes to benefit Dollar for Portland, which supports families in medical debt.

Other events

Coin Toss Brewings fourth anniversary: The Oregon City brewery will celebrate four years of brewing with a party at its brewery and taproom, 14214 Fir St., Suite H. The party will feature new beers and goodies from Two Girls Catering. Noon-10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 29.

Lucky Lab Barleywine Festival: The brewpubs two-decade-old annual gathering celebrates barleywine, one of the strongest styles of beer, with more than 70 vintage barleywines available. Noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 6-7, Quimby Beerhall, 1945 N.W. Quimby St.; $16 includes four tasting tickets and a collector glass, with additional tickets available for $2.25.

Pelican Brewing Salmon Run: Registration is open for the third annual Pelican Brewing Salmon Run. The fun, chip-timed race features a scenic course through the Tillamook countryside and is a fund- and awareness-raiser for The Salmon Superhwy, a salmon habitat restoration initiative in Tillamook County. 10 a.m. Saturday, March 28, at Pelicans Tillamook Brewpub, 1708 First St. Register online through 7 p.m. March 25.

Zoiglhaus can release: Zoiglhaus Brewing, which won three medals this week at the Oregon Beer Awards, will hold a release party for a dry-hopped pilsner with Callista and Saphir hops in 16-ounce cans and four-packs. 7-9 p.m. Thursday, March 5, Imperial Bottle Shop, 3090 S.E. Division St.

Ascendant can release: Ascendant Beer Co. is hosting a release party for its first can ever: Awesome Sauce Hazy IPA, hopped with Mozaic, Simcoe and Azacca, will be available in 19.2-ounce cans. 1-3 p.m., Saturday, March 7, Johns Marketplace, 3535 S.W. Multnomah Blvd.

Portland Cider Co. 7th anniversary: Portland Cider Co. is opening up the full cidery at its Clackamas pub to celebrate seven years. More than 40 ciders will be pulled from the keg cellar, including taproom batches from the past year. 3-9 p.m. Saturday, March 7, 8925 S.E. Jannsen Road, Bldg. F, Clackamas.

Cascade Brewing Sour Fruit Fest: The pioneering brewery annually celebrates its creative efforts with a Sour Fruit, featuring more than three-dozen exclusive Cascade sour fruit beers on rotation throughout the week, with at least 24 sour beers on tap each day at the Barrel House, 939 S.E. Belmont St., and 18 at The Lodge, 7424 S.W. Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy; starts 6 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 27, and continues during all open hours through March 1.

Fuji to Hood beer festival: Japanese and Portland collaboration beer festival will be held at Northeast Portlands Culmination Brewing from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 25, featuring 17 collaboration beers, 1 collab cider and 1 collab kombucha. Each team uses at

least one Japanese ingredient in their collaborations. Also features Japanese food vendors, sake and DJ music. 2117 N.E. Oregon St. Variety of pricing packages available.

The Original Dark Brews Festival: Northwest brewers bring dark beers for a one-day festival from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the soon-to-open Johns Marketplace eastside location, 3560 S.E. Powell Blvd. Featured breweries include Breakside, Fort George, Reubens, Alesong, Ecliptic, deGarde and others. $15 includes glass and six tasting tickets.

-- Andre Meunier

Subscribe to Andres text service and get ongoing alerts about beer releases and news from the Portland and Oregon beer scene. And check out Andres beer reviews on Untappd, where hes andremeunier13, and follow him on Instagram, where hes @oregonianbeerguy.

More beer coverage:
Tamil film Draupathi starring Richard Rishi and Sheela Rajkumar in the lead roles has been leaked on the infamous piracy site Tamilrockers on the first day of its release. Directed by Mohan G, Draupathi is available in HD print for free download on Tamilrockers.

Draupathi is based on the 2013 fake marriage cartel that took place in Chennai. It is the second collaboration of director and actor duo Mohan and Richard Rishi after Pazhaya Vannarapettai. The film is a crowdfunded as no producers wanted to invest their money in this project.

The film has faced a lot of controversy due to its dark subject. Draupathi's music is composed by Jubin while the cinematography and editing have been done by Manoj Narayan and Devaraj S respectively.
The latest complaint alleged Tata Motors broke rules by working in concert with Tata Motors Finance and Tata Capital Financial Services while advancing dealer credit.

New Delhi: Indias competition regulator is examining allegations that Tata Motors and two finance firms of its $100 billion parent group abused their market position while selling commercial vehicles, according to three sources and legal documents seen by Reuters.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is reviewing a complaint which alleges the countrys biggest seller of trucks dictated terms around the quantity and type of vehicles its former dealer in northern India - Varanasi Auto Sales - should stock.

More than a dozen lawyers representing the three Tata companies attended a private hearing at the CCI in January and argued there was no malpractice by the groups firms, said the three sources, who have direct knowledge of the matter.

The Tata Group has faced antitrust reviews in the past. A CCI investigation last year found units of Tata Steel and other firms colluded on prices of bearings. A final ruling on that case is pending.

The latest complaint, filed last year by a family member of the dealer, alleged Tata Motors broke rules by working in concert with Tata Motors Finance and Tata Capital Financial Services while advancing dealer credit.

The automaker would stop supplying vehicles to the dealer if repayment of loans advanced by the two finance firms was delayed, indicating they were colluding, said one of the sources privy to the complaint.

(The) model of business adopted by Tata Group helped in sustaining and retaining the market share, the complaint document said.

In response to Reuters queries, Tata Motors said it had made submissions to the CCI and would provide full support to the watchdog. It added the CCI was conducting a preliminary enquiry to determine if there are any merits to the case.

Tata Capital Financial Services denied the allegations and said it would also support inquiries, adding it had separately taken legal action against the dealer, which it said had defaulted.

Tata Motors ended relations with the dealership in 2017 due to poor performance, the documents showed.

The CCI did not respond to Reuters queries, but a fourth source aware of the case said the watchdog would reach a decision within six weeks, which could see a wider probe into the allegations or a dismissal of the complaint.

The details of the complaint and the ongoing proceedings are not public.

The CCI has powers to impose a penalty of up to 10 percent of the relevant turnover of a company in the last three financial years if it is found to have abused a dominant position.

With an over 40 percent market share in India, Tata Motors is the biggest seller of commercial vehicles such as pickup trucks. It competes with firms such as Ashok Leyland and Mahindra and Mahindra and has over 3,750 sales and service points across India.
Once youve been in Toronto a while the weirdness of Avenue Road wears off. Not necessarily the road itself, but its name. Imagine if it was called Road Avenue. Thats probably as weird as it sounds to fresh ears.

The road isnt given much thought beyond that, as its essentially a six-lane highway, continuing the Queens Park speedway north of Bloor. In fact, on maps older than 1997 youll see Avenue Road marked as Highway 11A as it was an alternative to what was historically Highway 11, Yonge Street.

Its current highway nature is ironic, considering it was once an elegant, tree-lined road and how, its said, it got the name Avenue. Whatever trees manage to exist on it now are squeezed onto some of Torontos narrowest sidewalks where two people can barely pass each other without one being nudged into traffic.

Some stretches of Avenue Road, north of Bloor, are profoundly uncomfortable to walk along, but typical of how we treat and respect the pedestrian experience in much of Toronto. Yet beyond this it remains an interesting street, and a changing one.

At Bloor, the Park Hyatt Hotel is undergoing a renovation that will alter how the corner looks and feels, giving it a brighter, more vibrant retail presence along the sidewalk rather than the dull space it has been. Across the street the old, wonderfully brutalist, Four Seasons Hotel tower has been converted to residences and is gaining a second, higher, glass residential tower where the hotels Giller Prize-hosting banquet halls once were. The sidewalk here should also be a more vibrant place than before too.

Just north of the former Four Seasons is York Square, an important 1968 project in Torontos architectural history that incorporated heritage houses into a new, lowrise commercial development that included a courtyard and passages. Though it was a finalist for a Massey Medal in architecture in 1970, a development proposed for the site may destroy much of it.

At 66 Avenue Rd. is a midrise residential and commercial building that, completed in 1984, is old enough to perhaps be considered nearly heritage now. Its the kind of building we should have hundreds more of today, a half dozen terraced storeys with unique sunrooms that jut out at odd intervals. Its Yorkville adjacent, our very own silicon valley, so numerous plastic surgeons have hung their shingles out front advertising the possibility of personal architectural change on Avenue Road too.

Across the street Yorkville Village mall, formerly Hazelton Lanes, also underwent a renovation in the last few years. Though the outside received relatively minor esthetic changes, its interior was completely overhauled. The food court, with its free Wi-Fi, is usually peppered with peripatetic workers on their laptops and is a nice place to sit and watch the passing Yorkville eccentrics and others walking their fancy dogs indoors. As its a mall connected to residences it is pet friendly, like the Manulife Centre is nearby, a welcome relief for paws stung by salty winter sidewalks.

North, along the west side of Avenue, is a stretch of mostly Victorian houses converted from residential to retail. Here, Boswell Avenue ends at the Boswell Parkette, a pocket of landscaped green space. Created in 1973, then with just three planters, it was part of the traffic maze phenomenon of the 1970s that tried to insulate residential neighbourhoods from traffic.

Just before Av & Dav, the Avenue and Davenport roads intersection, the beloved row of florists here is a Toronto version of a European flower market. Across the street a new residential building called 151 Avenue, designed by Teeple architects, should please those who have glass box fatigue. Its 10 storeys include white precast concrete panels that have a retro-futuristic look hearkening back to 1960s and 1970s plastic-looking sci-fi shuttles and space stations.

More residential buildings are going up either way on Davenport and even more on Pears Avenue a block north, making the Avenue corridor a booming one. Those narrow sidewalks are soon going to be even more crowded.

It all makes the nearly completed Ramsden Park revitalization even more important. The dip in Avenue Road at Pears gives away that buried beneath it is Castle Frank Brook. Ramsden Park follows the brook between Avenue and Yonge Street, before it continues down Rosedale Valley, and was the site of the Yorkville Brick Yards until it was purchased by the city and converted to a park at the beginning of the 1900s.

Though the park doesnt border Avenue Road exactly, two slightly rough passages between buildings lead to it, a continuation of the passageways Yorkville is rich with a few blocks south.

Like Jarvis Street, Avenue Road is an interesting, mixed-use street with many thousands of residents living along it, with more coming, but its genteel and humane past has been obliterated by the car. Maybe one day its sidewalks might get the treatment the name Avenue deserves.
Each weekday afternoon, the tiny Indian community of Pala is overrun by frustrated commuters sick of sitting in traffic along northbound Interstate 15, looking for a shortcut to their homes in Temecula and elsewhere in the Inland Empire.

That shortcut takes them along State Route 76 to the Pala Casino and Resort, then left to Pala Mission Road where it intersects with Pala Temecula Road. From there, drivers take a winding, two-lane backcountry street for seven miles until arriving at the southeast corner of Temecula.

Starting at 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, hundreds of cars clog that intersection in the heart of Pala. On average, as many as 25 cars a minute turn north onto Pala Temecula Road during the evening commute. Near that intersection is where kids gather to play in the park. Its where the tribes cultural and learning centers are located. The post office is there.

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Its a concentrated area in the community where kids spend a ton of their time, said Shasta Gaughen, the tribes environmental director, who says shes seen the situation get progressively worse the past year.

Gaughen, others connected to the tribe, and state and county officials all agree that there is a big problem that doesnt have any obvious solutions.

The problem is Interstate 15 and, to some extent, smart phone directional traffic apps that direct motorists to alternative routes because of the daily congestion along the freeway.

Its a difficult issue, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Jim Bettencourt. We cannot stop people from driving where they want. You cant tell somebody you cant go this way. If people have figured out a good shortcut to get around stuff, they are more than welcome to take that path. Thats going to be a problem until the end of time.

Marcelo Peinado, district division chief of traffic operations for Caltrans in San Diego and Imperial counties, said it all has to do with I-15. People dont like crawling along a highway for an hour and would rather take a shortcut that probably wont save them much time, but will alleviate some of the boredom because they will be moving faster, albeit on what is probably a longer route.

Peinado said traffic volumes on I-15 from Route 76 to the Riverside County border  an eight-mile stretch of freeway -- have increased by 10 percent since 2010.

There has been a significant growth in the length of queues and the decreases of speeds, he said.

In 2011, Peinado said, traffic slow-downs usually started only a few miles south of the county line. Now they begin about six miles south. And should an accident occur somewhere along the freeway, which is common, the traffic can be much, much worse.

And the hours that constitute the afternoon commute are getting longer  much longer.

The duration of peak hours has changed, Peinado said. In 2011, the peak was from 2:45 p.m. to about 5 p.m. Today, its 2:15 to about 7 p.m.

Since 2010, Peinado said, the estimated population of Riverside County has increased by 9 percent and the population of Temecula has increased by 12 percent. Thousands of people every day commute to jobs in San Diego County along the freeway, then return in the afternoon to their homes, which cost less and are bigger than what they could afford locally.

Pala is taking the brunt of shortcut traffic, but the effects are felt all over local roads in North County near the freeway. For instance, in Rainbow, locals have been complaining about traffic along Old Highway 395 and other streets caused by drivers seeking a different route. Deer Springs Road is busier than ever as commuters drive through San Marcos over to I-15 to avoid congestion further south along the freeway. And Rice Canyon Road is experiencing much more traffic than ever before.

County road experts said they have been getting complaints from the Pala and Rainbow areas. They recently implemented large commercial vehicle restrictions on Pala Temecula Road due to tight curves, spokesman Gig Conaughton said.

Other measures taken by the county include asking Caltrans to identify potential solutions, and asking the CHP to provide additional enforcement along Rice Canyon, Pala Mission and Pala Temecula roads.

Although there are no recent traffic count numbers for Pala Temecula Road, a county official said in 2003, the total traffic volume on Pala Temecula Road was 5,858 vehicles per day. In 2013, the volume had increased to 7,836 vehicles per day. Locals says it is twice as bad in 2017.

But Caltrans told the county there isnt much that can be done for now about I-15. The San Diego Association of Governments long-term project list call for HOV lanes to be built between Escondido and the Riverside County border by the year 2035. As of now, funding isnt in place for that project.

Gaughen, who works in the tribal hall along Pala Mission Road east of the intersection, said traffic often backs up to the highway on that stretch as well. She said people trying to avoid making the left onto Pala Mission will drive another mile east, then make a sharp, hairpin turn to get to the beginning of the road on that side. She said there have been several collisions as a result.

Tim Ravago, the tribes law enforcement chief, said the situation really got bad about a year ago and has continued to get worse.

And their attitudes are bad, he said of the drivers. There is no courtesy. Ive watched them at the intersection. No one has any respect for anyone anymore. Cars will cut off other people.

He said sometimes he has to run interference for school buses.

Its hard for them to get out, Ravago said. People just wont let up and give them an opening. Theyre in a hurry to get to where theyre going.

Several times earlier this year, the tribe paid for CHP officers to conduct traffic control at the intersection. Ravago said the action may have helped a bit, but the backups were still huge. The CHP again plans on conducting several days of traffic control later this year, their overtime being paid by the tribe.

Ravago said the county has told the tribe there is little they can do about the problem and suggested perhaps a traffic signal be built at the Pala Mission/Pala Temecula intersection.

But I dont really think that would help, Ravago said. It might even create more of a problem.

jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones
This is the shocking moment a brazen fly-tipper dumps a load of rubbish next to a busy dual carriageway in broad daylight.

The shameless criminal was spotted and then recorded by a stunned lorry driver who had parked up in a lay-by.

Dashcam footage shows the fly-tipper arriving in a white Citroen van and then opening its back doors.

A shameless criminal was filmed dumping rubbish on the busy A428 near Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, last Thursday as traffic roared past

When the crook, wearing grey jogging pants and a dark hooded top, can't pull a piece of old furniture out the rear doors, he opens up a sliding middle door.

He is then seen tossing carpet and old bits of office furniture into the verge next to the lay-by before driving off again.

The shocking scene happened on Thursday afternoon on the A428 near Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, as traffic roared past.

The lorry driver, who asked not to be named, said; 'I was taking a break on the lay-by when I saw the van pull up in front of me.

'The driver then got out of his van, opened the rear doors and started throwing bits of wood and furniture onto the ground.

'I honked my lorry's horn at him, but he just turned around and told he to 'f**k off.

The shameless criminal was spotted and then recorded by a stunned lorry driver who had parked up in a lay-by. Dashcam footage shows the fly-tipper arriving in a white Citroen van and then opening its back doors before throwing rubbish out

'I couldn't believe my eyes.

'He didn't seem to care at all that anyone had seen him and then drove off.'

In England fly-tipping is a criminal offence punishable by a fine of up to 50,000 or 12 months in jail at magistrates court.

The offence can attract an unlimited fine and up to five years imprisonment if convicted at crown court.
France on Thursday summoned Mali's ambassador after dismissing as "false" and "unacceptable" his claims of rowdy behaviour by French soldiers helping the West African nation combat an Islamic insurgency.

Toumani Djime Diallo was summoned to the foreign ministry, where "we expressed our indignation at his baseless and shocking remarks on behalf of an allied country in the fight against terrorism," the ministry told AFP.

France has 5,100 soldiers in Operation Barkhane, a mission to roll back jihadism in Mali as well as Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Chad in the Sahel region of Africa.

But its presence has been criticised by some in the region, who balk at the prominent military role played by a former colonial power.

Mali later recalled Diallo to Bamako, a Malian source said. Foreign Minister Tiebile Drame was dispatched to Paris "to strengthen friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries," the ministry said in a statement.

"The trip was decided today in response to the declarations over the last 24 hours," a Malian diplomatic source said.

The Paris envoy would return to Bamako on Friday, a source close to the Malian presidency said without giving further details.

'Tongues wag'

On Wednesday, Diallo had complained to the French Senate of "problems" caused by what he said were French Foreign Legion soldiers deployed on Malian soil.

He pointed to "excesses" in the capital Bamako.

"At times you see them in the red-light districts of Bamako, their bodies completely covered in tattoos, behaving in a way that does not correspond to the [French] army we know," Diallo said.

"It makes people afraid, it makes tongues wag."

Making such allegations while French troops are risking their lives to protect citizens was "indecent," Defence Minister Florence Parly's office said in a statement sent to AFP.

"Rather than channelling and spreading false accusations, we expect the ambassador of Mali to devote all his energy to implementing the Pau summit and achieving success for everyone," the statement added tartly, referring to a meeting between France and its Sahel allies last month.

'Down with France'

There were "hardly any" French soldiers stationed in Bamako, said the statement, adding the charges were "unacceptable and indecent when France has resolutely committed itself to fighting terrorist groups that threaten the people of the Sahel."

France's deployment is by far the largest foreign contribution to the fight against extremists aligned with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

Last month, hundreds of people gathered in Bamako to protest against the presence of French soldiers, holding aloft placards reading "Down with France, Barkhane must leave" and "France is a brake on our development."

Such criticism has riled French officials, especially after 13 soldiers were killed in a helicopter collision in Mali while pursuing jihadist fighters -- the deadliest toll for the French military in nearly four decades.

Last month in Pau in southwest France, French President Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of five Sahel countries pledged to jointly bolster efforts against jihadists fighting the increasingly deadly insurgency.

Macron has denounced "foreign powers" for stirring up anti-French sentiment amid reports that Russian paramilitary fighters were increasingly active in the Sahel.

And he has complained of a lack of "clear political condemnation of anti-French feelings" on the ground, saying he was loath to send soldiers to countries where their presence was not "clearly wanted."

Despite the French presence and a 13,000-member UN peacekeeping force in Mali dubbed MINUSMA, the conflict that erupted in the north of that country in 2012 has since spread to its neighbours, especially Burkina Faso and Niger.

Thousands of civilians and hundreds of soldiers have been killed and more than a million people have been displaced. France has lost 41 soldiers.

burs-dla/mlr/pma/pvh
A dozen sexual assault cases in Kelowna, B.C., are being reinvestigating by the RCMP after they were originally deemed "unfounded," the detachment announced Thursday.

A national RCMP Sexual Assault Review Team was tasked with looking over files from the Kelowna detachment after an unusually high rates of cases were being put aside as unfounded.

Seventy cases of sexual assault were reported to the police in Kelowna in both 2017 and 2018 according to data from Statistics Canada. Forty per cent of those cases were dismissed as unfounded, three times the national average.

The statistics were released last November and immediately drew widespread criticism of the detachment.

The national team reviewed Kelowna's files to determine what was going wrong, focusing on how 30 files from 2018 and 36 files from 2019 were dealt with.

Of those 66 sexual assault cases that were revisited, 12 have been flagged for further investigation. Those investigations have already begun, RCMP said.

"Certainly those women deserve better and it is regrettable and unfortunate. I'm glad to see that the investigations will be reopened," said Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran.

Data entry mistakes

In more than two dozen of the files, the wrong codes were used to classify the cases: 12 in 2018 and 17 in 2019.

"This created a higher statistical average [of unfounded cases] than was expected," said Cpl. Jocelyn Noseworthy, spokesperson with Kelowna RCMP.

The new numbers show the rate of unfounded sexual assault cases falls within the provincial average which hovers around 15 per cent, she said.

RCMP across the country use a system called Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) to document and classify crimes according to specific codes. That information is then shared with Statistics Canada.

"Basically, it was an issue in training with some of the employees here in terms of how the UCR code was input," Noseworthy said.

Staff are now being given extra training.

Story continues

"It is a concern why so many were scored incorrectly, absolutely," said Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran.

"The findings of the investigations show that things could have been handled better."

Colin Basran/Facebook

In addition to extra training for staff, including trauma-informed practices and bias awareness, Kelowna RCMP is creating a dedicated sexual assault unit and expanding the general Investigation unit for better frontline support.

"I hope that through this process, with the increased training and increased resources, that the service [victims] get will be better," Basran said.
Air Mauritius wishes to inform the travelling public that travel restrictions have been extended by Mauritian authorities.

:

Any foreign national having resided in China, Republic of Korea, Italy and the Islamic Republic of Iran or with a history of travel to and from China, Republic of Korea, Italy and the Islamic Republic of Iran within the last 14 days will not be allowed entry or transit in the Republic of Mauritius.

The directives from the Authorities also specify that Mauritian nationals, residents, their spouse and children coming from or having travelled through the above regions within the last 14 days, will be allowed entry in Mauritius and will be placed in quarantine. 

Air Mauritius regrets inconveniences caused by these restrictions and wishes to reiterate that the health and safety of its passengers and crew remain its topmost priority.

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The U.S. Army celebrates the U.S. approval of tafenoquine (photo courtesy of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command) GSK must take appropriate action to better emphasize that approved use of Krintafel is limited to those receiving appropriate antimalarial therapy for acute P. vivax infection and that the drug is NOT indicated for presumptive anti-relapse therapy

The Quinism Foundation has sent correspondence to Evan Berland, at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Global Public Health, calling on GSK to take appropriate action to protect the health of asymptomatic U.S. travelers, including proposing further changes to the "Limitation of Use" section of the U.S. Prescribing Information for Krintafel, to better emphasize that the drug is not indicated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for presumptive anti-relapse therapy [1].

Since the 2018 U.S. approval of Krintafel for prevention of relapse of P. vivax infection in those receiving appropriate antimalarial therapy for acute P. vivax infection," wrote Remington Nevin, MD, MPH, DrPH, executive director of The Quinism Foundation, "the drug has been widely recommended for off-label use in presumptive anti-relapse therapy among asymptomatic U.S. travelers, including in published recommendations by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)."

"Although the prevention of relapse of P. vivax malaria infection and presumptive anti-relapse therapy of asymptomatic travelers are clearly separate and distinct indications," Dr. Nevin noted, "CDC recommendations nonetheless confuse these terms, and even state erroneously use of Krintafel in asymptomatic U.S. travelers for presumptive anti-relapse therapy 'is consistent with FDA labeling'."

In his correspondence, Dr. Nevin noted that in a "Dear Health Care Provider" letter, dated February 6, 2020 [2], GSK released data from a recent clinical trial that demonstrates that tafenoquine lacks efficacy in preventing P. vivax relapse when used with antimalarial drugs other than chloroquine. Dr. Nevin noted that the proposed change in the indication for Krintafel as described by GSK in its "Dear Health Care Provider Letter", which would limit the use of the drug to co-administration with chloroquine only, has critical safety implications for use of the drug by asymptomatic U.S. travelers.

"CDC recommendations for Krintafel to be co-administered with other drugs, such as atovaquone-proguanil and doxycycline that are commonly used by asymptomatic U.S. travelers for the prophylaxis of malaria," [3] Dr. Nevin wrote, would be "clearly at odds with the proposed change in indication for Krintafel, which would limit the use of the drug to co-administration with chloroquine only, and presumably only at appropriate doses for treatment of acute P. vivax infection."

"Given that tafenoquine has been demonstrated to lack efficacy in preventing P. vivax relapse when used with antimalarial drugs other than chloroquine," Dr. Nevin noted, "current CDC recommendations for use of Krintafel with other drugs in presumptive anti-relapse therapy may endanger asymptomatic U.S. travelers by placing them at risk of acute malaria from failed elimination of dormant hypnozoites. Consequently, GSK must take appropriate action to better emphasize that approved use of Krintafel is limited to those receiving appropriate antimalarial therapy for acute P. vivax infection and that the drug is NOT indicated for presumptive anti-relapse therapy."

Dr. Nevin concluded his letter by recommending removal of the ambiguous term 'radical cure' from the U.S. Prescribing Information to reduce the risk of confusion between prevention of relapse and presumptive anti-relapse therapy.

"Tafenoquine, originally developed by the U.S. Army, is a member of a class of antimalarial drug known as 8-aminoquinolines found during World War II-era studies to be uniformly neurotoxic, said Dr. Nevin. A leading researcher involved in testing of this class of drug in rhesus monkeys has noted all of nearly one hundred and forty 8-aminoquinolines examined produce rather remarkable and highly specific lesions in the central nervous system [CNS]. [4] Publicly-available data support a conclusion that tafenoquine shares the liability to CNS neurotoxicity of related 8-aminoquinolines, said Dr. Nevin.

About The Quinism Foundation

The Quinism Foundation, founded in January 2018, in White River Junction, Vermont, promotes and supports education and research on quinism, the family of medical disorders caused by exposure to quinoline drugs, including mefloquine and tafenoquine.

Dr. Nevin is a board-certified occupational medicine and preventive medicine physician and former U.S. Army medical officer and epidemiologist. He is author of more than 30 scientific publications on malaria and the quinoline antimalarials.

1. GSK. Krintafel (Tafenoquine) U.S. Prescribing Information. July 2018.

2. GSK. Dear Health Care Provider Letter. February 6, 2020.

3. CDC. Guidance for Using Tafenoquine for Prevention and Antirelapse Therapy for Malaria  United States, 2019. MMWR. 2019;68(46):1062-1068.

4. Schmidt IG, Schmidt LH. Neurotoxicity of the 8-aminoquinolines. III. The effects of pentaquine,isopentaquine, primaquine, and pamaquine on the central nervous system of the rhesus monkey. Journal of neuropathology and experimental neurology. 1951;10(3):231-254.
Look, Warren replied. All I know is what she said and what he said, and Ive been on her end of it in the sense of discrimination based on pregnancy. It happens all across this country and men all across this country say, Oh my gosh, he never would have said that. Really?
The last three days of the Idleb campaign were quite eventful.

The Turkey supported Jihadis threw everything they had against Saraqib where the M4 and M5 highways join. This enabled the Syrian army to take some 40 towns and cities at the southern front. The whole Ghab plain is now in liberated and the frontline has been massively shortened.

Idleb governorate Feb 25 2020



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Idleb governorate Feb 28 2020



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Saraqib fell to the Jihadis but they paid a very bloody price for it as the Syrian and Russian airforce continued to intensively bomb the approaches to the city. A new defensive line has now been established around Saraqib and the Syrian army is preparing to recover it.

To take the large area in the south in difficult terrain and against little resistance was more important than the temporary loss of Saraqib.

Yesterday saw a extraordinary escalation as the Russian airforce bombed a Turkish infantry battalion which went south of the M4 highway and came near to the southern frontline. Metin Gurcan deciphered the event:

What exactly transpired on Feb. 27? At around 5 p.m., a Turkish mechanized infantry battalion, comprised of about 400 soldiers, became the target of an airstrike on a road between al- Bara and Balyun, some 5 kilometers (3 miles) north of Kafr Nabl in southern Idlib. According to local sources contacted by Al-Monitor, two Russian Sukhoi Su-34 and two Syrian Su-22 fighter jets had launched intensive bombings of Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) targets in southern Idlib at around 11 a.m. that day. The same jets hit the Turkish convoy in coordinated action, the sources said. A first, a relatively lighter strike by the Su-22s forced the convoy to stop, after which the pounding intensified, forcing the soldiers to take shelter in several roadside buildings. What followed next was likely the dropping of KAB-1500L bombs  a variation of advanced laser-guided bunker buster bombs capable of penetrating to depths of up to 20 meters (65 feet)  by the Russian jets. Two of the buildings collapsed in the attack, leaving the Turkish soldiers under the rubble.

At least 35 Turkish soldiers, some say 55, were killed and some 60+ were wounded.

The incident was a signal to Turkey that its escapades have to end.

Throughout the last weeks Turkey had used large armed drones to attack the Syrian army. The Turkish troops in Idelb governorate had additionally used man portable air defense missiles (MANPADs) against Syrian helicopters and Russian bombers. Enough was enough.

Turkey does not have permission to use drones within the Syrian airspace. On Wednesday Syria's air defense destroyed one of them.

To use manpads against Russian planes is an act of war. The Russian strike was a reminder to the Turks that it is quite able to wage one.

Russia denied that its planes had launched the attack and Turkey accused Syria of doing it. But these statements are designed to deescalate and to allow for continued peaceful relations between Russia and Turkey. Both sides know very well what really had happened.

There is still Erdogan's threat to launch a full sized attack on the Syrian army on March 1. He threatened to push it back to the old Sochi memorandum ceasefire lines. Russia has moved two frigates into the Mediterranean Sea which are armed with cruise missiles.These will be used if Turkey really attempts to implement its idiotic plan.

NATO and the U.S. have both rejected to get involved in the Idleb affair. Turkey is on its own and Erdogan will have to be careful. He is not only losing in Syria but also in Libya and he can not risk to further upset Russia because the Turkish economy depends on it.
Washington, D.C., Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and national leading non-profit the Colorectal Cancer Alliance continues to reinforce why both men and women need to get screened for one of the top three cancer killers in the country.

The Alliance today revealed its digital awareness campaign "Tomorrow Cant Wait," an approachable campaign that visually illustrates what is on the line for individuals to get screened (your bottom) and all ages can be affected. The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be 147,950 new cases this year, which is up from 145,000 in 2019, with approximately 53,000 passing away this year from the disease (up from 51,000 in 2019).

Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in men and women combined in the United States. In its early stages, colorectal cancer is very treatable, with a five-year survival rate of 90%, making it highly stoppable and preventable disease through early detection. On average, the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is about one in 23 for men and one in 25 for women, however, this varies widely according to individual risk factors. About 71% of cases arise in the colon and about 29% in the rectum.

The latest growth of the disease:

Nearly 1 in 3 eligible Americans have not been screened for colorectal cancer

1.4 million living Americans have been affected by colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer is nearly as prevalent in women as in men, as it's now the third most common cancer for women with an estimated 69,650 women to be diagnosed in 2020

Although the overall death rate has continued to drop, deaths from colorectal cancer among people younger than age 55 have increased 2% per year from 2007 and 2016.

Drivers of increasing young-onset colorectal cancer incidence are not well known

The median age at diagnosis for colon cancer is 68 in men and 72 in women; for rectal cancer it is 63 years of age in both men and women.

Why Americans often dont talk about colorectal cancer or get screened:



Americans, generally speaking, continue to not talk about colorectal cancer as muchor in the same wayas theyre talking about breast cancer and other forms of cancer, in part because of stigma associated with the body parts involved. Surveys indicate that individuals become hesitant to talk about that part of their body and fear is the number one reason why individuals dont get screened.

Five reasons why Tomorrow Cant Wait:



During awareness month, the Alliance will highlight five reasons why your butt is on the line and why Tomorrow Cant Wait to get screened:

1. Screening cant wait. Colorectal Cancer doesnt care about age or where you are from, and it doesnt just strike the older population. Screening is the No. 1 way to prevent colorectal cancer.

2. Warning signs cant wait. If you notice any symptoms like blood in your stool, anemia, weight loss, abdominal pain, fatigue, changes in your digestion processes or narrowing stool, book an appointment with your doctor, immediatelyespecially if you have a family history of the disease.

3. Your family cant wait. Ask your loved ones if there is family history of the disease or ask them if they have ever been screened for the disease. Create a healthy and open dialog with loved ones on why it's important to get screened and discuss screening options available.

4. Care cant wait. Patients and caregivers depend on support when they face this devastating disease.

5. A cure cant wait. 53,000 Americans will die from colorectal cancer this year; for them, a cure cant wait. Detecting colorectal cancer early is the key to prevention and to ending this disease

within our lifetime.

The Colorectal Cancer Alliances mission is to end colorectal cancer within our lifetime through providing support services, awareness of preventive measures, and funding critical research.

The Alliances efforts will continue to focus on three key pillars:

Screen - Raise awareness about the importance of screening and drive the public to take action to be screened.

Care - Provide a network of support, resources and comfort to patients and caregivers when first diagnosed and every step afterwards.

Cure - Invest in new and better ways to treat the disease and prevent it all together.

The nonprofit is hosting several events and initiatives during the March awareness month, including:

National Dress in Blue Day (Friday, March 6) - The Colorectal Cancer Alliance first launched the National Dress in Blue Day program in 2009 to bring national attention to colorectal cancer and to celebrate the courage of those affected by this disease. Today, individuals, businesses and community groups across the country participate in National Dress in Blue Day by wearing blue and encouraging others to do the same. www.dressinblueday.com

Undy RunWalk and ScopeItOut 5K - Throughout the year, the organization hosts nearly 20 fundraising run/walk events in major cities throughout the United States, with the largest race in the series taking place in the Nations Capital on March 29. www.undyrunwalk.com

About the Colorectal Cancer Alliance

The Colorectal Cancer Alliance is a national nonprofit committed to ending colorectal cancer. Working with our nation of passionate allies, we diligently support the needs of patients and families, caregivers, and survivors; eagerly raise awareness of preventive screening; and continually strive to fund critical research. As allies in the struggle, we are fiercely determined to end colorectal cancer within our lifetime. For more information, visit ccalliance.org.

About Dress In Blue Day

Dress in Blue Day began with Anita Mitchell. Ms. Mitchell was battling stage IV colon cancer and had lost a close friend and father to the disease. She saw a need to bring greater awareness to a cancer not many people wanted to discuss. Ms. Mitchell is a founder of Colon Cancer STARS and a volunteer for the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. She brought the Dress in Blue concept to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance in 2009. The Colorectal Cancer Alliance expanded this concept into Dress in Blue Day, a national celebratory day to raise awareness of colorectal cancer, specifically highlighting the spirit and courage of survivors and their families, and honoring the memory of those lost to the disease. Today, individuals, businesses and community groups across the country participate in National Dress in Blue Day by wearing blue, raising funds and motivating others to do the same, all in the name of awareness.

Social Media

Facebook: Facebook.com/ColorectalCancerAlliance

Instagram: @ColorectalCancerAlliance

Twitter: @CCAlliance

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Far-flung Uranus and Neptune -- the ice giants of our solar system -- are as mysterious as they are distant. Soon after its launch in 2021, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will change that by unlocking secrets of the atmospheres of both planets.

The cold and remote giant planets Uranus and Neptune are nicknamed the "ice giants" because their interiors are compositionally different from Jupiter and Saturn, which are richer in hydrogen and helium, and are known as the "gas giants." The ice giants are also much smaller than their gaseous cousins, being intermediate in size between terrestrial planets and the gas giants. They represent the least-explored category of planet in our solar system. Scientists using Webb plan to study the circulation patterns, chemistry and weather of Uranus and Neptune in a way only Webb can.

"The key thing that Webb can do that is very, very difficult to accomplish from any other facility is map their atmospheric temperature and chemical structure," explained the studies' leader, Leigh Fletcher, an associate professor of planetary science at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. "We think that the weather and climate of the ice giants are going to have a fundamentally different character compared to the gas giants. That's partly because they're so far away from the Sun, they're smaller in size and rotate slower on their axes, but also because the blend of gases and the amount of atmospheric mixing is very different compared with Jupiter and Saturn."

All the gases in the upper atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune have unique chemical fingerprints that Webb can detect. Crucially, Webb can distinguish one chemical from another. If these chemicals are being produced by sunlight interacting with the atmosphere, or if they're being redistributed from place to place by large-scale circulation patterns, Webb will be able to see that.

These studies will be conducted through a Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO) program of the solar system led by Heidi Hammel, a planetary scientist and Webb Interdisciplinary Scientist. She is also Vice President for Science at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) in Washington, D.C. Hammel's program will demonstrate the capabilities of Webb for observing solar system objects and exercise some of Webb's specific techniques for objects that are bright and/or are moving in the sky.

Uranus: The Tilted Planet

Unlike the other planets in our solar system, Uranus -- along with its rings and moons -- is tipped on its side, rotating at roughly a 90-degree angle from the plane of its orbit. This makes the planet appear to roll like a ball around the Sun. That weird orientation -- which may be the result of a gargantuan collision with another massive protoplanet early in the formation of the solar system -- gives rise to extreme seasons on Uranus.

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When NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, one pole was pointing directly at the Sun. "No matter how much Uranus would spin," Hammel explained, "one half was in complete sunlight all the time, and the other half was in total darkness. It's the craziest thing you can imagine."

Disappointingly, Voyager 2 saw only a billiard-ball smooth planet covered in haze, with only a scant handful of clouds. But when Hubble viewed Uranus in the early 2000s, the planet had traveled a quarter of the way around in its orbit. Now the equator was pointed at the Sun, and the entire planet was illuminated over the course of a Uranian day.

"Theory told us nothing would change," said Hammel, "But the reality was that Uranus started sprouting up all kinds of bright clouds, and a dark spot was discovered by Hubble. The clouds seemed to be changing dramatically in response to the immediate change in sunlight as the planet traveled around the Sun."

As the planet continues its slow orbital trek, it will point its other pole at the Sun in 2028.

Webb will give insight into the powerful seasonal forces driving the formation of its clouds and weather, and how this is changing with time. It will help determine how energy flows and is transported through the Uranian atmosphere. Scientists want to watch Uranus throughout Webb's life, to build up a timeline of how the atmosphere responds to the extreme seasons. That will help them understand why this planet's atmosphere seems to go through periods of intense activity punctuated by moments of calm.

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Neptune: A World of Supersonic Winds

Neptune is a dark, cold world, yet it is whipped by supersonic winds that can reach up 1,500 miles per hour. More than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth, Neptune is the only planet in our solar system not visible to the naked eye. Its existence was predicted by mathematics before its discovery in 1846. In 2011, Neptune completed its first 165-year orbit since its discovery.

Like Uranus, this ice giant's very deep atmosphere is made of a thick soup of water, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and methane over an unknown and inaccessible interior. The accessible upper layers of the atmosphere are made of hydrogen, helium and methane. As with Uranus, the methane gives Neptune its blue color, but some still-mysterious atmospheric chemistry makes Neptune's blue a bit more striking than that of Uranus.

"It's the same question here: How does energy flow and how is it transported through a planetary atmosphere?" explained Fletcher. "But in this case, unlike Uranus, the planet has a strong internal heat source. That heat source generates some of the most powerful winds and the most short-lived atmospheric vortices and cloud features of anywhere in the solar system. If we look at Neptune from night to night, its face is always shifting and changing as these clouds are stretched and pulled and manipulated by the underlying wind field."

Following the 1989 Voyager 2 flyby of Neptune, scientists discovered a bright, hot vortex -- a storm -- at the planet's south pole. Because the temperature there is higher than everywhere else in the atmosphere, this region is likely associated with some unique chemistry. Webb's sensitivity will allow scientists to understand the unusual chemical environment within that polar vortex.

Just the Beginning

Fletcher advises to be prepared for seeing phenomena on Uranus and Neptune that are totally unlike what we've witnessed in the past. "Webb really has the capability to see the ice giants in a whole new light. But to understand the continual atmospheric processes that are shaping these giant planets, you really need more than just a couple of samples," he said. "So we compare Jupiter to Saturn to Uranus to Neptune, and by that, we build up a wider picture of how atmospheres work in general. This is the beginning of understanding how these worlds are changing with time."

Hammel added, "We now know of hundreds of exoplanets -- planets around other stars -- of the size of our local ice giants. Uranus and Neptune provide us ground truth for studies of these newly discovered worlds."

The James Webb Space Telescope will be the world's premier space science observatory when it launches in 2021. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
Home Instead Senior Care, the leading global provider of in-home care for older adults, is witnessing an explosive demand for home care services as more and more baby boomers are looking to live at home as they age.

A study issued by the Home Care Association of America and the Global Coalition on Aging reports that nine out of 10 Americans ages 65 and older want to stay in their homes for as long as possible.

The fast-growing wave of older Americans is expected to outnumber children by 2034, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau:



In 2030, when all baby boomers will be at least 65, older Americans will make up 21% of the population, an increase from the 15% today.

By 2060, nearly one in four Americans will be 65 years or older, the number of seniors over 85 will triple, and the country will have a half-million centenarians.

In the face of this growing population of older adults, forecasts are that there will soon be fewer trained personnel available to care for this expanding senior population. Studies by Mercer, a global healthcare consulting firm, indicate that by 2025, U.S. healthcare providers will face a collective shortage of nearly 500,000 home health aides, 100,000 nursing assistants, and 30,000 nurse practitioners.

As more and more people live into their 70s, 80s and 90s, we need to create care models that meet the needs of the growing senior population said Jeff Huber, CEO of Home Instead, Inc. By helping older adults age safely at home, we can promote a more healthy, engaged and active lifestyle while also reducing the burden on health systems amid rising patient volume and smaller staff.

As demand for in-home senior care continues to rise, Home Instead Senior Care is expanding its network to bring personalized support services closer to communities with growing senior populations. In fact, 15 new Home Instead franchises opened within the last 12 months, and there are currently franchise opportunities available across the U.S. and Canada, including markets such as Las Vegas, Nevada; Irvine, California; Houston, Texas; and the Greater Toronto Area.

Through our 25 years of experience serving seniors around the world, we know they overwhelmingly want to remain independent in their own homes and appreciate the high-quality services Home Instead CAREGivers provide to make that possible, added Huber.

For more information about Home Instead Senior Care, visit http://www.homeinstead.com.

ABOUT HOME INSTEAD SENIOR CARE

Founded in 1994 in Omaha, Nebraska, the Home Instead Senior Care franchise network provides personalized care, support and education to enhance the lives of aging adults and their families. Today, the network is the world's leading provider of in-home care services for seniors, with more than 1,200 independently owned and operated franchises that provide more than 80 million hours of care annually throughout the United States and 12 other countries. Local Home Instead Senior Care offices employ approximately 90,000 CAREGivers worldwide who provide basic support services that enable seniors to live safely and comfortably in their own homes for as long as possible. Home Instead Senior Care franchise owners partner with clients and their family members to help meet varied individual needs. Services span the care continuum  from providing personal care to specialized Alzheimers care and hospice support. Also available are family caregiver education and support resources. Visit HomeInstead.com. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is having to gingerly goose step through the political minefield where two issues are likely to pull his three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government in opposite directions.

The easier of the two to negotiate is the case relating to the Bhima Koregaon riots of January 1, 2018, in which several activists have been arrested and lodged in prison without much progress in the case. Thackeray has nimbly avoided a confrontation with the Centre, and yet maintained the equanimity of the partners in his government by differentiating between the Elgar Parishad that preceded the commemoration at Bhima Koregaon and the riots that followed.

The Pune police were investigating both the cases and the central government was quite content with the progress, though it was moving at a slow pace. Events suddenly picked pace after Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar called for a re-investigation and speedy trial in the cases. The Centre suddenly swung into action and decided to hand the case over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

At first the Maharashtra government resisted handing over the papers to the NIA, but caved in when it became apparent that the NIA could secure a special court order to force the government to hand over the investigation to them. Also with Thackeray making a difference between the Elgar Parishad and Bhima Koregaon cases, Pawar has now called for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigation into the riots. Since the previous investigation had linked Elgar Parishad to Bhima Koregaon, it is likely that different results by different agencies will embarrass the Centre, which has already been accused of a politically-motivated witch-hunt against the activists jailed in both the cases.

It is also a battle for the votes of both the Marathas and the Dalits who were pitted against each other during the 200th year of the commemoration of the victory of the Mahars, a lower caste, against the army of the Peshwas that finally ended the Brahmin domination in Maharashtra during the British regime. Pawar is now pitting the rest of Maharashtra against the Brahmins of yore, which in todays polarised times are synonymous with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the domination of the BJP over the body politic.

While this plays out in the background, the more crucial difference that could arise between the three coalition partners is the triple issues of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR).

Thackeray has tried to deal evenly with all three and keep everyone happy: He has outright rejected the NRC, he has accepted the NPR with the caveat that the newly-introduced questions in the enumeration will be rejected, and has sought some clarifications from the Centre over the CAA. Thackerays Shiv Sena had supported the CAA in the Lok Sabha, but walked out of the Rahya Sabha while the Bill was being discussed.

While on a recent visit to New Delhi, Thackeray maintained a tight balancing act by calling on both Narendra Modi and Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi. What the CM might soon realise is that it is not easy to protect the interests of all people of Maharashtra. As senior Congress leader Manish Tewari pointed out to him in a tweet, the CAA, the NPR and the NRC are intricately linked and accepting even one of these could endanger the citizenship of large sections of the people.

However, for the moment, neither the Congress nor the NCP wishes to upset the apple cart over the CAA issue. Protests against the Act have been allowed to take place across Maharashtra and have been by and large peaceful with no State violence against the protesters, unlike in New Delhi or Uttar Pradesh.

Nawab Malik, NCP spokesperson and minister in Thackerays Cabinet, has said they will cross the bridge when they come to it. However, with growing protests across the country and even increasing violence, as seen in the national capital Delhi, both the Congress and the NCP hope it will not come to the point of confrontation with the Shiv Sena. The Sena, too, hopes it will not be forced into a position of retreat or endangering its government if the Centre is put in a tight spot over the implementation of the Act.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders in the state, including former Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Narayan Rane, are hoping the state government will collapse under the weight of its own contradictions over the CAA. However, political power is a strong adhesive that will likely hold the three parties together. Rane has given 11 days and Fadnavis six months for the government to collapse. Ranes deadline will soon come and in all probability Fadnavis deadline will also come and go unnoticed.
At least 29 Turkish soldiers have been killed and several others injured in an airstrike by Syrian government forces in Idlib, a Turkish governor has said.

Turkish forces responded in kind almost immediately, retaliating with artillery fire on all known Syrian government targets, Turkeys Anadolou news agency reported the states communications director Fahrettin Altun as saying.

The dangerous escalation marks the largest number of Turkish casualties in a single day since it sent thousands of troops to aid those resisting Bashar al-Assads Russian-backed offensive, which began in December.

Idlib is the last major city held by opposition forces, and nearly 1 million residents have been forced to flee since the Syrian governments aggressive bombing campaign began.

In anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Idlib, Turkish border officials have been ordered to stand down and allow them to pass into Europe, a Turkish official told Reuters on Thursday.

Syrian regime bombards Idlib Show all 23 1 /23 Syrian regime bombards Idlib Syrian regime bombards Idlib Members of the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, recover a wounded boy from the rubble of a building following a regime air strike on a vegetable market in Syria's last major opposition bastion of Idlib AFP via Getty Syrian regime bombards Idlib The regime air strikes killed at least nine civilians, striking bustling areas of Idlib city AFP via Getty Syrian regime bombards Idlib An injured woman waits to receive treatment at a makeshift hospital AFP via Getty Syrian regime bombards Idlib Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, searching through the rubble of a building AFP via Getty Syrian regime bombards Idlib A Syrian boy is evacuated AFP via Getty Syrian regime bombards Idlib AFP via Getty Images Syrian regime bombards Idlib The wreckage of a car AFP via Getty Images Syrian regime bombards Idlib A Syrian boy cries as he is evacuated AFP via Getty Images Syrian regime bombards Idlib Rescuers search for survivors EPA Syrian regime bombards Idlib AFP via Getty Images Syrian regime bombards Idlib A Syrian boy grimaces in pain after he was wounded in the airstrikes AP Syrian regime bombards Idlib A Syrian youth stands at the site of a regime air strike in Ariha town AFP via Getty Syrian regime bombards Idlib Rescuers search for survivors under the rubble of a collapsed building EPA Syrian regime bombards Idlib AFP via Getty Syrian regime bombards Idlib Firefighters try to extinguish flames EPA Syrian regime bombards Idlib Emergency services look for survivors AP Syrian regime bombards Idlib AP Syrian regime bombards Idlib A boy wounded in airstrikes is treated in a hospital AP Syrian regime bombards Idlib Syrian White Helmet civil defense workers extinguish a burning car Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP Syrian regime bombards Idlib A Syrian walks on the rubble of a building AFP via Getty Syrian regime bombards Idlib AP Syrian regime bombards Idlib AP Syrian regime bombards Idlib AP

This has not been confirmed by the government in Turkey, which hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees and in 2016 struck a multibillion-euro deal with the European Union to stem the influx of migrants into the bloc.

More than 900,000 people in Idlib have fled their homes since December, with some 500,000 estimated to be children.

Most are homeless and sleeping in freezing conditions at camps and makeshift shelters in the region. Many have resorted to burning spare clothes and garbage to stay warm.

Offensives by Syrian government forces are shifting the front lines closer to these densely populated areas, leading the UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria to warn last week that there will be a bloodbath if Mr Assads forces push further into the province.

Were going to see a massacre on a scale that has never been seen in this entire war, Mark Cutts told Sky News on Thursday.

Mr Assads forces, supported by relentless Russian airstrikes, have pushed hard in recent months to retake the last large rebel-held region in northwest Syria after nine years of war that has displaced millions and killed hundreds of thousands.

Turkeys president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to mount a major counter-offensive against Mr Assads forces unless they pull back within the next two days to ceasefire lines agreed in 2018.

Two Turkish officials said he held an emergency meeting in Ankara with staff after the airstrike on Thursday, but the presidency would not release any details. Turkey previously suffered 21 casualties in February.

The airstrike came after Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters retook a strategic northwestern town from government forces on Thursday, opposition activists said, cutting a key highway just days after the government reopened it for the first time since 2012.

Despite losing the town of Saraqeb, Mr Assads forces now control almost the entire southern part of Idlib province after capturing more than 20 villages on Thursday, state media and opposition activists said.

While the fighting raged, Turkish and Russian officials concluded two days of talks in Ankara. Two previous rounds of negotiations in Ankara and Moscow have not yielded a sought ceasefire deal.

Hours earlier, Russian state television claimed Turkish military specialists were using shoulder-fired missiles to try to shoot down Russian and Syrian military aircraft over Idlib, a development that, if confirmed, would mark another serious escalation of the conflict.

Additional reporting by agencies
Turkey will no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after dozens of its soldiers were killed in a regime airstrike in Syria, prompting Greece to tighten its sea and land borders amid reports hundreds were already on the move.

At least 33 Turkish soldiers perished and an additional 32 were injured in an overnight strike by Syrian government forces in the northwestern province of Idlib.

The killings, which took place near Turkeys southern border, more than double Ankaras death toll in Syria for February.

It has sparked fears that Turkey president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will launch a full-scale operation against Syrian government forces, which are backed by the Russian military  potentially locking Moscow and Ankara in a direct and deadly conflict.

Russia said on Friday it was sending two warships armed with cruise missiles to waters off the Syrian coast, local media reported, after officials blamed Ankara for the deaths of its soldiers.

Responding to the killings, Ankara ordered Turkish police, coastguard and border security officials to stand down on land and sea crossings towards Europe and allow refugees to pass.

"We have decided, effective immediately, not to stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land or sea," said the Turkish official, who requested anonymity.

Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Show all 17 1 /17 Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe NGO members help 15 Afghan refugees, 5 children, 3 women and 7 men, to disembark from a dinghy as it lands ashore the Greek island of Lesbos on 28 February AFP/Getty Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe A group of migrants walk through the Turkish-Greek border in a village near the border city of Edirne, Turkey, on 28 February Reuters Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Migrants from Afghanistan arrive on a dinghy on the Greek island of Lesbos on 28 February Reuters Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Afghan refugees stand on the shore of the Greek island of Lesbos after disembarking a dinght on 28 February AFP/Getty Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe A group of migrants walk through the Turkish-Greek border in a village Bosnakoy near the border city of Edirne, Turkey on 28 February Reuters Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Migrants from Afghanistan arrive in a dinghy at the village of Skala Sikaminias, on the Greek island of Lesbos on 28 February AP Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Afghan refugees stand on the shore of the Greek island of Lesbos after disembarking a dinght on 28 February Reuters Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe A group of migrants walk through the Turkish-Greek border in a village near the border city of Edirne, Turkeythrough the Turkish-Greek border in a village Bosnakoy near the border city of Edirne, Turkey Reuters Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Refugees walk near fences enforcing the Greek border as they try to enter Europe, in Edirne, Turkey on 28 February 2020. the Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Refugees walk near fences enforcing the Greek border as they try to enter Europe, in Edirne, Turkey on 28 February 2020. the Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Refugees walk near fences enforcing the Greek border as they try to enter Europe, in Edirne, Turkey, 28 February 2020. the Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Refugees walk near fences enforcing the Greek border as they try to enter Europe, in Edirne, Turkey, 28 February 2020. the Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Refugees walk near fences enforcing the Greek border as they try to enter Europe, in Edirne, Turkey, 28 February 2020. the Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Greek soldiers patrol behind a border fence as refugees try to enter Europe, from Edirne, Turkey, 28 February 2020. the Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Syrian refugees board a bus as they head to border villages of Edirne province, in Istanbul, Turkey, 28 February 2020. The Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Refugees walk near fences enforcing the Greek border as they try to enter Europe, in Edirne, Turkey, 28 February 2020. The Turkish government announced its decision to no longer stop refugees from reaching Europe, after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in Idlib, Syria on 27 February. EPA Turkey opens borders to allow refugees to flee to Europe Migrants wait in no-man land between Turkey and Greece, in Pazarkule, Edirne, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. NATO envoys were holding emergency talks Friday at the request of Turkey following the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in northeast Syria, as scores of migrants gathered at Turkey's border with Greece seeking entry into Europe. AP

"All refugees, including Syrians, are now welcome to cross into the European Union, the official told Reuters.

Greek officials said the country is now tightening its sea and land borders with Turkey, and has reached out to the European Union and Nato about the matter.

Turkish news agency Demiroren said around 300 migrants, including women and children, had begun heading towards borders between Greece and Bulgaria and Turkeys Edirne province at around midnight.

The same news outlet said that others also gathered on the western Turkish coastal district of Ayvacik in Canakkale province with the aim of travelling by boat to Greece's Lesbos Island.

Syrians, Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanis and Moroccans were among those in the group, it said.

All refugees should enjoy freedom of movement, but we are also deeply concerned that those leaving Turkey will face a perilous journey across the sea to Greece  a journey that has claimed so many lives, said Refugees International president Eric Schwartz in a statement.

Greece itself is ill-prepared to receive a sudden influx of refugees  thus, it critical that the EU support Greece and fast track refugees from Greece to other EU countries where they can seek asylum.

Turkey has sent thousands of troops and heavy military hardware into Syria this month in support of some of the rebels, after the regime launched an offensive to take the last opposition stronghold in the war-ravaged country.

Nearly one million people have been displaced since 1 December, according to the United Nations. Sixty per cent of them children.

Mr Erdogan has repeatedly warned that Turkey will launch a full-scale offensive to repel Russian-backed Syrian forces unless they pull back from Turkish observation posts in the Syrian region.

The deaths of the Turkish soldiers will only escalate the messy conflict.

Turkey said it had responded to the attack on its troops by hitting 200 Syrian government targets, neutralising" 309 Syrian soldiers and destroying air defence systems, tanks and helicopters.

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab said he condemned the killing of the Turkish soldiers.

We support our Nato ally Turkeys efforts to negotiate an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Idlib, which is imperative if this already dangerous situation is not to deteriorate further.

Yesterdays events only confirmed the reckless and brutal nature of the offensive which the Syrian regime and Russia are conducting in Idlib. This has created the gravest humanitarian crisis of the entire war.

Ambassadors from the Nato military alliance are set to hold emergency talks on Friday in Brussels at Turkey's request to discuss the crisis.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UNs secretary general said the UN was following the situation with grave concern.

Turkeys state-run Anadolu agency said that the killings happened despite coordination with Russian officials on the ground, and that the attacks continued after a warning being made after the first strikes.

Russias defence ministry, as cited by the RIA news agency, refuted that saying that Ankara had failed to notify Moscow of the presence of Turkish troops in the area despite being in regular communication.

The statement claimed that Turkish troops had been hit by artillery fire from Syrian government forces who were trying to repel an offensive by rebel forces.

It added Russian war planes had not carried out any air strikes in the area at the time and Moscow did everything it could to help once it learnt of the Turkish troop presence.

In a separate Russian media report, Moscow later responded by saying it would send additional military hardware  including warships equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles  to Syrias cost.

Turkeys decision to open the way for refugees to travel Europe would, if executed, reverse a pledge Turkey made to the European Union in 2016.

It could draw European powers into a standoff over Idlib and the soaring tensions between Ankara and Moscow.
American Battlefield Trust and Bowe Stewart Foundation commit to multiyear support

In his Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln challenged all Americans to advance the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, saying, It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us.

It was in the spirit of those lines that Gettysburg National Military Park created the Great Task Youth Leadership Program in 2017. Geared for at-risk student and youth organizations from grade levels 7 to 12, the Great Task program offers intensive leadership and character-building experiences that go beyond traditional curriculum-based field trips. By utilizing the battlefield as an outdoor classroom, participants are immersed in the stories of leadership, heroism and civic responsibility embodied by those involved in, and affected by, the battle.

Now, thanks to a new partnership with the American Battlefield Trust and the multi-year financial commitment of the Bowe Stewart Foundation, this already successful and award-winning program will be substantially expandedvirtually, geographically and thematicallybetween 2020 and 2025.

Said Peter Bowe of the Bowe Stewart Foundation: The mission of these two great organizations is so clear, the opportunity so valuable, and their teams so strong, that we are fortunate to partner with them.

Applications for the program will be accepted through April 30 for one or two-day excursions from July through October, customized to match the mission and objectives of each youth organization. Limited travel and accommodation scholarships will be available through the financial support of the American Battlefield Trust and the Bowe Stewart Foundation. To learn more about these opportunities, group leaders and teachers can email the Education Office at Gettysburg National Military Park at gett_education@nps.gov or visit the American Battlefield Trust at www.battlefields.org/great-task.

Craig Braswell to Surrender to YankeesAgain

When Craig Braswell returns to Bennett Place State Historic Site to portray Gen. Joe Johnston at the April 25-26 Civil War surrender negotiations reenactment, it will mark 35 years since he first took the role of the capitulating Confederate. In fact, Braswell will have acted as Johnston in negotiations for longer than the actual negotiations lasted.

I first did it at Bennett Place in 1985, Braswell, of Princeton, N.C., recalled recently in a news release. They thought I looked like him, we were about the same height, but my eyes are blue, his were brown. They also had to make my hair gray back then.

The sites commemoration of the 155th anniversary of the Souths surrender is part of the observance of the wars last days by several North Carolina State Historic Sites. The surrender at Bennett Place effectively ended the Civil War.

For one weekend every five years since April 1985, Braswell has donned the full uniform of the Confederate general who wanted to end the Civil War. Like his Northern counterpart in the negotiations, Gen. William T. Sherman, Johnston attended West Point, and was in the class of 1829 with Gen. Robert E. Lee. He surrendered his commission as quartermaster in the Federal Army with the outbreak of the war.

I enjoy it, its just part of history, Braswell explains. Knowing old Joe as I do, I think he would be proud and honored to know that someone wanted to portray him.

FBI Believes Anti-Fascist Group Was Framed

After an undetonated pipe bomb was discovered at the 2017 annual reenactment of the Battle at Cedar Creeka chilling circumstance that came on the heels of letters threatening bombings, shootings and worsethe 2018 event was canceled for the safety of participants. At the time, the reenactment seemed like another casualty in the culture wars.

The evidence initially seemed to point to far-left Antifa movement, because the letters were sent in envelopes carrying the Antifa logo represented by black and red flags inside a white circle. The missives themselves contained virulent language calling the events a celebration of slavery and atrocity of history, one even promising We will make Charlottesville look like a Sunday picnic.

Now, it appears the whole thing was a set-up perpetuated by a troubled Civil War reenactor. A 37-page federal search warrant unsealed in February reveals that the FBI believes the threats and the pipe bomb were the work of a onetime member of the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation itself.

Gerald Leonard Drake, a 61-year-old Virginia man, was ousted as a reenactor in 2014 after a dispute with another member. Evidence in the warrant indicates Drake drew a picture of a bomb that resembled the pipe bomb found in 2017 while serving time for a 2004 sex crime. Investigators discovered details in some of the letters that only someone with inside knowledge of the organization would know.

Drake has not yet been charged with any crimes.

Meanwhile the 156th Anniversary of the Battle of Cedar Creek reenactment has gotten new life, and will be held Oct. 14-18, 2020.

A Bomb and a Bust

February was an explosive month in Charleston, S.C., this year as wayward Civil War ordnance seemed to be turning up with regularity.

First, early in the month, multiple roads in the citys historic district were closed for several hours after construction workers unearthed an unexploded artillery shell near famed Rainbow Row, so named for the colorful historic homes, and close by the site of the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon.

An Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team from the U.S. Air Force took possession of the shell, which a facilities manager for the Old Exchange told The State newspaper that the shell looked like an 8-inch round for a Parrott rifle.

Then, little more than a week later, what was thought to be a Civil War cannonball was uncovered when excavators were digging a new swimming pool in the downtown area. After examination, though, the Charleston Police Department determined the object was a wooden buoy. This time, however, no roads were closed during the incident.

Gettysburg Civil War Reenactment Canceled for 2020

After a 25-year run, it looks like the 2020 Gettysburg Civil War Reenactment will be canceled. The event drew thousands over the years, but changing demographicsan aging population and less interest from young peoplemade it too difficult to continue, according to organizers.

When the announcement was first made back in September, veteran Civil War reenactor Dustin Heisey said he would step in to take over planning the 2020 reenactment.

However, it became clear that was going to be problematic once it was learned that talk show host Glenn Beck plans to hold a three-day event in Gettysburg at the same time, drawing huge crowds who will compete for hotel rooms and other services, along with traffic congestion.

Not to be daunted, though, Helsey says he is looking forward to 2021 for a reenactment and commemoration of the battle during what will be its 158th anniversary.

2020 Events with the American Battlefield Trust

The American Battlefield Trust has announced its 2020 slate of member and educational events. From its acclaimed National Teacher Institute to exclusive member gatherings to public access and living history demonstrations at important historic structures, the Trust offers something for everyone in the coming year.

Highlights include:

Park Day at sites nationwide, April 4, 2020: Join fellow volunteers at a battlefield, museum or historic site near you to help perform critical maintenance projects.

Annual Conference in Chantilly, Va., June 37, 2020: Hundreds of history lovers come together for a weekend of exciting tours and exclusive speakers.

National Teacher Institute in Mobile, Ala., July 9-12, 2020: Some 160 educators gather for an acclaimed continuing education and training conference, provided free of charge with travel scholarships available.

In addition, an array of informal pop-up battlefield tours, family-friendly generational events and the opening of Lees Headquarters in Gettysburg, purchased and restored by the Trust, are also planned for 2020. See the full list and how to register at www.battlefields.org/events.
The field of regenerative medicines includes not only cell- and tissue-based therapies, but also gene therapies. Human albumin has been exploited within a number of areas of regenerative medicine, but its main use until now has been within stem cell therapies.

Regenerative medicines and related therapies have great potential for treatment of a broad range of illnesses, including liver disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease and multiple sclerosis.

Albumin has been used as an ingredient in cell culture media for some time, and its abilities to stimulate growth of many cell types are well established. It has typically been applied in the form of serum. However, recent investigation has shown that it is possible to remove serum from stem cell cultures, but that it is preferable to have the presence of albumin.

Recently, the effectiveness of albumin in cell culturing has led to its occasional use in cryopreservation or formulation buffers for stem cell therapies.

This article will offer an outline of the use of albumin in the culturing, cryopreservation and formulation of stem cells, as well as explaining considerations of both a practical and regulatory nature.

Albumin at a Glance

With a concentration of approximately 40 g/L, human albumin is the most abundant protein found in blood. It is a single chain protein, made up of 585 amino acids and is approximately 66.4 kDa in mass [1]. Its compacted, heart-shaped structure contains 17 internal disulfide bridges. It acts as a buffer or reservoir in blood for a number of smaller entities, including metals, fatty acids, toxins and hormones. The combination of its abundant presence in a large number of tissues and areas of the body, as well as the free flow of albumin between these areas, enables albumin to transport these smaller entities between zones of high and low concentration. Moreover, albumin also makes up around 75% of the oncotic pressure of blood, and the sole free cysteine of albumin (at position 34) constitutes the majority of the reducing equivalents found in blood. Each of these traits is useful in the application of albumin for stem cell therapies.

Albumin in Stem Cell Culture

To begin with, the albumin used in stem cell culture was gathered from crude human serum or fetal bovine serum. Over time, the requirement for better defined, clearly characterized and easily controlled media has led to increased use of media made up of individually added proteins.

Since serum is made up of many constituents, some of which are advantageous to the stem cells being targeted, this shift away from its use has not always resulted in improved stem cell growth. As such, it was found that when replacing serum, it was necessary to include albumin alongside a number of growth enhancers, so as to ensure acceptable performance.

Nevertheless, despite adding albumin, and testing out a broad range of growth aspects, there are cases where users struggle to achieve satisfactory growth without the use of serum. The unknown factor or factors causing this stunted growth are often referred to with the light-hearted nickname, pixie dust.

While there are a number of academic laboratories which are content to employ bovine serum albumin for stem cell culture, the vast majority of industry users prefer to use human albumin to cultivate human stem cells, so as to avoid any complications relating to cross-species media.

It should be noted, however, that human serum albumin produced from human plasma is not a pure protein. The specifications for human serum albumins frequently allow for up to 5% of non-albumin proteins to be present. In addition, as human serum albumin will be derived from a pool of donor plasma and that will be different for each batch and country of origin, the number and type of ligands associated with the albumin will be different between batches and source. As such, products derived from serum cannot be used within media which claims to be chemically defined.

As a result, to attain this further level of control and safety reassurance, recombinant human albumin must be used.

Although there are cases where serum-derived albumin provides better growth, often due to passing on some of the aforementioned pixie dust to the media [2, 3], this is an uncontrollable benefit. With a well-defined and pure recombinant albumin product the same effect can be obtained by adding in additional excipients but now with the benefit of actually knowing what supports the cell growth, making system control much easier and more consistent. In its own right the increased purity of the recombinant albumin can also lead to a greater performance in the cell culture [4]. Performance of serum albumin between batches can also be variable, with manufacturers often having to test each batch for its performance due to differences between the originating plasma pools.

The precise function of albumin in stem cell culture is still unclear [5], but over time, a number of biological properties have been ascribed to albumin, including:

Providing nutrients

Being a scavenger of toxins and reactive oxygen species

Acting as a transporter and reservoir/sink for metals and other advantageous molecular entities

Acting as a pH buffer

Coating surfaces to cut down on direct interaction and act as an insulator in media (thanks to its inclination to spread evenly throughout solutions)

It is most likely that the true function of albumin is a combination of all of these. It is also probable that the particular stem cell culture and precise conditions are what determines which properties of albumin are engaged and how much they are needed.

These complex functions of albumin may explain why it frequently makes an ideal base protein to add to a medium, as well as why it has become so popular, both in stem cell culture, and biology as a wider field.

There are three main factors for consideration when choosing an albumin source for use in commercial stem cell culture:

Technical requirements

Cost

Regulatory compliance

As outlined above, the albumin product employed should enable the effective growth of undifferentiated stem cells in a manner which is robust and replicable. There is no bias for any of the albumin sources when it comes to technical requirements, but sources which lead to great variability between batches are difficult to manage in a cGMP setting.

As such, it is usually considered preferable to have a slightly lower yield which is replicable, as opposed to a higher yield with great variation.

Generally an increase in regulatory acceptability is accompanied by an increase in cost, as seen in Figure 1. The cost of goods increases from serum derived animal albumin through to human serum and again from this to serum-derived human albumin, with recombinant human albumin representing the highest costs.

From a regulatory standpoint, there is a parallel increase, with serum-derived animal albumin being rejected within commercial settings, and recombinant sources of human albumin representing the most acceptable form for the regulators.

The recent entry of recombinant human albumin  an animal-free, cGMP raw material of excellent consistency and purity - into the field of stem cell cultivation has allowed for culture media to be better defined and controlled. As well as enabling greater cell growth reproducibility, these media are preferred by the regulatory authorities, since there is comprehensive quality data available for all constituents.

Figure 1. Considerations for choice of albumin

Albumin in Stem Cell Cryopreservation

Cryopreservation eliminates the requirement for a continuous process, allowing for flexibility, and is thus an important stage in commercial stem cell therapies [6]. In general, it is preferable to have at least one cryopreservation step in one of the two possible positions in the process leading to the stem cell therapy dose.

The first position is upstream, usually as near to the harvest or production of the stem cells as can be managed. The second position is as far downstream as can be managed, preferably after the generation of the stem cell therapy dose.

Since it allows for multiple batches to be produced either in parallel or in combination (depending on the nature of the therapy), the first cryopreservation step can allow for economy of scale. The second cryopreservation step enables great flexibility in both distribution and administration of the therapy. When looking to produce a commercially viable product, these are both greatly desired qualities.

It has been demonstrated that recombinant albumin is more advantageous than plasma-derived albumin for the survival of stem cells during cryopreservation. For cryopreservation, stem cells are typically taken out of their growth medium, which supports their biological needs in growth and put into a cryopreservation medium.

In general, this medium does not contain any small molecular nutrients, but does have albumin, some salts and buffers, to uphold pH and isotonic conditions, and a range of cryopreservation agents, including DMSO, etc.

On formulation of the stem cells, they are rapidly frozen. Once thawed, they are either quickly returned to a growth medium, which will support additional processing, or placed in a final formulation solution. This is dependent on whether additional processing is required or if they are ready for administration.

The benefit of using albumin in cryopreservation likely stems from a combination of its properties, including its capacity to coat surfaces, its buffering abilities and its ability to stabilize entities in solution. These are all functions which support the stem cell in enduring the change in media and transition between phases during the cryopreservation.

However, the purity and the source of albumin are also important factors. It has been discovered that the use of yeast-derived recombinant albumin in cryopreservation can stop mesenchymal stem cells from continuing into late state apoptosis, when compared to plasma-derived albumin.

This leads to greater post-thaw viability for stem cells cryopreserved with yeast-derived recombinant human albumin against those with human serum albumin or albumin from other recombinant sources.

The considerations touched on in Figure 1 are relevant once more when considering the albumin source for cryopreservation use. The key decider is still the technical requirements, but the cost of goods has a lower impact on the choice here, since the quantities required for cryopreservation are significantly lower than those required for cell culture.

Albumin in Stem Cell Formulation

In order to reproducibly deliver an effective therapy, the formulation used for stem cell products is an important consideration. Usually, stem cell therapies are formulated immediately following their production or their post-cryopreservation thawing.

Following formulation, it is necessary that a number of time-consuming release assays be carried out effectively ahead of administration to the patient. As such, the longer it is possible to maintain the stem cells in a stable state at this stage, the better the applicability and adaptability of the therapy.

A general guideline is that a single day of stability allows for onsite administration, two days of stability will enable distribution nationwide and three days of stability opens up the possibility for global use.

A stem cell formulation which is prepared in a controlled medium typically allows for an easier release of the therapy, since studies can place emphasis on the stem cell therapy itself, instead of having to be on the lookout for possible effects and impurities arising from the medium. Additionally, there should be less variation in the background of biological assays, thanks to the formulations controlled nature.

Nevertheless, as there is crossover between the stages of the process, using controlled media only in the production of the final formulation is not sufficient. If the aim is to produce a controlled final formulation, this must be considered early enough in the process to make certain that a sufficient number of dilutions and exchanges have occurred to alleviate any risk from uncontrolled constituents.

As such, any controlled substances, including recombinant human albumin, must be brought in far before the final formulation.

Practical Considerations for Using Albumin in Stem Cell Therapies

The various functions of albumin discussed above are likely to require varying quantities for effectiveness.

Generally, it is helpful to test out both a high and low concentration of albumin, to experiment with its different biological properties. What these high and low concentrations will consist of is dependent on factors linked to the cell, such as type, concentration and phases, as well as the production process stage.

It is usually wise to begin with the high concentration representing around 2-5% of albumin, with the low concentration being around one tenth of this concentration. If advantageous impacts are perceived, it will be possible to further optimize the albumin content by experimenting with concentrations.

Recombinant human albumin, as produced by Albumedix in a yeast host, comes in a ready-to-apply formulation, with the albumin at 10% or greater concentration. Since this albumin material is so highly concentrated, it is usually simple to implement an easy addition or dilution of the liquid albumin, both in formulation studies and later, in large scale production.

Literature References

Fanali G., di Masi A., Trezza V., Marino M., Fasano M., Ascenzi P.; Human serum albumin: from bench to bedside. Mol Aspects Med (2012) 33 209-290 Horvathy, DB., Simon M., Schwarz, CM., Masteling M., Vacz G., Hornyak, I., Lacza, Z.; Serum albumin as a local therapeutic agent in cell therapy and tissue engineering. Biofactor (2016) doi:10.1002/biof.1337. Garcia-Gonzalo, FR., Belmonte, JCI.; Albumin-Associated Lipids Regulate Human Embryonic Stem Cell Self-Renewal, PLos ONE (2008) 3 e1384. Morback, ED., Paczkowski M., Frericksson, JR., Kirsher, RL., Hoff, HS, Baumann, NA., Moyer, T., Matern, D.; Composition of protein supplement used for human embryo culture. J Assist Reprod Genet (2014) 31 1703-1711. Francis GL.; Albumin and mammalian cell culture: implications for biotechnology applications. Cryotechnology (2010) 62 1-16. Hunt, CJ.; Cryopreservation of Human Stem Cells for Clinical Application: A Review. Transfus Med Hemother (2011) 38 107-123.

About Albumedix Ltd.

Too many people battle with diseases that keep them from living a full life. Healthcare professionals work hard every day to provide these people with better therapies. Together with partners, Albumedix utilize its albumin-based drug enhancing products and technologies to enable the development of more effective treatments.

With more than 30 years of experience, we are proud to be recognized as the world leader in recombinant human albumin products and technologies.

As the highest quality recombinant human albumin products ever developed, Albumedix enables the effective formulation of otherwise hard-to-stabilize drugs, cell therapies, and vaccines.

Our albumin-based technologies offer new ways of optimizing drug dosing and enhancing therapeutic performance by increasing the half-life, payload capacity, and tissue specific delivery of active pharmaceutical agents. This results in simpler treatment regimens, better performance, and, ultimately, improved patient outcomes.

Albumedix is headquartered in Nottingham, UK, with both research and large-scale manufacturing facilities. We are all committed to improving patient quality of life and are just as passionate about albumin and albumin-enabled therapies today as we were when we started 30 years ago.

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Guyana goes to the polls Monday in a pivotal election in one of South America's poorest nations, where a coming oil boom is set to reshape an ethnically-divided political landscape. Voting is likely to be tight between the ruling Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (ANPU-AFC), led by President David Granger, and the opposition People's Progressive Party (PPP) of Irfaan Ali. The parties shared a 33-32 split in the outgoing 65-seat National Assembly. With oil due to flow from vast offshore fields following a huge discovery by ExxonMobil in 2016, the IMF expects the economy to record the fastest growth worldwide this year -- 85 percent. Oil production is currently around 52,000 barrels per day but is expected to grow to 750,000 bpd from 2025. - Election about oil wealth - The 65 members of Guyana's National Assembly are elected using closed list proportional representation, with voters selecting parties rather than individual candidates. The leader of the single party or coalition that emerges with the most seats becomes president. But the parties "are not offering anything new so what is important is the oil," said analyst Henry Jeffrey, a former professor of international relations at the University of Guyana. "The result is that, because there is tremendous wealth about to come our way, it's a very important election," he added. But he said Guyana, located on the northeast tip of South America, is far from ready for the oil boom: key legislation has not been enacted, and the state lacks oil industry experts. The expected surge in GDP has raised questions over how Guyanese will be able to manage the new wealth flowing into the country. Voting is likely to run along ethnic lines, with Granger's ruling coalition getting its bedrock support from the Afro-Guyanese community while the PPP is backed by the Indo-Guyanese population. "The problem in Guyana is an ethnic one and none of these parties is suggesting anything new," Jeffrey added. The government lost a confidence vote in December 2018 but contested the result and embarked on a series of court challenges to stay in power. Granger, a 74-year-old former army general, eventually called the March 2 election last September. Both he and the 39-year-old Ali are vying for the youth vote with promises of free education, jobs, increased salaries and pensions as well cash grants for school-going children once oil revenues come onstream. - Eight billion barrels - ExxonMobil in January estimated total recoverable oil resources at 8 billion barrels. Granger points to increases in salaries and pensions during his presidency, 4.7 percent economic growth in 2019, and says a get-tough policy on crime has reduced drug trafficking and murders as well as corruption. Ali has campaigned on reducing taxes and improving social services. British NGO Global Witness says Guyana lost out to the tune of $55 billion through a poorly negotiated exploration contract with hard-bargaining ExxonMobil in 2016. It said Guyana is at risk from rising sea levels and urgently needs money to build coastal defenses as well as for schools and hospitals, and called for the contract to be re-negotiated. The former British colony -- bordered by Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname -- has a population of around 750,000, though lawmakers believe that one-third or more have emigrated to North America and the Caribbean. The Elections Commission said final results would take several days as many of the more than 2,000 polling stations are in remote locations in territory dominated by forests, mountains and rivers. The ruling coalition of Guyana's President David Arthur, pictured in 2017, is in a tight race with theopposition People's Progressive Party Guyana is expecting huge economic growth after ExxonMobil discovered vast offshore fields Map of Guyana, which on March 2 will hold general elections
Since then, she has become a close adviser to a candidate who is famously a loner. She is nearly always on the campaign trail, only occasionally returning home to Cleveland to change out her suitcase and see her husband and son, who works in law enforcement. Turner has helped Sanders prepare for debates, which she then watches alone in a hotel room so she can prepare to face reporters in the spin room afterward. She has also educated him on the experience of growing up in poverty and being a black woman, especially a black mother with a black son, in America today.
(Alliance News) - Redx Pharma PLC on Friday said it will receive a GBP26.3 million cash injection through a subscription and two loan arrangements.

Redx earlier said that discussions with Yesod Bio-Sciences Ltd, which mulled a takeover of the drug discovery firm, had stalled.

US investors Redmile Group LLC, alongside Paris-based Sofinnova Partners, will provide the investment over several tranches, Redx said.

Redmile has agreed to subscribe to 11.5 million shares at 11.2 pence each, raising GBP1.3 million.

Redmile will also provide GBP5 million to Redx through a loan, the terms of which have "been agreed in principle" though it is yet to get over the line.

Redx said: "It is the board's intention to finalise this loan as soon as practicable."

Redmile and Sofinnova intend to commit to a further investment of about GBP20 million through a convertible loan.

"As with the loan, the board has agreed the outline terms and will progress this as quickly as possible and will, where applicable, seek the requisite shareholder and regulatory approvals," Redx said.

Earlier Friday, Yesod said it "does not intend to make an offer" for Redx. Earlier in February, Redx said the UK Panel on Takeovers & Mergers had agreed to extend the deadline for a possible cash offer to February 24.

Redx on Friday explained: "The board of Redx decided, after careful consideration, including extensive discussion with Moulton Goodies Ltd, the company's largest shareholder, that the possible offer from Yesod substantially undervalued the company and its assets."

Shares in the company closed 12% lower at 7.25 pence each in London on Friday.

By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
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Linkedin Laetitia Volga (Reuters) Paris, France  Fri, February 28, 2020 08:08 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206715b26 2 Lifestyle lanvin,Paris-Fashion-Week,fashion,France,Bruno-Sialelli Free

Lanvin designer Bruno Sialelli quoted from decades of fashion history on Wednesday in a ready-to-wear show fully befitting France's oldest fashion house.

With French actress Isabelle Huppert and the rapper Tyga in the front row, Lanvin's Winter 2020 runway celebrated old-school glamour as it mixed modernity with icons from long-gone eras.

A year after his appointment as new artistic creator, Sialelli drew inspiration from the Lanvin heritage with trademark embroidered gowns and tailored suits.

Supermodel Bella Hadid paraded down the catwalk wrapped in a fluffy fur-collared double-breasted coat, sporting crimson-red lipstick and a retro hairstyle straight out of a 1950s American movie.

Read also: Little-known designer to lead fashion house Lanvin

Her older sister Gigi closed the Paris Fashion Week show in a beaded see-through dress under a long navy coat, and silver-glittered heels.

Sialelli added to the collection with ultra-long gloves, a 60s-style short dress with a delicate white checquered print and headbands matching a tiny lunchbox-like handbag.

Lanvin, bought by Chinese Fosun, is attempting a turnaround after it plunged into losses following the departure of its longtime star designer Alber Elbaz in 2015.

Paris Fashion Week is the fourth and last leg of the month-long catwalk season that began in New York and also visits London and Milan.
After Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra, it now looks like Hrithik Roshan is set to expand his horizons across Indian borders. The actor, often known for his Greek god looks, is without a doubt one of the biggest stars in India so it isnt surprising to see the willingness from brands abroad to cash in on his popularity.









The reason for these rumours comes from Hrithik being signed by the California based Gersh Agency, which will represent him in Hollywood. Hrithiks manager Amrita Sen too confirmed the news by talking about Hrithik and his vision to go global in an interview with a leading daily. She said, Hrithik has always been an envelope pusher. For the last 20 years, Hrithik has been helping to drive Indian cinema into new genres, new narrative concepts and ever more sophisticated storytelling. He is excited about the fact that the market for global content, which features characters and stories from other parts of the world, couldnt be stronger than it is today. With Hrithiks leadership, our goal is to continue to put India in a front and center position on the path towards globalization and diversity and help integrate creators into new markets that were previously not available to them. In partnership with Gersh, we will now be taking Hrithiks ambitious vision around the world.



The actor was last seen in the blockbuster film War which went on to be the highest grosser of 2019.












[February 28, 2020] AQR's Cliff Asness Named the 2019 IAQF/Northfield Financial Engineer of the Year

Cliff Asness, Founder, Managing Principal and Chief Investment Officer at AQR Capital Management, was recognized as the 2019 Financial Engineer of the Year (FEOY) by the International Association for Quantitative Finance (IAQF) and Northfield Information Services. He was presented with the honor at the IAQF/Northfield Award Gala Dinner on February 27 by Martin Leibowitz, Managing Director and Vice Chairman of Research at Morgan Stanley. Upon his acceptance of the award, Cliff Asness remarked, "It is a great honor, and quite humbling, to receive this award especially in light of the amazing prior recipients. Thank you to the IAQF for this recognition and for all their work in advancing the field of quantitative finance." Northfield President Dan diBartolomeo commented, "We are elated to see that a very deserving practitioner has received this year's award. Cliff Asness has contributed very materially to the asset management industry in terms of the literature, but even more so by the many innovative investment techniques introduced through his firm AQR. His dedication to rigorous thought in many aspects of the investment process is now being appropriately recognized." The annual IAQF/Northfield FEOY Award, established in 1993, recognizes individual contributions to the advancement of quantitative finance. A nominating committee of approximately 100 people, consisting of all the IAQF governing boards, submits nominations, which are reviewed in a two-step process by a selection committee of 25 members. The selection committee includes the IAQF board of directors and senior fellows and was chaired by Dr. Michael Brennan, an IAQF senior fellow and 2017 FEOY award winner. Previous Award Recipients Cliff Asness joins a prestigious list of recipients of the IAQF/Northfield Financial Engineer of the Year Award. They include: Michael Brennan, Fischer Black, Phelim Boyle, Douglas Breeden, Peter Carr, John Cox (News - Alert), Emanuel Derman, Darrell Duffie, Robert Engle, John Hull, Jonathan Ingersoll, Robert Jarrow, Hayne Leland, Martin Leibowitz, Bob Litterman, Bob Litzenberger, Andrew Lo, Francis Longstaff, Robert Merton, Richard Roll, Stephen Ross (News - Alert), Mark Rubinstein, Eduardo Schwartz, Jim Simons, Jack Treynor, and Oldrich Alfons Vasicek. Myron Scholes received a lifetime achievement award in 2001. About Cliff Asness Cliff Asness is a Founder, Maaging Principal and Chief Investment Officer at AQR Capital Management. He is an active researcher and has authored articles on a variety of financial topics for many publications, including The Journal of Portfolio Management, Financial Analysts Journal, The Journal of Finance and The Journal of Financial Economics. He has received five Bernstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Awards from The Journal of Portfolio Management, in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2014 and 2015. Financial Analysts Journal has twice awarded him the Graham and Dodd Award for the year's best paper, as well as a Graham and Dodd Excellence Award, the award for the best perspectives piece, and the Graham and Dodd Readers' Choice Award.



In 2006, CFA Institute presented Cliff with the James R. Vertin Award, which is periodically given to individuals who have produced a body of research notable for its relevance and enduring value to investment professionals. Prior to co-founding AQR Capital Management, he was a Managing Director and Director of Quantitative Research for the Asset Management Division of Goldman, Sachs & Co. He is on the editorial board of The Journal of Portfolio Management, the governing board of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Finance at NYU, the board of directors of the Q-Group, the board of the International Rescue Committee and the board of trustees of The National WWII Museum. Cliff received a B.S. in economics from the Wharton School and a B.S. in engineering from the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating summa cum laude in both. He received an M.B.A. with high honors and a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Chicago, where he was Eugene Fama's student and teaching assistant for two years (so he still feels guilty when trying to beat the market).

About AQR AQR is a global investment management firm dedicated to delivering results for our clients. At the nexus of economics, behavioral finance, data and technology, AQR's evolution over two decades has been a continuous exploration of what drives markets and how it can be applied to client portfolios. The firm is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, with offices in Bangalore, Boston, Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles and Sydney. As of December 31, 2019, AQR and its affiliates had approximately $186 billion in assets under management. About the International Association for Quantitative Finance (IAQF) The IAQF (Formerly the IAFE) is the not-for-profit, professional society dedicated to fostering the profession of quantitative finance by providing platforms to discuss cutting-edge and pivotal issues in the field. Founded in 1992, the IAQF is composed of individual academics and practitioners from banks, broker dealers, hedge funds, pension funds, asset managers, technology firms, regulators, accounting, consulting and law firms, and universities across the globe. Through frank discussions of current policy issues, sponsoring programs to educate the financial community and recognizing the outstanding achievements in the field, the IAQF acts as a beacon for the development of quantitative finance. Throughout its history, the IAQFs pre-eminent leadership has positioned it to respond with savvy to the evolving needs of the financial engineering and quantitative finance communities. http://iaqf.org About Northfield Information Services Northfield is a market leader in providing investment professionals analytical and operating efficiency tools to enhance individual portfolio and firm-wide performance. Founded in 1985, Northfield has developed open, analytical models to identify, measure, and control risk. These risk models cover most marketable securities traded world-wide. Based upon award-winning research and sound investment theory, Northfield's products and services have stood the test of time from users within the global institutional investment community. With more than 300 clients worldwide with offices in Boston, Chicago, London, and Tokyo, Northfield is a preferred partner for institutional investors and asset managers. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005384/en/

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The representative body for Ireland's online and print newspapers has launched a campaign to highlight the importance of journalism.

INM's group head of news Kevin Doyle was among the panel yesterday as NewsBrands Ireland brought the first of its roadshows to agency Core to spread the #JournalismMatters message.

The subject of the conversation was "content may be king but context is queen".

Chaired by media expert Peter McPartlin, the discussion also included journalists Roisin Ingle from the 'Irish Times' and Mark Tighe from the 'Sunday Times'.

Advertising experts Fiona Field from MediaWorks, Karen Price from News Ireland and Doug Farrell from DMG Media made up the remainder of the panel.

They spoke about the value of quality news journalism to both readers and to advertisers.

Ann Marie Lenihan, CEO of NewsBrands Ireland, spoke about how its member publishers, including INM, continue to evolve and grow, constantly innovating and adding new news apps, podcasts and news websites to their original newspaper portfolios.

Collectively, print and online news content reaches 69pc of the population of Ireland every week, according to TGI.

The panel discussion highlighted the importance of quality news content and the role news brands play representing and reflecting society, championing truth and safeguarding our democracy.
A man was fatally struck by an Amtrak train Friday morning in the area of Inman Street in Lawrence, according to police.

Authorities responded to the report of an individual being struck by a train at around 10:30 a.m. After arriving near Inman Street, located off of South Broadway in South Lawrence, paramedics from the Lawrence General Hosptial pronounced the man dead on the scene.

The investigation into this incident is being conducted by Massachusetts State Police and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police.

Authorities didnt publicly provide any more information regarding the victim.
AFRICA

South Sudan

Expected Council Action

In March, the Council is due to renew the mandate of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) before its 15 March expiration. Prior to this, the Council expects a briefing, followed by consultations, on the Secretary-Generals 90-day report.

Key Recent Developments

On 22 February, the Transitional Government of National Unity was established in South Sudan, marking the start of a 36-month transitional period ahead of the holding of elections, in accordance with the terms of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) signed on 12 September 2018. Riek Machar was sworn in as First Vice President, followed by four other vice-presidents. At the ceremony on 22 February, President Salva Kiir remarked: This action signifies the end to the war. Peace has come, and it has come to stay. Machar pledged to work with Kiir during the upcoming 36-month transitional period to implement the R-ARCSS. For the people of South Sudan, I want to assure you that we will work together to end your long suffering, he said.

According to the terms of the R-ARCSS, 12 May 2019 was to mark the end of the eight-month pre-transitional period and the start of the 36-month transitional period, with elections to be held 60 days before the end of the transitional period. The deadline for the end of the pre-transitional period was extended for a second time until 22 February so that critical outstanding pre-transitional tasks specified under the R-ARCSS could be completed. These include the cantonment and training of a unified army and agreement on the number and boundaries of states. To date, many pre-transitional tasks remain outstanding, although on 15 February the parties were able to reach a compromise on reducing the number of states from 32 to 10.

Leading up to the 22 February deadline, several key actors expressed the need for progress in the peace process. At a press conference on 8 February, while attending the 33rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, the Secretary-General told the leaders of South Sudan: You do not have the right to continue a confrontation when your people are suffering so much. Its time for South Sudanese leaders to agree to cooperate. On 9 February, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) adopted a communique that expressed appreciation for mediation efforts by regional special envoys from IGAD and South Africa in an attempt to resolve the number and boundaries of states and stated that further extension of the pre-transitional period is neither desirable nor feasible at this stage of the peace process. On 11 February, the members of the Troika on South Sudan (Norway, the UK and the US) issued a statement encouraging the parties to reach consensus on a way forward on the number of states. The AU Peace and Security Council undertook a field mission to South Sudan from 18 to 20 February, to evaluate implementation of the R-ARCSS. The delegation noted in a press release that the formation of the Transitional Government of National Unity is only the start of a long nation-building process, andcalled on the parties to remain resolute, guided by the principles of compromise and restraint.

The overall level of political violence remains lower than prior to the signing of the R-ARCSS, and the ceasefire continues to hold across most of the country. However, ethnic and intercommunal violence has continued, along with sporadic clashes between government and opposition forces in some parts of the country. The human rights, humanitarian, food security and economic conditions in the country remain dire, with an enormous impact on civilians.

The mandate of UNMISS was last renewed on 15 March 2019 with the adoption of resolution 2459, which maintained the overall ceilings of 17,000 troops and 2,101 police personnel. The four core elements of the mandate remained largely unchanged, namely protecting civilians, creating the conditions conducive to the delivery of humanitarian assistance, monitoring and investigating human rights, and supporting the peace process. However, resolution 2459 added language calling on the mission to support the facilitation of the safe, informed, voluntary, and dignified return or relocation of [internally displaced persons] from United Nations protection of civilian sites, in coordination with humanitarian actors and other relevant stakeholders, and within existing resources. Regarding support for the peace process and implementation of the R-ARCSS, resolution 2459 included language specifying advice or technical assistance, within existing resources as part of the missions mandate.

The Council was last briefed on South Sudan on 17 December 2019 by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for South Sudan and head of UNMISS David Shearer and Ambassador Joanna Wronecka (Poland), then chair of the 2206 South Sudan Sanctions Committee.

Human Rights-Related Developments

The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan conducted its eighth mission to the country from 3 to 9 February. In Juba and Bentiu, the commissioners met with internally displaced persons, community leaders, and civil society organisations, including womens organisations. They also met with government officials, UN agencies, and UNMISS staff. Since our visit to South Sudan last August, there has been a marked increase in incidents of armed and localized conflict, particularly in Yei and Maiwut, said Commission Chair Yasmin Sooka at a press conference on 7 February. Beyond armed conflict, the lack of progress on cantonment and deplorable conditions at cantonment sites, and forced recruitment including of children may all be directly tied to a lack of good faith shown by signatories to implement the [R-ARCSS], she added. The commission also noted that the National Security Service was harassing, threatening, and intimidating activists and civil society representatives. The commission expressed its concern at the limited progress made on the establishment of the hybrid court; the commission for truth, reconciliation and healing; and the compensation and reparation authority, as required under the R-ARCSS. During its 43rd session, the Human Rights Council is expected to hold an interactive dialogue on 9 March with the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan and consider its report (A/HRC/43/56).

Women, Peace and Security

At the 17 December 2019 Council briefing, Shearer reported that while sexual violence remains a terrible problem, the 295 victims recorded in 2019 are substantially fewer than the almost 1,300 reported in 2018. Ambassador Wronecka expressed her sadness over the fact that sexual violence against women and girls, in particular continues to be a marker of the civil war in South Sudan. She showed particular concern over a lack of accountability. In his 11 December report, the Secretary-General called sexual violence one of the main threats to civilians in South Sudan. He further stressed that conflict-related sexual violence continued to be used by the conflict parties. The South Sudan National Police Service is listed in the annex of the Secretary-Generals annual report on conflict-related sexual violence as one of the conflict parties that are credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape and other forms of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict on the Security Council agenda. To address this, an action plan was launched on 19 November 2019 with the support of UNMISS, containing commitments to implement targeted actions for the next three years. With regard to the 35 percent quota for women in the formal implementation and monitoring mechanisms of the R-ARCSS, UNMISS continues to promote womens participation in cooperation with womens groups and organisations. The Ceasefire Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring and Verification Mechanism and the reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission are the only mechanisms that meet the quota. Women make up only 18 percent of members of national institutions.

Key Issues and Options

An immediate issue for the Council to consider is what changes are necessary to the mandate of UNMISS. The most likely option is for the Council to renew the mandate for one year, maintaining core elements such as the protection of civilians, monitoring and verification of human rights violations, and facilitation of humanitarian access. Council members will also be informed by the findings and recommendations of the Secretary-Generals most recent 90-day report.

In doing so, the Council might consider including language on some of the following:

increasing the flexibility of the missions political strategy and responsibilities to support the peace process and regional efforts;

increasing the effectiveness of protection efforts beyond protection of civilians sites;

further strengthening language for the mission to intensify its presence and active patrolling in areas at high risk of conflict;

increasing mediation and community engagement to foster sustainable local and national reconciliation; and

further strengthening the missions role in creating the conditions conducive to the delivery of humanitarian assistance.

Council Dynamics

While there have been recent positive developments in the peace process, the security situation remains fragile. In light of this, Council members believe that the protection of civilians, the facilitation of humanitarian access, and human rights monitoring should remain core elements of the UNMISS mandate. While members agree on the importance of the formation of the Transitional Government of National Unity on 22 February, many members share concerns over the need to fully implement the R-ARCSS as well as the need for durable peace. In this regard, it is likely that they will be in favour of language seeking to encourage UNMISS to continue to provide advice and technical support to the peace process.

Resolution 2459, extending the mandate of UNMISS last year, was adopted with 14 votes in favour. Russia abstained, in part because of its opposition to the resolutions only noting the R-ARCSS rather than welcoming it. Ahead of the adoption, Russia, China and South Africa broke silence in relation to various issues. Language referring to the sanctions regime, and the arms embargo in particular, was contentious during negotiations. Russia and China also opposed aspects of the resolution dealing with sexual and gender-based violence and human rights issues. (See our Whats in Blue story of 14 March 2019.) It is possible that these areas may once again be contentious during the upcoming negotiations to renew the missions mandate.

The US is the penholder on South Sudan. Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy (Viet Nam) chairs the 2206 South Sudan Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SOUTH SUDAN
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Nevro Corp. (NYSE: NVRO), a global medical device company that is providing innovative, evidence-based solutions for the treatment of chronic pain, today announced the settlement of its patent infringement lawsuit against Stimwave Technologies, Inc. Stimwave has agreed to cease commercialization of all high frequency spinal cord stimulation systems worldwide.

The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware on February 14, 2019, and asserted, among other things, that Stimwave was infringing Nevro's patents covering inventions relating to Nevro's groundbreaking Senza system and HF10 therapy. In July 2019, the District of Delaware issued a preliminary injunction against Stimwave. Stimwave has now agreed to a permanent injunction under which Stimwave's products will not deliver spinal cord stimulation therapy that includes pulse frequencies between 1,500 Hz and 100,000 Hz. The agreement reached between Nevro and Stimwave will apply globally. The permanent injunction will be filed with the Delaware district court. After the court enters the permanent injunction, the case (including Stimwave's appeal of the preliminary injunction order) will be dismissed. As part of the permanent injunction filing, Stimwave acknowledges the validity of the patents Nevro asserted in the litigation.

"We are pleased that the resolution of this matter recognizes the innovation behind HF10 therapy, and the strength of the intellectual property that protects it," said Kashif Rashid, General Counsel, Nevro. "There is extensive evidence supporting the clinical value of HF10 therapy, and the mechanism of action behind the superior clinical results of HF10 therapy is unique. Our ability to protect our intellectual property allows us to continue making the significant clinical and technological investments required to partner with physicians in the pursuit of helping more patients suffering from chronic pain."

Documents relating to the lawsuit are available at the court's website: www.ded.uscourts.gov. The district court case no. is 1:19-cv-00325-CFC.

About Nevro Corp.

Headquartered in Redwood City, California, Nevro is a global medical device company focused on providing innovative products that improve the quality of life of patients suffering from debilitating chronic pain. Nevro has developed and commercialized the Senza spinal cord stimulation (SCS) system, an evidence-based, non-pharmacologic neuromodulation platform for the treatment of chronic pain. HF10 therapy has demonstrated the ability to reduce or eliminate opioids in 65% of patients across six peer-reviewed clinical studies. The Senza System, Senza II System, and the Senza Omnia System are the only SCS systems that deliver Nevro's proprietary HF10 therapy. Senza, Senza II, Senza Omnia, HF10, Nevro and the Nevro logo are trademarks of Nevro Corp.

To learn more about Nevro, connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Investor Relations:

Juliet Cunningham

Vice President, Investor Relations

650-433-3247

[email protected]

SOURCE Nevro Corp.

Related Links

http://www.nevro.com


[February 28, 2020] Kord Technologies Wins 2019 ASMDA Technical Achievement Team Award

Kord Technologies, a Centauri company, was awarded the 2019 Air, Space and Missile Defense Association (ASMDA) Technical Achievement Team Award for their leadership in directed energy. Kord was specifically recognized for its efforts to realign directed energy capabilities from the science and technology community for combat use. "It is an honor for Kord Technologies to be presented with the 2019 ASMDA Technical Achievement Team Award," said David Dzaran, Centauri's Chief Executive Officer. "Kord has long been a leader in the tactical directed energy market and this award acknowledges the team's incredible work. We look forward to their continued success in this endeavor as part of the Centauri team." The ASMDA annual award highlights a group's tremendous accomplishments in air, space or missile defense activities with organizations such as the Missile Defense Agency, the United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command and the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command. In 2019, Kord Technologies was contracted to deliver a directed energy laser weapon system prototype on Stryker combat vehicles. Th company is currently leading the U.S. Army Maneuver Short Range Air Defense (M-SHORAD) Directed Energy initiative to equip American Soldiers with laser capabilities that can counter and defeat Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) threats.



"Receiving the ASMDA Technical Achievement Team Award is an affirmation for the entire Kord organization. It recognizes the hard work and meticulous approach taken by our employees in this crucial undertaking delivering advanced technologies to the U.S. military," said Scott Schnorrenberg, Kord Technologies' President. "We will continue to work diligently to assist the U.S. Army with its modernization plan by readying these directed energy prototypes for the warfighter." The ASMDA hosted a complimentary luncheon to honor the award recipients in Huntsville, Alabama on February 25th, where Lieutenant General Daniel L. Karbler, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command and U.S. Army Strategic Forces Command, served as the guest speaker.

About Kord: Kord is an integrated defense and aerospace company creating results for our clients in a fast-changing world. Kord delivers an extensive portfolio of directed energy, missile defense, space, cyber, and defense technology to Federal Government customers across the United States. About Centauri: Centauri is a high-end engineering, intelligence, cybersecurity and advanced technology solutions company headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia with offices Nationwide. We work with our customers in the intelligence and national security communities, helping them solve their most difficult challenges. Our agile, mission-first approach empowers our advanced technical and operational teams to meet the real-time demands and high-impact missions of national defense agencies across land, air, sea, space and cyberspace. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200228005072/en/

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Duterte to issue executive order to curb African Swine Fever



As the Philippine government tries to curb the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF), President Rodrigo Duterte will issue an executive order (EO) to slow down the transport of pigs and pork products in the country, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Duterte met with Dar, Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano and local government officials at the Malacanang Palace to discuss the matter. Issuing the order was among the "win-win" arrangements finalised during the meeting about the fatal hog disease, Dar told ABS-CBN News.

Speaking to reporters in Malacanang, the President said he tasked Dar to come up with a protocol on how to transport pigs and pork products in a way that the spread of the disease is controlled.

Earlier this month, Duterte ordered all government agencies and local government units to comply with the national zoning plan for ASF, which aims to curb the spread of the disease.

The DA issued the zoning plan in December 2019 as one of the key measures to eradicate ASF, which struck hog farms mostly in Luzon.

The Philippines confirmed its first case of ASF in September 2019, prompting a ban on meat products from countries where the hog disease was first reported. The outbreak was first confirmed in hog farms in Luzon, where thousands of pigs have been culled to contain the disease.
MAGNOLIA, Miss. - A Mississippi man was given four death sentences by a jury on Thursday, hours after he spoke in court and blamed the devil for his actions the night eight people were shot to death.

Willie Cory Godbolt, 37, was convicted Tuesday of the May 2017 slayings of eight people. Four of the convictions were for murder, which carry a sentence of life in prison. Four other convictions were for capital murder  a killing committed along with another felony.

Capital murder is punishable by the death penalty, but jurors must agree unanimously to set that as the punishment. Without unanimous agreement, the judge would set sentences of life in prison.

The unanimous decisions for the death penalty were handed down after the same jurors who convicted Godbolt heard testimony from several people Wednesday and Thursday during the penalty phase of the trial, the Daily Leader reported.

Godbolt gave a rambling speech full of religious references in court Thursday, and at one point a spectator seated among the victims families yelled at him to shut up, the Enterprise-Journal reported.

Godbolt said he had prayed to be a better man, but the devil came to kill and destroy. He wasnt going to let that be.

On Wednesday, jurors heard from victims relatives, including the widow of a deputy sheriff who was shot to death while responding to a domestic disturbance call and the mother of a teenager who was slain at another home.

Investigators said that on May 27, 2017, Godbolt went to his in-laws home and argued with his estranged wife about their children. The deputy, Godbolts mother-in-law and two other people were killed there. In the early hours of the next day, two young people were killed in a second house, and a married couple was killed in a third house.

My life came to a screeching halt, Godbolt said earlier Thursday, describing that night. I couldnt fight the battle that was raging inside me.

He quoted words spoken by Jesus on the cross: My Lord, My Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?

He said he thought his daughter was in in danger from other relatives, and a woman in the audience screamed; Cory, just shut up! Just stop!

Circuit Judge David Strong halted proceedings and family members were led out of the courtroom.

Dr. Matt Mendel, a clinical psychologist from Raleigh, North Carolina, had testified Thursday that he interviewed Godbolt and several of his relatives on behalf of the defence. When Godbolt was 17, his stepmother shot and killed his father, which led to enormous anger and resentment, especially toward women, Mendel said.
Birminghams Incysus Therapeutics has begun a Phase 1 clinical study of an immunotherapy for a variety of brain cancer.

This trial is being conducted at UAB and is now active and open for enrollment.

The therapy targets Glioblastoma multiforme, also known as GBM or glioblastoma, a fast-growing brain tumor that typically results in death within the first 15 months after diagnosis. GBM is inherently resistant to conventional therapy and accounts for about 52 percent of all primary brain tumors.

The companys gamma-delta T cell treatment uses a combination of certain chemotherapies and genetically-modified gamma-delta T cells, which resist chemotherapy-induced cell death. Chemotherapies usually kill the white blood cells needed to drive an immune response.

The new treatment allows the cells to survive to attack the tumor at the time that it is most vulnerable. Its the first gamma-delta T cell product cleared for a trial by the FDA. The trial will study Incysus technology in patients with newly diagnosed GBM during the maintenance phase of standard temozolomide chemotherapy.

Lawrence Lamb, Incysus chief scientific officer and an inventor of the technology, said the company looks forward to addressing the unmet needs of oncology patients.

I am excited to have taken our DRI platform from discovery and now into cancer patients as a novel approach for a devastating disease with few treatment options," Lamb said.
Hyderabad: BJP general secretary P. Muralidhar Rao said citizens of the country would remain unaffected even after the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is implemented. I fail to understand why some people are asking for citizenship for Pakistani Mulsims, he said.

He was participating in an open debate on the CAA here on Friday.

Mr Rao said CAA would be implemented according to the Constitution. Some people are opposing it claiming CAA is against the Constitution, he said.

The BJP leader claimed that Mahatma Gandhi, during Partition, had said that Pakistani Hindus could always come to India if they faced issues in the future. He said that while his party supported the National Register of Citizens, it could only be implemented based on guidelines specified by the Supreme Court.

Currently, we are talking about CAA. We are not thinking about NRC. In any case, NRC cant come out of thin air. It can come only based on a law. Right now, there is no need to talk about it. However, we are ready to talk about it, Mr Muralidhar Rao said. He added that how NRC would be implemented would be decided after the Centre discusses it with state governments.
Against the backdrop of the spread of Coronavirus, some of the worlds biggest employers are taking stringent measures to curb travel amid fear over its effect on global economy.

On Thursday, Nestle and LOreal suspended business travel as fears rise over Covid-19s spread.

Other companies are canceling corporate off-site events around the globe and making contingency plans for more employees to work remotely.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Nestle SA told more than 290,000 employees to suspend all international business travel until March 15, and requested that all domestic trips be skipped whenever possible for now.

Nestle is the worlds largest food and beverage company, with presence in many countries across the world, including Nigeria.

The company told employees to avoid traveling for business until at least mid-March following similar recommendation at LOreal, the cosmetics owner of global brands like Lancome and Maybelline, which extends through March 31 as a precautionary measure.

The company said it shares global concerns over the spread and impact on public health of coronavirus.

Covid-19 in Nigeria

Nigeria recorded its first case of Coronavirus after an Italian national tested positive to the virus, the Federal Ministry of Health said Thursaday.

The case is an Italian citizen who entered Nigeria on the 25th of February from Milan, Italy for a brief business visit. He fell ill on the 26th February and was transfered to Lagos State Biosecurity Facilities for isolation and testing, the Lagos State Ministry of Health also said in a statement.

#COVID2019 infection was confirmed by the Virology Laboratory of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital @LUTHofficial, part of the Laboratory Network of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control @NCDCgov.

The patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital (Mainland Hospital) in Yaba, Lagos.

It is the third reported case of Coronavirus in Africa after Egypt and Algeria; the suspect in the former, a foreigner, later tested negative to the virus. In Algeria, an Italian who arrived Algiers on February 17 tested positive.

The virus has infected more than 82,000 people and killed at least 2,800 since emerging in central China at the end of last year. It has spread to over 40 countries in less than two months.

The World Health Organization has issued health guidelines for businesses, and companies have also devised their own plans for keeping their work environment and communities safe.

Reports said British American Tobacco Plc, the maker of Lucky Strike cigarettes, said it reduced travel to the bare minimum. Other companies including Coca-Cola Co. and Kraft Heinz Co. are said to have opted to avoid affected countries.

Local Italian reports suggest that Unilever may have been forced to close its plant in Casalpusterlengo after a worker at the site tested positive and was subsequently hospitalized. Casalpusterlengo is a municipality in the Province of Lodi in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 50 kilometres southeast of Milan.

Globally, the travel curbs are bound to hit industries from airlines to hotels that are already reeling from Chinas drastic response. Air France-KLM last week warned that the outbreak will wipe as much as 200 million euros ($219 million) from earnings.

Companies in other sectors have also canceled events or encouraged working from home to minimize employees exposure.
Officials cut the ribbon on the Berkshire Innovation Center. PreviousNext

Berkshire Innovation Center Symbolizes 'Bright, Bold Future'



Mayor Thomas Bernard walks down the stairs of the Berkshire Innovation Center with Gov. Charlie Baker. PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The Berkshire Innovation Center was celebrated Friday as a symbol of a "bright, bold future" for not only the city of Pittsfield but the Berkshires as a whole.

More than a decade in the making from concept to opening, the $13.7 million hub for technology, training and entrepreneurship was packed on Friday morning with business and community leaders, and state and local officials past and present who have helped shepherd the project over the years.

"Today, we officially open the doors to this amazing facility, but it is already serving as the intersection point for engineers and educators and thought leaders who are seizing the opportunities of tomorrow and who are eager to solve challenges that our generation and future generations face," said Executive Director Benjamin Sosne. "The evolutionary pace of technology is staggering.

"These changes translate into a range of opportunities and disruptions across every industry. Berkshire Innovation Center is a home for our community to congregate and navigate those changes and to position ourselves, the leaders in the industry tomorrow."

The center, perched on a hill with commanding views at the William Stanley Business Park, which once was the site of the sprawling General Electric complex, hosts labs, conference rooms, and high tech equipment for a membership that ranges from educational facilities to rocket scientists to investment firms to General Dynamics.

The project has been trundling along under three mayors, two governors and a number of state and local officials. Gov. Charlie Baker, who attended the groundbreaking in 2018, said he was convinced the entrepreneurship hub would work because its advocates told him how it would be great.

Nodding to Stephen Boyd of Boyd Technologies, president and chairman of the BIC board, Baker said it wasn't just the money but the time put into the project by those who believed in it.

"Steve, to you and the folks on the board, I just want to say that your willingness to spend a lot of time making the case with a lot of people in state government about not only why this could be good but how it could be great. And there's a big difference," he said. "I mean I have people come into my office every single day about why something would be good. ...

"The thing I listened for is how is it going to be great because an idea, without a plan that's believable and instead of goals and objectives that are possible, it's just an idea."

Baker had toured the facility earlier with Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Michael Kennealy and representatives from other governmental agencies that had been crucial in putting together the complex financial package that finally brought the center to life.

"What happens tomorrow, the day after and the day after is ultimately going to tell the story with respect to this particular innovation center," the governor said. "And I really do believe that this is going to be great, because I've heard this story about how it could be great."

Former state Sen. Benjamin Downing and former state Rep. Christopher Speranzo had first secured $6.5 million to build what was then conceived to be a life sciences incubator building at the William Stanley Business Park. Baker delivered that final piece in 2018.

The 20,000 square-foot facility is mostly supported by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. The city contributed $1 million from the General Electric Economic Development Fund and the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority added $300,000. MassDevelopment, another state partner in the project, contributed an additional $400,000.

Mayor Linda Tyer thanked the Pittsfield City Council for its approval of funding to ensure the center came to fruition.

"This is really powerful, really powerful. We all come together today to celebrate another extraordinary milestone here in the city of Pittsfield," she said to the packed reception room at the BIC. "And as we pass this milestone, we build a stronger city, a city with a new identity and a city with a bright, bold powerful future. It's the old is reinventing itself, and saying farewell -- honoring our past and welcoming our bright new future."

Keannaly, who Polito joked was the bookend to former secretary Jay Ash, who also attended the ribbon cutting, said it was a question of who Massachusetts can "accelerate the pace of scientific discovery and company creation and truly remain a leader."

State Sen. Adam Hinds thanked everyone involved for getting the project through. State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier thanked their fellow Berkshire representatives for supporting the project even though it was in Pittsfield.



Mayor Linda Tyer with Stephen Boyd, Gov. Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito. "This is not called the Pittsfield Innovation Center," she said. "This is the Berkshire Innovation Center that happens to be in the heart of the Berkshires, but it's with my colleagues from the Legislature who really understood from the beginning that this was about a whole Berkshires."

Farley-Bouvier also saw the center as one of the solutions to workforce development, a critical issue that she's heard about from numerous businesses.

"We have a lot of things that we have to do to help with workforce here, but this is part of the solution," she said. "And whenever we can be part of the solution, we're having a good day."

The center has been mostly open since November and is the home of both investment firm Mill Town Capital and aerospace company Electro Magnetic Applications Inc.

"There are amazing people and ideas for ideas forming is entrepreneurs, teachers, designers, makers, thinkers and technologists convene here, thought leaders and rising stars are already doing more together in this space to flood our region in with opportunities and growth," said Boyd. "Here, local people are solving local problems in ways that address global challenges like human health, pollution, poverty, and the environment. Here, we can do more together."

The BIC board, stakeholders and state officials gathered on the central stairway cut a blue ribbon just before noon officially opening the Berkshire Innovation Center as a gateway to new ventures.

"Remember collective wisdom always wins," Boyd said. "Pivot with me toward spring, a harbinger for exciting things ahead."
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has sent a letter of condolences to President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

I was deeply saddened to hear the news that the Turkish soldiers were martyred, the head of state said in his message.

On the occasion of this incident, on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I extend my deep condolences to you, the families and the loved ones of those who were killed and the brotherly people of Turkey, President Ilham Aliyev said.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The snack bars market in the US is poised to grow by USD 806.08 millionduring 2020-2024, progressing at a CAGR of over 2% during the forecast period. Request free sample pages

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200227005835/en/

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Snack Bars Market in the US 2020-2024 (Graphic: Business Wire)

Read the 135-page report with TOC on "Snack Bars Market in the US Analysis Report by Product (Energy and nutrition bars, Granola bars, Breakfast bars, and Other snack bars), Distribution channel (Offline distribution and Online distribution), and the Segment Forecasts, 2020-2024".

https://www.technavio.com/report/united-states-snack-bar-market-industry-analysis

The market is driven by the new product launches. In addition, the increasing demand for plant-based snack bars is anticipated to boost the growth of the snack bars market in the US.

Snack bars are gaining popularity as a meal replacement and convenient food option among consumers in the US. This is encouraging many vendors in the market to introduce new varieties of snack bars in different flavors. For instance, KIND launched its KIND Frozen bars in the US in May 2019. These frozen bars are made using sea salt, dark chocolates, and almonds. Similarly, in June 2018, Clif Bar launched two energy bars and one granola bar in the US market. The granola bar is available in four flavors including while chocolate macadamia nut, cocoa almond, cinnamon almond, and blueberry crisp. The availability of such new snack bars in the US market is propelling the sale and consumption of different snack bars. Thus, new product launches are expected to drive market growth during the forecast period.

Buy 1 Technavio report and get the second for 50% off. Buy 2 Technavio reports and get the third for free.

View market snapshot before purchasing

Major Five Snack Bars Market in the US Companies:

Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories is headquartered in the US and operates the business under various segments such as Established Pharmaceuticals, Nutritionals, Diagnostics, and Cardiovascular and Neuromodulation. The company offers snacks bars such as ZonePerfect MACROS bars and Classic nutrition bars through its ZonePerfect brand.

Clif Bar Co.

Clif Bar Co. is headquartered in the US and offers products through the following business units: CLIF, LUNA, and CLIF Kid. The company offers snacks bars such as CLIF bar, MOJO bar, LUNA bar, LUNA protein, Zbar, and Zbar protein.

General Mills Inc.

General Mills Inc. is headquartered in the US and operates under various business segments, namely North America Retail, Convenience Stores Foodservice, Europe Australia, Asia Latin America, and Pet. The company offers snacks bars under the brands Nature Valley, LARABAR, and EPIC.

Kellogg Co.

Kellogg Co. is headquartered in the US and offers products through the following business segments: U.S. Snacks, U.S. Morning Foods, U.S. Specialty Channels, North America Other, Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. The company offers snacks bars under the brands, Nutri-Grain and Special K Bars.

KIND LLC

KIND LLC is headquartered in the US and offers snack bars such as KIND bars, KIND Simple Crunch bars, KIND minis, KIND breakfast bars, and KIND healthy grains bars.

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Snack Bars Market in the US Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2020-2024)

Energy and nutrition bars

Granola bars

Breakfast bars

Other snack bars

Snack Bars Market in the US Distribution Channel Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2020-2024)

Offline distribution

Online distribution

Technavio's sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report, such as the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more. Request a free sample report

Related Reports on Consumer Staples Include:

Packaged Burgers Market - Global Packaged Burgers Market by product (frozen burgers, chilled burgers, and fresh burgers) and geography (APAC, Europe, MEA, North America, and South America).

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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A Hitler youth knife with a swastika on its handle. An application form for the Schutzstaffel (SS), a Nazi organization responsible for carrying out the Final Solution, signed the day after the Second World War began. A 1937 book depicting the perfect Aryan town.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/2/2020 (684 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Hitler youth knife with a swastika on its handle. An application form for the Schutzstaffel (SS), a Nazi organization responsible for carrying out the Final Solution, signed the day after the Second World War began. A 1937 book depicting the "perfect Aryan town."

Deutsches Reich Arbeitsbuch stamped Kattowitz wartime stamps (McSherry Auction Service)

These are among the items up for sale in Stonewall this weekend at McSherrys Auction House, a spot frequented by collectors of many stripes. Also for sale Saturday will be typewriters, lamps, and snow shoes, but the 80-item lot of Nazi paraphernalia stands out in particular.

Stuart McSherry, who runs about 80 auctions per year, didnt necessarily understand the context of the lot at first. He signed an agreement with a seller looking to let go of a few pieces from his collection of militaria. The collector gave a few brief descriptions of the items  which also include a photograph of Nazi war criminal Julius Streicher, the publisher of the wartime Der Sturmer anti-Semitic newspaper and an executee following the trials at Nuremberg in 1946.

NSDAP member original badge. (McSherry Auction Service)

"The product is just a product to me," McSherry initially told the Free Press. "I never stopped to think about it."

But in a time of emboldened anti-Semitism  mass murder at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, a fatal shooting at a Jewish supermarket in New Jersey, and a former Canadian reservist from Manitoba standing trial for his alleged involvement in a neo-Nazi organization  is the product more than a widget to be sold?

Since the end of the Second World War, Nazi memorabilia has become a common collectable. Some items popping up for sale were brought back by returning soldiers, to remember what theyve defeated; the seller in Stonewall is the son of a Second World War soldier, McSherry said.

Over time, certain objects started commanding enormous prices: Hitlers personalized telephone, scoured from his Berlin bunker, nabbed $243,000 in 2017; prices for Nazi paraphernalia have gone up recently, said Terry Kovel, an American antiques expert.

Kreigsmarine aluminum spoon. (McSherry Auction Service)

Sometimes, buyers of these super-rare items are Jewish, as was the case with the $245,000 purchase of Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele's diaries by a modern Orthodox doctor, who intended to loan them to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum in Israel. Other times, a historical society or museum makes the winning bid. But by definition of an open auction, anyone can take a lot home.

Gott Mit Uns German army buckle (McSherry Auction Service)

"I think there certainly is a risk when material like this is put up for public sale," said Jeremy Maron, the curator of Holocaust and genocide content at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. "Historians could bid on this, but so could extremists building up a shrine to the Nazis or for the use of spreading extremist ideology."

Belle Jarniewski, the director of the Freeman Family Foundation Holocaust Education Centre, called the auction lot "very worrisome."

Any of the items have the potential to be used to spread hateful rhetoric or to distort the Holocausts impact, she said

In both the education centre and the CMHR, display items are accompanied by explanations and educational material, Jarniewski said; it cant be assumed the same context will be available in someones living room or basement.

The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre, based in Toronto, has called for the immediate removal of the memorabilia from the auction.

Nazi book Blumenthal Meine Helmat (To Perpetuate The Racial Purity) in German. Books like this idealized the perfect Aryan town. (McSherry Auction Service)

"These items are associated with the Nazi regime that murdered 6 million Jewish people and millions more," the centres president Avi Benlolo said Thursday. "The swastika remains a symbol of hate that is often used today by neo-Nazis to spread hate propaganda."

Cara Zwibel, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Associations fundamental freedoms program, said despite any opposition, it's most likely not illegal to sell the paraphernalia in Canada.

Kjell Anderson, the director of the University of Manitobas master of human rights program, said Canadian hate speech law boils down to intent, pointing to sections 318, 319 and 320 of the Criminal Code. "Theres nothing illegal about having an auction like that per se," he said.

1935 Reichsparteitag photo of Julius Streicher (bald man), Willy Liebel (looking at the camera), and Karl Holz (touching his nose). (McSherry Auction Service)

Corey Shefman, a lawyer with OKT LLP in Ontario who specializes in aboriginal rights and human rights, said the questions surrounding the sale of the paraphernalia arent so much legal as logical and ethical.

"The question is who is selling them and who is buying them," he said.

The same question is dogging sellers much larger than McSherry. Earlier this week, the Auschwitz Memorial and the Holocaust Educational Trust called on Amazon to stop selling books by Streicher, including the Poisoned Mushroom, a parable depicting Jewish people as evil; the book has since been removed.

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At first, McSherry said he hadnt considered what these items represented. "Im just selling a part of history," he said. "Have we sold Nazi stuff before? A little here, a little there."

Hitler youth knife with scabbard. (McSherry Auction Service)

But once given more context surrounding the items up for sale, McSherry says he reached out to the seller to see whether hed remove from the lot the book depicting a "perfect Aryan town." And when he learned more about Streicher, who appears in a photograph for sale, he said hed discuss removing it as well.

"The involvement of the people (these items) affect might have been overlooked," he admitted.

McSherry said the auction has been scheduled, and he doesnt plan on cancelling it due to an obligation to the seller, who hadn't gotten back with a response to McSherry at press time. But when asked whether hed think twice about auctioning paraphernalia such as the items listed, McSherry said he would.

"Id strongly consider in the future not selling," he said.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca
The measure passed the legislature with overwhelming support last year but needs to clear it a second time, and win approval from voters in a referendum, for it to take effect. This year is the last opportunity to make that change in time for the next round of redistricting, which takes place next year in response to the 2020 Census.
Our 16th annual Job Fair will be held from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. March 26, at the Torrington City Hall Auditorium.

We are currently looking for employers with job openings to exhibit at the event. All industries and businesses are welcome.
STATEN ISLAND -- Nearly 700 Republicans packed the Vanderbilt in South Beach, energized to vote in the upcoming Republican primary and stand behind Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis in the congressional race against freshman Rep. Max Rose and President Donald Trump.

Throughout the night on Thursday, Republicans shouted four more years! and impeach Max Rose, signaling their support for the president and vowing to come out in droves to oust Rose come November.

Roses impeachment vote against Trump, the passage of bail reform and the Green Light Law coupled with the threat of Socialist and progressive candidates reclaiming the House, state Legislature and potentially taking over the White House, riled up the Islands Republican base, whose turnout surpassed the 407 Democrats who showed up for the partys county convention last week.

Candidates warned Island Republicans that the next several months would be a them and us battle in a fight against progressive candidates and Republicans.

One thing is clear, Staten Island doesnt want their revolution! Malliotakis said as she accepted the partys endorsement. Were happy with the new American revolution led by President Trump.

The party endorsed Malliotakis, incumbents state Sen. Andrew Lanza; Assemblyman Michael Reilly -- who both currently do not have any Democratic challengers -- attorney Anthony DeGuerre to take on Assemblyman Micheal Cusick; Retired Detective Paul Ciurcina Jr. to challenge Assemblyman Charles Fall; former District Attorney Michael Tannousis for Malliotakis soon-to-be-vacant assembly seat; and Ronald Castorina Jr. for the New York City Civil Court seat.

GUESTS AT THE GATHERING

Vice President Mike Pences nephew John Pence and the head of the NYPDs Sergeants union, Ed Mullins, headlined the partys convention and both stressed the importance of getting Malliotakis elected to the House.

Party Chairman Brendan Lantry said it did not endorse any candidates to go against state Sen. Diane Savino because after interviewing potential candidates, none of them fit the partys "criteria at this time.

While Island Democrats have opted to stay out of endorsing in the states upcoming presidential primary in April, Republicans enthusiastically endorsed President Trump and Vice President Pence for re-election Thursday night.

Nearly 700 people attended the Staten Island Republican Party's Convention.

SOME REPUBLICANS MISSING FROM CONVENTION

But some Republicans were not as energized about the upcoming primary as the rest of the party.

Malliotakis Republican primary rival former Brooklyn prosecutor Joseph Caldarera did not attend Thursdays convention. His campaign said Caldarera did not go because he believed the partys endorsement process was rigged, a claim Lantry insisted was not true.

Nicole Malliotakis will say and do anything to get elected, including perpetrating a fraud on the people of the 11th district. She never endorsed President Trump in 2016 and in her own words was never really a supporter of his. After he was elected, she said she regretted voting for him and that the country would be better off if Marco Rubio had been the nominee, Caldarera said.

Over the course of the campaign, Malliotakis and Caldarera had both tried to closely align themselves with Trump. But earlier this month, Trump announced his complete & total support for Malliotakis.

In 2016, Malliotakis expressed second thoughts about voting for Trump and wished she would have written in Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubios name instead, a remark Caldarera, as well as Democrats, have slammed Malliotakis for.

However, Malliotakis now closely aligns herself with the president and his family and has said her remarks, which were made during her 2017 mayoral campaign, were taken out of context and were in response to repeated questions about Trump.

Ahead of the convention, the Islands five Republicans had initially been silent on whether they would throw their support behind Malliotakis.

Minority Leader Steven Matteo, who is running for borough president, was the first Island Republican politician to publicly endorse the assemblywoman.

NEARLY ALL ISLAND GOP FALL IN LINE WITH PARTYS ENDORSEMENT OF MALLIOTAKIS

State Sen. Andrew Lanza and Assemblyman Michael Reilly attended the partys convention Thursday night and told the Advance Malliotakis has their full support.

However, also missing from the convention was Trumps honorary state chair for his re-election campaign, Councilman Joe Borelli, who was teaching a class Thursday night, as well as Borough President James Oddo. Matteo also did not attend the convention due to personal reasons.

Borelli declined to comment when asked whether he would fall in line with the party and endorse Malliotakis and Oddo did not return multiple requests for comment about his support for the assemblywoman.

ROSE ON IMPEACHMENT

The party tried to align Rose as a turncoat moderate Democrat throughout the night and fixated on his sudden change on impeachment.

In just two years we saw Max go from an, aw shucks, work across the aisle drain the swamp platitude upon platitude congressman who masqueraded as someone who would work across the aisle to face the issues that are facing the American people, Lantry said, adding that Rose has voted with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a number of bills.

He wrote an op-ed in the Staten Island Advance saying he wouldn't vote to impeach our president and then he fell right in line with [Reps] Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff and cast his vote for impeachment, Malliotakis said. He pledged to not take corporate PAC money only to accept corporate money funneled to his campaign by a shady PAC run by his own treasurer. He fought a socialist [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] side against the U.S. Mexico Canada trade agreement before Nancy Pelosi told him to vote for it.

These views and these votes may be considered those of a moderate there in Park Slope, but here on Staten Island, he sounds just like another far-left Democrat, Malliotakis continued.

Rose said called Malliotakis a fraud who believes in nothing except winning the next election.

Im not surprised shes resorting to lies and distortions. In one year Ive passed more bills into law than she has in 10 years, including permanently and fully funding the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, putting sanctions on China for flooding our streets with fentanyl, allowing construction to begin on the East Shore Seawall, and increasing funding to combat the opioid epidemic by $140 millions of dollars, Rose said.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.
More Birmingham students and adults will be able to learn how to code and get involved with technology through the Education Farm, an Apple-supported education initiative with TechAlabama and Birmingham City Schools.

Ed Farm will provide learning experiences for students, teachers and adults. It aims to provide adults more opportunities to learn and work in the tech field and to enrich the workforce by providing adult tech education. TechAlabama is hosting Ed Farm at its 1914 4th Avenue North location, the former Forbes Piano Company building.

The initiative is part of Apples Community Education Initiative, making Birmingham the latest city to participate. Apple has launched Community Education Initiative projects in other American cities including Austin, Houston, Boise, Columbus, Chicago and Nashville.

Ed Farm will use Apples Everyone Can Code curriculum, which is being used in more than 5,000 schools around the world.

As our society continues to evolve and advance, more and more job opportunities of the future will require digital skills, and helping our communities prepare for that is our priority, said Chris McCauley, Ed Farm program director. Our partnerships with Birmingham City Schools and the Birmingham community on the Teacher Fellows, Pathways and Student Fellows programs have already produced successful results, and we are thrilled at this initiatives potential as it continues to move forward.

Apple is providing Ed Farm with hardware, software, funding and professional learning support. Apple gave Birmingham City Schools more than 400 new devices to use in classrooms. The Alabama Power Foundation is also supporting the initiative.

"Coding is a universal language that fuels innovation, Apple CEO Tim Cook said during a kick-off even in Birmingham on Thursday. There is no better time to come together than now, and there is no better place than Birmingham. While education is in Apples DNA, Alabama is in mine. Cook is a native of Robertsdale in south Alabama.

There are three ways for Birmingham area residents to participate in Ed Farm.

In the Student Fellows program, Birmingham City Schools middle and high schoolers will work together to create solutions to a community problem through technology. At the end of their year of problem-solving, they will present their solutions to the community.

In the Teacher Fellows program, school administrators identify teachers who are passionate about innovation in learning. Those teachers will be given resources and professional development opportunities to further revolutionize how students learn and how teachers teach in their schools.

There are currently 13 Birmingham City Schools administrators and 25 teachers in the Teacher Fellows program. The program began in July 2019.

The Pathways Program provides free classes on Apples Swift coding language and helps adults learn how to code. Adults in the program can also obtain post-secondary credentials through the pathways program.

Adults living in Jefferson, Shelby, St. Clair, Blount, Chilton or Walker County who are 17 and older who have obtained their GED are eligible for Pathways.

Those interested can learn more about Pathways and apply online through the Ed Farm website.

In addition to the education and professional development opportunities, Ed Farm will also be working with the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute to create a virtual reality experience of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement.

Through resources provided by Apple, the BCRI, Ed Farm and TechAlabama will develop a virtual reality experience of the civil rights movement so that people around the world can learn about and experience the civil rights movement regardless of their geographic location.

This is exciting, its the next step for the BCRI, said Isaac Cooper, chair of the BCRI Board of Directors. "If the future doesnt include technology, weve missed the boat.

Cooper said the partnership with Apple will allow the BCRI to make an impact not just in Alabama or America, but around the world.

He said there will be more news about the project later in the year. He said he could not, at this, put a timeline on when the project will be completed.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said work on Ed Farm has been ongoing for nearly two years. He believes the effort will give Birmingham the chance to be a leader in the tech industry.

With the support of Apple, the city of Birmingham, the school system and corporate partners like Alabama Power, we are experiencing a real and needed step change in educational outcomes, said Anthony Oni, chair of TechAlabama. Whats being done here in Birmingham is transformational and can make a difference in how all schools incorporate creative innovation into education.

In the future, Woodfin said he sees the program growing and gaining more support of other corporations in Birmingham.

To learn more, go to the Ed Farm website.
Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung has asked local businesses to stop sending Vietnamese workers to regions affected by new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) outbreaks.

Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung

Enterprises that have not obeyed the instruction will be strictly punished in line with law, the minister said.

Vietnams labour representative offices in the epidemic-hit regions need to take communication measures to encourage workers, including illegal labourers, to fill in medical declaration forms and undergo medical supervision in host countries if they come from other areas or are infected or suspected to be infected with the virus.

Workers who return home from areas with SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks will be kept under quarantine in line with regulations of the Vietnamese Ministry of Health, Dung said.

Apart from fighting the disease, efforts should be made to remove difficulties facing the management work in order to ensure production and business, and stabilize peoples lives, the minister said, calling for coordination between relevant agencies and sectors to deal with incidents emerging during the combat.

Dung asked the Department of Overseas Labour to set forth plans to selectively and closely receive Chinese experts and workers in specific spheres, while working to help labourers in enterprises feel secure.

Those who return to Vietnam must observe medical and quarantine regulations set by the health ministry, he noted.

As for Vietnamese workers abroad, especially those in the Republic of Korea (RoK), Taiwan (China) and Japan, the minister stressed the need to promote COLAB SOS  an application launched by the Department of Overseas Labour aiming to connect Vietnamese guest workers.

The labourers, particularly those in Daegu and Gyeongbuk that are worst hit by the epidemic the RoK, should avoid travelling to epidemic-hit areas, and not leave the host countries and territories if not necessary to prevent the spread of the disease.

Under the ministers instruction, vocational training schools nationwide will reopen from March 2./.VNA

Khanh Hoa free from novel coronavirus outbreak The south central coastal province of Khanh Hoa has gained coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-free status under the Ministry of Healths Decision No.648/QD-BYT inked by Deputy Minister Do Xuan Tuyen on February 26.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 14:28:33|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's education authorities are carrying out a prudent study on the arrangement of this year's college entrance exam amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, an official said Friday.

The arrangement will take into consideration the epidemic situation and its impact on the exam, Weng Tiehui, vice minister of education, said at a press conference in response to a question whether the exam, which was originally scheduled for June, would be postponed.

Weng said the detailed plan and arrangement will be announced in due time, adding that all-out efforts will be made to ensure the safety and health of examinees and related personnel.

The country has postponed the start of the spring semester of primary and middle schools and encouraged students to study at home over health concerns.

During the special period, students have access to various classes online or via television. They are also required to learn about epidemic prevention and control and psychological health.
Burma Myanmar Parliament Speaker to MPs: Act Civil or Face Lawsuits

Military lawmakers at the Union Parliament on Feb. 26. / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYITAWAs fierce debate on constitutional amendment bills continued at Myanmars national legislature, Union Parliament Speaker T Khun Myat warned lawmakers on Thursday against making provocative remarks and said he would file lawsuits if their remarks cross the line.

Since the debate began on Tuesday, some lawmakers have made inflammatory remarks against others, prompting the targeted side to raise objections. T Khun Myat was forced to intervene in some cases.

On Tuesday, military-appointed lawmaker Major General Tin Swe Win began shouting on the floor of Parliament. The speaker warned him not to misbehave and asked all participants to act and speak with the dignity that befits members of Parliament.

Union Solidarity Development Party lawmaker U Maung Myint criticized the fact that many ministers in the National League for Democracy (NLD) government are relatively old, saying the country will be thrown into chaos if it is led by those old enough to be in their second childhood.

As the speaker, I have managerial authority to take punitive actions. If [you] go too far, I can file a lawsuit according to the law, T Khun Myat warned at the end of the parliamentary session on Thursday.

He asked lawmakers to be careful with their words even though they are allowed to discuss freely within the bounds of the law.

It is not disgraceful to get sued for speaking at the Parliament. I would question if anyone in a true democracy has ever been sued for discussion, U Maung Myint told The Irrawaddy.

Parliamentary speakers have the right to ask a lawmaker to immediately leave the Parliament compound and miss the days session if their behavior and remarks are unacceptable.

If a lawmaker is warned twice in one Parliament session, the speaker can ask him not to attend the rest of the session, as well as any Parliament and parliamentary committee meetings for the rest of the session. The speaker can also deny him access to the Parliament compound for the rest of the session.

I have to say what needs to be said. It is up to him whether or not to take action. I dont know if a lawsuit can be filed, said U Maung Myint.

The NLD raised objections to U Maung Myints remark as well as discussions by military lawmakers and independent lawmaker U Soe Thein, the former minister of the Presidents Office.

Lower House lawmaker Dr. Hla Moe of Aungmyaythazan Township remarked that T Khun Myat will be able to regain control of the situation.

T Khun Myat urged lawmakers to work in unity for the interests of the country and set aside differences in their views.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.

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In case you havent heard, TruNews, an evangelical, antisemitic, online news channel, has been permanently banned from YouTube for hate speech. Is this something we should applaud, especially as Christian conservatives? Or this is something that should concern us, since the charge of hate speech has been frequently wielded against us, albeit without merit?

To be sure, TruNews has spread dangerous, antisemitic lies, including the claim that Jews will soon take over America and start slaughtering millions of Christians. To quote Rick Wiles, the founder of TruNews, directly, The very people who crucified Christ are going to be our masters if we dont do something about it.

Yes, this is what an evangelical Christian newscaster is spewing from his newsroom day after day, using the internet to disseminate his misguided views.

This kind of unfounded, unhinged rhetoric could lead unstable people to commit violent acts against the Jewish community. The two synagogue shootings are stark reminders of this.

Thats why I have personally confronted TruNews on a number of occasions, including articles (see here and here), videos (see here and here), books (see here and here), and privately. I have also invited Rick Wiles onto my radio show, offered to go on his show, and challenged him to a public debate.

All my offers have been declined.

And so, rather than change their tune, the TruNews leaders have entrenched themselves even more deeply. In fact, after the vote-count fiasco in Iowa, TruNews claimed that Israel was behind the mess. I kid you not. TruNews even claimed that this was part of a ploy to get Pete Buttigieg elected, since Israel wanted a gay man in the White House.

It is for good reason that major, Jewish news outlets reported on YouTubes banning of TruNews, including HaAretz, the Jerusalem Post, the Forward, the Times of Israel, the Algemeiner, and more.

Others are now calling for TruNews to be banned from Facebook, where they still broadcast daily, as well as from Twitter. And that leads me back to my initial question: is the banning of antisemitic voices like TruNews good or bad?

On the one hand, as emphasized above, TruNews is spreading genuinely dangerous lies, lies that could lead to the shedding of innocent blood. Rick Wiles has even spoken about stockpiling weapons while warning of an impending, violent civil war. As he said last December, The Democrats are forcing me to stockpile ammunition, food, water, and medical supplies to defend my family, home, and church. (This was in the context of an alleged Jew coup to take over Washington through the impeachment hearings.)

And since, for Wiles, it is always the evil Jews who are the ultimate culprits, its easy to see what his irresponsible words could lead to.

On the other hand, TruNews is touting its YouTube ban as a badge of honor. And, because YouTube is run by the Jews, Rick Wiles now has further proof that the Jews are trying to take him down.

As the ADL reported after Paypal and others stopped processing TruNews donations, In an anti-Semitic, conspiracy theory-laced letter to supporters, TruNews founder Rick Wiles ascribed the change to his coverage of Israeli Mossads blackmail operation through the fake billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, adding that we live in Bolshevik, Zionist America. (If youre wondering what Epstein has to do with all this, check out the story just linked.)

Wiles now has more fuel for his fire.

But thats the lesser of my concerns. Virtually anything can be used to confirm the theories of a conspiracy theorist.

My greater concern is that the charge of hate speech can be wielded indiscriminately against upstanding individuals, organizations, and ministries. In fact, the charge has been wielded against many of us, but not because weve been hateful or insulting or untruthful.

Rather, it has been used against us when we affirm biblical truths in the face of a fallen and confused culture. (For examples, see some of the articles and videos listed here.) And just think of what happened to the Prager U channel for allegedly violating YouTubes community guidelines.

Thats why I have mixed feelings about YouTubes decision to ban TruNews for good.

To be sure, the less exposure they have, the better. May their audience dwindle and diminish to nothing, and may their funding dry up!

Yet the banning sets a bad precedent for others, since the leftist leanings of YouTube, Google, and other social media giants are undeniable. Who will be banned next? Perhaps Christians who say that homosexual practice is contrary to Gods will?

So we have to ask, which is worse? Allowing antisemites to spread their dangerous misinformation or potentially curtailing the free speech of others?

As much as I deplore what these antisemites say and do (especially when they do so in Jesus name), I would suggest these simple guidelines. If they (or any other group) have the constitutional right to share their views in the American public square, they should have the same right to do so online. If their speech would be forbidden from the public square under the Constitution, it should be banned online as well.

Has TruNews crossed that line? To my knowledge, the answer is no, although they are certainly getting close.

That means that, for now, rather than pushing for them to be banned from the internet, we should expose their lies and unite together in combating antisemitic libels. Truth is a stronger weapon than censorship. Do you concur?
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has announced it will reward everyone who provide intel on illegal migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh in Maharashtra.

While a poster located in Mumbais Bandra area announced a financial reward of Rs 5,555, another put up in Aurangabad offered Rs 5,000 to every informant, reported India Today. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackerays cousin Raj Thackeray is the leader and founder of the party.

While Uddhavs party Shiv Sena was a long-time ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), their relations soured recently over who Maharashtras new chief minister would be. Notably, the Sena-led Maharashtra government announced 5 percent reservation for Muslims in educational institutes on February 28.

Meanwhile, MNS, which until recently had criticised the BJP, has unveiled a saffron flag and softened its stance. This move could also indicate that they are looking at a shift towards a more unabashed display of their Hindutva ideology even as Sena is trying to adopt a more secular approach.

Raj Thackerays party recently offered support to the Centre in evicting illegal immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Their announcement comes in the backdrop of nationwide unrest concerning the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), which when clubbed, are suspected to be a nefarious design to disenfranchise the Muslims in India.

The CAA, which is a law that expedites the process of granting citizenship to persecuted minorities in three neighbouring countries  Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan  categorically leaves out Muslims. The NRC, on the other hand, is an exercise believed to aim at weeding out illegal immigrants from the country.
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President Donald Trump.

Reuters

While officials struggle to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus in the US and the resulting global economic downturn, all eyes are on President Donald Trump.

Trump's response to what may turn out to be a pandemic is a political reckoning for him and the biggest test of his presidency. So far, the results are not encouraging to health experts.

Trump has implemented massive cuts to national public-health programs, and he routinely lies and misrepresents empirical findings that he views as unfavorable. He also has a demonstrated tendency to spread disinformation in times of crisis.

And his decision to purge his administration of those he views as disloyal, as well as his allies' constant efforts to spread conspiracy theories, suggests his administration is not focused on the coronavirus or best positioned to respond to it.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As American public-health officials sound the alarm about the potential for a coronavirus epidemic in the US, President Donald Trump is insisting that there's nothing to worry about, putting him at odds with countries around the world and his own medical experts.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that the public needed to brace itself as the COVID-19 virus, known as the novel coronavirus, sweeps the globe and is increasingly likely to spread within the US  a possibility that would most likely force changes to daily life for many Americans.

"It's not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country anymore but a question of when this will happen," Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, said during a press call on Tuesday. "We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad."

Messonnier also said the agency was "preparing as if we are going to see community spread in the near term," adding that the outbreak could soon lead to a "disruption to everyday life."

Story continues

But Trump brushed off the warnings as he spoke with reporters on Tuesday during a business roundtable in New Delhi, where he took a two-day trip. The president said China, where the virus is thought to have originated late last year, "had a rough patch, but now it looks like they are getting it more and more under control."

"I think that is a problem that is going to go away," he said.

As of Tuesday, China had 77,780 confirmed cases (518 new) of COVID-19 and 2,666 deaths (71 new) from it, according to the World Health Organization, with cases now in 41 countries.

If the coronavirus breaks out in the US and forces the quarantining of American towns and cities, Trump's refusal to acknowledge its seriousness, on top of years of cuts to public health, could prove a massive political liability. Health experts told Insider that public trust and cooperation by local, state, and federal officials were essential to treating those infected with the virus and limiting its spread.

In China, the unprecedented spread of the coronavirus is a massive test of President Xi Jinping's authoritarian system and the surveillance state he's built up over the years. It's also straining the global economy and has affected the profits for multinational giants like Apple as schools, factories, and businesses across China remain shuttered and millions of people are quarantined and unable to work.

Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Sergei Chirikov/AP Images

Hundreds of cases of the disease have now been diagnosed in multiple countries outside China, including Italy and Iran. In one Italian town, churches and bars are closed while the military police stand guard to bar people from going in or out.

Now, the spotlight is on the US as it faces its own reckoning with the deadly virus.

So far, the results aren't encouraging.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Congress on Wednesday that officials discovered a new coronavirus case in the US just since Wednesday morning, bringing the number of confirmed cases up to 15 (dozens of Americans who fell ill abroad have also returned to quarantine in the US). So far 445 people have been screened for the virus, and officials in Nassau County on Long Island, New York, announced in the afternoon that they were monitoring 83 people who might have been exposed.

"We need collaboration and cooperation from everybody at every level of the government," said Dr. Muhiuddin Haider, a clinical professor in global health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health's Institute for Applied Environmental Health. But by purging his administration and injecting partisan objectives into the civil service, Haider said, Trump is "not building the coalition he needs between stakeholders."

As stocks continue to plunge and fears of an epidemic are rising, all eyes are on Trump as he faces the biggest test of his presidency and mounting questions about the US's readiness to respond.

Trump's massive cuts to public-health funding are a 'national security risk'

Travelers at the Santa Maria Novella railway station in Florence, Italy, on Monday.

Laura Lezza/Getty Images

"We're behind the curve, possibly well behind the curve" when it comes to being prepared, Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, told Insider. Right now, he said, the US is "no better prepared" than China to handle an outbreak of the virus.

Konyndyk served as the director of the USAID office of foreign disaster assistance during the Obama administration and led the US response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

"A bad flu season is typically enough to strain US healthcare services to their limit," Konyndyk said. "A couple of years ago there was an unusually bad flu season, and some hospital systems in this country were resorting to treating people in hallways, on gurneys, and in temporary tent facilities."

"This is a disease that has the potential to be much worse than that," Konyndyk added.

The three main programs tasked with combating infectious diseases  the CDC, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Health and Human Services  are well informed and are working with other agencies at local levels, another expert said.

"We now need specific data from these organizations to ensure they are well equipped to locate who's been infected, supply commodities, and obtain resources to respond appropriately," said Haider, the clinical professor in global health at the University of Maryland.

Trump's massive cuts to national public-health programs also stoked concerns.

In 2018, for instance, the CDC cut 80% of its efforts to prevent global disease outbreaks because it was running out of money. Ultimately, the department went from working in 49 countries to just 10.

Here are some other actions the Trump administration undertook to dismantle government-spending programs related to fighting the spread of global diseases, according to Foreign Policy:

Shutting down the entire global-health-security unit of the National Security Council.

Eliminating the US government's $30 million Complex Crises Fund.

Reducing national health spending by $15 billion.

Consistently attacking Mark Green, the director of the US Agency for International Development.

The Trump administration recently requested $2.5 billion in emergency funds  $1.25 billion in new funding and $1.25 billion to be diverted from other federal programs  to aid in preparing and responding to coronavirus cases in the US.

But Democratic lawmakers and health experts skewered the administration as not going far enough to combat the crisis.

To put it into perspective, during the spread of the Ebola virus, there was no risk of a large-scale domestic transmission of the disease, but Congress still requested $5.4 billion. In this case, Konyndyk said, the coronavirus is a disease "that has the potential to kill dramatically more Americans, and spread dramatically further than Ebola ever could have."

The economic consequences of an unaddressed outbreak would dwarf US spending on efforts to control it, Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist who is the director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, told Insider's Gina Heeb.

"It seems quite inadequate and absurd to divert funds from one serious epidemic to another," Lipsitch said of the emergency-funding package. "Money to control it is a very important investment."

The CDC is working on a new test to screen for the novel coronavirus, but according to New York magazine, problems with the test's development resulted in only three out of 100 public-health labs being equipped to screen for the virus. Moreover, each test costs as much as $250, and the Health and Human Services Department is already running out of money to finance an adequate response to the outbreak.

Haider described the coronavirus as a "national security risk" and said the Trump administration and Congress needed to allocate funding accordingly.

"The prevalence rate in the US is still very low," he said. "But the question we need to look at is, what is the trend of this infection? How much is it growing? How often does the number of cases increase?"

"The CDC said the disease's spread in the US is inevitable, but at the same time, there's no information on what the parameters of the infections could be," Haider added. "That's the danger of infectious diseases. So one can assume that under this situation, the trend is very real and can quickly turn into an epidemic."

"This is going to continue to spread around the world like a pandemic, not like SARS or MERS, and you can't stop it with traditional public-health measures," Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told The Hill. "The only thing that would stop it is if you have a vaccine for the world. And we don't and we won't."

Trump at a campaign rally at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas.

Reuters

Trump's 'harmful' tendency to spread disinformation in times of crisis could result in a 'whiplash effect'

It's not unusual for Republican presidents, who typically stress fiscal austerity and deficit reduction, to implement cuts to federal programs.

Trump, however, is unique not just because of the drastic nature of his cuts but because of his unwillingness to accept the findings of career, nonpartisan public-health officials.

"There's a big disconnect between public perception and the actual reality of the risk," Konyndyk said. "The public has been hearing for a month that the risk to the US is low and that the focus is on containment. The headline is, we're keeping it out of this country."

"You see this reinforced by some of the president's messaging yesterday, which seemed more focused on calming the stock market than it did on transparent, accurate risk-messaging," he added, referring to comments Trump made on Tuesday. "What that sets up, then, is a sort of whiplash effect in public perception, if and when cases begin spreading at scale."

The result, Konyndyk said, is that the public will view the government's messaging over the past month as wrong, lose trust in the process, and move into panic mode.

Indeed, Trump's record on delivering the facts, particularly in times of crisis, is spotty at best and harmful at worst.

Last year, the president wrongly asserted that Alabama was in the path of Hurricane Dorian, sending US weather agencies into a frenzy as they put out statements rebuking the claim and urging Alabamians to calm down. Trump refused, however, to retract his comment and went as far as to doctor a map of the US with black Sharpie to make it appear as though Alabama had been in Dorian's path.

In April, Trump falsely insisted that Puerto Rico had received $91 billion in federal funding to aid in its efforts to rebuild after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island. In fact, $41 billion had been approved at the time, and only a fraction was actually distributed.

The president also claimed Puerto Rico has received "more money than has ever been gotten for a hurricane before"  it hasn't  and blamed its slow recovery on local officials.

Even now, as fears of a pandemic continue to mount, Trump is laying the blame at the feet of Democratic lawmakers and national news outlets.

"Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible," he tweeted, misspelling coronavirus and using a pun for MSNBC. "Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action. USA in great shape!"

Public-health officials, however, stressed this was a time that necessitated unity as the public listens to officials and may in some cases be asked to self-quarantine or keep their children home to minimize their exposure.

"Politicians will use arguments against each other, especially now, in an election cycle, but the issue is that we have an epidemic in front of us," Haider said. "We don't have any other choice other than for the president and all politicians to reach across party lines, put resources together, and enable strategic communications to face this crisis."

"President Trump has a history of hyping up panic, like he did by calling for a travel ban during the West African epidemic," Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center who is the director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on Public Health Law & Human Rights, told Insider's John Haltiwanger. "Or he can give a sense of false assurance like saying China and the US have [coronavirus] totally under control."

Overall, he added, Trump's "reputation for telling untruths and exaggerating truths is very harmful when he has to advise a frightened public during a major outbreak."

Trump's decision to purge the government has weakened the US's ability to fight a pandemic

Trump at a news conference on Tuesday in New Delhi.

Associated Press

And then there's the president's recent push to purge his administration of those he perceives as disloyal or not conservative enough.

He undertook the effort after emerging unscathed from a Senate impeachment trial in early February. In the days after, the president ousted two key witnesses who testified against him as well as the twin brother of one of the witnesses, who was not involved in the investigation.

Last week, Axios reported that John McEntee, who heads up the presidential personnel office, called in White House liaisons from various federal agencies and asked them to root out political appointees across the government who were thought to be anti-Trump.

At the same time, Trump's allies in the media are working overtime to spread conspiracies and push the president's agenda.

On Wednesday, the conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh told his listeners that Messonnier, the CDC official who warned of an increased risk to the US public, was part of the so-called deep state because she's related to former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

"It looks like the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another element to bring down Donald Trump," Limbaugh said on his radio program. "Now, I have to tell you the truth about coronavirus ... Yeah, I'm dead right on this. The coronavirus is the common cold, folks."

Trump awarded Limbaugh with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at this year's State of the Union Address.

Replacing political figures with those who exhibit more overt loyalty to the president is one thing, but replacing nonpartisan, career officials  like those who work in public health, national security, and foreign policy  in favor of politically motivated officials is "dangerous," Haider said.

"We need collaboration and cooperation from everybody at every level of the government," Haider said. But by purging his administration and injecting partisan objectives into the civil service, he said, Trump is "not building the coalition he needs between stakeholders."

"The US has a long history of civil servants who work very well under different administrations regardless of their personal beliefs," he added. "By burning those bridges, the president is weakening our infrastructure, our foundation, and our manpower" to combat a global health crisis like the coronavirus.

John Haltiwanger contributed reporting.

Read the original article on Business Insider
The displacement of tens of thousands of people from Idlib in north west Syria amid ongoing fighting between regime and Turkish troops could result in a new refugee crisis

All the regional neighbours of Syria have been paying the price of its ongoing civil war for almost a decade, with about six million refugees now distributed among Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and other states in the Middle East.

These numbers are now likely to increase, analysts expect, due to the fighting between troops loyal to the regime led by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and Turkish forces in north-west Syria, especially around the town of Idlib.

This week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire to the fighting as more than 900,000 people have been displaced since December 2019.

Hostilities are now approaching densely populated areas. People are on the move in freezing temperatures in search of safety which has become ever more difficult, Guterres said in a statement, urging the need for all parties to abide by international law.

There is no military solution. The only path to stability is a credible and inclusive UN-facilitated political solution pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 2254 (2015), he said.

Other UN officials also expressed concerns about the conditions of women and children in the region, with families displaced several times in freezing temperatures. A spokesperson for UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said that no shelter is now safe as the Syrian government offensive continues, and people are forced into smaller and smaller pockets and [Bachelet] fears even more people will be killed.

The UN childrens fund UNICEF warned that 1.8 million children in north west Syria require humanitarian assistance.

Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly, Elizabeth Ferris, a professor of international migration studies at Georgetown University in the US, referred to problems facing people in north-west Syria, including closed borders, violations of international law and few expressions of outrage by regional and international governments.

Could this become a refugee crisis? I think thats the wrong question  it is already a displacement crisis of mammoth proportions, an internal displacement crisis. We need to do much more to support those who are displaced within their countries, not because if we dont, they might become refugees and turn up on the borders of other countries, but because theyre human beings in need. I still believe in the humanitarian imperative of aiding those who are fleeing violence, whatever the politics of it all, Ferris said, recalling her earlier work in international humanitarian response.

But politics are unlikely to be separated from humanitarian outcomes, as the Syrian regime wants to expand its control over the whole territory, which it lost during the civil war, while Turkey is still reluctant to end its support for the Syrian rebels holed up in Idlib.

This has led to a politico-military deadlock, and in addition to some areas in Aleppo, Latakia and Hama, Idlib is still under the control of the rebel and Islamist militant groups that have been fighting against Al-Assads troops since 2011.

Syrian regime forces, Russian airpower and Iranian-backed militias have managed to restore government control over most Syrian territory over the past few years, and they are now turning to liberate Idlib, which shares borders with Turkey.

The leading anti-Al-Assad force in Idlib is the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group, which is backed by the Turkish-supported Syrian National Army.

Talks between the Turks and the Russians have produced no settlement so far, a situation that directly affects the conditions of the displaced people in the region. France and Germany recently called for a summit meeting to be attended by Russia and Turkey to find a solution to the crisis.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would join the meeting, though he insisted on Tuesday that there is no full agreement yet on holding it. It has been tentatively scheduled for 5 March.

For Mohamed Abdel-Kader, a Turkey expert at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, Idlib is more than a war-related issue and is a humanitarian and refugee crisis. People have traditionally moved to Idlib to escape regime forces when they military advance in other areas in Syria. Any further movements of civilians afterwards are normally towards the Turkish borders, Abdel-Kader said.

He said the current humanitarian crisis has pushed the international community to put pressure on the warring parties to end the fighting in Idlib. But he stressed that there are no guarantees of reaching a settlement, especially during the planned summit meeting on Syria, as there are a lot of grey areas in the positions of all the parties.

At some stage, this has to end, however, he said, noting that Syrian regime forces now control almost 77 per cent of the territory as opposed to 12 per cent when Turkey started its operations in the war-torn country a few years ago. For Abdel-Kader, while the Al-Assad regime has plans to restore its control over all the country, Turkey has not yet decided to fully withdraw from Syria.

Turkey still has troops out there [in Syria], investing in armed militias and even educating people in its language in some parts. Erdogan is almost planning for a permanent deployment of his troops in Syria. There has to be a deal between the Russians and the Turks. It is not in the interest of Russia to see Turkey restoring strong relations with the West, however, Abdel-Kader said.

Aykan Erdemir, a former Turkish MP, believes that the battles in Idlib have both domestic and regional implications for Turkey, a country that hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees. He said that Turkey was a top destination for displaced Syrians from Idlib and a new refugee wave would exacerbate the growing anti-refuge sentiment in Turkey, further eroding domestic support for the Turkish government.

Erdemir, senior director of the Turkey programme at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, a think-tank in Washington DC, said that this was one of the reasons Erdogan was trying to negotiate a deal with Russia, hoping that a new Idlib agreement could prevent additional refugee flows.

He said that the critical issue in Turkish-Russian negotiations at this point was the new line of control for the warring factions and the status of Turkish observation posts in Syria, some of which are now in areas controlled by Al-Assads forces.

Ultimately, both sides could agree to a new demarcation line, which would give control of the M-4 and M-5 motorways [in northern Syria] to Al-Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers, while the Syrian rebels retain a much smaller region near the Turkish border, he said.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 27 February, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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L.G.B.T. groups now participate in St. Patricks Day parades both large and small across the New York region and the United States. But in Staten Island, the citys least populous and most conservative borough, the parade has not changed.

Staten Island is the last holdout in the city, said Brian Downey, a detective with the New York Police Department who serves as president of the gay officers groups New York chapter. We are in the parade in Queens, we are in the parade in Manhattan, we are in the parade in Brooklyn. Let us join the parade on Staten Island.

The New York City parade, held on March 17 in Manhattan, is the oldest and largest St. Patricks Day Parade in the world, with 150,000 marchers and two million spectators annually.

Smaller parades are held each year in communities across the city and region, and in recent years many have followed the Manhattan parade in allowing openly gay marchers.

On Staten Island, where the parade draws thousands of spectators and is a major event for local families, businesses and politicians, Ms. Bullock and others said they want to celebrate their Irish heritage free of discrimination.

Some also objected to their faith being cited as a reason to exclude people at a time when the church has taken a more compassionate approach to homosexuality under the leadership of Pope Francis, who said Who am I to judge? when asked about gay priests in 2013.

Our religion shouldnt be used as a weapon," said Julienne Verdi, a lawyer who brought her two children, both baptized Catholics, to support Ms. Bullock on Feb. 16.
Jimmy Fallon shared a shot of himself vacationing in the Nassau, Bahamas with his family Thursday.

The Tonight Show host, 45, captioned the shot: '#TBT (Last Thursday. That counts, right?) Buckets of fun in the Bahamas!'

The New York native hoisted up a red bucket in the shoreline shot alongside wife Nancy Juvonen and their daughters, Frances Cole, five, and Winnie Rose, six. The family beamed on the sand, making sandcastles with the bucket.

February fun: Jimmy Fallon, 45, shared a shot of himself vacationing in the Nassau, Bahamas with his family Thursday with wife Nancy Juvonen, 52, and their daughters, Frances Cole, five, and Winnie Rose, six

Fallon donned a blue t-shirt and khaki shorts in the vacation locale, while Juvonen donned a white tunic with purple embroidery.

The adorable family shot drew reaction from other celebs, as Mindy Kaling commented, 'So freaking cute,' while actor Josh Charles wrote, 'Such a sweet photo. You look happy and relaxed.'

Fallon told Yahoo last month that he's 'so happy [he's] a girl dad.

'It's the best thing in the world,' Fallon said. 'I honestly don't know what I'd do with a boy - I love boys, but I'm so in love and I'm so lucky to have these two little angels waking me up at four in the morning every single [day], consistently since they were babies.

Wish upon a star: Fallon kicked off his 2020 with a visit to Disneyland in Anaheim, California with his wife and daughters on the Mad Tea Party ride

Too cute! The parents brought their daughters to the opening of the Universal Orlando ride Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2017

'I can almost tell you what time it is by whose feet are kicking my face in the morning. I go, "OK, it's 5:30 'cause Franny's foot's around."'

Fallon said his two girls are 'the best thing that ever happened to' him and 'the whole reason' that he works hard in his career.

'The whole reason I do anything is for them and it's a good ego check because without them, without my wife, it'd be boring,' he said. 'And it makes you feel alive.'

Motivated: Fallon, seen interviewing Ryan Seacrest earlier this month, said being a parent drives him to work hard in his career

Fallon kicked off his 2020 with a visit to Disneyland in Anaheim, California with his wife and daughters, sharing a shot of the family sitting in one of the tea cups carts on the Mad Tea Party ride.

'Started off the new year at the happiest place on earth,' he wrote, adding that it was 'top to bottom a fantastic experience.'

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon airs weeknights on NBC at 11:35/10:35c.
Kolkata, Feb 28 : The body of a Class IV student was found hanging from the ceiling of his room in Gajole in West Bengal's Malda district. Family members said the boy lost his life while trying to ape crime thriller scenes he had watched on television.

Rajanikanta Saha (10) was found hanging in his home in Dhuadighi village on Thursday. He was rushed to Malda Medical College Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.

"He was obsessed with crime thrillers, and used to watch them on television regularly. We have a feeling that he wanted to recreate a crime thriller scene, and in the process gave his life," said a family member.

The police said an investigation is on, and every angle in the case is being looked into.
By Barani Krishnan

Investing.com  Oil fell an epic 15% or more on the week, the biggest weekly drop since 2008 that pushed crude prices to under $50 a barrel, as fears over the coronavirus crisis ravaged markets from stocks to even safe-havens like gold, leaving investors few places to hide.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude benchmark, settled down $2.33, or 5%, at $44.76 per barrel, the lowest since December 2018. On a weekly basis, WTI lost 16%, its most in a week since mid-December 2008  stirring memories of the Great Recession.

Brent, the London-traded global benchmark for crude, settled down 2.51, or 4.8%, at $49.67 per barrel, breaking the key $50 support. Brents session low of $48.95 was a bottom going back to July 2017. For the week, Brent was down 15%.

Crude prices plunged as stocks on Wall Street succumbed to a free-fall. The S&P 500 was down 13% on the week, heading for its worst weekly slump since October 2008. In precious metals, gold tumbled 3.5% after higher margin calls imposed on gold traders and selling by hedge funds to cover losses elsewhere.

The World Health Organization said on Friday it had raised its worldwide risk assessment on the coronavirus to very high from high. Previously, only China, where the outbreak started, had been designated the very high-risk assessment.

Analysts say the main reason for the panic selling across markets was uncertainty on how much worse the pandemic could get and how much longer it could last, with the global death toll already at above 2,800 amid 83,000-odd infections. But some, including President Donald Trump, think the virus may just go away as the warmth of the spring and summer months beckon.

Even if the coronavirus disappears as we warm up, as the supply chain for everything is freezing up and may slow down manufacturing while the credit markets are also having the same issues as banks are not lending according to many, said Scott Shelton, energy futures broker at ICAP in Durham, N.C.

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You cant have global growth without those two working relatively well, Shelton added.

Moodys Analytics said the Federal Reserve may have to restart an easing cycle it ended in December if there were signs that the U.S. economy, which was into a record 11th year of growth, was under serious threat from the coronavirus. Speculation is rife that the central bank may announce a rate cut of between a quarter and half point at its March policy meeting.

Yet, given the uncertainty spawned by the pandemic, Fed rate cuts may fall short of stabilizing markets, the research unit of Moodys said.

It said it expected the U.S. economy to grow by an annualized rate of 1.3% in the first quarter, down by 0.6% point because of the coronavirus. Growth for all of 2020 was seen at 1.7%, down 0.2% point.

Crude traders now await to see if the OPEC+ alliance of oil producers  led by Saudi Arabia and Russia  could agree by next week to cut more than one million barrels per day from global production to stop the markets bleeding.

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No role for third party in Kashmir issue: India on Trump's fresh offer for help

Pak back at UNSC over Kashmir, India to respond to rant at appropriate time

Imran Khan forced me to mediate on Kashmir issue, but I don't intend to, Trump to PM Modi

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Feb 28: US President Donald Trump, while holding bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reportedly told the latter that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been forcing him to mediate between New Delhi and Islamabad over decade-old Kashmir dispute.

Though Trump offered to mediate between India and Pakistan over Kashmir issue, POTUS, on his recent visit to India is learnt to have told Prime Minister that he does not intend to do the same.

According to reports, Khan keeps pressing Trump to mediate on the Kashmir issue every time they meet. Trump, however, has made it clear that he does not intend to do so.

Anything I can do to mediate, I would do: Trump repeats Kashmir offer

Notably, Trump was on his maiden official visit to India from February 24 to 25. He was accompanied by First Lady Melania and a high-powered delegation comprising senior US administration officials, including National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien.

NEWS AT NOON, FEBRUARY 28th, 2020

During a press conference in New Delhi on Day 2 of his India visit, Trump in a joint press conference with Modi in Delhi, termed the Kashmir issue a 'big problem'.

He, however, added that he is willing to help the two countries and mediate because he shares good equations with the two prime ministers. "If anything I can do to mediate, I will do," he said.

Later in the press conference when he was specifically asked about his mediation offer that he had floated after the Modi government decided to abrogate Article 370, Trump said, "I didn't say anything about that (mediation)."

President Trump, in the past, had offered to mediate on the Kashmir issue multiple times but New Delhi has always told Washington that it is a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan and there is no scope for any third-party mediation.

India rejects scope for third party mediation to resolve Kashmir issue

On being asked about India's rejection of his earlier offer to mediate on Kashmir, the US president said he is not offering to mediate on the issue. "Kashmir has been a thorn in a lot of people"s sides for a long time. There are two sides to every story," said the US President.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after New Delhi revoked Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two union territories. Since then Pakistan has continuously tried to internationalise the issue but has failed to get support on the same.

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Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 11:03 [IST]
Kathmandu, Feb 28 : With the coronavirus outbreak showing no sign of abating, expedition operators in Nepal fear that the country was likely to suffer severe economic losses in the Everest climbing season that runs from March to May, it was reported.

According to operators, many climbers from China, the epicentre of the outbreak, have already started cancelling their expedition bookings after the disease has infected more than 80,000 people in nearly 50 countries, The Himalayan Times said in the report on Thursday.

Pasang Sherpa, managing director at Pioneer Adventure Treks, informed that seven Chinese members from his company dropped their plans to scale the world's highest peak from Nepal side this season.

"Now, we can hardly expect climbers from China, Iran, South Korea, Japan and a few European countries, including Italy, among others," Damber Parajuli, president of Expedition Operators Association Nepal, said.

Rishi Bhandari, managing director at Satori Adventure, said that Everest climbing season would certainly face a tough challenge if the government fails to introduce an immediate action plan to contain the COVID-19 threat.

"At least six Italian climbers who planned to scale Mt Everest from Tibet side have already cancelled their booking from my company," he informed.

Sources said that China would not be opening its Tibet route in the spring season to allow Nepali operators for Mt Everest, Cho Oyu and Sishapangma expeditions.

"The country will certainly bear severe economic losses this season and it will have long term impact on the tourism businesses," The Himalayan Times quoted Parajuli as saying.

Meanwhile, the Himalayan nation has already witnessed a 2 per cent drop in tourist arrivals in the first month of Visit Nepal 2020 campaign.

Of 381 members, at least 60 Chinese nationals had obtained climbing permits for Mt Everest in 2019.

The government levies $11,000 per person for foreign climbers for expeditions to Mt Everest during spring season, while Nepali climbers have to pay Rs 75,000 per person.

For other mountains above 8,000 metres, the government levies $1,800 on foreigners and Rs 10,000 for Nepali climbers.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Dr Adrian Mairs (PHA), Dr Philip Veal (PHA), Dr Michael McBride and Mariam McCarthy (HSC) provide an update on Coronavirus on February 27th 2020 (Photo by Kevin Scott for Belfast Telegraph)

Health officials are working rapidly to identify anyone who has come into contact with the first patient to test positive for coronavirus in Northern Ireland.

At a hastily convened press conference tonight, Northern Irelands Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride revealed that an adult who had travelled to Northern Ireland from northern Italy via the Republic of Ireland had recorded a presumptive positive reaction to a test for the virus.

The test has now been sent to Public Health England for confirmation of the positive result, which is expected today.

So far 17 people have died from the virus in Italy and a further 650 people have been infected.

BREAKING: First case of Coronavirus is confirmed in Northern Ireland. The Public Health Agency provides an important update on COVID-19 (Coronavirus) live Posted by Belfast Telegraph on Thursday, February 27, 2020

Flanked by public health experts, Dr McBride said: The test of a patient in Northern Ireland had resulted in a presumptive positive test for coronavirus Covid-19.

In line with protocol, the Northern Ireland test outcome has been sent to Public Health England for verification.

The patient is receiving specialist care and public health staff here are now working rapidly to identify any contacts the patient has had, with the aim of preventing any further spread.

We have been planning for the first positive case in Northern Ireland and have made clear that it was a question of when not if.

A special unit has been established at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast for isolating those suffering from the virus, but the health authorities were unable to confirm where the patient was being treated. Nor would Dr McBride confirm nor deny reports that the patient was female and had travelled through Dublin into Northern Ireland using public transport.

He also declined to say when the coronavirus patient had arrived in Ireland from Italy.

This is a live investigation into the individual concerned, their mode of travel and the people they may have come into contact with and Im not in a position to divulge any of that information at this time, he said.

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In Dublin tonight, Health and Safety Executive (HSE) staff were scrambling to contact hundreds of airline passengers who shared a flight to Dublin from Italy with the woman.

Officials in the Republic will be contacting anyone who sat within two rows of the infected passenger on the flight.

It is understood the woman from Northern Ireland arrived sometime in the last 48 hours and later travelled to Belfast on the Enterprise service from Connolly Station. Attempts are also being made to contact the rail passengers.

The presumptive positive test in Northern Ireland brings the number of UK cases of coronavirus to 16.

We have very robust infection control measures in place, which have allowed us to respond immediately to this situation, Dr McBride said.

Our health service in Northern Ireland is well used to dealing with these situations and I want to reassure the public that we are prepared.

The patient who had tested positive had contacted their GP and self-isolated in line with public health guidelines.

The advice to the public remains the same: members of the public who have visited infected regions and are concerned that they may have symptoms that are consistent with coronavirus are advised to self-isolate at home, and contact their GP in the first instance.

The risk to the population of Northern Ireland has not changed as a consequence of this presumptive positive test result.

Expand Close Image of the coronavirus. (Photo by HANDOUT/National Institutes of Health/AFP via Getty Images) National Institutes of Health/AF / Facebook

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The Chief Medical Officer would not disclose any other information about the coronavirus patient, citing patient confidentiality, but he did say that the patient had not been part of any school trips to the infected area of Italy.

We know that this virus is transmissible from person to person. We know that the risk of transmission is high only for those individuals who have had close personal contact  that means face to face contact or those individuals that have been within two metres of an infectious individual for more than 15 minutes, he said.

The public can be reassured that those people who have had casual passing contact need not have any concern.

Dr McBride said anyone the public health agencies thought could be at risk following contact with the traveller from northern Italy would be contacted by officials first in terms of whether they have been exposed to the virus.

The public can be confident we are working in a collaborative way Dr McBride

He said a programme of intensive, detailed work involving hundreds of Public Health Agency staff in Northern Ireland and the HSE in the Republic was already under way. They are working jointly to ensure that those people who are at increased risk are actively followed up on, contacted and given appropriate advice in terms of minimising the risk of onward transmission.

The public can be confident we are working in a collaborative way Dr McBride said.

Irish health minister Simon Harris said the first confirmed case in Northern Ireland was not unexpected.

Giving the evolving situation, this first case of Covid-19 was not unexpected, he said.

The National Public Health Emergency Team has been planning for this scenario since January.

Another of today's three new UK cases, a parent at a Buxton primary school in Derbyshire, contracted the virus in Tenerife, where 168 Britons are being kept in a hotel on the south west of the island.

The third patient also contracted the virus in Italy, which has become the worst affected country in Europe.

Meanwhile, 168 Britons remain confined to the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife after at least four guests were diagnosed with coronavirus.
A man attempts to fend-off a swarm of desert locusts at a ranch near the town on Nanyuki in Laikipia county, Kenya, Feb. 21, 2020. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)

Running out of Time: East Africa Faces New Locust Threat

NAIROBI/ADDIS ABABACountries in East Africa are racing against time to prevent new swarms of locusts wreaking havoc with crops and livelihoods after the worst infestation in generations.

A lack of expertise in controlling the pests is not their only problem: Kenya temporarily ran out of pesticides, Ethiopia needs more planes, and Somalia and Yemen, torn by civil war, cant guarantee exterminators safety.

Locust swarms have been recorded in the region since biblical times, but unusual weather patterns exacerbated by climate change have created ideal conditions for insect numbers to surge, scientists say.

Warmer seas are creating more rain, wakening dormant eggs, and cyclones that disperse the swarms are getting stronger and more frequent.

In Ethiopia, the locusts have reached the fertile Rift Valley farmland and stripped grazing grounds in Kenya and Somalia. Swarms can travel up to 150 km (93 miles) per day and contain between 40 and 80 million locusts per square kilometer.

If left unchecked, the number of locusts in East Africa could explode 400-fold by June. That would devastate harvests in a region with more than 19 million hungry people, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned.

Uganda has deployed the military. Kenya has trained hundreds of youth cadets to spray. Lacking pesticides, some security forces in Somalia have shot anti-aircraft guns at swarms darkening the skies.

Everyone is racing the rains expected in March: the next generation of larvae is already wriggling from the ground, just as farmers plant their seeds.

The second wave is coming, said Cyril Ferrand, FAOs head of resilience for Eastern Africa. As crops are planted, locusts will eat everything.

The impact so far on agriculture, which generates about a third of East Africas economic output, is unknown, but FAO is using satellite images to assess the damage, he said.

Pesticide Shortages

In Kenya, the regions wealthiest and most stable country, the locusts are mostly in the semi-arid north, although some crops have been affected, said Stanley Kipkoech, a senior official at the Ministry of Agriculture.

This month, Kenya ran out of pesticide for about a week and a half, he said. Farmers watched helplessly as their families crops were devoured.

In Ethiopia, the government can only afford to rent four planes for aerial spraying, but it needs at least twice that number to contain the outbreak before harvesting begins in March, Zebdewos Salato, director of plant protection at the Ministry of Agriculture, told Reuters.

We are running out of time, he said.

Ethiopias single pesticide factory is working flat out.

The country needs 500,000 liters for the upcoming harvest and planting season but is struggling to produce its maximum 200,000 liters after foreign exchange shortages delayed the purchase of chemicals, the factorys chief executive Simeneh Altaye said.

FAO is helping the government to procure planes, vehicles, and sprayers, said Fatouma Seid, the agencys representative in Ethiopia. It is also urgently trying to buy pesticides from Europe.

Money and Guns

Pest controllers in Somalia cant enter areas controlled by the Islamist al Shabaab insurgency, said Aidid Suleiman Hashi, environment minister for the southern region of Jubbaland.

When the locusts invaded, residents blew horns, beat drums and rang bells to scare away the insects. Al Shabaab fired anti-craft and machine guns at the swarms, Hashi said. Jubbaland forces, not to be outdone, did so too.

Under such circumstances, contractors are reluctant to do aerial spraying, FAO said.

Meanwhile, locustswhich have a life cycle of three monthsare breeding. FAO says each generation is an average of 20 times more numerous.

When the eggs hatch, as they are doing now in northern Kenya, the hungry young locusts are earthbound for two weeks and more vulnerable to spraying than when they grow wings.

After that, they take to the air in swarms so dense they have forced aircraft to divert. A single square kilometer swarm can eat as much food in a day as 35,000 people.

FAO said containing the plague will cost at least $138 million. So far, donors have pledged $52 million. Failure means more hunger in a region already battered by conflict and climate shocks.

Since 2016, there have been droughts in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, then floods, Ferrand said. In South Sudan, more than half the population already faces food shortages.

Changing Climate

The rains that blessed the region with a bumper crop in 2019 after a prolonged drought also brought a curse.

A cyclical weather pattern in the Indian Ocean, intensified by rising sea temperatures, contributed to one of the wettest October to December rainy seasons in five decades, said Nathanial Matthews of the Stockholm-based Global Resilience Partnership.

Locusts hatched in Yemen, and were largely ignored in the chaos of the civil war. They migrated across the Red Sea to the Horn of Africa, then spread to Sudan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya. Now theyve been spotted in Uganda, South Sudan, and Tanzania.

The rains awoke the dormant eggs, then stronger and more numerous cyclones scattered the insects. Eight cyclones tore across the Indian Ocean in 2019, the highest number in a single year since records began, said Matthews.

By Omar Mohammed & Dawit Endeshaw
The Diamond Princess cruise ship has been at the centre of the global outbreak of coronavirus and, until the infection began spreading in South Korea this week, had the largest number of cases outside mainland China.

The ship was on a 14-day round trip itinerary 2,666 guests and 1,045 crew on board.

It left from Yokohama on January 20 and was scheduled to return on February 4.

Here is how the outbreak unfolded, from a single case to more than 700 - with six people including a Briton killed:

February 1: A man from Hong Kong who had travelled on the vessel between January 20 and January 25 tests positive for the virus after disembarking.

February 4: The Diamond Princess was cancelled after Japanese public health officials carried out health checks on all guests and crew on board and confirmed 10 people tested positive for coronavirus. Those 10 patients were taken ashore to local hospitals and the ship was placed under quarantine in Yokohama for at least 14 days.

February 9: An additional 66 cases of coronavirus were diagnosed. These included four passengers from Australia, 45 from Japan, 11 from the US, one from Canada, Ukraine and England as well as three from Philippines.

February 11: A further 39 positive cases were confirmed on board.

February 12: Vulnerable passengers were allowed to leave the ship to complete their quarantine period on land.

February 15: The US Department of State chartered a flight to bring all US passengers and crew back to America.

February 16: New 67 cases were confirmed on board with new patients including five from Australia three from Canada, 27 from Japan, 17 from the Philippines, three from China, two Germans, one from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Kyrgyzstan, two from India and five from the US.

February 18: A total of 169 new positive cases were confirmed.

February 20: Two deaths of passengers confirmed from the virus. It came as around 600 passengers were the first to be cleared by the Japanese Ministry of Health and were allowed to leave the ship.

February 23: Third death of a ship passenger confirmed.

February 24: Death toll from infected passengers rose to four as another death was confirmed.

February 26: Health officials said they contacted 813 former passengers of the vessel who had previously tested negative for the virus and left the ship but then found 45 were showing symptoms.

February 27: All passengers on board the Diamond Princess disembarked from the vessel following quarantine. Around 500 crew awaited government charter flights and were quarantined at a facility in Japan.

February 28: Fifth death confirmed as a Japanese woman in her 70s. Then the sixth death from the Diamond Princess infection and first Briton to die of coronavirus was announced.
A 39-year-old convicted killer will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole after his death sentence was deemed unconstitutional because of his age at the time of the crime.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on Friday announced the resentencing for Gregory Renard Wynn, who was just 17 when he killed the manager of a Hardees restaurant in Anniston in 1998. Wynn was originally sentenced to death in 1999 by then-Circuit Judge Samuel Monk after a jury unanimously recommended that sentence.

Following decisions by the United States Supreme Court holding that the death penalty and mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles is unconstitutional, Wynn returned to the Calhoun County Circuit Court earlier this month for a sentencing hearing to determine whether he should be sentenced to life in prison, either with or without the possibility of parole.

After a three-day hearing, Circuit Judge Brian Howell sentenced Wynn to life without the possibility of parole on Thursday. In his written order, Judge Howell noted that Wynns crime was one of the most horrific crime scenes he had ever seen, echoing similar comments made in 1999 by the original trial judge.

Denise Bliss was 33 when she was beaten to death in April 1998. At trial for Wynn, a group of young witnesses testified for the prosecution that they went out with Wynn on the money he told them he took from Hardees. One teen said he saw Wynn trying to burn a dollar bill because it was covered with blood.

Another man said Wynn took him in the bathroom of a motel room the group rented the night of the killing and showed him how he had swung a metal pipe to bludgeon the night manager. "He said he beat her in the throat until she stopped breathing," testified Cleetus Ferrel, 23. "He was demonstrating the way he was beating her with the pipe."

Ferrel's girlfriend, Brandy Yott, testified that Wynn showed her the teeth he had knocked out of Ms. Bliss' mouth.

"He said he picked up her teeth and took them," she said, trying to keep from crying.

By the following day, Wynn had made up a rap song about the beating, according to Ferrel. Wynn hoped to go to Georgia, where he wanted to get a teardrop tattooed under his eye, which Ferrel said is a symbol of a killer. He just said to let folks know he had killed somebody, Ferrel testified.

Marshall said in addition to the heinous, atrocious, and cruel nature of the offense, Judge Howell also relied on evidence presented by the state that Wynn had multiple disciplinary infractions during his imprisonment, including possession of prison contraband, fighting, insubordination, and assault on correctional employees. Evidence also revealed that Wynn had maintained a social media account in violation of prison rules and had told a family member in November 2019 that he did not need rehabilitation.

Greg Wynn beat his victim so severely that her body could not be identified by those who knew her, Marshall said. The evidence presented by my office proved that Greg Wynn is an individual without empathy or remorse, someone who has not even begun the process of rehabilitation after spending two decades in prison. The sentence imposed was just and deserved.

Wynn is housed at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Jefferson County.
State Bank of India (SBI)

Slowdown in the Indian economy has bottomed out and measures taken by the government in the recent budget to improve capacity to spend in rural sector, infrastructure creation and inviting foreign investments will boost growth, State Bank of India Managing Director Dinesh Khara has said.

Khara told PTI here that for India to achieve its ambition of becoming a five trillion dollar economy, it required a 10-11 percent growth rate.

India's economic growth slipped to hit an over six-year low of 4.5 percent in July-September 2019.

He underlined that several initiatives and measures have been taken by the government to attract investment into the economy, including reduction in tax rates, terming it a "landmark decision" that will go a long way in attracting investment from overseas.

Khara was in the city and had addressed students at Columbia Business School on 'SME Lending in India', an event organised by SBI in association with the Business School, its student-run organisation South Asia Business Association (SABA) and School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

Highlighting that to achieve high growth, there was a need for much higher savings and investments, he said that currently the investment rate was about 32 percent to the GDP and savings rate was about 27 percent.

"There is a gap," he said, adding that if the economy has to grow at 10-11 percent, the investment rate has to be about 40 percent.

"For that there is a felt need for attracting investment from overseas. The infrastructure sector is another area where there is a whole lot of opportunity and there is a felt need in the economy to encourage this sector," Khara said.

He noted that in the recent budget the government announced various measures to support the infrastructure sector and a major one among them was to invite investments from the sovereign wealth funds and interest income of these funds will be tax exempt.

"This is a very major step which has been taken to attract investment," he said.

"These kinds of measures which have been taken will go a long way in terms of supporting the government's effort for building up infrastructure and revving up growth of the economy," Khara said.

Such measures have a very significant multiplier effect, he said.

"In the recent budget, there has been very clear focus on improving the capacity to spend for the rural sector, on infrastructure creation and inviting foreign investment. I think it's a very well directed budget for achieving the outcomes which are intended," he said.

When asked during an interactive session on the economic slowdown and if it has bottomed out, Khara referred to the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for India which shot up to 55.3 in January from 52.7 in December.

"So that itself is a reflection that it has already bottomed out and we are on the upside. And apart from that the kind of initiatives which have been taken by the government in the recent budget will go a long way in terms of supporting the economy," he said.

Outlining reasons for the slowdown in the Indian economy, Khara said it was the consumption engine that had slowed down.

"My assessment is that demand from the rural sector is quite muted. That is one of the major reasons for the kind of slowdown which we are witnessing," he said.

The rural economy in India is supported by the money order economy - remittances which flow from the urban sector to the rural sector, he said , adding that the real estate and auto were two major sectors that used to offer opportunities for people from rural areas.

"I would say that the money order economy almost collapsed. That is another reason for this kind of muted demand seen from the rural sector," he said.

The government's focus on recreating and repairing the real estate sector by introducing the Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH) Investment Fund is a major step, he said, adding that focus on infrastructure creation will also go a long way in creating employment.

The PM Kisan Yojna, under which an income support of Rs 6000 per year will be provided to all farmer families across the country, will also bring in enough liquidity in the rural sector, Khara said.

"Liquidity in the rural sector is more important than anywhere else because the marginal propensity to consume is significantly higher in the rural sector than elsewhere. These are some other measures which have been taken which will go a long way in terms of supporting the build up of the economy once again," he said.

He said that once demand-related issues were addressed, it will help in boosting growth.

Khara also pointed out that looking into data for last for 30 years, it had been observed that in every cycle of 10 years, there has been a slowdown or single digit growth for at least two to three years.

"So, from that point of view this 4.5 percent growth which we have seen in this current cycle of 10 years is one in line with the trend seen in the past two," he said.

Asked if India can become an economic success without manufacturing, Khara said that auto and auto-ancillary and pharma were the two manufacturing sectors which could integrate with the global supply chains and will continue to be the future sectors of growth.
A woman who impersonated a Home and Away heart-throb to 'catfish' women online could be stung with more serious charges.

Melbourne woman Lydia Abdelmalek, 29, was sentenced in June to a two-year, eight-month prison term for six counts of stalking, employing what one victim called 'sick mind games', impersonating soap star Lincoln Lewis.

But Abdelmalek was bailed almost immediately as she flagged an appeal.

She was released with a $10,000 surety and directed to comply with strict social media restrictions.

Lydia Abdelmalek (right), and her father leave the County Court of Victoria on Friday

The former Home and Away (pictured) star explained how powerless the catfishing left him, telling the court at an earlier appearance he felt powerless

Abdelmalek attended the County Court of Victoria on Friday for a brief directions hearing where prosecutors revealed they are looking to not only add new charges, but uplift existing charges to more serious offences.

Accompanying the convicted stalker was her father, who at a previous appearance clashed with reporters and photographers, using an umbrella as a shield as the pair left court.

On Friday, it was revealed prosecutors were desperate to obtain information contained on a laptop computer owned by Abdelmalek.

But the bogged-down E-Crime Unit at Victoria Police claim they will be unable to even look at it until at least September.

'It's essential to the case,' Prosecutor Stephanie Joosten said.

The court heard prosecutors had been trying to obtain the contents of the computer since mid last year without success.

They believe the information will 'clarify and support' additional evidence that may elevate the seriousness of the charges and potentially identify other targets of Abdelmalek's cruel deception.

She had been due to face an appeal hearing in May, which is likely now to be pushed back until early next year, if at all.

The court heard the matter may yet be moved back to the Magistrates' Court for a committal hearing with a view to have it uplifted to a proper trial in the County Court of Victoria.

If the plan is adopted, Abdelmalek could face even more time behind bars if convicted again.

Barristers have been asked to file submissions on the proposed plan, which if approved, could blow out the case even longer.

Meanwhile Abdelmalek remains free to offend in the community while awaiting the increasingly delayed outcome.

Abdelmalek had pretended to be Lewis and used other aliases to stalk seven people for about four years from May 2011.

One of Abdelmalek's victims took her own life last year, but wrote a statement beforehand outlining the trauma of being duped into believing the TV star was in love with her.

The hunter becomes the hunted: Lydia Abdelmalek leaves court with her barrister as reporters hit her with a barrage of questions

Tight lipped: Lydia Abdelmalek had nothing to say as she tried to escape a media pack that chased her and her father along Lonsdale Street outside the County Court of Victoria on Friday

Lydia Abdelmalek remains free in the community on appeal bail and looks set to remain that way for at least another year

The woman said she felt tortured for the 'sick fascination, perverse pleasure and unhealthy satisfaction' of her tormentor.

Another victim said she had turned from the life of the party to a recluse after what the sentencing magistrate described as 'calculated and cruel' offending.

Abdelmalek went as far as sending explicit images of the woman and vulgar messages to her father, mother, sister and brother-in-law.

Another woman, who was similarly scammed by the Lewis alias, said the 'sick mind games' turned her from the life of the party to a recluse.

The former Home and Away star explained how powerless the catfishing left him, telling the court at an earlier appearance he felt powerless.

'It kills your vibe, it ruins your day. It makes you feel powerless and it makes you feel s**t,' he said.

'It just takes away your happiness because now Ive got this constant thought in my mind that somethings happening that Im powerless to stop or even find out.'

Lewis found out about the catfishing scam when one of the two victims got in touch.

He had known her from primary school, A Current Affair reported.

'She said "Linc, Ive thought for the last couple of months that you and I have been dating",' Lewis told the court about his 2011 conversation.

'My first reaction is, "How could you think that? How could you think that were dating when we havent seen each other in years?",' he said.

She will return to court in April for another hearing.

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Soap star Lincoln Lewis explained how powerless the catfishing left him, telling the court at an earlier appearance he felt powerless
Holding both the central and Delhi governments responsible for the ongoing anti-CAA dharna at Shaheen Bagh in South East Delhi, former Himachal Chief Minister Shanta Kumar on Friday strongly criticised the Supreme Court too for sending interlocutors to protesters instead of deciding its legality.

Talking to media in Solan on Friday, Shanta Kumar said the country has failed in handling the Shaheen Bagh episode.

"How can governments, be it of the Centre or state, allow such a long dharna at a public place?" he asked.

Questioning the judiciary's decision of sending interlocutors to Shaheen Bagh, the veteran BJP leader said, "I respect judiciary and the Supreme Court. The work of the judiciary is to provide justice, not to send interlocutors at dharna sites."



"If such Shaheen Bagh like dharnas are held at 100 places, will Supreme Court and high courts send interlocutors to all the sites?" he asked.

"I regret the judiciary handling the situation in such a way as it was the wrong way to handle the situation," he said.

People have the right to hold dharna and protests but nobody has the right to cause inconvenience to others, he added.

To a query, he said, "Whosoever is responsible for the entire Shaheen Bagh episode, action should be taken against those."



"The question is why this situation was allowed to emerge. The administration is run with discipline (shashan anushashan se chalta hai). It should have been handled properly in the beginning," he said.

"Why did the legislature, executive and judiciary allowed such a long dharna at a public place? They deliberately allowed the situation to reach this stage. It seems as if they have given them licence to hold protest at any place. They thought when required, they will send interlocutors to request them to change the place of the protest," he added.

Raising fingers at the police and CID, the veteran BJP leader said, "If some people instigated masses in the national capital why did the police and CID fail in getting information in advance.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Forfour years, MIGAL [The Galilee Research Institute] researchers has been developing a vaccine against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), which causes a bronchial disease affecting poultry. The poultry coronavirus has high genetic similarity to the human COVID-19, and that it uses the same infection mechanism. This could be a lucky break for minor modification of the existing vaccine to get a human vaccine approved in 90 days. The goal is to produce the vaccine during the next 8-10 weeks and to achieve safety approval in 90 days.

The effectiveness of the IBV chicken virus vaccine has been proven in preclinical trials carried out at the Veterinary Institute.

The vaccine is based on a new protein expression vector, which forms and secretes a chimeric soluble protein that delivers the viral antigen into mucosal tissues by self-activated endocytosis, causing the body to form antibodies against the virus.

Self-activated endocytosis is a cellular process in which substances are brought into a cell by surrounding the material with cell membrane, forming a vesicle containing the ingested material). The endocytosis mechanism is how the body forms antibodies against the virus. In pre-clinical (IN-VIVO) trials, MIGALs researchers have demonstrated that the oral vaccination induces high levels of specific anti-IBV antibodies.

The DNA of the novel coronavirus has high genetic similarity to the virus they have been using for testing. They use the same infection mechanism, which increases the likelihood of rapidly getting an effective human vaccine.

They are adjusting the DNA sequence and could have a vaccine in a few weeks.

Given the urgent global need for a human coronavirus vaccine, we are doing everything we can to accelerate development, MIGAL CEO David Zigdon said. The vaccine could achieve safety approval in 90 days, he said.

It will be an oral vaccine, making it particularly accessible to the general public.

SOURCES- MIGAL

Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
He laid the foundation stone for a Ram temple in Ayodhya on November 9, 1989. But since then, 64-year-old Kameshwar Chaupal, a Dalit, is anxiously waiting for the construction of the temple to begin.

I was not informed earlier about the same. On November 9, 1989, barely a few minutes before the foundation laying ceremony, with all the senior leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) present, a Parishad leader close to Singhalji informed me that I had to lay the foundation of Ram temple. I was not prepared and was awe struck. However, after calming myself, I followed the wishes of my seniors in the presence of all the legendary figures, whom I would miss the day construction begins, said Chaupal recalling the day 30 years ago.

He earned the title First Kar Sewak after laying the shila (foundation stone). Chaupal said former VHP chief late Ashok Singhal used to get emotional when he saw him. He told me repeatedly that there was no such thing as Dalit as all Hindus were one, said Chaupal.

He has served as the zila (district) pracharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) in the Madhubani region and organisation secretary of the VHP in the past.

Chaupal is the lone Dalit member of the newly-formed Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust for the construction of the temple.

Singhalji used to get greatly moved on hearing the word Dalit. He asked me to continue the movement of finishing off the Dalit tag from this country, and today I strive hard in telling every member of my community that they need to learn to be confident and face the society with courage, said Chaupal, a two-term Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLC from Bihar.

Ashok Singhal breathed his last repeating the words Ram Janmabhoomi Ram Ki Hai on November 17, 2015. I was there with Singhalji in Delhi when he passed way. Till the end, he was committed to the cause, said Chaupal.

He was born in a remote village in Bihars Supaul district in Bihars Mithila region, and joined the VHP in 1982 while pursuing a Masters degree from the Mithila University in Darbhanga.

I tell the people that our forefathers include greats like Vyas, Valmiki, Kabir and the father of the Indian Constitution, Dr BR Ambedkar. The upcoming Ram temple in Ayodhya will finally witness Ram Rajya wherein every Hindu would enjoy the same status, minus caste boundaries, said Chaupal.

Chaupal unsuccessfully contested the 1991 Lok Sabha polls on the BJP ticket from Rosada in Bihar. Next, he contested the Bihar assembly elections in 1995 from Begusarai, but lost again. However, in 2002, he got elected as a Member of Legislative Council (MLC).

He also contested the general elections in 2014 but failed to win.

I wish all Mahapurush (the great men) who made this possible were alive to see their struggle take shape. Although nothing can deter the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya now, but their absence would be felt by one and all, especially those who witnessed the highs and lows of their struggle, he added.

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WASHINGTON  President Trump complained on Friday that Democrats and the news media were trying to scare Americans about the coronavirus to score political points against him but asserted that the outbreak had been relatively limited because of his action to stem infections.

Theyre doing everything they can to instill fear in people, and I think its ridiculous, Mr. Trump told reporters, referring to CNN and other news outlets. And some of the Democrats are doing it the way it should be done, but some of them are trying to gain political favor by saying a lot of untruths.

Speaking on the White House lawn before heading to South Carolina for a campaign rally, the president said the spread of the virus had been limited in the United States because of his order limiting travel from China.

We havent lost anybody yet, and hopefully we can keep that intact, he said. Thereve been no deaths in the United States at all. A lot of thats attributable to the fact that we closed the border very early. Otherwise it could be a very different story.
As the survivors of the worst riots in Delhi in over three decades are picking the pieces and limping back to lives, in whichever way they can. As they try to rebuild their lives there is outpouring support from various corners.

But the selfless service extended by the Sikh community stands out. Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has begun relief camps for victims and provided langar in the violence-hit areas in the national capital.

They are also providing medicine to the people in the areas. DSGMC President Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the decision to help the violence victims was taken at an emergency meeting of the Sikh committee on Thursday.

According to the decision, all gurdwaras in the national capital are open for shelter riot victims will also be provided with food and other needs.



Some peace committees from the affected areas came to us and they went to see the gurdwaras to check the number of people they could send to there. We have already made all arrangements and Gurdwara Majnu Ka Tilla as it is very close to the riot-affected areas. We have told the representatives of the peace committees that from our side everything is ready to accommodate the victims, Sirsa said.

The first langar was prepared at the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, where most of the injured are admitted. Those in need were also provided with medicines.

"They may be Hindu or Muslim but we are directed by Guru Nanak Sahib to serve Humanity," Sirsa said.

He also added that the community knows well the plight of the riot victims, as they went through a similar experience in 1984.

"We understand their pain as in 1984 Sikh genocide we had faced the same," he said.

International Sikh Charity, Khalsa Aid is also on the streets of Delhi, offering help to the riot victims.

"The need of the hour is to rise above religion and work for humanity in these trying times. Khalsa Aid India team assessed the ground situation and distributed emergency food items like milk and biscuits to the affected victims irrespective of religion, caste or class," the charity said in a Facebook post.

So far 42 people have been killed in the worst violence in Delhi since the 1984 riots. The clashes began on Monday between pro and anti-CAA groups which spiralled out of control. More than 200 people have also injured in the violence, which has since been brought under control.
CLLR Mike Donegan has called on the HSE to ensure ShannonDoc out-of-hours GP service in Hospital town continues to operate as normal.

He put down a motion at last weeks Cappamore-Kilmallock municipal district after being contacted by concerned individuals and parents. There are growing fears in recent weeks that it is reducing its support hours, said Cllr Donegan.

In a reply, ShannonDoc reiterated that it is service as usual at all of its treatment centres throughout the Mid-West. However, Cllr Eddie Ryan said that that is not standing up.

I know the mother of an eight-month-old child who was sent to ShannonDoc in Limerick when the child was sick. She was not given the option of going to ShannonDoc in Hospital. While she was there she asked around and there were patients from Pallasgreen, Hospital, all over south and east Limerick. What they are saying is not stacking up. They are shutting it down, said Cllr Eddie Ryan.

Cllr Martin Ryan said it looks like they are centralising the service.

And if they are it should be centralised in Hospital town and not at the doorsteps of University Hospital Limerick. If a person goes to ShannonDoc in Limerick it is as easy to go around the roundabout to A&E and thats one more person in A&E, said Cllr Martin Ryan.

Cllr Eddie Ryan said it doesnt make sense. We are losing absolutely everything in rural Ireland, he said.

Read also: Limerick man honoured by cancer society for research efforts

Cllr Ger Mitchell said it is an essential service in Hospital. Cllr Brigid Teefy said it is a wonderful service but getting GPs to staff night times is difficult.

In ShannonDocs reply to Cllr Donegan, it said more than 10,000 patients used their service over the Christmas period (December 21 to January 5) in their treatment centres across Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary. However, ShannonDoc is undertaking a major review of operations to ensure future sustainability.

ShannonDoc is facing considerable challenges year on year, in particular, due to the lack of locums to cover the out-of-hours service and a failure to fill a number of GP lists in the region due to retirement of members. Furthermore, with the impending reality of a quarter of GPs due to retire over the next five years in Ireland without sufficient younger doctors entering general practice to fill these vacancies; action is now required.

ShannonDoc chairman, Dr Pat Morrissey said: The GP shortage, in particular, is putting unsustainable pressure on both the current daytime GP service across the region and additionally our out-of-hours service. At a time when locum doctors are harder to source, this is creating a difficulty for ShannonDoc. Due to these challenges ShannonDoc board have commenced a review of the operations to determine the most efficient way to continue to deliver a sustainable service.

However, the policy of ShannonDoc is to ensure the people of the Mid-West continue to receive the level of service that they have become accustomed to over the last 18 years and are confident that we can deliver a viable plan which will be sustainable in the future of our patients, GPs and staff.
Just days after it fell under the control of the regime, Turkey- back opposition fighters have retaken the town of Saraqeb reports Zaman al-Wasl.

On Thursday, Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters retook a key northwestern town in Syria that was recently captured by regime forces, and cut the highway linking the capital, Damascus, with the northern city of Aleppo.

The development comes days after the regime reopened the road for traffic for the first time since 2012. The retaking of Saraqeb marked a setback for Bashar al-Assads forces who have scored major gains in a weeks-long Russian-backed campaign in the last rebel stronghold of Idleb province.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said the opposition fighters seized the town after intense bombardment by Turkish troops.

From inside Saraqeb, activist Taher al-Omar said the town is now under opposition control. He posted a video with a fighter saying the regime forces ran away like rats.

The Syrian National Army has also seized the town of Kansafra and two villages near Saraqeb, according to Zaman al-Wasls reporter.

The Syrian National Army on Wednesday launched a major attack to take the town of Saraqeb that fell under regime control two weeks ago, seeking to seize again the strategic M4 and M5 highways that links the northern Aleppo province with Lattakia and Damascus.

Syrian factions, also, were able to break the regimes siege on one of the Turkish observation points near Saraqeb.

Two Turkish soldiers were reportedly killed on Thursday in regime shelling of an observation point in the town of Kansafra.

Over the past few weeks, Turkey sent thousands of troops into Idleb province. Clashes between Syrian and Turkish troops have killed 18 Turkish soldiers.

This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
A health worker conducts disinfection operations at Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul, Wednesday. The Archdiocese of Seoul announced earlier this week that the 232 Catholic churches in Seoul would suspend Mass until March 8 because of the deadly coronavirus. This the first time for the church to suspend services since the first Catholic Mass was held here in 1898. / Yonhap



Some big megachurches' Sunday worship unaffected



By Kang Hyun-kyung



Korea's Catholic and Protestant churches have reacted differently to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.



Earlier this week, the Archdiocese of Seoul announced that 232 Catholic churches in the city would suspend Mass until March 8, in an attempt to stop the spread of the killer virus.



Within days, Catholic churches in other parts of the country had joined the move to suspend all public gatherings, including Sunday Mass, for the foreseeable future.



However, big Protestant churches are divided about their Sunday worships.



The Yeouido Full Gospel Church  the nation's largest church, with some 560,000 registered members  had said earlier that it would reduce the number of its Sunday services from seven to five starting this coming Sunday.



Senior members of the church met on Thursday to decide whether to suspend or continue to push for the Sunday worships. Later that day, it was agreed that the Sunday services would continue.



The church, however, abruptly backed down on Friday and has announced to suspend its Sunday worships temporarily.



Meanwhile, other big churches in Seoul and the surrounding suburban areas have said that their Sunday worship services will not be affected.



Ban Byung-yule, a professor of history at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, was rueful about the "unheedful megachurches."



"The coronavirus is a common threat to all community members and big churches are expected to work together with others and play a role to help the public remain safe," he said.



The historian said the role of Protestants and Catholics in the community changed after World War II.



"Protestants were more community-oriented, particularly during the Japanese colonial rule, and they were very active in Korea's independence movement. But Protestant churches, particularly megachurches, have become more independent and passive since," he said. "What we've seen since the 1970s is Catholics' increasing role in social or key national issues. Catholics are vocal on social injustice."



The internet is divided over some megachurches' continuance of Sunday worships, with many people critical of them. "Are you doing this because you guys think you won't be infected with the virus?" one person wrote on social media. "Look at what Catholic churches did. Follow what they've done," another wrote.



Others, however, tried to remain neutral, pointing their fingers instead at the government.



"Even though several churchgoers are confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus after Sunday worship services, I think we cannot blame (the churchgoers). This is because the government is ultimately responsible for the spread of the virus. Had it effectively coped with the epidemic in the incipient period, we wouldn't have seen a situation like this. So, don't blame the churchgoers or their leaders," another wrote.



Some commenters are drawing critical comparisons between the Catholic and Protestant churches, praising the Myeongdong Cathedral for what they call a "thoughtful and courageous" action to put public safety ahead of religious bureaucracy.





Shelter for democracy fighters



The temporary shutdown of Korea's iconic Catholic Cathedral is the first of its kind in the church's 122-year history, since Mass was first held there in 1898 upon completion of the construction of the church.



As the nation's first Catholic place of worship, the Myeongdong Cathedral has come to represent a history of persecution and fight for freedom endured by the religion in Korea, starting with the sacrifices of early believers during the Joseon Dynasty.



The church site was once a housing area for Kim Bum-woo, the first Korean Catholic believer to be persecuted in the 1780s. Kim was an interpreter and a first generation member of the Catholic Church in Korea, who was baptized by Korean priest Lee Seung-un and given the Christian name Thomas.



Kim offered his own home as a location for secret gatherings among Catholics at the time, but the meetings were discovered by government authorities in 1785 and Kim was arrested and punished. It has been argued that class discrimination played a part in his persecution, as the other members  all from upper-class families  were released with a warning.



Lower-class Kim was severely beaten, and exiled to the remote southeastern town of Milyang. He died in 1787 from complications from his injuries.



In 1894, French priest Marie-Jean-Gustave Blanc purchased Kim's house in Seoul in order to construct a Catholic church. Construction was completed in 1898 under the supervision of another French priest, Eugene Jean George Coste. The church was named 'Jong-heon Cathedral', and changed to 'Myeongdong Cathedral' in 1945.



The cathedral's historical decision to shut down, albeit temporarily, has reminded many of its role in Korea's road to democracy.



During Korea's military dictatorship from the 60s to 80s, the Catholic Church was known for offering a helping hand to those who were vulnerable and oppressed. Because of this, Catholic leaders had a choppy relationship with the authoritarian government and, in 1974, a Catholic priest was arrested and interrogated by the national spy agency for allegedly assisting student activists.



Myeongdong Cathedral became a hideout for democracy fighters in the 1980s, when the country's pro-democracy movement reached its peak.



After the Gwangju Uprising in May, 1980, Cardinal Stephan Kim Sou-hwan (1922-2009) sent an open letter to all Catholics, requesting they pray for Korea and the victims of the mass killing in the southwestern city. The priest also issued a special declaration on the uprising. At the time, Catholics gathered at the Myeongdong Cathedral for an overnight Mass to pray for the nation in turmoil.


Two sisters proudly showed off their stunning new looks to their family after getting joint ambush makeovers on the Today show.

Stefanie DeSpirito, 50, and Clarise Langelotti, 60, from Westchester, New York, were given head-to-toe transformations complete with individual sessions with Beyonce's makeup artist Sir John, who was visiting the show on Thursday.

When Stefanie wrote into the Today show and nominated Clarise for an ambush makeover, she never imagined that she would end up getting one too.

Then and wow! Clarise Langelotti, 60, from Westchester, New York, got an ambush makeover on the Today show on Thursday morning

Surprise! When Stefanie DeSpirito, 50, nominated her older sister Clarise for an ambush makeover, she never imagined that she would end up getting one too

Stefanie teared up while talking about her eldest sister, saying: 'She's the most giving person I know. She does everything for everyone.'

'I was the one who had to lead the way,' Clarise said of being the oldest sibling.

The mother of four was thrilled to be able to share this experience with Stefanie because her younger sister's presence helped put her at ease.

'I was very nervous to do it on my own, and I was like, "Oh my gosh, I want you to be able to do it with me,"' she said. 'Thank God we got to do it together. I'm really happy about that.'

Throwback: Clarise is Stefanie's eldest sister, and while they are 10 years apart, they're best friends. 'I was the one who had to lead the way,' Clarise said

Close as can be: The mother of four was thrilled to be able to share this experience with Stefanie because her younger sister's presence helped put her at ease

Jaw-dropping makeovers: They were joined by their sisters Maria and Lisa, sister-in-law Jennifer, and nieces Nicole and Susanna when they took turns showing off their new looks

Stefanie, meanwhile, was 'just excited for the day of pampering' and meeting Today hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager.

'I love Hoda and Jenna,' she said. 'I watch them every day, and we were so excited when they were looking for participants for Ambush Makeover.'

The two siblings were joined by their sisters Maria and Lisa, sister-in-law Jennifer, and nieces Nicole and Susanna when they took turns showing off their new looks.

Clarise was the first to step on stage, and one of her sisters shrieked when she saw her transformation.

Dream team: Sir John (left) did their makeup, while celebrity hairstylist Louis Licari (right) was in charge of their highlights

A-list clients: Sir John is a popular celebrity makeup artist who works with Beyonce

Beautiful: Sir John gave Clarise a 'South Beach' glow, while Louis brightened her hair with bold blonde highlights

The mom was close to tears when she turned around and looked at herself in the mirror for the first time since her makeover.

'With Clarise, we wanted to open up the eyes. We gave her a couple of individual lashes, but I wanted to give her some beach, bronzy cheeks just to give her a little, you know, South Beach glow,' Sir John explained.

'She already has beautiful skin so I didn't use a lot of foundation.'

Meanwhile, celebrity hairstylist Louis Licari enhanced her heart-shaped face by giving her bold blonde highlights.

As for her outfit, Today lifestyle contributor Jill Martin dressed her in a faux suede jacket, dark skinny jeans, and snake-skin print booties.

Stunning: Sir John used minimal foundation when he did Stefanie's makeup. Louis, meanwhile, gave her natural-looking highlights

Aww! Clarise and Stefanie shared a hug after seeing each other's new looks for the first time

Clarise joined her family when it was time for Stefanie to walk on stage. When Stefanie came out, it was the first time they had seen each other's new looks.

'I think you're supposed to stay up there,' Clarise joked when her sister walked over to give her a hug.

Sir John said that he also used minimal foundation on Stefanie, and he bronzed her cheeks, just like he did with her sister.

Louis gave her strong, yet natural-looking blonde highlights, while Jill dressed her in a funky leopard-print tunic, skinny jeans, and black booties. She topped off the look with a pair of red statement earrings.

The sisters loved their new looks, and so did their family.
By Trend

Close Georgian-Azerbaijani relations contribute to the development of joint projects, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Natia Turnava said, Trend reports citing the press service of the ministry.

Turnava made the remark following her meeting with the Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan Mikayil Jabbarov in Baku on Feb.28, 2020.

Natia Turnava is in Azerbaijan for a two-day working visit. As a part of her visit, Turnava will take part in the session of the 6th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council in Baku.

As reported, the minister will also meet with the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov.

"We discussed joint logistics projects with the Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan," Turnava added.

According to the minister, very close business and friendly relations have been established between the two countries and the ministries of economy, which contribute to the development of joint projects and accelerated completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project.

The parties also discussed promising projects in the Black Sea, in which Azerbaijani private companies and state structures can participate increasing the competitiveness of the common corridor.

We also considered a new initiative, providing for the construction of a high-voltage line along the bottom of the Black Sea, which will connect Georgia with the EU energy market," Turnava said.

"The project will certainly be of more significant commercial interest if Azerbaijan, which is our reliable partner, will take part in it. Azerbaijan is actively involved in the process of supplying us with electricity during periods when the Georgian energy market is in short supply," she added.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
If youre the usual business graduate type, chances are that Powerpoint presentations are a matter of life and death for you. Were all used to the trials and tribulations involved with explaining dull facts to a room of tired and overworked colleagues - but if youre looking for some serious MBA-style inspiration, you neednt look further than our Prime Minister.



 Reuters

After the Namaste Trump event at Ahmedabads Motera Stadium, POTUS Donald Trump went on to carry out bilateral negotiations with PM Modi at Hyderabad House. According to Hindustan Times, the PM decided on a rather unusual method of convincing Trump that his misgivings regarding Indo-US trade deficits were unfounded - his weapon of choice? A slideshow presentation on a handy iPad.



Using the gadget, PM Modi showed President Trump what India had done during his tenure to reduce the trade deficit from $31 billion in 2014 to $24.2 billion in 2018a decline of 22% over four years. He also highlighted US exports of coal, oil and natural gas to India - a trade marker that went from 0 in 2013 to $9 billion today, and is predicted to reach $12 billion by 2021.



A few other bullet points that were raised highlighted the importance of Indian students in Americas education system - a $6 billion addition to their economy. Theres also the deepening military trade relationship between India and the US - just two days ago, the countries signed a deal where India would be paying $3 billion to acquire a platoon of 30 helicopters - from the Apache attack helicopter platform to Lockheed Martin-Sikorskys SEAHAWK multi-mission helis.



 Reuters

Not too shabby for a set of talking points. The PM seemed quite adamant at making the most of Trumps visit. However, during a pre-lunch time window, he cornered the President with another set of talking points, this time about the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act and the nullification of Article 370 of the Constitution.



 Reuters

According to sources, the PM illustrated that the proportion of those belonging to minority communities in Pakistan and other Muslim nations in Indias neighbourhood, including Christians, has fallen and that the law is aimed only at providing security and dignity to those mistreated in the neighbourhood. He explained that CAA was not aimed at depriving any one of citizenship rights, people present at the meeting said to HT.



On the issue of J&K, Modi seemed to have little to say - meeting attendees said that the PM explained how despite all his efforts, Pakistan was targeting India through terrorists.
Gold bullion bars are seen for sale at Manfra, Tordella and Brookes, Inc. in New York City on Jan. 9, 2003. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

A Perfect Storm for Gold?

Will confluence of global crises unleash a new gold rush?

Commentary

Im not a big fan of gold. It pays no dividend, is not easily used for normal purchases, and typically limits economic expansion more than it enables it. But gold does have an intrinsic value, even if that value is difficult to nail down, and has been used as money for millennia.

That said, a new decade is definitely upon us and, as far as the stock markets are concerned, its shaping up to be nothing like the previous one. Multiple events are shaking the confidence in financial markets around the world. Uncertainty is the dominant sentiment, and, at the moment, theres little reason to think that that will change soon.

Rising Uncertainty

The price of gold is the ultimate uncertainty index and, for investors, owning it is the ultimate safe haven. And right now, theres no shortage of uncertainty. The world is up to its neck in it.

At the top of the uncertainty list, of course, is the growing epidemicor is it a pandemic yet?of the COVID-19 coronavirus. As the deadly virus continues to spread through a growing number of nations, the uncertainty grows, too. This is especially true as we see new cases of the disease showing up in the United States from unknown origins.

Adding to this uncertainty is that we still dont have definitive information about what it is or where it came from.

Is it an engineered pathogen from the Wuhan biological laboratory located about 900 feet from the wild animal market? Or is it from the wild animal market itself?

Other questions trigger more anxiety and uncertainty.

Why does the virus have similarities to both the Ebola and HIV viruses? What is its mutation rate? Is it still getting stronger?

No one is providing those answers and so uncertainty remains high in the marketsand everywhere else, tooand is probably rising still.

China Biggest Source of Uncertainty

But of course, the big story is the huge impact the outbreak is having on China and its vast manufacturing-based economy. That slowdown will likely continue at least through this year and drag every economy in the world down with it. That means falling production in China and, as the virus spreads to the rest of the world, more quarantines in other Asian nations, in Europe, the United States, and the rest of the world.

Ah, but theres more. In the United States, people are being advised to prepare by stocking up on food. That in itself raises uncertainty, doesnt it? It also translates into less business activity everywhere, and therefore, declining demand on a global scale.

Declining demand means less business activity, which leads to asset price deflation. The market figures that out quickly, which is why were seeing stock prices tumbling. The assets that are especially vulnerable are those that derive much of their perceived value from confidence, such as stocks and bonds. Real estate could easily follow and even currency values, too.

Record Selloffs 2.0

In response, the markets are seeing some record selloffs and several negative days in a row. Well-known favorites such as Tesla have lost 30 percent of their market value in a matter of days, and the market is looking at its worst week since the Global Financial Crisis.

Correspondingly, bonds have seen their yields fall to record lows. The 30-year bond yield is now below 2 percent, and the 10-year yield is in record low territory as investors selling their equity positions flee to the relative safety of U.S. treasuries.

Once confidence is shaken in the minds of investors, it can take a while to restore. In late 2008 and through much of 2009, stock portfolios and real estate both lost half of their value. The banks that got bailouts from the federal government recovered much quicker, but for most typical stock investors, it took much longer to get back into the market.

While all that was going on back then, gold saw its price more than double.

Thats why, with todays uncertainties, in addition to bonds, investors are buying gold again. The run may be just beginning, as the price of gold spiked almost 3 percent this week, reaching a seven-year high, before giving up some of that gain.

Will the gold rush reach the highs that it did during the peak of the Global Financial Crisis of 20082009?

That remains to be seen. It may well depend on how quickly a vaccine, or even news of a promising vaccine comes. Current estimates are from 12 to 18 months, but one may come earlier.

More Uncertainty on the Horizon

In the meantime, the COVID-19 crisis isnt the only crisis that threatens the global ordersuch as it isand prosperity. Geopolitical trends point to escalating conflicts that could easily drive uncertaintyand gold prices higher, too.

For example, the ongoing warfare in the Middle East involving Syria, Israel, Russia, Turkey, and Iran is highly unstable. Any or all of those nations could be just one incident away from a skirmish escalating into a wider war.

The same goes for the United States and Iran. Each continues to strike blows against the other in Iraq, a high-risk activity that could easily get out of hand. This is particularly likely if the ruling regime in Iran sees greater civil unrest than its already struggling to contain.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to attack hostile Iranian forces in Syria, while it responds to rocket attacks from the Palestinians in Gaza. Also, in Syria, Russian and U.S. forces have clashed over Russias desire to access Syrian oil fields, and Turkey has been attacking Syria in the northwestern region of Idlib.

Further afield, Yemen is waging a religious war as Irans proxy against Saudi Arabia. Further Yemeni advances could destabilize the Saudi Kingdom, an authoritarian regime struggling to hold on to power amid a restless younger generation seeking more freedoms.

And in the Mediterranean, Turkey has recently aligned with Libya to challenge Israels claim to its Leviathan oil fields and the natural gas pipeline to Europe that Israel has partnered with Greece and Cyprus to build. Coincidentally, Turkey occupies Northern Cyprus illegally and also supports Hamas, a Gaza-based terror group bent on Israels destruction.

Did I leave anybody out? Undoubtedly, I have. But the point is made, I think, that theres no shortage of crises on the horizon that could greatly raise the already high level of uncertainty in the world today.

The unholy trinity of stock contrarians and gold bugsfear, uncertainty, and doubtare once again dominating the global headlines and may do so for the foreseeable future.

It just may be a perfect storm for goldat least, thats what the gold hawks are saying.

Are they right?

They might just be.

James Gorrie is a writer and speaker based in Southern California. He is the author of The China Crisis.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Washington, Feb 28 : Former US President Barack Obama has slammed a "despicable" racially charged attack ad against his Vice President and Democratic presidential contender, Joe Biden, it was reported.

The clip, entitled "South Carolina, Joe Biden Can't Be Trusted", was broadcast on TV stations in the southern state before Tuesday night's Democratic debate in Charleston, formerly the BBC said in a report on Thursday.

A female narrator introduces audio from former Obama's 1995 memoir, "Dreams from My Father", in which he reads a quotation from a Chicago barber who had expressed cynicism about Democratic politics.

Obama is heard saying: "Plantation politics. Black people in the worst jobs, the worst housing. Police brutality rampant. But when the so-called black committeemen came around election time, we'd all line up and vote the straight Democratic ticket. Sell our souls for a Christmas turkey." But the hairdresser cited by the former President was talking about the Illinois city's first black mayor and not Biden.

In response, Obama's lawyers said that they will file a cease-and-desist letter to immediately stop televisions stations in South Carolina running the clip which was put out by the Committee to Defend the President, a political action committee devoted to re-electing Donald Trump for a second term.

"This despicable ad is straight out of the Republican disinformation playbook," the BBC quoted Katie Hill, Obama's communications director, as saying on Thursday.

"And it's clearly designed to suppress turnout among minority voters in South Carolina by taking President Obama's voice out of context and twisting his words to mislead viewers.

"In the interest of truth in advertising, we are calling on TV stations to take this ad down and stop playing into the hands of bad actors who seek to sow division and confusion among the electorate." Hill reiterated that Obama "has several friends in this race, including, of course, his own esteemed vice-president", but "has no plans to endorse in the primary".
Mumbai-based Right Choice Aviation



has partnered with leading ejection seat manufacturer Martin- Baker Aircraft to set up an ejection seat servicing centre at Chakan near Pune.

Martin-Baker seats are fitted in Rafale, Mirage, Jaguar, Kiran, Pilatus and Hawk (AJT) aircraft in India, company officials told reporters at Chakan on Friday.

The UK-based company has been the world's leading manufacturer of ejection and crashworthy seats for nearly 70 years, offering unprecedented life-saving capabilities, said Chris Davies, Vice President (Commercial) of Martin-Baker.

Davies said Right Choice Aviation (ESSD) is known for its ethos, work culture and commitment to quality. ESSD stands for Engineering Services and Supplies Division.

"For Martin-Baker, Indian market is the second largest market and currently over 1,000 ejection seats are installed in the aircraft of Indian armed forces, which have helped save lives of 230 Indian pilots," he said.

He said the facility at Chakan will significantly improve Martin-Baker's ability to provide timely and world- class support for the company's ejection seats installed in aircraft of Indian armed forces aircraft.

"The Chakan centre will significantly improve our ability to provide timely and world-class support of MBA ejection seats installed in Indian armed forces aircraft," Davies said.

Saumil Shah, RCAs chairman and managing director, said the objective to set up this plant was to bridge the gap between Martin-Baker and Indian armed forces.

"With this facility, the procurement time between Indian defence system and Martin-Baker will cut down and the company's ability to service will improve," he said.

Shah said around a million dollar investment has been made in the Chakan plant and the firm is envisaging to start manufacturing of the ejection seats here in the near future.

The centre has been set up to support the Indian armed forces under the governments 'Make in India' banner, he said.

Tom Mottershead, Deputy Director for Trade and Innovation, British Deputy High Commission and Graeme Thompson, Head, Business Development of RCA were present.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A national of Trinidad and Tobago who returned from China last Friday has tested negative for the coronavirus (Covid-19).

This was confirmed yesterday by Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Health Secretary Dr Agatha Carrington.
The Democrats have truly lost their minds. For years they have wailed about how our borders should all be open, how there should be no walls. When President Trump six weeks ago banned travelers from China, they called him a racist, of course. Now that the virus has spread, they are blaming him, accusing him of an anemic response.

Wrong. The country has a pandemic plan in place, no matter who is president, but Trump has been on the case since China informed the world of the virus breakout. A task force to address this virus has been in place for at least a month.

They've accused Trump of cutting the budget of the CDC and NIH. Even AP shows that he did not. He had proposed some cuts, but they never went into effect, and there is a standing congressional fund for health emergencies.

But the Democrats do not care about facts; they live for any crisis they can weaponize for an assault on the president. They are as shameless as they are calculating. As always, they believe they can fool the American people and that their lies will not be exposed. Thomas Sowell was exactly right when he said, "It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance."

Of course, these Dems have an army of like-minded fellow travelers in the media, like Gail Collins, who, in her NYT column, said the virus should be called Trumpvirus, as if the President created it in the Oval Office and disseminated it far and wide. That is how depraved they are.

Bottom line? They are hoping for a massive pandemic because they believe that it would bring about the defeat of Trump in November. Not one of them has offered any plan of their own to combat the disease, of course. It has not occurred to any of them to offer to work with the administration...no, no, no.

They obviously are hoping for an outbreak worthy of a horror film. Thousands of deaths will not distress them if it takes Trump down. Like all those lefties who have been hoping for a recession that would hurt Trump:

Actress Patricia Arquette called on her Instagram followers over last weekend to spread the word about an "economic shutdown" effort scheduled for March 2. "March 2 there is an economic shut down [sic] action," Arquette captioned the post. "Don't purchase anything on this day."



Source.

An epidemic of illness is even better in their minds. They can hardly contain their glee at the mere prospect of such a catastrophic event.

So the same crowd that has lobbied for open borders and massive unchecked immigration is now angry that Trump has allowed the virus into the U.S. All these supporters of sanctuary cities are accusing Trump of poor judgment! They are truly torn  they relentlessly call the president a racist, a xenophobe without a shred of evidence but now blame him for China's irresponsibility. You can't make this stuff up.

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies."

 Groucho Marx

One self-appointed diversity cop complained that the assembled team of experts lacks diversity. Historian John Meacham worries that this will exacerbate our xenophobia! Elizabeth Warren wants to take the money allocated for the southern border wall to fight the virus! Lizzie lacks gray matter; Border Control has been testing for the virus and has quarantined a few Chinese persons attempting to enter the country. Bernie, while attacking Trump's response, advocates open borders and citizenship for all comers who breach our boundaries. And Biden? He's toast. Everyone who has ever known a person suffering from dementia recognizes the signs; Biden exhibits them all.

The Democrats are really quite bamboozled by how to play this current potential crisis, and planning how to use a crisis to their benefit is how they operate. They don't want any possible doom to go to waste, so they have to exploit it even if exploiting it goes against everything they claim to support and believe.

In short, they are a mess of intellectual and operational hypocrisies. Their reaction to this situation should be enough to convince every American not to vote Democrat ever again. These people are certifiably insane. Pelosi lectures the president while her own city devolves into a circle of Hell, one so beset by homelessness that it could conceivably become ground zero for the virus in the U.S. Schumer leapt to the floor of the Senate to condemn Trump's handling of the crisis, even though it is not yet a crisis in this country. And the dolts at CNN and MSNBC as usual jumped feet first to embrace every wild conspiracy they could make up to blame the president even though there is as yet nothing for which he can be blamed. He's been on top of the potential crisis from day one.

The Democrat party is clearly in disarray -- from the Iowa debacle to the last two debates which proved without a shadow of doubt that not one of these candidates is qualified to be President. That Bernie Sanders is leading is frightening.

Ronald Reagan, when asked how one recognizes a communist said "Well, it's someone who read Marx and Lenin. And how do you recognize an anti-communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin." Bernie continues to praise Castro and the old Soviet Union! He is dangerous beyond belief. That he has any supporters is a sad commentary on the failure of American education.

That the party does not know what to do about him is further evidence of their dishevelment. They know he will lose to Trump in a landslide. But so will each of the others. Does knowing this make them any wiser? Not a chance. They are stuck on stupid. Like Dumbo, they need a magic feather.

Schiff and Pelosi and their acolytes were so deluded that they actually thought there would be Republicans who would vote for impeachment! That Romney did just exposed him as the spaghetti spine weasel he is. Since President Trump was elected, the Democrats have done nothing for their constituents. Not one thing. They have spent over three years intent only upon obstructing and impeaching the best president in decades. And rather than learn from their many mistakes and failures, they are doubling down with the hope that the virus will kill thousands of Americans so they can use it against him.

The great Thomas Sowell again: "Many on the political left are so entranced by the beauty of their vision that they cannot see the ugly reality they are creating in the real world." The reality of President Trump's extraordinary leadership has thus far eluded them but may be about to smack them in their smug faces.

("Truth is hard, propaganda is cheap" is a quote by DeShanne Stokes.)

Graphic credit: Pixabay.
A jury ruled Thursday that Jeremy Christian callously disregarded the lives of the three men he stabbed on a MAX train, was fueled by racist and religious bigotry, poses a future danger and probably cant be rehabilitated.

The jury also determined that Christian showed no remorse for his victims. Defense attorneys had disagreed, highlighting Christians statements to a police detective that he felt bad about the death of one of the men because his children would grow up without a father. Christian presumably was talking about Ricky Best, a father of four.

During court hearings Tuesday and Wednesday, prosecutors asked jurors six questions about Christian and his crimes:

Were Christians crimes fueled by his unreasonable racial and religious bias? Did he show a callous disregard for the value of human life? Is he likely to be violent in the future? Has he shown no remorse? Is the likelihood that he cant be rehabilitated high? Was he at least 18 years old at the time of the murders?

After deliberating for six hours Wednesday and Thursday, jurors agreed with the prosecution on each question by answering yes with unanimous votes.

No sentencing date has been scheduled yet. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Cheryl Albrecht could use the jurys findings about Christian to help her determine his sentence.

Moments after reading the jurys answers, Albrecht and a three trauma specialists met with the group to help them decompress from all theyve witnessed in the stressful case that included multiple videos of the victims as they were stabbed and bled to death.

The judge offered the seven men and five women the address of a walk-in mental health clinic and the phone number of a 24-hour hotline. She advised them to be aware of signs of anxiety and stress.

It is not uncommon for these feelings to arise during or after your jury service, or even weeks later, read a letter given to jurors. There is no right or wrong way to react.

Jurors were excused from service. As they left the courthouse, all declined interviews.

After 15 days of trial, jurors found Christian guilty last week of 12 crimes, including first-degree murder for the deaths of Taliesin Namkai-Meche, 23, and Best, 53, attempted first-degree murder for the serious wounding of Micah Fletcher, then 21, and hate crimes against two teenage girls, one who was wearing a hijab, on a crowded MAX train as it pulled into the Hollywood Transit Center in Northeast Portland on May 26, 2017.

Oregons new first-degree murder law, which took effect Sept. 29, gives the judge two sentencing options: life in prison with a 30-year minimum and true life, which is life in prison with no possibility of release.

Christians defense attorneys, however, are arguing that the new law, passed as Senate Bill 1013 last summer, is unconstitutional and as a result leaves the judge with only one option -- sentencing Christian to life with a 30-year minimum. The defense and the prosecution could debate that during another hearing, which hasnt been scheduled yet.

This week, Christians attorneys called on the testimony of forensic psychologist Mark Cunningham, who said Christian didnt commit his crimes out of racial or religious bias. Cunningham interviewed Christian during four visits to jail.

At the end of the day, Jeremy Christian thinks hes superior, not because hes white" but because he believes he has a better understanding of the worlds problems than others, Cunningham said.

Although others describe Christian as a white supremacist, Christian had a fantasy about moving to Brazil and marrying a member of an indigenous tribe, Cunningham said.

Defense attorney Dean Smith asked jurors to consider the the bigger, broader picture of Christian, not a simplistic idea of who he is. Smith told jurors that Christian could be rehabilitated by the time hes 65.

Christian was 35 at the time of the stabbings, and the earliest he might be considered for release if hes given life with a 30-year minimum is at age 65.

What about when hes 40, 50, 60 and 65, is he going to be the same person? Hes going to grow, hes going to change," Smith said.

On the contrary, said prosecutor Don Rees, telling jurors that Christian has long track record of violence, including the gunpoint robbery of a convenience store at age 20 and multiple fights during his nearly eight-year prison term. A prosecution-hired psychiatrist diagnosed Christian with antisocial personality disorder, which is characterized by violence, aggression, lack of compassion for others and criminal thinking.

Is he someone who is going to hurt someone again? In the states view, absolutely," Rees said.

He described Christian as angry, hateful and pro-criminal." Rees said Christian tried to profit off the killings by orchestrating the sale of a book on a website that auctions off the belongings of murderers. He also talked about writing a song about the MAX murders.

After Christians arrest, he admitted over and over that he stabbed the men and he expressed no regrets. I stabbed the two (expletives) in the neck, and Im happy now," Christian said.

Thats not just lack of remorse," Rees said. "Thats apparently taking pleasure in the crimes. ...Thats the opposite of remorse.

Rees continued: The evidence demonstrates absolute disregard and disdain for the lives of other people.

Correctional deputies from the Multnomah County jail system said Christian referred to an African American sergeant using a racist term and another deputy with a slur about gay people.

Prosecutors also said Christian mocked his victims many times. In a recorded jail phone call to a friend in January 2018, Christian ridiculed Fletchers strained facial expression in a National Geographic photo, in which Fletcher was stretching the large scar across his neck, the prosecution said.

Its just so over the top, its insane, Christian told his friend. This picture is so crazy. It just makes you wonder ...was it National Geographic (that said) I want you to go like this and do this?

Christian continued, saying he knows Fletcher was bullied as a child in school.

Apparently that rubbed off on him, because he decided to bully me, Christian complained, adding that it didnt work out well for Fletcher, apparently referring to the blade that Christian slid into his neck.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

o_aimee

Keep up with key trial events and takeaways by signing up for The Oregonian/OregonLives Jeremy Christian trial newsletter at oregonlive.com/newsletters.

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.
Former Fine Gael TD Kate O'Connell has not been selected to contest the Seanad elections after party HQ ruled her out but backed others for the race for the upper house.

Despite much speculation that Ms O'Connell were keen to return to Leinster House, the party released its nominations for the Seanad today without her name on the list.

Some 13 contenders have been backed by sitting TDs with the new Dail and outgoing senators from the 25th Seanad, under a system known as 'inside' nominations. Others in Fine Gael have already received backing from outside approved bodies to seek election on the panels in the Seanad, include outgoing senators and other election candidates.

Ms O'Connell was a prominent figure in the last Dail, campaigning to liberalise the abortion laws while also highlighting rundown health services.

The Fine Gael list-released earlier today-says that nominees had been selected by Fine Gael's executive council to contest the Seanad elections.

These include former Limerick County TD Tom Neville, councillor and Louth general election candidate John McGahon, former junior finance minister Michael D'Arcy, outgoing senators Jerry Buttimer and Joe O'Reilly, former Dublin North West TD Noel Rock as well as councillor and Dublin West election candidate Emer Currie.

Others decided overnight by Fine Gael HQ to put forward for places on the five Seanad panels include other candidates who ran in last month's general election. They include councillors Sharon Tolan, Michael Carrigy, John Paul O'Shea, John Cummins, Aisling Dolan and Garret Ahearn.

The decision by Fine Gael to back Tipperary general election candidate Garret Ahearn for the Seanad elections is also a surprise. The decision is despite the fact that Ms O'Connell's sister, Mary Newman Julian, who also ran in Tipperary for the party in the general election, has already been nominated for the Seanad race by an outside body.
Ximen Acquires 49er Creek Gold Property in Nelson Gold Camp

Posted by Publisher Internet

Ximen Mining Corp. (TSX.v: XIM) (FRA: 1XMA) (OTCQB: XXMMF) (the ?Company? or ?Ximen?  https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/ximen-mining-corp/) announces that that it has entered into a Property Acquisition Agreement with a private company, 49er Creek Gold Corp. (?49er Creek?) for the purchase of 100% of its mineral properties located near Nelson in southern British Columbia.? The properties are located close to Ximen?s Kenville gold mine and cover a total 107 mineral claims covering approximately 4,276 hectares, located in the Nelson Mining District. ?

The 49er Creek property covers eight BC Minfile occurrences of which four were past producers with production as tabled below:

The Gold Hill, Good Hope and Northern Light are vein deposits and the Queen Victoria is a copper-gold skarn deposit.? From 1983 to the mid-1990?s, multiple exploration programs were conducted on the property included soil geochemical sampling, rock sampling, magnetometer readings, and VLF-EM geophysical surveys.? The highest assay from exploration in 1984 was 207.4 grams per tonne gold, 168.3 grams per tonne silver and 4.2 per cent copper (BC Assessment Report 13878).

Ximen believes the property holds excellent exploration potential for gold-silver veins and porphyry-related copper gold deposits.

Key points of the transaction include:

C$100,000 paid to 49er Creek in cash;

1,400,000 common shares without par value in the capital of Ximen with the following restrictions: 700,000 of the Shares will become free trading six months and one day after the receipt of Exchange approval and the remaining 700,000 Shares will become free trading one year and one day.

The transaction is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.?

Dr. Mathew Ball, P.Geo., VP Exploration for Ximen Mining Corp. and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, approved the technical information contained in this News Release.?

On behalf of the Board of Directors,?

?Christopher R. Anderson?

Christopher R. Anderson,

President, CEO and Director

604 488-3900

Investor Relations: ????Sophy Cesar, ?????????604-488-3900, ???????????ir@XimenMiningCorp.com

About Ximen Mining Corp.

Ximen Mining Corp. owns 100% interest in three of its precious metal projects located in southern BC.? Ximen`s two Gold projects The Amelia Gold Mine and The Brett Epithermal Gold Project. Ximen also owns the Treasure Mountain Silver Project adjacent to the past producing Huldra Silver Mine.? Currently, the Treasure Mountain Silver Project is under a option agreement. The option partner is making annual staged cash and stocks payments as well as funding the development of the project. The company has recently acquired control of the Kenville Gold mine near Nelson British Columbia which comes with surface and underground rights, buildings and equipment.

Ximen is a publicly listed company trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol XIM, in the USA under the symbol XXMMF, and in Frankfurt, Munich, and Berlin Stock Exchanges in Germany under the symbol 1XMA and WKN with the number as A2JBKL.

This press release contains certain \forward-looking statements\ within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, including statements regarding the receipt of TSX Venture Exchange approval and the exercise of the Option by Ximen. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words \expects,\ \plans,\ \anticipates,\ \believes,\ \intends,\ \estimates,\ \projects,\ \aims,\ \potential,\ \goal,\ \objective,\ \prospective,\ and similar expressions, or that events or conditions \will,\ \would,\ \may,\ \can,\ \could\ or \should\ occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company\-\-s management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management\-\-s beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include the possibility that the TSX Venture Exchange may not accept the proposed transaction in a timely manner, if at all. The reader is urged to refer to the Company\-\-s reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators\-\- System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any state in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Ximen Mining Corp

888 Dunsmuir Street  Suite 888, Vancouver, B.C., V6C 3K4??? Tel:? 604-488-3900
3 Missing Georgia Children Found Safe in Indiana, Amber Alert Canceled

Three missing Georgia children who were the subject of an Amber Alert were found several states way in Indiana, said police.

Officials said 5-year-old Autumn Gentry, 6-year-old Meadow Gentry, and 3-year-old Kole Gentryalong with their motherwere found in Indiana, Fox5 reported.

The children were said to have been abducted by their father, Marshall Aaron Gentry, at around 12 p.m. Wednesday in St. Marys, Georgia, the Camden County Sheriffs Office said.

According to WSFA, officials also found their father with the children. Indiana authorities are now trying to investigate whether they voluntarily left Georgia.

LEFT: Meadow Lin Gentry, Autumn Leann Gentry, & Kole Aaron Gentry RIGHT: Marshall Aaron Gentry. (Georgia State Patrol)

The Amber Alert had said the children were with their father, who was said to be heavily armed, while officials said the children were in extreme danger. Investigators said at the time that Marshall Gentry is known to be suicidal and heavily armed.

A woman claiming to be the mother of the children said, I am the wife and I am safe I have my children no one has been abducted. Its a false report I have video chatted with authorities, First Coast News reported.

Marshall Gentry and his wife are going through a divorce, Camden deputies told the station. They were seen picking up their children Wednesday. Deputies said Marshall Gentry is in the U.S. Navy and was living in a pop-up camper.

The family is cooperating with law enforcement, police said. The case is being investigated.

If you have any information call the Camden County Sheriffs Office at 912-510-5100 or the GBI tip-line at 1-800-597-TIPS.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 23:49:00|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China has stepped up efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Here are the latest developments:

-- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Friday called for greater breakthroughs in the development of efficient detection reagents, effective drugs and vaccines to fight the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

-- China will guide financial institutions to issue extra low-interest loans totaling 300 billion yuan (around 42.82 billion U.S. dollars) to self-employed businesses to help them counter the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak, according to a guideline issued by the Ministry of Finance and other five government departments.

Self-employed businesses will also see a cut in their social insurance contributions, rent and value-added tax burdens, the guideline said, promising easier access to the market for these businesses.

-- The rapid rise in the novel coronavirus cases in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, and the center of the outbreak, has been contained, Liang Wannian, head of the Chinese expert panel on outbreak response and disposal, said Friday.

The number of daily new confirmed infections, new suspected cases, the proportion of severe and critical cases in confirmed cases, and the mortality rate have all been declining, he said.

-- Wuhan has over 5,000 spare beds in 16 temporary hospitals, which were converted from gyms, exhibition centers and other facilities to cope with a shortage of beds amid the coronavirus outbreak, said Ma Xiaowei, director of the National Health Commission, on Friday.

Ma told a press conference in Wuhan that the daily number of patients discharged from such hospitals, designed for patients with mild symptoms, has greatly exceeded the number of new cases.

-- China has offered plasma therapy for 245 COVID-19 patients by Friday, and 91 cases have shown improvement in clinical indicators and symptoms, a health official said Friday.

--China's forestry and grassland authority have moved to strengthen the protection of wild animals, as part of the efforts to implement the country's new decision on thoroughly banning the illegal trading of wildlife.

-- China's education authorities are carrying out a prudent study on the arrangement of this year's college entrance exam amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, an official said Friday.

-- China has vowed to roll out policies to address difficulties in employment and graduation faced by university graduates amid the coronavirus outbreak in the hard-hit Hubei Province, Vice Minister of Education Weng Tiehui said Friday.

-- China reported 327 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection and 44 deaths on Thursday from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the health authority said Friday.

Among the deaths, 41 were in Hubei Province, two in Beijing and one in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

Nine new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday were outside Hubei Province, the epicenter of the outbreak.

-- The daily number of newly cured and discharged COVID-19 patients on the Chinese mainland has surpassed that of new infections for the 10th consecutive day.

Thursday saw 3,622 people on the mainland walk out of hospital after recovery, much higher than the new confirmed infections of 327.

A total of 36,117 patients infected with COVID-19 had been discharged from the hospital by the end of Thursday.

-- Hubei Province reported 318 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection and 41 new deaths on Thursday.

Five new confirmed cases were reported outside the provincial capital Wuhan on Thursday.

The latest report brought the number of total confirmed cases in the hard-hit province to 65,914 and total deaths to 2,682.
HONG KONG  A Hong Kong media tycoon known for his ardent opposition to China was arrested on Friday over his role in a pro-democracy protest last year, the police said, dealing another blow to the citys independent media.

The tycoon, Jimmy Lai, a rare figure among Hong Kongs elite for his willingness to take on Beijing, owns Next Media Group, which publishes a popular pro-democracy newspaper and website called Apple Daily. His arrest comes as the city has been dealing with the twin shocks of the protest movement and now the coronavirus outbreak.

His singular status as a prominent businessman in Hong Kong who openly supports the democracy movement and antigovernment protests has made him a frequent target of Beijing-backed elements.

Mr. Lai was arrested on allegations of taking part in an unauthorized assembly on Aug. 31, a police spokesman said Friday. That day, crowds of protesters defied a police ban on their march and clashed with riot officers. Two other veteran pro-democracy activists were also arrested on Friday over their roles in the protest.
PASCAGOULA, Miss., Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Huntington Ingalls Industries (NYSE: HII) announced today that Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday visited the companys Ingalls Shipbuilding division. During his visit, Gilday toured the shipyard facility and received an overview of infrastructure improvements as well as an update on shipbuilding programs.



Adm. Gildays visit today gave us the opportunity to show him in great detail the magnificent shipbuilding facility improvements weve made at Ingalls over the past few years, Ingalls President Brian Cuccias said. Along with Mississippis two U.S. Senators, Sen. Roger Wicker and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, the CNO got a firsthand look at all four classes of ships we are building for the Navy and Coast Guard. Visits like this give our outstanding team of shipbuilders the opportunity to show off their craftsmanship and commitment to our Navy. Ingalls currently has 10 Navy ships, and three Coast Guard cutters in various stages of production.

Adm. Gilday, who was sworn in as the Nations 32nd chief of naval operations in August 2019, also met with crewmembers of ships currently under construction or modernization at Ingalls.

To build the most ready and lethal fleet we can, were working side by side with Congress and industry, Gilday said. Todays visit is an important opportunity to see our sailors and the work being done here at HIIs shipyard.

Photos accompanying this release are available at: https://newsroom.huntingtoningalls.com/file/cno-gilday-visits-ingalls

Huntington Ingalls Industries is Americas largest military shipbuilding company and a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. For more than a century, HIIs Newport News and Ingalls shipbuilding divisions in Virginia and Mississippi have built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder. HIIs Technical Solutions division supports national security missions around the globe with unmanned systems, defense and federal solutions, nuclear and environmental services, and fleet sustainment. Headquartered in Newport News, Virginia, HII employs more than 42,000 people operating both domestically and internationally. For more information, visit:

HII on the web: www.huntingtoningalls.com

HII on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HuntingtonIngallsIndustries

HII on Twitter: twitter.com/hiindustries

Contact:

Teckie Hinkebein

Teckie.Hinkebein@hii-co.com

(228) 935-1323
Boris Johnson's partner Carrie Symonds has hired a former ITN communications chief as her personal adviser.

Sarah Vaughan-Brown, 45, started working for Ms Symonds earlier this month, with the Tories rather than the taxpayer picking up what is thought to be a six-figure salary.

Insiders say Ms Vaughan-Brown, who also handled PR for the Trinity Mirror newspaper group in the past, will be helping Ms Symonds with her growing charity interests.

However, she has also been spotted walking My Johnson and Ms Symonds' dog Dilyn near Downing Street.

Sarah Vaughan-Brown (pictured walking Dilyn the dog near Downing Street) started working for Carrie Symonds earlier this month, with the Tories rather than the taxpayer picking up what is thought to be a six-figure salary

Ms Vaughan-Brown has been spotted walking My Johnson and Ms Symonds' dog Dilyn near Downing Street

Carrie pictured cuddling Dilyn the dog - who lives with the couple in Downing Street

Insiders say Ms Vaughan-Brown, who also handled PR for the Trinity Mirror newspaper group in the past, will be helping Ms Symonds with her growing charity interests. Above, a tweet from Piers Morgan, a former editor at the Daily Mirror, singing her praises

Sarah Vaughan-Brown: From Mirror and ITN to working for the PM's partner Sarah Vaughan-Brown grew up in Oswestry, Shropshire, close to the Welsh border. Her mother, Elizabeth Vaughan, is a famous soprano who sang with the Welsh National Opera. She began her career as a press officer and then joined the Mirror group, becoming head of public relations at Trinity Mirror before moving to ITN. When she left ITN last April to start her own company, Miss Symonds wrote on Instagram: The best of the best xxx. Miss Vaughan-Brown is described in former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgans memoir as our star PR. She is well-known in London media circles. One former colleague said: She has a big personality. She is very charismatic. She is a really clever woman. Advertisement

Ms Symonds - a former head of media for the Conservative Party - has kept a relatively low profile since moving into Downing Street with Mr Johnson last year.

She is still employed by the Oceana charity, where she has worked with US presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg's foundation on its 'Vibrant Oceans' project.

Ms Symonds' charitable interests are focusing on issues including the environment, animal cruelty, violence against women and supporting the armed forces.

The arrangement for employing Ms Vaughan-Brown seems designed to avoid criticism faced by David Cameron's wife Samantha when they were in No10.

Ms Cameron suffered a backlash in 2010 after it emerged Isabel Spearman had been appointed her special adviser on an estimated 60,000 salary funded from the public purse.

She was dubbed Mrs Cameron's 'Girl Friday', and shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn branded it a 'vanity' move as the Coalition pushed through austerity measures.

Ms Spearman was later replaced by Rosie Lyburn, who was paid up to 53,000 a year.

Cherie Blair also had her own special adviser, Fiona Miller, who was the partner of No10 spin doctor Alastair Campbell.

Ms Symonds - a former head of media for the Conservative Party - has kept a relatively low profile since moving into Downing Street with Mr Johnson (pictured after the Tory election victory in December)

Samantha Cameron (pictured left) suffered a backlash in 2010 after it emerged Isabel Spearman (right) had been appointed her special adviser on an estimated 60,000 salary

Ms Spearman was later replaced by Rosie Lyburn (pictured left), who was paid up to 53,000 a year. Cherie Blair also had her own special adviser, Fiona Miller (pictured right), who was the partner of No10 spin doctor Alastair Campbell

The couple's dog Dilyn (pictured in a tweet posted by Ms Symonds) also lives with them in Downing Street
West Bengal Chief Minister



Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that there was no discussion on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) or the NRC at the Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) meeting here, but she raised the issue of violence in Delhi.

Banerjee expressed concern over the communal clashes in Delhi that have claimed at least 39 lives and said that steps should be taken so that the situation doesn't aggravate further.

"I am very sad about what happened in Delhi. A police constable and an IB official also died. Peace must be restored in Delhi," she told the meeting.

Speaking to reporters after attending a lunch hosted by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Banerjee said there was no discussion on the CAA or NRC at the meeting as it was not on the agenda.

"Neither they raised the issues nor did I. It was also not on the agenda. This meeting was not for that," she said.

She joined Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the lunch hosted by Patnaik at his official residence.

Asked if she would back the demand of Shah's resignation in wake of the Delhi riots, Banerjee said, "The problem should be solved first and then we will discuss politics."



She said that peace should prevail across the country and the riot victims adequately compensated.

At the meeting, the West Bengal chief minister raised the issue of alleged negligence of the Centre towards her state.

She claimed that West Bengal did not get the required assistance during natural calamities such as cyclone Fani and Bulbul, besides several other pending dues from the Centre.

"We have not got Rs 50,000 crore from the Centre," she said.

Banerjee said she also raised the issues of delay in GST compensation payment and lowered share of states in devolution of central taxes.

Issues relating to the development of the states in the region, the need for coal royalty revision, strengthening of infrastructure were also discussed at the EZC meeting, she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dr. Amir HagShenas Provides Full Mouth Dental Implants in San Jose, CA He received Dr. HagShenas full mouth implants. Now, when he smiles, it makes me really happy to see him happy.

Dr. Amir HagShenas, respected dentist in San Jose, CA, is offering patients with loose, ill-fitting dentures or numerous missing teeth the opportunity to receive a full mouth dental implant treatment in just one day. Combining state-of-the-art technology with nearly 30 years of dental experience, Dr. HagShenas and his team at Silicon Valley Smile Solutions work to provide the highest standard of dental implant treatment with the most long-lasting results.

Dr. HagShenas works closely with patients to capture a full understanding of their needs including their desired tooth size, shape, and color. He then uses a cone beam CT scanner to capture detailed images of the patient's mouth. These images help Dr. HagShenas determine the precise placement for each dental implant, including the accurate angle, depth, and position.

After a patient qualifies for a dental implant transformation, Dr. HagShenas places the dental implants within the jaw and attaches a natural-looking temporary bridge the same day. This gives patients an immediate and fully functioning arch of teeth while they wait for the completion of their permanent bridge. Once constructed, Dr. HagShenas securely attaches the final bridge, which can last the rest of the patients life when properly maintained.

Throughout the entire full mouth dental implant treatment, Dr. HagShenas offers personalized care to keep the patient relaxed and comfortable. He also provides sedation dentistry to ease the nerves of patients and relieve discomfort during the entire dental implant procedure.

Patients of Dr. HagShenas have enjoyed the benefits of full mouth dental implants over traditional dentures. Unlike traditional dentures, dental implants provide a permanent solution with no slipping dentures, messy adhesive, or jawbone deterioration. Patients who received this treatment experience enhanced confidence and improvement to their overall health.

My husband had so much dental work that needed to be done, Pam, the wife of a patient of Dr. HagShenas, explains with tears. He received Dr. HagShenas full mouth implants. Now, when he smiles, it makes me really happy to see him happy. Thats why I refer everyone I know to Dr. HagShenas.

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About the Dentist

Silicon Valley Smile Solutions offers full-service dentistry in San Jose, CA. Dr. Amir HagShenas has been practicing dentistry for nearly 30 years. Dr. HagShenas received his doctorate in dental surgery degree from the University of Minnesota, where he has since been honored with the Irwin A. Epstein Award for Excellence in Endodontics, among other numerous accomplishments. Every year, Dr. HagShenas completes many hours of continuing education in implant and surgical dentistry, far above the requirements mandated by the Dental State Board of California. His motive: I am committed to help my patients to receive the very best in dentistry. Dr. HagShenas and his team at Silicon Valley Smile Solutions are dedicated to staying up-to-date on the latest dental technologies in order to provide the highest quality of care for patients undergoing treatments like full arch dental implants. Skilled in numerous areas of dental treatments, Dr. HagShenas is particularly passionate about providing long-lasting, full mouth dental implant treatments that are, in many cases, available in just one office visit. It is Dr. HagShenas goal to form lasting connections with every patient built on trust, partnership, and compassion. To learn more about Dr. HagShenas and the services offered at Silicon Valley Smile Solutions visit http://www.svsmilesolutions.com or call 408-377-5134 to schedule a consultation.
By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Politics

But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? James Madison, Federalist 51

They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery. Frank Herbert, Dune

Key dates coming fast now, so I added some counters:

Here is a second counter for South Carolina, coming soon:

And for Super Tuesday:

Super Tuesday states: AL, AR, CA, CO, ME, MA, MN, NC, OK, TN, TX, UT, VT, and VA.

* * *

2020

We encourage readers to play around with the charts; they are dynamic, and there are a lot of settings, more than I can usefully show here. Here is a link to alert reader dks project. You can also file bug reports or feature requests using the same contact process as for Plants, below. Thanks  but no promises! UPDATE DK notes: Im completely removing the YouGov polls that were making that weird spike. Sorry for the inconsistency, I think its for the best. I can put them back in if its a problem for readers. Today we have two new national polls from Fox and SurveyUSA, and yesterday (which I blew off) from IPSOS and YouGov. We also have three new polls for SC. As of 2/28/2020, 12:00 PM EST (three-day average): The numbers for Fox and SurveyUSA: The numbers for IPSOS and YouGov: And now to states, with the caveat that they are all small samples, irregular, and bad. SC: A drop for Biden, but still quite a lead. SC numbers: I heard rumors about landlines with Bidens polling, so for grins I called out the Data for Progress Poll, since they are a progressive house: Not much difference. Presumably, if Sanders loses, there will be an enormous media freakout about Sanders not being able to win over the Black vote, but  follow me closely here, pundits  the South Carolina black vote is not the same as the Michigan or Wisconsin black vote, and it has never been clear to me  no, I tell a lie, as Lord Vetinari would say  why the more conservative South Carolina vote should be taken as a proxy for the entire Black vote. CAVEAT I think we have to track the polls because so much of the horse-race coverage is generated by them; and at least with these charts were insulating ourselves against getting excited about any one poll. That said, we should remember that the polling in 2016, as it turned out, was more about narrative than about sampling, and that this year is, if anything, even more so. In fact, one is entitled to ask, with the latest I boomlet (bubble? (bezzle?)) which came first: The narrative, or the poll? One hears of push polling, to be sure, but not of collective push polling by herding pollsters. We should also worry about state polls with very small sample sizes and big gaps in coverage. And thats before we get to the issues with cellphones (as well as whether voters in very small, very early states game their answers). So we are indeed following a horse-race, but the horses dont stay in their lanes, some of the horses are not in it to win but to interfere with the others, the track is very muddy, and the mud has splattered our binoculars, such that its very hard to see whats going on from the stands. Also, the track owners are crooked and the stewards are on the take. Everythings fine. * * * Bloomberg (D)(1): Bloomberg Has Hired Texas, California Democratic Parties Vice Chairs [The Intercept].  We reallly are just talking price, arent we? Bloomberg (D)(2): Bloombergs Game [Counterpunch]. Bloomberg cannot credibly be allowed to steal the nomination from Bernie, and he and the Democratic Party know that. There must be a third candidate to whom the party can give the nomination, and it must be someone whom Bernie Sanders himself and a large chunk of his supporters might be persuaded to stay in the party and support. There is only one such candidate: Elizabeth Warren. If Im right, this will become the ongoing kabuki theater in the weeks ahead, in which Warren sets herself up as the non-socialist and therefore effective anti-billionaire candidate, luring woke professional-managerial progressives desperate for an alternative to Bernie. This is the only way for Warren to revive her campaign and audition for the endgame: fake left, attacking Bloomberg and dragging on Bernies popular coattails.  I do seem to recall Warren, in debate and in almost so many words, raising her hand and saying Mike, get out of the race, and give us, i.e. me, your money. Impressive kayfabe, if true; heres the WFP joining in. Klobuchar (D)(1): Amy Klobuchar Has Been Weirdly Quiet About A Massive Mining Controversy In Her Home State [HuffPo]. Twin Metals Minnesota, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chilean mining giant Antofagasta, is looking to [launch] a $1.7 billion underground copper-nickel mine just a few miles from Minnesotas Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The planned mine, unlike anything the Land of 10,000 Lakes has ever seen before, has become a political lightning rod. In the final weeks of President Barack Obamas administration, federal agencies blocked the Twin Metals mine only to have the industry-friendly Trump administration move quickly to revive it. Five current 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have pledged to protect the Boundary Waters from the proposed sulfide-ore mine. Notably missing from that opposition: home state Sen. Amy Klobuchar.  Odd. Klobuchar (D)(2): Klobuchar Blocked Obamas Push for Child Farmworker Safety Rules [Payday Report]. Child farmworkers are killed at six times the rate of other child workers. The majority of these workers are Latino immigrants, who often work alongside their parents while traveling country looking for temporary work. In 2011, the Obama Administration proposed a rule that would have expanded workplace safety protections for children working on farms. However, in her first term as Senator, Amy Klobuchar helped lead a rogue band of five business-friendly Democrats to successfully conspire with the Republicans in preventing Obamas Department of Labor from enacting landmark protections for child farmworkers. The rule proposed by President Obama would have forbidden children under 16 from handling pesticides, cutting timber, working with large animals, working in often deadly manure pits where a number of small children have drowned and died, or operating heavy machinery.  I confess that I value Klobuchar for her viciousness. And here it is, in full display. Sanders (D)(1): Understanding Sanders [Kaushik Basu, Project Syndicate]. This is in essence an endorsement of Sanders as a social democrat by a former Chief Economist of the World Bank. (Sanders is a compromose candidate for the left because he does not, in fact, advocate public ownership of the means of production.) At the end, however: Recently, some Democratic voters have turned away from Sanders, following reports that Russia is supporting him in the Democratic primary. Russian President Vladimir Putin, it is said, wants Trump to win and believes that he will if pitted against Sanders. But a little game theory suggests that Putin may himself have engineered the leak, because he knows that Sanders is the only candidate who can defeat Trump. By letting it be known that he is backing Sanders, Putin hopes to ensure that many Democrats will not support the Vermont senator. And that would be good news for Trump.  Time for some game theory! Trump (R)(1): Will Trump Pass The Coronavirus Test? [Patrick Buchanan, The American Conservative]. he issue does present a challenge to Trumps presidency. His handling of it may determine his stature as chief executive. Yet the issue is also tailor-made for Trump. First, the disease comes out of Xi Jinpings China, not Trumps USA. Second, the president occupies what Theodore Roosevelt called the bully pulpit, the White House. He can use that pulpit daily to command the airwaves and inform, lead, unite, and direct the nation during what could be a months-long crisis. And Trump alone has the power to declare a national emergency, should that be needed. If Trump acts as a leader, urging unity in the struggle to contain the virus and discover a vaccine, the hectoring from the Democratic left, already begun, can come to be seen as unpatriotic.  As usual, Buchanan confuses liberals and the left Trump (R)(2): White House hopefuls target Trump on coronavirus response [Associated Press]. But the public health system has a playbook to follow for pandemic preparation  regardless of whos president or whether specific instructions are coming from the White House. Those plans were put into place in anticipation of another flu pandemic but are designed to work for any respiratory-borne disease. Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, warned that any time political ideology starts to dominate the dialogue, it puts the public at risk. The history of good public health is that when things become politicized, we risk a good sound response and a response based on science and expertise, she said. This is a situation thats changing by the moment, and that makes it all the more delicate. Kates warned that there should be some caution around not stoking panic and not using the partisan environment to steer away from basic public health messaging  but acknowledged that will be tough in a very partisan time, during campaign season. Both parties are guilty of politicizing public health pandemics when theyre not the party in charge of the White House, she noted. During the Ebola outbreak in 2014, Republicans routinely slammed the Obama administration for similar critiques Trump is facing from Democrats  namely, that he was too slow to respond and didnt appoint an adviser to coordinate the governments response quickly enough. Warren (D)(1): Indivisible February 2020 Survey Results [Indivisible]. were really excited to begin sharing these findings more broadly, because we know Indivisibles will be a major force in building wins for Democrats up and down the ballot in November. We heard from over 16,000 respondents from all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. The survey ran from February 12 to February 20. We surveyed respondents on who they would make president today if all other factors (the primary and general election contests) were removed. Warren won overwhelmingly, with 39% of Indivisibles selecting her as their ideal president in this field. The next closest candidates were Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar, each with 17% choosing them as their preferred president. * * * IA: Bernie Sanders campaign challenges Iowa recount results [CNN]. In a complaint sent to the Iowa Democratic Party and Democratic National Committee, the Sanders campaign claims the state party violated its own rules by allowing the Buttigieg campaign to partake in the process because they didnt meet the proper requirements. [T]he request submitted by the Buttigieg Campaign was deficient because it failed to provide an explanation of how the national delegation could be altered, 18 potential Sanders delegates wrote in the challenge. Because he did not[the] request was deficient and should have been denied.'  Very happy to see a Democrat candidate finally not giving an inch on a recount, but this argument does seem a little legalistic. AP Explains: Why there isnt a winner of Iowas Dem caucuses [Associated Press]. The Associated Press has decided it will not declare a winner in Iowa. For the AP to decide not to declare a result is unusual.  the two campaigns did not request a statewide recanvass and recount. Instead, they asked the party to look at a select number of precincts in which they felt an error would benefit their candidate. That means other locations where errors appeared to have occurred remain unexamined  and unchanged.  Thats wrong. Thats the same mistake Al Gore made in Florida; ceding the moral high ground for tactical advantage.

2016 Post Mortem

Coming to a podcast near you: Hillary Clinton [Politico]. The former first lady, secretary of State, and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee is planning to launch a new audio program in late spring, just in time for her to have a powerful new megaphone during the 2020 election. Her team is experimenting with using a [Howard] Stern-inspired ensemble plucked from the larger universe of Hillaryland to help loosen her up, keep the show conversational, and discuss the days news, perhaps at the top or bottom of the show. The search is on inside her organization for a Robin Quivers-like sidekick.  How about Neera Tanden?

Our Famously Free Press

FiveThirtyEight is bad, actually. Thread (dk): Unlike polls that show candidates' expected vote share, prob. election forecasts convey the estimated probability that a candidate will win. Problem: folks dont understand probabilities. This paper demonstrates severity of this confusion, and its political consequences. (2/n) pic.twitter.com/MEt9GoUhZs  Jonathan Mummolo (@jonmummolo) February 28, 2020 Discouraging. A thread: 1/ Interesting case study of the radicalization of a moderate, seemingly reasonable Democrat into a Bernie-hating red-baiting fear mongerer. 2016: Reasonable critiques. Bernie's a good candidate and brings in young voters. His message is potent, will carry him far. pic.twitter.com/DfAVEse5pN  Susan (@SassyG8tor) February 26, 2020

Realignment and Legitimacy

The Public Doesnt Really Decide The Nominee: Leaders Move To Limit Democratic Choice in The Democratic Convention [Jonathan Turley]. Yet, the same people that gave us the Clinton nomination will be working their magic again at the Democratic Convention. What is fascinating is that the establishment would prefer to risk the election by alienating the huge young following of Sanders rather than allow Sanders to be the nominee. If they give the nomination to another establishment figures like Biden or a billionaire like Bloomberg, the establishment would enrage millions of Sanders followers who could well stay home in 2020.  Unsurprising, except that Turley says it. (When they tell you who they are, believe them.) More of the same: On @msnbc, former adviser to @BarackObama @AntonJGunn says the quiet part out loud. The elites of the Democratic Party decide the nomineenot voters "The party decides its nominee. The public doesn't really decide the nomineesuperdelegates are very influential in the party." pic.twitter.com/wvpvbeLEQO  Jordan (@JordanChariton) February 27, 2020 DNC Superdelegate Pushing Brokered Convention Is GOP Donor [The Intercept]. WILLIAM OWEN, a Tennessee-based Democratic National Committee member backing an effort to use so-called superdelegates to select the partys presidential nominee  potentially subverting the candidate with the most voter support  is a Republican donor and health care lobbyist. Owen, who runs a lobbying firm called Asset & Equity Corporations, donated to Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and gave $8,500 to a joint fundraising committee designed to benefit Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in 2019. I am a committed Democrat but as a lobbyist, there are times when I need to have access to both sides and the way to get access quite often is to make campaign contributions, said Owen, in a brief interview with The Intercept.  Of course, of course. Will your vote count? Veil of secrecy makes it impossible for Florida voters to know [USA Today]. [Florida] forced all 67 elections supervisors to sign nondisclosure agreements before they could receive federal funding for elections security, be briefed about vulnerabilities found by cybersecurity experts or even hook up to the states voter registration system.  If only Jebbie had been able to do that in Florida 2000! Woke Capitalism and the 2020 Election [RealClearPolitics (UserFriendly)]. What do those who run businesses owe to the country? And how much leverage should consumers  who are also voters  exert in attempts to forge public policy in their own image? What shape should that pressure take? These are among the themes explored by RealClear Opinion Research in an extensive new poll of more than 2,500 registered voters about views of free-market capitalism; the survey was conducted online Feb. 14-17 and carries a credibility interval of +/- 2.14 percentage points. The findings reveal an electorate quite divided on these questions, but interestingly, opinions vary more by age than political affiliation. The results do not perfectly mirror the open hostility to business voiced on the campaign trail by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren  and, at times, Joe Biden. But neither do they support the sanguine, whats-good-for-the-stock-market-is-good-for-America mantra of President Trump. The bottom line seems to be that most U.S. voters dont demonize business, but they do expect a lot  and this is especially true of those under 40  from the private sector.

Stats Watch

At reader request, I added some business stats back in. Please give Econintersect click-throughs; theyre a good, old-school blog that covers more than stats. If anybody knows of other aggregators, please leave links in comments.

Growth: 21 February 2020 ECRIs WLI Growth Rate Again Declines [Econintersect]. In essence, there is little growth forecast in the business cycle six months from today.

Manufacturing: February 2020 Chicago Purchasing Managers Barometer Improves But Remains In Contraction [Econintersect]. The Fed manufacturing surveys generally improved this month but still showing little growth.

Personal Income and Expenditures: January 2020 Headline Income Growth Improves [Econintersect]. This month consumer income growth year-over-year is growing slower than the spending growth year-over-year. The savings growth rate was little changed and has remained in a narrow band for the last year.

Consumer Sentiment: Final February 2020 Michigan Consumer Sentiment Improves [Econintersect]. Surveys of Consumers chief economist, Richard Curtin, makes the following comments: Consumer sentiment rose to 101.0 in February, nearly matching the expansion peak of 101.4 set in March 2018. The coronavirus was mentioned by 8% of all consumers in February when describing the reasons for their economic expectations. However, on Monday and Tuesday of this week, the last days of the February survey, 20% mentioned the coronavirus due to the steep drop in equity prices as well as the CDC warnings about the potential domestic threat of the virus. While too few cases were conducted to attach any statistical significance to the findings, it is nonetheless true that the domestic spread of the virus could have a significant impact on consumer spending.

* * *

Retail: Viral fear sparks global run on face masks [Associated Press]. Fear of the spreading coronavirus has led to a global run on sales of face masks despite evidence that most people who arent sick dont need to wear them. Many businesses are sold out, while others are limiting how many a customer can buy. Amazon is policing its site, trying to make sure sellers dont gouge panicked buyers. 

Tech: Hackers can peep through this smart vacuums camera, research shows [CNet]. The Trifo Ironpie robot vacuum is designed to do double duty. The fans on the swiveling disc hoover your house, while the camera mounted on it acts as an ankle-high security device. The idea is to stay tidy while staying safe. Theres just one problem, according to cybersecurity firm Checkmarx. The internet-connected Ironpie has multiple security vulnerabilities.  Readers already know the rule to never buy any product marketed as smart. New rule: Never buy a product with a cutesy name.

Tech:  Facebook: The Inside Story author Steven Levy on how the company compares to Apple and Google (interview) [The Verge]. Levy: No question theres still talent at Facebook. But, as I think youre implying, Mark likes to give key jobs to people hes known and trusted for a while, and that bench is getting thin. (Andrew Boz Bosworth for instance, has come off the bench a couple times to take on big important missions, most recently hardware, AR/VR.) I think the critical departure was Chris Cox, who in my view was the person who would have taken over if Mark suddenly decided hed reached retirement age. Of those execs who joined relatively recently, I notice that David Marcus, who left PayPal in 2014 to head Messenger and now is leading Libra, seems to have earned a lot of trust from Mark.

Manufacturing: In Weak Rivets, a Possible Key to Titanics Doom [New York Times]. From 2008, still germane: Researchers have discovered that the builder of the Titanic struggled for years to obtain enough good rivets and riveters and ultimately settled on faulty materials that doomed the ship, which sank 96 years ago Tuesday.  Reminds me of Boeing

Mr. Market: Reddits Profane, Greedy Traders Are Shaking Up the Stock Market [Bloomberg]. In a dingy corner of the internet is a message board, soaked in profanity, bro-speak, and greed, where posters with handles such as OverthrowYourMasters and yolo_tron campaign for their favorite stocks, putting up screenshots from their online brokerage accounts of their moonshot victoriesor showing off their massive losses like badges of honor. Some of them think theyve found the key to fast wins on the stock market. Wall Street doubts theyre right, but its getting nervous about what it sees there. History hasnt been kind to people claiming to have a magic hand. The latest sell-off, driven by a new wave of coronavirus fears, shows how quickly markets can turn on you. But even veteran traders have trouble dismissing a 900,000-user Reddit forum called r/wallstreetbets, or r/WSB for short, whose tips and tactics have shown an uncanny ability to push prices, at least for the short term. Hitherto sleepy companies such as Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. and Plug Power Inc. went crazy shortly after being mentioned there. The board may have added a little froth to Tesla Inc.s $90 billion rally.

Honey for the Bears: The nations longest expansion on record may teeter if the U.S. suffers a serious coronavirus outbreak. Economists believe the country is well insulated from a potential epidemic [Wall Street Journal]. [But] the country is already feeling the impact of the outbreaks in China and more recently in Italy, although the U.S. has the advantage of months of warning to prepare. One economist says U.S. transportation networks would grind to a halt but that an epidemic wouldnt trigger a recession.

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Todays Fear & Greed Index: 9 Extreme Fear (previous close: 13 Extreme Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 44 (Fear). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Feb 28 at 12:40pm. Wonder if Mr. Market can pin the needle?

The Biosphere

Goats, a climate-friendly option for clearing brush [Yale Climate Connection]. To clear brush and briars from overgrown land, many people turn to heavy equipment. But Aaron Steele takes a different approach. Its not just a novelty. It actually works, he says. Steele is the founder of Goats on the Go. The Iowa-based company sets up portable fencing, trucks in a herd of goats, and lets them munch away. Despite their reputation of being tin can eaters, they actually have some pretty strong preferences, he says. And fortunately for us and our customers, they prefer woody brush species and broadleaf weeds. Steele says grazing is better for the soil than other methods of clearing land, and it reduces the need for heavy machinery.  Business model (rather like beekeeping?).

Health Care

As we know, many of the measures to be taken against #COVID-19 are good old 19-Century hygiene, like frequent hand-washing and sleeping with the window open. Maybe we should all keep on doing those things, for when the next corona virus comes along. I would like to suggest a more radical measure, at least for Western countries: Eliminate the handshake, which spreads germs by contact, and replace it with the wai (Southeast Asian, most prominently Thai):

If its good enough for Ed McMahon  he and Johnny Carson would exchange wais just after H-e-e-e-e-e-r-es Johnny!  then its good enough for the rest of us! (The wai is also superior to other candidates for replacing the handshake, like the physically awkward elbow bump, because it is also a gesture of reverence to the other persons spirit. Forgive the potted theology, and the old codger reference!)

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How first world countries do it:

And they are done all for free. https://t.co/jWIr3K9VWZ  T.K. of AAK! (@AskAKorean) February 28, 2020

What Is a Pandemic? [JAMA]. The terms endemic, outbreak, epidemic, and pandemic indicate how common a condition is at a point in time relative to how common it was at an earlier time. An epidemic that spreads globally is a pandemic. Many factors influence how far a condition spreads. Two of the most important are how easily the condition is transmitted from one person to the next and the movement of people, particularly via airplane because infections can be brought to new parts of the world within hours. These definitions may seem straightforward, but applying them in evolving, real-world situations is complicated. For example, HIV started in West Africa, was epidemic in Africa for decades, then was pandemic by the late 20th century. But 2 decades into the 21st century, it is reasonable to say HIV is now endemic in some parts of the world.

Games

E-Sports Are Rife With Exploitation [The Nation]. [C]orporate success obscures the industrys dark side: a massive underclass of underpaid freelance workers and independent contractors. The seven- and eight-figure salaries of Activision Blizzard executives are possible only because hordes of young freelancers, dazzled by the opportunity to make money working with video games, routinely perform indispensable tasks for minimal pay and nonexistent benefits. With few e-sports companies paying freelance workers a true living wage, its nearly impossible for individuals without some form of economic privilege to break into the industry.

Class Warfare

The boss who put everyone on 70K [BBC (dk)]. In 2015, the boss of a card payments company in Seattle introduced a $70,000 minimum salary for all of his 120 staff  and personally took a pay cut of $1m. Five years later hes still on the minimum salary, and says the gamble has paid off.

Its Not You, Its Capitalism [McSweeneys Internet Tendency]. Please dont hit my espresso machine.  A one-sided conversation

News of the Wired

Sliceable Mayo Now Exists, Civilization Can Stop Inventing Things [Cracked]. Because nothing screams weve given up better than a white flag, soon well be able to buy slices of sheet-like mayonnaise for on-the-go consumption.

A woman took 550 times the usual dose of LSD, with surprisingly positive consequences [CNN]. A 46-year-old woman snorted a staggering 550 times the normal recreational dose of LSD and not only survived, but found that the foot pain she had suffered from since her 20s was dramatically reduced. Separately, a 15-year-old girl with bipolar disorder overdosed on 10 times the normal dose of the drug, which she said resulted in a massive improvement in her mental health. Their experiences were detailed in case reports published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs last month, along with that of a third woman who accidentally overdosed on LSD during the second week of pregnancy. She ultimately gave birth to a healthy son, now 18, who has not shown any impaired development. However, experts stressed that these cases were unique and warned against experimenting with the drug, which is illegal in the US and UK.  Too much is not enough?

Awwwww!

BATMAN BUSTED: A homemade Batmobile got towed by police in Moscow, Russia. https://t.co/87FGHR2xbV pic.twitter.com/zZJndZ42XC  ABC News (@ABC) February 27, 2020

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Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi and coral are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Todays plant (Re Silc):

Re Silc writes: Leaves popping 3 weeks ahead in NC. (Re Silc sent this to me today; I thought it was news, so here it is. If anybody else sees the same thing happening, please send it along!)

* * *

Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldnt see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know Im on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:









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If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!
A heart failure patient has become the first person in the world to be fitted with a new heart implant that can communicate with doctors on a smartphone.

David Southworth, 73, of Colchester, had an operation to fit the advanced implant at Essex Cardiothoracic Centre in Basildon.

Doctors have likened the device to having a 'paramedic in your pocket' and Mr Southworth said it has already helped with his breathing.

David Southworth, 73, of Colchester, had an operation to fit the advanced implant at Essex Cardiothoracic Centre in Basildon. He is pictured with consultant Dr Duncan Field, who can communicate with the device

The implant, which is about the size of a pocket watch, can communicate with Mr Southworth's consultant on a smartphone or tablet, wherever he is in the world.

Dr Duncan Field, a consultant cardiologist at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, fitted the Medtronic Cobalt implant earlier this month and has since carried out the procedure on several more patients.

The implant, which is about the size of a pocket watch, can communicate with Mr Southworth's consultant on a smartphone or tablet, wherever he is in the world

The operation was carried out under local anaesthetic, with Dr Field passing leads through the veins into the heart and then implanting the device via a small incision under Mr Southworth's collarbone.

Dr Field said: 'The Cobalt implant offers a personalised approach to defibrillator therapy, which is a big leap forward in performance and intelligence that I liken to having a paramedic in your pocket.

'The defibrillator protects the heart from dangerous arrhythmias and can give the hospital team advanced warning if we need to intervene, wherever in the world the patient might be.

'The cardiac resynchronisation part of the device focuses on helping the muscles of the heart to beat in the right way.

'It's like a tug of war team  if you can get the muscles to work at the same time and in rhythm, they are more effective at pumping blood around the body.

So how does this groundbreaking device work? The device has advanced algorithms which tailor its therapy to each patient. It does this by monitoring his heart every minute, identifying irregular heartbeats and responding with small electrical impulses that correct the heart's electrical signals and reduce patient symptoms. It also sends advance warnings to hospital consultants, should it detect any changes which require health professional intervention. Doctors have likened the device to having a 'paramedic in your pocket' and the world's first patient, Briton David Southworth, said it has already helped with his breathing. It does this by monitoring his heart every minute, identifying irregular heartbeats and responding with small electrical impulses that correct the heart's electrical signals and reduce patient symptoms Advertisement

'Mr Southworth's early progress is encouraging, as improvement takes place during the first three to six months following implant.

'Thanks to the protection of the device, he can go and live his life again.'

Mr Southworth said: 'It's helped me to breathe easier, walk further, and two weeks on, I feel better for it already.

'I took the procedure in my stride and I am pleased to play my part.

'Hopefully, the device can help a lot of other patients similar to me.'

Rob Kowal, chief medical officer of the Cardiac Rhythm and Heart Failure division at Medtronic  the makers of the device  said: 'These advancements will help physicians respond to patients' individual needs through informed clinical decision making, potentially improving the outcomes of patients around the world.'
Alabamas first group of community college students training to become lineworkers is finishing its class and plans for the next session are underway.

In January, 23 students began a 9-week lineworker training program at Bishop State Community College in Mobile. Instructors from Alabama Power teach the students the fundamentals of electricity as well as math and science knowledge needed to work on power lines.

Coy Thomas, a training analyst at Alabama Power, said seeing the students progress is rewarding.

Seeing someone start from square one, not having a clue about how to put on a set of hooks, to the time where they can climb a pole and work aloft, its a rewarding job, Thomas said. The hope is that at the end of this, all 23 of them are able to go out and get a job out in the career field as a lineman or as an apprentice lineman starting off. It might be with Alabama Power, it might be with a contractor, it could be with anybody, but our job is to go out and them have a lineman job somewhere.

The students will graduate March 16.

The next class of lineworker training at Bishop State will begin in June, but registration closes March 4. Additional lineworker training classes will be offered later this year at Lawson State Community College and Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham.

You can see more on the classes here.
Lucknow, Feb 28 : The budget session of the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha was adjourned sine die on Friday, a week before it was scheduled to end on March 7.

Samajwadi MLAs wore masks to register their protest against the abrupt end to the session.

"We will not utter a word and the government can run the Assembly as they want to. They do not want the opposition to raise issues of public interest, so we are wearing masks," Leader of Opposition, Ram Govind Chaudhary told IANS.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath called upon the SP legislators to take off their masks and speak freely in the house.

At this, Chaudhury gestured to the Chief Minister to speak but he did not.

Meanwhile, Adityanath tabled a proposal to raise the MLAs development fund to Rs 3 crore per year from the existing Rs 2 crore. He said that a committee would be set up soon for this.

The Chief Minister asked all legislators to submit a list of the development work they had done in their respective constituencies by March 15 and the state government would publish the same in the form of a booklet.
After I told Mama what nasty things Auntie Cece and Uncle Freddy had been making her 7-year-old daughter do to them, Mamas eyes went blank. ... I hold my head down. My tears drip into my lap like waterfalls. My thoughts felt like a scattered puzzle. I was afraid for my safety because I know Mama would eventually leave us again. What were Auntie Cece and Uncle Freddy going to do to me now that Mama knew about this? The more I thought about what might happen, the more I wanted to disappear off the face of the earth.
Tabu To Be Seen In A Different Avatar In Kartik Aaryan's Bhool Bhulaiya 2, Anees Bazmee Confirms It's Not A Special Appearance
Residents are in limbo, fearing for their lives and angry at the UN for not doing more to help.

Heavy shelling in Libyas capital has forced residents of the neighbourhoods around Mitiga airport to live a suspended life.

This is the latest round of fighting after talks at the UN failed to reach an agreement.

Many Libyans from both sides of the conflict are angry at the UN, saying that it has not done enough to help.

Al Jazeeras Charles Stratford reports from Tripoli, Libya.
The Chinese government silenced whistle-blowers, withheld crucial information and played down the threat posed by the new coronavirus, allowing an epidemic that has killed thousands to take hold across the country.

Now the ruling Communist Party, facing a storm of anger from the Chinese public over its missteps, is trying to rehabilitate its image by rebranding itself as the unequivocal leader in the global fight against the virus.

[Read: No way out: In China, coronavirus takes a toll on other patients.]

The state-run news media has hailed Chinas response to the outbreak as a model for the world, accusing countries like the United States and South Korea of acting sluggishly to contain the spread.

Some countries slow to respond to virus, read a recent headline from Global Times, a stridently nationalistic tabloid controlled by the Chinese government.
What is current Foreign Office advice regarding travel and coronavirus?

The Foreign Office now advises against all but essential travel to 10 small towns in Lombardy and one in Veneto in Italy, which have been isolated by the Italian authorities.

These towns are Codogno, Castiglione d'Adda, Casalpusterlengo, Fombio, Maleo, Somaglia, Bertonico, Terranova dei Passerini, Castelgerundo and San Fiorano and Vo' Euganeo.

The Foreign Office also advises against all travel to Hubei Province in China, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak. There is advice against all but essential travel to elsewhere in mainland China.

Will my travel insurance policy cover me if my holiday is cancelled due to coronavirus?

According to Neil Wright, the founder and managing director of Coverforyou.com, if you have bought travel insurance when you booked your holiday, you will be protected if the country you are due to visit becomes an area the Foreign Office advises against travel to in the future.

But he added: 'Bear in mind, insurance cannot be purchased to cover an area which is already under lockdown.

'At the moment this is Italy, but with things changing by the day, another reason we urge clients to purchase their insurance as soon as possible so they are safeguarded against further areas being locked down.'

What should I do when looking for travel insurance?

When it comes to purchasing travel insurance, Su Crown, a spokesperson for the Association of British Insurers (ABI), told MailOnine Travel: 'Don't just go for the cheapest option.

'Make sure you read all of the clauses so that if you do have to cancel your trip due to coronavirus, you are covered.

'Make sure that everybody you are travelling with is on the same policy so everybody has the same level of cover.'

If I want to cancel my holiday to a destination where there are no travel restrictions, will my insurer refund me?

If you cancel your holiday to a destination where there are no travel restrictions, claiming a refund through travel insurance could prove tricky - even impossible.

Rory Boland, editor of Which? Travel, explained: 'While the government has now updated its advice to cover the Italian locations that have experienced an outbreak, those travelling to nearby cities like Milan or Verona still won't be able to cancel and claim on their travel insurance, nor will those travelling to Tenerife.

'Instead, you will have to rely on your travel operator's or airline's goodwill if you want to arrange an alternative holiday or rebook a flight at a later date. Some travel agents and airlines are offering worried travellers the chance to change plans where possible.

'If your travel company can't help, contact your insurance provider directly to find out if they will cover you as some insurance companies will review scenarios on a case-by-case basis.'

If I am sick or elderly, can I cancel my holiday to a destination where there has been a coronavirus outbreak or do I need a sick note?

If you are booked to travel to an area where the Foregin Office advises against going to, you shouldn't need a sick note to claim on your travel insurance.

However, the Telegraph reports that in a survey of 11 major insurers, seven would only consider refunding trips to the elderly or the sick where there is an outbreak of coronavirus if the customer can provide a doctor's sick note.

But Dr Richard Vautrey, the GP committee chair at the British Medical Association said it was 'completely inappropriate' for customers to approach their family doctors for sick notes.

He said: 'Practices are under intense pressure, especially at this time of year, and this is not a good use of GP time, taking doctors away from treating ill patients coming through their doors.'

Instead, he suggested patients could request a summary of their pre-exisiting health conditions but it is unclear if insurers will accept a generic medical history as proof a person is unfit to travel to a coronavirus hit area.

Are airlines cancelling flights due to coronavirus?

This is the current status of flights on UK and Irish airlines:

British Airways

British Airways has cancelled a number of its flights to and from Milan today and are merging them with others, due to a reduced demand due to coronavirus.

A spokesperson said: 'We will be contacting customers on cancelled flights so we can discuss their travel options including alternative British Airways flights within two hours of their original departure time where possible, full refunds or booking for a later date of travel.

'We understand that some customers flying to/from Northern Italy may wish to change their travel plans and have introduced flexible booking options. Customers can also find the latest information and options on BA.com.'

British Airways has also cancelled flights to mainland China until April 17.

EasyJet

EasyJet says that all of its flights are operating as normal and 'standard terms and conditions on tickets continue to apply'. This means no refunds will be offered to people who choose not to fly.

A spokesman added: 'We would like to reassure customers that our existing policies and procedures are in line with the guidance provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and EASA.

'We remain in regular contact with them and will amend our procedures if and when required if guidance changes. The health and wellbeing of our passengers and crew is the airline's highest priority.'

The fee to change an easyJet flight ranges from 25 to 52.

Ryanair

According to the Ryanair website, all of its flights, including those to Italy are operating as normal.

The airline says: 'There is currently no change to advice for airlines. Our flights are operating as normal and all our terms and conditions apply.'

This means no refunds will be offered to people who choose not to fly. To change flights on Ryanair, fees range from 35 to 95.

Jet2

Jet2 says its flying programme today remains unchanged. A spokesman said: 'Foreign Office guidance shows that there are no travel restrictions in place to any of our destinations. '

Tui

Tui says there are no cancellations or delays to its flights due to coronavirus. The tour operator says it is 'monitoring the situation closely'.

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic has suspended its flights to mainland China because of the virus.

Aer Lingus

The Irish carrier says it 'continues to operate flights to and from all destinations on our network'.

Passengers who have booked through the Aer Lingus website who want to change the dates or destinations of their flights should visit the airline's website.

Other airlines have suspended flights to destinations where there have been outbreaks of the coronavirus such as Iran, South Korea and China.

Qatar Airways has suspended flights to South Korea and Iran and Delta has suspended and reduced services between the US and Seoul.

Emirates has suspended flights to Bahrain, Iran, Saudi Arabia and to some Chinese destinations.

Etihad has suspended flights to Shanghai, Chengdu and Nagoya in Japan. Flights to Hong Kong have also been suspended to Hong Kong until March 28 due to reduced demand.

American Airlines says it is 'continuing to closely monitor the situation and will make any updates as necessary'.

Can I get a refund if my flight from the UK is cancelled due to coronavirus?

If your flight from the UK is cancelled, you should be offered either a refund or a replacement flight - even with a different airline - to your destination.

You can also be offered the chance to change the dates of travel.

What if I am catching a connecting flight to my holiday destination through an area where the Foreign Office advises against travelling to?

In this case, the airline should re-route your ticket so that you reach your final destination by connecting in an airport where it is safe to travel to.

What if I have booked two flights to a get to a destination separately on different airlines but one is cancelled?

You can only claim a refund for the flight that is cancelled. This is because airlines have no responsibility for any prior or subsequent flights you take.
EUGENE, Ore. -- Medical supply and hardware stores in the Eugene area are selling out of respirator masks as coronavirus fears gear up. At this time, there are no confirmed cases of the novel strain in Oregon.

N95 respirator masks are designed to filter out fine particles from the air. Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention isn't recommending people use the masks outside of medical settings, customers told KEZI 9 News they are buying them out of an abundance of caution.

RELATED: Lane County Public Health braces for novel coronavirus

Eugene medical supply store Shaw Med posted a sign on the front door alerting customers that they are sold out of the masks.

Co-owner Jennifer Carlson said they noticed travelers and people with families abroad purchasing the respirators starting several weeks ago. As more and more people began coming in, they began limiting the quantities people could purchase.

"Not until the last days have we had the real flooding of what's happening. And we've sold 12 boxes in two days," Carlson said.

MAP: Track the novel coronavirus in real time

The store started keeping a waiting list on Wednesday. Less than 24 hours later, nearly 40 people were on the list. Their next confirmed shipment isn't until late next month.

King Medical Supply in Eugene said that respirators are also on back order at their store.

"People are panicking and wanting to send them overseas or take them traveling. Unfortunately, we are completely out of stock and really have no idea when we are supposed to get some in," said office manager Tammy Imlar.

MORE: HOW TO PREPARE FOR CORONAVIRUS IN THE UNITED STATES

Hardware stores are also feeling the crunch. True Value Hardware has also sold out of the masks. Store manager Terry White said they only rarely see this kind of demand.

"As of this morning, our True Value distribution center didn't have anything left," said White. "Most of the rush was because of the smoke when the fires were bad a couple of summers ago. There's some concern that because of this they aren't going to have enough if they have a bad fire season."

As many customers turn to online outlets to buy the respirators, prices are going up. KEZI 9 News found that a sold-out two pack of them sold for $7 at Target. The same pack on Ebay was selling for $60.
(JNS)For three years, the Middle East Forum has been engaged in a campaign to wean Americans and Israelis off the deceptive charms of the peace process which has, in fact, produced overwhelmingly malign results. Instead, we argue for an Israeli victory and a commensurate Palestinian defeat.

We constantly seek out new ways to bring this argument to the publics notice, especially in Israel. Although the topic is deadly serious, weve had some fun in the process. Israel Victory Project attention-getting tactics have included posters of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a swimsuit thanking Israel for all the money it sends his organization; a 10-meter tall rubber chicken posed in front of the Israeli parliament and the Defense Ministry; and switching street signs in Tel Aviv (e.g., from Ben-Gurion Street to Yasser Arafat Boulevard).

In this spirit, as the election season heats up ahead of the national vote on March 2, we again sought a creative way to stimulate interest in Israel Victory. We came up with a provocative graphic showing blindfolded Palestinian Authority and Hamas leaders Mahmoud Abbas and Haniyeh photo-shopped against a battlefield scene. Abbass hands are raised high while Haniyehs hold a white flag. The graphic carries a pungent slogan in Hebrew: Peace can ONLY be made with defeated enemies.

To stimulate curiosity, we did not put our name on the posters. The goal, as explained by Nave Dromi, head of the Middle East Forum-Israel office, was to spark public discussion about the crying need to change the thinking that characterizes the peace camp.

This graphic went up on billboards at five prominent spots in Tel Aviv on Feb. 13.

On Feb. 14, the mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, responded by denouncing the signs as Nazi-like incitements to murder. A municipality flack, Eytan Schwartz, actually compared the two depicted monsters to Jewish children in the Holocaust. Well no, the billboards were incitements to victory, not to murder; surrendering prisoners being blindfolded is common the world around. Both Israelis (in Syria) and Americans (in Iran) have experienced this sort of treatment.

The good mayor, who proclaims Tel Aviv to be a city that celebrates pluralism and tolerance, is also known for his increasingly autocratic tendencies since coming to office in 1998. In this instance, he peremptorily ordered municipal employees to take down the ads, which they promptly didfreedom of speech and the sanctity of private property be damned.

In other words, without the nicety of first obtaining a court order, Huldai blithely took an illegal step. MEF responded in two ways: we went to court to assert our rights and we released a new version of the poster; this one covers the faces of Abbas and Haniyeh with a Censored (in Hebrew) stamp and a list of some of the 30 violent Palestinian attacks in Tel Aviv on Huldais watch that left 93 dead.

I draw two conclusions from this incident. First, the concept of Israel Victory, a simple idea with immense implications, gets hugely under some peoples skins. The positive response to itamong Israelis, some Palestinians, and caucuses in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Knessetenrages those who remain wedded to their peace process delusions.

Israel Victory dispenses with the nutty idea of giving an enemy hope, replacing it with the sensible goal of forcing him to give up his war goal. Out goes the saccharine path of appeasement in favor of the bitter doctrine of deterrence. Out goes the illusion of luring Palestinians to give up their foul goal through promises of benefits. When they finally do give up on eliminating the Jewish state, Palestinians can begin to build their polity, economy, society and culture. Its admittedly a long and tough path, but it will ultimately bring real rewards.

Second, as Israels die-hard left continues to decline, it increasingly relies on police methods to discredit its opponents. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has experienced a barrage of legal cases which (per Alan Dershowitz) in the aggregate endangers democracy. Recently, Israels police arrested Akiva Smotrich for unauthorized travel to the West Bank and it arrested Yehuda Glickrabbi, former Likud member of parliament, and victim of a jihadi assassination attemptfor walking too slowly on the Temple Mount, then ransacked his house. And Huldai destroyed our billboards.

Where will it end?

Daniel Pipes (DanielPipes.org, @DanielPipes) is president of the Middle East Forum.

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.
DETROIT, MI  A state representative says she plans to personally deliver a letter seeking clemency for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to President Donald Trump.

Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, D-Detroit, was invited to the National African American History Month Celebration at the White House Thursday, Feb. 27. While there, she planned to personally deliver the letter to Trump or members of his administration, FOX-2 Detroit reports.

Gay-Dagnogo says the letter is signed by several Detroit caucus members, elected officials and ecumenical leaders.

Kilpatrick was convicted on 24 counts of bribery and other corruption offenses back in 2013. He was sentenced to 28 years behind bars and isn't expected to be released until 2037.

We dont have to agree on every issue, or even a majority of issues, to see the plain facts of this situation and recognize that those who issued Mr. Kilpatricks sentence sought to make an example out of a powerful but flawed black man, Gay-Dagnogo said in a press release. This discussion is about changing that example to one of second chances and rehabilitation - the same opportunities he has given to a number of other recently incarcerated individuals.
BEECHER, MI -- The tragedy of an elementary school shooting that shocked the nation 20 years ago and left a 6-year-old dead remains heartbreaking in its details.

Here are key elements of how Kayla Rolland was shot and killed at Buell Elementary School in the Beecher School District on Feb. 29, 2000 -- and the aftermath.

A look at a framed photograph that Elizabeth Krasinski keeps of her sister in Tawas City on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020. Krasinski lost her sister, Kayla Rolland, 20 years ago in a school shooting when Rolland was only in first grade. In 2000, the story made national news as Rolland is amongst the youngest of school shooting victims.Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com

A girl from Beecher

Kayla Rolland, a 6-year-old from the Beecher area of Mt. Morris Township, was killed in her first-grade classroom on Feb. 29, 2000.

A 6-year-old boy in the same class pulled a small handgun from his pants and shot Kayla while his teacher lined up other students in the hallway for a trip to the library.

Kaylas sister, Elizabeth Krasinski, described her sibling as full of spunk, a tomboy who loved being covered in dirt and a kid who could charm everyone around her.

All she had to do was give you that smile," Krasinski said.

Police crime scene tape remains hanging in rear playground of Buell Elementary School in Mt. Morris Township on Tuesday, February 29, 2000, where Kayla Rolland, 6, was shot and killed by a 6-year-old classmate earlier in the day. (Flint Journal File Photo by Justin Warren)BPN

Boy with a gun

The boy who shot Kayla Rolland was living in a home described by police as a drug house on West Julia Avenue.

The Flint Journal didnt name the boy because he was a juvenile and never charged with a crime after prosecutors determined he was too young to have formed criminal intent.

Two weeks before he took a pistol from the home to school, the boys mother had been evicted from her own home and sent him to live with an uncle and other young men on West Julia.

I think he realized that he had done something naughty, but Im not sure that he understood the enormity or gravity of what had actually occurred, former Genesee County Prosecutor Art Busch said after meeting with the boy following the shooting.

The boys father, who died in 2007, was in the Genesee County Jail at the time of the shooting.

One student later told police the boy pointed the pistol at Kayla before shooting and said, I dont like you." Kayla stood up and said, Im going to die before falling over, the same girl recounted.

Tamarla Owens breaks down as she approaches the police lines outside of Buell Elementary School after learning her first grade son had shot and killed another first grader at the school in Mt. Morris Township on Tuesday, February 29, 2000. (Flint Journal File Photo by Steve Jessmore)THE FLINT JOURNAL

Worried about their children, parents rush to school

In the frantic minutes after the slaying, parents of Buell students raced to the scene, looking for their loved ones.

School buses shuttled students to a nearby church, where they were released to parents and guardians.

This is the best day of my life since the day I gave birth to her, one mother said after seeing her daughter was safe.

At the Greater Friendship Azusa Church of God in Christ, located across the street from the school, the Rev. Birdie Shields Jr. said everyone wanted to do something to help.

``I think actually that the little girl, being just 6 years old, touched the hearts of everybody," Shields Jr. said at the time.

Hurley Medical CenterKaiti Sullivan

Emergency team waits to help, but no chance to save Kayla

Six minutes after her teacher called 911 to report the student shooting, paramedics arrived at Buell and tried to save Kaylas life .

They transported her to Hurley Medical Center in Flint, where a team of emergency room doctors and nurses waited for a chance to save the little girl.

It came in as a 6-year-old shot. I remember everybody questioning the age  did they say 60 or did they say 6?, remembered Dr. Michael Jaggi. That team huddled and was ready to go all out, but we got a lifeless little girl when Kayla arrived.

The bullet had entered Kaylas right shoulder before tearing through her chest, striking major organs, the autopsy showed.

There were no heroics, no life-saving procedures. It was just disbelief and shock to have this tiny little person with this gunshot wound, Jaggi said.

Kayla Rolland's picture is held by Flint resident and family friend Tim Curran after a public memorial service in her honor on Friday March 3, 2000. Six candles were placed outside Brown Funeral Home in Flint for each of Kayla's six years. A first grader at Buell Elementary School in Mt. Morris Township, Kayla was shot and killed at the school by another first grader on Tuesday February 29. (Flint Journal File Photo by Steve Jessmore)THE FLINT JOURNAL

The community grieves

Days after the shooting, a steady stream of mourners paid their respects to Kayla, a little girl most of them had never known.

Many visitors during a memorial service in advance of Kaylas funeral at Brown Funeral Home wore pink ribbons to commemorate her young life.

``Grieving is difficult. Part of grieving is healing,'' Funeral Director Don Lada said at the time. ``The community will try to resolve the death, and we feel we are prepared to meet all those of needs of the healing (process) today."

Kayla was buried under a Tuscola County gravestone that recalls her as a beloved daughter, never forgotten.

Major national news magazines covered the Kayla Rolland story after last week's shooting at Buell Elementary School. Photo on Wednesday, March 8, 2000. (Flint Journal File Photo by Justin Warren)BPN

A national symbol of gun violence

In the hours following her shooting, reporters and television crews from around the nation descended on Flint and Beecher, raising questions about easy access to guns and the heartbreaking loss of a single life.

Kaylas mother, Veronica Lafayette, visited the White House and participated in the Million Mom March, and President Bill Clinton pushed for gun reforms he called Kaylas Law including a waiting period for weapons purchased at shows.

When Clinton met with congressional leaders the week after Kaylas death, he asked the legislators, How many people have to get killed before we do something?

In the 20 years since her death, the FBI reports there have been at least 39 active shooter incidents at pre-K through high school grounds from 2000-2018, but those numbers exclude certain years (2014-1015 and 2019) when reports were not issued by the agency, resulting in more than 69 deaths.

Genesee County prosecutor Arthur Busch answers questions from the media during a press conference on the Buell School shooting Thursday morning, March 2, 2000 at the Genesee Intermediate School District Health & Nutrition Services building in Mundy Twp. (Flint Journal File Photo by Jane Hale)BPN

Prosecutor targets gun owner, not child shooter

Busch and his prosecutors quickly concluded there was no criminal case to make against the boy who shot Kayla, saying that under state law, he was too young to be held criminally responsible because he was not capable of forming the intent to kill, which is necessary for criminal prosecution.

But the former prosecutor did pursue charges against adults living in the house where the boy found the gun in a Puma shoebox.

Jamelle James, who prosecutors said owned the stolen pistol, and two other men, including the boys uncle, were indicted on federal weapon charges in the aftermath of the shooting.

James later denied the gun was his but said he pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter, against the advice of his lawyer, because he would have faced 10 years in prison if he were convicted after a trial.

Tamarla Owens (left) listens to her lawyer Mark Clement during a neglect hearing in the family division of Genesee County Circuit Court on Tuesday March 21, 2000. Owen's 6-year-old son shot and killed first grade classmate Kayla Rolland at Buell Elementary School on February 29, 2000. A May 3 trial date was set on whether the state should take jurisdiction of the Owen's three children. (Flint Journal File Photo by Steve Jessmore)THE FLINT JOURNAL

Boy spends early life in child protective services system

The boy, now 26, could not be reached for comment on this story. MLive-The Flint Journal knocked on the doors of three residences listed in the Flint area associated with the man but could not reach him.

Juvenile court records describe the boys life under the watch of the child welfare system, including child abuse at the hands of his mother when he was young and a felony conviction when he was older and had been discharged from court oversight.

Eight months after the shooting, Tamarla Owens admitted that she held her oldest son down so that he could be beaten with a belt by two male friends, court records show. The boy who shot Kayla told protective services he saw his mother tape the brothers hands, feet and mouth before a beating.

All three children were placed in the foster care system, and Tamarla Owens eventually agreed to give up parental rights to both of her sons, then 8 and 10, in exchange for a chance to be reunited with her daughter.

Elizabeth Krasinski and her son Daniel Krasinski Jr., 3, pose for a photograph in Tawas City on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020. Elizabeth lost her sister, Kayla Rolland (pictured in the frame), 20 years ago in a school shooting when Rolland was only in first grade. In 2000, the story made national news as Rolland is amongst the youngest of school shooting victims.Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com

Living with memories

Krasinski, now a mother of four, remembers much of the day her sister was killed 20 years ago.

She hold no grudges against the boy who shot her sister and has considered trying to reach him to tell him as much.

But she still feels pain when she recalls what happened.

"I remember that morning  I was so angry with (Kayla) because she was a kid who didnt want to go to school, and I had the responsibility of doing the mom thing (and getting her to school) because I was the oldest, remembered Krasinski, who was 11 at the time. By the time they arrived outside Buell that morning, Krasinski told her sister she hated her -- words she regrets to this day.

That (became) a life lesson. I tell my kids now -- we do not use that word in this house, said Krasinski, who never saw her sister alive again.

READ MORE HERE:

20 years after Kayla Rolland: The fatal first grade shooting that sparked a national gun debate

Kayla Rolland shooting shocked the nation, but also brought people together

Ten years after school shooting, community remembers but sees few changes after 6-year-old Kayla Rollands death
MIAMI Chairman of the Board Jorge L. Guerra Jr. Im honored to lead our association as it celebrates 100 years of service to Realtors, the home buying and selling public and South Florida"

The MIAMI Association of Realtors (MIAMI) has elected Jorge L. Guerra Jr. as its 2020 chairman of the board. He and the 2020 MIAMI leadership boards will be installed today at MIAMIs 2020 Inaugural Celebration at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood.

Im honored to lead our association as it celebrates 100 years of service to Realtors, the home buying and selling public and South Florida, Guerra Jr. said. For 100 years, the MIAMI REALTORS have worked to protect homeownership rights, improve communities and benefit consumers. In 2020, the MIAMI association will continue helping MIAMI members achieve the highest level of professionalism and deliver the highest level of service to the real estate customers of our members.

Guerra Jr. is the president and chief executive officer of Real Estate Sales Force (RESF) and has been responsible for the firms strategic direction and growth since its inception in 2005. Guerra Jr.s brokerage leverages the latest technology to aggressively market properties worldwide.

Guerra Jr.s extensive experience as a former agent, the founder, and owner of a thriving brokerage, an association executive, and a highly regarded keynote speaker has equipped him to remain on top of emerging issues and trends impacting the future of real estate.

In addition to serving as 2020 Chairman of the MIAMI REALTORS, Guerra Jr. has also held the following positions: 2018 President for the MIAMI REALTORS Residential Board of Governors, 2019 Florida Top 50 Broker Vice chair and 2019 Chair for the National Association of Realtors Emerging Business and Technology forum.

Guerra Jr.s brokerage is leading the revolution in todays evolving market  betting on technology, social media, branding, and training have paid off tremendously for RESF and the results speak for themselves, the firm has expanded to over 450 agents with offices throughout South Florida.

Guerra Jr. has won several prestigious awards including the LBA Firm of the Year, Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce Rising Star Award and the BASF Platinum award for Best Broker of the Year in the division of Personal Achievement for 2006, 2007, 2008 and again in 2018. Among his most recent achievements Guerra Jr. was named one of 50 Real Trends Game Changers of 2019, as well as the Top 500 Power Broker Report for RIS Media and The Top 1000 brokerages listed in the 2018 Swanepoel Mega 1000  among others.

Recognized as a forward-thinking real estate expert as it pertains to digital marketing  Guerra Jr. has served as a keynote speaker at a number of national and international high-profile industry events that include: MIAMI Rock the Market, Florida Realtors Convention, National Association of Realtors (NAR) Convention, NARs Tech Edge, Xplode Conference, NAHREP National Convention, Inman Connect Miami, Inman Connect NY, Womens Council of Realtors and Imocionate in Spain.

Guerra Jr. serves as executive board member and education chair for the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, which works to advance sustainable Hispanic homeownership.

Guerra Jr. is an active member in the community and resides in Coral Gables along with his wife, Dinorah, and two children, Dominic and Alec.

Announcing the 2020 MIAMI Corporate Board

Joining Guerra Jr. are: Chairman of the Board-Elect Jennifer Wollmann, CPS, C2EX of BHHS EWM Realty; 2019 Chairman of the Board Jose Maria Serrano, CCIM, C2EX of New Miami Realty Corp.; Secretary Mark Sadek, CIPS of The Keyes Company; Treasurer George C. Jalil, RAA, TRC of First Service Realty, Real Living; Commercial President Fernando Arencibia, Jr., C2EX; Residential President Alberto Carrillo of RelatedISG International Realty; Broward-MIAMI President Sharon R. Lindblade, CIPS, GRI, PMN, PSA, C2EX of Century 21 Hansen Realty; JTHS-MIAMI President David Abernathy, e-PRO, C2EX of Waterfront Properties & Club Communities; YPN MIAMI President Peter Ortega, C2EX of Keller Williams Miami Beach; Commercial President-Elect Stephen R. Rigl, MBA, SIOR, CCIM of Binswanger-Gateway Partnership; Daniel A. Guerra of Fortune International Realty; Broward-MIAMI President-Elect Patrick Simm, ABR, CRS, GRI, e-PRO of Keller Williams Realty Partners SW; JTHS-MIAMI President-Elect Bill Mate of Paradise Real Estate International; YPN MIAMI President-Elect Bethany Martinez, SRS of RelatedISG International Realty; Director Ines Hegedus-Garcia, C2EX of Avanti Way Realty; Director Ron Shuffield of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty; Director Natascha Tello, CDPE, CIAS of Keller Williams Realty (Level 5 Leadership); Director Matey Veissi, CRS, CIPS, TRC, RSPS of Veissi & Associates, Inc.; Director Moe Veissi of Veissi & Associates, Inc.; Director Christopher Zoller, CRS, C2EX of EWM Realty International.

Teresa King Kinney, CAE, CIPS, GRI, RCE, TRC serves as the CEO for the MIAMI Association of Realtors.

About the MIAMI Association of Realtors

The MIAMI Association of Realtors was chartered by the National Association of Realtors in 1920 and is celebrating 100 years of service to Realtors, the buying and selling public, and the communities in South Florida. Comprised of six organizations, the Residential Association, the Realtors Commercial Alliance, the Broward-MIAMI Association of Realtors, the Jupiter Tequesta Hobe Sound (JTHS-MIAMI) Council, the Young Professionals Network (YPN) Council and the award-winning International Council, it represents 52,000 total real estate professionals in all aspects of real estate sales, marketing, and brokerage. It is the largest local Realtor association in the U.S. and has official partnerships with 222 international organizations worldwide. MIAMIs official website is http://www.MiamiRealtors.com
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Bogota, February 28, 2020  Peruvian authorities must do everything possible to locate journalist Daysi Lizeth Mina Huaman and conduct a full and transparent investigation into her disappearance, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Mina, a reporter for the television broadcaster Cable VRAEM in the central Peruvian city of Ayacucho, has been missing since January 26, according to news reports.

On the day she disappeared, Mina voted in Perus congressional elections in the nearby town of Santa Rosa and filed a report on the elections that day at about 3:30 p.m., according to a statement by the National Association of Peruvian Journalists, a local industry group. She was last seen at a Santa Rosa bus station, where she planned to take a bus to the town of San Francisco to meet her boyfriend, who reported to authorities the next day that she was missing, the statement said.

Peruvian authorities must employ all resources at their disposal to conduct a thorough search for journalist Daysi Lizeth Mina Huaman and ensure her safety, said CPJ Central and South America Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick in New York. Authorities should investigate whether her disappearance was tied to her reporting on elections or other work she has done as a journalist.

About a week after her disappearance, the journalists family members found Minas identity card and other personal documents along the side of a road between Santa Rosa and San Francisco, according to a report by the Institute for Press and Society, a Lima-based press freedom group.

That report said that Mina, 21, was a recent university graduate and had started working for Cable VRAEM just two weeks before she disappeared.

In a phone interview, a member of the Santa Rosa police department, who would not give his name, said there was no further information about Minas disappearance and that the case remains under investigation.
Turkey warned on Friday it was opening the gates for refugees to flee to Europe after an air strike blamed on Damascus killed 33 Turkish soldiers in Syria.

The international community voiced fears of a rapidly-rising risk of escalation after the attack by Russian-backed Syrian forces in the province of Idlib, where President Bashar al-Assad is waging a bloody campaign to oust rebels from their last holdout.

The deadly bombardment has added to weeks of growing tensions between rebel supporter and NATO member Ankara and Damascus ally Moscow.

Adding to the tensions, Moscow announced that two of its warships were transitting Friday through the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul in plain sight of the city The UN has repeatedly warned that the fighting in Idlib could potentially create the most serious humanitarian crisis since the start of the civil war start in 2011.

But Russian vetoes, often backed by China, have chronically crippled UN action in Syria.

Turkey retaliated to Thursday's strike by hitting Damascus regime targets "from the air and ground," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's communications director Fahrettin Altun said.

The United States condemned the Syrian action, and NATO said it would hold urgent talks on the crisis on Friday.

In a move that could have major repercussions for Turkey's neighbours to the west, Ankara said it would open the way for refugees to go to Europe.

"We will no longer keep the doors closed for refugees who want to go to Europe," an official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Turkey also called on the international community to establish a no-fly zone over Idlib, where regime forces have since December clawed back chunks of the region, forcing close to one million people to flee their homes and shelters amid bitter cold.

The United Nations said Monday that the latest fighting was coming "dangerously close" to encampments of the displaced, risking an imminent "bloodbath".

Turkey, which is already home to around 3.6 million Syrian refugees, fears more people arriving in the country where there is growing popular discontent against their presence.

In a series of tweets, Altun accused Assad of "conducting ethnic cleansing" and seeking to drive millions of Syrians out of Idlib.

"These people will try to escape to Turkey and Europe. Already hosting close to 4 million refugees, we do not have the capacity and resources to allow entry to another million," he wrote.

Groups of migrants have already moved towards western Turkey seeking to reach Greece, Turkey's private DHA agency reported.

The international community voiced alarm over the latest violence in Idlib.

"Without urgent action, the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement, reiterating Secretary General Antonio Guterres's call for an immediate ceasefire.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg urged de-escalation by all parties of "this dangerous situation" and condemned the "indiscriminate air strikes", in a phone call with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

A US State Department spokesperson said Washington stood by its NATO ally and continues to call "for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the Assad regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces".

Under a 2018 deal with Russia meant to bring calm to Idlib, Turkey has 12 observation posts in the Idlib region -- but several have come under fire from Assad's forces.

In its first response to the Turkish deaths, Russia's defence ministry said the troops were among "terrorist groups" and that they had not communicated their presence in the area.

Thursday's attack brings to 53 the number of Turkish security personnel killed in Idlib so far this month.

Elswhere, jihadists and Turkish-backed rebels on Thursday re-entered Saraqeb, a key Idlib crossroads town they had lost earlier in February, reversing one of the main gains of the government's devastating offensive.

The counter-offensive could, however, be short-lived as Russian-backed Syrian troops continued to chip away at other parts of the rebel bastion, capturing 20 localities.

Seven civilians, including three children, were killed in regime and Russian bombardment of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, adding to more than 400 such deaths since December.

State agency SANA acknowledged there were "fierce clashes" between the army and "terrorist groups on the Saraqeb front".

An AFP correspondent accompanied the rebels into Saraqeb, where he found a ghost town of bombed out buildings.

The counter-attack temporarily reverses one of the key gains of the government since its offensive against the country's last rebel enclave in December.

The cash-strapped government had been keen to fully secure the M5, a highway that connects Syria's four main cities and passes through Saraqeb.

The Syrian Observatory said the air strikes were carried out by Russia, heavily criticised by the West for the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign.

State media accused the "terrorists" of launching car bombings and other suicide attacks against government forces attempting to retake the town.

It said the army had inflicted heavy losses on the attackers, despite the military support it said they had received from Turkey.

Some 950,0000 civilians have fled the government offensive, raising fears in Ankara of a new influx of refugees.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Communication for Development Officer, Suva

Organization: UNICEF - United Nations Childrens Fund

Country: Fiji

City: Suva, Fiji

Office: UNICEF Fiji

Closing date: Wednesday, 4 March 2020

Communication for Development Officer, No2 (#19748) Suva, Fiji **Open to Fiji Nationals Only**

Job no: 529813

Position type: Fixed Term Appointment

Location: Fiji Division/Equivalent: Bangkok (EAPRO), Thailand

School/Unit: Fiji (Pacific Islands) - MCP

Department/Office: Pacific Office, Suva, Fiji

Categories: Communication for Development (C4D)

UNICEF works in some of the worlds toughest places, to reach the worlds most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, [insert tagline]

Please right click on the link UNICEF Pacific to learn more UNICEF in the Pacific

How can you make a difference?

The Communication for Development Officer reports to the Chief C4D for supervision and guidance. The Officer provides technical and operational support to the Chief, C4D and internal colleagues by administering, implementing, monitoring and/or evaluating a variety of C4D initiatives and activities to promote community engagement and participation, and measureable behavioral and social change/mobilization, requiring the application of technical and theoretical skills and thorough knowledge of organizational goals, rules, regulations, policies and procedures to complete tasks.

Summary of key functions/accountabilities:

Support to strategy design and development of C4D activities

Support to implementation of C4D activities

Advocacy, networking and partnership building

Tags c4d communication for development knowledge management programme planning public relations social change social development

Innovation, knowledge management and capacity building

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have...

A university degree in one of the following fields is required: social and behavioral science, sociology, anthropology, psychology, education, communication, public relations or another relevant technical field.

A minimum of two years of professional experience in one or more of the following areas is required: social development programme planning, communication for development, public advocacy or another related area.

Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.

Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language or local language of the duty station is considered as an asset.

C4D Officer Level

docx

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEFs values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Advertised: Feb 12 2020 Fiji Standard Time Application close: Mar 04 2020 Fiji Standard Time
Wales confirms first positive case of Coronavirus (COVID-19)

This article is old - Published: Friday, Feb 28th, 2020

UPDATE: The specific location of the case in Wales has not been officially released however BBC Wales tweeted, and then deleted, that the case is in Swansea. That has been followed by other South Wales based media stating it is Swansea. This is entirely unconfirmed, but the leak of location appears to be consistent.

Original information below

The Chief Medical Officer, Dr Frank Atherton, has confirmed that a patient in Wales has tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19).

This is the first confirmed case in Wales.

Coronavirus presents with flu-like symptoms including a fever, a cough, or difficulty breathing. Public Health Wales say the current evidence is that most cases appear to be mild.

Dr Atherton said: I can confirm that one patient in Wales has tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19).

All appropriate measures to provide care for the individual and to reduce the risk of transmission to others are being taken.

I can also confirm that the patient had travelled back to Wales from Northern Italy, where the virus was contracted.

Id like to take this opportunity to assure the public that Wales and the whole of the UK is well prepared for these types of incidents. Working with our partners in Wales and the UK, we have implemented our planned response, with robust infection control measures in place to protect the health of the public.

To protect patient confidentiality, no further details regarding the individual will be released.

For the most up to date information regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wales, please refer to https://phw.nhs.wales/
The award was selected by the votes of honorary members and winners in earlier cycles to honour ten outstanding works.

Manh and his team from MIA Design Studio Vietnam completed Sky House in 2019. The work also won the Ashui Award 2019 for Building of The Year. It is an annual award to honour the best architecture works by Ashui Vietnam Corporation.

In his description, Manh said that HCM City is a metropolitan city of Vietnam with the highest density of construction, vehicles and population of the country. With that, followed the boom of urban infrastructure and traffic congestion causing a reduction of green spaces where people can seek tranquillity and sit in harmony with nature to release stress.

Being a part of this urban context, the Sky House location is characterised by numerous skyscrapers that surround the site, built close together, creating an uncomfortable scale between people and buildings and presenting difficulties when trying to design an "open" and "airy" project.

Manh and his team found the solution to create connections between the spaces so that natural elements can be present and carried through every corner of the house. Without any external influence or intention to maximise areas for unnecessary rooms, the design process started by dividing the house in two parts.

The first half is devoted to the sun, wind, water and trees with its empty spaces while the other half is dedicated to family activities with necessary utilities.

As an alternative to the common approach of opening the four sides of the house, the architect creates a vertical connection between the house and the sky. This approach has allowed the house to receive natural sunlight from above and see the changes in weather and daylight hours.

The World Architecture Community announced the winners in Architecture and Interior Design sections last week. It has 50 different winning projects from 22 different countries with a fantastic mix of building types, spanning from Mexico to India, Romania to Canada.
SPRINGFIELD  Its all well and good that the romaine lettuce in the chicken Caesar salads served Thursday at Western New England University was fresh, grown locally in the middle of winter, by workers who have a chance to become part owners of the hydroponic growing company.

But how did it taste?

Good.

That was the verdict among students and visitors at the launch of the Greenhouse Grown program. The kickoff Thursday involved media taste-testers and a survey handed out to students after theyd gotten a chance to grab a salad with barbecued chicken strips and house-made croutons. Soon students at Springfield College and Elms College in Chicopee will get surveys as well.

Its the result of a $250,000 two-year grant from the Henry P. Kendall Foundations New England Food Vision Prize. The initiative promotes produce from Wellspring Harvest in the Indian Orchard section of Springfield to students through Aramark, which runs dining centers at all three colleges.

Some of the money will go to expanding Wellspring Harvest so it can grow herbs, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and even strawberries, said Fred Rose, co-director of Wellspring Cooperative Corp. The idea is to promote healthy eating with local foods, especially if those foods are grown in greenhouses so theyre available out of season.

Wellspring Harvests year-and-a-half old facility is the largest urban greenhouse in New England. With a quarter-acre under cover, Wellspring can grow 20,000 heads of lettuce a month.

Rose said Wellspring is now only growing at half capacity, 10,000 heads a month, as it builds a customer base.

The lettuce never touches soil as it grows, instead feeding off nutrient-rich water in a clean environment. The lettuce heads, which grow for seven weeks, are only a day or so old when they arrive in college kitchens.

"We're getting product from three miles away," said Joel Weingart, executive chef for Aramark at Western New England University.

He said that means the lettuce is fresher, it keeps better in his coolers so its ready when he needs it, and he doesnt have to throw away any lettuce when he gets a shipment.

If its coming in from Arizona or California, there is a lot of product I cant use, he said. Because its been picked weeks ago and its traveled by truck.

He said Wellspring Harvest lettuce is more tender because its grown inside.

Rose said Wellspring Harvest lettuce is available now at River Valley Co-op in Northampton, Whole Foods in Hadley, Randalls Farm in Ludlow and Atkins Farm in Amherst. Its also available at Big Y in Amherst, Chicopee, East Longmeadow, Longmeadow, Ludlow, Southampton, South Hadley, West Springfield, Wilbraham, both Westfield locations and at the St. James, Cooley Street and Fresh Acres locations in Springfield.

Wellspring Harvest also supplies institutions including Mercy Medical Center and Mount Holyoke College. The Greenhouse Grown program doesnt include Mount Holyoke because Aramark doesnt do the food service at there.

Seven workers are employed now at Wellspring Harvests greenhouse, Rose said. Besides learning skills, they are all eligible to become part owners of the cooperative after one year.
Joshua Allen (19), the son of celebrity TV chef, Rachel Allen, was jailed for 15 months for having 22,000 worth of cannabis for sale or supply at the world-renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School.

The teen was handed a 15 month prison sentence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court after Judge Sean O'Donnabhain was told that Allen, who had spent three months in a residential drugs addiction treatment centre, had made a genuine effort to address his problems.

He was jailed for 15 months with the sentence backdated to November 8 when the teen served three weeks in prison on remand.

The teen was given a total two and a half year prison sentence with the final 15 months suspended.

He is the son of Rachel Allen, the grandson of Darina Allen and the great-grandson of the late Ballymaloe founder, Myrtle Allen.

He had been remanded in custody for three weeks to Cork Prison after one court appearance last November when the judge expressed dissatisfaction with his progress as outlined in a PWS report.

Judge O'Donnabhain was told that Mr Allen had initially approached the case with a level of "stupidity" - and was tested positive on one occasion during the legal process for having taken cannabis.

Defence counsel Siobhan Lankford SC said her client had now completed a 12 week treatment programme at Cuain Mhuire.

Ms Lankford said he had learned a salutary lesson and had engaged very well with the Cuain Mhuire programme.

He left Cuain Mhuire with an excellent report on his progress in addressing his addiction issues.

Further, he had also received an excellent progress report from the Probation and Welfare Service (PWS).

Judge O'Donnabhain was told the teen had spent Christmas in the treatment centre as part of the three month programme.

The judge said there was "a sad" background to the case with the teen having left school before his Junior Cert aged just 15 years.

He has obtained no qualifications since then.

Expand Close Rachel Allen with son Joshua (19), who has admitted drugs charges / Facebook

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Whatsapp Rachel Allen with son Joshua (19), who has admitted drugs charges

Mr Allen, who appeared in court wearing a grey suit and white shirt, did not speak during the hearing beyond confirming he accepted a bond required for the suspended part of his sentence.

Judge O'Donnabhain noted the change in attitude of the defendant towards the case and his addiction issues.

He was also told that the teen has been fully supported by his family in addressing his addiction issues.

"He is a changed man," the judge said.

Judge O'Donnabhain also noted the defendant's early plea, his remorse, his co-operation with Gardai and his engagement with addiction support services.

However, he said it was a serious case - and pointed out that the teen had travelled to London with 2,000 to meet a contact and then arranged for the cannabis to be posted to him in Cork from the United States.

"He did it for profit," he said. "His culpability in this is significant."

The judge ruled out an entirely suspended sentence as inappropriate in the overall circumstances.

On November 8, Judge O'Donnabhain had warned that the initial PWS assessment of Mr Allen's progress had been singularly unimpressive.

This lad has not matured in the manner I would expect or require of someone coming before the court on such a serious charge. He is knitting his own jumper. I will not let him do that."

Ms Lankford SC said there had been clear evidence of immaturity with the defendant.

Judge O'Donnabhain noted there had been a significant change in the teen's attitude since then - and he accepted the defendant now realised the seriousness of the matter.

Mr Allen came before the Circuit Criminal Court on a signed plea of guilty from Midleton District Court last year.

The most serious charge he faced was possession for sale or supply of 22,000 worth of cannabis contrary to Section 15 (A) of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

The court heard that the offence came to light when postal officials became suspicious of a parcel from the US at a Laois sorting office.

It was indicated the package contained clothing - but it was suspected the package contained drugs.

Detective Sergeant Michael OHalloran said a controlled delivery was undertaken.

Joshua Allen, who was 18 at the time, signed for the parcel on August 30 2018 at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Shanagarry, Co Cork.

He was observed sitting outside the shop, opening it and looking into it. He was then intercepted by gardai, Det. Sgt. OHalloran explained.

The defendant was found to have cocaine for his own use in his wallet. He later informed gardai he had a small quantity of cannabis at his home for his own personal use.

The teen told gardai it was the third or fourth time he had received such a delivery of cannabis through the post from a woman in California who he had previously met in Cork.

She had been paid 2,000 in London for the delivery.

Ms Lankford SC previously told the court her client has no previous convictions, co-operated fully with gardai and deeply regrets his involvement in the entire matter.

She said he has addiction issues which he has been taking firm steps to address by engaging with two Cork-based addiction treatment services and attending Cuain Mhuire on a residential basis.

Since April, he had been volunteering at a homeless support services outlet.

Mr Allen, the son of Rachel Allen and her husband, Isaac, lives at Ballinamona in Shanagarry.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 18:02:07|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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NEW YORK, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Strong and resilient public health systems are critical in the battle against epidemics, a renowned U.S. expert on global health has said.

In the prevention and control of major global epidemics, "what's very valuable for countries like China or the United States or any other country is to work on establishing strong health systems that are resilient," said Wafaa El-Sadr, director of the Global Health Initiative and ICAP at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

A strong health system is fundamental to dealing with today's problems, while resilience means it is capable of responding to something new like COVID-19, El-Sadr told Xinhua in a recent interview, adding that many basics are required to prop up a sound health system.

Sufficient facilities such as clinics and hospitals, sufficiently trained health care and community workers, sufficient supplies of protective materials, as well as data systems to collect related information are all crucial in confronting a disease, she said.

It is equally important that the laboratories are well poised, with equipment, tests and technicians ready for rapid diagnosis and monitoring, said the prominent researcher, adding decentralization of laboratories is also essential so they can be accessed by people even in remote places through sample transport systems.

The key to improving resilience of health systems is that "health care workers are trained to be able to take initiative and make decisions on something new," said the founder of ICAP, a global leader in HIV and health systems strengthening.

"Communication is a vital supplement to resilient health systems," she added.

Communication is about engagement of communities, which is one pillar of the health system building blocks, she said, noting it is important to communicate early and often, using trusted messengers and diverse modalities.

Commenting on the ongoing fight against COVID-19, El-Sadr said China's efforts are encouraging in multiple aspects.

"China is going through a very difficult time. This is not an easy situation for any country to tackle ... we need to acknowledge this," she said, while highlighting China's unparalleled ability to mobilize resources to swiftly develop facilities to take care of a multitude of patients.

"That's enormous effort and that should be applauded," she said.

Noting "it's very heartening to see how quickly Chinese scientists were able to identify the sequence of the virus" and published it rapidly thereafter, the expert said those moves are "very useful to the global community to understand what this disease looks like."

El-Sadr also underscored the significance of international cooperation and coordination in addressing a major outbreak, as "infectious diseases don't respect borders and we're all vulnerable" in the face of epidemics.

"People are bringing their best brains and their best skills, trying to solve this puzzle. And it's really wonderful to see this happening," she said.
Network data collected by the NetBlocks internet observatory confirm that Turkey has blocked access to social media as Idlib military crisis escalates

Network data collected by the NetBlocks internet observatory confirm that the Turkish authorities have blocked access to social media following allegations of an attack on Turkish troops in Idlib, Syria on Thursday 27 February 2020.

Major social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, were not reachable since 11:30 p.m. local time (8:30 p.m. UTC). The access was first blocked via national provider Turk Telecom (AS9121), but later other service providers applied the government restrictions.

Partial restrictions have also affected YouTube and WhatsApp at the same time.

Although no broadcast ban has yet been issued to the public, it is understood that the measures are intended to protect details surrounding troop and equipment deployments. reported NetBlocks. The restrictions come amid a dispute over the number of injured and wounded in the attack.

 Confirmed: Twitter has become unavailable across #Turkey as of 11:30 p.m. local time for users of national provider Turk Telekom following alleged attack on Turkish troops in #Idlib; other social media currently unaffected; developing situation  pic.twitter.com/Tu3h68Gfii  NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) February 27, 2020

At the time of writing, VPNs are still working in the country and could be used to bypass rest r ictions .

This isnt the first time that the government adopted similar restrictions, when the Operation Euphrates Shield begun on Thursday, 25 August 2016, the government blocked major social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, and Instagram.

In December 2016, the Turkish blocked social media in the country to prevent the sharing of a video of the executions of Turkish soldiers by the IS group.

Turkey passed an internet killswitch into law in 2016, permitting the ICTA regulatory authority to partially or entirely suspend internet access due to war or national security needs without the need for ministerial oversight.added Netblocks.

It's 5:30 a.m. in #Turkey where social media have been blocked for six hours after a military incident in #Idlib, Syria.



The internet censorship measures are the most severe on record there since 2016.



We obtained recordings from two leading ISPs 



 https://t.co/bowVKOQixH pic.twitter.com/XnodAi48Qc  NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) February 28, 2020

Let me thank the Netblocks organizations for its precious work, monitoring Internet availability worldwide is an essential service that could help analysts to better understand local ongoing phenomena.

Pierluigi Paganini
Steyers wealth has made him a target in the Democratic nomination race, dragging him into a kind of Bermuda Triangle of billionaires, along with Bloomberg and the man he hopes to unseat, President Trump. Steyer, who has pledged to give his fortune to charity during his lifetime, brushes off criticisms from some opponents and from commentators who accuse him and Bloomberg of trying to buy an election with their personal wealth. He doesnt think voters care.
FORT MYERS, Fla., Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Baysient LLC's founder, Diane Mould, announces the release of the iDose software technology platform version 1.0 for infliximab (an anti-inflammatory biologic drug), just before presenting Biologics and Precision Medicine in IBD at Canadian Digestive Disease Week (CDDW), February 28  March 1. The presentation will include results from a 12-month clinical validation study (NCT02453776) demonstrating (p = 0.017) the potential to reduce "switching" from lower cost infliximab to more expensive biologics by 66%. Similar studies are ongoing in 9 countries on 3 continents (> 300 patients).

The results to be presented in Montreal were originally presented by the investigators at European Crohn's and Colitis Organization (ECCO, Copenhagen, March 2019) and Digestive Disease Week (DDW, San Diego, May 2019). Approximately 30% of all patients treated with anti-inflammatory biologics need to switch drugs within the first year. Typical switching from infliximab (biosimilar) to another biologic (not infliximab, not biosimilar) increases drug cost by $11,000 per patient per year (U.S. average retail costs, January 9, 2020). Healthcare professionals using the iDose software's clinical decision support (CDS) information have the potential to reduce drug costs in this typical scenario by $726,000 per 100 patients failing therapy. Clinical Decision Support (CDS) information from the iDose software keeps 66 of these patients on average from failing and having to switch. The relatively low cost of the iDose software was not subtracted from the savings in this scenario. The Baysient pipeline includes CDS for 25 other FDA approved anti-inflammatory biologics.

The iDose algorithm combines scientifically appropriate pharmacokinetic (PK) modeling with statistically sound Bayesian learning (non-AI machine learning) and forecasting. Information from the iDose software helps physicians understand how to keep the amount of drug in a patient's body from falling below the physician-selected target therapeutic level.

Reimbursement codes (ICD and CPT) for therapeutic drug monitoring, other long term (current) drug therapy, or chronic care management may be applicable.

Patented iDose functionality is offered as a business-to-business, cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) and is HIPAA-compliant and compatible with electronic medical records (EMRs). It is currently offered in the U.S. and Canada.

When used by, or under the supervision of healthcare professionals, the iDose software is exempted from FDA clearance requirements. Drug companies must meet FDA requirements prior to associating the iDose software with their products. Healthcare payor firms may use information obtained from the iDose software as healthcare economic information (HCEI) after internal review.

Baysient LLC is a privately held Delaware company. Baysient develops SaaS, cloud-based software that provides medical providers and/or payors with a full line of CDS products to facilitate individualized and improved treatment outcomes for inflammatory diseases such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Crohn's Disease (CD), Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), etc. Baysient's software uses individual patient routine lab results and demographic information to allow physicians to individualize dosing to a specific target trough level. For more information contact [email protected] or visit www.baysient.com.

Media Contact:

Fergus Linskey, LEVO Health, 585-703-9535

Business Contact

Tracey Thomas, Baysient, 800-340-5377

SOURCE Baysient

Related Links

http://www.baysient.com


Stromsburg Senior Center

 The Stromsburg Senior Center will hold a birthday party on Friday, Feb. 28 at 2:30 p.m.

Fairmont American Legion Auxiliary

 The Fairmont American Legion Auxiliary will host an enchilada supper on Friday, Feb. 28 with serving taking place from 5  8 p.m.

Henderson Chamber of Commerce

HENDERSON -- The Henderson Home Show will be held in the new gym at Heartland Community Schools in Henderson from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 29. Businesses from Henderson and surrounding communities will be on hand, a pancake feed will be held from 7:30 a.m. until 9 a.m. and lunch will be available from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.

York Elks Club

YORK -- The York Elks will hold a wild game feed on Saturday, Feb. 29. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. A silent auction will be held from noon until 6 p.m. Dinner will be from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Prizes will be awarded at 7:30 p.m. To purchase raffle tickets call 402-362-5665 or contact any Elks member.

York Young Professionals
Pope Francis blows his nose as he leads the Ash Wednesday mass which opens Lent, the forty-day period of abstinence and deprivation for Christians before Holy Week and Easter at the Santa Sabina church in Rome on Feb. 26, 2020. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)

Pope Francis Still Sick, Cancels Friday Audiences: Vatican

Pope Francis is still sick with an apparent cold on Friday and canceled official audiences for a second day in a row, said the Vatican.

The 83-year-old pontiff celebrated morning Mass and greeted people at the end. He then canceled his official audiences, according to the Vatican News.

The Holy Father celebrated Mass this morning and at the end, as usual, greeted the participants, but decided to postpone todays official audiences, spokesman Matteo Bruni said. The meetings on the agenda at Casa Santa Marta continue regularly.

The Vatican hasnt confirmed what illness Pope Francis has come down with. He appeared to have a cold and blew his nose several times during the Ash Wednesday Mass.

Bruni had told the news service that Francis had a slight indisposition while the Pope preferred to stay inside Santa Marta, where he lives. All other commitments will go ahead regularly, he said.

Pope Francis greets catholic faithfuls at St. Peters square in the Vatican at the end of his weekly general audience on Feb. 26, 2020. (Tiziana FABI/ AFP)

Pope Francis on Ash Wednesday. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)

The spokesman added at the time Pope Franciss other commitments proceed regularly, according to the Catholic News Agency.

Photos from Wednesday showed him touching masked well-wishers in the city.

During the Ash Wednesday Mass, Pope Francis expressed sympathy to those who have been sickened by the COVID-19 coronavirus as well as health workers who are trying to prevent it from spreading, CNA reported.

Italian health officials have confirmed the country has 650 cases of COVID-19, adding that 17 people have died. Eleven towns and villages in Lombardy, as well as Veneto, have been placed under quarantine.
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Linkedin Apriadi Gunawan (The Jakarta Post) Medan  Fri, February 28, 2020 20:59 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad20674862a 1 National police,military,military-police,North-Sumatra,assault,injured,Military-police-politics Free

A number of Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel armed with rifles, allegedly assaulted the Pahae Julu Police headquarters in North Tapanuli regency, North Sumatra, on Thursday afternoon, resulting in six police officers sustaining injuries.

The attack was allegedly initiated by personnel from Infantry Battalion (Yonif) 123/RJW of the Bukit Barisan Military Command (Kodam) 1. They were said to have caused damage to equipment in the police headquarters.

North Sumatra Police spokesperson, Adj. Sr. Comr. MP Nainggolan, said that the attack was triggered by a miscommunication between police officers and military personnel earlier that day.

Earlier on Thursday, several police officers were managing traffic at the trans-Sumatra road at Silangkitang village, North Tapanuli, following a truck accident in the area.

A minibus carrying military personnel forced its way through the police barricade. The police officers responded by trying to stop the minibus. However, solders inside the minibus were offended what they regarded as the police officers curt manner when stopping them.

The initial incident was resolved, however, not long afterward, several soldiers then assaulted the Pahae Julu Police headquarters at around 2:10 p.m.

Nainggolan said the dispute was brought under contral after both sides went through mediation.

Its finished. There is no more trouble, the police spokesperson told The Jakarta Post, urging all parties to restrain themselves.

He added that the injured police officers had been treated at a nearby hospital, while damage to the building had been repaired. Nainggolan dismissed rumors that rifles were fired during the assault.

North Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Martuani Sormin Siregar said the situation was now under control. Military personnel allegedly involved in the attack are now being investigated by the military police.

Bukit Barisan Kodam spokesperson Col. Zeni Djunaidhi said the TNI had formed a team to investigate the case and had sought clarification from military personnel and police officers involved in the spat in the Silangkitang village. He asserted that the TNI would never tolerate personnel who went rogue.

The Indonesian Military is committed to ensuring that the soldiers allegedly involved in this dispute are brought to justice without any impunity. Everyone found guilty in this case will be punished based on their respective mistakes, said Zeni. (gis)
Governor Gavin Newsom in Colfax announcing wildfire funding View Photo

Sacramento, CA  During a press conference this morning Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California now has 33 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus.

In addition, he stated that 8,400 people in the state who have recently traveled to Asia are being regularly monitored for any symptoms. Newsom says the state is ready to take on challenges related to medical emergencies. We have history and expertise in this space. We are not over-reacting, and nor are we under-reacting to the understandable anxiety that many people have as it relates to this novel virus.

He added that the state is working closely with the federal Center for Disease and Control. We continue to work formally, and very collaboratively, with the Trump Administration, at all levels, to coordinate.

Dr. Sonia Angell, with the California Department of Public Health, stresses, This is a fluid situation at this time, and I want to emphasize that the risk to the general public remains low. In the event that the risk changes, we will communicate with you and make everyone aware.

One of the 33 confirmed cases is a resident from Solano County who is being treated at UC Davis in Sacramento. She is the first person to contract coronavirus without traveling to China or being around any known source.

The Calaveras County Public Health Department also released information today stating that the health risk to those in the county, and across California, remains low.

Typically, human coronaviruses cause mild-to-moderate respiratory illnesses. Symptoms are very similar to the flu, including fever, cough and shortness of breath. Some cases can be more severe. Calaveras Health Officer, Dr. Dean Kelaita, says, Because there is no vaccine available at this time, everyone can do their part by taking actions that help us prevent the spread of all respiratory viruses.

Tips from Dr. Kelaita:

-Wash your hands often with soap and water.

-Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands.-More-

-Avoid close contact with people who are sick.

-Stay home from work or school and limit contact with others if you are sick with fever and cough.

-Clean surfaces that are touched often, like toys and doorknobs.
If you were deported after doing prison time for sexual assault, drug-dealing, or other aggravated felonies, the New Way Forward Act could be your ticket back across the border. The catch? You must legally challenge your deportation order, but do not be dismayed. If this pending legislation is enacted, American taxpayers will pay your legal fees and pony up for your plane ticket as well.

Now teach your fellow felons to follow this three-step roadmap and get a piece of the American pie.

STEP 1  Hire Your Free Attorney

Under the NWFA's "ALTERNATIVES TO DETENTION," the secretary of Homeland Security must "establish programs," including "appearance assistance services." This is code for "Reverse Your Deportation with Free Attorney." If you were convicted of a serious crime, don't sweat it. The act redefines "serious crime" as a felony that would imprison someone five years or more.

STEP 2 A  Get Your Free Plane Ticket

Under the bill's sub-heading, "RIGHT TO COME HOME," it states, "The Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide transportation for aliens," and it will be at "Government expense, to return to the United States for further immigration proceedings." Make sure you pocket your frequent flier miles.

STEP 2 B  Exercise your "PRESUMPTION OF RELEASE"

This is for career criminals who have a fear of flying and want to cross the border the old-fashioned way without fear of being detained for long.

"A prior conviction or a criminal charge pending against the alien may not be the sole factor to justify the continued detention of the alien." Better yet, the attorney general will no longer be allowed to refuse you a work permit, as that section of the Immigration and Nationality Act will be scrubbed.

STEP 3  State You Are "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, or Intersex"

This qualifies you under the subsection "SPECIAL RULE FOR VULNERABLE PERSONS." You will then join the ranks of other vulnerables, like gang members under 21, the mentally ill, and those "experiencing severe trauma."

If you are cisgender, no problem  simply pull a Corporal Klinger. Wear a dress and bright lipstick to establish your street cred. Vulnerable persons "may not be detained unless the Government shows it's unreasonable or not practicable"  don't push your luck.

Rep. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia (D-Ill.) and his 43 Democratic NWFA co-conspirators, officially known as co-sponsors, will welcome felons like you with open arms. But for now, this pending act is percolating in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship . They do not want this bill boiling over until after the general election so as not to prematurely raise voter emotions and risk interfering with Democrats taking over the Senate.

Nevertheless, as insurance, tell your American friends to make sure Bolshevik Bernie and the other Democratic presidential contenders take a public position on the New Way Forward Act. You know how they love to give stuff away for future votes, so maybe they will promise to upgrade your plane ticket to first class.

This American Mensa member, actor, and former radio talk show host can be reached at lancevoorhees@gmail.com and followed on Twitter at @LanceVoorhees.
The U.S.-Mexico border wall is seen in Organ Pipe National Park south of Ajo, Ariz., on Feb. 13, 2020. (Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images)

Seattle Judge Says Trump Cant Use Washington Military Funds for Border Wall

A federal judge in Seattle ruled on Feb. 27 that the Trump administration will not be able to divert millions of dollars intended for a military construction project in Washington state to build his wall across the U.S.Mexico border.

The ruling comes after the Trump administration announced earlier this month it would shift nearly $4 billion from the military budget toward building some 177 miles of fencing along the border in efforts to address drug-smuggling activities.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein on Thursday blocked the administration from dipping into $89 million in Pentagon funds intended for a construction project at the Naval Submarine Base Bangor, also known as the Bangor Project.

Rothstein ruled that shifting the money intended for the project is unlawful because it would take money that Congress appropriated for military construction and use it for domestic law enforcement. Rothstein also ruled it unlawful because Congress specifically barred President Donald Trump from spending additional money on the border wall.

Congress repeatedly and deliberately declined to appropriate the full funds the President requested for a border wall along the southern border of the United States, Rothstein wrote.

In her ruling, Rothstein highlighted the importance of Bangor, which she said is home to the United States Pacific Fleet of Trident Ballistic Missile Submarines, nuclear-powered submarines that carry nuclear warheads.

It is difficult for this Court to imagine much, if anything, that could be more important to the State of Washington than that the nuclear-powered submarines carrying nuclear warheads are secure when traveling through its waters, Rothstein wrote. The potentially disastrous results of unsecure nuclear weapons within the States boundaries are so obvious that they do not need to be elaborated on here.

It can hardly be denied that the public has a strong interest both in the integrity of this countrys borders and in ensuring that the armed forces are well-supported while deploying the missions, she said in her ruling. However, doing so cannot be done at the expense of our laws.

Congress in late 2018 and early 2019 refused to give Trump all the money he wanted for a border wall, leading to a 35-day partial government shutdown. Lawmakers eventually gave him $1.4 billion.

In reaction, Trump declared a national emergency. The administration claimed that allowed him to shift almost three times that much money$3.6 billionfrom military accounts to build a combined 175 miles of fencing in California, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico.

The U.S. Supreme Court last summer lifted a court order that prevented the government from spending $2.5 billion from the Defense Departments money for military pensions and anti-drug efforts. But legal challenges continue concerning that money as well as the $3.6 billion the Pentagon is diverting from military construction projects.

A request was sent to Congress earlier this month, stating that the money is required to provide support for counter-drug activities of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Since taking office, Trump has demanded that Congress fund construction of a wall on the southern borderhis landmark campaign promise.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Mamata Banerjee upset after not being allowed to speak during PMs meet

Mamata raises Delhi violence with Amit Shah at ECZ meet in Odisha

India

oi-Mousumi Dash

Bhubaneswar, Feb 28: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who atteded the Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) meeting on Friday that took place in Odisha's Bhubaneswar has said that there was no discussion on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) or the NRC at the meeting, but she raised the issue of violence in Delhi.

Mamata expressed concern over the communal clashes in Delhi that have claimed at least 39 lives and said that steps should be taken so that the situation doesn't aggravate further.

"I am very sad about what happened in Delhi. A police constable and an IB official also died. Peace must be restored in Delhi," she told the meeting.

Addressing the press after attending a lunch hosted by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, WB CM said there was no discussion on the CAA or NRC at the meeting as it was not on the agenda.

"Neither they raised the issues nor did I. It was also not on the agenda. This meeting was not for that," she said to PTI.

She joined Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the lunch hosted by Patnaik at his official residence.

Regarding the demand of Shah's resignation in the wake of the Delhi riots, Mamata said, "The problem should be solved first and then we will discuss politics."

She said that peace should prevail across the country and the riot victims adequately compensated.

At the meeting, the West Bengal chief minister raised the issue of alleged negligence of the Centre towards her state. She claimed that West Bengal did not get the required assistance during natural calamities such as cyclone Fani and Bulbul, besides several other pending dues from the Centre.

"We have not got Rs 50,000 crore from the Centre," she said to PTI.

The TMC supremo said she also raised the issues of delay in GST compensation payment and lowered share of states in devolution of central taxes.

Issues relating to the development of the states in the region, the need for coal royalty revision, strengthening of infrastructure were also discussed at the EZC meeting, she said.

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Story first published: Friday, February 28, 2020, 18:03 [IST]
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A bill pending in the Alabama Legislature would require electronic monitoring for state inmates convicted of violent offenses and placed on work release.

Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, and Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, are sponsoring the bill.

The latest example of why lawmakers proposed the bill came last weekend when an inmate serving time for murder escaped from the Childersburg Work Center. The U.S. Marshals Service announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the recapture of that inmate, Daniel Miner, who was serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole. Miner was taken into custody after a standoff Thursday evening in Morgan Countys Falkville community.

The legislation would require that any inmate convicted of a violent offense would have to wear an electronic monitoring device if placed on work release. Violent offenses are defined in Section 12-25-32 of the Code of Alabama.

The bills have won approval in committees but have not come up for a vote in the House or Senate.

Orr said there are concerns about the cost of the electronic monitoring. The Alabama Department of Corrections has urgent funding needs to overcome a severe shortage of correctional officers, expand mental health care, and address other problems after the Department of Justice alleged that conditions in prisons violate the Constitution.

Orr said the bill needs to be carefully written because there are different categories of custody for inmates who work outside the facility where theyre incarcerated. For example, Miner was classified as minimum out, a custody level for an inmate deemed suitable to work at a government facility like a courthouse, for example, while always being in prison clothes.

If there are reasonable, cost-effective steps that we can do to promote public safety and get the benefit of the work release system or minimum out system, then I think we need to explore it and look at it and thats what this legislation attempts to do," Orr said.

Simpsons bill is on the House agenda for next Tuesday.

Edited at 8:14 a.m. on Feb. 28 to correct name of Childersburg Work Center.
Wear Scriptures: Christian Clothing Company Encourages Christians to be Ambassadors of Christ

Wear Scriptures is a Christian clothing brand that is dedicated to spreading the gospel with clothing and accessories. Each design encourages Christians to be a voice for the gospel.

He is Risen

In Matthew 28:6, the angel said to the women who were at Jesus tomb, He is not here; He has risen, as He said (He would do). Come, see the place where he lay, (NIV). Several years ago, while evangelizing to a woman, she said to me, Jesus is a dead man. I replied, Yes Jesus died; but He did not stay dead. He came back to life on the third day. Yes, He is risen. Jesus is alive.

The Bible mentions that the chief priests and elders bribed the guards who were guarding Jesus tomb to say that the disciples came at night and stole Jesus body while they were sleeping. Matthew 28:15 says, So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this story has been current among the Jews to the present day, (NIV).

However, we who have received Jesus the Christ as our Lord and Savior can attest to the fact that Jesus is not dead; He is alive. God the Father raised Him from the grave, and He is now exalted at the right hand of God. Jesus has risen and because He rose from the dead, we who have encountered Him and received Him as our Lord and Savior, are called to be His ambassadors on this earth. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, We are therefore Christs ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christs behalf: Be reconciled to God, (NIV). Be a voice for the gospel. Wear Scriptures!

Wear Scriptures, LLC is a Kingdom business consecrated to God, to bring honor and glory to His name. The business is dedicated to spreading the gospel of our LORD Jesus Christ with Christian clothing and accessories.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-27 23:23:05|Editor: yan

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PARIS, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- European nations have called for calmness while measures are taken to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, as new infections continue to rise across the continent.

Italy, the worst hit country in Europe, confirmed 400 cases of infection and 12 deaths as of Wednesday. Eleven towns, 10 in Lombardy and one in Veneto, remain under lockdown, with some 50,000 people affected by confinement measures.

CAMPAIGN OF INFORMATION

Despite measures being taken by the Italian authorities, the virus continued its march beyond Italy's borders, forcing neighbouring countries to mobilize their campaign of information to rein in panic.

In Germany, eight more people were found infected with COVID-19 on Wednesday across three German states.

The German health ministry announced on Wednesday that health ministers of Italy, Austria, Croatia, Switzerland, Slovenia, France and Germany have agreed to inform travelers to and from Italy about the virus. The countries also want to exchange epidemiological data and information on the clinical management of the epidemic between the countries.

In France, another coronavirus case was confirmed on Wednesday, bringing the total number of infected people to 18.

"Curbing the virus means giving oneself the means to act and sending clear messages," French Health Minister Olivier Veran said Wednesday evening.

His team has been presenting details of each infection case to the public, adding assurances that the French health care system is preparing for the eventual spread of the virus and that the government will keep adapting its strategy.

In Switzerland, whose first coronavirus case was confirmed on Tuesday, a campaign of flyers and posters at borders and airports containing information on the virus will start on Thursday. A hygiene campaign will also be launched on the same day, alongside an existing telephone hotline.

In Poland, where no infections have been reported yet, authorities have also ramped up measures to counter any possible outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.

Polish President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday requested a special session of the Sejm (lower house of parliament), during which the government will plan on how to best manage the crisis.

Meanwhile, a 24-hour helpline has gone live in the country.

SELF-ISOLATION

No European country has introduced new border controls as of yet, though many governments have imposed self-isolation on travelers who have recently visited COVID-19 hotspots, and have issued advice to postpone trips to Italy.

The French Foreign Ministry on Tuesday called on nationals "who can and who have no necessary reason to go to Lombardy and Veneto, to defer their trips."

Romania, Austria, Hungary, Luxembourg and Spain have also warned their citizens not to travel to the areas of Italy affected by the virus.

At least a dozen schools in Britain have ordered staff and pupils returning from half-term trips in northern Italy to self-isolate at home for 14 days.

The Greek government has announced a long term strategy with measures to be implemented depending on the progression of the disease, including temporary restriction of train, road, sea and air links with countries with a high spread of virus.

SCREENING CHECKS ENHANCED

Several countries have started extra medical checks for arriving passengers at airports.

At Warsaw Chopin International Airport, Poland's main airport, passengers coming in from China, South Korea and Italy are being checked for signs of COVID-19 by medical teams before disembarking. Similar measures are being taken at airports in Hungary and the Czech Republic.

In Germany, pilots on flights from Iran, South Korea, Japan, and Italy are now required to report the health of their passengers before landing.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Wednesday the country has "put in place enhanced monitoring measures at UK airports and health information is available at all international airports, ports and international train stations."

He added that a supported isolation facility has been established at Heathrow Airport to cater for international passengers who are tested.

Switzerland announced on Wednesday that 10 laboratories in the country are now capable of carrying out coronavirus tests. Prior to Monday, tests were all done by one laboratory in Geneva. The 10 laboratories are able to perform a combined 1,000 tests per day, a capacity almost tripled since last week.

French authorities have announced that more than 100 hospitals in the country are ready to receive patients, with more than 30 laboratories able to carry out more than 1,000 tests per day.

WORLD TO COORDINATE

In a daily briefing held Wednesday in Geneva, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged all countries to share disaggregated data and detailed line lists, so the WHO can provide appropriate public health guidance.

In the fight to contain the virus and save lives, Tedros reiterated that "this is a time for global solidarity -- political solidarity, technical solidarity and financial solidarity."

A team of experts from the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) arrived in Italy on Monday to support the Italian authorities in understanding the situation.

While nations step up to stem the spread of the virus, "we should not panic," European Union (EU) Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides told reporters in Rome on Wednesday.

The EU is working to coordinate public health care response among its member states to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak, Kyriakides said, adding that the bloc has well-established channels of information exchange and is providing guidance to help member states prepare.

EU member states have also been requested to review their pandemic plans and health care capacities, including those for diagnostics, laboratory testing and procedures for contact tracing.

"This is the kind of crucial information that we all need to have if the virus spreads further," she said, urging the nations to share the information "as this is important for our mutual security."

(Xinhua reporters Zhai Wei, Zhang Zhang, Li Jizhi in Brussels, Li Jie, Tian Ying in Berlin, Zuo Wei in Frankfurt, Liu Qu in Geneva, Zhang Dailei in London, Yu Shuaishuai in Athens also contributed to the story.)
- The new president of Toyota Motor Philippines decided to experience the daily commute in the Philippines

- During his first week in the Philippines, he tried riding different modes of transportation like the bus, MRT, jeepney, and tricycle

- Atsuhiro Okamoto said that it was a good learning experience for him to see the struggles of Filipinos

- Therefore, he vowed that Toyota would take part in upgrading the quality of life of Filipinos

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The new president of Toyota Motor Philippines Atsuhiro Okamoto has decided to try and experience different modes of transportation during his first week in the Philippines.

KAMI learned that Okamoto wanted to know the daily struggles of Filipinos when it comes to commuting.

Through a Facebook post, Okamoto shared that he rode the bus, MRT, jeepney, UV Express, and tricycle around Manila.

During my first week in the Philippines, I decided to do "Genchi Genbutsu," or to Go and See the daily struggles of Filipino commuters, he wrote on Facebook.

I rode a bus, took a round trip of the MRT, rode the jeepney, queued for a long time to ride the UV Express, and lastly, took a tricycle ride to Tondo! he added.

The new president of Toyota said that it was a good learning experience. He learned that the mass transport system in the Philippines is not enough to accommodate all of the daily commuters.

For me, it's a good learning experience. I realize that unlike Japan or Singapore, the Philippines current mass transport system is not enough to accommodate the huge number of daily commuters, Okamoto said.

Hence, the new president wanted Toyota to help in making the daily commute of Filipinos easier.

I would like Toyota to take part in this big challenge to upgrade the quality of life for many Filipinos, he said.

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Toyota Motor Philippines is one of the biggest automotive companies in the Philippines. Atsuhiro Okamoto assumed the presidency in the company early this year.

Please like and share our amazing Facebook posts to support the KAMI team! Dont hesitate to comment and share your opinions about our stories either. We love reading about your thoughts and views on different matters!

Maricar Reyes talked to KAMI about her personal life and her recent viral post on social media! Check out all of the epic and exciting videos on our KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel!

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Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 20:42:30|Editor: xuxin

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BANGKOK, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Thai Ministry of Finance said on Friday that it will readjust the country's economic growth projection for 2020 in April in the wake of severe drought, flagging economy and strong baht currency, as well as the recent COVID-19 outbreak.

"It is highly possible that the forecast of 41.1 million tourist arrivals for this year will not be met although the full impacts from COVID-19 cannot be accurately assessed for the time being," Wutthipong Chittangsakul, deputy director of the Ministry's Fiscal Policy Office, said.

Wutthipong said that it is too early to forecast whether the global outbreaks would ease off in the next three months as earlier anticipated, because it depends on the capabilities of each country to cope with the COVID-19 epidemic.

He noted, however, positive signs in the Thai export sector, which has increased by 3.4 percent in January, were in line with an increasing demand for Thai products, such as motorcycles and spare parts, furniture and sugar from its major trading partners, namely Singapore, the United States and China.

Other positive factors were the disbursement of 2020 budget and the weakening of the baht currency, which will help boost exports, said Wutthipong.

However, he pointed out that private investment in the industrial and agricultural sectors were showing signs of slowdown.
(File photo) Leading health experts have said there is np evidence to support claims that a dog in Hong kong has contracted Coronavirus. (Getty Images)

Heath officials have condemned reports of a dog contracting coronavirus from its infected owner as mass hysteria, claiming there is no evidence of human-to-pet transmission of the disease.

On Friday, it was widely reported that a Pomeranian, belonging to a 60-year-old woman diagnosed with COVID-19 in Hong Kong, was collected from her home on Wednesday after being placed in a hospital isolation unit.

A statement from the Hong Kong agricultural and fisheries department said the canine was placed in quarantine for 14 days as a precaution but has no "relevant symptoms" and that nasal and oral cavity samples tested weak positive for COVID-19.

But a British virology expert has since said there is no evidence that the human novel coronavirus can infect dogs.

A dog wears a home made cover over its snout, which its owner said was a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus in Beijing. (Getty Images)

Jonathan Ball, a Professor of Molecular Virology at the University of Nottingham, said: We have to differentiate between real infection and just detecting the presence of a virus  these are very different - and the fact that the test result was weakly positive would suggest that this is environmental contamination or simply the presence of coronavirus shed from the human contact that has ended up in the dogs samples.

Read more: UK territory of Gibraltar bans people entering from coronavirus-hit areas

In truth this is incredibly irresponsible because the last thing we need to do is create mass hysteria about the possibility of dogs being infected, and therefore potentially transmitting this virus when there is absolutely no evidence for this whatsoever.

Hong Kong officials did not offer explanation of why they tested the animal in the first place.

Stock markets are falling around the world after the sudden escalation of coronavirus cases in South Korea and Italy in the last few days. (Photo by May James / SOPA images/Sipa USA)

They said it was unclear whether the dog had actually contracted the virus or tested positive for low levels due to environmental contamination of the dog's mouth and nose.

Read more: Two new coronavirus cases in England and first in Wales brings UK total to 19

But as such, health authorities in the country said all pets of people infected with the coronavirus will be quarantined for 14 days.

Story continues

Meanwhile, British Veterinary Association President Daniella Dos Santos also highlighted that COVID-19 is only transmittable from human-to human.

A map showing recorded coronavirus cases in Europe. (PA)

Dos Santos said: The current advice from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) remains that the predominant route of transmission is human to human.

Read more: British man dies of coronavirus, Japan confirms

Further advice from the World Small Animal Veterinary Association is that there is currently no evidence that pets can be infected with Covid-19 and this remains the case at the time of commenting on Friday 28 February (11.30am).

The reported case of the Pomeranian dog in Hong Kong is undergoing further tests and it would be inappropriate to speculate until we know more. These tests should be able to determine whether the dog tested positive due to environmental contamination from the infected owner.

A man and a woman wear face masks on Newport Place in Soho, London, as the first case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Wales and two more were identified in England - bringing the total number in the UK to 19. (PA)

As of Thursday, there are 65 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Hong Kong, South China Morning Post reported.

Meanwhile on Friday, the total number of infections in the the UK rose to 19 after one person contracted COVID-19 in Wales and two new cases were confirmed in England.

Japans health ministry also confirmed on Friday that a British tourist on the Diamond Princess cruise ship has died from coronavirus.
Barmer Superintendent of Police Sharad Chowdhary and a circle officer were removed from their posts over the custodial death of a 25-year-old Dalit man, the Rajasthan Assembly was told on Friday.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal informed the House during the Zero Hour that no case was registered against scrap dealer Jeetu Khateek, who was detained by the police on Wednesday evening over suspicions that he was involved in a theft.

Khateek's family has alleged he was taken into illegal custody and beaten to death.

Dhariwal said the SHO was suspended and other personnel were removed from the police station and a judicial inquiry was ordered. He added that the ADG, Civil Rights, and the IG of Jodhpur have reached Barmer.

An inquiry was also being conducted by an Additional SP, CID-CB.

Giving a statement in the Assembly, Dhariwal said the police picked up Khateek, acting on information that some stolen pipes were unloaded at his shop.

He was kept at the police station on Wednesday night and taken to the district hospital the next day after he complained of chest pain. "He was taken to the hospital at around 2 pm on Thursday and doctors declared him dead that time only," Dhariwal said.

The minister said the state government has put the Barmer SP under APO (awaiting posting orders) status and the police headquarters removed the Barmer circle officer.

"The action against them was taken because the victim was kept at the police station without any FIR. A case under sections 302 (murder) of the IPC and sections of the SC/ST Act was also registered and appropriate action will be taken," he said.

Dhariwal also informed the House that an autopsy could not be conducted as the family members were staging a protest and demanding a compensation, a government job to one family member and strict action against the accused policemen.

The opposition BJP demanded a compensation of Rs 1 crore to the family. Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria said the government should announce a package so that the victim's family can survive.

Other BJP MLAs also spoke on the matter but speaker C P Joshi did not allow them, leading to an uproar in the House. They legislators stormed the Well and protested for a few minutes before returning to their seats.

The speaker asked the minister whether the government had plans to introduce a law or a proposal to give a package on humanitarian grounds to the families of custodial death victims.

In his reply, the minister said the government gave compensation and took other measure based on the circumstances of a case.

This was followed by heated arguments between the leader of opposition and the parliamentary affairs minister. The speaker intervened and closed the debate.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
P rince Harry has shared a behind the scenes look inside Abbey Road Studios as he joined Jon Bon Jovi to record a new charity single for the Invictus Games Foundation.

The Duke of Sussex returned to the UK from Canada this week to begin a series of royal engagements, which are likely to be his last before he steps down from official duties on March 31.

Harry released a series of posts on Thursday showing he and Bon Jovi in the world famous recording studio where the Beatles recorded a string of iconic albums.

The pair were also seen following in the footsteps of The Beatles as they recreated the Fab Fours Abbey Road album cover.

The Duke of Sussex meets Bon Jovi at Abbey Road Studios 1 /26 The Duke of Sussex meets Bon Jovi at Abbey Road Studios Have A Nice Day Jon Bon Jovi and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex at the Abbey Road Studios @sussexroyal This Ain't A Love Song Jon Bon Jovi and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex at the Abbey Road Studios @sussexroyal Unbreakable Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex with Jon Bon Jovi and two members of the Invictus Games Choir on the famous zebra crossing outside Abbey Road Studios Jeremy Selwyn Who Says You Can't Go Home Musician Jon Bon Jovi speaks with Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex at Abbey Road Studios Jeremy Selwyn Something To Believe In Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Jon Bon Jovi and members of the Invictus Games Choir pose on the crossing at Abbey Road Studios Getty Images (You Want To) Make A Memory AFP via Getty Images Because We Can Musician Jon Bon Jovi speaks with Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex at Abbey Road Studios Jeremy Selwyn I'll Be There For You Musician Jon Bon Jovi speaks with Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex at Abbey Road Studios AP If That's What It Takes Jon Bon Jovi and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex at the Abbey Road Studios @sussexroyal We Got It Going On POOL/AFP via Getty Images Lay Your Hands On Me PA We Weren't Born To Follow AFP via Getty Images Let It Rock Jon Bon Jovi and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex at the Abbey Road Studios @sussexroyal Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore Musician Jon Bon Jovi greets Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex at Abbey Road Studios PA Save The World Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex at Abbey Road Studios Jeremy Selwyn Never Say Goodbye Jon Bon Jovi arrives PA Welcome to Wherever You Are Jon Bon Jovi awaits the arrival of the Duke of Sussex at the Abbey Road Studios PA Pictures Of You Musician Jon Bon Jovi speaks to the media before meeting the Duke of Sussex and members of the Invictus Games Choir at Abbey Road Studios PA Happy Now Jon Bon Jovi awaits the arrival of the Duke of Sussex at the Abbey Road Studio PA It's My Life Musician Jon Bon Jovi speaks to the media before meeting the Duke of Sussex and members of the Invictus Games Choir at Abbey Road Studios PA

Harry stepped on to the famous zebra crossing with the American musician and two members of the Invictus Games Choir.

In an Instagram video post, the duke and the musician teased fans by gearing up to sing in a recording booth during the visit  with the footage stopping just before they burst into song.

In another, it showed Harry and Bon Jovi watching a live session of the Invictus Games Choir recording a live session and the prince chatting with them after they had finished.

Despite his brother the Duke of Cambridge joining Bon Jovi and Taylor Swift on stage in 2013 to sing Livin On A Prayer at a charity event, Harry was not tempted to test his vocal cords in public.

After watching the choir perform the charity single Unbroken, a clearly relieved royal said: Im just glad, I dont have to sing.

Bon Jovi paid tribute to the duke  experiencing a turbulent period since announcing he will be stepping down from royal duties  for finding the time to tour the studios.

He said: In light of everything thats going on right now, Im happy that he can take the time to be here for the choir and make it happen.

Harry and wife Meghans plans to begin their new life in Canada were dealt a blow when the countrys Government announced on Thursday it would not provide protection for the couple and baby son Archie.

Asked what he thought about Harrys situation, Bon Jovi replied: I dont know what its like to walk in his shoes and as an American Im further removed but I have immense respect for the family, for his brother, himself, his wife, his father, grandmother  we have immense respect for them in America.

He added: When you see something like Meghan and Harry have gone through, we turn the channel off and things are over with  you dont know what its like to walk in anyone elses shoes.

Every year, the Abbey Road crossing  which has Grade II listed status  draws thousands of music fans who, just like the duke, recreate the picture of the Fab Four by Ian Macmillan.

First to cross was wheelchair user and former serviceman Andy Mudd, followed by the Bon Jovi, ex-servicewoman Susan Warner, who was seriously injured during an Afghanistan deployment in 2009, and finally Harry.

With dozens of press and public watching, the foursome posed as rain fell and traffic was halted by police.

The charity single is in aid of the Invictus Games Foundation, which oversees the development of the Invictus Games, the international multi-sport event for injured or sick military personnel founded by the duke.

The song, Unbroken, was written by Bon Jovi to shine a spotlight on veterans living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and honour their service.
Members of both parties also expressed concern at the time about his qualifications for such a senior position, as well as charges that he had exaggerated his resume.

But just nominating Mr. Ratcliffe creates a benefit for the White House: Once Mr. Trump sends formal nomination papers to the Senate, it will extend the time the current acting director, Mr. Grenell, a favorite of Mr. Trumps, can remain in the office. And in the minds of some Democrats, that was the presidents goal at a time when he is seeking to impose greater control over the nations intelligence agencies after years of tension that started with the intelligence communitys consensus that Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to help Mr. Trump.

Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, Mr. Grenell can serve in his post only until March 11 unless the president formally nominates someone else for the job. Under that law, Mr. Grenell would be able to stay an additional 210 days once Mr. Ratcliffe is nominated. Should the Senate reject Mr. Ratcliffe, Mr. Grenells tenure would be extended again.

Some people close to the White House said they believe Mr. Ratcliffe stands a better chance at confirmation now than he did last summer. They said his robust defense of Mr. Trump during the Houses impeachment proceedings and effective questioning of Democratic witnesses had impressed senators who had expressed concerns about him, including Mr. Burr.

One senior administration official said the situation was different than it was with Mr. Ratcliffe in July, but also conceded that Trump officials were cleareyed about earning the needed votes.
US authorities on Thursday charged a professor at a university in Tennessee with fraud and false statements, saying he hid his link to a Chinese institution while taking funding from NASA.

In the latest case related to US efforts to halt alleged unauthorized technology transfers to China, the Justice Department said Anming Hu hid his ties to Beijing University of Technology while he taught and did research at University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

The indictment said that from 2016, Hu engaged in a scheme to defraud the National Aeronautics and Space Administration by hiding his affiliation with the Beijing university.

Federal law prohibits NASA from using appropriated funds on projects in collaboration with China or Chinese universities, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Hu was arrested Thursday and charged with three counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements.

The wire fraud charges bring up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 each; the false statement counts each bring a maximum five years in prison.

The case was brought by the national security division of the Justice Department, which has taken aim over the past year at a number of Chinese nationals for allegedly stealing industrial and other secrets to boost Chinas economy and defense sectors.

This is just the latest case involving professors or researchers concealing their affiliations with China from their American employers and the US government. We will not tolerate it, said John Demers, the assistant attorney general for national security.

Washington says Beijing both pressures and incentivizes its nationals to bring back proprietary technology from the United States.

Among those arrested for allegedly supporting Beijings illicit technology acquisition efforts is the chairman of Harvard Universitys chemistry and chemical biology department.

Charles Lieber allegedly hid from Harvard and US authorities payments of $50,000 a month for his personal needs and $1.5 million in lab funding from a Chinese university.
FLINT, MI  The University of Michigan-Flint is giving a posthumous degree to Kevin Bacon at its April commencement ceremony.

Karl Bacon, Kevins father, said the family had received a letter Wednesday, Feb. 26 from the university offering the degree.

It feels good, he said. For him.

Melissa Brown, assistant director of University Relations, confirmed the degree will be given to the family at the April 26 commencement ceremony at the Dort Federal Credit Union Event Center in Flint.

Kevin Bacon, 25, of Swartz Creek, attended the university and was pursuing a degree in applied psychology.

He was found dead Dec. 28, 2019 in the basement of a Bennington Township home in Shiawassee County.

Joined by wife Pam, Karl Bacon made the announcement following a competency hearing Thursday morning for Mark D. Latunski, the suspect in their sons murder.

Latunski was ruled incompetent to stand trial and will be moved to the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in Saline for treatment until he is deemed competent to move forward with court proceedings.

Kevin Bacons parents hopeful alleged killer, cannibal will still get day in court

Karl Bacon offered thanks to police for the investigation, the Shiawassee County Prosecutors Office on the charges and Sharp Funeral Home for Kevins final arrangements.

He also extended his gratitude to the university for the celebration of life event held at UM-Flints Center for Gender and Sexuality. Sarah Devitt, Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Program Manager at UM-Flint, previously said Bacon was hired as a peer educator in the center.

Its been difficult, very difficult, said Karl Bacon of the days following Kevins death. I think weve all had our issues, trying to work through them all and hopefully well get through it.

His parents recalled their sons laughter, quirkiness and humor. Pam Bacon pointed out the family is still receiving cards and well wishes. They said they never imaged being in this position after posting on Facebook that hed gone missing on Christmas Eve.

I dont think (things) will ever be normal again, said Karl Bacon. You expect to hear from him. He used to call us every night and we dont get that. Its just that empty feeling.

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The fate of some 5,000 Taliban prisoners jailed in Afghanistan is threatening to turn into a major stumbling block in efforts to end the 19-year war in the country.



The Taliban is demanding the release of the detainees before the launch of direct negotiations between Afghans and the Taliban over a permanent cease-fire and a future power-sharing arrangement.



Those intra-Afghan talks, slated for mid-March, will begin after the United States and the Taliban sign a historic peace deal that will trigger the phased withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.



Experts said the issue of Taliban prisoners could be a key obstacle in launching the country's peace talks or, conversely, be used as a bargaining chip to exact concessions from the militants.



There are fears that the release of thousands of Taliban fighters could deprive the Kabul government of a key amount of leverage and undercut the peace process by strengthening the Talibans position on the battlefield.



'Trust-Building Measure'



Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told RFE/RLs Radio Free Afghanistan on February 26 that Kabul will free 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for the release of 1,000 members of the Afghan security forces held by the militants.



Shaheen said the trust-building measure was a prerequisite for the launch of the intra-Afghan talks.



He added that the prisoner release was part of the U.S.-Taliban peace deal, although Afghanistan is not a signatory to that bilateral agreement.



But the Taliban and the United States have not yet disclosed the contents of the deal.

The Kabul government has ruled out releasing the prisoners before the start of talks.



When we, as the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, enter into negotiations with the Taliban and they demand the release of their prisoners, it will naturally be discussed, and will take into account the laws and interests of our people and [our decision] will be based on the consensus that will arise at that stage, said Sediq Sediqqi, President Ashraf Ghanis spokesman, on February 20.

'Quid Pro Quo'



Omar Samad, a former Afghan diplomat who is now a senior fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, said the issue could be used as a political stumbling block or a bargaining chip.



Bargaining chip can mean quid pro quo, he said.



Michael Kugelman, South Asia associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, said the Afghan government could offer the Taliban a major concession before intra-Afghan talks with the expectation that the militants will reciprocate.



Kugelman said that could mean the insurgents agreeing to reduce violence during the negotiations, which analysts expect to be complicated and protracted.



The United States and the Taliban agreed to a weeklong reduction of violence across Afghanistan before the signing of the peace deal. The partial truce has largely held, with a dramatic decrease in Taliban attacks from around 75 per day down to under 15.



The militants contest or control nearly half of the country.



A similar truce during intra-Afghan talks has been mooted, although the Taliban has not commented on the possibility.



But analysts warned that there was a risk in the government giving away one of its primary bargaining chips at such an early stage of the peace process.



The Taliban has ample leverage because it's in no hurry to conclude a peace deal, said Kugelman. If it receives a major concession it may hold out and demand more before giving something up in return.



10,000 Taliban Prisoners



There are an estimated 10,000 Taliban prisoners being held in Afghanistan. But the militants have said that some of those detained were accused of being sympathizers or members of the group, often to settle old scores, and are not actually combatants.



There have been several high-profile prisoner swaps and releases of insurgents since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that toppled the Taliban regime.

In November 2019, two Western hostages were released from Taliban custody in exchange for three senior Taliban prisoners, including Anas Haqqani, the younger brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani network, a powerful Taliban faction.



The prisoner swap was seen as an attempt to kick-start U.S.-Taliban peace negotiations after U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly ended the talks over rising Taliban attacks.



In 2014, five senior Taliban members were released from the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for a captured U.S. soldier, Bowe Bergdahl.



All five former Guantanamo Bay detainees are based in Qatar, where they have taken part in negotiations with U.S. officials.



In 2013, former President Hamid Karzai controversially released scores of Taliban prisoners from a formerly U.S.-run prison near Kabul as an attempt to convince the militants to open direct talks with Kabul.



The move failed to convince the Taliban to come to the negotiating table. Analysts said some of those freed returned to the Taliban, bolstered their ranks, and increased the insurgencys efficacy on the battlefield.

SEE ALSO: Afghan Boy Supports 30 After Father Killed By Taliban
"The hemp is continuously being illegally grown in remote parts of Malawi and smuggled out of the country, and part of what is confiscated accumulates in the police stores and burning it is necessary to free up space," Nkhotakota police spokesman Williams Kaponda said.
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TOCCOA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2020 / Galaxy Next Generation, Inc. (OTCQB:GAXY) ("Galaxy" or the "Company), a provider of interactive learning technology solutions, today announced that it received an additional purchase order of approximately $100,000 from Thompson County School District in Colorado. The bell and intercom installation is scheduled for its Walt Clark Middle School and installation is expected to take place over the school's spring break.The original district-wide contract was awarded to Galaxy in December 2019 and this repeat purchase order demonstrates the ongoing relationship and outstanding product solutions and service by Galaxy.Gary LeCroy, Galaxy's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are excited about this ongoing relationship and the fact that Thompson County School District shares in our vision of a total district, school and classroom technology solution. Communication and alerts are vital to schools and converting each school's aging analog Bell & Intercom system to a modern and nimble IP system is an important feature of the total technology solution." The Thompson R2-J School District is located in Loveland, Colorado and covers territory in Loveland, Berthoud, a southern section of Fort Collins and portions of Windsor, Johnstown and unincorporated parts of Larimer, Weld and Boulder counties. It is the 17th largest school district in Colorado, serving more than 16,000 students within 33 schools (20 elementary, 5 middle, 5 high, 1 K-8 and 2 charter).For additional information on Thompson School District, please visit:About Galaxy Next Generation, Inc.Galaxy Next Generation (OTCQB:GAXY) is a provider of interactive learning technology solutions that allows the presenter and participant to engage in a fully collaborative instructional environment. Galaxy's products include Galaxy's own private-label interactive touch screen panel as well as numerous other national and international branded peripheral and communication devices. Galaxy's distribution channel consists of 22+ resellers across the U.S. who primarily sell the Company's products within the commercial and educational market. Galaxy does not control where resellers focus their resell efforts, although generally, the K-12 education market is the largest customer base for Galaxy products - comprising nearly 90% of Galaxy's sales.For additional information, please visit our website at: www.galaxynext.us Safe Harbor StatementThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect the company's current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. A more extensive listing of risks and factors that may affect the company's business prospects and cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the reports and other documents filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.Investors Contact:IR@ GalaxyNext.us p: 888-859-1274SOURCE: Galaxy Next Generation, Inc.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, is praised by his admirers for being consistent. Hes been saying the same things for 40 years, they explain  as if this is an obvious compliment. I think thats kind of weird.

But I also like it because it gives me an excuse to make points Ive been making for 20 years. Specifically: that authoritarianism doesnt make people rich.

Sanders refuses to apologize for his praise for some of the great accomplishments of authoritarian regimes, such as Fidel Castros Cuba. At a recent CNN town hall, he volunteered that there are things about China he likes too.

The first thing worth noting is that authoritarianism is old. Its so old, it was ancient before anyone had a word for it. Whether it was the predominant form of social organization before the agricultural revolution or simply one of the most common is a subject for academic debate. Suffice it to say the idea that a big man, head honcho, boss, chief, king or priest should call the shots wasnt a new concept when Hammurabi put his code to tablet around 1754 B.C.

Authoritarianism of one sort or another defined nearly all political systems  from the first city-states to the ancient empires to the medieval monarchies and sultanates of Europe and the Middle East  until about 300 years ago. Some places were less tyrannical than others. Sometimes there were parliaments, councils of elders, etc. Heck, some caveman shot-caller might have asked for a show of hands before a risky hunt. (Show of hands: Who think we can take this mastodon?)

Then, starting in places such as England and Holland, liberal democracy emerged. The liberal here doesnt mean progressive as we use the term today (though it was a huge form of progress). It means a switch from the arbitrary rule of monarchs and nobles to the rule of law and equality before it. Liberalism means the freedom to own the fruits of your own labor, to conduct business without the mafia dons of the nobility taking their cut, to speak your conscience and worship as you please.

Meanwhile, the democracy in liberal democracy means the people elect their leaders and representatives  but not their rulers, because in a liberal democracy, no one, not even the people themselves, have the right to rule over another unjustly. The Bill of Rights isnt democratic document, its a liberal one.

That brings us to China. Sanders has a strange habit of praising authoritarian countries when they do stuff he likes but not crediting free countries for doing the same thing, but better. Thats bad enough, but he also has a tendency to credit authoritarianism for stuff it didnt do.

Sanders says that Chinas authoritarianism has taken millions out of extreme poverty. Not quite. After the Communists under Mao Zedong took over in 1949, they didnt take many people out of poverty, but they took plenty of people to their graves. Under the Great Leap Forward, when the Communists tried hard to make the people jump out of poverty, an estimated 45 million died from a man-made famine.

Only after killing millions of their own people without much to show for it did the Communists implement economic reforms in the late 1970s of the sort that Sanders tends to despise. The political system was still authoritarian (though less than it was under Mao), but the economic system became more liberal. The economy took off. Since then, hundreds of millions of people have escaped poverty. They werent taken out of it; they climbed out of it thanks to the ladder of the market.

Authoritarianism in one form or another kept most of humanity poor for hundreds of thousands of years. For all of that time, as economist and historian Deirdre McCloskey has written, the average human being lived on about $3 per day. Then, once and only once did that start to change  thanks to liberal democracy. Sanders and people like him still want to give all the credit to authoritarianism. That doesnt make him a would-be tyrant. But it does tell you a lot about how he thinks the world works.

Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.

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By Trend

Close Georgian-Azerbaijani relations contribute to the development of joint projects, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia Natia Turnava said, Trend reports citing the press service of the ministry.

Turnava made the remark following her meeting with the Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan Mikayil Jabbarov in Baku on Feb.28, 2020.

Natia Turnava is in Azerbaijan for a two-day working visit.? As a part of her visit, Turnava will take part in the session of the 6th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council in Baku.

As reported, the minister will also meet with the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov.

"We discussed joint logistics projects with the Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan," Turnava added.

According to the minister, very close business and friendly relations have been established between the two countries and the ministries of economy, which contribute to the development of joint projects and accelerated completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project.

The parties also discussed promising projects in the Black Sea, in which Azerbaijani private companies and state structures can participate increasing the competitiveness of the common corridor.

We also considered a new initiative, providing for the construction of a high-voltage line along the bottom of the Black Sea, which will connect Georgia with the EU energy market," Turnava said.

"The project will certainly be of more significant commercial interest if Azerbaijan, which is our reliable partner, will take part in it. Azerbaijan is actively involved in the process of supplying us with electricity during periods when the Georgian energy market is in short supply," she added.
Yunus, 38, has been making frantic rounds of hospitals and mortuaries for the last five days, hoping to find his 16-year-old son Yusuf.

A Class XI student, Yusuf left his home in northeast Delhi's Chand Bagh, which has been wracked by violence for days, on Sunday to go to an eatery and hasn't returned since.

"Around 5 pm on Sunday, I was working in lane number 15 when Yusuf came to me and asked for Rs 100. I gave him the money and he left saying he was going to an eatery. When I reached home at night, I found that my son hadn't returned," Yunus, who works as a plumber, told PTI on Friday.

"Yusuf does not have a mobile phone and we are not aware of his whereabouts. I went to the GTB Hospital today, but he was not there. I searched the mortuary as well but in vain," the worried father said.

Asked why the family hasn't lodged a police complaint yet, Yunus said, "The situation here hasn't been conducive since Monday."



With hope fading, he said the family will now lodge a police complaint.

Yusuf is the eldest of Yunus' three children.

At least 42 people were killed and over 200 injured in the communal clashes that broke out in northeast Delhi after violence between supporters of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and those opposing it spiralled out of control on Sunday.

Frenzied mobs torched houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump and pelted stones at local residents and police personnel.

Besides Chand Bagh, Jaffrabad, Maujpur, Babarpur, Yamuna Vihar, Bhajanpura, Chand Bagh, Shiv Vihar areas were among the riot-hit areas.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On Tuesday, Nancy Messonnierdirector of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventioncalled a media briefing. She warned Americans that the spread of the coronavirus known as covid-19 is a matter not of if, but of when. According to Politico, the White House was livid with Messonnier and scrambled to establish a reassuring counter narrative. Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, went on CNBC to say the United States had contained the virus; on Twitter, President Trump insisted that all is well, and accused CNN and MSDNC (MSNBC) of conspiring to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible. On Wednesday, for the second time in his presidency, Trump held a press conference in the White House briefing room. (The other occasion? A stunt that distracted attention from the Democrats officially taking control of the House.) His aides told the Associated Press that Trump was trying to show that he grasps the gravity of the coronavirus. But some of his remarks, including a comparison between the coronavirus and routine winter flu, were misleading and contradictory. Yesterday, at an event to mark Black History Month, Trump again attacked media coverage of the virus, lowballed the number of cases on US soil, and called the rate of infections almost a miracle.

At his press conference on Wednesday, Trump designated Vice President Mike Pence as his coronavirus point person. Coverage was quick to question Pences public-health credentials; when he was governor of Indiana, he initially refused to distribute needles that could have curbed a severe HIV outbreak. Mike is going to be in charge, and Mike will report back to me, Trump said. Then, yesterday, Pence announced that Deborah L. Birx, a scientist and physician who heads government efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, would coordinate the coronavirus response. She would join Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, who was charged with leading a coronavirus task force. Reporters became confused about who, exactly, is overseeing what. If Pences oversight is in doubt, it does seem that hell be controlling the flow of coronavirus information: yesterday, the New York Times reported that federal health officials and experts now have to clear all public statements and appearances with his office.

Related: How to name a coronavirus

If history is any guide, the same discipline will not be expected of Trumps tweets. As many journalists have noted this week, neither the coronavirus nor Trumps aversion to the truth is healthy, and the combination of the two could have disastrous consequences. Since the dawn of the Trump presidency, countless experts have warned that the presidents lack of credibility would imperil the country in the event of an emergency, CNNs Brian Stelter wrote on Wednesday. With the worsening coronavirus outbreak, those fears may be coming true.

Its important to note that Trumps lack of credibility has already imperiled the country during several ongoing and immediate emergencies. The president and his administration have, for instance, consistently worked to undermine government climate scientists. Last year, after Trump erroneously tweeted that an incoming hurricane might hit Alabama, he doctored a government weather map with a Sharpie to prove his point; officials who contradicted him risked losing their jobs. Early this year, Trump sparked a dangerous confrontation with Iran based on intelligence about an imminent attack that neither lawmakers nor the public were ever shown. In such cases, Trumps poor record with the truth hadand continues to havebad real-world consequences. That none has yet blossomed into a full-blown, national-level catastrophe is in spite of Trumps poisoning of the information well.

This week, the presidents allies in Congress and the news media have accused the press of politicizing the coronavirus story by making it about Trump. Its true that at times of medical crisis, especially ones marked by a high level of uncertainty, there can be a fine line between appropriate scrutiny and political criticism. But this administration has proved time and againincluding this weekthat it does not deserve the benefit of the doubt. Questioning the information that it disseminates about the coronavirus isnt nearly as dangerous as not doing so.

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Speaking on CNN yesterday, Maggie Haberman, of the Times, summed up the problem. Every administration has some official who has said something that isnt true, she said, but the sheer volume of things that are not true that have been said by the president and by some of his aides does not inspire credibility. Many of the crises Trump has faced have been, in no small part, of his own making. This one is not, and how you handle that is a moment where you want people to believe that they can trust what youre saying, Haberman said. They have brought this on themselves that people question it.

Below, more on the coronavirus:



Other notable stories:

Related: The new coronavirus and racist tropes

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Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop.
Washington, Feb 28 : A federal judge in the US state of Washington has ruled that President Donald Trump cannot divert funds for an American submarine base to build a wall along the country's southern border with Mexico.

On Thursday, Judge Barbara Rothstein in the U. District Court for the Western District of Washington permanently blocked the Trump administration's decision to "reprogram" funding for nearly $89 million for the Naval Base Kitsap, Xinhua news agency quoted the state's Attorney General Bob Ferguson as saying.

The funds were previously approved by Congress to build a pier and maintenance facility at the Bangor naval base, home to the US Pacific Fleet's Trident ballistic submarines.

The judge's ruling "is an important victory for the rule of law, and the system of checks and balances our founders enshrined in our Constitution", said Ferguson, who filed a lawsuit in September 2019 to challenge Trump's decision to divert the funds for building the wall.

"We're looking forward to this $89 million being used the way Congress intended -- to support a military construction project in Washington state," Ferguson added.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee also welcomed the judge's ruling, saying the court agreed that money from Washington state projects should not be diverted to help subsidize Trump's border wall.

"Washington will continue to fight against any proposed efforts to move funds out of our state for unlawful and unconstitutional purposes," he said.

"I thank the Attorney General for his continued fight on behalf of Washingtonians." This ruling marks the 25th legal victory for the Washington attorney general's office in litigation against the Trump administration.
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Ilkin Seyfaddini  Trend:

The issues of increasing food export from Uzbekistan were discussed at the meeting of Uzbek Ambassador to Latvia Kadambay Sultanov with Director General of the Food and Veterinary Service (PVS) of Latvia Maris Balodis in Riga, Trend reports with the reference to Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan.

The two sides discussed ways to strengthen practical cooperation in facilitating the increase in Uzbek exports of fruits and vegetables to the Baltic States, Northern and Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, as well as exchanged views on partnership between veterinary services of Uzbekistan and Latvia.

Maris Balodis gave a positive assessment of wide-scale reforms in the sphere of improving the system of food and veterinary security carried out in Uzbekistan and the country's efforts to increase exports of fruit and vegetable products. He expressed interest of PBS to deepen cooperation with the Uzbek side in these key areas.

Following the talks, an agreement was reached to organize a meeting of heads of veterinary structures of Uzbekistan and Latvia as part of their participation in the 88th General Assembly of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in Paris on 24-29 May. It was also agreed to arrange a visit of experts of the Latvian Food and Veterinary Service to Uzbekistan in the framework of the EU project "Border Management in Central Asia" (BOMCA) to conduct training courses and seminars on the specifics of the EU standardization system.

---

Follow author on Twitter: @seyfaddini
The JNU administration on Friday warned the university's students' union against providing shelter to the victims of the northeast Delhi violence on the campus.

In the notice, Jawaharlal Nehru University Registrar Pramod Kumar warned of disciplinary action against students found involved in any such efforts.

The JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) has "no legal right to make the JNU campus a shelter", the notice said.

"You are strictly advised against any such activity, failing which appropriate disciplinary action will be taken against you. You are also advised to uphold the need to keep an educational institution like JNU a congenial space for study and research," it said.

According to the notice, the JNU administration had received multiple calls from the campus residents who said they were feeling insecure due to the call given by the JNUSU.

"You are hereby warned that you will be held responsible for any inconvenience or insecurity caused to JNU residents," it said.

Meanwhile, Delhi University students took out a peace march in the campus for communal harmony.

Many students boycotted classes to express solidarity with the victims of the communal violence in northeast Delhi, that has claimed at least 42 lives and left over 200 injured so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The so-called Suitcase Killer, a New Jersey fertility clinic nurse convicted of shooting her husband, cutting him into pieces and putting his remains into suitcases tossed into the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia more than a decade ago will be featured an episode of Forensic Files II this weekend.

Titled Human Sawdust, the episode in the much-anticipated reboot of the popular crime and investigations docu-series will air at 10 p.m. Sunday on HLN. Forensic Files II represents the first new episodes for the show since 2011 after a 15-year run.

Prosecutors said Melanie McGuire drugged, shot, then dismembered William McGuire, 39, in their Woodbridge townhouse in April 2004. She then stuffed his remains in three suitcases that she dumped in the Chesapeake Bay.

McGuire killed the computer programmer so she could be with her lover, a doctor who worked with her at a fertility clinic in Morristown, prosecutors argued.

She was arrested on June 2, 2005 - about a year after husbands remains were discovered.

McGuire was convicted of murder and desecration of human remains in April 2007 and sentenced that July to life in prison. She is incarcerated at Edna Mahon Correctional Facility in Clinton. She is not eligible for parole until 2073.

She never testified, but her defense team insisted she had no role in the slaying, and argued her husband was killed by someone else.

In 2011, an appeals court upheld her conviction. The New Jersey Supreme Court also denied her petition for relief in 2018.

Among the people interviewed on the broadcast, according to MyCentralJersey.com, are a reporter who covered the trial, Virginia Beach Master Police Officer Stephen Miller, a Virginia Beach police forensic specialist and Patricia Prezioso, who formerly served in the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General and was lead the prosecutor in the McGuire case.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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DANBURY  The disposition hearing of the man accused of assaulting staff and patients at a rehabilitation center before being shot by a city police officer has been continued to Monday.

Aaron Bouffard, 31, has been held at the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in Uncasville on assault, threatening, breach of peace and disorderly conduct charges, stemming from an incident at MCCA on Old Ridgebury Road back in July.

A continuance was granted in his case Friday at state Superior Court in Danbury, where Bouffard is being represented by a public defender.

Bouffard was accused of fighting with a staff member and clients at the rehabilitation center on Old Ridgebury Road then fleeing with two knives the morning of July 3.

Police were called and a manhunt ensued, ending around 10:45 a.m. when Bouffard was shot by Danbury Police Officer Alexander Relyea in the area of Old Ridgebury and Reserve roads.

Police said Bouffard was armed with two knives and did not follow orders to drop them when Relyea  the same officer who shot and killed a man months prior  encountered him in a recreational area on the former Union Carbide property.

Bouffards mother, Sherry Bouffard, said her son told her he didnt hear police orders to drop the knives.

According to state police, Relyea fired several rounds at Bouffard, striking him in the thigh, pelvis area and finger. Bouffards mother, however, claims her son was also shot in the ribs and has a bullet lodged in his spine.

Bouffard pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and first-degree threatening, and not guilty to the disorderly conduct and second-degree breach of peace charges.

He also faces a violation of probation charge as a result of the incident.
Ammo Grrrll is feeling THE BIG CHILL. She writes:

The Press has long been called The Fourth Estate, a term that comes to us from pre-revolutionary French history. (The First Estate was the King and nobility; the Second Estate was the Church; and the Third Estate was the commoners. Because of the power of the press, at some point it was designated as The Fourth Estate.) When the felicitous term migrated to the United States, it was originally deemed critical that The Fourth Estate be above the fray, an independent and unbiased institution. (Stop laughing)

The institution  electronic, print and social media  has decided in the last few decades to have the kind of Estate Sale that one reads about in the papers. Sold! Lock, stock, and barrel to the far left-wing of the Democrat Party for invitations to the best DC parties, occasional sex for a leak leading to a scoop, and obscene salaries for reading aloud. For the first few years of the shredding of its Unbiased Mission Statement, an effort was made to be a little bit stealthy about it. But shortly after Donald J. Trump descended that escalator and declared himself a candidate for the Presidency, the veil dropped. National Coming Out Day for the Media was proudly declared. No more who, what, when, where, why with even a thin veneer of objectivity. It was all hands on deck to screw over Orange Man Bad.

Nothing good, nothing positive, nothing humanizing must EVER get through! Under no circumstances should DJT be normalized. They actually used that word. So far beyond the pale was this President, this human being, that every single thing he touched had to be attacked  his dessert, how he likes his steak, his beautiful wife, her Christmas decorations, the First Ladys clothes, her shoes, yes, even her ACCENT, for pitys sake, never mind that she speaks five languages and most of the newsheads are semi-literate in one. The President is not only literally Hitler but also a Russian agent which is a good trick. And  talk about the pudgy pot calling the kettle fat  David Pretend Republican Frum says that Trump is our fattest President ever. Can you even imagine that shameless, rotund little Frump calling out, say, Stacy Abrams, for her weight?

That is bad enough. But it doesnt end there. In addition to tedious hourly ATTACKS on the President, the media giants DECIDE what is and what is not news.

This can happen by simple omission: Lets see  heres a story about MS-13 illegals raping and killing a young woman (ah, thats just a local crime story, not of general interest, bad for The Narrative). Heres a story about Ilhan Omar being married to her brother  oh, thats been DEBUNKED, and bad for The Narrative. Wait, heres a story where Trump said 40,000 people were at a rally when it was only 39,400. Lets go with: Trump Lies Again!

Are we done yet? No, we are not. The final step in the Estate Sale treachery is to BECOME the story.

This also takes several forms, from making a tedious and argumentative 3-minute statement at a News Conference instead of asking an actual question, to repeating an asked-and-answered question ad infinitum, to ambushing representatives from the Evil Republican Party in hallways and corridors with what they believe are going to be Gotcha soundbites on the evening news. Sometimes that can blow up in their arrogant, smirky little faces, and then watch the stuff hit the fan!

Manu Raju is the Senior Congressional Correspondent for an insignificant, unwatched network whose two-fold business plan consists of getting and retaining the franchise to annoy trapped airport travelers and being part of a cable package. He is very full of himself.

As you recall, during the waste of time Impeachment Follies he approached Arizona Senator Martha McSally and asked her if she supported allowing more witnesses than the ones the brilliant Democrat strategists had rushed half-baked to the Senate. And Senator McSally blew past him and said: Manu, youre a liberal hack. Im not talking to you.

WELL, I NEVER! Its the end of the world as we know it! Manus media cronies and bosses alike demanded an apology and howled that a Senators ability to just blow off a hounding little pipsqueak who identifies as a journalist was CHILLING!

Oooooh. Chilling! Not that! Anything but that! These hacks  and Martha had that absolutely right  can call us Trump voters ANY damn thing they want. Following the lead of Barack Hussein Obama, they can claim utterly without evidence that we hate and fear The Other. They can repeat losing loser Hillarys disgusting Deplorable name-calling. They can make fun of our teeth, say we smell, say we didnt graduate from one of them there colleges, attack every value we hold dear. Thats all right and proper. High humor to those frat boys.

They are perfectly comfortable smearing every Trump voter as a fascist and a racist (even the black ones, in fact, ESPECIALLY the black ones) and exposing us to attacks in several cities by a roving band of masked arsonists and thugs who can beat people as cops are ordered to stand down. Now THAT should be chilling, even to liberals.

But call THEM hacks and they run to their megaphones to explain how terrifying such disrespect is. Why, it could even call down violence upon their lacquered, empty heads. Yeah, right. There has never been an attack on ANYONE by any Trump supporters that I am aware of. Some have successfully DEFENDED themselves from Antifa attacks, a few delightful enough to watch over and over on YouTube. But the only journalist that has ever been harmed was Andy Ngo, in a racist, homophobic attack by the black-shirt Antifas.

To media stars, the single-most narcissistic and entitled profession in my experience  and that includes heavy competition from judges, actors and politicians!  the cold shower of mockery is what is horrific. THAT is something up with which they cannot put.

Finally, talk about CHILLING, as an owner of, lets just call it several, guns, Id like to apologize to America for the 150 million Americans who have been killed in the last few years because of my owning these weapons. As a certified lying dog-faced pony soldier, I know I should just believe Biden  and vote for him in his race for Senate  but youd think someone would have noticed nearly half the population gone. Remember, hes their moderate hope, and for eight long years was a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Yikes!
The Obokese Foundation in partnership with Handwriting On The Wall Institute, United States of America has organized a graduation ceremony for about 35 young men and women selected from the Abura Asebu Kwamankese and the Cape Coast Districts this morning, February 27, 2020 at Sikakrom in Cape Coast.

According to Roselyn Ampah Sahara, Head of Volunteers of the Obokese Foundation, they carefully selected to train youth who are underprivileged and come from poor homes. This she explained that her foundation seeks to empower the Ghanaian youth.

The beneficiaries were taken through Entrepreneurial skills such as bead making, nail polishing, makeup and creative thinking. The training is aimed at equiping the youth with employable skills to improve their livelihoods.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony, on behalf of Nana Obokese Ampah, Mr. Ibrahim Muntari, the Operations Manager of the Foundation disclosed that the Obokese Foundation was established to provide support to the youth by way of skills training. He indicated that Nana Obokese Ampah is motivated to support the needy in the society hence the decision to establish the foundation. This he said is Nana Obokese Ampah's contribution to ensuring that we achieve the objective to move Ghana Beyond Aid.

He also stated that the foundation is ready to assist the youth to sell their products abroad once they put what they learn into profitable enterprise.

Ms. H. ElAnee Barclay Jones who is the President and Founder of Handwriting On The Wall Institute on her part expressed her excitement for the partnership with Obokese Foundation and indicated that her Institute will continue to make resources available to keep the programme running.

Speaking to the media after the graduation ceremony, beneficiaries were very grateful for the opportunity to be part of the training and that they pray others would also get the same opportunity given to them. They promised to put what they learnt into profitable ventures to improve their livelihood.

Okatakyi Dr. Amanfi VII, Paramount Chief of Asebu Traditional Area advised the beneficiaries to put what the skills they have acquired into profitable ventures to lift their living conditions. Okatakyi expressed his appreciation to the Obokese Foundation and its partners for the gesture.

Present at the ceremony were Rabi Kohain Halevi, Executive Director, PANAFEST Foundation, Mr. Richmond Yeboah, Head, Investment and Public Relations at the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly, Mr. Obed Acquah Quansah, Regional Director, Coastal Development Authority and Mr. Aliu Sumaila, Deputy Director of NADMO, Twifo Hemang Lower Denkyira District.
[February 28, 2020] Radient Technologies Inc. Reports Record Revenue and Record Gross Profit for the Third Quarter of Fiscal 2020

EDMONTON, Alberta, Feb. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Radient Technologies Inc. (Radient or the Company) (TSX Venture: RTI; OTCQX: RDDTF), a global commercial manufacturer of high quality cannabinoid-based ingredients, formulations and products, is pleased to report its financial results for the third quarter of its fiscal year 2020, ended December 31, 2019. The financial statements and Managements Discussion & Analysis are available under the Companys profile at www.SEDAR.com .

Key Financial Highlights - Fiscal Q3 2020: Revenues of $11,205,961, an increase of 805% over fiscal Q2 2020.

Gross profit of $1.48 million, an increase of 966% over fiscal Q2 2020.

Significant inventory of dried cannabis: $17.4 million as at December 31, 2019, for future production. We are extremely pleased with this quarters financial results, said Denis Taschuk, President & CEO of Radient. This is the beginning of a significant growth period in which Radient will be embarking on a product commercialization phase. Our investment into technology, process and product development is ready to be leveraged into new product categories and expanded client relationships. Additionally, we will be ramping up operations in order to meet the demands of our current and future partners. We will also increase our Cannabis 2.0 product manufacturing capabilities in Canada, and enter the European market via the buildout of our facility in Germany. We expect this expansion in operational capacity, coupled with our ability to create novel products using our proprietary extraction and processing technology, to allow us to significantly increase our margins moving forward. Simultaneously, we will be focused on lowering expenditures and improving operating efficiency as we continue to grow. Corporate Highlights - Fiscal Q3 2020 and Post-Reporting: Supply Agreement with Medical Cannabis by Shoppers, a Subsidiary of Shoppers Drug Mart Inc: On February 11 , 2020 Radient announced it had entered into a Supply Agreement with Medical Cannabis by Shoppers, the online medical cannabis platform of leading Canadian pharmacy retailer Shoppers Drug Mart Inc., for an initial three-year term and subject to future renewal.

, 2020 Radient announced it had entered into a Supply Agreement with Medical Cannabis by Shoppers, the online medical cannabis platform of leading Canadian pharmacy retailer Shoppers Drug Mart Inc., for an initial three-year term and subject to future renewal. Under the terms of the Supply Agreement, Radient will utilize its proprietary extraction and downstream processing platform to create a variety of cannabinoid formulations under a brand that will be sold exclusively to patients of Medical Cannabis by Shoppers. Partnership to Develop CBD Ingredients with The Edlong Corporation:

On October 22, 2019 , the Company entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to form a strategic joint arrangement with The Edlong Corporation (Edlong) to jointly create and market CBD flavour systems and product solutions for global food, beverage and pet food industries. Edlong has over 100 years of experience as a global manufacturer, marketer and provider of technology-driven natural flavour systems, ingredients and integrated solutions for the food and beverage industry. Increased Working Capital: Sale-Leaseback and Equipment Financing:

On January 14, 2020, the Company announced it had signed a Binding Letter of Intent for a Sale-Leaseback transaction in which 2238501 Alberta Ltd. would purchase from Radient the land and buildings comprising the Companys Edmonton I, II, and III facilities for a total of $20 million. Please review the Companys press release dated January 14, 2020 for further details of this transaction.



Up to $15.4 million in Debenture Financings:

On February 10, 2020, Radient announced a financing package totaling up to $15,400,000 through the issuance of up to $10.4 million unsecured convertible notes and up to $5 million of unsecured debentures. Please read the Companys press release dated February 10, 2020 for further details of this Financing. Corporate Update:

Commercialization of New Cannabinoid Ingredients and Formulations:

Leveraging its extensive natural health product formulation expertise, Radients product development team has created a broad range of proprietary cannabinoid-based product formulations for both medical and consumer markets. Attention has been given to the development of formulations that demonstrate evidence-backed physico-chemical stability, ensuring the highest quality and dosing consistency of final forms that will fully meet the industrys current strict regulatory framework. Examples include: cannabis tinctures; water-soluble and water-dispersible formulations for beverage applications; solid and liquid forms suitable for a wide range of cannabis edible products; standardized powders for tablets, capsules, sachets and lozenges; formulated liquids for vaporizing devices; and various topical formulations including creams, ointments, lotions and gels. Radient will be bringing these formulations to its customers over the coming months. Expanding Product Development at Edmonton I Facility:

In response to the increasing market demand for products such as resins and distillates, Radient is adding additional equipment to complement current extraction and processing operations at its Edmonton I facility. This additional equipment will increase evaporation capacity, facilitating the production of such products and increasing Radients product pipeline. Flexible Capacity - Edmonton II Facility:

Radients Edmonton II Facility, which the Company has been retrofitting to accommodate the extraction and downstream processing of CBD from hemp, is still awaiting a license amendment from Health Canada and is now expected to begin commercial operations in the second half of calendar 2020. In the interim, the Company has the ability to process hemp through the Edmonton I facility and is able to take advantage of any commercial opportunities using the existing extraction line. The Edmonton II facility has the flexibility to utilize hemp or cannabis as an input material. Radient will leverage the flexibility of its extraction platform to allocate production runs to the most economic production of high quality cannabinoid extracts. Expanded Product Pipeline and Manufacturing Capabilities: - Edmonton III Facility:

Radients Edmonton III facility, currently under construction, is expected to begin operations in the second half of calendar 2020. The Edmonton III facility will be approximately 89,000 square feet of purpose built space dedicated to cannabinoid extraction, purification, isolation, and product manufacturing. The facility is adjacent to the existing Edmonton production facilities and has been designed with a flexible footprint, allowing Radient to scale its extraction capabilities along with housing multiple production lines for white label production of formulated products. Edmonton III will combine Radients large-scale proprietary extraction platform with scientifically derived product development and extensive manufacturing capabilities. Expansion into Germany:

Radients Germany facility has been designed with the same flexibility and potential scale as its Edmonton III facility. Development work is being done in phases to align with market demand and the regulatory framework in Germany and the rest of Europe. This measured development will reduce the capital expenditures needed in the near term, while maintaining Radients strategic advantage of building an EU GMP compliant extraction facility inside of Europes largest legal medical cannabis market. The Company now expects initial commissioning of its Germany facility to occur in the first half of calendar 2021. Shares for Services During Fiscal Q3 2020: The Company issued common shares to third-party consultants for services provided, pursuant to the shares for service agreement previously approved by the TSX Venture Exchange. The common shares were issued at the TSX Venture Exchange 15-day VWAP share price as follows: October: 143,173 common shares at CAD $0.58.



November: 190,257 common shares at CAD $0.44.



December: 209,308 common shares at CAD $0.40. Shares for Debt - Fiscal Q3 2020: Subsequent to the Companys proposed shares-for-debt transaction announcement dated December 13, 2019, the TSXV accepted the Companys proposal to issue 192,907 common shares at a price of CAD $0.41 per share to an arms length third party creditor of the Company, to settle outstanding debt of USD $60,000. Options Grant: Radient also announces today the grant of 500,000 incentive stock options to two directors of the Company, pursuant to the Companys Stock Option plan. The options are exercisable for a period of 5 years at a price of $0.365 per share. About Radient

Radient Technologies is a commercial manufacturer of high quality cannabinoid based formulations, ingredients and products. Utilizing a proprietary continuous-flow extraction and processing platform that recovers up to 99% of cannabinoids from the cannabis plant, Radient develops specialty products and ingredients that contain a broad range of cannabinoid and terpene profiles while meeting the highest standards of quality and safety. Please visit www.radientinc.com for more information. SOURCE: Radient Technologies Inc. Investors please contact: Adam Deffett, Senior VP of Corporate Development: [email protected] Media/press please contact: Caitlin Cheadle, Director of Communications: [email protected] Forward Looking Information: This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding the growth of the Companys business operations; the construction of the Companys facilities; the Companys future revenues and timing of such revenues; the Companys future products and formulations; the Companys ability to sell its products and attract new customers; the impact of the supply agreement with Medical Cannabis by Shoppers; the MOU with The Edlong Corporation; the Companys ability to raise additional capital; the future recovery and quality of the Companys extracts; the Companys ability to expand its business internationally; the Companys ability to grow its business in the cannabis sector and the Companys future plans. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Radient, as the case may be, to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Although Radient has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Radient does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

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The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has suspended search and recovery operations for Saturday. The search will resume Sunday morning.

Thirty boats and 70 volunteers searched 70 miles of the Tennessee River on Saturday. Units assigned to the river conducted surface and sonar scans in attempts to locate the missing boaters. Jackson Police Department Aviation conducted air searches along the river banks. Tyson Chicken provided chicken and their cooking team to provide lunch for Saturdays search and rescue teams. Over the last five days, TWRA, Hardin County Fire Department, Sumner County EMA, Decatur County Rescue, Hardin County Sheriffs Department, Henry County Rescue, Henderson County Rescue, and EMA, Lake County Sheriff, Humphreys County Sheriff, Carroll County Rescue, Chester County Rescue, Samburg Fire Department, Finger Fire Department, Obion County Rescue, Fayette County Sheriffs, TEMA, TVA Police, and Pickwick State Park staff, Jackson Police Department Aviation Unit, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol Helicopter have assisted with searching for the missing boaters on the Tennessee River near Pickwick Dam.

Officials said, "While we are not asking for additional volunteers, we understand that there may be friends and family joining the search this weekend. We ask that all new searchers check-in at 8 a.m. at Wayne Jerrold's river park, 300 South Riverside Drive in Savannah, Tn."

The preliminary investigation indicates that a Stratos boat containing 43-year old Kenneth Driver and two 15-year-old boys was last seen in a picture taken above the dam on Saturday, Feb. 22, between 8 and 8:30 a.m. The three occupants and the 20-foot bass boat went through the floodgates at Pickwick Dam. Search efforts are concentrated on a 14-mile stretch the Tennessee River for the missing boaters. The three people were reported missing after the fishermen failed to return from an Obion County club bass tournament.
Mercedes Rancano Otero/iStock(NEW YORK) -- Plastic shopping bags are going the way of the dodo in New York.



The state's ban on plastic bags, adopted last year by the Legislature, goes into effect March 1 and will impact things like groceries and department stores. New York joins California, Oregon and several cities including Boston and Seattle in an effort to curb plastic contributions to landfills.



New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation estimates 23 billion plastic bags are used throughout the state annually, and too many are too often seen floating down city streets.



Here's a rundown of how the ban will work:



The Rules



All stores and shops in the state will not be allowed to provide customers with a plastic bag at the checkout. Customers will have to use their own bags, such as those made from reusable cotton.



"If you have a small purchase, such as a magazine, candy or drink, you can help our environment by saying, 'No, thank you,' to a single-use paper bag and carrying the item instead," DEC said in a release.



Stores in certain parts of the state, including New York City, instead will offer paper bags for 5 cents each. Proceeds from that fee will go toward state environmental programs. Customers using SNAP and WIC benefits are exempt from paper bag fees.



Stores that violate the ban will receive a warning for their first violation, followed by a $250 fine for the second violation and a $500 fine for each subsequent violation.



Exceptions



The New York regulations still will allow for plastic bags to be used to contain deli meat, poultry, fish, fruits and vegetables from stores.



"These exempt plastic bags could then be placed in reusable bags or paper carryout bags for delivery to the consumer," DEC said.



Restaurants also can use plastic bags for takeout and delivery items.



Garment bags and newspaper bags also are exempt, as are bags used for nuts, bolts and screws from hardware stores in addition to those used for buying fish or similar aquatic items, according to the DEC.



Copyright  2020, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
HYDERABAD: A Telangana police constable, who was caught on camera manhandling a grieving father of a 16-year-old college student who had allegedly committed suicide at the college hostel, was suspended for his insensitive behaviour.

"Police constable N Sridhar has been placed under suspension,Chandana Deepti, in-charge Superintendent of Police, Sangareddy district, said. The action against the constable came following massive public outrage over the incident that occurred at Patancheru near Hyderabad on Wednesday.

A video showing the police constable kicking an old man, who was protesting the circumstances around the death of his 17-year-old daughter in Velimela, Sangareddy district, had gone viral on social media. Reacting to it, Rama Rao, son of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, had tweeted,"Showing empathy in times of grief such as this is the basic courtesy that is expected of Govt officials."

Taking cognizance of the matter, the SP had on Wednesday removed the erring police constable from duty by attaching him with Armed Reserve (AR) headquarters. But many were not satisfied with the action and some netizens wondered if it was really a punishment.

Sandhya Rani, student of Intermediate First Year (11th standard), had allegedly committed suicide at the hostel of a private college in Velimala village in the same district on Tuesday. Police had registered a case of criminal negligence against the college management on the complaint of her father Chandrashekhar, who claimed that she was suffering from fever for last one week but the college authorities failed to send her home or get her treated.

While the body was kept at the mortuary in government hospital, Patancheru for autopsy, the girl`s relatives and students forcibly took away the body. They wanted to take the body to college and stage a protest to demand justice. The police managed to take possession of the girls body after dispersing the protestors. As they were carrying back the dead body to the hospital, the girls father tried to block their path wanting to know how his daughter died.

The man threw himself to the ground, clinging to the coffin when the enraged police constable, Sridhar, kicked him. Later, an autopsy was conducted on the body but the family refused to take the body till justice was done to them.

The college management late Wednesday announced Rs 15 lakh compensation for the girl`s family. The family later received the body and transported it to their native village in Mahabubnagar district for the last rites.

(With Agency inputs)
ALBANY  The state Republican Party is turning to an Amedure to replace an Amedore in the 46th state Senate District.

Rich Amedure, a veteran and retired state trooper, officially launched his campaign for the district Friday after months of speculation over who the GOP would put up for the seat. Two Democrats have been campaigning for months to flip the seat currently held by state Sen. George Amedore, R-Rotterdam: Michelle Hinchey, the daughter of late Congressman Maurice Hinchey, and child victims advocate Gary Greenberg.

Both Hinchey and Greenberg are collecting petitions for the June primary election, but Hinchey has both a significant fundraising advantage and the support of each Democratic committee in the five counties represented by the seat.

Amedure, 55, has lived in Rensselaerville for about 25 years, where he owns a small farm and serves as the town's Planning Board chairman. He recently retired as a state trooper  a job he held for nearly three decades after returning from active duty in the Army in the late 1980s. He had also served as the first vice president of the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association.

"I feel the state has been on the wrong path, when you have the government dominated by one party from one part of the state," Amedure said.

His top priorities include rolling back the state's controversial criminal justice reform, which he said has been "devastating" since its implementation on Jan. 1. Republicans have contended the law, which eliminated the use of cash bail and pre-trial detention for most misdemeanors and non-violent felonies, has released dangerous criminals into society. Public support for the reform has plummeted  a shift that supporters of the law have blamed on misinformation and fearmongering.

"Bail reform has made every citizen of upstate New York less safe  there's just no denying it," Amedure said.

He also hopes to promote the farm industry and bolster the economies of small towns and communities. Amedure has been endorsed by each of the GOP committees in the five counties represented by the district: Albany, Greene, Schenectady, Montgomery and Ulster.

And, yes, in case you were wondering  he is distantly related to the retiring Amedore, several generations up. Their ancestors hail from the same area of Italy.

Special Investigation 147 NY dams are 'unsound,' potentially dangerous Thousands of dams have not been inspected in over 20 years.

Both Democratic candidates, meanwhile, promoted their own campaigns at the news of a GOP contest. The district is largely considered a "purple" area, and competition for the seat is expected to be fierce this fall.

"Since I started my campaign, I've been meeting and listening to constituents around the 46th District about the issues that matter most to them and their families," Hinchey said in an email. "It's clear they want and deserve a voice that will represent all residents, not just political extremes. I look forward to being an advocate for the region where I was born and raised and a strong upstate representative in the majority caucus to make sure our district gets our fair share."

Greenberg has previously criticized Hinchey as inexperienced and touted his advocacy work that helped two high-profile bills for survivors of sexual abuse pass during last year's legislative session. He had the same critique of his GOP opponent.

"Amedure also has no legislative experience and no record," Greenberg said. "We cannot afford to send a senator to Albany that needs a training, period. Since I helped elect senators and supported the new majority leader, I will hit the ground running full throttle."
Bexar County Sheriff's Office

A local masseuse was arrested and charged with sexual assault after inappropriately touching his client, according to an arrest affidavit.

San Antonio police said the victim went to Paul Andrew Martinez's place of business for her scheduled massage in November, as she had been doing for the past year.
Over the course of two weeks, the travel ban on a mother of an eight-year-old boy with stage four cancer was lifted, reinstated and lifted again, providing a glimpse into the fate of tens of thousands of people trapped by the tentacles of Turkeys penal system.

The fate of Ahmet Burhan Atac, struggling for his life, topped the public agenda in the past few weeks after his social media plea to be with his mother went viral earlier this month: Ahmet has been receiving treatment for his bone cancer in Germany, but his mother, Zekiye, has not been permitted to accompany him due to a travel ban against her. Ahmet asked that Turkish authorities allow her to leave the country.

After Ahmet's plea led to a public outcry on social media, a prosecutor revoked the ban on Feb. 7, but another prosecutor reinstated it a few hours later. The second ban was lifted Feb. 21, after which Zekiye began tackling the legal work of obtaining a passport.

Flip-flopping from relief to despair has become a grim phenomenon in Turkey. The glimpse of freedom granted by one judicial authority can suddenly be blocked by another.

Ahmets parents were arrested in February 2018 for suspected links to the Gulenist network. Turkey's leaders have accused the movement and its leader, Fethullah Gulen, the US-based cleric and former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of masterminding the 2016 attempted coup.

Ahmets father, Reha Harun Atac, was sentenced to nine years and nine months in prison, pending appeal. His mother, Zekiye Atac, was released under judicial supervision, after two and a half months behind bars, and reunited with her two children, Ahmet Burhan, 9, and Fatma Betul, 7, who had been left with their grandparents. A couple of months later, Ahmet received a diagnosis of osteosarcoma.

Zekiye believes the trauma that Ahmet experienced the day she and her husband were arrested has played a role in her sons illness. On that day, Ahmet had locked himself in the bathroom and cried for hours, Zekiye told Al-Monitor, recounting the difficult situation the family faced. The doctor said that the tumor might be a couple of months old.

According to Zekiye, Ahmets doctors lost their hopes when his body did not respond to treatment in his hometown of Adana. The cancer spread to the boys lungs despite chemotherapy and radiation. Zekiye dug in for the battle for her son's life.

A few months later, a medical center in Cologne, Germany, that had become aware of Ahmet's case file informed the family that he might benefit from the centers immunology treatment method. A much-needed breakthrough came when a human rights advocate, Arlet Natali Avazyan, stepped forward to help the familys social media campaign raise funds for his treatment. Some $50,000 in donations poured in after Avazyan put out the call.

Zekiye, unable to accompany her son to Germany because of her travel ban, sent him to Cologne with his grandmother. His treatment began immediately, but he soon lost his appetite and wanted me with him, Zekiye told Al-Monitor. He appealed to the Turkish officials through videos he shared on social media, but to no avail.

Ahmets plight became known to the broader public when he returned to Turkey in early February to be with his mother, leading to an outcry against her treatment, generating more than 250,000 tweets.

As noted, a Turkish prosecutor lifted the ban on Feb. 7. Great news, Avazyan announced on her Twitter account, but the celebratory mood soon ended when another prosecutor reinstated the ban that same day. Such is not unheard of in Turkey.

On Feb. 18, an Istanbul court acquitted and released the prominent Turkish philanthropist and human rights advocate Osman Kavala, jailed on charges of plotting against the government, but authorities rearrested him the same day. He couldnt even leave the jail.

The government also targeted tens of thousands of academics, dismissing them from their jobs for signing a 2016 petition calling for talks with the Kurds instead of military solutions. They were then denied travel abroad until Feb. 21, preventing them from accepting offers from universities around the world, despite having been acquitted of the charges leveled against them.

Zekiyes travel ban was one of more than 11,000 lifted on Feb. 21, after acquittals or releases without charges being filled, all stemming from state of emergency measures imposed after the failed coup.

According to Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a Turkish lawmaker and prominent human rights advocate who helped bring Ahmets plight to the public's attention, the government has turned the judicial control system into its own mechanism for punishment. The lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party remarked that the justice system inflicts new wounds on society with each passing day.

Hundreds of thousands of people are currently at the mercy of Turkeys judicial control system as configured some 10 years ago. According to Justice Ministry data, 470,792 adults and 19,268 children were under judicial control as of January 2020, for a total of 490,060. Before dramatically jumping after the coup attempt, that figure had stood at 81,306 in 2016; 63,000 in 2015; and 47,000 in 2014.

Meanwhile, the number of convicts and suspects is on the rise, at more than 250,000 in 2018, up from 120,000 in 2010. The number of detainees, convicts and parolees total some 800,000. Considering how their legal status affects their families, roughly 3.5 million people have a relationship with the penal system.

According to Gergerlioglu, the functioning of the current system has severe consequences for society. More than 600 children are housed in prisons with their mothers, he said, adding that the conditions for pregnant prisoners were also alarming.

Is it normal for 800,000 people to struggle with the justice system in a country of 80 million? Gergerlioglu asked. According to him the solution is plain and simple: proper implementation of the law.

As for Ahmet, he returned to Germany Feb. 26 for more treatments, and his mother finally obtained her passport the same day. She lamented, As the prosecutors prolonged the travel ban, I had to witness the crumbling of Ahmets bones.
A people smuggler who tried to bring three Vietnamese migrants hidden inside an 'airtight' roof box into Britain through Kent has been jailed for three years.

Robert Rooney, 35, admitted facilitating illegal entry of two men and a 15-year-old girl after stuffing them into the tiny space on top of his Ford Focus.

The Irish-born HGV driver, of Edmonton, London, was stopped at the UK-controlled zone at the Channel Tunnel in Coquelles, northern France.

Border Force officers who asked to check the roof box took the vehicle to a nearby garage last October, after Rooney claimed to have lost his keys.

They were startled to discover the three bodies inside the 'airtight concealment' - not much bigger than a suitcase - before arresting father-of-three Rooney.

Robert Rooney admitted facilitating illegal entry of two men and a 15-year-old girl after stuffing them into the tiny space on top of his Ford Focus

The Irish-born HGV driver (pictured), of Edmonton, London, was stopped at the UK-controlled zone at the Channel Tunnel in Coquelles, northern France

Rooney, who told border officers he had been visiting his brother in Belgium, was struggling with money and 'clearly intended to gain financially', the court heard

Keys to the roof box were found on Rooney's person, the court learned.

Prosecuting, Bridget Todd told Canterbury Crown Court how 'there was no attempt to put any ventilation in the box', warning that its possible detachment on the motorway would have had 'tragic consequences'.

Rooney, who told border officers he had been visiting his brother in Belgium, was struggling with money and 'clearly intended to gain financially', Ms Todd added.

When questioned by police, the people smuggler admitted: 'I did know what I was doing, but I will be making no further comment.'

An illustration of how the three migrants could have looked inside the roof box

Sentencing, Judge Catherine Brown handed him a three-year jail term, telling Rooney: 'These were people who were strangers to you.

'It was a high-risk venture given the very cramped conditions.

'There would have been no ventilation for them. If there had been a delay in crossing, this could very well have had tragic consequences.

'They may themselves have been at real risk of being further exploited.'

She added: 'The actions of people like you facilitate this kind of people trafficking.'

It was not known if the migrants were being brought into the country to live or be further exploited for work, but they were served with deportation documents.

Judge Catherine Brown handed Rooney a three-year jail term, telling him: 'These were people who were strangers to you. It was a high-risk venture given the very cramped conditions'

James Burke, defending, told the court Rooney had been 'struggling financially with overdrafts and loans' and 'succumbed to the temptation of a solution'.

Border Force regional director Dan Scully said after sentencing that smuggling people into the UK is 'incredibly dangerous'.

Mr Scully continued: 'Crammed into a confined space inside the roof box must have been terrifying. It is thanks to the vigilance of Border Force officers that they were discovered and that Rooney was caught.

'Border Force officers will continue to work with law enforcement colleagues here and in France to ensure that smugglers face the full consequences of their crimes.'

Deputy director Dave Fairclough, from the Immigration Enforcement's Criminal and Financial Investigation team, added that Rooney was 'prepared to turn a blind eye to the obvious risks as long as he was benefitting'.

He added: 'The message to the callous criminals engaged in immigration related criminality is clear - you will be caught and the consequences will be severe.'
In Retrospect: News from the Jan. 13, 1922 and Jan. 12, 1972 Souderton Independent
Union home minister Amit Shah will on Friday chair a meeting of chief ministers of four eastern states on Friday to discuss the speedy probe into cases of sexual offences and rape against women and children and prevention of cattle smuggling through the India-Bangladesh border.

Amit Shah will discuss these issues with the chief ministers of Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand and the officials of his ministry during the 24th meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council.

Odisha government officials said the Centre had in 2018 approved the Criminal Law Amendment Act, prescribing stringent provisions for a sexual offence, including awarding of the death penalty in cases of rape of a girl below 12 years of age.

The amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) prescribed a time limit of two months for completion of investigations.

The government also brought in amendments to section 173 of CrPC and sections 376, 376A, 376B, 376C, 376D, 376DA, 376DB or 376DE of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) making it mandatory for the completion of investigation within two months.

To ensure that the amendments to the act are effectively translated into action at the ground level, the government following a multi-pronged strategy initiated a series of measures and programmes.

In order to ensure compliance to the two-month timeline for completion of an investigation under the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2018, advisories are being sent to all states along with the compliance report from the Investigations Tracking System for Sexual Offences(ITSSO) portal, said a senior home department official.

However, the states are yet to comply with the provision of investigation such cases within two months, the official said.

In Odisha, where there is a 16.5% rise in molestation cases and 18% rise in cases of rape between 2018 and 2019, police have been lagging.

In the recent meeting of Western Zonal Council and Northern Zonal Council held in Goa and Chandigarh respectively, the Union home minister had directed the chief secretaries and the directors general of police to review such cases personally and ensure that both trial and investigation is completed within the stipulated period of two months.

Officials said Fridays meeting would also discuss on adhering to the time limit of two months for investigation and inquiry and more use of the Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) portal.

ITSSO, an online analytics portal, has drills down feature up to first information report (FIR) level starting from the national to police station level that allows states to undertake real-time monitoring and management for completion of investigation in rape cases in two months.

It generates reports based on the ageing of cases and states can use it for real-time monitoring of resolutions in sexual offence cases. It supports decisions on augmentation of best practices. ITSSO leverages the existing Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) database, which covers nearly 15,000 police stations in the country.

Another area that the meeting would discuss how to prevent cattle smuggling through the India-Bangladesh border. India shares 496km border with Bangladesh.

Due to the huge demand of cattle in Bangladesh and availability of unwanted cattle in India, the border is susceptible to cattle smuggling. Cattle from Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, UP, Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar reach the Bangladesh border without any major hindrance.

Although the Border Security Force (BSF) has been trying to stop cattle smuggling, the riverine and charland patches help smugglers from both the countries.

As state police do not accept the seized cattle at most of the places, BSF is compelled to keep them at border outposts.

Resultantly, BSFs attention has been diverted from border patrolling to feeding and safekeeping the seized cattle leading to problems of hygiene and sanitation at the outposts which are essentially equipped to cater to the needs of its troopers.

Officials said at the meeting a procedure would be devised for implementation of the recommendations of the Supreme Court order from August 2017 for ensuring prevention of cattle smuggling and their illegal transportation.
(This story is developing. Check back for updates.)

*Updated 2/28, 2:30 p.m.

SALEM, Ohio  A federal judge struck down the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, Feb. 27, saying it was not even a close call.

LEBOR supporters knocked on doors, engaged their fellow citizens, and used the democratic process to pursue a well-intentioned goal: the protection of Lake Erie, wrote Judge Jack Zouhary.

The bill, however, does not achieve its goal, he said.

Its authors ignored basic legal principles and constitutional limitations, and its invalidation should come as no surprise, Zouhary wrote.

Toledoans voted in the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, in February 2019, in an effort to protect the lake from polluters, following a three-day period in 2014 when the city water was unsafe to drink due to pollution in the lake.

The bill gave Toledo citizens the right to sue polluters on behalf of the lake and declared both that Toledo citizens had the right to a clean and healthy environment, and that Lake Erie itself had a right to exist, flourish and naturally evolve.

The move sparked extensive national and international conversations about rights of nature.

Drewes Farms Partnerships, of Wood County, brought a lawsuit against the City of Toledo the day after the bill passed. The suit said the bill was unconstitutional and put the farm at risk. The state of Ohio later joined the suit, both parties asking the court to invalidate the bill.

Zouhary ruled in favor of the farm and the state of Ohio, saying that the bill was unconstitutionally vague and exceeded Toledos power as a municipal government.

Issues

There are several issues with the bill that Zouhary listed. The first is the vagueness of the bill. The bill does not define what actions would infringe Lake Eries rights, or where the lines between clean and unclean or healthy and unhealthy environments are.

Because the terms are so vague, spreading even small amounts of fertilizer, or things like catching fish, driving a gas-fueled vehicle, pulling up weeds, planting corn and more could all violate the bill, Zouhary noted.

LEBORs authors failed to make hard choices regarding the appropriate balance between environmental protection and economic activity. Instead, they employed language that sounds powerful but has no practical meaning, Zouhary wrote.

There are similar issues with LEBORs provision on Toledoans rights to self-government.

LEBOR also claimed that state laws that conflicted with it were invalid. It is, however, still a municipal law, and Zouhary noted that state laws generally supersede municipal laws..

Lake Erie is not a pond in Toledo. It is one of the five Great Lakes and one of the largest lakes on Earth, bordering dozens of cities, four states, and two countries. That means the Lakes health falls well outside the Citys constitutional right to local self-government, he wrote.

Lawsuit

Ohio Farm Bureau publicly supported Drewes Farms in the lawsuit.

Zouhary granted an injunction in March 2019 that prevented the bill from being enforced until further review.

Toledoans for Safe Water, a nonprofit that organized to create and pass the bill, attempted to intervene as a defendant last spring, but was denied. The group did submit a brief in support of the city in 2019.

The Ohio budget bill, passed in July 2019, included language that prohibited Ohio citizens from participating in court on the lakes behalf and declares that nature and ecosystems do not have standing in court.

Emails uncovered in a freedom of information request from a community rights activist revealed the Ohio Chamber of Commerce played a role in getting that language added to the budget bill.

That language could not affect the lawsuit, which was already pending when the budget bill passed, but it could have implications for future ballot initiatives similar to LEBOR.

Both parties filed motions for judgment in June and August of 2019. There was a hearing for the motions, Jan. 28, about a month before Zouhary made his decision.

Response

Adam Sharp, executive vice president for Ohio Farm Bureau, applauded Mark Drewes, of Drewes Farms Partnerships, for taking on the lawsuit, and expressed appreciation for Zouharys decision.

It is as clear today as it was one year ago that LEBOR was invalid and counterproductive to the real measures being taken for clean water in Ohio, he said.

Lets save Lake Erie  but do it legally, said Dave Yost, Ohios attorney general. His office represented the state in the case.

Toledoans for Safe Water called the decision unfortunate, but predictable, in a press release. The group called on the city to appeal the decision, and on Toledo residents to continue pushing for change.

While LEBOR has been declared invalid, Zouhary noted that Toledo probably could come up with legislation to reduce pollution with careful drafting. He pointed to a Madison, Wisconsin, ordinance that restricted the use of fertilizers that contained phosphorus within city limits as an example.
SolGent's coronavirus detection kit DiaPlexQ. Courtesy of EDGC





By Ko Dong-hwan







SolGent's new coronavirus detection kit DiaPlexQ is selling worldwide with positive prospects in this time of a pandemic threat from the COVID-19 coronavirus.







The subsidiary of Korean global genome sequencing firm EDGC said Friday it had exported 5,000 kits to Vietnam and, following the country's approval based on its state lab's certification, plans to distribute more.







China and Middle Eastern countries have signed purchase contracts for about 40,000 kits, with 2,500 having arrived at hospitals in the Chinese cities of Beijing and Shenzhen.







Malaysia, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong and Jordan have also received the kits.







SolGent CEO Seok Do-su, left, and researchers who worked on developing DiaPlexQ. Courtesy of EDGC





More recently, Daejeon-based SolGent has been waiting for DiaPlexQ to get CE-IVD, a certification for all in-vitro diagnostic devices sold in Europe.







With its pipeline ready for increased demand, SolGent on Feb. 27 received approval from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for domestic emergency use in Korea. The country has been hit hard by COVID-19, with 13 deaths and more than 2,000 confirmed patients as of Feb. 28.







SolGent said DiaPlexQ could confirm in just under two hours whether a person was compromised with the virus.


(Newser)  She said her husband fell overboard while the couple were taking in the sunrise from the middle of a chilly Idaho lake on Feb. 13, 2018. Two years later, police say Lori Isenberg in fact killed her husband, Larry, on the same day she was accused of embezzling $500,000 from her employer to benefit her daughters, whom she had handwritten into Larry's will, per the Washington Post. It's a wild story that includes Isenberg, herself, vanishing. Coverage:



In an email to family and friends a week after the incident, Isenberg said Larry had been inspecting a motor when he got "a confused look on his face and started to fall over," per the Coeur dAlene Press. She added she tripped and hit her head while scrambling toward him, and so she was unable to reach him before he fell into Lake Coeur d'Alene and disappeared.

Larry's body was discovered floating in the lake on March 1, but there was no evidence of drowning or even a stroke. Rather, his body contained a lethal dose of Benadryl, per KXLY. Police say Isenbergwho claimed Larry was sick with the fluis behind the 68-year-old retired forester's death.

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Around the same time, Isenberg was charged with embezzling $500,000 from the North Idaho Housing Coalition, where she formerly worked as executive director. On the very day of the boat trip, the Press had reported that Isenberg was no longer employed due to "accounting irregularities."

Prosecutors said Isenberg began stealing $16,000 a month in 2015 with help from four of her daughters, who pocketed the money. According to a search warrant obtained by KHQ, a family friend told police that Larry was upset by Isenberg's "constant enabling and giving of money to help out her daughters."

In the month before Larry's death, police say Isenberg also wrote all six of her daughters from an earlier marriage into Larry's will. They were to receive 80% of his estate, with the rest left to Larry's two children.

"No one knew what was going on behind the scenes," Larry's son, Dean, tells KHQ. "As far as we all knew, they had a great marriage. ... Dad was happy."

On Feb. 14, 2018, Isenberg told her former employer that she would return the stolen money and suggested she'd already been punished, with God "taking away the best part of my life." But then she skipped an arraignment hearing and disappeared for two months, per the Post.

She eventually pleaded guilty to wire fraud and federal program theft and was sentenced to five years in federal prison last April. Her four daughters pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit federal program theft and received three years of probation.

Arrested on Monday, Isenberg is charged with first-degree murder "under a section of Idaho's murder law that references using poison to kill someone," reports KREM. She's now held in Kootenai County Jail on a $2 million bond.

(Read more murder stories.)
Greece blocks hundreds of migrants at Turkish border Crossing at Evros closed, police send reinforcements

(ANSAmed) - ROME, FEBRUARY 28 - Greece closed its land border with Turkey in Kastanies Evros on Friday, preventing hundreds of migrants from entering the country, according to CNN.gr.



It said the alarm went off starting Friday morning with the news that about 300 people were moving towards the border, following the annoucement by Turkish government sources that Ankara would no longer prevent the passage of migrants to the EU.



Police reinforcements arrived in the area, as well as Greek Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis.(ANSAmed).




SAN DIEGO, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A new study found that more than 54,000 people commute from Riverside County homes to San Diego County jobs every day.

"The results of this study reinforce what we already know  that San Diego County needs more housing for our workers," said Jerry Sanders, President and CEO of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. "If we were to create more housing here in our region, we could greatly reduce commute times and lessen the significant impact that tailpipe emissions have on global warming."

The study, released by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, determined that commuters add 1.3 billion vehicle miles traveled in the San Diego region each year, most of which are along the northern portion of Interstate 15. These commuters add congestion for San Diego residents and increase everyone's commute times. If commuters could find affordably priced homes in North San Diego County, along the I-15 corridor, it would reduce vehicle miles traveled and improve traffic conditions.

"Too many of the men and women who defend our region's residents can't afford to live in the communities they protect, forcing them to commute long hours from Riverside County," said Detective Jack Schaeffer, president of the San Diego Police Officers Association.

Inter-county commuters emit more than 400,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions due to extended commutes. Providing attainably priced homes in San Diego County would significantly reduce GHG emissions.

"My family and I had to leave San Diego to find housing in Riverside County that was affordable for us, and now we commute every day to San Diego," said Myra Magos Hernandez. "Yes on B helps provide affordable housing options for families like mine so that we can live near our work."

Measure B provides 2,135 along I-15, with more than 60 percent affordably-priced for working families. The issue will go before San Diego County voters on the March 3, 2020 primary election ballot.

Ad paid for by Yes on B for a Better Choice: A coalition of first responders, fire safety experts, housing advocates, elected officials, business leaders and taxpayers. Committee major funding from Newland Sierra, LLC

SOURCE Yes on B
Captain Mike Gerry put his anglers on a 9 pound, 2-ounce and a 7-pound largemouth on a Lake Guntersville trip this week, though he said fishing was a challenge in terms of numbers of bass.

Best lures were the SPRO Aruku Shad, SPRO Rock Crawlers, Picasso Shock Blade bladed jigs and Tight Line swimjigs. He said strong currents have made it tough to stay on top of fish once he found concentrations, but when everything went right, the big fish are on the spring bite; www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com.

Also from Lake Guntersville, Captain Mike Carter took a day off from guiding to win the Alabama Bass Trail event last weekend going away, with a monster five-fish limit catch of 30.33 pounds with tournament partner Tracey Robinson. The anglers fished upriver pre-spawn areas near spawning flats and creeks, throwing Choo-Choo Lures swimjigs, dressed with a 4-inch soft plastic Rage Menace tail from Strike King for their biggest fish. They also caught fish on Echo Squarebills and on Rat-L-Traps. Carter said he has been guiding crappie trips regularly, as well, with lots of fish caught on jigs around brush and creek mouths; www.anglingadventures.info.

From Weiss Lake guide Mark Collins reports water level is 2 feet below full pool, water is still fairly muddy and water temperature is 47 to 49 degrees. He said bass fishing is fair, with best bites around runouts from creeks and culverts on soft plastics, jigs or crankbaits. Crappie fishing remains fair to good long-line trolling Jiffy Jigs along the channels in the Bay Springs area, Little River and Yellow Creek. He said blue jigs seem to do best on the panfish; www.markcollinsguideservice.com.

At Lewis Smith, stripers are on the move into the feeder rivers including Sipsey River, Brushy Creek and Ryan Creekslow troll live shad upriver until you find the fish. Spotted bass are hanging around the bridges, where theyll hit lightly weighted jigs with swimmer tails dropped close around the pilings. Spots are also starting to stage around spawning areas, including gravel bars and submerged stump shorelinesshaky heads or small crankbaits catch them. Below the dam, trout fishing will be good anytime the water flow is moving but not floodingdrift live worms or Berkley Trout Bait under a small float, or catch them on small spinners and spoons; www.riversideflyshop.com.

Lay Lake will host the Bassmaster College and High School Classics in concurrence with the Elite Series Bassmaster Classic to be fished on Lake Guntersville next weekend. The young anglers will weigh in on the same stage where the pros are vying for six-figure paydays at BJCC in Birmingham. The high school teams weigh in March 7, while the college competition is March 8. Visit www.bassmaster.com for details.

The King Kat Tournament Trail comes to Lake Wheeler out of Decatur March 14, with a free pre-tournament catfishing how-to seminar March 13 beginning at 7 p.m. at Ingalls Harbor Pavilion, 701 Market Street in Decatur. Weigh-ins are at Ingalls Harbor beginning at 3 p.m. The event also includes a free Kids Fishing Rodeo at Ingalls Harbor from 9 to 11 a.m. on the 14th. Wheeler is noted for producing blue catfish over 50 pounds, so some monster fish should show up at the weigh-in. Visit www.kingkatusa.com for details.

From the coast, Captain Bobby Abruscato reports all the rain sweeping the state has put lots of high water and mud in the upper end of Mobile Bay, pushing most saltwater fish towards Mississippi Sound. Redfish remain active in creeks out of the marshes, which remain fairly clear. Live shad or small baitfish under a popping cork are the best bet. Dixey Bar is always a good spot to look for giant redfishlive croakers or large jigs get them. Pompano will start to show in the surf with the first warmer dayscatch them in the trough on live sand fleas or on the sand-flea-flavored Fish Bites artificial bait; www.ateamfishing.com.
BRUSSELS (AP)  NATO on Friday called on Syria and Russia to halt their airstrikes following the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in northeastern Syria, as scores of migrants seeking entry into Europe gathered at Turkey's border with Greece

With Turkey signalling that it would let migrants leave, Greece and neighboring Bulgaria bolstered border security. The European Union warned that the fighting in northern Syria could degenerate into open war and that it stood ready to protect its security interests.

After chairing emergency talks between NATO ambassadors, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called on Syria and Russia "to stop their offensive, to respect international law and to back U.N efforts for a peaceful solution.

This dangerous situation must be de-escalated and we urge an immediate return to the 2018 cease-fire to avoid the worsening of the horrendous humanitarian situation in the region, Stoltenberg said.

Turkey's allies also expressed their condolences over the deaths, but no additional NATO support was offered during the meeting.

Apart from providing some aerial surveillance over Syria, NATO plays no direct role in the conflict-torn country, but its members are deeply divided over Turkeys actions there, and European allies are worried about the arrival of any new waves of refugees.

The air strike by Syrian government forces marks the largest death toll for Turkey in a single day since it first intervened in Syria in 2016. Its a major escalation in a conflict between Turkish and Russia-backed Syrian forces that has raged since early February.

Omer Celik, spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party, said Turkey was no longer able to hold refugees following the Syrian attack  reiterating Erdogans longstanding warning that his country cannot cope with more people fleeing the conflict.

Turkey hosts some 3.6 million Syrians and under a 2016 deal with the EU agreed to step up efforts to halt the flow of refugees to Europe. Since then, Erdogan has repeatedly threatened to open the gates, playing on European nervousness about a new surge.

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The Turkish DHA news agency reported that some 300 Syrians, Iranians, Iraqis, Moroccans and Pakistanis were gathering at the border with Greece, while others massed at beaches facing Greek islands off Turkey's western coast.

Early Friday, Turkish broadcaster NTV showed images of dozens of people  carrying rucksacks, suitcases and plastic bags  crossing fields towards the Greek frontier.

Near the Pazarkule border crossing with Greece, Turkish police stopped some 150 refugees about 1 kilometer (half a mile) from the border, preventing them from going further.

A Greek police official said dozens of people had gathered on the Turkish side of the land border in Greeces Evros region, shouting open the borders. Police and military border patrols on the Greek side readied to prevent people crossing without authorization.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak on the record to the press.

In Bulgaria, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said that army units, national guard and border police staff have been urgently deployed at the border with Turkey to beat off a possible migrant influx.

Borissov said that large groups of migrants were gathering by the border near the Turkish city of Edirne. He expressed concern that Turkish border police were moving away from the border.

But EU spokesman Peter Stano said the bloc was waiting for an official analysis of reports about migrant movements before acting. He said Turkey had not officially signaled that it was changing its migrant policy.

We expect Turkey to uphold its commitments," Stano said.

Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that there is a risk of sliding into a major open international military confrontation. It is also causing unbearable humanitarian suffering and putting civilians in danger.

In a tweet, Borrell called for the escalation around Idlib to stop urgently, and underlined that the EU will consider all necessary measures to protect its security interests. We are in touch with all relevant actors.

Turkeys invasion of the north of the conflict-torn country  along with the criticism and threats of sanctions brandished by fellow allies at Ankara over the offensive  has come close to sparking a major crisis at NATO.

France in particular has tried to launch a debate on what Turkeys allies should do if Ankara requests their assistance under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty  which requires all allies to come to the defense of another member under attack  but that discussion has not happened.

The allies are extremely reluctant to be drawn into a conflict of Turkeys making.

___

Kantouris reported from Thessaloniki, Greece. Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, contributed.
With its soaring glass windows, rustic timber beams and line of hanging plants, Pablo & Rustys cafe in the Sydney CBD is a haven of hipness. So its not exactly a surprise to learn the cafe is at the front line of a wave of businesses in our capital cities that are going cashless. We knew going cashless was going to be a risk, says Chris Tate, operations manager for Pablo & Rustys, which transitioned to card-only transactions about 18 months ago after a successful cashless launch at its sister cafe in Brisbanes CBD in 2016. There was a little bit of pushback in the first couple of weeks from customers still rocking up with their change, but it has worked out really well.

Cafe manager Chris Tate has reaped the benefits of turning his business into a cashless operation. Credit:Jennifer Soo

The benefits of tap-and-go for businesses  speedier service (quicker moving lines), lower risk of theft (less cash on premises) and greater efficiencies (its easier to identify the number of transactions per hour and thus staff workflow)  can offset the cost of merchant fees on electronic transactions (credit card companies get a cut every time a card is tapped).

While some business owners complain about the hidden costs of tap-and-go, others like the 36-year-old Tate have embraced it. Data is becoming an increasing part of running a business, and through our app, for example, we can capture little bits of information, like the types of coffee people are drinking.

Since their introduction in Australia in 2007, contactless cards have become the preferred payment method, with more than 82 per cent of consumers using their microchip-embedded credit or cash cards at least once a week, according to a Mastercard survey three years ago.
Why cant official Hollywood produce love stories anymore? Twenty-eight-year-old director-writer-actor James Sweeney has found the answer. American social relations are so toxic right now that friends, neighbors, and coworkers have trouble relating to romance. Finding consonance in politics only goes so deep, but Sweeneys debut film Straight Up (from Strand Releasing) goes deeper.

Sweeneys lead character, Todd, who identifies as gay, has OCD and cannot tolerate physical intimacy (the fluids repulse him  a Jared Hesslike tic as in Gentleman Broncos) until he finds his intellectual soulmate in struggling actress Rory (Katie Findlay). Its a gimmick, but the narrative device is charged with modern feeling and genuinely personal observation. After all, every suitor pledging troth is a struggling actor.

Thin, prickly Todd, and Rory with her luxurious mane of hair (shes his Barbie, hes her Ken), have modern upper-middle-class Los Angeles sussed; they live on its fringes as outsiders looking in at everyone elses satisfaction. Theyre both so clever  calling them whip smart would be retarded  that rapid-fire repartee almost covers up their neuroses. Straight Ups victory is the revelation that our own smarts are not smart enough to make up for romantic love; we seek something more.

Straight Up displays the emotional and intellectual delusions that have replaced romance in the age of Grinder, Tinder, and Bumble and yet keep Todd, Rory, and their friends heads spinning. The films title recognizes the universal heterosexual model (whats called normativity) that is now under attack by transgender/cisgender movements.

Sweeney approaches these issues like a standup comic; each scene suggests one dazzling monologue or duologue after another. If youre reminded of TVs gay sitcom Will & Grace, its before that show hardened into progressive agit-prop. Cinema sensitivity is apparent in the subtle details of Sweeney and Findlays characterizations  emotional shifts from self-deprecation to desperation. The ingenious use of split-screen techniques juxtaposes their private dilemmas into visualization of existential crisis.

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Todd is a raconteur who, with his therapist (Tracy Thoms), has mastered camp irony. Hes the gay character Whit Stillman never wrote; brilliant but incorrigible. (Todd regrets that he has only one dimple.) Rory is a malcontent whose full sensuality comes out in a private dance while listening to too-loud music. (Why cant you have sex for five minutes like a normal person! screams her irritated neighbor in the next-door apartment.) These marvelous performances take us well within the gimmicks truth  that is, Todd and Rorys mutual affection.

Has any Hollywood film ever dealt with the possible Platonic aftermath of sexual intercourse? Sweeney teases the insecurities of rom-com conventions: The Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid buddy-movie jokes are priceless; so is the Brokeback Mountain gag. Sweeneys pop-culture sarcasm recalls the audacious Gregg Araki (The Living End, Nowhere) and matches Araki when Todd and Rory attend a costume party dressed like the quarreling lovers in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Never heterophobic, Sweeney assesses traditional romance and marriage with comic skepticism. His portrayal of Todds mixed-race, white-Asian parents (Betsy Brandt, Randall Park) is unillusioned, just like his view of Todds sexually freewheeling peers  the off-limits gay friend (James Scully) and the promiscuous gal pal (Dana Drori) with her tanned Brit hunk (Joshua Diaz). You know Sweeney has truly flipped the tables on p.c. Hollywood sex comedy when Rory and Todds mothers discuss Instead of abortion clinics wed have pregnancy clinics. Is that pro-choice? (Straight Up also boasts a politically conservative parent, without condescension or condemnation.)

In a previous era, Straight Up would be called a fag hag comedy, but Todd and Rorys rapport shows a need for companionship that surpasses the unimaginative limits of conventional human relations. In an era when media celebrate division (pretending that Noah Baumbachs Marriage Story was not actually a celebration of divorce), Straight Up considers our need for coming together that is always pandered to by insincere politicians. I havent seen a romantic comedy this deliriously funny since Annie Hall, or a gay story so hilarious since Patrik-Ian Polks The Skinny. These comparisons should not spoil Sweeneys unconventional wit and poignant optimism.

More from National Review
By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Three children of a family died after a dilapidated wall of their residence collapsed debris fell on the them while they were sleeping. The mishap took place at Mangar Basti under Habeebnagar police limits.

The deceased have been identified as Rosini, age 6, Sarika 4 and Pavani, who was four-months old. Another girl Geeta who was sleeping with them in the house, suffered injuries and is admitted in a hospital.

According to police, the parents were sleeping outside their residence while the four girl children were sleeping inside. When the victims were asleep, suddenly, a wall of their residence collapsed and debris fell on the victims. The incident occurred on Thursday night.

In the mishap, the children were trapped under debris and suffered head injuries. While one girl died at the spot, two were declared brought dead to the hospital.

The police were alerted by locals. They visited the place while shifting the injured victim to nearby hospital.

The GHMC disaster response team visited the place and is clearing debris. Habeebnagar police have registered cases and bodies were shifted to Osmania General Hospital mortuary for examining postmortem.
VANCOUVERThe case of a Swedish bookseller who supposedly renounced his citizenship after being seized by Chinese authorities, is being seen by critics in Canada and elsewhere as a dangerous precedent with chilling implications.

And its rippling through Chinese communities in this country, where some worry they could someday lose the protection thats afforded them by their Canadian citizenship.

We havent really seen something on this level before, and it could represent a whole new type of threat, says human rights activist Peter Dahlin, of Safeguard Defenders.

Earlier this week, Gui Minhai, originally from Ningbo, China and a naturalized Swedish citizen, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in mainland China for illegally providing intelligence overseas.

The Ningbo Intermediate Peoples Court said Tuesday Gui had confessed to the crime and did not plan to appeal the sentence.

At his sentencing announcement, the court also said Gui had applied to get his Chinese citizenship back in 2018 while in custody.

Gui worked at a Hong Kong company publishing books detailing the secret lives of Chinese officials. He vanished from his Thailand home in 2015 and reappeared in mainland China in custody months later. Four of his colleagues also disappeared only to end up in China months later charged with crimes.

Swedens foreign ministry in China was not given access to Guis trial and was not allowed to provide him with legal counsel. Sweden has demanded access and condemned Chinas actions. China has insisted Guis rights have been fully upheld.

A report in the publication Hong Kong Free Press reported the Swedish government confirmed Gui is still a citizen of that country.

Dahlin called the incident dangerous because of the implications China is trying to circumvent consular access rights for foreign detainees charged with crimes  including two Canadians currently held there.

What it means is China could basically detain anyone and say they have renounced their citizenship and become Chinese, Dahlin said. They can deny consular access simply by having the person denounce their citizenship and be given Chinese citizenship.

Dahlin said the international community must condemn the actions strongly. He said China is likely trying to see how far it can push the tactic of forcing a foreign detainee to accept citizenship in the Peoples Republic of China.

If not, China could try a similar strategy on people who have never even been Chinese citizens, Dahlin warned.

Dahlin said the same tactic could be tried with detained Canadians like Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who were arrested more than a year ago on espionage-related charges in what is widely regarded as retaliation for Canadas arrest of Huawei official Meng Wanzhou.

Meng, the CFO of Chinas telecom giant Huawei, was arrested travelling through Vancouver on a request from the United States who seek her on a variety of charges, including fraud.

Guis sentencing and citizenship issue has also raised concerns in the Chinese diaspora in Canada.

Cherie Wong, of Alliance Canada Hong Kong, a newly formed organization aiming to counter Beijings influence in Canada, said such actions can exacerbate fears of Chinese people in Canada about speaking out against Chinas government.

Wong said the move is in line with Beijings attempts to control Chinese people around the world through intimidation and trying to assert control based on an emigres Chinese origins.

If youre ethnically Chinese or if youre a Chinese national, theres a certain level of ownership, like the party owns you, she said. The party owns what you say, what you do, what you represent. And thats what makes it so dangerous to be ethnically Chinese and a dissident.

Wong said the timing of the arrest has placed added stress on Chinese communities in Canada because many are already preoccupied about the coronavirus outbreak and worried about family in China.

Beijing has been accused of bungling the response to the outbreak and critics of the governments handling of it inside mainland China have been arrested or have vanished.

Being in Canada doesnt make many people out of the reach of the Beijing government, Wong said. Her group has been critical of Ottawas handling of China relations, accusing the federal government of silence on Beijings human rights abuses and of attempts to intimidate Canadians in their own country.

We can tell that the Canadian government arent going to speak up for us, she said. Its up to us to protect ourselves and look out for each other.

A request for comment from Global Affairs Canada was not answered by deadline.

With files from The Associated Press

Read more about:
Panaji, Feb 28 : Naysayers who claim that the Indian economy has failed are wrong because marriage halls and hotels are filled to capacity, Union Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi said on Friday.

"Most of the media, most people say the economy is a failure. You just imagine, you go to any hotel, you go to any marriage hall, you go to any flight, even railways... everyday (there is a) complaint," Angadi said while speaking at a technical seminar at a resort near Panaji.

"When you are not getting tickets -- demand is always there. So when so much of demand is there, where is the economy a failure?" Angadi said.

The Union Minister said that India needs to focus on its manufacturing sector, saying that was a key sector in which the country was lagging.

"The only thing we are not working sincerely on -- working hard. We have to go for it. We have to go for manufacturing sector," the BJP leader from Karnataka said.
The Cork Business Association (CBA) says it will use "all resources at its disposal" to ensure that a 100m retail village project does not go ahead in the wider Cork metropolitan area.

The CBA issued the strong message following its AGM this week which coincided with the landmark decision by the planning regulator to urge the Minister for Housing and Urban Development to reverse the recent decision by Cork County Council to vary its development plan to facilitate the development of a vast Kildare Village-style outlet near Carrigtwohill.

It is the first time that the regulator, Niall Cussen, who was appointed last year as an independent watchdog of the planning system, has used his powers to make such a formal recommendation to the minister, who now has two weeks to make his decision.

CBA chief executive, Lawrence Owens, said his members welcome the regulator's move:

"It is important to stress this is the first time that the regulator has used his powers to make a formal recommendation to the minister to direct a local authority to follow his orders."

"Notwithstanding the existing pressures that are currently impacting on a fragile urban retail environment in the Cork Metropolitan area, the timing of this proposal is perplexing to us in the extreme. The CBA is completely against any retail outlet centre which will negatively impact the viability of existing retail and this view was unanimously adopted at the our AGM on Wednesday."

British firm, Rioja Estates, announced plans last November for a tourist village outlet to sell heavily discounted branded goods on a site near Carrigtwohill. The firm says the project could create up to 850 jobs and attract an additional 220,000 tourists to the region every year.

Councillors voted 42-4 in January to vary the county development plan to facilitate the project which the company has said could be open by March 2024.

Chief executive of Cork County Council, Tim Lucey, said that he and his officials believe there is retail capacity in the region to accommodate such a project.

But Mr Owens said the CBA will use all the resources at its disposal and will actively canvas to ensure that such a project does not proceed within the Cork Metropolitan area, within existing and proposed district centres in Douglas, Mahon, Blackpool, Wilton, Ballyvolane and Gurranabraher, or any of the large metropolitan towns including Ballincollig, Carrigaline, Cobh and Midleton.

The CBA's youngest ever president, Eoin O'Sullivan, 29, the sales director and co-manager of wholesale firm, MP O'Sullivan, said he is acutely conscious of the challenges facing the city on many fronts, including the fragility of the retail sector. He told the AGM that among his priorities will be the development of infrastructure to increase footfall in the city.

The CBA previously raised concerns about the retail village project and said the city's retail offering should be "consolidated and enhanced" before consideration is given to such a large retail project.

"Cork city is still fortunate to have a significant percentage of indigenous businesses, however if a Cork outlet village was established it would almost certainly signal the end for many if not all these business," it said.

It also called for massive investment in the region's public transport infrastructure before such a retail project is considered.
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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Vilnius, Lithuania  Fri, February 28, 2020 11:25 684 7f440ff09e92db75a02bbad206723bfa 2 World coronavirus,Wuhan-coronavirus,outbreak,COVID-19,health,epidemic Free

Lithuania reported its first coronavirus infection on Friday, in a woman who returned this week from a visit to Italy's northern city of Verona, the government said, as the disease spreads rapidly worldwide.

Hopes that the virus would be contained to China vanished, with countries beginning to stockpile medical equipment and investors taking flight in expectation of a global recession.

In a statement, the Lithuanian government said the woman had been isolated in hospital in the northern town of Siauliai following her return on Monday.

She has been under observation since, and is showing only slight symptoms, with no elevated temperature at the moment, it added.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-02-28 14:51:35|Editor: huaxia

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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A federal judge in the U.S. state of Washington on Thursday ruled that U.S. President Donald Trump cannot divert funds for a U.S. submarine base in the state to build a wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

Judge Barbara Rothstein in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington permanently blocked the Trump Administration's decision to "reprogram" funding for nearly 89 million U.S. dollars for Naval Base Kitsap, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said.

The funds were previously approved by Congress to build a pier and maintenance facility at the Bangor naval base, home to the U.S. Pacific Fleet's Trident ballistic submarines.

The judge's ruling "is an important victory for the rule of law, and the system of checks and balances our founders enshrined in our Constitution," said Ferguson, who filed a lawsuit in September 2019 to challenge Trump's decision to divert the funds to build the wall at the southern border.

"We're looking forward to this 89 million dollars being used the way Congress intended -- to support a military construction project in Washington state," Ferguson added.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee also welcomed the judge's ruling, saying the court agreed that money from Washington state projects should not be diverted to help subsidize Trump's border wall.

"Washington will continue to fight against any proposed efforts to move funds out of our state for unlawful and unconstitutional purposes," he said. "I thank the Attorney General for his continued fight on behalf of Washingtonians."

This ruling marks the 25th legal victory for the Washington attorney general's office in litigation against the Trump Administration.
A train hit a passenger bus on Friday evening in Sukkur district of Pakistan's southern Sindh province, leaving 15 people dead and over 30 others injured, a railway official told Xinhua, Trend reports.

An official from the railway office in Sukkur district said on condition of anonymity that a Pakistan Express train hit a bus at a railway crossing in Kandhra town in the Rohri area of Sukkur district.

The train pushed the bus several hundred meters on the track after hitting it at the speed of around 60 km per hour, the official said.

Local people, police and rescue teams were shifting the bodies and the injured to a hospital in Sukkur.

Local media quoted rescue officials as saying that the death toll might further rise because several of the injured were in critical condition.
When climate alarmists first presented their poster-child advocate, then-15-year-old Greta Thunberg, she was taken by realists with the appropriate grain of salt. While the MSM rushed to gush all over this "brave" little girl who had somehow mustered the temerity and selflessness to skip school in the service of humanity, many dismissed her "how dare you?" message as yet another banal alarmist slogan.

So when news hit of 19-year-old Naomi Seibt, the so-called "anti-Greta," I must admit to being more than a bit skeptical. After all, is the proper response to an opponent's deployment of a preposterous puppet (she really is a hoot) a rush to Maestro Geppetto's workshop to acquire a marionette of your own?

Hardly. But, as I soon learned, unlike Greta, Naomi is nobody's puppet. And she knows it. She made that quite clear when she explained to Rebel News in December (video), "The reason I don't like the term 'anti-Greta' is because it suggests that I myself am an indoctrinated puppet, I guess, for the other side."

Ouch. But there's so much more to like here.

You see, while Greta deliberately incites panic with words such as those she spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last year ("I want you to panic"), Naomi takes a decidedly different, more rational, approach ("I don't want you to panic").

Stark contrast, indeed, as further apparent in the girls' respect for their followers. While one pushes devotees deeper into obedient alarm ("I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act."), the other's guidance is less visceral, more cerebral, less dictating, more empowering  more mature ("I want you to think" before you act). Nice.



YouTube screen capture.

Come to think of it, I suppose that does sound a bit "anti."

Still, the similarities can't be denied. Beyond their youth, sex, European origins (Greta: Swedish, Naomi: German) and hair length, there's also the not so coincidental timing. Indeed  while Thunberg addressed the United Nations' COP25 conference in Madrid in December, Seibt stood only a few miles away, delivering the keynote at a rival conference  Heartland's Climate Realist Forum (video) (known in alarmist parlance as The Denier's Summit).

Naomi, who decries climate alarmism as "a despicably anti-human ideology," has a personal revulsion to the brand "climate denier," a particularly odious term we first dissected here in 2007. As she explains in the YouTube video she created with our good friends over at the Heartland Institute, "especially as a German, it is so rude to refer to someone as a climate denier because obviously there is a connection to the term 'holocaust denier', which carries a lot of weight in Germany."

She prefers the term "climate realist," a phrase first coined by James Taylor at Heartland's International Climate Change Conference III back in 2009. As it happens, Naomi has just joined the free-market think-tank, which recruited her talents based primarily on her previous YouTube efforts. Theirs was a natural union, with her "Don't Panic  Think First" message aligning perfectly with the institute's "There IS no Climate Crisis" slogan, the latter dating back to the very first International Climate Change Conference in 2008.

Taylor, Heartland's director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy, recently discussed the partnership with the WaPo: "She's a fantastic voice for free markets and for climate realism."

That she is. And contrary to antithetical claims by the uber-alarmists at DeSmog, Naomi's Heartland videos are not produced primarily to "[ask] viewers to consider one teen versus another teen." That's to the alarmists' fortune, indeed, as head-to-head, there's little contest in either the credibility or charm departments, as immediately apparent in Heartland's video, "Naomi Seibt vs. Greta Thunberg: Whom Should We Trust?"

To be fair, Naomi's brushes with the "science" of climate (AGW in particular) are no more appropriate than those of her scowling alarmist adversary. Indeed, statements such as "manmade CO2 emissions having that much impact on the climate" is "ridiculous to believe" invite certain credentials challenges and would be better avoided. By far, she's at her delightful best when doing what YouTube phenoms do best.

From the video "I Want You to Think":

I've got very good news for you. The world is not ending because of climate change. In fact, 12 years from now we will still be around, casually taking photos on our iPhone 18s, tweeting about the current president on Twitter and ranting about the latest celebrity gossip. However, we are currently being force-fed a very dystopian agenda of climate alarmism that tells us that we as humans are destroying the planet. And that the young people, especially, have no future  that the animals are dying, that we are ruining nature.

Beautiful. Does that force-feeding menu sound at all familiar? It should.

Unlike her unlikeable counterpart, Naomi questions neither the motives nor the honesty of her young challengers  the "left-wing environmental groups" that are "genuinely scared of the world ending." Watching her, one gets the immediate sense that her sorrow that the generational blame game is "breaking up families" is genuine  as is her belief that the fear-mongering that depicts humans as "energy-sucking leech[es] on the planet," causing "eco-anxiety and eco-depression," robs youth of their "passionate spirit" and is meant to "control [them]."

In a world where young minds ferment for years in a marinade of climate alarmism and other "progressive" silliness (see the Green New Deal) formulated by schools, politicians and media (both mainstream and social), there's no denying that this intellectually impressive and immediately likeable young lady her due. Other children (e.g., Sandy O) may have bigger mics and broader pulpits from which to preach, but none a more mature yet youth-palatable message to convey.

That's important. Here's why.

As Naomi correctly notes, many young people are "actually scared" by the tactics of alarmists and the antics of her Swedish foil. They "don't know anything about the science behind [climate change]," yet they hear predictions "that the planet is going to end like 12 years from now," and many believe. Scary stuff  especially to a child unaware that it's pure crapola, too.

Now, to hear mainstream news tell it, climate change has become a top-tier voting issue this election cycle, particularly among Democrats. Some actually have the cojones to claim it second only to health care, conveniently disregarding President Trump's greatest strength: the economy.

While that's a great lede for my next piece, the point at present is that bad policy responses to the AGW scam are what remain a serious threat to the planet, not AGW itself. Moreover, the battles for most future voters' climate change beliefs will be waged not in the science or political arenas arguing climate sensitivity and heat budgets, but rather in the blogo-Twitter-sphere, where ideas are seeded and nurtured by those who dare to think. The front lines of those virtual skirmishes will be manned by soldiers looking and sounding a lot more like Naomi and Greta than Christopher and Albert.

This week, Naomi brings her message, her maturity, and her charm to CPAC 2020, billed as "the largest and most influential gathering of conservatives in the world."

It's a world, all of which will be her stage.

I expect this player, this "anti-Greta" and so much more, to make a grand and memorable entrance to it, as Greta exits, stage Left.

Marc Sheppard is a data analyst, software engineer, and writer. He's been a frequent contributor to American Thinker and welcomes your feedback.

Image: Naomi Seibt via YouTube.
Former US president Barack Obama has slammed a TV commercial produced by a Republican group which uses his own words to suggest his former Vice President Joe Biden supports plantation politics.

The ad, which was disseminated on social media and also aired on TV stations in South Carolina ahead of the states Democratic primary this weekend, has reportedly infuriated Obama whose lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to have the content pulled down, CNN reported.

In the ad, Obama can be heard reading a passage from his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, about discrimination against the black community. The ad, however, strongly suggests the words are directed at Biden.

Alongside the online clip, produced by a financial entity that works to help Trump called The Committee to Defend the President, the group claims Biden joined segregationists, wrote a bill that disproportionately jailed African Americans and blamed black parents for inequality.

In a previous Democratic debate Biden was attacked by Kamala Harris (who has since dropped out of the race) for working with segregationist senators. The other claim seems to cite the controversial 1994 crime bill that Biden helped write which has contributed to the countrys high rate of incarceration.

Our new ad playing in South Carolina: @JoeBiden joined segregationists, wrote a bill that disproportionately jailed African Americans, & blamed black parents for inequality. He will not represent us. pic.twitter.com/9qkiOOYn0V  Defend Trump (@Defend_Trump) February 26, 2020

Obama dragged into race by despicable ad

Obama, who has been content to sit on the sidelines during the early days of the race for the Democratic nomination, released a statement to CNN via a spokesperson condemning the move from the pro-Trump group.

Story continues

This despicable ad is straight out of the Republican disinformation playbook, and it's clearly designed to suppress turnout among minority voters in South Carolina by taking President Obama's voice out of context and twisting his words to mislead viewers, she said.

In the interest of truth in advertising, we are calling on TV stations to take this ad down and stop playing into the hands of bad actors who seek to sow division and confusion among the electorate.

In the cease and desist letter, lawyers called the piece of advertising a clear case of misinformation while a spokesperson for Biden lamented the despicable torrent of misinformation by the President's lackeys.

Former US President Barack Obama speaks in the Rose Garden in 2014 with his VP Joe Biden. Source: Getty

The ad is ostensibly designed to reduce black voter turnout in South Carolina this weekend when Democratic party members will get their chance to support their favoured candidate.

Biden, who hitherto has enjoyed resounding support among the black community, has seen those particular poll numbers erode in recent weeks after his campaign got off to a slow start.

The state is nearly 30 per cent African American and Biden has staked his race on winning South Carolina and anything else would be a disaster for him going forward. If Biden cant rely on winning the black vote, where those votes ultimately end up could be decisive.

Obama reluctant to give endorsement

The Democrats most recent president remains a huge figure in the party but has so far declined calls to throw his support behind a particular candidate saying he wants to let the public choose the nominee.

Obama will likely play more of a visible role once a Democratic nominee is chosen and they embark on a presidential campaign against Trump. To date, he has urged voters not to get too hung up on the candidate and called for unity.

Democratic presidential candidates Michael Bloomberg (from left), Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, and Tom Steyer. Source: Getty

Who that candidate will be will become much clearer on Wednesday, March 4 (AEST) when we have whats dubbed Super Tuesday, considered the most important day on the Democratic primary calendar. Thats when more than a dozen states will hold their primaries including hugely influential states like Texas and California.

About a third of all delegates available will be decided on Super Tuesday when there are more than 1,300 votes on offer. If one candidate can build a strong enough lead in delegates (who ultimately decide the candidacy) that would make it tough for others to stay in the race.

The far-left democratic socialist candidate Bernie Sanders continues to lead in the polls and has the most delegates at 45. Followed by Pete Buttigieg with 25, Joe Biden with 15 and Elizabeth Warren who has won eight.

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.
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Friday issued show cause notices to illegal occupants of Kashmiri migrant colonies here, officials said.

The show cause notices were issued by the deputy relief commissioner (Migrants) Jammu through a public notice to these occupants in Muthi, Nagrota, Jagati and Purkhoo camps and colonies in Jammu, they said.

"I am directed to issue show cause notice to the allottees of these quarters situated at various Kashmiri migrant colonies and camps are required to submit their response in writing giving justifiable reasons as to why their allotment be not cancelled and possession taken over by Relief Organisation for allotment to their genuinely deserving families", Deputy Commissioner Relief said in a notice.

The organisation set the deadline for the reply by and before March 10.

After an extensive survey by the officers of relief organisation of various Kashmir migrant camps, the organisation found nearly 100 quarters in these camps were found illegally occupied, the official said.

The official said there are currently more than 300 applications pending with relief and rehabilitation commissioner for allotment of accommodation to the registered Kashmir migrants families.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The trading arm of an independent Chinese refiner went into receivership this week, sending ripples of worry across the industry that more pain is yet to come.

Reuters reported the news, citing a KPMG official after the audit major was appointed receiver for Hontop Energy, a unit of Shandong-based Tianhong Chemical Co.

Hontop continues to be run by the existing management. The receiver has been appointed over specific charged assets which mainly relate to one trade transaction financed by [Singapore bank] DBS. Their involvement is limited to realizing DBS security and to discharge DBS debts, a partner for a law firm acting on behalf of the oil trading company said.

Bloomberg noted that the news would elevate fears about the financial health of the so-called teapots: the independent refiners that became the driver behind Chinas growing imports of crude oil.

Many of the teapots are already on a credit redflag list of banks in Singapore, the news agency quoted an Oxford Institute for Energy Studies executive as saying. The virus has certainly tightened cash-flows and exacerbated banks concerns. Michal Meidan, director of the institutes China Energy Programme said.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that international banks were suspending credit lines for some independent oil refiners worried about the growing risk of defaults across industries because of the coronavirus epidemic.

According to unnamed industry sources, at least three private Chinese refiners have had credit lines to the tune of $600 million suspended by banks including French Natixis, Dutch ING, and Singapore DBS Group Holdings.

According to Bloomberg, however, the private Chinese refiners financial trouble is unlikely to affect overall Chinese demand for oil. What is affecting it severely, however, is the continuing epidemic, which has now spread on three continents, fueling new concern about the global economy, with some even warning that a recession was on the way as the virus outbreak could turn into a pandemic.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Headline indices of the Japan share market finished session steep lower on Friday, 28 February 2020, as investors continued to offload issues in line with a global rout, as fears are mounting that the spread of the coronavirus could hurt the global economy. Adding to gloom, data on Friday showed retail sales in Japan declined 0.4% year-on-year in January. All industry categories of Topix index lost ground, with Mining, Air Transportation, Real Estate, Securities & Commodities Futures, and Oil & Coal Products issues being notable losers. At closing bell, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average tumbled 805.27 points, or 3.67%, to 21,142.95, while the broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange sank 57.19 points, or 3.65%, at 1,510.87.

The falls in Tokyo market came as intense fears about a slowdown in global growth caused by the rapid global spread of deadly coronavirus and to disrupt global trade. Most new virus cases are now being reported outside China - the origin of the outbreak - with South Korea, Italy, Japan, and Iran emerging as new epicentres.

Investor sentiment took another hit when California's governor said 8,400 people were being monitored after travelling to China. Meanwhile, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed an infection in California in a person who reportedly did not have relevant travel history or exposure to another known patient.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases outside of China has also jumped. In South Korea, more than 1,700 cases have been confirmed along with over 600 in Italy. The outbreak has the potential to become a pandemic and is at a decisive stage, the head of the World Health Organization said Thursday.

ECONOMIC NEWS: Japan Industrial Production Climbs 0.8% On Month In January- Japan industrial production climbed a seasonally adjusted 0.8% on month in January, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in Friday's preliminary reading, following the 1.2% gain in December. On an annual basis, industrial production sank 2.5%.

Upon the release of the data, the METI downgraded its assessment of industrial production, saying that it fluctuates indecisively but has weakened.

Shipments were up 0.2% on month and down 3.7% on year, while inventories rose 1.5% on month and 3.8% on year. The inventory ratio sank 1.5% on month but spiked 9.6% on year. According to the METI's forecast for industrial production, output is expected to climbed 5.3% on month in February but then sink 6.9% in March.

Japan Retail Sales Up 0.6% On Month In January- Japan total value of retail sales was up a seasonally adjusted 0.6% on month in January, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on Friday, following the 0.2% gain in December. On a yearly basis, retail sales fell 0.4% following the 2.6% slide in the previous month.

Japan Unemployment Rate Climbs To 2.4% In January- Japan jobless rate came in at a seasonally adjusted 2.4% in January, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday, as compared to 2.2% from the previous month. The job-to-applicant ratio was 1.49, as against 1.57 from a month earlier.

CURRENCY NEWS: The Japanese yen, often viewed as a safe-haven currency in times of economic uncertainty, appreciated against a basket of currencies, amid growing concerns about the spread of the pneumonia-causing virus. The Japanese yen, considered a safe-haven asset, traded at 108.53 per dollar after seeing levels above 111.2 earlier in the trading week. US crude made a fresh one-year low of $48.17 per barrel in Asian trade, while gold rose 0.3% to $1,644.30 per ounce.

In Commodity news: Crude oil prices tumbled for a fifth day overnight to their lowest in more than a year over fears coronavirus could slow the global economy and erode demand for crude. Brent crude dropped $US1.25, or 2.3%, to settle at US$52.18 a barrel, off the session low of US$50.97 a barrel, the lowest since December 2018. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures sank US$1.64, or 3.4%, to US$47.09, after hitting their lowest since January 2019.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The GAA are prepared to do whatever is recommended by the Government to help combat the spread of coronavirus.

As Switzerland today banned all public and private events involving over 1,000 people to fight the outbreak of the disease and the IRFU were directed to postpone Irelands Six Nations game against Italy, the GAA have yet to receive any such correspondence regarding their own fixtures.
Siddhanta Mishra By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: For the last two days, Mohammad Rehan is busy attending phone calls. The mobile phone belongs to his tenant Mohammad Mubarak Hussain, who died in Maujpur during the communal riots on Tuesday. Hussains name is on the first list of deceased released by GTB Hospital.



He was helpful. Ask anyone in the colony and they will only praise Hussain. Unfortunately, such incidents claim the lives of common people, said Rehan. Hussain, from Madhubani in Bihar, used to odd jobs in Maujpur area. According to his neighbours, he was going to drop his younger brother Mohammad Ibrahim to Kashmiri Gate ISBT, when they were caught in the mob frenzy.



ALSO READ: Lone breadwinner dies in Delhi riots, family stares at bleak future

He tried to protect his brother from the murderous crowd which was out of control. Mubarak paid with his life as outsiders from both sides went on a rampage, said Farzana, Hussains neighbour. Rehan, who runs a nursing home on ground floor, is busy attending distraught calls from Hussains family.



His parents are coming to Delhi but they need a guide as the city is new to them. First, they will go to the hospital and then take the body back, said a neighbour. Meanwhile, Gulfam Ahmed is cursing the day he decided to move to Delhi from Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh.

It was a mistake. For the last three days, I have not opened my shop. The business was already down and the riot is taking a toll, said a teary Ahmed, who lives a few lanes away from Rehan and owns a stationery shop.



We have been getting frantic calls from family and friends asking us to come back. Is it possible to suddenly uproot our lives and start afresh? questions Ahmed, who has four children and three of them are working.
BERLIN, Feb. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading neutrino energy scientists are quite a bit ahead of the curve when it comes to finding a solution to keep fossil fuels in the ground and to save the climate by bringing a viable new source of green energy. Back in 2015, Holger Thorsten Schubart, the CEO of the Neutrino Energy Group, announced and patented a conductive material quite similar to the newly-discovered trilayer graphene superconductor.

Science: The Discovery of Neutrinovoltaic Technology

In this patent, Schubart describes a "neutrino film" that is capable of responding to the motion of neutrinos as they pass through the planet in their countless trillions every day.

While mainstream science has just caught up to the idea that extremely thin layers of carbon are capable of responding to and carrying electrical energy with almost 100 percent fidelity, Schubart and the team at the Neutrino Energy Group have been hard at work developing usable neutrino energy technology since 2015. Inspired by the gripping 2015 discovery that neutrinos do, in fact, have mass, Schubart has dedicated the full resources of the Neutrino Energy Group toward developing new technologies capable of transforming this ethereal mass and other non-visible cosmic particles into usable energy.

How Does Neutrinovoltaic Technology Work?

With the discovery that neutrinos have mass, it became a given that these ghostly particles can be harnessed and used for energy. To transform the energy of passing neutrinos into usable electricity, a revolution of science and engineering was required.

The basis of the Neutrinovoltaic Technology involves the use of incredibly thin layers of graphene to create a resonance from passing neutrinos and convert this kinetic energy into electricity. To do so, spiked graphene and silicon are adhered to a suitable substrate, and when passing neutrinos strike this combination of silicon and graphene, a harmonic resonance process begins that is then registered by an electrical conversion device.

This technology has been demonstrated to work in laboratory settings at the University of Chicago. While it can currently only derive a small amount of electricity from passing neutrinos, Schubart expects that this neutrino energy technology will be capable of powering small devices like smartphones within just a few years.

The Implications of Improved Graphene Superconductor Technology

For years, the primary argument against neutrino energy technology is that it is impractical. While it might be true that neutrinos have mass and can, therefore, be harnessed to create energy, the energy derived from neutrinos is so small that it could never be used to power a smartphone let alone an entire city's electrical grid.

From the beginning, however, Schubart and other proponents of neutrino energy have maintained that every great leap forward in human energy technology takes time. Solar panels were invented in 1958, but photovoltaic cells only entered into widespread consumer use in the 1990s. During the more than 30 years that elapsed before solar cells became mainstream, plenty of skeptics laughed at the idea that these energy collectors could ever become practical. Today, however, thousands of homes across the world are powered purely with solar panels, and photovoltaic cell technology is now so cheap that it's accessible to practically every consumer.

Just as continuing scientific discoveries and engineering feats gradually gave solar panel technology the legitimacy it needed to break into the mainstream, so does the recent discovery of superconducting trilayer graphene bring neutrino energy one step forward into mainstream acceptance within the scientific community.

Authors: Samuel Holmes & Linda Smith

Contact:

Neutrino Deutschland GmbH

Unter den Linden 21-23

10117 Berlin

Tel.:+49 30 20924013

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://neutrino-energy.com

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When new viruses or bacteria spread to humans, it is essential to clarify their special characteristics as quickly as possible. For example, why is the coronavirus resistant to common drugs? In the future, new Big Data technology can help to identify the characteristics of new strains of viruses and bacteria in a short time. It does this by comparing the genome of a single organism with the genome of all the strains of a species. This procedure can also be used for more highly developed organisms such as mammals. The new project 'Pangaia' at Bielefeld University is investigating how the masses of data used in this process can be ordered and analyzed for use in biomedicine. The university is one of eleven project partners from Europe and North America. The EU is funding the project with 1.14 million euros over three years.

When biomedical scientists want to find out whether the genetic material of a living being shows particular variations, they usually use a reference genome. They combine several genomes in such a way that they exhibit the typical characteristics of an entire species. This enables researchers to compare a new influenza virus with a reference genome that summarizes the typical features of the virus strains from which it originates.

In these cases, we compare only two genomes with each other--differences and similarities are relatively easy to identify on the computer. With the new approach, we can compare one genome to thousands of other genomes in a single step." Professor Dr. Jens Stoye from the Faculty of Technology, who is taking part in Pangaia with his Genome Informatics research group

Researchers call this exploration of the genetic repertoire of a population 'pangenomics'.

'Until now, the problem with computer-assisted pangenomics has been the lack of transparency caused by the mass of data,' said Professor Dr Alexander Schonhuth from the Faculty of Technology, who has been head of the Genome Data Science working group since January 2020. He is coordinating Bielefeld's Pangaia sub-project. Like Jens Stoye, he and his group are carrying out research at Bielefeld University's Center for Biotechnology (CeBiTec).

Genetic data are represented by the letters A, C, G, and T. These represent the nucleotides, the building blocks of the genetic material. Genomes can be made up of billions of these information units. To make them easier to compare, they can be displayed next to each other as 'letter chains'. This traditional sequence-based representation is widespread today. 'But with hundreds of comparison genomes, it takes a great deal of time to analyze step by step how the genome under investigation differs from each of the comparison genomes,' said Schonhuth.

'The new technology enables a simultaneous, integrated analysis of many strains of the same organism. These can be viruses, bacteria, and sometimes even higher organisms,' explains Jens Stoye. 'This makes it possible to highlight the similarities and differences between the individual members. In the case of pathogens, it is often even possible to understand and predict the processes that led to the development of particularly infectious strains. 'The technology can also be used to detect hereditary diseases in humans or to determine which mutations in a tumor have led to strong, abnormal growth.

'Over the next few years, we want to develop new algorithms and data structures with our project partners that will make computer-assisted pangenomics faster and more user-friendly,' says Schonhuth. One goal is to develop algorithms for variation graphs. With these programs, the computers search for similarities and differences between the comparative genomes and present the results graphically: 'Variation graphs enable a rapid and high-resolution differentiation of pathogenic and harmless variants of a virus,' says Schonhuth. 'In particular, they also allow us to identify completely novel mutations, such as those that have presumably occurred in the variant of the coronavirus currently breaking out in China and that have led to resistance to the usual medications.'

The full name of the Pangaia project is 'Pan-genome Graph Algorithms and Data Integration'. It will run from January 2020 to December 2023. The European Union is funding Pangaia through its Horizon 2020 research framework program and the University of Milan (Italy) is coordinating the project. Other partners besides Bielefeld University are: the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), Comenius University Bratislava (Slovakia), the biotech companies Geneton (Slovakia) and Illumina Cambridge (Great Britain), the Institut Pasteur (France), Simon Fraser University (Canada), University of Tokyo (Japan), Cornell University, and Pennsylvania State University (both USA).
On February 29, after the completion of a week-long reduction in violence period in Afghanistan, the US government and the Taliban are expected to sign a milestone agreement on a troop withdrawal. What happens next, however, is unclear.

The hope is to launch an intra-Afghan dialogue that results in a comprehensive peace process and an end to an interminable war. Challenges abound, howeverfrom a new post-election Afghan political crisis to concerns about the Talibans genuine commitment to negotiating peace.

The latest episode of the AfPak File assesses the violence reduction period, looks ahead to the US-Taliban deal, considers what might come next, and lays out all the obstacles ahead.

The discussion features Andrew Watkins, senior Afghanistan analyst at the International Crisis Group; Nilofar Sakhi, a faculty member at George Mason University; Mustafa Sarwar, a journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Afghan Service, locally known as Radio Azadi; and Michael Kugelman, Asia Program deputy director and senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center. RFE/RL's media manager, Muhammad Tahir is the moderator.




Airport employees wear masks as a precaution against the spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19 as they work at the Sao Paulo International Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Feb. 26, 2020. (Andre Penner/AP Photo)

Countries Take Tough Steps to Contain Coronavirus

Saudi Arabia cut travel to Islams pilgrimage sites, South Korea toughened penalties for those breaking quarantines, Japan closed schools, and airports across Latin America looked for signs of sick passengers on Feb. 27 as the coronavirus stirred fears across of the globe.

Viruses dont know borders and they dont stop at them, said Roberto Speranza, the health minister in Italy, where northern towns were on army-guarded lockdowns and supermarket shelves were bare.

As growing parts of Europe and the Middle East saw infections and a first case was found in South America, air routes were halted and border control toughened. But for an illness transmitted so easily, leaders puzzled over how to keep the virus from proliferating seemed willing to try anything to keep their people and economies safe.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for schools across the country to close for weeks, a decision that affects 12.8 million students.

The most important thing is to prevent infections, said Norinobu Sawada, vice principal of the Koizumi primary school, so there arent many other options.

In South Korea, the hardest-hit country outside of China, four Busan markets known for colorful silks and a dizzying array of other wares were shuttered while the countrys military sent hundreds of its doctors and soldiers to aid in treatment and quarantines.

Peru put specialists on round-the-clock shifts at its biggest airport, Argentina took the temperature of some new arrivals, and El Salvador added bans for travelers from Italy and South Korea.

In Iran, the front line of Mideast infections, officials loosened rules barring the import of many foreign-made items to allow in sanitizers, face masks, and other necessities, and removed overhead handles on Tehrans subways to eliminate another source of germs.

Mecca, which able-bodied Muslims are called to visit at least once in their lives, and the mosque in Medina were cut off to potentially millions of pilgrims, with Saudi Arabia making the extraordinary decision to stop the spread of the virus.

With the monarchy offering no firm date for the lifting of restrictions, it posed the possibility of affecting those planning to make their hajj, a ritual beginning at the end of July this year.

We ask God Almighty to spare all humanity from all harm, the country said in announcing the decision.

Disease has been a constant concern surrounding the hajj, with cholera outbreaks in the 19th century killing tens of thousands making the trip. More recently, another coronavirus that caused Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, prompted increased public health measures, but no outbreak resulted.

COVID-19s westward creepincluding a case in California in the United States that doesnt appear linked to overseas travelhas some countries warning their people to obey measures intended to keep a single case from blossoming into a cluster that could paralyze a community.

A man originally from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the center of the global outbreak, who contracted the virus was charged alongside his wife in Singapore for allegedly lying about their whereabouts as officials tried to stem further infections.

In Colombia, which has yet to report any cases, officials reminded residents they could be jailed for up to eight years if they violate containment measures. And in South Korea, the National Assembly passed a law strengthening the punishment for those violating self-isolation, more than tripling the fine and adding the possibility of a year in prison.

It came later than it should have, said Lee Hae-shik, spokesman for South Koreas ruling Democratic Party, calling for further non-partisan cooperation to address the outbreak.

Countries efforts to contain the virus have sparked diplomatic scuffles. South Korea fought prohibitions keeping its citizens out of 40 countries, calling them excessive and unnecessary. China warned Russia to stop discriminatory measures against its people, including monitoring on public transit. Iran used the crisis to rail against the United States, which it accused of a conspiracy that was sowing fear.

Tens of thousands around the world have been sickened. An additional 505 cases were reported in South Korea, where the military called off joint drills planned with U.S. troops. Irans caseload surged by more than 100 cases.

Even the furthest reaches of the globe were touched by the epidemic, with a woman testing positive in Tromsoe, the fjord-dotted Norwegian city with panoramas of snow-capped mountains. Health officials said the woman had traveled to China.

Australia Starts Emergency Plan

Australias government on Feb. 27 initiated an emergency response plan, warning its citizens to prepare for a coronavirus pandemic as the deadly virus continues to spread around the globe.

We believe the risk of a global pandemic is very much upon us and as a result, as a government, we need to take the steps necessary to prepare, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

Australia has 23 confirmed cases of coronavirus15 of these cases are reported to have recovered. Eight more Australians were infected while aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Morrison also announced Feb. 27 the country has extended its travel ban to March 7, forbidding foreign nationals from entering the country from mainland China for an additional week to protect Australians.

The emergency response plan covers a number of factors, including further quarantine measures, tighter controls at airports and ports, and keeping schools informed as to how they should respond to any widespread outbreak.

The government is currently at the Initial action stagethe first of three stages outlined in its emergency response plan, which was released Feb. 18. The initial stage will focus on activities such as minimizing transmission, preparing and supporting health system needs, and border measures.
Bernie Sanders, who demonstrated his appeal to Latino voters in Nevada by winning 53% of their votes, seems impervious to any critical examination of his actual record.

But it turns out his political closet is bulging with anti-Latino secrets  not the Castro kind, but the kind that might just vaporize his support as word gets out.

Here's Tucker Carlson with just a whiff of what's brewing:

Carlson points out that Sanders was against illegal immigration before he was for it and essentially understood that helping the working class here might just mean not importing competition from abroad to drive their wages down. An illegal alien from Honduras, for instance, often consents to earning starvation wages and living in a room with 12 other people in some place like Lancaster, Calif., simply because his dollars earned can be converted to a princely living when sent back home. The effect on the American workers? Wages driven downward to compete with the illegally present new entrants. Too bad about those guys.

Sanders knew this, until he didn't. Carlson points out that this is a major flipflop in Sanders' position, given that he now supports open borders, and not just open borders, but free health care, free college, and free everything else to all comers who manage to sneak past the border guards he incidentally wishes to abolish. And sure enough, now that he's the Democratic frontrunner, riding in on his wave of Latino support.

Fine and dandy, maybe they forgive him that or, at least as likely, don't know and don't care. Maybe they don't believe that this would drive their own wages to Guatemalan levels, not realizing that they're now in an argument with math.

But there's more to it than just a Sanders flip-flop to an open-borders position as a pander to the Latino vote.

Sanders, according to Townhall's Guy Benson, who found some interesting opposition research dug up by an anti-Sanders #NeverTrump, has a mean streak when it comes to Latinos.

In one of the very few things he ever did legislatively (and he did very little, indeed), Sanders co-sponsored a bill to dump Vermont's and Maine's toxic nuclear waste onto a little Latino Texas town against the locals' wishes, giving them the stiff arm when they protested and turning a tidy profit for his wife, who's still drawing checks. Benson writes:

Out of pure curiosity, I clicked the link in one of his tweets, and...wow: (1) In 1998, then-Rep. Sanders cosponsored a bill that would allow Vermont and Maine to dump their nuclear waste in a poor and largely Latino town in Texas called Sierra Blanca. (2) A Texas Observer article in 1998 covered protestors from Sierra Blanca confronting Rep. Sanders and being given the stiff arm. The story's headline was "Sanders to Sierra Blanca: Drop Dead." Sanders even rebuffed an offer to visit Sierra Blanca, telling its residents, "Absolutely not. I'm gonna be running for re-election in the state of Vermont." (3) Liberal hero Paul Wellstonean actual progressive Democratgave a speech on the Senate floor calling this dump "environmental racism." Former Texas Democratic Rep. Silvestre Reyes called Sanders actions "insanely callous." (4) After Congress approved the proposal, environmental regulators rejected the Sierra Blanca site. But a different site in Andrews County, Texas gained approval a few years later and Vermont/Texas maintain an interstate waste agreement. (5) In 2016, Sanders' tax returns revealed that as of 2014 Jane Sanders was still drawing a small salary as an alternate commissioner for the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission as part of the agreement with Vermont that her husband pushed.

He hasn't made any amends or flip-flops on that one, and his wife is still drawing checks, maybe hoping no one notices.

It goes to show the essential heartlessness of socialism in action, as checks and balances are erased in a system of all power going to the government, and people, in the name of "the people," count for nothing, particularly if they get in the way with protests.

That's a pretty good skeleton from Sanders's closet for anyone, but it ought to end Latino support for Sanders in particular, unless these Sanders Latinos actually like it. Since establishment Democrats now say they will do anything to stop Sanders from becoming the Democratic nominee, even if it means destroying their own party, one can be fairly sure that these kinds of stories are going to be getting out, courtesy of their mainstream media allies, pretty soon.

Good.

Image credit: Fox News, YouTube screen shot.
Battle lines between EU and UK being drawn over fishing rights

by Douglas Fraser

February 28,2020 | Source: BBC News

Fish have been served up among the main bones of contention between the United Kingdom government and the European Union.



The negotiating mandate published on Thursday at Westminster is a long way from the vision for a future relationship for managing wild fish stocks in the European Commission's proposals.



That comes as no surprise to those who have seen the pre-negotiation posturing - from the rhetoric of the 2016 Brexit campaign, to the priorities set out by Brussels along with the Withdrawal Agreement.



The industry does not matter nearly as much as car manufacturing or finance. In employment terms, traditional fishing represents less than 1% of the UK economy, and little more than that in Scotland.



However, it is of totemic importance to coastal communities and to the governments that represent them. Brexiteers played on dislike of the Common Fisheries Policy, making claims of the harm it did since 1973.



In negotiations to join, one telling Whitehall internal discussion saw fisheries described as "expendable" alongside other priorities. That treatment has been a powerful way of boosting hostility to the EU from Shetland and north-east Scotland to Cornwall.



However, other parts of the fishing industry are concerned that their access to European markets will suffer in the looming negotiations, including creel fishing and food processing.



On Wednesday in the Scottish Parliament, Fergus Ewing, the cabinet secretary responsible for fisheries (and much else besides), set out means of getting the inshore fleet to get along better, resolving disputes over gear and putting less plastic in the water. He also set out how significant that sector is:



80% of Scotland's 2,000 registered fishing vessels operate in inshore waters

Of those 1,600 boats, most are micro-businesses going after prawns, langoustine, lobster and scallops

Much of the catch is heading for export markets in France, Spain and Italy: in 2018, 100m-worth of langoustines were exported from the UK

Two-thirds of the world's langoustines are sourced in Scotland, he said, mostly destined for France, Spain and Italy

Much of that catch is trucked, fresh or even live, to continental markets. The sector fears health certificates will be required, adding to delay and cost. And trucks could be stuck in bottlenecks at Channel ports, each one with diminishing value to its cargo as it does so.



Meanwhile, Spain, France and the continuing EU members around the North Sea have ensured the industry has a special status in the EU negotiating mandate. Even though many other countries have no coast let alone a fishing fleet, they have signed up to this.



So this week, the two sides crystallised their positions. On Tuesday, Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, put fisheries in the context of the free trade deal he wants to secure.



The mandate emphasises the scarcity of fish and the need to manage stocks responsibly, and the sharing of data and research. On that, there's no disagreement - though both sides saying they'll look to scientific advice overlooks the track record of the Common Fisheries Policy. It routinely bends its way round that advice for reasons of political expediency and governments rarely complain about that.

 2020 BBC

Theme(s): Others.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2020 > Perspective from Shaheen Bagh

EDITORIAL

As we go to press today, the situation at Delhis Shaheen Bagh remains extremely fluid. The countrys Apex Court had sent interlocutors to Shaheen Bagh to discuss with the protesters there and get their consent to allow traffic movement to distant places that had been blocked for 69 days, that is, since the Shaheen Bagh protest against the Citizens Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) had begun. In fact this morning itself one of the roads supposed to have been blocked by the protesters had been opened for a brief period of 45 minutes with some of the protesters arguing that if this was possible why was the road not being permanently opened.

The situation is still hazy and one has not come across any words of wisdom from the leaders including the Union Home Minister (the architect of the CAA and NRC experiment, as per his public pronouncements to that effect) as to whether he sticks to his original statement in Parliaments both Houses or if he wants to modify it. Political analysts are convinced that the ruling partys stand has suffered a jolt following the Delhi Assembly election result that have seen the BJP routed by the incumbent AAP Government of Arvind Kejriwal, and that is why it is waiting for the appropriate time to attack the protesters as the BJP leaders had declared sometime ago. In fact, in reply to a specific question in that regard at the recently held Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Amit Shah had repeated what he had said earlierthat there was no question of retreating from the governments original position of carrying out the CAA come what may.

Close observers of the national scene under the NDA-II Government are of the considered view that the Modi-Shah duo is determined to implement the CAA and there has been no change in its position on this issue. That, we all know, would be playing with fire. The Shaheen Bagh protesters are currently fighting with their backs to the wall as far as this issue is concerned. In this backdrop, the Opposition parties must unite to effectively combat and defeat the ruliong partys nefarious designs. As was highlighted in these columns last week,

....the coming days will be trying times for those who are committed to defending democracy and secularism, who want communal amity and social unity, who want to keep India as a free and open society as it has always been. The need of the hour is the unity of the people, rather than the unity only of Opposition parties, to face the challenges ahead. It is only the rock-solid unity of the people and the coalescing of all anti-fascist forces into a single solid phalanx of resistance that can prevent a fascist takeover of the country.

This perspective should never being lost sight of. It is only peoples unity, as witnessed so brilliantly at Shaheen Bagh, that can give a fitting rebuff to the authorities in power at the Centre.

February 21 S.C.
Donbas conflict, soldier smoking RFE/RL

On February 27, Russian mercenaries landed five attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas. They used Minsk-banned weapons, specifically 120 mm mortars, Ukraine's Defense Ministry reports.

According to the Ukrainian authority, one Ukrainian serviceman lost his life in combat. Another one was wounded.

In Donetsk region, the enemy delivered two attacks. In Novomykhailivka, the mercenaries fired grenade launchers and small arms. In Krasnohorivka, they delivered six shots from the mounted anti-tank grenade launcher.

In Luhansk region, the militants opened fire in three locations. 120 mm mines hit Ukrainian positions in Novotoshkivske; heavy machine guns and small arms were used, too. More volleys from 120 mm mortars were observed in Orikhove.

On February 26, Russian mercenaries fired at the positions of the Ukrainian military four times and used weapons of prohibited calibers. The press service of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports this information. Specifically, the militants violated the truce in the Donetsk direction twice. They used 120 mm mortars and easel anti-tank grenade launchers to target Ukrainian positions near Maryinka; hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, small arms, and easel anti-tank grenade launchers near Pavlopil.
State regulators are ready to impose a penalty of about $2.14 billion against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. because of its role in causing catastrophic wildfires in 2017 and 2018.

The decision announced Thursday by the California Public Utilities Commission would mark a more than 27% increase to a settlement that PG&E reached with union leaders and the commissions safety staff in December.

The commission said it is the largest penalty ever assessed by the state. Shareholders of PG&E Corp., the utilitys parent company, not customers, would be on the hook for the fine.

Its the most significant regulatory punishment PG&E faces because of the 2017 Wine Country wildfires and the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history. The decision does not penalize PG&E for the worst 2017 blaze, the Tubbs Fire, which state investigators blamed on someone else.

PG&E spokeswoman Lynsey Paulo said in an email that the company is disappointed in the decision of an administrative law judge at the commission. The judge, Sophia Park, decided to add $462 million to the settlement deal PG&E reached with regulatory staff and union representatives.

Paulo said PG&E had worked diligently over many months to reach a settlement that addresses multiple needs and would allow for additional investments to further strengthen the companys electric operations.

We recognize our fundamental obligation is to operate our system safely and we share the same objectives as the Commission and other state leaders  namely in reducing the risk of future wildfires in our communities, Paulo said in the email.

The fires covered by the judges decision killed more than 100 people and incinerated tens of thousands of buildings from the North Bay to the Sierra Nevada foothills, where the Butte County town of Paradise was almost totally destroyed.

PG&E filed for bankruptcy protection a few months after the Camp Fire. Commissioners are currently reviewing proposals for how the company should emerge from bankruptcy and began hearings about the matter this week.

If PG&E agrees to the modified settlement within 20 days and it is not appealed by another party or flagged by one of the five commissioners for further review, Parks decision will be final and the penalty will be imposed.

April Rose Maurath Sommer, the executive and legal director of the Wild Tree Foundation, a group involved in the regulatory proceedings, told The Chronicle in an email that she plans to appeal the decision, calling the amount insufficient to address PG&Es wildfire-related misdeeds.

Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California

Of the $2.14 billion penalty, about $1.8 billion would come from forcing PG&E shareholders to pay for wildfire expenses that the company would have otherwise tried to recover in rates, the commission said.

PG&E would also pay a direct $200 million fine to the states general fund. The original settlement did not envision fining the company because of the fires.

Also under the judges decision, PG&E would have to spend $114 million on some fire safety efforts  a $64 million increase from the settlements original plan. One of the efforts would provide funding to the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers to help vulnerable people cope with PG&Es fire-prevention blackouts.

Any tax savings PG&E gains because of the regulatory settlement would have to be applied to the benefit of PG&Es customers, the commissions statement said.

J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris
Hyderabad: Youth coming out of the Mecca Masjid and protest against the Delhi Police for its alleged complicity in the violence in the national capital, in Hyderabad, on Feb 28, 2020. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Hyderabad: Youth coming out of the Mecca Masjid and protest against the Delhi Police for its alleged complicity in the violence in the national capital, in Hyderabad, on Feb 28, 2020. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Hyderabad: Youth coming out of the Mecca Masjid and protest against the Delhi Police for its alleged complicity in the violence in the national capital, in Hyderabad, on Feb 28, 2020. (Photo: IANS) Image Source: IANS News

Hyderabad, Feb 28 : Parts of Hyderabad on Friday witnessed protests against the Delhi Police for its alleged complicity in the violence in the national capital.

People staged the protests after Friday prayers, raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and the Delhi Police.

Youth coming out of the historic Mecca Masjid shouted slogans. The sloganeering sent the police into a tizzy briefly but the protestors peacefully dispersed. They were raising slogans like 'Delhi Police down down', 'Modi teri tana shahi nahi chalegi' and 'Awaz do hum ek hain'.

Police had made massive security arrangements at the mosque and nearby historic Charminar to prevent any untoward incident. Large number of policemen and personnel from Rapid Action Force (RAF) were deployed in the communally sensitive old city in view of the possible protests against Delhi violence.

A similar protest was held outside Masjid Ujale-e-Shah in Saeedabad after Friday prayers. The protestors carrying placards and raising slogans tried to take out a rally but were stopped by the police. The protestors condemned the role of Delhi Police in the riots and demanded justice to the victims.

Earlier, dozens of Muslim women offered special prayers 'Qunoot-e-Nazila' at Eidgah Ujale Shah. They made special supplication in view of the current situation in the country, especially in riot-hit parts of Delhi.

Meanwhile, protests continued at Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) for a fourth consecutive day. Students took out a rally on the campus to condemn violence in Delhi.

MANUU Students Union President Uamar Farooq Quadri told IANS that they were continuing the protest, demanding action against the police personnel involved in targeting the Muslim community.

The protestors also demanded resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah. They also demanded that that Delhi BJP leader Kapil Mishra should be booked for sedition.
The Ministries of Defense of Greece and Armenia have signed a bilateral cooperation plan for 2020 in Athens, as reported the Department of Information and Public Relations at the Ministry of Defense of Armenia.

The delegation led by Head of the Department for Defense Policies at the Ministry of Defense of Armenia Levon Ayvazyan today participated in the discussion on Greek-Armenian cooperation plans and military-political consultations in the defense sector in Athens.

The consultations led to the signing of a plan for cooperation between the Ministries of Defense of Greece and Armenia for 2020 (the plan contains 21 actions to be carried out in Greece and Armenia, including training programs in the directions of special significance forces, military medicine and tactical preparation, exchange of experience in the fields of cyber security, engineering and other fields, military-political consultations and exchange of information).

On the same day, a trilateral action plan for 2020 was signed by the representatives of the Ministries of Defense of Armenia, Greece and Cyprus. The action plan contains dozens of actions to be carried out in Armenia, Greece and Cyprus that concern trilateral training programs and military-political consultations in various sectors.
ORISKANY, N.Y.  Oneida County Sheriff Robert Maciol says the death of a 63-year-old Rome liquor store owner was not a homicide, but he cannot yet comment on how Michael DeShane died.

The sheriff's office said Thursday the death was not suspicious, after authorities were called to Michael's Whitestown home just before noon. Michael's son, Jason DeShane, called 911 to report the incident, according to Maciol.

"When we say not suspiciousIm saying it's not criminal, said Maciol.

Michael was in State Supreme Court Wednesday regarding a domestic complaint his son, Jason DeShane, filed in November of 2019.

After a video circulated on social media showing Jason making verbal threats to an employee at the liquor store, a temporary Extreme Risk Protection Order was issued for both men.

Police seized 80 guns from the home Michael and Jason shared on Feb. 20 under the red flag law, which allows authorities to removed weapons from anyone who may be a threat to themselves or others.

In court Wednesday, the judge extended the order, seizing Michaels guns for one year.

Maciol says they are waiting for autopsy results to confirm the cause of death.
A 20th patient in Britain has tested positive for coronavirus in the first transmission within the UK.

Chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said it was not yet clear if the illness had been passed on from somebody who had recently travelled abroad.

Health officials have begun efforts to trace anyone who may have come into contact with the patient, who Public Health England (PHE) said is a Surrey resident.

The news comes after a British man became the first UK citizen to die from coronavirus.

Londoners wear Coronavirus masks - In pictures 1 /61 Londoners wear Coronavirus masks - In pictures A man wearing a protective mask travels on the underground tube Reuters A woman wearing a protective face mask Jeremy Selwyn A man and woman wearing protective face masks on a bus PA A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn A woman shopper wears a protective mask as she walks down an aisle in a supermarket in London AFP via Getty Images A man wearing a face mask waits to board an underground train on the Central Line at Bank station in London AP A woman with a plastic box over her head on the London Underground. PA A woman wearing a protective face mask walking down Oxford Street in London PA A woman wearing a mask walks by the Emirates Stadium Action Images via Reuters A man is seen wearing a protective face mask at Waterloo station Reuters A woman wears a surgical mask as she walks through Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport Reuters A fan in the stands wears a mask during the Premier League match at Stamford Bridg PA A man wearing a protective face mask walking down Oxford Street PA Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn A person wears a mask in a display of street style outside the BFC Show Space show in London PA Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn A man who appears to be homeless sleeping wearing a mask in Victoria Jeremy Selwyn Commuters with masks on during the Coronavirus outbreak Jeremy Selwyn A commuter on the tube wearing a face mask Jeremy Selwyn A woman wears a mask while crossing London Bridge Getty Images People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn A man wearing a face mask walks past an entrance sign for Bank underground train station AP The coronavirus outbreak will unlikely lead to a Tube ban PA People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn A woman wearing a face mask on the London Underground. PA People wear masks at Holborn underground Station Jeremy Selwyn A pedestrian wears a face mask whilst walking along High Holborn PA A pedestrian wears a face mask whilst walking along High Holborn PA A man wears a mask as he takes a photograph in China Town AP A man in a hazmat suit and face mask cleans the Ritchie Street Health Centre, Islington PA A commuter at Euston wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A commuter at Euston wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A man arrives at Euston Underground wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn St Pancras Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn Jeremy Selwyn Staff in suits at St Thomas's Hospital today Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A commuter arrives at St Pancras wearing a mask Jeremy Selwyn A man wears a face mask as he stands near an electronic arrivals board at Terminal 4 of London Heathrow Airport AFP via Getty Images A man wears a face mask as he walks along the Thames embankment AFP via Getty Images A woman wearing a protective face mask is seen on London Bridg Reuters

The man, who was on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship was the sixth person from the vessel, which has been quarantined off the Japans coast amid the outbreak, to have died.

Prof Whitty said: One further patient in England has tested positive for Covid-19.

The virus was passed on in the UK.

It is not yet clear whether they contracted it directly or indirectly from an individual who had recently returned from abroad.

This is being investigated and contact tracing has begun.

Boris Johnson: Coronavirus is 'top priority'

The patient has been transferred to a specialist NHS infection centre at Guys and St Thomas.

PHE said the latest coronavirus case was a resident in Surrey and it was working with the county council to manage the situation.

Dr Alison Barnett, centre director for PHE South East, said: Public Health England is contacting people who had close contact with a confirmed case of Covid-19.

One of the latest cases is a resident of Surrey and were working closely with NHS colleagues in that area as well as Surrey County Council to manage the situation and help reduce the risk of further cases.

Coronavirus: Costa Adeje Hotel lockdown in Tenerife 1 /32 Coronavirus: Costa Adeje Hotel lockdown in Tenerife A police officer stands by a barrier in front of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel where the number of coronavirus cases has doubled AP People stand on their balconies of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel AP General view of H10 Hotel, which is on lockdown after novel coronavirus has been confirmed in Adeje Reuters Tourists sunbath at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel in La Caleta AFP via Getty Images Police officers stand outside of H10 Hotel, which is on lockdown after novel coronavirus has been confirmed in Adeje, on the Spanish island of Tenerife Reuters Spanish police officers stand outside the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife, Canary Island, Spain AP Emergency workers rest at a health control outside H10 Hotel, which is on lockdown after novel coronavirus has been confirmed in in Adeje, on the Spanish island of Tenerife REUTERS PA AP A woman looks from a terrace of H10 Hotel, which is on lockdown after novel coronavirus has been confirmed in Adeje, on the Spanish island of Tenerife, Reuters General view taken on February 25, 2020 of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel in La Caleta, where hundreds of people were confined to their rooms after an Italian tourist was hospitalised with a suspected case of coronavirus. - Tourists staying in a four-star hotel on the Spanish island of Tenerife AFP via Getty Images H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife, Canary Island, Spain, Google A police officer controls the road to the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife, Canary Island AP via Reuters An employee wears a protective mask as he talks with guests inside a hotel under lockdown after a coronavirus case was identified in Adej via Reuters Tourists stand on the balcony of their rooms at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel in La Caleta AFP via Getty Images H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife, Canary Island, Spain Google AFP via Getty Images A Spanish police officer sets a barrier blocking the access to the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife, Canary Island, Spain AP A Spanish National Police car is parked outside a hotel under lockdown after a coronavirus case was identified in Adeje, in the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife via Reuters Spanish police officers patrol outside the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife, Canary Island AP Employees wearing protective masks arrange water bottles in the lobby of a hotel under lockdown after a coronavirus case was identified in Adeje, in the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife via Reuters H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife, Canary Island, Spain, Google H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife, Canary Island, Spain, Google StreetView

Close contacts will be given health advice about symptoms and emergency contact details to use if they become unwell in the 14 days after contact with the confirmed case.

This tried and tested method will ensure we are able to minimise any risk to them and the wider public.

Surrey County Councils interim director of public health Ruth Hutchinson said: Surrey County Council is working with health colleagues to do everything we can to stop the virus spreading and ensure the people of Surrey are protected.

Good hygiene is the best prevention and there are some simple steps you can take to protect you and your family by washing your hands regularly and thoroughly, and if you cough, cover your mouth and nose with a tissue.

Elsewhere on Friday, Wales chief medical officer Dr Frank Atherton, said that the first diagnosed patient in Wales had recently travelled back from Italy, the worst-affected country in Europe.

British man from Diamond Princess cruise liner dies from coronavirus

He told the PA news agency that the man had returned from a holiday there last week, and is now being treated at one of the specialist centres in an English hospital.

In Tenerife, hundreds of guests have been confined to the H10 Costa Adeje Palace after at least four tourists, including an Italian doctor, were diagnosed with coronavirus.

However, six Britons were among those told they could leave on Friday by Spanish authorities because they arrived at the hotel on Monday  after those who tested positive had been taken to hospital.

Meanwhile, Labour have criticised Boris Johnson waiting until Monday to hold a meeting of the Governments Cobra contingencies committee on the outbreak.

Northern Ireland reported its first case on Thursday, as someone who recently returned from northern Italy was diagnosed with the virus.

Irish health authorities said on Friday that people who had sat within two rows of the person on the flight from northern Italy to Dublin have been contacted.

Italy has become the worst-affected country in Europe, with at least 650 cases and 15 deaths.

On Friday, easyJet said it will be cancelling flights as a result of the continued spread of coronavirus, in a move which will particularly affect those into and out of Italy.
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On behalf of leaders of the Party and State, PM Phuc congratulated the countrys doctors and medical staff on the occasion of the 65th Vietnamese Doctors Day (February 27), as well as spoke highly of their efforts in the fight against Covid-19.

At the session, the Government leader requested the drastic implementation of concentrated quarantining in the fight against the acute respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19).

He also highlighted the need to carry out compulsory quarantining for those who come from coronavirus-hit regions, at the same time emphasising that Vietnam will not close border gates and airports, or bans travelling, but all people coming from disease-hit areas must be quarantined to prevent the spread of the disease.

PM Phuc also asked for the postponement of big festivals and conferences across the country to avoid mass gatherings.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and relevant agencies are responsible for explaining the quarantine policy for these cases, while advising Vietnamese citizens to follow their host countries guidance, the PM added.

Regarding students schooling which has been suspended since February, the Government leader assigned the Minister of Education and Training to work with the Peoples Committees of provinces and cities to decide a suitable time they can come back to school to ensure effective study and absolute safety.

The PM cited forecasts as saying that Covid-19 will be well controlled in the second quarter of 2020 and the world economy will improve over the next few months, therefore, ministries, sectors and localities are required to take actions to fulfil all socio-economic development targets assigned by the Party and the National Assembly, and prepare for breakthrough growth in the second quarter.
SECURITY COUNCIL AND WIDER UN STRUCTURE

Open Debate on Multilateralism and the Political Settlement of Disputes

Expected Council Action

In March, Council president China will convene an open debate titled Upholding Multilateralism and Promoting the Political Settlement of Disputes, under the agenda item Maintenance of International Peace and Security. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to brief at the debate. Representatives from the office of the President of the General Assembly and the International Court of Justice may also brief. At press time, no outcome was anticipated.

Background

The open debate in March recalls the open debate spearheaded by China during its November 2018 presidency on Strengthening multilateralism and the role of the United Nations. At that meeting, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned about the eroding effects of the decline in trust among nations, while stressing that the crises in Syria, in the Middle East peace process and elsewhere have shaken popular faith in the potential of the international community to deliver solutions. He added that to strengthen multilateralism, the international community must reinforce its commitment to the UN Charter, and UN bodies should seek further cooperation with regional organisations and civil society.

The March debate might build on previous Council meetings which focused on the UN Charter. China convened a ministerial-level open debate during its February 2015 presidency with the intention of reaffirming commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter during the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the UNs founding. On 9 January, Viet Nam convened an open debate on Upholding the United Nations Charter. In a presidential statement adopted during that meeting, the Council reaffirmed its commitment to multilateralism and the central role of the United Nations.

Key Issues and Options

The upcoming 75th anniversary of the UNs founding provides a context for the open debate. China views the debate as an opportunity for Council members and the wider UN membership to consider how member states can work together to strengthen the UN Charter. Possible topics for discussion include ways to ensure the upholding of the UN Charter, including by cooperation with regional organisations; means of addressing transboundary challenges, such as terrorism and risks to cybersecurity; and ways in which the Security Council can respond to threats to international peace and security through collective action.

Council and Wider Dynamics

Member states may reiterate the perspectives on multilateralism expressed during the November 2018 open debate. At that debate, many members agreed that such issues as climate change, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, mass migration, and the spread of diseases have consequences beyond the scope of one state and therefore can only be resolved by joint efforts. Some referred to peacekeeping operations, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change as positive examples of multilateral cooperation and highlighted the need to adhere to the UN Charter and to increase cooperation with regional organisations.

Council members are likely to diverge with regard to their interpretation of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. At the November 2018 debate, China and Russia stressed the importance of upholding the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of states. Other members, particularly France, the United Kingdom and the United States, emphasised that state sovereignty should not prevent the Council from acting in situations such as Syria and Myanmar nor should it be used as a shield against taking measures to protect civilians from human rights violations.

Another topic that may be raised by members is the challenge to multilateralism posed by the persistent divisions among the permanent members of the Security Council and the perceived retreat from multilateralism by some countries, especially the US. At the November 2018 debate, Ambassador Nikki Haley, then the US permanent representative, said that there were times when the US had come to the conclusion that multilateralism has been a bad deal for the United States and that we could be more effective by advancing our principles and interests on our own. Several members, including Russia and France, criticised the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the Iran nuclear deal, and the UN Human Rights Council. European members referenced the EU as an example of a successful multilateral model while the UK emphasised that it would remain an active participant in world affairs even after it left the EU.

During the March debate, speakers might take the opportunity to support multilateralism and emphasise the benefits of international agreements and mechanisms in promoting a more secure international order. Members may also refer to possible reforms in the UN system that can address challenges to multilateralism, such as the suggestion to reform the permanent members use of their veto power at the Security Council.

UN DOCUMENTS ON MULTILATERALISM


The Leader of the Sri Lanka delegation to the 43rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), Foreign Relations Minister Dinesh Gunawardena met the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet this afternoon (28 February).

Minister Dinesh Gunawardena reiterated the Government of Sri Lankas decision to withdraw from co-sponsorship of resolution 40/1 and the basis for doing so. He recalled that, one year ago, his predecessor the former Minister of Foreign Affairs had also pointed out a number of areas in the resolution that were undeliverable. Notwithstanding the withdrawal from co-sponsorship, he emphasized the Governments commitment to achieving accountability and human rights within the framework of the Constitution towards sustainable peace and reconciliation, through the appointment of a domestic Commission of Inquiry, by implementing policies rooted in the Governments commitments to operationalize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and by continuing to work with the assistance of the UN and its agencies. It was noted that the existing reconciliation mechanisms established by Acts of Parliament such as the Office on Missing Persons and the Office for Reparations will be continued, with appropriate adaptation in line with the Government policy framework.

High Commissioner Bachelet thanked Minister Gunawardena for his participation in the High-Level Segment of the HRC. Regretting Sri Lankas withdrawal as a co-sponsor of the HRC Resolution on Sri Lanka, the High Commissioner appreciated the Governments assurance to the HRC of its continued cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner and UN bodies, and the observations on the Office on Missing Persons and the Office for Reparations.

The Sri Lanka delegation shared its perspective on a number of areas, including the need for closure, adequate funding to reconciliation measures, shortcomings in the former Counter Terrorism Bill and the Governments intention to undertake a review of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) with a view to proposing necessary amendments to its provisions.

The High Commissioner also engaged the Minister and delegation on the challenges faced in dealing with the interface between freedom of expression and the prevalence of hate speech and abuse of social media, technology and human rights and environment and human rights.

State Minister of Public Administration and Home Affairs Mahinda Samarasinghe, Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha, Additional Secretary to the President Admiral (Retd) Jayanath Colombage, Senior Deputy Solicitor General Nerin Pulle, and Acting Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Dayani Mendis were associated with Minister Gunawardena at the meeting. Director General of the UN and Human Rights Division of the Ministry of Foreign Relations M.R.K. Lenagala, Senior State Counsel Kanishka Balapatabendi, Brigadier E.S. Jayasinghe from the Ministry of Defence and Coordinating Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Relations Subash Sri Wijethunga were also part of the Sri Lanka delegation to the 43rd session of the HRC.

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka

Geneva



28 February 2020



Media Release in PDF
Election Update

As weve mentioned, California really wants people to vote.

Didnt register online in time for the deadline earlier this month? No problem; you can go in person on Election Day. Havent sent off your vote-by-mail ballot? Fine! (As long as its postmarked by Tuesday and gets to your county election office within three days.)

Secretary of State Alex Padilla told reporters on Thursday morning that more than 2.7 million Californians had already voted by mail. He wouldn't even estimate how many more ballots could be on their way (about 15 million vote-by-mail ballots went out), or how many people will take advantage of the in-person, day-of voter registration.

He did, however, caution that because of all the ways Californians can vote, it may take some time to finish verifying and counting all the ballots. County election officials must report final results to the secretary of states office by April 3.

So whos going to win? Thats a tougher question to answer, but according to CalMatters, if things go according to the polls, Senator Bernie Sanders could win all the delegates chosen by statewide vote.

Thats not all of Californias delegates, but itd still be a lot. (The CalMatters story also has a handy video to explain how Californias delegates are divvied up.)

[See the states election site for more information.]

Heres what else were following

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Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2020 > Building a Wall to Greet Trum

Bernard Shaw once quipped, If you would learn about Finance Capital, do not read Das Kapital, read Little Dorrit.

In that path-breaking novel by Charles Dickens, a man called Podsnap rises to be a very rich man from humble origins.

Then, as he sits down to dinner alone on a long long table, he puts up a wall-like arm to obstruct anyone who brings him bad news of any kind.

This gesture has since come to be christened Podsnappery. To wit, what you do not see does not exist.

As rich man Trump is due to visit Ahmedabad end of this month, there is likely to be an offensive slum area on his route from the airport.

Now, slums hardly bode well for Indias image, considering we are due to be a five trillion dollar economy shortly. Do not all current economic indices point that way?

Thus, remembering that Mister Trump is fond of building walls anyway, the municipal authorities in Ahmedabad have stuck a brilliant idea: build a wall to hide the slum from Trumps parvenu view.

Delighted as he would be at the sight of a wall, the occasion would also furnish a fine example of good governance: in a country where the one per cent own some seventy per cent of national wealth, it cannot be any aspect of good governance to eradicate poverty. The next best therefore is to hide the poor, at least from snooty foreign gaze.

And should the inquisitive Trump still manage to catch a glimpse of the reality behind the image, well Mister Modi can always spin him some ancient tale about the illusory nature of what we see, not that Mister Trump is a stranger to dirt of sundry kinds.

Mister Trump has made the announcement that he is likely to receive a seven million-strong reception in Ahmedabad enroute from the airport to what he has called the event. Well, why not. We do have lots of people in Gujarat who appreciate a rich man when they see one.

Alas that Mister Trump may not have available the sort of diaspora that the Indian Prime Minister unfailingly finds ready and waiting when he travels to America. It is to be hoped that this shaming lacunae in Indo-American relations does not prompt the often vindictive Trump to go into a sulk and order the expulsion of Indians from America. After all, he can always make the argument that his Indian counterpart is also scion of a politics that looks with disfavour on immigrants, no? Except, of course, of a kindred kind, as has been made explicit by the Citizenship Amendment Act,

As a Kashmiri I have read in many poems that say that a narcissus loves only a narcissus.



On that score, at least, Trump is likely to find himself in good hands, reason why perhaps he has no need to visit the monument of love at Agra, to which all other less fortunate and more lonely rulers routinely pay obeisance. Mister Trump loves himself enough to obviate that need and custom. In any event, what comfort can a monument left behind by a Muslim ruler bring to an enlightened evangelical capitalist tycoon.

Some may ask as to how the two mirroring ideologies of America first and Bharat first can find a common ground of parity, since two entities cannot be first at one and the same time.

We think this conundrum will be best sorted out by resorting to the wisdom of ancient texts and of Chanakyas neeti. After all, the world depends on the collective wisdom and coalescing visions of two of the greatest thinkers of modern times.

There is alas a caveat: Mister Trump has made a public statement to the effect that he does not expect to sign any big deal with India before the next Presidentiial election in America, and that India treats us very badly.

Clearly, Mister Modi may have to ponder how the seven million expectant Gujaratis may frown upon this no deal impertinence on behalf of the visiting dignatory.

The author, who taught English literature at the University of Delhi for over four decades and is now retired, is a prominent writer and poet. A well-known commentator on politics, culture and society, he wrote the much acclaimed Dickens and the Dialectic of Growth. His book, The Underside of ThingsIndia and the World: A Citizens Miscellany, 2006-2011, came out in August 2012. Thereafter he wrote two more books, Idea of India Hard to Beat: Republic Resilient and Kashmir: A Noble Tryst in Tatters.
HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2020 / Houston attorney Kimberly D. Levi, founder of The Levi Law Firm, PLLC, focuses on the top three tips to help you choose the right family law attorney.

Choosing the right attorney is critical to one's family law case. People rely on their attorneys not only to fight to provide the best possible outcome of the case from a legal perspective, but also to provide the knowledge necessary to allow informed decisions about some of the most important aspects of a person's life. In order to help people choose the best family law attorney for their case, Kimberly D. Levi, who has over 26 years of experience fighting for the rights of those in need in the family law arena, shares the following three tips:

No. 1: Always choose an experienced family law attorney. "He or she will help you navigate the often challenging paths of family law litigation," stressed Levi, recipient of the Burta Rhoads Raborn Family Law American Inn of Court 2015 North Star Award. "Only an experienced attorney who practices primarily in the area of family law can empower you with the information you need to make important decisions for yourself and your family. My motto is "Knowledge is power.' You should believe that the attorney you choose is willing and able to deliver both."

No. 2: Select a family law attorney you can trust. Your attorney should become your best ally and most trusted confidant. "Your family law attorney should always listen to your needs, always have your best interest at heart, and always give you the full truth," added Levi, who has represented men, women and children from all walks of life in myriad complex legal scenarios.

No. 3: Do your research and ask questions. Ask yourself, "Does this family law attorney have experience with cases like mine? Does she explain things in a way that makes sense to me? Does he have a history of success in family law cases similar to mine?" Check online reviews of the prospective attorney and don't be afraid to request examples of success stories for cases like yours the attorney has handled. "Finally, ask yourself, "Do I like this family law attorney and does she have the expertise I need?'" concluded Levi. "The answer must always be "yes,' as you want to find the person who will be your partner throughout the duration of your case."

About The Levi Law Firm, PLLC

Practice areas of The Levi Law Firm include Adoption, Child Custody, Complex Community Property Division, Termination of Parental Rights, Enforcements, Grandparents' and Non-Parents' Rights, Divorce with Children, Obtaining or Avoiding Spousal Maintenance, Paternity and Unmarried Parents, Planning for Divorce in Texas, Protecting Assets and Separate Property, Premarital Agreements, Step-Parent Adoption, Relocation & Move-Aways, and Texas Children's Protective Services (CPS). For more information please call (713) 234-5113, or visit https://www.levifamilylaw.com/.

For media inquiries, please call THE NALA at 805.650.6121, ext. 361.



SOURCE: Kimberly D. Levi

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/578273/Attorney-Kimberly-D-Levi-Shares-Essentials-for-Selecting-the-Best-Family-Law-Attorney
By PTI

MUMBAI: The nine accused arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case were on Friday produced in a special court here, days after the NIA took over probe into the matter. This was the first time that the accused, most of them human rights activists, appeared before the special NIA court here.

The 2017 case, which was being handled by the Pune police, was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) by the Centre in January. On February 14, the court in Pune, which was earlier hearing the case, passed an order transferring the case to the special NIA court in Mumbai in response to a plea by the central agency.

The Pune court had directed that the accused be produced before the NIA court in Mumbai before or on February 28. Accordingly, they were produced before special NIA judge DE Kothalikar, who later adjourned the hearing in the case to March 13.

The accused -- Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson, Sudhir Dhawale, Varavara Rao, Arun Ferreira, Sudha Bharadwaj, Shoma Sen and Vernon Gonsalves were shifted to Mumbai from Pune's Yerawada Central Jail on Wednesday.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the 'Elgar Parishad' conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which police claimed, triggered violence near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the city's outskirts the next day.

The Pune police claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists. The nine jailed accused are among 11 people booked by the NIA in the case for alleged links with Maoists.
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